₦airaland Forum

The problem is not about their age, but the age of their ideas. - Gov Fashola

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration stands ready to offer "any type of assistance" to Libyans seeking to oust Moammar Gadhafi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday, adding a warning to other African nations not to let mercenaries go to the aid of the longtime dictator.

Clinton made no mention of any U.S. military assistance in her remarks to reporters before flying to Geneva for talks with diplomats from Russia, the European Union and other powers eager to present a united anti-Gadhafi front.

Shortly before she left, two senators urged the administration to help arm a provisional government in Libya, where Gadhafi is in the midst of the desperate and increasingly violent bid to retain power.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, also called for the United States and its allies to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent the military from again firing on civilian protesters from the air.

The White House had no immediate comment on their recommendations.

Clinton spoke to reporters one day after President Barack Obama branded Gadhafi an illegitimate ruler who must leave power immediately. "We want him to leave and we want him to end his regime and call off the mercenaries and those troops that remain loyal to him," she said. "How he manages that is obviously up to him and to his family."

The U.N. Security Council voted last Saturday to impose new penalties against the Gadhafi government, in power since 1969 in the oil-rich nation along Africa's Mediterranean Coast.

"We are just at the beginning of what will follow Gadhafi. ,  But we've been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and as the revolution moves westward there as well," Clinton said. "I think it's way too soon to tell how this is going to play out, but we're going to be ready and prepared to offer any kind of assistance that anyone wishes to have from the United States."

Efforts are under way to form a provisional government in the eastern part of the country where the rebellion began at midmonth.

The U.S., Clinton said, is threatening more measures against Gadhafi's government, but did not say what they were or when they might be announced.

Addressing the rulers of unnamed neighboring countries, she said: "You must stop mercenaries, you must stop those who may be going to Libya either at the behest or opportunistically to engage in violence or other criminal acts. And we will be working closely with those neighboring countries to ensure that they do so.

The African fighters that Gadhafi is allegedly using against protesters come from several nations.

Clinton's remarks did not go as far as those of McCain or Lieberman.

"Libyan pilots aren't going to fly if there is a no-fly zone and we could get air assets there to ensure it," McCain said. But he added, "I'm not ready to use ground forces or further intervention than that."

He said the U.S. should "recognize some provisional government that they are trying to set already up in the eastern part of Libya, help them with material assistance, make sure that every one of the mercenaries know that any acts they commit they will find themselves in front a war crimes tribunal. Get tough."

Lieberman spoke in similar terms, urging "tangible support, (a) no-fly zone, recognition of the revolutionary government, the citizens government and support for them with both humanitarian assistance and I would provide them with arms."

He likened the situation in Libya to the events in the Balkans in the 1990s when he said the U.S. "intervened to stop a genocide against Bosnians. And the first we did was to provide them the arms to defend themselves. That's what I think we ought to do in Libya."

McCain and Lieberman spoke on CNN's "State of the Union" from Egypt, where a largely peaceful popular uprising recently toppled President Hosni Mubarak from power after a reign of nearly three decades.

It was one of numerous rebellions across Northern Africa and the Middle East in recent months, all of them far less violent than the events in Libya, where Gadhafi has used his military and foreign mercenaries to try and crush a revolt and has threatened to begin arming Libyans who support his rule.

The rebellion began Feb. 15 in Benghazi, where a member of the city council said on Sunday that an ex-justice minister was appointed to lead a provisional government for cities under rebel control.

McCain and Lieberman also said Obama was slow to react to Gadhafi's brutal response to the protests. The administration has said the president did not want to risk any attack on Americans who had been trying to leave the country, and waited until a ferry loaded with evacuees reached Malta after spending two days in the harbor at Tripoli, the capital, because of bad weather.

"The British prime minister and the French president and others were not hesitant and they have citizens in that country," said McCain, who also appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Lieberman said he understood why the administration hesitated, but added, "I wish we had spoken out much more clearly and early against the Gadhafi regime."

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has called on Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to leave power immediately, saying he has lost the legitimacy to rule with his violent crackdown on his own people.

With that shift Saturday, Obama dropped the careful condemnation, threats of consequences and the reminders to Gadhafi's regime about its responsibility to avoid violence.

The president called on Gadhafi to step down for the first time, saying the Libyan government must be held accountable for its brutal crackdown on dissenters. The administration also announced new sanctions against Libya, but that was overshadowed by the sharp demand for Gadhafi's immediate ouster.

"The president stated that when a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," the White House said.

The statement summarizing Obama's telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel came as Libya's embattled regime passed out guns to civilian supporters and sent armed patrols around its capital to quash dissent and stave off the rebellion that now controls large parts of the North African nation.

