What is Madman of Tripoli's fate?

[seemslikeadream]

This is be nice to madmen week

No, SLAD: it's got fuck-all to do with "being nice". It's about neither gloating nor acting all maturely-realpolitisch when TV treats us to the Spectacle of a helpless, wounded, terrified, solitary human being murdered disgustingly.

he was responsible for his destiny

[MacCruiskeen]

Shite.

And shame on you.

[seemslikeadream]

Shite.

And shame on you.

we are all responsible for our destiny

I accept no shame...especially from you

[MacCruiskeen]

"Especially"!

we are all responsible for our destiny

Well, that'll be news to Sophocles: we're responsible for what's bound to happen to us

Not to mention Patrice Lumumba, Rosa Luxemburg, Martin Luther King, Roger Casement, and the dead of Auschwitz, the Somme, Guernica, Columbine High, and the Belgian Congo. To name but a few - very, very few. (Presumably those infants in Dunblane were also "responsible for their own destiny".)

History is a nightmare you're trying to stay asleep in. You sound like Ayn Rand.

[seemslikeadream]

ICC orders Col Gaddafi’s arrest for crimes against humanity
On June 27, 2011 · In News

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

The court had accused him of crimes against humanity and of ordering attacks on civilians after an uprising against him began in mid-February.

The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi’s top aides – his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict.

ICC presiding judge Sanji Monageng said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Col Gaddafi and his son were “criminally responsible as indirect co-perpetrators” for the persecution and murder of civilians in Libya.

The warrants had been requested by chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May, who said the three men bore responsibility for “widespread and systematic attacks” on civilians.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said the court had evidence that Col Gaddafi had “personally ordered attacks on unarmed Libyan civilians and was behind the arrest and torture of his political opponents.

The Libyan authorities have previously said they do not recognise the court and were not concerned by the threat of a warrant.

On Sunday, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the court was overly preoccupied with pursuing African leaders and had “no legitimacy whatsoever”.

The arrest warrant was welcomed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said it further demonstrated “why Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy and why he should go immediately”.

Mr Hague called on people within the Libyan regime to abandon Gaddafi and said those responsible for “atrocities” must be held to account.

Gaddafi co-accused

Along with Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, his son, Saif al-Islam, and brother-in-law, Abdullah al-Sanussi, head of Libya’s intelligence services, are accused.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi – the second of Col Gaddafi’s nine children – has had a far more prominent role in the Libyan political scene than his brothers or sisters.

Well-educated and a fluent English speaker, Saif al-Islam was previously viewed by the West as the reform-minded face of the Gaddafi regime.

The 38-year-old holds an MBA from Vienna University and in 2008, received a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE).

He also runs the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation.

Some saw him as his father’s most-likely successor, a suggestion he played down.

He owns a house in London and has had links to British political figures as well as the royal family. He has met the Duke of York many times and is said to have visited both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

But his ties to Britain went under the microscope after the crackdown on Libya’s protests when they broke out in February.

In March, LSE director Howard Davies resigned from his post after facing criticism for accepting donations from Saif al-Islam’s foundation.

The university is also investigating the authenticity of Saif al-Islam’s PhD thesis, which focused on good governance and civil society.

Despite his musings on democracy, Saif al-Islam appears to have sided with his father over the need to quash protests in Libya and the armed rebel groups which have emerged from them.

Shortly after the uprising began, he described protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi as “drunkards and thugs” and warned of civil war.

Abdullah al-Sanussi

Intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi, who is married to the sister of Col Gaddafi’s wife, is one of the veteran leader’s most trusted aides.

A prominent figure in Libya, Brig Gen Sanussi held various roles during Gaddafi’s tenure, including deputy chief of the external security organisation.

He is also said to be a close adviser to Saif al-Islam, according to leaked US embassy documents.

He has been accused in the past of human rights abuses, including his implication in the massacre in 1996 of more than 1,000 inmates at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli.

