Pictured is a man claiming to hold what was reportedly once Qaddafi’s golden gun. The Guardian points to this image, available via AFP and Getty Images, that’s described as “Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters carry a young man holding what they claim to be the gold-plated gun of ousted Libyan leader.” A BBC correspondent reported earlier that the man found Qaddafi hiding, and the leader said to him: “Don’t Shoot.” Read more.
(Source: theatlantic)
This is what metal balls packed into rockets fired on #Misrata do to a steel door. Imagine human flesh. #Libya
Last week it came out that prosecutors with the International Criminal Court were seeking war crimes charges against some in the Libyan government, likely to include Col. Muammar Qaddafi. Last night, Al Arabiya confirmed that Qaddafi was indeed one of those the court wanted to charge. Prosecutors want to arrest him, along with his son Saif Al Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Al Senussi for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the news channel reported.
The three are to be charged with crimes including using rape as a weapon, shooting protestors, and “systemic arrests, torture, killings, deportations, enforced disappearances and destruction of mosques,” Al Jazeera reported last week.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime has a matter days before it falls, Al-Hayat reported, citing Major Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former member of Libya’s revolutionary command council who resigned as the country’s ambassador to the Arab League on Feb. 20.
Houni told the Saudi-owned newspaper that Imam Moussa al- Sadr, chairman of Lebanon’s Shiite Islamic Council, who went missing on a visit to Libya in August 1978, was killed and buried in the Sabha region in the southern part of the north African country. Houni said his brother-in-law, who was the pilot of Qaddafi’s private plane, was tasked with transporting Sadr’s to Sabha and was killed himself shortly after doing so to keep the crime secret.
Lebanon’s examining magistrate issued a summons in 2008 for Qaddafi to appear for questioning about Sadr. Relations between Libya and Lebanon were strained by the disappearance of the cleric and two of his aides. Libya has always maintained that Sadr left the country to Italy.
I wish more outlets were covering this - Bloomberg is the only non-Iranian or Lebanese source I could find.
Brief background: al-Sadr, an Iranian, helped found the Shi’a group Amal in Lebanon. Amal played a key role in that country’s 1975-90 civil war. In 2008, Lebanon indicted Gadaffi over al-Sadr’s disappearance. Al-Sadr’s niece is married to former Iranian president Mohamed Khatami, and Iraqi resistance leader Moqtada al-Sadr is his cousin.
I’m currently fascinated and, honestly, frightened by Muammar Gaddafi’s speech to Libya right now, which has been going on for more than hour.
He’s essentially promising to shoot any people that protest his regime in order to maintain his position. He blames everything that’s happening in Libya on Israel, the United States and other foreign entities.
Al-Jazeera is picking and choosing what it wants to translate, leaving out the most inflammatory statements, specifically what I mention in the previous paragraph.
For background on Libya, read this from Mother Jones.
For what the United States and other nations can/should do, read this from Foreign Policy’s Marc Lynch.
MUAMMAR al-QADDAFI
Claustrophobia (Fear of enclosed spaces)
Reason for fear: The Libyan leader is reportedlyextremely uncomfortable in confined spaces and prefers staying outdoors in Bedouin-style tents rather than hotels when he travels. This preference has flummoxed protocol offices the world over, notably in Paris, where Qaddafi pitched his tent for a week in 2007. While attending the 2009 U.N. General Assembly meeting, Qaddafi tried without success to set up his tent at three different locations in the New York area, including land owned by Donald Trump. Qaddafi was eventually forced to rough it at the Libyan Embassy.
I like facts. I share random crap from the interweb. Sometimes it's pop culture related, quite often it's political. Most times I just find it amusing. Oh, and space. I love space.
I source everything I can; it's just rude to not.
If you don't source something that I want to reblog, I will add it for you. You're welcome.
