Libyan Revolution Day 79

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/libya-attacks-against-misratah-residents-point-war-crimes-2011-05-05">Libya: Attacks against Misratah residents point to war crimes
Misratah: Under Siege and Under Fire accuses al-Gaddafi forces of unlawful killing of civilians due to indiscriminate attacks, including use of heavy artillery, rockets and cluster bombs in civilian areas and sniper fire against residents.

It also documents systematic shooting at peaceful protesters and enforced disappearance of perceived opponents, which can amount to crimes against humanity.

"The scale of the relentless attacks that we have seen by al-Gaddafi forces to intimidate the residents of Misratah for more than two months is truly horrifying," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior adviser currently in Libya.

"It shows a total disregard for the lives of ordinary people and is in clear breach of international humanitarian law."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/africa/07libya.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss">Qaddafi Forces Spreading Landmines in Misurata
MISURATA, Libya — Military forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi scattered antitank land mines on the port of this besieged city late Thursday night, threatening once more to close the city’s only route for evacuation and supplies, according to accounts of witnesses, photographs and physical evidence collected on the ground.

The landmines were delivered by a Chinese-made variant of Grad rocket that opens in flight and drops mines to the ground below, each slowed slightly and oriented for arming by a small green parachute, according to an identification of the sub-munitions by specialists who were provided photographs and dimensions of the weapons.

The mines hit the port at 9 or 10 p.m. Thursday, after rockets were heard being fired on the city from the southeast. A short while later, a truck driven by rebels who were patrolling the harbor struck two of them. Both men inside were wounded, according to a port supervisor and one of the victims, Faisal el-Mahrougi, the driver.

Officials and guards said more than 20 mines were distributed in the attack, and remains of at least 13 were observed firsthand. It was not possible to verify an exact number, as many had been destroyed by rebels who, to clear the mines, shot them with rifles, causing them to explode. By nightfall on Friday, the port appeared to have been cleared.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/40d70a42-77fb-11e0-b90e-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1LcsIR8NC">Berbers step up battle in ‘forgotten’ mountains
A battle raging little-noticed in western Libya’s highlands may be crucial to the Tripoli regime’s oil and water supplies and the outcome of the conflict between Muammer Gaddafi and rebels, say analysts.

While international attention has focused on fighting in coastal towns such as Misurata, the combat in the Nafusa mountains is of strategic importance and is reported to have spilt over into Tunisia. The struggle in the area between Colonel Gaddafi’s army and Berber and Arab opposition forces has intensified in the past week, in a sign of the significant tussles taking place away from the east-west front line of Libya’s conflict.

Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Tripoli, said the Nafusa fighting was part of a broader pattern of inland turmoil that showed the conflict ran along more complex lines than a simple east-west split.

He said: “A more accurate way of describing it would be to say that Tripoli is different from the rest of the country, which is more tribal. It’s the old story of the Middle East and north Africa – it’s town against desert.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8498817/Libya-Osama-bin-Ladens-death-is-warning-to-Gaddafi.html">Libya: Osama bin Laden's death is 'warning to Gaddafi'
General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said the death of the al-Qaeda leader should have a “psychological impact” on the Libyan dictator and others because “one day their deeds will catch up with them.”

The general’s warning came as British officials revealed that weeks of allied attacks have now cost Col Gaddafi almost three-quarters of his military forces.

Gen Richards described the killing of bin Laden as “definitely a positive” in the context of political change in the Middle East.

“It will remind like-minded people wherever they are that one day their deeds will catch up with them,” he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/06/libya-war-correspondents-fed-propaganda">Dear Tripoli propagandists: Nothing compares 2 U and your surreal claims
"It's been seven hours and 15 days," sings Sinead O'Connor in Nothing Compares 2 U, a ballad that will instantly transport me back to the lobby of the Rixos hotel in Tripoli.

In my case it was 16 hours and 27 days that I listened over and over to Sinead, Kool and the Gang, Chris de Burgh, Spandau Ballet and countless other 80s artists on an endless loop echoing around the vast ostentatious lobby, whose drooping glass centrepiece was memorably described by a well-known British broadcaster as "the used condom chandelier".

But the muzak and the decor were relatively benign backdrops to four weeks of exposure to the Libyan regime and the parallel universe it inhabits.

