Libya : A no lie zone

[Keith Millea]

Close ties between Tripoli and London were also revealed in other confidential papers which document how MI6 and Libyan intelligence chiefs set up a radical mosque in a western European city to lure al-Qaida terrorists, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Hey,why infiltrate,when you can set up your own HOLY mosque.Praise Allah.....

It was revealed on Wednesday that the Libyan military commander Abdel Hakim Belhaj is taking legal action against Jack Straw following allegations that the former foreign secretary personally permitted his illegal rendition.

I can't help it,but everytime I see the name Jack Straw,I always think of the Grateful Dead.So,for all the Deadheads out there....Jack Straw out here at the Country Fair parking lot,1972.Happy Trails....

[Peter Lemkin]

A 'strawman' for sure! Nothing Lasts!:kraka::kraka:

[Magda Hassan]

England (UK)
One Year On. Why we attacked Libya. [/url]

By T.J. Coles in the UK. Axis of Logic.
Axis of Logic
Wednesday, Mar 28, 2012

Editor's Note: Axis of Logic columnist T.J. Coles begins his series on the destruction of Libya after one year of occupation of that country with an analysis of England's role, examining the reasons that belie the myth of a 'humanitarian war." In his letter, introducing this article he states: "I don't forget Britain's war crimes, and in this era of 'information' people move on too quickly."

- Axis Editor & Publisher

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[TD]March 19, 2011 - RAF Tornado jets take off from Marham air base in Norfolk, UK to begin Britain's attack on the people of Libya. Photo: Chris Radburn/Press Association[/TD]
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In 2010, BAE Systems, Barclays Capital, and BP financed a Chatham House project called Rethinking the UK's National Ambitions and Choices. The authors of one of the key reports, which laid the basis for the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review, explained that "Voters [in the UK] will not actively call for a more effective foreign policy." Therefore, "The government should define its international mission as managing risks on behalf of British citizens", rather than on behalf of the sponsors of UK foreign policy.[SUP]1[/SUP]
Also in 2010, the Ministry of Defence explained that out to 2040,

"Scrambles for energy, minerals and fertile land are likely to occur with increasing intensity. These scrambles may not always be motivated by immediate shortage, as many states compete for access to long-term supplies."

In pursuing these aims, the MoD predicted "High numbers of civilian casualties, despite declining numbers of combatant deaths." As a result, "Influence activity, the battle of ideas, and perceptions of moral legitimacy will be important for success" (emphases in original).[SUP]2[/SUP] Hence Westerners had to perceive that the destruction of Libya had to do with humanitarian intervention.
An earlier edition of the MoD study predicted a "latter-day Scramble" for Africa's resources. A House of Commons paper, Energy Security, predicted "a new Scramble for Africa."[SUP]3[/SUP] "With the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, and extensive gas reserves, Libya is potentially a major energy source for the future", then-Foreign Secretary David Miliband explained in 2009.[SUP]4[/SUP] In 2000, in response to Euro-American liberalisation demands, Gaddafi agreed, in rhetoric but not in practice, to privatise the oil sector.[SUP]5[/SUP]
At this point, MI6 switched from supporting anti-Gaddafi terrorists to supporting Gaddafi, shortly after which SAS mercenaries were authorised by the Gordon Brown government to train Gaddafi's forces.[SUP]6[/SUP] Despite this new alliance, Gaddafi would not play ball. In 2004, the Libyan-British Business Council (LBBC) was established. The LBBC boasts a membership of over one-hundred-fifty major companies, including BAE, Barclays, and BP: the sponsors of the UK National Security Strategy.
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[TD]David Cameron & Nicolas Sarkozy join hands for the destruction of Libya at the Paris Summit on Libya on March 19, 2011. Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPA[/TD]
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If you ever want the truth about international relations, just follow the money. The LBBC explained that in 2004, after the UN Security Council ended the international sanctions, "Libya embarked on a process of slow but fundamental economic change. It invited international oil companies to invest in the development and expansion of its oil and gas reserves." All was not rosy, however:

"Foreign investors and other firms doing business in Libya continued to experience significant challenges: slow and arbitrary decision making, late or incomplete payments and an absence of transparency and predictability. The most business-friendly legal reforms were not introduced until 2009 and 2010 and even then, the IMF expressed doubts about their status."[SUP]7[/SUP]

As a result, Gaddafi had to go. Indeed, a Chatham House meeting of over 100 "experts", including many from the LBBC, met in June 2011as NATO bombs continued to rain on Libyan children. Anti-Gaddafi collaborator Ashur Al-Shamis assured his Anglo paymasters that "The Jamahiriya that's Gaddafi's model of state and statecraft is in the last throws(sic). Nationally and internationally, it is going … this stinking, dying carcass."[SUP]8[/SUP]Britain worked closely with the opposing National Transitional Council. The LBBC concluded that:

