Libyan Revolution Week 30

[joshcryer]

[joshcryer]

1. Libyan Revolution Day 205 updates below, current time in Libya, 7:22pm Saturday, September 10

Sorry I've been up for 30 some hours, going to get a nap. :( Sorry for being neglectful.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. NATO-backed Libyan regime persecutes black Africans

NATO-backed Libyan regime persecutes black Africans
9 September 2011

The widespread racist persecution of immigrant African workers and black Libyans by forces opposed to Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is a damning indictment of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) and its Western backers.

The US and its European allies launched their neo-colonial war against the Gaddafi regime on the pretext of protecting civilians and have hailed their new client regime as the beginning of a new era of democracy in Libya. Mass racist reprisals in NTC-held areas are yet another devastating exposure of these tattered lies. As well as killing and maiming civilians through its relentless bombing, NATO bears responsibility for the arbitrary arrest, physical abuse or extra-judicial killings of thousands of black Africans by its NTC proxies.

US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for an end to the systematic detention of black Africans accused of fighting as Gaddafi’s mercenaries. HRW regional director Sarah Leah Whitson stated: “It’s a dangerous time to be dark-skinned in Tripoli. The NTC should stop arresting African migrants and black Libyans unless it has concrete evidence of criminal activity. It should also take concrete steps to protect them from violence and abuse.”

Prior to the outbreak of war, there were between 1 and 2 million African migrants in Libya. The overwhelming majority were not mercenaries, but worked in menial jobs.

Read more: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/pers-s09.shtml

[joshcryer]

3. WSWS = vile, lying, cruel, contemptable authoritarian propagandists

They aren't very vocal about Gaddafi's persecution of black Africans, and continued exploitation of them in a shitty situation.

edit: at least it's not Mathaba. Glad to see there's another poster here who is anti-revolution and anti-Libyan freedom fighters. :hi:

[readmoreoften]

50. No tears for Qadhafi. No cheers for NATO.

It's called "viewing a situation in it's actual complex, material conditions".

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-tears-for-qadhafi-no-cheers-for-nato.html

[tabatha]

64. I have never read such a bunch of BS in my life

It would be hard for the coming government to do worse than Qadhafi. In one respect, however, they may do just that. EU powers will certainly demand that the new regime hold to their promise to continue Qadhafi's policy of containing immigration from Africa to the EU.

>>Link to that "fact"?

Given the way that some elements in this rebellion have treated black and migrant workers - you know, lynchings and that - the EU can probably have full confidence in the new regime's handling of this remit.

>>The Rebels were attacked by bunches of thugs - arab and black, against whom they fought back. If their skins happened to be black, it was charged as racism.

It always made sense, of course, for the bourgeois elements of the rebellion to scapegoat black workers as the 'alien' elements, the fifth column depended on by Qadhafi.

>>There is definite proof that Gaddafi hired mercenaries from other countries. After the invasion of Tripoli, the documentation is there for all to see. There are a bunch of mercenaries right now helping Gaddafi defend his last holdouts, where 90% of the population in those holdouts are being held hostage because they are pro FF. And what effing "bourgeois elements"?

In government, the temptation to resort to racist hysteria in order to frustrate and divide potential opposition will be magnified many times over.

>>I have seen NO racial hysteria from FFs - only from journalists.

>> Poppycock to the power of 10.

[joshcryer]

77. Show *one* post where I have "cheered for NATO."

One post. The dishonesty is overwhelmingly with the counter-revolutionaries. Utterly dishonest. And making shit personal only underscores the cruel intentions of those who continue to make such statements.

I grieve for those killed by NATO, when Benghazi was spared by NATO forces I pointed out how the fighters had trepidation on their faces, seeing the power that NATO had and the destruction that it caused. I remember their cause against occupation forces, and their renewed moves against such nonsense. I remember the authoritarian left and how it constantly made up garbage to make people stop supporting the rebels, from they're CIA to they're Islamist, to they're terrorists.

Title of that post should be "No tears for Qadhafi; no cheers for NATO; slanders for the rebels"

:puke:

[inna]

54. pure projection, typically

[tabatha]

5. wsws = liars

[CJvR]

26. You have a point to make?

Are you perhaps suggesting that Gaddafi would be better? He afterall persecuted everyone equally.

[Cali_Democrat]

29. Just posting articles like everybody else

:hi:

[tabatha]

36. Here's one for you, especially.

Post 1994 and democratisation, and contrary to expectations, the incidence of xenophobia increased.<1> Between 2000 and March 2008 at least 67 people died in what was identified as xenophobic attacks. In May 2008 a series of riots left 62 people dead; although 21 of those killed were South African citizens. The attacks were apparently motivated by xenophobia.

According to a 1998 Human Rights Watch report immigrants from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique living in the Alexandra township were "physically assaulted over a period of several weeks in January 1995, as armed gangs identified suspected undocumented migrants and marched them to the police station in an attempt to 'clean' the township of foreigners."<9><10> The campaign, known as "Buyelekhaya" (go back home), blamed foreigners for crime, unemployment and sexual attacks.<11>

In October 2001 residents of the Zandspruit informal settlement gave Zimbabweans 10 days to leave the area. When the foreigners failed to leave voluntarily they were forcefully evicted and their shacks were burned down and looted. Community members said they were angry that Zimbabweans were employed while locals remained jobless and blamed the foreigners for a number of crimes. No injuries were reported among the Zimbabweans.<14>

In the last week of 2005 and first week of 2006 at least four people, including two Zimbabweans, died in the Olievenhoutbosch settlement after foreigners were blamed for the death of a local man. Shacks belonging to foreigners were set alight and locals demanded that police remove all immigrants from the area.<15>

In August 2006 Somali refugees appealed for protection after 21 Somali traders were killed in July of that year and 26 more in August. The immigrants believed the murders to be motivated by xenophobia, although police rejected the assertion of a concerted campaign to drive Somali traders out of townships in the Western Cape.<16>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia_in_South_Africa

Far more credibility than wsws. And BTW, I still think that South Africans (including my family) are entitled to democracy in South Africa.

[tabatha]

4. In Tripoli, forgiveness reigns for now

The National Transitional Council (NTC) has sent public service announcements to Libyan mobile phones. An Aug. 25 message read: "Remember when you capture any loyalist of Qaddafi, remember that he is a Libyan like you, and his family is your family also."

An Aug. 28 message read: "It's forbidden to take revenge against prisoners, and beating and hunting them down inside the prisons."

Those messages have been sinking in, and are frequently reinforced. During his first press conference in Tripoli on Thursday night, Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's acting premier, said that "the ability to forgive and reconcile for the future" was one of Libya's biggest challenges.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0910/In-Tripoli-forgiveness-reigns-for-now

[Mimosa]

6. War porn .

[joshcryer]

7. Solidarity with revolutionaries.

Thanks for your support, though.

[tabatha]

8. Tell that to the the families of the 50,000 who have been killed.

Your statement is beneath contempt.

[joshcryer]

9. See what happens when you ignore 'em? They come to you to spread the hatred.

[inna]

53. by far worse than that

[tabatha]

10. Still fighting after all these years – the 76-year-old who refuses to give in

Khairi Abdul Jalil al-Masri was 76 when Libya's revolution began, but that didn't stop him from joining the struggle. The former university professor helped set up the underground resistance cells that delivered Libya to the rebels last month.

He recruited underground fighters by sifting through footage of video shot on mobile phones of the 19 February uprising in the city. "I started with six young people. Everyone chose the friends he trusted," he explained. Friends, neighbours and relatives went from house to house, asking likely rebel sympathisers to join their anti-Gaddafi groups. "We asked them if they wanted to die for their country and freedom and, if not, we told them to go home," he said.

The resistance groups worked together to pool information about Gaddafi's defences in the city, which they would pass on to the rebel authorities in Tunisia and Benghazi. "We had an espionage network and we got information about weapons depots and informers," he said.

One of the challenges faced by the underground network was interception by Gaddafi's spies. Mr Masri happened upon a unique solution to this problem. He recruited a Berber friend based in Nalut, one the mountain villages south of Tripoli. Speaking in the Berber dialect this man was able to communicate with an uncle in Tunisia and a brother in Benghazi secretly to pass on messages from the capital.



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/still-fighting-after-all-these-years-ndash-the-76yearold-who-refuses-to-give-in-2352196.html

[joshcryer]

11. Call for new faces puts pressure on Libyan premier

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/call-for-new-faces-puts-pressure-on-interim-libyan-premier-mahmoud-jibril/2011/09/10/gIQA5WytHK_story.html">Call for new faces puts pressure on Libyan premier
TRIPOLI, Libya — One of the figureheads of the Libyan revolution, popular interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, was under growing pressure Saturday to stand down, as divisions emerge within the rebel movement and the jockeying for power after Moammar Gaddafi’s fall begins in earnest.

On the military front lines, rebel fighters encountered stiff resistance from Gaddafi loyalists as they tried to advance into the Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, before NATO stepped in with a series of airstrikes on the oasis town, 104 miles southeast of the capital.

But in Tripoli, the talk had turned to politics and the power struggle within rebel ranks.

Jibril is an immensely well-liked figure on the streets here because of his efforts to win diplomatic and financial support for the rebel movement over the past six months, but he arrived in Tripoli this week to find himself at the center of a political storm.

[joshcryer]

12. Libyan Provisional Fighters Battle for Control of Bani Walid

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/09/10/libyan-provisional-fighters-battle-for-control-of-bani-walid/">Libyan Provisional Fighters Battle for Control of Bani Walid
Libyan provisional government fighters, backed by NATO, are attempting to oust Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists from one of their last remaining strongholds.

The fighters encountered stiff resistance from loyalists in the desert town of Bani Walid on Saturday, a day after they pushed into the town.

Fighters have been conducting door-to-door raids for snipers, while NATO jets have provided air support.

A VOA correspondent ) near Bani Walid said heavy artillery fire could be heard from the scene.

[tabatha]

13. Will the Arab uprising spread to sub-saharan Africa?

The power of dictatorships comes from the willing obedience of the people they govern, if the people can develop techniques of withholding their consent, a regime will crumble,” Dr Gene Sharp, the author of From Dictatorship to Democracy, once said. These words will forever be immortalised by the spectacular downfall of not only Hosni Mubarak, but also the fall of long-serving Libyan strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi. While Gaddafi’s admirers have blamed Gaddafi’s fall on Nato neo-colonialism,

it has inspired downtrodden people across Africa.

In Zimbabwe, watching the triumphant rebels overrun Gaddafi’s compound in the capital was a huge moral boost for the citizens of that nation who have been in a protracted struggle against the suppressive ZANU-PF regime. “This is a victory for Zimbabweans. This is a message to other surviving dictators that they cannot hold down people forever,” Knowledge Magwenzi, a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, told The Zimbabwe Mail.

“There is hope for oppressed people in Africa who have resigned themselves to believing the dictator was immortal,”Magwenzi said. But few Zimbabweans had the courage to celebrate publicly, preferring to exchange messages via social networks and other discreet platforms.

Many still recall how, early this year, Munyaradzi Gwisai, a political activist and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe’s law school, and other political activists, were arrested and charged with treason for arranging a meeting to celebrate the ousting of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/-/688340/1233218/-/11hyj21/-/index.html

[joshcryer]

15. Expect Libya to give moral and logistical support to their African brethren in the future.

Bank on it. It is not in Libya's interest to have dictators and despots to their south. It is in Libya's interest to stem the gap. This is why they are not rejecting the highly corrupt AU outright though by all accounts they should.

[ellisonz]

42. One could only hope...

...but alas any rebellion in Zimbabwe would be punished like that which has occurred in Syria.

