Showing posts tagged Libya
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I think the reaction will be major condemnation even within the Islamist current, whether the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, the offshoots of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, whether the salafi community of Libya. … There are a handful of perpetrators of this act. This is not the wider Libyan community; this is not the wider Muslim community, not even the wider Islamist community.

Omar Ashour, an expert on Islamist groups at the University of Exeter, commenting on the response to the attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi.

FULL STORY: Killing of US envoy to Libya underscores threat of unchecked religious fanaticism (+video)

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Now, Qaddafi as a rallying figure has been removed. While there is some hand-wringing today among pundits and supporters of international justice that he wasn’t caught alive and brought to trial, thousands have died on both sides of the battle since the war began – and many more died in his torture chambers and prisons during his decades in power. As the architect of a capricious, one-man rule – and of the civil war itself, when he refused to step down amid the public eruption of anger that started on Feb. 15 in Benghazi – his death can be seen as perhaps the least tragic of the whole war.
International reporter Dan Murphy encapsulate news of Qaddafi’s death in the Backchannels blog. 

Qaddafi killed, say Libya’s interim leaders; US, NATO scramble to confirm

Muammar Qaddafi was killed as he attempted to flee his last remaining stronghold of Sirte, according Libya’s National Transitional Council. More here.

Good Reads: Qaddafi was right, Bush was right, and FBI is so wrong

Today’s Good Reads look into whether Islamists are taking over Libya, as Qaddafi warned, if Bush’s war on terror instigated the Arab Spring, and how the FBI is training agents to see mainstream Muslims as radicals.

Wouldn’t it be ironic, after all this fighting, if Col. Muammar Qaddafi was right all along? The “Brother Leader” – who briefly repaired his relations with the West by handing over intelligence on Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks – once warned the West that if he was toppled, power would shift to the Islamists.

Read today’s Good Reads

It would also be ironic if all this democracy-building in the Arab world had something to do with former President George W. Bush. Shadi Hamid – as director research at the left-of-center Brookings Institution’s Doha Center, and by no means a Bush sycophant or a neoconservative – writes a persuasive argument in this month’s Atlantic Monthly that makes this very point.

“Good Reads,” this new morning element of the World Desk, is picking up steam and becoming very popular with our readers. It is featured everyday in our “Global News Blog” Here is the RSS and the section link.

Good Reads: Qaddafi loyalist town fights back, Guantánamo detainees, and Chinese villagers who don’t officially exist

International reporter Scott Baldauf shares his favorite reads on world news headlines. Find his Good Reads here.

Would you list “Libyan Rebel” under “Special Skills” on your resume?

Meet Chris Jeon. He’s on vacation. In Libya. Helping the rebel forces.

The 21-year-old college student from Los Angeles bought a one-way ticket to Libya to find out more about what he considers “one of the few real revolutions.”

We can’t make this up.

READ:  American college kid joins Libya rebels for ‘vacation’

Time to cool off in Libya A boy makes victory signs as he cools off in the water on a beach in Tripoli August 29, 2011. REUTERS/Louafi Larbi Read our latest coverage from Libya. Libya rebel leaders say they’re in charge. Not so fast, say some in Tripoli. View high resolution

Time to cool off in Libya

A boy makes victory signs as he cools off in the water on a beach in Tripoli August 29, 2011. REUTERS/Louafi Larbi

Read our latest coverage from Libya.

Libya rebel leaders say they’re in charge. Not so fast, say some in Tripoli.

BREAKING NEWS: Libya

1:47 PM ET — Wife and Three Children of Qaddafi Enter Algeria, Government Says

Members of Muammar Qaddafi’s family have arrived in Algeria less than a week after rebels gained control of Tripoli and the National Transitional Council moved its headquarters to the capital.

The family members include his wife Sofia, his daughter Aisha, and two sons, Hannibal and Mohammad, with their wives and children, state-run Algérie Presse Service reported today, citing a statement by the country’s foreign ministry. NTC Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon have been informed of their arrival, the statement said.

More from Bloomberg

PHOTO: A Libyan rebel fighter gestures next to a poster of Muammar Qaddafi on the ground at one of several checkpoints in Tripoli August 29. Qaddafi’s whereabouts have been unknown since Tripoli fell to his foes and his 42-year-old rule collapsed a week ago. (REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal) New threats in Libya for black Africans believed to be mercenaries for Qaddafi: Across Libya, a predominantly Arab country, suspicion and resentment of black Africans runs high. While racism is considered partly to blame, it has been compounded by Libyans upset that Qaddafi has poured money into buying the loyalty of black Libyans in the south and other African groups across the country. Earlier in the uprising, as rebels gained control of cities like Benghazi, thousands of sub-Saharan Africans found themselves trapped, facing food shortages, death threats, and little means to make their way home.

PHOTO: A Libyan rebel fighter gestures next to a poster of Muammar Qaddafi on the ground at one of several checkpoints in Tripoli August 29. Qaddafi’s whereabouts have been unknown since Tripoli fell to his foes and his 42-year-old rule collapsed a week ago. (REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal)

New threats in Libya for black Africans believed to be mercenaries for Qaddafi:

Across Libya, a predominantly Arab country, suspicion and resentment of black Africans runs high. While racism is considered partly to blame, it has been compounded by Libyans upset that Qaddafi has poured money into buying the loyalty of black Libyans in the south and other African groups across the country. Earlier in the uprising, as rebels gained control of cities like Benghazi, thousands of sub-Saharan Africans found themselves trapped, facing food shortages, death threats, and little means to make their way home.

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Is there a chance for a post-Qaddafi civil war in Libya? Yes. Should the international community, particularly those who helped drive Qaddafi from his perch, be looking for ways to help if it comes to pass? Absolutely. But they should be looking to Iraq for warnings, not answers.

Lessons from Iraq for Libya? Don’t do what the US did.

Dan Murphy commenting on what could happen next in Libya.