People in Niger Oppose Imperialist Bombing of Libya

Two French nationals were killed in a shoot-out in Niger. The incident involved French military forces and several people were reported killed., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Niger Airs Concerns Over West's Libya Intervention

Julia Ritchey | Dakar March 29, 2011

Civil society groups in Niger are speaking out against the Western-backed military intervention against its northern neighbor Libya and the country's leader Moammar Gadhafi, where fighting between pro-Gadhafi forces and rebels has caused thousands of refugees to flood across its border.

Niger's government has yet to take an official position on the Western no-fly zone being enforced in Libya, but opinions in the rest of the country and the region are mixed.

Civil groups had planned a pro-Gadhafi demonstration last Friday, but were barred by authorities at the last minute. A similar protest in the capital of neighboring Mali last week drew thousands.

Several Niger citizens said they were angry with what they believe is an attack on Libya's sovereignty.

This man says it's a condemnable act and unreasonable and says that right now France and America are beating up on Libya. He says these are our brothers by blood and any problem that touches Libya touches all people of Niger.

Another man says he believes Western powers are after oil. He said Colonel Gadhafi may not be perfect, but at least he distributes the oil wealth to his citizens.

Some news reports have suggested Gadhafi may be using trained mercenaries from Mali, Niger and other African countries to fight anti-government rebels.

A political figure and former Ambassador of Niger to Libya, Bashar Issoufou, said it's important to understand that Gadhafi has spent years building a network of allies on the continent.

He says when Gadhafi first came to power he believed strongly in the idea of Arab nationalism, being influenced by former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. But after President Nasser, he had problems with the Arabs and turned to Africa instead. He began pushing for a unified Africa with one government and one army.

Issoufou says he too is skeptical of the West's motives for intervening.

He says what happened in Tunisia and Egypt gave Western countries the perfect opportunity to take advantage of Libya's vast oil reserves. But he says as long as Colonel Ghadafi is in power, he will be controlling it.

Indicative of how the continent is split, the African Union on Tuesday pulled out of a London summit on Libya after its members could not agree over its position on Western-led military involvement.

Moammar Gadhafi is one of the largest donors to the AU. However, in perhaps its most vocal reproach of the embattled Libyan leader since the crisis began, the AU last week called for a peaceful political transition that leads to democratic elections.

A government spokesman says it is following the situation in Libya “with great concern.” The spokesman says officials are working with its embassy in Tripoli to repatriate and evacuate Niger citizens who are trapped in the country and to help refugees. The U.N. Refugee Agency says more than 10,700 refugees have fled from Libya into Niger, most of them women and children.

Libya News Bulletin: US-led Airstrikes Hit Civilians

Libyan military forces stand guard amid increased bombings by the United States-led imperialist onslaught against this North African state. Since March 19 the NATO forces have killed scores of civilians and destroyed government property., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

'US-led airstrikes hit Libya civilians'

Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:2AM
presstv.ir

Western airstrikes hit civilian areas in the Libyan towns of Garyan and Mizdah late on Monday.

Western airstrikes have hit civilian areas in the Libyan towns of Garyan and Mizdah, leaving scores of men and women wounded in the cities, reports say.

"Civilian and military areas in Garyan and Mizdah were hit on Monday night by the colonial and crusader aggressors," Libyan television said in a written news flash.

Garyan lies about 100 kilometers south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, while Mizdah is about 184 kilometers south of the capital.

Western coalition forces have been bombarding strategic cities across the war-hit country to push government forces back.

But Western offensive is coming under intense scrutiny by critics worried about civilian lives in the North African country.

The Libyan regime says over a hundred civilians have already been killed in over 980 US-led air raids over troubled Libya, but the United States denies civilian casualties in the military operation so far.


Fighting intensifies in key Libyan town

Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:9PM

Latest reports say heavy fighting continues between revolutionaries and forces loyal to the embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in town of Misratah.

Gaddafi troops have reportedly launched a new attack on the positions of the revolutionary fighters in Misratah, the town located some 200 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli.

"Misrata is in danger. The criminal forces are advancing on the city and the tanks are firing shells indiscriminately," AFP quoted an opposition spokesman as saying.

The revolutionaries say eight civilians were killed in overnight attacks by the Gaddafi loyalists on Monday night.

The opposition fighters have made swift progress westwards from their stronghold in Benghazi in recent days. But pro-Gaddafi troops have reportedly used heavy weaponry to check their advance.

Medical sources earlier put at 142 the number of people killed in Misratah by pro-Gaddafi forces since March 18.

The Libyan government says over one hundred civilians have been killed in Western air attacks on the country. The US, however, denies any civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, over 40 governments and international bodies are planning for the post-Gaddafi Libya in London.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stressed in the conference that the air attacks on Libya will continue until Gaddafi would comply with the UN resolutions. Clinton has also met with a Libyan opposition leader in London.

Libyan deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim accuses the West of seeking to split Libya into two parts.


Gaddafi troops kill 142 in Misratah

Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:10PM

Troops loyal to longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have killed at least 142 civilians during an ongoing offensive against revolutionary forces in Misratah over the past ten days.

Medical sources said on Tuesday that Gaddafi's loyalists also wounded 1,400 others in the key Libyan town during the 10-day period, AFP reported.

This comes as fighting between opposition fighters and Gaddafi's loyalists have been continuing in strategically important towns.

Sources say intense fighting has created a dire situation in the western Libyan port city of Misratah

Ahmed Khalifa, a spokesman for the opposition told a news conference in Benghazi that medicine was running low.

He added that boatloads of supplies have been dispatched to the coastal city.

Latest reports also indicate that a new round of western airstrikes has left civilian causalities in the cities of Gharyan and Mizdah.

The Libyan government says over one hundred civilians have been killed in Western air attacks on the country.

The US denies any civilian casualties caused by the airstrikes.

Meanwhile, more than 40 governments and international bodies have gathered in London to plan for the post-Gaddafi Libya.

Britain and the US have signaled they could accept a plan under which Gaddafi would quickly leave Libya and escape a war crimes tribunal.

Revolutionary fighters insist that the Libyan ruler stand trial for crimes against Libyan people.


US plans regime change in Libya

Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:53AM

US President Barack Obama says Washington will help implement a civilian government in Libya after a possible fall of embattled Libyan ruler Muammer Gaddafi's regime.

Obama said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet representatives from the Libyan opposition at an international summit in London on Tuesday.

Speaking at National Defense University in Washington DC, he defended the US-led strikes on Libya.

However, he stressed that the US forces will not be bogged down in Libya, since Washington cannot afford repeating its errors during war in Iraq.

“Regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya,” Obama said in a nationally televised address on Monday.

The US president warned that should Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi be ousted in Libya, the transition to a legitimate government would be a “difficult task.”

He said that NATO will take full command of all coalition military operations in Libya beginning Wednesday.

American officials claim that although the coalition warplanes have carried out 983 missions over Libya, not one civilian has been killed, despite reports that over 100 civilians have been killed by NATO bombardment alone.

The US cannot afford to repeat the same costs as incurred in the Iraq war by seeking to overthrow the Libyan leader militarily, as it would be a “costly mistake,” he said.

Seeking to refute criticism from the Republicans, he strongly defended his interventionist war launched on Libya, and said it was to prevent a slaughter of civilians that would have stained the world's conscience and “been a betrayal of who we are.”

But he failed to give any estimation as to when the so-called conflict may end.

Obama very bluntly said the US-led response had stopped Gaddafi's advances and halted a slaughter that could have shaken the stability of an entire region.

Imperialists Escalate Bombing Operations Over Libya

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, addressing a public forum honoring Black August. The event was held on August 7, 2010. (Photo: Andrea Egypt), a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Imperialists Escalate Bombing Operations Over Libya

Opposition to war builds around the globe

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

After over a week of intensive bombing of the North African state of Libya, U.S. President Barack Obama went on national television to provide a rationale for the commencement of yet another war against a developing country which has a majority Muslim population. Even though Washington claims that it is no longer in the lead of the campaign to overthrow the Libyan government and install a puppet-regime compliant to the West, the bulk of the firepower used in the war is being supplied by the Pentagon.

It was announced on March 28 that the full command of the war against Libya was being rapidly transferred to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was founded and still is controlled by the U.S. government. Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard has been designated as the commander of operations for the war against Libya.

On March 21, Canadian CF-18 fighter jets flew their initial bombing missions over Libya amid claims by Defense Minister Peter MacKay that Ottawa had a “moral duty” to participate in the war in North Africa. All four opposition parties in the Canadian parliament endorsed the ruling Conservative Party’s decision to support the U.S. and other European imperialist states in carrying out this military operation against Libya, a country of approximately 6 million people.

Reports indicate that warplanes from the U.S., Britain, France, Canada, Italy, Denmark and Belgium are involved in the aerial and sea bombardments of Libya. In addition, the U.S.-backed Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have entered the campaign against Libya alongside the imperialist states from North America and Western Europe.

Since March 25, Qatari Mirage Jets have flown alongside French aircraft in bombing operations over northeastern Libya. France has been eager to highlight the role of Qatar to make it appear that the Arab states are supportive of the imperialist war against Libya.

According to the French Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Jean-Paul Palomeros, “It really shows the courage (of Qatar) to enlist at our sides." The UAE has committed six F-16s and six Mirage aircraft to the war in North Africa.

