VICE Magazine: The New Libyans
Photo Courtesy of Trevor Snapp / VICE
Trevor Snapp writes in VICE Magazine:
The Friday after former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak fled Cairo, I strolled through the postrevolution euphoria in Tahrir Square: men and women on their knees reciting thankful prayers, cheering teenagers, and giddy, hopeful children. It was a brand-new world, and the people’s revolution seemed unstoppable, which proved to be the case as insurrections and protests spread through Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Syria, and God knows where else by the time you’re reading this article.
A few days later, I left for the Libyan border. According to Twitter, it was open for the first time in decades. Even more than in Egypt, uncertainty counterbalanced jubilation as generations of repressed tensions were only beginning to uncoil. Would Colonel Muammar Gaddafi gracefully forfeit his country and leave peacefully, or would he ensure its destruction by stubbornly refusing to abandon his self-appointed…
The Human Agency of Revolution
Scholar Tarak Barkawi argues revolutions are caused by human agency; not telecommunications technologies, in Al Jazeera:
To listen to the hype about social networking websites and the Egyptian revolution, one would think it was Silicon Valley and not the Egyptian people who overthrew Mubarak.
Via its technologies, the West imagines itself to have been the real agent in the uprising. Since the internet developed out of a US Defense Department research project, it could be said the Pentagon did it, along with Egyptian youth imitating wired hipsters from London and Los Angeles.
Most narratives of globalisation are fantastically Eurocentric, stories of Western white men burdened with responsibility for interconnecting the world, by colonising it, providing it with economic theories and finance, and inventing communications technologies. Of course globalisation is about flows of people as well, about diasporas and cultural fusion.
But neither version is particularly useful for organising resistance to the local dictatorship. In…
Farrakhan’s Chicago Mosque Was Funded By Gaddafi
A couple of weeks ago Minister Louis Farrakhan upset a lot of people in a radio interview in which he publicly told President Obama: “You can’t order him [Gadaffi] to step down and get out; who the hell do you think you are?” Many of us probably didn’t realize at the time that the controversial minister’s Chicago mosque was funded by Mr. Gaddafi; Manya Brachear reports for Chicago Breaking News:
Warning that destruction could be on America’s doorstep because it oppresses “God’s chosen people,” Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial Nation of Islam leader, defended Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi today, calling the U.S. action in Libya hypocrisy.
Speaking from the pulpit of Chicago’s Mosque Maryam, the Nation of Islam’s international headquarters, purchased 40 years ago with a $3 million loan from Gadhafi, Farrakhan blamed demons for altering President Barack Obama’s moral conscience and driving the assault on Gadhafi, who he calls a brother.
“It is…
There’s No Business Like War Business
Pepe Escobar writes in the Asia Times:
Lies, hypocrisy and hidden agendas. This is what United States President Barack Obama did not dwell on when explaining his Libya doctrine to America and the world. The mind boggles with so many black holes engulfing this splendid little war that is not a war (a “time-limited, scope-limited military action”, as per the White House) — compounded with the inability of progressive thinking to condemn, at the same time, the ruthlessness of the Muammar Gaddafi regime and the Anglo-French-American “humanitarian” bombing.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1973 has worked like a Trojan horse, allowing the Anglo-French-American consortium — and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — to become the UN’s air force in its support of an armed uprising. Apart from having nothing to do with protecting civilians, this arrangement is absolutely illegal in terms of international law. The inbuilt endgame, as even malnourished African…
The Mystery Behind Gadhafi’s Birth: He’s Jewish?
Muammar Gaddafi (left) with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1969.
At first I thought this was an April Fools’ joke … Dana Kennedy writes on AOL News:
What if the biggest mystery surrounding Col. Moammar Gadhafi had nothing to do with his long, brutal reign as the world’s most eccentric and violent leader turned pariah?
And what if a long-lost letter from a Catholic cardinal who knew Gadhafi’s true identity was evidence that could have solved the mystery?
To many Libyan people, the biggest question mark about Gadhafi does not involve his repressive and dictatorial rule, delusional statements or brazen lies. Behind closed doors, for years, they’ve wondered if he is Jewish. Last week the issue came out in the open, as NBC’s Richard Engel reported from Libya that one in five rebels was fighting Gadhafi because he believes the leader is Jewish.
Conflicting reports surrounding Gadhafi’s birth have circulated since about 1970, two years…
CIA Operating In Libya, In Consultation With Opposition
Via CNN:
CIA operatives are providing intelligence from Libya, where opposition forces are on the run and the defiant government suffered the embarrassing defection of its foreign minister Wednesday.
