The Libyan Crisis [Threads Merged]
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Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa
Senator (1k+ posts)
West pounds Libya; Gaddafi vows long war
TRIPOLI: Western forces pounded Libyas air defenses and patrolled its skies on Sunday as Libyan armed forces issued a command to all units to observe an immediate ceasefire.
The announcement came after some 24 hours of air bombardment from American, French and British forces aiming to implement a UN resolution authorizing the use of force to protect Libyan civilians from government troops.
The Libyan armed forces ... have issued a command to all military units to safeguard an immediate ceasefire from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) this evening, a Libyan army spokesman said.
Earlier in the day, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had said he would give out weapons to his people to help defend Libya against Western forces. The Libyan leader said the air strikes amounted to terrorism and vowed to fight to the death.
While his eastern forces fled from the outskirts of Benghazi in the face of the allied air attacks, Gaddafi sent tanks into Misrata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya. Among the densely packed houses full of civilians, they were less vulnerable to attack from the air.
A Libyan government health official said 64 people had been killed in the Western bombardment overnight, but it was impossible to verify the report as government minders refused to take reporters in Tripoli to the sites of the bombings.
On Sunday evening heavy anti-aircraft fire could be heard over central Tripoli for a second night.
The US military said the first stage of coalition raids under a UN Security Council remit to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya had been successful and Gaddafis offensive on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi stopped in its tracks.
In Benghazi itself, medics and AFP correspondents said at least 94 people had died in an assault launched on Friday on the Mediterranean city by forces loyal to Gaddafis before the coalition onslaught.
Libyan state television showed footage from an unidentified hospital of what it called victims of the colonial enemy. Ten bodies were wrapped up in white and blue bed sheets, and several people were wounded, one of them badly, the television said.
Western intervention, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling, was welcomed with a mix of apprehension and relief in Benghazi, where the main hospital was filled with men, women and children wounded in Saturday's assault on the city by Gaddafis forces. agencies
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg1_1
TRIPOLI: Western forces pounded Libyas air defenses and patrolled its skies on Sunday as Libyan armed forces issued a command to all units to observe an immediate ceasefire.
The announcement came after some 24 hours of air bombardment from American, French and British forces aiming to implement a UN resolution authorizing the use of force to protect Libyan civilians from government troops.
The Libyan armed forces ... have issued a command to all military units to safeguard an immediate ceasefire from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) this evening, a Libyan army spokesman said.
Earlier in the day, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had said he would give out weapons to his people to help defend Libya against Western forces. The Libyan leader said the air strikes amounted to terrorism and vowed to fight to the death.
While his eastern forces fled from the outskirts of Benghazi in the face of the allied air attacks, Gaddafi sent tanks into Misrata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya. Among the densely packed houses full of civilians, they were less vulnerable to attack from the air.
A Libyan government health official said 64 people had been killed in the Western bombardment overnight, but it was impossible to verify the report as government minders refused to take reporters in Tripoli to the sites of the bombings.
On Sunday evening heavy anti-aircraft fire could be heard over central Tripoli for a second night.
The US military said the first stage of coalition raids under a UN Security Council remit to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya had been successful and Gaddafis offensive on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi stopped in its tracks.
In Benghazi itself, medics and AFP correspondents said at least 94 people had died in an assault launched on Friday on the Mediterranean city by forces loyal to Gaddafis before the coalition onslaught.
Libyan state television showed footage from an unidentified hospital of what it called victims of the colonial enemy. Ten bodies were wrapped up in white and blue bed sheets, and several people were wounded, one of them badly, the television said.
Western intervention, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling, was welcomed with a mix of apprehension and relief in Benghazi, where the main hospital was filled with men, women and children wounded in Saturday's assault on the city by Gaddafis forces. agencies
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg1_1
Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa
Senator (1k+ posts)
Armed men detain crew of Italian ship in Tripoli
ROME: A seized Italian tugboat and its crew left the Libyan port of Tripoli on Sunday accompanied by people claiming to represent port authority and Libyan military officials, a statement by the ships owner said.
The 11 crew members are fine and are on board the ship, said Augusta Offshore, a company based in the southern Italian port of Naples that specialises in assisting oil rigs as well as exploration and production activities.
We are in constant contact with the foreign ministrys crisis unit to cooperate and we are coordinating with the authorities, it said. The ships crew is made up of eight Italians, two Indians and a Ukrainian national. Armed men, including one who claimed to be the harbour master, detained the crew and were holding them on board the 75-metre ship, officials and media reports said.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it was unclear why the men had been seized but that Rome did not rule out a kidnapping.
