Mar 31, 2011

The Stoner Arms Dealers: How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders (Rolling Stone Exclusive)

A must read from Rolling Stone:

The e-mail confirmed it: everything was finally back on schedule after weeks of maddening, inexplicable delay. A 747 cargo plane had just lifted off from an airport in Hungary and was banking over the Black Sea toward Kyrgyzstan, some 3,000 miles to the east. After stopping to refuel there, the flight would carry on to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Aboard the plane were 80 pallets loaded with nearly 5 million rounds of ammunition for AK-47s, the Soviet-era assault rifle favored by the Afghan National Army.

Reading the e-mail back in Miami Beach, David Packouz breathed a sigh of relief. The shipment was part of a $300 million contract that Packouz and his partner, Efraim Diveroli, had won from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan. It was May 2007, and the war was going badly. After six years of fighting, Al Qaeda remained a menace, the Taliban were resurgent, and NATO casualties were rising sharply. For the Bush administration, the ammunition was part of a desperate, last-ditch push to turn the war around before the U.S. presidential election the following year. To Packouz and Diveroli, the shipment was part of a major arms deal that promised to make them seriously rich.

Reassured by the e-mail, Packouz got into his brand-new blue Audi A4 and headed home for the evening, windows open, the stereo blasting. At 25, he wasn't exactly used to the pressures of being an international arms dealer. Only months earlier, he had been making his living as a massage therapist; his studies at the Educating Hands School of Massage had not included classes in military contracting or geopolitical brinkmanship. But Packouz hadn't been able to resist the temptation when Diveroli, his 21-year-old friend from high school, had offered to cut him in on his burgeoning arms business. Working with nothing but an Internet connection, a couple of cellphones and a steady supply of weed, the two friends — one with a few college credits, the other a high school dropout — had beaten out Fortune 500 giants like General Dynamics to score the huge arms contract. With a single deal, two stoners from Miami Beach had turned themselves into the least likely merchants of death in history.

Arriving home at the Flamingo, his sleek condo with views of the bay, Packouz packed the cone of his Volcano, a smokeless electronic bong. As the balloon inflated with vapors from the high-grade weed, he took a deep toke and felt the pressures of the day drift away into a crisp, clean high.
Dinner was at Sushi Samba, a hipster Asian-Latino fusion joint. Packouz was in excellent spirits. He couldn't believe that he and Diveroli were actually pulling it off: Planes from all over Eastern Europe were now flying into Kabul, laden with millions of dollars worth of grenades and mortars and surface-to-air missiles. But as Packouz's miso-marinated Chilean sea bass arrived, his cellphone rang. It was the freight forwarder he had employed to make sure the ammunition made it from Hungary to Kabul. The man sounded panicked.
"We've got a problem," he told Packouz, shouting to be heard over the restaurant's thumping music. "The plane has been seized on the runway in Kyrgyzstan."

The arms shipment, it appeared, was being used as a bargaining chip in a high-stakes standoff between George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin. The Russian president didn't like NATO expanding into Kyrgyzstan, and the Kyrgyzs wanted the U.S. government to pay more rent to use their airport as a crucial supply line for the war in Afghanistan. Putin's allies in the Kyrgyz KGB, it seemed, were holding the plane hostage — and Packouz was going to be charged a $300,000 fine for every day it sat on the runway. Word of the seizure quickly reached Washington, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates himself was soon on his way to Kyrgyzstan to defuse the mounting tensions.

Packouz was baffled, stoned and way out of his league. "It was surreal," he recalls. "Here I was dealing with matters of international security, and I was half-baked. I didn't know anything about the situation in that part of the world. But I was a central player in the Afghan war — and if our delivery didn't make it to Kabul, the entire strategy of building up the Afghanistan army was going to fail. It was totally killing my buzz. There were all these shadowy forces, and I didn't know what their motives were. But I had to get my shit together and put my best arms-dealer face on."

Sitting in the restaurant, Packouz tried to clear his head, cupping a hand over his cellphone to shut out the noise. "Tell the Kyrgyz KGB that ammo needs to get to Afghanistan!" he shouted into the phone. "This contract is part of a vital mission in the global war on terrorism. Tell them that if they fuck with us, they are fucking with the government of the United States of America!"

Continue reading at Rolling Stone...

So far the US has thrown 3 tons of silver at Libya just with the Tomahawk missiles.

How and Why The Elite Destroyed 3 Tons of Silver Last Week

By Silver Shield, March 30th, 2011

I wrote a month ago in an article called Silver Bullet and the Silver Shield, that silver is a vital commodity to our way of life. I stated that silver is a precious metal that is being trashed as an industrial metal. As a result, it is within years of becoming the first metal to become extinct according to the USGS. At some point the shortage is going to become so obvious, that people are going to rush to turn in their depreciating dollars for real silver money. That is just the monetary demand of silver, the industrial and strategic demand is another huge factor we should consider.

Corporations are going to secure stockpiles of this precious commodity so as not to cause any supply disruptions in their billion dollar a year operation. Take for example the $300+ billion Apple Computer. Apple Computer’s market cap rests upon the increased sales and production of computers. If every one of their $1,500 computers has a 1/10th of an ounce of silver in it, they will spare no expense to secure silver when it becomes hard to get.

The strategic demand is even more daunting. It has been about a week since the Empire attacked the Galactic Rebels in the desert world of Libya. Reports have already surfaced about the obscene costs of this “Kinetic Military Action.” In less than a week, this war has already cost Americans $600 million dollars. That is about $100 million a day for this “Action.” It is far cry from the estimated daily price tag of the $300 million a day Afghan war or the $700 million a day Iraq war.

Almost half of the cost ($269 million) has come from the 191 Tomahawk missiles that have been launched into Libya. I think it is extremely interesting to know that each Tomahawk has more than a monster box (500 oz.) of silver inside of each missile. Pure silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals. When there is a $1.5 million dollar missile is being produced to secure more oil for the Empire, the Elite will use only the best materials to ensure the best performing results.

So far the US has thrown 3 tons of silver at Libya just with the Tomahawk missiles. That silver is gone forever as it is blown to a million pieces. (Never mind the poor bastards at the at the other end of missile’s target.) If we added the 191 Tomahawks from this “Kinetic Military Action” to the 288 from Gulf War 1, the 325 used in Sebia and Iraq in 98, and the 725 launched in Gulf War 2 that is just over 800,000 ounces of silver or 25 tons of silver gone forever.

That is just from the Tomahawk missile program. What about all of the other weapons programs in the Empire’s trillion dollar a year arsenal? Every smart bomb, tank, helicopter, fighter jet, bomber, naval vessel, and sophisticated electronic computer has a certain amount of silver in it. As the world starts to become a more dangerous place for the Empire, more and more silver will be destroyed forever.

One aspect of this waste that most people don’t get, is that all of this waste is done purposefully by the Elite.War is the greatest way to destroy the productive energy of humanity. The Elite want to keep us in a perpetual state of war for many reasons.

1. They want to keep their societies in fear so that people passively accept more and more government intrusion into their lives through either taxes or regulations. Look at what Americans did after 9/11 with the Patriot Act and huge war deficits.

