Israel, U.S. , want Abbas to be full-fledged traitor

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October 28, 2011 - 10:13 PM 

By Khalid Amayreh

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It seems that the tight Jewish stranglehold on the American government is not only preventing the Obama administration from pursuing a fair, rational and honest approach to the enduring Palestinian crisis, but is also inhibiting the formulation in Washington of an accurate and objective understanding of  basic facts in and about the Middle East.
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An example of this willful and unnecessary ignorance was a statement made recently by the US Ambassador for Middle East Peace David Hale.According to Hale, the Arab Spring could "sweep Hamas from power."
 
"The Palestinians are no more immune to currents of change and demand for democratization, reform and freedom than any other people in the region," he was quoted as saying.
 
"I think you will see those same forces affect Hamas because clearly their leadership is not characterized by any of those words."
 
Hale's words exude a lot of ignorance and misunderstanding of the facts and realities in the region.
 
First of all, the Palestinian people have been languishing under a sinister Israeli military occupation for 44 years, and no amount of "democratization" in occupied Palestine will change this fundamental fact.
 
The Palestinian people therefore need, first and  foremost,  freedom from the Nazi-like occupation before they can exercise democracy. Perhaps people like Hale can't bring themselves to uttering the word occupation for fear of  upsetting the Jewish lobby in Washington . He presumably could lose his job if he did, especially in a sensitive election year. Hence, the conceived phobic reaction.
 
Like most Palestinians, I am not against genuine democratization in Palestine. However, let us be honest and have no illusion: Without ending the evil Israeli occupation, no amount of democratization would really help the Palestinians attain their freedoms. The absence of democracy in Palestine is due to the presence of the occupation. Twisting this fact would be an expression of dishonesty and mendacity.
 
Does democracy practiced by inmates in a maximum-security jail bring freedom to prisoners? Yes, it might help them manage their daily life and routine inside the jail, but it won't help them regain their freedom.
 
Likewise, the Palestinian people are not merely striving to enhance their daily life, though this is a legitimate and important task, if only to help Palestinians withstand the systematic and institutionalized oppression meted out to them by Zio-Nazism.
 
The Palestinian people want absolute and total freedom from the decades-old nefarious Israeli occupation.
 
Besides, since when did the US really show any serious concern about democratization in occupied Palestine or elsewhere in the Arab-Muslim region?
 
Didn't the U.S. abruptly lose its composure and mental equanimity when Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006? Didn't a U.S., under aggressive and frenzied Jewish pressure, acted rather spasmodically to strangle and throttle the Palestinians following the said elections which by the way the Bush administration itself had Okayed?
 
I am afraid I have bad news for Mr. Hale and his equally ignorant boss or bosses in Washington. Hamas is here to stay. Hamas, which only last week forced Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from its dungeons and concentration camps, is strong and getting stronger:
 
Strong because it represents the true aspirations of most Palestinians for a better tomorrow; and stronger because an arrogant Israel driven by Talmudic insolence only understands the language of force, stubbornness and strength.
 
More to the point, a  soft, obsequious approach toward Israel won't take the Palestinians anywhere. It will only transform them into vanquished supplicants begging for their legitimate rights from an arrogant and rapacious Israel that is hell bent on stealing the remainder of Palestinian land.
 
The truth of the matter regarding the impact of the Arab Spring on Hamas is that it has not only vindicated the liberation movement's approach toward Israeli occupation, but it has also created an auspicious atmosphere conducive to helping Hamas and the Palestinians as a whole expedite their goals.
 
The growing good chemistry between Hamas and Cairo is undoubtedly an auspicious development. The upcoming elections in Egypt, slated to start on 28 November, is expected to produce pleasant surprises if the nationalist and Islamist forces achieve victory in the polls and form the next Egyptian government.
 
Israel and her guardian-ally, the U.S.,  (the latter is getting weaker and bankrupt by the hour) know that hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims expect the next government in Cairo to find a real correlation between the Egyptian commitment to uphold the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty and Israeli treatment of and behavior toward the Palestinian cause and people.  I bet this is going to be a serious matter for Israel's firsters and the Zionist shipyard dogs in Washington who think Israel's interests come even before American interests.
 
In any case, the Islamists are simply coming, and Israel will soon become bereft of friends in this region, no matter what desperate feats Israel is trying. And Israel has only itself to blame.
 
The Israeli state, itself a crime against humanity (perhaps people like Hale would shake in fear while reading this shocking but veracious phrase) never really lost an opportunity to alienate Arabs and Muslims. The murderous Israeli modus operandi toward the Palestinians and other peoples in the region has generated a huge reservoir of hatred toward the Jewish state. The Arab masses, whether in Egypt or Tunisia or even Libya, will not waste anytime venting their frozen rage and accumulative frustration vis-à-vis Israel when they are given the chance to do so.
 

The King of Jordan Abdullah II recently "warned" that Egypt might effectively abrogate its peace treaty with Israel and that Jordan was effectively becoming the last remaining advocate of peace with the Jewish state?  The king knew what he was talking about. However, his warnings are unlikely to be heeded, given Israel's characteristic insolence and America 's brazen subservience to the evil entity and its backers in Washington .
 
