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  Free Republic
• ‘Funny’ Anti-Gaddafi Cartoons Reveal Rebel Racism, Anti-Semitism
     Pajamas Media ^   | May 1, 2011  | John Rosenthal

• Gaddafi’s eastern Libyan opponents have been flouting their prejudice in full view of the world’s media with little to no response.

  In late February, back at the outset of the eastern Libyan rebellion against the rule of Muammar al-Gaddafi, I pointed to visual evidence of anti-Semitism and/or “anti-Zionism” among the protestors who provided the initial face of the rebellion vis-à-vis the outside world. Although there were already hints, it was only somewhat later that it became generally clear that the “opposition” to Gaddafi was in fact armed. In the meanwhile, of course, the United States and some of its European allies have entered the fray on the side of the rebel forces, and American and other Western media have become firmly installed in the rebel capital of Benghazi.
• As a result we have much more visual evidence than two months ago. Numerous Western media outlets — including the New York Times, National Public Radio, Foreign Policy, and The Telegraph — have indeed run features on caricatures of Muammar al-Gaddafi created by supporters of the rebellion. The caricatures have been painted directly on walls or drawn on paper and attached to them. The sub-title of an April 7 Foreign Policy feature titled “Making Fun of Qaddafi” is representative of the generally cheerful, admiring tone of the presentations in the Western media. “The rebels may not be winning,” the Foreign Policy editors note, “but they’re successfully mocking Libya’s leader — Uncle Curly — with flair.”
• But a closer look at the supposedly humorous material reveals the darker side of the rebellion. Two ideological tics stand out with particular clarity. One is the same anti-Semitism or “anti-Zionism” that was evident in the first days of the rebellion. The second is anti-African racism.
• The latter is especially notable in light of the extensive video evidence of rebel forces and “protestors” subjecting black African prisoners to horrific abuse. The black African prisoners captured by the rebels are commonly described as “mercenaries” by both rebel authorities and Western media. It is clear, however, that many of the victims of abuse were in fact regular members of the Libyan army. Moreover, there have also been reports of black African civilians being rounded up and even slaughtered in rebel-controlled territories. (See, for instance, here and here.)
• In the eyes of Gaddafi’s eastern Libyan opponents, there is evidently no greater insult than to associate Gaddafi either with Israel or sub-Saharan “black” Africa. The latter association has not only to do with the rumors about the African mercenaries. More fundamentally, it appears to reflect resentments concerning Gaddafi’s embrace of pan-Africanism. In some of the caricatures, Gaddafi is clearly depicted as himself being either a black African or a Jew.
• Consider, for instance, the much-celebrated mural from Benghazi that is shown in the below AP photo.

• 

   

  According to the accompanying AP caption, the Arabic writing is “a reference to Qaddafi’s self-declared title ‘The King of Kings of Africa.’” In fact, the title was bestowed upon Gaddafi by a meeting of traditional African rulers, which was hosted by the Libyan government in 2008. The meeting happens to have been held in Benghazi. As the AP caption notes further, the writing on the mural replaces the title “King of Kings of Africa” with that of “Monkey of Monkeys of Africa” — a phrase that manages at once to insult Gaddafi and all the African notables that attended.
• (The fame of the mural, incidentally, is partly due to a recent New Yorker report, which claims that the artist was shot dead in late March immediately after completing his work. As the above photo demonstrates, however, the mural in fact already existed much earlier. The photo is dated February 23.)

• 

  Here is another example. It comes from a lesser known collection, which was assembled by the Australian journalist Jason Koutsoukis and published on a blog.

• 

  The second “monkey” represents Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi. Insects can be seen swarming around the two “monkeys.”

• Several of the caricatures modify Gaddafi’s physical features in order to depict him as being a black African. This is arguably the case for the portrait in the famous “monkey of monkeys of Africa” mural. But it is clearly the case for the crudely racist portrayal below.

   

  

  Note the exaggerated thick lips, mirroring the exaggerated thick lips of the smaller figure to the left, representing an African “mercenary.” Note too the transformation of Gaddafi’s frizzy hair: the source of the supposedly humorous description of him rendered as “Uncle Curly” in the Foreign Policy feature. But here, as in many of the other caricatures, “Uncle Curly” is in fact sporting a full-fledged “afro.” For good measure, the afro is infested with insects.

• In the caricature in the bottom left of the below photo, Gaddafi has black skin. He also has fangs.

  

  In a photo-montage just below it, he appears to be wearing side-curls in the style of an orthodox Jew. Here is a somewhat closer look.

• 

  Note too the caricature in the upper-right hand corner. Jason Koutsoukis explains that it shows Gaddafi unleashing one of his alleged African mercenaries. Except that in the meanwhile someone has seen fit to add Stars of David on Gaddafi’s hat and robe. Here is a closer look.

• 

  The caricaturing of Gaddafi appears to have been officially encouraged by the new authorities in Benghazi. Some of the earliest drawings on paper were reportedly posted around the so-called “media center” set-up by rebel officials for foreign journalists. (See here, for instance.)

• One might have thought that with official sponsorship and the increasing attention of the international media, the expressions of anti-Semitism and/or “anti-Zionism” would have diminished. But precisely the opposite appears to have occurred. Stars of David abound in the caricatures of Gaddafi. They are so prevalent that I can here only provide a small selection to illustrate the point.

  

  

  

  Here is an earlier mural, dating from the first week of the rebellion, but that has typically been shown in photos that render the Star of David difficult to see.

• 

  Note too the dollars: a less frequent but also regular motif in the caricatures.

• The presence of the Stars of David in the caricatures has rarely provoked comment in the traditional media, let alone any effort at explanation. In the blog post containing his photos, Jason Koutsoukis notes, “There is a widely held perception in Libya that Gaddafi is the son of Jewish parents and is a secret ally of The State of Israel.” Despite the massive presence of Western journalists in Benghazi, few others appear willing to broach, much less investigate the subject.

   

  Moreover, just as eastern Libyan cartoonists have resorted to racist stereotypes in caricaturing Gaddafi, so too have they employed anti-Semitic ones. Here is an example in which Gaddafi is depicted as an orthodox Jew.

  

• 

  It is taken from the collection published by National Public Radio. According to the accompanying blurb, the NPR correspondent spotted the cartoons near “the old courthouse in Benghazi, now the Information Ministry, where journalists come for their press credentials.”

• Sometimes the racist and anti-Semitic motifs are combined. This last picture, for instance, can be regarded as a sort of racist/anti-Semitic “tour de force.” It shows a vampire Gaddafi with a Star of David emblazoned on his robe accompanied by an African tribesman with horns.

  

  Note too that the tribesman and Gaddafi sport nearly identical afros, thus again underscoring the “African-ness” of Gaddafi in the eyes of his opponents.

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• 25 February 2011 Last updated at 15:53 ET    
   
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  African viewpoint: Colonel's continent

• In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, filmmaker and columnist Farai Sevenzo ponders Libya's relationship with the rest of Africa.

   

  To lose one dictator as the year began may have been fortuitous, to lose two and a possible third in the space of three months seems miraculous.

   

    Continue reading the main story

  “Start Quote

   

  He had no qualms about pitching his tent in our capitals”

   End Quote   

  The desert winds of change blowing across North Africa are howling a firestorm in the direction of the conundrum that is Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and Africans are reeling from the speed of it all.

• In the theatre of these revolutions, the man currently occupying centre stage has more reason than others to take up the interests of Africans, and so the death throes of his 42-year-old regime are reverberating across an entire continent.

   

  The colonel's theatrical character seems to have walked out of the pages of macabre fiction, and as the years passed, the character came closer to a caricature of the absolute dictator than to the memory of the 27-year-old captain who took Libya kicking and screaming into the second half of the 20th Century, then remained stuck there well into the 21st.

   

  Tunisia's former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali loved and exploited his Parisian connections and kept his distance from Africans; Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was caught in the net of the Middle East and its conflicts - and was in any case paranoid about black Africa ever since gunmen fired on his motorcade in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa.

   

  The colonel, though, embraced us.
• African portfolio 

       Libya's wealth has allowed Col Gaddafi to foster close ties with African leaders 

   

  He had no qualms about pitching his tent in our capitals and could drive his motorcade across several African borders to attend a conference or just to dazzle us with oil money as an array of designer shaded curvaceous bodyguards attended to his needs.

