THE GUARDIAN: LIBYAN REBELS URGE WEST TO ASSASSINATE GADDAFI
A Libyan rebel fighter heads for the frontline in Ajdarbia in his tank. The town was bombed by Gaddafi’s airforce Photograph: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images
LIBYAN REBELS URGE WEST TO ASSASSINATE GADDAFI AS HIS FORCES NEAR BENGHAZI
Chris McGreal in Benghazi guardian.co.uk, last night
Libya’s revolutionary leadership is pressing western powers to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi and launch military strikes against his forces to protect rebel-held cities from the threat of bloody assault.
Mustafa Gheriani, spokesman for the revolutionary national council in its stronghold of Benghazi, said the appeal was to be made by a delegation meeting the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in Paris on Monday, as G8 foreign ministers gathered there to consider whether to back French and British calls for a no-fly zone over Libya.
“We are telling the west we want a no-fly zone, we want tactical strikes against those tanks and rockets that are being used against us and we want a strike against Gaddafi’s compound,” said Gheriani. “This is the message from our delegation in Europe.”
Asked if that meant that the revolutionary council wanted the west to assassinate Gaddafi, Gheriani replied: “Why not? If he dies, nobody will shed a tear.”
But with diplomatic wrangling focused on the issue of the no-fly zone, there appeared to be little immediate prospect of a foreign military assault on Gaddafi’s forces, let alone an air strike against the Libyan dictator.
The Libyan revolutionary leadership made the appeal as Gaddafi’s airforce bombed Ajdarbia, a town of 135,000 people that is the last major obstacle for his forces before Benghazi, the seat of the revolutionary council.
Those attacks strengthened the hand of France and Britain in pressing for intervention. Paris said it wants to see a no-fly zone “as fast as possible”. The move is backed by the Arab League, which may ease the way to agreement at the UN security council. France and Britain are also expected to push the move at a Nato meeting on Tuesday.
But the rebels’ appeal is also a recognition that while a no-fly zone would provide a boost to them, their military defeats of recent days have largely been under an onslaught of rockets and shells, and air strikes have been relatively peripheral.
A no-fly zone alone may not be enough to prevent the continued advance of Gaddafi’s forces toward Benghazi, the revolutionaries’ de facto capital.
So far no western nation has explicitly supported attacks on Gaddafi’s forces separate from enforcing a no-fly zone. The issue is complicated by overwhelming opposition even among the insurgents to foreign forces becoming involved on the ground, in large part because of strong views about the consequences of the invasion of Iraq.
The talks are being closely watched in Benghazi and other areas under the control of the revolutionaries where Libyans are increasingly concerned at the direction of the conflict and the west’s failure, so far at least, to follow through on calls for Gaddafi to go with action in support of the rebellion.
A large French flag hangs on the front of the courthouse used as the revolutionary council’s headquarters after Paris recognised the rebel leadership, and the tricolour is often seen on the streets of Benghazi. But Libyans are also increasingly vocal in their criticism of Washington in particular for what is seen as a failure to back up rhetoric against the regime.
However, Gheriani said that if the west failed to offer practical help to the revolutionaries to free themselves from Gaddafi’s rule it risked frustrated Libyans turning to religious extremists.
“The west is missing the point. The revolution was started because people were feeling despair from poverty, from oppression. Their last hope was freedom. If the west takes too long – where people say it’s too little, too late – then people become a target for extremists who say the west doesn’t care about them,” he said.
“Most people in this country are moderates and extremists have not been able to penetrate them. But if they get to the point of disillusionment with the west there will be no going back.”
Although the revolutionary leadership is reluctant to concede that it is enduring significant military setbacks, Gaddafi’s forces have driven them from two small towns and back about 150 miles to the edge of Ajdarbia. On Sunday the rebel army fled in the face of a barrage of rockets and shells as Tripoli’s army took Brega, a day after seizing the strategic oil centre of Ras Lanuf, 90 miles away.
The rebels’ military leader, Abdel Fattah Younis, Gaddafi’s former interior minister, has promised a vigorous defence of Ajdarbia to block the government’s advance on Benghazi, 90 miles along the coastal road.
