News from Libya: Qaddafi Has Reportedly Been Killed

New York TimesQaddafi Dead as Troops Seize Stronghold, Officials Say:
The head of the Libyan military council said that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed Thursday as fighters battling the vestiges of his fallen regime wrested control of his hometown of Surt after a prolonged struggle. Al-Jazeera television showed what it said was Colonel Qaddafi's corpse as Libyans rejoiced.

Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the leader of the Tripoli military council, said on Al Jazeera that the former leader had been killed and that anti-Qaddafi forces had his body.

...As rumor of his death spread in the capital, Tripoli, car horns blared as many celebrated in the streets.

Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Afghanistan, said the department was aware of the reports "on the capture or killing of Muammar Qaddafi" but could not confirm them "at this time."
Qaddafi has been both actual shit-head and US boogeyman for most of my life. And I'm having pretty much the same reaction I had when I heard that bin Laden had been killed: It's good, I guess...? I have a hard time feeling awesome about anyone being killed, even when it's an irredeemable specimen of humanity's worst nature like Qaddafi. It's just a weird thing to celebrate.

My thoughts are with the people of Libya, especially the people within marginalized populations there. I desperately hope as their country moves forward, their voices are heard and their lives valued. I hope this is a new dawn for everyone in Libya.

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