[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ufpj-activist] Perspectives

[Brussel Morton K.]

Note especially the article by Pepe Escobar below.  --mkb

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ellie Ommani <ellieomm at optonline.net>
> Date: March 4, 2011 9:15:43 PM CST
> To: FBrodhead at aol.com, wespac_mid-east at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: ufpj-activist at lists.mayfirst.org
> Subject: Re: [ufpj-activist] Aljazeera reports killing of thousands of civilians in Libya
> 
> Thank you for replying, Frank.  I know you work hard for a better world!
>  
> Aljazeera did an excellent job on reporting the revolutionary struggle in Egypt, but one reason was that many, many anti-imperialist, conscious activists were at the forefront of that struggle, and the West knew it was crucial to do any dirty work way behind the scenes.  In Libya it's a whole different scenario.  I have yet to hear any truly progressive voices with even a sense of the danger of U.S.-British-European intervention and control.  Ardeshir just received an excellent article by Pepe Escobar, which has information and analysis that I support and think others should consider.  I urge you to circulate it among your contacts.  I have copied it below my notes.
>  
> Aljazeera is owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer bin Mohammed bin Thani Al-Thani, and the Qatar Media Corporation, the absolute monarchy.  Thus, his Qatar Media Corp. has a tremendous influence of the British colonial thinking.  What I noticed right away was that while the U.S.-British tried desperately to hold onto Mubarak, there was an immediate attack on Libya, which however weird and negative Qaddafi as an individual leader is, unless there's a better pro-socialist leadership as is forming in Egypt, I cannot support the West's involvement in Qaddafi's overthrow.  Most people in the movement know nothing about Qaddafi and the economic and social changes he brought to the Libyan people and the supportive role he has had historically in supporting liberation struggles - the Palestinians as only one concrete and consistent example.  Furthermore, have you read the criticism of AlJazeera's coverage on this website:?  Bourgeois Media follows the money and the oil profits, whether in Arabic, Farsi, English, French or German. 
>  
> Al Jazeera Promotes Libya's "Crown Prince" Who Calls for Military Intervention in Libya
> by Yoshie Furuhashi
> 
> http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/furuhashi250211.html
>  
> I still ask: estimate of 6000 dead based upon whose statistics???  I'm sure, absolutely sure, Frank, that you remember the saturation in the U.S.-Western media of the Sunni against Shia in Iraq, the stories of how Sadaam Hussein's soldiers took babies out of incubators when they invaded Kuwait, only to find out that the Kuwaiti lady 'nurse' who supposedly witnessed this was in Texas and part of a PR Firm that was actively spreading lies about Iraq's government in order to assist the West in its drive to bomb Iraq in 1991.  I remember all of these lies as if they were told yesterday, because at the time I heard about the incubator story, I was driving across the Brooklyn Bridge, and knowing the Middle East culture, I knew it was an absolute lie. When I arrived at the school where I was a teacher, everyone was talking about the "Horrid Sadaam Hussein".  Take him out! bomb him! of course, such a cruel dictator he was!!!  Propaganda fait-a-compli!
>  
> Ask an Iraqi citizen today, who is not part of the ruling class that has been paid off by the West, what is in their hearts regarding the situation in Iraq today?  What do you think the average Iraqi citizen will say about their "liberation"?  Their beautiful Tigris & Euphrates, that ancient gorgeous  river of the Bablylon is hopelessly polluted; their babies are being born with severe cancers and spines outside of their backs from the depleted uranium dropped in massive amounts on Falluja, Adaymia, Sulemaniyeh, Najaf, Diwaniya, etc., and four 4 million! Iraqi's are refugees living in tents outside of their native land. 
>  
> We who want a truly decent and just society cannot forget the crimes that our polished, civilized, suit-clad gentlemen running this society orchestrated.  They are fine liars and very sophisticated thieves!  Qaddafi may appear as a "madman" with his strange clothes, etc. but I want to throw up when I hear Obama and Clinton speak about caring for the rights and freedom of the Libyan people! REALLY?
