In Libya, the corporate media prepared and later whitewashed the murder of an independent nation and its legitimate leader.
A rather unappealing but widely disseminated picture of M. Gaddafi.
LIBYA - February 2011 - CNN manufactures phony ‘Arab Spring’ and this is fake ‘corroborated’ by CIA assets NGO Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and ‘leftist’ Democracy Now, Znet and Code Pink. Libya had a UN Quality of Life Index higher than nine European countries, even higher than Russia. Free education and health care with everyone owning their own apartments, wage labor illegal and 142 tons of gold in its State Bank! Where are Libya’s $ billions in financial assets, its gold and its enormous greening the desert Great Man-Made River project described as the “eighth wonder of the world,” now? [1]
[bg_collapse view="button-orange" color="#4a4949" expand_text="Click here and read extended caption" collapse_text="Close caption" ]Like most Western media, there's no doubt which side CNN is on. In keeping with its assigned mission to conduct a character assassination on anyone deemed an opponent or a nuisance by the US empire, this CNN clip, piling numerous accusations on Gaddafi, some of them obviously false flags, has no problem also using Ronald Reagan, a notorious and hypocritical war criminal given what he did in Central America alone, to sanctimoniously declare that Gaddafi is some sort of "mad dog", unworthy of respect in the community of "civilised nations". In that sense CNN along with her media sisters is not so much a dependable information channel as a magaphone for a lynching mob. [/bg_collapse]
On 10, 9, 2011, The Leader of NATO Member Italy Confessed even as Italian warplanes bombed Libya! Silvio Berlusconi was Prime Minister for nine years in total, making him the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy. Berlusconi was the senior G8 leader from 2009 until 2011, the year Libya was destroyed and plundered by the Colonial Powers and their subservient UN.
Earlier in July, Berlusconi had already said he was against NATO intervention in Libya but "had to go along with it", He added: "What choice did I have considering America’s pressure, President Georgio Napolitano’s stance, and the Parliament’s decision?" therewith exposing the fragility of the alliance trying to murder Gaddafi. Berlusconi had indicted himself, for Italy had actively participated in the bombing of Libya since April 28. Day and night, Italian fighter jets take off from Birgi Trapani air force base in Sicily and from the aircraft carrier Garibaldi to drop their deadly cargo over the former Italian colony.
Italy's light carrier G. Garibaldi. Libya provided the occasion for some real-life training for its F-16 pilot.
SIDEBAR—>Read in-depth analysis. Click button below
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Italy’s role in the war on Libya
By Marianne Arens, wsws.org
14 May 2011
Italy, which functions as a huge aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean for the Pentagon, facilitated these air bombing missions against Libya, too. In the Pentagonese lingo: "AVIANO AIR FORCE BASE, Italy (March 20, 2011) U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons return to Aviano Air Base after supporting Operation Odyssey Dawn. (sic) Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command task force established to provide operational and tactical command and control of U.S. military forces supporting the international response to the unrest in Libya and enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973." If this is not Orwellian, nothing is.
Italy has actively participated in the bombing of Libya since April 28. Day and night, Italian fighter jets take off from Birgi Trapani air force base in Sicily and from the aircraft carrier Garibaldi to drop their deadly cargo over the former Italian colony.
A few weeks ago, foreign minister Franco Frattini had said on his ministry’s web site that Italy should not participate actively in the war against Libya: “If an Italian aircraft bombed Libya and accidentally killed any civilians, the intervention would become counter-productive”. The Italian government feared comparisons with Italy’s 1911-1943 colonial rule over Libya, under both “democratic” and fascist Italian governments.
The decision to participate in the war despite this past took place after talks between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 26 April in Rome over how to deal with African immigrants. Sarkozy and Berlusconi agreed “to reject any type of trade or transport of hydrocarbons that could benefit Gaddafi’s regime.” Immediately thereafter, the Italian prime minister announced that his country would participate actively in the war beginning 28 April.
Italy’s participation in the war stems from the fear that it could lose its influence in Libya to France, Britain and the United States. The Financial Times noted: “The Franco-Italian spat over immigration follows sharp differences over Libya, where Rome has been dragged into a war it would rather avoid, fearing a Paris-Benghazi nexus will freeze out its substantial interests in Libyan oil and gas”.
