Was Turkish PM Erdogan the final recipient of the Qaddafi human rights prize?
The Turkish opposition is criticizing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his relative silence on events in Libya saying he is ?doing well by the award? given to him by Muammar al-Qaddafi last November. If current events continue the way they’ve been going, it looks like Erdogan may have the dubious honor of being the last recipient of that particular award.
Who depends the most on Libyan oil?
rish voters head to the polls today for a national election that is expected to bring to an end to the rule of the Fianna Fail party, which has been in power for 60 of the last 80 years. (See Alex Massie’s preview on the site today.) The vote comes amidst a time of spiralling economic turmoil for the country. As if an 11 percent GDP decline and 13 percent unemployment aren’t bad enough, Ireland also stands to take a hit if oil supplies from Libya are further disrupted, as this chart from the Economist — via RealClearWorld — makes clear:
Civil Resistance Tactics Used in Egypt?s Revolution #Jan25
It?s easy to overlook the importance of civil resistance savviness when talking about the protests that forced the hand of power in Egypt. The media placed Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on center stage as if actors in their own right. What struck me most, however, was how well-trained and disciplined the movement was. I believe this had a pivotal impact on the outcome of the protests. Identifying the specific tactics and strategies used in Egypt is important to balance the focus on technology. It is equally important to explain how the popular resistance acquired those skills so others might do the same.
Challenges for foreign journalists in Libya
The US State Department has warned journalists that going into Libya is extremely hazardous, as those reporters who have already entered the country illegally are now being considered Al Qaida collaborators by the government and will be arrested if caught.
Egypt is not Iran: Why the revolution won’t turn Egypt into an Islamist state by Aaron Stein
?I Saw God in Tahrir?
We welcome a third post by guest blogger Yasmin Moll. Yasmin shares additional insight from Cairo, Egypt. Thank you Yasmin!
Many commentators both inside and outside Egypt have focused on the anticipated role of the Muslim Brotherhood in a post-Mubarak Egypt. In many of these analyses, the Brotherhood is used as a metonym for the projected role of Islam in the public sphere. However, while the Brotherhood will certainly play a formative role in post-revolutionary politics and governance in Egypt, it does not have a monopoly on Islamic discourse in the country.
On Egypt and Islam
Uprising in Egypt: Islam and the compulsion of the political
by Jeremy F. Walton, The Immanent Frame (SSRC), February 23, 2011
Arab and American revolutions in history
from The Immanent Frame by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im
Why Not Call It A Facebook Revolution?
Tunisians filled the streets with the help of Twitter. Egypt?s protests were coordinated on Facebook pages like that of Internet activist Wael Ghonim. Libyan dissenters spread the word about their ?day of rage? last week the same way. And yet, in these heady days when the entire Middle East seems to be inspired to organize online in revolt against autocracy, it has become fashionable for experts to dismiss the role of social media in 2011?s revolutions.
How Facebook Supported the Egyptian Revolution
from Mashable! by Emily Banks
Crowdsourced Documentary Project Yields Footage Out of Libya
from Mashable! by Radhika Marya
Qaddafi’s son bankrolling Hollywood movies including “Mafia Contract Killer” with Mickey Rourke
Bloomberg reports on the Hollywood investment business of Al-Saadi Qaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi (and, before he failed a drug test, a rising soccer star).
One Journalist’s Survival Guide to the Egyptian Revolution
During the uprising that eventually ended the 30-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak, I became convinced that the most important journalistic work being done today is in those countries where journalists are not wanted. Mubarak and his agents were determined to silence the protesters and their message.
Members of Turkey’s Red Crescent pitch a tent, in anticipation of Turkish nationals arriving from Libya, in the port of Marmaris, Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. Two Turkish ships whisked 3,000 citizens away from the unrest engulfing Libya as Turkey cranked up its largest-ever evacuation, seeking to protect an estimated 25,000 Turkish workers in Libya. More than 200 Turkish companies are involved in construction projects in Libya worth over $15 billion, and some construction sites have come under attack by protesters.? Read more » (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
Lebanese On Facebook Seek Change, Not Revolution
from All Facebook by Jackie Cohen
On Libya: Why We Need Nuance
Reported events in Libya are very intriguing, to some extent. While one hopes that the following statements do not go too far over the top, we might say that unconfirmed allegations of loss of life may give one reason for pause. It is possible that some of us may entertain certain misgivings about the multifaceted and complex comments offered by the Libyan leader. While some may wish to argue that Col. Gaddafi is a ?dictator,? a less tendentious characterization should suggest itself as the situation is neither black nor white, but grey.
Can Saudi Activists Pull Off Facebook-Led Revolution?
from All Facebook by Jackie Cohen
Gaddafi?s madness
The emergence of a new Arab world?
Libya?s tribal politics key to Gaddafi?s fate
Libya: Feeling the Iron Fist in Tripoli (Videos)
from Global Voices Online by John Liebhardt
2011-02-22 How US Businesses in Libya Made Certain They Could Operate in the Rogue State
from WL Central by kgosztola
Serbia: Reactions to the Story of Serbian Mercenaries in Libya
from Global Voices Online by Sasa Milosevic
Qaddafi family values
from Wiki Leaks by Charles Homans
2011-02-24 Arming Gaddafi
The young United States had barely thrown off it’s own colonial shackles when in 1805 it flexed its nascent imperial powers against what is now Libya. U.S. Marines captured the Eastern Libyan city of Darnah, raise the U.S. flag over it and forced the ruler in Tripoli to sign a commercial treaty with the U.S. before withdrawing. Since those days, wherever US Marines fight and kill, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, they proudly remember those early battles to put down the Barbary pirates and insure favorable trade relations “on the shores of Tripoli.”
