LIBYA DISPATCH: Congresswoman McKinney leads independent fact-finding delegation

[Distant Observer]

Cynthia Ann McKinney, a former six-term US Congresswoman is traveling in Libya with a delegation of "independent" reporters.

On the ground they find little evidence of support for the Benghazi rebel faction in Western Libya, but increasing human suffering from the daily bombings, destruction of infrastructure and impact of the bombing and embargo on supplies of products such as gasoline.

It looks like this former oasis of modernity and economic progress in Africa will become the future Mecca for Western NGOs and international relief agencies.

This delegation, - as are foreign policy figures such as Richard Haas, and Obama's former Ambasador to China, Jon Huntsman -- is struggling with the question that Ted Koppel pointedly asked: “why it is that Libya, of all countries in that region, has won the humanitarian defense sweepstakes of 2011?”


---------

http://sfbayview.com/2011/cynthia-mckinney%E2%80%99s-truth-dispatches-from-libya-days-1-3/

Western Libya portrait is not what is being painted by the Western media

by Wayne Madsen

Tripoli, Libya, June 4-5, 2011 – Western media reports continue to indicate that Libyan rebels trying to oust Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power, backed by daily NATO air strikes, are gaining ground in western Libya. During a six-hour drive from the Tunisian border to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, this reporter saw no signs of Libyan rebel successes in western Libya. In fact, I witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main Tunisia-Tripoli highway in a town about one and a half hours west of Tripoli.

The DIGNITY Delegation witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main highway from Tunisia to Tripoli. – Photo: Wayne Madsen

The green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiryah not only adorns flag poles in towns from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, but a number of private residences are flying the green flag from their rooftops, on flag poles, and even from outside of top floor windows in medium size and small towns alike along the main highway.

..... there is a strong anti-Black racialist element within the Libyan rebel movement that used the mercenary meme to justify heinous war crimes by rebel units against Blacks from other African nations, as well as native Libyan Blacks.

http://sfbayview.com/2011/cynthia-mckinney%E2%80%99s-truth-dispatches-from-libya-days-1-3/

NATO war crimes in Libya exposed

Tripoli, Libya, June 5-6, 2011 – In the current NATO war on Libya, the citizens of European and North American NATO countries are being treated to the largest propaganda blitz by their governments in cahoots with corporate media outlets since the U.S.-led invasions and occupation of Iraq. The situation on the ground in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.
. . .
The only reason Muammar Qaddafi survived the blast was that he was away from the main residence tending to some animals, including two gazelles, kept in a small petting zoo maintained for his grandchildren. Muammar Qaddafi escaped the fate of his son and grandchildren by only about 500 feet.

The residence was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane. One of the warheads did not detonate and was later removed from what remained of a bedroom in the home. Libyan authorities do not have the technical capabilities to determine if the warhead contained depleted uranium.

NATO and the Pentagon claimed the residence was a military compound, yet there is no evidence that any military assets were located in the residence that was flanked by the homes of a Libyan doctor and businessmen. The Qaddafi residence actually is owned by Qaddafi’s wife.



------

Yard of the NATO Bombed Gaddafi Family residence (Military Target) visited by McKinney Delegation

----


It now look like Libya will be bombed or strangled into submission. A compliant and complicit regime will be installed. The country will be cleansed of black immigrants and non-muslims.

But the awful stench of imperialism and racism will hangs over the gatherings of victors as they mingle in Benghazi - that famous center of the North African slave trade where Arabs sold black to whites over the past centuries.

[tabatha]

1. How can you believe anything the Libyan govt shows anyone?

(Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's aides brought foreign media to a hospital on Sunday to see a baby they described as a wounded victim of a NATO air strike.

But a hospital staff member, in a note passed to a journalist, said the infant was in fact injured in a car accident.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/06/uk-libya-casualty-idUKTRE75504I20110606

Unrec for propaganda.

[Distant Observer]

3. Truth is the first casualty of WAR. Assume everything has some propaganda twist - on both sides

But I know from personal experience that much said about the Libyan conflict by the war propagandists is absolutely twisted with respect to both the nature of the Gaddafi regime and the nature of the opposition.

[tabatha]

7. You did not even know who was in charge of the rebel forces.

[Distant Observer]

16. You must be conflating all anti-war posts together - don't know what you are taking about

[Distant Observer]

4. Did you believe everything Sadaam technocrats said about WMD? But much turned out to be true.

[tabatha]

6. No, I did not.

But nothing the Libyan government has said is true. They have lied about everything.

Saddam lied. Gaddafi is lying.

[Distant Observer]

26. I guess you know not much about Libya over the last 40 years. Many opponents were pardoned

and given freedom to teach and preach by the same regime that you claim all manner of evil
against.

Just look at the facts of the types of repression that has been going on in countries through the region.

You will find the Gaddafi regime was among the least repressive of the many authoritarian regimes.

I you had any substantial knowledge of the region you would know that.

[gratuitous]

2. Who knows what will succeed Qaddafi?

From what I've been able to glean, the "rebels" against Qaddafi's regime aren't some monolithic group all of one mind on much of anything, except that they want Qaddafi gone from power in Libya.

As we found in Iraq, and in other despotic countries over the last 100 years, long-time dictators exercise a very deep and comprehensive hold on their countries. In ways large and small, no aspect of public life is untouched by the hand of the dictator, and the people who administer goods and services owe their positions to their loyalty to that dictator. Remove the dictator, and you don't necessarily end his hold.

