Libya Attacks Reveal Failure of Administration

Three State Department officials on Wednesday provided a riveting, emotional account of last year’s fatal attack on U.S. installations in eastern Libya as they accused senior government officials of withholding embarrassing facts and failing to take enough responsibility for security lapses.

The testimony provided new details on the Sept. 11, 2012, assaults on U.S. installations in Benghazi and their aftermath. But the new information failed to break the political logjam the attacks spawned, with Republicans and Democrats offering starkly different interpretations of what happened and who within the U.S. government is to blame.

Read it all here.

Americans lives were lost and the Republicans and Democratic shamelessly argue about who is to blame. Remember when President Obama said that the ultimate responsibility for government mistakes rests with him?

Hicks reported Libya terrorist attack

Burnt building at the US consulate Libyan city of Benghazi two days after an attack late on Sept. 11

The second-ranking U.S. official in Libya during last year’s deadly attack on the mission in Benghazi immediately considered it a terrorist attack rather than a spontaneous event, according to a transcript of his interview with congressional investigators.

“I thought it was a terrorist attack from the get-go,” Gregory Hicks, a foreign service officer and former deputy chief of Libyan operations, told investigators, according to excerpts of the interview displayed today on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “I never reported a demonstration, I reported an attack on the consulate.”

His account contrasted with comments made by Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, after the attack on Sept. 11, 2012. She said it grew out of a “spontaneous” demonstration against an anti-Islamic video that was “hijacked” by militants.

Hicks said he wasn’t contacted by State Department officials before Rice spoke on five Sunday talk shows Sept. 16, according to the interview with congressional investigators.

The Benghazi attack killed four Americans including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and became a flashpoint in last year’s presidential campaign. Republicans criticized officials including Rice for their early accounts of the circumstances.

Hicks is scheduled to testify at a May 8 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, in a May 1 statement announcing the hearing, accused President Barack Obama’s administration of offering “a carefully selected and sanitized version” of the Benghazi attack.

Read the full report here.

Related reading:  Benghazi Continued: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion; Special ops halted from responding to Benghazi attacks; The PJ Tatler on Benghazi Hearings

Remember Our Fallen in Libya

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2012 – The State Department has identified the two security officers who died Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya, while helping to protect their colleagues.

In a Sept. 13 statement, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty were “decorated military veterans who served our country with honor and distinction.”

The attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi also killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Foreign Service information management officer Sean Smith, and wounded three other Americans who are recovering at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

The State Department previously identified Stevens and Smith.

On Sept. 12, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation ordering U.S. flags to fly at half-staff until sunset on Sept. 16 in honor of Stevens, Smith, Woods and Dougherty.

Obama, Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta today took part in a dignified transfer of the remains of the four Americans during a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

“Our thoughts, prayers and deepest gratitude are with their families and friends. Our embassies could not carry on our critical work around the world without the service and sacrifice of brave people like Tyrone and Glen,” Clinton said in the statement.

Wood’s friends and colleagues called him “Rone” and relied on his courage and skill, honed over two decades as a Navy SEAL, she added.

“In uniform he served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Clinton said. “Since 2010, he protected American diplomatic personnel in dangerous posts from Central America to the Middle East.”

Woods had the hands of a healer and the arm of a warrior, she said, earning distinction as a registered nurse and a certified paramedic.

“All our hearts go out to Tyrone’s wife Dorothy and his three sons, Tyrone Jr., Hunter and Kai, who was born just a few months ago,” the secretary said.

“We also grieve for Glen Doherty, called Bud, and his family: his father Bernard, his mother Barbara, his brother Gregory and his sister Kathleen,” Clinton added.

Doherty was also a former Navy SEAL and an experienced paramedic who put his life on the line protecting Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hotspots, she said.

“In the end, he died the way he lived -- with selfless honor and unstinting valor,” the secretary said.

Clinton condemned in the strongest terms the attack that took the lives of the Americans, and said the United States is taking more steps to safeguard American embassies, consulates and citizens around the world.

“The violence should shock the conscience of people of all faiths and traditions,” Clinton added.

“We appreciate the statements of support that have poured in from across the region and beyond. People of conscience and goodwill everywhere must stand together in these difficult days against violence, hate and division,” she said.

