US administration’s strategy ‘not clear’ over Libyan Issue

US administration maintains international security forces are working in Libya only to establish peace and for humanitarian purpose. The Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi has fled from the country following mounting pressure from the anti-government rebellions and international community.

The role of the United States in any overseas operation involving UN security Council, international security forces has however not been just for humanitarian purposes so far especially since Obama came in power.

The NATO-led military mission has now taken full control over Libya and now the difference among diplomats over Libyan issue is quite evident in the Congress.

Though Obama retains that arming the Libyan rebellions against the autocratic ruler Gaddafi could also be considered as an option however it was yet not been followed as NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet refused.

The opposition Republicans severely criticized Robert Gates, defense secretary, Adm. Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman over America’s role in Libya.

The US president stated that the military action launched in Libya was aimed to avoid a massacre by the pro-government security forces in Libya.

However, Gaddafi’s military force used anti-aircraft vehicles to counter US air strikes and it became impossible for the international forces to differentiate Gaddafi’s forces from the civilians.

The Republicans has raised their eyebrows over US decision to handover Libyan mission fully to NATO forces after 12 days of operation. Obama still refuses possibilities of sending any ground troop to Libya and there has been no time limit set for the NATO-led mission.

President Obama approves arming Libyan rebels against Gaddafi regime

President Obama approves arming Libyan rebels against Gaddafi regime

US president approved a secret document that authorized US operations in Libya to assist anti-government rebels with arms.

The document seeks for different ways to help the anti-Gaddafi protesters in Libya through arms and legal help.Though the presidential findings, which Obama approved, does not directly allows immediately giving arms to the rebels but it does pave the way for it in near future.

There has been an official statement issued from the White House declaring that the presidential findings had no comment over intelligence issues related to Libya.

The statement repeated what Barack Obama stated a day before indicating the possibilities of provision of arms to anti-government rebels in Libya to force Gaddafi step down, however it was yet not implemented as a decision.

The statement further clarified that the United States was looking over all the ways and possibilities to reach help to the opposition rebellions in Libya to avoid more killing of civilians by Gaddafi’s suppressive forces. There is a fierce debate over US decision to provide arms to the untrained rebels to fight Gaddafi supporting army in Libya.

The coalition forces including US troops enforced a no-fly zone over Libya trying to force Muammar Gaddafi to resign from his post, however, the Libyan president vowed to suppress the rebels by every mean. To confuse the international troops’ air strikes in support of rebels, Gaddafi’s forces left their tanks and started using pickup trucks and it was now difficult to differentiate troops from rebellions from air.

US president supports military action against Libyan counterpart

US president supports military action against Libyan counterpart

Barack Obama states that US military interventions in Libya has saved numerous lives there. He said this while addressing the people of the United States on television and emphasized that intervention by the US security forces has helped in avoiding a massacre in Libya.

Obama appealed to the Muammar Gaddafi supporter forces and Libyan people not to support the oppressive ruler anymore and keep struggling for the procedure.

He stated that if the autocratic ruler would not get access to arms and cash and no more support from the people, the international community will find it easy to remove Gaddafi from his post. He added however that the overthrow of the regime might not be so easy as Gaddafi is trying hard to retain his power.

The US president had earlier too expressed his desire to see Gaddifi hand over the Libyan regime to the opposition. He had said so while affirming the UN resolution to declare Libya a no-fly zone.

Though the US president clarified that the international security forces did not aim to target Gaddafi or force him to step down under the pressure of armed US troops. Obama confessed that the United Stated had done so in Iraq by forcing Saddam to step down. He further added that American soldiers and politicians had collectively put lot of efforts to improve Iraq’s condition.

NATO takes stern steps to stop Pro-Gadhafi forces’ suppression in Libya

Gadhafi’s supporters continue to suppress rebels in Libya. They are being assaulted in the cities which rebels had taken under their control—Misrata and Zintan. Allied forces and NATO are continuing their attacks to stop Gadhafi supporters’ torture against rebellions. Tripoli witnessed continuous explosions and anti aircraft fire on Wednesday.

According to the reports NATO has brought its warships off Libya Coast with UN arms embargo. NATO is also trying to impose flight restrictions on Libya following the declaration of no-fly-zone. The reports regarding NATO forces’ attack came after Gadhafi’s fierce criticism against the international military actions against his supporters.

Gadhafi recently reiterated his promise to fight against the unrest by the rebels and interference from international communities.

The Libyan president declared in a public appearance that the country is ready for the battle. He further said that it would not matter for Libya whether the battle was short or long and Libya was ready to give reply.

Gadhafi fledged international forces for their military attacks on his supporters and efforts for implementing no fly zone over Libya. He stated that it was a crusade against Islam religion. The speech was broadcast live by a state television channel in Libya.

U.S. stocks fall down over panic on Japan radiation, Libya conflict

U.S. stocks fall down over panic on Japan radiation, Libya conflict

U.S. stocks fall down over panic on Japan radiation, Libya conflict

The havoc of Japanese Nuclear radiation has put U.S. stocks market in a drain. Falling for the second week, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has received its biggest jerk in last few months since August. The reasons behind continuous drop in the index are cited Japan’s nuclear crisis as well as unrest and violence in the Middle East.

Fearing that nuclear radiations from Japanese plants might reach US Coast and mainland, people drew back money from the share market leading to continuous drop in the regional stocks. The global economy is already trumping down due to continuous surge of unrest and political crisis subsequently in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia.

