Labels: Allen West, Barack Hussein Obama, Libyan civil war, Muammar Gaddafi
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:31 PM
0 comments
This post is probably going to earn me a lot of spam comments.The rape allegation is not new. It was raised in the UN Security Council in April by US Ambassador Susan Rice, who said some of Gaddafi's troops had been issued with the impotency drug Viagra. Moreno-Ocampo said in an interview with Reuters on May 2 he was investigating the allegation.Gadhafi could have accomplished the same thing by handing out copies of the Koran. It advocates raping captive women too. Maybe the troops were too tired.
At a UN news conference on Wednesday, he said the question until recently had been whether Gaddafi himself could be associated with the rapes "or is it something that happened in the barracks?"
"But now we are getting some information that Gaddafi himself decided" to authorize the rapes, "and this is new," Moreno-Ocampo said.
"It never was the pattern he used to control the population. The rape is a new aspect of the repression," he said. "Apparently, he decided to punish using rapes."
Moreno-Ocampo repeated the allegation of use of impotency drugs, saying his team was finding "some elements" confirming the purchase of "Viagra type of medicaments." He said there was evidence of Libya acquiring "containers" of such drugs "to enhance the possibility to rape women."
The prosecutor said it was difficult to know how widespread the rape was but he had received information there were several hundred victims in some areas.
Labels: Libyan civil war, Muammar Gaddafi, rape, viagra
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:35 PM
11 comments
Once again, Pajamas Media's John Rosenthal looks at the darker side of a rebellion in the Arab World. And once again he finds not-so-subtle undertones of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, but this time, in Libya, he also finds racism against sub-Saharan Africans.Labels: anti-Black racism, anti-Semitic stereotypes, anti-Zionism, Libyan civil war, Libyan no-fly zone
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:36 AM
3 comments
Moshe Dann uses the current Libyan crisis to show how we ended up with millions of 'Palestinian refugees.' The Libyan civil war offers an example of what likely happened during the 1930s and 1940s, especially in 1948 in Palestine during the British Mandate when jobs and war attracted Arabs from the region.Read the whole thing.
Hundreds of thousands of non-Libyans working in Libya, many settled with families, are caught up in the current war. Many thousands were recruited into the armies of both sides from neighboring Arab countries, including mercenaries looking for high-paying jobs (according to reports, $1,000 a day). This is similar to what happened in Palestine before 1948 when large numbers of Arabs moved to Palestine, facilitated by the British. At the same time, Britain actively opposed Jewish immigration and acquisition of land.
Arab attacks increased against Jews in 1947 and especially in early 1948, when Arab gangs and militias drew many outsiders into their forces. In 1948, when Israel was established, they joined the armies of five Arab countries in a war of extermination.
Arabs who were in Palestine in 1949, both native and foreign, either stayed in Israel or became “Palestinian refugees.” Since UNRWA accepted anyone who said they had lived in Palestine for at least two years, there is no way of knowing who was genuinely Palestinian and who was not.
Applying this example to the current Libyan civil war: if there is a stalemate and the country is divided between supporters and opponents of Gaddafi — including those who came to work or fight — who would be considered Libyan?
If the UN established towns for those who claimed to be “dispossessed Libyan refugees,” would they be entitled to compensation? And after sixty years, would they and their children and grandchildren still be entitled to assistance?
And if a group of people who claimed to be Libyan refugees were to demand self-determination, including a country of their own, would they be entitled to that as well?
Should every Libyan tribe that claims territorial integrity and national self-determination be given statehood?
What makes someone Libyan, or Palestinian, or even Israeli or American, for that matter?
Labels: Libyan civil war, Palestinian refugees
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:26 AM
0 comments
The house in Tripoli was destroyed by the strike, with a massive crater where the house used to be. At least one unexploded bomb could be seen.Might I remind you that several European countries, many of whom are NATO members who are involved in the fighting in Libya (e.g. Britain), have attempted to prosecute Israeli officials for 'war crimes' in connection with the killing of Hamas terror chieftain Salah Shehadeh in 2002. In that case, Shehadeh had gathered family members around him as human shielfs, and many of those family members were killed along with him.. Unlike Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, Salah Shehadeh was very much involved in planning terror attacks.
