President Barack Obama said Monday as Libyan rebels celebrated in Tripoli that Muammar Gadhafi’s “rule is over” and that the rebels must build a democratic government through “peaceful, inclusive and just” measures. But Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the rebel council poised to lead Libya once Muammar Gadhafi is toppled, said that rebel forces are still not in control of Tripoli and that pro-Gadhafi forces still controlled the loyalist stronghold of Bab al Aziziyah, where Gadhafi’s compound is located.
Rebels continued to battle Gadhafi forces in firefights and clashes with heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft guns, as rebels tried to eliminate remaining snipers and pockets of resistance. NATO officials have also vowed to continue bombing missions over Libya until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender or return to barracks.
NATO warplanes have flown nearly 20,000 sorties in the past five months, including about 7,500 strike attacks against Gadhafi forces. Just in the past two days, at least 40 targets in and around Tripoli have been hit.
Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam, also wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, has not been arrested by rebels despite earlier reports and is still in Tripoli. Rebels also claimed to have captured Gadhafi’s other son, Mohammed Gadhafi, but have now issued a statement claiming he escaped some time after his initial arrest.
Western powers are concerned that tribal, ethnic and political divisions among the diverse armed groups opposed to Gaddafi could lead to the kind of blood-letting seen in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. “You will recall that after Baghdad fell, all of a sudden the Saddam Fedayeen [armed insurgents] materialized,” Harlman Ullman, senior adviser to the Atlantic Council in Washington, told al-Jazeera.
“In particular,” said Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, “we must support the new Libyan authorities to ensure they are able to prevent acts of retribution, initiate a credible process of national reconciliation, secure weapons depots and critical infrastructure, protect vulnerable populations, establish security and rule of law in Tripoli and throughout Libya.”
The US and NATO have also expressed doubts that their rebel proxies in Libya will be responsible about the security of Libya’s weapons stockpiles. Apparently recognizing the fractured, amateurish nature of the rebel council, Western leaders have concerns that dangerous weapons will get into the hands of one or another faction, or even that the Benghazi-based rebels who head the Transitional National Council will not properly secure them.
“In particular, we must ensure that Gaddafi’s stockpiles of advanced weapons, chemical weapons and explosives don’t fall into the wrong hands,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. “Even after Gaddafi is out of power we will have to step up and lead to ensure U.S. national security interests are safeguarded.”
No mention of introducing ground troops has yet been made by US or NATO political leaders, although such an eventuality has been assumed for a post-Gahafi Libya by many military officials going back months. The political liability of a power vacuum and possible subsequent violence has also led some to expect ground forces in Libya.
Rebels celebrating in Tripoli? All I saw from the film footage on Al-Jazeera was a handful of thugs with guns on a street corner messing with traffic while a reporting standing in front of them was saying she was reporting from Tripoli, and that big rally shown all over the news here in the states was a rally staged in Benghazi. So, who is to say what is really happening. All it looked like to me was that those people driving in "tripoli" wished for those those clowns with guns would get out of the street.
In every war, most of the people in any city just wish the clowns with guns would get out of the street.
Gee whiz, this is nuts. Any responsible US President, UK Prime Minister, French President, etc. would have supported the Libyan government putting down an unknown-provenanced armed insurrection last March. The Libyan people are so much worse off now and will be for a long time to come. Our own US and European leaders are truly such horrible people.
Yeah, but think of the oil deals that the big companies now get for Libyan oil.
Nice going, Lunatics that run the world:
"Before the USNATO and “rebels” began their murderous and destructive military attacks, people in Libya had the highest gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita of all of Africa. The government took care to ensure that everyone in the country shared in the wealth. Libya had the highest Human Development Index of any country on the continent. In Libya, a lower percentage of people lived below the poverty line than in The Netherlands….Libya ranked 61st, with a lower incarceration rate than Czech republic. It had the lowest infant mortality rate of all of Africa. Libya had the highest life expectancy of all of Africa, less than 5% of the population was undernourished, In response to the rising food prices around the world, the government of Libya abolished all taxes on food. "(Taken from “World Cheers as the CIA Plunges Libya into Chaos” by David Rothscum, Axis of Logic, 2/27/11)
Its evil to spend oil money on your people when you could be buying race horses and supermodels with it instead.
Well, well well… This is the same tired Brzezinski model being played over and over. I am somewhat puzzled as to why it isn't being called what it is: Treason! Why does our government provide aid and comfort to our supposed enemy – Al Qaeda? They did the same thing in Kosovo and Afghanistan pre-911. You'd think they'd tire of following the same script, but apparently it still works.
That swine Lieberman is a lawless thug — a disgusting mf. We should send him to Fallujah with a butter knife.
Any good museums to loot there?