[joshcryer]

14. Former rebel chief given hero’s welcome in Tripoli

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1051985--former-rebel-chief-given-hero-s-welcome-in-tripoli?bn=1">Former rebel chief given hero’s welcome in Tripoli
The chief of Libya’s former rebels arrived in Tripoli on Saturday, greeted in a boisterous red carpet welcome meant to show he’s taking charge of the interim government replacing the ousted regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

...

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the anti-Gadhafi forces’ National Transitional Council, landed Saturday at an air force base on the outskirts of Tripoli. A tattered red carpet was rolled out, and hundreds of fighters and officials in suits rushed toward the plane as he walked down the steps. Some flashed victory signs or shouted “God is great.”

Abdul-Jalil was mobbed by the crowd as he tried to make his way to the air force building. At one point, a fistfight broke out between two guards. One of the guards waved a pistol in the air and was knocked down by bystanders using a metal detector and a potted plant, before Abdul-Jalil was rushed into a secure area.

Despite the chaos, no shots were fired.

That last line, had me laughing, in a morbid sort of way. Wow, they're finally calming down and stopping that crap.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil made the revolution possible, he'll go down in Libya's history as a George Washington.

[tabatha]

18. Video

http://youtu.be/KO_mA3bAm8I

[tabatha]

16. Syrians appeal for international protection

Syrians are calling for a no fly zone just like the one in Libya.
http://youtu.be/p2okRduOKWs

IRAN
RRowleyTucson Robert Rowley
#Iran: The biggest protests against the regime since 2009 happening now.
15 minutes ago

[tabatha]

17. All eyes on the desert as the hunt for Gaddafi continues

This battle will begin as early as this week.

Somewhere near Sabha lurk the remnants of the Gaddafi family, protected by loyalist soldiers, fellow tribesmen, Touareg nomads and hired men from neighbouring states for whom Saharan borders matter less than networks of patronage and trade, including the trade in war.

"Our eyes on the ground know where he is," said General Ahmed Hisnawi, head of the rebels' southern command. "He has three to four thousand people around him. We will catch him."

The search centres on Sabha, a city of 200,000 people where the routes to Algeria, Niger and Chad meet. As members of the rebels' Sabha brigade set out from Tripoli at the weekend, residents, some still inside the city and others who have fled but are in contact, gave The Sunday Telegraph an insight into what they will find if and when they arrive.

Sabha is the main base of the leader's tribe, the Gaddafa. It was a key link in his incipient nuclear weapons programme, with military bunkers built here according to a 2004 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The nearby Sebao Oasis was used as a rocket testing ground.

"Sabha is the most armed city in Libya," General Hisnawi said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8754761/All-eyes-on-the-desert-as-the-hunt-for-Gaddafi-continues.html

[tabatha]

19. What is worse than external imperialism --- internal imperialism (Gaddafi).

What is worse than external imperialism --- internal imperialism (Gaddafi).

Translation @4adam 2011

We call upon those who have passed away.
To those who died for its honor (country)
Even if it complains, they won't hear it any more,
All of them have disappeared in one day.
My brothers, if someone told you,
About the country that you love so much ...
If they told you what it went though,
Even the trees would cry.

The first elephant (colonizer) broke it,
His brother destroyed it.
The country was buried by those who waited,
Nobody imposed limits on them.

New vices appear
Of which you have been the source.
When we thought we had brought it all to the end,
Now, it seems that today is worse than yesterday.

The country that you weep for, you have destroyed.
It will not recover, it won't be healed.
But perhaps it will curse you! its curse will follow you.
One day, if the wind of change blows.
Hopefully it takes you with it,
and thus leaves space for the light,

..................

http://4adam.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-is-worse-than-external-imperialism.html

[Distant Observer]

123. Tabatha, the colonists are allways good at rewriting history. Libyans lived in utter poverty

under colonial rule and during the theocratic reign of King Idris.

[pinboy3niner]

20. Libyan oil production to resume in days-minister

Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:48pm GMT

By Emma Farge


BREGA, Libya, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Libya can resume oil production in just three to four days and will reach full pre-war output levels within a year, interim Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said on Saturday.

...


"On Tuesday or Wednesday we will start at Sarir and Mesla (oilfields)," Tarhouni told reporters at the Brega export terminal. "We also will produce gas and oil, not simultaneously, from Sharara and Wafa. We are looking at a difference of days."

The eastern fields of Sarir and Mesla have been in territory controlled by the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) for months and a core group of staff are already on site, according to operator the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco).

...


Tarhouni said the biggest challenge to getting the oil industry up and running will be security, adding that there was still a risk of militia attacks on oilfields like those in the Sirte Basin that lie deep in the desert.

Asked if there was still a risk of sabotage to facilities, he said: "There is. Only two weeks ago I would have told you it was a lot higher. The risk of sabotage is an ongoing process."

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KA0V720110910

[pinboy3niner]

21. Guinea Bissau PM says Gaddafi would be welcomed "with open arms" if he asks to come there

AFP reported that Guinea Bissau Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior said Libya's ousted leader, Muammar Gaddafi, would be welcomed "with open arms" in the West African country, a radio station said. "If Gaddafi asks to come to Guinea Bissau we will welcome him with open arms and we will ensure his security," he was recorded as saying by radio station Radio Diffusion Portuguese.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-10-2011-2000

[tabatha]

22. Memorandum by the Elders and Residents of Sabha, to Mustafa Abdel Jalil

by FreedomGroup, News in English on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 11:28am
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

To the brother, the Head of the National Council
Mustafa Abdel Jalil

At this time, we congratulate you and our great people for their success which has happened with the blood of our martyrs. The residents of Sabha, from the beginning, supported the uprising and they were also uprising though Gaddafi forces put a lot of pressure on them. They have lost many martyrs and have many wounded, and their young people have been detained. They all have been under siege. All the communication has been cut on the freedom fighters and that in respect, they can't raise their own voices to the international media. We would like to advise you that all the elders are under the freedom fighters protection in the liberated areas (of Sabha). They have met with them and they have announced their support for February 17 freedom fighters, under the command of the National Council. We would like to advise you before this announcement, we have met the Qaddaifa tribe, and we met the brigadier Massoud Abdel Hafid. He said himself, "We will not negotiate with the rats, and the gangs and the terrorists." We have received the news that Mustafa Abdel Jalil has appointed to the council:
- Omar Massoud Abdel Hafid Al-Gaddafi,
- Mohammed Mokhtar Al-Ashtar
- Saif Al-Nasir Abdel Jalil
- Ahmed Muharib Al-Gaddafi
- Matug Ahmed Saif Al-Nasir

The residents of Sabha are unhappy with these names. They are totally unacceptable to all the residents and the freedom fighters because we have a local council that was been appointed before the liberation (of areas of Sabha). These committee members are from Sabha and the South, and some of them are with you in Benghazi, and you have to give them respect and responsibility in this difficult time with the Gaddafi regime and after its collapse which we have to get your advise on the things in the south. This announcement from the elders, they have appointed representatives for all the area of Sabha. We have published this announcement in all the media, and anything (done) contrary to this announcement will be invalid and will not be legitimate; even if it comes from the council in Benghazi.. This is because it will be against the majority of the residents of Sabha. We would like to advise you that centre of Sabha has totally been liberated. The freedom flag is on top of the buildings which are under the freedom fighters control, except the outer areas of the city which some of the Gaddafi forces and mercenaries attack from time to time.

Also, we would like to advise you that this decision -- issued under the advise of Ahmed Gaddafi Dam and Massoud Abdel Hadif in Sabha and others names, and which you think will be accepted -- is not accepted and it will not happen. We are writing to you with this memorandum, confident that you are a wise person, and that you understand the truth of the situation and that you have a very clear picture.

The elders and the residents of Sabha
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=158919504192769&id=137507173000669

[tabatha]

23. NTC Forces Hammer at Gadhafi Stronghold of Bani Walid

Forces loyal to Libya's National Transitional Council are making what they hope is the final push for Bani Walid, one of ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi's last strongholds. NATO is providing the NTC with air support.

Anti-Gadhafi forces have converged on Bani Walid in what appears to be the most serious attempt yet to take the town. An NTC commander said forces have "brought the revolution" to the Gadhafi stronghold, and at mid-afternoon they were going house to house to root out snipers fighting for Gadhafi.

But as NATO planes circled overhead, the sound of explosions and heavy fighting could be heard at a checkpoint 3 kilometers north of the town, indicating a situation more serious than a simple mopping-up operation. Pro-Gadhafi snipers also still held the high ground, at least briefly, at the northern checkpoint.

Despite the continued fighting, NTC forces said they were confident they were close to victory.

Video, audio and photos
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Ongoing-Clashes-in-Libyas-Gadhafi-Stronghold-Kill-3-129580273.html

[tabatha]

24. Gaddafi's diehard secret police dig in as Nato jets blast desert stronghold

Three weeks after rebel forces entered Tripoli, and with the new government, the National Transitional Council, completing its move to the capital, loyalist units continue to hold out in Sirte and in a series of desert towns far to the south.

The impetus appears to be not realistic hopes of victory but fear of retribution if loyalist units surrender. War crimes investigations are already well advanced in Libya, and lists of names linked to so-called blood crimes have been circulated around rebel units, with trial and execution the likely fate of Gaddafi loyalists who surrender. Regular soldiers, by contrast, are deserting in droves, with rebel units finding outlying positions around Bani Walid deserted.

Khalid Abdula Salem, commander of the rebel Western Front, said advanced units were inside the suburbs of the sprawling town and found many people flying the green flag of Gaddafi.

He said no reprisals were being taken against them. "Some houses now have our flag, some have the green flag. For those houses, we take down the green flag." He said that an attack order for the early hours of the morning was cancelled, apparently to give Nato jets freedom to strike. "We have an order from the National Transitional Council not to go inside," he said.

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/gaddafis-diehard-secret-police-dig-in-as-nato-jets-blast-desert-stronghold/question-2150029/

[pinboy3niner]

25. Facing Resistance, Rebel Assault on Key Qaddafi Loyalists’ Stronghold Slows

Source: New York Times

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: September 10, 2011


NEAR BANI WALID, Libya —

...


Abdullah Kenshil, the head negotiator for the Transitional National Council, said that the fighting had stopped after one rebel was killed and five were wounded overnight, and that rebels were now negotiating with loyalists. “We hope this chapter will end with roses, not with blood,” he said.

...


“There were a thousand Qaddafi forces there and they used every type of rocket — Grads, everything,” said one of the wounded, Lutvi Omar Meshri, who said he had been imprisoned in Tripoli until rebels opened the prisons. Another wounded fighter, Ahmed Harija, said that his unit had managed to force its way into a loyalist military base when several of them were wounded and that their commanders then received a request from NATO to pull back so it could launch airstrikes.

...


Mr. Kenshil said the rebels had withdrawn because forces loyal to the ousted Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi were firing Grad missiles at them from inside residential buildings and the rebels were afraid that returning fire with heavy weapons would cause civilian casualties.


Mr. Busin also said the rebels were refraining from using heavy weaponry to avoid civilian casualties.


Most residents in the town wanted to surrender to the rebels, according to elders from Bani Walid, but the loyalist forces included members of the regular military from the Qaddafi government, and the rebels said they suspected they were protecting senior government figures, including Colonel Qaddafi’s sons Seif al-Islam and Saadi.

...


