Libya, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Confrontations

2213 GMT: AFP, from local sources, estimates at least 41 people have lost their lives in Libya in violence since Tuesday.

Oea, a newspaper linked to Muammar Gaddafi's son Seif Al Islam, says demonstrators hung two state security officers in Al-Bayda.

2210 GMT: Britain Foreign Office has announced that some arms export authorisations for Bahrain and Libya are being revoked out of concern the weapons could be used to suppress internal unrest.

The Foreign Office said it was still reviewing export licenses for Yemen.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain, Libya, and All the Way to Syria: Summarising Thursday's Day of Rage

Opposition in Libya had called a "Day of Rage" for Thursday, but even before they could take to the streets, that rage was being claimed by a regime in a different country.

The surprise attack by Bahrain's police upon the opposition camp at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital of Manama killed at least four people, but even that death toll does not begin to capture the violence of the day. As the monarchy moved the Army in force into Manama, its security services prevented treatment the hundreds of wounded, to the point of inflicting a savage beating on a prominent doctor. Journalists were blocked at Manama's airport, leaving those who were already in the country --- Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times was especially prominent in reporting via social media as well as reporting for his newspaper --- to try and get out an account that took in the scope of the brutality.

Click to read more ...

Latest Libya Video: A Bloody "Day of Rage"

Claimed footage of demonstration in Tripoli tonight:

Demonstration in Benghazi tonight. (Another very graphic video shows people carrying the body of a slain protester):

Click to read more ...

Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Regime Attacks

2110 GMT: And now claimed footage of a protest in Damascus in Syria, complaining over the beating of a man by four police officers. A participant claims nearly 1500 people rallied for three hours and chanted, “The Syrian people will not be humiliated,” demanding the immediate release of beaten man with “Let him go! Let him go!” and “There is no God but God.”

2105 GMT: Reports indicate one person was killed and more than two dozen injured in today's clashes in Yemen.

Journalists have been barred from the Al-Naqeeb hospital in Aden in the south of the country, with an estimated 400 guards surrounding the facility.

Video of tonight's anti-regime rally in Aden , just before it was broken up by a pro-Government group:

Click to read more ...

Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Another Tahrir Square?

2055 GMT: EA sources report that Internet service in Bahrain has slowed to a crawl, making it difficult even to send e-mails.

2015 GMT: Reuters report three people were killed and about 30 wounded in Kut in southern Iraq as about 2000 protesters demanding better basic services fought with police and set government buildings on fire.

2010 GMT: Al Jazeera English reports that hundreds of protesters "torched" Libyan police outposts in the eastern city of Al-Bayda (see video at 1745 GMT), while chanting: "People want the end of the regime."

In the southern city of Zentan, 120 km (75 miles) south of Tripoli, hundreds of people marched through the streets and set fire to security headquarters and a police station, then set up tents in the heart of the town

Police reportedly fired tear gas and violently dispersed protesters, arresting 20, in Benghazi. Families of those arrested are reportedly planning to gather outside the city's security directorate to demand their release.

Click to read more ...

WikiLeaks Admission: US Officials Say Damage from Cables is Limited

Since the emergence of the WikiLeaks in late November, I have argued that their damage would be overstated. American diplomats have had to deal for many decades with "leaks", sometimes from officials in the Administration. While WikiLeaks was potentially on a bigger scale --- less than 1% of the 250,000 documents have been released --- redactions in the cables (although there have been a few notable errors in letting names through) have limited any repercussions.

This, of course, would not stop the US Government from proclaiming loudly that there have been grave consequences. "Embarrassment" is not the same as "damage", and there is plenty of that in the released cables, which show --- unsurprisingly --- that the private pursuit of US foreign policy differs from its public presentation. The priority for the Government would be to ensure that a document release on this scale does not happen again.

Now I have gotten support from an unexpected source.

Click to read more ...

Wikileaks and Libya 2006: Documenting The "Financial Gains" of Muammar Gaddafi and His Family

In May 2006, the US Liaison Office in Tripoli documents the extensive interests of the family of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in the Libyan economy: "The...family and other Jamahiriya [Libyan system] political favorites profit from being able to manipulate the multi-layered and regularly shifting dynamics of governance mechanisms in Libya. They have strong interests in the oil and gas sector, telecommunications, infrastructure development, hotels, media distribution, and consumer goods distribution."

Click to read more ...

Libya and Egypt Videos: Politics and Protest

Clip of protest and gunfire in Beida

Clip from website Al Manara of protest:

Click to read more ...

WikiLeaks: A Guide to EA's Saturday-Monday Coverage

ANALYSES

1. A two-part special evaluating the January 2010 assessment of the Green Movement and Iranian politics by the US Consulate in Dubai:

Part 1: "US Diplomats Assess the Green Movement and the Political Situation"

Part 2: "US Diplomats Assess Green Movement and Politics 'From Crisis to Stalemate'"

2. Getting behind misleading headlines to assess the claim "Saudi Arabia: A Cash Machine for Terrorists"

3. Getting to the real significance on an American assessment of the situation in Iraq: "Comparing the Threats from Saudi Arabia and Iran"

FEATURES AND DOCUMENTS

1. A November 2009 diplomatic episode involving the US and Libya: "When the Nuclear Deal Almost Unraveled...Because Qadhafi Couldn't Camp in New York"

2. The State Department warns students, "Link to Documents and You'll Never Work for Us"

WikiLeaks and Libya: When the Nuclear Deal Almost Unraveled...Because Qadhafi Couldn't Camp in New York

On 20 November 2009, the day before the plane was to leave for a nuclear facility in Russia, Libyan officials unexpectedly halted the shipment. Without explanation, they declared that the uranium would not be permitted to leave Libya. They left the seven five-ton casks out in the open and under light guard, vulnerable to theft by the al-Qaeda factions that still operate in the region or by any rogue government that learned of their presence.

For one month and one day, U.S. and Russian diplomats negotiated with Libya for the uranium to be released and flown out of the country.

Click to read more ...