Libyan officials claim weapons from Qatar

Image by Abode of Chaos via Flickr
Libyan officials are claiming to have intercepted two boats carrying a cache of weapons from Qatar, reportedly intended for rebels fighting forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

On Monday, Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, said 11 rebels were captured from the boats close to shore near the town of Janzour, just west of Tripoli.

"In the early hours of this morning around 4 o'clock our security forces intercepted the submission of many weapons from a ship that raises the Tunisian flag to two small Libyan boats with some Libyan rebels on board the boats," he said.

"I was told that this was the load of one major container, so this would be something like one out of ten or something like that," Ibrahim added.

Foreign reporters were later taken to Tripoli's port where they were shown a cache of rifles and ammunition displayed in a tent, but not the captured boats.


The weapons included about 100 Belgian-made FN assault rifles, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition of the same calibre used in the guns.

Several of the ammunition boxes were marked in English as coming from the armed forces of Qatar.

Qatar has emerged as one of the main supporters of the rebels. And its involvement in the country's civil war has enraged Libyan officials.

Mahmoud Jibril, of Libya's Transitional National Council, said on Thursday that foreign deliveries of military hardware would give the rebels a chance to win the battle against Gaddafi quickly and with the least amount of blood spilt.

Related articles

• Libyan official: Talks with rebels stretch back 2 months (ctv.ca)
• Libya:Gaddafi urges supporters to seize French weapons supplied to rebels (laaska.wordpress.com)
• France provided weapons, food to Libya rebels (bigbluerock.wordpress.com)

Has Gadaffi's wife deserted him?

The wife and daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi crossed over the border into Tunisia several days ago, a Tunisian security source told Reuters on Wednesday.

Gadhafi's wife Safia and his daughter Aisha came to Tunisia with a Libyan delegation on May 14 and are on the island of Djerba in the south, the source said.

"It was expected that they would leave yesterday but they are still at Djerba," the source added.

It did not appear that the two women had been travelling with Shokri Ghanem, Libya's top oil official, who is believed to have also crossed into Tunisia and appears to have defected.

Libyan officials in Tripoli were not immediately available for comment.

Libya's oil minister defects

Libya's oil minister has reportedly defected and fled to Tunisia.

Shokri Ghanem, who also chaired the National Oil Corporation, is said to be on his way to the Tunisian capital, Tunis.

Hoda Abdel Hamid, one of Al Jazeera's correspondents in Libya, said a border guard confirmed the defection.

"He told us the minister had crossed into Tunisia two days ago and that he was alone, not with his family," she said.

"He mentioned he had tried to cross before but was held in Libya. We cannot confirm this."

Rebels fighting to end the 41-year-old rule of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's embattled leader, also said they had information that Ghanem, 68, had defected.

However, rebels and Arab media reported on a previous occasion that Ghanem had stepped down, but he later re-appeared and said he was in his office and working as usual.

If confirmed, Ghanem would be the latest high profile Libyan official to leave the Gaddafi government. In March, Gaddafi's foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, defected.

Ghanem has been in charge of the oil ministry since 2006 and was previously prime minister. His oil ministry is the biggest income generater for the country. Libya has Africa's largest oil reserves, at 41.5 billion barrels.

War crimes prosecutor seeks Gaddafi warrant

"I am a master of disguise. You will never find me"

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has asked a three-judge panel to issue arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his second-eldest son, Saif al-Islam, and his intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo described the evidence against the three men as "very strong" in a press conference on Monday and said he believed Libyans eventually would turn them over to the court.

The filing against Gaddafi comes just three months into the uprising against his 41-year rule, which evolved from peaceful protests in major cities to an armed rebellion based out of the east. Gaddafi's regime has brutally attempted to suppress the opposition movement by shelling rebellious cities, and imprisoning and torturing those who speak out.

Ocampo was due to present a 74-page dossier of evidence to the court in the Hague, the Netherlands, on Monday. The judges will decide whether to reject the petition, ask for more evidence or confirm crimes against humanity charges and issue international arrest warrants.

"The evidence shows Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered attacks on unarmed civilians," Ocampo said at the press conference. "[He] committed the crimes with the goal of preserving his authority, his absolute authority."

Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Abdullah Senussi held meetings to plan the crackdown, Ocampo said. Security forces loyal to the government then attacked civilians in their homes, used heavy weaponry on funeral processions, and set up snipers to shoot at people as they left prayers at mosques, he said.
Activists were imprisoned, held incommunicado and tortured, he said.

Blogger sleeps: Gadaffi lives

Whist rocked on our heels and forced to some attempt at original thought due to our inability to post to our blogs, speculation drove me to the conclusion that perhaps Gadaffi had bought it and Assad had fled to London.