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/world/africa/11libya.html

[pinboy3niner]

27. Libya names Kamal Bashir Dam head of the supreme court #Libya

From latestbreakingnews.com:

@AlArabiya_Eng

BRK: Libya names Kamal Bashir Dam head of the supreme court #Libya

7:35PM GMT Sep 10, 2011

[Iterate]

28. Libya’s Hidden Minority

Libya’s Hidden Minority
Sep 2, 2011 7:59 PM EDT
Ann Marlowe

From the U.S., Libya may seem like a homogenous place, the setting for a distant war. But Libya’s scant six million people are surprisingly culturally diverse, and Libya’s indigenous inhabitants, Berbers known in Libya as Amazigh, are part of an ethnic group that spans parts of Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Chad, Mali, and Burkina Faso. They have a written language whose oldest inscriptions date from 200 B.C.—but it fell victim to Muammar Gaddafi’s idiosyncratic Arab nationalism and was harshly suppressed to the point where most Amazigh adults cannot read or write it.

...

The moment you step inside the headquarters of the Sun of Freedom women’s association of Jadu and see the sketch of the Amazigh flag on the wall, it’s apparent that this charitable organization is as much about reviving traditional Berber culture as it is about aiding the roughly 5,000 internally displaced people, many Amazigh, who have fled from Tripoli, Zwara, and other coastal cities to take refuge here.

The Amazigh people have long struggled against Gaddafi, and during the fighting against him—now in its sixth month—as many as 150,000 people have been displaced. For the Amazigh, the struggle is not just a struggle to unseat a despot; it’s a struggle to reclaim their ancient language and traditions.

...

Before the Feb. 17 revolution here, women weren’t allowed to be active outside the home, says Amal Kahber, one of the 15 or so women active in the Sun of Freedom organization. Thought they were permitted to be school teachers, they did not spend time in public or interact with strangers. But now, she says, times are changing. In addition to cooking for the refugees, the women have tutored children in Arabic, English, and Amazigh. Schools here, as elsewhere in “free Libya,” closed in late February and have yet to reopen, although there are plans for some to do so next month, according to the Transitional National Council Education Minister Suliman el Sahli. The women also ran a charity fashion show featuring young girls in traditional Amazigh dress.

more... http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/02/amazigh-libya-s-hidden-minority.html

Explores the role women are taking in winning the struggle and reclaiming the culture.

[tabatha]

30. National Libyan anthem in Tamazight, BEAUTIFUL!

http://youtu.be/f14V1zS41Qo

[pinboy3niner]

31. Was Jeremy Bowen's notebook stolen by Gaddafi's son?

9 September 2011 Last updated at 20:13 ET

By Jeremy Bowen
BBC Middle East editor

...


Khamis Gaddafi, the colonel's most feared son, must have liked (notebooks) too. Because it seems he has been writing war plans in the back of one of mine.

...


After that it was sighted by various other journalists on the desk of a rebel commander near Bani Walid. Apparently someone has pictures of it. Another colleague even wrote a slightly fanciful story about it.

...


I went back to the Rixos the other day. The gates used to be adorned with children's pictures depicting the rebels as rats and the Gaddafis as heroes, and nasty-looking men from the secret police used to lounge about, making sure that they knew who was coming and who was going.

...


What had evaporated from the hotel was the tension and pressure, often surreal, sometimes threatening, that used to hang over its marble halls.

...


The other night, on the phone to a pro-Gaddafi TV station in Damascus, (Moussa Ibrahim) ranted for half an hour about the Colonel's impending victory.


Perhaps he is with him now. Moussa, if you tell me where you are, I will send you a notebook.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14840087

[pinboy3niner]

32. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 206: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 12:05 AM SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

Libya time = EDT +6 hours, PDT +9 hours, UTC +1 hour, GMT +2 hours










Inside one of Gaddafi's torture cells
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030931/Libya-Inside-Gaddafis-torture-

chamber-The-bloodstained-cells-inside-primary-school-used-brutalise-enemies.html

[Iterate]

33. Photos: City side from live2Tripoli

City side
http://www.flickr.com/photos/live2tripoli/sets/72157627622809336/show/

items are from between 07 Sep 2011 & 09 Sep 2011.

Plus, a tune from Abdallah Achini and ImazighenLibya

Azul Fellawen A. Achini ♫ Amazigh Libya
http://youtu.be/qpG1sAwMoWo

Tribute to Igrawliyen n Zuwara liberating their city and taking control of the border crossing with Tunisia called "Ras Ejdir" on 26 August 2011 - 8.22 pm GMT, flushing out remaining Gaddafi's mercenaries and criminal militias originating from Al Jamil, Al Ajilat, Zolton and Radaline. Libya Free 4 Ever.

[tabatha]

34. Zimbabwe: Nation Keeps Landing on Wrong Side of History

Remarks by Libya's rebel ambassador to the UK, made during a discussion programme on Japanese TV two weeks ago, confirmed something most observers already knew. The Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, used to travel to African states carrying large suitcases of cash which was generously distributed to the leaders receiving him.

This perhaps explains why the African Union is having difficulty recognising the rebel government. The ambassador was responding to the AU's decision to withhold recognition made at a recent summit in Addis Ababa. South Africa's Jacob Zuma was among those leaders who opposed recognition.

The ambassador denounced African leaders who preferred to listen to their regional colleagues rather than the will of the Libyan people. Anybody watching TV over the past few weeks will know that Col Gaddafi is a brutal tyrant hated by the Libyan people.

The murder of his opponents speaks volumes for the nature of his regime. But Africa's leaders would prefer to maintain their loyalty to their one-time sponsor rather than listen to the cries of Libyans for liberty.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201109091106.html

[pinboy3niner]

35. Libyan fighters tread lightly in Gaddafi towns

Sat Sep 10, 2011 10:09pm GMT

...


Even with the capital under NTC control, paranoia is rife, with frequent talk of a pro-Gaddafi "fifth column" and divided tribal loyalties. The suspicions, often conflicting with an instinctive hospitality and desire for national unity, can manifest in unusual ways.


A few minutes before the men fled the village -- 20 km west of one of Gaddafi's last stronghold towns, Bani Walid -- another pickup of anti-Gaddafi fighters had stopped a silver sedan driving the opposite way. Then both sides started shouting.


The four men in the car had three Kalashnikov rifles between them -- not unusual in a country glutted with guns. But these guns stood out with their green ribbons, the colour associated with loyalty to Gaddafi.


The fighters took the weapons and escorted the men out of town, where other NTC fighters waited. After some questioning, the men were given bottles of water to drink. One fighter stood by, smiling: "We're Libyans. We're all the same."


A commander promised the detained men they could return home because no one had been hurt, but urged them, "When you go back home, help us, don't fight us."

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KA12920110910?sp=true

[tabatha]

37. Libya: hopeful signs. Digging out and celebrating

By ANN MARLOWE

Zwara, Libya -- In nearly a month spent in western Libya, much of it with freedom fighters, I’ve seen good augurs for the country’s future -- as I did in earlier weeks spent in and around the rebel capital of Benghazi.
Here in Zwara, just a week after Libya’s “Berber capital” was being shelled by Moammar Khadafy’s forces from three sides, the local 13-man Crisis Management Group is already planning to transfer power to a civilian council that has been operating for several months from Djerba. Last Friday, the CMG organized a citywide cleanup day, member Hafid ben Sesi said. Zwara’s 50,000 citizens removed war debris and ordinary trash and repaired houses and shops damaged in the war.

Although many of Zwara’s schools now house revolutionary fighters or Khadafy prisoners, they will be cleared so that school can reopen Sept. 17. Perhaps most important for future security, the CMG is moving to disarm its own rebel forces and prohibit the carrying of the rebels’ ubiquitous assault rifles within the city.

Libyans are a resilient lot, not given to complaint or malingering. The contrast to post-invasion Iraq is dramatic. In May 2003, Iraqi shopkeepers asked me why America didn’t pick up the trash accumulated outside their shops. But in Libya, the do-it-yourself ethic prevails. “I cleaned outside my shop,” explained computer-repair-store owner Khellid ElFathily in Sabratha. A burnt-out Khadafy militia car opposite his Attar Street shop was being removed by a bulldozer that day, just a week after the fierce battle that liberated Sabratha.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/libya_hopeful_signs_2njQXns1bivWQs1ZtfBGHN#ixzz1XaonpC6H



AP A time for play: After months of bloody civil war, Libyans, like this girl in Tripoli, headed for the beach or sought other recreation.

[tabatha]

38. And those who paid the price ...

Sirte_Feb17 Sirtawi
Hussein Jazouy: Bodies were of #FFs that were arrested in 100s during second battle for BinJawad. #gaddaficrimes
31 minutes ago

Sirte_Feb17 Sirtawi
Hussein Jazouy: Many teenagers among Gaddafi forces on the eastern front line of #Sirte
27 minutes ago

Hussein Jazouy: Yesterday we found a mass grave of 159 bodies, and 11 the day before. #FreeSirte #Feb17 #gaddaficrimes
32 minutes ago

Hussein Jazouy, Leader of Omar Mukhtar #FF brigade, E front line: The more we approach #Sirte, the more we find mass graves. #FreeSirte
33 minutes ago

Sirte_Feb17 Sirtawi
News from inside #Sirte that detainees have fled their prisons and are now in a safe place. #FF inside assure that there'll be a zero hour.
9 Sep

[Iterate]

39. Hussein Jazouy: Yesterday we found a mass grave of 159 bodies

Sirte_Feb17 Sirtawi
#Sirte's rep at NTC, Hassan Drouy, said to be among those accompanying AbdelJalil to #Tripoli today. 6 hours ago

Sirte_Feb17 Sirtawi
Hussein Jazouy, Leader of Omar Mukhtar #FF brigade, E front line: The more we approach #Sirte, the more we find mass graves. #FreeSirte 32 minutes ago
Hussein Jazouy: Yesterday we found a mass grave of 159 bodies, and 11 the day before
Hussein Jazouy: Bodies were of #FFs that were arrested in 100s during second battle for BinJawad.

Hussein Jazouy: Many teenagers among Gaddafi forces on the eastern front line of #Sirte

That's not to be confused with this report:
Thanku4theAnger THANKU4THEANGER
Manara:Tripoli: Mass grave w/ 38 bodies discovered in Sidi Hussain cemetery. Bodies brought on 3 occasions between 1998 & 2004 #Libya #feb17 8 hours ago

or this one of course, from Qalaa

4Adam Adam Anfosi
GALAA, Libya (AP) - Libyans find mass grave, bodies of slain detainees hosted2.ap.org/IDMOS/e0478123… #Libya 18 hours ago

or this one,

20arb11 Souffian Tripoli
The Mass grave of the 1270 detainees killed in the AbuSalim prison in 1996 has been found via Almanara.. #Tripoli #Libya 7 Sep

and there is no further news on this one:

LibyaSteadfast Benghazi Youth
Multiple reports of a mass grave found in #Tripoli near Nasr University. Approximately 3000 martyrs via @TawasulMC #Libya 6 Sep

LibyanBentBladi Asma Magariaf
W/ these mass graves being discovered all over #Libya, NTC should allocate a budget for forensic science teams to bring closure to families 3 Sep

------------

Ooops, sorry tabatha, I looked before I wrote, but not before I posted. It's 1:30AM and I'm getting cross-eyed, so I'll just leave it though. Maybe it needs to be said twice anyway, because I don't see that the message is really sinking in with DU anyway.

emmaomo2011 emmaomo
Another mass grave discovered in Araban area where 18 bodies were found some believed to be from #zliten 8/9/11 http://youtu.be/uidc2b9RK7U #Libya 16 hours ago

[tabatha]

40. No problem. You did it better.

"Time to call in independent investigators to secure the evidence.
Time for human rights groups to hold a press conference.
These atrocities are of a different order of magnitude and reaction must be swift."

