23 June 2011 — Stop Nato
French President Nicolas Sarkozy started the Libyan war – what drove him to risk the effort?
Tag: Operation Odyssey Dawn
“Rebels” are power-hungry terrorists, say Libyan refugees — RT
23 June 2011 — RT
Civilian casualties have raised serious misgivings about NATO intervention in Libya, even among supporters of the ongoing aerial campaign. And while the international community is taking sides in the conflict, it is the Libyan people who suffer most.
Salma and her family escaped from the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi to hide in a refugee camp in the west of the country when life in their native city turned into a nightmare.
‘It’s not safe there anymore. It’s become dangerous. And that’s not only because of explosions and gunshots. One day, people from the government in Benghazi – you call them rebels, we call them terrorists – came to me and told me, ‘we have to arrest your daughter, because we know that she supports Gaddafi,’ Salma told RT.
NATO’s Afrika Korps Escalates War Of Attrition Against Libya
11 June 11, 2011 — Stop Nato
The relentless and intensifying Western air war against Libya will soon enter its fourth month. For the first thirteen days starting on March 19 under the control of U.S. Africa Command and Operation Odyssey Dawn and thereafter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led Operation Unified Protector, the air assaults represent the second longest armed aggression in NATO’s history, already surpassing by a week the 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. Only the now nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan exceeds the current campaign in length.
Pirates of the Mediterranean By William Bowles
20 May 2011
“The media rush to glorify Obama the ‘warrior president’ is symptomatic of a Western society that has come to view war as entirely normal… It is by now almost impossible to imagine that the West would not always be attacking, or targeting for attack, some defenceless nation or other.” — ‘You Cannot Kill An Ideology With A Gun‘ By Media Lens
All things being equal, which undoubtedly they are not, and surely that’s point, the long overdue arrival of a truly socialized, globalized planet would have been able to tackle the mess capitalism has made of things. After all, our disasters are now planetary in scale and thus can now only be handled by the planet as a whole. That means all of us, not just a privileged few.
US and UK extend talons over Libya – II By Peter Eyre
8 April 2011 — Strategic Culture Foundation
No matter what spin you hear coming out of the US, Washington is very much in control of the conflict in Libya and in control of what goes on at the United Nations, and believe me, we have only seen Phase 1 of their objectives to force regime change and take control of the vast oil reserves in Libya.
The already US-manipulated UN is about to be yet again modified by puppet Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. I have never in my life seen such a weak Secretary General and he is an embarrassment to the General Assembly and those he represents. Perhaps we should reflect on the words of President Obama: ‘We will not – I repeat – we will not deploy any US troops on the ground’.
NATO and Libyan rebels play the blame game — RT
9 April 2011 — RT
Anger is growing among anti-Gaddafi rebels after NATO’s second friendly fire bombing raid resulted in more rebel deaths with no overt apology from the alliance following.
NATO’s leadership is coming under more and more fire over its military operations in Libya for being ineffective and making mistakes.
It is now nine days since NATO took command of the Libyan operation from the US. In the last week alone, two confirmed friendly fire NATO air strikes left a total of over 20 rebels dead and dozens injured, so there is no wonder tensions are running high in the desert. Particularly because NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, while publicly regretting the loss of lives, has not come out and said that he as the leader of the coalition is sorry for the unfortunate strikes.
NATO is essentially arguing that it was not aware that rebels were using tanks prior to the ill-fated air strikes and mistook them for Gaddafi troops.
FT journalist accuses press warmongers
8 April 2011 — Morning Star
A leading Financial Times journalist accused the British media today of ‘buttering up’ the population to support the war on Libya.
At a Stop the War Coalition fringe event at the NUJ conference the paper’s assistant news editor David Crouch accused the Times and the Evening Standard of running a campaign to bring about Western intervention.
He said of the anti-Gadaffi rebels: ‘We are told that the opposition is defenceless – they are not.
‘They have liberated arms depots. They have tanks and had fighter planes, at least until they shot two of their own down.’
Mr Crouch labelled Colonel Gadaffi ‘a brutal dictator’ but questioned several stories which have accused forces loyal to the Libyan leader of carrying out ‘massacres.’
‘Reporters have been to the areas where it is alleged they took place and are not finding any evidence,’ he said.
He added that he regretted his paper’s backing for Nato action in north Africa but added: ‘The first causality of war is the truth.
‘The war is about the West reasserting their control over their former colonial back yard.’