As to the whoring peace process, it is really difficult to talk about this process using dignified language. How else can one relate to a process that is based on lies, fraught with lies, and shaped by lies?
 
Israel, which we  earlier described as a crime against humanity because it is based on ethnic  cleansing, genocide, and aggression, wants Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to become a full-fledged traitor.
 
Israel wants him to kiss the paramount right of return for the refugees goodbye, wants him to forget East Jerusalem, and wants him to formally accept perpetual Israeli control over Palestinian borders, water resources as well as the settlements established by Israel on occupied Arab land since 1967.
 
Needless to say,  Abbas would rather commit suicide than agree to these irrational demands.  He knows that any Palestinian leader agreeing to these capitulations will not live long to even regret his folly.
 
Besides, how can Abbas possibly offer a "workable" alternative to Hamas's seemingly more logical and appealing line, which is based on resistance and steadfastness?
 
Will Israel, for the sake of Abbas's legendary moderation, withdraw to the borders of the 4th of June, 1967? Will Israel terminate the building of colonies and Judaizing of Jerusalem? Will Israel allow for the repatriation of millions of refugees uprooted from their homes when the evil entity was established 63 years ago, which is a sine-qua-non for any genuine and durable peace deal in the region? Will Israel dismantle the settlements?
 
The answer is a plain NO.
 
Another question: Will the U.S. pressure Israel to end its decades-old occupation? The answer is also a plain NO because the Jewish lobby is in tight control of American politics and policies. Moreover, an American president, especially in an election year, won't commit political suicide by displeasing the only state in the world that truly calls the shots in Washington. (end)

This article by Khalid Amayreh was first published in PIC

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________ 

Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The PalestineFreeVoice, all publishing is for information services only.

The New Libya: Assassination, Ruination, Broken Promises and Body Snatching...

By Felicity Arbuthnot

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October 27, 2011
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“As usual, we swim in a pile of dishonorable politicians. An Arab poem describes how the rotten rubbish floats to the top of the water while all the gems - corals and precious fish - stay at the bottom.” (An Arab friend.)


If events of the past few days are anything to go by, the UN-NATO insurgent allies are set to bring a grim, lawless, murderous and fundamentalist future to the “New Libya.”


Polygamy is set to return as the disenfranchisement of women, the West’s new friend and interim leader, Mr Jalil has declared. (He didn’t put it quite like that, but the particular interpretation of Sharia Law he espouses, does.)


A country which had health, education and welfare services of which most could only dream(1) is also set to instantly revert fifty years. Flying King Idris’ flag, Libya is being plunged seamlessly back to his era of illiteracy and neglect.


It will not get better. Britain is already demanding that bombarded, bereaved, largely broken Libya, pay compensation for its “liberation.” No, not satire, see:(2.)


Libya also has its very own Falluja, in the fled, dead and now destroyed city of Sirte, flooded, ruined and heart rending. It also has its own Basra Roads. See the melted, bombed vehicles leaving Sirte and across Libya. Those inside them also melted or vaporized, a mirror image of that 1991 US massacre of the fleeing in Iraq..


Soon Libya will also have its own living memorials to their release from free healthcare, gasoline too cheap to meter and the highest living standard in Africa: deformed babies from the radioactive and chemically toxic depleted uranium weapons which rained down on them. Another mirror image of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans where these weapons were also used.


The events though, of the last days, have shone a light on the grim reality of the future for the population. The shocking spectacle of Colonel Quaddafi and his son’s bodies, displayed to the public, in a meat cooler in a mall, until decomposition forced a furtive, body snatch and night time burial in an undisclosed location, hardly bodes well for the “human rights” to come.


Neither does the breaking of the commitment to return the bodies to the remaining, so far, un-murdered family (3.)


Their: “corpses should be dumped in the desert to be eaten by foxes”, stated one “liberator”, claiming that at the deaths: “we all took turns to stamp on” the former Leader’s face, some hitting it “with shoes.”


When Aisha Quaddafi called her father, minutes after his death, reports state that one of the thugs answered the call telling her: “Fuzzy head is dead.”


Aisha lost her husband and baby in a NATO bombing in July. She is an internationally respected lawyer, whose cases have included being part of Saddam Hussein’s defence team and who also defended Muntader Al Saidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at George W. Bush in Baghdad, for: “the widows, the orphans ..” the former President had created in Iraq, on his declared “Crusade.”


She is also a former Good Will Ambassador for the United Nations. One can only speculate how much good will she feels towards a UN which has endorsed the murder and plunder of family, people and land, now. She had lost her father, four brothers, her baby daughter, with her two little cousins, within little over three months.


One (of many) questions which should be answered over the shoddy, surreptitious disposal of the bodies of Libya’s rightful leader, his son and his Defence Minister, Abu Bakr Younis, is, if the stated reason is because the insurgents did not want his last resting place to “become a shrine”, was he really the monster Washington and Whitehall have trumpeted? Or did the “coalition” just have an eye on the resources he stubbornly kept, largely for the benefit of his people?


America’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate “first black” President, has declared the death of Muammar Quaddafi: “A momentous day in the history of Libya.”


This, as rebel forces going by the name of “The Brigade for Purging Slaves (of) Black Skin” have reportedly detained and displaced hundreds, while the people of Tawergha, a town of 20,000, have disappeared without a trace.


