Politics: Libyan Rebels Announce Creation of a Republic 154
An anonymous reader writes "A report in p2pnet.net says a 'declaration for a temporary council in the Republic of Libya' has been published. The story quotes Alive in Libya, which says Mustafa Abdul Jaleel is the president, and Abdul Hafid Abdul Qader Ghoga is the deputy president and official spokesman. No other details are given."
Irrelevant (Score:4, Insightful)
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Is this what Slashdot has come to? :(
Strange, your user account number doesn't look like a brand new one. And you probably missed the similarly credentialed thread, earlier, about life from space.
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Some of us remember when the vast majority of Slashdot stories were news for nerds and were either well-sourced or were the kinds of stories that didn't require sources.
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Only those of us living inside Taco's head.
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Not low enough for that, but it does mean that I'm officially an Old Fart.
Re:Irrelevant (Score:4, Funny)
A declaration by some wing of a splintered popular uprising in the New World? Who is this John Hancock fellow?
Re:Irrelevant (Score:4, Insightful)
The wealthy head of a crime (smuggling) syndicate.
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Muslim/arabic countries are important. There is a reason why USA has spent a half century fighting wars there. If you don't care about what is happening it's your problem, not ours.
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Aspects of the countries are important. We don't need to know about every last 20 min `popular uprising` which results in a few Twitter-related links becoming temporarily inconvenienced. Go and wave your shoes and point your little finger somewhere else.
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Why not, it works for Apple rumours which are often less than news.
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Relevant enough for Western countries sending out diplomats to establish relations (source [guardian.co.uk], source [dailymail.co.uk]).
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I agree this is irrelevant, as far as nerds are concerned (so where's the !nerd tag?). Yes, it's probably monstrously important for Slashdot users as human beings that some order is being established in that country. After all, who needs another Somalia? But it should be in a news for nerds context like how to get news in/out of net-deprived $country, make a cheap sat-dish receiver, or send aid online (without getting scammed), etc. More of this and Slashdot becomes just another Digg or Reddit.
Republic of Bob! (Score:1)
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Re:Republic of Bob! (Score:5, Informative)
Dirty little not-really-secret is, virtually all declarations of nationhood are legally risible. Some were legally risible and supported by armed force and resources. Others were just risible all around.
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It's very important from a practical standpoint. The more "legitimate" the uprising can present itself, the more it can come across as an alternate government, the easier it becomes to lend them military aid without coming across as an occupying power and motivating anti-American sentiment. Aka, US and other sympathetic governments recognize the government of east Libya, US allies with the government of east Libya, the government of east Libya registers a formal complaint about the occupation of western L
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The rebels have already made some specific asks from the world at large, in fact: no-fly zone at the minimum, and air strikes against Gaddafi's military bases would be helpful. They have also specifically asked for no ground invasion, and no foreign military use of Libyan airports. In other words, they want to have the odds evened out somewhat, but not a full-scale invasion.
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Why are you laughing at me?
Because assuming you live in a country with an effective goverment when you try to actually go through with your declaration and stop paying taxes to the country that claims your land or declare that a warrant allowing their police to come onto your land is invalid they will come down on you like a ton of bricks and there will be NOTHING you can do about it.
In libya OTOH a sufficiant proportion of the countries population including parts of the military has rebelled to actually stand a change of doing somet
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Petoria [wikipedia.org] has prior art.
Not so fast... (Score:2)
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Re:Not so fast... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not so fast... (Score:4, Insightful)
And if you lose, you end up in Gitmo.
Which rebellious US citizen, caught here in the US attempting to overthrow the US government, has found themselves in Gitmo? Please be specific.
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a country founded on rebellion and treason
Ah, good ol' moral relativism!
