http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-02/russian-embassy-libya-attacked
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/02/2013 14:20 -0400
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/10/02/breaking-news-russian-embassy-building-sacked/#axzz2gbnCrcJJ
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Libya_in_anarchy_two_years_after_NATO_Humanitarian_Liberation/29277/0/0/0/Y/M.html
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/10/01/jordanian-hotelier-deny-government-has-settled-all-outstanding-hotel-bills/#axzz2gVqnJ42w
Russian Embassy In Libya Attacked
First it was the Americans. Now it is the Russians' turn. Al Arabiya reports (and Itar-Tass confirms) that "Gunmen attacked the Russian embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday, Al Arabiya correspondent reported. The sound of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard around the embassy, the correspondent added. No further details were immediately available." According to unverified reports on Twitter, the embassy had been evacuated before the attack (the Russian NSA appears to be more efficient than its US equivalent).
The Russian embassy in Tripoli:
The Russian embassy in Tripoli, Libya, has come under fire and there were attempts to get into Russia’s diplomatic compound, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.“There has been an incident in Tripoli tonight, in which there was shelling and attempts to enter the territory of the Russian Embassy in this country,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich told RT.According to preliminary information, there are no reports of injuries among the staff.Nearly two years after Gaddafi was deposed and killed, Tripoli and other Libyan cities have been plagued by violence, lawlessness and factional infighting.The presence of militiamen remains more visible than actual state security forces in the capital, while vast portions of the oil-producing desert country remain completely out of the central government’s control.
A possible photo from the scene of the attack.
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/10/02/breaking-news-russian-embassy-building-sacked/#axzz2gbnCrcJJ
Breaking news: Russian embassy building sacked
Ashraf Abdul Wahab
Tripoli, 2 October 2013:
The Russian embassy building in Dahra was attacked, looted and burnt this evening by a crowd of less than 100 demonstrators, some of whom were believed to be armed.
It is thought that the building was unoccupied at the time and there are no reports of any casualties. There was no diplomatic police presence outside the embassy building. A single police traffic patrol was in evidence further down the road but appeared to make no effort to intervene. If its officers issued a call for more support, none arrived.
It has been speculated that the attackers came from Suq Al-Jumah and were acting in response to the alleged murder of a senior revolutionary commander who had been shot by his Russian girlfriend or wife.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Libya_in_anarchy_two_years_after_NATO_Humanitarian_Liberation/29277/0/0/0/Y/M.html
Source: F. William Engdahl
In 2011 when Muhammar Qaddafi refused to leave quietly as ruler of Libya, the Obama Administration, hiding behind the skirts of the French, launched a ferocious bombing campaign and a “No Fly” zone over the country to aid the so-called fighters for democracy. The US lied to Russia and China with help of the (US-friendly) Gulf Cooperation Council about the Security Council Resolution on Libya and used it to illegally justify the war. The doctrine, “responsibility to protect” was used instead, the same doctrine Obama wants to use in Syria. It’s useful top look at Libya two years after the NATO humanitarian intervention.
Libya’s economy is dependent on oil. Just after the war, Western media hailed the fact the oil installations were not damaged by the population bombing and oil production was near normal at 1.4 million barrels/day (bpd). Then in July the armed guards hired by the government in Tripoli suddenly revolted and seized control of the eastern oil field terminals they were supposed to protect. There is where the vast bulk of Libya’s oil is produced, near Benghazi. It goes by pipeline to tankers on the Mediterranean for export.
In 2011 when Muhammar Qaddafi refused to leave quietly as ruler of Libya, the Obama Administration, hiding behind the skirts of the French, launched a ferocious bombing campaign and a “No Fly” zone over the country to aid the so-called fighters for democracy. The US lied to Russia and China with help of the (US-friendly) Gulf Cooperation Council about the Security Council Resolution on Libya and used it to illegally justify the war. The doctrine, “responsibility to protect” was used instead, the same doctrine Obama wants to use in Syria. It’s useful top look at Libya two years after the NATO humanitarian intervention.
