TEHRAN – Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari has said that the United States failed in its attempts to establish a subservient regime in Iraq.
“The U.S. were seeking to establish a (puppet) government in Iraq to be able to plunder the country’s resources… but failed,” Jafari stated during a meeting with Iraq’s Army Chief Babakir Zebari in Tehran on Monday.
Jafari added through the will of God, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was deposed by the enemies of the two nations of Iran and Iraq, and an Islamic and popular government was formed in Iraq.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Jafari stated, “Despite efforts by the U.S. and Israel, which are the true enemies of the two countries of Iran and Iraq, they have not been able to drive a wedge between the two nations, the two countries, and their armed forces.”
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ILWQ Comments–Perhaps the USA will succeed in setting up a puppet state in Libya
Although I don’t often agree with the viewpoints of the military personnel from any county, I will say that I agree with this assessment: The U.S. failed to establish a puppet regime in Iraq; however, it wasn’t from lack of trying as that was the primary purpose all along–just as it is now in Libya.
Already those from the West are scheming as to how to change the thinking of Libyans–from that of a “welfare state” (where they enjoy gas at prices measured in cents, where all citizens have free healthcare and free college and free electricity) to that of a corporate run debt slavery state where profiteers take over and dispense welfare–not for the majority, but for themselves.
Speakers on Public Radio Discussed Resetting Libyan’s Expectations for Government
I was thinking yesterday, as I drove home from work, and listened to a discussion on public radio regarding how it was going to take some time to “change the mentality and expectations of Libyans.” One of the guests in the discussion said that currently Libyans pay for their gasoline in cents, not dollars and many of them have expectations that gasoline will be even cheaper once the new government is established. Another guest mentioned that all Libyans had free electricity while another said “That will have to end.” And there there are the issues of healthcare and education–again all free to all Libyan people. They all spoke in unison about “ending the welfare state.”
When all the people of a nation share the wealth of the nation it’s called a “welfare state”, “socialism”, “communism” by Wall Street and Washington and labeled “evil”. When Wall Street corporations dispense the wealth of a nation back to the people on a “for profit” basis to reward their wealthy CEOs and shareholders, it’s called “free enterprise.”
It’s free enterprise all right–free enterprise and “freedom” for the rich to plunder the wealth of a nation. ”Free” enterprise for whom? is a good question that I hope Libyan citizens will be asking in the weeks and months to come as representatives from the western corporations try to mold Libya into the same debt-ridden nation that Europe and the USA have become.
It will be interesting to see what unfolds in Libya and if the minions from the West will be able to mold Libya, a debt free nation, into a debt-ridden corporate slave state. IMF has no business whatsoever in Libya. If there are any leaders in Libya who care about their nation, they will bar any discussions with this heinous group of criminals. Furthermore, IMF has no business in Libya as there is no debt for them to “restructure.”
Most Don’t Believe that NATO Participated in the Overthrow of Gaddafi for Altruistic Reasons
There are many who say that the real reason that NATO participated in the overthrow of Gaddafi was because he wanted to abandon the U.S. dollar and unite Africa and Muslim countries with a gold-back currency. A good case can be made for this theory. In 1986, 2000, and the months prior to the 2011 Libyan Civil War, Gaddafi announced plans for a unified African gold dinar currency, to challenge the dominance of the US dollar and Euro currencies. The African dinar would have been measured directly in terms of gold, which would mean a country’s wealth would depend on how much gold it had rather than how many dollars it traded, allowing a greater sharing of the wealth and self-determination in Africa. This has led some Africans to believe that, because it may have disrupted the dollar-dominated world economy, this may have been a reason for NATO’s 2011 military intervention in Libya against Gaddafi. Source: Wiki
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An Economist Explains What Transpired in Libya
Adrian Salbuchi, an Argentine economist, explains the Libyan drama succinctly : Salbuchi said Gaddafi’s death was undoubtedly a message for the whole world, as it is not just about Libya.
“We are seeing how Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State expressed it very clearly: ‘We came, we saw, he died,’ and then started laughing. This is a message to the world of how this new world order model actually works,” he stated. “When they decide to change the regime, they do so with the utmost violence, and it is a whole model. First they target a country by calling it a rogue state; then they support local terrorists and call them freedom fighters; then they bring death and destruction upon civilians and they call it UN sanctions. Then they spread lies and call it the International Community’s opinion expressed by the Western media. Then they invade and control the country and call it liberation and finally they steal appetizing oil and call it foreign investment and reconstruction,” Salbuchi explained. [Source]
Is the West, and the USA in particular, building up a Case to Attack Iran?
