The threat of a bloody battle for Tripoli has continued to mount, with “Field Marshal” Khalifa Haftar massing troops and tanks south of the Libyan capital and warplanes belonging to his so-called Libyan National Army bombing the city’s sole functioning airport, stranding civilians seeking to escape the country.
Partial casualty figures include 51 dead and over 181 wounded. Thousands have fled their homes to escape the fighting, and there are reports that thousands of refugees and migrants, held under unspeakable conditions in concentration camps run by various rival militias, are frantic over the prospect of becoming helpless victims of a potential massacre.
In the midst of the escalation toward full-scale civil war, the United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned that any attacks on civilians in Libya could amount to war crimes and demanded that all sides “respect international humanitarian law" and "take all possible measures to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and prisons.”
The UN human rights body’s attitude toward the latest flareup of violence in Libya stands in stark contrast to its response to the one-sided US-NATO war waged in 2011 under the pretext of protecting civilian lives from repression at the hands of the government headed by Col. Muammar Gaddafi. A UN resolution allowing for a no-fly zone was used as the pretext to launch a seven-month-long bombing campaign in support of CIA-backed Islamist militias to destroy Libya’s security forces and vital infrastructure and overthrow its government. This campaign culminated in the carpet bombing of the coastal city of Sirte, a Gaddafi stronghold, and the lynch-mob torture and murder of Gaddafi himself.
The UN human rights advocates held their tongues throughout this campaign of imperialist slaughter, whose victims numbered in the tens of thousands, far beyond any estimate of the number who lost their lives to the repression of the Gaddafi regime.
Only in March of 2012, months after the end of the regime-change operation, did the UN Human Rights Commission issue a report that allowed it had “confirmed civilian casualties and found targets that showed no evidence of any military function.” It confined its investigation to just 20 airstrikes, when the total number of bombings was well over 1,000 times that number.
The present crisis and threat of a full-blown bloodbath in Libya are the direct product of the supposedly “humanitarian” intervention waged eight years ago under the fraudulent banner of the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) proclaimed by the liberal advocates of imperialism in respect to the oppressed peoples of former colonial countries where the major powers continue to pursue their strategic interests.
So many people to thank for the above. Barack Obama, let's start with him. He was president. Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power who all urged him to attack Libya. Amy Goodman who provided one-sided coverage, coverage so awful that Glen Ford (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) had to call it out publicly.
We were opposed to the war. This community was opposed. We knew it was more lies and we knew that it would destroy Libya.
If the news that black Libyans and black migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were being sold as slaves in Libya was a surprise to you, then you were not reading Black Agenda Report during the 2011-2012 NATO intervention in that country. We covered it. Almost everybody refused to question US foreign policy in Africa during the reign of our first black president. Many US news outlets, many otherwise reasonable people with access to foreign news, and countless others around the world averted their eyes and their ears to the anguish of hunted, lynched and massacred black Africans in Benghazi, in Tripoli, in Sirte and Bani Walid. But as the US Navy and US Air Force unleashed thousands of tons of bombs and missiles on innocent civilians and the military forces of the Libyan government, without which Uncle Sam’s and Barack Obama’s racist rebels could never have toppled Muammar Gadaffi, you heard and read about it each week in Black Agenda Report.
That is, if you were listening to or reading Black Agenda Report.
This kind of unflinching coverage is the reason Black Agenda Report has been targeted by Google, which now suppresses the appearance of our content in its search results alleging that we are so-called “fake news" or tools of the Russians. Of the roughly two dozen leftist publications singled out in this manner Black Agenda Report is the only one owned by blacks or oriented toward a black audience. There are slicker and prettier web sites with far larger audiences peddling other kinds of black experience and consciousness, profitably delivering black eyeballs to corporate marketers. These outlets do not challenge cherished beliefs. They neither question nor contradict the lies our corporate masters tell us, lies which some of us repeat to each other.
During the bloodletting in Libya Black Agenda Report carried accounts of responsible journalists and our own commentary in print, audio and video on the lynchings, the massacres and the politics behind them. Though many of these events were covered elsewhere on the African continent they were almost completely absent from US coverage of the Libyan crisis. Even DemocracyNow!, which had a correspondent on the ground and ran two, three or more Libya stories weekly for more than a year, only reported on the persecution of black Africans in Libya a handful of times with no followup. But Black Agenda Report helped give our audience a coherent picture of the US sponsored catastrophe that befell Libya in 2011 and 2012.
Since early 2011, Black Agenda Report has run about 60 articles on the Libyan crisis. You can find a list of their dates and authors and links to all these at the end of the print version of this article at BlackAgendaReport.com. They include audio coverage of a July 2011 Atlanta public report back in which former US Atty. General Ramsey Clark, former US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Rev. Derrick Rice of Atlanta's Sankofa Church of God and others who recently returned from Libya recounted their experiences in that unhappy country, and richly sourced accounts of the reasons the US and NATO overthrew what was once the most prosperous nation on the African continent.
So thank you to Barack, Amy, Hillary, Susan, Samantha and all the destroyers, you really did a job -- not a good. They are trash, one and all.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, April 11, 2019. Journalist Julian Assange has been arrested
this morning in England as part of a continued attack on the press led
by the US government.
BBC NEWS reports:
The Met Police said he was arrested for failing to surrender to the court and following a US extradition request.
The persecution continues. This is an attack on the press and an attack on free speech. Julian Assange is an Australian citizen. Will the US government next go after Australia ABC's Kathy Bolwen and Robbie Buck? What is the end point? What is the drawn line?