The reason behind the involvement of these Gulf states in the war was explained by the Associated Press on March 28 when an article stated that “The decisions by Qatar and UAE to join the coalition in Libya reflects their strong traditional ties to the United States and their desires to play a more active role internationally. The Gulf states rely on a strong regional U.S. military presence as a buffer against Iran, which is seen as a threat by the Gulf’s kings and sheiks. Western nations are also key trading partners.” (Associated Press, March 28)

It was also announced on March 28, that Turkey, a recent member of NATO, and a longtime base for U.S. military operations against Iraq and Afghanistan, will purportedly take control of the airport in the rebel-held city of Benghazi. Turkey’s involvement with the Benghazi airport will be bolstered by their naval forces that will patrol areas between Crete and this northeastern Libyan city where the rebellion against the Gaddafi government began on Feb. 17.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference on March 28 at the Esenboga Airport before departing for occupied Iraq, that “Turkey said yes to three tasks within NATO: the takeover of Benghazi airport for the delivery of humanitarian aid, the task about control of the air corridor and the involvement of Turkish naval forces in the corridor between Benghazi and Crete.”

Bombing Operations Escalate Against Libya

Meanwhile British Tornado aircraft bombed Libyan government installations in the Sabha area in the south of the country. Libya’s state news agency reported that there were several casualties in the attacks by planes that conducted their strikes from a base in the UK.

Western imperialist airstrikes have provided cover for the rebel forces that are seeking to recapture key cities lost to the government forces during mid-March. Fierce fighting between government forces of the Libyan military and the rebels have taken place in Misrata, Nawfaliya and Sirte.

The current war against Libya represents the largest U.S. and Western European military deployment in the region since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. With the vast oil resources in Libya and its strategic location on the Mediterranean Sea near southern Europe, the imperialist states want to bring this North African state under its control in order to not only seize its natural resources but to also stall any potential revolutionary shift in direction for the democratic movements that have sprung up in Egypt and Tunisia.

According to Michel Chossudovsky in an article published by the Center for Research on Globalization, the war is based on “Outright lies by the international media: Bombs and missiles are presented as an instrument of peace and democratization. This is not a humanitarian operation. The war on Libya opens up a new regional war theater.” (Global Research, March 20)

Chossudovsky notes that “There are three distinct war theaters in the Middle East and Central Asia regions: Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. What is unfolding is a fourth U.S.-NATO War Theater in North Africa, with the risk of escalation.”

Nonetheless, the Libyan people are maintaining their resistance to the imperialist onslaught against their government and country. Libyan military forces have fought the rebels and held them off in Misrata and areas leading toward Sirte, despite the heavy bombing by the U.S. and European war planes and naval units off the coast in the Mediterranean.

The African Union and the Arab League announced on March 27 that they would renew efforts to bring about a ceasefire inside the country. Amr Mousa, Secretary General of the Arab League and Jean Ping, the African Union Commission Chair, met in Cairo on March 27 in order to develop a roadmap for the resolution of the fighting in Libya.

Previous efforts on the part of the African Union, which rejects foreign military intervention in Libya, have been dismissed by the imperialist states and the rebel forces that they are supporting in the east of the country. An AU meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on March 26 failed to make headway in the declaration of a ceasefire since the western-backed rebels failed to appear.

This meeting was attended by five members of the Libyan government, 15 members of the AU Peace and Security Council, representatives of the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the European Union and the United Nations. Ambassadors from Germany, Belgium, India, Italy, France, Japan, Norway, Portugal, UK, China, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, the U.S. and other states within North Africa also attended.

Demonstrations and Condemnations Grow Around the World

Despite the claims by corporate media outlets that there is widespread support for the war against Libya among Arab countries and within the imperialist states, demonstrations have escalated over the last week. In Mali, a West African state, thousands of people demonstrated on March 25 against the imperialist war on Libya chanting “Down With Obama!, Down With Sarkozy!”

The crowd in Mali marched through the capital of Bamako to both the French and U.S. embassies. Public opinion throughout Africa has been highly critical of the western states and their war against Libya. (Associated Press, March 25)

President Mugabe of Zimbabwe described the western countries attacking Libya as “bloody vampires.” South African President Jacob Zuma, after much internal criticism by the ANC Youth League and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) over the vote of his government in support of UN Resolution 1973, called for an immediate cease fire.

Numerous organizations throughout the U.S. and the world have condemned the attacks on Libya. In Greece, youth supporting the Communist Party burned flags of the EU in protest against the war.

Demonstrations were also held in Belgrade, Serbia in solidarity with the Libya government. In Madrid thousands of people marched through the streets on March 26 protesting Spain's involvement as a launching pad for military attacks against Libya.

A statement issued by the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (G-C) called upon people to "Organize and prepare to return to the streets, and to demonstrate on/in and occupy every campus and every city in the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada, France, Italy and occupied Palestine (so-called Israel) and all countries in the world who participate in this affront to and crime against Africa, the African Diaspora, and World Humanity, until any and all of their regimes are changed.”

Min. Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam has spoken out forcefully against the U.S. war on Libya. His remarks have been broadcast widely on African American formatted radio programs throughout the United States.

In a recent article published in the Final Call newspaper, it said that “Concern about the U.S., French and British-led air offensive against Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi surfaced just two days after America’s first Black president ordered attacks on the North African nation. With President Barack Obama’s vocal approval, military assaults on Libya started March 19, with French planes striking anti-aircraft and other locations, including a military convoy, followed by 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from five U.S. ships in the Mediterranean.” (Final Call, March 29, p. 2)

Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who was the 2008 Green Party presidential candidate, issued a statement on March 27 condemning the U.S. bombing of Libya. McKinney noted that “The reason Muammar Qaddafi is a target is because he has been a thorn in the side of anti-revolutionary forces since he took power in Libya, overthrowing the King and nationalizing the oil industry so that the people could benefit from their oil resources.”

With specific reference to the Obama administration, McKinney points out that “Today, the Obama administration is responsible for its own war crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace and defends in U.S. Courts those from the Bush administration who bear responsibility for having approved or justified them in the past. Yet, this responsibility will not even agree to investigate the violation of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s civil rights in his first trial rife with racial innuendo, judicial misconduct, and a lack of evidence.”

McKinney continued to expose the hypocrisy of the Obama administration by pointing to a death penalty case in Georgia involving “Troy Davis where seven of nine witnesses recanted their testimonies and cited prosecutorial misconduct. But it did go to court to defend military commissions and insulted Native Americans in the process.”

In regard to the advances made by the Libyan Revolution over the last four decades, McKinney reminds her readers that “Libya’s Revolution brought free health care and education to the people and subsidized housing. In fact, students in Libya can study there or abroad and the government gives them a stipend while they are in school and they pay no tuition.”

These domestic policies in Libya are then contrasted with conditions prevailing in the United States noting that “If a Libyan needs surgery that must be done overseas, then the government will pay for that surgery. That is more than the soldiers of the United States military can say. While Libyans enjoy subsidized housing, members of the U.S. military risk foreclosure while they serve their country abroad.”

As it relates to the struggle for Pan-Africanism, McKinney says frankly that “Muammar Qaddafi has long been a friend to African people. Pan-Africanists have travelled to and from Libya since the beginning of Qaddafi’s role as Libya’s leader, including the Black Panther Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, and Nation of Islam members. I once defended Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in the House International Relations Committee when the late Tom Lantos--on behalf of Israel—challenged The Nation’s relationship with Libya and wanted to dash Qaddafi’s desire to give The Nation several billion dollars to help Black people.”

On April 9-10 there will be two major anti-war demonstrations in both New York and San Francisco. The main sponsoring organization, the United National Anti-war Committee (UNAC), has issued a statement opposing U.S. intervention in Libya.

People from throughout the country are mobilizing to attend the April 9-10 demonstrations. The recent round of events in North Africa illustrates clearly that U.S. foreign policy has not changed at all under the Democratic administration of Barack Obama.

The War On Libya and the Struggle Against Neo-Colonialism

The aim of the western imperialist bombing operation against the North African state of Libya is designed to gain control of the natural resources, land, waterways, military and government by the U.S. and other subordinate European and Middle-Eastern countries. This desire on the part of the U.S., through its oil companies and financial institutions, is not limited to the situation inside of Libya but extends throughout the region of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf States.

Recognizing that the rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt held the potential for a genuine anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist national democratic revolution in these North African countries, the U.S. and other European governments moved to not only redirect the course of these worker and youth demonstrations, strikes and violent outbreaks but to promote, engineer and impose counter-revolutions within various countries that have been sworn enemies of the imperialists for decades. In fact the revolutionary movements in both Egypt and Tunisia have been effectively hijacked by the military and bureaucratic bourgeoisies within these respective states who are supported and financed by U.S. and European imperialism.

In a recent referendum held in Egypt on the draft of a new constitution, the turnout in the elections was low in part due to the fact that the entire transition process is being controlled by the military and a “panel of experts’ that were appointed by the Supreme Military Council. The Egyptian military has been trained, armed and subsidized by U.S. imperialism for decades.

U.S. military, administration and congressional figures have sent high-level delegations to Egypt and Tunisia in efforts to persuade the various political forces inside the country that the world’s leading imperialist state is in fact in support of a democratic movement in one of the most devastated states under neo-colonialism.

There is no reason to doubt that the U.S., France, Britain and the other imperialist states will maintain the same posture toward the nations of Africa, the Arab and Muslim world. The western states cannot afford to lose their strategic influence and dominance over North Africa and the Middle-East. Inevitably there will be a deepening class and national struggle to defeat neo-colonialism within this region of the world.

