Operation Oil Theft: Day 4.

Yesterday (21/3/11) the lower house of the UK Parliament voted in favour of British military action against Libya by a margin of 557 votes to 13. As Britain has been involved in military action for three days before MP's were permitted to even debate the matter this vote comes as no great surprise. In fact British MP's are rarely allowed to vote the way the want on issues and instead have the way they will vote dictated to them by the leader of their political party. On this occasion the order to vote for military action appears to have come down from a higher authority then a mere party leader. I will try and find out the names of the MP's who voted against because we expect be hearing about them in an expenses scandal in the not to distant future. In fact the new system of MP's expenses actually makes it a lot easier for the state to punish MP's who express undesirable opinions but that's a complicated matter that's probably best left for another time.

Although the BBC have yet to report a single word of it moments after being passed the Commons vote was almost rendered a moot point as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reconvened to discuss resolution 1973(2011) for a second time. As the UK has the power to veto any UNSC proposal no new proposal was tabled but there was a general discussion of the matter. Due to what appears to be a total UK news blackout it is difficult to know exactly what was discussed. However I gather topics discussed included the technical aspects of the resolution such as the rules of engagement, the area of operations and if there is any defined end point for the operation along with matters such as could the resolution be considered an unlawful act of aggression - perhaps matters that the UNSC should have discussed before voting on the matter. UN staff will now prepare a report on how resolution 1973(2011) is being implemented. The UNSC will then reconvene on Thursday (24/3/11) to be presented with this report and discuss how to proceed.

Meanwhile in Libya a US Air Force (USAF) F-15 has crashed in eastern Libya amid confusion over whether it was shot down or brought down by a mechanical fault. The crew escaped before the crash and were swiftly handed back to the US military. Britain have also flown their first Eurofighter missions over Libya under the watchful eyes of the Chinese Navy. Therefore from a purely intelligence perspective NATO has already sustained significant losses as a result of this operation.