Sarkozy between a Libyan ‘rock’ and a French ‘hard place’ — RT
8 April 2011 — RT
For a France that was pushing for a military solution in Libya three weeks ago, the possibility of a stalemate looks likely to bring some grand ambitions crashing down, with watchers already questioning the noble sentiments voiced by the country.
A NATO friendly-fire air strike incident has killed at least five anti-Gaddafi rebel fighters in Libya, while some sources suggest it may have been dozens.
This only adds to the criticism coming from the opposition, who say the Alliance is not doing enough to help them.
‘France wants to get in on the imperial condominium of reconquest of Africa,’ slams author Diana Johnstone.
Libya Newslinks 6-7 April 2011
7 April 2011 17:15 — creative-i.info
7 April 2011
- FAIR: NYT Calls for Protecting Libyan Civilians by Escalating War–Like in Fallujah
- Links Int’l: The two wars in Libya
- ICH: We Are Not Being Told The Truth About Libya
- RT: Russian journalists seized by Libyan rebels
- The Independent: Video: Nato releases footage of Libya airstrike
- Stop Nato: Updates on Libyan war: April 8
Libya: Arms, Duplicity and Front Line Foetuses By Felicity Arbuthnot
6 April, 2011 — Dandelion Salad
‘The assessment is that we have taken out 30 percent of the military capacity of Gaddafi.’ (Brigadier General Mark van Uhm, senior NATO staff officer, 5th April 2011.)
On 29th March, freshly back from a good will tour of the Middle East, with a bunch of arms salesmen in tow, as bombs rained down on Libya, Prime Minister David Cameron, welcomed Foreign Ministers from more than forty countries to a London Conference: ‘To help the Libyan people in their hour of need.’ (i)
Libyan War Prepared For Months In Advance, Prelude To Larger War
6 April 2011 — Voice of Russia
‘There is no rule to intervene militarily for humanitarian reasons’
Interview with Giulietto Chiesa, former member of the European Parliament and Italian journalist covering international relations.
Western intervention has made an incredible mess in Libya – anti-war activist — RT
66 April, 2011 — RT
When a revolution takes place in a country – it is the business of the people in that country to conduct the revolution, believes anti-war activist John Reese from Stop the War Coalition.
‘My point about the western intervention would be this: I do not think that they did intervene in order to assist a revolutionary process, I think they intervened in order to get control of the revolutionary process.’
The people coming to the fore of the Libyan opposition ‘were trained in the west, have links with the west and western security services and would not have come to the top had the west not intervened,’ evaluated Reese.
Libya on fire, who’s next? — RT
5 April 2011 — RT
As fighting for control over the cities of Brega and Misrata continues in Libya, RT looks at how the military operation could just be the start of Washington’s wider goals in the region.
With no official death toll available, international estimates put the number of civilians killed at close to a thousand after almost two months of clashes.
Meanwhile, the US is stepping away from the frontline, encouraging other NATO countries to increase their military contribution.
Franglo-American Attack on Libya Prepared Months in Advance
2 April 2011 — Mathaba.net
Mathaba can reveal that documents on the Command Air Defence And Air Operations (France) website show the attack on Libya reached its final stages of planning in early November 2010, which prompted Gaddafi to send his loyal assistant to Paris under pretence of “defection” to feed misinformation to France Continue reading
Franglo-American Attack on Libya Prepared Months in Advance
2 April 2011 — Mathaba.net
Mathaba can reveal that documents on the Command Air Defence And Air Operations (France) website show the attack on Libya reached its final stages of planning in early November 2010, which prompted Gaddafi to send his loyal assistant to Paris under pretence of “defection” to feed misinformation to France
Concern grows over possible use of depleted uranium in Libya
30 March 2011 — International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons
The likelihood of DU use in Libya has now increased following the deployment and use of A-10 and Harrier AV-8B aircraft. ICBUW calls for pressure to be brought on the US to clarify the situation, and to put DU ammunition beyond use.
A-10s are known to have been active in Libya on the 26th and 27th of March, and are likely to have been used in operations since those dates. The 30mm PGU-14 Armour Piercing Incendiary DU round is fired from the GAU-8 heavy rotary cannon fitted beneath the cockpit of the A-10. It was designed for attacking armoured vehicles from the air, the kind of mission currently being undertaken by the A-10s.
