#Gaddafi to #Obama: You Will Still Be My Son...

And that "son" is having a good time in Brazil with his family. (People who voted for this guy and who still supports this guy, I don't understand you at all.)

This is creepy..

From The Times of India (3/19/2011):

CAIRO: Calling Barack Obama as "our son", Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sent a message to the US President defending his decision to attack the rebels fighting to overthrow him.

Gaddafi (68) also wrote a letter to the French and British leaders, and the UN Secretary General, saying the Security Council resolution was "void" and violated the UN charter, warning them that they would "regret" any intervention.

....Trying to strike a personal note, Gaddafi prefaced his letter saying, "To our son, his excellency, Mr Barack Hussein Obama. I have said to you before, that even if Libya and the United States of America enter into a war, god forbid, you will always remain a son. Your picture will not be changed."

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#Libya: #UN Vote On No-Fly Zone 10 in Favor, 5 Abstained

That's what I'm seeing on tweets. Will find a news link when it appears.

They are throwing the biggest party ever in Benghazi, says @iyad_elbaghdadi.

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Mondoweiss: Israeli Company Recruits Mercenaries for Gaddafi

Mondoweiss has a post (3/3/2011) that lists several links to articles that claim an Israeli company headed by retired Israeli army commanders is selling arms to Gaddafi and recruiting mercenaries for him to fight the opposition forces in Libya.

The Mondoweiss' post has the near-verbatim translation of the article in Hebrew, and in it I found an interesting bit of information about Gaddafi's mercenaries:

It should be noted that mercenaries who had already arrived in Tripoli, left from Chad and that is a provable fact. According to publications in the west, Qaddafi pays the company that deals in recruiting mercenaries 2,000 USD per day, per fighter. From that, the mercenaries personally receive about $100 per day. This is a brokerage deal to the tune of billions of dollars. The money is paid to the African supervisors who bring their gangs and rake in a fortune. The large amounts include weapons and ammunition that mercenaries use, and compensation for the mercenaries’ families in the event that fighters are killed, injured, or fall in captivity.

But wait, there's more. It gets curiouser and curiouser.

An Israeli TV interviewed two Israeli woman of Libyan origin last year, who claimed to be Gaddafi's relatives. Gaddafi, if what they said is true, is Jewish, and is entitled to immigrate to Israel, no question asked.

According to Israel Today (2/21/2011):

Israel’s Channel 2 News last year interviewed two Israeli women of Libyan origin who claimed to be distant relatives of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The older of the two interviewees, Guita Brown, said she is Gaddafi’s second cousin (Brown’s grandmother was the sister of Gaddafi’s grandmother). The younger of the two women, Rachel Saada, granddaughter of Brown, explained in more detail:

“The story goes that Gaddafi’s grandmother, herself a Jewess, was married to a Jewish man at first. But he treated her badly, so she ran away and married a Muslim sheikh. Their child was the mother of Gaddafi.”

While Gaddafi’s grandmother converted to Islam when she married the sheikh, according to Jewish religious law (and common sense), she was ethnically still Jewish.

At this point the news anchor stated, “So, the point is that Gaddafi doesn’t just have Jewish relatives, he is Jewish!”

The same magazine also reports that Gaddafi tried to fund a "Libyan" political party in Israel.

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FT: Libya's Oil Dollars Still Flow to Gaddafi

Financial Times, whose parent is partially owned by the Libyan Investment Authority, reports that despite the UN, EU, and US sanctions hundreds of millions of dollars from oil export continue to flow to Gaddafi's Libya.

From FT (3/4/2011) [emphasis is mine]:

Muammer Gaddafi’s regime is still benefiting from hundreds of millions of dollars in oil export revenues, even as western powers impose financial sanctions aimed at forcing Libya’s leader from power.

Payments for crude oil exports are finding their way back to Libya’s central bank and, potentially, into Col Gaddafi’s direct control, according to a senior western oil official and traders contacted by the Financial Times.

Oil officials and shipbrokers said that Libya exported about 570,000 barrels a day in the last week of February, when the unrest started, and shipped about 400,000 b/d this week. At current prices, the oil shipped over the two-week period is worth $770m.

.... UN and European sanctions do not target the Libyan central bank and US sanctions do not hit Libyan-owned groups incorporated outside the country.

US Treasury officials say that institutions of American origin cannot make payments to groups subject to Washington’s sanctions, such as the Libyan central bank, but can make deposits into a blocked interest-bearing account to be refunded to the Libyan people at a later date.