2. By having an “enemy” for the population to vent their anger and frustration on, keeps people from looking at the real cause of their problems, the Elite that control their world. I have predicted that China will be blamed for our collapsing dollar and the Elite will try to make war against the Chinese. This will be done even though it is obvious that the Elitist banksters are the ones that have gutted America for their own personal profit and power.

3. The Elite want to destroy human labor and capital.The Elite know that if people become wealthy and debt free, they would seek to challenge the Elite’s power. Through “war”, taxes are raised and debts created on the backs of the citizens. All of the capital created by the citizens, is literally blown up overseas as it destroys the “enemy’s” infrastructure and capital. This purposeful waste of labor and capital is a heavy burden on our society and is one that is not creating a better world for us.

4. The Elite also get to line their pockets with your labor and capital. They get insider deals and contracts to build these weapons of war, support the Empire’s actions, or rebuild what we destroyed. As a result more and more power and profits are shifted to the Elite from the struggling middle class.

These combined wars cost $1 billion dollars a day and that does not include the rest of the Military Industrial Complex or the rest of the government. How much better would the world be if we did not destroy human labor and capital? This game will continue until the dollar collapses. The best way to counter this trend and protect yourself is to save your labor and capital by buying silver instead of blowing it up in the deserts of Libya.

Wake Some People Up!

Preemptive War: Real Terror - Libya's 'Revolutionary' Armed Rulers; Fake Terror Tales Sell Terror Wars

From The Burbank Digest, March 31st, 2011

by Liz Burbank

Obama on Libya and preemptive war
Gene Healy, http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/george-...
Monday night, the president explained...Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action....Benghazi – a city nearly the size of Charlotte – could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world. It was not in our national interest to let that happen. I refused to let that happen".

"We have prevented a potential massacre," the secretary of state told the London conference.
3/29 US paves way to arm Libyan rebels
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/29/libya-rebels-armed-by-us-uk
At a conference on Libya's future in London, Hillary Clinton raised the possibility of arming the rebels against Gaddafi if air strikes fail to force Muammar Gaddafi from power. At the end of the conference the US secretary of state, said for the first time she believed arming rebel groups was legal under UN security council resolution 1973, passed two weeks ago...A prolonged conflict appeared more likely after pro-Gaddafi forces launched a powerful counterattack against Libyan rebels today, sending revolutionaries fleeing from towns they had taken only two days earlier.

"PREEMPTIVE WAR"
"potential massacre" according to weeks of state sponsored 'news' was massive Gaddafi bloodbath
PREEMPTIVE DISGUISE LIES BARED
Gates: Libya not vital U.S. interest. Clinton: Yes, it is.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/gates-l...
Clinton had claimed American intervention in Libya "prevented a great humanitarian disaster." If there had been no intervention, and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had "massacred tens of thousands of people," Clinton said, then critics would have asked why the President of the United States didn't stop it. Clinton conceded that it is difficult to prove that such a massacre would have actually occurred. ...
As the war in Libya moves into its second week, tag-team Sunday 3/27 talk show appearances by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State suggest the Obama administration remains divided over the fundamental question of whether the war is in the United States' national interest.[ed: most fundamental, 'admin. claim it's not war', too hot to handle]
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Gates asked, "Is Libya in our vital interest as a country?" answered, "No, I don't think it's a vital interest for the U.S., but we clearly have interests there, and it's a part of the region which is a vital interest for the U.S."
Clinton jumped... "Did Libya attack us? No, they did not attack us. Do they have a very critical role in this region and do they neighbor two countries -- you just mentioned one, Egypt, the other Tunisia - that are going through these extraordinary transformations and cannot afford to be destabilized by conflict on their borders? Yes. Do they have a major influence on what goes on in Europe because of everything from oil to immigration? We asked our NATO allies to go into Afghanistan with us ten years ago...They have been there, and a lot of them have been there despite the fact they were not attacked....When it comes to Libya, we started hearing from the UK, France, Italy, other of our NATO allies…This was in their vital national interest…" ....

Earlier Clinton claimed American intervention in Libya "prevented a great humanitarian disaster." If there had been no intervention, and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had "massacred tens of thousands of people," she said, critics would have asked why the President of the United States didn't stop it. Clinton conceded it is difficult to prove such a massacre would have actually occurred.

IT'S NOT WAR UNLESS WE SAY SO
Harvard Law professor and former head of the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel Jack Goldsmith thinks there's a reason the Obama administration is at "kinetic military action" with the English language here: " As he sees it, the administration is at pains to deny we're at war because they're relying on two Clinton-era legal opinions by then-OLC head Walter Dellinger, justifying the 1994 Haiti intervention and the 1995 peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, respectively... the Clinton administration played similar rhetorical games during the Kosovo air war in 1999. Here's then-White House press secretary Joe Lockhart, explaining that, to borrow a phrase from his boss, it depends on what the definition of 'war' is:
Q: Is the President ready to call this a low-grade war? Lockhart: No. Next question Q: Why not? Lockhart: Because we view it as a conflict. Q: How can you say that it’s not war?
Lockhart: Because it doesn’t meet the definition as we define it....“Well, if this isn’t war, what is it?” Secretary of State Albright: “It’s an armed conflict.”
Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/obama-m...

LIBYA'S CRIME: BY U.S./UN DECLARATION, LIBYA 'ILLEGALLY' DEFENDS ITS COUNTRY, PREVENTING QUICK U.S. CONQUEST
"... Qaddafi’s government remains in “flagrant breach” of the UN resolution... fighting in Misurata, a city seized by rebels now under a counterassault by loyalist forces..."

digest: By whatever name, under whatever president and pretexts, U.S. imperialist led wars all serve National Security state terrorist global domination agenda
Most of even the fiercest political critics continue promoting 'personalized-presidential-electoral-politics instead of exposing their critical capitalist system- stabilizing function. Obama too was hired primarily to sell, execute and enforce the bipartisn ruling class National Security agenda drawn up by finance capitals foundations, thinktanks & academics. Framing the unspeakable and limitless horrors arising from - and attempting to resolve - contradictions inherent in capitalism's exploitive and oppressive nature to individual politicians/policies serves our enemy by perpetuating paralyzing obfuscation.

weeks ago executor of u.s. fascist state
3/30 Obama Authorizes Secret Support for Libya Rebels
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27799.htm
Reuters -- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed a secret order within the last two or three weeks authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize a range of secret operations to support a particular covert objective by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA and the White House declined immediate comment...
U.S. officials also said Saudi Arabia and Qatar have indicated a willingness to supply Libyan rebels with weapons. (ed: 'revolutionary' Egypt has been arming them)...Some have recalled that weapons provided by the U.S. and Saudis to mujahedeen fighting Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s later ended up in the hands of anti-American militants.
(all emphases added by the digest)

3/30 White House debates idea of arming Libya rebels
The New York Times
The Obama administration is engaged in a fierce debate over whether to supply weapons to Libyan rebels, senior officials said Tuesday
The question of whether to arm the rebels also carries echoes of previous U.S. efforts to arm rebels, in Angola, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many of which backfired.

