I don't know how anyone in Libya (or Malta) can forgive KMB
And I wonder whether he’s looking at that bloodbath now and thinking “It’s all my fault.” I doubt it.
He’s probably as much in love with Gaddafi as he still is with Mintoff. A thought has just come to me: the Gaddafi Human Rights Prize was probably intended for him, Gaddafi’s saviour, but you know how KMB is with Mintoff. He worships the ground he walks on: I’ll bet he told Gaddafi, “Please give it to Mintoff instead.”
And then Mintoff dispatched him to pick it up in his name.
From the Wikipedia entry on the bombing of Libya:
The air strike killed 45 Libyan soldiers and government officials, and 15 civilians. Forewarned by a telephone call from Malta’s Prime Minister, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, that unauthorized aircraft were flying over Maltese airspace heading south towards Tripoli, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family rushed out of their residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound moments before the bombs dropped. Gaddafi escaped injury but his 15-month-old adopted daughter Hanna was killed, and two of his sons were injured.
When, in October 2008, Gaddafi’s foreign minister was quoted in the Italian press as having said that Bettino Craxi, who was Italy’s prime miniser in 1986, had personally warned him that there would be a US attack on Tripoli, one or two days before it happened, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was keen to point out that it was actually him.
Karl Schembri of Malta Today rang him and told him that Italy was taking the credit for warning Gaddafi of the US attempt on his life. The newspaper reported Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s reply (2 November 2008):
‘An hour before the bombing, we had informed Libyan air traffic controllers that unidentified, unauthorised planes were approaching their region…..I’m extremely surprised, as the Libyans were totally unprepared for the attack. So they either ignored the Italians’ tip-off – or I don’t know.’
There was always something that seemed odd to me in reports of the US bombing of Gaddafi’s home, and I could never quite work out what it was, perhaps because I never gave it enough thought. But now, reading and rereading the newspaper reports, it has suddenly come to me:
THEY RAN OUT OF THE HOUSE WITH ALL THEIR CHILDREN BUT LEFT THE ADOPTED BABY BEHIND.
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I know exactly where he should stick that finger.
Remember this?
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/towkarmenutolibya/
Tow Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici towards Libya
Published February 28, 2009
Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici is petitioning the Maltese government ‘to take urgent action to stop migration’. We are petitioning the government to take urgent action to stop Karmenu, by following the Thai example and towing him out to sea (but first giving him a hobza and a bottle of San Michel).
And now they want to take Maltese journalists and ambassadors to Libya to try and give them a different picture from the real massacre that is happening in the country – they will probably take them to those places were the massacre has not yet reached. I’m sure the Labour media won’t miss this opportunity as nor will Alex Sceberras Trigona.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/libyan-ambassador
“Dr Suayeh said ambassadors would be taken on tours of places allegedly bombed, and Maltese journalists and other foreigners were welcome to go to Libya. Their presence, he said, should help remove distortions about the situation in the country”
Daphne, are you sure about this story because Italians have been saying the same thing about their then Prime Minister Andreotti. The following is a loose translation from a La Repubblica article:
http://www.repubblica.it/2008/05/sezioni/esteri/libia-italia/attaccousa-conferma/attaccousa-conferma.html
Giulio Andreotti and the Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Shalgam tell a story that was written several times, but never confirmed so clear and authoritative: the Italian government warned Colonel Gaddafi on 14 April 1986, the U.S. Navy would attack Tripoli punishment of the terrorist attacks that Libya had also scored against U.S. troops in Germany. “Yes, that attack the American initiative was improper, ” Andreotti said this morning by participating in a conference organized at the Foreign Ministry, “and I think that set off a warning from Italy to Libya. ”
[Daphne – Italy warned there would be an attack. Malta’s warning was specific: that jets had flown through Maltese airspace without authorisation and were headed towards Tripoli. Malta and Italy: what a lot to answer for.]
What is certain is that Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici made that phone call.
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/06/world/malta-says-libya-got-a-tip-on-raid.html?scp=335&sq=malta&st=nyt
Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici said today that Malta had given Libya advance notice of the American air attack in April and would do so again if it had similar information. Mr. Mifsud Bonnici said Maltese air controllers had not been able to identify the planes that were picked up on their radar screens about 30 to 45 minutes before the raid. But he said the air controllers notified their Libyan counterparts soon after detection that ”a number of unidentified planes were going down toward North Africa.” ”We’ve committed ourselves to exchange information with all friendly countries, north and south,” Mr. Mifsud Bonnici said. ”Any information that might be beneficial to our allies we pass on to them. We do that regularly and systematically and will continue to do so.”
“…,” Mr. Mifsud Bonnici said. ”Any information that might be beneficial to our allies we pass on to them…”
Were we not supposed to be neutral? Libya = ally, USA = enemy?
Some neutrality.
We weren’t called “la valletta di Gaddafi” for nothing.
And here is what his successor said.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/29/world/foe-of-european-union-becomes-malta-s-premier.html?scp=67&sq=malta&st=cse
The Labor Party leader, Alfred Sant, 48, has also said he would seek closer ties with Libya and promised to end Malta’s associate membership with NATO. Malta, about 225 miles north of Libya, joined the NATO program last year.
And this is what Sant’s successor said:
“During his meeting with Col. Gaddafi, Dr Muscat said he expressed the hoped that relations between Malta and Libya would continue to develop. He delivered greetings from former party leader Dom Mintoff.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100803/local/repatriation-of-immigrants-libya-confirms-governments-version-of-events-muscat
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/11/02/t2.html
Are there any Libyans protesting in front of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s home today?
He is in no position to take decisions that influence the lives of millions.
