Why Warming Up To Libya's Gadhafi Is Sickening

[NATO AIR]

after reading this,
i hope some eyebrows are raised. this man is a monster, and while bringing his nation into the international community is a good idea, bringing him into it without an arrest warrant for mass murder and rape is a sad mistake. down with tyranny!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45367-2004Jul12.html?referrer=email

Warming Up to a Dictator

By Mona Eltahawy
Tuesday, July 13, 2004; Page A15


When the United States ended a 24-year chill and restored diplomatic relations with Libya on June 28, the first person I thought of was Baha Omary Kikhia. I interviewed her in Cairo more than 10 years ago during one of her many trips to the region to find out what happened to her husband, former Libyan foreign minister turned dissident Mansour Kikhia.

His case has too easily been lost in the lexicon of bloodier and larger crimes committed by the Libyans, such as the 1988 Pan Am bombing, which killed 270 people. But Moammar Gaddafi has been brutal to Libyans, too, and his various eccentricities should not blind us to the police state he has presided over since he assumed power in a September 1969 coup.

He may travel with Kalashnikov-armed female bodyguards, he may pitch tents at home and abroad for talks with officials, and he may pen such "classics" as the short story collection "The Village, the Village, the Earth, the Earth and the Suicide of the Astronaut," but none of these quirks should distract us from his abysmal human rights record. Arbitrary arrests, a muzzled press, a ban on political parties and the squandering of Libya's oil wealth have never been laughing matters for Libyans.

And we should not forget Mansour Kikhia, who disappeared in Cairo in December 1993 while attending a meeting of an Arab human rights organization he had helped found. Kikhia had defected to the United States in 1980 and was a U.S. resident who was four months away from receiving citizenship when he went to Egypt. A four-year CIA investigation found in 1997 that Egyptian agents turned over Kikhia -- who had asked for Egyptian security protection while in Cairo -- to agents of Gaddafi's regime, who spirited the dissident to Libya, where he was executed and buried in the Libyan desert.

My interview with his wife, a U.S. citizen, left me painfully saddened for her and her family and particularly distressed that someone could just disappear in the city that I called home. I could not forget her during an assignment in Tripoli in 1996, when a Libyan government minder shadowed me at every turn and an official with the ministry of information asked me why we were so critical of Libya in the copy we filed at the Reuters news agency. And I will not forget her now, or the many others who have suffered from Gaddafi's regime, just because he is able to say the things he knows the Americans and British want to hear.

Gaddafi , claiming he had seen the light, accepted responsibility last year for the Pan Am bombing, agreeing to pay compensation to the victims' families (I wonder whether he has paid compensation to Baha Omary Kikhia) and to dismantle his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. If that last bit sounds familiar, it should. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair want us to think that Gaddafi's conversion on the road to Washington and London was due to the fear that he would end up in the same jail cell as Saddam Hussein. (Gaddafi's daughter Aicha, a law professor, has joined Hussein's defense team.)

With no weapons of mass destruction to justify a war against a country that never threatened them, Bush and Blair are determined to hold on to their theory that the "war on terrorism" and the invasion of Iraq would bring rogue states in line. But it's an odd argument they're making. In the absence of weapons of mass destruction, and with images of Hussein on trial for war crimes, they have been pushing the "removal of a brutal dictator" excuse for the invasion of Iraq. How do they square this with their astonishing rush to embrace another ruthless dictator?

Gaddafi's behavior of late has been uncomfortably close to brutal. In May -- a mere two months after a historic visit to Tripoli by Blair, who was accompanied of course by executives of British businesses eager to cash in -- a Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad for deliberately infecting some 400 children with HIV. The medics had always protested their innocence and said they had been tortured by the police, with daily beatings, sexual assault and electric shocks.

Expert witnesses called in for their defense included one of the team that discovered the AIDS virus, who said this was an epidemic caused by poor hygiene at the hospital, not by any international conspiracy. Isn't Bulgaria a member of the "Coalition of the Willing"?

Here's the topper. As Libya was engaged in secret negotiations to resume relations with the United States and Britain, Gaddafi tore into Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at an emergency Arab League summit in March 2003, assailing the kingdom's close relationship with the United States. When the Saudi de facto leader insulted Gaddafi back and walked out, the Libyan leader apparently hatched a plot to assassinate him. Isn't that dangerously close to state-sponsored terrorism? ............

 

[waltky]

possum thinks he's a heroin addict...

Muammar Qaddafi: Five ways Libya's leader has held onto power
February 23, 2011 - Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has long elicited chuckles abroad with his outlandish attire and over-the-top rhetoric, but his brutal crackdown this week is no laughing matter. This backgrounder offers a look at how the eccentric dictator came to power – and how he's held on to it for more than 40 years.

How absolute is his power?