The building was in a residential area of Tripoli, according to Ibrahim, who insisted that Saif al-Arab Gadhafi was a student in Germany who was not deeply involved in Libya's military and government. The 29-year-old was the sixth of Gadhafi's eight biological children.
Ibrahim railed against NATO after the fatal strike, calling it an illegal act and a "war crime." He vowed revenge.
Speaking at a rally, Ibrahim told fellow Libyans, "Every one of you are Saif al-Arab."
Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of NATO's military operations, said in a statement he was "aware of unconfirmed media reports that some of Gadhafi's family members may have been killed.
"We regret all loss of life, especially the innocent civilians being harmed as a result of this ongoing conflict," Bouchard said. "NATO is fulfilling its U.N. mandate to stop and prevent attacks against civilians with precision and care -- unlike Gadhafi's forces, which are causing so much suffering."
The NATO commander stated that all targets "are military in nature and have been clearly linked to the Gadhafi regime's systemic attacks on the Libyan population ... We do not target individuals."
A senior official in President Barack Obama's administration said the U.S. government is "very aware" of the reports, but cannot confirm who, if anyone, died in a strike until they see the evidence.
Labels: Libyan civil war, Libyan no-fly zone, Libyan regime change, Muammar Gaddafi, NATO, Salah Shehadeh, Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, universal jurisdiction, war crimes
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:59 AM
1 comments
Ayesha Gadhafi, the daughter of you know who, is accusing the Libyan rebels of arming Hamas and Hezbullah. Aisha Qaddafi, daughter of Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi, has claimed that rebel forces in Libya have sold weapons to Hamas and Hizbullah. She made the claims in an interview with the New York Times that was published Tuesday.I wonder why she is saying this. Surely she doesn't think Israel is going to intervene to save her father?
Similar claims were made last week by DEBKA, which reported that leader rebel officers had sold chemical shells from Libyan stocks they had seized.
Labels: Ayesha Gadhafi, Hamas, Hezbullah, Libyan civil war
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:47 AM
0 comments
Cowards. Complete moral cowards. The US and British defense chiefs are dismissing the idea that because the international community responded to unrest in Libya with military force, the same should be done in Syria, where a government crackdown on protesters has reportedly killed hundreds.Sorry, but I don't buy this. I also find it hard to believe that Israel is so interested in preserving the Assad regime. I've heard nothing of the sort from anyone in power here. Could a replacement be worse for Israel than the terror supporting Assad? I doubt it.
After meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, British Defense Minister Liam Fox said Tuesday that the world's response to popular revolts across the Middle East and North Africa must be tailored to the circumstances of each case.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bashar al-Assad, David Cameron, Libyan civil war, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:32 PM
1 comments
Once again Steyn simply nails it. If I recall correctly, we went into Libya — or, at any rate, over Libya — to stop the brutal Qaddafi dictatorship killing the Libyan people. And thanks to our efforts a whole new mass movement of freedom-loving democrats now has the opportunity to kill the Libyan people. As the Los Angeles Times reported from Benghazi, these democrats are roaming the city “rousting Libyan blacks and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa from their homes and holding them for interrogation as suspected mercenaries or government spies.” According to the New York Times, “Members of the NATO alliance have sternly warned the rebels in Libya not to attack civilians as they push against the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.” We dropped bombs on Qaddafi’s crowd for attacking civilians, and we’re prepared to do the same to you! “The coalition has told the rebels that the fog of war will not shield them from possible bombardment by NATO planes and missiles, just as the regime’s forces have been punished.”Read it all.
So, having agreed to be the Libyan Liberation Movement Air Force, we’re also happy to serve as the Qaddafi Last-Stand Air Force. Say what you like about Barack Obama, but it’s rare to find a leader so impeccably multilateralist he’s willing to participate in both sides of a war. It doesn’t exactly do much for holding it under budget, but it does ensure that for once we’ve got a sporting chance of coming out on the winning side. If a coalition plane bombing Qaddafi’s forces runs into a coalition plane bombing the rebel forces, are they allowed to open fire on each other? Or would that exceed the U.N. resolution?
Labels: Barack Obama, Libyan civil war, Libyan regime change, Muammar Gaddafi
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:30 AM
1 comments
Michael Totten (pictured) finds someone he trusts on the ground in Benghazi and asks about the Libyan rebels. Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof is on the ground in Benghazi, Libya, working with the Shabakat Group which she says “has an extensive network in country amongst the transitional government, tribal chiefs, rebel forces, former Qaddafi officials, and the civilian populace.”Hmmm.
