I saw a similar (unconfirmed) report yesterday or the day before about Kaddafi ordering the destruction of the oil pipelines and possibly the oil wells as well. AFAIK, it’s still unconfirmed, though it’s certainly causing a lot of panic in the oil markets atm.
-XT
Everything said in this thread about the inadvisability of Egypt intervening applies with equal force to Tunisia.
Maybe Israel should intervene. On Ghaddafi’s side.
You know, to unify and mobilize the opposition.
He is losing it. Hopefully today will be the tipping point for the military.
Gaddafi losing control of cities in western Libya
Misurata is the third largest city. He seems to have lost the entire east. Al-Jazeera says there were no guards at the border. And Tobruk is now controlled by protesters.
Looks like almost everything but Tripoli has switched. Hopefully the protesters will remain united and it does not turn into a civil war. I have not heard of any sectarian violence - though I don’t think they have any of note.
I hope any evacuation flights/ships are also bringing in medical supplies. That seems to be the greatest need among the people right now.
That is what I thought, but that doesn’t guarantee there aren’t any subdivisions. I honestly don’t know how religious the Libyans are compared to Egypt and other Islamic countries. I doubt he allows imams anymore freedom than any other group. Allah knows what crazy version of Islam that Qaddafi believes in, considering what his versions of socialism and democracy are. (And Allah is probably still trying to figure it out as well.)
Just saw a CNN report of two pilots ejecting and letting their bombers crash into the desert rather than bomb Benghazi.
Everything published so far indicates the break lines are not religious, but the tribes and ethnic groups. Seems like looking for the Shia Sunni problem here is looking through the wrong lenses. Since there seems to be unanimity among all the analyses on this, I’d forget wondering about sects.
The other thing I read, and I don’t know how to judge this, is a big East-West division. Apparently the East, in particular old Cyrenacia is very culturally / tribally different than the West. I read some speculation (forget where now) that even if Gaddafi falls that tribal / regional divisions could continue fighting. I think East has most of the oil - read that somewhere, true?
Maybe not the place, but to mention the UK media are all up in arms as UK gov is completely failing on the citizens services front. I saw the same stuff reEgypt, but I thought it overdone. But this time again, and in Libya it’s a bit crazy to be giving out help line numbers.
Now that it seems inevitable; what happens after Qaddafi falls? Is there anyone who can step in and take power? Does Libya disintegrate into into something like Somalia? My knowledge of Libya is limited to little more than what I’ve seen in this thread, so anyone with experience/knowledge feel free to weigh in.
It disintegrates, but not like Somalia. There is no opposition party in Libya, which makes the question of “Who takes over?” rather dicey. My guess would be a “temporary” military government, followed by elections “as soon as feasible.” There is too much oil and too much money to be made for Libya to dissolve into total extended chaos. The reason Somalia has stayed in that condition for so long is that there is nothing there anybody cares about.
The East and the West have both fallen to the opposition, though.
(Just to clarify, Misurata is in the west, and Benghazi is in the east.)
Regarding the army, I heard today that the Libyan army was mostly worthless and under equipped. Except for 8 crack regiments that would still stand by Kadhaffi.The expert was basically saying that the current defections within the army and even of high-ranking officers (according to him without effective power) were of little importance.
I just mention this for the record. I’ve no opinion about the value of this statement.
Also, apparently, Tunisians living in western Libya have suffered violent attacks and mistreatments, being accused of causing/fueling/whatever the revolt.
They might be of little importance with respect to determining the outcome of the uprising, but they’re still significant in that they show how those people expect this to end. Even diplomats personally appointed by the man are increasingly laying their bets against him.
Supposedly, at least one crew of a bomber ejected and let their plane crash rather than bomb the oil supplies. I have not been able to get any really good confirmation of that, though.
It seems rather odd to jump out of a perfectly good airplane rather than to fly it to Malta. 
Gaddafi strikes back, or so say gov’t spokesthings.
The graffiti behind her read:
“Ben Ali is 1, Hosni Mubarak is 2, al-Qadhdhafi will be 3, if God wills.”
Her, if you please, her not him. If anyone is in a position to take that shot, she’s a woman.
You jest, but it could be like the reports from the past that mentioned what dictators from places like North Korea do/did on occasion, they give their fighters just enough fuel to allow only for short missions, and not enough to allow the pilots to go farther and defect.
After the Malta defections, I would not be surprised if this is what Ka-daffy is doing now.