Numerous reports record that there are those avowed to ethnically cleanse Libya of dark and black skins. There are two million black Libyans, nearly one third of the population of little over six million.


Moreover, for all the horrific rhetoric over the deaths on 20th October, there are serious questions as to who really carried them out. “Our armed forces have been in action”, said Prime Minister Cameron. (Yes, the same Cameron who said there will never be “British boots on the ground ...”)


Further: “British Special Forces are engaged in a frantic desert manhunt for Colonel Quaddafi’s son Saif ..” (4)


Heaven forbid that this sophisticated man should survive to tell the stories of socializing with Tony Blair, Lord Peter Mendelson and Prince Andrew. Or of Blair’s alleged six visits to his father, twice courtesy the hospitality of Colonel Quaddafi’s private ‘plane.


Quaddafi, in the flowery language which is Arabic, had called the insurgents “rats”, as Saddam Hussein had referred to them as “carion” and “crows.” So the Colonel is “found” in a sewer pipe. Get the connection? Few with a functioning brain would not wonder if this sewer rat image was not thought up by “intelligence” in Washington or Whitehall.


As the great “democracies” plunder and assassinate, do cast a passing thought to the (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (v) which celebrated its sixtieth anniversary on 10th December 2008, with great fan-fare.


“Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.


“Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.


“Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”


Sabah Al Mukhtar, President of the London based Arab Lawyers Association, is incandescent. “The US, UN, France and the UK should be seriously concerned regarding what has befallen Quaddafi. The serious legal implications of a killing with no trial, after an eight month bombardment. We have treated the law with contempt - and trampled on it for two decades.”


That the murderers are to investigate the murders renders Orwell redundant.


So far, of course, it seems we only have the perpetrators word that there was even a burial, somewhere near the port city of Misrata, disgraceful as it was. Perhaps, as with bin Laden, a precedent was set and the victims were simply fed to the fishes. Erase the evidence?


The burials – or disposals – were on two less than auspicious anniversaries. The British military disaster which was the Charge of the Light Brigade, in 1854, and the more recent, cravenly cowardly invasion of the tiny island of Grenada in 1983.


As ever, ignorance rules. After the disasters of Afghanistan and Iraq, with tope military brass now admitting that they had no idea of the complexity of the societies, (US) Colonel Cedric Leighton writes that in spite of the “celebrations” in Libya: “ ... it is easy to think our job in the Middle East is over.” Buy a map, Colonel. Wrong continent. (4.)

Felicity Arbuthnot is Global Research's Correspondent focussing on Human Rights, London, UK. Email: felicityarbuthnot@yahoo.co.uk


Notes
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1.http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27280
2.http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=17791
3.http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27225
4.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053467/SAS-leading-desert-race-trap-Gaddafis-son-Saif-al-5.Islam-heads-Niger.html#ixzz1bsjwmipc
6. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
7. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/col-cedric-leighton/qaddafi-dead_b_1029103.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

© Copyright Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research, 2011


  Url address of this article

 

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America's Conquest of Africa: The Roles of France and Israel

Introduction by Cynthia McKinney

By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya and Julien Teil


October 6, 2011

Introduction: “Operation Gladio” Then and Now...
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I will begin with the scandal of Operation Gladio that climaxed in the murder of former Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, who on the day of his kidnapping, was to announce an Italian coalition government that would include the Italian Communist Party.

Leader of the Christian Democratic Party at that time, Francesco Cossiga, admits in the 1992 BBC Timewatch documentary about Operation Gladio, that he chose to “sacrifice” Moro “for the good of the Republic.”  Not unlike the targeted assassinations that the U.S. government engages in around the world, where someone extrajudicially makes decisions on who lives and who dies. In the three-part documentary, Cossiga states that the decision caused his hair to turn white.

Operation Gladio is the ugly real-life tale of the U.S. government’s decision to hire members of the state security apparatus of various European countries, and in collaboration with recruited community allies, wreak terror on innocent citizens by blowing up train stations, shooting customers in grocery stores, and even killing police officers in order to convince populations in Europe to give up their rights in exchange for certain security measures and enhanced state power.

Yes, Operation Gladio, along with Operation Northwoods and U.S. policy toward Libya, shows us that the United States is willing to create terror groups in order to justify a fight against terrorists! Sadly, this has become the modus operandi of our government in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Europe and Africa. And the U.S. government after 9/11/01 has become like a “Gladio laboratory” of state policies that rip the U.S. Bill of Rights to shreds and lie to the public.

The beginning of the end of Operation Gladio occurred when the existence of the U.S. program was revealed. Characteristically, instead of stopping such insanity, the Europeans joined in creating multiple other “Operation Gladios.” Placed in this context, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya’s second installment in a four-part series reveals how U.S. policy in Libya falls right in line with U.S. actions in the past. In my opinion, Libya will not be the last location for such illegal activities unless we stop our government.

Along with French videographer Julien Teil, Nazemroaya weaves the incredible-but-true scenario of U.S. finance of alleged terrorists, wanted by Interpol, who became the chief protagonists in the NATO genocide currently unfolding in Libya.

Cynthia McKinney, October 1, 2011.

