Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Gaddafi on TV to sho
Gaddafi on TV to show he’s still in charge - The Times of India
CAIRO: Libya's defiant leader Muammer Gaddafi on Tuesday vowed to fight his detractors and die a martyr, as outrage grew over the bloody suppression of anti-government protests in his country.Appearing on state television for the second time in two days, a fiery Gaddafi called himself a bedouin warrior who had brought glory to Libya, and rejected all calls for stepping down.
Gaddafi orders oil s
Gaddafi orders oil sabotage, source tells Time columnist | Energy & Oil | Reuters
Gaddafi orders oil sabotage, source tells Time columnist
Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:10pm GMT
*Gaddafi orders sabotage, columnist cites source as saying
*Time columnist says same source was wrong about unrest
NEW YORK Feb 22 (Reuters) - Time magazine's intelligence columnist reported on Tuesday that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has ordered his security forces to sabotage the country's oil facilities, citing a source close to the government.
In a column posted on Time's website, Robert Baer said the sabotage would begin by blowing up pipelines to the Mediterranean. However he added that the same source had also told him two weeks ago that unrest in neighboring countries would never spread to Libya -- an assertion that has turned out to be wrong.
"Among other things, Gaddafi has ordered security services to start sabotaging oil facilities," Baer wrote. "The sabotage, according to the insider, is meant to serve as a message to Libya's rebellious tribes: It's either me or chaos."
The growing violence in Libya has forced a number of oil companies to shut in production in Africa's third-largest oil producer and disrupted flows from the country's export terminals.
Security forces have cracked down fiercely on demonstrators across the country, with fighting spreading to Tripoli after erupting in Libya's oil-producing east last week. As the fighting has intensified some supporters have abandoned Gaddafi.
Baer, a former Middle East CIA officer, said the source told him that as of Monday Gaddafi had the loyalty of only about 5,000 of the country's 45,000-strong regular army.
Paraphrasing the source, he said that Gaddafi had also ordered the release from prison of the country's Islamist militant prisoners in hopes they would act on their own to sow chaos.
To read the full column click: here,8599,2052961,00.html (Reporting by Jonathan Leff; Editing by Frances Kerry)
© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
Oil holds near 2-1/2 year highs on Libya revolt | Reuters
Oil holds near 2-1/2 year highs on Libya revolt
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NEW YORK | Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:35pm EST
(Reuters) - Oil prices held firm near 2-1/2 year highs on Tuesday as the revolt in Libya disrupted more supplies, but there was no repeat of Monday's spike as both OPEC and the IEA said they could help meet any shortage.NEW YORK
Turmoil in Libya drove prices as much as 6 percent higher in the previous session, taking Brent crude in London to almost $109 a barrel for the first time since 2008.
In a defiant speech on Tuesday, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi refused to step aside on Tuesday and threatened tougher action against protests, as rebel troops said eastern regions, including major oilfields, had broken free from his rule.
Two more oil firms, Italy's ENI and Spain's Repsol, halted output due to nationwide unrest in Africa's third-largest producer, cutting some 13 percent of its 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production.
"We've lost 300,000 bpd of production already with the potential for further cuts to output and exports," said Andy Lebow, a trader at MF Global in New York.
"The major underlying fear in the market is that these protests spread in the region to even larger producers like Saudi Arabia. While that might not look likely right now, even a hint of real problems there could send prices vertical."
The following lists key facts regarding Libya's oil industry:
But oil pared early gains after Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would meet any real supply shortages, though he stopped short of announcing more oil production immediately saying prices were driven primarily by speculation and fear.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises industrial countries on energy policy, also said member countries may decide to release emergency oil stocks if the situation in Libya created a real physical shortage in the market.
The IEA rarely opens the taps but members hold 1.6 billion barrels of emergency oil stocks. They were last tapped in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina crippled U.S. Gulf oil operations.
At 2:09 p.m. EST, Brent crude traded up 11 cents to $105.85 a barrel, off earlier highs of $108.57 a barrel. Brent hit a 2-1/2 year high of $108.70 a barrel on Monday.
U.S. crude for March delivery, which expires at the end of the session, rose $7.13 to $93.34 a barrel, after earlier touching $94.49, the highest level since October 2008. The more actively traded April contract gained $5.27 to trade at $94.98 a barrel.
The stronger gains in U.S. crude was partly explained by the fact that while the contract was active in electronic trading on Monday, there was no settlement as the exchange in New York was closed for the Presidents Day holiday.
Oil product traders operating in the Mediterranean also said exports from Libya were severely disrupted on Tuesday, but some traders said cargoes were continuing to load.
