Unrest reported in Libya

[High_Gravity]

Qatar Seeks Major Voice In Libya's Uprising

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – To get an idea of who might wield influence in post-civil war Libya, take a look at the flags flying in the rebel-held east of the country.

Outside the courthouse in Benghazi -- rebel headquarters and symbolic heart of the uprising against the 41-year rule of leader Muammar Gaddafi -- fly the flags of France, Great Britain, the United States, the European Union, NATO. There's one other flag, too: Qatar's.

"Qatar, really, it's time to convey our gratitude to them," Abdulla Shamia, rebel economy chief, told Reuters. "They really helped us a lot. It's a channel for transportation, for help, for everything."

It has a population of just 1.7 million people, but the wealthy Gulf monarchy has long sought a major voice in political affairs in the region. It has brokered peace talks in Sudan and Lebanon, owns the influential pan-Arab news network Al Jazeera, and recently won the right to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. Now the gas-rich nation has placed a big geopolitical bet in Libya, splashing out hundreds of millions of dollars on fuel, food and cash transfers for the rebels.

A representative from the Emir's palace declined to comment on what products Qatar has delivered to Libya, and on the ruling family's motivations behind its Libyan engagement.

It's certainly a gamble. If the rebels win, Qatar is likely to pick up energy deals and new influence in North Africa. But if they lose, Qatar's ambitions may further alienate it among its neighbors.

"I guess ever since the late 1990s, Qatar has been trying to break the Saudi-dominated status quo and carve out a niche position," said Saket Vemprala from the London-based Business Monitor International consultancy.

"At the moment I think it's more geopolitical, they want to broaden their (influence in the) region and become a more significant player ... And it certainly makes it easy for them to portray themselves as being on the right side of history," he said.

That sentiment is on display on a huge billboard in front of the courthouse. Over a picture of Qatari ruler Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani reads the promise: "Qatar, history will always remember your support for our cause."

"'WE ARE FINE'"

Being on the right side of history doesn't come cheap.

Qatar was the first Arab country to contribute planes to police the U.N.-backed no-fly zone over Libya. Simultaneously, hundreds of millions of dollars began to flow from the Qatari capital Doha to Benghazi from early March.

While international oil traders pondered whether to brave the bombs and international sanctions to start buying oil from the rebels, Qatar was quick to throw a lifeline and help eastern Libya meet its most pressing needs including fuel, food, medicines and telecommunications equipment.

Qatar's foreign ministry has confirmed that it has shipped four tankers full of gasoline, diesel and other refined fuels to Benghazi, which specialists estimate is enough to feed the large Benghazi power plant for one or two weeks.

But people on the ground in Benghazi say they believe Qatar is behind much of the continuing delivery of fuel supplies, as well as food, medicine and cash payments. Given that oil production in the east has stalled and the economy generates no cash, they ask, where else are all the supplies coming from?

Qatar Seeks Major Voice In Libya's Uprising

 

[Ropey]

I believe that Democracy is a hard fought anarchist fight that must be won from inside. Not from begging it to be enforced from without. Not one Arab country in the Middle East has been created by Arabs. They have been created by outgoing and incoming Empiric thrusts.

These people need to stop inbreeding. They are already so mentally weak and emotionally unstable through the ~1,400 years of inbreeding that I personally see that only war can stop them.

Some think you can just give a lot of money and people will become civilized and accept Democracy. If that were the case, Saudi Arabia would be civilized and a Democracy rather than one of the MOST oppressive Muslim regimes in the world.

They have lots of their own money and don't even allow women to drive.

The Dilemma of Saudi Women Drivers: Islamic Sharia Law and Gender Equality

The Dilemma of Saudi Women Drivers: Islamic Sharia Law and Gender Equality

 

[High_Gravity]

I believe that Democracy is a hard fought anarchist fight that must be won from inside. Not from begging it to be enforced from without. Not one Arab country in the Middle East has been created by Arabs. They have been created by outgoing and incoming Empiric thrusts.

These people need to stop inbreeding. They are already so mentally weak and emotionally unstable through the ~1,400 years of inbreeding that I personally see that only war can stop them.

