Regarding Qaddafi's death and the (succeeding) consequences of the Libyan situation

Regarding Qaddafi's death

and the (succeeding) consequences of the Libyan situation

"I’m not ashamed to admit I’m writing this with tears in my eyes."

These are the first words said in a writeup regarding Qaddafi by James P. of the American Front. It somehow pleases methat despite the "hatred", of being demonized by the media, there are still people around the world paid respect to a man who, despite his contributions to Libyan society end up lynched and shot by a mob.

Sad isn't it that despite wanting him to put on trial or what they end up putting him killed "for the sake of democracy", while at the same time thinking that despite trying-hard means to put things in order will rather end up contrary to it-as most people would clamor for free electricity, good roads, good education and social services rather than be ruled by a mob, sponsored by vested interests scrambling for oil in a once-proud African country.

And although I oppose some of his moves that seemed "anti-popular", Gaddafi somehow put forward what real self-determination was, and that was to make a "new" Libya willing to take the risk of getting intervened by outside powers such as England, France or the United States and its domestic puppets and turncoats-including taking a vow of sacrifice like himself, and his people end up as corpses blood flowing in Sirte or Misrata. And people would remember him much that they afford free electricity and a good literacy rate all despite the odds given especially as what we've seen lately.

In fact, I remember reading a copy of a his "Green Book" when I was a student; and what I had seen on that book is entirely a critique-assessment on what every society goes on and on-especially in regards to politics and culture. Especially that Qaddafi criticized "Democracy" and "Parliaments" as misrepresenting people and in favor of the elite. Yes, despite having different perspectives I agreed in his stance as I or we obviously sought elitists and not the masses who took decisions in it; worse having the fact that votes can be bought and falsified during elections and choices limited to the wishes of the few whilst letting the people choosing which is which.

And thus,

As we expect these things around us, of having Oligarchs, insufficient distribution of welfare in exchange for labour, is this "Democracy" preached by everyone? Having elections bought, sold, falsified? A "Democracy" ran by an elite and with vested interests whilst disregarding or reducing social justice into a mere sentiment? For sure most of us are greatly concerned or confused about this hell of a kind matter, especially to those who end up having a boycott out of it simply because of having a rotten system maintained with a hodge-podge of promises and pepper spray, of carrot and stick. After all, Qaddafi's writeup somehow showed an idea what Democracy should be and that is the rule of the people.

And with his and his people's deaths during the civil war, of the growing number of wounded casualties, bullets being spent, houses and buildings being bombed, of foreign intervention led by NATO, it all somehow justifies Mao Zedong's quote concerning war and peace, that:

"War is a continuation of politics, and there are at least two types: just (progressive) and unjust wars, which only serve bourgeois interests. While no one likes war, we must remain ready to wage just wars against imperialist agitations."

Weird to say so about it, but the fact is that the battle sponsored by the west was and is an example of an unjust wars only to serve someone else's interests. Iraq's people were killed for an obvious reason of pumping oil in it, and so is Libya's; "The freedom of a human being is lacking if his or her needs are controlled by others, for need may lead to the enslavement of one person by another. Furthermore, exploitation is caused by need. Need is an intrinsic problem and conflict is initiated by the control of one's needs by another." as what Qaddafi said in his book, and for sure entities willing to exploit Libyan oil are for sure realizing this quotation. NATO bombed houses as they need it in ousting Qaddafi, then oil companies go through exploiting oil in it-then selling it expensively for they need profits in it! So what's the essence of their "freedom" if they themselves not noticed that they are indirectly exploited by the west? I personally against atrocities made during Qaddafi's regime same as those being called "rats" but then to sum it all who's benefiting the conflict? Is it the people who kept on waving the flag of Idris? Will it inculcate plans and opportunities better than what Qaddafi did?

Anyway,

People someday will know that they will laugh at themselves and regret their actions. EDSA Revolution for instance, whose product is rampant poverty worse than the latter days of the Marcos regime and a system worsened by vested interests also made some people lay low and nearly regret what they've did to it;

But on the other hand more are willing to advance an idea greater than the man from Sirte did; and whether we like it or not, it will involve blood and iron as what Bismark said.

Condolences for the fallen, but Libya will never be the same, especially when people had:

free electricity,

free great medical care,

interest free loans,

govt. paid 50% for purchase of a car,

govt gave newly married couples $50,000 to buy a house...

Everything to say that "Qaddafi was worth remembering."

We will continue the fight, which is also our Fight.

To Victory or Death. Yours for the Resistance,

Paul S.

Gaddafi defeat 'a matter of time'

Gaddafi defeat 'a matter of time'*

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces are cornered and his defeat is "only a matter of time", Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said today.

After chairing a meeting of the National Security Council, Mr Clegg insisted the reappearance in Tripoli of the dictator's son Saif Al-Islam was "not the sign of some great comeback for the Gaddafi regime".

But he acknowledged there would be "frustrations and setbacks" before the regime fell.

Mr Clegg said: "Our assessment is that Free Libya forces now control much, but not all, of Tripoli.

"Yes, there will be frustrations and setbacks but the remaining remnants of the Gaddafi regime are now cornered. It's only a matter of time before they are finally defeated and Libya is completely free."

Mr Clegg played down the significance of Gaddafi's son Saif turning up at Tripoli's Hotel Rixos, where a number of foreign journalists are staying.

"He is not roaming freely through Tripoli. He and the remaining pro-Gaddafi forces are now cornered, they are making their last stand, and it's only a matter of time before they are finally defeated. About that we are very confident indeed."

Colonel Gaddafi's whereabouts is still unknown, while Saif's elder brother Mohammed is also missing after reportedly breaking free from house arrest last night.

Mr Clegg's comments came as television images showed a jubilant and free Saif, regarded as his father's immediate successor, meeting supporters outside the loyalist-held Hotel Rixos before claiming that forces loyal to his father had "broken the backbone" of the rebel offensive.

He also indicated that Gaddafi remained in the violence-torn capital, stating that the weakening regime remained in control.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell blamed confusion over Saif's apparent arrest on the "fog of warfare" but acknowledged there would be a "bumpy ride" over the coming days.

"There was a lot of confusion, there are quite long lines of communication involved," he told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"It's inevitable in this situation, with the warfare going on as it is, that there will be some confusion."

On BBC1's Breakfast he added: "This will be a bumpy ride, as the Prime Minister made clear in his statement yesterday.

"But if you look at the events over the past week or so it is clear that the Free Libya forces are doing well and now occupy very large parts of Libya."

Prime Minister David Cameron, who resumed his family holiday in Cornwall today, and US President Barack Obama discussed the rapidly unfolding situation during a telephone conversation last night in which they called on Gaddafi to "relinquish power once and for all" and discussed plans for a "peaceful transition to democracy".

Forces loyal to Gaddafi continue to fight fierce battles with rebels surging into Tripoli from all sides and taking control of large areas of the city.

There were significant casualties after clashes around the dictator's heavily fortified compound.

The head of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, warned that victory was not yet complete.

But he added: "The youth of Libya have written an epic heroic battle."

Nato spokesman Colonel Roland Lavoie told Today the alliance was not in "direct contact" with the rebels and had no plans to send in ground troops.

But he said the no-fly zone authorised by United Nations Security Resolution 1973 would continue to be enforced by Nato jets.

"We have enough to be busy with the current situation," said Col Lavoie. "This mission is not finished yet."

AP

* Url:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/gaddafi-defeat-a-matter-of-time-2342368.html

Libya: secret role played by Britain creating path to the fall of Tripoli

Libya: secret role played by Britain creating path to the fall of Tripoli*

Gordon Rayner, Thomas Harding and Duncan Gardham,

The Telegraph,

London, 22 August 2011

The key role played by Britain in equipping and advising Libya’s rebel fighters for their final push on Tripoli was becoming clear last night as Col Muammar Gaddafi’s remaining forces staged a last stand around his bunker.

