Mission Accomplished: Mystery Anti-Muslim Film Sows Violence Around World

If the intent of whoever was behind the mystery film was to disrupt US diplomatic missions around the world, mission accomplished.

The overdubbed video clips have taken on a life of their own and it's no longer about the video, but anger directed at the US for no reason other than it's the in-thing to do in places like Tunisia and Egypt. At a time when the economic conditions in those countries isn't improving after regime change, protesting against the US (and throw in the anti-Israel sentiments expressed in some) is a safe way to divert attention away from the inability to improve the economic conditions as fast as everyone wants.

Blaming the US is better than trying to create jobs in those countries. Claiming that the US engaged in blasphemy or somehow supports blasphemy is easier than trying to understand that free speech is a universal right and includes the right to say things that other groups might not like or want to hear or see, but it doesn't give anyone the right to blow stuff up or riot and destroy property. Free exercise of religion means not imposing your religious views on others, or other nations for that matter.

Those behind the film are agent provocateurs who sought to sow discord and create conflict. They achieved those goals, and now the US and those regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere these protests/riots are going on have to deal with the fallout.

One has to also wonder who benefits from the repercussions of these protests/riots/attacks. Iran definitely comes to mind, as do the regimes that replaced longstanding brutal regimes that did not tolerate dissent. This is something that has to be explored at greater depth.

Riots and protests are spreading to other countries, and the list now includes Tunisia, Lebanon (which happens to be where Pope Benedict is visiting on a diplomatic trip), Yemen, Bangladesh, and the German embassy in Khartoum Sudan has been torched. Jordan has also seen protests. Here's a map showing where those protests are underway.

But you know who hasn't seen the film or the clips - most of those protesting. It's a ginned up controversy and the film's creators/backers are still not fully known. And what's known about those involved thus far indicate that the producer was a convicted criminal and a shady character - a grifter being a most charitable term, while the director was incompetent and may not have known the plot/dialogue and the actors didn't know what they were doing or that the film was overdubbed afterwards to completely change the meaning and context of the scenes.

This situation smells, make that reeks, of the trajectory followed in the cartoon jihad that cost more than 100 lives across the world and resulted in embassies of several countries being attacked.

Once again, we have an obscure publication that gets picked up and within days is turned into a rallying cry for rioting and protests by Islamist leaders decrying the blasphemous acts and portrayals - urging death to those involved. Instead of the targets being embassies of the Danes, the nation of the Jyllands Posten, which published the cartoons originally, it's US diplomatic facilities are being targeted (and also Germany). In some instances, it appears that local governments are backing protests, while others - as in Libya - the government is actively trying to block the attacks/protests.

It may also be useful to try and distinguish between the terror attack that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in Libya and the protests/riots in Egypt and elsewhere. The attack in Libya appears to have been a preplanned attack to coincide with 9/11, while the protests elsewhere appear to be more closely related to the outrage over the mystery film. The film outrage may have spurred protests in Libya as well that were exploited by the attackers, but the scenario has blurred together into one mess that will take quite some time to sort out.

Protests Continue Against Mystery Film; US Embassies On Alert

Protests continue in Egypt and now in Yemen against US embassies over the mysterious anti-Muslim film that set the actions of the past few days, including deadly attacks against the US mission in Libya that ended in the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, plus another 30 injuries to both American and Libyans.

The ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, was missing almost immediately after the start of an intense, four-hour firefight for control of the mission, and his body was not located until Wednesday morning at dawn, when he was found dead at a Benghazi hospital, American and Libyan officials said. It was the first time since 1979 that an American ambassador had died in a violent assault.

American and European officials said that while many details about the attack remained unclear, the assailants seemed organized, well trained and heavily armed, and they appeared to have at least some level of advance planning. But the officials cautioned that it was too soon to tell whether the attack was related to the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Fighters involved in the assault, which was spearheaded by a Islamist brigade formed during last year’s uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, said in interviews during the battle that they were moved to attack the mission by anger over a 14-minute, American-made video that depicted the Prophet Muhammad, Islam’s founder, as a villainous, homosexual and child-molesting buffoon. Their attack followed by just a few hours the storming of the compound surrounding the United States Embassy in Cairo by an unarmed mob protesting the same video. On Wednesday, new crowds of protesters gathered outside the United States Embassies in Tunis and Cairo.

The wave of unrest set off by the video, posted online in the United States two months ago and dubbed into Arabic for the first time eight days ago, has further underscored the instability of the countries that cast off their longtime dictators in the Arab Spring revolts. It also cast doubt on the adequacy of security preparations at American diplomatic outposts in the volatile region.

Libya says that they've arrested several people in connection with the attacks, and the US has sent a Marine FAST team to Libya. The US has also sent two warships (one already on station) and a drone unit to gather intel and to go after those responsible.

The million dollar question remains who was behind the film, what were their goals and aims, and how exactly an obscure film (which is really just a bunch of badly overdubbed film clips) that appears to have been uploaded in July, saw less than a few thousand hits since, exploded into the nexus of an international conflagration of attacks against US embassies in concert with 9/11. It appears that the film was overdubbed with anti-Muslim sentiments only eight days ago. Even then, it received little attention.

I don't believe in coincidences. Nor do I believe what anyone involved the movie has had to say thus far - because much of what they've said can't be confirmed by anyone. Sam Bacile doesn't appear to have existed except as a pseudonym/agent provocateur and a guy who had apparently come forward to claim that he was Bacile has recanted. Morris Sedak is an agitator whose motives are to foment war back in Egypt. Steve Klein has ties to extremist groups, but his involvement is only tangential to the overall story. The references to Jewish donors/backers/Israel is a misdirection play to try and bring the usual assortment of anti Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment to a head and to inflame passions even further.

Is it possible that AQ or another terror group took advantage of the protests in Egypt to use similar protests in Libya to carry out the deadly attacks there? Possibly, and the US government is looking at that possibility quite seriously.

The situation in Egypt also appears to have taken on a life of its own, and there are reports of protests elsewhere, including Yemen. This isn't necessarily by coincidence either. Whoever spread the anti-Muslim overdubbed versions basically did their own Hitler's Downfall-style routine to rant against Islam. We need to know who was behind the overdub, and at the same time, do more to track down who was responsible for the Libya attack and provide increased protection to our other embassies and consulates.

The US has got debunk the nonsense online that rabble rousers and militant mullahs are spreading to those who are now protesting/rioting - mostly without even seeing the film clips at issue or knowing; that's what many of the Administration and embassy statements refer to - protecting rights of free speech and freedom of religion, but that the two have to coexist without engaging in violence. It's not easy since the mindset of those who would protest and engage in violence are primed to act, and it confirms the biases of both those militant Islamists and socons who think Islam is an enemy of civilization. Extremists on both sides are exploiting the situation to their own ends, and one has to wonder who benefits from this.

That's why I keep going back to Iran. Iran has the means and stands to benefit from sowing violence and discord across the region - to tie up US and rival interests while Iran continues on its aggressive path.

As far as its impact on the US presidential election, the response from GOPer Mitt Romney and his supporters seems to be that the Obama Administration policy resulted in creating the environment allowing the attacks, the foreign policy amounts to apologia, and the response was inattentive and scattershot. Still, the main difference between Romney's policies and those of the Administration are one of tone, since Obama has largely carried over Bush Administration policies, including on dealing with international terrorism, going after those responsible for attacks on US interests around the world, and

Fallout Continues From Attacks On US Embassies in Egypt; Libya and Death of Ambassador Stevens

The attacks against the US Embassy in Cairo and the US consulate in Bengazi Libya continue to resonate against the backdrop of domestic election politics in the US and the Obama Administration has to deal with the ongoing crisis that appears to be spreading to other countries as a result of protests against a film of bizarre provenance. Protests and riots are being reported in Tunisia as well against the publication of a film depicting Mohammad in derogatory fashion.

