‘I Am Inspired by the Arab Spring’: Hollywood Actor Sean Penn Pops Up in Libya
- Posted on October 5, 2011 at 10:56am by
Billy Hallowell
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U.S. actor-activist Sean Penn talks to reporters outside his hotel during his visit to Tripoli, Libya Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Abdel Magid al Fergany)
Actor and self-proclaimed activist Sean Penn seems to be on an “Arab Spring” tour of sorts.
Last Friday, Penn appeared at a protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where he praised the Egyptian revolution and proclaimed, “…there [needs to be] a transition of power from the military to the people.”
Apparently, that wasn‘t the end of the actor’s Middle Eastern speaking and “humanitarian” tour. On Wednesday, he visited Tripoli where he was quite cryptic about his reasons for being in the civil war-tattered nation.
However, he did tell the Associated Press that he admires “the courage to say we want freedom.” Penn continued by proclaiming, “It’s an extraordinary thing.” Additionally, he expressed confidence in Libya’s efforts to make a transition to democracy.
He admitted that “an enormous price has been paid,” but he said, “I think that there is no question that they can follow it through.” AFP has more:
“This is my first visit to inspirational Libya. I am inspired by the Arab Spring and am here to be able to get a sense of what humanitarian aid can be delivered” to the people, Penn told AFP after landing at Benghazi airport.
“It is amazing what is happening in this part of the world, be it Tunisia, Egypt or Libya. These are my initial moments. I am here to take it in,” the actor said, flashing a V for victory sign to a small crowd at the airport.
What Middle Eastern nation will be head to next? Only time will tell.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.





















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Comments (169)
Dismayed Veteran
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:26amAnother actor highly skilled in international relations. Didn’t he recently play a politician in some movie that flopped. Sean you are the best and brightest America can offer Libya. Please stay. You will do well under Sharia law.
Report Post »The10thAmendment
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:41amLook at this useless bum. His eyes tell the story of what he is. A drugged up 24/7 and drunken POS.
Report Post »Islesfordian
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:54amI was definitely inspired when all those democracy loving Muslims raped Laura Logan.
uhmm…maybe “inspired” isn‘t the right word I’m looking for.
Report Post »Secret Squirrel
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 12:26pm.
Report Post »If you love Libya so much…………….stay.
He’ll be jumping on the jet back to Hollywood any day now,
then make a speech about how much he hates America.
harvbell
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 12:29pmMaybe he could run for president of Libya. These Hollywood people can’t even manage their own lives. Why would I pay ANY attention to these misfits? I quit watching their movies a long time ago.
Report Post »DanWesson455
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 1:03pmDon’t go to his movies. The next studio that hires him, start a writing campaign informing them you will never support, buy or in any way endorse any product, show or otherwise anything the make, produce or endorse. Then see who advertises with them and write them also. They understand pocketbook. You hit them in the pocketbook Mr. Penn will stop getting calls for work.
Report Post »kapnkd
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 1:15pmOnly until they find out he is Jewish decent!
Report Post »ACLUHater
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 1:48pmWhy do most actors feel the need to become pieces of chitt and appeal to the illiterates?
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 2:17pmA Legend in his own mind.
Report Post »Delta D-5-3
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 3:12pmWhere’s his boyfriend Hugo??? What a great Marxist Penn is, now why don’t you MOVE to Iran……
Report Post »michael48
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 3:31pmevidently, Fidel and Hugo …meet the BUS…penn will look better in a burkha than a red beret…next
Report Post »I support God's Israel!
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 3:42pmHey Sean, could you PRETTY PLEASE JUST STAY OVER THERE?
I avoid ALL movies that Sean Penn is in because everytime I see him, my spirit tells me that he is hateful, selfish, and spiteful, so I TURN HIM OFF.
I WILL NOT RENT OR PURCHASE ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH OR HAS SEAN PENN IN IT. That is not boycotting. THAT IS MAKING SURE I PUT MY MONEY WHERE MY MOUTH IS.
Report Post »i will ***NOT*** support evil with God’s monies.
Armed Patriot
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 4:10pmCOMMIE TRAITOR. go back to cuba or venezuela, pick some place nice and communist. Stay. We dont want your treasonous a$$ coming back. Fast Times and Taps were the only good things you ever did.
Report Post »Lucy Larue
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:16pmAMEN!!!!!
Report Post »What an absolute, brain dead, useless tool!
You want him to stay in Libya? Nah..,too good of a hellhole. I want him stuck in the hinterlands of AFGHANISTAN!
Lamarr01
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 10:32pmSean Penn fancies himself as a political thinker and humanitarian. He will always be Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. His sunken eyes suggest his brain is shrinking from drugs and alcohol. He better leave Libya before they find out his father was Jewish. Possession of drugs or alcohol will result in a prison sentence.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on October 6, 2011 at 1:28am“Inspired?” Can we assume that this means you are finally going to get a real job?
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on October 6, 2011 at 3:59amLOL! You are so right. He could choose Venezuela with his buddy Hugo, ANYwhere but here. He plays a good bad a$$ in the movies but he is a squirrely little worm that falls victim to his Napolean complex.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on October 6, 2011 at 5:09am… he forgets that he’s an actor, which doesn’t mean squat. He is clueless …
Report Post »United States of America
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:25amDude, just do it already. Your hatred for your home country and love of nearly every other foreign land says so. Goodbye.
Report Post »IraHayesFlagRaiser
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 2:39pmSean Penn spelled back spells “UN-American, leftist commie, left-wing Dem, socialist loving, Fidelio Castro admirer“. This is one of 1,000 reasons why I refuse to support these anti-American leftist films and projects; they live off the richness of our beloved country while all along criticizing the very freedom they enjoy at NO COST TO THEM!
