Col. Gadaffi’s says Western airstrikes on Libya are killing lots of civilians. Robert Gates calls Gadaffi a liar.
As David Wood explains, it can be difficult for coalition pilots to discern between Gadaffi loyalists, rebels and civilians, so could the dictator be right?
Well, a troupe of foreign reporters and their government minders went looking for civilian casualties in Tripoli. How hard should that be?
They couldn’t find any.
Indonesian journalist Adini Effendi summed up the issue in less than 140 characters:
Lisa Holland of Sky News filed this dispatch:
Somewhat embarrassed they direct our questions up the chain of command. They have no answers.
It has been a fruitless day. These are our only opportunities to try to examine the claims of the regime.
We ask for evidence to back up their mantra that the military intervention is causing mass civilian casualties.
Today they have shown us nothing. Now back at the hotel we are once again under virtual house arrest.
Unable to move around freely having been threatened with arrest or detention.
So why are the Palestinians able to get away with bogus bloated casualty figures (think Gaza war) while Gadaffi can’t? Why wasn’t the MSM equally skeptical of discredited Palestinian claims?
Easy. The Libyans don’t have the luxury of a compliant Western press.