The origins of the film are still rather cryptic. Sam Bacile appears to have been involved in the film, and it was financed/promoted by one Morris Sedak and later promoted by pastor Terry Jones. Bacile's background will get scrutinized, but there's quite a few inconsistencies:

The bottom line is that we know very little about Sam Bacile, the man who produced the film. But The Wall Street Journal caught up with Bacile before he went into hiding.

According to the Journal, Bacile raised "$5 million from 100 Jewish donors" and he produced the film using 60 actors and 45 crew members.

Bacile told the Journal that he made the film to expose "Islam as a hateful religion."

"Islam is a cancer," he told the paper. "The movie is a political movie. It's not a religious movie."

In another interview, Bacile told the Associated Press that he was a real estate developer and an Israeli Jew, but Israeli authorities told the wire service they have no records of him being a citizen.

Our library did not turn up any footprint for Bacile. They found no property, phone, licenses nor court records. And Bacile had not made news until today.

The term agent provocateur seems to be the best description. The video footage is amateurish and there's no indication that Bacile has any connection to the film industry whatsoever. There's no reference to him in imdb.com and we have only what he's said about his background to go on.

While the protesters in Egypt overran the embassy and briefly hoisted a protest flag, the situation in Libya may have been cover for a sophisticated terror operation against the embassy. The protests against the film there were a pretext for the attack.

Officials in Washington studying the events of the past 24 hours have focused on the differences between the protests on the American embassy in Cairo and the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, the Libyan city where Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and the other Americans were killed.

The protesters in Cairo appeared to be a genuinely spontaneous unarmed mob angered by an anti-Islam video produced in the United States. By contrast, it appeared the attackers in Benghazi were armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Intelligence reports are inconclusive at this point, officials said, but indications suggest the possibility that an organized group had either been waiting for an opportunity to exploit like the protests over the video or perhaps even generated the protests as a cover for their attack.

President Obama strongly condemned the killings and ordered increased security at American diplomatic posts around the world. American defense officials said 50 Marines were en route to Libya to strengthen security at United States diplomatic facilities, and the State Department ordered all “nonemergency” personnel out of the country and warned Americans not to go there, suggesting that further attacks were possible.

The death of Mr. Stevens was the first of an American envoy abroad in more than two decades.

“These four Americans stood up for freedom and human dignity,” Mr. Obama said in a televised statement from the White House Rose Garden, where he stood with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Make no mistake: we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.”

Mr. Obama also offered praise for the Libyan government, noting that Libyan security forces fought back against the mob, helped protect American diplomats and took Mr. Stevens’s body to the hospital. “This attack will not break the bonds between the United States and Libya,” he said.

Libyan security forces were attempting to defend the US embassy but were overrun by the attacking terrorists. Secretary of State Clinton made clear that the attack was not by the Libyan government or the people but a small group determined to break US resolve in the region.

The mission that drew Chris and Sean and their colleagues to Libya is both noble and necessary, and we and the people of Libya honor their memory by carrying it forward. This is not easy. Today, many Americans are asking – indeed, I asked myself – how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be.

But we must be clear-eyed, even in our grief. This was an attack by a small and savage group – not the people or Government of Libya. Everywhere Chris and his team went in Libya, in a country scarred by war and tyranny, they were hailed as friends and partners. And when the attack came yesterday, Libyans stood and fought to defend our post. Some were wounded. Libyans carried Chris’ body to the hospital, and they helped rescue and lead other Americans to safety. And last night, when I spoke with the President of Libya, he strongly condemned the violence and pledged every effort to protect our people and pursue those responsible.

The friendship between our countries, borne out of shared struggle, will not be another casualty of this attack. A free and stable Libya is still in America’s interest and security, and we will not turn our back on that, nor will we rest until those responsible for these attacks are found and brought to justice. We are working closely with the Libyan authorities to move swiftly and surely. We are also working with partners around the world to safeguard other American embassies, consulates, and citizens.

There will be more time later to reflect, but today, we have work to do. There is no higher priority than protecting our men and women wherever they serve. We are working to determine the precise motivations and methods of those who carried out this assault. Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior, along with the protest that took place at our Embassy in Cairo yesterday, as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet. America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear – there is no justification for this, none. Violence like this is no way to honor religion or faith. And as long as there are those who would take innocent life in the name of God, the world will never know a true and lasting peace.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement about the unspeakable idiot who produced the film that sparked the protests, riots, and which may have been used as cover for a terror attack that killed the US Ambassador to Libya. The NY Times reports:

Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said in a telephoned statement: “Nobody knows who he is. He is totally unknown in filmmaking circles in Israel. And anything he did — he is not doing it for Israel, or with Israel, or through Israel in any way.” Mr. Palmor also called the filmmaker “a complete loose cannon and an unspeakable idiot.”

Israel has further said that there's no evidence that Bacile is Israeli, and that he was acting on his own. At the same time Bacile was contacted from an undisclosed location and claims that the deaths of the Ambassador could be attributed the perpetrators and to lax security at the embassy and not his own actions. Really? That's what he's going to go with?

UPDATE:
The Atlantic sheds more light, and it appears that Bacile is a misdirection play.

UPDATE:
"Bacile" also claimed to be a California real estate developer, but there's no record of that either. He's not listed in any directories or incorporations or real estate deeds and is not licensed in California as a real estate broker.

There's also more information about another player in this, Morris Sedak. He is apparently the head of the National Coptic Assembly in the United States. He has no room for tolerance or coexistence with Muslims. He sees Egypt as being occupied by Muslims, and has used his position to shape Coptic Christian positions in Egypt and abroad.

Coptic Christians living abroad, many of whom are instrumental in developing public opinion, want little or nothing to do with inclusion and tolerance. Leading that charge are figures like Morris Sadek, the head of the National Coptic Assembly in the United States. He has on a number of occasions argued that Egypt is the national homeland of Copts and Muslims – the vast majority in the country – are an “occupying force.” It’s not difficult to see where mistrust can be manifested.

Likewise, there are radical conservative Muslim leaders, spouting nonsense against their Christian sisters and brothers from the pulpit. They tell their congregations of the threat the “infidel” has upon Islamic society in Egypt. No wonder Muslims have little desire to know and understand their Christian counterparts.

Despite that, Sedak sees himself as a human rights advocate, and while there have been numerous instances of Copts being persecuted, his solution doesn't appear to be any better. At the same time, Sedak's Egyptian citizenship was revoked last year by the Egyptian courts, claiming that he called for war against Egypt.

Then, there's a self-described consultant to the film, Steve Klein, who, according to the SPLC, has trained paramilitary militias and far right groups, including the Church of Kaweah.

Klein is a Marine veteran who served in the Vietnam War and is based in Hemet, Calif. He believes that his state is riddled with Muslim Brotherhood sleeper cells “who are awaiting the trigger date and will begin randomly killing as many of us as they can,” according to an article in the Spring 2012 issue of the SPLC Intelligence Report.

