Libya: Gadhafi’s Death in Perspective

Stratfor Global Intelligence Reports

Comment by Jim Campbell

Thanks again Obama for making the world more unstable. Your dithering and on again off again support for Gadhafi’s regime sends a very strong message to the world. One we have figured out here.  You know what you are doing yet it will end in your own demise.  See you November 6th. The world is a far more  dangerous place when a poser is in the White House.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

Rebel fighters killed former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Oct. 20 outside the town of Sirte. His body was then brought back to Misurata, where it was filmed being dragged through the streets. Several close aides, including family members, have been reported killed or captured as well.

Libyan National Transitional Council fighters burn posters of former leader Moammar Gadhafi

Gadhafi’s death is symbolically important for the rebels, but the fall of Sirte is even more significant for the effect it will have on the future stability of Libya. With the final holdout of the pro-Gadhafi resistance overtaken, the National Transitional Council (NTC) can now move to form a transitional government. But multiple armed groups across the country will demand a significant stake in that government, which will have serious implications for the future unity of the people who heretofore were referred as the Libyan opposition.

Though the Benghazi-based NTC has been widely recognized in the international community as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people, this has long since ceased to be the case in the eyes of many Libyans.

Libya, Green Flags, and The Heart of Darkness

nsnbc

Veterans Today

Reflections by Dr. Christof Lehmann

Dr. Christof Lehmann

After Muammar Ghadafi recently encouraged the Libyan People to peacefully protest NATO aggression and occupation, there are demonstrations throughout Libya.

Both Russia and China have voiced gravest concerns about NATO´s abuse of U.N. Resolution 1973 on Libya and The African Union is following suit. Will any of the players that could be decisive put their money where their mouth is?  

Sunday, October 9th, 2011 | Posted by Jim Fetzer

Nato-bombing-in-Tripoli-Libya-Gadhafi

The truth embargo of Western Media on Libya is slowly being undermined by independent media, where the defeat of NATO forces and the TNC becomes increasingly difficult to mask.  The result so far have been an humanitarian disaster and the commission of overt NATO aggression on unprecedented scale.     

After Muammar Ghadafi addressed the Libyan Population and world political leaders on 6 October, there were careful but widespread demonstrations throughout Libya, calling for an immediate end of NATO´s bombing and ground campaign. With over 2,000 civilians killed in Sirte alone and one military defeat after the other, even Western Corporate media find it increasingly difficult to mask the bitter truth. All that NATO and its bitterly divided TNC proxy with their CIA imported “rebels” have achieved so far is the murder and massacre of tens of thousands of Libyans, an unprecedented ongoing humanitarian disaster, an unprecedented infamy in NATO’s history of aggression that is bound to have global consequences.

China and Russia’s recent veto on the U.N. Resolution on Syria was a long expected response to NATO’s aggression. Both China and Russia voiced that they would not allow any new UN resolutions that could possibly be abused like NATO`s abuse of U.N.-Resolution 1973 on Libya. An nsnbc source in Moscow reported from a meeting at the Russian State Duma on Friday that all political parties of Russia agree that Russia should vote against a prolongation of a U.N.-Mandate in Afghanistan; furthermore, that Russia should “demand” a significant reduction in the U.S. and NATO military presence in the former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. The question is, will this new found courage of the Russian Bear result in actions that stop NATO´s aggression in Libya before further tens of thousands have lost their lives?

Muammar Ghadafi

After Russia and China took a stronger position on NATO’s aggression in Libya, The African Union has followed suit, emphasizing that NATO has abused the African Unions support of Resolution 1973.

Libya’s Multiple Rebel Fronts and Potential NTC Fractures

Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Reports

Summary

The various Libyan rebel groups united as the National Transitional Council could experience increasing tensions after their common goal of removing Moammar Gadhafi from power is achieved. Different groups fought along different front lines during the war, and each group has its own perception of the others and its own expectations of its role in the new Libya.

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GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images

Libyan rebels at a checkpoint in Marsa el Brega 

Analysis

Related Special Topic Page

• The Libyan War: Full Coverage

Thus far, Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) has been a Benghazi-based coalition of rebel leaders from across the country that has professed a desire to unify Libya, with Tripoli as its capital. But the council’s leadership has largely been drawn from eastern Libya. The common bond among the people known as “the Libyan rebels” has been a desire to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from power. Once that occurs, it is likely that differences previously viewed as minor among the rebels will become full-blown ruptures, especially as the rebels’ varying expectations regarding their roles in the new Libya give way to reassurance for some and disappointment for others.

Once the NTC attempts to move its headquarters to Tripoli, it will generate acrimony among rebels based outside of eastern Libya and among the Islamist militias in the east who bristle at the idea of NTC leaders having more influence in post-Gadhafi Libya. This will occur even if the NTC governs only during a transitional period.

There were multiple front lines in the Libyan war, and as the country’s political transformation occurs in the coming months, the roles these various rebel groups played will create friction among the victors.