Some think you can just give a lot of money and people will become civilized and accept Democracy. If that were the case, Saudi Arabia would be civilized and a Democracy rather than one of the MOST oppressive Muslim regimes in the world.

They have lots of their own money and don't even allow women to drive.

The Dilemma of Saudi Women Drivers: Islamic Sharia Law and Gender Equality

The Dilemma of Saudi Women Drivers: Islamic Sharia Law and Gender Equality

You are absolutely right, as we are seeing in Afghanistan giving a country billions of dollars a year does then more harm than good if they don't know how to manage it correctly. Throwing billions of dollars at an uncivilized people will not fix their problems, it may actually make things worse.

 

[High_Gravity]

Clinton: Gaddafi Associates Seeking To Negotiate

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she is aware of "numerous and continuing" overtures by people close to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi (MOO'-ah-mar gah-DAH'-fee) to negotiate his departure from power.

Speaking to reporters after an international conference on Libya in the United Arab Emirates, Clinton said proposals from "people close to Gadhafi" presented to unspecified countries included the "potential for a transition." But she said she could not predict if they would be accepted. She did, however, stress that she believed Gadhafi's decades-long rule is nearing an end.

Her comments came in response to a question about whether she could confirm that Gadhafi loyalists were seeking a way for him to go into exile in an African country.

Clinton: Gaddafi Associates Seeking To Negotiate

 

[LAfrique]

Muammar Gaddafi Exit Eyed By U.S., Allies In Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Libya's main opposition group appealed Thursday for urgent infusions of cash from foreign nations to help support the rebellion against Moammar Gadhafi and said a meeting of countries backing NATO's military mission over the country would be a "total failure" if financial assistance was not forthcoming.

Italy promptly pledged nearly $600 million to the cause but the rebels were likely to be disappointed by the U.S. response announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said Washington would boost its humanitarian aid to all Libyans by $26.5 million and continue to look at ways to assist the opposition.

"Gadhafi's days are numbered," Clinton said. "We are working with our international partners through the U.N. to plan for the inevitable: a post-Gadhafi Libya."

As senior officials from the more than 30-member coalition met in the United Arab Emirates to prepare for the post-Gadhafi era in Libya, the opposition Transitional National Council lamented that the international community still did not understand the needs of the Libyan people after months of violence.

But opposition Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said outsiders have not matched verbal pledges of aid with enough money and urged nations to allow the council to use frozen Gadhafi regime assets as collateral for loans to help.

"Our people are dying," he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference in Abu Dhabi. "It's been almost four months now and nothing has materialized so far. Our message to our friends is that I hope that they walk the walk."

Italy said it would offer up to $600 million for "the day-to-day needs" of the council, encouraging other countries supporting NATO action against Gadhafi to provide similar financial support.

Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said "timing was of the essence" and noted that the rebels "need help now."

The council has said it needs some $3 billion in funding to support itself for the next several months but has been appealing for diplomatic recognition and financial support with mixed results.

Muammar Gaddafi Exit Eyed By U.S., Allies In Abu Dhabi

African nations and other developing nations would do better were the US and its allies to leave them alone. Just months ago, the US not only "eyed" the departure of Ivorian Laurent Gbagbo, but offered Gbagbo a teaching post at US university in exchange for his resignation - Reform School - By Elizabeth Dickinson | Foreign Policy

 

[High_Gravity]

Clinton Presses African Leaders to Abandon Qaddafi

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly warned African leaders on Monday that authoritarian governments ruled by aging depots were “no longer acceptable,” saying that those who refused democratic reforms would find themselves “on the wrong side of history.”

She also urged the African Union to end its lingering relations with Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. American officials have been deeply frustrated by the union’s efforts to mediate on behalf of Colonel Qaddafi, who for decades lavished support on African leaders — many of them autocratic — and led the union itself two years ago.

“Too many people in Africa still live under long-standing rulers, men who care too much about the longevity of their reign and too little about the legacy that should be built for their countries’ future,” Mrs. Clinton said in a speech that echoed one in mid-January, just before the president of Tunisia was ousted in the first salvo in what became a wave of regional revolts. Then, she warned Arab leaders that their governments risked “sinking into the sand” if they did not change.