For weeks, military and intelligence officers have been helping the rebels plan their co-ordinated attack on the capital, and Whitehall sources have disclosed that the RAF stepped up raids on Tripoli on Saturday morning in a pre-arranged plan to pave the way for the rebel advance.

MI6 officers based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi had honed battle plans drawn up by Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC) which were agreed 10 weeks ago.

The constantly-updated tactical advice provided by British experts to the rebel leaders centred on the need to spark a fresh uprising within Tripoli that could be used as the cue for fighters to advance on the city.

But when it finally came, the speed with which it achieved its goal took everyone, including the rebels, by surprise.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that although the uprising in Tripoli began on Saturday night, the first phase of the battle for the capital had begun hours earlier, when RAF Tornado GR4 aircraft attacked a key communications facility in south-west Tripoli as part of the agreed battle plan.

On Saturday morning five precision-guided Paveway IV bombs were dropped on the Baroni Centre, a secret intelligence base headed by Gaddafi’s brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi.

The aircraft then struck at least one main battle tank belonging to Gaddafi’s troops, and in the afternoon another RAF patrol destroyed an artillery piece on the western edge of Tripoli and a nearby command and control facility.

On the ground, the rebels had spent weeks smuggling weapons, communications equipment and battle-hardened fighters into Tripoli, setting up secret arms dumps around the capital and waiting for a pre-arranged signal to trigger the uprising.

Mahmoud Shammam, a spokesman for the TNC, told the Daily Telegraph that the agreed signal was a televised speech by the TNC chairman, Mustafa Abd-al-Jalil, which was broadcast via the Qatar-based Libya TV on Saturday evening.

Mr Jalil told the citizens of Tripoli “you have to rise to the event”, and as dusk fell at around 8pm local time a group of rebels seized their chance and took control of the Ben Nabi Mosque close to the city centre.

Using loudspeakers which normally call people to prayer, they began anti-Gaddafi chants to confirm the start of what rebel leaders called Operation Mermaid Dawn – the battle for Tripoli, which is nicknamed Mermaid in Arabic.

Mr Shammam said: “The start of the uprising was pre-arranged. We used our TV station for Mr Jalil to give a speech calling for the uprising and soon most of the people of Tripoli were on the streets.”

The timing of the uprising caught Gaddafi completely by surprise; the rebels had spent that day flushing out that last of his forces from Zawiyah, 30 miles west of Tripoli, and the Brother Leader had clearly expected them to regroup, reorganise and re-arm - as they had done in the past after each major battle - before making an attempt on Tripoli.

Instead, the rebels who had been fighting in Zawiyah were making a dash for the capital, and in the skies overhead RAF Tornados and Typhoons were launching further surgical strikes on pre-planned targets.

The RAF and its alliance partners carried out 46 sorties on Sunday alone, relying heavily on the RAF’s Brimstone ground attack missile system that can pick out targets close to civilian areas with incredible accuracy, minimising the risk of civilian casualties.

Gaddafi’s bunker at Bab al-Aziziya was pounded throughout the night, and the Tornados’ advanced electronics also enabled aircraft already in the sky to hit Gaddafi targets as they were identified, using a system known as dynamic targeting.

Gaddafi’s command and control centres, set up in industrial buildings or even empty schools, were also attacked, crippling the Libyan despot’s ability to direct his troops.

On the ground, meanwhile, the rebels sent out mass text messages to regime opponents waiting in Tripoli for a signal to rise up, and as Gaddafi’s forces tried in vain to suppress the revolt it spread out across 13 suburbs.

By Sunday afternoon the rebels who had been fighting in Zawiyah were just miles away from the outskirts of Tripoli.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, confirmed yesterday that Britain had equipped the fighters with a range of “non-lethal” kit including advanced telecommunications equipment and 1,000 sets of body armour.

They had also been given night vision goggles, which proved crucial in picking out snipers who had been sent by Gaddafi to impede their progress towards the capital.

The battle plan also included a sea-borne assault on Tripoli launched from the port of Misrata to the east, which landed at dawn on Sunday.

Gaddafi took to the airwaves to make a series of increasingly desperate appeals for Libyans to defend Tripoli from the rebels as “a matter of life and death” but the crackling recordings of his voice – and a lack of any video footage – led to speculation that he had either fled the country or had gone into hiding in a 2,000-mile network of tunnels built in the 1980s.

His soldiers, sensing the battle was lost, had begun dumping their uniforms wherever they stood, and by midnight on Sunday the rebels had reached Green Square, the symbolic heart of Tripoli, with little resistance.

The speed of the rebel advance was such that Gaddafi’s intended heir, his son Saif al-Islam, had no time to reach his father’s compound, and was captured by rebels on Saturday night.

His brother, Mohammed, was giving a telephone interview to a broadcaster when a gunfight broke out inside his home. The line went dead and seconds later he too was captured.

Mr Shammam said: “The plan was very successful. Our assumption was that it would take a few days but the results were clear in a few hours.

“We were expecting more resistance from Gaddafi’s troops. We thought they were determined to fight to the last moment but it seems like they got tired or lost the cause.”

David Cameron, who was on a family holiday in Cornwall, also seemed to have been caught out by the rapid turn of events.

Although he had been kept up to date with the rebels’ plans, no-one had expected Tripoli to fall so quickly, and the Prime Minister scrambled to get back to Downing Street to chair a meeting of the National Security Council yesterday.

Speaking outside Number 10, he paid tribute to the “incredible bravery, professionalism and dedication” of the RAF pilots, adding: “This has not been our revolution, but we can be proud that we have played our part.”

As the fighting continued in Tripoli last night, the rebels had gained control of around 90 per cent of the city, with the bloodiest battle raging around Gaddafi’s compound at Bab al-Aziziya.

Another of Gaddafi’s sons, Khamis, was reported to have led his eponymous Khamis Brigade into battle from the compound, killing what one official described as “a big number” of rebels.

Tanks rolled out of the compound to begin shelling the city, and snipers fired from rooftops to prevent rebels joining the battle at Bab al-Aziziya.

Loyalist tanks were also deployed at the port, but the rebels continued to press on, and scored further victories.

By mid-afternoon yesterday they had reportedly captured a third son of Gaddafi, Saadi, and at 4pm Libya’s state broadcaster went off the air, removing one of the despot’s final and most important tools in his ability to maintain any form of resistance.

Across Tripoli, its citizens tore down every green flag of the Gaddafi regime they could find, chanting “freedom” in English. By last night, Green Square had been renamed Martyrs’ Square as 42 years of tyranny finally came to an end.

“We came out today to feel a bit of freedom,” said Ashraf Halaby, 30, as he joined the celebrations in the square. “We still don't believe that this is happening.”

* Url:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8716758/Libya-secret-role-played-by-Britain-creating-path-to-the-fall-of-Tripoli.html

Gadaffi son rallies loyalists

Gadaffi son rallies loyalists*

Tuesday, 23rd August, 2011

Free: Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam raises his hands to supporters in Tripoli. Reuters

A son of Muammar Gadaffi who rebels said they had captured made a surprise appearance with jubilant supporters in Tripoli overnight and issued a rallying cry to loyalists to fight off opponents who say they control most of the Libyan capital.

Saif al-Islam, who has been seen as his father's heir apparent, visited the Tripoli hotel where foreign journalists are staying to declare that the government was winning the battle against the rebels.

He took journalists to his father's Bab al-Aziziyah stronghold. Television footage showed Saif smiling, waving and shaking hands with supporters, as well as holding his arms aloft and making the V for victory sign.

"We broke the back of the rebels. It was a trap. We gave them a hard time, so we are winning," Saif said.

