The Libya thread

[Karmamatterz]

Admittedly am very late in tug game following anything with Libya until a friend sent me a link on Libya and their water project. This is related to Hillary's emails as well. For many of you I suppose it's old news. Perhaps?

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/declassified-emails-reveal-natos-true-motive-topple-gaddafi-stop-creation-gold-backed-african-currency/

Dictator builds massive water infrastructure in the desert. Doesn't borrow billions from banks to fund the project, how dare he! Then said dictator accumulates tons of gold reserves. That must have hacked off lots of folks. Reminds me early 80's and Reagan making Qadaffi the bogeyman. Remember all those "skirmishes" with U.S. Fighter jets and how the U.S. demonized Libya? Back then what I never heard was that Libya independently was building it's own water infrastructure. Snubbing thug banks is a big no no.

[quote][http://www.globalresearch.ca/libyas-water-wars-and-gaddafis-great-man-made-river-project/5334868/quote]

While all of this is old it loops it loops in Hillary.

[Karmamatterz]

Admittedly am very late in tug game following anything with Libya until a friend sent me a link on Libya and their water project. This is related to Hillary's emails as well. For many of you I suppose it's old news. Perhaps?

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/declas ... n-currency

Dictator builds massive water infrastructure in the desert. Doesn't borrow billions from banks to fund the project, how dare he! Then said dictator accumulates tons of gold reserves. That must have hacked off lots of folks. Reminds me early 80's and Reagan making Qadaffi the bogeyman. Remember all those "skirmishes" with U.S. Fighter jets and how the U.S. demonized Libya? Back then what I never heard was that Libya independently was building it's own water infrastructure. Snubbing thug banks is a big no no.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/libyas-wat ... t/5334868/

While all of this is old it loops it loops in Hillary.

[chump]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/05/ ... is-murder/
October 5, 2016
The Dreadful Chronology of Gaddafi’s Murder
by Chris Welzenbach

Jean-Paul Pougala’s April 14, 2011 piece in Pambazuka News titled “The Lies Behind the West’s War on Libya” describes how Africa first developed its own transcontinental communications system by purchasing a telecommunications satellite on December 26, 2007: the African Development Bank ponied up $50 million toward the nearly $400 million cost of the orbiter and the West African Development Bank added $27 million more. Libya contributed $300 million, which made the purchase possible. Pougala writes that when it was up and running, the new system was “connecting the entire continent by telephone, television, radio broadcasting, and several other technological applications such as telemedicine and distance teaching.”

After 14 years of foot-dragging by the IMF and the World Bank, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s generosity allowed for this one-time purchase that spared the nations of Africa a $500 million annual lease payment for access to a telecom satellite and euchred Western banks out of potential billions in loans and interest. At this time, Gaddafi was also seeking to establish a trans-African banking system based on gold to free the continent from its financial bondage to the IMF and the World Bank—which would gravely harm both predatory entities.

Since 2003, Gaddafi had worked hard to repair his reputation for financing terrorism by renouncing any future support for terrorist organizations and by establishing a fund to compensate victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772, each destroyed by acts of terror believed to have been financed by Libya. On December 10, 2007 Gaddafi traveled to France for a pow-wow with then-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

During their December 11, 2007 meeting at the Elysee Palace, Gaddafi and Sarkozy signed some $15 billion worth of contracts for military hardware and a nuclear power station, but matters other than trade were also on the agenda. In a March 12, 2012 report, the French investigative journalism consortium Mediapart stated: “According to information contained in a confidential report prepared by a recognised French expert on terrorism and terrorist financing, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign received up to 50 million euros in secret funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.” Documents released by Mediapart on September 11, 2016 confirm that the financial relationship between Gaddafi and Sarkozy dates back to December 10, 2006.

(Upon the intial release of this information in 2012, Sarkozy denied he’d accepted Libyan money to finance his campaign—which is illegal in France and could well land him in prison—and attempted to sue Mediapart. However, an official investigation was launched into Sarkozy’s conduct and when portions of the resulting secret report surfaced at Mediapart’s website, the evidence pointed squarely to Sarkozy’s receipt of Gaddafi’s cash.)

Gaddafi recognized that because of his telecom satellite intiative and his as yet unpublicized Pan-African banking proposal (which no doubt the West was well aware of), his popularity with Western leaders was slipping and that he might soon be the target of “regime change” and likely hoped that by financing Sarkozy’s election he was buying insurance against his own untimely death. Meantime he did his best to be seen as a good pro-West statesman. In August 2008 Gaddafi signed agreements with the US formalizing compensation for victims of state terror, and in September 2008 Condoleezza Rice visited Libya and declared that relations had between the two nations had entered a “new phase”.

But in February 2009 Gaddafi was elected Chairman of the African Union and first made public mention of a “United States of Africa” and hinted at the possibility of a pan-African banking system. (Ominously, on March 12, 2009 Sarkozy made France a part of NATO, breaking with a tradition that went back to de Gaulle.) Then, in August of 2009, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi—convicted of participating in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing—was released from prison in Scotland and given a hero’s welcome upon his return to Libya, and later that same year Libya inked a deal with Russia to purchase $1.8 billion in weapons. These developments did not enhance Gaddafi’s profile in Western eyes.