   

  A brief examination of the colonel's African connections reveals a deep-rooted intent to forge ties with the rest of Africa.

   

  Having come to power in that decade of former UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's "winds of change" speech, there was not a liberation movement that had not received his backing.

• From Nelson Mandela's African National Congress in South Africa to Namibia's freedom fighters, plus every rebel without a cause like Sierra Leone's Foday Sankoh to Liberia's Charles Taylor, Uganda's late Idi Amin and even that country's present leader Yoweri Museveni - they have all supped at his revolutionary table or taken his money and weapons.

   

  Only the other year Mr Gaddafi was the chairman of the African Union, and has almost single-handedly funded its existence for decades.

   

  As head of this largely mute and ineffective brotherhood of presidents, the colonel pushed for a United Africa over which he would preside.

   

    Continue reading the main story

  “Start Quote

   

  We had 70-80 people from Chad working for our company - they were cut dead with pruning shears and axes, attackers saying: 'You are providing troops for Gaddafi'”

   End Quote  Turkish worker    

  His money had of course spent a long time constructing such a possibility.

• Libyan investments in Africa through its huge reserves of oil are legion and the soaring price for this black gold enabled the Libya Africa Portfolio for Investments (LAP) to set up a "sovereign wealth fund" in 2006.

   

  And then there is Oil Libya Holding company, the Libyan Arab Company for African Investments, Afriqiyah Airlines and a host of other portfolios.

   

  Lake Victoria Hotel in Entebbe, Uganda, is 100% owned by the Libyan sovereign wealth fund, the Novotel Umubano in Kigali is 60% owned by the Libyans; there is real estate in Uganda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, South Africa; brand new mosques in East and West Africa have been built with the colonel's cash.

   

  Did the Africans accept him as a new Kwame Nkrumah, the founding father of Africa's independence movement, or did his money know no ideology?

   

  It is no wonder then, that the colonel's dilemma is making headlines all over the continent.

   

  Questions have been tabled in the Zimbabwean parliament as to whether Zimbabwean forces are involved in propping up Mr Gaddafi's last stand, even as 46 people are languishing in a Harare jail for watching videos of the Egyptian uprising.
• Venomous hatred 

  Rumours are everywhere of a recruitment drive for mercenaries in Nigeria and Ghana.

   

  And now, as things fall apart, the colonel is defiantly holding on with many reports suggesting that Africans, black Africans, are the crutches on which his depleted army is now hobbling.
• In the past week, the phrase "African mercenaries" has been repeated by Libyan citizens and rolling news, eyewitnesses to the violence in Tripoli have spat the word "African" with venomous hatred.

• Part of the Libyan story now is the scramble to escape of Turks, Germans, Indians, Englishmen, Italians, Malaysians and a host of other nationalities that include black men commonly known as Africans.

   

  In the violence of the last fortnight, the colonel's African connections have only served to rekindle a deep-rooted racism between Arabs and black Africans.

   

  As mercenaries, reputedly from Chad and Mali fight for him, a million African refugees and thousands of African migrant workers stand the risk of being murdered for their tenuous link to him.

   

  One Turkish construction worker told the BBC: "We had 70-80 people from Chad working for our company. They were cut dead with pruning shears and axes, attackers saying: 'You are providing troops for Gaddafi.' The Sudanese were also massacred. We saw it for ourselves."

• Libya's new forces for change have simply picked up where the colonel left off his bloodletting.

   

  And as the world moves to freeze Libya's assets, they must unpick the intricate web of the colonel's investments and decide what is his and what is Libya's - although in 42 years of absolute power it has never been easy to tell the difference.

   

  Belated noises are now coming from the African Union, condemning the use of violence.

   

  Even that anonymous community made from that meaningless phrase - the international community - now deny ever arming him, and claim there is no evidence that their teargas has been used against protesters, as if teargas floats in the colours of a national flag so we can all know where it was made as we choke.

   

  The forces of change must now hope that Mr Gaddafi's fighting friends evaporate, and he can live out his last days in a tent pitched on a hotel lawn once owned by Libya, or Gaddafi plc; or face the music.

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• Gadhafi Graffiti In Libya

   

  Categories: Editor's Pick
• April 17, 2011

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• Media center

  Two female Libyan volunteers walk by anti Ghadhafi banners produced at the newly setup media center in Benghazi, Libya Monday, March 7, 2011. Libyan uprising activists set up a media center headquarters in Benghazi that provides technical support to operating journalists, documents collected media material, communicates with foreign media and plans the media policy of the Libyan uprising in the "freed cities" that is run by volunteers from all fields, says the manager of the center Dr. Mohammed Salem. Arabic on banners reads: "Tripoli is the capital of the free, Gadhafi you are not needed".

  Monday, March 7, 2011
• 

  Two female Libyan volunteers walk by anti Ghadhafi banners produced at the newly setup media center in Benghazi, Libya Monday, March 7, 2011. Libyan uprising activists set up a media center headquarters in Benghazi that provides technical support to operating journalists, documents collected media material, communicates with foreign media and plans the media policy of the Libyan uprising in the "freed cities" that is run by volunteers from all fields, says the manager of the center Dr. Mohammed Salem. Arabic on banners reads: "Tripoli is the capital of the free, Gadhafi you are not needed".

  Photo Credit: Nasser Nasser, AP Photo

• American media silent on CIA ties to Libya rebel commander

  By Patrick Martin
  30 March 2011

  It has been six days since Khalifa Hifter was appointed the top military commander for the Libyan rebel forces fighting the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. His appointment was noted by reporter Nancy Youssef of McClatchy Newspapers, a US regional chain that includes the Sacramento Bee and the Kansas City Star.

  Two days later, another McClatchy journalist, Chris Adams, wrote a brief biographical sketch of Hifter that left the implication, without saying so explicitly, that he was a longtime CIA asset. It headlined the fact that after defecting from a top position in Gaddafi’s army, Hifter had lived in northern Virginia for some 20 years, as well as noting that Hifter had no obvious means of financial support.

• The World Socialist Web Site published a Perspective column March 28 taking note of both the McClatchy articles and earlier reports providing more details of Hifter’s connections to the CIA. These included a 1996 article in the Washington Post and a book published by the French weekly Le Monde diplomatique. (See A CIA commander for the Libyan rebels”)

  Both the McClatchy sketch of Hifter’s background and the WSWS Perspective have been widely circulated on the Internet. The WSWS perspective has been linked to by a myriad of left-liberal and antiwar web sites, although, significantly, there has been no mention of Hifter in the press of the International Socialist Organization and other pseudo-socialist groups that adapt themselves politically to the pro-Obama liberal milieu.

• Hifter has been interviewed and his appointment reported by the European press, including the Independent of Britain, the German weekly Stern, and newspapers in Spain, France, Italy and Turkey (with variant spellings, including Heftar and Haftar). But not in America.

  Hifter’s name has not appeared in the bulk of the corporate-controlled US media. The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times have all been curiously silent, despite having more journalists in the war zone than McClatchy. The US television networks have likewise kept quiet on the identity of the Libyan rebel commander, with the exception of a brief interview with Hifter on ABC News March 27, which made no reference to his previous long-term residence within five miles of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

• There is no credible explanation for this silence from the standpoint of journalism. There is no security reason to keep the name of the Libyan commander secret—it was publicly announced by the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, and Hifter is certainly well known to Gaddafi, who employed him as a commander of Libyan-backed forces in the civil wars in Chad in the 1980s.

  The obvious conclusion is that the American media is keeping silent in order to deprive the American people of information that would help clarify the nature of the US military intervention in Libya—and trigger opposition to it. The selection of a longtime CIA collaborator as commander of the rebels makes nonsense of the official claim that the United States is intervening militarily in Libya to protect civilian lives, rather than taking sides in a civil war in order to gain control of Libya’s oil assets and strengthen the position of American imperialism in the region.

• Two words that were notably absent from Obama’s Monday night speech on national television were “rebels” and “CIA.” Both the Obama administration and the US intelligence apparatus want to downplay their role in the direction of the rebel ground forces. For the American media, that amounts to a direct order, to which the editors of the Times, Post, etc., salute and say, “Yes, sir, Mr. President.”