.... Col Gaddafi still controls Libya’s largest oil terminal, Es Sider, in the centre of the country. Argus, the energy reporting service, estimated that Libyan crude exports had fallen to about 225,000 b/d on Friday. If Libya is able to sustain exports at that level, which some industry executives and shipbrokers doubt, the country could earn nearly $200m a week.

Sanctions are there so that they know how to get around them. Much like TBTF Wall Street banks welcomed the Dodd-Frank bill on financial regulations so that they can figure out how to get around them.

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Interpol Issues "Orange Alert" for #Gaddafi and 15-Member Inner Circle

Questions: What's the business of Interpol in this? WTF is "orange alert"?

Let's start with the second question (in a fine day-old tradition of Prez Obama).

According to Reuters who reported the news, orange alerts and red alerts (they are called "notice", not "alert", by Interpol) issued by Interpol are not arrest warrants, but they are helpful notices to local authorities (fast disappearing sovereign states) to track down illegal assets or suspects.

By Interpol's own words, an orange notice is:

To warn police, public entities and other international organizations about potential threats from disguised weapons, parcel bombs and other dangerous materials.

Hmmm... That doesn't sound like a notice issued for "people", does it? If it's about people (like Gaddafi and his inner-circle), they could issue a red notice (which they issue the most - 5,020 in 2009) or a green notice (second-most issued notice, 1,139 in 2009).

Interpol's notices are color-coded, but unlike the alert system of the US Homeland Security, they don't correspond to the seriousness of the threat; rather, they simply depict different types of crimes covered:

• Red notice - to seek the arrest of a wanted person (the most issued notice by Interpol)

• Yellow notice - to help locate missing persons
  
  
• Blue notice - to collect information about a person
  
  
• Black notice - to collect information on unidentified bodies (hmmmm.)
  
  
• Green notice - to provide warnings and criminal intelligence about persons who have committed criminal offences and are likely to repeat these crimes in other countries.

Interpol, an organization to facilitate international police cooperation and whose US branch is within the Department of Homeland Security, does not have the authority to issue arrest warrants, and its Constitution "forbids the Organization from undertaking any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character". (See wiki for quick summary of Interpol.)

Well, that applies to Libya almost perfectly, doesn't it? Actively pursuing the Gaddafis with a red or green notice would mean Interpol taking part in political, military, racial (not sure about religious) intervention, which is forbidden in the Constitution of Interpol.

So an orange notice was issued, I think, because they couldn't issue a red or green notice without violating their Constitution.

But why do they get involved, to begin with?

Interpol is being set up to be the police of the UN, say some; the police of the NWO, say others. The current Secretary-General is an American, Ronald Noble, former Treasury Department official in charge of the US Secret Service, BATF, among others.

And as I wrote more than a year ago (after Prez Obama quietly gave Interpol the full diplomatic immunity), the US branch of Interpol is "co-located" within the US Justice Department, with its personnel actually the permanent employees of various US executive branch's agencies and departments. (I do recommend you take a look at my post from 1/3/2010.)

I suspect Interpol is, practically, a US operation, even though the name says "international". Much like the NATO is practically a US operation with a token participation from the "members".

By issuing the orange notice which is for weapons and dangerous materials instead of a red or green notice, Interpol (and so the US) may be setting the stage for a military intervention by an international coalition (the UN, the NATO, or select allies of the US) to eliminate Libya's "weapons of mass destruction".

We will find out soon enough.

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Lockerbie Deal and J.P.Morgan Chase as #Libya's Central Bank

All thanks to Tony Blair.

I was re-reading the article on the Wall Street banks who has their hands on the Libya's sovereign wealth fund money (which I linked on my post here), and something caught my attention on the second read:

JPMorgan Chase

reportedly handles much of the LIA's cash and some of the Libyan central bank's reserves. The summer after then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Gaddafi in 2008, LIA gave "mandates to some of the international banks, including JPMorgan to manage their funds in the interbank money markets, according to Vanity Fair.

JPMorgue manages reserves of the Libyan central bank??

WTF?

