U.S. NATO, UNSC and UN Clarifications Required on Libya

February 22, 2011

By Padmini Arhant

U.S. NATO & U.N PLAN OF ACTION ON LIBYA

Is NATO Preparing to Invade Libya?

What is UNSC action on ‘No Fly Zone’ proposal by Libyan victims dying from artillery shelling?

Does Libya matter to U.S. in the same manner as Iraq did in 2003?

United States positioned as the leader of the free world and the United Nations as the umbrella organization for the international community including Libya and,

NATO representing the U.S. and European Union dependent on Libyan oil for the economy are yet to offer legitimate explanation on all of the above questions related to Libya.

Additionally the U.S. has not clarified the bizarre stance for not having directly condemned the brutal dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his sons Saif al-Islam Gaddafi as well as Mutassim Gaddafi implicated with evidence on hiring henchmen to murder Libyan civilians.

The press conference and daily briefing by the U.S. State Department today i.e. February 22, 2011 was disappointing for it did not address the key issues on Libya and the response was evasive.

Please watch the featured video on the U.S. State Department briefing.

Following questions are from the conference transcript made available by the U.S. State Department. – Thank you.

Please view the featured video for the complete version of the briefing.

QUESTION: All right. And then more broadly, what did you make of Qadhafi’s speech?

MR. CROWLEY: I actually haven’t received a debrief on his speech.

QUESTION: Well, surely you saw some of it.

MR. CROWLEY: I did see some of it.

QUESTION: Enough – what did you think of him vowing to stay and to die a martyr and never to give up?

MR. CROWLEY: Again, this is ultimately and fundamentally an issue between the Libyan Government, its leader, and the Libyan people.

They, like others, are standing up and demanding a greater say in the events of their country.

As the Secretary indicated yesterday in her statement, we have grave concerns about the Libyan response to these protestors.

We continue to be guided by our fundamental principles; we don’t want to see any further violence.

And she called directly on the Libyan Government to cease the – its response that has led to significant bloodshed in Libya.

We want to see universal rights respected and we want to see the government respond to the aspirations of its people.

QUESTION: P.J., this is essentially a bloodbath that’s going on there, and it seems when you were talking about this that it’s a very calm approach. I mean, many people are saying that something has to be done right now to help the people who are being attacked by airplanes, air attack. So what is the United States doing? Is there a sense of urgency?

MR. CROWLEY: Of course, there’s a sense of urgency. Our first focus is on the security of American citizens in Libya. But I mean, our response has been joined by many others in the international community.

There was a Security Council meeting this morning. There will be another Security Council meeting this afternoon, and I expect that the international community will speak with one voice in expressing its ongoing alarm at events as they unfold in Libya.

QUESTION: Thank you. What is the Secretary doing specifically on this?

MR. CROWLEY: We have had a number of conversations as a Department over the weekend. The Secretary has engaged with many regional and European leaders.

Our Assistant Secretary Jeff Feltman had multiple conversations over the weekend with Libyan officials, including Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa.

We have been in touch with also other leaders in the region, and there is a united view here. We view the situation in Libya with grave concern.

QUESTION: Just one more. Just one more. Their ambassador to the Arab League calls this genocide, and in cases of genocide, there might be a consideration of taking some type of united action to rescue people. Is there any consideration for that?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, Jill, I would just simply say that right now our challenge – just as your challenge is to fully understand what is going on in the country.

Just as you have had difficulty in getting your reporters into Libya, we have a relatively small post, and we’ve had difficulty in verifying some of the horrible reports that are emanating from Libya.

I’m not minimizing our level of concern here, but it’s going to take some time to evaluate and understand exactly what is happening, what has transpired already.

We are focused right now on trying to do everything that we can working with others who are in touch with the Libyan Government and Libyan leaders directly to stop this bloodshed.

We have great concern about this, but we are still trying to fully understand exactly what’s happening in a very complex, very difficult environment where we do not necessarily, as we have in other countries, have as many eyes on the ground.

QUESTION: Has the U.S. Government contacted Qadhafi directly? Have you – has an effort been made either from this building or from the White House?

