PoliticsLibya: Libyan rebels: Advances — are we at the tilt point? and more ...

VOA News.com  (June27,2k11)

Voice Of America is a USA govt-established broadcasting (radio mostly)
agency for news and interpretation in as positive a way as possible toward
our nation and its government.  If it's propaganda, it's certainly American
propaganda -- to counter the falsehoods circulated in certain quarters of
the listening and webwiewing publics who heavily rely worldwide on the
VOA for radio transmission of information, info that sometimes may
actually prove determinative of whether some among their listeners live or
die.  — Owlb

— Also see the refWrite editorial comment,
below the news update on Libya, by Politicarp.

Africa 

 June 26, 2011

Libyan Rebels claim advances 

in Western Mountain

VOA News

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Photo: AFP/Patrick Baz

A Libyan rebel looks at the tail of a rebel MIG-23 jet in Benghazi on June 26, 2011 at the site where the jet crashed after it was shot down on March 19, 2011.

Rebels in Libya's western mountains say they have advanced and are battling leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces in a strategic town 80 kilometers southwest of the capital, Tripoli.

Opposition commanders said Sunday's fighting on the outskirts of Bair al-Ghanam follows weeks of intense clashes in the Nafusa Mountains that have pushed government troops steadily back toward the capital.

The town is significant because it is only 30 kilometers from Zawiya, a key western gateway to Tripoli and home to a crucial oil refinery. Opposition forces seized Zawiya in March before pro-Gadhafi fighters retook the city.

A ship carrying 106 Libyans arrived in Tripoli early Sunday from the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi. The ferry was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported about 300 people to Benghazi from Tripoli on Friday.

Meanwhile, African Union leaders meeting in Pretoria said Mr. Gadhafi has agreed to stay out of negotiations to end Libya's more than four-month-old civil war. The AU said in a statement Sunday that it "welcomes Mr. Gadhafi's acceptance of not being part of the negotiation process."
read all of this VOA news report ...

refWrite editorial comment:

Libya  — is it tilt-time?

It sure seems that way.  

But, full disclosure, this reformational Christian news horse, refWrite, early on came to the support of the rebels against 

the régime of Omar Gadaffi the Tent Dwelling 

All - but - (Self-) Crowned Desert King of the Libyans.

Today has brawt such good news to news analysts who with professional

knowledge looked forward to the political removal of the woud-be king of

the Libyans.  He, his dynasty, and his upper echelon political and military

staff —must be cast out!  That is the only way Libya's rebels can open the
way further for a democratic government,

— Politicarp

PoliticsLibya: German Foreign Minister: Declares rebels to be legit govt of Libya

------------------------------------------
LosAngelesTimes (June14,2k11)

by Patrick J. McDonnell

The battlefronts 


of the Libyan Civil War



Editorial comment:  The lead news regarding Libya in past 24-hours has been the announcement by Germany's Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, reportedly said during a visit that the opposition government based in Benghazi was the "legitimate representative of the Libyan people."  This move is possibly a case of tacit recognition, not formal recognition by the German state with an exchange of ambassadors.   I foresee more defactos, and more formal recognitions coming in due season.  I also note that other moves include a campaign to isolate Libya from its networks and supporters in Africa, both Arab and Black Africa.

-- Politicarp

Reporting from Tripoli, Libya — Clashes near the Libyan city of Port Brega left two dozen antigovernment fighters dead Monday in some of the fiercest battles in weeks along the front dividing rebels in the east and Moammar Kadafi's forces in the west.

The fighting also left 28 rebels wounded, said Dr. Suleiman Refadi, a surgeon at the general hospital in opposition-held Ajdabiya.



The front line between rebel and regime forces lies about halfway between Ajdabiya and Port Brega, the latter an important oil port where thousands of pro-Kadafi troops are said to be dug in.
The opposition has won territory in several pockets in the west, notably the port city of Misurata, just 120 miles east ofTripoli, the capital. But rebels trying to move on from Misurata have also suffered heavy losses in recent days. Some news agency reports Monday suggested Misurata-based rebels were advancing on the government-controlled town of Zlitan, the next objective on the road to Tripoli. 


