Misrata rebels defy Libya's new regime

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/29/misrata-rebels-defy-libya-regime

The first cracks in Libya's rebel coalition have opened, with protests erupting in Misrata against the reported decision of the National Transitional Council (NTC) to appoint a former Gaddafi henchman as security boss of Tripoli.

Media reports said the NTC prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, is poised to appoint Albarrani Shkal, a former army general, as the capital's head of security.

Protests erupted in the early hours of the morning in Misrata's Martyr's Square, with about 500 protesters shouting that the "blood of the martyrs" would be betrayed by the appointment.

Misrata's ruling council lodged a formal protest with the NTC, saying that if the appointment were confirmed Misratan rebel units deployed on security duties in Tripoli would refuse to follow NTC orders.

Misratans blame Shkal for commanding units that battered their way into this city in the spring, terrorising and murdering civilians.

[dipsydoodle]

1. As the earwig said as he fell off a cliff

'ere we go.

[adhd_what_huh]

2. I don't have a problem with this. Sounds normal.

[joshcryer]

10. Neither do I. They can protest when they couldn't before under Gaddafi.

That alone is an improvement.

I'm glad they're keeping the TNC to task over these issues, particularly as it concerns Gaddafi's henchmen. Yes they played a role in Gaddafi's Libya, that doesn't necessarily mean they're all needed in a post-Gaddafi Libya. They can train and tell you their contacts and employees then they should go retire somewhere quietly.

[EFerrari]

11. Oh, yeah. Perfectly normal to appoint that evil regime's henchmen

to top security posts. :wtf:

[Hart2008]

3. The people smell the betrayal. It looks more like a coup than a revolution.

They wanted to remove the head of the government, but now want to keep his underlings in place.

That explains the foreign involvement of the Qatari's in these operations:

[sabrina 1]

15. Qatari troops were on the ground all along I read. Boots on the ground

foreign boots. I guess Qatar provided the uniforms also. And British special forces were there too.

Libyans better get used to having foreigners running things from now on. Then they will have to decide if the devil you know isn't better than the one you don't know after all.

Early on in this, the ordinary people were beginning to 'smell the betrayal'. NPR had a reporter there who interviewed one of the original people who had started out protesting. Back then they had few guns but he told the reporter that 'strangers we do not know' are giving orders sending us to fight when we have no chance of winning'. He was furious and said he was going home to try to save his home, as this was not what they had started to do. He told the reporter 'I have seen things I do not wish to talk about right now'. I guess he saw the foreigners and was afraid that if he said too much they would kill him.

[Hart2008]

18. Just look at the difference between the early and late pictures of capturing Bab al-Azizya palace!

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

A latter picture shows the Qatari flag removed, and now replaced with the flag of the Libyan rebels.




While the official story is that the coup against Quaddafi is a totally domestic Libyan affair, the size of that Qatari flag tells a different story. The obvious conclusion is that Qatari forces were involved in the capture of the palace. Despite having three networks covering this event, CNN, BBC, And Al Jezeera, I haven't heard any discussion of the Qatari flag flying there, or its prompt disappearance.

[sabrina 1]

19. Good catch! Reminds me of the invasion of Iraq when

the US Soldier put the US flag on the Saddam Statue, then they must have been told it didn't look good and took it down.

[Hart2008]

20. Flying the colors in a military operation indicates which nation's forces were involved.

Sometimes it gets embarrassing and provocative, so after the fighting forces raise the flag, the photo needs to get suppressed because it hurts the message a government wants to sell. Here is a classic example:



CONQUERING INVADERS
U.S. Marines place an American flag on a statue of Saddam Hussein, seen in this image from video, Wednesday, April 9, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/APTN)


BAGHDAD - U.S. troops briefly draped an American flag over the face of a giant statue of President Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad on Wednesday as they prepared to topple it in front of a crowd of Iraqis. The gesture, likely to be highly provocative in much of the Arab world where the U.S. invasion of Iraq has stirred widespread anger, was quickly reversed and an Iraqi flag was tied instead to the statue's neck.


U.S. Troops Drape Saddam Statue in American Flag:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0409-06.htm

[sabrina 1]

22. Yes, that is the one I was thinking of. There was a lot of commentary

on it at the time as we wanted the Iraqis to think we were there to help them, not to occupy their country. But, that flag gave it all away even though it was taken down fairly quickly.

And since Erik Prince is in the area now, apparently Blackwater has been working with the CIA in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it's more than likely that they are being paid by those Royals in the UAE and Qatar eg, probably by the Saudis as well, for protection against the people who are oppressed in those countries.

Here is a very good article about Erik Prince's presence in the area. On the surface the story is he is working independently of the US government, but there are certainly questions about that. And if he is he may be violating US law by training foreign troops, for which he was already fined millions of dollars here.

Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder

For Mr. Prince, the foreign battalion is a bold attempt at reinvention. He is hoping to build an empire in the desert, far from the trial lawyers, Congressional investigators and Justice Department officials he is convinced worked in league to portray Blackwater as reckless. He sold the company last year, but in April, a federal appeals court reopened the case against four Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

This guy is a lunatic. He should have been jailed for what happened in Iraq, but if he's working for the US, then that will never happen.