We dont know what are the intentions of the men who seized the 11 crew members on Saturday, but we cannot exclude a kidnapping, the minister said during a telephone call to an Italian television programme.
The ANSA news agency quoted sources as saying the action occurred Saturday afternoon shortly before French warplanes launched air strikes at the start of a Western military operation against Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafis forces
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg7_9
ROME: A seized Italian tugboat and its crew left the Libyan port of Tripoli on Sunday accompanied by people claiming to represent port authority and Libyan military officials, a statement by the ships owner said.
The 11 crew members are fine and are on board the ship, said Augusta Offshore, a company based in the southern Italian port of Naples that specialises in assisting oil rigs as well as exploration and production activities.
We are in constant contact with the foreign ministrys crisis unit to cooperate and we are coordinating with the authorities, it said. The ships crew is made up of eight Italians, two Indians and a Ukrainian national. Armed men, including one who claimed to be the harbour master, detained the crew and were holding them on board the 75-metre ship, officials and media reports said.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it was unclear why the men had been seized but that Rome did not rule out a kidnapping.
We dont know what are the intentions of the men who seized the 11 crew members on Saturday, but we cannot exclude a kidnapping, the minister said during a telephone call to an Italian television programme.
The ANSA news agency quoted sources as saying the action occurred Saturday afternoon shortly before French warplanes launched air strikes at the start of a Western military operation against Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafis forces
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg7_9
Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa
Senator (1k+ posts)
Arab League says it wanted no-fly zone, not bombs
CAIRO: The Arab League chief said on Sunday that Arabs did not want military strikes by Western powers that hit civilians when the League called for a no-fly zone over Libya. In comments carried by Egypts official state news agency,
Secretary-General Amr Moussa also said he was calling for an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss the situation in the Arab world and particularly Libya.
What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians, he said. He requested official reports about what happened in Libya in terms of aerial and marine bombardment that led to the deaths and injuries of many Libyan civilians. He pointed out that he asked for the full data to know what actually happened, MENA said. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg1_2
CAIRO: The Arab League chief said on Sunday that Arabs did not want military strikes by Western powers that hit civilians when the League called for a no-fly zone over Libya. In comments carried by Egypts official state news agency,
Secretary-General Amr Moussa also said he was calling for an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss the situation in the Arab world and particularly Libya.
What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians, he said. He requested official reports about what happened in Libya in terms of aerial and marine bombardment that led to the deaths and injuries of many Libyan civilians. He pointed out that he asked for the full data to know what actually happened, MENA said. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg1_2
Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa
Senator (1k+ posts)
Ousting Gaddafi not immediate goal: US
WASHINGTON: The immediate goal of the coalitions intervention in Libya is to protect civilians with a no-fly zone, not to oust Moamer Gaddafi, the top American military officer said Sunday. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said initial air and sea strikes by France, the United States and Britain had stopped Gaddafis forces in their tracks and the aim now was to cut off logistical support. Were in a situation now that what we do will depend to some degree on what he does, Mullen told Fox News Sunday. Pressed on CBSs Face the Nation about the endgame, he said that was very uncertain and indicated it would ultimately be up to other members of the coalition, rather than the United States, to decide what action to take. Its hard to know exactly how this turns out. Hes a thug; hes a cagey guy; hes a survivor. We know that, Mullen said. afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg1_3
WASHINGTON: The immediate goal of the coalitions intervention in Libya is to protect civilians with a no-fly zone, not to oust Moamer Gaddafi, the top American military officer said Sunday. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said initial air and sea strikes by France, the United States and Britain had stopped Gaddafis forces in their tracks and the aim now was to cut off logistical support. Were in a situation now that what we do will depend to some degree on what he does, Mullen told Fox News Sunday. Pressed on CBSs Face the Nation about the endgame, he said that was very uncertain and indicated it would ultimately be up to other members of the coalition, rather than the United States, to decide what action to take. Its hard to know exactly how this turns out. Hes a thug; hes a cagey guy; hes a survivor. We know that, Mullen said. afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\21\story_21-3-2011_pg1_3
Re: Libya: crusader aggression against Muslims, many dead
Waooo. Everyday above 100 muslims got killed everyday in muslim world. we still not understand whats going on here. If you talk about Gadhafi so do some research before to write about him. This is not only to hand over power from Gadhafi. its basically about two QABEELLA. Its just like Arabs ad Berbers in this type of muslim world. Or u can say like Shia or sunni(even though majority are sunni only). Other Qabilla dont like Gadhafi which is in Benghazi city. second largest city in Libya. They want power in Libya so simple is this but people which are in Tripoli and other cities they are from Gadhafi qabeela. This thing will not finish only by the resignation og Gadhafi. So its not only Gadhafi which can solve this problem by his resignation but many other elements. After him it will be more fight like Afghanistan and Iraq.