By the end, I was so accustomed to the black-is-white statements of officials that the dropped jaws of newcomers at declarations such as "there is no bombardment of Misrata" seemed naively comical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDIFo9_T6iA">Gaddafi Forces Strike Rebel-Held Zintan - video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAclhhHv43s">Arab Awakening - Libya: Through the fire - video
Through the eyes of a Libyan-born filmmaker, we investigate the dark stories emerging from a country fast unravelling into civil war.

Libya: Through the fire can be seen from Thursday, May 5, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 2000; Friday: 1200; Saturday: 0100; Sunday: 0600; Monday: 2000; Tuesday: 1200; Wednesday: 0100; Thursday: 0600.

"One month ago (Western countries) were sooo nice, so nice like pussycats," Saif says in a contemptuous sing-song tone."Now they want to be really aggressive like tigers. (But) soon they will come back, and cut oil deals, contracts. We know this game." - http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2058389,00.html">Saif Gaddafi

http://english.libya.tv/2011/04/25/eastern-libyans-believe-in-national-unity-distrust-au-and-turkish-mediation-survey-reveals/">The first free public opinion poll ever conducted in Libya reveals clues to Eastern Libyan sentiments
* 98 percent of the respondents do not support the division of Libya as a part of the political solution for the current conflict with the Gaddafi regime. Around 95 percent also don’t see any role for Gaddafi or his sons in a transitional period, and think it is impossible to implement any political reform in Libya if Gaddafi or one of his sons stays in power

* Around 96 percent of those polled, believe that the 17th of February revolution can consolidate the national unity of Libya and support the model of a democratic Libya based on a constitution which respects human rights

* Al-Qaeda has not played any role in the 17th of February revolution, say 94 percent of the Eastern Libyans, and 91 percent thinks it’s impossible for Al-Qaeda to play any political role in the new Libya

* The National Transitional Council is seen by 92 percent of those surveyed as “expressing the views and wishes of Libyans for change”

http://jenkinsear.com/2011/03/19/a-legal-war-the-united-nations-participation-act-and-libya/">A Legal War: The United Nations Participation Act and Libya
The above link is to an overview of why Obama's implementation of the NFZ and R2P is perfectly legal under the law. I will not post it entirely here, however, all objections come down to the misinformed position that Obama, by using forces in Libya, was invoking Article 43 of the United Nations. This is wrong. Obama invoked Article 42, which does not require congressional approval to implement. Proof of this is that Article 43 has http://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/actions.shtml#rel5">never been used.

It goes like this: The US law (Title 22, Chap. 7, Subchap. XIV § 287d) grants the President the right to invoke UN Article 42 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode22/usc_sec_22_00000287---d000-.html">without authorization, the War Powers Act (Title 50, Chap. 33 § 1541) grants the President permission to act without authorization under http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/1541–1548.html">"specific statutory authorization" which, by definition, is what 287d does. § 1543 of the War Powers Act requires the President to report to Congress, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/obama_explains_libya_mission_to_congress/2011/03/03/ABU9377_blog.html">which he did. One can argue all day and night about the legality of the War Powers Act, doesn't change the fact that under the law as it is written, the President acted within the law.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/libya-live-blog-march-10-0">March 10 7:28pm Saif al Islam Gaddafi says "the time has come for full-scale military action" against Libyan rebels. He goes on to say that Libyan forces loyal to his family "will never surrender, even if western powers intervene".

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2011/03/2011328194855872276.html">Libyan Karzai? Chalabi? Forget it
Fortunately, the Council wasn't made-in-the-USA or manufactured by another foreign power. Rather it came into existence, a month ago, at Libyans' own initiative, soon after the winds of revolutionary change blew Libya's way, and after its people rose to the occasion with pride and courage.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/31/getting_libyas_rebels_wrong">Getting Libya's Rebels Wrong
Don't buy Qaddafi's line: The rebels aren't al Qaeda.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/04/04/110404taco_talk_anderson#ixzz1HvS7iW22">Who Are the Rebels?
During weeks of reporting in Benghazi and along the chaotic, shifting front line, I’ve spent a great deal of time with these volunteers. The hard core of the fighters has been the shabab—the young people whose protests in mid-February sparked the uprising. They range from street toughs to university students (many in computer science, engineering, or medicine), and have been joined by unemployed hipsters and middle-aged mechanics, merchants, and storekeepers. There is a contingent of workers for foreign companies: oil and maritime engineers, construction supervisors, translators. There are former soldiers, their gunstocks painted red, green, and black—the suddenly ubiquitous colors of the pre-Qaddafi Libyan flag.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/29/vision-democratic-libya-interim-national-council">A vision of a democratic Libya
The interim national council, formed by opposition groups in Libya, has said it will hold free and fair elections and draft a national constitution. Here is its eight-point plan in full.

http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/04/20/left-slipping-towards-qaddafi">The left: slipping towards Qaddafi?
When the revolt against Qaddafi started in Libya, hardly anyone on the left — however broadly defined — could say anything in defence of Qaddafi.

