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A new Kennedy theory?

Thursday, June 12, 2008
From the one, the only Muammar Gadhafi:

"Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi said on Wednesday that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's expressed support for Israel stems from his fear that the Mossad would assassinate him, just as it did President John F. Kennedy.

"We suspect he may fear being killed by Israeli agents and meet the same fate as Kennedy when he promised to look into Israel's nuclear program," Gadhafi said". Source.

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posted by Croydonian

Gaddafi speaks, or rather spoke

Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Muammar Gaddafi, or "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" / "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution" has a website, and very pretty it is too and available in a variety of languages.

He does not update it very often, but I have found an interesting diatribe against FIFA and the World Cup:

"The World Cup was established to achieve a social and psychological benefit for people. Nevertheless, what The World Cup has achieved is the exact opposite. First, beware the deadly diseases caused by The World Cup. Medical research has proven, and will prove further in the future, that those who have football (soccer) mania, and those addicted to the game are most at risk of psychological and nervous disorders. Those disorders in turn are the leading causes of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, hyper-tension and premature ageing".
....

"Second, beware the hatred, enmity and racism generated by football".

....

"The World Cup has strengthened the extreme right and the racist tendencies in the world. The irrefutable proof of this is the fact that the associations that support sports clubs are racist associations of the extreme right. Where is the conscience of the world?"

However, he likes Sepp Blatter: "Mr. Blatter is a prudent man. He is not corrupt personally. I respect him". Opinions differ on Gaddafi's second statement....

Meanwhile, how did Libya do in the 2006 World Cup? Well, it did not qualify, but it did make it to the second round of the African qualifiers after beating São Tomé and Príncipe 9-0 on aggregate. However, it came fourth out of six in the group 3 stage, despite beating Sudan away, and both Benin and Egypt at home. And they have not made it into the African Nations cup for next year, although maybe the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution has no animus against Cameroonian Issa Hayatou and the Confederation of African Football.

There are plenty more pearls from Gaddafi on numerous other topics, should there be interest....

Note his rather alarming map of the world:



No British Isles, no New Zealand, no Japan, no Newfoundland, no Sri Lanka, a rather large island at the bottom of Hudson Bay, no Panama and hence no connection between the two Americas.....




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posted by Croydonian

Lockerbie revisited

Monday, August 27, 2007
I cannot see any reference in the English language media to this bombshell in Le Figaro, so here is a minor filetting of the article:

Swiss engineer Ulrich Lumpert has admitted lying in his testimony made to the court in the trial of Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, currently in the Glasgow big house for involvement in the bomb that detonated on PanAm 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. He has added a claim that he stole a timer from his employer, Swiss company Mebo and to have then given it a Scottish police officer involved in the investigation. Translating directly from Le Figaro, "This assertion accredits a thesis maintained by many people - journalists, lawyers and even parents of victims: there had been a "manipulation" in the investigation to incriminate Libya, whereas the first suspicions pointed out to a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction".

Mebo had sold timers to Libya in the past, but has always maintained that the timer in question had not been sold by it to the Libyans.

I recall there being much shaking of heads over the suspicion of Syrian involvement being ruled out at the time - when they were seen as being on our side during Gulf War I - and without claiming to have studied the whole affair to any great depth felt that something was not entirely right in the apparently over-neat fingering of Libya to the exclusion of Damascus and its various cat's paws.

Meanwhile, al-Megrahi was granted leave to appeal in June, although that was prior to this business with the timer....

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posted by Croydonian

Gaddafi about to meet his maker?

Monday, May 14, 2007
The Jerusalem Post has noted a wire report from a Palestinian agency that the 'Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya / Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution' "Muammar Gaddafi was rushed to the hospital Sunday after a blood clot was discovered in his brain, and is now in a coma".

Can't say I would don sackcloth and ashes if he departs this life, although he is by no means the worst ruler in the Middle East.

