#81
Post rating: +
embelished like a butterfly or bird, I easily burst into tears at the memory of how gadaffi, the peoples princess, the queen of hearts, was cruely taken from us before his time
#82
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G must have had some other section in the goon book describing Amazonians or something, else why did he have an all female bodyguard

RedMaistre posted:

"Cairo – Commander of the Libyan National Army Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar assigned a new military commander for Benghazi in what seems Haftar’s preparation to announce the liberation of Benghazi, east Libya.

Meanwhile, National Army troops declared they were close on fully liberating the city and destroying the final terrorist presence in the city."

https://english.aawsat.com/khalid-mahmoud/news-middle-east/haftar-prepares-announce-liberation-benghazi-libya



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/19/gaddafi-forces-battle-for-benghazi

In 2011 media, politicians, human rights industry created a frenzy around supposed upcoming massacres in Benghazi based on the opposite of facts available to them (Gaddafis forces had reconciled not fought Rebel towns along the way, dark skinned people there were not mercenary rapists, rebels really were AlQaeda etc)

Now haftar really will commit massacres in that city, as his army comprises numerous death squads that act with total impunity.

Not even a fart from the R2P complex

#83
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Petrol posted:

hot twitter take: someone ought to literally execute noted misogynist muammar gadhaffi



i looke for this but it seems that its one take too far. But it reminded me that the "liberation" of libya was marked with a speech to 10,000 people about how they were bringing polygamy back

#84
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http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article1938633.html

Old news (from 2011) but just leaving it here to compile later.
Reminder that these are the liberators who have had free reign in the country last 6 years

When the sun sets on the refugee camp for black Africans that has sprung up at the marina in this town six miles west of Tripoli, the women here brace for the worst.

The rebels who ring the camp suddenly open fire. Then they race into the camp, shouting "gabbour, gabbour" — Arabic for whore — and haul away young women, residents say.

#85
Post rating: +
African slave market in Libya 2017


Libya had about 2.5 million African workers when NATO invaded in 2011
https://m.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0307/Who-are-Libya-s-sub-Saharan-Africans
#86
UNUSUALY COOL
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Haftar's moving into Tripoli now.
#87
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if they have the elections, what are the chances of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi winning?
#88
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#89
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i find libya super fucking confusing and difficult to wrap my head around. granted i'm a massive dumbass with only the slightest grasp of syria and yemen, but it's at least a grasp, you know? even then every so often i'll find out something new that makes me recalibrate my understanding of those conflicts. libya just seems completely beyond my abilities however.
#90
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#91
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#92
Post rating: +
Thanks for these updates and please keep em coming
#93
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ghostpinballer posted:

i find libya super fucking confusing and difficult to wrap my head around. granted i'm a massive dumbass with only the slightest grasp of syria and yemen, but it's at least a grasp, you know? even then every so often i'll find out something new that makes me recalibrate my understanding of those conflicts. libya just seems completely beyond my abilities however.



all you need to know is that practicing imperialist Viletat possibly definitely died on Sept 11th because of a protest of a film that insulted Mohammed. possibly the most D&D way to die.

#94
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fayafi didn’t you get invited onto RWN a couple months ago for a Mauritania episode? Is that still going to happen?
#95
[account deactivated]
#96
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Haftar's LNA troops blew an op by shooting down a GNA air force Mirage F1 fighter back in May piloted by a mercenary from Florida who tried to pass himself off as Portuguese. His accent in the bloody interrogation video wasn't very convincing. You have to think he was working for the CIA. The Washington Post has a story up now saying Haftar's army freed him at the behest of Saudi Arabia (which backs Haftar), or alternatively you might wonder whether the CIA asked the Saudis to get their guy out of there before Haftar's troops shot him. The Mirages were flying out of Misrata.

Some other fun anecdotes. A Haftar-aligned newspaper claims he is part of a team called the "Mirage F1 Technical Training Group" which includes Ecuadorian maintenance crews in their ranks, which seems credible as this op popped up in a U.N. report on the Libyan war last year, which also mentioned the death of another "Portuguese" pilot in June 2016 during a raid on ISIS in Sirte: https://undocs.org/S/2017/466





#97
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Another fun fact is the Floridian a.k.a. "Portuguese" merc / spook who was shot down had this tattoo:



A reference to the "anti-possession" tattoo worn by Dean Winchester (played by actor Jensen Ackles) in the hit WB series Supernatural, which recently concluded its 14th season.

#98
[account deactivated]
#99
UNUSUALY COOL
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what are its powers
#100
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: +
I have a tattoo of the Great Dismal Swamp on my bicep and when I place a hand on it and visit this Web site I can read all your posts.
#101
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im thinking about the concept of a coffee table book featuring the tacky tattoos of the cias finest dipshits
#102
lies half the time
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make sure to include the one of the great dismal swamp
#103
[account deactivated]
#104
[account deactivated]
#105
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*stares at map*



that's a salient
#106
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haftar s widely advertised push to tripoli got stopped in its tracks by the islamists so the national army blamed the whole debacle on turkey for supporting the islamists. it might be true coz we got a budding drone industry. anyway the national army declared turkey to be an enemy

it s really strange to have a proxy war not between the US and the USSR but between imperalist pawns like turkey and qatar vs saudis and the UAE while the former is supporting religious freaks and the latter is supporting ostentatiously secular organizations
#107
Post rating: +
Iranian perspective here from April:



Turkish:



Assertion is that UAE wants to create a chain of friendly "strong man" states (+ Sudan) like Egypt.

