al-Qathafi to Palestinians: Revolt Against Israel!Israel may soon be forced to respond to new Palestinian uprisingsIf Muammar al-Qathafi has his way, Palestinians will rise up against Israel in the next Middle Eastern revolt. al-Qathafi has criticized Arab states that deal with Israel, calling them cowards.If Palestinians choose to respond to his call and the situation escalates, the result will not be pretty. Israel will be forced to respond with force, and al-Qathafi will surely be demonized andblamed for whatever results.
TRIPOLI, 13 Febr. 2011(Reuters) –Palestinian refugees should capitalise on the wave of popular revolts in the Middle East by massing peacefully on the borders of Israel until it gives in to their demands, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qathafi said on Sunday.al-Qathafi is respected in many parts of the Arab world for his uncompromising criticism of Israel and Arab leaders who have dealings with the Jewish state, though some people in the region dismiss his initiatives as unrealistic. (ISRATINE)« ISRATINE » as hopefully proposed by Muammar al-Qathafi: The ONLY SOLUTION
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40 Years of F-UK-US Attempts to Kill al-Qathafi |
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Posted: 2011/05/01From: Mathaba http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=626593?related |
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by Richard Lance Keeble, Professor of Journalism at the University of Lincoln. Photo: Muammar al-Qathafi in 1969 just after seizing power which he held until 1977 when he resigned from government. Since then he has retained the title “Leader of the Revolution”.Richard Lance KeebleBehind a wall of silence, France the US and UK have been conducting over the last four decades a massive, largely secret war against Libya – often using Chad, the country lying on its southern border, as its base. The current attacks on Col. Gadafi’s troops and attempts to assassinate the Libyan leader with the US deployment of unmanned drones are best seen as part of a wide-ranging and long-standing strategy by the US/UK secret states to dislodge Gadafi.Seizing power in Libya by ousting King Idris in a 1969 coup, [1] Gadafi (who had been sent along with other officers by the Kings army to undertake a military training course in England in 1966) quickly became the target of massive covert operations by the French, US, Israeli and British. Stephen Dorril (2000), in his seminal history of MI6, records how in 1971 a British plan to invade the country, release political prisoners and restore the monarchy ended in a complete flop.Dorril reports: ‘What became known as the “Hilton assignment” was one of MI6’s last attempts at a major special operation designed to overthrow a regime opposed to British interests.’ The plan to bring down Gadafi had originally been a joint MI6/CIA operation but the CIA suddenly withdrew after they concluded that ‘although Gadaffi was anti-West, he was also anti-Soviet, which meant there could be someone a lot worse running Libya. The British disagreed’ (ibid: 736).In 1980, the head of the French secret service, Col. Alain de Gaigneronde de Marolles, resigned after a French-led plan ended in disaster when a rebellion by Libyan troops in Tobruk was rapidly suppressed (Deacon 1990: 262-264).Throughout the early 1980s Gadafi was demonised in the mainstream US and UK media as a ‘terrorist warlord’ and prime agent of a Soviet-inspired ‘terror network’. According to Noam Chomsky, Reagan’s campaign against ‘international terrorism’ was a natural choice for the propaganda system in furtherance of its basic agenda: ‘expansion of the state sector of the economy; transfer of resources from the poor to the rich and a more “activist” (i.e. terrorist and aggressive) foreign policy’. Such policies required the public to be frightened into obedience by some ‘terrible enemy’. And Libya fitted Reagan’s need, using al-Qathafi as its BLACK SHEEP, perfectly (Chomsky 1991: 120).Professor Robert Charvin, 23 December 2011:
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Evil Brotherhood leader, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, issued a false- SATANIC-fatwa, that urged (perverted) Wahabi and their mercenaries, to kill Muammar al-Qathafi, if they were any way able, to do so !
By Allah, highly illegal-False brotherhood Fatwa to kill Mu’ammar al-Qathafi, issued by Quaradawi.
BTW: only a direct decendent of Fatima can be called to be a leader or an IMAM—Yusaf al-Quaradaw is NOT in any way or manner a decendent of Fatima….
Report of 24 FEBRUARY 2011
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/41753687/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/gadhafi-blames-bin-laden-drugs-libya-unrest/#.UxOFEb3R2kw
Today colonel Muammar al-Qathafi downplayed the violence and offered a radically different explanation in a bizarre and revealing radio address. We were in a car as he spoke. I’ve listened to speeches in arabic of middle east leaders for 15 years. this did not sound like the same person. al-Qathafi is speaking now on state radio . it’s very difficult to follow.
He’s all over the place. he’s already mentioned the kurds in northern iraq , the unabomber in dyia, and saying the people carrying out this revolt are taking drugs that make them insane. In the address, al-Qathafi claimed al-Qaeda is behind the revolt.Osama bin laden’s followers are slipping Libyans hallucinogenic pills in coffee with milk, and the pills are distributed in mosques with help from the United States .
BENGHAZI, Libya — Libyan leader Muammar al-Qathafi on Thursday blamed the uprising in his country on al-Qaida followers who give young Libyans hallucinogenic pills in their coffee to get them to revolt.
In a rambling phone call to Libyan state TV, al-Qathafi said
those revolting are “loyal to bin Laden … This is al-Qaida that the whole world is fighting.” Al-Qaida militants are “exploiting” teenagers, giving them “hallucinogenic pills in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe,” the embattled leader said.
Referring to violent clashes in Zawiya, which lies about 30 miles from the capital Tripoli, al-Qathafi said the unrest in that town is a “farce. … Sane men don’t enter such a farce.” He called on citizens to “leave the country calm.”
‘I only have moral authority’
al-Qathafi urged Libyans to take weapons away from protesters who have assumed control of large parts of the country.
“The Holy Quran is very clear: take the weapons from them,” al-Qathafi said. “I only have moral authority,”
said the leader, who has traditionally sought to present himself as “Leader of the Revolution”; that the country is led by the people, rather than a traditional executive head of state.
—
The Associated Press
Last Edited By: galantarie 02/28/11 15:30:38.
Osama bin Laden out to capture Gadhafi “as a heretic- Infidel”!Benghazi, Libya—
AFP/ SITE
Pictured here is al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. Another al-Qaida leader said: “It is true the revolution is not entirely what we had envisioned.”
The terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda’s , has repeatedly tried to use propaganda to take credit for the revolts, but no one in the West is listening. The propaganda they have been spreading for decades, and their original goal — the overthrow of the secular regimes in the Arab world — is through the Internet-savvy youth of the Arab world. Those who live in the universe of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his associates are putting-in an all-out effort: an effort that is already underway to reinterpret recent events in the Arab world. At first, it seemed as if the terrorist network hadn’t found any words to comment on the massive upheavals. But now al-Qaeda’s spin on the events in the Middle East is gradually becoming clear.
Al-Qaeda is serving up a mixture of currying favor and issuing dire warnings. On Thursday, the North African branch of the organization, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), declared its support for the revolt in Libya. Of course, that revolt is being portrayed as “jihad,” while al-Qaeda insists that it makes sense for the Libyans to be rising up against dictator Moammar Gadhafi because he is an “enemy of God.” Besides, as AQIM claims with some audacity, “we have consistently fought solely for your defense.” The Divide Between Real and Wannabe Revolutionaries
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command and one of the Egyptian jihadists who has spent a lifetime fighting against the “godless” regime there, issued a statement on the situation in Egypt on Feb. 18. He too congratulated the revolutionaries, but the first thing he felt compelled to say about his native Egypt was that it is “secular and democratic,” and that this is what must change.
This is remarkable. While hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets precisely because the regime was only outwardly democratic, this is exactly the issue Zawahiri emphasizes as a reason for a revolt! The divide that is apparent here between the real and the wannabe revolutionaries is enormous and embarrassing, even for the occasional hardcore Islamist, especially when Zawahiri ups the ante and accuses Mubarak of having rigged elections. This isn’t exactly a coherent analysis.
Meanwhile, also on Thursday, the Libyan-born al-Qaeda ideologue Attiyat Allah addressed the uprisings in North Africa and his native Libya. At least he was honest enough to admit that “it is true that this revolution is not entirely what we had envisioned.”
But he too had little more to offer than the warning not to ignore the Koran as a guideline for action. He suggested that the newly won freedoms in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya be used for missionary work and activism to help shape the future in a jihadist sense.
It is easier to fight democratic governments than despots, and chaos has always been a fertile breeding ground for jihadists. Jihadism hasn’t been defeated yet. Thanks to the revolts, it has only become recognizable for what it is: the ideology and bloody practice of a very small minority among Arabs and Muslims.
IN THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD, LIBYA NOW TAKES
CENTER STAGE
01 Sunday May 2011
Gerald A. Perreira. Featured Writer. 5.1.11
We are fighting nothing other than al-Qaeda in what they call the Islamic Maghreb. It’s an armed group that is fighting from Libya to Mauritania and through Algeria and Mali.… If you had found them taking over American cities by the force of arms, tell me what you would do?
– From a letter sent by the Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to the US president Barack Obama.
In the Theatre of the Absurd, anything is possible. However, this latest scenario in Libya has taken absurdity to a whole new dimension. A rag-tag bunch of armed, al-Qaeda affiliated tribesmen, being referred to as a ‘pro-democracy movement’ by British State TV (BBC) and other mainstream media outlets, are now being openly armed and trained by the French, British and American governments. This same Coalition of Crusaders, with the support of the Arab League, is fighting alongside the rebels, launching continual bombing raids on targets in Tripoli and beyond, including Muammar Qadhafi’s compound, in a brazen attempt to assassinate the man and re-colonise Libya.
And what is the support inside Libya for this so-called ‘Libyan pro-democracy movement’? The answer is less than 2% of the entire Libyan population. One might have expected that the Western and Arab worlds would have offered Qadhafi and the Libyan armed forces assistance to deal with this al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) inspired insurgency. But no. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, instead, Britain and the US, led by the clown Sarkozy, in what can only be described as a war mongering frenzy, launched an all out attack on Muammar Qadhafi, his family, and the Libyan people.
As this article goes to press, the Coalition forces continue to savagely bomb targets in Tripoli and beyond, killing civilians and destroying vital infrastructure. They are pounding Libya with a force that was last seen when they invaded Iraq, doing their utmost to leave Qadhafi and his people defenceless against this insurgency. In fact, so brazen is the imperialist Obama, that he has announced an ‘overt operation’, sending in CIA operatives to train and equip the rebels. Rebels who the State Department admits are disorganised and untrained and unable to articulate a vision for Libya, beyond killing Qadhafi.
These rebels however do have an agenda. Their leaders and ideologues, inside and out of Libya, are well known for misinterpreting verses from the Quran, quoting out of context, in an attempt to justify their so-called jihad and practices which are fundamentally alien to the Islamic spirit. The best the Libyan rebels, read counter-revolutionaries, can do, is to chant ‘From Tunisia, Egypt to Libya and on, we will spread Jihad!’
Western Powers and al-Qaeda – On the Same Side
As far back as the mid 90s, a former MI5 agent, David Shayler, testified that British intelligence employed the services of an al-Qaeda cell inside Libya, paying them a large fee to assassinate Muammar Qadhafi. The assassination attempt was carried out. A grenade was lobbed at Qadhafi as he walked among a crowd in his hometown, Sirte. He was saved by one of his bodyguards, who threw herself on the grenade.
Shayler revealed that while he was working on the Libya desk in the mid 90s, British secret service personnel were collaborating with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which was connected to one of Osama bin Laden’s trusted lieutenants. The LIFG officially joined al-Qaeda in 2007. On an Islamist website in 2009, Ayman al-Zawahiri welcomed them to the fold.
Over the past two years, the Libyan authorities have released scores of imprisoned Islamists from the LIFG into the custody of their families and communities in a humanitarian attempt to integrate them back into Libyan society. With a pledge that they would use the forums set up in the country, under the auspices of the General People’s Congress, to express their views. Many of the released prisoners had fought in Afghanistan and Iraq and been returned to the Libyan authorities as part of an agreement with the US. If Qadhafi was truly the ruthless man the West would have us believe, then surely these rebels, classified as terrorists by the US, would have remained in prison and their fate very different.
One of those released in 2008 was the LIFG commander, Abdel Hakim al-Hasidi, now one of the leaders of this uprising. Over the last decade, al-Hasidi fought in Afghanistan, was captured in Pakistan in 2002, handed over to the US, and subsequently handed back to the Libyan authorities. In a recent interview with the Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, al-Hasidi admitted that, “jihadists who fought in Iraq against the US are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Qadhafi.”
Libya was the first country to issue an arrest warrant for Osama bin Laden. The Libyan authorities have for years tried to warn the world about the very serious threat posed by these Islamic deviants. According to David Shayler, Western intelligence turned a deaf ear to Libya’s warnings as far back as the mid 90s because they were actually working with the al-Qaeda group inside Libya, to kill Qadhafi, and roll back the Libyan revolution.
True Religion versus False Religion
The battle being fought in the Libyan desert today dates way back beyond the mid 90s. Today’s battle is essentially a battle between, on the one hand, the revolutionary Islam of Prophet Muhammad, manifest in the writings of Muammar Qadhafi and in the practice of the Libyan revolution. And on the other hand, the reactionary Islam of the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) and their off shoots such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliate, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
The Muslim revolutionary scholar, Ali Shariati, notes that, “the battle of history is the battle of religion against religion… true religion versus false religion.”
The Islam of the Wahhabist/Salafi sect, adhered to by the LIFQ, is a reactionary interpretation and practice of Islam that seeks to replicate the political and social structures of 7th century Arabian society. Although for the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera cameras, the rebels are careful to present themselves to the world as a force fighting for ‘liberal democracy’ and to show their love and admiration for the West. Off camera, they are calling for what AQIM has named the ‘Islamic Emirate in the Maghreb’.
Qadhafi, along with other progressive Islamic scholars, argues the message of the Quran and Islamic theology is incompatible with the idea of an emirate. They point out dynastic rule was imported into the body politic of Islam by the likes of Abu Sufyan Muawiyah, the governor of Damascus, in the period 642 to 661, who borrowed these anti-Islamic practices from the Byzantium Empire and the Persians. Qadhafi points out this particular system of governance has nothing at all to do with Islam.