With the start of the "no-fly zone", many on the left started to sideline the issues within Libya and focus their efforts on denouncing NATO.

Now the denunciation of NATO, in turn, is acting as a lever to introduce defence of Qaddafi and denunciation of the rebels into broad-left discourse.

...

Everything is done by insinuation and sarcasm, just as old-style Stalinists used to deflect criticism of the USSR by studied wondering whether the regime was quite as bad as extreme Western right-wingers used to say, or whether the right-wingers' motives for criticism might be suspect.

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/is-qaddafi-an-anti-racist/">Is Qaddafi an anti-racist?

...

One of the signs that you are dealing with a cruder form of propaganda is if the author does not bother to address evidence that contradicts his or her own. To be taken seriously on the question of Qaddafi’s commitment to pan-African values, you have to take a close look at his overall record, something that does not interest Forte who is so anxious to tilt the scales in favor of Qaddafi that he does not bother to conceal the fact that his hand rests upon the scale.

...

Mohammed Nabbous, killed by Gaddafi's forces while trying to report on the massacre in Benghazi

"I'm not afraid to die, I'm afraid to lose the battle" -Mohammed Nabbous, a month ago when all this began

I'm struggling to come up with something to say about this man. I was not aware of the Libyan uprising until I saw Mo's first report, begging for help, posted here on DU. I was stricken. Here was a man giving everything he had to explain a situation that clearly terrified him, I would not call him a coward in that moment, but you could see the fear in his eyes, and desperation in his voice. For 30 days Nabbous would spend many hours covering the uprising in Benghazi. For many nights I would go to sleep with the webcast of Benghazi live on my computer screen, looking to it occasionally to be sure it was still 'there.' Mo treated the chat room as if we were his friends, and in some way, we were. I never signed up to LiveStream to thank him for all his work and it seems somewhat shallow to do so now, given that I was a lurker for so long. Ever since I took over posting these threads "Libya Alhurra" has been linked as a source of information. It wasn't until last night, when I posted, and twitter posted on Mo's adventures out into Benghazi to try to determine the truth of the situation, that Mo's webchannel became a hit, over 2000 people were watching him stream live. This was curious to him because he'd done many reports like this in the past but he appeared somewhat bemused that the view count exploded as it did. Last night Mo became a star. This is a man who first started out with a webcast replete with fear and desperation finally overcoming that aspect of himself and losing that fear, to become someone who was a fighter for the resistance just as much as those who held the guns. Reporting on the front lines of Benghazi became his final act, and for that he should never, ever be forgotten. I'm so sorry Mo that I never got to know you better.

Mo's first report, which many of you may remember, begging for help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EXALI60hg

Mo's last report, a fallen hero trying to spread the word to the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecu_iWLn-rg

Mo leaves behind a wife who is with child, she had http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/23/a_bright_voice_from_libyas_darkness">this to say about the No Fly Zone and R2P UN resolution:

We started this in a pure way, but he turned it bloody. Thousands of our men, women, and children have died. We just wanted our freedom, that's all we wanted, we didn't want power. Before, we could not do a single thing if it was not the way he wanted it. All we wanted was freedom. All we wanted was to be free. We have paid with our blood, with our families, with our men, and we're not going to give up. We are still going to do that no matter what it takes, but we need help. We want to do this ourselves, but we don't have the weapons, the technology, the things we need. I don't want anyone to say that Libya got liberated by anybody else. If NATO didn't start moving when they did, I assure you, I assure you, half of Benghazi if not more would have been killed. If they stop helping us, we are going to be all killed because he has no mercy anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDLYnqGo5wk">Targeting fuel tanks Misurata Grad missiles
were heard (about 40 explosion sequence)
The Grad rockets targeted the fuel tanks region Palace Ahmed Misurata City is the city's main fuel tanks
The incident resulted in the outbreak of fire Bkhozanin super-sized one and the other diesel and aviation fuel

