Look Who’s Been Lying – Moon of Alabama

August 23, 2011

Look Who’s Been Lying

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Rebel "special forces" arrested Seif al-Islam Gadhafi – a son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi indicted along with his father on crimes against humanity charges, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said early Monday.
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Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told The Associated Press that Seif Gadhafi had been detained by "rebel special forces." He declined to give more details of the arrest or the source of the information.
Int'l court: Rebels have detained Gadhafi's son 08.21.11, 07:52 PM EDT

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Rebels in Libya said late Monday they had captured Saadi Kadafi, a third of Moammar Kadafi's seven sons.

Saadi Kadafi was taken after two of his older brothers were detained earlier in the day, the head of the rebels' National Transitional Council told Al Arabiya satelite network.

Earlier on Monday, Libyan rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil confirmed the overnight capture of two of Kadafi's other sons, Mohammed and Seif al-Islam, and said that they were "under the control of the revolutionaries and … in safe places."
LIBYA: Third Kadafi son is captured, rebels say

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Euphoric Libyan rebels raced into the capital Tripoli on Sunday and moved close to center with little resistance as Moammar Gadhafi's defenders melted away. Opposition leaders said Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, has been arrested.
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Sidiq al-Kibir, the rebel leadership council's representative for the capital Tripoli, confirmed the arrest of Seif al-Islam to the AP but did not give any further details.
Libyan rebels enter Tripoli, arrest Gadhafi's son

The appearance on camera early on Tuesday of Seif al-Islam, son and one time heir-apparent of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, appears to defy earlier claims that he had been detained by rebel forces. (Aug. 23 2011)

Posted by b on August 23, 2011 at 04:49 UTC | Permalink

Comments

they have been trying to win this by cheap psychological warfare right from the start, psychological warfare cannot replace real warfare. it is also impossible to have a war where you do not know the enemy. reality is beginning to sink in mainstream media
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015985993_libya23.html

Posted by: somebody | Aug 23 2011 5:14 utc | 1

Libyans also seem to have a superb sense of irony and humour:
The cream of the press: BBC, CNN now is a) hostage, b) human shield c) glad to report whatever Gaddafi wants to get published.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 23 2011 5:30 utc | 2

Rebels claim the victory – but did the Brits win it?

While the Ministry of Defence has been diligent in providing daily updates on the progress of “Operation Ellamy”, the British codename for its £250m part in the Nato campaign in Libya, a quieter London-sponsored offensive has been taking place on the ground for six months, involving an army of diplomats, spooks, military advisers and former members of the special forces.
One British intelligence operative in the Nafusa Mountains had previously been deployed elsewhere in Libya, including the besieged city of Misrata, part of attempts by London to influence events in Libya beyond the activities of warplanes and naval vessels.
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A British diplomatic source said: “From quite an early stage there has been a view that Gaddafi’s stranglehold would only be broken if there were practical measures on the ground as well as the air campaign. We are not talking legions of SAS crawling through the undergrowth. What we are talking about is offering expertise, diplomatic support and allowing others to be helpful.”
The “others” in question are the small groups of former special forces operatives, many with British accents, working for private security firms who have been seen regularly by reporters in the vanguard of the rebels’ haphazard journey from Benghazi towards Tripoli.
These small detachments of Caucasian males, equipped with sunglasses, 4×4 vehicles and locally acquired weaponry, do not welcome prying eyes, not least because their presence threatened to give credence to the Gaddafi regime’s claims that the rebel assault was being directed by Western fifth-columnists.

Posted by: b | Aug 23 2011 5:49 utc | 3

No boots in the ground!! That’s what UN resolutions are worth in the (un)democratic (un)lawful west.

Posted by: ThePaper | Aug 23 2011 6:28 utc | 4

“To lose one son is a misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/colonel-gaddafi-son-mohammed-escapes-rebels-in-libya/story-e6frf7jx-1226120136896

Posted by: felix | Aug 23 2011 6:37 utc | 5

For a city that is 80% controlled by the rebels and with plenty of ’embedded’ journalists it’s eerie quite this morning on the news and after Saif ‘surprise’ appearance. Reporters from Rixos also say that it’s quite now with no gunfire. I didn’t give much credence to the report as no image of this cadaver was shown … I doubt they would have caught him alive. Yesterday night one of the AJE embedded journalist said that he had arrived to Tripoli from Misrata. No updates since then.
The TNC has no credibility. The make a good show of clowns and puppets. They also said that all member would not be involved in a post-Gaddafi Libyan government and they are already saying the opposite. I’m just waiting for all the Libyan money to be ‘liberated’ by their hands.

Posted by: ThePaper | Aug 23 2011 6:55 utc | 6

Russia TV: ‘CIA, MI6 ‘journos’ in Tripoli Rixos hotel, outside NATO loses ground’

Posted by: b | Aug 23 2011 6:57 utc | 7

no, thepaper, they report rpg and gunfire
http://twitter.com/#!/matthewwprice

Posted by: somebody | Aug 23 2011 7:21 utc | 8

so now Britain plans to send boots on the ground …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029013/Libya-war-British-troops-act-peacekeepers-Gaddafis-downfall.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Posted by: somebody | Aug 23 2011 7:31 utc | 9

A strong stand must be taken against Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, he was complicit in this war crimes against the Libyan people. After yesterday’s euphoria very subdued broadcast on most European channels, RT and Telesur appear to have been right all along.