As Kwame Nkrumah wrote in 1963 for the founding of the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that, “It can be readily seen that imperialism is a fundamental cause of war. An iniquitous system which has generated intense rivalries and conflicts between nations that erupted into open warfare on a major scale in the scramble to secure ‘a place in the sun’ of colonial supremacy, it has today spawned the neo-colonialism which is a busy as ever in creating clashes among the nations.” (Africa Must Unite, p. 202)

The founder of modern Ghana and foremost proponent of Pan-Africanism continued by noting that “When we in Africa denounce imperialism and the recent off-shoot, neo-colonialism, we do it not only because we believe that Africa belongs to the Africans and should be governed by them, but also in the interest of world peace which is also essential to our development and freedom. By abolishing imperialism in all its forms, the world will be rid of many of the present areas of conflict.” (Africa Must Unite, p. 202)

In a book published some five years later, Nkrumah in his classic work entitled "The Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare," he begins by stressing the need to "Know the Enemy." By breaking down and explaining the external forces impacting the inability of Africa to throw off the chains of oppression, Nkrumah underlines that these exploitative systems must be understood in order to wage an effective struggle.

At the very beginning of this book he says that "A number of external factors affect the African situation, and if our liberation struggle is to be placed in correct perspective and we are to KNOW THE ENEMY, the impact of these factors must be fully grasped. First among them is imperialism, for it is mainly against exploitation and poverty that our peoples revolt. It is therefore of paramount importance to set out the strategy of imperialism in clear terms." (Revolutionary Path, p. 447)

Consequently, the struggle against imperialism is essential in the current phase of the African Revolution. The assault on Libya is a manifestation of modern day imperialism in all its most egregious forms.

Be Organized, Zimbabwe Vice-President Mujuru Urges Farmers

Republic of Zimbabwe Vice-President Joice Mujuru of the ZANU-PF party. Mujuru recently paid tribute to the nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for their ongoing support for the country., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Be organised, Mujuru urges farmers

Friday, 18 March 2011 23:41
Zimbabwe Herald
Agriculture Reporter

The challenges farmers are facing can be solved through a shared vision, purpose, hard work and commitment by Government's support through agricultural schemes.

Most farmers have benefited from Government's mechanisation programme and the recently launched input scheme rolled out through the Grain Marketing Board.

Vice President Joice Mujuru made the remarks in a speech read on her behalf at the Union Project Negomo Field day in Chiweshe by Mashonaland Central Governor and Resident Minister Martin Dinha yesterday.

VP Mujuru said the challenges included lack of funding, inadequate supply of production inputs and limited farming infrastructure.

"This field day comes at a time when the Government is aiming to accelerate economic growth and eliminate poverty and malnutrition among its people through agriculture.

"We have always recognised the need for farmers to be organised themselves through their unions to implement agricultural and rural development programmes.

"Farmers unions are important in that they lobby for favourable producer prices, search for cheap inputs and equipment, advise Government on behalf of members, provide technical advice, training needs, organise research and provide solutions to issues affecting their members," she said.

VP Mujuru acknowledged Union Project's efforts improving Zimbabwe's smallholder agriculture through various interventions. This, she said, has seen farmers getting training to adopt viable farming methods that included conservation agriculture, capacity building and additional extension services.

"CA is directly supporting smallholder and communal farmers, enabling them to increase productivity and become better integrated into the markets," VP Mujuru said.

UP's objectives included providing inputs, market linkages, capacity building and extension support involving all stakeholders such as farmers unions, Agritex, private sector and non-governmental organisations for maximum impact and sustainability of the support.

The private sector supports the farmers with inputs while UP provides extension to the farmers through resident field extension officers with technical support from geographical consultants.

"I am told that UP conservation agriculture has proven to be very popular with farmers because it reduces costs of production while improving yields.

"The technology is also appropriate where there are shortages of draught power, inputs and rainfall.

"The concept of CA has come at a time when we are affected by serious recurring droughts. The global climatic change affecting Southern Africa should be seen as a real threat that needs to be managed holistically.".

She commended other farmers who are not in UP but are adopting conservation practices saying the option was viable especially in most communal areas with draught power challenges. UP is so far in 12 districts of the country and has 21 sites in these districts with a total of 3 600 beneficiaries for the 2010/11 agricultural season.

The districts include Murehwa, Mt Darwin, Chiweshe, Guruve, Mutasa, Gokwe, Nyanga, Rusape, Hurungwe, Masvingo and Goromonzi.

The European Union and FAO with the support of the Government are supporting the improvement of food security and the commercialisation of communal agriculture through co-operation with the farmers unions- ZCFU, CFU and ZFU and their joint technical board UP.

Agriculture contributes between 14 and 18 percent to the Gross Domestic Product and accounts for more than 40 percent of national exports, 60 percent raw materials to agro-industries and provides livelihood to over 70 percent of the population.

Libya: A Replay of Iraq?

Former Iraq President Saddam Hussein was overthrown by United States imperialist forces and their allies in April 2003. Hussein was later hung by a lynch mob after being handed over by the U.S. occupation forces., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Libya: A replay of Iraq?

Sunday, 27 March 2011 23:29
By Amengeo Amengeo
Zimbabwe Sunday Mail

History has an annoying habit of repeating itself. Unfortunately, not too many people pay attention to the obvious parallels that are right before their eyes. What is unfolding in Libya now is a tragic replay of what has gone before.

We have heard of "no-fly" zones before, we have heard of "atrocities", killing of civilians, and also seen the demonisation of a leader of a sovereign country who has conveniently fallen out of Western favour.

And of course, oil. Who can forget the "weapons of mass destruction" the world was assured that Saddam Hussein possessed?

A massive propaganda campaign is being mounted in the Western media against Libya.

The West, seeing a chance to remove a long-time thorn in their side, have let loose misinformation and subterfuge against the government of Libya.

Armed insurrectionists who execute people they regard as Gaddafi loyalists, or butcher and hunt black Libyan citizens (so-called "mercenaries") are lauded in the Western press as "revolutionaries", "protesters", "democrats" and "freedom fighters".

The armed gangs of Benghazi have become romantic figures whose every fatuous declaration is lauded as a genuine voice of the Libyan people.

Yet despite all this Gaddafi has mustered enough military and popular support to drive the insurrectionists eastward.

Libya is neither Tunis, Egypt nor even Yemen but a unique society which straddles both the African and Arab worlds.

Colonel Gaddafi made a conscious effort to throw his resources behind the development of African Unity and more than any of the North African Arabs, has firmly aligned himself with the cause of African unity and liberation.

Libya unswervingly supported the armed struggles for independence in southern Africa while the West unashamedly supported and armed the racist apartheid regime, which killed more of its citizens in protracted repression than Libya is supposed to have done.

The crisis in Libya needs to be seen in proper perspective stripped of the manipulated photos and videos emanating from the Western press.

Although the insurrectionists are the ideological heirs of the mobs which carried out racist pogroms in 2000 against thousands of black immigrants, the Western press continues to eulogise them as democrats, marching gloriously to some political Shangri-La just over the horizon.

There is more at stake than whether Gaddafi goes or stays.

The same forces which strove successfully to achieve the partitioning of Sudan are at work to split Libya not only into disparate tribal entities but to divide Arab Africa and Bantu Africa.

We have seen this at work in Mauritania, Sudan and we see it unfolding in Libya.

What has given Europe and the United States the right to intervene on the internal affairs of a sovereign African country?

What does it bode for Africa in the future? To begin with, the greatest threat to Europe comes not from Moslem terrorists, but from Pan-Africanism.

Europe fears a unified Black Continent, in control of its own resources and speaking with one voice.

The fate of Africa is being decided in Washington and Brussels.

Gaddafi became a target by his refusal to play the games of Saudi Arabia and Egypt with the West, his championing of anti-imperialist causes and above all his constant urging for African Unity.

Such is the influence of the Euro-America that they even demanded that Libya be refused the chair of the African Union.

The sudden events in Tunisia, followed by Egypt presented a golden opportunity to settle scores with Libya and when the Eastern tribalists (who never accepted the writ of the central government) agitated, expecting that the Gaddafi government would be intimidated and failing in that, decided to take up arms, putting themselves in armed rebellion against their government, the West jumped in.

Gaddafi would fall in a few days, they crowed, and when that did not happen, the propaganda machinery kicked in.

He was killing his own people, "innocent" protesters (nobody seemed to notice that they were armed) were being butchered and the death toll was as high as "2000", blah, blah.

None of this was credibly verified. Grainy footage was aired ad nauseam on CNN and the BBC to the accompaniment of stirring speeches about "democracy and the wave of revolution sweeping the Middle East".

Any footage aired from the government side was dismissed as shameless propaganda.

The Iraq syndrome is raising its head. To destroy Gaddafi, he must first be demonised as was done to Saddam.

He must be seen as so evil that only the good "democratic" nations can save the world from him.

Saddam had "Weapons of Mass Destruction" - or so we were convinced by relentless propaganda.

In Libya's case, there are no weapons of mass destruction. The next trigger phrase thus becomes: "he is killing his own people" thus the West must intervene to "save innocent lives".

But the Yemeni, Bahreini and Saudi governments are also killing their own people in full view of the world's media but neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama have anything to say about it.

It is as if these places and events do not exist.

The African Union has explicitly opposed any kind of military intervention in Libya; yet its counsel has been deliberately ignored.
Libya is an African country, yet Africans are unable to exert any kind of influence on what happens on their Continent.

A blatant aggression by white European forces backed by the United States is trumpeted as a mission to save the lives of the Libyan people.
Skilful disinformation has painted the eastern insurrectionists in Benghazi as "freedom fighters" and "democracy protesters", but these are the same people who participated in the 2000 race riots against black Africans, killing hundreds in vicious pogroms that have gone unreported by the western media.

The protesters in the early days of the uprising prowled the streets of Benghazi slaughtering dark-skinned Libyans claiming they were "mercenaries".