Until Saturday, U.S. officials held back from fully and openly throwing all their support behind the protest movement, insisting that it was for the Libyan people to determine how they want to be led. The refrain echoed the public position maintained by the administration during the Egypt crisis, when the U.S. gradually dropped its support for longtime ally Hosni Mubarak but never explicitly demanded his resignation after nearly three decades in power.

Explaining the change, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Libyans "have made themselves clear" that they want Gadhafi out.

The tougher tone set the stage for Clinton's trip Sunday to Geneva, where she will confer with foreign policy chiefs from Russia, the European Union and other global powers on how to drive home the message to a Libyan government determined to cling to power and crush opposition to Gadhafi's rule.

Obama and Merkel strategized on how the world should respond to the violence that, according to some officials, has killed thousands of people. Clinton spoke with the EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton to coordinate the international pressure.

Acting on its own, the administration announced a new measure Saturday when Clinton said the U.S. was revoking visas for senior Libyan officials and their immediate family members. New travel applications from these individuals will be rejected, she said.

The visa ban followed the administration's moves Friday to freeze all Libyan assets in the U.S. that belong to Gadhafi, his government and four of his children. The U.S. also closed its embassy in Libya and suspended the limited defense trade between the countries.

It is unclear how far the U.S. — and its international allies — might have to go to convince Gadhafi that his four-decade reign in Libya must end. American military action is unlikely, although the administration hasn't ruled out participation in an internationally administered protective no-fly zone.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was due in Washington on Monday for talks with Obama at the White House.

A nonviolent revolt against Gadhafi's government began Feb. 15 amid a wave of uprisings in the Arab world. Most of Libya's eastern half is under the control of rebels. Witnesses say Gadhafi's government has responded by shooting at protesters in numerous cities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110227/ap_on_re_us/us_us_libya

Boxer and boxing promoter, Bash Ali, is trapped in Tripoli, Libya, a country that has been witnessing political problems in the past one week.

The Libyans are protesting against the 41-year rule of their leader Muammar Gaddafi and the high rate of corruption, poverty and unemployment in the country.

Over 1,000 people have been reported killed in the country in the past few days and sadly enough Bash Ali has been caught in the uprising in the country.

In an email sent to our correspondent, the boxer revealed that he travelled to Libya to meet with Gaddafi for the sponsorship of his proposed historic bout that has not been on the card for the past six years.

When our correspondent spoke with him on the telephone, Ali said he travelled to the troubled country because help was not forthcoming in Nigeria for the fight.

He said, “I am in trouble here and I only hope and pray I will be out of here to tell my story. I hear gunshots in my hotel room and it is terrible that I find myself in this situation.

“I have personally complained about this matter to President Goodluck Jonathan, Olusegun Obasanjo, David Mark, Dimeji Bankole, Tony Anenih, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, the (retd), Ibrahim Babangida, and the Inspector-General of Police.

“For now, I am stuck in my hotel room, waiting to die. I can hear gunshots around me. I have not eaten in a couple of days but I am not hungry.”

Ali said he was in touch with the Nigerian Consulate General in Tripoli on how to be evacuated.

“I spoke with the Consulate General and he has promised to help me get out of here alive.

“I am worried but praying I get out alive.”

Only on Wednesday, the Federal Executive Council directed the minister of Foreigh Affairs, Odein Ajumogobia, to expedite action on the directive of President Jonathan to evacuate stranded Nigerians in Benghazi and Tripoli.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201102253143812

oyb:
fresh air 2011!!!

Carlosein:
Naija rats are smarter than all these made in china arms.

for me i use gum and when it catches them, i flog the living day lights out of them (in full glare of others) i assure u dem go pack out fast fast.

my wife on the other hand prefers kill and dry. but we don't leave left overs and clean out refuse bins daily. all entrances are also well plugged. i swear any rat in my house immediately after entry is certified dead in 48hrs.

[size=15pt]Gadhafi's vow: Will fight to 'last drop of blood'[/size]

CAIRO (AP) — A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed to fight to his "last drop of blood" and roared at supporters to strike back against Libyan protesters to defend his embattled regime Tuesday, signaling an escalation of the crackdown that has thrown the capital into scenes of mayhem, wild shooting and bodies in the streets.

The speech by the Libyan leader — who shouted and pounded his fists on the podium — was an all-out call for his backers to impose control over the capital and take back other cities. After a week of upheaval, protesters backed by defecting army units have claimed control over almost the entire eastern half of Libya's 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) Mediterranean coast, including several oil-producing areas.

"You men and women who love Gadhafi , get out of your homes and fill the streets," he said. "Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs."

