Middle East Revolutions

The Libyan government is denying reports that Moammar Khadafy's son was killed in an air attack in Tripoli on Saturday night.

Khamis Khadafy, 27, is the Libyan despot's sixth son. He has been leading his own brigade against the rebels since the uprising broke out, The Associated Press reported on Mar. 1.

According to reports on NBN TV in Lebanon, Khamis died when a Libyan pilot conducted a suicide air mission, crashing his plane into into the Bab al-Aziziya compound where the dictator's son was holed up with relatives.

Khamis is said to have died in the hospital of extensive burn wounds, according to the reports.

But the Khadafy regime denied the story on Monday, calling it "a nonsensical piece of news."

Khamis was expelled from Madrid's IE business school earlier this month for his "links to the attacks against the Libyan population," a spokeswoman for the school told Bloomberg News.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/03/21/2011-03-21_libya_denies_reports_khadafys_son_khamis_killed_in_suicide_air_strike_on_tripoli.html#ixzz1HLIsiMYM

25 people injured in bomb blast at bus stop in Jerusalem. Prayers for the injured & rescuers!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/23/jerusalem-bus-bomb

This was *NOT* a suicide bomb. No suicide bombing has taken place in Israel since 7 years ago thanks to God. This looks like a package bomb left nearby.

Such a package bomb is out of character for the Palestinian dissent. It's more like what people saw in Northern Ireland in the struggle against the British years ago.

The media hasn't said & of course they couldn't without proof.....but it wouldn't be surprising if this wasn't Gadhafi reaching out with his long mad pissed off arm & not having anything to do with the Palestinians who are dealing with their own struggle. He has a big network of spies all over the world & there's a report one of his military-leader sons was killed by a Libyan pilot 2 days ago who flew a suicide mission into his son's military headquarters.

During the suicide bombings.....when they sadly were taking place 7-10 years ago.....people who did them were *proud* to do them. I'm not saying what they did was right--it was absolutely WRONG & EVIL. The reason I mention the *pride* is that people made videos of themselves *in advance* saying what they were going to do & why. They *wanted* the remnants of their bodies/DNA to be found as proof of their deed.

What happened today in Israel is completely different. Leaving a package bomb is completely different act of someone who doesn't want evidence of their participation to be found. That's why I think it smells of Gadhafi.

God bless the innocents injured & help everyone of them to recover.

Sorry to keep pounding this point.....but a package bomb (apparently left clumsily.....2 guys were seen leaving it) seems like a stupid move that a dictator who's been in power for 41 years would think up. Gadhafi doesn't give a crap what happens to the Palestinians--in fact he brutally persecuted a Palestinian doctor for 8 years. If he ordered this bombing he'd be delighted if the Palestinians got blamed.

Egypt passes law to outlaw protests
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/8484/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-to-protest-against-antiprotest-law-.aspx

Jen wrote:Egypt passes law to outlaw protests
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/8484/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-to-protest-against-antiprotest-law-.aspx

That is wrong in so many ways.

JaneWI wrote:

Jen wrote:Egypt passes law to outlaw protests
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/8484/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-to-protest-against-antiprotest-law-.aspx

That is wrong in so many ways.

Totally insane!

Jen wrote:

JaneWI wrote:

Jen wrote:Egypt passes law to outlaw protests
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/8484/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-to-protest-against-antiprotest-law-.aspx

That is wrong in so many ways.

Totally insane!

This is ridiculous

By ROBERT BURNS and BEN FELLER, Associated Press – Fri Mar 25, 7:57 pm ET

WASHINGTON – To a nation and a Congress seeking answers, President Barack Obama on Monday will offer his most expansive explanation of the U.S. role in the Libyan war, delivering a speech that is expected to cover the path ahead and his rationale about the appropriate use of force.

Obama's 7:30 p.m. EDT speech, to be given from the National Defense University in Washington, comes as leading Republican lawmakers and some from his own party have pressed him for clarity about the goals and exit strategy of the United States. Obama and top U.S. security officials spent about an hour talking to lawmakers on Friday, with the president answering direct questions from critics.

For a president who was on a Latin American outreach trip when the U.N.-sanctioned military assault on the Libyan regime began, the speech offers him his best chance to explain the purpose and scope of the mission to a nation already weary of war. Obama has spoken about the matter since authorizing the use of force, but not in a setting as prominent as an evening speech, as he seeks to take command of the story.

Obama is expected to explain how the U.S.-led campaign is shifting to NATO control, and how the multinational approach with Arab support puts the United States in the strongest position to achieve the goals of protecting Libyan civilians, a White House official said.

The president will also put the Libyan campaign into a broader context of his decisions about the use of force, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the president's thinking. U.S.-led forces began launching missile strikes last Saturday against embattled Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's defenses to establish a no-fly zone and prevent him from attacking his own people.

By RICHARD LARDNER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Even after a week of U.S.-led air strikes, forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi are a potent threat to civilians, say Pentagon officials who are considering expanding the firepower and airborne surveillance systems in the military campaign.

"Every day, the pressure on Gadhafi and his regime is increasing," President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, aired just after Libyan rebels regained control of the eastern city of Ajdabiya. It was the first major turnaround in an uprising that once appeared on the verge of defeat.

Jen wrote:

JaneWI wrote:

Jen wrote:Egypt passes law to outlaw protests
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/8484/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-to-protest-against-antiprotest-law-.aspx

That is wrong in so many ways.