Also, there was a lot of money at stake. Prior to the fall of Gaddafi, oil-rich Libya had cash reserves of $150 billion, and there were 143 tons of gold in Gaddafi’s vaults. As Pougala wrote in his Pambazuka News piece: “[A large portion of this money] had been earmarked as the Libyan contribution to three key projects which would add the finishing touches to the African federation—the African Investment Bank in Syrte, Libya, the establishment in 2011 of the African Monetary Fund and the Abuja-based African Central Bank in Nigeria which when it starts printing African money will ring the death knell for the CFA franc through which Paris has been able to maintain its hold on some African countries for the last fifty years.”

In a June 7, 2016 posting at Black Opinion, Bob Fitrakis wrote:

The real reasons for the attack have been dealt with most directly by America’s most famous reformed economic hitman, John Perkins.

Perkins points out that the attack on Libya, like the attack on Iraq, has to do with power and control of resources, not only oil, but gold. Libya has the highest standard of living in Africa. According to the IMF, Libya’s Central Bank is 100% state owned. The IMF estimates that the bank has nearly 144 tons of gold in its vaults, Perkins wrote.

NATO went there like modern Barbary Coast Pirates to loot Libya’s gold. The Russian media, in addition to Perkins, reported that the Pan-Africanist Qaddafi, the former President of the African Union, had been advocating that Africa use the gold so plentiful in Libya and South Africa to create an African currency based on a gold dinar.

It is significant that in the months running up to the UN resolution that allowed the U.S. and its allies to send troops into Libya, Muammar al-Qaddafi was openly advocating the creation of a new currency that would rival the dollar and the euro. In fact, he called upon African and Muslim nations to join an alliance that would make this new currency, the gold dinar, their primary form of money and foreign exchange. They would sell oil and other resources to the US and the rest of the world only for gold dinars, Perkins explained.

In December 2010, a revolution in Tunisia brought down the Tunisian government. Subsequently in January 2011 came a series of events hailed in the Western press as the “Arab Spring”: civil uprisings in Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Morocco. While these uprisings led to substantive change in Tunisia, they were brutally suppressed in Egypt and led to civil wars in Syria and Yemen that still rage. Those in Oman and Morocco fizzled out.

In Libya things broke funny. Starting on February 15, 2011, a series of protests demanding Gaddafi’s ouster erupted across Libya. By February 20, 2011 it was reported that some 300 civilians had been killed in the resulting violence, and that Gaddafi had launched warplanes against opposition groups in Tripoli. Sarkozy saw his opportunity to defend French bankers and to cover up his own illegal financial arrangement with Gaddafi. On March 10, 2011 Sarkozy officially recognized the Libyan “National Transitional Council” (NTC), the umbrella under which the “rebels” operated, and demanded the establishment of a “no-fly zone” in the event Gaddafi used chemical weapons or airstrikes against his own people.

A report in The Guardian dated March 11, 2011 noted:

Sarkozy’s unilateral decision to recognise Libya’s transitional council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people was seen as grossly premature. “Sarkozy is being irresponsible,” one EU diplomat said.

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said: “I find it a crazy move by France. To jump ahead and say ‘I will recognise a transitional government’ in the face of any diplomatic practice, is not the solution for Libya.”

On March 19, 2011 Sarkozy had French warplanes fly missions against Libya and ordered the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle into Libyan waters. But the French were not alone. Earlier that week—on March 15, 201—a US F-15 crashed in Libya. On March 29, 2011 the US confirmed that A-10 Warthogs and A-130 gunships had been employed over Libya. On April 16, 2011 Journalist Jeremy Scahill was interviewed on The Ed Show (this from Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC by Michael Arria (CounterPunch 2014)).

Scahill: . . . CIA operatives on the ground there [Libya] are sort of engaged in an eHarmony dot com or sort of you know dating service relationship with the rebels for the clandestine world. I mean, this is, as Colonel Jacobs said, standard fare. What I think is of more concern is the fact that there are certainly US special operations forces units that are deployed already, secretly, inside of Libya that are painting targets for the air strikes. But Ed, I have to say that the scenario you’re laying out—when you talk about arming the quote unquote “freedom fighters”, it really evokes images of the disastrous dirty wars of the 1980’s, I mean, the United States getting involved in what is effectively a Libyan civil war, a thousand or so rebels . . . They don’t have much military training. I mean, what you’re advocating is that Americans are going to have to be totally invested in one side of the civil war.

In his June 7, 2016 Black Opinion posting, Fitrakis writes:

. . . an unclassified U.S. Department of State document emailed to Hillary on April 2, 2011, key Clinton aide Michael Blumenthal confirmed that Perkins was right and the attack on Libya had nothing to do with Qaddafi being a threat to the United States and NATO and everything to do with looting his gold.

Qaddafi’s government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver. During late March, 2011, these stocks were moved to Sabha (south west in the direction of the Libyan border with Niger and Chad); taken from the vaults of the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli, Blumenthal reported to Clinton.

Blumenthal pointed out the purpose of Qaddafi’s precious metal: This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan- African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA).

Blumenthal spells out the reason for NATO’s attack and France’s imperial plunder, French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicholas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.

There were five reasons for France’s illegal war with NATO against Libya. Sarkozy sought, according to Blumenthal, a. A desire to gain a greater share of Libyan oil production, b. Increase French influence in North Africa, c. Improve his internal situation in France, d. Provide the French military with an opportunity to assert its position in the world, e. Address the concern of his advisors over Qaddafi’s long term plans to supplant France as the dominant power in Francophone Africa.

It is obvious from this email that while Blumenthal understood Sarkozy’s need to protect French bankers from Gaddafi’s ambitious plan to launch a gold-based trans-African banking system, Blumenthal did not have a handle on Sarkozy’s ulterior motive—eliminating evidence of the French President’s own criminality. It should also be noted—and underscored—that none of the reasons for military action Blumenthal listed in his damning email could possibly justify an unprovoked attack on another sovereign state.