[pinboy3niner]

41. Libya's fledgling independent media

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Jess Hill reported this story on Saturday, September 10, 2011 08:05:00


ELIZABETH JACKSON: When the Libyan uprising began in February, there were no foreign journalists in the country and no independent Libyan journalists either. If you were a journalist in Libya at that time, you were reporting on behalf of the government.


But in that violent first week in Benghazi, even after Colonel Gaddafi had switched off the internet, Libya's first citizen journalist, Mohammed Nabbous, managed to establish a pirate internet connection to stream video reports online.


Since then, Libya's independent media industry has been booming. Everything has started from scratch: TV channels, radio stations, newspaper and internet publishers. But the people behind them have little or no understanding of how an independent media should work, let alone journalistic experience.


That's where people like Brian Conley have stepped in. He's the co-founder of Small World News, an independent news organisation that formed in 2006. With a small team, Brian Conley has trained citizens to be journalists in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Mexico. He started working with Libyans back in March and is now planning a nationwide project to train the country's enthusiastic new breed of reporters.


He spoke to Jess Hill from his home in Portland, Oregon.


Interview transcript:
http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2011/s3314900.htm

[al bupp]

43. Here's a kick for the amazing job (still) being done by Josh, Pinboy3niner, Tabatha & Iterate

Thank you for keeping these threads going, they are the best one-stop source for news on Libya anywhere on the web. They are much appreciated!

[pinboy3niner]

44. Fight for Bani Walid continues

National Transitional Council fighters entered Bani Walid on Friday night after negotiations failed, and Gaddafi loyalist snipers responded to the entrance with live fire.

The town is one of the last three major flashpoint cities under control of Gaddafi loyalists, according to reports.

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports from outside Bani Walid (2:09):

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-11-2011-0430

[pinboy3niner]

45. Call for new faces puts pressure on Libyan premier&#8206;

Source: Washington Post

By Simon Denyer, Saturday, September 10, 10:29 AM


TRIPOLI, Libya —

...


A popular figure on the streets of the capital for his efforts to win diplomatic and financial support for the rebel movement, Jibril is under pressure to stand down, as political divisions within the rebel movement emerge and the jockeying for power begins in earnest.


The complaints — that he has reappointed too many people associated with the previous government, that his administrative and diplomatic achievements were much more modest than popularly believed, that he favored eastern Libya over the west — have coalesced into open calls for his resignation.


But at the heart of the dispute is a central question facing Libya’s revolutionary leaders: how to apportion the spoils of victory among those who suffered the most under Gaddafi’s rule and those, like Jibril, who worked with the government for years before defecting to join the rebels.

...


“We don’t want anyone who had anything to do with the Gaddafi regime,” said Mohammed Benrasali, a senior representative for the city council of Misurata, 131 miles east of Tripoli, which called this week for Jibril to stand aside. “This is a new era, and we think it should be led by new faces.”


Hundreds of people marched in Benghazi on Friday calling for a shake-up in the rebel leadership. Jibril was among those singled out for criticism for allowing “climbers” and “opportunists” to claim power on the backs of rebel fighters.

...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/call-for-new-faces-puts-pressure-on-interim-libyan-premier-mahmoud-jibril/2011/09/10/gIQA5WytHK_story.html#

[tabatha]

46. Surprise chemical and radiological find - CNN correspondent in Libya

http://youtu.be/SV1kZy0LGAQ

[tabatha]

47. Amazing, amazing interview.

http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1111596

22 mins in.

Irish family had two men who went to fight in Tripoli Brigade.

[tabatha]

48. An American soldier journeys to the ‘good fight’ in Libya

One day in April, Jerry Erwin went online at home and purchased an airline ticket. Turkish Airlines to Istanbul.

He acted after watching weeks of coverage of the Libyan war. Erwin, 46, was especially struck by the images of amateur rebels fighting the professional army of strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Everyone thought the rebels would get slaughtered, that they had no chance of victory.
....

Besides, he had reservations about the U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and Iraq. But in Libya, the situation was crystal clear to Erwin. Gadhafi had to go. To him, it was like ridding the world of Adolf Hitler.
...

There he watched doctors, engineers, students, teachers, fathers, sons learn how to fire anti-aircraft guns. They were taught how to assemble and reassemble weapons almost every day.

“They didn’t even understand the need to dig a foxhole when grad missiles are coming in,” Erwin said. “You need something to jump into when you are under fire. They didn’t know that.”
...

Erwin said the rebels were smart. They were able to improvise at key moments. They had good metal fabricators and were able to recondition weapons to carry on the fight.

...

http://shabablibya.org/news/an-american-soldier-journeys-to-the-good-fight-in-libya

[pinboy3niner]

49. Casualties pour in from fighting near Sirte

After the deadline for Muammar Gaddafi's forces to surrender expired along with any hope for a peaceful outcome to battle for Libya, the wounded started pouring in.

Fighting has been raging to wrest control for the Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte -- one of the last outposts for his loyalists.

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from a hospital near Sirte (1:57):


http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-11-2011-0918

[Iterate]

51. The future of Libyan heritage

The future of Libyan heritage
Article published on 11 September 2011

In July the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Ministry for Heritage invited a number of key note speakers, with the backing of UNESCO, to a seminar in Caserta to discuss the future of the important archaelogical sites in Libya, with an eye as to what will happen once the present situation is overcome and the country returns to a normal situation.

...

Before the conflict started there were over twenty archaelogical missions operating in Libya. By far the largest number, thirteen, were Italian missions, but there were also French, British, American and Polish missions amongst others. Most of those missions were represented at the meeting that was held in Caserta.

The meeting was entitled ‘For the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage in Libya, a Dialogue among Institutions’. Malta’s Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, Dr Ray Bondin, was the only Ambassador invited to the meeting both because of Malta’s importance to Libya and also because of his extensive contacts with the heritage authorities in Libya. Malta’s agreements with Libya cover also substantially collaboration on the heritage field. He had in fact last year made two missions to strengthen the collaboration with Malta. Because of his extensive experience in World Heritage he was giving his assistance on the site of Cyrenea, one of the major archaelogical sites in Libya. Representatives of the new transitory authories based in Benghazi were also present at the Caserta meeting. The meeting discussed the theft of heritage from Libya, the sites needing major attention, and in particular listened to the Libyans as to their immediate needs. Though the humane situation is the obvious priority at the moment the new Libya will most certainly invest more in tourism and therefore their archaeological sites are of the utmost importance.

more... http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=131877
and here ... http://shabablibya.org/news/the-future-of-libyan-heritage

[Iterate]

52. Local tweets, local progress

Thanks to FreedomMarchesOn at the AJE blog for most these. These are local, micro-stories of international interest that are probably too small for international news crews to cover.

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli by librev2011
Many parts of Tripoli started looking cleaner that pre-Feb17. Thanx to volunteer sweepers. yfrog.com/hw7avlj

2011feb17 Tweeting Tripoli by librev2011
Pre-Feb17 traffic jams are back to Martyrs Square, if you ever wondered how does it look during the day! Who is Gaddafi? yfrog.com/kgbiztnj

librev2011 ThEsToRmX!
#AlKhums: First newspaper is issued and I gave the team some suggestions about the logo and design #Libya

librev2011 ThEsToRmX! #AlKhums: Friend told me the local military council collected more than 2000 AK47 and 23 4WD vehicles with A-A guns. will update... #Libya

wheelertweets James Wheeler by librev2011@
#Libya: Thursday nite in Tripoli, I asked my friend Ibrahim Madani of Zintan (a leader, as was his father) what his top 3 concerns were.
#3: Stopping the fighting. #2: Making sure no one steals this revolution. And #1: Taking care of the injured FFs.

Zlitniya Zlitniya
#Zliten children's rally to celebrate freedom and liberation #Libya twitpic.com/6j3dv2 twitpic.com/6j3e6k

moiatable moi a table
"WOW" 1st leaflet for pluralism seen so far twitpic.com/6gvr0r via At-Yefren Media Center #Nafusa #Libya tinyurl.com/3rywcnh 6 Sep

[pinboy3niner]

55. NATO airstrikes conducted Saturday, September 10

Key Hits 10 SEPTEMBER:


In the vicinity of Sirte: 1 set of surface to air missile canisters, 2 tanks, 2 armed vehicles.


In the vicinity of Waddan: 3 anti-aircraft guns, 5 surface to air missile canisters.


In the vicinity of Sebha: 1 staging area.


In the vicinty of Bani Walid: 1 tank, 2 armed vehicles, 1 multiple rocket launcher.


...


International Humanitarian Assistance Movements as recorded by NATO


Total of Humanitarian Movements**: 1023 (air, ground, maritime)


Ships delivering Humanitarian Assistance 10 SEPTEMBER: 3


Aircrafts delivering Humanitarian Assistance 10 SEPTEMBER: 9


**Some humanitarian movements cover several days.


http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_09/20110911_110911-oup-update.pdf

[pinboy3niner]

56. Libyan troops seek to strangle Gadhafi hometown

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: NATO strikes Gadhafi loyalists' military hardware including a tank

• The new authorities patrol around Sirte to make sure supplies can't get in

• National Transitional Council fighters ask: "Where are you, NATO?"

• Fighters regroup outside of Bani Walid after encountering resistance

By the CNN Wire Staff

September 11, 2011 10:03 a.m. EDT


Waddan, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan fighters trying to stamp out the last pockets of Moammar Gadhafi loyalists worked to isolate his hometown Sunday, a day after hold-outs repelled an effort by the new authorities to dislodge them from another town.

National Transition Council troops are patrolling areas south of the city of Sirte to try to cut off supplies of pro-Gadhafi forces still controlling his birthplace.

They're sweeping areas and towns south of Sirte to make sure other pro-Gadhafi towns are not able to relieve it.

The new authorities arrested eight or nine men manning a pro-Gadhafi post, but are not finding significant numbers of fighters still loyal to the old regime.

...


http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/09/11/libya.war/

[pinboy3niner]

57. Gadhafi's spy chief Bouzaid Dorda is arrested in Tripoli

From latestbreakingnews.com:

@AlArabiya_Eng

Gadhafi's spy chief Bouzaid Dorda is arrested in Tripoli

4:15PM GMT Sep 11, 2011

[pinboy3niner]

63. Gaddafi spy chief Dorda arrested - Reuters witnesses

Sun Sep 11, 2011 5:03pm GMT


TRIPOLI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Bouzaid Dorda, the head of Muammar Gaddafi's external security organisation, has been arrested by anti-Gaddafi fighters, Reuters witnesses said on Sunday.


Dorda, Gaddafi's foreign intelligence service chief, will be handed over to Libya's interim governing council later on Sunday, an anti-Gaddafi fighter said.


A team of Reuters journalists visited a house in the capital's Zenata district where Dorda, a former prime minister, was held by members of a unit of anti-Gaddafi fighters who call themselves Brigades of the Martyr Abdelati Ghaddour.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KB0TL20110911

AJE is reporting Dorda also is wanted for embezzling government funds. He has been subject to a travel ban under UN sanctions.

[pinboy3niner]

58. Libyan forces push into Gaddafi bastion

Sun Sep 11, 2011 4:25pm GMT


• Gaddafi troops hold out in Bani Walid, civilians flee

• NTC forces advance toward Sirte

• Ruling council tries to get a grip on Libya


By Maria Golovnina


NORTH OF BANI WALID, Libya, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Libyan forces who have launched an assault on the last holdout towns of Muammar Gaddafi's loyalists were still meeting resistance in one desert town on Sunday, and said they had edged towards the ousted ruler's birthplace Sirte.


"We are inside Bani Walid, we control big chunks of the city. There are still pockets of resistance," one fighter named Sabhil Warfalli said as he drove away from the front line in the town 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Tripoli.