The secretary said she is enormously proud of the men and women who risk their lives every day in the service of the country.

“We honor the memory of our fallen colleague by continuing their work and carrying on the best traditions of a bold and generous nation,” Clinton said.

Related reading:  Rice's Visit to a Reformed Gaddafi

New Take on Qaddafi's Death

The Associated Press reports that Mustafa Abdul-Jalil told a news conference in Begnhazi that the National Transitional Council has formed a committee to further investigate Qaddafi's death amid conflicting reports about how he may have died after being taken into custody by the revolutionaries.

Still, the interim leader stressed that the government's initial findings support the story that Qaddafi was killed in in the crossfire during a clash between the revolutionaries and his security detail. But, as the AP notes, he also suggested a new possibility: that Qaddafi was intentionally killed by his own supporters to prevent him from implicating them for past actions under his regime.

"Let us question who has the interest in the fact that Qaddafi will not be tried. Libyans want to try him for what he did to them, with executions, imprisonment and corruption," Abdul-Jalil said. "Free Libyans wanted to keep Qaddafi in prison and humiliate him as long as possible. Those who wanted him killed were those who were loyal to him or had played a role under him, his death was in their benefit."

Read more here.

Gadhafi's Burial Delayed

From the Slatest, Oct. 21

The burial of Muammar Qaddafi’s body has been delayed to allow for a further investigation into how the deposed Libyan leader was killed, and to give officials more time to figure out where they should bury the body, Libya’s interim government said Friday.

The Associated Press reports that National Transitional Council leaders had originally said that they would bury Qaddafi on Friday in accordance with Islamic traditions, although those plans are now on hold after the U.N. human rights office called for an investigation into the circumstances of the 69-year-old’s death.

A spokesman for the U.N. panel set up earlier this year to investigate abuses in Libya said it wanted to take a closer look at how Qaddafi was killed, but that it was too early to tell if the panel would push for a formal investigation at the national or international level.

The spokesman, Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva that there remain questions about whether Qaddafi was killed during a skirmish between his security detail and the revolutionaries, as Libya’s prime minister suggested Thursday, or whether he was executed.

“The two cell phone videos that have emerged, one of him alive, and one of him dead, taken together are very disturbing," he said, according to the AP.

UPDATE Thursday 6:16 p.m.: Muammar Qaddafi was shot in the head during "intense crossfire" between revolutionaries and his own security detail, Libya's prime minister said Thursday.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril pushed back against unconfirmed reports that Qaddafi had been executed at the hands of the revolutionaries after he was captured alive.

Jibril told the paper that Qaddafi was discovered hiding in "a big pipe of the sewage system" in Sirte on Thursday morning. He was armed but did not resist arrest. It was only when Qaddafi was being escorted to a truck that a firefight broke out, during which the former Libyan strongman was shot in the head. "That was the deadly shot," Jibril said.

The prime minister continued: "I cannot confirm whether he was shot by our people or his security brigade. It was crossfire." Qaddafi reportedly died within walking distance of a nearby hospital.

Jibril's comments contradicted previous unconfirmed reports that Qaddafi was executed by revolutionary soldiers. One report suggested that Qaddafi was killed by a man in his 20s who used the former leader's golden handgun to deliver the fatal shot.

Those reports appeared to be grounded in speculation that arose after a number of graphic images surfaced that made it clear that Qaddafi was alive when he was first captured by the revolutionaries. The New York Times has a quick rundown of the digital clips:

Al Jazeera television showed footage of Colonel Qaddafi, alive but bloody, as he was dragged around by armed men in [Sirte]. The television also broadcast a separate clip of his half-naked torso, with eyes staring vacantly and an apparent gunshot wound to the head, as jubilant fighters fired automatic weapons in the air. A third video, posted on Youtube, showed excited fighters hovering around his lifeless-looking body, posing for photographs and yanking his limp head up and down by the hair.

The prime minister also confirmed that one of Qaddafi's sons, Mutassim, was killed in a separate firefight in another part of the city. Saif al-Islam, Qaddafi's most infamous son and right-hand man, managed to escape and remains at large, Jibril said.

