59 posts
A bunch of pro-Gaddafi wankers…
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…have announced a so-called “Obama Protest” on 24 May 2011 What a shower! Come along and call them out for the bunch of reactionary anti-working class scabs they are… …the “Stop The War” scabs and appea...
Guardian: Libya Official Admits Migrant Ships Being Allowed to Sail as Protest Against Nato
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From today’s Guardian: “The Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is allowing thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants on to overcrowded, unseaworthy ships in an apparently calculated attempt to use migration as a weapon to pressure Nato an...
Thinking strategically: Libya
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European leaders have demanded Colonel Gaddafi step down from power amid growing uprisings in Libya. They must now follow through their words with actions. There must not be another ‘hour of Europe’. Nonetheless, Europeans must also temper their...
Libya: Yet another example of EU impotence.
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The United States spends about €500 billion a year on defence. It surprises a lot of people, but the EU collectively spends around €200 billion, nearly four times what China spends. Yet look at our dicking around over a No-Fly Zone over Libya. Do...
Time to step up the action
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I just realise that this is my second blog post about Libya, and for a person who does not follow much external relations this is a lot, however as a European and moreover as a Maltese I cannot not write about Libya. The outcome is unclear but what...
Gaddafi’s LSE friends: Davies is gone but what can Giddens resign from?
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Not just David Held and Howard Davies cuddled up to the Gaddafi regime. Anthony Giddens, former LSE Director and advisor to Tony Blair, also publicly defended the Libyan dictator back in 2007. Here is the full text of the letter of resignation from ...
Libya's escalating drama reopens the case for liberal intervention | Timothy Garton Ash
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Iraq gave it a bad name. Blair nearly killed it. But there are responsible versions of a much abused doctrineTo intervene or not to intervene? That is the question. The readiness of the delusional dictator Muammar Gaddafi to kill the Libyans who he...
Human Rights First Backgrounder: States’ Obligations to Protect Refugees Fleeing Libya
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Excerpts from the Backgrounder: Currently, Tunisia and Egypt are experiencing an influx of people fleeing Libya. These persons include nationals of those two countries seeking to return home, as well as Libyans and smaller numbers of nationals of oth...
Chaos at Libyan-Tunisian border
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A photo of what is apparently the Ras Jdir (Ra’s Ajdir) crossing on the Libya- Tunisia border on 1 March 2011. (Photo Credit Reuters via Al Jazeera.) Tagged: Border crossing, Libya, Migrants, Ra's Ajdir, Ras Jdir, Refugees, Tunisa, UNH...
Laitinen in Malta for Discussions
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Frontex Director Ilkka Laitinen is in Malta today for discussions with Maltese officials about the situation in Libya and the possibility of a new migrant flow from Libya. It seems that the discussions concern the expansion of Joint Operation Herme...
A Libya et al. roundup. “Who depends the most on Libyan oil?; “Challenges for foreign journalists in Libya…
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Was Turkish PM Erdogan the final recipient of the Qaddafi human rights prize? from FP Passport by Joshua Keating The Turkish opposition is criticizing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his relative silence on events in Libya saying he is “...
Oman too
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I’m wondering if the civil war in Libya would mean the Arab 1848 wouldn’t spread to any countries where it hadn’t already built up a good deal of momentum, since people would be afraid protests would lead to chaos. Apart from maybe...
Libya’s fate will have major impact on Europe
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It’s amazing what can happen in two weeks! Since posting my blog on the Year of (Arab) Revolutions on February 13 the winds of change have hit Libya with a vengeance. Of all the countries in the region Libya is the one whose fate will have the bigg...
ECRE's recommendations on persons fleeing Libya...EASO may have a role
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On Friday ECRE launched an appeal to European governments to ensure safety for all persons fleeing Libya.ECRE highlights the need for border operations to have an international protection component, so as to ensure access to asylum procedures for tho...
From Libya to Brazil, interior goes international (EU Justice and Home Affairs Council)
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Only the first day conclusions were posted on the Consilium front page, but the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council was a two day meeting. For those who may have missed the conclusions by the justice ministers and ministers of the interior of the...
Europe and the US Needs to be More Responsive Towards Libyans
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How can one country that is often ignored by the world community have such an effect on all of us, even more than Egypt in some ways? Libya has often been under the radar over the last 70 years except for the battle between the Allies and Afrika Corp...
