Operation Oil Theft: Month 2, Week 2, Day 1.

While the Christian world has been distracted by Easter the war against Libya has continued. There has been little reporting of what is happening on the eastern front line close to Ajdabiya. This is due to a combination of the fact that there has been little fighting above skirmishes and that western media organisations are suppressing news from the region to avoid revealing details of the weapons and military training that western governments are supplying to the rebels.

Instead media attention has focused on Misrata where fighting continues. On Thursday (21/4/11) Libyan government forces withdrew from Misrata in order to allow local tribal leaders to negotiate a ceasefire with the rebels. On Saturday (23/4/11) the rebels rejected this offer of talks so government forces again re-entered the town under a barrage of artillery and rocket fire killing 24 rebel fighters making it one of the bloodiest days of the battle for Misrata so far. Over the following two days roughly another 15 rebels were killed per day and Misrata is now starting to look like Mogadishu in Somalia.

Even before the rebels rejected ceasefire negotiations on Friday (22/4/11) the US military were forced to admit that the fighting in Libya had ground into a stalemate. This prompted furious denials from Britain and France and on Saturday it prompted the Gulf State of Kuwait to pledge US$ 180 million to keep the rebels solvent during the fighting. The timing of this announcement was mainly designed to help lift the rebels spirits but also shows just how much the overthrow of the Libyan government is worth to the Kuwaitis - a country that really should know better. In the early hours of Monday (25/4/11) NATO aircraft, believed to be British, bombed Qaddafi's compound in Tripoli. Apart from being a clear attempt at assassination this very large attack also revealed Britain's frustration that the Libyan government has not crumbled as fast as they would have liked. It was also an attempt to give hope to rebel cells in Tripoli and beyond who seem to be organised along the lines of resistance movements in occupied Europe during the second world war.

Also over the weekend the Syrian government have moved to crack down on anti-government protests in the country and on Monday (25/4/11) this prompted Britain, France and Portugal to circulate a draft statement at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Amongst people who worry about this sort of thing I think it's an open secret that the protests in Syria are being orchestrated by Israel in order to destabilise the Syrian government on account of the two countries still, technically, being at war with each other. Obviously this puts America in a very difficult position diplomatically where it would be all to easy to make a mistake. Therefore Britain, France and Portugal are bringing the matter to the UNSC in order to put more pressure on America and distract attention away from what is going on in Libya. Well Portugal are more sort of going along with it because they're broke and seriously believe that France and Britain can block the European Union (EU) bailout they need. So I think the UNSC should sort out the mess they've made of Libya before they even consider making another mess in Syria.