The Sirte Massacres: 10 in the Water Basin, 13+ Others

November 3, 2011
last edits Nov. 10


<< The Sirte Massacres

The Report: October 24
When Human Rights Watch reported on October 24 on the Mahari Hotel massacre, they also mentioned other recent finds in Sirte:

At a separate site in Sirte, Human Rights Watch saw the badly decomposed bodies of 10 people who had apparently also been executed. The bodies had been dumped in a water reservoir in District 2 of the city. The identity of the victims was unknown, and it was not possible to establish whether Gaddafi forces or anti-Gaddafi fighters were responsible. From the state of decomposition of the bodies, it appears they were killed prior to October 12.

Medical officials in Sirte told Human Rights Watch that pro-Gaddafi forces had carried out executions in the city. They said that medical teams and anti-Gaddafi fighters found at least 23 bodies, their hands bound, between October 15 and October 20.

The report on the Mahari hotel victims, lodged by HRW's emergencies director, Peter Bouckaert, inserted a dynamic all but missing so far in this war: something nearing blame for a more-obvious than usual rebel mass killing. This time it was of 53 people, many of them identified as known Gaddafi loyalists, so it would be hard to deny.

However, the fact that col. Gaddafi himself had just been killed four days before the report, shifting the notions of who's in power and who needs to have human rights issues to exert pressure with, may or may not be a coincidence. It certainly hasn't caused a complete turn-around, or there wouldn't be so much ambiguity over who killed the further 23.

These further discoveries mentioned on the side are all from between October 15 and 20, straddling the line of Gaddafi's murder, and after the big batches of executed people reported on the 12th, and the one of those reported again slightly altered on the 14th. Again what's been found is victims of loyalist crimes, the TNC forces say.

As for dumping bodies in this way, it's been done before once that I know of, and that was by the rebel forces. Back in July in the Nafusah Mountains, just outside Qawalish, NYT writer C.J. Chivers found five loyalist soldiers, one of them beheaded, dumped in a water basin, as he called it. The rebels he asked about it were pretty sure Gaddafi's people had done it, but Chivers, and everyone else, remained unconvinced.

The Video: November 1
The place Chivers made his discovery was a kind of covered well used to irrigate surrounding crops. This time, the container of water seems to be a different type, much larger, open, and much less clean. That's according to a video reader Peet73 tipped me off to, that is probably of this same scene. It was just uploaded on the 1st, by user Libyansons, with a given record date of October 25th.

جثت ملقاه في مياه الصرف الصحي | سرت [Bodies dumped in the sewage | Sirte]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UbKcNpGaDE
[Arabic description, Google translate direct: Find seven bodies dumped in the sewage water in Sirte 25/10/2011. This Aljtaat been shot by mercenaries and slaves Misurata NATO and the Middle. It was throw it in the septic tank to hide their crime]

Only three bodies are shown in Libyansons' video, although it seems by the title seven were found, or need to be found to make all ten bodies in this pool. Or it's a coincidence and these are 3/7 other bodies in another water basin. I kind of doubt that last, but it's possible. The bodies are floating near each other on the top of a rather large, open pool of green, stagnant water. They're all apparently adult males, wearing civilian clothes, floating face-down in a drift corner with assorted debris.

Bodies 1 and 2 (as I've numbered them) visible here, left-to-right.
The feet of body three are visible between them.

Although not apparently bound, at least not hands-behind-the-back, it would seem they were executed (see below). They also seem badly decomposed, like the ones Bouckaert saw, but not uniformly. They display a strange mix of flesh types, from intact to gone, with a dissipating state between - pale, waterlogged tissue sloughing off of their bodies in chunks and strands.

Now for a closer look at each of the three. It's a little late for the warning, but these images are gruesome.

Body 1

This is quite possibly a black male, if that is in fact the skin of his behind visible beneath his pulled-down pants. This is a frequently-used sign of disrespect for the dead, often seen in other Islamist killings, but also possibly caused by accident.

He's wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt, with a red stripe along the top - an indistinct, asymmetrical... blood-stain? Another bad sign is his missing head right above that, just a lump of soggy neck tissue, it looks like, remains.

Further, the victim's lower arms (at least the right one) seem to be missing, or at least submerged. Also severed? Nah... I can credit an arm falling off entirely from whatever caused the dissipation of tissue we see here. Besides microbes, if any fish live in this water, even small nibbling ones, they could finally chew through the last tendon, or just leave the forearm skeletonized so that it sinks beneath for lack of floating fat. But for a head to do the same requires severing the spinal cord, and I can't see any normal fish doing that in such short order. I think this man was decapitated before being tossed in here.

Was he bound before? Unlikely. I presume his arms have been in the water this whole time to fall apart like that. If they were behind his back, out in the air and sun, they'd still be as intact as his behind.

Body 2

This body is not seen very close up, so it's less clear, but this victim as well seems to have been beheaded. There is what seems to be another lump of neck tissue, if larger, swelling out into the water. He wears an orange shirt, perhaps long-sleeved with yellow stripes down the arm (?) and dark pants.

His skin tone does seem to be lighter than that of body one, and it's possible his flesh is more intact. His left arm (presuming face-down) is intact to the visible hand, with the right arm perhaps gone below the elbow, or just submerged. His left foot may be visible, with no shoe. Being barefoot is also consistent with the kind of Islamist executions plaguing Libya since February.

Body 3
This victim seems to still have a head, although it looks strange and set at an angle, up against some floating debris. In fact, even with enhancements, as shown at left, I can't decide for sure what's up with his head.

The upper body here is roughly skeletonized, which I find surprising. All ribs beneath the torn shirt are visible, whereas the other two bodies still have most flesh intact. That below the waterline is just now falling apart, and that above is not even close. One wonders how many days before the others this one was killed, and whether they were all dumped here at the same time.

His arms are again not tied behind his back. They're apparently beneath the surface or even gone. His lower body is clad in tight jeans, and seems intact,down to the visible left foot. It's again not shod, but apparently still covered in flesh, and so reveals that his skin tone, weeks after death and soaking anyway, is rather pale.

On the Missing Heads and Rot Disparity
It's the beheadings in this case, not bound hands, that makes the floating victims appear executed. And that clue, unlike the other, is widely-associated with Islamist executions, of the type some rebel fighters have engaged in repreatedly in the past. One wonders why Mr. Bouckaert failed to mention this, only saying vaguely they "had apparently also been executed." I agree, I just believe in explaining how I came to decide certain things.