So skilled has been their propaganda that the mythology has been enshrined that Benghazi rebels are "the good guys".

These are the same people who produced a majority of the Islamic volunteers who flocked to Iraq to kill Americans. Here we are again at an Iraq moment with the same kind of lies, propaganda and misinformation that started the Iraq war.

Is it not time we stop being duped by the lies and chicanery of the US and Europe? Are we going to be fooled again?

The African Executive--Amengeo-Amengeo is a specialist in Spanish, Latin American, Caribbean as well as African History. He has also been a journalist, civil servant and graphic artist.

Libya: The Case for United Nations Security Council Reform

Libyan leader of the revolution Muammar Gaddafi hosting the 2010 Arab League Summit in Tripoli., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Caesar Zvayi: Libya: Case for UN Security Council reform

Tuesday, 22 March 2011 23:03
Courtesy of the Zimbabwe Herald

There could be no greater call for the reform of the UN system than the West's flagrant violation of international laws in Libya . . . The irony of the rushed involvement in Libya and the blind eye that is turned to the excesses of the Zionist regime in Israel could not be more apparent.

MANY years ago, during the days of slavery and colonial conquest, white settler brigands were a law unto themselves.

An indigene could be accused of any crime and promptly lynched by mobs that paid scant regard to due process or human decency.
I need some convincing that this era is really over judging by the West's barbaric bombardment of Libya in clear violation of international law and constructive engagement.

It was evident from the start that the westerners wanted to get into Libya so bad they were just looking for a way to justify their planned lynching of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his people.

They did not have to look further than the United Nations Security Council - their private club - to which lesser mortals are welcome as short-term visitors without much of a say in the deliberations by virtue of lacking the muscle called the veto.

With the notable exception of China and Russia; the other veto-wielding countries Britain, France and the US - the sabre-rattling trio - were eager to taste Libyan blood.

They sought support for a UN Security Council resolution calling for the setting up of a no-fly zone over Libya and hoodwinked the other members of the Security Council that they were only after a no-fly zone to safeguard the lives of civilians they claimed were at the mercy of Gaddafi's war machine.

The resolution, UNSC Resolution 1973 specifically welcomed the appointment of the UN special envoy Abdel-Elah Mohamed Al-Khatib and called for a ceasefire, stressed the need to find a solution to the conflict through the UN envoy, and demanded that the Libyan government fulfil its obligations respecting humanitarian law.

All of which tallied with the position taken by the African Union, through its Peace and Security Council that met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which proposed the setting up of a panel of African leaders to evaluate the situation in Libya and specifically eschewed western intervention.

Where it mentions the no-fly zone, the UN resolution is quite clear that the secretary general must inform the Security Council of any actions taken in support of the no-fly zone.

The rest of the resolution covers the arms embargo, the asset freeze and the appointment of a panel of experts to monitor the implementation of the resolution and implications for international law.
Nowhere is there a provision for the bombing of Libya.

Armed with that resolution which they intentionally over-extended the three musketeers - Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy - mobilised their airforces to bomb Libya with Ban ki-Moon, the UN secretary general out at sea without a compass so to speak.

What was clear here was that the westerners were determined to venture into Libya at all costs and did not care whether it was with or without a UN-mandate.

They feel they are in charge of the UN and can pretty much do whatever they want as the UN is just a paper tiger they can twist into all kinds of shapes.

There could be no greater call for the reform of the UN system than the West's flagrant violation of international law in Libya. The double standards are quite shocking to say the least.

The westerners felt duty-bound to intervene in Libya on the back of their media reports that Gaddafi was using warplanes on civilians, reports that were probably concocted given the synergy between the western media's editorial policies and Anglo-Saxon foreign policies.

The irony of the rushed involvement in Libya and the blind eye that is turned to the excesses of the Zionist regime in Israel could not be more apparent.

Palestinians have been killed like flies since the Zionist State was established in 1948, ironically the same year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was made and apartheid was declared in occupied South Africa.

No no-fly zone was proposed over Israel when the Zionist regime blockaded Gaza, a blockade that exists to this day at the cost of thousands of lives since 2007.

No no-fly zone was proposed when Israel bombed innocent civilians in Gaza with banned weapons like cluster and phosphorous bombs killing well over 1 000 civilians in 2009.

No no-fly zone was proposed when the Israelis pummelled Gaza and Lebanon despite the fact that the blockade - that covers land, air, and sea - has been criticised by the UN Secretary-General, the UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organisations. The reason is simple, the blockade was officially supported by the US and no one dares stare the bully in the eye because the West controls the levers of noise and power in the UN system which they manipulate for their selfish ends.

If there is one thing the Libyan debacle has shown us it is the urgent need to reform the UN Security Council that is currently used as a private club by the victorious allies of the second Anglo-Saxon war, the so-called World War II.

The only way to stop the abuse of the weak by the militarily strong is to democratise the UN so that all nations great and small become trully equal as espoused by the UN Charter.

Uncle Sam, given his wanton aggression against the weak, has shown that he is not a suitable host for an organisation like the UN sworn to ‘‘saving the world from the scourge of war''.

There is need to move the headquarters to a neutral country like Switzerland that does not even have a standing army.

The developing world needs seats in the Security Council complete with veto powers to checkmate the depredations of the traditional warmongers.

The same goes for the cowardly African Union, the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity must be turning in their graves.

When will this organisation justify its existence? It risks going the way of the cowardly Arab League the longer it leaves Libya at the mercy of western warmongers.

U.S. Gives Its Air Power Expansive Role in Libya

A tank belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explodes after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic, a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

March 28, 2011

U.S. Gives Its Air Power Expansive Role in Libya

By ERIC SCHMITT
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Even as President Obama on Monday described a narrower role for the United States in a NATO-led operation in Libya, the American military has been carrying out an expansive and increasingly potent air campaign to compel the Libyan Army to turn against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

When the mission was launched, it was largely seen as having a limited, humanitarian agenda: to keep Colonel Qaddafi from attacking his own people. But the White House, the Pentagon and their European allies have given it the most expansive possible interpretation, amounting to an all-out assault on Libya’s military.

A growing armada of coalition warplanes, armed with more precise information about the location and abilities of Libyan Army units than was known a week ago, have effectively provided the air cover the ragtag opposition has needed to stave off certain defeat in its de facto eastern capital, Benghazi.

Allied aircraft are not only dropping 500-pound bombs on Libyan troops, they are also using psychological operations to try to break their will to fight, broadcasting messages in Arabic and English, telling Libyan soldiers and sailors to abandon their posts and go back to their homes and families, and to defy Colonel Qaddafi’s orders.

The Obama administration has been reluctant to call the operation an actual war, and it has sought to emphasize the involvement of a dozen other countries, particularly Italy, Britain and France. In his speech on Monday night, Mr. Obama, as he has in the past, portrayed the mission as a limited one, and described the United States’ role as “supporting.”

But interviews in recent days offer a fuller picture of American involvement, and show that it is far deeper than discussed in public and more instrumental to the fight than was previously known.

From the air, the United States is supplying much more firepower than any other country, with American bombing missions increasing to 107 on Sunday, from 49 on Thursday. Besides taking part in the airstrikes, the American military is taking the lead role in gathering intelligence, intercepting Libyan radio transmissions, for instance, and using the information to orchestrate attacks against the Libyan forces on the ground. And over the weekend the Air Force quietly sent three of its most fearsome weapons to the operation.

The strategy for White House officials nervous that the Libya operation could drag on for weeks or months, even under a NATO banner, is to hit Libyan forces hard enough to force them to oust Colonel Qaddafi, a result that Mr. Obama has openly encouraged.

“Certainly, the implied though not stated goal here is that the Libyan Army will decide they’re fighting for a losing cause,” said Gen. John P. Jumper, a retired Air Force chief of staff. “You’re probably dealing with a force that may not be totally motivated to continue this for the long haul.”

Ten days into the assault, the officials said that Libya’s formidable integrated air defense has been largely obliterated, and that the operation was shifting to a new phase devised to put even more pressure on the country’s armored columns and ground troops.

For the Americans, six tank-killing A-10 Warthogs that fire laser-guided Maverick missiles or 30-millimeter cannons arrived on the scene this weekend. The United States also deployed two B-1B bombers, as well as two AC-130 gunships, lumbering aircraft that orbit over targets at roughly 15,000 feet, bristling with 40-millimeter and 105-millimeter cannons. The gunships’ weapons are so precise that they could operate against Libyan forces in cities, which so far have been off limits for fear of civilian casualties.

On Sunday, allied warships and submarines fired six Tomahawk cruise missiles at the headquarters of the Libyan 32nd Brigade, based in Tripoli and commanded by one of the Libyan leader’s sons, Khamis Qaddafi. Colonel Qaddafi has used the brigade in the past for internal repression.

“This is one of Qaddafi’s most loyal units and are also one of the most active in terms of attacking innocent people,” Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, the director of the military’s joint staff, told reporters on Monday.

Despite this increased pressure on Libya’s elite forces, Admiral Gortney insisted that the military was not going beyond the mandate of the United Nations resolution.

“I would definitely not say mission creep,” he said.

The allies have fired nearly 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles since the campaign started on March 19, all but 7 from the United States. The United States has flown about 370 attack missions, and its allied partners have flown a similar number, but the Americans have dropped 455 precision-guided munitions compared with 147 from other coalition members.

Over all, commanders say they are trying to create havoc among the Libyan forces, cutting off their logistic pipeline, severing their communications back to headquarters in Tripoli, and stoking fear within the ranks with round-the-clock attacks.