I don’t know her personally, but we have many friends and colleagues in common, people I trust more than anyone else in this business. So when I found out she was over there and had embedded, so to speak, with the anti-Qaddafi rebels, I had to ask her some questions that hardly anyone seems to have an answer to yet.
MJT: Who, exactly, are these rebels you’ve met? Are they democrats? Tribal leaders? Islamists? All of the above? What?
Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof: The rebels I’ve met so far are mainly young, educated, middle class, urban people with a powerful wish for democracy.
If you look at the demographics in Libya, 82.6 percent of the people are literate, an estimated 88 percent live in cities—mostly in Benghazi and Tripoli—and about half the population is under the age of 15. So the young urban rebels in Benghazi may be fairly representative.
The tribes exist here, but they’re more of a cultural phenomenon than a political one. I don’t think anyone here imagines, or wants, the tribes stepping up to power, though this may differ somewhat between regions.
About the Islamists—there are radical elements amongst the rebels, to be sure, but they are a minority, and they’re all grateful to the West at the moment. You would be amazed to see the number of people around here waving Western flags and thanking the West, especially France.
In Benghazi, every person I’ve met so far has insisted on showing me the bridge in town where the Qaddafi troops arrived and started firing—and that bridge is actually inside Benghazi—saying he would cleanse the city “street by street, and house by house.” They all say, “Allah saved us, he sent us French and British and American planes like angels, Alhamdulillah.”
Labels: al-Qaeda, Libyan civil war, Libyan regime change, Michael Totten
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:46 AM
4 comments
Ouch. For Barack Obama, military objectives take a back seat to diplomatic appearances. The president is obsessed with pretending that we are not running the operation -- an expression of Obama's view that his country is so tainted by imperialism and other sins that it lacks the moral legitimacy to ... what? Save Third World people from massacre? More in tomorrow's column.I can't wait.
Labels: Barack Obama, Charles Krauthammer, Libyan civil war, Muammar Gaddafi
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:37 AM
0 comments
Stop Turkey reports that my earlier report that Turkey vetoed NATO action in Libya has now been confirmed. The Associated Press are also reporting that Turkey has vetoed NATO action in Libya.Hmmm. I wonder why Turkey prefers Gadhafi to the Islamists. The Islamists are so much more in Turkey's style.
...
In a Telegraph blog post, Con Coughlin, a man with very good connections in the military and intelligence establishments, has also confirmed that Turkey is blocking NATO action, supposedly in cahoots with Germany.
Labels: Libyan civil war, NATO, Turkey
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:51 PM
0 comments
Daniel Henninger argues that the failure of the international community to even formulate a response to Libya shows that 'internationalism' has collapsed. Barack Obama is the first Democratic president to assemble a foreign-policy team made up entirely of intellectuals who for years have developed a counter-thesis to the policies of presidents extending back to John F. Kennedy. We are in a "post-American world," they have argued, in which the U.S. is obliged to pursue its interests in concert with the rest of the world's powers, never alone.Read the whole thing. This crew cannot be gone soon enough.
The uprisings against autocracies in 10 separate Middle Eastern countries, a crisis inherited from no one, was their real-world test. In Egypt, they fumbled. In Libya, they have failed.
The poster boy for this internationalist view is White House deputy Ben Rhodes, who told a reporter last week: "This is the Obama conception of the U.S. role in the world—to work through multilateral organizations and bilateral relationships to make sure that the steps we are taking are amplified."
Days later, bemused Libyan rebel spokesman Essam Gheriani remarked in Benghazi: "Everyone here is puzzled as to how many casualties the international community judges to be enough for them to help. Maybe we should start committing suicide to reach the required number."
...
This was a test case, and what we have seen is that a world in which the U.S. doesn't unmistakably lead is a world that spins its wheels, and eventually the wheels start to come off. When the U.S. instructs the Saudis not to intervene in Bahrain, and the Saudi army does precisely the opposite, the wheels are coming off the international order.