Over the years, Klein has worked with a variety of far-right groups, including the Church at Kaweah, which the SPLC lists as a hate group. The Church of Kaweah is a secretive cohort of militant Christian fundamentalists in California who are preparing for war and who believe that churches should avoid government regulation and answer only to God. Kaweah has its own militia, headed by David “Dutch” Johnson (aka Dutch Joens), a longtime antigovernment veteran of the militia movement. Johnson looks forward to the battle that will begin when “Dictator Obongo” institutes martial law. He has called Mexicans savages “who can’t run their own government” and recommended sending guns to drug cartels to “decrease the excess population in Mexico so they don’t come north.”

Protesters Overrun US Embassy In Egypt Over Mysterious Movie

No one can actually verify what film the protesters are supposedly upset about which makes the protests against the US Embassy in Cairo all the more odd and disturbing. Reuters and USA Today can't seem to track down the film, but regardless of the facts and circumstances, a group of protesters set out to overrun the US Embassy in Cairo. They succeeded in taking down the US flag for a time and scrawling graffiti referring to not disgracing the name of the prophet Mohammad.

From Reuters:

"This movie must be banned immediately and an apology should be made ... This is a disgrace," said 19-year-old, Ismail Mahmoud, a member of the so-called "ultras" soccer supporters who played a big role in the uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak last year.

Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet to be offensive.

Mahmoud called on President Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first civilian president and an Islamist, to take action. Many others were supporters of Islamist groups.

About 20 people stood on top of the embassy wall in central Cairo, where about 2,000 protesters had gathered.

"There is no god but Allah, Mohammad is Allah's messenger. We will sacrifice ourselves for you, Allah's messenger," they chanted, with many waving religious flags.

A U.S. embassy official had no immediate comment on the protesters' actions but the embassy had put out a statement earlier on Tuesday condemning those who hurt the religious feelings of Muslims or followers of any other religions.

"We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others," the U.S. embassy said in its statement.

One slogan scrawled on the walls of the embassy, a fortress-like structure that is near Tahrir Square where Egyptians revolted against Mubarak, said: "If your freedom of speech has no limits, may you accept our freedom of action."

An Egyptian state website carried a statement by Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church condemning what it said were moves by some Copts living abroad "to finance the production of a film insulting Prophet Mohammad".

About a 10th of Egypt's 83 million people are Christians.

It was not immediately clear which film angered protesters.

However, according to the website www.standupamerianow.org, the Christian Pastor Terry Jones, who angered Muslims by burning a copy of the Koran, was due to take part in an event on Tuesday called "International Judge Mohammad Day" in Florida in which it would symbolically put the Prophet on trial and play it out live over the Internet.

"Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy," the U.S. embassy statement said, adding that it condemned the efforts by "misguided individuals" to hurt the feelings of Muslims.

What's interesting is that you've got hundreds of people protesting a film allegedly being made in the US but not a single person can actually cite the name of the film. Moreover, it appears that FARS (Iran) is pushing the claim that Egyptian Coptic Christians are behind the film and fanning sectarian violence that will inevitably result from such claims.

So, the only "film" that could even fit the profile is some Internet production by Terry Jones who's got quite the reputation for hating Islam and showing a tremendous amount of religious intolerance.

That might be what they're protesting, but as with most kinds of protests across the Arab world, all it takes is a rumor for things to take hold, and no amount of debunking will stop things.

What we do know is that Egypt has been hit by several waves of sectarian violence since the fall of Hosni Mubarak and Coptic Christians have been under assault from Islamists who are asserting themselves at the Coptic Christians' expense.

UPDATE:
According to twitter links to this website provided by NJDhockeyfan, the name of the film is Life of King of Islam but there's no reference in IMDB.com. It was supposedly done by Sam Basil (again no reference in imdb), but they refer to Terry Jones' actions. There's also a reference to Dutch involvement, but it's not clear what is being referenced.

UPDATE:
The Atlantic seems to have run down more details, though there's way too much speculation about who is behind the film, their intentions, and other salient details.

The movie is called Mohammed Nabi al-Muslimin, or Mohammed, Prophet of the Muslims. If you've never heard of it, that's because most of the few clips circulating online are dubbed in Arabic. The above clip, which is allegedly from the film (update: Kurt Werthmuller, a Coptic specialist at the Hudson Institute, says he's confirmed the clip's authenticity) is one of the only in English. That's also because it's allegedly produced by Florida Pastor Terry Jones (yes, the asshole who burnt the Koran despite Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' pleas) and two Egyptians living in the U.S., according to Egyptian press accounts. The Egyptians are allegedly Coptic, the Christian minority that makes up about a tenth of Egypt.

Obviously, there's a lot to this story that's still unclear. What we do know is that some members of Egypt's sometimes-raucous, often rumor-heavy media have been playing highly offensive clips from the highly offensive film, stressing its U.S. and Coptic connections. In the clip below, controversial TV host Sheikh Khaled Abdallah (known for such statements as "Iran is more dangerous to us than the Jews" and that Tehran had engineered a deadly soccer riot in Port Said) hypes the film as an American-Coptic plot and introduces what he says is its opening scene.

UPDATE:
A second American embassy has been besieged, this time in Libya. Libyan security forces have been fighting against unknown militias in the vicinity of the American embassy.

The AP reports that Morris Sadek is promoting the video on his website and on some television stations.

Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Christian in the United States known for his strongly anti-Islam views, said in an interview from Washington that he was promoting the video on his Web site and on certain television stations, which he did not identify.

He said the video “explains the problems of the Copts who suffer from Muslims,” for which he blamed the Koran.

For several days, the Egyptian news media have been reporting on the movie, playing excerpts and blaming Mr. Sadek for it, with ultraconservative clerics going on the air to denounce it.

Medhat Klada, a representative of Coptic Christian organizations in Europe, said Mr. Sadek’s views did not represent those of expatriate Copts.

“He is an extremist,” he said in an interview from Switzerland. “We refuse any attacks on religions because of a moral position.”

This has the feel of the cartoon jihad in the making - where more than 100 people were killed around the world, several embassies were ransacked and torched, and all because of the publication of cartoons in a Danish publication, Jyllands Posten.

One Year Since Libyans Revolted Against Mumar Khadafi

It was a year ago today that Libyans finally decided that 40+ years of rule by Mumar Khadafi were more than enough. They began protesting throughout the country and that ultimately led to an insurrection, civil war, and finally revolution that toppled the regime.

Libyans took to the streets on Friday to celebrate the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, but some rued the insecurity and disorder that still stalk a country preparing for its first free election.

Flag-waving crowds converging on Martyrs Square in the capital Tripoli or Freedom Square in Benghazi, cradle of the revolt, had to negotiate extra checkpoints set up authorities to stop Gaddafi loyalists from disrupting festivities.

Spontaneous celebrations began on Thursday night when men, women and children emerged on the streets of Tripoli, Benghazi and other towns waving flags and chanting.

"Despite the problems that remain in the country, this is an amazing day and we want to celebrate," a 22-year-old engineering student called Sarah said in Tripoli. "Just look at what was achieved in this past year."