'revolutionary new Egypt' good US proxy
"17 Mar 2011 ... Egypt's military has begun shipping arms over the border to Libyan rebels with Washington's knowledge, U.S. and Libyan rebel officials said."
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704360404576206992835270906.html

National Security Strategy of the United States (NSS US) /nsc/nss/2006/index.html published September 17, 2002, updated in 2006 [12] is stated as follows:[13]
"The security environment confronting the United States today is radically different from what we have faced before. Yet the first duty of the United States Government remains what it always has been: to protect the American people and American interests. It is an enduring American principle that this duty obligates the government to anticipate and counter threats, using all elements of national power, before the threats can do grave damage. The greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction – and the more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack. There are few greater threats than a terrorist attack with WMD. To forestall or prevent such hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act preemptively in exercising our inherent right of self-defense. The United States will not resort to force in all cases to preempt emerging threats. Our preference is that nonmilitary actions succeed. And no country should ever use preemption as a pretext for aggression."

“ We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."
September 20, 2001 GWB address to a Joint Session of Congress

NO 'shift': NATO is U.S.
Adm. James Stavridis, head of U.S. European Command and the top military official in the Libya war also serves as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR)... Stavridis spelled out the new NATO command structure.... The arms embargo mission will be led by a Canadian Lt. Gen. Charlie Bouchard, based out of Italy. The air mission will be run out of Turkey by a U.S. three-star general and a French three-star general Stavridis did not name. They all will report up to U.S. Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, Joint Task Force commander of the operation.

NATO Pledges military alliance is "impartial" and will not take sides in the conflict in Libya.
http://www.tripolipost.com/index.asp

3/29 U.S. 'Led' World Conference Holds Al Qathafi Accountable
“We agreed that it is not for any of the participants here today to choose the government of Libya: only the Libyan people can do that. But we agreed that Al Qathafi and his regime have completely lost legitimacy and will be held accountable for their actions."

3/21 Libyan Rebel Council Forms Oil Company to Replace Qaddafi’s
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-21/libyan-rebel-council-sets-up-oi...
Libyan rebels in Benghazi said they have created a new national oil company to replace the corporation controlled by leader Muammar Qaddafi whose assets were frozen by the United Nations Security Council. The Transitional National Council released a statement announcing the decision made at a March 19 meeting to establish the “Libyan Oil Company as supervisory authority on oil production and policies in the country, based temporarily in Benghazi, and the appointment of an interim director general” of the company. The Council also said it “designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi.” The Security Council adopted a resolution on March 17 that froze the foreign assets of the Libyan National Oil Corp. and the Central Bank of Libya, both described in the text as “a potential source of funding” for Qaddafi’s regime...Transitional National Council also said the rebels would “urgently prepare a file on the referral of Qaddafi and his gang and his associates involved in the killing of Libyans to the International Criminal Court.” The Security Council referred allegations of human rights violations by the Qaddafi regime to the court in a resolution adopted on Feb. 26. The statement said the council would begin choosing ambassadors to foreign countries.

Who knew that the rag tag group of rebels in Libya were also masters of banking and international trade ... somehow the Libyan rebels have had enough time to establish a new Central Bank of Libya and form a new national oil company. Perhaps when this conflict is over those rebels can become time management consultants. They sure do get a lot done.... without any outside help whatsoever.... Apparently some felt that it very important to get pesky matters such as control of the banks and control of the money supply out of the way even before a new government is formed. Of course it is probably safe to assume that the new Central Bank of Libya will be 100% owned and 100% controlled by the newly liberated people of Libya...Over the past couple of years, Moammar Gadhafi had threatened to nationalize the oil industry in Libya and kick western oil companies out of the country, but now that Libya will be "free" the people of Libya will be able to work hand in hand with "big oil" and this will create a better Libya for everyone... nothing to do with the U.S. "inva---" (scratch that) "initiated a kinetic humanitarian liberty action" in Libya....
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/wow-that-was-fast-libyan-reb...

In a panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute Monday, former Bush deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, who recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled "The Case for Backing Libya's Rebels," was asked to name some potential post-Gadhafi leaders of Libya. "I don't have the names off the top of my head," Wolfowitz answered, "but in fact you can Google them."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/admiral...

Libya: The Western-Linked and Backed National Council, and the Hallmarks of War Propaganda
17 March 2011 http://empirestrikesblack.com/2011/03/libya-the-western-linked-and-backe...
The Libyan National Council is the ‘opposition’ like the US State Department is the ‘opposition’
Mr Mahmoud Jibril, leading Libyan opposition figure and executive of Libya’s National Transitional Council (aka ‘Interim Governing Council’, ‘Libyan National Council’) is a leading proponent of neoliberal ‘trade reform’ in Libya, with close links to US and UK. This ex-Gaddafi insider, who studied and taught Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, Penn.,
is responsible for foreign affairs and international liaison at the National Transitional Council and head of Libya’s biggest think tank, the National Economic Development Board (NEDB), created by US and UK consulting firms to further US/UK investment and trade interests in Libya....
NEDB was created by “a group of international consulting firms, mainly from the USA and the UK”. [excerpt rom United Nations Public Administration Network pdf:

NEDB been authorized by the Libyan government to be in charge of the whole development program for the entire country and manage it from a strategic point of view... operative for only a few months... it is expected to gain more and more momentum. The only limiting factor that might look like a threat for is slowdown in political support it has been enjoying so far... NEDB is having a great deal of political support from the upper echelons of the Libyan government, and this a basic prerequisite for success in any developing country...

January 21,2111 he met with the US Ambassador who was requesting support for a US trade mission in Libya. During the meeting Jibril argued that “now is the time for U.S. business to capitalize on opportunities for trade and investment in Libya.” ...
The Anglo-American power elite has been trying to topple Gaddafi for over a decade....quick to dismiss Gaddafi’s claims ‘al-Qaeda is behind the unrest’ in Libya, the following Guardian news report is worth considering. "In 1996 MI6 paid an al-Qaeda cell in Libya large sums of money in a failed attempt to assassinate Gaddafi. They also thwarted early attempts to bring bin Laden to justice" http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/nov/10/uk.davidshayler.

Regime change in Libya are not limited to militarism: “U.S. diplomats were told by Libya’s “National Economic Development Board” (headed by Jibril), cooperating with “UK government,the London School of Economics, among other UK institutions, on exchange programs to send 400 ‘future leaders’ of Libya for leadership and management training.”” http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/03/04/london-school-of-economicss...

US democracy-subversion groups such as The National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Soros Foundation, USAID (all funded directly and/or indirectly by US State Department) have been active in Libya since 2005, funding and directing groups in line with US policy.[see for ex. http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/middle-east-and-northern-africa/libya http://mepi.state.gov/med-region/libya.html]...

