Gaddafi

Asset Freezing (Compensation) Bill vetoed

Fiona O’Cleirigh on March 8, 2017, 8:12 pm

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The long-running campaign by UK victims of Libyan-backed IRA bombings to pass a bill in parliament for financial compensation was dealt a new blow today, being vetoed in the Commons by a government whip, despite having passed in the House of Lords. In what looks like a moment of desperation, an obscure parliamentary procedure was invoked to kill off the Asset Freezing (Compensation) Bill, a cross-party private members bill, which targets the £9.5 million that Gaddafi held in the UK …

Gaddafi dead

Turgon on October 20, 2011, 4:22 pm

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The BBC are reporting that Col Muammar Gaddafi has been killed in his home town of Sirte in Libya. Al-Jazeera TV has broadcast video apparently of Gaddafi’s body being dragged through the streets. It is unclear whether Col. Gaddafi was killed by forces of the National Transitional Council or in a NATO airstrike which apparently destroyed two vehicles earlier today. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.

Libya begins a long walk to an uncertain destination

Mick Fealty on August 24, 2011, 3:58 pm

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It is easy to forget that despite its sprawling landmass, the population of Libya is not much different from that of the island of Ireland, or Scotland. Ninety percent of the people live in less than 10% of the area of the country and the majority of those live in just two cities. Much of the rest is desert, including much of the landscape between the two main cities, Benghazi and Tripoli. So protecting the people of Benghazi by air offensive …

Yer man’s name

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 24, 2011, 10:00 am

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Alternative spellings for each part of Gaddafi's name

In the world of 24 hour rolling news, it sometimes feels like there’s an expected outcome to many stories and a timeline for reaching the end point and moving onto the next thing. Accordingly, developments in Libya’s capital Tripoli aren’t moving fast enough towards the (western) narrative’s inevitable resolution. While I’ve been waiting, for months I’ve been noticing the diversity of spelling of the Libyan leader’s name. The BBC use Gaddafi, the Irish Times stick to Gadafy, while other outlets …

Götterdämmerung in #Tripoli

John Ó Néill on August 21, 2011, 11:27 pm

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Expect a fairly fevered rumour mill over the next few hours and days as the curtain falls on the #Gaddafi regime in #Libya. Reports by @MalikAlAbdeh of Muamar #Gaddafi’s death in #Tripoli have been recanted, having been rapidly and widely retweeted. Various live #Gaddafi speeches have also been broadcast although his exact location and status are far from certain. Various sources, including @AJELive, have two or three of #Gaddafi’s sons in rebel hands (as of 11pm or so) with little resistance …

Is it time to arm the rebels?

vanhelsing on March 14, 2011, 7:06 pm

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Writing in ‘The Times’ today the former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind called for arms to be provided to the rebels fighting the regime in Libya. Of course treading carefully in this area is important as the well cited example of getting it wrong is the US support for the then Mujahedeen resistance in the war with the Soviets at the start of the 1980’s. At that time Bin Laden was part of Maktab al-Khadamat [a group fighting the Soviet …