Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Libya updates

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
    A single brigade based upon the Soviet model, the reserves would be company strength. Even against Technicals, they ain't going to blind anyone.

    Except this is no longer rebels alone but their entire families. Either the men wins or their families die.
    Your assuming the entire population of the city would be slaughtered my guess is the rebel officers run to a different country or just change their stripes once again etc. Doubt the fallout would be as bad as media portrays the hype.
    Originally from Sochi, Russia.

    Comment


    • Except this is no longer rebels alone but their entire families. Either the men wins or their families die.
      They would flee towards the border.
      To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

      Comment


      • WSJ Blogs
        Washington Wire
        Political Insight and Analysis From The Wall Street Journal's Capital Bureau

        * Transcript of Obama’s Remarks on Libya
        * Burris Sets Up Legal Fund; Reid to Help

        * March 18, 2011, 4:27 PM ET

        Brennan: U.S. Wary of Terrorists in Libya
        Brennan: U.S. Wary of Terrorists in Libya - Washington Wire - WSJ

        By Evan Perez

        U.S. counter-terrorism officials are wary that al Qaeda affiliates in North Africa could try take advantage of the upheaval in Libya, seeking a new foothold, said John Brennan, the top White House counter-terrorism official.

        A Libyan rebel poses near a tank captured from Libyan government forces south of Benghazi, Libya, on Friday. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

        Mr. Brennan told reporters Friday that the U.S. is trying to make sure that “the terrorist elements” active in the region don’t “take advantage of the situation.”

        However, he said, the U.S. recognizes that some leaders of the Libyan rebellion are simply trying to throw off “the yoke” of dictatorship, and the Obama administration wants to work with those people.

        Groups such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are active in Algeria and other countries in the region and have sought to bolster the opposition to Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, raising fears about the type of government that could replace the four-decade-old dictatorship if it falls. Mr. Brennan said that if Mr. Gadhafi manages to survive, he could resume sponsoring terrorism in the region.

        Turning to Yemen, Mr. Brennan said he planned to speak later Friday to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose security forces allegedly opened fire on protesters. Mr. Brennan condemned the reports of violence against “peaceful protesters.”

        Mr. Brennan, speaking at an event in New York City hosted by New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, talked mostly about defending the Obama administration’s preference for using U.S. criminal courts to try terror detainees, while reserving military tribunals for some suspects, particularly those already imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He also stood by the administration’s plan to close the Guantanamo prison, and said Congress needed to lift restrictions on moving prisoners to the U.S. for trial.

        Mr. Brennan also sought to clarify the administration’s plans on how to handle U.S. citizens accused of terror offenses. He said all arrested in the U.S. and any U.S. citizen detained overseas will be tried in federal criminal courts, not in military trials as some lawmakers have argued.
        To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

        Comment


        • Troung - response - Brennan: U.S. Wary of Terrorists in Libya

          Why is this any different now from say 1991? or this document from 2006?.... There are lots more out there.

          Al-Qaeda in East Africa and the Horn


          Again just shows that the WoT is no where near done.


          Addition... We can go back to the 70's when other terrorist groups were setting up training camps in Lybia, and going there like they were taking package holidays also Troung.
          Attached Files
          Last edited by T_igger_cs_30; 19 Mar 11,, 08:53. Reason: Addition
          sigpicFEAR NAUGHT

          Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?

          Comment


          • Originally posted by cyppok View Post
            Your assuming the entire population of the city would be slaughtered my guess is the rebel officers run to a different country or just change their stripes once again etc. Doubt the fallout would be as bad as media portrays the hype.
            The press has enough photos for Qaddafy's police to goto work.

            Originally posted by troung View Post
            They would flee towards the border.
            How? I'm talking women and children.

            Comment


            • Addition to post 109.
              sigpicFEAR NAUGHT

              Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?

              Comment


              • Originally posted by S2 View Post
                Thanks, Troung, for the valuable contribution from the Asian Tribune and USMA Combatting Terrorism Center. It reminds of the last line to the old Who song, Won't Get Fooled Again-

                "...Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."

                Both your contribution and Mihais are wise words of which to pay heed.

                Thanks,Sir.I'm afraid I'm suddenly obliged to feel very old.Wisdom and youth aren't supposed to be together.
                Sir,what really annoys me is that we have seen this movie half a dozen times during the last 20 years and we learn nothing,neither at the average Joe level(which we are,most of us) nor at decision making level.People get killed,countries are ruined and all we have in the end is an unofficial ''oops,we missed that''.
                Those who know don't speak
                He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

                Comment


                • Mihais Reply

                  "...we learn nothing..."

                  Oh, I don't agree. We learn plenty. One might be the dis-connect between lessons-learned from the past and useful application to the next similar circumstance.

                  Also, similar isn't same. That's part of the problem.

                  There are others too, wouldn't you agree? Most notably a universe lacking perfect clarity while full of deceitful souls.