Libya’s economy is dependent on oil. Just after the war, Western media hailed the fact the oil installations were not damaged by the population bombing and oil production was near normal at 1.4 million barrels/day (bpd). Then in July the armed guards hired by the government in Tripoli suddenly revolted and seized control of the eastern oil field terminals they were supposed to protect. There is where the vast bulk of Libya’s oil is produced, near Benghazi. It goes by pipeline to tankers on the Mediterranean for export.
When the government lost control of the terminals production and export fell sharply. Then another armed tribal group seized control of two oilfields in the south blocking oil flow to terminals on the northwest coast. The tribal occupiers demanded more pay and went on strike to demand pay and an end to corruption. The end result is today, early September Libya pumped a mere 150,000 barrels of its capacity of 1.6 million bpd. Exports have fallen to 80,000 barrels per day. [1]
Armed Militias vs Muslim Brotherhood
Libya is an artificial state like much of the Middle East and Africa, carved out in the colonial era of World War I by Italy. It is ruled by tribal consensus among numerous tribes. Qaddafi was chosen in a long process of voting by tribal elders that can take up to 15 years I was told by one expert. When he was murdered and his family hunted, NATO forced rule by a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated National Transitional Council (NTC).
Now in August a new Assembly was elected dominated again by the Brotherhood as in Morsi Egypt or Tunisia. Sounds nice on paper. The reality is that, by all accounts lawless bands, armed for the first time during the war with modern weapons, including foreign Al Qaeda and other jihadists are carrying out daily bombings across the country for local control. Tripoli itself has numerous armed gangs controlling sections of the capitol. It is turning into an armed battle between local tribal millitias that are forming and the Brotherthood that controls the central government. Leaders in the provinces of Cyrenaica and Fezzan are considering breaking away from Tripoli and rebel militias mobilizing across the country. [2]
Bombings in Tripoli are daily as lawlessness spreads
Nuri Abu Sahmain, Muslim Brotherhood President of the newly elected Congress has summoned militias allied to the Brotherhood to the capital to try to prevent a coup, in a move the opposition sees very much like a coup by the Brotherhood. The main opposition party, a center-right National Forces Alliance, as a result just deserted Congress together with several smaller ethnic parties, leaving the Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction party heading a government with crumbling authority. "Congress has basically collapsed," said one diplomat in Tripoli. [3] The Obama Administration has promoted a takeover across the Muslim world from Egypt to Tunisia to Syria by the secretive Muslim Brotherhood as part of its long-term strategy of controlling the Muslim Arc of Crisis from Afghanistan to Libya. As the Saudi-backed military coup against Brotherhood president Muhammed Morsi in Egypt in July showed, the Obama strategy has some problems.
Riots and lawlessness
With rising violence the Interior Minister Mohamed Khalifa al Sheikh resigned in August. Some 500 prisoners in Tripoli jail did a hunger strike to protest being held two years without charges. When the government ordered the Supreme Security Committee to restore order, they began shooting prisoners through the bars. In July 1200 prisoners escaped a jail after a riot in Benghazi. In short lawlessness and anarchy is spreading. [4]
Ethnic Berbers, whose militia led the assault on Tripoli in 2011, temporarily took over the parliament building in Tripoli. Because the US and NATO was adamant it wanted no “boots on the ground,” instead they freely gave arms to any and all rebels who would shoot at the Qaddafi government troops. Now they still have the guns and Libya was described to me by one French journalist who had recently been there as “the world’s largest open air arms bazaar,” where for cash anyone can buy any modern NATO weapon.
Foreigners have mostly fled Benghazi since the American ambassador was murdered in the US consulate by jihadi militiamen last September. And Libya’s military prosecutor Colonel Yussef Ali al-Asseifar, in charge of investigating assassinations of politicians, soldiers and journalists, was himself assassinated by a bomb in his car on 29 August. [5]
Prospects are grim as the lawlessness spreads. Sliman Qajam, a member of the parliamentary energy committee, toldBloomberg that “the government is running on its reserves. If the situation doesn’t improve, it won’t be able to pay salaries by the end of the year.”