And further, if I were going to say something like "from the state of decomposition of the bodies, it appears they were killed prior to October 12," I'd want to have consistent evidence. That would suggest it was "Gaddafi thugs"who hacked the heads of these people and tossed them into the drink before rebels took that area (which I presume is understood to have happened on the 12th). Only the one skeletonized body I can see makes me think more than two weeks has passed since his death. The other two look considerably fresher. I'd wonder from that if an old body, or a few, were added to allow that impression to be made, and I'd refuse to take the opportunity. I'd go with how long the freshest looking ones seem to have been there.

More coming, on anything else that comes up with these or the additional 13 lumped with them...

Location
Thanks to reader Peet 73, we have a likely location. It's more Hay al-Dollar really than District Two, but close enough. Note that the site of this pool is only about 200 meters north of the spot where reader Petri Krohn has identified as the site of the 10 bodies burnt, run over, and burnt again. From the angle of sunlight, I'd say the video under scrutiny here was filmed around mid-day at the pool's northeast corner.

As for the significance of this location, recall Bouckeart's assessment  of the age of the bodies: "it appears they were killed prior to October 12." This is the date the rebels claimed control of this general area and first allowed the media in, to see the bodies just south of this spot but not these.

But according to rebel claims passed on by media graphics, the area was under their control by the 10th of October at the latest, and perhaps even earlier than the 4th. Lining up a Wikipedia graphic of rebel holdings in Sirte as of October 10 (pink), and from the UK Guardian the western front on October 4 (white zig-zag line), with the area in question in a green square, we see it's solidly in their zone.

"The Qala'a Massacre" {masterlist}

Or More Accurately: The Qawalish Tree Farm Massacre
August 9, 2011
last update Sept 19

Note Aug 16: I just changed the title, only by adding quote marks and a by-line. The Qala'a massacre is the name I chose for this slaughter of 30-34 civilians, but also the name chosen by Shabbab Libya the same day when asking for a probe. As shown below, however, it's located much closer to Qawalish, the significance of which is accidentally explained up front. Thus I quote them on the more famous "official" title of what I'll otherwise call the Qawalish tree farm massacre.


Note August 20: I've moved the original discussion to its own dedicated post, for reference only. This post will eventually summarize the findings of this investigation and provide links to the sub-posts that cover certain aspects.

The links so far for the Qawalish tree farm massacre,
one of the most underreported war crimes of the Libyan war:

Video Postings and Posters - information on the different versions of the single video we have so far, most citing it as another Gaddafi massacre. Patterns of information management, damage control, unlikely claims of familial knowledge, and possible conspiracy emerge.

The Victims - 34 people cut off from life, all - or most - clearly civilian. Here I give each a number and a scan for clues. Who were they and who killed them? Why are so many local villagers black and dressed in sporty "mercenary"clothes? And why do some wear army fatigues?

Mass Grave Locale - A fascinating confusion of names (al-Mal'ab, Almliab, Alumblyab), satellite imagery, desert and tree farms, Gaddafi forces previously reported hiding in one possible match, not in the other. Again, rebel sources aren't helping sort this out. Only this blog and one intrepid reader (so far) are.

The Victims, Exhumed - A great update on the September recovery and supposed identification of the victims, buried in as positioned on video, and then dug back out. The location is still vague, but about where I have been saying. There's lots of talk of just how and where Gaddafi's guys did it - they had mercenaries with tribal scars, and lots of people witnessed lots of things at that "scouts base." The coffins are displayed,one too many, with all the black victims apparently left unidentified. Hmmm...

The Qawalish Tree Farm Massacre: Original Investigation

August 9, 2011

last update Aug 20

Note Aug 20: I've split off this original, rambling post from what I want to be the main hub for numerous cleaner posts regarding this serious and mysterious crime. This is for reference, for anyone who wants to see how my invesigation started. Please see the original post for links to how it shaped up afterwards.

First, the Confusion (optional reading if you know of the Qawalish water basin massacre)

I recieved this comment yesterday from Peet73 at my post Rebel Atrocity Videos:

There was a hint from the facebook-group "British Civilians for Peace in Libya" on Saturday concerning a new atrocity video from the Nafusa Mountains. But it was immediatly deleted on Youtube before I had oportunity to watch it. Libya S.O.S. has a copy now:
http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/08/battle-for-libya-rebels-fab17-demonic.html

We can only presume (perhaps?) this is the same video being talked about and shown here. Either way, the video at that link is the main subject here, covered below. But first, the commentary added at the posting mentioned a "propaganda machine" that "delete[d] this video" because "they describe this like murder by Libyan Army BUT you can see on 0:23 there is not Libyan army!"

I'm not sure what this means. The whole video, that spot included, shows civilian victims only, going by clothes, and nothing shows whether it was the army or anyone else who killed them. Although ovbiously rebel forces are the natural suspect by a long shot.

It might be that the confusion is about the victims, not the killers - was this massacre of soldiers or civilians by the "machine's" narrative? Clearly this video shows the latter, but there have been many reports in recent weeks mentioning a "mass grave" of "Gaddafi loyalists" who were also, apparently, soldiers.

But this isn't news, really. I happened to catch a Russia Today broadcast that I thought might be a hit. The re-post I saw was from July 26, but in fact, it's from July 22, and the anchor spoke with Sukat Chandan of British Civilians for Peace, who’d been, for the last couple of days, re-breaking a story from a week or so earlier. The anchor's understanding was of:

Mass grave of alleged pro-Gaddafi soldiers has been discovered in a rebel-controlled area of the country, according to British newspaper the Telegraph. The location was swiftly bulldozed after the discovery, suggesting an attempt to cover up the killings. The bodies were reportedly mutiliated, adding to recent concerns of human rights abuses by Libyan rebels.

This sounds a bit like the Qawalish massacre first revealed by its discover, C.J. Chivers, on about July 12 (undated). The grave, while improper, wasn't very massive - five dead soldiers dumped in a deep water basin, one buried under an olive tree next to it. I wrote about this on June 21, having caught it a couple of days late. Chandan spoke to Russia Today the next day so, for all I know, I was his source.

But alas, I was already looking for a Telegraph story from that time, and I only now am aware of it. It ran on July 20 and is worth a read:

The headless corpse, the mass grave and worrying questions about Libya's rebel army 

The five corpses floated disfigured and bloating in the murky bottom of the water tank. Wearing green soldiers' uniforms, the men lay belly down, decomposing in the putrid water.