Report Post »Delta D-5-3
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 3:17pmIraHayesFlagRaiser, THAT’S WHY MY WIFE AND I DO NOT SUPPORT ANYTHING COMING OUT OF HOLLYWOOD!!!!! Screw them. If everyone else does the same, maybe, just maybe the idiots living in there huge bubbles in CA will come back to Earth and see the REAL WORLD as opposed to there warped vision of America. The country that MADE THERE FORTUNES!!!!!!
Report Post »45-ACP
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:25amNever could stand this little ***.
Report Post »Bonnieblue2A
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:48pmHe raises the “idiot” in useful idiot to a whole new level.
Report Post »GulfPeg
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:25amI don’t know what Hollywood sees in him. He is ugly!
Report Post »Delta D-5-3
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 3:20pmHe’s a LEFTIST. That’s why they love him.
Report Post »This_Individual
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:24am“Hollywood actor”? How about just actor.
Report Post »dsind
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:23amsee, america IS great.
Report Post »any idiot can succeed here.
what a freeking dueffus!
ares338
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:22amA whole bunch of Hollywood types are operating under the mistaken belief that someone actually cares what they think. He’s a legend in his own mind. By the way,his acting sucks!
Report Post »Attilashrugs
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:21amI never thought him talented at all. His movies were lame. And look at his face: it exudes snide self-righteous holier -than -thou “liberalism”. Liberalism, is in quotes because I am no longer willing to use their definitions of philosophical words. Liberal civil society is the only new thing under the sun. Before the rise of the Middle Class nation, i.e. the USA, there were Princes and Priests lording it over peasants and serfs. The P&P’s has never fully accepted the presence of the uppity middle class. They have been gradually working out the plan to enlist angry impoverished people; impoverished deliberately by their policies. They will then set this seething howling mob of functionally illiterate deeply ignorant rabble against the only class that actually produces wealth.
Report Post »How much longer will we be passive? When will we be able to confidently name them for what they are? They are the deposed Tribal Priests who selected human sacrifices to “appease” gods they themselves invented to scare the ignorant. They are the wistful Tzars who pine for the good old days when a serf knew his place or was knouted. They are the painted whores of France who smugly asked why they did not eat cake if bread was too costly. Nero would so love to light his coronation with living torches of Christians. And the rebels who sought merely to switch the identity of the rulers and ruled,were not interested in creating a better where no Man’s life is but a Means to someone els
inexiletill2012
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:19amYour still a piece of sheet Jeff Spicoli
Report Post »felix
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:19aminspired by the muslim brotherhood – what complete idiot p.o.s.
Report Post »randy
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:18amI was just thinking., Has anyone ever seen sean Penn and That old bag, Frances Fox Piven together?
Report Post »Sean Penn Looks and awful lot like her.
Meyvn
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:33amI think they’re siblings. Kinda look like Soros too.
Report Post »Ceel Abby
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:18amLike most of these self-appointed Hollywood pundits he’s a fried egg. Liberals are such fools. An attitude of self-serving arrogance that can only be cured when they are room temperature.
Report Post »jessieH
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:17amThe guy is nothing more than an over-the-hill actor, looking for love. Let’s kiss him with a bullet!
Report Post »motherof18
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:17amMuslims are not human beings.
Report Post »SHOESHINEBOY
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:16amThen stay there…
Report Post »randy
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:16amWill some mUSLIM please step up to the plate and MARTYR this idiot!
Report Post »yohannbiimu
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:16amPenn giving his expert opinion of Iraq (this is precious): http://www.spike.com/video-clips/t5l4fu/team-america-world-police-sean-penn-on-iraq
Report Post »RightUnite
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:15amI would be inspired if someone would pop him.
Report Post »tommy_pete
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 12:09pmDitto…
Report Post »MIBUGNU2
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 2:33pmThat would be poetic justice..gotta Luv 3rd World Countries..
Report Post »you just don’t stay in one place for any length of time..
But if he was really serious, He could stay there for about
10 Years and teach all about Democracy, seems to be
an authority on the subject….AH HUH !!!
MIBUGNU2
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 2:36pmOh GAWD !!! I forgot to tell him, they don‘t like Jew’s and Dopers..
Report Post »SICKOFLIBSBULSH
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:15amPlease, feel free to stay in inspirational Libya. Moron
Report Post »SERUM
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:14amHumanitarian tour? See if he once mentions the rape victims, just once.
Report Post »yohannbiimu
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:12amHow “inspired” will this useful idiot be when the Islamists have forced him to his knees, and he’s threatened with beheading if he does not become a willing subject of their bloody ideology.
Report Post »simply one voice
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:09amI really do hate Actors who think the are full of knowledge, when what the really need is a full-body and brain colonic.
Report Post »jakartaman
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:08amThank goodness we have patriots like Penn who give of themselves in the name of humanity.
Report Post »His leadership example is awe inspiring.
His message is profound
His heart is pure.
He is the modern day Lawrence of Arabia
He is also a raving communist arrogant lunatic.
drattastic
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:15amMaybe he can be a Martyr too . I won’t lose any sleep.
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:19amYeh, I read the HL wrong. I thought it said Sean Penn popped in Libya, what a disappointment when I reread.
Report Post »Benetto
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:05amCan we give them any money to keep him???
Report Post »MidWestMom
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:19amMy thoughts exactly.
Report Post »starman70
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 10:58amSTAY THERE FOREVER! PLEASE; AMERICA DOESN’T NEED YOU!!!!
rq’d lc.
Report Post »jkjk
Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:06amThe idiot should move out there.
Report Post »