1. Contents i. Assembled by Alexander Hagen ................................................................................................................................. 7 ii. Libya Pre Nato Qatar intervention: Similar to Muslim Cuba or E Germany? .................................................................. 7 1. The Human Development Index - going beyond income .......................................................................................... 8 2. Human Development Index: Health, Education and Income .................................................................................... 9 i. Qaddafi was loved by his people, Italian PM says ..................................................................................................... 9 iii. 2. Kucinich: Congress Must Protect Constitutional Authority as a Coequal Branch of Government, Cut off Funds for Libyan War ................................................................................................................................................................. 9 iv. 3. Pittsburgh Post Gazette Ambassador Dan Simpson :Shame on us for pulverizing Libya ........................................ 10 v. 4. “NATO warplanes flew thousands of sorties that dropped 7,700 bombs or missiles; because The Times did not examine sites in several cities and towns where the air campaign was active, the casualty estimate could be low.” ......................................................................................................................................................................... 11 3. UN Resolution for Libya 1973 full text: .................................................................................................................... 12 4. Protection of civilians............................................................................................................................................... 13 5. No fly zone ............................................................................................................................................................... 13 6. Enforcement of the arms embargo ......................................................................................................................... 13 7. Ban on flights ........................................................................................................................................................... 14 8. Asset freeze.............................................................................................................................................................. 14 9. Designations............................................................................................................................................................. 14 10. Panel of experts ....................................................................................................................................................... 15 vi. 5. Factchecking the Media: More Questions About the Libyan Sex Atrocity Reporting ................................. 15 vii. In Strikes on Libya by NATO, an Unspoken Civilian Toll .................................................................................... 18 Readers’ Comments ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 viii. 6. Nato bombs Libyan TV transmitters ........................................................................................................................ 24 ix. 7. Libya's military: how strong are Gadhafi's forces? .................................................................................................. 25 x. 8. Treasure of Benghazi theft may be one of biggest in history .......................................................................... 28 1. Libya: Al Qaeda flag flown above Benghazi courthouse - Telegraph ........................................................ 28 2. Al Qaeda Flags Parade in Gadhafi Hometown? - ABC News ..................................................................... 29 xi. 9. Libya speculates on potent figure with a past ................................................................................................... 29 xii. 10. In this section » ............................................................................................................................................... 29 Post-Qaddafi Libya Hobbled as Misrata's City-State Thrives ... .................................................................................... 29 Amnesty: Libyan militias commit war crimes - Boston.com ......................................................................................... 30 xiii. 11. Libyan oil minister who defected from Gaddafi regime found dead in Vienna............................................ 30 Page 1 of 154  xiv. 12.Libyan rebels target Gaddafi's last strongholds ....................................................................................................... 31 By Simon Denyer and Thomas Erdbrink, Published: August 25, 2011 | Updated: Friday, August 26, 12:51 AM ........ 31 xv. 13. Detainees held by Libya rebels still tortured-UN ....................................................................................... 33 11. Settling Old Scores Tribal Rivalries Complicate Libyan War ............................................................. 34 (Alexander Hagen note in italic: The 3 tribes mentioned there are 1,800,000 people that is 1/3 of native Libyans, and it is only an example list) how can you say majority under these circumstances?) ...................................................... 35 xvi. 14.Gaddafi's ghost town after the loyalists retreat................................................................................................. 36 12. Andrew Gilligan visits the scene of what appears to be the first major reprisal against supporters of Gaddafi's regime. .............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 13. RELATED ARTICLES ................................................................................................................................................... 37 xvii. 15. Russia: arming Libya rebels is "crude violation" ........................................................................................ 38 Related Video ............................................................................................................................................................. 39 14. Rebels on the frontline in Libya ........................................................................................................................ 39 xviii. 16.Libya's Mustafa Abdul Jalil asks Nato to stay longer..................................................................................................... 40 xix. 17."The numbers of Qataris on ground were hundreds in every region," he was quoted as saying. .......................... 41 xx. 18. Africa: The Execution of Gaddafi and the Attempted Humiliation of Africa ........................................... 41 15. http://sfbayview.com/2011/walter-fauntroy-feared-dead-in-libya-returns-home-%E2%80%93-guess-who-he- saw-doing-the-killing/ ....................................................................................................................................................... 46 16. Walter Fauntroy, feared dead in Libya, returns home – Guess who he saw doing the killing ............... 46 Fauntroy watched French and Danish troops storm small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control. .............................................................................. 46 The French and Danish were ordering the bombings and killings, and giving credit to the rebels. .............. 46 We believe the true mission of the attacks on Qaddafi is to prevent all efforts by African leaders to stop the recolonization of Africa. ............................................................................................................................................. 46 xxi. 19.Libya: Nato mercenaries coldly murdered tribal chief Warfala to 80 years ............................................................ 47 xxii. 20. Libya: Leaked UN report reveals torture, lynchings and abuse by rebel militias .................................. 47 17. Related Articles ........................................................................................................................................................ 48 xxiii. Kucinich: Libyan foray represents ‘new international gangsterism’............................................... 49 xxiv. 21.Fighting erupts in Libya's Bani Walid ....................................................................................................................... 50 xxv. 22. Africa: Cynthia Mckinney Tells It Like It Is .................................................................................................. 51 xxvi. 23. Lebanon Intercepts Arms Shipment To Syrian Rebels From Libya ....................................................... 58 18. Libyan women being raped as spoils of Shariah law: group .................................................................................... 59 19. Excerpt re: Civil War and partition implication........................................................................................................ 59 20. A committee to audit the economic agreements .................................................................................................... 59 xxvii. 24. Pittsburgh Post: A problematic victory in Libya ........................................................................................ 61 Page 2 of 154  21. Washington Post Prisoners in Libya languish without charge ................................................................................. 62 By Mary Beth Sheridan, Published: October 22, 2011 .......................................................................................... 62 22. Libya: Revoke Draconian New Law ............................................................................................................................ 64 23. Legislation Criminalizes Free Speech ....................................................................................................................... 64 24. Government should do more to prevent human rights abuses in Libya, says watchdog ....................................... 65 25. ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 65 xxviii. 1. Libyan fighters clash with Gaddafi loyalists in Tarhouna, 2 killed .................................................. 65 26. Gadaffi Era Rivalries Haunt Libya ............................................................................................................................. 66 xxix. 1. Dozens of Libya shrines destroyed .......................................................................................................................... 66 27. http://www.canada.com/Dozens+Libya+shrines+destroyed/6649229/story.html ................................................ 66 28. Chaos that has followed fall of Moammar Gadhafi has resulted in Islamic extremists running amok ................... 66 29. BY HADEEL AL SHALCHI, REUTERS MAY 19, 2012 .................................................................................................... 66 Daily Press 2012-05-10: UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Several prisoners likely were tortured to death at a detention center ................................................................................................................................................................................ 67 xxx. 2. 'It was not necessary to kill Gaddafi' ....................................................................................................................... 67 xxxi. 3. Tripoli airport back in our control, says Libyan government ......................................................................... 67 30. Update: ..................................................................................................................................................................... 68 31. The Tarhouna and the Touareg make the news ....................................................................................................... 68 32. ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 68 33. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................................................. 68 xxxii. 4. Libya military court jails accused foreign mercenaries .................................................................................... 68 Related News .............................................................................................................................................................. 69 Analysis & Opinion ..................................................................................................................................................... 69 Related Topics ............................................................................................................................................................ 69 34. Drone Strike Killed No. 2 in Al Qaeda, US Official Says .............................................................................. 70 xxxiii. 1. 72 xxxiv. 5. 72 xxxv. 6. Libya's highest court hears appeal on speech law - The Sacramento Bee ............................................................... 72 35. ........................................................................................................................................................... 72 Page 3 of 154  36. Noam Chomsky and The Manufacture of Consent – Dan Glazebrook ................................................................. 72 Glenn Greenwald: Obama's Secret Kill List "The Most Radical Power a Government Can Se ......................................... 72 37. Rebels tighten control of Mali's north ..................................................................................................................... 73 38. Analysis: Nato Sponsored TNC ................................................................................................................................. 73 xxxvi. Conclusion June 11 12................................................................................................................................................... 74 xxxvii. 7. Libya Update June 12, 2012 ..................................................................................................................................... 75 xxxviii. a. Libyan jihadis an claims US consulate attack: SITE ........................................................................................ 75 39. After Libya's War, Acts Of Vengeance ..................................................................................................................... 77 40. Qatar admits sending hundreds of troops to support Libya rebels ......................................................................... 82 Qatari chief-of-staff reveals extent of involvment, saying troops were responsible for training, communications and strategy ......................................................................................................................................................................... 82 41. UNHCR report: 800,000 people forced to flee across borders in 2011 ................................................................... 84 42. Libya: UN Envoy Calls On Authorities to Address Root Causes of Recent Conflicts ................................................ 84 xxxix. 8. Libya: Candidates Should Address Torture, Illegal Detention - National Strategy Needed for Justice System .................................................................................................................................................................... 84 43. Gunmen attack Tunisian consulate in Benghazi ...................................................................................................... 87 44. Malians flee to Burkina Faso amid drought ............................................................................................................. 87 45. Dangerous business: Libya, UAE, Indonesia and more sell wares at military tech event ........................................ 88 xl. 9. Snatched and detained: Libya's "jungle law" .................................................................................................... 90 Analysis & Opinion ..................................................................................................................................................... 90 46. Libya ex-PM Mahmoudi extradition from Tunisia 'illegal' ....................................................................................... 92 47. Libya Crisis................................................................................................................................................................ 92 48. Libya Democracy Clashes With Fervor for Jihad ...................................................................................................... 92 xli. 10. Libya Election Panel Battles Ghosts ................................................................................................................ 95 By MARGARET COKER ....................................................................................................................................... 95 Getting Started ............................................................................................................................................................ 96 xlii. 11. BBC promises to review Jeremy Bowen's workload ......................................................................................... 97 49. List of Unexploded Arms in Libya Is Seen as Limited June 25, 2012 ..................................................................... 98 50. Africa's Islamist militants 'co-ordinate efforts in threat to continent's security' .................................................. 100 xliii. Al Qaeda threatens Arab Spring nations-UK spy chief ........................................................................................... 101 51. Extradition of Gaddafi Deputy Plunges Tunisia into Political Crisis ....................................................................... 102 52. Extradition of Gaddafi Deputy Plunges Tunisia into Political Crisis ....................................................................... 103 xliv. 12.Kids of War: Libyan Children Fight a New Battle at School ................................................................................... 105 Page 4 of 154  53. While Libya lurches forward to its landmark parliamentary election, its children face a brutal conflict on the playground. ..................................................................................................................................................................... 105 Left Behind in Libya (PHOTOS) .................................................................................................................................... 105 54. Continued destruction of Mali shrines called 'war crime'....................................................................................... 108 xlv. Members of the group Ansar Dine have destroyed the mausoleums of Sufi saints in Timbuktu for a second day. Sunday's destruction, utilising pick axes and guns, comes after a statement by the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling the on-going campaign of destruction of ancient Islamic shrines in northern Mali "a war crime". Al Jazeera's Dominic Kane reports .............................................................................. 108 55. F-Se! Landscapes Of Libya Freedom Or a Short List of Libyan Rebels HUMAN RIGHTS Praxis. ............................. 108 56. ......................................................................................................................... 109 57. Gadhafi-Era Spy Tactics Quietly Restarted in Libya ............................................................................................... 109 By MARGARET COKER in Tripoli, Libya, and PAUL SONNE in London ................................................ 109 58. Libya: Saif Gaddafi - the Human Rights of a Man Reviled...................................................................................... 113 59. Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC) ............................................................................................................ 114 60. Libya: Ensure Due Process for Detained Ex-Prime Minister .................................................................................. 114 61. Before Vote, Old Rivalries Threaten Fresh Start in Libya ....................................................................................... 116 xlvi. ................................................................................................................................. 118 62. Patrick Cockburn: Libyans have voted, but will the new rulers be able to curb violent militias? ......................... 118 63. "My life with Gaddafi family" (Eng. and sub. in all languages) .............................................................................. 120 64. West Africa: The Plunder of Timbuktu................................................................................................................... 120 65. Islam has no link with these thugs ......................................................................................................................... 121 66. Bani Walid invasion force goes missing as Libya Herald visits frontline at Bir Dufan ............................................ 123 67. Government bans unlicensed protests .................................................................................................................. 124 68. Qaddafi intelligence officer assassinated in Benghazi drive-by shooting .............................................................. 125 69. Gadhafi's son seeks travel ban waiver, lawyer says .............................................................................................. 126 70. 18 detainees freed by Supreme Security Committee in Tripoli ............................................................................. 127 71. Worrying signs of lawlessness in Libya .................................................................................................................. 128 Seven Iranian Red Crescent members were abducted in downtown Benghazi yesterday. Today there were bomb blasts and a jail break. ......................................................................................................... 128 72. David Blair ........................................................................................................................................................... 129 David Blair is the Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. ......................................................... 129 73. Putin thinks Cameron conned him over Libya. He won't allow that to happen again with Syria ......................... 129 Page 5 of 154  74. The forgotten millions facing starvation in the slow-motion crisis of Africa's Sahel belt ..................................... 130 75. Slow to turn on Qaddafi, Bani Walid now struggles in a post-revolution Libya .................................................... 131 Bani Walid's resistance to joining the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi earned residents a reputation for being regime loyalists, leaving them marginalized in the new Libya. .......................... 131 76. A history of defying control ................................................................................................................................... 132 77. A problematic reputation ...................................................................................................................................... 133 Libya's Tribal Cleansing: Why is the World Silent Now? ................................................................................................. 133 78. Three armed men killed in Libya as violence escalates ......................................................................................... 133 xlvii. 13.Red Cross attacked with rockets, grenades in Libya ...................................................................................... 134 79. Exclusive – Interior Ministry communications system hacked as Qaddafi loyalists overheard discussing Tripoli blasts ............................................................................................................................................................................... 134 80. Further bombs found in Tripoli .............................................................................................................................. 136 81. UPDATE 1-Libya Islamists destroy Sufi shrines, library-military http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/25/libya-islamists-idUSL6E8JP1F720120825 .............................................. 136 82. Top Libyan officials implicated in mosque desecrations ....................................................................................... 137 83. Orly Weinerman, Saif Gaddafi's Israeli Lover, Pleads For Help From Tony Blair ................................................... 138 84. Heritage of Islam faces threat from within ............................................................................................................ 139 85. Libyan Islamists and the security forces: Iraq 2.0? ................................................................................................ 140 86. Amazigh in Libya: From Gaddafi’s Denial to New Libya’s Crippling Silence .......................................................... 142 Women in Libyan Public Life: A Seismic Shift | Libya Herald .......................................................................................... 143 87. A Crippling Silence | Libya Herald .......................................................................................................................... 146 xlviii. 1. Addenda: A brief history of Libya & Gadaffi .......................................................................................................... 148 Alexander, The Romans, Islam, colonization. ............................................................................................................. 148 Omar Mukhtar ............................................................................................................................................................ 148 King Idris ...................................................................................................................................................................... 148 Gadaffi & The Young Officers Council ......................................................................................................................... 148 The schism in the young officers council .................................................................................................................... 148 The internationalist militant role ................................................................................................................................ 148 Isolation, and the LIFG ................................................................................................................................................ 148 Disarmament In Exchange for “Improved relations with the US ................................................................................ 148 88. A Benghazi power, Libya militia eyed in attack .............................................................................................. 148 89. The post-Gaddafi Libya is Not Real ........................................................................................................................ 150 90. Saving Libya From its Saviours ............................................................................................................................... 151 xlix. 2. Related IPS Articles ............................................................................................................................................ 152 Page 6 of 154 Assembled by Alexander Hagen Libya Pre Nato Qatar intervention: Similar to Muslim Cuba or E Germany? Figure 1 Libya Map Page 7 of 154  1. The Human Development Index - going beyond income Each year since 1990 the Human Development Report has published the Human Development Index (HDI) which was introduced as an alternative to conventional measures of national development, such as level of income and the rate of economic growth. The HDI represents a push for a broader definition of well-being and provides a composite measure of three basic dimensions of human development: health, education and income. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya's HDI is 0.760, which gives the country a rank of 64 out of 187 countries with comparable data. The HDI of Arab States as a region increased from 0.444 in 1980 to 0.641 today, placing Libyan Arab Jamahiriya above the regional average. The HDI trends tell an important story both at the national and regional level and highlight the very large gaps in well-being and life chances that continue to divide our interconnected world. Learn more Page 8 of 154  2. Human Development Index: Health, Education and Income HDIHealthEducationIncome00.250.50.751Value i. Qaddafi was loved by his people, Italian PM says Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Friday that ousted Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi was loved by his people and that the rebellion that toppled him was not a popular uprising. "This wasn't a popular uprising," like in other north African countries "where the wind of freedom begins to blow," he told young supporters of his People of Freedom party gathered in Rome. "Powerful men decided to give life to a new era by putting out Qaddafi," he said. "This wasn't a popular uprising because Qaddafi was loved by his people, as I was able to see when I went to Libya." Italy is Libya's former colonial ruler and enjoyed close economic and diplomatic ties with the Qaddafi regime prior to the conflict before joining international efforts against the leader. He told party supporters that strengthening the country's position in Libya was "important for oil and gas supplies." Eni, in which the Italian state holds a third share, was previously the main foreign hydrocarbon producer operating in Libya. In order to maintain that situation Rome recently signed a deal with the new Libyan authorities. http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=231106 2. Kucinich: Congress Must Protect Constitutional Authority as a Coequal Branch of Government, Cut off Funds for Libyan War Dear Colleague: As you consider supporting an amendment to cut off funds for the war in Libya, I want to call to your attention to the stark lack of information provided to Congress and the American people about the war. Last night the President said it took one month to put together a response to the situation in Libya. During that time the President consulted with 28 member nations of NATO, 22 member nations of the Arab league and 15 members of the UN Security Council, ten of whom approved the resolution. There was also time for extensive coordination with France and Great Britain. The President had time to consult with the international community, but had no time to come to the United States Congress? There is no question that the Administration should have followed the Constitution and received the approval of Congress before starting a war. Consulting with a few members is not the same thing as following the Constitutional requirements of Article 1, Section 8. Further complicating the Administration’s failure to come to Congress prior to ordering an attack is the fact that our primary partners in the war against Libya, France and Great Britain, had, according to a French military website, planned certain war games which now may have significance. On November 2, 2010 France and Great Britain signed a mutual defense treaty, which paved the way for joint participation in a military exercise called ‘Southern Mistral’ (www.southern-mistral.cdaoa.fr). While war games are not uncommon, the similarities between ‘Southern Mistral’ and ‘Operation Odyssey Dawn’ highlight just how many unanswered questions remain regarding our own military planning for Libya. The ‘Southern Mistral’ war games called for Great Britain-French air strikes against an unnamed dictator of a fictional country, “Southland.” The pretend attack was authorized by a pretend United Nations Security Council Resolution. The ‘Southern Mistral’ war games were set for March 21-25, 2011. On March 19, 2011, the United States joined France and Great Britain in an air attack against Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1973. Page 9 of 154 Scheduling a joint military exercise that ends up resembling real military action could be seen as remarkable planning by the French and British, but it also highlights questions regarding the United States’ role in planning for the war. We don’t know how long the attack on Libya has been in preparation, but Congress must find out. We don’t know who the rebels really represent and how they became armed, but Congress must find out. With so many unknowns, Congress’ only path to protect both the Constitution and the institution of government of the people is to cut off funds for the war in Libya. A cutoff of funds would require the President to follow the Constitutional process with respect to going to war. He would have to seek Congressional approval. Otherwise, we will have given our tacit consent to a policy that undercuts Congress’ constitutionally-mandated role as a coequal branch of government. Moreover, since the Founders established Congress under Article 1 and the Executive under Article 2, Congress is first among equals, unless we refuse to be. Please join me in cosponsoring an amendment to the next continuing resolution or omnibus appropriations bill that would prevent any U.S. funds from being used for the war in Libya. Sincerely, Dennis J. Kucinich Member of Congress 3. Pittsburgh Post Gazette Ambassador Dan Simpson :Shame on us for pulverizing Libya By Dan Simpson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette approx. May 2011 Two questions troubled me over Memorial Day: Why is the United States destroying Libya, and why do I care? For nearly three months America and its pony pal Pokeys -- Denmark, France, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom -- have been busily destroying Libya. The war started out as at least vaguely comprehensible and well-meaning. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had responded to the Arab Spring stirrings against his government with furious threats against the Libyan population. The U.N. Security Council, at the urging of three permanent members (France, the United Kingdom and the United States) but with significant abstentions by Brazil, China, Germany, India and Russia, agreed to military action to protect Libyan civilians from the potential ravages of the government's armed forces. That limited objective made some sense in humanitarian terms. Libyan rebels launched an effort to oust Mr. Gadhafi from power but quickly ran out of gas. The allies began fighting under the banner of NATO, with the United States in principle having handed over leadership of the effort -- which became, clearly, aimed at regime change, allegedly a "no, no" for the regime of President Barack Obama because it saw this as a major fault of the preceding administration of President George W. Bush. The allies, having eliminated Mr. Gadhafi's air power, began bombing not only government military targets but also making parts of Tripoli, the Libyan capital, look like Joplin, Missouri, after the tornado. This was done in the name of hitting military installations, although it has become evident that Mr. Gadhafi himself was their real target. The U.S. role moved into semi-clandestine mode. CIA and special operations forces were on the ground, helping with targeting and providing other intelligence support to NATO air forces as they demolished targets in Libya. Page 10 of 154 In the meantime, the rebels' provisional "government" in eastern Libya -- in Benghazi, formerly known as Cyrenaica -- continued to take an informal approach to military action, in principle taking advantage of the NATO air strikes to move westward toward Tripoli. In fact, it remains divided by tribe, ill-disciplined, indifferently led and, in the end, lightly motivated, in spite of all the bold talk about fighting for freedom. The "government" now has 40 ministers and has eliminated women from all significant positions of leadership. When preparing to go to Libya in 1963 one of the first books I read was on the tribes of Cyrenaica. The Cyrenaicans still operate on a tribal basis. They oppose the tribes of western and southern Libya. I haven't figured out yet whether the geniuses who run U.S. foreign policy don't know that, or whether their reasons for proceeding to destroy Libya as a nation were so compelling that they were willing to put their nickels on the eastern Libyans in spite of the legendary divisions among their tribes and the problems these present. Mr. Obama is moving ahead even though he is in clear violation of the terms of the U.S. War Powers Act. So what is behind his adherence to a policy of pounding Libya? It is oil, to a degree. Even though Libya produces only 2 percent of the world's oil, the companies that Libya nationalized after Mr. Gadhafi took power in 1969 were owned in part by British and American companies with long memories and a lot of lobbying clout in Washington due to their political contributions to parties and congressmen. France, the United Kingdom and the United States would just love to get their concessions back. It is also clear that Mr. Gadhafi is not anyone's idea of an enlightened ruler. Even though he handed over his nascent nuclear weapons program during the Bush years, winning big points, he also took down Pan Am 103 in 1988. He paid compensation to victims' families but that tragedy remains an unsettled score between the United States and Libya. But is he worse than some of the Persian Gulf emirs -- not to mention Saudi Arabia's royalty -- that we cuddle up to for oil, arms sales, military bases and whatever else? Which leaves the fundamental question, what business is it of the United States to decide who should rule Libya or any other country in the world that poses no threat to us? Do we see no conflict of principles between taking the greatest of pride in our own independence, glorifying our founding fathers and praising our troops who fight and die to preserve that independence, while at the same time bombing into rubble some other country's capital to try to change its current leaders? My own personal question is, why do I care? Or at least, why do I care more than most Americans? There is no noticeable resistance among Americans or in Congress to the destruction we are bringing to Libya. The answer is, I think, because I have seen and lived in the Libya that U.S. and NATO armaments are now pulverizing. It is hard for Americans to imagine Libya. There are places where robed women and men with donkeys raise water from wells just like the pictures in the books in Sunday school. There are green hills of Cyrenaica where it is possible to wander through Greek and Roman ruins alone. It is also hard for Americans to imagine the destruction that modern arms can bring to a city. The videos of Joplin and eastern Japan give us some idea. Grainy black-and-white footage of post-war Europe shows us more. But why Libya? In the name of exactly what? We as a people are acting in Libya like some maddened pit bull that just has to attack something. It is shameful. Dan Simpson , a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor ( dsimpson@post-gazette.com , 412 263-1976). 4. “NATO warplanes flew thousands of sorties that dropped 7,700 bombs or missiles; because The Times did not examine sites in several cities and towns where the air campaign was active, the casualty estimate could be low.” From: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/scores-of-unintended-casualties-in-nato-war-in-libya.html?pagewanted=all Page 11 of 154  3. UN Resolution for Libya 1973 full text: Alex Note: The expert panel cited at the end was never assembled or had huge gaps, with no visits to Libya until the West decided “no deal” basically in my view the West decided Gadaffi has to go, which is not in the resolution and would violate it as far as I can tell. The Security Council,Recalling its resolution 1970 (2011) of 26 February 2011, Deploring the failure of the Libyan authorities to comply with resolution 1970 (2011), Expressing grave concern at the deteriorating situation, the escalation of violence, and the heavy civilian casualties, Reiterating the responsibility of the Libyan authorities to protect the Libyan population and reaffirming that parties to armed conflicts bear the primary responsibility to take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of civilians, Condemning the gross and systematic violation of human rights, including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and summary executions, Further condemning acts of violence and intimidation committed by the Libyan authorities against journalists, media professionals and associated personnel and urging these authorities to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law as outlined in resolution 1738 (2006), Considering that the widespread and systematic attacks currently taking place in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity, Recalling paragraph 26 of resolution 1970 (2011) in which the Council expressed its readiness to consider taking additional appropriate measures, as necessary, to facilitate and support the return of humanitarian agencies and make available humanitarian and related assistance in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Expressing its determination to ensure the protection of civilians and civilian populated areas and the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance and the safety of humanitarian personnel, Recalling the condemnation by the League of Arab States, the African Union, and the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference of the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that have been and are being committed in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Taking note of the final communiqué of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference of 8 March 2011, and the communiqué of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union of 10 March 2011 which established an ad hoc High Level Committee on Libya, Taking note also of the decision of the Council of the League of Arab States of 12 March 2011 to call for the imposition of a no-fly zone on Libyan military aviation, and to establish safe areas in places exposed to shelling as a precautionary measure that allows the protection of the Libyan people and foreign nationals residing in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Taking note further of the Secretary-General's call on 16 March 2011 for an immediate cease-fire, Recalling its decision to refer the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya since 15 February 2011 to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and stressing that those responsible for or complicit in attacks targeting the civilian population, including aerial and naval attacks, must be held to account, Reiterating its concern at the plight of refugees and foreign workers forced to flee the violence in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, welcoming the response of neighbouring States, in particular Tunisia and Egypt, to address the needs of those refugees and foreign workers, and calling on the international community to support those efforts, Deploring the continuing use of mercenaries by the Libyan authorities, Considering that the establishment of a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya constitutes an important element for the protection of civilians as well as the safety of the delivery of humanitarian assistance and a decisive step for the cessation of hostilities in Libya, Expressing concern also for the safety of foreign nationals and their rights in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Welcoming the appointment by the Secretary General of his Special Envoy to Libya, Mr Abdel-Elah Mohamed Al-Khatib and supporting his efforts to find a sustainable and peaceful solution to the crisis in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Page 12 of 154 Reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Determining that the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security, Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, 1. Demands the immediate establishment of a cease-fire and a complete end to violence and all attacks against, and abuses of, civilians; 2. Stresses the need to intensify efforts to find a solution to the crisis which responds to the legitimate demands of the Libyan people and notes the decisions of the Secretary-General to send his Special Envoy to Libya and of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to send its ad hoc High Level Committee to Libya with the aim of facilitating dialogue to lead to the political reforms necessary to find a peaceful and sustainable solution; 3. Demands that the Libyan authorities comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, human rights and refugee law and take all measures to protect civilians and meet their basic needs, and to ensure the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance; 4. 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, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory, and requests the Member States concerned to inform the Secretary-General immediately of the measures they take pursuant to the authorization conferred by this paragraph which shall be immediately reported to the Security Council; 5. Recognizes the important role of the League of Arab States in matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security in the region, and bearing in mind Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, requests the Member States of the League of Arab States to cooperate with other Member States in the implementation of paragraph 4; 5. No fly zone 6. Decides to establish a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help protect civilians; 7. Decides further that the ban imposed by paragraph 6 shall not apply to flights whose sole purpose is humanitarian, such as delivering or facilitating the delivery of assistance, including medical supplies, food, humanitarian workers and related assistance, or evacuating foreign nationals from the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, nor shall it apply to flights authorised by paragraphs 4 or 8, nor other flights which are deemed necessary by States acting under the authorisation conferred in paragraph 8 to be for the benefit of the Libyan people, and that these flights shall be coordinated with any mechanism established under paragraph 8; 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, as necessary, and requests the States concerned in cooperation with the League of Arab States to coordinate closely with the Secretary General on the measures they are taking to implement this ban, including by establishing an appropriate mechanism for implementing the provisions of paragraphs 6 and 7 above, 9. Calls upon all Member States, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, to provide assistance, including any necessary over-flight approvals, for the purposes of implementing paragraphs 4, 6, 7 and 8 above; 10. Requests the Member States concerned to coordinate closely with each other and the Secretary-General on the measures they are taking to implement paragraphs 4, 6, 7 and 8 above, including practical measures for the monitoring and approval of authorised humanitarian or evacuation flights; 11. Decides that the Member States concerned shall inform the Secretary-General and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States immediately of measures taken in exercise of the authority conferred by paragraph 8 above, including to supply a concept of operations; 12. Requests the Secretary-General to inform the Council immediately of any actions taken by the Member States concerned in exercise of the authority conferred by paragraph 8 above and to report to the Council within 7 days and every month thereafter on the implementation of this resolution, including information on any violations of the flight ban imposed by paragraph 6 above; 6. Enforcement of the arms embargo 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 Page 13 of 154 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"; 14. Requests Member States which are taking action under paragraph 13 above on the high seas to coordinate closely with each other and the Secretary-General and further requests the States concerned to inform the Secretary-General and the Committee established pursuant to paragraph 24 of resolution 1970 (2011) ("the Committee") immediately of measures taken in the exercise of the authority conferred by paragraph 13 above; 15. Requires any Member State whether acting nationally or through regional organisations or arrangements, when it undertakes an inspection pursuant to paragraph 13 above, to submit promptly an initial written report to the Committee containing, in particular, explanation of the grounds for the inspection, the results of such inspection, and whether or not cooperation was provided, and, if prohibited items for transfer are found, further requires such Member States to submit to the Committee, at a later stage, a subsequent written report containing relevant details on the inspection, seizure, and disposal, and relevant details of the transfer, including a description of the items, their origin and intended destination, if this information is not in the initial report; 16. Deplores the continuing flows of mercenaries into the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and calls upon all Member States to comply strictly with their obligations under paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011) to prevent the provision of armed mercenary personnel to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; 7. Ban on flights 17. Decides that all States shall deny permission to any aircraft registered in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or owned or operated by Libyan nationals or companies to take off from, land in or overfly their territory unless the particular flight has been approved in advance by the Committee, or in the case of an emergency landing; 18. Decides that all States shall deny permission to any aircraft to take off from, land in or overfly their territory, if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the aircraft contains items the supply, sale, transfer, or export of which is prohibited by paragraphs 9 and 10 of resolution 1970 (2011) as modified by this resolution, including the provision of armed mercenary personnel, except in the case of an emergency landing; 8. Asset freeze 19. Decides that the asset freeze imposed by paragraph 17, 19, 20 and 21 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall apply to all funds, other financial assets and economic resources which are on their territories, which are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Libyan authorities, as designated by the Committee, or by individuals or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, or by entities owned or controlled by them, as designated by the Committee, and decides further that all States shall ensure that any funds, financial assets or economic resources are prevented from being made available by their nationals or by any individuals or entities within their territories, to or for the benefit of the Libyan authorities, as designated by the Committee, or individuals or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, or entities owned or controlled by them, as designated by the Committee, and directs the Committee to designate such Libyan authorities, individuals or entities within 30 days of the date of the adoption of this resolution and as appropriate thereafter; 20. Affirms its determination to ensure that assets frozen pursuant to paragraph 17 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall, at a later stage, as soon as possible be made available to and for the benefit of the people of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; 21. Decides that all States shall require their nationals, persons subject to their jurisdiction and firms incorporated in their territory or subject to their jurisdiction to exercise vigilance when doing business with entities incorporated in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or subject to its jurisdiction, and any individuals or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, and entities owned or controlled by them, if the States have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that such business could contribute to violence and use of force against civilians; 9. Designations 22. Decides that the individuals listed in Annex I shall be subject to the travel restrictions imposed in paragraphs 15 and 16 of resolution 1970 (2011), and decides further that the individuals and entities listed in Annex II shall be subject to the asset freeze imposed in paragraphs 17, 19, 20 and 21 of resolution 1970 (2011); 23. Decides that the measures specified in paragraphs 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall apply also to individuals and entities determined by the Council or the Committee to have violated the provisions of resolution 1970 (2011), particularly paragraphs 9 and 10 thereof, or to have assisted others in doing so; Page 14 of 154  10. Panel of experts 24. Requests the Secretary-General to create for an initial period of one year, in consultation with the Committee, a group of up to eight experts ("Panel of Experts"), under the direction of the Committee to carry out the following tasks: (a) Assist the Committee in carrying out its mandate as specified in paragraph 24 of resolution 1970 (2011) and this resolution; (b) Gather, examine and analyse information from States, relevant United Nations bodies, regional organisations and other interested parties regarding the implementation of the measures decided in resolution 1970 (2011) and this resolution, in particular incidents of non-compliance; (c) Make recommendations on actions the Council, or the Committee or State, may consider to improve implementation of the relevant measures; (d) Provide to the Council an interim report on its work no later than 90 days after the Panel's appointment, and a final report to the Council no later than 30 days prior to the termination of its mandate with its findings and recommendations; 25. Urges all States, relevant United Nations bodies and other interested parties, to cooperate fully with the Committee and the Panel of Experts, in particular by supplying any information at their disposal on the implementation of the measures decided in resolution 1970 (2011) and this resolution, in particular incidents of non-compliance; 26. Decides that the mandate of the Committee as set out in paragraph 24 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall also apply to the measures decided in this resolution; 27. Decides that all States, including the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, shall take the necessary measures to ensure that no claim shall lie at the instance of the Libyan authorities, or of any person or body in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, or of any person claiming through or for the benefit of any such person or body, in connection with any contract or other transaction where its performance was affected by reason of the measures taken by the Security Council in resolution 1970 (2011), this resolution and related resolutions; 28. Reaffirms its intention to keep the actions of the Libyan authorities under continuous review and underlines its readiness to review at any time the measures imposed by this resolution and resolution 1970 (2011), including by strengthening, suspending or lifting those measures, as appropriate, based on compliance by the Libyan authorities with this resolution and resolution 1970 (2011). 29. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-baker/whowhatwhy-factchecks-the_b_882419.html 5. Factchecking the Media: More Questions About the Libyan Sex Atrocity Reporting Posted: 06/22/11 04:43 PM ET Stories with a sexual component have always been instant hits in the ratings, and things are only getting worse. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, last week, media coverage of Congressman Anthony Weiner and his pornographic tweets filled 17 percent of the "news hole" (space and time devoted by the media). The economy, by comparison, accounted for 11 percent. The Middle East also got 11 percent. Actually, a greater percentage had something in common when you count stories on wieners of all kinds. Because a rapidly spiraling scandal involves the allegation that the embattled Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi ordered his troops to commit mass rape--and gave them Viagra to help fortify them in this atrocity. As we noted previously, that story has been reported widely throughout the world. As we also noted, there's scant evidence that it is true--at least at this point. Moreover, it shows signs of being part of a larger disinformation effort of the sort that has always been part and parcel of war. (A war whose true purposes, as you can see from an earlier analysis we did, is consistently obscured.) Despite reasons to be cautious, the media have picked up the ViagraRape story with the sort of enthusiasm they showed for the Anthony Weiner saga. The Weiner story at least turned out to be true. Though that doesn't mitigate how the media pandered to public voyeurism--letting this one man's personal misdoings dominate and shut out more substantive reports, on things that actually affect us and our world. Page 15 of 154 The Libyan mass rape story is another thing entirely. As we have noted, the coverage has been characterized by recklessness and laziness. And in this case, much more is at stake than a single congressman's future. *** Perhaps the ViagraRape story will turn out to be true. But so far there is no real evidence. There is also no logic in believing that a man in Qaddafi's dire position vis a vis public opinion would order something like that. As brutal as he has been, there is no previous track record of him ordering mass rapes. And there are many reasons to be suspicious of the story. Now comes the latest entry in the gullibility sweepstakes. From the hallowed BBC, of all places. ...Libyan charities say they are getting reports that in the west of the country, which is particularly conservative, Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces have tended to rape women and girls in front of their fathers and brothers. "To be seen naked and violated is worse than death for them," says Hana Elgadi. "This is a region where women will not go out of the house without covering their face with a veil." Ms Elgadi is in a group of Libyan volunteers offering medical help and HIV tests. The organisation is also offering to pay for abortions for women who have been raped in the war. Well, Ms. Elgadi is "in a group of Libyan volunteers". But she is not a Libyan volunteer herself, nor simply helping victims. She is an expat with a mission. On her Facebook profile, she lists herself as "Hana FreeLibya Elgadi". She lives in London, and is an investment banker. Without in any way questioning Ms. Elgadi's intentions, the fact remains that she is a declared partisan of the forces seeking to overthrow Qaddafi, not an impartial or expert eyewitness. More from the BBC piece: "Time is against us," says Nader Elhamessi from the Libyan aid agency, World for Libya "For the moment pregnancies can be disguised, but not for much longer. Many fathers will kill their own daughters if they find out they have been raped." ...The charity World for Libya has engaged imams across the border in Tunisia to preach that rape is not the victim's fault. ...World for Libya is trying to reach a group of teenage girls still inside Libya whose school was attacked by forces loyal to Col Gaddafi. "The armed men separated the girls and raped those they deemed more attractive," says Nader Elhamessi. "One of the girls cut her wrists and killed herself rather than face the shame. The rapes were only reported to us by the girls who were left alone." The reality is that rape has always been a byproduct of war and violence (involving even American soldiers on occasion) . But the best we have here is second-hand reports from teenagers who say they themselves were not harmed. That's just not good enough before spreading a story like this. Another basic thing journalists should do is explain what organizations are. We looked up "the Libyan aid agency World for Libya" and found that its website is hosted by a London ad agency. That agency is owned by Salah Mussa, a wealthy London-based real estate magnate and Libyan exile. His company, Chesterton, was glad to do business with Qaddafi not so long ago. Chesterton hopes to open an office in Libya by November 2009 and work closely with the country's sovereign wealth fund there, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA). Page 16 of 154 Unfortunately for Mussa, Goldman Sachs was there first, managing to lose 98 percent of $1.3 billion the Libyan sovereign wealth fund gave it to invest. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal. Qaddafi, furious at the losses, became increasingly hostile to Western investors seeking Libya's riches. Back to the BBC story: One family who contacted Ms Elgadi needed medication for HIV. "The mother, the father and the son were all raped by Col Gaddafi's forces. The mother came to us when they discovered they had contracted HIV/Aids as a result." Viagra ...The International Criminal Court says it believes Col Gaddafi's forces are using rape as a weapon of war. The ICC says it has reason to believe orders to rape were given, and the drug Viagra was distributed to fighters. For more on the ICC's claim, and how thin it is, see our previous piece. BBC, continuing: A major in the Libyan army who has now deserted told the BBC the shipments of Viagra were widely known about, but neither he nor his colleagues saw them. "The order to rape was not given to the regular army," says the major, who did not want his name to be used, because his family is still in Tripoli. "Col Gaddafi knew we would never accept it. It was given to the mercenaries." So we are to take the word of an unnamed army major who deserted--and who himself says it was not the army, and that neither he nor his colleagues saw any Viagra in use. Just "widely known about" as it is "widely known about" by all of us who consume these "news reports." Mr Jamal, the UNHCR's emergency co-ordinator for Libya, says it has not so far uncovered evidence that rape has been used as a weapon of war, although it has seen evidence of individual instances of rape throughout the country. "We have also seen evidence that would seem to suggest that rape has been carried out by both sides, but we cannot say on what scale," he says. Jamal's more balanced initial analysis appears late in the story, where it is easily missed by those who will naturally focus on the headline and lead paragraphs. Libyan volunteers are advising international agencies on how to get Libyans who have been raped to come forward. "A foreigner cannot go in there with a clipboard and a translator and get a response," says Ms Elgadi. This of course cuts out exactly those with the credentials and objectivity who can really be trusted to assess the situation. Again, one cannot rule out the possibility that Qaddafi personally ordered mass rape. Or that he supplied Viagra to soldiers or mercenaries following his orders. But this follows a long history of deliberate disinformation in war, notably the false stories conjured up by PR outfits during the Gulf War-- including the notorious made-up tale of Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators at a Kuwaiti hospital. Congress bought that one, and the American people were up in arms, eager to support military action. The "mission creep" on Libya has expanded from an initial promise to "protect civilians" for a few days into what can only be described as yet another undeclared war. Let the buyer beware. Page 17 of 154 In Strikes on Libya by NATO, an Unspoken Civilian Toll Tyler Hicks/The New York Times When NATO bombs hit an apartment building in Surt, Libya, on Sept. 16, Mahmoud Zarog Massoud's wife was killed. More Photos » By C. J. CHIVERS and ERIC SCHMITT Published: December 17, 2011 TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO’s seven-month air campaign in Libya, hailed by the alliance and many Libyans for blunting a lethal crackdown by Col. Muammar el- Qaddafi and helping to push him from power, came with an unrecognized toll: scores of civilian casualties the alliance has long refused to acknowledge or investigate. Interactive Errant NATO Airstrikes in Libya: 13 Cases Photographs Page 18 of 154 The Civilian Toll in Libya NATO Airstrikes in Libya Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Readers’ Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article.  