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/09/110509fa_fact_anderson">Sons of the Revolution
On the morning of March 12th, Osama ben Sadik, a volunteer ambulance driver, arrived for duty at the Red Crescent clinic in Brega, an oil-refinery town in eastern Libya. The uprising against Muammar Qaddafi had turned from a protest movement into a shooting war, and casualties were expected. But no one in Brega had a clear idea of what was happening on the battlefield, not even the few fighters fidgeting by a new barricade outside the refinery’s front gate. Six days earlier, Qaddafi’s armored columns had halted the rebels on their ill-planned, euphoric advance westward toward Tripoli. Bloodied and outgunned, the rebels, a leaderless rabble of university students, mechanics, shopkeepers, and Army reservists, had been falling back ever since. After a standoff on the coastal road that ran past Ras Lanuf, another oil-refinery town, eighty miles to the west, the rebels had buckled under heavy fire and made a panicked retreat. It seemed obvious that the small desert town of Brega would be the next target of Qaddafi’s forces.

At the clinic, most of the medical staff had evacuated after an ambulance was hit by a shell, killing one of their doctors and several nurses. A lone doctor remained, along with Osama, who was friendly, and spoke extraordinarily good English. A rangy man of forty-eight with warm brown eyes and an aquiline face that resembled a beardless Abraham Lincoln’s, he showed off his ambulance. To aid the war effort, he and some friends had adapted a Toyota Land Cruiser pickup into a mobile emergency-treatment center. The vehicle, painted white with a red crescent, was parked at the clinic entrance, where Osama was busily cleaning it.

When I asked Osama how he had learned English, he said, “I’m from Martinsville, Virginia.” He was Libyan, but his wife, Suzi, was half American. A onetime Libyan Arab Airlines engineer, Osama had, with Suzi, raised four children in Benghazi. But in the nineties, with Libya isolated by international sanctions because of Qaddafi’s refusal to hand over suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, Osama had struggled to make a living. In 2007, after the sanctions had been lifted, he moved with his family to Henry County, Virginia, near where Suzi’s mother lived. There, he found he could make money by exporting construction equipment to Benghazi, and he flew back and forth to supervise the business. With pride, Osama told me that he had become a U.S. citizen, and was now a member of Henry County’s volunteer fire department.

His wife and their two young daughters were in Virginia, he explained, but he and his two sons were in Libya, doing whatever they could for the revolution. While Osama was driving his improvised ambulance, his younger son, Yousef, a seventeen-year-old high-school student who was living in Benghazi with a relative, was taking part in the rallies held daily in front of the revolution’s headquarters, a beat-up courthouse on the city’s seafront promenade. Muhannad, his elder son, a twenty-one-year-old medical student, was fighting at the front. Osama’s description of Muhannad reminded me that a few days before, in Ras Lanuf, I had noticed a young Libyan-American fighter, fair-haired and blue-eyed. He was wearing a mujahideen-style pakul cap, and he waved and smiled at me from a jeep that was making its way to the front line. I asked Osama if his son had light hair and wore an Afghan cap, and he beamed: “Yes, that’s him! That’s my son.”

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/05/libya-lobbyists-come-clean">Libya Lobbyists Come Clean
Yep, we messed up. That's the word out of the Cambridge-based consulting firm Monitor Group. Between 2006 and 2008, the company maintained a highly questionable business relationship with the regime of Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator. Monitor helped Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif write his PhD dissertation at the London School of Economics. It also hired some of the US and UK's foremost international relations experts to write glowing editorials and essays about the Qaddafi regime's efforts to clean up its act and enact democratic reforms. And the firm never revealed that it was all was part of a coordinated—and well-funded—effort to end Libya's status as a pariah state.

