Libya: UK officials tell Gaddafi loyalists to defect or face war crimes trial

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

• SAS on standby to rescue trapped Britons
• Leader says Libya will be 'red with fire'


Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger | Friday February 25 2011 20.30 GMT

British officials are contacting senior Libyan regime figures directly to persuade them to desert Muammar Gaddafi or face trial alongside him for crimes against humanity, the Guardian has learned.

With SAS troops and paratroopers on standby to rescue an estimated 150 Britons at workplaces in the Libyan desert, contingency measures were being drawn up to close the British embassy in Tripoli to pre-empt possible reprisals.

But the Foreign Office denied reports that the embassy would be closed as soon as this weekend. "We will react to the situation as it unfolds on the ground. If it gets too dangerous for our people to be there, of course we will pull them out of there. But are we planning to close the embassy down? No," a spokesman said. The US said it was closing its embassy in Tripoli as well as imposing limited unilateral sanctions on Libya.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, urged Britons still in Tripoli to board the last UK-sponsored chartered flight out of the capital at first light. He said HMS Cumberland would return to Benghazi on Sunday to pick up any remaining Britons there, but added that those in the desert remained Britain's biggest worry. All options were being considered, he said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/libya-uk-gaddafi-sas-embassy?CMP=twt_gu

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I wonder if these are the same SAS troops who were http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x496553">sent in to train Gaddafi's elite soldiers in 2009...?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. This is looking more and more like Kosovo

[westerebus]

3. Marine pilot gets a beep on his early warning display.

It's Libyan' radar.

Next, he gets a voice over his radio telling him he's in their airspace and to identify himself.

He says, I'm in international airspace and this is an American F-18 Hornet.

The Libyan ground controller tells him he must leave or they will send up jets to shoot him down.

He says, OK. I'll wait. :evilgrin:

[pinboy3niner]

2. "...contacting senior Libyan regime figures directly...."

Good! That really makes it personal, much more effective than a general threat.

K&R

[tuckessee]

4. What business is this of Britain's?

Meanwhile, the British and American puppet gov't in Iraq massacres its protestors. Even Orwell might be shocked.

[Turborama]

5. Actually, I think the slaughter that's going on in Libya should be everyone's "business"

I haven't heard about a government led massacre going on in Iraq, have you got a link please?

[tuckessee]

6. Google Iraq demonstrations

Header on the news section will read "19 die in demonstrations in Iraq"

NPR interviewed yesterday a Turkish oil worker who had fled Lybia who said he witnessed 30-40 of his sub-Shahran co-workers massacred with knives, clubs, & machetes by anti-government forces who did it because they were black. I don't suppose killings such as this interest the Crown or the State Department.

[Turborama]

8. Nothing comes up with that headline...

"19 die in demonstrations in Iraq" - http://www.google.com/search?q=%2219+die+in+demonstrations+in+Iraq%22&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8

And that story you recount doesn't mean it's no-one's business what's going on there. In fact, it means we should be paying even more attention.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eW8U4L0niRE/ScbKSBoqQkI/AAAAAAAAEis/NOCOqd0mN6U/s320/US+ostrich+head+in+sand.jpg

[Posteritatis]

9. A government massacring its own citizens is *everyone's* business. (nt)

[pampango]

7. Good. There's at least one, maybe two, Rwandan generals who are serving life sentences

for their roles in the genocide there.