But no. What is this? The leader has emerged - well a voice saying it is him - to tell us the Catholic bishop (the same bishop Gadaffi had  used to weep over his dead son?) was far too generous with the truth.

Because the Blessed One was not dead. He was not even injured. His cunning and guile had evaded the Crusader attacks. He was still able to bomb and kill his own people freely and at will.

Furthermore he was “in a place where you can't get to and kill me." 

As the only place he will never be caught in (but will most certainly end) begins with “H” and ends in “L”, for a short while my speculation resumed. But it is all in the mind.

All in the mind, Oh hidden one, all in the mind.

Loosing the war against Gadaffi

Shaken early Tuesday, May 10, by five huge blasts which flattened another set of mostly empty government buildings in Muammar Qaddafi's capital, but aroused little interest, even among Western journalists.It is common knowledge that the ruler, his family and top lieutenants abandoned the city after May 1 when NATO missiles struck a Qaddafi family residence, missing him but killing his son and grandchildren.

It is now suspected in Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels that advanced electronic counter-measures imported recently to one of the foreign embassies in Tripoli tipped him off to the incoming missile attack and gave him just enough time to get away.

DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report that since those devices were activated two weeks ago, NATO finds itself increasingly targeting empty government buildings and abandoned military installations.

Hence the comment by NATO Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen Sunday, May 8: After repeating, "The game is over for Qaddafi" and denying the war had reached a stalemate, he added there was "no military solution for the civil war in Libya."

Our military sources sum up the balance of the two-month NATO operation backing the Libyan rebellion:

The combined coalition campaign has failed to loosen Qaddafi's grip on power, dent his army's fighting spirit and combat ability, divide Libya's main tribes against him or shake the loyalty of his high commanders and government heads.

The fundamental fact that without substantial American military intervention, NATO powers lack the air, sea and missile resources for overcoming Qaddafi has remained unchanged ever since the US handed the campaign's command role over the NATO on April 4.

Theoretically, if the current military stalemate goes on, NATO bombardment would be able to destroy the pro-Qaddafi army in the course of time - but only if no other factors are taken into account. At the present intensity of its air and sea strikes, NATO would need five years - not months - to bring that army to breaking point. And in the meantime, Qaddafi and its external backers - Russia, China, most African and some Balkan countries - are not idle – witness the arrival of advanced electronic gear for helping to tipping the balance in his favor. According to intelligence updates, the Libyan ruler continues to take in a steady supply of ammunition, missiles and advanced weapons to replenish the stocks NATO airstrikes have destroyed.

The situation in which NATO finds itself in Libya has wider military implications. If the Atlantic Alliance, and especially Britain and France which are spearheading the Libya campaign, are short of the resources they need for overcoming a Libyan army consisting essentially of four to five brigade-strength military frameworks fighting without air cover, hard questions must be asked about the alliance and its 26 members' real military worth.

Those questions apply in particular to Europe and bear on its political strength.

Syria's Bashar Assad has gathered from NATO's shortcomings in the Libyan arena that he has a free hand to set his army, tanks, artillery and live ammunition on protesters and suppress the uprising against him with an iron hand without fearing that the European UNIFIL contingents from France, Italy and Spain in Lebanon may turn their guns on him. Iran is also watching intently. And Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are showing diminishing interest in taking up NATO's invitation to associate themselves with the alliance by military pacts.

The coalition's limitations have reduced the fighting in Libya to two battle arenas, with NATO involved directly in only one:

1. Misrata, 185 kilometers west of Tripoli, the only rebel stronghold in western Libya: Were it not for NATO's air support, pro-government forces would have recaptured the town in the third week of the April.

Although Monday, May 9, the rebels repulsed a government assault on their positions, they have not managed even with NATO help to break the pro-Qaddafi forces' siege of the town or halt the Grad missile and artillery bombardment.

Neither have the rebels been able to dislodge Qaddafi's forces from Misrata airport, where light planes and helicopters flying beneath the no-fly zone are able to land bringing fresh reinforcements, supplies and ammo for Qaddafi's forces and take off with the wounded.

2.  The Nafusa Mountains which cut through the center of western Libya. The Berber tribes which populate the mountain towns of Gharyan, Yifrin, Kabaw, Nalut and Ziztan are in revolt against the Qaddafi regime.

Their cause is quite separate from the Benghazi-based rebels' goal to overthrow the Qaddafi regime. The Berbers are fighting for an independent state. If they succeed, they hope to be joined by fellow tribesmen in Algeria and Morocco in a state spanning much of North Africa.

This battlefield is small in scope with little impact on the main thrust of the war. The Berbers are a small, scantily armed fighting force and government forces avoid taking them on, except for desultory rocket and artillery fire on their towns. Those towns can only be reached through rough, unpaved, mountain trails.

Qaddafi has split his ground forces into armored columns of 60 tanks and armored vehicles each to enhance their speed of movement and make them tougher targets for NATO jets to strike.

