quadratic posted:

BBC 1718: Talking about the first shot by a French aircraft on a Libyan military vehicle, French defence ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire told reporters: "A first target was engaged and destroyed." An armed forces spokesman told the same briefing the operation to halt Colonel Gaddafi's advance on rebel forces involved around 20 planes and an area 100 km by 150 km (60 by 100 miles) around the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi. France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier will leave France for Libya on Sunday, the spokesman added. A central command centre for the operation was still being set up.

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

FreeRepublic is... on the job!

Barack Obama is a Muslim, says Libya's Qadhafi..lol (he liked his Muslim brother back in 2008)


On the far right, "hell yeah, killin' brown people" has slightly outweighed "hey, why are we spending blood and treasure helping sand-monkeys?". Plus Obama's lack of drive on the issue gives them an awesome chance to call him a dove, so they're getting posts like this:

Libya: Obama's No-Guts Zone
Obama: We’re Going To War With Libya…Well, Kinda Sorta

I imagine most of Free Republic doing an anguished pee-pee dance trying to figure out whether to back this for the sake of Hawkism, killing Reagan-era villain Mad Dog Qaddaffi, and making Obama look like a pansy, or whether to keep out of it in the name of fiscal conservatism, not helping a bunch of Islamacist Ay-rabs, and not being part of "US OUT OF UN!!!". The cognitive dissonance is causing a thermal uptick across Alabama.

Thomase posted:

Can we pick one way of spelling gaddafi's name and stick to it?

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

FreeRepublic is... on the job!

Barack Obama is a Muslim, says Libya's Qadhafi..lol (he liked his Muslim brother back in 2008)

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

FreeRepublic is... on the job!

Barack Obama is a Muslim, says Libya's Qadhafi..lol (he liked his Muslim brother back in 2008)

Thomase posted:

Can we pick one way of spelling gaddafi's name and stick to it?

beer_war posted:

Ahahaha holy poo poo

New Division posted:

I wonder what Freepers think of the prominent French role.

quote:

Misrata residents have said that government snipers are shooting people from rooftops and the hospital can not operate on the wounded because it has no anaesthetic.

Misrata, about 200km east of Tripoli, is the last big rebel stronghold in the west of the country and people living there say Gaddafi forces are still trying to retake it despite a ceasefire.

People said there was some shelling in the city this morning and that the city was facing a humanitarian crisis because water supplies were cut for a third day.

A Misrata resident called Saadoun told Reuters:

"I am telling you, we are scared and we are alone. We have two people dead this morning, not because of the shelling but because there are snipers on some houses and they are shooting people, they are shooting whoever they see... We are all scared here, the people of Misrata are scared. We feel a humanitarian crisis is coming."

quote:

The Guardian has been sent videos of fighting in Misrata, purportedly showing the bombing of civilian targets by pro-Gaddafi forces on Friday.

This video appears to show armed rebels, some in trucks fitted with machine guns, shouting as plumes of smoke appear on the horizon following what sounds like artillery fire. Please note we cannot independently verify this footage.

quote:

French Mirage and Rafale fighters are flying over Benghazi and could strike at Gaddafi's tanks, AP quotes an official from Sarkozy's government as saying.

Italian fighter planes have begun a surveillance mission over Libya, Al Arabiya television channel reports.

PA reports that two US F-15 Strike Eagle ground attack jets have taken off from US Air Force base at Lakenheath, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in England.
US planes took off from the same base in 1986 to bomb Libya.

quote:

Reuters has more on the build-up of Western forces that could be involved in military action to enforce the UN resolution.

The news agency reports that six Danish F-16 fighter jets at the US air base in Sicily, and American F-18s and Canadian CF-18 Hornets are already in the region.

Danish air force spokesman Lars Skjoldan said the six their F-16s that arrived at the US air base at Sigonella, Sicily on Saturday would be ready for operation in Libya by Sunday.

Canada has committed six CF-18 fighter jets to help enforce the no-fly zone, and early Saturday Canadian aircraft landed at the Prestwick Airport in Glasgow, Scotland to refuel and left, an airport spokesman said.

Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, said it would take two days to prepare for any mission.

