Democracy in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi Murdered! Sharia Law Instituted!

This video frame grab image taken from Libyan TV, purports to show former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi alive and surrounded by revolutionary fighters in Libya, Thursday Oct. 20, 2011. Arab satellite TV stations have broadcast the video showing Gadhafi captured alive by revolutionary forces. The video shows a wounded Gadhafi with a blood-soaked shirt and bloodied face leaning up against the hood of a truck and restrained by fighters. They then push him toward another car, as he shouts and struggles against them.

 Dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, a wounded Moammar Gadhafi raised his hands and begged revolutionary fighters: “Don’t kill me, my sons.” Within an hour, he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pulling the eccentric dictator’s hair and parading his bloodied body on the hood of a truck.

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The death Thursday of Gadhafi, two months after he was driven from power and into hiding, decisively buries the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom.

It also thrusts Libya into a new age in which its transitional leaders must overcome deep divisions and rebuild nearly all its institutions from scratch to achieve dreams of democracy.

“We have been waiting for this historic moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed,” Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in the capital of Tripoli. “I would like to call on Libyans to put aside the grudges and only say one word, which is Libya, Libya, Libya.”

President Barack Obama told the Libyan people: “You have won your revolution.”

Although the U.S. briefly led the relentless NATO bombing campaign that sealed Gadhafi’s fate, Washington later took a secondary role to its allies. Britain and France said they hoped that his death would lead to a more democratic Libya.

Other leaders have fallen in the Arab Spring uprisings, but the 69-year-old Gadhafi is the first to be killed. He was shot to death in his hometown of Sirte, where revolutionary fighters overwhelmed the last of his loyalist supporters Thursday after weeks of heavy battles.

Also killed in the city was one of his feared sons, Muatassim, while another son — one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam — was wounded and captured. An AP reporter saw cigarette burns on Muatassim’s body.

Bloody images of Gadhafi’s last moments raised questions over how exactly he died after he was captured wounded, but alive. Video on Arab television stations showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling the goateed, balding Gadhafi, with blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt.

Gadhafi struggled against them, stumbling and shouting as the fighters pushed him onto the hood of a pickup truck. One fighter held him down, pressing on his thigh with a pair of shoes in a show of contempt.

Fighters propped him on the hood as they drove for several moments, apparently to parade him around in victory.

“We want him alive. We want him alive,” one man shouted before Gadhafi was dragged off the hood, some fighters pulling his hair, toward an ambulance.

Later footage showed fighters rolling Gadhafi’s lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head. His body was then paraded on a car through Misrata, a nearby city that suffered a brutal siege by regime forces during the eight-month civil war that eventually ousted Gadhafi. Crowds in the streets cheered, “The blood of martyrs will not go in vain.”

Thunderous celebratory gunfire and cries of “God is great” rang out across Tripoli well past midnight, leaving the smell of sulfur in the air. People wrapped revolutionary flags around toddlers and flashed V for victory signs as they leaned out car windows. Martyrs’ Square, the former Green Square from which Gadhafi made many defiant speeches, was packed with revelers.

In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city’s fall after weeks of fighting by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.

The outpouring of joy reflected the deep hatred of a leader who had brutally warped Libya with his idiosyncratic rule. After seizing power in a 1969 coup that toppled the monarchy, Gadhafi created a “revolutionary” system of “rule by the masses,” which supposedly meant every citizen participated in government but really meant all power was in his hands. He wielded it erratically, imposing random rules while crushing opponents, often hanging anyone who plotted against him in public squares.

Abroad, Gadhafi posed as a Third World leader, while funding militants, terror groups and guerrilla armies. His regime was blamed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland and the downing of a French passenger jet in Africa the following year, as well as the 1986 bombing of a German discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen that killed three people.

The day began with revolutionary forces bearing down on the last of Gadhafi’s heavily armed loyalists who in recent days had been squeezed into a block of buildings of about 700 square yards.

A large convoy of vehicles moved out of the buildings, and revolutionary forces moved to intercept it, said Fathi Bashagha, spokesman for the Misrata Military Council, which commanded the fighters who captured him. At 8:30 a.m., NATO warplanes struck the convoy, a hit that stopped it from escaping, according to French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet.