He said pro-Gaddafi forces were now concentrated in the central market area -- an account backed up by a resident named Khalifa Telisi who had telephoned a family in the town.


"There is still resistance from the central market. All other parts of Bani Walid have been liberated," Telisi said. "Another revolutionary battalion is coming in from the south. Gaddafi forces are scattered. It is a matter of hours now."


A pro-Gaddafi local radio station appealed for the city's 100,000 people to fight to the death.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KB00320110911?sp=true

[tabatha]

59. Ben Wedeman tweets

bencnn benwedeman
To clarify: it was verbal fighting, pushing and shoving among Bani Walid rebels. Some firing in air to restore order. No casualties.
2 hours ago

Fight broke out among Bani Walid fighters over presence of media. Very little in the way of discipline and leadership here. #Libya
2 hours ago

Tribal tensions are seriously complicating the attempt to take Bani Walid. Some fighters have quit and gone home. #Libya
4 hours ago

Photo: vehicle-mounted Sa-24 surface to air missile near Bani Walid. #Libya yfrog.com/o0ttytfj
7 hours ago

Opposition commander says yesterday during Bani Walid combat confusion was rife. Fighters were firing on their own men by mistake. #Libya
7 hours ago

Another scorching day on the outskirts of Bani Walid. Commanders say this could take some time. #Libya Sitzkrieg
8 hours ago

Photo: 20 km outside Bani Walid more journalists than fighters. Being held back for now. Several wounded have come back.
10 Sep

Photo: on road to Bani Walid a fighter picks up trash. #Libya yfrog.com/khzxywyj
10 Sep

Photo correction: yesterday I incorrectly described these as sa-24s. They are sa-7s. Thanks to Matt Schroeder 4 pointer yfrog.com/kl22eelj
10 Sep

Photo: Outside Bani Walid, preparing for the push forward. #Libya yfrog.com/gyojiesj
10 Sep

Photo: cnn producer kareem khadder finds 2 rain-spattered sa-24 rockets at an NTC base in #Tripoli. #Libya yfrog.com/h4kfpashj
9 Sep

Masks and chemical suits come from former Czechoslovakia and Iran. #Libya
9 Sep

Over last 4 months thousands of gas masks, chemical weapon suites moved from near Ajailat to Sirt and Al-Jifra. Strange. #Libya
9 Sep

[pinboy3niner]

60. Libyan sport crushed by Gaddafi vanity

Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:21pm GMT


By Mohammed Abbas


TRIPOLI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi did not like sports stars because he feared they would draw the national spotlight away from him, and for a time soccer players could only be referred to on television by their number.


Nabil Elalem, executive head of Libya's National Olympic Committee, said that, for decades under Gaddafi's rule, athletes and sports officials put up with other forms of state meddling, as well as corruption, restrictions on travel and chronic underfunding.

...


Gaddafi's family and inner circle controlled almost all of Libya's most high-profile institutions and had interests in virtually all the most lucrative contracts. They also tightly controlled Libya's oil wealth.


Corruption, nepotism and graft were rife.

...


"Sport will be a very important tool to bring back harmony to the Libyan people. Libyans are crazy about sport, and we can send messages through sports to all Libyans to be united, to increase their understanding about teamwork," Elalem said.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KB0GQ20110911?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

61. Libyan fighters battle in key loyalist town

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and RYAN LUCAS - Associated Press | AP – 19 mins ago


WADI DINAR, Libya (AP) — Revolutionary forces battled their way back into a key stronghold of Moammar Gadhafi loyalists on Sunday, seizing control of the northern half of Bani Walid and fighting supporters of the fugitive dictator in the town center, said the fighters and a resident.

...


Resident Khalifa al-Talisi said "the rebels don't control the center yet, but everything from the city center to this (northern) side is liberated."


Around a mile from the town center, a cluster of abandoned houses in the desert showed signs of the fierce fighting there. The charred hulk of a car stood in front of a still-burning home that sent plumes of black smoke into the air.


Single gunshots, which appeared to be from snipers, occasionally echoed across the dusty town, and the thud of mortar fire shook the ground. Big plumes of black smoke could be seen wafting over the rooftops.


"The Gadhafi loyalists are throwing mortars and snipers are shooting at us from the center of the city," said Abdul-Bari al-Mitag, a 23-year-old fighter returning from the front line.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/libyan-fighters-battle-key-loyalist-town-164539383.html

[tabatha]

62. Zimbabwe's dealings with Gaddafi to be reviewed

Sacked Libyan envoy Taher Elmagrahi has convinced the National Transitional Council (NTC) to review all commercial deals between Zimbabwe and Muammar Gaddafi's regime after submitting a dossier on the dodgy deals.

Through his first counsellor, Mohammed Elbarat, the diplomat indicated that millions of dollars' worth of agricultural, mining, petroleum and tourism projects might be annulled, as there was suspicion that they were personal transactions.

"The NTC will investigate whether state funds were not abused by the Gaddafi family for amassing wealth in Zimbabwe," he said.

He added that the interim leadership had been asked to cancel the deals, since President Robert Mugabe's government did not recognise the new administration.

"These deals were not done in good faith and we want the NTC to investigate them because we do not have documentation to follow . on who benefited and for what purpose," Elbarat said.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2011/09/11/zimbabwe-s-dealings-with-gaddafi-to-be-reviewed

[pinboy3niner]

65. Al Jazeera updates on Dorda arrest, Bani Walid fighting

From AJE Live Blog:

Al Jazeera's correspondent Hashem Ahelbarra reports from Tripoli about the latest developments in Libya.

Regarding the arrest of Bouzaid Dorda:

Bouzaid Dorda, describesd as one of the most trusted lieutenants of Gaddafi, has been arrested in the capital. He has been with Gaddafi for very many years.. his arrest will definitely provide the revolutionary forces with a trove of intelligence about the whereabouts of some senior Gaddafi leadership, as well as information about weapons stores.


Regarding Bani Walid:

I spoke to a fighter in Bani Walid who told me that the anti-Gaddafi forces managed to enter five districts in Bani Walid. They are trying to give the anti-Gaddafi forces time to reposition, to wait for reinforcements and then mnake the final push towards taking over the city.


http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-11-2011-2118

[tabatha]

66. Libya beginning of the free platform to the field of freedom of the martyrs visitors

http://youtu.be/RuPQRSNvXss

[pinboy3niner]

67. Libyans poised to take Gaddafi strongholds

Dominique Soguel
September 12, 2011 - 3:59AM

AFP

...


While united at the front lines, political tensions were meanwhile beginning to show between former rebel fighters in a number of regions, including in west Libya where fighting between anti-Gaddafi rival groups left 12 people dead, officials said.

...


Fighters gathered from dawn in the desert in Hisha east of Misrata and began moving towards Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, 360km east of Tripoli.

The fighters from the Misrata brigade were backed by about 200 cars, including pick-up trucks mounted with light artillery, and were armed with Kalashnikov rifles, Grad rockets and anti-aircraft guns.

The former rebel combatants were sweeping villages southwest of Sirte on their way to Gaddafi's Mediterranean stronghold.

In one village, Gidahiya, villagers turned out to flash victory signs at the fighters, who pulled down the green flags of Gaddafi's regime from buildings.
...


http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/libyans-poised-to-take-gaddafi-strongholds-20110912-1k4lj.html

[pinboy3niner]

68. BREAKING, Reuters: Saadi Gaddafi has entered Niger, according to Al-Arabiya TV nt

[pinboy3niner]

69. Al-Jazeera Egypt says hit by broadcasting ban

AFP – 22 mins ago


The satellite channel Al-Jazeera Egypt said on Sunday the authorities had prevented it from broadcasting, after entering its offices and confiscating transmission equipment.


Ahmed Zain, the channel's chief in Cairo, told AFP that police, officers from the culture ministry and representatives of Egypt's public broadcaster had also seized materials and that one technician was arrested.


He said they cited the lack of an official licence to broadcast and a complaint from the neighbourhood. He said a lawyer also presented a complaint accusing the channel of "sowing dissent" and "calling for demonstrations."


Zain said Al-Jazeera Egypt had on March 20 requested official authorisation, and that it had been assured it could continue broadcasting in the interim.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/al-jazeera-egypt-says-hit-broadcasting-ban-185216823.html

[tabatha]

70. Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi has arrived in north Niger

CAIRO | Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:06pm EDT
(Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi has arrived in north Niger, the Arabic television channel Al Arabiya reported citing a Libyan source.

It did not give further details.

A senior Niger official said on Friday that the African nation would respect its commitments to the International Criminal Court if Libya's Muammar Gaddafi or his sons entered.

(Writing by Edmund Blair)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/11/us-libya-niger-son-idUSTRE78A2Y220110911

[pinboy3niner]

71. Niger justice minister says Gaddafi son Saadi in Niger

"He was in a convoy of nine people. They were intercepted heading in the direction of Agadez," Marou Adamou told a news conference, referring to the northern town through which at least two previous convoys of Gaddafi loyalists have entered in the past week.

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KB0YW20110911

[pinboy3niner]

72. Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from Agadez in Niger:

What we have managed to establish speaking to security sources is that there was a convoy that left Libya heading to Niger. There were 8 or 9 vehicles, and this is a 1000 to 2000km journey to Agadez, the town where I am in, and where the convoy is reportedly headed. The vehicles were intercepted by Nigerien authories and it was found that Gaddafi's son Saadi Gaddafi and other senior officials were on board the convoy.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-11-2011-2328

[pinboy3niner]

73. Oil production restarts in Libya - interim PM

TRIPOLI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Libya has started producing oil, the country's interim Prime Minister said, promising more would come online in the "near future."

"We started producing oil yesterday," Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference on Sunday, declining to say where or how much.

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KB0YT20110911

[pinboy3niner]

74. Libya to form new, more inclusive interim government within 7 to 10 days--Jibril

The NTC's Mahmoud Jibril said Libya plans to form a new, more inclusive interim government within 7 to 10 days.

He spoke at a news conference in the capital, also saying that they have received the first installment of frozen Libyan currency and will use that to pay salaries.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-11-2011-2335

[pinboy3niner]

75. Divisions emerge between NTC, military council

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reported on Jibril’s speech from the Libyan capital:

The decision to bring all the military councils under the authority of the NTC and Mustafa Abdel Jalil is quite significant and a turning point but it is already backfiring.

You have two kinds of leadership, the political leadership, which is represented by the chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil and the prime minister of the interim government Mahmoud Jibril. You have the military leadership represented by two extremely powerful guys, Hakim bi Haj, who is the military commander of Tripoli and Ismail al-Salaabi from Benghazi, both of them are considered Islamists.The NTC is considered liberal.

The military council rejects the idea of joining the NTC and they are considering this move an attack to hijack their revolution and rain on their authority. They say they are the ones who have been fighting colonel Gaddafi for 6 months, and they are the ones who should represent the wish of the Libyan people.

Sources from the military council told Al Jazeera that they reject the move and they will now ask for Mahmoud Jibril to quit. This is quite significant, it shows that differences and divisions are beginning to emerge.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-11-2011-2320

[tabatha]

76. We support the authority and the law.

Misrata Commander, Salim Juha address NTC Chief, Mustata Abdel Jalil during his visit to Misrata
by FreedomGroup, News in English on Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 12:15pm
Salim Juha in Misrata, to all the Libyans on national reconciliation in the presence of Mustafa Abdul Jalil.

We support the authority and the law. We want to see our country as it was when we were born, and the Libya of our dream.

Chants: We will be martyrs, martyrs. For Libya, for Libya.

