LIBYA: Ferry carrying U.S. evacuees leaves Tripoli for Malta
A ferry carrying Americans out of violence-plagued Libya left Tripoli on Friday after nearly three days of delay, a State Department spokesman has confirmed.
The M/V Maria Delores, carrying 300 evacuees, more than half of them U.S. citizens, left the Libyan capital at 1:37 p.m. local time, said spokesman Philip J. Crowley.
"The ferry carrying American and international citizens from Libya to Malta is finally underway," Crowley announced via Twitter, noting that the voyage would take about eight hours.
The vessel's departure had been held up by bad weather. Other ships carrying foreign nationals attempting to flee the chaos engulfing Libya for the past 10 days had managed to set sail, prompting concerns that the embattled regime of Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi might have been blocking the U.S.-chartered exit.
Crowley had said earlier that the passengers were safe and cared for since they boarded early Wednesday.
U.S. requests to land chartered aircraft in Libya to evacuate citizens had been denied earlier this week but the State Department was reported to be renewing plans for an airlift.
-- Carol J. Williams
its just as well then that your so called tax dollars mean nothing in the general scale of things its doubtful if the amount of tax you may or may not have paid would be enough to wash the outside of the plane let alone pay for it to leave the ground.
thank you.
Posted by: sam | February 25, 2011 at 01:14 PM
DangerMouse,
US citizens evacuated from countries abroad reimburse the US government for evacuation costs incurred, as required by law. (For more information, see http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/80109.pdf.) Under commonly accepted standards of international law, it is a country's responsibility to look out for the safety of its nationals abroad, and evacuation is a relatively common practice. Even Iraq evacuated its citizens from Egypt at the height of the unrest there.
Also, many Americans living or traveling abroad in these "hot spots" are serving the U.S. in some capacity. Libya, Egypt and Tunisia all host US students studying abroad, who are developing critical language and cultural skills that we need for effective national security and public diplomacy programs. Some are contributing to the American economy through business or oil ventures; a few are missionaries or aid workers. Others are members of the US military. Many U.S. citizens have dual citizenship, and are in Libya because their families live there.
In any case, 6 months ago no one could have predicted the current state of the Middle East. Vague rumblings of danger don't always portend revolution, and many people commit to living in a "hot spot" for months or years in order to truly experience life abroad. Yes, everyone admits and acknowledges the risk, but it is comforting to have a way out if things get rough. By no means is it a right, but the U.S. is certainly a country with the capability and the imperative to carry out evacuations if necessary.
Posted by: Tim | February 25, 2011 at 11:59 AM
If Israel does not destroys the nuclear facilities of Iran soon, there may not be an Israel anymore .
In my opinion it is unavoidable that a war will break out between the west/israel and the muslims/arabs.
The rationale is the following: arab/muslim leaders maintain their power base through terror on their own populations and through a well paid security apparatus that is justified with unrelenting lies about the west and unrelenting lies about their own military capabilities.
we have seen this with Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao etc.
In order to retain their power base they have to continue to escalate their rhetoric rants of war against the west.
the war will be uneventful.
the arabs are well versed in the koran and that's about it, but that does not help win wars.
As an example of what can be expected in a war between Israel and the arabs, consider the following:
Notwithstanding the help of soviet technology, the largest tank battle of the iraqi war in 1991 witnessed the destruction of over 1,000 iraqi tanks against the loss of 1 dead and 4 wounded to the american forces.
Israel can dispatch the arabs in a matter of days.
Bombing the arab power plants and power transformer stations will cripple communications, food storage, water pumping, food preparation and transportation.
Then by bombing the oil production storage and pumping facilities, will make the arabs irrelevant to the world economy for the next 10 years.
Amen
Posted by: aldo | February 25, 2011 at 11:12 AM
I'd rather leave any Americans stupid enough to have stuck around in a hot spot for the mob to take care of - it's called Darwinism.
I do not want ANY of my tax monies spent in protection or rescues. Don't care if they are government workers or private sector - they knew the risks going in, no deal with the consequences.
Posted by: DangerMouse | February 25, 2011 at 09:22 AM