  Only two months ago, Times editor Bill Keller penned a lengthy screed against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the newspaper’s Sunday magazine section. In the course of his denunciation of a genuine journalist, this courtier of the American state declared that the role of “an independent news organization” was “to exercise responsible judgment about what to publish and what not to publish …” (See “The New York Times’ Bill Keller on WikiLeaks: A collapse of democratic sensibility”)

  In the case of Khalifa Hifter, this responsibility “not to publish” extends beyond the concealment of the documentary evidence of American war crimes and diplomatic conspiracies uncovered by WikiLeaks. The American media is withholding from the American public basic facts about the war in Libya, widely reported overseas and easily available to those who know where to look. There is no other word for this but censorship.

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• US: Libya Troops Issued Viagra, Raping Victims
• April 29, 2011

  Agence France-Presse
• The United States on Thursday raised allegations that Moammar Gadhafi's regime gives Viagra to troops to carry out rapes as the U.N. Security Council wrangled over coalition attacks in Libya, diplomats said.
• Rice said Gadhafi's forces were "issuing Viagra to soldiers so that they go out and rape," said one diplomat at the meeting
• The ambassador did not give sources for the allegations. But another diplomat at the meeting said she made the comment as part of a debate with another envoy to highlight that "the coalition is confronting an adversary doing reprehensible things."
• The U.S. mission did not immediately comment on the claims.
• Allegations of Viagra being given to Gadhafi forces have been aired in British tabloid newspapers. A doctor in the Libyan city of Ajdabiya said last month that Gadhafi troops had been given Viagra and condoms as part of a campaign of sexual violence
• Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, issued a statement last week highlighting that reports of rapes in the Libya war have been "brutally silenced".

• The Security Council is increasingly divided over the Libya conflict, with Russia in particular criticizing the western coalition.

  Vitaly Churkin, Russian ambassador to the U.N., said Resolutions 1970 and 1973 allowing the military action in Libya to protect civilians "must be implemented strictly and accurately."

  "We are concerned about a kind of tendency of escalation in the military conflict which is bringing about more civilian casualties," Churkin told reporters
• "We hope that what the coalition is doing is not being seen by the opposition as an incentive not to enter into talks because we believe that dialogue is something which will eventually resolve the conflict."

• As Rice left the talks, she said that the claims made by critics of the coalition actions were "not accurate" but did not comment further.

  France and Britain also strongly defended the coalition attacks on Gadhafi targets in the debate.

  "The Security Council was told at the time what the coalition would be doing," said a western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The bottom line is that the action has been saving lives."

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• Osama bin Laden killing 'should serve as warning to Gaddafi' says head of Armed Forces

     

  The killing of Osama bin Laden should serve as a warning to Libya's Muammar al Gaddafi, the head of the Armed Forces has said.
• By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent    9:00PM BST 06 May 2011

• Gen Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said the death of the   al-Qaeda leader should have a "psychological impact" on the Libyan   dictator and others because "one day their deeds will catch up with them". 

   

   The general's warning came as British officials disclosed that weeks of allied   attacks had cost Col Gaddafi almost three quarters of his military forces.  

   

   Sir David described the killing of bin Laden as "definitely a positive"   in the context of political change in the Middle East. 

   

   "It will remind like-minded people wherever they are that one day their   deeds will catch up with them," he said.  

   

   "That is psychologically very important in the context of Libya and other   crises in the Middle East, so I think it is a psychological impact rather   than a short-term impact."
• Nato denies that it is targeting Col Gaddafi personally, but Liam Fox, the   Defence Secretary, said last month that the alliance was launching attacks   on Tripoli "to increase the psychological pressure on Gaddafi". A   Nato air strike last weekend destroyed a house occupied by one of his sons.   A spokesman for the regime said the Libyan leader was in the compound at the   time and claimed it was an assassination attempt.

• Britain and France began air strikes on Libyan targets in March, but rebels   fighting to oust the dictator have made little progress against his forces.  

   

   British officials yesterday insisted that "time is against Gaddafi",   claiming that military and diplomatic pressure on his regime was starting to   tell. 

   

   Military analysts estimate that Col Gaddafi began the conflict with about   50,000 ground troops, of whom half were unreliable conscripts and no more   than 12,000 were reliable professional soldiers. "We estimate that he   has around 30 per cent of his ground forces capability remaining," said   a British official.

• RAF missions have struck about 250 targets in Libya since operations began,   officials said, accounting for about a third of Col Gaddafi's pre-conflict   military capabilities. 

   

   Increasing Col Gaddafi's diplomatic isolation, France yesterday announced it   was expelling 14 Libyan diplomats. 

   

   Amnesty International, the human rights group, also accused the Gaddafi regime   of war crimes against Libyan civilians.

• Loyalist forces have been attacking the rebel-held town of Misurata using   snipers, cluster bombs, artillery and mines. 

   

   "The scale of the relentless attacks that we have seen by Gaddafi forces   to intimidate the residents of Misurata for more than two months is truly   horrifying," Amnesty International said. "It shows a total   disregard for the lives of ordinary people and is in clear breach of   inter-national humanitarian law."

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• Gadhafi forces bomb fuel depot in rebel-held city
• By MICHELLE FAUL and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Michelle Faul And Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press    –  27 mins ago

  <!-- end .byline -->   

   

  BENGHAZI, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's forces rocketed the main fuel depot in Misrata on Saturday, intensifying a two-month siege on the rebel-held city that has claimed civilian lives and prompted warnings of a humanitarian crisis.

   

  Government forces sent Grad rockets slamming into the depot, which contains vital stores of fuel for cars, trucks, ships and generators powering hospitals and other key sites in a city left darkened by electricity cuts, said witnesses and residents.

   

  Fuel tanks were engulfed in flames hours after the early morning attack, as firefighters battled the blazes. No one was injured, a doctor said.

   

  The attack raised fears of shortages, though some of the fuel had already been moved to other sites in anticipation of such a strike.

   

  "After a few days, we may have a big crisis," said Misrata resident Mohammed Abdullah, speaking by Skype since regular phone lines have been cut. "He wants to bring Misrata's people to their knees, and make them surrender," Abdullah said of the Libyan leader. "Surrendering is impossible."

• Some of the heaviest fighting has raged in Misrata, which is of central importance to the rebels as their only major stronghold near the centers of government power in the west of the country. Most of the rebel forces are based in the east.

   

  At Misrata's hospital, a doctor said Saturday's bombing could leave them short of a large amount of fuel for generators. He spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

   

  Amnesty International says Gadhafi's forces may have committed war crimes in Misrata and have used weapons designed for the battlefield and not for residential areas, resulting in civilian casualties and "creating a situation of terror."

   

  The humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating because of regime attempts to tighten its siege and block access by sea, the group said on Friday.

   

  Libyan troops besieging the city of 300,000 by land recently stepped up shelling of Misrata's port to close the city's last lifeline. Hundreds of people have been killed in Misrata since February, medics say.

   

  Amnesty said the attempted government blockade of the port has made it even more difficult to bring in supplies. There is no electricity or running water in large parts of the city, and food supplies are dwindling, it said.

• About a week ago NATO warships intercepted several boats laying anti-shipping mines outside Misrata's harbor. Abdullah said Friday that Gadhafi forces have also dropped mines by parachute into the sea from helicopters carrying Red Cross insignia, presumably to evade detection by NATO forces. Other residents reported hearing helicopters.

   

  "This has been going on for two days," Abdullah said. "He (Gadhafi) doesn't hesitate to do evil things."

   

  The government has not acknowledged the mine-laying but says it is trying to prevent weapons shipments from reaching the rebels by sea.

   

  Government officials deny wrongdoing by Libyan troops, including shelling of civilian areas. Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, said Thursday that the military has decided to block ships from reaching Misrata, but would not discuss the tactics by regime loyalists.

   

  The government said aid ships would be allowed to pass the blockade if they coordinate with the regime.

   

  For much of the past two months, Gadhafi's troops and tanks were deployed along parts of a downtown thoroughfare, Tripoli Street, while snipers took over high buildings. Late last month, rebel fighters drove regime loyalists to the outskirts of Misrata from where they've continued daily shelling attacks.

   

  The hospital doctor said the rebels' morale is high and their coordination has increased to fend off any advances by the Gadhafi forces, which he said are now 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the city center. 

   "He can only hit us from afar. That is his only trick now," said the doctor.

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• Gaddafi destroys Misrata rebels' fuel supply in air raid

     

  Libyan rebels say city will be starved of fuel after light aircraft drop bombs on oil tanks
• • Amy Fallon and agencies 
          
  •   guardian.co.uk,     Saturday 7 May 2011

• Libyan government forces have bombed four large oil tanks in Misrata, destroying the city's only source of fuel, according to rebels.