Actually it sounds like exactly the same massacre. The body Chivers said "appeared to have been beheaded" was “cleanly decapitated.” The other with "his pants bunched down around his ankles" is confirmed with "the trousers of another had been ripped down to his ankles, a way of humiliating a dead enemy." There is a photograph attached to the article of some men standing around looking, with only one of the victim’s hands visible in the foreground. There are some other additions I'll have to update my post with. I had no idea they beat me to it by a day! And like Chivers but unlike me, they were there and seeing it first-hand.

But it's not the same as what we're looking at here. I hope someone thought there was confusion, or else that was all a waste and a distraction.

However, Peet cites Saturday, August 6 I presume, for this video mention by Chandan's crew, and feels what Libya SOS has - posted Sunday the 7th and noting a deletion - is or might be the same. So again there might be a connection worth finding there, but I didn't find it. Their Facebook page didn't let me see wall posts older than yesterday, and I don't know where else it would be. If anyone reading can help me find more info on this new video, I’d be happy to hear it.

The New Video

All I have so far is what it shows and what Libya SOS added, aside from an unrelated but interesting Fox News article:

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 2011
Battle for Libya: Rebels #Feb17 - the demonic animals kill 34 people

WHO CAN STOP THE TRUTH!
Rebels crime in the Western Mountain at Al Qala'a area! They killed all the civilians from Almeshashia tribe who refused to join them! Propaganda machine delete this video - becoouse they describe this like murder by Libyan Army BUT you can see on 0:23 there is not Libyan army! They will not stop TRUTH - never!

It’s hosted through Youtube in the unusual Libya SOS way, where I cannot find it on Youtube, cannot save a copy, and cannot embed it here, since the video ID code isn't displayed. It was there both before and after my work shift, but since its alleged previous postings have vanished, I saved a lot of stills. Here is the title screen, in Arabic, using “Indian numbers” to indicate 34 victims.

I can't vouch for that number. Some spots aren't too clear, but I was fairly thorough, and counted exactly 30. It's not less than that, possibly a bit higher. The still at left gives an idea of the layout. It looks like someone made a slight effort to dig a trench. Very slight. There's certainly nothing proper about these burials.

For what it's worth, I think this is filmed early morning, not late afternoon. By their long shadows and the few observers viewed, this is filmed by armed rebels.

I suspect these victims were not killed here. The lack of visible blood anywhere, and the uneven dispositions of those killed - some bound, some not, for example - and the haphazard arrangement suggests they were killed in various places around Qala'a or Yefren, and then dumped here.

The victims are varied, including young and old, fit and fat, apparently  all male, but I'm no expert on Libyan attire enough to venture the few I'm not so sure about. Three victims of special interest are clustered at the near end in the above view.

In fact, the odd one with his pants half-down I focused on at right. If pants down is an insult, what's this? A half-insult, one half-revoked by someone later on, or an accident in dumping? We may never know. He seems to be bound, hands behind his back. As for his face, it's just a dark blur. Is this some burning-related torture, a dark rag, some added blur for decency, or what? I'm not sure. Several of the faces seem strangely blurry, in fact.

It's a bit the same but less so with the apparent old man at left. We can see his hair and short beard are white, his head mostly bald. His hands seem to be bound behind his back, but how exactly he was killed isn't clear. His face seems strangely yellow, even for being covered in the yellow soil. It's probably nothing but the dirt, however.

Another victim looks a bit small to me - quite likely a boy aged about fourteen. He's one of the few with an injury that's obvious at this resolution: a solid hole in the top of his skull, as clearly visible at right. Brain matter seems to be visible inside. A couple of the others look a bit small, perhaps not full-grown. But there don't seem to be any small children present.

Farther down are about a dozen fighting age men in more sporty clothing. Quite a few are clearly black men, and this stretch is more likely to be civilian loyalist fighters of some sort. Others are in traditional gowns and such. You can fight in those. At the end is at least one fairly obese person, and someone halfway covered with what looks like a heavy thin mattress. All but a few are laid face-down.

Location, Location, Location...

With no detailed sources available, we can't be certain this even happened when and where it's said to have. But short of certainty, I can say the topography is a nice fit. The Qala'a area has gentle but tight ridges lined with trees, sandy soil in narrow valleys between. This may be at the narrow end of any of these couple dozen small gullies. It might be possible to identify an exact spot, but I won't bet my precious time on finding out.

As I said above, I suspect the rebels filmed this themselves, and posted it online. Why? Did they think their own discovery on video would make it possible to claim loyalist forces were responsible? Was it just one rebel faction running across the work of an allied network? What was their motive for filming it? Political or ethical? We may never know.

Do they perhaps film these things to cause terror among those whose neighborhoods they'll be in next? Perhaps. Are we the water carriers for this operation? Do they even watch Youtube closely in Qala'a and Yefren? If they do, will they run away or just get more pissed off and arm themselves to drive out the vermin? Can even NATO get away with bombing Libyan civilians defending themselves from eggregious human rights abuses like this seems to be?

I look forward to seeing where this story goes.

Where its Gone

August 10: Peet73 alerts me in a comment below that there is a new postings, and a Googlesearch gave me another. The resolution of both seems a bit better, they're able to be saved my way, and they're posted by rebel-affiliated accounts. which I can save.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8iLkPQiv4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvOMMbIEixk

And, as both Peet73 and a Google search revealed, another rebel group/site, Shabbab Libya (Libyan youth) is calling for an investigation! It's the different twist they add that makes that make sense.

http://shabablibya.org/news/press-release-august-9-2011-al-qalaa-nafusa-mountains-libya

Libyan Organizations demand the investigation of Nafusa town massacre Al-Qala’a, Nafusa Mountains, Libya, 9th of August 2011 – Following the discovery of video footage stored in mobile phones of captured Gaddafi regime troops, local Nafusa Mountain associations, ShababLibya, The Libyan Youth Movement and The Libyan Link, call on the Libyan National Transitional Council to shed light on the massacre of over thirty men and children in the area of Al-Qala’a, Nafusa Mountains.

The footage found on captured Gaddafi loyalist mobile phones shows the corpses of more than thirty people, local men and boys, lying face down, hands tied and visibly executed. According to some sources, the men and boys were arrested by Gaddafi Regime troops on June the 2nd 2011. The bodies may be located in the Al-Mal’ab Forest area, however, this location is heavily mined and it is impossible to search. It is imperative to allow for the families of the victims to retrieve their loved ones so that they may be given a burial according to Islamic practices.

The broad network of Libyan associations including the Al-Qala’a Civil committee and the families of the victims, supported by Libyan organisations abroad demand that the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) activate all possible channels to initiate investigations of war crimes and Human right’s abuses. In parallel, the network of Libyan associations requests assistance for the demining of this area, to allow for the recovery of the bodies.

