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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Momar's Last Day: A Liberatingly Libyan Open Thread

The ranting lunatic who yesterday threatened to (effectively) execute the entire population of his country is today drawing his last set of breaths in power, and perhaps at all.

Consider this a Final Farewell Open Thread.

Al Jazeera has reporters inside Libya verifying the fact that the east of the country is no longer under control of the madman with the green book, and that the west is quickly falling away as well.

Gaddafi loses more Libyan cities

Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s long-standing ruler, has reportedly lost control of more cities as anti-government protests continue to sweep the African nation despite his threat of a brutal crackdown.

Protesters in Misurata said on Wednesday they had wrested the western city from government control. In a statement on the internet, army officers stationed in the city pledged “total support for the protesters”.

The protesters also seemed to be in control of much of the country’s east, and an Al Jazeera correspondent, reporting from the city of Tobruk, 140km from the Egyptian border, said there was no presence of security forces.

“From what I’ve seen, I’d say the people of eastern Libya are the ones in control,” Hoda Abdel-Hamid, our correspondent, said.

She said there were no officials manning the border when the Al Jazeera team crossed into Libya.

Buh-bye.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 186 Comments

186 comments

  1. HappyinVT

    But I have a feeling he’s not done just yet.

    Reading Al Jazeera’s live blog ~ that family is in serious denial or simply talking a good game while they find refuge.

  4. Shaun Appleby


    @bencnn As first western TV crew to make it to Benghazi we were greeted like liberators, pelted with candy, cheers and thanks. Very humbling. #Libya

    It’s like Operation Compass all over again.

  6. Shaun Appleby

    Was kinda’ anticipating this, but still…


    A 60-year old French doctor working in Benghazi estimated the death toll to be over 2000. He says that out ambulances counted 75 bodies the first day, 200 on the second and more than 500 on the third day.

    “From Tobruk to Darna, they carried out a real massacre… In total, I think there are more than 2,000 deaths,” he said.

    Libye: “C’était un carnage absolu” Le Point 23 Feb 11

    That’s exactly what the tweets have been suggesting for many days.

  7. HappyinVT

    U.S. officials said there was a fear inside the administration that some of those Americans could have been taken hostage by Gadhafi, who once again made his distaste for America clear in rambling public remarks earlier this week and would relish the chance to escalate the crisis and drag U.S. citizens into the crossfire.

    It’s no accident that aides say Obama planned his first on-camera comments, just as a chartered ferry was expected to evacuate more than 500 Americans from Tripoli to nearby Malta.

    Asked by CNN if Obama was being more cautious in his public comments because of the Americans in harm’s way, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged it was an “important factor” in the calculations.

    http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITI…

  8. HappyinVT

    An Air Malta flight to Tripoli was cancelled this evening because of operational reasons, an airline spokesman said.

    Informed sources said the cancellation was forced on the airline because of acute congestion at Tripoli airport. The airport is not accepting any more flights because aircraft have occupied every part of the tarmac.

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/ar…

  9. HappyinVT

    Colonel Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie attack which slaughtered 270 innocent people, the former Libyan justice minister has claimed.

    Mustafa Mohamed Abdel-Jalil said he had proof of the Libyan tyrant’s hand in the bombing.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…

  10. HappyinVT

    Foreign Affairs Department secretary Dennis Richardson says the Government believes two Australians are being held by Libyan authorities.

    “One is a dual national who was arrested by the Libyan authorities about a month ago prior to this crisis starting, and up until now we’ve been unable to make contact with that person,” he said.

    “The second person of concern is an Australian, who we believe was taken from a hotel in Tripoli by the Libyan authorities during the crisis.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/sto…

    The second person is believed to have been arrested while texting about the protests.

    On the other hand, some of the 46 other Australians would be included on the ferry ride to Malta.

  13. HappyinVT

    Really did bring tears to my eyes ~ that mass of people are so happy.  So utterly and completely happy.

    Who knows what a new (and divided?) Libya may look like but for today and hopefully tomorrow they are are happy.

  14. janicket

    Conflicting stories popping up on Al Jazeera about whether Aisha tried to fly out.  A version a few hours ago quoted at Blackwsaterdog’s blog read thus:

    A Libyan plane reportedly carrying the daughter of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s leader, has been turned back from Malta after it was denied permission to land.

    “The [crew] initially said they had 14 people on board. They were circling overhead saying they were running low on fuel,” Cal Perry, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Malta, said.

    “At that point the ambassador from Libya who was here in Malta was called in to take part in the negotiations on whether or not they were going to allow this plane to land.