For small mercies, we should be thankful.
Then they should be protesting in front of Tonio Borg’s residence, because the buttlicking is as strong as ever.
Or how about in front of San Anton? George Abela, as president of the republic, is the Head of the Maltese Orders, including the Xirka Gieh ir-Repubblika.
And we thought having independence was some sort of orgasmic joyride. This country is 46 years old, but it still acts like a spoilt five-year old.
here we go again: timesofmalta.com comment –
“Anna Friesenegger
Why is it that our Policemen are not given shields to protect themselves from the protestors in case the situation turns violent! These men have families like everyone! I am sure if their wives and children were passing by like I did yesterday and seen their husbands unprotected they would get a shock. Please the Commissioner and the Government should see that our Policemen are protected at all times! Thank you”
[Daphne – What ignorance and prejudice. Anyone who spent three hours at the protest outside the Libyan embassy, as I did, can say that there was no the slightest sign of violence. Police do not need protection against unarmed protestors. No wonder Mintoff and KMB were able to do what they did, with people who think like that still among us.]
Daphne I have great respect for you for protesting with the Libyans outside the Libyan embassy. These people suffered immensely under the Ghaddafi brutal regime.
Libyans, unlike their Tunisian and Algerian neighbours, are very gentle, friendly and hospitable people.
Oh yes, “unlike their Tunisian and Algerian neighbours”? How about that for the Maltese Racism Pulitzer?
I don’t have a single racist bone in my body, even Libyans do not like Tunisians, would that also be considered racist too?
I was only trying to apply the current altermondialiste rules.
I don’t think any North African people is especially hospitable. If there’s a generalisation that is correct it’s that they’ve got a giant chip on their shoulder which they’ll mention at the slightest sign of you not being a fellow North African.
But of course, if I had business deals down in Libya, I’d be heaping praise on the Libyans too.
Amazing how many people in Malta are disturbed when others takes a stand on a matter of principle. All the more so if they happen to be “foreigners”.
And this is what his predecessor did.
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/01/world/malta-and-libya-sign-military-training-pact.html?scp=45&sq=malta&st=cse
Malta and Libya Sign Military-Training Pact
UPI
Published: December 1, 1984
. .VALLETTA, Malta, Nov. 30— The Libyan military will train the Maltese armed forces under a mutual friendship and cooperation agreement signed earlier this month.
The Government of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff said the training would take place either on this Mediterranean island or in Libya.
Mr. Mintoff and Col. Muammar el- Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, have long maintained cordial relations.
Libya also has agreed to study the possibility of providing Malta with military arms and materiel, the agreement said.
The five-year accord was announced by Mr. Mintoff’s Government Nov. 19 at the end of a three-day official visit Colonel Qaddafi made to the island but no details were released at the time.
And yet the supporters of the PL refuse to see this as a sign of what the man was like. Still they insist on the Golden Years.
Still they insist that their past is not important. Still they insist that today’s Labour is new even though the golden oldies are back.
Your past matters. Your past matters a great deal. You can’t do what you like and get away with it without people using it to judge you and the type of person you are.
In politics it s just as important if not more, since people’s lives are directly affected by their leader and the type of person he/she is.
What’s the likelihood of this man’s actions coming to bite all of us today in the backside? Seriously, does the rest of the world know?
I read a lot of anger on this site. The problem with us Maltese is that we have become “THE TRADITION.”
We did start with our beliefs and traditions and traditions in politics and that is as far as we have come. WE HAVE BECOME THE TRADITION. This is a very pitiful juxtaposition which leaves no signposts for the ways ahead.
Duh. You have two sorts of people on internet blogs: the middle-aged and above, placid, settled, complacent, upstanding pillars of society sort, with their benign comments (e.g. Dr Francis Saliba), and the young angry ambitious unappreciated sort who can finally vent their spleen (e.g. er, me?)
Of course you’re appreciated Baxxter.
Baxxter, what would you call a 42 year old?
Too simplistic, Baxxter. I have the impression you’re wallowing in self-pity.
Middle-aged. Let’s stop with this Maltese fantasy of “zghozija” extending up to 35 years. Beyond 25, you’re no longer a youth. Middle-age starts at 30. I’ve had whole arguments with some well-meaning MZPN zealots about this point. They’ve got the “Maltese lawyer’s paunch” and are going bald. How is that “young”?
My opinions do not come from anger. They come from my disgust at the way our politicians behave.
It’s as if they are in a constant state of denial of the real issues, so that they can focus on the more parochial and familiar issues simply because they are just that – parochial and familiar.
I understand what you mean, about us becoming the tradition, but I can’t help but think that saying nothing and letting things carry on is not an option. And I know many people agree with me.
We are often disillusioned by our leaders and their choices. But we should always expect more. I expect more.
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/08/03/t8.html
Mamma mia, how creepily crawling. Well, it should have occurred to us sooner that one of the main reasons the Nationalist government might have been edged into a suck-up relationship with Gaddafi is all those business interests one of its cabinet ministers – currently EU commissioner – had in Libya.
I don’t see anyone queuing up to ask John Dalli what he thinks of the current situation in Libya.
I’ve never understood how “Gaddafi and his family rushed out of their residence” but left behind a small baby.
Surely any normal parent (albeit adoptive) would have thought of saving the children first.
Antoine, do you regard Gaddafi as “normal”?
Il-hnizrijiet ghamlumhom fuq kull front fil-Golden Years.
The saviour and his deputy, KMB and Mintoff, surely share the same foetor oris from years of sucking up to this murderous tyrant.
From the Telegraph’s comments board in answer to the article reporting on how Col Gaddafi compared himself to the Queen, saying he would rule for 57 years:
“In terms of delusion he is closer to Prince Charles. The closest he gets to the Queen is in dress-sense.”