Read All Comments (116) » By NATO’s telling during the war, and in statements since sorties ended on Oct. 31, the alliance-led operation was nearly flawless — a model air war that used high technology, meticulous planning and restraint to protect civilians from Colonel Qaddafi’s troops, which was the alliance’s mandate. “We have carried out this operation very carefully, without confirmed civilian casualties,” the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said in November. But an on-the-ground examination by The New York Times of airstrike sites across Libya — including interviews with survivors, doctors and witnesses, and the collection of munitions remnants, medical reports, death certificates and photographs — found credible accounts of dozens of civilians killed by NATO in many distinct attacks. The victims, including at least 29 women or children, often had been asleep in homes when the ordnance hit. In all, at least 40 civilians, and perhaps more than 70, were killed by NATO at these sites, available evidence suggests. While that total is not high compared with other conflicts in which Western powers have relied heavily on air power, and less than the exaggerated accounts circulated by the Qaddafi government, it is also not a complete accounting. Survivors and doctors working for the anti-Qaddafi interim authorities point to dozens more civilians wounded in these and other strikes, and they referred reporters to other sites where civilian casualties were suspected. Two weeks after being provided a 27-page memorandum from The Times containing extensive details of nine separate attacks in which evidence indicated that allied planes had killed or wounded unintended victims, NATO modified its stance. “From what you have gathered on the ground, it appears that innocent civilians may have been killed or injured, despite all the care and precision,” said Oana Lungescu, a spokeswoman for NATO headquarters in Brussels. “We deeply regret any loss of life.” She added that NATO was in regular contact with the new Libyan government and that “we stand ready to work with the Libyan authorities to do what they feel is right.” NATO, however, deferred the responsibility of initiating any inquiry to Libya’s interim authorities, whose survival and climb to power were made possible largely by the airstrike campaign. So far, Libyan leaders have expressed no interest in examining NATO’s mistakes. The failure to thoroughly assess the civilian toll reduces the chances that allied forces, which are relying ever more heavily on air power rather than risking ground troops in overseas conflicts, will examine their Libyan experience to minimize collateral deaths elsewhere. Allied commanders have been ordered to submit a lessons- learned report to NATO headquarters in February. NATO’s incuriosity about the many lethal accidents raises questions about how thorough that review will be. Page 19 of 154 NATO’s experience in Libya also reveals an attitude that initially prevailed in Afghanistan. There, NATO forces, led by the United States, tightened the rules of engagement for airstrikes and insisted on better targeting to reduce civilian deaths only after repeatedly ignoring or disputing accounts of airstrikes that left many civilians dead. In Libya, NATO’s inattention to its unintended victims has also left many wounded civilians with little aid in the aftermath of the country’s still-chaotic change in leadership. These victims include a boy blasted by debris in his face and right eye, a woman whose left leg was amputated, another whose foot and leg wounds left her disabled, a North Korean doctor whose left foot was crushed and his wife, who suffered a fractured skull. The Times’s investigation included visits to more than 25 sites, including in Tripoli, Surman, Mizdah, Zlitan, Ga’a, Majer, Ajdabiya, Misurata, Surt, Brega and Sabratha and near Benghazi. More than 150 targets — bunkers, buildings or vehicles — were hit at these places. NATO warplanes flew thousands of sorties that dropped 7,700 bombs or missiles; because The Times did not examine sites in several cities and towns where the air campaign was active, the casualty estimate could be low. There are indications that the alliance took many steps to avoid harming civilians, and often did not damage civilian infrastructure useful to Colonel Qaddafi’s military. Elements of two American-led air campaigns in Iraq, in 1991 and 2003, appear to have been avoided, including attacks on electrical grids. Such steps spared civilians certain hardships and risks that accompanied previous Western air-to-ground operations. NATO also said that allied forces did not use cluster munitions or ordnance containing depleted uranium, both of which pose health and environmental risks, in Libya at any time. The alliance’s fixed-wing aircraft dropped only laser- or satellite-guided weapons, said Col. Gregory Julian, a NATO spokesman; no so-called dumb bombs were used. While the overwhelming preponderance of strikes seemed to have hit their targets without killing noncombatants, many factors contributed to a run of fatal mistakes. These included a technically faulty bomb, poor or dated intelligence and the near absence of experienced military personnel on the ground who could help direct airstrikes. The alliance’s apparent presumption that residences thought to harbor pro-Qaddafi forces were not occupied by civilians repeatedly proved mistaken, the evidence suggests, posing a reminder to advocates of air power that no war is cost- or error-free. The investigation also found significant damage to civilian infrastructure from certain attacks for which a rationale was not evident or risks to civilians were clear. These included strikes on warehouses that current anti-Qaddafi guards said contained only food, or near businesses or homes that were destroyed, including an attack on a munitions bunker beside a neighborhood that caused a large secondary explosion, scattering warheads and toxic rocket fuel. NATO has also not yet provided data to Libyans on the locations or types of unexploded ordnance from its strikes. At least two large weapons were present at sites visited by The Times. “This information is urgently needed,” said Dr. Ali Yahwya, chief surgeon at the Zlitan hospital. Moreover, the scouring of one strike site found remnants of NATO munitions in a ruined building that an alliance spokesman explicitly said NATO did not attack. That mistake — a pair of strikes — killed 12 anti-Qaddafi fighters and nearly killed a civilian ambulance crew aiding wounded men. It underscored NATO’s sometimes tenuous grasp of battle lines and raised questions about the forthrightness and accuracy of the alliance’s public-relations campaign. The second strike pointed to a tactic that survivors at several sites recounted: warplanes restriking targets minutes after a first attack, a practice that imperiled, and sometimes killed, civilians rushing to the wounded. Pressed about the dangers posed to noncombatants by such attacks, NATO said it would reconsider the tactic’s rationale in its internal campaign review. “That’s a valid point to take into consideration in future operations,” Colonel Julian said. That statement is a shift in the alliance’s stance. NATO’s response to allegations of mistaken attacks had long been carefully worded denials and insistence that its operations were devised and supervised with exceptional care. Faced with credible allegations that it killed civilians, the alliance said it had neither the capacity for nor intention of investigating and often repeated that disputed strikes were sound. The alliance maintained this position even after two independent Western organizations — Human Rights Watch and the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, or Civic — met privately with NATO officials and shared field research about mistakes, including, in some cases, victims’ names and the dates and locations where they died. Organizations researching civilian deaths in Libya said that the alliance’s resistance to making itself accountable and acknowledging mistakes amounted to poor public policy. “It’s crystal clear that civilians died in NATO strikes,” said Fred Abrahams, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. “But this whole campaign is shrouded by an atmosphere of impunity” and by NATO’s and the Libyan authorities’ mutually congratulatory statements. Mr. Abrahams added that the matter went beyond the need to assist civilians harmed by airstrikes, though he said that was important. At issue, he said, was “who is going to lose their lives in the next campaign because these errors and mistakes went unexamined, and no one learned from them?” Page 20 of 154 Human Rights Watch and Civic also noted that the alliance’s stance on civilian casualties it caused in Libya was at odds with its practices for so-called collateral damage in Afghanistan. There, public anger and political tension over fatal mistakes led NATO to adopt policies for investigating actions that caused civilian harm, including guidelines for expressing condolences and making small payments to victims or their families. “You would think, and I did think, that all of the lessons learned from Afghanistan would have been transferred to Libya,” said Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of Civic, which helped NATO devise its practices for Afghanistan. “But many of them didn’t.” Choosing Targets When foreign militaries began attacking Libya’s loyalists on March 19, the United States military, more experienced than NATO at directing large operations, coordinated the campaign. On March 31, the Americans transferred command to NATO. Seven months later, the alliance had destroyed more than 5,900 military targets by means of roughly 9,700 strike sorties, according to its data, helping to dismantle the pro-Qaddafi military and militias. Warplanes from France, Britain, the United States, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Canada dropped ordnance. Two non- NATO nations, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, participated on a small scale. France carried out about a third of all strike sorties, Britain 21 percent and the United States 19 percent, according to data from each nation. The attacks fell under two broad categories. So-called deliberate strikes were directed against fixed targets, like buildings or air-defense systems. These targets were selected and assigned to pilots before aircraft took off. Deliberate strikes were planned to minimize risks to civilians, NATO said. In Naples, Italy, intelligence analysts and targeting specialists vetted proposed targets and compiled lists, which were sent to an operations center near Bologna, where targets were matched to specific aircraft and weapons. For some targets, like command bunkers, NATO said, it conducted long periods of surveillance first. Drones or other aircraft chronicled the daily routines at the sites, known as “patterns of life,” until commanders felt confident that each target was valid. Other considerations then came into play. Targeting specialists chose, for example, the angle of attack and time of day thought to pose the least risk to civilians. They would also consider questions of ordnance. These included the size and type of bomb, and its fuze. Some fuzes briefly delay detonation of a bomb’s high-explosive charge. This can allow ordnance to penetrate concrete and explode in an underground tunnel or bunker, or, alternately, to burrow into sand before exploding — reducing the blast wave, shrapnel and risk to people and property nearby. (NATO could also choose inert bombs, made of concrete, that can collapse buildings or shatter tanks with kinetic energy rather than an explosion. NATO said such weapons were used fewer than 10 times in the war.) Many early strikes were planned missions. But about two-thirds of all strikes, and most of the attacks late in the war, were another sort: dynamic strikes. Dynamic strikes were against targets of opportunity. Crews on aerial patrols would spot or be told of a potential target, like suspected military vehicles. Then, if cleared by controllers in Awacs aircraft, they would attack. NATO said dynamic missions, too, were guided by practices meant to limit risks. On Oct. 24, Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, the operation’s commander, described a philosophy beyond careful target vetting or using only guided weapons: restraint. “Only when we had a clear shot would we take it,” he said. Colonel Julian, the spokesman, said there were hundreds of instances when pilots could have released ordnance but because of concerns for civilians they held fire. Col. Alain Pelletier, commander of seven Canadian CF-18 fighters that flew 946 strike sorties, said Canada installed a special computer software modification in its planes that allowed pilots to assess the likely blast radius around an intended target and to call off strikes if the technology warned they posed too great a risk to civilians. Colonel Julian also said that NATO broadcast radio messages and that it dropped millions of leaflets to warn Libyans to stay away from likely military targets, a practice Libyan citizens across much of the country confirmed. A Blow to the Rebels Civilians were killed by NATO within days of the alliance’s intervention, the available evidence shows, beginning with one of the uglier mistakes of the air war: the pummeling of a secret rebel armored convoy that was advancing through the desert toward the Qaddafi forces’ eastern front lines. Having survived the first wave of air-to-ground attacks, the loyalists were taking steps to avoid attracting NATO bombs. They moved in smaller formations and sometimes set aside armored vehicles in favor of pickup trucks resembling those that rebels drove. Pilots suddenly had fewer targets. On April 7, as the rebel armor lined up on a hill about 20 miles from Brega, NATO aircraft struck. In a series of attacks, laser-guided bombs stopped the formation, destroyed the rebels’ armor and scattered the anti-Qaddafi fighters, killing several of them, survivors said. The attack continued as civilians, including ambulance crews, tried to converge on the craters and flames to aid the wounded. Three shepherds were among them. Page 21 of 154 As the shepherds approached over the sand, a bomb slammed in again, said one of them, Abdul Rahman Ali Suleiman Sudani. The blast knocked them over, he said. His two cousins were hit. One, he said, was cut in half; the other had a gaping chest wound. Both died. Mr. Sudani and other relatives returned to the wreckage later and retrieved the remains for burial in Kufra. The men had died, he said, trying to help. “We called their families in Sudan and told them, ‘Your sons, they have passed away,’ ” he said. Colonel Julian declined to discuss this episode but said that each time NATO aircraft returned to strike again was a distinct event and a distinct decision, and that it was not a general practice for NATO to “double tap” its targets. This practice was reported several times by survivors at separate attacks and cited to explain why some civilians opted not to help at strike sites or bolted in fear soon after they did. Colonel Julian said the tactic was likely to be included in NATO’s internal review of the air campaign. An Errant Strike NATO’s planning or restraint did not protect the family of Ali Mukhar al-Gharari when his home was shattered in June by a phenomenon as old as air-to-ground war: errant ordnance. A retiree in Tripoli, Mr. Gharari owned a three-story house he shared with his adult children and their families. Late on June 19 a bomb struck it squarely, collapsing the front side. The rubble buried a courtyard apartment, the family said, where Karima, Mr. Gharari’s adult daughter, lived with her husband and two children, Jomana, 2, and Khaled, 7 months. All four were killed, as was another of Mr. Gharari’s adult children, Faruj, who was blasted from his second-floor bed to the rubble below, two of his brothers said. Eight other family members were wounded, one seriously. The Qaddafi government, given to exaggeration, claimed that nine civilians died in the airstrike, including a rescue worker electrocuted while clearing rubble. These deaths have not been independently corroborated. There has been no dispute about the Gharari deaths. Initially, NATO almost acknowledged its mistake. “A military missile site was the intended target,” an alliance statement said soon after. “There may have been a weapons system failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties.” Then it backtracked. Kristele Younes, director of field operations for Civic, the victims’ group, examined the site and delivered her findings to NATO. She met a cold response. “They said, ‘We have no confirmed reports of civilian casualties,’ ” Ms. Younes said. The reason, she said, was that the alliance had created its own definition for “confirmed”: only a death that NATO itself investigated and corroborated could be called confirmed. But because the alliance declined to investigate allegations, its casualty tally by definition could not budge — from zero. “The position was absurd,” Ms. Younes said. “But they made it very clear: there was no appetite within NATO to look at these incidents.” The position left the Gharari family disoriented, and in social jeopardy. Another of Mr. Gharari’s sons, Mohammed, said the family supported the revolution. But since NATO’s attack, other Libyans have labeled the family pro-Qaddafi. If NATO attacked the Ghararis’ home, the street logic went, the alliance must have had a reason. Mohammed al-Gharari said he would accept an apology from NATO. He said he could even accept the mistake. “If this was an error from their control room, I will not say anything harsh, because that was our destiny,” he said. But he asked that NATO lift the dishonor from the family and set the record straight. “NATO should tell the truth,” he said. “They should tell what happened, so everyone knows our family is innocent.” A ‘Horrible Mistake’ In the hours before his wife and two of their sons were killed, on Aug. 4, Mustafa Naji al-Morabit thought he had taken adequate precautions. When Colonel Qaddafi’s officers began meeting at a home next door in Zlitan, he moved his family. That was in July. The adjacent property, Mr. Morabit and his neighbors said, was owned by a loyalist doctor who hosted commanders who organized the local front. About a month later, as rebels pressed near, the officers fled, Mr. Morabit said. He and his family returned home on Aug. 2, assuming that the danger had passed. Calamity struck two days later. A bomb roared down in the early morning quiet and slammed into their concrete home, causing its front to buckle. Page 22 of 154 Mr. Morabit’s wife, Eptisam Ali al-Barbar, died of a crushed skull. Two of their three sons — Mohammed, 6, and Moataz, 3 — were killed, too. Three toes on the left foot of Fatima Umar Mansour, Mr. Morabit’s mother, were severed. Her lower left leg was snapped. “We were just in our homes at night,” she said, showing the swollen leg. The destruction of their home showed that even with careful standards for target selection, mistakes occurred. Not only did NATO hit the wrong building, survivors and neighbors said, but it also hit it more than two days late. Mr. Morabit added a sorrowful detail. He suspected that the bomb was made of concrete; there seemed to be no fire or explosion when it struck, he said. NATO may have tried to minimize damage, he added, but the would-be benefits of its caution were lost. “I want to know why,” he said. “NATO said they are so organized, that they are specialists. So why? Why this horrible mistake?” It is not clear whether the mistake was made by the pilot or those who selected the target. NATO declined to answer questions about the strike. On Aug. 8, four days after destroying the Morabit home, NATO hit buildings occupied by civilians again, this time in Majer, according to survivors, doctors and independent investigators. The strikes were NATO’s bloodiest known accidents in the war. The attack began with a series of 500-pound laser-guided bombs, called GBU-12s, ordnance remnants suggest. The first house, owned by Ali Hamid Gafez, 61, was crowded with Mr. Gafez’s relatives, who had been dislocated by the war, he and his neighbors said. The bomb destroyed the second floor and much of the first. Five women and seven children were killed; several more people were wounded, including Mr. Gafez’s wife, whose her lower left leg had to be amputated, the doctor who performed the procedure said. Minutes later, NATO aircraft attacked two buildings in a second compound, owned by brothers in the Jarud family. Four people were killed, the family said. Several minutes after the first strikes, as neighbors rushed to dig for victims, another bomb struck. The blast killed 18 civilians, both families said. The death toll has been a source of confusion. The Qaddafi government said 85 civilians died. That claim does not seem to be credible. With the Qaddafi propaganda machine now gone, an official list of dead, issued by the new government, includes 35 victims, among them the late-term fetus of a fatally wounded woman the Gafez family said went into labor as she died. The Zlitan hospital confirmed 34 deaths. Five doctors there also told of treating dozens of wounded people, including many women and children. All 16 beds in the intensive-care unit were filled with severely wounded civilians, doctors said. Dr. Ahmad Thoboot, the hospital’s co-director, said none of the victims, alive or dead, were in uniform. “There is no doubt,” he said. “This is not fabricated. Civilians were killed.” Descriptions of the wounds underscored the difference between mistakes with typical ground-to-ground arms and the unforgiving nature of mistakes with 500-pound bombs, which create blast waves of an entirely different order. Dr. Mustafa Ekhial, a surgeon, said the wounds caused by NATO’s bombs were far worse than those the staff had treated for months. “We have to tell the truth,” he said. “What we saw that night was completely different.” In previous statements, NATO said it watched the homes carefully before attacking and saw “military staging areas.” It also said that it reviewed the strikes and that claims of civilian casualties were not corroborated by “available factual information.” When asked what this information was, the alliance did not provide it. Mr. Gafez issued a challenge. An independent review of all prestrike surveillance video, he said, would prove NATO wrong. Only civilians were there, he said, and he demanded that the alliance release the video. Ms. Younes said the dispute missed an essential point. Under NATO’s targeting guidelines and in keeping with practices the alliance has repeatedly insisted that it followed, she said, if civilians were present, aircraft should not have attacked. The initial findings on the Majer strikes, part of the United Nations’ investigation into actions by all sides in Libya that harmed civilians, have raised questions about the legality of the attack under international humanitarian law, according to an official familiar with the investigation. Homes as Targets NATO’s strikes in Majer, one of five known attacks on apparently occupied residences, suggested a pattern. When residential targets were presumed to be used by loyalist forces, civilians were sometimes present — suggesting holes in NATO’s “pattern of life” reviews and other forms of vetting. Airstrikes on June 20 in Surman leveled homes owned by Maj. Gen. El-Khweldi el-Hamedi, a longtime confidant of Colonel Qaddafi and a member of his Revolutionary Council. NATO has said the family compound was used as command center. Page 23 of 154 The family’s account, partly confirmed by rebels, claimed that the strikes killed 13 civilians and wounded six more. Local anti-Qaddafi fighters corroborated the deaths of four of those killed — one of the general’s daughters-in-law and three of her children. General Hamedi was wounded and has taken refuge in Morocco, said his son Khaled. Khaled has filed a lawsuit against NATO, claiming that the attack was a crime. He said that he and his family were victims of rebel “fabrications,” which attracted NATO bombs. On Sept. 25, a smaller but similar attack destroyed the residence of Brig. Gen. Musbah Diyab in Surt, neighbors and his family members said. General Diyab, a distant cousin of Colonel Qaddafi, was killed. So were seven women and children who crowded into his home as rebels besieged the defenses of some of the Qaddafi loyalists’ last holdouts, witnesses said. By this time, tables in Libya had turned. The remaining loyalists held almost no territory. They were a dwindling, disorganized lot. It was the anti-Qaddafi forces who endangered civilians they suspected of having sympathies for the dying government, residents of Surt said. On a recent afternoon, Mahmoud Zarog Massoud, his hand swollen with an infection from a wound, wandered the broken shell of a seven-story apartment building in Surt, which was struck in mid-September. His apartment furniture had been blown about by the blast. He approached the kitchen, where, he said, he and his wife had just broken their Ramadan fast when ordnance hit. “We were not thinking NATO would attack our home,” he said. Judging by the damage and munitions’ remains, a bomb with a delayed fuze struck another wing of the building, burrowed into another apartment and exploded, blasting walls outward. Debris flew across the courtyard and through his kitchen’s balcony door. His wife, Aisha Abdujodil, was killed, both her arms severed, he said. Bloodstains still marked the floor and walls. Provided written questions, NATO declined to comment on the three strikes on homes in Surman and Surt. C. J. Chivers reported from Libya, and Eric Schmitt from Washington, Brussels and Naples, Italy. 6. Nato bombs Libyan TV transmitters Alliance attempts to silence Gaddafi's 'incitement to violence' against opponents as rebel unity is tested by Younis killing A Libyan rebel at a checkpoint near the town of Nalut in western Libya. Overnight Nato bombing raids against the Gaddafi regime's TV transmitters have come as the rebels' unity is tested by the killing of Abdel Fatah Younis. Photograph: Bob Strong/Reuters Nato warplanes have bombed Libyan state TV satellite transmitters in Tripoli in an attempt to stem the incitement of violence against those not loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the military alliance has said. Page 24 of 154 A series of loud explosions echoed across the capital before dawn. There was no immediate comment from Libyan officials on what had been hit but state TV was still on the air in Tripoli on Saturday morning. Nato said the airstrikes aimed to degrade Libyan ruler Gaddafi's "use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them". "Striking specifically these critical satellite dishes will reduce the regime's ability to oppress civilians while [preserving] television broadcast infrastructure that will be needed after the conflict," said a Nato statement. The attempt to silence the government's TV broadcasts comes at a sensitive time for the rebels, who appear to be in disarray after the mysterious death of their military chief. Abdel Fatah Younis's body was found on Thursday dumped outside the rebels' de facto capital of Benghazi, along with the bodies of two colonels who were his top aides. They had been shot and their bodies burned. Nato too has been increasingly embarrassed by the failure of its bombing campaign, now in its fifth month, to dislodge Gaddafi's regime. With the fasting month of Ramadan due to start in August there is growing realisation that the costly campaign will drag on into the autumn and possibly longer. Nato had originally hoped that a series of quick, sharp strikes would force Gaddafi out. Eight Nato members have been participating in air campaign in Libya: the US, Britain, France, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Denmark and Italy. They have carried out more than 6,500 strikes. But the coalition has been gradually fraying amid growing public opposition in Europe to the costs of the campaign – estimated at more than €1bn – at a time of budget cuts and other austerity measures. The US has been the first to limit its participation, deciding to only provide support to the European allies. Then Italy withdrew its only aircraft carrier and part of its air force contingent. Norway has announced it will pull out all of its F-16 warplanes by Monday. Estimate of Libyan Armed Forces: From Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/libyas-military-how-strong-are-gadhafis-forces/article1931552/ FACT CHECK 7. Libya's military: how strong are Gadhafi's forces? Page 25 of 154  Reuters Published Sunday, Mar. 06, 2011 11:56AM EST Last updated Sunday, Mar. 06, 2011 11:58AM EST  Libya’s military before the insurrection was on paper made up of some 100,000 troops, more than 2,000 tanks, 374 aircraft, a small surface navy and two patrol submarines. Since the rebellion there have been defections by members of the armed forces and some military hardware has fallen into rebel hands. The level of rebel strength is difficult to ascertain, but the best equipped and trained units have remained loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi because they are outside the regular army structure and are commanded by family members or people in his inner circle. Here are some details of Libya’s armed forces, officially totalling about 76,000 active personnel, plus a reserve or people’s militia of some 40,000. GROUND FORCES - ON PAPER Type: Numbers: Soldiers 50,000 (including 25,000 conscripts) Main battle tanks 2,205 (many may be inoperable) Reconnaissance vehicles 120 Armoured infantry fighting vehicles 1,000 Armoured personnel carriers 945 Artillery pieces 2,421 (including 444 self-propelled, 647 towed) Mortars 500 Air defence surface-to-air missiles 424 (at least) GROUND FORCES - IN REALITY Page 26 of 154  Even before the uprising, Libya’s military strength was seen as having been seriously undermined by sanctions and neglect although Western powers had just began to sell it weapons again. Much of the equipment is seen as poorly maintained or unusable, leaving it hard to estimate genuine numbers. Analysts say Mr. Gadhafi tried to emasculate the regular army to avoid the emergence of commanders who might rival his immediate family, relying instead particularly on three loyal “regime protection” units often of his own tribe. Many soldiers in the east have defected. That leaves him with what most estimate to be some 10-12,000 loyal Libyan troops. The most reliable formation is seen to be the 32nd Brigade commanded by Mr. Gadhafi’s son Khamis. There are reports of African mercenaries flown in by Mr. Gadhafi, but exact numbers are impossible to obtain. NAVY - ON PAPER Type: Numbers: Soldiers 8,000 (including coast guard) Submarines 2 patrol submarines Surface vehicles 3 Patrol and coastal ships 14 NAVY - IN REALITY Libya’s two surviving Foxtrot class diesel submarines were delivered by the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, but outside experts have long questioned their reliability. According to IHS Jane’s, in 2003 one was reported to be in dry dock and one was sea going -- although unlikely to be fully operational. It suggested both might already have been abandoned.  AIR FORCE - ON PAPER Type: Numbers: Soldiers 18,000 Combat capable aircraft 374 Fighter aircraft 217 (3 Mirage F1-ED, 94 MiG-25, 75 MiG-23 and 45 MiG-21) Helicopters 85 support helicopters 35 attack helicopters  AIR FORCE - IN REALITY  Analysts estimate many of Libya’s fast jets are in fact no longer airworthy. Mr. Gadhafi has so far also lost at least four aircraft in the course of this uprising with two jets defecting to Malta and the crew of a third ejecting over the desert rather than bomb opposition targets as ordered. There have been reports that rebels brought down a helicopter.   OTHER FORCES  There are also Air Defence Command forces which possess at least 216 surface-to-air missiles and 144 towed and 72 self propelled missiles.  Again, maintenance may be an issue. Most analysts believe Libya’s armed forces would not be able to seriously threaten outside air forces attempting to enforce a no-fly zone, saying Mr. Gadhafi’s defence capabilities probably lag behind those of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein before the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.  The BBC reported a British RAF Hercules transport aircraft evacuating foreign nationals came under small arms fire but was not seriously damaged. Some suggested the attack might have come from opposition forces who mistook the plane for one of Mr. Gadhafi’s aircraft on a bombing raid.  CHEMICAL WEAPONS Page 27 of 154   According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Libya destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical weapons munitions in early 2004 as part of a rapprochement with the West that also saw it abandon a nuclear program.  The OPCW told Reuters Libya did retain some 9.5 tonnes of deadly mustard gas at a secret  desert location but no longer had the capability to deliver it. END OF GLOBE AND MAIL ARTICLE: (Not from article from Alexander Hagen: We need to verify any WMD claims for these types of invasion) Conclusion: 7,000 missiles and bombs vs 35,000 (Libyan army size estimate by me, Bombs reported from NY Times, who cited NATO. This would equal 1 bomb per 5 Libyan Soldiers! US covertly allowed Islamic Extremists to overthrow Gadaffi since they were the driving force, along with many of the Eastern tribes, the Berber… 8. Treasure of Benghazi theft may be one of biggest in history Nick Meo November 1, 2011 The thieves ... drilled through a concrete ceiling and smashed open metal storage cupboards. Photo: Bobby Yip TRIPOLI: A priceless collection of nearly 8000 ancient gold, silver and bronze coins has been stolen from a bank vault in the Libyan city of Benghazi. The theft of the so-called Treasure of Benghazi, much of which dates from the time of Alexander the Great, is believed to have been one of the biggest in history. Interpol has been alerted about the theft, which took place earlier this year. Libya's National Transitional Council is believed to have kept it quiet. London's The Sun newspaper reported that a single coin similar to those in the Benghazi haul was sold for £268,000 ($406,808). Details of the robbery emerged at a conference held by the United Nations cultural body UNESCO in Paris last week. Metal storage cupboards at the National Commercial Bank of Benghazi were smashed open and the red wax seals on the wooden trunks housing the collection were broken after the thieves drilled through a concrete ceiling. Items of lesser value were left untouched. Meanwhile Libya's interim Prime Minister, Mahmoud Jibril, has confirmed the presence of chemical weapons in Libya and says foreign inspectors will arrive later this week to deal with the issue. He said Libya had no interest in keeping such weapons. ''We would like to assure you that the new Libya will be a peaceful Libya … it is in our interest to have no [chemical] weapons in Libya,'' Mr Jibril said. Last week the top UN envoy to Libya, Ian Martin, told the UN Security Council that undeclared chemical weapons sites had been located in Libya and expressed concern over their control. At the time, Mr Martin also expressed concern over command and control of chemical and nuclear material sites. ''There are international organisations taking care of this issue,'' Mr Jibril said, adding that representatives of those organisations were due to arrive in Libya later in the week. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/treasure-of-benghazi-theft-may-be-one-of-biggest-in-history-20111031-1ms6f.html#ixzz1wsslpBpQ 1. Libya: Al Qaeda flag flown above Benghazi courthouse - Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk › ... › Africa and Indian Ocean › Libya News Page 28 of 154  Nov 1, 2011 – The black flag of Al Qaeda has been spotted flying over a public building in Libya, raising concerns that the country could lurch towards Muslim ... 2. Al Qaeda Flags Parade in Gadhafi Hometown? - ABC News abcnews.go.com › Investigative Unit Mar 26, 2012 – A new video purports to show al Qaeda flags flown by Libyan police and military vehicles in Sirte, Libya. (YouTube). Share. Email. Comments ... 9. Libya speculates on potent figure with a past Friday, May 4, 2012 Abdel Hakim Belhaj, head of the miitary council and former leader of a group once believed to be aligned with al-Qaeda, in his office in Tripoli recently. The country's new leaders, and the US, say Libyan Islamists are sending signals that they are dedicated to democratic pluralism. Photograph: Moises Saman/New York Times 10. In this section »  Offer to Dowlers 'cannot absolve' News International  Abuse lobby urges Pope not to meet victims in Germany  Georgia sanctions execution of Troy Davis MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent in Tripoli 1. Post-Qaddafi Libya Hobbled as Misrata's City-State Thrives ... BusinessWeek - Feb 29, 2012 Doctors Without Borders suspended its operations in Misrata on Jan. 26, saying detainees were being tortured and denied medical care. ... 3. Page 29 of 154  Amnesty: Libyan militias commit war crimes - Boston.com Boston Globe - Feb 14, 2012 The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders suspended its work in prisons in Misrata in late January because it said torture was so rampant that some ... 11. Libyan oil minister who defected from Gaddafi regime found dead in Vienna Shukri Ghanem's body was found floating in Danube, close to his house in the Austrian capital o  Associated Press in Vienna  guardian.co.uk, Sunday 29 April 2012 19.54 EDT  Article history Shukri Ghanem had been living in Vienna ever since he defected from Gaddafi regime, even after it was toppled and the late dictator killed by rebels last year. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP The former Libyan oil minister who last year announced he was defecting fromMuammar Gaddafi's regime to support the rebels has been found dead in Vienna. Police said the corpse of Shukri Ghanem, 69, was found floating in the Danube near his home, which he apparently left early morning on Sunday. The body was dressed though it carried no identification; it also showed no signs of violence, but an autopsy will be carried out, a police spokesman said: "There would be no signs of violence if someone pushed him in. But it is also possible that he became ill and fell into the water." Police were alerted by a passerby who saw his body floating near his Vienna residence, close to the UN offices in the Austrian capital. Ghanem left Libya for Tunisia and then Europe in June as insurgents were pushing to topple Gaddafi. He subsequently announced he would support the rebels. With advanced degrees in law and economics, Ghanem served in senior positions at the Vienna-based Opec before his appointment as Libyan prime minister in June 2003, an office he held until 2006 when he took the oil ministry portfolio. Page 30 of 154 Considered a member of Gaddafi's inner circle until his defection, he insisted that Libya bore no responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. He also repudiated Libyan responsibility in the 1984 shooting during a protest in front the country's embassy in London, in which British constable Yvonne Fletcheran was killed. The incident led to the severing of British-Libyan relations. Ghanem continued to live in Vienna after Gaddafi was ousted, and later killed in the Nato-backed rebel campaign last year. Back to previous page 12. Libyan rebels target Gaddafi's last strongholds By Simon Denyer and Thomas Erdbrink, Published: August 25, 2011 | Updated: Friday, August 26, 12:51 AM TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels met fierce resistance from Moammar Gaddafi’s last remaining stronghold in the capital Thursday and said they suspected they might even be closing in on the former leader or his sons. But as rebels flocked to the neighborhood to join the assault, Gaddafi, ever defiant, appealed to his supporters in an audio message to march on Tripoli and “purify it” of the rebels, whom he called “rats, crusaders and unbelievers.” His spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, then called the Associated Press to say Gaddafi was safely in hiding in Libya and remains in command. Moussa said Gaddafi is capable of leading the resistance for “weeks, months and years.” Meanwhile, the rebels’ civilian leaders appeared to be making progress in their campaign for the funds they desperately need to rebuild their country after six months of civil war. In Tripoli, fighting was focused on the poor and traditionally loyalist neighborhood of Abu Salim, and in particular a cluster of apartment buildings not far from Gaddafi’s compound at Bab al-Aziziya, which the rebels stormed earlier this week. “The people who are in Abu Salim are fighting strongly,” said 26-year-old commander Ibrahim al-Madani. “We believe that Gaddafi or one of his sons are in Abu Salim.” Reporters on the scene said rebels were using antiaircraft guns to hammer at least 10 buildings sheltering Gaddafi loyalists. There were huge explosions, and the air was clogged with smoke. At least three of the buildings were burning. “They are holding at least 10 tall buildings. They have heavy weaponry, maybe even a tank,” Mohammed Karami, a rebel involved in the battle, told the Associated Press. Mahmoud Bakoush, a rebel commander at the site, said there were unconfirmed reports that one of Gaddafi’s sons might be in the buildings. Page 31 of 154 At one point, six trucks of rebels from the coastal city of Misurata arrived to take out the snipers in the apartment complex, but journalists on the scene said they instead got preoccupied with removing a gigantic poster of Gaddafi in a general’s uniform hanging on the side of a building nearby. “We are here to deal with the snipers,” said their commander, Nouri Sherkisi. But instead, his men started filling gasoline bombs to throw at the poster. Just as they were getting ready to burn it, gunfire crackled from all directions, and the rebels fled in their vehicles. Outside Bab al-Aziziya, about a dozen bullet-riddled bodies lay face down in the grass, some with their hands tied behind their backs. It was not immediately clear who they were, but a number of Gaddafi sympathizers had camped out in a tent city on the grass for months. According to an earlier Reuters report, more than 30 men believed to be fighters loyal to Gaddafi were found shot to death Thursday at a military encampment in a central Tripoli traffic circle in an area that had been held by loyalists. According to the AP, five or six bodies were in a tent erected on the traffic roundabout. One of dead still had an IV tube in his arm, and another body was completely charred, its legs missing. The body of a doctor, in his green hospital gown, was found dumped in a canal. As the fighters tried to purge the capital of the last remnants of Gaddafi forces, there was still considerable chaos in the city. A firefight erupted outside the Corinthia Hotel where many foreign reporters are staying. As bullets struck the hotel, rebels claimed it was a case of confused “friendly fire” between two groups of fighters communicating poorly. Madani, the rebel commander, said rebel fighters now have full control of the airport but that Gaddafi loyalists were still shelling it with Grad rockets from outside. He said one civilian plane was destroyed this week. Elsewhere in the country, rebels are trying to advance on the coastal city of Sirte, Gaddafi’s home town and tribal power center, which lies roughly halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. One group of rebels, backed by NATO warplanes, has advanced eastward along the coast from Misurata, while another group, attacking from Benghazi, said their advance has been stalled at the oil refinery at Ras Lanuf, around 130 miles east of Sirte. Talks with tribal leaders in the city to negotiate a surrender have been continuing for at least two days without progress. “We hope for a compromise,” said Col. Ahmed Bani, a spokesman for the rebel army. “We don’t want to fight them. We don’t want anybody else to die.” In Tripoli, supplies of food, water and medicines are running low, civilians are largely staying indoors for fear of sniper attack, and the rebels are keen to prove to Tripoli’s residents they are capable of running the city. “There are still many snipers in eastern Tripoli,” said one rebel fighter. “We’ll finish them off, but it’ll take time.” Victims of the snipers filled Tripoli hospitals. “There are around 60 here,” said Tahr Kateb as he searched for the body of a nephew in a makeshift morgue at Tripoli’s al-Zawiyah hospital. “And they are still bringing in bodies, because of the snipers.” At another hospital, Ali Modir said his mother was shot by a sniper when she left the safety of her house. “She wanted to go shopping,” Modir said, weeping. Rebels also reported fighting around the city of Sabha, another Gaddafi stronghold south of Tripoli with a strong presence of loyalist troops — and another possible place of refuge for the Libyan leader himself. The hunt for Gaddafi is one of the priorities for many Libyans, and NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance help, while continuing to bombard loyalist troops from the sky, British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said. “There was increased NATO activity last night including British fast jets, because there are areas of resistance by the regime which has had considerable levels of military expertise, still has stockpiles of weapons and still has the ability for command and control,” Fox told Sky News. “They may take some time to completely eliminate, and it is likely there will be some frustrating days ahead before the Libyan people are completely free of the Gaddafi legacy.” Many people in Tripoli say they will not feel secure until the man who has ruled them through fear for 42 years is killed or captured. The possibility of guerrilla warfare from remnants of the regime still hangs over Libya’s future, and it is something Gaddafi has already considered, according to Abdel Salam Jalloud, a close ally who switched sides last week. “He is sick with power,” said Jalloud, according to Reuters news agency. “He believes he can gather his supporters and carry out attacks. . . . He is delusional. He thinks he can return to power.” In his audio message Thursday, Gaddafi himself continued to use fear as one of his main weapons, warning supporters that rebels would enter people’s homes and rape their women. “Don’t leave Tripoli for the rats. Fight them, fight them, and kill them,” he said. “It is the time for martyrdom or victory.” It was not clear when the audio message was recorded. Page 32 of 154 The country’s former central bank chief said Gaddafi had been trying to sell the country’s gold reserves to pay for his protection as he fled, possibly in the direction of the Algerian border. “Now he is looking to pay and corrupt some tribes and some militia to have protection and to create further chaos,” Farhat Bengdara, who has allied himself with the rebels, told the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera. Those reserves would also be immensely useful for the rebels, who remain desperate for money to rebuild their country and warned that failure to get hold of Libya’s frozen assets quickly would undermine stability. They made progress on Thursday, with Italy agreeing to start unfreezing some $500 million in Libyan funds held in Italian banks, and South Africa appearing to drop its resistance to the unfreezing of about $1.5 billion in Libyan assets. British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had called South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday morning and that the two leaders “agreed that Libya now has the opportunity for transition to a peaceful, democratic and inclusive government.” Cameron said he and Zuma “discussed how the international community should actively and urgently support this process.” Zuma agreed to the unfreezing of $500 million for humanitarian reasons and said it would consult its African Union partners about unfreezing the rest, Downing Street said. The United States asked the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to unfreeze the Libyan assets as soon as possible, and diplomats said a vote could come on Thursday or Friday. A delegation from the Transitional National Council arrived in Tripoli on Thursday to begin setting up offices and assessing security for the rebel council’s move to the capital. The council plans to announce an interim Libyan government in Tripoli in two weeks, said Ahmed Jibril, spokesman for the council’s foreign ministry. Council officials said elections for a general assembly to write a new constitution would be held within eight months and national elections within 20 months of the declaration of the interim government, which would be led by the council’s current leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil. A day after the freeing of foreign journalists held hostage at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli, there was more good news Thursday for the large and growing press corps covering the conflict in Libya. Four Italian journalists kidnapped by regime sympathizers on Wednesday were freed after a raid on the house in Tripoli where they were being held, Corriere della Sera reported. Freelance Maryland journalist Matthew VanDyke was also freed this week after months of solitary confinement in Tripoli’s infamous Abu Salim prison. He had disappeared shortly after arriving in eastern Libya in March, and his fate had been unknown until he was released Wednesday. Correspondents Leila Fadel in Benghazi and Karla Adam in London contributed to this report. Related stories on Libya - The political rise and fall of Moammar Gaddafi - Moammar Gaddafi through the years - The battle for Libya - Gaddafi bunkers and tunnels an elaborate setup - Read more stories from around the world © The Washington Post Company http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/01/25/libya-un-rights-  idINDEE80O0O520120125 13. Detainees held by Libya rebels still tortured-UN Page 33 of 154  Shalgham said Libya was aware of four incidents, but questioned whether NATO was at fault in any of them. "Without NATO, hundreds of thousands of people would have died in Benghazi," the birthplace of the uprising, he said. (Reporting By Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Xavier Briand) 07/26/2011 11. Settling Old Scores Tribal Rivalries Complicate Libyan War UNITED NATIONS | Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:08am IST By Mathieu von Rohr in Qawalish, Libya (Reuters) - Detainees from Libya's civil war held by revolutionary brigades continue to be subjected to torture despite efforts by the The rebels in western Libya have captured the Nafusa provisional government to address the issue, the U.N. human rights chief said on Wednesday. Mountains and are only 80 kilometers from Tripoli, but have been unable to advance further. Meanwhile long- Navi Pillay told the U.N. Security Council she was extremely simmering tribal hostilities are complicating the concerned about thousands of prisoners, most of them accused of being loyalists of the toppled government of Muammar Gaddafi and situation, as rival groups clash and old resentments many from sub-Saharan Africa. flare up. The inter-tribal conflict adds to a growing sense that the uprising against Gadhafi is turning into a "The lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to torture and ill-treatment," Pillay said. "My staff have civil war. received alarming reports that this is happening in places of detention that they have visited." She said it was urgent that all Libya's detention centers be brought under control of the Ministry of Justice and General Prosecutor's Office The decisive front in the war against Moammar Gadhafi runs and that detainees be screened so that they could be freed or receive a fair trial. through the dusty village of Qawalish, which consists of a mosque, a few dozen houses and a hill, behind which rebel The government that replaced Gaddafi's administration has been fighters are entrenched. struggling to take control of the detainees held by the revolutionary brigades who did the fighting, but has been hampered by lack of prison staff, U.N. officials say. At first glance, it is hard to understand why more than 15 rebels have been killed in this godforsaken place, and why Ian Martin, the U.N. special envoy for Libya, told Wednesday's council meeting that the Justice Ministry had so far taken over six prisons from Qawalish has changed hands three times in only two weeks. the revolutionary brigades. Musbah Milad, a rebel fighter from the city of Zintan in Neither Pillay nor Martin gave any figures for the number of people held by the brigades. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a northwestern Libya, is standing on the roof of a two-story report last November that it was around 7,000. building in the midday heat. He gazes out at the flat landscape and points to a row of trees at the other end of a Libyan Ambassador Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham told the council there were more than 8,000 prisoners in Tripoli alone but did vast plain. "There you can see him," he says. "Fucking not make clear if that included people held by the authorities. He said Gadhafi." Through his binoculars, Milad can make out two his government condemned the use of unauthorized detention centers. trucks hidden in the shade of trees, about 6 kilometers (4 "We have spoken to our brothers and we have said, 'Any individual miles) away. Sometimes Gadhafi's forces fire a poorly who has not committed a crime, or who has not participated in targeted missile, prompting the rebels to return fire. massacres will have their passports,'" he said. On allegations that NATO caused civilian casualties during a bombing The fate of the Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is being campaign that helped the rebels overthrow Gaddafi last year, Pillay called on the alliance and other parties to cooperate with a Libya decided in these days and weeks in tiny villages in the Nafusa commission of inquiry set up by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Mountains of western Libya. The region was almost unknown to the world before the Libyan revolution began in February. "Information so far indicates that NATO made efforts to keep civilian casualties at a minimum, but where civilians have been killed and injured, the alliance should disclose information about all such events Loosely Organized State and about remedial actions undertaken," she said. Page 34 of 154 Since the outbreak of the war, the rebel offensive has made steppe, while others say that the rebels are trying to spare more significant advances in these hilly highlands than the pro-Gadhafi civilians in the next town. anywhere else in Libya. In the eastern part of the country, the rebels are still entrenched near Brega, a city they There are also signs that the rebels in the west are gradually captured for the first time in February, only to lose it to reaching the limits of their strength. Even their military Gadhafi's forces soon afterwards. Brega is more than 600 leaders in Zintan admit that there are no plans to advance kilometers from the capital Tripoli. from the mountains in the coastal plain and hazard a march on Tripoli. Instead, they are waiting for a revolt in the capital. In the west, on the other hand, the rebels have captured And on Sunday, they had to rebut another hard-fought almost the entire mountain chain, where they have attempt by Gadhafi's troops to take back the town. established a loosely organized state, complete with its own newspapers, a radio station and a makeshift airfield. The The truth is that the uprising against Gadhafi is looking more territory they control extends 200 kilometers eastward from and more like a civil war every day. At first, it seemed as if the Tunisian border. And at the northern end of the Nafusa Libyans had all come together to revolt against the man who Mountains, the rebel fighters are now only 80 kilometers from had controlled the country for the last 42 years. Much like the the capital. uprisings in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, the Libyan revolt began in mid-February with peaceful protests, but this But the most important front lies in Qawalish. If the rebels dictator refused to allow himself to be toppled and responded manage to advance into the next town, which is 30 kilometers by waging a cruel war on the civilian population instead. This away, they will have cut off Gadhafi's key supply route, the response was the reason behind the NATO mission. road from Sabha to Tripoli. But reality is more complicated than that, as evidenced in the However, the rebels have not made any progress in weeks. Nafusa Mountains. The situation in Libya is made more After taking Qawalish in early July, they were so heady with difficult by the fact that it is a tribal society, not a nation state victory that they left the front and returned to their villages, like its neighbors. leaving only a few 16-year-olds with Kalashnikovs in the village. Their mission was to hold the town, but the small Most Libyans may be strongly opposed to Gadhafi, and yet rebel contingent didn't stand a chance when Gadhafi's troops there are still important tribes that largely support him, attacked on Wednesday of the week before last. including the Warfalla, the Tarhuna and Gadhafi's own tribe, the Gadhadhfa. And despite the rebels' official claims to the In the ensuing six-hour battle, the rebels mobilized all of their contrary, this conflict is also a war among tribes. forces to return to the front that they had so foolishly (Alexander Hagen note in italic: The 3 tribes mentioned there are exposed. Troops rushed back to Qawalish from Zintan, Jadu 1,800,000 people that is 1/3 of native Libyans, and it is only an and Kikla. By the end of a bloody day, they had regained example list) how can you say majority under these circumstances?) control over the village, despite heavy rocket fire. Eight men died. It was a strange battle, and it showed how little Warmhearted Gadhafi's opponents in western Libya understand about waging battles. The rebel force there consists of a motorized The rebels were so successful in the mountains because most horde that rushes to the front when it is needed and then of the tribes there are hostile to Gadhafi. The Berbers in the quickly disperses. western part of the mountains, the country's original inhabitants, have liberated their traditional areas in recent Since then, the rebels have done nothing to advance farther months. Under Gadhafi, they were prohibited from speaking to the east. their own language. Most of the rebels in the eastern part of the mountains are Arabs, members of the Zintan tribe and its Limits of Their Strength allies. When Ramadan begins in a week, the fighters will not be Zintan is their key city, the center of the rebellion in the west. allowed to eat or drink anything during the day, at Most of the rebel fighters are from Zintan, as are most of the temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) dead. It is a small city with a population of about 25,000, a in the shade. Some say that they are holding back because maze of narrow streets where canisters of gasoline smuggled Gadhafi's forces have left thousands of mines in the vast Page 35 of 154 from Tunisia are sold, but where bread is hard to find these Awaniya, escorted to the Zintan command post and days. There are no women to be seen, but there are bearded interrogated. men who show off their weapons and drive makeshift combat vehicles. The people of the town are as warmhearted as they http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8754 are rough around the edges. They give food to outsiders, 375/Gaddafis-ghost-town-after-the-loyalists-retreat.html even though it is in short supply, and no one would think of demanding payment for accommodations. 14. Gaddafi's ghost town after the loyalists retreat The military council, the nominal leadership of the rebel army 12. Andrew Gilligan visits the scene of in the west, has its headquarters in Zintan. Last week, Omar what appears to be the first major Hariri, the military coordinator of the Transitional National reprisal against supporters of Council, came to visit Zintan to talk about strategy. But many Gaddafi's regime. rebels from the town refuse to take direct orders from such officials. Instead, their allegiance lies with their local command center. It is Gadhafi's army that has committed the heinous war crimes in this conflict. Nevertheless, a trip along the road that extends for 50 kilometers from Zintan to the front in Qawalish reveals that the rebels' behavior is not always exemplary. Looting and Arson Several towns along the route are now completely depopulated. One is Awaniya, a town of 15,000 people until Image 1 of 3 the rebels captured it. The shops lining the highway in Awaniya were looted and are now littered with garbage. In Tawargha, a once bustling town which supported Gadaffi, is now some stores, even the shelves are missing. In the town itself, deserted Photo: HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY houses stand empty and ransacked, and some have been burned down. Other towns look similar. New houses are still burning days after the rebels took over, and trucks are removing anything that was overlooked during the initial looting: sacks of wheat as well as food and sheep. By Andrew Gilligan, Tawarga A piece of graffiti on the wall of an empty supermarket in Awaniya berates the "Mashashiya traitors." The Mashashiya 7:00AM BST 11 Sep 2011 are the tribe that lived in Awaniya and two other nearby towns. Most of its members supported Gadhafi, as did the inhabitants of most of the remaining depopulated towns along Until last month, the town of Tawarga was home to 10,000 civilians. the road from Zintan to the front, including Qawalish. But as dusk fell over it last week, the apartment blocks stretched, black In a report, Human Rights Watch has sharply criticized the and dead, into the distance, and the only things moving were sheep. rebels for engaging in looting and arson. In an interview, a spokesman for the western Libyan military council admits that This pro-Gaddafi settlement has been emptied of its people, there have been isolated incidents of this nature, but he also insists that the rebels only set those houses on fire in which vandalised and partly burned by rebel forces. The Sunday Gadhafi's troops had been holed up. Telegraph was the first to visit the scene of what appears to be the first major reprisal against supporters of the former regime. The rebels respond aggressively to anyone who tries to investigate. A SPIEGEL team was taken into custody in Page 36 of 154  "We gave them thirty days to leave," said Abdul el-Mutalib Fatateth, Rebels say that civilian volunteers from Tawarga were with Gaddafi the officer in charge of the rebel garrison in Tawarga, as his soldiers troops when they ransacked dozens of houses in Misurata in March. played table-football outside one of the empty apartment blocks. "We There are also claims, impossible to verify, of rape and other abuses said if they didn't go, they would be conquered and imprisoned. Every by Tawargans. Mr Fatateth said that one young captured rebel had single one of them has left, and we will never allow them to come been tied up and used as a doormat in the town. back." Whatever the truth, there appears little room for reconciliation in this The people of Tawarga and their neighbours in Misurata, 20 miles corner of the new Libya. For the first time in the country's revolution, down the road, were on opposite sides in Libya's revolution. As the we saw large numbers of houses, and virtually every shop, besieged Misuratans bravely fought to save their town from the systematically vandalised, looted or set on fire. Gaddafi forces encircling it, some of the artillery fire raining down on The inhabitants fled so fast that many had not time to take with them them came from Tawarga. the photos of their own children. They, and other small personal 13. RELATED ARTICLES treasures – a Barbie doll, a Calvin Klein T-shirt – still lay on the floors.  UK promoted sale of sniper rifles to Gaddafi just weeks before uprising began Some valuables, such as televisions and stereos, had been stolen. But rather more often, they had just been smashed. 10 Sep 2011 Even the local hospital had been vandalised. The beds were dragged  Libyan fighters meet fierce resistance from Gaddafi loyalists in Bani Walid 'high noon' out of the wards and ripped. Glass in the windows and doors was broken. Medicines, forms and computer printouts were scattered along 10 Sep 2011 the corridors, and the doctors and nurses had vanished with everyone  Libya: Rebels dig in for the long haul else. Outside, you had to watch your step: anti-personnel mines lay on the pavement. 10 Sep 2011 The clue to it all lay in the green Gaddafi flags still flying from many of  Rebels launch assault on Bani Walid the houses. There is no disputing that this was a centre of support for 10 Sep 2011 the regime. But that support appears to have been at different levels.  'British-led rendition' of Libyan and family to Gaddafi prison Some of the houses had apparently been used for fighting, with bullet holes in the walls. The majority of looted or vandalised properties, 10 Sep 2011 however, had not.  Libya: wave of violence ends stand-off Mr Fatateh said that some had been taken over by pro-Gaddafi militias 09 Sep 2011 after the civilians had fled, and a two-day battle had ensued with rebel forces on the 10th and 11th of August. "We urged them not to fight us, because they are our brothers, but they insisted on fighting," said Mr Fatateth. But he also appeared to And as so often in Libya, there is also a racist undercurrent. Many concede that the civilians of the town had been caught in the middle, Tawargas, though neither immigrants nor Gaddafi's much-ballyhooed saying: "Gaddafi used to take the Tawarga people and use them as African mercenaries, are descended from slaves, and are darker than human shields when his troops approached Misurata." most Libyans. Page 37 of 154 Along the road that leads into Tawargha, the Misurata Brigade has and I am too afraid to go to the hospital in town. I don't know what will painted a slogan. It is, it says, "the brigade for purging slaves [and] happen to us now." black skin." Any rebel abuses pale by comparison with those of the regime. People "We have met Tawargas in detention, taken from their homes simply who saw the charred skeletons of prisoners, machine-gunned and for being Tawargas," said Diana Eltahawy, a researcher for Amnesty burned by Gaddafi's retreating Khamis Brigade, or who witnessed the International who is currently in Libya. "They have told us that they indiscriminate bombardment of Misurata, will not quickly forget the have been forced to kneel and beaten with sticks." scenes. Even fleeing is not, it seems, enough to save you. Tawargas have also But old Libyan habits of repression may be starting to reassert been arrested at checkpoints, seized from hospitals and detained on themselves. the street. "They are really afraid. They have nowhere to go," said Ms And it is not the first time that pro-Gaddafi civilians have suffered Eltahawy. reprisals. In July, as rebels swept through the Nafusa mountains, the On Aug 29, Amnesty says it saw a Tawarga patient at the Tripoli village of Qawalish was subjected to a very similar fate. Many of the Central Hospital being taken by three men, one of them armed, for people there, pensioners and young children, simply could not have "questioning in Misurata". Amnesty was also told that at least two other been part of any military action for the regime. Tawarga men had vanished after being taken for questioning from Back in ghostly Tawarga, there is little sympathy for the victims' plight. Tripoli hospitals. Mr Fatateth said: "The military council will decide what will happen to One 45-year-old flight dispatcher and his uncle were arrested by the buildings. But over our dead bodies will the Tawargas return." armed rebels while out shopping in the al-Firnaj area of Tripoli on 28 August. Ibrahim al-Halbous, another local rebel commander, put it even more simply. They were taken to the Military Council headquarters at Mitiga Airport just east of the capital. The men told Amnesty they were beaten with "Tawarga no longer exists," he said. the butt of a rifle and received death threats. Both were held for several days in Mitiga and are still detained in Tripoli. 