Libyan Rebels Ignore Request to Extradite Lockerbie Bomber

By all means, let's send them billions of dollars and pretend they're going to have a democratic form of government.

The Libyan rebel government will not deport the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, its justice minister said Sunday.

New York senators on Aug. 22 asked the Libyan transitional government to hold Abdel-Baset al-Megrahi fully accountable for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.

But the transitional government Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told journalists in Tripoli that the request by American senators had "no meaning" because al-Megrahi had already been tried and convicted.

"We will not hand over any Libyan citizen. It was Gadhafi who handed over Libyan citizens," he said, referring to the government's decision to turn al-Megrahi over to a Scottish court for trial.

A shame al-Megrahi didn't die two years ago like he was supposed to.

Khadafy Now Firing Cluster Bombs on Civilians, Clueless Hillary 'Not Aware'

Remember, we're not going to stand by and allow the slaughter of civilians or something.

Military forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who have surrounded this city and vowed to crush its anti-Qaddafi rebellion, have been firing into residential neighborhoods with heavy weapons, including cluster bombs that have been banned by much of the world and ground-to-ground rockets, according to the accounts of witnesses and survivors and physical evidence on the ground.

Such “indiscriminate” weapons, which strike large areas with a dense succession of high-explosive munitions, by their nature cannot be fired precisely, and when fired into populated areas place civilians at grave risk.

The use of such weapons could also add urgency to the NATO campaign, which has as its mandate protecting civilians from the Qaddafi regime’s harm. And it could place pressure on the United States, which pulled back air power from the war when it ceded control of the campaign to NATO earlier this month.

When asked about the munitions at a news conference in Berlin, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “not aware” of the specific use of cluster or other heavy weapons in Misurata, but said, “I’m not surprised by anything that Colonel Qadaffi and his forces do.”

She added: “That is worrying information. And it is one of the reasons the fight in Misurata is so difficult, because it’s at close quarters, it’s in amongst urban areas and it poses a lot of challenges to both NATO and to the opposition.”

The cluster munitions were visible in use late Thursday night, in the form of what appeared to be 120-millimeter mortar rounds that burst in the air over the city, scattering high-explosive bomblets below.

According to sources, the shelling of civilians began between Obama's second and third fundraisers last night, not between the first and second as initially reported.

The Noose Tightens as Libyan Rebels Flee

Our fearless wartime Commander-in-Chief might want to update his talking points. Here he is Tuesday interrupting his New York fundraising blitz to again repeat his stale line about the noose tightening on Moammar Khadafy.

With the end game in Libya still unclear, President Obama said Tuesday that Col. Moammar Khadafy's grip on power cannot last much longer.

"The noose has tightened around him," Obama told CBS News.

"Khadafy's camp, people around him, are starting to recognize that their options are limited and their days are numbered," he said.

"But that information may not have filtered to Khadafy yet."

Obviously it hasn't "filtered" to him yet since his forces are beating the snot out of the rebels according to the latest reports.

Libyan rebels have withdrawn from the oil town of Ras Lanuf under bombardment from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces, exposing their weakness without Western support.

The rapid reverse comes just two days after the rebels raced westwards along the coastal road in pursuit of the Libyan dictator's forces.

The government army had seen its tanks and artillery demolished in five days of coalition aerial assault in the town of Ajdabiyah, but now appears to have regrouped.

Col Gaddafi's troops first ambushed the insurgent convoy outside the leader's hometown of Sirte, then outflanked them through the desert, a manoeuvre requiring the sort of discipline entirely lacking in ragtag rebel force.

On the offensive, government tanks and artillery have unleashed a fierce bombardment on towns and cities, forcing the rebels to flee.

The tactic appears to have worked once again in Ras Lanuf, an oil terminal town 230 miles east of the capital Tripoli.

"Gaddafi hit us with huge rockets. He has entered Ras Lanuf," rebel fighter Faraj Muftah told Reuters after pulling out of Ras Lanuf.

Now if you're this rag-tag rebel bunch of guys who we can't even identify, do Obama's empty words provide any comfort for you? Especially with such clear, decisive statements such as this?

The United States and France have raised the possibility of arming the rebels, though both stressed no decision had yet been taken.

"I'm not ruling it in, I'm not ruling it out," US President Barack Obama told NBC overnight.

Well, gee, thanks for clearing that up, Colonel Obama. If I were a rebel on the run, hearing that you're neither ruling it in or out really provides a clear picture on what my options are. Let's see, should I stay where I am and have huge rockets rain down on me or should I wait around for a guy more interested in watching basketball before I clear the hell out if I want to live.

This is what it's come to. I firmly believe Obama has spent more time working on his NCAA picks and watching games that he has being briefed on developments in Libya. What other explanation is there? We have an obvious vacuum of leadership and the world sees this.

Putting aside Libya for a minute, what do you suppose the folks in Syria and elsewhere are thinking when they see this vacillating jellyfish offering up this nonsense?

Obama appears to be hesitating about which side to take, with signs that he might give the tyrant the benefit of a doubt. That would be a mistake.

