What's Wrong with this picture? Libya news coverage game

[Bender]

It won't be long before children will argue with their parents for not being zionist enough. On that day all of us will find that we've all been had and that everything we heard or read was propaganda not much difference of the reality altering communist propaganda from sovietrussia and communist china.

[dicktater]

Tarpley: Al Qaeda Butcher Takes Over in Libya

According to the London Daily Telegraph of March 26, Darna (also transliterated as Derna or Darnah), a key city in the rebel heartland between Benghazi in Tobruk, is commanded by al-Hasidi, an al Qaeda terrorist controller who trained and hobnobbed with Osama bin Laden at the Khost terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. Hasidi boasts of having sent 25 fighters to fight US and NATO forces in Afghanistan; one wonders how many they managed to kill. Hasidi was a US prisoner of war after being captured by the Pakistanis, but tells the Wall Street Journal of April 2 that he now hates the US only “less than 50%” hinting that Americans can redeem themselves by appeasing Al Qaeda with arms, money, political power, and diplomatic support. At his side in the city leadership is Sufian bin Kumu, Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur, another terrorist who was an inmate at Guantánamo Bay for six years. Also among the Darna city fathers is al-Barrani, a devoted member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which merged with Al Qaeda in 2007.

This gaggle of fanatics, psychotics, and criminals is billed by the CIA media as an effective ruling elite for the future democratic governance of Libya. In reality, the Benghazi rebel council, heavily larded with al Qaeda terrorists, could only preside over the descent of the country into a chaos of tribalism, warlords, and criminal syndicates which would spell the end of civilization itself in the area. Precisely this appears to be the goal of US policy, and not just in Libya.

See London Daily Telegraph, March 25, 2011: “Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links: Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime,”
http://tarpley.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tripoli commander denies al Qaeda links: report
Sat, Sep 3 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/ ... WC20110903" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PARIS (Reuters) - A senior Islamist rebel in charge of controlling Tripoli since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi denied links to al Qaeda and said he had been tortured by U.S. intelligence officers in 2004, French daily Le Monde reported on Saturday.

Western officials have expressed concern that some part of the fighting groups that helped to overthrow Gaddafi were Islamist militants or affiliated to al Qaeda, and might seek to install hardline religious rule in his wake.

Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who helped lead an Islamist group that has fought in close cooperation with the main rebel National Transitional Council, said his group had no intention of seizing power and would let the Libyan people decide on a form of rule in the post-Gaddafi era.

In an interview with Le Monde daily, he also claimed that he was tortured by CIA operatives in Bangkok who suspected he was a member of al Qaeda.

Belhadj acknowledged having fought alongside al Qaeda jihadists in Afghanistan but said that his Libyan group never espoused the same ideology of al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

"The Islamic combat group was never a part of al Qaeda, neither from an ideological point of view, nor from an operational point of view," Belhadj, whose age is reported as 45, told Le Monde.

"It happened that we were in the same place and at the same time as al Qaeda: that was in Afghanistan, where we sometimes fought side by side, when the goal was to liberate the country. But we were never under its authority," he said.

Belhadj added that he had been arrested in March, 2004, in Malaysia, and later transferred to Bangkok where he claimed to have been interrogated and tortured for several days by CIA agents in a secret prison.

Human Rights Watch says it has uncovered hundreds of letters in the abandoned offices of Gaddafi's intelligence chief indicating that U.S. and British spy agencies helped the fallen strongman persecute Libyan dissidents.

Belhadj, whom the newspaper described as charismatic and soft-spoken, said the rebel uprising in Libya was broad-based and drew its authority from the Libyan people.

"The revolution ... is the work of no particular political current, no ideology. It is the revolution of the Libyan people as a whole," he said.

"I assure that the fighters have no particular agenda. Do not doubt us. There is nothing to fear, we are not al Qaeda, I have never been in it, I can say that with complete tranquility and, what's more, not from a prison cell."

[dicktater]

Uh, if they are really winning (with ZATO airpower, of course), why give them another week?

Rebels give Gadhafi loyalist another week to surrender
Published: Sept. 3, 2011
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/ ... 315067414/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council Saturday said Gadhafi loyalists have one more week to surrender before they face military action.

"This extension does not mean we are unaware of what Gadhafi's accomplices are up to," National Transitional Council Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil said at a news conference, CNN reported.

The last strongholds of forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi are located in his hometown of Sirte and in Bani Walid, the base of a powerful tribe aligned with Gadhafi. Rebel forces are closing in on the towns, and interim Finance and Oil Minister Ali Tarhouni said Bani Walid is close to falling.

"It's possible, although we are not sure, that the Bani Walid (tribe) has joined the revolution, and now it's under control of the revolutionaries," Tarhouni said, adding the NTC will move its headquarters from Bengazi to Tripoli next week.

Limited water and fuel supplies and the proliferation of weapons from Gadhafi's armories have brought instability to the capital city and the United Nations is eager to re-establish its presence, a spokesman said.

"It is critical to ensure an immediate and effective U.N. presence on the ground to help identify and assist vulnerable people who have been particularly affected by the conflict and the disruption of services," said Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya.

[dicktater]

Jihadists plot to take over Libya
U.S. steps up surveillance of suspects among rebels
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... ver-libya/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jihadists among the Libyan rebels revealed plans last week on the Internet to subvert the post-Moammar Gadhafi government and create an Islamist state, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

U.S. officials said spy agencies are stepping up surveillance of Islamist-oriented elements among Libyan rebels. A government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed “strategizing” on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated.

