ease posted:

I'm happy to see revolutions and political change lead by the people, but is anyone else creeped out about people shouting god is great around every single dead leader the middle east has produced lately?

EdTheHead posted:

I believe definition 2 applies here.

Nombres posted:

Increasingly seems to me that "Allahu Akbar" is almost used to mean "gently caress YEAH" than anything else but to hell if I know.

Rrail posted:

Not really, it's on his upper cheekbone. People get shot in the face and head all the time, accidentally and purposely.

quote:

Sky sources: Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam is alive and is still at large

quote:

Saif al-Islam is alive and is still at large

quote:

still at large

Brown Moses posted:

This is apparently the corpse of Moatassim Gaddafi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vppk1Eu7dvE

Here's a picture of him

Could be him I reckon.

Brown Moses posted:

I guess no-one gives a poo poo about me posting news articles at this point in time?

Brown Moses posted:

This is apparently a new video of Gaddafi being all Weekend at Bernies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpnwBXHuxOc

Chicken Doodle posted:

Dead as a doornail, his eyes look hemorrhaged.

Think the UK will say this is revenge for Lockerbie?

Brown Moses posted:

I guess no-one gives a poo poo about me posting news articles at this point in time?

Brown Moses posted:

I guess no-one gives a poo poo about me posting news articles at this point in time?

Pueidist posted:

to celebrate gaddafis death demands you remove the event from its entire context. i.e., bin laden was a bad dude, but his death was at best a bittersweet moment because it came as a result of a needlessly bloody and destructive war campaign that obliterated millions of lives. the nato campaign for north africa is a force for evil and that it accidentally results in some level of justice doesnt deserve celebration

Brown Moses posted:

He's another of Gaddafi's corpse, note the amount of mobile phones.

Sorry if I post any repeats, I'm just catching up at the moment.

Nombres posted:

Yeah, don't stop! We love you Brown Mosessss.

Although if you want to take time off your vigil in order to spend time with your newborn, I'm sure none of us will fault you. Congrats!

Nombres posted:

Yeah, don't stop! We love you Brown Mosessss.

Although if you want to take time off your vigil in order to spend time with your newborn, I'm sure none of us will fault you. Congrats!

quote:

Libya's Gaddafi caught hiding like a "rat"

Muammar Gaddafi called the rebels who rose up against his 42-years of one-man rule "rats," but in the end it was he who was captured cowering in a drainage pipe full of rubbish and filth.

"He called us rats, but look where we found him," said Ahmed Al Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway.

Government fighters, video evidence and the scenes of sheer carnage nearby told the story of the dictator's final hours.

Shortly before dawn prayers on Thursday, Gaddafi surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.

But they did not get far.

NATO said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to pro-Gaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m. British time) on Thursday, but the alliance said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Gaddafi.

Fifteen pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burnt out, smashed and smouldering next to an electricity sub station some 20 metres from the main road, about two miles west of Sirte.

They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.

But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or had been strafed by a fighter jet.

Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn in the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.

Gaddafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have ran through a stand of trees towards the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.

But a group of government fighters were on their tail.

"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot.

"One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.

"Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.

"We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said.

At the time of capture, Gaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.

Other government fighters who said they took part in Gaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.

"One of Muammar Gaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan.

Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.

Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Gaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.

Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.

Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway.

"Gaddafi was captured here," said one simply.

From there Gaddafi was taken to the nearby city of Sirte where he and his dwindling band of die-hard supporters had made a last stand under a rain of missile and artillery fire in a desperate two-month siege.

Video footage showed Gaddafi, dazed and wounded, but still clearly alive and gesturing with his hands as he was dragged from a pick-up truck by a crowd of angry jostling group of government soldiers who hit him and pulled his hair.

He then appeared to fall to the ground and was enveloped by the crowd. NTC officials later announced Gaddafi had died of his wounds after capture.

Brown Moses posted:

It's worth posting this article that summarises the events leading up to his death:

Rasler posted:

The powers behind NATO are horrible precisely because they were willing at one point to be friends with Gaddafi in order to ensure that their goals in the Middle East were better met, and it was those same goals that kept dictators like Mubarak and Musharaff in Pakistan in power as well. Those strategic goals have not changed, even if the rules have been hastily re-written to no longer support the dictators and instead try to cosy up to their successor regimes.

quote:

Body of Gaddafi son put on display in Misrata house

The corpse of one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons, Mo'tassim, was on Thursday evening laid out in a private house in the Libyan city of Misrata and local people were jostling around the body to take pictures on their cell phones, a Reuters reporter at the house said.

The body was laid on blankets on the floor and covered up to the waist by a blue plastic sheet. The upper half was naked, and wounds could be seen to the chest and neck, the reporter said. Members of the public filed in, shouting "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great." One person said: "This is the end of the tyrant."

Brown Moses posted:

This is apparently a new video of Gaddafi being all Weekend at Bernies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpnwBXHuxOc

Brown Moses posted:

This is apparently a new video of Gaddafi being all Weekend at Bernies

Brown Moses posted:

Rasler posted:

It is quite possible to both be happy that Gaddafi's regime has fallen and angry that NATO stepped in to ensure that it happened.

Nilbop posted:

Some of this is ghastly. I understand the need to prove beyond doubt to people that these people are dead but some of this stuff is really grisly.

etalian posted:

Yup he pretty much had great success in shedding his black sheep status and helping EU countries overlook his true nature.

Especially getting energy deals with countries such as Italy and also quitting his WMD program.

But the Arab spring introduced a bad surprise and uncontrollable element into the picture especially since it caught the west flatfooted.

Golbez posted:

Is it, though? Because the first would absolutely not have occurred without the latter.

Nilbop posted:

Some of this is ghastly. I understand the need to prove beyond doubt to people that these people are dead but some of this stuff is really grisly.

Dr. Video Games 0055 posted:

Yeah, the only reason this civil war didn't drag on longer is because NATO pounded Gadhafi as hard as they did. I'm just glad it was kept as limited as it was.

ease posted:

I'm happy to see revolutions and political change lead by the people, but is anyone else creeped out about people shouting god is great around every single dead leader the middle east has produced lately?

Rasler posted:

We can celebrate the fall of Gaddafi despite this. He was the personification of evil

Killer robot posted:

While it's always impossible to be sure, I'd say it's more likely that NATO is the reason the rebellion wasn't swiftly crushed, given what the momentum was before airstrikes started.

Golbez posted:

Is it, though? Because the first would absolutely not have occurred without the latter.

Mr. Self Destruct posted:

retarded extremist left bullshit

Vladimir Putin posted:

Wow, now that is just undignified.

Nombres posted:

What do they plan to do with the body?

Winkle-Daddy posted:

To be fair, does is surprise anyone that NATO would support dictator stability vs democratic unpredictability? I mean, yeah that sucks that he was able to play the game so long, but that's what happens when a section of the planet gets labeled as a "powder keg."

Killer robot posted:

While it's always impossible to be sure, I'd say it's more likely that NATO is the reason the rebellion wasn't swiftly crushed, given what the momentum was before airstrikes started.