Libyan convoy crosses to Niger, Gaddafi rumoured aboard

Mr Martin Cassar

Sep 7th 2011, 00:43

@ Alfred Falzon.

'Corruption accounts for at least as much as the EU budget,' says Malmstrom (Photo: Scott Shingler Photography)
06.06.2011

EU to monitor anti-corruption measures in member states
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A special report on what EU member states are doing to fight corruption and how cases are actually solved is to be drafted by the European Commission every two years, home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has announced.
"No country in the EU is totally free from corruption. Four out of five EU citizens regard corruption as a major problem in their country. This is a serious challenge, socially, politically and economically," she said during a press conference on Monday (6 June).
The new mechanism, which will provide non-binding evaluations and recommendations of the countries' actual anti-corruption practices, not only adopted laws and norms - is seen as a pressure tool on politicians to live up to their transparency and clean government pledges.

Full report:

http://euobserver.com/9/32444/?rk=1

Bill Khan

Sep 6th 2011, 19:39

Mr. Falzon, you have just decimated just about every leader in the book. Some corrupt and others just corrupt. Which of the leaders in the world in your mind are the good guys? perhap you would be as bold in naming them as you have some in your text.

The scenario in the case of Libya could either be a quick finish i.e gaddafi and sons captured and then murdered and the new NATO subservient government installed for the next few years with appropriate deals signed in favour of the victors the French and the british. Another sceanrio is that france and britsh would want Libya's oil revenue back. And that would be only possible when a civil war is in progress and arms and weaponry is sold to the subservient Libyan government fighting Gaddafi and sons. Longer this scenario lasts the better for the arms sales. AT the same time not giving Libya the chance to ever settle down. Good tactics to plough back the oil revenue?

Alfred Falzon

Sep 6th 2011, 21:41

@Bill Khan

I cannot answer arguments based on what could possibly take place in the unforeseeable future! I am not a Nostradamus!

Your comments are based purely on surmise and conjecture and cannot therefore draw a straightforward reply.

As for corrupt leaders, I have only mentioned those who happen to be the ones actively engaged in aiding and abetting a brutal and ruthless dictator crush his own people with weapons originally meant to protect them from any eventual attack from outsiders!

Naming other corrupt and bloodthirsty rulers should not prove to be a hard task for anybody in our times! News spreads like wild fire and many are those who can judge today between good and evil!

In Syria, we have Bashir al-Assad, a murderer par excellence, following in the steps of despot Khadafi...
Others, who infest our planet like rats are still at large in Sudan, Somalia, in North Korea, in Burkina-Faso, and in other Third World countries where people are starving or living below the poverty line!

Their most dangerous foe being DEMOCRACY which they dread like plague!

Nobody is perfect, but at least in the FREE WORLD, not necessarily in capitalist countries, there are FREE ELECTIONS held every four or five years. These are not oil-rich countries where power is absolute and inherited from father to son!

Their leaders and administrators are "the good guys" you mentioned and they have the wisdom to bow out when the people feel that their services are no longer required!

US President Barak OBAMA is one of them!

Bill Khan

Sep 7th 2011, 17:15

Electing members of the parliament is a ritual we the 'terminally naive' have to go through. Those elected do whatever they choose to do, often totally opposite of their manifesto. The only choice the publice has is to caste their votes again. But sine the naive public is hooked on to sporting their respective, favourite parties and vote as matter of habit. Nothing beyond. Besides what is the pint of keep electing the government which has no power accpet administering law and order on behalf of the 1% of the population which holds the economic power. the government has no power to isseu money. So what is point of electing such governments? george Bernard Shaw put it well when he siad, '' democracy is where the incompetent many elect the corrupt few''. This statement was modified by later by some one as' democracy is where the millions of mugs elect few thugs who are agents of banks, media and pubs'

I doubt if Obama will go. He is to be re-elected for the second time. Thanks to his handlers with their power over the media and in swaying the public mood and mind..

Alfred Falzon

Sep 8th 2011, 08:28

@ Bill Khan

You seem to have opted for one party rule, from your argument!
As if this will solve a nation's ills and instability!
History is the greatest teacher and by now you should have learned the lesson!
One-party rule with absolute power corrupt absolute is what makes a parody of democracy and human rights!
Elections are the lesser evil since the party/coalition in power has to bow out when the people decide so, for it's the only way to rid oneself of abuse of power in a peaceful and democratic way, that is to say, without the need of shedding innocent citizens' blood!
As long as mankind yearns for power and riches there cannot be an Utopia or heaven on Earth!
It will alas remain for the righteous citizen a struggle from the cradle to the grave, but at least let's strive to make it a noble one by reducing the social injustices and imbalance that plague our planet!!

victor bonello

Sep 6th 2011, 10:48

Very simple. The super powers have reated chaos in LIbya. They are only interested in getting rid of all thier obsolete military equipment and bill Libya. All this is simply to get thier hands on Libyan oil. Like Kuwait, Libya will be indebited to these powers and will have to pump oil to pay for it. I have enver liked Gaddaffi, but still this bloodshed was all wanted just for the sake of stealing the oil from the Libyan people.I am sure that in these last 6 months more atrocities and certainly more innocent deaths have occured then what is claimed to have happened in the last 42 years.Military equipment is killing innocent people in LIbya whilst the Media is covering the atrocities that are happening..if anyone beleives that the "rebels" are all holy people doing only right.. then something is wrong with the intelligence of people!!!

Mr M Cachia

Sep 6th 2011, 12:01

Simple enough answer. Since all aircraft have to return to ships/bases in the med, no aircraft has a range that extends beyond Sabha. In other words there is no eye in the sky there.

Raymond Sammut

Sep 6th 2011, 13:13

It would have been sighted by NATO. But since the convoy was heading to the south border, it posed no threat to civilians in Libya.
So NATO would have left it alone in accordance with the UN security mandate. The aim now is to allow civilians in Libya to form a new democratic government without any further harassment or intimidation after some forty years.
This convoy consists of remnants of a regime which now is established to have committed crimes against humanity. Whoever will host this convoy, and giving it shelter, will have nothing to be proud of.