So I went to the Vanity Fair link in the article, and I landed on "The Lockerbie Deal", Vanity Fair exclusive on 1/26/2011 by David Rose. Note the date - one day after the large demonstration in Egypt, but Libya was still "peaceful", and I don't think the article got much attention:

In 2009 the convicted Lockerbie bomber was sent home to Libya from a Scottish prison on grounds of “compassionate release”—he had only three months to live, authorities said. A year and a half later the man is still alive—and a Vanity Fair investigation reveals new details about the business interests and private dealings that lay behind the prisoner’s release. At the heart of the matter: the cozy and “profitable relationships” between the Blair government and Qaddafi’s Libya.

It so turns out that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his officials bent over backward to accommodate Gaddafi so that their favorite businesses would get lucrative business deals with Gaddafi's Libya and they would land on a cushy job in the private sector.

And J.P.Morgan Chase purchased Tony Blair for $3 million per year.

The relevant part of the Vanity Fair article:

And then there is Blair himself, who in the three and a half years since stepping down as prime minister has reportedly earned at least $30 million from his various business dealings around the world. Like many retired politicians, Blair commands high fees for public speaking, but in terms of income these fees represent a sideshow. In January 2008, Blair accepted a position as a consultant to the American bank J.P. Morgan Chase for a reported compensation of $3 million a year.

.... But Blair’s employer, J.P. Morgan, does have commercial relationships with Libya. Three senior British officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say that Blair has made numerous trips to Libya since leaving Downing Street, at least partly on behalf of the bank. “The Blair magic still works with Qaddafi,” one of these officials observes. “Qaddafi will drop everything to see Blair.” Saif al-Islam, Qaddafi’s probable heir, said last summer that Blair was “a personal family friend” and added that Blair had visited Libya “many, many times” since leaving office.

Neither Blair nor the bank will say anything about what he does to justify his salary, either in Libya or elsewhere. Executives at other banks with Libyan interests say that J.P. Morgan now handles much of the Libyan Investment Authority’s cash, and some of the Libyan central bank’s reserves. Blair joined J.P. Morgan in early 2008—just as the authority began to ask foreign banks and asset-management companies for specific proposals as to what they might do with its billions. There was no shortage of takers. A Libyan official says: “We were besieged.” A voice at the table like Blair’s would get attention.

For J.P. Morgan, there was a further factor at work. It was able to start looking for Libyan money in 2008 because the climate had improved thanks to Qaddafi’s payment of the final tranche of compensation to the families of the Lockerbie victims ($10 million per family), a rapprochement sealed by the visit by then secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Tripoli. By the summer of that year, says a Libyan financier, “a great percentage of the L.I.A.’s funds were in the interbank money markets, channelled through the central bank. They have given mandates to some of the international banks to manage this liquidity”—including J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan has not indicated whether it intends to take the next logical step and apply for one of the licenses being offered to foreign banks to set up operations there. I asked J.P. Morgan’s spokesman, Brian Marchiony, about this specific matter, about the bank’s handling of Libyan assets in general, and about Tony Blair’s role in developing its business. He replied by e-mail, saying simply: “We’re going to decline to comment.”

Another interesting tidbit in the article:

Until 2009, Rothschild was an adviser to the Libyan Investment Authority.

Well, no wonder Gaddafi says "People love me." Everyone wanted to do business with him, at whatever cost - BP, J.P.Morgan Chase, Tony Blair, Rothchild.

I wonder if the Libyan central bank reserves that J.P.Morgan Chase handles include gold...

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#Gaddafi Speaks for 3 Hours As He Orders Air Raids

Al Jazeera #Libya Blog (3/2/2011) has a running commentary of his speech as he spoke earlier today for THREE hours. (I hope his audience was paid well.) Read from 1:54PM to 4:09PM.

As he spoke of his patriotism and his determination to fight the colonial powers (the West), his air force started to bomb cities. (Mubarak Redux, isn't it? Mubarak didn't have the military on his side though.)

Right on cue, Mr. Gaddafi, you've just given the opening for the West (particularly Washington, where neocons have been agitating) to rally the gullible populace for imposing a no-fly zone.

For what? So that he can die a hero's death, defending his country against foreign aggressors.

Again, reminder: Imposing a no-fly zone in Libya will involve the US and whoever allies of the US bombing Libya's airfields and taking out planes, patrolling 24/7 over Libya to enforce the no-fly zone, setting up bases near and probably inside Libya to support the bombing and patrolling.

From Al Jazeera Libya Blog 3/2/2011 on airstrikes:

4:14pm

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley was just on the phone with us - 10km away from the oil-rich town of Brega. As we spoke, he was watching a Libyan airforce jet bombing the area.