The central ideological concern of Muammar Qadhafi and the Libyan revolution was to redefine Islam in the context of modern knowledge and contemporary political systems and thought. This is a task that requires us to revisit and rethink previous political systems set up by Muslims, without losing any of the Perennial Truth that is Islam.
The Third Universal Theory, outlined in Qadhafi’s Green Book, is a comprehensive worldview – a body of philosophical, political, economic, sociological and scientific principles, all inter-related. Together they form an alternative and largely self-sufficient intellectual structure. It is a guide for authentic Islamic revolution, and can be applied to non-Islamic, popular revolutions. It ushers in a whole new social and political practice, outlining an alternative model of democracy.
Progressive academics worldwide have acclaimed Green Book as a serious body of political thought, offering an incisive critique of Western parliamentary democracy, capitalism and Marxist socialism. In addition, there is no denying the system of direct democracy, posited by Qadhafi’s Third Universal Theory, offers an alternative model and solution for Africa and many other parts of the ‘Third World’, where multi-party ‘democracy’ has been a dismal failure, resulting in ethnic/tribal conflict, social fragmentation and political chaos.
In his book Islam and the Third Universal Theory: The Religious Thought of Muammar al Qadhafi, the respected Muslim scholar Mahmoud Ayoub points out that, “the first part of the Green Book is an interpretation of one single verse of the Quran: ‘and their affairs are decided through consultation (shura) among themselves’… To others it means an assembly of jurists ruling over a traditional Islamic society strictly governed by Shariah. Only Qadhafi has taken the important Quranic precept seriously, understanding it literally, and applying it equally to every member of society.”
Ayoub further states that, “Qadhafi sees Islam as a perpetual revolution against unnecessary and illegitimate wealth, exploitation and oppression. Qadhafi asserted that the Islam which both the East and the West knew was that observed by kings and princes, as well as mendicants (darawish) who live off Islam. Thus, people thought of Islam as a reactionary movement, a message which could never keep up with life. They considered Islam simply as a religious heritage which could be venerated but which had to be kept from the fields of action and human struggle.”
This Islam, whose theology is primarily one of liberation, has been marginalised, distorted and co-opted to serve the interests of ruling elites throughout the Muslim world. Theirs is the Islam observed by kings and princes, the ‘feudal Islam’ of the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) and its Wahhabi spiritual leaders, such as Egyptian cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who recently issued a fatwa stating that any Libyan soldier who can shoot dead embattled leader Muammar Qadhafi should do so “to rid Libya of him.”
Qaradawi is a neo-feudalist, who has defended the practice of female genital mutilation, called for the death penalty to be applied to those who leave Islam and advocates separate systems of law for different classes of citizens. Qadhafi views Qaradawi and those like him as the spiritual heirs of the corrupt Umayyad dynasty (661-750) that transformed the revolutionary Islam of the Holy Prophet into a feudal dispensation.
How does Qadhafi’s revolutionary Islam play out in practice? Why is this man and the revolution he has led such a threat? And why, over recent weeks, have people from every corner of the globe spoken out in support of Qadhafi and the Libyan revolution? Why have thousands of African freedom fighters (not mercenaries as the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera would have us believe) poured into Libya from the Congo, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Niger, Chad, Mauritania, Southern Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso to fight to the death for this leader and Libya?
Who is this man and this revolution that has the moral authority and power to draw an army of Africans from every corner of the continent and solidarity from liberation movements, political parties and progressive governments worldwide?
A Libyan Jamahiriya
On September 1st, 1969, the 27 year old Qadhafi, an army captain, carried out a bloodless coup overthrowing the corrupt monarchy of King Idris Senussi, who had ruled Libya for 18 years. Qadhafi established what he called the Libyan Jamahiriya or the State of the Masses. When asked what was the Constitution of Libya, he replied “the Quran.”
Immediately after the 1969 coup, Qadhafi told Gamal Abdel Nasser to consider Libya a partner in his Pan-Arab project, offering Nasser access to Libyan resources in the struggle against Israel. From a young age Qadhafi understood the absolute necessity of unity if Western hegemony and colonialism was to be challenged effectively.
Not long after the revolution Qadhafi earned the wrath of the imperialists by closing the British Naval Base at Tobruk and the American Wheelus Air Base on the outskirts of Tripoli. He nationalised key sections of Libya’s vast oil resources and used his influence within OPEC to negotiate fairer prices for oil producing countries. Qadhafi used the oil revenue to benefit the Libyan people, building schools, universities, hospitals and much needed infrastructure.
During the reign of King Idris, fewer than one in five Libyans was literate and there was virtually no access to education for the majority of people. Today, Libya boasts a quality education system, free right up to university level, and the literacy rate is 83 per cent, the highest in North Africa and the Arab world. In addition, Libya has one of the finest health care systems in the ‘Third World’. All people have access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines, free of charge. If a Libyan needs surgery that is unavailable in Libya, funding is provided for the surgery to be carried out overseas. Average life expectancy is now 75, during the time of King Idris it was as low as 44.
Soon after the revolution, basic food items were subsidised and electricity was made available throughout the country. Huge irrigation projects were established in order to support a drive towards agricultural development and self-sufficiency in food production.
Recognising that water, not oil, would be the most scarce resource of the future, Qadhafi initiated the construction of the Great Man Made River, which took years to complete (see illustration and photo above). Referred to as a wonder of the modern world, this river pumps millions of cubic metres of water daily from the heart of the Sahara desert to the coast where the land is suitable for agriculture. Any Libyan who wanted to become a farmer was and still is given free use of land, a house, farm equipment, livestock and seed.
At the outset of the revolution, Qadhafi vowed to house every Libyan, many of whom were still living in tents and houses made out of flattened oil drums. He also vowed that his own parents, who lived in a tent in the Sirte desert, would not be housed until every Libyan was housed. He fulfilled that promise, his own father dying before he had the opportunity to move him into a home. Large scale housing construction took place right across the country, all Libyans being given a decent house or apartment to live in rent-free. In Qadhafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others.”
Under the revolutionary leadership of Muammar Qadhafi, Libya has now attained the highest standard of living in Africa. Rated on the UN’s Human Development Index ahead of Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. In 2007, in an article which appeared in the African Executive Magazine, Norah Owaraga noted that Libya, “unlike other oil producing countries such as Nigeria, utilised the revenue from its oil to develop its country. The standard of living of the people of Libya is one of the highest in Africa, falling in the category of countries with a GNP per capita of between and 6,000.”
Qadhafi believes that economic democracy can only be achieved when the GDP of a country benefits all of its citizens and when the country’s wealth is dispersed to every single citizen. Today, money from Libya’s oil revenue is directly deposited into the bank account of every Libyan.
From the beginning, Qadhafi was dedicated to the emancipation of Libyan women, encouraging them to participate in all aspects of political life. The revolution ensured that women gained full access to education and has actively encouraged acceptance of female paid employment. Qadhafi has enabled women to serve in the armed forces, and as a way of breaking down stereotypes and taboos, he established a corps of female bodyguards, assigned to his protection. Libya is a very traditional society and these moves by Qadhafi have been met with stiff resistance, especially by the forces in Benghazi.
From the outset of the revolution, Qadhafi channelled a great deal of effort and resources into continued attempts, following on from Gamal Abdel Nasser, to bring about Arab unity. At meeting after meeting of the Arab League, he condemned and exposed their ineptness at arriving at a unified position in relation to the Palestinian issue and other issues relating to neo-colonial control of the region. He became impatient as he realised that the Arab rulers of the day were more interested in protecting and preserving their own parochial interests in tandem with Western imperialism, and were only too willing to stab each other in the back behind closed doors, despite their rhetoric at the summits.
He vehemently opposed the US led invasion of Iraq and condemned those Arab leaders who supported the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’, earning the wrath of the Saudi monarchy when he said that “the Kabah was under the yoke of American occupation,” and questioned “what meaning the Haj has for Muslims as long as the American occupation of the sacred House of God continues.”
He worked tirelessly to encourage African-Arab unity, and built strong relationships with African leaders and the African streets. In October 2010, at the second African-Arab summit in Libya, Qadhafi was the first and only leader in the Arab world to formally apologise for the Arab role in the trade in captured Africans. He was highly critical of Arab leaders/elites condescending attitude toward Africans, and their despicable treatment of African workers, and in particular African domestic workers in their own countries. He stated:
“I regret the behaviour of Arabs… they brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals and treated them in a shameful way. I regret and am ashamed when we remember these practices. I apologise for this. Today we are embarrassed and shocked by the outrageous practices of rich Arabs who treat Africans with contempt and condescension.”
This riled the Arab leaders and ruling elites and was an affront to their notion of Arab supremacy.
Disgruntled with the arrogance of the Arab leaders, and a continual thorn in their side as he openly criticised their hypocrisy and servitude to Western imperialism, Qadhafi became isolated in the Arab world.
Africa Called, Qadhafi Answered
Meanwhile, Libya’s neighbours to the south were far more receptive to Qadhafi’s ideas. When African nations called, Qadhafi answered. He is passionate about the plight of Africans and Africa and longs to see the liberation of the continent and its people. He called on the African Union to give representation to Africans in the Diaspora – the US, Europe, the Caribbean and South America, and acknowledge the need to deal with the conditions of poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation that continues to confront these communities. At a recent conference held in Libya in January this year, to address the needs and concerns of African migrants to Europe, Qadhafi stated:
“From now on, by the will of God, I will assign teams to search, investigate and liaise with the Africans in Europe and to check their situations… this is my duty and role towards the sons of Africa; I am a soldier for Africa. I am here for you and I work for you; therefore, I will not leave you and I will follow up on your conditions.”
Today, Qadhafi is seen by Africans on the continent and throughout the diaspora as a leading Afrocentric Pan-Africanist, articulating a vision for a United States of Africa – with one government, one currency and one army.
One of Muammar Qadhafi’s most controversial and difficult moves has been his determined drive to unite Africa with a shared vision for the true independence and liberation of the entire continent. He has contributed a great deal of his time, energy and large sums of money to this project, and like Kwame Nkrumah, he has paid a high price.
Many years ago, Qadhafi told a large gathering, which included Libyans and revolutionaries from many parts of the world, that the Black Africans were the true owners of Libya long before the Arab incursion into North Africa. Adding Libyans need to acknowledge and pay tribute to their ancient African roots. He ended by saying, as is proclaimed in his Green Book, “the Black race shall prevail throughout the world.”
‘Brother Leader’, ‘Guide of the Revolution’ and ‘King of Kings’ are some of the titles that have been bestowed on Qadhafi by Africans. Only recently Qadhafi called for the creation of a secretariat of traditional African Chiefs and Kings, with whom he has excellent ties, to co-ordinate efforts to build African unity at the grassroots level. This bottom up approach is widely supported by Pan-Africanists.
While the Libyan revolution has irritated the West since its inception, and although they never forgave Qadhafi for nationalising Libya’s oil, the most worrying move has been his call for the unification of Africa. After years of tireless effort on the part of Qadhafi and the Libyan revolutionary movement, the idea of a United States of Africa is gaining real momentum and support on the continent and amongst Pan-Africanists worldwide.
Unity is something the imperialists fear and loathe. They are well aware that a united Africa would completely alter the balance of power globally. The well-documented fact is that if Africa stopped the flow of all resources and raw materials to the Western nations for just one week, the United States and Europe would grind to a halt. They are that dependent on Africa, and are therefore determined to maintain their ability to control events on the continent.
The leader of the Nation of Islam in the US, Minister Louis Farrakhan, pointed out many years ago at a conference in Libya, “Europe and the US cannot go forward into the new century without unfettered access to the vast natural resources of Africa.” He added: “Qadhafi is one who stands in their way.”
If they cannot maintain control, then at least they must try to maintain Africa’s divisions, thereby ensuring it is always in a position of weakness. African unity and true independence is something white supremacy, in all of its manifestations – capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism – will oppose with all its might. The French are presently spearheading a plan, with other southern European nations, to form a Mediterranean bloc, incorporating the whole of North Africa, to try to bring about the balkanisation of the continent, in an attempt to halt this unification project.
Liberation Movements Worldwide Called, Qadhafi Answered
In addition to his tireless efforts in the Arab and African worlds, in 1982 the World Mathaba was established in Libya. Mathaba means a gathering place for people with a common purpose. The World Mathaba brought together revolutionaries and freedom fighters from every corner of the globe to share ideas and develop their revolutionary knowledge. Many liberation groups throughout the world received education, training and support, including the ANC, AZAPO, PAC and BCM of Azania (South Africa), SWAPO of Namibia, MPLA of Angola, the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, the Polisario of the Sahara, the PLO, the Moro National Liberation Front of the Philippines, the Pattani National Liberation Front of Thailand, the Dalits of India, Indigenous movements throughout the Americas and the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan to name but a few.
Nelson Mandela called Muammar Qadhafi one of the 20th century’s greatest freedom fighters, and insisted the eventual collapse of the apartheid system owed much to Qadhafi and Libyan support. Mandela said that, “in the darkest moments of our struggle, when our backs were to the wall, Muammar Qadhafi stood with us.”
Having examined not only the words and writings, but also Qadhafi’s life time of unwavering revolutionary action dedicated to the liberation of humankind, it is not difficult to answer the questions posed above regarding how Qadhafi’s revolutionary Islam has played out in practice? Why this man and the revolution he has led is such a threat to Western powers, and why freedom fighters from all over Africa are willing to fight to the death for him and the Libyan revolution.
The Final Act – Imperialism’s Last Hideous Gasp
As neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism plunges the world deeper and deeper into chaos, Western imperialism is in crisis. As people revolt in every corner of the world, their ability to influence global affairs is challenged. Even in the economic sphere, their power is decreasing, as China, India and Brazil emerge as vital new trading partners in Africa and South America. In the words of Kwame Nkrumah, “Neo-colonialism is not a sign of imperialism’s strength, but rather of its last hideous gasp.”
As the capitalist crisis worsens, the imperialists will become more and more desperate in their attempts to regain their influence and direct events as they are used to doing. Events which they are increasingly incapable of comprehending – not only because of the speed at which these events are occurring, but also because of the complexity of the events and the paradigm shifts taking place, that are, quite simply, far outside the Western imagination.
Furthermore, they have lost all credibility as the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles continue. The Emperor is naked, and the hypocrisy of the Empire has become so transparent, that even the least informed observers are finally realising that something is horribly wrong.