“Several forum participants have suggested that, following a transitional stage, the battle should turn against secularist rebels and members of the [rebels’] Transitional National Council,” the unclassified report stated.

Some U.S. officials sought to play down the remarks by noting that such Internet postings are not always accurate measures of jihadist plans.

The report said the jihadists’ strength and influence on the ground “are uncertain at this time.”

However, the report said the jihadist plotting coincided with the high-profile emergence of Abu Abdallah al-Sadiq, a former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and now a leading rebel. He is currently known as Abdel Hakim al-Khulidi Belhaj and led rebels in overrunning Col. Gadhafi’s Tripoli compound.

A U.S. official familiar with intelligence reports on the region said there are concerns that some LIFG members remain committed to al Qaeda and others may be temporarily renouncing their ties to the terrorist group for “show.”

“Some members of LIFG in the past had connections with al Qaeda in Sudan, Afghanistan or Pakistan, and others dropped their relationship with al Qaeda entirely,” the official said.

“It seems - from their statements and support for establishing a democracy in Libya - that this faction of LIFG does not support al Qaeda. We’ll definitely be watching to see whether this is for real or just for show.”

A defense official familiar with jihadist strategy said Islamists likely will emerge in power from the turmoil expected after the demise of the Gadhafi regime and the West will be partly to blame.

“We’re helping pave the way for them” through NATO airstrikes and other support, he said.

About 1,000 jihadists are operating covertly in Libya, Noman Benotman, a former Libyan al Qaeda member, told The Washington Times in March.

According to a translation of the forum exchanges, Libyan Islamists view the fall of Tripoli to rebels as the initial phase of a battle to take over the country.

Jihadists were urged to prepare for the next stage in the battle: taking on secular rebels and the interim National Transitional Council, sometimes called the Transitional National Council, the secular political organization that is mainly pro-democratic.

The jihadists want to set up an Islamist state ruled by Shariah law.

A jihadist writing as Asuli Mutatari, stated on the Shumukh al-Islam Network forum that “the real war will be fought after the fall of the tyrant [Col. Gadhafi] and after the establishment of a transitional democratic system.”

“After the awakening, we will fight those outside the [Islamic] law,” he stated.

Another forum posting urged Islamists to “quickly take control of cities with economic resources and strategic locations and establish Islamic courts there.”

A jihadist identified as Abu Abra’ al-Muqadas said the National Transitional Council must be neutralized because it will never allow anyone calling for an Islamic state to be part of the new government.

“They know that merely suggesting the application of Islamic law will cause Western countries to stop their support,” he said.

A posting by a forum member named Gullam Ashab al-Akhud said the National Transitional Council should be liquidated and replaced by a transitional council of Islamic Salafi jihadi scholars in Libya.

A second Internet forum, Ana al-Muslim, quoted Ayoub al-Jaza’iry as saying that thousands of Islamists in Libya have been trained by al Qaeda and are “working silently in sleeper cells.” He warned jihadists to keep a low profile to avoid alerting the United States to its power.

Some of the jihadists criticized NATO military support to the rebels and said post-Gadhafi Libya should not allow outside assistance. Some also urged the assassinations of secular National Transitional Council leaders.

Mohamed al-Jaza’iry stated on the Ana al Muslim Network that the next phase of the revolution should be the expulsion of foreign bases and reduction of foreign influence.

“The Libyan people must … turn their guns on the Crusader occupiers, along with collaborators and traitors,” he added.

The comments reflect an increase in Islamist rhetoric since the fall of Tripoli, but the number of hard-line Islamist and the extent of their influence or control is not known, the report said.

A Dec. 9, 2009, cable made public by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks revealed that the Gadhafi regime released more than 200 jihadists, including half of the imprisoned LIFG members, after they publicly renounced violence and claimed to have adopted a new code for jihad. The move was an initiative by Col. Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam and the Gadhafi International Charity and Development Foundation.

Skeptics dismissed the effort as a temporary shift in tactics for the jihadists in exchange for winning their release from detention.

[dicktater]

Gaddafi, Britain and US: A secret, special and very cosy relationship
Classified files lay bare the ties between the nations
Sunday, 4 September 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 49039.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Britain helped to capture one of the leading opponents of the Gaddafi regime before he was sent back to be tortured in Libya, according to a secret document discovered by The Independent on Sunday in the offices of Moussa Koussa, then Muammar Gaddafi's spymaster.


Tony Blair with Gaddafi in Libya in 2007, their second meeting

London's involvement in the rendition of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, currently the military commander of rebel forces in Tripoli, is revealed in the letter from an MI6 officer. In it, he reminds Mr Koussa that it was British intelligence which led to the capture of Mr Belhaj, then leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, before he was sent to Libya in the rendition process by the Americans.

The senior UK intelligence official, whose identity is not being revealed by The Independent on Sunday for security reasons, then sought information obtained from the Islamist leader by "enhanced interrogation technique". Mr Belhaj had revealed that he was tortured during questioning.
Related articles
The hunt for Gaddafi – and his victims – goes on
Gaddafi warned UK over Lockerbie bomber
Douglas Alexander: We helped free Libya, but our job's not over
Patrick Cockburn: A clean victory in Libya, but the peace will be rather messier
Search the news archive for more stories

The letter refers to Mr Belhaj by his nom de guerre, Abu 'Abd Allah Sadiq, and reads in part: "The intelligence about Abu 'Abd Allah was British. I know I did not pay for the air cargo [Mr Belhaj]. But I feel I have the right to deal with you direct on this and am very grateful to you for the help you are giving us."

