Libya no-fly zone – live updates

Guardian
March 19, 2011

• US announces Operation Odyssey Dawn is under way

• More than 100 Tomahawk missiles fired on Libyan targets

• British and French forces in action over Libya

Live updates blog

UN Authorizes “All Necessary Measures” Against Gaddafi; Airstrikes Could Start Tonight

FLASHBACK: Obama’s “Humanitarian” Conquest Of Libya 

“Obama may eventually withdraw a portion of troops from Iraq, but mark our words, they won’t be home long before they are sent off to bomb another broken-backed third world country, this time in the name of a United Nations-backed “humanitarian” war, just as Bill Clinton presided over in Somalia and Serbia with the full support of the establishment political left.”

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones, November 4 2008, The More Things “Change” The More They Stay The Same.

FLASHBACK: Obama Encircles US War Machine Around Libya 

FLASHBACK: Russian Military Claims Libya Air Strikes Did Not Happen


FLASHBACK: Globalists Seek To Hijack Middle East Revolution To Topple Iran 

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NewsCore
Thursday, March 17, 2011

THE UN Security Council has voted Thursday to allow air strikes to halt Muammer Gaddafi’s offensive against embattled rebel forces in Libya, with the first bombing raids expected shortly. 

The resolution permits “all necessary measures” to protect civilian areas and impose a ceasefire on Gaddafi’s military.

The vote passed 10-0 with five abstentions in the 15 member council. Permanent members China and Russia were among those abstaining, but did not use their veto power.

US Congress officials said Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were among possible participants, in a showing designed to demonstrate that the effort to aid anti-Gaddafi rebels had support from other countries in the region.

Full story here.

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The UN decides to take “all necessary measures” against Gaddafi

Peter Hoskin
The Spectator
Thursday, March 17, 2011

“There will be no mercy. Our troops will be coming to Benghazi tonight.” Perhaps it was the murderous threat contained within Gaddafi’s latest radio message that shocked the United Nations into action today — because shocked into action they have been. After sweating and toiling over the precise formulation of a resolution on Libya, the UN Security Council finally reached the voting stage this evening. And it has now voted 10-0 in favour of member states taking “all necessary measures … to protect civilian and populated areas, including Benghazi, while excluding an occupation force.” Brazil, India, China, Russia and — staggeringly — Germany all abstained.

What this means, in practice, is a no-fly zone — and more. We are likely to see bombing raids on Gaddafi’s air defences, and perhaps on the serpentine column of troops and tanks that is on the road to Benghazi. It is thought that the first strikes could even come tonight, led — as this entire process has been — by us (UK) and the French, along with a selection of Arab air forces. There is a definite need for urgency. Thanks to the West’s hesitancy over the past week, Gaddafi did appear to be on the cusp of cruelly stamping out the rebellion. Any delay now, and he still might do the same.

As our forces ready themselves for conflict, there is a terrible question hovering over all this: how hard can Gaddafi hit back? His government is certainly putting up a belligerent front, threatening to retaliate in and around the Med.

But, as the useful video below makes clear, their military hardware is likely to be outmoded and dilapidated. Not that this makes the situation any less alarming, though. After all, a musket can still kill. And, as the Libyan people know all too well, Gaddafi has more than muskets at his command.

Qaddafi Retaking Libya

Tony Cartalucci
Infowars.com
March 15, 2011

It appears Colonel Qaddafi has begun retaking Libya from globalist-backed rebels with Libyan forces now bearing down on the eastern city of Brega. It is also being reported that Qaddafi is offering rebels amnesty if they put down their weapons and take down the colonial Libyan flag that has been flying over “liberated cities” since the London based opposition declared their “Day of Rage” on February 17, 2011.

The schizophrenic corporate-owned media cannot seem to decide whether the rebels are “pleading” for foreign intervention or refusing it; apparently undecided whether revealing openly the globalists’ hands in overthrowing a sovereign nation is better than another “Bay-of-Pigs” scenario playing out.

Qaddafi’s defiance is setting a precedence that endangers the entire premise of globalization and the “legitimacy” it uses to meddle in the affairs of sovereign nations. By confronting this foreign orchestrated uprising, identifying the rebels as pawns of Western ambition, and offering the rebels amnesty even as the tide has decidedly turned in the Libyan government’s favor, Qaddafi leaves the official narrative given by the West in humiliating tatters.

It should be further noted that the prevailing western-backed regimes emerging from the recent Arab unrest, including Tunisia, Egypt, and the unscathed western foot-stool of Saudi Arabia are attempting to promote an “Arab League” endorsed no-fly zone. This is perhaps a trial run for the so-called “united front against Iran” many geopolitical analysts believe this unrest has been designed to create. After unabashedly admitting to funding, fueling, and supporting the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Hillary Clinton made a visit to Egypt and Tunisia to “consult with Libya’s neighbors on possible next steps against Gadhafi.”