So now it was allegedly filmed by Gaddafi forces and therefore, by implication, carried out by them. They have some specifics that are hard to double-check - an abduction date and some names, making them seem to know what they're talking about. And perhaps it's so.

I'm glad they get the same impression the ones filming are sympathetic to the crime. I thought they seemed like rebels, but I still haven't had the time to study closely, and I myself can only read so much from this kind of evidence. Nonetheless, I'm working on it, and have some analysis half-done. I will wait to post it until after I finish my new video, hopefully tonight.

In the meantime, what I could use is anyone able to provide a transcript of what the observers are saying. Arabic-speakers? The best is an Arabic transcription of actual words spoken, then translated and available for reference. One valuable clue as to who's filming can be heard at 2:15, about seven seconds after the cameraman seems to spit in disgust: the man behind him in a camo jacket mentions "Muammar Gaddafi," I think. In what context?

Aug 11:Video Timing:

"Al-Gala massacre, 34 men executed including one child." Posted by user misratapost, August 5.

MUAMMAR Gaddafi's forces have committed "crimes against humanity and war crimes on a large scale" Torture, mass executions , using humans as shields and banned cluster bombs, rape...
Here is another evidence from the town of Al-Gala -- Libya

Then, "Footage of Gaddafi forces murdering farmers in Al-Qala, Nafusa Mountains." Posted by Libyanym, August 6. Adds details.

Farmers who stayed behind to tend to their animals after their families fled to Tunisia were arrested by Gaddafi forces on June 2, 2011.

This video is the footage of their corpses after their arrest, torture, and murder.

Families of these farmers are still being informed of their death. Investigations into the details of this horrific incident are still underway. It has been confirmed that one of the farmers was 85 years old.

The brutality of the Gaddafi regime knows no bounds, these are viscous crimes against humanity. Gaddafi terrorizes innocent civilians and continues to do so. The Libyan people call for their basic human rights and that Gaddafi be brought to justice.

Then Libya S.O.S. re-post, August 7, referring to previous deletions. Which posting was pulled? That's not clear. IF there was a version up first that Libya S.O.S. and the British Civilians saw in the context of a rebel crime, that would be quite relevant. Conversely, if the rebels put it up first, it would go a ways towards illustrating their case - that this video was just now discovered by their forces. As it stands, it seems like the rebel version went up first.

Does that mean real Gaddafi soldiers filmed this? Not necessarily. If so, does that mean they did it? Not necessarily. If they did, does that suggest a government order? No. Would it be right to demand the overthrowof the Johnson regime following the My Lai massacre? Probably not. We have as possibilities:

1) crimes against humanity by Gaddafi, alleged for the millionth time.

2) the actions of a rogue unit, a side-effect of loss of command and control, what happens when the central authority is removed as NATO's tried to do.

3) a rebel atrocity, like the others we know of in that immediate region.

Asking for an investigation: This is something I don't recall seeing rebels do before. The truth is always clear, and the solution is always more weapons and help getting rid of Gaddafi. Would a TNC probe would mean a damn thing as far as discovering the truth? Or just provide confirmaton with some "authority?" The request does however seem to show their openness to an "investigation" as opposed to their earlier bulldozer work. They fear the truth, I suspect, hence the show of not seeming to fear it.

The MO: Feels like Islamist-tinged, cocky, rebel work to me. Even the cartoon ruler all rebels know doesn't fit the bill. These are all males 12 and up, when everyone knows Gaddafi is either indiscriminate, or goes for women and small children first.

The Location: I think I was wrong to be so sure that area is a match with Qala'a. User "Antinazi Hippy" questions the location in comments at Misratapost's posting. He cites a topography mismatch, and suggests it was actually filmed in Zlitan, making all three postings - all claiming specific knowledge of the circumstances - wrong. That's a hefty thing to propose, but as I said, I'm not seeing it like I did at first. Basically that was "there's trees and a gully." But it's pretty flat, there's no gully really, just the ditch. And the trees just go on in all directions, like they do in very few spots around Qala'a. Or so it seems now. Will come back with images and semi-final thoughts.

Also, the cameraman's shadow stretching across the trench makes clear the trench itself runs roughly north-south, whatever clue that is. By this, the trees - bushy evergreens - are present in large numbers in all four cardinal directions. Hundreds. The dots around al Qala'a are single trees that can be counted in the dozens at most in any one patch. Right? Will look closer ...

The party filming is no more than four, I'm pretty sure. The cameraman has a rifle, and a gaurd standing back is armed. The other two, not clearly armed. I'll be back with stills and thoughts. The best clues will be in the audio track - what the two men who speak say, when, and how. Until find a friendly Arabic translator, I have nothing but the words at the bottom of the screen of misratapost's posting. I'll be back with those and anything else I find in the meantime.

Aug 12:  The layout/scenery, best views I could find, rotated to upright. Directions given are if this is sunrise. If not, it's sunset and all directions are reversed.

So it's not really flat - there's a decent slope to the west/northwest, or else the trees there are all slanted. It's not as obvious in the west view, but the trees further back are progressively higher. (We don't ever get a view of due east, or into the sun, that I caught.) Too many trees. I don't think it's Qalaa, immediate area. Looking closer at the Google maps imagery, the slopes there are steeper, and terraced in a funky way I don't see here. An image search shows photos of imposing slopes, desert soil, rocks, dust, few trees. The soil between them blows and drifts like dunes. Here we have a veritable forest, leaves from something like olive trees, wispy dry grass (visible in the better views I'm seeing), a cover of greenish grass in spots.  There could be lichens or moss in there somewhere, in an extra-shady spot.

Other things I'll need to figure out - what was going on in early June and in the time since. I need a feel for the temporal topography as well.

More video links, and a possible original:

"Civilians 34 from the city of Qalha executed by soldiers of Gaddafi." Posted by user algelawy2009, August 5.

"MASSACRE IN QALAA LIBYA." Posted by ibnomar2005, Aug 5. This one may have the best resolution yet. 

Another posting, CCTV prince, August 5. This one gives: 

An original link from Facebook, a large format video posted in HQ on August 5 at 6:50 am. Definitely a tie or a winner for best clarity, apparent original. I'm using this for future screen grabs, and will see about saving a copy.

---

Aug 13: A clearer view of the victim with his pants down. It's not obvious if his arm is really tweaked back, missing, or what. The dark patch beneath him is I think a shadow of a rock ledge there. He's clearly blindfolded here, it just slipped out of place.