If u think other qabeela which is against Gadhafi, he will be theirs own people, so i dont think so.. they have support from USA and europeans countries. Hilary was in city Benghazi last week and their people had meeting with other european people last week also. So they are also not their own people.
Any way god bless Libya.
Waooo. Everyday above 100 muslims got killed everyday in muslim world. we still not understand whats going on here. If you talk about Gadhafi so do some research before to write about him. This is not only to hand over power from Gadhafi. its basically about two QABEELLA. Its just like Arabs ad Berbers in this type of muslim world. Or u can say like Shia or sunni(even though majority are sunni only). Other Qabilla dont like Gadhafi which is in Benghazi city. second largest city in Libya. They want power in Libya so simple is this but people which are in Tripoli and other cities they are from Gadhafi qabeela. This thing will not finish only by the resignation og Gadhafi. So its not only Gadhafi which can solve this problem by his resignation but many other elements. After him it will be more fight like Afghanistan and Iraq.
If u think other qabeela which is against Gadhafi, he will be theirs own people, so i dont think so.. they have support from USA and europeans countries. Hilary was in city Benghazi last week and their people had meeting with other european people last week also. So they are also not their own people.
Any way god bless Libya.
Last edited:
PkRevolution
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Re: Rebels shot Gaddafi's fighter plane!!!!!! Images.
http://ejang.jang.com.pk/3-20-2011/Karachi/pic.asp?picname=4054.gif
There is also a proove that it was a French fighter plane. Not belonging to Lybian Army.
http://ejang.jang.com.pk/3-20-2011/Karachi/pic.asp?picname=4054.gif
There is also a proove that it was a French fighter plane. Not belonging to Lybian Army.
karachiwala
Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
UN Powers Violate Their Own Resolution By Targeting Gaddafi
Attack on Libya is illegal under both U.S. law and UN charter; Manufactured pretext of protecting civilians completely collapses as Russia, Arab League and African Union condemn air strikes
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, March 21, 2011
As the contrived moral high ground behind the absurdly hypocritical humanitarian pretext of the attack on Libya collapses in the wake of Russia, the Arab League and the African Union condemning the US-led NATO bombings, so does any pretense of legality that the no fly zone resolution holds, because the obvious attempt to assassinate Gaddafi violates not only U.S. law, but the UNs own charter.
Vladimir Putins characterization of the air strikes as a medieval crusade and his warning that the attacks prove why Russia has to build up its defenses against NATO is the most damning indictment of the campaign thus far. It follows an Arab League u-turn as well as an African Union condemnation, as all the lies and bluster about a humanitarian mission crumble within days of the assault being launched.
The Orwellian delusion that the no fly zone anything other than a cruel hoax became obvious within hours, as NATO rejected Libyas proposal for independent third party countries to patrol the skies and instead launched an instantaneous bombardment of Gaddafis military facilities, strikes that have killed dozens of innocent people according to Libyan claims that have been confirmed by Russia.
From the very beginning, this war had nothing to do with protecting civilians and everything to do with toppling the leader of Africas richest oil nation.
Now western leaders have all but admitted that the sole focus of the campaign is to kill Gaddafi, as air strikes pound targets around the beleaguered Libyan leader.
Asked if Gaddafi could be assassinated to force regime change, British defence secretary Liam Fox said that the Libyan leader was a legitimate target, adding, That would potentially be a possibility, entertaining a notion that was soon backed up by force as RAF warplanes reduced Gaddafis Tripoli compound to rubble last night after a massive air bombardment.
Fox later said that a bunker-buster attack on Gaddafis residence was also being considered.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister David Cameron have all gone on record to state that Gaddafi must go, needs to go, and has lost his legitimacy.
In addition, Salwa el-Deghali, of the national transitional council, called for, More attacks on Gaddafis forces, and fast. We need these attacks until he is crushed.
Does this sound like a mission to protect civilians or a mission to topple Gaddafi, especially given the fact that SAS commanders have been on the ground for weeks, again in violation of the UN resolution, directly supporting Libyan rebel armies?
The UN resolution that supposedly gave the air strikes their legal foundation does not authorize the use of military force to enact regime change, and yet thats precisely what NATO and the United States is pursuing the murder or removal of Gaddafi.
Once again we are reminded of the fact that the United Nations only abides by its own resolutions when it is convenient. The UN will flagrantly violate its own charter with relish if there is a pre-existing geopolitical agenda to accomplish.
