Showing posts with label Libya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Libya. Show all posts
Friday, April 8, 2011
Sweden's JAS Gripen fighter planes finally get into action in Libya in support of NATO's No-Fly Zone, flying out of Sicily; Edward R. Murrow in London
Expressen TV video: Nu har svenska operationen i Libyen startat.
Thursday Sweden's JAS Gripen fighter planes finally got into the covert action in Libya to support NATO's No-Fly Zone, flying out of NATO Base Sigonella in Sicily. http://youtu.be/Qa_h1VKL504
Related story at:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.2394508/nu-har-svenska-operationen-i-libyen-startat
http://svt.se/2.22620/1.2387289/gripenplanen_lyfte_pa_sitt_forsta_natouppdrag
Svenska piloter laddar för första flyguppdraget
http://www.expressen.se/1.2394263
Seriously, could reporter Tomas Kvarnkullen be more low-key? He's no Edward R. Murrow, that's for sure! But then who is?
This is London: Edward R. Murrow of CBS News in London during WWII, painting a picture of the city's residents walking about at night in the dark.
http://youtu.be/2OqRTo3d-FU
http://www.expressen.se/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ExpressenTV
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Sophie, hate to say I told you so but I told you the other day that the weather was going to get crummy! And now a storm is coming and it looks like they're going to have gale force winds in Skåne. Looks like a good time to see a new film.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Marco Rubio is doing EXACTLY what he said he'd do last year -making a difference on policy in D.C. and NOT being an aloof, empty suit
ABC News video: Sen. Marco Rubio on ABC News' Nightline with correspondent Jonathan Karl, March 28, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqs0WAD7ZRE
Article: Exclusive Interview With Marco Rubio: GOP Rising Star Hints at VP Spot. Florida Republican Keeps a Low Profile as a Junior Senator, But Has Big Plans
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-favorite-florida-sen-marco-rubios-national/story?id=13249824
http://abcnews.go.com/nightline
ABC News video: Sen. Marco Rubio appears on GMA, Good Morning America, with host George Stephanopoulos, March 30, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI4x-jI-_k
Local10.com video: Sen. Marco Rubio speaks with Channel 10's Michael Putney on his Sunday morning TV show, This Week in South Florida, about the federal budget gimmicks currently in place, i.e. continuing resolutions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iGaPvq16Zo
Sen. Marco Rubio video: In His Own Words: Week In Review, March 11, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xOMt0fFBAA
NBC-6 Miami news video: Report on Sen. Marco Rubio's Miami office Open House.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMnMiP2QnB8
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Michael Putney: http://www.local10.com/station/269244/detail.html
This Week In South Florida March 27
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaks about Libya, new troubles between Israel and Palestine and the conviction of an aid worker in Cuba. Plus, what are the Miami-Dade County charter changes that will be on the May ballot?
Video at: http://www.local10.com/video/27347033/index.html
http://www.sfltv.com/
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The predicate for Obama's foreign policy in Libya of multi-lateral 'Meals on wheels -with guns' - President Reticent
Comedy Central video: Daily Show host Jon Stewart discusses the bombing in Libya with Aasif Mandvi and muse over President Obama's efforts to proceed without Sen. Richard Lugar's say-so.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-21-2011/odyssey-dawn---unconstitutional-war
Stanley Kurtz recounts the role of present-day National Security Council advisor Samantha Power on Candidate Obama in the National Review Online, and how we now have gotten to the present point where our foreign policy seems to include what I can only call "Meals on wheels -with guns."
But it's likely that the Irish-born Power, given her own background, probably doesn't know too many of the delivery drivers -the instruments of that policy she has helped formulate.
My guess is that Power probably doesn't care that many of the military personnel involved there DON'T KNOW why they are there, how long they'll be there, or even how they'll even know whether or not they are successful in their mission.
Seems like I recall someone once saying THAT sort of situation would never ever exist if he were in charge.
I guess Power will just email them the details later, after she's gotten a bite to eat after work, since she's clearly a 'Big Picture' woman who doesn't want to get bogged down in the minutia.
And when are we going to hear what George Clooney thinks after Obama has ignored what's taken place in The Sudan?
ABC News video: George Clooney Hopes Satellites Will Shed Light on Sudan, January 2, 2011.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-clooney-hopes-satellites-shed-light-sudan/story?id=12523421
Stanley Kurtz's closer is classic:
As with health care, Obama’s talk isn’t working because he cannot afford to specify broader ideological motivations he knows the public won’t buy.Precisely!