MR. CROWLEY: We are aware that others have contacted him directly, I think, over the weekend. The Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had a direct conversation with him. We have not.

QUESTION: — would not ask him step down.

MR. CROWLEY: Just as we have said quite carefully in each of these cases, it’s not for the United States to choose the leader of Libya or the leader of any other country.

It is for the people of Libya who are standing up and protesting the policies and actions of their government. Ultimately, they will be the judge of what is happening in Libya.

We are expressing our grave concern and alarm, as the Secretary’s statement said yesterday. And certainly, we can see that there is a contrast between the decisions made by Egyptian security forces in response to these protests, and the contrast is very stark between the response of the Libyan Government.

QUESTION: P.J., I just want to make sure —

QUESTION: The National Security Advisor Mutassim Qadhafi, one of his sons was here two years ago meeting with the Secretary. Has anyone spoken to him? Has anyone spoken to anyone else who still claims to work for the Qadhafi government directly? Or is Ban Ki-moon acting as the interlocutor here?

MR. CROWLEY: I just – no, no, no, no. I just said that Assistant Secretary Jeff Feltman has had multiple conversations with Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa and others.

We’ve expressed our concern directly. We’ve explained to the Libyan Government exactly what we’re doing in terms of the ordered departure.

We’ll work with the Libyan Government as we move our families and our diplomats and American citizens out of Libya. So we are – we have been in, more or less, daily contact with the Libyan Government through this last few days.

QUESTION: Do you support a no-fly zone over Libya?

MR. CROWLEY: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: Do you support a no-fly zone over Libya?

MR. CROWLEY: Again, we are meeting as an international community. We are trying to gather facts on what is happening. And I’m not going to forecast what steps might be taken.

QUESTION: Because during Qadhafi’s hour-and-a-half long speech, he indicated that he wasn’t listening to what the U.S. or what the Europeans wanted, that he would be willing to die until the last drop of blood, and that he would then go house to house to try to put down this rebellion.

That’s – how effective is the U.S. conversation then with Libya if he can go on television and say these things and make these threats against his own people?

QUESTION: — the problem is that here you’ve been talking about how this has to solved within – resolved through an internal debate in Libya; you want to see the government engage the protesters.

And the problem with that is that the debate so far has been anti-aircraft guns and bullets and fighter jets bombing the people. That’s the government’s side of the debate.

MR. CROWLEY: I understand that.

QUESTION: They have shown no willingness to engage.

MR. CROWLEY: I understand —

QUESTION: And Qadhafi’s speech, which you didn’t watch —

MR. CROWLEY: I watched. I didn’t —

QUESTION: — said exactly —

MR. CROWLEY: I watched some of it.

QUESTION: — said that they’re not going to engage and that he’s going to go – that the people who are protesting deserve the death penalty —

MR. CROWLEY: Right.

QUESTION: — and they’re going to crack down on them. So I don’t —

MR. CROWLEY: And Matt —

QUESTION: So there’s no indication that they’re listening to your message.

And by saying that you don’t know, you’re waiting to find out the facts on the ground, you can’t confirm any of these atrocities that have been reported, you’ve put yourself squarely in the camp of your favorite Western Hemisphere dictator Fidel Castro, who wrote exactly the same thing and said that no one – people shouldn’t be blaming Qadhafi yet. I mean, you haven’t come out and condemned Qadhafi himself for doing any of this.

And he — the other thing that Castro said was that – I think this is along the lines of the no-fly zone –

Is that NATO was preparing to invade Libya?

So, setting Castro aside for a moment —

MR. CROWLEY: Again, which is why I said earlier that ultimately this is an issue between the Libyan Government and the Libyan people.

QUESTION: P.J., how can you frame the debate as it’s internal things between the Libyan people and the government when some reports talks about thousands of people dead, and one of – part of the Qadhafi’s speech – I don’t know if you heard it or not –

He was talking about the violence has not been used yet against the demonstrators. Isn’t surely the responsibility of the United States to stand up against the thousands of people being killed?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, and the Secretary of State said very clearly and very compellingly in her statement yesterday that the bloodshed needs to stop. We condemned the violence that’s occurring. I don’t know that we can be any more clear.