Imperialism is experiencing its ‘last hideous gasp’ and it is imperative for progressive movements and decent minded citizens worldwide to seize this moment and to oppose this current assault on Libya with all of our collective strength. Those who still struggle to see the wood from the trees will remain enablers of the reactionary and destructive forces that have arrested the advancement of humanity, subjugating and enslaving us since the beginning of time.
GERALD A. PERREIRA is from Guyana and a founding member of the Guyanese organisations, Joint Initiative for Human Advancement and Dignity and Black Consciousness Movement Guyana (BCMG). He lived and worked in Libya for many years and served in the Green March, an international battalion for the defence of the Libyan revolution, and was an executive member of the World Mathaba based in Tripoli.
The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 126 (May-June 2011).
Bin Laden, Bush Serve the Same Master
25 November2002
http://www.henrymakow.com/osama.gif 
The headquarters of Islamic terrorism is London, England, where the Anglo-American Establishment sponsors the radical “Muslim Brotherhood” in order to advance its long-term goal of plutocratic global dictatorship.These globalists have fabricated a bogus “war on terror” to crush the remaining vestiges of nationalism and democracy in both Muslim countries and the West. Expect more incitements like the current “Miss World ” imbroglio to convince both sides the other endangers its way of life.
In a comprehensive online report, the perceptive Hawaii-based researcher Peter Goodgame concludes: “Osama bin Laden is not, nor has he ever been, the leader of the international Islamist movement which is directed by the International Muslim Brotherhood.”
Goodgame continues: “Osama bin Laden has been used effectively as a figurehead for the Brotherhood’s militant branch to take responsibility for its atrocities, but he is not the mastermind… By the same token, the Muslim Brotherhood is a tool by the British-based Globalists whose main objective is to overthrow the established world order and create a new one-world system of global governance.”
Goodgame cites former British Intelligence Officer, Dr. John Coleman, who says the Muslim Brotherhood is a secret freemason order set up by the great names of British Middle East Intelligence, T.E. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell and St. John Philby to “keep the Middle East backward so its natural resource, oil, could continue to be looted.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has been used to check nationalist movements led by such figures as Nasser, Bhutto and the Shah of Iran who tried to develop their countries. Without the British, “radical Islam would have remained the illegitimate, repressive minority movement that it has always been, and the Middle East would have remained stable and prosperous,” Goodgame says.
The Muslim Brotherhood is now a powerful faction in the global oligarchy. Goodgame cites Robert Drefuss, author of “Hostage to Khomeini” (1980):
“The real Muslim Brothers are … the secretive bankers and financiers who stand behind the curtain, the members of the old Arab, Turkish, or Persian families whose genealogy places them in the oligarchic elite, with smooth business and intelligence associations to the European black nobility and, especially, to the British oligarchy.
And the Muslim Brotherhood is money. Together, the Brotherhood probably controls several tens of billions of dollars in immediate liquid assets, and controls billions more in …everything from oil trade and banking to drug-running, illegal arms merchandising, and gold and diamond smuggling. By allying with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Anglo-Americans are not merely buying into a terrorists-for-hire racket; they are partners in a powerful and worldwide financial empire…”
By fabricating a bogus war between Islamic fundamentalism and the West, the globalists are able to attack their real enemy, humanity. Pulling the strings, they will ensure that both Western and Muslim states are degraded and finally completely subjugated to their odious rule.
The globalists have long been using wars to subvert, demoralize and destroy Western civilization. They backed the Nazis and the Soviets in World War Two. They created the Punch and Judy show that was the Cold War. They tied U.S. hands while backing Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.
Who are they? Also called the illuminati, they represent a recrudescence of the alliance of Rothschild finance and European aristocracy secretly coordinated by a Satanic dogma hidden in freemasonry.
They plan a new feudalism that will impoverish the middle classes, depopulate and enslave the masses, and leave only the rich served by a technocracy. The whole world will resemble a repressive third world country governed by the IMF, UN and World Bank.
The globalists are headquartered in London and centred on the Rothschild-dominated Bank of England, MI-6 and the secretive Round Table society, which spawned the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The American branches include the Council on Foreign Relations, CIA and the Rockefeller foundations which all ensure the American people continue to finance and enforce one-world tyranny. The Bush family has owed its prominence to this cabal ever since grandfather Prescott Bush helped arrange financing for Nazism.
Zionism is supposed to represent the “West” in this sham war with Islam. Americans are being groomed to become like Israelis, victims of daily acts of “Muslim terror.” Last week, when another suicide bomber struck in Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Whether the explosion takes place in Bali, Moscow, New York or Jerusalem we are all united in a war against a common terrorist enemy.”
According to Swiss journalist Richard Labeviere (“Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam” 2000) radical Islam is an essential “complementary enemy” to Zionism, which also seeks regional hegemony. According to the “Yinon Memorandum” (1982) Israel intends to splinter the Arab countries into several small cantons along ethnic lines. None of these will be able to challenge Israel, which, like the US is a disposable implement of the globalist agenda. (207)
The Palestinian terrorist “Hamas” movement is a product of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Labeviere, it serves the interests of the Israeli right wing, and has received secret financial support from the Israeli “Shin Beth.” (203-205). Thus, Palestinian suicide bombers play straight into Ariel Sharon’s hand.
Meanwhile, back in the USA, “Muslim terrorist attacks” are an excuse to lay the foundations of a police state. These attacks, which could become nuclear or biological, might serve as a pretext to declare martial law, suspend elections and round up dissidents, i.e. anyone who is not buying the lie.
This may seem incomprehensible to Americans now when the economy is still being propped up. Once the US has done the globalist’s dirty work, interest rates could rise and debt ridden Americans could be stripped of their assets, as they were in the Depression.
The Homeland Security Act is designed to control all US law enforcement agencies so that elements in the CIA and Mossad can target Americans with impunity, like they did on Sept. 11. American agencies were designed to remain independent so they could serve as a check on each other.
The Act is also designed to allow George W. to place his henchmen in positions of control. Remember, he is a product of a secret Satanic cult, the “Skull and Bones.” This sounds gruesome but the Twentieth Century provided many precedents. The illuminati was behind both Nazi and Communist mass slaughter and terror. Our position is akin to the European Jews who disbelieved warnings of the holocaust.
There is even a provision in the Homeland Security Act against whistle blowers. Why? Another provision allows mandatory vaccinations while giving vaccine manufacturers immunity from prosecution. Why? The “Total Information Awareness” program will “red flag” troublemakers by monitoring all personal communications and financial transactions, even your library records. You didn’t attack the WTC. Why are you targeted?
What is the justification for this destruction of freedom, which Bush supposedly protects? In 14 months since Sept.11, 2001, there has been not one Muslim terrorist attack in the US despite the bloody American invasion of Afghanistan. If “Al Queda” were capable of pulling off Sept. 11, don’t you think it would have planned an encore? Don’t get me wrong: I am grateful to the Mossad and CIA for sparing us. But Americans simply don’t deserve freedom if they accept this obvious ruse and its ominous consequences.
In conclusion, mankind is in the clutches of a diabolical multi generational conspiracy. A Satanic, criminal cartel has subverted all social institutions and is slowly crafting a brutal global dictatorship. Our political and cultural leaders are witting and unwitting pawns. They are fabricating a phony war between Islam and the West in order to accomplish the degradation of both.
I realize this vision seems incredibly bleak. The mass media holds us in a powerful illusion of normalcy. However, expecting the worst means you will never be disappointed. If you are wrong, you are relieved. If you are right, you are prepared.
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Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
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Gadhafi blames Osama bin Laden for savage clashes across Libya
by PAUL SCHEMM and MAGGIE MICHAEL &
McClatchy Newspapers
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/24/109362/gadhafis-forces-pound-3-libyan.html#ixzz1EyTfULST
Thursday, Gadhafi, in a rambling phone call to Libyan state TV, Mr. Gadhafi accused al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden of being behind the uprising. The Libyan leader said the revolt that began Feb. 15 has been carried out by young men who were hopped-up and drugged, and were agents of al-Qaeda. “Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafé…Shame on you, people of Zawiya, control your children,” he said, addressing residents of the city outside Tripoli where the mosque attack took place. “They are loyal to bin Laden,” he said of those involved in the uprising. “What do you have to do with bin Laden, people of Zawiya? They are exploiting young people … I insist it is bin Laden.”Gadhafi accused Osama bin Laden of instigating the nine-day rebellion seeking his overthrow, delivering a fresh diatribe over state-run television during which the Libyan leader admitted he was losing control of Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011
Muammar Al Gaddafi – THIS DANGEROUS DREAM
How sweet will be the victory of the wretched, and how great!
How sweet will the songs be on that golden day, and how brilliant the golden sun of the wretched as it blazes.
How sweet this dangerous dream – that hopes will be realized, that wishes become true.
That a dream will become reality, that the wretched of the earth will have their state.
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How sweet will the songs be on that golden day |
“Escape to Hell, and other stories”, Muammar Qaddafi;
Review by David Seals / June 17, 1998
Review by David Seals / June 17, 1998
A few pages into Muammar Qaddafi’s ‘Escape to Hell, and other stories’ a strange feeling came over me; I didn’t realize what it was at first. Under the heading of Part I: Novels, I read the first sentence, “The city has been with us since ages long past, but regard its plight today!” It quickly became apparent this was no ordinary work of fictional entertainment with characters and a narrative plot. It wasn’t going to fit into any genre of post-modernist minimalism,much like Qaddafi himself does not fit into any one place in the world as a political or religious figure.
This is the city: a mill that grinds down its inhabitants …
Children are worse off than adults. They move from darkness to darkness;
from three darknesses to the fourth, as in the Quran.
Then it struck me: I was hearing the same voice of the Libyan people I had not heard for a third of a century, since I was a teenager living in Libya from 1962-65 as a dependent of the United States Air Force. It was the plaintive directness I heard in our houseboy Mobruk when he said, in October ’62 as Tripoli erupted in anti-American riots because of the Cuban missile crisis, “We don’t all hate Americans.” He had tears in his eyes, as if his country’s exuberant idealism had been laid bare. We were two teenage boys from different corners of the world terribly afraid of a world gone mad.
Most Americans sneered at Libyans back then and called them “Mos.” A Mo was very poor and his country was very hot. He was an incompetent servant or laborer at best, he drank foul-smelling green water from dirty sandstonewells and hepatitis and dysentery were rampant among us foreigners.
Not one road in his city or country was free of huge potholes and donkeys and camels slowing the speed of our American Century. The women were treated like slaves in full-body barracan robes and were bought and sold like goats.
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| A Mo was very poor and his country was very hot |
Their religion was an alien apostasy from Christianity. Libya, to the Europeans and Anglo-Americans, from the time of Caesar to Rommel, was only a strategic outpost of the central Mediterranean shipping lanes, and a riperesource of oil from olives to petroleum. The Greek historian Herodotus called them “Barbarians”, after the indigenous Berbers. Theirs was the infamous Barbary Coast of pirates on the shores of Tripoli, to which President Thomas Jefferson first sent the Marines.
O wise, kind-hearted people…, humanitarians: have mercy on children, and do not deceive them by making them live in the city. Do not let your children turn into mice, moving around from hole to hole, from sidewalk to sidewalk.
But there was always that haunting voice, and Qaddafi’s book has reminded me of it, as the muezzins reminded us five times a day of the memory of another strident voice crying simply in another desert, from Arabia 1400 years ago, for Allah, al-Rahman, ir-Rahim.
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| Libya at the time of King Idris |
And there is something else in ‘Escape to Hell’, a self-criticism and self-irony not heard in this country from a national leader since Abraham Lincoln.
Back on the streets of Tripoli and Wheelus Air Base in 1962 Anglo-Americanshated that voice like they hated Arabic music on the radio. Qaddafi articulates why he and his people were so hated back then, when he says in ‘Long Live the State for the Wretched!’ in Part II: Essays:
This is the true secret for their hating you: you are not of this world, you are not wealthy, and for this they hate you. You are not oppressors, and for this they hate you. You are not pretenders, so they hate you. You are not hypocrites or liars, and for this they hate you.
Not until I read this book did I realize why Libya has also haunted my dreams for a third of a century, and perhaps why it haunts the world still today out of all proportion to its size. In another chapter titled ‘Death to the Incapable…Until Revolution’, an essay like a chapter in the odd novel:
Although the world of the incapable has no meaning and no effectiveness, is null and void and silly … and although they create nothing and change nothing … despite all of this, the world of these incapable ones is the richest, most fertile, most teeming, and full of literary meaning. For the world of these people has its culture; it has an ability to accumulate psychologies and narratives of literature, myth, and metaphysics.
Now of course the Libyans are hated even more because they are wealthy, having taken over their own oil resources for the first time, and building up a powerful defensive military capability from incessant attacks by those same heirs of Caesar and Rommel.
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| Moammar Al Gaddafi with Libyan people |
They have turned over their annual oil revenues in the billions to themselves, making themselves anew, from being the poorest country on earth in 1951 (before oil was discovered in 1959) – with a annual per capita income, lower than India’s – to the best in Africa, and higher than England’s. They are building a Great Manmade River in the Sahara from vast subterranean seas of water, next to the oil oceans, and dams and irrigation canals thousands of kilometers long to turn the desert into a greenagricultural resource.
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| The Brother Gaddafi pray in pipe of The Great Manmade River |
But we don’t hear anything about that.
Qaddafi and his Libyans are branded one of the greatest ‘Terrorist Regimes’ on the planet.
Why?
His book provides a lot of clues, helping to explain their national consciousness behind the press clippings and quotes, such as the one he made in 1996 when he opened the second multi-billion dollar phase of the Great Manmade River Project,
“This is the biggest answer to America and all the evil forces who accuse us of being concerned with terrorism. We are only concerned with peace and progress. America is against life and progress; it pushes the world toward darkness.”
