Thread: Libya: Murder and Plunder Masquerading as “Humanitarian In

[b]Libya: Murder and Plunder Masquerading as “Humanitarian Interventionâ€

Yesterday Iraq. Today Libya. "Paying the Price.": Children are the Unspoken Victims of US-NATO Wars

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, March 22, 2011

"Paying the Price" - Again.

Now Libya's people are "paying the price", for being, well, Libyan, I am reminded of another people that, to use the words of the appalling Madeleine Albright, then US., Ambassador the the UN., were : " ... a price worth paying." She was talking of the deaths of half a million Iraqi children, on 12th May 1996.

When I was involved, as Senior Researcher, in John Pilger's ground breaking documentary on the reality of what was happening, in Iraq, resultant from America and Britain's (arm twisted) UN., backed embargo, not from the actions of the regime, one scene has stayed with me to haunt.

I took Pilger and his three person film crew to a small graveyard, in a remote area in Northern Iraq, where, a few months before, five child shepherds and their Grandfather had been buried.The youngest child was nearly six and the oldest was thirteen. They had been blown to pieces in the US., UK., (illegally) imposed "no fly zone." As Libya, the mis-noma meant the British and Americans could fly and bomb, and the Iraqis had no means of protection and could not even even fly commercial airliners.

The story, as told to me by one of those who had run, on hearing and seeing the bombing, to try and rescue them was harrowing and chilling. The 'planes he said, had circled low, so could certainly see the children, the older man and, it transpired, two hundred sheep, alone on the ancient, remote, Nineveh plain.

Then they bombed. The family was blown to bits. The rescuers spent the day collected the still warm pieces, trying to identify as much as they could to ensure each was ensured their own final resting place and not the all muddled together in an eternal discourtesy. He lowered his eyes as he said: "We tried, but there was so little, we are still not sure if there were pieces of sheep we had mistaken .."

We were taken to the graves by the children's Uncle. The youngest child had been exited at the prospect of going to school and had taken a notebook and pencil with him on his shepherding duties, to practice writing. Pilger asked whether the Uncle would be kind enough to bring the note book to us, so it could be recorded on film, the child's writing, as a small tribute; memorial.

When he returned, he was accompanied by a tiny woman, in a shabby and not too clean abaya. In a region where cleanliness is obligatory, she clearly had lost pride, will and nearly mind. She was the mother of the children and daughter of their Grandfather.

She walked down the steep, dusty path, to the graves, as if unaware of anything, tranced, mesmorised. She sat, silent, stone-still, on the smallest grave. That of the five year old. After some minutes, she walked back up the dusty path, in the searing heat. I was standing at the top, away from the film crew. I put out my hand, and stammering, attempted, impossibly, to find the words to somehow address the enormity of her tragedy. She listened to my inadequate, pathetic effort, put her hand in mine. It was ice cold, in an Iraq August of perhaps 130 degrees. She looked up at me, seemingly a representative of a country who had wrought this catastrophe on a tiny woman, from a tiny community, and her family, watching over their sheep.

"I want nothing from any of you", she said: "But I would just like to meet the pilot of that 'plane." She withdrew her icy hand and disappeared over the hill.

Yesterday Iraq. Today Libya. "Paying the price."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=23855

Intelligence Partnership between Qadhafi and the CIA on counter-terrorism

by Daya Gamage
Global Research, March 22, 2011
Asian Tribune


Moussa Koussa, former Libyan intelligence chief, now foreign minister.

Not very long ago, in 2009, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) came to an agreement with Libyan leader Colonel Qadhafi’s intelligence apparatus to offer counter-terrorism training to Libyan security personnel.

This arrangement and the build-up of close collaboration between the Libyan and American intelligence agencies was the result of the October 2001 visit to London by Assistant U.S. Secretary of State William J. Burns to confer with Moussa Koussa the chief of Libyan intelligence. Mr. Koussa is currently the foreign minister of the Qadhafi regime.

He provided the CIA with the names of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) operatives and the Libyan Islamists who trained in Afghanistan, as well as dossiers of LIFG leaders living in Britain. Analysts describe the knowledge gained by the CIA provided by Moussa Koussa extremely valuable, and in the light of the central role of Libyan Afghans in al-Qaeda, this was a major intelligence windfall for the Bush administration.

By that time the LIFG had waged a violent insurgency against Colonel Qadhafi, and the American administration and the CIA knew the movement’s rapport and connection with the al-Qaeda. This domestic challenge drew Qadhafi toward the United States, and the U.S. since 9/11 had undertaken the War on Global Terrorism.