The Libyan oil and gas reserves are a powerful motive for the Italian bourgeoisie to participate actively in the inter-imperialist struggle over their North African neighbour. Italy draws a quarter of its oil imports and ten percent of its natural gas from Libya. The energy group ENI has invested billions of euros in assets in Libya. Until the outbreak of open hostilities, Italy was the largest foreign trade partner of Libya, the largest buyer of its crude oil, and one of Gaddafi’s largest arms suppliers.
Rome officially recognized the National Transitional Council of Benghazi on April 4 and has sent ten military advisers. It treats the Transitional Council as a Libyan government in waiting and has supplied it with money and apparently also with weapons, according to a spokesman in Benghazi at the weekend.
The decision to participate actively in the war caused a few quarrels in Italy’s governing coalition. The Northern League justified its opposition by citing fears of an uncontrolled influx of African refugees should the war drag on. Gaddafi—who in recent years had prevented African refugees from crossing the Mediterranean, placing them in camps with Italian financial help—has threatened to let them emigrate in large numbers to Italy.
The Northern League also fears Italy could be dragged behind other European powers, especially France. Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League, told the newspaper Padania: “We have become a French colony.” Italy’s constant giving in to the demands of Paris would have "serious consequences,” he explained: “You don’t gain international importance by always saying yes.”
But the Northern League is careful to not to seriously jeopardize the government. It was appeased when it was proposed to put a time limit of three to four weeks on Italy’s participation in the war. The other NATO partners reject placing such a limitation on the war, however.
The strongest support for the war in Libya comes from Italy’s so-called centre-left opposition and their supposedly “left” periphery.
The largest opposition party, the Democratic Party (PD), which came out of the Italian Communist Party (CPI), enthusiastically supports the NATO war against Libya. On 23 March and on 4 May, the PD spoke out in parliament expressly supporting the NATO attacks.
During the 4 May sitting, PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani proposed a motion that obliged the government to “take any necessary initiative to ensure the specific protection of the civilian population.” This follows the wording of the UN resolution that gave the green light for the war. Bersani said: “We want to see if the majority is able to really enforce Italy’s commitment.” His motion was carried with a large majority, with the government coalition abstaining.
President Giorgio Napolitano, a former long-time CPI official, justified Italy’s participation in the war, saying: “We are not at war, the United Nations Charter contains a chapter, the seventh, which states that in the interest of peace, actions by the armed forces were allowed to suppress violations of the peace.”
Asked by the newspaper Il Manifesto to explain how this was compatible with Article 11 of the Italian constitution, which forbids waging war against other peoples, Napolitano said “Article 11 prohibiting war must be read correctly and be interpreted in context. If we participate in the operations against Libya under Resolution 1973 of the UN Security Council, Italy is not participating in a war and is not violating the integrity of other nations.”
Politicians such as Fausto Bertinotti (who led Rifondazione Comunista until 2006) and Nichi Vendola (Sinistra Ecologia Libertà) have provided support for the Italian bourgeoisie. There is no one who knows better how to obscure the facts, providing a pseudo-“left” gloss for the war as a “humanitarian mission” and the “defence of democracy,” than these masters of political deception.
Fausto Bertinotti wrote on his web site that the anti-Gaddafi opposition must be defended. “Pacifism is not a concept that is set in stone,” he said, adding that it must be “flexible”.
In February, Nichi Vendola endorsed the National Transitional Council’s efforts to overthrow Gaddafi and welcomed UN resolution 1973 in March. Today, he is calling for a ceasefire and for humanitarian assistance under the control of the European Union.
The EU wants an intervention in Libya independent from NATO. With the EUFOR Libya mission, the EU stands “armed and ready,” waiting for a request from the UN. The mission consists of two European battle groups, each with 1,500 men, and is under the command of an Italian rear admiral. The task of the EUFOR Libya mission would be to forcibly clear a “humanitarian corridor” into the contested areas.