                  Sorry for the brief departure from the temporal into something a bit more enduring.

                  We need to hold our cards close here and keep our own quiet counsel. What happens in Libya isn't our business yet (if at all) IMV.
                  "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
                  "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

                  Comment


                  • Concur,Sir.Now,that's wisdom.
                    The Libyan affair is an Anglo-French operation.The US did it's part as an ally to support it diplomatically ,militarily with whatever air&naval assets were in the AO and that's enough IMO.
                    I hope Romania doesn't get involved in any way in this mess(A-stan is enough).That's only to say a little F... You to that lil' bastard Sarkozy.He managed to harm our interests and a little poke in the eye would serve him well.

                    Getting back to our newest war,much depends on the morale of Gaddafi's troops.If they hold their nerve and have a modicum of skill and leadership this could turn into a serious bloodbath.They hold plenty of cities and the only things needed to turn one of those into a fortress are skill and a bit of time.The rebels and Anglo- French SOF may win the desert,but inside the cities the AF is of limited use.ROE's nothwithstanding.

                    Tribal politics are the key to the loyalists morale right now,IMO.
                    Those who know don't speak
                    He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

                    Comment


                    • Gentlemen,

                      I have been arguing that this is not the right war for us but that does not make this the wrong war. I remind you that this is the man who initiated terror strikes against us, both Berlin and Lockerbie. Whatever the outcome of this war and its aftermath, going after Qaddafy is not wrong by any stretch of the imagination

                      Comment


                      • Libya Military Strikes Draw Closer With French Warplanes Over Libyan Skies - Bloomberg

                        Warplanes coursed in the sky over Libya in preparation for attacks on forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi after the regime scorned international calls for a cease-fire and assaulted the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

                        “Right now our planes are blocking air strikes on the city” of Benghazi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters today. “French planes are ready to act against armored vehicles that would be threatening unarmed civilians.”
                        “The time for action has come,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said. It is “vitally important action takes place, urgently.”
                        Dumb and Dumber... I am curious what Russia got for abstaining during the UN vote.

                        The U.K is deploying Tornado and BAE Systems Plc Eurofighter Typhoon jets. Italy’s cabinet approved the use of as many as seven air bases for the operation. Italy is only providing bases, not aircraft, for the mission for the moment, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said. The NATO base in Naples will probably be the main center for coordinated international action, Berlusconi told reporters in Paris.

                        Libya has about 30 sites with surface-to-air (SAM) missiles, linked to 15 early warning radar, that pose a “significant threat” to foreign warplanes over or near Libyan airspace, according to information provided by the Pentagon.

                        Libya has a limited air force, with about 80 percent of its aircraft “non-operational.” Libyan pilot training levels and air combat tactics “have remained far inferior to those of U.S. pilots and well-trained Middle Eastern pilots,” such as those from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to the Pentagon.
                        Officials: US Missile Attack On Libya Prepared : NPR

                        One official said the U.S. intends to limit its involvement — at least in the initial stages — to helping protect French and other air missions by taking out Libyan air defenses.

                        An attack against those defenses with Navy sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles was planned for later Saturday, one official said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of military operations.

                        The official said that depending on how Libyan forces responded to initial intervention by the French and others, the U.S. could launch additional attacks in support of allied forces. The intention was to leave it to other nations to patrol a no-fly zone over Libya once air defenses are silenced, the official said.
                        It does seem a bit like everyone wants to prove themselves against a very manageable (pop & strength wise) to score "warrior" points of some sort. Diplomatic posturing at the expense of other peoples' lives whom fly the planes and those on the ground.

                        Libya | Reuters

                        http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...72I2XM20110319
                        (Reuters) - A warplane was shot down on Saturday over the Libyan city of Benghazi and an opposition activist said it was a rebel fighter jet hit by accident.
                        Last edited by cyppok; 19 Mar 11,, 19:22.
                        Originally from Sochi, Russia.

                        Comment


                        • looks like gaddafi's men have vacated misrata. this will be an interesting dynamic if gaddafi falls. while the money is flowing into benghazi, the misrata rebels certainly will have earned a lot higher cachet in terms of actually DOING something.

                          ----

                          http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/wo.../25libya.html?

                          Libyan Rebels Say They Have Control of Misurata
                          By ROD NORDLAND
                          Published: April 24, 2011

                          BENGHAZI, Libya — Rebel leaders said they had consolidated their control of the western city of Misurata on Sunday, taking over the last two government outposts there even as government forces continued to shell the city from its outskirts.

                          Libyan rebels took a break on Sunday in Misurata near a building where forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi were believed to be holed up. Though shelling by government forces diminished, it still killed eight and wounded 38, a rebel spokesman said.

                          Government spokesmen asserted that Libyan forces had withdrawn from the city voluntarily on Saturday to allow for a 48-hour cease-fire, during which tribal leaders could negotiate the rebels’ surrender.

                          There was no sign of a cease-fire, however, or negotiations.

