2011 Attacks on Libya

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 "“Humanitarian intervention”"
2011 Attacks on Libya (war,  supreme crime,  US Sponsored Regime-change efforts since 1945,  regime change)

The once-beautiful coastal city of Sirte following NATO's Humanitarian Intervention
Date	15 February 2011 - 23 October 2011
Location	Libya
Perpetrators	Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Jordan, Qatar, Sweden, United Arab Emirates
Deaths	>60000">" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 60000.
Interest of	'Burning Blogger of Bedlam', Bernard-Henri Lévy
Description	"Perhaps one of the most egregious examples of US military aggression and lawlessness in recent memory", carried out under a pretext of "humanitarian intervention".

Photo-call of participants in the March 2011 London Conference on Libya that resolved to support miltary action against Libya pursuant to 2011 UNSC resolutions 1970 and 1973. Source: London FCO.

The 2011 Attacks on Libya represented "perhaps one of the most egregious examples of US military aggression and lawlessness in recent memory". The US was aided by 13 fellow NATO members (Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the UK), and 4 other states (Jordan, Qatar, Sweden & United Arab Emirates). They began in March and ended on 31 October, 10 days after Muammar Gaddafi was murdered by his NATO-backed rebel captors. Seven months of NATO airstrikes were estimated to have killed 60,000 Libyan civilians.

Official Narrative

Many of the intervening countries talked about "humanitarian intervention". Wikipedia terms this event the "Libyan Civil War" and says nothing about foreign sponsorship.

Problems

The official narrative omits to note that in 2007, retired US 4-star General Wesley Clark told how he learned in 2001 of a Pentagon plan to destroy the governments of 7 countries in 5 years:- Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.

From observing the news media and television coverage in 2011 one could get the impression that literally everybody who used the word "humanitarian" and called for the removal of Gadaffi did not care for the country anymore the second he died; when it sunk into civil war, with terror bombings, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings and a treatment of Africans that was far worse than before.

Alternative Explanations

Protests in support of Gadaffi with a up to 1.7 million people in Tripoli (Green Square) 2011

There is no shortage of alternative factors which may have contributed to the decision to attack Libya. These are summarised briefly below and elaborated on in the Related Documents section.

Gold Dinar

RT suggested that NATO intervention may have been motivated by Gaddafi's attempts to establish a unified federation of African states that would use the gold dinar as its currency and demand that foreign importers of African oil pay in gold. Despite its stated opposition to NATO intervention, Russia abstained from voting on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 instead of exercising its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council; four other powerful nations also abstained from the vote — India, China, Germany, and Brazil — but of that group only China has the same veto power. However, the fifth BRICS member, South Africa, actually voted in favour of UNSCR 1973. According to leaked E-Mails, the US State Department expected substantial physical Gold holdings in Libya.

“Gaddafi's government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver. This gold was intended to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide Francophone Africa with an alternative to the CFA."”
Ellen Brown (14th March 2016) 

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Before the US, Britain and France carried out a military attack on Libya to get their hands on its energy wealth, they took over the Libyan sovereign wealth funds, estimated at $70 billion. Facilitating this operation was the head of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), Mohamed Layas, as revealed in a cable published by WikiLeaks. On 20 January 2011, Layas informed the US ambassador in Tripoli that LIA had deposited $32 billion in US banks. Five weeks later, on February 28, the US Treasury "froze" these accounts. According to official statements, this is "the largest sum ever blocked in the United States," which Washington held "in trust for the future of Libya." Such an injection of capital will be welcome into the deeply indebted US economy. In March 2011, the EU "froze" around €45 billion of Libyan funds.

Financial Independence

With large supplies of oil, water, a relatively small population, a stockpile of gold and a leader in nobody's pocket, some have suggested that Libya was perceived as a country that was dangerously independent of Western influence. Ellen Brown notes that one of the first actions taken by the Libyan rebels was to set up their own central bank..

Oil

Libya has the 9th largest reserves of oil, and the largest of any nation in Africa.

Fresh Water reserves

A substantial area of the Nubian Aquifer lies beneath Libyan territory. It is the largest known fossil water aquifer containing an estimated 150,000 km³ of fresh water and is the source of the Great Man-made River, the world's largest irrigation project.

Foreign Sponsorship

Evidence suggests that the war may have been incited, organised and/or funded by deep state actors outside the country. Ellen Brown asks why, although the rebels are still fighting, they have taken time out to create their own central bank. A UK registered humanitarian charity, World for Libya, was revealed which operated in Libya with during that time, which has interesting links to another UK registered humanitarian charity in Syria at about the time a "humanitarian intervention" was planned for that country.

Responses

"The fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 sent Libya into freefall, and spread chaos across northern Africa. Weapons poured into northern Mali and emboldened Islamic militias in the Sahel – one of the world's hottest, driest and least stable regions – to spread their influence over a number of towns and villages."