Observers in Libya have noted that the transition government has engaged in widespread human rights violations since coming to power - often attacking those of the ancien regime. Militias continue dominating the situation and the economy remains in shambles. It was the horrible economic conditions that fed the discontent leading to the revolution. The resulting political situation has been to eliminate a dictatorship where all power was in the hands of Khadafi and replaced it with one where power is distributed to hundreds and thousands of tribal leaders and militia groups that want to operate autonomously:

As a result, Libya has been flipped upside down, from a country where all power was in the hands of one man, Gadhafi, to one where it has been broken up into hundreds of different hands, each taking its own decisions. The National Transitional Council, which officially rules the country, is struggling to incorporate the militias into the military and police, while trying to get the economy back on its feet and reshape government ministries, courts and other institutions hollowed out under Gadhafi.
In one sign of the lack of control, Finance Minister Hassan Zaklam admitted that millions of dollars from Gadhafi family assets returned to Libya by European countries — a potentially key source of revenue — have flowed right back out of Libya, stolen by corrupt officials and smuggled out in suitcases through the ports.

The situation remains in flux and unless the NTC can bring the various tribes and militias to work together towards rebuilding those institutions, the sociopolitical situation in Libya will remain in shambles and open the door to renewed fighting and the exploitation of the security situation by terror groups who use failed states as a breeding ground for training, recruitment, and operational planning.

US Passes Milestone In Destroying Chemical Weapons, But Challenges Remain

Yesterday, reports announced that the US Army had destroyed one of its largest stockpiles of chemical weapons at the Deseret Chemical Facility in Tooele, Utah. More than $3 billion had been spent dismantling and destroying the chemical weapons, the munitions, and storage facilities holding the weapons in Tooele.

The end of a 15-year project came anti-climactically yesterday afternoon — a worker, wearing coveralls and a gas mask, laid thick mats on top of 23 mustard gas mortars as they came out of an incinerator, stopping any errant gasses from escaping while they cooled.

And just like that, the mission of Deseret Chemical Depot was, for all intents and purposes, over.

The last of more than 1 million munitions was incinerated to the standards of the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty that set a deadline of April 29 of this year for all chemical weapons stockpiles to be destroyed. Since its establishment in 1942, DCD has undergone various stages of destroying the stockpile, but this latest, most earnest effort began in 1996 when the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, or TOCDF, was constructed in anticipation and fulfillment of the 1997 treaty.

“Reaching this milestone is surely a credit to the five generations of dedicated workers, the support of the community and the resolve of our nation to destroy these weapons,” said Col. Mark Pomeroy, commander of DCD.

DCD was originally named Deseret Chemical Warfare Depot upon its 1942 selection as a chemical depot. In 1962, the site was realigned under Tooele Army Depot and named the Tooele Army Depot South Area, a designation that stuck until the installation was renamed Deseret Chemical Depot in 1996. In 1979, while still under Tooele Army Depot, the Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System, or CAMDS, began operations. The disposal techniques demonstrated at CAMDS are now in use at other chemical depots, but CAMDS itself will be decontaminated, dismantled and disposed of now that the mission is complete.

The destruction of the 13,616 tons of chemical agent have required workers to make more than 24,000 chemical deliveries from storage areas of the installation to disposal and demolition facilities — all of which were conducted safely. Ted Ryba, site project manager for TOCDF, said making all operations at DCD as safe as possible was a chief goal for the project.

“Safety has been a priority for the TOCDF team since the beginning,” he said. “Safety of our workers, the surrounding community and the environment.”

The schedule for destroying the different types of chemical agents in the original stockpile is one example of the group’s focus on safety, he said. The nerve agents GB and VX were destroyed first, making the remainder of the stockpile far less of a threat.

Yet, that still leaves 10% of the declared US stockpile remaining.

Smaller stockpiles of chemical weapons are scattered at several other sites around the country, and while international treaties required the destruction by the end of April 2012, the US will miss the deadline. The US military believes that it might take until 2021 before it can declare itself to have destroyed all of its chemical weapons, munitions, precursor chemicals, and related items.

Part of the reason is the difficulty in building a facility to safely dismantle the chemical weapons, some of which date back to World War I and are in an extremely fragile state.

The US has been destroying and dismantling its chemical weapons inventory since 1986, when a pilot plant was built at Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean to decommission and destroy chemical weapons. That facility shut down in 2000 after destroying 6.6% of the US stockpile.

The facilities have to deal with a wide range of chemical weapons, munitions, and containment conditions, which makes the disposal and decontamination process all the more complex. One such location with chemical weapons awaiting destruction is Pueblo, Colorado, where the military will neutralize and biotreat the weapons to destroy the Pueblo chemical weapons stockpile. The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP), is currently under construction near the storage site.

The US isn't alone. Russia, whose stockpiles were far larger than the American weapons caches, has nearly 50% of its weapons yet to be destroyed. They're in a far more precarious state as well, and would likely need decades to complete the decommissioning and destruction of the weapons.

Libya was supposed to have destroyed all of its declared weapons, but technical problems and the civil war that led to the regime of Mumar Khadafi being toppled derailed the effort. Monitors have since returned to Libya and found that Khadafi had undeclared stockpiles of weapons, which will have to be secured and dismantled as well. As with the US, Libya will have to submit a plan and timetable for dismantling the weapons.

Opposition Renews Protests In Syria; 13 Killed By Assad's Goons

In the wake of the death of Libyan despot Mumar Khadafi, Syrians have renewed calls for the removal of Bashar al Assad. Assad's security forces would not tolerate protests, and have once again murdered the protesters. 13 more people were added to the butcher's bill.

Homs, the city of one million has been scene of extensive military operations to suppress regular protests and a nascent armed insurgency that has emerged after a relentless crackdown on persistent demonstrations calling for more political freedoms.

"Gaddafi is finished. It is your turn now Bashar!" shouted demonstrators in the town of Maaret al-Numaan in the northwestern province of Idlib, according to one witness.

"Prepare yourself Assad!" chanted protesters in the town of Tayyana in the tribal province of Deir al-Zor, on the border with Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.

Assad, an ophthalmologist who inherited power from his late father in 2000, strengthened ties with Gaddafi months before the Arab Spring wave of popular unrest against repressive ruling elites erupted in Tunisia in December.

The two countries struck a series of cooperation deals and Assad later allowing a Syrian-based satellite station to broadcast messages from Gaddafi while he was on the run. He was killed in unclear circumstances after his capture on Thursday.

In the town of Houla northwest of Homs, a crowd of several thousands held shoulders and waved old Syrian flags dating to before Assad's Baath party took power in a coup 48 years ago.

"Doctor, you are next!" read banners carried by the villagers, according to live video footage.

Demonstrations also broke out in Homs, the provincial capital 140 km (85 miles) north of Damascus, where three members of same family were also shot dead at an army road block in Bab Sbaa district on their way to prayers, local activists said.

With the NATO operations winding down in Libya in support of the Libyan Transitional Council efforts to wrest control of the country from Khadafi and his loyalists, they may now be more attuned to the plight of the Syrian opposition. The Syrian opposition has grown more cohesive and formed an actual council akin to the Libyan effort. That is key to generating support among international diplomats and leveraging defectors among the Syrian elites to encourage NATO to consider action.

There are key differences though. For starters, Assad has largely kept his attacks against protesters to ground operations and he has significant support from terror groups like Hizbullah and Hamas, both of which have major operations and key leaders encamped in Damascus. More importantly, Assad has the support of Iran, which backs his regime and is likely to counter any Western efforts in a much more direct manner.

So, for now, the Syrian opposition has an uphill battle to counter Assad's built-in advantages.

Former Libyan Thug Mumar Khadafi Captured; Libyan Officials Say Killed in Airstrike

Reports are all over the map, but former Libyan dictator Mumar Khadafi has been captured by the Libyan rebels while others say that he died in custody after suffering serious injuries.

