The Pentagon is deploying naval and air forces around Libya as the US and UK governments consider tougher measures to force Muammer Gaddafi from power, including the possible establishment of a no-fly zone.
“We must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people,” David Cameron, UK prime minister, said. “In that context I have asked the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff to work with our allies on plans for a military no-fly zone.”
Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, at a UN meeting in Geneva, said: “Nothing is off the table so long as the Libyan government continues to threaten and kill Libyans.”
According to Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, US military planners are working on “various contingency plans … [and] repositioning forces to be able to provide for that flexibility once decisions are made”.
The military manoeuvring coincided with US and UK efforts to ratchet up financial pressure being brought to bear on Colonel Gaddafi, whose forces remain in control of Tripoli, the capital.
“As of today at least $30bn in government of Libya assets under US jurisdiction have been blocked,” said David Cohen, acting US Treasury undersecretary. “This is the largest blocking under any sanctions programme ever.”
The UK, meanwhile, has frozen at least £1bn of assets belonging to Col Gaddafi and five members of his family.
With Col Gaddafi apparently willing to fight to the death, some opponents of the regime are arguing that the international community should threaten military action, in an effort to persuade the Libyan leader’s forces to defect and hasten his downfall.
Col Gaddafi’s enemies fear his ability to dig in and threaten cities that have already fallen to rebel forces. There were reports Monday that the Libyan airforce had bombed an arms depot in territory held by anti-regime forces in the country’s eastern region.
In a defiant interview, Col Gaddafi told the BBC that “all my people love me” and are prepared to die for him.
UK officials said they could use of a British military air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus to enforce a no-fly mission. “Akrotiri would be very useful if we wanted to deploy,” said an official. “That would seem most logical.”
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14 Responses
so does this mean if a few hundred people stormed the white house or the british parliment trying to take it over and they killed any of them then it gives other countries the right to declare war on the usa or britian?
its feeling more and more like we’re helping the bad guys, if you add up who’s actually doing the killing around the world the american and western governments are killing about 100,000 times more innocent people than terrorists… and all the “casualties” are middle easterners..
the usa and britian are directly responsible for every one of those deaths.
is it wrong to tell the truth hoping it will lead to the problem being corrected?
anyone notice a “trend” in global population genetics?
Doesn’t the US Gov’t ever learn?
Mubarak was toppled and the radical Muslims are preparing to take over. In Tunisia the radical Muslim in chief has returned and expects to takeover soon. Tunisia to date was considered the most liberal of all the Arab countries with tregard to women’s rights; that will soon be no more. In Bahrain the chief radical Muslim has come back from exile even though the gov’t there hasn’t been toppled yet.
In Libya who does the U.S. think will take over?
We are trading one evil for a greater evil.
What is Obama thinking? How dumb can you get?
If Obama thinks that having elections creates a democracy, he really is a slow learner; check Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon. It’s working in Iraq or Afghanistan either.
Who knows? Maybe the conspiracy crazies are right and Obama is secretly a Muslim trying to convert the world to radical ISlam.
wake up & smell the coffee. This is ALL PART OF THE PLAN of the muslims (Bnei Yishmael i.e. last ones to fight us before Mashiach comes) & PART OF HASHEMS PLAN. all the muslim countries will collapse & lose power & then be taken over by muslim terrorists. THE USA is part of the Islam plan too-including obama’s veto with saving Israel…-obama is a muslim & is on the side of all these countries UNDERCOVER.
Do you know how much property of NY City is owned by muslims? hundreds of buildings. & they will be taking over america soon also Before Mashiach comes GET READY. THIS IS ALL PART OF THE PLAN keep your eyes open & watch it happen, each muslim country going down one by one & then America.
#1 and #2,
Are you clueless?
Do you have any idea how bad Qadafi is???
Compared to him, Saddam Hussein was an enlightened peacemaker.
