Richard Engel is reporting that rebels have reached the Western gate of his compound. He says there are three gates, but the Western is the main one.

What comes next. There are NO institutions of government of any sort in Libya, the guest on democracynow this morning pointed out. U.S. will magically create them from afar, and be much better at it than when U.S. tries to do it up close & personal, I suppose.

Live coverage now on CNN – far from over as smoke is in the air all over Tripoli …reports of fighting at airport as well ..

The live shots are intense

What’s the score, do you know? How many innocents have been killed by NATO, by rebels, by Gaddafi. Inquiring minds…

Here is an independent (i.e. non-corporate media) description of the “rebel” forces. Mostly mercenaries and western colonial units:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MH24Ak01.html

I have a tid bit that was posted here at the Dissenter by one our Pups. Let me go find it. Be right back!

When western forces kill civilians anywhere it’s collateral damage, and when locals do it, it’s a massacre.
When western forces side with insurgents the insurgents are called rebels.
When western forces bomb the shit out of a country it’s called enforcing a no-fly-zone.
When a western leader decides to bomb another country and kill lots of people he’s not acting unconstitutionally as a ruthless dictator, he’s a courageous Commander in Chief and Chief Executive.

“I have directed these actions, which are in the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive.”

There is no such constitutional authority.

I don’t have clear info -sorry. Do know that this is a mess.

Hearing Lt Col Marks now on CNN say someone needs to shoot Gaddafi in the face, never considering international court prosecution is … so typical of our new empire

Here it is:

Our very own Donbacon added in the comments.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

It is a Provisional Constitution type thingie.

He probably doesn’t want anyone to know that we have had boots on the ground for months.

If anyone should stand before the ICC it is the leadership of the past administration, and arguably the leadership of this one. Top members of the CIA, the Pentagon, the Executive Branch, who committed a destructive, criminal act in the invasion of Iraq, killing, even with the lower estimates, over 150,000 people, and probably more than 600,000-1,000,000, while displacing over 2 million.

They also tortured unknown thousands, or sent their victims to be even more cruelly tortured at the hands of client foreign intelligence services. The scale is much larger than that of Gadaffi and his sons. They should also find their place into a court and prison, but for the U.S. and UK to stand for international justice is laughable.

Sarah Sidner if CNN doing great reporting now from the streets – reminding us there are civilians there in line of fire

Also on Twitter follow #Rixos asvthe reporters trapped in hotel report on their situation

eCAHNomics,

So sorry. Just noticing that you were part of the discussion last night.

Our tax dollars at work, as the highway sign says.

Our past ten years of bringing um freedom, those left alive, of course love US.

But we’re christian-judeo do unto other as you would have them do unto you, love your neighbor as yourself and pray for your enemies kinda of nation doncha know ? Just look at the love we are sowing with a fine harvest to follow.

Obama Doctrine Emerging in New Libya; Cowbagger Diplomacy ‘Refudiated’

The inevitable ouster of Col. Muammar Gaddafi will have been a victory for this administra­tion and the operation will provide a template for how future such troubles must be handled. It will have the added benefit of serving as the final repudiation of Cowboy Diplomacy while formally introducing the long overdue Obama Doctrine. The accomplishment will have come without the support of a loyal opposition in America. Indeed, it will have come despite a bed wetting and back stabbing disloyal opposition.

… the Obama Administration appears to be growing something of an organic new doctrine. A doctrine that comes out of the terra firma of rational policy rather than a neoconservative or Randian petri dish.

While the Obama Doctrine will require more time to ripen, there appear to be principles emerging …
Article:
Obama Doctrine Emerging in New Libya; Cowbagger Diplomacy ‘Refudiated’

One report mentioned that Gaddafi’s stockpile of 20,000 hand-held surface to air missiles is unaccounted for. Hopefully this won’t turn out to be a problem later on.

Who supplied the hand arms to the rebels? What is the amount of tonnage dropped by NATO warplanes? Who is running the power plants servicing Tripoli? Do basic services still exist in Tripoli? Is there enough food in Tripoli? If not, is any food being brought in?

Of course NATO will continue it’s bombing campaign, because there’s got to be at least a few civilians that haven’t been maimed and killed yet.

Ya’ know……….this whole NATO and United Nations “thing” is not working out nearly as well as I think it was designed to. Hundreds of million$$$ of OUR money and, what’s it been four months to take out an unpopular, ruthless dictator with a “Mickey Mouse” army. He thumbs his nose at the U.N. and can successfully fight off the combined forces of NATO and a “bank check” from the United States.

Here’s a good piece about Saif.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903461304576524170306994658.html

It could be Saif’s inclinations are more the rule than an exception. The potential waits only for an opportunity for most any individual to act out what he had seen and heard as “normal” since childhood. Add a hundred tribes into the mix and have at it.

If that’s the case a door may be opening for just a new crop of thugs without a single good willed democrat among them.

Not yet over?
No it’s over. There isn’t enough of a body count yet, so let the slaughter, and that’s what it is, continue.
And donbacon pretty much nailed it in,
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

“The new Libyan Constitution should warm the cockles of war party hearts.