QUESTION: But how many people have to die? I mean, we’re already hearing of hundreds of people.?
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Gaddafis’ Western Relations – By Padmini Arhant

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi known in the affluent circle for his close relations with Prince Andrew, Lord Peter Mandelson, 4th Baron Jacob Rothschild along with heir Nat Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor of Buckinghamshire.

Saif al-Islam having been hosted at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle is also believed to be a frequent royal guest at Rothschild manor on Corfu.

It is further established that Saif al-Islam was the favorite nominee to lead Libya among the Western oligarchy.

Powerful entities without lucrative economic deals would be indeed oxymoron.

It clearly explains the western powers’ deafening silence in the face of massacre by their autocratic ally.

The political establishment behind dictatorships in the Middle East and elsewhere bear responsibility for the ongoing civilian deaths in every uprising prompting worldwide citizens protest to the systemic abuse of power for purely economic and strategic interests.

People in the democratic society across the globe need to rise against the shadow world government wreaking havoc on the planet with innocent men, women and children indiscriminately killed through their puppet regimes,

The declining global status quo is a sharp indication for democracies to reject the pervasive dominance by selective powers operating under one organization – the New World Order.

These leaderships do not espouse democratic values and alarmingly exerting authority in semblance to fascism – a pre-world war II environment.

If the average citizens do not challenge the unscrupulous powers despite the ominous situation then it could lead to no point of return.

It is the duty of every human being to oppose the conglomerate powers’ complicity and demand for their immediate action in the removal of the totalitarian governments engaged in native population genocide.

Universal revolution is the only effective strategy to rein in the apex power governing the political apparatus around the world.

Complacency could no longer be the option for it would expedite the possible apocalypse.

The poignant questions pertaining to Libya including any NATO plan on Libyan invasion during the U.S. state department briefing was evaded and,

It is a great concern for the global society considering the western powers’ increasingly discreet policy on international matter.

Real democracies would be transparent and subject to accountability rather than remaining exclusive with decisions or the lack thereof on humanitarian issues.

The oppressed victims of aerial bombings in Libya are justified in their request for a ‘No Fly Zone’ – essentially a no brainer compared with similar imposition on Iraq by the U.S and allies during their mission to oust Saddam Hussein sharing same legacy as Muammar Gaddafi.

United Nations Security Council hesitation in this context is simply unacceptable and reasons provided thus far claiming that it would be hard for the members to gain consensus on humanitarian grounds reveals the disingenuous reaction particularly after the United States veto of Arab resolution on Jewish settlements obstructing Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

It is extremely important for NATO and United States to present the precise agenda on Libya with unequivocal clarification on the alleged NATO plan to invade Libya.

On the question regarding Egypt – the State Department Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley only highlighted in broadening the economic prospects with no mention on the political transfer of power to civilian rule.

Again the United States commitment to Egypt in this respect is quintessential based on U.S. military aid and consequently Egypt’s military caretaker government direct reporting to U.S. military high command including the defense secretary.

These developments marred with tremendous uncertainties attributed to U.S. and European Union failure to depose Muammar Gaddafi and reserved successors.

The characterization of Libyan political crisis as an ‘internal affair’ at the state department briefing is disturbing to say the least not to mention the impact on U.S. image as a reliable crusader.

Political transformation in the Middle East and across the globe is predetermined and non-negotiable.

The decadent powers under the global empire are on the brink of collapse epitomizing the conclusion of the Dark Age.

Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Palestinians from Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in the Middle East and,

China, Tibet, Burma, North Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lankan Tamils, Pakistan, Afghanistan…in Asia

Ivory Coast, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo…in Africa

Honduras, Haiti, Cuba…in the Western Hemisphere

All others across the globe are urged to seek political rights, social equality and fair economic opportunity only possible with people power in a democracy.

Life is a gift and born to be free. Hence rise like a phoenix against the falcon for a new beginning on the horizon.

Good Luck! To the Universal Revolution for resounding success in the liberation.

Thank you.

Padmini Arhant

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