The Libyan uprising

opinion guy

Sweet holy mother of jesus. Gadaffi is making some insane ranting speech on the tv at the moment. Its live on BBC news if anyone has it.

The dude is properly insane. As in BatmanBond villain crazy


Holy crap: the Brits are sending a Frigate down to the area in case they are needed to help evacuate British citizens

Einhard

Is anyone watching Gadaffi's speech? The man is seriously deranged. Is this really the man in charge of Libya? He doesn't look as if he could manage his own affairs let alone that of an oil rich nation. Bloody lunatic.

Jonny7

Berlusconi must be frantically hitting the 'remove friend' button on his facebook account over the last few weeks

JustinDee

Jonny7 wrote: »

Berlusconi must be frantically hitting the 'remove friend' button on his facebook account over the last few weeks

Gerry Adams too.

opinion guy

Einhard wrote: »

Is anyone watching Gadaffi's speech? The man is seriously deranged. Is this really the man in charge of Libya? He doesn't look as if he could manage his own affairs let alone that of an oil rich nation. Bloody lunatic.

Christ it really is shocking how crazy he is. He's like a cross between an insane bond villain and a geriatrics patient (with shades of Charleston Heston and his cold dead hands). I don't understand how he has any allies - can't they see he is completely crazy.

MrPoker

What a nutjob!!! Scarily it seems Qaddafi will fight to the death and continue the massacre of his own people. They were the ramblings of a complete lunatic. It seemed was also a direct challenge put to America by showing the American warplane being crushed by a giant hand which appeared on quite a few occasions.

GSF

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Fair enough, but tbf he lavishes praise on Irish diplomats as they assisted in getting asylum for an afghan gyno while the British ignored him, difference of opinion so.

Not really a time for scoring points. The UK are organising flights out

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12545147

wes

For those who can't watch the speech, there is a summary on the BBC web site:

Defiant Gaddafi refuses to quit amid Libya protests

From the description given there, he seems to be off his rocker. The guy has lost it. He has his own army and diplomats defecting, and he still thinks he can ride this one out. The man is living in his parralel universe.

Highly Salami

MrPoker wrote: »

It seemed was also a direct challenge put to America by showing the American warplane being crushed by a giant hand which appeared on quite a few occasions.

What makes it necessarily an American warplane?

Einhard

Highly Salami wrote: »

What makes it necessarily an American warplane?

"USA" eblazoned on the side kinda gave it away for me.:D

MrPoker

Highly Salami wrote: »

What makes it necessarily an American warplane?

USA on the side and US flag on the tail.

Absurdum

Two Irish Air Corps aircraft are to depart EIME within the next hour to evacuate Irish citizens from Tripoli

Nodin

Leaving the scene of your defiant 'victory or death' speech in a golf cart.....hmmmm.

Manic Moran

Absurdum wrote: »

Two Irish Air Corps aircraft are to depart EIME within the next hour to evacuate Irish citizens from Tripoli

So who gets to ride in the CASA vs the BizJet?

NTM

Cannibal Ox

Its been reported that Gaddafi is offering Ghanaians $2,500 per day to fight in Libya, apparently it's the same in Nigeria and Guinea. The best number I could find for average income in Ghana is $2000 per year, and even that sounds a little high.

the_syco

opinion guy wrote: »

Holy crap: the Brits are sending a Frigate down to the area in case they are needed to help evacuate British citizens

Someone say "regime change"? :pac:

Nodin

As regards the earlier mention of irish nationals being evacuated...

We are continuing to receive emails and telephone calls from British people angry that the UK government is not moving at a faster pace to evacuate relatives from Libya.
By contrast, a group of Irish citizens are getting ready to leave Libya overnight. My colleague Henry McDonald reports from Dublin:

Forty Irish citizens are ready to be airlifted from Libya over night.
The Republic's Defence Forces have been tasked with whisking them out of Libya in military aircraft over the next few hours.
An Irish military spokesman said an Irish Air Corps Learjet flew out of Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel outside Dublin at 8.40pm tonight and a larger Air Corps CASA aircraft was due to have departed at 10pm.
Both Aircraft will fly to Valletta, Malta from where they will remain on stand by to fly to Tripoli to conduct the evacuation operation if required. Both aircraft are expected in Valletta by 06.00am (Irish Time) tomorrow morning.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/22/libya-gaddafi-speech-reaction-live-updates

wildswan

Woah the UN have condemned the attacks on civilians. Gadaffi and his bandits will be shaking... have seen tweets from libyans in benghazi asking for NATO help.

I hope the libyans manage to arm themselves quickly against these scumbags they've bussed in from chad and sudan

Soldie

Ban Ki-moon must have a sore wrist from all of the strongly-worded letters he's been writing over the years. Then again, if he had any sense he'd be using a template at this stage: I'm deeply troubled by what's going on in country X, and I condemn leader Y for doing what he's doing right now. That'll be all.