The "Gaddafi soldiers" on video:

Soldier #1 walks up, seen in shadow, armed and filming. The smaller inset shows the shape of his camera - not an iphone. #2 and #3 walk up behind, in that order I think, pass to his left and cross the trench. #4 stays behind standing guard.

#2 manages to avoid being filmed really, crossing back to #1's side as he turns the camera their way (see inset). He's wearing dark jeans, a light civilian shirt, and sandals. He makes an interesting comment (see below).

# 3 wears sandals as well, but a military jacket. His face is covered (to avoid smelling, or to avoid being seen?) but he seems fairly young, and seems to be filming on a smaller device. I'm not an expert on the different camo styles, weapons, etc. typically used by different parties. Do Gaddafi soldiers wear sandals? I suppose they could.

#4, standing off to the north,  wears a striped shirt. He's got a chubby face, looks black (or is that just the shade? He doesn't seem any more professional in stance or attire than the others. He also seems to be recording the scene, making me guess that #2 is possibly doing the same.

Subtitles via Misratapost - no guarantee it's what's actually said. Subtitles in quotes, speaking party in [square brackets].

1:25 - "34 bodies." [#3, faint, saying more than this]
1:34 - "This is the fate of rats." [#3, clearly saying more than this]
1:48 - [#3 question, no subtitle]
1:52 - "This is the fate of the dirty rats - dogs." [#1, cameraman]
1:56 - "They smell very ill." [#3]
2:04 - "See the dogs, see the dogs." [#1, spits]
2:09 - "This is the fate of rats." [#1]
2:11 - "This is a child. Show the child." [#3, where he says something just like "Muammar Gaddafi," with a slight "eh" at the end. is there a way of saying "show the child" that sounds like that?]
2:20 - "This is the fate of the dirty rats. These are old men." [#3. voice muffled by jacket]
2:46 - "See the rats." [#3]
3:07 - "This is a child. Dig a grave for him." [#1]
3:13 - "This is from Pakistan? No. I thought so. Dig a hole for him." [#2, apparently, and #1 speaking]

The last line sounds like what's spoken, the Pakistan part anyway. It's an odd side-track, but I presume they're referring to the boy with the hole in his head, wearing the outfit I think is called a shalwar kameez, like several others are. It's popular in Pakistan, and wherever conservative Muslims live. The guy in jeans just didn't get it. Is he even Libyan?

The "fate of rats" part is repeated, and the sound is about the same each time the cameraman says it: a bit like "muslaida jirdat." This isn't really impressive I suppose, but Google translate lets your hear various translated words. What it gives me for rats isn't in there. Nor the words for rodents, dogs, fate, destiny, end, death - none of them is a match. What am I doing wrong, I wonder? Getting too literal?

---

Aug 14: I've been over and over the area in Google maps, and still can't find a good match. It's hard to be sure, but the area in question is only a nook of hospitability a few miles wide, surrounded by tangled tectonic masses that just look bizarre - plus barren and treeless - from above. For anyone who wants to help, here again is the satellite imagery you can zoom way in on. If the spot can be found there, I want to know.

Since I've heard Zlitan mentioned as an alternate, I tried to look there, but Google maps imagery is clouded over in that spot. It could provide some matches if visible, but I was also pulled to the area just north of Dafiniya, a few miles east of there as an area that makes sense. Either would put the heat on Misrata rebels instead of Zintan/Nafusah ones.

We also have the supposed men making at least three recordings of the scene. They're said to speak like Gaddafi soldiers, calling the dead "dogs" and "rats." If that's a well-known thing they're supposed to do, wouldn't that make it a well-known thing to do if you were trying to act like gov't soldiers? I'm pretty sure I've caught rebels impersonating wicked soldiers in a few fake videos before. They act stupidly brutal, possibly drunk, demanding allegiance to Gaddafi, extracted with fake-slap and fake-kick force, and insulting the overly-cowed and helpless-looking people at every chance.  Apparently Arabs don't do subtlety very well.

This ... if fake it's more subtle. Maybe even the Pakistan line was designed to show how ignorant of Islam the regime's western-dressed soldiers and mercenaries really are.  But that's a ways ahead of where we're at.

And some points from Peet73:

Some remarks by the moment: There maybe a dirt track passing by in north and east (the guy with the AK47 at 0:23 stands perhaps in the middle of that track)
Moreover the garbage gives a hint on a nearby road or frequently used track, that's quite typical for north african roadsides.
I think a plane is passing by (starting at 0:40). But this last point will not be very helpfull according to the number of NATO sorties.

---
Aug 15, and it’s coming together: We have a location! Thanks again to Peet 73, we have a complete possible fit just outside the area I was searching. As he just explained in comments below, the Arabic comments beneath the posting by algelawy2009 gives a location of مزرعة المليعب which translates "the farm Alumblyab" (using Google translate, and I double-checked, it cites an "apparent mass murder in the farm Alumblyab"). This in turn turns up a match he found on Wikimapia, which shows a dense patch of trees in the desert conveniently spelled-out as the Amlumblyab forest. The term "farm" being used is likely from this being a tree farm, not a real forest. The flat-packed, rutted, trenched, randomly worked-looking soil here fits the idea and what I see in the video. It all clicks. For reasons I'll explain later, I suspect it was near the edge of the "forest."

It’s outside the immediate area I was searching, but not by much. It’s about 10 miles south-southwest of the Yefren nook, a short truck ride, and closer yet to other places. Like al-Gawalish/Qawalish; no more than three miles down the road is the town where rebels are known to stash their dead just outside of town. In fact, it's edge probably no more than five miles, and perhaps just a few hundred yards, from where Mr. Chivers made his chilling discovery. (I'm trying to pin that area down now, separately). But calling this the "Qawalish tree farm massacre” just doesn’t have the right ring, for some reason. So it's in the "Qala'a area," in a vaguely-named forest, and the reason will become clear below.

For what it's worth, there is another tree farm area just barely south of Qawalish that could fit the video, if not the named locale, just as well. The distiction of which tree farm it was is important. The one named in the recent Shabbab Libya PR gives a heavily-mined "Al-Mal’ab Forest area," which is ... similar. And earlier, they had mentioned possibly the same area (as Peet73 again noticed), with a spelling somewhere between the two that I now prefer - as a place where government force massed for evil.

