Who Are These Libyans Fighting for Freedom?
Here are some excerpts from the blog of a Libyan Doctor:
“Five weeks ago many Libyans, knew that if the ‘The Arab Spring’ revolution reached its cities and towns, the response of the Libyan regime won’t be peaceful, they anticipated ferocious crack down, but no one predicted the horrors we witnessed when the Gaddafi regime unleashed its brutal forces to kill peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Libyan cities from east to west.”
“Libyans wanted a peaceful civil uprising, emulating the hopes and aspirations of the Libyan people, but they were confronted with unimaginable brutality, the protesters had to raise arms to defend their freedom and to end this murderous regime.”
“After the United Nations security council approved a No-Fly zone over Libya, thousands of Libyans, took to the streets to voice their relief that the international community is not going to let them down, and will for a moment in many decades rise once more against tyranny and oppression and allow Libyans to achieve their dream to be humans living with dignity and freedom.”
You can read his complete blog at: http://www.imtidad-blog.com/2011/03/libya-and-international-moral-question.html
I’m trying to find out who the rebels are:
the U.S. government, now engaged in a fourth day of air strikes against Libyan regime military targets, does not know very much about the rebels who now see it as a friendly ally in their fight to overthrow Muammar Gadhafi.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a 45-minute, closed-door meeting with Mahmoud Jibril, a leader of the newly formed Libyan opposition Interim National Council in a luxury Paris hotel earlier this month. But in a clear signal of America’s wariness about all the unknowns, Clinton gave no public statement after their meeting and did not appear in photographs with the rebel leader. (By contrast, a week earlier French President Nicholas Sarkozy bestowed formal diplomatic recognition on the Council and was photographed shaking hands with its emissaries Jibril and Ali Essawi on the steps of the Elysee Palace.)
“We don’t have the comfort level with the rebels,” said the National Security Network’s Joel Rubin, a former State Department official. “We certainly know some things about them, had meetings. It’s not as if there’s complete blindness. But I don’t think at this stage the comfort level is there for that kind of close coordination.”
But the Libyan rebels seem to have found western consultants who have offered advice on words the West wants to hear. On Tuesday, the Interim National Council issued just such a reassuring statement from their rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theenvoy/20110322/ts_yblog_theenvoy/who-are-the-libyan-rebels-u-s-tries-to-figure-out
and where they get their weapons from:
Egypt has begun sending arms across the Libyan border to supply rebel forces with the knowledge of the U.S. government, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Libyan rebel and U.S. officials.
The shipments, mostly small arms, may be the first confirmed case of an outside government arming the rebel fighters, the Journal said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/egypt-is-supplying-small-arms-to-libyan-rebels-journal-reports.html
Martha, Russia can be bought. This is not a principled position but a negotiating position. Lets just imagine my suggestion came about Russia would have to choose between selling arms to the UN or not selling arms to the UN. They are doing the calculations in Moscow and what ever happens Moscow wins. If Gadhafi falls well Moscow will make money selling the new regime weapons if he survives well again they will sell him a new air force. I think trying to get the Libyan air force to defect would be a smart play.
Now a face is available for the opposition forces. An interim government has been set up and Mahmoud Jibril has been named interim Prime Minister.