Federal Reserve’s statement over strength of US banks to boost dividend had led some optimism and stocks have gained recently. Ceasefire in Libya also boosted the minute surge however it again slumped down and General Electric Co. (GE) lost 5.5 percent, this led to further decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Utilities jumped down by 4.3 percent, meanwhile the Japanese firm Tokyo Electric Power Co. continued struggling to control over the looming radiation crisis in nuclear plants.

Experts call it a dramatic week in the Stocks world. They estimate further meltdown of Japanese market. Probability of war in Libya, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are going to bring another tsunami in world but this time certainly in the investment world.

Pro-Gaddafi security forces push protesters from western stronghold in Libya

LIbya protesters

LIbya Protesters

Pro-government security forces forced anti-Gaddafi protesters out of their stronghold—city of Misurata after high resistance of the rebellions. For a short period though, the protesters had claimed victory of Ajdabiya but now the Libyan government forces reinforced their control over the area.

According to Musa Ibrahim, government spokesman from Libya stated that Qaddafi supporting security forces were to take control over Misurata following Zawiyah, the two towns in the western part of Libya where the rebels had taken over.

The move was slow in order to avoid casualties, stated the spokesperson, whereas the rebels revealed that there were more than 10 people died while Gaddafi’s forces took control of the city from them.

The rebels fought continuously hoping for some support from the international community, but there was none. Susan E. Rice, the United States envoy to the United Nations, tried continuously for a resolution to declare Libya not only a no-flight zone but also initiate some stern steps to check the movement of Gaddafi’s forces.

Ms Rice stated that they were discussing actions that would protect the civilians there in Libya. The United States is considering going for possible measures beyond a no-fly zone. The US diplomat added that they were trying for a solution of the crisis through voting in Libya.

Meanwhile warplanes were reported bombarding over the areas off-Benghazi.

NGOs and aid organizations left the city soon after for safety.

The rebellions welcomed the initiative from the United States and the UN Security Council.

Even within the US administration, it is a strong belief that declaring Libya a no fly zone is no more an effective measure to check loyalist forces’ oppressive steps against the rebels.

U.S. Endorses Arab League Over Declaring Libya as No-Fly Zone

U.S. Endorses Arab League Over Declaring Libya as No-Fly Zone

U.S. Endorses Arab League Over Declaring Libya as No-Fly Zone

Ras Lanuf, Libya:  – The United States supports Arab League’s demand for declaring Libya a no-fly zone. The White House calls it as an important step in the wake of government’s effort to root out rebels from the areas they controlled.

Amr Moussa, chief of the Arab League stated that the League, had determined on Saturday in a meeting in Cairo that Libyan President Gaddafi had done serious crimes and taken violent steps against the people of Libya. The league therefore considers Gaddafi’s government as illegitimate and pressurizes Mummar Gaddafi to step down.

The United States would play a vital role in implementation of making Libya a no fly-zone. However it had not made any commitment yet to take any military action against Libya.

It is yet to be clarified whether League’s decision to declare Libya a no fly zone would give any support to NATO on regional level in initiating any military action against the country. However, William Hague, foreign secretary of the UK called it “very significant”.

The US authorities also indicated over possibility of an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council over this issue; however they said it was not very likely.

Gaddafi’s suppressive actions against his opponents have led to unprecedented unrest in the country. Ouster of autocratic governments in many other nations in the Middle East in recent days has inspired people of Libya to speed up demonstrations against the suppressive rule of Gaddafi.

Mass Protests continue in Libya to bring down President Col Gaddafi

Mass protests in Libya agaisnt Gaddafi

Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime is trembling due to unprecedented public unrest in Libya. To worsen the situation even senior diplomats have defected from the government to support the protestors’ demand and ask Gaddafi to resign.

Protesters flooded Tripoli   slogans and the security forces tried to suppress them by using tear gas and live ammunition.

Another Libyan city– Benghazi has totally been overtaken by the protesters.

Saif al-Islam warned against the probability of a civil war in the wake of continuous mass protests. Saif al-Islam is the son of Col Gaddafi.

Saif al-Islam pledged to make political reforms however stressed that the government would do anything to avoid unrest in the country and take action against the extremists.

The Libya government is taking stern action against the protesters and according to the witnesses it was rather a massacre organized by security forces in the Green Square in Tripoli.

Meanwhile the protesters set a government building People’s Hall into fire.

Abdel Moneim al-Honi, Libyan envoy to the Arab League also declared joining the protesters and, Ali al-Essawi, country’s ambassador to India stated that he would be resigning to express his protest against government’s violent suppression.

Ex-chief spokesman for the Libyan government– Mohamed Bayou also admitted that the current government had failed to tackle with the political crisis and flayed the leaders for threatening protesters with violent actions.

Amnesty accuses Libyan security forces of gunning down 46 People

Human rights group Amnesty International has alleged that the Libyan security forces have gunned down 46 people in the past three days. It reported that 28 people were shot dead and 110 injured when security forces cracked down on protestors in Benghazi city.

Malcom Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North America regions said, “This alarming rise in the death toll, and the reported nature of the victims’ injuries, strongly suggests that security forces are permitted to use lethal force against unarmed protesters calling for political change.”

Victims were shot in the chest, neck and head. The BBC reports that protestors were shot at when they reached a residential compound used by Gaddafi when he visits Benghazi.

Smart demanded that the people who are responsible for these killings should be reined in immediately. Those who are carrying out the shootings and those ordering them should be brought to justice.

The unrest was taking place in Benghazi city in Libya. It is the second biggest city after Tripoli and people were protesting there unarmed against the Muammar Gaddafi government. A section of the press had reported strong action by the government on protestors. Websites have been blocked and electricity supply has been cut off to some areas.