Libya - civil unrest & now NATO involvement

[quimcunx]

The fun continues.

Not much loyalty amongst them either then. Or they've seen the writing on the wall and are backing who they think are the winners.

 

[elbows]

A prize to whoever said earlier in the thread that Gaddafi had made a MAJOR mistake bringing in mercenaries.


Are we seeing any footage of Gaddafi soldiers out in numbers? Gaddafi doesn't seem to have much loyalty from the army, if reports of so many army defections are to be believed. And bringing in mercenaries I think suggests that the doesn't and he knew it. Wiki says that there are 119,000 in armed forces but I'm not sure if that includes 'peoples militia'.

Foreign mercenary stuff is a very silly idea, its not as if it counteracts the possibility of the army not shooting its own people for you, as they arent likely to just sit back and watch the job being outsourced.

Having said that, its been pretty unclear the scale of the defections, or whether all of the killings were by mercenaries.

Im not really sure as Libya has much in the way of an army in the traditional sense of the word, think Gadaffi has long favoured special forces that are supposed to be loyal to him, but I dont know that much really.

As for footage, there hasnt been enough footage from enough different places to use the absence of armed forces on video as a guide to the situation.

 

[AKA pseudonym]

great blog to follow: http://ericyoungonline.wordpress.com/

 

[where to]

one thing to note about #libya, when #gaddafi goes, all who supported him will have to go, we will be the first to have a full revolution

i think this may be correct.

 

[elbows]

Crazy rumour time, but events have moved so fast that I would not rule anything out:

Iyad El-Baghdadi
Libyan diplomat live on Aljazeera says #Gaddafi's son Mutasim has shot Saif al Islam! #Feb17 #Libya

 

[dylans]

CONFIRMED: City of Benghazi & eastern Libya are no longer under control of the Gadhafi regime. After yesterday's atrocity of machine gun and missile fire killing hundreds of unarmed and peaceful protestors, an entire Libyan commando brigade reportedly switched sides to the protestors, captured the foreign mercenaries responsible for the massacre and have been distributing food, arms and ammunition to the people.

Be careful with claims like those. Especially the "confirmed" ones.

 

[quimcunx]

Crazy rumour time, but events have moved so fast that I would not rule anything out:

tweet:

Refusal to negotiate with saif al-islam gaddafi, who wanted to compromise as reported on ajarabic.

Maye because he wanted to compromise.......

sounds very rumourish. We'll see.

 

[elbows]

A little bit of background on the son Saif al-Islam Muammar Al-Gaddafi, as I read some stuff about him a couple of weeks back, hope Ive remembered it right. He has plenty of western education, and in recent years took steps to slightly distance himself from the regime. Some of the other brothers got themselves into scandals, while he had done a slightly better job of keeping his image cleaner in his country.

 

[elbows]

Be careful with claims like those. Especially the "confirmed" ones.

Well those claims were originally made days ago and turned out not to be true, or were at the very least premature. But similar reports today have been given a bit more credibility by the likes of Al Jazeera, and whilst I would not bet my life on them I give them more credence this time.

Anyway the story is quite some hours old now, not been any significant news from Benghazi since, attention obviously shifted to Tripoli.

 

[dylans]

Well those claims were originally made days ago and turned out not to be true, or were at the very least premature. But similar reports today have been given a bit more credibility by the likes of Al Jazeera, and whilst I would not bet my life on them I give them more credence this time.

Anyway the story is quite some hours old now, not been any significant news from Benghazi since, attention obviously shifted to Tripoli.

Yeah it's looking more and more likely now. We can expect more "defections" as people try to save their skins. I think we can expect some "revolutionary justice" too after all the bloodshed. Hope they get Gaddafi.

 

[elbows]

Rumours now along the lines of 'Gadaffi has left via the international airport, destination maybe Venezuela'.

Someone even posted a video of a convoy, though Im not taking such hings too seriously myself at this stage, but wanted to post em anyway as Im hedging my bets.

 

[quimcunx]

but wanted to post em anyway as Im hedging my bets.

 

[bolshiebhoy]

Al jazeera just repeated that rumour and that there was gunfire involving his family. immense if true. This year just gets better and better.

 

[quimcunx]

tweets are also reflecting what elbows read about brothers.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Al jazeera just repeated that rumour and that there was gunfire involving his family. immense if true. This year just gets better and better.

Deep down I'm sure Gaddafi is a total coward. I hope they get him before he has a chance to flee.

 

[teqniq]

twitter:

AlanFisher (Al-Jazeera)
#Libya warns it will end co-operation with EU over illegal immigration if west doesn't stop 'encouraging' anti-government protests.

I see a bit of a theme developing here inasmuch the people who are supposed to be 'in charge' in reality are completely out of touch with with their own people's hopes and aspirations. This is another example (imo) of people floundering around seeking to blame events on 'outside agencies' rather than look at their own shortcomings.

 

[dylans]

twitter:



I see a bit of a theme developing here inasmuch the people who are supposed to be 'in charge' in reality are completely out of touch with with their own people's hopes and aspirations. This is another example (imo) of people floundering around seeking to blame events on 'outside agencies' rather than look at their own shortcomings.

The irony of a regime that imports foreign mercenaries to kill its own people blaming "outside agencies" for the crisis

 

[quimcunx]

sky news now

 

[quimcunx]

scrap sky, bbc better

al saifa on tv now.


or aje. whatever.

 

[scooter]

So far he's blamed foreigners, separatists, the media, protestors on drugs, the army.

 

[teqniq]

The irony of a regime that imports foreign mercenaries to kill its own people blaming "outside agencies" for the crisis

Anyone who uses mercenaries on their own people is lower than.... well I just dunno.

 

[quimcunx]

islamic groups - don't forget them.

 

[quimcunx]

children on drugs, curious and enthusiatic peoples. they're all to blame too.

 

[gawkrodger]

he's got balls, got to give him that!

 

[scooter]

I'm waiting for him to blame aliens

 

[yardbird]

A group of thugs that escaped from prison.

Treason.

What fucking planet is the guy on?

 

[yardbird]

I'm waiting for him to blame aliens

 

[quimcunx]

I think he mentioned zombies but the translator skipped over that bit.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Desperate bullshit.

However by doing this its clear that the regime feels it has to give its side of the story - but this also confirms that a major uprising is going on and that many people have been killed - it no longer has a monolpoly on information within the country. I'm guesing most libyans are not going to believe the regime verison of events.

 

[DrRingDing]

[video]http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/[/video]

omg.

full of shit crazy desperrate cunt.