We salute our boys who rose up against Gaddafi and said no to him. We would like to show all Libyans that these youth have no political agenda. They're not looking for seats in parliament. We need a democratic country, and we are not looking for political or economic gains. And God bless Mr. Abdel Jalil for saying we did this and that. But we killed for God (holy war).

We don't understand politics. Politicians shouldn't take advantage of the youth of February 17. We want Libya united. We want qualified people in the right place, not because of their loyalties to someone in influence. We say no to tribes and no to hypocrites. We want freedom. And we want a good education for our children. We don't leaders who go left or right (politically) because we are Muslims. We want Libya as a friendly country. We fought not for the money or position; we fought for God.

I'd like to tell you that from the beginning, that we had youth from the Sewhli
I told them that if I die, "You have to continue because we sure we are going to win."

I have a few remarks about Abdel Jalil's speech. First, reconciliation with who? We don't have a problem with anyone. Like Bani Walid has to be liberated by their own people, but we have to provide them with supplies and medicine. All of us we are Libyans, we are brothers. When we entered Zliten, we didnt' take any revenge (Zliten was shelling Misrata)

Anybody who touched a hair on the head of any touching our girls or our women, we are not going to sleep until we bring him to justice. I swear to God, even if he goes to Nicaragua or is Libya or any where else. There are a few things for which there is no reconciliation and no forgivingness.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=159384540812932

[pinboy3niner]

86. NTC faces disagreement between political and military leadership - video report

Revolutionary forces have been asked to answer to Mahmoud Jibril, who will head the interim government to be announced next week.

Libya's National Transitional Council faces disagreement between the NTC's political and military leadership.

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reports from Tripoli (2:31):

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-12-2011-0600

[joshcryer]

78. Secret Bid to Arm Qaddafi Sheds Light on Tensions in China Government

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/world/asia/12china.html">Secret Bid to Arm Qaddafi Sheds Light on Tensions in China Government
At a United Nations conference in Indonesia this summer, an official of the agency that oversees China’s weapons industry ticked off the hurdles that any proposal to sell Chinese weapons abroad must clear. Among them: arms sales must not alter another nation’s internal security. They must not violate United Nations arms embargoes. And they must win government approval.

“If you want to export a product, you should get permission,” said the official, Wang Feng. “You want to talk to some other country, you ship to the country, you should get permission.”

That was on June 11, or roughly a month before three of China’s biggest state-owned arms companies secretly offered to sell Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s army $200 million in weapons to put down the rebellion. The offer, discovered by a Canadian journalist in documents tossed into a Tripoli trash heap, flouted a United Nations embargo on weapons sales to the Qaddafi government — an embargo that China itself had voted for in February.

The government, at Foreign Ministry briefings last week, has said that it gave no permission for the deals to proceed.

[joshcryer]

79. Libyan rebels accuse pro-Gadhafi forces of holding 'human shields'

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/11/2402000/libyan-rebels-accuse-pro-gadhafi.html">Libyan rebels accuse pro-Gadhafi forces of holding 'human shields'
BENGHAZI, Libya -- Libyan rebels have broken off their assault on a key city south of Tripoli after discovering that forces loyal to ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi there had placed Russian-made Grad rockets and mortars on the roofs of houses filled with civilians, the rebels' military spokesman said Sunday.

Col. Ahmed Omar Bani said the decision to halt the rebel offensive on Bani Walid, where Gadhafi's son Saif al Islam is believed to be hiding, made it unlikely the rebels would have full control of the country before the end of September.

The decision to retreat from Bani Walid came as news agencies reported that another of Gadhafi's sons, Saadi, had arrived in Niger, Libya's neighbor to the south.

The decision to retreat from Bani Walid also upset the timetable for taking control of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, and Sabha, a loyalist-held city deep in Libya's southern desert. Abdul Hafez Ghoga, the civilian spokesman for the council, had predicted that Bani Walid would fall this past weekend and Sirte by the end of this week.

[demoblemocratic]

80. when can we leave?

and by us i mean nato, as we (the us) are the majority of nato from a financial, human, and resource standpoint.

[joshcryer]

81. I believe end of Sept. is when NATO convenes again to decide on what to do.

The revolutionaries need to get the last three bastions in their control and they're not really pushing it too hard since they want to minimize the bloodshed. It's all over but the writing for Gaddafi and his goons. The quick fall of Tripoli shows irrevocably that Gaddafi never had popular support as he and his propagandists (and those misled by those propagandists) wanted one to believe.

On one hand you might want to see the revolutionaries wrap things up to end it before NATO convenes, on the other you might want them to keep at the pace of minimizing bloodshed and trying to negotiate.

[pinboy3niner]

82. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 207: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 3:46 AM MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

Libya time = EDT +6 hours, PDT +9 hours, UTC +1 hour, GMT +2 hours










Inside one of Gaddafi's torture cells
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030931/Libya-Inside-Gaddafis-torture-

chamber-The-bloodstained-cells-inside-primary-school-used-brutalise-enemies.html

[pinboy3niner]

83. Libyan Opposition Advances on Sirte

Source: Bloomberg

By Christopher Stephen and Mariam Fam - Sep 11, 2011 6:27 PM PT


Libyan opposition forces pushed toward Sirte, Muammar Qaddafi’s birthplace and the last coastal town controlled by his supporters. A son of the deposed leader fled to Niger.


Opposition units had switched their focus from positions around another loyalist town, Bani Walid, in the early hours of the morning to achieve surprise, rebel intelligence officer Noraldien Elmaiel said yesterday.

...


The rebels pushed through the front line west of Sirte and were 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the town yesterday.

...


“They used the time that we gave them as a deadline to begin to reinforce,” Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for the council, said in a phone interview yesterday from Tripoli. “The Qaddafi battalions took the opportunity to dig in, which means we need a greater force to dislodge them. We want to stem the bloodshed and reduce the casualties, but it’s a double-edged sword. If you don’t give them the opportunity, they say you’re bloodthirsty.”

...


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-11/libyan-opposition-advances-on-sirte-after-halting-assault-on-bani-walid.html

[pinboy3niner]

84. The town of Al Shwayrif, between Tripoli and Sebha has been liberated #Libya

@ShababLibya

AJA The town of Al Shwayrif, between Tripoli and Sebha has been liberated #Libya

9:21PM GMT Sep 11, 2011

Bloomberg also reported that the towns of Zem Zem and Wadi Bay were liberated as Free Libya forces advanced against heavy resistance to take new positions closer to Sirte.

[pinboy3niner]

85. Libya holdout towns in focus, Gaddafi son flees

(WRAPUP 1)

Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:36am GMT

By Maria Golovnina and William Maclean


NORTH OF BANI WALID/TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept 12 (Reuters) - - Libya's new rulers said they were holding back an assault on one of the last bastions loyal to Muammar Gaddafi but were edging towards the ousted ruler's birthplace of Sirte.


...


They said on Sunday they were meeting stiff resistance in Bani Walid, but were edging towards Sirte, which sits on the main east-west coastal highway, effectively cutting Libya in two.


Advancing NTC troops said the front line was about 90 km east of Sirte. Fighters were firing tanks and howitzers amid the sound of heavy machinegun fire and the roar of NATO warplanes overhead.

...


NTC spokesman Ahmed Bani told reporters the plan for Bani Walid for now was to wait.


"When our forces entered Bani Walid they found the brigades of Gaddafi using citizens as shields," he told reporters. He said Gaddafi fighters had put missile launchers on the roofs of houses with civilian families inside, making it impossible for NTC forces or their allied NATO war planes to strike.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KC00920110912?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

87. EXCLUSIVE-At bay, captured Libyan spy chief defiant

Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:58pm GMT

By William Maclean


TRIPOLI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Defiant and angry, captured Libyan spy chief Bouzaid Dorda denied any wrongdoing when he was presented to Reuters reporters on Sunday by the former insurgents who tracked him down in the capital Tripoli the previous day.


The latest high-profile insider of Muammar Gaddafi's rule to be arrested, Bouzaid Dorda proved unapologetic about his role as head of the External Security Organisation (ESO) and suggested he was not ready to criticise the ousted autocrat just to please Libya's new rulers.

...


As half a dozen men cradling assault rifles and wearing battle fatigues looked on, another fighter reminded him that he had served in several senior jobs for the ousted leader.


His voice echoing around the ground floor of the private house where he was being held, Dorda shouted: "I did not deny assuming any official post. Did I deny it? Did I deny it? Did I deny it? I was carrying out my duties."

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KB10420110911?sp=true

[tabatha]

88. Libya starts production, says PM

Libya has started producing oil again, the country's interim prime minister said on Sunday, promising that more of it would come online in the "near future".
News wires 12 September 2011 02:27 GMT

"We started producing oil yesterday," Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in Tripoli. He declined to say where or how much, Reuters reported.

Libya holds Africa's largest crude oil reserves and sold about 85% of its exports to Europe before the uprising which toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

Jibril said oil production, which dried up during the six-month civil war as security deteriorated, would restart in the west of the country soon.

Western oil companies including Italy's Eni and Austria's OMV are eager to get their production back online after the war cut off supplies.

In a sign the National Transitional Council (NTC) is also trying to soothe fledgling regional rivalries, Jibril said Libya would form a new, more inclusive, interim government within the next seven to 10 days.

"The new transitional government will be formed from members from all regions of Libya including those that are under siege and have not yet been liberated," he said.

"Consultations will continue to take place in the upcoming days and within a week or ten days a new transitional government will be formed."

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article277576.ece

[pinboy3niner]

89. Tribal friction cripples advance on Gaddafi bastion

Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:43pm GMT

By Maria Golovnina


NORTH OF BANI WALID, Libya, Sept 12 (Reuters) - - Secret informants and tribal frictions have stalled efforts by Libyan interim government troops to establish control over one of Muammar Gaddafi's last remaining bastions of resistance.

At Bani Walid, a besieged city still loyal to the deposed leader, anti-Gaddafi fighters said traitors among their ranks were passing information to Gaddafi loyalists inside the city, making progress difficult on one of the last frontlines of Libya's 7-month-long war.

The interim government has sent additional brigades to Bani Walid -- home to Libya's biggest tribe, the Warfalla -- to help take the stubborn city. But some fighters on the ground said the move had only added tension to existing tribal sensitivities.

"Locals don't listen to NTC (interim government) commanders," said one fighter, Esam Herebish. "They do what they like. They want to be seen as the city's liberators."

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KB11X20110911?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

91. "Chaos" in Bani Walid as rebels assault loyalist stronghold

Source: Global Post

Can Libya's rebels work together in a remaining Gaddafi stronghold?

James Foley
September 11, 2011 22:06


BANI WALID, Libya — The assault on Bani Walid has turned into a chaotic free-for-all with little coordination between revolutionary groups trying to take control of the town, one of the last remaining bastions of Col. Muammar Gaddafi.

“One word — chaos," said Abdel Monem, 28, of Zawiya, on the second day of heaving fighting on the outskirts of the tribal town where loyalists and Gaddafi family members are rumored to be hemmed in.

"There is no organization, there is no commander," he added.

...


Monem said 10 revolutionaries died Sunday and 15 were injured, with most being hit from well-concealed or elevated positions. The fighting on Sunday marked a shift from Saturday, when revolutionaries said they had been able to spot loyalist positions.

...


“There’s no clear target,” Monem said. “There’s no close snipers. They’re not shooting us with Kalashnikovs. The distance (they’re shooting from) is about a kilometer and a half, maybe two. With my gun (AK-47) I cannot shoot them. I did not fire one shot today because there is no clear target.”

...