15. Russia: arming Libya rebels is "crude violation" Many Tawargas are now cowering in makeshift camps around Tripoli. But even there, they are not safe. In one camp, a group of armed men  Libya rebels prepare for fight over strategic town drove in and arrested about a dozen Tawargas. Their fate is still Thu, Jun 30 2011 unknown. Another woman at the camp said her husband left the camp  Gaddafi's daughter acknowledges talks with Libya rebels to run an errand in central Tripoli, about a week ago. She hasn't seen Thu, Jun 30 2011 him since.  No "mission creep" in Libya, NATO chief vows "If we go back to Tawarga, we will be at the mercy of the Misratah Thu, Jun 30 2011 brigade," said one refugee, who declined to be named. "When they entered our town in mid-Ramadan [mid-August] and shelled it, we fled  Libya risks extremism if war drags on: World Bank just carrying the clothes on our backs. I don't know what happened to Thu, Jun 30 2011 our homes and belongings. Now I am here in this camp, my son is ill Page 38 of 154  NATO not involved in French arms aid to Libya rebels Thu, Jun 30 2011  Libya rebel chief says weapon deliveries will shorten war Thu, Jun 30 2011  Libya » Related Video By Lutfi Abu-Aun TRIPOLI | Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:18pm EDT 14. Rebels on the frontline in Libya (Reuters) - Russia accused France on Thursday of committing a Thu, Jun 30 2011 "crude violation" of a U.N. weapons embargo by arming Libyan rebels, while Washington said it was acting legally, creating a new diplomatic dispute over the Western air war.  Rebels train near Misrata France confirmed on Wednesday that it had air-dropped arms to rebels in Libya's Western Mountains, becoming the first NATO country to acknowledge openly arming the insurgency against Gaddafi's 41-year rule. France, Britain and the United States are leading a three-month-old air campaign which they say they will not end until Gaddafi falls. The war has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. Rebels acknowledged French support, saying it had helped sustain them in the region. "There should be no doubt that Libyans in the Nafusa Mountain (Western Mountains) area are alive and safe today thanks to a combination of heroic Libyan bravery and French wisdom and support," Vice Chairman Abdul Hafeedh Ghoga of the Transitional National Council said in a statement of thanks to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Though rebel advances have been slow, the insurgents scored a success in the region on Sunday in pushing to the outskirts of Bir al- Ghanam, within 80 km (50 miles) of Tripoli. On Thursday the rebels surveyed the strategic town from a ridge overlooking the desert plateau that leads to the capital, in preparation for a possible attack. A Reuters journalist with them said they were waiting for NATO airstrikes to help them. Libyan television broadcast a statement from tribal leaders condemning Sarkozy over the arms, calling the rebels in the Berber area "a product of France." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow "asked our French colleagues today whether reports that weapons from France were delivered to Libyan rebels correspond with reality." "If this is confirmed, it is a very crude violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1970," he said. That resolution, adopted in February, imposed a comprehensive arms embargo. Paris said on Wednesday it believed it had not violated the U.N. embargo because the weapons it gave the rebels were needed to Page 39 of 154 protect civilians from an imminent attack, which it says is allowed The city has been bombarded for months by Gaddafi's forces. Six under a later Security Council resolution. rockets landed early on Thursday near the oil refinery and port. A Reuters journalist there reported no casualties. Washington agreed. "We believe that U.N. Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973, read together, neither specified nor precluded Britain's military said its Apache helicopters had attacked a providing defense materiel to the Libyan opposition," State Department government checkpoint and two military vehicles near Khoms, on the spokesman Mark Toner said. Mediterranean coast between Misrata and Tripoli. "We would respectfully disagree with the Russian assessment," he Insurgents say Gaddafi's forces are massing and bringing weapons to added. Nevertheless, although legal, arming the rebels was "not an quell an uprising in Zlitan, the next big town along the road from option that we have acted on," he said. Misrata to the capital. Rebels inside Zlitan said they mounted a raid on pro-Gaddafi positions on Wednesday night. Although Russia is not involved in the bombing campaign, its stance could add to reservations among some NATO countries wary over an "(We) carried out a violent attack last night on checkpoints ... and air war that has lasted longer and cost more than expected. Moscow exchanged gunfire, killing a number of soldiers," a rebel spokesman, could also challenge Paris at the U.N. Security Council, where both are who identified himself as Mabrouk, told Reuters from the town. veto-wielding permanent members. WEAPONS DROP U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said it was up to the Security Council to determine what is permitted by its resolutions. Le Figaro newspaper said France had parachuted rocket launchers, assault rifles and anti-tank missiles into the Western Mountains in early France's weapons airlift, while possibly increasing the insurgent threat June. to Gaddafi, highlights a dilemma for NATO. A French military spokesman later confirmed arms had been delivered, More than 90 days into its bombing campaign, Gaddafi is still in power although he said anti-tank missiles were not among them. Despite the and no breakthrough is in sight, making some NATO members feel diplomatic storm, the rebels encouraged more arms deliveries. they should help the rebels more actively, something the poorly-armed insurgents have encouraged. "Giving (us) weapons we will be able to decide the battle more quickly, so that we can shed as little blood as possible," senior rebel figure But if they do that, they risk fracturing the international coalition over Mahmoud Jibril said in Vienna. how far to go. The conflict has halted oil exports from Libya, helping push up world oil The World Bank's Libya representative said on Thursday Islamist prices. Jibril said it may take years for oil exports to fully resume: "No, militants could gain ground if the conflict wears on. no oil is being sold. A lot of the oil well system was destroyed, especially in the east." "If this civil war goes on, it would be a new Somalia, which I don't say lightly," said Marouane Abassi, World Bank country manager for Libya (Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Andrew who has been in Tunisia since February. Hammond in Tunis, Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow, Fredrik Dahl and Michael Shields in Vienna, Chris Buckley in Beijing,Andrew "In three months we could be dealing with extremists. That's why time Quinn in Washington and London bureau; Writing by Christian is very important in this conflict, before we face problems in managing Lowe and Andrew Hammond; editing by David Stamp) it." Even before news of the French arms supply emerged, fissures were 16. Libya's Mustafa Abdul Jalil asks Nato to stay longer emerging in the coalition with some members voicing frustration about the high cost, civilian casualties, and the elusiveness of a military victory. Gaddafi says the NATO campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing the North African state's oil. He says NATO's U.N.- mandated justification for its campaign -- to protect Libyan civilians from attack -- is spurious. FRANCE ACTS ALONE NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made clear on Thursday the weapons airlift was a unilateral French initiative. Asked by reporters on a visit to Vienna if NATO had been involved, he answered: "No." Nato helped target Gaddafi loyalists as the former Libyan leader tried to flee "As regards compliance with the U.N. Security Council resolution, it is from Sirte for the U.N. sanctions committee to determine that," Rasmussen said. The rebel advance toward Tripoli's southwest outskirts from the The head of Libya's transitional authorities has called for Nato to Western Mountains has not been matched by progress toward the extend its mission in Libya until the end of the year. capital from the east, where they hold Misrata on the coast about 200 km (130 miles) from the capital. Page 40 of 154 National Transitional Council (NTC) Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil said "I call on all the armed forces to avoid any act of reprisal and arbitrary the extension was needed to help Libyans trying to control surplus repression against both Libyans and foreigners," said Philippe Kirsch, weapons and to deal with Gaddafi loyalists. the head of a UN commission of enquiry on Libya. Nato has delayed a making a formal decision on when to end its Col Gaddafi was shot dead after he was captured alive in his mission. birthplace, Sirte. It had made a preliminary decision to end operations on 31 October. NTC officials have suggested he was caught in crossfire, but rights groups have voiced concerns that he and his son Mutassim were Diplomats had been expected to confirm that date on Wednesday. summarily executed. "We hope (Nato) will continue its campaign until at least the end of this In recent days, images have emerged from video footage of the year to serve us and neighbouring countries," Mr Jalil told a gathering moments after Col Gaddafi's capture that appear to show him being in Qatar of states that have supported the NTC's military campaign. sodomised with a pole or knife. He said his appeal was aimed at "ensuring that no arms are infiltrated In a statement, the NTC said it attached "great importance" to the into those countries and to ensure the security of Libyans from some humane treatment of prisoners and that fair trials would be guaranteed. remnants of [ex-leader Col Muammar] Gaddafi's forces who have fled to nearby countries". Mr Jalil added that the NTC wanted help "developing Libya's defence AH: One Non Western Source inserted here: I had difficulty and security systems". finding Western articles evaluating compliance of UN 1973 Nato, which has been operating in Libya since March under a UN 18. Africa: The Execution of Gaddafi and the Attempted mandate to protect civilians, said it would now make a formal decision on the length of its mission on Friday. Humiliation of Africa "As agreed, NATO continues to monitor the situation on the ground, BY HORACE CAMPBELL, 27 OCTOBER 2011 and retains the capability to respond to any threats to civilians," said Nato spokeswoman Carmen Romero.  Comment "The situation remains calm as the NTC continues to establish its  authority."  Rights concerns  Speaking on the sidelines of the Qatar meeting, Qatari chief of staff Maj Gen Hamad bin Ali al-Atiya told Agence France-Presse ANALYSIS that his country had deployed ground troops in Libya. 17. "The numbers of Qataris on ground were hundreds in every region," he was quoted as saying. The small but gas-rich Gulf state, which has played a dynamic role in Libya, had previously acknowledged contributing to Nato's air campaign there. Meanwhile, the NTC came under pressure from human rights bodies following questions surrounding the death of Col Gaddafi last week, and allegations that NTC forces may have executed dozens of their opponents. Recent Gaddafi cartoon made for Cartoon Movement. (Photo CourtesyCartoon Movement/ RNW) Page 41 of 154  Horace Campbell reconstructs 'the decision at the highest levels' to In a moment of revolutionary upheavals all over the world, the leaders execute Libya's Colonel Gaddafi and considers 'the urgency for of France, Britain and the United States intervened in Libya to divert organising to oppose the remilitarisation of Africa.' attention from their problems and to derail the wave of revolutionary change that is now underway internationally. Italy, which is in the The inability of the Western media and other 'information' sources to throes of a profound crisis, tagged along to protect its colonial heritage manage the news of the execution of Colonel Gaddafi was and oil contracts in Libya. compounded by the news, according to the New York based Human Rights Watch, that 53 supporters of the ousted regime were executed On Tuesday 25 October 2011 the Los Angeles Times reported that at a hotel in Sirte with their hands tied behind their backs (Huffington Libya had more than US$200 billion in reserves. As outlined in my Post October 26, 2011). Wall-to-wall news bulletins of the demise of article, 'Global NATO and the Recolonisation of Africa', it is no secret Colonel Gaddafi, which should have been a moment of victory for the that leaders such as France's Nicolas Sarkozy deeply want to get their imperial forces, have now turned into a public relations disaster and hands on this money to save the banks in Europe and to save the nightmare for those military planners who want to distance themselves Euro. But the crisis in the Eurozone area is too far gone and the depth from the gruesome details of the executions. These immoral and illegal of the structural and systemic crisis is too extreme to save the actions by the military forces and private contractors in Libya backed politicians who oversaw this military campaign inside Libya. by NATO were furthered with disrespect for religious and cultural traditions where the mortal remains of Gaddafi and his son, The NATO forces (meaning the countries of this Libya campaign) that Muatassim, were kept in a meat freezer until the bodies started to were using international morality and international law to justify the decompose. recolonisation and destruction of Africa are now exposed. The attempt to humiliate Gaddafi was a failed effort to humiliate oppressed peoples Relevant Links and decent elements within the armed forces of these societies who are seeking another world. In this article, I seek to reconstruct the  No Tears for Gaddafi decision at the highest levels to execute Colonel Gaddafi and to analyse the urgency for organising to oppose the remilitarisation of  NATO Murdered Gaddafi Africa.  Government Wants Investigation Into Gaddafi Killing PLANNING FOR THE EXECUTION OF GADDAFI  Musings On the Death of Gaddafi When on Sunday 23 October 2011, US secretary of state Hilary  Gaddafi Needed to Face a Fair Trial Clinton said on the US television Channel NBC's 'Meet the Press' that she backed a proposal that the United Nations investigate Gaddafi's Finally a supposedly secret burial failed to resolve the tussle between death and requested that Libya's TNC also look into the those who had hijacked the body in the on-going struggle inside the circumstances, it was clear that the execution had backfired. This was National Transitional Council (NTC) between the three centers of the height of hypocrisy, or what would be called a pre-emptive strike on power, Tripoli, Benghazi and Misrata. The factions fear each other and her own reputation. Under international law and the Geneva they have lost the one factor that united them, hatred for Gaddafi. With Conventions, Hillary Clinton could be held to account for her fear of other factions in the NTC, the Benghazi section is calling for the statements in Tripoli on 18 October when she called for Gaddafi's United Nations Security Council to extend the mandate of the no fly capture or killing. zone until 31 December 2011. There are members of the UNSC such as Russia who oppose this extension. The African Union must call for Security planners and military strategists of the Obama Whitehouse the immediate end to the mandate of the United Nations Security are now cowering in shame on the fallout from the failure of the Libyan Council Resolution 1973. quagmire and the exposure of the bankruptcy of the US military and imperial logic. It is now becoming clear that the Western leaders (especially those from Britain, France, Italy and the United States) used the cover of Back in March The New York Times reported that the National Security protection of civilian lives to go to Libya to carry out regime change. Council of the White House had debated the execution of Colonel Gaddafi had vowed to fight to the end and he did. The destruction of Gaddafi. The article, 'Before Qaddafi's Death, U.S. Debated His Libya by NATO jets was totally unnecessary. Can the people of the Future', stated that the White House considered 'The killing of Colonel West and their leaders say that Libya is now better off in October 2011 Qaddafi ... [as] one of the three scenarios considered last Wednesday.' than it was in March 2011? The article in the Times also said, 'Putting the colonel on trial, either in Libya or The Hague, was one of a host of situations for which the administration planned.' Page 42 of 154 The next day Colonel Gaddafi was killed. What is being asked all over Sitre. These SAS forces synchronised the bombing and one or two the world is why kill him? Why not put him on trial, what is it that the weeks before the execution, 'NATO had pinpointed Gaddafi's position western leaders do not want to come out in a trial? after an intelligence breakthrough.' GADDAFI'S ESCAPE FROM TRIPOLI Once the SAS and the coordinating forces confirmed Gaddafi's position, 'an American drone and an array of NATO eavesdropping 'Mansour Dhao Ibrahim, one of the military leaders who survived the aircraft had been trained on his Sirte stronghold to ensure he could not murder and execution of the Gaddafi entourage has revealed that escape.' Colonel Gaddafi had escaped from Tripoli to Sirte on 21 August. Reports in the international media are that the decision for Gaddafi to This was when the debates on execution intensified and the drones stay in Sirte was based on Muatassim, the colonel's son. The report were deployed to ensure that Gaddafi did not escape from Sirte. continued that Gaddafi's son and the military entourage had 'reasoned that the city, long known as an important pro-Qaddafi stronghold and US DRONES VS. FRENCH JETS under frequent bombardment by NATO airstrikes, was the last place anyone would look.' 'About two weeks ago, as the former rebels stormed the city center, the colonel and his sons were trapped shuttling between two houses in a In August 2011, after the capture of Tripoli by the Qatari Army, the residential area called District No. 2. They were surrounded by British Special Air Service and private military contractors to Tripoli, hundreds of former rebels, firing at the area with heavy machine guns, there was euphoria at NATO headquarters. Having declared that rockets and mortars. "The only decision was whether to live or to die," Tripoli had been 'liberated', the NATO headquarters had been issuing Mr. Dhao said. Colonel Qaddafi decided it was time to leave, and communiqués since August that all Libya was about to be liberated. planned to flee to one of his houses nearby, where he had been born. There was anxiety when there was stiff resistance in Sirte and every On Thursday, a convoy of more than 40 cars was supposed to leave at other day, NATO was declaring that Sirte was about to fall. about around 3 a.m.' NATO, which had started the war under the pretext of responsibility 'to With the voice recognition technology picking up any call made by protect', had destroyed the most of Libya . From the nature of the Gaddafi, the drones were called in when the convoy carrying Gaddafi resistance, NATO and their satellite intercepts had found out that was pinpointed by the drone. Gaddafi was in Sirte, hence the NSC meetings and deliberations. According to The Daily Telegraph (as reported by Empire Strikes The New York Times' report on the 'Last Days of Gaddafi' has revealed Black): for posterity that: 'They built up a normal pattern of life picture so that when something 'The colonel traveled with about 10 people, including close aides and unusual happened this morning such as a large group of vehicles guards. Muatassim, who commanded the loyalist forces, traveled gathering together, that came across as highly unusual activity and the separately from his father, fearing that his own satellite phone was decision was taken to follow them and prosecute an attack. being tracked. Apart from a phone, which the colonel used to make frequent statements to a Syrian television station that became his 'Electronic warfare aircraft, either an American Rivet Joint or a French official outlet, Colonel Qaddafi was largely "cut off from the world".' C160 Gabriel, also picked up Gaddafi's movements as he attempted to escape.' It was this satellite phone that was tracked so that when Sirte was bombed to smithereens, there was only one option left for Gaddafi, and Hilary Clinton had flown to Tripoli on Tuesday 18 October and from that was to make a run to escape. The New York Times report on the debate on Gaddafi's future, Clinton made her position clear as reported in the international media when British news reports from both the Telegraph and The Independent UK she declared that she wanted Gaddafi killed or captured. since 21 August 2001 had been reporting that SAS and US Special forces were hunting for Gaddafi. British SAS forces and U.S. Special Was this a clear message to the Special Forces on the ground that the Forces had been scouring the Sirte area for Gaddafi, unable to find NATO forces wanted Gaddafi killed? The Geneva conditions explicitly him. stated that prisoners of war should be humanely treated. In normal situations of the rule of international law this question of the manner of According to these reports, when the resistance continued for two the execution would be taken up under the Geneva Conventions. months, the British and US Special Forces on the ground disguised as Libyan NTC fighters had been coordinating the bombing campaign of Page 43 of 154 'In a Toyota Land Cruiser, Colonel Qaddafi traveled with his chief of As Lizzie Phelan had reported for Pambazuka News and other media, security, a relative, the driver and Mr. Dhao. The colonel did not say NATO had been willing and able 'to not just fabricate events but to much during the drive. NATO warplanes and former rebel fighters create.' The fabrications now failed and it was clear that the manner of found them half an hour after they left. When a missile struck near the the killing of Gaddafi was meant to humiliate him. One does not have car, the airbags deployed, said Mr. Dhao, who was hit by shrapnel in to support Gaddafi to realise that this kind of killing will not lay any the strike. He said he tried to escape with Colonel Qaddafi and other basis for a society free from revenge killings. The disinformation men, walking first to a farm, then to the main road, toward some backfired - even those who opposed the antics of Gaddafi in Africa drainage pipes. "The shelling was constant," Mr. Dhao said, adding were now opposed to the wanton disregard for international law. that he was struck by shrapnel again and fell unconscious. When he woke up, he was in the hospital.' From all corners of the world, NATO and the US Africa Command were being condemned. Despite efforts by western news agencies to place Sensitive to the repercussions of this attack on the convoy, the British a microphone before those who would parrot the western line, the media declared early that the RAF had not been involved in the aerial disregard for law and the hypocrisy of those who had used the attack. With great bravado, the French took credit for firing missile that mandate of the 'responsibility to protect' to carry out executions were stopped the car carrying Colonel Gaddafi. too blatant. The Russians called for an end to the NATO mission and called for the UN Security Council to end the mandate of the no fly French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet revealed that a French zone. At the United Nations, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who Mirage-2000 fired a warning shot at a column of several dozen has repeatedly accused NATO of exceeding its UN mandate in Libya, vehicles fleeing Sirte. has called for ending the mandate of the no-fly zone on October 31. Churkin said extending the UN authorisation beyond Monday October MANAGING THE NEWS OF THE EXECUTION OF GADDAFI would be 'unrealistic.' It is now known that Gaddafi was alive after the airstrike by the French In Africa, even those who had been opposed to Gaddafi, especially jets. With the clear mandate emanating from the discussions at the when he called his people rats, were now seeing the real criminal highest levels, the 'NTC forces' were on the ground to find the actions being carried out by NATO. Former Archbishop Emeritus wounded Gaddafi. These newspapers would have the world believe Desmond Tutu condemned the killing of Gaddafi, saying mob justice that it was by chance that these 'NTC' fighters happened to find the and violence should always be deplored. wounded Gaddafi. Thanks to cell phone technology and alternative news sources, we know that when these 'NTC forces' captured 'The manner of the killing of Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday totally Gaddafi, he was alive. detracts from the noble enterprise of instilling a culture of human rights and democracy in Libya... the people of Libya should have There are also visual images of the humiliation of the wounded demonstrated better values than those of their erstwhile oppressor.' Gaddafi and then later the dead body. The same managers of disinformation realised that this manner of the Once Gaddafi was executed with a bullet to the head, the great execution revealed the true nature of the NATO/AFRICOM operations challenge for the NATO forces was how to manage the news of the so the New York Times editorialised on October 20 that: execution, with the full knowledge that there were visual images of Gadddafi alive and then dead. 'But a gruesome video broadcast on Al Jazeera - apparently showing him being dragged, beaten and then, perhaps, shot to death by armed This was when the disinformation planners came up with the theory men - is deeply troubling, if it is real. that Gaddafi was killed in crossfire. But the inconsistencies from the western news sources were so blatant that it was embarrassing for the 'Libyans must resist further reprisals and channel their passion into psychological warfare experts of NATO. Was it crossfire, was it stray building a united, free and productive country. If not, they risk even bullet, was it an assassination? There were too many cell phone more chaos and suffering.' images of what transpired for the western intelligence agencies to attempt to cover the clear violation of international law. This same newspaper did not bring out whether there was any the role of US Special Forces and the British SAS on the ground, but from all In this disinformation effort to convince the world that Gaddafi was corners of the world, there were now Human Rights reports calling for killed in a crossfire or by a stray bullet, events were moving too fast so an investigation into the manner of the killing. Bloggers and articulate NATO could not control the disinformation and lies. Throughout the writers were reminding the imperialists that the Third Geneva war, disinformation had been central to the operations. Convention clearly states (article 13): 'Prisoners of war must at all Page 44 of 154 times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation body in a meat freezer in Misrata. Humiliation was piled upon total and against insults and public curiosity.' disrespect for religious and traditional customs as the bodies were made a public spectacle. When the bodies started to decompose, they The Fourth Geneva Convention (article 27): 'Protected persons are could no longer keep the bodies and Gadddafi and his son were buried entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honor, in the desert. their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, AFRICAN UNITY CANNOT BE HALTED and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.' Fifty years after Patrice Lumumba was assassinated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1961, we now have another gruesome The discovery of the 53 corpses at the Mahari hotel, and another ten execution of an African leader with the objective of halting the dumped in a nearby reservoir reveal a glimpse of the bloodletting and liberation and independence of Africa. In normal circumstances NATO indiscriminate killings. commanders, United Nations personnel, point persons for the Arab League, and other imperial actors would be required to testify before Africans from sub-saharan Africa were being particularly targeted and an impartial enquiry in order to justify their role if any in these the opposition to the NTC intensified all over the continent, if not over atrocities. It required the tenacious work of peace loving persons to the world. ensure that Belgium and the USA were named as the murderers of Patrice Lumumba. CAN NATO CONTROL LIBYA? Today, international law can only be enforced by a new international From the start of the war against the peoples of Libya in March 2011, it alliance of societies that want to avoid total destructions. became clear that the objective of the war was regime change. Those decent humans who had been offended by the leadership of the Libyan In the midst of this crisis, the criminal actions carried out in Libya point society calling their people rats and feared for a massacre were soon to the reality that we are not in normal circumstances. How can the shown the reality that it was the NATO bombing that was a greater United Nations or NATO investigate crimes committed on their watch? threat. Under the cover of providing security from the air for the TNC, NATO, the UN, and the other imperial actors in this campaign, granted The NATO-led air campaign was launched in March under a UN themselves the alibi now being espoused for cold blooded murder. It is mandate to protect civilians from Gaddafi's forces trying to crush unthinkable to believe that NATO and the UN did not know what the popular protests. It was clear that the objective of NATO was not to NTC and other special forces were doing on the ground. Given the turn protect civilians and there was opposition to this NATO operation. of events in Libya, which erupted in the cold blooded bloodletting, what seems to be emerging is some kind of sinister plot to obliterate any The destruction of Libya was meant to ensure greater western control remnants of the former regime. There is no justification for such over that society. bloodletting. These people, including Gaddafi should have been captured and brought to trial under international law. International law Throughout the war, the African Union spoke with one voice and called cannot be exercised in a piecemeal manner to suit the whims and for a roadmap that would establish an inclusive government. fancies of big powers. International law must be applied equally in all Experience from Burundi and the work of the Nyerere and Mandela circumstances and in all areas of the world. foundations point to the truth that it is in Africa where there is expertise to bring reconciliation. From the actions of the USA, France and What has emerged in Libya is a double standard. Britain, they do not want peace and reconstruction in Libya. France continues to ensnare China in the spoils of war by promising The same leaders who proclaim themselves as upholders of human reconstruction contracts. But if the BRICS societies support the African rights applauded the humiliation and execution of Gaddafi. Decent Union, there will be no contracts to be given out by France. National human beings all over the world were outraged and it is now clearer Transitional Council (NTC) Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil would like the that the decision to execute Gaddafi was made to silence one voice for UNSC to extend the mandate of the no fly zone on the grounds of anti-imperialism. controlling surplus weapons. However, Jalil has no means to exercise political leadership. The execution had the opposite effect and the work for expelling foreign military forces from Africa will be now more intense. The NTC is divided. Three months after Tripoli was 'liberated' the leaders in Benghazi are still afraid to move to Tripoli. The Misrata elements of the 'uprising' hijacked the body of Gadddafi and kept the Page 45 of 154  15. http://sfbayview.com/2011/walter-fauntroy-feared-dead- “‘What the hell’ I’m thinking to myself. I’m getting out of here. So I went in-libya-returns-home-%E2%80%93-guess-who-he-saw- in hiding,” Fauntroy said. doing-the-killing/ The rebels told Fauntroy they had been told by the European forces to 16. Walter Fauntroy, feared dead in Libya, returns home – stay inside. According to Fauntroy, the European forces would tell the Guess who he saw doing the killing rebels, “‘Look at what you did.’ In other words, the French and Danish September 11, 2011by Valencia were ordering the bombings and killings, and giving credit to the rebels. Fauntroy watched French and Danish troops storm small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control. “The truth about all this will come out later,” Fauntroy said. While in Libya, the former congressman also said he sat down with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi for a one-on-one conversation. Mohammed Qaddafi has ruled Libya since 1969, when he seized power in a military coup. Walter Fauntroy, legendary champion of human rights, was elected in Fauntroy said he spoke with Qaddafi in person and that Qaddafi 1970 as the first member of Congress representing the District of assured him that if he survived these attacks, the mission to unite African countries would continue. Columbia. A founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus in The French and Danish were ordering the bombings and killings, 1977, in 1984 he, Randall Robinson and Dr. Mary Francis Berry and giving credit to the rebels. launched the Free South Africa Movement with their arrest at the “Contrary to what is being reported in the press, from what I heard and South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. He retired from Congress observed, more than 90 percent of the Libyan people love Qaddafi,” in 1990, returning to New Bethel Baptist Church, where he had grown Fauntroy said. “We believe the true mission of the attacks on Qaddafi is to prevent all efforts by African leaders to stop the recolonization of up, as full time pastor and becoming president of the National Black Africa.” Leadership Roundtable and the Global Campaign for Middle East Several months ago, Qaddafi’s leadership faced its biggest challenge. Peace. While in Tripoli, he told the U.K. Telegraph, “I came here over a In February, a radical protest movement called the Arab Spring spread across Libya. When Qaddafi responded by dispatching military and week ago now and have been working on a long term effort to rally the plainclothes paramilitary to the streets to attack demonstrators, it genuine spiritual leaders of the world ... to work out a peace turned into a civil war with the assistance of NATO and the United Nations. agreement.” Fauntroy’s account could not be immediately verified by the Afro, and Special to the AFRO the U.S. State Department has not substantiated Fauntroy’s version of events. Fauntroy was not acting as an official representative of the Former U.S. Congressman Walter Fauntroy, who recently returned U.S. in Libya. He returned to Washington, D.C., on Aug. 31. from a self-sanctioned peace mission to Libya, said he went into hiding for about a month in Libya after witnessing horrifying events in Libya’s We believe the true mission of the attacks on Qaddafi is to bloody civil war – a war that Fauntroy claims is backed by European prevent all efforts by African leaders to stop the recolonization of forces. Africa. Fauntroy’s sudden disappearance prompted rumors and news reports When rumors spread about Fauntroy being killed, he went that he had been killed. underground, he told the Afro in an interview. Fauntroy said for more than a month he decided not to contact his family but to continue the In an interview inside his Northwest D.C. home last week, the noted mission to speak with African spiritual leaders about a movement to civil rights leader told the Afro that he watched French and Danish unify Africa despite the Arab uprisings. troops storm small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control. Page 46 of 154 “I’m still here,” Fauntroy said, pointing to several parts of his body. “I’ve got all my fingers and toes. I’m extremely lucky to be here.” After blogs and rumors reported Fauntroy had been killed, the congressional office of Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., announced on Aug. 24 that she had been in touch with authorities who confirmed Fauntroy was safely in the care of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Inside his home, Fauntroy pulled out several memoirs and notebooks to explain why he traveled to Libya at a time when it was going through civil unrest. NATO propaganda seeks to hide a terrible and very serious news: renegade thugs have broken into Sheikh Ali Al ahwal home in Bani Walid. The wise scholar of 80 years old was the head of the main tribe in the country, Warfala, and was the coordinator of the tribes. He had deep patriotic and anti- imperialist positions. He was killed of 12 shots in the chest. The chief was a man of peace and did not even have a hunting rifle at home. This crime is both an hideous act amongst others that have been committed by Nato and its mercenaries (under the protection of NATO and the CIA) and is a special event because it will turn against occupation plans. The tribesmen never forgive, they retaliate and refuse to give a high stability and support for a NATO protectorate in Libya. This murder has definitely shifted ALL the Libyan people against imperialist criminals. Libyans were deeply moved and felt indignation. They will defeat the traitors and foreign forces and rebuild an independent country. Source: Al Mukawama Resistencia 20. Libya: Leaked UN report reveals torture, lynchings and abuse by rebel militias Libyan rebels fire their weapons into the air. – Photo: Francisco Leong, 4 4 ShareThis13 AFP By Kim Sengupta, Solomon Hughes “This recent trip to Libya was part of a continuous mission that started Thursday, 24 November 2011 under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he gave me orders to join four African countries on the continent with four in the African Diaspora to restore the continent to its pre-colonial status,” Fauntroy said. “We want Africa to be the breadbasket of the world,” he said. “Currently, all the major roads in every country throughout Africa lead to ports that take its natural resources and wealth outside the continent to be sold to the European markets.” Valencia Mohammed is a reporter for the Afro-American, the historic Black newspaper in Washington, D.C., where this story first appeared, on Sept. 7, and founder of Mothers of Unsolved Murders. 19. Libya: Nato mercenaries coldly murdered tribal chief Warfala to 80 years Page 47 of 154  Libyan revolutionary supporters cheer at a speech by report is due to be circulated among members of the UN Transitional National Council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil in Security Council, and discussed next week. Tripoli(AP) However, Ban Ki-moon also presents a grim scenario of the  ENLARGE growing power of the armed militias that control of the streets of many towns, including those of the capital, Tripoli, and the Ads by Google settling of internecine feuds through gun battles resulting in deaths and injuries. Watchable Wildlife in OK Explore top wildlife watching spotsin Oklahoma - bison, eagles & more. Meanwhile the lawlessness has resulted in the vast majority www.TravelOK.com of the police force not being able to return to work. In the few places where they have been back on duty under experienced Anti-Terrorism Degree officers, such as Tripoli, their role has been restricted largely 100% Online Counter TerrorismDegrees. Accredited and to directing traffic. Affordable. www.StudyatAPU.com/CounterTerrorism Libya is the only Arab uprising to have attracted direct Romney vs. Obama? Western military support, despite the closer links forged with Vote in UrgentPoll Here! the West in recent years by the Gaddafi regime. The www.newsmax.com/m/surveys resistance in London, Washington and elsewhere to Nato-led intervention in other Arab countries has centred largely on a 17. Related Articles lack of coherent opposition. Political backers of the air strikes  Libya government told to end human rights abuses in Libya had cited the National Transitional Council (NTC) as a credible alternative to the Gaddafi regime.  Libyan rebels 'guilty of torture' The scope of escalating strife, inside the country as well as the wider region, is highlighted by the caches of weapons Thousands of people, including women and children, are abandoned by the regime and subsequently looted. These being illegally detained by rebel militias in Libya, according to include shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, known as a report by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Manpads, capable of bringing down commercial airliners. Many of the prisoners are suffering torture and systematic mistreatment while being held in private jails outside the control of the country's new government. The Report of the Secretary-General on United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) states that: “Libya had accumulated the largest known stockpile of Manpads, of any The document, seen by The Independent, states that while non-Manpad-producing country. Although thousands were political prisoners being held by the Gaddafi regime have destroyed during the seven-month Nato operations, there are been released, their places have been taken by up to 7,000 increasing concerns over the looting and likely proliferation of new “enemies of the state”, "disappeared" in a dysfunctional these portable defence systems, as well as munitions and system, with no recourse to the law. mines, highlighting the potential risk to local and regional stability.” The report will come as uncomfortable reading for the Western governments, including Britain, which backed the But the continuing human rights abuses, says the Secretary- campaign to oust Gaddafi. A UN resolution was secured in General’s report, are the most pressing concern. The report March in order to protect civilians from abuses by the regime, says that “while political prisoners held by the Gaddafi regime which was at the time mercilessly suppressing the uprising have been released, an estimated 7,000 detainees are against the Gaddafi regime. currently held in prisons and makeshift detention centres, most of which are under the control of revolutionary brigades, There was evidence, says the report by Ban Ki-moon, due to with no access to due process in the absence of a functioning be presented to the Security Council, that both sides police and judiciary.” committed acts amounting war crimes in the bitter battle for Colonel Gaddafi's hometown, Sirte. The Secretary-General Of particular worry was the fate of women being held for who recently visited Libya, echoes the concern expressed by alleged links with the regime, often due to family connections, many world leaders over the killing of the former dictator by sometimes with their children locked up alongside them. rebel fighters pointing out that Gaddafi was captured alive before being put to death. “There have also been reports of women held in detention in the absence of female guards and under male supervision, The report also stresses that it is a matter of great praise that and of children detained alongside adults,” says the report. the country has been liberated after 42 years of totalitarian rule. The victorious opposition - which formed a new interim government this week - fully intends to follow a democratic A number of black Africans were lynched following the path and introduce a functioning legal system, he says. The revolution following claims, often false, that they were hired guns for the Gaddafi regime. The city of Tawerga, mainly comprised of residents originally from sub-Saharan countries, Page 48 of 154 was largely destroyed by rebel fighters from neighbouring Misrata. The port city had withstood a prolonged and brutal siege in the hands of the regime forces during which, it is Kucinich: Libyan foray represents ‘new international claimed, fighters from Tawerga were particularly aggressive gangsterism’ and brutal. By Mike Lillis - 08/23/11 05:46 PM ET The report says that ”sub-Saharan Africans, in some cases An anti-war Democrat warned Tuesday that the Obama accused or suspected of being mercenaries, constitute a large administration’s foray into Libya sets the stage for a new era number of the detainees. Some detainees have reportedly of “international gangsterism.” been subjected to torture and ill treatment. Cases have been reported of individuals being targeted because of the colour of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said the five-month-old intervention — their skin.” now being led by NATO — sets a dangerous precedent for unilateral attacks on sovereign nations. He said Western forces “illegally” picked favorites in Libya’s civil war, and he called on the International The document continues: “Tawergas are reported to have Criminal Court to investigate potential war crimes by military leaders been targeted in revenge killings, or taken by armed men on all sides of the conflict. from their homes, checkpoints and hospitals, and some allegedly later abused or executed in detention. Members of “NATO’s top commanders may have acted under color of international the community have fled to various cities across Libya.” law, but they are not exempt from international law,” Kucinich said in a news release. “If members of the Gadhafi Regime are to be held accountable, NATO’s top commanders must also be held accountable The UN findings chart the vicious abuse carried out by the through the International Criminal Court for all civilian deaths regime until the final days of the civil war. In a personal note resulting from bombing. in the document, Ban Ki-Moon said: “I was deeply shocked by my visit to an agricultural warehouse in the Khallital-Ferjan “Otherwise, we will have witnessed the triumph of a new international neighbourhood of Tripoli where elements of the Gaddafi gangsterism.” regime had detained civilians in inhuman conditions, had subjected some to torture and had massacred as many as Obama has been under fire from some members of both parties since he launched the Libya campaign in March while Congress was in recess. The they could and burned their bodies. White House said quick action was needed to save tens of thousands of civilians from government troops controlled by longtime Libyan dictator “The international community must support the efforts to Moammar Gadhafi. establish the fate of missing persons and to bring to justice perpetrators with the greatest responsibility for such crimes.” But critics such as Kucinich maintain that the administration violated the Constitution by launching the mission without congressional Independent approval. In June, Kucinich spearheaded a bipartisan effort to sue the White House on those grounds. Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world- news/libya-leaked-un-report-reveals-torture-lynchings-and- abuse-by-rebel-militias-16081902.html#ixzz1tvJxnX3S The debate revolves around the decades-old question of how much power the White House has to go to war without Page 49 of 154 explicit approval from Congress. [AFP] Under the Constitution, the authority to wage war falls squarely with the legislative branch. But a 1973 law — the War Powers Act — empowers the president to launch military operations unilaterally in At least five people have been killed in fighting in the Libyan town of Bani the face of imminent threats. Walid between fighters still loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and forces supporting the country's transitional government. It was the War Powers Act that President Obama invoked when he entered Libya in March. The law requires presidents to secure Mohamed Bashir, the town's mayor, told Al Jazeera late on Monday that congressional authorization within 60 days, or withdraw forces within forces loyal to the National Transitional Council had pulled out of the town at the next 30. Instead, Obama ceded control of the forces to NATO. 7pm local time after about four hours of fighting, while a town spokesman said the Gaddafi-era Libyan green flag had been raised over the town. Over the weekend, NATO-backed rebel forces moved into Tripoli, Libya’s capital and the last remaining stronghold of Gadhafi "We don't see fighting right now, but there are a lot of casualties," supporters. By Tuesday, the rebels had stormed Gadhafi’s Bab al- said Bashir. "Tomorrow morning, the situation will probably be much better... Aziziya compound, where they thought he was holed up. (There’s no A military force [will] take over Bani Walid, to take back security," he said. sign he was there, according to various reports). A resident of the town, about 200km southeast of Tripoli, said the fight on Kucinich said the rebels’ progress provides U.S. policymakers with an Monday used heavy weaponry, including 106-mm anti-tank guns, and that 20 opportunity “to review the curious role of NATO and the future of U.S. people were wounded. interventionism.” The assault was the first major offensive launched by Gaddafi loyalists since “The foreign policy objectives of the Obama administration are he was killed in October, weeks after being toppled from power. cloudy,” Kucinich said. "There are around 100 and 150 men armed with heavy weapons who are “Now that NATO, with the help of the U.S., has brought the rebels into attacking. We have asked for the army to intervene, but the defence ministry the streets of Tripoli to fight, what follows? What’s the plan?” and NTC have let us down," Mahmud Warfelli, a spokesperson for the Bani Walid local council, said. The Ohio liberal is urging the end of America’s intervention in the conflict so those taxpayer dollars can be used to strengthen the "[The gunmen] took control and hoisted the green flag on some important economy at home. districts in the centre of the city," he said, referring to the Gaddafi- era flag. "We've been warning about this for the past two months." “Resources which should be spent creating jobs in America are going to perpetuate war abroad,” Kucinich said. “Resources which should be Last stronghold used to build bridges in America continue to be used to bomb bridges elsewhere.” Bani Walid, considered a bastion of the powerful Warfallah tribe, was one of the last towns in Libya to surrender to the uprising that toppled Gaddafi last 21. Fighting erupts in Libya's Bani Walid year. Many people in the area still oppose the country's new leadership. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/2012123182559826642.ht The violence in Bani Walid first broke out when members of the May ml Five fighters reportedly killed and green flag hoisted over town that was one of last to fall to anti-Gaddafi forces. Last Modified: 24 Jan 2012 05:20 28 group arrested some Gaddafi loyalists. That prompted other supporters of the former leader to attack the group's garrison in the town, according to the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Bani Walid was the site of a prolonged battle "They massacred men at the doors of the militia headquarters," the resident before the NTC overpowered the town in October said. Page 50 of 154 Fathi Baja, a senior NTC member, said that ambulances had been unable to BRQ Network'The attack on Libya was an attack on Africa! It was an evacuate those wounded because there were "snipers positioned on a school and a mosque in the vicinity" of the attack. attack on my aspirations as a person of African descent to have a free and independent Africa. That's what was attacked!' Fotmani said later that Gaddafi loyalists had taken all the heavy weaponry from the NTC garrison, and set fire to the local council's main building. INTRODUCTION "Yesterday they had distributed leaflets saying 'We will be back soon. We will take the rats out'," he said. I grew up in New York City, and have travelled and lived in different parts of the world, including about 18 years in the "Peachtree State" of NTC struggling Georgia. For almost as long as I lived there, I'd heard of Cynthia McKinney -- the first African-American woman to represent Georgia in Libya's NTC has already been struggling with violent protests in its stronghold city of Benghazi and the resignation of its second most senior the U.S. House of Representatives. To be honest, a great deal that I official heard from the Mainstream Media was negative, portraying Ms. . McKinney as a crazy shrew, an over-the-top black radical who An air questioned the official story of 9/11; opposed the US wars in Iraq and force Afghanistan -- and, recently, in Libya; opposed Israeli policies, and official told supported Palestinian demands for statehood. About three years ago, I Reuters heard McKinney speak at a conference at Georgetown University in that jets Washington, D.C. Instead of a crazy firebrand, I heard an intelligent, were measured, if passionate, presentation of why she challenged US war being mobilis policies. ed to fly to When I returned to Georgia, I wrote a friend in the UK about my hope Bani Walid. to interview McKinney. My friend related a story about the "Dignity" In ship, carrying food and medical supplies to Palestine, in 2008, rammed Tripoli, there by the Israeli Navy in international waters. McKinney was on that ship, Click here for more of Al Jazeera's special were and when it was rammed, she turned to my friend's brother and said, signs coverage of "David, I can't swim." Nothing I had ever heard about McKinney security being tightened, Reuters reporters in the city said. revealed her character more succinctly. This is a woman willing to put her life on the line in support of her principles. Missing from the During Libya's nine-month civil war, fighters opposed to Gaddafi fought for months to take Bani Walid. mainstream media depictions were the human and humane aspects of her character. The MSM has too-often portrayed the struggle for justice Local tribal elders eventually agreed to let NTC fighters enter the town, but as irrational, or even fanatical. I needed to know more. relations have been uneasy since and there have been occasional flare-ups of violence. THE INTERVIEW In November last year, several people were killed in Bani Walid when an armed group from Tripoli's Souq al-Juma district arrived in the town to try to GARY CORSERI: Let's start with a big one... about the day that arrest some local men. changed everything--9/11. Re-taking control of the town is a challenge due to natural defences. Anyone approaching from the north has to descend into a deep valley and then climb [And, for a sense of the very sharp way McKinney performed her up the other side, giving defenders an advantage. duties -- and the People's business - in the US House of Representatives, while on the Budget Committee, I recommend It was this landscape, in part, that prevented opposition fighters from taking the town during the civil war, despite the fact they were heavily armed. checking out this 9-minute 2006 YouTube video of her grilling Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, General Meyers, and Tina Jonas about 9/11 and related matters.] In 2004, you signed the 9/11 Truth Movement statement, calling for 22. Africa: Cynthia Mckinney Tells It Like It Is new investigations of "unexplained aspects of the 9/11 events." More BY GARY S. CORSERI, 23 FEBRUARY 2012 than 7 years have passed since then. What would you say are some of the more egregious "unexplained events"? INTERVIEW CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: ... How is it that the people of the United States can invest trillions of dollars in the military and Intelligence Page 51 of 154 infrastructure--and it failed four times in one day? ... That singular CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Look... I spent last September '11 in the home question has never been answered. of a woman who is afflicted with cancer... because she lived near the World Trade center. And all of that dust came into her apartment... and GARY CORSERI: Staying with 9/11. ... Distorted as they have been she had to clean it up. ... She will never figure into any of the statistics by the Mainstream Media, your views have caused uninformed about who has been affected--her situation will never count... but it Americans to question your patriotism. In 2005, you held counts to me, and to all of the other memebers of the 911 Truth Congressional briefings on the official 9/11 Commission Report-- Community. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Yeah. ... the only official briefing on that subject GARY CORSERI: Let's explore another controversial issue linked held on Capitol Hill, period! to you. ... Ms. McKinney, what does the number "88794" signify for you? GARY CORSERI: Well... The Atlanta-Journal Constitution editorialized that-- CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: That was the number that was assigned to me by the Israeli prison system when--on my second attempt to get into CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Oh... you mean, The Urinal-in-Constipation ! Gaza--I was kidnapped on the high seas in international waters and taken against my will to Israel and put in prison. ... David Halpin, the [General laughter in the room. ...] UK physician, and I sat next to each other because the volunteers--the activists that were on the boat--were international and spoke different GARY CORSERI: ... They editorialized that-- languages... so I sat next to the English doctor... and he railed, he railed, he railed as the warship came close to us..., then backed off..., CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: You call them legitimate? I won't even then approached us again--very quicly and very quietly--in this cat-and- legitimize them with a response! Whatever they say is bogus! You got mouse game. ... And he cursed my government... because it was with another quote from somebody? the assistance of the United States that those engines had been provided to the Israeli military so that they could do what they were GARY CORSERI: No... well, hear me out. doing to us. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: I'm not going to respond to anything they say! GARY CORSERI: Did you join him in the cursing? GARY CORSERI: Well... you did, in fact, respond to an editorial CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: No. ... In fact..., I do a lot of apologizing! I can they wrote when they editorialized that the briefings you were say this: In the struggle for human rights, I consider prisoner # 88794 a holding were to determine whether the Bush administration had badge of honor that I've acquired as a result of what I have chosen to prior knowledge of the attacks. That was their editorial! You do to assert my own right to recognize the human rights and the dignity replied..., but they refused to publish your response. ...So... how of other people. did you respond? Can you tell us now? GARY CORSERI: Let's continue with this theme of recognizing CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Oh, I can't even remember back that far..., but, other people's human rights. ... More recently, this past year, you I think the record now reflects what Bush knew... and I'm sure that part were in Tripoli when NATO bombed Libya. What were you doing of what I said is that I would never try to go inside George Bush's brain there... and can you describe that experience? to see what's there! CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: I voluntarily went to Libya. ... Any time the War GC: Too many maggots? Machine rolls--I have to oppose that! Libya was a special case, a [Laughter. ...] personal case... because I had just been to Libya. ... I had taken a delegation of independent journalists to go to Libya... because I did not GARY CORSERI: So, your main question is, Where was our air believe the explanation that was given to the public about the necessity force, why didn't they prevent it-- to bomb Tripoli and other cities in Libya. ... While we were there... we experienced what "shock and awe" is all about. The individual who CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: We know where they were. ... The question is, went to the UN with allegations of thousands dying at the hands of Why didn't they follow standard operating procedures? Colonel Gaddhafi and the Libyan government--when he was pressed to substantiate his claims, he couldn't. GARY CORSERI: And the other questions about buildings free- falling into their footprints... Building 7-- Page 52 of 154 GARY CORSERI: That reminds me of the allegations made fact, people like Ron Paul even talk about using gold-backed against the Iraqis in Kuwait, back in 1990--that they were taking currency... so I've heard that as a rationale for what we were babies out of incubators and throwing them on the floor! doing there--trying to prevent any challenge to the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. ... But..., nobody has described the CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: It's also a situation similar to that of the Cuban- situation as completely as you have. American community congregated down in Miami... right after the Cuban Revolution in 1959 where we had a community of expatriates My final question on Libya is this: You have praised Colonel Gaddafi's who were willing to unleash terror on their own country... and, a similar GREEN BOOK and the kind of "direct democracy" advocated therein. thing was happening in Libya... with the United States providing Can you give us a brief lesson as to how that "direct democracy" financing for these individuals willing to lie about what was happening. differs from our "representative democracy"? This information is available on the Internet. Julien Teil interviewed the CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Our "democracy" is neither democratic nor individual making these false claims at the UN. The interview can be representative! But... let's start with what the Jamahiriya means to me. found here. ...It's on YouTube, as well. Julien also interviewed the ... The only stake that I have is that I want to see a free and woman at Amnesty International who had claimed that "African independent Africa..., but the type of government that Libya has should mercenaries" were supporting Gaddafi's repression of his people; but, be determined by the Libyan people. I don't really have a say in that. ... when challenged--and this was all after the devastation--she admitted And I shouldn't have a say in how they dispose of their governmental that it was "just a rumor." form. ... Therefore, it's inexcusable to ask another country to bomb your fellow countrymen if you really care about your country! My colleague, David Josue, and I had been in Libya to attend a conference for Africans on the continent as well as Africans in the The Jamahiriya -- which had the highest living standard in all of Africa-- diaspora. And what the Jamahariya government had devised was a had free education up through the Ph.D. level; free health care; free call to Africans in the diaspora who were unhappy with their treatment utilities, subsidized--and free, if you were poor--housing; subsidized at the hands of white Americans or white Europeans, etc.--to come food; subsidized transportaion, including car expenses... and so, the back home to Africa and to help Libya rebuild Africa and rebuild itself. necessities of life were paid for by the direct democracy known as the Jamahiriya. [Interviewer's NOTE: (from Wikipedia): "Jamahiriya" is a term coined by Gaddafi, usually translated as "state of the masses."] Can you imagine...? I have a cousin who is $120,000 in student debt in the U.S. She has a Master's degree as a social worker. Now, if she That was the purpose of this conference I had attended. ... And it was had been born in Libya -- she would have no such debt. ... I went to a at that conference that the Jamahiriya committed 90 billion dollars to university outside of Tripoli and asked the students about their tuition help in the creation of The United States of Africa. ... That would also fees... and the word didn't translate. I asked them about what they paid include a million-person army for continental Africa to drive back the to attend the university. ... It was $9.00 per year! attempts of AFRICOM and others to occupy the African continent. ... That was in addition to the proposal for a gold-backed dinar for all of When I was in Congress, one of my allies was Senator Mike Gravel... Africa. ... The daughter of Kwame Nkruma was at that conference; the and Senator Gravel's initiative is about "direct democracy." He had son of Patrice Lumumba was at that conference... the grandson of been to Libya... and he supported the establishment of the Malcom X was there. ... The atmosphere was electric with the idea of revolutionary committees which was the way Libyans determined how the re-building, the re-kindling of the movement that these African they would use their oil money. leaders--or their forebears--represented. Well... that was all put to an end by NATO's bombing. A question under discussion when I attended the conference there was whether the subsidies for gas/petrol or the subsidies for education [Interviewer's NOTE (from Wikipedia): The United States Africa would be increased! (In the US, under "austerity" measures, people Command (AFRICOM) is one of nine United Combatant Commands of are being told which programs will be eliminated or eviscerated; in the United States Armed Forces.] Libya, they were voting on which programs would get increased subsidization!) The attack on Libya was an attack on Africa! It was an attack on my aspirations as a person of African descent to have a free and What I have said publicly is that what we have been seeing is the independent Africa. That's what was attacked! Israelization of US policy. You know... the only reason the Libyans took any interest in me was that someone in Libya, looking at their GARY CORSERI: I've never had as complete a picture of that. ... television, saw me having all these problems trying to get into Gaza... I'd heard that Gaddafi wanted to set up a gold-backed dinar. ... In and they said, "We want to know her!" That's why I was invited to Page 53 of 154 attend this conference on THE GREEN BOOK--to explain what I was My Name, Women in Black [www.womeninblack.org]-- we had about trying to do in Gaza. And what I observed in Libya was the same kind ten organizations at that press conference... and it was fantastic. of collective punishment I observed in Gaza. People supporting their own governments were being punished by outsiders who opposed That night, the Atlanta News criticized me for associating with "fringe those governments! Jewish elements"! Now... what's a "fringe Jewish element"? It was the Anti-Defamation League that was casting this aspersion! This is the kind of thing that happens in the absence of ethics in journalism. ... Because... we don't have journalists in the Mainstream--I Now, the Anti-Defamation League that I knew about is supposed to be call it the Special Interests Press--to educate and provide information a Civil Rights organization. But... the Anti-Defamation League, in to citizens so they can make a critical analysis of issues. That is practice, filed an amicus brief with five white racists to dismantle the absent. ... We need ethics in scholarship; ethics in journalism, as well. district--my district!