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Aug 29, 2011

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On September 7, 2011 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi claims that ousted Libyan leader Moamer was loved by his people and that the rebellion that toppled him was not a popular uprising.

In a democracy, no one can claim to be innocent of the crimes committed in its name.

The war propaganda has entered a new phase, involving the coordinated action of satellite TV stations. CNN, France24, the BBC and Al Jazeera have become instruments of disinformation used to demonize governments and justify armed aggressions. These practices are illegal under international law and the impunity of the perpetrators must be stopped.

The Western nations in support of these al Qaeda-affiliated rebels then, in defiance of the Vienna Conventions, stole sovereign Libyan territory and handed it over to the illegitimate rebel envoys. World can only hope that once these rebels take full control over Libya they will properly and democratically rule, but unfortunately all current signs show that this will not be the case. Why? Because the opposition forces have already begun to serve their globalist masters by selling them sweet crude oil and establishing a private central bank in order to change Libya from a wealthy independent African nation into an impoverished debt-slave nation beholden to the banking cartels like the IMF, World Bank and Bank of International Settlements. The US/NATO policy we see today, that of allying with the obscurantist and reactionary al Qaeda fanatics in Libya against the Nasserist modernizer Qaddafi in order to rob debt free and formerly most prosperous country in Africa of it's oil wealth.

Arming the Libyan Al Qaida Linked Rebels: The Experience of Afghanistan - Looking back at the tragic experience of US efforts to incite the population of Afghanistan against the Soviet aid (to back up than secular Afghan government) in the years after 1979, it should be clear that the policy of the Reagan White House to arm the Afghan mujahedin with Stinger missiles and other modern weapons turned out to be highly destructive for the United States. As former Defense Secretary Robert Gates comes close to admitting in his memoirs, Al Qaeda was created during those years by the United States as a form of Arab Legion against the Soviet presence, with long-term results, which have been highly bemoaned.

Under Gadhafi, Libya was one of the most advanced developing countries, ranked 53 (the highest of any country in Africa) on the UN Human Development Index (HDI) -- which measures life expectancy, education, and living conditions. Libya ranks ahead of Russia (65), Ukraine (69), Brazil (73), Venezuela (73) and Tunisia (81). Libya has a medium-high per capita income of 12,000, six times greater than that of Egypt. The real and illegal objectives of Western imperialists is not only to destroy decades-long development, prosperity and stability (i.e., regime change), but also to control and plunder Libya's national resources, including oil and gas. "Even as the Libyan war just gets underway, the economic war over Libya's treasures has already begun", writes Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail). The UN was established to promote and maintain worldwide peace. The UN is in no position to legalize war. Judged by its past actions, "the UN rarely represented the true and peaceful interests of people everywhere but stood largely under the sway of the U.S. and its allies", writes Victor Grossman (Berlin Bulletin). On 23 September 2008, an accord signed between the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and then NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop-Scheffer was described by former UN Assistant Secretary General, Hans von Sponeck, as "incompatible with UN Charter" and poses "serious threat to world peace" and stability. Hence, the UN is an instrument of U.S.-NATO providing legitimacy to justify Western aggression. The UN-sponsored Western aggression collaborated with traitors and Al Qaeda linked rebels against Libya is an illegal act of aggression and must stop to abort the creation of another humanitarian catastrophe. Peoples around the world expect the UN to abide by its neutral Charter and stop being complicit in Western violence against civilians in member nations.

Before NATO aggression Libya has the highest living standard in Africa. The "United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirms that the country has excellent prospects for achieving United Nations development goals by 2015. NATO's war will have already dashed those hopes. A collapse like the one in Iraq now threatens this African country. There has been little reaching the European public in the past few years about Libya, whose relationship with the West had normalized. European leaders met with their Libyan counterpart Muammar al-Gadhafi often, kiss his hand and business flourished. In the course of preparation for war, with help of obedient western media, the country was suddenly transformed into the most evil dictatorship. But if Libyan society can really be reduced to the "revolutionary leader" Gadhafi in Libya, is the situation really worse than in a hundred other countries and are there not many more factors that determine the living conditions of a country, besides Western-style "freedoms"? Even according to Amnesty International's country reports of human rights conditions, that of Libya differs little from many other countries; regarding the Arab allies in the NATO war alliance, such as Saudi Arabia, it is even much worse. The UN Human Rights Council has praised the country in its latest report on the "universal periodic review" of Libya, which was made late last year, even for its progress on human rights. (Just Google UN Praised Libya's Human Rights Record, Mathaba, April 8, 2011) The Libyans were in a good shape and have a lot to lose from the NATO intervention. The relatively high standard of living also explains why Gadhafi definitely still has support in the country — particularly, according to Libya expert Andreas Dittmann, among the older generations, who remember the old days. When in 1969 the U.S. and the British-backed King Idris was overthrown, Libya was still a poor, undeveloped country weighed down by its colonial past despite ongoing western control oil exports that began in 1961. The gradual nationalization of oil production allowed for accelerated economic development and rapid improvements in living conditions. In 2008, the GDP per capita, expressed in purchasing power, according to UNDP Database, reached $16,200 U.S. (For comparison, the GDP of Egypt was in the same year $5,900, that of Algeria and Tunisia $8,000.) High standard of living achieved After government revenue, supported by rising oil prices, living conditions have clearly improved. In January 2011 the country was ranked 53rd on the HDI index, better than all other African countries and also better than the richer and Western-backed Saudi Arabia. The life expectancy rose to 74.5 years and was the highest in Africa. According to the UNDP "The government provides all citizens with free health care and achieved high coverage in the most basic health areas." The illiteracy rate dropped to 11.6 percent in Libya, and is well below that of Egypt (33.6 percent), Algeria (27.4 percent), Tunisia (22 percent) and Saudi Arabia (14.5 percent). (See Human Development Report 2010) The UNDP certified that Libya has also made "a significant progress in gender equality," particularly in the fields of education and health. In view of these achievements, the positive Human Rights assessment of developments in Libya should hardly be a surprise. The example of Iraq In 1980, Iraq also had a relatively high living standard, even higher than that of Libya. This collapsed massively under the murderous UN embargo [1990-2003]. Their "liberation" from Saddam Hussein then toppled Iraqi society completely into the abyss. The collapse is still going on. Millions of Iraqis are starving, and the lack of food is still increasing. Half of the nearly 30 million people are now living in extreme poverty. Some 55 percent have no clean drinking water, 80 percent are not connected to the sewage system. Electricity is available only an hour here, an hour there; the once good health and education systems are flattened. Iraq had been recognized by UNESCO in 1987 for its education system; illiteracy had been almost eliminated. Now, the illiteracy rate has already increased to over 25 percent in some areas it is already 40-50 percent among women. There is no reason to assume that a "regime change" in Libya enforced by the NATO states would come out much better for the country (not to mention a long civil war and partition of the country altogether). Finally, the attacking forces and their agenda is almost identical and in many ways the leadership of the insurgency resembles the Iraqis that the U.S. set up in the government there — that is, radical Islamic organizations and pro-Western, neo-liberal advocates of a complete opening to imperialism, and privatization of the economy of the country.