And there is *no* evidence that the people who overthrew the dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia, or the people trying to overthrow Qadafi, are extremists. Even in Egypt only a minority identify with the Muslim Brotherhood.
For once the US is on the right side, and you are complaining.
“We must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people” sounds great, eh? But what about Israel using their army against the settlers all of the time?? No one seems to complain much, except of course the settlers who get beat up quite a bit…
#5 lazerc,
Please take your anti-Israel propaganda to the anti-Semitic sites.
#6, please reconsider using the term “anti-semitic”. only 16% of jews male line is genetically classified as semitic and arabia is 65%…, the jews female line isn’t much better. there’s over 300 million more semitic non-jews than jews.
regardless if it is the intent or not israel is being used by the racist west to target the center of semitic populations. nothing has changed accept they ran out of semites in the jewish religion. if you subtract anti-semitism from the beginning of history the world would be around 60% semitic… < i have a problem with them "ethnic cleansing" every single race out and then drawing racist borders all over everything and throwing a "democracy party". the european y-dna went from half of a continent 300 years ago to a five and a half continent majority vote from conspiratorial genocides. they've created an issue that needs to be dealt with right now. gadaffi can stay, they can go.
#4 charliehall,
“No evidence that … are extremists” Sounds very much like what they were saying when the Shah was overthrown. You should learn from history.
For the first time in a while, I agree with Charlie hall. (On comment #6).
Also, is this a move just to display power or will America actually intervene militarily?
“…as the US and UK governments consider tougher measures to force Muammer Gaddafi from power…”
Why are the US and UK governments considering anything? The place for such discussions or deliberations should surely be either in the UN, the International Court of Human Rights or similar.
Individual countries acting on their own decisions (and always the same two) then wonder why they are isolated with neither western governments backing them nor support thru the muslim world.
The truth is that the ‘rebels’ that have been painted as street protesters protesting the 42 year rule of an oppressive dictator, are actually Taliban Al Qeda operatives, and the mercenaries they have hired.
They have taken the country over with jeeps that have mounted automatic weapons and ground to air missles. These are not street protesters.
The US and UK speak of going in, not to end Qaddafis rule, but to recapture the largest oil fields in Africa, that are now in the hands of Al Qeda and the Taliban.
If they quickly put intercontinental missiles in Libya that can reach europe, this will put the west in check. The wests economy qill domino.
It wont be long before Yishmael rules the world!
Charlie you are completely wrong about Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is by far the strongest force in Egypt, and the population is radical. I hope you are happy when Moussa is president and Jews in the periphery of Gaza die as a result of it. I honestly have no idea what your talking about. It is like reading one of these Tom Freidman op-eds and not a word making sense, (although I tend to avoid op-eds in general) 90% of Egyptians dislike Jews, what type of country is going to be bordering Israel?
BTW Charlie using your logic we should have invaded Iraq, which both of us were against.
#2 is dead on; Iraq, Afghan, Gaza proves what elections bring in Arab countries (Afghanis and Pakistanis have the most extremistnon muslim Arab populations).
Back to the article I hope we do not launch a third ground invasion in less than nine years. I am not even sure the opposition would be better than Qaddafi. I frankly would like to see a stalemate as I do not think we will get anyone less extreme than Qaddafi. After all according to the AP: Armed men in green armbands, along with uniformed security forces check those trying to enter the district, where graffiti that says “Gadhafi, you Jew,” “Down to the dog,” and “Tajoura is free” was scrawled on walls.
#7 are the Jews khazars? are you one of those loony antisemites that believe that?
#13, you dont make sense, the kazar myth was ruled out by dna sequencing. it does show that 25% of jews are straight out of the european populations within the last few hundred years.
anti-arab jews are anti-semites, thats new genetic truth and abraham and moses were the definition of semitic which is arab snp m267…
(though i do dismiss the totality of genetics as a whole on the grounds that in my opinion evidence exists that high tech alterations have occurred rendering some of the information untrue)