It is after the Burns-Koussa meeting in October 2001 that the U.S. administration designated the LIFG a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

In fact, in 1998 Libya became the first country to issue an Interpol arrest warrant for Osama bin-Laden, charging that al-Qaeda had collaborated with domestic radicals in the 1994 killing of two German anti-terrorism agents in Libya.

The former Libyan intelligence chief and presently Libya’s foreign minister Moussa Koussa in no stranger to the United States: He earned a digree in sociology from Michigan State University in 1978, had written a political biography of Colonel Qadhafi for his master’s thesis. The following year he was posted to London as the head of the Libyan mission.

Colonel Qadhafi’s decision to renounce its nuclear program was negotiated by Koussa that brought Libya closer to the United States. In addition to turning over 55,000 pounds of nuclear equipment, Libya gave the CIA files with names of black-market suppliers, front companies and transporters.

Kenneth Katzman, a terrorism analyst attached to the Congressional Research service which is the independent research arm of the U.S. Congress, commented at that time “The information they turned over helped us to track down aspects of the black-market network and contributed to the shutdown of parts of that network in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.â€

Diplomacy is a Disguised War: Obama’s Diplomatic "Sleight-of-hand"

by Peter Fay
Global Research, March 22, 2011

“Since[diplomacy] is a mere temporary substitute [for war], a mere appearance of war’s energy under another form, a surrogate effect is almost exactly proportioned to the armed force behind it. When it fails, the recourse is immediate to the military technique whose thinly veiled arm it has been.â€

Keeping up Appearances: America's Intelligence Operation in Libya

by William Bowles
Global Research, March 22, 2011
Strategic Culture Foundation

"The US has signalled that the international community should "go beyond" a no-fly zone in Libya, suggesting military intervention for the first time."" -- "West should 'go beyond' no-fly zone, US says" -- The Daily Telegraph, 20 March 2011

So why is there no 'no-fly zone' over the Ivory Coast, or Yemen, or Bahrain or indeed any country where the state is killing its citizens? What makes Libya different? Could it be that the hysterical propaganda campaign concerning Gaddafi's human rights abuses in the Western media is related to the following, with the head of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen telling his Polish audience,

"When I look at central and eastern Europe I'm extremely optimistic about the future we can achieve in North Africa" -- 'NATO: Libya Military Intervention: Model For North Africa', Reuters, 17 March 2011

Referring to the successful overthrow of the former Eastern Bloc members and of course, the destruction of Yugoslavia. So Libya is to be the first of many according to Rasmussen who are going to get 'humanitarian assistance', NATO-style.

That in reality, having been caught napping elsewhere in the region, the nominally UN-backed invasion is an attempt by the Empire to regain control not only of the outcome of Libya's rebellion, but also setting the stage for many more and not for democracy or human rights but to ensure control over Libya's vital (to the West) oil assets, the biggest in Africa and secure the Empire's overall control of the region.

As I wrote way back, creating a 'no-fly zone' is an act of war, a view that is confirmed by the US' UN ambassador Rice:

"A diplomat on the security council told the Associated Press that Rice said the goal should be expanded from creating a no-fly zone to protecting civilians. To do this, the international community must have all the necessary tools � including authorisation to use planes, troops or ships to stop attacks by Gaddafi's air, land and sea forces�the Pentagon has described [the no fly zone] as a step tantamount to war." -- 'Authorise Libya air strikes, US urges UN' -- The Guardian, 17 March 2011

The 'no-fly-zone' is de facto an act of war on Libya for to enforce it, you first need to destroy the enemy's military capacity to act, else it's just words. But worse still is the gigantic lie that's been put over by the Empire concerning events in Libya used to justify this horrendous action, all of which has come to pass. Already there are reports of civilian deaths from the Empire's missile strikes. It's all so sickeningly predictable.

Meanwhile, the Western left, such as it is, and just as depressingly predictable, is now in a real predicament. One 'left' journalist, Gilbert Achcar writing for ZCommunications wrote the following:

"So, to sum up, I believe that from an anti-imperialist perspective one cannot and should not oppose the no-fly zone, given that there is no plausible alternative for protecting the endangered population. The Egyptians are reported to be providing weapons to the Libyan opposition -- and that's fine -- but on its own it couldn't have made a difference that would have saved Benghazi in time. But again, one must maintain a very critical attitude toward what the Western powers might do." -- 'Libyan Developments', March 19, 2011

This is the 'left' speaking on a very well known 'left' platform? What on earth makes Achcar think that Egypt, still a military dictatorship is interested in Libyan human rights? Achcar justifies it by using the same argument as the Empire, that it's being done to prevent Gaddafi committing atrocities. So why didn't Achcar advocate a 'no-fly zone' ages ago if he believes that it would have prevented Gaddafi's committing atrocities? For that matter, why didn't the Empire?