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| Muammar Al Gaddafi – Libya and Libyans |
According to an article on the Green Book internet website, it is this River Project that has caused a lot of American paranoia (Qaddafi’s ‘Green Book’ came out in 1980, delineating the social and economic structure of his unique system of governance):
The newly-inaugurated stage of the project will provide Tripoli and the surrounding region with fresh water pumped from sub-Saharan aquifers and transported over hundreds of kilometres through vast networks of pre-stressed concrete pipelines. Because a mountainous formation known as ‘Jabal Nefussa’ blocks the natural flow of the piped water from the areas where the aquifers are located to the coastal plain, it was necessary to drill a tunnel through the mountain and install a pumping station. It is this tunnel, located at Tarhunah, that U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry earlier this year threatened to attack with nuclear weapons on the pretext that it was a chemical weapons factory.
Mobruk once laid bare some of my own most basic emotions, in 1962, when he also asked me, pointedly, ” Do you buy your wives?”
I laughed at the absurdity of the question then, but I was quickly shamed when I saw tears in his eyes again. “We have to pay many sheep and goats to a girl’s father. It takes many years of hard work.” I think now about how my arrogance must have looked to him, for I had girlfriends, a transistor radio, money to spend on soft drinks and movies, F-100s roaring overhead day and night from our superpowered NATO Base at Wheelus. I think now about how we bombed our own base in 1986 and killed hundreds of Libyan women and children in downtown Tripoli and Benghazi, including Qaddafi’s own 16-month old daughter Hana.
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| 1986 Bombs killed hundreds of Libyan & Qaddafi’s own 16-month old daughter Hana |
So I was pleased to hear Mobruk’s disturbing grassroots voice again as I read the first chapters of ‘Escape to Hell’. Maybe it can only be a personal excitement, and you can only care about someone if you’ve lived with them andshared cous-cous on the ground with them, and listened to the lovely Suras of the Quran in musical Arabic while sipping chai in the little servant’s shack behind the big white American villa. But then the best books evoke just such emotional reactions, and I found Qaddafi’s direct passion very moving.
He takes me back into the Suq and the Casbah of the Old City where Mobruk took me, where it was forbidden for Americans to go. In those dirty reeking sewers of poverty I can hear Qaddafi’s anger, and piety too. Whole tent cities for refugees from the desert, bedouins and Berbers looking for non-existent jobs in the booming new oil industry, were constructed and fenced off on the perimeters of Tripoli and our consciousness, reminding me ofAndersonville and Auschwitz.
The stink was indescribable, with open sewers in the dirt trails running between cardboard shacks, miles and miles of concentration camps fenced off and patrolled by NATO policemen. (While at the same time the U.N.-created King Idris presided over a Constitutional Monarchy from one of his huge palaces)
He takes me out into the baking hardscrabble fields where the women toiled like mules, and I was never never allowed to even look at them, let alone talk to them.
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| Tripoli, Libya 1990 |
Today I am shocked to see pictures of Libyan women without barracans working in modern hospitals as doctors, and in a whole New Tripoli of superhighways and skyscrapers as engineers and teachers. They are wearing fashionable short dresses with high heels and chic Italian stockings!
The Libyans tell me today, “You wouldn’t recognize it. We have 3 or 4 cars in front of every house, and everyone in the country has a home, and the world’s best health care and education. You should find yourself a good Libyan woman. There are lots of them!”
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| Qaddafi evokes the spirit of his people and his land. |
It is a wildly unfamiliar joke but the easy laughter is a good friend. There is a lot of that kind of humor in Qaddafi’s book too, in the irreverent-reverent sarcasm of the chapters ‘Stop Fasting When You See the New Moon’ and‘The Prayerless Friday’.
These are people who are human first and foremost, but, like their “Guide” as Qaddafi is called, or “The Brother Colonel”, they are as passionate about the forbidden topics of politics and religion as anybody I’ve met anywhere in the world. There was never a shortage of good conversation and stimulating new perspectives, and here again Qaddafi evokes the spirit of his people and his land.
Revolution: when feelings of impotence penetrate every part of the life of the incapable, and they lose the feeling of impotence and the decline that it involves. When neglect, ignominy, and baseness fail to provoke, the life of the impotent reaches zero, a static level of silliness and marginality. The countdown to approaching nothingness begins…
‘Escape to Hell’ is a philosophical fiction intended as a test of the reader’s willingness to really consider new possibilities for the next millenium, as the Libyan people themselves have been tested; and even without the amazingly complicated political and religious pre-conditioning most First Worlders would bring to this treatise by one of the world’s most notorious outlaws, it is a challenging mixture of post-Socialist Islamism that Qaddafi calls “a radical social progressive trend.“
He calls it a Novel as much as an Essay because he is his own great fictional creation. The persona of Qaddafi reminds me of the way Sitting Bull got in the face of the 19th century, until he was like one of Qaddafi’s own larger-than-life paintings (which I saw in the lobby of the Libyan UN Mission in New York) on a big white horse in flowing romantic robes and headdress. And it is thisgrammar of genuine myth that went far beyond psychology, making Sitting Bull’s image the dominant face of frontier America. After all, who has stood the test of time – the “Savage Red Devil” or President Rutherford B. Hayes?
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| Muammar AL Gaddafi larger-than-life |
Will Qaddafi’s green revolution in the desert survive Bill Clinton’s highway bill?
What is the real nature of the pan-Arabic hostility to Zionism?
These are important questions and we cannot just dismiss Qaddafi’s voice in the heretofore uneven debate. We have not heard much from the Arabs and non-Arab Muslims. Qaddafi’s book is a valuable addition to the debate. Arafat is routinely demonized as one of the generic “Terrorists” in popular cinema and journalism. It is just as unfair and counterproductive as the one-dimensional Hollywood stereotypes of Sitting Bull and his people.
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| Yasser Arafat and Muammar Al Gaddafi |
It would take a lot more than a book review to explore the truth of Libya’s real place in our geopolitical paradigm at the end of the millenium, and Qaddafi himself probably doesn’t know the half of it. “Flee, flee the city” he exclaims in the second chapter titled ‘The Village’. “Leave the irritation behind, the anxious places, the sealed locations.” Here we can begin to see his characteristic Libyan idealism shining through:
How beautiful the village and countryside are! Clean air, the horizon before you, the heavens without pillars thou canst behold [Quran, sura 13, verse 2], with their divine lanterns above.
A structure and a fallible human purpose start to become evident by the next chapters of ‘The Earth’ and ‘The Suicide of the Astronaut’, in which he says, “You can leave everything, except the earth … Land has been the context of the conflict … Whither then are you going?” The astronaut, modern technological man, goes out into the solar system looking for meaning, but … ” … man returned to the earth, dizzy, nauseous, and fearing doom.” The astronaut then committed suicide “after he gave up on being able to find work on the ground that could sustain him.”
All this builds quickly to the revealing core, which is the enigmatic title of the book. ‘Escape to Hell’ begins with one stunning statement after another:
“The tyranny of the masses is the harshest type of tyranny”; “I love the freedom of the masses, as they move freely with no master above them.”
Suddenly there is the personal cry of the author that lifts it all out of an interesting sociopolitical news analysis by a famous public figure into a Dantesque journey of the soul: “What terror! Who can address the unfeeling self and make it feel?” What is this? Before I could switch nonfiction-fiction gears he goes back to “a collective intelligence” and “social conflagration”, then back again in one sentence to “a society that loves you yet will never show you mercy.” He himself is feeling the terrorism.
Within this mass of people, who poisoned Hannibal, burnt Savonarola, and smashed Robespierre, who loved you but failed to reserve a seat for you at the cinema, or even a table in a cafe, who love you without expressing this in any simple way …
This is what the masses have done and continue to do to such people. “So what can I – a poor bedouin – hope for in a modern city of insanity? People snap at me whenever they see me: build us a better house! Get us a better telephone line! Build us a road upon the sea! Make a public park for us!” … A poor, lost bedouin, without even a birth certificate, with his staff upon his shoulder. A bedouin, who will not stop for a red light, nor be afraid when a policeman takes hold of him.
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| “Leave me in peace to tend my flock.” |
Is this, as suspicious Americans might say, the same lament of other billionaires like Howard Hughes or Nero who felt so totally centralized by all the wretched masses yearning for money that they went crazy, retreating into isolation and paranoia?
“I am an illiterate bedouin … I do not know what money looks like … the mad people of the city constantly ask me for these things … I am a poor simple person … leave me in peace to tend my flock.”
Or is Qaddafi more like Sitting Bull, the unelected Medicine Chief, a poet-king like David personifying all the wealth and all the myths of his people?
A simple bedouin in a tent, running an Empire?
What a great character out of fiction, following his own Virgil into the inferno while simultaneously ascending into higher Hegiras: “I have decided to make my escape to hell.”
I will now tell you the story of my experiences when I made that journey, that escape to hell. I will describe the road that leads there, describe hell itself for you, and tell you how I came back by the same way. It was truly an adventure, and one of the strangest true stories ever, and I swear to you that it is not fiction. In fact, I escaped twice to hell, fleeing from you only in order to save myself……
First of all, hell has wild, dark mountainsides, covered by fog. There is volcanic stone which has been burnt black since time immemorial. What is truly strange is that I found wild animals on their way to hell before me, also making their escape from you, for hell meant life to them, while life among you meant death. Everything then disappeared around me, except for my own existence, which I felt more strongly than at any previous time. The mountains shrank, the trees dried up, the animals bolted and melted into the jungles of hell, seeking refuge and fleeing mankind. Even the sun became obscured by hell, and began to disappear. Nothing remained clear except hell, and the most distinct part of it was its heart. I headed toward it, with practically no difficulty.
This rings of Lao Tzu’s ‘Tao te Ching’ (“The blackness within the blackness”),or what Sitting Bull spoke of in the Siouan cosmogony as a Thunderbird obscured in the black misty mountains of the west.
The Mediterranean and the Sahara will do that to you. I swam in those same crystalline seas also, where Odysseus and Calypso played in the Blue Grotto.
The Berbers talk of pictographs of pyramids in the remote Kufra Oasis too.
Qaddafi mentions an Arab prince discovering America long before Columbus, and Aladdin, and a genie’s ring, and a magic golden helmet. He is just as torn by this sublime modern dilemma as we all are, between mythology and psychology:
...the hell on earth never gave me the time to spend time with my self, contemplate it, and commune with it. For we – I mean me and myself – were like dangerous criminals in your city, subjected to searches and surveillance. Even after our innocence was proven, and our identity became known, we were placed in prison, guarded closely. Your purpose was always to prevent me and myself from coming together, so that you could sleep easily and contentedly. How beautiful hell is compared to your city! Why did you bring me back? I want to return to hell, and live in it. I would travel there without any passport, just give me myself so that I may go. The self that I discovered had been disfigured by you, as you tried to corrupt its innocence.
I came away from this book knowing a lot more about Muammar Qaddafi, andthe historic transformation, the apotheosis, of Libya. His other stories about redemption and the death of his father, who fought Mussolini’s Fascists who killed hundreds of thousands of Libyans in the 1930s, and his identification with Joseph in the Quran and the injustices that have been done by ‘Jacob’s Cursed Family’ to Joseph, and the ‘Blessed Caravan’ of Ishmael’s tribes who rescued Joseph and took him to Egypt (which was originally called Libya, as were Arabia and Canaan), make it clear that Libya is not a backwater outpost onthe fringes of civilization as Americans saw it in 1962, or a third-rate culture with no tolerance of literature, liberation, or modern progress.
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How sweet this dangerous dream |
But it is more like the mythic subconscious Homer called The Land of The Lotus Eaters, where Odysseus shipwrecked on his way home, and which Qaddafi describes as “this dangerous dream”:
How sweet will be the victory of the wretched, and how great! How sweet will the songs be on that golden day, and how brilliant the golden sun of the wretched as it blazes. How sweet this dangerous dream – that hopes will be realized, that wishes become true. That a dream will become reality, that the wretched of the earth will have their state.
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Black Hills, South Dakota
June 17, 1998
David Seals
June 17, 1998
David Seals
Escape to Hell, and other stories
Muammar Qaddafi
(Stanke Press, Montreal/NY, 1998, 193 pp.)
http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/11/muammar-al-gaddafi-this-dangerous-dream.html
Review by David Seals
[David Seals is the author of many books, including ‘The Powwow Highway’ a contemporary comedy about his Cheyenne Indian relatives which was made into a feature film by George Harrison’s Handmade Films] http://www.reocities.com/Athens/8744/dsreview.htm
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Anyone wishing to know the truth about what is happening in Libya and why it affects everyone in the world in this major and expanding war between Africa and the collapsing states of the West, should read and share this article.By Gerald A. PerreiraWe are fighting nothing other than al-Qaeda in what they call the Islamic Maghreb. It’s an armed group that is fighting from Libya to Mauritania and through Algeria and Mali.… If you had found them taking over American cities by the force of arms, tell me what you would do?
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An image grab taken from Libyan state television on Friday, Feb. 25 shows Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi gesturing at supporters during an address at the Green Square in Tripoli. Kadhafi told his supporters to “prepare to defend Libya”. (Libyan-TV / AFP – Getty Images)
“In Zawiya, this is unbelievable,” Gadhafi said. “People claim they are engineers and teachers and lecturers ,so they should have reasonable demands. But these people have no reasonable demands. Their demands are being dictated to them by bin Laden. People of Zawiya, your sons are being duped by bin Laden.”
“Zawiya is slipping from our hands because your sons are listening to bin Laden,” adding that “a real man doesn’t use arms against innocent people.”
Gadhafi, whose voice was broadcast against a still photograph of him swathed in a brown cloak and brown headdress, 
said that bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers instigated the uprising by giving hallucinogenic drugs to young people.
“You can find them in the mosques trying to pontificate and give your sons drugs. They should be put on trial,” he said. “My brothers, you shouldn’t listen to bin Laden and his followers. I am ordering every family. Go after your sons.” Gadhafi insisted that “the whole world is siding with us to fight international terrorism, including Europe and the West.”
Tripoli’s streets were eerily quiet overnight, with portraits of Gadhafi adorning street corners and a few police cars patrolling after a day in which residents said pro-Gadhafi forces fired at and over the heads of protesters in many areas.
“Peace is coming back to our country,” one of Gadhafi’s sons, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, told reporters flown into Libya under close supervision.
“If you hear fireworks don’t mistake it for shooting,” the 38-year-old London-educated younger Gadhafi said, smiling.
He acknowledged pro-Gadhafi forces had “a problem” with Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city, and Zawiya, also in the west, where protesters had beaten back counter-attacks by the military but said the army was prepared to negotiate.
“Hopefully there will be no more bloodshed. By tomorrow we will solve this,” he said on Friday evening.
The country’s second city Benghazi fell to the opposition along with much of eastern Libya earlier in the uprising, which began more than a week ago. Gadhafi vowed to “crush any enemy” on Friday, addressing a crowd of supporters in Tripoli’s central Green Square.
State television said the government was raising wages and food subsidies and ordering special allowances for all families, a late bid to enroll the support of Libya’s 6 million citizens.
The Libyan government now considered many of the news reporters to be al-Qaeda collaborators. The Libyan government said that it was not responsible for the safety of these journalists, who risked immediate arrest on the full range of possible immigration charges,” the department said in a statement.
It said the Libyan officials said that some members of CNN, BBC Arabic and Al Arabiya channels would be officially allowed in the country.
In Zawiya, 50 kilometers west of Tripoli, at the Souq Mosque, [where regime opponents had been camped], some of the young men (among the protesters, who were inside the mosque and in a nearby lot) had hunting rifles.
Mr. Gadhafi’s crackdown has so far helped him maintain control of Tripoli, home to about a third of Libya’s six-million population. But the uprising has divided the country and raised the spectre of a civil war: In cities across the east, residents rose up and overwhelmed government buildings and army bases, joined in many cases by local army units that defected. In those cities, tribal leaders, residents and military officers have formed local administrations, passing out weapons looted from the security forces’ arsenals.
In the city of Zawiya, after police fled days earlier, residents had organized local watchgroups to protect government buildings and homes. Pro-Gadhafi militiamen – a mix of Libyans and foreign mercenaries – have clamped down on the city since the Libyan leader went on state TV Tuesday night and called on his supporters to take back the streets. Residents say militiamen roam Tripoli’s main avenues, firing into the air, while neighborhood watch groups have barricaded side streets trying to keep the fighters out and protesters lay low.
Mr. Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam claimed Thursday that the reported death tolls have been exaggerated, although he didn’t provide his own figure. In a press conference aired on state TV, he said the number killed by police and the army had been limited and “talking about hundreds and thousands [killed] is a joke.”He also said a committee had been formed to investigate alleged foreign involvement in the protests. Earlier Thursday, Libyan TV showed Egyptian passports, CDs and cellphones purportedly belonging to detainees who had allegedly confessed to plotting “terrorist” operations against the Libyan people. Other footage showed a dozen men lying on the ground, with their faces down, blindfolded and handcuffed. Rifles and guns were laid out next to them. msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated 2/24/2011 3:25:48 AM ET 2011-02-24T08:25:48
TRIPOLI — Libya’s authorities called on protesters to surrender their weapons and offered rewards for those who inform on protest leaders, in a statement broadcast live on Libyan TV, as the opposition said it planned to liberate the capital Tripoli and “capture” Gadhafi.
Libyan security has cracked down on anti-government protesters and fighting has spread to the capital Tripoli after erupting in Libya’s oil-producing east last week with no signs of Leader Moammar Gadhafi stepping down after 41 years in power.
“He who submits his weapon and shows remorse will be exempted from being pursued legally. The committee calls on citizens to cooperate and inform on those who led on the youth or supplied them with money, equipment or intoxicating substances and hallucinatory pills,” the statement by the Libyan People’s Committee for General Security said. The committee also said a lucrative monetary reward will be given to anyone who contributes or informs on them,” the statement, read out by a Libyan army officer, said on television monitored in Cairo.
Protesters and the mutinous army units that have joined them were consolidating their hold on nearly the entire eastern half of the 1,000-mile Mediterranean coastline, stretching from the Egyptian border to Ajdabiya, about 480 miles east of Tripoli, encroaching on key oil fields around the Gulf of Sidra. Across their territory, mutinous army officers were governing, often collecting weapons looted from pro-Gadhafi troops. “There is now an operating room for the militaries of all the liberated cities and they are trying to convince the others to join them,” said Lt. Col. Omar Hamza, an army officer who had allied with the rebels in Tobruk. “They are trying to help the people in Tripoli to capture Gadhafi.”
Militiamen and Gadhafi supporters — a mix of Libyans and foreign African fighters bused in — roamed the capital’s main streets, called up Tuesday night by the Libyan leader. The gunmen fired weapons in the air, chanting “Long live Gadhafi,” and waved green flags. With a steady rain, streets were largely empty, residents said.
Last updated Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011 2:54PM EST 
In an exclusive statement given by telephone to the Serbian television station TV Pink, Colonel Gaddafi, in power for nearly 42 years, said that “Libya is completely calm.”
“Des gens ont été tués par des bandes terroristes qui appartiennent sans aucun doute à Al-Qaïda”, at-il tout juste reconnu au 13e jour d’une révolte sans précédent, précisant qu’un “petit groupe” d’opposants était actuellement “encerclé”. “People have been killed by terrorist bands that definitely belong to Al-Qaeda”, he just recognized the 13th day of an unprecedented revolt, noting that a “small group” of opponents was currently “circled”.
In New York, the Security Council of the United Nations has adopted a series of tough sanctions against the Libyan leader and his relatives.
La résolution est “sans valeur”, a réagi le colonel Kadhafi, balayant ainsi le gel des avoirs à l’étranger, une interdiction de voyager et un embargo sur les ventes d’armes à la Libye. The resolution is “worthless,” responded Colonel Gaddafi, sweeping and the freezing of assets abroad, a travel ban and an embargo on arms sales to Libya.
A Tripoli, des foules faisaient la queue devant les banques pour retirer les 500 dinars (environ 400 dollars ou 300 euros) promis aux familles par le gouvernement. In Tripoli, crowds lined up at banks to withdraw the 500 dinars (about 400 dollars or 300 euros) promised the families by the government. Cette mesure, annoncée vendredi, a été relayée par SMS dans les quartiers les plus fidèles au régime. This measure, announced Friday, was relayed by SMS in the city’s most loyal to the regime. Only drove into the town militia of Colonel Gaddafi, aboard 4X4. Des postes de contrôle ont été mis en place dans et autour de la capitale, où le pain et l’essence étaient rationnés, selon un habitant joint par téléphone. Checkpoints were set up in and around the capital, where bread and gasoline were rationed, according to a resident reached by telephone. “There is no fire. The morale is good.
Gadhafi’s forces have been trying for days to push back a revolt that has won over large parts of the military. “An aircraft was shot down this morning while it was hovering over the local radio station. Protesters captured its crew,” the witness, Mohamed, told Reuters by telephone. “Fighting to control the military air base started last night and is still going on. Gadhafi‘s forces control only a small part of the base. Protesters control a large part of this base where there is ammunition.”
The European Union said Monday most of the oil and gas fields in the country are no longer in Gadhafi‘s hands, but in those of of regional families or provisional regional leaders that have emerged from the revolt and chaos. The unrest in the North African nation has sent shudders through global oil markets, with concern centering on the possibility that the unrest could spread to other OPEC members, triggering a major supply crunch that would propel prices forward and potentially undercut global economic recovery efforts.
Gaddafi’s Spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, struck a new, conciliatory tone at a briefing on Monday. He conceded that government forces had fired on civilians, but said this was because they were not properly trained…. “We also believe it is time for change,” he said. “But this movement has been hijacked by the West … and by Islamic militants.” Regional experts expect rebels eventually to take the capital and kill or capture Gadafi. The rebels have the firepower to foment chaos or civil war — a prospect Gadafi and his sons have warned of.
THE LIBYAN INSURRECTION:
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. Gadhafi, in an interview with ABC News at a seafrtont restaurant in Tripoli, dismissed a question about whether he would step down.
“My people love me. They would die for me,” he said. ABC reported that Gadhafi invited the U.N. or any other organization to Libya on a fact-finding mission.
Gadhafi denied using his air force to attack protesters but said planes had bombed military sites and ammunition depots. He also denied there had been demonstrations and said
young people were given drugs by al-Qaida and therefore took to the streets.
The turmoil in the oil-rich nation roiled markets for another day. Libya’s oil chief said production had been cut by around 50 percent, denting supplies that go primarily to Europe.
Gadhafi‘s opponents are holding the east and much of the country’s oil infrastructure; & also control pockets in western Libya near Tripoli. They are backed by mutinous army units.
Those forces appear to have a good supply of ammunition and weapons. The “Opposition-Army” is backed by numerous units of the military in the east that joined the uprising,
and they hold several bases and Benghazi’s airport. But so far, the units do not appear to have melded into a unified fighting force. The Libyan Defense Ministry denied the bombing
an ammunition depot in the rebel-held east. Gadhafi long kept Libya’s military weak,* fearing his rule to be considered a fascist-state; so, many of those units are plagued now by shortages of supplies and ammunition.
(*: Where Tunis and Egypt had existing strong armies that embodied nationalism, Gadhafi kept his military of roughly 40,000 soldiers weak.)
A helicopter that was recently comindeared by revolutionaries from the Libyan military, taxis on a runway at an airbase in Benghazi, Libya, on Sunday
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/27/109498/libyan-rebels-admit-their-military.html#ixzz1FLRtvDfaA government spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, said Monday night that 10 Libyan soldiers loyal to Gadhafi were killed in fighting in Zawiya, The New York Times reported. The elite Khamis Brigade, named after one of Gadhafi’s sons who commands it, is considered by U.S. diplomats to be the best-equipped brigade-force in Libya. In Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city 125 miles east of Tripoli, pro-Gadhafi troops who control part of an air base on the outskirts tried to advance Monday. But they were repulsed by opposition forces, who included residents with automatic weapons and defected army units allied with them, one of the opposition fighters said. “The Opposition” controls most of the air base, and the fighter said dozens of anti-Gadhafi gunmen have arrived from farther east in recent days as reinforcements. “An aircraft was shot down this morning….
Protesters captured its crew,” Mohamed, a witness in Misrata, told Reuters by telephone. Faraj al-Maghrabi, said the Ammunitions Depot of the eastern city of Ajdabiya was partially damaged. The site contains bombs, missiles and ammunition — key for The Opposition Military Forces.
State TV carried a statement by Libya’s Defense Ministry denying any attempt to bomb the depot. Ajdabiya is about 450 miles east of Tripoli along the Mediterranean coast. Gadhafi
supporters said they were in control of the city of Sabratha, west of Tripoli, which has seemed to go back and forth between the two camps in the past week. Several residents
told the AP that protesters set fire to a police station, but then were dispersed. Anti-Gadhafi graffiti — “Down with the enemy of freedom” and “Libya is free, Gadhafi must leave” —
were scrawled on some walls, but residents were painting them over. There were signs of economic distress in the country, with long lines forming for bread and gasoline.
U.S. Banks froze a record billion of Libyan assets over the weekend in response to an Obama administration order aimed at pressuring the regime of Gaddafi. A senior Treasury Department
official said the amount was the largest total blocked by any single order ever issued by the U.S. government.
The United States said it was moving warships and air forces closer to Libya.The U.S. said all options were open, including the use of warplanes. “The Opposition” is backed by numerous units of the military in the east that joined the uprising, and they hold several bases and Benghazi’s airport.
The United States said it was moving warships and air forces closer to Libya.The U.S. said all options were open, including the use of warplanes. “The Opposition” is backed by numerous units of the military in the east that joined the uprising, and they hold several bases and Benghazi’s airport.
According to Serbian television, Gadhafi said foreigners and al-Qaeda were responsible for the revolt. He condemned the U.N. Security Council’s decision to levy sanctions and order a war crimes inquiry.
“The people of Libya support me,” he said. “Small groups of rebels are surrounded and will be dealt with.”
Published Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011 6:20AM EST
Last updated Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011 2:54PM EST
Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay,
Posted on 25 February 2011 by theorbo1
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[SAVE-LIBYA] Protesters Tear Down Green Book Statue In Misrata
The recycling of Bin Laden’s men
Once NATO enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, now NATO allies in Libya
by Webster G. Tarpley
Drawing on the West Point Military Academy’s analysis of records seized in the Islamic Emirate of Iraq, U.S. scholar Webster G. Tarpley demonstrates that the Libyan National Transitional Council is largely made up of elements affiliated with Al-Qaeda. In the context of a vast reorganization of its secret operations, the United States is enlisting in Libya – and in Syria – the jihadists that it is tracking down in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Bin Laden is dead! Long live the Bin Ladenists”, cynics in Washington could well be exclaiming.
Voltaire Network | Washington D.C. (USA) | 24 May 2011 
<:ARTICLE>
“Serpents, thirst, heat, and sand … Libya alone can present a multitude of woes that it would beseem men to fly from.”
“Serpents, thirst, heat, and sand … Libya alone can present a multitude of woes that it would beseem men to fly from.”
Lucan, Pharsalia
The current military attack on Libya has been motivated by UN Security Council resolution 1973 with the need to protect civilians. Statements by President Obama, British Prime Minister Cameron, French President Sarkozy, and other leaders have stressed the humanitarian nature of the intervention, which is said to aim at preventing a massacre of pro-democracy forces and human rights advocates by the Qaddafi regime.
But at the same time, many commentators have voiced anxiety because of the mystery which surrounds the anti-al-Qathafi transitional government which emerged at the beginning of March in the city of Benghazi, located in the Cyrenaica district of north-eastern Libya. This government has already been recognized by France and Portugal as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people. The rebel council seems to be composed of just over 30 delegates, many of whom are enveloped in obscurity. In addition, the names of more than a dozen members of the rebel council are being kept secret, allegedly to protect them from the vengeance of al-Qathafi. But there may be other reasons for the anonymity of these figures. Despite much uncertainty, the United Nations and its several key NATO countries, including the United States, have rushed forward to assist the armed forces of this rebel regime with air strikes, leading to the loss of one or two coalition aircraft and the prospect of heavier losses to come, especially if there should be an invasion. It is high time that American and European publics learned something more about this rebel regime which is supposed to represent a democratic and humanitarian alternative to Gaddafi.
The rebels are clearly not civilians, but an armed force. What kind of an armed force?
Since many of the rebel leaders are so difficult to research from afar, and since a sociological profile of the rebels cannot be done on the ground in the midst of warfare, perhaps the typical methods of social history can be called on for help. Is there a way for us to gain deeper insight into the climate of opinion which prevails in such northeastern Libyan cities as Benghazi, Tobruk, and Darnah, the main population centers of the rebellion?