NATO’s Fascist War By Fidel Castro Ruz
29 March 2011 — MRZine
The rebel leaders tipped their hand too early. Now the whole of Libya, including the rebels, understand what they are: traitors dependent on invaders. The rebels thus now lack motive force as well as military training: “Libyan Rebels Flee as Kadafi’s Forces Defend Surt” (Los Angeles Times, 29 March 2011). The only way they can defeat the Gaddafi forces is to get the NATO to massacre them and everyone else in their way. Even then, they would never be able to govern Libya by themselves. They may even lose, as Fidel says. After all, what self-respecting Libyan wants to side with the traitors and invaders? — Ed.
I didn’t have to be a fortune teller to divine what I foresaw with rigorous precision in three Reflections which I published on the CubaDebate website between February 21 and March 3: “NATO’s Plan Is to Occupy Libya,” “Cynicism’s Danse Macabre,” and “NATO’s Inevitable War.” . . .
I do not share political concepts or those of a religious nature with the leader of that country. I am a Marxist-Leninist and follower of the ideas of Martí, as I have already stated.
I see Libya as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and one sovereign state out of the close to 200 belonging to the United Nations Organization.
Never before was a large or small country, in this case of barely 5 million inhabitants, the victim of such a brutal attack by the air force of a military organization which has at its disposal thousands of fighter planes, more than 100 submarines, nuclear aircraft carriers, and sufficient arsenal to destroy the planet countless times over. Our species has never experienced such a situation and nothing like it existed 75 years ago when the Nazi bombers attacked targets in Spain.
Now, however, the discredited and criminal NATO is to write a “beautiful” story about its “humanitarian” bombing.
If Gaddafi honors the traditions of his people and decides to fight, as he has promised, until his last breath alongside Libyans who are confronting the worst bombardments that a country has ever suffered, he will sink NATO and its criminal plans into the mire of ignominy.
The peoples respect and believe in men and women who know how to fulfill their duty.
More than 50 years ago, when the United States murdered more than 100 Cubans with the sabotage of La Coubre merchant ship, our people proclaimed “Patria o Muerte.” They have fulfilled and have always been prepared to keep their word.
“Whoever attempts to seize Cuba — exclaimed the most glorious combatant in our history [General Antonio Maceo] — will only recover the dust of its land saturated in blood.”
I ask you to excuse the frankness with which I have approached the subject.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 28, 2011
8:14 p.m.
The text above is an excerpt form an English translation provided by Granma International. En español.
A Hundred Years of Rain: Air War Comes Full Circle in Libya By Chris Floyd
21 March 2011 — Chris Floyd’s Empire Burlesque
Ian Patterson notes that the air war unleashed on Libya by the Western powers last week coincides very neatly with the 100th anniversary of the first military air strike — which was launched by a Western power against … Libya. From The London Review of Books:
The world’s first aerial bombing mission took place 100 years ago, over Libya. It was an attack on Turkish positions in Tripoli. On 1 November 1911, Lieutenant Cavotti of the Italian Air Fleet dropped four two-kilogramme bombs, by hand, over the side of his aeroplane. In the days that followed, several more attacks took place on nearby Arab bases. Some of them, inaugurating a pattern all too familiar in the century since then, fell on a field hospital, at Ain Zara, provoking heated argument in the international press about the ethics of dropping bombs from the air, and what is now known as ‘collateral damage’. (In those days it was called ‘frightfulness’.) The Italians, however, were much cheered by the ‘wonderful moral effect’ of bombing, its capacity to demoralise and panic those on the receiving end.
A hundred years on, as missiles rain down on Gaddafi’s defences and sleeping Libyan soldiers are blasted and burned, we hear claims of a similar kind: the might of the western onslaught will dissipate all support for Gaddafi’s regime and usher in a new golden age for everyone. Just as Shock and Awe were meant to in Iraq. Or bombing and defoliation were meant to in in Vietnam. Or as the London Blitz was meant to break Britain’s spirit. Yet all the evidence suggests that dropping high explosive on places where people live increases their opposition, their solidarity and their resolve. Happy Anniversary.
Note: For more on how the little acorn of atrocity planted by Lt. Cavotti has grown into the monstrous forest that shadows the world today, see this informative piece by Tom Englehardt.
Libya Newslinks 28-29 March 2011
29 March 2011 18:25:47 — creative-i.info
29 March 2011
- Morning Star: Peace activists: Let people decide
- Morning Star: Obama spoils Cameron’s Libya war party
- Morning Star: Regime forces drive off rebel attack at Sirte
- Dissident Voice: Libya, Obama, and Empire
- Dissident Voice: Libya’s Blood for Oil
- The Independent: Libyan opposition sets out post-Gaddafi vision
- FAIR: WashPost and the Wider War
- Continue reading
The New Dark Age 