"Take up arms today, take up arms today," Saif told loyalists waiting to be given weapons. "Inshallah (God willing) we will attack the rats today," he said to cheers.

Saif's arrest had been reported both by rebels and the International Criminal Court in The Hague and his appearance before the foreign media raised questions as to the rebels' credibility.

He said Tripoli was under government control and that he did not care about the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court seeking him and his father for crimes against humanity.

Gadaffi himself has not been seen in public for several weeks before the rebels arrived in the capital at the weekend. But when asked if his father was safe and well in Tripoli, Saif told journalists: "Of course."

World leaders urged Gadaffi, 69, to surrender to prevent more bloodshed and appealed for an orderly transition of power, as the six-month-old battle for control of the oil-producing North African nation appeared to enter its final stages.

* Url:http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/763360

CIA Asset: We Have Just Handed Libya Back to Islamic Radicals

CIA Asset: We Have Just Handed Libya Back to Islamic Radicals

NATO SLAUGHTER IN TRIPOLI: "Operation Mermaid Dawn" Signals Assault by Rebels' Al Qaeda Death Squads

NATO SLAUGHTER IN TRIPOLI:

"Operation Mermaid Dawn" Signals Assault by Rebels' Al Qaeda Death Squads*

By Thierry Meyssan

Voltaire Network

Monday, Aug 22, 2011

Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 22, 2011, – On Saturday evening, at 8pm, when the hour of Iftar marked the breaking of the Ramadan fast, the NATO command launched its “Operation Mermaid Dawn” against Libya.

The Sirens were the loudspeakers of the mosques, which were used to launch Al Qaeda’s call to revolt against the Qaddafi government. Immediately the sleeper cells of the Benghazi rebels went into action. These were small groups with great mobility, which carried out multiple attacks. The overnight fighting caused 350 deaths and 3,000 wounded.

The situation calmed somewhat on Sunday during the course of the day.

Then, a NATO warship sailed up and anchored just off the shore at Tripoli, delivering heavy weapons and debarking Al Qaeda jihadi forces, which were led by NATO officers.

Fighting stared again during the night. There were intense firefights. NATO drones and aircraft kept bombing in all directions. NATO helicopters strafed civilians in the streets with machine guns to open the way for the jihadis.

In the evening, a motorcade of official cars carrying top government figures came under attack. The convoy fled to the Hotel Rixos, where the foreign press is based. NATO did not dare to bomb the hotel because they wanted to avoid killing the journalists. Nevertheless the hotel, which is where I am staying, is now under heavy fire.

At 11:30pm, the Health Minister had to announce that the hospitals were full to overflowing. On Sunday evening, there had been 1300 additional dead and 5,000 wounded.

NATO had been charged by the UN Security Council with protecting civilians in Libya. In reality, France and Great Britain have just re-started their colonial massacres.

At 1am, Khamis Qaddafi came to the Rixos Hotel personally to deliver weapons for the defense of the hotel. He then left. There is now heavy fighting all around the hotel.

*Url:http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_63610.shtml

Libyan Government and Rebels Claim Control of Zones

Libyan Government and Rebels Claim Control of Zones

Trípoli, Aug 21 (prensa Latina) The Libyan leader Muamar el Qaddafi assured in a recorded speech to have eliminated rats, as he called his opponents backed by NATO; while his opponents assured they will soon control the city.

Rats want to destroy the country, said Gadaffi who added that he will stay in Libya while official sources announced the recapture of Brega city, under seige for days, and from where the self-styled National Transition Council (NTC) admitted that it had to retreat because of intense bombing.

Gadaffi's message also served to give the lie to versions previously spread by different sources saying that he ran away to South Africa or Bolivia seeking political asylum.

In another TV message Saif al-Islam, son of the Libyan leader and chief of the 32nd Brigade, the most powerful of the army, appeared on a TV broadcast reiterating his father's call to "withstand and win". although he ratified the readiness of the government to negotiate without pre-conditions.

The NTC demands removal from his post and the country of Gadaffi, who assured he would never leave the country.

NATO discusses ground operation, Libya promises hell

NATO discusses ground operation, Libya promises hell*

by Marie Edwards

2011/05/04

The aerial bombardment of Libya has reached a dead end, which has intensified talk among NATO members about a possible land operation, a move that threatens to escalate massively the violence that already exists there.

The alliance's spokesman has admitted there is still little sign of progress for either side in the conflict, so there is a need for a new UN resolution to approve sending foreign troops in.In the meantime, civilian casualties from allied bombing continue to mount as fresh NATO air strikes have been heard in the Libyan capital overnight.

At a video conference with Russian students, a NATO spokesman revealed his organization’s proposed solution: send in ground troops.

“The UN Security Council should adopt a new resolution on Libya. Resolution 1973 does not envisage land operations. We need a new resolution,” professed James Appathurai.

Western forces planned that all along, says a leading US international law professor, Francis Boyle, of the University of Illinois.

“Clearly what we are seeing unfolding in Libya is a pre-existing war plan, by NATO, by the British, by the French, by the Americans to attack Libya,” Boyle claimed.

“And now everything is going according to plan, which is why I believe that since they have failed to depose Gaddafi with their steps so far, the next stage will be moving into a ground invasion.”

NATO powers have duped the international community into supporting war, notes author William Engdahl.

Protecting civilians was the claim, but grabbing the country’s resources is their real goal.

“This is one of the most brazen transgressions of rights of nation national sovereignty in international law we have seen in the post-WWII period,” he said.

“The West: the US, France and Britain have been covertly – according to the evidence that is leaking out – arming the opposition to Gaddafi in hopes of grabbing control of the oil and different parts of Libya,” William Engdahl insists.

The Libyan government promises “hell” for NATO if it sends in ground troops. Some agree such a war may be tougher, than expected.

“We will see increased military activity not only in the air but also on the ground and maybe this will solve the problem from the perspective of the NATO countries, but mayby we will simply get into a deeper imbroglio,” shared Professor Mark Almond of Bilkent University.

Bombing from 30,000 feet, coalition pilots feel fairly safe, but anti-war activists warn putting troops on the ground risks not just more civilian killing, but NATO deaths as well.

“The further they get from hi-tech, the nearer they get to low-tech – the greater the danger of casualties on both sides,” warns Jim Brann from the Stop The War Coalition.

Turkey, China and Russia have all criticized the bombardment of Libya. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov thinks NATO’s already gone far beyond the first UN resolution to maintain a no-fly zone. He hints a second resolution to move in ground troops may not come as easy, now several nations feel tricked.

"If anybody wants to ask for this mandate, welcome to the UN Security Council. We will discuss, try to understand what is planned, because the digressions from the mandate that we are seeing now are enough to learn lessons,” Sergey Lavrov railed.

With international opposition on the rise, NATO states face an uphill task to make the case for more war.

While Britain’s prime minister ruled out ground troops, now his Defense Secretary Dr Liam Fox tells Parliament they plan exactly that. But UN members are angered at the number of civilian deaths from NATO bombing, and are unlikely to welcome an escalation of the conflict.

* Url:http://pub.mathaba.net/2011/05/04/nato-discusses-ground-operation-libya-promises-hell/

Libya: "We want Muammar to come back! We want the green flag back!"

Libya: "We want Muammar to come back! We want the green flag back!"*

Benghazi Rebels Death Squad in full force

by Marie Edwards

2011/07/30

Abdel-Fattah Younis, the Libyan rebels' military commander, was killed by fellow rebels while in custody. Mohammed Agoury told the AP news agency on Friday that he was present when a group of rebels from a faction known as the February 17 Martyrs’ Brigade came to Younis’ operations room at Zoueitina, just east of the main front at Brega before dawn Wednesday demanding that Younis come with them for interrogation. Younis was summoned to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi because of alleged links among his family to the Libyan leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi. Agoury said he tried to accompany his commander, "but Younis trusted them and went alone. Instead, they betrayed us and killed him," he said.