Dan bniedem bla vot u lill-Malta ghamlilha daqs dik hsara. Missu jisthi hu u min ghamlu Prim Ministru.
The Colonel blames it on Osama and hallucinogenic drugs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/africa/25libya.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7F2X3rSSCU
The BBC is back in Libya – it is reporting from Benghazi.
The Americans should have bombed KMB on their way to Libya. KMB has blood on his hands.
No one can imagine the number of anti-Ghaddafi political opponents who were killed and tortured in Libya and abroad.
KMB should be ashamed, he is complicit in the crimes which Ghaddafi committed.
Another peace negotiator on timesofmalta.com:
“c.camilleri These people have been happy with Gaddafi for 42yrs and for the same number of years have been supporting Gaddafi and his like hurling insults and abuse at the Western Countries especially the USA. Now because they fell foul of Gaddafi they expect the people they hated for so long to come to their aid by risking their lives. No doubt they are asking too much. While they have our sympathy they must understand that no country is now ready to meddle into their affairs.”
A rare species on timesofmalta.com – somebody with insight.
“MSciberras
Certain comments by people arriving from Libya need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Several companies (Italian ones especially) are advising their employees not to discuss what they have seen or Libya in general with the media when they return to their home countries and even to play down events…..the (understandable) priority of these companies is get business going again and not lose all the economic benefits gained since Libya settled the Lockerbie issue with the West. I have visited Libya quite a few times. To even suggest that what is happening there is being blown out of proportion by the media, with a straight face, no doubt, is odd, to say the least……”
Reading the comments on the websites of Malta Today and The Times I get the impression that, in general, Labourites (at least the ones whose moniker I recognise) tend to be less enthusiastic than other commenters about the end of the Gheddafi regime. I suppose their pro-Gheddafi conditioning is stronger.
Moreover their comments usually coincide with or overlap those of overt racists when talking about immigrants and Libyans protesting in Malta.
Meanwhile Corinne valiantly tries to counter, almost single-handedly, the most outrageous of their statements but it’s like trying to hold back a tsunami of stupidity.
Three cheers for Corinne.
Thank you. Now how about posting a few reasonable comments on timesofmalta.com? It won’t take much to raise the level of debate.
Corinne: maybe I do.
This is a golden opportunity for KMB.
He should take the next plane to Tripoli and save Gaddafi’s life again by persuading him to step down and free the Libyan people.
The entire world would shower them with respect.
He ought to go to Libya and stay in Tripoli……never to return.
And still no word from Malta’s government.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/switzerland-freezes-gaddafi-assets
Thursday, 24th February 2011 – 19:36CET
Switzerland freezes Gaddafi assets
Switzerland has ordered an immediate freeze on any assets that may belong to defiant Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi and his entourage, the Swiss foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The Federal Council (government) condemns the violence used by the Libyan strongman against the people in the strongest terms,” the ministry said in a statement.
“In view of the developments the Federal Council has decided to block with immediate effect any possible assets of Muammar Gaddafi and his entourage in Switzerland,” it added.
The Swiss government said it wanted to avoid any misappropriation of Libyan state property that might still be in Switzerland.
Didn’t Gaddafi want to abolish Switzerland recently?
Gaddafi had declared a holy war against Switzerland, and went as far as saying that Switzerland should be split into three territories and absorbed into its neighbours, Italy, France and Germany.
The position taken by Switzerland reported above shows how a neutral country can still take a firm position of defiance against a dictator. But then we do not know much about Swiss interests in Libya.
How many Swiss are still trapped in Libya?
I have one pressing question:
What would have Malta’s reaction been if Labour were in government?
I have a different pressing question. How can we keep Labour out of government?
We vote PN. That’s what I’ll be doing, holding my nose throughout and raining down curses on this cruel joke of a country whose passport I hold. Unless I die before 2013, which would be a blessing to all.
Baxxter, you have to live until 2013. Exciting times lie beyond.
We will never know because Labour is not in government but by their reaction so far, they would have been completely silent.
Another one of their brilliant ideas just went bust.
The Libyan ambassador to Malta seems to be one of the few Libyan diplomats still hanging on to Gaddafi’s cloak.
While so many people in and outside Libya are talking about the large number of Libyans being massacred in his country, he seems to be in denial and would rather believe the regime’s version of events.
Is he the people’s defender and protector or is he one of Gaddafi’s henchmen?
The answer is in your question.
Ghax ahna ma Karmenu ahna maghqudin
ghax ahna ma Karmenu ahna maghqudin
u maghqudin ghax ma Karmenu
ahna maghqudin
do re mi sol fa si do
And here is the bombshell:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/libya-requests-return-of-mirage-fighters
What a headache! I wonder what Malta’s answer will be.
Even if it is a long stretch of the imagination, who would rule out completely an attempt to re-take them by force or an attack to destroy them on the ground so that they do not fall in the hands of the enemy. Any pretext would do.
I would ask for international protection at this stage (and for a more permanent arrangement for the future). Neutrality does not provide a lot of peace of mind under the current circumstances.
The fighter jets! Gonzi’s decision will now clearly define our ‘special relations’. I cannot imagine Gonzi returning those planes (no, Daphne, not by DHL), but you really never know.
kev, those planes belong to the people of Libya.
And who said otherwise, Troy?