Cynthia McKinney is a former U.S. Congresswoman who served in two different Georgia federal dictricts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2007 as a member of the U.S. Democratic Party. She was also the U.S. Green Party presidential candidate in 2008. While in the U.S. Congress she served in the U.S. Banking and Finance Committee, the U.S. National Security Committee (later renamed the U.S. Armed Services Committee), and the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee (later renamed the U.S. International Relations Committee). She also served in the U.S. International Relations subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. McKinney has conducted two fact-finding missions in Libya and also recently finished a nationwide speaking tour in the United States sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition about the NATO bombing campaign in Libya.

Libya and the Big Lie:

Using Human Rights Organizations to Launch Wars

- by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya -

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The war against Libya is built on fraud. The UN Security Council passed two resolutions against Libya on the basis of unproven claims that Qaddafi was killing his own people in Benghazi...

Order from Chaos?

A repeat of the disorder and pandemonium generated inside Afghanistan is in the works for the continent of Africa.

The United States, with the help of Britain, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, created the brutal Taliban and then eventually waged war on its Taliban allies. Similarly, across Africa, the United States and its allies are creating a new series of future enemies to fight, but after initially working with them or using them to sow the seeds of chaos in Africa.

Washington has literally been helping fund insurgencies and regime change projects in Africa. “Human rights” and “democratization” are also being used as a smokescreen for colonialism and war.

So-called human rights and humanitarian organizations are now partners in this imperialist project directed against Africa.

France and Israel: Is Washington Outsourcing its Dirty Work in Africa?

Africa is just one international front for an expanding system of empire. The mechanisms of a real global system of empire are at work in this regard. Washington is acting through NATO and its allies in Africa. Each one of Washington’s allies and satellites has a specific role to play in this global system of empire.

Tel Aviv has played a very active role on the African continent. Israel was a major supporter of South Africa under the apartheid regime.

Tel Aviv also helped smuggle arms into Sudan and East Africa to balkanize that sizeable African nation while contributing to the destabilization of East Africa.

The Israelis have been very active in Kenya and Uganda. Israel has been present wherever there were conflicts, including those pertaining to blood diamonds.

Israel is now working with Washington to establish total hegemony over the African continent. Tel Aviv is actively involved -- through its business ties and intelligence operations -- in securing the contacts and agreements required by Washington for the extension of its interests in Africa. One of Washington’s major objectives is  to disrupt the development of Chinese influence in Africa. Israel and Israeli think-tanks have also played a major role in shaping the U.S. geo-stratagem in Africa.

France, as a former colonial master and a declining power, on the other hand, has traditionally been a rival and competitor of Washington on the African continent.

With the rise of the influence of non-traditional powers in Africa, such as the People’s Republic of China, both Washington and Paris envisaged ways of cooperating. On the broader global stage this is also evident. Both the U.S. and several of the major powers in the European Union consider China and other emerging global powers as a threat. They have decided to end their rivalries and work together. Thus, a consensus between Washington and the E.U. unfolded, leading to some forms of political integration.

This consensus may have also been manufactured by growing U.S. influence in E.U. capitals. Whatever the case, it has been boosted since the beginning of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency in 2007.

President Sarkozy also wasted no time in pushing for the reintegration of the French military command structure within NATO.  The consequence of this action has led to the surbodination of the French military to the Pentagon.

In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle pulled French forces out of NATO and removed France from the military command structures of NATO as a means of maintaining French independence. Nicolas Sarkozy has reversed all of this. In 2009, Sarkozy ordered that France rejoin the integrated military command structure of NATO. In 2010, he also signed an accord to start amalgamating the British and French militaries.

On the African continent, Paris has a special place or niche in the U.S. system of global empire. This role is that of a regional gendarme in North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and all the countries that were former French colonies. France’s special role, in other words, is due to its history and the existing, albeit declining, position of France in Africa, specifically through the “Françafrique.” The Union of the Mediterranean, which Sarkozy officially launched, is one example of these French interests in North Africa.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has also been working through France’s International Federation of Human Rights (Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme, FIDH). The FIDH is well established in Africa. The NED has essentially outsourced its work to manipulate and control African governments, movements, societies, and states to the FIDH. It was the FIDH and the affiliated Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR) that helped orchestrate the various pretexts for the NATO war against Libya, endorsed by the United Nations Security Council through unsubstantiated and false claims.

The National Endowment for Democracy and its Partnership with the International Federation of Human Rights in Africa

Following the 2007 election of Nicolas Sarkozy as the leader of the French Republic, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) started to develop a real partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy. Both organizations are also partners within the World Movement for Democracy. Carl Gershman, the president of the NED, even went to France in December 2009 to meet with the FIDH to deepen collaboration between the two organizations and to discuss Africa. [1]  He also met individuals who are are considered as pro-Israeli lobbyists in France.

The partnerships between the FIDH and the NED are mostly based in Africa and the intersecting Arab World. These partnerships operate in a zone that covers countries like Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Niger, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

North Africa, which includes Libya and Algeria, has been a specific area of focus for the FIDH, where Washington, Paris, and NATO clearly have major ambitions.

