تونسي حر ينادي بسقوط القذافي Free Tunisian calls for overthrow of Gaddafi

زغروتة نوارة نجم فور الإطاحة بمبارك Nawwara Nagm in Cairo rejoicing as Mubarak is toppled

بن علي هرب "Ben Ali has fled!" - Tunisian burst of freedom as dictator flees

خالة" القذافي في إسرائيل تتبرأ منه" Gaddafi Jewish "Aunt" in Israel disowns him

سيف الإسلام القذافي:على خطى إجرام أبيه Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi: Like Father Like Son

11 year-old girl from Baidha, victim of Gaddafi snipers

إلى الشعب الليبي الحر

• في هذا اليوم لا يسعني إلا أن أحيى صمود الشعب الليبي بكافة فئاته... شباب و شيوخ... نساء  و أطفال... في كافة المدن والقرى الليبية... وأشاركه أحزانه وآفراحه... هذا الشعب الأبي والبطل  الذي خرج ينادي بالحرية و الكرامة...يعرض صدره لرصاص الغدر من قبل نظام بلطجي و فاقد  للشرعية من أساسه...نظام متعجرف  و متخلف بمعنى الكلمة ...أخلاقيا  وعمليا...نظام يستحي منه البشر و الحجر...نظام يستخدم كل أدوات القمع ضد شعبه... بما في ذلك قطع وسائل الإتصال... وتسليط القناصة و المرتزقة عليهم باستخدام الأسلحة الثقيلة و الطائرات والبوارج الحربية... يسخرها ضد شعب أعزل... أراد أن يسترجع حريته و كرامته... أسوة بإخوانه في الوطن العربي الكبير...و آشكر أيضا من كل قلبي كل الأحرار في  الوطن العربي وخارجه... الذين تعاطفوا والتحموا مع الشعب الليبي في محنته الحالية ...

• وإذ نرى شمس الحرية تبدو في الأفق الليبي و تبدد ظلمة الليل الطويل نتطلع إلى تكوين روابط شبابية واعية مترابطة في كل أرجاء الوطن...تسمو فوق النعرات  الضيقة وتتتحاور بوعي و جدية وسعة صدر لرسم خارطة الطريق  المثلى لنظام جديد مشرق  جدير به وطننا الحبيب ليبيا... مبني على العلم و على سواعد  شبابه وكوادره الواعية...نظام  مدني متحضر يرفض القبلية التي أذكاها النظام المنهار.. مبني على دستور حديث ومتطور... يضمن الحريات والحقوق العامة... يقوم على الفصل بين السلطات التنفيذية والتشريعية والقضائية و  يسمح بتداول السلطة...نظام ينتشل ليبيا من فوضى الجهل و التخلف الذي كرسه النظام المنهار إلى آفاق العلم والرقي....

• و أخيرا في هذا الظرف الحاسم الذي يمر به الوطن العربي الكبير  لا يسعني إلا آن أردد كما ردد الكثيرون قبلي من كلمات أبي القاسم الشابي الخالدة...

إذا الشعب يوما أراد الحياة ...فلا بد أن يستجيب القدر

Winds of change sweep Libya

When Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu fell and was executed in the midst of the Timisoara revolution of 1989, Gaddafi quickly took note.  In a televised speech to the Libyan people shortly after, he sent them a direct warning. “What happened in Romania could never happen here…Libya is a large country and not as densely populated and any attempt to revolt will be easily crushed”.  This week, as Libyans, emboldened by events around them, have been taking to the streets chanting for freedom, Gaddafi delivered on his promise. He unleashed his paid and heavily-armed mercenaries and trigger-happy snipers to crush a largely peaceful and unarmed population, using the only language dictators know, terror.  So far, hundreds have been indiscriminately killed and hundreds others wounded. Ill-equipped hospitals are overflowing with dead bodies. These scare tactics are not new. In 1984, true to the title of the famous George Orwell’s book, Gaddafi orchestrated nationally-televised, extra-judicial, public executions of several student activists and political opponents.  In 1996, in the wake of a Tripoli prison riot, more than 1200 political prisoners were cold-bloodedly shot dead by security forces. 