“The status quo is broken,” she said Monday. “The old ways of governing are no longer acceptable. It is time for leaders to leave with accountability, treat their people with dignity, respect their rights and deliver economic opportunity. And if they will not, then it is time for them to go.”

Mrs. Clinton did not specify any countries or leaders, but the United States has long opposed some of the most repressive governments, from Zimbabwe to Sudan. Representatives of the union’s members — including Libya’s — attended her speech in the conference hall of its headquarters here in Ethiopia’s capital. She was greeted politely and even warmly at moments.

One of her most biting comments about leader’s attitudes — “Some even claim to believe in democracy defined as one election, one time” — prompted laughter.

Mrs. Clinton, on a five-day, three-country visit focused on trade and economic assistance to Africa, became the first secretary of state to address a session of the African Union, the regional organization that was created in 2002 and represents 53 of 54 nations on the continent. (The exception is Morocco.)

In the case of Libya, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that many members — though not all — disagreed with the military intervention in Libya led by the United States and NATO, but she urged all members to call for a genuine cease-fire and the departure of Colonel Qaddafi. She urged them to suspend operations of Libya’s embassies, expel diplomats loyal to Colonel Qaddafi, and open channels to the Libyan rebels.

“Your words and your actions could make the difference in bringing this situation to finally close,” she said.

In her remarks, Mrs. Clinton also called for a peaceful resolution of the fighting that has flared in Sudan ahead of the planned declaration of independence by South Sudan on July 9. The violence — in the disputed territory of Abyei and increasingly in other regions along what will be the new be the new border — has threatened to unravel a peaceful separation that the Obama administration worked feverishly to ensure over the last year. Mrs. Clinton called the recent fight "deeply troubling."

Talks aimed at resolving the dispute over Abyei took place in Addis Ababa over the last two days with Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, in attendance. Mr. Bashir’s presence here raised the potentially awkward possibility that Mrs. Clinton might encounter a leader indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes in another part of Sudan, Darfur. Mr. Bashir, however, left town before she arrived and did not attend the meetings at the African Union headquarters. Mrs. Clinton did meet with representatives of both the north and south at her hotel in an effort to press for an agreement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/world/africa/14diplomacy.html?_r=1&ref=world

 

[High_Gravity]

Sassi Garada, Gaddafi Insider, Reportedly Defects

LONDON — Another member of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's regime has defected and fled the country, two Libyan analysts in London said Monday, as fighting continued between government troops and rebel forces.

Sassi Garada, one of the first men to join Gadhafi when he took power more than 40 years ago, left Libya through Tunisia, according to Noman Benotman, a Libyan analyst in London who was in contact with his friends and family. Guma el-Gamaty, U.K. organizer for Libya's interim council, also confirmed the defection.

There were initial reports that Garada fled to Britain, where he has several family members, but Benotman said Garada was in Switzerland.

British officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss immigration and security matters, said they could not confirm whether Garada was in the U.K. Swiss Foreign ministry spokeswoman Carole Waelti told the AP the government was "not aware of the possible presence of Mr. Garada in Switzerland."

The Libyan U.N. mission in Geneva – which sides with the regime's opponents – said Monday it had no immediate knowledge of any such defection, but would make further inquiries. In February, diplomats at the mission publicly renounced Gadhafi, swelling the rebellion of Libyan officials around the globe.

A longtime supporter of Gadhafi, Garada reportedly passed up several military promotions over the years to stay out of the limelight and serve Gadhafi, according to Benotman, who works as an analyst for the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

Garada is also from Libya's Berber minority, which has often fought with the Arab majority to have their language and customs protected. Many of the Berbers also occupy the Western mountains of Libya, where Garada had been in charge of trying to neutralize tensions, el-Gamaty said.

It is not known why Garada defected or when, but he is one in a growing list of senior officials who have fled the country, suggesting Gadhafi may be losing his grip on power.

Last month, Shukri Ghanem, the Libyan oil minister and head of the National Oil Co., crossed into neighboring Tunisia.

