Passports Are No Good In Libya

CNN’s Ben Wedeman is the first Western journalist to enter Libya:

“Your passports please,” said the young man in civilian clothing toting an AK-47 at the Libyan border. “For what?” responded our driver, Saleh, a burly, bearded man who had picked us up just moments before. “There is no government. What is the point?” He pulled away with a dismissive laugh.

On the Libyan side, there were no officials, no passport control, no customs. I’ve seen this before. In Afghanistan after the route of the Taliban, in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Government authority suddenly evaporates. It’s exhilarating on one level; its whiff of chaos disconcerting on another.

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File photo dated 22/12/88 of the wrecked nose section of the Pan-Am Boeing 747 in a Scottish field at Lockerbie, near Dumfries, after the plane, which had been flying from Frankfurt to New York, was blown apart by a terrorist bomb.

Anorak

Posted: 22nd, February 2011 | In: Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink