BF2S Forums The Situation in Libya

Jenspm wrote:

Please don't intervene: We welcome a no-fly zone, but the blood of Libya's dead will be wasted if the west curses our uprising with failed intervention

Muhammad min Libya wrote:

Nevertheless, one thing seems to have united Libyans of all stripes; any military intervention on the ground by any foreign force would be met – as Mustafa Abud Al Jeleil, the former justice minister and head of the opposition-formed interim government, said – with fighting much harsher than what the mercenaries themselves have unleashed.

Nor do I favour the possibility of a limited air strike for specific targets. This is a wholly popular revolution, the fuel to which has been the blood of the Libyan people. Libyans fought alone when western countries were busy ignoring their revolution at the beginning, fearful of their interests in Libya. This is why I'd like the revolution to be ended by those who first started it: the people of Libya.

So as the calls for foreign intervention grow, I'd like to send a message to western leaders: Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy. This is a priceless opportunity that has fallen into your laps, it's a chance for you to improve your image in the eyes of Arabs and Muslims. Don't mess it up. All your previous programmes to bring the east and the west closer have failed, and some of them have made things even worse. Don't start something you cannot finish, don't turn a people's pure revolution into some curse that will befall everyone. Don't waste the blood that my friend Ahmed spilt for me.

Let us just live as neighbours on the same planet. Who knows, may be I as your neighbour might one day show up at your doorstep to happily shake your hand.

PARIS — Mobile satellite services operator Thuraya Telecommunications says it has "conclusive evidence" that Libya, one of its shareholders, is the source of "unlawful and intentional jamming" of Thuraya signals in Libya and surrounding areas over the past week.

The Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based company, which has dealt with Libya-based jamming in the past, said its technical teams are working to reduce the impact of the jamming and that, as of Feb. 25, "voice services were restored over much of the country."

The Thuraya-2 satellite's network is operational, it said, but is still contending with jamming attempts at its beams serving Libya. Thuraya-2 is a large mobile communications satellite built by Boeing Satellite Systems International and stationed at 44 degrees east in geostationary orbit. Thuraya also operates Thuraya-3, stationed at 98.5 degrees east.

The Thuraya statement, released on Friday (Feb. 25), follows similar complaints from Arab television broadcaster Al Jazeera, which said its signals into Libya had been jammed, and that the broadcaster had traced the jamming's source to a Libyan intelligence service facility south of Tripoli.

Since the rebellion in Tunisia in December that spread to Egypt, Bahrain and now Libya, Al Jazeera has been forced to contend with multiple jamming attempts that have led it to switch broadcasts among transponders aboard satellites operated by Eutelsat of Paris, Arabsat of Saudi Arabia and Egypt's Nilesat.

Thuraya suffered repeated jamming in 2006 that affected its revenue and took the company months to identify. Ultimately it determined that the sources were several Libyan military installations that may or may not have been aware of the effect of their actions. A diplomatic initiative successfully ended the jamming.

Last edited by Spark (2011-03-02 03:46:04)

Spark wrote:

So it is difficult?

FEOS wrote:

Spark wrote:

So it is difficult?

The technology involved is not complicated, but the techniques required to make it happen are not trivial.

Spark wrote:

"not not"?

Gaddafi warns “thousands of Libyans will die” if NATO or UN intervenes

Pro-Qaddafi forces retook control of a key oil installation and port on the coast of the rebel-held eastern half of the country on Wednesday and the regime’s warplanes bombed an ammunition depot on the outskirts of a nearby town also controlled by the opposition, witnesses said.

Ahmed Jerksi, manager of the massive oil installation in the eastern town of Brega on the Mediterranean coast, said pro-Qaddafi forces retook control of the facility at dawn without using force. Breqa is about 125 miles from Libya’s second-largest city Benghazi, the nerve center of the rebel-held east.

A Brega resident, who told CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark he was too scared to leave his home, said he could hear air strikes and rocket fire. Clark, who was headed for the oil hub, heard other reports that a vicious fight was ongoing for control of the town, but said it was unclear who was in control.

Jenspm wrote:

Please don't intervene...

Libya detains NATO troops during rescue mission

Three Dutch marines were being held by authorities in Libya after they were captured by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi while trying to rescue stranded workers, officials said Thursday.

The trio were surrounded by armed men and captured Sunday after landing near Sirte in a Lynx helicopter that was on board the navy ship HMS Tromp, which is anchored off the Libyan coast to help evacuations from the conflict-torn country, Dutch Defense Ministry spokesman Otte Beeksma told The Associated Press.

News of the marines' detention by Gadhafi came a day after anti-government rebels fought off forces loyal to Gadhafi in a fierce battle for Brega, a strategic oil facility 460 miles east of Gadhafi's stronghold in Tripoli.

Two people the marines were trying to rescue also were captured but have since been released and have left Libya. The identities of the marines were not released.

Last edited by dayarath (2011-03-03 08:51:46)

Mekstizzle wrote:

dayarath wrote:

I hope this'll finally be a wake up call for everyone here that you can't cut the DoD budget every year and still demand them to do more simultaneously.

If they don't get them back with diplomacy I'd support an SF intervention.

I dunno man, the US and its financial situation could be much easily relieved if it cut its defense budget. That's a whole different story. You're making it a hard sell by saying the DoD budget needs to stay (or, more likely for you, be raised by much more) when the US is actually not even doing anything (and probably won't)

dayarath wrote:

no i'm dutch

but the brits could use some more funds too