He is taking care to keep them away from the Berber mountain trails where they would be easy prey.

What "no-fly-zone" in Misurata?

Libyan government forces have dropped bombs on four large oil-storage tanks in the contested western city of Misurata, destroying the facilities and sparking a fire that spread to four more, according to a rebel spokesman.

Government forces used small, pesticide-spraying planes for the overnight attack in Qasr Ahmed close to the port, Ahmed Hassan, the spokesman, said on Saturday.

Misurata is the last remaining city in the west under rebel control. It has been under siege for more than two months and has been the scene of some of the war's fiercest fighting between the rebels and loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's long-time ruler.

"Four tanks were totally destroyed and huge fire erupted which spread now to the other four. We cannot extinguish it because we do not have the right tools," he said.Hassan said the rebels notified NATO about the aircraft before the attack but there was no response.

"Now the city will face a major problem. Those were the only source of fuel for the city. These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel."
Gaddafi's forces flew at least one helicopter reconnaissance mission over Misurata last month, according to the rebels.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting on Saturday from Benghazi, the rebel stronghold in eastern Libya, said that the reported attack in Misurata was very disconcerting for the people who rely on the stored fuel.
"People are raising questions because NATO patrols the skies 24 hours a day," he said.
"This incident, together with the mines in the harbour, are very worrying for the locals."
Separately, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tunisia reported that shells fired by Gaddafi's forces landed inside Tunisian territory near the town of Dhaiba, on the border with Libya.

Helicopter attacks

The rebels have also accused Gaddafi of using helicopters bearing the Red Cross emblem of dropping mines into Misurata's harbour.

Suleiman Fortiya, who represents Misurata on the rebel interim National Transitional Council, said small helicopters flew over Misurata on Thursday and Friday to drop mines.
"They had Red Crescent and Red Cross markers so that anyone who sees them thinks it is for humanitarian aid," he said.

An aid worker said he saw helicopters on Friday marked with the Red Crescent circling above the port and dropping mines into the sea.

NATO confirmed that helicopters had flown over Misurata on Thursday in breach of the no-fly zone that its jets are supposed to enforce. However, it could not confirm that the helicopters were marked with the Red Cross sign.

NATO official told the AFP news agency a ship involved in the the coalition's operations had observed a number of helicopters over Misurata on Thursday, which came under fire from rebel forces.

"We are aware of reports that the helicopters were marked with the Red Cross," the official said.
He said no humanitarian flights had been notified for the Misurata area on that day.
"Any use of the Red Cross to disguise combat forces would be a breach of international law," he said.

Libya blog disappears?

What has happened to Aljazeera's live Libya blog? It would appear it died on May 2nd. There is not a connection between this event and the death of some old terrorist is there?

Get your fingers out Aljazeera, that old bin "what's-his-name?" is getting his leg over with all those virgins he promised all the mugs who offered their lives to kill God's creatures - NOT!

The only hot women he (and they) will be meeting are those burning in that other place driven by the man with cloven feet and pointed tail.

UPDATE:-

Well the boys appear to have woken up after their "death of the bearded one's party" and posted at last (7pm Libya time) - he wasn't worth it, believe me.

SYRIA: New images said to show security forces opening fire on small town

Syrian security forces opened fire into a crowd in the village of Sheik Miskeen near the besieged southern city of Dara on Friday, according to video posted online that could not be verified.

In the video posted on YouTube, about 100 men are seen milling around in a rural street before coming under fire. The description posted by the user says the event took place at a military checkpoint and that eight people were killed and dozens wounded.

Activists said at least 24 people had been confirmed dead across the country as of early Friday evening, but that number is expected to rise in the coming hours.

Fatah and Hamas sign reconciliation deal

The fox and the scorpion shake hands.

You may recall the story:

The fox and the scorpion stand on the banks of the river Jordan looking into Israel.

The scorpion says to the fox, "If I hop on your back, we can swim over and conquer the Israelis."

The fox looked at the scorpion incredulously and said, "You must be joking. One bite from you and I would be dead."

"That I wouldn't do." replied the scorpion, "Then we both would die".

"True", thought the fox. "OK - hop on". And they plunged into the water.

About halfway over, the scorpion bit the fox.

"Why did you do that?" exclaimed the fox in his dying breath.

The scorpion replied, as the waters swallowed them both up, "It's the middle east, my friend, it's the middle east..."

Thank God they are not Jews

The Jews in their desire to establish independence and realize control of their own democratic institutions accepted the UN partition of Palestine in 1947. They were attacked by the surrounding Arab nations who had rejected the UN partition plan. After a hard fought War of Independence the Jews were not "pushed into the sea", the State of Israel was declared and established. 500,000 Arab refugees were created - a sad fact that was to be manipulated and distorted and misused far outweighing in the eyes of so-called impartial third party observers the criminal acts of the rejectionists of the UN partition.