National Review Online
President Reticent
By Stanley Kurtz
March 22, 2011 10:26 A.M.
Obama doesn’t tell you what he’s thinking. He keeps his motives to himself. Cherished long-term ideological goals are advanced as pragmatic fixes to concrete problems in the present. Now we’re seeing the familiar domestic pattern in foreign policy as well.
Few Americans realize that Obama has had a longstanding interest in multilateral efforts to combat war crimes and genocide. Obama would like to see a more constraining international legal regime on war crimes, even at the cost of national sovereignty, not to mention the blood and treasure of the countries doing the enforcing.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/262725/president-reticent-stanley-kurtz
Meanwhile, almost nine years ago...
Audio of Samantha Power discussing her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "A Problem From Hell" on NPR/WAMU-FM's Diane Rehm Show, March 27, 2002
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2002-03-27/samantha-power-problem-hell-basic
Audio of Power on NPR's Fresh Air, which I heard at the time, June 5, 2003, when I was still living up in the Washington area:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1287149
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Lugar calls for debate on U.S. role in Libya
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110322/NEWS04/303229937
Monday, March 21, 2011
Rejecting Pixie Lott's 'Boys And Girls' together policy paradigm, Obama's Cabinet was "Boys against girls" over military intervention in Libya
Pixie Lott - Boys And Girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7y1MdlXclM
Rejecting Ambassador Pixie Lott's 'Boys And Girls' policy paradigm, two reporters at the New York Times and POLITICO's Ben Smith on his blog say that it was actually a case of "Boys against girls" over Libya in the Obama Cabinet.
IF this sort of story had happened under Bush 43, David Brooks would be saying that misplaced sentimentality had weighed-in at the worst possible moment, when clear-headed logic and action was what was necessary.
But it's Obama, so...
POLITICO.com
Boys against girls over Libya?
By Ben Smith
March 20, 2011 pol
There's been quite a bit of chatter today about the notion that a cadre of human-rights-minded women -- Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Hillary Clinton -- fought and won an internal debate over Libya. But White House officials and close observers outside government pushed back hard on the idea of a crucial internal split Sunday, arguing that Obama was pressed to action not by the internal dynamic but by the situation on the ground.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0311/Boys_against_girls_over_Libya.html
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New York Times
Obama Takes Hard Line With Libya After Shift by Clinton
By Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers
March 18, 2011
WASHINGTON — In a Paris hotel room on Monday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton found herself juggling the inconsistencies of American foreign policy in a turbulent Middle East. She criticized the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates for sending troops to quash protests in Bahrain even as she pressed him to send planes to intervene in Libya.
Only the day before, Mrs. Clinton — along with her boss, President Obama — was a skeptic on whether the United States should take military action in Libya. But that night, with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces turning back the rebellion that threatened his rule, Mrs. Clinton changed course, forming an unlikely alliance with a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html
But if it fails, will Susan Power ever be seen again on TV news chat shows while Obama is president? Or will that be blamed on Gen. Mullen?
Hmm-m...
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By the way, since it was NOT mentioned in the South Florida news media -and I looked- in the ramp-up to Obama's Latin America trip, Brazil abstained on the U.N. vote on Libya.
It had a chance to do something of significance-it blinked.
Again.
And this is the country that actually wants to be a Permanent Member of the U.N. Security Council?
Nej tack!!!
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/19/v-fullstory/2123799/obama-opens-new-chapter-in-relations.html
That my friends is why despite its large size and immense resources, Brazil remains firmly seated at the children's table, not the adult table, until further notice, no matter what the Miami Herald's reporters and columnists churn out by the barrels about their alleged grandness.
That perpetual adolescence plus, well, it's too self-congratulatory nature, and, frankly, being a country that most Americans could really care less about -because it has done so little that most Americans care about or respect, much less, what well-informed Americans care about or respect.
Brazil is a very large Belgium, and Americans care not a whit about Belgium, either.
I will soon tell you in this space about a simple test those self-evident, self-promoting Herald reporters and columnists won't dare do publicly because it would so easily show the absurdity and emptiness of their grand pronouncements about Brazil.
Like so many of their previous overwrought words about the importance of South America to the U.S. in the future, it just doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PixieLottVEVO
http://www.youtube.com/user/pixieofficial
http://www.youtube.com/user/pixielott
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/
REMIX
Pixie Lott - Boys And Girls - Remix Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S_NdMyf9j0
I once knew a girl from Essex...
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Marco Rubio on dithering O: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?”