Libyan “revolutionaries” aren’t so revolutionary
March 25, 2011 http://againsttheempire.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/libyan-revolutionaries-...
It was no doubt a complete error on the part of so-called “progressives” to take the side of these rebel forces (“revolutionaries”).Ever since the rebel forces in Libya have taken control of the cities, reports have surfaced regarding torture, racial violence and repression...some recent articles regarding Benghazi, the last rebel stronghold in Libya:

It Wasn't Supposed to be this way 3/23/10 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8401787/Libya-it-wasnt-supposed-to-be-like-this-in-free-Benghazi.html
The rebel's interim government made up of professionals academics, businessmen and lawyers often educated in UK or US make all the right noises about democracy, human rights and the rule of law...far removed fromLibya's opposition movement rounding up suspected opponents, delivering its own brutal form of justice....Rebel leaders admit that dozens of Gaddafi supporters have been arrested or killed. Every night, gangs of vigilantes assemble at makeshift roadblocks.. gunfights echoed around the city as gangs sought to mop up pro-Gaddafi elements... gunmen at the roadblock put a knife to the throat of the driver before hauling the three men and one woman from the car, dragging them through the street into a nearby mosque for a rough round of interrogation…Many residents are now too frightened to drive through the dark streets at night, fearing a shakedown or worse at the proliferating checkpoints. “If they don’t know who you are, in their part of town, and you have a nice car, then they think you are a car thief or they say you are with Gaddafi,” said one driver who now stays close to home after dark.”... Foreign workers fled the city long ago in fear of being mistaken for a government-hired mercenary.
Mustafa Gerhiani, the urbane spokesman for the rebels' provisional government in the east, said there were several hundred government supporters in the city who had formed sleeper cells."We know where they live and many have been rounded up. There are people looking for them. A lot have been caught and killed," he said.However, he added that some had been detained for their own protection and that the revolutionary council did not condone mob justice.

Libyan rebels appear to take leaf from Kadafi's playbook LATimes 3/25/10 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-prisoners-2011...
Opposition officials in Benghazi, whose wide sweeps to detain alleged Kadafi supporters have drawn criticism, take journalists on a tightly controlled tour of detention centers. Many detainees say they're immigrant workers and deny fighting for Kadafi. For a month, gangs of young gunmen have roamed the city, rousting Libyan blacks and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa from their homes and holding them for interrogation as suspected mercenaries or government spies.... the opposition has begun rounding up men accused of fighting as mercenaries for Kadafi’s militias as government forces pushed toward Benghazi. It has launched nightly manhunts for about 8,000 people...“We know who they are,” said Abdelhafed Ghoga, chief opposition spokesman. He called them “people with bloodstained hands” and “enemies of the revolution... described by opposition officials as mercenaries, though they insisted they were laborers. One of the accused shown to journalists was Alfusainey Kambi, 53, a Gambian wearing a bloodstained sport shirt and military fatigue trousers. He said he had been dragged from his home and beaten by three armed men who he said also raped his wife. A dirty bandage covered a wound on his forehead. Khaled Ben Ali, a volunteer with the opposition council, berated Kambi and accused him of lying. Ali said Kambi hit his head on a wall while trying to escape. He commanded the prisoner to comment on his treatment in the detention center.Kambi paused and considered his answer. Finally, he glanced warily up at Ali and spoke. “Nobody beat me here,” he said in a faint, weary tone. “I have no problems here.” These reports can be directly corroborated by this video from Al-Jazeera talking about how Black immigrants in Libya lived under complete fear of the rebels. Their businesses were burned to the ground, they were tortured, they were killed on the spot for being alleged “mercenaries”, etc.

Black Agenda Report, Glen Ford
“What has become apparent from reports filtering out of the country is that many of the 1.5 million black African migrant workers trapped in Libya feel themselves under racial siege, hunted by what Black Americans would immediately recognize as lynch mobs – “pogrom” is another word that springs to mind – especially in the rebel-held areas. The testimony of black African victims is most disturbing. “We were being attacked by local people who said that we were mercenaries killing people. Let me say that they did not want to see black people,” 60-year-old Julius Kiluu, an African building supervisor, told Reuters. Even in Tripoli, where the regime is not in full control of neighborhoods, Somalis told journalists they were “being hunted on suspicion of being mercenaries” and “feel trapped and frightened to go out.” Ethiopians told of being “dragged from their apartments, beaten up and showed to the world as mercenaries.” Ethiopian News and Opinions reported...A Turkish oil worker told NPR's West African reporter Ofeibea Quist Arcton:
“We left behind our friends from Chad. We left behind their bodies. We had 70 or 80 people from Chad working for our company. They cut them dead with pruning shears and axes, attacking them, saying you're providing troops for Gadhafi. The Sudanese, the Chadians were massacred. We saw it ourselves.”...
Col. Khadafi has also played the “race card” to forestall intervention in the Libyan conflict –the same tactic he used to cement business and diplomatic ties on the other side of the Mediterranean. As the Huffington Post reported, March 3:“In his speech, Gadhafi lashed out against the freezing of his and other Libyan assets abroad and efforts by Europe to send aid to opposition-held Benghazi. In a pointed message to Europe, he warned, "There will be no stability in the Mediterranean if there is no stability in Libya. ’Africans will march to Europe without anyone to stop them. The Mediterranean will become a center for piracy like Somalia". ...

“The rebel’s interim government is made up of professionals academics, businessmen and lawyers often educated in the UK or US who make all the right noises about democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”... leadership comprised of members of the privileged sectors... yesterday, it was reported that the new finance minister of the Libyan opposition is a senior lecturer in the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. To quote the spokeswoman for the Libyan Provisional Transitional National Council, Iman Bugaighis; “Tarhouni understands the Western mentality.”

Among U.S. proxy Libyan rulers
Iman Bugaighis
3/7/11 Iman Bugaighis, an original member of the self-appointed “Feb. 17 Revolution” committee, is spokeswoman for Libyan Provisional Transitional National Council (PTNC)
Iman Bugaighis, a professor of orthodontics, was drafted as unofficial spokeswoman for the so-called "Feb 17 Revolution" committee made up of about 150 lawyers, judges, doctors, businessmen and young people...www.whotv.com/news/nationworld/la-fgw-libya-kadafi-20110228

Declaration of the Establishment of the National Transitional Temporary Council
In affirmation of the sovereignty of the Libyan people over the entirety of their territory, land, sea, and air; and in response to the demands of the Libyan people, towards the realization of the free will with which they shaped the uprising of February 17th; and in preservation of the Libyan people’s national unity; we resolve to establish a national council named ‘the National Transitional Temporary Council’ to be the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

Mahmoud Jibril
3/14/11 US secretary of state meets Libyan opposition figure Mahmoud Jibril in Paris on US aid efforts to depose Muammar ...www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12741414
3/23/11 Libyan Rebels Name Mahmoud Jibril Their Prime Minister ... www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/03/libyan-rebels-name-mahmoud-jibril...
with Libyan opposition leader Mahmoud Jibril ...
May 11, 2009, describing a meeting with “Mahmoud Jibril, Chair of the National Economic Development Board (NEDB), an organization that Jibril likened to a “think tank” of multi-disciplinary experts.”: The NEDB’s role in these projects is to “pave the way” for private sector development, and to create a strategic partnership between private companies and the government. There is a still a “gap of distrust” dividing the two. As to whether Libya has a Master Plan that includes all the 11,000 projects, Jibril admitted that in the past two years, Libya had started executing projects without such a plan. However, the NEDB has been working with experts from Ernst and Young, the Oxford Group, and lately with five consultants from UNDP to advise the prime minister on the best sequencing and pacing of the projects in order to decrease poverty and unemployment.
With a PhD in strategic planning from the University of Pittsburgh, Jibril is a serious interlocutor who “gets” the U.S. perspective. He is also not shy about sharing his views of U.S. foreign policy, for example, opining that the U.S. spoiled a golden opportunity to capitalize on its “soft power” (McDonald’s, etc.) after the fall of the Soviet Union...
http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/meet-mahmoud...