This is as much about Gaddafi as the Libyan people. Let’s not forget that we’re dealing with someone whose self-aggrandisement has surfaced across his face in such a manner:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ELzM_S573r8/SIv1k4lJBSI/AAAAAAAAGac/dMZrWrvAFS8/s400/Gaddafi.jpg
Here’s another shot from his most recent movie “The captain that sat on King Idris’ throne” – http://blogs-static.maktoob.com/wp-content/blogs.dir//60318/files//2010/01/11823.jpg
Not any more. They belong to Malta now. Defectors don’t just turn themselves over, they also turn over any hardware used for defecting. West Germany kept dozens of Migs throughout the Cold War, enough for the US to arm an entire OPFOR fighter squadron.
When the time is ripe, and a new regime is in place, we could negotiate their re-sale to Libya, or put them on the international market. I’d sell them to France, because they’d be against a sale to anyone else of course, having modernised these jets in 2009.
Would Tonio Borg give up the pilots to keep the jets or would he give up the jets but keeps the pilots? I wonder.
Ah, those Italian and French frigates in the Grand Harbour this evening. I honestly am going to sleep much better tonight with their presence in Malta (and I do not mean to deduct any of the importance of our own Air Wing AFM, which according to Wikipedia has responsibility for the security of Maltese airspace, maritime patrol, Search and Rescue, and provision of military assistance to other government departments.
Clearly, the pilots cannot be returned, and His Jamahiriyaship would understand this aspect. But technically, more so since no sanctions are officially in place, Gonzi is bound to return the planes and this is what His Jamahiriyaship expects.
Gonzi needs international sanctions to back a refusal.
[Daphne – Not really. The Maltese government is perfectly within its rights to refuse a visa to whomsoever it wishes, including and especially Libyan military personnel in the current climate. And you need to bring those personnel in to fly the jets back. Better still, the government could simply say No. Gaddafi is more likely to understand that than he does the rule of law. I hope you realise how silly you sound, arguing about what Gaddafi expects and the law and all that. It’s GADDAFI you’re talking about: he’s holed up in a bunker breaking every law in the book.]
I think you’re missing the point here, but anyway.
When it’s America, it’s a conspiracy.
When it’s Gaddafi, it’s the rule of law.
Funny that, eh? And I don’t mean ‘ha ha’.
PBS has reported that the Libyan ATR which tried to land in Malta yesterday was carrying technical people sent by the Libyan authorities to fly the jets back to Libya.
That plane was not allowed to land, so I understand that the government is already dealing with the issue.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/libya-requests-return-of-mirage-fighters
May all dictators come into their senses, that they are a threat to humanity.
Reagan sent his F111 to attack Libya, but Malta’s own Mitsubishi ‘ZERO’ warned Gaddafi and saved his arse.
Malta’s Baldricks have a cunning plan on timesofmalta.com:
“Manuel Micallef
I say this;
Successive Maltese governments have asked Libya about oil drilling rights in the sea between Malta and Libya – and they always dragged their feet and ignored us.
Can we not ignore them a bit now?! (I am referring to the regime….)”
And more:
“H Grech
What would the Maltese Government (and its people) get in compensation?
….Maybe some good discount on an oil consignment would be nice….
just a thought !”
Why does a guy who was Prime Minister in 1981 deserve so much importance today, 30 years later as to be mentioned in your current events?
I barely remember KMB let alone Mintoff. Well I know Mintoff, he’s a nonagenarian going in and out of hospital. And KMB? Who is he? Is he even a member of Parliament? Why is what he did 30 years ago so important as to over-shadow real current events by our present government?
[Daphne – I don’t know where to begin with your comment, but let’s try. 1. The fact that you don’t remember these events does not mean that everyone else is also your age and doesn’t remember them. 2. The fact that you don’t remember them does not mean that you should not know about them or factor in their relevance. 3. They are still alive and in the Labour Party, and the Labour Party’s present is being currently modelled on that past. 4. The relevance of that past is encapsulated in the fact that one of the Mintoffian ministers who chased Gaddafi’s tail in the 1970s has been engaged by Joseph Muscat to write Labour’s electoral programme for 2013. 5. If you don’t wish people to think of you as, variously, thick, boring, stupid or dull-witted, take an interest in things and brush up your knowledge.]
“thick, boring, stupid or dull-witted”, moi?
You haven’t barely touched my questions let alone answered them.
[Daphne – That’s because there are times when I just couldn’t be fagged to do so. And that was one of them. It’s like arguing with a brick wall at times, and I don’t mean you personally.]
The only thing you said which I didn’t know is that Mintoff is “still alive and in the Labour Party, and the Labour Party’s present is being currently modelled on that past.”
Well, OK he is still alive…
You still think it is I who should brush up my knowledge?
[Daphne – Yes, definitely. You’re not well prepared, at all. It makes you sound silly and shallow.]
Bah, what happened last century 40 years ago.. To be really mature one should look into the future, or at best try to correct mistakes being done in present, not reminisce about what happened half a century ago and what long-dead or dying people did way back then.
[Daphne – Correction. What happened in my lifetime. You’re a very silly person indeed if you think that life and relevance began when you were born. And you’re anything but mature if you think it is appropriate to give lectures on maturity to the 46-year-old mother of grown men. I would run along and read a couple of books if I were you, because the more you write, the sillier you sound.]
If we reason like you did, Galea, there is no need to know what happened during the Second World War because it did not happen in our lifetime.
And why speak about Hitler who is now long dead? I fail to see your logic.
On the contrary I find that history repeats itself and more often than not you can almost predict patterns which will happen again and again. All the signs of what is happening these weeks were there to see for so many years. As the Maltese say “Il-lupu jibdel sufu imma mhux drawwiethu”
Less than a month ago, KMB was on Smash TV, saying that Malta should not have joined the EU but joined Libya instead to get a better oil deal, that way solving the hefty electricity bills.