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posted by Croydonian

Holidays in Hell

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Some years back, a collection of PJ O'Rourke's journalism appeared under that title (and quite entertaining it was too, unlike some of his rather contrived more recent work), with Libya one of the places he was trying to get to. The chapter on his attempts covered his failure to get to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, largely because his travel plans co-incided with cruisue missile strikes on the country. He found the Libyans he dealt with helpful and charming, by the way.

Anyway, should the Sage of Baltimore fancy another crack at it, as "-- According to Phoenicia Group (http://www.phoenicia.ly/), the leading U.S.-Libyan diversified business and consultancy group, tourism infrastructure development is being given national priority by the Libyan government, with the Libyan Economic Development Board, a policy result of the National Economic Strategy, tasked with steering the far ranging initiative".

Phoenicia? Don't 'diversified business and consultancy groups' check their classical allusions? Tunisia has a better claim to Carthage - and Carthage.tn takes you to the office of the Tunisian president. The .com and .ly suffixes look to be available though. Perhaps they would rather irk the Lebanese than the Tunisians. A perusal of the Jana News Agency site suggests that Libyan hacks have been given a furlough from writing about palm and olive trees, for which they are doubtless grateful.

Predictably, it is Libya's coastline that the group is intent on promoting, but a bit of digging suggests that there are some sights worth seeing - Leptis Magna 'the site of some of the most impressive ruins of the Roman period'. There also appear to be some rather good museums in Tripoli. If a day's beach lounging proves too wearing, Libyan TV sounds worth shunning - 'The main output of Libyan television is devoted to showing various styles of traditional Libyan music'.

For those tempted by the Sex Pistols' 'Cheap holiday in other peoples misery!', note that "According to the U.S. Department of State’s annual human rights report for 2004, Libya’s authoritarian regime continued to have a poor record in the area of human rights. Some of the numerous and serious abuses on the part of the government include poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and detention, prisoners held incommunicado, and political prisoners held for many years without charge or trial. The judiciary is controlled by the state, and there is no right to a fair public trial. Libyans do not have the right to change their government. Freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and religion are restricted. Independent human rights organizations are prohibited. Domestic violence against women appears to be widespread, and there have been reports of trafficking in persons. Ethnic and tribal minorities suffer discrimination, and the state continues to restrict the labor rights of foreign workers." (Source)

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posted by Croydonian

The apparent Libyan obsession with palm and olive trees

Tuesday, January 16, 2007
While rootling around in search of something bloggable I stumbled upon the Jana news agency, which keeps the world up to speed with what's going on in Libya.

It has not been updated since Monday night, but of the 15 reports it carries for the day, no less than four involve trees of some description:

1 - "Secretary of Palm and Olive Trees Development Board in Great Jamahiriya expressed the Board's workers pride of the continuous concern of Great Al-Fatah Revolution about the Agriculture Sector in general and Palm-trees projects in particular"

2 - "The Regional Coordinator of Early Discovery of Palm-trees disease Project at the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development Dr. Muwlai Hassan al-Sedrah confirmed that Great Jamahiriya is free from this disease that affects palm-trees".

3 - "The National planting Campaign in Great Jamahiriya has accomplished One Million Tow Hundred and Thirty thousand seedlings by yesterday Sunday 14th of January 2007".

4 - "The Regional Training Session and the Field Day about Palm and Olive Trees Diseases kicked off this morning at al-Margheb Shabia organized by Palm and Olive Trees Development Board".

Is it that palm trees are that newsworthy, that there is a lack of good news elsewhere, or does the palm tree commisariat have the most enthusiastic press team? The other 11 reports are pure Radio Tirana - procedural matters, meetings with delegations and the electrifying news that "The Libyan Youth Associations and Tunisian Summer Camps and Youth Tourism Association signed a cooperation agreement on Monday in Tripoli".

I suspect that even my Belgian excursions rate as more entertaining than Libyan ones would.

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posted by Croydonian