Contagious Corruption by power driving Libya conflict, or what else? Paintings of history 1789 vs photos of present 2011

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'Ali Baba & 40 thieves - corruption breeds revolutions and impunity: Middle East, fallen dictators ruled & looted treasuries'

Journalists Remain in Libya Despite US, Libyan Warnings. CNN's Ben Wedeman, one of the first western journalists to enter Libya through Egypt, described being welcomed with cheers and showers of candy from locals. He described the feeling as being one of the first American jeeps to enter Paris after its liberation during World War Two.

Danger Rises in Middle East for Reporters - Will They be Considered Al Qaeda Conspirators? The warning from the U.S. State Department today was unusually stark. Libyan diplomats had told their American counterparts that journalists found to be inside the country illegally would be considered Al Qaeda conspirators. 'Be advised, entering Libya to report on the events unfolding there is additionally hazardous with the government labeling unauthorized media as terrorist collaborators and claiming they will be arrested if caught,' the American warning said.

Even before violence erupted last week, with government forces cracking down hard on protestors seeking its ouster, Libya was one of the most dangerous and restrictive places in the world for journalists to work. Under the totalitarian rule of leader Moammar Gadhafi, strict controls were maintained over state media and visas for journalists seeking to do objective work were nearly impossible to come by.

In an attempt to appease the masses – possibly inspired by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who promised his subject $36 billion in benefits to stave off any potential revolutionaries – Libya's besieged leader on Friday pledged a 150 percent increase in some government workers' wages and promised to give every family $400.

Pro-Gaddafi mercenaries nervously await their fate. 16 year-old boy offered gun to shoot protesters..reward citizens to kill citizens? Gaddafi testing BrotherhoodA boy of about 16 said he had arrived looking for work in the southern Libyan town only two weeks ago from Chad, where he had earned a living as a shepherd. Instead of Tripoli, he was flown to an airport near the scruffy seaside town of Al Bayda and had a gun thrust into his hands on the plane. Col Gaddafi's commanders told the ragbag army they had rounded up that rebels had taken over the eastern towns. The colonel would reward them if they killed protesters. If they refused, they would be shot themselves. The result was bloody mayhem.

Mr Abdullah Al Mortdy, a lawyer who has become one of the captors of the mercenaries. 'Some of them are completely innocent people who were duped ... some of them who organised the attack will have to face a trial, but they will not be executed. We are a merciful people and they will be treated leniently,' said Mr Al Mortdy. 'Gaddafi wants us to shoot them ... he calculates that if we do that, their families will vow revenge and come here to fight us. He has controlled Libya for 42 years by dividing people against each other. But this is over now. We are united against him.'

Thursday, February 24, 2011, Associated Press: Violence increases as Gadhafi's power slips. two air force pilots - one from Gadhafi's own tribe - parachuted out of their warplane and let it crash into the eastern Libyan desert rather than follow orders to bomb an opposition-held city. On Wednesday, two air force pilots jumped from parachutes from their Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jet and let it crash, rather than carry out orders to bomb opposition-held Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, the website Qureyna reported, citing an unidentified officer in the air force control room. One of the pilots — identified by the report as Ali Omar Gadhafi — was from Gadhafi’s tribe, the Gadhadhfa, said Farag al-Maghrabi, who saw the pilots and the wreckage of the jet, which crashed in the desert outside the key oil port of Breqa, about 440 miles (710 kilometers) east of Tripoli.

Qaddafi's charge against Bin Laden angers Saudis'Qaddafi is blaming Bin Laden when he should look at himself instead and ask why widespread Libyan protests are tearing the country apart,' Dr. Ali Al Enagy, a professor at the King Saud University (KSU), told Arab News on Thursday night. He claimed that Qaddafi had not done anything good for his people, 'Libya is a rich country, one of the oil producers in the region, and yet its people had not benefited because Qaddafi had not done anything for them. That is because he's not a good leader. He does not have the qualifications of a good leader'.

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Photos courtesy of Wikipedia, Scott Nelson / NY Times, Alaguri / AP, Suhaib Salem/Reuters