In a June 3 press release, the kids announced the opening of a supply line to Yefren and al-Qala’a from Az Zintan, to bring “humanitarian” supplies to this front line, and asking for NATO air support to protect it. They also gave specific co-ordinates of government forces that "threatened [...] the region of Yefren and the Nafusa mountains." Among the precise spots "threatening" (otherwise, defending) Qala'a and its civilians was "Almliab forest (VERY IMPORTANT)," which housed a "large force including at least 4 tanks, grad, ammunition, personnel, etc. It is the main army supply to the area (substation) for forces heading west." Beyond this, they assured NATO that "command and control is highly suspected to be in one or more of the 4 buildings given."

This makes enough sense, using the sparse tree cover available, at a government facility no less, to keep their weapons relatively safe from bombing. This is surely what the rebel "investigation" will find, and the inference will be clear enough to them, and perhaps most people, by the time they put it together. So we can start considering it early, here's the narrative:

Gaddafi forces based in the Almliab tree-farm-base take 34 captives from the town in early June, kill them wherever and for whatever reason, and then dump their bodies in this ditch within their forest, unburied, left in the open. They then come back after some time has passed, and film themselves gloating over their prey. The soldiers come, all four of them, mostly in civilian clothes and sandals, and one stands guard at the north end of the trench, in their own forest-base.

This happened perhaps in early June, perhaps July or August. The whole area's been under rebel control since mid-July. But they kept the video to themselves, making one wonder what it was for, until whenever the rebels captured the same soldiers. Only then, possibly as they finally took the forest, that this pointless admission video was shown to the world. Rebel sleuths in Benghazi will put two and two together, and prove they're a real government who can investigate things.

Case solved, right?

---
Aug 16: Another Twist: I hate to re-inject complexity, but the locale is not so clear. We have wooded areas near the Qala'a / Qawalish area - one identified "Alumblyab Forest" per Wikimapia, and a "farm" of the same name given as the location on one video. We also have an "Al-Mal’ab forest" given, and an earlier reference to "Almliab scouting camp and agriculture centre." Considering tree farm covers the farm/forest difference, one would presume the name differences, at least between the two that have the 'm' and 'l' in the same order - are irrelevant. It's probably the same place - the tree farm southwest of Qawalish.

However, the PR citing Almliab had coordinates I decided to double-check using Earth Tools. I used their number for the forest itself (31°58’38.03″N, 12°40’26.62″E), and the first of the four buildings listed (31°58’59.04″N, 12°40’30.84″E). I got it as close as I could (within tens of feet), and both came out right next to each other, but not on top of or even next to the area we were looking at. Rather, the dots came out about the same distance (3-4 miles) southeast of Qawalish, and further yet - about 20 miles by road - from Qala'a.

What's there, to my surprise, is another, third forested area - smaller and harder to spot than "the farm Alumblyab." This one is more elongated, less level, and more spread out, fanning over natural ridge tops. It's like a cross between the woods by Qala'a and the other tree farm. It's a good match for this video as well, though I'm not sure if it's a better or worse fit. I'll come back to that later. The red circles are approximately the spots they identifed with the coordinates. The northern one clearly means that small complex of small buildings next to the road.

This is a bit confusing, but here are the possibilities, not all mutually exclusive:

- There are two tree farm areas flanking Qawalish with very similar names - Almliab and Alumblyab.

Or:

- The places are considered the same, with one name, just in two sections five miles apart.

Or:

- Some other kind of mix-up.

And:

- The dumping was actually NOT in the forest the government reportedly used.

Or:

- It WAS where the June PR indicates, but the video posting got the name mixed up.

Or:

- Wikimapia had it wrong (who plugs this info in and updates it?)

Or:

- ?

---

Aug 17: Not much to add. I checked the pronunciation of "Show the child" in Google translate, and the "child" part sounds like "toffle," or in fact a bit like the "daffi" part of the "Gaddafi" I thought I heard. The first part isn't quite right, it's still uncanny in its similarity to the leader's name, but I'm not so sure this is the clue I thought before.

No plan yet to sort out just which tree farm this discovery was inside of. I'm leaving it for now as one or another of these wooded areas just south of Qawalish.

For what it's worth as a clue, there is a different type of tree visible, for only a frame or two, in only one direction - to the northeast as I have it, nearest "soldier" #4. I can't identify it yet. It doesn't look like an olive tree or a few others I considered. Anyone?

It might be nothing but some mixed plating, or the start of someone's orchard blending a bit into the edge of the evergreen factory, helping set the location. Does the lighting pattern suggest the area in that direction is more open, with smaller trees? I think it might.

The Qawalish Water Basin Massacre, via ... New York Times?

July 21, 2011

News of Abuses
With a little illegal help with air-dropped weapons, rebel forces in the western Nafusah mountains have in July been able to expand their holdings from Az Zintan outward to towns like Qawalish, aka Gualish, between Mizdah and Gherian in the desert of southwestern Libya. There the liberators discovered a number of "African mercenaries", and trumpeted to the world as supporting the claim they'd been making since February 18. As NPR found, Gaddafi's army was "hiring sub-Saharan Africans" to replace those lost in the war, but upon inspection "they aren't the fearsome mercenaries described by many rebels." They were all amateurs, culled from Libya's body of undocumented workers, and simply didn't exist as a force before April at the earliest.

It seems that the rebels were less forthcoming with some others among the town's defenders, and we have New York Times columnist C.J. Chivers and his towering photographer Bryan Denton to thank. He wrote on July 10 about abuses during the taking of Qawalish, whose entire population had fled in advance, as if the Mongols were coming. It then became evident why - Chivers witnessed open and massive looting (especially of grains, animal feed, and straw, possibly "punitive," he thought) and burning certain homes (especially of the loyalist Mashaashia tribe). They drained the only gas station of fuel, and then burned the place. Sounds a bit punitive, and highly criminal, to me. He also noted:

What was obvious and beyond dispute by Sunday was only this: Whatever their motivation, the behavior of rebels in Qawalish, who have been supported by the NATO military campaign against Colonel Qaddafi, was at odds with the NATO mandate to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and at odds with rebel pledges to free and protect the Libyan population.

Moreover, the leadership of the Free Libyan Forces, for all the statements otherwise, appeared to lack the ability or inclination to prevent these crimes.
[...]
The rebels say they plan to push further through the mountains soon, toward the city of Garyan. Will the villages along the way suffer Qawalish’s fate?

On July 12, Chivers reported back with the supportive findings of Human Rights Watch, adding news of reprisal beating across the area.

Col. Mukhtar Farnana, the region’s senior commander, said that reprisals were not sanctioned and that he did not know any details about them.