The NATO-led coalition, which is enforcing a no-fly zone and protecting civilians from the intense fighting, got no help from the weather in its ongoing efforts to protect the fragile opposition movement.
“The weather conditions did not allow close combat support by aircraft in the last couple of days,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Moammar Gadhafi’s government, for its part, kept up the war of words. State-run Libyan TV late Wednesday quoted a military source as saying a “civilian location was shelled tonight in the city of Tripoli by the colonizing crusader aggression.”
Amid debate on whether the allies will arm the retreating and undertrained rebels, a U.S. intelligence source told CNN the CIA is in…
Gaddaffi’s Exile Options: Which Country?
Via The Washington Post:
For dictators, it is no longer easy to get away from it all. Just ask Col. Moammar Gaddafi. As Libya’s rebels surround him and NATO’s no-fly zone shrinks Gaddafi’s dominion to a sliver of real estate, he may be seriously contemplating his Plan E. Exile, that is.
The trouble is, Africa’s so-called “king of kings”doesn’t have many choices. Gaddafi’s brutal treatment of Libyan citizens would make him an unwelcome house guest for any country that wants to have a semblance of a relationship with the United States or much of Europe. No Asian nation wants the headache of a dictatorial diva. Thirty-one African countries have signed on to the International Criminal Court, which probably would put Gaddafi at too much risk of ending up at The Hague. And most of his fellow Arab autocrats are hardly in a position to offer anyone a safe haven these days. Plus, if…
Obama and Biden on Impeaching People Like Themselves
From the Daily Paul:
“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
— Senator Barack Obama, December 20, 2007
Also, here’s Ron Paul on “Freedom Watch” (I don’t see how Napolitano can remain on Fox News, I think by this time next year, I’ll be he’ll have been kicked out):
Juan Cole: Libya Is Not Iraq
Is the bombing of Libya Obama’s Iraq redux? Informed Comment says no, laying out the factors that make the Libyan intervention ethical, non-imperialist, and fundamentally different from Bush’s 2003 invasion. Convincing or not?
On the surface, the situation in Libya a week and a half ago posed a contradiction between two key principles of Left politics: supporting the ordinary people and opposing foreign domination of them. Libya’s workers and townspeople had risen up to overthrow the dictator in city after city. Even in the capital of Tripoli, working-class neighborhoods such as Suq al-Jumah and Tajoura had chased out the secret police. In the two weeks after February 17, there was little or no sign of the protesters being armed or engaging in violence.
Then Muammar Qaddafi’s sons rallied his armored brigades and air force to bomb the civilian crowds and shoot tank shells into them. Members of the Transitional Government Council in Benghazi…
Libyan Woman Who Was ‘Gang-Raped By Gaddafi’s Troops’ Gets Charged With Slander
Photo: Ted (CC)
The Daily Mail reports:
The Libyan woman who was arrested after telling foreign journalists she had been gang-raped by Gaddafi’s troops has been charged, a government spokesman said today.
In a chaotic press conference, the official said Iman Al-Obeidi was being questioned by police – despite a promise that she had been returned to her family.
‘The accuser has now become the accused,’ he added, accusing her of a ‘grave offence’.
The spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said the men accused by Iman al-Obeidi are now suing her. A son of a high ranking Libyan official was among those she claimed had raped her, he said.
‘The boys she accused are bringing a case against her because it’s a very grave offence to accuse someone of a sexual crime,’ he told reporters in the Libyan capital.
Miss Al-Obeidi was taken into custody after bursting into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli in a dishevelled and desperate state.
[Continues at The…
Glenn Beck On Libya, Al Qaeda, and Middle East Destabilization
Now I know Glenn Beck can be quite “eccentric” and he isn’t very popular here. However, I still group him under “alternative” news media as he does stray from the standard governmental spiel. I am not implying that he is correct. All I ask is you listen to what he has to say with an unbiased ear as he makes some interesting connections and predictions.
Self-Immolation and the Heart of Revolution
“It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” — Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International, at a Human Rights Day ceremony on 10th December 1961
In November, 1990 a man set himself on fire in front of the U.S. capitol, the news reports from the time say that the reasons for the man’s act were unknown, no riots were forthcoming. Last year the cultural shifts in Egypt, Yemen and Algeria proved a different outcome in light of similar self-immolation. As individuals express their anger, alienation and rejection in self willed conflagration it is igniting their communities into violent uprisings shaking the foundations of global culture.