He said we could have gone to work in Libya, as we do, and as Europeans come to work here, we would reciprocate with Libya.
This was in 2011 – and not 1971 or 1984.
KMB had the gall to appear on Smash TV again last night skirting over what is happening to the Libyan people at the hands of his mentor Ghaddafi and spouting on how we must thwart the EU’s every move in our “national interest”.
I’ll try to answer C Galea in one sentence:
Because the actions of that man, 30 years ago, are shaping events today.
How about that?
I hope to god that by “current events” you don’t mean utility bills. Because if you do, you should find the nearest tree, take a rope, and hang yourself. Seriously, you should. It’s voters and politicians with that sort of mentality who fucked up this country.
The Doha Debates can be seen on BBC News.
Will Arab revolutions just produce different dictators?
The Arab world has been transfixed by the recent dramatic events in North Africa and the Middle East. The Doha Debates comes from the heart of Tunisia’s old city of Tunis, less than a mile from where thousands of demonstrators overthrew President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January. Students and young professionals debate the motion: “This House believes that Arab revolutions will just produce different dictators.” 26 February 10:10
I forgot to add; the time that the programme is to be seen is 10.10 CET.
And parliament is discussing divorce.
I say to hell with neutrality and join Nato yesterday.
Neutrality was imposed by Dom Mintoff most probably at Ghaddafi’s insistence.
AL Jazeera reports : Residents of the Libyan capital say ‘armed mercenaries’ have gone on a shooting spree, carrying out a massacre in Tripoli, a report says.
Armed African mercenaries landed from helicopters in some neighborhoods in the capital and opened fire on ‘anyone in the streets,’ causing a large number of deaths, AFP reported on Monday, quoting local witnesses.
There has been “a massacre” in the Tajura and Fashlum districts of the Libyan capital, with gunmen indiscriminately shooting people including women, the report added.
“What happened today in Tajura was a massacre,” a resident told the agency, adding, “Armed men were firing indiscriminately. There are even women among the dead.”
————————————————
And meanwhile our spineless journalists who could have hammered the Libyan ambassador on so many points, just stood there looking totally gormless.
Hansford ta’ Realta’ (kemm hu bravu) qed jiddiskuti il-Libja. I need a stiff drink.
“Thursday, 24th February 2011 – 20:15CET
Libya requests return of Mirage fighters
The Libyan government has formally requested the return of two Mirage F1 fighter jets flown to Malta by defecting pilots on Monday.
The aircraft are under armed guard at the airport. The pilots have requested political asylum and their case is being considered. The pilots claimed they flew to Malta after being ordered to bomb fellow Libyans in Benghazi.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said there has been no contact with the Libyan government on the fighter aircraft.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/libya-requests-return-of-mirage-fighters
Britain and the US tried to kill Gaddafi several times: an Itavia plane was shot down on the sea near Ustica with a missile, killing 81 innocent people.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apesara/352751226/in/photostream/
The plane was mistaken for one in which Gaddafi was supposedly flying and changed route towards Malta on that fateful night.
If the US attack succeeded we would have had Major Jalloud, or someone else instead of Muammar. In Maltese we say “Imut Papa u jilhaq iehor”.
I’m no KMB fan, but I feel it was Malta air traffic control’s duty to tell the Libyan authorities about the unidentified aircraft approaching Tripoli. No one knew at that moment what was about to happen.
[Daphne – Why don’t you look at it this way, instead, John: that the Maltese government didn’t know about the planes because it wasn’t told, because it couldn’t be trusted? We weren’t told because we were on the wrong side of the war against Gaddafi.]
Probably, for Gaddafi, KMB’s phone call was one of the many warnings he used to receive from his ‘good neighbours’, and he went in the bunker ‘just in case’.
“Why don’t you look at it this way, instead, John: that the Maltese government didn’t know about the planes because it wasn’t told…trusted”
If we look at it that way we still were expected to inform Libya about the unknown planes.We didn’t know about the planned attack, for all we knew it could have been a Martian attack.
If Malta was ‘not trusted’ , then the US did not do enough preparatory work before the attack.
[Daphne – No. Malta was not obliged to inform Libya. Malta took a conscience choice to inform Libya and has paid the price ever since, along with the rest of the western world and above all, the six million people he oppressed at home. Malta has a long history of sitting on the fence and staying out of it, and this is one occasion when Malta should have really put that into practice. It didn’t because of a PERSONAL relationship with a murderous dictator.]
Talking about trust. Who can Malta trust, Frattini, Berlusconi , Sarkozy, Blair , Bush? When you see all these ‘big’ names queuing to serve Gaddafi what was Malta expected to do? Frattini is trying to scare us with an exodus of refugees of biblical proportions, Berlusconi’s interests lie in his business empire, Sarkozy left us out in his proposal of a Euro Med Union, Blair helped him re-enter the civilised world, sold him armaments and gave him back El Megrahi and Bush removed the sanctions to get his Texas friends in the oil industry more business.
[Daphne – The coward’s mindset: jump on the lackeys’ bandwagon. Blair is really getting it in the neck right now because of the way he behaved. Frattini won’t get it in the neck because the Italians are as unprincipled and cowardly as the Maltese. They haven’t made the slightest bit of effort to do anything to help us forget their World War II shame, unlike the Germans. And by that I mean as a culture, and not in terms of individuals. The fact is that after Libya, Malta has the most to gain from getting rid of Gaddafi. We should be out there demonstrating for action, and instead we sit at home and see it as a Libyan problem. It’s not a Libyan problem. It’s our problem. Gaddafi has been a curse on this country for four decades. When he is gone, we will fully understand just how he has shaped our foreign policy and our lives, either by direct collaboration with Mintoff and KMB or by default with the current group of crawlers.]
