person:gaddafi

Bush-Aznar Transcript : The War Crime of the Century

Comment Bush a refusé une proposition d’exil de Saddam Hussein et a préféré la guerre

http://www.juancole.com/2007/09/bush-aznar-transcript-war-crime-of.html

The second claim that I made was that Bush was aware of, and rejected, an offer by Saddam Hussein to flee Iraq, probably for Saudi Arabia, presuming he could take out with him a billion dollars and some documents on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs. Both provisions were intended by Saddam to protect him from later retaliation. The money would buy him protection from extradition, and the documents presumably showed that the Reagan and Bush senior administrations had secretly authorized his chemical and biological weapons programs. With these documents in his possession, it was unlikely that Bush would come after him, since he could ruin the reputation of the Bush family if he did. The destruction of these documents was presumably Bush’s goal when he had Rumsfeld order US military personnel not to interfere with the looting and burning of government offices after the fall of Saddam. The looting, which set off the guerrilla war, also functioned as a vast shredding party, destroying incriminating evidence about the complicity of the Bushes and Rumsfeld in Iraq’s war crimes.

Sur le même thème que http://seenthis.net/messages/109257
Unless Ricky Tomlinson is working for al-Qa’ida, ’national security’ is an odd reason for secrecy
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/unless-ricky-tomlinson-is-working-for-alqaida-national-security-is-an

So it’s peculiar that the Government has decided to keep documents about the 1972 building workers’ strike secret for another 10 years. The strike was for increased pay, and 24 of the strikers were charged under the Conspiracy Act, with two of them jailed as a matter of “national security”. Presumably, their demands were for a 10 per cent rise, double-time for Sundays, and the handing over of state power to Colonel Gaddafi, with all plastering to be under the control of an alliance of Angolan guerrillas.

Un agente francese dietro la morte di Gheddafi
http://www.corriere.it/esteri/12_settembre_29/gheddafi-morte-servizi-segreti-francesi-libia_155ed6f2-0a07-11e2-a442-48fbd

Tra gli ambienti diplomatici occidentali nella capitale libica il commento ufficioso più diffuso è che, se davvero ci fu la mano di un sicario al servizio degli 007 stranieri, questa «quasi certamente era francese». Il ragionamento è noto. Fin dall’inizio del sostegno Nato alla rivoluzione, fortemente voluto dal governo di Nicolas Sarkozy, Gheddafi minacciò apertamente di rivelare i dettagli dei suoi rapporti con l’ex presidente francese, compresi i milioni di dollari versati per finanziare la sua candidatura e la campagna alle elezioni del 2007. «Sarkozy aveva tutti i motivi per cercare di far tacere il Colonnello e il più rapidamente possibile», ci hanno ripetuto ieri fonti diplomatiche europee a Tripoli.

Bashar al-Assad ’betrayed Col Gaddafi to save his Syrian regime’
►http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9577628/Bashar-al-Assad-betrayed-Col-Gaddafi-to-save-his-Syrian-regime.html

The Assad regime in Syria brought about Muammar Gaddafi’s death by providing France with the key intelligence which led to the operation that killed him, sources in Libya have claimed.

Évidemment, comme il y a une source unique, la question de la crédibilité (ou de l’agenda) de Rami El Obeidi se pose.

Bashar al-Assad ’betrayed Col Gaddafi to save his Syrian regime’ - Telegraph
►http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9577628/Bashar-al-Assad-betrayed-Col-Gaddafi-to-save-his-Syrian-regime.html

In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told the Daily Telegraph.

With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Mr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi.

Diffamons, diffamons, il en restera toujours quelque chose :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/jul/10/egypt-morsi-military-showdown-parliament-live#block-27

4.16pm: Syria: The Lebanese daily al-Akhbar, regarded as sympathetic to the Assad regime, appears to have been given the Syrian government’s minutes of the Assad-Annan meeting yesterday.