It turns out that there is, in the form of a December 2007 West Point study examining the background of foreign guerrilla fighters — jihadis or mujahedin, including suicide bombers — crossing the Syrian border into Iraq during the 2006-2007 timeframe, under the auspices of the international terrorist organization Al Qaeda. This study is based on a mass of about 600 Al Qaeda personnel files which were captured by US forces in the fall of 2007, and analyzed at West Point using a methodology which we will discuss after having presented the main findings. The resulting study [1] permits us to make important findings about the mentality and belief structures of the northeastern Libyan population that is furnishing the basis for the rebellion, permitting important conclusions about the political nature of the anti-Qaddafi revolt in these areas.
Darnah, northeast Libya: World Capital of Jihadis
The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
According to West Point authors Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman, Saudi Arabia took first place as regards absolute numbers of jihadis sent to combat the United States and other coalition members in Iraq during the time frame in question. Libya, a country less than one fourth as populous, took second place. Saudi Arabia sent 41% of the fighters. According to Felter and Fishman, “Libya was the next most common country of origin, with 18.8% (112) of the fighters listing their nationality stating they hailed from Libya.” Other much larger countries were far behind: “Syria, Yemen, and Algeria were the next most common origin countries with 8.2% (49), 8.1% (48), and 7.2% (43), respectively. Moroccans accounted for 6.1% (36) of the records and Jordanians 1.9% (11).” [2]
This means that almost one fifth of the foreign fighters entering Iraq across the Syrian border came from Libya, a country of just over 6 million people. A higher proportion of Libyans were interested in fighting in Iraq than any other country contributing mujahedin. Felter and Fishman point out: “Almost 19 percent of the fighters in the Sinjar Records came from Libya alone. Furthermore, Libya contributed far more fighters per capita than any other nationality in the Sinjar Records, including Saudi Arabia.” [3]
But since the Al Qaeda personnel files contain the residence or hometown of the foreign fighters in question, we can determine that the desire to travel to Iraq to kill Americans was not evenly distributed across Libya, but was highly concentrated precisely in those areas around Benghazi which are today the epicenters of the revolt against Colonel Gaddafi which the US, Britain, France, and others are so eagerly supporting.
As Daya Gamage of the Asia Tribune comments in a recent article on the West Point study, “…alarmingly for Western policymakers, most of the fighters came from eastern Libya, the center of the current uprising against Muammar el-Qaddafi. The eastern Libyan city of Darnah sent more fighters to Iraq than any other single city or town, according to the West Point report. It noted that 52 militants came to Iraq from Darnah, a city of just 80,000 people (the second-largest source of fighters was Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has a population of more than 4 million). Benghazi, the capital of Libya’s provisional government declared by the anti-Qaddafi rebels, sent in 21 fighters, again a disproportionate number of the whole.” [4] Obscure Darnah edged out metropolitan Riyadh by 52 fighters to 51. Qaddafi’s stronghold of Tripoli, by contrast, barely shows up in the statistics at all.
What explains this extraordinary concentration of anti-American fighters in Benghazi and Darnah? The answer seems related to extremist schools of theology and politics which flourished in these areas. As the West Point report notes: “Both Darnah and Benghazi have long been associated with Islamic militancy in Libya.” These areas are in theological and tribal conflict with the central government of Colonel Gaddafi, in addition to being politically opposed to him. Whether such a theological conflict is worth the deaths of still more American and European soldiers is a question which needs urgently to be answered.
Felter and Fishman remark that “The vast majority of Libyan fighters that included their hometown in the Sinjar Records resided in the country’s northeast, particularly the coastal cities of Darnah 60.2% (52) and Benghazi 23.9% (21). Both Darnah and Benghazi have long been associated with Islamic militancy in Libya, in particular for an uprising by Islamist organizations in the mid-1990s. The Libyan government blamed the uprising on ‘infiltrators from the Sudan and Egypt’ and one group—the Libyan Fighting Group (jama-ah al-libiyah al-muqatilah)—claimed to have Afghan veterans in its ranks. The Libyan uprisings became extraordinarily violent.” [5]
Northeastern Libya: Highest Density of Suicide Bombers
Another remarkable feature of the Libyan contribution to the war against US forces inside Iraq is the marked propensity of the northeastern Libyans to choose the role of suicide bomber as their preferred method of struggle. As the West Point study states, “Of the 112 Libyans in the Records, 54.4% (61) listed their ‘work.’ Fully 85.2% (51) of these Libyan fighters listed “suicide bomber” as their work in Iraq.” [6] This means that the northeastern Libyans were far more apt to choose the role of suicide bomber than those from any other country: “Libyan fighters were much more likely than other nationalities to be listed as suicide bombers (85% for Libyans, 56% for all others).” [7]
The anti-Qaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) Merges with al Qaeda, 2007
The specific institutional basis for the recruitment of guerrilla fighters in northeastern Libya is associated with an organization which previously called itself the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). During the course of 2007, the LIFG declared itself an official subsidiary of al Qaeda, later assuming the name of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). As a result of this 2007 merger, an increased number of guerrilla fighters arrived in Iraq from Libya. According to Felter and Fishman, “The apparent surge in Libyan recruits traveling to Iraq may be linked the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group’s (LIFG) increasingly cooperative relationship with al-Qaeda, which culminated in the LIFG officially joining al-Qaeda on November 3, 2007.” [8] This merger is confirmed by other sources: A 2008 statement attributed to Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group has joined al-Qaeda. [9]
Terrorist “Emir” Touts Key Role of Benghazi, Darnah in al Qaeda
The West Point study makes clear that the main bulwarks of the LIFG and of the later AQIM were the twin cities of Benghazi and Darnah. This is documented in a statement by Abu Layth al-Libi, the self-styled “Emir” of the LIFG, who later became a top official of al Qaeda. At the time of the 2007 merger, “Abu Layth al-Libi, LIFG’s Emir, reinforced Benghazi and Darnah’s importance to Libyan jihadis in his announcement that LIFG had joined al-Qa’ida, saying: ‘It is with the grace of God that we were hoisting the banner of jihad against this apostate regime under the leadership of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which sacrificed the elite of its sons and commanders in combating this regime whose blood was spilled on the mountains of Darnah, the streets of Benghazi, the outskirts of Tripoli, the desert of Sabha, and the sands of the beach.’” [10]
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Ammar Ashoor al-Rufaie, aka “Abu Laith al-Libi” (the Libyan), (1967-2008) took part as a teenager in the anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan, under the authority of Osama Bin Laden and the CIA. During the 1990’s he commanded the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and was made Ayman al-Zawahiri’s assistant. He was involved in a failed Al-Qaeda attempt to oust Muammar Gaddafi. A British counter-intelligence agent, David Shayler, subsequently revealed that the operation had been ordered by Her Majesty’s services. Abu Laith “the Libyan” is said to have organized the suicide bombing of the U.S. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on 27 February 2007 during the visit of Vice-President Cheney. A 5 million dollar price tag was put on his head. He was eventually taken out by the CIA drone in early 2008.
This 2007 merger meant that the Libyan recruits for Al Qaeda became an increasingly important part of the activity of this organization as a whole, shifting the center of gravity to some degree away from the Saudis and Egyptians who had previously been most conspicuous. As Felter and Fishman comment, “Libyan factions (primarily the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group) are increasingly important in al-Qa’ida. The Sinjar Records offer some evidence that Libyans began surging into Iraq in larger numbers beginning in May 2007. Most of the Libyan recruits came from cities in northeast Libya, an area long known for jihadi-linked militancy.” [11]
The December 2007 West Point study concludes by formulating some policy options for the United States government. One approach, the authors suggest, would be for the United States to cooperate with existing Arab governments against the terrorists. As Felter and Fishman write, “The Syrian and Libyan governments share the United States’ concerns about violent salafi-jihadi ideology and the violence perpetrated by its adherents. These governments, like others in the Middle East, fear violence inside their borders and would much rather radical elements go to Iraq rather than cause unrest at home. U.S. and Coalition efforts to stem the flow of fighters into Iraq will be enhanced if they address the entire logistical chain that supports the movement of these individuals—beginning in their home countries — rather than just their Syrian entry points. The U.S. may be able to increase cooperation from governments to stem the flow of fighters into Iraq by addressing their concerns about domestic jihadi violence.” [12] Given the course of subsequent events, we are on firm ground in concluding that this option was not the one selected, neither in the closing years of the Bush administration nor during the first half of the Obama administration.
The West Point study also offers another, more sinister perspective. Felter and Fishman hint that it might be possible to use the former LIFG components of Al Qaeda against the government of Colonel Qaddafi in Libya, in essence creating a de facto alliance between the United States and a segment of the terrorist organization. The West Point report notes: “The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group’s unification with al-Qa’ida and its apparent decision to prioritize providing logistical support to the Islamic State of Iraq is likely controversial within the organization. It is likely that some LIFG factions still want to prioritize the fight against the Libyan regime, rather than the fight in Iraq. It may be possible to exacerbate schisms within LIFG, and between LIFG’s leaders and al-Qa’ida’s traditional Egyptian and Saudi power-base.” [13] This suggests the US policy we see today, that of allying with the obscurantist and reactionary al Qaeda fanatics in Libya against the Nasserist modernizer Qaddafi.
Arming the Rebels: The Experience of Afghanistan
Looking back at the tragic experience of US efforts to incite the population of Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation in the years after 1979, it should be clear that the policy of the Reagan White House to arm the Afghan mujahedin with Stinger missiles and other modern weapons turned out to be highly destructive for the United States. As current Defense Secretary Robert Gates comes close to admitting in his memoirs, Al Qaeda was created during those years by the United States as a form of Arab Legion against the Soviet presence, with long-term results which have been highly lamented.
Today, it is clear that the United States is providing modern weapons for the Libyan rebels through Saudi Arabia and across the Egyptian border with the active assistance of the Egyptian army and of the newly installed pro-US Egyptian military junta. [14] This is a direct violation of UN Security Council resolution 1973, which calls for a complete arms embargo on Libya. The assumption is that these weapons will be used against Gaddafi in the coming weeks. But, given the violently anti-American nature of the population of northeast Libya that is now being armed, there is no certainty that these weapons will not be soon turned against those who have provided them.
A broader problem is represented by the conduct of the future Libyan government dominated by the current rebel council with its large current majority of northeastern Islamists, or of a similar government of a future Cyrenaica rump state. To the extent that such regimes will have access to oil revenues, obvious problems of international security are posed. Gamage wonders: “If the rebellion succeeds in toppling the Qaddafi regime it will have direct access to the tens of billions of dollars that Qaddafi is believed to have squirreled away in overseas accounts during his four-decade rule.” [15] Given the northeast Libyan mentality, we can imagine what such revenues might be used for.
What is al Qaeda and Why the CIA Has Used It
Al Qaeda is not a centralized organization, but rather a gaggle or congeries of fanatics, dupes, psychotics, misfits, double agents, provocateurs, mercenaries, and other elements. As noted, Al Qaeda was founded by the United States and the British during the struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Many of its leaders, such as the reputed second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri and the current rising star Anwar Awlaki, are evidently double agents of MI-6 and/or the CIA. The basic belief structure of Al Qaeda is that all existing Arab and Moslem governments are illegitimate and should be destroyed, because they do not represent the caliphate which Al Qaeda asserts is described by the Koran. This means that the Al Qaeda ideology offers a ready and easy way for the Anglo-American secret intelligence agencies to attack and destabilize existing Arab and Muslim governments as part of the ceaseless need of imperialism and colonialism to loot and attack the developing nations. This is precisely what is happening in Libya today.
Al Qaeda emerged from the cultural and political milieu of the Moslem Brotherhood or Ikhwan, itself a creation of British intelligence in Egypt in the late 1920s. The US and the British used the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to oppose the successful anti-imperialist policies of Egyptian President Nasser, who scored immense victories for his country by nationalizing the Suez Canal and building the Aswan High Dam, without which modern Egypt would be simply unthinkable. The Muslim brotherhood provided an active and capable fifth column of foreign agents against Nasser, in the same way that the official website of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is trumpeting its support for the rebellion against Colonel Qaddafi.
I have discussed the nature of Al Qaeda at some length in my recent book entitled 9/11 Synthetic Terrorism: Made in USA, and that analysis cannot be repeated here. It is enough to say that we do not need to believe in all the fantastic mythology which the United States government has spun around the name of Al Qaeda in order to recognize the basic fact that militants or patsies who spontaneously join al Qaeda are often sincerely motivated by a deep hatred of the United States and a burning desire to kill Americans, as well as Europeans. The Bush administration policy used the alleged presence of Al Qaeda as a pretext for direct military attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. The Obama administration is now doing something different, intervening on the side of a rebellion in which Al Qaeda and its co-thinkers are heavily represented while attacking the secular authoritarian government of Colonel Gaddafi. Both of these policies are bankrupt and must be abandoned.
Rebel Leaders Jalil and Younis, Plus Most of Rebel Council are Members of the al Qaeda-linked Harabi Tribe
The result of the present inquiry is that the Libyan branch of Al Qaeda represents a continuum with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group centered in Darnah and Benghazi. The ethnic base of the Libyan Islamic fighting group is apparently to be found in the anti-Qaddafi Harabi tribe, the tribe which makes up the vast majority of the rebel council including the two dominant rebel leaders, Abdul Fatah Younis and Mustafa Abdul Jalil. The evidence thus suggests that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, the elite of the Harabi tribe, and the rebel council supported by Obama all overlap for all practical purposes. As the late Foreign Minister of Guyana Fred Wills, a real fighter against imperialism and neo-colonialism, taught me many years ago, political formations in developing countries (and not just there) are often a mask for ethnic and religious rivalries; so it is in Libya. The rebellion against Qaddafi is a toxic brew compounded of fanatical hatred of Qaddafi, Islamism, tribalism, and localism. From this point of view, Obama has foolishly chosen to take sides in a tribal war.
When Hillary Clinton went to Paris to be introduced to the Libyan rebels by French President Sarkozy, she met the US-educated Libyan opposition leader Mahmoud Jibril, already known to readers of Wikileaks document dumps as a favorite of the US.