If we were not in the EU, Frattini and Berlusconi would have been in a stronger position to downsize Malta’s territorial rights, to nurse their oil thirsty brother.
And guess what? The Libyan Embassy is taking Maltese journalists for a visit to Libya expenses paid by the Libyan Government. And the Maltese media outlets – because they are dying to be ‘bhal kbar tas-CNN u l-BBC’, are eager to accept. Shocking (!)
Didn’t Libya expel the foreign journalists over the past week?
How can the ambassador’s request be taken seriously?
And only today:
http://www.nextlevelofnews.com/2011/02/libya-threatens-to-treat-bbc-cnn-and-other-western-journalists-as-outlaws.html
http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2011/02/24/libya-could-relax-ban-on-foreign-journalists-on-friday/
“The Washington Post says Libya will do this “so [journalists] can corroborate the government’s claim that the country remains under Gaddafi’s control”.
Why is it that the word “paraventu” comes to my mind?
[Daphne – Journalists were not expelled. They weren’t there and they weren’t allowed in. The visa application process for Libya is tortuous. You have to get your passport translated into Arabic by an approved body – in Malta, the passport office does it – before you can even apply for one. That bit takes days, and then the visa approval process might take weeks. And to apply for one you have to queue and fill in forms at the embassy.]
Charlon Gouder, Brian Hansford , Saviour Balzan and Julia Farrugia (with jihab) will be heading the queue. Any other volunteers?
[Daphne – Their friends at L-Orizzont, who have announced in this morning’s edition that the situation in Tripoli is NORMAL.]
‘Hansford ta’ Realta’ (kemm hu bravu) qed jiddiskuti il-Libja. I need a stiff drink’.
Iva, jaghgbek bl-intelligenza. Fost il-hmerijiet li qal, hin minnhom qal li fil-filmati ra ‘exrien’ ta’ nies mejta. Iva anqas bil-Malti ma’ jaf jitkellem?
On TV: soru Maltija tirrakonta kif darba kelmet lil Ghaddafi. Tafu ghalxiex? Biex titolbu permes igibu qassis iqades fil-kunvent. U fit tjubija tieghu taghom permes dak il-hin stess.
What took the American bombers so long to get to Tripoli (45-60 minutes) when it took the Mirages merely 6 minutes to get here?
You fail to understand a simple fact. Malta and Italy as other countries have good relations with their neighbours, as this is in the mutual interest of all these countries. This does not mean that Italy and Malta approve of Libya’s policies.
On the other hand it is also true that Labour in the past had a very pro-Libya policy and that is explained as Labour also had an anti-Western policy, although relations with Italy were always good. It is therefore natural that the Maltese and Italian governments contacted Gaddafi if they had information he was going to be bombed.
[Daphne – No, it was not ‘natural’, no more than it was ‘natural’ for the very same KMB to refuse help from the USA in the Egyptair hijacking a few months earlier, leading to death and mayhem and one of my most frightening and appalling live television experiences.]
Is it wrong to have diplomatic, political and commercial ties with China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as these countries have undemocratic and maybe repressive governments? One may disagree strongly with Berlusconi but should we not have good relations with Italy?
What will happen in the post Gaddafi Libya is unknown however chaos is possible and quite likely http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12569902.
[Daphne – David, it is possible for me to have a civilised relationship with my neighbour WITHOUT fawning on him or falling on him when we meet. THAT was the problem with our relationship with GADDAFI not Libya. Our prime ministers did not make a habit of visiting their Italian counterparts regularly, visibly sucking up to them or falling on their necks – they shook hands. Why all that hugging? I can predict the answer: because it is in Gaddafi’s culture to embrace and not to shake hands. And here’s my answer to that: to allow Gaddafi’s cultural habits to take precedence is to fawn. In European culture, leaders do not fall on each other’s necks when they meet. They shake hands. Even Berlusconi, with his back-slapping, is considered intolerable.]
On the matter of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and the hijacked Egyptian airliner…
Quotation of the Day (yes, that was the actual NYT headline)
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/26/nyregion/quotation-of-the-day-183896.html?scp=232&sq=malta&st=nyt
Published: November 26, 1985
”In no way should the impression be given of weakness on our part in the face of the cruelty and inhumanity of the hijackers. We wanted to show that we would not give in.”
Prime Minister Karmenu Misfud Bonnici, of Malta (after 60 people were killed because of his bumbling incompetence and ‘principled’ refusal to accept help from the US.)
Regarding the Egypt Air hijack the US forces would have certainly done a better job than the Egyptian soldiers, but Dr K. Mifsud Bonnici was anti-American. Besides the plane was Egyptian and so Egyptian soldiers were called.
[Daphne – Oh, so that’s all right then. “Sorry, dead people, but our prime minister is anti-American.” Tell me, did you watch that on television as it was happening? I did, and beyond the harrowing horror there was the sensation to contend with that I was living in a MAD country run by a CRACKPOT. Watching all those people shot dead one by one and then the plane going up in an explosion and everything going black on screen – all because that total nutjob and his puppeteer had aligned themselves to Gaddafi and didn’t want the Americans around. KMB wasn’t anti-American. He was pro-Gaddafi. He didn’t allow the Americans in to deal with those hijackers because his friend Muammar would have stamped his feet.]
KMB and Mintoff and their cabal were and ARE anti-American and anti-Atlanticist. They shaped the thiking of a whole nation, to the extent that anyone professing support for NATO is considered a crankpot in Malta.