International law codified under the UN prohibits state-sponsored assassination, except under conditions of warfare. By characterizing the attack on Libya as merely a no fly zone, and stopping short of declaring war on on the country, the UN along with the powers that signed the resolution, namely America, France, Britain and Italy, are in violation of their own resolution by targeting Gaddafi.
Indeed, killing Gaddafi would be a war crime because it clearly qualifies as an act of treachery under Article 23 of the Hague Convention IV of 1907. Even in times of declared war, assassinating a leader under false pretenses is illegal.
A state that uses treachery to kill an enemy may be guilty of war crimes, states the Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Article 23 of the Hague Convention IV of 1907 provides that it is especially forbidden . . . to kill or wound treacherously, individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army. Treachery is usually defined as a breach of confidence, such as an attack on an individual who believes that there is no need to fear the attacker.
In addition, under U.S. law, employees of the United States are prohibited from engaging in assassination during peacetime. This law has of course been violated numerous times, most notably in 1986 when the Reagan administration attempted to kill Gaddafi by bombing army barracks where Libyan leader was known to be sleeping.
The attack on Libya is not only immoral, with the humanitarian pretext transparently a pack of lies, it is also completely unconstitutional having not been authorized by the U.S. Congress. As Francis Boyle, Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, points out, Without authorization by the United Nations Security Council and express authorization from the U.S. Congress pursuant to the terms of the War Powers Resolution, for President Obama to establish any type of so-called no-fly zone over Libya would be illegal and unconstitutional.
Above all, since the assault was launched under UN auspices with the presumed legitimacy of the international community, it directly violates the UNs own charter in that the entire scope of the mission is about regime change, supporting one side in a civil war, and has nothing whatsoever to do with protecting civilians.
Attack on Libya is illegal under both U.S. law and UN charter; Manufactured pretext of protecting civilians completely collapses as Russia, Arab League and African Union condemn air strikes
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, March 21, 2011
As the contrived moral high ground behind the absurdly hypocritical humanitarian pretext of the attack on Libya collapses in the wake of Russia, the Arab League and the African Union condemning the US-led NATO bombings, so does any pretense of legality that the no fly zone resolution holds, because the obvious attempt to assassinate Gaddafi violates not only U.S. law, but the UNs own charter.
The Orwellian delusion that the no fly zone anything other than a cruel hoax became obvious within hours, as NATO rejected Libyas proposal for independent third party countries to patrol the skies and instead launched an instantaneous bombardment of Gaddafis military facilities, strikes that have killed dozens of innocent people according to Libyan claims that have been confirmed by Russia.
From the very beginning, this war had nothing to do with protecting civilians and everything to do with toppling the leader of Africas richest oil nation.
Now western leaders have all but admitted that the sole focus of the campaign is to kill Gaddafi, as air strikes pound targets around the beleaguered Libyan leader.
Asked if Gaddafi could be assassinated to force regime change, British defence secretary Liam Fox said that the Libyan leader was a legitimate target, adding, That would potentially be a possibility, entertaining a notion that was soon backed up by force as RAF warplanes reduced Gaddafis Tripoli compound to rubble last night after a massive air bombardment.
Fox later said that a bunker-buster attack on Gaddafis residence was also being considered.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister David Cameron have all gone on record to state that Gaddafi must go, needs to go, and has lost his legitimacy.
In addition, Salwa el-Deghali, of the national transitional council, called for, More attacks on Gaddafis forces, and fast. We need these attacks until he is crushed.
Does this sound like a mission to protect civilians or a mission to topple Gaddafi, especially given the fact that SAS commanders have been on the ground for weeks, again in violation of the UN resolution, directly supporting Libyan rebel armies?
The UN resolution that supposedly gave the air strikes their legal foundation does not authorize the use of military force to enact regime change, and yet thats precisely what NATO and the United States is pursuing the murder or removal of Gaddafi.
Once again we are reminded of the fact that the United Nations only abides by its own resolutions when it is convenient. The UN will flagrantly violate its own charter with relish if there is a pre-existing geopolitical agenda to accomplish.
International law codified under the UN prohibits state-sponsored assassination, except under conditions of warfare. By characterizing the attack on Libya as merely a no fly zone, and stopping short of declaring war on on the country, the UN along with the powers that signed the resolution, namely America, France, Britain and Italy, are in violation of their own resolution by targeting Gaddafi.
Indeed, killing Gaddafi would be a war crime because it clearly qualifies as an act of treachery under Article 23 of the Hague Convention IV of 1907. Even in times of declared war, assassinating a leader under false pretenses is illegal.
A state that uses treachery to kill an enemy may be guilty of war crimes, states the Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Article 23 of the Hague Convention IV of 1907 provides that it is especially forbidden . . . to kill or wound treacherously, individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army. Treachery is usually defined as a breach of confidence, such as an attack on an individual who believes that there is no need to fear the attacker.