But Human Rights Watch said the same commander shared details with its investigators and conceded that rebels had abused people suspected of being collaborators as towns changed hands.

“People who stayed in the towns were working with the army,” the organization quoted him as saying. “Houses that were robbed and broken into were ones that the army had used, including for ammunition storage.” The commander added, “Those people who were beaten were working for Qaddafi’s brigades.”

Maybe some of them were patriots like that - it might just take a team effort, civilian and government, to turn back the no-longer civilian rebel forces and their multi-government outside support, and its air power presence. The local commanders might have hit on something their soft-hearted patrons don't realize - maybe starving out these cities and clearing them of loyalist people - everyone if necessary - is the only way to free those towns the way NATO and the rebels want. Destroying villages to save them is nothing new.

Nothing New
Daniel Larison at the American Conservative, on July 11, called Chivers' dispatch "a balanced, detailed report," but astutely noted:

The depressing thing about Chivers’ report is that this sort of behavior from an ill-disciplined insurgent force advancing into likely hostile territory is completely unsurprising and entirely to be expected.

Indeed, amazing and relevant as the reportage is, the public shock comes across as naive. These atterns especially apply in Libya, 2011, where the spirited, "Allahu Akbar" shouting, weapon-confiscating, absolved-of-everything buggers at first gleefully filmed themselves butchering their captives, as can be seen in their own Rebel Atrocity Videos. Most of their victims were military, but some were foreign workers, and at least one was a truck driver from the Warfalla tribe. Mr. Hamza al-Gheit Fughi, was executed in March; the assassins filmed themselves painstakingly removing his head with a knife, for refusing to denounce Gaddafi.

By and large, these artifacts of cruelty show black-skinned men beaten, hanged, shot, hacked, burnt, degraded, displayed, and always called African mercenaries. If what the experts have found so far holds across the field, none of them were mercenaries, but those things did happen to them.

Aside: NATO's foot soldiers in old barbary are barbarians. 

To the shores of Tripoli they're pointed, ready to wash it in blood if need be. 

Between red blood shed and funeral black, they're doing their part in earnest 

to add their colors to the new flag.
(any poet who wants to re-work it, go ahead) 

These recordings were made all across Libya, but most relevant here (see below) are two examples, both from the Nafusah region we're considering here, of victims' bodies tossed out like garbage. This crime adds insult to injury, since Islamic law mandates a proper burial within 24 hours. An internal security soldier was tortured and killed by rebels, in crucial Az Zintan, on February 19. Shown to the world as an Afro-Merc (Chad), his body was found again and filmed two weeks later in the desert. Another twelve or more alleged mercenaries (Nigeria) - but in civilian clothes - were filmed in late May, long-dead and mummified in the desert south of Zintan.

Predictable Brutality: Bottom of the Basin 
There is an allegation in a video, which I was alerted to in comments below, that at least four civilians were executed in their home in reportedly empty Qawalish, while al-Jazeera was filming (from the outside, and apparently ignored the deaths inside). Otherwise, the reportage so far doesn't seem to reflect the killing of any civilians, loyalist or otherwise, in this region. But it does now reveal killings of those in the line of duty, along the lines of their earlier known rampages, as seen on Youtube.

Since March, we've seen less of those atrocity videos, because the rebels either got more civilized, ran out of victims or steam, or became more discreet about their abuses. Chivers' next finding suggests the last option is closest to the mark. A photo-based piece collaborating with Denton, it chronicles their discovery of "the rotting remains of five men whose bodies had been hidden in a cement basin on the road outside Qawalish." Again, clearly not a proper burial. The text, with one photo, is as follows:

Most of the pictures in that sequence are too gruesome to publish here. The dead men appeared to be wearing the olive green uniforms of pro-Qaddafi forces. 

There were signs suggesting they had been executed and then lifted atop the basin and dropped down this hatch and hidden away from view. One of the men had his pants bunched down around his ankles. Another appeared to have been beheaded, though the orientation of the bodies made this not quite possible to verify without entering the basin
[...]
Who were these men? Who killed them? Why? None of this was clear. A sixth rotting body was buried under one of the olive trees to the left.

More recently yet, he added this on the rebel response:

Since those reports, questions surrounding what happened to these men have found traction among other news agencies, and reports from other journalists are forthcoming. And since then the site has been bulldozed.
[...]
The corpses, apparently, have been covered with this mound of soil, below, which is a few meters away from where the remains were first found. Rebels now say the dead men were given proper Muslim burials. We’ll leave to you to decide if the grounds in these images looks like a proper, religious or respectful burial.

An Equally Predictable Denial

What happened to these men remains an open question. But official rebel sources have made their position clear, insisting that these are the remains of Qaddafi soldiers killed and hidden by other Qaddafi soldiers. The evidence for that claim is, principally, that the rebels say so. The possibility that some of rebels might have done this to their enemies has been rejected outright.

This as well is nothing new. It was the "protesters" who were well-known for using fire as a weapon against government buildings in February. But whenever charred corpses were found in those days, they were filmed and shown as victims of Gaddafi's mercenaries - soldiers burned alive for refusing to shoot innocent protesters. The world just needed to see the horror for themselves, they explained in apology for so shocking us. When 21 soldiers were were found in al Baida, bound and with their heads blown off, the same story was given, and still accepted, despite video proof the rebels themselves ordered the killings.

Chivers also added the dumpers chose their spot poorly, the basin being visible from the main road to Qawalish. Upon simply walking up to this odd spot, "the blood stains on the concrete, and tire treads on the soft soil" were clear, along with a scrap of green clothing, and even a picture of a handsome black-skinned man in uniform, perhaps one of the victims. These things they photographed but left, and they're all gone now.

He closes with a promising sign that freedom and openness are finally, at such great cost, coming to Libya - now that the rebels are being called the government of the place by people like Barrack Obama. No more massacres, cover-ups and lame excuses, and government minders controlling the press. As Chivers and Denton saw the bulldozed area on the road days later:

we tried to stop to learn more. Our driver refused, announcing that he was under orders from the rebel military leadership not to allow us near the site. It seemed, he said, that doctors were worried that journalists might be exposed to unhealthy conditions near the rotting remains. This did not quite pass the sniff test, so we pressed. Then came a different answer — the rebel military council had simply told him, without notifying us, that he was not to take us there, and that was that. That was Saturday.