There was an edition of Xarabank with some ‘zaghzagh’ a few years ago where an overweight but bright lad came to demonstrate his support of US policy in Europe, and of NATO in particular, to the extent of bringing a US flag with him. Of course, he was booed and jeered. But the booing and jeering shouldn’t have been obvious.
Even when we were praying for “in-nies tal-Bosnja” in secondary school (oh yes we did) back in the mid-90s, we never had anyone joining the dots and saying that we should then support US action in favour of those Bosnians, or those Kosovar Albanians a few years later.
Don’t think for a moment that I approved of US or UK policy in the Balkans. All I’m saying is that you cannot raise your hands in indignation over human rights abuses and not support military action to stop those abuses, in the name of some misguided pacifist principle.
This is exactly what is happening in Libya right now. Even among the righteous “we support the Libyan people” team, you have many who were against US action back in 1986. Maltese psyche is very much not so much anti-militarist, but anti-military altogether.
Witness “mitna ta’ xejn”.
And it was that monster Mintoff who started it all.
Not to mention the appalling record of incompetence the Egyptian special forces had – take Cyprus in 1978 as a classic example.
KMB, damn him, knew of this or at the very least it was his duty to know before calling in those bungling thugs.
I still can’t understand how even Mintoff chose him as his successor (a la North Korea) unless it was just more ‘hdura’ on his part.
The Egyptian Forces were not incompetent. They were ruthless. It was Lorry Sant who objected for the presence of the US Delta Force(?).
KMB, like Pilate, left the the Egyptians to deal with the Egyptians on our soil. If it were not for the Armed Forces of Malta soldiers, all the passengers would have been killed by Egyptian machine gun fire.
The US jets attacking Libya was an unauthorised entry into sovereign Maltese air space. US should have either avoided Maltese air space or sought permission to use it. They did neither but chose instead to violate Malta’s territorrial integrity. You reap what you sow and a huge miscalculation by the US. The US missing the assassination of Gaddafi could have been avoided if was not for their arrogance and bullying.
[Daphne – Mohh ta’ cicra. Do yourselves a favour and stop writing in here to prove the point that you have to be intellectually challenged to vote Labour. The planes almost certainly came from the US base in Sigonella, Sicily. How could they have avoided Maltese airspace? And are you serious when you suggest that they should have called KMB’s Malta and said – “Let us through – we’re on the way to bomb your friend Muammar.”]
The US attack on Tripoli was from Britain not Sigonella.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/el_dorado_canyon.htm.
France did not want to get involved in this attack, and the high precision surgical attack accidentally hit the French embassy in Tripoli.
Daphne, here is a pretty detailed report on the event.
I have no doubt that Malta was not pre-warned about the overflight precisely because of what transpired – Libya was alerted. As a matter of interest the electronic countermeasures aircraft in the strike package could have created chaos with all air traffic control radars. That they chose not to would have been a political decision by the US Government.
[Daphne – If you know anything at all about the politics of Malta in 1986, you will also know that the US could not possibly have warned Malta even if it wanted to, because it would have defeated the purpose. Malta would have snitched to Gaddafi. So they would have taken a risk of flying over without permission, and the gamble did not pay off. That’s all. M’hemmx fejn nitfixxklu.]
Website http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id313.htm
“On April 14, 1986 at 17:36 Greenwich Mean Time, twenty four F-111Fs of the USAF 48th Tactical Fighter Wing took off from the Royal Air Force base at Lakenheath, England. Twenty eight refueling tankers took to the air from bases at Mildenhall and Fairford, while five EF-111 Ravens equipped with high-tech jamming equipment soared skyward from a fourth base. Operation El Dorado Canyon was underway. The target: Libya. The American aircraft roaring through the English skies that evening were embarked on what would become the longest fighter combat mission in the history of military aviation, and the first major USAF combat mission in more than a decade.
The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, had been an enthusiastic sponsor of terrorist acts against the West for years. The son of a Bedouin shepherd, he became an officer in the Libyan army and in 1968 led a successful coup to overthrow King Idris. A self-proclaimed mystic and prophet of Islam, Gaddafi’s grandiose vision was the creation of a Great Arab Nation encompassing all of North Africa, powerful enough to destroy Israel and punish the United States for its many sins against the Arab world. Purchasing over $12 billion worth of Soviet military hardware, Gaddafi in turn supported terrorists of all stripes — the Irish Republican Army, Basque ETA separatists, Colombian M19 guerrillas — maintaining as many as twenty terrorist training camps in Libya. He had given sanctuary to the Black September murderers of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics and to the Palestinian terrorist mastermind, Abi Nidal. It was Nidal who orchestrated Libyan-sponsored terrorist bloodbaths at the Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985 that left twenty people, four of them Americans, dead.
The U.S. and Libya had clashed before — in 1981, when Gaddafi launched an air strike against provocative American naval maneuvers in the Gulf of Sidra, international waters that Gaddafi claimed for Libya. Two Soviet-built SU-22 fighters were shot down. That same year, U.S. intelligence learned that Libyan hit squads would be dispatched to assassinate Reagan and other government officials. Though some anti-terrorist experts suggested that a covert operation to kill Gaddafi was doable, this was not an alternative available to Reagan. He had promised to adhere to Executive Order No. 12333, issued in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, which banned the government from engaging in the assassination of world leaders.
