Some 10,000 marched in Casablanca June 19 in answer to a call from Morocco's youth-based February 20 Movement, which has rejected constitutional reforms proposed by King Mohammed VI. Among the marchers in the city's popular Derb Soltaine neighborhood were members of the Islamist Justice and Charity group. Rabat also saw a large march against the proposed reform package, and a much smaller march in support of the king was also held in Casablanca. The February 20 Movement said the proposed reforms would leave in place a network of privilege and patronage surrounding the king. While stopping short of a call for abolition of the monarchy, the movement is calling for democratic restrictions on the king's power. (AFP, MoroccoBoard News Service, June 19)

NATO acknowledged June 18 that its aircraft had mistakenly hit a column of rebel military vehicles last week near the Libyan oil port of Brega, and early June 19 the Qaddafi government showed reporters a destroyed cinder-block house that neighbors and the government said was hit by an errant NATO air-strike in Tripoli. Two bodies were pulled from the rubble, and at the Tripoli Central Hospital, government officials showed reporters three others, including an infant and a child, who they said were killed in the house. Western media accounts called it the first time in three months of air-strikes that the Qaddafi regime has presented credible evidence of what appeared to be direct civilian casualties of NATO attacks. The destroyed building was far from any obvious military facility, in the Souq al-Juma area, which is actually known for its hostility to Qaddafi. In a statement NATO said: "A military missile site was the intended target of air strikes in Tripoli. However, it appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target and that there may have been a weapons system failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties." The air-strike was apparently carried out by French jets. (The Telegraph, June 19; NYT, June 18)

King Mohammed VI of Morocco on June 17 announced changes to the constitution which would transfer some of the political power held by the king to elected officials. The proposed changes would instill more authority in the country's prime minister, who would be given the power to appoint government officials as the "president of the government." The reforms would also ensure that the prime minister is the leader of the largest party in parliament, as opposed to being selected by the king. Mohammed said that if these reforms were approved, it would represent a transition to democratic institutions for Morocco. Mohammed would still retain certain important powers as chair of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Security Council, leaving him control over the country's security, military and religious institutions.

A NATO official acknowledged June 14 that the alliance is considering air-strikes on ancient Roman ruins in north Libya, sparking statements of concern from the United Nations. The anonymous official told CNN the alliance would bomb the ruins of Leptis Magna, between Tripoli and Misrata, if it confirmed that war material is being sequestered there by the Qaddafi regime. Rebel sources claim that Qaddafi-loyalist troops have stashed rocket launchers and other military equipment at the site. (CNN, UPI, Time magazine's Global Spin blog, June 14)

Glenn Greenwald (who, as we have noted, has become rather annoying of late) has a sneeringly sarcastic screed in his Salon column of June 11, "In a pure coincidence, Gaddafi impeded U.S. oil interests before the war," the crux of which is a lengthy quote from a story in the Washington Post of the previous day, "Conflict in Libya: U.S. oil companies sit on sidelines as Gaddafi maintains hold." After fulminating about how the US is really seeking "regime change" in Libya (which, as Greenwald himself says, is obvious), he presents the following text from the WP story (Greenwald's emphasis):

Libyan rebels on June 13 broke through the Qaddafi-loyalist forces besieging Misrata and once again advanced toward Tripoli, some 140 miles to the east. Meanwhile, rebels are reported to have pushed Qaddafi's forces out of several villages in the Jebel Nafusa, the mountain range southwest of Tripoli, where they had been carrying on an offensive for weeks. If the advances from both Misrata and the Nafusa continue, Tripoli could be besieged by the rebels soon.

We've already noted claims that mercenaries recruited by an Israeli firm are fighting for the embattled regime of Moammar Qaddafi in Libya. Now a Reuters report of June 3 cites unnamed officials saying that "private contractors" are hiring mercenaries for the rebels. Although the officials asserted that no actual US government funds are involved, the report cites a classified "covert action finding" signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year as authorizing the CIA to conduct a wide spectrum of operations in support of the rebels. From the report:

From the New York Times, June 2:

The Libyan woman whose mistreatment by the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi made her a symbol of its brutality has been deported against her will from her temporary refuge in Qatar to the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Eman al-Obeidi gained international attention in March when she told foreign journalists that she had been abducted and gang raped by Qaddafi militia. She was arrested, and later smuggled out of the country by a defecting soldier. She was in Qatar awaiting asylum elsewhere. A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said she was deported Thursday by force and without explanation. A spokesman for the rebel authority in Benghazi said she was free to leave if she wanted.