A Christian Crusader in the ME! And I am willing to bet we will hear sooner or later, that they were involved in the coup in Libya. That is something Erik Prince could not resist.

[sad sally]

4. The atrocities of war continue...

Detention officials in Az-Zawiya said that about a third of all those detained are "foreign mercenaries" including nationals from Chad, Niger and Sudan.

When Amnesty International delegates spoke to several of the detainees however, they said that they were migrant workers. They said that they had been taken at gunpoint from their homes, work-places and the street on account of their skin colour.

None wore military uniforms. Several told Amnesty International that they feared for their lives as they had been threatened by their captors and several guards and told them that they would be "eliminated or else sentenced to death".

Five relatives from Chad, including a minor, told Amnesty International that on 19 August they were driving to a farm outside of Az-Zawiya to collect some produce when they were stopped by a group of armed men, some in military fatigues.

The armed men assumed that the five were mercenaries and handed them over to detention officials despite assurances by their Libyan driver that they were migrant workers.

A 24 year-old man from Niger who has been living and working in Libya for the past five years, told Amnesty International that he was taken from home by three armed men on 20 August.

He said that he was handcuffed, beaten, and put in the boot of the car. He said: "I am not at all involved in this conflict. All I wanted was to make a living. But because of my skin colour, I find myself here, in detention. Who knows what will happen to me now?"

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/both-sides-libya-conflict-must-protect-detainees-torture-2011-08-25?du

[sabrina 1]

5. Has NATO left yet?

After all, they were only 'helping to protect civilians from Qadaffi'. The rebels are in charge, Qadaffi is gone, and NATO's role is finished, isn't it?

[sad sally]

6. Doesn't appear so.

“The video shows the war crimes committed by Nato, as well as those committed by the Western media, which has decided to obfuscate the casualties and human suffering of the Libyan people and uphold the humanitarian fiction of Nato’s R2P mandate.” – Professor Michel Chossudovsky

http://libya360.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/crimes-against-humanity-mounting-in-libya-courtesy-of-u-s-and-nato/?du

The United Nations Security Council has given the task to Nato to protect civilians in Libya. Consequent reports have been proving that instead of protecting civilians, however, Nato forces have been killing them left and right and justiiying them as part of their offensives against the government of Muamar Ghadafi. Nato drones and aircraft have been shown on mainstream media reports to conduct bombing attacks in all directions while Nato helicopters strafed the streets with machine guns.

In news media in the US, reports about Nato’s operations in Libya have given attention to the mounting casualties but without mentioning who precisely are to blame for the civilians killed. Reports have also focused on the activities of “rebel forces” who have conveniently been described as freedom fighters instead of fighters sent, trained and supported by Nato and its member countries.

In the New York Time’s editorial last August 22, it said that “There is little doubt that the rebels would not have gotten this far without Nato’s air campaign and political support from President Obama, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain. When critics in Washington and elsewhere declared Libya a quagmire, these leaders refused to back away.”

[sabrina 1]

7. Didn't think they would. In fact they are probably there for decades.

The whole thing was a Western backed operation. They did violate the UN resolution, but who is going to do anything about it? That was all for show. I cannot believe that people still fall for this after the past ten years of illegal wars.

The West wants to control the Middle East and Africa. The racism aspect, more blatantly expressed by people like Churchill, is the worst part of this imo. The European elite and American elite, simply believe that the people of these nations cannot run their own societies. So they have been destroying cultures for centuries attempting to replace them with Western culture.

Poor Libyan people.

[joshcryer]

13. They are not going to be there for decades because the Libyan people won't allow it.

You already see how the Libyan people are being politically active with regards to "pragmatic" choices with regards to security officials. The TNC has always changed things up when the people called for it. And they will likely get rid of this Gaddafi stooge in due course.

[joshcryer]

12. Wow, that site really thinks the whole thing is a zionist conspiracy...

...and thinks that Qatar set up a fake Green Square to http://libya360.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/psywar-the-fake-fall-of-tripoli/">show the celebrations:

There was a problem with Al-Jazeera’s story however: the Green Square it was showing wasn’t in Tripoli; it was a movie set in the Qatari capital of Doha, constructed with regime funds to enhance the international hasbara campaign against Qaddafi and the legitimate Libyan Resistance.

DUer's are saying this and even http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RAhUGZsZOc">saint Chavez believes it. It is incredibly laughable, beyond my grasp, how utterly mentally ill some people on this issue have appeared to be. :rofl:

Sky News showed the protests live in Green Square, for over 4-5 hours straight.

Utterly embarrassing how easily people, even Presidents of other countries, buy into lying propaganda.