>  
> I am not a political economist and do not deeply know the history and economics about Libya.  I do not know if Qaddafi systematically tortured and brutalized his people; but using my simple logic, that would be a contradiction to the fact that his unusual government has developed Libya to the extent that it is.  But what I do know and see is that it is one of the few African countries that has brought better education, sanitation, housing, and that he does not wish his country to be an imperialist outpost like many of the other African Union governments who have welcomed with open arms the money channeled into their greedy fists from the Pentagon.  Africa has many U.S. military bases and guess who mostly benefits? 
>  
> Please, please forgive and excuse me, Frank, for ranting on about this.  I'll end here and copy Pepe Escobar's article from Asia Times: The title is so appropriate: WAR PORN IS BACK IN LIBYA "THERE'S ALL THAT OIL"
>  
> 
> 
> 03/02/11 
> Asia Times (Hong Kong) 
> THE ROVING EYE: War porn is back in Libya
> 
> By Pepe Escobar
> 
> Forget "democracy"; Libya, unlike Egypt and Tunisia, is an oil power. Many a
> plush office of United States and European elites will be salivating at the
> prospect of taking advantage of a small window of opportunity afforded by
> the anti-Muammar Gaddafi revolution to establish - or expand - a beachhead.
> There's all that oil, of course. There's also the allure, close by, of the
> US$10 billion, 4,128 kilometer long Trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria
> to Algeria, expected to be online in 2015.
> 
> Thus the world, once again, is reintroduced to war porn, history as farce, a
> bad rerun of "shock and awe". Everyone - the United Nations, the US, the
> North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - is up in arms about a no-fly
> zone. Special forces are on the move, as are US warships.
> 
> Breathless US senators compare Libya with Yugoslavia. Tony "The Return of
> the Living Dead" Blair is back in missionary zeal form, its mirror image
> played by British Prime Minister David Cameron, duly mocked by Gaddafi's
> son, the "modernizer" Saif al-Islam. There's fear of "chemical weapons".
> Welcome back to humanitarian imperialism - on crack.
> 
> And like a character straight out of Scary Movie, even war-on-Iraq-architect
> Paul Wolfowitz wants a NATO-enforced no-fly zone, as the Foreign Policy
> Initiative - the son of the Project for the New American Century - publishes
> an open letter to US President Barack Obama demanding military boots to turn
> Libya into a protectorate ruled by NATO in the name of the "international
> community".
> 
> The mere fact that all these people are supporting the Libya protesters
> makes it all stink to - over the rainbow - high heavens. Sending His
> Awesomeness Charlie Sheen to whack Gaddafi would seem more believable.
> 
> It was up to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to introduce a note of
> sanity, describing the notion of a no-fly zone over Libya as "superfluous".
> This means in practice a Russian veto at the UN Security Council. Earlier,
> China had already changed the conversation.
> 
> In their Sheen-style hysteria - with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
> desperately offering "any kind of assistance" - Western politicians did not
> bother to consult with the people who are risking their lives to overthrow
> Gaddafi. At a press conference in Benghazi, the spokesman for the brand new
> Libyan National Transitional Council, human-rights lawyer Abdel-Hafidh
> Ghoga, was blunt, "We are against any foreign intervention or military
> intervention in our internal affairs ... This revolution will be completed
> by our people."
> 
> The people in question, by the way, are protecting Libya's oil industry, and
> even loading supertankers destined to Europe and China. The people in
> question do not have much to do with opportunists such as former
> Gaddafi-appointed justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who wants a
> provisional government to prepare for elections in three months. Moreover,
> the people in question, as al-Jazeera has reported, have been saying they
> don't want foreign intervention for a week now.
> 
> The Benghazi council prefers to describe itself as the "political face for
> the revolution", organizing civic affairs, and not established as an interim
> government. Meanwhile, a military committee of officer defectors is trying
> to set up a skeleton army to be sent to Tripoli; through tribal contacts,
> they seem to have already infiltrated small cells into the vicinity of
> Tripoli.