  Light aircraft normally used for spraying pesticides were deployed for the overnight attack in Qasr Ahmed, close to the port, rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said today.

  Bombs were dropped on four large storage tanks, destroying them and sparking a huge blaze that spread to four more, he said.

  "We cannot extinguish it because we do not have the right tools," Hassan told Reuters.

  "Now the city will face a major problem. Those were the only source of fuel for the city.

  "These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel."

  Nato was notified by the rebels about the planes before the attack but did not respond, said Hassan.

  Misrata, the last remaining city in the east held by the rebels, has been under siege by Gaddafi's forces for more than two months.

  It has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between loyalists and rebels.

  Government forces last month flew at least one helicopter reconnaissance mission over the city, according to the rebels.

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• Norway pulls out the fighters from Libya

• Norway contributes with six F-16 fighters in the war in Libya. The period to which Norway has committed itself to participate with the planes going out in about six weeks.

  Photo: Lars Magne Hovtun / Armed Forces

• The Government has decided to pull out nearly all the Norwegian F-16 aircraft from Libyakrigen, said sources in the government of the NRK.

  • Astrid Randen  astrid.randen @ nrk.no 
  • Hans Erik Weiby  hans.erik.weiby @ nrk.no 

  Posted 05/07/2011
• About six weeks period runs out that Norway has committed itself to participate with the fighters.
• <h2><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">- We have given our main contribution</font></font></h2><br/><strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Sources in the government says to NRK that NATO has warned that the Norwegian military contribution will not continue as now, and that means that most of the planes going back to Norway in late June.</font></font><div style="width: 225px;" class="img-right"><img height="126" alt="Norsk F-16 på Kreta under Libya-operasjon (Foto: Lars Magne Hovtun/Forsvaret)" src="http://gfx.nrk.no/EP3zd3bZdkQXgd5-MNgA8AK2bxuOXShXDAmIOy5eR4XQ.jpg" title="Norsk F-16 på Kreta under Libya-operasjon (Foto: Lars Magne Hovtun/Forsvaret)" longdesc="Et norsk F-16-fly på Kreta under Libya-operasjonen. " width="225"><p><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">A Norwegian F-16 aircraft on Crete during the Libyan operation. </font></font></p><address><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Photo: Lars Magne Hovtun / Armed Forces</font></font></address></div><br/></strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><br/>Like the Socialist Left Party leader Kristin Halvorsen </font></font><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.7623790"><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">was claiming</font></font></a><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> in a speech at SV land board meeting yesterday.<br/></font></font><strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">- When the three-month period is over, I believe we have given our main contribution to this conflict, "said Halvorsen.</font></font></strong><br/><strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> READ: </font></font><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.7623790"><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">SV will call home Norwegian bombers July</font></font></a></strong><br/><strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> READ: </font></font><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.7623331"><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">SV will have bombers out and agents into Libya</font></font></a></strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><br/>, the Norwegian contribution in Libya have been </font></font><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/verden/1.7621687"><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">significant</font></font></a><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> , even though Norway is a small country in the NATO context.</font> <font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Therefore it is natural that other countries take over the sharpest missions, "said government sources told NRK.</font> <font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">They add that NATO has been informed of the decision.<br/></font></font><strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">READ: </font></font><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/verden/1.7621687"><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Norway has bombed Libya 130 000 000</font></font></a></strong>
• <h2><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">- Unwise Decision</font></font></h2><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><br/>Leader of the Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide from the Conservatives, I think it is unwise to commit to what will happen after the three months Norway in the recommended start has sent fighters to.<br/></font></font><strong><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">- Because we do not know anything about the situation in Libya for six weeks.</font> <font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">A lot can change.</font> <font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">That means we do not know what kind of needs that are there for a Norwegian military contribution and any humanitarian contributions.</font> <font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Therefore, this is not a wise strategy to bind to, "says Søreide to NRK.</font></font></strong><br/><p></p><br/><p><br/> <br/></p><br/><p><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Also Deputy Chairman Per Sandbergi Fremskrittspatiet says to NRK that it is too early to decide if Norway is to pull out fighters from Libya to date.</font></font></p><br/><p><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Government's alternative to the fighters might be to send surveillance aircraft.</font></font></p><br/><p><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><font style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">For NRK's ​​sources emphasize that it is not necessary to pull out of the actions in Libya, but to change the Norwegian contribution.</font></font></p>

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• Nato units left 61 African migrants to die of hunger and thirst

     

  Exclusive: Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised
• • Jack Shenker in Lampedusa 
          
  •   guardian.co.uk,     Sunday 8 May 2011

• Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned.

  A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted.
• All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days, we didn't know ourselves … everyone was either praying, or dying."
• International maritime law compels all vessels, including military units, to answer distress calls from nearby boats and to offer help where possible. Refugee rights campaigners have demanded an investigation into the deaths, while the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has called for stricter co-operation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in an effort to save human lives.
• "The Mediterranean cannot become the wild west," said spokeswoman Laura Boldrini. "Those who do not rescue people at sea cannot remain unpunished."
• Her words were echoed by Father Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest in Rome who runs the refugee rights organisation Habeshia, and who was one of the last people to be in communication with the migrant boat before the battery in its satellite phone ran out.
• "There was an abdication of responsibility which led to the deaths of over 60 people, including children," he claimed. "That constitutes a crime, and that crime cannot go unpunished just because the victims were African migrants and not tourists on a cruise liner."
• This year's political turmoil and military conflict in north Africa have fuelled a sharp rise in the number of people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with up to 30,000 migrants believed to have made the journey across the Mediterranean over the past four months. Large numbers have died en route; last month more than 800 migrants of different nationalities who left on boats from Libya never made it to European shores and are presumed dead.

• Underlining the dangers, on Sunday more than 400 migrants were involved in a dramatic rescue when their boat hit rocks on Lampedusa.

  The pope, meanwhile, in an address to more than 300,000 worshippers, called on Italians to welcome immigrants fleeing to their shores.
• The Guardian's investigation into the case of the boat of 72 migrants which set sail from Tripoli on 25 March established that it carried 47 Ethiopians, seven Nigerians, seven Eritreans, six Ghanaians and five Sudanese migrants. Twenty were women and two were small children, one of whom was just one year old. The boat's Ghanaian captain was aiming for the Italian island of Lampedusa, 180 miles north-west of the Libyan capital, but after 18 hours at sea the small vessel began running into trouble and losing fuel.
• Using witness testimony from survivors and other individuals who were in contact with the passengers during its doomed voyage, the Guardian has pieced together what happened next. The account paints a harrowing picture of a group of desperate migrants condemned to death by a combination of bad luck, bureaucracy and the apparent indifference of European military forces who had the opportunity to attempt a rescue.
• The migrants used the boat's satellite phone to call Zerai in Rome, who in turn contacted the Italian coastguard. The boat's location was narrowed down to about 60 miles off Tripoli, and coastguard officials assured Zerai that the alarm had been raised and all relevant authorities had been alerted to the situation.
• Soon a military helicopter marked with the word "army" appeared above the boat. The pilots, who were wearing military uniforms, lowered bottles of water and packets of biscuits and gestured to passengers that they should hold their position until a rescue boat came to help. The helicopter flew off, but no rescue boat arrived.
• No country has yet admitted sending the helicopter that made contact with the migrants. A spokesman for the Italian coastguard said: "We advised Malta that the vessel was heading towards their search and rescue zone, and we issued an alert telling vessels to look out for the boat, obliging them to attempt a rescue." The Maltese authorities denied they had had any involvement with the boat.
• After several hours of waiting, it became apparent to those on board that help was not on the way. The vessel had only 20 litres of fuel left, but the captain told passengers that Lampedusa was close enough for him to make it there unaided. It was a fatal mistake. By 27 March, the boat had lost its way, run out of fuel and was drifting with the currents.
• "We'd finished the oil, we'd finished the food and water, we'd finished everything," said Kurke, a 24-year-old migrant who was fleeing ethnic conflict in his homeland, the Oromia region of Ethiopia. "We were drifting in the sea, and the weather was very dangerous." At some point on 29 or 30 March the boat was carried near to a Nato aircraft carrier – so close that it would have been impossible to be missed. According to survivors, two jets took off from the ship and flew low over the boat while the migrants stood on deck holding the two starving babies aloft. But from that point on, no help was forthcoming. Unable to manoeuvre any closer to the aircraft carrier, the migrants' boat drifted away. Shorn of supplies, fuel or means of contacting the outside world, they began succumbing one by one to thirst and starvation.