Obama adopted such a position during the pro-democracy uprising in Iran in 2009. That made it easier for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to consolidate its coup and impose Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a second term.

Obama at first tried the same approach in Tunisia and Egypt, by supporting the despots -- but finally wound up siding with the people. As a result, America lost on both scores. By abandoning well-established allies, it was accused of being a fickle friend. But the switch to the people's side came too late to enable the United States to claim a share in ending the dictatorial regimes.

Of course such obvious humiliation and fecklessness didn't prevent Obama's pom-pom media for celebrating his masterful foreign policy, but they can't sustain much longer pretending one thing is happening while our eyes tell us a completely different story.

Return of the Obama Halo

It appears Barack Obama got what he wanted from Monday night's speech on Libya. He got just the right camera angle so the media could portray him with the trusty halo made so popular during the 2008 election cycle. If I were the suspicious type I'd suggest he rehearses these shots.

The above image accompanies a muddled opinion piece in the NY Daily News that claims Obama made a clear, principled case for our military action in Libya.

But now, in the first major test of a crisis rearing its head on his watch, many have derided Obama's approach as the professor's way of war. So the pundits were craving clarity Monday night when he took the stage at the National Defense University in Washington, clamoring for something like an Obama Doctrine, a few snappy sentences that encapsulate his foreign policy, a formula where you plug in the variables and get your answer each and every time.

It didn't happen. It was never going to happen. Nor should it have happened.

In typically Obamastic fashion, he rejected the arguments of those who suggested we should have allowed a humanitarian disaster to unfold while the world watched (that would have "been a betrayal of who we are"), and similarly dismantled the arguments of those who want a more aggressive, expansive, expensive campaign.

Obamastic fashion? Say what? And who out there suggested we allow a humanitarian disaster to unfold? If anything most critics suggested we act long before we did. Besides, if anyone wants humanitarian disasters, there are plenty of places in Africa that fits the bill.

So while this columnist extols the Obamastic professorial virtues of our fearless leader, he then contradicts himself.

Disagree with the military action in Libya, by all means. I'm not sold. Our military is already overextended, and protesters are being suppressed from Yemen to Bahrain to Syria, which are all more critical to our national security. Congress wasn't sufficiently consulted. We don't know whether or how we'll bring Moammar Khadafy down, and it's possible we only postponed, rather than prevented, a slaughter. We know very little about the rebels, and apart from broadly lionizing the Libyan people, Obama shed no light Monday night on why they're bound to be better than the devil we know.

We have no clue what's to happen down the road, but at least Obama explained it all in professorial Obamastic fashion. Thanks for clearing that up.

Great News: Al Qaeda Helping Themselves To Missiles in Libya

Surely President Eisenhower Obama will be addressing this disturbing development during his long-awaited, little-anticipated speech to the nation Monday night. If he evens knows about it by then.

AL-QAEDA'S offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's President says.

Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many surface-to-air missiles were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was "100 per cent sure" of his assertion.

"The Islamists of al-Qaeda took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere," a desert region of the Sahara that stretches from northeast Niger to western Chad, Deby said in the interview.

"This is very serious. AQIM is becoming a genuine army, the best equipped in the region," he said.

His claim was echoed by officials in other countries in the region who said that they were worried that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) might have acquired "heavy weapons", thanks to the insurrection.

"We have sure information. We are very worried for the sub-region," a Malian security source who did not want to be named said.

AQIM originated as an armed Islamist resistance movement to the secular Algerian government.

It now operates mainly in Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, where it has attacked military targets and taken civilian hostages, particularly Europeans, some of whom it has killed.

"We have the same information," about heavy weapons, including SAM 7 missiles, a military source from Niger said.

"It is very worrying. This overarming is a real danger for the whole zone," he added

Once Basketball is Done This Weekend, Obama Will Get Around to Mentioning Libya to the Public

I guess TOTUS doesn't work weekends. He could have done this, oh, maybe when the whole thing started last week, but he was busy traipsing around South America with the extended family. Obviously tonight, Saturday and Sunday are a no go. Basketball clearly takes precedence over the American people.

So he'll figure out something to say by Monday. But who knows, that could be subject to change.

President Obama will address the nation Monday night on the crisis in Libya, the White House said Friday.

Obama will speak at 7:30 p.m. ET at the National Defense University in Washington.

While the U.S. is eager to take a backseat role in the international military campaign in Libya, it is considering stepping up its assistance to rebel forces through humanitarian, political, economic and even military aid, a U.S. official said Friday.

So we'll be taking a backseat role by stepping up our assistance. Good thing this has all be thought out clearly before we acted.

Today Obama managed to find time to hold a conference call with some Washington lawmakers to to to pretend he was keeping them in the loop. How gracious of him.

Looks like a high of only 46 in DC tomorrow, but that still might make the golf cutoff point. Lord knows the guy could use some downtime.

Baisez Sarkozy

About the same height as Vlad Paranoid - with an ego to match - the little fellow leading Fwance has gone from being rather respectable to becoming a parody of himself.

