Khadafi's Regime Under Assault as Protests Spread To Oman

Mumar Khadafi's regime continues to come under a withering assault from those who have defected from the regime (which includes the diplomatic corps, much of the Army, and tribal groups across the country). Despite the fact that it appears that the number of Khadafi loyalists is dwindling and he's increasingly reliant on mercenaries and paid thugs to carry out his deranged attempt to stay in power by murdering his countrymen to retain power in Tripoli, Khadafi and his sons claim that the opposition is actually a tiny minority that was egged on by al Qaeda, Islamists, and the West (including the US).



There's a huge disconnect between events and what the Khadafi regime thinks is going on - and the disconnect is only going to increase the death toll since the regime's control over the country is apparently limited to not much beyond Tripoli although there are reports that Khadafi loyalists are preparing to assault a town taken over by the opposition just 30 miles from Tripoli.

Khadafi, who had resisted allowing journalists access to the country, brought in journalists to Tripoli to show them that the situation was normal, but those journalists in the western part of the country tell a different tale - one where Khadafi no longer rules. Journalists were taken to a town Zawiyah, located 30 miles from Tripoli, to show that the situation was well in hand, but those journalists saw that the opposition was firmly in control.

Sanctions by the EU and other countries isn't going to affect Khadafi's ability to increase the death toll across the country, and the UN is contemplating war crimes against the Libyan regime.

Meanwhile, protests have broken out in the Gulf country of Oman. Two protesters were killed as several thousand people demonstrated against the Omani regime.



Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets against the protesters, who were demanding more rights and freedoms. The Omani government attempted to fend off the demonstrations by bribing the population with a claim that thousands would be granted jobs and compensation while looking for jobs:

The nation’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, has so far announced the creation of 50,000 new government jobs and an unemployment program that will pay job seekers $390 per month until they find work, reports CNN.

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These concessions appear to have done little to quiet protesters, whose demands include an increase in power for the legislative body, although they have stopped short of calling for the resignation of Sultan Qaboos. The leader has so far replaced six cabinet members, the Guardian reports.

“We want new faces in the government and we have a long list of social reforms,” Habiba al-Hanay, a 45-year-old civil servant, told the Guardian. “We just hope he will hear us and make changes.”

The most violent protests have taken place in the industrial port city of Sohar, where thousands of demonstrators are said to have clashed with police on Sunday. There are conflicting reports as to whether police fired live ammunition or rubber bullets at demonstrators and how many people have died in the protests. Oman’s health minister said only one protester died in Sohar, but Reuters reports that doctors in Sohar’s main hospital recorded six deaths.

As we've seen in Bahrain and other countries in the Middle East, bribery isn't sufficient to quell the demonstrations - the demonstrators are demanding greater rights and political access in addition to economic opportunities.

There's a sea change going on in the Middle East, and the regimes are slowly beginning to realize the depths of despair and lack of opportunities, tied with repressive regimes with limited political opportunities has created a wholly untenable situation.

UPDATE:
Apparently Khadafi is now passing out cash in hopes of staving off the inevitable. Government minders were accompanying journalists around, so is it any surprise that the people journalists interviewed in Tripoli were repeating the government line?

Palestinian Authority Blocks West Bank Rally Supporting Tunisian Protests

You really can't make this stuff up. The Palestinian Authority, which in the West Bank is essentially Fatah, has no interest in ceding power to anyone, whether it is Hamas, or allowing demonstrations that might raise awareness about the corruption and failures of Palestinian leadership to accomplish anything since they were given civil administrative control over much of the West Bank.

The PA has banned demonstrations supporting the Tunisian overthrow of the odious Ben Ali government and demands for a house-cleaning of those allied with Ben Ali.

The Palestinian Authority refused to grant permission for a rally to celebrate the overthrow of Tunisia’s authoritarian president on Wednesday in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the West Bank.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that a few dozen Palestinians who defied the ban arrived in the square in Ramallah where the rally was to take place only to find that they were outnumbered by members of the ruling Fatah party, who chose the same time and place to stage a demonstration in support of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

According to the Palestinian Maan news agency, “It was not clear whose demonstration was planned first.”