I have to wonder if this is what the Wall Street/Washington leadership are doing with Iran. Their relentless focus on this nation seems far out of proportion to reality. If you look at videos and listen to reports of visitors returning from Iran, you will get a much better balanced idea of Iran than if you listen to all the carefully crafted propaganda coming out of Washington. We really must ask: Who the hell do we think we are telling another nation of the world that they cannot have nuclear weapons when you look at the stockpile that we have and consider that we are the only nation on this planet who has ever unleashed nuclear weapons on our fellow human beings. Furthermore, if you want to scare yourself silly with “what if” considerations, look no further than Pakistan, a nation with a history of harboring and even training Jihadis. They have nuclear weapons. Seems to me like US interests might better be served if our leaders focused on THAT situation and cleaned it up before going after Iran. We have world situations like Syria whose leader in 1982 murdered 30,000 of its people and the West did nothing. Today that same situation is in progress and the West is doing nothing. The pretense of “liberating” the people from leaders like Gaddafi and Saddam just don’t hold water in the light of day.
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Conclusion
All Americans should seriously consider the government that we have in place in Washington DC. All Americans should question the value of the two-party system–indeed, even if we have a two-party system. Based on how little changes, regardless which party is in power, one must question wherein lies any degree of separation between the two–except, of course, in their political rhetoric. Instead of a two-party system, we need a multiple party system to better insure justice for all instead of just the 1%.
If the majority of the American people really want change that makes a difference for the better in their lives, they are going to have to remove almost all the current members of BOTH houses of Congress. They are going to have to elect people who will represent the 99%. This means no millionaires. Currently millionaires who represent 1% of the US population make up 44% of Congress. The 99% will NEVER have representation with that ratio. Never.
In 2012, voters should be asking all candidates (including incumbents) two questions to start: 1) Are you a millionaire? and 2) Do you own Wall Street stock. If so, what companies are you invested in ? Note: if they are incumbents, look up the increase in their net worth in Open Secrets. You will find for most of them that it increased in the years 2008 to 2010. Ask them how is it possible that they can be getting richer while telling the 99% that we should sacrifice.
In 2012, each of the 435 districts should have an Independent candidate who is a non-millionaire, non-Wall Street invested candidate from the 99% living in that district. All citizens who meet the qualification should seriously consider running for office, or supporting a friend in their efforts to get to Washington to represent the 99%. We the people should never be more than three degrees of separation from our elected US Congressional Representative: 1) We know the candidate personally or 2) We have a friend who knows the candidate personally 3) We have a friend of a friend who knows the candidate personally.
We need to study what Libya was doing right and see if we can learn from it.
I don’t advocate dictatorships. However, there are aspects of accomplishments of the Gaddafi regime for the majority of Libyans that are indisputable. While our children go into years of debt to get an education, all children got their education free in Libya. While we pay huge electric bills each money to corporate run utilities and their wealthy shareholders, all Libyans had free electricity. While many Americans die quietly off stage from lack of affordable and adequate health care, Libyans enjoyed free health care. And all of this was delivered to the Libyan people without creating a debt and obligations to bankers. If we are smart, we will study this and take from it the parts that are good for the USA. If Libya was able to provide free electricity and educate its children and provide free healthcare to all its citizens, we have to ask: Why can’t we do the same in the USA–a country many times the size of Libya and with many more resources?
We need to rethink the myths about the “inefficiency of government workers” that we have been spoon-fed by corporate owned media.
POGO’s study [Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors ] shows that the federal government approves service contract billing rates that, on average, pay contractors 1.83 times more than the government pays federal employees in total compensation, and more than 2 times the full compensation paid in the private sector for comparable services. Given that one-quarter of all discretionary spending now goes to service contractors, a reassessment of the total federal work force, with a focus on contractor billing rates, could save taxpayers billions of dollars annually.
The Al Arabiya News reports that Saadi Qaddafi, 38, has been granted asylum in Niger. Saadi fled Libya across its southern frontier to Niger in August during the fall of Tripoli that ended his authoritarian father’s 42-year regime.
The report also stated that Niger denies finding any surface-to-air missiles. Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries which shares a massive border with Libya. It is through this ungoverned desert border that three of Qaddafi’s generals, one of his sons and his chief of intelligence fled in convoys escorted by ethnic Tuaregs, the traditional inhabitants of the Sahara who fought alongside Qaddafi.