While Jibril might be considered presentable in Paris, the real leaders of the Libyan insurrection would appear to be Jalil and Younis, both former ministers under Qaddafi. Jalil seems to be the primus inter pares, at least for the moment: “Mustafa Abdul Jalil or Abdul-Jalil (Arabic: مصطفى عبد الجليل, also transcribed Abdul-Jelil, Abd-al-Jalil, Abdel-Jalil or Abdeljalil; and frequently but erroneously as Abud Al Jeleil) (born 1952) is a Libyan politician. He was the Minister of Justice (unofficially, the Secretary of the General People’s Committee) under Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi…. Abdul Jalil has been identified as the Chairman of the National Transitional Council based in Benghazi… although this position is contested by others in the uprising due to his past connections to Gaddafi’s regime.”
As for Younis, he has been closely associated with Qaddafi since the 1968-9 seizure of power: “Abdul Fatah Younis (Arabic: عبد الفتاح يونس) is a senior military officer in Libya. He held the rank of General and the post of Minister of Interior, but resigned on 22 February 2011….”
What should concern us most is that both Jalil and Younis come from the Haribi tribe, the dominant one in northeast Libya, and the one that overlaps with al Qaeda. According to Stratfor, the “…Harabi tribe is a historically powerful umbrella tribe in eastern Libya that saw their influence wane under Col. Gadhafi. The Libyan leader confiscated swaths of tribal members’ land and redistributed it to weaker and more loyal tribes…. Many of the leaders now emerging in eastern Libya hail from the Harabi tribe, including the head of the provisional government set up in Benghazi, Abdel Mustafa Jalil, and Abdel Fatah Younis, who assumed a key leadership role over the defected military ranks early in the uprising.” [16] This is like a presidential ticket where both candidates are from the same state, except that Libya’s ferocious tribal rivalries make the problem infinitely worse.
The Rebel Council: Half the Names Are Kept Secret; Why?
This picture of a narrow, sectarian tribal and regional base does not improve when we look at the rebel council as a whole. According to one recent version, the rebel council is “chaired by the well-spoken former justice minister for Libya, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, [and] consists of 31 members, ostensibly representatives from across Libya, of whom many cannot be named for “security reasons”…. “The key players on the council, at least those who we know about, all hail from the north-eastern Harabi confederation of tribes. These tribes have strong affiliations with Benghazi that date back to before the 1969 revolution which brought Gaddafi to power.” [17] Other accounts agree about the number of representatives: “The council has 31 members; the identities of several members has not been made public to protect their own safety.” Given what we know about the extraordinary density of LIFG and all Qaeda fanatics in northeast Libya, we are authorized to wonder as to whether so many members of the council are being kept secret in order to protect them from Qaddafi, or whether the goal is to prevent them from being recognized in the west as al Qaeda terrorists or sympathizers. The latter seems to be a more accurate summary of the real state of affairs.
Names released so far include: Mustafa Abduljaleel; Ashour Hamed Bourashed of Darna city; Othman Suleiman El-Megyrahi of the Batnan area; Al Butnan of the Egypt border and Tobruk; Ahmed Abduraba Al-Abaar of Benghazi city; Fathi Mohamed Baja of Benghazi city; Abdelhafed Abdelkader Ghoga of Benghazi city; Mr. Omar El-Hariri for Military Affairs; and Dr. Mahmoud Jibril, Ibrahim El-Werfali and Dr. Ali Aziz Al-Eisawi for foreign affairs. [18]
The State Department needs to interrogate these figures, starting perhaps with Ashour Hamed Bourashed, the delegate from the terrorist and suicide bomber stronghold of Darnah.
How Many al Qaeda Members, Veterans, or Sympathizers are on the Rebel Council?
Seeing as clearly as we can in the fog of war, it looks like slightly more than a dozen of the members of the rebel council have had their names officially published — in any case, not more than half of the reported 31 members. The US and European media have not taken the lead in identifying for us the names that are now known, and they above all have not called attention to the majority of the rebel council who are still lurking in the shadows of total secrecy. We must therefore demand to know how many LIFG and/or al Qaeda members, veterans, or sympathizers currently hold seats on the rebel council.
We are thus witnessing an attempt by the Harabi tribe to seize dominance over the 140 tribes of Libya. The Harabi are already practically hegemonic among the tribes of Cyrenaica. At the center of the Harabi Confederation is the Obeidat tribe, which is divided into 15 sub-tribes. [19] All of this might be of purely academic ethnographic interest, were it not for the fact of the striking overlap between the Harabi tribe and the LIFG and al Qaeda.
The Senussi Movement of Libya — Monarchist Democracy?
The political-religious tradition of northeast Libya makes this area such fertile ground for the more extreme Muslim sects and also predisposes it to monarchism rather than to the more modern forms of government favored by Qaddafi. The relevant regional tradition is that of the Senussi or Sanussi order, an anti-western Moslem sect. In Libya the Senussi order is closely associated with monarchism, since King Idris I, the ruler installed by the British in 1951 who was overthrown by Gaddafi in 1969, was also the leader of the Senussi order. The Senussi directed the rebellion against Italian colonialism in the person of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani and his army in the 1930s. Today, the rebels use the monarchist flag, and may advocate the return to the throne of one of the two pretenders to the Idris line. They are far closer to monarchism than to democracy
King Idris, Revered by the Libyan Rebels of Today
Here is the Stratfor view of King Idris and the Senussi: “King Idris came from a line of rulers of the Sanussi order, a Sufi religious order founded in 1842 in Al Bayda, that practices a conservative and austere form of Islam. The Sanussiyah represented a political force in Cyrenaica that preceded the creation of the modern state of Libya, and whose reverberations continue to be felt to this day. It is no coincidence that this region is the home of Libyan jihadism, with groups like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The Gadhafi family has thus been calling the current uprising an elaborate Islamist plot….” [20] Under the monarchy, Libya was by some estimates absolutely the poorest country in the world. Today, Libya ranks 53 on the UN Human Development Index and qualifies as the most developed country in Africa, ahead of Russia, Brazil, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Qaddafi’s stewardship has objective merits which cannot be seriously denied.
Glen Ford’s Black Agenda Report has correctly sought to show the racist and reactionary character of the Libyan insurrection. The tribes of southern Libya, known as the Fezzan, are dark skinned. The tribal underpinning of the Gaddafi regime has been an alliance of the tribes of the West, the center, and the southern Fezzan, against the Harabi and the Obeidat, who identify with the former monarchist ruling class. The Harabi and Obeidat are known to nurture a deep racist hatred against the Fezzan. This was expressed in frequent news reports from the pro-imperialist media at the beginning of the rebellion evidently inspired by Harabi accounts, according to which black people in Libya had to be treated as mercenaries working for Gaddafi — with the clear implication that they were to be exterminated. These racist inventions are still being repeated by quackademics like Dean Slaughter of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. And in fact, large numbers of black Africans from Chad and other countries working in Libyan have been systematically lynched and massacred by the anti-Gaddafi forces. The Obama White House, for all its empty talk of not wanting to repeat the massacre in Rwanda, has conveniently ignored this shocking story of real genocide at the hands of its new racist friends in Cyrenaica.
Against the obscurantism of the Senussi, Qaddafi has advanced the Moslem equivalent of the priesthood of all believers, arguing that no caliphate is necessary in order to discover the meaning of the Koran. He has supplemented this with a pan African perspective. Gerald A. Perreira of the Black Agenda Report writes the following about the theological division between Gaddafi and the neo-Senussi of northeast Libya, as well as other obscuranitsts: “Al Qaeda is in the Sahara on his borders and the International Union of Muslim Scholars is calling for [Qaddafi] to be tried in a court…. [Qaddafi] has questioned the Islam of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda from a Quranic/theological perspective and is one of the few political leaders equipped to do so…. Benghazi has always been at the heart of counter-revolution in Libya, fostering reactionary Islamic movements such as the Wahhabis and Salafists. It is these people who founded the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group based in Benghazi which allies itself with Al Qaeda and who have, over the years, been responsible for the assassination of leading members of the Libyan revolutionary committees.” [21] And what would be for example the status of women under the neo-Senussi of the Benghazi rebel council?
Al Qaeda from Demon to US ally in Libya
For those who attempt to follow the ins and outs of the CIA’s management of its various patsy organizations inside the realm of presumed Islamic terrorism, it may be useful to trace the transformation of the LIFG-AQIM from deadly enemy to close ally. This phenomenon is closely linked to the general reversal of the ideological fronts of US imperialism that marks the divide between the Bush-Cheney-neocon administrations and the current Obama-Brzezinski-International Crisis Group regime. The Bush approach was to use the alleged presence of Al Qaeda as a reason for direct military attack. The Obama method is to use Al Qaeda to overthrow independent governments, and then either Balkanize and partition the countries in question, or else use them as kamikaze puppets against larger enemies like Russia, China, or Iran. This approach implies a more or less open fraternization with terrorist groups, which was signaled in a general way in Obamas famous Cairo speech of 2009. The links of the Obama campaign to the terrorist organizations deployed by the CIA against Russia were already a matter of public record three years ago. [22]
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In its 11 June 2008 edition, the New Republic attuned public opinion to the possible recycling of Bin Laden’s men.
But such a reversal of field cannot be improvised overnight; it took several years of preparation. On July 10, 2009, The London Daily Telegraph reported that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group had split with Al Qaeda. This was when the United States had decided to de-emphasize the Iraq war, and also to prepare to use the Sunni Moslem Brotherhood and its Sunni Al Qaeda offshoot for the destabilization of the leading Arab states preparatory to turning them against Shiite Iran. Paul Cruikshank wrote at that time in the New York Daily News about one top LIFG honcho who wanted to dial back the relation to al Qaeda and the infamous Osama Bin Laden; this was “Noman Benotman, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. While mainstream Muslim leaders have long criticized Al Qaeda, these critics have the jihadist credentials to make their criticisms bite.” [23] But by this time some LIFG bosses had moved up into al Qaeda: the London Daily Telegraph reported that senior Al Qaeda members Abu Yahya al-Libi and Abu Laith al-Libi were LIFG members. Around this time, Qaddafi released some LIFG fighters in an ill-advsided humanitarian gesture.
Northeast Libyan Jihadis Killing US, NATO Forces in Afghanistan Right Now
One of the fatal contradictions in the current State Department and CIA policy is that it aims at a cordial alliance with Al Qaeda killers in northeast Libya, at the very moment when the United States and NATO are mercilessly bombing the civilian northwest Pakistan in the name of a total war against Al Qaeda, and US and NATO forces are being killed by Al Qaeda guerrillas in that same Afghanistan-Pakistan theater of war. The force of this glaring contradiction causes the entire edifice of US war propaganda to collapse. The US has long since lost any basis in morality for military force.
In fact, terrorist fighters from northeast Libya may be killing US and NATO troops in Afghanistan right now, even as the US and NATO protect their home base from the Qaddafi government. According to this account, a top Al Qaeda commander in northwest Pakistan was killed by US action as recently as October 2010: “A senior al Qaeda leader who serves as al Qaeda’s ambassador to Iran, and is wanted by the US, is reported to have been killed in a Predator air strike in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan two days ago…. [This was] Atiyah Abd al Rahman, a Libyan national who has been based in Iran and served as Osama bin Laden’s ambassador to the mullahs. Unconfirmed press reports indicate that Rahman was killed in an airstrike….” [24] The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice page for Atiyah Abd al Rahman notes that he was al Qaeda’s “emissary in Iran as appointed by Osama bin Ladin.” Atiyah “recruited and facilitated talks with other Islamic groups to operate under” al Qaeda and was “also a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and Ansar al Sunna.” [25] Rahman was ranked high enough in al Qaeda to be able to give orders to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al Qeada in Iraq, in 2005.
Also killed in Pakistan was another apparent northeast Libyan going by the name of Khalid al Harabi, whose choice of a nom de guerre may well link him to the jihadi farm among the Harabi tribe in Cyrenaica. According to one account, “Khalid al Harabi is an alias for Khalid Habib, al Qaeda’s former military commander who was killed in a US Predator strike in October 2008.” [26]
The Scenario Uncovered by the 1995 Shayler Affair is Operative Today
In 1995, David Shayler, an official of the British counterintelligence organization MI-5, became aware that his counterpart at the British foreign espionage organization MI-6 had paid the sum of to an Al Qaeda affiliate in exchange for the attempt to assassinate Qaddafi. The assassination attempt did occur, and killed several innocent bystanders, but failed to eliminate the Libyan ruler. As Shayler understood the MI-6 scenario, it included the liquidation of Gaddafi, followed by the descent of Libya into chaos and tribal warfare, with a possible option for a direct seizure of power by al Qaeda itself. This situation would then provide a pretext for Britain, probably but not necessarily acting together with the United States or other countries, to invade Libya and seize control of the oil fields, probably establishing a permanent protectorate over the oil regions, the pipelines, and the coast. [27] This remains the goal today.
Timed to coincide with the attempt to assassinate Qaddafi, MI-6 and other Western secret intelligence agencies fomented a considerable insurrection in northeast Libya, almost precisely in the same areas which are in rebellion today. Its insurrection was successfully crushed by Qaddafi’s forces by the end of 1996. The events of 2011 are simply a reprise of the imperialist attack on Libya 15 years ago, with the addition of outside intervention..
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-433962193837007700&hl=fr&fs=true David Shayler’s testimony at the Axis for Peace Conference organized by Voltaire Network in 2005.
The War Against the Nation State
Today’s attack on Libya comes in the context of a broad attack on the institution of the sovereign nation state itself, as it has existed since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The United States and the British are deeply concerned by the large number of nations which are seeking to escape from Anglo-American hegemony by actively pursuing large-scale cooperation with Russia on security, with China on economic questions, and with Iran for geopolitical considerations. The CIA/MI-6 response has been a wild orgy of destabilizations, people power coups, color revolutions, and palace putsches, signaled by the document dumps by the CIA limited hangout operation known as Wikileaks, which has targeted names of the CIA hit mist from Ben Ali to Qaddafi. The Obama strategy would have preferred an exclusive reliance and the illusion that the Arab Spring was really a matter of youthful visionary idealists gathering in the public square to praise democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. This was never the reality: the actual decisions were being made by brutal cliques of generals and top officials bribed or blackmailed by the CIA who were moving behind the scenes to oust such figures as Ben Ali or Mubarak. Whatever else Qaddafi has done, he has undoubtedly forced the CIA and NATO to drop the pleasant mask of youthful idealism and human rights, revealing a hideous visage of Predator drones, terror bombing, widespread slaughter, and colonialist arrogance underneath. Qaddafi has also ripped the mask of “Yes We Can” off Obama, revealing a cynical warmonger intent on the continuation of Bush’s infamous “Dead or Alive” and “Bring it on” policies, although by other means.