Meanwhile, NATO elaborated on the role that its warplanes played in the attack on Qaddafi's convoy that preceded his death. Officials said that French fighter jets and a U.S. drone fired on the disorganized convoy as it was leaving Sirte, the Post reports. Officials stressed, however, that it was unclear if the airstrikes hit the vehicle carrying Qaddafi.

Read it all here.


 

Pro-Gadhafi Forces Driven Back

Edward Yeranian October 09, 2011


Fighters loyal to Libya's National Transitional Council captured some strategic places inside the Gadhafi stronghold of Sirte Sunday.

Gunbattles between fighters for Libya's National Transitional Council and forces loyal to ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi continued across parts of Sirte Sunday, with the loyalists losing large chunks of territory, including the city's university and international convention center.

One rebel commander claimed that Gadhafi loyalists were being driven back into an increasingly smaller pocket of territory inside Sirte.

He said the Gadhafi forces are surrounded from the east and west in a shrinking perimeter that now measures about seven square kilometers. He added the rebels are attacking from all sides.

Al Arabiya TV showed NTC fighters controlling Sirte's Ouagadougou Center, which had been a command and control post for Gadhafi forces. The center, which hosted the 2010 Arab and African Union summits, appeared to have pocked walls and shattered windows from shell-fire and shoot-outs.
There were conflicting reports about which side controlled Sirte's main Avicenna Hospital. Several witnesses indicated that pro-Gadhafi snipers were still operating in the city center, near the hospital.
Dr. Mohammed Tantoun told Al Hurra TV that wounded fighters continue to pour in.

He said the wounds he has been treating vary from serious to medium, but that in the last several hours most of the injuries were more serious, mostly to the head and chest.

Another former center of resistance, known as Housing Block 700, also fell to NTC fighters. Some cinder block walls appeared to have collapsed and most windows were shattered in the once gleaming residential block.

Elsewhere, south of Sirte, pro-Gadhafi fighters continued to hold most of the desert town of Bani Walid, but NTC combatants were reported to have taken its airport.

Omar Ashour, who teaches political science at the University of Exeter in Britain, says it is still possible that Moammar Gadhafi could fight a low-level insurgency even after NTC forces gain control of Sirte and Bani Walid.

“There is still the Bani Walid front and there are still several pockets in the south, because what happens is that, as we saw in Sirte, some of the militias and the armed groups with Gadhafi, they move around. So, if they are able to disperse and move to several of the southern pockets, this may lead to a low-level insurgency that can last for a while.”

However, Ashour believes that Gadhafi is running out of financial resources to buy the loyalty of his supporters. He says that if the ousted leader is denied resources, especially from places like Niger, Algeria and elsewhere, he will have less and less support in the south of Libya.

From here.

NATO Efforts Bring Down Qadhafi

WASHINGTON, Aug 22: The rapid weekend advance of Libyan rebel troops into Tripoli was planned two weeks ago by British, French and Qatari special forces on the ground, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The United States provided additional intelligence on the positions of Libyan government forces, Nato and US military and intelligence officials told the Post.

The strategy included coordinated rebel attacks on three critical areas: the oil port of Brega, the refinery city of Zawiyah and the strategic southern approach to Tripoli at Gharyan.

The objective was to compel Libyan government forces to move into Tripoli and thus provide clear targets for Nato airstrikes. It would also clear the roads for the rebel advance.

Nato aircraft hit 22 targets in and around Tripoli on Saturday as rebels launched their offensive.

Meanwhile, the United States had begun to provide its allies with expanded imagery from satellites and armed drones on the locations and capabilities of government forces.

CIA operatives inside the country also shared with the rebels intercepted communications within the government, which provided a deeper understanding of just how badly Col Qadhafi`s command structure had crumbled.

The Nato allies and “particularly the Qataris” on the ground were “working very closely” with the rebels` military and political command “to help them think this one through and also provide them with the capabilities”, the Post reported.

But the newspaper observed that the speed of the collapse had taken aback even those who had planned it.

“For the most part the Libyan regime forces seem to have just not engaged,” a US intelligence official said. “Somehow this seems to have literally passed them by.”

Even as rebels seized control of large areas in Tripoli, US military officials said it was unclear how long the fighting in the capital would continue.

US officials told the post that the CIA and the US National Security Agency were going to expand their support to the rebels, providing them new information about Col Qadhafi`s whereabouts and on his remaining military strength.