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/110911/libya-rebels-bani-walid-muammar-gaddafi

[tabatha]

90. Checkpoint Challenge

There’s the ‘drive-through’, which boasts the most generous and warm of Libyan welcomes. Despite limited supplies of food, water and electricity the locals appear by the side of our minibus thrusting through the windows plates of watermelon, freshly fried up flatbreads and chilled bottles of water. There follows an exchange of broken English on their part and very broken Arabic on ours, a few handshakes, smiles, Allah u Akbars and we’re waved on our way.

Then there are the ‘jobsworth’ checkpoints; where a local commander has moved on from the euphoria of a ‘new and free Libya’ and discovered bureaucracy. We usually roll up to one of these at midnight after a long day and an already very short nights’ sleep in the offing, or when we’re against the clock on a story deadline. The checkpoint chief will refuse point blank to allow us to pass through, leaving us stranded at the side of the road. That is until a frantic call to one of our senior rebel contacts opens the road to us with apologies from the over-zealous commanders.

And there are the ‘road rage’ checkpoints, where the stifling heat causes tempers to flare. As we’re standing minding our own business, waiting to be ushered on our way, a scrap will break out between two rebels, two motorists, or one of each. This wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t all armed and far too eager to cock weapons and wave them around in every direction including ours. Not to mention when others add to the confusion by firing in the air escalating the argument further.

But the most noticeable change on all these checkpoints compared to when I was here last is that people are actually talking to us – even if it is to tell us we don’t have the right paperwork – rather than keeping their distance, with one eye on us and the other on our Gaddafi minders.

http://news.webtomorrow.info/libya-checkpoint-challenge/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

[tabatha]

92. A visit to the desert warehouse of Death (Chemical Weapons)

Abu Shwesha base lies in the desert, south of the town of al-Ajelat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD8V_yBWw08

[pinboy3niner]

93. Tension rises between rebel and civilian leaders in Libya

The dispute over a plan to bring rebel fighters under civilian authority involves Mahmoud Jibril, who serves as a kind of interim prime minister, and rebel commander Abdel-Hakim Belhaj.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

September 12, 2011


Reporting from Tripoli, Libya—

A plan approved Sunday by Libya's transitional leadership team to bring rebel fighters under civilian authority has stoked tension between the new civilian leadership and the rebel commander whose troops patrol the city.


The dispute involves two of post-revolutionary Libya's best-known figures — Mahmoud Jibril, who serves as a kind of interim prime minister, and Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, Tripoli's top rebel military leader. Their differing backgrounds give some hint of the diversity of leadership in the new Libya.


Jibril is a U.S.-educated technocrat who spent the civil war in the relative safety of the eastern city of Benghazi. Belhaj is a front-line commander and former mujahedin in Afghanistan who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA and turned over to the forces of Moammar Kadafi, who jailed him for six years.

...


Some rebel fighters have grumbled that their voices are not being heard while a group of civilians who mostly sat out the war seeks to fulfill its task of creating a government. The civilian leadership has vowed to help integrate the fighters into the new Libya. How the nation will be disarmed looms as a major challenge.

...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-fighting-20110912,0,2472090.story

[tabatha]

94. New curriculum for Libya

By DOMINQUE SOGUEL (email the author)

Posted Sunday, September 11 2011 at 00:00

Tripoli, libya. Schools in the Libyan capital are gearing up for a very different kind of academic year—replacing repeated oaths of allegiance to fugitive leader of the Jamahiriya Muammar Gaddafi, with lessons in democracy.

“We feel so happy because we are free,” said Rafa al-Sharif, 15, wrapped in the flag of Libya’s former monarchy, which was adopted by anti-Gaddafi forces as their banner.

Sharif said she is eager to learn about King Idris, who ruled Libya from the time it was first united in 1951 until he was overthrown by Gaddafi in 1969, “because he was so kind. He wasn’t like Gaddafi. Gaddafi is a criminal.”

With classes due to resume on September 17, the interim ministry of education is rushing to modify curriculums to reflect the new political reality of “Free Libya” after six months of war. “It is necessary to change the school programme because the previous one kept Libyans ignorant in support of the regime,” said fighter and father Jamal Ban Issa.

Kamila Ali al-Mshawat, the director of a middle school that some of Gaddafi’s children attended, is ready to set a new tone in her classrooms. “Gaddafi wanted people to remain ignorant and allowed no dialogue. We had to present him as a god. Everything was focused on the Green Book and Gaddafi,” the headmistress of Hayder al-Saati school told AFP news agency.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/-/688340/1233800/-/11hynpn/-/index.html

[pinboy3niner]

95. Stubborn Kadafi rejected reforms as regime fell, insider says

In the last months of Kadafi's rule, some loyalists secretly worked on transition plans, but the Libyan leader and one of his sons refused to cede power, ex-Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim says.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

September 12, 2011


Reporting from Tripoli, Libya—

As Moammar Kadafi's four decades in power spiraled to an end, loyalists who feared a ruinous finale secretly pushed for last-minute reforms that included Kadafi relinquishing power, withdrawing troops from contested cities and cutting a deal with rebel leaders.


But any serious effort to compromise ran head-on into Kadafi's stubbornness, his apparent failure to recognize the imminent peril and the desire of his son, Seif Islam, to inherit his father's position, according to one prominent insider.


"It was greed of power, I think," said Khaled Kaim, Libya's former deputy foreign minister, who provided an account of the last weeks of Kadafi's rule in an interview at a rebel military barracks. "By July, he (Kadafi) started believing only himself.... He became paranoid."

...


It was a chance for him (Kadafi) personally to side with his people after 42 years in control of the country, directly or indirectly," Kaim said. "But I think the issue of succession was behind their being stubborn in dealing with people's aspirations."


Specifically, Kaim said Seif Islam was determined to succeed his father — and saw that opportunity slipping should the regime's grip be loosened. "He was blocking peace," Kaim said of Seif Islam. "He wanted power."

...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-last-days-20110912,0,6791696.story

[Amonester]

97. And they were hiding a lot of 'skeletons' for decades...

to the rest of the world (but not for the many Libyans who 'knew').

Not surprised. They now have some 'splainin' to do, in The Hague, for one...

[tabatha]

96. Lisa Holland, foreign affairs correspondent, in Libya If Colonel Gaddafi had a suicide plan for Trip

Lisa Holland, foreign affairs correspondent, in Libya

If Colonel Gaddafi had a suicide plan for Tripoli, anti-Gaddafi troops believe they have uncovered evidence to show it may not have been an empty threat.

They peel back the wrapping on their astonishing find - four radar-guided cruise missiles abandoned by Gaddafi’s army.
Each can be armed in just five minutes and loaded with high explosives.

The soldiers take us further down the track to show us the launcher - it is pointing towards the city centre.

Anti-Gaddafi forces are at the controls now but two months ago, a Russian envoy warned he had information that Gaddafi planned to blow up Tripoli with missiles if it fell to his enemies.

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16067425

[pinboy3niner]

98. Tuareg community in Niger will not protect Gaddafi or his family

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from Agadez, where she backtracks Saadi Gaddafi's possible movements. The local Tuareg community says while they appreciate's Gaddafi role as broker in peace deals that ended thei deadly rebellion against the Nigerien government, they will not protect Gaddafi nor his family.

Video report (1:37):
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-12-2011-1020

[pinboy3niner]

99. Anita McNaught on fighters' push for Bani Walid

A pro-Gaddafi radio station in Bani Walid is urging residents to rise up against the revolutionaries, promising "the prettiest girls" in town as a reward.

Al Jazeera correspondent Anita McNaught gives the latest update from the outskirts of Bani Walid, on the revolutionaries' battle for one of the last remaining Gaddafi strongholds (1:12):

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-12-2011-1040

[pinboy3niner]

100. Al Jazeera is reporting that Algeria has recognized Libya's NTC nt

[pinboy3niner]

101. In Tripoli's museum of antiquity only Gaddafi is lost in revolution

Libyan antiquities museum escaped ravages of revolution, but former dictator becomes an artifact of modern history



Giant statues from the Roman empire era, hewn from marble 2,000 years ago,
at Libya's National Museum in Tripoli. These important artifacts remained
untouched, unvandalised and unlooted during the revolution.
Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian


David Smith in Tripoli guardian.co.uk, Sunday 11 September 2011 19.05 BST


Hewn from marble 2,000 years ago, the giant statues of the Roman emperors Augustus, Claudius and Tiberius command the floor at Libya's National Museum. But they have to settle for ground level. Muammar Gaddafi reserved the top floor for himself.


Gaddafi opened the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli 23 years ago on Sunday. And he made sure visitors were left in no doubt that the flowering of Roman, Byzantine and Islamic cultures were mere historical footnotes to his own ascent as "king of kings".


Brushing aside curators' preference for classical antiquity, Libya's leader gave pride of place in the first gallery to the Volkswagen Beetle he drove in the sixties and the open-top Jeep that swept him to power in 1969. Both have been vandalised and their future is uncertain in a post-Gaddafi Libya, where his ubiquitous image has been furiously purged from everything but banknotes.

...


"The rebels asked staff to remove all the things belonging to Gaddafi," Shakshuki said. "We were happy to do it because this museum is for classical antiquity. The objects of Gaddafi were forced upon us. He wanted to take advantage of the classical things, which were the main attraction for tourists, so they would pass and see his objects and activities. Now we will keep them in storage. There are specialists in modern history who will take these on later."

...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/sep/11/tripoli-museum-antiquity-shattered-gaddafi-image

[pinboy3niner]

102. Bani Walid: NTC fighters said to be preparing big push. #Libya

Al Jazeera's David Poort tweets the latest from his location near Bani Walid, a key Gaddafi stronghold located approximately 150km west of Tripoli.

DavidPoort

Bani Walid residents fleeing fresh clashes in the city as NATO jets circle the area. NTC fighters said to be preparing big push. #Libya

Mon Sep 12 08:27:08

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-12-2011-1056

[pinboy3niner]

103. Pro-Gaddafi forces put up stiff resistance

(WRAPUP 2)

Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:50am GMT

By Maria Golovnina and William Maclean

NORTH OF BANI WALID/TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept 12 (Reuters) -

...


Families trapped inside Bani Walid for weeks fled the besieged town on Monday after Gaddafi forces abandoned some checkpoints on the edge of the city. Dozens of cars packed with civilians streamed out of the area.

Residents described scenes of intense street-to-street fighting, saying that Gaddafi forces were shelling residential areas to stop NTC fighters from advancing.

One man driving out of Bani Walid in a car packed with women and children said they were fleeing fierce fighting in the town.

"We are leaving because of the rockets. They are falling near civilian homes," Ali Hussain said.

...


"When we entered Bani Walid, Gaddafi forces started firing rockets in residential areas, targeting our fighters," (an NTC commander, Mohamed el-Fassi) said, adding that some had advanced into the town without orders to do so, contributing to their lack of progress on the front line.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KC00920110912?sp=true

[Distant Observer]

104. Sadly, more evidence keeps leeking on the brutal "anti-african" nature of this rebellion.

BBC just reported finding mass graves of black Africans, apparently killed in groups by rebel soldiers, showing up everywhere.

With tens of thousands of black Africans fleeing across the borders in fear, I guess Libya's famed "open-borders" pan-Africanism is over.

A pattern of violence against blacks seems to be now prevelent:

------

http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/libyan-rebels-imprisoning-blacks/

Massacre, torture and abuse of innocents destroys NATO’s “humanitarian” legitimacy

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Libyan Rebels Round Up Blacks, Put Them In Prison Camps 020911top1a

NATO-backed Libyan rebels are rounding up thousands of innocent black migrants and taking them to prison camps as part of mass reprisals that include reports of indiscriminate killings, mistreatment and torture, as the “humanitarian” veneer of the west’s military intervention quickly crumbles.

