Disturbing information regarding Libya

Whilst I remain supportive of the new Libyan government, I cannot help but feel alarm over the continued increase in arms smuggling that is occurring in that region. There is a good reason to believe that the militia’s of former rebels need to be pulled into line, and the Libyan government needs to bring all Islamists under control.

What I want to question is whether it is just the one side that is doing the arms smuggling. Why do I question the source of these arms?

1. Mali – Gadhafi had been giving arms to the Touareg in Mali and it is the Touareg that have acted in a questionable way in Mali. Could it be that the Gadhafi family and their supporters have continued to supply the arms? I throw up this question because I do not believe that there is a simple answer to the question regarding who has been financing the trouble in Mali and with members of the Gadhafi family living in Niger and Algeria I have my own suspicions.

2. Syria – the continued supply of arms to Syria is one of the things that disturbs me the most. Is it just Libya who is smuggling the arms to Syria? Is Libya being used as a conduit of arms being sent from Qatar or some other friendly country? Has the U.S. government been supplying the “rebels” in Syria via Libya?

There are many unanswered questions. I am not 100% ready to accept that it is Libya alone responsible for the supply of arms in the region. I suspect that prior to the rebellion and revolution in Libya that saw the end of the Gadhafi regime, the arms smuggling to the “Islamists” and rebels in Mali was either ignored or undetected by the world at large. There is sufficient evidence to show that Moammar Gadhafi had been supplying arms to the Touareg as a means of keeping them loyal to himself. He very likely supplied arms etc. to Niger and Algeria as well. I have not seen any analysis relating to the African countries that were friendly with Gadhafi with regard to the impact of Gadhafi money in each of those countries. One country really did stand out and that was Mali because the uprising in Mali followed the death of Gadhafi, and on top of that the leaders of the uprising and the damage that took place happened to be the Touareg. I feel that I am only seeing half of the story.

The Islamists in Libya remain a problem. In some areas such as Benghazi they continue to be out of control to the point where they are threatening Christians who live in the region.

Even though I am supportive of the new Libyan regime, I remain critical of their lack of action over certain matters. I want them to do more in relation to the attack upon the US consulate in Benghazi. I want to hear that there have been arrests and that people are being charged and even facing the death penalty over that attack. I have not seen enough in the way of positive action. In this respect the new regime has remained moribund. Yet, I do not believe that they are supporting the terrorists.

In the future I will be continuing to watch developments in Syria and Libya. I remain concerned about the strengthening of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the way in which that group have formed an alliance with “rebels” in Syria. I continue to remain neutral and not support either side in the Syrian conflict because I do not know enough about the “rebels”.  On the other hand I cannot support Assad because he is backed by Iran.

The reason that I am not against the No-Fly Zone

Whilst there is a good reason to exercise caution with regard to the rebels in Libya, there is another side that causes me to throw good sense and caution to the wind, and support those who want to get rid of Moammar Gaddhafi.  It is the manner in which people have disappeared.

In the past few weeks I have been reading of some of the stories that go back in time, where anyone who opposed Daffy Duck, even when residing in another country, could be arrested and taken away from their families. One such story involves a Libyan-American cardiologist, whose father was taken when he was 6 years old.

Another story, that of Eman al Obaidi has been told in part. The Daffy goons claimed that she was released but her family have stated that this is not the case, so now Eman is amongst those who have disappeared.

The New York Slimes takes up the story of the people who are looking for their relatives who have been taken during the fighting against Daffy goons. You can read the story here.

It has to be remembered that some of the rebel fighters are in fact Islamists. They have their own motivations for fighting; and some of them fought in Iraq too. However, these are not the majority of the rebels. The numbers are simply too big to believe that all of these people are Islamists and AQ associated individuals.  These rebel fighters have been brave and I have seen few critical reports (I did see one in Der Spiegel, where it was claimed that the rebels were killing the Daffy loyalists, but who knows if the story was accurate… it could be…). The journalists who have been with the rebels have observed the humane treatment given to the wounded government soldiers. For some there has been an opening of the eyes, as these people finally realize that the Daffy goons in charge have lied to them.

Since Daffy seized control in Libya thousands of people have disappeared, never to be heard from again. This is the same thing that happened under Saddam Hussein. The people were thrown into prison and tortured, before they were killed. So it is no surprise to hear that Daffy troops have captured these rebel fighters and then sent them to Daffy prison.