On March 30, 2011 the British government expelled five diplomats from the Libyan embassy as relations between Libya and the West continued to deteriorate. Over the ensuing months battles raged all across Libya. At one point a truce between the Libyan government and the NTC was brokered but did not hold and by August 2011 the nation was once again in a full-fledged civil war.

After March 31, 2011 the United States enforced the “no-fly” zone over Libya, ostensibly to aid a legitimate uprising and to evict from power a bloodthirsty dictator, but the resulting attacks went much further than simply bringing down Gaddafi. On July 18, 2011 NATO targeted the Great Man-Made River, a massive irrigation project that brought water to thousands of acres of arid land. The warplanes that perpetrated this heinous act not only destroyed a vital piece of Libya’s infrastructure but on July 22, 2011 also destroyed a factory that according to Ellen Brown in her March 14, 2016 account for The Ecologist produced the only pipes necessary to repair it. This vicious, wanton devastation served no practical purpose whatsoever save for collectively punishing the Libyan people.

Aided and abetted by the Western powers, the “rebels” closed in on Tripoli and on August 21, 2011 the city fell to the NTC. Gaddafi and his staff and immediate family fled to Syrte. A little after 8:00 p.m. on October 20, 2011, with the “rebels” again closing in, Gaddafi attempted to flee Syrte in a convoy of 75 vehicles but his escape was discovered by RAF aircraft. A US Predator drone operated by someone sitting at a computer screen outside Las Vegas fired the first missiles into the fleeing vehicles. RAF aircraft also fired into the convoy. Ten vehicles were destroyed. Gaddafi survived the attack but was captured soon afterwards by the NTC, who found him hiding in a large drainage pipe. Gaddafi was shot several times and had a bayonet driven into his rectum.

Prior to Gaffafi’s murder, Libya was a stable country if not a traditional nation-state. According to a report titled “Gaddafi’s Libya Was Africa’s Most Prosperous Democracy” by Garikai Chengu that appeared in the January 12, 2013 edition of Countercurrents.org, “. . . Libya was divided into several small communities that were essentially “mini-autonomous States” within a State. These autonomous States had control over their districts and could make a range of decisions including how to allocate oil revenue and budgetary funds. Within these mini-autonomous States, the three main bodies of Libya’s democracy were Local Committees, People’s Congresses and Executive Revolutionary Councils.” Chengu details how Local Committees reported to People’s Congresses that in turn passed decisions up to the Executive Revolutionary councils, thus creating a broad consensus on those decisions affecting the entire population. “The Libyan direct democracy system utilized the word ‘elevation’ rather than ‘election’, and avoided the political campaigning that is a feature of traditional political parties and benefits only the bourgeoisie’s well-heeled and well-to-do,” Chengu writes. “Unlike the West, Libyans did not vote once every four years for a President and local parliamentarian who would then make all decisions for them. Ordinary Libyans made decisions regarding foreign, domestic and economic policy themselves.” Toppling Gaddafi erased a system of government that had functioned smoothly—and fairly—for nearly half a century.

Nicolas Sarkozy remains a free man. He has yet to be prosecuted for receiving illegal Libyan cash to finance his presidential campaign or for launching an illegal war to cover up his criminal relationship with Gaddafi.

Much has been written about the catastrophe visited upon Libya following the murderous attack by France and the US—400,000 people driven from their homes, an endless cycle of terror and reprisal, the creation of yet another failed state in the wake of a US foreign policy initiative. But the real damage was done to Africa itself, for had Gaddafi’s proposal for a trans-African banking system reached fruition, that unhappy continent for the first time in centuries would have had true freedom and real independence within its grasp, a circumstance the Western powers could not abide. Freedom and justice were never part of the West’s agenda.

On the evening of October 20, 2011 while being interviewed by CBS in the wake of breaking news that Gaddafi was dead, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared a joke with her staff between takes, declaring: “We came, we saw, he died.” She then clapped her hands and laughed triumphantly. This remains the vilest and most degraded utterance delivered by an official of the US Government ever.

https://youtu.be/Fgcd1ghag5Y

[MacCruiskeen]

African migrants sold in Libya 'slave markets', IOM says

1 hour ago
BBC From the section Africa



Africans trying to reach Europe are being sold by their captors in "slave markets" in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

Victims told IOM that after being detained by people smugglers or militia groups, they were taken to town squares or car parks to be sold.

Migrants with skills like painting or tiling would fetch higher prices, the head of the IOM in Libya told the BBC.

Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 Nato-backed ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.


More on this and other African stories
Libya exposed as child migrant abuse hub
Why is Libya lawless?

Hundreds of young sub-Saharan African men have been caught up in the so-called slave markets, according to the IOM report.

A Senegalese migrant, who was not named to protect his identity, said that he had been sold at one such market in the southern Libyan city of Sabha, before being taken to a makeshift prison where more than 100 migrants were being held hostage.

Women, too, were bought by private Libyan clients and brought to homes where they were forced to be sex slaves, the witness said.

[...]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39567632

[seemslikeadream]

He has appeared in multiple photographs wearing the medal of a Hungarian group listed by the State Department as having collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.