--that provided an opportunity for black people in the ...The journalistic community has gone along with the kind of death and black belt of Georgia to have representation! Those are the people destruction that has been visited upon Libya... and so many other who sent me to Congress to represent them! ... I stand on their countries. We're setting up drone bases all over Africa... and people shoulders, and I did my darnedest to represent them--and I was here don't even know... don't begin to understand. rewarded by the Anti-Defamation League filing an amicus brief and a lawsuit to dismantle that district and take representation away from GARY CORSERI: You've mentioned many potent issues, those poor, black people. including the "Israelization of US policy." I'd like to explore that, and also explore the theme of alliances--even unlikely alliances. ... GARY CORSERI: I can certainly understand your indignation. And I don't want to hammer this issue. ... But, this is on Wikipedia... In the 2002 election to the House of Representatives, people like your and, as one researches you--this is what one comes across: father and the editor and commentator Alexander Cockburn alleged that your defeat by Denise Majette was a consequence of out-of-state About that election with Majette, your father, a former state Jewish organizations and Jewish money working against you--- representative in Georgia, stated that "Jews have bought everybody... And then he spelled it, "J-E-W-S. ..." Now..., personally, I always make CYNHTIA MCKINNEY: That's not an allegation--that's a fact! I was a distinction between Jews and Zionists--and you just did. ... I try to informed that I had been targeted by the pro-Israel lobby by the media. distinguish between people who follow a religious tradition and those ... I read about it in the papers! ... and the evidence is readily available. who assert a political-nationalist ideology. ... And, ah... I think writers ...So, the fact of being targeted by the number-one special interest like Gilad Atzmon, for example, have been very clear about making lobby in the United States means that there is an engagement in every that distinction in his recent work like The Wandering Who? aspect of one's political life. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: I haven't read that, but-- GARY CORSERI: Well, ah, let's tackle this head-on: Are you anti- Semitic? GARY CORSERI: I haven't read it, but I've read about it-- CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Well, I'm, ah... I'm no more anti-Semitic than CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Gilad is coming to Atlanta this month -- than any of the anti-Zionist Jews who I work with on an almost-daily basis to correct US policy. And, I would suggest that the real Semites GARY CORSERI: Is he? I'd like to meet him. are the Palestinians. And, therefore, I would suggest that I'm not anti- CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Yes. ... You must come -- Semitic, but that there are people who are anti-human rights, and there are some people who are anti-peace, and there are some people who GARY CORSERI: I will! But, ah, anyway... do you think, in are pro-war... and no matter who they are, I will always be against retrospect, you might recommend changing the terminology a bit- that... because I. ... You see what my... my button says? - just to broaden the dialogue and widen the base of opposition to inhumane practices? (She points to a button she is wearing on her blouse). My button says, "I'm a peace-keeper" And, this one says, "War is a crime!" CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Well... let me tell you something. ... I want to talk to you about. ... The first time my daddy got into trouble was when GARY CORSERI: "Blessed are the peace-keepers. ..." he said, "racist Jew." And, I had a Jewish friend who was trying to CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: When I was in Congress, I organized a press smooth things over. And I asked her, "Is Jew a bad word? I didn't know conference with organizations like "Jewish Workers for Peace," "Not in "Zionist"--I didn't even know that word at the time... because... here's the thing: the Anti-Defamation League says that they represent all Jews--that's what they tell us. AIPAC, also. So... I didn't know that Page 54 of 154 there was a word called "Zionist" until I became involved with the Authorization Act, as well as the other intrusions on privacy and Betrand Russell tribunal on Palestine. ... And there was a famous civil liberties. More Americans classify themselves as Jewish lawyer who was one of the leaders in that tribunal, and I went "Independents" than as Republicans or Democrats. How can the to him and I said, "Daniel, how does your family feel about your being varied strands of Independents work together to defeat the in this tribunal?" and he said, "My family are anti-Zionist Jews." And I Republicrats? said, "I don't know what that is!" I was 50-something years old, and I'd never heard the language! Now, of course, I've been exposed... and CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: The answer to that question goes to the core of I'm more sensitive that there's a difference. ... Now... I have marvelous the kind of change we hope to initiate on a policy basis. ... So... how do Jewish friends... and I understand the difference between Judaism and we do that? I think the first thing is that we have to be willing to talk to Zionism. Whoever prays to whatever God is fine with me..., but, a each other. We have to recognize that there's commonality despite political ideology is quite different. ... I know I have a lot to learn when it difference. So... the thing that allowed Nader and me and Paul to come comes to Zionism and Judaism. ... I'm not very religious... but I am together is that we were at least willing to see areas of commonality. spiritual... and I'm very interested in people's beliefs... but, I'm more We should be able to do that across the political spectrum. And, in fact, interested in the way people behave. ... So, I would always say, Judge when I was in the Congress, I was forced to do that. ... As a me on what I do more than on what I say. ... And, I acknowledge that I Southerner, I -- and as someone who had to get votes -- not lose them can be wrong about what I say. ... And, my father can be wrong about -- I needed the endorsement of a leader in the community... and he what he said. was a Klan member... and I had no choice. ... I asked him for his support--and I got it! (After I sat there for over an hour and he GARY CORSERI: Thank you very much. ... I think you've clarified described to me how "confused" the people were because of the way that for a lot of people. Now... this idea of building alliances. ... I'd they judged the Ku Klux Klan to be racist!) like to discuss current events, namely, the Presidential election [Here, CM gives a strong, hearty guffaw!] CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Um-ha. And... I sat there and found a place where we could have a meeting of GARY CORSERI: First, a re-cap: In 2008, disgusted with the the minds--and I did it! Democratic Party, you were the Green Party candidate for president. That same year, you joined a press conference held by GARY CORSERI: Related question then: I've been criticized because I 3 rd party and independent candidates, including Ralph Nader wrote an article, about a month ago--"The Lion and the Ox" -- praising and Ron Paul. The participants agreed on 4 basic principles: Ron Paul's stance on ending the wars, ending the Empire, auditing the Fed. I also think his views on our antiquated, absurd and minority- 1. An early end to the Iraq War, and an end to threats of war against punishing drug laws are far more enlightened than anyone else's --with other countries, including Iran. the exception of 2012 Green Party candidate, Jill Stein's. Paul makes a distinction between Capitalism and Corporatism -- an important 2. Safeguarding privacy and civil liberties, including repeal of the distinction. Now, I'm not a Libertarian; I don't agree with "unregulated" Patriot Act, the Military Commisions Act and FISA legislation. Capitalism to the extent Paul and Libertarians do. But, I wonder: Given various points of convergence, how can the Green Party and 3. No increase in the National Debt. Libertarians work together to overturn what we have in America today-- basically, a one-party system, a Corporate Party system, abetted by 4. A thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal corporate media? Reserve System. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Well, one thing is that the Libertarians and the My question is this: If these different elements of Independent thought Greens could join forces -- kind of a united front. So... I'd like to see if could come together on these 4 basic principles in 2008, why can't those kinds of talks could get anywhere. they unite behind the same principles in 2012? GARY CORSERI: A friend of mine suggested a Paul-McKinney CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: They can. ticket. GARY CORSERI: Isn't it possible to conceive a party that speaks CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: That was your friend, huh? for the majority of Independents, that unites Independents? The 4 principles that united Independents then are still very much with GARY CORSERI: Well, you know... when I first heard that, I us--and in many ways the dangers are greater--the possibility of thought, "That's crazy!" But... I thought about it, and I thought, war with Iran looms larger now, and there's the National Defense "Why not? We live in crazy times. ..." Page 55 of 154 CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Yeah... we do. protest, as in the Occupy Wall Street movement, are arrested, booked, and more closely watched. Now they have "records" that GARY CORSERI: I mean... look what we have to choose from: affect their employment. ... My question is: how do we battle this Santorum, Michelle Bachman, Hermain Cain, Gingrich, Romney-- pervasive system? Do you get discouraged? What do you do all these crazy people. when you are discouraged? Who are your "heroes"? To whom do you turn for inspiration? CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Every time there's a vote, it gets more outrageous, doesn't it? CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Do I get discouraged? Yes! What do I do when I'm discouraged? ... find other people who are not yet discouraged! GARY CORSERI: It does! Well... what do you think about Paul- McKinney? Who are my heroes? Everybody! Everybody who has a tough row to hoe in life! Those are my heroes. Those are the people who give the CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Well... we're not there yet, so I don't have to most! When I was running for Congress back in 1992--for the first time- think about it at all! -I was running to represent the second poorest district in Georgia... and, what I learned was that the poor people gave the most! The GARY CORSERI: Well. people who had... didn't give as generously as the people who didn't have! So... my first campaign theme was, "Warriors don't wear medals, CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Let me put it this way. ... We do have they wear scars!" So... my heroes are the community and overlapping constituencies. ... So... it would be wonderful if the two neighborhood warriors who have a whole lof of scars, a whole lot of circles could expand beyond their points of intersection. ...And I'm not dignity. just talking about Paul. ... I'm talking about people on the Left in general. ... Because, there's no more Left and Right. It's only Right and GARY CORSERI: I'd like you to talk specifically about what used Wrong now... and the old "Right" is Wrong... and the old "Left" needs to to be called the Black Liberation Struggle. As a young, white man, be more Right... does that make sense? I was inspired by the works of black writers like Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Leroi Jones (now called Baraka), Eldridge GARY CORSERI: Yes. Cleaver, W.E.B. DuBois, and poets like Langston Hughes. Martin Luther King and Malcom X were inspirational leaders for all CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Yeah, because the Left is being co-opted. ... people; Rosa Parks was a woman of quiet, dignified courage. But, So, the Left needs to be more Left! now, with the election of Obama, and with the prominence of people like Bill Cosby first, and Oprah Winfrey, the billionairess-- GARY CORSERI: There needs to be a convergence where the the great struggles of the past almost seem quaint. What's your Greens and the Libertarians can meet -- take on this? Who are the great black leaders today? What is the CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: And the militia! You know... I have to deal with struggle about today? the militia, too. I'm from Georgia, right? They participate in the political [Note: There are 7 million Americans now under "correctional system--to the extent that they do--and somebody needs to be talking observation." More African-Americans' lives intersect with our prison- to'em... because, ultimately, they're a part of the 99%. ... And that's the industrial-surveillance complex than there were African-American gift that the Occupy Movement has given to us--they've given us a way slaves in 1850!] to self-identify. Now we know--it's not about color, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation--all of those things. At the end of the day--if CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: You asked me who are my heroes. ... One of you're part of the 99%, you're part of us... and if you're part of the 1%-- my heroes is Glen Ford, who writes for The Black Agenda you're part of them! Report [http://blackagendareport.com/]. I view him as the most astute political observer of our times. GC: Related question: Okay...also about Current Events: this is about the Occupy Movement, then. There's a whole lot of pundits who are in our faces every Sunday morning who think they are political observers..., but they are not CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Okay. astute! And they're also not independent. Glen Ford is independent, GARY CORSERI: We live in a Surveilance State. Our license plate he's been through the wars and he has no special interests to kow-tow numbers are routinely recorded; we're finger-printed for jobs, our to. ... He just wrote a piece... "Can the Proud African-American Social Security numbers serve as National I.D.'s, our e-mails are Progressive Legacy Survive Another Four Years of Cowing to the monitored for "code" words or phrases, our homes are surveiled Corporate Servant in the White House?" That's strong stuff..., but right by satellite mapping systems of Google, Yahoo, etc. Those who on point! Page 56 of 154 We have a situation now... it was the Black struggle that really defined GARY CORSERI: How old were you? morality in the United States. It defined the moral imperative. And the character of the country was measured by how well it answered the CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Seven or eight. ...You know... for some people call of Black people for justice. But what happens when Black people it's religion, it's race, it's gender, it's, maybe, sexual orientation. ... stop asking for justice? I think you get exactly what we've got now--a Everyone has their moment of reckoning. President who is dropping bombs on Africa... which is un-thought-of; I mean, it would have been un-thought-of four years ago that Africa I think, ultimately... it's about the love we have for humanity and how would be bombed--routinely! But it's a routine matter now that the we see something is wrong and we have to stop it! United States Africa Command [AFRICOM] would actively establish So... by the time I got to Congress... I had had my "reckoning," and I itself and militarize the US relationship with Africa. AFRICOM had had my "break-out" moments, and I guess this gave me strength represents a kind of US imperial occupation of the continent that we and vibrancy... and there were people who didn't like it. I wore my hair haven't seen since the days of outright colonialism of the Europeans. differently, I dressed differently from the other people in Congress. We are being told about issues that are "important"..., but we're There was even a segment of the Capitol Hill police that didn't like that. ignoring the real issues that are important! Henry Kissinger said that he couldn't believe the amount of good will that was embodied in this GARY CORSERI: What year was that? president! But... what people like Kissinger don't "get" is that this president sits on top of the historic Black struggle that characterized CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: 1993. the United States to the world! People around the world thought that Barack Obama characterized the New United States! But... far from it! GARY CORSERI: Wasn't there a much more recent incident with A lot of people got tricked and fooled and now... as philosopher Michel the Capitol Hill police? Foucault has observed--the every-day actions of ordinary people actually entrap them in "powerlessness". ... So, to break out of your CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: No, no, no. ... It happened for twelve years! ... powerlessness, you've got to break out of your existing paradigm. So, Twelve years of harrassment from the Capitol Hill police! They as long as Barack Obama is representative of the existing paradigm, considered it a "sport" to harass me! ... It's available on the Internet... if this is what we're going to get... because the existing paradigm is war you go to YouTube and you put in "The Last Plantation." and more war! GARY CORSERI: The infamous incident is when you apparently GARY CORSERI: How do we "break out"? How do we fight the struck back at the officer who was harassing you. ... Is that Mainstream Media that's constantly projecting that paradigm and correct? hammering it into our brains? CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: The officer had no business putting his hands CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: The literature suggests that people have to be on me! ... And I reacted like any normal person would react when confronted with a "disorienting dilemma" that causes them to reflect on being attacked by some great big, huge guy from behind! ... This was a what they've just experienced. "hit." It was a "hit"--a "sport"--for the white officers. You'll see if you go to that "Last Plantation" site that I had been targeted because I had GARY CORSERI: Cognitive dissonance? written a letter of support for the Black Capitol Hill police officers. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: That's right. ... Reflect on what you always GARY CORSERI: And this most infamous incident... that was the assumed... and what you've been confronted with that contradicts your same day as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted? assumptions. ... For some people, it was the murder of JFK; for others, it was the murder of Malcom; for others, it was the murder of MLK; for CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: That's right. ... The Mainstream Media didn't a whole bunch of others, it was the murder of RFK; and for some want to lead with that indictment, did they? It was much more people who began to look and pay attention like me... it was the sensational and distracting to lead with the story of a black murder of all of them and then add onto it the murder of the members Congresswoman attacking a Capitol Hill police officer! of the Black Panther Party--who were attacked by our own government. [Laughter] You could say that for me, my first "disorienting dilemma" was when I GARY CORSERI: You're a pretty brave woman, aren't you? realized that I was black. I realized that the world around me was not like me, and that it didn't value my black skin! That, for me was when I CYNTHIA MCKINNEY: Everybody can be brave... they just need that began to pay attention and wake up! break-out moment of recognition. ... I've stood on some big shoulders. Page 57 of 154  ... As I said before -- my campaign theme: "Warriors don't wear transferred to the naval base at the port of Beirut, in this handout medals... they wear scars." picture released by the Lebanese Army website on April 28, 2012. Lebanese authorities found weapons on board the ship intercepted in Editor, teacher and writer Dr. Gary S. Corseri has taught in universities in the U.S. and Japan, and in public schools and prisons in the U.S. the Mediterranean which may have been trying to supply Syrian rebels, His articles, poems, fiction and dramas have appeared at security sources said on Saturday. Countercurrents, CounterPunch, InformationClearingHouse, SHARE THIS STORY CommonDreams, The New York Times, The Village Voice , and hundreds of other venues worldwide. His dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta, and he has performed his work at the Carter  Presidential Library. His books include novels and poetry collections. Eleven crew members of the cargo vessel Luftfallah II have been This article was first published by Countercurrents. detained by Lebanese authorities after the Lebanese navy confiscated three shipping containers of weapons and ammunition, including heavy machine guns, artillery shells, rocket launchers and other explosives, 23. Lebanon Intercepts Arms Shipment To Syrian Rebels found Saturday. The ship was registered in Sierra Leone, though it From Libya initially departed from Libya. The Luftfallah II was en route to the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon By RYAN VILLARREAL: Subscribe to Ryan's RSS feed when it was intercepted Thursday by the Lebanese navy and towed April 30, 2012 4:02 PM EDT Saturday to Selaata, a small port village roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of the capital Beirut. Lebanese intelligence officers are questioning crew members of a ship that set sail from Libya and was found to be carrying a cache of According to Al Jazeera, a Lebanese security official said the arms weapons that supposedly were intended to supply opposition forces in shipment was bound for the Free Syrian Army, a coalition group of Syria. rebel fighters seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government has repeatedly claimed that weapons are being smuggled through Lebanon to Syrian rebel forces. Like us on Facebook The Lebanese coalition government has been largely supportive of Assad. Hezbollah, a political party in Lebanon but deemed a terrorist group by the U.S., has publicly stated its firm support.  The U.S. and E.U. have imposed some sanctions on the Syrian government, though efforts to do so through the U.N. Security Council Enlarge have met with resistance from Russiaand China. (Photo: Reuters/Lebanese Army) A Year of Death and Violence Ammunition is seen inside one of the three freight containers that were found on the ship Letfallah II after it was intercepted off Lebanon's Syria has been embroiled in violence for nearly a year following the northern coast and diverted to Selaata port, north of Beirut, and later government's crackdown on an initially peaceful popular movement Page 58 of 154  Liberal Leader Bob Rae said. "The liberation of Libya means the that began with public demonstrations in January 2011, in the wave of liberation of Libyan women as well as Libyan men." Arab Spring uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Homa Arjomand of the International Campaign Against Sharia Court in Canada said the wives of men who worked under the Gadhafi regime as pharmacists, teachers and other occupations are already being Protesters, unhappy over social inequity aggravated by high targeted for rape. unemployment among young adults and suppression of human rights, "According to Shariah law, enemies' wives should be raped and they have started raping these women already," Arjomand said. demanded Assad's resignation and an end to the Ba'ath Party's nearly five decades of political dominance. She said adopting an Islamic state like Iran would mean a lifetime of oppression. The Syrian military began violently suppressing protesters in May after "Women would be segregated from men and would be under complete limitations - from schools, to swimming, to dances, forcing them to claiming 11 soldiers had been attacked and killed by "armed terrorist marry at a younger age, to putting them in polygamous relationships." groups" in the city of Homs. In its most Liberal interpretation, Shariah law prohibits pre-pubescent girls from showing their faces and forces women to wear hijabs in public. Armed rebel groups have since risen in numbers to fight the Syrian Homosexuals could be executed and adulterers stoned. Men can military, pulling the country into a protracted and bloody conflict, which marry multiple partners. the U.N. estimates has resulted in over 9,000 deaths since hostilities Baird - one of the first dignitaries to visit Libya during the war and one began. of the first to recognize the National Transitional Council as the de- facto government - called for caution. U.N. peacekeepers have recently been deployed to Syria to uphold a "I suspect we should hold our judgment," he said Monday, two weeks after returning from Libya, where he promoted women's rights. tenuous cease-fire between the military and opposition forces, though reports of new casualties continue to stream in. "Let's see what that (Shariah) will entail. I suspect it won't look like what our conception of Shariah law is in this country." To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e- mail: r.villarreal@ibtimes.com Mark.Dunn@sunmedia.ca To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com Twitter: @MarkDunnSun 18. Libyan women being raped as spoils of http://www.todayszaman.com/news-279166-turkey-is-good-example-for- libya-to-follow-ambassador-says.html Shariah law: group (Note From Alex – description of “Todays Zaman, yes from unreliable BY MARK DUNN ,SENIOR NATIONAL REPORTER Wikipedia) Today's Zaman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Today's_Zaman FIRST POSTED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011 04:58 PM EDT | Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in UPDATED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011 09:01 PM EDT Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet ... OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird can't guarantee Libya won't return to Stone Age laws and treat women as second-class citizens. 19. Excerpt re: Civil War and partition After an eight-month war to liberate the people, the leader of a rag-tag implication coalition says Shariah law would guide the country in a post-Gadhafi era. It was unclear how much of the law Mustafa Jalil - a former Gadhafi 20. A committee to audit the economic justice minister - wants to adopt to appease followers of Islam. agreements But his comments have sparked concerns. The ambassador indicated that Turkish and Libyan authorities have "We didn't send our troops, our pilots to help in the liberation of Libya in order to see any one group in Libyan society oppressed," interim agreed to establish a committee to audit the economic agreements of Turkish businesspeople, during a visit by Çağlayan to Libya. “We look Page 59 of 154 forward to seeing all Turkish contractors come back and start working hospitals in Turkey and said that auditing operations in order to prevent [in Libya]. Some part of our budget will go to paying our dues, as long such problems is ongoing. The ambassador also thanked Prime as they are legitimate,” Mukhtar remarked. Although there has been a Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for quickly becoming involved in the downward trend in trade and investment relations between the situation and holding responsibility for the troubles of Libyan citizens. countries, Mukhtar said that the economic relations are very promising with Turkey in the post-Gaddafi period. “Libya has outstanding During a meeting with NTC Prime Minister Abdel-Rahim al-Keeb in potential to rise again to the economic situation of the pre-revolution İstanbul in February, Erdoğan said he deplored such actions made by period,” he said. Turkish private hospitals and said such an attitude is “breaking with the values of the Turkish nation” and he guaranteed that these institutions Mukhtar has singled out his country’s experiences in the reconstruction will be called into question as soon as possible. period, in a region now renowned for countries that rose against their dictators, including Tunis and Egypt. “Libya probably has the best Mukthtar also lauded the efforts of the international community under potential of any other country in the post-revolution period, because it the UN initiative supporting a free election in their country, which will has the economic wealth to resolve its problems quickly,” he said. enable Libyan citizens to write their own constitution. The scheduled date for the free Libyan elections is the end of June. Libya is an important petroleum-exporting country and has the longest Mediterranean beaches of 2000 kilometers, which would bring an The ambassador played down federalist tendencies surfacing from important interest in tourism revenues. different parts of Libya, in challenges to the interim rule of NTC. One of the leading problems in Libya is the ongoing security situation “I don’t think that Libya will be divided, Libya will be one country. following the internal war. The armed militias drove Gaddafi from People and media have made minor problems, big in Libya. Libyan power with the help of a NATO military intervention led by France and people want everything to happen today and they don’t want to wait [to the UK, between March and Oct. of 2011. However, those armed see the NTC reforms come into effect],” Mukhtar maintained. groups could not be disbanded and are now holding an important degree of power, blocking the restoration of stability in Libya in the One of the scenarios political observers forecasted for a post-Gadaffi post-Gaddafi era. The NTC has struggled to incorporate the militias Libya is partition due to a shaky administrative system, which was not into the military and police, seeking Turkish support also on that fully established during the history of the country, and the likelihood of matter. Turkey has started negotiations with Libya to begin training the tribal or religious polarization. Since 1951, Libya’s administrative country’s police force on January of 2013. divisions have changed eight times. Since 2007, Libya has had 27 administrative districts. But the political differences between the three Turkey was also one of the first countries to recognize the NTC as the historical provinces of Tripolitania in the west, Fezzan in the south and sole representative of the Libyan people, after NTC forces entered Cyrenaica in the east still hold sway in Libya. For example, Cyrenaica Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli in late August 2012 and stormed the gave full support to the Libyan rebels, while Tripolitania was not free of symbol of his more than 40-year reign. Turkey has also provided Gaddafi supporters. Libyan people with humanitarian assistance, including medical equipment and food as well as financial assistance totaling $200 Neither is Libya free of developments that serve as a reminder of such million since the beginning of the uprising in February 2011. Mukhtar possibilities. expressed gratitude to Turkish officials for extending support to Libyan Earlier in March, civic leaders in Libya’s eastern Cyrenaica province, people during their difficult time, noting that around 20,000 Libyan home to most of the country’s oil, declared the creation of a council to patients received free treatment in Turkey during the conflict. “Once we administer the province’s affairs. The declaration does not carry official ousted Gaddafi, we started to take care of our own citizens in private force but it puts the province -- unhappy for many years at what it and university hospitals in Turkey,” he said. regards as neglect by rulers in Tripoli -- on course for a confrontation The ambassador confirmed claims appearing in the media that Libyan with NTC, Reuters reported. patients are complaining over the high prices charged by some private Page 60 of 154 The country has banned political parties from the upcoming elections French, Italian) oil companies. He built Libya some fancy, maybe in June based on tribal, ethnic or religious lines in order to overcome useful infrastructure, including a big pipeline to carry water from a the possibility of polarization, NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy desert aquifer to the greener coast. (NATO has bombed it.) said on Thursday. On the other side of the coin his biggest piece of destructive behavior There is also rivalry over tribal lines, especially between Eastern and was to have his agents blow up Pan Am 103 in 1988, killing 270. He Western regions. In June 2011, armed clashes between the villagers of provided financial support to a number of scruffy terrorist al-Zintan and al-Rayyaniya showed the potential severity of violent organizations, including the Irish Republican Army. He tried to grab polarization, Omar Ashour stated in an article published by Today’s part of Chad for Libya. He was a big supporter of African unity, useful Zaman in July. behavior, but it was clear to the other African leaders that part of his Alex end note: I support Libyans aspiration for freedom and wish no Libyan ill idea was that he would be the head of the unified Africa. – however the Western Intervention was not to help Libya, or if it was it was quickly coopted by the war machine. He dressed funny. He acted weird. He put out a Green Book of his http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/dan-simpson/a-problematic- allegedly greatest thoughts. He was absolutely brutal to his internal victory-in-libya-311580/?p=0 Libyan opposition. As he got older it became clear that he had the idea that one or more of his sons would succeed him as leader. In balance, a 24. Pittsburgh Post: A problematic victory in Libya mixed picture. 2012-03-30 03:54:46 The real problem for me is severalfold. First, this makes the third Muslim, Middle Eastern, North African or South Asian country that the By Dan Simpson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette United States has absolutely trashed by military force. It's not because they are Muslim. I don't really think that we are gunning for Muslim The U.S. role in the war to replace Moammar Gadhafi as leader of nations. It is rather that we have involved ourselves in the affairs of at Libya that appears to be about to be completed gives me problems. least three nations -- Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya -- and probably In terms of truth in lending I will say right up front that he was one of another two, Somalia and Yemen -- with military force and with the my students in an English class at the Royal Army Military College in clear intent of determining who governs them. Benghazi, Libya, in the 1964-65 period. I didn't know him well: There Now how do we square those actions with America's avowed intent to was almost no social contact between the officer cadets, which Mr. respect the right to self-determination of other peoples? Never mind Gadhafi was at that point, and the faculty. He was nonetheless one of our stated devotion to democracy. Let's try the Atlantic Charter of 1941, those students who always had his hand up, and one whom the other agreed upon by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and United Kingdom cadets clearly held in respect. Thus, I remember him. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, one of the finest statements of The personal aspect isn't what bothers me now anyway. It is certainly dedication to freedom ever made. It was good enough to enable the clear over the years that he had become something of a monster. He United States basically to force the United Kindom to free its colonies did some good things for Libya. He got rid of the monarchy and the after World War II. court hangers-on who profited from it while ordinary Libyans rode Point 3 of the Charter stated, "They respect the right of all peoples to donkeys. choose the form of government under which they will live ...." Now, Mr. Gadhafi realigned Libya's foreign policy position to put it more in how exactly, do we reconcile this declaration with getting rid of sync with its Arab neighbors. He got rid of the foreign (British and Moammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein and Prime Minister Mohammad American) military bases on Libyan territory, a remnant of World War Mossadegh of Iran in 1953, as examples? II. He wrested control of most of Libya's oil wealth -- some 2 percent of President Barack Obama chose to take the United States to war with world production -- from the hands of foreign (American, British, Libya in March without taking the matter to the Congress, the Page 61 of 154 representatives of the American people, in defiance of the War Powers Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate Act, a decision that was controversial even within his administration. editor ( dsimpson@post-gazette.com , 412 263-1976). First Published August 24, 2011 12:00 am The arguments against going in were, basically, that the United States http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/prisoners-in-libya- was already involved in two major Middle East wars, Iraq and languish-without-charge/2011/10/22/gIQAz0EZ7L_story.html Afghanistan, that were stretching our military and financial resources, and that it was not clear at all that Libya was any of our business. This 21. Washington Post Prisoners in Libya languish without charge was the position taken, reportedly, by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen. The other point of view, that the United States should intervene, primarily on humanitarian grounds, was taken by Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan E. Rice and National Security staffer Samantha Powers. Mr. Obama chose intervention. It has not yet become publicly known what role U.S. oil companies, which have been seeking to regain assets that Mr. Gadhafi nationalized for Libya in the 1970s, may have had in influencing Mr. Obama's View Photo Gallery —  After taking Tripoli, rebel fighters target decision, through lobbyists, with campaign contribution promises, or Moammar Gaddafi’s last bastions of support. however. What is certain is that their representatives have been very By Mary Beth Sheridan, Published: October 22, 2011 active in U.S. planning for the post-Gadhafi years that are about to start. MISURATA, Libya — Nearly 7,000 prisoners of war are packed into dingy, makeshift jails around Libya, where they have languished for weeks without charges and have faced abuse and even torture, according to human rights The Libyan war, which has included more than 4,400 air strikes in that groups and interviews with the detainees. country, supported by U.S. intelligence and military actions, has cost the U.S. taxpayer an estimated $1 billion so far. It could be argued that The prisoners will pose an early test of the new government’s ability to the U.S. military and intelligence operatives involved in the Libyan war rein in powerful militias and break from the cruel legacy of Moammar have been used by Mr. Obama's administration as a mercenary force on Gaddafi, who was killed Thursday. Human rights groups have warned behalf of American and other Western oil company interests. that the former dictator’s death — which occurred in captivity after he So far the Obama administration has been cagey about telling the was punched and kicked by swarming revolutionaries — public how many Americans have been in Libya involved in the war -- if no "boots on the ground" what about Guccis or Tims or whatever CIA and Special Operations people wear? Or how much it has cost? Or how much it is going to cost us to rebuild Libya, even to put back what our air strikes have knocked down? We have also not been told what the Obama administration thinks will be the successor government to Mr. Gadhafi's. Mr. Obama has called this moment "pivotal and historic." We are certainly ready to be hopeful. At the same time, it is hard not to notice that every time the Libyan rebels shoot someone or fire a volley into the sky they shout, Which could constitute a war crime. "Allah akbar!" That's probably not a football cheer. Page 62 of 154  include Gaddafi fighters and supporters. The new government that is to be named in the next few weeks — after a planned declaration of Libya’s liberation Sunday — will have to deal with both the militias and a crippled national justice system. So far, the overwhelmed central government has not decided whether Gaddafi-era laws can be used to prosecute his forces. “What we have been through is something unusual. We don’t have a court that applies for that,” said Ali Sweti, a lawyer who works with the (Mary Beth Sheridan/ WASHINGTON POST ) - Prisoners captured revolutionary government in Misurata, about 130 miles east of Tripoli. during the Libyan war stand in a massive dormitory at a makeshift prison run by revolutionary authorities in the city of Misurata. An Sweti, 27, runs a prison that reflects the rough wartime justice at work estimated 7,000 Libyan detainees from the war are in crowded prisons in Libya. The facility was set up at a high school, and it now holds around the country. 1,000 inmates — a tenfold increase since July. They sleep on mattresses laid side by side on the floor, guarded by revolutionaries as Video young as 19. One recent day, two dozen detainees were lined up waiting to use one small washroom. The interim national government is planning an amnesty for Gaddafi fighters who have not committed war crimes and who agree to cooperate with the new authorities, according to one government adviser, who was not authorized to speak on the record. But it is unclear whether that will be acceptable in places such as Misurata, where residents endured especially bloody attacks by loyalist forces. “Some of these [pro-Gaddafi] people raped, some killed. There was WARNING: Graphic video. Libya's new leaders will declare liberation vandalism. They tortured us; they killed kids,” said Abdel Gader Abu on Sunday, officials said, a move that will start the clock for elections after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime Shaallah, who oversees two other makeshift prisons in Misurata. “We dictator Moammar Gaddafi. ( Oct. 22) are emotionally destroyed.” More On This Story Militiamen from Misurata captured Gaddafi on Thursday in his home  Hospital is a casualty of Libyan war town of Sirte.Cellphone videos show revolutionaries punching and kicking him and pulling his hair, as gunshots ring out in the  Prisoners in Libya languish without charge background. He died in captivity during what the interim government  For Libyan fighters, a hero's welcome in Benghazi says was an exchange of gunfire with loyalist troops but what human rights groups say could have been an intentional shot to the head. View all Items in this Story Gaddafi’s body was displayed publicly in Misurata for a second day Many of Libya’s makeshift prisons are run by local militia groups Saturday. scarred by the eight-month war and angry at the prisoners, who Page 63 of 154  East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “It will restrict free Mona Rishmawi, a senior U.N. human rights official, said after visiting speech, stifle dissent, and undermine the principles on which the Libyan revolution was based.” Libya this month that up to 7,000 prisoners were being held with no judicial process. Under Law 37, passed on May 2, 2012, spreading “false or vicious news” or “propaganda” that harms “military efforts to defend the country, terrorizes people, or weakens the morale of citizens” is a criminal offense, punishable “This is, of course, a recipe for abuse,” she told reporters. with imprisonment for an unspecified amount of time. Included in “propaganda” is glorification of Gaddafi, his regime, and his sons. If the offensive statements damage the country, the law says, the offender can be sentenced to life in prison. Anyone who does anything to “damage the February 17 Revolution” can be charged with a crime under the law and sent to prison. February 17 refers to the start of the popular uprising that overthrew Gaddafi in 2011. 22. Libya: Revoke Draconian New Law Charges can also be brought against anyone who “insults Islam, or the prestige of the state or its institutions or judiciary, and every person who 23. Legislation Criminalizes Free Speech publicly insults the Libyan people, slogan or flag.” MAY 5, 2012 The ban on damaging the February 17 Revolution is apparently based on article 195 of Libya’s current penal code, drafted and implemented under Gaddafi’s rule, which bans any “damage to the great al-Fateh Revolution or its leader.” The al-Fateh Revolution brought Gaddafi to power in 1969. Under the previous government, criticizing Gaddafi or the al-Fateh Revolution was punishable by death. Individuals were regularly imprisoned for criticizing the government, some of them under article 195 of the Libyan penal code. “It seems the NTC has done a ‘cut and paste’ job with the Gaddafi-era laws,” Whitson said. A group of Libyan human rights lawyers told Human Rights Watch that they  will challenge Law 37 before the country’s supreme court. Libya’s constitutional covenant, passed on August 3, 2011, includes a chapter © 2011 Human Rights Watch on human rights and freedoms. Article 14 ensures freedom of opinion and speech, as well as assembly. This legislation punishes Libyans for what they say, reminiscent of the Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), governments may dictatorship that was just overthrown. It will restrict free speech, only restrict the right to freedom of expression to protect public morals if the stifle dissent, and undermine the principles on which the Libyan restriction conforms to strict tests of necessity and proportionality and is non-discriminatory, including on the grounds of religion or belief. The newly revolution was based. enacted law fails to meet that test, Human Rights Watch said. Libya is a party to both the ICCPR and the African Charter. Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in its 2011 General Comment on the ICCPR’s article 19, held that the right to freedom of expression (New York) – Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) should immediately protects speech that might be deemed offensive or hurtful to followers of a revoke a new law that bans insults against the people of Libya or its particular religion, unless the speech in question amounts to “advocacy of institutions, Human Rights Watch said today. The law also prohibits criticism national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to of the country’s 2011 revolution and glorification of the deposed former discrimination, hostility or violence.” It also said that “States Parties [to the leader Muammar Gaddafi. ICCPR] should not prohibit criticism of institutions.” The Human Rights Committee is considered the authoritative interpreter of the ICCPR. The law violates Libya’s provisional constitutional covenant and international human rights law, both of which guarantee free speech, Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch called on governments supporting Libya’s transition, as said. well as the UN mission in Libya, to condemn the newest law strongly, and other unlawful attempts to restrict free speech, expression, and assembly. “This legislation punishes Libyans for what they say, reminiscent of the dictatorship that was just overthrown,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle “This law is a slap in the face for all those who were imprisoned under Page 64 of 154  Gaddafi’s laws criminalizing political speech, and who fought for a new Libya falls short of its policy commitments to “pursue every opportunity to where human rights are respected,” Whitson said. “Libya’s new leaders promote human rights” and tackle violations. should know that laws restricting what people can say can lead to a new tyranny.” Also speaking today will be Jeremy Croft, Head of Policy and Government Affairs for Amnesty International, who will urge the Government not “to trade away gains made in women’s rights in negotiations with the Taliban in a bid to secure a hasty exit from Afghanistan”. ALSO AVAILABLE IN: http://www.menas.co.uk/App_Data/elib/8%20April%202012%20- %20Arab%20News.pdf  ‫ال عرب ية‬ http://www.menas.co.uk/App_Data/elib/8%20April%202012%20- %20Arab%20News.pdf http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/government-should-do- more-to-prevent-human-rights-abuses-in-libya-says-watchdog- 1. Libyan fighters clash with Gaddafi loyalists 7777635.html# in Tarhouna, 2 killed 24. Government should do more to prevent human rights abuses in Libya, Posted on December 25, 2011 by main says watchdog A resident of a city in western Libya says at least two people were killed 25. after gunmen ransacked a home in search of a regime figure once loyal Terri Judd to Moammar Gadhafi. Tuesday, 22 May 2012 Basem al-Tarhoni says angry residents in Tarhouna retaliated by The Government should be doing more to prevent human rights abuses by the new Libyan regime, the Foreign Affairs select committee will be torching the headquarters of some 100 fighters who helped topple the told today. longtime leader from Seven months after the UK and NATO allies helped with the overthrow of Gaddafi rule and the installation of the National Transitional Council, human rights experts say there have been worrying developments including a draconian new law suppressing freedom of speech, reminiscent of the previous dictatorship. Today David Mepham, UK Director of Human Rights Watch, will give evidence before the committee on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s 2011 report on Human Rights and Democracy. He is expected to say that HRW is disappointed that the UK has not pushed harder for independent monitors of violations in the country, in particular recent developments that threaten imprisonment to power. anyone who speaks out against the Libyan people or institutions as well as amnesties granted to anti-Gaddafi forces who have committed war crimes. Tarhouna was widely seen as a Gadhafi favorite, and its dominant “Given the UK’s central involvement in Libya over the last 12 months tribe, also called Tarhouna, held many positions in the Libyan military. we have a moral responsibility to promote greater respect for human rights and we are very concerned about the human rights situation,” The city’s residents are viewed with suspicion by former rebels. Mr Mepham said yesterday. He will also call for a proper investigation into the 72 civilians the Such clashes are a major challenge for Libya’s new rulers. charity estimates were killed by NATO air strikes despite the alliance’s assertions that the bombing campaign was executed with “unprecedented care and precision”. The clashes took place on the same day security ministers announced a The situation in Libya is one of numerous issues expected to be raised program for integrating former rebels in civil institutions. The by Mr Mepham today, insisting that while HRW supports much of the work being carried out by the FCO and wider UK Government it still ministers gave few details and offered no timetable for disarming fighters. Page 65 of 154  26. Gadaffi Era Rivalries Haunt Libya 1. Dozens of Libya shrines destroyed 27. http://www.canada.com/Dozens+Libya+shrines+destroye d/6649229/story.html 28. Chaos that has followed fall of Moammar Gadhafi has resulted in Islamic extremists running amok 29. BY HADEEL AL SHALCHI, REUTERS MAY 19, 2012 Mohamed Salem believes it was divine intervention that saved the Muslim holy site where he works from being destroyed. In early March, word reached the keepers of the ornate shrine, the most important of its kind in Libya, that ultra-conservative Salafis were on their way to destroy it as part of a campaign to wipe out any symbols they see as idolatrous. The curators sent for help. Volunteer militia units came from nearby towns. They surrounded the shrine complex - which houses the tomb of the 15th- century Sufi scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar - with pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft weapons, and waited to repel the attack. Then a sandstorm, rare at that time of year, whipped up and shrouded the mosque from view. The attack never came. "The dust was so thick and the wind so strong you couldn't see your hand in front of you," said Salem, a caretaker and religious teacher at the complex. "God protected the grave of this scholarly man and protected us from harm." Page 66 of 154 Since last year's revolt ended Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule over Libya, public funds", citing a now-halted scheme to compensate people have grown used to looking to their own resources, or to God, to help former fighters and pressure from them for payment. them out, because they feel they cannot count on their government. The struggle over this shrine in Zlitan, about 160 kilometres west of the Daily Press 2012-05-10: UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Several Libyan capital, is the story of Libya as it struggles to reshape itself after prisoners likely were tortured to death at a detention center in Libya under government control, the United Nations said on Thursday Gadhafi's rule. as it urged the country to make stamping out such practices a top priority. Libya's Justice Ministry has control of 31 detention centers with It is the story of the battle for the right to define what it means to be a some 3,000 detainees, but about 4,000 prisoners are still in the custody Muslim in Libya, of theological arguments being settled by weapons, and of of Libyan revolutionary brigades, U.N. special envoy for Libya Ian an interim government that is so weak that it cannot impose its authority Martin told the U.N. Security Council. Government Death and over opposing factions. Dying Customs Prisons Culture Civil Rights Human Rights Justice and Rights Wars and Interventions Tripoli... more » Files from Gadhafi's internal security agency, seen by Reuters after the revolt, show there was a special department set up to track hardline 2. 'It was not necessary to kill Gaddafi' Islamists. Anyone suspected of affiliation was denied the right to travel abroad, enrol in university or take public sector jobs. Niger's president is anxiously watching events in neighbouring Mali that he says were triggered by the Libyan uprising. Since that system of repression collapsed, Salafis have become emboldened. Some have acquired weapons and used them to enforce their ultra-purist Talk to Al Jazeera Last Modified: 02 Jun 2012 11:44 view of Islam. The colours of al-Qaeda are flying high in northern Mali, the new In the eastern city of Benghazi, organizers of a rap concert featuring a stronghold of Tuareg rebels who have merged with a hardline group, famous Tunisian artist were forced to cancel the event after being threatened by a Salafi brigade called Libya's Shield. suspected of links with al-Qaeda's north Africa branch. Worried that the Salafis would attack their joyful annual parades to celebrate They took advantage of a military coup to forge ahead with their dream the Prophet Mohammad's birthday in February, Sufi mosques sought safety of an independent homeland. And now watching nervously is in numbers and held a joint procession in Tripoli's walled old city. The event, neighbouring Niger - which has also had its share of Tuareg rebellions which Salafis also consider idolatrous, went off without incident. - and Mahmadou Issoufou, the country's president. The government has a lot on its plate trying to run a country that, since Gadhafi's downfall, has been floating on a wave of hope and optimism but at The downfall of Gaddafi in Libya has only made matters worse. the same time often seems close to slipping into chaos. "I have to say that what is happening in Mali is the result of the Libyan It is only beginning to build a state army and police force. There are still crisis - that's what caused a military coup which made things even armed militias that answer only to their own commanders and refuse to disarm. It is trying to organize the country's first election next month. worse," says Niger's president. In March, government chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil met the mufti and "I don't believe it was necessary to kill Gaddafi, especially the way he representatives of Libya's Sufi and Salafi camps. Salem, the curator of Zlitan's was killed." al-Asmar shrine, was at the meeting. He said he asked for security for the complex. Niger, already troubled by political and commercial interests, is a major Instead, the issue was fudged. Salem said he left the meeting with an order uranium producer. On this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, we speak to from Abdel Jalil to shutter the tomb and wait for further notice. "We Mahmadou Issoufou, the president of a country in the crosshairs. received no security," he said. Since then, official institutions have been passing the buck. The NTC said it is waiting for the mufti to make a decision on the religious legality of the grave sites. And the mufti's office told Reuters it is waiting for the government to make a final decision. In the meantime, caretakers at the al-Asmar shrine have the more immediate concern of how to stop the complex from being destroyed by Salafis, without 3. Tripoli airport back in our control, says Libyan government help from the state. International flights were diverted after militia protesting against reported kidnapping of their leader stormed airport TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's interim finance minister said on Thursday he would resign soon because of "wastage of Page 67 of 154  Jalil said the militia were angry over the arrest of their commander,  Chris Stephen in Tripoli Abu Oegeila al-Hebeishi, on Sunday. The NTC said that by late afternoon the militia had agreed to surrender the airport after a promise  guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 June 2012 13.27 EDT from Jalil that the missing commander would be found. The government's inability to secure key installations has left many Libyans rattled. "They cannot open the airport now, no way," said Saleh. "Its not safe." Tripoli airport is no stranger to conflict: in December it was closed after machine-gun fire arced over the runway as the army tried to capture the airport from a militia from Zintan that had occupied it. The Zintan militia surrendered control of the airport in April, but a strike last month forced it to close for a day. The attack will cause anxiety among international airlines which must now decide whether the government can guarantee security for what promises to be a turbulent time leading up to the elections. British Airways resumed flights to Tripoli in May after suspending them when the Libyan revolution began in February last year. Some airlines continue importing their own aviation fuel, or ensure jets land with enough fuel for the return journey, amid concerns that supplies inLibya may be contaminated. The government's elite force, the Supreme Security Committee, whose forces remained deployed with machine-gun mounted jeeps near the airport on Monday night are in the spotlight after claims from the health The militia agreed to surrender control of the airport after Mustafa ministry that they kidnapped and tortured a prominent heart surgeon Abdul Jalil, the NTC chairman, promised that the missing commander last month. would be found. Photograph: Burhan Ozbilici/AP The latest skirmish comes with the NTC facing fighting and upheavals Armed militias stormed Tripoli international airport on Monday in a across the country, hampering efforts to hold national elections on 19 protest against the reported kidnapping of their leader. The militias, June. from Tarhuna, 40 miles south of Tripoli, captured the airport, firing shots as their vehicles careered across the runway in front of planes The southern towns of Sabbha and Kufra remain tense after inter-tribal waiting to take off, forcing international flights to be diverted to the battles, and engagements west of Tripoli last month saw the border capital's military airport. crossing with Tunisia closed. The attack on the airport, which was apparently unguarded, has raised Meanwhile, the cities of Zintan and Misrata, home to the most powerful fresh questions about the government's grip on security, coming a militia armies, which bore the brunt of last year's fighting, have become month after another militia occupied the office of the prime minister, virtual fortresses, electing their own city councils and resisting attempts Abdurrahim el-Keib, and little more than two weeks before planned by NTC forces to impose their authority. national elections. The government said on Monday night it had retaken control of the airport. In an interview with al-Jazeera, the head of the country's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said the airport was 30. Update: attacked and held for several hours. He vowed it would not fall out of government control again. 31. The Tarhouna and the Touareg make the news "The attack on the airport is dangerous, but we dealt with it as a 32. government, military and revolutionaries with intelligence," he said. 33. Conclusions One witness, Adem Saleh, a Libyan oil worker, was on a bus being The public in the US at any rate – knew only one thing about Libya – creating taken across the airport apron to board a flight to Benghazi when the a charicature of Gadaffi as a mad man who had killed 300 Americans and militia struck. Brits over Lockerbie "There was a government official in the bus behind me, he was talking on his mobile phone with someone about a militia who were angry. Bear in mind that the same parties responsible for disinformation also have And he was saying: 'They can't come into the airport now, the applied this type of caricature for Communists and Arab leaders, as well as negotiations are still going on,'" he told the Guardian. "I didn't know domestic movements such as Occupy or the Libertarians. what he was talking about. Then out of the window I saw these Jeeps with guys with guns race across the runway." 4. Libya military court jails accused foreign mercenaries He watched as the militia's vehicles swarmed around planes parked on the apron, and saw one unit dismount and confront the Libyan ground crew of an Alitalia plane. "They walked up to these guys, I could see they were shouting. Then they opened fire. I don't know if they shot the ground crew or they were firing near them, but I saw two guys, ground crew, later who were wounded." Page 68 of 154  Related News if they were sentenced it would not be so strict. They have suffered a lot." Analysis & Opinion The 24 men, who were arrested in Tripoli in August as Gaddafi's forces fled, were found guilty of readying ground-to-air missiles for use  Essential reading: States tinker with new road taxes, against NATO fighters which supported the uprising against the former and more strongman, who ruled for 42 years.  Little America: An Afghan town, an American dream and Ukrainian ambassador Mykola Nahornyi told Reuters the men had the folly of for-profit war come to Libya to work in the oil sector but after the war broke out were forced to stay in the country and work on building anti-aircraft material. Related Topics "We have evidence which the court has on file that they were threatened with weapons by Gaddafi forces to (take part in) the  World » building and maintenance of anti-aircraft weapons," Nahornyi said, adding that the defendants would appeal.  