The Middle East Uprisings: video, links, and more

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Originally Posted by Nesagwa

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70961

Apparently there is a country called Gabon and they are also having a revolt? Go figure.

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Gabon is a fascinating place.

It is the only source of a rare entheogen called Ibogaine which has the single best track record of curing addictions (alcohol, cocaine, opiates, LSD, amphetamines) of any substance ever found on the planet.

Every country that studied it, England/USA/Switzerland reached the same conclusions and decided to make the treatment illegal, presumably because it is too effective.

Ibogaine is available in Canada ONLY, and is still extremely effective.

The book, Breaking Open the Head is a study this and other substances.

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Daughter of Gaddafi was on plane circling Malta, according to government source in Malta. Ran out of fuel, returned to Libya : Al-Jazeera

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Malta's authorities refused permission to land.

Is Gadafi dead yet?

Any news from Bahrain?

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Originally Posted by Lagduf

Is Gadafi dead yet?

Any news from Bahrain?

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No.

The Bahrani King has legalized protests, rescinded the civil order which led to the previous massacre in Pearl Roundabout, and entered into talks with opposition groups.

I knew Gadafi wasn't dead but it was just wishful thinking on my part :emb:

Gaddafi's latest statements (an hour ago) came by phone, classic rambling --he's now blaming Al Qaeda and Bin Laden and telling mothers to get their kids off the streets and blaming some diabolical drugging system too.

Needless to say, more people are defecting from him.


There's still fighting going on everywhere.

The (former) Libyan Justice minister just issued a warning that Kahdafi is in possession of biological weapons and may use them on civilians if cornered.

Edit: I just remembered that he also has old Soviet-style Scud-B TBM (Tactical Ballistic Missie 190mi/300km range) delivery systems which can hit targets in the North-West quarter of the country from Tripoli (or conceivably anywhere in the country... if they can manage to drive the launchers close enough).

Moroccan single mother burns herself in protest

I heard on NPR that military officers who defected from the Libyan regime are training civilians how to fight and use various weapons in the east of the country. I fear the violence will escalate.

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Originally Posted by NeoTheranthrope

The (former) Libyan Justice minister just issued a warning that Kahdafi is in possession of biological weapons and may use them on civilians if cornered.

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Well, the whole country outside of Tripoli is outside of his control at this point, so hopefully not.

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Originally Posted by Nesagwa

Well, the whole country outside of Tripoli is outside of his control at this point, so hopefully not.

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He has Scud-Bs (he tried to replace them with longer-ranged and more accurate British or American missile systems before the British Foreign-relation office, thankfully, nixed the deal)

SAUDI ARABIA (?)

Germany has sent 2 frigates and 1 support ship to the coast of Libya. Italy has also sent a destroyer, an amphibious transport and an aircraft carrier. They will be doing nothing at the moment until the UN finds some sort of "legal" reason to enter the country.

On top of that:

""We know what to expect when the Libyan national system falls," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday, according to the UK Telegraph. "A wave of 200,000 to 300,000 immigrants."

"These are estimates, and on the low side," he added. "It is a Biblical exodus. It's a problem that no Italian should underestimate."

...

Ironically the head of Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League party, Umberto Bossi, made similar statements. "If they come, we will just send them to France and Germany," he said according to the Telegraph.
"

So it seems like these ships may just be blocking refuges from entering the EU rather than helping anyone. (Reminds me of the worlds treatment of Jewish refugees from Germany in the late 30s.)

Also seeing reports that the death toll is closer to 3000+.

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Originally Posted by Nesagwa

Germany has sent 2 frigates and 1 support ship to the coast of Libya. Italy has also sent a destroyer, an amphibious transport and an aircraft carrier. They will be doing nothing at the moment until the UN finds some sort of "legal" reason to enter the country.

On top of that:

""We know what to expect when the Libyan national system falls," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday, according to the UK Telegraph. "A wave of 200,000 to 300,000 immigrants."

