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23 May 2011 14:27

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World: Captured Gaddafi soldier claims campaign of rape in Misrata

  • …we shot every one of them in the leg. … Then the officers took the girls upstairs, and we were told to go on the roof [to keep guard] until the officers had finished the rape and then we were told to rape the girls too.
  • A 17-year-old member of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, currently in opposition custody • Describing what he saw as a soldier. Andrew Harding of the BBC News, who wrote this article, makes the point that he isn’t positive whether the young man was telling the truth, considering the vested interest opposition forces might have in coercing him to portray his former colleagues in the worst possible light. That said, his remarks about what’s been happening in Misrata (through an interpreter) are harrowing. He describes being instructed to rape women, on threat of being beaten if they refused. He admits to committing a rape himself, and claims to have received about $8 reward for it. It’s a gruesome read, but worthy of being informed about. These are hardly the first reports of rape to come out of Libya in the midst of its civil war, but this new suggestion takes the brutality to new, horrible levels. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2011 16:41

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World: Syria’s Assad vows no firing on protests

  • So, would you trust this guy? That’s the question facing members of the Syrian opposition. Syria has been a hellish place for those protesting the Bashar al-Assad government of late, as live rounds have been fired into protests, many have been captured (and, given the human rights record there, almost certainly tortured), and even army soldiers who’ve refused to unload on civilians have been shot dead by the state police. Now, however, the opposition says that Assad has vowed there won’t be such attacks made on a planned protest on Friday. Forgive us if we’re skeptical, but Assad’s brutality is a cat that was let out of the bag a long time ago. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 May 2011 16:40

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World: Libyan opposition forces seize Misrata airport

  • None of Gaddafi’s soldiers found: Today was a strong day for the Libyan opposition, which seized the airport in Misrata, the city that has seen the big share of bloody fighting this last month. Misrata is a tactically important city for the opposition, lying closer to the capitol of Tripoli than does their eastern stronghold, Benghazi. It’s basically been the front line of this civil war, but with reports in recent days of NATO bombings aimed at Gaddafi’s Tripoli compound, could opposition forces gain some ground? source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2011 16:53

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World: Pentagon proposal for Libya aid awaits Obama’s approval

  • $25 million in proposed non-lethal aid to Libyan rebels source
  • » The Pentagon’s plan awaits President Obama’s approval. That said, $25 million is a relatively very minor cost to the U.S. in the context of a military action. It would, however, explicitly not go towards arming the rebels with western weaponry, but would rather send vehicles, supplies, medicines, and radios. The Gaddafi government threatened that such supply shipments would extend the bloody battles and “encourage the other side to be more defiant,” which is a pretty difficult quote to read with feeling unbearably angry.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2011 14:33

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World: Wikileaks: U.S. has financial hand in Syria’s opposition

  • $6 million in secret U.S. funding to Syrian opposition causes source
  • » Wikileaks strikes again: Cables released by the organization say that after the Bush administration’s severing of diplomatic ties with the Syrian regime in 2005, the U.S. had funnelled money to groups hostile to the Bashar al-Assad government. About $6 million went to a group of Syrian exiles in London with connections to Barada TV, a satellite station that beams into Syria and provides coverage of the protests against Assad. The funding began in 2006, and continued at least until September 2010, meaning the Obama administration’s diplomatic overtures to the Assad regime weren’t very sincere — frankly, this makes us feel a little better about U.S. policy towards them. Be sure to notch another tally for Wikileaks, exposing yet more profoundly relevant, enthralling information about our geopolitical world.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Apr 2011 16:56

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World: Nigerian Presidential election goes to Goodluck Jonathan

  • Goodluck Jonathan wins in Nigeria: So says Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, but his political opposition has claimed intimidation, ballot stuffing, and the like. Project 2011 Swift Count, a Nigerian election observer, sought to rebut that claim — while they acknowledged that violence, intimidation and illegal voting took place in isolated incidents, they say their reports from a random group of 1,468 polling stations suggest this didn’t change the eventual outcome. Nonetheless, many Nigerians have been hurt in an outbreak of election day riots, a grim and depressing reality to be sure. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 1 Comment • Permalink

10 Mar 2011 13:53

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World: Libyan opposition continues to gain international legitimacy

  • YES Hillary Clinton will meet with Libya’s opposition source
  • » On France’s heels, the U.S. bolsters legitimacy: The Secretary of State plans on meeting with the head of the opposition council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, a former justice minister who resigned when Muammar Gaddafi’s violent reaction began tearing throughout Libya in February.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Mar 2011 10:04

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U.S.: Libya: Gaddafi’s forces unable to overtake opposition stronghold

  • plan In an attempt to regain ground lost during the recent protests, Muammar Gaddafi’s forces attempted to overtake the opposition-held Zawiyah, which is 30 miles from Tripoli.
  • failure Gaddafi’s forces were unable to do so, however – but the other side didn’t really gain any ground, either. The forces attacked from six directions, but didn’t succeed with any of them, really. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Feb 2011 21:52

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World: Libyan opposition figure Abdel Fattah Younes: Gaddafi will likely die

  • Gaddafi will either commit suicide, which is unlikely as suicide is a sin in Islam; or he may go out for others to kill him – he and his rifle in a bloody and fatal confrontation against a huge force. However under such difficult situations, human behaviour cannot be predicted. The second scenario is 90% likely to happen.
  • Former Libyan official (and current opposition supporter) Abdel Fattah Younes • Explaining, in an article for Al Jazeera English, what he thinks will happen to his former boss, Muammar Gaddafi. Younes, the former interior minister and head of Special Forces, says he quit partly because the “victims were too many for no justification.” Read everything he wrote. It’s really good. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Feb 2011 12:36

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World: Media reports from Libya still scarce, but here’s a little footage

  • “Gaddafi Get Out”: The crackdown in Libya has made it part perilous, part impossible to get proper media coverage of the event. That being so, any time there’s a chance to see footage, shouldn’t we take it? These images are, after all, the only visually evocative way to inform our international consciences, which in matters of decades-long strongman rulers likely should be more burdened. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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