Libya » The last of the fighting in Libya ended in October when Gaddafi was captured and killed by rebels. TRIPOLI | Mon Jun 4, 2012 1:07pm EDT Standing in a cage in the Courts Complex in Tripoli, the accused, most (Reuters) - A Libyan military court on Monday handed down long of them middle-aged and greying, acknowledged their presence when prison terms to a group of men from the former Soviet Union accused the judge called out their names. When the verdict was translated into of serving as mercenaries for ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi in last Russian, the defendants looked shocked and one clasped his hand to year's war. his mouth. One Russian man, deemed the group's coordinator, was sentenced to According to Western security officials, both Gaddafi's forces and the life in prison, the court heard. Another Russian, three Belarussians and rebels fighting them hired private military contractors to bolster their 19 Ukrainians were handed sentences of 10 years with hard labor. forces. They had denied the charges. They said small numbers of private contractors turned up on the The military trial was the first of its kind in Libya since a popular revolt ground in Libya to work with rebels, while Gaddafi had long used ousted Gaddafi last year. The new government is trying to prove its foreign freelancers, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa. judicial process is robust enough to try high-profile Gaddafi loyalists including his son Saif al-Islam. (Reporting by Hadeel Al-Shalchi and Ali Shuaib in Tripoli and Richard Balmforth in Kiev; Writing by Hadeel Al-Shalchi; Editing by Rosalind "This is the worst kind of sentence," said Belarussian ambassador Russell) Anatoly Stepus who was present at the hearing. "We thought that even Page 69 of 154  34. Drone Strike Killed No. 2 in Al Qaeda, US Official Says New York Times - 13 hours ago BBC News - At least 16 killed in two days of Libya clashes ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Al Qaeda's deputy leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, was killed in a drone strike in northern Pakistan, an American official confirmed on Tuesday, in the biggest single www.bbc.co.uk success in the controversial campaign's eight-year history in the ... Fighting between government forces and tribesmen in southern Libya continues for a second day, bringing the death toll up to at least 16. Libya - fights in Sebha and Zuwara (Libya news 4) www.youtube.com http://www.facebook.com/GreenLibyaTV ICC sends team to Libya after delegation detained www.reuters.com My ongoing documentation of the Libya Conflict... TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Representatives for the International Criminal Court flew into Tripoli on Sunday Donald Hessler It's interesting that Zintan is not only keeping him alive, but in fact treating him relativ up to? 4 hours ago · Like Libya - Gaddafi journalist Hala Misrati, was released + Statement from Misrati (Libya news 3) 8 hours ago http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3512582.ece Australian lawyer for Gaddafi son held in Libya amid standoff with militia The Hindu : News / International : Libya election postponed over logistics problems www.smh.com.au www.thehindu.com Australian lawyer for Gaddafi son held in Libya amid standoff with militia Elections in Libya for a constituent assembly, originally set to be held by June 19, are to be postponed for logistical reasons, said electoral commission members. Alexander Hagen this is actually slowed down by witch hunt of candidates 2 hours ago via the BBC website CIA gets clearance to unleash Pakistan drone strikes o Libya's Civil War Rages On www.philly.com Page 70 of 154  KABUL, Afghanistan - Expressing public and private frustration with Pakistan, the Obama administration has unleashed the CIA to resume an aggressive campaign of drone strikes in Pakistani territory ove Thursday the last few weeks, approving strikes that might have been vetoed in the past for fear of angerin... Alexander Hagen BBC News - Al-Qaeda commander Abu Yahya al-Libi killed - US officials Libya’s fiery revolution - timesofmalta.com www.bbc.co.uk www.timesofmalta.com Friday via The Guardian An early book on the aftermath of Muammar Gaddafi’s 1969 coup was subtitled The Elusive Revolutio o Massacres in Syria. Who benefits ? Follow the money even more fiery than it is elusive. Syrian rebels tried to get me killed, says Channel 4 correspondent www.guardian.co.uk https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111611283754323549630.00047e Alex Thompson says crew was led to 'free-fire zone' as deaths would discredit Bashar al-Assad's regime. By Ben Dowell U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan - Google Maps http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/ maps.google.com Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps Threat Matrix - By The Long War Journal 'It was not necessary to kill Gaddafi' www.longwarjournal.org www.aljazeera.com The accelerating use of drones in Yemen, as well as the recent resumption of airstrikes in Pakistan, hasNiger's highlighted the US' president increasingwatching is anxiously reliance events on the unmanned vehicles in neighbouring tothat Mali target he enemies such says were as al Qaeda triggered by thein a "covert" program. The new focus on drones raises a number of important issues, not least o... Wikileaks cable reveals US funneling millions into Syria opposition group How to Prevent Drone Pilot PTSD: Blame the ‘Bot www.examiner.com www.wired.com “The US government was working to promote democratic processes in Syria and elsewhere in the worl The human operators who control America's killer drones are susceptible to the same psychological stress that infantrymen sometimes experien... Page 71 of 154  This is v interesting...critical to the re-establishment of peace in the country 6. Libya's highest court hears appeal on speech law - The Sacramento Bee www.sacbee.com Syrians in U.S. speak up about MSM crisis coverage Libya's Supreme Court is reviewing an appeal from rights groups to revoke a law that criminalizes glorifying ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi or spreading %22propaganda%22 that insults or endangers the state. www.youtube.com As clashes in Syria continue, the mainstream media in the U.S. remains the official speaker for the posi http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90883/7732455.html China opposes armed intervention or forcing "regime change" in Syria - People's Daily Online http://globalciviliansforpeace.com/2011/11/25/noam-chomsky-and-the-manufacture-of-consent-dan-gla english.peopledaily.com.cn UNITEDNATIONS,Feb.17(Xinhua)--Chinaopposesarmedinterventionorforcingaso-calledregimech 35. 36.Noam Chomsky and The Manufacture of Conse "One theory is that it may have emanated from a mysterious pirate radio operator called ‘Filipino Monkey’, who regularly broadcasts heckling abuse, obscenities and threats to crews cruising the Gulf. " - excerpt from this article globalciviliansforpeace.com Alexander Hagen By whitewashing the Libyan rebels and demonising the Gaddafi regime did the leading US intellectual "And finally, there was another detail missing in most of the reporting of the incident: the Iranian speedboats D... were unarmed, hence hardly a match for the three US vessels. If so, does the whole affair boil down to the proverbial ‘storm in...See More o Incisive mind blowing Drone wars and state secrecy – how Barack Obama became a hardliner www.guardian.co.uk The US president has been likened by former supporters to 'George Bush on steroids'. Paul Harris reports Obama's and Brennan's 'Kill List' Glenn Greenwald: Obama's Secret Kill List "The Most Radical Po Ray McGovern: It is a moral and legal impossibility to square "kill lists" for extrajudicial killing with traditional legal and moral American values. www.youtube.com Latin American leftists fear Libya-style endgame in Syria DemocracyNow.org - The New York Times revealed this week that President Obama personally overse www.reuters.com CARACAS (Reuters) - A bloc of left-wing Latin American governments accused Western nations on Friday of planning to intervene in Syria as they did in Libya and praised President Bashar al-Assad's government http://globalciviliansforpeace.com/2011/11/25/noam-chomsky-and-the-manufacture-of-consent-dan-gla http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/eliasisquith/2012/05/31/arab-public-opinion-on-libya-one-year-later/ Arab Public Opinion On Libya, One Year Later ordinary-gentlemen.comConsidering the White House’s claim that intervening in Libya was beneficial Page 72 of 154 plurality in all nine Arab countries surveyed and the region of Considering the White House’s claim that intervening in Libya was beneficial to US security due to its potential affect upon Arab public opinion, this seems relevant: At least a plurality in all nine Arab countries surveyed and the region of Somaliland opposed NATO intervention in Libya. Residents in several North African countries, including Morocco (12%), Egypt (13%), and Algeria (14%) were the least likely to say they were in favor of NATO intervention. In Tunisia, where the region’s first successful revolution was publicly denounced by the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, attitudes were significantly more mixed (33% in favor vs. 40% opposed). At the time, the President, the Secretary of State, and other White House officials argued that intervening in Libya would endear the US to a generation swept up in the Arab Spring. In so many words, that’s how Clinton defended the decision in an interview with Time last October: [A]s we look at how we manage the Arab Spring, we are trying to influence the direction, with the full recognition that we don’t have ownership and we don’t have control. And there’s a lot that’s going to happen that is unpredictable, but we want to lead by our values and our interests in ways that, regardless of the trajectory over the next decade, people will know the United States was on the side of democracy, on the side of the rule of law, on the side of economic opportunity, on the side of rights for all, in particular women. And that will, I hope, be a strong antidote to the voices of either fatalism or extremism… It’s much too soon to say definitively whether or not this goal was achieved — and there’s more than one legitimate argument to be made saying intervention was still the right thing to do, even if it’s not. It’s worth remembering that antipathy toward the United States and the West in genera — especially as concerns military intervention — is, understandably, rather engrained in the Arab world. The ultimate outcome in Libya remains unclear, too, so it’s hardly as if the respondents in this poll are stubbornly refusing to give credit where it’s due. Still, for those who’d hoped the ousting of Gaddafi would quickly reap dividends for the West, this Gallup result must be disconcerting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztTh_2b8jjs&feature=g-u-u 37. Rebels tighten control of Mali's north Analysis: 1. 38. Analysis: Nato Sponsored TNC No 2 Al Qaeda “The Libyan” killing Near Civil War conditions: Al Qaeda in Libya: Libyan Police State: Opposition Candidates Banned. US Kills no 2 “The Libyan”, Arms his colleagues to witch Public statements in support of Socialism punishable hunt terrorize Libyan Loyalists with prison Touareg ally with Al Qaeda affiliate to establish break Stumble: Fress Saif Al Islam Al Gadaffi away states spanning Mali & Niger ElectionUS NATO Qatari Arms Libyan Islamic Fighting Group Alliance: Page 73 of 154 Evidence: What evidence do we have about motivations? Qatar second largest purchaser of US Weapons 2010 Libya was 1 of 7 countries selected for attack by the US after 9/11 according to Gen. Wesley Clark. Qatar Arms Militants in Libya Uprisings, nearly all former Libya Islamic Fighting Group members Gadaffi had insulted and infuriated Sarkozi and the Arab League. Hakim A Gadaffi-ist Libya could have exploited and influenced Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions adversely to US interests. This could have been the thinking. Instead the US would be thanked given more business – and a base Conclusion June 11 12 in Africa. : The story of Libya is a story in which the west and Qatar armed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, one of In the current crisis the Islamist / Salafist / Cyrenaicans whose key members was the much touted no 2 kill in wanted Gadaffi gone. But many now wonder what they Pakistan recently, Al-Libi. We kill Al Qaeda in Pakistan have traded for. Libya was a peaceful country. You and allow them to spread through Africa and Syria. could drive around freely. Now each city has its own Then we can embrace those African leaders threatened militia. Can you imagine travelling in a highly ethnically by AQM or topple them. This is a story that does not charged atmosphere like that? need to even pick up the issue of whether the LIFG has legitimacy – until the Western leaders publicly explain The Obama administration if it looked strong on why they are fueling Islamist insurgencies in enemy defense could manipulate the voters on the right to states – and killing them in client states. What pawns vote for him ???? A cheap victory in Libya would bring they appear to be. him into a strong position in the election. Couldn’t we salve our consciences lying to ourselves how we saved Gadaffi had already surrendered his WMDs and paid tens of thousands of lives – “Susan Rice, Hilary Clinton” billions in compensation for Lockerbie. Commercial ties Stop Killing your own people Gadaffi – killing people is a were expanding and the economy was growing 10% NATO Al Qaeda Monopoly ! from only 1 source (normally I double source) What will happen to all the rich and powerful in the I am not telling you how to put these facts together – I Arms Industry in Surveillance and Anti Terrorism, do leave you to do that. I am not exactly certain myself. you know how much money has been larded out in Was it poor scholarship in warning not to efficient c ontracts of largely zero utility – if we don’t underestimate Gadaffi support levels – or for potential keep an enemy out there to fight. We recruit for Al for blowback (Syria BRIC entente) The E-7 are noticing Qaeda by killing people over the world by the bushel. the term applied to them and will probably collaborate closely: Mexico Indonesia Turkey & BRIC. Was it Obama What is going on in Libya, today? Does it portend a Administration Hawkishness in craving a cheap and brighter future for Libya? Will being forcibly converted easy victory by plunging a dagger into the arse of a into an Iraq like state – eventually help the people. To dying Gadaffi, rich plunder for no fighting? Was it decide that you have to know the real past of Libya. And ignorance ? or “International Gangsterism”, or was it it was quite different from the stereotypical view given worth it? Will what follows justify the savage means of by a Western Media that virtually never had been to obtaining it? Libya, though travel in and out of Libya was increasing. Who benefits? Page 74 of 154 For those who did not have a way to control their own Loyalist even making the squeak of a mouse in public. affairs or have a voice in Gadaffi’s Libya – for whom a See Churchill. chance at political expression would make years of degraded living conditions and violence 100s of times Then there is the tragic case of Saif Al Islam Al Gadaffi. Two brothers gruesomely murdered, a niece and greater than prior to the NATO sponsored overthrow of the Libyan Jamahiriya created by Gadaffi. nephew murdered – his father murdered – his own fingers blown off by a drone. Abused in Prison to what For Gadaffi supporters it has been a horrendous extent we do not know. A reformist who free’d the very nightmare – and they may exceed the number people who killed his father. These people now seek to supporting NATO regime change – certainly it appears lay their hands on Saif. One would be tempted to recall that the majority would have preferred to do it with out Shakespeare’s accounts of murder of kings sons – by American French Danish and British Bombers and the imposters to the throne. fighters bombing from above. I call upon all viewers to register their opposition to Let us suppose Gadaffi sympathizers consist of ¼ to ½ of allowing him to stay in this extremely dangerous the Libyan population – that would mean 1 to 2 million situation –where the potential to be killed is extremely people who have been severely disenfranchised. high on a daily basis. 1. Not allowed to participate in politics. Kill him and all with blood on their hands will sleep 2. Not allowed to have freedom of speech. soundly. 3. Mass imprisonment without trial, with widespread multiply corroborated accounts tha What is the composition of power in Libya today? either the majority of the thousands in prison for having supported Gadaffi being tortured. LIFG Al Qaeda and Militias Of Libya If one was to sympathize with these people for a A great one is giving foreign aid so the countries will buy moment – you would see the irony – of the LIFG armed stuff from our military contractors in violation of UN 1973 to overthrow the Libyan Jamahiriya – that the West would be anxious for their enemies to put them on trial. The potential for show trials ala Stalinism would be huge. We shall see. 7. Libya Update There is widespread lawlessness terrorism and still pockets of resistance all over the country. The tribes June 12, 2012 opposed to the winners –allready know they must advocate as a tribe and not as Loyalists. a. Libyan jihadis an claims US consulate Some would say this sort of oppression of the vanquished is common – such as in Nazi Germany – but attack: SITE Libya was not an aggressor state and the overthrow took so much aid from the West that it frankly has a An alleged Libyan jihadist group has claimed tenuous cliam on legitimacy – and by prohibiting responsibility for last week's bombing of the US Gadaffi supporters –they ensure we will never know if consulate in Libya's main eastern city of Benghazi, the they have a mandate – and it indicates they may not – SITE monitoring service said. by simple logic. They have NATO and The Gulf ready to The “Brigades of the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdul supply them with limitless firepower – yet they fear a Rahman” said the attack was to avenge the death of Al- Page 75 of 154 Qaeda number two Abu Yahya al-Libi in a drone strike in Abdel Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh," is also Pakistan, said the US-based SITE, which monitors jihadi cited as one of the inspirations for the first attack on the websites. World Trade Center, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000 in 1993. The Brigades also said the June 6 bomb attack at the US diplomatic mission - in which one person was wounded The US State Department had earlier said there was no – had come in response to the use of "American drones reason to suspect the attack was in retaliation for a US flying in Libyan skies," SITE said. drone strike in Pakistan that killed a Libyan citizen. The group said it had “planted an explosive device in a The same group - which is named after an Egyptian wall of the consulate, targeting a group of 'Christian sentenced to life in prison in the United States - claimed overseers' who were preparing to receive one of the a May 22 attack on the offices of the International 'heads of instigation' from the State Department, SITE Committee of the Red Cross, the security official said. said. Deputy Interior Minister Unis al-Sharef last week said The statement added that the group - which also claimed the attack had been claimed by the “Prisoner Omar responsibility for a May attack on the Benghazi offices of Abdelrahman Group”, but downplayed the significance the International Committee of the Red Cross - would of the organization. soon release its footage of the consulate attack. “These are religious groups and these acts are just The group is named after Abdel Rahman, 73, who reactions. There are not coordinated operations,” he received a life sentence in the United States for his stressed. involvement in plots to hit New York targets and a plan to assassinate former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Page 76 of 154  39. After Libya's War, Acts Of Vengeance Page 77 of 154  John W. Poole/NPR  John W. Poole/NPR Page 78 of 154  John W. Poole/NPR  John W. Poole/NPR Page 79 of 154  John W. Poole/NPR   John W. Poole/NPR John W. Poole/NPR 1 OF 9 Page 80 of 154 June 12, 2012 Misrata's destruction of Tawargha is not an easy story to tell, because Misrata residents fought and died to overthrow a NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep is taking a dictator. In Misrata, you see burned and blasted buildings from Revolutionary Road Trip across North Africa to see how the last year's fighting. Very little has been repaired. countries that staged revolutions last year are remaking themselves. Steve and his team are traveling some 2,000 The city has created the Misrata War Museum, which includes miles from Tunisia's ancient city of Carthage, across the some of the trophies of victory, ranging from Gadhafi's green deserts of Libya and on to Egypt's megacity of Cairo. Near the chair to weapons captured from Gadhafi's forces. Libyan coastal city of Misrata, he looks at violence that took place after the revolution. I was talking with the newly elected head of the local council in Misrata, Libya, when he made a passing remark about the disturbed minds of his people. I wanted to know more. "Do you think," I asked the councilman, Yusuf bin Yusuf, "that so many years under such a dictator affected the minds of Libyans?" EnlargeJohn W. Poole/NPR He answered immediately. "Gadhafi's regime has ended, but there is a small Gadhafi in everyone's brain." An English class in the Tawargha refugee camp. Students here are studying a new history textbook that makes almost no It was hard to know if bin Yusuf found any irony in the mention of Gadhafi. statement. His city suffered cruelly at the hands of Moammar Yet after the gunmen of Misrata helped to win the war, they Gadhafi's troops. Gadhafi had famously promised to hunt down staged their act of retribution in Tawargha. protesters against his rule "street by street, house by house, alley by alley," and he almost made good on that threat when No Apologies his forces besieged Misrata. Misrata leaders are not apologetic, as we learned when we But when his forces were driven away, it was the Misrata had coffee with a businessman and political leader from the rebels who moved into a neighboring town accused of city. We found him in an upscale coffee shop in Tripoli. supporting Gadhafi, and destroyed it completely. Street by street, house by house, alley by alley. Mohammed Ben Ras Ali has lived his entire life in Misrata and was present during the siege of his hometown, which lasted Months after the war, tens of thousands of people remain four months. homeless, with an uncertain future. The refugees are overwhelmingly black, referred to by their tormentors as The many dead included two American photojournalists, Chris "slaves." Hondros and Tim Hetherington. Misrata's attacks on the people of Tawargha are so severe that Ben Ras Ali says the neighboring town, Tawargha, committed the United Nations has labeled them "war crimes." atrocities in support of Gadhafi's siege. Page 81 of 154  "They have tortured and killed and displaced, and burned fields and houses, and they have committed the ultimate sin in our culture and our religion, which is rape, and all coming from supposedly a good neighbor," he says. Asked if those neighbors should be allowed to return, he says: "Not in my lifetime, I don't think. And this is coming from somebody who is very moderate, I would say." There's one more fact about the town that was destroyed. In this overwhelmingly Arab nation, most of Tawargha's population was black. And Misrata residents have made an explosive charge: that A Qatari jet fighter takes off for a mission over Libya in March. this city of some 30,000 black people rose up as one, marched Until now, Qatar had acknowledged only that its airforce has into Misrata and raped Misrata women. taken part in Nato operations. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images Though the U.N. Human Rights Council has found little evidence of this claim, it was used to justify the destruction of a Qatar has admitted for the first time that it sent town. hundreds of troops to support the Libyan rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The Gulf state had previously acknowledged only that its 40. Qatar admits sending hundreds of air force took part in Nato-led attacks. troops to support Libya rebels The revelation came as Qatar hosted a conference on the post-Gaddafi era that was attended by the leader Qatari chief-of-staff reveals extent of involvment, saying troops were responsible for training, of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council, Mustafa communications and strategy Abdel-Jalil, who described the Qataris as having planned  Ian Black in Tripoli the battles that paved the way for victory.  guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 October 2011 13.33 EDT Abdel-Jalil also said he was asking Nato to extend its mission beyond the end of the month, when it had been due to end, until the end of the year. Help was needed because regime loyalists posed a threat from neighbouring countries, he said. Gaddafi relatives and other key figures have fled to Algeria and Niger, amid speculation about the whereabouts of the deposed leader's son Saif al-Islam. A Libyan military official with the NTC told Reuters that Saif and the former intelligence chief Abdullah al- Senussi are proposing to hand themselves in to the Page 82 of 154 international criminal court. A spokesman for the ICC, But there was still surprise when it sent most of its air however, said it had received no confirmation of the force to join Nato's operation and delivered large claim. quantities of what were described as defensive weapons but which included Milan anti-tank missiles to the The Associated Press meanwhile reported an adviser to rebels. Niger's president, Mahamadou Issoufou, as saying Senussi was in their country. Qatari special forces are reported to have provided infantry training to Libyan fighters in the western It also has emerged that now the fighting is over, Qatar is Nafusa mountains and in eastern Libya. Qatar's military to lead international efforts to train the Libyan military, even brought Libyan rebels back to Doha for exercises. collect weapons and integrate often autonomous rebel And in the final assault on Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya units into newly established military and security compound in Tripoli in late August, Qatari special forces institutions – seen by the UN and western governments were seen on the frontline. Qatar also gave $400m to the as the key challenge facing the NTC. rebels, helped them export oil from Benghazi and set up Qatar played a key role in galvanising Arab support for a TV station in Doha. the UN security council resolution that mandated Nato Libyan gratitude is clear. The maroon and white flag of to defend Libyan civilians in March. It also delivered Qatar is often flown at celebrations and Algeria Square in weapons and ammunition on a large scale – without any central Tripoli has been renamed Qatar Square in clear legal basis. honour of the country's support in toppling Gaddafi. There were repeated rumours about and occasional Some, however, express concern at the emirate's support sightings of Qatari special forces in Libya during the war. for Islamist elements such as the 17 February Martyrs Until now, however, there had been no official Brigade, one of the most influential rebel formations, led confirmation of actions that were not explicitly by Abdel-Hakim Belhaj. authorised by the UN. Ali Salabi, an influential Libyan Islamist cleric, lived in The Qatari chief-of-staff, Major-General Hamad bin Ali exile in Qatar for years before this year's revolution. For al-Atiya, said: "We were among them and the numbers some analysts the emir's strategy is to support of Qataris on the ground were hundreds in every region. democratic forces selectively in the Arab world, partly to Training and communications had been in Qatari hands. improve the country's international standing while Qatar … supervised the rebels' plans because they are diverting attention from the Gulf, where anti-regime civilians and did not have enough military experience," protests have been crushed in Bahrain and bought off in AFP quoted him as saying. "We acted as the link between Saudi Arabia. the rebels and Nato forces." Qatar, whose gas reserves and tiny population make it  © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. one of the richest countries in the world, has long pursued an activist foreign policy, promoted by al- Jazeera, the Doha-based satellite TV channel. Page 83 of 154  41. UNHCR report: 800,000 people forced integration or demobilization of the revolutionary fighters to flee across borders in 2011 and the control of weapons. The UNHCR’s 2011 Global Trends report Human rights, transitional justice, and national shows a record 800,000 people forced reconciliation are among the other issues that need to be to flee across borders in 2011. addressed during the ongoing democratic transition in http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/ Libya, where Muammar al-Qadhafi ruled for more than world/UNHCR-report-800-000-people-forced-to-flee- 40 years until a pro-democracy uprising last year led to across-borders-in-2011-20120617 civil war and the deposing of his regime. 42. Libya: UN Envoy Calls On Authorities to 8.Libya: Candidates Address Root Causes of Recent Conflicts Should Address 17 JUNE 2012 Torture, Illegal http://allafrica.com/stories/201206180032.html Detention - National The top United Nations envoy in Libya has voiced his concern at renewed fighting in several localities that has Strategy Needed for led to a number of deaths, injuries and displacement, Justice System and called on the authorities to address the causes of 18 JUNE 2012 the conflicts and protect civilians. PRESS RELEASE "It is of the utmost importance that the Government acts swiftly to de-escalate these conflicts and to ensure the The individual candidates and political entities competing protection and well-being of civilians," the Special in Libya's July 7, 2012 national election should explain Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the how they plan to end the ongoing problem of torture and UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ian Martin, said illegal detention, which continues to affect thousands of in a statement. people. "The wounded need to be able to urgently access At a minimum, the authorities should ensure that anyone medical care, and basic humanitarian support and detained in official custody has been brought before a services must be restored to the people affected by the judge and, if there is evidence, has been charged with a fighting in accordance with international humanitarian criminal offense, Human Rights Watch said. All detention law," he added. outside the law and abuse in detention, including by militias, should be treated as a criminal act. Mr. Martin welcomed the steps taken so far by the Government, and urged the Libyan authorities and all "Torture and illegal detention are an ongoing national sides to end the fighting, particularly in Kufra and in the crisis that Libya's future leaders need to address," said Zintan-Shaqiqa area. Fred Abrahams, special advisor at Human Rights Watch. "Libyans deserve to know how the candidates for this He also reminded all concerned of their obligation to landmark election will solve these serious problems and ensure the protection of civilians and avoid the targeting reform the justice system after decades of abuse." of civilian areas. Sustained efforts are needed, he added, to address the causes and consequences of The electoral campaign formally begins on June 18, with local conflicts. 2,501 individual candidates and 1,206 candidates from 142 political entities. The 200-member national Mr. Martin told the Security Council in May that armed assembly will enact legislation, appoint a provisional clashes in recent months between various groups have government, and name a body to draft a constitution tested the reach and authority of the Government's before another election in 2013. security apparatus and ability to impose the rule of law. A key issue related to public security, he added, is the Page 84 of 154 Human Rights Watch conducted extensive inquiries into who violated the law by committing unlawful killings, torture and detention conditions during and after the torture, sexual violence, or other crimes can be 2011 conflict, which ended with the fall of Muammar prosecuted. Gaddafi. Researchers visited more than 35 detention facilities across Libya and interviewed hundreds of Some militia commanders told Human Rights Watch that detainees, as well as Libyan government officials, they were refusing to transfer their detainees to the military and civilian prosecutors, lawyers, and judges. government because they did not trust the transitional authorities to deliver justice. Others are apparently using At least 7,000 people who were detained during or after the detainees as bargaining chips for power, Human the conflict are currently in detention, according to Rights Watch said. Libyan government officials and the United Nations. Roughly 4,000 of them are being held by various militias A new law passed on May 2, Law 38, On Some across the country in both formal and secret detention Procedures for the Transitional Period, says that the facilities. The rest are in facilities run by the government. interior and defense ministries must refer all "supporters of the former regime" currently detained by militias, if The judicial police told Human Rights Watch that, as of there is sufficient evidence against them, to the June 13, it had custody of 3,058 people, including competent judicial authorities by July 1, 2012. It is not Libyans and foreigners. From these people, 194 had clear what will happen if militias fail to hand over all their been sentenced. detainees by that date. The interior ministry and military police are also holding Torture in Detention detainees. In militia-run detention facilities especially, torture and other ill-treatment are a major concern, Human Rights In April, Justice Minister Ali Hamiada Ashour told Human Watch said. Human Rights Watch documented a dozen Rights Watch that he did not know the exact number of cases of deaths in detention and heard credible reports militia-held detainees, in part because militias were of more. holding some people in secret prisons. For the vast majority of these cases, the government has "The time for secret prisons should have passed with apparently not opened an investigation. In one Gaddafi's fall," Abrahams said. "The Libyan government prominent case, the January 2012 torture and killing in should know the name, age, and location of every detention of a former diplomat, Omar Brebesh, the person in detention, and should have brought charges." authorities arrested nine suspects, one of whom was then released. Their trial is expected to begin soon. Most detainees are Gaddafi security force members, former Gaddafi government officials, suspected Gaddafi In government-run facilities that Human Rights Watch loyalists, suspected foreign mercenaries or migrants visited, the detainees seem to be treated better, even from sub-Saharan Africa. Some have been detained for though most detainees had not been formally charged. more than a year without being brought before a judge, Some families of detainees held in these facilities have as required by international law. Most have been denied alleged that their detained relatives were abused, access to lawyers, and in many cases, there appears to including at Ayn Zara prison in Tripoli. be no legal basis for their detention. On May 1, the United Nations mission in Libya called for Some detainees held by the government and militias an investigation into the April 13 deaths of three allegedly committed serious crimes before or during the detainees at the Zaroug detention facility in Misrata, conflict for which they should face justice, Human Rights which the UN said it believed had resulted from torture. Watch said. But many are apparently being held only The facility is controlled by the Supreme Security because they fought with Gaddafi forces, or because of Committee, which is under the interior ministry. family, tribal, or political affiliations. Five days before the alleged deaths, Human Rights To have fought with Gaddafi forces as a Libyan or a Watch had written to the civilian and military leaders of foreign mercenary is in itself not a crime under Libyan or Misrata expressing concern about the abuse of international law, Human Rights Watch said. Only those detainees in Misrata and noting that the city's officials Page 85 of 154 could be held criminally responsible for torture and other Improving security in courtrooms and prisons, and for rights violations by forces under their command. The judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, is an essential civilian and military councils of Misrata wrote back requirement for getting the justice system to function saying they would not tolerate abuse. properly, Human Rights Watch said. The government will have to recruit and train more judicial and military Holding accountable those responsible for abuse is key police to help secure courtrooms and protect justice to ending torture and ill-treatment in custody, Human officials. Rights Watch said. But recent legislation passed by Libya's ruling National Transitional Council seems According to the judicial police, it currently has 3,000 intended to shield militia members from justice. officers. Three thousand more people are gradually being trained. The new Law 38 states that there shall be no penalty for "military, security, or civil actions dictated by the The newly elected national assembly, and the February 17 Revolution that were performed by provisional government it appoints, should not continue revolutionaries with the goal of promoting or protecting to delay reforming the justice system, Human Rights the revolution." This law could be used to protect those Watch said. Human Rights Watch urged the provisional responsible for torture and other serious violations of and future governments to develop a coordinated Libyan law, Human Rights Watch said. national strategy that will: Due Process Violations Transfer all detainees from militias to the custody of Due process violations against detainees in Libya are competent state authorities; the norm, Human Rights Watch said. Libyan government officials told Human Rights Watch that very few Treat humanely all detainees in accordance with detainees have been formally charged and that very few international standards, and punish those in positions of of the cases have been reviewed by a judicial authority, authority who are responsible for torture or other ill- which is required by Libyan and international human treatment or for detention outside the law; rights law. Expeditiously screen all detainees in government The vast majority of detainees interviewed by Human custody, ensure all are brought promptly before a judge, Rights Watch did not know the charges against them and release those for whom there is no evidence of and had not been able to contest the legal basis for their having committed a crime; and detention. Libya's police have been slow to refer cases to prosecutors. Libya's criminal courts have begun Promptly charge those implicated in wrongdoing, and working in places, but few conflict-related cases have prosecute them in accordance with international due reached the courts. Only 194 people detained during or process guarantees, including providing immediate after the conflict have been sentenced, the judicial police access to legal counsel. said. Libya's leaders should also seek assistance from Libya will face many challenges in prosecuting people governments, the United Nations, and nongovernmental accused of crimes because evidence can be difficult to organizations to address transitional justice, Human collect and many cases have been tainted by torture, Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch said. "The failure to build a functioning justice system has The power of local militias, which in most towns and undermined Libya's transition and threatens to cities are stronger than the army and police, has destabilize the country for many years," Abrahams said. complicated the rebuilding of Libya's justice system. "The candidates running in these elections should make Unknown assailants apparently linked to militias have this urgent need a top priority and explain how they plan threatened police, prosecutors, and judges. As one to ensure justice for all victims, no matter the person's prosecutor told Human Rights Watch about some family, tribe, or political view." politically motivated murders: "We have suspects for these killings, but we don't have the power to arrest them." Page 86 of 154  43. Gunmen attack Tunisian consulate in Monday's incident is the latest in a series of Benghazi attacks on embassies and international buildings June 18, 2012|Reuters and convoys this year which have raised serious security concerns ahead of Libya's first http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06- democratic elections slated for July 7. 18/news/sns-rt-us-libya-gunmen-tunisiabre85h1v6- Last week a British embassy convoy was hit about 20120618_1_british-embassy-convoy-consulate-al- 300 meters (yards) from the British consulate tommy NEWS office in Benghazi's al-Rabha neighborhood. BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A group of armed On June 6 an explosive device was dropped from gunmen stormed the Tunisian consulate in the a passing car outside the offices of the U.S. Libyan city of Benghazi on Monday to protest diplomatic mission in Benghazi. The blast that against an art exhibition in Tunisia which they said insulted Islam, a security guard who works followed slightly damaged the gate in front of the inside the building said. building. Kamal al-Gehani said the group of about 20 The fragile transitional government is still young men carrying Kalashnikovs forced their struggling to restore stability after the revolt and way into the building and burned the Tunisian arms and explosives looted from former leader flag inside. Muammar Gaddafi's arsenals are easily available. (Reporting By Mohamed al-Tommy; Writing By "They knocked on our gates and pushed into the Hadeel Al-Shalchi; Editing by Myra MacDonald) building. It was a holiday so no one was working http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xp0n- inside except security," he told Reuters. 6ET3s&feature=youtu.be&a Suleiman al-Gehani, an official with the foreign 44. Malians flee to Burkina Faso amid ministry who was called to help defuse the drought situation, said security officers had to negotiate The UN refugee agency says that a record 800,000 with the group until they were convinced to leave. people were forced to flee across borders last year. He said no shots were fired and no one was Many of them were displaced by conflicts in their home injured. countries. "We had to convince them this wasn't the civilized way to protest. They were very angry Mali is one example. More than 320,000 people have been forced from their homes since January because of over the art work from Tunisia," he said. fighting between government forces and Tuareg rebels. Thousands of hard-line Muslim Salafis rioted in Tunis this week to protest against the art Many are seeking refuge in neighbouring countries - which are struggling to cope with the influx. exhibition which features a work that spells out the name of God using insects. The situation is particularly precarious as the Sahel The Tunisian embassy in Tripoli was not region is going through a major drought. immediately available for comment. Al Jazeera's Laura Kyle reports from Burkina Faso's A Reuters reporter on the scene said there was a Mintao camp and May Welsh reports from Mali's heavy police presence around the Tunisian Timbuktu. consulate and that the roads leading to the building were blocked off by security cars. Page 87 of 154  45. Dangerous business: Libya, UAE, A military supply company from China shows off boots, dress shoes and riot gear to the world at the Eurosatory 2012 show Indonesia and more sell wares at in Paris. (FoxNews.com / Allison Barrie) military tech event By Allison Barrie War Games Published June 20, 2012 FoxNews.com  Military, police and special forces began to take delivery on Promtechnologies Group Orsis T-500 sniper rifles in September of last year. This was the rifle of choice for the team that won the Sniper World Cup earlier this month. (Orsis)  A military supply company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shows off its wares to the world at the Eurosatory 2012 show in Paris. (FoxNews.com / Allison Barrie)  A 49-ton main battle tank T-90MS from UralVagonZavod carries three men and comes with a "hunter-killer" mode with panoramic sight for target engagement. (UralVagonZavod)  Page 88 of 154  And he's right: Those cuts mean that Western militaries are being forced to do things "differently." It's an opportunity these countries are clearly targeting. 'The expanded participation by Russia and China was a challenging juxtaposition.' - Mark Phillips, head of land warfare for defense think tank RUSI That's why India, South Korea, UAE, Indonesia all had a dramatic increase in the number of exhibitors -- but it was Russia and China that really went big, both countries revealing equipment for the first time outside their home countries. CHINA: Sky Dragon The top supplier to the People’s Liberation Army, China North Industries Corp. (NORINCO), unveiled a major missile system. Sky Dragon is a medium range SAM (surface-to-air missile) that can engage targets up to 31 miles away and 12 miles high. The company says there is a minimum 80 percent probability that a single shot from the Sky Dragon will take down a fighter jet. Reportedly near completion, it can provide target guidance for 12 missiles at the same time and the radar can detect approximately 140 targets at a maximum range of 80 miles. CHINA: Blue Arrow 7 NORINCO also introduced a new air to surface missile called Blue Arrow 7. This export version of the missiles used by China’s Z-10 attack helicopter is similar to an AGM-114  Hellfire. The company says the range on these missiles is This semiautomatic shotgun from Russia supplier Izhmash can between 1.2 and 5 miles. use both ordinary ammunition and "stop-power" ammo such as CHINA: Anti-Riot Suits buckshot and rubber bullets. (Izhmash) The Chinese Zhejiang Yingfu company specializes in anti-riot Next Slide Previous Slide suits and military knee and elbow pads. The company revealed at the show a new “Anti Riot and the Riot Control Suit .” Military supply companies from Russia, China, UAE, Designed to protect from piercing daggers in, say, an Indonesia, Korea, and Libya showed off tanks, missiles and attempted stab to the chest, the company says it also protects other weapons in Paris at Eurosatory 2012, the largest against “a steel ball of 7.5 kilograms [16.5 pounds].” international military technology show focused on land warfare. CHINA: The "Great Riot Wall" At the event, 53 countries were represented by more than The company also revealed a new clear polycarbonate 1,400 exhibitors for the 55,000 visitors, the United States Connectable Riot Shield that includes a clip for a club and an leading with 158 companies. But a surprising trend was integrated handle. The shields are designed to be able to evident: This year, the number of companies from non- connect to build a “continuous wall” of shields. Western countries that showed off new weaponry boomed -- RUSSIA: MRAP especially Russia and China. Russia showed its MRAP (mine-resistant ambush-protected) SUMMARY vehicle in an outdoor land vehicle park at Eurosatory -- its first trip outside of Russia. Made by Ural Automotive Works, the Eurosatory 2012 tradeshow is gathering place for land and air Ural-ZA is powered by a 450 horsepower diesel engine and defense can hit 65 mph. It can carry fourteen warfighters including the 1,400 exhibitors showed off wares from 53 countries driver and commander and weighs about 24 tons. An increasing presence of non-Western countries signals RUSSIA: Shotgun growing battle for military dollars Russian firearms manufacturer Izhmash revealed the Saiga-12 Indeed, three new countries were on display at the Eurosatory shotgun for law enforcement, with its shortened barrel and 2012 show from June 10 to 15: Pakistan, Cyprus and Libya Picatinny rail for sighting devices. The semiautomatic shotgun all had companies with booths showing guns, vehicles and can use both ordinary ammunition and “stop-power” ammo more. such as buckshot and rubber bullets. There were thirty-four national pavilions with Indonesia, South RUSSIA: “Hunter-Killer” Tank Korea, Pakistan, Turkey and UAE presenting national pavilions The Special Equipment Division of UralVagonZavod brought for the first time and reportedly more than 120 official information on its suite of tanks. The 49-ton main battle tank T- delegations exploring the show, seeking new military gear. 90MS carries three men and comes with a “hunter-killer” I asked Mark Phillips, head of land warfare for the defense mode with panoramic sight for target engagement. It has the think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), what that latest 125mm smooth bore gun with automatic loader, a roof trend heralds. mounted 12.7 mm remote-controlled weapon system and "Western armed forces generally, and land forces in particular, laser-guided projectile to a range of 3.1 miles. are facing significant cuts in capability," he told me. These RUSSIA: “Terminator” Tank smaller countries with weaker economies are seeing dollar The tank-support fighting vehicle BMPT Terminator -- one of signs, in other words -- who cares the denomination. the most heavily armed in this category -- was also revealed "The expanded participation by Russia and China was for the first time. The first ten of these were sold to therefore a challenging juxtaposition: These countries ... are Kazakhstan in 2011. It has four launchers for Ataka anti-tank increasingly producing high specification equipment," he said. guided missiles, a 7.62 machine gun, a 30-mm AGS-17 Page 89 of 154 automatic grenade launcher on both sides of the hull and a two-person turret with two 30mm 2A4w dual-fee cannons. RUSSIA: Orsis Sniper Rifle Military, police and special forces began to take delivery on Promtechnologies Group Orsis T-500 sniper rifles in September of last year. Available in a .338 Lapua Magnum and .308 Winchester, this was the rifle of choice for the FSB Alpha Group -- a team that won the Sniper World Cup earlier this month. U.S. companies showed off their military might as well with 158 companies taking part. At a time of dramatic defense cuts in the U.S., the new presence of Russia, Chinese and other non- Western countries certainly made it clear they have gone in a different “go big or go home” direction. Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has travelled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/06/20/dangerous- business-libya-china-russia-and-more-sell-military- wares/#ixzz26J2U4Cy0 By Marie-Louise Gumuchian TRIPOLI | Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:28am EDT (Reuters) - Abdulnasser Ruhuma was 9. Snatched and asleep in his bed when the militia fighters barged into his Tripoli home. detained: Libya's The shouting woke the Libyan bank "jungle law" worker and he rushed downstairs to find around 40 men pointing their Analysis & Opinion rifles at him. Moments later they started beating him. Ruhuma's wife and relatives begged the intruders to stop but they dragged him and his uncle away. Punched, hit with rifle butts and cut with knives, Ruhuma was taken to a makeshift detention center in the middle of the night. In a stark reminder of the lawlessness that prevails in Libya eight months after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, the gunmen never told Ruhuma why they abducted him. He says it stems from a family issue - a relative wanted revenge, so he called on the help of an armed brigade. "We weren't told anything, we were just beaten - our hands, our legs, our bodies," the 42-year old father-of- two said. "I thought I would never make it out alive." Libya's aspirations to replace Gaddafi's repressive rule with an ordered, democratic nation are being undermined by increasingly wayward volunteer militias who operate outside the control of fragile state institutions. The militias attract most attention when, mounted on their battered pick-up trucks with anti-aircraft guns Page 90 of 154 welded to the back, they fight pitched battles in city "This revolution came to eliminate the era of human streets against rival groups, usually over some perceived rights violations, but unfortunately these incidents have slight or a dispute over territory. happened, these are crimes," he said. But it is their less visible activities that have done the On top of the rise in abductions, rights groups say they most to puncture the sense of euphoria and freedom that are also concerned about the fate of thousands of followed Gaddafi's downfall. people captured by the authorities and militias during and immediately after the uprising. Human rights groups have documented a series of cases of militias going to people's houses, spiriting them Human Rights Watch says at least 7,000 are still in away and, often, beating and torturing them. detention, citing government officials and the United Nations. Roughly 4,000 of them are held by various Ruhuma was released only after his relatives called militias in both formal and secret detention facilities. The government security forces for help. They found him a rest are in facilities run by the government. few hours later. The U.N. human rights agency and aid groups have "We hear on television that Libya is secure, but after accused brigades of torturing detainees, many of them what I have seen, there is no security. How is this sub-Saharan Africans suspected of fighting for Gaddafi's possible? There are armed gangs pretending to be forces last year. revolutionaries," Ruhuma said. Accusations of the mistreatment and disappearances of "This is some kind of jungle law." suspected Gaddafi loyalists are embarrassing for Libya's THE REAL POWER ON THE GROUND ruling National Transitional Council, which had vowed to make a fresh start after Gaddafi. Militias spearheaded the rebellion that ended Gaddafi's rule. While many have scaled back their activities, gone It is also awkward for the Western powers that backed back to their home towns or merged into national the rebellion and helped install Libya's new leaders. security services, others have yet to lay down their arms. "The government, essentially the police through ministry The lack of an effective national police force and army of interior has to develop its capacity to check that. It's mean many of the militias have more power on the not acceptable of course," the U.N envoy to Libya, Ian ground than Libya's official rulers. Martin, told Reuters when asked about the abductions. In the last few weeks, Reuters reporters have heard of "I don't think there's a problem of will to deal with that, I cases of Libyans taken from their homes or from the believe the intentions of those in authority in Libya is one street by armed groups. One of Reuters' Libyan that wants to protect human rights but more needs to be members of staff was briefly detained and beaten done." following a dispute over a parking space. "THE HONDA CIVIC" "We have received complaints about people being The good intentions may be there. But the abductions tortured - taken, detained for a few hours," said have continued. Abdelbaset Ahmed Abumzirig, deputy head of the national council for freedom and human rights. Al-Amin Al-Sahli was at home when four men from a brigade arrived in a pick-up truck and asked him to go to "Some have been passed on to the police and their headquarters. They did not say why. prosecutor general and we are following them up. We know that the authorities are weak." The 38-year-old, a state employee living in Libya's third largest city Misrata and the brother of a Reuters International campaign groups have identified armed cameraman, decided to comply and arrived at the base militias as one of the biggest challenges to stability as half an hour later. Libya's new rulers try to build new institutions and prepare for the first election in a generation on July 7. "They took my phone, my things and then led me through the back door to another office. Then they In the last month, Tripoli's international airport was covered my eyes and tied my hands," he said as he lay seized by an armed group for several hours. One person in hospital after his ordeal. was killed and several injured when militiamen protesting outside the prime minister's office started shooting. "They started beating me, torturing me. They put me on a device - they called it a Honda Civic," he said, Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour told describing it as a metallic frame to which his arms and Reuters the government planned to increase security on legs were tied. the streets and set up more checkpoints to stop people bringing heavy weapons into cities. "They beat me with cables and sticks and everything they had on my back, my legs and all sensitive areas of my body." Page 91 of 154 The 38-year-old, covered in bruises and whip marks, Trial concerns said his detention stemmed from an old argument over a piece of land. He was only freed after other militia A Tunisian government statement said the extradition groups arrived demanding his release. did not require the president's signature. During his detention, he said he was put in a cell with other prisoners, some of them with broken legs. "I've It said the decision to extradite had been made following never seen anything as criminal as this before." a report by a Tunisian delegation to Tripoli, which found (Additional reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by that the conditions for a fair judicial process had been Andrew Heavens) met. However, the statement from Mr Marzouki's office 46. Libya ex-PM Mahmoudi extradition insisted that the decision affected foreign policy, which is from Tunisia 'illegal' "within the purview of the president of the republic". The extradition "threatens the image of Tunisia in the world, making it appear like a state which is not committed to... respecting the elements of a fair trial," the statement went on. Mr Mahmoudi was transferred by helicopter on Sunday. He had served as prime minister from March 2006 but Mr fled Libya when Col Gaddafi's forces lost control of Mahmoudi was transferred to jail after being taken back to Libya by Tripoli and was arrested in Tunisia in September for helicopter illegal entry. Continue reading the main story A sentence of six months' imprisonment for that offence 47. Libya Crisis was overturned on appeal, but Mr Mahmoudi had remained in Tunisian custody following the extradition Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki has said that request from Libya. his country's extradition of Libya's former Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi was "illegal". Mr Mahmoudi's lawyers have expressed fears for his life, saying he now has sole knowledge of many of the state Mr Mahmoudi, 70, had fled to Tunisia during the uprising secrets from Gaddafi's time in power. against Col Muammar Gaddafi last year. Libya's new government has pledged to treat all Mr Marzouki's office said in a statement that the decision detainees fairly. to extradite Mr Mahmoudi was taken without consultation and without his agreement.  This last line should be examined as it fly’s in the face of reality Mr Mahmoudi is the first senior Libyan official to be returned for trial. Mr Marzouki had promised earlier this year to hand over Mr Mahmoudi if he were guaranteed a fair trial in Libya, June 23, 2012 but in May he said he was in principle opposed to the move. 48. Libya Democracy Clashes With Fervor for Jihad Human rights groups had asked Tunisia not to extradite him, saying he could be subject to human rights By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK violations in Libya. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/world/africa/liby a-jihadis-offer-2-paths-democracy-or- Page 92 of 154 militancy.html?_r=1&smid=tw- validate militant arguments about the futility of share&pagewanted=print democratic reform. Some in the West fear militants will find new staging DARNAH, Libya — Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi first took grounds. In Darnah, which the United States Army says up arms nearly 20 years ago to try to bring Islamic law sent more jihadis to fight the United States in Iraq than to Libya. He studied under the Taliban in Afghanistan, any other town its size, Mr. Qumu and other militants and during last year’s uprising he led a local militia still command a following, according to local officials council here in a city famous as a cradle of Islamic jihad. and residents. Many blame Islamist militants for a spate But now Mr. Hasadi has refashioned himself as an eager of violent crimes, including the bombing of Mr. Hasadi’s politician running for local office, looking to the ballot empty Mercedes-Benz. box to promote his Islamic values. “There is no reason But many former jihadis here say they have put their for weapons now,” he said. “Words are our weapons. faith in elections, starting with a vote for a Libyan Politics needs politics. It doesn’t need force.” national assembly expected next month. In the same town, Sufian bin Qumu leads a militia that “We want our politics to be like Israel,” said Mosab flies the black flag of militant Islam. A former truck Benkamaial, 25, referring to the Jewish state’s melding driver for Osama bin Laden who spent six years as a of religious identity and electoral democracy. Mr. prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Mr. Qumu says the Benkamaial, who was captured by United States troops Koran is the only constitution he knows. He insists that in Baghdad, now runs Darnah’s most popular restaurant, he will remain armed until Libya adopts a Taliban-style a kebab grill called Popeye’s. Islamic government. Other prominent Libyans who once traveled abroad to “I lived in Kabul, in Afghanistan, when it was under fight in the name of Islam are also moving in the same Islamic law,” he said approvingly in a recent local radio direction. Abdel Hakim Belhaj led an Islamist broadcast that has been his only public statement. “If an insurgency in Libya, fought the Soviets in Afghanistan Islamic state is established here, I will join it.” and later joined the Taliban before the C.I.A. captured In an unfolding contest here over the future of the him in Malaysia. The leader of the Tripoli Military Islamist movement, Mr. Hasadi’s vision of peaceful Council, he has founded a political party modeled after change appears ascendant. For the West, his success may Turkey’s loosely Islamic governing party. represent the greatest promise of the Arab Spring, that “We are not an Islamist party,” said Anas al-Sharif, a political participation could neutralize the militant strand former spokesman for the Islamist insurgency. of Islam that has called thousands to fight and die in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. There are, however, still signs of division among Darnah’s jihadis. During last year’s rebellion, graffiti That hope for democracy, however, is now imperiled by proclaimed “No to Al Qaeda.” Now the word “no” is lawlessness in Libya, signs of sectarian war in Syria and blacked out. A few weeks ago, after Mr. Hasadi spoke at military rule in Egypt. In Egypt, especially, the generals’ attempts to thwart an Islamist electoral victory could Page 93 of 154 a mosque about the coming elections, militants blew up Now Mr. Qumu has become a lightning rod for fears of his car. renewed Islamist violence, especially among followers of unconventional schools of Islam. “For sure we have extremists,” said Mohamed el- Mesori, 52, who leads the local governing council. Ultraconservatives who sat out the revolt for religious “There are people who are not with Hasadi because he reasons say they live in fear of the armed jihadis. “My speaks about democracy and elections,” he said, adding: heart is in pain,” said an ultraconservative imam, “Sufian bin Qumu is not yet convinced of that, but we speaking on the condition of anonymity. think he is open. People are trying to show him that this Sufis — Muslim mystics — say militants destroyed their is the only way to convince people of your ideas.” place of worship. One prominent Sufi psychiatrist said Surrounded by mountains pocked with deep caves, that Mr. Qumu visited to argue about Islamic law on Darnah has been a natural center of guerrilla resistance beards. “Grandiose,” said the doctor, Monsifa Moussa. since the Ottoman Empire. In the 1980s, some of its When Mr. Qumu appeared on the radio program in young men joined the fight against the Soviets in January, callers accused him of ordering killings and Afghanistan, then returned in the 1990s to form the core harboring foreign fighters, and they demanded to know of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which for a brief why he had not taken a more active role in civic life like time threatened Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi. Mr. Hasadi. “What is it about the city that Sheik Sufian After its defeat, many, including Mr. Qumu and Mr. doesn’t like?” one asked. Hasadi, fled to Afghanistan. He pleaded for acceptance, reminding callers of his years Most remain deeply suspicious of the West. “So far I in isolation in Guantánamo Bay. “If I speak about it have never seen anything good in American politics,” now, you will not hold your tears.” said Mr. Benkamaial, the restaurateur, who spent years He said he did not order killings — “You have to be an in a United States-run prison in Iraq. emir to give such orders” — and would never force Approached by a Libyan intermediary working for The women to wear a veil. “Out of the question!” New York Times, Mr. Qumu shouted “Go to hell!” It is impossible to know how many in Darnah stand through his door. “I was in Guantánamo for six years, behind Mr. Qumu. But some former jihadis and others in and the Americans weren’t interested in talking to me! their milieu seem embarrassed by his views. “They think Why would I talk to an American now?” they are the only real Muslims in the city,” said Faris el- Mr. Qumu, who completed only the seventh grade, was Ghariani, 32. sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1993 for a drug crime. Others were open to compromise, like bending the He escaped, according to government records, and fled current prohibition to allow alcohol in tourist hotels. to Sudan, where he first fell in with Bin Laden. “We want Islamic law, but we also want help from the He was captured in 2002 by Pakistani intelligence and West,” said Mahir el-Musmari, 37, who traveled to Iraq taken to Guantánamo Bay. In 2008, he was transferred to to fight after the American invasion. “We will have to a Libyan prison. meet halfway.” Page 94 of 154  Mr. Hasadi, the jihadi turned politician, boasted that he his family or considered traitors to the revolution that had just asked a woman to become his fourth wife. He overthrew him. recommended that the West try Islamic corporal Enlarge Image punishments, like cutting off thieves’ hands, as a deterrent. But he is trying to broaden his appeal. Once a schoolteacher, he leads prayers at a local mosque, hosts television and radio programs and courts the local and international news media. He says the Taliban were wrong to restrict the careers of women (they will vote in Libya). He and Mr. Qumu remain friends, Mr. Hasadi said, and he was working on persuading Mr. Qumu to trust in democracy and lay down his weapons, or at least take down the jihadi flag over his compound. “You are sullying our image,” Mr. Hasadi said he had told him. “It is fine to have that flag, but if it scares people, why do you have it? You can’t do anything. Why not leave this place?” 