In addition, under U.S. law, employees of the United States are prohibited from engaging in assassination during peacetime. This law has of course been violated numerous times, most notably in 1986 when the Reagan administration attempted to kill Gaddafi by bombing army barracks where Libyan leader was known to be sleeping.
The attack on Libya is not only immoral, with the humanitarian pretext transparently a pack of lies, it is also completely unconstitutional having not been authorized by the U.S. Congress. As Francis Boyle, Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, points out, Without authorization by the United Nations Security Council and express authorization from the U.S. Congress pursuant to the terms of the War Powers Resolution, for President Obama to establish any type of so-called no-fly zone over Libya would be illegal and unconstitutional.
Above all, since the assault was launched under UN auspices with the presumed legitimacy of the international community, it directly violates the UNs own charter in that the entire scope of the mission is about regime change, supporting one side in a civil war, and has nothing whatsoever to do with protecting civilians.
karachiwala
Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
LIBYA: America Increases Targeted Bombings, Because The Rebels Were Losing
Gus Lubin
Business Insider
March 23, 2011
[Scroll to the bottom for the latest updates.]
After watching the rebels get beaten back in Ajdabiya and pummeled in Misrata and Zintan, the U.S. has increased targeted airstrikes today.
This goes against claims that military activity was winding down.
Jets took off from the U.S.S. Kearsage through the night, according to Al Jazeera.
The U.S. received authorization to bomb tanks outside Misrata, according to the Telegraph:
Some of those cities still have tanks advancing on them to attack the Libyan people. We are authorised, and the president made the nexus between the Security Council resolution and what he considers our legal mandate to attack those tanks. So that is the type of target that our strike aircraft will go at.
A rebel tells Reuters that these airstrikes have been effective:
The allied planes bombed twice so far. At 12:45 (1845 ET) this morning and then again less than two hours ago. They (pro-Gaddafi forces) havent fired a single artillery (round) since the air strike.
U.S. Admiral Locklear said Khamis Qaddafis 32nd Brigade would be targeted in the coming hours and days. This elite force is said to have 10,000 soldiers, according to the Telegraph.
08:13 ET: A Zintan villager tells Reuters of a new attack: Gaddafis brigades started bombardment from the northern area half an hour ago The town is completely surrounded They are getting reinforcements. Troops backed with tanks and vehicles are coming. We appeal to the allied forces to come and protect civilians.
Gus Lubin
Business Insider
March 23, 2011
[Scroll to the bottom for the latest updates.]
After watching the rebels get beaten back in Ajdabiya and pummeled in Misrata and Zintan, the U.S. has increased targeted airstrikes today.
This goes against claims that military activity was winding down.
Jets took off from the U.S.S. Kearsage through the night, according to Al Jazeera.
The U.S. received authorization to bomb tanks outside Misrata, according to the Telegraph:
Some of those cities still have tanks advancing on them to attack the Libyan people. We are authorised, and the president made the nexus between the Security Council resolution and what he considers our legal mandate to attack those tanks. So that is the type of target that our strike aircraft will go at.
A rebel tells Reuters that these airstrikes have been effective:
The allied planes bombed twice so far. At 12:45 (1845 ET) this morning and then again less than two hours ago. They (pro-Gaddafi forces) havent fired a single artillery (round) since the air strike.
U.S. Admiral Locklear said Khamis Qaddafis 32nd Brigade would be targeted in the coming hours and days. This elite force is said to have 10,000 soldiers, according to the Telegraph.
08:13 ET: A Zintan villager tells Reuters of a new attack: Gaddafis brigades started bombardment from the northern area half an hour ago The town is completely surrounded They are getting reinforcements. Troops backed with tanks and vehicles are coming. We appeal to the allied forces to come and protect civilians.
Abdali
Senator (1k+ posts)
Libya: Murder and Plunder Masquerading as Humanitarian Intervention
By Orwellwasright
March 23, 2011 "Salon''-- On March 20th 2003 Western forces launched their “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq, heavily bombarding Baghdad and elsewhere, massacring hundreds if not thousands of innocent men, women and children. On March 20th 2011 the very same forces attacked Libya, beginning what many believe will be yet another mass slaughter.
What is obvious to all but the most duped and apathetic is that once again we have another war launched by the imperialist powers thinly veiled as a “humanitarian intervention”, dressed up as a mission of peace driven by the use of heavy bombardment and murder, where the truth lies diametrically opposed to the propaganda being pushed by the mainstream media. Nothing is what it seems; the lies and deceptions are as Orwellian as ever. The similarities with Iraq go well beyond the date of the opening salvo – indeed, there are many consistencies between the current attack on Libya and numerous other military interventions and acts of aggression carried out by the US, NATO and their allies in recent years.
