More on intervention in Libya

By artappraiser on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 9:33pm |

By Issandr El Amrani, arabist.net, February 24, 2011

Helena Cobban responds to my post on choices for intervention in Libya, advocating "incapacitation" rather than my "decapitation." But then again she is a Quaker and therefore a pacifist, I am an Arab and therefore prone to irrational bouts of violence and strong-horse worship (if I understand my Lee Smith correctly). To tell the truth, I am not bothered by the idea of killing Qadhafi, I just prefer that Libyans do it....

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http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/2/24/more-on-intervention-in-libya.html

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World leaders weigh Libya response
EU considering sending humanitarian intervention force to country, as UK calls for international probe into violence.
Al Jazeera, 24 Feb 2011 18:21 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/2011224143852557185.html

UN to meet on Libya violence
The UN Security Council will meet on Friday and may push for sanctions to deter government-sponsored violence.
Al Jazeera, 25 Feb 2011 02:16 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/02/201122515028440299.html

US mulls all options against Libya

Barack Obama orders his national security team to prepare the full range of options for dealing with the crisis.

Al Jazeera, 23 Feb 2011 23:20 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/02/2011223225218542841.html

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 1:41am

5:01am Venezuela's top diplomat on Thursday echoed Fidel Castro's accusation that Washington is fomenting unrest in Libya to justify an invasion to seize North African nation's oil reserves.

Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister said:

They are creating conditions to justify an invasion of Libya.

4:27am Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has backed Muammar Gaddafi on Twitter.

Chavez tweeted:
Gaddafi is facing a civil war.

Long live Libya. Long live the independence of Libya

from Al Jazeera's Live Blog - Libya Feb 25

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 2:50am

Daniel Ortega loonier than I thought:

Libya's relationship folly with Latin America
Posted By José R. Cárdenas, foreignpolicy.com ,February 24, 2011
....To great fanfare, Ortega pronounced, "I have been speaking with Qaddafi on the telephone ... he is again fighting a great battle, how many battles has Qaddafi had to fight. In these circumstances they are looking for a way to have a dialogue, but defend the unity of the nation, so the country does not disintegrate, so there will not be anarchy in the country."

It bears noting that the last time Daniel Ortega was heard from on a global scale was in 2008. Nicaragua was the only country to recognize the independence of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia following the brutal Russian invasion.

Also displaying solidarity with the murderous Qaddafi regime is Ortega's guiding light, Fidel Castro, who gamely tried to change the subject by telling the world that, "The government of the United States is not concerned at all about peace in Libya and it will not hesitate to give NATO the order to invade that rich country, perhaps in a question of hours or very short days."

The support for Qaddafi, as detestable as it is, is not hard to understand. After all, both Ortega and Castro, along with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales, are all past recipients of the Muammar Qaddafi International Human Rights Prize, bestowed by the Libyan dictator himself.....
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/02/24/libyas_relationship_fol...

Details of time and place here:

Nicaraguan president calls Gaddafi to expresses his solidarity
Associated Press, February 22, 2011 - 9:58 AM

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity.
Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation.....
http://www.startribune.com/world/116658349.html

by artappraiser on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 6:37pm

If a U.S. president could speak honestly about Libya...

February 24, 2011 | Posted by Abu Muqawama (Andrew Exum @ CNAS)
Listening to U.S. journalists demand to know what the Obama Administration is doing about Libya is growing tiresome.

So much so that it was refreshing to hear the NATO secretary-general announce today that he "cannot consider the situation in Libya a direct threat to NATO or NATO allies."(Translation: "Stop bugging me about what NATO is going to do about Libya. NATO might not do anything about Libya, and that's okay.")

If a U.S. president could speak honestly about Libya, he would say something like this:....

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 3:36am

As Libya uprising reaches Tripoli Gaddafi vows to 'open up the arsenals'

Gaddafi gives a defiant speech to cheering supporters, as witnesses report indiscriminate firing on demonstrators

Ian Black, guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 February 2011

Libya's uprising reached the heart of Tripoli on Friday as anti-regime demonstrators defied a security clampdown to demand Muammar Gaddafi's overthow amid hopes that key military units in the west of the country would defect.

Gunmen in cars reportedly opened fire on protesters as they streamed out of mosques after Friday prayers. Witnesses described shooting in streets near Green Square in the heart of the city.

Information remained patchy, confused and sometimes contradictory, but up to seven people were reported shot dead in Janzour, Fashlum, Bin Ashour, Zawiyat al-Dahmani and other urban areas. "Security forces fired indiscriminately on the demonstrators," said one resident.

Later, however, Gaddafi appeared in Green Square to give another angry and defiant speech to crowds of supporters waving banners and cheering him — a message that he is alive and in control — as he pledged to "open up the arsenals"....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/protests-reach-tripoli-gaddafi-speech-shooting

Gaddafi addresses Tripoli crowd

Libyan leader makes unexpected appearance in capital's Green Square to speak to supporters.

Al Jazeera, 25 Feb 2011

....Read a transcript of his remarks, in a translation made as he appeared on Libyan state TV on Friday....

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/02/2011225173024971457.html

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 4:19pm

Intervening in the Libyan tragedy

By Marc Lynch, foreignpolicy.com, February 21, 2011

...We should not be fooled by Libya's geographic proximity to Egypt and Tunisia, or guided by the debates over how the United States could best help a peaceful protest movement achieve democratic change. The appropriate comparison is Bosnia or Kosovo, or even Rwanda where a massacre is unfolding on live television and the world is challenged to act. It is time for the United States, NATO, the United Nations and the Arab League to act forcefully to try to prevent the already bloody situation from degenerating into something much worse.

By acting, I mean a response sufficiently forceful and direct to deter or prevent the Libyan regime from using its military resources to butcher its opponents...

...An effective international response could not only save many Libyan lives, it might also send a powerful warning to other Arab leaders who might contemplate following suit against their own protest movements.

I don't have any illusions that the outside world can control what happens in Libya, if the regime really wants to try to hold power by force. I don't call for a direct military intervention. And I am keenly, painfully aware of all that could go wrong with even the kinds of responses I am recommending....

http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/02/21/the_libyan_horror

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:35pm

UN votes to impose sanctions on Gaddafi and referral to war crimes tribunal
By Colin Lynch, Washington Post, 34 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council voted unanimously Saturday night to impose military and financial sanctions against Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and his inner circle and to refer his regime's crackdown on protesters to a war crimes tribunal for an investigation of possible crimes against humanity.

The move came as President Obama for the first time called on Gaddafi to step down...

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 12:07am

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UN votes to impose sanctions on Gaddafi and referral to war crimes tribunal

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