And who are these rejectionists who have constantly supported terrorist actions and promoted, participated in wars against the State of Israel? Who are these rejectionists who took the high moral ground when judging Israel’s almost impossible task of policing the intifadas that were fuelled by these rejectionists' anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli rhetoric?

They are the same toilets (Gadaffi and Assad et al.) who are indiscriminately killing their own people for the terrible crime of wanting control of their own democratic institutions.

A Holy week in Libya

So what's happened this week:

* hundreds have been killed
* thousands of refugees have been created
* western "military advisers" are on the ground
* drones are flying
* Gaddaffi's compound has been bombarded
* the Pope asks for a diplomatic solution
* the relentless fighting continues in Misrata
* and more...

You could say, as some invariably do (probably because they like the sound of the words) that "mission creep" is taking place. But what is happening is war. And unless anyone successfully takes up the Pope's advice, war is being fought with all its terrible consequences.

What NATO and the UN must do now is choose between loosing this war and loosing the diplomatic road as well. It would appear that the present strategy does not allow success in either of these ways.

There needs to be a radical revision: either total full out war and get Gadaffi, his supporters and hold them to account, or declare a pause in all military activity to allow diplomatic discussions to take place with all parties without the threat of violence.

Status for NATO and Libya

Since 31 March 2011 NATO has been in charge of implementing UN Security Council resolution 1973 which demands:

"an immediate ceasefire" and authorizes the international community to establish a no-fly zone over Libya and to use all means necessary short of foreign occupation to protect civilians

Information about the casualties in this war is understandably very unreliable, but prior to NATO's involvement there were these assessments of the number deaths caused by Gadaffi Loyalist forces:

• On February 22, the International Coalition Against War Criminals gave an estimate that 519 people had died, 3,980 were wounded and over 1,500 were missing.
• Human Rights Watch have estimated that at least 233 people had been killed by February 22.
• On February 23, Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini stated that according to his information 1,000 people had died so far.
• On February 24, the IFHR said that 130 soldiers had been executed in Benghazi and al-Baida, after they mutinied and sided with the protesters.
• On February 25, Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, said that reports indicated that "thousands may have been killed or injured".
• On March 20, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the National Transitional Council, stated that "more than 8,000" people are killed as a result of the uprising.

NATO's response has been the following missions:

1. 1 April 2011 - A coalition air strike near Brega killed at least thirteen people after a rebel convoy was fired upon. An A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft was believed to attacked after an anti-aircraft gun was fired from the convoy. In the same region, up to seven civilians were reported to have been killed and 25 injured after an attack on an ammunition truck triggered an explosion that destroyed several buildings. French patrol Mirage 2000D and Super Etendard a strike on a car was conducted in the Al Khums, located west of Misrata.
2. 2 April 2011 - French Navy Rafale fighter jets destroyed five tanks in Sirte.
3. 3 April 2011 - French Air Force destroyed several armoured vehicles in Ras Lanuf.
4. 4 April 2011 - A US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier and a US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II flew missions near Serta and Brega respectively. 4 April also marked the last day of US armed forces taking an active role in military action, as all American forces were placed in reserve that evening, to be used only if requested by NATO.
5. 5 April 2011 - Fighter jets from Jordan flew missions from an unidentified European airbase to escort transport aircraft delivering humanitarian aid in eastern Libya. NATO aircraft flew fourteen sorties near Misrata, attacking anti-aircraft installations and ground vehicles.
6. 6 April 2011 - RAF Tornados flew missions around rebel-held Misrata and Sirte. The targets were six armoured fighting vehicles and six battle tanks. Two Typhoon aircraft had flown from Gioia del Colle air base, southern Italy, to police the no-fly zone, while two RAF VC10 aircraft provided air-to-air refuelling. The RAF announced four Typhoon jets will join 16 RAF ground-attack aircraft already under NATO command.
7. 8 April 2011 - NATO aircraft attack a column of rebel tanks, killing five rebels. Earlier the same week in another incident, a NATO air-strike killed 13 rebel fighters.
8. 9 April - NATO war-planes force a rebel MiG-23 to land. The fighter jet took off from an airfield east of Benghazi and was detected by an airborne early-warning air-plane. This is the first no-fly zone violation by any aircraft since NATO took command. Also, an anonymous NATO official claimed that they had destroyed 17 and damaged nine loyalist tanks in and around Misrata and Brega in the previous two days, of which five were destroyed by British planes. However, there was no independent confirmation of the claims, though footage of three tanks destroyed had surfaced.
9. 10 April - NATO claimed to have hit 11 tanks or armoured vehicles in the early part of the day outside Ajdabiya. A Reuters correspondent saw 15 charred corpses of Gaddafi's forces near several destroyed armoured vehicles.
10. 15 April - NATO has launched three new air-strikes in and around Tripoli. They struck a missile battery and two other targets.