                          In Tripoli, the capital, two bombs were seen falling in the vicinity of Colonel Qaddafi’s compound shortly after midnight and the blasts were heard a mile away, part of what Libyan officials complain is an intensifying NATO campaign in recent days. Journalists taken to the Qaddafi compound by government officials found a small complex of office buildings and a meeting space destroyed by the bomb blast, with a tangle of wires and antennae protruding from the smoldering wreckage.

                          A normally stoic Foreign Ministry official watching the coverage of the blasts in the lobby of the Rixos Al Nasr Tripoli Hotel exclaimed that the bombing had gone too far, and in evident exasperation warned that Libya would be justified in launching terrorist attacks against the cities of NATO members.

                          The shelling diminished Sunday, but it still killed eight people and wounded 38, according to a rebel spokesman in Misurata, reached by Internet telephone and identified only as Mohammed for his security. On Saturday, as government forces withdrew, he said, 36 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded.

                          Mohammed said that among those killed Saturday night was his father, Ali. He said his father died along with a cousin who was trying to rescue him when their neighborhood came under heavy shelling.

                          “The shelling was unprecedented yesterday, both in the intensity and the size of the shells,” he said Sunday, describing the bombardment as using heavy artillery, Grad missiles and Katyusha rockets.

                          Mohammed said he continued to work as a spokesman after burying his father on Sunday. “It is very tough, but we are in a war and it’s my duty, it’s my way of taking revenge for my father,” he said.

                          Rebel leaders disputed claims that forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had withdrawn voluntarily, insisting that they had been defeated in battle.

                          Misurata, which has been besieged by government forces for the past two months, is the third largest city in Libya and the only major rebel stronghold in the west. Mohammed said the rebels had captured 180 government soldiers in the past week of fighting and were treating them as prisoners of war.

                          “They even left their wounded behind,” said Jalil el-Gallal, spokesman for the rebels’ de facto governing body, the Transitional National Council. “They were fleeing, not withdrawing.”

                          Mr. Gallal and Mohammed said rebel forces had taken complete control of the city, and accounts from journalists there generally confirmed that. “There are none and absolutely none of them in the city now,” Mohammed said of Colonel Qaddafi’s troops.

                          A reporter for the British newspaper The Guardian reported seeing six destroyed tanks in the vegetable market, the scene of particularly heavy fighting last week. The market was where the first American Predator strike in Libya took place on Saturday.

                          The Guardian also confirmed that the last two buildings held by Qaddafi forces in the city on Saturday had been cleared, and that green Libyan military uniforms had been found that were discarded by retreating troops.

                          A ship chartered by the International Organization for Migration arrived in Benghazi on Sunday from Misurata, carrying 995 more stranded migrant workers, most of them from Niger, as well as 17 wounded civilians.

                          The organization said it planned to make at least two more trips into Misurata to rescue 1,500 more migrants, many of whom have been camped near the port in hopes of fleeing. The group said that it expected that other migrants who had been hiding in parts of the city previously controlled by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces might swell that number, now that they could move safely.

                          In all, the migration group has gotten 4,100 migrant workers from 21 nations out of Misurata.

                          In Benghazi, the rebel capital, opposition leaders were upbeat about their financial situation. While they have not yet gained access to $30 billion in Libyan money in frozen accounts abroad, as some countries have suggested they should, they have found donors to tide them over.

                          On Sunday, officials announced that Kuwait had donated about $180 million to the governing council. And Wahid Bugaighis, the interim government’s oil minister, said that while the rebels had not been able to pump any oil from fields in eastern Libya, Qatar had stepped in with an open-ended commitment to finance their fuel and energy needs “with whatever we need during this transition period, with no fees attached.”

                          David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Tripoli, Libya.
                          There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by astralis View Post
                            looks like gaddafi's men have vacated misrata. this will be an interesting dynamic if gaddafi falls. while the money is flowing into benghazi, the misrata rebels certainly will have earned a lot higher cachet in terms of actually DOING something.
                            The rebels were on the defense. Now someone needs to put together an army that can take the fight to Tripoli. Those trainers and advisers from Britain and France have their work cut out for them, and I hope they are not serious about those guys going in unarmed.

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by astralis View Post
                              looks like gaddafi's men have vacated misrata. this will be an interesting dynamic if gaddafi falls. while the money is flowing into benghazi, the misrata rebels certainly will have earned a lot higher cachet in terms of actually DOING something.
                              What will be interesting is the fight for leadership after Gaddahfi is gone. Will it be the guys in Benghazi who wanted the NATO to fight their war for them? Or will it be the guys who actually fought in Misrata? And who do we support?
                              "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                                What will be interesting is the fight for leadership after Gaddahfi is gone. Will it be the guys in Benghazi who wanted the NATO to fight their war for them? Or will it be the guys who actually fought in Misrata? And who do we support?
                                We should support an election that is actually fair.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X