Saudi Arabia's Naimi, speaking on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Riyadh, said he saw no shortage in the market despite the unrest in Libya, and said worldwide oil spare oil capacity was between 5-6 million bpd.
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Social Stream (What's this?)User IP:127.0.0.1User ID:http://twitter.com/adamchalmersDrudge Report FeedRe: Crude rises over $1/bbl as violence in Libya cuts oil output
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In Bahrain, Shiites
In Bahrain, Shiites Turn Out in Great Numbers to Protest
The protesters, mostly members of the Shiite majority, marched along the eastbound side of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway in a wide, unbroken column of red and white, the country’s colors. Men of all ages walked with women and children waving flags and calling for an end to the authoritarian government of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.
In a nation of only a half a million citizens, the sheer size of the gathering was astonishing. The protest, organized by the Shiite opposition parties, began in the central Bahrain Mall, two miles from the square and seemed to fill the entire length of the highway between the two points.
Security forces were nowhere to be seen along the demonstration route. The Ministry of the Interior, which has been regularly providing updates on the situation in the capital via its Twitter feed, issued a terse acknowledgment of the protest: “Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman towards Manama is now closed.”
The protesters streaming into the square on Tuesday joined thousands of others — among them teachers, lawyers and engineers — who have camped out in order to occupy the area after the military pulled out following a deadly crackdown last week. The new arrivals were likely to overflow into the area surrounding the square.
With the army removed, and the police withdrawn under intense pressure from the United States, the Shiite opposition has acted as if it were in a position of strength.
Since the fall earlier this month of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the Sunni royal family in Bahrain has struggled to hold back a rising popular revolt against their absolute rule.
Bahrain is a close ally of the United States in the region, and the Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based here, helping ensure the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and the gulf and safeguarding American interests.
Washington’s posture toward the Shiite majority, which is spearheading the opposition, could prove crucial to future relations with this small but strategically valuable nation.
Over the years, the American military, the advisers and the human rights advocate said, believed that King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and his court were reform-minded leaders who could advance democracy and preserve stability. That narrative contrasts sharply with the experience of the Shiites, as documented by human rights groups and some of the military’s own advisers.
In Bahrain, as in Egypt and Tunisia, the United States finds itself again torn by its desire to preserve relations with autocratic leaders who back American foreign policy interests and by the danger of further alienating Arab public opinion by failing to promote democracy. At the moment, feelings toward the United States are neutral, and in some circles even positive, but they could slip toward hostile, opposition advocates said.
Michael Slackman reported from Manama and J. David Goodman from New York.
Witnesses report bod
Census estimates sho
Census estimates show 1 in 4 US counties are dying - Yahoo! News
WELCH, W.Va. – Nestled within America's once-thriving coal country, 87-year-old Ed Shepard laments a prosperous era gone by, when shoppers lined the streets and government lent a helping hand. Now, here as in one-fourth of all U.S. counties, West Virginia's graying residents are slowly dying off.
Witnesses report bodies in the streets in Libya - Yahoo! News
CAIRO – The bodies of protesters shot to death by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi were left on the streets of a restive district in the Libyan capital Tuesday, an opposition activist and a resident said, while the longtime leader defiantly went on state TV to show he was still in charge.
The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing sources inside the country, said Tuesday that at least 250 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in the crackdown on protesters in Libya. New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the toll at at least 233 killed. The difficulty in getting information made obtaining a precise figure impossible.
The head of the U.N. agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population "may amount to crimes against humanity."
World leaders also have expressed outrage. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Gadhafi to "stop this unacceptable bloodshed" and said the world was watching the events "with alarm."
Mohammed Ali of the Libyan Salvation Front and a Tripoli resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said scores of bodies had been left on the streets in Fashloum after the pro-Gadhafi gunmen opened fire the night before. Ali, reached in Dubai, and the resident said the gunmen shot at ambulances and some protesters were left bleeding to death.
Ali, who spoke to people in Tripoli, and the resident said inhabitants of the capital of some 2 million people were staying home Tuesday after the killings and warnings by Gadhafi loyalists that anybody on the streets would be shot.
Western media are largely barred from Libya and the report couldn't be independently confirmed.
Gadhafi, the longest serving Arab leader, appeared briefly on TV early Tuesday to dispel rumors that he had fled. Sitting in a car in front of what appeared to be his residence and holding an umbrella out of the passenger side door, he told an interviewer that he had wanted to go to the capital's Green Square to talk to his supporters, but the rain stopped him.
"I am here to show that I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Don't believe those misleading dog stations," Gadhafi said, referring to the media reports that he had left the country. The video clip and comments lasted less than a minute — unusual for the mercurial leader, who is known for rambling speeches that often last hours.