Read the rest of the article.

Gunpoint Govt: Bloody stalemate looms as Gaddafi seeks control over rebels

US senator says no-fly zone is 'likely'

'Libya air attack footage looks fake, no facts in West media'

Libyan crowd mourns Al Jazeera cameraman

Gaddafi Curse: West defending money not people in Libya?

Al Jazeera cameraman killed in Libya

Arab League calls for a no-fly zone over Libya

Violence Video: Police use live bullets, tear gas & water cannon on protesters in Yemen

Protesters fired upon in Yemen

Al Jazeera staffer killed in Libya

Al Jazeera staffer killed in Libya

Cameraman Ali Hassan Al Jaber was returning to eastern city of Benghazi from filing report when he was shot and killed.

Al Jazeera.net

An Al Jazeera cameraman has been killed in what appears to have been an ambush near the rebel-held city of Benghazi in eastern Libya.

Ali Hassan Al Jaber was returning to Benghazi from a nearby town after filing a report from an opposition protest when unknown fighters opened fire on a car he and his colleagues were travelling in.

Two people including Al Jaber were shot. Al Jaber was rushed to hospital, but did not survive.

Read the rest of the article.

Libya: Rebels Driven Out Of Key Oil Port

Sky News
Saturday, March 12, 2011

Libyan rebels have admitted they have been forced out of the key oil port of Ras Lanuf by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

They say the dictator’s fighters now control both the town and the oil refinery there – but have vowed to take them back.

The admission was made by General Abdel-Fattah Younis, who was the country’s interior minister before he defected to the rebel side.

The opposition forces retreated following a sustained bombardment and the front line has moved back 12 miles from the outskirts of Ras Lanuf.

The retreat came despite a claim made on Friday by the rebels that they had fought off an attempt by Col Gaddafi’s militia to retake the eastern town.

Full story here.

US Libya war next? Enough is enough!

Ron Paul: No-fly Zone Over Libya Would be an Act of War

Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Friday, March 11, 2011

On the House floor Thursday, Rep. Ron Paul pointed out that imposing a so-called no-fly zone on Libya would be illegal under international law and an act of war.

“I’m preparing to introduce a resolution next week, and it’s a sense of Congress, that the executive branch can’t do this without approval from the Congress,” said Paul.



Paul is one of 10 House members who sponsored a resolution earlier in the week to direct the president to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

“We have to remember, a no-fly zone is an act of war,” he noted. “You can’t just all of a sudden turn a switch and say don’t fly over Libya. You have to bomb a lot of anti-aircraft sites and a lot of military establishment. So the war is on.”

“Now, what moral right do we have to participate in war activity against Libya?” he asked. “Libya hasn’t done anything to the United States. It would be foolish, it would have a downside, and we should think very, very carefully before we go expanding the wars that we’re already involved in.”

James Clapper says Libya's Muammar Gaddafi will prevail

BBC.Co.UK

March 10th 2011

The US national intelligence director has predicted embattled Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi will defeat the rebels challenging his grip on power.

James Clapper told the US Senate that Col Gaddafi's superior military force would prevail over the long term.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would not act in Libya without international authorisation.

Meanwhile, Libyan rebels are fleeing the port of Ras Lanuf after sustained attacks by Col Gaddafi's forces.

In Washington, Mr Clapper, who is the top intelligence adviser to US President Barack Obama, told the Senate he saw no evidence Col Gaddafi would step down from power and warned his military was stronger than had previously been described.

Read the rest of the article.

Clinton to meet anti-Gadhafi opposition as world weighs Libya options

Haaretz
March 10, 2011

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated on Thursday she was planning to meet Libyan opposition leaders during an upcoming visit to the Mideast, amid a global debate as to the ways in which the international community should intervene in what has fast become a full-on civil war in the north-African country.

The planned visit to Egypt and Tunisia would be make Clinton the most senior American official to visit the region after popular revolts toppled U.S.-allied governments in both countries.

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Sarkozy to propose air strikes in Libya

AFP
March 10, 2011

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will propose air strikes on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s command headquarters to EU leaders, a source close to discussions has told AFP.

At an EU summit on the Libyan crisis, he will propose “striking an extremely limited number of points which are the source of the most deadly operations” by forces loyal to Gaddafi, the source, who asked not to be named, said on Thursday.

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France formally recognizes Libyan rebels’ authority

Mark Memmott
NPR
March 10, 2011

A few of this morning’s developments related to the crisis in Libya:
— “Members of the rebel Libyan National Council are ‘valid interlocutors’, Britain’s Foreign Office said on Thursday after France recognized the [rebel] council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. ‘The U.K. recognizes states, not governments. The interim national council are valid interlocutors, with whom we wish to work closely,’ a spokesman for the Foreign Office told Reuters.”

— “The European Union is hitting the regime of Moammar Gadhafi with more financial sanctions.” (The Associated Press)

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