“You want to create confusion at the front, go in after command and control at the rear and supply lines in between and ammunition facilities anywhere that we can find them,” Admiral Gortney said Monday, describing the overall effect the campaign is trying to achieve.

On Sunday, an EC-130J Commando Solo aircraft broadcast messages in English and Arabic, to warn Libyan armed forces. “Libyan sailors, leave your ship immediately,” the message warned. “Leave your equipment and return to your family or your home. The Qaddadi regime forces are violating a United Nations resolution ordering the end of hostilities in your country.”

Air commanders provided an example of the role of American intelligence-gathering. Air Force eavesdropping planes intercept communications from Libyan troops and relay that information to a Global Hawk drone flying high overhead. The Global Hawk zooms in on the location of armored forces and determines rough coordinates. In some cases, the drones are the first to detect moving targets. The Global Hawk sends the coordinates to analysts at a ground station, who pass the data on to the command center for targeting. The command center beams the coordinates to an E-3 Sentry Awacs command-and-control plane, which in turn directs F-16 and Harrier jets and other warplanes to their targets.

“Our message to the regime troops is simple: Stop fighting, stop killing your own people, stop obeying the orders of Colonel Qaddafi,” Admiral Gortney said last week. “To the degree that you defy these demands, we will continue to hit you and make it more difficult for you to keep going.”

Zimbabwe Indigenisation Goes a Gear Up

President Robert Mugabe of the Republic of Zimbabwe at a 87th birthday reception on Feb. 21, 2011. Mugabe has been the leader of the southern African state since national independence in 1980. He will stand for re-election this year., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Indigenisation goes a gear up

Sunday, 27 March 2011 00:14
Sunday Mail Reporter

THE country’s indigenisation and economic empowerment drive has gone a gear up following the introduction of regulations that set minimum requirements for foreign companies to implement indigenisation plans.

In terms of an Extraordinary Government Gazette published last Friday, all the concerned firms should comply with the law.

Those that had already submitted plans with a low indigenous shareholding quantum are required to adjust the figures to 51 percent within 45 days from the date of the publication of the gazette.

Every foreign company is expected to achieve the minimum
indigenisation quota following the approval of its implementation plan within six months of the publication of the notice.

The Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment is only obliged to extend the deadline by not more than three months where good reason would have been shown.

The regulations affect every company whose net value is US$1 or more.

A senior official in the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment yesterday said the regulations would ensure mineral resources are in the hands of indigenous Zimbabweans.

The official said Government expected firms to form mutually beneficial partnerships with locals.

“This ultimately means of the 13 sectors identified for indigenisation, mining has been finalised.

“We are looking at having completed everything in this sector within the next six months.”

The official said Zimbabweans would benefit through the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund, the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and a statutory sovereign wealth fund that may be created by law.

He said empowerment would also benefit management, employees and respective communities.

The envisaged sovereign wealth fund will help employees negotiate, he said, adding that the new regulations also help Government deal with speculative companies.

“We are going to scrutinise speculative tendencies in the sector. If one holds a licence for something worth a dollar, we will be able to bring them to account.”-The Sunday Mail

1000 March in Chicago Anti-War Rally

Committee Against FBI Repression contingent at the Chicago anti-war demonstration held on March 19 commemorating the 8th anniversary of the U.S. imperialist occupation of Iraq. Demonstrations took place across the U.S. , a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

1000 march in Chicago anti-war rally

By Staff | March 20, 2011
fightbacknews.com

Chicago, IL - 1000 people rallied and marched here March 19 to mark the eighth anniversary of the war in Iraq. A large contingent was organized by the Committee Against Political Repression (CAPR), which included many of the 23 persons subpoenaed to a grand jury for because of their anti-war and international solidarity efforts. Chants and signs carried the message that activism is not a crime. Seven of those subpoenaed are Palestinians. A large group of youth, mostly Arabs, carried a 60-foot long Palestinian flag behind the CAPR banner to show the unity of the Arab and Muslim communities with the fight to resist FBI and grand jury repression.

Stephanie Weiner, whose home was raided by 25 agents last fall, was the first speaker at the rally at the end of the march. She thanked the anti-war movement for six months of support for the targeted activists, calling out, “Courage, courage, courage,” as the watchword for those standing up to the repression. She made it clear that she and the other 22 people will continue to stand on the side of the people suffering through U.S. wars and occupations.

Several speakers condemned attacks against Libya. Ironically, just as the march was ending, the U.S. launched a massive cruise missile attack on Libya. As a result, March 19 will go down in history as the start date of two wars on Arab nations.

Thousands of Britons in Demonstration Against Budget Cuts

British police chase demonstrators who were protesting against the budget cuts stemming from the world economic crisis impacting all the capitalist states. Britain is one of the imperialist states bombing Libya., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Thousands of Britons in demo! .

Saturday, 26 March 2011 23:12

British police swung at protestors during a Trade Union Congress (TUC) march in London on March 26, 2011. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the United Kingdom took part in the march to protest against government cuts.

LONDON

Tens of thousands of protesters descended on London yesterday for a huge demonstration against the government’s harsh austerity measures, as thousands of police deployed amid fears of violence.

Trade unions organising the rally said more than 100 000 demonstrators were expected to turn out to oppose cuts introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition to tackle Britain’s record deficit.

Scotland Yard said around 4 500 officers would be deployed, after several huge student protests against plans to triple university tuition fees turned violent late last year.

Teachers, nurses and other public sector workers were being joined by students and pensioners for the march, which was expected to bring the centre of the British capital to a standstill.

After coming to power in May, the coalition announced cuts worth £81 billion (US$131 billion) over five years in order to slash a record public deficit it blames on the previous Labour government.

Brendan Barber, the head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Britain’s trade union movement, said yesterday’s “March for the Alternative” would be the biggest protest it has organised for decades.
“We’re certainly going to see well in excess of 100 000 people, possibly many, many more,” Barber said.

“It is to make the case that there is an alternative to this relentless focus on the deficit and austerity that we see from the coalition government,” he told BBC radio.

But Education Minister Michael Gove insisted that the protests would not force a change in government strategy.
“Of course people will feel a sense of disquiet, in some cases anger, at what they see happening,” he told BBC radio.

“But the difficulty we have as the government inheriting a terrible economic mess, is that we have to take steps to bring the public finances back into balance.”

British newspaper reports said between 250 000 and 300 000 were expected, which would make it the largest protest in the capital since around one million people marched against the Iraq war in February 2003. — AFP./The Sunday Mail

Minneapolis Emergency Protest Demands 'Hands Off Libya': Philippines Progressives Oppose War on Libya

Tracy Molm leads chants at a demonstration in Minneapolis opposing U.S. military intervention in Libya. Demonstrations have taken against the imperialist onslaught in North Africa across the U.S. and the world., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Minneapolis emergency protest demands ‘Hands off Libya’

By Staff | March 21, 2011

Tracy Molm lead chants at a protest against war on Libya

(Fight Back! News/Staff) Minneapolis, MN

About 75 protesters demanding an end to the U.S.-led war on Libya gathered at the Federal Building here, March 21. The demonstration was initiated by Women Against Military Madness and endorsed by the Anti-War Committee, the Twin Cities Peace Campaign and others.

Speaking at the rally, Meredith Aby of the Anti-War Committee said, “Why is the U.S. attacking Libya? Oil. The U.S. and Europe are happy with the Saudi and Bahrainian royalty and their oil supply so they choose to look the other way when their militaries kill innocent people. The Libyan government controls the largest reserves of oil in Africa and the imperialist powers are using the revolutions throughout the Arab world as an excuse to grab Libyan oil for themselves and to reassert their dominance in a region struggling for freedom.”

Aby continued, “On Saturday the U.S. military shot 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a cost of $2 million each at Libya. Who will pay for this war? Not the wealthiest in our society. It will come at the expense of the poor, programs for children, etc. The accounts of civilian deaths are piling up. We must raise our voices loudly and demand: Not one more death, not one more dollar - Hands off Libya!”


Philippine progressives and revolutionaries condemn attack on Libya

Statement by Staff | March 22, 2011
Fightbacknews.com

The leadership of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) issued an important press statement, March 22, opposing the war on Libya. The NDFP is the huge Filipino united front organization that’s fighting for democratic rights and to free the Philippines from foreign domination.

The statement, entitled “Why no ‘no fly zone’ over Gaza? National Democratic Front of the Philippines condemns imperialist war of aggression against Libya and the Libyan people” rejects the military moves made by the U.S., UK, France and their cohorts.

The statement notes, “Under the pretense of protecting the lives of Libyan civilians, these imperialist powers are violating the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Libya and are in the process of destroying the lives and property of the Libyan people. Deceptively declaring that they are undertaking a so-called humanitarian intervention, they repeat the imperialist wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“They aim to set up a puppet government and take over control of Libya's rich oil, gas and other natural resources. For this purpose, they are coddling and supporting a traitorous and retrogressive opposition group that brandishes the flag of the former King Idris.”

The statement contrasts the western powers treatment of Israel with that of Libya, noting “The imperialist powers collaborate with the Zionists in flouting UN resolutions.

They refuse to lift a finger to save the lives of Palestinian civilians: the mothers, children, elderly who have been subjected to brutal and massive invasion and massacre by the Israeli armed forces in December 2008, January 2009 and to the present day. ..Why is there no ‘no-fly-zone’ over Gaza to protect the Palestinian victims of Israeli aggression?”

The statement also points out that the western powers have rejected a number of peace initiatives stating, “Instead of the ‘no-fly-zone’ which has opened the way for the current imperialist military intervention, the peace plan offered by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and supported by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and four other Presidents of Latin America, which Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi has accepted, ought to be carried out.