The propaganda currently being pumped out by the mainstream media, led by the usual suspects in the American corporate press and the liars and sycophants over at the BBC, is essentially a re-run of the Iraq invasions and Kosovo: a largely fabricated case for humanitarian intervention based on violence stoked by special forces troops and covert operations, with the consistent demonisation of the leader recast as a mass murdering tyrant to justify a heavy saturation bombing campaign in the name of human rights and justice. Any historical context that might cast the so-called “Allies” in a negative light – for instance large-scale sales of weapons to the new enemy figure – is carefully omitted from the narrative.
The assault on Iraq during the first Gulf War was launched on the back of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait – an invasion carried out with the tacit support of the US, who then betrayed their puppet dictator and launched a huge slaughter, killing more than 100,000 people. The war was sold to the American public with a horror story in which Iraqi troops were accused of throwing Kuwaiti babies out of hospital incubators. Trouble is, the story was a complete fabrication, utilizing fake testimony from an unnamed nurse who turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, coached by the pubic relations firm Hill & Knowlton, a company with a track record of providing services to notorious human rights abusers around the globe.
And let’s not forget the fabricated “evidence” to justify the 2003 invasion – the non-existent WMDs, the yellow cake from Niger, the repeated, false association between Saddam and 9/11 … all since proven to be lies, and the occupation continues…
In Kosovo, the Western media went all out saturating their broadcasts of a photograph of a thin man behind a fence accompanied by cries of “concentration camps!” The truth was rather different: the ITN film crew were on the inside of a refugee camp, and had asked the man to take his top off to pose for the camera. The photo was another propaganda coup from the so-called “free press” of the West, which eventually led to a lethal 78 day bombing campaign which caused a fragmentation of the region from which they have yet to recover. Around the same time, NATO member Turkey – receiving some 80% of their arms from the Clinton administration – proceeded to murder, torture and massacre Kurds in untold numbers. There was no call for a humanitarian intervention there – after all, they were our allies.
In addition to such fabrications, the Western media conveniently omitted any mention of CIA/MI6 use of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA-UCK) to instigate violence in the region, subsequently used as part of the justification for the NATO “humanitarian intervention”. It should be noted that since this campaign KLA leaders such as Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku have been tied to criminal syndicates involved in arms, drugs, and human trafficking, prostitution and illegal organ harvesting, in addition to the numerous war crimes carried out under the auspices of NATO. This blatant criminalization of Kosovo politics was carried out with the full consent of the EU and the US. It should also be noted that the US themselves described the KLA as a terrorist organization up until 1998, when Bill Clinton reclassified them as “freedom fighters” and unleashed them on the Serbs. NATO’s strategy of high altitude bombing quickly moved from legitimate military targets to the wholesale destruction of infrastructure, hospitals, television stations and civilians – all in the name of “humanitarian intervention” …
And as the historical record now shows, the refugee crisis and the swathe of massacres was precipitated by the NATO bombing campaign.
Similarly, the media build-up to the current attack on Libya has been characterised by the same level of fabricated propaganda against a backdrop of covert actions utilising known terrorist groups. The rebellion against Colonel Qaddafi, which the mainstream media would have us believe is a completely independent and organic grassroots uprising against a brutal oppressor, has actually been manipulated by agents from the CIA, MI6 and covert special forces groups such as the SAS for a number of weeks. A team of British SAS were recently arrested by Libyan rebels, echoing the arrest of SAS soldiers in Bazra in 2005, equipped with weapons, explosives and Arab-looking disguises, caught shooting at an Iraqi police checkpoint, in a textbook example of divide and rule tactics.
Arms and al-Qaida-affiliated fighters have also been flowing into the country to fuel the insurrection from Saudi Arabia and Egypt directly from NATO and other Western sources in an attempt to foment the overthrow of Qaddafi. There are additional reports that Israeli-affiliated African mercenaries have also infiltrated Libya to support the attempted insurrection. It is the reaction of the Libyan government – a completely justified response to a violent insurrection aided by agents from foreign governments with reciprocal force – that the Western press is characterising as the oppression of unarmed protesters.
Stories of atrocities carried out by Qaddafi have also turned out to be of questionable veracity, for instance the accusation that Qaddafi was using his air force to strafe crowds of protesters. These accusations remain unsupported, but that hasn’t stopped them being repeated ad nauseum across the mainstream media. If there is a grain of truth in them (and it’s not simply a case of Qaddafi’s forces legitimately striking back at armed, Western-backed “rebels”), one has to wonder why such a supposedly unpopular leader has recently handed out 1 million machine guns to the public to fight against a foreign occupation. Hardly the tactics of a dictator fearing overthrow from within. Perhaps the media will release photographic or video evidence supporting their claims, but if the past is anything to go by … well, perhaps they won’t.