Sarkozy opposes Nato taking control of Libya operation
Dissent from Germany, Turkey and Norway leaves question marks over command structure

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has opposed handing over control of the military operation in Libya to Nato, saying the move would send the wrong message to Arab nations.

At a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, Nato's decision-making committee on Monday, the French representative reportedly stormed out after being accused of hindering Nato's involvement in the campaign. France had flatly refused to agree to the proposal, which was later agreed by a majority of member countries.

My, my, my, shouldn't we be more observant of Fwench sensitivities?

The German representative is also reported to have left the meeting after his country was criticised for not wanting to get involved.

Shit howdy, getting 'em to Afghanistan is still a shock; Germany becoming involved with Libya would be mind-blowing.

Turkey, angered that the French president had failed to invite it to Saturday's summit in Paris, refused to give carte blanche for a no-fly zone over Libya.

You're an absolute fucking genius, Sarko.

Western diplomats say Sarkozy angered Britain and the US by announcing French planes were already in the air and ready to attack Libya before many of his allies had even left Saturday's meeting to decide on military action, and before informing his partners.

Afterwards, the French president - who will be seeking re-election next year - was congratulating himself for what the French called his "diplomatic blitzkrieg" in pushing through UN resolution 1973 authorising the offensive against Muammar Gaddafi.

However, after Monday's meeting, Norway said it was "suspending' participation of its F-16 fighter jets, which had already arrived in Italy before flying on to Crete, until it had "a clarification of the command [structure]".

Germany and Turkey do not want Nato to carry on the bombing campaign against Gaddafi's forces; Luxembourg, present at Saturday's summit, has said it will only take part if the operation is Nato-led; Italy is "reflecting on the use of its bases" for the operation.

BarryO is looking to handoff leadership of Operation Daffy Gaddafi^© "in a matter of days, not weeks".

Sarko is all but saying that he's the new leader of the Free World. Have at it, fucker. Just don't cry for help from NATO (or anyone else) should you wake up and see Gaddafi's flag flying atop the Eiffel Tower.

Read it all at The Guardian

Report: NY Times Photographer Sexually Assaulted by Khadafy Goons

A group of New York Times journalists were released in Libya Monday and a report today indicates a female photographer was sexually assaulted by Moammar Khadafy's thugs.

A female war photographer from the New York Times revealed tonight how she was repeatedly sexually assaulted during her nightmare hostage ordeal in Libya.

Lynsey Addario was one of four Times journalists have now been released after being held captive by pro-Gaddafi forces.

During their six-day detainment, the Americans were beaten and threatened with being decapitated and shot.

Miss Addario, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, gave a harrowing account of her brutal treatment at the hands of their Libyan captors in an interview given just hours after her release.

After she and her colleagues were hauled out of a car at a checkpoint near the eastern city of Ajdabiya, one of the Libyans punched her in the face and laughed at her.

‘Then I started crying and he was laughing more,’ she told the Times.

One man grabbed her breasts – the start of a pattern of sexual harassment she endured over the ensuing 48 hours.

‘There was a lot of groping,’ she said. ‘Every man who came in contact with us basically felt every inch of my body short of what was under my clothes.’

As she was being driven away from Ajdabiya, she said another of her captors stroked her head and told her repeatedly that she was going to be killed.

‘He was caressing my head in this sick way, this tender way, saying, "You’re going to die tonight. You’re going to die tonight",‘ she added.

Miss Addario was with Anthony Shadid, the paper’s Beirut bureau chief, photographer Tyler Hicks and reporter and videographer Stephen Farrell when they were seized while leaving the scene of fighting between rebels and Libyan government forces because they decided it had become too dangerous.

Their driver inadvertently drove into a checkpoint manned by troops loyal to the Libyan dictator.

‘I was yelling to the driver, "Keep driving! Don’t stop! Don’t stop!",' said Mr Hicks. ‘I knew that the consequences of being stopped would be very bad.’

As they were being forced out of their gold-coloured sedan, rebels opened fire sending them sprawling for safety.

‘You could see the bullets hitting the dirt,’ said Mr Shadid.

The soldiers forced them all to lie on the ground and they feared they were going to be murdered there and then.

‘I heard in Arabic, "Shoot them",’ said Mr Shadid. ‘And we all thought it was over.’ But then they heard another soldier say: ‘No, they’re Americans. We can’t shoot them.’

The fate of the car driver, Mohamed Shaglouf, is unknown.

Porcine Propagandist Losing It Over Libya Intervention

In between platters of mozzarella sticks and cheese fries, the bloated and bombastic Michael Moore took to Twitter today to announce his displeasure with the golfer-in-chief.

Anti-war filmmaker Michael Moore tore into President Obama for taking military action in Libya on Saturday.

Moore, a frequent critic of President Bush for launching the Iraq War, unleashed a string on tweets comparing the U.S. military's mission in Libya to Iraq and Afghanistan, using a mantra coined by Charlie Sheen:

It's only cause we're defending the Libyan people from a tyrant! That's why we bombed the Saudis last wk! Hahaha. Pentagon=comedy

And we always follow the French's lead! Next thing you know, we'll have free health care & free college! Yay war!