Armed Militias vs Muslim Brotherhood
Libya is an artificial state like much of the Middle East and Africa, carved out in the colonial era of World War I by Italy. It is ruled by tribal consensus among numerous tribes. Qaddafi was chosen in a long process of voting by tribal elders that can take up to 15 years I was told by one expert. When he was murdered and his family hunted, NATO forced rule by a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated National Transitional Council (NTC).
Now in August a new Assembly was elected dominated again by the Brotherhood as in Morsi Egypt or Tunisia. Sounds nice on paper. The reality is that, by all accounts lawless bands, armed for the first time during the war with modern weapons, including foreign Al Qaeda and other jihadists are carrying out daily bombings across the country for local control. Tripoli itself has numerous armed gangs controlling sections of the capitol. It is turning into an armed battle between local tribal millitias that are forming and the Brotherthood that controls the central government. Leaders in the provinces of Cyrenaica and Fezzan are considering breaking away from Tripoli and rebel militias mobilizing across the country. [2]
Bombings in Tripoli are daily as lawlessness spreads
Nuri Abu Sahmain, Muslim Brotherhood President of the newly elected Congress has summoned militias allied to the Brotherhood to the capital to try to prevent a coup, in a move the opposition sees very much like a coup by the Brotherhood. The main opposition party, a center-right National Forces Alliance, as a result just deserted Congress together with several smaller ethnic parties, leaving the Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction party heading a government with crumbling authority. "Congress has basically collapsed," said one diplomat in Tripoli. [3] The Obama Administration has promoted a takeover across the Muslim world from Egypt to Tunisia to Syria by the secretive Muslim Brotherhood as part of its long-term strategy of controlling the Muslim Arc of Crisis from Afghanistan to Libya. As the Saudi-backed military coup against Brotherhood president Muhammed Morsi in Egypt in July showed, the Obama strategy has some problems.
Riots and lawlessness
With rising violence the Interior Minister Mohamed Khalifa al Sheikh resigned in August. Some 500 prisoners in Tripoli jail did a hunger strike to protest being held two years without charges. When the government ordered the Supreme Security Committee to restore order, they began shooting prisoners through the bars. In July 1200 prisoners escaped a jail after a riot in Benghazi. In short lawlessness and anarchy is spreading. [4]
Ethnic Berbers, whose militia led the assault on Tripoli in 2011, temporarily took over the parliament building in Tripoli. Because the US and NATO was adamant it wanted no “boots on the ground,” instead they freely gave arms to any and all rebels who would shoot at the Qaddafi government troops. Now they still have the guns and Libya was described to me by one French journalist who had recently been there as “the world’s largest open air arms bazaar,” where for cash anyone can buy any modern NATO weapon.
Foreigners have mostly fled Benghazi since the American ambassador was murdered in the US consulate by jihadi militiamen last September. And Libya’s military prosecutor Colonel Yussef Ali al-Asseifar, in charge of investigating assassinations of politicians, soldiers and journalists, was himself assassinated by a bomb in his car on 29 August. [5]
Prospects are grim as the lawlessness spreads. Sliman Qajam, a member of the parliamentary energy committee, toldBloomberg that “the government is running on its reserves. If the situation doesn’t improve, it won’t be able to pay salaries by the end of the year.”
The Obama Administration argues that the not-yet-proven use by the Assad government of chemical weapons in Syria justifies a bombing war by NATO and allies such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan, based on the “humanitarian” doctrine deceptively known as “responsibility to protect,” which argues that certain violations of human rights or safety are so serious as to transcend international law, UN Charters or US constitutional requirements and allow on moral grounds any US President to bomb any country he or she chooses. Something is not quite right here. ..
[1] Krishnadev Calamur, “Libya Faces Looming Crisis As Oil Output Slows To Trickle”, NPR, September 12, 2013
[2] Patrick Cockburn, “We all thought Libya had moved on it has but into lawlessness and ruin”, 3 September 2013,
[3] Chris Stephen, “Libyans fear standoff between Muslim Brotherhood and opposition forces”, The Guardian, 20 August, 2013.