He has been unable to travel abroad since he was convicted in absentia in 1999 by France for his role in the bombing a year earlier of a French UTA passenger plane.

The plane blew up over the West African country of Niger, killing 170 people.

He was already on a US treasury department blacklist of senior Libyan officials whose assets can be frozen if they are found inside US jurisdiction.

He is also said to have extensive business interests, like other members of Libya’s political elite.

Since the Libyan revolt broke out, Brig Gen Sanussi has been accused of ordering the killing of protesters and recruiting foreign mercenaries fighting for Col Gaddafi.

Some media reports initially suggested he was planning to defect, joining the former foreign minister Moussa Koussa, but the claims were soon denied.

From BBC

[82_28]

My good buddy Tim Boucher emailed me this just now:

The photo on this one is super sad:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44970708/ ... deep-debt/

And the caption to the big photo here strikes me as somehow tragic:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ariah.html

That even in death, we're not allowed to let the man have his "self-awarded medals"...

It strikes me that these two stories are linked: the symbolic hunting and killing of the "wild animal" to restore order.

Thompson, 62, unleashed them from his private Muskingum County Animal Farm near Zanesville, then shot himself. Authorities had to hunt down and kill or capture the animals as they roamed the rural area, and only one monkey is unaccounted for.


Maybe that monkey is the last sane primate left in the world...

I've been outta the loop with my clopening shift and am catching up on all the bullshit today. Lady is in SF with the quake texting while I'm bartending, word on Gaddafi, the animals and my mom is in town etc. I'm a a bit overwhelmed. But, just thought I would share.

Must synthesize now. Ugh. . .

We used to drive through Zanesville every summer on our way to PA from CO along I-70 and even as a kid I associated
Zanesville with "zaniness" and "insanity". Strange how it all came to be this way. No other thoughts other than just the name of the town always conjured those impressions simply by their phonetic sounds, even as a young buck.

[MacCruiskeen]

Gaddafi was 'killed in crossfire'

Lying bastards.

Nato's governing body, meeting in the coming hours, is expected to declare an end to its Libyan bombing campaign.

Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that with the death of Col Gaddafi "that moment has now moved much closer".

"After 42 years, Col Gaddafi's rule of fear has finally come to an end," he said. "I call on all Libyans to put aside their differences and work together to build a brighter future."

Routine state-sanctioned murder is followed by dead language, inevitably. Death, deadliness, deadness everywhere. Rasmussen is a hypnotist. (There's nothing glamorous about it.)

This is why OWS is so wise to formulate no demands. This is also why they won't succeed without what is so shabbily and routinely called (in the language of the dead) violence (i.e., action).

[seemslikeadream]

"Especially"!

that's rich.... go to bat for a killler but don't let a misspell go unnoticed

[seemslikeadream]

Genocide Alert

Calls for German government to support action against Gaddafi
March 2011

Genocide Alert is an active ICRtoP member based in Koln, Germany, who has launched an email campaign directed at the German government (who has a seat on the Security Council) calling for action in Libya, modeled on its Sudan Alarm campaign.

In light of the recent events in Libya, Genocide Alert published a press release on 24 February requesting the German government to advocate for sanctions as well as a no-fly zone over Libya within the Security Council and the European Union. The press release can be found here (in German).

Two days later, Genocide Alert published an article on Libya and the international community's responsibility to protect civilians from mass atrocities committed by Muammar Gaddafi and his forces. The article can be found here (in German).

Genocide Alert further established a Libya email campaign to call on Chancellor Merkel and foreign minister Guido Westerwelle as well other relevant politicians in Germany to take more decisive action on Libya.

In the beginning of March 2011, Genocide Alert conducted an interview with Prof. Dr. Claus Kreß, eminent expert on international criminal law and member of the German delegations to the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC since 2003, on the situation in Libya and on the role of the ICC in general. Please find the interview (in German) here.