We've had a "no-fly zone" over Afghanistan for over 9 yrs. How's that going? #WINNING !

Khadaffy must've planned 9/11! #excuses

Khadaffy must've had WMD! #excusesthatwork

Khadaffy must've threatened to kill somebody's daddy! #daddywantedjeb

He recently added this gem:

May I suggest a 50-mile evacuation zone around Obama's Nobel Peace Prize?

Obama's Secret Libya Strategy

Fed up with Hillary Clinton's ineptitude, bold, decisive President Obama today will unveil his secret battle plan for taking on Moammar Khadafy: Send in someone crazier than him.

Seriously, folks, the fighting is all but over, as rebel opposition has collapsed while the so-called leader of the free world dithered.

Moammar Gadhafi's forces captured the last rebel-held town west of Tripoli after a heavy barrage of tank and artillery fire Tuesday as regime forces pressed forward in the east.

The victory in Zwara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the Tunisian border, solidifies Gadhafi's hold in his western stronghold, reversing gains made by rebels in several cities early in the uprising against his rule that began on Feb. 15.

Gadhafi's gains in recent days have increased pressure on the U.S. and other Western powers to intervene to stop the bloodshed.

The Obama administration on Monday held its first high-level talks with the Libyan opposition and introduced a liaison to deal full time with their ranks. But it remained undecided about exactly how much support to lend a group it still knows little about while turmoil and uncertainty increase across the Arab world.

But the noose is tightening or something.

Seems like eons since those heady days when Obama, with omnipresent halo in background, declared change had come to the Middle East.

Now while he golfs and cracks jokes with the state-run media, those seeking change in Libya are being slaughtered.

Don't worry though, what with freedom fighters being routed in Libya and conditions deteriorating in Japan, our fearless leader will find time to make his all-important NCAA basketball selections.

President Barack Obama will also be making his NCAA tournament picks. Last year, President Obama whiffed on his picks, not getting one of the Final Four teams right. He did pretty well in 2009, when he picked North Carolina to win the title and they did, but that was the only Final Four team he got right that year.

If this all sounds like a sick joke, it's not. It's merely a nightmare.

How pathetic is it? Even Richard Cohen has had enough.

In calling for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, various American politicians and others have mixed their historical metaphors to make their point. They cite America’s refusal to stop the genocide in Rwanda and our tardy response to the slaughter of civilians in the Balkans. However, Libya is — or has been — different. This is a civil war of some kind — the people vs. the government. No genocide has been ordered and no genocide has yet been carried out. Libya is not Rwanda. Libya is not the Balkans.

But it could be. And to preclude that possibility it would be productive if the Obama administration got its marbles out of its mouth. Its pronouncements thus far have been all over the lot: Gaddafi must go . . . but not if he really doesn’t want to. In a Post interview, Ben Rhodes of the National Security Council propounded what the Wall Street Journal has rightly called “The Obama Doctrine.” It goes like this: You first.

Amazingly, the White House wants to wait on nearly everyone to do almost anything — the United Nations, NATO, “multilateral organizations and bilateral relationships,” in the words of Rhodes. This is a highfalutin way of saying that first we’re gonna have a meeting and then break into committees and then report back here sometime soon . . . the good Lord willin’.

Now that the Libyan opposition has been crushed, what's to prevent Khadafy from returning to his old ways?

Nothing.

Certainly not the United States.

Update: It's official. He's making his MCAA picks today. Good grief. Now I have to avoid ESPN the next couple of weeks.

'We Are Now Reaching a Point of Decision, Very Clearly, On What Happens Next'

Of course "what happens next" will likely be the convening of a focus group to examine what to do next. That or they'll send a strongly-worded letter warning of dire consequences if the opinion of the world community isn't adhered to.

Here in America, what happens next is our fearless leader fills out his NCAA brackets before hitting the links again. The rest of the world, meanwhile, dithers and worry about the fine print.

Maybe they're just afraid of offending someone.

William Hague today said the international community is approaching a 'point of decision' on military intervention in Libya.

The Foreign Secretary, who is meeting fellow G8 foreign ministers in Paris tonight, also hinted the Government may consider arming rebels.

'We are now reaching a point of decision, very clearly, on what happens next,' he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

'Clearly a no-fly zone is one of the leading propositions. It isn't the answer to everything but it has been called for by the Arab League and is something which the international community must now consider.'

Mr Hague made clear that although a UN resolution backing a no-fly zone would be the simplest option, nations could still act under international law without one.

'In cases of great, overwhelming humanitarian need, then nations are able to act under international law, even without a resolution of the Security Council,' he said.

His comments came after former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind for an 'open and urgent' supply of weapons to the rebels, to avoid repeating the 'mistake' of the Bosnian war in the 1990s.

Sir Malcolm said: 'Having been defence secretary at the time I have, in retrospect, felt that (the arms embargo) was the most serious mistake made by the UN.'