Read more ... click the t+mstamp just below ...

PoliticsLibya: Abu Sufian Qumu: Guantanamo AlQuaedist exposed by WikiLeaks, leads anti-democrats in Libyan revolution

The Telegraph London, UK (Apr27,2k11)

WikiLeaks: 

Guantanamo detainee 

is now Libyan rebel leader

A man who spent six years in Guantanamo is now a senior 

figure in the Libyan rebels’ fight against Colonel Gadaffi.

by Holly Watt 7:00AM BST 26 Apr 2011

14 Comments

In a newly disclosed file by WikiLeaks that was written in 2005, Abu Sufian 


Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda Bin Qumu was identified as a “probable member 


of Al Qaida and a member of the African Extremist Network”.

The revelation will raise concerns about the range of factions fighting Gadaffi in Libya, some of whom have been associated with Al Qaeda.

Qumu was previously a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, but allegedly left the proscribed group in 1998 to join the Taliban.

In the report, US investigators classified Qumu as a “medium to high” risk because he was “likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests and allies”.

Qumu was imprisoned in Libya for ten years for alleged “murder, physical assault, armed assault and 

distributing narcotics”, but escaped in 1993 and fled to Afghanistan.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

refWrite editorial comment:  The intro to the news article above, by Holly Watt, was published by London, England's Telegraph newspaper.  The complete article with related reports deserves wide reading.  To my mind, the import of the Al-Quaeda presence, a leading presence, in the Libyan revolution in no way invalidates the Libyan revolution, but it does confirm what some conservative Christians and others have been warning about all the ongoing revolutions in the MidEast.  There is a risk that AlQuaeda types, even some who were incarcerated in Quantanamo prison for war criminals, will swarm into any given MidEastern revolutionary scene, take over the national revolt, and impose not democracy but theocratic tyranny on the nation.  While I fully synpathize with the situation where the USA, unlike any other Western country, is damned if it supports the previous dictators of those countries, and damned it it doesn't, by opening up the prospect of a potentially worse tyranny emerging.

But there's a matter of judgment involved for all Western countries, indeed for all countries which truly value freedom:   In the case of the USA, it was more than time for Mubarak to be driven from the scene in Egypt; his tyrannies were many, but the Muslim Brotherhood's potential takeover of Egypt was allowed to serve as his excuse to make them the only political opposition with any clout.  We shall see whether the MB takes over the country in the upcoming elections.  Or whether the junta now in control will revert to form and determine the outcome by eonsconcing one of their fellas.  The democratic forces that have emerged in Egypt now deserve the support of all freedom loving regimes thru-out the world.

Likewise in Libya.  Already a clear three-way conflict has come into view with the WikiLeaks documents publicly exposing the leading presence of Abu Sufian Qumu in the country.  Another report says 1,000 AlQuaedists  have swarmed into the country and back Qumu's leadership.  These places the democratic forces, which until now, have had little clear leadership, either military or political.  The Western and other freedom-loving forces must not only render Qadaffi's regime powerless (a big enuff task in itself) but also render extinct the Al Quaeda forces that want to exploit the democratic revolution, substitute their jihadist-Islamicist tyranny for Qadaffi's, and impose a ruthlessly repressive taliban-type Sharia law on Libya's population.

In the meantime, a fourth very major front of the war for democracy in Arab Muslim contries has opened with the uproar that has resounded from Syria.

-- Politicarp

PoliticsLibya: Civil War: African Union delegation proposes Peace Plan to both Gadaffi and Bengazi leadership

BBC News (Apr11,2k11)

The African Union delegation, led by Prime 
Minister Jacob Zuma of South Africa, loads 
dice to favour Gadaffi by not insisting he resign 
and leave Libya immediately (which shoud
have been coupled with an offer  giving him 
safe haven in any of the AU states represented in the delegation), 
also by placing a ceasefire at the center of their call.  A ceasefire 
will inevitably be used by Gadaffi to consolidate his hold on the 
  re-captured cities and towns that arose against him.  In these 
    circumstances, opponents of the tyrant will disappear, and the 
    Libyan revolution will be thwarted. 