The FIDH, which is directly implicated in launching the war on Libya, has also received direct funding, in the form of grants, from the National Endowment for Democracy for its programs in Africa. In 2010, a NED grant of $140,186 (U.S.) was one of the latest amounts given to the FIDH for its work in Africa. [2] The NED was also one of the first signatories, along with the Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR) and U.N. Watch, demanding international intervention against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. [3]

AFRICOM and the Post-9/11 Road Towards Conquering Africa

In 2002, the Pentagon started major operations aimed at controlling Africa militarily. This was in the form of the Pan-Sahel Initiative, which was launched by the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). Under the banner of this project, the U.S. military would train troops from Mali, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger. The plans to establish the Pan-Sahel Initiative, however, date back to 2001, when the initiative for Africa was actually launched after the tragic events of September 11, 2001 (9/11).

Washington was clearly planning military action in Africa, which already included at least three countries (Libya, Somalia, and Sudan) identified as enemy targets to be attacked by the Pentagon and the White House according to General Wesley Clark.

Jacques Chirac, the President of France at the time, tried to offer resistance to the U.S. push into Africa by reinvigorating Germany’s role in Africa as a means of supporting France. In 2007, the Franco-African summit even opened its doors to German participation for the first time. [4]  Yet, Angela Merkel had different ideas about the direction and position that the Franco-German partnership should take in regards to Washington.

Since 2001, the momentum towards creating U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) had started. AFRICOM, however, was officially authorized in December 2006 and the decision to create it was announced several short months later in February 2007. It was in 2007 that AFRICOM was established.

It is important to note that this momentum also received Israeli encouragement, because of Israeli interests in Africa. The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), for example, was one of the Israeli organizations supporting the creation of AFRICOM.

On the basis of the Pan-Sahel Initiative, the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) was launched by the Pentagon in 2005 under the command of CENTCOM. Mali, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger were now joined by Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, and Tunisia in the ring of African military cooperation with the Pentagon. Later, the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative would be transferred to the command of AFRICOM on October 1, 2008, which is when AFRICOM would be activated.

The Sahel and Sahara: The U.S. Clearly Adopts France’s Old Colonial Projects in Africa

“Fighting terrorism” and executing “humanitarian missions” are just façades or smokescreens for Washington and its allies.

While the stated goals of the Pentagon are to fight terrorism in Africa, the real aims of Washington are to restructure Africa and to establish a neo-colonial order. In this regard, Washington has actually adopted the old colonial projects of France in Africa. This also includes the U.S., British, Italian, and French initiative to divide Libya after 1943 as well as the unilateral French initiative to redraw North Africa. In this scheme, the U.S. and its cohorts plan on creating ethnic wars and sectarian hatred between the Berbers, the Arabs, and others in North Africa.

The map used by Washington for combating terrorism under the Pan-Sahel Initiative says a lot. The range or area of activity for the terrorists, within the borders of Algeria, Libya, Niger, Chad, Mali, and Mauritania according to Washington’s designation, is very similar to the boundaries or borders of the colonial territorial entity which France attempted to sustain in Africa in 1957. Paris had planned to prop up this African entity in the western central Sahara as a French department (province) directly tied to France, along with coastal Algeria.

This French colonial entity in the Sahara was named the Common Organization of the Saharan Regions (Organisation commune des regions sahariennes, OCRS). It comprised the inner boundaries of the Sahel and Saharan countries of Mali, Niger, Chad, and Algeria. The French goal was to collect and bind all the resource-rich territories of these countries into this one central entity, the OCR, for French control and extraction. The resources in this area include oil, gas, and uranium. Yet, the resistance movements in Africa, and specifically the Algerian struggle for independence, dealt Paris a hard blow. France had to give up its quest and finally dissolve the OCRS in 1962, because of Algerian independence and the anti-colonial stance in Africa. Because of the push towards independence in Africa, France was finally cut off from the inland area in the Sahara that it wished to control.

Washington clearly had this energy-rich and resource-rich area in mind when it drew the areas of Africa that need to be cleansed of alleged terrorist cells and gangs. The French Institute of Foreign Relations (Institut français des relations internationals, IFRI) has even openly discussed this tie between the terrorists and energy-rich areas in a March 2011 report. [5]  It is also in this context that the amalgamation of Franco-German and Anglo-American interests and companies has allowed France to become an integrated part of the U.S. system of global empire with common interests.

Regime Change in Libya and the National Endowment for Democracy: A Nexus of Terrorism and Human Rights

Since 2001, the U.S. has falsely presented itself as a champion against terrorism. The Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI), which opened the doors for AFRICOM in Africa, was justified as necessary by Washington to fight organizations like the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in Algeria and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in Libya. Yet, Washington is cooperating and using these very same groups in Libya, along with the National Front for the Salvation of Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood, as foot soldiers and proxies. Moreover, many of the key Libyan individuals that are members of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) are members of these groups and have also been part of conferences and longstanding plans pushing for regime change in Libya.

One of the key meetings for establishing what would become the current Transitional Council in Libya took place in 1994 when the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) organized a conference with Ashur Shamis and Aly (Ali) Abuzakuuk. The 1994 conference’s title was “Post-Qaddafi Libya: The Prospect and the Promise.” In 2005 another conference with Shamis Ashur would be held in the British capital of London that would build on the idea of regime change in Libya. [6]

So who are these Libyan opposition figures? A series of questions must be asked. Are their tie to Washington new or old? Who do the associate with? Also, have they had longstanding support or not?

