Tag: Libya

British special forces are on the ground in Libya helping to spearhead the hunt for Col Muammar Gaddafi, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

As a £1 million bounty was placed on Gaddafi's head, soldiers from 22 SAS Regiment began guiding rebel soldiers after being ordered in by David Cameron.

For the first time, defence sources have confirmed that the SAS has been in Libya for several weeks, and played a key role in coordinating the fall of Tripoli.

With the majority of the capital now in rebel hands, the SAS soldiers, who have been dressed in Arab civilian clothing and carrying the same weapons as the rebels, have been ordered to switch their focus to the search for Gaddafi, who has been on the run since his fortified headquarters was captured on Tuesday.

-- The Telegraph, August 25, 2011, Libya: SAS leads hunt for Gaddafi

"When rebels ransacked Moammar Gadhafi's compound and paraded gleefully with his military hats and golf cart in Tripoli this week, the scenes sparked memories of the looting of Baghdad in 2003. It was a reminder that Libya could plunge into the same post-war anarchy that terrorized Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, when thousands of civilians were killed" is the opening paragraph of Geoffrey York's Globe and Mail article Wednesday afternoon.

But Ghahafi, or Gaddafi, or Quaddafi, or whatever his name is, is gone and Freedom and Democracy has been delivered to Libyans by western humanitarian bombers, without "boots on the ground" - except CIA spook boots that aren't really there, right? Hasn't it?

Well, almost, but things are never quite as clearcut and simple as they're made out to be.

York goes on to explain that, in order to assure that only true Humanitarian Brand(TM)Freedom and Democracy is delivered to Libyans, the coalition of opportunists, sorry I mean coalition of the willing, have decided that it ain't over until the Libyan population is pacified, I mean happy and secure with their newfound 'self-determination', and the only way to accomplish self-determination for them since they aren't really capable of self-determination themselves of course (but it sounded good when it was needed), is to is to send in the police to protect them from each other.

This is all part of the no-fly resolution of course - it's just the baggage that wouldn't fit in the luggage compartments of the bombers dropping freedom bombs - the fine print, as it were.

Call it "Mission Yet To Be Accomplished", for short.

Crossposted from Antemedius

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In 2010, American voters foolishly aided and abetted the Republicans by giving them control of Congress.

We now enter a very dangerous period in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election.

If Obama is not re-elected, and people don't work towards returning workable majorities in the House and the Senate to the Democrats, then the country only continues its decline, and all will be lost.

It may be the end of a two century great social experiment unequaled in human history.

NATO launched an airstrike today that killed Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, the 29 year old son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, and three grandchildren.

The Libyan Government, through spokesman Moussa Ibrahim says Colonel Gaddafi and his wife were also in the house but unharmed. BBC reporter Christian Fraser writes that a few hours after the explosion:

[W]e were eventually brought to the villa, which was surrounded by reinforced concrete, cameras, and military positions. This is clearly an exclusive neighbourhood. Inside, total destruction.

....It's hard to imagine that anyone could have escaped unscathed, though according to the government spokesman the Libyan leader and his wife were present and are safe and well. But there's no independent evidence they were there.

NATO airstrikes are intended to save civilian lives in Libya. Libya says today's strike was an assassination attempt.

Here's the text of Obama's speech on Libya.

Answering those who think the U.S. should be more involved in Libya:

If we tried to overthrow Gaddafi by force, our coalition would splinter. We would likely have to put U.S. troops on the ground, or risk killing many civilians from the air. The dangers faced by our men and women in uniform would be far greater. So would the costs, and our share of the responsibility for what comes next.

To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq. Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our troops and the determination of our diplomats, we are hopeful about Iraq’s future. But regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya.

I didn't get to see Obama deliver the speech. How do you think he did? And more importantly, do you agree with him?

U.S. Tomahawk missiles have landed in Libya. President Obama today said he has authorized "limited military action in Libya" and that "that action has now begun."

The first airstrikes will take out Gadhafi's air defenses in the western part of Libya, mostly concentrated around Tripoli and Misrata.

"Once we do that, that would open up the environment where we could enforce the no-fly zone throughout, from east to west of Libya," the official said.

The next phase will be "planes flying over Libyan airspace near Tripoli, and in the Mediterranean Sea near Benghazi. ." Also participating: The UK, Canada, France and Italy.

Obama says no ground troops will be going to Libya. On the strikes, he said today in Brazil:

This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought...We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."

A federal indictment has been handed down in Miami against former Liberian Chief Charles Taylor's son, Chuckie Taylor, also known as Charles McArthur Emmanuel.

The son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was indicted Wednesday on U.S. charges of committing torture as chief of a violent paramilitary unit during his father's regime, marking the first time a 12-year-old federal anti-torture law has ever been used, U.S. officials said.