Sassi Garada, Gaddafi Insider, Reportedly Defects

 

[High_Gravity]

Gaddafi-NATO Talks Possible: Kirsan Ilyumzhinovm

MOSCOW — The Russian head of the World Chess Federation said Tuesday after playing chess with Moammar Gadhafi that the Libyan leader is open to talks with NATO and the country's rebels.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said Gadhafi had told him that he was ready to immediately start peace talks once NATO stops air raids, but shrugged off international demands for him to leave.

Russia has joined the West in urging the Libyan leader to step down, and Kremlin foreign affairs advisor Sergei Prikhodko said Ilyumzhinov had conveyed Moscow's official position during his meeting Sunday with Gadhafi in Tripoli.

IIyumzhinov said at a news conference that Gadhafi replied he had no official job to resign from and that he has no intention of leaving the country.

"I will not go anywhere, my relatives died here and I will also die in that land," Ilyumzhinov quoted the Libyan leader as telling him during the meeting.

Ilyumzhinov's office released a tape in which he was playing chess with the Libyan leader, clad in black and brown and wearing sunglasses.

Allowing Gadhafi to play white, Ilyumzhinov seemed to be showing him how to begin the game and then called it a draw.

Ilyumzhinov, who formerly headed Russia's province of Kalmykia, is noted for eccentric behavior including claims he was visited by a UFO.

Gadhafi had not been seen since a brief appearance on state television in late May. He has been in hiding since NATO strikes in April struck one his homes. Libyan officials said one of his sons, Saif al-Arab, and three of his grandchildren were killed in that strike.

Gaddafi-NATO Talks Possible: Kirsan Ilyumzhinovm

 

[High_Gravity]

Libyan Rebels Recognized By Canadian Government

OTTAWA, Ontario -- Canada says it will formally recognize the Libyan rebels as the legitimate government of the country.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told Parliament Tuesday the rebels are the true representatives of the Libyan people.

The minister's announcement came as Parliament opened a day-long debate on extending Canada's military commitment to the NATO-led mission in Libya. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government plans to extend an initial three-month commitment to the end of September.

Baird says the recognition is part of an enhanced effort to work with the National Transitional Council of Libya, the key rebel organization fighting dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Canada joins France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in formally recognizing the council.

Libyan Rebels Recognized By Canadian Government

 

[High_Gravity]

Gaddafi Elections Offer Extended: Saif Al-Islam

ROME (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi would agree to internationally supervised elections on condition there is no vote-rigging, one of the Libyan leader's sons told an Italian newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.

"They could be held within three months. At the maximum by the end of the year, and the guarantee of transparency could be the presence of international observers," Saif al-Islam told the daily Corriere della Sera.

He said the elections could be supervised by bodies including the European Union, the African Union, the United Nations or even NATO, which has been bombing Gaddafi's forces.

"The important thing is that the election should be clean, that there should be no suspicion of vote-rigging," he said.

"I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Libyans stands with my father and sees the rebels as fanatical Islamist fundamentalists, terrorists stirred up from abroad, mercenaries on the orders of (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy."

He said his father would be ready to step aside if he lost the election but would not go into exile.

"He will never leave Libya. He was born here and intends to die and be buried here, alongside those he holds dear."

Saif al-Islam's comments came as fighting continued between rebels and troops loyal to Gaddafi without any clear sign of a breakthrough in the conflict.

Gaddafi Elections Offer Extended: Saif Al-Islam

 

[High_Gravity]

World leaders look for way out of Libya

Reporting from Tripoli, Libya, and Washington— With questions growing about NATO's air war and international arrest warrants threatening to close off a diplomatic solution, new players are joining the search for a way out of the Libya conflict. But the efforts have stumbled so far on Moammar Kadafi's insistence that he remain in the country.

Russia and Turkey have recently added their voices to Western demands that Kadafi leave. Libyan officials long have declared that a nonstarter, and diplomats say it is unlikely they can change Kadafi's mind.

However, they hope to convince enough of the leader's children and closest associates that leaving Libya becomes the only realistic option.