Source: Pakistan Dawn

Libya: Government Executes 10 Men

Human Rights Watch/IFEX) - New York, August 19, 2011 - Libyan government forces appear to have executed 10 protesters following an anti-government demonstration in the town of Bani Walid on May 28, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Earlier on that day government forces fired on apparently peaceful protesters, killing at least two and wounding 10, in the government-controlled town about 170 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tripoli. After the protest, a rebel sympathizer apparently killed a government paramilitary commander and two bodyguards.

Human Rights Watch interviewed six men with knowledge of the day's events, including three who saw government forces fire on the demonstrators. Three of the men spoke on cell phones with the protesters who were later killed as they sought shelter in a nearby building after the demonstration. One of these men watched government forces storm the building and heard automatic weapon fire.

"The apparent execution by Libyan forces of 10 men is stomach-turning," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Libya's government should recognize that atrocities committed even in remote places like Bani Walid will see the light of day."

Libya's Minister of Justice Mohammed al-Gamudi and General Prosecutor Mohammad Zakri told Human Rights Watch during a recent visit to Tripoli that they were unaware of any killings in Bani Walid on May 28, or any investigations there.

Videos apparently showing the May 28 demonstration in Bani Walid and parts of the apparent execution have been available on YouTube for several weeks, but details of the killings only emerged when Human Rights Watch interviewed the witnesses and victims' relatives in early July, after they fled the government-held town.

The witnesses and other Bani Walid residents told Human Rights Watch that the May 28 protest was the first significant anti-government demonstration in the town since a protest on March 3, which proceeded peacefully. At the first anti-government protest in Bani Walid, on February 20, government forces fired in the air to disperse about 800 marchers.

The May 28 demonstration began about 3 p.m., when a crowd of nearly 300 people gathered in front of the Saadi Tabuli school and peacefully shouted anti-government slogans, three witnesses told Human Rights Watch. None of the protesters were seen carrying weapons during the demonstration, they said. Three videos viewed by Human Rights Watch apparently of the demonstration show no protesters with visible weapons.

When the demonstration began to grow, three witnesses said, a government paramilitary group called the Jafal Nusur el-Fetah ("Jafal") opened fire on the crowd, killing at least two men and wounding 10. One of the wounded protesters, "Ahmed" (not his real name), told Human Rights Watch how the government forces attacked.

At least one video appears to show the shooting inside the room. Human Rights Watch could not confirm that the video was shot on May 28 in Bani Walid, but Futmani identified two of the bodies in the video as his nephew, Mustafa Abdullah Salah el-Futmani, a 29-year-old imam and professor of Islamic studies, and 38-year-old Fawzi Shlafty. Bani Walid residents told Human Rights Watch that they believe the video was recorded on the cell phone of one of the Jafal members.

The video shows at least seven motionless men on the floor. A group of men in civilian clothes, one wearing a cap with Muammar Gaddafi’s photo, are standing and shouting in a western Libyan accent. One man is visible pointing a handgun and another holds a rifle. At one point, a man can be heard saying: “He’s alive, he’s alive.” About 14 individual gunshots and a short volley of automatic gunfire follow.

(. . .)

"A prompt and impartial investigation is needed for a full accounting of the deaths on May 28 in Bani Walid," Whitson said. "But the Libyan government has shown no inclination to investigate alleged government abuses or see that they stop."

Click here for the full press release, which includes a list of the dead and detailed accounts of the events

For more information:

Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10118
USA
hrwnyc (@) hrw.org
Phone: +1 212 290 4700
Fax: +1 212 736 1300
http://www.hrw.org/

Rape Among Qaddafi's War Crimes

The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court will likely add rape to the war crimes charges already leveled against Muammar Qaddafi.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters Wednesday that there is mounting evidence that hundreds of women have been raped during the Libyan government’s crackdown on the rebel uprising that is fighting for Qaddafi’s ouster, and that the Libyan strongman had personally ordered the attacks, the Guardian reports.

“Apparently, [Qaddafi] decided to punish, using rape,” Moreno-Ocampo said, adding that there was even evidence that the rumors about government officials handing out Viagra to soldiers to encourage the attacks were true.

