Q: ...any evidence that he actually has fired on his own people from the air?

[Hannah Bell]

The main motivation given for the bombing of Libya by western forces is the need to protect the civilian population from bombing attacks ordered by Gaddafi on insurgents in eastern Libya, and stop an expected massacre in Benghazi by advancing armored divisions. When asked at a press briefing March 1 if there was evidence of bombing attacks on civilians, American Secretary of Defense Robert Gates replied "We've seen the press reports, but we have no confirmation of that." U.S. Admiral Mullen added: "That's correct. We've seen no confirmation whatsoever. Their statements confirmed what Russian military intelligence sources had previously reported: the attacks had never happened.

http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4777

http://rt.com/news/airstrikes-libya-russian-military/

The history of Libya is largely unknown in the west. The insurgents themselves are flying the flag of the former Kingdom of Libya created by the British, and overthrown by Gaddafi in 1969...

War reporting is a hazardous undertaking. It cannot be replaced by unverified information from government sources. Reporting the news accurately, and fully, cannot replace follow-up: democratic debate about what is being done in our names.

Duncan Cameron writes weekly on politics and is president of rabble.ca.


http://rabble.ca/columnists/2011/03/five-principles-driving-war-propaganda-are-play-libya

[Fool Count]

1. I believe that this "bombed his own people" rationale will become an

equivalent of Saddam's WMDs. We may yet to find out that Qaddafi's forces killed fewer of "his own people"
than US drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan did of innocent civilians.

[aquart]

2. Well, then clearly Gaddafi should attack us.

Since we are the bad guys and he is, in your view, the innocent good guy.

[Hannah Bell]

6. you're saying gates & the general are lying?

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Why is this being unrec-ed?

It's factual, referenced, and pertinent.

Once again, "math", "science", and "reporting" take a hit.

[Hannah Bell]

4. you have to ask? a lot of war hawks at du.

[joshcryer]

7. Because even if the Russian military were right (interesting that DU should believe that)...

...the planes could still be used for spotting for shelling exercises.

Therefore it is a straw man at worst, Russian propaganda at worst.

The jets never hit any targets to my recollection but they were certainly trying, and two pilots defected on orders to fire upon civilian targets.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. The point is that the US claimed there was no evidence

The Russians - and others - supported that claim.

[joshcryer]

10. The US never said that.

Cite where the US said there was "no evidence." They have no independent confirmation of those media reports, and it is not relevant.

The media reports are certainly evidence, as are the eyewitness reports.

[MannyGoldstein]

11. Yes, I overstated it - but I still don't see your point

Our government said that they did not have independent confirmation. Then we started a war.

[highplainsdem]

14. You didn't just "overstate it" -- you completely changed the meaning.

There were numerous reports of Libyan government jets being used to attack protesters, AND there's what the defecting pilots reported.

http://firedoglake.com/2011/02/21/gaddafi-forces-attack-libyan-protesters-from-air-sea/

http://www.businessinsider.com/libya-protesters-retake-a-key-strategic-town-and-are-now-chasing-the-military-into-the-desert-2011-3

which led me to this

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/twitter.com/live/africa/africa/2011/03/09/africa/2011/02/24/live/africa/live/africa/africa/2011/03/09/node/4621/middle-east/2011/02/17/live/africa/live/africa/africa/2011/03/09/africa/2011/02/23/live/africa/live/africa/middle-east/2011/03/06/tweeting-revolutions?page=4

See the photo with this entry for 11:15 PM:

Live Blog - Libya March 2

11:15pm

You remember Tony Birtley's report about getting bombed just outside Brega? (It's below, put online at 6:13pm, if you haven't seen it yet)

But here's a still from the video our web producer Evan Hill was filming - moments after the impact.

and the earlier blog entry on that report:

4:14pm

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley was just on the phone with us - 10km away from the oil-rich town of Brega. As we spoke, he was watching a Libyan airforce jet bombing the area.

"It’s now an air attack. We just watched an air force jet from the Libyan air force fly over Brega and drop at least one bomb - and huge plumes of smoke are now coming out over Brega. Another bombed near our position, where anti-Gaddafi forces have gathered."

-snip-

After seeing so many posts about this at the time, including reports from reputable journalists, I've been stunned to see how suddenly those earlier reports are spun into supposedly being lies.

[Scuba]

5. Excellent question. There's certainly plenty of evidence....

...that "our side" has rained hell down on Libya.

[Starry Messenger]

9. k&r

[Hannah Bell]

12. k

[Catherina]

13. Rec'd. Somethings are seriously wrong here.

flying the flag of the former Kingdom of Libya created by the British

The heir to the throne encouraging the rebels from the start and proclaiming his willingness to return and serve the people

Neocons in support

Noam Chomsky, Galloway, other prominent proven activists sounding a huge alarm

1/3 of the population, the most oppressed ones, fleeing in terror

Saudi Arabia gleefully encouraging and arming the rebels while putting down their own protesters and killing the Facebook activists who organized the protests there.

Same with Bahrain.

Somethings are seriously wrong here.

[highplainsdem]

15. See reply 14 for Al Jazeera reports and a photo of the bombing on March 2.