Italy has offered the use of seven military bases to help enforce the no-fly zone over Libya

Witnesses reported Saturday that five American F-18s, two C-17s and a C-130 cargo plane landed Saturday at the US air base at Aviano in northern Italy, which is home to the 31st Fighter Wing.

quote:

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is being moved to international waters off the coast of Libya, according to Le Monde. It will leave the French port of Toulon on Sunday and will be in place within 48 hours.

New Division posted:

I wonder what Freepers think of the prominent French role.

redscare posted:

I like how they make it sound like France has more than one carrier.

Vir posted:

Wouldn't they like Sarkozy? He's from the conservative side, right?

Shageletic posted:

Cartouche posted:

Is that... rust?

redscare posted:

I like how they make it sound like France has more than one carrier.

At least they'll finally get some use out of the DeGaulle

Cartouche posted:

Another part of me wonders how this is being reported to North Koreans.

New Division posted:

The American far-right despises the French. And while Sarkozy may be a conservative by French political standards he's to the left of most American Democrats.

quote:

French aircraft have destroyed four Libyan tanks in air strikes to the south-west of Benghazi, Al-Jazeera television has reported.

BBC posted:

1748: French aircraft have destroyed four Libyan tanks in air strikes to the south-west of Benghazi, Al-Jazeera television has reported

quote:

LONDON, March 18 (UPI) -- Iran appears to have developed a system for identifying computer users on a network designed to block surveillance, a member of the Tor Project says.

Tor software, distributed free, hides computer IP addresses and encrypts e-mail and other communication on the Internet. The software was originally developed at a U.S. military lab and is now open source.

Andrew Lewman, Tor's executive director, said Iran apparently has obtained Deep Packet Inspection, equipment that allows the reading of Internet traffic as it is transmitted. He said Tor has known for years it was vulnerable but did not take steps to thwart that type of technology in advance.

"We're trying to have an arms race really slowly," he said.

Lewman said the number of Tor users in Iran more than doubled to 2,800 after the 2009 presidential election. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election to a second term was widely perceived as fraudulent and it set off a wave of protest in Tehran and some other cities.

Iran now appears to have advanced a step beyond China in its ability to track or block dissidents online, Lewman said.

Slave posted:

I hope some footage of this emerges

GIVE ME WAR PORN

goatface posted:

poo poo, is this the first time Eurofighters have actually gone operational?

New Division posted:

I wonder what Freepers think of the prominent French role. I know they can't be fond of anyone stealing the U.S.'s thunder in a conflict.

Yaos posted:

In a few years there will be Call Of Duty 10: Revolution. The middle level will involve the Libyan military entering Benghazi, you get shot in the leg and you're alone. As the tanks and trucks come up on you they explode in a huge fireball as jets streak past 100 feet above the ground. The last level will involve a fight with Gadaffi in his mech suit on his armored blimp.

goatface posted:

poo poo, is this the first time Eurofighters have actually gone operational?

Cartouche posted:

Just thinking out loud here.
Is this a situation where cutting off the head of the snake would kill it? Or would everything continue on as it is with Gadaffy dead? I am wondering if a lot of bloodshed could be avoided if we cut to the chase.

Another part of me wonders how this is being reported to North Koreans.

New Division posted:

France has been trying to market the Dassault Rafale for export, so this isn't just a war for France... it's a sales demonstration!

goatface posted:

Yeah, but the News are talking about UK Eurofighters rebasing to med fields.

IM_DA_DECIDER posted:

I bet the US is pretty pissed that they don't have working F-35s yet while France and EADS are having such nice sales shows. Guess who'll be offering discounts on F15 and F16 planes soon?

Imapanda posted:

So wait, If American air fighters begin fighting, Is there a possibility of some dogfights happening?

Yaos posted:

In a few years there will be Call Of Duty 10: Revolution. The middle level will involve the Libyan military entering Benghazi, you get shot in the leg and you're alone. As the tanks and trucks come up on you they explode in a huge fireball as jets streak past 100 feet above the ground. The last level will involve a fight with Gadaffi in his mech suit on his armored blimp.

Slantedfloors posted:

If you define dogfights as "ancient Libyan jets being blown out of the sky with Air-to-Air missiles before they know there are other planes in the area", then yes.