Fighters then clashed with loyalists in the convoy for three hours, with rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft weapons and machine guns. Members of the convoy got out of the vehicles, Bashagha said.

Gadhafi and other supporters fled on foot, with fighters in pursuit, he said. A Gadhafi bodyguard captured as they ran away gave a similar account to Arab TV stations.

Gadhafi and several bodyguards took refuge in a drainage pipe under a highway nearby. After clashes ensued, Gadhafi emerged, telling the fighters outside, “What do you want? Don’t kill me, my sons,” according to Bashagha and Hassan Doua, a fighter who was among those who captured him.

Bashagha said Gadhafi died in the ambulance from wounds suffered during the clashes. Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who accompanied the body in the ambulance during the 120-mile drive to Misrata, said Gadhafi died from two bullet wounds — to the head and chest.

A government account of Gadhafi’s death said he was captured unharmed and later was mortally wounded in the crossfire from both sides.

Amnesty International urged the revolutionary fighters to give a complete report, saying it was essential to conduct “a full, independent and impartial inquiry to establish the circumstances of Col. Gadhafi’s death.”

The TV images of Gadhafi’s bloodied body sent ripples across the Arab world and on social networks such as Twitter.

Many wondered whether a similar fate awaits Syria’s Bashar Assad and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, two leaders clinging to power in the face of long-running Arab Spring uprisings. For the millions of Arabs yearning for freedom, democracy and new leadership, the death of one of the region’s most brutal dictators will likely inspire and invigorate the movement for change.

As word spread of Gadhafi’s death, jubilant Libyans poured into Tripoli’s central Martyr’s Square, chanting “Syria! Syria!” — urging the Syrian opposition on to victory.

“This will signal the death of the idea that Arab leaders are invincible,” said Egyptian activist and blogger Hossam Hamalawi. “Mubarak is in a cage, Ben Ali ran away, and now Gadhafi killed. ... All this will bring down the red line that we can’t get these guys.”

Thursday’s final blows to the Gadhafi regime allow Libya’s interim leadership, the National Transitional Council, to declare the entire country liberated.

It rules out a scenario some had feared — that Gadhafi might flee into Libya’s southern deserts and lead a resistance campaign. Following the fall of Tripoli on Aug. 21, Gadhafi loyalists mounted fierce resistance in several areas, including Sirte, preventing the new leadership from declaring full victory. Earlier this week, revolutionary fighters gained control of one stronghold, Bani Walid.

Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam told AP that Muatassim Gadhafi was killed in Sirte. Abdel-Aziz, the doctor who accompanied Gadhafi’s body in the ambulance, said Muatassim was shot in the chest. Also killed was Gadhafi’s Defense Minister Abu Bakr Younis.

Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi had been wounded in the leg and was being held in a hospital in the city of Zlitan, northwest of Sirte. Shammam said Seif was captured in Sirte, but the senior NTC leadership did not immediately confirm.

The National Council will declare liberation on Saturday, Mohamed Sayeh, a senior council member, said. That begins a key timetable toward creating a new system: The NTC has always said it will form a new interim government within a month of liberation and will hold elections within eight months.

But the revolutionary forces are an unruly mix of militias from Libya’s major cities, and already differences have emerged between them. Revolutionaries from Tripoli, Misrata and Benghazi — Libya’s second-largest city that has served as the rebel capital during the civil war — have exchanged accusations that each is trying to dominate the new rule.

Also, Islamic fundamentalists have taken an increasingly prominent role, pushing for some form of Islamic state in Libya, causing friction with more secular leaders.

“Libyans aim for multiparty politics, justice, democracy and freedom,” said Libyan Defense Minister Jalal al-Degheili. “The end of Gadhafi is not the aim, we say the minor struggle is over. The bigger struggle is now coming. This will not happen unless all the Libyan people are ... united.”




Sharia Law Instituted!

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source".

But that formulation can be interpreted in many ways - it was also the basis of Egypt's largely secular constitution under President Hosni Mubarak, and remains so after his fall.