Labels: American exceptionalism, Barack Hussein Obama, Libyan civil war, Libyan no-fly zone
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:17 PM
6 comments
Labels: Barack Obama, Libyan civil war, Libyan no-fly zone, Libyan regime change, Muammar Gaddafi, voting present
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:57 AM
0 comments
Now, we have evidence that it might be happening. Three plumes of black smoke rose in an area around Es Sider oil terminal in east Libya on Wednesday after Muammar Gaddafi's forces launched a heavy bombardment on rebel troops, a Reuters correspondent said.Hmmm.
Correspondent Mohammed Abbas said it was not immediately clear if the oil terminal itself was hit but he said one of the smoke columns "was the biggest plume of smoke I've seen in the conflict so far, and is not dissipating."
Labels: Libyan civil war, Libyan oil installations, Muammar Gaddafi
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:19 PM
0 comments
Remember Muammar Gadhafi's representative to the United Nations 'Human Rights Council,' Najjat al-Hajjaji, who got a little surprise from UN Watch in the videos here? Well, now we have a story about Hajjaji herself: It seems that she's the UN expert on the use of mercenaries. This is from a press release I received via email from UN Watch. With the Libyan regime deploying hired guns to massacre its own people, the UN Human Rights Council was urged today to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time mouthpiece of Col. Muammar Qaddafi, from her post as a council investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries.Heh.
“Every day she stays with the UN Human Rights Council is an insult to the victims of Qaddafi’s murderous regime,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group that initiated the successful campaign to suspend Libya as a member of the 47-nation council.
“At a time when Qaddafi is using mercenaries to kill his own people, it is outrageous that one of his long-time representatives would sit on the world’s highest human rights body as a supposed defender of human rights -- and, of all things, as a defender of victims of mercenaries,” said Neuer.
Since 2005, Ms. Al-Hajjaji has served on the council’s 5-person “Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights.”...
"For more than a decade, Al-Hajjaji whitewashed the crimes of the Qaddafi regime as its representative to UN human rights bodies in Geneva," said Neuer. In 2003, human rights groups universally condemned her election as Chair of the now-defunct UN Commission on Human Rights. Al-Hajjaji's tenure was widely seen as the last straw in the decline of the commission's credibility, with Kofi Annan saying soon afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse and that it should be scrapped.
In April 2009, when Al-Hajjaji chaired the planning committee of the UN's World Conference on Racism, known as Durban II, she silenced testimony by a victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV....
In letters sent today to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, UN rights commissioner Navi Pillay, and UNHRC president Sihasak Phuangketkeow, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer demanded that the officials take immediate action to expel Al-Hajjaji from the Human Rights Council. Neuer also urged action in letters sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton.
The council, which is now in session, has the power to trigger an urgent debate and immediately adopt a resolution removing Al-Hajjaji from her post.
Labels: Libyan civil war, mercenaries, Najjat al-Hajjaji
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:35 AM
1 comments
Full info: The plane that was shot down was a Su-24MK "Fencer-D" a downgraded version of the soviet version but still a capable ground attack aircraft made in the early 90s.And here's a translation of the video from French to English:
The gunner is on his first day on the job and one of the barrels of the gun (A ZPU-4 Designed in 1949!) was not working.
Make no doubt about it, either this guy is an AA god or he just got a really lucky shot.
... We're about 600 kns from Tripoli. This zone is strategic and this is the important refinery in Libya. As we enter Ras Lanuf dam, people start pointing something out to us, it's one of #G's fighter jets flying overhead.And here's Michael Rubin:
'Don't stay there, move out' ' Into the cards, quick!'
The rebels fire, the plane passes once more above the refinery.
Suddenly, there's a thick smoke that looks like a bomb. The men wait, scrutinize the horizon and then joy explodes. "The plane crashed over there, we hit the plane."
A man wants to show us the hero of the day, all the rebels surround him to celebrate his feat.
"There's only one working cannon (defective equipment) and I still managed to shoot it down anyway. I'm not trained, I'm not a soldier and I still hit it when it came back'
"Approximately 4kms from here there are 2 pilots, come see them quickly".
We follow the with our car in the desert.
At the scene, pieces of metal still smoking... the remains of the fighter jet that had been flying overhead... the bodies of the 2 pilots. According to their papers, 1 Libyan and 1 Syrian. The jet's wing is an unimaginable war prize for the rebels.
"Gaddafi, don't move, we're on our way".