Not long after Mother Jones reported on Monitor's Libya project, questions arose about whether the firm had taken the proper steps to register as a lobbyist for Libya with the Justice Department. Offering advice on economic or governing reform without registering isn't illegal. But the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) stipulates that groups like Monitor must register if they're planning on conducting "acts in a public relations capacity for a foreign principal"—which, as we reported, is primarily what Monitor's Libya project was all about. As we wrote back in March, Monitor decided to conduct an internal investigation into whether it had violated FARA, initially led by Eamonn Kelly, a senior partner at the firm. Later, the company brought in outside lawyers from the firm of Covington & Burling to finish the job.

http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20110507065917/US_freezes_assets_of_Libyan_state_broadcaster">US freezes assets of Libyan state broadcaster
2011-05-06 The Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation (LJBC) on Thursday (May 5th) was added to the list of state-controlled companies sanctioned by the US, AFP reported. Assets and property of other Libyan companies based in London and Algeria were also frozen. "The United Nations and countries around the world are locking down the government of Libya's assets to prevent the Kadhafi regime from sponsoring further bloodshed," US Treasury official Adam Szubin said. On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Libya Contact Group in Rome that that the US was looking into legislation that would allow some $34 billion in frozen Libyan assets to be released to the rebels' Transitional National Council.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/libyan-shells-fall-in-tunisia-in-renewed-fighting">Libyan shells fall in Tunisia in renewed fighting
DEHIBA, Tunisia, May 7 (Reuters) - Several shells fired by forces loyal to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi fell in Tunisia on Saturday as fighting broke out near the border between soldiers and anti-Gaddafi rebels, witnesses said.

"At least four shells have fallen inside Tunisia, but not in a built-up area," said Reuters correspondent Tarek Amara in the Tunisian border town of Dehiba. (Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=609902&vId=">'Day of Defiance' leaves 36 Syrians dead
Syrian security forces shot dead at least 26 protesters on Friday as thousands rallied on a Day of Defiance against the Syrian regime, a rights group said, with authorities accusing 'terrorists' of killing 10 security personnel.

The violence came as the European Union agreed to impose sanctions on 13 Syrian officials involved in the regime's brutal crackdown on protests and will meet on Monday to discuss whether to target Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well, diplomats said.

The United States warned it would take 'additional steps' against Syria if it continues its crackdown, a week after imposing tough sanctions on the Arab nation.

The Syrian rights group, Insan, put the day's toll at 26 killed but said it expected this to rise.

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE74524H20110507?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0">Fear of crackdown, conscription haunts Libyan capital
TRIPOLI, May 7 (Reuters) - Green bunting and pictures of Muammar Gaddafi festoon a Tripoli district where two months ago protesters marched in the streets. Locals whisper on corners, youths avert their gaze. Men watch passersby from unmarked cars. The fear is palpable on Tripoli's streets, fear of speaking out and fear of conscription as NATO air strikes hit Gaddafi's forces and fighting rages in Misrata and the Western Mountains.

More than two months after an uprising against Gaddafi's 41-year rule saw rebels seize the eastern part of Libya, the army has crushed dissent in the capital and its crack down on opponents elsewhere in the west is spreading fear.

"No one wants him. If the people in Tripoli were not so scared they would rise up. They did in February, in Tajoura, in Fashloom, in Souq al-Jumaa, but he crushed them," said one shopkeeper, changing the subject when other customers came in.

In the Fashloom district, a tent flanked by a big picture of Gaddafi stands a few metres from the charred offices of the local revolutionary council, set alight during the unrest that spread briefly in late February and early March before fizzling out.

Libyan ambassador to Rome spells out defection
AFP , Saturday 7 May 2011

"I am with the people, with the rebels and against Gaddafi's regime," Abdulhafed Gaddur, who has been a Libyan diplomat in Italy since 1990, told the Corriere della Sera daily in an interview.

"I will stay in my post until a new Libya and its new government make their choices," said Gaddur.

...

The ambassador signed a document in February drafted by defectors from the regime pledging support for the Libyan people but had not spelled out his exact position and his status is unclear even though he retains his title.

An unsourced report in business daily Il Sole 24 Ore after international talks on Libya in Rome on Thursday said that the anti-Gaddafi leadership had asked Italy to replace the ambassador with their own nominee.

more...

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/11557/World/Region/Libyan-ambassador-to-Rome-spells-out-defection.aspx

Obstacles Loom on Path to Funding Libyans
MIDDLE EAST NEWS MAY 7, 2011

By CASSELL BRYAN-LOW And DEBORAH BALL

The U.S. and other countries that seek to hand frozen assets of Col. Moammar Gadhafi's regime to rebels that seek to overthrow him face political and legal obstacles that could slow the delivery of funds.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the Obama administration was working with Congress to pass legislation allowing the Treasury Department to release Libyan assets that it froze in response to the Libyan leader's crackdown on protesters. The U.S. has frozen more than $34 billion of assets related to the Gadhafi regime; billions of dollars more have been frozen elsewhere.