It’s now an air attack. We just watched an air force jet from the Libyan air force fly over Brega and drop at least one bomb - and huge plumes of smoke are now coming out over Brega. Another bombed near our position, where anti-Gaddafi forces have gathered.

All the fighters here are massing. We understand that something like 250-300 pro-Gaddafi fighters inside Brega and they are being surrounded. 
Gaddafi is still a force to be reckoned with, he is not giving up.

The population here want an air exclusion zone to prevent this sort of attack - but they don'twant foreign troops on the ground.

All major oil and gas installations in the town are in thehands of the opposition. We believe this is the main reason for the attack.

4:04pm

Airstrikes also reported in city of Ajdabiya, just northeast of Brega, Casualty count not yet known.

3:55pm

We're hearing from our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that four people have been killed and ten injured in an air raid on the town of Brega.

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#Libya's Bankers: Goldman Sachs, J.P.Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Carlyle Group

As the US Treasury Department froze $30 billion assets of the Gaddafis and the Libyan government, all I wanted to know was "Who are the bankers who have managed that assets?"

My guess was Goldman Sachs, and either Merrill Lynch or J.P.Morgan Chase. I got two right.

From Huffington Post's Marcus Baram (3/1/2011):

NEW YORK -- U.S. President Barack Obama's executive order freezing $30 billion in assets of Muammar Gaddafi, his family and the Libyan government could impact several U.S. banks and private equity firms, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and the Carlyle Group. The Obama administration described it as the largest seizure of foreign funds in U.S. history.

The oil-rich country's sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, controls at least $70 billion in fixed assets and reserves. It has invested the bulk of its money in European banks and businesses, including Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis, Italian bank Unicredit, the Pearson publishing empire, Italian defense firm Finmeccanica SpA, an oil-production sharing agreement with BP and even a slice of the Italian soccer team Juventus.

In the wake of the Bush administration's lifting of sanctions against Libya in 2004, following Gaddafi's agreement to give up weapons of mass destruction, American businesses and private equity firms also came flocking to the North African country to court government and LIA officials. As The Huffington Post reported last week, a broad coalition of U.S. oil companies, defense manufacturers and businesses lobbied the U.S. government to repair relations with the longtime international pariah and to take advantage of business opportunities in the country.

The secretive Libyan Investment Authority has reportedly invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Goldman Sachs Asset Management funds, including a loan fund designed to invest in new hedge funds set up by the Kuwait Investment Authority. Goldman Sachs already has a relationship with Libya -- in 2008, Goldman was the first U.S. bank to get a contract with the country following the removal of sanctions, when it was hired by Libya's central bank to provide information on its behalf to credit rating agencies. A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs did not return calls seeking comment.

The Libyan government, including LIA, has also banked with Citigroup, according to several sources familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for Citigroup declined to comment on the bank's interactions with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is in charge of carrying out Obama's order regarding Libyan assets.

JPMorgan Chase reportedly handles much of the LIA's cash and some of the Libyan central bank's reserves. The summer after then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Gaddafi in 2008, LIA gave "mandates to some of the international banks, including JPMorgan to manage their funds in the interbank money markets, according to Vanity Fair.

The LIA fund's general consultant has been Mercer Investment Consulting, a unit of Marsh & McClennan, the global risk consulting and advisory firm. A spokesperson for Marsh declined comment. The fund set up a $2 billion investment fund with the Qatar Investment Authority to invest in Libya, Qatar and Western markets, which could complicate the effort to freeze the LIA's assets.

Two years ago, the Carlyle Group's co-founder and managing director, David Rubenstein, and Blackstone chief executive Steven Schwarzman traveled to the Libyan capital of Tripoli to help celebrate the wedding of Mustafa Zarti, the deputy director of the LIA, in a massive tent set up on the outskirts of the city, reported the Financial Times. And when Gaddafi's son and longtime likely successor, Saif al-Islam, visited New York in November 2008, Schwarzman hosted a lunch for him at the Blackstone CEO's Park Avenue apartment. The younger Gaddafi was also honored on that trip by Carlyle's retired chairman, former defense secretary Frank Carlucci, who hosted a dinner for him in a private room at the City Club.

Thanks to the efforts of Rubenstein, who first traveled to Libya in 2006, the Carlyle Group received funds from the LIA. A spokesman for Carlyle declined comment. A spokesman for Blackstone told The Huffington Post, "We have no investments in Libya. They have no investments with us."