Sen. Marco Rubio questions William J. Burns about President's Obama's "Puzzling Inaction" over Libya at Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the dithering approach to foreign policy and confuses both our allies and our enemies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Brn-7fOGGY
Marco Rubio: “So if Russia doesn’t care and China doesn’t care and we care but won’t do anything about it, who’s it up to, the French?”
Or, "How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power" -and saved Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sen. Marco Rubio Questions U.S. Involvement In U.N. "Charade" at confirmation hearing of Joseph Torsella to be U.S. Representative to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform. March 16, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcC0ChGuXSk
Marco Rubio's performance at these Senate Foreign Relations hearings, so many of which I attended when I lived in the D.C. area for almost 15 years, with Jesse Helms or Joe Biden as Comm. Chair, are exactly why I enthusiastically voted for him last November over Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek, neither one of which was capable of doing that in so effective a manner.
So Florida would have a voice for common sense, effectively articulated.
Just like I repeatedly said last year, no?
It's completely impossible for me or any of my friends to think of any time since he's been in the U.S. Senate when 'nice guy' Bill Nelson has said anything nearly as pointed or effectively as what Rubio did twice this week, even when he needed to.
Just saying, compare and contrast.
Next year, my vote for Senate will be FOR people with similar intelligent and articulate views and AGAINST someone who wants to be a U.S. Senator because they think it would be cool.
That completely eliminates most of the announced candidates thus far -Connie Mack IV or the perpetually ethically-challenged Mike Haridopolos.
They are OUT!
And reformer Paula Dockery looks even better qualified than she did before this week.
And please don't publicly call what President Obama does in foreign policy 'dithering' or sleepwalking, call it quiet reflection or walking with his eyes closed -or something else.
To do otherwise hurts his supporter's feelings.
Especially his supporters in the American news media.
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USA Today
On Libya, how have global players done?
By Justin Paulette
On the eve of a possible war in Libya, the major players on the world stage have taken their turns and staked out their positions. Yet many players have postured themselves in ways that seem to be reversals of their usual roles. This shift in global strategy is largely the domino effect of a shift in American self-identity under President Obama, and an omen of the future under his new foreign policy for America.
The United Nations: Though espousing lofty principles of international peace and security, the U.N. has largely proved an ineffective millstone around the world's neck over the past half-century. As recently as January 2011, a U.N. report uncritically praised Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's human rights record.
Read the rest of this Op-Ed at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-03-19-paulette18_ST_N.htm
The American Spectator
How Obama Turned France Into a Leading World Power
By John R. Guardiano on 3.20.11 @ 11:08AM
One of the more sadly amusing spectacles of the American-European-Arab dance over Libya is the complete and utter role-reversal that has taken place. Indeed, the Europeans are leading; the Americans are following; and the Arabs are applauding -- publicly!
Read the rest of this post at:
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/03/20/how-obama-turned-france-into-a
From Krishnan Guru-Murthy writing in Channel 4's Snow Mail this afternoon:
It is now more clear than ever that the Americans are in command of the attacks against Libya. And the coalition is already in trouble tonight with the Arab League chief condemning the airstrikes. The European-led narrative had been executed very well - the French jets got maximum worldwide publicity for leading the onslaught. But shortly afterwards it was American cruise missiles that did the bulk of the work against Libyan air defences. A British submarine and Tornado jets were involved too. This morning the American Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen declared the operation a success. Libya claimed sixty four people had been killed. Russia called for an end to what it called indiscriminate attacks by the coalition. And then a diplomatic bombshell from the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa - saying he wanted civilians protected not bombed. It is hard to imagine what he thought he was signing up to yesterday in Paris - but by the time he got back to Cairo the tune was different. So it is now down to countries like Qatar and UAE to demonstrate that there is still Arab support for the action - that was a crucial part of the justification of military action for many. Tonight we'll have the latest from Tripoli, Benghazi and beyond.
You can watch the last seven days of Channel 4 News on their catch up player - available on iPhones and iPads too: http://www.channel4.com/news/
Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller in Tripoli.
http://bcove.me/jnx5ex02
Channel 4 News Internation editor Lindsey Hilsum in Benghazi
http://bcove.me/ngr3ij6w
--
See also: Congressional Hearings Offer Opportunity for U.N. Budgetary Scrutiny
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/03/Congressional-Hearings-Offer-Opportunity-for-UN-Budgetary-Scrutiny
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio
http://www.heritage.org/
Monday, February 21, 2011
Libya may change in 24-36 hours; WSJ's Alan Murray, social media expert Clay Shirky on effect of Facebook, Twitter, et al in revolts in Egypt, Africa
Facebook and Twitter Are Changing the Middle East 2/18/2011 9:42:59 AM
In an interview with WSJ's Alan Murray, social media expert Clay Shirky discusses the effect of Facebook, Twitter and other social media in the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and what it could mean for the Middle East at large.
http://online.wsj.com/video/
When Clay Shirky speaks, very smart people with resources and connections listen -and so should you!