Adding urgency to the diplomatic push are concerns about how long NATO can sustain its military campaign and a pending ruling by the International Criminal Court on prosecutors' request for arrest warrants for Kadafi, his son and brother-in-law.

Issuance of arrest warrants could forestall a solution in which Kadafi goes into exile. Once warrants are issued, other countries that have agreed to ICC jurisdiction would be required to arrest him.

"To insist that he both leave the country and face trial in the International Criminal Court is virtually to ensure that he will stay in Libya to the bitter end and go down fighting," the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization that seeks to resolve global conflicts, said in a recent report on Libya.

Britain's top naval commander, Adm. Mark Stanhope, said Monday that it could be difficult to continue the campaign in Libya past September. "Beyond that, we might have to request the government to make some challenging decisions about priorities," he said.

The overall head of the British military, Gen. David Richards, contradicted him. But the admiral's remarks reinforced criticism last week by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates of NATO allies' faltering commitment to the Libya campaign.

Fewer than half of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 28 member nations are engaged in the conflict, Gates said, and after only 11 weeks some are beginning to run short of munitions.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday cited "numerous and continuous discussions" but acknowledged that there was not yet a clear path to forcing Kadafi to give up power.

Leading the latest effort to persuade Kadafi to go is longtime ally Russia.

Russia's Africa envoy, Mikhail Margelov, has suggested that the ICC case against Kadafi, his son Seif Islam and the regime intelligence chief could be deferred if the Libyan leader agreed to leave soon.

Margelov, who visited the rebel stronghold Benghazi last week, told Russian media that he planned to visit Tripoli on Thursday and stress to Libya's leader that time was running out.

Libya: World leaders look for way out of Libya - latimes.com

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya: NATO Airstrike Kills 15 West of Tripoli

SURMAN, Libya – Libya's government said a NATO airstrike early Monday on a large family compound belonging to a close associate of Muammar Qaddafi has killed at least 15 people, including three children, west of Tripoli.

A NATO official in Naples, Italy, said the alliance has not conducted any strikes in that area in the past 24 hours. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of NATO regulations.

Qaddafi's regime has repeatedly accused NATO of targeting civilians in an attempt to rally support against the alliance's intervention in the country's civil war. NATO has repeatedly insisted it tries to avoid killing civilians.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said alliance bombs struck the compound belonging to Khoweildi al-Hamidi outside the city of Surman, some 40 miles west of Tripoli, around 4 a.m. local time Monday.

Ibrahim said al-Hamidi, a former military officer who took part in the 1969 coup that brought Qaddafi to power, escaped unharmed but that three children were among those killed, two of them al-Hamidi's grandchildren.

"They (NATO) are targeting civilians ... the logic is intimidation," Ibrahim said. "They want Libyans to give up the fight ... they want to break our spirit."

Foreign journalists based in the Libyan capital were taken by government officials to the walled compound, where the main two-story buildings had been blasted to rubble. A pair of massive craters could be seen in the dusty ground, and rescue service workers with sniffer dogs were searching the rubble in search of people. The smell of smoke was still thick in the air.

Journalists were later taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Sabratha, where medical workers showed them the bodies of at least 10 people, including those of two children, said to be killed in the strike. Some of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, while others had been half blown apart.

NATO, which has a mandate to protect Libyan civilians, has rejected the Libyan government's allegations that it targets civilians. However, mistakes have occurred.

Read more: Libya: NATO Airstrike Kills 15 West of Tripoli - FoxNews.com

 

[High_Gravity]

All Confused On the Western Front: NATO and Libya's Rebels Don't Jibe

"Where is NATO?" the rebel asks, with no small amount of frustration. It is just after midnight, Friday, June 17, and he is holed up in Dafniyah, a hamlet west of the revolutionary enclave of Misratah on the coast of western Libya. Like all the fighters in the dry fields outside the rebel city, Ashrf Ali, 30, had anticipated that the military alliance would launch a bombing campaign in the early hours of the morning last Friday, hitting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's troops to allow the rebels to push further inland. Instead, NATO planes have merely buzzed the sky in routine reconnaissance and patrol sorties, leaving Ali and his fellow fighters unable to advance.