Overnight, these reports have taken a new twist: Al Jazeera is reporting that free Libyan forces have downed two Syrian planes in Ras Lanuf, about 400 kilometers west of Benghazi. Unconfirmed reports had earlier suggested that the free Libyans had downed two Sukhoi SU-22s, which is what the Libyans train on in Syria.With Republicans in control of the House, there's even a chance that could happen.
If these reports are true, it is time for President Obama to bring home Robert Ford, his recess appointment as ambassador to Syria. Successful engagement requires sincerity of both partners. Obama may be sincere, but it is clear that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not. We do not need to cut off dialogue — we still have an embassy in Damascus and can pursue the daily requirements of diplomacy, whatever they may be, at a more junior level.
Many senators remain upset that Obama refused to address their concerns on Syria and dispatched Ford as a recess appointment. They gave Obama’s outreach to Syria three months. Rather than improve Assad’s behavior, however, engagement has only worsened it. This is true even if the rumors of Syrian participation are exaggerated.
If Obama refuses to bring Ford home, perhaps it is time for Congress to reassert itself and play hardball with the State Department’s budget.
Labels: Libyan civil war, Michael Rubin, Robert Ford, Syrian pilots, US ambassador to Syria
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:52 AM
0 comments
It sure sounds like there's a civil war going in Libya. Here's a report from a Sky News correspondent named Alex Crawford, who is the only Western reporter in the town of Zawiyah (about 30 miles west of Tripoli - see map below and picture at top left).Eighteen days after it began with spirited demonstrations in the eastern city of Benghazi, the Libyan uprising has veered sharply from the pattern of relatively quick and nonviolent upheavals that ousted the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. Instead, the rebellion here appeared to have become mired in a drawn-out ground campaign between two relatively unprofessional and loosely organized forces — the Libyan Army and the rebels — that is exacting high civilian casualties and appears likely to drag on for some time.Finally, here's a map showing who controls what as of Saturday.
That bloody stasis was evident on Saturday in Zawiyah, the northwestern city seized by rebels a week ago, where the government’s attacks raised puzzling questions about its strategy. For the second day in a row its forces punched into the city, then pulled back to maintain a siege from the perimeter. Hours later, they punched in and retreated again.
By the end of the day, both sides claimed control of the city.
Foreign journalists were unable to cross military checkpoints to evaluate reports of what Zawiyah residents called “a massacre.”
Witnesses there began frantic calls to journalists in Tripoli at 6 a.m. Saturday to report that soldiers of the Khamis brigade, which is named for the Qaddafi son who commands it and is considered the family’s most formidable force, had broken through the east and west gates of the city. “They are killing us,” one resident said. “They are firing on us.”
The militia attacked with tanks, heavy artillery and machine guns, witnesses said, and the explosions were clearly audible in the background. “I am watching neighbors dying unarmed in front of their homes,” one resident said. “I don’t know how many are being killed, but I know my neighborhood is being killed.”
In a telephone interview a little more than three hours after the attack began, another resident said: “Everything is burning. We don’t know from which side they are shooting us, from the buildings or from the streets. People are falling everywhere.”
The rebels, including former members of the Libyan military, returned fire. Although a death toll was impossible to determine, one resident said four of his neighbors were killed, including one who was found stripped of his clothes.
A correspondent for Sky News, a British satellite TV channel and the only foreign news organization in the city, reported seeing the militia fire on ambulances trying to remove the wounded from the streets. The reporter also said she had seen at least eight dead soldiers and five armored vehicles burning in the central square.
At 10 a.m., witnesses said, the Qaddafi forces abruptly withdrew, taking up positions in a close circle around the city.
Some rebels painted the pullout as a victory. A spokesman for the rebels told Reuters they had captured three armored personnel carriers, two tanks and a pickup truck.
But other rebel supporters acknowledged that there was little evidence that they had inflicted enough damage on the militia to force the retreat. Residents said they were unable to leave and visitors, including journalists, could not enter. “If you come here you will not believe what you see,” one resident implored. “It is like a war zone.”
Around 4:00 p.m., the militia attacked again. A witness said as many as six tanks rolled through town, there were more skirmishes with the rebels, and then the tanks left as quickly as they had arrived.
“We don’t know which side they are coming from,” one witness said in a panicked phone call.
Labels: Libyan civil war
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:30 AM
0 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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