As Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces closed in on the rebel capital of Benghazi, Thursday, the Obama Administration not only came around to the idea of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, but sought — and won — U.N. Security Council authorization for ground attacks on regime forces threatening to storm the rebel “capital” of Benghazi. …
Africa
Did Gaddafi Really Finance Sarkozy’s Presidential Victory? (Probably Not.)
Stop the presses–or, better yet, don’t.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi—the no-longer-as-credible-as-once-hoped son of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi—is claiming his family financed the victorious 2007 campaign of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and now wants that money back. And if the Frenchman doesn’t pay up, the younger Gaddafi …
Gaddafi Warns Benghazi Rebels: We Are Coming, And There’ll Be No Mercy
In a recently concluded address broadcast on Libyan state radio, Muammar Gaddafi offered a grim warning to residents of Benghazi, the center of the rebellion seeking to topple the Gaddafi regime: “We are coming tonight, and there will be no mercy.”
The past week has seen troops loyal to Gaddafi march closer to Benghazi, Libya’s second …
Uprisings in the Middle East Could Be Bad News for Al-Qaeda: Cautious Optimism in Britain
Muammar Gaddafi blamed a coalition of drugs, alcohol and Osama bin Laden for inciting Libyan youth to reject his dictatorial rule. Somewhat more credible commentators, including my colleague Bobby Ghosh, warn that the collapse of the Yemeni regime could boost the AQ affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, yet such concerns have done …
Unable to Defeat Gaddafi, Libyan Rebels Turn to the West
The problem with the West imposing a “no-fly zone” over Libya — and the problem of Libya’s revolution itself — was highlighted in Monday’s bizarre request by the rebel leadership for Western powers to assassinate Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. That demand, which rebel leaders in Benghazi said their representatives had made when meeting on …
Lagos, Nigeria: Blind in Africa’s Mega-City
Imagine being blind in Lagos. It is Africa’s megacity, an endless, dirty, malarial metropolis of somewhere between 10 and 17.5 million people – no one seems quite sure – a figure predicted to reach 25 million by 2015 and 35 million by 2025. It’s a place of constant gridlock and giant holes in the sidewalks. It is a nightmare to …
Interview with a Fetish Priestess
We step into the fetish priestess’s yard and, improbably, there is a clap of thunder, a sudden gust of wind slams doors and windows, and knocks over several plastic chairs – and the lights go out. My guide, Boat, and I are shown to two seats in front of the priestess, sitting on her porch in the dark. We are each handed a small glass …
EU Summit On Libya Produces Tough Talk, But No Walk Against Gaddafi
Reminiscent of Thursday’s meeting of NATO defense ministers, today’s summit of European Union leaders produced a largely symbolic collective statement demanding Muammar Gaddafi give up power and end the violence raging in Libya—but refrained from proposing anything to back that urging up with. But given the important advances of …
Cote d’Ivoire: Africa Moving Closer to Armed Intervention
Is Africa getting closer to taking military action to force out Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire? Perhaps. On Thursday, the legitimate ruler of the small West African nation, Alassane Ouattara, held talks with the Africa Union in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Rather than another attempt to forge a compromise between Ouattara and …
Counterpoint: France’s Libya Move is Premature
I’m going to have to humbly disagree with my good friend Bruce Crumley who hails France’s recognition of the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council as the legitimate government of all of Libya. Recognizing the legitimacy of the rebellion does not require recognizing a hastily cobbled together leadership structure, the extent of …
France Recognizes Libyan Opposition Government
Props to French President Nicolas Sarkozy for becoming the first international leader to recognize the opposition battling Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi as the rightful representatives of their country. But should it have taken this long for someone to make such a no-brainer decision? And what’s taking Sarkozy’s peers so long in …
How Soccer Explains the Middle East
A soccer game was held yesterday in the West Bank. That may not be quite out of the ordinary in this soccer-mad part of the world, but the teams competing were: on one side, you had Thailand, and the other, Palestine. A qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics, this was the first ever internationally-sanctioned game in the Occupied …
Saif House? Not Any More as Gaddafi’s London Pad Is Overrun by Squatters
“I remember once seeing a photo of Muammar Gaddafi’s master bedroom,” wrote the Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in the foreword to Dictators’ Homes, a book by cultural commentator Peter York that conclusively demonstrated the link between megalomania and a penchant for leopard skin and other big cat motifs. “It was in TIME or …