Mr Abdul-Jalil went further, specifically lifting immediately, by decree, one law from Col. Gaddafi's era that he said was in conflict with Sharia - that banning polygamy.

In a blow to those who hoped to see Libya's economy integrate further into the western world, he announced that in future bank regulations would ban the charging of interest, in line with Sharia. "Interest creates disease and hatred among people," he said.

Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, and other Muslim countries, have pioneered the development of Sharia-compliant banks which charge fees rather than interest for loans but they normally run alongside western-style banks.

Jewish Man kills his wife and two children in murder suicide

Sam Friedlander

Amy Friedlander

A family of four is dead in what appears to be a murder-suicide. State police said Tuesday that the father, mother and two children were found dead at 2 Lambert Ridge Road. State police identified the parents as Amy Friedlander, 46, and Sam Friedlander, 50. The children were Gregory, 8, and Molly, 10. 

Gregory and Molly Friedlander
Police at the scene would not say who they believe did the killing. The parents were in the midst of a divorce."At this point, it appears to be a murder-suicide," State Police Maj. Michael Kopy said at the scene about 9 p.m. He would not say how the people were killed but said the bodies were found all around the three-story house. Extensive forensic processing was under way, and the bodies were still inside Tuesday night.This morning, a sole state police SUV was posted outside the house and keeping a half-dozen television news satellite trucks and a group of reporters across the street. A porch light was on at the house, but no lights were on inside. There was no police tape around the property, the police car the only sign of Tuesday's tragedy. Along the street, every once in a while a light would go on in one the large single-family homes. Residents at two of the homes did not want to talk about the deaths this morning. A trooper went to the house Tuesday after state police received a request to check on the welfare of one of its occupants at 3:40 p.m. The trooper got into the house, quickly found two bodies and retreated, calling for backup. Police then found the other bodies. The house has been for sale about five months, according to real estate websites.The Lewisboro school district issued a statement Tuesday night, saying Gregory and Molly Friedlander were Lewisboro Elementary students. It said that all schools will operate on a regular schedule and that "the building crisis team at Lewisboro Elementary School and the district crisis team will provide support as needed."

Israeli Officials upset at surprise Shalit interview with Armed Hamas behind him during questioning

Israeli officials harshly criticized an Egyptian television interview with soldier Gilad Schalit minutes after Hamas militants freed him in a prisoner swap Tuesday, saying the questioning was inappropriate and insensitive.

In the interview aired on Egyptian state television, a gaunt, sallow and uncomfortable looking Schalit appeared to struggle to speak at times, and his breathing was noticeably labored as he awkwardly answered questions. The footage, along with earlier Egyptian TV video showing Schalit being transferred to Egypt, were the first images seen of the soldier after more than five years in Hamas captivity.

Armed Hamas militants were in the area during the interview. One of them stood behind Schalit’s chair, wearing a a black face mask, a green headband of the Qassam brigades — Hamas’ military wing — and a video camera in his hand.

“You have known what it is like to be in captivity,” the interviewer Shahira Amin said to Schalit. “There are more than 5,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. Will you help campaign for their release?” she asked.

“What has the experience brought you? Has it made you stronger?” she asked at another point. And, brushing aside the fact Hamas had barred anyone from visiting Schalit, she asked him why he only gave one interview while held captive.

An Israeli official questioned the ethics of the journalists involved.

“We are all shocked that a so-called interview was forced on (Schalit) before he could even talk to his family or set foot on Israeli soil,” the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a sensitive diplomatic matter, but said the sentiment was widely shared in official Israeli ranks.

Israeli security officials told Israeli YNet News that the interview was a violation of the deal for Schalit’s release.

However, an Egyptian security official said the Egyptian information minister asked the intelligence chief for an exclusive interview with Schalit. According to the official, Israel allowed only one cameraman from Egyptian TV to film inside the tent where Egyptian and Israeli intelligence officials were meeting with Schalit. It was not a condition in the deal but a request from Egypt. The interviewer said it was not coerced.

An ashen-faced Schalit answered a range of questions on his captivity and what he thought of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners released for his freedom.