Libyan rebels to sell oil to Qatar
March 27, 2011 - "We contacted the oil company of Qatar and thankfully they agreed to take all the oil that we wish to export and market this oil for us," Reuters quoted
Ali Tarhouni, a rebel official in charge of economic, financial and oil matters, as telling reporters. "Our next shipment will be in less than a week." State-owned Qatar Petroleum said it had no comment. Small, energy-rich Qatar became the first Arab nation to begin patrolling a UN backed no-fly zone on Friday and has urged Gaddafi to quit to avoid more bloodshed... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=76273

UW faculty member Ali Tarhouni named finance minister by Libyan opposition
3/23/11 http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/uw-faculty-member-ali-tarhouni-n...
Ali A. Tarhouni, a senior lecturer in the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, has been named finance minister by the Libyan opposition national council arranging a transitional government in the event Moammar Gadhafi is ousted from power. “Tarhouni understands the Western mentality,” opposition spokeswoman Iman Bugaighis told Reuters. Rita Zawaideh, owner of Caravan-Serai Tours [ed: also leader in 'moderate Arab' US -collaborationist Arab American Community Coalition] in Seattle and a friend of Tarhouni, confirmed that he has been named to the post. Tarhouni, 60, holds a doctorate in economics and finance from Michigan State University. A native of Libya who for 40 years has opposed Gadhafi, Tarhouni returned to Libya in early March. He has taught at the UW since 1985. Specialties Managerial economics, macroeconomic analysis, financial institutions and markets, international finance and investments.
In a Voice of America interview published March 16, Tarhouni urged the United States and the United Nations to establish a no-fly zone over Libya. “Trust me,” Tarhouni said. “There’s no fear of Gadhafi and his forces. We know he’s gone. It’s just a question of hours, days, maybe months. The question is how many innocent lives he’s going to take with him.” Tarhouni is married to Mary Li, a lawyer for the Washington Attorney General’s office.

Libyan Rebels CIA Commander
Patrick Martin, axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_62645.shtml
The Libyan National Council has appointed a long-time CIA collaborator to head its military operations. The selection of Khalifa Hifter, a former colonel in the Libyan army, was reported by McClatchy Newspapers Thursday. McClatchy Newspapers published a profile of Hifter Sunday, “New Rebel Leader Spent Much of Past 20 years in Suburban Virginia,” noting he was once a top commander for the Gaddafi regime, until “a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s.” Hifter then went over to the anti-Gaddafi opposition, eventually emigrating to the United States, where he lived until two weeks ago when he returned to Libya to take command in Benghazi....A Washington Post report March 26, 1996 describes an armed rebellion against Gaddafi in Libya, using a variant spelling of his name citing witnesses who reported “its leader is Col. Khalifa Haftar, of a contra-style group based in the US called the Libyan National Army.” (the Iran Contra scandal with 'contra' terrorist forces financed and armed by the US government in the 1980s against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua)...
A 2001 book, Manipulations Africaines, published by Le Monde diplomatique, traces the CIA connection even further back, to 1987, reporting that Hifter, then a colonel in Gaddafi’s army, was captured fighting in Chad in a Libyan-backed rebellion against the US-backed government of Hissène Habré. He defected to the Libyan National Salvation Front (LNSF), the principal anti-Gaddafi group, which had the backing of the American CIA. He organized his own militia, which operated in Chad until Habré was overthrown by a French-supported rival, Idriss Déby, in 1990... “the Haftar force, created and financed by the CIA in Chad, vanished into thin air with CIA help shortly after the government was overthrown by Idriss Déby.” The book also cites a Congressional Research Service report of December 19, 1996 that US was providing financial and military aid to the LNSF and that a number of LNSF members were relocated to the United States.

Brzezinski Blasts Germany, Poland For Lukewarm Support Of War
Mar 30, 2011
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14953281,00.html
"...as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, now Obama adviser

Zbigniew Brzezinski: How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen
10/08/01 http://www.counterpunch.org/brzezinski.html
Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76
Brzezinski: According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul....
We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?
Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
Brzezinski: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
translated from the French by Bill Blum author of many books including "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II" and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower"

U.S. agents ow, as then, 'al-qaeda' / 'islamic terrorists' etc, by whatever name
Jihadis who fought U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan now enjoy American support in Libya
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/jihadis...
Evidence is emerging that United States forces are waging war in Libya on behalf of rebels whose ranks include jihadis who fought against the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, a leader of U.S.-supported rebel forces in the fighting around Adjabiya, went to Afghanistan in 2002 to fight against the "foreign invasion" -- that is, U.S. troops who invaded Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11 attacks. The Telegraph says al-Hasidi told an Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, that he was captured in 2002 in Peshawar, Pakistan. "He was later handed over to the U.S., and then held in Libya before being released in 2008," the Telegraph reports.

Memo to President Carter following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979)
"It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.
The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, 1997, New York: Basic Books (October 1997), ISBN 0-465-02726-1
Brzezinski is a past member of the board of directors of Amnesty International, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council, and the National Endowment for Democracy

The Case for Democracy, a 2004 book that Bush has cited as influential, by Israeli politician and author Natan Sharansky and Israeli Minister of Economic Affairs in the United States Ron Dermer, argues that replacing dictatorships with democratic governments is both morally justified, since it leads to greater freedom for the citizens of such countries, and strategically wise, since democratic countries are more peaceful, and breed less terrorism than dictatorial ones.