Celebratory gunfire by Gadhafi supporters rang out in the capital of Tripoli after the leader's speech, while in protester-held Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, people threw shoes at a screen showing his address, venting their contempt.

State TV showed a crowd of Gadhafi supporters in Tripoli's Green Square, raising his portrait and waving flags as they swayed to music after the address. Residents contacted by The Associated Press said no anti-government protesters ventured out of their homes after dark, and gun-toting guards manned checkpoints with occasional bursts of gunfire heard throughout the city.

International alarm rose over the crisis, which sent oil prices soaring to the highest level in more than two years on Tuesday and sparked a scramble by European and other countries to get their citizens out of the North African nation. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting that ended with a statement condemning the crackdown, expressing "grave concern" and calling for an "immediate end to the violence" and steps to address the legitimate demands of the Libyan people.

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel called Gadhafi's speech "very, very appalling," saying it "amounted to him declaring war on his own people." Libya's own deputy ambassador at the U.N., who now calls for Gadhafi's ouster, has urged the world body to enforce a no-fly zone over the country to protect protesters.

"This violence is completely unacceptable," added Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Gadhafi's retaliation has already been the harshest in the Arab world to the wave of anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East. Nearly 300 people have been killed, according to a partial count by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

In two nights of bloodshed, Tripoli residents described a rampage by pro-Gadhafi militiamen — a mix of Libyans and foreign mercenaries — who shot on sight anyone found in the streets and opened fire from speeding vehicles at people watching from windows of their homes.

In a sign of the extent of the breakdown in Gadhafi's regime, one of his closest associates, Abdel Fattah Younis, his interior minister and commander of the powerful Thunderbolt commando brigade, announced in Benghazi that he was defecting and other armed forces should join the revolt.

"I gave up all my posts in response to the February 17 Revolution and my conviction that it has just demands," Younis, who was among the army officers who joined Gadhafi in his 1969 coup, told Al-Jazeera, referring to the date of the start of the protests.

The performance by Gadhafi on state TV Tuesday night went far beyond even the bizarre, volatile style he has been notorious for during nearly 42 years in power. Swathed in brown robes and a turban, wearing reflective sunglasses, he at times screamed, his voice breaking, and shook his fists — then switched to reading glasses to read from a green-covered law book, losing his train of thought before launching into a new round of shouting.

He spoke from behind a podium in the entrance of his bombed-out Tripoli residence hit by U.S. airstrikes in the 1980s and left unrepaired as a symbol of defiance.

At times the camera panned back to show the outside of the building and its towering monument of a gold-colored fist crushing an American fighter jet. But the view also gave a bizarre image of Gadhafi, waving his arms wildly alone in a broken-down lobby with no audience, surrounded by torn tiles dangling from the ceiling, shattered concrete pillars and bare plumbing pipes.

"Libya wants glory, Libya wants to be at the pinnacle, at the pinnacle of the world," he proclaimed, pounding his fist on the podium. "I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents. , I will die as a martyr at the end," he said, vowing to fight "to my last drop of blood."

Gadhafi portrayed the protesters as misguided youths, who had been given drugs and money by a "small, sick group" to attack police and government buildings. He said the uprising was fomented by "bearded men" — a reference to Islamic fundamentalists — and Libyans living abroad.

He urged supporters to take to the streets to attack demonstrators, saying police would not interfere.

"Go out and fight them," he added, urging youth to form local committees across the country "for the defense of the revolution and the defense of Gadhafi."

"Forward, forward, forward!" he barked at the speech's conclusion, pumping both fists in the air as he stormed away from the podium. He was kissed by about a dozen supporters, some in security force uniforms. Then he climbed into a golf cart-like vehicle and puttered away.

In New York, Libya's deputy U.N. ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who has called for Gadhafi to step down, said he had received information that Gadhafi's collaborators have started "attacking people in all the cities in western Libya." He said those being attacked are unarmed. He said Gadhafi was using foreign mercenaries to fight protesters.

"I think the genocide has started now in Libya," Dabbashi said. "The Gadhafi statement was just code for his collaborators to start the genocide against the Libyan people. It just started a few hours ago. I hope the information I get is not accurate but if it is, it will be a real genocide."

Libyans were critical of what they saw as the lack of a forceful international response.

Dabbashi said the Security Council statement was "not strong enough" but was "a good step to stopping the bloodshed."

Gadhafi's call for a popular attack on protesters reflected the deeply unstable nature of the system he has created over his rule — the longest of any current Arab leader. He has long kept his military and other security forces relatively weak, fearing a challenge to his rule and uncertain of loyalties in a population of multiple tribal allegiances.