He believes that Libya is the next domino to fall... ker-plunk!
Pull-quote from the Shirky interview: "Governments are NOT afraid of informed individuals, they're afraid of informed synchronous groups."
Hmm-m... that's Joy Cooper's biggest fear at Hallandale Beach City Hall.
http://www.shirky.com/
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/
New York Times video: Tunisia, After the Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeTY4zl02-4
Libya teetering on the brink of great change...
I've been listening intently this morning to the 6 a.m. BBC World Service World Today broadcast and have heard a fascinating interview with a Libyan-born expert in the U.S. who actually knows Colonel Qadafi and his son, Sayf.
Following a BBC correspondent's report from Tripoli, scene of so much violence this weekend, and even now, the scene of sustained gunfire, the expert in the U.S. being interviewed was quite negative about the speech Qadhafi's son made today on Libyan TV, and what he characterized as the very strange behavior he exhibited.
He said that Libyan people would not respond well to the behavior or words, esp, his wild gesticulations during the speech as well as the very threatening manner, which made it seem like it had not been rehearsed.
Almost like the first time he saw it was when he was reading it.
Hmm-m...
See it for yourself.
BBC video of excerpts of Sayf al-Islam Qadafi speech:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12520550
The situation is moving very, very rapidly...
How will Libya transition into next phase of development?
Another expert said that it's his sense of things that with the eastern part of the country basically opting out of central control, Qadafi will be out of Libya within the next 24-36 hours because the army and police are starting to realize that they have no future if he is around.
He no longer is able to control things and "the genie is out and can't be put back into the lamp."
BBC's Middle east Protests web page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12480844
BBC-TV video segments on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12513941
Listen LIVE to BBC Radio's World Service here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/audioconsole/?stream=live
Facts on Libya at the CIA Factbook:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ly.html
The Channel 4 News Snowmail that I received by email on Sunday afternoon, written by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, said as follows on Libya:
LIBYA
The Libya uprising is showing its differences and difficulties. While Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain have been playing out on television cameras, amateur video, mobile phones and Twitter the Libyan protests are much harder to follow. International journalists have not managed to get in the way they did with the others. Access to the internet is restricted, and websites such as YouTube which can upload video, and social networks seem to be disrupted. However the phones still work so we have been gathering testimony the old fashioned pre-internet way. Amid reports of hundreds of people now killed in the protests in and around Benghazi there is clearly huge determination by the demonstrators. We spoke to one man there who told us "A lot of people are dying in the streets. There are a lot of cars with troops from outside Libya, I think they are Nigerian, from African countries. They have guns and they shoot anyone they find on the streets...From the eastern part of Libya, the protesters have received some heavy artillery, they haven’t used it yet – they're telling us they are going to now. Nobody knows the number (of dead) because there are many hospitals – they go to four or five different hospitals. Most of them are being shot by snipers, from far away in the head or the chest by Africans. Most of them don’t speak good Arabic, they speak French." Obviously there is no way for us to check these claims on the snipers but they give you a good idea of what the talk is going around the protesters at least. Heavy gunfire could be heard in the background and the man had to break off to shout at friends to get inside.
And it is clear Tripoli is far from calm too. We spoke to a woman there who told us "I live in the east side of Tripoli but I cannot go out. My husband went out this morning, he said the streets were empty, people were scared. So I said, ok let my son go to the store but my son – he didn’t come back and I hear from people – I call them and they say why did you send him? People have gone to the court – I hope he didn’t go there because he’s young and very nervous. For two days I kept him in the house but I hope he didn’t go there. Oh my goodness, there’s something happening now – they are shooting I’m sorry I have to go.". So we are gathering what we can, and will have the latest. We will also be discussing what the West can and should do about Libya. The US ambassador Louis Susman was pretty unsubtle in a diplomatic way this morning with Andrew Marr - it was clear he thinks Britain has been wrong to deal with Gadaffi in a way that makes him seem like a legitimate leader.
Here are the two news segments they aired last night on Libya.
Channel4 News February 20, 2011 Libya unrest
http://bcove.me/4tbtcgj2
Channel4 News February 20, 2011 Libya discussion
http://bcove.me/idmo6ot5
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