To get frozen assets to the Libyan opposition is fraught with complexities. "It is a lot more complicated than saying we are going to unfreeze these assets and hand them over," says Harriet Territt, a London-based lawyer at Jones Day.

The U.K., for instance, is keen to help address humanitarian needs, but needs to clear a number of complex obstacles, said a person familiar with the situation. "We're considering a number of options to do this and we will see what is legally possible," a spokesman for the U.K.'s Foreign Office said.

more...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704810504576307251084940750.html

Gaddafi planes 'destroy Misurata fuel tanks'

Gaddafi forces used small planes for the overnight attack in Qasr Ahmed close to Misurata port.
Last Modified: 07 May 2011 12:03

Libyan government forces dropped bombs on four large oil storage tanks in the contested western city of Misurata, destroying the tanks and sparking a fire that spread to four more, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday.

Government forces used small, pesticides spraying planes for the overnight attack in Qasr Ahmed close to the port, said spokesman Ahmed Hassan.

Rebels notified NATO about the planes before the attack but there was no response, he said.

Government forces last month flew at least one helicopter reconnaissance mission over Misurata, according to rebels.

more...

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/05/201157112432539341.html

Saudi Arabia stops Libya rebel FM from using airspace
AFP , Saturday 7 May 2011

The acting foreign minister of Libya's rebel government cancelled a trip to Qatar on Saturday after Saudi Arabia refused to allow his plane to use its airspace, Cairo airport officials said.

The officials said Ali al-Isawi's plane stopped in Cairo to refuel on its way from Rome when Saudi Arabia informed the crew that they would not be allowed to fly through its airspace.

Isawi returned to Benghazi, the rebel's stronghold in eastern Libya, after waiting several hours in Cairo, they said. They did not explain why Saudi Arabia barred the plane.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are the only Arab countries that joined a NATO coalition in enforcing a UN sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya after leader Moamer Khadafi appeared poised to win back rebel controlled territories.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/2/8/11603/World/Region/Saudi-Arabia-stops-Libya-rebel-FM-from-using-airsp.aspx

Sat May 07, 2011 at 10:02 AM PDT
Berber Rebellion & Gaddafi

by niccolo caldararo

In the forgotten mountains of western Libya a terrible struggle is going on. Berber rebels and their Arab allies are fighting a loosing war against better armed Gaddafi military and militia. No Nato aid has arrived and the Gaddafi forces are taking no quarter and firing on the old, the infirm and women and children. Ignored by the world the Berbers are fighting for their existence. Protected in part by the rugged territory of the Nafusa Mountains, they have been able to hold off Gaddafi forces until the last three weeks when a new offensive has broken rebel lines. The Berbers need no foreign troops to help, they need arms and ammunition. Nato air cover would be effective but even if Nato bombed roads and bridges the effect would be to slow Gaddafi forces and allow the Berbers to regroup. Nato planes have been seen in the sky but little has been done. Now is the time for Nato and the US to act. A Berber presence or victory over the Gaddafi forces threatens vital supply lines to Gaddafi from the resource-rich Ghadames basin to the south. Should rebels in the Nafusa succeed and link with rebel tribes in the Kufra area, Gaddafi is finished. A minor investment by Nato now will make all the difference.

The fall of the city of Gharyan on March 1st signaled the pro-Gaddafi invasion of the Nafusa region. Gaddafi has persecuted the Berbers throughout his reign, banning their language and signs of ethnicity. Other cities have fallen since and in each case Gaddafi terrorists have gone door to door carrying out murders of suspected rebels and their families. Currently a savage battle rages around the city of Zintan where rebel Berber and Arab allies are surrounded by Gaddafi forces with tanks and rocket launchers. The city is being bombarded by pro-Gaddafi shells night and day killing hundreds of civilians. The battle for Libya will be won or lost in the Nafusa. Information and independent sources have been posted on Wikipedia for this struggle (http://en.wikipedia.org/...) and (http://en.wikipedia.org/...).

al-Jazeera reports today that Nato failed to defend Misurata against pro-Gaddafi air attacks that destroyed Misurata's oil and petro storage tanks (http://english.aljazeera.net/) but also on the failure of Nato planes to neutralize pro-Gaddafi tanks and rocket launchers in Nafusa out side Zintan. It is obvious that Nato cannot deal effectively with the situation and American drones are needed to force Gaddafi's forces out of the Nafusa.