Mr Hague said all arms exports to Libya - including to the rebels - are subject to a UN embargo, although he suggested that that could change.

'I wouldn't exclude various possibilities on this score,' he said. 'I think Malcolm Rifkind makes a very good case. Again, this is the kind of subject which has to be discussed with our international partners.'

By the time they rush to make a decision, Khadafy's forces will be in mop-up mode.

Analysts believe there is a very real possibility that Gaddafi's forces will have already secured victory by the time any global response is agreed.

Our Secretary of State is scheduled to talk some more today. She's great at talking. Making decisions, that's the tough part.

Thanks to Hot Air for the link.

Obama in a Bind on Gulf Oil Drilling?

Hardly. Gas can probably hit $15 a gallon before he'd do anything. He's too beholden to the environmental lunatics.

Though The White House lifted the official moratorium on drilling last October, no new permits have so far been awarded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, part of the US Interior Department. Officials are insisting that the industry must be able to clearly show that it has the capacity to contain an offshore spill before it grants any permits.

On Friday, Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, met in Houston with Marine Well Containment, a consortium from the oil and gas industry working on containment plans.

The rapidly unfolding events in North Africa and the Middle East have given greater voice to those who want to see permits granted immediately for drilling in waters deeper than 500 metres. The calls will only grow louder if there's any evidence of the sweeping political changes reaching Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait, the three biggest oil producers in the region.

Until he has polling numbers that say it'll threaten his re-election, he won't lift a finger to help the American people. If he was on our side, we'd be drilling already.

Now for the ultimate irony.

BP Plc agreed to bring Pride International Inc.’s drilling rig from the Gulf of Mexico to explore off Libya next year after delaying the plans because of limited rig availability in the Mediterranean.

The company also needed to analyze the outcome of the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf before going ahead with the move as originally planned for this year, said Toby Odone, a London- based spokesman at BP.

“We’ve hoped to drill as soon as we can and we’d hoped to drill this year,” Odone said by phone today. Libya’s state oil company approved the use of the Deep Ocean Ascension rig in November, he said.

More thoughts here.

Obama still has media cover. Whenever gas prices spiked during the Bush year the lamestream media basically camped out at the pumps for live remotes. Now they could care less.

'Where is the Media? Where is the Rest of the World?'

Sure doesn't appear event in Libya are garnering much sympathy from the Obama administration.

About 200 people demonstrated in front of the White House on Saturday challenging President Obama to help end recent violence in Libya.

The group was responding to reports of bloody clashes between protesters and soldiers in the isolated North African nation.

Malik Sahad, who helped organize the event outside the White House, said Libyans are now smuggling stories to the outside world via social media, essentially creating their own news coverage in hopes that the international community will step in.

"We have people that are risking their lives, who are finding ways to send their messages, their videos, their recaps, their recounts of what's been going on," Sahad said. "They're asking us, 'Where is the media? Where is the rest of the world? We don't have cameramen down here. We don't have Anderson Cooper down here. We don't have people on the ground level to give us support and to show the rest of the world what we've been going though.'"

That's because the Libyans are far more brutal and oppressive that the Mubarak regime, apparently. That and the Libyans are apparently jamming Al-Jazeera's signal.

Today, things got worse.

Libyan forces fired machine-guns at mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi Sunday, a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi pummeled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry.

A doctor at one Benghazi hospital said 15 people died in Sunday's clashes. Earlier he said his morgue had received at least 200 dead from six days of unrest. The doctor said his hospital, one of two in Libya's second-largest city, is out of supplies and cannot treat more than 70 wounded in similar attacks on mourners Saturday and other clashes.

The crackdown in oil-rich Libya is shaping up to be the most brutal repression of anti-government protests that began with uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The protests spread quickly around the region to Bahrain in the Gulf, impoverished Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula, the North African neighbors of Tunisia - Libya, Algeria, Morocco - and outside the Middle East to places including the East African nation of Djibouti and even China.

Yet here in America, some simpletons want to compare what's going on worldwide with the Obama-inspired idiocy in Madison.

Obama, meanwhile, is absent this weekend (probably hunkering down for the NBA All-Star game), so his stooge showed up with the odious Christiane Amanpour.

ABC''s Christiane Amanpour told Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today that her picture in a new issue of Harper's Bazaar presents the perfect image for a high-profile diplomat -- standing in a corner.

Clinton chuckled at the idea -- "I just do what photographers tell me to do, it has no metaphorical meaning for me" -- but did allow that the cycle of protests and government reaction in the Middle East is testing the "balancing act" that is essential to foreign policy.

"We want to advance our security, our values, and our interests," Clinton said on ABC''s This Week. "And if there were one template that could be imposed on every situation, I wouldn't need to have this job, and nobody else would have to, either."

In approaching the unrest in Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, and perhaps other nations in the Middle East, the U.S. is pursuing its desire to promote democracies around the world, while guarding against anti-American extremists who might take advantage of the situation -- as happened in Iran in 1979.

Instead, she and her boss are now backed into a corner, so to speak.