Italy's shame in Libya
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"WE MUST not allow Libya to become another Afghanistan just next door to us,” declared Italy’s interior minister, Roberto Maroni, at the end of a European ministerial meeting in Brussels yesterday (February 25th). From indifference to the crisis...
Qaddafi's Yugoslav friends
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THE Balkan press and the region's intrepid Facebookers are having a field day digging out pictures of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, the beleaguered Libyan leader, with, variously, Stipe Mesic and Haris Silajdzic, former leaders of Croatia and Bosnia, Bori...
Europe twisting over Libya
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Faced with international crises Europe seems to tie itself in knots. Some seek what is not possible. Some chase what does not exist. I refer to those who hanker after a European foreign policy. Some yearn for the EU to...
ECRE Statement: Safe haven for people fleeing bloodshed in Libya
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ECRE issued a statement earlier today. Here is the full statement: As the situation in Libya is worsening and the world is watching the atrocities of Gaddafi’s regime, European governments are stepping up efforts to evacuate their citizens ou...
Putin in Brussels, and what it could mean for Libya
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Vladimir Putin and 12 of his ministers blew through Brussels Thursday, reiterating many of their long-stated complaints about the European Union’s energy policies, which Russian leaders believe discriminate against Russian energy giant Gazprom. But...
The EU's Gaddafi "memory hole"
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Everyone who has read George Orwell's novel 1984 is familiar with the concept of "memory holes", which the Ministry of Truth used to get rid of inconvenient documents and photographs. Well, it seems as if the EU has picked up on the idea.Apparently,...
Shanghai View: Jasmine Tea Revolutions?
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A lot has been made of the implications for China of the current wave of revolutionary zeal in North Africa and the Middle East. From Shanghai, however, much of this seems overplayed; I have foundRead more…...
Morning Brief Headlines
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- Fighting in Libya continues - A post-Gaddafi order is emerging - Obama discusses Libya with Sarkozy, Cameron, Berlusconi - US preparing international action - EU: Humanitarian intervention an option - MEPs on Libya - ENP: Commission wants more cond...
AlertNet: Poor migrant workers feared unable to flee Libya violence
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From AlertNet: “Tens of thousands of impoverished migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia may be trapped by the escalating violence in Libyan cities, unable to leave the country because they cannot pay for transport to border...
Italy and Czech Republic back Gaddafi despite bloodbath
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The EU is struggling to speak with one voice following a massive loss of life in Libya over the weekend and the regime's vow to fight protesters to the "to the last bullet. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has spoken of her "extr...
Rump ‘WRP’ still up Gaddafi’s rump
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Bloody hell! Something calling itself the ‘WRP’ still exists twenty five years after Gerry Healy was exposed as a rapist and the organisation shattered. More to the point, this would-be ‘WRP’ is still grovelling to Gaddafi &...
war of position
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Useful map by Iyad el-Baghdadi of the current state of play in Libya. And here’s Steve Negus’ more detailed Google maps mash up. From the look of things, Gaddafi still controls Tripoli and a strip of territory in the middle of the country from Si...
Barroso Criticises Italy’s Use of Migration Issue to Not Support Democracy in North Africa
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From the EU Observer: “Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi is friends with Gaddafi… Italy also has major oil, gas and arms interests in Libya and it fears a ‘biblical exodus’ of hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants and refugees if Gad...
not a fidgety person
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As we wait for the final denouement in Libya, let’s revisit, courtesy of Chris Brooke and Fistful’s Charlie, this fantastic essay on Gaddafi the modernizer by New Labour intellectual godfather Anthony Giddens, who back in 2006 was ready to be...
Muammar Abu Minyar Al Gathafi – RIP?
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Did we really see Muammar Al Gathafi addressing the world last time today? Why doesn’t anyone suggest him to use tear gas instead of gunfire and bombs? Greece just used this method some hours ago! Because he is clearly provoked to commit cr...
NY Times Suggests EU's North African Policy Is Unclear
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See this New York Times piece on the European Union's mixed-bag policy suggestions on the current turmoil in North Africa. EU leaders have in recent days spent much fretting over the prospective masses of immigrants from the Mediterranean's southern...