In May, Moreno-Campo charged Qaddafi and two of his top lieutenants with crimes against humanity and requested warrants for their arrests.


From here.

US Wants Gaddafi's Assets to Aid Libyans

The Obama administration wants to use some of the billions of dollars in frozen assets belonging to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and his government to provide humanitarian and other assistance to the Libyans affected by the country's ongoing civil war, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

The move, announced at a high-level meeting in Rome on how to shore up Libya's rebels, appeared to be the first time a country has sought to tap some of the massive Libyan wealth blocked by U.N. sanctions in February.

For more information, go here.

610,000 Migrants Have Fled Libya

Refugees from Libya seek refuge in Sahara

27 April - The governments of the poor Sahelian states of Niger and Chad are struggling to accommodate a total of 75,000 refugees crossing the Sahara desert from Libya.

According to the latest statistic update from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) offices in Niamey, Niger, some 54,200 persons have fled Libya into this impoverished Sahelian nation only. Niger authorities even put the number at 57,000.

Most of those fleeing Libya, taking great risks crossing the Sahara desert, are Nigerien nationals - mostly migrant workers in Libya. However, almost 4,000 non-Nigeriens - mostly nationals of other African countries - have also reached Niger.

Those arriving Niger's northern border, in the middle of the Sahara desert, are mostly deprived of all their values and need assistance to reach their final destinations in Niger or beyond.

Niger authorities and the IOM operate several reception centres in northern Niger. Here, the migrants are registered, given necessary aid and helped reaching their original home.

The transfer of non-Nigerians from these centres to their home countries has only just started, with a few hundreds being flown to Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and other West African countries by the IOM. Lack of funds is limiting the repatriation operation.

The government in Niamey and IOM are now appealing for donor funds to run the overstretched reception centres and repatriation operations. IOM officers on the ground report of lack of medicines, food and clean water.

Niger has even experienced an influx of refugees from Côte d'Ivoire, following the conflict there. Côte d'Ivoire and Libya have been the main destinations for Nigerien labour.

The return of tens of thousands of Nigerien workers from these two countries - most of which normally would send a part of their wage to their families back home - therefore also will have a negative impact on the national economy of Niger.


Chad repatriation operations

Also in neighbouring Chad, which also shares a large Saharan border with Libya, the influx of refugees is large. Around 17,000 persons have entered the country from Libya, adding to eastern Chad's refugee crises related to the Darfur conflict.

Most refugees reaching Chad's northern border towns of Faya-Largeau and Kalait are Chadian nationals working in Libya. A few hundred citizens of other African nations have also reached northern Chad, awaiting onward transportation assistance.

IOM in N'djamena, Chad, reports that the organisation is currently organising 10 charter flights from Faya- Largeau to the capital "to assist weak and vulnerable returnees who cannot be transported by road." To date, IOM has provided onward assistance to more than 3,500 returnees to various destinations in Chad.

By now, more than 610,000 migrants from more than 27 countries have fled Libya and crossed into Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Algeria, Chad, Italy and Sudan. Tunisia and Egypt have by far received the largest numbers of refugees.


© afrol News

Embassies Burn in Libya

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi pressed an offensive against rebel forces, and his supporters burned Western embassies after the Libyan leader survived a NATO airstrike that officials said killed his son and three grandchildren.

Funerals were expected to be held on Monday, an occasion that might bring an awaited appearance or declaration by Gaddafi who authorities say was in the Tripoli house when it was destroyed by at least three missiles late on Saturday.

Gaddafi, fighting a rebellion against his authoritarian 41-year rule since mid-February, has not been seen in public since the attack, though a spokesman said he was unhurt. His son Saif al-Arab, 29, was killed with three young grandchildren.

The embassies of Britain and Italy were attacked and burned, along with the U.S. commercial and consular affairs department after Gaddafi loyalists were shown on Libyan television vowing vengeance. The buildings had been vacated weeks earlier.

Read it all here.

Second Journalist Dies in Misrata

(IFJ/IFEX) - 21 April 2011 - The International Federation of Journalists today mourns the tragic death of photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, killed by a mortar attack in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata, on Wednesday 20 April.

Two other photojournalists, Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown, were both seriously injured by the same mortar fire along Tripoli Street at the heart of the fight between pro-Gaddafi forces and the rebels for control of Misrata.