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Safe Exit for #Gaddafi?

as being planned by Qatar, the US, and the UK.

Tweet by @SultanAlQassemi:

@SultanAlQassemi Sultan Al Qassemi

Jeel #Libya: Reports of a joint Qatari-British-American effort to secure a safe exit for Gaddafi http://bit.ly/exmClp Arabic

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#Libya Stalemate? As Demonstrations Spread to Middle East

The "Battle of Tripoli", which seemed all but certain only a few days ago, hasn't happened. Gaddafi offers to negotiate with the opposition, as the Western journalists are treated by the regime to a tour of sunny Tripoli, where foods are abundant in the market, streets are clean, and people cheering for Gaddafi.

Will Gaddafi succeed in convincing the West that everything is under HIS control, that some minor skirmishes are unfortunate but nothing to worry about, yes he's been bad sometimes, but C'mon, he's been like that for 42 years and the West know it?

Maybe. Whether he can convince Libyans is totally another matter.

The images from Al Jazeera Libya Blog 2/28/11:

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Hip Hop Remix Starring Muammar Gaddafi and Gyrating Girls

The video was created by Noy Alooshe, an Israeli musician, and has gone viral on the net, said to be particularly popular among Arabs.

According to Al Jazeera, the chorus part of the song is Gaddafi's words "inch by inch, home by home, alley by alley".

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#Gaddafi's "Voluptuous" Ukrainian Nurse Deserts Him

The end is truly near for the madman of #Libya.

From Wall Street Journal:

KIEV, Ukraine—Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is set to be deserted by another close ally after his Ukrainian nurse said she was heading home.

Galyna Kolotnytska, described in a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks as a "voluptuous blond" who "travel[s] everywhere" with Col. Gadhafi, called her family in Kiev on Friday to say she intends to return to Ukraine, her daughter told daily Segodnya.

"Mom got in touch yesterday. She said she was now in Tripoli," Tetyana Kolotnytska said. "She spoke in a calm voice, asked us not to worry and said she'd soon be home."

According to the cable from September 2009, contacts in Tripoli told U.S. diplomats that Col. Gadhafi "relies heavily" on Ms. Kolotnytska, then 38, as "she alone 'knows his routine.'"

The cable also reported claims from unnamed sources that the eccentric Libyan leader and the nurse, part of a retinue of four Ukrainians, "have a romantic relationship."

Ms. Kolotnytska's daughter said her mother had been in Libya for nine years, originally employed in a hospital before starting work for Col. Gadhafi.

"Other Ukrainian women also work for him as nurses. Mom is one of them," she said. "For some reason, he doesn't trust Libyan women with this matter."

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#Gaddafi's Wife and Daughter in Vienna, Austria? (UPDATED)

(UPDATE) Starwood Hotels and Resorts left a comment on the post, denying the rumor:

"There are false rumors that members of the Gadhafi family are guests at the Imperial Hotel in Vienna. The rumors are completely untrue but have spread rapidly on the Internet."

I sympathize with the employees at the hotel chain who must be doing the unrewarding job of having to find every single obscure blog and tweet to counter the rumor...
.........................................................................................

That's the rumor circulating on Twitter. It even has pinpointed the hotel, Hotel Imperial Vienna.

The cheapest room available there today is 323 euro/night (US$444) king room, the most expensive Elizabeth Suite, at 737 euro/night (US$1013).

Hey that's nothing compared to the hotels that the queen of the USSA stays on her vacations; each vacation, all-inclusive, costs well north of $1 million to the US taxpayers. Her most recent vacation in Colorado was at the Sebastian Hotel - the rooms there run from US$605 to well north of $2,000.

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#Libya's Gaddafi: "I'm like Queen Elizabeth II"

From Twitpic: Qaddafi the Queen - Designed by Ahmad Sabbagh, calligraphy by @Alazaat @SyntaxDesign #Libya #Gaddafi #Feb17

(Yyyyyeeeeeewwwwwww......)

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Out of Nowhere, Gold Sells Off

Thank you, JP Morgue. Or several hedge funds blowing up, maybe. Or is it the rumor that Gaddafi has been shot?

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Gaddafi's Plane Loaded With Gold and US$ Ready to Depart for Zimbabwe?

From ABC News in Australia:

Leader 'preparing to flee' Libyan bloodshed

A political activist says Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is readying to flee the country, as violent civil unrest continues and rebels continue to take power of towns close to the capital Tripoli.