Marsa el Brega/Benghazi Rebels

Gaddafi Ordered Mass Rape As A Weapon, International Criminal Court Claims

Women Against Shariah

From The Telegraph:

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has said that Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi ordered mass rapes and bought containers of sex drugs for troops to attack women.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he may ask for a new charge of mass rape to be made against Gaddafi following the new evidence.

The chief International Criminal Court prosecutor is expecting a decision from judges within days on his request for crimes against humanity charges against the Libyan leader.

“Now we are getting some information that Gaddafi himself decided to rape, and this is new,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo said.

Iraq -Iran and the next move

Editorial Comment by Jim Campbell

Will US troops leave Iraq as scheduled?

The current administration  led by Barack Hussein Obama appears to have adopted an incoherent foreign policy.  His dithering and neglect with Mubarak in Egypt, an ally against theocracy has purchased significant state of the art weapons from the US made no sense.

With a response only when pushed by Sarkozy in France to enter the fight in Libya.  With a promise of “No boots of the ground,”  two-thousand members are there already. He immediately abandons those boots placing them under NATO command.

Perhaps the biggest failure of the Obama Presidency, a difficult choice indeed as there have been so many is his abject bungling in dealing with the theocracy of the mullah driven fascist state, Iran. Obama’s incompetence  lead to the recent announcement by Iran that is has finally developed enriched uranium to make weapons. (a dubious source) 

Closely behind this  is Obama’s failure to support Iranian protesters in the streets millions strong rallying for their freedom.  The demonstrations happened twice Obama just sat on his hands. No verbal acknowledgement of support.

Obama’s failure to support the State of Israel makes this individual unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.  It sends a chilling message to the entire world, Obama is a paper tiger, and worse the world can no longer look to the US for support or guidance because the office of the president is vacant.

Tacked on the door of the Oval office reads a sign, “Gone on vacation.”

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

By George Friedman

Stratfor Global Geopolitical Intelligence Reports

The United States told the Iraqi government last week that if it wants U.S. troops to remain in Iraq beyond the deadline of Dec. 31, 2011, as stipulated by the current Status of Forces Agreement between Washington and Baghdad, it would have to inform the United States quickly. Unless a new agreement is reached soon, the United States will be unable to remain. The implication in the U.S. position is that a complex planning process must be initiated to leave troops there and delays will not allow that process to take place.

Bad Assumptions Lead to Bad Policies

Sultan Knish

What is so terribly interesting about bad governments is that they are as self-deceiving as they are deceptive. The straightforward clarity of Orwell’s Oceania with its apparatchiks who knew exactly what the system was about and how evil it was, is woefully lacking in our own apparatchiks who assemble the most ridiculous plans out of the tissue paper of their own consensus and then goggle when it all comes apart on them. Whatever evil they harbor within themselves is outdone time and time again by their own stupidity.

Libya is a case in point. We are now loosely involved in a civil war in Libya on the side of the losing side. An engagement engineered by the brightest leaders the West had to offer. Forget dullards like Bush, Blair and Chirac– the new generation weren’t going to let themselves get caught out that way. These were sharp men, brainy boys who had gone to the right schools, Harvard, Oxford, Sciences Po. Surely they could draw on the lessons of history.

The Middle East Mess

Warning Signs

Alan Caruba

Anyone such as myself who lived through the long years of the Vietnam quagmire knows that the United States is repeating the same errors in the Middle East that we did with that nation. We seem incapable of recognizing a civil war when we see one and incapable of not inserting ourselves in the midst of it.

The United States has been militarily involved in Afghanistan since 2001, shortly after 9/11. What should have been a short sortie to inflict punishment on the al Qaeda and the Taliban has turned into a classic “quagmire”. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 reflects this as well.

Obama’s continued failure to lead makes the US and the world unsafe

by Jim Campbell

On last night’s Factor, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly discussed President Barack Obama’s speech on the current turmoil in Libya, calling it “beyond wimpy.”

Once again President Obama has failed to act decisively in a manner concerning not just the US, but also the entire world.

Qaddafi is the poster boy for terrorism. He is responsible for perhaps the loss of more lives than any terrorist in history prior to the devastating attack on the twin towers.  Information has just surfaced that Gaddafi ordered the Pan-Am Lockerbie bombing.

The Telegraph has reported that Gaddafi has ordered snipers to massacre at least 140 protestors some mourning their fallen family and friends at the cemetery.

Women and children have leapt from bridges to their death as they tried to escape this ruthless crackdown by Gaddafi’s Libyan forces, at the moment still loyal to this murdering dictator.

Apparently not satisfied with the results of gunfire, this madman ordered his air force to bomb his own cities on February 21st.

The LA Times reported on the same day that two Libyan Air Force Colonels defected to Malta rather than bomb protestors.

As usual incapable of making a decision, Obama finally spoke out warning Gaddafi to end the violence as reported by Hayley Peterson of the Examiner on February 23rd.

“President Obama warned Libya to halt attacks on political protesters Wednesday evening, ending a period of White House silence that had begun to draw criticism.”