It wouldn't be the first time that there has been wild rumors about the capture or death of a Khadafi or that early reports turned out to be mistaken. Yet, these reports seem to be getting confirmation from higher level officials. There's still no official word from the US State Department confirming Khadafi's capture or death, but these must be dark times for Khadafi's followers. AFP has a photo showing a bloodied Khadafi in custody.

The military official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, had told Reuters earlier that Gadhafi was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes had attacked.

"He was also hit in his head," said Mlegta. "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died."

Asked if there was photographic evidence to prove that Gadhafi was dead, Mlegta said: "We have the footage but it is not available now."

However, the AFP news agency provided a photograph that appeared to show a wounded or dead Gadhafi. The image has not been independently verified.

Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam told the AP that he had confirmed that Gadhafi was dead from fighters that said they saw the body.

Khadafi's hometown Sirte has been overrun by the rebels, who have become the officially recognized government by world leaders. The Khadafi loyalists are on the run and continue to lose ground to the new Libyan National Transitional Council government. Khadafi was hit when his convoy was attacked by NATO aircraft.

While Khadafi's death would be a great relief to many Libyans, it is possible that the new government may face an ongoing period of insurgency by Khadafi loyalists who would seek retribution against the new government for being ousted from power.

Khadafi had long declared that he would never surrender and that appears to be the case.

UPDATE:

Yes, it would appear that Khadafi has been captured, but no official word that he was killed (at least from the State Department). The photo of a bloodied Khadafi and the look on his face is one that suggests disbelief and perhaps the realization that his end was near.

It didn't have to be that way. Khadafi could have taken the golden parachute to despot exile, but instead chose to fight it out to stay in power. Now? He's got nothing except a spot in a box (whether it's a coffin or a holding cell is still yet to be known though I think he's due for a coffin fitting about now).

UPDATE:
Who takes credit for the end of the Khadafi regime? First and foremost, it's the Libyan people. They were the ones who rose up against a despot who ruled with an iron fist for 42 years. They were the ones risking everything for a chance at a better tomorrow.

NATO helped, but it was the Libyan people who shed the blood and who died for their freedom. The President gets credit for authorizing US and NATO actions to support the Libyan rebels once they organized and became a credible entity to work with against Khadafi.

Anything else would be a misreading of history and the facts.

UPDATE:
Khadafi was shot while trying to flee a house - not an airstrike as initially reported. One of his sons also killed:

Gadhafi's son, Mutassim, and his chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, have been killed, according to Anees al-Sharif, spokesman for AbdelHakim Belhajj of the Tripoli military council.

This report comes on the day that Moammar Gadhafi has been killed.

[Update 10:36 a.m. ET] Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been killed, interim Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told reporters in Tripoli Thursday.

UPDATE:
Video shows that Khadafi was alive when he was captured.

Members of Khadafi's Family Fled To Algeria; Mumar MIA

While no one seems to know where Mumar Khadafi has gone, his wife and several of his children have fled to Algeria.

The report cited Algeria's Foreign Affairs Ministry as saying the family entered the neighboring country on Monday. It did not immediately provide additional details or say whether Qaddafi himself was with the family.

The report came as battles raged on two sides of Sirte, the southern city that is the headquarters of Qaddafi's tribe and his regime's last major bastion. The rebels were consolidating control of Tripoli, the capital.

Despite effectively ending his rule, the rebels have yet to find Qaddafi or his family members -- something that has cast a pall of lingering uncertainty over the opposition's victory.

The Egyptian news agency MENA, quoting unidentified rebel fighters, had reported from Tripoli over the weekend that six armored Mercedes sedans, possibly carrying Qaddafi's sons or other top regime figures, had crossed the border at the southwestern Libyan town of Ghadamis into Algeria. Algeria's Foreign Ministry had denied that report.

Ahmed Jibril, an aid to rebel National Transitional Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said if the report of Qaddafi relatives in Algeria is true, "we will demand that Algerian authorities hand them over to Libya to be tried before Libyan courts."

The Hunt For Khadafi Goes On

Despite being ousted from power in Libya, Mumar Khadafi continues to hold sway and thinks that he can regain power.

Maybe.

Maybe he went off to Zimbabwe to stay with another thug, Robert Mugabe. It certainly seems plausible:

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya to Zimbabwe on a jet provided by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, it was claimed today, as rebels began the march on his home town.

President Mugabe's political opponents claim their spies saw Gaddafi arrive in the country on a Zimbabwe Air Force jet in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

They say the Libyan dictator was taken to a mansion in Harare's Gunninghill suburb, where agents from his all-female bodyguard were apparently seen patrolling the grounds.

Zimbabwean officials have tossed out Libyan diplomats who defected from Khadafi to join the NTC (National Transitional Council). Zimbabwe also isn't a signatory to the ICC, which means that Khadafi wouldn't face extradition to face war crimes charges.

The Hunt For Khadafi Continues

The hunt for Mumar Khadafi continues, and there are numerous reports indicating that rebel groups just missed capturing him at a safe house in Tripoli.

Libyan commandos fighting Muammar Gaddafi came close to capturing the toppled leader on Wednesday when they raided a private home in Tripoli where he appeared to have been hiding, Paris Match magazine said on Thursday.

Citing a source in a unit which it said was coordinating among intelligence services from Arab states and Libyan rebels, the French weekly said on its website that these services believed Gaddafi was still somewhere in the Libyan capital.

Gaddafi was gone from the unassuming safe house in central Tripoli when agents arrived about 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday after a tip-off from a credible source. But, the magazine said, they found evidence that he had spent at least one night there -- though it did not say how recently that was.

CNN is reporting that the rebels think that he may be holed up in a cluster of buildings near his Tripoli compound that fell to rebels earlier in the week. I'm not so sure.

While some people might think to track down his all-girl bodyguard brigade, I think rebels will likely look for him in and around his hometown of Sirte.

Regardless of Khadafi's whereabouts, Tripoli is not fully in rebel hands, and there are pockets of resistance elsewhere in the country even as rebels celebrate their new-found freedom:


The head of the Libyan rebels is calling on international assistance to help stabilize the country, including releasing funds frozen by Western countries as a means of pressuring Khadafi to step aside:

Mahmoud Jibril spoke after meeting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who said Rome had begun unfreezing 350 million euros ($504.3 million) of Libyan funds in Italian banks to help the rebel movement govern Libya.

Berlusconi said the unfreezing marked a first step in a broader effort to unblock all of the North African country's assets in Italy, the former colonial power.

Italy, once Libya's closest ally in the West, froze around $8 billion of Libyan assets as part of sanctions against Muammar Gaddafi, whose 42 years in power appeared at an end this week.

"The biggest destabilising element would be the failure of the (rebel) National Transitional Council to deliver the necessary services and pay the salaries of the people who have not been paid for months," Jibril told a news conference in Milan. "Our priorities cannot be carried out by the government without having the necessary money immediately."

The Hunt For Khadafi Continues As Fighting Continues In Libya

The hunt for Mumar Khadafi continues. Mumar Khadafi was nowhere to be seen in the capital of Tripoli or in his overrun compound, but he apparently issued an audio recording calling on his supporters to fight to the bitter end. He also vowed to fight to victory or death. Rebels ransacked Khadafi's compound, which included all kinds of valuables, including some of the uniforms and costumes Khadafi wore in public, statues to himself, and other assorted items.