    “As he entered the talks it became clear from the pilots that Aisha Gaddhafi, Muammar Gaddhafi’s only daughter, was aboard the plane. The government said it was an unscheduled flight, it doesn’t matter who is on board; they said it cannot land and diverted the plane back to Libya….”

    The attempted landing came a day after a private Libyan jet carrying the Lebanese wife of one of Gaddhafi’s sons was prevented from landing at Beirut airport in Lebanon, the Voice of Lebanon radio reported on Wednesday.

    It said Hannibal Gadhafi’s wife and several members of the Libyan ruling family were aboard the jet that was denied permission to land at Rafik Hariri international airport on Tuesday.

    Several Libyan regime figures could have been among the plane’s passengers, the radio station said.

    Lebanon’s Safir daily said that the plane was due to take off from the Libyan capital before midnight but Lebanese authorities asked Libya to unveil the identity of the 10 people on board before allowing the jet to land.

    When the Libyans ignored the Lebanese request, authorities in Beirut ordered airport officials to ask the pilot to divert the plane to a nearby country, either Syria or Cyprus.

    Right now the story on Al Jazeera – http://english.aljazeera.net/n… – has her denying that she tried to flee.  At this point the “Aisha flees” story reads:


    Aisha Gaddafi, daughter of Libyan leader, has appeared on state television, denying a report she tried to flee to Malta.

    “I am steadfastly here,” she said on Wednesday.

    Earlier, there were reports that a Libyan plane carrying the daughter of the Libyan leader was turned back from Malta after it was denied permission to land.

    “The [crew] initially said they had 14 people on board. They were circling overhead saying they were running low on fuel,” Cal Perry, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Malta, said.

    “At that point the ambassador from Libya who was here in Malta was called in to take part in the negotiations on whether or not they were going to allow this plane to land.

    “As he entered the talks it became clear from the pilots that Aisha Gaddhafi, Muammar Gaddhafi’s only daughter, was aboard the plane. The government said it was an unscheduled flight, it doesn’t matter who is on board; they said it cannot land and diverted the plane back to Libya.”

    Maltese government sources said however, that it had no information that she was on a plane which was refused permission to land or that the Libyan ambassador was involved in any negotiations.

    I notice the current story has no denial that Hannibal’s Lebanese wife was refused permission to land in Lebanon.

  18. Chris Blask

    Wikipedia is updating to reflect changes as they happen.

    Libyan Revolution

    During the Libyan revolution Libyan Air Force warplanes and attack helicopters launched repeated airstrikes on protesters, reportedly targeting a funeral procession and a group of protesters trying to reach an army base.[3][4] On Monday 21 February 2011 two senior Libyan Air Force pilots defected and flew their Mirage F1 fighter jets to Malta and requested political asylum after defying orders to bomb protesters.[5] On Wednesday 23 February the crew of a Sukhoi-22 ground attack plane rejected an order to attack protesters and ejected out of their plane which crashed near Ajdabiya 100 miles west of Benghazi.

  19. HappyinVT

    1:15pm A cousin of Gaddafi, and one of his closest aides, has arrived in Cairo, says AP. Kaddaf el-Dem reportedly says the crackdown has seen “grave violations to human right and human and international laws”.

    1:51pm Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Cairo, gives us more information on Ahmed Kaddaf el-Dem – Gaddafi’s cousin and former Libya-Egypt security coordinator. We understand he’s on his way to Syria, after the statement which AP reported – condemning Gaddafi’s use of violence – was issued by his Cairo office.

    http://blogs.aljazeera.net/afr…

  20. HappyinVT

    condemn Gaddafi:

    JERUSALEM – As pressure mounts on the White House to intervene to stop Moammar Gadhafi’s bloody crackdown in Libya, many commentators have been wondering why Barack Obama has been cautious in his criticism of the dictator after the U.S. president so fervently supported the removal from office of U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

    But Gadhafi has been tied to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s spiritual adviser for more than 23 years.

    The Libyan dictator also has financed and strongly supported the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan. Obama has ties to Farrakhan and his controversial group…

    Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Obama’s longtime Chicago church, went with Farrakhan to visit Gadhafi in 1984

    .

    Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/rev-…

    Charles at LGF points out that this is old news ~ he mentioned it himself during the 2008 campaign.  But that won’t stop the folks at Fox from touting this as NEWS.

  21. HappyinVT

    The first campaign ad of the NH Republican primary is from a birther:

    I predict this guy won’t get very far.

  22. HappyinVT

    leave until “tomorrow morning” said the reporter in Malta.  Then it’s a six-hour trip in good weather.