At the time of the Iraq war, Rifondazione Comunista, whose members also included Vendola, placed itself at the head of the anti-war movement. In Rome alone on 15 February 2003 three million people demonstrated under the slogan “No to war, with no ifs and buts”. Rifondazione, however, made sure that the movement would not threaten bourgeois rule in Italy. Today, however, Rifondazione and its successor play the key role in suppressing and disorienting anti-war sentiment.
Military experts take less trouble to conceal the true nature of the Libya war. Andrea Nativi, director of the Rivista Italiana di Difesa military newspaper, said: “This is a war, and there is no war without deaths.”
Answering the position that the Italian operations should be directed only against specific military targets, Nativi argued for a broader selection of targets: “The more restrictions that are imposed, the longer the war will last, and the longer the war lasts, the more deaths there will be. This may seem cynical, but that is how it goes.” On the question of the use of ground troops, he said: “The plans are ready for this.”
The intervention has already caused great destruction in Libya. There have been daily rocket attacks for seven weeks. The media are silent on how many people, civilians or soldiers, have been killed.
During the night of 10 May, NATO again attacked the capital Tripoli and unleashed a three-hour murderous inferno. According to the official version, NATO’s mission is only directed at military installations in order to “protect Libyan civilians.” But civilian targets such as radio and TV stations and Gaddafi’s private residence have been attacked systematically.
The true character of the “humanitarian mission” is also seen in the fate of the refugees. Their lives, their health and their democratic rights are obviously not what is meant when it comes to the “protection of civilians”.
Many migrants die in the open sea on the dangerous crossing from Libya to Lampedusa. On 9 May, a boat was found that had drifted helplessly at sea for sixteen days. Of 72 aboard, according to a report by the Guardian, only eleven survived the horrific trip; 61 had died of hunger, thirst or exhaustion.
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There exists not one photo or video of a peaceful protest (CNN reported peaceful protests being fired upon by Libyan soldiers and police.) There Was No Libyan Peaceful Protest, Just Murderous Gangs and Nic Robertson, Information Clearing House, June 20, 2011 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28376.htm
Even in death, Gaddafi was vilified by the Western press, which completely reflects and amplifies the propaganda lines the establishment wishes to disseminate. British media broke records for vileness during this dark episode.
On the other hand, on July 1st, 2011, nearly one million Libyans, out of a total population of six million, wildly demonstrated in favor of their nation’s government with a mile long green flag while listening to Gaddafi’s voice even as NATO warplanes were bombing nearby in Tripoli. See the videos, ignored by Western criminal media. [2]
Gaddafi was the first and only UN General Assembly delegate to ever to call for investigation of the UN itself for its role in the horrific loss of lives in Palestine and Korea. He demanded that besides those in Vietnam, Iraq, and that all bombings, invasions and occupations by US NATO forces must be investigated to seek justice and compensation for victims and survivors. Gaddafi bitterly explained the UN Charter's provisions were all negated by the domination of a 'Council of Terror' (Security Council) controlled by the Colonial Powers.
and HUGE PRO GADDAFI RALLY IN TRIPOLI - RAW FOOTAGE, 7/2/2011, www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=14505 (see above)
JAY JANSON, Resident Historian, Distinguished Collaborator • Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist, musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India and in the US by Dissident Voice, Global Research; Information Clearing House; Counter Currents and others; now resides in NYC; First effort was a series of articles on deadly cultural pollution endangering seven areas of life emanating from Western corporate owned commercial media published in Hong Kong's Window Magazine 1993; Howard Zinn lent his name to various projects of his; Weekly column, South China Morning Post, 1986-87; reviews for Ta Kung Bao; article China Daily, 1989. Is coordinator of the Howard Zinn co-founded King Condemned US Wars International Awareness Campaign, and website historian of the Ramsey Clark co-founded Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign, which Dissident Voice supports with link at the end of each issue of its newsletter.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Things to ponder
While our media prostitutes, many Hollywood celebs, and politicians and opinion shapers make so much noise about the still to be demonstrated damage done by the Russkies to our nonexistent democracy, this is what the sanctimonious US government has done overseas just since the close of World War 2. And this is what we know about. Many other misdeeds are yet to be revealed or documented.
Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found
In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” — acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump — a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report
Excellent post. Thanks Jay. Mention these realities of the demonization and destruction of Libya to most Americans and they look at you like you just landed from another planet.