But there is disagreement within NATO about the nature and degree of operations. This also extends to the amount of effort and resources made available by the individual countries.

So where do NATO countries stand?

Would escalate military action

UK

France

Conducting air-strikes

US

Canada

Belgium

Norway

Denmark

Reconnaissance missions only

Italy

Spain

Netherlands

Offering some military support

Albania

Bulgaria

Greece

Romania

No military support

Croatia

Czech Rep

Estonia

Germany

Hungary

Iceland

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Poland

Portugal

Slovakia

Slovenia

Turkey

Source: NATO, news agencies, BBC Analysis and Research 

Meanwhile...

Many evacuees fleeing the fighting along Libya's coast have been left without access to all the medical facilities and support they desperately need
Misurata remains besieged, with Gaddafi's forces shelling the city in western Libya overnight, battling their way into the centre of town. More than 100 rockets pounded the city yesterday.

Can Batman save Gotham City?

...or is that the Joker?

Amid the theatricals and false bravado of a fool lost in his own delusions, the Big 3 have at last demonstrated their resolve (if only in words at this moment). BARACK OBAMA, DAVID CAMERON, and NICOLAS SARKOZY have published  their outline of Libya’s Pathway to Peace. In this document they make no doubt of their intentions and demands:

"...
It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government. The brave citizens of those towns that have held out against forces that have been mercilessly targeting them would face a fearful vengeance if the world accepted such an arrangement. It would be an unconscionable betrayal.
...
The regime has to pull back from the cities it is besieging, including Ajdabiya, Misurata and Zintan, and return to their barracks. However, so long as Qaddafi is in power, NATO must maintain its operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds. Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. In order for that transition to succeed, Qaddafi must go and go for good. ..."

Batman: "Remember the Boy Scouts' motto." 

Robin: "'Be prepared'." 

Batman: "It would do well to keep that in mind at all times."

Moussa Koussa's reward

Tut, tut.

3.24pm: Libyan state TV is reporting casualties from the air strikes in Tripoli, according to Reuters.


Meanwhile, in Britain the Treasury has removed former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa from an EU sanctions list, removing a freeze on his assets.


Far be it from me to allege any connection. 

The catch 22 of Libya

Reinforcements on their way

The almost eternal dilemma of this crisis: angling for a diplomatic solution whilst engaged in military action.

How can a party accept a diplomatic end to a crisis whilst the opposition are pounding their houses with shells and killing their children? How can a side win a war when politicians (both glory seekers and those who genuinely want a settlement) are softening all actions with restraint and caution always disproportionate to the military needs?

On the one hand the press rapport "Libyan rebels receive boost of support from international community" but the reality of this support would appear to be limited to second hand body armour. Within NATO there is little agreement with the UK and France, which have conducted the bulk of the attack missions, pressing Italy and Belgium to take part in targeting Libyan forces. "We have sent more ground strike aircraft in order to protect civilians," Hague said. "We do look to other countries to do the same."

Meanwhile the talking continues:

• The contact group which met in Doha on Wednesday discussed a "temporary financial mechanism" to channel cash into a trust fund to aid rebels fighting Gaddafi's forces.
• In Cairo, international leaders will focus on political solutions and look for ways to "reinforce co-ordination between the Arab League, UN, African Union and Organisation for the Islamic Conference".
• While in Berlin, Libya will be on the top of the agenda for NATO's foreign ministers As their military strategy in the conflict comes under the spotlight.

But I am getting the horrible thought that NATO may have lost its way:

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's secretary general, defended the alliance's record after its aircraft flew more than 2,000 sorties. But since its mandate was to protect civilians it had to be cautious. "We do our utmost to strike the right balance," Rasmussen said.

Unfortunately war is not about striking the right balance, it is about offering and taking lives so that you can win your own way - and if you are not prepared to fully engaged in this awful equation then you should not fight.

Is this "the truth"?

From Syria:
Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified.
Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday.
 Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. 'His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people,' said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor."
From Bahrain:
One courageous young Bahraini pro-democracy activist, Zainab al-Khawaja, has seen the brutality up close. To her horror, she watched her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a prominent human-rights activist, be beaten and arrested:


"Security forces attacked my home. They came in without prior warning. They broke down the building door, and they broke down our apartment door, and instantly attacked my father without giving him a chance to speak and without giving any reason for his arrest. They dragged my father down the stairs and started beating him in front of me. They beat him until he was unconscious. The last thing I heard my father say was that he couldn't breathe. When I tried to intervene, when I tried to tell them: 'Please to stop beating him. He will go with you voluntarily. You don't need to beat him this way,' they told me to shut up, basically, and they grabbed me … and dragged me up the stairs back into the apartment. By the time I had got out of the room again, the only trace of my father was his blood on the stairs."