The colonists rebelled against a monarchy that was denying them the liberties that became the foundation of the new country's constitutional framework. People living in the country now, who violently promote, say, a society based on Sharia law (which is inconsistent with those liberties) aren't fighting for the same thing as those colonists two centuries ago. They are promoting an objectively inferior social contract, and it's right to prevent that effort when the attempts
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You do a good job of telling the Revolutionaries' side of the story. You neglect to mention that the British Parliament had never really recognized the constitutions, legislatures and other representative constructs of the Colonies. King and Parliament insisted that they were the the ultimate authority, and from a legal standpoint the Colonists were seditionists, rebels and traitors. The Declaration of Independence was a shot across the bow, a declaration of intents, but as Britain refused to recognize th
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The Brits weren't doing anything that countless empires had done before. Was it wrong to treat the Colonists that way? Doubtless, though the British would have argued, and did argue, that the Colonists had to pay for their defense. Both sides had their arguments, the Colonists had the moral upper hand, just as the Libyan rebels, the Tunisian rebels, the Egyptian rebels, hell even the rebel barons of King John centuries before, had had. What really counted for the US wasn't the moral outrage at being tre
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McVeigh did have an anti-Federal Government ideology, what with striking on the 2nd anniversary of Waco and all.
Then again, since Article III purposely makes it hard to make treason charges stick, it make sense to nail them if they violate some other law in the process
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But that doesn't mean the government from which I am withdrawing doesn't have a right to put up a fight.
Actually, it does... since the concept of rights is based upon that which is morally justifiable, not just that which is possible. It is possible to "put up a fight" about all sorts of ridiculous things, but that doesn't make it a right. Forcing others to be a part of a government in which they have no interest can in no way be considered a right, but is a rather clear violation of individuals' right to self-determination.
This is a technology site and all, but that really doesn't give you any excuse for s
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But that doesn't mean the government from which I am withdrawing doesn't have a right to put up a fight.
Actually, it does... since the concept of rights is based upon that which is morally justifiable, not just that which is possible. It is possible to "put up a fight" about all sorts of ridiculous things, but that doesn't make it a right. Forcing others to be a part of a government in which they have no interest can in no way be considered a right, but is a rather clear violation of individuals' right to self-determination.
This is a technology site and all, but that really doesn't give you any excuse for sleeping through high school civics.
Actually, it boils down to two fundamental principles: the people's right to self-determination and the principle that the state's integrity is to be kept.
Usually, the higher ranking principle takes precedence, but in this case, we're in a bind, since both were enumerated in the Helsinki Decalogue, as fundamental principles of the international system. If it were this alone, it would seem that all rebellions are inherently unlawful (which they are, by the host nation's laws), but according to the United Nat
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Gadhafi has zero control or forces in the eastern half of the country. Not even mail or garbage men.
Ohio is still run by the US.
Eastern Libyans selected people to do mail, collect garbage, keep lights on, etc. Sure some of them are lawyers and average citizens who volunteered but they are running it like a country. They have their own army/police now as well and even a diplomat in the UN who defected. In essence Eastern Libya is becoming its own nation and will hopefully take over the rest of it as a unifie
Them and what army? (Score:2)
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Pretty much. The worry right now is just how much death and damage this dying regime can still do.
They have support (Score:3, Interesting)
This group actually has backing from the local city councils that have been working to keep the local infrastructure running.
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There was some confusion a few days ago when some ex-justice that worked with the Gadaffi govt tried to form a provisional govt without support from all the rebel cities and not all the human rights people backed him. Ghoga at that point had stated they were working already on a council of some kind with all the rebel city councils.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/02/27/1385560/libya-rebels-set-up-first-political.html [tri-cityherald.com]
I wish U.S. was still a republic (Score:1)
Freedom Fatigue (Score:5, Interesting)
The amount of disparaging and dismissive comments made here, along with the generally tepid response in the West to the Libyan revolution(as well as the Arab revolutions in general) makes me feel that the West in general has no interest in democracy or freedom. Even amidst the general populace.
Obviously the west has little to gain politically or economically from any wave of democracy in the middle east. But even ideologically, people in the west seemed to be totally uninterested in recent events in the region.