See Genocide Alert’s website

[MacCruiskeen]

"Especially"!

that's rich.... go to bat for a killler but don't let a misspell go unnoticed

You didn't misspell 'especially'. Check it out, and spare me your lazy smileys.

go to bat for a killler

Don't be silly. It's you who's going to bat for the brutal, despicable, NATO-enabled killers of the helpless former killer.

[seemslikeadream]

War Crimes in Libya
Libyan Rebel Tank Returns From Battle

Libyans first took to the streets to protest Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s autocratic rule in February 2011. His response was quick and brutal: attack protesters and target civilians in a deliberate campaign to quash dissent across the country. As Qaddafi troops closed in on the eastern city of Benghazi and threatened to decimate the population in March, the Arab League called for international intervention. Despite NATO’s subsequent air campaign to protect Libyan civilians, untold thousands suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of Qaddafi forces since the uprising began.

In June of 2011, PHR sent an investigative team to the coastal city of Misrata shortly after rebel forces liberated it. Witness to War Crimes: Evidence from Misrata, Libya (pdf) details the lives of ordinary citizens during a two-month siege and sheds light on Qaddafi’s systematic assault. In-depth interviews with 54 residents provided evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, rape, forced internment, and disappearance.

Charting a new course for the country in a post-Qaddafi era requires that perpetrators are brought to justice and held to account for their abuses. Individual accountability for crimes under the rule of law is the best guarantee for preventing future human rights violations and ending a cycle of violence.

>> Learn more about War Crimes in Libya, watch a slideshow, and view the timeline

Background: War Crimes in Libya
Libyan Doctor with Sniper Victim

In August 2011, the 42-year-long rule of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi came to a de facto end as rebel forces led by the Transitional National Council (TNC) and NATO air strikes overwhelmed remnant forces defending the Libyan dictator’s compound in Tripoli. Libyans first took to the streets to protest Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s autocratic rule in February 2011. His response was quick and brutal: attack protesters and target civilians in a deliberate campaign to quash dissent across the country. As Qaddafi troops closed in on the eastern city of Benghazi and threatened to decimate the population in March, the Arab League called for international intervention. Despite NATO’s subsequent air campaign to protect Libyan civilians, untold thousands have suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of Qaddafi forces since the uprising began.

PHR released a report documenting severe human rights violations committed by Qaddafi’s tyrannical regime, Witness to War Crimes: Evidence from Misrata, Libya (pdf). At the time of the release of this report the guns have not yet fallen silent and the whereabouts of Qaddafi and the circumstances of his family and supporters who were an integral part of his brutal regime remain unclear. Nevertheless, an intense debate is underway regarding Libya’s future political vision and leadership.

It is critical that civilian authorities led by the TNC assert full control over Libya and establish the rule of law to prevent further bloodshed, vigilante justice, looting, and violence. The international community must assist the newly emerging civilian authorities in providing basic services to the Libyan people as Libya develops a constitutional framework and mechanisms and builds civil society and institutions.

Such a difficult process can best succeed if Libya confronts without revenge the legacy of severe human rights violations committed by Qaddafi’s tyrannical regime. This effort must also examine reports of human rights violations committed by rebel forces and NATO. In the current absence of developed legal institutions, it is crucial that Libyan transitional authorities fully collaborate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has already issued arrest warrants for Qaddafi and others. The Libyan people must also develop a screening process that would keep human rights violators out of future positions of power. Prosecutions, vetting, and other necessary methods of accountability will guide the Libyan people as they choose how best to forge a secure and just social and political order in the aftermath of conflict.

This report documents some of the most severe human rights violations that must be addressed as a new civilian government emerges. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) gathered evidence of war crimes in Misrata, western Libya in June 2011, shortly after rebel forces liberated the coastal city. PHR focused its investigation on Misrata because it sustained a lengthy two-month siege and its residents reportedly suffered some of the most egregious abuses. PHR investigators conducted in-depth interviews with 54 residents of Misrata and its surrounding villages and uncovered evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, rape, forced internment, and disappearance. PHR’s report details the experiences of those ordinary citizens and sheds light on Qaddafi’s systematic assault on a besieged city. This report does not present evidence that either confirms or denies whether rebel and NATO forces may have committed war crimes.