The senior UK intelligence official wrote: "This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years... I was grateful to you for helping the officer we sent out last week. Abu 'Abd Allah's information on the situation in this country is of urgent importance to us."

So close had the relationship become that several Western European intelligence agencies were using the services of MI6 to approach the Libyans for help with their own terrorist suspects. The Swedish, Italian and Dutch services sought the help of the UK agency in liaising with Tripoli. A sign of the warmth of the relationship between British intelligence and their Libyan counterparts is shown in the stream of letters from London to Tripoli, headed "Greetings from MI6" and "Greetings from SIS".

Although the documents, which we have not been able to independently verify, relate to the years when Tony Blair's government was in power, they threaten to undermine the UK's relations with the new Libyan administration, the Transitional National Council (TNC). Last night one Conservative MP accused Blair's government of "aiding and abetting" the Gaddafi regime.

Most of the papers were found at the private offices of Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister, regime security chief and one of Gaddafi's chief lieutenants, on Friday afternoon. Rebel fighters had been inside the building and paperwork was strewn on desks and the floor amid broken glass. The building was locked up on the orders of the TNC yesterday morning.

Mr Koussa, who defected after the February revolution and spent time in the UK, left to take up residence in the Gulf after demands that he face police questioning over the murder of Libyan opposition figures in exile, the Lockerbie bombing and the killing of the policewoman Yvonne Fletcher. In a sign of the importance of the British connection, MI6 merited two files in Mr Koussa's office, while the CIA had only one. UK intelligence agencies had played a leading role in bringing Gaddafi's regime in from the cold.

The documents reveal that British security agencies provided details about exiled opposition figures to the Libyans, including phone numbers. Among those targeted were Ismail Kamoka, freed by British judges in 2004 because he was not regarded as a threat to the UK's national security. MI6 even drafted a speech for Gaddafi when he was seeking rapprochement with the outside world with a covering note stressing that UK and Libyan officials must use "the same script".

The Libyan government sought the services of British intelligence in attempting to block asylum applications by opponents of the regime. One document, regarding an application for refuge by a man with the initials SRA-Z (name withheld by The IoS for security reasons), led to a response from British officials. "It is not the practice of the UK government to comment on possible asylum cases."

However, the intelligence agency then sought to gain information about the applicant. The letter, addressed to "Dear Friends", said: "We are sorry we can't be more helpful in this case but we must comply with this practice. We... would welcome hearing from your service why you are interested in Mr A-Z so we could consider what action we might wish to take should we become aware of him."

Other documents show urgent requests for information about Abu Hamza al-Libi, said to be a senior al-Qa'ida operative who had travelled to the UK from Italy and the Netherlands to collect forged UK passports destined for Iran. Al-Libi was suspected of being involved in a plot to carry out a cyanide attack in Rome in 2002. He was detained in Britain, but freed in January 2010. He is believed to have died in a motorbike crash in London eight months later.

Ben Wallace, a Conservative MP, said the last government should be made to answer publicly for "conspiring" with Gaddafi's regime. The former military intelligence officer said: "Giving countries like this information they can use to oppress their people and break international law amounts to aiding and abetting the Gaddafi regime. We need to get to the bottom of how far British officials and ministers went to assist the Libyans to do their job of suppressing their own people. We might hand information like this over to our allies, but we would be confident they would use it lawfully. You can't have that confidence with Gaddafi."

Britain's extraordinary rekindling of relations with Libya did not start as Mr Blair sipped tea in a Bedouin tent with Gaddafi, nor within the walls of the Travellers Club in Pall Mall – although this "summit of spies" in 2003 played a major role. It can be traced back to a 1999 meeting Mr Blair held with the man hailed as one of the greatest to have ever lived: Nelson Mandela, in South Africa.

Mr Mandela had long played a key role in negotiations between Gaddafi, whom he had hailed as a key opponent of apartheid, and the British government. Mr Mandela first lobbied Mr Blair over Libya in October 1997, at a Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Edinburgh. Mr Mandela was pressing for those accused of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to be tried outside Scotland. In January 1999, Mr Mandela, during a visit by Mr Blair to South Africa, actively lobbied the PM on behalf of Gaddafi, over sanctions imposed on Libya and the Lockerbie suspects.

UN sanctions were suspended in April 1999 when Gaddafi handed over the two Lockerbie suspects, including Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was eventually convicted of the bombing. Libya also accepted "general responsibility" for the death of Yvonne Fletcher. Both moves allowed the Blair government to begin the long process of renewing ties with Libya.

Within a couple of years, the issue of persuading the Gaddafi regime to turn itself from pariah into international player surged to the forefront of the British government's agenda. It was during this time, according to the documents found in Mr Koussa's office, that MI6 and the CIA began actively engaging with Libyan intelligence chiefs. But it was a key meeting on 16 December 2003, at the Travellers Club, that would put the official UK – and US – stamp on Gaddafi's credibility. Present were Mr Koussa, then head of external intelligence for Libya, and two Libyan intelligence figures; Mr Blair's foreign affairs envoy, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, and three MI6 chiefs; and two CIA directors. Mr Koussa's attendance at the meeting in central London was extraordinary – at the time he had been banned from entering Britain after allegedly plotting to assassinate Libyan dissidents, and so was given safe passage by MI6.