Some of the people who have been captured have been journalists. One team of 4 worked for the NY Slimes. They were missing for up to a week. The woman in the team has mentioned that she was abused, and that the whole team was terrorised when they were captured. She did not mention if she had faced being raped. Other teams of journalists have also gone missing. At the same time I heard that Daffy had captured the 70 members of an Italian tugboat. I have seen no reports about this incident and have no idea if they have been released. Neither have I heard that he actually released the Dutch SAS team that were captured. On the other hand, the rebels released the British SAS team as soon as their identities were verified. It shows the difference between the two sides, and this is one of the reasons that I have thrown my lot with the rebels.

The Lockerbie bombing is another reason for despising Daffy Duck and wanting to see him removed from power. Daffy ordered that bombing. On top of that there is the murder of the British policewoman outside of the Libyan Embassy in the 1990s. A staff member of the embassy was taking pot shots at the demonstrators who were there, and he deliberately shot and killed the policewoman. The man, who was covered by diplomatic immunity at the time was identified, but there was insufficient proof. He has been captured by the rebels, and the story has been brought up again. This time, a man who was a student in London at the time, has also fingered this man as being a Daffy spy who spied on the students and wrote reports about their activities. The man claimed that he was in the hands of the police when the policewoman was killed. However, that has not been confirmed. The man’s fingerprints were found on the window sill where the gun had been situated and fired on the protesters.

Therefore, I am scanning the stories coming out of Libya. I remain alert with regard to the signs of Islamism. From what I have been reading I have seen no evidence to support the idea that the coalition has been working with people who are Islamists and associated with Al Qaeda. Instead, I hear of people who are praising David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy. To my mind it is a case of wait and see if they are on the level when they say that they are not associated with AQ.

Daffy regime lies about Emani al Obaidi

Could this story be the equivalent of the story and lies about the death of Neda in Iran? Although Eman has not been killed like Neda, she burst upon the scene in a way that has provided a window into the lying and scheming of the Gadhaffi regime. This is the story of a woman who was detained at a checkpoint, handcuffed, abused and raped by at least 15 men over a period of 48 hours. Emani was helped to escape by people who lived near the checkpoint. Her friends are apparently still in custody.

This story has been covered by every news outlet including the New York Times and the BBC, as well as the various Reuters outlets. The New York Slimes used language in the story that indicates that the journalists writing the story are fed up with the Gadhaffi regime. In the words of the NYT:

For the members of the foreign news media here at the invitation of the government of Colonel Qaddafi — andlargely confined to the Rixos Hotel except for official outings — the episode was a reminder of the brutality of the Libyan government and the presence of its security forces even among the hotel staff. People in hotel uniforms, who just hours before had been serving coffee and clearing plates, grabbed table knives and rushed to restrain the woman and to hold back the journalists.

Ms. Obeidy said she was a native of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi who had been stopped by Qaddafi militia on the outskirts of Tripoli. After being held for about two days, she said, she had managed to escape. Wearing a black robe, a veil and slippers, she ran into the Rixos Hotel here, asking specifically to speak to the news service Reuters and The New York Times. “There is no media coverage outside,” she yelled at one point.

“They swore at me and they filmed me. I was alone. There was whiskey. I was tied up,” she told Michael Georgy of Reuters, who was able to speak with her briefly. “I am not scared of anything. I will be locked up immediately after this.” She added: “Look at my face. Look at my back.” Her other comments were captured by television cameras.

A wild scuffle began as journalists tried to interview, photograph and protect her. Several journalists were punched, kicked and knocked down by the security forces, working in tandem with people who until then had appeared to be hotel staff members. Security officials destroyed a CNN video camera and seized a device that a Financial Times reporter had used to record her testimony. A plainclothes security officer pulled out a revolver.

Two members of the hotel staff grabbed table knives to threaten Ms. Obeidy and the journalists.

 

One journalist, who clashed with the Daffy officials has been escorted out of Lebanon. It started when Emani sneaked into the Rixos hotel where the world wide journalists are being kept in Tripoli by the Daffy  Duck regime. She came to tell her story of being raped. There were scuffles, and a waitress pulled a knife on her, another tried to put a bag over her head, whilst a man pulled a gun on her and the journalists. A close up of the footage shows that the woman was not lying about her ordeal because she had scratches on her face, and evidence that her hands had been bound and there were bruises and blood on her legs.