Have we entered the age of "Meh, Freedom"? Maybe democracy, having hitched its fortunes to marketism and failed to deliver on its promises, has simply lost its lustre for westerners? Maybe the rise of China is turning people towards alternative forms of government? Maybe the west--and America in particular-- is tired of international conflicts and is entering a period of isolationism?
I don't know what it is, but comparing interest in the Arab revolutions to the interest in the Orange and Velvet revolutions only a few years ago, I'm struck by the increase in apathy, and in some cases dismissal by people living older democracies.
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Re:Freedom Fatigue (Score:4, Insightful)
All in all, I would say that the
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That's not support. That's murmuring in a crowd, thousands of miles away: completely useless.
"Support" is:
* arms
* food
* money
* feet on the ground
* official recognition
Anything other than at least two of those and you may as well not even bother.
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Your average American can't supply the rebels with advanced anti-aircraft weapons or fixed wing fighter/interceptors, which is what they need. Their only (legal) power is to be a voice in a crowd arguing for it -- which typically has depressingly little effect. George W. Bush may have been the decider, but you and I are not. Charlie WIlson may have gotten FIM
Re:Freedom Fatigue (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe it's because, no matter which choices we make, we're going to get criticized by the usual suspects? This sort of thing does inspire cynicism. Let's grab a random example: PBS show on 1993 Somalia [pbs.org], "explores the well-intentioned, aborted, and ultimately tragic American effort to bring about stability and stop starvation." PBS show in 1994 Rwanda [pbs.org], "how the West ignored warnings of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and turned its back on the victims."
It's the Kobayashi Maru - the no-win situation. And there's no reprogramming the computers this time. Is it any surprise that there is a lack of enthusiasm? You're bitching that we aren't doing anything, but the minute the first US Marine sets foot in Libya you'll change your tune to IMPERIALISM USA FASCISTS OIL HALLIBURTON EARTHQUAKE MACHINE 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB WHARRRGARBL
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Stop being naive. You can't do a "no-fly" zone without taking out the sam-sites and possibly the airports and at that maybe not just military airports. That doesn't mean firing the air controllers it means bombing the place. Gates recently said: make no mistake about it, a no fly zone in Libya would be a military operation. That means munitions fired and people killed. If that's the case does it really matter as far as allegations of imperialism and oil interests go whether or not we actually set foot in th
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So I wonder to what degree that is true; the only AA systems I've seen from Libya have been ZPUs wh
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and then we paint the rebels as american pawns. that we planned it from the beginning to get our hands on libyan oil. which is of course absurd. and which the majority of people in the middle east and europe and the usa will come to believe nonetheless
the truth is, if the usa gets involved, people will be howling criticism. if the usa doesn't get involved, people will be howling criticism
the lesson is that armchair foreign analysis is easy and cheap and 99% of people's opinions suck
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the minute the first US Marine sets foot in Libya you'll change your tune to IMPERIALISM USA FASCISTS OIL HALLIBURTON EARTHQUAKE MACHINE 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB WHARRRGARBL
This is already the case. I've heard a lot of that coming out of some of my acquaintances in Russia - they're convinced that the entire wave in Middle East is American undercover job. No-one can coherently explain why, though, as usual, this mostly gets "explained" as "economic interests".
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I don't think the Russians as a whole have any sort of wide-ranging anti-American bias or conspiracy, it's just that we keep kicking them in the nuts so they point the finger back at us.
There is a fair bit of both. There's no particular reason for your average Russian to love US, but the bias definitely goes into conspiracy theory territory.
The thing you have to understand is that there was a lot of anti-American propaganda during the Cold War, and its effects didn't go away overnight; especially in people weren't particularly happy about rapid liberalization, or some of those who were but were disappointed shortly after. A typical example of that, which is still used to this very day (and
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I've heard a lot of that coming out of some of my acquaintances in Russia - they're convinced that the entire wave in Middle East is American undercover job.
