Africans in US-NATO occupied Libya have been arrested, beaten, tortured and killed by the CIA, MI-6 trained counter-revolutionary rebels. The armed groups have targeted dark-skinned people for liquidation., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Libya to NATO: Stay until the end of the year
Although NATO seems poised to bring its Libya mission to an end, the transitional government has asked it to remain through the end of 2011 to help ensure security
By Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer
posted October 26, 2011 at 8:43 am EDT
Two days before NATO makes a decision on whether to wrap up its Libya mission, interim leader Mustapha Abdul Jalil has urged NATO to stay through the end of the year to help ensure to help ensure that Qaddafi supporters do not leave Libya to stir up trouble from nearby countries.
With Qaddafi dead, and Libya's liberation confirmed as of this past weekend, the informal benchmarks for ending NATO's mission have been reached. Last Friday, NATO members made a preliminary decision to end the Libya mission on Oct. 31, and on Tuesday, the NATO commander said that he believed the National Transitional Council (NTC) could handle any security threats, Reuters reports.
However, the NTC seems keen to have the military alliance stay on, Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
"We hope (NATO) will continue its campaign until at least the end of this year to serve us and neighbouring countries," Mr. Jalil, head of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), told the conference.
This request is aimed at "ensuring that no arms are infiltrated into those countries and to ensure the security of Libyans from some remnants of (slain despot Moamar) Gaddafi's forces who have fled to nearby countries," he added.
The NTC is also seeking help from NATO in "developing Libya's defence and security systems," Mr. Jalil told the Conference of Friends Committee.
Whether or not NATO chooses to stay, Libya is likely to be watched closely by the international community. The NTC is under scrutiny, particularly by human rights groups, who are alarmed by Qaddafi's death and signs of a strong desire for revenge among anti-Qaddafi fighters, The Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday. The NTC has promised to carry out an investigation into Qaddafi's death, but whether the fledgling government has the strength to do so is unclear.
And as NATO's mission draws closer to its end, questions about whether its Libya operation is a new model for foreign intervention are being more seriously considered. In an article for Foreign Policy, Eric Posner writes that the much-touted Libya operation violated international law on multiple grounds.
No legal justification for the intervention was ever established, NATO flouted the restrictions of the UN resolution that authorized the mission, and US President Barack Obama never received congressional authorization for joining the mission, Mr. Posner writes.
Both domestically and internationally, then, the dogs of war have escaped the well-meaning efforts to subject them to legal frameworks. When unpopular wars fall afoul of the law, policymakers and advocates believe themselves justified in redoubling their efforts to build up the law, so as to prevent a recurrence. A "good war" that runs afoul of the law, however, presents more significant obstacles, for it suggests that lawmakers are incapable of setting out rules that sensibly authorize the use of military force when it is warranted and restrain its use when it is not.
It is possible, indeed likely, that if countries had complied with international law, and the U.S. government had complied with domestic law, Qaddafi would still be in power, while thousands of Libyan civilians would be in torture chambers or graves. A similar conundrum confronted governments in the 1999 Serbia war, leading an international commission to declare that the war was "illegal but legitimate" -- a near contradiction which comes close to saying that governments should disregard law when they have, or think they have, legitimate moral or political aims. But given that governments always believe that their aims are legitimate, what force can law possibly have when it comes to arms?
Obama Tells Leno Qaddafi's Last Moments Shouldn't Be Relished
Kate Andersen Brower, ©2011 Bloomberg News
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said no one should take enjoyment from the images of Muammar Qaddafi's final moments after he was captured while trying to escape his besieged hometown in Libya last week.
"That's not something that I think we should relish," Obama said yesterday on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." He cited his refusal to release photographs of Osama bin Laden after the al-Qaeda founder was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in May in Pakistan.
"There's a certain decorum with which you treat the dead, even if it's somebody who has done terrible things," Obama said. Still, Qaddafi's death "sends a strong message around the world to dictators that people long to be free."
On a three-day trip to Western states to raise money and promote his policies, Obama sat down for his fourth interview -- and second as president -- on the popular late-night show.
Obama, 50, used the opportunity to reach potential voters who may not tune into traditional news programs to talk about subjects such as the revolution in Libya and the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, as well as lighter matters such as first lady Michelle Obama's preference for giving healthy snacks to Halloween trick-or-treaters.
"I said, 'The White House is going to get egged if this keeps up,'" Obama said.
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