Strangely enough, Gaddafi is a member of an Arabized Berber tribe so one might imagine that his oppression of the Berbers originates from not only a dogmatic modernism, but a psychology of self-hatred.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/07/946332/-Berber-RebellionGaddafi?showAll=yes

Amazigh Libyan Free Speach

Imazighen of Libya have long struggled to uphold their language, cultural rights and their identity under Gaddafi's regime.

Psychological pressure and random discrimination were exerted on the Amazigh Community in Libya.

No Amazigh mother could transmit her heritage by naming her child in the Tamazight tongue.

The Amazigh language had never been recognized under Gaddafi's regime and banned from schools and universities. All forms of communication in Tamazight had been censored including the written press and news broadcasts.

Even Amazigh thoughts were banned under the Gaddafi regime - our thinkers and scholars were arrested for expressing their academic works in Tifinagh - Tamazight script.

We as the Imazighen of the Jabal Nafusa area believe that our sisters and brothers in Libya share the same Amazigh blood - it has been passed to them through the centuries - our roots are the same.

Our new Libya shall be the country where the clear, ancient voices of the Amazigh will join in the Libyan song of freedom.

http://libyatadreft.com/

Published on 7 May 2011 by Libya TV

“Libya creates opportunity for relation between Arabs and West”

“The way the Libyan crisis has developed has created a very important new opportunity for the relations between the Arab world and the West”, says UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. Unfortunately, “I see the debate in Europe more centred on the questions of closing the borders or the risk of people coming from the south into Europe, than centred on support for democracy.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, also a former prime minister of Portugal, reflected on the Arab revolts during a discussion on 5 May organised by the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. “First of all, to be absolutely frank, I think that there is not yet in Europe and there is not yet in North America a clear understanding of what really in my opinion is at stake in the Lotus and the Jasmine Revolutions” Guterres said.

“I am afraid that there is not yet a clear understanding of how important it is to guarantee the success of a democratic experience in these two countries, but also from the point of view of the region and from the point of view of global peace and security. I don’t think we are there and I think that all of us need to make more efforts to convince people about the urgency.”

Regarding the on-going crisis in Libya, Guterres criticised the mixed reactions in Europe in particular. “I see Europe to be honest too divided in relation to the situation in Northern Africa. Regarding Libya we have seen Germany against the intervention, with France and Britain assuming a very active role. I see the debate in Europe more centred on the questions of closing the borders or the risk of people coming from the south into Europe, than centred on support for democracy and to democracy development in the area. I also believe that the way the Libyan crisis has developed has created a very important new opportunity when one thinks about the relationship between the Arab world or the Muslim world and the Western world.”

more...
http://english.libya.tv/2011/05/07/%E2%80%9Clibya-creates-opportunity-for-relation-between-arabs-and-west%E2%80%9D/

Pro-Gadhafi forces bomb fuel depots in contested Libyan city
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 7, 2011 -- Updated 1917 GMT (0317 HKT)

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces bombed key fuel depots in the contested city of Misrata Saturday, destroying six containers and causing a massive fire, a rebel spokesman said.

Meanwhile, in the de facto rebel capital, Benghazi, the Libyan opposition said Italy has agreed to arm the rebels.

Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, deputy chairman of the National Transitional Council, said opposition representatives have flown to Italy to finish the deal.

The Italian Foreign Ministry categorically denied it will send weapons to Libya. A press office spokesman said Italy will only go as far as sending non-lethal weapons such as satellite and radar systems to aid the rebels.

more...
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/07/libya.war/

Libya Strikes Fuel Supply in City Held by Rebels
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: May 7, 2011

MISURATA, Libya — Military forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi struck the fuel terminal of this rebel-controlled city early Saturday with ground-to-ground rockets, igniting a fire that threatened the city’s fuel supply.

...

At least one rocket hit a set of three mammoth tanks, which ruptured and burst into a fireball. The fire settled into a leaping blaze that towered overheard, visible for miles. Its glow illuminated the eastern section of the city throughout the night. Residents woke to a thick, drifting cloud of black smoke.

...

The impact craters and twisted remains of other ground-to-ground rockets were visible around the remaining tanks.

The tail section of one variant of a Grad rocket — a cold war-era munitions made in the 1980s in what is now Slovakia, and one of the most common fired on this city — was visibly stuck in the soil near the fire.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/middleeast/08libya.html?_r=1