Mr Koussa's pivotal role at the Travellers Club casts light on how, following his defection from Gaddafi's regime during the initial Nato bombing campaign earlier this year, he was able to slip quietly out of the country. Two days after the 2003 meeting, Mr Blair and Gaddafi held talks by telephone; and the next day, 19 December, the announcement about Libya surrendering its WMD was made by Mr Blair and President Bush.

In March 2004, Mr Blair first shook hands with Gaddafi in his Bedouin tent. The pair then met again in May 2007, shortly before Mr Blair left office.

Downing Street and the doctorate

Tony Blair helped Muammar Gaddafi's son and heir, Saif al-Islam, with his controversial PhD thesis while at the London School of Economics, new documents unearthed in Tripoli revealed last night.

The former premier sent Saif a personally signed letter on Downing Street headed paper – addressed in his own handwriting to "Engineer Saif" – which thanked Saif for showing him "your interesting PhD thesis". The letter was written on 5 March 2007, two months before Mr Blair's second meeting in the Libyan desert with Colonel Gaddafi.

Mr Blair helped Saif on a number of points, including offering examples of co-operation between governments, people and business "that might help with your studies". Saif Gaddafi later gained a PhD from the LSE in 2008. It was claimed that Saif, who donated £1.5m to the institution, plagiarised large parts of his work.

Yet a spokesman for Mr Blair last night denied that the ex-PM had seen the thesis "in full or in draft form" and said that officials had drafted the letter.

The spokesman added: "Tony Blair didn't see Saif Gaddafi's thesis in full or in draft form. What he did receive was a letter from officials for him to sign, which was entirely appropriate.

"Saif Gaddafi wrote to Downing Street. He did not send in his thesis. Officials drafted a reply that the Prime Minister signed. That was the entirely appropriate way to handle the correspondence."

Saif Gaddafi, who also has links to Mr Blair's ally Peter Mandelson, was seen as his father's successor before the regime fell. Just days before the rebels seized Tripoli, he turned up in the middle of the night in front of TV cameras claiming his father's forces had overcome the advance.

Jane Merrick

Timeline: From Lockerbie to Martyrs' Square

21 December 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, killing 270 people

November 1991 US and UK accuse Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah of being responsible.

April 1999 UN sanctions on Libya suspended after suspects handed over

31 January 2001 Megrahi found guilty and jailed for life, Fhimah cleared. Foreign Secretary insists "no deal" with Libya on Megrahi's sentence and "full sentence will be served in a Scottish prison"

2002 CIA and MI6 begin active engagement with Libyan intelligence agents

15 August 2003 Libya officially accepts responsibility for Lockerbie and agrees to compensate relatives of the victims

16 December 2003 Senior Foreign Office, MI6, CIA and Libyan officials agree deal to bring Libyain from cold at the Travellers Club in Pall Mall

24 March 2004 Blair offers Gaddafi "hand of friendship" during talks in a tent outside Tripoli

May 2007 Blair meets Gaddafi again for talks in Libyan desert

21 October 2008 Megrahi has advanced-stage prostate cancer

25 July 2009 Megrahi asks to be released from jail on compassionate grounds

20 August 2009 Scottish government releases Megrahi

15 February 2011 Arrest of human rights campaigner in Benghazi sparks wave of protests

27 February 2011 Blair calls Gaddafi twice to ask him to stop the slaughter of protesters

17 March 2011 UN no-fly zone authorised over Libya. Two days later Britain and France begin bombing military targets

22 August 2011 Rebels take Tripoli, including Green Square (now Martyrs' Square). Gaddafi's whereabouts unknown

[dicktater]

Libya, Inc - Coming Waste, Fraud And Other Forms Of Plunder on a Grand Scale
By Stephen Lendman
9-4-11
http://rense.com/general94/coming.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Like in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, wherever America and its Western allies show up, pillaging is sure to follow.

Libya is no exception, earmarked as another profit center to be exploited. A previous article discussed it, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/09/c ... rofit.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It explained the process now begun to carve up the Libyan corpse for profit at the expense of millions of people who deserve better.

However, they're entirely left out of America's imperial agenda going forward with rich spoils at stake, including the usual waste, fraud and other pickings on an enormous scale.

A new congressional "Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan" investigation highlighted what Libya can expect. Titled, "Transforming Wartime Contracting: Controlling costs, reducing risks," it documented plunder on a grand scale.

Access the full report through the following link:

http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/docs/ ... lowres.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It begins, saying:

"At least $31 billion, and possibly as much as $60 billion, has been lost to contract waste and fraud in America's contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Calling its estimates conservative, it suggested the true amount is far greater than congressional investigators admit.

A previous article covered a decade of US war costs, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/d ... costs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It discussed a June Brown University Watson Institute for International Studies (WIIS) "Cost of War" report, estimating (post-9/11) around $5,444 trillion spent and projected with all related expenses and obligations included.

In fact, including all related categories, America now spends around $1.5 trillion annually, suggesting a conservative post-9/11 total double or more Watson's figure.

It constitutes a shocking waste of national resources at a time vital homeland needs go begging, including essential social services being systematically reduced or ended. It also suggests a level of fraud and waste multiple times higher than congressional investigators reported.

In fact, as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted on September 10, 2001:

"According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions" because the books are cooked to facilitate rampant Pentagon and defense contractor corruption.