The February 17 Martyrs Brigade is made up of civilians who took up arms to join the rebels. Their fighters participate in the front-line battles with government forces but also act as a semi-official internal security force for the rebels. Some of its leadership comes from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Islamic militant group that waged a campaign of violence against the Libyan government in the 1990s.

The killing raises fear and uncertainty in Benghazi. Thousands marched behind Younis’ coffin, wrapped in the rebels' tricolor monarchist flag, to the graveyard for his burial, chanting that he was a martyr "beloved by God." Troops fired a military salute as the coffin arrived, and angry and grieving supporters fired wildly into the air with automatic weapons.

At the graveside, Younis' son, Ashraf, broke down, crying and screaming as they lowered the body into the ground and - in a startling and risky display in a city that was the first to shed Muammar Al-Qadhafi's leadership nearly six months ago - pleaded hysterically for the return of the Libyan leader to bring stability and a return to normalcy after months of chaos in the country.

"We want Muammar to come back! We want the green flag back!" he shouted at the crowd, referring to Muammar Al-Qadhafi's national banner.

Younis was Muammar Al-Qadhafi's interior minister until he defected to the rebels early in the uprising, which began in February. He was among the army officers who joined the 1969 revolution and remained the leader’s ally for more than 40 years. His move raised hopes among rebels and Western allies that the uprising could succeed in forcing out the country's leader of more than four decades. But some rebels remained deeply suspicious that he retained loyalties to Muammar Al-Qadhafi.

An officer with the rebels' internal security forces - the official security force of the National Council - told AP that the council ordered Younis' arrest after a letter appeared earlier this week connecting the commander to the Libyan Leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi. He said Younis was brought back to the Benghazi area Wednesday and held at a military compound until Thursday, when he was summoned to the Defense Ministry for questioning.

As they left the compound, two lieutenants from the security team escorting the detainees opened fire on Younis from their car with automatic weapons, said the officer, who was at the compound and saw the shooting. He said the two men were members of the February 17 Martyrs Brigade and shouted that Younis was a traitor who killed their father in Derna, an eastern town that was once a stronghold of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

The attackers shot Younis, slit his throat, set fire to his body and dumped it outside Benghazi along with the bodies of two colonels who were his top aides, his nephew Hisham Al-Obaidi told The Associated Press.

A member of the Martyr's Brigade said his group had evidence that Younis was a "traitor." He told the AP "the evidence will come out in a few days." The brigade member spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals.

From Tripoli, Libya’s deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, said the government forces had no role in Younis' death. He called for a forensic investigation of Younis' remains, saying that even though he was a "traitor" to the government "he was still a Libyan citizen."

The city of Benghazi woke up to fierce shooting Friday, as the news of Younis' death spread confusion and suspicion. Among those firing were members of Younis' powerful Obeidat tribe.

The killing opens up the possibility of a tribal split within the rebel alliance. Rebel leader Abdul-Jalil was urgently trying to reassure the tribes that the killing of Younis was basically carried out by a rogue unit instead of being sanctioned by the leadership.

The rebel leadership offers an alternative claim--the killing was carried out by “The Abu Obeida Al-Jarah Brigade” a secretive brigade responsible for internal security. Members of the little-known Abu Obaida Al-Jarah Brigade had been sent to Mr. Younis's front-line headquarters near the oil city of Brega to summons Mr. Younis for questioning before a judicial committee. The soldiers killed Mr. Younis on the outskirts of Benghazi before he was brought in for questioning. Abu Obaida Al-Jarah Brigade doesn't answer to the normal Minister of Defense chain of command. No further details were provided about the brigade or who it does answer to.

In extensive inquiries on Friday, it was impossible to find anyone in Benghazi, among rebel officials, rebel fighters, rebel commanders, and ordinary citizens, who said they had heard of the brigade or knew anything about it.

Most of the rebels leadership account of the events leading up to Mr. Younis' death was corroborated earlier in the day by one of Mr. Younis' longtime body guards, Abdullah Baio.

Mr. Baio said in an interview that Mr. Younis returned to Benghazi after he was summoned by a rebel brigade in his own vehicle accompanied by his personal guard detail, which included five body guards as always.

At 10 a.m., Mr. Younis called his family in Benghazi to tell them he was on his way back, his nephew, Abdel Hakim, said at his funeral.

Mr. Younis and his guards stopped at a military base in Gammines, on Benghazi's outskirts, according to Mr. Baio. It isn't clear why Mr. Younis stopped at the base.

Inside the base, soldiers from the Abu Obaida Al-Jarah Brigade turned their weapons on Mr. Younis and his bodyguards, according to Mr. Baio's account.

Mr. Younis ordered his outnumbered guards to lower their weapons.

The rogue unit disarmed Mr. Younis' guards, stole their boots, and tied them up, before disappearing with Mr. Younis, Mr. Baio said.

At 2 a.m. the next morning, Mr. Younis' body and those of two of his subordinate officers, were found shot and burned not far from Mr. Younis's home.

Questions are being raised, if the Abu Obaida Al-Jarah Brigade actually exists or if it is just another deliberate untruth by the rebels’ leadership with the intent to deceive and hold their fragile group of Islamists, CIA operatives and traitors together.

* Url:http://pub.mathaba.net/2011/07/30/libya-we-want-muammar-to-come-back-we-want-the-green-flag-back/

Libya: Another Reason for the War on Libya.

Libya: Another Reason for the War on Libya.*

by Marie Edwards

2011/05/05

Some believe it is about protecting civilians, others say it is about oil, but some are convinced intervention in Libya is all about Gaddafi’s plan to introduce the gold dinar, a single African currency made from gold, a true sharing of the wealth.

“It’s one of these things that you have to plan almost in secret, because as soon as you say you’re going to change over from the dollar to something else, you’re going to be targeted,” says Ministry of Peace founder Dr James Thring. “There were two conferences on this, in 1986 and 2000, organized by Gaddafi. Everybody was interested, most countries in Africa were keen.”

Gaddafi did not give up. In the months leading up to the military intervention, he called on African and Muslim nations to join together to create this new currency that would rival the dollar and euro. They would sell oil and other resources around the world only for gold dinars.

It is an idea that would shift the economic balance of the world.

A country’s wealth would depend on how much gold it had and not how many dollars it traded. And Libya has 144 tons of gold. The UK, for example, has twice as much, but ten times the population.

“If Gaddafi had an intent to try to re-price his oil or whatever else the country was selling on the global market and accept something else as a currency or maybe launch a gold dinar currency, any move such as that would certainly not be welcomed by the power elite today, who are responsible for controlling the world’s central banks,” says Anthony Wile, founder and chief editor of the Daily Bell.

“So yes, that would certainly be something that would cause his immediate dismissal and the need for other reasons to be brought forward from moving him from power.”

And it has happened before.

In 2000, Saddam Hussein announced Iraqi oil would be traded in euros, not dollars. Some say sanctions and an invasion followed because the Americans were desperate to prevent OPEC from transferring oil trading in all its member countries to the euro.

A gold dinar would have had serious consequences for the world financial system, but may also have empowered the people of Africa, something black activists say the US wants to avoid at all costs.

“The US have denied self-determination to Africans inside the US, so we are not surprised by anything the US would do to hinder the self-determination of Africans on the continent,” says Cynthia Ann McKinney, a former US Congresswoman.

The UK’s gold is kept in a secure vault somewhere in the depths of the Bank of England. As in most developed countries, there is not enough to go around.

But that is not the case in countries like Libya and many of the Gulf States.

