A recap of the past 48 hours lends a simple recognition that the countdown is on…..Gaddafi Loses Control Over Eastern Half of Libya, Italy Says It’s Worried About the “Rise of an Islamic Emirate” (NY Mag) — Libya looks to be splitting in two. Soldiers in the east are saying they no longer back Muammar Qaddafi as the region appears to be in the hands of the protesters. General Soliman Mahmoud al-Obeidy, who joined the growing ranks of Qaddafi dissenters, told Reuters, “He bombs with airplanes and uses excessive force against unarmed people. I am sure he will fall in the coming few days.” 
Hours after another former ally, Libya’s interior minister, resigned, the Libyan government claimed he had been kidnapped by “gangs” in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and another stronghold under protesters’ control. In a television interview prior to his kidnapping, the former minister, Abdul Fattah Younis al Abidi, said, “[Qaddafi] told me he was planning on using airplanes against the people in Benghazi, and I told him that he will have thousands of people killed if he does that.”
Today, Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini confirmed that suspicion, pegging the death toll from Libya’s unrest at more than 1,000 civilians. Frattini also expressed worries about the rise in “Islamic radicalism” and “the rise of an Islamic emirate” in the east now that it’s no longer under the government’s control.
In the past 24 hours, WikiLeaks has released three additional cables that the New York Times says “offer a vivid account of the lavish spending, rampant nepotism and bitter rivalries that have defined what a 2006 cable called ‘Qadhafi Incorporated.’” The dictator’s children were all the beneficiaries of income streams from the National Oil Company. What did they do with their wealth and power? Hire American pop stars like Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, and Usher to perform at New Year’s parties in St. Barts, build their own militia, and cover up domestic abuse. (read more)
Libyan Air Force Pilots Intentionally Crash Plane After Refusing to Bomb Civilians…
ALGIERS Feb 23 (Reuters) — A Libyan air force plane crashed near the eastern city of Benghazi after its crew bailed out because they refused to carry out orders to bomb the city, Libya’s Quryna newspaper cited a military source as saying.
Quryna’s online version quoted the source, a colonel at an air base near Benghazi, as saying captain Attia Abdel Salem al Abdali and his number two Ali Omar Gaddafi bailed out of the Russian-made Sukhoi-22 plane and parachuted to earth.
The aircraft, which took off from Tripoli, came down near the city of Ajdabiya, 160 km (100 miles) south-west of Benghazi, the newspaper said. Benghazi and most of eastern Libya has not been under central control since an uprising last week against the rule of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. In a televised speech on Tuesday night, Gaddafi threatened violence against groups who were defying his rule. (more)
UN does what they do best….. talk… and stuff….UN Security Council Issues Sternly Worded Letter to Gaddafi Over Slaughter of Unarmed Civilians…
(CNS News) — The U.N. Security Council Tuesday issued a press statement condemning the Libyan regime’s violence against civilians — the weakest option available to it, short of saying nothing.
The U.S. and Security Council members’ envoys characterized the statement as a robust response to the crisis. Brazilian ambassador Maria Luiza Viotti, who chairs the 15-member council this month, read the statement followiong hours of closed-door consultations, calling it “a strong message.”
British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant described it as “extremely strong,” and U.S. deputy ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said the international community had condemned the violence “in one clear and unified voice.”   “We hope today’s Security Council action will help bring an immediate end to this unacceptable situation,” DiCarlo added. (more)