Exploring "the truth"

The former US Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan composed an aphorism as he watched dictatorships pile opprobrium on democracies: "The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there." Journalists, lawyers, academics and opposition politicians can investigate the injustices of democracies, and because they can investigate, injustice is kept in check. They cannot expose the greater atrocities of dictatorships because there is no freedom to report, and hence their greater crimes pass unnoticed.

I have my doubts about the universal jurisdiction of Moynihan's Law — America was responsible for many great crimes while he was its good and faithful servant. But his insight explains why Jeremy Bowen is blinking at his cameraman in Tripoli, like some startled, uncomprehending mammal who has been shaken by the convulsions around him from a hibernation that has lasted for most of his career.

The BBC's Middle East editor is not the only expert whose expertise now looks spurious. The Arab uprising is annihilating the assumptions of foreign ministries, academia and human rights groups with true revolutionary élan. In journalistic language, it is showing they had committed the greatest blunder a reporter can commit: they missed the story. They thought that the problems of the Middle East were at root the fault of democratic Israel or more broadly the democratic West. They did not see and did not want to see that while Israelis are certainly the Palestinians' problem — and vice versa — the problem of the subject millions of the Arab world was the tyranny, cruelty, corruption and inequality the Arab dictators enforced.
Nick Cohen

Hypocrisy and "the truth" - the real canker

I always told the truth. Didn't I?

It is sobering to be reminded, whilst at war again in Africa, of the atrocities committed under the Kenya Emergency between 1952 and 1960.

The full horror of a brutal campaign of torture meted out by British officials on Kenyan rebels including Barack Obama's grandfather has emerged for the first time.

A cache of secret documents detailing efforts to suppress the Mau Mau uprising has lain hidden in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in London, for 50 years.

Removed from Kenya on the cusp of independence, they were uncovered in January after five Kenyans launched a lawsuit against the British government.

The claimants say they suffered castration, sexual abuse and severe beatings in detention camps administered by the British government and want an apology and financial compensation.

"Electric shock was widely used, as well as cigarettes and fire. The screening teams whipped, shot, burned and mutilated Mau Mau suspects, ostensibly to gather intelligence for military operations and as court evidence." Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. By CAROLINE ELKINS (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005).

"British officer describes his actions after capturing three known Mau Mau:
I stuck my revolver right in his grinning mouth and I said something, I don’t remember what, and I pulled the trigger. His brains went all over the side of the police station. The other two Mickeys [Mau Mau] were standing there looking blank. I said to them that if they didn’t tell me where to find the rest of the gang I’d kill them too. They didn’t say a word so I shot them both. One wasn’t dead so I shot him in the ear. When the sub-inspector drove up, I told him that the Mickeys tried to escape. He didn’t believe me but all he said was 'bury them and see the wall is cleared up.'" 

"Settler groups, displeased with the government's response to the increasing Mau Mau threat created their own units to combat the Mau Mau. One settler with the Kenya Police Reserve's Special Branch described an interrogation of a Mau Mau, suspected of murder, which he assisted: 'By the time I cut his balls off he had no ears, and his eyeball, the right one, I think, was hanging out of its socket. Too bad, he died before we got much out of him.'" Professor David Anderson MA (BA Sussex; PhD Cantab); University Lecturer in African Politics.

I remember how we, back in Britain, were told about the terrible massacres committed against the white settlers. About how it was necessary to use brutal means against brutal black men. Yet the truth of the matter is 32 European settlers lost their lives and 50,000 black Kenyans were killed.

Propaganda, subtle or otherwise, can so easily distort our perception of what is real. For example John Pilger in his otherwise interesting analysis in the New Statesman on the Libyan uprising feels compelled, from the luxury of received truths, to make this remark:

"With Gaddafi now the accredited demon, Israel, the real canker, can continue its wholesale land theft and expulsions."

On this, and many other matters, I tend to hold to the remarks made in an article by Jeremy Bowen (with whom I often disagree!) of the BBC from Tripoli:

"The same day a man waiting in a traffic jam next to the press minibus wound down his window.

'Don't believe anything,' he said. And without another word, drove off."

Greater intensity urged on NATO against human rights abuser

Another time and place. Is there a difference?

In an effort to keep back-slider Turkey on the straight and narrow now that the "honourable men" of Africa have muddied the waters with the toilet paper they have called a peace plan, Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister said on France Info radio:

"NATO must play its role fully. It wanted to take the lead in operations, we accepted that. It must play its role today which means preventing that Gaddafi uses heavy weapons to bomb populations."