> 
> Whether this self-appointed revolutionary leadership - splinter elements of
> the established elite, the tribes and the army - will be the face of a new
> regime, or whether they will be overtaken by younger, more radical
> activists, remains to be seen.
> 
> Shower me with hypocrisy
> None of this anyway has placated the hysterical Western narrative, according
> to which there are only two options for Libya; to become a failed state or
> the next al-Qaeda haven. How ironic. Up to 2008, Libya was dismissed by
> Washington as a rogue state and an unofficial member of the "axis of evil"
> that originally included Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
> 
> As former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark confirmed years ago, Libya was
> on the Pentagon/neo-conservative official list to be taken out after Iraq,
> along with Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria and the holy grail, Iran. But as
> soon as wily Gaddafi became an official partner in the "war on terror",
> Libya was instantly upgraded by the George W Bush administration to
> civilized status.
> 
> As for the UN Security Council unanimously deciding to refer the Gaddafi
> regime to the International Criminal Court (ICC), it's useful to remember
> that the ICC was created in mid-1998 by 148 countries meeting in Rome. The
> final vote was 120 to seven. The seven that voted against the ICC were
> China, Iraq, Israel, Qatar and Yemen, plus Libya and ... the United States.
> Incidentally, Israel killed more Palestinian civilians in two weeks around
> new year 2008 than Gaddafi these past two weeks.
> 
> This tsunami of hypocrisy inevitably raises the question; what does the West
> know about the Arab world anyway? Recently the executive board of the
> International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised a certain northern African country
> for its "ambitious reform agenda" and its "strong macroeconomic performance
> and the progress on enhancing the role of the private sector". The country
> was Libya. The IMF had only forgotten to talk to the main actors: the Libyan
> people.
> 
> And what to make of Anthony Giddens - the guru behind Blair's "Third Way" -
> who in March 2007 penned an article to The Guardian saying "Libya is not
> especially repressive" and "Gaddafi seems genuinely popular"? Giddens bet
> that Libya "in two or three decades' time would be a Norway of North Africa:
> prosperous, egalitarian and forward-looking". Tripoli may well be on its way
> to Oslo - but without the Gaddafi clan.
> 
> The US, Britain and France are so awkwardly maneuvering for best
> post-Gaddafi positioning it's almost comical to watch. Beijing, even against
> its will, waited until extra time to condemn Gaddafi at the UN, but made
> sure it was following the lead of African and Asian countries (smart move,
> as in "we listen to the voices of the South"). Beijing is extremely worried
> that its complex economic relationship with oil source Libya does not
> unravel (amid all the hoopla about fleeing expats, China quietly evacuated
> no less than 30,000 Chinese workers in the oil and construction business).
> 
> Once again; it's the oil, stupid. A crucial strategic factor for Washington
> is that post-Gaddafi Libya may represent a bonanza for US Big Oil - which
> for the moment has been kept away from Libya. Under this perspective, Libya
> may be considered as yet one more battleground between the US and China. But
> while China goes for energy and business deals in Africa, the US bets on its
> forces in AFRICOM as well as NATO advancing "military cooperation" with the
> African Union.
> 
> The anti-Gaddafi movement must remain on maximum alert. It's fair to argue
> the absolute majority of Libyans are using all their resourcefulness and are
> wiling to undergo any sacrifice to build a united, transparent and
> democratic country. And they will do it on their own. They may accept
> humanitarian help. As for war porn, throw it in the dustbin of history.
> 
> Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is
> Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a
> snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does
> Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
> 
> He may be reached at pepeasia at yahoo.com.