"In general, Americans are in favor of human rights, freedom, democracy," Clinton said on ABC's This Week.

Yeah, except for the rights, freedom and democracy of conservatives. Or Libyans.

Here's an idea. Maybe the Libyans should hold up signs voicing their solidarity with spoiled Wisconsin teachers.

Nervous Khadafy: 'We are Facing Our Gravest Threat Yet'

It may be just a fleeting hope, but it sure would be nice to see Libya as the next domino to fall in North Africa.

Unprecedented demonstrations sweeping the Middle East and North Africa spread Wednesday to Libya, where police clashed with anti-government protesters in the coastal city of Benghazi, an independent source told CNN.

About 200 protesters came out to show support for human rights activist and lawyer Fathi Terbil, who had been detained earlier, the source said. Several people were arrested after police confronted the protesters, the source added.

But Libya -- ruled by Moammar Gadhafi since 1969 -- is not Egypt, said a highly placed Libyan source close to the government who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

"There is nothing serious here," he said. "These are just young people fighting each other."

Sure.

Gadhafi, Khadafy, whatever his name is today, has been ruling over Libya far longer than the Mubarak regime did and let's face it, it's time the world was free of the unstable dictator. Seriously, who in the international community would want this maniac to stick around?

Amir Taheri has some interesting revelations.

Khadafy regarded Egypt's Hosni Mubarak as a friend and partner, and called Tunisian despot Ben Ali "both a friend and brother." For years, Tunisian secret services spied on the Libyan opposition for Khadafy. They also helped kidnap at least four Libyan opposition activists in Italy and Malta for transfer to Khadafy's prisons.

Last Friday, the colonel received a number of notables to warn against "plots" against his regime, which he calls the Jamahiriyah, a meaningless word that he coined in the 1980s.

"We are facing our gravest threat yet," he told the group, according to Libyan sources. "Even a small disturbance could be exploited by our enemies and turned into a big fire."

Of course any insurrection against him may well be crushed. It'll be curious to see if there is enough of a movement.

However, Khadafy might prove a tougher nut to crack. Unlike the Tunisian and Egyptian despots, he has huge sums of money to play with. With a population of less than 5 million, Libya earns around $50 billion from oil exports. Khadafy can throw money at many of his problems, especially in the neglected eastern part of the country.

Also unlike Egypt and Tunisia, no foreign journalists are allowed in Libya unless Khadafy invites them. This means that even if the "Day of Rage" produces dramatic scenes, there'll be no satellite TV to beam footage across the globe.

More important, Khadafy's police and Jamahiryah vigilantes have been picking up actual or potential opposition figures all over the country.

According to one organizer of the "Day of Rage," dozens of people have been arrested, especially in Benghazi.

"We may end up with nothing but more political prisoners," he says. "But we have to keep trying."

'Terminal' Lockerbie Bomber Still Alive a Year After Being Freed

I'd be surprised if they're not having a blowout party in Tripoli tonight, laughing their asses off at the gullibility and stupidity of the dolts who let this monster walks.

Happy anniversary, idiots.

Angry relatives of Lockerbie victims called yesterday for the medical records of freed bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi to be made public.

They say it is vital that the evidence which led to his release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds can be scrutinised.

Exactly a year ago, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill was told the Libyan had just three months to live because of cancer. Megrahi was returned to his homeland 11 days later.

But families of the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up, have been left furious by claims from independent experts that, following chemotherapy, the bomber could live well into next year or possibly longer.

Eileen Walsh, who lost her father, brother and pregnant sister in the 1988 terror attack, said: 'The man may have cancer, but the condition and the extent of it were greatly exaggerated. Release his medical records and prove me wrong.'

The demands were last night backed by James Kelly, Scottish Labour's community safety spokesman, who said it was time the medical background to the release of the 58-year-old was published.

Former Libyan intelligence agent Megrahi was freed under Scots law that allows 'compassionate release' if medical reports show a prisoner has three months or less to live.

Mr MacAskill has always claimed the three-month prognosis, made by prison service medical director Dr Andrew Fraser, drew on advice from NHS cancer specialists.

But reports released by the Scottish Executive show no specialist 'would be willing to say' if they agreed with this verdict. It has steadfastly refused to release the full reports used by Dr Fraser.

Frank Duggan, of the Victims of Pan Am 103 group, said: 'Kenny MacAskill was warned he would need concrete and independent medical evidence to justify his decision and the papers show that simply wasn't there.

'The specialists could not agree on the three-month prognosis, but the Justice Secretary carried on regardless.

'Mr MacAskill was also warned Megrahi would receive a hero's welcome when he touched down in Tripoli and that is exactly what happened.

Washington Urged for Release of Lockerbie Monster

This current regime in Washington really enjoys having it both ways. In one breath they claim to be outrageously outraged that the Lockerbie bomber was released yet at the same time was OK with releasing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on "compassionate" grounds.

How about a little compassion for the victims' families?

Barack Obama's administration urged Edinburgh to base the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, it has emerged.

Newspapers had quoted a letter from Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US Embassy in London, to Scottish first minister Alex Salmond.

