When NATO intervenes, massacres, mass destruction, and indescribable human misery follow. Libya is its latest trophy.
Judge for yourself. View another snapshot of the “new Libya:”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=9A9TsImz9Ys
Once Africa’s most developed country, it’s now a horrific charnal house. No one knows the true toll or ever will, but minimally it includes tens of thousands dead, multiples more injured, vast destruction across large parts of the country, terrified millions not knowing what’s next, imperial occupation, plunder of Libya’s resources, and continued conflict and violence like Afghanistan and Iraq.
As a result, expect Libya to boil for years, and why not with recruited rebel gangs enlisted to reign terror. Many are members of the Al Qaeda linked Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), terrorists opposed to Gaddafi since the mid-1990s.
On December 8, 2004, the US Treasury Department designated LIFG a Foreign Terrorist Organization, saying it:
“threatens global safety and stability through the use of violence and its ideological alliance with (Al Qaeda) and other brutal terrorists organizations.”
Directed on the ground by US, UK, Qatari, and Jordanian special forces, insurgents also include untrained Libyans and civilians from regional countries, as well as recruited members of Gaddafi’s military.
Appointed top military commander last March, Khalifa Hifter is in charge, a man who spent two decades in suburban Virginia, about 20 miles from CIA headquarters. In fact, since the 1980s, he’s been an anti-Gaddafi CIA asset.
Now he’s directing paramilitary killers terrorizing areas they control, exposing Washington’s contempt for human life and welfare everywhere, including at home.
On August 29, USAAfricaonline.com headlined: “KILLINGS: Libya rebels said to be murdering Black Aftican migrant workers,” saying:
African Union (AU) chairman Jean Ping said “Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people,” believing migrant guest workers are pro-Gaddafi mercenaries.
On August 29, allwestafrica.com described a Libyan “bloodbath,” affecting Black Africans found murdered with their hands tied behind their backs.
Earlier images showed beatings, summary executions, lynchings, beheadings, desecrated corpses, and at least one instance of a Gaddafi loyalist suspended upside-down soaked in blood. Alongside him stood a rebel fighter with a long knife alternatively hacking and sawing on his neck.
As a result, tens of thousands of innocent civilians now face possible revenge killings, summary executions and mass slaughter either for seeking work in the wrong country at the wrong time or being a Gaddafi loyalist.
On August 30, Amnesty International (AI) headlined, “Libya: Fears for Detainees Held by Anti-Gaddafi Forces,” saying:
Black Africans are especially at risk. AI representatives “witness(ed their) being targeted in Tripoli on Monday.”
“Within an hour, (AI saw) one man being hit and (another) dragged out of his hospital bed to an unknown fate. We have to fear for what may be happening to detainees out of the sight of independent observers.”
On August 29, Canada’s Globe and Mail writer Graeme Smith headlined, “Atrocities raise concerns about Libyan rebels’ ability to control country,” saying:
A Gaddafi soldier tried to surrender and was shot in a hail of bullets. In Tripoli alone, mass graves were discovered, “and reporters noticed many more bodies lying beside the road.”
Every new report about rebel atrocities “adds to concerns about whether they can keep control of the country. (They) also cause concern among foreign supporters,” especially because NATO recruited, funded, armed, and continues to direct them.
According to University of Ottawa Professor Stuart Hendin, “Individuals within the NATO command structure could be exposed to allegations of aiding and abetting.”
In fact, of course, NATO orchestrated what’s ongoing, with US, UK and other special forces directing it.
On August 31, Mathaba headlined, “Rebel atrocities and ability to control Libya,” saying:
“Mass graves, racist atrocities, (and) prisoner abuse(s) (have been discovered) in rebel controlled areas.”
“More than 30,000 Libyan civilians have been massacred in the first week of the NATO-supported ground invasion, led by Al-Qaida and European special forces working side by side.”
France 24 correspondent Matthieu Mabin wrote:
“We are undoubtedly entering the saddest phase of the conflict, and it is likely that the (National Transitional Council) and the rebels will have to account for their abuses. We have reached a degree of cleansing that appears to be totally out of control….”