It's theft on the grandest scale, stealing unknown trillions, dwarfed only by much greater stolen Wall Street amounts.

On August 31, AP headlined, "Independent panel warns failure to make contracting reforms risks more wartime waste and fraud," saying:

In Iraq and Afghanistan alone, America "lost billions of dollars to waste and fraud....and stands to repeat that in future wars without big changes in how the government awards and manages contracts for battlefield support and reconstruction projects, independent investigators said...."

Established in 2008, the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC) included four members from each party, created to investigate scandalous contractor malfeasance.

Calling its findings "sobering," it said much of what was found could have been avoided. Moreover, "(u)nless changes are made, continued waste and fraud will undercut the effectiveness of money spent in future operations, whether they involve hostile threats overseas or national emergencies here at home requiring military participation and interagency response."

Complicit with Wall Street's controlled Fed, war profiteers can order up all the ready cash it wants to steal. With Congress, the White House, federal departments, and the Pentagon involved in the dirty game, who'll take the lead to end a deal too sweet to stop.

Reports like CWC's proliferate through Washington, followed by inaction or too little of it. Why expect change now, even in an investigation, saying:

"Fraud associated with federal government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan has been widespread." It includes "bribery, gratuities, kickbacks, and conflicts of interest, as well as false claims and statements, cost/labor mischarging, bid rigging, and undelivered, defective and counterfeit products."

In fact, the level of war profiteering sweetheart deals and kickbacks going back decades suggests trillions of dollars stolen because of militarism gone mad. Expect no independent investigations to uncover how much or that officials at the highest levels are involved.

In his 2005 book titled, "Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Corruption and Profiteering in the War on Terror," Jeff St. Clair documented an explosive account of how contractors like Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Bechtel and the Bush family-connected Carlyle Group among others scam multi-billions at taxpayer expense.

Though out-of-control by any measure, it's largely unreported in the mainstream.

In addition, much grand theft since the Gulf War (exacerbated post-9/11) happened because functions formally performed by service personnel are now outsourced to private military contractors (PMCs).

Operating freely, they rip off the system absent checks and balances in place to stop them. Moreover, the total contract workforce in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the number of troops and civilian employees.

A previous article discussed America's growing use of PMCs, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/01/o ... ivate.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It described those performing security functions as unprincipled paramilitary hired guns. Operating freely from criminal or civil accountability, they're unchecked to kill or steal and get away with it, besides handsome amounts they're paid.

Since the Cold War's 1991 end, the Pentagon downsized to about two-thirds its former size, a process former defense secretary Dick Cheney called BRAC - Base Realignment and Closure, followed by privatizing military functions.

Ways wars are fought also changed. Earlier distinctions between soldiers and civilians broke down, the result of low-intensity conflicts against drug cartels, warlords and persons or groups aggressor nations call "terrorists."

When employed for imperial purposes (like so-called Libyan "rebels"), they're called "freedom fighters," not rogue gangs given license to kill and loot freely.

High-intensity warfare also changed. So sailors aboard guided missile ships, for example, serve alongside weapons and technology company personal, needed for their specialized expertise.

Moreover, political thinking changed to believe whatever governments can do, business does better so let it. As a result, privatizing the military followed, piercing the last frontier to let PMC mercenaries serve in place of conventional forces.

They're used as combatants and consultants, as well as for support services, intelligence and personal security, reaping enormous profits besides what they're able to steal that may, in fact, be greater because checks and balances aren't in place to stop them.

The CWC report covered various examples resulting from:

(1) Contractors managing other ones.

(2) Awarding no-bid long-term deals.

(3) Extending contracts well past their expiration dates.

(4) Using cost-plus instead of fixed-price contracts.

(5) Increasing ceilings on fixed-price contracts.

(6) Organizing work through multiple subcontractor tiers, making effective oversight impossible.

Notably, four large companies accounted for 40% of total contract dollars. Another 22 companies got deals of at least $1 billion, accounting for 52% of amounts awarded.

The concentration produced a "too big to fail" syndrome, affording vitally needed companies virtual immunity from accountability. It opened up a chasm for them to exploit in "the form of lower-quality materials, reduced training, and lower performance standards," as well as numerous other ways to commit grand theft.

In fact, given license to steal, how many opportunists can resist, especially that when caught, penalties exacted pale compared to enormous profits and personal gain.

The report also admits that relying heavily on contractors contributed greatly to sustaining insurgents fighting against US/NATO occupation, saying:

"The largest source of funding for the insurgency is commonly recognized to be money from the drug trade. During a March 2011 trip to Afghanistan, experts told the Commission that extortion of funds from US construction projects and transportation contracts is the insurgents' second-largest funding source."

Drugs trafficking, in fact, proliferates because the CIA and Western financial interests benefit greatly from it. For Wall Street banks, it constitutes a major profit center.

Years ago, Max Keiser worked on Wall Street. On his Russia Today program, he once remarked that every Friday afternoon, limousines drove up to major banks to deposit suitcases of drug money to be laundered.

It's one of many open Wall Street secrets, showing the corrupting power of money on a grand scale in amounts beyond comprehension.

The report also noted that in the last half century, America undertook 56 foreign interventions, including 10 land-based ones lasting a year or more. They include Southeast Asia (1960s-70s), Lebanon (1982-83), Panama (1989), Iraq (1990-91), Somalia (1992-93), Haiti (1993-96), Bosnia/Kosovo (1995-99), East Timor (1999-2000), Afghanistan and Iraq.

