National Geographic

The president of Bolivia and a high-ranking Russian politico have asked the Nobel committee to strip President Obama of his 2009 Peace Prize over the attacks on Libya.

Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader and Vice-Chairman of the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky released a statement today calling for the Nobel Prize Committee to take back the honour bestowed on US President Barack Obama in 2009. Zhirinovsky said the attacks were "another outrageous act of aggression by NATO forces and, in particular, the United States," and that the attacks demonstrated a "colonial policy" with "one goal: to establish control over Libyan oil and the Libyan regime." He said the prize was now hypocritical as a result. Bolivian President Evo Morales echoed the call: "How is it possible that a Nobel Peace Prize winner leads a gang to attack and invade? This is not a defence of human rights or self-determination."

It should be noted that in 2006 Morales won the Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights.

WikiLeaks has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for the site's "exposure of corruption, war crimes and torture around the world."

Nobel-watcher and Peace Research Institute Oslo Director Kristian Berg Harpviken says he is not surprised WikiLeaks has been nominated and he expects it will receive more than one vote. "WikiLeaks has been on top of the international news headlines for the last 12 months," he said. "It is also something very new in more ways than just bringing interesting news. It is, in fact, newsworthy in and of itself as a phenomenon. It is an interesting and many ways challenging candidate in its own right." A wide range of people are invited to make a peace prize nomination, including politicians, professors, and former laureates.

The wingnuts are gonna really lose their shit.