"These are estimates, and on the low side," he added. "It is a Biblical exodus. It's a problem that no Italian should underestimate."

...

Ironically the head of Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League party, Umberto Bossi, made similar statements. "If they come, we will just send them to France and Germany," he said according to the Telegraph.
"

So it seems like these ships may just be blocking refuges from entering the EU rather than helping anyone. (Reminds me of the worlds treatment of Jewish refugees from Germany in the late 30s.)

Also seeing reports that the death toll is closer to 3000+.

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:(

More on the relationship between Italy and Libya, with a focus on the arms trade.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/i...otests-weapons

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Originally Posted by NeoTheranthrope

SAUDI ARABIA (?)

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That's one country where I would not be very optimistic about any replacement...

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Originally Posted by Popcorn Sutton

More on the relationship between Italy and Libya, with a focus on the arms trade.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/i...otests-weapons

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Maybe after Gaddafi is overthrown the Italians will send the alleged rapist Berlusconi to jail next :)

The West unilaterally needs to drop all support of scumbags like Gaddafi.

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Originally Posted by Lagduf

Maybe after Gaddafi is overthrown the Italians will send the alleged rapist Berlusconi to jail next :)

The West unilaterally needs to drop all support of scumbags like Gaddafi.

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Qaddafi and Berlusconi out of the picture... then who do I have left to make fun of at cocktail parties? Putin and Kim?

We are living in depressing times.

You'll have to resort to picking on West African dictators dude.

There's always China to make fun of.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...zi?ft=1&f=1001

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At an Army base there, she says, "hundreds of people have converged on this place and they say that they are shocked by what they found. In one case they found an underground prison where 50 people were being held. And they are now digging, frantically, trying to find mass graves."

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Also:

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According to the reports, Saif al-Arab, Gaddafi's youngest son, who was sent by his father to cooperate with Libyan security forces in the massive crackdown on pro-democracy protesters joined forces with the demonstrators in the eastern city of Benghazi on Thursday.

Saif al-Arab, who is widely regarded as the most low-profile of Gaddafi's sons have also hinted that his father would commit suicide or flee to Latin America in the face of rising public outcry over his tyrannical rule.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

Gudafi is now trying to bribe citizens to make them stop protesting. Kind of working backwards here. Offer the money before you kill 3,000+ of your own people with mercenaries, not after.

EDIT: How many different ways are there to spell this guys name? At least 10.

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Originally Posted by Nesagwa

EDIT: How many different ways are there to spell this guys name? At least 10.

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...and they are all correct.

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/20...family-palace/

And then this happened.

Free Libya!

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Originally Posted by Lagduf

Free Libya!

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Who do you want to do it? Not us, I hope.

There are accounts of military police coming out to crackdown on protesters at Tahrir Square.

http://www.arabawy.org/2011/02/26/army-fuckers/

Military showing its true face.

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Originally Posted by SouthtownKid

Who do you want to do it? Not us, I hope.

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LOL, I'm shocked and dismayed you'd even suggest that.

Although it would just take a single CIA drone with a hellfire missile to take out Gadaffi...:emb:

The people of Libya will soon overthrow Gadaffi - it's just a matter of time.

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Originally Posted by Lagduf

Although it would just take a single CIA drone with a hellfire missile to take out Gadaffi...:emb:

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Why don't we just send a missile into his other son's tent. Last time we did that he shut up for a few decades.

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Originally Posted by Lagduf

The people of Libya will soon overthrow Gadaffi - it's just a matter of time.

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That is far from being a certainty. Never underestimate the interests of big business, and the normalizing [diplomatic] language of the Western superpowers that want to raid resources for their own.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...es+-+Europe%29

Bump.

And people looked at me weird when I said that the Muslim Brotherhood wasn't the real threat and to keep an eye on the military.

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Originally Posted by Nesagwa

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...es+-+Europe%29

Bump.

And people looked at me weird when I said that the Muslim Brotherhood wasn't the real threat and to keep an eye on the military.

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People look at you weird, but it's not for that...