Diffamons, diffamons :
ArabSaga : Minutes of Assad-Annan new truce deal
http://arabsaga.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/minutes-of-assad-annan-new-truce-deal.html

Known as Syria’s mouthpiece, Beirut’s daily al-Akhbar…

Gaddafi-era official ’drowned’ in Danube
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/04/2012430172432510504.html

An autopsy done on Shukri Ghanem has found that the former Libyan oil minister drowned, Austrian police say.

Roman Hahslinger, police spokesman, said on Monday that the autopsy results on Ghanem’s corpse also showed there were no signs of violence.

Ghanem’s fully clothed body was found in the Danube in Vienna on Sunday, a few hundred meters from his home.

Hahslinger suggested the death may have been an accident and that Ghanem had complained to his daughter late on Saturday that he was not feeling well.

He said no suicide note has been found and there is no evidence Ghanem was under threat.

However, Vienna police and a Libyan security source suggested to the Reuters news agency that Ghanem, 69, could have been murdered.

L’ancien ministre du pétrole libyen se « noie », et la police « suggère » que peut-être il aurait pu être assassiné ? Ils sont drôlement complotistes, les flics viennois, dis-donc.

Colonel Gaddafi ’gave French President Nicolas Sarkozy £42MILLION to fund his 2007 election campaign’ | Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113910/Colonel-Gaddafi-gave-French-President-Nicolas-Sarkozy-42MILLION-fund-20

Video proof that Libya’s freedom fighters have turned into brutal torturers
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099957/Video-proof-Libyas-freedom-fighters-turned-brutal-torturers.html

Thousands of fighters have  commandeered schools, halls  and sports centres as detention facilities for ‘suspects’ they capture from their homes or the street.

The Misrata brigades are considered the most hostile, with thousands of untrained youths carrying out the aggressive interrogation. In other footage collected by the camp manager,  more than 30 armed trucks are shown on an early morning raid into the camp.

Women scream that they are being attacked in their beds and that some family members are sick. ‘Is this the new revolution. Is this the justice we all fought for?’ they shout.

Libyan rebels discover Gaddafi’s chemical weapons | World news | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/libyan-rebels-gaddafis-chemical-weapons

Libyan rebel forces claim to have discovered banned chemical weapons stockpiles in southern desert areas captured from Gaddafi loyalists in the last few days.

Libya was supposed to have destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical weapons in early 2004 as part of a British-engineered rapprochement with the west. It also abandoned a rudimentary nuclear programme.

But the international watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, had stated it believed that Libya had kept 9.5 tonnes of mustard gas at a secret location: it is that which appears to have now been captured and secured.

In 2010 Libya destroyed nearly 15 tonnes of sulphur mustard, representing about half of its stockpile. It received an extension to eliminate the rest by 15 May. Twice-yearly inspections have found no evidence of Libya reviving the chemical weapons programme.

#armes-chimiques #Libye

Charred remains of massacre victims found in Tripoli - Africa, World - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/charred-remains-of-massacre-victims-found-in-tripoli-2345251.html

The terrible price many Libyan people have paid to be free of Colonel Gaddafi is becoming plain. Yesterday, only a day after more than 120 decomposing bodies were found in a Tripoli hospital, a British television team filmed the charred remains of an estimated 53 people in a burnt-out warehouse in the south of the city.

Stuart Ramsay of Sky News was led to the building by residents who had made the discovery. Inside was a scene of mass cremation: more than four dozen corpses of what were once human beings, their ages and genders impossible to tell. Ribcages, skulls and other bones lay in a blackened mess. Local people told of how the bodies of perhaps as many as 100 others lay nearby, including those of two soldiers with their hands behind their backs who had been executed for refusing to fire on the victims of the massacre, be they regime critics, civilians, or other refusenik soldiers.