Ashur Shamis is one of the founding members of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, which in 1981 was founded in Sudan. He has been wanted by Interpol and the Libyan police for years. [7] Ahsur is also listed as someone who has been a director in the National Endowment for Democracy in the Libyan Human and Political Development Forum. He is also the editor of the Akhbar webpage, which was registered under Akhbar Cultural Limited and tied to the NED. He has also participated in recent key conferences for regime change in Tripoli. This includes the conference in London held by Chatham House in 2011, which discussed NATO plans for the invasion of Tripoli. [8]

Like Ashur, Aly Abuzaakouk is also a member of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya and tied to the National Endowment for Democracy. He was one of the key participants and attendees at the roundtable held for the 2011 Democracy Awards by the NED. [9]  Like Ashur, he is also wanted by Interpol and serves as a director at the Libyan Human and Political Development Forum. [10]

There is also Noman Benotman, a former leader and founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and a wanted terrorist. He is presented as a former terrorist. Benotman conveniently left the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group on the basis of the attacks of September 11, 2011 in the United States. Benotman is not only a National Endowment for Democracy (NED) director in the Libyan Human and Political Development Forum, but he is also tied to the news network Al Jazeera.

Not only have these three men lived in Britain without any problems while they were wanted by Interpol and sought because of their ties to terrorism or, in the case of Abuzaakouk, drug-related crimes and forgery, but they also received grants from the United States. They received U.S. grants that formalized their NED organizations, which have been integral to the regime change agenda against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. This regime change agenda against Libya has also been facilitated with the help of MI6 and the CIA.

Moreover, the legal documents that have been filed for the NED organizations of these men have also been deliberately and illegally tampered with. One key individual’s identity has been hidden in the list of NED directors. Thus, legal documents have been fraudulently filled out to hide a certain individual’s identity under the alias of “Beata Wozniak.” Even Wozniak’s birthday is invalid, appearing as January 1, 1 (01/01/0001). She is an individual who is present in the boards of all these NED organizations. She is listed as a director and secretary of Akbar, Transparency Libya Limited, and several British companies.

The “Long War” Enters Africa: The Gate into Africa has been Opened

The fanning of terrorism in Africa is part of a deliberate strategy used by the U.S. and its allies, including NATO, for opening the door into the African continent by expanding the so-called “Global War on Terror.”  This will give purpose to the U.S. objective of expanding its military presence in the African continent and it will also justify the creation of the Pentagon’s AFRICOM, which is meant to manage Africa by creating an African version of NATO as a means of occupying Africa for Washington. In this regard, the U.S. and its allies have already put budgets aside to fight the very terrorist organizations that they have cooperated with, encouraged, nurtured, armed, and proliferated across the map of Africa from Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Mali to Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, and Nigeria.

The terrorists not only fight for Washington on the ground, but they also interact with Washington and act as frontmen through so-called human rights organizations that promote democracy. On the ground these individuals and organizations destabilize their countries, while they are given forums by Washington to actively work for regime change and military intervention in the name of human rights and democracy. Libya is a clear case of this.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a Sociologist and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montréal. He specializes on the Middle East and Central Asia. He was on the ground in Libya for over two months and was also a Special Correspondent for Flashpoints, which is a program based in Berkeley, California. Nazemroaya has been releasing these articles about Libya in conjunction with aired discussions with Cynthia McKinney on Freedom Now, a show aired on KPFK, Los Angeles, California.

Julien Teil is a videographer and investigative documentary film maker from France. He was also recently in Libya for about one month.

NOTES

[1] National Endowment for Democracy, “NED Strengths Democracy Ties with France,” March 16, 2010:

?http://www.ned.org/for-reporters/ned-strengthens-democracy-ties-with-france?

[2] National Endowment for Democracy, “Africa Regional,” August 2011:

?http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/africa/africa-regional?

[3] United Nations Watch et al., “Urgent Appeal to Stop Atrocities in Libya: Sent by 70 NGOs to the US, EU, and UN,” February 21, 2011:

?http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1330815&ct=9135143?

[4] Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs (France), “XXIVème sommet Afrique-France,” February 2007:

?http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/pays-zones-geo_833/afrique_1063/sommets-afrique-france_326/xxiveme-sommet-afrique-france_15947/24eme-conference-cannes-15-16.02.07_46313.html?

[5] Etienne de Durand, “Francs-tireurs et Centurions. Les ambiguïtés de l’héritage contre-insurrectionnel français,” Institut français des relations internationals, March 2011:

?www.ifri.org/downloads/fs29dedurand.pdf?

[6] The National Conference of the Libyan Opposition, “The National Accord: The National Conference of the Libyan Opposition, London, 26th June 2005,” 2005.

?http://www.libya-nclo.com/English.aspx?

[7] Interpol Wanted Notice for Ashour Al-Shamis :

?http://www.interpol.int/Wanted-Persons/%28wanted_id%29/2001-50173?

[8] Foreign and Commonwealth Office (U.K.), “Chatam House event: the future of Libya,” June 2011:

?http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/global-issues/mena/libya/future-of-libya-chatham-house/?