In January 1986 Gaddafi proclaimed a “line of death” across the Gulf of Sidra, warning that if American ships or planes crossed that line they would be destroyed. In March the U.S. responded with Operation Prairie Fire, consisting of 45 ships and 200 planes. Aircraft from the Sixth Fleet’s three carriers, Saratoga, Coral Sea and America, made forays across the “line of death.” Then three surface vessels crossed the line, supported by planes overhead and Los Angeles-class attack submarines beneath the surface. On Monday, March 24, the Libyans fired several SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, but none came close to hitting an American target because they were diverted by jamming devices carried by EA-6B Prowler aircraft. Vice Admiral Frank Kelso, Sixth Fleet’s commander, waited until dark to respond. A pair of A-6 Intruders from the America hit a Libyan attack boat with HARMs (high-speed anti-radiation missiles). Several more Libyan vessels venturing near the fleet the following morning were struck, with one confirmed destroyed. Reagan congratulated the airmen and sailors of the Sixth Fleet, some of whom wore “Terrorist Buster” t-shirts and buttons, for a job well done, and on Thursday, March 28, the naval “exercises” were concluded. There were no American casualties; 56 Libyans had been killed.
A Newsweek poll revealed that three out of every four Americans believed the U.S. attacks on Libyan boats and missile batteries were justified, while two-thirds feared that Gaddafi would retaliate. On March 25, Gaddafi ordered his embassies (or “people’s bureaus”) in East Berlin, Paris, Rome and Madrid to carry out terrorist action against Americans. At a mass rally in Tripoli, Gaddafi declared Libya to be in a state of war with the United States, and the crowd was entertained with the slaughtering of an ox with Reagan’s name painted on its side. Less than a week later, 21-year-old Army Sergeant Kenneth Ford of Detroit was slain when a bomb blast ripped through Berlin’s La Belle discotheque, a nightclub frequented by American servicemen.
The National Se
curity Agency used high-tech eavesdropping equipment to intercept three secret messages between Tripoli and European-based Libyan agents. Libya’s diplomatic code had been broken, and the messages made it clear that Gaddafi was behind the bombing of the Berlin disco. On April 7, Reagan met with his chief aides to discuss an appropriate response to the Libyan terrorist act. “The president had maps all over the floor of the Oval Office,” recalled Edwin Meese III, U.S. Attorney General and Reagan’s close friend, in order to select potential targets. These included airbases at Tripoli and Benine, naval bases at Taranbulas and Benghazi, a terrorist training camp at Sidi Balal, and the Bab al Azizia barracks where Gaddafi often stayed in a Bedouin tent equipped with telephones, heaters and a television set.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher signed off on the use of British bases in the operation, but Spain and France refused to grant American warplanes overflight permission; this meant the planes would have to fly 2,800 miles to reach their targets, and be refueled five times in the air. Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi spoke for many European leaders when he expressed concern that any American retaliation would simply trigger more terrorist acts in reprisal. But the Reagan administration was determined to act. It felt that someone had to take a stand against worldwide terrorism that had run rampant in the Eighties. Gaddafi and others like him, said the president, had to be given “incentives . . . to alter [their] criminal behavior.”
Those “incentives” were provided on the evening of Monday, April 14, as the F-111s from the British bases joined a dozen A-6 strike aircraft launched from the carriers Coral Sea and America and thundered through Libyan anti-aircraft fire to drop more than 60 tons of laser-guided bombs on five targets. Five F-111s hit Gaddafi’s barracks compound with sixteen 2,000-lb. Paveway II gravity bombs. Five more American warplanes struck the military sector of the Tripoli International Airport. Army barracks and an airfield at Benina and the naval port at Sidi Bilal were also bombed. The raid lasted eleven minutes. Four Libyan MIG-23 interceptors, five Il-76 transports and two Mi-8 Hip helicopters were destroyed. Libyan radio reported many casualties, including Gaddafi’s 18-month-old adopted daughter Hana. An F-111 was destroyed by a Libyan SAM (surface-to-air missile); pilot Captain Fernando Ribas-Dominicci and weapons system officer Captain Paul Lorence were killed.
President Reagan made a televised address to the nation later that evening. “I said that we would act . . . to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere,” he said. “Tonight, we have.” Polling showed the American people overwhelmingly approved of the raid, though there were some who concurred with former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski who complained that “we haven’t really dealt a blow to terrorism; we’ve just made ourselves feel good.” In Britain, Prime Minister Thatcher was roundly criticized for going against the advice of her cabinet and supporting the American strike. In the House of Commons she stood firm — like a “lioness in a den of Daniels,” said the London Times — against shouts of disapproval from opposition members. The Iron Lady felt she owed Reagan for U.S. support during the Falklands War, and she knew Gaddafi was giving aid to the IRA.
There were repercussions; three hostages were executed by Arab Revolutionary Cell gunmen in Lebanon, two of them British teachers and the third an American, Peter Kilburn, while William Cokals, a U.S. embassy official, was shot down in the streets of Khartoum, Sudan. For a time there was widespread concern that terrorist revenge attacks would occur on American soil, and experts warned that the U.S. was woefully unprepared to deal with such a contingency. The attacks never came.
The Soviet Union responded to the raid by canceling scheduled talks between Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Secretary of State George Shultz that were intended to formalize plans for a summit meeting between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who promised Gaddafi that the USSR would help Libya strengthen its military defenses. But Gaddafi, described by Reagan as the “mad dog of the Middle East,” was strangely subdued in the aftermath of the raid. According to Secretary Shultz, the administration’s leading proponent of strong action against Libya, Gaddafi “retreated into the desert.” An Arab diplomat told Donald Gregg, national security adviser to Vice-President George Bush, that when Gaddafi was seen “carrying the body of his dead child out of the wreckage, he lost all stature because it as shown that he couldn’t protect his family.” For whatever reason, Gaddafi acted with uncharacteristic restraint in the years that followed. According to a 1989 Department of State Bulletin, while terrorist activity continued on the rise in 1987 and 1988, Libyan-sponsored terrorist acts declined significantly.”