Libya now heads toward membership in a club Groucho Marx once described on a personal level, saying he wanted no part of one willing to have him as a member.

Nonetheless, CWC called the current geopolitical environment disturbing enough "to plan for the possibility that the United States may again become involved in overseas contingency operations that require extensive contractor support," citing Libya as a case in point.

In fact, because the business of America is war, permanent war, multiple wars, what CWC called possible is guaranteed, because war profiteers want it no other way.

Unless militarism and grand theft at current levels cease, neither humanity or planet earth may survive the toll that keeps growing exponentially, because multiple US wars may escalate to a global catastrophic one.

That prospect too grim to imagine is real because enough good people aren't committed to stop it.

[Whirled Peas]

A possible reason that Gaddafi worked with the CIA. The US usually works on both sides and they were funding projects left and right in Libya. When Gaddafi came in possibly he needed to work with the CIA to continue to get the benefits but then he saw the real problems of the relationship. But by this time, the US said no way.

DT, I haven't read all of your articles. This is just my idea about why Gaddafi worked with the CIA.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
LIBYA: Poor & Proud
Monday, July 27, 1959

Homer knew it, the Greeks named it, and for 2,500 years Libya was easy pickings for plundering Phoenicians and Romans, Arabs and Spaniards. Turks and Italians. In dismantling the tinny empire of Mussolini—the last of Libya's conquerors—the U.N. gave the ancient Libyan people their first real independence in 1951. Free Libya's legacy from its past includes rich Roman ruins, live German land mines, and a fierce resentment among Libya's predominantly Arab 1,130,000 population against all things foreign. All things, that is, except foreign money, particularly U.S. dollars. Libya gets more foreign aid per capita than any other nation in the world.

Nearly three times the size of Texas, Libya is 95% arid rock and sand; 99% of its people are illiterate, tending sheep, camels and goats to eke out a per capita income of less than $100 a year. More than $85 million in U.S. aid has poured into Libya in the past eight years to help the young nation to its feet. There is a special reason for U.S. generosity: Libya's government, headed by its near-absolute monarch, King Idris I, permits the U.S. Air Force to operate Wheelus field outside Tripoli, the largest U.S. airbase outside the U.S., where 12,000 Americans are stationed, and 2,500 Libyans employed.

Black Gold. The effects of American aid to Libya are everywhere: the desert is beginning to bloom under U.S. irrigation engineers in places such as Wadi Caam, barren since the Roman aqueducts crumbled away. Last year the U.S. built 37 schools and equipped five teachers' training colleges (the nation has only 25 college graduates). In what may prove the greatest boon of all to the Libyan standard of living, after four years of probing the desert crust for oil, Esso Standard (Libya) last month drew an astonishing 17,500 bbl. a day in a test run of its first Zelten field well, hopefully spudded in Zelten Two.

Despite all this, one knowledgeable U.S. diplomat admits that "the U.S. would never win in any popularity contest in Libya." Like all newly independent nations, Libya is extremely sensitive about its dependence. "We advise the American people to study the psychology of the Libyans," warned the newspaper At-Talia recently. "Any assistance given at the expense of our dignity and pride will be regarded as an offense and not a help."

Libyans also resent supervision of aid projects by U.S. teams, as the daily Fezzan grumbled: "We receive from America a sum of money that we are not allowed to spend as we see fit. The money is channeled to us through uneconomical agencies that keep highly paid foreign employees and fleets of cars." Do you think this happens with the money that goes to Israel?The sight of U.S. housewives flitting by in outsize station wagons is apt to outrage a poor and proud mule-borne Libyan male who keeps his own wife shrouded in a baracan. Well aware of Libyan sensitivities, embassy and Air Force work hard to avoid riling the people

Black Prince. Part of Libya's touchiness grows out of its realization that it could not survive six months if the U.S. and Britain (which has given Libya $64 million) withdrew their support. Libya's meager exports of esparto grass (for paper currency), olive oil, nuts and camels pay for only a fraction of its imports, and U.S. grants total more than half Libya's annual budget. Rumors rife in Libya of local mismanagement of allied funds are small encouragement to pull out U.S. technicians and let the Libyans spend away on their own. Most of the charges of corruption swirl about a fringe-bearded son of a cousin of King Idris' known as the Black Prince, whose SASCO construction company is currently building a $7,000,000 road that starts 200 miles east of Tripoli and meanders 300 miles through the empty desert to the Sebha oasis.

Touchy and resentful of U.S. aid, the Libyans are nevertheless trying to wangle more of it. The U.S. has a lease until 1971 on Wheelus Air Force Base, where under ideal weather conditions shrieking F-IOI and F-102 jet fighters land and take off in flocks of 500 a day. But the U.S. has to listen if the King's ministers want to renegotiate. For the use of Wheelus, the U.S. paid an initial sum of $7,000,000 and 24,000 tons of wheat, agreed to an annual $4,000,000 rental until 1960 and $1,000,000 a year after that for eleven years. Libya has now demanded ten times as much—a whopping $40 million a year—in rent for Wheelus, and more perks besides. The U.S. has countered with an offer of $6,000,000.