Fox News got in on the act of making things up recently as well, using the well worn “human shields” hoax popular amongst defenders of Israeli barbarism towards the Palestinians. Fortunately, CNN correspondent Nic Robertson set the records straight:
A predictable but entirely unfounded response to the above observations is the accusation of being a Qaddafi sympathizer. Those who make such accusations are guilty of obfuscation and missing the broader point. Certainly, Qaddafi is no angel – likewise Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein were guilty of despotism, crimes against humanity and more. But those who make such charges miss the irony of their rhetoric, given that they support the unbridled use of violence by far more powerful military forces against largely civilian populations, leading to death tolls that far exceed those committed by the puppet dictators they seek to overthrow. That these dictators and despots committed their own atrocities with weapons supplied by Western nations is never mentioned, for doing so would lay bare their hypocrisy. “We must kill to avoid killing,” is the ideology they promote, oblivious to the inherent contradiction that lies within.
This hypocrisy is plain to see in the recent release of photos of American troops in Afghanistan posing for trophy shots with murdered civilians. While the BBC are busy ramming down the throats of the public endless news about our impressive fighter planes and their “precision” bombing and manufacturing tales of massacres at the hands of Qaddafi, photos such as this are completely ignored:
Click this bar to view the full image.
US Army "Kill Team" pose with with murdered civilians
]
And of course, there’s little mention of the genuinely brutal oppression in places like Bahrain, where the Saudi military were called in to massacre protesters there, or the recent outbreak of airstrikes and incursions into Gaza by the IDF over the weekend. Because they’re our “allies” and their crimes – like our own – are completely permissible.
Just another day in the Empire...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27749.htm
By Orwellwasright
March 23, 2011 "Salon''-- On March 20th 2003 Western forces launched their “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq, heavily bombarding Baghdad and elsewhere, massacring hundreds if not thousands of innocent men, women and children. On March 20th 2011 the very same forces attacked Libya, beginning what many believe will be yet another mass slaughter.
What is obvious to all but the most duped and apathetic is that once again we have another war launched by the imperialist powers thinly veiled as a “humanitarian intervention”, dressed up as a mission of peace driven by the use of heavy bombardment and murder, where the truth lies diametrically opposed to the propaganda being pushed by the mainstream media. Nothing is what it seems; the lies and deceptions are as Orwellian as ever. The similarities with Iraq go well beyond the date of the opening salvo – indeed, there are many consistencies between the current attack on Libya and numerous other military interventions and acts of aggression carried out by the US, NATO and their allies in recent years.
The propaganda currently being pumped out by the mainstream media, led by the usual suspects in the American corporate press and the liars and sycophants over at the BBC, is essentially a re-run of the Iraq invasions and Kosovo: a largely fabricated case for humanitarian intervention based on violence stoked by special forces troops and covert operations, with the consistent demonisation of the leader recast as a mass murdering tyrant to justify a heavy saturation bombing campaign in the name of human rights and justice. Any historical context that might cast the so-called “Allies” in a negative light – for instance large-scale sales of weapons to the new enemy figure – is carefully omitted from the narrative.
The assault on Iraq during the first Gulf War was launched on the back of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait – an invasion carried out with the tacit support of the US, who then betrayed their puppet dictator and launched a huge slaughter, killing more than 100,000 people. The war was sold to the American public with a horror story in which Iraqi troops were accused of throwing Kuwaiti babies out of hospital incubators. Trouble is, the story was a complete fabrication, utilizing fake testimony from an unnamed nurse who turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, coached by the pubic relations firm Hill & Knowlton, a company with a track record of providing services to notorious human rights abusers around the globe.
And let’s not forget the fabricated “evidence” to justify the 2003 invasion – the non-existent WMDs, the yellow cake from Niger, the repeated, false association between Saddam and 9/11 … all since proven to be lies, and the occupation continues…
In Kosovo, the Western media went all out saturating their broadcasts of a photograph of a thin man behind a fence accompanied by cries of “concentration camps!” The truth was rather different: the ITN film crew were on the inside of a refugee camp, and had asked the man to take his top off to pose for the camera. The photo was another propaganda coup from the so-called “free press” of the West, which eventually led to a lethal 78 day bombing campaign which caused a fragmentation of the region from which they have yet to recover. Around the same time, NATO member Turkey – receiving some 80% of their arms from the Clinton administration – proceeded to murder, torture and massacre Kurds in untold numbers. There was no call for a humanitarian intervention there – after all, they were our allies.
