The Guardian gives us a handy reminder on Uprising Etiquette:

A senior member of Benghazi’s revolutionary council told Martin: "they were carrying espionage equipment, reconnaissance equipment, multiple passports and weapons. This is no way to conduct yourself during an uprising.

Gaddafi is bringing in thousands of mercenaries to kill us, most are using foreign passports and how do we know who these people are? They say they’re British nationals and some of the passports they have are British. But the Israelis used British passports to kill that man in Dubai last year."

Well, somehow I doubt that these people were dropped in and told to wander around Libya until they found some friendly rebels. More likely is that they were en route to meet a group of uprisers with whom contact had been established, only to fall politely into the hands of other uprisers who did not know what was going on.

Normal confusion of war stuff, especially confused in Libya with its now chaotic internal communications and where so many former regime loyalists have (apparently) crossed to the other side and so no-one can really be sure whom to trust.

Meanwhile Harry Cole expresses scepticism as to the juniority of the ‘junior diplomat’ said to be involved.

He’s wrong (I’d say). Missions like these need younger, fit people. Plus if the point is to establish lines of communication to allow Libyan rebels to get expert outside support down the line, you don’t need much more than a skilled technician armed with some clear messages of support.

On the other hand, if you want a policy competent person to talk tactics with senior rebels you’d go for a sassy first secretary – both junior and senior (enough) at the same time.

Back at higher levels of diplomacy, Washington has watched events across the Middle East tip over and start to slide down a steep, slippery slope. And is scrambling to find somewhere firm to put American feet.

They have hit upon an ambivalent doctrine of ‘regime alteration’. A case-by-case attempt to persuade decadent regimes to ‘decompress’ under controlled conditions rather than face abrupt collapse and unfathomable turmoil:

"Starting with Bahrain, the administration has moved a few notches toward emphasizing stability over majority rule," said a U.S. official. "Everybody realized that Bahrain was just too important to fail."

An important and interesting WSJ article, showing just how many diplomatic and political/economic levers the USA has to influence these events.

Russia, China and sundry other so-called new world powers are nowhere to be seen, no doubt furiously snooping around with their intelligent services but having no real policy other than to battle to ensure that the contagion of democracy does not infect them too – and to pray that their own mysterious dealings with these dictatorships over a very long time do not come to light.