This peace plan has suggested former US President Jimmy Carter to lead the peace delegation. There is also the appeal of Qaddafi to the UN Security Council for an emergency session and for the UN to send a fact-finding mission to Libya.”

Obama to Defend U.S. Imperialist War Against the North African State of Libya

Demonstration in solidarity with the North African state of Libya took place in Belgrade, capital of the former socialist state of Yugoslavia. The imperialists are bombing Libya in the same way they pounded Yugoslavia in 1999 forcing the break-up., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Obama to defend actions in Mideast

By Richard McGregor in Washington
Financial Times
Last updated: March 27 2011 21:00

The Obama administration has launched a concerted defence of military action against Libya and its broader response to the upheavals in the Middle East ahead of an address to the nation by the president.

Barack Obama’s decision to make a nationally-televised speech on Monday night follows criticism and disquiet about the administration’s failure to offer a coherent framework for US foreign policy.

The criticism has not been uniform, with many national security specialists saying Mr Obama has had to juggle an unprecedented range of challenges in a brief period affecting longtime allies and foes.

Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, and Robert Gates, defence secretary, in joint TV appearances on Sunday, said the Libya action had succeeded in preventing a humanitarian catastrophe. But they resisted offering a time frame for ending US involvement – even as Washington hands over formal control to Nato – and also sought to distinguish Libya from other protest movements.

While deploring the bloodshed in Syria, Mrs Clinton said the situation did not warrant intervention because the level of violence was not the same as in Libya. “There’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities [like Libya], than police actions which frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see,” she said.

A US response to Syria, she said, would depend on the condemnation by and the action of the Arab League, the UN and elsewhere.

“If there were a coalition of the international community, if there was the passage of a Security Council resolution, if there were a call by the Arab League, if there was a condemnation that was universal, but that is not going to happen because I don’t think it is yet clear what will occur, what will unfold,” she said in an interview on CBS.

Mr Gates said the Pentagon was already planning to draw down its resources for Libya.

“[Libya] was not a vital national interest to the US, but ... you had a potentially significantly destabilising event in Libya that put at risk potentially the revolutions in both Tunisia and Egypt,” he said.

Despite criticism of the US’s initially slow response, Mrs Clinton called the rapid assembly of the anti-Gaddafi coalition “a watershed moment in international decision making”.

“We saw what happened in Rwanda. It took a long time in the Balkans, in Kosovo, to deal with a tyrant. What has happened since March 1, and we’re not even done with the month, demonstrates really remarkable leadership,” she said.

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Libya Under Siege: Largest Imperialist Military Undertaking Since the Invasion of Iraq

Thousands of Libyans stand as human shields against the U.S./European imperialist bombing of that North African state. The NATO forces are continuing their onslaught on this country., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Libya: Largest Military Undertaking since the Invasion of Iraq

Towards a Protracted Military Operation

By Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, March 20, 2011

Outright lies by the international media: Bombs and missiles are presented as an instrument of peace and democratization...

This is not a humanitarian operation. The war on Libya opens up a new regional war theater.

There are three distinct war theaters in the Middle East Central Asian region. Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.

What is unfolding is a fourth US-NATO War Theater in North Africa, with the risk of escalation.

These four war theaters are functionally related, they are part of an integrated US-NATO military agenda.

The bombing of Libya has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for several years as confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark.

Operation Odyssey Dawn is acknowledged as the "biggest Western military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq began exactly eight years ago." (Russia: Stop 'indiscriminate' bombing of Libya - Taiwan News Online, March 19, 2011).

This war is part of the battle for oil. Libya is among the World's largest oil economies with approximately 3.5% of global oil reserves, more than twice those of the US.

The underlying objective is to gain control over Libya's oil and gas reserves under the disguise of a humanitarian intervention.

The geopolitical and economic implications of a US-NATO led military intervention directed against Libya are far-reaching.

"Operation Odyssey Dawn " is part of a broader military agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia which consists in gaining control and corporate ownership over more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas, including oil and gas pipeline routes.

With 46.5 billion barrels of proven reserves, (10 times those of Egypt), Libya is the largest oil economy in the African continent followed by Nigeria and Algeria (Oil and Gas Journal). In contrast, US proven oil reserves are of the order of 20.6 billion barrels (December 2008) according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves).

Largest Military Undertaking since the Invasion of Iraq

A military operation of this size and magnitude, involving the active participation of several NATO member and partner countries is never improvised. Operation Odyssey Dawn was in the advanced stages of military planning prior to the protest movement in Egypt and Tunisia.

Public opinion was led to believe that the protest movement had spread spontaneously from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya.

The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers. Rebel forces in Benghazi immediately hoisted the red, black and green banner with the crescent and star: the flag of the monarchy of King Idris, which symbolized the rule of the former colonial powers. (See Manlio Dinucci, Libya-When historical memory is erased, Global Research, February 28, 2011)

The insurrection was also planned and coordinated with the timing of the military operation. It had been carefully planned months ahead of the protest movement, as part of a covert operation.

US, British special forces were reported to be on the ground "helping the opposition" right from the outset.

What we are dealing with is a military roadmap, a timeline of carefully planned military and intelligence events.

United Nations Complicity

So far, the bombing campaign has resulted in countless civilian casualties, which are either categorized by the media as "collateral damage" or blamed on the Libyan armed forces.

In a bitter irony, the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 grants NATO a mandate "to protect civilians"

Protection of civilians

4. Authorizes Member States that have notified the Secretary-General, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, and acting in cooperation with the Secretary-General, to take all necessary measures, notwithstanding paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011), to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory, and requests the Member States concerned to inform the Secretary-General immediately of the measures they take pursuant to the authorization conferred by this paragraph which shall be immediately reported to the Security Council; (UN Security Council Resolution on Libya: No Fly Zone and Other Measures, March 18, 2011)

The UN resolution grants coalition forces carte blanche to engage in an all out war against a sovereign country in derogation of international law and in violation of the UN charter. It also serves dominant financial interests: it not only allows the military coalition to bomb a sovereign country, it also allows for the freezing of assets, thereby jeopardizing Libya's financial system.

Asset freeze

19. Decides that the asset freeze imposed by paragraph 17, 19, 20 and 21 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall apply to all funds, other financial assets and economic resources which are on their territories, which are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Libyan authorities, ....

No where in the UNSC resolution is the issue of regime change mentioned. Yet it is understood that opposition forces will receive part of the money confiscated under Article 19 of resolution 1973. In fact discussions with opposition leaders to that effect have already taken place. Its called cooptation and financial fraud:

20. Affirms its determination to ensure that assets frozen pursuant to paragraph 17 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall, at a later stage, as soon as possible be made available to and for the benefit of the people of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya;

With regard to the "Enforcement of the arms embargo" under para. 13 of the resolution, coalition forces will commit themselves without exception to enforcing an arms embargo on Libya. Yet from outset they have violated Art. 13, by supplying weapons to opposition forces in Benghazi.

Protracted Military Operation?

Concepts are turned upside down. In an utterly twisted logic. peace, security and protection of the Libyan people, are to be achieved through missile attacks and aerial bombings.

The objective of the military operation is not the protection of civilians but regime change and the break up the country, as in Yugoslavia, namely the partition of Libya into separate countries. The formation of a separate State in the oil producing area of Eastern Libya has been contemplated by Washington for many years.

Barely a week before the onslaught of the bombings,. the director of National intelligence James Clapper emphasized in a testimony to the US Senate Armed Services Committee that Libya has significant air defense capabilities and that a no fly zone approach could potentially result in a protracted military operation:

Obama's policy is "aimed at the goal of having Gadhafi leave office," the national security adviser reiterated.

But Clapper's testimony underscored how difficult that could be.

He told the Senate committee that he thinks "Gadhafi is in this for the long haul" and that he doesn't think Gadhafi "has any intention ... of leaving."

Later, enumerating his reasons for believing that Gadhafi would prevail, Clapper said that the regime has more military supplies and can count on the army's best trained, "most robustly equipped" units, including the 32nd Brigade, which is commanded by Gadhafi's son, Khamis, and the 9th Brigade.

The bulk of its hardware comprises Russian-made air defenses, artillery, tanks and other vehicles, "and they appear more disciplined about how they treat and repair that equipment," Clapper continued.

Clapper disputed assertions that a no-fly zone could be quickly and easily imposed on Libya, saying Gadhafi commands the Middle East's second largest air defense system after Egypt's.

"They have a lot of Russian equipment, and there is a certain quality in numbers. Some of that equipment has fallen into the oppositionists' hands," he continued.

The system comprises about 31 surface-to-air missile sites and a radar complex that "is focused on protecting the (Mediterranean) coastline where are 80 or 85 percent of the population is," Clapper said. Gadhafi's forces also have "a large, large number" of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.

Army Gen. Ronald Burgess, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, endorsed Clapper's assessment, saying momentum was shifting to Gadhafi's forces after initially being with the opposition.

"Whether or not it has fully shifted to Gadhafi's side at this time in-country I think is not clear," Burgess said. "But we have now reached a state of equilibrium where ... the initiative, if you will, may be on the regime side."

Hours after Clapper spoke, Thomas Donilon, Obama's national security adviser, offered a different assessment, suggesting sharply diverging views between the White House and the U.S. intelligence community.

He said the intelligence chiefs' analysis was "static" and "unidimensional," based on the military balance of power, and failing to take into account both Gadhafi's growing isolation and international actions to boost his opponents. (White House, intel chief split on Libya assessment | McClatchy, March 11, 2011)

The foregoing statement suggests that Operation Odyssey Dawn could lead to a protracted drawn out war resulting in significant NATO-US losses.