Russia has been dicking around with Middle Eastern politics by supplying arms to select groups since time immemorial. I suspect they're probably RIGHT, but that they only know because THEIR attempts to control the entire middle east have failed miserably.
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Yeah, we may want to do something, but realize the practical problems with many of the things we could do. hence some people put their hands up, metaphorically speaking, but not out of apathy.
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Democracy is more free than the government they were under before, but it's certainly not free.
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I don't know where you're posting from, but in the UK, the protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya were/are running as lead items on the main TV news. It's major news and being treated in the same way the Orange and Velvet revolutions were.
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I support the Arab people.
To me it is hypocritical for the US to stand for freedom and then turn around and be agaisn't the protestors because of what happened in Iran *might* happen elsewhere.
I believe through elections and freedom the muslim part of the world will modernize and integrate more with the west. They will realize they no longer have to be victim to extremists. I believe this will be the biggest blow to Al-Quada as many poor Arabs no longer feel strapping a bomb to themselves for a cruel organi
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Turkey has been fighting off (sometimes violently) those that want to take the country into a Muslim theocracy for the last 50+ years. Egypt has been battling the same sort of forces for about as long.
While it might be nice to think about a modern Muslim state, it is very unlikely. Iran isn't a very good model because the country was split between the 12th and the 20th centuries when the Shah was in power. Many other Arab states are similarly divided where the rural areas are extremely primative and the
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Nobody really thought that the Russian revolution would end up with the Reds winning the day and suppressing everything else with great fervor.
The October Revolution was entirely driven by the "reds", which is to say, a coalition of the more radical statist socialist parties. And it wasn't all that surprising when Bolsheviks kicked everyone else out - they always had the support of the majority of city dwellers (i.e. workers and soldiers rather than peasants), and even before the revolution the then-underground structure of local councils was dominated by them; consequently, they also had people more willing and better prepared to fight.
If you mea
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If you look at other African revolutions, sometimes they work out (South Africa, Mozambique) and other times they do not (Zimbabwe).
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The various uprisings in North Africa has been top headline news in Sweden for the past several months, and people I talk to are generally interested in what's going on. Even the US appears to be more interested in this than what's going on in their own backyard (Wisconsin) and will have reprecussions for generations to come which seems very unusual for Americans..
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Because some of us in the West understand that the Wilsonian approach to international involvement doesn't work.
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General elections in Tunisia have been essentially suspended indefinitely. Egypt is in the hands of a military junta whose leader is a known supporter of the status quo ante. Libya hangs in the balance and anything could happen yet.
What demo
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If it were an obvious case of a people rising up against their government and demanding democracy, w
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I think that a lot of people in the /. crowd care. For those that don't, it's more of the "We have it, so we don't quite care if others do or don't." Look at how people in Massachusetts have universal healthcare, but then elected a senator Scott Brown who voted to deny the same system to the rest of the country. People who had healthcare didn't seem to care about those who didn't, since they were satisfied themselves.
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Maybe democracy, having hitched its fortunes to marketism and failed to deliver on its promises, has simply lost its lustre for westerners?
Maybe we, as Americans, are simply tired of going to fight wars on the behalf of others' freedoms - particularly on account of the current state of our rapidly eroding freedoms and continued/increased disdain from the Very Elect towards We The People? At this point, we've realized that the world as a whole is fairly unappreciative of assistance in such regard, even if it's impossible otherwise. Not every international relationship can be like that of the US and France.
Western Europe lost the plot some time
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Have we entered the age of "Meh, Freedom"?
Thanks to the lawl, I can't own a ferret.
A ferret, FFS.
We've pretty much never known true freedom in the West, despite what propaganda and jingoism will tell you. Freedom, forsooth. I can't own a ferret. I can't take a leak outside on my property. I can't walk down the street with a beer in hand.
Oh, joy, I can't be discriminated against for my race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, creed... Err, wait. At will employment. Wink wink, nudge nudge, we're firing you. Just firing you. K, thx, bye.