10. Libya Election Panel Battles Ghosts  Article  Comments (2) MORE IN MIDDLE EAST » European Pressphoto Agency By MARGARET COKER Workers at a Tripoli design house prepare election posters on TRIPOLI—Libya's interim authorities, eager to avoid Tuesday, a day into the campaign season. the political chaos of neighboring Egypt, are going to At the start of campaigning this week, the panel said it great lengths to keep people associated with the had rejected 320 would-be candidates from taking former regime from regaining power. part in the July poll, while the election commission disqualified 650 others—a significant share of those A vetting panel called the Commission for Integrity who sought to run for office. and Patriotism has scrutinized the approximately 4,000 candidates vying in Libya's first post-Gadhafi Now, some 2500 people will contest 120 seats election, which is scheduled for July 7. The goal: find reserved for individual candidates, while over 100 and block those with ties to Moammar Gadhafi and parties will compete for the remaining 80 seats in a Page 95 of 154  200-body parliamentary body that will have full control Approximately 2.7 million Libyans signed up to vote— over national security, foreign affairs and Libya's oil 80% of eligible voters, according to statistics released wealth. by the national electoral commission. In contrast to Egypt, which is now ruled by its ousted The 200-seat assembly will establish a new president's military and could see one of his constitution and political road map after decades of colleagues succeed him, Libya's leaders—all top one-man rule. It will also run the country until the new opposition figures—have marshaled a full-scale constitution is approved by a national referendum. campaign to dismantle the country's authoritarian Libya's monthslong, internationally supported military system and lay a new political foundation. campaign to oust Gadhafi left smoldering anger and Getting Started suspicion toward those who prospered under his 40- Four parties likely to dominate July 7 polls year regime. That has added widespread public  National Front support for the work of the Commission for Integrity Affiliated with a 1980s-era anti-Gadhafi group, the party is led by and Patriotism, despite the lack of transparency about Mohammed al-Magariaf, an exiled intellectual dissident leader from a the standards it used in its decisions. prominent eastern Libyan family.  Justice and Construction Party Neither the commission nor the election commission The political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Leader is Mohamed explained the reasons for its decisions about Sowan, a Gadhafi-era political prisoner. disqualification of particular candidates. They didn't  Libyan National Party respond to emails requesting comment. Islamist group led by religious scholar Ali al-Salabi and former Islamist militant Abdul Hakim Belhaj. The multistage vetting system was established as part  National Forces Alliance of an arduous electoral law passed this spring. Those An umbrella coalition of liberal parties led by Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the rebel government that received Western support for efforts to prohibited from standing for the election include overthrow the Gadhafi regime. Mr. Jibril isn't on the list of candidates. officials who held upper-level governmental positions under Gadhafi, worked for charity organizations Their most pressing national-security concern has affiliated with his family, or had their education paid been to keep those affiliated with Gadhafi out of for by Gadhafi's government. People with commercial public life—though human-rights groups have ties to Gadhafi's family or stole public funds are also criticized many policies for violating the rule of law, barred from office. such as the indefinite imprisonment by revolutionary militias of hundreds of people accused of being According to election officials, candidates had to Gadhafi loyalists. submit to a criminal-background check conducted by the new Interior Ministry and a separate check by the Libyans have jumped at the chance to participate in Defense Ministry to ensure that candidates aren't their first multiparty election since Gadhafi took over members of the country's new security or military in 1969. Many voters say they hope the new bodies. The vetting committee also assessed the governing body will solve the growing lawlessness financial, educational and political backgrounds of that has been the hallmark of life in Libya over the each candidate. past several months. Page 96 of 154  It remains unclear what burden of proof the committee used to determine guilt. Since the revolution last year, Libya's courts haven't yet convicted any Gadhafi-era official of any crimes. Members of the vetting commission encouraged citizens to submit complaints about potential candidates, lending a sometimes informal quality to the process. On a sunny morning in May, a middle-age, mustachioed man from the Sharqiyah neighborhood of Tripoli arrived at the district electoral center to A girl raises her hand with her fingers painted with flags register as a candidate. As he filled out his of Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Libya. Photograph: paperwork, the din-filled room fell silent while word Khaled Abdullah/REUTERS spread that he resembled a Gadhafi-era functionary. The BBC has promised to review the workload of its Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, following a BBC The head of candidate registration called the integrity Trust report urging that he be encouraged to "travel a little less". commission after the man finished and left. "Put an asterisk by his name so we know to put him at the top Bowen, who has been in the post for seven years, is taking too many foreign trips and needs to be centrally of our list," the commission member said, according to located where he can lend his expertise to the BBC's an official who overheard the conversation. Members strategic thinking about its coverage of the region, a of the integrity commission didn't respond to requests report by former UN director of communications Edward Mortimer concluded. to comment. Mortimer's report into the accuracy and impartiality of Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com the BBC's coverage of the Arab spring, published on Monday, urged executives to limit Bowen's travel "so 11. BBC that he would have more time to share his insight and provide them with overall strategic guidance". promises to The report quoted an email from Bowen to Mortimer, a former foreign affairs columnist for the Times and Financial Times, in which the journalist referred to his review Jeremy "full" schedule. The report concluded: "There is clearly a tension here, or Bowen's a gap not easily bridged between the role of an inspired leader on the ground who has a huge patch to cover and workload does it superlatively well, and the role of people running the news machine back at base who continually have to make choices in terms of people, resources and audience Middle East editor to be encouraged to 'travel less' following engagement, and who perhaps cannot always get the trust report into corporation's coverage of Arab spring advice they need, at the moment when they need it, from Ben Dowell an expert who is out in the field." guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 June 2012 12.21 EDT Page 97 of 154 Mortimer's report noted that in 2010 alone Bowen • To get the latest media news to your desktop or visited Yemen twice, Egypt twice, Washington twice, mobile, follow MediaGuardian Syria once, Israel and the Palestinian territories at least onTwitter and Facebook. four times, Lebanon once, Geneva once, as well as interviewing the Lebanese prime minister in London. In its written response BBC management said it will © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its "review the balance " of Bowen's work and the "emphasis affiliated companies. All rights reserved. we place on his strategic guidance" and hinted that it ; may limit his work on documentary features. "We also conclude that there are dangers in releasing key 49. List of Unexploded Arms in Libya Is broadcasters, such as the Middle East editor, to work on Seen as Limited June 25, 2012 current affairs documentaries in the middle of a major By C. J. CHIVERS story," the BBC added. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/world/africa/nato-gives-un-list-of- "While this undoubtedly enriched the BBC's output of unexploded-bomb-sites-in-libya.html? the Arab spring as a whole, it mean that for a period The release by NATO of a list of unexploded munitions daily news editors had less contact with his expertise and guidance of the coverage than they would otherwise have from the alliance’s military action in Libya has been had." both welcomed as a step toward postconflict At the press briefing for the report on Monday, Mortimer accountability and criticized as a half-measure that falls said Bowen did not volunteer the suggestion about his short of protecting civilians and specialists trying to rid workload but that he "broadly does agree" with the the country of its hazards. report's findings. Bowen was given the post seven years ago in order to The United Nations said this month that NATO, in an lend more consistency to the BBC's coverage of the exchange not publicly disclosed, had shared details of region, but his tenure has not been without incident. 313 possible sites of unexploded ordnance from the In 2009 the BBC Trust ruled that he was guilty of alliance’s action against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s inaccuracies in two stories, a January 2008 report for Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent describing the government last year. The alliance provided the latitude history of the Israeli settlement Har Homa, near and longitude for each site, the weight of the ordnance Jerusalem, in the 1960s; and a 2007 BBC website story, How 1967 defined the Middle East, about the legacy of and a description of the means of delivery (fixed-wing the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. aircraft, helicopter gunship or naval vessel). Bowen later attacked the ruling when accepting the With the widespread use of sophisticated targeting British Journalism Review's Charles Wheeler award for an outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism. sensors, with which aircrews record infrared video of the impact of a missile or bomb, air forces have a greater "As Middle East editor for the BBC, I'm under pressure from lobbyists," he said. "I am recognised by my peers as capacity than ever to know exactly where weapons also being able to stick to my guns." struck and when they have failed to function properly. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email Such data is routinely gathered as part of what militaries editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. call battle damage assessment. It is used to determine For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a whether a target has been destroyed or should be hit comment for publication, please mark clearly "for again, and to assess the reliability and effectiveness of publication". various missiles and bombs. Page 98 of 154 The data also presents options for humanitarian and Colin King, a former British Army bomb disposal cleanup efforts. When shared, it can allow for officer and an analyst for IHS Jane’s, said he could see governments and mine-clearing organizations to alert no reason for NATO to withhold ordnance-specific residents of specific risks at specific places, and to focus details. “If the damn thing didn’t go off, why wouldn’t efforts on removing high-explosive remnants of war. Its you share what it was?” he asked. “People are going to existence also suggests an opening for Western find it anyway. It’s going to be lying on the ground, and militaries to adopt a new standard for responsibility in it might cost someone their life.” air campaigns. “It is irresponsible,” Mr. King added. “You are not going For these reasons, the United Nations, which had asked to give away much in the way of vital intelligence by NATO for the data last year, welcomed the list, even saying what it was.” though it contained limited information. NATO, which said that it “has contributed to the timely “It is helpful, because at least we know where these are,” removal of these munitions and therefore to the said Max Dyck, program manager for the United improvement of security for the Libyan people,” Nations Mine Action Service in Libya. “We’re not declined to answer why the types of weapons and waiting for someone to call up and say, ‘Hey, I have this render-safe procedures were not provided. “We do not great big dirty something in my garden.’ ” comment on technical operational details,” Oana Lungescu, the alliance’s spokeswoman, said by e-mail. Without such data, weapons containing volatile explosives and, in some cases, toxic propellants stand to NATO has said that its air campaign over Libya resulted be found randomly or in drawn-out surveys, raising the in the release of 7,700 missiles or bombs. Almost all of risk of accidental discovery — and detonation — by the suspected duds — 303 — that NATO acknowledged rubble-clearance crews, farmers’ plows, children or were released from warplanes. Six were from anyone else. helicopters, and four from warships. But the data has also been a source of disappointment The NATO campaign appears not to have involved and irritation, because NATO provided no information potentially harmful radioactivity or cluster munitions, about the types of unexploded weapons, or the fuzes which scatter small bombs or mines that typically have used to arm each missile or bomb. high dud rates and are prone to exploding when disturbed. This information, along with what are known as “render- safe procedures” for each type of weapon, is considered In an e-mail late last year, Col. Gregory Julian, a United essential by ordnance-clearance teams. It is routinely States Army officer serving as an alliance spokesman, recorded by modern military forces, via so-called bomb- said NATO and its partners had not used cluster or build sheets, in which each component of a weapon is depleted uranium rounds in Libya. He also said NATO documented as a weapon is armed and prepared for an had not used free-falling “dumb bombs.” All of its aircraft. airstrikes in Libya, he said, were made with guided missiles and bombs. Page 99 of 154 The NATO release was the latest development in what Mr. Sutton said he hoped that combatants in other mine-clearance teams describe as a slowly evolving conflicts would release similar data, but that more process of Western combatants’ sharing airstrike information would be included. “Amongst the mine- information with nonmilitary ordnance-disposal action actors, obviously we have no political interest in technicians. this,” Mr. Sutton said. “It is simply a matter of how quickly and safely we can do our jobs.” In the 1990s, the United States released extensive data on its bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War, after 50. years of resisting requests from Mines Advisory Group, Africa's Islamist militants 'co-ordinate efforts in threat to continent's security' a nonprofit ordnance-clearance organization in Britain. Editorial Note From Alexander Hagen, compiler of this Libya compendium: My notes indicate this had The information, made public decades after American disinformation in it – but valuable clues pilots carried out the secret bombing campaign, has since been used in a detailed mapping project, as an Head of US Africa Command says Boko Haram, al- advocacy tool, and to help with the cleanup of the Shabaab and al-Qaida in north Africa sharing money, explosives and training remnants of a little-covered military action carried out on a vast scale.  David Smith in Johannesburg  guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 June 2012 11.30 EDT After the Kosovo war ended in 1999, NATO released geographic information on its airstrikes there, though mine-clearers said the value of that release was undermined by the inaccuracy of much of the data. (In that case, Mr. King and Sean Sutton, a spokesman for Mines Advisory Group, said ordnance teams went to many sites NATO had said it struck and found nothing, and found areas that had been hit with cluster munitions that NATO had not disclosed.) The United States military has also provided nonmilitary ordnance-clearance teams limited information about airstrikes in Iraq. According to General Carter Ham, al-Shabaab militants (above) and their counterparts in Boko Haram and al-Qaida in The data release on Libya contained one new element: the Islamic Maghreb are increasingly co-ordinating their This was the first time a military force shared dud- activities. Photograph: Feisal Omar/Reuters specific locations for a campaign, according to Mr. Three of Africa's most dangerous Islamist militant King. In the past, he said, militaries described locations groups are striving to co-ordinate their operations and represent a deepening threat to security on the of airstrikes generally, and they did not differentiate continent, the US has warned. General Carter Ham, head of the US military's Africa between ordnance known to have exploded and ordnance Command, said there were signs that Boko suspected of having failed. Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabaab in Somalia and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb were sharing money and explosive materials and training fighters together. Page 100 of 154 "Each of those three organisations is by itself a  © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its dangerous and worrisome threat," Ham told an African affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Centre for Strategic Studies seminar in Washington. "What really concerns me is the indications that the Al Qaeda threatens Arab Spring nations- three organisations are seeking to co-ordinate and synchronise their efforts – in other words, to establish a UK spy chief co-operative effort amongst the three most violent organisations … And I think that's a real problem for us and for African security in general." Al-Shabaab is active in Somalia and has been blamed for attacks in Kenya. Last year, the group, which is allied to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the death of the Somali interior minister, Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan. It has, however, suffered setbacks in recent months. Last month, the US classified three of the alleged leaders of Boko Haram, an Islamist sect based in remote north- east Nigeria, as "foreign terrorists", but it declined to Tue, Jun 26 2012 blacklist the organisation to avoid boosting the group's http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/26/uk-britain- profile internationally. security-idUSLNE85P00620120626 Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an affiliate of al-Qaida based in north Africa, is mainly a criminal By Guy Faulconbridge organisation operating in the Sahel region. It kidnaps LONDON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda militants are using the westerners for ransom and fuels Africa's drug trade, countries which toppled their leaders in the Arab Spring as according to intelligence officials. bases to train radical Western youths for potential attacks on Britain, the chief of the MI5 Security Service said on Monday. US and regional officials fear that a power vacuum in In his first public speech for nearly two years, Security Service northern Mali after a military coup in March may open Director General Jonathan Evans said the Arab Spring revolts an expanded area of operations for Islamist militants. in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Egypt offered long-term hope of Some western diplomats talk of the country becoming a a more democratic Middle East. "west African Afghanistan". But Britain's domestic spy chief said al Qaeda, which moved to Afghanistan from Arab countries in the 1990s and thence to Ham, addressing senior military and civilian officials Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban, was once again trying to from Africa, the US and Europe, said AQIM was gain a foothold in the Arab world. operating "essentially unconstrained" throughout a large "Today parts of the Arab world have once more become a portion of northern Mali, where Islamists have imposed permissive environment for al Qaeda," Evans said, according an extreme version of sharia law. to an advance text of a rare speech in London outlining the key threats to British interests. He added: "Most notably I would say that the linkages "A small number of British would-be jihadis are also making between AQIM and Boko Haram are probably the most their way to Arab countries to seek training and opportunities worrisome in terms of the indications we have that they for militant activity, as they do in Somalia and Yemen. Some are likely sharing funds, training and explosive will return to the UK and pose a threat here." materials." "This is a new and worrying development and could get worse," said Evans, a career officer who has served as head of Africa Command has its headquarters in Germany. Its the Security Service since April 2007. actions vary from the use of drones against al-Shabaab to The Arab Spring was lauded by Western leaders who hoped the training of armies in various countries. Ham insisted the revolts would usher in prosperity and freedom to the Middle that the US, which has about 2,000 troops in Djibouti, is East and North Africa, though Islamists have come to power in not planning to expand its military role on the continent. elections in Tunisia and Egypt. "A large permanent presence in the continent of Africa is Libya has been racked by turmoil while al Qaeda militants are not, I think, what any of us desire." expanding their foothold in the south of Yemen. A plot by al Qaeda in Yemen to blow up an airliner over the Atlantic was A 100-strong US special forces contingent assisting in foiled in May by a British spy. the hunt for the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony also British officials say one of the biggest threats to the realm is comes under Ham's command. He said: "This is an likely to come from a domestic cell of militants who have African-led effort. It is the African Union increasingly received training or support from al Qaeda in Afghanistan, taking a leadership role with a little bit of support from Pakistan, Somalia or Yemen. the United States military. We think that is the right OLYMPICS - "ATTRACTIVE TARGET" approach." Evans, who joined MI5 in 1980 after graduating from Bristol University with a degree in Classical Studies, said preparations Page 101 of 154 for the Olympic Games in London were going well though the event was an attractive target for Britain's enemies. The extradition from Tunisia to Libya of Al-Baghdadi Britain's national threat level is assessed at "substantial" - Ali al-Mahmoudi, former deputy to the late Libyan meaning an attack is a strong possibility - but that is still one notch lower than for most of the past decade. dictator Muammar Gaddafi, "The Games present an attractive target for our enemies and they will be at the centre of the world's attention in a month or so," Evans said. "No doubt some terrorist networks have may be cheered in Tripoli. But it has exposed the thought about whether they could pull off an attack." growing power struggle between Islamists and But Evans warned against complacency, quipping that when intelligence folk smell roses they look for the funeral. secularists in Tunis Though al Qaeda has made no successful attack on Britain since 2005, the threat has not evaporated, he said, adding that By VIVIENNE WALT | @vivwalt | June 26, 2012 | Britain has been the target of credible terrorist plot every year since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. "In back rooms and in cars and on the streets of this country With political upheaval in Egypt and Libya and there is no shortage of individuals talking about wanting to mount terrorist attacks here," Evans said. "It is essential that calamitous violence in Syria, the one stable point of the we maintain pressure on al Qaeda." Arab Spring seemed Some 100-200 British residents are thought to be involved in militant activities in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, mostly young men from cities such as London and Birmingham to be Tunisia, where the wave of revolutions began 19 between the ages of 18 and 30. Evans said MI5, which now employs about 3,800 people up months ago. Now even that looks in doubt. Before dawn from 1,800 on the eve of the attacks on the Twin Towers in last Sunday, New York, had shifted some its focus to reflect the changed appreciation of the wider threat to British interests. He said about half of MI5's priority casework now focused on Tunisian officials dragged the country’s highest-value Afghanistan or Pakistan dimensions, down from 75 percent a few years ago. As the threat from al Qaeda in Pakistan detainee — Muammar Gaddafi’s last Prime Minister, declines, it has risen in Yemen, Somalia and the Sahel, he said. Al-Baghdadi Ali Evans said companies should seek to defend themselves against organised crime groups or states seeking to steal al-Mahmoudi — from his prison bed, then handed him secrets or sow turmoil in their computer systems. He cited the case of an unnamed London-listed company to Libyan officials, who flew him to a Libyan jail an which lost 800 million pounds as the result of a state cyber attack. hour away. Why Russia or China are thought to be behind the attack. "The extent of what is going on is astonishing - with industrial- the cloak-and-dagger extradition? The operation scale processes involving many thousands of people lying behind both state-sponsored cyber espionage and organised occurred under the nose of Tunisia’s own President, who cyber crime," he said. (Editing by Ralph Boulton) at the time was 51. Extradition of Gaddafi Deputy Plunges Tunisia into Political Crisis sound asleep in his sprawling seaside palace, just a few kilometers away. The political furor in Tunisia has since laid bare deep rifts between the country’s secular liberals and Islamists, http://world.time.com/2012/06/26/extradition-of- two factions gaddafi-deputy-plunges-tunisia-into-political-crisis/ wrestling for the country’s future in wake of the dictatorship’s collapse in January 2011. In some ways, the conflict mirrors Page 102 of 154  52. Extradition of Gaddafi Deputy Plunges But the clamor over al-Mahmoudi’s fate now Tunisia into Political Crisis threatens to torpedo the arrangement, placing the Islamists in firm control over the most secular country in North Africa. (MORE: Controversial Court Case Signals Political Divide in Tunisia) The extradition from Tunisia to Libya of Al- For months, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, former deputy to the fiercely opposed Libyan requests to send al- late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, may be Mahmoudi back. As the argument dragged on, it cheered in Tripoli. But it has exposed the growing became a litmus test not only for what kind of justice power struggle between Islamists and secularists system the new Tunisia might have, but also for what in Tunis kind of President there will be once the new constitution is approved some time next year: one http://world.time.com/2012/06/26/extradition- with big powers, like the American President, or a of-gaddafi-deputy-plunges-tunisia-into-political- figurehead — as some suspect the newly elected crisis/#ixzz26K1gGigP Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy might ultimately be. With political upheaval in Egypt and Libya and calamitous violence in Syria, the one stable point of A longtime human-rights activist and a former the Arab Spring seemed to be Tunisia, where the wave political prisoner himself, Marzouki, who returned of revolutions began 19 months ago. Now even that last year from exile in Paris, argued that the Libyan looks in doubt. Before dawn last Sunday, Tunisian risked being tortured and executed back home and officials dragged the country’s highest-value detainee that under the Geneva Conventions, Tunisia was — Muammar Gaddafi’s last Prime Minister, Al- obligated to keep him until it ruled on his request for Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi — from his prison bed, political asylum; al-Mahmoudi was nabbed by then handed him to Libyan officials, who flew him to a Tunisian border police after fleeing Libya last Libyan jail an hour away. Why the cloak-and-dagger September, when Gaddafi’s 42-year dictatorship was extradition? The operation occurred under the nose of on the verge of collapse. In a statement on Monday, Tunisia’s own President, who at the time was sound Marzouki’s spokesman Adnen Manser said al- asleep in his sprawling seaside palace, just a few Mahmoudi’s extradition on Sunday was “unilateral kilometers away. and without consultation, approval or signature of the The political furor in Tunisia has since laid bare deep President” and that “it deviates significantly from the rifts between the country’s secular liberals and principles of the current coalition, which threatens the Islamists, two factions wrestling for the country’s image of Tunisia in the world.” future in wake of the dictatorship’s collapse in January 2011. In some ways, the conflict mirrors the It also deeply embarrassed Tunisia’s President — and political struggles playing out in Libya and Egypt too, not for the first time. In early May, a Tunisian as all three countries try to rebuild after decades of court convicted Nabil Karoui, director of Nessma TV, one-man rule. In Tunisia, a three-way coalition has a hugely popular cable-television network that airs ruled the country since the first democratic elections across North Africa. Karoui had been charged with last October, with the popular Islamic party Ennahda broadcasting Persepolis, a French-American animated — long outlawed under the dictatorship — controlling film that features the Prophet Muhammad as a talking the government under a Prime Minister, and the two character — an offense in the eyes of conservative major secular parties in control each of the presidency Muslims. Sitting in his palace that same day with the and the constitution-writing assembly. sun streaming through the open doors, Marzouki told TIME that he feared the Islamists might try to limit free speech under a new constitution and create a Page 103 of 154 more stringent Islamic society. Tunisia depends intend to put him on trial in Libya. The extradition heavily on European tourists (Paris is a two-hour request to Tunisia included charges of abusing public flight away), and with no restrictions on alcohol — a funds, threatening officials with weapons and rare feature in the Arab world — the country is known incitement to commit rape during the war last year, for its fine wines. Steps from the palace, women bathe according to an account by Amnesty International on in bikinis on pristine Mediterranean beaches. But the Monday, which said the organization had been shown Nessma TV trial was seen as a test of whether such a copy of the document. easygoing rules might endure, given that more Tunisians voted for the Islamists than the secular Al-Mahmoudi is the first top Gaddafi official in exile parties last October. Marzouki opposed the charges to be returned to Libya, but hardly the only one levied on Karoui. “I am opposed to any kind of Libyan officials are seeking. Others include Libya’s censorship,” he told TIME. “I prefer the bad side former security chief Abdullah al-Senoussi, who was effects of free expression.” arrested in Mauritania; Gaddafi’s former Foreign But Marzouki, and secular liberals like him, might Minister Moussa Koussa, who was recently filmed by now be in the minority. During days of rioting earlier the BBC eating at a five-star hotel in Qatar; and this month, protesters slashed paintings, which they several Gaddafi family members, including his said were offensive to Islam, at a gallery exhibition in daughter Aisha, who have fled to Algeria and Niger. the upscale Tunis neighborhood of La Marsa; one But al-Mahmoudi himself is “very, very precious,” said painting spelled out the word Allah with ants, while his Tunis lawyer Hassan, who believes he could hold another portrayed a nude woman. On Monday, a key information for Libya’s new leaders, including Tunisian court upheld the 7½-year jail sentence for a where the Gaddafis might have hidden billions of young Tunisian convicted of posting a caricature of dollars. The former physician, 66, held a series of top the Prophet Muhammad online. jobs under Gaddafi and in recent years ran the Libyan For Marzouki, Sunday’s extradition of the Gaddafi Investment Authority, one of world’s largest official might prove one slight too many. His sovereign-wealth funds. As secretary of Gaddafi’s spokesman Manser told the online news site Tunisia General People’s Committee — the closest equivalent Live that “there is a possibility that Marzouki will to a Prime Minister — during the late 2000s, al- resign in response to the extradition,” which he Mahmoudi might also know intimate details about described as “a transgression of Marzouki’s backdoor deals during the years when U.S. sanctions prerogatives.” against Libya ended and Western countries poured While al-Mahmoudi’s extradition does not involve billions into Libya. Al-Mahmoudi has claimed, for issues of religion, Tunisians have seen it as a sign of example, to have proof that Gaddafi gave former the Islamists’ growing strength and the weakening French President Nicolas Sarkozy $62 million for his position of their secular President. “It is very, very 2007 election campaign — an issue that French clear now that the President has no power,” al- journalists have debated furiously for months and Mahmoudi’s attorney in Tunis, Mohammed Salah which Sarkozy has denied. Al-Mahmoudi might now Hassan, told TIME by phone on Tuesday. “There is a get his chance to present that proof in court. strong brotherhood between the Islamists regionally, Related Topics: Al-Baghdadi Ali Al- and between those in Tunisia and Libya, and the great Mahmoudi, Ennahda, extradition, Islamists, Libya, marzo majority of Tunisians voted for Ennahda.” That uki, secularists, Tunisia, Africa, Egypt, Middle connection, he added, was behind the hurried East, Tunisia extradition of al-Mahmoudi, over the President’s objections. For Libyan officials, al-Mahmoudi is a prize catch. For months, they argued hard for his return, saying they Page 104 of 154  12. Kids of War: Left Behind in Libya (PHOTOS) Libyan Children Fight a New Battle at School by Danielle Shapiro Jun 30, 2012 4:45 AM EDT 53. While Libya lurches forward to its landmark parliamentary election, its children face a brutal conflict on the playground.  Print  Email  Comments    As Libya gears up for its parliamentary election in July, a battle roars on in an unexpected place—the schoolyard. In burned-out neighborhoods riddled with bullet holes, toppled roofs, and crumbled walls, A student at her bombed-out school in Sirte. (Susan Schulman) children find themselves at a new kind of war on the playground, as some come from families that “I have decided not to remember the war,” said supported Muammar Gaddafi, while others hail from Muammar Abdulsalam, a chubby-cheeked 13-year- homes that encouraged the revolution. These kids old in the seaside neighborhood of Sirte, the fight over things they do not quite understand, as they hometown of Gaddafi. Here, empty bullet casings struggle to move on from the past. litter the sidewalks; graffiti heralding the revolution is everywhere. War is hard to forget. Page 105 of 154  regime, and the last Libyan city to fall to rebel hands. By war’s end, this young boy’s part of town, known as Area Two, would be Sirte’s most damaged neighborhood. For young Muammar, the suffering began even before the bombs fell on his home. His father, a soldier in Gaddafi’s army, was killed in July, according to his mother, Salma Abdullah, 32. Her son has been deeply affected, she said, explaining that he has become much more attached to her and doesn’t sleep well anymore; he’s easily startled when she wakes him in the morning. The traumas of war cling stubbornly to his everyday life. The destruction the fighting wrought throughout this city is inescapable. As residents pick their way through the rubble of their lives, they must also tread carefully to avoid explosive conflicting allegiances. In Sirte, as in much of Libya, there is criticism of the transitional government and concern about a flow of weapons. Tensions between those who supported Gaddafi and those who supported the rebels that overthrew him seem only thinly veiled. At the same time, unexploded weapons lurk beneath the rubble. Ali-Marc Wazne led mine-risk education programs in Sirte for an organization called the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action, noting that the danger is extreme. From December through January, his group cleared 1,200 unexploded weapons. Nowhere are the challenges of rebuilding and Sitting in his family’s first-floor apartment, with the reconciliation played out more powerfully than in the bombed-out remains of his neighbor’s homes around lives of the city’s children. For many, just walking to him, he was trying to erase his past on a late January school has become fraught. In Muammar’s afternoon, three months after the end of Libya’s neighborhood, his path to school passes crumbling violent revolution that toppled Gaddafi’s 42-year building after building, gaping with bomb holes, some dictatorship. almost perfect circles strafed with marks like the rays of a sinister sun. Everywhere there are shattered He and his family spent 30 terror-filled days last fall windows and the black stains of fire. Garbage piles hiding in the dank, dark basement of their building in are ubiquitous. The city aches with damage. Sirte, as rockets blasted and gunfire rattled, until Gaddafi was captured and killed. Sirte was not only Gaddafi’s hometown, but a bastion of support for his Page 106 of 154  Friends and teachers are attachment to their parents—can be signs of post- traumatic stress disorder, according to experts. Rune missing from school. Stuvland, director of the Center for Stress and Trauma Psychology in Oslo, traveled to Libya in Parents and relatives are January to help the United Nations Children’s Fund dead. A new flag flies; and the Libyan Ministry of Education assess the psychological needs of children and plan intervention children sing a new programs. “It shatters a child’s understanding of their community—of what is safe, what is not safe,” he said national anthem. Even of the man-made violence. The usual reassuring friendships are dangerous routines and structures for kids—schools, churches— are chaotic in war. Nothing can be counted on. to navigate. Inside the Taleah Alnaser school, where about 675 In Sirte, nearly everything in children’s lives has first-grade through ninth-grade students gather, changed. Friends and teachers are missing from Muammar’s classmate, Asel Salam, 12, opened the school. Parents and relatives are dead. A new flag door to what was once her second-grade classroom. flies; children sing a new national anthem. Even Dressed in jeans and carrying a pink Hannah friendships are dangerous to navigate. Often, children Montana backpack, her head covered in a delicate who come from families that supported Gaddafi pick white scarf, she looked around at her former fights with friends who come from families that classroom, covered in dust and debris. An oblong supported the revolution, and vice versa. bomb-hole marked the back wall, and windows were empty of their glass. “So scary,” Asel said quietly. At the Taleah Alnaser school, the simmering tensions erupted on a crisp but sunny late January morning, Other classrooms are in better shape, and school has when students lined up in the cement schoolyard. resumed, but the signs of conflict are inescapable. Teachers led them in brisk, mostly stationary, Concentrating under the circumstances, Asel said, is calisthenics. They bent at the waist; they circled their not easy. “I am trying,” she said. arms. When they finished, about 20 girls and boys were selected to stand in front of their peers and sing Abdulsalam Suwaysi, 12, another one of Muammar’s the country’s new national anthem. Called “Libya! friends, lives in the same apartment building as his Libya! Libya!” it is the anthem adopted in 1951 upon pal. Like Muammar, he no longer sleeps well. A Libya’s independence. When Gaddafi took over in a gentle boy with curly hair slicked back into a mini bloodless coup in 1969, he discarded the song. The mohawk, he recounted a recurring nightmare. “I country’s interim government, the National remember I dreamed that our building had been hit Transitional Council, brought it back last year. and I was the only one who survived and I was crying and I saw all my family dead,” he said. “I dreamed Not all the children knew the words, and it soon similar to this dream every day. After I woke, I saw became clear that some didn’t want to learn them. As that none of this had happened, but now I thank god the students filed back into their rows, a tussle everything now is OK.” ensued between two boys in Muammar’s class—one had sung the anthem, and the other was not happy The symptoms of Sirte’s children—bedwetting and about it. Quickly, a teacher approached the latter boy, nightmares, difficulty sleeping and concentrating in yelling and grabbing him by the ear. school, refusal to think or talk about the war, over- Page 107 of 154 “Put your hands down!” the teacher said. 54. Continued “I didn’t hit him! He came in front of me!” protested the destruction of Mali 15-year-old boy, named Ramadan Al Gaddafi Ramadan. shrines called 'war “This is something we all have to accept whether we crime' like it or not,” the teacher yelled. Members of the group Ansar Dine have destroyed the mausoleums of Sufi saints in Ramadan stared straight ahead. He said nothing, Timbuktu for a second day. though a subtle smirk crept across his lips. Sunday's destruction, utilising pick axes and guns, comes after a statement by the “OK, finish. We raise the flag and that is it,” the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling the teacher said. on-going campaign of destruction of ancient Islamic shrines in northern Mali "a war crime". The scuffle was not an isolated occurrence, students and teachers said. Asel, who was among those Al Jazeera's Dominic Kane reports singing the national anthem, said she has found her friends deeply divided. “Some like Muammar Gaddafi,” she said. “And others not. They like all of this destruction.” 55. F-Se! Landscapes Of Libya Freedom Or a Short List of Libyan Rebels HUMAN Still, despite the countless challenges for the RIGHTS Praxis. residents of Libya, there are flickers of hope. Offices, This hyperlinks to a gallery of gruesome reprisals restaurants, and shops are now open in Sirte. They against alleged Gadaffi supporters. might operate on a building’s first floor—with the second a nearly collapsed, charred shell—but they operate. Boys play soccer on a pitch outside Muammar’s apartment. Girls walk home from school, all a-giggle; they suck on lollipops, whisper to their friends, share rides on a partially broken pink scooter. And some children, like Abdulsalam Suwaysi, Muammar’s neighbor, manage to think about the future. “I want to be an engineer,” he said. “I want to rebuild my country.” Susan Schulman contributed to this story. Page 108 of 154  56. 57. Gadhafi-Era Spy Tactics Quietly Restarted in Libya By MARGARET COKER in Tripoli, Libya, and PAUL SONNE in London  Updated July 2, 2012, 10:15 p.m. ET Libya's caretaker government has quietly reactivated some of the interception equipment that fallen dictator Moammar Gadhafi once used to spy on his opponents. The surveillance equipment has been used in recent months to track the phone calls and online communications of Gadhafi loyalists, according to two government officials and a security official. Two officials say they have seen dozens of phone or Edu Bayer for The Wall Street Journal Internet-chat transcripts detailing conversations between Gadhafi supporters. One person said he A sign at a Gadhafi-era spy office last year read: 'The weapons are reviewed the transcript of at least one phone call in the hands of the people.' between Saadi Gadhafi, the exiled son of the former Libya is among the post-Arab Spring nations dictator, and one of his followers inside Libya. Saadi grappling with a difficult question as they move Gadhafi, who is in Niger, couldn't be reached for toward democracy: Whether or not to use the security comment. tools left behind by former dictators. Libya plans elections this Saturday. One of the government's main security concerns is to keep the country safe from a pro-Gadhafi counterrevolution. The risk is that Libya could follow a pattern seen in other post-authoritarian countries, from Russia to Iraq, in which new leaders weaken the rule of law in the interest of power or stability. Since Gadhafi's overthrow in a bloody conflict last year, Libya's caretaker government has created two new national-security agencies—one called Preventive Security, for domestic intelligence, and one called Foreign Security, for operations abroad. The effort is headed by 50-year-old Salem al-Hasi, a long-exiled anti-Gadhafi activist and Islamic scholar who, in just months, has gone from working as a Page 109 of 154 language teacher at a U.S. military college in Georgia to serving of the anniversary of the country's uprising, for example, as Libya's new national intelligence chief. officials went on heightened alert and switched on phone- interception equipment, fearing an attack by Gadhafi loyalists, Electronic surveillance is a sensitive subject for Libya's new according to one individual with knowledge of the matter. leaders. In an interview, Mr. Hasi's deputy denied that Libya has put Gadhafi-era surveillance gear to use. "We don't have Some Libyan activists say the lack of transparency on security the staff or know-how to do this," said Mustafa Nu'ah, the issues suggests a shaky commitment to the rule of law. "In a deputy, in a brief phone interview. few short months, the NTC has shown a pattern of creating bad laws that breach human rights," says Elham Saudi, a British- Mr. Hasi didn't respond to requests for comment. trained lawyer and head of the nongovernmental group Lawyers for Justice in Libya, the group that the International Two government officials and a high-ranking security official, Criminal Court worked with to gather evidence of possible war however, confirmed that such operations have begun. These crimes by Gadhafi. "The lack of respect for rule of law is people say they receive routine security briefings, including astonishing." readouts of intercepted phone calls and Internet chats. One of the officials said he has seen "dozens" of intelligence files of There are some signs the new government is defining potential suspected Gadhafi loyalists plotting against the new enemies of the state in a way that reaches beyond the former government. They declined to explain the process or criteria dictator's family members or henchmen. "The revolution must used to decide whether someone is placed under surveillance use all means necessary to rid the country of enemies," says or considered a threat. Adel al-Morsi, who in April became the commander of the Tripoli branch office of Preventative Security. He says his definition of security threats includes schoolteachers who don't let children sing the new national anthem and businessmen who became wealthy in Gadhafi's time. Mr. Hasi was appointed by the NTC, Libya's unelected caretaker parliament. It remains unclear whether he will be required to resubmit his candidacy after this week's planned elections. The vote will be the first since before Gadhafi seized power in his own revolution in 1969. In some of his only public statements since taking his new job, he acknowledged the lingering toxic effects of Gadhafi's police state and emphasized his commitment to reform. There is a "long way to go" before Libya can "put the security services at the service of the state, not the rulers," Mr. Hasi said in a February interview with the Arabic-language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. North Georgia College & State University Since taking power last fall, the caretaker government has Libya's new intel chief, Salem al-Hasi. aggressively sought to root out Gadhafi sympathizers. An Many in Libya's caretaker authority—the National Transitional organization called the Committee for Integrity and Patriotism, Council, or NTC—said the value of the tools is obvious. Ahead for instance, vetted election candidates for ties to the former Page 110 of 154  regime and has excluded at least 320 of them from running, or Intelligence files recovered and reviewed last year by the roughly 7% of all candidates who registered. Journal showed that many of Gadhafi's surveillance targets were Libyan human-rights activists and people critical of the The committee didn't respond to requests for comment and dictator or his family. Much of the equipment was switched off hasn't made public the reasons for blocking candidates. last year, when Gadhafi was fighting for survival, and stayed dark until at least last autumn, according to people familiar The NTC also passed a law that, among other things, prohibits with the situation. acts that "glorify" the former regime. The Libyan Supreme Court has ruled the law unconstitutional, but it is unclear how But by the end of 2011, security chaos was spreading. the court can enforce the decision. NTC members say such Hundreds of local militias acting as vigilante gangs set up strict laws are necessary in the current period of political makeshift prisons and instituted business shakedowns. upheaval. Human-rights groups estimate that upward of 3,000 people remain jailed by militias without judicial review. In another episode, a regional militia that arrested Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi recently detained a legal team visiting The caretaker leaders blamed unrest on pro-Gadhafi from the International Criminal Court at The Hague for insurgents. Some Libyan militia commanders began lobbying allegedly passing the younger Gadhafi a letter containing coded for access to Gadhafi-era phone taps and Internet interception communications. The younger Mr. Gadhafi is wanted on war equipment. crimes by the court at The Hague, but Libya wants to try him inside the country instead. The ICC, which called the detention Mr. Morsi, a 42-year-old former semiprofessional soccer player illegal and a violation of attorney-client rights, said Monday from Benghazi who was jailed five times by Gadhafi's secret that its staff had been released after nearly a month in police, says he has seen several transcripts of monitored phone detention. calls and Internet chats showing that dissidents are plotting an armed insurgency with exiled Gadhafi family members. "We Ajami al-Ateri, a spokesman for the regional militia, said the won't be safe until they are all eliminated," he said. ICC team's work was "not in the national interest" of Libya. He declined to confirm or deny whether Gadhafi-era security Gadhafi's police state cast a dark shadow over his nearly 42 equipment was back in use. years in power. Libyan assassins roamed the globe, killing exiled political dissidents. Opponents who remained inside the The full breadth and depth of the current intelligence North African country say Gadhafi used arbitrary arrests and operations across Libya are unknown. It isn't clear how much torture to terrorize them. of the old surveillance apparatus has been reactivated. More recently, Gadhafi quelled dissent with help from secret One person familiar with the setup said some of the online electronic surveillance tools, which were first documented in tapping devices have been removed from Libya's main Internet detail last summer by The Wall Street Journal. The equipment, service provider since the regime's fall. At the same time, the sold to the Gadhafi regime by companies in France, China and number and type of people subject to interceptions isn't clear, South Africa, allowed Libyan agents to monitor phones and nor is the process by which people are deemed targets. People capture email and Internet chats. with knowledge of the operations declined to say whether they led to arrests. Hasi once worked for a soccer-equipment store in Roswell, Senior government officials bristle at the suggestion that any Ga., and taught Arabic locally. new Libyan security official would abuse his power. "The Page 111 of 154 people who are now taking care of government are patriots and He also kept up with events in Libya and volunteered at heroes," said Amin Belhaj, a member of the NTC's security Amnesty International, where he served as an expert on North committee who supports electronic surveillance. "They are Africa from 2004 until the end of last year, according to a devoted to changing the country for the better." Included on spokeswoman for the nonprofit. She described Mr. Hasi as a Mr. Belhaj's list of heroes is Mr. Hasi. long-standing human-rights activist. Mr. Hasi, originally from the Libyan town of Shahat, is known Eventually, Mr. Hasi settled on teaching Arabic continuing- for his onetime membership in the National Front for the education classes at Atlanta-based Emory University. In 2009 Salvation of Libya, a 1980s-era anti-Gadhafi group that had ties he started an Arabic program at North Georgia College & State to the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a book by Bob University, one of the U.S.'s six senior military colleges. Most Woodward on CIA history. In 1984, the group tried and failed students he taught were military cadets. to assassinate Gadhafi. Some of the members, including Mr. "He was a very regal, respectful, calm presence who really had Hasi, moved to the U.S. a knack for teaching," said D. Brian Mann, department head for foreign languages at North Georgia. Mr. Mann said some students "were practically in tears to see him go," but they understood his motivation. "Obviously he had this on his mind for 30 years." Within the Libyan-American expatriate community, Mr. Hasi is known as a devout Muslim. He wrote theological commentary for a popular Cairo-based online Islamic forum for English-speaking Muslims. Queries he answered range from the esoteric—such as "Was Eve made of the rib of Adam?"—to those of a political nature. In a spring 2003 post discussing what Islamic law said about the treatment of U.S. soldiers taken hostage in Iraq, he wrote that mistreatment was forbidden. "It is safe to say that if any prisoner of war was mistreated, as revenge or for any other reason, then he/she was treated against the guidelines of Islam on this particular issue," his post said. Edu Bayer for The Wall Street Journal Mr. Mann says Mr. Hasi requested a leave of absence and left Exterior of Tripoli's main Internet surveillance and security office around the time for Libya, for the first time in years, around early September of Gadhafi's fall last year. 2011. Around that time, rebels had ousted Gadhafi from From 1997 to 2000, Mr. Hasi worked as an assistant manager Tripoli. Mr. Hasi told his boss he wanted to see his sick mother at a soccer-equipment store in Roswell, Ga., according to a and aid his brothers who were fighting in the uprising. résumé he posted on his website. He later opened a flier and brochure-making business in the Atlanta area, the website He didn't return to teaching. In December 2011, he called his says. boss to say he wouldn't be coming back to teach because he had been offered a high-level position in the Libyan government. In Page 112 of 154  February, Libya's 71-member parliamentary body voted Mr. That, it seems, is the question Saif Gaddafi's friend Mishana Hosseinioun wanted the ICC to answer when Hasi into the security job. she instructed barristers Geoffrey Nice and Rodney Dixon to apply for "leave to submit observations before He returned to the U.S. around that time and stopped in to see the Pre-Trial Chamber" of the ICC on matters concerning Mr. Mann. "He was still the same Salem, but he just carried Saif's treatment. The application argues that the ongoing himself a bit differently," Mr. Mann said. detention and interrogation of Saif Gaddafi, in circumstances where he has no access to lawyers or to In his interview in the Arab-language newspaper, Mr. Hasi friends and family, is a violation of his rights under the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights. credited his selection to the ideas he presented about reforming Libya's security agencies. "I hope God will help us to get rid of The Libyan government has insisted that Saif will be the image and the bad reputation the Libyan security services tried by Libyan judges, but the ICC and some human had in the world," he said in the published remarks. He rights organisations say the country is unable to give him a free and fair trial. And calls for Saif's handover to The described turning Libya's security apparatus "into civilized Hague have grown louder amidst reports the defendant services at the service of the country, based on the protection of has been physically attacked, kept in isolation, and the country and the citizens." denied contact with family and friends. What has been exposed is the tension between the values of law and justice on the one hand, and the cold reality of politics on the other. 58. Libya: Saif Gaddafi - the Human Rights of a Man Reviled The guiding principle Courtenay Griffiths QC, the British lawyer who defended Tagged: Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Libya, North former Liberian President Charles Taylor, is very clear Africa about what ought to be the guiding principle in any BY CHARLES OKWIR, 5 JULY 2012 attempt to resolve questions of 'rights vs. politics'. "I was taught at law school that whether you are a princess or  prostitute, you are treated equally before and in the eyes ANALYSIS of the law", he declared to resounding applause at a recent conference in London. Is Saif al Islam Gaddafi's right to a fair trial being upheld in Libya? This does not necessarily appear to be the case in Libya's post-revolution judicial system. Serious Saif Gaddafi has been in custody in Zintan since questions have been asked of Libya's ability to November 2011, when he was captured in the wake of prosecute and investigate effectively, and the issues the uprising which overthrew his father's four-decade- raised by the lawyers go to the heart of the debate about long rule. He has been implicated in the torturing and the independence, impartiality, and fairness of criminal killing Libyan civilians as well as financial corruption. The proceedings in Libya. This includes the fundamental Libyan government and the International Criminal Court issue of Saif's pre-trial rights and, in particular, whether (ICC) have since been at odds over where he should he has access to counsel and is being treated properly face prosecution. whilst in detention. In April, reports circulated widely that a deal to try him in In her application, Mishana Hosseinioun says that she Libya was "close to being agreed". However, following has been trying since January 2012 to get access to Saif the arrest of four ICC lawyers visiting him in detention on Gaddafi, but that she has not been able "even to make a suspicion of passing coded documents to him, the issue single phone call to him". This, Hosseinioun's lawyers looks far from resolution. After being held for four weeks, argue, "is an astonishing situation for a country whose they were released on July 2. But this has brought a authorities claim in their filings [at the ICC] to be wider debate to the fore: Does Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's adhering to international standards". deserve to have his basic human rights upheld? Page 113 of 154 When Mishana's lawyers contacted the Zintan The Libyan authorities dismiss such allegations as authorities, they were told that the prosecutor-general of "irresponsible and patently false", and claim "no Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) needs evidence has been tendered to support them". In their to provide written permission for any visit or contact with submissions however, Mishana's lawyers insist that their Saif Gaddafi to be allowed. In his filings at the ICC client "could provide evidence which the Libyan however, the prosecutor-general is reported to have said authorities claim does not exist". something completely different by laying the blame on the Zintan authorities for, as he put it, "not co-operating All these things could suggest one of two things, both of to facilitate access to Mr Gaddafi". which the NTC is no doubt keen to distance itself from. First, that it is presiding over a dysfunctional Mishana's application for leave to submit observations to government, and second, that it has a "flexible attitude" the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber was also accompanied by a toward the strict observance of human rights. separate annex detailing the steps - all thirty two of them - she took in trying and failing to get access to Saif. One Charles Okwir is a Ugandan journalist, writer and of the most telling of these was a call to the Libyan political analyst currently based in the UK. He is the embassy in London by her lawyers to establish whether author of Portrait of a Despot and is on attachment with their client's messages to the Libyan prosecutor-general, Think Africa Press. Follow him on twitter at @COkwir. attorney-general, and justice minister had been received. In response, Ms Salwa, an official at the embassy, said they had "heard nothing back". When asked if there was Read the original of this report on the ThinkAfricaPress any other way to contact the prosecutor-general, or site. indeed any other government official, Ms Salwa said this information "is not for you". 59. Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC) London to Tripoli via Addis Ababa Another route Hosseinioun took was to contact the 60. Libya: Ensure Due Process for African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Detained Ex-Prime Minister Addis Ababa and request that matters concerning Saif 6 JULY 2012 Gaddafi's human rights be heard by the African Court of Human Rights. The Commission subsequently asked the PRESS RELEASE Libyan authorities to submit their response on the issue of upholding Saif Gaddafi's rights. No direct response Tripoli — The Libyan authorities have yet to bring former from the Libyan authorities was received. prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi before a judge or inform him of the charges against him though he was However, in their admissibility application at the ICC, extradited from Tunisia on June 24, 2012, Human Rights Libyan authorities maintained that Saif Gaddafi has been Watch said today after visiting al-Mahmoudi in his prison able "to receive visits from NGOs and family members". cell in Tripoli. Al-Mahmoudi said that he had not suffered Louis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC's Chief Prosecutor at any abuse during his detention in Libya, but that he had the time, also told the UN Security Council that Saif had been physically abused in detention in Tunisia. "received visits from the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], NGOs and family members". Providing access to visit al-Mahmoudi was a positive move, but Libyan authorities should ensure that al- Mishana, however, disputes all that, insisting in her Mahmoudi is granted all his rights as a suspect, Human application to submit observations to the ICC's Pre-Trial Rights Watch said. He should promptly be brought Chamber that to the best of her knowledge, "no access before a judge to determine the basis for his detention to family has been granted and that the ICRC has not and to be informed of the charges against him. The had any visits since its one visit back in November Tunisian authorities should ensure a prompt and 2011". transparent investigation into his allegations of abuse in that country, Human Rights Watch said. There are also disputes over allegations that Saif Gaddafi may be suffering physical abuse in detention. Page 114 of 154 "Tunisia extradited al-Mahmoudi after receiving The prison where al-Mahmoudi is held is run by the assurances that Libya would not mistreat him," said Eric judicial police. Human Rights Watch was taken on a tour Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director of the premises by the prison director, who said that al- at Human Rights Watch. "It is now up to Libya to keep its Mahmoudi was being kept separately from the other word to respect al-Mahmoudi's rights, both for him and inmates. During this tour, Human Rights Watch saw a to show its good intentions toward the 7,000 other clinic with medical staff, as well as a small courtyard that people detained across Libya by various authorities." the director said prisoners can use when let out of their cells. Al-Mahmoudi is being kept in a prison block on his The Libyan General Prosecutor's Office needs to make own, which includes four cells adjacent to a common sure that al-Mahmoudi and all other detainees get a fair area for recreation as well as separate sanitary facilities trial and due process, Human Rights Watch said. in the same block. Al-Mahmoudi, Gaddafi's prime minister from 2006 to Al-Mahmoudi told Human Rights Watch that while he 2011, fled Libya in September 2011. The Tunisian was held in the Mornaguia prison in Tunis, guards authorities arrested him that month for illegal entry. threatened him and beat him with sticks, boots, and a Tunisia's government was split over whether to extradite plastic whip. He also said Tunisian authorities did not him to Libya, with interim President Moncef Marzouki allow him to meet with his lawyer, prompting him to contending that Tunisia should not extradite al- begin a hunger strike. Mahmoudi because he would be at risk of torture in Libya. However, interim Prime Minister Hamadi Jbali One of al-Mahmoudi's lawyers in Tunisia confirmed to said Libya had promised that al-Mahmoudi would not be Human Rights Watch that lawyers had been unable to mistreated and, on June 24, Tunisian authorities flew al- talk with him in prison during one week at the end of Mahmoudi to Libya, where he was immediately placed in May. custody. Al-Mahmoudi told Human Rights Watch that Tunisian Human Rights Watch visited al-Mahmoudi on July 3 in officials told him on June 24 that he was being taken to the prison in Tripoli where he and eight other former receive medical care, but that instead he was put on a Gaddafi officials, including former head of foreign Tripoli-bound plane. On the plane, "The chief of staff of intelligence Abu Zaid Dorda, are being held. Human the Libyan Army, General Youssef al-Mangoush, was Rights Watch spent about 30 minutes speaking with the waiting for me and he reassured me that I would be well former prime minister in what appeared to be full treated and not harmed," al-Mahmoudi said. confidentiality, in an office in the prison. Upon his arrival in Tripoli, he said, authorities sent him Al-Mahmoudi expressed no complaints with the facility for a medical examination. Then investigators from the where he is now detained. "I am afraid to be subjected to General Prosecutor's Office interrogated him, he said. ill-treatment by random people and militias," al- He has not yet been informed of the charges he faces, Mahmoudi said. "But I feel safe in this facility." though, or been brought before a judge who can review the lawfulness of his detention. He added that upon his arrival, he spoke by phone with Mustafa Abdeljalil, chairman of Libya's ruling National Al-Mahmoudi said he asked for a lawyer during the Transitional Council. "I was intimidated at the time and investigation phase, which began shortly after he arrived concerned that something could happen to me, but he in Libya. Authorities offered to assign him counsel, but reassured me that I was now with my own people and he said he preferred to appoint his own. His family was would be well received," al-Mahmoudi told Human selecting a lawyer, he said. Rights Watch. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Human Rights Watch was not in a position to assess (ICCPR), ratified by Libya in 1970, states that anyone whether al-Mahmoudi felt he could speak freely and facing criminal charges has the right "to be informed honestly to its representative about his treatment at the promptly and in detail in a language which he hands of Libyan and Tunisian authorities. understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him." The ICCPR also requires Libya to ensure that anyone detained is brought promptly before a judge Page 115 of 154 or equivalent. The right to judicial review of all detainees BENGHAZI, Libya — The first election in more without delay is non-derogable. than four decades was supposed to forge a new Human Rights Watch called on the general prosecutor's Libya but threatens instead to tear it apart. office to ensure al-Mahmoudi and other detainees get Multimedia their full due process rights and subsequently a fair trial. Human Rights Watch also calls on the Tunisian authorities to investigate the allegations of ill-treatment at the hands of the prison authorities, and to punish anyone found to have abused or ordered abuse. "For Libyans to achieve justice, the Libyan authorities need to ensure that the rule of law is respected and Slide Show detainees are granted their full due process rights," Goldstein said. In Libya, a Divided Nation Prepares to Vote 61. Before Vote, Old Rivalries Threaten Fresh Start in Libya Enlarge This Image Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A Libyan extinguished a fire at a warehouse in Ajdabiya that was used to store material like ballots for Saturday’s election. More Photos » Protesters angry at the distribution of seats in the congress shot down a Libyan Air Force helicopter delivering ballots here on Friday, killing an election official, the United Nations said. Tomas Munita for The New York Times Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood chanted slogans on In Tripoli, a militia member threatened an Thursday at Martyrs’ Square, in the center of Tripoli, two days international monitor with a knife in the street before the elections in Libya. More Photos » while a brigade of other fighters controlled a By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK hotel housing the main observation teams. Published: July 6, 2012 Farther west, in Bani Walid, the last bastion of  support for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, local officials were vowing armed resistance if the Page 116 of 154 interim government tried to send soldiers or an election for a national congress that would police officers to protect the polls. govern the country for 18 months while it also drafted a new constitution. Electing the same Libya has been riven for decades by recurring body to govern and draft a constitution was battles among regions and tribes, each vying for a considered the best practice, because it would cut of the oil wealth and other privileges. reduce the possibility that some temporary external authority would attempt to influence the Many here still hope that the election of a new constitutional debate. national congress, scheduled for Saturday, will offer a more peaceful way to resolve differences But faced with mounting protests over the and divvy up the spoils without the iron fist or regional distribution of the congress’s 200 seats outstretched palms of the Qaddafi government. — 100 for the west around Tripoli, 60 for the less populous east around Benghazi and 40 for the And if Libya succeeds in building a new southern desert region — the transitional council democracy, it will become not only a rarity in the has chipped away at its initial plan in a vain Arab world, but also unique among the major oil attempt to placate the unrest. exporters of the developing world. First, the council changed its plan so that the But even before the voters head to the polls, the national congress would not draft the forces of tribal and regional rivalry that have constitution itself, but would instead pick a 60- driven Libyan politics for more than half a person body, with 20 members from each region, century are endangering the dream of a fresh to write a new charter. start. In every neighborhood or town in the country, politicians say, residents complain that Then, on Thursday, in its last meeting before the they were “marginalized” for decades under election, the council stripped the proposed Colonel Qaddafi and deprived of their share of congress of any role in drafting the constitution, Libya’s wealth. And from the revolution’s drastically changing the function of the chamber birthplace here in Benghazi to Colonel Qaddafi’s for which candidates were running. Instead, the last citadel in Bani Walid, many discontents now council decreed that there would be a second say that they fear new neglect under a more public vote to choose the members of the 60- democratic Libya. person constitutional panel. So the original 200- member congress would be responsible mainly “Politics in Libya has been all about patronage,” for forming a new transitional government to run said Diederik Vandewalle, a Libya scholar at the country for the next 18 months, when a new Dartmouth College visiting Tripoli for the vote, constitution is expected to be in place and yet “and it is only going to intensify after the another round of elections held. election.” The concession to regional equality also did not The weak, self-appointed Transitional National stop the increasingly violent protests against the Council that has tried to govern Libya since the election system. On Thursday, an attack on an fall of Colonel Qaddafi initially promised to hold election office in the eastern town of Ajdabiya Page 117 of 154 destroyed so many ballots that people there may tried to defect, but Amnesty uncovered a video of the be unable to vote. Protesters had already stormed same men alive and being aggressively interrogated by the rebels, who most likely shot the soldiers themselves. election facilities in Benghazi and Tobruk, destroying computers and burning piles of Last week Amnesty produced a devastating report – ballots. "Libya: Rule of law or rule of militias?" – based on meticulous and lengthy investigations, portraying Libya as a country where violent and predatory militia gangs have become the real power in the land. They jail, torture and kill individuals and persecute whole communities that oppose them now, did so in the past, or simply get in their way. A few actions by these out-of control PATRICK COCKBURN militiamen have gained publicity, such as taking over Tripoli airport, shooting up the convoy of the British Sunday 8 July 2012 ambassador in Benghazi, and arresting staff members of the International Criminal Court. 62. Patrick Cockburn: Libyans have voted, but will the new rulers be able to curb But the widespread arbitrary detention and torture of violent militias? people picked up at checkpoint by the thuwwar World View: The armed groups who helped depose (revolutionaries) is not publicised because the Libyan Gaddafi are now committing human rights abuses of government wants to play them down, or people are their own, Amnesty warns frightened of criticising the perpetrators and becoming targets. Libyans voted in their first democratic election Take the case of Hasna Shaeeb, a 31-year-old woman yesterday to choose an interim national assembly to abducted from her Tripoli home last October by men in rule the country after the overthrow of Mu'ammer military dress and taken to the former Islamic Endowment Office in the capital. She was accused of Gaddafi. International interest in this crucial being a pro-Gaddafi loyalist and a sniper. She was forced election has been sparse compared to the wall-to- to sit in a chair with her hands handcuffed behind her wall coverage by the foreign media during the back and was given electric shocks to her right leg, eight-month war. private parts, and head. Guards threatened to bring her Throughout the Libyan crisis, human rights mother to the cell and rape her, and urine was poured organisations have on the whole performed better than over her. television, radio and print press in describing what was After she was freed from the chair, her torturers could happening in Libya. Too many journalists and media not open her handcuffs with a key so they shot them off outlets decided early on that Gaddafi's forces were the her, fragments of metal cutting into her flesh. On being black hats and the insurgents the white hats. They released after three days, Ms Shaeeb had a doctor pumped out anti-Gaddafi atrocity stories, often without confirm her injuries and complained to the authorities checking the facts, such as a supposed campaign of mass about what had happened to her. They did nothing, but rape by government troops. Investigations by Amnesty she received a threatening phone call from the International, Human Rights Watch and a United militiaman who first arrested her and shots were fired at Nations team discovered no evidence for this, but their her house. findings were largely ignored by the media. The insurgents claimed that they had found the bodies of Ms Shaeeb's story is uncommon only in that she made an government troops executed by their own side when they official complaint which many others are too frightened Page 118 of 154 to do. They have reasons for their fear. The government south in Africa, as well as clashes between rival tribes estimates that it holds 3,000 detainees and the militias a and communities leaving hundreds dead. further 4,000. The latter prisoners are almost invariably Will a new government legitimised by the ballot box be tortured to extract confessions. The Amnesty report says able to rein in the militias and re-establish law and "common methods of torture reported to the order? Or will Libya become like Lebanon during the organisation include suspension in contorted positions civil war, when militias who had begun as defenders of and prolonged beatings with various objects including their local community swiftly turned into gangsters metal bars and chains, electric cables, wooden sticks, running protection rackets? An advantage in Libya is plastic hoses, water pipes, rifle-butts; and electric that the population is almost entirely Sunni Muslim and shocks." Burning with cigarettes and hot metal is also there are not the same sectarian divisions as in Lebanon, used. Syria and Iraq. The Libyan government, unlike the Diana Eltahawy, the Amnesty researcher who carried out Lebanese, has substantial oil revenues and could buy off many of the interviews on which the report is based, says the militias or build the state security forces to the point that "things are not getting better" and, what makes where they can establish order. things worse, is that in May the ruling National It might happen. For all the black propaganda of the Transitional Council (NTC) passed a law giving recent war, Libya does not have the tradition of ferocious immunity to the "thuwwar" for any act they carry out in violence of Iraq and Syria. Gaddafi may have had a defence of the 17 February Revolution last year. The NTC demented personality cult and run a nasty police state, has also decreed that interrogations by militias, though but he never killed people on the scale of Saddam these very often involve torture, should carry legal Hussein or Hafez al-Assad. The legacy of hatred is not weight. Ms Eltahawy says there is "a climate of self- quite so bad in Libya as in other countries where militias censorship" within the post-Gaddafi government about have established their rule. abuses. The stranglehold of the militias in Libya has been Not everybody survives mistreatment. Amnesty has established without the outside world paying much detailed reports of 20 people tortured to death, the attention. Many Libyans still hope that the "thuwwar" reason for their detention often obscure. For instance, on are only flourishing in the interregnum between the 10 May Hisham Saleh Fitouri, 28, a member of al-Awfiya Gaddafi regime and a democratically elected successor militia, was arrested at a checkpoint after a government. Some still see the militiamen as heroes of confrontation with members of the Misrata militia. Two the revolution (and many did fight heroically), even weeks later, his family located him in Misrata morgue though it was Nato that destroyed the old regime. where an autopsy report said that he had died of natural causes. But when his body was brought to Tripoli, a A difficulty for foreign governments and media alike is second examination showed he had deep bruises all over that, having rejoiced in the overthrow of Gaddafi last it and that he had died of renal failure and internal year, they do not want bad news to besmirch their bleeding. victory. Ms Eltahawy says that part of the problem in getting people to pay attention to what is happening The militias have become used to meting out casual these days is that since the fall of Gaddafi "Libya is violence to anybody who annoys them. The middle-aged always portrayed as a success story". owner of a café on the beach in Tripoli complained about militiamen from Misrata firing their guns into the air in celebration. In retaliation, they beat him unconscious and destroyed his café with a rocket-propelled grenade. At the other end of the scale, there is the continuing persecution and violence against migrants from further Page 119 of 154  fought for him during in the Libyan war last year. When Gaddafi fell, the MLNA raised guns for their old cause - a state of their own. They are ethnic nationalists, embittered against colonialism. And as the MNLA gathered their forces, they formed an alliance with other militias in Northern Mali, all of them rebels with separate causes - but, crucially, a common enemy. 63. "My life with Gaddafi family" (Eng. and sub. in all languages) One of these groups, Ansar Eddine (Arabic for helpers of the faith), has been described by commentators as the Taliban of the Sahel. This is the group currently in control of the town of Timbuktu, a city that once was the hub of cultural and intellectual pursuits in Africa. The MNLA captured Timbuktu without a fight after the Malian army abandoned the city. A day later, however, Ansar Eddine drove out the MNLA, and has held the city ever since. Andrew Lebovich, a Washington DC-based researcher on the Sahel, says that although Ansar Eddine was formed late last year, its leader, Iyad Ag Ghali, has long been a power broker in northern Mali. Analysts say Ag Ghali's importance as a leader lies more in his kinship and tribal roles in northern Mali than in his new-found role as the leader of a so-called Islamist faction. Ag Gali has repeatedly fallen out with the MNLA, who accuse him of humiliating them. The MNLA, then, was drawn into conflict with Ag Ghali. Crucially, though - and unlike the MNLA - Ansar Eddine's Islamist credentials have increasingly been 64. West Africa: The Plunder of Timbuktu linked to the Al-Qaeda branch in west Africa BY KHADIJA PATEL, 5 JULY (AQIM)."Reports indicate that Ag Ghali has grown more 2012 religious in recent years, but initially Ansar Eddine appeared no different to the MNLA," Lebovich tells Daily Maverick. ANALYSIS Other analysts say Ag Ghali has emerged as a Northern Mali — 'Islamist rebels' have been blamed for a committed Salafist in recent years, and declared his campaign of plunder in Timbuktu this week, but who intention to put all Mali under Sharia law - angering the exactly are they and what do they want? MNLA, who disagree with his interpretation of what the identity of the new Malian state should be. Negotiations As momentum builds outside Mali to launch some kind between the two factions have been futile. What is of military intervention into rebel-held territory, the becoming clear is that Ansar Eddine does have stronger conflict in northern Mali has grown increasingly complex links with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb than in recent weeks. Even as reports of rampaging Islamists previously suspected. "There is a general belief that in Timbuktu proliferate our news bulletins, however, the much of the support lent to Ansar Eddine came from complexity of the conflict has been steadily ignored. AQIM," Lebovich says, noting that this includes weapons, money and ideological support. There is, It has been several months since rebel groups wrested however, very little credible information on the exact control of Northern Mali from government forces. One nature of the influence of AQIM on Ansar Eddine. group, a Tuareg tribal militia known as MLNA, was armed by former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Page 120 of 154 Ag Ghali's embrace of the Salafi brand of Islam is 65. Islam has no link with these thugs significant to understanding Ansar Eddine's rampage on the heritage of Timbuktu in the last week. Salafists Islam has no link with these thugs believe that any innovation from the original version of  By Tariq A. Al Maeena | Special to Gulf News Islam, as practised in the Arabian Peninsula in the time  Published: 00:00 July 8, 2012 of Mohammad, is akin to polytheism - blasphemy. Now that Ansar Eddine has firm control over Timbuktu, they've started to purge the city of its religious relics and  destroy historic cultural sites deemed blasphemous. Great mosques and mausoleums to local saints - of unique architectural design - were erected in the 15th and 16th century, and the city is home to a long tradition of a local Sufism, which is an Islamic mystic tradition. It's little wonder, then, that this campaign has been compared to the Taliban's 2001 destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. As international condemnation of the destruction of United Nations world heritage sites in Timbuktu grows, so, too, do the calls for international intervention in northern Mali. Lebovich, however, is sceptical of the prospects of international intervention taking place, let alone succeeding. "Everyone knows that international intervention will be very difficult. This is one of the harshest climates in the world, infrastructure is poor,  Image Credit: Luis Vazquez/©Gulf News international interventional may not be favourably  received in Mali and then it's not clear what these groups actually want," he explains. There is a war of sorts going on today in Timbuktu in Mali, a West African country. It is a war against culture Attempts by regional body ECOWAS to negotiate with and civilisation. And those perpetuating it are a band of rebels in northern Mali have yielded nothing so far. As one negotiator put it, "We're in talks at the moment, but thugs and criminals who are operating under the cloak of obviously they're not going well because we want ‘Islamists’. different things." Rebels with separate causes defeated a common enemy, but now it remains to be seen which Since the 11th century, Timbuktu, an ancient Saharan cause will trump the other. trading depot for salt, gold and other resources, had developed into a renowned seat of Islamic learning and The rebel insurgency in northern Mali began as yet survived occupations by hordes of foreign invaders. By another expedition in the life and times of the Tuareg people to win sympathy from the world. the 12th century, Timbuktu had become a famous centre of Islamic learning, with three distinguished universities But while the MNLA will win some sympathy for being and more than 180 schools. victims of Ansar Eddine, in the end, the prospect of broad international support for a Tuareg state is now in Many call it the golden age of Africa. This love for tatters, much like Timbuktu. knowledge and the arts that had brought Islam to DM medieval Europe in the Dark Ages and led to many great scholars and discoveries continued in this African city for several centuries as well. Books were not only written in Timbuktu, but were also imported and copied there. At Page 121 of 154 the time, there was an unparalleled book industry Criminal Court and a working group is working to this flourishing in this fabled city. The universities and private end.” libraries contained incomparable scholarly works. There has also been immediate condemnation from both In 1893, the French colonised Mali and Timbuktu came within and outside Mali. Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a under French control until Mali regained her professor at New York’s Columbia University and an independence in 1960. However, many manuscripts and expert on Islamic philosophy in Africa stated: “They are books that once were part of Timbuktu’s libraries were striking at the heart of what Timbuktu stands for. Mali plundered and can be found in French museums and and the world are losing a lot.” universities. Bouya Ould Sidi Mohammad in Timbuktu stated that the Article continues below historic city has long had Muslim roots. “Timbuktu was The country has been going through a period of an Islamic city since the 12th century, and we know what instability and lawlessness since a military coup sparked the religion says about the saints’ tombs. Contrary to fighting in March of this year. Much of the country is still what the Islamists or the Wahabis of Ansar Dine say, in grave turmoil, with an armed gang of thugs calling here in Timbuktu, the people don’t love the saints like themselves the Ansar Dine controlling much of the north God, but just seek the saints’ blessings because they of the country, where the city of Timbuktu is located. are our spiritual guides.” These thugs, who were on the fringes until the rebellion, Mahamadou Hima Dit Nourou who was among the tens took advantage of a power vacuum created by the coup of thousands Malian refugees who fled to neighbouring in the capital to seize ground in the north. Niger lamented: “I think this kind of madness of Ansar This band of terrorists has recently turned their guns and Dine is horrible. The entire place for history is in fanaticism against the historical shrines that had made Timbuktu, this is not Sharia. Even if you see what they the city of Timbuktu a beacon of learning through so did, the destruction in Timbuktu, maybe the mosque, the many centuries. They have used pick-axes, shovels, big mosque, the cemetery for person who died, they said hammers and guns to destroy earthen tombs and is no good — who tell them that? Who tell them it is not shrines of local saints in the desert city of Timbuktu, in the Quran? We never read that.” claiming that they are doing so to defend the purity of The International Criminal Court has already issued a their faith against idol worship. They are behind the statement calling the destruction of Timbuktu’s religious destruction of at least eight Timbuktu mausoleums and landmarks a potential war crime. “My message to those several tombs, centuries-old shrines in what is known as involved in these criminal acts is clear: stop the the ‘City of 333 Saints’. destruction of the religious buildings now,” said Fatou The group stated its intent to destroy historic sites in Bensouda, an ICC prosecutor. Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu before they implement The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), deplored strict Sharia law, while Mali’s government looks on the destruction of historical sites in Timbuktu by religious helplessly. “We’re going to destroy everything before we extremist groups, and said that the sites were part of the apply Sharia in this city,” said a spokesman for these rich Islamic heritage of Mali and should not be allowed to rebels. The government did condemn the destruction, be destroyed and put in harms way by bigoted extremist and stated that “The council of ministers has just elements. approved, in principle, the referral to the International That is exactly what these rebels are. Thugs, bigoted extremists, and power-mad opportunists who now want Page 122 of 154 to implement their brand of skewered faith in an launchers, this does not constitute much of an invasion force uncontrolled part of Mali. For having the gall to label themselves Islamists, they This is Bir Dufan, where over 1,000 men armed with tanks and heavy artillery were reported to have should be rounded up and put in front of an execution mustered for a potential assault on Bani Walid squad. No excuses. Islam has no links in relation to the following the capture of two journalists from Misrata acts of these thugs. last Sunday. — Tariq A. Al-Maeena is a Saudi socio-political With the deadline for the journalists’ release having commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. expired last night, this force was reported to have begun encircling Bani Walid in preparation for an 66. Bani Walid invasion force goes missing attack. as Libya Herald visits frontline at Bir “I can tell you we have no tanks and no artillery here”, Dufan the station’s commander, Hadi Al-Kabir, told the Libya By George Grant. Libya Herald Herald this afternoon. “This is a checkpoint just to keep this are safe, because some guys from Bani Bir Dufan, 13 July: Walid have kidnapped people around here. We have about 25 men, and that has been the same for the last three months.” With Bir Dufan the final checkpoint before Bani Walid, a number of guards warn us not to proceed any further: “If you go, they will shoot at your wheels and they will take you”, one says. “Three Misratans went down that road yesterday, and they have not come back.” We ask Kabir whether there are any more forces mustered down the road or moving to encircle Bani Walid. “No, there are not”, he says. “I have not received any information about whether the army will arrive, but it is not true that they have surrounded Bani Walid.” At Al-Soeh, another checkpoint some five kilometres back from Bir Dufan, two T-54 tanks can be seen sitting behind walls of sand, their gun-barrels pointing forwards down the road. We ask the men here if the Just 25 men and a dozen armoured 4x4s were found at Bir tanks are operational. “No, they are broken”, one Dufan, the site of a reported invasion force (Photo: George says. “They are for decoration.” Grant) In the 42-degree heat, 25 men sit under makeshift Such are the difficulties of reporting at present in tents at a checkpoint some 20 kilometres northeast of Libya. This evening, aLibya Herald source in close Bani Walid awaiting their orders. contact with the Misrata’s military commanders insisted the force did exist. Armed with Kalashnikovs and around a dozen flatbed 4x4s mounted with heavy machine-guns and rocket- “There is a big force”, he said. “It was at Bir Dufan, but last night they started to turn back to Misrata Page 123 of 154 because approval to move forwards from the Ministry In a statement issued on Friday, it said that it would of Defence did not come. Those men at Bir Dufan hold anyone who violated the order responsible for may not have been telling you the truth.” any consequences that might occur as a result, such as injuries or damage to property. Either way, what does seem certain is that this crisis remains far from over. If the report of the guards at Bir The decision has been condemned by the Libyan Dufan is true, then five Misratans are now being held Human Rights Observatory. It called it an attack on in Bani Walid, or worse. freedom, saying it denied Libyans their right of peaceful assembly. As such, it undermined one the This afternoon, a large demonstration was held in most important gains of the revolution. Misrata demanding the journalists’ release, and on Wednesday NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil Observatory president Nasser Hawari said that the warned that the state was ready “to take all necessary decision was a return to the Qaddafi era when measures” if Bani Walid did not release the men demonstrating was a crime. He called the order voluntarily. unconstitutional and demanded the NTC reverse it, stating that it went against the principles and values of As the rapid response to the capture of Tripoli the 17 February Revolution. airport by militiamen from Tarhouna recently demonstrated, the government retains the capacity to He also urged human rights organisations to deploy sizeable forces at short notice where condemn it. necessary. In spite of the widespread reports to the contrary, It is reported that strikes will also require ministry however, it does appear that there is no invasion permission, but the Libya Herald has been unable to force surrounding Bani Walid at present. verify this. It may well be that the government is happy to allow Human rights worse after Gaddafi such rumours to persist, if only to frighten Bani Walid By Mel Frykberg into releasing the captives without resort to force. Friday, 07.20.2012, 10:55pm With the roads in and out of the town now effectively TRIPOLI — "The human rights situation in Libya now closed, Bani Walid is increasingly isolated, with is far worse than under the late dictator Muammar reports of food and fuel shortages starting to emerge. Gaddafi," Nasser al-Hawary, researcher with the Libyan Observatory for Human Rights, told IPS. Negotiations with the town are ongoing, and the government currently looks set on finding a peaceful Hawary showed IPS testimonies from families whose resolution to the situation. loved ones have been beaten to death in the custody of the many militias that continue to control vast swathes of With just weeks to go before they hand power to the Libya. National Congress, Libya’s transitional leaders will be "At least 20 people have been beaten to death in militia acutely conscious of the dangers of an assault on custody since the revolution, and this is a conservative Bani Walid being one of their final acts of office. figure. The real figure is probably far higher," says Hawary, pointing to photos of bloodied bodies accompanying the testimonies. 67. Government bans unlicensed protests Hawary is no fan of the Gaddafi regime. The former Tripoli, 14 July: Libya Herald Salafist and political opponent of Gaddafi was imprisoned numerous times as a political dissident by The Ministry of the Interior has announced that no Gaddafi's secret police. Hawary emerged from his individuals, organisations or civil society groups will in periods of incarceration beaten and bloodied, but not future be allowed to hold demonstrations without broken. Far worse happened to his Islamist friends under permission from the ministry. the Gaddafi regime which was fiercely opposed to Islamic fundamentalism. Page 124 of 154  While security is an issue in Tripoli, the situation in the Hawary eventually escaped to Egypt where he remained provinces is worse. Unshaven, ragtag militia men until Libya's February 17 revolution in 2011 made it safe dressed in mismatching military fatigues often extort for him and other Islamists to return. money from people traveling through their checkpoints, particularly if they are foreign or black. Revenge attacks, killings and abductions against former Gaddafi supporters and against black men, who the rebels perceive as having worked as mercenaries for 68. Qaddafi intelligence officer Gaddafi during the war, continue well after the assassinated in Benghazi drive-by "liberation" of the country. shooting Several months ago Muhammad Dossah, 28, was By Michel Cousins Libya Herald abducted by armed militia men at a checkpoint in the northern city Misrata as he was driving his employer Tripoli, 29 July: Forrestor Oil Company's car from the city Ras al Amoud to the Tripoli. A senior Qaddafi-regime military intelligence official was assassinated in Benghazi yesterday in what is "I don't know if he is dead or alive. We haven' heard being described as a hit list killing. from him since he disappeared from the militia checkpoint and the police investigating his Suleiman Buzraidah was killed on Saturday disappearance say the trail has gone cold," his brother evening by a single shot fired from a white Chevrolet Hussam Dossah, 25, tells IPS. while he was going to Isha prayers near his home in the city’s Al-Leithi district. He was rushed to Benghazi The police managed to trace the car through several Medical Centre but died shortly afterwards. cities down the eastern side of Libya but there the trail ended. There has been no sighting of Muhammad since then, and his family has no idea what has happened to “It was a very professional killing”, said one Benghazi him. resident who lives nearby. “They were clearly waiting for him.” "He could have been abducted because he is black or because the gunmen wanted the car he was driving. We It is being reported that Buzraidah was number 12 on are Libyan but my father is from Chad," says Hussam. a death list drawn up by a supposedly Islamist vigilante group. The list is rumoured to contain 106 Hussam's story is one of many of abductions, random names of Qaddafi-era officials. Buzraidah was a killings, torture and robbery as militia men continue to colonel in the former regime but was said to have take the law into their hands. continued to work for the NTC. Despite the interim National Transitional Council's On Thursday, another Qaddafi regime official, (NTC) pledge to bring the more than 6,000 detainees currently in detention to trial or to release them, only Hameed Ali Kunduz, was assassinated in the city in a some have been freed while the atrocities committed by remote control car bombing. He had worked with the pro-revolutionary rebels have been overlooked. Internal Security Agency. He is believed to have been killed by the same shadowy group as killed Armed militias controlling the streets and enforcing their Buzraidah. version of law and order is a problem even in the major cities where the NTC has supposedly retaken control. Last month, Saleh Al-Warfali, another retired Qaddafi- era intelligence colonel, was assassinated in front of Gunfire punctuates the night regularly in Tripoli, and his home in the city. sometimes the day. "All the young men here have guns," former rebel fighter Suheil al Lagi tells IPS. "They are Meanwhile earlier today, Sunday, it was reported that accustomed to sorting out political differences and petty a group of unknown assailants, in 20 armed vehicles, squabbles this way, or they rob people using weapons. The high unemployment and financial hardship are threatened to attack the National Security aggravating the situation." Headquarters in the city’s Hawari area unless a number of prisoner were freed. Page 125 of 154 On Friday, bombs containing at least 40 kilos of explosives were found behind the Criminal At a Misrata checkpoint that this IPS correspondent Investigation Department building and the Police passed, a bearded militia man decided that foreigners would have to undergo Aids tests before they could have Patrol Department of Benghazi Directorate in Hawari. their travel documents returned. Only intervention by others prevented this. The bombs were defused by members of the specialized Department of Explosives. According to At a number of checkpoints in the Tobruk area, migrant one of the technicians involved in dismantling them, Egyptian laborers were forced to pay bribes of up to 30 the bombs were fitted with a car alarm system which dollars each by militiamen before their passports were could be easily set off by a remote signal. returned. The bombs were said to be strong enough to cause "We are aware of the problems facing our country and extensive damage to the building departments as well are trying to resolve the issues, says Hassan Issa, as surrounding structures including the houses member of the NTC from Ajdabia city. "It is not easy for us to bring all the groups under control at this point in opposite the Directorate. time," NTC member Abdel Karim Subeihi tells IPS. Also on Friday morning, a grenade was thrown at the north "This is not the new Libya we fought for and we may court in central Benghazi. No one was hurt. It is reported have to take up arms again if the corruption and greed that a Sudanese man has since been arrested in connection continue. This time against the new government," warns with the attack. al Lagi. The north court was extensively damaged in a triple 69. Gadhafi's son seeks travel ban waiver, bomb attack on 27 April. lawyer says By Nic Robertson, CNN The Buzraidah killing and the attacks are reported to have increased fears in the city that there will be more updated 10:46 AM EDT, Tue July 31, 2012 bloodshed. “People very nervous about it,” said Salah Benali who works for a UN agency in Benghazi. “They fear that it will start revenge attacks and that there will be more killings.” Trav eling from the Sallo um bord er cross ing with Egyp Rebels from Misrata clean their weapons at Bir Doufan checkpoint, about 70 km (43 miles) from Bani Walid July 12, 2012. t to REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal Tripo li Saadi Gadhafi, pictured in January 2010, is under a travel ban. involves crossing dozens of checkpoints manned by numerous militias, comprising local clans with divided STORY HIGHLIGHTS loyalties. Page 126 of 154  Saadi Gadhafi is under United Nations sanctions that bar When asked where Gadhafi would go, the lawyer him from international travel said: "He has certain destinations he like to go to."  He wants to leave Niger because he fears for his safety, his lawyer Nick Kaufman says He refused to elaborate.  The lawyer won't say where Saadi Gadhafi wants to go Gadhafi's brother Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, once seen as  Niger won't hand Gadhafi over to Libya, saying he won't their father's heir apparent, is in Libyan custody and is get a fair trial the subject of a tussle between Libya and the (CNN) -- Saadi Gadhafi, one of the late Libyan International Criminal Court, both of which want to put dictator Moammar Gadhafi's sons, has asked the him on trial. United Nations to let him travel outside the African Kaufman says he made the application to the U.N. nation of Niger, his lawyer says. Sanctions Committee for the one-time travel waiver Gadhafi is under a travel ban because of international about a month ago. He says that when he didn't get a sanctions imposed on Libya by the United Nations response in the customary five days, he followed up Security Council last year. and was told that no decision had been reached. The international police agency Interpol has also He was informed that a party or parties on the issued a "red notice" for him, calling for his arrest. sanctions panel "had placed the request on hold," he But he fears for his safety in Niger, his lawyer Nick said. Kaufman said. Saadi Gadhafi fled to Niger as his Kaufman says he fears the block is political. father's regime collapsed last year. He says he and his client are not entitled to know "There has been at least one assassination attempt," which country or countries on the Sanctions although Gadhafi is under government protection, Committee have placed a hold on the decision. Such Kaufman told CNN on Monday. They also fear that requests normally get a simple yes or no, he said. instability in nearby Mali could affect his safety. The 15 nations on the Security Council have First election since Gadhafi's ouster representatives on the sanctions panel. Foreign business returns to LibyaKaufman has applied to the A block placed by a nation is lifted only when that U.N. Sanctions Committee for a one-time waiver of nation's term on the Security Council expires. If one of Gadhafi's travel ban, Kaufman said. the permanent five council members has placed the hold, the block on the waiver request could last "He wants to leave," the lawyer told CNN. "I've made indefinitely. an application." Kaufman said Niger's minister of justice, Marou 70. 18 detainees freed by Supreme Amadou, said he did not object: "He told me he has Security Committee in Tripoli no problem with him [Saadi] leaving the country." By Nihal Zaroug. Libya wants Gadhafi handed over to face charges, but Niger has refused, saying Gadhafi will not get a fair Tripoli, 30 July: trial and his life could be in danger if he returns to his home country. Members of the Supreme Security Committee (SSC) That puts Gadhafi in "a bizarre situation," Kaufman freed 18 illegally detained individuals yesterday, after says: He is "under virtual house arrest and not free to a raid on the headquarters of the Saraya brigade in gallivant around the city" that he wants to leave for his Tripoli. According to a Libyan security official, the safety. detainees had been tortured. Kaufman says Justice Minister Amadou wants The SSC arrested a group of guards who held the Gadhafi gone as long as it is done legally. He said detainees. They have begun investigations into the Amadou was concerned that the International reasons why the 18 had been seized and held. Criminal Court would object to Gadhafi's travel, but the lawyer pointed out that the court currently has no Illegal detentions are all too common in the absence charges outstanding against Saadi Gadhafi. of a functioning judiciary and strong police force. Kaufman says Gadhafi is "grateful to Niger" but adds Human Rights Watch (HRW) has made several that it's in Niger's interests for Gadhafi to leave. appeals to the government to take ‘immediate steps Page 127 of 154 to assume custody of roughly 5,000 detainees still 71. Worrying signs of lawlessness in Libya held by militias’. Seven Iranian Red Crescent members were abducted in downtown Benghazi yesterday. Today HRW has said it expects the judicial police to bring to there were bomb blasts and a jail break. due process not only the detainees held by militias, By Dan Murphy, Staff writer / August 1, 2012 but also to the nearly 4,000 detainees currently in state custody. ‘’There is no place for detention outside of the rule of law in the new Libya. The newly elected National Conference needs to take a stand to end these practices, and to create a justice system that works”, Sarah Whitson, the HRW director for the Middle East and North Africa region, has said. Although some detainees have been released, charged or have had their “cases” brought before a judge to be sentenced or reviewed, these individuals represent a small group according to HRW. Since the  passing of Law 38 in May, those watchful of the detainee situation expected the powers granted to the People gather to inspect the damage to the Libyan intelligence Ministries of Interior and Defence to be used more building after a bomb explosion, in Benghazi, on Aug. 1. effectively and more often. However, the fact that the militias are well armed and can challange the Esam Al-Fetori/Reuters ministries has reduced the latters’ ability to act. A lot has gone right in Libya since the successful war Under the law, there was a deadline of 12 July for to topple the regime of Muammar Qaddafilast year. thuwar to refer “all supporters of the former regime” An election was finally held last month and the presently detained and the evidence against them to country's new political leaders have avoided open judicial authorities. That has passed. fighting for power that some feared would follow in the Law 38 does not define “whether arbitrary detention is wake of Mr. Qaddafi's ruinous time in power. a criminal offense, nor is it clear on the possible consequences of holding people outside of the law”. Meanwhile, elders in Mizdah on Sunday also Dan Murphy appealed to the NTC and the government put an end to such acts. Their call follows the seizure of two Dan Murphy, who has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, and members of the Mashasha tribe on Saturday at Tripoli more than a dozen other countries, writes and edits Backchannels. International Airport, reportedly by Zintani The focus? War and international relations, leaning toward things brigadesmen. Middle East. The elders were due to travel to Tripoli today to lobby the government to intervene. According to sources in The Christian Science Monitor Mizdah, this is the third instance of kidnapping of Weekly Digital Edition Mashasha members by Zintanis. But some of the militias who fought Qaddafi resemble little more than criminal gangs today. Generally Calls to Zintan officials have so far been unanswered. untouchable, they continue to swagger through Libya's towns and cities, demanding special treatment Page 128 of 154 as a reward for their role last year. Many of them are questioning them to determine whether their activities now technically integrated into the security services, and intentions aimed to spread the doctrine of Shiite but continue to operate with impunity. Islam," AFP quoted the security official as saying. Iran is a Shiite state, while Libya is The Associated Press reports that a bomb blast hit a overwhelmingly Sunni Arab. military intelligence building in Benghazi early this While it's probably safe to assume that a negotiated morning, and overnight a militia raided a local jail, release of the Iranians will eventually occur, as has releasing Salem al-Obeidi, who is accused of being happened with other abductions and arrests in the behind the murder of Abdel Fateh Younes outside of past, this is yet another black mark for the new Libya. Benghazi last summer. Mr. Younes was a longtime military enforcer for Qaddafi who defected to the A New Zealand-born documentary maker was rebellion. He was vying for its military leadership at arrested and held for three days last month after the time of his murder. interviewing Qaddafi loyalists from Tawergha who It hasn't been a good week for security in Benghazi, have been homeless since the end of the war. She Libya's second largest city and at the heart of the was accused of spying before being released and uprising. In the early hours yesterday, seven Iranian expelled from the country. An Australian lawyer members of that country's Red Crescent were seeking to represent Saif al-Islam, one of Qaddafi's kidnapped there. The Iranians were invited there for a sons, was detained for 26 days last month (also on conference to discuss coordinating aid efforts with allegations of "spying") before her eventual release. their Libyan counterparts and were kidnapped as they To be sure criminal behavior by militias has been an sought to return to the high-rise Tebesti Hotel where ongoing thorn in the side of the emerging order, rather much of the foreign press that covered the war based than the disaster that many feared. A militia seized themselves. Amnesty International writes: and briefly held the main airport in Benghazi in "At 1am on Tuesday, the delegation was intercepted February, for instance, but order was soon restored. on a road in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and But the steady drumbeat of problems is worrying. If it driven away by a group of unidentified armed men, isn't dealt with, "rat-a-tat-tat" can transform into who did not present an arrest warrant. The exact fate "boom." and whereabouts of the seven Iranian Red Crescent members remain unknown. Their Libyan driver was Follow Dan Murphy on Twitter. left untouched and allowed to go free... According to 72. David Blair (Libyan Red Crescent) General Secretary Abdulhamid David Blair is the Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Elmadani, efforts to approach all known security, Daily Telegraph. military and civilian bodies in Benghazi have not yet been successful in locating the Iranian delegation’s exact whereabouts or identifying their captors." Kidnapping that many people requires organization, advanced knowledge of their movements, and a place to hold the captives. Agence France-Presse reports, 73. Putin thinks Cameron conned him over citing an unnamed Libyan "security official," that the Libya. He won't allow that to happen group is being held for questioning by a militia. again with Syria "Members of the brigade holding the Iranians are By David Blair World Last updated: August 2nd, 2012 Page 129 of 154 54 Comments Comment on this article regime change that duly overthrew Gaddafi. What was billed as a humanitarian intervention ended up with a convenient outcome that favoured Western strategic interests. Russia’s then president, Dmitry Medvedev, was supremely naïve to have believed otherwise. Or at least that’s how Putin would see things. That makes him doubly determined to make sure that nothing similar takes place over Syria. Putin thinks that Russia was fooled once, and he will not allow that to happen again. Would anything lead him to reconsider? The only possibility I can imagine is that if events on the ground in Syria were to become even more awful, with the fighting escalating to the point Vladimir Putin, the newly restored president of where Assad’s downfall really was imminent. Then Russia, is visiting Britain for the first time in seven Russia would be confronted with the futility of trying to years. And he’s over here not primarily for reasons of stave off the absolutely inevitable. Unless and until diplomacy, but to see the Olympics. That alone tells that moment arrives, Putin will probably remain you something about the state of his relations with the implacable. West. Putin will meet David Cameron today and the 74. The forgotten millions facing two leaders will certainly discuss Syria. The Prime starvation in the slow-motion crisis of Minister will no doubt try to convince his guest that Africa's Sahel belt Russia’s continuing support for Bashar al-Assad’s By MICHAEL BURLEIGH PUBLISHED: 05:24 EST, 1 August 2012 | UPDATED: 07:37 EST, 3 August regime is futile and self-defeating, as well as being 2012 immoral. Many crises are so visually dramatic that people respond generously very quickly. Last year a massive earthquake hit But my bet is that this will continue to be the northeastern Japan, indirectly threatening a nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima. Floods in Pakistan triggered a diplomatic equivalent of banging your head against a similar response, as did the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010 or the huge Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. brick wall. Putin’s stance on Syria has ceased to be The Sahel belt of states is not well known. merely a calculation of national interest, based on the It runs beneath the Sahara from West Africa to the Red Sea and includes huge countries like Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad, value of arms exports to Assad and the importance of Burkina Faso and Senegal. Some of these are huge states, with Mauritania much bigger than France. his country as a base for Russian influence in the Middle East. Instead, you can sense how Russia’s position has become almost a matter of personal dignity for Putin. In blunt terms, he thinks the West cheated him over Libya last year. In his mind, Russia acted out of genuine humanitarian concern by allowing the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya. Then Britain and France turned this into a de facto campaign of Page 130 of 154  Islamists have also helped shut down one major source of potential relief. The activities of the Islamist terror organisation Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria have made it too dangerous for traders to take food from there to the neighbouring Sahel states. The main border crossing point near Maiduguri is Boko Haram's main base. Last but not least, we are talking about eight contiguous states. Moving food supplies around means endless border and customs checks, with every official seeking a bribe. This in itself slows down any attempt to bring speedy relief to people who are starving. The looming crisis in the Sahel may not have the visual impact of vast amounts of water sloshing around Japanese cities, but it is no less deadly for that as UNICEF is warning that 1.5 million children are facing starvation. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2182003/The-slow- Delicate: Millions of people in West Africa are facing starvation It is a delicate environment, dependent on a few months of motion-crisis-Africas-Sahel-belt.html#ixzz26KRwulFO monsoon-like rain between July and September, when warm air from equatorial Africa bumps into the dry desert climate to 75. Slow to turn on Qaddafi, Bani Walid the north. The region is susceptible to long-term drought; apparently the latest cycle began in the 1960s when rainfall now struggles in a post-revolution dropped off. Libya At present some 15 million people across the Sahel are on the brink of starvation. They have already cut back on food, while Bani Walid's resistance to joining the uprising withdrawing children from school, or sending older ones to against Muammar Qaddafi earned residents a work in such towns as there are. reputation for being regime loyalists, leaving them marginalized in the new Libya. By John Thorne, Correspondent / August 2, 2012 Upheaval: The Sahel states are facing an influx of refugees following the fighting in Libya This crisis only partly reflects what is undoubtedly a major regional drought or current global volatility in food prices because of drought (the US and Russia) or excess rainfall  (much of Europe). As is usual, many of the Sahel's problems are man-made. The war in Libya has led to the expulsion of many West African A Libyan militiaman from Zlitan guards a check point in the desert remittance men, who worked there and sent their families most near the border of Bani Walid in Misrata, Libya, July 15. Tensions of their wages, because Gaddafi's forces included large numbers of mercenaries lent by states like Chad. Black between the National Army and the former Qaddafi stronghold of Africans are not popular in the new Libya. Then there are internal displacements of refugees. Mali and Bani Walid have eased, following the release of kidnapped Mauritania have major problems with both armed Islamists and journalists Abdelkader Fusuk and Youssef Baadi. Tuareg separatists, all armed to the teeth with weapons purloined from Libya, from whom large numbers of people Manu Brabo/AP have fled. Niger has had to accommodate about 200,000 people fleeing strife torn Mali. Very few of the Sahel states can cope with their existing populations, never mind when these BANI WALID, LIBYA are suddenly augmented by hundreds of thousands of indigent Last September a young regime fighter named Faouzi refugees. was posted near a replica castle overlooking the Page 131 of 154 entrance to his hometown of Bani Walid when it In 1993, Warfalla officers in the Libyan suddenly crumpled in a cloud of dust. army attempted to stage a coup against Qaddafi. Several were executed. Today locals in Bani “It was NATO,” he says. “You couldn’t see the Walid voice bitterness toward fellow Libyans they say rockets, of course – only hear them.” abandoned them. Eight months earlier, he had been protesting in the street against Muammar Qaddafi. But within weeks, When revolt erupted in February 2011, Bani Walid’s he was fighting for Qaddafi’s regime. response was mixed. Faouzi joined an anti-Qaddafi His journey illustrates the complex loyalties in play protest that was assailed by regime supporters. during Libya’s civil war, and the challenge of reconciliation between those who backed revolution “I was on one side and my brother on the other,” says and those who stood against it. Today both sides Faouzi. “And we threw stones.” express feelings of betrayal. But days later, while visiting Tripoli, he says he saw A coalition of parties that won Libya's first post- police arresting people with bags of pills as Qaddafi Qaddafi elections last month has called on Libyans to accused rebels of taking drugs. He quickly joined a unite, and many in the country support that message. militia led by Qaddafi’s son, Saadi. But many also distrust those who backed Qaddafi during last year's civil war. If divisions persist, they Outside Benghazi, he was shocked to see the column could undermine or even reverse progress made of regime forces hit by an airstrike. It was enough to toward building a stable democracy. convince him to quit the militia on the spot and return home. Bani Walid is often seen as a hotbed of loyalist n Bani Walid, a local rebel militia brawled with locals sentiment. While that may exist, residents say tribal in May 2011, killing several before leaving town, says loyalty and a sense of persecution have motivated Meftah Jabarra, a law professor and member of a them the most. committee of elders and prominent citizens in Bani “People there are proud,” says Mustafa Fetouri, Walid. a Brussels-based Libyan academic who is from Bani After Qaddafi’s regime collapsed in last August, rebel Walid. “Trying to break it by force only made them militias encircled Bani Walid and NATO pummeled it more reluctant to support the revolution.” with air strikes amid reports that the ousted leader's 76. A history of defying control son, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, was hiding there. The town, situated about 75 miles southeast of Tripoli, As Mr. Jabarra sees it, “NATO opened the door for is small, but as the ancestral home of the large the revolutionaries rather than sticking to their Warfalla tribe, it is important. Two centuries ago, the mandate and protecting civilians.” English traveler George Lyon found modest houses At least once, he says, civilians were killed. Five hugging a wadi, or seasonal river, and impoverished members of the Jfara family died when bombs inhabitants. destroyed their two houses in August 2011. NATO “They were once a brave daring set of men, who said strikes in Bani Walid that day targeted command defied the government of Tripoli,” he wrote, describing centers and an ammunition store. Warfalla support for the Ottoman pasha’s son against his father. Once again, Faouzi took up arms – this time, he says, simply to defend his home. Page 132 of 154 “I used a Kalashnikov, RPG’s, a 14.5 mm machine- not. Otherwise, signs of allegiance are scarce in Bani gun – anything,” he says. “I don’t know if I actually hit Walid. anyone.” Both Qaddafi’s green flag and Libya’s new flag 77. A problematic reputation appear absent. So do references to Sept. 1, the day The city fell in October 2011. Many houses were in 1969 when Qaddafi seized power, and Feb. 17, the looted by rebel militiamen, says Jabarra, while the day the revolt against Qaddafi began in 2011. home-grown rebel May 28 Brigade showed a talent for bullying. Instead, on a wall beside a checkpoint on the road from Tripoli, "Our date is 93” is painted – a reference Last January their detention of local man Mohamed to the time when people in Bali Walid say they stood Shlebta for reasons that remain unclear sparked a alone. shoot-out, Jabarra says. Several people were killed Libya's Tribal Cleansing: Why is the World and the May 28 Brigade was run out of town. Media Silent Now? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse initially portrayed the incident as a pro-Qaddafi revolt, of the Middle East al- http://www. reinforcing Bani Walid’s loyalist image. monitor.com/pulse/original s/20 12/a l-m onitor/why-the-world- is- silent-about- That image already had roots, says Mr. Fetouri, the …via @AlMonitor th.html academic. Qaddafi brought many Warfalla into the 78. Three armed men killed in Libya as security services in efforts to win the tribe’s violence escalates support. Today, that reputation has made Bani Walid (Reuters) - Libyan security forces on a target, says Jabarra. Sunday killed three armed men suspected of being behind seven failed Over 400 residents, including his brother, Mabrouk, bomb plots, a state spokesman said, in have been detained by militias around the country, he the first incident of its kind since the fall says. Human Rights Watch said in a July report that of Muammar Gaddafi in October. militias hold around 5,000 detainees in ad-hoc jails. Several violent incidents have rocked Libya in recent “Everyone wanted change. But I wanted it through days and on Sunday the International Committee of the dialogue,” says Ahmed Abusalah, 26, who spent the Red Cross announced it was suspending its activity in war working at a café. “Reforms from Qaddafi would the country's second biggest city after one of its compounds was attacked with grenades and rockets. have been better than the weapons and militias we Security forces surprised the three armed men inside a have today.” farm near Aziziya, 25 miles south of Tripoli, in possession of the same kind of explosives used in seven Relations with interim authorities appear shaky at previous bomb plots, said Saleh Darhoub, spokesman of the National Transitional Council. best, with Tripoli’s influence over Bani Walid limited. After two journalists from Misurata were Five members of the security forces were wounded during the clash, Darhoub told reporters without giving detained last month in Bani Walid, men from the town details on the nature of the targets, which he described of Jadu – not the government – mediated their as "vital", or saying whether there were possible links between the armed men and recent explosions. release. The replica castle, built by Qaddafi as a vacation On Saturday, a car bomb exploded near the offices of the military police in Tripoli, three days after a strong home, is now a heap of broken concrete decorated explosion rocked military intelligence offices in the with graffiti. Some is pro-Qaddafi, some eastern city of Benghazi. Page 133 of 154 On Sunday, a security source blamed the car bombing, which slightly wounded a Tunisian national, on a personal vendetta. On Tuesday, seven Iranian relief workers were abducted in Benghazi by a group of armed men. The aid workers had just started a mission in the country as guests of the Libyan Red Crescent Association. (Reporting by Ali Shuaib; Writing by Souhail Karam; Editing by David Brunnstrom) 13. Red Cross attacked with rockets, grenades in Libya August 05, 2012|By Stephanie Nebehay and Ali Shuaib | Reuters GENEVA (Reuters) - Unknown assailants Interior Ministry communications coordinating the response attacked a compound of the International to the blasts were broadcast live in a public chat-room by Committee of the Red Cross in the Libyan port of self-declared Qaddafi loyalists. Misrata on Sunday with grenades and rockets, London, 19 August: Libya Herald forcing it to suspend its work there and in the eastern city of Benghazi, the agency said. Qaddafi loyalists have been recorded discussing this The ICRC said seven of its aid workers were morning’s car bomb attacks in Tripoli both before and inside their residence when it came under attack. after the explosions took place, suggesting prior No one was hurt, but damage to the building was knowledge of the events. extensive. The men, who remained anonymous, were using the 79. Exclusive – Interior Ministry public chat-room service Paltalk, a site previously popular with opponents of the Qaddafi regime during communications system hacked as last year’s revolution. Qaddafi loyalists overheard discussing Tripoli blasts The conversation was overheard by a Libyan living in By George Grant. London who frequently joins the chat-room to hear what Qaddafi loyalists are saying on various issues. Of significant concern to the authorities will be the revelation that the loyalists’ confirmation of the blasts was received directly through the Interior Ministry’s communications system, which appeared to have been hacked by one of the men last night. “It was extremely disturbing”, Mohammed Eljarh told the Libya Herald. “I was listening to them talking about the attacks before they actually happened. “One of them was saying, ‘Allah is the greatest; now we are going to target Tripoli’. Page 134 of 154 It is not known whether the men involved were discussing a possible fourth explosion, although the communicating from inside or outside of Libya at the place and timing are never confirmed. time of the blasts. It is understood that police did subsequently intercept “Initially I thought it was just their usual waffle, as they a fourth bomb on Al-Sreem street, near to the frequently like to talk about how they’re going to do Immigration Ministry. this or that, but when I heard reports that the attacks had actually happened, I thought my goodness, this is “From what I could hear, I do not think they were for real”. targeting the ministries”, Eljarh added. “Their targets seemed just to be streets, including civilians”. Eljarh says that it was at this point that he first suspected the men were listening in to the Interior This morning, Interior Ministry Under-Secretary Omar Ministry’s communications network. Al-Kadrawi offered his condolences to the victims of the attacks and pointed the finger of blame squarely “There was a live podcast of events on the ground, at Qaddafi loyalists. and you could hear radio communications from what appeared to be security officials reporting the blasts “This is the first Eid without Qaddafi and his regime, and then ordering their personnel to go to various and Qaddafi’s diehards are responsible for these locations”. attacks to disrupt the celebrations of Libyans during the festival and these holy days”, the under-secretary Listening devices can be purchased in Libya without said. much difficulty, and many Libyans are familiar with how to use them, making it possible to overhear “Qaddafi’s loyalists are resorting to hit-and-run tactics; phone calls and other wireless communications. It these are the cowardly acts we are facing now. would be assumed, however, that official However, I guarantee that this is all they can achieve communications would be more securely protected. and execute. We will not allow this to happen again”. After the attacks took place, the men in the Paltalk Reports are now emerging that one of the room are overheard celebrating the blasts. perpetrators has been captured and taken to hospital in Abu Salim, although this has not been confirmed. “We have done it, we have done it”, one person is heard reporting back to the room. The Interior Ministry has said that units have been deployed across Tripoli in an effort to prevent any Shortly afterwards, an administrator is heard to say further attacks. “all explosions are remotely controlled and executed. They can’t arrest us; these rats can’t arrest us.” This morning, checkpoints had also been erected around key locations such as the Prime Minister’s In reference to the targeting of civilians, another is office, and cars were being stopped and searched on heard to say “to hell”. a frequent basis. One individual who did identify himself in the room was Hamza Altohami, a prominent pro-Qaddafi journalist under the former regime. “He was celebrating the explosions with the others, but it did not sound like he was involved in planning the attacks”, Eljarh said. After the blast outside the Interior Ministry and the two on Omar Mukhtar street, another man is heard Page 135 of 154  80. Further bombs found in Tripoli * Libya has struggled to contain groups after revolution (Adds detail, background, quotes) By Ayman al-Sahli ZLITAN, Libya, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Ultra-conservative Islamists used bombs and a bulldozer to destroy the tomb of a 15th century Sufi scholar in the Libyan city of Zlitan, witnesses said on Saturday, the latest attack in the region on sites branded idolatrous by some sects. The attackers reduced the revered last resting place of Abdel Salam al-Asmar to rubble on Friday and also set fire to a historic library in a nearby mosque, ruining thousands of books, witnesses and a military official added. Five rounds of tank ammunition wired to a detonator were A Reuters journalist in Zlitan, about 160 km (90 miles) found on Omar Mukhtar street. west of the Libyan capital, said the mosque's dome Tripoli, 21 August: had collapsed and a minaret was pockmarked with holes. Yet more bombs have been found in Tripoli today, The attackers appeared to have removed the last according to the Supreme Security Council. This signs of the shrine with a bulldozer, which was comes two days after Sunday’s attack on the city that abandoned nearby. left two people dead. Libyan authorities have struggled to control a myriad of armed factions that have refused to give up their An explosive device was found this morning on Omar weapons following the revolution that ousted Mukhtar street, and an unspecified number of bombs Muammar Gaddafi last year. were found in a waste disposal unit in the city’s Abu The latest destruction followed two days of clashes Salim district. between tribal group in Zlitan which killed two people and injured 18, according to military council counts. Omar Mukhtar street, where one of the bombs was "The extremist Salafis took advantage (of the fact) found, was also the street where two of Sunday’s car that security officials were busy calming down the bombs were detonated; it consisted of five rounds of clashes and they desecrated the shrine," Zlitan tank ammunition wired to a detonator that could be military council official Omar Ali told Reuters, referring triggered remotely. to conservative Muslims who see many Sufi sites as idolatrous. Thirty-two men were arrested yesterday in connection Hardliners, emboldened and armed by the Arab with Sunday’s attack, they are believed to be Qaddafi Spring revolts, have targeted a number of sites loyalists. It is as yet unclear whether these incidents sacred to Islam's mystical Sufi tradition in Libya, are related. Egypt and Mali over the past year. The assaults recalled the 2001 dynamiting by the 81. UPDATE 1-Libya Islamists destroy Sufi Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved shrines, library-military into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012 Sufism is a mystical strain of Islam which includes /08/25/libya-islamists- hymns, chanting and dancing among its devotions. idUSL6E8JP1F720120825 Followers have built shrines to revered holy men and Sat Aug 25, 2012 8:30am EDT make pilgrimages to them. Even Gaddafi, with his * Hardliners have attacked Sufi sites ambivalent attitude to religion, did not try to interfere in Libya, Egypt, Mali in a practice deep-rooted in Libyan culture. Salafis believe Islam should keep to the simple, * Conservatives emboldened and armed by Arab ascetic form practiced by the Prophet Mohammed Spring revolts Page 136 of 154 and his disciples. Followers reject any later additions National Congress speaker Muhammed Magarief to the faith - including lavish tombs or grave markings. slammed the desecrations as “disgraceful acts.” A Facebook page titled "Together for the Removal of Magarief went as far as to suggest that there may the Abdel Salam al-Asmar Shrine" congratulated have been official collusion in the attacks, saying that supporters on the "successful removal of the Asmar those responsible “are unfortunately aligned with shrine, the largest sign of idolatry in Libya." It posted some in the Supreme Security Committee (SCC) and photographs and YouTube footage of the destruction. ex-revolutionaries.” The security committee is "We are distraught at the destruction of this historical responsible for organizing Libya’s armed forces. and spiritual place in Libya," Mohamed Salem, caretaker of the mosque, told Reuters. Abdel Al subsequently handed in his resignation while the positions of the other officials appear tenuous, Salem said he had to flee Zlitan weeks ago after an especially Jweili, whose appointment is widely increase of death threats against him from Salafis thought to have been part of a deal with a powerful threatening to destroy the shrine. (Writing By Hadeel militia group from the city of Zintan, 90 miles south of Al-Shalchi; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Tripoli. Jweili was formerly the head of Zintan’s military committee. 