Military experts are concerned about Qaddafi’s stockpile of SA-7 surface-to-air missiles, a shoulder-fired weapon that can be hidden in a PVC tube and looks like a rolled-up poster, said Africa expert Peter Pham, the director of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center.
Not unlike the ‘stinger’ missiles that allowed the Afghans to take down Soviet planes, the SA-7s usually have an infrared red sensor on them, allowing fighters to aim them in the general direction of a passing plane. The weapon is powerful enough to take down a commercial jet in mid-flight. Experts worry that the hundreds of surface-to-air missiles left behind by Qaddafi’s fleeing military are being sold to terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa.
The President of neighboring Chad told French weekly Jeune Afrique in March that he was “100 percent sure” that the al-Qaeda affiliate which operates in Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Algeria, had gotten their hands on Qaddafi’s surface-to-air missiles.
“Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court’s chief prosecutor, told the United Nations yesterday that Nato troops would be investigated alongside rebel soldiers and regime forces for alleged breaches of the laws of war during the battle to overthrow Col Muammar Gaddafi.
As well as the original charges that Gaddafi and his close family perpetrated attacks on Libyan civilians, there are a series of complaints about the Western alliance and its allies in the National Transitional Council (NTC) under consideration. . . . MORE
“There are allegations of crimes committed by Nato forces, allegations of crimes committed by NTC-related forces … as well as allegations of additional crimes committed by pro-Gaddafi forces,” said Mr Moreno-Ocampo. “`These allegations will be examined impartially and independently by the prosecution.”
In terms of civilian deaths, we will likely never know. Estimates currently vary from 2,000 to 30,000.
NATO did not limit its use of munitions to precision munitions. British Army Apache ground attack helicopters – used later in the campaign – fired some 4,000 rounds from their 30mm cannon. It is a weapon designed to provide an arc of fire, and its use in Afghanistan has been responsible for a number of civilian casualties.
Much of the fighting took place in built-up areas and a known tactic of pro-Gaddafi forces was to hide among the civilian population.
The sheer scale of the Nato bombing campaign – with 9,658 strike sorties – suggests that it would have been very hard to avoid civilian casualties.
9,658 strike sorties carried out in Libya by NATO!
But don’t expect any accurate estimates to be forthcoming. Twelve years after Nato’s bombing campaign over Kosovo, there is still no accurate figure for the number of civilians killed. The estimates are between 200 and 500.
Has Libya gone from Bad to Worse? It is beginning to look that way.
The Washington Post reports that many members of these militias have made it clear that they will not submit meekly to new civilian authorities. No surprise here. A great big “DUH” might be fitting for NATO and the US State Department who helped put these terrorists in power. With Gaddafi there was only one. Now there are hundreds of them.
Ironically the “freedom” leaders for many of these militias are Islamist jihadis that Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, released from prison. In March of 2009, 170 members of a radical Islamist group (LIFG) jailed for plotting to overthrow the government of Muammar Gaddafi were released. In the 1990s LIFG staged bloody battles in city streets and the mountains of Libya in their attempts to overthrow Gaddafi. The LIFG is considered a key component in the revolution that brought down the Gaddafi regime. Approximately 800 members of the LIFG are believed to have participated in fighting alongside rebel forces, under the leadership of Abdelhakim Belhadj.
And “surprise”! A spokesman for Abdulhakim Belhadj said, “Creating a new army is not going to be by an official statement or resolution. It has to come after a negotiation.” Uh huh and by the way, Belhaj hates the USA almost as much as he hates the Gaddadfi family. He has said more than once that sharia law will be the law in Libya. Those who think that he is going to let go his power with a bloody fight are very mistaken.
This guy was detained by Malaysian officials in 2004 on arrival at the Kuala Lumpur airport, where he was subjected to extraordinary rendition on behalf of the United States, and sent to Thailand. His pregnant wife, traveling with him, was taken away, and his child would be 6 before he saw him.
In Bangkok, Mr. Belhaj said, he was tortured for a few days by two people he said were C.I.A. agents, and then, worse, they repatriated him to Libya, where he was thrown into solitary confinement for six years, three of them without a shower, one without a glimpse of the sun. . . .”
At least 100 militias are operating in the city of Misurata, which suffered a bloody siege during the war, and more than 150 are in Tripoli, Western officials said. There are dozens more in Benghazi.
And guess who is shaping up to be the most likely leader of the Libyan Military? Mr. Belhaj himself.