Popular Rebellion & Imperialist Designs by Gilbert Achcar | ZNet Article
http://www.zcommunications.org/contents/180818

At the moment, however, it looks like this scenario is doomed because of the unexpected sudden collapse of the structures of the regime in Tripoli. It looks like it was only wishful thinking for NATO to believe that they could keep the basic repressive structures of a regime which has been shaped over decades as the private business and private militia of the ruling family. It can’t work that way in a situation where the people are being armed, with a majority of the armed rebels being civilians turned fighters for the occasion. This is a real popular revolution, a real popular rebellion. A lot of the rebels would hardly accept the continuation of the structures of Gaddafi’s regime.

[...]

Many Libyans believe that in some way they hired NATO’s services like Gaddafi hired mercenaries. They called for help and got it from the Western powers that are looking forward to being remunerated for that, and they assure them that they will get rewarded. They will tell you, “We will carry on making deals with them as Gaddafi’s regime was doing anyway.” Believing this is an illusion of course. But the belief that NATO can control the situation from afar and without boots on the ground is also an illusion. Many people in NATO circles are aware of that and have therefore designed plans for sending troops on the ground.

#lybie

Libya: The Ruined Revolution | As‘ad AbuKhalil | Al Akhbar English
http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/libya-ruined-revolution

Western oil companies are scrambling to get a foothold in the new Libya, just as they competed to win favor with Qaddafi’s’s regime. The Libyan Transitional Council does not bode well: it is headed by Qaddafi’s Minister of Justice and his second-in-command is the former mentor of none other than Gaddafi’s son Sayf Al-Islam. The Gaddafi era may have ended, but with NATO in charge, it is likely that the new leader of Libya is another Hamid Karzai or an even more compliant client of Western powers. Mustafa Abd al-Jalil will be the weakest leader of any Middle East country; With NATO in charge, it is certain that Libya won’t be free. For that to happen, the Libyan people have to rise up again, this time against the external forces of colonial powers, and against the reactionary ideologies that the new Libyan government will bring along with it.

Six Official Lies And Misconceptions Of Euro-US War On Libya – James Petras
http://www.eurasiareview.com/six-official-lies-and-misconceptions-of-euro-us-war-on-libya-oped-300

The key point is that while Libya allows the biggest US-European multi-nationals to plunder its oil wealth, it did not become a strategic geo-political-military asset of the empire. As we have written in many previous essays the driving force of US empire-building is military – and not economic. This is why billions of dollars of Western economic interests and contracts had been sacrificed in the setting up of sanctions against Iraq and Iran – with the costly result that the invasion and occupation of Iraq shut down most oil exploitation for over a decade.

The Washington-led assault on Libya, with the majority of air sorties and missiles strikes being carried out by the Obama regime, is part of a more general counter-attack in response to the most recent Arab popular pro-democracy movements. The West is backing the suppression of these pro-democracy movements throughout the Gulf; it finances the pro-imperial, pro-Israel junta in Egypt and it is intervening in Tunisia to ensure that any new regime is “correctly aligned”. It supports a despotic regime in Algeria as well as Israel’s daily assaults on Gaza. In line with this policy, the West backs the uprising of ex-Gaddafites and right-wing monarchists, confident that the ‘liberated’ Libya will once again provide military bases for the US-European military empire-builders.

In contrast, the emerging market-driven global and regional powers have refused to support this conflict, which jeopardizes their access to oil and threatens the current large-scale oil exploration contracts signed with Gaddafi. The growing economies of Germany, China, Russia, Turkey, India and Brazil rely on exploiting new markets and natural resources all over Africa and the Middle East, while the US, Britain and France spend billions pursuing wars that de-stabilize these markets, destroy infrastructure and foment long-term wars of resistance.

Je n’ai pas vraiment d’opinion définitive sur la question, pas de religion quant à James Petras, mais je pense que c’est un texte intéressant pour alimenter la réflexion.