• The Guardian has made extensive inquiries to ascertain the identity of the Nato aircraft carrier, and has concluded that it is likely to have been the French ship Charles de Gaulle, which was operating in the Mediterranean on those dates.

  French naval authorities initially denied the carrier was in the region at that time. After being shown news reports which indicated this was untrue, a spokesperson declined to comment.
• A spokesman for Nato, which is co-ordinating military action in Libya, said it had not logged any distress signals from the boat and had no records of the incident. "Nato units are fully aware of their responsibilities with regard to the international maritime law regarding safety of life at sea," said an official. "Nato ships will answer all distress calls at sea and always provide help when necessary. Saving lives is a priority for any Nato ships."
• For most of the migrants, the failure of the Nato ship to mount any rescue attempt proved fatal. Over the next 10 days, almost everyone on board died. "We saved one bottle of water from the helicopter for the two babies, and kept feeding them even after their parents had passed," said Kurke, who survived by drinking his own urine and eating two tubes of toothpaste. "But after two days, the babies passed too, because they were so small."
• On 10 April, the boat washed up on a beach near the Libyan town of Zlitan near Misrata. Of the 72 migrants who had embarked at Tripoli, only 11 were still alive, and one of those died almost immediately on reaching land. Another survivor died shortly afterwards in prison, after Gaddafi's forces arrested the migrants and detained them for four days.
• Despite the trauma of their last attempt, the migrants – who are hiding out in the house of an Ethiopian in the Libyan capital – are willing to tackle the Mediterranean again if it means reaching Europe and gaining asylum.
• "These are people living an unimaginable existence, fleeing political, religious and ethnic persecution," said Zerai. "We must have justice for them, for those that died alongside them, and for the families who have lost their loved ones."

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• Updated Monday, May 9, 2011 10:55 am TWN, AFP

  Ship runs aground in Italy with 500 Libyan refugees
• ROME -- A boat carrying some 500 refugees from Libya ran aground as it neared an Italian port on Sunday, forcing many of those on board to jump into the sea, officials said after all were successfully rescued.

• The boat hit some rocks on the approach to the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy, sparking panic among those on board — most of them migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who had been living in Libya.

  Coast guards immediately intervened, plucking dozens from the water including women and children and rescuing those still on board.

  Television images showed chaotic scenes as refugees clung on to ropes cast between the shoreline and the fishing boat and officers dived in to help.

  “There were about 500 people on board. It was a difficult situation. Our patrol boats couldn't come close because of the shallow water,” Antonio Morana, a coast guard spokesman, said

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• Rebels say they control port city of Misrata
• By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Diaa Hadid, Associated Press    –  2 mins ago

  <!-- end .byline -->   

   

  TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyan rebels have taken full control of the western port city of Misrata, a rebel fighter said Sunday, but he suggested it was too early for them to consider advancing to try to confront Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces around the capital.

   

  Meanwhile, the head of Britain's armed forces, Gen. David Richards, urged NATO to widen the range of targets the alliance's planes are allowed to hit in the effort to stymie the Gadhafi's regime's attacks on protesters. Richards' remarks, published in The Sunday Telegraph in London, warned that "more intense military action" was needed or the conflict could end in stalemate.

   

  In Misrata, rebel fighter Abdel Salam described the situation in Misrata as static.

• "The situation is almost frozen, as the rebels are in full control over Misrata," he said. "The rebels are not engaged in any major fighting fronts with Gadhafi forces."

   

  He denied earlier, conflicting reports suggesting that that rebels were advancing toward the western city of Zlitan, which would be the next step on the road to the capital Tripoli.

   

  "The rebels agreed that it is better not to move forward or open new fronts," he said.

   

  He added: "It will be a big risk to advance. Anything could happen and cost us heavy causalities. This is not the right decision to take right now."

   

  The rebels control most of eastern Libya, while Gadhafi controls most of the west, including Tripoli. Misrata — about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli — is the only rebel stronghold in the west, and the rebels were forced to advance and fall back and then advance to take it.

   

  More than 1,000 people died in Misrata in the fighting and shelling.

   

  Meanwhile, Tunisia's TAP news agency said that NATO planes bombed barracks and radar installations in the Libyan town of Boukamache, about 11 miles (17 kilometers) from the Tunisian border.

• Libyans have been pouring from Boukamache across to Tunisia via the Ras Jdir border post the report said.

   

  Detonations could be heard from the Ras Jdir border post, where the Tunisian army has been in a state of alert since Saturday after a blackout on the Libyan side.

   

  TAP also reported that Tunisian forces on Saturday thwarted a push by 200 of Gadhafi forces aboard some 50 off-road vehicles into Tunisian territory.

   

  Libyans have been trying to enter Tunisia in a bid to retake the strategic Dhehiba border crossing, controlled by Libyan rebels for the past few weeks. The Tunisian military sent tanks, armored vehicles and reinforcement troops to the area in response, TAP reported.

   

  An activist in the far-western town of Zintan said pro-Gadhafi forces shelled the area late Saturday.

   

  Since rebels captured the crossing on April 21, Gadhafi loyalists have repeatedly tried to retake it, but the rebels have held their ground.

   

  The activist said shells or missiles also were fired at the nearby town of Rujban. He said he was a witness to the shelling that smashed part of a cemetery and a science building. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, and his report could not be independently confirmed.

   

  Meanwhile, International Criminal Court prosecutors are putting the final touches to their case against three Libyan leaders on charges of murder and persecution in the brutal crackdown on anti-government rebels. 

   Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will file a 74-page document with nine annexes outlining the allegations and seeking arrest warrants for the three Libyan leaders considered most responsible for the atrocities. 

   Moreno-Ocampo has not revealed the names of the three, but Gadhafi is widely expected to be among them. 

   The prosecutor said Sunday he was "almost ready for trial."

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• Tunisian source: Libyan oil minister defects
• By DIAA HADID and BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press

• TRIPOLI, Libya – Libya's oil minister defected and fled to Tunisia, a Tunisian security official said Tuesday, one of the highest profile figures to abandon Moammar Gadhafi's government.

   

  Shukri Ghanem, the head of the National Oil Co. and Libya's oil minister, crossed into Tunisia by road on Monday and defected, the Tunisian official said. The official, based in the region around the Ras Jdir border crossing, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

   

  Ghanem is one of the most prominent members of Gadhafi's government to leave amid fighting between the military and rebels seeking to end Gadhafi's more than 40-year rule.

   

  Others who have defected include Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, one of Gadhafi's earliest supporters; Interior Minister Abdel-Fatah Younes; Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former U.N. General Assembly president. A number of ambassadors and other diplomats also have resigned their posts.

   

  A NATO-led campaign — authorized by the United Nations — is enforcing a no-fly zone over the country and launching airstrikes to try to protect civilians from attacks by Gadhafi's forces.

• Early Tuesday, NATO jets pounded two government buildings in the Libyan capital, including the Interior Ministry, setting them on fire. A government spokesman suggested that the ministry was targeted because it contained files on corruption cases against senior members of the Benghazi-based rebel leadership.

   

  In Geneva, meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that Libyan authorities appeared to be encouraging African migrants to board unseaworthy boats bound for Europe.

   

  Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters that the Libyan conflict has opened up a route for migrants that was closed for two years because of an agreement between Libya and Italy.

   

  Already some 14,000 people — mostly from sub-Saharan Africa — have used Libya as a springboard to reach Europe, and thousands more are poised to make the treacherous sea journey in the coming weeks as weather conditions in the Mediterranean improve.

• "The authorities (in Libya) are not discouraging, at all, in fact there may be signs that they are encouraging these boat journeys," she said.

   

  Some are migrants fleeing the fighting in Libya, but others appear to be crossing into Libya from elsewhere in Africa because it is easier to get onto smugglers' boats there.

   

  Ghanem, the latest minister to defect, had been at odds with the Gadhafi regime before, basically losing his post for a while in 2009 as two of Gadhafi's sons differed on the direction the country should take in reforming its political and economic systems. His resignation was seen, at least in part, as linked to the creation of a new superstructure governing the nation's oil sector, with the new agency designed to replace one he supported.