  23. Shaun Appleby

    Near Tripoli continues.  Another British 757 charter inbound orbiting over the Mediterranean, unclear why.  

  25. Shaun Appleby

    For sure but looks like a couple of 737 charters outbound from Misurata or some other location East of Tripoli.  May just be an unusual departure pattern out of Tripoli but they both appeared at about the same time with flight tracks from that part of the coast.

  26. HappyinVT

    From our lead story on Libya tonight:

       Mustafa Abdel Galil, who resigned three days ago from his post as the country’s justice minister, spoke to Al Jazeera at a meeting of tribal leaders and representatives of eastern Libya in the city of Al Baida.

       He warned that Gaddafi has biological and chemical weapons, and will not hesitate to use them.

       

    ‘We call on the international community and the UN to prevent Gaddafi from going on with his plans in Tripoli,’ he said.

       ‘At the end when he’s really pressured, he can do anything. I think Gaddafi will burn everything left behind him.’

    http://blogs.aljazeera.net/afr…

  27. HappyinVT

    The US government is set to throw its weight behind a European effort to expel Libya from the UN’s top human rights body and name a special investigator to look into alleged atrocities committed by Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

    snip

    State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the administration backs a European proposal for the 47-nation council to recommend Libya’s expulsion. Officials also said the US would support efforts to establish a UN-led probe into “gross and systematic violations of human rights by the Libyan authorities”.

    Council members were debating the resolution in Geneva, ahead of an emergency session on Friday. Kicking out Libya would require two-thirds approval of all the 192 countries in the United Nations.

    http://news.uk.msn.com/world/a…

    How Libya ever made it onto a “Human Rights body” in the first place is beyond me.

  28. Shaun Appleby

    About crowded tarmac and delays in Tripoli but still seeing regularly scheduled flights inbound, most recently JAT Airways Belgrade-Malta-Tripoli YU-ANW on approach.

  30. Shaun Appleby


    alihabibi1 #Aljazeera reporting live from Zawiya city being attacked by mercenaries and airplanes right now… #Libya

  31. HappyinVT

    President Barack Obama discussed steps the United States plans to take regarding Libya in a phone call Thursday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Embassy in Washington said.

    U.S. officials have said all options were under consideration, including sanctions and enforcement of a no-fly zone, to try to stop the Libyan government from attacking protesters.

    snip

    “President Sarkozy presented the measures currently being examined by the European Union at his behest, and which he hopes will be swiftly adopted,” the statement said. “President Obama presented the measures that the United States plans on taking.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/…

    Press Secretary Carney said a range of options are on the table but that he won’t discuss specifics.

  32. Shaun Appleby

    About Libyan oil supplies are “shutting down” are in direct contradiction to tweets originating from East Libya which claim they can and will keep production flowing as best they can.  Bank of America’s assertion it will be cut altogether is probably more an indication they have taken a ‘long’ position on oil futures than any reality on the ground.

  34. Shaun Appleby

    Inbound and outbound evacuation and regularly scheduled flights only occasionally orbiting awaiting clearance.

    Also still seeing flights which appear to originate to the East of Tripoli, may just be rerouted departure tracks but hard to see why they would be doing that.

  36. HappyinVT

    that Gaddafi’s youngest son has switched sides.

    According to the reports, Saif al-Arab, Gaddafi’s youngest son, who was sent by his father to cooperate with Libyan security forces in the massive crackdown on pro-democracy protesters joined forces with the demonstrators on Thursday, while hinting that his father would commit suicide or flee to Latin America.

     

  38. HappyinVT

    The Treasury is understood to have set up a unit to trace Col Gaddafi’s assets in Britain, which are thought to include billions of dollars in bank accounts, commercial property and a £10 million mansion in London.

    In total, the Libyan regime is said to have around £20 billion in liquid assets, mostly in London. These are expected to be frozen as part of an international effort to force the dictator from power. A Whitehall source said: “The first priority is to get British nationals out of Libya. But then we are ready to move in on Gaddafi’s assets, the work is under way. This is definitely on the radar at the highest levels.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new…

    • Shaun Appleby

      An Air China Airbus inbound to Tripoli but won’t start that again.  Seems like Tripoli has been hopping with relief flights lately.  But the scenes at the airport must be pretty chaotic.

    • HappyinVT

      In his daily briefing, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the ferry holds 575 people and is still boarding after a brief delay due to sea swells.

        Passengers include non-essential embassy staffers who have been ordered to leave, as well as private citizens.

        Employees from other embassies are also aboard.

        Crowley said the Libyan government granted permission for the ferry to leave but denied permission for a charter flight to airlift Americans out of the country.

      http://mystateline.com/fulltex…

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