Posted by: hans | Aug 23 2011 7:40 utc | 10

The word ‘retreat’ isn’t being mentioned much but that ‘control of 90-95% of Tripoli claim is looking shaky – unless, of course, they mean NATO’s air domination:
“…..Rebels appear to have voluntarily pulled back from much of the territory they took almost as soon as they took it. The invading forces appeared to only control a slice of land leading from the western edge to near the city center. Rebels from inside the capital claimed to control a handful of other neighborhoods but these were difficult to reach as roads through the capital remained insecure…..”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903327904576525652544535820.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Posted by: felix | Aug 23 2011 7:53 utc | 11

Boots on the ground (a ‘peace keeping’ force that was being insistently requested by some yesterday including US stooge Ban Ki-moon) is the end game because the alternative is likely Somalia with Tripoli playing as Mogadishu and different militias controlling different.
Depending how much control the Gaddafi faction ends with on Tripoli and other western cities they could have been downgraded from the government to just another militia. That’s the impression with all the (likely orchestrated) taking of most of the remaining Libyan embassies this two last days. The western powers will also want to move them from equal footed state power to rag-tag warlodish faction and put in their place the TNC puppet-show (queue Taiwan vs China in the 50s).

Posted by: ThePaper | Aug 23 2011 8:08 utc | 12

I guess the embedded journalists have retreated back to Zawiyah or Misrata.

0930: Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC Middle East Correspondent who is in Zawiya, but was in Tripoli last night, says: “Exactly what is going on in the city is very hard to say. It is best to describe the city as atomised into different neighbourhoods supporting different sides in the conflict.”

Posted by: ThePaper | Aug 23 2011 8:36 utc | 13

yes, thepaper, however, 32 countries are not the world, and NATO are just 3 countries, that peace keeping force would have to do serious fighting.
even new Europe does not approve: http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/foreign-affairs/czechs-send-roving-ambassador-libyan-rebels
there is also Egypt next door and Tunisia. how do you think would a neo-neo-colonialist occupation look from there?
and there are two election campaigns to consider next year, this is August and everybody is on holiday, what about September?
and – in other news – http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-08-23/Turkey-says-it-killed-100-Kurdish-rebels-in-Iraq/50101872/1

Posted by: somebody | Aug 23 2011 9:31 utc | 14

tweet of the day:
blakehounshell Blake Hounshell
Was it ever confirmed that prisoners were freed from Abu Salim prison? Weird because that’s right next to Bab al-Aziziya and the Rixos.
his tweet is very funny actually from absolute belief to complete mistrust …

Posted by: somebody | Aug 23 2011 11:31 utc | 15

They can’t get the story straight anymore.
From BBC blog.

1320: Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC Middle East Correspondent in western Tripoli adds: Things appear to be going in the rebels’ favour – earlier rebel jets bombed Col Gaddafi’s compound.

Rebel = NATO.

Posted by: ThePaper | Aug 23 2011 12:40 utc | 16

who are the rebels?
second tweet of the day
@jonjensen
The wife of a NTC official was carjacked in broad daylight yesterday in Benghazi by two armed men. She thought they were rebels.
and there is this
http://www.cpj.org/2011/08/australian-journalist-attacked-by-assailants-in-be.php
oh those “embedded journalists”

Posted by: somebody | Aug 23 2011 12:47 utc | 17

A very good speech by Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s historic speech to Harlem in support of his brother Muammar Gaddafi and his people

Posted by: hans | Aug 23 2011 13:59 utc | 18

Unlike Seif-al-Islam, Osama bin Laden had not been seen before or after his elimination by US special forces.
After all the Seif-al-Islam is captured BS, are we to believe that OBL was really eliminated? After all, no evidence has presented. Of course, no evidence was ever presented that OBL really did 9-11, either.
The Hollywood screenwriters managing the US narrative from the DOD/CIA must be working overtime.

Posted by: JohnH | Aug 23 2011 14:43 utc | 19

The UN resolution to provide “air safety” over Libya has already been stretched way beyond the original stated intent. Now that it’s being revealed that Britain had former special ops forces on the ground, is this entering the realm of breaking international law? Or, does might make right? Magic cover-all fig leafs?
Yesterday, on one of the broadcast TV news programs, a guy was interviewed about how initially the rebels had trouble getting messages to NATO to ask for air strikes, which was necessary, per this guy, for effective assaults on Ghaddafi’s forces. Interestingly, this guy had what sounded very much like an American accent. So, were US special ops on the ground in Libya as well as Brits?
The accent doesn’t prove he was American, or he could have been American of Libyan descent…. Of course, doesn’t the US frown on its citizens taking part in other people’s wars? Or does that just come into relevance if the US citizen by design or by chance ends of opposite US or NATO forces? Or is supporting a group the US considers “bad guys”?
Today, the talk shows were full of discussions of the need for either US and other Western forces staying out of Libya (“Let Libhans fight this out on their own”) OR the need to ensure full “peacekeeping” forces present to prevent…deaths of civilians Based(It’s now our responsibility to manage the post-Ghadiffi Libya, especially since it’s tribal and was a forced together nation, due mostly to Britain’s design.)
Based on listeners’ questions and the tenor of the conversation, I sense continued discomfort about Obama’s decision to embroil the US in the “kinetic miitary action.” Altho’ one British reporter was extremely gung-ho about the whole military thing.
Coming full circle to the original reason for attacking Libya. Neat how that works out, eh?

Posted by: jawbone | Aug 23 2011 19:38 utc | 20

Mercenaries (aka ‘private security contractors’ in newspeak). No need to put official forces there when you can cover it as ‘private enterprise’ or ‘free-market forces’.

Posted by: ThePaper | Aug 23 2011 19:45 utc | 21

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