> 
> 
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> 
> -- 
> Vicente "Panama' Alba
> panama.alba at gmail.com
> Tel # 917 626 5847
> 
> "Lets Be Realistic
> Lets Do The Impossible"
> Ernesto "Che" Guevara
> 
>  
>  
>  
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: FBrodhead at aol.com
> To: ellieomm at optonline.net ; wespac_mid-east at yahoogroups.com
> Cc: ufpj-activist at lists.mayfirst.org
> Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 4:13 AM
> Subject: Aljazeera reports killing of thousands of civilians in Libya
> 
> Hi Ellie - I couldn't agree with you more about the US/western media coverage of everything/anything, but Aljazeera's reporting has included many eye-witness statements from reporters, anti-government fighters, and others that people have been killed from planes and helicopters, etc. For example, today’s reporting about the battle currently underway in Brega says that airplanes as well as ground forces are being used against the anti-government fighters defending the city.  The estimate of civilian deaths is now over 6,000. I wonder what you think of Aljazeera reporting, which gives more and imo far better coverage of Libya than the US, etc. media?
> Best wishes,
> Frank Brodhead
>  
> In a message dated 3/4/2011 2:05:34 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, ellieomm at optonline.net writes:
> Dear Friends in the struggle:
> 
> Just a few days ago it was all over the corporate media how 'madman' 'crazy' Qaddafi had gunned down with airplanes thousands of "his own people".  And earlier today on CNN (I was listening on the radio), Wolf Blitzer was at the lies again, suggesting that Qaddafi 'might' have mustard gas, and well, if he's mad, then he might use the mustard gas against "his own people"...These lines are like a script and they agitate and propagandize for the U.S. government policy.  I have NEVER forgotten the complete demonization of Iraq's leader, Sadaam Hussein, whose crimes pale in comparison to what the United States government and military have done to the nation and people of Iraq.  Four million refugees still under tents after U.S. government rid Iraq of its demonized leader.......
> 
> Now, several days after the propaganda has had its impact on all of us, the head of the UN Human Rights Commission stated that they have 'no evidence' that planes were shooting down innocent Libyan protestors.
> 
> What I find distressing, is how much 'trust' we put in the media, and how quickly we line up behind the spokespersons of the, excuse the term, military industrial complex, (or U.S. imperialism) before knowing the real truth.  This should cause us to re-think how to go about understanding crises and changes in the world.  The prejudices being spread against other leaders and governments must be scrutinized and then diligent and independent research must be done by each of us before arriving at conclusions being pushed in the corporate media and on Facebook, Twitter, etc.  For example, someone we can trust, Robert Naiman, of Just Foreign Policy has just written: "In addition, as U.S. military leaders have pointed out, the U.S. has not been able to confirm any reports of the Libyan use of air power against civilians. There are certainly credible reports of horrible human rights abuses, but they seem to have been carried out with guns rather than planes. If you want to stop that through military coercion, you can't do it with planes; you need ground troops. And no-one is seriously contemplating that.
> 
> Meanwhile, the conflict in Libya has produced a humanitarian crisis, with some 150,000 migrant workers fleeing the violence piling up at Libya's borders. Refugee accounts suggest attacks on civilians from both sides of the conflict, with black African civilian refugees saying they were targeted by rebel forces who assumed they were mercenaries, suggesting that Western efforts to arm the rebels could make the West complicit in human rights abuses. "
> 
> Doesn't this tell us something?  and Even more sinister, read what BBC has on its world wide news site: (Do NOT forget the colonial and rotten role in Gaza, Iraq, etc. that Britain has played!) 
>  
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12636337  "Many of the military assets being deployed at the moment could play a useful role in helping to alleviate the humanitarian crisis on Libya's borders. Could there still be an external military option? Of course there could.
> Supposing a Libyan government warplane bombed a school or refugee camp, killing large numbers of civilians, and the reports were relayed around the world on satellite TV?   That could change the calculations in Washington and European capitals. But for now, the watchword is caution."  By Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent
> 
> Is this 'Journalist' hoping for such an act????????
> 
> Peace through Justice, Ellie
>  
> Ellie Ommani 
> Co-founder, American Iranian Friendship Cmte; 
> Member of Wespac and No War Westchester, 
> dedicated to Peace & Socio-Economic Justice 
> 914-273-8852
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
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