I'm trying to get a handle on it but can only just make posts. One of interesting things is that Libya still has a socialist economy with the GNA functioning as a vehicle for receiving oil proceeds -- it is internationally recognized so it controls oil revenues that go into the Central Bank of Libya (Tripoli). That money pays out state wages but the real power are Islamist militias in Misrata who sodomized Gaddafi to death with a bayonet. Haftar's government meanwhile keeps the lights on by running up billions of dollars in debt via his finance ministry issuing bonds sold to his central bank in Benghazi. The dinars that get paid out (cash) are printed in Russia and pays out wages to state employees and his army.

Haftar controls most of Libya's oil fields and the campaign earlier this year south of Tripoli took Sharara, which is Libya's largest oil field. I want to learn more about the petroleum security forces which seem to act as like a "third force" that periodically takes over production facilities when they want raises. The Sharara petroleum force shut that motherfucker down in December and only reopened when Haftar's army men rolled in and cut a deal.

One theory (maybe) is that Haftar rolled toward Tripoli because after taking Sharara, the ultimatum to the GNA was to demand a share of the oil proceeds "or else" and the GNA said no. But Haftar can't take Tripoli because he is an old man who had been relaxing in Virginia for 20 years before this and his army is comprised of kiddies, and they're better at showing off hardware for French T.V. crews while driving fast down the highway than they are at fighting. The more fundamental question is what do ordinary Libyans want, while I can't answer that it's probably "both/neither" in that they want stability which the militias can't provide, but Haftar doesn't have much in the way of real support, and the men around Haftar are seen as ex-Gaddafists and he's a flunkie for the UAE to test weapons on civilian populations.

Also France backs Haftar so you know France 24 was right there at the beginning of the offensive, CNN-style and with videos of Toyota playset technicals supplied by UAE:

Edited by trakfactri ()

#108
Post rating: +
AP story in a Saudi paper has a lot of bluster from Haftar's army about the "decisive hour" approaching. It's the Final Countdown:



But a U.S. guy (CEIP) is painting a grim picture for Haftar in this article: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/july/in-tripoli

The Tiger was an armoured personnel carrier, supplied by the Emirates, that had just been destroyed by GNA fighters. We could see the glow of its burning wreckage just over a hedgerow. The LNA thought it had been hit by an anti-tank missile, but GNA militiamen had been ordered to pull back because ‘we’re hitting it from the air.’

The degree of precision suggests a strike by a drone, rather than one of the GNA’s ageing jets. In the last month, the Tripoli forces have received armed drones from Turkey, which, along with Qatar, is opposed to Egyptian and Emirati support for Haftar. Turkish and Qatari influence in Libya had been in retreat for several years, but now the GNA is turning to whoever can help. Turkey has also provided armoured personnel carriers, though the GNA fighters would prefer smaller, nimbler vehicles. The drones, however, are having a real effect.


On the battlefield, the militias fighting Haftar are surprisingly cohesive and well co-ordinated. But just months ago, some were fighting one another – and suspicions remain. I met young Tuareg men from Libya’s far south fighting in a Tripoli-based militia with a large Salafist component called the Special Deterrence Force. There are fighters from Benghazi, displaced by Haftar in his previous war, with a desire for vengeance. They cover their faces because they have family in the east, vulnerable to retribution. The ethnic Amazigh (commonly known as Berbers) in Libya’s western mountains worry about Haftar’s exclusivist Arab vision. ‘The first thing any dictator does is go after minorities,’ one of their officers told me.


My guess is that Haftar is going to lose the war, meaning the UAE will have blown another op in the 21st century's most remarkable losing streak. The video below is being spread as anti-LNA propaganda / is unconfirmed / etc. and is from a GNA-aligned paper, but if Haftar's army is like this...

#109
Post rating: +
Thinking about those banks:



#110
Post rating: ~
Very sad

https://twitter.com/_BTO/status/1159095614208131072
#111
UNUSUALY COOL
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rip Larry
#112
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Haftar has blown another op trying to retake Gharyan, the largest city in the Nafusa mountains which sticks into his salient in a real bad way. He took it earlier this year but lost it after locals shot the shit out of his troops. Low prices everyone.
#113
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checkmate haftards
#114
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Things haven't changed at all but Haftar's LNA released a video of troops doing gymnastics, breaking wooden boards, etc. I think this is probably so he has something to show his funders. It's like Chris Roberts of Star Citizen where he keeps coming up with concept videos to show the backers impressive stunts while the actual product is stuck in development hell:

#115
Post rating: +
haftar patreon launch video
#116
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erdoğan and his media keeps talking about sending troops to libya to support the jihadis so it might happen soon or like all the rambling before the numerous invasions into syria it might take quite a while (or just not happen at all)

another thing is that we have been in some kind of simmering crisis with almost every country in eastern mediterranean over the LNG extraction right around cyprus. managed to unite greece, egypt and israel against us. and then a few weeks ago we signed an agreement with the jihadi government about territorial waters over an area greece claims to have rights (no idea if they are right or wrong) and they got pissed off. maybe related to the whole sending troops thing
#117
UNUSUALY COOL
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Democrats raped Libya, United States raped Libya, France raped Libya... more and more people are saying it.
#118
UNUSUALY COOL
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Sanders raped Libya. Warren raped Libya. Little Mayor Spook wanted to rape Libya, but he had to give a speech about how black people don’t value education.
#119
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Another city seized by Haftar and the LNA
#120
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