A gold dinar would have given oil-rich African and Middle Eastern countries the power to turn around to their energy-hungry customers and say: “Sorry, the price has gone up, and we want gold.”

Some say the US and its NATO allies literally could not afford to let that happen.

* Url:http://pub.mathaba.net/2011/05/05/libya-another-reason-for-the-war-on-libya/

US Intelligence contradicts US government's optimistic picture of Libyan rebels

US Intelligence contradicts US government's optimistic picture of Libyan rebels*

By Marie Edwards

2011/08/05

Despite the official claims of the US government in regards to their trust in the Libyan rebels, US intelligence channels paint another picture of the situation in Libya.

Brief from a US intelligence channel on August 4, 2011

Libyan loyalist forces, which are usually described as “demoralized” in Western media accounts based on rebel sources, consistently mount spirited counter-attacks to retake lost ground even though they lack any effective defense against punishing NATO airstrikes, actions not usually seen in dispirited or demoralized forces. Though the rebel line maintains that most of Qadhafi’s men are only waiting for an opportunity to defect, nearly five months have passed without any significant increase in defections from the rank-and-file, many of whom have had ample opportunity to cross the lines by now. Those eastern-based troops who defected early in the struggle continue to contribute little to the rebel effort, which is still dominated by poorly-trained amateurs who view orders as suggestions and follow only those commanders they like. Rivalries and distrust have made creating a single military leadership difficult enough – extending a centralized command and control system throughout the rebel ranks will be extremely difficult.

The violent dissension within the rebel movement has emboldened the Qadhafi regime, which has withdrawn an offer of a ceasefire if NATO stops its bombing campaign. The government is also now offering an amnesty for rebels returning to the fold, sweetened by offers of promotions and various other rewards (Reuters, August 3). The regime has also taken the opportunity of sowing further discord in the rebel ranks by announcing it is in contact with leading figures in the TNC, including former Qadhafi loyalists Mahmud Jibril and Ali Essawi, as well as Islamist leader Ali al-Salabi (AFP, July 30). In an August 3 interview with the New York Times, Sa’if al-Islam Qadhafi (son of the Libyan leader) said the government had formed an alliance with Ali al-Salabi against the rebels. Al-Salabi acknowledged having discussions with regime representatives, but denied forming a pact with them (AFP, August 4).

Psychologically at least, Qadhafi has the upper hand on the rebels, whose military leadership, cobbled together from ex-Qadhafi loyalists, CIA assets and radical Islamists, is in danger of being consumed by distrust, paranoia and internal disputes. If further rebel purges follow, the rebel movement stands at risk of complete collapse.

* Url:http://pub.mathaba.net/2011/08/05/us-intelligence-contradicts-us-government%E2%80%99s-optimistic-picture-of-libyan-rebels/

Benghazi: Terror in the Streets

Benghazi: Terror in the Streets*

By Marie Edwards

August 20, 2011

In Benghazi homes are raided, neighbors dragged off, suspects executed. Many people are unemployed. Large companies, including German construction firm Bilfinger Berger, have pulled out of the city. Young men race around town with tires screeching, others strut around in public buildings brandishing their knives. At night, the streets are reminiscent of Sao Paolo gang wars, the only difference being that the youths here wear flak jackets.

Many young academics who were about to complete their studies and to get a good job are starting to get frustrated. One, who only talks on the condition that he remains anonymous, studied economics at the Gharyounis University. He was offered a job as a manager at Bilfinger Berger and would have earned good money. Now he's unemployed. He says of the rebels: "They are under 30 and don't have wives. They are proud of the weapons they looted from barracks. They don't know how to control themselves. They quickly become aggressive. They've got these weapons and lose themselves."

Militias in Benghazi possess sophisticated weaponry, ranging from antitank missiles to rocket-propelled grenades and people here speak of tribes settling old accounts and power struggles emerging. Sporadic gunfire can be heard daily in the rebel capital, and hundreds of men walk around town armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

People's concern in Benghazi focus on gangs wearing the army fatigues favored by the rebels, terrorizing citizens and robbing them at gunpoint. "It is not safe anymore to travel in some parts of the city," says Dawud Salimi, 41. "Criminals are taking advantage of the instability for their own profit. Recently, they have targeted foreigners. A group of men wearing military outfits broke into the hotel room of a Western journalist, assaulted her and ran off with her electronic equipment”.

Across Benghazi city, armed squads are being dispatched to crack down on supporters of Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qadhafi. Thousands have been arrested in the night raids.

Under the cover of darkness, the Benghazi 'protection squad' gathered. Speaking in muted, tense tones, clutching loaded guns, the men began the hunt. In swift, silent convoy they drive across the city, targeting the homes of suspected loyalists.

The armed men drove to a farmhouse just outside Benghazi. The choice of target had been discussed back at their base, in an office strewn with handwritten papers, the intelligence on potential suspects.

Pulling up silently, muffling the closing of car doors, fingers on the triggers of the loaded guns, they set up their positions. Two men pointed their weapons, sniper like, through gaps in the outer walls. Faces covered with balaclavas, others snuck through the front gate and surrounded the farm. The only noise to be heard under the clear moonlit sky was the sound of guard dogs' barks.

Drivers waited, the engines running. "This is very, very dangerous. Often there are gun battles," muttered one driver.

The farm was empty. Disappointed, the squad returned to cars. Onto the next target. "They know we are looking for them. They cannot stay in one place. Often they bribe neighbors not to give us information," says the squad leader.

Qadhafi supporters drive around in cars firing at pedestrians in order to spread fear, say the rebels. "There are thousands of them here," said the gang leader of the night raid.

"We have many people - students, post-graduates, businessmen who still stand with Qadhafi. They are in hiding now, organizing themselves,” says lifelong Benghazi resident Sami Hassan, 37.

Rebels fear that "pro-Qadhafi" citizens in Benghazi are acting as spies for the Libyan government. "Don't trust anyone, we are in a psychological war," admits Council spokesperson Issam Giriani. "Even now, I know some are walking around us here, recording."

Perhaps the accusations are true. There are signs that Benghazi has not given itself to the rebel's cause. A table at an office in the court house is strewn with the weapons found on infiltrating attackers: Kalashnikovs, assault rifles, and dynamite. "There have been many attempts at attacking the court house," says Ibrahim Gheriani in charge of security.

Before being stopped in their tracks by NATO air strikes, Qadhafi's advance on Benghazi emboldened some of his supporters to show themselves. "In two days we will win, Muammar will be back," a man told a reporter before slipping quietly back into the crowd.

The incidences prompted the crackdown by the rebel leader who announced that Qadhafi sympathizers had 24 hours to hand over their weapons. If they didn't, they would be treated as murderers and enemies of the rebels. "Those with bloodstained hands will be punished," says Issam Giriani.

Fed by fear, war breeds suspicion and mistrust. Determining loyalties in this fluid environment can be an impossible task. Some of the targets are suspects on dangerously loose criteria.

The regime loyalty of a person's home town, a photograph of the Libyan leader in the wallet and family ties, are all considered 'evidence'.

"This man is from Sirte. Most people from there are Ligen Thauria. His family is from there too," says Hani in explanation of the midnight armed raid on the farmhouse.

The rebels have their own spying game. "Sometimes we use women; they go inside to the houses, perhaps pretending they are poor and need something. There they see if the person has guns, she tries to find them."

Captives are taken to a military base. In the closed cement quadrangle courtyard lined by cells sit rows of captives. On the right are the foreign prisoners, thought by the rebels to be "mercenaries". Lined on the left were dozens of black Libyans.

Their imprisonment is indefinite. "God knows when I will be allowed to go home," says a black Libyan who says he was captured at a bus stop as he tried to get home.