[4] “Simultaneous jail-break of jihadists in 9 countries”, Translation Alizée Ville, Voltaire Network, 7 August 2013.
[5] Patrick Cockburn, op. cit.
And elsewhere from forgotten Libya ....
Jordanian hoteliers deny government has settled all outstanding hotel bills
By Callum Paton.
Amman 1 October 2013:
The director of Jordan Hotels Association has said that despite recent payments by the Libyan government, there remain significant outstanding Libyan debts to Jordanian hotels.
Speaking to the Libya Herald, Yasar Majali said that around $127 million was still owed to Jordanian hotels. This assertion flatly contradicts recent claims in Tripoli that the file had been closed on the case after a payment last week amounting to just under $60 million.
In the aftermath of the 2011 revolution some 80,000 Libyan wounded were transferred to Jordan to receive medical treatment in Jordan, paid for by Libya.
This financial support was also extended to the families of the injured. These relatives ran up a multi-million dollar bill in Jordanian hotels, as they waited for months and in some cases years for their loved-ones. It had been agreed that the Libyan Ministry of Health would also settle these bills.
.”They [the Libyan Government] are in the process of paying but they still haven’t payed,” the Hotel Association director said, “Some of the hotels got their money this week and the rest are still waiting.” Majali claimed that fully four out of five Jordanian hotels that had accommodated Libyans, on the basis of government guarantees, were still awaiting payment.
He also explained that the majority of hotel bills was still being audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the international accountants appointed by Health Minister Fatima Hamroush in February to audit all charges.
“The number is huge and the hotels are suffering” said Majali. He pointed out that the unsettled Libyan accounts were only adding to the woes of the Jordanian hotel sector, which is suffering from the crises in Syria and Egypt.
The loss of cash-flow was having a knock-on effect. He said he knew of four cases where hotel managements were themselves being sued by suppliers for unpaid bills.
Blaming the current situation on bureaucratic delays and personal disagreement within the different groups involved, Majali said he remained optimistic. If the recent settlement was repeated, he thought all outstanding debts could be settled in October.
He said he had recently had a meeting at the Libyan embassy in Amman.
“You have to be realistic when talking about the situation in Libya”, he explained, “for a country with such large reforms in the government, the army and the police, everything is being changed but still the impact will be hard on people in Jordan.”
The hotels chief commended the “huge importance” of Jordan’s relationship with Libya and his hopes that the two countries would prosper together in the future.
The Libyan government said Sunday that debts have been paid to Jordan’s hotels at a discount of between ten and twenty percent, an arrangement agreed between Jordanian hoteliers, the Ministry of Health and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Zintani journalist abducted
By Houda Mzioudet, Tripoli, 30 September 2013: A journalist has been kidnapped and his brother murdered, it has been disclosed. Taher Al-Turki who is editor of the Tripoli-based…
Three security officials murdered in Benghazi
By Maha Ellawati. Benghazi, 29 September 2013: Three security officials were murdered in separate attacks in Benghazi today, according to the spokesman for Benghazi Joint Security Room, Abdullah…
Now Wafa gas field shut down by strikers – Italian trans-Med gas supply jeopardised
By Hadi Fornaji. Tripoli, 29 September 2013: Just as the Oil and Gas Ministry announced that restored oil output had reached 700,000 b/d, production from the Wafa gas…
Let me put side of snark alongside yours. "lawless bands, armed for the first time during the war with modern weapons, including foreign Al Qaeda and other jihadists are carrying out daily bombings across the country for local control" This sounds like Somalia or Iraq - and is precisely what you would expect when foreigners destroy local government. That was btw precisely the objective of the PNAC...to destroy government interference in the oil industry et al. Not that I expect the rape of the country stops there. Here's some of how it was done in Iraq, enacting law favourable to colonialism. http://www.thepanelist.net/opinions-culture-10084/1252-the-real-victor-in-iraq-monsanto.
ReplyDelete