"... the National Transitional Council has committed Libya to genuine economic diversification and reform and to creating a business environment conducive to international partnership and private sector participation. After the country's negative experience of centralised economic control, it is likely that future governments will also espouse diversification and reform. And geographical proximity makes Europe a major market for Libya's oil and gas and a natural business partner."[SUP]9[/SUP]

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[TD]Thousands of mourners gathered one year after the UK, US and NATO attacked from the air, killing civilian men, women and children across Libya. The woman in the photo is holding a photo of a missing loved one at a funeral in Benghazi, Libya, Monday, March 5, 2012 for 155 Libyans found in buried in a mass grave, slain by the US/UK/European aggressors and their hired mercenaries. (Photo: Manu Brabo. Related comment: Axis of Logic)[/TD]
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The fact that the SAS trained Gaddafi's forces in the preceding years, that the Cameron-Clegg regime had armed Gaddafi,[SUP]10[/SUP] that during the Arab Spring UK special forces trained Bahraini, Saudi, and Yemeni snipers,[SUP]11[/SUP] that David Cameron took an arms delegation on a tour of the region in late February,[SUP]12[/SUP] that Cameron authorised the Kuwaiti government to do whatever it takes to defend the Kuwaiti regime,[SUP]13[/SUP] and that UK special forces were arming and training anti-Assad rebels in Syria with the full knowledge that the regime would crack down harder on civilians,[SUP]14[/SUP] mean that we cannot take seriously any rhetoric about concern for human rights in Libya, and anyone who repeats such nonsenselike Yvonne Ridleyis essentially saying "I'm a shameless hypocrite and a puppet of the elite."[SUP]15[/SUP]

[URL="http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/coles.shtml"]READ MORE ANALYSES & ESSAYS BY
T.J. COLES, AXIS OF LOGIC COLUMNIST

See Part II of this series:
Libya: One Year On: Recording NATO's War Crimes.
by T.J. Coles in the UK. Axis of Logic.
Notes

1. Alex Evans and David Stern, "Organizing for Influence", Chatham House, June, 2010, London: Chatham House.
   
   
2. Ministry of Defence, "Strategic Trends Programme: Global Strategic Trends Out to 2040", 9 February, 2010, London: MoD.
   
   
3. Ministry of Defence, "Strategic Trends: 2007-2036", 23 January, 2007, London: MoD and House Commons Library, "Energy Security", 9 May, 2007.
   
4. David Miliband cited in Ben Smith, "UK relations with Libya", Standard Note SN/IA/ 5886, 2 March, 2011.
   
   
5. Gaddafi said, for example: "Libya wants to encourage foreign capital investment and partnership, not only for the benefit of this country but for the entire African continent to which Libya is the gateway for Europe." In doing so, Gaddafi drafted a Constitution. However, "The constitution never saw the light, reportedly because Qaddafi rejected it, claiming it tampered with the fundamentals of the Jamahiriya. … [T]he reform process was highly orchestrated, in effect an affair of marginal and cosmetic rather than radical or wholesale changes." International Crisis Group, "Popular Protest in North Africa and the Middle East (V): Making Sense of Libya", Crisis Group Middle East/North Africa Report N°107, 6 June 2011, Brussels: ICG.
   
   
6. Secret files were uncovered by Human Rights Watchwhich has shameless ignored NATO's war crimes in Libyain the abandoned offices of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, revealing extensive links between Gaddafi, the CIA and MI6: Reuters, "CIA, MI6 helped Gaddafi on dissidents", 3 September, 2011. On the SAS, see Thomas Harding, "SAS trains Libyan troops", Telegraph, 11 September, 2009.
   
   
7. Libyan-British Business Council, "About Libya Trade and Investment in the New Libya", undated.
   
   
8. Alistair Burt MP, Sir Richard Dalton, Lindsey Hilsum, Ashur Al-Shamis, and Claire Spencer, "Libya: Prospects and Challenges", 8 June, 2011.
   
   
9. Libyan-British Business Council, "About Libya Trade and Investment in the New Libya", undated.
   
   
10. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade reported that Cameron-Clegg-approved weapons were flowing to Gaddafi until just weeks before the opposition uprisings. Ben Smith, "UK relations with Libya", Standard Note SN/IA/ 5886, 2 March, 2011.
    