Often the raids are run by adrenaline-pumped youth. Before going out, in the secret base where they gathered, the squad of youths joked, jumped, shouted; pumped with for the night's hunt. "Most of these guys have been my friends since school," said the squad leader. "Let's go!" he said to the enthusiastic clacks of his gang loading their weapons.

Excited and power hungry the commander wielded his loaded Kalashnikov dangerously with a manic smile. His military training was cut short when he was kicked out from the college. "I had a fight with the colonel in college. He swore at me, kicked me out."

The raids can be violent. Some members of this gang have been killed. "On the first raid, we went to find Qadhafi’s people who were trading guns said Hani. There was a forty-minute gun battle in which the squad lost one of its men. "We captured four guys and I killed one," he said proudly. The night raids are growing in number and size. "We caught dozens last week," said a squad organizer who works at the Benghazi rebel's courthouse.

From the start of the conflict the rebels relied on its Western backers. The rebels have failed to broaden their appeal precisely because the key opposition leaders are perceived as exactly what they are: sellouts. The Libyan people know that the leading members of the rebels are imperial puppets.

Before the war social and economic rights were so widely developed that Libya hosted hundreds of thousands of foreign workers. And with all its wealth, Libya remained a socialist country. Muammar Al-Qathafi asked: “How can one not be a socialist and spreading the wealth of one’s country equally among its citizens?”

This was hard for Western capitalists to swallow and the opportunities for profit from a war with Libya were hard for Western capitalists to pass up. The objective of Washington and its allies consists in confiscating and managing Libya's vast wealth and controlling its resources. So they initiated a foreign-propelled civil war in Libya.

But the rebels are unable to use the tactical advantage that NATO air superiority provides to them. Had the rebel forces support among the Libyan masses they would have claimed more territory. Few analysts believe that the Libyan leader’s loyalists can be easily defeated, if at all. Reports from Libya indicate the rising tide of massive support for the Libyan leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi by his followers, who have attended rallies and demonstrated their preparedness to confront the rebels and their backers.

The rebels are not loved, given the speech of Muammar Al-Qadhafi as he addressed his supporters of more than a million people in the northwestern town of Al-Zawiya not far from Tripoli. The crowd reached a deafening crescendo when he spoke in a recorded message.

Meanwhile the Libyan government forces have regained control of most of Libyan territory and in over five months after the NATO aggression against Libya, key oil installations and, above all, the so far impregnable capital are firmly in the hands of the Libyan government.

The information war against Libya is gigantic. Oceans of lies and misinformation are poured on the heads of unsuspecting listeners and readers on a daily basis. Events in Libya are showing how monstrous Orwellian lies can be easily used to manipulate people’s minds in an age of information technologies. Frontrunners in manipulation are Qatar’s Al-Jazeera and the Western media outlets. The lies are so blatant, that one has to wonder why the paper is not rejecting the print.

The West's blame for where it now finds itself in Libya has a long pedigree. The aggression against Libya parallels the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. The latter is still reeling from the wounds of the sectarian strife unleashed by Washington's invasion and the former is the proverbial NATO failed state.

NATO is losing and they don't like it--they better wake up, for the US taxpayer will not fund another huge atrocity against humanity. The truth is coming out.

* Url:http://pub.mathaba.net/2011/08/20/benghazi-terror-in-the-streets/

Qaddafi's speech in Sirte in midst of the civil war over Libya

Qaddafi's speech in Sirte in midst of the civil war over Libya

War in Libya: NATO gunship fires on unarmed civilians in Zawia Square

War in Libya:

NATO gunship fires on unarmed civilians in Zawia Square*

August 18, 2011

(Susan Lindauer) On August 18, 201, Tribal Chief Dr. Moussa Ibrahim’s younger brother was killed in Zawia by NATO. An Apache gunship fired on innocent civilians in the Square at Zaia City– killing many unarmed civilians. The people of Zawia were celebrating the route of NATO rebels from their city by the Libyan army, contradicting mainstream media reports that NATO controls the city.

Libyans are angry about NATO’s bombing of electric power stations. They were all talking about it today. “How is NATO protecting innocent people by bombing power stations?” This is the desert, many people in the suburban areas of Tripoli suffered from noon until night without electricity. That means SEVERE HEAT, no water, no refrigeration, no light, no phones for emergency. NATO is now terrorizing the innocent people here. NATO is now the “North Atlantic Terrorist Organization”- The US should declare war on NATO as part of the “war on terror”

There are few gangs in Zawia. As soon as the Libyan army arrives, they are defeated or they run away. When the army completely finishes the pockets in Zawia, a source says they will head immediately to Sorman where all the runaway rebels have gone. He says they estimate that there are around 1000 rebels there but they are all very young (15,16,17,18) with no military experience, no organization and they fight amongst themselves. He said there will not be a protracted battle, this will end quickly.

Without NATO’s rain of terror, this bloodshed would have been finished months ago.

The rebels are desperate, NATO is becoming more desperate, there is no humanity, just blatant, wanton killing.

There is no excuse, no valid reason for any of this. It is not about democracy, the tribal system in Libya is pure democracy. The bottom line is, the Rebel Transitional Council has no ability to unite the Libyan people, no ability to run a government. There will be anarchy, there will be no contracts for foreign oil companies, no contracts for foreign construction companies. The TNC has less than 10% support here, I guess NATO will have to make a police state to keep their puppets in power.

The big oil companies had better wake up and lobby their respective governments if they ever want to come back to Libya.

When will the people of the world rise up against this inhumanity?

* Url:http://www.federaljack.com/?p=97668

Mainstream media are waging a Psychological War on People of Tripoli

Mainstream media are waging a Psychological War on People of Tripoli*

2011/08/22

The mainstream media are working with NATO to spread disinformation and waging a psychological war on the people of Tripoli.

Mahdi Nazemrova, a reporter and political analyst in Tripoli, says that what the world is witnessing is NATO's war against Libya. NATO is in control and the 'rebels' follow NATO's lead. The 'rebels' sporadic attacks in Tripoli have been aimed to break down the morale and cause panic in NATO's psychological war.

The mainstream media are an arm of NATO to spread disinformation. NATO has been bombing the civilian security checkpoints guarded by volunteers with the help of the mainstream media reporters locating them in Tripoli. The role of the mainstream media is to spread lies, acting as part of the NATO's war machine.

The truth reporters, most independent reporters, are now being shot at and hunted by the snipers.

Watch the real report directly from Tripoli.

* Url:http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=628175

Chavez denounces West over Libya: "They're practically demolishing Tripoli with their bombs"

Chavez denounces West over Libya:

"They're practically demolishing Tripoli with their bombs"*

2011/08/22

Chavez: "Let's pray to God for the Libyan people"

Venezuelan popular democratic president Hugo Chavez, a staunch ally of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has slammed white racist powers for "destroying Tripoli with their bombs," as terrorist rebels surged to seize control of the African capital.

"Today we are seeing images of the democratic governments of Europe, along with the supposedly democratic Government of the United States destroying Tripoli with their bombs," Chavez said on Sunday.

The bombs, Chavez pointed out, were "falling on schools, hospitals, workplaces, farmland."

"Let's pray to God for the Libyan people," Chavez said during a televised speech.

Chavez condemned the latest NATO airstrikes in the country, as well as the roles of the United States and some European nations, which make up the military force of NATO.

"Today they dropped I don't know how many bombs, and they're falling in a shameless and open way... on schools, hospitals, homes, work places, factories, farm fields at this very moment," Chavez said.

"They're practically demolishing Tripoli with their bombs."

He said US and other powers had sought excuses to try to take over the country.

"It's the excuse to intervene and seize a country and its riches," Chavez said.

Chavez and other leaders in Latin America and Africa have consistently denounced the 6 month-long non-stop bombing of Libya by NATO which is carrying out a grab of Africa's wealthiest resources on behalf of western bankers.