Draft Constitutional Charter
for the Transitional Stage
Part One
General Provisions
Article (1)

Libya is an independent Democratic State wherein the people are the source of authorities. The city of Tripoli shall be the capital of the State. Islam is the Religion of the State and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia). “

And NO, it’s NOT about the oil, right …

“donbacon August 22nd, 2011 at 3:12 pm
3

It’s about the oil.
Sanction loophole for US oil dealers follows.

April 26, 2011
Department of the Treasury
Office of Foreign Assets Control
Executive Order 13566 of February 25,2011 Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya
GENERAL LICENSE NO. 5
Authorizing Transactions Related to Certain Oil, Gas, or Petroleum Products Exported from Libya

U.S. persons are authorized to engage in transactions with or involving Qatar Petroleum or the Vitol group of companies related to oil, gas, or petroleum products exported from Libya under the auspices of the Transitional National Council of Libya (the “TNC”), provided that neither the Government of Libya nor any other person whose property and interests in property are blocked – with the exception of Arab Gulf Oil Company (“Agoco”) [based in then rebel-controlled Benghazi], as an entity operating in areas controlled by the TNC and under the auspices of the TNC – receives any benefit from such transactions.

U.S. persons purchasing oil, gas, or petroleum products from Qatar Petroleum or the Vitol group of companies pursuant to this general license are required to submit a report to the Office of Foreign Assets Control detailing such transactions within 30 days of the transactions, including information describing due diligence mechanisms to verify that neither the Govemment [sic] of Libya nor any other person whose property and interests in property are blocked, with the exception of Agoco, is receiving any benefits from such transactions. Reports should be submitted to the attention of the Licensing Division, Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20220.”

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

And it’s not about banking either, right?

“donbacon August 22nd, 2011 at 4:22 pm
7

on banking

from atimes:

In a 2007 “Democracy Now” interview of US General Wesley Clark (Ret). In it he says that about 10 days after September 11, 2001, he was told by a general that the decision had been made to go to war with Iraq. Clark was surprised and asked why. “I don’t know!” was the response. “I guess they don’t know what else to do!” Later, the same general said they planned to take out seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.

What do these seven countries have in common? In the context of banking, one that sticks out is that none of them is listed among the 56 member banks of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). That evidently puts them outside the long regulatory arm of the central bankers’ central bank in Switzerland.

The most renegade of the lot could be Libya and Iraq, the two that have actually been attacked. Kenneth Schortgen Jr, writing on Examiner.com, noted that “[s]ix months before the US moved into Iraq to take down Saddam Hussein, the oil nation had made the move to accept euros instead of dollars for oil, and this became a threat to the global dominance of the dollar as the reserve currency, and its dominion as the petrodollar.”

March 21, Bloomberg:

The Council also said it “designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi.”

Aug 1, 2011
Africa’s curse of gold and oil
By Brian E Muhammad (extracts)

‘Gaddafi’s creation of the African Investment Bank in Sirte (Libya) and the African Monetary Fund to be based in Cameroon will supplant the IMF and undermine Western economic hegemony in Africa,’ said Gerald Pereira, an executive board member of the former Tripoli-based World Mathaba.

Despite the ire of Western foes, Muammar Gaddafi gained the clout to lead creation of a single currency because of strong oil profits versus a small population.

‘The US, the other G8 countries, the World Bank, IMF, BIS (Bank for International Settlements), and multinational corporations do not look kindly on leaders who threaten their dominance over world currency markets,’ wrote John Perkins, author of ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,’ on Johnperkins.com.

It is redolent of Saddam Hussein advocating similar policies shortly before the US invaded Iraq, he said.

So is the Libya no-fly zoneWar all about oil or all about banking? Maybe both.”

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

But do not worry, because corporations are exempt from prosecution,

“donbacon August 22nd, 2011 at 4:32 pm
8

The next executive order to keep an eye out for in Obama’s Bush-like presidency is a re-do of the infamous EO 13303, May 22, 2003 just as the last ‘cakewalk’ got started.

Executive Order 13303 decreed that ‘any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void’, with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and “all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein.” In other words, if ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco touch Iraqi oil, it would be immune from legal proceedings in the US.”

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

And it’s not about the water, right?

“john in sacramento August 22nd, 2011 at 6:39 pm
21
In response to donbacon @ 7 (show text)

And the water … wait, what?

Yea, the water

Few in the West may know that Libya – along with Egypt – sits over the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer; that is, an ocean of extremely valuable fresh water. Control of the aquifer is priceless. This Water Pipelineistan – buried underground deep in the desert along 4,000 km – is the Great Man-Made River Project (GMMRP), which Gaddafi built for $25 billion without borrowing a single cent from the IMF or the World Bank (what a bad example for the developing world). The GMMRP supplies Tripoli, Benghazi and the whole Libyan coastline. The amount of water is estimated by scientists to be the equivalent to 200 years of water flowing down the Nile. Compare this to the so-called three sisters – Veolia (formerly Vivendi), Suez Ondeo (formerly Generale des Eaux) and Saur – the French companies that control over 40% of the global water market. All eyes must imperatively focus on whether these pipelines are bombed. An extremely possible scenario is that if they are, juicy “reconstruction” contracts will benefit France. That will be the final step to privatize all this – for the moment free – water.