Key findings of this report:

Four eyewitnesses reported that Qaddafi troops forcibly detained 107 civilians and used them as human shields to guard military munitions from NATO attacks south of Misrata. One father told PHR how Qaddafi soldiers forced his two young children to sit on a military tank, and threatened the family, “You’ll stay here, and if NATO attacks us, you’ll die too.” Qaddafi military reportedly shielded weapons in civilian areas including markets, mosques, and schools.
PHR inspected four medical facilities and interviewed 21 Libyan medical personnel. One volunteer ambulance driver detailed his own detention and torture, as well as witnessing the summary execution of a civilian. An orthopedic surgeon reported eight separate instances where ambulances marked with the emblematic Red Crescent were attacked while medics tried to reach injured combatants on the front line. Other health workers reported targeted attacks by Qaddafi troops against medical workers, facilities, and civilian patients.
Four eyewitnesses reported that Qaddafi forces demolished a home for the elderly and abducted its 36 resident disabled, elderly, and homeless civilians. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Official military orders provided to PHR present strong evidence that Qaddafi ordered his troops to starve civilian residents in Misrata. In addition to pillaging food stores, government forces blocked civilians from receiving humanitarian aid.
One witness reported that Qaddafi forces transformed an elementary school into a detention site where they reportedly raped women and girls as young as 14 years old. PHR also documented reports of honor killings that occurred in response to these rapes.
A 25-year-old villager recounted how Qaddafi soldiers detained him and other unarmed villagers in a semi-truck trailer, deprived them of food and water, and tortured them for days.

Witness to War Crimes concludes with policy recommendations for the Libyan Transitional National Council, the International Criminal Court, and the U.S. government.

Physicians for Human Rights also calls on the Obama Administration to support legislative efforts in the U.S. Congress, including the Medical Neutrality Protection Act of 2011, introduced by Representatives Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Walter Jones (R-NC), so that the U.S. may more effectively respond to violations of medical neutrality.

The rule of law must be the bedrock of a new and free Libya. As the Transitional National Council charts a new course for the country in a post-Qaddafi era, it must ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice and held to account for their abuses. Individual accountability for crimes under the rule of law is the best guarantee for preventing future human rights violations and ending a cycle of violence. The evidence of war crimes in this report is not merely for the historical record; it is for securing justice and accountability for all Libyans.

>> Read Witness to War Crimes: Evidence from Misrata, Libya (pdf)

>> Read the report's Executive Summary in Arabic - عربي (pdf)

>> Libya Conflict Timeline

[seemslikeadream]

Don't be silly. It's you who's going to bat for the brutal, despicable, NATO-enabled killers of the helpless former killer.

Where the fuck did I do that?


My thoughts were for his victims

[seemslikeadream]

He is responsible for his actions but by all means feel sorry for him it's your right as a human being to side with a murderer...he slept with murderers he dies by murderers

In Memory of the Criminal Gaddafi: Some of his atrocities against the people
Headline International Affairs Middle East — 20 October 2011

Though Muammar al-Gaddafi was as recently as early 2011 a friend of the West, co-operating with the British and Americans in particular on security issues as well as opening up the Libyan economy to corporate interests, (read all about that here), his list of crimes against opposition to his rule extending back decades are well known to the Libyan people well before his attempts to crush the uprisings in Benghazi. He is the latest in a list of Western allies to find themselves discarded onto the trash heap of history once their “allies” realised that their interests could no longer be served by them, joining Mubarak, Ben Ali and Saddam Hussein.

