- Trapped for days in Tripoli's Rixos Hotel, the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arranged for the release of over 30 foreign
journalists yesterday.
-
- They're now at the Corinthia Hotel, awaiting a boat for
transport to Malta, then home via Europe that can't arrive until fighting
subsides. Given the chaos and violence, it could be a while.
-
- Among them are heroic independent journalists, unable
to report vital truths on the ground. For now, only their safe passage
home matters, but what they witnessed firsthand will be sorely missed.
-
- As a result, it'll be much harder to know what's ongoing.
Rest assured, this writer and others will report what's known as fully
and accurately as possible to keep the freedom flame for all Libyans alive.
-
- They deserve no less in light of what NATO has in mind,
including carving up the Libya corpse for profit.
-
- In fact, scrambling for its oil began began last April
when Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said energy giant ENI CEO
Paolo Scaroni had talks with Transitional National Council (TNC) officials
"to restart cooperation in the energy sector and get going again the
collaboration with Italy in the oil sector."
-
- In June, the Washington Post said ConocoPhillips, other
US oil giants, and related companies also held talks with TNC officials.
Engineering firm Quantum Reservoir Impact CEO Nansen Saleri said:
-
- "Now you can figure out who's going to win, and
the name is not Gaddafi. Certain things about the mosaic are taking shape.
The Western companies are positioning themselves. Five years from now,
Libyan production is going to be higher than right now and investments
are going to come in." Or so he hopes.
-
- Though accounting for only 2% of world production, Libya
is Africa's most oil rich state. Moreover, its high quality is especially
valued, and reports suggest vast reserves yet to be explored.
-
- On August 22, New York Times writer Clifford Krauss headlined,
"The Scramble for Access to Libya's Oil Wealth Begins," saying:
-
- The fighting hasn't ended, "but the scramble to
secure access to Libya's oil wealth has already begun."
-
- In fact, vultures began circling months earlier, believing
Libya's corpse was only a matter of time. Perhaps so. Perhaps not. Despite
all the hoopla, the jury is very much out.
-
- Nonetheless, besides ENI and ConocoPhillips, other companies
wanting back in include Britain's BP, France's Total, Spain's Repsol YPF,
Austria's OMV, America's Hess, Marathon, perhaps ExxonMobil, and others.
-
- Excluded will be Russia, Brazil, and especially China
on orders from Washington, calling the shots absent Gaddafi, at least for
now.
-
- Moreover, the Obama administration and NATO partners
prepared a detailed plan for Libya without him, including a United Arab
Emirates-supported occupation force, supplemented perhaps by UN Blue Helmets.
-
- In other words, lost Libyan sovereignty will be replaced
by paramilitary occupiers under a puppet government serving Western interests,
not Libyans. The very notion should inspire continued resistance as in
Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
-
- The Mossad-connected DEBKAfile's information can be right
or wrong. That said, on August 23, it claimed "(t)housands of fighters
from tribes loyal to Qaddafi are reported (to be) streaming to Sabha"
in southwestern Libya where some believe Gaddafi may have fled.
-
- "Prominent among them (are) members of his own Gaddadfa
tribe," numbering about 100,000, based in Sirte on the coast between
Tripoli and Benghazi.
-
- DEBKA said UK, French, Jordanian and Qatari Special Forces
"spearheaded the rebel 'killer strike' " on Tripoli and Gaddafi's
Bab al-Azaziya compound. It's the first time Western and Arab troops "fought
together on the same battlefield in any of the (2011) Arab revolts, and
the first ever that Arab forces took part in a NATO operation."
-
- Western elements involved included UK SAS commandos,
and France's 2REP (similar to US DELTA force units) along with Jordanian
Royal Special forces, "specialists in urban combat and capturing fortified
installations...." Qatari special forces are also participating.
-
- Despite other conflicting reports, DEBKA claimed Tripoli
is largely under rebel control, adding "there is quite a way to go
before the war is over." Based on continuing Afghanistan and Iraq
hostilities, maybe longer than DEBKA or others imagine.
-
- On the Progressive Radio News Hour (taped Thursday for
Saturday airing), Law Professor Francis Boyle told listeners to expect
continued conflict, as well as the danger of greater general war regionally,
and perhaps beyond. He's not alone believing it, including Webster Tarpley
who sees protracted civil war.
-
- He and others also reject reports that Tripoli is largely
in rebel control, saying unresolved street fighting continues.