He was then handed over to Israeli officials and only then given a medical examination, where doctors determined he showed signs of malnutrition and lack of exposure to sunlight.

He called his family shortly afterwards.

Israeli media discussed the interview at length, with commentators calling it insensitive.

Channel 10 commentator and presenter Raviv Drucker said her questions would “likely win the title of the stupidest questions of the past 100 years.”

“It wasn’t the most sensitive thing to do. An interview forced on a prisoner just released is a low thing to do,” Drucker said.

Israeli TV anchor Yonit Levy called the interview “borderline torture”

Amin, who conducted the interview, told Israel’s Channel 10 TV that she would not have forced Schalit to speak if he didn’t want to, and he seemed willing to do so.

Nonetheless, “he seemed extremely tired, thin and pale, voice very faint, very difficult to concentrate. I had to repeat the questions several times,” Amin told The Associated Press. She acknowledged that he was accompanied by Hamas gunmen when he arrived for the interview.

Earlier this week, major Israeli media outlets agreed not to disseminate new video or photos of the Schalits for 10 days following the release.

Frum Jews destroy Ice Cream Store in Yerushalyim, because people lick the cones in public!

Yup, you read the headline right. The Rabbis all stand by and will not condemn the acts of violance perpertrated on people trying to make a living. They want to lead us but won't stand up for our rights... 
Read the following excerpts of the tragic story from Reuters
A sign at the ice cream parlour may caution men and women not to lick cones in public, but the warning didn't stop Jewish zealots vandalising the shop in Jerusalem's main ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

Other businesses in Mea Shearim, including a book store and dress shops, have been damaged in night-time attacks by Sikrikim, a group of some 100 ultra-religious men who want one of the holy city's most tradition-bound quarters to become even more conservative.

Up the road, the Zisalek ice cream parlour has separate entrances for men and women and a sign -- posted at the request of local religious authorities -- asking them to avoid any show of immodesty by licking cones in public.

"They (the Sikrikim) had a real ball with us," said Guy Ammar, one of Zisalek's owners, describing vandalism similar to attacks against other shops in the area.

"But we were not deterred. Residents here told us not to give up and business is going well now."

Sikrikim shun the media and have made no public comment about their activities.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said an investigation was under way

Shalit's first interview on Egyptian TV

Hamas & Fatah "We want a new Schalit", Video

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the West Bank on Tuesday morning to celebrate the impending release of prisoners in the first stage of the Gilad Schalit deal, Channel 2 news reported.

Chants of "The people want a new Schalit," could be heard as Hamas and Fatah supporters waved flags together as part of large scale celebrations.

Home Sweet Home! Shalit hopes his release will lead to Peace! Relatives of other missing soldiers furious and angry!

A chief Israeli military spokesman has reportedly confirmed the now 25-year-old is back on home soil, saying: "Gilad Shalit has returned home."
Meanwhile, the first buses carrying Palestinian prisoners being freed as part of the deal have been welcomed amid jubilant scenes in Gaza after crossing the border from Egypt.
And an interview with the freed Israeli soldier on Egyptian television appeared to show him looking thin and nervous, but well.
"You can't imagine how I felt when I heard I was going home," he said
"I received this news a week ago and I felt then that this would be my last chance to be free.
"They were long years. But I always thought the day would come when I finally get out of captivity."


An emotional Shalit speaks to his parents on the telephone
"Of course I miss my family very much. I also miss my friends.
"I hope this deal will lead to peace between Palestinians and Israelis and that it will support cooperation between both sides."
The exchange between Israel and its bitter enemy Hamas sees Israel freeing a total of 1,027 prisoners - hundreds of them from life sentences imposed for killing Israelis.
Gilad Shalit was a 19-year-old corporal when he was captured by three Gaza-based militant groups in a deadly cross-border raid on June 25, 2006.
Three days after he was snatched, Israel launched a huge military operation against Gaza to try to secure his release, which lasted five months and left more than 400 Palestinians dead.
But the operation was unsuccessful and in June 2007, Hamas seized power in Gaza, holding the young soldier at a secret location until now.
Very first video of Shalit's reception to Israel 

