The Fall Of Libya Into “Manufactured” Sectarian Chaos
“Why won’t there be an investigation into the killing of Saddam Hussein? An entire Arab leadership was executed by hanging, yet we sit on the sidelines. Why? Any one of you might be next!” (Muammar al-Gaddafi speech before the Arab League, March 29,2008)
February 27,2011….The National Transitional Council (NTC) was created under the direction of Mustafa Abdul Jalil and Mustafa Honi, whose sole purpose was to overthrow the long standing Libyan President and it’s charismatic leader of 40 years, Muammar al-Gaddafi. The Arab Spring had begun in neighboring Tunisia, and the anti-government forces began to take hold in Libya. The Islamic revolution was held by anti-government rebels and organizations who were responding to the “suppressible” nature of it’s questionable governments, the resistance saw itself enter Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Bahrain. However there was more to these protests than what was reported to us by mainstream legacy media. According to Wikileaks documents which came out years later, some of the youth movements involved had received training and funding from American based companies.
The International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington. These leaks came from diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks in the United States. The inner workings of these groups were to instigate tensions inside the Arab countries which would lead into a internal fracture of said governments, whose policies were not in the interests of the U.S government. According to a NY Times article dated April 14, 2011:
“The cables, in particular, show how leaders in the Middle East and North Africa viewed these groups with deep suspicion, and tried to weaken them. Today the work of these groups is among the reasons that governments in turmoil claim that Western meddling was behind the uprisings, with some officials noting that leaders like Ms. Qadhi were trained and financed by the United States. Diplomatic cables report how American officials frequently assured skeptical governments that the training was aimed at reform, not promoting revolutions.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/15aid.html
Libya, meanwhile was about to witness it’s worst civil war in the nation’s history.
Anti government forces in the country’s second largest city, Benghazi, had captured it without much resistance. There had been reports of Qaddafi loyalists within it’s army, defecting, evidently joining the Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade, which was headed by Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, a former Afghan Mujahid during the 1979 Soviet-Afghan War. The Brigade is also reported by Italian press, II Sole 24 Ore, as having Al Qaeda members within it’s ranks, which was pointed out when they interviewed al-Haidi in March 2011. al-Hasidi stated:
“They are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” but added that the “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader”.
Qaddafi began assembling much of the Libya Army into small factions to combat the dissenting anti-government sects thru-ought the North. To further subjugate Qaddafi’s movements, the United Nations was stunned to hear declarations from a former Libyan Foreign Minister, Abdel Rahman Shalgham, before the floor about the civilian casualties suffered under Gaddafi aerial bombings in Tripoli. According to International Criminal Court prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Gaddafi government loyalists were planning to quell the demonstrations months in advance, as they witnessed the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings from afar. In an interview with Reuters, Ocampo stated:
“We have evidence that after the Tunisia and Egypt conflicts in January, people in the regime were planning how to control demonstrations inside Libya,”
NATO was preparing its passing of Security Council Resolution 1970, which would restrict Gaddafi’s finances and implement a travel ban towards Gaddafi’s most trusted government and military confidants. U.S Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton (Obama Administration), even opined before NATO that the European committees should force the travel ban on Libyan delegations “It’s crucial we’re all on the same page on NATO’s responsibility to enforce the no-fly zone and protect civilians in Libya.” Gaddafi’s Libyan Armed Forces were getting nominal support from Zimbabwe and Belarus, while forcing to capture Tripoli, the country's capitol, the rebels forces had begun to thwart the Libyan Army.
The citizens of Libya meanwhile were still reeling from unemployment and now a full out civil war, with 12% of the nation suffering from lack of employment, many of its youth began to take up arms with many of the ultra-orthodox rebels, Al Qaeda & Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade, to force a needy resolution. The National Transitional Council called for all armed groups to register and unite under the Ministry of Defense, thus placing many armed groups on the payroll of the government.