[Selatius]

8. NATO leaving? Are we leaving Iraq? Or Afghanistan?

Judging from past experience, I'm willing to bet backroom deals are being made to establish a quasi-permanent, then a permanent military presence on Libyan soil. Contracts will be inked to operate those oil fields and privatize Libyan infrastructure. More contracts will be inked to train Libya's new national army, to sell western ammunition and weapon systems to Libya, and to provide training and "expertise" to the new Libyan government on "counter-intelligence." Perhaps one day, when they become good enough, we can outsource the water-boarding and other "enhanced interrogation" sessions of terror suspects to Libya, like we did with Egypt under Mubarak.

[leftstreet]

23. I believe that's called 'nation building'

:grr:

Excellent description by the way

[joshcryer]

9. LOL, you were the one saying NATO was going to deploy troops.

Never happend. NATO will be gone in a few months tops.

[sabrina 1]

14. Give them time. I see that now they are stating they will have to

stay in order to 'help the Libyan people get their economic house in order'. Lol! Phase two they are calling it. There are no people in Libya smart enough to handle that by themselves I guess!

And this is a Libyan 'rebel'?




This was wrong, all of it. The slaughter is unforgivable. The Black African bodies lying in the streets is devastating. From the beginning they were targeted by the 'rebels'.

I would post the photos, but they are far too upsetting and graphic. And where did these 'rebels' get the flack jackets and the weapons? They don't look like the Egyptian or Tunisian rebels, who were also being murdered by their regimes, but never armed themselves.

This was a war with heavily armed soldiers on both sides. Not a 'rag-tag' rebellion.

Edited to add another 'rebel' who looks more like Special Forces, either Brits or Qatar, and since Blackwater is in Qatar I would not be surprised if Blackwater provided the 'boots on the ground' from there. Now we know why Eric Prince left the US for that part of the world. He's still on his Christian Crusade.



Looks either British or American to me.

[joshcryer]

27. UK and Qatar provided flak jackets to the rebels, fyi.

[sudopod]

24. Kind of like how the war would be over in a couple of weeks? nt

[joshcryer]

26. Operation Odyssey Dawn was days not weeks.

[sudopod]

31. wut? nt

[StarsInHerHair]

16. more info on Misrata

..."Of all the publications, the Wall Street Journal reported in late June that within the rebel-held city of Misrata, black Libyans were being targeted by the rebels who were ethnically cleansing Misrata of its black population. Espousing the lies that the black Libyans from Tawergha, a small mostly black town 25 miles south of Misrata, were being used as mercenaries, this galvanized the rebels and their supporters against them, referring to them as “traitors.” Prior to the siege of Misrata, roughly four-fifths of the population in the poor housing project of Misrata’s Ghoushi neighbourhood were black Tawergha natives. Now, reported the WSJ, “they are gone or in hiding, fearing revenge attacks by Misratans, amid reports of bounties for their capture.” The rebel leadership in Benghazi reportedly stated that they were working on a “post-Gadhafi reconciliation plan,” yet claim that, “Libya is one tribe.” Some were calling for the expulsion of the Tawerghans from the area, and one rebel commander said, “They should pack up… Tawergha no longer exists, only Misrata.” As further evidence of the increasingly ethnically focused rebel leadership, some “rebel leaders are also calling for drastic measures like banning Tawergha natives from ever working, living or sending their children to schools in Misrata.” One rebel slogan that has appeared on the road between Misrata and Tawergha refers to the rebels as “the brigade for purging slaves, black skin.”<68>"....

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

[sabrina 1]

17. Black Africans are still being rounded up and killed there.

The body of a Black African, which they are claiming was a mercenary, so they are still using that excuse. The other photos are too gruesome to post here.



The body of a suspected mercenary lies near the rubble of a fire station




Libyan rebels detain 'mercenaries'

I would not want to be a Black African in Libya today:



Suspected members of the Libyan regime forces are rounded up in a truck by rebel fighters in Zawiya on August 19, 2011

Every Black African who did not get out of the country before the rebels took over, is now in extreme danger. All will considered 'mercenaries'. I hope some human rights organizations get involved and get them out of there.

[Xithras]

21. Tragically, Libya has a large native black population

The Toubou have been discriminated against in Libya for more than a century, and Gaddafi stripped them of citizenship about 10 years ago, claiming that they're not "real Libyans", in spite of the fact that tens of thousands of them have lived in southeastern Libya for centuries. The Libyans have been demolishing homes and have been doing everything they could to ethnically cleanse them.

The Toubou supported the rebellion, propbably hoping that the new government would be friendlier. So far, it's not looking too good for them.

[Distant Observer]

25. Jalil, Head of TNC, also worked for Gaddafi. He rebeled cuz Gaddafi did not impose strict Sharia

[joshcryer]

28. Jalil, human rights advocate, and the first to defect, advocates "strict Sharia." Total dishonesty.

And Islamaphobic to boot.

[Distant Observer]

29. I guess you are ignorant of Jalil's background. See that spot on his forehead? Do some research!

http://howcanpeoplebesostupid.com/?p=3959

[joshcryer]

30. LOL, I call it Islamaphobic, and guess what, you give me a link to a right wing Islam bashing site.

Along with global warming denialism and, even better yet, Iranian invasion advocacy. :puke:

Please spare me this garbage.