   

  Before assuming the oil ministry's portfolio, Ghanem served for around three years as prime minister at a time when Libya was emerging from under the cloud of more than a decade of international sanctions.

   

  Ghanem is among Gadhafi government officials under U.S. sanctions announced by the Treasury Department in early April.

   

  Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Arab League representative who was among the first wave of Libyan diplomats to defect, confirmed that Ghanem had defected but said no official announcement has been made out of concern for the safety of family members who are still in Tripoli. Al-Houni said that he spoke to Ghanem after he crossed the border.

• "Most of the officials remaining in Tripoli are forced to stay under intimidation and pressure. They are not happy with what is happening," Al-Houni told the AP.

   

  Guma El-Gamaty, London-based spokesman for the Libyan opposition's Interim National Council, said "all what we know is that Shukri Ghanem is in Tunisia."

   

  NATO has stepped up strikes on the Libyan capital Tripoli, and one of the buildings hit early Tuesday was used by the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for internal security. 

   Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim suggested the ministry was targeted because it contained files on rebel leaders in Benghazi, the de-facto capital of the eastern half of the country, which is under opposition control. 

   "If they (NATO) are really interested in protecting civilians ... then we call upon them to stop and start talking to us," Ibrahim said. 

   In Moscow, Russia's foreign minister on Tuesday urged Libya's government representatives to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid. 

   Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Gadhafi's representatives reiterated their willingness to consider a peace plan tabled by the African Union that called for an immediate cease-fire and dialogue between the government and the rebels. The rebels have rejected that plan. 

   The meeting follows a Monday visit to Moscow by the United Nations special envoy for Libya.

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• Rebels: Gadhafi fighters shell western mountains
• By DIAA HADID and BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press

• TRIPOLI, Libya – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi shelled villages and towns to try to take control of the high ground in a western mountain range, while a U.N. official appealed for global assistance for some 2 million people displaced by fighting between Gadhafi's forces and rebels trying to oust him.

   

  The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Libya said some 1.6 million people inside the North African country need aid because fighting has disrupted basic services and depleted food and medical stocks.

   

  Coordinator Panos Moumtzis, who is based in Geneva, an additional 500,000 who have crossed borders to Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the region also need humanitarian assistance.

   

  Moumtzis said he was asking international donors for $408 million to fund aid for Libya through September.

• Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya for more than 40 years, has been using his military and militias to try to put down an uprising that began in February to try to remove him from power.

   

  Also Wednesday, the International Criminal Court prosecutors warned Libyan officials they will be prosecuted if they attempt to cover up crimes by forces loyal to Gadhafi.

   

  Prosecutors issued the warning in a letter to Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati al-Obeidi.

   

  The letter also formally informed him of Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's request for arrest warrants for Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi. The judges will now have to decide whether to issue arrest warrants.

• Moreno-Ocampo on Monday accused the three Monday of murder and persecution for allegedly ordering, planning and participating in attacks on civilians.

   

  The letter also underscored that the court has jurisdiction in Libya because its investigation was ordered by the UN Security Council — a contention the Libyan government has rejected.

   

  Libyan rebels said on Wednesday that Gadhafi's forces were shelling communities in the western mountains. BelJassem, a citizen-turned-fighter from a village near Yafrin, said Gadhafi forces were using Grad missiles and rocket launchers in their nearly monthlong siege, leaving residents trapped and cut off from food and medical supplies.

   

  "We dig trenches and hide in there at night," says BelJassem, who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals.

   

  Yafrin, which is 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli, is one of the biggest cities in the Nafusa mountain range, home to the ethnic Berber minority.

   

  Medghamas Abu-Zakhar, a rebel based in Yafrin, said Gadhafi forces were shelling villages toward the top of the Nafusa range in an attempt to capture the high ground.

   

  Yafrin is home to some 250,000 Berbers, said Fathi Abu-Zakhar, who is among the city's residents who fled the fighting. He said that two of his sons stayed behind.
• "They are living under siege," he said in a telephone interview. "No food and no medicine can get in. Even the injured have no way to get treatment since the only hospital has been shut down."

• Farther to the West, Libyan shelling forced the closure late Tuesday of the so-called Wazen passage, which is the route people fleeing Libya use to get to neighboring Tunisia.

   

  Jaber Naluti, a volunteer who has been trying to assist people in the area, said Gadhafi forces shelled the route, killing seven Libyan rebels. Some of the shells fell on the Tunisian side of the border. 

   Naluti said the shelling forced Tunisian authorities to close the passage. Tunisian jet fighters flew over the area but didn't fire. The passage appeared to be functioning normally on Wednesday.

• The reports from Yafrin came a day after NATO said it would step up psychological warfare operations to try to persuade troops loyal to Gadhafi to abandon the fight. 

   Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken, speaking in Naples, Italy, said NATO planes have been dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages to Libyan forces urging them "to return to their barracks and homes." 

   Bracken said the messages also have advised pro-regime troops "to move away from any military equipment" that could be targeted by NATO's strike aircraft. 

   He did not provide further details on the psychological operations. But the U.S. has been using a specially modified Air Force C-130 transport to broadcast messages to Libyan forces in AM, FM, high-frequency radio, TV and military communications bands.
• NATO is operating under a U.N. Security Council mandate to maintain a no-fly zone and to take other actions to protect civilians from attack by Gadhafi's forces. In recent days, NATO attacks have concentrated on military and logistics hubs in Tripoli.

• There was no formal reaction from the government to reports that Shukri Ghanem, the Libyan oil minister and head of the National Oil Co., defected earlier this week and left the country for Tunis. The defection was confirmed by Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Arab League representative who was among the first wave of Libyan diplomats to defect. 

   Others who have defected include Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, one of Gadhafi's earliest supporters; Interior Minister Abdel-Fatah Younes; Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former U.N. General Assembly president. A number of ambassadors and other diplomats also have resigned.

• The defections suggest Gadhafi's political structure is fraying, but it's unclear whether there is enough internal strife to seriously undermine his ability to fight rebel forces as NATO airstrikes pound Libyan military targets. Gadhafi appears to retain the backing of his core of military commanders. 

   Still, support for Gadhafi seems to be waning in the capital, Tripoli. Pro-regime demonstrations are sparsely attended, even when heavily advertised in advance.

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• NATO hits 3 ports to protect rebel-held port
• By DIAA HADID and SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Diaa Hadid And Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press    –  Fri May 20

• TRIPOLI, Libya – NATO fighter jets struck three ports in bombing runs overnight, targeting Moammar Gadhafi's navy in an effort to protect the nearby rebel-held port of Misrata, NATO said Friday. It was the broadest attack on Libya's naval forces since the alliance joined the conflict.

   

  One bombing run hit the main port of Tripoli, where reporters could see flames and smoke rising above the stricken warship into the night sky. Other targets were the Khoms port, between Tripoli and Misrata, and Sirte, east of the city.

   

  In Brussels, NATO confirmed that its warplanes targeted the ports and accused Libya of using its ships in the escalating conflict, including attempts to mine the harbor in Misrata. Rebels trying to end the nearly 40-year rule of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi have been struggling to hold Misrata against repeated attacks by Gadhafi's forces.

• British Maj. Gen. John Lorimer, a communications officer, said British warplanes hit two Libyan corvette warships in the Khoms harbor and "successfully targeted a facility in the dockyard constructing fast inflatable boats, which Libyan forces have used several times in their efforts to mine Misrata and attack vessels in the area."

   

  He said the port was the nearest concentration of regime warships to the port of Misrata, which Gadhafi has repeatedly attempted to close to humanitarian shipping.

   

  Mohammed Rashid, general manager of the Tripoli port, told reporters the coast guard boats were used to patrol Libyan waters for immigrant boats trying to make it to Europe and for search-and-rescue activities.

• The port official said some damage was done to the port, but it was minimal. A government official later said he feared the NATO strike would discourage ships from using the Tripoli port, reducing imports and driving up the cost of basic goods for Libyans.

   

  In a tour given to reporters at a distance from the area, a warship could be seen on fire, with flames and plumes of smoke rising from the stricken vessel.

   

  Rear Adm. Russell Harding, deputy commander of the NATO operation, said the Gadhafi regime was employing more ships in its campaign against rebel fighters.

   

  "Given the escalating use of naval assets, NATO had no choice but to take decisive action to protect the civilian population of Libya and NATO forces at sea," he said.

• "NATO has constantly adapted to the rapidly changing and dynamic situation in Libya and at sea," he said in a statement.