This was further underlined late in the day by British Foreign Secretary William Hague on arrival at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg:

'We must maintain and intensify our efforts in NATO. That is why the United Kingdom has in the last weeks supplied additional aircraft capable of striking ground targets threatening the civilian population ... of course it would be welcome if other countries also did the same."

Are you listening Turkey?

It is well known that human rights is a cloudy issue in the land of the Ottomans, but perhaps, this time Ankara just might listen to the above and the following.

Captured rebel Libyan fighters have been found shot in the head with their hands tied behind their backs, Amnesty International said, adding it has strong evidence of other human rights abuses. Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had also deliberately killed unarmed protesters and attacked civilians fleeing fighting, Amnesty said, citing evidence gathered by its delegates in eastern Libya over the past six weeks.

The rights group said Gaddafi's troops appeared to have executed captured rebel fighters close to the town of Ajdabiyah. Its researchers in eastern Libya had in recent days seen the bodies of two opposition fighters who had been shot in the back of the head after their hands had been bound behind their backs.

Amnesty said it had received credible reports of four similar cases, where bodies of captured fighters were reportedly found with their hands tied behind their backs and multiple gunshot wounds to the upper parts of their bodies. Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

"The circumstances of these killings strongly suggest that they were carried out by the forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi."

Who is helping Gaddafi out?

Look! No blood on my hands.

Troops under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi continue to resist NATO’s military strikes thanks to the help that Belarus military advisers are rendering, says the Russian press.

At least five hundred Belarus military advisers are now stationed in Libya and are fighting for the interests of the country’s leader, said one of the Belarusian mercenaries, Mikhail, to Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. Some of the military there are dealing with military hardware maintenance, while others perform the duties of the Libyan commanders’ advisers, explained the officer. Perhaps it is the foreign mercenaries that are helping Gaddafi retain his military success.

According to English speaking Iranian TV, Israel is sending 5000 recruited African mercenaries to help out their eternal friend and guardian the (reported in the Islamic press as) Jewish Muammar al-Gaddafi . At a charge of $2,000 per day.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

Although those honest purveyors of truth in Tehran did not say if the mercenaries' guns would be pointing to the east or to the west.

Die on their feet or live on their knees

Mustafa Jabril, TNC spokesman:

"This proposal today was determined more than a month ago, the initiative comes in line with the resolutions of the UN Security Council - including the ceasefire, protection of civilians, and granting the freedom of the Libyan people to determine their future.


Col Gaddafi during this time [this past month] did not respect these resolutions and continued to bombard civilians from the air and artillery shelling. He laid siege with militia forces and positioned security personnel in plain clothes and snipers on rooftops - which cannot allow the Libyan people to determine their future.

For more than one month, he has disregarded the UN resolutions.

You are aware how many deaths and injuries have occurred this month. You are also aware how many material assets have been destroyed, how many oil fields wrecked. Therefore, this proposal presented today is outdated.

We are also aware the demands of our people from day one is that Gaddafi must step down. Therefore, any initiative which does not include this key popular demand will not be regarded.

Muammar Gaddafi and his sons should depart immediately if he will, to save himself, otherwise the flood of the Libyan people is heading its way to him.

We cannot negotiate the blood of our martyrs. We will die with them or be rewarded with victory.

I must extend my thanks to the international forces which have saved the lives of civilians.

Without the air strikes that have destroyed Gaddafi's forces, we would have been history.

We hail their efforts and ask for more, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution, which stipulates that, for the protection of civilians, all necessary measures must be taken in this respect."

It would appear that the honourable men have produced a "road map" fit only for the latrines.

Why are we not surprised?

Honourable men arrive in Libya

See anyone who was democratically elected?

African Union mediators left Mauritania for Libya to attempt to negotiate a ceasefire.
Let us look as these honourable men.
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania was a colonel who came to power as a result of military coup. Abdel Aziz has the power to appoint the prime minister, military officials and civil servants in Mauritania.
Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville came to power through very dubious means. He is not known for his frugality. When Sassou Nguesso attended the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September 2006, almost £14,000 of room service at the Waldorf Astoria was added to his bill during another five-night stay. His entourage, including several members of his family, occupied 44 rooms which together ran up a bill of £130,000. The bills on September 19 included two bottles of Cristal champagne charged at £400. This was pointed out by the British newspaper The Sunday Times to be "comfortably more than the £106,000 that Britain gave the Republic of Congo in humanitarian aid in 2006."
Amadou Toumani Touré of Mali appears to be the angel in the group, although he also initially gained power via a coup. His presidency has been rather atypical; he is not a member of any political party and his government has members from all of the political parties in the country. He founded a children's foundation named Fondation pour l'enfance - a name shared with a similar organization, created by former French first-lady Danielle Mitterrand. President Toure now runs his foundation by the proxy of his wife, first lady Toure Lobbo Traore.
And Jacob Zuma of South Africa. A man who has ducked and darted his way through numerous allegations of corruption, rape and brutality. His utterances on sexual matters might endear him to some:

• He admitted that he had not used a condom when having sex with the woman who accused him of rape, despite knowing that she was HIV-positive. He stated in court that he took a shower afterwards to "cut the risk of contracting HIV". 
• Same-sex marriage was "a disgrace to the nation and to God": "When I was growing up, an ungqingili (a homosexual) would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out."
• Zuma's solution to pregnancy in South African teenagers is to confiscate their babies and have the mothers taken to colleges and "forced" to obtain degrees.