With the killing of Gaddafi confirmed by the head of the military council of Tripoli, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the following is a list of a few of the crimes well before the uprisings began that he was answerable to. Though he was answerable to all these before the current uprisings, his regime had become a reliable ally of the West who not only knew full well about his human rights abuses, but used his apparatus for their own means as well. These are just a few of his crimes, while the actual number and details of the full extent of his abuses are much more.



a. Thousands killed while in prison, either as a result of torture, or deliberate mass killing of prisoners due to their Islamic inclinations and opposition to the Gaddafi regime, most famously the massacre at Abu Salim prison in 1996. Mass graves thought to be holding more than 1000 of the victims have been uncovered since the downfall of the Gaddafi regime.

b. Co-operation with the United States and Britain in the torture and rendition of opposition figures, including current prominent figures of the opposition.

c. Public Executions of Civilians in the 1980′s, by way of example -

1 – Omar Ali Debub (teacher and the university students participated in the demonstrations in January 1976): executed by hanging on 6 April 1977 in front of the Socialist Union building in Benghazi
2 – Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Tayeb (teacher and the university students participated in the demonstrations in January 1976): executed by hanging on 6 April 1977 in front of the Socialist Union building in Benghazi
3 – Ahmed Fouad Fathallah (an Egyptian): executed by hanging on 6 April 1977 the port of Benghazi Sea
4 – Saleh Ali al-Zarouk Al-Nawal (teacher): April 1982 was executed in prison
5 – Mohammed Muhatthab Ihfaf (college student) (due to membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir): Hanged on April 7, 1983 in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tripoli
6 – Nimr Khaled Khamis (Palestinian teacher) (due to membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir): Executed by hanging in front of students on 7 April 1983 al-Fatih secondary school in Ajdabiyya
7 – Nasser Mohammad Sares (Palestinian teacher) – (due to membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir): Executed by hanging in front of students on 7 April 1983 al-Fatih secondary school in Ajdabiyya
8 – Ali Ahmed Awadallah (Palestinian teacher) – (due to membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir): Executed by hanging in front of students on 7 April 1983 al-Fatih secondary school in Ajdabiyya
9 – Hasan Bader Al Badi (Palestinian teacher) – (due to membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir): Executed by hanging in front of students on 7 April 1983 al-Fatih secondary school in Ajdabiyya
11 – Hassan Ahmad al-Kurdi (student) -(due to membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir): April 1984 was executed in prison

12 – Abdullah Abu al-Qasim Msallati (student) – (due to membership of Hizb ut Tahrir): April 1984 executed secretly in prison without trial
13 – Rashid Mansour Kaabar (college student) – it was claimed that he was from the followers of Sheikh Al-Bishti – executed by hanging on 16 April 1984 in Tripoli, Faculty of Pharmacy
14 – Hafidh al-Madani (college student): executed by hanging on 16 April 1984 at the Faculty of Agriculture
15 – Mustafa al-Nouweiri: executed by hanging on 21 April 1984 at the University of Benghazi

d. Assassinations carried out abroad in the 1980′s, by way of example:

1 – Mohamed Mustafa Ramadan (radio reporter, apparently due to his membership of Hizb ut Tahrir): 11 April 1980 he was assassinated outside the mosque after Friday prayers in London
2 – Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Nafi (lawyer): 21 April 1980, was assassinated in Britain
3 – Arif Abdul Jalil (businessman): 19 April 1980, was assassinated in Rome
4 – Abdul Latif alMuntasir (businessman): 21 April 1980, was assassinated in Beirut
5 – Gabriel Abdel Razek al-Dinaly (a police officer and a popular poet): 6 April 1985, was assassinated in Bonn, Germany

[Simulist]

I can speak only for myself, Seemslikeadream. But I am disgusted by all of this, in part, because it is so… Pavlovian.

Kill another human being, and the media-numbed masses salivate — because they've been trained to! And then they feel oh-so-righteous for executing not just a man, but the program they've been trained to execute in themselves.

And yeah: that is disgusting, small, and inhuman for everyone concerned.

(Do you even understand what I'm talking about?)

[Perelandra]

I think Mac has just been contemplating slad's sig line.