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All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tifinagh

Ghoga met former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi for the first time on 6 February 2011, only eleven days before the popular revolution. Gaddafi had Ghoga and three other lawyers from Benghazi be brought to a meeting with him in his tent in Tripoli.

The meeting lasted for ninety minutes. Also present was Abdullah Senussi, Gaddafi's brother-in-law and head of his secret service. The four human rights lawyers from Benghazi called for freedom of the press, freedom of opinion, and a constitution.

After the discussion with Gaddafi, who, according to Ghoga's words, was clearly irritated at the demands, the four lawyers from Benghazi decided to call for a "Day of Rage" in Benghazi on 17 February 2011. This was the beginning of the Libyan revolution.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hakim_Ghoga

Juan Cole sets the record straight on the revolution in Libya:

I have taken a lot of heat for my support of the [Libyan] revolution and of the UN-authorized intervention by the Arab League and NATO that kept it from being crushed. [...] I agree with President Obama and his citation of Reinhold Niebuhr: You cannot protect all victims of mass murder everywhere all the time. But where you can do some good, you should do it, even if you cannot do all good. [...] Given the controversies about the revolution, it is worthwhile reviewing the myths about the Libyan Revolution that led so many observers to make so many fantastic or just mistaken assertions about it.

http://aje.me/ajelive

A team led by a Libyan-American telecom executive has helped rebels hijack Muammar Gaddafi's cellphone network and re-establish their own communications. The new network, first plotted on an airplane napkin and assembled with the help of oil-rich Arab nations, gives more than two million Libyans their first connections to each other and the outside world after Gaddafi cut off telephone and internet service a month ago.

The network has enabled rebel leaders to make calls needed to rally international backing, source weapons, and strategize with their envoys abroad. To make this possible, engineeers hived off part of the Libyana cellphone network -- owned and operated by the Tripoli-based Libyan General Telecommunications Authority, which is run by Gaddafi's eldest son -- and rewired it to run independently of the regime's control.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703841904576256512991215284.html

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skynews_110326_1800.flv (11.14 MB)

A shocking scene occurred in Tripoli on Saturday when a gun was pointed at Sky News after a woman tried to tell foreign journalists about being raped and tortured by Libyan officials.

A visibly very distressed woman burst into the breakfast room of the hotel where we are staying and attempted to speak out about an ordeal at the hands of Gaddafi supporters.

We were having breakfast in our hotel when the woman broke in and said she'd been picked up at a checkpoint in the city. She claimed she had been held for two days, and that she had been raped and tortured.

As journalists tried to speak to her, things got out of control and the police minders waded in, trying to physically shut her up and stop her talking. The woman was gagged by hand and taken away by minders.

In the commotion a gun was pointed towards the Sky News team in an attempt to stop them filming. A team from another news organisation had their camera smashed in front of them.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201009115960663

masso_110324.mp3

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Onko länsimaalaisilla mahdollisuutta olla oikeassa, kun jossakin syntyy kansainvälisiin mittoihin ulottuva konflikti ja ihmishenkiä menetetään joka tapauksessa? Seuraamalla reaktioita liitoutuman Libya-interventioon tuntuu, että joidenkin mielestä eipä juuri.

Jos länsi olisi vain seurannut sivusta, kun sen tähän asti sietämä Libyan diktaattori Muammar Gaddafi teloitti omia kansalaisiaan, sitä olisi voitu syyttää välinpitämättömyydestä, tekopyhyydestä tai valikoivasta sekaantumisesta. Kun se päätti sekaantua, on sekin väärin.

Länsimaita voidaan syyttää tekopyhyydestä siitä syystä, että ne ovat mielistelleet diktaattoreita koko alueella. Arabimaailmaa on totuttu katsomaan kuin aluetta, jossa asuu ikään kuin erilainen ihmislaji, jolle tyrannia on normaalia, koska he eivät pysty parempaan.

Arabidemokraattien tukeminen on leimattu imperialismiksi, diktatuureja on oikeutettu sillä, että se onkin “heidän kulttuuriaan”. Tai sitten heidän "kulttuurinsa", jolla tarkoitetaan fundamentalistista islamia tai vanhankantaista heimolaisuutta, edellyttää kovaa kättä.

Tämän relativistisen moralisoinnin takana on välinpitämättömyyttä, ajattelun laiskuutta, rasismia ja ahneutta. Ne, jotka tuomitsevat auttajat ristiretkeläisiksi ja kolonialisteiksi, tuomitsevat alueen asukkaat barbaareiksi, joille demokratiaa on turha edes tarjota.