Throughout parts of Libya under rebel control, people are frustrated with NATO. Between its slow pace of attacks and the errant strikes that have killed rebel fighters, the speculation now is that the Western coalition lacks the resources and resolve to help the rebels topple Gaddafi.

The chief problem plaguing both NATO and the rebels is lack of coordination. Rebel leaders complain that they must jump through hoops to reach NATO officials. Field commanders requesting air strikes and relaying troop movements have no direct communication with the alliance's military command in the region, much less headquarters in Brussels, which must issue the ultimate orders. Instead, they call their senior officers via satellite phone at a rebel command center in Benghazi. The officers then relay the information to NATO officials in the same building, who only then contact Brussels. The byzantine process squanders valuable time in a war where seconds are precious.

Unable to order airstrikes, rebels in the field are forced to wait for unannounced NATO bombings before they can advance. "I never know what to tell my fighters," says Sa'adun Zuwayhli, 29, a field commander in Dafniyah, which is how far the rebels have advanced out of Misratah in their excruciatingly slow advance toward Gaddafi's capital Tripoli. "Advance, retreat, hold — they are all guesses until we see the bombs from NATO," he laments.

Read more: All Confused On the Western Front: NATO and Libya's Rebels Don't Jibe - TIME

 

[High_Gravity]

McCain Chides House Republicans For Threats To Libya Funding

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) knocked leaders of his own party Tuesday for lining up votes to defund U.S. military operations in Libya and countered their efforts with his own measure authorizing a continued U.S. role.

McCain, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the House GOP leaders' plan to hold votes this week to challenge President Barack Obama on Libya smacks of hypocrisy since Republicans criticized Democrats for similarly trying to tie the hands of President George W. Bush over the Iraq War.

Democrats "savaged" Bush and tried "everything in their power to tie his hands and pull America out of that conflict," McCain said during remarks on the Senate floor. “We were right to condemn this behavior then, and we would be wrong to practice it now ourselves, simply because a leader of the opposite party occupies the White House. Someday, a Republican will again occupy the White House, and that President may need to commit U.S. armed forces to hostilities.”

The Arizona Republican said it is only a matter of time until Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi falls and questioned whether this was an appropriate time for Congress to signal to the world "that our heart is not in this ... that we have neither the will nor the capacity to see this mission through."

“These are questions that every member of Congress needs to think about long and hard, but especially my Republican colleagues," McCain said. GOP lawmakers feeling indifferent about voting on the matter need to “think seriously about” how such a vote “could come back to haunt a future President when the shoe is on the other foot.”

Obama has been under fire from both parties for authorizing U.S. military action in Libya without congressional approval -- a move that some argue violates the Constitution. The White House maintains it does not need such approval given that limited U.S. air attacks do not constitute the kind of “hostilities” defined by the War Powers Act. Many on Capitol Hill actually support a U.S. role in the NATO-led operation in Libya but are angry that Obama did not seek congressional authorization.

McCain’s warning to House Republicans came as he and Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) introduced their own bipartisan joint resolution that authorizes limited U.S. forces in Libya for a fixed period of time -- essentially, what Obama is already doing. Unlike a regular resolution, a joint resolution carries the force of law, so passage of their measure would send a stronger message of support from Congress on what the White House is orchestrating in Libya.

McCain Chides House Republicans For Threats To Libya Funding

 

[High_Gravity]

Libya rebels, Kadafi regime hold indirect talks

Reporting from Beirut— Indirect talks on the future of Libya have been taking place between representatives of Moammar Kadafi's government and rebels based in the eastern city of Benghazi, a spokesman for the opposition said Wednesday.

Mahmoud Shammam of the Transitional National Council said the private mediation efforts, which have yet to bear fruit, have been held in South Africa and France through intermediaries. He said the opposition has held firm that Kadafi and his family be excluded from any future government, but added it was possible the dictator could live out his last years in Libya at an isolated location.

"We are engaging in discussion with some people who have contact with people from the regime," Shammam told The Times during a brief interview on the sidelines of a talk he delivered in the Lebanese capital. "We are contacting them on the mechanism of the departure of Kadafi. We don't negotiate the future of Libya."