I despair...

Sucked in by all the allegations of Gaddafi's 'reign of terror' and one armed by the very people who are now busy destroying it, instead of focusing on why the Empire was so concerned with Gaddafi's regime as opposed to its indifference, indeed arming of Israel when it decimated Gaza, it got caught up in the West's propaganda assault about defending 'human rights'! A call by the way, that the MSM makes great play of when propagandizing for the Empire, stating on numerous occasions that force would only be used to defend civilians.

But just like the infamous UN Resolution that led to the invasion of Libya, 'defending civilians' is an opened-ended and totally vague statement that can be interpreted any which way.

What I don't understand is why Russia and China abstained from voting except for the allegation made by the head of Russia�s Communist party, Gennady Zyuganov that,

"Changes have been made to the document just ahead of the vote, although it had been agreed upon by the sides. These changes are in fact loopholes for launching a large-scale ground intervention" -- 'Russian Communist leader slams Moscow's passive stance on Libya', RT, 18 March 2011

Although, Russia having already backed the idea of a 'no-fly zone' had to know what it really entailed. Russia's UN ambassador justified its abstention as follows:

"Asserting that Russia did not veto the resolution as it was "guided by the necessity to protect civilians and by general humanitarian values," he remained convinced that "an immediate ceasefire is the shortest way to reliable security of the peaceful population and long-term stabilization in Libya.""

Shame on you Russia after all the hot air about being vehemently opposed to any foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Libya. Let's move on...

Libya's 'revolution' US-inspired and engineered?

From the outset, the Libyan rebellion has been presented as a continuation of the rebellions elsewhere in the Middle East/North Africa and the State/MSM often uses the 'revolutions' elsewhere as a justification for supporting the Libyan 'revolution', failing to mention of course that so far, there have been no revolutions anywhere in the Middle East or North Africa. In fact the opposite has been the case, with the state murdering its citizens in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and no sign of the Empire's missiles raining down on Bahrain, Yemen or Saudi Arabia's US-supplied military arsenals.


Moussa Koussa

"In a bid to further clamp down on the Libyan government, the Treasury Department sanctioned the country�s foreign minister, who was a key CIA asset over the years" -- 'US Tightens Screws On Libya, Sanctioning Foreign Minister And 16 Companies', New York Times, 15 March, 2011

What we do know is that the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), itself a front for the US government are heavily involved in supporting the Libyan 'revolution' and as the NYT story above illustrates the US have agents within Gaddafi's government and have had them for years.

"The FNSL was part of the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition held in London in 2005, and British resources are being used to support the FNSL and other 'opposition' in Libya. The FNSL was actually formed in October 1981 in Sudan under Colonel Jaafar Nimieri-- the US puppet dictator who was openly known to be a Central Intelligence Agency operative, and who ruled Sudan ruthlessly from 1977 to 1985. The FNSL held its national congress in the USA in July 2007. Reports of 'atrocities' and civilian deaths are being channeled into the western press from operations in Washington DC, and the opposition FNSL is reportedly organizing resistance and military attacks from both inside and outside Libya." -- 'Petroleum and Empire in North Africa. NATO Invasion of Libya Underway', By Keith Harmon Snow, 2 March 2011.

A clever ruse was plotted by the Empire and its minions well in advance of yesterday's invasion including I am sure, direct involvement in the rebellion.

First, wait and see if the rebels can stage a successful coup. If not�and that's what happened what with Gaddafi's forces ready to take back Benghazi�persuade the doubters that Gaddafi was about to commit unspeakable horrors (already set-up from day one of the rebellion with the unfounded rumours of Gaddafi's atrocities and African mercenaries) and push through an open-ended Security Council resolution that gave the Empire free reign to do whatever it wanted with Libya.

And to make the entire sordid and illegal affair more palatable to a world quite used to being 'liberated' by US 'largesse' in its distribution of democracy, do it all through an Anglo-French front (they have the most to lose along with Italians in Libya through their oil concessions) but with the US pulling all the strings (and firing most of the missiles).

A cynical and sordid deal worthy only of the pirates who have succeeded in turning a former ally into an ogre aka Manuel Noriega, who was also surplus to requirement, indeed a potential embarassment to the Empire.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=23850