Either way, we know enough for now to know what's needed next are these things:
- The rebel authorities need to get those bodies identified,buried properly, and their families noted.
- Wherever they live, CNN should ask these families how they feel about the condolences of the new "government of Libya."
- Find out if anyone else is missing.
- Start pressing the rebels there for straight answers. Do they, or do they not, work for us? How many were killed in Qawalish and the other towns and hastily stashed around? Six only is suspiciously low.

Update August 10:
It seems Mr. Chivers and Denton saw the bodies first in the well, but not after they were removed. Between their removal and burial of whatever sort, it seems the bodies were laid out and observed by, among others, a reporter from the UK Telegraph. They reported on Jul 20, a day before I first got this thing up, a story completely in line with what the New York Times people saw. Five bodies werein the basin, no more (I forgot to check if they even mentioned the sixth guy buried under a tree). The five looked like government soldiers, and had been floating face-down. The body Chivers said "appeared to have been beheaded" was “cleanly decapitated.” The other with "his pants bunched down around his ankles" is confirmed with "the trousers of another had been ripped down to his ankles, a way of humiliating a dead enemy." There is a photograph attached to the article of some men standing around looking, with only one of the victim’s hands visible in the foreground. The site was bulldozed, the Telegraph confirmed, the burial situation unclear, and an investigation was in order.

What might prove more interesting than six killed soldiers is the separate Qala'a massacre, revealed August 7, from about 30 miles away at Qala'a. For this we have video, but no clear date or details, of 30-34 slaughtered civilians. Rebel supporters instantly asserted this was the government's work, but some say the rebels did it. I think a wee bit of study is in order, and perhaps quite a bit, if needed. This puzzle might be easy to solve.

Mercenaries Alleged Anew

July 11, 2011
last updates July 22

I just the other day finally erected a post dedicated to the early allegations of sub-Saharan, foreign, African mercenaries used by Gaddafi against his people. I would have hoped the original rumor-based disinformation had faded away by now with debunking and time.  But it was great timing that Brian Souter tipped me off, among many other things (and thanks, mate) to a renewed allegation of just this. On July 7, Iranian Press TV passed it on:

Libyan revolutionaries have captured a number of foreign mercenaries following heavy fighting with forces loyal to the country's ruler, Muammar Gaddafi.

The revolutionaries arrested a number of African mercenaries that were mostly from Ghana and Mali, AFP reported.

First, it should be noted, these alleged mercs aren't attacking "protesters" or even attacking rebel military positions. The rebels came to them, in an offensive capacity, allied with the foreign NATO aggressors. And, as later reported, they looted the hell out of the place and torched several homes - the population suffered no deaths or beatings, but that might be because they had all fled before the rebels got there.  The Agence France Presse report, featured in Pakistan's Dawn paper, same July 7:

GUALISH, Libya: Libyan rebels on Wednesday seized the desert hamlet of Gualish on the first day of a Nato-backed push on Tripoli and captured a number of African mercenaries, an AFP correspondent said.

Buoyed by French arms drops and Nato-led air strikes, the rebels attacked positions in the Gualish area, in the plains north of their enclave in the Nafusa Mountains southwest of Tripoli.

The correspondent embedded with the rebels said they captured a number of mercenaries, some of whom were seen in a pick-up truck and told AFP they were from Ghana and Mali.

The news seems to have helped spur the American NPR to have a look and report back July 8, somewhat critically, about "Gaddafi's African fighters." One Ghanian worker (a plasterer) was taken in, in a mix-up like the old days, but others were in military fatigues and acknowledged being paid fighters. However, "they also say they were living in Libya as foreign workers before the uprising began, and they became soldiers for hire only after being promised money or documents." The practice is becoming more widespread, NPR reported, leaving the Libyan army almost as foreign as domestic:

Captured Libyan army officers, in interviews conducted separately, estimated that some 50 percent of Gadhafi's fighting force these days is made up of sub-Saharan Africans.

If those captured in Zintan are anything to go by, even though the Africans were paid to fight, they aren't the fearsome mercenaries described by many rebels. None of them had previous military training.
[...]
Abu Jela Dau Arafa, 38, is a Libyan captain who was captured on Wednesday when the rebels overran the village of Gualish. He says Gadhafi doesn't have enough soldiers to man the front lines now, and that's why he's hiring sub-Saharan Africans.

Other captured Libyan soldiers describe a force that is suffering from lack of basic supplies like food and fuel. They say desertions are common. Many of the enlisted men stay on only out of fear or promises of money, they say.

All that's keeping the rest from defecting, says one of the men who lost Qawalish, are fear or money. And it could be that patriotism or righteous anti-Imperialist fervor, and the fact those still left haven't been defeated or bombed are factors that still play in.

But the pressures are immense - by now, Libya's loyal forces have, in the course of defending their homeland from a foreign-backed overthrow, suffered over three months of aerial decimation. NATO itself brags of destroying a third or a half of all Libya's armor and moveable weaponry, much of it luckily carrying its crew when hit, denying the enemy one more resource (they of course "regret" this).

Besides this God-like and inescapable death from above, there are some defections and desertions to absorb the loss of, the occasional losses to rebel fire, artillery, sword, club, hatchet ... Many brave Libyan soldiers, especially black-skinned ones accused of being foreigners, died in the line of duty because lynch mobs felt empowered by the magical absolver - the world believed these negroes were vile mercenaries.

Therefore, even if genuine, professional, and effective mercenaries might finally be appearing in July, it would be no huge surprise. That the best that can still be found to this end is these amateur, found-around, semi-mercs is a sign of the Libyan military's resiliency. It might take a while still to convince these guys it was all over months ago when President Obama said some really stupid sh*t he just can't back down from now.

It must, however, be noted - even if full on squads of professional paid fighters were proven, now - it does nothing to support the earlier, and criminal, disinformation campaign. Someone first seeded the lie of foreign fighters brought in by the third full day of protests, Feb. 18. As expert Issaka Souare told Voice of America on March 1 "The reason why I doubt the thesis is that we started hearing these claims just the third day of the revolt, and I would imagine it would take some time before you really can go and have recourse to these mercenaries, unless you are foreseeing that your own army is not going to be loyal to you."

For this and other reasons as well, the malicious meme was unlikely and apparently untrue. And yet it was widely accepted as self-evident, and acted on with impunity by the vilest sectors of Libyan society. It took its toll on probably several hundreds of black men killed, hundreds more assaulted, captured, and quietly released, and tens or hundreds of thousands sent fleeing to Europe, to the desert, or to the bottom of the sea just to get away from a place they were working peacefully in not long ago.

The effect on Libya itself of this mercenary mania will linger like a festering scar for a long while. Don't take this new rebel spin bomb as any sort of justification.