I can't fly without having my papers inspected by Comrade Commissar. I can be shot up with cancer-causing radiation or sexually molested. If I went around irradiating people or groping their junk, they'd put me away.
Freedom.
Meh. Meh indeed, sir, meh indeed. Meh.
Well fancy that! I would have thought it an oxymoron, but you sir, are vehemently apathetic.
Somewhere between a coup and a revolution. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's more than a coup attempt, but less than a revolution. The rebels claim a port city, there's some fighting near the capital. Some army units are supporting the rebellion. This is the normal form of regime change in some countries. The people at the top change, but the whole government isn't replaced.
The announced head of the new government is a former justice minister. He seems to be the compromise choice of several factions, which is a good sign. Interestingly, this seems to be a secular rebellion. The leadership isn't talking about establishing an Islamic state.
Re:Somewhere between a coup and a revolution. (Score:4, Insightful)
The rebels took half the country!
It is a revolution. The people protested. Gadhafi sent troops to kill them. Unlike Egypt there was nothing else they could do but fight back with force.
They want democracy so the next time an unpopular leader is around they can vote him or her out instead of taking the streets with weapons.
Republic, eh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Republic, eh? (Score:4, Insightful)
And Qadaffi, a leader of some African country which just happens to be in your target market, donates money to you so you can move your project forward. You've never been a diplomat so you don't really know what Qadaffi has been up to, but it's good money and probably some goodwill with a non-small African country. All you know is you can use that money to help a bunch of poor kids in Africa.
Now, who wouldn't accept that money?! Seriously, get a grip. An MIT professor isn't some kind of all-knowing god.
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And that's probably what his "brother" would have said... unless his brother was Skynet and sent this new information back in time.
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You don't need to be a diplomat - all you need is roughly 5th grade reading skills and 4th grade googling skills. I.E. pretty much anyone of normal intelligence and curiosity is more than capable of finding out what Qadaffi has been up to.
Anyone with a shred of ethics.
Right back at you. He doesn't ne
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"Nicholas Negroponte from OLPC accepted his money and is proud of his participation."
So what are you suggesting - nobody can interact with any of Africa's corrupt or dictatorial leadership, instead we just wait until they've all established well-run democracies? What the hell would the benefit of that policy be?
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What the hell would the benefit of intervention be? So that people could complain about the West 'interfering in our affairs'? Gimme a break.
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Well, I must have missed where they held elections.
Republic doesn't mean democracy. Republics do NOT need to have elections.
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And, as bad as Khaddhafi is, he's basically Charlie Sheen running a country; I bet you'd be more than happy to make a profit off Charlie Sheen your old laptop.. He wasn't really public enemy number one when they were sold, and
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Maybe you think American oil companies should boycott countries run by dictators?
That would be a great start.
Then we could pay eight bucks a gallon for gasoline.
It's too bad that prices rise when the cost of someone else's oppression is removed, eh (see also: Chinese factories).
Then again, with gas at $8/gallon, there would be that much more incentive to develop energy production and use that is not reliant on foreign (and unstable) supplies - such as nuclear.
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The Great Purge [wikipedia.org]
Nikolai Yezhov [wikipedia.org]
Joseph Stalin [wikipedia.org] HIGH SCORE: Most indirect kills in history
Vasili Blokhin [wikipedia.org] HIGH SCORE: Most direct kills in history
In California, you always find party. In Soviet Russia, party always find YOU!
Libya is already a republic (Score:3)
Libya is already known as the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Republic" or in short the "Libyan Arab Republic".
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So is North Korea. Your point?
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Not really. The official term is "jamahiriyya", and it is deliberately distinct from the normal Arabic "jumhuriyya", which actually means Republic. Gaddafi has always claimed that traditional representative republics are deeply flawed, and that his "third theory" of political and social organization is far superior, hence the new word to describe it.
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The difference between a Republic and a People's Republic is a lot like the difference between a jacket and a straitjacket.