NATO military setbacks were reported by Libyan sources from the very outset of the air campaign.

Within hours of the commencement of the bombings, Libyan sources (yet to be confirmed) pointed to the shooting down of three French jets. (See Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Breaking News: Libyan Hospitals Attacked. Libyan Source: Three French Jets Downed, Global Research, March 19, 2011).

The Libyan national TV network announced that a French fighter plane had been shot down near Tripoli. The French Army denied these reports:

“We reject the information that a French fighter plane was shot down in Libya. All the planes we sent on missions today returned to base” said the spokesman of the French Army, colonel Thierry Burkhard, quoted by Le Figaro." (Libya: A french fighter plane was shot down! The French Army denies this information, xiannet.net March 20, 2011)

Internal Libyan sources (to be confirmed) also reported on Sunday the downing of two Qatari military jets. According to Libyan reports, yet to be confirmed, a total of five French jets have been shot down. Three of these attacking French jets were, according to the reports, shot down in Tripoli. The other two French military jets were shot down while attacking Sirt (Surt/Sirte). (Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Libyan Sources Report Italians Captured. Additional Coalition Jets Downed, Global Research, March 20, 2011)

Niece of Vladamir Lenin, Olga Ulyanova, 89, Dies in Moscow

In this June 23, 1999 file photo Olga Ulyanova, niece of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, attends a press conference in Moscow, Russia. Ulyanova, the niece and last direct kin of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin has died in Moscow., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Niece of Vladimir Lenin dies in Moscow*

By MANSUR MIROVALEV
March 25, 2011

In this June 23, 1999 file photo Olga Ulyanova, niece of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, attends a press conference in Moscow, Russia. Ulyanova, the niece and last direct kin of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin has died in Moscow. She was 89. Her uncle Vladimir Ulyanov took Lenin as his nom-de-guerre in 1901 while in exile near the Siberian river of Lena.

MOSCOW – Olga Ulyanova, a niece of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin who wrote several books praising her uncle and family, has died in Moscow. She was 89.

Lenin never had any children of his own, and Ulyanova was one of his last known living relatives, according to the government in the Ulyanovsk region, which was named after her family. She was the daughter of Dmitry Ulyanov, Lenin's younger brother and one of the first members of the Bolshevik party.

Olga Ulyanova, a chemist and a writer, died in Moscow on Friday, the regional government said. The cause of death was not given.

Her uncle, Vladimir Ulyanov, took Lenin as his nom-de-guerre in 1901 while in exile near the Siberian river of Lena. Sixteen years later, Lenin headed the Bolshevik revolution. He died in 1924, when Ulyanova was almost two years old.

After Lenin's' death, his embalmed body was placed in a mausoleum on Red Square, where it is open to the public.

Following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, many Soviet critics demanded the removal of his body from the mausoleum, seeing it as a symbol of the Communist past.

Ulyanova fiercely objected. "Those who want his reburial are just malefactors," she told the Interfax news agency in 2007.

She had fond memories of growing up in the Kremlin with other children of Bolshevik leaders and said she never abused her status as Lenin's kin. She worked as a professor of chemistry and physics at various universities and wrote extensively about her uncle.

"It was a mistake to turn him into an icon," she told the Italian Panorama newspaper in 2008. "But ideological distortions, falsification of his theories were even a bigger mistake."

She also claimed that her uncle disapproved of the 1918 shooting of last Russian Czar Nicholas II, his wife and five children.

One of Lenin's last living relatives is his great nephew Dmitry Ulyanov, an Orthodox priest in the western Russian city of Ivanovo who once demanded that his parish worship icons of Lenin and his successor Joseph Stalin, according to the Izvestia daily newspaper.

Url: http://wp.me/pUZCt-1NO

U.S.-backed President of Yemen Vows to Stay

Thousands take to the streets in Yemen as the people demand the removal of the United States supported government. A day of fury has resulted in many injuries throughout the areas impacted by the demonstrations., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

March 26, 2011

President of Yemen Vows to Stay

By LAURA KASINOF

SANA, Yemen — A day after he said he was ready to yield power to “safe hands,” President Ali Abdullah Saleh asserted Saturday that his departure was not imminent, leaving unclear when and under what terms he would agree to step down.

His statement was the latest pivot in back-and-forth negotiations over a transfer of power, even as Mr. Saleh tries to frame the terms under which he would leave.

“A presidential source denied on Saturday what have been reported by some media outlets that President Ali Abdullah Saleh will step down,” said a statement by the official Saba news agency.

This was a reference to reports by several news agencies saying that the president was ready to agree to a transition as early as Saturday. Mr. Saleh said Friday that he would leave if he could hand the reins to safe hands, and not “malicious forces.” But early Sunday the president sounded obstinate in an appearance on Al Arabiya television, saying, “We are not clinging to power,” and adding that he would turn over power “to the people, but not to chaos.”

The shifting and sometimes murky stances of the government and its opponents have become a trademark of the current political crisis. A month ago, Yemen’s opposition coalition, the Joint Meetings Parties, proposed a plan under which Mr. Saleh would leave at the end of this year. The president recently agreed to the proposal.

But protesters have rejected the plan and called for Mr. Saleh’s immediate ouster. And the opposition has recently shifted positions and said that Mr. Saleh must leave immediately, without conditions.

Antigovernment protests continued across the country Saturday. In the southern city of Jaar, known as a Qaeda haven, militants took over all official government buildings, according to local reports.

Ghaddafi a Hero for African Rights and Liberation

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW editor, looks on while former Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney reads the latest issue of Workers World newspaper during a visit to Detroit on Aug. 30, 2008. McKinney was endorsed by Workers World newspaper in July., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Ghaddafi a hero for African rights and liberation

27.03.2011 04:34
by Cynthia McKinney

In 2005 in the basement of the United States Capitol at a meeting convened by Congressman John Conyers on the subject of the "Downing Street Memo," Ray McGovern uttered the following truth: he testified that "the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel, and military bases craved by administration neocons" so that "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." McGovern went on to testify truthfully that "Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation. The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."

The routine condemnations of McGovern could be heard from all of the sources inside the U.S. political structure that has at its base finance from pro-Israel sources; that included from Dr. Howard Dean who was Chair of the Democratic National Committee at the time. This finance nexus has been thoroughly identified by Dr. James Petras, for those who want to do further reading.

Condemnations, however, do not disprove McGovern's statement, but point, instead, to the political untouchability of the topic. However, if one wants to truly understand the formulation of U.S. foreign and military policies, one must carefully consider McGovern's testimony.

On December 7, 1988 Mikhail Gorbachev described the need for a "universal human consensus" and he called that a new world order. And on September 11, 1990, President George Herbert Walker Bush characterized the crisis that led to his intervention in the Persian Gulf in Operation Desert Storm as an opportunity to move toward "a new world order." Every President since Bush, including President Obama, has expressed some fealty in one way or another to the idea of a "New World Order" which represents the ultimate goal of internationalizing rule by a few oligarchs and the dissolution, by every means available, of dissent. On March 19, 2011, exactly eight years after George W. Bush launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom," President Obama savagely bombed Libya.

One can begin to gain an understanding of exactly who these oligarchs are by investigating the financial winners in the oligarchization of the U.S. economy, in much the same way that the Russian oligarchs were created and eventually identified.

Israel was an important beneficiary of these economic operations and Israel has been an important beneficiary of certain U.S. military operations, exactly as McGovern testified.

The clear losers in this process are the people struggling globally for truth, justice, human rights, and peace. And there are clear and identifiable winners--if one dares to look.

Understanding who the winners are is necessary if one is to be able to decipher what they do and why. Therefore, it is necessary to understand that a new type of language has been adopted where war is peace, freedom is slavery, lies are truth, and ignorance is strength: we already know this as Orwell Speak. Our job is to pierce the intentional propagandistic obfuscations and expose the truth for those less aware of the modus operandus of the crafters of this new international order.

Nowhere should McGovern's testimony be weighed more than in the context of the US-led "Global War on Terror," the more recent "revolutions" of North Africa and West Asia, and more specifically for this paper, events unfolding in Libya.

Initially, the U.S. effort against Qaddafi's Administration in Libya was termed a "humanitarian intervention" to protect the people. But, when since September 11, 1990 have U.S. troops been mobilized to innocently rescue civilians in danger? In reality, the U.S. military has been selectively called into action to cause civilian pain, suffering, destruction, and death since September 11, 1990 and to further unstated objectives.

The U.S. military was not called into action after its ally, Paul Kagame, oversaw the murder of two democratically elected Presidents, when their plane was shot from the air by a U.S. missile left over from Operation Desert Storm that found its way to Uganda and from Uganda into Kagame's possession. The murder of the two sitting Presidents by way of shooting down their plane was an act of terror.

In the human conflagration that followed, the tragedy that has become known as the Rwandan Genocide, 100,000 innocent civilians were murdered every day for the next 100 days while the Clinton Administration, National Security Council Advisor Susan Rice, nor United Nations Ambassador Madeleine Albright did anything to provide humanitarian intervention because regime change was the accepted policy and if it meant the deaths of one million Africans, then so be it.

The Clinton Administration women who justified this non-intervention, later had an opportunity to stop the carnage in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast since 2000, Sudan and they did nothing because what was happening in those areas, despite the tremendous human toll, was consistent with unstated U.S. policy.

Today, the Obama Administration is responsible for its own war crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace and defends in U.S. Courts those from the Bush Administration who bear responsibility for having approved or justified them in the past. Yet, this Administration will not even agree to investigate the violation of Mumia Abu Jamal's civil rights in his first trial rife with racial innuendo, judicial misconduct, and a lack of evidence. Or in the case of Troy Davis where seven of nine witnesses recanted their testimonies and cited prosecutorial misconduct. But it did go to court to defend military commissions and insulted Native Americans in the process!