Good Luck Libya, from what I see, you have gone from bad to worse.
Already, and rightly so, there is mistrust of the NTC. It is reported that young Libyans are disappointed by the National Transitional Council’s lack of support for the victims, or “heroes” of the revolution, and they are deeply sceptical about the priorities of Libya’s new rulers.
“I heard that there was $1 billion (or more) for the wounded coming from the NTC. But I’m not sure where this money is going. I don’t see it so far,” said Aladdin al-Tiga, 25, an NGO worker raising money for injured fighters.
It was criminal of NATO to enable this mess and then leave. In fact, it is not only criminal, it reminds me of a similar stupidity following the “mission accomplished” of Iraq. Instead of uniting the huge group of soldiers who had served Saddam, the USA just released them. Imagine that! Literally thousands of trained soldiers suddenly fired and out of work. It looks like military leaders of the West never learn. But who knows? Perhaps that is part of the plan. As long as there is war, they will have a job and war profiteers will make money.
Told you so two months ago: August 29, 2011 — and if I knew, then you must ask: what was the US State Department thinking?
A Tunisian court has issued an international arrest warrant against the widow of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over alleged corruption.
Justice ministry spokesman Kadhem Zine el Abidine told Agencies that a Tunis court had issued the warrant against 48-year-old Suha Arafat, who was stripped of her Tunisian citizenship in 2007 and currently lives in Malta.
According to Tunisian papers, Suha Arafat is wanted over alleged corruption dating back to 2006, when she founded the Carthage International School in Tunis with the country’s much-vilified former first lady Leila Trabelsi.
Beatings, Shootings, Deaths in Detention of Tawerghans
As the days pass since the brutal murder of Gaddafi and more acts of terrorism continue to be meted out by the NTC “freedom” army, one wonders how these people can think they are any different from Gaddafi.
Oct 30, 2011 (New York) – Militias from the city of Misrata are terrorizing the displaced residents of the nearby town of Tawergha, accusing them of having committed atrocities with Gaddafi forces in Misrata, Human Rights Watch said today. The entire town of 30,000 people is abandoned – some of it ransacked and burned – and Misrata brigade commanders say the residents of Tawergha should never return.
Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of Tawerghans across the country, including 26 people in detention in and around Misrata and 35 displaced people staying in Tripoli, Heisha, and Hun. They gave credible accounts of some Misrata militias shooting unarmed Tawerghans, and of arbitrary arrests and beatings of Tawerghan detainees, in a few cases leading to death.
Libya’s new leaders have expressed concern over reports the International Criminal Court (ICC) is negotiating with Saif al-Islam, the fugitive son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The ICC is reportedly working on a deal for Saif al-Islam to surrender and be tried for war crimes in The Hague, Netherlands. Libyan officials, however, hope to capture Gaddafi’s on and put him on trial in Tripoli.
Oh yeah I’m sure that Saif would get a “fair” trial in Libya by the Jihadis who ran over Tripoli and murdered and sodomized Saif al-Islam’s father. Ironic that Saif is responsible for the release of many of them from prison.
Libya’s ruling National Transition Council pledged on Thursday to bring the killers of deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi to trial, Al Arabiya TV said. “With regards to Qaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us,” NTC vice chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga. We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army,” the top interim official said.
“Whoever is responsible for that (Qaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.”
Global disquiet has grown over how Qaddafi met his end at the hands of NTC fighters who hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following a NATO air strike. Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
In addition to Qaddafi’s killing by his capturers, a Youtube video showed a rebel trying to insert some kind of stick or knife into Qaddafi’s rear end. MORE AT AL ARABIYA
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ILWQ Comments
While it was certainly hideous and disgusting to watch Gaddafi’s murder and sexual assault by an as yet unknown pervert, we can thank the stars that citizens have the technology to film such events–otherwise, the entire story would have been whitewashed and forgotten. The majority of the world would never even know that it had happened.
Unless the trial is held in International Court, I wouldn’t count on much for the verdict–if indeed they do even bring the case to trial.
At least perhaps this promise/threat from the NTC will stop the looting and other executions that are being carried out by NTC “fighters.”
Fifty-three people, apparent Gaddafi supporters, were executed at a hotel in Sirte last week, Human Rights Watch said. The hotel is in an area of the city that was under the control of anti-Gaddafi fighters from Misrata before the killings took place. Human Rights Watch called on Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) to conduct an immediate and transparent investigation into the apparent mass execution and to bring those responsible to justice.