AI’s Diana Eltahawy said captured Gaddafi loyalists face torture, other forms of abuse, and summary executions.
In July, Big Peace writer John Rosenthal said:
“There is extensive and virtually incontrovertible evidence of horrific atrocities committed by rebel forces,” including unaired Western media graphic images of “grotesquely inhumane and demeaning treatment of prisoners.”
After insurgents entered Tripoli, it got worse. AP reported “streets where rebel fighters bombarded snipers loyal to (Gaddafi were) strewn with bullet-ridden corpses from both sides Thursday. Streams of blood ran down the gutters and turned sewers red.”
In areas under rebel control, death, destruction, mass looting, lack of public services, and terrorized civilians are the order of the day.
More of the same is likely ahead, but don’t expect Western media to explain or even stay on the Libya story once the “euphoria” of NATO triumphalism subsides.
Of concern are recent polls showing Gaddafi enjoyed overwhelming support. As a result, most Libyans remain vulnerable to revenge killings or other abuses.
Western Media Complicit in Inciting Genocide
Throughout months of conflict, Western media, especially America’s, cheerled what they should have condemned. As a result, international law holds them culpable for “direct” and “public” incitement to commit Genocide.
A previous article explained, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/08/natos-genocidal-rape-of-libya.html
After rebels entered Tripoli guns blazing, a reprehensible August 22 Washington Post editorial headlined, “US action helped cause of freedom in Libya,” saying:
“The initial euphoria in Tripoli and Benghazi represents the beginning of a new chapter for Libya….(Ahead), look at the benefits if Libya begins to move toward democracy. (It) means young Libyans may be able to envision a healthy future for themselves instead of joining terrorist groups out of frustration and anger.”
The piece praised Obama for making it possible. In fact, he’s a multiply unindicted war criminal for waging six wars and numerous proxy ones.
One day, his legacy will highlight his culpability for unconscionable crimes of war and against humanity, not least of which includes using thousands of US Special Forces death squads in at least 75 countries.
As part of a global killing machine, they’re unaccountable lawless assassins, murdering thousands where they’re deployed with impunity. Some are in Libya directing insurgents for the same purpose.
Expect them to remain to keep reigning terror ahead. That’s the new reality on the ground, not one Obama called free “in the hands of the Libyan people.”
Fact checking the Post editorial
Expecting full disclosure truth from any Western media source is self-delusion at best, clueless acceptable of what should be condemned at worst.
In fact, Washington-led NATO lawlessly attacked a nonbelligerent country, turning it into a hellish inferno – a dystopian charnel house.
Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy and other NATO partners are war criminals.
Their contempt for rule of law principles, democracy, and human rights is palpable.
They plan colonizing, occupying, exploiting, and carving up the Libya corpse for profit.
Pre-NATO Libya no longer exists.
In its place stands a cauldron of violence, desolation, depravation, despair, fear, and hatred for Western enemies of Libyan freedom.
Ahead, expect protracted conflict, internal strife, resistance to foreign occupiers, and violence as a way of life instead of peace and personal welfare.
Moreover, gone are Gaddafi-provided free education to the highest level (including abroad), first world healthcare, housing assistance, and other social services to be privatized and sold at high prices to Libyans able to afford them.
In an August 30 Minneapolis speech to the American Legion, Obama praised “our brave forces who helped the Libyan people finally break free from the grip of (Gaddafi).”
On August 22, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen claimed “they have a chance for a new beginning,” adding:
“Now is the time to create a new Libya – a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of a few.”
No matter that 85% of Libyans support the “old” Libya under Gaddafi and want him retained.
Moreover, they revile NATO partners and rebel killers with good reason. They plan continued terror under occupation, plundering Libya’s resources, exploiting its people, and militarizing the country for enforcement.
Like Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis and others, Libyans know Washington and NATO plan dominance, persecution and exploitation, not liberation, equal rights, and efforts to promote human welfare, notions they find abhorrent.
As a result, hopefully, they’ll resist heroically to be free from what no one should tolerate.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
