- America's media staunchly back all US imperial wars,
regurgitating officials lies as truths. Moreover, they never explain their
illegality or daily crimes of war and against humanity against civilians,
as well as non-military related infrastructure and other sites.
-
- Nor do they report how NATO bombing prevents targeted
nations (including Libya) from providing essential public services, including
enough food, medical care, electricity, fuel, and clean water.
-
- Nonetheless, America's led Libya war may have backfired.
In Tripoli, Middle East/Central Asian analyst Mahdi Nazemroaya told Progressive
Radio News Hour listeners that NATO bombing united Libyans behind Gaddafi
to save their country.
-
- Instead, American and Western media falsify reports,
claiming:
-
- -- non-existent rebel gains;
-
- -- Tripoli may fall;
-
- -- the country may collapse;
- -- Gaddafi has little support when, in fact, mass rallies
turn out in Tripoli and elsewhere for him;
-
- -- few civilians have been killed or injured when, in
fact, around 1,200 or more have been killed, many thousands more injured;
-
- -- NATO only attacks military targets when, in fact,
civilian ones are deliberately struck; and
-
- -- Tripoli is a ghost town, when, in fact, life goes
on relatively normally in spite of daily bombings.
-
- In other words, falsified reports suppress reality on
the ground, including that NATO miscalculated. As a result, it's losing
because Libyans are united against lawless, naked aggression, refusing
to let their country become another imperial trophy.
-
- Knowing Libya's been there before, they want none of
it. Moreover, they understand Washington's Middle East/North Africa agenda
to colonize the entire region, militarize and balkanize it, control its
resources, steal its wealth, and exploit its people ruthlessly. It's why
all US wars are fought, never for humanitarian reasons.
-
- It's the same dirty game Washington and its coalition
allies repeat against all nations less than totally under their control,
especially resource-rich ones. As a result, Libya was targeted for takeover,
a plan that may, in fact, have backfired.
-
- A previous article discussed NATO's latest setback, accessed
through the following link:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/abdul-fatah-younis-killing-war-death-or.html
-
- It explained the illegitimate National Transitional Council's
(NTC) disarray, evident by the assassination of its military commander,
Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis. After rebel leaders admitted it (despite initially
claiming his war death), The New York Times had to acknowledge what it
first tried to suppress or play down, what it always does unless caught
red-handed.
-
- On July 30, London Independent writer Kim Sengupta headlined,
"Rebel feud puts UK's Libya policy in jeopardy," saying:
-
- Its credibility was in tatters after Younis' assassination,
revealing "a bloody internal feud." Evidence now shows he and
two aides were savagely murdered, shot at close range, perhaps tortured,
and their bodies mutilated and burned, signifying how rebel Al Qaeda elements
operate.
-
- Legitimate Independent Reporting
-
- Reporting from Tripoli, independent journalist Lizzie
Phelan emailed me information to pass on to Progressive Radio Hour listeners,
including that two days after Britain recognized the illegitimate TNC as
Libya's government, its military commander was assassinated.
-
- Afterward, NTC leaders reportedly fled Benghazi in the
wake of a popular uprising against them. In contrast, there's "complete
security (in Tripoli) with families enjoying days at the beach and getting
ready for Ramadan (beginning August 1)."
-
- On July 28, Gaddafi told hundreds of thousands of Tripoli
residents that a battle was occurring in Benghazi. Its people are challenging
TNC occupation, and when Younis' death was announced at 2:00AM, "huge
celebrations (erupted) across Tripoli with fireworks and celebratory gunfire
until the early hours."
-
- On July 31, Phelan reported "breaking news"
that Libya's Al Fatah revolution (Gaddafi's 1969 bloodless coup, ousting
King Idris from power, establishing the Libyan Arab Republic) regained
power in Benghazi.
-
- She confirmed that Libya's largest Warfalla tribe was
marching to the rebel capital, as well as Libyan armed forces already there,
adding:
-
- Gaddafi's "green flag is (again) flying in military
barracks in Benghazi. Massive celebrations will take place in Tripoli tonight."
-
- Though a hopeful sign, don't expect Washington and its
NATO partners to back off gracefully. It took nearly a decade to balkanize
and colonize Yugoslavia. Years more destabilization and conflict may try
doing the same to Libya, whether or not it succeeds.
-
- Aftermath of Rebel Commander's Death
-
- On July 30, AP reported that Younis' son, Ashraf, broke
down at his father's funeral, "crying and screaming as they lowered
the body into the ground - in a startling and risky display in a city (Benghazi)
that was the first to shed Gaddafi's rule nearly six months ago - pleaded
hysterically for the return of the Libyan leader to bring stability,"
saying:
-
- "We want Muammar to come back! We want the green
flag back!" referring to Libya's national banner under him.