The woman struggled with the Daffy goons, and she was moved outside, where she managed to raise her dress to show the injuries on her legs. One of the minders put his hand over her mouth in an attempt to stop her from talking. One of the waitresses had screamed at her “traitor”. She was shoved into a waiting car and then taken away. The newsmen on the scene managed to get pictures and to smuggle out film footage of the struggle that took place.

The Daffy spokesman then got up and told the journalists that the woman was drunk and that she was mentally incapacitated. When that story did not work, he made up another one claiming that the woman was a prostitute, that she was divorced and had 3 children and liked to have parties with men. Well, it turns out that Eman al Obaidi is a 26 year old law student in Tripoli, but who is a resident of Benghazi. She has never been married and she does not have children.

As part of the ever-changing story, Daffy goons claim that 4 men have been arrested in connection with her ordeal. They claimed that the woman is in the custody of her family and that they refuse to allow her to speak to the journalists. They claim that the case is very serious, and is an honour case. However, Emani’s parents who are in Tobruk tell another story. They say that the Daffy goons attempted to bribe them to get their daughter to change her story. In fact they attempted to bribe Emani to change her story.

Let’s see if the journalists who were a witness to this young woman’s attempt to tell the world what had happened to her, will continue to follow up on the story. Since one journalist has been forced to leave Tripoli, I wonder what will happen to the rest. Already they have been threatened via email regarding the stories that they are writing. Will there be other threats?

Emani’s story seems to be one that has brought out the cynicism of the journalists, not against her, but against the Daffy regime. The lies that have been told by the Daffy goons about the woman’s case has meant that they are even less likely to believe Daffy when he continues to claim that civilians are being killed in what have been precision hits upon specified targets in Tripoli and elsewhere in Libya.

An Australian news site has more information that was posted from the Washington Post regarding the woman and her parents. Likewise the language of the report is more than a little unusual with regard to the way in which the story has been reported:

The Washington Post spoke to Aisha Ahmed, from the rebel-held eastern city of Tobruk, in a phone interview in which she said she was proud of her courageous daughter Eman al Obaidi.

“I am very happy, very proud,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed told The Post that her daughter, 26, was a law student in Tripoli.

A rebel activist who was with Ahmed at the time of the interview said a government official had urged Ahmed to persuade her daughter to change her story.

“They said they will give her a new house and a lot of money and anything she wanted,” Hasan Modeer said. The message was passed on to Obaidi who refused, he said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/libyan-government-tried-to-bribe-rape-victim-to-keep-quiet/story-e6frfkyi-1226029400874#ixzz1Hs20aju4

The BBC and others had the same story showing that the journalists tried to intervene but they were strong-armed by Daffy goons.

There is another story that I discovered about a Libyan-British man who is being held by the regime. This man was presented to the journalists as being a member of AQ who had been in Yemen and who had confessed to raising funds for AQ via his mosque in GB. His British neighbour seemed to negate the story and the mosque in question seemed to be denying any links to AQ (MI5 or MI6 will have to investigate the story.

However, this story is consistent with the Daffy lies that AQ is responsible for the turmoil and that he sent his military to Benghazi and other cities to chase out the hoods and terrorists. In the initial days of the turmoil Daffy tried to claim that the people were on drugs and that they were in the clutches of outside influences.  The reason that I have been sceptical about the AQ claims has been that in the week prior to the first protests, Daffy released 100 people deemed to have been associated with AQ from jail. By doing that he had a convenient excuse to take heavy action against the protesters.

However, all is not what it seems, even in Libya, because the truth is that there is an element that have had connections to AQ, that have been to Iraq to fight with AQ. The question for me to work out is whether or not they did this for experience or whether they are Islamist to the point that they want to impose Islamism on the rest of the people in Libya. According to the main group of rebels they are Sufi, not Islamists or associated with AQ. So what is the truth? This might also be applied to Emani al Obaidi, except of course there seems to be sufficient evidence that she was attacked by the Daffy Duck goons, and they really did try to bribe her.

 

Revolution comes to the Middle East

It started in Tunisia when a shopkeeper set himself alight. From Tunisia it spread to Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Jordan and to Libya. The starting point in at least 2 countries seems to be convenient for the “revolutionaries”, rather than being started by those plotting behind the scenes.