Over the years, Gaddafi has also shown his Machiavellian side and that he could be flexible under pressure. In the wake of Saddam Hussein’s fall, he was quick to play the card of giving up his nuclear program, so that he could be acceptable to the West. In recent weeks, as the wind of change swept through the Arab region around him, he volunteered to mellow his title. Not long ago a self-proclaimed “King of Kings”, he quietly settled for the more modest title of “Brother Leader”. Erratic and paranoid by nature, he first rebuked Tunisians for triggering the wave of revolutions in the region and for deposing Ex-dictator Ben Ali. Later, as millions of Egyptians marched on the streets of Egypt calling for Mubarak to leave, Gaddafi rushed to his support, describing him as so poor “he could not afford to buy his own clothes”. This came as news were circulated about Mubarak‘s multi-billion wealth. When Mubarak fell in disgrace, the Libyan dictator quickly switched sides and embraced the change in Egypt as somehow influenced by his self-styled “people’s democracy”. This is not the first time Gaddafi expresses sorrow for the loss of a fellow dictator. Mourning the loss of Ceausescu after his fall, he declared him so poor “he was living in an old 18-century mansion”.

One can say without fear of exaggeration that Libya, with its strategic position, small population and abundant natural resources could have been in a much better state, had it not been for Gaddafi. Currently the world’s longest-serving dictator, his 41.5  years of absolute rule have been marked by an excess of terror, corruption and personality cult.  All these years, Libyans have been quietly asking about the whereabouts of their money. The country they live in is supposed to be rich. Nevertheless, it is in a state of shambles and has been so for years. Education, health and infrastructure services are extremely poor to say the least and over 30% of the population, mostly young, cannot find jobs. Meanwhile, Gaddafi has been diverting funds and spending fortunes at will on grandiose and mostly failing projects of his imagination, including African coups, obsolete armament, man-made rivers and of course his Green Book. In theory, his booklet claims there is no president in Libya and indeed no need for one, as “the masses are ruling themselves by themselves”. The country according to Gaddafi is “the closest you could get to utopia”. In practice however, ask any Libyan while not being watched by a government minder and they will tell you that all strings in Libya are controlled by the dictator himself and his sons who are lining up and competing to inherit his rule.

Despite some having been termed benevolent, dictators are historically bad and Gaddafi belongs to the more despised type. Not only did he have nothing to offer his people but terror and backwardness, he also took every opportunity to humiliate them and threaten them. A glimpse of that became widely publicized to the world during a bizarre UN speech by the self-styled dictator himself when he tore up the UN Charter and threw it at the session chair desk behind him, where his own representative was seated. On an earlier occasion at home, he took liberty to tear the country’s budget to pieces, as he was addressing the “People's Congress”. Yet on another occasion, he threatened to abolish all government institutions in Libya but backed down when told this might plunge the country into unforeseen chaos. In a bizarre statement made during a visit to Italy in 2009, he even suggested that Libyans should immigrate to Europe and take the place of Africans working there. 

In recent years, Gaddafi has managed to market his new image to the West as one of the few trusted and reliable anti-terrorist, anti-fundamentalist allies in an oil-rich and otherwise volatile region.  However, as recent events have clearly shown, stability can never be guaranteed by oppressive regimes. Libyans have been suffering for so long under Gaddafi and for once now, they seem adamant to pay the ultimate price for their lost freedom. Meanwhile, the shrewd dictator knows this may be his last stand and is therefore bound to use all methods and tricks under his hat to try and cling to power. Despite its sinister face, his regime suffers from a large dose of inefficiency, backwardness and lack of organization. If the young Libyans currently on the streets manage to dodge his tricks, get their act together, adapt an enlightened and unified political agenda and learn from the tactics of their peers in Tunisia and Egypt, they may soon achieve their victory.