As I’m writing this a young man sits in protest in a Palestinian Mosque, part of the March 15 Youth Coalition who set up tents in the Bethlehem municipality to demand a new Palestinian national council and a unified Palestine. He is threatening to set himself…
The World As A Theater Of The Absurd
It’s been a long time since I sat in a college literature class and learned about the theater of the absurd, the work of great writers like Beckett, Ionesco, Genet and Camus, among others. Their writing was their way of reacting to a world that seemed out of control and maybe out of its mind.
Wikipedia tells us “It expressed the belief that, in a Godless universe, human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence.”
Significantly, the word theater is used for places putting on plays and countries conducting wars. The battlefield is considered as much a “theater” as Broadway.
Without waxing philosophically and commenting on the many unknowns that so obsessed Donald Rumsfeld, our modern day philosopher king of the Pentagonian School, one has to abandon logic and rationality to…
Could Obama Be Impeached Over Libya? Let’s Ask Biden
Joe Biden comments on unconstitutional launching of military action. Comments from 2007.
First Day of Libya Strikes Cost More Than $100 Million
Here we go again … Robert Greenwald points out the insane financial cost of yet another preemptive war (never mind the human cost), at his blog on the Rethink Afghanistan site:
President Obama’s decision to participate in the strikes in Libya has already cost U.S. taxpayers “well over $100 million,” according to the National Journal. The Journal also relayed that, “the initial stages of taking out Libya’s air defenses could ultimately cost…coalition forces between $400 million and $800 million.” The administration launched this new war (and yes, it is a war) with no official congressional authorization, little public debate and with a vague, possibly even non-existent, endgame in mind. It’s as if the lessons of the last decade are completely lost on policymakers in the United States.
Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile (Approximate cost: $756,000 in 2011 dollars).
Congress and the President should be ending the wars we were already in, not starting new…
Kucinich Wants to Impeach Obama For Libyan Strike
John Bresnahan & Jonathan Allen write in the Politico:
A hard-core group of liberal House Democrats is questioning the constitutionality of U.S. missile strikes against Libya, with one lawmaker raising the prospect of impeachment during a Democratic Caucus conference call on Saturday.
Reps. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Donna Edwards (Md.), Mike Capuano (Mass.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Rob Andrews (N.J.), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) “all strongly raised objections to the constitutionality of the president’s actions” during that call, said two Democratic lawmakers who took part.
Kucinich, who wanted to bring impeachment articles against both former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq — only to be blocked by his own leadership — asked why the U.S. missile strikes aren’t impeachable offenses.
Kucinich also questioned why Democratic leaders didn’t object when President Barack Obama told them of his plan for American…
U.S. Launches First Missiles Against Gaddafi Forces
U.S. Navy supercarrier USS Enterprise.
Reports CNN via the LA Times:
TRIPOLI, Libya — The U.S. military has launched its first missiles in Libya against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, a senior Defense Department official said Saturday.
Earlier, French fighter jets deployed over Libya fired at a military vehicle on Saturday, the country’s first strike against Moammar Gadhafi’s military forces who earlier attacked the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
The French Defense Ministry, which confirmed the strike, said its attack aircraft being used to take out tanks and artillery have deemed Benghazi and the surrounding area an “exclusion zone.”
The French are using surveillance aircraft and two frigates in the operation to protect civilians. The aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle will soon depart Toulon, France.
“Our air force will oppose any aggression by Colonel Gadhafi against the population of Benghazi,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after an international, top-level meeting in Paris over the Libyan crisis.
“As of now, our…
America’s Secret Plan To Arm Libya’s Rebels
Robert Fisk writes in the Independent:
Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a “day of rage” from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington’s highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago.
Washington’s request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later – to America’s chagrin –…
Libya Cuts Off Its Internet Entirely
Via BBC News:
As fighting inside the country intensifies, Libya’s links to the net appear to have been completely severed.
Net monitoring and security firms are reporting that no net traffic is entering or leaving Libyan net space.
Renesys said the outage was more than just a “blip” as many sites have been unreachable for more than 12 hours.
Net traffic into and out of the country had been intermittent during recent protests but the cut coincided with a push to oust rebels.
During the early days of the rebellion in Libya, net access was restricted but in early March net traffic started to pick up in areas no longer under the control of Colonel Gaddafi’s government.
Graphs of net activity maintained by Google show a steady rise in traffic to its sites throughout this week. In particular, Libyans were making heavy use of YouTube to post images of the conflict.