[...]

Which was incidentally built without World Bank or IMF extortionist involvement”

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

“Refudiate” is a wonderful new word regardless (I mean, irregardless, sorry) of its source.

Still it can’t match Bush’s NOUN, “Grecian.” Bush knew exactly what he was doing that time. Consider, doesn’t it have a more tentative, polite flavor than the harsher sounding “Greek?” Very thoughtful of him, no?

But we have to take out that ruthless dictator, right?

“gigi3 August 22nd, 2011 at 6:54 pm
23
In response to tambershall @ 20 (show text)

Here’s a link to a short video about the dramatic increase in literacy rates and overall standard of living in Libya (7:24).

http://lizziesliberation.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/de-demonising-gaddafi-what-you-dont-know/”

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

OOPS! My #27 is Re: #16

Luckily the rebels are on “our side”,

“donbacon August 22nd, 2011 at 8:50 pm
31

Gaddafi suppressed eastern Libya for good reason.

Eastern Libya
A wikileaks-released cable to the State Department from the US embassy in Tripoli in 2008, part of the WikiLeaks trove, entitled “Extremism in Eastern Libya” revealed that this area is rife with anti-American, pro-jihad sentiment.

“Unlike the rest of the country, sermons in eastern Libyan mosques are laced with phraseology urging worshippers to support jihad in Iraq and elsewhere through direct participation or financial contributions. While senior regime figures, including Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, appear to have recognized that the east merits more attention and investment, the reported ability of radical imams to propagate messages urging support for and participation in jihad despite GOL security organizations’ efforts suggests that claims by senior GOL officials that the east is under control may be overstated.”

As former CIA operations officer Brian Fairchild writes, amid “the apparent absence of any plan for post-Gaddafi governance, an ignorance of Libya’s tribal nature and our poor record of dealing with tribes, American government documents conclusively establish that the epicentre of the revolt is rife with anti-American and pro-jihad sentiment, and with al-Qaeda’s explicit support for the revolt, it is appropriate to ask our policy makers how American military intervention in support of this revolt in any way serves vital US strategic interests”.

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is a band of radical Islamists dedicated to overthrowing the regime of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi and replacing it with a government modeled on Sharia law, with special attention to the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad. The LIFG believes that the Gadhafi regime is oppressive, corrupt and apostate.

As I posted above, the new Libya will apparently be an Islamic state under Sharia.”

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/08/22/the-fall-of-tripoli-brings-new-era-for-oil-gas-companies-in-libya/

It’s basically over, or halas to use the descriptive Arabic term.

BBC:

The BBC’s Rana Jawad in Tripoli says there is a real sense that this is the end of Col Gaddafi’s rule, but the proper celebrations will not begin until he and his family are found.

There are still pockets of resistance in Tripoli near to the Hotel Rixos, where many foreign journalists are staying.

And the situation is unclear in the colonel’s hometown of Sirte, which has been a stronghold of regime loyalists.

Reports said retreating government troops had been pouring back to Sirte, and rumours circulated suggesting that the colonel may have fled there.

Thank you for cross-posting the video on this thread. I’m no cheerleader for Gaddafi, but am seriously concerned the outcome from the rebel takeover will be to the detriment of the Libyan people. The U S and other Western nations have a long history of placing puppets in power to further the interests of transnational corporations and the international bankers.

Every time I read the phrase “Gadaffi, the brutal dictator” I realize how much people are influenced by the media and induced into groupthink. I’ve been watching broadcasts from RT and other foreign media and reading the foreign press. It paints quite a different picture than the corporate media in the U S. There is propaganda on both sides. Somewhere in the middle you can start to glean some shards of truth.

thank bacon, and the others like yourself who have educated me. So thanks.

“There is propaganda on both sides. Somewhere in the middle you can start to glean some shards of truth.”

Couldn’t agree more.

Some more people might die.. but the matter is settled. Ghadafi’s sons are captured or dead.. his official bodyguard surrendered. Abandoned uniforms where his guards used to be.

yep it’s over.. cept the residual killing that is common after the fact.

only question i have now is how many tractor trailers full of cash he took with him when he left.

one thing all dictators having in common is their national banks are their personal bank accounts.

probably why the fed chose to have them over thrown in the first place.

Who will be the next dictator and wil he “rule” for thirty years or more. From what I hear the rebels kinda trashed the presidential palace. I am sure cooler heads will prevail and soon Libya will be a thriving democracy.

When the LIbyans “discover” Gadaffai raided the national bank and they have no money and no leader, I wonder who they will seek out?????????

Its simply amazing that it took the might of NATO over 5 months to depose Gaddafi, but I guess that’s a result of it being a “kinetic military action” rather than a declared “war”. “Days, not weeks”.

Yeah, that’a a real reliable source fur sure.

RT interview with Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam.

Libya like McDonald’s for NATO – Fast War as Fast Food:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpMugPQC4ZY&feature=channel_video_title

Sounds to me like there’s plenty of cheerleaders for Gaddhafy on FDL.

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