Younis has said he believes Gadaffi’s supply lines are overstretched and his forces demoralised. He also said that street fighting in a town will be a more even contest than facing rocket barrages in largely open desert. But the defences on display on Monday, which included a handful of tanks and armoured vehicles and small artillery guns, did not look strong.
The revolutionaries claimed to be back in Brega, but provided no evidence and prevented reporters from travelling towards the town.
On Monday Gaddafi’s forces also attacked Zuwara, a town of 40,000 people about 60 miles west of Tripoli and near the Tunisian border. Residents described shelling of their neighbourhoods and said armoured vehicles were in the heart of the town.
“I can see the tanks from where I am now and they are around 500 metres from the centre of Zuwara,” Tarek Abdullah told Reuters by telephone. “There are still clashes but I think soon the whole town will fall into their hands.”
But the pressure appeared to be off the only major city in the west still held by the rebels, Misrata, 130 miles east of the capital. Tripoli’s assault apparently stalled amid claims of a mutiny within the ranks of the besieging government forces.
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Good idea. Even Gigis once said: ‘Thou shalt kill thy neighbour’s villain when asked’.
We’ll then wait and see what new villain the rebels have prepared for us.
Let’s hope it won’t be a litany of conspiracy theorists. The resident one is torture enough.
So first they said they needed no outside help, than all they wanted was a “No Fly Zone” to stop the attacks, by Gaddafi’s air force,now they want ” Tactical strikes against those tanks and rockets” They will sonn want to stay at home and let someone else, do their fighting.
Jew int bniedem bla sens, jew tiehu gost tghaddi kummenti bla sens. Ma tpoggix lilek innifsek minflokhom. Ma nistghax nifmhek.
You talk about SENS. I talk facts. and unfortunetly time is proving me right.It does not mean that I agree with was is happening, far from it, They should have asked for help from day one , not refused it because they though they could do it by themeselves. They even went so far as detaining the S.A.S team which was nothing but a clear message from England saying ” we have more of these, which we can send without needing any UN approval, just keep it on the quiet”
Mhux li kien jaħasra…Today is the Ides of March but I do not think that there is a Brutus in his inner circle.
It’s about time!
Another excellent analysis from Time magazine on the military situation in Libya. It does not look at all good for the rebels.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2058832,00.html
The ‘Revolution’ has failed. No need for the West to complicate matters, keep out.
Say sorry to the Colonel and you might save on your investments.
All the West needs is a potential terrorist base less than 250 miles from Malta.
This could be the case if Gaddafi is not deposed, or if those willing to oppose him in Libya are not provided the necessary support from the West.
After futile attempts to dispose of Castro in Cuba by violent means, the John Kennedy assasination followed. President Reagan missed Gaddafi when he attempted to do so, and KMB apparently had raised the alarm about the jets overhead and heading for Libya; then we had Gaddafi’s bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie.
It seems that Gaddafi’s rationale strategy is to kill the opposition and blackmail the West to stay in power. There certainly can be no stability and peace in the Mediterranean or in North Africa, or potentially in Europe, without the removal of Gaddafi.
How this will be accomplished, I don’t know. The cards are not yet on the table. An internal Libyan assassination and an opposition victory would help; but neither of those seems likely. So, what does the West do? Postpone the inevitable?
Not to intervene becomes more and more disastrous, against the prayer and a hope of the Libyan opposition as they observed how the West had dealt with Tunisia and Egypt. Unfortunately Libya is neither of those under Gaddafi.
With the West providing no place for Gaddafi to manoevre, Gaddafi needs to be removed–sooner is better. His naturally yielding up power would be best; but that seems like a 0% chance.
The West already has a terrorist base 250 miles from Malta.
It’s called Gaddafi’s Libya.
If the West were to assassinate Gaddafi, it would lose the moral high ground.
The requests being made by the rebels are counterproductive to their cause.
The moral high ground isn’t keeping anyone alive or pushing Gaddafi out to make way for something better.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110315/local/iran-leader-warns-west-against-libyan-intervention
Have a look at the comments beneath this news item and you give up all hope.
Same thoughts here. Unbelievable!
I think the west is non committal because they fear a replacement of Gaddafi maybe worse. The west want to know what they will get in return of toppling Gaddafi.