"The death of Hetherington and Hondros are a terrible loss to their families and colleagues," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President. "Their deaths and the wounding of two other photographers have brought home the serious risks faced by journalists when getting close to the story."

Tim Hetherington had won several distinguished prizes, including the World Press Photo Award in 2007, for his work covering conflicts over the last decade. He was also jointly responsible for the highly acclaimed Afghan war Documentary, Restrepo.

Chris Hondros, a former nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, also won the 2006 Robert Capa Gold Medal for his "exceptional courage and initiative" in Iraq.

"Covering Libya has been extremely treacherous for all journalists, many with a long experience of working in dangerous environments. They risked arrest, beating, detention and now death to bring into the public eye the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Misrata. We urge a full examination of the circumstances of their deaths and review of internal security procedures," added Boumelha.

For more information:

International Federation of Journalists
International Press Centre, Residence Palace
Bloc C, second floor, Rue de la Loi, 155
1040 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 2352207
Fax: +32 2 2352219
http://www.ifj.org/

Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, April 20, 2011 - Acclaimed British photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed in an explosion in the western Libyan city of Misurata today, and three other photographers were wounded, The New York Times and other news outlets reported. Hetherington, a veteran war photojournalist, co-directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo.

The blast was believed to have been caused by a mortar round, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited doctors and colleagues. News reports identified the wounded as photographers Chris Hondros, an American working for Getty Images; Guy Martin, a Briton working for the Panos photo agency; and Michael Brown, who was working for Corvis.

"We're shocked and saddened by word that our colleague Tim Hetherington has died, and we extend our deepest condolences to his family and colleagues," said Robert Mahoney, CPJ deputy director. "The Libyan conflict is proving to be an extremely dangerous story for journalists to cover."

Hondros and Martin suffered grave injuries, according to The New York Times, citing a colleague of the journalists who was at the medical center where they were being treated. Misurata is held by rebel forces but has been fiercely contested. The Los Angeles Times, reporting from Misurata, said the journalists had been working near the front lines of local militia.

Hetherington and American journalist Sebastian Junger co-directed the 2010 film Restrepo, which documented the year they embedded with U.S. military in Afghanistan. Born in 1970, according to his online biography, Hetherington had won numerous other awards, including a 2009 Alfred I. duPont Award for broadcast journalism.

Two other journalists have been killed this year in the Libyan conflict. An unknown gunman killed Mohammed al-Nabbous, founder of the online Libya Al-Hurra TV, as the journalist was streaming live audio from a battle in Benghazi on March 19. Cameraman Ali Hassan al-Jaber was shot when his Al-Jazeera crew was ambushed near Benghazi on March 13.

CPJ has documented more than 80 attacks on the press since political unrest erupted in Libya in February. They include the fatalities, numerous injuries, 49 detentions, 11 assaults, two attacks on news facilities, the jamming of two international television transmissions, at least four instances of obstruction, the expulsion of two international journalists, and the interruption of Internet service. At least six local journalists are missing amid speculation they are in the custody of security forces. One international journalist and two media support workers are also unaccounted for.

For more information:

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 7th Ave., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
USA
info (@) cpj.org
Phone: +1 212 465 1004
Fax: +1 212 465 9568
http://www.cpj.org/

Bishop Martinelli of Tripoli on Libya Conflict

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican observer at the London conference on Libya said the situation in the North African country is forcing the international community to examine its obligation to intervene when the lives and rights of civilians are being threatened.

Meanwhile, the bishop in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, said it appears to him that people just want the fighting to continue.

“They want to continue the war,” said Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli of Tripoli. “Arming part of the Libyan population against another part other doesn’t seem, to me, to be a moral solution,” he told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the Vatican nuncio to Great Britain and observer at the London conference March 29, told Vatican Radio that the discussions by three dozen participating countries and international agencies “seemed to raise again the question of the fundamental vocation of the international community to respond to the basic needs of a population that is extremely exhausted.”

Archbishop Mennini told the radio March 30 that he believed participants really were concerned about “safeguarding civilians’ human rights and safeguarding human lives.”