The United States was becoming more involved behind the United Nations Resolution 1970, in which U.S President Barack Obama declared before U.S citizenry, “The task that I assigned our forces is to protect the Libyan people from immediate danger and to establish a no-fly zone.” This was echoed by Assistant Secretary of State, Philip Gordon, “The military mission of the United States is designed to implement the Security Council resolution, no more and no less.… I mean protecting civilians against attacks from Gaddafi’s forces and delivering humanitarian aid.”
The war reached an international crisis however, which would forever mark the Obama Presidency as well as witnessing Hillary Clinton question under the House Senate Select Committee, when rebel forces stormed the U.S Embassy in Benghazi on September 11th 2012. Members of the Ansar al-Sharia attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi resulting in the deaths of U.S Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and U.S Foreign Services Information Management Officer Sean Smith along with CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, while 4 others were injured in the attack.
Months prior to the attack however, The Brigades of the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman released a video of what it said was its detonation of an explosive device outside the gates of the U.S. consulate on June 6. The warning signs for an imminent attack were there,diplomatic cables sent by the Embassy required military protection, for which none came. Under stern questioning from members of the Senate Select Committee, Clinton testified that she was regretful that she couldn’t do more, while stating ignorance on the matter….“The specific security requests pertaining to Benghazi … were handled by the security professionals in the State Department. I didn’t see those requests, I didn’t approve them, I didn’t deny them.”
The United States military continued however to deny that U.S led intervention on Gaddafi was beginning. But by 2012, it was obvious that U.S coalition forces and the Pentagon were assisting Islamic militant groups, as well as the National Transition Council, to oust the embattled Gaddafi. U.S Vice Admiral William Gortney, director of the Joint Staff in regards to Gaddafi’s home being attacked by military forces:
“No, we’re not targeting his residence. We’re there to set the conditions and enforce the United Nations Security Council resolution. That’s what we’re doing right now and limiting it to that.”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/22/libya-and-the-myth-of-humanitarian-intervention/
By September 2011 the war witnessing a near end, only a few remaining towns remained loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. Bani Walid, Sebha, and Sirte. With the fall of the capitol, Tripoli, to the rebels, Gaddafi announced in the town of Sirte, his willingness to negotiate for a handover to a transitional government which was the initial proclamation from Mustafa Abdul Jalil, NTC leader. Fleeing from the onslaught from the NYC armies and from the militant rebels, Gaddafi fled Sirte, when NATO planes fired onto his convoy of bodyguards, killing 51. Gaddafi and his remaining loyalists, then hid in drainage pipes near a construction site while a few bodyguards fought against the incoming militants.
The rebels lobbed grenades which eventually found it’s most valuable target in Gaddafi who was hurt in the head one of its blasts. He was captured by militants from the city of Misrata, east of Tripoli. From video phone evidence it showed Gaddafi was then bayoneted in his anus, and was then paraded around while being flayed on the hood of a car. While the convoy drove away, Gaddafi’s lifeless body fell off, his body as later recovered and immediately driven to a hospital in Misrata, he was dead on arrival. The report of his death was relayed that afternoon by NTC Prime Minister Mahmoud Jabril. The bodies of Muammar al-Gaddafi and Libyan Defense Minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jabr were publicly displayed for four days, with Libyans from all over the country coming to view them. The fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi was complete, and soon the country would ultimately follow.
Syria was just heading into it’s own personal “Arab Spring” which was witnessing Islamic militants committing horrific acts of violence, led by Aby Bakr al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State & The Levant as well as the Jabhat al-Nusra Front being the main antagonists against the Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. With Gaddafi now out of the picture, many of the Islamist rebel groups such as Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade, Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade, Al Qaeda in Libya, Libyan Armed Islamic Group and others began fighting with each other as well as the NTC for control of small areas of the war torn country. These same Islamic militants whom Gaddafi had once suppressed were now becoming the forces which were leading to it’s further demise. The United States began to slowly back away as they had no plan to reinforce a government, it was up to the NTC to provide this while at the same time battling the armed Islamic rebels. It was Iraq 2.0.
