The US,UK, Italy and France have been in discussions over enforcing a no fly zone. If this happens I see it as a temporary measure to allow for the extraction of expats from remote sites.
they can talk about as much as they like (in fact various countries have had quiet discussions about this when tunisia was coming unstuck) - but without UN SC imprimatur, it has zero legitimacy, and it could be seen as an act of war by the loonies still in control - the reality is that they will continue to extract as many people as possible while the Libyan Govt is distracted, and while the opposition forces control all other points of entry. Tripoli has only been "safe" because no govt commander has done anything - it is the last port and transit point controlled by the govt.
Once complete the no fly policy will be lifted. The decision to extract trapped oil workers may not necessarily be driven by the security risk, but life safety due to food and water becoming scarce.
see above. it is newspaper irresponsibility to talk this up or give it currency when it will be a legal minefield. the only time that they might get away with it is if the Libyan Govt starts arresting foreigners - but if the Libyans secure the Tripoli transit points nobody internationally can do squat. The other concern is that as soon as anyone exerts force the loyal Libyan Govt forces will start taking civilians as hostages.
It wouldn't surprise me if SF assets are already at the remote locations (infiltration by land from Tunisia) assessing numbers of evacuees and marking primary and alternate pick-up locations for Chinook extraction
No doubt, but spotting is nugatory effort. Tripoli is the last stronghold. Its is a waste of SF resources and they would be better off tasked to confirm what loyal forces under his sons control are doing.
This operation is more a Army/RM/RAF exercise than a RN one. Whether the SBS or SAS takes the lead will depend on which sqn is on stand-by to provide the UK's resident QRF. With 16 Air Assault/ SFSG and SAS embroiled in A-Stan I suspect the mission will be assigned to a RM/SBS team. The plans will be in-place, they wil be waiting for the get-go from the Poli's. The military will deploy from Malta, which I suspect is already a static aircraft carrier supporting a number of nations tier one assets.
this is not SF territory for anything but confirming where major kinetic forces are staging, if they're staging and where they're staging. outside of that they will be tasked to secure embassy personnel and critical material.
most of the work on libya will be ears up stuff, not bums down stuff.
my daughter is in malta and there has been no shift in any force elements by those nations capable of effecting recovery. it is definitely not being used as a static carrier.
any work on getting SF to work happened weeks ago, camerons inertia would have had no impact on their employment
as I stated earlier, UKFOR had flat files out ages ago, they would have prepositioned critical ears a week ago and the rest is the govt signing off for visible forces to go and provide cover for extraction.
again, visible military assets engaged in "forced" recovery is just plain dumb, its not how its done. Most of the work will be done while the environment is benign. Military posturing is not necessary and counter productive.
every hurt document I've ever seen on extracting nationals avoids having any uniforms visible unless its gone to custard. other wise you just send up a flag for the country in question to exercise their initiative and take away any opportunity to get as many people out as possible before its goes arse up.
repeat - military force is not used like its being envisaged for primary and secondary recovery in what are relatively benign circumstances