So, who succeeds Qaddafi? Certainly a more reliably compliant and complicit regime is desireable for the West. But will the West really have the last word? Will the power vacuum suck up some heretofore unknown strongman, whose ruthlessness and lust for power cause him to ascend above the others? As odious as Qaddafi is (at least this week, next week he could go back to being our bestest friend again), will his successor be an improvement? And how do we know that? Will the rebel factions line up behind a new dictator? If they don't will they have the leverage to stop a new dictator from assuming power?

There are a lot of questions. Tough questions. Questions that no one seems to have the answer to. Questions that aren't being asked at all, as once again we boil down a complex situation into a good guy/bad guy scenario that invites us to root for the plucky underdogs against the tyrannical ruler. Questions that we should have better answers to before we get heavily invested in money, material and men.

[tabatha]

9. Try reading the TNC website.

http://www.ntclibya.com/

They sent out a twitter
NTC_of_Libya NTC Media
by ChangeInLibya
To all Libyans and none Libyans: Please tweet your ideas and hopes for the new Free Libya @ntc_of_libya #Libya #Tripoli #Benghazi #Feb17

They will be better then Egypt. I have read and seen enough to think that it will be a far better country.
I remember in the SA uprising, there were the same pessimists.

[gratuitous]

14. Well, a tweet! Can't get much better than that

I'm sure it will be proof against anyone trying anything funny. And with that log of ideas and hopes at the NTC or TNC or whatever-it-is site, the result will undoubtedly be far better than anything going on now. Although, from the buggy website you posted the link to, it's quite difficult to determine who is running the NTC, who it is supposed to represent, how it's funded, and how much support it has. But I'm sure they will answer all those questions in a highly satisfactory manner. Probably.

Good enough to start pouring money and troops into the area, and we can be 100% sure that once Qaddafi is toppled, nobody's going to get any cute ideas about setting up a new dictatorial regime. It's not like the U.S. doesn't have scads of money laying around and thousand of troops idling in the area of Libya.

[RZM]

5. LOL. The last sentence is priceless

Just couldn't resist linking the rebels to slavery, huh?

[Distant Observer]

11. Unfortunately the historic Cyrenaican link to the slave-trade parallel hatred of Gaddafi pan-African

policies in Libya. Along with hatred of Gaddafi's "heretical" interpretations of Islam, opposition to the regimes "open-borders" approach to immigration and large investments in Pan-African project are the factors which motivated the rebel factions.

[RZM]

18. Sorry, that's pretty dubious

Nobody's disputing the history of the Saharan slave trade. I'm sure Cyrenaica was an important area for slave trading, but so were many other places all over the world. Also, slaves in the Middle East came from a variety of groups - many were actually fair-skinned Christian Slavs and people from the Caucasus. It's certainly completely wrong to present it as a 'black/white' issue.

Also, from what I know, Ghadaffi's pan-African stance is at least partly a result of his failed earlier attempts to brand himself as 'Nasser Jr.' and achieve a leadership role in Arab nationalist circles.

[Distant Observer]

19. FACT: Benghazi was the major Trans-Sahara Slave-Trade Port even into the early 20th Century

The slaves sold in Benghazi were blacks from the South.

[RZM]

22. Did you read my post?

I'm not disputing that black slaves were traded in Benghazi. But when you place Benghazi in the larger context of slave societies, it ceases to have much relevance to the current situation. I apologize for the jargoney buzzwords, but you really have to 'world historicize' this here. Libya was tapped into a much larger world of slavery for thousands of years. Those black slaves you speak of themselves came from slave societies as well.

If you want to make an argument that the rebels are racist, then do so by all means. But I just don't see how the legacy of the slave trade says much about that when we all know that the African/Middle Eastern slave system included people of different hues from many different places.

[Distant Observer]

23. Thoughtful points. I don't know if rebels are racist. Reports of racist actions persist, however

Beyond this, the Cyrenaican-based opposition groups have had a distinct Arabist orientation and have chaffed at the Gaddafi regimes increasing pan-Africanism. That is the impression I have had over the past years

[Distant Observer]

8. McKinney and kucinich have their own biases, BUT at least they question the OFFICIAL stories fed

to the public.

[tabatha]

10. Why are you defending a known, proven

murderer - someone who says that all Libyans think through him?

[Distant Observer]

12. Have you read the sayings and ranting of many third world leaders? Gaddafi compares favorably

[Distant Observer]

13. BTW-- Libya was not listed by HRW as one of the big political murder/torture states -- Egypt, Iraq,

Israel, Morocco, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan -- all US allies, were.

[dionysus]

15. you're just embarrassing yourself by this point. i'm laughing ym ass off over here....

:rofl:

[Distant Observer]

17. At least I am not relishing the killing of people and destruction of a society. Have fun

[meow mix]

20. lol, pathetic. unrec..

:tinfoilhat:

tin hats for all!

[Starry Messenger]

21. k&r

[tritsofme]

24. Oh lordy, she is a buffoon!

Must be hard up for a gig these days.

[Distant Observer]

25. Compared to whom. All those slick Bushies who kill millions to look good. McKinney said impeach

Other let it go. And the killing is still going on.