Gorka: 'Most Important' Part Of Trump Speech Is Phrase ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40306&p=633700&hilit=Sebastian+Gorka#p633700

Report: Gorka Is Jockeying To Become Special Envoy To Libya

ByALLEGRA KIRKLANDPublishedAPRIL 10, 2017, 2:08 PM EDT
Sebastian Gorka, the deputy assistant to President Donald Trump who's been dogged in recent weeks by a slew of reports about his links to far-right groups in Hungary, is reportedly jockeying to move into a new role: special envoy to Libya.

The self-proclaimed counterterrorism expert and former Breitbart News editor has expressed interest in the as-yet uncreated position, The Guardian reported Monday.

His qualifications for bringing stability to the divided country, which has competing governments and has seen frequent jihadist violence since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s authoritarian regime, are unclear. The White House did not immediately respond Monday to TPM's request for comment.

One anecdote shared in the Guardian’s report suggested Gorka's ideas to bring peace to the country were overly simplistic: Prior to Trump’s inauguration, he reportedly told a senior European diplomat that the country could be partitioned into three parts, drawing a map of the proposed divisions on a napkin to illustrate his point.

The European diplomat reportedly said the proposal, modeled after the three large Libyan provinces administered by the Ottoman Empire until 1911, was “the worst solution” possible for Libya.

The Guardian’s report that Gorka is looking for new responsibilities comes amid other major shakeups on Trump’s national security team. Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon was removed from the National Security Council last week, and K.T. McFarland is reportedly leaving her position as deputy national security adviser to become U.S. ambassador to Singapore.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/s ... nvoy-libya

Trump aide drew plan on napkin to partition Libya into three
Exclusive: Sebastian Gorka told proposal would be ‘the worst solution’ when he suggested it to senior European diplomat

Sebastian Gorka is vying to become presidential special envoy to Libya, but such a position has not yet been created. Photograph: BBC

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome and Julian Borger in Washington
Monday 10 April 2017 02.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 11 April 2017 03.07 EDT

A senior White House foreign policy official has pushed a plan to partition Libya, and once drew a picture of how the country could be divided into three areas on a napkin in a meeting with a senior European diplomat, the Guardian has learned.

Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump under pressure over his past ties with Hungarian far-right groups, suggested the idea of partition in the weeks leading up to the US president’s inauguration, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. The European diplomat responded that this would be “the worst solution” for Libya.

Gorka is vying for the job of presidential special envoy to Libya in a White House that has so far spent little time thinking about the country and has yet to decide whether to create such a post.

Libya has been mired in a conflict between two competing governments since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 after a Nato-led intervention. As rival jostle for influence and position in Washington on the hitherto neglected issue, sharp differences have emerged over how much say Russia should have in Libya’s fate.

There are fears among some European allies that the White House will reverse the Obama administration’s strong support for the UN-backed Libyan government of national accord, which is based in Tripoli and led by Fayez al-Sarraj.

While the GNA has been seen by some as the best option for achieving stability in the country, it has struggled against a rival government based in Tobruk, eastern Libya, backed by Khalifa Haftar, an anti-Islamist military strongman. Haftar, who would not back partition, has support in some parts of the Egyptian and Russian governments.

In January, he was welcomed onboard the Admiral Kuznetsov, the Russian flagship, as the aircraft carrier sailed along the north African coast. Haftar, a 73-year-old field marshal and former Gaddafi general who later became his bitter opponent, presents himself as a bulwark against Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhood, which makes him appealing to elements of the Trump foreign policy team.

Gorka advocates hardline policies aimed at defeating “radical Islam” and sees the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group bent on infiltrating the US. As a former Breitbart editor, he is close to Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, who believes the struggle against radical Islam should be the central theme of US foreign policy. But Bannon’s star is on the wane in the White House and he lost his seat on the national security council last week.

Gorka has alarmed foreign diplomats with his views on Libya’s future. The map he drew on a napkin during the transition period cut Libya into three sections, apparently based on the old Ottoman provinces of Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the north-west and Fezzan in the south-west.


Mattia Toaldo, a Libya expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations thinktank, said: “This is like a litmus test of how much you know about Libya. If the only thing you know is that it was cut into three, then it shows you are clueless about the situation in Libya.”

Gorka’s rivals for the envoy job include Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman and lobbyist, and Phillip Escaravage, a former US intelligence official who worked on Libya for more than a decade.

Escaravage is generally considered to be the clear favourite to take on the unpaid role. He is believed to have put forward a peace proposal heavily dependent on tens of billions of dollars in western financial support.

At least one European ally has privately expressed frustration at the US state department’s lack of a position on Libya, voicing concerns over Russia’s growing influence.

While separatists who support partition claim that a viable state could be built in eastern Libya, most experts agree that the move would stoke another civil war because the boundaries would be hotly disputed.

Representatives of the Tobruk government, including Haftar, have sought to influence the Trump administration, calling for the US to radically change its position and withdraw support for the Sarraj government.

In a phone interview with the Guardian, Ari Ben-Menashe, an Israeli security consultant based in Canada, whose company has a $6m (£4.9m) contract to lobby on behalf of Haftar and Aguila Saleh Issa, the head of the Libyan house of representatives in Tobruk, said the White House had been “briefed” on Libya and was “willing to play on our terms”.


Contact the Guardian securely
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“There is not going to be a partition,” Ben-Menashe said. “None of them [Trump administration officials] really knew anything about what was going on. They were briefed pretty extensively by us and ... they understand that Sarraj will never work.”

Ben-Menashe said it was understood by the Trump administration that a central Libyan government acceptable to the west and east of the country could be created “in three days” if Russia were more involved. The Trump administration, he added, was “interested in getting the help of Russians and interested in getting them to resolve it”.