United Nations officials in late May announced attempts to organize indirect talks between the rebels and Kadafi, and Kadafi's spokespeople have said talks have been ongoing.

The oil-rich, North African state has been torn asunder by a four-month uprising against Kadafi's four-decade rule. Rebels backed by an increasingly controversial NATO-led bombing campaign hold sway in the country's east; in the third-largest city, Misurata; and in the mountains southwest of the capital, Tripoli, near the country's border with Tunisia.

Recently the cash-strapped rebels have been making the rounds of international capitals, hoping to gain access to Kadafi's frozen assets or to win over international financiers to fund the armed rebellion and pay bills. "We have not received a cent from the international community," other than in-kind donations of food and weapons, Shammam said at a talk organized by the Carnegie Middle East Center, a branch of the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on whose advisory board he serves.

He also pledged a commitment to a democratic Libya once Kadafi is ousted and promised that all 32 transitional authority executive committee members, including him, would recuse themselves from political life for four years in any post-Kadafi government.

Shammam said the authority had pledged to uphold civil liberties and the rights of women. He spoke of a democratic flowering in the rebel-controlled east, where he said the number of newspapers had jumped from four to 84. "We believe in civil society," he said.

Shammam downplayed accusations made by Kadafi and acknowledged by U.S. officials that some members of Al Qaeda may have infiltrated the rebel east. Islamists, including extremist groups such as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which fought alongside Osama bin Laden, would be permitted to take part in politics but only if they abide by democratic ground rules, Shammam said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-rebels-envoy-20110623,0,3507935.story

 

[High_Gravity]

Sarkozy Rebuffs Robert Gates' Libya War Claims, Insists Europe Is 'Doing The Work'

BRUSSELS/TRIPOLI (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday rebuffed criticism of Europe's role in the Libyan war by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates, saying Washington's allies were "doing the work".

The spat is the latest sign of tensions among NATO allies in their campaign to oust Muammar Gaddafi, with Britain, France and others rejecting an Italian call earlier this week for a suspension of hostilities to allow humanitarian aid access.

It broke out as President Barack Obama faces domestic pressure over U.S. involvement in the war, with the House of Representatives due to vote as early as Friday on a proposal to cut off funds for U.S. hostilities in Libya.

"It was particularly inappropriate for Mr. Gates to say that, and what is more, completely false, given what is going in Libya," Sarkozy told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

"There are certainly other moments in history when he could have said that, but not when Europeans have courageously taken the Libyan issue in hand, and when France and Britain, with their allies, for the most part, are doing the work."

While the United States has stepped back from a leading role in the strike mission NATO took over on March 31, it has continued to provide essential assets, including reconnaissance planes, air-to-air refueling planes and armed drones.

Sarkozy Rebuffs Robert Gates' Libya War Claims, Insists Europe Is 'Doing The Work'

 

[High_Gravity]

NATO Forces 'Trying To Kill' Gaddafi: U.S. Admiral Samuel J. Locklear

A top U.S. admiral has confirmed to a U.S. congressman that NATO forces are trying to kill Muammar Gaddafi, and that the need for ground troops in Libya after the embattled leader falls is anticipated.

House Armed Services Committee member Mike Turner (R-OH) reveals to The Cable that U.S. Admiral Samuel J. Locklear, commander of the NATO Joint Operations Command in Naples, Italy, told him last month that NATO forces are actively targeting and trying to kill Gaddafi:

"The U.N. authorization had three components: blockade, no fly zone, and civil protection. And Admiral Locklear explained that the scope of civil protection was being interpreted to permit the removal of the chain of command of Qaddafi's military, which includes Qaddafi," Turner said. "He said that currently is the mission as NATO has defined."
"I believed that we were [targeting Qaddafi] but that confirmed it," Turner said. "I believe the scope that NATO is pursuing is beyond what is contemplated in civil protection, so they're exceeding the mission."


Turner's revelation contradicts the Obama administration's previous insistence that regime change is not the ultimate goal of NATO's involvement in Libya, a claim which Locklear apparently still maintained. "Well, certainly if you remove Gaddafi it will affect regime change," Turner quoted Locklear as saying. "[Locklear] did not have an answer to that."