Mr. Qaddafi rose to power largely through the ranks of the military, becoming a colonel. But after taking charge in a 1969 bloodless coup, he abolished all military ranks above his own.

Since then, he has maintained his rule by crushing any dissent. He has staffed most of the key government and military posts, as well as his personal security forces, with family and loyal members of his tribe. His recent speeches have made it clear that he calls the shots in the country.

But his power is significantly weaker in the eastern part of the country, which was the center of power prior to Qaddafi’s takeover and where protests began. Qaddafi made little effort to cultivate loyalty there, instead making Tripoli the new capital, shifting power to the west, and leaving the east to stagnate.

Qaddafi is no longer in control of the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya's second largest metropolis and the starting point of the uprising. He has also lost control of much of the East.

Libya was ruled as three autonomous states prior to Qaddafi’s takeover, and he is credited with forcing the three entities into one state. Without Qaddafi at the helm, Libya could break apart again, some experts say.

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Qaddafi holds no sway over these Libyans
February 23, 2011 - In eastern Libya, local youths – some in uniform, some with guns slung over their shoulders – and tribes that have dropped their support for Qaddafi appear to be running the show.

At the Saloum crossing from Egypt into Libya, there was clear evidence of the revolutionary upheaval afoot in Muammar Qaddafi’s country. On one side, a dozen journalists were trying to get into a country that’s been off limits to genuine reporting for decades. After a few hours of Egyptian bureaucracy, the reporters were waved through to the Libyan side – where there was no evidence of bureaucracy or Qaddafi’s regime at all. A young man in a borrowed uniform without insignia, asked for names and employers, but didn’t even ask to see passports. A middle-aged woman with an air of authority and AK-47 on her shoulder – but no uniform – kept an eye on the flow of traffic.

On the other side, thousands of Egyptian migrant workers were pouring out of Libya, fleeing what they fear is a looming bloodbath after Col. Qaddafi called his own people “rats” and “cockroaches” in a national address on Tuesday. Today at least, that fear wasn’t realized. While there were reports of violence in Tripoli and a few other western Libyan cities, in the eastern third or so of the country, where Qaddafi’s writ no longer reaches, it was largely peaceful. It’s this eastern part of the country that’s thrown itself open to press and stands in stark contrast with the Tunisian border. There, with the Libyan capital of Tripoli little more than 100 miles away, a significant number of security forces and paramilitaries remain on Qaddafi’s side.

Around here, local youths and tribes that have dropped their support for Qaddafi appear to be running the show. There were loud and friendly welcomes when local Libyans realized reporters were arriving, in a place where talking to the press a few weeks ago carried the risk of a visit from the secret police, or worse. At the few checkpoints along the 90-minute drive to Tobruq, the first major city west of Egypt, there were relaxed locals and at least two were handing out bottled water with best wishes to all and sundry. “The military is splitting up into bits, some that support Qaddafi and some that don’t,” says a young man in Tobruq. “But here, the tribes and the youth and some of the military have everything under control. There’s no looting.”

While losing control of a third of a country in a little over a week was stunning, Qaddafi and his loyalists are still doing everything they can to hang on to power. Internet service remains cut off, and in large parts of the country cellphone service appears to be down. Qaddafi must now be planning to take back places like Tobruq and Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city where whole military units abandoned his regime. Benghazi, like Tobruq, was largely at peace today. But those fleeing Egyptians at the border are a reminder of Qaddafi’s reputation for violent reprisals.

Source

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says, Yea, good comparison, he's a queen alright...

Gadhafi Blames al-Qaida, Compares Himself to Queen Elizabeth
Feb 24, 2011 - Libya's embattled Col. Moammar Gadhafi compared himself to Queen Elizabeth today while blaming the violent uprising in his country on Osama bin Laden and what he said were drugged-up and armed Libyan teenagers.

"Bin Laden ... this is the enemy who is manipulating people," Gadhafi said. "Do not be swayed by bin Laden." Gadhafi was expected to appear on state television today but instead spoke via telephone for 20 minutes in an often bizarre, disjointed monologue while the in-studio anchor was forced to stare at the camera without interrupting. The dictator's speech came after reports that his cousin, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, a high-ranking member of his inner circle, had fled to Egypt and that Gadhafi was rapidly losing support from other loyalists.

"He's scared," one protester told Al-Jazeera television after Gadhafi's speech. "He was supposed to show himself on TV today but instead he's in hiding because he knows he's on the way out." Gadhafi often sounded like a crazily out-of-touch father figure as he warned Libyans to control their children and get them off the streets. Despite evidence that many of the protesters are in their 20s and older, Gadhafi said the uprising was being fomented by teen-agers who had been given pills by enemies of the regime.

