Cynthia McKinney Report on the Struggle Against the US/NATO War in Libya

The U.S. imperialists are attacking the North African state of Libya in order to seize the oil-rich country and establish a military beachhead inside the region. Thousands have died in the imperialist war., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

From Cynthia McKinney:

A hearty group of protesters representing several community
organizations showed up today to protest the vote of civil rights icon and Member of Congress from Atlanta, John Lewis, to continue funding for the bombing of Libya.

The Congressman interrupted his schedule and heard the frustrations of his constituents who are outraged at the quiescence of Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Progressive Caucus in light of President Obama's policy to bomb Africa.

As we were meeting with the Congressman, President Obama was
addressing the country on national television defending his actions in
Libya. The Congressman reiterated his antipathy to war by saying that
war is obsolete.

The group asked the Congressman to be unequivocal in future votes and deny funding for President Obama's current wars.

Meanwhile, while we were meeting with Congressman Lewis, President
Obama was speaking to the nation.

Incredibly, the President demeaned
national and Congressional concern for his war policy as fuss by
saying, "A lot of this fuss is politics."

I think those of us who want our country to work for peace should let this President know what
fuss really looks like.

Below are my remarks at our event today and video will soon be on its
way. Below that, see what the President calls "fuss."

Our concern is a matter of life and death for the people of Libya who deserve to be able to exercise their rights without the shock and awe of NATO bombs and missiles.

Cynthia McKinney Remarks

Press Conference on War Against Libya, Atlanta, Georgia (in front of Congressman John Lewis's District Office) 29 June 2011

1. At a time when the American people have been asked to tighten their belts, teachers are receiving pink slips, the vital statistics of the American people reveal a health care crisis in the making, and the
U.S. government is in serious threat of default, our President and
Congress have decided that a new war, this time against the people of
Libya, is appropriate.

This comes at a time when the U.S.,
spends approximately $3 billion per week for war against Iraq and Afghanistan.

The President and Congress continue to fund the war against Libya despite the fact that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the U.S. had no strategic interest in Libya; and despite the fact that the Senate Chairwoman of the Select Committee on Intelligence admits that the U.S. really does not know who the "rebels" are; while the rebels themselves, according to a Telegraph report of 25 March 2011, admit that Al Qaeda elements are among their ranks.

So while the apparatus of our government has been used for
over ten years to inform the American people and the global community that Al Qaeda is an enemy of freedom-loving people all over the world, our President chooses to ally our military with none other than Al Qaeda elements in Libya and other people whom U.S. intelligence say they do not know.

Additionally, U.S. Admiral Locklear admitted to a Member of Congress
that one of NATO's missions was to assassinate Muammar Qaddafi. And,
indeed, NATO bombs have killed Qaddafi's son and three grandchildren, just as US bombs in 1986 killed his daughter.

NATO bombs just recently killed the grandchildren of one of Qaddafi's associates in a targeted assassination attempt.

Targeted assassination is not within
the scope of the United Nations Security Council Resolution and
targeted assassination is against U.S. law, international law,
international humanitarian law, and international human rights law.

Targeted assassination is also a crime. We certainly cannot encourage others to abide by the law when we so openly break it.

While in Libya, I witnessed NATO's targeting of civilians: NATO bombs
and missiles landed in residential neighborhoods, hit schools,
exploded near hospitals, destroyed parts of the public broadcasting
infrastructure, and narrowly missed killing students at Al Fateh
University.

When civilians are targeted in war, or "low kinetic" activities, crimes are committed.

NATO practices in Libya are exactly like Israel's practices in Gaza:
fishermen are killed as they go about their fishing business, a naval blockade allows arms to flow to NATO's Libyan allies, but stops food, fuel, and medicine from entering non-NATO ally-held areas.

The entire population suffers as a result. Collective punishment is illegal when Israel practices it against the people of Gaza and collective punishment is illegal when NATO practices it.

NATO and hyperbolic press accounts have introduced a kind of race
hatred that the Libyan people have been trying hard to erase.

Approximately 50% of Libya looks like me. Innocent darker skinned
Libyans have been targeted, tortured, harassed, and killed.

The people of Libya have the right to self-determination. They have a
right to "resource nationalism." They have a right to live in peace.

They have a right to determine their future and they need not exercise their rights underneath the shock and awe of NATO bombs and missiles.

2. I guess this is what President Obama would call low kinetic
military activity:

US and NATO supported Libyan rebels Lynch a Black Man

US Corporate Media, and the US government, continue to hide, from the public, the fact that the Libyan rebels they are supporting have been, and continue to, rape, mutilate and brutally murder Black Africans within Libya.

The rebels are not who they say they are—they are brutal racist killers who are completely
being supported by the US government and its corporate media minions.

The video below is an example of the aforementioned…

http://yourworldnews.org/blog/?p=791

Posted in Africa, American Politics, Media Related Issues, War and Imperialism

3. And amid growing concern for two looming nuclear disasters (at Los Alamos, New Mexico and Fort Calhoun, Nebraska), the United States Senate finds time to do AIPAC a favor:

U.S. Senate passes resolution threatening to suspend aid to Palestinians

Resolution 185 calls on Palestinians to halt bid for unilateral recognition at UN, calls on Obama to veto the vote in September.

By Natasha Mozgovaya

The United States Senate has passed a resolution threatening to
suspend financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if its
leaders "persist in efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by
turning to the United Nations or other international bodies,” and
called on U.S. President Barack Obama to veto a UN vote on unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

“Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of a state outside direct negotiations demonstrates absence of a good faith commitment to peace negotiations, and will have implications for continued United States aid,” the resolution declares.

Senator Ben Cardin, who initiated the resolution along with Senator
Susan Collins, said after the vote late Tuesday that “The Senate has
delivered a clear message to the international community that United
Nations recognition of a Palestinian state at this time does not further the peace process.”

Resolution 185, co-sponsored by 87 Senator, states the two-state
solution as the official U.S. policy for the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and also calls for a review of the reconciliation between
Fatah and Hamas.

It also calls for the Palestinian unity government to “publicly and
formally forswear terrorism, accept Israel's right to exist, and
reaffirm previous agreements made with the Government of Israel.”

The Senate also called on Obama to announce that the U.S. will veto
any resolution on Palestinian statehood that comes before the UN
Security Council which is not a result of a peace agreement – and
asked him to “lead a diplomatic effort to oppose a unilateral
declaration of a Palestinian state and to oppose recognition of a
Palestinian state by other nations”.

AIPAC, which lobbied for the passage of the resolution, welcomed the vote's result.

Critics of the measure stressed that by cutting financial aid, the
U.S. might lose leverage over the Palestinians and might invite other,
less constructive players, into the game, as they have already lost
faith in the U.S. as an impartial mediator.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-senate-passes-resolution-threatening-to-suspend-aid-to-palestinians-1.370341

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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.