   

  In Brussels, NATO played video clips from the jets' gun cameras showing the bombing of two frigates and a port facility.

   

  The two frigates, a Soviet-built Koni class anti-submarine boat and a French-built Combattante class missile craft, were moored at the dock when they were hit with laser-guided bombs. It was not immediately clear whether their crews were aboard when they were struck.

• "Our aim was not to destroy these ships but to remove their military ability," NATO spokesman Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken told reporters. "They were identified as legitimate and legal targets."

   

  But Bracken declined to say whether the frigates had been used in any naval operations — such as the mining of Misrata port — in recent weeks. He said NATO has "meticulously communicated" to all government troops that the risks of being around military equipment were extremely high.

   

  NATO is operating under a U.N. mandate to maintain a no-fly zone over Libya and to prevent attacks on the civilian population.

• The Western coalition has stepped up its airstrikes in the Libyan capital in an apparent attempt to weaken Gadhafi's chief stronghold and potentially target the leader himself. The Gadhafi family compound, Bab al-Aziziya, has been targeted several times.

   

  Also, a NATO strike early Friday hit a police academy in the Tripoli neighborhood of Tajoura, a government official said. 

   The airstrikes came a day after Gadhafi's forces rocketed the strongholds of rebel fighters in the strategic mountain heights southwest of the Libyan capital. 

   The two sides appeared to be fighting for control of the two highways to the north and south of the Nafusa mountain range, which slices across the desert south of Tripoli to the western border with Tunisia, controlling a key border crossing.

• Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters at a late-night news conference Thursday that in a meeting earlier this week with Russian leaders, an envoy offered to withdraw Libyan fighters from cities as part of a peace deal, if rebels do the same. 

   "We are even prepared to go as far as withdrawing our army from all Libyan cities and population centers," he said. "This is a new offer." 

   Ibrahim said the offer was the farthest the government had gone since fighting broke out against the rebels. He said as part of the deal, NATO would also have to halt its strikes of Libyan targets. 

   There was no immediate comment by rebel leaders based in the eastern city of Benghazi. Up to now their main demand has been the removal of Gadhafi and his sons from power. 

   Also late Thursday, Gadhafi appeared briefly on Libyan state TV, his first appearance in several days. 

   An international aid group said Friday that 3,800 Chadians who fled fighting in Libya were stranded in a remote desert town in northern Chad. 

   The International Organization for Migration in Geneva said the migrants have little food or water, and dozens are sick or injured.

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• Is Obama about to break the law?

  <!--endclickprintinclude--> <!--startclickprintexclude-->

  By Dana Bash, Senior Congressional Correspondent

  May 20, 2011
• STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  <!-- google_ad_section_start -->
  • According to the War Powers Act, Congress must approve military action within 60 days
  • President Obama launched the latest Libya action two months ago
  • The administration is considering options while few in Congress make it a big deal
• Washington (CNN) -- President Obama may be on the brink of breaking the law.

• At issue: The 1973 War Powers Act, which says if the president does not get congressional authorization 60 days after military action, the mission must stop within 30 days.

  The president formally notified Congress about the mission in Libya with a letter on March 21, which makes Friday the 60-day deadline.

• Inaction is angering lawmakers from both the left and the right who rarely agree on anything.

  Rep. Brad Sherman, D-California, tells CNN he believes Obama is trying to "bring democracy to Libya while shredding the Constitution of the United States."

  "He cannot continue what he is doing in Libya without congressional authorization. When a president defiantly violates the law, that really undercuts our efforts to urge other countries to have the rule of law," Sherman said.

  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, concurs.

  "You could say, 'Well, we have a good president, he'll do the right thing.' Well, someday you may have a president who does the wrong thing, and that's why you have rules, because you can never count on people being good people," Paul told CNN.

  He called it "appalling" and a "terrible precedent" to engage in military action without the people's representatives -- Congress -- debating it.

• To be sure, presidents in both parties often ignored another part of the War Powers Act -- that the commander-in-chief should get congressional approval before any military action.

  Still, in recent years, President Bush did seek and receive congressional authority for Afghanistan and Iraq prior to launching those missions.

  But it is virtually unprecedented for a president to continue a mission beyond 60 days without a resolution from Congress.

• "Make no mistake: Obama is breaking new ground, moving decisively beyond his predecessors," Yale law professors Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway wrote this week in the Washington Post.

  The only thing that comes close is President Clinton's military effort in Kosovo.

  He failed to get congressional approval before the 60-day deadline was up. His administration argued that Congress had effectively authorized the mission by approving money for it, and the Kosovo conflict lasted 78 days.
• The Obama administration doesn't have that option with Libya, because the Pentagon is using existing money. Congress never specifically funded the mission.

• Now, the administration is trying to figure out what to do.

  "We are actively reviewing our role going forward. Throughout, the president has been mindful of the provisions of the War Powers Resolution," Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg recently testified before Congress. "He has acted in a manner consistent with it. He will continue to do so."

  The War Powers Resolution passed in 1973 because of concerns about excess executive power in Vietnam. Congress approved it over President Nixon's veto.

• Angry lawmakers in both parties say part of the problem now is that their own congressional leaders are not raising a stink about Obama's failure to come to Congress about Libya.

  "Very few people are talking about this; they're just letting the president do whatever he wants, and I think that's Congress abdicating the rule of law and abdicating constitutional restraints that he should obey," Paul said.

• Paul and five of his GOP Senate colleagues are thinking about taking this to the Supreme Court, which has never formally ruled on the constitutionality of the War Powers Act.

  A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested no urgency to force the president to comply with the War Powers Act when it comes to Libya.

  "The administration has done a good job of keeping Congress informed about operations in Libya. U.S. operations appear to be limited and intermittent, but we are examining whether further Senate action is needed," said Jon Summers, Reid's spokesman.

• Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat, says congressional leaders in both parties are letting this go and shirking responsibility because they don't want to have to take a tough vote on whether to give the president authority for military action in Libya.

  "Americans are not of one mind on this, and some of my colleagues would just assume not do their job because this is a difficult part of it," Sherman said.

  Some constitutional and legal experts are watching the president's moves carefully, and are preparing to say R.I.P to the War Powers Act.

• Ackerman and Hathaway wrote on the same in the Washington Post op-ed:

  "If nothing happens, history will say that the War Powers Act was condemned a quiet death by a president who had solemnly pledged, on the campaign trail, to put an end to indiscriminate war making."

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• A War Powers Challenge to Obama's Libya Project

     

    John Nichols

  <!--/views-field-value--> 

    April 20, 2011 
• President Obama failed to seek a declaration of war before ordering US attacks on Libya. Now, he faces a challenge under the War Powers Resolution.

• By any reasonable reading of the Constitution, that was a violation of the provision in the founding document that requires the executive to attain authorization from Congress before launching military adventures abroad. But presidents have skirted that requirement in recent decades by claiming that the 1973 War Powers Resolution—an act originally intended to constrain presidential war-making—affords them the freedom to fight first and consult Congress later.

   

  The War Powers Resolution, enacted in the late stages of the Vietnam War over a veto by President Richard Nixon, requires the commander-in-chief to notify Congress within forty-eight hours of committing armed forces to military action that he or she determines is necessary in the face of “a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.” The resolution also forbids armed forces from remaining in action for more than sixty days without Congressional authorization of the use of military force.
• That’s not supposed to be a blank check from White House wars of whim, even if successive presidents have relied on self-serving interpretations of the law to lauch and maintain military endeavors.

• This week, however, a leading critic of the Libya mission, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, is planning to introduce legislation—pursuant to the War Powers Resolution—that will assert the constitutional responsibility of Congress to make decisions about declaring war.

   

  In a letter to fellow members of the House, the Ohio Democrat writes:

   

  “Dear Colleague: Earlier this month, President Obama made his case for U.S. participation in a United Nations-sanctioned war in Libya. The President’s Office of Legal Council recently released the Administration’s legal justification for the war, arguing that he was not required to come to Congress for prior authorization because the war is in our national interest and because it is not really a war. But our actions in Libya and the Administration’s failure to seek authorization from Congress, as required by Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, cannot be justified.