Migrant blacks and sub-Saharan Africans comprise one third of the entire Libyan population, and a minority were hired by Gaddafi as mercenary fighters, but rebels are treating them all as enemy combatants, with reports of abuse, murders and mass arrests increasing in volume.

“Rebel forces and armed civilians are rounding up thousands of black Libyans and migrants from sub-Sahara Africa, accusing them of fighting for ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi and holding them in makeshift jails across the capital,” reports the Associated Press.

The AP story notes that virtually all of the victims are innocent migrant workers and have not fought for Gaddafi, but rebels are still rounding them up and interning them in sports stadiums and other prison camps simply on the basis of their skin color.

Read more: http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/libyan-rebels-imprisoning-blacks/#ixzz1XjJmCarF

[al bupp]

106. Warning: darkgovernment.com contains malware

According to http://www.avast.com/en-us/index">Avast the site has a PHP script considered to have a high severity of infection.

[Iterate]

107. Another defamation of the Libyan people; otherwise Alex Jones agrees

I thought you were in Tripoli handing out my election flyers?

Alex Jones has cornered the bipartisan paranoia market
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=109&topic_id=40037&mesg_id=40037

Maybe that's not fair to Alex Jones though, if that's possible, because the actual article is from an Alex Jones co-host and prisonplanet, a site not well regarded, shall we say, on DU.

In other news:
wbend Ben Dalton
What appears to be an old mass grave exposed in #Libya: photos on.fb.me/qXR5MG 6 hours ago

4libya Jeanie Abdullah
Horrifying! RT @IbnOmar2005: on.fb.me/nPyfjk photos from a mass grave discovered in #Tajoura, a suburb of #Tripoli #Libya 6 hours ago

AFreeHuman _McClane_
RT @Libya_Now: RT @LibyaInMe Another mass grave has been discovered in Dafiniyah, Zliten #Libya #Gaddaficrimes 11 hours ago

FELDart Frank
RT @FromJoanne: #TRIPOLI New #mass grave found on 11June Highway with 20 Bodies Via #BBCRadio4 #Libya 14 hours ago

Sorry about quoting tweets, but these are from the last few hours and there hasn't been time for a proper investigation.

[al bupp]

110. This is what the BBC actually said about these "mass" graves

11 September 2011 Last updated at 17:43 ET

The bodies of as many as 20 people have been found in two roadside graves on the eastern outskirts of Tripoli.

People from the area say the remains are those of African mercenaries who had been fighting for Colonel Gaddafi.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14875538

[tabatha]

122. Where is the link to the BBC report?

I guess you cannot provide it.

[pinboy3niner]

105. BREAKING: Gaddafi forces attack refinery, kill 15 - witnesses

From AJE Live Blog:

Reuters news agency is reporting that pro-Gaddafi forces have attacked an oil refinery near Ras Lanuf, a coastal town located approximately 200km east of Sirte - Muammar Gaddafi's hometown.

The refinery was 20km away from the residential area of Ras Lanuf and it is unclear whether the attack was an operational hit, the report said.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-12-2011-1225

[pinboy3niner]

108. Al Jazeera reports 15 dead, 5 severely wounded in attack on Ras Lanuf refinery

Hoda Abdel Hamid reported live from the hospital at Ras Lanuf that the attack occurred in the early morning hours when a column of vehicles came from the South, out of the desert, with a force of unknown size that opened fire on guards at the refinery's gate.

Hamid noted that although the front line is 80 km to the West, toward Sirte, Gaddafi forces were able to attack the refinery by coming out of the desert.

[Distant Observer]

109. Where in story does it say "kill 15" or report "witnesses." Is this just confusing propaganda?

Is the message "GADDAFI BAD -- ATTACKS OUR OIL" ??? AT OUTSIDE HIS HOME TOWN AT THAT!

[pinboy3niner]

111. Here, in the referenced Reuters report:

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KC18O20110912

[pinboy3niner]

113. UPDATE 1-Gaddafi forces attack refinery, kill 15 - witnesses

Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:23am GMT


RAS LANUF, Libya, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi attacked the front gate of an oil refinery near the Libyan coastal town of Ras Lanuf on Monday, killing 15 guards and injuring two, witnesses said.

"About 14 to 15 trucks came in from the direction of (Gaddafi-held) Sirte towards Ras Lanuf," said refinery worker Ramadan Abdel Qader, who was shot in the foot during the assault.

"We heard firing and shelling at around 9 in the morning from Gaddafi loyalists," he told Reuters.

Qader said he and his colleagues had been sleeping when the pro-Gaddafi forces attacked the refinery.

...


A Reuters reporter saw the dead bodies of 15 men with gunshot wounds at a Ras Lanuf hospital where the injured were being treated. Blood covered the floor.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KC1C420110912

[pinboy3niner]

112. Libyan civilians flee key Gadhafi stronghold

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI - Associated Press | AP – 25 mins ago


WADI DINAR, Libya (AP) — Dozens of cars loaded with Libyan families and personal belongings are streaming out of the key loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid in anticipation of an assault on the town by revolutionary forces.

...


Resident Fadila Salim was driving out of Bani Walid Monday because she was told "the fighting will be very bad."

Her son, Mohammed Ibrahim, says there is no electricity, no water and shops are running out of food. He says many are "stuck in their houses and afraid to leave."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/libyan-civilians-flee-key-gadhafi-stronghold-100417664.html

[pinboy3niner]

114. Libya commander says 10 Gaddafi loyalists killed in oil port attacks

AP – 10 mins ago


TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A commander for revolutionary forces in Libya says at least 10 suspected Moammar Gadhafi loyalists have been killed after twin attacks on a key oil refinery.

The incidents suggest pro-Gadhafi groups are still capable of fighting back despite losing control of nearly all the country to opposition fighters.

Col. Hamid al-Hasi, the commander for anti-Gadhafi force in eastern Libya, says a group of 15 employees set fire Monday to the coastal oil facility at Ras Lanuf, about 380 miles (615 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. He says five of the saboteurs were killed and the rest arrested.

In a separate attack, the port came under attack by armed men in four vehicles. Al-Hasi says at least five of the attackers were killed.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/libya-commander-says-10-killed-oil-port-attacks-103225833.html

[pinboy3niner]

119. AP UPDATE: At least 15 attackers killed, as many as 40 vehicles in convoy

By RYAN LUCAS - Associated Press | AP – 8 mins ago


TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Suspected Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists staged twin attacks on a key oil refinery Monday in possibly coordinated strikes that suggest revolutionary forces still face resistance in areas under their control. At least 15 attackers were killed, an anti-Gadhafi commander said.


The back-to-back assaults in the coastal oil facility at Ras Lanuf — saboteurs setting fires and then a convoy of gunmen riding in from the desert — was a reminder that opposition forces have potential security challenges across Libya despite pushing out Gadhafi's regime from all but a few strongholds.


Col. Hamid al-Hasi, the commander for anti-Gadhafi force in eastern Libya, said a group of 15 employees set fire to the facility, located about 380 miles (615 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. He said five of the saboteurs were killed and the rest arrested.


In a separate attack, the port was targeted by a convoy of armed men apparently based in a refugee camp about 18 miles (30 kilometers) south of Ras Lanuf. One revolutionary commander, Fadl-Allah Haroun, said a total of 15 people were killed in both attacks.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/libya-commander-says-15-killed-oil-port-attacks-114320161.html

[pinboy3niner]

115. At least 2,600 killed in Syria protests - U.N.

Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:53am GMT


By Robert Evans

GENEVA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - At least 2,600 people have been killed in Syria since pro-democracy protests broke out in March and President Bashar al-Assad sent in troops to crush the unrest, the United Nations said on Monday.

The death toll, 400 higher than earlier U.N. estimates, was based on "reliable sources on the ground," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who released the data.

The figures were almost twice the size of the Syrian government's estimate.

...


"With regard to Syria, let me note that, according to reliable sources on the ground, the number of those killed since the onset of the unrest in mid-March 2011 in that country, has now reached at least 2,600," Pillay told the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KC1HH20110912?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

116. Egypt VP meets opposition, offers new concessions

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press | AP – Sun, Feb 6, 2011


Egypt's vice president reached out to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups Sunday as part of a new offer of sweeping concessions including press freedom and an eventual end to hated emergency laws that have been in place for decades, the latest attempt to try to calm an anti-government upheaval.


But the youthful protesters filling Cairo's main square said they were not represented and were united in rejecting any form of negotiations until President Hosni Mubarak steps down, raising questions about whether a rift might be developing that could undermine their campaign.


The protesters, skeptical the government will keep any promises to reform, said they will maintain their pressure.


Egypt's opposition has long been hampered by a lack of cohesiveness and Sunday's talks could be a sign the government is trying to divide and conquer as it tries to placate protesters without giving in to their chief demand for Mubarak to go now.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/us-noncommittal-muslim-group-joining-talks-20110206-085045-931.html

[pinboy3niner]

117. Oil Tanker Sails to Libya as Nation Seeks to Resume Exports

Source: Bloomberg

September 12, 2011, 7:09 AM EDT

By Alaric Nightingale and Michelle Wiese Bockmann


Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- An oil tanker is sailing to the Libyan port of Mellitah, a sign the nation may be resuming energy exports after months of fighting that led to the ouster of Muammar Qaddafi, ship-tracking data show.


The Newlead Avra, capable of hauling about 540,000 barrels, signaled earlier today about 30 miles from the Libyan coast, the data compiled by Bloomberg show. The 229-meter (750-foot) vessel is 7.9 meters deep in the water, compared with a maximum draft of 14.45 meters when fully loaded. It can carry crude or refined-oil products, according to Bureau Veritas Group, which monitors ships’ compliance with laws on seaworthiness.

...


An 80,000 metric-ton cargo of crude was being offered for shipment from Mellitah last week, three people with direct knowledge of the transaction said Sept. 8. The loading is likely the first from the nation’s west since March, said Thomas Zwick, an Oslo-based analyst at Lorentzen & Stemoco AS, a consultant to the shipping industry.

...


Operations resumed about two weeks ago at the 120,000 barrel-a-day Zawiyah refinery near the Libyan capital of Tripoli, El-Gamaty said. The plant is processing 30,000 barrels a day and will reach full capacity in six to eight weeks, he said. The crude-export facility in the eastern port city of Tobruk is undamaged, he said.

...


http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-12/oil-tanker-sails-to-libya-as-nation-seeks-to-resume-exports.html

[pinboy3niner]

118. Eni aims to restart Libyan gas exports soon - CEO

(Reuters UPDATE 1) (Ed. to substitute updated story with more details)

Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:02pm GMT


By Alexander Dziadosz

TRIPOLI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Italian oil group Eni is aiming to restart gas exports from Libya to Italy through its Greenstream pipeline by October or November, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday.

"The first thing we want to do is to restart immediately the export of gas from Libya to Italy through the Greenstream, the pipeline which links Libya to Sicily," Paolo Scaroni told Reuters during a visit to Libyan capital Tripoli.

Asked when exports might resume, he said: "It's not easy to give an estimate because we have not yet visited all the sites that are producing gas but we would love to do it before the winter, so say October-November sometime."

Libya provides about 12 percent of Italy's gas needs. One worry is that if supplies from Algeria and Russia are in any way interrupted, imports into Italy in the winter months could be tight.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KC1SL20110912?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

120. Exclusive: Scenes of clashes in Bani Walid

Correspodent Sue Turton reports from the outskirts of Bani Walid where Al Jazeera has exclusively obtained footage of revolutionary fighters battling to take over key holdout towns from pro-Gaddafi forces (1:25):

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-12-2011-1431

[joshcryer]

121. Week 30 part 2 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1923083