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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: Planned Regime Change in Libya Planned Regime Change in Libya - by Stephen Lendman A March 25 White House press release announced Obama's planned March 28 national TV speech: "to update the American people on the situation in Libya, including the actions we've taken with allies and partners to protect the Libyan people from the brutality of Moammar Qaddafi, the transition to NATO command and control, and our policy going forward." Imagine the hypocrisy. US-style "humanitarian intervention" reigns death and destruction "to protect the Libyan people." Recall how "shock and awe" protected Iraqis, how war on Afghanistan helps Afghans and neighboring Pakistanis from predatory drone and ground attacks. Libyans are now tasting imperial viciousness firsthand. In fact, all US wars are imperial, not humanitarian, a long discredited propaganda ruse major media reports don't explain. Instead they cheerlead for war no matter how lawless, mindless, destructive or counterproductive, spreading malicious misinformation to justify intervention, concealing or downplaying the fallout from all conflicts let alone why they're waged. As a previous article explained, this one's for regime change like others, to replace one despot with another, control the entire Mediterranean Basin, colonize Libya, perhaps balkanize it, control its oil, gas and other strategic resources, exploit its people, privatize state industries, and establish new US bases for greater regional control. Gaddafi's Removal Planned in 2010 On March 25, Voltairenet.org headlined, "French plans to topple Gaddafi on track since last November," saying: "According to right-wing Italian journalist Franco Bechis, plans to spark the Benghazi rebellion were initiated by French intelligence services in November 2010." The progressive ComeDonChisciotte's Miguel Martinez explained that Italy's secret services backed the effort. "Voltaire Network wishes to point out that Paris promptly paired up with London in its scheme to overthrow Gaddafi (Franco-British expeditionary force). This plan was recalibrated in the context of the Arab revolutions," now controlled by Washington for its own purposes. Bechis explained the timeline from October 20, 2010 - January 22, 2011, saying Nouri Mesmari, Gaddafi's chief of protocol, "turned himself over to the French secret service, and according to the Italians, he masterminded the revolution against Gaddafi. The document was leaked to the Italian newspaper Libero." It explained that he revealed "inside information about the regime as well as an account of who's who in Libya and who they should or should not contact." As a result, "by mid-January the French" were ready to begin ousting Gaddafi. The campaign began weeks before the US-led NATO attack. On March 25, London Daily Mail Online writers David Williams, Tim Shipman and Daily Mail Reporter said before bombing began "it was revealed that hundreds of British special forces troops have been deployed deep inside Libya targeting Colonel Gaddafi's forces - and more are on standby." "While Chancellor George Osborne repeated that UK ground troops would not be involved, the Daily Mail can reveal there are an estimated 350 already mounting covert operations," along with US Special Forces and Egyptian commandos. "It is understood that just under 250 UK special forces soldiers and their support have been in Libya since before the launch of air strikes to enforce the no-fly zone against Gaddafi's forces," but they arrived well before its imposition. Another 100 now supplement the original contingent, comprised of Special Forces Support Group (SFSG) paratroopers. They're drawn from SAS (Special Air Service) and SBS (Special Boat Service) personnel, re- supplied by airdrops from Cyprus. Moreover, 800 Royal Marines "are on five days' notice to deploy to the Mediterranean," a clear sign of impending invasion with 4,000 US marines deployed nearby to join them. Libya's Rebel Opposition Forces: Democrats They're Not A London Telegraph Rob Crilly March 23 article headlined, "Libya: it wasn't supposed to be like this in free Benghazi," saying: So-called rebels "took no chances. They put a knife to the throat of (a) driver before hauling the three men and one woman from (his) car, dragging them through the street into a nearby mosque for a rough round of interrogation." Inside they were beaten until they admitted planning an attack on the mosque, whether or not true. "It wasn't supposed to be like this in free Benghazi....Rebel leaders admit that dozens of Gaddafi supporters have been arrested or killed." Every night, vigilante gangs "mop up (suspected) pro-Gaddafi elements." Foreign workers long ago fled the city. Most refugees, in fact, are foreign workers, not Libyan nationals, what major media reports don't explain. Under rebel control, Benghazi residents are terrorized, many "too frightened to drive through the dark streets at night, fearing a shakedown or worse at the proliferating checkpoints." One man said unless they know you, they assume you're pro-Gaddafi. Moreover, about 1.5 million black African migrant workers feel trapped under suspicion of supporting the wrong side. Numbers of them have been attacked, some hunted down, dragged from apartments, beaten and killed. So-called "revolutionaries" and "freedom fighters" are, in fact, rampaging gunmen committing atrocities airbrushed from mainstream reports, unwilling to reveal the new Libya if Gaddafi is deposed. In his latest article, Webster Tarpley supplied more information headlining, "The CIA's Libya Rebels: The Same Terrorists who Killed US NATO Troops in Iraq," saying: Already France and Portugal recognized anti-Gaddafi rebels "as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people." The names of most of their 30 + delegates aren't revealed. Opposition elements are an armed force, backed by Washington, France and Britain, the main co-belligerents. A 2007 West Point study examined their backgrounds as "foreign guerrilla fighters - jihadis or mujahedin, including suicide bombers - crossing the Syrian border into Iraq during the 2006 - 2007 timeframe, under the auspices