-
- The Big Lie Vying with Truth and Accuracy
-
- Throughout months of conflict, an information war falsified
pro-NATO/insurgent victories.
-
- The idea, of course, is controlling the message, confusing
the enemy, and making Libyans as well as populations in NATO countries
believe things are going as planned, heading for victory.
-
- In fact, conditions in Tripoli and elsewhere are chaotic.
Nothing is resolved, and at issue is whether larger NATO forces will get
involved if insurgents can't prevail.
-
- So far, they've created mayhem, supplemented by heavy
bombing and strafing. It's also believed that rebel forces incurred heavy
casualties. Without air support, they'd have been easily routed.
-
- On August 24, Voice of Russia broadcasting said:
-
- "Russian agencies quote Ukrainian medical workers
in (Tripoli) speaking of chaotic shooting, barricad(ing) building(s), carjacking(s)
and mass looting around. Residents try to stay indoors."
-
- "Eyewitnesses say armed gangs have ransacked the
Embassy of Bulgaria and attacked the Embassy of South Korea and the residential
compound of the Ambassador of Ukraine."
-
- Fighting in Tripoli continues. As a result, "(a)nalysts
believe it is too early to say that the rebels are in full control...."
-
- So early, in fact, that major media gloating, disinformation,
and managed news distort reality on the ground. Moreover, their exposed
lies show nothing they report is credible.
-
- The closest thing to truth and accuracy from The New
York Times were a few admissions in Anthony Shadid's August 24 article
headlined, "After Arab Revolts, Reigns of Uncertainty," saying:
-
- "....Libya's unfinished revolution, as inspiring
as it is unsettling, illustrates how perilous that change has become as
it unfolds in this phase of the Arab Spring."
-
- Fact check
-
- A Western-instigated insurgency continues, not a revolution.
Extremely violent and "unsettling," it's hardly inspiring for
millions of Libyans who've suffered hugely since NATO and insurgent killers
arrived.
-
- As for the "Arab Spring," at best it hasn't
bloomed, not even close, in fact, despite how inspiring it is to people
throughout the region to continue struggling for rights long denied them.
-
- Shadid did include a few kernels of truth, calling the
TNC leadership "fractured and opaque." He added that enlisting
"foreigners" as insurgents is "the kind of intervention
that has long been toxic to the Arab world," and transitioning "to
a new order (anywhere) may prove....tumultuous."
-
- In Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia, and elsewhere in the
region, it falls short of exhibiting democratic birth pangs nowhere in
sight, what Shadid neglected to mention.
-
- Also omitted was what government spokesman Dr. Moussa
Ibrahim explained - that pro-Gaddafi forces control 20 cities and other
areas across the country, adding:
-
- "(W)e will continue fighting till Gaddafi comes
back to power once again in Libya. The entire leadership is in Tripoli.
The lawful armed forces (army and volunteers) control the city."
-
- That's a far different picture from what NATO and Western
media liars claim, as well as disreputable academics like Professor Juan
Cole, saying in an August 22 article:
-
- "The Libyan Revolution has largely succeeded, and
this is a moment of celebration, not only for Libyans but for a youth generation
in the Arab world that has pursued a political opening across the region."
-
- "The secret of the uprising's final days of success
lay in a popular revolt in the working-class districts of the capital....so
(successful, in fact) that when revolutionary brigades entered the city
from the west, many encountered little or no resistance, and they walked
right into the center of the capital."
-
- The above and Cole's entire article reeks of misinformation,
distortions, and ball-faced lies. It represents a shameless display of
intellectual dishonesty, combined perhaps with someone who knows better
on the take.
-
- Sadly, he's not alone, highlighting Big Lie power and
deep pockets backing it - major media regurgitated official discourse in
place of truth and accuracy. When repeated enough, it convinces most people
unwilling to check facts to believe it.
-
- Most true perhaps is that conditions continue to be fast-moving,
fluid, chaotic, violent, and far from resolved. Also true is Gaddafi remains
overwhelmingly popular. In addition, Libyans revile NATO and insurgent
killers they want no part of. As a result, they may wage a tougher, longer
fight than expected.
-
- Whether it's enough to prevail over NATO remains to be
seen. What's clear is that most Libyans hope so.
-
- So do others believing everyone has the right to live
free from imperial domination.
-
- Maybe the Arab Spring spirit will inspire Libyans and
others in the region and elsewhere not to quit. It's their only chance.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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