The ACLU released the following statement:
Some reaction on Twitter:
BBC NEWS reports:
Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Mr
Assange took refuge in the embassy seven years ago to avoid extradition
to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.The Met Police said he was arrested for failing to surrender to the court and following a US extradition request.
The persecution continues. This is an attack on the press and an attack on free speech. Julian Assange is an Australian citizen. Will the US government next go after Australia ABC's Kathy Bolwen and Robbie Buck? What is the end point? What is the drawn line?
The ACLU released the following statement:
APRIL 11, 2019
NEW YORK — London authorities today arrestedWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in relation to an extradition warrant on behalf of U.S. authorities.
Ben Wizner, director of the
American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology
Project, issued the following comment in response:
“Any prosecution by the United
States of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks’ publishing operations would be
unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal
investigations of other news organizations. Moreover, prosecuting a
foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an
especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely
violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the
public's interest.Some reaction on Twitter:
The warrant is in regards to his work with Chelsea Manning, and the war crimes exposed. Chelsea was a U.S. Soldier, reporting on U.S. Crimes. How is that stolen by a "foreign advisory" ...? #Wikileaks doesn't hack anything- it reports on information given to them.
‘Julian Assange exposed great crimes & now great crime committed against him’ - George Galloway — RT UK News rt.com/uk/456218-assa…
If #WikiLeaks is holding more truth bombs, let them loose now!!!
The government starts a multi million dollar war based on lies and engages in horrific war crimes and the guy who exposed it is the one in trouble. You’re living under an extremely rigged and corrupt system.
#WikiLeaks #JulianAssange
Julian Assange arrested
abc.net.au/news/2019-04-1… So much 4 #PressFreedom . Injustice writ large #AssangeArrested is a symbol of decline of democracy. Once were heroes. Australia govt did nothing! @johnpilger. #MediaWatch #FreeAssange #WikiLeaks #Iraq #auspol #UKParliament #nzpol
Julian Assange denunció al mundo las violaciones a los derechos humanos realizadas por EE.UU. en su invasión a Iraq y Afganistán de ahí la importancia de garantizar su vida e integridad. El Ecuador de Moreno no lo protegió. Aprendamos de la Historia
I am in shock to see Julian Assange in the condition he is. A honourable man who disclosed the war crimes of the American army in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange has been arrested in relation to a US extradition request for "conspiracy with Chelsea Manning" for publishing Iraq War Logs, Cablegate, Afghan War Logs,
Julian Assange: The WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs.Greatest Data Leak in US Military History
#WikiLeaks didn't just expose a few US war crimes in #Iraq & #Afghanistan
Not even dozens. Nor hundreds. It exposed thousands of war crimes committed by the rogue US state.
The criminals go free, while #JulianAssange is kidnapped
#JulianAssange
Julian Assange of Wikileaks exposed the war crimes of the occupation in Iraq. The Apache crew shown here murdered the innocent like it's some sort of Playstation game. The helicopter crew and G Bush should be arrested not Assange. #Iraq #FreeAssange
He released the FACT that the US Army was bombing hospitals in Iraq and afterwards the troops laughing about it. If anything the US should arrest the Bush + Cheney gouvernement. But they aren’t for human rights #JulianAssange
In Iraq, the flooding continues to be a problem.
Historic water levels at Iraq reservoirs and dams: officials – FRANCE 24 baghdadinformer.com/17007/historic…
AFP reports:
In Samarra, north of Baghdad, water is being diverted into the natural reservoir at Tharthar Lake in amounts unseen in decades, said dam chief Kareem Hassan.
"Today, the Tharthar barrage is seeing the highest levels of water passing through in its history," Hassan told AFP.
"We haven't seen such levels pass through the structure since it was founded in 1956, so 63 years."
The Dukan dam in the northeast also "had not witnessed water levels this high since 1988," said manager Hama Taher, calling on people living nearby to leave.
Electricity posts in Iraq are made out of metal poles instead of wood, and many people die during floods when approaching them for higher ground. This Iraqi man is better than the government, he spends his own money to wrap every electricity post in his area to prevent deaths.
Flood Displaces 5,000 Families in South of Iraq - #BasNews
basnews.com/index.php/en/n…
Torrential rain triggers floods in #Iraq, 21 killed, thousands evacuated
The floods appear to have caught the Iraqi government yet again by surprise. Even though this is seasonal, even though there were warnings weeks in advance (and we noted those here). Does Iraq have an acting prime minister? A functioning one?
Abdul Mahdi still has not filled the security posts in his Cabinet. He was supposed to have done that in October. He got a pass -- despite the Iraqi Constitution. Then it was, 'he'll fill those spots in a few weeks.' That was six months ago.
THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER's Jamie McIntyre observes:
OPERATIONS CONTINUE TO ELIMINATE ISIS: The ISIS caliphate is history, but the battle to eliminate the terrorist group continues in Iraq and Syria. The U.S.-led coalition, officially named Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, no longer conducts regular briefings, but it does issue a bi-weekly “strike summary,” which shows plenty of bombing is going on along with ground operations as ISIS continues to pose a threat in both countries.
“In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 29 strikes consisting of 53 engagements, engaged 28 [ISIS] tactical units, and destroyed 72 vehicles, 17 fighting positions, 15 supply routes, and three vehicle borne improvised explosive devices,” said the summary. “In Iraq, CJTF-OIR conducted 23 strikes consisting of 45 engagements, engaged three [ISIS] tactical units, and destroyed seven tunnels, four supply routes, two buildings, two caves, one command and control center, and one compound.”
Seems like a Minister of Defense would be necessary right now. Last time the Ministry of Defense position was empty and the Ministry of Interior position was empty, what happened? The rise of ISIS.
The following sites updated:
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