It read: "If Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer."

Mr Salmond told Sky News this morning that the American government's position was that they did not want Megrahi to be released - but preferred a compassionate release over a prisoner transfer deal.

"Presumably the reason that they were so opposed to the prisoner transfer agreement is on roughly the same grounds as the Scottish government had for opposing that agreement - because it was signed initially at the same time as an oil deal was being signed in the famous deal in the desert," he said.

Elsewhere, former prime minister Tony Blair was forced to deny he had paved the way for Megrahi's release during a meeting with Libya's leader Colonel Gadaffi.

"There was no deal in the desert," Mr Blair's spokesman told the Sunday Mirror newspaper. "His release was entirely a decision for the Scottish executive."

This comes after the fiction being peddled earlier this week that Obama was going to "grill" David Cameron, who had nothing to do with the deal, over the release.

COnsidering Obama's anemic approval ratings, how well will this go over with the American public? Oh, never mind, the media here will simply ignore the story.

Meanwhile, certain senators now preening for the cameras and bashing BP are having it thrown back at them.

US POLITICIANS demanding to know if BP lobbied for the release of the Lockerbie bomber were yesterday accused of taking a fortune in donations from the oil giant.

President Barack Obama is said to have received $71,051- around £46,000 - and his secretary of state Hillary Clinton $6700 from the firm that both have savaged since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Clinton has led the calls for the SNP government to explain their decision to send cancer-stricken Abdelbaset al-Megrahi home to Libya last August.

Other US politicians said to have received BP donations include two senators leading a special hearing trying to establish if BP lobbied for Megrahi's release to help the firm win lucrative drilling rights in Libya.

BP insisted the money was donated by individual staff members.

Last night, the US politicians faced SNP accusations of hypocrisy.

SNP Msp Michael Matheson said: "It's astonishing that after all the rhetoric ... that those senators attacking BP have benefited from their donations.

"It exposes some of the sheer political opportunism currently being played out over the tragic events at Lockerbie and in the Gulf."

Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill insisted he freed Megrahi on compassionate grounds and that BP had no contact with Holyrood.

He again refused to attend the senate hearing on Thursday provoking US fury. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey senator who is chairing the hearing, received $2000 in 2008 for his senate campaign.

Last week, he said: "If BP are found to have gained access to Libyan oil reserves by using a mass murderer as a bargaining chip then ... any money they make off of that oil is blood money."

New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand called for "greater transparency".

But documents show that she received a $750 donation this year.

Thanks to Hot Air for the link. Commenter Wyatt notes the delusional slob at LGF calls me a "wingnut liar" for daring to mention this. He gets very upset when anyone mentions something that embarrasses the current occupant of the White House.

Maybe he should just spare himself the misery and ride his bike off the Santa Monica Pier.

BP to be Probed Over Lockerbie Bomber Release?

Quite rare for us to agree with anything these Senate Democrats have to say, but this is one of those occasions.

A group of U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into whether BP may have played a role in lobbying for the release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi to secure an oil contract with the Libyan government.

Megrahi, now 58, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

He was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds in August after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"Reports have surfaced indicating that a 2007 oil agreement may have influenced the U.K. and Scottish governments' positions concerning Mr. Megrahi's release in 2009," wrote Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey in a letter to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Monday.

"The families of the victims of Pan Am flight 103 deserve to know whether justice took a back seat to commercial interests in this case," Lautenberg said.

Well, while we give props to Lautenberg for pursuing this he's still way late on this story.

BP, which plans to begin offshore drilling in Libya in the coming months, touted the 2007 oil agreement as "the single biggest exploration financial commitment an international energy company has ever made to Libya," according to the company's website.

The troubled oil giant stands to earn as much as $20 billion from the deal, according to Lautenberg.

Megrahi, who only served eight years of his life sentence for the bombing, was released by a Scottish court on "compassionate" grounds, citing a doctor's opinion at the time that he was dying from prostate cancer and had only three months to live.

In a letter to the British government last week, Lautenberg was joined by Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York and Bob Menendez of New Jersey in calling the validity of such a prognosis into question.

"Mr. Al Megrahi is still alive and reportedly living in luxury," the letter said. "The doctor responsible for the key medical opinion has told the media that not only could Mr. Al Megrahi live another 10 years, but that the Libyan government had commissioned the doctor to make his assessment."

Libya Looking to Bail Out BP?

Looks like we were on to something when we noted the connections between Libya and BP. Seems to Libyans are looking to invest heavily in the trouble British oil giant.

Share in BP rose 3.5pc to 333.3p in London, following weekend speculation that the company had been in contact with sovereign wealth funds about them buying stakes.

Shokri Ghanem, the chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation, told a newswire that: "BP is interesting now with the price lower by half and I still have trust in BP. I will recommend it to the Libyan Investment Authority."

He later added: "I think that BP shares are good value for bargain hunters,"

BP denied that it was planning to issue any new equity, but a weighty shareholder buying up stock on the open market could still help provide a floor on the company's plummeting share price. It declined to comment on any talks with sovereign wealth funds.