    
11. See, for instance, Jerome Taylor, "How Britain taught Arab police forces all they know", Independent, 19 February, 2011. Jamie Doward and Philippa Stewart, "UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab spring", Guardian, 28 May, 2011; Britain's support for Yemen's forces was not reported, but can be found here: House of Commons, "Yemen: Military Aid", 30 November, 2011, Column 919W.
    
    
12. BBC, "Cameron Middle East visit morally obscene' says Lucas", 25 February, 2011.
    
    
13. Cameron's speech is an exercise in hypocrisy, and is similar to one delivered by former Prime Minister John Major to the regime in Kurdistan in 2011, indicating that they have the same speechwriters. Cameron said, for instance: "It is not for me, or for governments outside the region, to pontificate about how each country meets the aspirations of its people." Cameron, "Full Transcript: David Cameron Speech to the National Assembly, Kuwait", The New Statesman, 23 February, 2011.
    
    
14. See my, "Britain's Secret Proxy War in Syria", Axis of Logic, 8 February, 2012, . In a BBC interview, Hillary Clinton acknowledgedthat outside "interference" would provoke Assad into escalating violent retaliation. Neither she nor the BBC reported that that is exactly what has been going on since at least November 2011, when CIA and MI6 forces began arming and training the opposition.
    
    
15. For a small sample of the grotesque, widespread apologetics for state violence, see Yvonne Ridley, "I was wrong to oppose military intervention in Libya wrong, wrong, wrong", Redress.cc, 30 April, 2011, Nick Cohen, "EU support for Arab rebels is shamefully late", Observer, 13 March, 2011. Cohen's article attempts to garner support for violence by evoking "white guilt" over Europeans' lack of concern for "olive-skinned" people, failing to note that Europe's role is not a lack of concern, it is active participation in oppression. See also Professor Michael Clarke, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Dr Jonathan Eyal, Shashank Joshi, Mark Phillips, Elizabeth Quintana and Dr Lee Willett and Saqeb Mueen and Grant Turnbull (eds), "Accidental Heroes: Britain, France and the Libya Operation," An Interim RUSI Campaign Report, September 2011.
    

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Ar...4401.shtml

[Jan Klimkowski]

Magda - good find.

Chatham House Rules are essentially a toxic stain on the journalistic enterprise.

However, occasionally, they inadvertently permit deep political agendas to enter the public domain, even if we are not allowed to know precisely which entities articulated those agendas.

[Peter Lemkin]

VIENNA [April 29] Austrian police say former Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem was found dead in Vienna's Danube river.

Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger said his corpse was found Sunday morning floating in the river and showed no external signs of violence.

He says the cause of death was not immediately clear and officials will carry out an autopsy in the coming days.

He says Ghanem, who worked as a consultant for a Vienna-based company, apparently left his home early Sunday normally dressed.

Ghanem served under Libya's late leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi as head of the country's national oil company.

[Magda Hassan]

Libyans, that is the old administration supporters, are claiming this as one of theirs.

[Magda Hassan]

My bolding. US pilots fly French planes. Just like US pilots flew Chilean Air Force planes in 1973.

Obama: Libya Mission Underscores NATO's Effectiveness

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2011 The Operation Unified Protector mission in Libya demonstrated that NATO remains the world's most effective alliance, President Barack Obama said today as he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised the men and women who carried it out.Speaking alongside Sarkozy at France's Cannes City Hall following the Group of 20 economic summit, Obama recognized the solidarity their two countries and NATO showed as they protected the Libyan people from Moammar Gadhafi's brutality."The United States was proud to play a decisive role, especially in the early days, taking out Libyan air defenses and conducting precision attacks that stopped the regime in its tracks," Obama said.The way the mission was conducted underscored NATO's effectiveness and set a standard for the future, he said."We acted quickly, in days," the president said. "And whether contributing forces or command staff, every single one of NATO's 28 members played a role."Eighteen nations, including Arab states, provided forces to the operation, he said."And in an historic first, our NATO allies, including France, and especially the extraordinary leadership of President Sarkozy, helped us to conduct 90 percent of our strike missions," Obama said.This showed more nations bearing the burdens and costs of peace and prosperity, he said. "And that's how our alliance must work in the 21st century," he added.Obama praised the way French and American forces served together -- commanders who planned and executed the operation, pilots who prevented a massacre in Benghazi, tanker crews who sustained the operation from bases in France, airmen who delivered lifesaving aid and the sailors and Marines who enforced the arms embargo at sea, among them.He noted that American pilots flew French fighter jets off a French carrier in the Mediterranean Sea during the operation. "Allies don't get any closer than that," he said.
"Every man and woman in uniform who participated in this effort can know that you have accomplished every objective," Obama said, noting that they saved Libyan lives and gave the Libyan people an opportunity to enjoy freedom and democracy.
Obama offered a salute to Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, the NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of U.S. European Command; Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, commander of Allied Joint Force Command, Naples, Italy, and U.S. naval forces in Europe and Africa; and Air Force Lt. Gen. Ralph J. Jodice II, commander of Allied Air Component Command Headquarters in Izmir, Turkey, the 16th Air Expeditionary Task Force and U.S. Air Forces in Europe.They and thousands of other personnel who made Operation Unified Protector a success helped show the world that "after a difficult decade, the tide of war is receding," Obama said."The long war in Iraq is finally coming to an end," he said. Meanwhile, he added, with France and other allies and partners, "we've achieved major victories against al-Qaida, including Osama bin Laden."The president noted that French and American forces are fighting together in Afghanistan and transitioning security responsibility to Afghan security forces.Obama recognized the many times through history when the United States and France stood together to defend their shared ideals."I'm confident that we'll continue to stand together, strong and free, for the centuries to come," he said. "Long live the alliance between our two great nations."