Shalit reunites with parents

L'koved Yom Tov, Gospel Choir Singing Pischu Li (Carlebach)

Enjoy

440 blood thirsty arab murderers being released tonight

The Naked Marxist, Brzezinski, "Let's publish names of the rich" Limbaugh responds

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Limbaugh response: Click on link to hear 
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/17/limbaugh_on_brzezinski_wanting_to_publicly_name_the_rich.html

Transcript
RUSH: Zbigniew Brzezinski was on his daughter's TV show today.  His daughter is Mika Brzezinski, and she cohosts Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough.  Now, Zbigniew Brzezinski is the former national security advisor to Jimmy Carter.  He's a frequent guest on his daughter's program on MSNBC and he said some really odd things today.  He wants to publish the names of people who make a lot of money, says that would be very helpful in redistributing wealth.  I expect Romney and Cantor to endorse this within five days.  I wouldn't be surprised if one of them defecates on a cop car just to show solidarity with the protestors.  But back to Brzezinski.  Zbigniew Brzezinski wants anybody making a lot of money to be pointed out, and after saying that, then he said he didn't want Wall Street demonized.  This is from the Blaze.com.  Then he went to demonizing people who legally earn a lot of money and spend it in ways that apparently he would not. 

He said, "We have to have disclosure of the rich and who they are.  We have to have transparency.  We have to have control."  Now who is he anyway to be talking about -- I mean Zbigniew Brzezinski was the national security advisor, he's an historian.  He knows why the Serbs don't like whoever they don't like, and he knows why the Turks don't like whoever they don't like, he knows that stuff.  Yeah.  (interruption) Well, he hasn't gone that far, but yeah, we'll tattoo the rich, give 'em armbands that they have to wear so everybody knows who they are, and if they refuse to play ball, if they refuse to start spending their money and hiring people and giving money away, then we'll identify 'em even further. 

"We need more fair distribution of social responsibility through taxation and elimination of loopholes and pressure even on the rich to avoid flaunting their wealth."  This from Doctor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was the first guy every morning that Jimmy Carter met with, after he spoke to David Rockefeller.  Brzezinski spoke to Rockefeller, then walked in and had his conference every morning with Carter.  I'm just making that up.  I'm trying to stir it up out there amongst the conspiracy, tinfoil hat crowd.  "A list of the rich to pressure them to give back."  How about tattooing a dollar sign on their foreheads or some other place where it can't be hidden?  Where would you tattoo a dollar sign on the rich, Snerdley, that they couldn't cover it up?  On their hand?  You can wear a glove. Well, yeah, you can wear a hat, but the hat has to come off at some point, especially if you go to a church, you go to a building. 

He went on to say, "Unfortunately there is an even larger number of people who massively enriched themselves over the last decade, incredibly so, to the degree that we now have this highly disproportionate social division between the rich and the poor, and I think they should be made known publicly.  Public pressure, public condemnation, public shame can be very effective."  By the way, there's news out today that Wells Fargo posted a profit, Citibank posted a profit.  Now, in the old days that would have been good news.  That meant that these places were financially healthy and that you could trust your money being there and maybe even go get a job there.  Now they post a profit and they are suspects.  Now they post a profit, and all of a sudden we gotta be suspicious, that's bad news out there.  Something's wrong, they made a profit.  (interruption) Well, that's an interesting question.  That's the kind of question one of my used-to-be favorite comedians Irwin Corey would answer.  What was it like when there were no rich people? 

What was it like when everybody was the same?  And of course that day never was.  There never has been a day where there was total sameness.  There's always been income inequality, and sometimes it's not from income.  Some people steal theirs.  But there's always been disparity in how much money people have.  There's never been the day where everybody had the same amount of money.  But I mean if you're a business and you're gonna announce a profit, you may as well do it Friday night at eight o'clock when nobody's gonna hear about it.  You could make the rich wear yellow stars.  You could tattoo the dollar sign on both of their faces.  Anyway, that's Zbigniew Brzezinski.  Now, the conventional pronunciation is Brzezinski, but I happen to know that the correct Polish pronunciation is Brzezinski, and I like to be correct.