..... London-based Libyan political activist, Guma el-Gamaty, has told the ABC's Lateline that "quite reliable sources" believe Mr Gaddafi is readying to flee his country.

"Gaddifi's own private plane is loaded with gold bullion and lots of hard currency, mainly dollars, and is preparing to flee to Zimbabwe to stay there with his friend Robert Mugabe," he said.

"We think this could happen very shortly because the Security Council is threatening to impose a no-fly zone and we think that Gaddafi will try to escape before this no-fly zone is imposed, possibly by tomorrow.

The article also mentions a few speculations on how Gaddafi would end - escape, suicide, arrest. Whichever it may be, Libyans, get your gold and money back.

Libya has (or had) 143.8 tonnes of gold reserves as of December 2010, the second largest in Africa (the largest being Algeria at 173.6 tonnes)

BTW, the Swiss government has announced that they will freeze Gaddafi's assets. So that must mean the assets have been safely moved out of Switzerland, just like the case of Mubarak.

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#Libyans React to Gaddafi's Threatening Speech: Flying Shoes

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#Libya's Madman Orders Libyans to Kill Libyans For His Glory

We have a madman to deal with, and the world leaders are begging him to show "respect" and "restraint", and asking him please to punish officials responsible for the violence (that's the US's position). What a joke.

From Al Jazeera analysis on what he said in his speech:

"Muammar Gaddafi is the leader of the revolution, I am not a president to step down ... This is my country. Muammar is not a president to leave his post." [Which is very true, as he has no official position to resign from.]

"You men and women who love Gaddafi ...get out of your homes and fill the streets," he said. "Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs ... Starting tomorrow the cordons will be lifted, go out and fight them."

Gaddafi said "peaceful protests is one thing, but armed rebellion is another". [Ummm, it's your thugs who are armed.]

But the most chilling comment is this:

"cleanse Libya house by house"

A tweet by OmarAlmu5tar yesterday said:

"We have reached the point of no return. We know if we don´t die in the streets they´ll kill us in our houses"

He is afraid that Gaddafi is about to use chemical weapons on them, as Saddam Hussein did on the Kurds.

I am afraid there will be unspeakable atrocities, so unspeakable that no one outside Libya will talk about, and the so-called leaders of the so-called West and the UN will issue a statement regretting the atrocities but "hey it's time to move on...."

Now, have you heard of any country that has frozen the assets of the Gaddafis? None.

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Gaddafi Says He's in Tripoli

And I'd say this is his double. You decide.

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Another Son, Khamis Gaddafi in Charge of Bringing in Mercenaries

International Business Times, quoting Al Arabiya, reports that Khamis Gaddafi, another son of Muammar Gaddafi, recruited French-speaking mercenaries who would have no problem killing Libyans and would be loyal only to the Gaddafis.

From International Business Times (2/21/2011):

Khamis Gaddafi, a son of Libya ruler Moammar Gaddafi, recruited French-speaking Sub-Saharan African mercenaries to shoot live rounds at pro-democracy protestors, reported Al Arabiya, citing sources in the city of Benghazi.

These sources claim this knowledge because they’ve captured some of the mercenaries, who confessed their identity and the fact that Khamis Gaddafi hired them.

The sources also said they saw non-Libyan mercenaries flown in from other African countries land in the Benina International Airport near Benghazi.

Al Arabiya did not report or speculate on which countries these mercenaries are from. Many African mercenaries have historically come from South Africa. Ironically, Libya is another country known for supplying mercenaries around the continent. However, because these mercenaries are non-Libyan and French-speaking, they’re probably not from these two countries.

Rania Masri, a Lebansese activist, said via her Twitter account that analysts think the mercenaries may be from Chad, a French-speaking African country.

African leaders are no strangers to the concept for hiring foreign mercenaries. Indeed, many have been accused of importing mercenaries in the past – both from other African countries and outside of Africa.

In Gaddafi’s case, using mercenaries provide a key advantage: these paid soldiers will have no problem killing Libyans, whereas some of Libya’s own military personnel are hesitant.

Moreover, even before the massive protests, Libya is a country that historically fractured along regional and tribal divide, and the Libyan army may be defecting along those same lines.

Thus, the specter of a civil/regional war may be another incentive for Gaddafi to import outside help whose loyalty is to him (or his money) alone.

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