82. Top Libyan officials implicated in mosque desecrations The Zintan brigade captured Saif al Islam Gadhafi, the second son and former heir apparent of Moammar Gadhafi, in November and agreed only last week to allow him to be tried next month in Zintan in exchange for political favors, one of them reportedly being the appointment of Jweili. Sufis believe in a mystical brand of Islam that some conservative Muslims label heretical. The attacks on the shrines began early Friday, when ultraconservative Islamists used bombs and a bulldozer to level the tomb of a 15th-century Sufi scholar, Abdel Salam al Asmar, in the town of Zlitan, 100 miles east of Tripoli. The radicals also destroyed thousands of historical books when they burned a library in a nearby mosque to the ground. The tomb’s destruction followed fierce clashes between two of Zlitan’s heavily armed tribes that killed Bulldozers cleared what remained Monday of the Sidi Shaab several people. Three journalists who covered the Mosque in Tripoli. | Mel Frykberg/McClatchy Newspapers assault for a local TV station were arrested as By Mel Frykberg | McClatchy Newspapers security forces tried to impose a media blackout. TRIPOLI, Libya — Members of the Libyan As dawn broke Saturday, Islamists emboldened by government and its military have been implicated in the success of the Zlitan attack struck the Sidi Shaab the destruction by Islamists over the weekend of Mosque, which housed the shrine of the Sufi mystic of several mosques affiliated with the Sufi branch of the same name, opposite the Mahari Radisson Blu Islam, an indication that the government that replaced hotel and overlooking Tripoli harbour. Moammar Gadhafi after a months-long NATO bombing campaign is having difficulty controlling its Members of the security forces stood guard as extremist elements. militants, some of them members of the Supreme Security Committee, used heavy equipment to smash On Sunday, the ruling General National Congress the shrine and then a bulldozer to raze the mosque. summoned Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel Al, Defense Police at the scene failed to intervene but enforced Minister Osama Jweili and several other military and the blocking of the road that leads to the mosque and intelligence officers for questioning after the Sufi kept journalists from filming or taking pictures. shrines were attacked Friday and Saturday. General Page 137 of 154 A moderate imam who tried to reason with the 83. Orly Weinerman, Saif Gaddafi's Israeli extremists was beaten and taken away, and a group Lover, Pleads For Help From Tony of Libyans protesting the destruction was violently confronted. Reports allege that Salafist clerics in Blair Saudi Arabia have instructed Libya’s Salafists to Posted: 09/04/2012 12:50 pm Updated: 09/04/2012 12:51 pm destroy religious shrines, which they consider objects of idolatry. The latest desecration of religious sites is a repeat of attacks by Islamists on Sufi shrines in Libya, Mali and Egypt during the last year. It brings back memories of the Taliban’s 2001 destruction of sixth-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. Militias have thwarted numerous other attempts to desecrate Sufi shrines in Libya. Armed committees went on high alert Sunday night in Janzour, on the outskirts of Tripoli, to protect shrines there from what The playboy son of Muammar Gaddafi, on trial in was thought to be an imminent attack. Libya for killing protestors in the uprising that ended his father's regime, appears to have an The developments highlight the ideological unusual advocate pleading on his behalf: an differences that fracture the government and the competing loyalties that reign in the security forces. Israeli model and soap opera actress who now Those divided interests have made it impossible for admits they were lovers. the government to unite the hundreds of militias that Orly Weinerman, the long-rumored girlfriend of fought to topple Gadhafi under one central command and have proved a major impediment to establishing Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, on Sunday dropped her security, perhaps Libya’s No. 1 problem. One of the previous denials, according to the British tabloid justifications for the security forces’ failure to the Daily Mail, and said that the two shared a intervene in the desecration of the shrines was the fear of more violence. six-year relationship that ended in 2011 when Libya's civil war broke out and he went on the The involvement of Salafist members of the security lam. The 41-year-old Weinerman has steadfastly forces in the shrine attacks follows admissions by the denied the romance since it was first reported by General National Congress that Gadhafi loyalists have infiltrated its military units. Germany’s Der Spiegel in 2006, Israeli newspaper Haaretz adds. Libya’s intelligence service recently arrested 30 pro- But with Saif facing a possible death penalty, Gadhafi soldiers from the Suq al Ahad military base in Weinerman reportedly broke her silence and Tripoli after it was alleged that they were involved in the recent string of car bombings in Tripoli. appealed to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene. According to the Sunday A shootout between security forces and the loyalists Times, the dictator's son previously described connected to the Suq al Ahad military barracks took Blair as a personal friend of the family and place last week in the town of Tarhouna, 50 miles southeast of Tripoli, leaving several dead and more claimed that the former PM acted as a consultant wounded. After the confrontation, the Libyan military to the Libyan Investment Authority -- something confiscated 100 tanks and 30 anti-aircraft rockets. Blair has always denied. Frykberg is a McClatchy special correspondent. "The two are old friends – it is time that Mr. Blair returned some loyalty," Weinerman said, Read more here: according to the Daily Mail, noting that the http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/27/163686/top- British politician had helped Saif while he was libyan-officials-implicated.html#storylink=cpy studying for a doctorate at the London School of Page 138 of 154 Economics. "Mr. Blair is a man of God – as a Christian he has a moral duty to help a friend in 84. Heritage of Islam faces threat from need." within She added, "Killing him will achieve absolutely  nothing, beyond punishing him for who his LINDSEY HILSUM father was. Absolutely everything must be done to save him." The Irish Times - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 AFTER THE Libyan revolution last year I spent several Human rights groups have condemned the evenings in an open-air cafe next to the al-Sha’ab al-Dahmani Libyan judicial proceedings as rigged and efforts mosque in Tripoli, drinking hot sweet tea with almonds and by the International Criminal Court to have Saif talking politics with Libyan friends. Gaddafi extradited to the Hague have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, three Libyan judges in the Col Muammar Gadafy had fallen and for the first time in their mountain town of Zintan, where he was lives they felt free. Now their liberty is under threat. At the end of August, a group of armed, bearded men seized a bulldozer captured, will soon open his trial, which is and destroyed part of the mosque because it contains the expected to last six months. graves of 16th-century Sufi saints. Such shrines, they said, are Concerned about his fate there, the Israeli actress idolatrous. decided to open up about the “discreet” affair. She told the Mail it began in London in April I don’t suppose the men in the bulldozer had heard of William 2005 when the two were introduced by mutual Dowsing. He was a Christian, not a Muslim, English, not Libyan, and he lived in the 17th century, not the 21st. friends. But as “commissioner for the destruction of monuments of Weinerman said they had talked of marriage but idolatry and superstition” he was similarly determined to the relationship was fraught with tension over obliterate objects venerated by a different sect of his own religion and background. Not only is she Jewish religion. and he Muslim, but Saif's father was a vocal critic of Israel. Early last year, Muammar It was during the English civil war when the Puritans, led by Gaddafi called on Palestinians to rise up against Oliver Cromwell, set about destroying crosses, statues of the Virgin Mary and all emblems of Catholicism (as well as the Jewish state to capitalize on the Arab Spring wreaking terror across Ireland – but that’s another story). uprisings, Reuters explains. Shortly after, protests erupted in his own country and “We pulled down two mighty great angells, with wings, and eventually led to his downfall and violent death. divers other angells . . . and about a hundred chirubims and Despite all that, the actress said she considered angells,” wrote Dowsing after leading his henchmen into converting to Islam but her parents fervently Peterhouse college chapel in Cambridge in December 1643. Countless works of art were lost to history. opposed. The Israeli press also attacked her after the Der Spiegel piece. Today’s Puritans are the Salafists, who follow the strict The Times of Israel reported that Weinerman Wahhabi form of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia, and equate late Monday wrote on her Facebook page, that mystical Sufism with black magic. “for a long time I have had trouble falling asleep at night, revealing my anxiety among good They are not restricting themselves to Libya. I have just returned from Mali, where Salafists, led by al-Qaeda in the friends and between the living room walls. But Maghreb, have taken control of the north of the country. now, with injustice displayed proudly on the world stage, I challenge you to lend me a hand In July they demolished Sufi shrines in Timbuktu with pickaxes and save another victim from hatred, prejudice and mallets shouting “Allahu akbar” – “God is great”. The and moral corruption.” shrines, which date back to the 15th and 16th century when Page 139 of 154 Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning, are made of mud, stating that “all monuments of idolatry and superstition should but residents of the fabled city rebuild them after each rainy be removed and abolished”. season and still pray to the Sufi saints whose remains lie inside. The following year the ordinance was rescinded and Dowsing fell out of favour. Cromwell’s government was ousted and King What disturbs people in both countries is the weakness of their Charles took back the throne. The fear today is that much governments in the face of these assaults. In Mali, the army more of the priceless Islamic heritage of the Sahara will be ran away from a rebellion in the north. As politicians and destroyed before the governments in Mali and Libya install law soldiers squabble, the Islamists are on the march – last and order, and stop the latter-day Dowsings from doing their weekend, they took the small town of Douentza, south of worst. Timbuktu, on the road to the capital, Bamako. In Libya, uniformed men from the supreme security council, part of the ministry of interior, folded their arms and watched Lindsey Hilsum is international editor of Channel 4. She the destruction of the shrine. appearing at the Mountains to the Sea Festival at the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, at noon next Sunday. The interior minister, Fawzi Abdelali (who resigned and then reinstated himself), told journalists the attackers were too 85. Libyan Islamists and the security heavily armed, adding: “I can’t enter a losing battle to kill forces: Iraq 2.0? people over a grave.” By AYMENN JAWAD AL-TAMIMI Yet a grave is living history. 09/04/2012 22:20 The factionalization of the security forces is making the task of reigning in militias that “People who destroy the mausoleums are killing the people of remain independent of the central government Timbuktu,” said Samuel Sidibé, director of the National difficult. Museum of Mali. “Heritage is important because we all need to have the sense that we have an existence in the past.” The last time we witnessed this kind of religious vandalism was when the Taliban blew up the Buddhas at Bamiyan in 2001. Then, it mobilised world opinion. Now the appetite for international intervention is diminished. Nato already acted to help oust Gadafy – most Libyans I know think they can no longer rely on foreigners but must create their own strong institutions to resist the Islamists. When they elected a new parliament, they chose not religious extremists and iconoclasts but technocrats. Those who have been elected now have to act. PHOTO: REUTERS The Libyan elections in July that saw a poor Ironically, the rebellion in Mali was an unintended performance on the part of Islamist parties were consequence of the revolution in Libya. Gadafy armed the nomadic Tuareg, who fought on his behalf. After his death, justifiably hailed by many commentators, who saw hundreds of heavily armed Tuareg fighters returned to northern Libya as a notable exception to the theory of a Mali and started a rebellion. They teamed up with Islamists universal regional ascendancy for the Islamists. I who were already operating in the area and drove out the weak myself had wrongly predicted that the Islamists would government forces. Now the Tuareg fighters have also fled, gain the lion’s share of the votes. leaving al-Qaeda and its allies in control. However, the election results should not lead to William Dowsing was acting on the orders of the English complacency. parliament, which passed an ordinance on August 28th, 1643, Page 140 of 154 As Reuters reports, armed Islamists have demolished killings of dozens of “emos.” Even if the Iraqi Sufi shrines in Tripoli and Ziltan, with Libya’s Interior government wanted to do something about this string Minister Fawzi Abdel A’al affirming that he would not of killings, it would likely refrain from action, lest want the security forces to engage in an armed elements of the security forces should effectively be confrontation with these religious radicals. at war with each other. What’s more, the destruction of the shrine in Tripoli And so it is with Libya. Filling the ranks of the new took place by day in the open, and many of the security forces with their own partisans serves as a perpetrators are reportedly members of the very same useful alternative to elections for Islamists to wield security forces. influence and authority in the country. In this context, the remarks of the General National Congress In my article on the outcome of the Libyan elections- speaker Muhammad Magarief who – according to a “Rethinking Libya” (July 15 2012) – I suggested that McClatchy report – first alleged that those responsible looking at developments in Iraq post-2003 serves in for the acts of desecration of Sufi shrines “are many ways as a useful guide to understanding how unfortunately aligned with some in the Supreme things might pan out in Libya. Security Committee and exrevolutionaries.” IN THIS particular case, analogy with Iraq is helpful, THE SAME report also notes admissions by the for it is clear that the post-Gaddafi Libyan security General National Congress that Gaddafi loyalists forces are being built up in much the same way as the have infiltrated the security forces. This development new Iraqi security apparatus was created and provides an interesting contrast with the experience in developed following the fall of Saddam’s regime. Iraq where – in light of the de-Ba’athification process – loyalists to the prior regime have not been able to That is, facing a situation of chaos caused by join the Iraqi security forces. Instead, they have competing militias, the post-Gaddafi Libyan simply been waging an active insurgency campaign government has understandably pursued a policy of against the government, most recently under the trying to build up the new security forces as quickly as banner of the militant Naqshibandi movement that possible – an approach that was also adopted by the works with al-Qaida in Iraq. United States in Iraq. At the same time, it should not be concluded that the However, the major problem is that the focus is on Gaddafi loyalists are refraining from violence against quantity, not quality, and so political factions and the new order. Already they have been suspected of other ideologues can take advantage of the situation, committing a series of car bomb attacks in Tripoli, and flooding the ranks of the new security forces with their it is hardly implausible that they are behind such own partisans. operations. In Iraq, the result has been the large presence of Indeed, entry into the security forces could be viewed Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shi’a Islamist as a mere stepping-stone to acquire the necessary militiamen. weaponry and funding to begin an active insurgency campaign. The former means that Baghdad cannot risk an armed clash with the Kurds, as illustrated by a recent The factionalization of the security forces is not only stand-off between the two sides at the disputed Rabia allowing Islamist militants to get their way with bordercrossing town, located near the Syrian border. impunity, but is also making the task of reigning in The incident resulted in no actual armed conflict. militias that remain independent of the central government all the more difficult. Low-level violence – As for the Shi’a Islamists, their presence in the with perhaps dozens of casualties on a monthly basis security forces means that they can enforce their – looks set to dominate the Libyan scene for quite rules in many areas with impunity, something that was some time. On the other hand, this problem is unlikely apparent in the reports earlier this year of targeted to impede economic growth. As in Iraq, foreign Page 141 of 154 investment will be deterred by violence, but the intact occasions denied the existence of Amazigh in Libya. oil infrastructure that is unlikely to be dismantled will In addition, Gaddafi always stressed that Amazigh ensure that there is no shortage of money. tribes have totally disappeared and that their language Tamazight is insignificant, and criticized The writer is a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle radio broadcasts in Tamazight from countries like East Forum and a student at Brasenose College, Morocco. He also, accused Amazigh Congress of Oxford University. His website having western agenda to destabilize the region and is http://www.aymennjawad.org use the Amazigh issue as strategic and political bargaining chip. 86. Amazigh in Libya: From Gaddafi’s Denial to New Libya’s Crippling Silence More recently, regional and western media and literature have been harsh to the Amazigh culture and existence in North Africa, by using terms such as Recently the use of the term “Arab spring” intentionally mischaracterises the “Arab Maghreb” a term that used during the rise of demographics of the region. The Amazigh played an integral role Arab in thenationalism fight in the region. In addition, recently against Gaddafi, and helped topple his regime and their brigades the tookusepartofinthe theterm “Arab spring” intentionally liberation of Tripoli, argues Mohamed Eljarh. mischaracterises the demographics of the region. The Amazigh played an integral role in the fight against Gaddafi, and helped topple his regime and their brigades took part in the liberation of Tripoli. However, using labels such as the “Arab spring” disregards the Middle East Online valuable contribution of Amazigh in Libya during the revolution. Amazigh are indigenous inhabitants of Libya with a Also recently, Libya’s current foreign minister Ben cultural heritage that spans over thousands of years Khayal made unfortunate remarks supporting the in the North African country. Their existence in Libya name “The Arab Maghreb” which as stated earlier predates that of the Arabs by thousands of years. mischaracterises the actual demographics of the However, they have suffered from continuous region, and denies existences of other ethnic groups attempts to destroy their heritage, culture and identity like the Amazigh. throughout history. Libya has a young population, majority of which lived Historically the Amazigh survived different invasions under Gaddafi’s regime. Thus, many Libyans lacked to their land, and managed to protect their heritage, awareness about Amazigh heritage, culture and culture and identity. However, there seems to have identity. There is no surprise there as Gaddafi been clear decline in the distinct Amazigh culture and repeatedly and continuously denied the existence of identity post the Islamisation of North Africa, when Amazigh in Libya, and deprived them from their Arab took on the duty of spreading Islam to the rest of cultural and identity rights. the world. Following the Islamisation of North Africa and subsequently Libya, the Arabisation of the Many of the Amazigh I speak to fear that the rest in Amazigh inhabitants became more radical and there Libya does not value their contribution to revolution in Libya. The previous National Transitional Council was huge decline in the Amazigh identity and presence in Libya. Current estimation of the Amazigh made numerous promises vague promises that the population in Libya is in the region of 5-10% of the rights of the Amazigh would ensure and protected entire population. without guarantees or elaboration on the matter of any kind. Furthermore, Amazigh suffered greatly under Gaddafi’s regime, as he repeatedly and on many On numerous occasions, Amazigh in Libya demonstrated peacefully to make their voice heard to Page 142 of 154 Libya’s new political elite. However, politicians New Libya should view diversity and multiculturalism continuously choose to ignore the Amazigh calls and as source of strength and wealth, and celebrate it. demands. The issue is socially sensitive as to the Diversity will bring much needed tolerance, majority of Arabs in Libya, Amazigh culture and understanding and respect to the Libyan society. identity does not exist, just like Gaddafi propaganda machine made them believe. In addition, there is still Mohamed Eljarh is a UK based Libyan academic a sense of Arab nationalism amongst Libyans, which researcher and political, social development activist. make it harder for them to accept and acknowledge He is from the city of Tobruk in Eastern Libya. the existence and rights of the Amazigh in Libya. [m.eljarh@yahoo.co.uk]. Follow me on Twitter: @Eljarh The concept of diversity is an alien to Libya and Libyans. Some of my Arab friends view the acknowledgement of the Amazigh culture and identity Women in Libyan Public Life: A Seismic Shift in the constitution as a threat to the Arab authority | Libya Herald and control in the region, and subsequently threat to By Amena Raghei. the existence of Arab identity and culture. The Amazigh in Libya would like to see their culture, heritage and identity safeguarded and protected by the country’s constitution. This could prove to be hard to achieve, the furthest the constitution would possibly go in this regard is by clearing up some of the vague statements made by the previous National Transitional Council in its Constitutional Declaration. If the leaders of the new Libya are serious about supporting the Amazigh and their cause, and are ready to protect their rights, then the constitution should not fall short from naming Tamazight as one of the main languages in the country. In addition, clear and precise statements concerning the protection of the Amazigh culture, heritage and identity. Instead of official silence toward the issue, Libyan Defaced image of female candidate for Libya’s General authorities should start campaigns to educate people National Congress (Photo: © Amena Raghei) about the importance and beauty of diversity. Libyans need to appreciate the importance of the Amazigh During the Qaddafi regime, women’s participation heritage and culture; the picture painted by Gaddafi in Libyan public life was perceived as little more and his propaganda machine needs reversing by than a tool in Qaddafi’s arsenal of oppression. educating people and telling the truth. Recent interviews with female activists and candidates repeatedly echo the sentiment that, The silence and ignorance by authorities, officials and unlike today, women who took on public roles politicians in the new Libya constitutes acceptance of during Qaddafi’s time were considered women of ill Gaddafi’s denial of the Amazigh language, culture repute, literally tarnished by Qaddafi’s hands. and identity. Therefore, Libya should be upfront about While this attitude has been entrenched in the this issue, and address in the most appropriate Libyan cultural mindset, it is currently undergoing manner through dialogue, tolerance and seismic shifts. As a result of the 17 February understanding between Arabs and Amazigh. Revolution, women have started participating in Page 143 of 154 public life at unprecedented levels. For some Elections, democracy and what it means to be a members of Libyan society, these changes have woman in public life in today’s Libya been difficult to accept. Nevertheless, Libya’s newly empowered women seem undeterred and This summer marked a turning point in Libya’s swift determined to protect their new few found public evolution from dictatorship to democracy. It was roles. doubly special for Libyan women, who made their voices heard and took their role in building the new What it once meant in Libya to be a woman in Libya very seriously. Women’s new political roles public extended from and even surpassed the contributions made during the revolution. They not In Libyan society, it was once implicitly understood only helped in their country’s rebirth, but also took that women holding positions in the Qaddafi on a new identity as collaborative members in government or pubic positions in general had been Libya’s public sphere. chosen not for their ostensible bureaucratic qualifications but, more often than not, as an On Election Day, 7 July, over 600 Libyan women, expression of the “brother leader’s” personal from all over Libya and representing all sectors of interests, tastes and worse. Libya’s traditionally society, presented themselves as candidates for patriarchal society did not easily allow women to be the General National Congress (GNC). Alongside objects of public scrutiny, especially as decreed by their male counterparts, these women campaigned the arbitrary rules of a silently hated dictator. as individuals and party members, displaying a hunger for democracy and public representation Qaddafi’s infamous female bodyguards, Benghazi’s hardly imaginable to any Libyan – male or female – female mayor, Huda Ben Amir (better known as just one year earlier. Huda the Executioner), and the ubiquitous Revolutionary Committees (which were known to Women candidates uploaded their CVs to the recruit young women and girls to satisfy Qaddafi’s candidate site and readily presented their perverse predilections) are a few of examples of backgrounds, credentials, pictures and political female public positions abhorred by the average agendas to their constituents. They gave interviews Libyan. to local and foreign media. They campaigned with posters, pamphlets and radio ads. They met with In order to avoid these negative associations and and rallied voters on the streets and in town halls. protect themselves, women often willingly took a They joined women’s groups, held campaign backseat to men and refrained from participating in awareness events and encouraged Libyan women political – or any other public – activities. While this and men to get out and vote. may have preserved women’s reputation, it also In the end, thirty-three women were voted into the created a culture where women’s social roles two hundred-member GNC. While this number tended to be restricted mainly to the household. In represents less than one quarter of the Libyan cases where women ventured outside the home, congress, when viewed within the context of Libyan they were often limited to traditionally acceptable culture and the de-facto taboo against female posts with little public exposure or decision-making political participation, it is an impressive ability. Their involvement in society remained achievement. Most notably, in their first run for socially acceptable as long as they stayed away public office in Libya’s nascent democracy, women from the limelight and did not seek public attention. achieved what it took the United States over two centuries to accomplish – 16 percent congressional The revolution of 17 February would see a quick representation. and decisive change in this attitude as women, out of necessity, became active, productive and Backlash and Cultural Insecurities respected members of a national movement. No longer would their political activity carry Qaddafi’s imprimatur. Page 144 of 154 Now that Libya appears to be well on the path abduction of Libyan women, as noted in a toward democracy, general comfort levels with recent article by the well known Libyan activist Niz women’s public participation have begun to decline. Ben-Essa. In August, the Libyan activist, Majduleen Abeida For some members of Libyan society, it is a cultural was kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of men while struggle to balance Libyan women’s new identity conducting a workshop in Benghazi. There was no with their traditional roles. For these individuals, the apparent reason for her abduction other than her perceived “need” for women’s public participation vocal human rights’ activism and perceived was not expected to extend beyond the revolution tolerance of other religions. Although she was or to become as serious as it has. released a few days later, the incident sparked public outrage and led to the creation of the The clearest example of these emerging Facebook page We are all Majduleen. sentiments came on 8 August when power was Gradually, a picture is emerging of a Libya where transferred from the outgoing National Transitional women’s safety is at risk and their security Council (NTC) – the governing body that guided compromised largely because of their public Libya through its revolution and governed the exposure and political activities. This is not to say country through the election – to the incoming that all was well before the legislative elections. As GNC. Libya drew nearer to elections and the number of Minutes into the ceremony, the female presenter, campaign posters increased in the streets, so too Sarah El-Mesallati, was heckled by a male GNC did the defacement of posters with female images. member who told her to “cover (her) head.” When In some cases, women’s images were entirely she ignored the heckler, the outgoing chairman of blacked out or cut out of posters while the images the NTC, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, asked El-Mesallati to of male candidates, side by side on the same leave the podium. She obliged out of respect for the posters, were left untouched. chairman and was replaced by a male presenter Despite these clear statements against women’s who took over for the remainder of the ceremony. public participation, many female candidates In a population now accustomed to voicing its remained undeterred and replaced their vandalised thoughts and opinions without hesitation, this posters with new ones. As one female candidate incident immediately sparked a national debate on made clear in Benghazi, “these acts upset me and women’s personal freedoms in Libya. Overnight, just made me print more posters.” On the other the Facebook page We are all Sara El-Mesellati was hand, one female candidate in the more created, garnering 1,500 “likes” by 10 a.m. the next conservative city of Misrata said that, in order to morning. avoid harassment, she had opted not to display her Debates took place between men and women in image on campaign posters. social media spaces, as well as on the floor of the GNC. As evident in a video, made by the Libyan freelance journalist Huda Abu Zaid, congress member Salah El-Din Badi expressed his distaste for El-Mesallati and accused her of having a hidden agenda. Others interviewed on the video accused the congressman himself of infringing on El- Mesallati’s personal freedoms. The El-Mesellati incident is only the tip of the iceberg. It pales in comparison with other life- threatening instances of open attacks against women’s civil liberties this summer, including increasingly common stories of harassment and Page 145 of 154  While women have demonstrated their political savvy in Libya, have broken with many cultural taboos and have risen above the stigma attached to public life, not all sectors of society appear ready to accept their new position in the country. The events that have occurred over the past few summer months highlight the complex and serious struggle between two mentalities. One, a deeply engrained vestige from an era that has not quite made a complete exit from the Libyan cultural psyche and the other, represented by moderately open-minded, avant-garde thinkers who believe in the equal participation of women in Libyan society. Without question, women’s increasing role in public life is a new concept for Libyans. While it will take some getting used to, it is happening and cannot be stopped. The 17 February Revolution catalysed changes in popular attitudes toward women and brought about an abrupt shift in both male and female conceptions about the need for women’s participation in public and private life. (Photo: © Amena Rachei) For Libya, the challenge ahead is to entrench public Increasingly severe attacks on women’s personal attitudes that respect personal freedoms and to freedoms and security have inspired many Libyan accept women as a normal part of the public women to stand together and speak out. Exercising sphere. The real trick will be to sustain this mindset their new freedom of speech, scores of Libyan beyond the revolution and current transition. women (and men) have responded loudly and clearly, using social media outlets as well as their Amena Raghei is an independent researcher and MA in International Affairs candidate at The New positions in newly formed human rights and advocacy organizations to speak out against these School, New York, USA, where her concentration is assaults. in Governance and Human Rights with a focus on Middle East and North Africa. In direct response to the apparent tolerance toward This article was first published in Muftah.org and these acts, a group of activist organizations and advocacy groups within Libyan civil society formed has been reproduced with the magazine’s the Coalition of Libyan Women’s Rights to tackle the permission. issue of women’s civil liberties and security through 87. A Crippling Silence | Libya Herald a series of campaigns and protests. By Niz Ben-Essa. Approx Sep 15, 2012 It is worth noting that while these attacks were committed primarily by men, the groups that have emerged to protect women are not solely women’s rights groups nor comprised only of women. They range in interests and membership, from The Free Generation Movement to Lawyers for Justice in Libya, to name just two. Conclusion: sustaining a new mindset Page 146 of 154  Our issues, I believe, lie in our society. A society conditioned to behave a certain way. Empowered through silence and apathy to behave in ways that are not inherently or historically Libyan, which are not associated with Islamic values and which should not be acceptable in any culture or region of the world. It is not unusual for society to be “conditioned”. In the west, the media, through its glossy magazines and its glitzy TV shows, continuously conditions women to think in a conformist way when it comes to appearance, fashion or behaviour. As free as the people in the west perceive themselves to be, they are slaves to society’s definition of beauty and “normality”, and are slaves to the pressures of that society. Libya is certainly not immune to the phenomena of conditioning, perhaps not through the media as much, Women in Libya are harassed on an almost daily basis, but but as much through our society as it is in the west. few people are yet ready to talk about it. (Photo: Free Generation Movement) As much as I hate the continued use of Qaddafi as an Tripoli, 22 August. excuse for all our ills, it must be acknowledged that 42 years of autocratic, authoritarian rule has created a Over the last few weeks, issues and discussions society not empowered to believe that change is regarding women in Libya have come to the surface. possible. This is what made the February 17th revolution People have been discussing the issues at coffee shops, so remarkable. The fact that it broke the shackles of on facebook and twitter groups, with friends, with apathy and fear, which had previously crippled us into family, NGOs, CSOs, independent activists, politicians, thinking that we cannot, and so will not, do anything to … the debate has been widespread. better the society around us. Opinions have been as varied as they are for almost any But these shackles are now broken. Libya has a new topic of discussion in Libya, ranging from the doomsday spirit. We can, and so we will, do what it takes to better apocalyptics, to those who simply do not care, and of our society. course everything in between. Libya’s freedom does not come in the fall of the tyrant’s Recently, incidents such as the abduction of women in regime, but rather in the liberty of its citizens to be Libya, a seemingly increased rate of street harassment in expressive, to value the diversity of opinion and the Tripoli and the removal of the unveiled presenter at the diversity of ethnicity and culture, to empower its “weak” NTC-GNC authority handover ceremony have all to no longer be weak, to provide equality and contributed to the discussion and have brought the issue opportunity for all those who make up its society. to the much needed lime light as an issue critical for Libya’s sustained progression. The Free Generation Movement has been involved in the creation of a coalition of Libyan based groups and It is clear, and we are all in agreement, that the activists who are concerned by the authority’s neglect of harassment of women, whether sexual, verbal or Women’s Rights issues in Libya. What concerns us in otherwise, is neither Islamic nor is it lawful under any this coalition is how many people of authority speak other code of ethics. But it happens on an almost daily privately about their disgust at what happened at the basis in Libya. Why? handover ceremony, and in private speak so passionately about the right of women to be involved, free and equal, Page 147 of 154 and yet are so reluctant to make these declarations The Free Generation Movement is a Libyan based NGO public. It is this silence that haunts us and concerns us. made up of independent activists. It was founded in February 2011 as a resistance movement within Tripoli The silence of our leaders is conditioning and, as they and has now evolved into engaging socio-political and say, deafening. The silence is empowering. It is environmental issues in Libya. empowering for those who seek legitimacy in the wrongs that they do and the evil that they spread. Silence is far more powerful than any fatwa or ruling or law. It is 1. Addenda: A brief silence, as Einstein once said, that makes the world a dangerous place, not the people who do evil. history of Libya & So much hope and so much responsibility has been Gadaffi entrusted into our first democratically elected national governing body in over half a century, and yet not a Alexander, The Romans, Islam, colonization. single one of its 200 members has publicly denounced what happened at the ceremony that handed them the Omar Mukhtar nation’s leading seat of governance. King Idris There are private conversations, YouTube videos and Gadaffi & The Young Officers Council personal accounts which suggest that most of those present showed disdain at what happened that night, yet they chose to keep their thoughts private. Why? The schism in the young officers council Those we have entrusted to lead and serve us have an The internationalist militant role opportunity to make a stand, an opportunity to use their position and to use their voice to begin to shape our Isolation, and the LIFG society and drive our progressing in a direction that is inclusive and respectable and ethical. Disarmament In Exchange for “Improved relations with the US They have an opportunity to re-condition our society and drive it out of the darkness that made it ok to publicly 88. ABenghazi power, Libya humiliate a woman, to harass a woman walking down militia eyed in attack the street, to judge a woman on her choices, to deny a woman her rights and her place. MAGGIE MICHAEL AND HAMZA HENDAWI | September 18, We are not calling for the rights of our society to 2012 04:19 PM EST | transgress our cultural norms nor our legal or religious Compare other versions » obligations. The right of expression and the freedom of choice must exist within the confines of decency and respect. But with the guarantee that, in return, one would BENGHAZI, Libya — Suspicion in last week's attack that enjoy the very same decency and the very same respect killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other from others. Americans has focused on members of a hardcore Islamist militia known for its sympathies to al-Qaida, its We have a long way to go. Our ills will not be cured fierce animosity to the U.S. and its intimidation of other over night. But we hope that breaking the silence will be Muslims who don't conform to its harsh ideology. a significant step for us all. That doesn't mean Libyan authorities will move against Niz Ben-Essa Ansar al-Shariah soon. The group is among the most powerful of the many, heavily armed militias that the Founder of the Free Generation Movement. government relies on to keep security in Benghazi. Page 148 of 154 In fact, it guards one of Benghazi's main hospitals. members were also in Libya and that he couldn't rule out that they had a role. Libya's militias are a legacy of last year's bloody civil war that led to the ouster and killing of longtime dictator The U.S., which is investigating the attack alongside Moammar Gadhafi – and their continued power Libyan officials, says a different scenario may be underscores the weakness of the country's new political shaping up. Rather than a plot, U.S. Ambassador to the leadership nearly a year after the war ended. With a U.N. Susan Rice said it appeared that armed gunmen range of ideologies, the militias arose from local groups hijacked what had been a spontaneous protest against that took up arms and battled Gadhafi's forces. Across the anti-Islam movie. the country, they still resist integration into the armed In either case, the militia says it did not participate "as an forces and remain in many places the sole forces organization" in the protest at the consulate, though that keeping a fragile sense of order. leaves the possibility that members joined on their own. Ansar al-Shariah, which denies it was part of the attack, It also says none of its followers have been arrested is not the biggest of Benghazi's militias. But it is viewed since. as the most disciplined and feared, with links to other Ansar al-Shariah, whose name in Arabic means militant groups in Benghazi and eastern Libya. They are "Supporters of Shariah," broke away last summer from also the most forceful in demanding that the new Libya the February 17 Brigade, which was the main militia be ruled by a strident and intolerant interpretation of force in Benghazi in the fight against Gadhafi's forces. Islam and Shariah law not far removed from al-Qaida's. Benghazi was the first city to rebel in early 2011 and Its fighters have paraded through the streets in pick-up became the de facto opposition capital. Militiamen trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, draped with a battled fiercely to defend the city from a major regime black flag with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is offensive – which was halted mainly by NATO airstrikes no god but God and Muhammad is God's prophet" in – and then they turned the tables and advanced west white – which has also been used by al-Qaida and many along the coast. ultraconservative Islamists. Now the militias, including Ansar al-Shariah, tout The banner, whose origins some say date back early themselves as defenders of Libya's revolution Muslim conquests in the 7th century, became the symbol According to its leaders, Ansar al-Shariah numbers of the past week's protests around the Muslim world about 300 active members, though other factions say against a movie made in the United States that they believe it actually numbers as many as 5,000. denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Some of its leaders are veterans of the numerous wars Only days after the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Afghanistan. in Benghazi, around 200 members of the group drove Rivalries are rife between militias, but other factions are through Benghazi, brandishing automatic weapons, in a wary of tangling with Ansar al-Shariah. procession of cars to "champion the Prophet" in reaction to the film. In June, it held a major parade through Benghazi to mark its founding. More than 120 of its "battle trucks" – "We want Islamic Shariah laws to govern Libya or we will the pick-ups with heavy machine guns bolted in the bed stage a second revolution," one bearded young member – proceeded through the city. At the city center, some of the group at the event Friday told a reporter. "We will residents pelted them with stones, shouting, "Go home!" be a threat to America." He refused to give his name. The parade turned away to avoid a confrontation. Over the weekend, Libyan President Mohammed el- The group's members have been blamed for a string of Megarif told The Associated Press that some members recent attacks against Muslim shrines around Libya. The of Ansar al-Shariah carried out the Sept. 11 attack on shrines, including tombs of religious figures, are revered the consulate, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens by Sufis and other moderate Muslims. But Ansar al- and three other Americans. Shariah, which denies responsibility for the attacks, and "At least some of them, not necessarily the militia as a other hard-liners consider visits to the shrines as whole," he said, suggesting divisions within the group. tantamount to idol worship and an affront to Islam. El-Megarif said the attack had been planned well in Ansar al-Shariah's prestige was boosted when the militia advance to coincide with the anniversary of the 9/11 took over security at the Jalaa Hospital, the city's main attacks in the United States, adding that foreign al-Qaida Page 149 of 154 emergency hospital. Its fighters are posted at the hospital entrance and in its halls. 89. The post-Gaddafi "The fact is that things have been going very well in the hospital since Ansar al-Shariah fighters were assigned to Libya is Not Real be in charge there," said Mohammed Qaeir, a senior TUESDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2012 10:03 JEN ALIC member of the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood in Benghazi. "Previously, the hospital and the doctors worked under the threat of violence by gunmen. This is not happening there anymore." But he fears that the consulate attack signals divisions within the militia and its leadership, between a radical wing and a more moderate faction. One senior figure in Ansar al-Shariah, Youssef Jihani, denied the group took part in the attack. "We never approve of killing civilians, especially those who helped us," he said the day after the attack. Still, he reflected the group's deeply anti-U.S. sentiment. "All of America's policies are hostile to Islam," he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "If America is waging war against al-Qaida, then al-Qaida has a right to defend itself." "We oppose American policies because they are stained in Muslim blood," he said. Wanis al-Sherif, formerly a senior leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, warns that alienating Islamist militias like Ansar al-Shariah could offer al-Qaida a foothold among their followers. The LIFG was an anti- Gadhafi militant group that once had training camps with Afghanistan, and many of its members have now turned to politics in the new Libya. Decades of brutal crackdowns under Gadhafi, al-Sherif said, have left them "worried that they will live under WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - People often ask me why the another dictatorship that will crack down on Islamists. West doesn't attempt a Libya-style intervention in Syria. "They want assurances on the nation's future, the place After all, things are going so well in Libya. Oil production of Shariah laws in the new Libya," he said. is up. But oil production is merely a mirage, as is security in Libya, which was doomed from the day one PG (post- Gaddafi) because of the way it wasliberated. Libya Killing of US Ambassador Shocking Details in Arab Last Wednesday (September 12), US envoy to Libya Press Christopher Stevens was killed along with three other American diplomats in a rocket attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Home Opinion News Analysis The post-Gaddafi Libya is Not What about the oil, that global elixir? Well, the violence will not Real bode well for Libya's production ambitions, coming at a time when the country looked prepared for a boost in output and was banking on this for economic growth. Page 150 of 154 Security was already dubious at best, and now international oil Gaddafi, despite all the efforts leading up to this to rebuild companies will be more reluctant than ever. Those that are relations after that nasty Lockerbie business and all the already there – Germany's Wintershall AG, Italy's Eni and sanctions. So here is al-Libi again, but this time around his France's Total – will be seeking to beef up security and have terrorist inclinations are a bonus rather than a liability: He fights already started sending some of their workers home. alongside intervention forces to oust Gaddafi. If the picture was not clear from the onset of the post-Gaddafi With Gaddafi gone, al-Libi once again became a liability so he atmosphere, it certainly came into focus earlier this summer was taken out by a drone in Pakistan. when protests over parliamentary elections forced the This brings us back to the present, with al-Zawahiri on the temporary closure of the el-Sider oil terminal, the country's rampage and Libyan's wise to their liberators. biggest. "This is a cut and dry example of the backfire of the US Anyone who thinks that Libya will be a secure oil frontier after intervention strategy," Bagley said. "Let's hope it isn't the formation of a new government next summer is mistaken. attempted in Syria." The road to destruction runs from Afghanistan to Benghazi (incidentally, the oil-producing region), branching off to The post-Gaddafi Libya is not real. It's a dangerous fabrication southern Iraq and Pakistan's tribal regions. of materials stuck together by the glue of dubious alliances with jihadists who are cut loose with their weapons once the So, you ask, what about the controversial anti-Islamic movie immediate goal (Gaddafi's demise) was achieved. Forget about apparently put together by an Israeli-American real estate the oil for now. developer with too much time on his hands? *Jen Alic is a geopolitical analyst and the former editor-in-chief According to Jellyfish Operations – a private intelligence and of ISN Security Watch in Zurich. This article is being analysis boutique that has spent much time dissecting the republished by arrangement with OILPRICE.COM which intervention in Libya and the conflict in Syria – the anti-Islamic carried it on September 13 under the headlineLibya - Doomed movie is a red herring in all of this. from Day One. The opinions expressed in this article are those Speaking to Oilprice.com, Jellyfish President Michael Bagley of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, said that while the movie is being upheld as the root cause of and should not be attributed to, IDN or its editorial board. [IDN- the intensifying protests and the death of the US envoy to InDepthNews – September 17, 2012] Libya, it has only served to give added momentum to another 2012 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters more important development. Picture: Wikipedia, Libya Oil Industry The real catalyst "The key to all of this is al-Qaeda's second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was killed by a US drone attack in “The Ministry of Interior is now run by the militia rather than the Waziristan on 4 June," Bagley said. "The real catalyst for the opposite. The ministry gave armed groups the legitimacy to attack in Libya and the unrest that has spread to Yemen, was a arrest, interrogate, and secure banks, government offices and lengthy video released by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, embassies in the absence of state power.” marking the anniversary of 9/11 and admitting to the death of al-Libi, who is Libyan." "This was a very powerful call to avenge al-Libi's death," 90. Saving Libya From its Saviours Bagley said, "and it came only 24 hours before the attack on By Rebecca MurrayReprint | | Print | Send by email the US consulate in Benghazi." http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/saving-libya-from-its- To put this into perspective, let's reminisce a bit about al-Libi, saviours/ whose past is a roller coaster, enemy-foe ride with the US. Al-Libi was captured in the "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan in 2002 and held for three years in Kabul's high-security Bagram prison. Against all odds, he escaped in 2005. In 2011 he resurfaced again, but this time as a friend to Washington who had decided that it was no longer friends with Page 151 of 154  because of security concerns. Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shugar has proposed giving cash for weapons. After fighting in the revolution and receiving three weeks formal training, Rami Ezzadine Tajari, 22, and Mohammed Nagy, 19, wearing mismatched military uniforms and carrying battered AK47s, are part of the Ministry of Interior’s sprawling auxiliary force, the Supreme Security Council (SSC). The SSC, like the Ministry of Defence’s affiliated Shield of Libya brigades, is a collection of armed groups operating across Libya under the interior ministry’s loose control. “A lot of people came to hand in their weapons,” says Tajari. “We told them to bring them back on the 29th. After that, citizens will be forbidden to carry them.” Human rights lawyer Salah Marghani, commended by Human Rights Watch for his advocacy work with detainees under the Gaddafi regime, is outraged by the buy-back weapons scheme. “It will create a lucrative trade of arms for profit and won’t take many arms off the street,” he says. “What we need to get rid of is the heavy weapons.” Marghani divides Libya’s armed groups operating in the government security vacuum into five categories. He explains that three are “easy to deal with”: former revolutionary fighters A militia group in Tripoli. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS. who believe their sole duty is to protect citizens and will voluntarily disarm; those who guard national interests TRIPOLI, Sep 21 2012 (IPS) - The dark rain clouds and circling motivated by a mix of doing public good and making profit; and military helicopter accentuated the mood of the small, sombre those who benefit exclusively from small economic kickbacks. crowd gathered in Tripoli’s Martyr’s Square to commemorate Libya’s dead heroes. “The remaining two categories are the dangerous ones,” says The quiet assembly was in stark contrast to the euphoric Feb. Marghani. These are ex-convicts who commit violent crimes, 17 rally on the same spot marking the one-year anniversary of including armed robbery and drug dealing, or groups of the uprising against the Gaddafi regime. Then thousands of “phantom-like” fighters that operate under a banner of Gaddafi Libyans – some holding framed pictures of ‘martyred’ loved loyalists or Islamist extremism. ones – thronged the downtown sidewalks and expressed In light of the Benghazi attack, he describes Libyans as feeling optimism for a future of democracy, prosperity and peace. a collective ‘shame’. “They are scared right now,” he adds. 2. Related IPS Articles “They don’t want their country to be another Somalia with warlords.”  One Year Later, Still Suffering for Loyalty to Gaddafi An International Crisis Group (ICG) analysis of Libya’s armed  Libya Prepares an Advance of the Young groups sheds light on the new government’s complex  Voting for Peace in the Distant Desert challenge.  Libyan Weapons Arming Regional Conflicts  Unseen Dangers Lurk in Libya ICG states that the Gaddafi regime’s ‘divide-and-rule’ policy  Islamists Threaten Libya’s Future manipulated communities with a draconian security apparatus That optimism has been replaced by anxiety. The killing of U.S. and selective disbursal of Libya’s rich resources. ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi has highlighted the dangers posed by a proliferation of armed groups since the “Once the lid was removed, there was every reason to fear a revolution. Many are part of the loose-knit, undertrained free-for-all, as the myriad of armed groups that proliferated government auxiliary forces that seem to act with impunity throughout Libya, and fuel the anxious public perception that during the rebellion sought material advantage, political the government is too weak to rein them in. influence or, more simply, revenge,” says the report. “This was all the more so given the security vacuum produced by the The government’s call for citizens to voluntarily hand in their regime’s precipitous fall.” weapons is now pushed back to the end of September Page 152 of 154 Bill Lawrence, ICG’s North Africa analyst, in an interview with http://www.libya- IPS says that Salafist leaders he has met blame rogue alyoum.com/news/index.php?id=21&textid=12264 elements for the Benghazi attack. “Salafists who are in general skeptical of the political transition in Libya in some cases – not in every case – are definitely disassociating themselves from Solidarity News Agency - Libya today this act of violence, and condemning both the assassination and the film (on Islam that is leading to worldwide protests in Muslim countries).” 91. The town of Bani Walid dawn today, Some Libyans voice concerns that the U.S. drones, Wednesday, bombed heavy and intelligence and military personnel in Libyan territory since the medium weapons. ambassador’s death might be here to stay. An eyewitness of the city's "solidarity news Sami Khaskusha, professor of international relations, is a agency that" the city under constant driving force on Tripoli University campus. An active member bombardment since the dawn of heavy of the civil resistance against Gaddafi, he energetically weapons, he said, adding that people do not go organised a wide range of civil society discussions after the .out of their homes for fear of bombardment capital’s liberation under an ambitious banner: ‘Tripoli And tried to "news agency and solidarity" University’s programme for rebuilding Libya’. connected to an independent source to see .fuller details but it was not possible for us “Suddenly we turned the university into a huge workshop,” The agency also tried to contact the parties Khaskusha remembers. “There was a lot of euphoria and concerned official but did not indicate any enthusiasm then.” .information But he says the mood changed and activities were curtailed How to bombard the city of Libya Libyan when the transitional government’s more traditional, ?forces conservative mindset inherited power at the ministries. (Ammar 10/17/2012) “At that same time every thug took over offices and declared There is no justification for bombing himself to be a military brigade. They submitted lists to the Libyan city of Libyan forces even though defence and interior ministries and demanded money and cars, there were and extorted businesses,” Khaskusha says. battalions “The Ministry of Interior is now run by the militia rather than the supporting opposite. The ministry gave armed groups the legitimacy to Gaddafi and his arrest, interrogate, and secure banks, government offices and regime defunct embassies in the absence of state power.” Van An escalation of crime with impunity, tribal clashes and intolerant attacks against religious sites and non-governmental organisations are contributing to an atmosphere of instability and fear. Salah Marghani is working against this. In light of torture in detention centres documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, he educates armed groups – including former prisoners now supervising jails – to adhere to human rights protocols. “In one incident, I asked a military brigade if they torture inmates. One man said: ‘No we don’t, we only do ‘falaqa’ (beating prisoners’ feet). What struck me was he didn’t comprehend this is wrong,” sighs Marghani. “I think it will take ten to 15 years for people to understand the role of democracy and civil society,” Khaskusha says. “We need to practise a peaceful struggle of ideas, culture of tolerance and acceptance of ‘the other’. Now when we disagree, we run to our weapons.” Page 153 of 154  92. Mufti Libya demanding delete notes and promised to investigate the reason for "freedom of religion" of the curriculum deleting the prophetic texts of Islamic education curriculum." The statement added that "Fatwa propose to the ministry to delete two pages of the book material of National Education, the first known democracy Greek because they include information that does not fit in with younger students, and the second related to freedom of belief and religion because it may suggest to the pupil small that has the right to choose his religion" . Called Dar al-Ifta "management of the state and its institutions and its public to respond to the aspirations Ramallah - banner media: of the citizens and to consider the feedback from public affairs, especially when it comes to religious values and Asked Dar al-Ifta in Libya, led by prominent cleric Sheikh Islamic morals and not be ignored or taken lightly and Sadiq Ghariani, from the Ministry of Education to delete neglected because it is fueling the emotions." material from the curriculum related to "freedom of religion and democracy," and asked for clarification about deleting texts from "Sunnah". Fatwa issued Libyan statement on Tuesday, which included "Notes to the Libyan Mufti Sheikh Sadiq Ghariani related to some of the curricula of the current academic year", as reported by the official Libyan news agency. The statement said that the Mufti in this regard published an article entitled "curriculum and instilling values" included two issues, the first on the deleted texts Sunnah Islamic education curricula, and the second about two paragraphs in the book of National Education for basic education for religious freedom and democracy. " The statement said, according to the agency: "The Ministry of Education responded positively with these Page 154 of 154