Libya: Murder and Plunder Masquerading as “Humanitarian Intervention”
24 March 2011 By Orwellwasright
http://www.truthnews.com.au/web/news/story/libya_murder_and_plunder_masq...
March 23, 2011 "Information Clearing House"- March 20th 2003 Western [ed: U.S.] forces launched the “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq, heavily bombarding Baghdad and elsewhere, massacring hundreds if not thousands of innocent men, women and children. March 20th 2011 the very same forces attacked Libya, beginning what many believe will be yet another mass slaughter.
What is obvious to all but the most duped and apathetic is that once again we have another war launched by the imperialist powers thinly veiled as a “humanitarian intervention”, dressed up as a mission of peace driven by the use of heavy bombardment and murder, where the truth lies diametrically opposed to the propaganda being pushed by the mainstream media. Nothing is what it seems; the lies and deceptions are as Orwellian as ever. The similarities with Iraq go well beyond the date of the opening salvo – indeed, there are many consistencies between the current attack on Libya and numerous other military interventions and acts of aggression carried out by the US, NATO and their allies in recent years.
The propaganda currently being pumped out by the mainstream media, led by the usual suspects in the American corporate press and the liars and sycophants over at the BBC, is essentially a re-run of the Iraq invasions and Kosovo: a largely fabricated case for humanitarian intervention based on violence stoked by special forces troops and covert operations, with the consistent demonisation of the leader recast as a mass murdering tyrant to justify a heavy saturation bombing campaign in the name of human rights and justice. Any historical context that might cast the so-called “Allies” in a negative light – for instance large-scale sales of weapons to the new enemy figure – is carefully omitted from the narrative.
The assault on Iraq during the first Gulf War was launched on the back of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait – an invasion carried out with the tacit support of the US, who then betrayed their puppet dictator and launched a huge slaughter, killing more than 100,000 people. The war was sold to the American public with a horror story in which Iraqi troops were accused of throwing Kuwaiti babies out of hospital incubators. Trouble is, the story was a complete fabrication, utilizing fake testimony from an unnamed nurse who turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, coached by the pubic relations firm Hill & Knowlton, a company with a track record of providing services to notorious human rights abusers around the globe.
And let’s not forget the fabricated “evidence” to justify the 2003 invasion – the non-existent WMDs, the yellow cake from Niger, the repeated, false association between Saddam and 9/11 … all since proven to be lies, and the occupation continues…

In Kosovo, the Western media went all out saturating their broadcasts of a photograph of a thin man behind a fence accompanied by cries of “concentration camps!” The truth was rather different: the ITN film crew were on the inside of a refugee camp, and had asked the man to take his top off to pose for the camera. The photo was another propaganda coup from the so-called “free press” of the West, which eventually led to a lethal 78 day bombing campaign which caused a fragmentation of the region from which they have yet to recover. Around the same time, NATO member Turkey – receiving some 80% of their arms from the Clinton administration – proceeded to murder, torture and massacre Kurds in untold numbers. There was no call for a humanitarian intervention there – after all, they were our allies.

In addition to such fabrications, the Western media conveniently omitted any mention of CIA/MI6 use of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA-UCK) to instigate violence in the region, subsequently used as part of the justification for the NATO “humanitarian intervention”. It should be noted that since this campaign KLA leaders such as Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku have been tied to criminal syndicates involved in arms, drugs, and human trafficking, prostitution and illegal organ harvesting, in addition to the numerous war crimes carried out under the auspices of NATO. This blatant criminalization of Kosovo politics was carried out with the full consent of the EU and the US. It should also be noted that the US themselves described the KLA as a terrorist organization up until 1998, when Bill Clinton reclassified them as “freedom fighters” and unleashed them on the Serbs. NATO’s strategy of high altitude bombing quickly moved from legitimate military targets to the wholesale destruction of infrastructure, hospitals, television stations and civilians – all in the name of “humanitarian intervention” …

And as the historical record now shows, the refugee crisis and the swathe of massacres was precipitated by the NATO bombing campaign.

Similarly, the media build-up to the current attack on Libya has been characterised by the same level of fabricated propaganda against a backdrop of covert actions utilising known terrorist groups. The rebellion against Colonel Qaddafi, which the mainstream media would have us believe is a completely independent and organic grassroots uprising against a brutal oppressor, has actually been manipulated by agents from the CIA, MI6 and covert special forces groups such as the SAS for a number of weeks. A team of British SAS were recently arrested by Libyan rebels, echoing the arrest of SAS soldiers in Bazra in 2005, equipped with weapons, explosives and Arab-looking disguises, caught shooting at an Iraqi police checkpoint, in a textbook example of divide and rule tactics.

Arms and al-Qaida-affiliated fighters have also been flowing into the country to fuel the insurrection from Saudi Arabia and Egypt directly from NATO and other Western sources in an attempt to foment the overthrow of Qaddafi. There are additional reports that Israeli-affiliated African mercenaries have also infiltrated Libya to support the attempted insurrection. It is the reaction of the Libyan government – a completely justified response to a violent insurrection aided by agents from foreign governments with reciprocal force – that the Western press is characterising as the oppression of unarmed protesters.

Stories of atrocities carried out by Qaddafi have also turned out to be of questionable veracity, for instance the accusation that Qaddafi was using his air force to strafe crowds of protesters. These accusations remain unsupported, but that hasn’t stopped them being repeated ad nauseum across the mainstream media. If there is a grain of truth in them (and it’s not simply a case of Qaddafi’s forces legitimately striking back at armed, Western-backed “rebels”), one has to wonder why such a supposedly unpopular leader has recently handed out 1 million machine guns to the public to fight against a foreign occupation. Hardly the tactics of a dictator fearing overthrow from within. Perhaps the media will release photographic or video evidence supporting their claims, but if the past is anything to go by … well, perhaps they won’t.

Fox News got in on the act of making things up recently as well, using the well worn “human shields” hoax popular amongst defenders of Israeli barbarism towards the Palestinians. Fortunately, CNN correspondent Nic Robertson set the records straight:
A predictable but entirely unfounded response to the above observations is the accusation of being a Qaddafi sympathizer. Those who make such accusations are guilty of obfuscation and missing the broader point. Certainly, Qaddafi is no angel – likewise Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein were guilty of despotism, crimes against humanity and more. But those who make such charges miss the irony of their rhetoric, given that they support the unbridled use of violence by far more powerful military forces against largely civilian populations, leading to death tolls that far exceed those committed by the puppet dictators they seek to overthrow. That these dictators and despots committed their own atrocities with weapons supplied by Western nations is never mentioned, for doing so would lay bare their hypocrisy. “We must kill to avoid killing,” is the ideology they promote, oblivious to the inherent contradiction that lies within.
This hypocrisy is plain to see in the recent release of photos of American troops in Afghanistan posing for trophy shots with murdered civilians. While the BBC are busy ramming down the throats of the public endless news about our impressive fighter planes and their “precision” bombing and manufacturing tales of massacres at the hands of Qaddafi, photos such as this are completely ignored: US Army "Kill Team" pose with with murdered civilians*
And of course, there’s little mention of the genuinely brutal oppression in places like Bahrain, where the Saudi military were called in to massacre protesters there, or the recent outbreak of airstrikes and incursions into Gaza by the IDF again over the weekend. Because they’re "our allies” and their crimes – like our own – are completely permissible. http://orwellwasright.wordpress.com

* U.S. murdered and mutilated Afghan civilians: Military tried to pull pictures
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370758/Shocking-video-shows-U-S...
http://bit.ly/e22s8h
Rolling Stone reveals how U.S. troops murdered Afghan civilians
Soldiers cut off 15-year-old boy's finger and kept it as trophy
Video captures U.S. troops cheering as airstrike kills two Afghan civilians
New pictures show dead Afghan man's head on a stick
Soldier stabbed the body of a dead Afghan civilian
Military tried to pull pictures out of circulation to avoid another Abu Ghraib
Army says photos are 'in striking contrast' to its standards and values

Timely Libyan version of fake 'incubator baby' horror story to sell Iraq war?
Libyan woman offers glimpse into workings of Gaddafi government ...
"26 Mar 2011 ... Libyan woman's rape claims, methods of Gaddafi government put on display ...
www.washingtonpost.com/world/libyan-woman-offers-glimpse-into-workings-o...