I think the Libyans will oblige him on the latter bit. Khadafi's now incapable of winning; his forces were routed from key areas around the country and his area of operations keeps shrinking. It's wishful thinking for the loyalists to think they can stem the tide of history.

Khadafi can't be seen out in the public and his son Saif could only show himself during a few minutes during the overnight to repute claims he had been captured by rebel forces.

None of this means that the country is safe by any stretch. Journalists holed up in the Rixos hotel are effectively prisoners to Khadafi's loyalists; they aren't allowed to leave, which means that the few journalists who opted not to stay in the hotel are going to get the scoops of a lifetime. The fighting continues as pockets of resistance are dealt with by the rebel forces, and artillery and gunfire continues to ricochet around the capital.

The concern is that like Saddam Hussein, did Khadafi plot the disappearance of his key forces so as to carry on an insurgency against the rebel groups.

With Gaddafi and son Saif al-Islam still nowhere to be found, it is likely that the family slipped out of the capital at the last moment, along with their die-hard supporters, according to one Libyan who has had contact with regime supporters during the conflict. He says he was told last month by tribal officials allied to Gaddafi that they had been carefully crafting a retreat, as the regime increasingly became aware that it was unlikely to survive. "It is obvious that everything is ready for them," says Noman Benotman, former head of an armed militant Libyan group who is now senior analyst for the London think tank Quilliam. "The way he evacuated Tripoli was all part of the plan." (See pictures of the lengthy battle for Libya.)

In a crackling audio address from his hideout in the early hours of Wednesday, Gaddafi said he had made a "tactical retreat" from Tripoli. Of the rebel fighters, he said: "They are evil incarnate. We should fight them." His words were broadcast on a new pro-Gaddafi web-television channel seemingly designed to replace the national propaganda network the leader has just lost. The address was widely dismissed by Libyans as the desperate words of a defeated tyrant. But they might hold some other meaning, according to Benotman. He claims to have met officials last month from a "very significant, large tribe" supportive of the regime, who told him that they had made a "pact" to support the regime's holdouts if Gaddafi's rule collapsed — even if the Colonel himself was captured or killed. Benotman believes that Gaddafi might have retreated to Al-Jufra, a military base south of the leader's hometown of Sirte, and that Saif al-Islam likely slipped out of Tripoli early Tuesday, shortly after dropping by the Rixos Hotel, where about 35 foreign journalists have been besieged since last weekend.

UPDATE:
Rebels have placed a bounty on Khadafi, dead or alive.

While Khadafi purportedly claims to still be inside Tripoli somewhere, I think he's slipped out of the city and moved towards Sirte, which is his hometown. I just can't picture him leading this fight from the front and he's much more likely to be caught wearing a burkha or costume to avoid being captured than wearing a military uniform.

UPDATE:
The number of regimes and countries still considering Khadafi (or Gathafi as his passport apparently shows) is shrinking. Burkina Faso and Chad, two nations which received large amounts of aid from Libya under Col Gaddafi, have now joined the list of more than 40 countries recognising the rebels' NTC as Libya's legitimate authority. Burkina Faso says it will offer Col Gaddafi exile if he requests it. From what Khadafi has been saying, I doubt Burkina Faso will have to worry about putting him up. The BBC also reports that there are more defections.

Not among those who have distanced themselves - [T]hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Rebels Continue Fight in Tripoli As Khadafi's Whereabouts Remain Mystery

Despite reports yesterday claiming that several of Mumar Khadafi's sons were taken into custody by rebel forces in and around Tripoli, it turns out that it wasn't the case. Saif al-Islam made a pretty dramatic entrance and posed for photos among his supporters inside Tripoli.



Chalk that up to the fog of war and overly optimistic reporting/announcements from the rebels. However, the BBC live-blog is reporting that rebel spokesman Hany Hassan Soufrakis relates that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was actually captured but somehow managed to escape from the rebels: "He was captured and apparently he escaped; that's the information we're getting. To be honest, it's an embarrassment," he told the BBC World Service.

Heavy fighting is reported in the vicinity of the Khadafi compound. That follows reports of heavy gunfire reported elsewhere in Tripoli.

It was not clear whether the recent rebel gains were the beginnings of a decisive victory or, rather, the start of potentially prolonged street fighting for control of the capital. NATO officials in Brussels and London said the alliance’s warplanes were flying reconnaissance and other missions over Libya but declined to say whether the planes had bombed the fortified Qaddafi compound in Tripoli.

“Our mission is not over yet,” said Col. Roland Lavoie, a NATO spokesman, at a news conference in Naples, Italy, urging pro-Qaddafi forces to return to their barracks. “Until this is the case we will carry on with our mission.” Asked if the alliance knew where Colonel Qaddafi was, he said: “We don’t know. I don’t have a clue.”

“The situation in Tripoli is still very serious and very dangerous,” Colonel Lavoie said.

He acknowledged that the urban environment in Tripoli, a city of some two million, was “far more complex” for airstrikes, but said the alliance had precision weapons at its disposal to enforce its United Nations Security Council mandate, which is to protect civilians from attack.

NATO will continue its mission in Libya, despite the gains reported by the rebel forces and their consolidation of gains in and around Tripoli.

The thing is that no one knows where Mumar Khadafi is, and the state television network has finally gone off the air. Typically, state-run television broadcasts reports sympathetic to the regimes in power, so this is a positive development for the rebel forces.

Hours after the Jamahiriya (State of the Masses) channel had broadcast increasingly desperate pleas from Muammar Gaddafi, TV screens airing the station suddenly turned black. Minutes later the network's logo appeared at the bottom right of the screen, but without any picture or sound.

A spokesman for the rebel alliance claimed control of the media group's headquarters: ''The revolutionaries stormed the television building … after killing the soldiers surrounding it. It is now under their control.''
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Rebel forces also claimed to have detained Hala Misrati, the Libyan state TV anchor who famously vowed to die a martyr for Colonel Gaddafi while waving a gun on air on Sunday.

UPDATE:
Via BBC's Live Blog:

Outside the capital, rebels have been telling AFP that they are pushing towards the oil hub of Ras Lanouf, on the road towards Col Gaddafi's hometown, Sirte. They hope to be in Ras Lanouf by tonight.

Since no one knows where Khadafi's gone, it is possible that he returned to his hometown where he may be able to rely on his connections to sustain the fight for just a while longer (further extending the bloodshed).

That Saif apparently escaped isn't a good sign for the rebels, but his appearance in the dark of night doesn't exactly inspire confidence in what's left of the Khadafi regime either - they can't go out in the open and are on the run.

UPDATE:
Looks like Khadafi's Tripoli compound has been overrun, and rebels are displaying documents from within the compound.

Rebels have hoisted their flag over Col Gaddafi's home in the Bab al-Aziziya compound, rebel TV reports.

Andy Carvin tweets: Even if opposition gets into compound and Gaddafi is there, there's a huge network of tunnels under the city. Could become cat and mouse.

UPDATE:
Libyan kids playing atop a tank belonging to Khadafi's formerly elite military unit:

Libyan rebels inside the Khadafi compound (HT: Killgore Trout):


Still, no one knows where Mumar Khadafi has gone. I think he's gone back to his home town of Sirte, even as his loyalists have reportedly flocked to Tripoli to attempt to thwart the rebel groups. Meanwhile, the rebels appear to be consolidating their gains although the loyalists have again fired Scud missiles towards Misrata.