Support for the eastern government was growing in parts of Europe, including the UK, Ben-Menashe said. “We have talked to the Brits, the Norwegians, the Swiss. We did a lot of work on this,” he added.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... tian-gorka

[MacCruiskeen]

Louis Allday sums up the legacy of Obama and "Hillary" in Libya (https://twitter.com/Louis_Allday/status ... 6546526208):

In 2010, before NATO destroyed it, Libya was ranked 53rd in the UN's global Human Development Index:

http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files ... eprint.pdf

It was by far the highest ranked country in Africa, one of the highest ranked non-western countries. It was higher than Saudi Arabia.

Now, thanks to NATO, it is an apocalyptic failed state with open air slave markets & no central state:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... -migration

5 years after NATO's "intervention", Libya was ranked 102nd in the UN's 2016 report, dropping almost 50 places:

http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files ... report.pdf


https://twitter.com/Louis_Allday/status ... 6546526208

So Syrians know what to expect.

[chump]

Memorandum on Libya: Fabrications against the State, Leadership and Army
by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi
Voltaire Network | Tripoli (Libya) | 28 October 2017


This memorandum aimed to pinpoint some of facts that the Libyan people were subjected to during the past six years where the most horrendous crimes were committed against its people. These crimes were committed under the name of human intervention, protection of civilians, introducing democracy and prosperity where the NATO forces, with the help of some Arab countries and a few Libyans, attacked Libya with all weapons under its disposal. The justifications put forward were as false as the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and in fact it was a systematic destruction of a sovereign country and a peaceful nation. Thus far, this memorandum is trying to present these crimes to the international community, human rights organisation and NGOs in order to stand by Libya and its people in its countless efforts to rebuild this small country.


Libya on the Cross Roads: The Beginning

Libya’s agony began on 15th February 2011 when a number of protests gathered, in its routine, to demonstrate in support for the Abu Saleem prisons incident. The demonstration was soon hijacked by elements of Jihadist groups such the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group LIFG. They attacked police stations and army barracks in Derna, Benghazi, Misratah and Al-Zawayh aiming at collecting weapons to be used in their planned war against the Libyan people and its legitimate government. All these actions accompanied by a propaganda machine were launched by Aljazeera channel, Al-Arabiya, BBC, France 24 and others which were encouraging the Libyan people to confront the state police who try to protect governmental buildings and people’s properties from attacks and lootings.

Horrific scenes unfolded in the streets, bridges, and security forces buildings where the demonstrators committed unspeakable crimes against humanity. Security forces, military personnel and policemen were slaughtered as their throats were cut, their hearts were taken out of their bodies and their bodies cut into pieces in a real show of brutality and savageness. For instance, in the first day of unrest 16-02-2011 and in the city of Misrata, the so called peaceful demonstrators have killed and burnt a man named Musa Al-Ahdab. On the same day and in Benghazi a police officer was killed and his limbs were cut in pieces. [1] Those barbaric actions were committed by the armed demonstrators as they were using tanks, machine guns and anti-aircrafts machine guns throughout the cities of Misrata, Benghazi and Al-Azawiyah [2]. These acts and scenes are well documented and can be seen on YouTube [3] and across social media.

Thus, the fallen victims were in their tens contrary to what was reported by the biased media. According to Aljazeera, Al-Arabiya and the Libyan oppositions groups, by the end of 2011 the number of people killed reached 50,000. However, in 2012 Abdulrahaim Alkeeb’s government announced that the number of victims from 17th February 2011 to the end of the war in October 2011 were 4,700 including the people who died via natural death [4]. The highly claimed number of victims remained statistics figures without releasing the victims’ names or their identity as well as to claim for compensation from the governments.

The propaganda campaign and lies that accompanied the military insult did not stop at the aggregation of the victims but claimed that the regime used military aircrafts to attack the civilians, reported rapes by the army and security forces, [5] Viagra found in tanks, [6] African and Algerian mercenaries fighting along the Libyan army and the airmen defections to Malta. [7] None of these claims proven until today and in fact bears any truth what so ever. UN, Western investigations, Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch [8] have not proven any case of rip from the total of 8000 reported cases by the Libyan opposition figures. In fact, all these cases were fabricated and lacked credibility. On the same ground, the use of Mirage aircraft from Al-Weathy airbase in the far West of Libya to attack the civilians in Benghazi also bears no weight as these aircrafts could not attack targets in Benghazi and return to its base in the West due to the distance and fuel consumption. It is impossible for this type of aircraft to attack targets in 1500 KM and return without refuelling as well as there were airbases around Benghazi accessible to the Libyan government to be used if needed. Also, the Viagra found in tanks story was fallen on the same trap as the Libyan army has a professional, moral young army that neither think to commit such crimes nor need Viagra to activate their sexual desires. These fabricated stories are merely a SEX IT UP on the same line with the Iraqi seven minutes MWDs attack. Now, the Iraqi and the Libyan cases became laughing matters by the Iraqi, Libyan people, the American and the European media. (Amnesty Report [9])


The International Court of Justice (ICC)

The ICC [10] issued a warrant of arrest for Muammar Qaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi [11] and Abdullah Al-Senussi in 2011, charged with crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Libya. Despite the seriousness of the crime, the ICC has not conducted any investigations on the ground (Libya) as well as it reached its conclusions and identified the perpetrators within two weeks from the UN resolution for the ICC to proceed its work. The timing given for the charge to be announced was not presented and was not enough to even issue and investigate traffic penalties. In this effect, Al-Jehani, the ICC-Libyan government coordinator, asserted that, “the ICC case against Libya was purely political because the NATO countries order the National Transitional Council (NTC) to prepare a list of officials for the ICC

to be charged for crimes against humanity”. The NTC assigned Al-Jehani to prepare the list who produced and presented tens of names, however, the ICC selected only the above three names. In his statement Al-Jehani also added that all the accusation was fabricated. He also asserted his views when he met Saif Al-Islam and told him that it’s impossible for the Libyan judiciary to find you guilty. Al-Jehani added that we (Al-Jehani and his team) fabricated this case against him because we simply knew in advance that the criminal part is a lost case but we brought it forward to implicate Saif Al-Islam in financial and corruption cases.