   

  “I intend to offer legislation pursuant to the War Powers Resolution of 1973 that will address Congress’ constitutional responsibility to make decisions pertaining to the use of U.S. military force abroad. Doing so will allow Congress the latitude to make an informed decision under circumstances in which Congress’s predictable desire to support the troops does not skew the debate on the war’s legitimacy.
• “The costs of this war are already mounting. According to figures recently released by the Pentagon, the war has cost the U.S. $608 million thus far, not including the costs to deploy U.S. Armed Forces to participate in the war in Libya. Experts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments believe that the U.S. costs could ‘easily pass the $1 billion mark…regardless of how well things go.’ If U.S. ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Kosovo is a precedent, we know that the U.S. will continue to bear the majority of the cost of military and post-conflict costs, with the U.S. contributing 25% of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military budget. During the Kosovo conflict, the U.S. spent $2.8 billion fighting the war, and another $2 billion to replace the munitions it used over Kosovo.

• “While we may not all agree on the merits of military intervention in Libya, we can all agree that Congress must have the opportunity to have a full and ample debate on the commitment of U.S. Armed Forces to a war abroad. The Constitution is clear: Article 1, Section 8 provides only Congress with the ability to declare war or authorize the use of military force. This institution cannot stand by idly as a war of choice with significant ramifications for our national and economic security is waged in the name of our national interests.”

   

  That closing paragraph makes the key statement: “While we may not all agree on the merits of military intervention in Libya, we can all agree that Congress must have the opportunity to have a full and ample debate on the commitment of U.S. Armed Forces to a war abroad.”

   

  Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, swear an defend and abide by a Constitution that gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare wars. That oath demands that they reassert the role of the House and Senate in maintaining the system of checks and balances that the founders outlined “to chain the dogs of war.”

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• Yes, The Libyan War Is Illegal

   
  

  Daniel Larison     May 12th, 2011
• While one can debate the degree to which the presidency is imperial, it’s simply untrue that the war in Libya is illegal in any shape, manner, or form. It’s being conducted under the auspices of both the UN Charter and the North Atlantic Treaty, which rather covers it internationally. ~James Joyner
• As far as the North Atlantic Treaty goes, this is false. The North Atlantic Treaty has nothing to do with what is taking place in Libya. The war is not being fought to fulfill obligations under that treaty, and NATO is not participating in the Libyan war because of the treaty. Indeed, there is no way that a treaty that created a defensive alliance could be used to authorize an attack on a state that did not attack any member of the alliance. At best, NATO is acting as the institution through which member governments are enforcing a Security Council resolution.
• As far as U.S. law is concerned, this is also wrong. The President has no authority under the Constitution to do what Obama has done in Libya. The Libyan war doesn’t even have the ridiculous Clinton administration excuse of “implicit authorization” through a vote for funding the war, and to this day the Libyan war continues to be funded out of the Pentagon’s current budget. The Constitution did not vest the President with the power to start a war against another state (or anyone else) on his authority. This is the very sort of arbitrary war that the Framers sought to avoid. War powers were not ambiguously divided. They were very clearly divided. Since WWII and especially since Korea, the divisions have been blurred by executive usurpation and Congressional surrender, and members of both parties have been happy to collaborate in this blurring when the executive was under their party’s control. The fact that Congress has completely failed to check the executive in this matter doesn’t make Obama’s actions legal. It just means that there will apparently be no attempt to hold him accountable for his illegal war.
• Contra Andrew, the war was illegal from the start. There wasn’t a time in March when it was legal, but then became illegal later. Obama has abused the authority given to him as Commander-in-Chief. It doesn’t cease to be an abuse of power because Congress and the public are indifferent. What that means is that Obama will evidently get away with his illegal actions.
• cfountain72, on May 12th, 2011 at 6:08 pm Said:

    

  “The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the Legislature the power of declaring a state of war [and] the power of raising armies. A delegation of such powers [to the president] would have struck, not only at the fabric of our Constitution, but at the foundation of all well organized and well checked governments. The separation of the power of declaring war from that of conducting it, is wisely contrived to exclude the danger of its being declared for the sake of its being conducted.”
    -James Madison

   

  http://www.fff.org/comment/com0204a.asp

   

  Because Congress is too damn lazy to enforce their prerogative, does not make it any less illegal. It just means it’s not being enforced. If the Supreme Court is unable to read and interpret the simple war language of the Constitution, then they are not doing their job either. Bear in mind that the decisions of even the Supreme Court are not written in stone, and can be changed from time to time. Certainly the court that ‘discovered’ that the Commerce Clause covers the growing of plants in your back yard is of a different mind than the Court that was sitting 100 years earlier.

   

  I would, however, be curious to learn more about the many times “Presidential military actions have been challenged in the courts…and the courts have upheld that the President was in compliance with the War Powers Act.”

   

  Peace be with you.
• cfountain72, on May 13th, 2011 at 4:20 am Said:

    

  Thanks for the links. But if this action was ‘legal’ what difference would the policy make? Essentially, this means a president can start any war they want and the legislature is powerless to stop him. The best we could hope is that he would get voted out, but a lot of war can be waged in the course of four years.

   

  Essentially, you are describing an elected king, which is surely not what we are designed to have. Supporters of the ‘legal’ argument often point to precedent as justification. But this just means the people and their representatives have not pushed the issue. I have to believe that if enough Americans woke up from their war zombie stupor, Congress would act. As it is, our ambivalence becomes their ambivalence.

   

  Peace be with you.
• cfountain72, on May 13th, 2011 at 8:21 am Said:

    

  tbraton,

   

  Your point is well taken, but sadly I think we know at least one reason most candidates (and even some Senators) are reluctant to call Obama out on Libya: they might want to do the exact same thing if they become President!

   

  Also, there is a strange code amongst some Republicans (maybe some Dem’s too?) whereby you aren’t supposed to question the Commander in Chief in times of war. It runs against the core principles that the country was based on, but there it is….

   

  “First and foremost, I am supporting the president because he is Commander in Chief and he has taken the United States to war. He didn’t take the Obama administration to war, or the Democratic party, or (many) liberals. He has taken the country to war – my country, our country. If we have disagreements – and believe me, I’ve got a ton – they can wait until after the war is over and won.”

   

  http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2011/03/22/why-im-supporting-my-president/

   

  (As you can see, a reality-based foreign policy view has not reached some folks. I can’t help but wonder how far this deference would go. If we invaded say Brazil? Mexico? Canada? Where does it stop?)

   

  Peace be with you.
• cfountain72, on May 13th, 2011 at 8:27 am Said:

    

  And yes, it is my contractual duty to point out another (now official) candidate who has been critical of the Libyan adventure before it even began…

   

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-qm9U3X3EU
• conradg, on May 15th, 2011 at 12:30 pm Said:

    

  I’ve tried making this point here before, to no avail, but will try one more time.

   

  Actions like this by the President are neither illegal nor unconstitutional – at least until the Supreme Court rules so.

   

  The Constitution does not give Congress the sole authority to make war against other nations. It gives Congress the sole authority to create an army. Once created that army is given to the President to command, and he can decide how to use it. If he uses it improperly, Congress can take it away from him. Or they can impeach him.

   

  What is generally not understood is that the framers of the Constitution were almost entirely against the idea of having a standing army, which they saw as the root of all evils (and perhaps for good reason). Therefore, Congress’ power to declare war was seen as the power to create an army when needed and let the President command it as he saw fit. When the war was over and the need for an army no longer existed, the army would be disbanded. So there would never arise a situation like Libya, because the US would not have an army to fight such a war without an act of Congress.

• This all changed of course when the US decided to keep a permanent standing army, for the most part after the early disasters of the War of 1812. Since then, we have maintained a standing army at the President’s constant command, re-authorized by congress every two years. SO a declaration of war is no longer needed for the President to use that army as he sees fit to defend the country, and they have consequently become quite rare. That does not make it illegal or unconstitutional for the President to use the army without a declaration of war or even an authorization from congress. In fact, it is probably the War Powers Act that is unconstitutional, in limiting the President’s ability to use the army under his command. The constitution only authorizes congress to limit the President’s command of the military through budgetary means or impeachment.

   

  Now, this is clearly a flaw in the Constitution that needs some sort of remedy by constitutional amendment. But until that is done, these kinds of actions are simply not unconstitutional. The President is merely exercising his constitutionally appointed command of the military. The problem is not with the President, but with congress’ creation of a standing army, which is why the framers of the Constitution were almost unanimously against it. But you will hear very few people suggesting that proper solution, which is either to disband our standing army, or to amend the constitution taking away sole command responsibility from the President.

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