of....Al Qaeda." Study findings are based on about 600 Al Qaeda captured personnel files by US forces in 2007. Most came from Saudi Arabia, others from Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, and Libya alone supplying almost one-fifth of them, more per capita by far than other regional states. Diverted now from fighting America in Iraq, they were recruited, armed and funded to oust Gaddafi. A previous article discussed their National Libyan Council leadership, a so-called "transitional government," accessed through the following link: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/03/imperial-war-on-libya.html Tarpley believes the Harabi tribe may be trying "to seize dominance over the" others. "The Harabi are already practically hegemonic among the tribes of Cyrenaica (Libya's eastern coastal region). At the center of the Harabi Confederation is the Obeidat tribe, which is divided into 15 sub-tribes." Harabi apparently has links to violent elements in Benghazi. They're former US enemies, now allies against Gaddafi to oust him. However, that begs the question. Will forces opposing US dominance, acquiesce once its imperial hand is evident, or will they resist later the way they're now doing. It's a consideration perhaps not planned for in Washington, London and Paris. In the fullness of time we'll know, including whether imperial forces unleashed a tiger they can't control. Yet Council on Foreign Relations' (CFR) member Charles Kupchan told IPS, "(T)he six million dollar question is where is this heading and I don't think we have a clear sense of it." As he knows but didn't say, of course we do. It's not humanitarian as he states. It's to terrorize Libyans until Gaddadi's ousted, then toughen things when he's gone as in Iraq and Afghanistan to assure Washington's hegemonic control. Allied with junior partners Britain and France, they'll carve up Libya for profit, crushing resistance mercilessly. It's how America operates globally, including at home where democracy is just a figure of speech, not reality. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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#1. To: Stephen Lendman (#0)
Today, there is blatant external aggression of USA and NATO against a sovereign country - Libya. And if anyone can doubt this, then we say this obvious fact is well known, because all this is happening before our eyes, and the actions of U.S. and NATO threaten the lives of not only the citizens of Libya, but to us who are on its territory. We are outraged by the barbaric bombing of Libya, which is currently carried out by a coalition of U.S. and NATO. The bombing of Tripoli and other cities in Libya is aimed not only at the objects of air defense and Libya's Air Force and not only against the Libyan army, but also the object of military and civilian infrastructure. Today, 24 March 2011, NATO aircraft and the U.S. all night and all morning bombed a suburb of Tripoli - Tajhura (where, in particular, is Libya's Nuclear Research Center). Air Defense and Air Force facilities in Tajhura were destroyed back in the first 2 days of strikes and more active military facilities in the city remained, but today the object of bombing are barracks of the Libyan army, around which are densely populated residential areas, and next to it - the largest in Libya's Heart Centers. Civilians and the doctors could not assume that common residential quarters will be about to become destroyed, so none of the residents or hospital patients was evacuated. Bombs and rockets struck residential houses and fell near the hospital. The glass of the Cardiac Center building was broken, and in the building of the maternity ward for pregnant women with heart disease a wall collapsed and part of the roof. This resulted in ten miscarriages whereby babies died, the women are in intensive care, doctors are fighting for their lives. Our colleagues and we are working seven days a week, to save people. This is a direct consequence of falling bombs and missiles in residential buildings resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, which are operated and reviewed now by our doctors. Such a large number of wounded and killed, as during today, did not result during the total of all the riots in Libya. And this is called "protecting the civilian population"? With full responsibility as witnesses and participants of what is happening, we state that the United States and its allies are thus carrying out genocide against the Libyan people - as was the case in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Crimes against humanity, carried out by coalition forces akin to those crimes committed by the fathers and grandfathers of today's Western leaders and their henchmen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and in Dresden in Germany, where civilians were also being destroyed in order to deter, to break the will of the people to resist (Germany remembers it, and therefore refused to participate in this new slaughterhouse). Today they want in such ways to make the Libyan people surrender their leader and the legitimate government and meekly lay down their national oil wealth for the countries of the coalition. We understand that applying to the "international community" to save the people of Libya and we were living in Libya, is useless. Our only hope - is Russia that has the right of veto in the UN, and specifically its leaders - the President and the Prime Minister. We still hope for you, as hoped in the past, when we took the decision to stay in Libya, and to help its people, medical duty playing its role in the first place. After an abortive coup attempt in late February, the situation calmed down in Libya and the government had successfully restored order. To everyone in Libya, it was clear that without American intervention the country would soon return to normal life. Convinced that Russia, which has veto power, would not allow the aggression of the United States and its allies, we decided to stay in Libya, but were mistaken: Russia, unfortunately, believed the false assurances of Americans and did not oppose the criminal decision of France and the U.S.
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