Repeating the Mistakes of the Past in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain & Saudi – Backing murdering dictatorships to the end will backfire on the US UK & France

The US government and it’s allies are about to end up on the wrong side of history by backing dictatorships to the last gasp as they kill their own people, as they did with the Shah of Iran in 1979;  and so ensuring, as in Iran, that the new governments will have every reason to be hostile to them for decades to come, as in Iran.

They’re also increasing support for the Islamic extremists they claim to be trying to weaken – nothing boosted Khomeini more than the US backing the Shah as he had his own people killed.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter, on a visit to Iran, made the following statement in a speech to the Shah – the western backed dictator of the country. “Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world”(1).

Two years later the Shah had been overthrown and replaced by a government hostile to the US, which gained much of it’s support from the US government backing the Shah to the last moment, even as he had his army shoot hundreds of unarmed protesters dead (2).

Carter, like Obama, was seen as a dove and a progressive, but backed a dictatorship carrying out massacres to the last, just as Obama and Clinton are doing in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen. (There’s even a widespread myth on the right in the US that Carter didn’t back the Shah to the end).

Earlier this year, just before Mubarak was overthrown by pro-democracy protesters in Egypt, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people” (3). Meanwhile Mubarak’s police were shooting protesters dead in the street, torturing others and Mubarak fell – and so did the US government’s favoured successor Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s Vice President and notorious torturer in chief.

Now the US government and it’s allies are backing General Tantawi (Mubarak’s Defence Minister for 20 years) and a military regime – and even as it’s on the point of falling, they’ve not ended military aid, political support or ‘crowd control’ arms supplies to it. There are similar situations in Bahrain and Yemen, where the US and it’s allies have only called for the dictator Saleh to stand down in favour of his Vice President – following their usual practice of dropping figureheads when they become a liability but continuing support for dictatorships under their deputies.

The US, British and French governments pose as defenders of freedom and democracy, but in fact only back the overthrow of dictatorships where those dictatorships are hostile to them (e.g Syria) or demanding an increased share of oil profits from NATO governments’ oil companies (Libya).

The focus on Libya and Syria is partly about distracting attention for backing for other NATO government backed dictatorships as they massacre pro-democracy protesters ; and partly about distracting from mass unemployment and inequality permitted by governments bought up by senior bankers, big companies and billionaires at home.

The contrast between US, British and French government statements and the tone of media coverage of the torture and killing of protesters in Syria and Libya could not be more different to their statements on exactly the same situations in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, where they support the dictatorships.

In the first case the calls for military action and the end of the dictatorships never end – in the latter the most that’s ever called for is a dictator to be replaced by their Vice President or one of their Generals – maintaining the dictatorship, the torture and the killings under a new figure-head. British arms sales and training of militaries in many of these dictatorships has never ended either (the only exceptions being a suspension of British arms sales to Bahrain, Libya and Syria). US military aid to Yemen and Egypt has never ended either, despite constant killings of unarmed protesters by those countries’ militaries.

British government claims that it is not arming dictatorships are shown to be lies by it’s granting of arms export licences to Egypt this year and it’s invitations to representatives of the Egyptian, Saudi and Yemeni dictatorships and their militaries in September this year.

Egypt

General Tantawi - Mubarak crony and his current replacement as dictator of Egypt

In Egypt , British Prime Minister David Cameron pretended that the Mubarak’s Generals taking over from Mubarak and Suleiman was democratisation and visited Egypt, Kuwait and other dictatorships to proudly promote British arms sales to the dictatorships of these countries while making the ridiculous claim that “small democracies like Kuwait” need help to arm themselves (4) – (6).

Kuwait has never, ever, been a democracy. Even the US State Department’s reports say it’s an absolute monarchy with a token parliament that has no power whatsoever – and Human Rights Watch reports show that it’s record on human rights and democracy has been getting worse, not better (7) – (12).

As the Egyptian military pile up the bodies of democracy protesters they’ve killed in Tahrir Square, Amnesty International reports that the Egyptian military government has used exactly the same methods as the Mubarak government used – torture, jail without fair trial, killings of opposition supporters by the military, the police and hired plain clothes thugs – but on a larger scale (13) – (14).