So far, the crackdown has been waged chiefly by militias and so-called "revolutionary committees," made up of Libyans and foreign fighters, many hired from other African nations.

Many army units in the east appear to have sided with protesters, and other more institutional parts of his regime have weakened. A string of ambassadors abroad have defected, as has the justice minister.

Protesters claim to control a string of cities, from the Egyptian border in the east — where guards at the crossing fled — to the city of Ajdabiya, about 450 miles (725 kilometers) farther west along the Mediterranean coast, said Tawfiq al-Shahbi, a protest organizer in the eastern city of Tobruk.

Ajdabiya is a key city near the oil fields of central and eastern Libya. Protesters and local tribesmen were protecting several of the fields and facilities around the city, said one resident, Ahmed al-Zawi.

Residents are also guarding one of Libya's main oil export ports, Zuweita, and the pipelines feeding into it, he said. The pipelines are off and several tankers that had been waiting in the port to load left empty, said al-Zawi, who said he visited Zuweita on Tuesday morning.

The first major protests to hit an OPEC country — and major supplier to Europe — sent oil prices to $95.42 per barrel. Only a small amount of Libya's oil production appeared to have been affected, though analysts fear that revolts will spread to OPEC heavyweights like Iran. Libya holds the most oil reserves in Africa.

Two oil companies on Tuesday suspended production in the country: Italy's Eni — the biggest energy producer in Libya, producing about a quarter of its exports — and Spain's Repsol-YPF, which produced 34,777 barrels in the country last year, about 3.8 percent of national output. A string of international oil companies have begun evacuating their expatriate workers or their families.

In the eastern cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, protesters raised the pre-Gadhafi flag of Libya's monarchy on public buildings. Protesters over the weekend overran police stations and security headquarters in Benghazi, taking control of the streets.

In Benghazi, celebratory residents organized themselves into units to protect property and manage traffic after pro-Gadhafi forces fled, said Farag al-Warfali, a banker. A committee was set up to organize and distribute the use of weapons confiscated from government warehouses, recruiting policemen and officers to carry the weapons for city protection, fearing a new attack.

"These are his dying words. He is a criminal and is ready to do anything. But we are ready for him," al-Warfali said of Gadhafi's speech. "Besides, most of his officers have deserted him anyway. He only has the mercenaries left."

Since Sunday, the fiercest fighting has been in Tripoli, the center of Gadhafi's rule.

At least 62 people were killed in violence in the capital since Sunday, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, but it cautioned that that figure came from only two hospitals. That comes on top of at least 233 people killed across the so far in the uprising, counted by the group from hospitals around the country.

Tripoli residents on Tuesday were recovering from the militia rampage through multiple neighborhoods that began the night before and lasted until dawn. Some resident ventured out to find stores open for food, wary of militia attacks.

One man in his 50s said residents of his neighborhood were piling up roadblocks of concrete, bricks and wood to try to slow attackers. He said he had seen several streets with funeral tents mourning the dead.

The night before, he had spent barricaded in his home, blankets over the windows — sitting with a kitchen knife on the table in front of him — as militiamen opened fire in nearby districts.

Buses unloaded militia fighters in several locations, he said. Others sped in vehicles with guns mounted on the top, opening fire, including at people watching from windows. "I know of two different families, one family had a 4-year-old who was shot and killed on a balcony in the eastern part of the city, and another lady on the balcony was shot in the head," he said.

He, like other residents, contacted by The Associated Press, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

One of the heaviest battlegrounds was the impoverished, densely populated district of Fashloum. There, militiamen shot any "moving human being" with live ammunition, including ambulances, so wounded were left in the streets to die, one resident said.

He said that as he fled the neighborhood Monday night, he ran across a group of militiamen, including foreign fighters. "The Libyans (among them) warned me to leave and showed me bodies of the dead and told me: 'We were given orders to shoot anybody who moves in the place,'" said the resident.

He and other residents described dozens of bodies still in the street at daybreak Tuesday.

The head of the U.N. human rights agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against civilians "may amount to crimes against humanity."

In the early hours of Wednesday, several Libyan military officers held a news conference with Libyan journalists broadcast on state television in what they described as an effort to set the record straight on a number of issues.

Lt. General Jibril al-Qadiki, an air force pilot, denied reports of airstrikes on civilians and said there had been strikes but only on ammunition warehouses after "rebels" used them. He named four storage area in eastern Libya in desert areas, and insisted there were no people in those areas.

He also accused western countries, including the U.S., of providing logistics to the protesters aiming to "destroy Libya."

http://www.mail.com/news/world/217596-gadhafis-vow-will-fight-to-last-drop-blood.html#.23140-stage-teaser1-2