The End Nears For Khadafi's Reign in Libya

With astonishing speed after months of fighting to a stalemate, it appears that rebel groups have taken vast portions of the Libyan capital of Tripoli and Mumar Khadafi is nowhere to be found. Reports indicate that his sons have been taken into custody. Battles rage around Khadafi's compound, and the death toll appears to be over 1,300 in recent days as the sides fight towards a bitter conclusion.

Dictators always believe that they're in control, up until the moment they're not. They never quite realize that their perch in power is precarious; someone could sell them out (coup d'etat), they could buy the farm in an airstrike or bombing, or any number of other events that are beyond their control. Khadafi has resisted calls for a peaceful transfer of power, or finding a safe haven in exile.



Instead of stepping down of his own accord and retiring to a peaceful compound surrounded by his female Praetorian guard in some cozy secluded island retreat, he decided to slug it out with anyone and everyone because his ego really is that big. Thousands died because he sought to maintain a firm grip on power, instead of relenting to the people who had finally had enough of Khadafi's reign after coming to power in a coup d'etat 42 years ago.

So now, Khadafi may find out what it's like to be strung up from a lamppost, or tried before a court for all of his crimes against the Libyan people, or may end up getting caught in a rat hole like another rabid dog.

You see, dictators never think it's going to happen to them. It's always going to be the other dumb dictator who doesn't quite play by the Dictator's playbook.

And that should be a lesson to Bashar Assad, but Assad is already claiming that this would never happen to him. Assad has already issued statements showing that he has no fear that such a civil war or revolution could happen to him. Here's hoping that he's sorely mistaken in that conviction.

What does this mean for the rest of the world? Well, some people think that this may lead to a reduction in oil prices as the reliable supply of oil can increase due to the end of another conflict in an oil-rich region. It would probably take some time before the oil flows smoothly from Libya, but expect to see downward pressure on oil prices in the coming days as the situation in Libya sorts itself out:


Sky News reporters managed to scoop the international press by embedding with rebel groups as they advanced on Tripoli as the rest of the press was stuck in one of the hotels surrounded by government troops.

The Noose Tightens Around Khadafi

We might be witnessing the beginning of the end of Mumar Khadafi's 40 year reign in Libya. Rebel forces have claimed to have entered Tripoli and Khadafi has not been seen in public in several weeks although he has issued two audio recordings in the past week exhorting his followers to defeat the rebels:

For the first time in months, witnesses in Tripoli reported heavy fighting across the capital late Saturday night, even as rebel forces claimed to have encircled the city by taking major towns to its east, west and south.

Rebel leaders in Tunis and eastern Libya hailed the beginning of a new uprising in the capital against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s rule. And after months of rebel offenses that crumbled or stalled despite heavy support from a NATO airstrike campaign, it was the first time since the uprising began in February that the rebels threatened Colonel Qaddafi’s ultimate stronghold.

“We are coordinating the attacks inside, and our forces from outside are ready to enter Tripoli,” said Anwar Fekini, a rebel leader from the mountainous region in western Libya, speaking by telephone from Tunis. “If you can call any mobile number in Tripoli, you will hear in the background the beautiful sound of the bullets of freedom.”

Phone calls to several Tripoli residents from different neighborhoods confirmed widespread gunfire and explosions. And there were reports of frequent NATO jet overflights and airstrikes — a common accompaniment to the drumbeat of the rebel advance in the past week.

But in an audio message broadcast on state television, his second in a week, Colonel Qaddafi rejected claims of rebel gains, saying his forces had beaten back the Tripoli uprising within hours and announcing military successes in the same cities rebels had claimed to seize on Saturday. He gave the date and time several times to confirm that he was speaking as events were unfolding.

UPDATE:
Khadafi's compound may have been breached, but there's no way to know whether he's still in the city, or has been there for any time in the past couple of weeks. One of the major worries is that he fled for the mountains and will attempt to fight a guerrilla campaign. That's even with Khadafi claiming that he'll stay in Tripoli to the last.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Sunday he will stay in Tripoli "until the end" and called on his supporters around the country to help liberate the capital from a rebel offensive.

He said in an audio message played over state television he was "afraid that Tripoli will burn" and he said he would provide weapons to supporters to fight off the rebels.

Earlier, Libyan rebels captured a major military base that defends Gadhafi's stronghold of Tripoli as clashes and protests raged in the streets of the capital on Sunday.

An Associated Press reporter with the rebels rapidly advancing toward Tripoli saw them take over the base of the Khamis Brigade, 16 miles west of the capital. After a brief gunbattle, Gadhafi's forces fled.

If it's turning into a rout in Tripoli, the rebels will likely claim victory over Khadafi's regime despite Khadafi's protestations to the contrary (and on that front, Khadafi may rival Baghdad Bob on handling the truth).

UPDATE:
The end may have come even quicker than anyone could have imagined. There are reports that Khadafi's son has been captured by rebel groups, and there are even reports that Khadafi himself has been shot and killed, or has otherwise fled to Algeria.

West Declares Libyan Opposition Legitimate Government; Other Opposition Movements Take Note

The US and other Western countries have declared that the regime of Mumar Khadafi is no longer legitimate and has recognize the opposition movement as the legitimate government of Libya.

More than 30 nations, including the United States, on Friday declared that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime is no longer legitimate and formally recognized Libya's main opposition group as the country's government.

In a final statement following a meeting of the so-called Contact Group on Libya, the nations said: The "Gadhafi regime no longer has any legitimate authority in Libya," and Gadhafi and certain members of his family must go.

The group said it would deal with Libya's main opposition group — the National Transitional Council, or TNC — as "the legitimate governing authority in Libya" until an interim authority is in place.

This action has repercussions far beyond Libya; it should be studied closely by opposition movements in Syria; both countries are in the midst of a massive crackdown by their respective autocratic despotic regimes but the world has essentially ignored the plight of the Syrian opposition while the Libyan opposition has coalesced into a coherent group that is now recognized as a legitimate government of the country.

Syrians need to take similar actions, and hope that its country's foreign diplomats defect and otherwise distance themselves from Assad's brutal regime so as to give the opposition a chance to stand up against the ongoing crackdown. Assad has been successful in cracking down against opposition groups so that they can't make the kind of gains that the TNC has seen in Libya, but hasn't successfully quashed the protests (the death toll keeps rising as protesters are killed on a daily basis with no sign of any letup).

The biggest rallies on Friday occurred in cities that have tested the government’s ability to impose its authority: Homs and Hama in central Syria and Deir al-Zour in the poor, drought-stricken northeast. Protesters also gathered in Dara’a, the southern town where the uprising began, suggesting that a fierce military crackdown in April has not broken the opposition movement there.

“Dara’a is still under siege,” said Anwar Farres, an activist in the town. “Nothing has changed. They’re still sending more and more security forces here.”

Omar Idlibi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, which has sought to document and organize the protests, said one person was killed in Dara’a on Friday and another in Homs. Three people were killed in the restive northwestern province of Idlib, where the military has carried out campaigns against what it calls Islamist insurgents.

The protesters in Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city, numbered in the tens of thousands for a third straight week. Even larger crowds turned out in Deir al-Zour, knit by deep clan loyalties, and in Qaboun, which is emerging as a flash point on the outskirts of Damascus. Demonstrations in Homs have also proven resilient.

“Leave, Bashar,” the crowds in Homs chanted, according to an activist there. “No to dialogue!”

In a predominantly Kurdish area of the country, protesters unfurled a Syrian flag emblazoned with “Azadi,” the Kurdish word for freedom.