EU: Libyan crisis complicated by lack of aid network
from EUobserver.com – Headline News
Qaddafi: ‘Everything will burn’
Speaking on television outside one of his residences, which was bombed by the U.S. in the 1980s and features a large statue of a fist crushing an American warplane, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi just delivered a rambling, defiant speech in which he bizarrely claimed not to have ordered attacks on protesters, despite well-documented reports to the contrary, but promised deadly consequences when he does. Al Jazeera reports:
VIDEO: Libya-Egypt border ‘free from Gaddafi’
straight to Qaddafi
Now that everyone is probably scrambling for deniability if not cover, let’s revisit David Rose’s piece on New Labour, New Libya. It’s something worth a second reading into the record.
MAIN FOCUS: Europe lacks clear stance on Libya | 23/02/2011
In a televised speech the Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi has refused to make any concessions to his adversaries. In the meantime the interior minister has resigned and joined the protesters, as have parts of the military. Europe, by contrast, lacks a clear stance, the press writes, partly because it was on good terms with the dictator for far too long.
The EU should impose sanctions on Gaddafi
Over on the Spectator’s Coffee House blog, we set out the case for imposing sanctions on Gaddfi’s regime (while also looking at the difficulties EU member states are facing in coming up with a common policy on Libya, in what is a painfully familar story).
Libya’s refugee crisis
from FP Passport by Elizabeth Dickinson
Former justice minister: Qaddafi ordered Lockerbie bombing
from FP Passport by Joshua Keating
MAIN FOCUS: Global community must restore peace in Libya | 24/02/2011
Troops loyal to the Libyan regime continue to use violence against demonstrators. The UN Security Council, the US and the EU have called on Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi to end the bloodshed and are considering sanctions. The press calls for immediate resolutions regarding sanctions and the option of military intervention.
How to stop a Libyan massacre: the power is in our hands, Ranj Alaaldin
The Arab rebellion: perspectives of power, Paul Rogers
The Arab world is in ferment. The popular upheavals that removed presidents in Tunisia and Egypt, the intensifying protests from Bahrain to Algeria and Morocco, and the revolt in Libya – all testify to the arrival of new generations, voices, and aspirations onto the region?s social and political stage.
Libyan justice: medicine on death row, , Michel Thieren
On 19 December 2006, a Libyan judge announced a verdict in the final appeal of six foreign health workers accused of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV at the al-Fateh hospital in Benghazi, Libya. The 2004 death sentence on the “Benghazi six” – five Bulgarian nurses (Kristiyana Valtcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka, and Snezhana Dimitrova) and one Palestinian doctor (Ashraf al-Hajuj, alias al-Hadjudj) – was confirmed, and they were sentenced to death by firing squad, as requested by the Libyan prosecutor in his opening statement on 29 August 2006.
The Arab revolt: transformation to transition, Nadim Shehadi
The Arab democratic revolution, if that is what it proves to be, is spreading. The experiences of protest and change in Tunisia and Egypt, Bahrain and Morocco, Libya and Yemen may vary substantially, as most probably will their political outcomes; yet they also seem to be components of a great collective shift, which will have reverberations far beyond the region.
Yemen: At the Boiling Point? (Video)
from Global Voices Online by John Liebhardt
Will Algeria Follow Tunisia and Egypt?
Written by Mohamed Benderouiche · Translated by Diana Rhudick · View original post [fr]
This post is part of our special coverage on Algeria Protests 2011.
Libya: Refugees Leave as Humanitarian Aid and Journalists Trickle in
from Global Voices Online by Amira Al Hussaini
Jordan: Reactions to Amman’s Friday Protests (Photos)
from Global Voices Online by Nadine Toukan
Libya: Defiant Gaddafi: ?People who don’t love me don’t deserve to live?
from Global Voices Online by Amira Al Hussaini
Libya: ?They Were Shooting Us Randomly? (Videos)
from Global Voices Online by John Liebhardt
Libya: Fear and Chaos at Tripoli Airport
from Global Voices Online by Sasa Milosevic
World: And the Best Actor Award Goes to Gaddafi!
Written by Amira Al Hussaini
Colin Firth may have won the Oscar for Best Actor, but it was Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Al Gaddafi who got the most mentions.
A New Democratic Wave in the Middle East?
from reflectioncafe.net by Reflection Cafe
Gaddafi: odd and daffy to the end
After the outing of two long-standing autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt, the domino theory pizza delivery is now at the shores of Tripoli. What can one say about Colonel Muammar Gaddafi that does not sound like a bad Hollywood movie? He is, of course, also a dear friend of Italy?s clown prince Berlusconi. If Gaddafi did not exist in his Libyan tent, guarded by a bevy of young ladies, Monty Python would have invented him. Here is a guy who came to power at age 27 in the year that Led Zeppelin dominated the pop chart with ?Whole Lotta Love.? That was over four decades ago. It appears that in Libya today there is not a whole lotta love for this odd and daffy caricature.
MAIN FOCUS: International pressure on Libya mounts | 01/03/2011
The global community has increased the pressure on the Gaddafi regime. The UN Human Rights Council called on Monday for an end to the violence in Libya, while the US and its European allies are considering imposing a no-fly zone over the country. The press is happy at the new-found consensus in the UN but warns against military intervention.
Mideast turmoil increases EU inflation risks
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