-
- Notably on July 29, London Guardian writer Richard Seymour
headlined, "Gaddafi is stronger than ever in Libya," saying:
-
- NATO's war "has not gone well." Efforts are
under way to end it. No sign of a palace coup against Gaddafi exists. In
fact, "(if his) regime is not more in control of Libya than before,
then this completely undermines the simplistic view put about by the supporters
of war - and unfortunately by (rebel elements) - that the situation was
simply one of a hated tyrant hanging on through mercenary violence."
-
- From the start, of course, it was part of the Big Lie
to justify war to remove him. It's now known "that rebellious sectors
started to go back to Gaddafi within weeks of the revolt taking off, meaning"
his support was stronger than reported, and now much more so.
-
- Moreover, despite over 30 nations recognizing the illegitimate
TNC, "this is pure cynicism." In addition, Amnesty International
and other independent sources disproved claims about Gaddafi committing
mass killings and atrocities. "This completely demolishes the last
leg of the moral case for war."
-
- "In fact, if there was any idea that the US could
offer an alternative model of development for the populations of the Middle
East, it now lies in ruins. It is more than unfortunate that Libya had
to be reduced to ruins for this to become apparent."
-
- Although stopping short of calling for an immediate bombing
halt, compare Seymour's report to the latest July 30 New York Times one.
In unabashed anti-Gaddafi mode, writer David Kirkpatrick headlined, "NATO
Strikes at Libyan State TV," saying:
-
- On Saturday, NATO "disabled three Libyan state television
transmission dishes in Tripoli with airstrikes overnight, as the alliance
took steps to remove the main instrument of (Gaddafi) propaganda from the
airwaves."
-
- Of course, The New York Times, as "the newspaper
of record," functions as the equivalent of an official US state propaganda
service, reporting daily misinformation managed news, not vital truths
readers need to know.
-
- For example, it didn't address Amnesty International's
April 23, 2009 report headlined, "No Justice for the Victims of NATO
Bombings," saying:
-
- "Ten years on, no one has been held to account for
the NATO attack on the Serbian state radio and television (RTS) building
that left 16 civilians dead." The Belgrade strike left 16 others injured.
-
- "The bombing of the headquarters of Serbian state
radio and television was a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as
such constitutes a war crime," Sian Jones, AI's Balkans expert said.
-
- NATO told AI it bombed RTS "because of its propaganda
function, in order to undermine the morale of the population and the armed
forces." AI dismissed the claim as false justification of a war crime.
-
- The same holds for bombing Libya Jamahiriya Broadcasting
Corporation (LJBC), airing television and radio news, cultural and other
reports, including satellite TV in Arabic, English and French throughout
the Middle East and Europe.
-
- It's Libya's equivalent of Britain's government-funded
and controlled BBC, charging residents a monthly fee on their television
receivers, whether or not they watch it.
-
- NATO tried but failed to silence Libya's LJBC to assure
only its own message got out, saying:
-
- "Our intervention was necessary as TV was being
used as an integral component of the regime apparatus designed to systematically
oppress and threaten civilians and to incite attacks against them. Qaddafi's
increasing practice of inflammatory broadcasts illustrates his regime's
policy to instill hatred amongst Libyans, to mobilize its supporters against
civilians and to trigger bloodshed."
-
- In fact, it was NATO's latest ball-faced lie. Nonetheless,
Kirkpatrick dutifully regurgitated it, the way disgraced former Times writer
Judith Miller did, functioning as a Pentagon press agent in the run-up
to the Iraq war.
-
- A Final Comment
-
- Though ground-based satellites were disabled, LJBC kept
broadcasting, issuing a statement that three employees were killed, another
15 wounded. LJBC official Khalid Bazelya said:
-
- "We are not a military target. We are not commanders
in the army and we do not pose a threat to civilians. We are performing
our job as journalists representing what we wholeheartedly believe is the
reality of NATO aggression and the violence in Libya."
-
- In fact, when Gaddafi's speeches and comments from other
state officials are aired, or guests express pro-regime support, it's no
different than what appears on US TV.
-
- Every channel (including so-called public television
news and opinion shows) is littered with Democrat and Republican representatives,
as well as full coverage for presidents' speeches and many other public
appearances.
-
- It's very much the same in other Western countries where,
in fact, voices opposing imperial and corporate policies are virtually
entirely shut out.
-
- There and in America, real information on what people
most need to know (including why Washington attacked Libya) is available
only through alternative print and broadcast sources, mostly online.
-
- Make them a regular habit, and what a previous article
urged, saying imagine freedom from all managed and junk food news. Tune
out and make it happen.
-
- 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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