Tuesday - November 08, 2011

are libya’s good guys turning bad, or only reverting to type? time will tell but meanwhile

Gaddifi is gone and not many will miss the cartoonish buffoon.  One of the things that surprised me about him for a very long time, was how seriously he took himself.
I used to think he never looked in a mirror. If he had, he might have died laughing. But for all his loony tune antics, he was a dangerous man and perhaps mad as well.

So he’s gone and unlamented.  Eight months ago when France and England decided it was of earth shaking importance (along with nato) to defend civilians against him, I thought their excuse for their crusade was a crock and still do.  I was peeved that the powers aligned against him weren’t willing to call a spade a spade and launched that dumb propaganda war.  Come on. How many of us truly and honestly believed that all of a sudden, after all those many years, four decades in fact, suddenly nato (with a small ‘n’) led by the nose by Sarkozy and Cameron, all of a sudden they have an epiphany. All of a sudden they wet their collective pants over his supposed attack against his own people. Like it was something new to them.

At the time I wondered, as did many other far smarter and better informed people then myself, just who were these ‘civilians’ Cameron and company were so worked up about.  Well, according to some reports coming from the area, reports I’ve no reason to doubt, perhaps the guys Gaddifi was at war with weren’t all boy scouts or innocent civilians yearning to breathe free.  You don’t say.

Here’s some belated news from last week.  Just in case you missed it.

Libya: revolutionaries turn on each other as fears grow for law and order

Hundreds of revolutionaries fought each other at a hospital in Tripoli early on Monday, in the biggest armed clash between allies since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

By Nick Meo, in Tripoli

The fighting fuelled growing fears that nobody is in control of thousands of swaggering armed men who are still based in Tripoli and that the country’s interim government will struggle to impose law and order.

Two people died from bullet wounds and at least seven fighters were injured during a battle that started when militia from the town of Zintan were stopped by guards from the Tripoli Brigade from entering the city’s Central Hospital to kill a patient.

The hospital front door and entrance hall were afterwards left pocked with bullets, doctors and patients had to flee the building and two elderly patients died of heart attacks during the shooting, which lasted from about 1am until dawn. Heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns were used by both factions, supposed allies who in reality nurse a dangerous rivalry.

READ MORE

And now there is this update which won’t surprise anyone.

Libya dispatch: as lawlessness spreads, are the rebel ‘good guys’ turning bad?

Once welcomed as liberators, Libya’s rebel fighters are beginning to outstay their welcome in Tripoli.

By Nick Meo, Tripoli

Abdul Mojan’s moment of realisation came when the good guys threw him into the boot of their car, slammed it shut and drove off with him a prisoner inside.
When they finally stopped and hauled him out, he asked them: “What are you doing? I’m a revolutionary just like you! I’ve never supported Gaddafi.’”

But the former rebels didn’t care. They had taken a liking to the new office block in western Tripoli that Mr Mojan managed and they wanted the keys and ownership documents. He tried to reason with them, pointing out that there were plenty of government buildings standing empty.
To no avail, however. “We have sacrificed for this revolution and you haven’t, and now we will take what we want,” he was told by a cocky 18-year-old. “You can have the building back when the revolution is over.”
A week later Mr Mojan was still incredulous as he recounted his tale toThe Sunday Telegraph, admitting that he felt lucky to escape without a beating although there was nothing he could do about the 5,000 dinar (£2,550) they stole from his car.

Many of Tripoli’s residents have had a similar moment of grim awakening in recent weeks. Their liberators, still swaggering around the city in Che Guevara-style berets and armed to the teeth, have not gone back to their home towns as they promised. Nor have they started handing in the guns they used to fight against Gaddafi, as they said they would.

“When they said Libya Free, they meant the cars, the refrigerators and the flat-screen television sets,” runs one joke doing the rounds in Tripoli’s cafes. Stories of gunmen taking expensive cars at checkpoints, giving receipts saying they will be returned after the revolution, are nervously swapped over cups of tea.

More alarming than the looting have been the armed clashes between militias. There have been three big fights in the capital alone in the past week; shoot-outs at a hospital, Martyr’s Square, and the military airport, which have left several dead and dozens wounded.
Then there are the detentions. With the fighting over, the revolutionaries have not been idle. They have kept busy rounding up hundreds of suspected Gaddafi supporters in a wide-scale witch-hunt, often on the basis of little more than rumour and accusation.

One man, a supporter of the revolution who was full of hope a month ago, described how his brother-in-law, Omar, had been grabbed by gunmen from Misurata. They were acting for a wealthy businessman from the city, with whom Omar had a dispute several years ago.
“They came to his house and Omar went with them because he believed in the revolution and thought it was a misunderstanding that would soon be sorted out,” the man said.

“But when they arrived in Misurata they threw him in their private prison and said they would beat the soles of his feet until he confessed. It is an old Turkish torture called the falakha. He was really scared, and he managed to escape by persuading one of them who felt uneasy about this to let him go.
“Next day they turned up at his house, and threatened his wife and children. Can you believe this? We have hundreds of little Gaddafis now.

SOURCE AND MORE

“are the rebel ‘good guys’ turning bad?” No ... they are only reverting to type.

Posted by peiper     on 11/08/2011 at 09:19 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
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