Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Crisis in North Africa continues

The situation in the North African country of Libya is deteriorating rapidly. Last evening the madman Colonel Gaddafi made a very brief and bizarre appearance on state television in which he praised the rain that kept him from addressing the youth in Green Square [who wants to give a speech while getting wet?]. He also stated that he was in Tripoli and not in Venezuela and continued to ramble with a request not to "believe the channels belonging to stray dogs," before saying "Bye!"

Gunfire was reported throughout Tripoli last night. Loyalist soldiers were reported to have continued some bombarding to keep defecting soldiers away from the protests. Fighter jets are reported to have targeted army ammunition depots in order to prevent troops from joining the protesters. The Libyan Navy reportedly began firing on onshore targets, and Gaddafi allegedly issued execution orders to soldiers refusing to fire on protesters.

The former ambassador to India, Ali al-Essawi, stated that he feared returning to Libya. He also said that foreign mercenaries, who seemed to have come from other African countries, were "massacring" people. The former ambassador to Bangladesh, A. H. Elimam, was also reported to have "disappeared" after 9:00 Bangladesh time. Al Jazeera said the last conversation with him noted "a sense of panic" in his voice and that his phone had been switched off. He indicated a feeling of being threatened by an intelligence officer at the embassy, who was from the same village as Gaddafi. No one knows where he is now.

Eyewitnesses report that thousands of African mercenaries were flown into Tripoli to put down the uprising. One insider source reports Gaddafi knows he can't retake Libya but plans to force a Pyrrhic victory on his opponents; to whittle down their numbers and sabotage the oil reserves.

"I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents ... I will die as a martyr at the end"

In a second overlong rambling speech today, Colonel Gaddafi vowed to fight his opponents "until the last drop of his blood had been spilt" rather step down, describing anti-regime protesters as "rats" and "mercenaries" working for foreign nations and corporation's agendas. He said the rioting urban youths that were oppose his rule were manipulated by Zionists and others who gave them drugs and who were trying to turn the country into an Islamic state.

General Abdulfatah Younis who holds the position of top general and interior minister and thusly the second most powerful man in the troubled country, escaped from house arrest, resigned, and called for the security forces to fight Gaddafi and his regime.

Th Arab League’s secretary general, Amr Moussa, had said in an emergency Arab League summit in Cairo, that the Arab League suspended the Libyan delegation. Mr Moussa says Libyan delegations are banned "until the Libyan authorities respond to the demands that have been set".

Not unlike the response to protests in Egypt and Tunisia, the U.S. has been tempered in its support for protesters in Libya. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that the U.S. is watching the situation in Libya "with alarm" and condemned the violence. Speaking aboard Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the United States is participating in meetings at the United Nations to develop a unified voice to condemn the violence in Libya.

The United Nations Security Council met today to debate the Libyan situation. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez called on the U.N. Security Council to condemn Gaddafi's acts and for the General Assembly to expel Libya from the U.N. Human Rights Council. It's also confirmed that the UNSC have received more specific military information from one of their most trusted officers who reports to the UNSC directly as Special Operations Commander to UNETIDA, Colonel "Whopper" Creedon. As a captain, Creedon served on the USS America during Operation El Dorado Canyon, the Bombing of Libya, in 1986 and is believed to have led a clandestine intelligence gathering mission to the country in 1998.

Colonel "Whopper" Creedon briefs the UNSC in New York via video link from UNETIDA Strike Station "Olympus", Cyprus.

"In the short term, the tools the West can employ to deal with the situation in Libya are limited," says Robert Danin from the Council on Foreign Relations. "What would be dramatic would be to employ a no fly zone over Tripoli to protect the protesters from Colonel Gaddafi's aircraft," he tells the BBC.

Source: BBC, Fox News

3 comments:

Dahar Master said...

overlooking a certain upcoming national event perhaps?

vaughan said...

Can I just say that picture looks more like you're saying
..."Hello ...Hello and these are the votes from the dutch jury....12 votes bing bang a boom bomb!"

Major General Creedon said...

@ Dahar: Never. I just had to wait until my mission elsewhere was complete.

@ Vaughan: The Dutch read out their Eurovision votes while wearing Desert camo battle-dress uniforms now? Wow! I'm so out of touch.