In which another country’s dictator tries to disconnect it from the world.

Have you been paying attention to Libya? (And Bahrain? And Yemen? Algeria?) Well, it disappeared from the Internet tonight:

“Renesys confirms that the 13 globally routed Libyan network prefixes were withdrawn at 23:18 GMT (Friday night, just after midnight Saturday local time), and Libya is off the Internet. One Libyan route originated by Telecom Italia directly is still BGP-reachable, but inbound traceroutes appear to die in Palermo. A minority of our peers report some surviving paths through the peering connection between Level3 and Telecom Italia, but traceroutes into those prefixes fail, suggesting that the Libyan cutoff is complete.

“We wondered whether anyone would repeat Egypt’s strategy. Tonight, it appears that we have our answer.”

Since American news has absurdly weak international coverage, you have to look for information on Libya. Here’s some help:

• WL Central (Libyan news roundup)
• Al Jazeera (streaming in English)
• Deadly ‘day of rage’ in Libya
• Bahrain protesters hold ground
• Yemen observes ‘Friday of Fury’
• BBC World coverage of Middle East Protests
• #Libya

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In other news, the House killed funding for neutrality today. Should the FCC have jurisdiction over broadband? Hell, I don’t know, but there needs to be some agency with the authority to stop corporations from handling traffic any old way they want to. There are protocols to be observed, damn it. Not to mention that the best thing about the internet is that every packet is equal; I’d hate to see that turned into a mirror of the real world, where we see the filthy rich in overwhelmingly opulent circumstances and the rest of us ankle-deep in shit.

• Network neutrality
• savetheinternet.com
• #netneutrality

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In other other news, the House voted to defund Planned Parenthood. If the Senate agrees, women like myself will have to hope for other avenues for safe, cheap pap smears and mammograms.

• #PlannedParenthood

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Update 06:39 UTC Renesys: “Two-thirds of Libyan routes came back to life at 6:01 UTC (8:01 local time), and the remainder were restored nine minutes later. At the moment, spot checks of Libyan domains and traceroutes into affected networks indicate that connectivity has been restored, and Libya is back on the Internet.”

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Update 12:41am Monday (GMT) Gaddafi – who has been in power for 42 years – is killing Libyans.

Hospitals have been told not to document injuries or deaths. Hundreds have been shot. There are unconfirmed reports that Gaddafi is literally bombing demonstrators.

He’s put his son, Saif, on television to say that reports of uprisings are exaggerated, blaming messianic Islamists and Ecstasy. He says there’s a plot against Libya, mentions “our Arab brothers” and Africans. Tells people not to be over enthusiastic or excited about Egypt and Tunisia. Who will run and manage our country’s oil? (Ah. The Gadaffi regime, of course.)

Gadaffi himself promises to convene with opposition leaders in 48 hours to work on crafting a new constitution. I don’t believe a word of it.

“They can’t back down now. If they keep on, they’ll be massacred. If they back down, the retaliation from the Gadaffi regime will be unimaginable.” – analyst on Al Jazeera

A doctor in Benghazi claims Gadaffi has lost control and that they’ve recovered the central hospital, and that the military has joined the protesters. Says that the number of casualties is well above 300.

Bahrain protests are growing; they want the king to leave the country. Yemenis are in the streets. Now so are Moroccans.

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Update Mon Feb 21 2011 Gaddafi is killing civilian protesters; non-independently confirmed reports say that Gaddafi has brought in sub-Saharan African mercenaries to do his shooting for him; two Libyan national fighter pilots diverted to Malta and are seeking asylum after refusing orders to bomb civilians; nine Libyan diplomats worldwide have denounced the regime publicly; Al Jazeera reports over 250 dead on Monday alone.

Most Libyan communications are down, including cell phones and Internet, and Al Jazeera broadcasts are being deliberately jammed, which makes it very hard to get verified reports out of the country. Foreign media has been denied access to Libya for the past week.

Benghazi and Tripoli hospitals are reportedly overwhelmed with casualties and in desperate need of supplies; there have also been reports of Gaddafi supporters entering hospitals and killing wounded and doctors. Egypt and Tunisia are setting up mobile hospitals on their borders with Libya.

• www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/world/africa/22nations.html?hp
• www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/21/libya-google-map
• english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/libya/
• twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23Libya

Many rumors, also unconfirmed, state that Gaddafi is no longer in Libya. Only his son, Saif, has made any statements recently and even those were recorded. The regime said it would “fight to the last man standing.” It’s the middle of the night there now, but it seems as if bombers, helicopters, and tanks are being used against civilians.