There is much more going on in the background than we are allowed to know.
tp://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110315/local/explosions-rock-key-libya-rebel-town
“Frans Sammut(5 hours, 29 minutes ago)
One just hopes the Western powers do not oblige Colonel Qaddhafi to join forces with Al Qaeda. They would be naive to think this impossible. They could do worse than tread carefully in the current civil war in Libya. Iraq should serve as an example. Where are the Christians now who lived there since pre-Muslim times? Where is the peace that was promised before the invasion? Westerners should countenance the existence of the realities of tribal society in some Arab countries like Libya and beware the deceptions of the war of propaganda that has been unleashed. From the very beginning of the current civil war I supported the suggestions made by both EU Commissioner John Dalli and former premier Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici regarding peaceful mediation rather than military intervention. I was fully aware such a notion would be alien to certain self-appointed experts on the ME – and practically on anything else under the sun – and am afraid recent developments are proving me and all those who concurred increasingly right. One of the more frightening prospects emerging from these developments is the possibility that a beleaguered Qaddhafi may actually end up associating himself with Al-Qaeda. ”
Malta’s prime culture vulture during Alfred Sant’s short and unlamented stint at government is widening his horizons regarding mediation and intervention.
http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/03/14/13818.shtml
To tell the truth I don’t know why still the Americans haven’t yet invaded Libya taking in consideration the oil wells found in Libya. It’s a pity why the G8 never talked about the revolution in Somalia and the living conditions in Ivory Coast.
Ohhhhh now I remember there is no oil wells in Somalia and Ivory Coast….
[Daphne – Just out of curiosity, are you a Labour voter? I ask because you have a pathetic mind.]
Where is the oil in Bosnia and in Afghanistan? I am sure there are other ‘non-oil’ interventions which at the moment are escaping my memory and which others might oblige your cretinous comment.
Ray Cini definitely needs to see a ray of light. I like his contradictory reasoning.
As a matter of fact, Americans did intervene – or try to – in Somalia.
“Why not? If he dies, nobody will shed a tear.”
Except here in Malta that is.
The only feeling that I have right now is that if Gaddafi stays in power, we’re going to see more like Lockerbie. He is ruthless rnough to kill his own people let alone those in other countries.
I cannot understand what the UN is waiting for to stop the killing of innocent people who only want their freedom.
Again, the west looked the other way. Once again the west is passive. Nobody wants to get involved. Who is going to come to our rescue if Malta is invaded again? History always repeats itself.
Libya is a wealthy nation yet the people were kept poor. Malta has a lot to gain if the Libyan regime is replaced. A new leadership in Libya could turn Libya into another UAE where many Maltese could be working there and spending the weekends in Malta.
How I miss Ronald Reagan.
Hitler, Stalin, Ceaucescu, Franco, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam, The Korean Kims, Gaddafi et al.
Imagine what U-turns world history would have made if their heads and a .5 cal round met in the same space and time.
Trouble is, you need hindsight for this.
[Daphne – No. You don’t. You need foresight and the ability to correctly interpret a set of circumstances and personalities, analyse the situation and then project from there. That’s what David Cameron is doing here. His words have a ringing clarity about them that all the fudging on the continent – France excepted for once – does not. This has been my view from day one: carpe diem and get rid of him. We couldn’t have done it without the rebels’ internal uprising and the rebels can’t do it without us. But we all have one thing in common: we are better off without him.]
I think you misinterpret the European reaction. It’s the result of around two decades of hypermedia, and media coverage on the micro-level: shots of screaming mothers bearing their dead sons, disembowelled teenagers, toddler’s corpses still clutching their soft toy, the works. Europe is torn between wanting to stand by the oppressed, and its anti-death moral code.
I’ve written about the parallel in Kosovo. The Serbs were demonised to the extreme by Western media, bar Russia. Hence no one was too bothered about killing a few Serbian conscripts. The Afghans were made human (vide the famous National Geographic photo of the girl with – shades of Aryanism – green eyes). Hence the anti-war protests.
After Iraq and Afghanistan and the Second Intifada, Muslim/Arab lives have risen through the rankings. So no one wants to do anything that could kill any Muslims or Arabs and bring the full wrath of the touchy-feely media upon them.
Fair comment! Easier said than done though.