Rooftop Antennas. The man who keeps his divided country from getting out of hand is 69-year-old King Idris, who runs Libya from a honey-colored palace in

Tobruk and lives by the tenets of the Senussi sect, which holds Libya's diverse tribesmen together: no alcohol, no tobacco, no coffee, no immodesty. So modest and unassuming is Idris that he ordered his own image removed from Libya's postage stamps and currency and has given two of his palaces to the state.

The King's policy is neutrality in Arab affairs, cautious friendship with the West, hatred of Israelis and Communists. If Americans on the scene often think their motives are misunderstood, they can take some comfort in the fact that no other foreigner fares much better. An active Soviet embassy, with rooftop antennas obviously monitoring Wheelus' frequencies, is allowed to operate, but it shares the frustrations of the U.S. in trying to cope with Libya's fierce pride.

Most surprising of all is Libya's care fu.lly independent course in Arab politics. Nasser's picture smiles from thousands of shopwindows, Libyans listen nightly to Cairo radio, and—as in much of the Middle East—many of Libya's schoolteachers are Egyptian. But Libya refused to take sides with Nasser against Iraq. To all demands for its fealty, Moslem and non-Moslem alike, Libya replies in the proud words of Al Raid: "We do not need imported principles."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... z1X8IRpfa6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dicktater]

First they claimed he went to Venezuela, then Zimbabwe, then Algeria. Now, it's Niger?

Libyan convoy with gold, cash crossed to Niger
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews ... BQ20110906" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BENGHAZI, Libya, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Loyalists of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi crossed into Niger late on Monday in a convoy of vehicles, carrying gold and cash, officials from Libya's interim ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Tuesday.

"Late last night, 10 vehicles carrying gold, euros and dollars crossed from Jufra into Niger with the help of Tuaregs from the Niger tribe," Fathis Baja, head of the NTC committee for political and international affairs, told Reuters.

Tuaregs are nomadic people who live on both sides of the frontier.

NTC spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga confirmed the convoy had crossed into Niger and said it was carrying money taken from a branch of the Central Bank of Libya in Gaddafi's birthplace Sirte, one of the few towns still in his supporters' hands.

"They took the money from the central bank in Sirte," Ghoga, said.

French and Niger military sources have told Reuters a convoy of scores of Libyan army vehicles crossed into Niger late on Monday.

The NTC officials could not comment on those reports, and it was not immediately clear whether they were referring to the same convoy or describing a separate incident.

The whereabouts of the 69-year-old Gaddafi remain a mystery. He has broadcast defiance since being forced into hiding two weeks ago, and has vowed to die fighting on Libyan soil.

But, where's Gadaffy?

Libyan army convoy crosses into Niger amid chaotic Qaddafi manhunt
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2 ... 65577.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Qaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday, amid reports that the effort to track down Qaddafi is being led by competing factions of military commanders and bounty hunters.

A convoy of between 200 and 250 vehicles was given an escort by the army of Niger, a poor and landlocked former French colony to the south of Libya. It might, according to a French military source, be joined by Qaddafi en route for neighboring Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum, according to Reuters.

Niger Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum, meanwhile, said that Qaddafi was not in the convoy that crossed the border from Libya into Niger.

“It is not true, it is not Qaddafi and I do not think the convoy was of the size attributed to it,” he told AFP by phone from Algiers, denying reports that Qaddafi and some of his sons were among the convoy that arrived in Niger on Monday.

A spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) told Reuters a convoy of 10 vehicles that crossed into Niger was carrying money taken from a branch of the Central Bank of Libya.

“They took the money from the central bank in Sirte,” Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, an NTC spokesman said in Benghazi.

Meanwhile, an official at the Libyan Central Bank told Al Arabiya that no gold was withdrawn from the bank branch in Sirte, but foreign currency might have been withdrawn.
Large convoy

A resident who is the owner of a local newspaper earlier said that a large convoy of Libyan soldiers loyal to Qaddafi crossed the desert border into Niger and rolled into the frontier town of Agadez late Monday.

The convoy consisted of more than a dozen pickup trucks bristling with well-armed Libyan troops, said Abdoulaye Harouna, the owner of the Agadez Info newspaper, who saw them arrive, The Associated Press reported.

At the head of the convoy, he said, was Tuareg rebel leader Rissa ag Boula, a native of Niger who led a failed war of independence on behalf of ethnic Tuareg nomads a decade ago. He then sought refuge in Libya and was believed to be fighting on behalf of Qaddafi.

It was not immediately clear if the convoy included any members of the Qaddafi family or other high-level members of his regime.

“I saw an exceptionally large and rare convoy of several dozen vehicles enter Agadez from Arlit... and go towards Niamey,” an AFP source said.

“There are persistent rumors that Qaddafi or one of his sons are travelling in the convoy,” the source said.

A journalist from a private radio station in Agadez said he saw “a convoy of several dozen vehicles crossing the city and heading towards Niamey,” the Niger capital.

The journalist said several people reported seeing in the convoy Rhissa Ag Boula, a figurehead Tuareg rebel in Niger who is close to Qaddafi.

The toppled Libyan leader is known to have used battalions of Tuareg fighters who have long-standing ties to Qaddafi. His regime is believed to have financed the Tuareg rebellion in the north of Niger. African nations where Tuaregs represent a significant slice of the population, like Niger, have been among the last to recognize the rebels that ousted Qaddafi.
Still popular leader

A bounty of $1.7 million was issued for the capture of leader Muammar Qaddafi.