Four months into the uprising, some activists have spoken of a stalemate, as the government trumpets tentative and ambiguous steps toward reform while a fractious and immature opposition struggles to provide some kind of alternative. Meetings of opposition figures are scheduled to take place on Saturday inside Syria and in neighboring Turkey, but divisions have threatened to derail the meetings. Though the government allowed a rare opposition meeting last month, some fear that security forces may now seek to prevent one from convening in Damascus.

“I am pessimistic,” said Muntaha al-Atrash, a member of Sawasiyah, a human rights group in Damascus. “I feel like it’s going to be a long, long journey.”

“This regime won’t easily submit to people’s demands,” she added.

Assad is not going to give up his grip on power - power that has been in his family's hands since his father rose to power more than 40 years ago.

International Criminal Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Mumar Khadafi

The International Criminal Court has handed down an arrest warrant for Libyan dictator Mumar Khadafi for crimes against humanity based on his brutal crackdown and ongoing fight against opposition groups in Libya. Also, warrants were issued for his son and another high ranking security official:

Judges at the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Monday for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and two of his most trusted lieutenants on war crimes charges.

The decision came after ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had asked for arrest warrants for Mr. Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi.

Moreno-Ocampo says Gadhafi and his government carried out attacks against demonstrators, and ordered snipers to fire on civilians leaving mosques during the crackdown against rebels seeking Gadhafi's ouster.

Meanwhile, witnesses in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, say they have heard two loud explosions and could see smoke rising from the area near Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound Monday.

What's interesting is that the arrest warrants against Khadafi and his minions could easily be duplicated and issued against Syria's Bashar al Assad and his top thugs since they too are engaging in essentially the same exact crimes against humanity in Assad's ongoing brutal crackdown against protesters. The key difference is that NATO and the UN have not acted to thwart Assad, while the UN and NATO have launched military operations to prevent Khadafi from reasserting power across all of Libya.

African Union members continue expressing concern over the situation in Libya and that Khadafi has no role in the future of the country; the AU calls on both Khadafi and the transitional government to agree to an immediate cessation of military operations:

Energy Department To Release 30 Million Barrels Of Oil From Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The US Energy Department is set to release 30 million barrels from Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That sounds like a lot until you realize that 30 million barrels is equivalent to 3 1/3 days of transportation use.

The justification is that the ongoing situation in Libya has reduced production by 1.5 million bbl a day.

I see this as a measure to help Europe and specifically to continue the NATO mission against Mumar Khadafi. Europe gets imports from Libya and the lost production is affecting the economy in Europe with higher energy costs. So, while the SPR drawdown will not affect prices here in the US, it is meant to assist the Europeans deal with the ongoing fighting in Libya and ongoing unrest in the rest of the Middle East and oil-producing countries.

Prices at the pump in the US have moderated and even started to slide down despite the ongoing unrest overseas. Demand has moderated as people have adjusted to higher energy costs and people are shifting their spending to compensate for the higher costs.

Hosni Mubarak To Stand Trial Over Protester Deaths

This is going to serve as a warning to other dictators and despots and autocrats who have ruled Middle Eastern and North African countries with an iron fist for decades on end without the slightest care about political, religious, or economic freedom.

Hosni Mubarak will stand trial over the deaths of protesters.

Egypt's ex-President Hosni Mubarak will stand trial on charges of conspiring in the deadly shootings of protesters during the uprising that ousted him, the prosector-general said Tuesday.

The 83-year-old leader, his two sons and a close business associate also have been charged with abusing their power to amass wealth, the prosecutor-general's office said in a statement. A trial date has not yet been set.

The referral to trial is a key demand of many Egyptians who have rallied to insist that Mubarak and his aides face justice.

Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11 and transferred power to the military after an 18-day popular uprising. At least 846 protesters were killed, according to a government fact-finding mission.

Since Mubarak's regime fell to the inspired protests, other regimes have come under intense pressure to step down, including in Syria and Libya. In those cases, Bashar al Assad and Mumar Khadafi are using brutal force to quell the protests and the situation in Libya got to the point where NATO has intervened on behalf of the protests and opposition groups that have effectively seized control over large parts of the country. Assad maintains an iron grip in Syria although his regime continues using deadly force at every opportunity to remain in power.

Syria's Assad Continues Brutal Crackdown To Remain in Power; World Fails To Muster To Action

Despite reports of a supposedly tense calm in much of Syria, Bashar al Assad's security forces continue bombarding those it has deemed to be the enemies of the regime - the opposition who has demanded reforms in how the government functions and operates.

In what has emerged as one of the most brutal waves of repression since the Arab Spring began, the Syrian military shelled Homs, the country’s third-largest city, from tanks on Wednesday, forcing hundreds to flee and detaining hundreds more.

The military said on Thursday that it had ended what it called military operations in Homs, and residents reported that 10 tanks had withdrawn from the hardest-hit neighborhood, Bab Amr. After a day of shelling and gunfire, and sporadic shots heard before dawn, the area was relatively quiet, a resident there, Abu Haydar, said by telephone.

“Most of the people have left Bab Amr,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”

In Baniyas, a city on the coast that was besieged this week, a tense calm persisted. A resident, Abu Obada, said by phone that security forces had urged residents to reopen their shops, but that many were reluctant. Schools and government offices remained closed, he said. In a nearby town, Bayda, residents were asked to sign pledges promising not to take part in protests, which have gathered across the country on successive Fridays.

“Some of them signed,” he said. “Others were too scared to go and sign.”

So far, the military has entered in force three large towns — Homs, Baniyas and Dara’a — with other assaults reported on towns near Dara’a and in the countryside around Baniyas.

It isn't so much as a calm, as the calm before the next storm tomorrow as Assad's security thugs prepare for the oncoming onslaught against the opposition protesters. They're gearing up for still more protests and demonstrations tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a Canadian journalist who went missing in Syria may have been sent to Iran. Journalists have been repeatedly targeted by security forces all throughout those countries affected by the popular uprisings - lest the facts and circumstances of the crackdowns become public knowledge. In this case, the Syrians claim that the journalist attempted to enter using an Iranian passport, but the Iranians claim no knowledge of the journalist's whereabouts.

In a statement, the Syrian embassy in Washington said Ms. Parvaz “attempted to illegally enter” the country using an expired Iranian passport and on false claims that she was a tourist.

Syria said it extradited her on May 1 “in accordance with international law to the passport-issuing country.” The Iranian consul, it added, escorted her to Caspian Airlines Flight 7905 bound for Tehran.

Al-Jazeera reported that Iran’s Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, told the network on May 2 that he had no knowledge of the reporter’s whereabouts and urged Syria to look into the case.

The news of her deportation, made public on Wednesday, has left Ms. Parvaz’s family confused, her fiancé, Todd Barker, said.

All the while, protests continue in major Syrian cities, including Aleppo and Hama. Videos from Aleppo show that the Syrian security forces, dressed in plainsclothes, arrested and dragged away protesters to disperse the crowds.

All while the world continues to intervene on behalf of the Libyan people and the rebel groups that have joined together to oppose Mumar Khadafi, thus far there has been no inclination on the part of the UN or Arab League or individual countries to act on behalf of the Syrian people to thwart Assad's military operations against the protesters. Thus far, only harshly worded statements can be mustered against Assad, and that's not saying much. China has come out against military action against Assad, even as the Syrian regime's body count from the latest crackdown is likely to exceed that of Khadafi's.