"Get ahold of your children and get them at home," Gadhafi said. "Those teen-agers are trigger-happy and they shoot at anything, especially when they're stoned on drugs. There's nobody over 20 out there." Gadhafi also portrayed himself as a symbolic figure, like the "queen of England," and said he had only "moral authority" over the nation. He said he could not enact laws and that the true power was in the hands of the people. He made no concessions other than to say that state salaries might be "reconsidered."

However, just hours before he spoke, there were unconfirmed reports out of Az Zawiyah, 30 miles outside Tripoli, that more than 100 people had been fired on by soldiers loyal to Gadhafi this morning and an unknown number killed. Though at least 1,000 people reportedly have been killed in Libya since the uprising began, Gadhafi gave his condolences to the families of just four people, members of his state security forces who were killed. "It's all because of bin Laden," Gadhafi said. "Al-Qaida is manipulating our country. They don't care about you, they just want to kill your kids so you can have control."

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How Long Can Moammar Gadhafi Hang On?
Feb 24, 2011 – It's the million-dollar question the Libyan people, the rest of the world -- and perhaps even Col. Moammar Gadhafi himself -- are asking: How long can he hang on?

As is becoming abundantly clear, Libya is different from other Arab countries experiencing popular revolts in recent weeks. Tunisia's ousted president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, fled his country before any major violence could erupt, ensuring himself a comfortable exile in Saudi Arabia, which has long offered refuge to shamed dictators from across the Muslim world. "To his credit, Ben Ali saw the reality, and that was it, he skedaddled," Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East scholar at London's Chatham House think tank, told AOL News. "But others, in Egypt until recently and certainly in Libya, are in a great bit of denial."

In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak clung to power a bit longer amid fierce street protests, but ultimately stepped down quietly, with his deputy delivering the actual announcement of his resignation. There's been speculation that Mubarak's sons shielded him from reports about the true strength of Egypt's pro-democracy rallies, and that the president wasn't fully aware of what was going on in his country until it was too late. He retreated to his Red Sea resort villa and hasn't been seen publicly since -- apparently content to at least live out his remaining years on Egyptian soil, as was his request.

That does not appear to be the case with Gadhafi, however, though his sons have also played a prominent role in his regime and its defiance. His son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, long thought to be a reformer, took to state TV earlier this week to proclaim that his father was still very much in control and would "fight to the last minute, until the last bullet." The elder Gadhafi appeared a day later, vowing to die as a "martyr" on his home country's soil. "I am paying the price of staying here. My grandfather is Abdessalam Bouminyar, the first martyr in Khoms, in the first battle of 1911," Gadhafi said in a televised speech filled with rambling historical references. "I cannot bring shame to this great ancestry. I cannot leave my grandfather's grave in Marghab. I shall die as a martyr beside him in the end."

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[waltky]

Obama gonna change things...

Obama Declares Gadhafi Must Step Down, Leave Now
Mar 3, 2011 - WASHINGTON -- The president doesn't mince his words when it comes to his view of the situation in Libya. "Let me just be very unambiguous about this. Col. Gadhafi needs to step down from power and leave," he says.

President Barack Obama insisted Thursday that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi "step down from power and leave," his most explicit statement of support for rebels challenging Gadhafi's four-decade rule in a region convulsed by uprisings against authoritarian regimes. Gadhafi has vowed to stay. Obama did not rule out establishing a "no-fly" zone over Libya, a move that his Pentagon chief said a day earlier would amount to an act of war because it would require bombing Libya's air defenses. Although Obama said he was considering a full range of options, he emphasized the U.S. role in helping refugees and heading off a humanitarian crisis.

"Let me just be very unambiguous about this. Col. Gadhafi needs to step down from power and leave," Obama said at a White House news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Obama announced that U.S. military aircraft would play a humanitarian role by helping Egyptians who had fled the chaos in Libya and become stranded in Tunisia. The planes are to fly them from Tunisia back to Egypt. The Pentagon has ordered two Navy warships into the Mediterranean, but Obama did not discuss the possibility of specific military actions such as providing air cover for rebels.

U.S. aircraft could leave as early as Friday for the first mission to help Egyptians in Tunisia return home, senior defense officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because plans have not been officially announced. Obama offered his most extensive remarks on the Libya crisis on a day when rebels strengthened their hold on the strategic oil installation at Brega after repelling an attempt by Gadhafi loyalists to retake it. Obama said his main focus was on limiting civilian deaths, while acknowledging his fear that the crisis could devolve into deadlock.

" There is a danger of a stalemate that over time could be bloody," he said. "That is something that we are obviously considering." He raised the possibility of Gadhafi hunkering down in the capital of Tripoli while his people suffer food shortages. Obama said the U.S. and its partners would have to consider how to get food in. Obama also appeared to suggest that Gadhafi loyalists switch sides in support of the revolutionaries.

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