Some would say he already had (and maybe they are right); however, he may be losing the whole head once the Libyans get through with him.
"Libya rebels repel attacks by Khadafy; Opposition makes stand near Tripoli; ruler blames drugs, bin Laden" by Kareem Fahim and David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times / February 25, 2011
BENGHAZI, Libya — Rebels seeking to overturn the 40-year rule of Colonel Moammar Khadafy repelled a concerted assault by his forces on cities close to the capital yesterday, removing any doubt that Libya’s patchwork of protests had evolved into an increasingly well-armed revolutionary movement.
The series of determined stands by rebel forces yesterday — especially in the strategic city of Zawiya, near important oil resources and 30 miles from the capital, Tripoli — presented the gravest threat yet to the Libyan leader. There, more than 100 people were killed as Khadafy’s forces turned automatic weapons on a mosque filled with rebels, a witness said. Still, residents rallied afterward to protest.
Yeah, GUNNING DOWN PEOPLE NEVER seems to win them over!
Khadafy’s evident frustration at the resistance in Zawiya spilled out in a rant by telephone over the state television network charging that Osama bin Laden had drugged the town’s youth into a rebellious frenzy.
I think it is Khadafy who is on drugs since he is seeing a dead man!
Yesterday’s violence under scored the contrast between the character of Libya’s revolution and the uprising that toppled autocrats in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia. Unlike those Facebook-enabled youth rebellions, the insurrection here has been led by people who are more mature and who have been actively opposing the regime for some time. It started with lawyers’ syndicates that have campaigned peacefully for two years for a written constitution and some semblance of a rule of law.
Fueled by popular anger, the help of breakaway leaders of the armed forces and some of their troops, and weapons from looted military stockpiles or smuggled across the border, the rebellion has escalated quickly and violently in little more than a week.
Fathi Terbil, 39, the human rights lawyer whose detention first ignited the protests, drew a map of rebel-held territory in striking distance of Tripoli.
“It is only a matter of days,’’ he said in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the revolt began.
A turning point in the uprising’s evolution was arguably the defection of the interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, an army general who had been a close ally of Khadafy.
The break by Abidi, who has family roots near the revolt’s eastern origins, encouraged other disaffected police, military and state security personnel to change sides as well.
“We are hoping to use his experience,’’ said Terbil, who some called the linchpin of the revolt.
Opposition figures in rebel-held cities like Benghazi have been appearing on cable news channels promising that opponents of Khadafy are heading toward Tripoli to bolster the resistance there. Their ability to carry out those assertions remains to be seen....
Protesters in Tripoli were calling for a massive demonstration today after noon prayers, residents of the city and those fleeing the country said. The rebels’ unexpected strength was undeniable as they appeared to hold or contest several towns close to Khadafy’s stronghold in Tripoli in the face of a coordinated push by his mercenaries and security forces....
In Zawiya, an envoy from Khadafy had reportedly arrived to warn rebels Wednesday: “Either leave or you will see a massacre,’’ one resident said.
About 5 a.m. yesterday, Khadafy’s forces fulfilled the threat. Witnesses said a force that included about 60 foreign mercenaries assaulted a central mosque where some of the roughly 2,000 protesters had sought refuge. One witness said the protesters were armed mainly with rifles, sticks, and knives, but after four hours of fighting they managed to hold the square.
About 100 people were killed and 200 others wounded, this witness said. During a telephone interview with him, a voice could be heard over a loudspeaker in the background telling the crowd, in an area known as Martyrs Square, not to be afraid.
“People came to send a clear message: We are not afraid of death or your bullets,’’ one resident told the AP “This regime will regret it. History will not forgive them.’’
And I'm not going to forgive the Globe for censoring and cutting this:
The force that has attacked rebels on behalf of the government is one Khadafy has built up quietly for years, distrustful of his own generals. It is made up of special brigades headed by his sons, segments of the military loyal to his native tribe and its allies, and legions of African mercenaries.
Khadafy, who took power in a military coup, has always kept the Libyan military weak and divided so they could not do the same thing to him. About half its relatively small 50,000-member army is made up of poorly trained and unreliable conscripts, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But now they are FIGHTING for FREEDOM!!