* Url:http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=628182

U.S. Cowards Deploy 2 More Remote Killing ‘Predator Drones’ Against Libya

U.S. Cowards Deploy 2 More Remote Killing ‘Predator Drones’ Against Libya*

NATO is facing increasing problems as it had relied on terrorist rebels (so-called tebels) to overthrow a popular democratic government and to try to kill the father of modern Libya who brought into being a democratic and socialist system which allows the people, and not an elite, to enjoy high living standards.

Mathaba.net

18 August 2011

The United States has deployed two more Predator drones which they claim are for “surveillance operations” over Libya, while NATO is failing in its war in preventing Libyans from fighting back terrorists which had taken control of some cities and driven out the inhabitants.

NATO has been bombing Africa’s most wealthy state since March under clear skies in what they said would be a “2 or 3 day war” to eliminate Libyan historic symbol Muammar Qaddafi who had vowed to help Africa with billions of dollars to free itself from foreign economic control and poverty.

The drones arrived earlier this week, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear how many U.S. drones were currently deployed on the NATO mission and at least one has been shot down by Libyan defence forces.

The drones are flown by remote control from inside the USA itself, by computer operators, thus allowing missile strikes and bombings to take place which have massacred already thousands of civilians.

Those who are controlling the drones as well as the pilots who have bombed the country out of range of defensive missiles at a height of 10km (30,000 feet) are subject to future war crimes tribunals for committing crimes against humanity.

The U.S. decision to send additional drones follows calls last month by NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen for members of the alliance to provide more air support, especially given that during the current holy month of Ramadan, NATO bombers have had their view obscured by cloud.

This has allowed for Libya’s industrial coastal town of Misrata, which had been held by terrorist rebels (known as “tebels”) to lay siege to the town driving out much of its population many of whom had to flee to sea, only to be allowed to sink under the watchful eye of NATO warships.

Black skinned Libyans were shot on sight and some tortured and hung from lamp posts as the racist “Al-Qaida” allies of NATO have sought to terrorise the population and eliminate anyone with a green national flag of Libya or photograph of Muammar Qaddafi, the much loved father of modern Libya.

Libyans enjoy free medical and dental treatment without limits including the funding of operations abroad, as well as studies and education to any location around the world, and are provided a free house, free electricity and tools of trade of choice such as for agriculture as well as land.

It is the only country in the world to provide all services for free and also shares the revenue from its natural resources across the entire population, by depositing the remainder of the national income into the bank accounts of each Libyan, to the tune of around $500 each month.

At the outset of the aggression against Libya to attempt to overthrow the “Jamahiriya” direct participatory democratic system of people’s conferences and people’s committees, and to assassinate the founder of the Jamahiriya, who wrote a “Green Book” on democracy, the U.S. and Western Europe stole the entire approximately $150 billion of assets of Libya including those earmarked for African Union projects, confiscating the funds from western banks.

The lesson not lost on populations the world over is that it is not safe now to keep money in banks, as any pretext can be invented by governments to “seize assets” — in the case of Libya it was claimed that Qaddafi was ordering the air force to bomb civilians, a claim since revealed to be a lie. Qaddafi had on the contrary ordered restraint and prevented the armed forces from intervening in the plot by terrorists in Benghazi so as not to endanger lives.

Russian military has also since shown video to the world which reveals the imagery from Russian military spy satellites — images which no doubt also exist on western military satellite footage and even on live Google maps — which showed that no flights took place at all during the period it was claimed bombings had taken place, and also that the reports had come from “Twitter” and were not verified. Further, Twitter is not accessible from inside Libya.

Meanwhile the popularity of Qaddafi’s ideas which have reached a world wide audience as the world has been surprised to find a leader with such popularity who is so loved by his people, whilst leaders in other countries, and especially the states which are attacking Libya, face mass demonstrations and uprisings against their unpopular economic, political and social policies, where services are not available free for the people but enjoyed only by elites.

In other news, Mathaba news reporters visiting neighbouring Tunisia have reported on the large number of Libyans now living in that country — an estimated 3 million — who have been displaced by the war. They occupy the prime most expensive houses overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and drive new cars, unlike the Tunisians who still live in poverty. Some of them work across the border in Libya and return at night to their homes in Tunisia, as the area has come under large scale bombing by NATO in an attempt to provide cover for terrorists entering Libya from across the border.

* Url:http://info-wars.org/2011/08/19/u-s-cowards-deploy-2-more-remote-killing-predator-drones-against-libya/

China sends emergency aid to war-torn Libya

China sends emergency aid to war-torn Libya

TIANJIN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of emergency humanitarian relief materials, sent by the Red Cross Society of China to war-torn Libya, departed from the Tianjin airport early Thursday morning.

The relief materials, weighing about 90 tonnes, included rice, edible oil and medicine, and are scheduled to arrive in Benghazi Thursday afternoon Beijing time.

The Red Cross Society of China said it decided to offer two batches of humanitarian relief aid to Libya in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The aid is worth 50 million yuan (about 7.825 millon U.S. dollars) in total.

The organization didn't say when the second batch of the relief aid would be shipped.

It said as a member of International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, it had been closely following the development of the situation in Libya, adding Chinese people deeply sympathize with the Libyan people.

NATO, Rebels Accused of War Crimes in Libya

NATO, Rebels Accused of War Crimes in Libya*

Alex Newman

Thursday, 18 August 2011

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is being heavily criticized for civilian casualties and a series of bombings apparently targeting essential non-military infrastructure in Libya, with some observers calling the actions war crimes. The Libyan rebels being supported by coalition forces have also been accused of wanton savagery and even crimes against humanity.

Most recently, a NATO bombing campaign near the Libyan city of Zlitan earlier this month reportedly killed almost 100 civilians — more than half of them women and children. The attack sparked a new wave of outrage worldwide as journalists and activists called for investigations.

Representatives of the Gadhafi regime took a large group of foreign reporters to the site. They were reportedly shown bodies of women and children, including the remains of a baby. Multiple bombed out homes were also presented to international journalists.

“Today was yet another crime by NATO against civilians,” Libyan regime spokesman Moussa Ibrahim was quoted by Fox News as saying about the attack, noting that over 1,000 civilians had been killed by NATO so far. “They are killing women and children. This happens every day. Help us to stop this madness.”

The Western military alliance defended the strikes, saying they were against “legitimate” targets. According to NATO spokespeople, the coalition believed the town was being used as a staging ground for pro-Gadhafi forces and tribes aimed at repelling an upcoming rebel invasion of Tripoli.

But the victims cited in news reports said that was not the case. "NATO bombed us, for what reason? We did not do anything to them. We are civilian people," a man who lost his daughter and his home in the strike was quoted as saying in The Australian newspaper. “Why did they kill us? We had peace in my house with our family. What did we do to the other countries?"

International law expert Franklin Lamb, writing in the Foreign Policy Journal from Tripoli over the weekend, accused NATO of committing a “massacre” after visiting the bombing site. Citing international lawyers, U.S. congressional staffers and human rights activists visiting the war-torn nation, he charged that NATO had “committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Other foreign reporters — particularly from Russia — have been fiercely critical of the NATO campaign for months. “Do those who planned this and other crimes have a right to live? I'm talking about the Bilderberg club. What would they feel if their families are also deprived of a quiet life, and then killed in cold blood?” wrote Russian columnist Konstantyn Scheglikov following the bombings, attacking the “NATO maniacs who do not like the resistance of the small North African country.”

Other reporters who toured the site offered similarly devastating analyses of what happened. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya with the Centre for Research on Globalization said civilians in Tripoli and other major Libyan cities were “bombed indiscriminately by NATO” in recent weeks.