Totally insane!

Any word on yesterday's protests against this anti-Democracy law?? Of course the NDP Old Guard will try to bring back the repressions but will the Supreme Military Council agree is the question.

Yemen 's dictator says he is 'ready to step down'.....

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/03/26/yemen.president.interview/index.html

But who knows if he's serious.....could be just spin to buy time.....

Not sure but some guy from Libya on the phone with CNN just seemed to say that in Misrata the dictator Gadhafi has ordered his troops to round up civilians. The soldiers have randomy taken hundreds of families out of their homes & are forcing them to walk somewhere. No word on where they are being taken. This is a really really bad turn of events.....

I really don't think we are going to see a good ending in Libya no matter who comes out on top

Phillymg wrote:Not sure but some guy from Libya on the phone with CNN just seemed to say that in Misrata the dictator Gadhafi has ordered his troops to round up civilians. The soldiers have randomy taken hundreds of families out of their homes & are forcing them to walk somewhere. No word on where they are being taken. This is a really really bad turn of events.....

That's no good. Thank you for the update, Phillymg.

Gadhafi's soldiers use civilians as human shields. Misrata residents beg for the world's help--

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8408920/Desperate-resident-of-rebel-held-Misrata-describe-horror-inflicted-by-Gaddafi-troops.html

Gadhafi's soldiers force civilians to appear in propoganda photos--

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t/aja-gaddafis-troops-round_49766711276208128.html

Phillymg, you're right, this does stink. Thank you again for the update.

The Tripoli Ordeal of Ms. Iman al-Obeidi

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370288/Libya-war-Iman-al-Obeidi-arrested-telling-world-Gaddafi-troops-gang-rape.html

Although the Libyan govt alleges she's a 'prostitute' & that she was 'drunk' when speaking to intl reporters in the hotel.....oddly enough the govt claims to have arrested several men in the case of her gang rape.

The AP is reserving judgment.....saying only that she 'claims' to have been gang raped by 15 Libyan govt soldiers over 2 days--

http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/633c954da7d9434f9de7ed15f38075aa/Article_2011-03-27-AF-Libya-Woman-Attacked/id-9a8e53e060b94415a0437e6814803a98

'The women at the checkpoints are not safe'.....said a Libyan American spokesman on CNN. He calls Iman al-Obeidi 'courageous.'

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/03/28/2011-03-28_droppin_bombs__bigtime_bucks_in_libya_mission_nears_1_billion_yet_nation_is_litt.html

WASHINGTON - The taxpayers' bill for operations in Libya is headed to at least $1 billion in a conflict that the Pentagon chief said Sunday was not "a vital interest for the U.S."

Hundreds of millions have already been spent to take out Moammar Khadafy's air defenses, bomb his tank columns and set up a no-fly zone, and lawmakers predicted a tough fight when the military comes to Congress for supplemental funding.

"Estimates are that about $1 billion has already been spent on an undeclared war in Libya," said Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana), a respected GOP voice on foreign policy.

"Some would say only hundreds of millions," Lugar said on NBC's "Meet The Press," "but who knows how long this goes on."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Clinton said that President Obama will address the concerns of Congress on the duration and costs of the third U.S. war in the Mideast in an address to the nation on Monday night.

But Gates raised more questions when he said that Libya was not high on the list of U.S. national security concerns.

"I don't think it's a vital interest for the U.S.," Gates said, but he added that Libya was part of a Mideast region that was a vital interest.

The costs for Libyan operations were building rapidly, and Gates said he could not predict how long the operations will last.

One week after an international military coalition intervened in Libya, the cost to U.S. taxpayers has reached at least $600 million, according figures provided by the Pentagon.

U.S. ships and submarines in the Mediterranean have unleashed at least 191 Tomahawk cruise missiles from their arsenals to the tune of $268.8 million, the Pentagon said.

U.S. warplanes have dropped 455 precision guided bombs, costing tens of thousands of dollars each.

A downed Air Force F-15E fighter jet will cost more than $60 million to replace.

And operation of the war craft, guzzling ever-expensive fuel to maintain their positions off the Libyan coast and in the skies above, could reach millions of dollars a week, experts say.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2011/03/cost-of-libya-intervention-600-million-for-first-week-pentagon-says.html

Efforts appear to be under way to offer Muammar Gaddafi a way of escape from Libya, with Italy saying it was trying to organise an African haven for him, and the US signalling it would not try to stop the dictator from fleeing.

The move came amid mounting diplomatic and military pressure on Gaddafi as Britain tries to assemble a global consensus demanding he surrender power while intensifying air strikes against his forces. An international conference in London – including the UN, Arab states, the African Union, and more than 40 foreign ministers – will focus on co-ordinating assistance in the face of a possible humanitarian disaster and building a unified international front in condemnation of the Gaddafi regime and in support of Nato-led military action in Libya.

On the eve of the conference, Italy offered to broker a ceasefire deal in Libya, involving asylum for Gaddafi in an African country. "Gaddafi must understand that it would be an act of courage to say: 'I understand that I have to go'," said the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini. "We hope that the African Union can find a valid proposal."

A senior American official signalled that a solution in which Gaddafi flees to a country beyond the reach of the international criminal court (ICC), which is investigating war crimes charges against him, would be acceptable to Washington, pointing out that Barack Obama had repeatedly called on Gaddafi to leave