Al-Jehani has justified his fabrications and lies as these lies are permissible during wars but it’s hard to be proven in the law of court, (Al-Jehani statement documented on 1/1/2012 and field in Al-Zintan court).

The ICC adopted a double standard on Libya’s civil war and the NATO intervention, implicating the Libyan political figures in fabricated crimes where ignored and failed to condemn the barbaric killing of Qaddafi [12] and his son Al-Motassem by the NATO backed militias. [13] The only action the ICC made was to drop the case against Qaddafi after his death. However, the ICC had a strong case as the killing was well documented by the media and needs no evidence to bring those responsible to justice. The ICC could also easily reach and arrest these perpetrators as they assumed political positions and diplomatic posts in various European capitals. A similar position was taken by the ICC against Abduallah Al-Senussi who was kidnapped from Mauritania by the Libyan government, [14] it stopped calling for his extradition to stand trial at the ICC. It did not even follow his human rights violation and inhuman treatment in the militia’s prison even though he has been imprisoned by the well-known notorious jihadists, the Libyan Fighting Islamic Group. The head of the prison is the leader of LIFG, Abdul Hakiem Belhadj.

Belhaj is well-known to the CIA and Western governments. The CIA arrested him after his escape from Kandahar, interrogated and extradited to Libya in 2002 charging with terrorism. [15] In 2009, he and the LIFG members were released from prison under the General Amnesty Law. [16] Belhadj terrorist record speaks for itself. In 1994-97, he ordered a slaughter of 225 people and ordered the killing of the German tourists, Steven Baker and his wife Manuela Spiatzier in 1997. Nevertheless, he assumed a high-ranking position in Libya. He was a minister of Defence, and is responsible of Tripoli security, General Manager of Libyan prisons and responsible directly of Al-Senussi cell. Bearing in mind Belhadj’s criminal record, the ICC expressed its reassurance that Al-Senussi is in the safe hands and supported his trial in Libya.

The NATO and small Gulf countries ignored Belhadj terrorist activities and recognised him as a political and military leader and above all a businessman. He owned the biggest TV station in North Africa, biggest airline company in Libya, cement factory, properties in Spain and Turkey and a private airport in Tripoli. This airport, however, has been used to channel and transport the terrorists from Libya to Syria. These terrorists were financed which was estimated to be 160 billion worth of dollars in 2010.

Belhaj and others are responsible of the misuse of Libya’s assets and putting an end to Libya’s development plan worth 200 billion of dollars according to the World Bank. Belhaj is one example to the warlords’ lavish life where the ordinary Libyan citizens were plunged into severe poverty.


The Militias Human Rights Abuses

The militias’ leaders and war lords has committed heinous crimes against humanity, destroyed cities and vital infrastructures throughout the past six years. The following are few of the listed crimes - People were burned, cooked alive and subjected to the ugliest forms of torture. Political prisoners, security personals and soldiers were thrown in the Iron and Steel smelting furnaces plant of Misratah. Above all, the militias traded in the prisons’ human organs. With the Libyan political scene growing more complicated, IS has also added more atrocities by slaughtering, crucifying people and cutting their organs in dramatic senses.

Unprecedented racial and ethnic cleansing, genocide was committed against five Libyan cities and its people. 55% of Libyan people were forced to flee their country to the neighbouring countries. In addition, hundreds of houses were burnt in Bani Walid [17] and five other cities in Warshafana. [18] Furthermore, the destruction and flattening of the city of Sirte [19] and bombardment of residential populated areas in Benghazi [20] and Dernah. Even the cosmopolitan Tripoli faced the same faith of ethnic and racial cleansing especially in the areas loyal to Qaddafi.

Besides the systematic human rights abuses, the militias and their leaders destroyed the Libyan essential infrastructures. [21] In July 2014, they set Tripoli airport and the aviation fleet on fire as well burning number 24 & 25 oil reservoirs. [22] [23] [24] [25]

Despite the militias destructive actions and brutal torture, the international community and the UN legal bodies ignored all these crimes and failed to bring these warlords to justice [26].


NATO and Libyan Militias’ Atrocities against Civilian and Public Figures

The NATO military aircrafts targeted civilians across various Libyan cities, namely Zlitan, Sirte, Surman, Tripoli and Bani Walid. In the south of Zlitan and precisely in Majeer, [27] 84 families mainly women and children were killed in cold blood while they were sleeping by NATO airstrikes. [28] Media showed children’s bodies pulled out of rubble and a lady named Minsyah Khleifa Heblow was halved in two and others lay dead in a very disturbing scene. In another case, the Khawildi Al-Ahmadi family was killed as NATO airstrikes hit their house and consequently killed two of their children. [29] Also, Al-Jafarh family were killed in Bani Walid [30] as NATO targeted their house during the Holy month of Ramadan. Not to mention, the well documented and deliberate NATO Arial bombardment of Qaddafi and his convoy in Sirte and the killing of Qaddafi’s youngest son, Saif Al-Arab in his house in Tripoli. [31]

The human rights abuse and systematic killing and torture of Libyan civilians continued after the militias assumed control of Libya. These people were civilians that did not participate in the civil war and the majority were old and cannot carry weapons. The popular comedian Youssef Al-Gharyani was detained and tortured by Al-Zawiyah militias.

