Breaking news
Published:
February 25, 2011 at 8:48pm
The United States has suspended embassy operations in Tripoli and will impose unilateral sanctions against Gaddafi’s regime, while participating also in multilateral sanctions.
The press conference is broadcast now.
That’s one in the eye for all the quivering ninnies in Malta who would have us say nothing and do nothing because Gaddafi might eat us. Spineless cowards.
The White House press secretary said: never has so much been done so quickly.
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I would invite our nausea-inducing politicians to listen to this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12582773
The US is at a safe distance. Malta’s priority should be the safety of Maltese nationals. Malta is doing a great service, stand and be proud.
Li kieku kellna is-sahha ta l-Amerika konna naghmlu ezatt bhalhom. U li kieku konna l-boghod mil-Libja bhall-Amerika konna nkunu iktar iktar ala biebna x’jigri fil-Mediterran minnhom.
Ghaliex Castro ghadu f’Kuba? Mhux dittatur bhal Gaddafi dak?Nghidlek jien “Ghax dak qieghed hdejhom.”
Ahna ghadna kif gibna Beech aircraft Turbo Prop,lanqas biss nazzardaw niccalingjaw lil Lampedusa bih.
Size matters.
[Daphne – Does it indeed. Cuba: if people there began a popular uprising and Castro ordered them to be shot in the streets, rest assured that the US would wade in immediately. But it will not wade in before and until there is a popular uprising. Revolution must come from within. It’s the same way the Berlin wall came down. There were lessons to be learned from the Hungarian uprising in 1957, when the west failed to help.]
CNN just honoured us saying how brave the Maltese are. How Maltese are doing their most to get people out safe! That is the news we should mention.
Bob, you and I both know that it’s not “the Maltese” who are brave but the few individuals who are operating the Air Malta flights to Tripoli.
Look at the comments boards on various websites to see how “brave” most Maltese are.
If called to, I too would join the ranks to defend freedom and my country.
[Daphne – You’re being called now, Bob. The last thing you want on your doorstep is the Tripolitanian pariah state of Muammar Gaddafi.]
What can I do? Is something being organised? Is there a civilian unit being set up locally?
I have some news about the two Mirage F1 planes. The Maltese government contacted its French counterpart on the question of disarming the planes, which were armed with LRF1 rocket pods. The weapons system was delivered more than 30 years ago, so the weapons require a fair amount of technical expertise to disarm (which we lack) and are rather unstable (yes, KMB, live weapons tal-barrani fuq art gensna).
The French government in turn passed on the matter to the French Air Force, which then contacted Dassault on Thursday morning (technical assistance on the F1s was being provided to Libya by Dassault and the DCA, which is a branch of the French Ministry of Defence).
These are the sort of links that count. Rolling up your boilersuit sleeves and getting oily in the same hangar, not some bullshit business lunch.
Obama waited until the last of the Americans were out before suspending embassy operations. Malta should do the same and wait till all Maltese are out. Ghadaffi has a nasty habit of taking hostages.
In any case how can you take sanctions against the mad dog without affecting the ordinary people? I don’t think any more hardship is what they need right now.
2212: Here’s a bit more from UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s address to the UN Security Council: “Col Gaddafi’s supporters are reportedly conducting house-by-house searches and arrests. According to some reports, they have even gone into hospitals to kill wounded opponents… There are other allegations of the killing of soldiers who refuse to fire upon their countrymen.”
2305: CNN’s Ben Wedeman tweets: “Libyan State TV running what looks like a Qaddafi fashion show set to bad music. #Libya”
2249: AFP news agency is now reporting that the Libyan ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Shalgham, has defected. At the UN earlier, he had pleaded with Col Gaddafi to end the violence: “They did not throw a single stone and they were killed,” Mr Shalgham said. “I tell my brother Gadhafi: Leave the Libyans alone.”
Mohh il-pastizzi nahseb ghandhom! How can people be so thoroughly lacking in imagination and empathy?
They’ve fled their homes, they’ve probably lost their jobs, they don’t know whether they’re coming or going, they’ve just spent 48 hours sealed into a stationary catamaran followed by eight hours of seasickness, and they’re welcomed by smifsud on timesofmalta.com, who says:
“smifsud
To All who is on the Maria Dolores ….Welcome to Malta …enjoy your stay with us while albieit will be short try some pastizzis up in Valletta …come back to see us ….”
smifsud must be part of the impressive publicity campaign Joseph Muscat was talking about.
Perhaps there is the need for something a bit stronger than economic sanctions. However I have no idea how a decisive military strike can target only the monster and his aides and not innocent people.
I bet that had we had Reagan and not Obama as US president the situation would have been different.
Let the Libyans finish him off, they’re doing a good job.
Some Maltese history:
the two year blockade by the Maltese people of the French in Valletta was finished off by the British……..who stayed on for the next two hundred years.
Foreign governments cannot intervene directly because this is something that Libyans need to do for themselves. They are paying a very high price but it will be written in history books that the Libyan people themselves fought for and achieved their freedom. This is not WW2 and they cannot be liberated by foreign armies.
Other countries, including Malta, can help by, for example, sending blood and medical supplies to Benghazi and transferring some of the more badly injured to Malta.
The mighty USA started to take positive action of sanctions only after its citizens entered our harbour safely.
Malta still has over hundred compatriots scattered all over Libya.
There can be no doubt that all Maltese are behind the people of Libya in their suffering under their unhinged leader. Let the MLP hoi polloi follow the example of their erstwhile leaders and keep a dignified silence and to lament their past adulation of the Gaddafi regime.
As dutiful citizens of Malta and irrespective of our political affiliation, let us allow our hard pressed government carry on with its dangerous task of rescuing our compatriots in Libya instead of trying to hypnotize ourselves into believing the canard that the NP ever courted this merciless dictator just as Mintoff and KMB did.
[Daphne – So let’s get this straight, because I fail to understand the line of reasoning: if some Maltese refuse to leave Libya, as is their right to do, Malta must take no stance against Gaddafi? I hardly think so. If Malta wishes to sit on the fence until the last man or woman is out, then it should do what the Americans pretty much did and issue an ultimatum. On such a such a day we’re closing the embassy; we’re organising these evacuation trips on X and Y days. If you’re not out by then, you’re on your own. You can’t hold the foreign policy of an entire nation (and the plight of LIbya) hostage to a few people who thought they would hang about just in case things ‘returned to normal’.]
The White House press announcement was delayed until the last aircraft got off from Tripoli airport and the Virtu ferries were already well within the Maltese waters.
Madmen are unfortunately totally unpredictable.