Pro-Gadhafi militia drove through Tripoli with loudspeakers and told people not to leave their homes, witnesses said, as security forces sought to keep the unrest that swept eastern parts of the country — leaving the second-largest city of Benghazi in protesters' control — from overwhelming the capital of 2 million people.
State TV said the military had "stormed the hideouts of saboteurs" and urged the public to back security forces. Protesters called for a demonstration in Tripoli's central Green Square and in front of Gadhafi's residence, but witnesses in various neighborhoods described a scene of intimidation: helicopters hovering above the main seaside boulevard and pro-Gadhafi gunmen firing from moving cars and even shooting at the facades of homes to terrify the population.
Youths trying to gather in the streets scattered and ran for cover amid gunfire, according to several witnesses, who like many reached in Tripoli by The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Warplanes swooped low over Tripoli in the evening and snipers took up position on roofs, apparently to stop people outside the capital from joining protests, according to Mohammed Abdul-Malek, a London-based opposition activist in touch with residents.
Gadhafi appeared to have lost the support of at least one major tribe, several military units and his own diplomats, including Libya's ambassador in Washington, Ali Adjali. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi accused the longest-serving Arab leader of committing genocide against his own people in the current crisis.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday described the crackdown as "a serious violation of international humanitarian law." The U.N. spokesperson's office said late Monday that the Security Council had scheduled consultations on the situation in Libya for Tuesday morning.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, visiting Egypt, called the crackdown "appalling."
"The regime is using the most vicious forms of repression against people who want to see that country — which is one of the most closed and one of the most autocratic — make progress," Cameron said.
The chaos engulfing the country prompted many foreigners to flee.
Italy's government on Tuesday dispatched an air force jet to Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, to evacuate around 100 Italian citizens. Many countries had already urged their nationals to avoid nonessential travel to Libya, or recommended that those already there leave on commercial flights.
Benghazi's airport was closed, according to an airport official in Cairo.
Egyptian troops, meanwhile, have beefed up their presence on the border with Libya and set up a field hospital as thousands of Egyptians return home from Libya by land, according to an Egyptian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't allowed to release the information.
Oil companies, including Italy's Eni, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and U.K.-based BP have also begun evacuating their expat workers or their families or both.
State TV, which showed video of hundreds of Gadhafi supporters rallying in Green Square Monday, waving palm fronds and pictures of him. It also quoted Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, as saying the military conducted airstrikes on remote areas, away from residential neighborhoods, on munitions warehouses, denying reports that warplanes attacked Tripoli and Benghazi.
Seif has often been put forward as the regime's face of reform and is often cited as a likely successor. His younger brother, Mutassim, is the national security adviser, with a strong role in the military and security forces. Another brother, Khamis, heads the army's 32nd Brigade, which according to U.S. diplomats is the best-trained and best-equipped force in the military.
Jordanians who fled Libya gave horrific accounts of a "bloodbath" in Tripoli, saying they saw people shot, scores of burned cars and shops, and what appeared to be armed mercenaries who looked as if they were from other African countries.
Many billboards and posters of Gadhafi were smashed or burned along a road to downtown Tripoli, "emboldening" protesters, said a man who lives on the western outskirts of the capital.
The first major protests to hit an OPEC country — and major supplier to Europe — sent oil prices jumping, and the industry has begun eyeing reserves touched only after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the first Gulf War in 1991.
The heaviest fighting so far has been in the east. Security forces in Benghazi opened fire Sunday on protesters storming police stations and government buildings. But in several instances, units of the military sided with protesters. By Monday, protesters had claimed control of the city, overrunning its main security headquarters, called the Katiba.
Celebrating protesters raised the flag of Libya's old monarchy, toppled in 1969 in a Gadhafi-led military coup, over Benghazi's main courthouse and on tanks around the city.
"Gadhafi needs one more push and he is gone," said lawyer Amal Roqaqie.
Fire raged Monday at the People's Hall, the main building for government gatherings where the country's equivalent of a parliament holds sessions several times a year, the pro-government news website Qureyna said.
It also reported the first major sign of discontent in Gadhafi's government, saying Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil resigned to protest the "excessive use of force" against unarmed demonstrators.
Several ambassadors abroad resigned to side with protesters. Two Mirage warplanes from the Libyan air force also fled a Tripoli air base and landed on the nearby island of Malta, and their pilots — two colonels — asked for political asylum, Maltese military officials said.
The backlash began Sunday after protesters streamed into the central Green Square in Tripoli, sparking scenes of mayhem. Snipers fired from rooftops and militiamen attacked the crowds, shooting and chasing people down side streets, according to witnesses and protesters.
___
Associated Press writers Hamza Hendawi in Cairo and John Heilprin in Geneva contributed to this report.