In addition, what the United States is responsible for in Afghanistan and Pakistan just since President Obama came to office is unthinkable and is despicable. And U.S. taxpayers continue to foot the financial and moral bill for the continued subjugation of Palestine, especially the people of Gaza who are still being bombarded by Israeli warplanes, all made possible by every one of us that pays taxes. And let us not forget this Administration's efforts to quash the Goldstone Report (the United Nations Report on Israel's Operation Cast Lead against Gaza) and criticism of Israel after nine Turkish citizens attempting to take humanitarian supplies to Gaza were brazenly murdered by Israeli forces attacking the humanitarian aid ship, Mavi Marmara.

But, amazingly, when the Obama Administration puts the U.S. war machine in action in a new front in Africa and characterizes it as a "humanitarian intervention," the peace community seemingly accepts the obfuscation and forgets the facts.

But the peace community knows full well that the Obama Administration is continuing the longterm U.S. policies of dismemberment, Balkanization, carefully crafted chaos, and death and destruction to achieve its unstated objectives. Every possibility of dissent is being obliterated--for a reason. The FBI raids in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and elsewhere targeting activists who support peace and the human rights of Palestinians is no accident. Politically-motivated prosecutions of politically active Palestinians came first, from Sami Al-Arian and his brother-in-law to the Holy Land Five.

These raids, combined with the Administration's unstated military objectives, undergird the economic transformation to which this Administration is fully committed. That is why the average taxpayer pays more taxes than General Electric or Bank of America, but shouldn't expect any kind of bailout from this Administration.

Now, let's explore Libya with respect to McGovern's remark. Oil: well Libya's got lots of it: the most on the African Continent. Israel: Preparing Israel to make "a clean break" from the past and establish a new relationship with the U.S. based on "maturity," by "securing the realm" as written by the Project for a New American Century Study Group on "A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000" with Richard Perle as its leader. This should be seen as the operative strategy defining events in the region: "Israel--proud, wealthy, solid, and strong" can "shape its strategic environment."

France can be seen as an additional proxy for Israel in this action; France which announced that it was taking the lead in the anti-Qaddafi operation, is led by Nicholas Sarkozy whom the French media, Le Figaro newspaper, identified after his election as a Mossad asset. 99% of the population of Libya is Muslim. As long as Muslims are fighting each other they won't have time to focus on Israel or Palestine; And as for logistics, AFRICOM, the United States military's Africa Command, was not created for nothing: it was created to deepen the U.S. military presence and control over a Continent rich in land, water, strategic minerals, former preserve of U.S. allies and now facing aggressive penetration by China. Situated on the Mediterranean littoral, with oil money, and a revolutionary leader, I need not say much more about Libya and logistics useful for neocon objectives.

The reason Muammar Qaddafi is a target is because he has been a thorn in the side of anti-revolutionary forces since he took power in Libya, overthrowing the King and nationalizing the oil industry so that the people could benefit from their oil resources.

Libya's Revolution brought free health care and education to the people and subsidized housing. In fact, students in Libya can study there or abroad and the government gives them a monthly stipend while they are in school and they pay no tuition. If a Libyan needs a surgery that must be done overseas, then the government will pay for that surgery. That is more than the soldiers of the United States military can say. While Libyans enjoy subsidized housing, members of the U.S. military risk foreclosure while they serve their country abroad. Money from oil is directly deposited into the accounts of every Libyan based on oil income. As one Libyan told me recently, the idea is that if people have what they need, then they don't have to deny rights to or harm others and the Revolution believes that it is the responsibility of the government to provide the basic needs of its citizens.

Now, as for democracy, a country that has never practiced it is a poor trumpet for it. From genocide of indigenous Americans to enslavement of stolen Africans to disfranchisement of women, ours has been a less than perfect union. Now, it has turned the administration of its elections over to private voting machine companies and the finance of those elections to individuals and organizations that can mobilize vast sums of money; thus the United States is not in the best best position to dictate the terms of another country's democracy. But, Libyans govern themselves by The Green Book, a form of direct democracy based on the African Constitution concept that the people are the first and final source of all power. Clearly, the U.S. move is counter-Revolution.

In addition, I remember watching the proceedings of the House of Commons on television about ten years ago and I was shocked by what I was hearing: a member of Parliament saying that the evidence was actually planted by the U.S. C.I.A.! So, I searched for the article and there it was. A Member of Parliament had done his own investigation and discovered to his satisfaction that "the [timing] device was a C.I.A. plant." Kind of like the investigation I did, myself, to conclude that the Bush Administration was not telling us the truth about September 11th.

There is so much more on this to write. But I will leave that for another article. Let me just add this: Earl Hilliard was kicked out of Congress in 2002 by the pro-Israel Lobby because he was getting close to Libya and would learn some of the secrets that have not yet been revealed. What business was it of Israel and their U.S. supporters that an African American Member of Congress was reaching out to an African leader who has always been supportive of Black liberation in the United States?

Muammar Qaddafi's daughter was murdered by U.S. bombs targeting him. I have visited the compound. Unfortunately, it has since been revealed by Victor Ostrovsky, a Mossad defector living in Canada, that the bombing took place as a result of faked intelligence and that Qaddafi was set up by Israel in Operation Trojan, that wanted him targeted. According to Ostrovsky, Ronald Reagan was tricked into bombing Libya by means of a "radio transmitter smuggled into Tripoli by the Mossad, which broadcast messages designed to fool the United States into thinking Libya was about to launch a massive terror attack on the West. On the basis of this bogus evidence, the US bombed Libya, killing Gaddafi's daughter." I have met with former members of MI-5 who were tasked with assassinating Qaddafi and refused.

At any rate, I must put this on the record, too. Muammar Qaddafi has long been a friend to African people. Pan-Africanists have travelled to and from Libya since the beginning of Qaddafi's role as Libya's leader, including Black Panther Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, All-African People's Revolutionary Party, and Nation of Islam members. I once defended Nation Of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in the House International Relations Committee when the late Tom Lantos--on behalf of Israel--challenged The Nation's relationship with Libya and wanted to dash Qaddafi's desire to give The Nation several billion dollars to help Black people.

Unfortunately, in an effort of goodwill, Mr. Gaddafi on at least one occasion, was also prepared to assist those who presented themselves as servants of the people but in fact were not: the Blackstone Rangers in Chicago. More importantly, hundreds of unnamed Black Americans have made the sojourn to Libya - all striving for the unification of Africans in Africa and the Diaspora.

Black people who would have not otherwise ever connected with one another have been able to do so for more than forty years because of the educational and cultural conferences that Qaddafi has sponsored. The only requirement for participation was that they be willing to commit to work towards the ongoing development of Africa--all of Africa and wherever Africans are. Mr. Qaddafi to this day continues to assist Black political organizations in an effort to keep people of African descent able to exercise their right of self-determination.

Meanwhile, on the Continent, Africans not ready to kowtow to France, the United States, or other former colonial powers maintain their independence thanks to Qaddafi, the former head of the African Union. Qaddafi was named African Leader of the Year in 2009. Qaddafi provided the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela the wherewithal to defeat apartheid in South Africa. In short, if you want to stop Black people, then one key move is to stop Colonel Qaddafi.

Finally, I have led two delegations to Tripoli. Among those I took with me are KPFK's Dedon Kamathi, Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford, WBAIX.com's Don Debar, WayneMadsenReport.com's Wayne Madsen, National Hip Hop Political Caucus's Troy Nkrumah, Block Report's Minister of Information J.R. Valrey, Bob Fitrakis of FreePress.org, Keith Harmon Snow of allthingspass.com, and Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X. Chicago's Pat Hill traveled with me twice and is in regular contact with people on the ground in Libya. You have heard them giving their impressions of what they saw and what they know on radio, television, and the internet.

The information I have included in this article is public information. Therefore, I am amazed that activist "leaders" who ought to know better accept special interest propaganda as the truth and then knowingly or unwittingly become tools of the disinformation artists. Responsible news outlets will search for those who know. I ask the readers of this article to trust no one who is merely a talking head, search for those who have experience and a track record for telling not a part of the truth, but the whole truth, and then finally do your own research and learn more about your government. And maybe, finally, then candidates who don't deserve our votes won't get them.

In conclusion, the United States, France, and Britain together have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and their collective wars elsewhere without any punishment or any action from the U.N. Their action in Libya is illegal and Libya should launch a legal action in the International Court of Justice to obtain an injunction against this military action and I know just the right team of unbought international lawyers to do it. The claim that military actions against Libya protect civilians is a mockery and Presidents Obama and Sarkozy and Prime Minister Cameron should be called on it.

Interestingly, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya held its most recent meeting in the United States in July 2007. However, Libyans should be able to solve their own problems without foreign interference. Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has put forward a mediation proposal which I have endorsed. In addition, the Hugo Chavez International Foundation for Peace, Friendship and Solidarity released a communiqué stating that the "Arab League endorsements of Al-Qaida terrorism in Libya, [the U.S./NATO minus Germany and Turkey, plus the United Arab Emirates allies] is a racially-motivated hatred since the obnoxious slave trade centuries back." The communiqué continues that opening contacts with terrorists amounts to nothing less than promoting international terrorism and characterizes the Arab League move as both anti-African and anti-Black. The Hugo Chavez Foundation communiqué concludes: Long live Muammar Al-Qathafi! Long live the African Union! Long live Pan-Africanism! Solidarity with Blacks everywhere!