Don't Trust The Libyan Horror Stories
On LBC (London Broadcasting) radio this morning there was a live poll of Londoners, the results of which were intermittently broadcast. At the end of the first hour the balance was 72% against military action, 28% in favour. By the end of the show this balance had changed to 52% against, 48% for.
In the meantime a stream of callers claiming to be Libyans plied their way through a long list of absolutely horrific crimes of the Gaddafi regime including (for a taste of the horror recited): A young boy was overheard making a phone call. The authorities went to his house, took him away, beheaded him and brought his head back to his mother saying she should give it to his brother to play with. This reminds one of the Kuwaiti Princess who went on world TV in 1991 alleging that Iraqi soldiers in a Kuwaiti hospital were taking premature babies from their incubators and killing them. This story was later proved (and admitted) to be a complete lie. Don't trust a word war-mongers say trying to make your heart shed virtual blood in order you will applaud the reality of real Libyans will shedding real blood.
http://www.iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/244874

Hill & Knowlton helped sell Desert Storm: How the "Baby Incubator" story was manufactured.
Rick MacArthur, publisher of Harper's Magazine. His book, Second Front, selected by The New York Times Book Review Committee as "One of the Notable Books of the Year."
speaking on speak on "Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War: How Government Can Mold Public Opinion," (excerpts)
10/7/93 http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/LIE/HK/HK_IRAQ.html
...Citizens for a Free Kuwait forms itself about a week after Saddam invades Kuwait and they hire Hill &Knowlton, the public relations firm, ultimately paying it $11 million to create what was one of the most brilliantly orchestrated public relations campaigns in history....
Hill & Knowlton is very well connected on Capitol Hill and at the White House. The senior account people on the Kuwaiti account included Craig Fuller, Bush's former chief of staff when Bush was Vice President, and various other mucky mucks who know how to make things happen on Capitol Hill. They set up a hearing with the Congressional Human Rights caucus, chaired by Tom Lantos, the Bay Area congressman, and John Edward Porter of Illinois, in which they were going to expose Iraqi atrocities for the benefit of the caucus and the American people. The Congressional Human Rights Foundation, a fund-raising arm of the caucus, had its offices, rent-free, in the Hill & Knowlton headquarters...
The star of the hearing was a 15 year-old girl named Nayirah -- no last name, no address, no occupation -- who said she had volunteered at Kuwaiti hospitals and seen babies pulled from incubators and left to die on the cold floor.
I cannot tell you whether or not this story, which turned out to be utterly fake, was manufactured by historically-astute public relations executives in collaboration with Kuwaitis, who had read World War I history and learned how successful German atrocities against Belgian babies and nuns had been in getting public opinion on the side of the allies and getting the United States into that war....Niyarah was a fantastic propaganda success. Hill & Knowlton made a brilliant little video news release out of it, which they beamed all over the world. It was on NBC Nightly News and millions and millions of people saw this. That was the beginning of the campaign. The campaign had begun to "get legs" as we say in the public relations and news business. Then to the United Nations, the same thing at the Security Council. There was a certain Dr. Behbehani, who you may remember testified that he was a surgeon who had personally seen the burial of 40 babies pulled from incubators. It turns out Dr. Behbehani was a dentist, not a surgeon; and he admitted after the war that he had lied, he made the whole thing up. But it was grist for the public relations mill, and it was terrifically successful. Every time you put this stuff on camera, you make a video news release out of it and WZZZ in San Antonio can just pop it into the console and make it part of their evening news. It gets used again and again and again for tonight's roundup on Saddam-Hitler, Iraqi atrocities.
I did a little math and found out that the polls showed a country pretty much divided 50-50 on sanctions versus hostilities back in December 1990 and January 1991. But when the vote was finally taken in the Senate, you may recall, it passed by five votes and in favor of war. Six Senators cited the baby-incubator atrocity as a principal reason -- sort of a final, compelling reason to vote for the resolution over their initial or instinctive reluctance to go to war.
Several others who voted for the resolution said they thought Iraqi atrocities in general were a good reason to go to war. As you may know, Niyarah was not only a liar, but she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. That is the story I revealed in The New York Times in January of 1992 on the op-ed page.
So, you have the country going to war, essentially over human rights. This is what swung the balance.

DEMOCRACY NOW/GOODMAN: RELIABLE LIBERAL U.S. GATEKEEPERS
Are US Soldiers Using Rape, Murder, And Bombing Of Children As War Strategy?
By Mary Lynn Cramer30 March, 2011 Countercurrents.org
Amy Goodman's Take on One Reported Rape Case in Tripoli, Libya: "Pro-Gaddafi Forces Accused of Using Rape as War Strategy"
Amy Goodman's take on one reported rape case in Tripoli, Libya: " Pro-Gaddafi Forces Accused of Using Rape as War Strategy" (DemNow Headlines, 3/28/11)
"Some doctors in Libya have accused pro-Gaddafi fighters of using rape as a weapon of war. On Sunday, five men were arrested for raping and torturing a Libyan woman. The international press learned of the incident when the woman, Eman al-Obeidi, burst into a hotel full of foreign journalists in Tripoli. She was quickly detained by Libyan security officers."

MLC: She was also seen pulling a battered and empty incubator behind her, yelling that Gaddafi forces had broken into the hospital maternity ward, pulled babies out of the incubators and thrown them on the ground, and stamped them to death...oh, sorry, that was another dramatized lie told to the US Congress to justify another grossly destructive invasion and slaughter of thousands by US air power in the Middle East.

Viewers note: This girl is actually the niece of Ambassador Mohammad Abulhasan, the former Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.N., also chairman of the board of Trustees for the Islamic Cultural Center of New York.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu8CCJTJCQk
MLC: The doctors commenting on this single incident in Tripoli were no doubt pro-democracy “rebels” adored by DemocracyNow in overtly sympathetic interviews with these courageous, US armed, financed, and supported fighters with radical Islamist, Al Qaeda, and CIA operative backgrounds....but why should we care who they are or where they come from or how they are armed? And Democracy Now will the the very last to do any serious questioning on this issue.) With the reports of rape of women by US troops in Iraq (not to mention the high rate of rape of women soldiers within the US military... [suppressed and often punished]); the bombing of civilian wedding parties, children at play, villagers in their homes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, why has Amy not headlined that "Murder And Rape Are Being Used By Obama And US Soldiers As Weapons of War"?

*Endnote: This is a video of several testimonies repeating the same lie about Iraqi soldiers killing babies in incubators as they fled Kuwait in 1990.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu8CCJTJCQk

“ A key event in generating momentum for the first U.S. War on Iraq, "Operation Desert Storm" was a fraudulent report of the murder of Kuwaiti babies by Iraqi soldiers. On October 10, 1990, the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on the subject of Iraqi human rights violations. The centerpiece of the event was the emotional testimony of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name, Nayirah. Her full name was supposedly being kept secret to protect her from Iraqi reprisals. The girl relayed a shocking story while sobbing:

I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital. While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die.