   


Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa 
and leader of the 5-country African Union 
delegation that visited Libya and proposed
an immeidate ceasefire there.







-- BBC video posted by Politicarp

PoliticsUN: UN War: Canada joins UN last-ditch effort at No-Fly Zone over Libya

Montreal Gazette (Mar18,2k11)

Too little, too late?


by Tobi Cohen, Postmedia News

OTTAWA - Canada's decision to send six CF-18 fighter jets to the Mediterranean may be too little, too late, a foreign policy expert said Friday as the prime minister prepared to leave for Paris to meet world leaders on the Libyan crisis.

Days before the country may be plunged into a federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he has committed Canada to a combat mission in Libya in an effort to enforce a no-fly zone approved Thursday by the United Nations.

Before heading to Paris to discuss the looming mission with allies Saturday, Harper said Canada has pushed the idea of a no-fly zone from the start and would ``now take the urgent action necessary to support it.

more:

http://www.canada.com/Canada+joins+Libya+zone/4470418/story.html#ixzz1H2tKQhDj

-- Montreal Gazzette / Postmedia materials posted by Politicarp

PoliticsLibya: Civil War: Arab League calls for UN no-fly zone

Telegraph UK UK (Mar12,2k11)

Libya: 

Arab League 

calls for United Nations 

no-fly zone  

The Arab League called on the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone on Libya, increasing pressure on Europe and the US to embark on limited military action against the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

by Colin Freeman in Cairo, 

Nick Meo in Benghazi and 

Patrick Hennessy in London 

6:35PM GMT 12 Mar 2011

As Colonel Gaddafi’s jets and tanks continued to gain ground against rebels in the east of the country, ministers from the 22-nation Arab League agreed to call for action after emergency talks in Cairo. Officials said the body had already been in touch with the rebels about the situation on the ground.

Before the meeting, Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League and one of its most influential diplomats, had thrown his weight behind the air exclusion zone, saying it was the only way to protect Libyans from Gaddafi’s “disdainful” regime.

In a statement after a six-hour long meeting, he added: “The Arab League has officially requested the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone against any military action against the Libyan people.”

His comments came as the Gaddafi regime declared victory in the battle for the oil port of Ras Lanuf in eastern Libya, where it had fought with artillery, tanks, ships and planes to eject rebels for most of the last week

Read more ...

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PoliticasLibya: Gaddafi secures East: Can't take west and city of Bengazi

BBC (Mar12,2k11)

Libyan rebels 

'hanging on 

in Ras Lanuf'

Fighting continues in Libya. Our correspondent Jon Leyne is in Benghazi, which is still under the control of rebels.

PoliticsLibya: Civil Wart: Is Gaddafi preparing to scoot?

Libya rebels reject

Gaddafi bid

to step down, reports say

Reuters via HuffPost (Mar7,2k11). Click link to read more!

CAIRO, March 7 (Reuters) - Two Arab newspapers and al Jazeera television said on Monday Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was looking for an agreement allowing him to step down, but there was no official confirmation of the reports.

Al Jazeera said Gaddafi had proposed to Libyan rebels to hold a meeting of parliament to pave the way for him to step down with certain guarantees.

It said Gaddafi made the proposal to the interim council, which speaks for mostly eastern areas controlled by his opponents. It quoted sources in the council as saying Gaddafi wanted guarantees of personal safety for him and his family and a pledge that they not be put on trial.

-- Huffington Post materials posted by Politicarp







Margaret Coker reports from Libya on the latest developments there, including an apparent rift among members of Gadhafi's inner circle on what Gadhafi's next move should be, including the possibility of stepping down.