Many of its battalions are organized along tribal lines, ensuring their loyalty to their own clan rather than to top military commanders. Untrusting of his officers, Khadafy built up an elaborate paramilitary force....
Then there are the militia units controlled by Khadafy's seven sons. A cable released by WikiLeaks described his son Khamis' private battalion as the best equipped in the Libyan army....
But perhaps the most significant force Khadafy has deployed against the insurrection is one believed to consist of about 2,500 mercenaries from countries like Chad, Sudan, and Niger that he calls his Islamic Pan African Brigade.
Khadafy began recruiting for his force years ago as part of a scheme to bring the African nations around Libya into a common union, and the mercenaries he trained are believed to have returned to Sudan and other bloody conflicts around Africa....
In other words, Khadafy is responsible for the atrocities in Africa.
I notice AmeriKa's mercenaries never receive the same implication.
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"Libyan protests brutally repressed; Rebel force unable to take over Tripoli; US moves to freeze Khadafy’s assets" by Kareem Fahim and David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times / February 26, 2011
BENGHAZI, Libya — Mercenaries and army forces brutally smothered an attempt by protesters yesterday to break Colonel Moammar Khadafy’s hold on the capital, Tripoli, opening fire on crowds that had taken to the streets after prayers to mount their first major challenge to the government’s crackdown, witnesses said.
It was the fiercest violence yet in the Libyan capital. Gunmen on rooftops and in the streets shot into the crowds with automatic weapons and even an antiaircraft gun, and there were multiple deaths, witnesses told the Associated Press.
The bloodshed heightened a standoff that has pitted Khadafy — who vowed yesterday to turn Libya into “a hell’’ as he hunkered down in his stronghold — against a spreading rebel force and increasingly alarmed the United States and other nations, which condemned the violence and promised sanctions in coming days....
Now THERE is a man who CARES ABOUT HIS PEOPLE, huh?
It os TIME for the MAD SICK F*** to GO!!!
As the violence swelled, the international community made several moves to further isolate the leader....
White House officials said Obama also canceled all military contacts with Libya and ordered a reallocation of US intelligence assets to focus on civilian deaths there and to track Libyan troop deployments and tank movements....
Libya's ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Shalgham, a longtime friend of Khadafy, denounced him yesterday in New York, comparing him with Pol Pot and Hitler. Libya's entire Arab League mission resigned for the same reasons yesterday....
The protesters in Tripoli appeared emboldened by promises of help from rebels outside the capital and the surprisingly strong showing of protesters in cities close to the capital on Thursday against Khadafy's forces, which brought the rebellion to the capital's doorstep....
A potentially large force of armed fighters sympathetic to the protesters was converging on Tripoli, according to military officials and soldiers who defected. Hussein said the force consisted of active duty and retired soldiers and army reservists who had joined the rebel side....
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And what will life be like when he is gone?
"Eastern Libyans seek to govern themselves, with eye on Tripoli" by Paul Schemm, Associated Press / February 25, 2011
BENGHAZI, Libya — It began as a series of small protests over the imprisonment of a human rights lawyer....
Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi, appears orderly, with cars stopping at traffic lights, stores open, and a new local government emerging where once all forms of social organizing were ruthlessly suppressed.
“We were not planning to make a revolt; it happened all of a sudden,’’ said Fathi Turbel, the 39-year-old lawyer whose imprisonment sparked the protests. “People can’t imagine how it all could have happened so quickly.’’
Following the example of their Egyptian neighbors, the Libyans quickly formed popular committees to guarantee basic security and began to talk to local academics, lawyers, and others to figure out how to run the city they had inherited....
Even amid the euphoria over the city’s liberation, rumors are still rife about impending aerial bombardments, naval assaults, or the reappearance of Khadafy’s dreaded African mercenaries....
There are also fears the Libyan leader’s plainclothes agents still lurk among them, waiting for a chance to strike.
‘We are living a real situation in which we should feel paranoid, and we should act paranoid in order to protect ourselves,’’ said Abu Ahmed, who repeatedly ordered the door to his office closed. “We know this place is really infiltrated by the security apparatus of the Gadhafi regime.’’
Not bad advice.
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Related: Oil prices fall as fears on Libya production ease
Ferry carrying Americans reaches Malta
