Into the cages!
"Concern over treatment of detainees rises in Libya; Rebels set sights on hometown of Khadafy" August 27, 2011|By Karin Laub and Paul Schemm, Associated Press
TRIPOLI - The Libyan capital yesterday enjoyed its calmest day since the rebel takeover nearly a week ago, and hundreds celebrated with a march chanting: “Hold your head high! You are a free Libyan.’’ The more relaxed atmosphere was one of the strongest signs yet that Moammar Khadafy and his loyalists have largely been driven out of the capital.
As the fighting waned, the International Red Cross in Geneva expressed concern about treatment of detainees on both sides.
Associated Press reporters saw eight wounded men, apparently Khadafy supporters, who had been abandoned in a bombed-out fire station in the Tripoli neighborhood of Abu Salim, scene of ferocious clashes on Thursday. Abu Baker Amin, 24, his right leg broken by a grenade, said he had not received food or water for two days. An emaciated man lay on the floor and pleaded for water. Local residents made no attempt to get the wounded to a hospital.
I notice the press or the West never stay stuck on such things when it is their monster or terrorist or whatever that supports the agenda.
With the capital more secure, NATO and rebel fighters turned their attention to Khadafy’s hometown of Surt, his last major bastion of support. British warplanes struck a large bunker there, and local rebel commander Fadl-Allah Haron said that if city residents don’t surrender fast, “a battle will be waiting for them there.’’
In Tripoli, some residents emerged gingerly from homes where they had taken cover from extensive gun battles that rocked the city since the rebels rolled in on Sunday night. In a mosque near the central square, an imam at noon prayers praised the rebels for taking up arms against Khadafy. He said they had “liberated the land inch by inch, house by house, alley by alley,’’ mimicking an infamous Khadafy speech early in the uprising threatening those who opposed him.
Most stores remained closed, except for neighborhood groceries where residents grabbed supplies to break their daytime fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Much of the city was still without electricity and water, and garbage piles were getting higher and smellier by the day.
First thing the rebels will clean up!
But for 49-year-old Umm Yahya, limping on a cane through Tripoli’s shuttered downtown, leaning on her daughter for help, the fear and suffering was worth it to taste freedom....
(Blog editor's heart sinks at the propaganda. Another bombed-out country bestowed "freedom" declared a success by the war-promoting media)
The past few days have not been easy for Yahya and the other residents of Tripoli. With almost all stores closed, people have been living on whatever supplies they have at home. Her family has been surviving on pasta and tomato paste.
The situation is so dire that some Tripoli residents were scavenging for food and water yesterday in the notorious Abu Salim prison, where many political prisoners were held until it was emptied a few days ago.
Ah, the TASTE of FREEDOM!! Leaves you with a REAL HUNGER, huh?
With Khadafy’s whereabouts unknown, fears linger that his supporters could still extract revenge.
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Yeah, and NEVER YOU MIND that LIBYA HAD the HIGHEST STANDARD of living on the continent and that Khadafy had spent the oil money on water and development, etc, etc, etc.
Just the latest monster de-jour who needs vanquishing by the mass-murdering, war-criminal forces of good.
"Khadafy loyalists accused of atrocities; Arbitrary shooting of civilians cited" August 29, 2011|By Ben Hubbard and Karin Laub, Associated Press
TRIPOLI, Libya - Retreating loyalists of Moammar Khadafy killed scores of detainees and arbitrarily shot civilians over the past week as rebel forces extended their control over the Libyan capital, survivors and a human rights group said yesterday....
So far, there have been no specific allegations of atrocities carried out by rebel fighters, though human rights groups are continuing to investigate some unsolved cases.
See WTF I'm talking about?
Yeah, they are always looking into and investigating those but it isn't the drumbeat because it doesn't fit the damn script.
Associated Press reporters have witnessed several episodes of rebels mistreating detainees or sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being Khadafy’s hired guns. Earlier this week, rebels and their supporters did not help eight wounded men, presumably Khadafy fighters, who were stranded in a bombed-out fire station in Tripoli’s Abu Salim neighborhood, some pleading for water.
Najib Barakat, the health minister in the rebels’ interim government, said yesterday that he does not yet have a death toll for the weeklong battle for Tripoli. Hundreds have died and more bodies, some in advanced stages of decay, are still being retrieved from the streets.
Ah, the SMELL of FREEDOM as gifted by the overlords!!!
In fighting late yesterday, pro-Khadafy elements fired Grad rockets at rebel forces gathering in the town of Nawfaliyah, near Khadafy’s home town of Surt, rebels said.
Rebels gave residents there 10 days to allow rebel forces in peacefully or face an assault. A rebel spokesman said many Khadafy loyalists have fled to Surt and are preparing for a fierce battle.
Also yesterday, the rebel government said it would not deport the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
What?
New York senators asked the Libyan transitional government on Aug. 22 to hold Abdel-Baset al-Megrahi fully accountable for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.
But the justice minister in the rebels’ interim government, Mohammed al-Alagi, told journalists in Tripoli that the request by American senators had “no meaning’’ because Megrahi had already been tried and convicted.
“We will not hand over any Libyan citizen. It was Khadafy who handed over Libyan citizens,’’ he said, referring to the government’s decision to turn Megrahi over to a Scottish court for trial.
The Scottish government released Megrahi in 2009, believing he would soon die of cancer. He was greeted as a hero in his native Libya and met with Khadafy.
TO WAR! TO WA...., oh, right, already at it with 'em.
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Something else stinking like s***, readers:
"Stressed by war, Libyan zoo suffers" September 04, 2011|By Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Associated Press
TRIPOLI, Libya - This is life in the Tripoli Zoo, which has found itself a casualty of the war to oust Moammar Khadafy.
Once one of the city’s best-loved family destinations, today it is 110 dusty acres of listless animals and overgrown, sunburned grass. Empty bullet casings are scattered everywhere. A patch of black grass near the monkey cage shows where a rocket-propelled grenade hit. A turtle cage is cracked by gunfire. Garbage is piled up. Three forlorn hippopotamuses hang their heads in a filthy pit, standing near a pool of fetid water.
I didn't know Libya had their very own Big Dig.
Because of the city’s water shortage, the zoo’s skeleton staff can clean the animals’ cages only every four or five days.
At least two of the nearly 600 animals at the zoo died from the stress of living in a combat zone, zookeepers say, and many more are suffering from shortages of food and water....
But it IS FREEDOM, dammit!!
But if things are awful now at the zoo, life was never easy.
During the Khadafy era, corruption and administrative chaos made it difficult to simply keep the animals fed, said the director, Abdel-Fattah Husni....
Yes, and once again NATO bombs and CIA coups have liberated them!! Huzzah-huzzah!
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Also see: A Day at the Boston Zoo
Also stinks; let's not go there.
