China and some others have been pushing for a strong United Nations role in Libya, presumably in an attempt to forestall a continuation of the NATO mission in that country or the placing of European troops on the ground. Not just China, but everyone should be concerned that the NATO air intervention, which is likely […]
Archives for August 2011
Qaddafi reportedly South of Tripoli as Algeria offers Family Members Safe Passage
An Italian news service, Ansa, reported Monday that Muammar Qaddafi, his eldest son Saif, and another son, Saadi (a military commander during the failed attempt to put down the uprising) are hiding in Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli. Saif, the de facto ruler of Libya in recent years, had been reported taken prisoner (a report […]
Lockerbie Bomber in Coma in Tripoli, as retreating Qaddafi Troops use Human Shields
CNN’s intrepid Nic Robertson gets the scoop. He discovered that Abdel Basit Ali Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, is in a coma in a villa in Tripoli. Megrahi suffers from prostate cancer. Megrahi was freed by UK authorities on health grounds, but there had been reports that he may have been in remission, producing some […]
Rebels Consolidate Control over Tripoli as Qaddafi’s Mass Killings Discovered
The systematic war crimes of the Qaddafi regime continue to be uncovered, with the discovery Saturday in Tripoli of the charred remains of nearly 60 bodies in a warehouse. The victims had been prisoners of the regime, among some 150 who have disappeared, nearly a hundred of them probably hastily buried. But these 58 bodies […]
Fall of Tripoli Echoes Loudly in Damascus
Protesters in Syria have cheered on the revolutionaries in Libya, and the fall of Tripoli to a popular uprising last Saturday and Sunday gave new heart to the Syrian reform movement. So far the Syrian demonstrators have been hampered by relative lack of support in the capital of Damascus itself. Damascus is controlled by the […]
Hurricanes and Global Warming
With the approach of Hurricane Irene, climate activists are reminding us that more intensive hurricanes are produced by warmer water, so that global warming over time will increase the severity and frequency of storms. This is true, and it is frightening. Some climate scientists even think we need a “level 6” category for new, fiercer […]
Iraq Adopts Iran’s Backing of Assad
Interview with me, mirrored from The United States Institute of Peace Iran Primer. Q. What impact will the call by the United States and major European powers for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down–followed by heightened U.S. and EU sanctions–have on Syria-Iran relations? Cole: They will push Syria even more into the arms of […]
How to Avoid Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Libya
The illegal American invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation was so epochal a catastrophe that it spawned a negative phrase in Arabic, “to Iraqize” or `arqana. Tonight I heard an Alarabiya anchor ask a spokesman for the new government in Libya whether there as a danger of the country being “Iraqized.” He was taken aback […]
TV, Twitter, Facebook and the Libyan Revolution
The USG Open Source Center summarizes what is known about television and social media penetration in Libya (see below). Television is light years more important than the internet. Almost everyone has access to television, while only 5.4% have internet (and of course Qaddafi cut off the internet for the past few months). All those wonderful […]
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