“In Zliten, 85 people were killed including 33 children, 32 women, and 20 men as a result of NATO’s deliberate targeting of residential areas and civilian infrastructure,” he wrote, posting a dozen pictures showing the aftermath of the attack, which he called “photographic evidence of NATO war crimes.”

International human rights groups also had questions about the bombing. "NATO continues to stress its commitment to protect civilians,” said Amnesty International’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui in a statement. “To that effect, it should thoroughly investigate this and all other recent incidents in which civilians were reportedly killed in western Libya as a result of air strikes."

In addition to the hundreds or even thousands of “collateral damage” deaths so far, NATO is also under fire for air strikes on civilian infrastructure. On July 25, the Associated Press reported that the international coalition bombed a hospital, leaving several doctors dead.

Another infrastructure attack that drew international condemnation was the bombing of facilities associated with Libya’s so-called Great Man-Made River system, a pipeline that delivers water to a large percentage of the population. The Pakistan Observer said the attack was “a clear war crime” and could easily lead to a “humanitarian disaster.”

On July 30, NATO warplanes also repeatedly bombed a Libyan television station, killing three and injuring 15. Surviving journalists blasted the attack and called for international support from other reporters.

“We are not a military target, we are not officers in the army and not a threat to civilians,” the Libya Broadcasting Department Employees said in a statement after the attack, which it called an “act of international terrorism” and a violation of international law. “We are doing our job as journalists in representing what from the bottom of my heart we believe is the reality of the NATO aggression and violence in Libya.”

Countless press-freedom groups including the International News Safety Institute and the International Federation of Journalists have demanded an investigation of the attack. But NATO defended the bombing, saying the TV station was being used to spread pro-Gadhafi propaganda.

A separate incident in early August involving NATO’s alleged failure to rescue ocean-bound refugees in distress has also been widely criticized around the world. According to news reports, up to 100 people died escaping Libya on a rickety boat after the engine died and nearby NATO ships failed to respond to SOS calls.

“The idea that NATO, with all its surveillance technology, was not aware of a boat of this size is a story that not even Little Red Riding Hood would believe,” charged Italian Parliamentarian Roberto Castelli. The government of Italy has requested an inquiry to find out why the refugees were apparently left to die.

The internationally backed rebels trying to seize power in Libya have also been accused of numerous war crimes and wide-scale barbarity — some of it too horrendous even to mention. Numerous gruesome videos have been posted online showing beheadings, lynchings and other crimes, proving that at least some of the allegations are true.

“The evidence provided by these videos makes clear that the rebels' conception of warfare has more in common with that of Al-Qaeda than that of the Geneva Conventions,” explained John Rosenthal in a piece for the U.S.-based Hudson Institute. “The abuses documented in the videos could serve as textbook examples of precisely the sort of savagery that the Geneva Conventions were supposed to prevent.”

As The New American and countless other sources have reported, the NATO-backed rebels are, in many cases, led by self-described leaders of al Qaeda and other extreme Islamic groups that have boasted of battling American forces everywhere from Iraq to Afghanistan. Some of the leaders are even former U.S. prisoners who were held in Guantanamo Bay.

Suspicions about the rebels’ true motives and supporters were also raised when the self-proclaimed Interim Transitional National Council announced the creation of a new central bank weeks after the NATO invasion. It remains unclear whether the new monetary authority will follow the Gadhafi regime’s state-owned model, or if it is to be privately owned like the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Though Western powers were arming the rebels well before intervention became official, the Obama administration and NATO publicly intervened in Libya in mid-March to enforce a United Nations resolution. Since then, the “mission” has morphed into “regime change,” with foreign powers hoping to oust dictator Moammar Gadhafi and install the rebels as the new government.

Without congressional approval, which Obama himself acknowledged in 2007 is required by the U.S. Constitution prior to foreign militarism, critics have charged that American involvement is itself illegal. And while the administration has already informed Congress that it would ignore any attempt to rein in the war, critics worldwide are still hoping that there will eventually be some accountability and justice if crimes were indeed committed.

* Url:http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/africa-mainmenu-27/

Libyan Deaths, Media Silence Were Dozens Killed in Majer NATO Airstrikes?

Libyan Deaths, Media Silence

Were Dozens Killed in Majer NATO Airstrikes?

8/18/11

Allegations of Libyan civilian deaths as a result of NATO bombing have often been covered in the corporate media as an opportunity to scoff at the Gadhafi regime's unconvincing propaganda (FAIR Blog, 6/9/11).

But dramatic new allegations that dozens of civilians were killed in Majer after NATO airstrikes on August 8 have been met with near-total media silence.

According to Libyan officials, 85 civilians were killed in Majer-- a town south of Zliten, a site of frequent clashes and NATO airstrikes. There is no reason journalists should take this claim at face value.

But reports from the scene suggest that something significant happened. According to Agence France Presse (8/9/11), "Reporters attended the funerals of victims and saw 28 bodies buried at the local cemetery.... In the hospital morgue, 30 bodies -- including two children and one woman -- were shown along with other bodies which had been torn apart."

The AFP report included NATO denials, with a spokesman claiming that the target "was a military facility clearly."

A Reuters correspondent (8/9/11) "counted 20 body bags in one room, some of them stacked one on top of the other.... In total, reporters saw about 30 bodies at the Zlitan hospital." The New York Times (8/10/11) ran a 170-word version of a Reuters dispatch which noted:

"There was no evidence of weapons at the farmhouses, but there were no bodies there, either. Nor was there blood."

Amnesty International has called for an investigation, which led to this mention from CNN anchor John King (8/11/11):

Amnesty International is demanding that NATO investigate whether a Monday strike on Moammar Gadhafi's forces killed 85 Libyan civilians including 33 children. NATO says it has no evidence of civilian casualties at this point.

A Nexis database search yields very little coverage in U.S. outlets. But that is not because no reporters were present. CNN correspondent Ivan Watson covered a mass funeral after the strikes. But his report aired only on CNN International (8/10/11). Watson reported a visit to "three or four houses that had been demolished by some kind of missiles from the sky."

He added: We were also shown a morgue where there were the bodies of at least 25 people. Many of them appeared to be men. There were some women and children included among those corpses.

Watson noted that it was "impossible for us, from this perspective, to confirm whether or not 85 people were in fact killed, but it does appear that at least some women and were among those hurt in this deadly strike." (You can watch Watson's report here).

Watson's CNN.com report (8/10/11) included an interview with a Libyan who claimed that nine members of his family were killed in the attack,

including his two-year old daughter. Watson also interviewed a man who was burying his daughter.

It is curious that Watson's reporting was shared with CNN's international audience, but not broadcast to its domestic audience. But Watson did appear on CNN a few days earlier from the scene of another NATO strike in Zliten. The point of that report (8/5/11) was to suggest that official claims of civilian deaths were suspicious. In that segment, Watson noted that on a visit to a law school that had been attacked by NATO forces, he found what "appear to be uniforms over here, these olive green pants. And then we have got boxes here that look an awful lot like they could have been holding ammunition."

Reporting that undermines Libyan claims of civilian casualties has been a staple of the war so far-- as evidenced by headlines like "Libya Government Fails to Prove Claims of NATO Casualties" (Washington Post, 6/6/11) and "Libya Stokes Its Machine Generating Propaganda" (New York Times, 6/7/11).

Is Majer being ignored by the media because it is just more clumsy Libyan propaganda? Or is it because the story might conflict with the media's overriding message that Libyan civilians aren't dying in NATO's airstrikes? In any event, corporate media outlets that have so diligently sought to debunk Libyan claims of civilian deaths should investigate what happened in Majer. On the BBC website, reporter Matthew Price published one such effort (8/11/11), headlined "What really happened in Libya's Zlitan?" There should be more like it.