Turner, who has been opposed to the Libya war from the start, voted against authorizing the effort on Friday morning. That authorization resolution failed 123 to 297.

He remained critical of what he describes as the Obama administration's blatant neglect of Congress throughout the duration of the mission. "The president hasn't come to Congress and said any of this, and yet Admiral Locklear is pursuing the targeting of Gaddafi's regime, Gaddafi himself, and contemplating ground troops following Gaddafi's removal," Turner said. "They're not being straightforward with Congress...It's outrageous."

NATO Forces 'Trying To Kill' Gaddafi: U.S. Admiral Samuel J. Locklear

 

[High_Gravity]

Gaddafi Arrest Warrant Issued By International Criminal Court

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Monday for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his son and his intelligence chief for crimes against humanity in the early days of their struggle to cling to power.

Judges announced that Gadhafi is wanted for orchestrating the killing, injuring, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of civilians during the first 12 days of an uprising to topple him from power after more than four decades, and for trying to cover up the alleged crimes.

Presiding judge Sanji Monageng of Botswana said Monday there were "reasonable grounds to believe" that Gadhafi and his son are both "criminally responsible as indirect co-perpetrators" for the murder and persecution of civilians.

The warrants turn Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi into internationally wanted suspects, potentially complicating any efforts to mediate an end to more than four months of intense fighting in the North African nation.

Libyan officials rejected the court's authority before the decision was read out in a Hague courtroom, claiming the court had unfairly targeted Africans while ignoring what they called crimes committed by NATO in Afghanistan, Iraq "and in Libya now."

"The ICC has no legitimacy whatsoever. We will deal with it. ... All of its activities are directed at African leaders," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters Sunday.

Gaddafi Arrest Warrant Issued By International Criminal Court

 

[High_Gravity]

Fighting rages in western Libya

Reporting from Kikla, Libya— Rebels and forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi exchanged ferocious barrages of antiaircraft and machine-gun fire Sunday as NATO warplanes pounded government-held areas on the edge of the rebel-controlled Nafusa Mountain range, ending a relative lull in combat in western Libya.

Fighting also erupted near the mountain town of Bir Ghanam on the southern edge of Zawiya province, whose main city of the same name was briefly under rebel control.

The latest round of clashes began after Kadafi's forces fired Russian-made Grad rockets at rebel positions in key highland areas. At least one rebel was killed and two injured, but the insurgents held their ground, said one of their commanders, who requested anonymity because he has family in Tripoli, the capital and Kadafi's stronghold.

Rebels in the Nafusa Mountains, a 90-mile range near the Tunisian border with sparsely populated villages and towns, rose up against Kadafi's four-decade rule in February, taking up arms when confronted with his military force.

In recent weeks, rebel committees governing mountain towns and villages in the area have begun to coordinate more closely with one another and with their allies in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the leaders of the nationwide rebellion have set up their capital.

NATO jets circled overhead for hours Sunday as rebels armed with assault rifles in Kikla, a front-line mountain town captured by insurgents a month ago, faced off against Kadafi's forces. In the afternoon, planes began striking the nearby town of Qawalish, where rebels say Libyan forces store arms. The fighting continued into the night with ground-shaking thuds. Tracer fire from government antiaircraft weapons could be seen in the distance.

Libya's official news agency reported the attacks on Qawalish, quoting sources saying "that this aggressive bombardment had caused the martyrdom and injury of a number of people and the destruction of some vehicles."

State-controlled media also reported NATO bombing strikes Saturday night in the Khalat Furjan district of Tripoli.

Libya conflict: Fighting erupts in western Libya - latimes.com

 

[High_Gravity]

Obama: 'Noose Is Tightening' Around Libya's Gaddafi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday his administration's actions on Libya do not violate the War Powers Act and that it has consulted repeatedly with Congress on the operation.

"Throughout this process, we consulted with Congress. We've had 10 hearings on it. We've sent reams of information about what the operations are,'' he told a news conference.

Obama also said the "noose is tightening'' around Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Obama: 'Noose Is Tightening' Around Libya's Gaddafi