A correspondent for Le Monde, Benjamin Barthe, observed that a police cordon around the square and “the presence among the demonstrators of many mukhabarat (secret police) officers left little doubt about the Palestinian Authority’s intention to prevent any expression of solidarity with the ‘jasmine revolution’ ” in Tunisia, which led the president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee into exile.

The reporter added that just as one young Palestinian began to wave a Tunisian flag, an officer grabbed it, on the grounds that it was disturbing the demonstration in honor of the prisoners. .

Omar Barghouti, a leading Palestinian human rights activist who was present at the thwarted celebration, told the French newspaper: “It’s unbelievable. … The police are in the process of confirming the charge that the Palestinian Authority is on the side of Ben Ali and that it also fears the people and the street.”

The Palestinian security forces have banned all displays of the Tunisian flag or anything that can reference the Jasmine uprising.

This goes back to what I've been saying about the lessons learned from the Tunisian uprising and overthrow of Ben Ali. Middle Eastern regimes and despots have learned that tolerance of demonstrators and protesters may lead to their overthrow so that regimes will now try to nip any protests or demonstrations in the bud before they can blossom into events that they can no longer control or shape.

The PA and Fatah has learned this lesson well, and the Palestinians are worse off for it. Fatah has repeatedly failed the Palestinian people - refusing deal after deal to have a 2-state solution, and isn't a partner in peace. Fatah's Abbas would much rather retain the status quo - where he can profit from the situation without having to actually do any work towards building a civil society that is engaged in constructive activities rather than peddling a nihilistic worldview that sees eliminating Israel as the cure-all for what ails the Palestinian people.

The G-20 Protests and the Drudge Video

Protesters once again have traveled from all over the country and the world to participate in a regular gathering - protesting the gathering of the major nations in an economic summit. These protesters, many of them anarchists, attempt to cause as much mayhem as possible and the police and security presence in Pittsburgh where the meetings are taking place are meant to deter the protesters from causing disruptions as much as they are to arrest those who do engage in violence and mayhem.

There's plenty of the mayhem to report, as storefronts have been damaged and police have made a bunch of arrests.

The security contingent includes state and local police as well as the National Guard. Pittsburgh isn't New York City, with 30,000+ uniformed police officers capable of dealing with practically any situation facing them, but a far smaller police force that was augmented by the State Police and National Guard, in addition to the Secret Service, FBI and other law enforcement agencies to protect the world leaders who gathered there.

That leads to the video being proffered by Drudge and others, claiming that the people in the video - alleged to be soldiers - were violating the Posse Comitatus Act by arresting and taking away a lone individual in the midst of a demonstration in Pittsburgh.

Here's the full video:



My first take on the video was that something wasn't right. Why were the various people wearing mismatched uniforms. What about the lack of identifying patches of those involved. As I noted above, the National Guard units deploying to Pittsburgh have very specific uniforms, and patches are clearly discernible.

Bob Owens suggests that those in the video are actually members of the Pennsylvania State Police, particularly after noting that one of the men in the video appears to have a patch on his arm indicating that he's a member of the Pennsylvania State Police.

I came across this photo showing Penn State Police operating in Lehigh. That tends to back up Bob's assertions. Moreover, Hot Air posts a photo of today's demonstrations showing law enforcement (not military) in various camo uniforms with a person quite possibly the one in the video shown plastic-cuffed and detained on the ground. It also shows a vehicle that is similar to the one seen in the video.

In sum, this would dismiss Drudge's claims that this was somehow US military involved. It also would tend to go against the claims that this was trumped up.

I await further analysis of the video and a statement from the local law enforcement on the matter, particularly since the individual is apparently shuffled into the car without being first restrained, an act that could put the police in danger should the man being detained attempt to resist and fight back. It would also be interesting to learn why this particular individual was singled out for being arrested.

As they say in the business, this is a developing situation and one that bears serious scrutiny.

UPDATE:
Smile for the camera idiots. Multiple arrests made of Greenpeace activists who trespassed on a bridge and rappelling down the side of a bridge to unfurl a sign in support of a global warming agenda. Nice of them to put their lives, and the lives of police in danger for that stunt.