Weblinks

• Yes, I’m saying that it’s all lies observations about the regime change - September 01, 2011 / archive.is
• Lies of the Libyan War - Thomas Mountain - July 27, 2011

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Mario Borghezio	“Gaddafi was a great leader, a true revolutionary who should not be confused with the new Libyan leadership swept into power by NATO's bayonets and by oil multinationals”	Mario Borghezio	2011

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:A new Sykes-Picot Agreement	article	2 April 2011	Madhav Das Nalapat
Document:America’s Secret Libya War	webpage	30 August 2011	John Barry
Document:Arabian Summer or Nato's Fall	webpage	29 August 2011	Christof Lehmann
Document:Daily NATO War Crimes in Libya	webpage	29 July 2011	Stephen Lendman
Document:End Game for Benghazi Rebels	article	3 August 2011	Franklin Lamb
Document:Gilbert Achcar's Defense of Humanitarian Intervention	article	8 April 2011	Edward S. Herman	Astute and informed observations on the 2011 Libyan 'Humanitarian intervention' by US/NATO powers and the Rwanda Genocide of 1994. It is a good illustration of the gullibility of the well-meaning Western Liberal Left.
Document:Gilbert Achcar's Fantasy World	article	17 March 2011	Stephen Gowans
Document:How Al Qaeda men came to power in Libya	article	7 September 2011	Thierry Meyssan
Document:How al-Qaeda got to rule in Tripoli	article	30 August 2011	Pepe Escobar
Document:Libya - Imperialism and the Left	article	28 August 2011	Stephen Gowans
Document:Libya Coverage - A Peek Behind the Curtain	article	23 August 2011	Don DeBar
Document:Libya Imperialism and the prostration of Left Intellectuals	article	1 April 2011	David North
Document:Libya and the Return of Humanitarian Imperialism	article	8 March 2011	Jean Bricmont
Document:Libya – Unbearable Lightness of Being, Africa 1	webpage	29 August 2011	Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Document:Libya: Fine, but why Britain	article	20 March 2011	Brian Barder	David Cameron seemingly Gung Ho on toppling the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, while Barack Obama takes a back seat
Document:Libya: The real war starts now	article	7 September 2011	Pepe Escobar
Document:Murder And Mayhem In The Middle East	article	30 November 2015	Chris Martenson	An effective resumé of the modus-operandi of Anglo-US-NATO in its drive towards de-facto global dominance using the 2011 Libyan and subsequent Syrian interventions as telling examples.
Document:NATO Massacre at Majer	webpage	12 August 2011	Franklin Lamb
Document:NATO Psy-Op Collapses	webpage	23 August 2011
Document:NATO Reneges on its Mission	webpage	11 August 2011	Thierry Meyssan
Document:NATO destroys yet another country	article	26 August 2011	Madhav Das Nalapat
Document:NATO will be Defeated in Libya	article	4 July 2011	Gerald A. Perreira
Document:Rebel Assassins Terrorising Libyans	article	27 August 2011	Stephen Lendman
Document:Statement from the Pan African Improvement Organisation	statement	27 August 2011	Akili Secka
Document:The CIA’s Libya Rebels	webpage	24 March 2011	Webster Tarpley
Document:The Truth About the Situation in Libya	webpage	23 August 2011	Brian Becker
Document:The US-Saudi Deal on Libya	article	2 April 2011	Pepe Escobar
Document:The Ugly Truth: Libyan Rebel Beheads Gadhaffi Soldier And Other War Crimes	webpage	15 June 2011	Susan Lindauer
Document:US Afghan exit may depend on a Syria one	article	23 June 2013	Sharmine Narwani
Document:Understanding the War in Libya	article	27 April 2011	Michel Collon
Document:War on Libya: Official Lies and Misconceptions	article	25 March 2011	James Petras Robin Abaya	A rundown of the principal falsehood propagated by the official narrative on Libya
Document:What Lies Ahead for Libya	article	13 September 2011	Johan Galtung
File:Bloody Vengeance in Sirte.pdf	report	October 2012		A harrowing report on the final days of Muammar Gaddafi, notable less for its background analysis of the 2011 NATO sponsored Libyan conflict, or its recommendations which are standard fare but pointedly fail to even mention Foreign/NATO culpability which is assumed to have been legitimate, but rather for an authoritative account of just one small instance of the raw barbarity which NATO played such a major part in enabling - under the banner of 'Humanitarian Intervention'.
File:London Conference on Libya 2011.pdf	statement	29 March 2011	William Hague	Summary from the Chair of the London Conference on Libya
Document:Fourth Meeting of the Libya Contact Group	article	15 July 2011	Unknown
Document:Gaddafi - We will live free or die	speech	29 April 2011	Muammar Gaddafi
Document:Heartwarming Massacres	article	30 March 2011	Linh Dinh
Document:Libya and the Big Lie	article	24 September 2011	Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Document:Libya and Control of The Mediterranean	article	25 March 2011	Rick Rozoff
Document:Protecting Libyan civilians? - Pap for the gullible	article	10 April 2011	John Pilger	The CIA is behind the rebellion in Libya. The front of "humanitarian intervention" is sheer window dressing to try to excuse the Euro-American Attack on Libya.
Document:The Libyan War, American Power and the Decline of the Petrodollar System	paper	17 April 2011	Peter Dale Scott	A collection of insights that provide a more realistic explanation of the deep political background to the attacks on Libya.
Document:Who are the Libyan Freedom Fighters?	commentary		Peter Dale Scott

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