And do you think they will be used?

Well we have just had 8 captured by rebels according to the BBC.

Yeah, I got that on the BBC news, v sad

Bit overblown i would think, the SAS were escorting a group of diplomats or similar to make contact with rebel forces, i assume protocol would dictate the SAS were allowed to be secured as it were during the talks with the rebels.

Just my take on the situation .

The rebels aren’t about to shit on any chance of international assistance by whacking foreign troops, covert or not.

do you think they will be used?

Very likely. Despite, like everyone else, having no idea what is actually really happening in Libya, I have no doubt that the US and Britain are up to their necks in it. William Hague’s announcement, at a totally critical time in the recent developments, that “credible” intelligence sources had informed him that Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela, shows imo western politicians determination to influence and mould events in Libyan.

Since when have western governments been so keen and quick to reveal their intelligence information ? Specially without first verifying it and being 100% certain. On contrary, they invariably keep intelligence information very close to their chest – unless it is to be used for political purposes.

Of course there was not a shred of truth in the allegation made by William Hague, and therefore undoubtedly also not a shred of evidence. And yet that didn’t stop him. So did he simply do it because he was keen to provide “a news story” for the press to print ? I doubt it. Coming as it did at such a critical time, the public, and completely false, announcement that Gaddafi had fled, was clearly designed to encourage a widespread uprising throughout Libya (and army desertion)

Having lost control of the initial events throughout the Middle East, events which incidentally they simply couldn’t intervene in, the US, Britain, and other European powers, are now trying to manipulate other events in their favour.

Egypt was a disaster for the western powers, and the threat to totalitarian medieval feudal oil rich Gulf kingdoms is also a potential disaster for the western powers, what could be better than cynically exploiting the situation to finally gain complete control of high grade Libyan oil ? Time to cut your losses.

So despite years of cosying up to Gaddafi, western leaders – all of them, including Berlusconi and Tony Blair (who was paid £600,000 a year to be a special adviser to Gaddafi) are now plotting his downfall.

As I said, I know little about what is really happening Libya. I don’t know what the government is really doing, although I am pretty sure they are not using war planes to “bomb civilians”. The Russians (who are not supporting Gaddafi and calling for his departure) claim that they are very closely monitoring events by satellite, and they have not seen one single example of Libyan fighters being used against civilian targets.

There also appears to be very little opposition to Gaddafi in Tripoli – even according to western reporters. Why so little happening in the capital ? In the other countries, it was the capital city where the overwhelming problems occurred. Is Tripoli too far from the borders for the situation to be manipulated ?

Neither do I know what the “opposition” consists of. But the fact that they appear to be obsessed with gaining control of oil installations is not lost on me. Such clear strategic planning seems very strange to me. In other middle east countries demonstrators appeared to have no real game plan and simply took control of city squares or roundabouts, and never seemed quite sure what to do next.

So in answer to the OP, very likely in a very limited form. Very unlikely in a large scale form. Although history has shown us just how difficult it is to stop limited action escalating into full blown war.

BTW, Re : “The rebels aren’t about to shit on any chance of international assistance by whacking foreign troops”

It would be a serious mistake imo to believe that the rebels/opposition/demonstrators/whatever are a single monolithic group. There are many interested parties in Libya, including “Islamic Maghreb” which is part of the al-Qaeda global network.

Al Qaeda offers aid to rebels in Libya

And also “The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group” which was funded by MI6

This is not going to have a positive impact on the price of fuel

What’s this “we” business then.

I meant UK forces, I am sure there are others

It would be a serious mistake imo to believe that the rebels/opposition/demonstrators/whatever are a single monolithic group. There are many interested parties in Libya, including “Islamic Maghreb” which is part of the al-Qaeda global network.

Agreed. I guess that group holding the British troops must be considered as one likely to be amenable to influence?

The problem with using special forces in the country (or more specifically, having them caught and exposed) is that it gives some credence to Gadhaffi’s claims that this is plot orchestrated by foreign govenments/al-Qaeda/drug-addled-youth/whatever-his-current-explanation-is. If some of his people start to beleive the foreign government storey then it undermines the rebelion.

Can’t say much about it but a loady friend of mine has shifted some interesting pallets of kit off to some interesting places recently, the sort of kit used by guys who live near poole or Hereford and sport shaggy haircuts and scruffy beards along with unusual tanlines.

Mind you, it’s often a ‘just in case’ deployment, with little being done apart from smoking Embassy and bothering local wildlife!