OS119

Nodin wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/22/libya-gaddafi-speech-reaction-live-updates

if those 'angry British Citizens' think that sitting in a 200ft alluminum tube filled with aviation fuel in the middle of a two-way range is safer than hiding behind the sofa in their appartments then they need their heads examined.

there are no 'safe' locations in Libya where a) there's a nice long runway, and b) the EU citizens can get to without travelling through the aforesaid two-way range. at the moment they are far safer where they are - not safe perhaps, but far safer than driving across Libya towards critical peices of infrastructure that will inevitably be fought over by the two sides.

the situation would have to get much, much worse before before anything more muscular (EU/NATO forces seizing a major airport or maritime port and using it as a bridgehead to evacuate EU/Foreign nationals) would become a better/less worse option than just telling these muppets to keep their heads down.

rebel10

wrote:

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has vowed to fight on and die a "martyr", calling on his supporters to take back the streets from protesters demanding his ouster, shouting and pounding his fist in a furious speech on state TV.
Gaddafi, clad in brown robes and turban, spoke on Tuesday from a podium set up in the entrance of a bombed-out building that appeared to be his Tripoli residence hit by US air raids in the 1980s and left unrepaired as a monument of defiance.
"I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents ... I will die as a martyr at the end," he said.
"Muammar Gaddafi is the leader of the revolution, I am not a president to step down ... This is my country. Muammar is not a president to leave his post."
"I have not yet ordered the use of force, not yet ordered one bullet to be fired ... when I do, everything will burn."
He called on supporters to take to the streets to attack protesters. "You men and women who love Gaddafi ...get out of your homes and fill the streets," he said. "Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs ... Starting tomorrow the cordons will be lifted, go out and fight them."
Gaddafi said "peaceful protests is one thing, but armed rebellion is another".
"From tonight to tomorrow, all the young men should form local committees for popular security," he said, telling them to wear a green armband to identify themselves. "The Libyan people and the popular revolution will control Libya."
The speech, which appeared to have been taped earlier, was aired on a screen to hundreds of supporters massed in Tripoli's central Green Square.
At times the camera panned out to show a towering gold-coloured monument in front of the building, showing a fist crushing a fighter jet with an American flag on it - a view that also gave the strange image of Gaddafi speaking alone from behind a podium in the building's dilapidated lobby, with no audience in front of him.
Speech highlights
Shouting in the rambling speech, Gaddafi declared himself "a warrior" and proclaimed: "Libya wants glory, Libya wants to be at the pinnacle, at the pinnacle of the world".
Among the other points made by Gaddafi in his speech:
He called on the people to catch what he called drugged young people and bring them to justice.
He called on the people to "cleanse Libya house by house" unless protesters on the streets surrendered.
He warned that instability in Libya "will give al-Qaeda a base".
He cited the examples of an attack on Russian parliament and China's crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, saying that the international community did not interfere.
He said he could do the same in Derna and Bayda.
He offered a new constitution starting from Wednesday, but this would come with dialogue, not by collaboration with the enemy.
He blamed the uprising on Islamists who wanted to create another Afghanistan, and warned that those in Bayda and Derna had already set up an Islamic Emirate that would reach Benghazi.
He said that the country's youth was drugged and did not know anything; they were following the Islamists' leader and their leaders would be punished with death in accordance with the Libyan law.
Just hours after Gaddafi's speech, Libya's interior minister, General Abdul-Fatah Younis, announced his resignation and support for what he called the "February 17 revolution".
In a video obtained by Al Jazeera, he was seen sitting on a desk reading a statement that also urged the Libyan army to join the people and their "legitimate demands" .

This man is insane.

Wolfe Tone

No, he isnt insane, his speeches have always been like that.

rebel10

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

No, he isnt insane, his speeches have always been like that.

Well he definately isin't sane, whether or not he has always been like that.

Jonny7

The use of the words 'cockroaches' and 'rats' is very scary indeed - they were the kinda words that filled Rwandan airwaves before the genocide.

opinion guy

Jonny7 wrote: »

The use of the words 'cockroaches' and 'rats' is very scary indeed - they were the kinda words that filled Rwandan airwaves before the genocide.

Personally I find the term "cleanse Libya house by house" alot more disturbing, don't you ?

Jonny7

opinion guy wrote: »

Personally I find the term "cleanse Libya house by house" alot more disturbing, don't you ?

No, not at all, to be honest a few of those houses really look like they need a good scrub

Nodin

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

No, he isnt insane, his speeches have always been like that.

'Divorced from reality, in a Liz Taylor way'?

The whole thing is like some black tragi-comedy. He's talking about defiance and vengeance, dressed like an extra from an early Star Trek-The Next Generation' episode, being driven off in a golf cart, while mercenaries are randomly shooting people down in the street....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/23/libya-gaddafi-showdown-live-updates
Chris morris would do a good movie.

mike65

On a side note - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has just announded more public funded housing and health care for all. He was in Moroccco for health care reasons (don't Saudis have any decent hospitals?) and methinks he sees the writing on the wall.

Jonny7

If dictators and police states just copped on and properly censored the internet (like N Koreans and the Chinese) then this kinda tomfoolery would never happen!

Jonny7

Depressing reading

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12558066


We in the West are so damn scared of Islamic governments and oil prices we don't care what kinda of absolute maniacs and savages we 'support'