The massacre never occurred. The girl was actually the daughter of a Kuwaiti emir, and had been coached by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton to give persuasive false testimony.” ( How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf , by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton)http://911review.com/precedent/decade/incubators.html

Mary Lynn Cramer, MA, MSW, LICSW has degrees in the history of economic thought and clinical social work , as well as over two decades of experience as a bilingual child and family psychotherapist. For the past five years, she has been deeply involved in “economic field research” among elderly women and men dependent upon social security, Medicare, and food stamps, living in subsidized housing projects. She can be reached at: mllynn2@yahoo.com

IMPERIALISM'S TERROR HUMANITARIANISM
Thousands of refugees flee the country every day
Tens of thousands of people are continuing to flee the country each day, looking for safety. According to the UN, over 300,000 people have already left the country. The main flow of refugees is occurring on Libya’s western border with Tunisia, however many people have also escaped to Egypt. Security has been strengthened in many Egyptian cities on the border with Libya, with soldiers and tanks patrolling the streets... It remains unclear whether the army’s presence is related to the military operation in Libya or the political unrest in Egypt itself. However, judging by the number of refugees, the situation within the country has not improved and the goal of the military operation, which claimed making the lives of the civilians safer as its objective, has not been fulfilled.http://rt.com/news/libya-nato-refugees-victims/

'UNIFIED PROTECTOR'
Libyan operation continues as hundreds die and thousands flee
26 March, 201 At a short overnight press conference, the Libyan government’s spokesperson announced that at least 114 people have been killed and 445 injured in the first four days of the coalition’s week long series of air strikes. The U.S. military announced the coalition has fired 16 Tomahawk missiles and flown 153 air sorties in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, coalition forces have supplied NATO with an additional 25 warships and submarines, as well as 50 fighter jets to help enforce a naval blockade and prevent weapons and mercenaries from entering Libya. The operation, dubbed “Unified Protector”, was launched Wednesday and involves the UK, US, Canada, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Greece.

lizburbank's blog
________

Related:

International law is clear: it is illegal to arm the "rebels".. Obama will be arrested if crosses US borders

From Pravda.Ru, 30.03.2011

By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

The law is the law, and it is crystal clear. Under the UN Charter and Resolutions 1970 and 1973 it would be illegal for any entity to arm the "rebels" in Libya and in so doing, this would constitute a breach of international law, leaving the perpetrators open to criminal liability. And has anyone researched the history of the "rebel" movement?

The legal principle which governs international law

The legal principle of the UN Charter is to avoid war and to ensure peace; that is why any act of aggression outside the specific scope of a Resolution must necessarily pass by a separate Resolution in the UN Security Council. Since the scope of the resolutions covering Libya - UNSC Resolutions 1970 (2011) and 1973 (2011) - do not include the supply of weaponry to the "rebel" cause in Libya - but instead prohibit it and cover attacks on civilians, then under no circumstances whatsoever would it be admissible, acceptable or legal for any entity to supply weapons or train the "rebels" against the Libyan authorities.

Definition of a civilian

Let us now turn to the definition of a civilian: someone who is not an active member of the military, police or a belligerent group. For this reason, men in uniforms, sporting weapons are not civilians and for this reason if such persons use violence against the Libyan armed forces, then any counter-attack by such forces cannot be deemed to be an attack against civilians.

UNSC Resolution 1970 (2011)

Paragraph 9 prohibits the supply of weapons to Libya:

"9. Decides that all Member States shall immediately take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, from or through their territories or by their nationals, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, and technical assistance, training, financial or other assistance, related to military activities or the provision, maintenance or use of any arms and related materiel, including the provision of armed mercenary personnel whether or not originating in their territories,..."

UNSC Resolution 1973 (2011)

There is nothing whatsoever in this document which contradicts the scope of Resolution 1970 above. For a start, its introduction is very clear about the need to commit to the territorial integrity of Libya:

"Reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,"
Paragraph 4 does not contradict Paragraph 9 of Resolution 1970 on the supply of weaponry. It does not state anywhere that the terms are revoked or annulled. The insinuation that it does is a puerile and very devious attempt to twist around what is very clear under international law. The expression "all necessary measures" is qualified and restricted to the protection of civilians:

"4. Authorizes Member States that have notified the Secretary-General, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, and acting in cooperation with the Secretary-General, to take all necessary measures, notwithstanding paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011), to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,"

and "notwithstanding" does not mean "substituting". It means "in spite of" in the context of "in conjunction with" and not "in contradiction of"; otherwise it would be necessary to state clearly that the terms and conditions of Paragraph 9 of UNSC Resolution 1970 (2011) are revoked, annulled, substituted or replaced. This not being the case, the argument that 1973 allows such supply or weaponry is an indication of the malice of those politicians who propose it and certainly does not constitute a legal basis for action.

Paragraph 8 reiterates the expression "all necessary measures" but qualifies this as pertaining to a ban on flights:
"8. Authorizes Member States that have notified the Secretary-General and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, to take all necessary measures to enforce compliance with the ban on flights imposed by paragraph 6 above,"

Finally, the reference by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that 1973 substitutes 1970 is as much an unadulterated, barefaced lie as the claim that she went into a war zone in the Balkans under fire. The expression "replace" indeed reiterates the implementation of the arms embargo and adds the provision for inspection of sea or air vessels.

"13. Decides that paragraph 11 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall be replaced by the following paragraph : "Calls upon all Member States, in particular States of the region, acting nationally or through regional organisations or arrangements, in order to ensure strict implementation of the arms embargo established by paragraphs 9 and 10 of resolution 1970 (2011), to inspect in their territory, including seaports and airports, and on the high seas, vessels and aircraft bound to or from the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, if the State concerned has information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo contains items the supply, sale, transfer or export of which is prohibited by paragraphs 9 or 10 of resolution 1970 (2011) as modified by this resolution, including the provision of armed mercenary personnel, calls upon all flag States of such vessels and aircraft to cooperate with such inspections and authorises Member States to use all measures commensurate to the specific circumstances to carry out such inspections;".

As we see, the legal question is perfectly simple to follow and is very clear to see.

Bombing attacks

As for the bombing attacks, the scope of the law is to prevent attacks on civilians, therefore attacking Libyan government forces against the "rebels" constitutes a breach of the Resolution and is therefore a beach of international law, leaving the perpetrators liable to prosecution for criminal liability for war crimes.
Under these precepts, I hereby accuse Messrs Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nicolas Sarkozy, Alain Juppé, David Cameron and William Hague of war crimes for the deployment of military equipment against forces which were not attacking civilians.

Is the world going to stand back yet again as we have another illegal war based upon lies and propaganda and nonsense, or is someone going to take action and nip this in the bud, bringing a case against these perpetrators and hauling these criminals and murderers before the proper legal instances where they belong?

And just before we finish, Google up the Al Qaeda connection to the leader of the rebels, his history in fighting against the USA and British in Afghanistan, the legacy of the Benghazi bombers in Iraq and the history of the fighters themselves. This proves just how incompetent the above-mentioned are to perform their roles as Heads of Government and Diplomacy.

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