In the piece aired by Vatican Radio, the archbishop did not discuss the military operation launched by the United States, France and Great Britain, and he expressed no judgment about the London conference’s call for a “regime change” in Libya, other than to say that Italy and several other countries seemed to be looking for a way to help leader Moammar Gadhafi go into exile.

Bishop Martinelli, on the other hand, continued to express hope that the African Union would be recognized as a mediator in the crisis, and he questioned the real precision of the military action launched by the United States, Great Britain and France.

“I can’t bring myself to say that the bombardments are being done to defend the civilian population,” he told Fides. “Even if bombardments of military objectives are precise, they certainly have an impact on nearby buildings. I know at least two hospitals have suffered indirect damage because of the bombings. The doors and windows were destroyed, and the patients are under shock. For all one knows, the military action may be causing victims among the very civilians that they say are being protected by these military operations.”

Boots on the Ground In Libya

We've seen Camp Lejuene marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and now they are joining the fight against Libya. 2200 marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or 26th MEU will take part. Their mission is to help end the violence directed at the Libyan people.

"In Libya right now they are doing exactly what we need them to do. They are doing what they are told and right now that's protecting Libyan people against Qadhafi forces," said Captain Timothy Patrick, a marine with the 26th MEU.

A press release from the 26th MEU reads, in part:

"Protecting the innocent and conducting combined operations are what we are designed to do, our forces are doing both as part of the U.S commitment to protect Libyan citizens."

Patrick says that marines from the 26th MEU are coming on the end of their deployment. They will be replaced with marines from the 22nd MEU.

From here.

More than 7 Journalists Missing in Libya

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, March 10, 2011 - At least seven journalists covering the conflict in Libya are unaccounted for, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which expressed deep concern today about their well-being. The most recent to go missing is Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, a correspondent for London's Guardian newspaper, whose disappearance was reported today.

Also, on Wednesday, three BBC journalists recounted a harrowing 21 hours in the custody of Libyan military and security forces this week, during which they were subjected to physical assault and psychological torment. The three, along with their driver, were detained at a checkpoint in Al-Zahra, south of the contested city of Zawiya.

"The abuse inflicted on international journalists raises serious concern about the welfare of Libyan journalists unaccounted for since the start of the conflict," said CPJ's Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "We call on Colonel Qaddafi's government to release all detained journalists immediately, and to allow the media to work freely."

Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi who is an award-winning war reporter, was last known to be on the outskirts of the coastal city of Zawiya, where there has been heavy fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi. "The Guardian has been in contact with Libyan government officials in Tripoli and London and requested them to act urgently to discover where he is, if he is safe and well, and to establish if he is in the custody of the authorities," the paper said in a story on its website today. Abdul-Ahad has reported from a number of conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Sudan. The Guardian said Abdul-Ahad was last in touch with the paper through a third party on Sunday.

Andrei Netto, a reporter for Brazil's O Estado de S. Paolo, was released today to the Brazilian ambassador in Tripoli after being jailed for eight days in the city of Sabrata, O Estado reported on its website. O Estado said Netto, who had been held by troops loyal to Qaddafi, was in good health but was told to leave Libya on Friday.

The whereabouts of at least six local journalists remained unclear today, CPJ research shows. Atef al-Atrash, a contributor to local news outlets, disappeared shortly after speaking on air on Al-Jazeera from Benghazi. Mohamed al-Sahim, a blogger and critical political writer; Mohamed al-Amin, a cartoonist; and Idris al-Mismar, a writer and former editor-in-chief of Arajin, a monthly culture magazine, have also been reported missing. Two Tripoli-based journalists - Salma al-Shaab, head of the Libyan Journalists Syndicate, and Suad al-Turabouls, a correspondent for the pro-government Al-Jamahiriya - were detained last month but are now unaccounted for.

Three BBC journalists - reporter Feras Killani, cameraman Goktay Koraltan, and producer Chris Cobb-Smith - were released on Tuesday after 21 hours of abuse that included beatings and mock executions, according to news reports. Killani told the BBC: "They were kicking and punching me, four or five men. I went down on to my knees. They attacked me as soon as I got out of the car. They knocked me down to the ground with their guns, AK47s. I was down on my knees and I heard them cocking their guns. I thought they were going to shoot me." He said he was later beaten severely and accused of being a spy. Cobb-Smith described a mock execution: "A man with a small submachine gun was putting it to the nape of everyone's neck in turn. He pointed the barrel at each of us. When he got to me at the end of the line, he pulled the trigger twice. The shots went past my ear." Cobb-Smith managed to place a call to the BBC with a phone that had not been discovered by security agents.