The oil giant has lost half of its market value since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on April 20, triggering a catastrophic leak. Qatar, Abu Dhabi and the Kuwait Investment Authority, which already holds 1.8pc of BP, have also been linked to the company as possible investors.

One City analyst with a buy rating on BP said any formal deal with Libya would "most likely alienate the US even further" and potentially annoy big shareholders if the deal was done as a placing that dilutes the stock.

The US lifted trade sanctions against Libya in 2004, but still has a fractious attitude over the country's links to the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people on a US Pan Am jet.

It would come at a time when BP is trying to rebuild its relationship with Capitol Hill, since the oil spill eroded trust in the company's safety record.

More here.

Terrorist Given Three Months to Live Now Will Probably Last Ten Years

Seems everyone knew the gig was up after those first three months came and went about eight months ago. Now it appears this creature will never die.

The doctor who predicted the Lockerbie bomber would die within three months of his release from prison faced calls to apologise to victims' families last night.

There was outrage after it emerged Professor Karol Sikora had admitted Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi could live for another ten years or more despite diagnosing him with terminal cancer.

Campaigners reacted with fury to his comments which they said raised new questions about the decision to send him back to Libya.

Tory MP Ben Wallace, a former member of the Scottish Affairs Committee, said: 'The doctor that carried out this diagnosis owes his regret to the families of the victims.

'He should apologise to the victims for contributing to the release of a mass murderer, who is clearly alive and well in Libya.

'Throughout this whole sorry affair the victim has been put last behind trade deals, Scotish Nationalist posturing and dubious medical diagnosis.'

Megrahi's release from his Scottish prison cell last August - on the orders of Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill - was mired in controversy.

Some relatives of victims of the 1988 bombing claimed Megrahi was never as sick as he claimed to be, and criticised the release on so-called 'compassionate grounds' as an unforgiveable mistake.

The Scottish Government claimed there was a 'firm consensus' among medical experts that he would die within twelve weeks.

But there was widespread speculation the move was in fact part of an Anglo-Libyan trade deal - and unrelated to his terminal prostate cancer - after it emerged UK government ministers had pushed for his release.

I guess this might not be a good time to remind folks of this, is it?

Tony Blair has been accused of agreeing a 'blood money' deal involving the Lockerbie bomber with Colonel Gaddafi just hours before BP unveiled a £500million oil contract.

The then Prime Minister laid the foundations for the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi during a meeting with the Libyan leader in a desert tent two years ago.

The pair thrashed out a controversial prisoner transfer deal just before BP chairman Peter Sutherland announced the firm was investing $900million - about £545million - to search for oil in Libya. If the firm strikes rich, it could be worth £13billion.

The Scottish Government confirmed that its justice secretary Kenny MacAskill would announce Megrahi's fate at 1pm today.

It is widely expected that the terminally-ill 57-year-old, the only person convicted of the December 1988 bombing, will be freed on compassionate grounds.

Let's hope BP struck it rich there. They'll need the money.

Lockerbie Bomber Still Alive After Six Months

If we're to believe the Scots and Libyans, this guy should have been dead four months ago.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, no longer receives hospital treatment after ending the course of chemotherapy that he had been given after returning to his homeland last August.

Professor Karol Sikora, the London-based doctor who examined Megrahi and predicted he would be dead by last October, admitted this weekend that the fact the bomber is still alive might be "difficult" for the families of the 270 victims of the attack.

The latest disclosure will incense many of the relatives of those who died in the bomb blast in December 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in mid air over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 people on the ground.

Most did not want Megrahi released and they suspected he would live longer than the predicted three months.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed last September that the Libyan government had paid for the medical evidence which helped Megrahi, 57, to be released. The Libyans had encouraged doctors to say he had only three months to live.

The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time, or less, to live.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, ruled last August that Megrahi should be freed. Megrahi's release came after Libyan leaders warned that lucrative oil and trade deals with Britain would be cancelled if the bomber died in jail.

So they released a mass murderer in return for oil, and the guy is still living.

Sweet deal, huh?

Megrahi, is now living in a spacious two-storey villa with his wife and their five grown-up children in a prosperous suburb of Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

The property has a spacious garden and an area where the family erects a large tent to entertain visitors for celebrations.

The property has a security gate and there is often a uniformed police officer sitting on a white chair outside.

The Megrahis, who are part of a prominent tribe, are well off and it is understood that his family was paid substantial compensation by the Libyan Government after he was jailed for life.

Sikora still claims Megrahi has little time to live. For his own sake, he better be right.

Professor Sikora had a message to the relatives of the Lockerbie tragedy who are angered by Megrahi's release: "The quality of his life is not good – he is a dying man.

"Quite frankly, as an act of mercy, it is better that he dies at home rather than in prison."

However, one source involved in monitoring Megrahi's health suggested the bomber's condition has got no worse in the past six months.

The source said: "Megrahi is still the same as ever. His condition has not deteriorated. There is no sign of him dying any time yet but who knows? It's totally unpredictable."