Busy weekend, I gotta do some updates later today or tomorrow. Add Oman, and expand Morocco and Iraq.

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Originally Posted by bokmeow

That is far from being a certainty. Never underestimate the interests of big business, and the normalizing [diplomatic] language of the Western superpowers that want to raid resources for their own.

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Believe in something other than cynicism for once.

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Originally Posted by Nesagwa

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...es+-+Europe%29

Bump.

And people looked at me weird when I said that the Muslim Brotherhood wasn't the real threat and to keep an eye on the military.

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I think the people giving you funny looks were morons.

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Originally Posted by Lagduf

Believe in something other than cynicism for once.



I think the people giving you funny looks were morons.

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It's not cynicism — it's being realistic.

Businesses spent so much money and political capital to get Libya's resources and contracts, and they won't give it up easily.

Now that the UN has voted for sanction, and including a rare US vote, it might really be just a matter of time for Gaddafi.

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Originally Posted by bokmeow

It's not cynicism — it's being realistic.

Businesses spent so much money and political capital to get Libya's resources and contracts, and they won't give it up easily.

Now that the UN has voted for sanction, and including a rare US vote, it might really be just a matter of time for Gaddafi.

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I really do think Gaddafi's time is drawing to an end - it sounds like the people are willing to fight to overthrow him. If the country descended in to a bloody war it would only be a matter of time before he was killed - now the outcome of said conflict might not be pretty and I hope it doesn't come to that.

I don't think the business interests can realistically work with a dictator who has had the army shoot on his own people and possible use airstrikes against them. The home countries of those business wouldn't stand for it, especially given the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

I could be wrong, of course, I'm just hoping for some change over in that part of the world.

Despite my recent inattention, Libya is still quite hot:

Gahdafi is still alive and getting crazier and more murderous by the minute...

He's holed in Tripoli with his loyal supporters and fellow tribe-members/family in a a pro-government "zone" in the North-West part of the country. However, most of the rest of country, included the heavily-populated East, and oil-producing South, are in pro-democratic/anti-Gahdafi hands.

There's still shelling and half-assed airstrikes, and on the ground, he's sending a counter-offensive of loyalist death-squads into nearby towns and cities not under his direct control to do their bloody work, but the pro-democratic/anti-Gahdafi forces are putting up fierce resistance.

The U.S. and U.K. are talking about drafting a UN resolution to establish a no-fly-zone to stop those airstrikes, and the U.K. is even talking about preemptively establishing a no-fly-zone without waiting for the slow-ass UN to act.

hmmmmm... Two U.S. amphibious assault ships have reached the Mediterranean

Amateur video of anti-Gahdafi forces engaging pro-government forces near Brega in North-Western Libya, near the border with Tunisia on the Mediterranean (apologies for it being shitty, buggy, Facebook video, though)

That battle is a good example of why there's an American 2nd amendment: it isn't for hunting, it isn't for self/home-defense, and it isn't of recreational shooting, it's for THIS.

Granted, the pro-democracy/anti-Gahdafi partisans aren't holding off the 101st Airborne or U.S. Marines, just Sub-Saharan mercs and a mixed bunch of Pro-Gahdaffi Army and Pro-Government partisans yahoos, but they managed to protect their town and prevent further atrocities by being a hard-enough target to deter attackers operating under orders of a tyrant.

ok WTF is going on

spin let's pose as mercs, gain whacky qadaffi's trust, then blow him up

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Originally Posted by SPINMASTER X

ok WTF is going on

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What's happening is that Israel has been exposed as what it's always been -- a belligerent state entity.

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Originally Posted by LoneSage

spin let's pose as mercs, gain whacky qadaffi's trust, then blow him up

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Call up Merc and I'll meet you there at the pub behind bakalakadaka street.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...P1010489sm.jpg

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Originally Posted by NeoTheranthrope

Amateur video of anti-Gahdafi forces engaging pro-government forces near Brega in North-Western Libya, near the border with Tunisia on the Mediterranean (apologies for it being shitty, buggy, Facebook video, though)

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:buttrock::buttrock::buttrock:

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Originally Posted by NeoTheranthrope

That battle is a good example of why there's an American 2nd amendment: it isn't for hunting, it isn't for self/home-defense, and it isn't of recreational shooting, it's for THIS.