The International News Safety Institute issued a safety advisory today saying that journalists traveling to Zawiya are being obstructed. "Journalists have been detained at checkpoints on the edge of Zawiya and their equipment has been destroyed. Attempting to get in to Zawiya is extremely risky," the institute said on its website.

Since Libya's political unrest erupted last month, CPJ has documented at least 12 detentions, four assaults, two attacks on news facilities, the jamming of Al-Jazeera and Al-Hurra transmissions, and the interruption of Internet service. Numerous journalists have also reported the confiscation of equipment.

For more information:

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 7th Ave., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
USA
info (@) cpj.org
Phone: +1 212 465 1004
Fax: +1 212 465 9568
http://www.cpj.org/

Gadaffi is Killing Libyans Like He Kills Sheep

A Libyan woman called Rahma posted on the blog Alive in Libya. She describes her experience in Tripoli, in a suburb called Fashloom.

“[...] Fashloom is another suburb where there’s rioting and protesting, anti-government. And because of these riots, the cops as we speak are shooting live ammunition at them and grenades.”

In another post, a Libyan living in the US writes: “[Gadaffi] is killing Libyans like he kills sheep.[...] He paid African mercenaries for every person they kill”.

The Guardian and The Independent talk about a massacre... The Guardian interviewed an opposition writer who warns that Gaddafi will not leave without a bloodshed.

Meanwhile in the Arab press, most newspapers seem to agree on the fact that Gaddafi must resign.

According to Al Quods Al Arabi, the Libyan leader has no friends in the Arab world. The few friends he might have in the West are not likely to stick around, says the paper.

From here.

Libya Kicks Out UN Immigrant Relief Workers

8 June - Libya, a hotspot for migrants crossing the Sahara to reach Europe, today ordered the UN refugee agency UNHCR to close its office and halt activities. No reasons were given for the decision.

UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva that the agency was hoping the closure would be temporary and that negotiations to find a solution were continuing. However, she indicated that until the matter was resolved there would be difficulties in meeting vital refugee needs.

"We regret this decision as we believe UNHCR has a great deal of work to do in Libya to protect, assist and find durable solutions for the refugees there," Ms Fleming said. "This will leave a huge vacuum for the thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers who are there already and, of course, those who continue to arrive steadily on boats every week."

Libyan authorities have stated no reasons for their decision to the UN agency and have made no statements to the press on the issue.

But UNHCR, whose mandate includes protecting, assisting and finding durable solutions for refugees and asylum-seekers reaching Libya, has been a bothersome agency for authorities. The agency, in direct contact with migrants, has often voiced concern over the hard-handed treatment of asylum-seekers in Libya, and over authorities' desire to forcedly return migrants before their case has been proven.

Ms Fleming however did not want to speculate in the reasons for Libya's sudden decision to through out the UN agency. She however noted that the issue of the closure had taken on added meaning today amid news that a sinking boat carrying more than 20 people, mostly Eritreans, had been intercepted in the last minute by Libyan vessels inside Malta's search-and-rescue zone.

Also, "UNHCR had made Libya a country where resettlement programmes were being prioritised and was helping refugees to find new homes in other countries," Ms Fleming said. "Should UNHCR offices close, these resettlement programmes would have to cease," she added.

There are an estimated 9,000 refugees and about 3,700 asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Libya. The agency and its implementing partners provide healthcare, shelter, education and vocational training to the refugees and asylum-seekers.

The majority of the refugees are Palestinians, Iraqis, Sudanese, Somalis, Eritreans, Liberians and Ethiopians, the agency said. Most of the asylum-seekers came from Eritrea.

UNHCR runs the only asylum-seekers assistance programme in Libya and its departure would create a vacuum for the thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers already there, and those who continued to arrive every week, Ms Fleming said.

The UN refugee agency has worked in Libya since 1991 and currently has 26 staff members, the majority of them Libyan employees.

From here.