[9] National Democracy for Democracy, “2011 Democracy Award Biographies,” June 2011:

?http://www.ned.org/events/democracy-award/2011-democracy-award/2011-democracy-award-biographies?

[10] Interpol Wanted Notice for Ali Ramadan Abu Za Kouk:

?http://www.interpol.int/Wanted-Persons/%28wanted_id%29/1985-1748?


© Copyright Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Global Research, 2011

This article was first published in Global Research

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Aid to Israel no longer a sacred cow

October 18, 2011 12:25 pm ET

By MJ Rosenberg
.

For the first time in memory, if not ever, a highly respected mainstream columnist is calling on the United States to cut aid to Israel.

Writing in the Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist Walter Pincus, says, "it is time to examine the funding the United States provides to Israel".

Aid to Israel is virtually the only programme - domestic or foreign - that is exempt from every budget-cutting proposal pending in Congress. No matter that our own military is facing major cuts along with Medicare, cancer research and hundreds of other programmes, Israel's friends in Congress in both parties make sure that aid to Israel is protected at current levels.

Back when I was a congressional staffer, I was part of the process by which aid to Israel was secured. Members of the respective appropriations committees sent "wish lists" to the chair of their committee detailing which programmes they each wanted funded and by what amounts. Each letter reflected the particular interest of a particular congressman or senator and of his own district or state.

Exceptionalism

There was always one exception: aid to Israel, which apparently is a local issue for every legislator. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) would provide the list of Israel's aid requirements for the coming year, and with few if any exceptions, every letter would include the AIPAC language. Not a punctuation mark would be changed.

At the end of the process, the AIPAC wish list would become law of the land. (Woe to any member of Congress who dared to resist the AIPAC juggernaut.)

That is how it has been for decades and not even the current economic crisis is likely to change it. On this issue, Congress is unmovable and will remain so as long as its members rely so heavily on campaign contributions (PAC or individual) delivered by the AIPAC.

In his column, Pincus describes just how absurd the Israel exemption is and that the aid to Israel package even includes an escalator clause, enshrined in law, to ensure that it can only go up, not down.

Look for a minute at the bizarre formula that has become an element of US-Israel military aid, the so-called qualitative military edge (QME). Enshrined in congressional legislation, it requires certification that any proposed arms sale to any other country in the Middle East "will not adversely affect Israel's qualitative military edge over military threats to Israel".

In 2009 meetings with defense officials in Israel, Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher "reiterated the United States' strong commitment" to the formula and "expressed appreciation" for Israel's willingness to work with newly created "QME working groups", according to a cable of her meetings that was released by WikiLeaks.

Lobby as a 'night flower'

The formula has an obvious problem. Because some neighbouring countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are US allies but also considered threats by Israel, arms provided to them automatically mean that better weapons must go to Israel. The result is a US-generated arms race.

For example, the threat to both countries from Iran led the Saudis in 2010 to begin negotiations to purchase advanced F-15 fighters. In turn, Israel - using $2.75bn in American military assistance - has been allowed to buy 20 of the new F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighters being developed by the United States and eight other nations.

Read the full article to get the benefit of Pincus' research on all the unique features of the Israel aid package - including the fact that while we are increasing aid to Israel, Israel itself is cutting its military budget.

Something is terribly wrong here, most notably the fact that members of Congress from both parties are afraid to talk about it. After all, what would their constituents (not their donors) think about increasing foreign aid to Israel while we are cutting aid to education and health programmes here?

Until Pincus wrote this column, there was no reason to think Congress would ever reconsider its priorities. Legislators didn't publicise the inconsistency in their budget priorities and no one, other than AIPAC, was paying much attention.

That may have been changed by an intrepid reporter, writing in the staunchly pro-Netanyahu Washington Post, who also happens to be Jewish - immunising him from the "anti-Semitism" charge hurled at anyone who questions the US policy toward Israel.

Maybe, just maybe, progressives (and maybe even conservatives) will now demand that their legislators tell them just why they apply the sledgehammer to programmes that affect impoverished Americans while falling all over themselves to continue giving billions to a prosperous Israel.

In 1982, Steve Rosen (an AIPAC lobbyist subsequently indicted for espionage although the case was dropped), sent me the following memo. (I was employed by AIPAC at the time.) 

It read:

A lobby is a night flower.
It thrives in the dark.
And withers in the daylight.

Thanks to Walter Pincus and the Washington Post for providing that daylight.

This article was first published in Foreign Policy Matters ( Media Matters Action Network)

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Libya: A Brutal, Gratuitous Slaying, the New World Order in All Its Transparent Barbarism

 October 22 2011

Interview with Rick Rozoff

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How are you today, Mr.Rozoff?

Rather distressed by the news of this morning. Or yesterday morning in your case.

Ok, what is your first impression?

It was a brutal, gratuitous slaying of an almost 70-year-old man, killed after being captured. And if the intent of 216 days of NATO bombing was to kill him in the first place, which is clearly the case, with the multiple bombings of his compound in Tripoli, which in one case killed one of his sons and three grandchildren, it is clearly targeted killing and I suppose NATO can now claim success. It has got what it wanted.