In addition to such fabrications, the Western media conveniently omitted any mention of CIA/MI6 use of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA-UCK) to instigate violence in the region, subsequently used as part of the justification for the NATO “humanitarian intervention”. It should be noted that since this campaign KLA leaders such as Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku have been tied to criminal syndicates involved in arms, drugs, and human trafficking, prostitution and illegal organ harvesting, in addition to the numerous war crimes carried out under the auspices of NATO. This blatant criminalization of Kosovo politics was carried out with the full consent of the EU and the US. It should also be noted that the US themselves described the KLA as a terrorist organization up until 1998, when Bill Clinton reclassified them as “freedom fighters” and unleashed them on the Serbs. NATO’s strategy of high altitude bombing quickly moved from legitimate military targets to the wholesale destruction of infrastructure, hospitals, television stations and civilians – all in the name of “humanitarian intervention” …
And as the historical record now shows, the refugee crisis and the swathe of massacres was precipitated by the NATO bombing campaign.
Similarly, the media build-up to the current attack on Libya has been characterised by the same level of fabricated propaganda against a backdrop of covert actions utilising known terrorist groups. The rebellion against Colonel Qaddafi, which the mainstream media would have us believe is a completely independent and organic grassroots uprising against a brutal oppressor, has actually been manipulated by agents from the CIA, MI6 and covert special forces groups such as the SAS for a number of weeks. A team of British SAS were recently arrested by Libyan rebels, echoing the arrest of SAS soldiers in Bazra in 2005, equipped with weapons, explosives and Arab-looking disguises, caught shooting at an Iraqi police checkpoint, in a textbook example of divide and rule tactics.
Arms and al-Qaida-affiliated fighters have also been flowing into the country to fuel the insurrection from Saudi Arabia and Egypt directly from NATO and other Western sources in an attempt to foment the overthrow of Qaddafi. There are additional reports that Israeli-affiliated African mercenaries have also infiltrated Libya to support the attempted insurrection. It is the reaction of the Libyan government – a completely justified response to a violent insurrection aided by agents from foreign governments with reciprocal force – that the Western press is characterising as the oppression of unarmed protesters.
Stories of atrocities carried out by Qaddafi have also turned out to be of questionable veracity, for instance the accusation that Qaddafi was using his air force to strafe crowds of protesters. These accusations remain unsupported, but that hasn’t stopped them being repeated ad nauseum across the mainstream media. If there is a grain of truth in them (and it’s not simply a case of Qaddafi’s forces legitimately striking back at armed, Western-backed “rebels”), one has to wonder why such a supposedly unpopular leader has recently handed out 1 million machine guns to the public to fight against a foreign occupation. Hardly the tactics of a dictator fearing overthrow from within. Perhaps the media will release photographic or video evidence supporting their claims, but if the past is anything to go by … well, perhaps they won’t.
Fox News got in on the act of making things up recently as well, using the well worn “human shields” hoax popular amongst defenders of Israeli barbarism towards the Palestinians. Fortunately, CNN correspondent Nic Robertson set the records straight:
A predictable but entirely unfounded response to the above observations is the accusation of being a Qaddafi sympathizer. Those who make such accusations are guilty of obfuscation and missing the broader point. Certainly, Qaddafi is no angel – likewise Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein were guilty of despotism, crimes against humanity and more. But those who make such charges miss the irony of their rhetoric, given that they support the unbridled use of violence by far more powerful military forces against largely civilian populations, leading to death tolls that far exceed those committed by the puppet dictators they seek to overthrow. That these dictators and despots committed their own atrocities with weapons supplied by Western nations is never mentioned, for doing so would lay bare their hypocrisy. “We must kill to avoid killing,” is the ideology they promote, oblivious to the inherent contradiction that lies within.
This hypocrisy is plain to see in the recent release of photos of American troops in Afghanistan posing for trophy shots with murdered civilians. While the BBC are busy ramming down the throats of the public endless news about our impressive fighter planes and their “precision” bombing and manufacturing tales of massacres at the hands of Qaddafi, photos such as this are completely ignored:
Click this bar to view the full image.
US Army "Kill Team" pose with with murdered civilians
]
And of course, there’s little mention of the genuinely brutal oppression in places like Bahrain, where the Saudi military were called in to massacre protesters there, or the recent outbreak of airstrikes and incursions into Gaza by the IDF over the weekend. Because they’re our “allies” and their crimes – like our own – are completely permissible.
Just another day in the Empire...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27749.htm
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