Misratah militias has also detained and tortured the eighty-year-old and the Libyan Mufti in the 1970s, Al-Shaiek Al-Madani Al-Shwearief, [32] because he did not approve and support the NATO intervention in Libya. [33] The famous Libyan singer, Mohammed Hassan, was abused and put under house arrest. [34] Others like the economist expert in the Ministry of Finance, Dr Abdul Hafied Al-Zalatni, was tried and sentenced to years of imprisonment. Likewise, the Head of Islamic Call Society, Dr Mohammed Al-Shareef was sentenced for long term imprisonment. The Head of Customs Department and the Head of Training at the Ministry of Interior were also sentenced to long term imprisonment along with others who were sentenced to the death penalty and various terms of imprisonments. It’s rather absurd that these public figures were tried for drugs trafficking, human trafficking and rape in addition to 17 other charges. [35] The question that presents itself is how all these old professional figures met and conspire together to commit crimes throughout a period of nine months?

After NATO helped those militias to rule Libya, more horrific terrorist crimes were committed against Libyan and foreign nationals. A Coptic man was killed at the Misratah’s battalion, [36] murdering number of Coptic men in Sirte, [37] murdering a number of Christian Ethiopian workers, [38] murdering the American English teacher, Roni Smith, in Benghazi, [39] killing the Red Cross staff in Misratah in 2014 [40] and the French Embassy bombing in Tripoli, [41] above all, the murder of the American Ambassador in Benghazi, who helped and armed the militias throughout 2011. [42]

All the above victims were reported by the Human Rights Watch and in some cases NATO admitted responsibility of their death. However, the ICC turned a blind eye and failed to investigate such crimes despite various national and international bodies which demanded to initiate an open and transparent investigation as well as bringing perpetrates to justice. The ICC record showed failure in its responsibility regarding Libya’s civil war. It was evident as it has not produced a single warrant of arrest against these militia leaders and NATO forces. It seemed that it has been a deliberate policy of ICC to ignore these authentic crimes and only focuses on Saif Al-Islam indictment and trial.

When it comes to Qaddafi’s family, the ICC are seen not to be serious as in the case of Al-Saadi Qaddafi torture that the ICC prosecutor claimed that she is still investigating the case. However, he was shown in a video being interrogated and beaten in front of the camera. The same standard applied to the Abduallah Al-Senussi case where the ICC prosecutor claimed that she is still in deliberation of his death penalty. A similar claim was made by her predecessor regarding the bombing and killing of Qaddafi and hundreds in his convoy. The ICC never showed any seriousness in other crimes committed by the militias against thousands of Libyan people, except Saif Al-Islam in order to silent his voice and eliminate potential leadership.

The NATO countries and the Gulf mini-states should be held responsible for the chaos that has been created in Libya since 2011. They intervened in Libya in the pretext of Qaddafi killing his own people. The scenario of a leader killing his own people reminds us of Tony Blair during the Iraq inquiry in 2016. He said it was “the right thing to do and if Saddam had remained in power during the Arab Spring he would have crushed the rebels”. [43] By this kind of speculation, countries were destroyed, thousands of people were displaced and national assets were stolen. As a result of the NATO militarily intervention in Libya, Qaddafi, his sons and thousands of Libyan people were killed and millions more were displaced.

Six years on and the political settlement in Libya is far distant from being realised soon. With a glance, Libyan militias are fighting each other as well as Western countries military forces who are siding with different militias. France remains involved militarily and lost three soldiers in Benghazi in July 2016 by groups that were supporting the 2011 uprising. France then called the uprising a revolution that France ought to support and if its belief was true why is the war continuing today? And why 700 people mainly army officers assassinated? Why were the American Consulate Staff killed in Benghazi? Why the West ignoring is IS barbaric acts of cutting people’s throats in Sirte, Misratah and Dernah?

The answer to the later question is clear, those criminals were supported by the West in 2011 because they were fighting the apostate Libyan government as they claimed. Why was IS wearing the same Libyan soldiers uniform that was imported to the Libyan army in 2012, and who gives it to them? Why did IS’ members receive a salary from the Libyan Defence Ministry? The answer to the above question is that search for the effective ruler of Libya namely Belhadj, Al-Shareef, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and their co-ruler, the National Congress members. Who governs Libya today is well known by Libyan people and by some international NGOs groups. Thus far, Libya today is under the rule of the Islamic Jihadist groups and the West is supporting them despite these groups’ crimes against Libya and its people.

At this moment of time, is it strange that the Western countries as far north as Norway and Canada and to the south, Malta and Italy, not to mention the Qatari forces, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Sudan and Morocco all assembled to launch a military aggression against civilians who were not being hostile against these countries, such as, Saif al-Arab Muammar Qaddafi and Khuwaylidi family and 84 of innocent victims of Madjer? While these countries are patient and tolerant towards the supports of IS in Sirte, Misrata and Benghazi, they were also celebrating the IS bombings of the French and Belgium cities. Yet, the NATO countries and their allies should attack and bomb them as they did in Libya in 2011.

