The combined elements of Al Qaeda apologists, Ex-Regime figureheads and NATO backing is beginning to look like a decreasingly promising prospect for safe transition argues Joshua Virasami.
Meet Mr Abdul Hakim Belhadj. His credentials include training in Afghanistan by Al Qaeda (fighting for several years against the coalition) and later working closely with Ayman Al Zawahiri, becoming a high ranking Commander of Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Captured in Malaysia, he endured torture in Bangkok by US forces. He soon went on to work with Saif Al Islam. Captured again, he eventually served time in the infamous Abu Salim Prison. Most recently he has been promoted to Military Governor of Tripoli under the NTC.
Welcome to the increasingly embarrassing Libyan quagmire. As the mainstream media gradually begins to depict a Rebel force falling from grace figures such as Clinton have been seen to be distancing themselves from the rebels, urging restraint in regards to the increasing revenge attacks. And still the world is watching as the truth unfolds; the indiscriminate torture and murder of black civilians being but one of the tragedies besieging this distorted Libyan production; tie this in with the massacre in Zlitan (opening the gate for the siege on Tripoli) and the on-going massacre in Sirte as NATO/Rebel forces circle the city and bombard the interior with War Planes (majority British) and there is a walking paradox, because this is after all a ‘humanitarian intervention’. But Indiscriminate bombing is symptomatic of NATO campaigns and Western interventions in general, One has only to look at the long history of U.S intervention dating from Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya right back to Wounded Knee in 1870 to notice the recurring theme of mass civilian deaths.
And what of the National Transitional Council? Since the hijacking of the once youthful revolutionary movement, up to the murder of Abdel Fattah Younis and the dismissal of the executive board (which contained what remnants remained of true Libyan representation), we have been watching a ticking time bomb. The combined elements of Al Qaeda apologists, Ex-Regime figureheads and NATO backing is beginning to look like a decreasingly promising prospect for safe transition, which is after all what they are there for.
And now for a series of questions; if not for the up-keeping of human rights, why is the west embarking on a campaign set to further tarnish the brush of intervention? Why would we send SAS forces over to work alongside Al Qaeda fighters? Is it because Gaddafi, with his provocative Rascom project, sought to create an Africa independent of international finance and western dependency? Is it because US AFRICOM needs a boost in North Africa? Is it because of the juicy oil contract lined up for Petrofac and numerous other oil contractors? Or is it because Brown Lloyd James, Patton Boggs, Harbour Group and the rest of K St. have some lucrative lobbying contracts lined up? No, It must be because of the £8 billion in gold Gaddafi has been harbouring and the opportunity to establish international finance (note the newly formed ‘Central Bank of Benghazi’), or am I severely off track?
Either way, whether the rumours of a coup from within the rebels is true or whether the NTC hands over power democratically, I fall back on the words of a once famous author in saying that ‘Liberties are not given, they are only taken’. They are not given by ex-regime figureheads and they are certainly not handed over on a blood stained NATO plate. It lies with the Libyans to seize the vacuum and strike a blow to the counter-revolution hoping to find a heart in their homeland and it lies with us to raise awareness on the true nature of another imperialist intervention abroad.