David Cameron’s gift of war and racism, to them and us (John Pilger)
http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/david-cameron-s-gift-of-war-and-racism-to-them-and-us

The Euro-American attack on Libya has nothing to do with protecting anyone; only the terminally naive believe such nonsense. It is the West’s response to popular uprisings in strategic, resource-rich regions of the world and the beginning of a war of attrition against the new imperial rival, China.
President Barack Obama’s historical distinction is now guaranteed. He is America’s first black president to invade Africa. His assault on Libya is run by the US Africa Command, which was set up in 2007 to secure the continent’s lucrative natural resources from Africa’s impoverished people and the rapidly spreading commercial influence of China. (...)

How The So-Called Guardians Of Free Speech Are Silencing The Messenger by John Pilger | ZSpace
http://www.zcommunications.org/how-the-so-called-guardians-of-free-speech-are-silencing-the-messen

The Guardian has made clear it has no further use for Assange. He is a loose cannon who did not fit Guardianworld, who proved a tough, unclubbable negotiator. And brave. In the Guardian’s self-regarding book, Assange’s extraordinary bravery is excised. He becomes a figure of petty bemusement, an “unusual Australian” with a “frizzy-haired” mother, gratuitously abused as “callous” and a “damaged personality” that was “on the autistic spectrum”. How will Speilberg deal with this childish character assassination?

#wikileaks #julian_assange #guardian

BBC News - New media emerge in ’liberated’ Libya
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12579451

it would be interesting to see who’s behind it, as well as behind the ’free’ radios

Frattini and Berlusconi Slow to Criticise Gaddafi | MIGRANTS AT SEA
http://migrantsatsea.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/frattini-and-berlusconi-slow-to-criticise-gaddafi

la politique anti-#migrants de l’UE va coûter cher

As reported by the EU Observer, while the EU and most member states are now condemning #Libya’s actions, “[o]n the other side of the EU divide, #Italy is horrified at the possible loss of a close ally. Foreign minister and ex-EU-commissioner Franco Frattini is trying to convince other European states that Mr Gaddafi has promised constitutional reforms and that the bloc should allow him to make good. ‘Italy as you know is the closest neighbour of both Tunisia and Libya so we are extremely concerned about the repercussions on the migratory situation in the southern Mediterranean,’ Mr Frattini told reporters on Sunday. The previous day, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he did not want to ‘disturb’ his long-time friend with appeals for restraint.”

http://euobserver.com/9/31842

Berlusconi dit, texto : « je n’ai pas de nouvelles de Kadhafi ; et comme la situation évolue, je préfère ne pas le déranger »

“I haven’t yet heard from Gaddafi. The situation is evolving and so I don’t feel I should disturb anyone.”

#libye

#khadafi a donné 1,5 millions de £ à la London School of Economics l’an dernier
Brawl at LSE as Libyan groups clash over Gaddafi’s son’s speech | News
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23838481-brawl-at-lse-as-libyan-groups-clash-over-gaddafis-s

The demonstrators were protesting at the presence of Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the eldest son of the Libyan leader, who received a PhD from the LSE in 2009.
His charitable foundation gave the University’s Global Governance Research Unit a grant of £1.5m in July last year.

#libye #LSE

The #WikiLeaks cables reveal much less than the Pentagon Papers | Michael Burleigh | Media | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/05/wikileaks-cables-pentagon-papers

Moreover, the WikiLeaks documents merely provide a small window into US foreign policy at a certain, necessarily gossipy, level. They are interesting, but about as reliable as hearsay evidence in court about a stabbing in a packed nightclub.

Libye, des milliers de personnes auraient pris d’assaut 800 habitations non attribuées. La police aurait laissé faire.
http://aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4B691654-6590-41EC-B30F-7424AD7D04C4.htm

وقالت مصادر صحفية ليبية مطلعة في اتصال هاتفي للجزيرة نت إن آلاف المواطنين اقتحموا مشروعا يحوي 800 وحدة سكنية في منطقة الغوارشة بمدينة بنغازي، حيث اقتحموا هذه الشقق التي لم يتم تسليمها لأصحابها واستولوا عليها.

#Libye