So all in all plenty to chat about with the King of Kings Muammar Gaddafi and his family.

However, as a Mauritanian official told AFP, "They have just left, each in his own plane," it would appear they have a much chance of brokering a peace as they have of saving the ozone layer.

All your problems are caused by the Israelis

Jonathan Freedland wrote an article in the Guardian where he argued:

The Arab spring proves that Israel is not even the biggest issue in the Middle East – yet it gets all the attention

The consequence of this statement was that he managed to drag out from under their stones all the usual suspects baying for attention. Most of the comments posted had the erudition of football fanatics displaying even less knowledge of the Middle East than hooligans have of the noble game. I read about thirty of these and then I got bored. All of them seemed to miss this very important point made by Freedland:

Many respectable folks have spent decades insisting that the "core issue" in the Middle East, if not the world, is the Israel-Palestine conflict – that it is the "running sore" whose eventual healing will heal the wider region and beyond.

That was always gold-plated nonsense, but now the Arab spring has come along to prove it. Now the world can see that the peoples of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain have troubles aplenty that have nothing to do with Israel. There could be peace between Israelis and Palestinians tomorrow, but it wouldn't relieve those in Damascus or Manama or Sana'a from the yoke of tyranny. For them, Israel is not "the heart of the matter", as the cliché always insisted it was. The heart of the matter are the regimes who have oppressed them day in, day out, for 40 years or more.

The fellahin, be they Muslim or Christian, and the Jew, are united in their heart of hearts. They need:

1. To be able, without hindrance, to worship their God
2. To work in a dignified manner in order to put bread on their families' table.
3. That the cost of this “bread” does not consume their whole wage.
4. To live in the knowledge that their children have the freedom to develop to their full potential.
5. To live in security and peace.

Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Arab elites have sort to deny the fellahin these rights. Be they absentee landlords who sold the land from under the fellahin’s feet; religious leaders who flirted with the Nazis; political leaders who rejected a UN compromise of partition; family members from so-called “kingdoms” who exploited their land and refused any form of integration or assimilation; jumped up “corporals” who used the fellahin to consolidate their fascistic powers; intellectual terrorists who pumped up their own bank accounts with money for “the cause”; crazy financiers of even more terrorist activity who were diverting attention away from their  (now all too obvious) gross exploitation of their own people; “Royal” families living lives of decadence and unimaginable opulence whilst imposing extreme repression throughout their lands.

All of these share a bed with every western pseudo-intellectual who is desperate for a cause to divert attention from his own inadequacies and therefore subscribes to and promulgates this great conspiracy - all your problems are caused by the Israelis.

With friends like this...

According to The Associated Press, President Obama has received the following letter:

Our son, Excellency,
President Obama
U.S.A 

We have been hurt more morally that physically because of what had happened against us in both deeds and words by you. Despite all this you will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the U.S.A. We Endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaigne. You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action. I am sure that you are able to shoulder the responsibility for that. 

Enough evidence is available, Bearing in mind that you are the president of the strongest power in the world nowadays, and since Nato is waging an unjust war against a small people of a developing country. This country had already been subjected to embargo and sanctions, furthermore it also suffered a direct military armed aggression during Reagan's time. This country is Libya.

Hence, to serving world peace ... Friendship between our peoples ... and for the sake of economic, and security cooperation against terror, you are in a position to keep Nato off the Libyan affair for good. As you know too well democracy and building of civil society cannot be achieved by means of missiles and aircraft, or by backing armed member of AlQuaeda in Benghazi.

You _ yourself _ said on many occasions, one of them in the UN General Assembly, I was witness to that personally, that America is not responsible for the security of other peoples. That America helps only. This is the right logic.

Our dear son, Excellency, Baraka Hussein Abu oumama, your intervention is the name of the U.S.A. is a must, so that Nato would withdraw finally from the Libyan affair. Libya should be left to Libyans within the African union frame.

The problem now stands as follows:-
1. There is Nato intervention politically as well as military.
2. Terror conducted by AlQaueda gangs that have been armed in some cities, and by force refused to allow people to go back to their normal life, and carry on with exercising their social people's power as usual.

Mu'aumer Qaddaffi
Leader of the Revolution
Tripoli 5.4.2011

The misspellings and grammatical errors are in the original letter.