UPDATE:
Further confirmation that the video was showing Penn State police arresting and detaining a vandal is here. Of particular note:

The individuals involved in the 9/24/2009 arrest which has appeared online are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team assigned to the security operations for the G20.

It is not unusual for tactical team members to wear camouflaged fatigues. The type of fatigues the officers wear designates their unit affiliation. Prior to the arrest, the officers observed this subject vandalizing a local business. Due to the hostile nature of the crowd, officer safety and the safety of the person under arrest, the subject was immediately removed from the area.

In other words, there's the explanation for mismatched camouflaged uniforms and an explanation for the video that doesn't involve nefarious plots by the US military.

Now will Drudge finally correct his incorrect heading and title? I doubt it.

UPDATE:
Drudge finally took down the incorrect headline. No explanation. No correction. Nothing. Nice.

The Sean Bell Demonstration at Houston and Varick

As promised, here are the photos of the Sean Bell demonstration at Houston and Varick Street taken around 3 pm this afternoon. [click on the photos for enlargements]

 

That's the intersection of Houston Street and Varick Street as shot from the NW side of Houston. There's a bit of construction going on Houston Street, and the building is undergoing renovations, so there's a sidewalk shed running for about half the block.

That bit of information will come in handy later.

 

That's a view of the demonstrators, who managed to completely fit underneath the sidewalk shed. Guess it was too warm for them to try and walk out in the open. Folks who wanted no part of the demonstration were forced to scoot around the edges. Media types and the police were all along the fringes.

 

The police were mulling around across the street and easily matched or exceeded the number of demonstrators. They looked bored.

 

So was the media.

 

 

 

I'm not sure who the guy with the armband was, but it said legal observer. He must have been cataloging who was involved in the demonstration for the eventuality of when the police arrested someone. In the time I was viewing all this, no arrests.

 

And Marcellus Wallace was in the crowd.

 

It's lovely to have preprinted signs that show just how ignorant you are. Two of the three cops who were involved in the Bell shooting were black, as was Bell.

 

More flora and fauna from the demonstration. That poster is the flip side of the one calling the shooting racist and this side has nothing to do with the stated purpose of this demonstration, but rather to call for the end of all deportations and raids.

 

Like I said, the media was definitely bored.

 

After all, the crowd was busy showing everyone that they knew how to count to 50 - representing the 50 bullets used by the three NYPD officers involved in the shooting, and then repeated the chant We Shall Overcome.

 

I know this banner is difficult to read because of the angle, but it says Stop the Brutality - Fight Back Against the NYPD.

 

After a while of seeing that Sharpton had failed to show up by 3:20 or so, I headed back to the office. By the time I left work for the day, I figured that the demonstrators would have completely tied things up at the Holland Tunnel, just as they promised. Well, I was wrong. They didn't stick around, though a lonely news truck was still hanging out. In fact, they apparently all headed downtown closer to the entrance of the Holland Tunnel as I could see the gaggle of helicopters hovering over Lower Manhattan.

 

Apparently 190 of the protesters overall were arrested, including Sharpton, Bell's fiance, and other leaders of the demonstration. They were arrested once they started blocking off the bridges and tunnels. As I suspected, those legal observers were part and parcel of Sharpton's crew to keep things organized.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the real juicy photos of Sharpton and his gaggle getting arrested. There's always a next time.

UPDATE:
There was one other photo I wanted to include in this post. It shows that a good portion of those demonstrating were members of SEIU Local 32BJ, which is apparently the building workers union.





All photos were taken by lawhawk © 2008.

UPDATE:
The NY Times has more on the demonstrations, including a breakdown of where arrests were made. Apparently reports claiming that Sharpton would be at the Houston and Varick site were wrong - as he apparently went to One Police Plaza instead. There's no word on the total number of demonstrators involved, nor can one discern how many protesters were involved at the Sharpton-led protest, but if you have a close cropping of the photos, you can be assured that the numbers weren't all that great. Oh, and the NYT roundup totally misses the Houston and Varick demonstration site altogether and the comments to that effect are pretty funny.

UPDATE:
Gothamist actually has a photo of the Varick Street contingent blocking the street as they marched downtown. That photo conveys just how big the crowd really was, which is to say that it wasn't all that impressive at all as most of those mulling about were gawkers, media, or police.