From what I understand, the revolution in Tunisia began with a man setting himself alight in protest over demands to pay protection money. According to his family he was not involved in any groups demanding change. His was a one man protest. However, people behind the scenes seized the opportunity to start the protests that led to the demise of the Tunisian President. (when I have time I really should look up reports about the events that led to the overthrow of the Tunisian President).

In Egypt, it was a day of rage organized by young people that set the ball rolling. Now wait a minute… look at that language… “a day of rage”. Why does that remind me of Communists, Weather Underground, SDS, Code Pink and followers of Che Guevera from Cuba? ( I will touch on this again at some point). Yet Egypt is a lot more complex than these Communist plotters. The reason for the complexity is the Muslim Brotherhood, and El Baradei who was endorsed by Muslim Brotherhood (I will also touch on this point in another post). What started as a trickle became a stream and Hosni Muburak was pushed from power.

At the same time protests began in Jordan, Morocco, Syria and Yemen, but one thing stood out to me, and that was the reaction from Libya when the protests began. Let me explain it this way, buried in the middle of one news report was information that a Daffy Duck official who was in Africa at the time, heard about the protests elsewhere and rushed home.  I was not sure what way Daffy was leaning, but the world was soon to find out what Daffy had in mind. The first thing he did was release 100 prisoners who had been held because they had links to Al Qaeda. He intended to use them as an excuse for a crackdown.

The protests in Libya deserve a post of their own so I will deal with what I have learned since the first early protest. It started out small, a protest because of the arrest of a man who had links to the families of the 1000 plus political prisoners who had been killed in prison back in 1996. The Daffy goons fired shots at this small group of protesters and at least one was killed during the first protest. Just like in Egypt this was the root cause for the swelling of the crowds who were protesting.  Daffy decided to take the route of a brutal crackdown. The protesters managed to take out the fort in Benghazi. At the same time the justice minister and an army unit arrived in Benghazi. Instead of fighting with the protesters they joined them. Protests broke out in other cities, all the way to Tripoli. The crackdown has been brutal. Despite the calls by the protesters for a no-fly zone to be implemented the world dithered. The push has come from Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, with the great Duh Won having to be dragged into making a decision to back the UN resolution that put in place the no fly zone. This was at the  11th hour when Daffy’s thugs were on the outskirts of Benghazi and Daffy was threatening to show no mercy. (The full story will be given in later posts). Finally, the French began the action, with French aircraft swooping in and hitting the Daffy tanks.

Now, everything is not as it seems. Whilst I continue to back the “rebels” in Libya, I am well aware that the rebels are made up of a very intriguing mix of individuals. It appears that the people who have formed the National Transitional Council are professionals who have had no experience in government, yet they have pulled this coalition together to present a front to the world that says “we are pro-West”, but amongst those who are fighting, there are Islamists, and yes some who are associated with AQ, they have even gone to Iraq to fight. One thing that should be considered here is that these young men went to Iraq as mercenaries for AQ. Yes, they are even Islamists, but are they the majority? Or are they just a small group? The potential is there for AQ or other Islamists to try and gain a foothold in Iraq. Time will tell about what will happen next. In the meantime, the people in Benghazi have made a deal with Qatar to market the oil that is being produced.

To me, it seems that there is a good reason to treat each of these “revolutions” with suspicion. Who is behind them? In Bahrain, where there has been a somewhat brutal crackdown, it appears that the hand behind the curtain belongs to Iran. I suspect that perhaps an Iranian puppet master is hiding in Egypt (even though there has been one set back to the puppet master’s plans) and that perhaps either Iran or Muslim Brotherhood have been active in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and a few other countries. The only difference is Libya, and this is due to the fact that the events happening right now are tied to events that occurred in 1995-1996.  It is somehow tied to the shooting of the British policewoman outside of the Libyan embassy in London. I will try to elaborate on this hunch in a future post.

Should we be concerned about these revolutions in the ME? I think that we should be concerned, rather than welcoming with regard to the revolutions. I admit to my own unease when I see that even in Libya there are photos of Che Guevera being posted around the place. It could be that these people are totally ignorant about Che Guevera’s brutality which is matched by the brutality of Daffy Duck, even so the photo disturbs me. Yet, for now I will put this down to the fact that the rebels are indeed a very disparate group of individuals who have different aims.