President Barack Obama said that there is going to be a pull-out from Libya very soon, so in your mind does that mean the objective has been met?

Yes, it has entirely. Regime change, take-over of Africa’s largest oil reserves, the incorporation of Libya, which hitherto had been the only North African country that was not a member of NATO’s so-called Mediterranean Dialogue, into what is now according to Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen a military partnership with the North Atlantic Alliance…So in every sense their objective has been accomplished. It’s certainly nothing that is going to benefit the Libyan people.

You don’t see this as being justice for the oppressed Libyan people? I mean there are people saying that Gaddafi was a terrible guy. He killed thousands so he deserved to die.

There is just so much – what term do I want to use? – low taste, gratuitous reveling in the murder of this man, who was born 70 years ago in the very city he was murdered in on the 216th day of NATO’s bombing of his country. He was born under Italian Fascist occupation and he died under NATO occupation. I think the parallel there can’t be missed, including the fact that Italy supplied some of the warplanes that have devastated his country since the middle of March, since March 19th. If he was the monster they’ve portrayed him as being – and I invite your listeners to go to the NATO website and see some of the crude caricatures of Gaddafi they’ve posted over the last few days – wall graffiti and so forth – portraying him in a demeaning and belittling way, to further dehumanize him preparatory to murdering him.

Alright, I saw some television coverage of his naked body being thrown around like a piece of meat. I am sorry for the expression.

Yes, after they brought him to Misrata. This is sickening, barbaric and worse than barbaric treatment and it’s in a long line of similar travesties. This is true with Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, with any leader of a country that doesn’t kow-tow entirely. I am not putting all these people in the same basket. Let’s rephrase that. Any leader whose time has come according to the United States and NATO can expect death. Hussein was hanged, Gaddafi was shot. Whereas Gaddafi was considered to be – he was only nominally so, but he was considered to be – the head of state and even the head of the military, and the bombing of his private residences under the guise of their being command and control centers suggests that he was considered by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to be in charge of the Libyan military, when he was captured on Thursday his treatment was governed by the Geneva Conventions, but instead he was shot through the head and murdered. This is the new regime that is being implanted in Libya, and for all the West’s talk of the rule of law and humanitarian concerns and so forth this is a graphic image of its true intentions, just like the death of Slobodan Milosevic in a veritable dungeon in the Netherlands because he was denied proper medical treatment in Russia, and the grotesque hanging of Saddam Hussein. This is the image of the new world order, a world order in all its transparent barbarism.

What do you mean he was denied medical treatment in Russia?

Russia offered to make a deal with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to bring Slobodan Milosevic to Moscow for medical treatment, but he was denied that opportunity and he died shortly thereafter. Even more foul play may have been involved but the message is very clear.

Do you see a pattern, I am sorry to interrupt you there. Do you see a pattern here, I am sure you do, between Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and now Gaddafi? I mean, we have countries, for example, Hussein and Gaddafi, they pretty much stopped their weapons’ programs. They cooperated with the CIA, in this case from what I’ve heard, and it’s pretty much a given, Gaddafi was assisting the war on terror fight by the United States by allowing rendition flights to Libya. He stopped his weapons programs. Do you see a pattern here?

Yes, there’s a very clear pattern. That the United States and the North Atlantic allance use somebody for whatever purpose they want to and then get rid of them and kill them afterwards. Slobodan Milosevic, at political risk to himself inside at that time the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, played a role in negotiating an end to the armed hostilities in Bosnia, in gratitude for which his country was bombed for 78 days in 1999 by the United States and its NATO allies and subsequently he was left to die in prison.

He had a deal with the CIA, I think, it came out, and I think that it’s pretty much a part of the public record that he believed that he was going to be protected.

I don’t know the details about that but at the end of the day what we see is there are a lot of corpses and we see the killings of heads of state. We have to recall that again, even though he was a titular, a nominal, head of state, Muammar Gaddafi was the longest reigning leader in the world. He is was last personal link – since Fidel Castro retired as president of Cuba – between the post-World War II national liberation struggles and the emergence of new nations during the Cold War era and the post-Cold War era that issued in NATO as an international military strike force that can topple governments at will around the world. NATO boasts on its website as of today of flying over 26,000 air missions over a country of six million people, with well over 9,000 of those being combat sorties. So this monster has been unleashed over the last 20 years and Libya will not be the last country so targeted. That you can be assured of.

What do you think is going to happen next?

I don’t know if Libya is able to be put back together again. The Western powers incited regional and tribal differences in order to topple the former Gaddafi government, and believing you can put that genie back in the bottle is overly optimistic – and disingenuous. With the military commander of the National Transitional Council [Abdel Hakim Belhaj] being somebody the United States incarcerated and interrogated as part of its “extraordinary rendition” program and a former fighter in Afghanistan, past leader of the so-called Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, you have al-Qaeda elements and tribal separatists – they’ve created real pandemonium here and now they claim that they want to stabilize Libya. I don’t see it happening. At the end of the day, with the alleged no-fly zone and humanitarian intervention, NATO has transparently waged a war against a government on behalf of insurgents, period. This was clearly the intent from the beginning and now it’s proven successful.

 
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27224

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"Palestine is the heart of Arab countries" - The PalestineFreeVoice ______________________________________________________

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