Granted, the pro-democracy/anti-Gahdafi partisans aren't holding off the 101st Airborne or U.S. Marines, just Sub-Saharan mercs and a mixed bunch of Pro-Gahdaffi Army and Pro-Government partisans yahoos, but they managed to protect their town and prevent further atrocities by being a hard-enough target to deter attackers operating under orders of a tyrant.

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:buttrock::buttrock::buttrock:

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Originally Posted by SPINMASTER X

ok WTF is going on

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...JewsPoster.jpg

I call bullshit. If it were up to proper Israeli soldiers/mercs the whole mess would have been over and done with in 8 days.

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Originally Posted by SPINMASTER X

ok WTF is going on

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Originally Posted by bokmeow

What's happening is that Israel has been exposed as what it's always been -- a belligerent state entity.

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Israeli company, not Israeli government.

EDIT: Isn't PressTV sponsored by the Iranian government?

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Originally Posted by OMFG

Israeli company, not Israeli government.

EDIT: Isn't PressTV sponsored by the Iranian government?

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Sorry, but the Israeli company would not do this without tacit support from the Israeli government.

Israel has such a problem with its high dropout rate — and suicide rate — in the military service, much of its occupation apparatus in the oPT are manned in a mixture of IDF + mercenaries aka military contractor.

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Originally Posted by NeoTheranthrope

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...JewsPoster.jpg

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It's easy enough to for people to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism without your help.

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Originally Posted by StickmanLoser

It's easy enough to for people to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism without your help.

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What conflation?!
It's not like anyone one genuinely gives a shit about Palestinians (Like how everyone gave a shit about Turks/Armenians, Sunnis/Kurds, Tutsis/Hutus, or Serbs/Croats, Russians/Chechinans, ect, ect... *), they are a mere idealogical proxy for the fashionable modern anti-Semite.

At the moment (hopefully that will change in the near-future), there is exactly ONE Western Democracy in the middle-east, which also happens to be the one non-Islamist state in the region, which has been tuned into equal-parts whipping-boy (by countries which by-no-means are without sin) and boogie-man ("Submit to my dictatorial rule or the evil jews will eat you!" or, alternatively; "Enforce the strictest interpretations of Sharia law or the evil jews will eat you!") BECAUSE it is a (mostly**) Jewish state.

*Palestinians and Tibetans are somehow super-special exceptions, although Tibetans aren't launching rockets at schools and blowing up buses full of Han Chinese children...

**There ARE Muslim Israeli Arabs, who enjoy greater religious, political, and personal freedom than fellow Muslim Arabs contemporaries in neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Heh.

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Originally Posted by NeoTheranthrope

What conflation?!
It's not like anyone one genuinely gives a shit about Palestinians (Like how everyone gave a shit about Turks/Armenians, Sunnis/Kurds, Tutsis/Hutus, or Serbs/Croats, Russians/Chechinans, ect, ect...), they are a mere idealogical proxy for the fashionable modern anti-Semite.

At the moment (hopefully that will change in the near-future), there is exactly ONE Western Democracy in the middle-east, which also happens to be the one non-Islamist state in the region, which has been tuned into equal-parts whipping-boy (by countries which are by-no-means are without sin) and boogie-man ("Submit to my dictatorial rule or the evil jews will eat you!" or, alternatively; "Enforce the strictest interpretations of Sharia law or the evil jews will eat you!") BECAUSE it is a (mostly*) Jewish state.


*There ARE Muslim Israeli Arabs, who enjoy greater religious, political, and personal freedom than fellow Muslim Arabs contemporaries in neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Heh.

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Like it or not Israel is basically a theocratic apartheid state. Only it's okay because they aren't Muslim.