What Up With What's Going Down In Libya?

A metric crapton of second-hand reports and dispatches from brave journalists still in country are coming out of Libya as foreign nationals and citizens alike flee the country eastwards to Egypt.  Many point to the same thing, that Qaddafi's military crackdown has extended to using air strikes against protesters, and that in eastern Libya, protesters are in control of the country.  Meanwhile both the Arab League and the UN Security Council are meeting to determine how to move forward.  Foreign nationals are bugging out, big time.

A BBC correspondent in Tripoli says that while there is a heavy police presence in the capital, the second city, Benghazi, is in opposition control and there is no sign of security forces.

"People have organised themselves to get order back to the city. They have formed committees to run the city," said eyewitness Ahmad Bin Tahir.

Reports that military aircraft had fired on protesters in Tripoli on Monday have been backed up by Libyan diplomats who have turned against the leadership.

But Col Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said the aircraft had been used only to bomb army bases which had defected to the opposition.


The BBC's Jon Leyne, in western Egypt, says the regime now seems to be fighting on multiple fronts, trying to put down the protests and fighting a bitter battle against a growing number of army units that have risen up against the Libyan leader.

Libya's diplomats at the United Nations in New York called for international intervention to stop the government's violent action against street demonstrations in their homeland.

Deputy Permanent Representative Ibrahim Dabbashi said Libyans had to be protected from "genocide", and urged the UN to impose a no-fly zone.

Ali Aujali, Libya's most senior diplomat in the US, also criticised the country's leader. He told the BBC he was "not supporting the government killing its people".

Meanwhile Libyan state TV denied there had been any massacres, dismissing the reports as "baseless lies" by foreign media.

Qaddafi has lost the people for sure.  Outside the country, Libyan diplomats and officials are resigning in protest, saying Qaddafi needs to go.  The reports leaking out of Tripoli paint a brutal picture of armed squads of still-loyal Libyan forces going after everyone and anyone still in the streets with deadly force, and entire platoons of military forces switching sides to join the people, especially in the east near the Egyptian border.  The wild card in all this?  Islamist forces looking to take advantage of the chaos.

Brent oil prices are up sharply, and will continue to rise.  We'll see where this goes.