According to members of the Libyan Government, mercenaries from Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia entered Libya and were fighting against the Libyan Army and the NTC. The government had lost control of large areas of the country to the militias, while violence increased throughout the country. With Gaddafi’s death, it was unceremoniously celebrated to an extent from Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, when just after meeting with NTC delegates a week prior to her interview with CBS News on October 20, 2011, she was overheard by an side in between her interview “We came, we saw, he died,” with mocking laughter.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 2,000 people were killed with 4,000 injured during the war. However the actual numbers of those killed and wounded would not be known even to the present day. According to the current Libyan government, the estimated number of killed was to be actually far lower than previous estimates, with 4,700 rebel supporters and a similar number of Gaddafi supporters killed during the conflict. An estimated 2,100 people on both sides were missing. In 2014, Libyan would witness a second civil war, this time between the Tobruk Government led by purist, Aguila Saleh Issa and the General National Congress (GNC) led by Nouri Abusahmain an Islamist sympathizer.
The Tobruk has the loyalty of the Libyan National Army whom are also backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, they currently control much of the country with Tripoli under the control of the GNC. To date, many armed Islamist groups have committed barbaric acts of cruelty towards the Libyan civilians. Islamic State, Shura Council of Benghazi and many other smaller Salafi militant groups have even participated in open market slave trading. According to an NPR report dated March 21, 2018:
“Most of the men and women at the Red Crescent shelter come from African countries. Slim introduced NPR to migrants from Gambia, Nigeria and Senegal. They sleep on foam mattresses on a concrete floor, several to a room. Five young men want to discuss their experiences. They didn’t witness the secret slave auctions reported by CNN, although they say they have heard of those. Instead, they describe Libya’s detention centers — a network of prisons, some of them sanctioned by the state as part of an effort to combat illegal immigration — as being the very places where migrants are “bought” and “sold.”
U.S President Barack Obama had crowned the elimination of a Gaddafi led government as a success. Obama would declare “Without putting a single U.S. service member on the ground, we achieved our objectives.” Meanwhile armed Islamic rebels have continued to set upon those who will not succumb to their rule of sharia to either death or become a part of its organizational structure. European coalition forces led by France and Italy have continued to bomb the towns and small pockets which hide the Islamists in Tripoli, these bombings have also caused over 200 civilian deaths in 2017–18.
According to the Airwars/New America study, the US has conducted at least 524 strikes on militant targets in Libya since the NATO intervention. The Islamic State has used Libya as a springboard for attacks in the European nations, which include Germany, France and Spain. In an interview with FOX News in march 2016, U.S President Barack Obama would finally admit, that Libya was a foreign policy disaster. “Libya was my worst mistake” while also stating “probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya”.
But was the Libyan uprising a part of an internal covert operation which was influenced by the U.S State department as well as the central Intelligence Agency? According to a report from the Associated Press in 2011 the arming of rebel groups should be supported by the U.S, but not directly.
“Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that if the rebels are to get arms and training, countries other than the U.S. should provide that assistance.”
Comment about CIA involvement with rebel forces, there was no admittance nor denial of said involvement:
“The defense leaders also made it clear to Congress that there will be no U.S. military ground forces in Libya. They would not comment on reports that the CIA has small teams working with the Libyan rebels.”
Al Akhbar, a daily Arabic language newspaper, published a report in regards to Wikileak emails between Stratfor’s Vice President for counter-terrorism, Red Burton and James F. Smith, former director of Blackwater a private mercenary group based in the United States. Which in these emails, SCG International was contracted to protect Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) members and train Libyan rebel fighters after the implementation of the no-fly zone in March 2011. “We provide services for those same groups in the form of training, security and information collection,” Smith explained to Burton.
Smith also stated that his “background is CIA” and his company is comprised of “former DOD, CIA and former law enforcement.” This would lead to admissions from Blackwater on how they can help with Libya’s regime change. The email transactions would end on December 2011, Startfor email servers were reportedly “hacked”. However, the leaks would show that indeed, the Libyan uprising was supported by internal U.S geo-political think tanks and private security contractors who saw the Arab Spring as the “spring-board” for future contracts in the region at the behest of the Arab countries who were witnessing their implosion, manufactured from within.