http://www.defense.gov//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65965

[Magda Hassan]

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[TD="colspan: 3"]Little if any information was publicly available regarding Gaddafi's attempt to find refuge outside of the country he had been ruling with an authoritarian grip for forty-two years.
Thanks to the further publication by Wikileaks of the GI Files - the Global Intelligence Files, a trove of five millionStratfor emails it obtained at the end of 2011 - the public, journalists and historians will be able to better understand and investigate what happened during this episode of the Libyan revolution, and especially regarding the precise role of Algeria.
We were able to access the yet-unpublished GI Files material, thanks to an investigative partnership organized by WikiLeaks and involving journalists, academics and human rights organizations like this one
More articles will follow as we come across valuable information.
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- First published on 24-07-2012
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After his toppling and escape, there was plenty of speculation as to whether, and if so, where Gaddafi was seeking refuge outside Libya. But little was actually known other than the fact that he had eventually not left Libya, where he was caught in a NATO air force attack shortly before being killed while in the hands of the Libyan rebel fighters.
Neighbouring Algeria (a country who's ruling class was wary of the sweeping democratic revolutions taking place at its eastern and western borders) has provided asylum for some of Gaddafi's closest family members: his wife Safia, his two sons Muhammad and Hannibal, and his daughter Aisha, on "humanitarian grounds" according to the Algerian Ambassador to the UN. Aisha's advanced stage pregnancy (she gave birth shortly after) can explain her entry in Algeria, but not that of the rest of the family. The endemic corruption of the Algerian state [PDF], as well as the wealth of the Gaddafi family might explain the rest.
This was in late August 2011, and put the Algerian government at odds with Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), the new governing body in Libya where Gaddafi's family are considered criminals and wanted for prosecution. All four family members are still in Algeria.

Although Gaddafi declared in his public speeches that he would never leave Libyan territory, information emerging from the new GI Files release suggests he did seek refuge, at least in Algeria.
The email ID 120909, dated 1 September 2011 and sent from a Stratfor employee (a 'watch officer' according to hissocial media profile, which is the level above analyst and below executive) to the Alpha mailing list (comprising analysts, writers and those with higher-level clearance), cites an Algerian diplomatic source affirming that Gaddafi (code-named "Q" in the correspondance, as in Qadhafi, another way of spelling his name) did attempt to seek refuge in Algeria by contacting the Algerian president Bouteflika. The source said Bouteflika ignored the repeated calls. S/he also suggested the Algerian intelligence services had shared the location of the former leader (which they estimated to be in Bani Walid) with their British counterparts, and predicted that he "will be gunned down sooner than later".
Note that despite the watch officer's average rating of their source (credibility at C, the best being A and the worse F) and the item's credibility (at 3-4, the best being 1 on a scale of 10), it seems with hindsight that the intel was quite reliable: Colonel Gaddafi was killed shortly after on 20 October 2012 near Sirte, less than 200 miles from Bani Walid. Stratfor's watch officer said his source had been introduced to him by another source, ME1 (for Middle-East 1), believed to be an important Stratfor source as they appear in many emails and their code name suggests a long-time informer of Stratfor; research shows s/he is cited in emails dating back to 2006.
http://www.liberte-info.net/GIFiles/gadd...geria.html

[Peter Lemkin]

More good investigative research shown on Al Jazeera about an Imam who along with two friends disappeared in Libya under Quadaffi. Interestingly, there is an Italian connection and apparently some Italian intelligence complicity.....perhaps other intelligence agencies, as well, who wanted to help get 'rid' of this Imam who was moderate and preaching Peace, especially in Lebanon. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/alja...05411.html

[Albert Doyle]

It's almost like a correction for the UN post-colonial independence movement.