A Distant Mirror for Imperialists in Libya: Lucan’s Pharsalia
Modern imperialists eager to rush into Libya should ponder Lucan’s Pharsalia, which treats of warfare in the Libyan desert during the contest between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great at the end of the Roman Republic. A critical passage in this Latin epic is the speech by Cato of Utica, a follower of Pompey, who urges his soldiers to undertake a suicide mission into Libya, saying: “Serpents, thirst, heat, and sand … Libya alone can present a multitude of woes that it would beseem men to fly from.” Cato goes forward, and finds “a little tomb to enclose [his] hallowed name, Libya secured the death of Cato….” [28]
Let us not imitate this folly.
Investigative leads from the West Point Study: An Appeal to Scholars
The West Point study, as noted, was conducted on the basis of almost 700 Al Qaeda personnel files captured by coalition forces in Iraq. The authors of the study have promised to keep available online the documentary basis of this investigation, both in the form of the raw Arabic language al Qaeda personnel files, and also of the same file cards in English translation. Assuming that this material remains available, it might be possible for researchers and reporters, and especially those with capabilities in Arabic not possessed by the present writer, to investigate the Libyan fighters who went into Iraq with a view to determining whether any of them are family members, neighbors, or even political associates of the known members of the Benghazi rebel council or of other anti-Qaddafi forces. Such a procedure could contribute to allowing the European and American public as well as others around the world to better understand the nature of the military adventure currently unfolding in Libya by gaining a more specific knowledge of who the Libyan rebels actually are, as distinct from the hollow panegyrics purveyed by the controlled Western media.
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by SaveLibya | il y a 1 semaine | 4 127 vue(s)
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Gaddafi’s Green Book Burning and Celebrations in Masrata Libya
Protesters in Masrata gather and burn Gaddafi’s manifesto “The Green Book” حرق الكتاب الاخضر و كل ما يتعلق به فى مصراتة اليوم الاربعاء الثانى من مارس
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Gaddafi’s Green Book Destroyed in Misrata Libya 22.02.112 الكتاب الأخضر للقذافي
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تدمير مجسم للكتاب الأخضر destroy gadafi green book in tobruk
حرق مثابة اللجان الثورية وتدمير مجسم للكتاب الأخضر من قبل المتظاهرين في مدينة طبرق يوم 17-2-2011 .. هذا ويعتبر المواطنون في ليبيا ان اللجان …
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There can be no doubt at all that the situation in Libya provides one of those moments which provide a collective test to measure where Humankind stands, what its values are and how far it has progressed towards a state in which our societies are governed by the precepts of the rule of law, in which international law not only exists but is applied.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
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Obama and NATO Turn Libya, and a B Check, Over to Jihadists
by Tara Servatius
07/24/2011
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44986&mid=57
How would Americans feel if they knew the Obama administration just agreed to hand people affiliated with a designated terrorist group a billion dollar check and recognize them as the legitimate rulers of Libya?
Things weren’t looking so good for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group back in 2004when they were designated a foreign terrorist group by the State Department. In chilling testimony, then-CIA Director George Tenet warned the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 that even if Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda was completely destroyed, “a global network of Islamic extremists bent on killing Americans had emerged.” Tenet listed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) as one of those groups.
In 2007, the LIFG formally joined al-Qaeda, an event so well documented that evenReuters covered it. Its goals, which it is now close to achieving thanks to airpower help from President Obama and NATO, include killing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, setting up an Islamic caliphate in Libya and waging international jihad.
The known leaders of the Libyan rebel forces on the ground are all former LIFG fighters, some with documented personal connections to al-Qaeda. The Transitional National Council, which the Obama administration recognized last week as the official government of Libya, is packed with pro-LIFG activists, lawyers who have advocated for imprisoned LIFG fighters, and Islamic scholars from LIFG strongholds.
Something smells strongly of jihad here.
What Americans have been told about Libya is that there were some protests, some people rebelled, and Gaddafi started killing them, so we had to intervene. The media never got around to explaining that the people behind the “Day of Rage” protests in Libya that kicked off the civil war were supporters of the more than 1,000 LIFG fighters who were killed in a prison massacre in 1995 by Gaddafi after they attempted an uprising. Gaddafi had jailed them to halt their jihadist takeover of the country and save his own skin.
The LIFG has waged jihad against American forces before. Documents captured by allied forces in 2007 show LIFG fighters made up the second-largest cohort of jihadists battling in Iraq, after Saudi Arabia. After that, it appears that many of their military leaders transferred their expertise to Libya.
Gaddafi is a brutal dictator with a long history of support for terror, but his ruthless zeal for taking out the LIFG and their fellow jihadists in the post-9/11 era was one of the reasons he was able to forge a relationship with the U.S. during the Bush administration.
But that was then. In a bizarre twist that defies explanation, under Obama, Gaddafi’s repression of LIFG sympathizers and allied jihadist rebel groups—the very people Tenet once warned us about—is now being used by NATO and the Obama administration to justify taking Gaddafi out and turning over the country’s wealth to the LIFG-connected leadership.
Over the past few years, Gaddafi made a series of fatal errors. As part of a goodwill gesture aimed at quieting civil unrest in the deeply Islamic eastern part of the country, the Gaddafi family released hundreds of imprisoned LIFG fighters. They immediately took up arms against his regime, declaring the eastern part of the county an Islamic caliphate. Gaddafi had largely beaten the rebels and their sympathizers into submission when the unthinkable happened and the U.S. and NATO decided to intervene on their behalf, not his.
Allegedly, this was to save some civilians or something.
Oddly though, one of the first things the U.S.-led coalition did when it invaded Libya in March was to help the rebels capture the oil fields. If Libya’s radical Islamists can get their hands on that oil revenue, they will control oil fields capable of generating billion worth of black gold a year. You can sure fund a lot of jihad with that.
Earlier this year, a debate broke out over whether there were al-Qaeda fighters in the rebel ranks. The answer the Washington establishment settled on was that there were “flickers” here and there.
But everyone was asking the wrong question.
A better question would have been about the extent to which LIFG fighters were leading the ground battle.
It is well-documented that a handful of former Gaddafi military leaders oversaw the rebellion in Libya. But the actual training of troops and fighting on the ground was largely led by LIFG veteran fighters fresh from battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Among them were LIFG veteran fighters such as Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, who has admitted to fighting allied forces in Afghanistan and was turned over to Libya by the U.S. after his capture in 2002.
His field commander on the front lines, Salah al-Barrani, is also a well-known LIFG fighter. Before serving as a Libyan rebel commander, former Guantanamo inmate Sufyan Ben Qumu, who was transferred to Libya in 2007, was named to the military committee of the LIFG in between stints training with al-Qaeda and fighting alongside the Taliban.
Fewer than half of the 33 members of the Transitional National Council (TNC), which the LIFG-led rebels now say they answer to, are even publicly known. The rest have gone unnamed, supposedly to protect their families. Several of those who are known have ties to or were supporters of the LIFG, did legal work for LFG fighters or advocated on their behalf when they were repressed by Gaddafi.
A graduate student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies who did an extensive technical analysis of the new Libyan leadership warned that the radical Islamists are now one of three groups vying for power among the Obama-recognized Libyan leadership, and that TNC members already sympathetic to them might ally themselves with the radical jihadists to grow their power.
At stake? Again, billion in Gaddafi-frozen assets that the U.S. promised to turn over to the TNC, and Libya’s oil.
Senior militants in online chat rooms monitored by the West seem to know the score, and are urging a patient, long-term approach rather than a quick revolution, The Australianreports: “One forum leader warns that declaring an Islamic emirate in Libya would prompt a Western invasion, and stresses instead that they should build up their military forces, ‘educate the people’ on the need for an Islamic state, ‘and then declare the emirate, with weapons, economy and a people ready to fight for Allah.’”
That should be no problem with the billions provided by Obama and NATO to fund it all.
Tara Servatius is radio talk show host. Follow her on Twitter: @TaraServatius, and Facebook.
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YEMEN:
Houthis Back Protests and Warn Saleh
Posted on 17 February 2011 by hashimilion
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Shia Zaydi movement in Yemen gave an important speech on the 16th of February. It was made during the occasion of the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, where he was greeted by an enormous crowd.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi congratulated the peoples of both Tunisia and Egypt, for winning their freedom from their corrupt regime.
He said that a lot of lessons can be learned from the events in Tunisia and Egypt. The most important lesson was that people are in control of their own destiny. Change cannot be achieved through silence, people must strive for change for it to take place.
He also said that Yemen has a great opportunity to change it’s oppressive regime, and that his movement is ready to support the protestors in Sanaa.
Abdul-Malik also warned against any aggression directed at his movement. He said that: “any aggression will result in humiliation, failure and the complete collapse of the aggressor. If the regime wishes to pursue a 7th war, it will be surprised by the manner of the defeated. You have been warned.”
Al-Houthi also advised “the big criminal” Ali Abdullah Saleh:” you’ve damaged the country for 30 years, the country is filled with oppression and corruption. You deceived the people and plundered the wealth of the country. You murdered and imprisoned thousands of Yemenis. You betrayed the people of Yemen when you decided to cooperated with the Israelis, Americans and Saudis in killing our sons. Leave this country so that the people of Yemen can fix and build what you have destroyed. Leave you criminals. Allah will punish you, look at Egypt.”
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi also spoke about America’s presence in Yemen. He said that America wants to control the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Bab-el-Mandeb and the Arab sea. Effectively Yemen’s seas are under American occupation and the Saleh Government is client of America.
al-Houthi added that Yemen had lost it’s soverignty over its airspace. American plans continue to fly over Yemen in order to conduct military operations. American plans had bombed and killed Yemenis in Sa’dah, Abyan, Shabwah and Ma’rib provinces.
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May Our Papa’s radiant-light continuously shine forth to illuminate Christ for the world!
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad very Young 
Pictured here is Mahmoud Ahmadinjad as a young BEARDLESS Iranian revolutionary. 
03 MAY 2010 al-Qathafi on Ahmadinejad:
10-28-2008, 04:55 AM 
Many Islamists despise Kadhafi of Libya and Ahmadinejad of Iran because they do not sport massive beards!
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A funny picture from president ! among one of Ahmadinejad speeches this girl – who is daughter of Shahid (who killed for Islam in fights) – come near president and try to silence people who shout their love to president ! Enjoy
THIS IS THE BETTER BOOK 
Saudi expert Mohammed Shobrak up close and personal with the vultures. He has devoted much of his life to studying. (AN photo)
Image: Just some of the corporate-sponsors behind the unelected, warmongering “think-tank” Brookings Institution which produced the treasonous “Which Path to Persia?” report. Please also take particular note of the corporations funding this act of Hitlerian aggression against a nation of 70 million at the potential loss of tens of thousands of American and Israeli (and other proxy soldiers’) lives, not to mention the incalculable cost of the war to an already crippled American tax payer. Also note that these same corporations will not be losing their sons and daughters nor a single penny in the war effort, in fact, many of them stand to gain untold of fortunes and power – the very reason they are pursuing such a course of action. Now would be a good time to contact your representatives, boycott the above mentioned corporations, and begin undermining a system that is parasitically bleeding this planet to death both financially and literally in pursuit of global corporate-fascist hegemony. And remember, it will not end in Iran, 
Tehran – Tehran’s answer to the violation of Iranian airspace, carried out by U.S. unmanned aircraft will be limited to the borders of that country, told Iranian state television, a military source.
Operational status: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have been put on a war footing by the country’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over fears of an attack by the West on its nuclear facilities 
Under attack? A satellite image of the Revolutionary Guard base near Bid Kaneh taken in September. A mysterious explosion destroyed many of the buildings last month 
Sabotage? The same base after the explosion on November 12, which was the work of U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies One retired U.S. official, with up to date intelligence, told the National Journal: ‘It’s safe to say the Israelis are very active.’ He added about U.S. efforts: ‘Everything that [GOP presidential candidate] Mitt Romney said we should be doing – tough sanctions, covert action and pressuring the international community – are all of the things we are actually doing.’ 
Advanced: Iran claimed yesterday to have shot down a U.S. high-tech RQ-170 drone. There are fears the regime could gain stealth technology information if they have secured the drone Mark Hibbs, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment in Germany, said the intensity of the covert war indicated that this is where the U.S. and Israel are putting their energy for now. He said: ‘If the U.S. or Israel were determined to take Iran’s nuclear installations out they wouldn’t be wasting time pinpointing individual scientists like this.’ But, he pointed out, Israel’s 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor was also preceded by assassination attempts on Iraqi scientists.
Defiant: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he country will not budge from its nuclear programme, which he insists is for peaceful means–as they are for medicine, aeronautics and space exploration and electricity. The Iranian news agency said it was show down after illegally crossing the country’s eastern border, although a U.S. military official said it had ‘absolutely no indication’ the drone was shot down. Neither the Air Force nor manufacturer Lockheed Martin has released much information about the plane, which was dubbed The Beast of Kandahar in 2007 when its existence was finally confirmed. Early reports suggested that the plane – which supposedly has a wingspan of about 65ft and can fly at around 50,000ft – would be made almost entirely without metal to help it dodge radar. Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council in Washington, said the build-up of incidents ‘add up to a very worrisome picture’.
Each star marks a US military base
with president Bashir Assad of Syria.
Imam Khamenei & President Ahmadinejad, 2005 … “our relation is more than politics, it comes from my belief, it is such as relation of a son to his father … Vali (Vali-e-Faqih) is as father for society”, President Ahmadinejad 
w/CASTRO 
President Ahmadinejad notified to Russia leaders again : Ahmadinejad expressed regret about the Russian leader’s decision to “become the mouthpiece for the plot by the enemies of Iran.” He, however, expressed Iran’s interest to maintain and boost its amicable ties with Russia. 20 SEPT 2011
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Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Both presidents 
*Archive photo