Finally, in complement of its series of crimes against the Libyans, the Western countries have appointed a war criminal who was responsible for the destruction of Bani Walid and killing of its children, "Abdul-Rahman Al-Swehli" as a head of Libya’s highest authority, the State Council and appointed his nephew, "Ahmed Maiteeq" [44] Vice President, his niece "Nihad Meitiq" [45] General Director of the Foreign and his brother in law, Faiez Al-Saraj, head of the presidential Council. In addition, Al-Swehli struck a deal with Belhadj, commander of the Islamic Fighting Group, to take the Islamist share of the presidential election. However, it is well known in Libya that if elections were to be held today, the above-mentioned persons will not guarantee and secure even their family members’ vote. Belhadj popularity was demonstrated in the parliamentary elections where he got only 50 votes in the Sauaq Al-Joumah district, which has a population of 250 thousand people.

Meanwhile and during writing these lines, the cities of Libya and its population including the capital city Tripoli where a third of Libyan population are inhabited, are suffering water shortages, living in darkness because of power cuts, lacking medical facilities and basic human needs. Per the UN, 65% of hospitals stopped working. [46] Whereas the Libyan Dinar lost 300% of its value and oil production fell from 1.9 million barrels a day into 250.000 barrels. [47] To add to the suffering of Libyan people, main roads were cut due to the military operations and act of banditry by the criminal gangs, in addition to the military operations and bombing campaign that stretches from Derna in the east to Sirte to the West through Benghazi and Ajdabiya. The most dominant in the daily news are kidnapping for ransom and booming arms trade to the extent that it is sold through the Internet and advertised on Facebook.

In conclusion, we ought to thank our brothers in Qatar and the UAE, Sudan, Tunisia, the Arab League, the NATO countries, the European Union and the people who helped Libya become a failed state. After the release of Islamist political prisoners and others, Libya became a home for the largest private prisons run by families and militias. Also, a country attracted investors from around the world to a state exporting migrants including its own citizens, 55% of its population migrated and took refugee worldwide. A state that combined the finest legal and constitution experts in the world, that were able to forge a new and modern constitution, now transformed to a state governed by 1500 militias. And finally, a state where a crime of theft was considered strange and unusual, to a state where human mutilated bodies and decomposed bodies were dumped on the streets and road sides, which became a routine and normal across the country every morning.


The Herland Report comments:

Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi and the ICC case

Before the uprising, Saif Al-Islam was the architect of the new Libya. He presented his new vision of Libya free of political prisons, committed to human rights charter, distribution of wealth, prosperity and democracy. [48] He embarked on political and economic reforms in Libya whereby the radical Islamic prisoners gained their freedom, rehabilitated and engaged in the Libyan society. Once the violent uprising erupted in some Libyan cities, local sources confirm that he offered his help by engaging in human relief efforts to help the displaced people around the country, released the uprising prisoners, securing the Misratah people who caught on the cross fire and sheltered the Benghazi people who fled the fighting areas.

He also called and supported the peace efforts to solve the Libyan civil war. According to sources on the ground, he asked the University of Sirte’s administration to print 5000 leaflets and distributed to the peaceful convoy to Benghazi contained observing human rights, calling for the army to uphold the rule of engagement and prohibiting the use of force against the protesters. The later was stated by the Head of the Joint Operation Chamber in the 2011 Libyan war, Marchal Al-Hadi Embarrish, who was taken as a prisoner of war by the Al-Zintan militias, badly treated and deprived from medical treatment until he died of cancer in prison in 2014. [49]

Despite Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi’s tireless peace efforts, NATO aircrafts targeted him in an attempt to assassinate him that resulted in a permanent disability and killing of 29 of his comrades. [50] Also, he lost his fingers and suffered multiple injuries. Yet, the ICC did not investigate the airstrike, nor oversee his five years of solitary confinement condition and his human rights generally. [51] Furthermore, the ICC persisted demanding his arrest and trial despite he was sentenced to death by a Libyan court that set-in Al-Hadbah prison under Khaled Al-Shareef, the right man of Belhaj.

For these reasons, the unfair trail and dismissal of the case is the only outcome that should be endorsed. Indeed, it could be argued that the case should be completely dropped especially after the Attorney General assassination in Benghazi and fleeing most Public Prosecution team as they faced an immense pressure from the militias. With all these circumstances, the ICC arguments were that his death sentence has not been implemented and therefore he should be arrested and jailed in Al-Hadhaba prison.

However, his death sentence was appealed by the Libyan Ministry of Justice on the ground of unfair trial since the court was set in a prison controlled by the Al-Shareef who has power over the court and the judges. Nevertheless, the ICC continued calling for his retrial and turned a blind eye on the fact that Saif Al-Islam was in the Al-Zintan prison and the Tripoli court had tried him via close circuit TV. Therefore, the ICC should respect the Libyan law and be aware that a person should not be tried twice for one alleged crime. But the end game for the West and ICC is to get rid of Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi as they did with his father Qaddafi and his brothers.

It is time for the ICC to drop its double standards and side with the Libyan people in their ultimate aim that to salvage their country from these militias and build a new Libya where human rights, prosperity, development and rule of law prevails. We also call upon the ICC to drop its call for Saif Al-Islam to be extradited and tried by the ICC.

Instead, the ICC should recognise and respect the Libyan Ministry of Justice General Amnesty Law by which Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi should assume his role in the struggle for a new democratic Libya. In this respect and after the Western countries began to see their mistake, they should work with the sincere Libyans and NGOs to bring these militias and their leaders to justice for the sake of peace and reconciliation.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

http://www.voltairenet.org/article198534.html