Qaddafi remains especially popular in towns like Agadez, where a majority of the population is Tuareg and where the ex-ruler is remembered for his largesse and for his assistance to the Tuareg minority during their fight for autonomy. The Sahara Desert market town is the largest city in northern Niger.

Harouna says the pro-Qaddafi soldiers accompanying Boula were coming from the direction of Arlit, according to AP. The desert that stretches north of Arlit borders both Libya and Algeria. Some members of Qaddafi’s family, including his wife, his daughter and two of his sons, recently sought refuge in Algeria.

Muammar Qaddafi, who ruled Libya for more than 40 years, has been on the run since losing control of his capital, Tripoli, last month, though the rebels say at least two of his sons had been in the town of Bani Walid, one of the last remaining pro-Qaddafi strongholds, in recent days. Moussa Ibrahim, Qaddafi’s spokesman and one of his key aides, was still believed to be in the town, rebel officials said.

Thousands of rebel fighters have surrounded Bani Walid, but have held back on a final assault in hopes of avoiding a bloody battle for the desert town some 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. The rebels say a small but heavily armed force of pro-Qaddafi fighters - at least some of them high-ranking members of his ousted regime - have taken up defensive positions in the town.

Most of Libya has welcomed the uprising that swept Qaddafi from power, though rebel forces - backed by NATO airstrikes - have yet to capture loyalist bastions like Bani Walid, Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte and the isolated southern town of Sabha.

The rebels have extended to Saturday a deadline for the surrender of Sirte and other loyalist areas, though some rebel officials have said they could attack Bani Walid sooner because it has so many prominent loyalists.
Ill-coordinated effort
At present we are not getting that much information from NATO. But we are receiving a lot of information, using many traditional methods, eyewitnesses, people on the ground, telling us where he is and his plans.
Anes al-Sharif, Supreme Security Committee in Tripoli

The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that a chaotic and apparently ill-coordinated effort by Libyan protesters to track down Qaddafi was being led by competing factions of military commanders and bounty hunters, as well as Libyan commandos commissioned by civilian leaders.

Libyans involved in the hunt say they are not getting much help from NATO, despite the alliance’s state-of-the-art electronic and aerial surveillance methods. Instead, they are relying on a deluge of human intelligence from informers and witnesses, but seem to be struggling to sift, process and share all the information that is coming in.

Most of the leads come from Qaddafi’s tribal heartland, a vast triangle of scrub and desert land between his coastal home town of Sirte, east of Tripoli; the oasis town of Bani Walid in the west; and the heavily garrisoned city of Sabha on the edge of the Sahara in the south.

Scarcely a day goes by without someone claiming to know exactly where Qaddafi is hiding within that triangle. The problem is that they do not always agree with one another, according to the Post.

On Monday, Anes al-Sharif, a member of the civilian-run Supreme Security Committee in Tripoli, said he had received solid information that Qaddafi had been seen 12 miles south of loyalist-held Sirte just two days ago, preparing to head farther south toward Sabha.

But a member of the ruling Transitional National Council said he had received “reliable information from a person close to Qaddafi” that put the former Libyan leader’s location closer to Bani Walid.

The manhunt for Qaddafi is an important priority both for the revolutionaries and for many Libyan civilians who say they will not feel truly safe until the former dictator is captured or killed. Audio messages from Qaddafi threatening to turn Libya “into hell” have added to the sense of unease here.

Two separate rewards of 2 million and 6 million Libyan dinars ($1.7 million and $5 million) have been offered for Qaddafi’s capture or death, officials said, which has helped encourage the flow of information but also prompted some rebels to go freelance in trying to catch him.

To help coordinate the various manhunts, Sharif told the Washington Post that the security committee in Tripoli would set up a task force and operations room in the next few days.

“At present we are not getting that much information from NATO,” he said. “But we are receiving a lot of information, using many traditional methods, eyewitnesses, people on the ground, telling us where he is and his plans.”

Human intelligence was key to the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Like bin Laden, Qaddafi is avoiding the use of satellite phones that NATO could trace, Sharif said., according to the Washington Post.

Qaddafi, whose fear of an attack from the air had been a feature of his rule since a US airstrike on his main compound in Tripoli in 1986, has also discarded his usual four-wheel-drive vehicles for smaller cars, according to witness accounts cited by revolutionary commanders. The commanders say they do not think he is traveling in the kind of large convoy that could be a target of NATO warplanes.

[dicktater]

Libya rebels: Gadhafi surrounded, forces ready to capture or kill

Ousted Libyan leader has been on the run since rebels took over Tripoli last month, reports conflicting about his exact location.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east ... l-1.383075" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Libyan rebels are surrounding the toppled leader Muammar Gadhafi, and it is only a matter of time until he is captured or killed, the spokesman for the rebels' military council in Tripoli, Anis Sharif, said Wednesday.

He did not disclose Gadhafi's whereabouts, but said he was still in Libya.

[Bender]

Libya rebels: Gadhafi surrounded, forces ready to capture or kill

Ousted Libyan leader has been on the run since rebels took over Tripoli last month, reports conflicting about his exact location.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east ... l-1.383075" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Libyan rebels are surrounding the toppled leader Muammar Gadhafi, and it is only a matter of time until he is captured or killed, the spokesman for the rebels' military council in Tripoli, Anis Sharif, said Wednesday.

He did not disclose Gadhafi's whereabouts, but said he was still in Libya.

The tactic is; level everything where you SUSPECT the enemy is. That way it's hard to accuse you of random murder.