The army is trying to whip up violence against the Coptic Christian minority in order to be able to claim that it has had to step in to restore order and protect minorities from extremists – but Coptic Christian marchers in the last march supposedly attacked by Muslim extremists say it was hired government thugs and the army who were firing at them and killing them and running them over with armoured personnel carriers – claims confirmed by videos of those events (15).

Even after this the US government didn’t end military aid funding to the Egyptian military.

The face of General Tantawi, the head of the grandly named ‘High Military Council’, has already been put up on posters across Cairo calling on him to stand for President in the promised elections, supposedly due to popular acclamation. The posters are being promoted by a group calling itself ‘Egypt First’ which is an obvious front group for the military (16).

 This flies in the face of military promises that they would field no General as a candidate in elections. On the HMC’s record so far elections will involve arresting opposition candidates and using the police and hired thugs to attack opposition campaigners and voters to ensure a Tantawi win – just as under Mubarak, who held similar elections.

In Egypt as in Yemen they have never called for an end to the dictatorships – only for a change of figurehead at the top of them when it became clear that Mubarak and Saleh had become liabilities rather than assets (scroll down to sub-heading ‘Suleiman the torturer as Mubarak Mark II ?’).

The pretence is that getting rid of the dictator and replacing him with his vice President or his Generals is democratisation. Of course it’s not. General Tantawi is the new ruler of Egypt and plans to rig the next election with continuing jailing, torture and killing of pro-democracy protesters and opposition party supporters and candidates in exactly the same way Mubarak ran elections.

Yet government approved British arms sales to Egypt have never ended; and Egyptian officials were invited to an arms fair in London this September (17) – (19).

Tantawi was Mubarak’s Defence Minister for 20 years and his days are now as numbered as Mubarak’s. The Egyptian military will not survive this – and British and American backing for them will backfire badly if it continues as they will end up facing a government made up of the friends and colleagues of people the Egyptian military jailed, tortured or killed.

Yemen

Photo: Dead and wounded protesters killed in Yemen by US and British trained and funded military units

In Yemen, where the US and British trained and funded military killed dozens of unarmed civilian protesters in the last few weeks – as they have every week since the Arab Spring began – there is no end US and British support for the military units doing the killing. The BBC reported in March that ‘While some other military units have joined the opposition, the elite US- and British-trained troops, headed by Mr Saleh's son and nephew, remain loyal to the president.” (20)

In September Amnesty International reported that ‘security forces used snipers and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) against protesters marching to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.,,Around 26 people were killed on Sunday.’ (21)

AP reported 20 more killed on 20^th October (22).

On 25th October AFP reported ‘In Sanaa and in Yemen's second largest city Taez at least 15 people were killed, according to medical officials and tribal sources…..A seven-year-old child and a woman were among seven people killed in Taez, after what residents said was random shelling by government forces of neighbourhoods.’ (23).

The Arabic Al Arabiya newspaper reported that this was due to ‘mortars and artillery, hitting a hospital and a square where anti-government demonstrators were taking part in the Muslim Friday prayers’ (24)

On November 11^th the US government’s Voice of America news service reported that ‘Yemeni government forces have killed at least six civilians in Taiz, the country's second largest city….Medical officials and witnesses say the civilians were killed early Friday after forces renewed shelling in Taiz, where protesters have been calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's departure.’ (25)

Yet US military aid to Yemen has continued through almost a full year of this ; as have British arms sales which have also more than doubled in value from £300,000 worth in 2010 to £800,000 in 2011 ; and there’s not a word from the British or American or French governments on ending military aid to Yemen, never mind taking military action to stop the massacre of civilians there which has now been going on for 9 months; plus Yemen’s dictatorship was also invited to arms sales events in London in September this year (26) – (29).

(The £800,000 of arms or dual-use equipment sales to Yemen in 2011 were exported on a single licence, presumably so that British government spokesmen can say they reduced the number of export licences approved in 2011 to one, to sound as if less arms have been exported).

The most the US and it’s allies have come up with is a UN resolution based on a plan created by the Saudi dominated Gulf Co-Operation Council calling for Saleh to step down in favour of his Vice President and some waffle about the “need for dialogue” between the protesters and the government – in other words, as in Egypt, the US government and it’s allies have an aim of keeping the dictatorship but switching dictators to get rid of the one that’s become a liability (30) – (31).

While demanding Saif Al Gaddafi be handed over for trial for war crimes, the US government and it’s allies put forward a UN resolution that gives President Saleh and his allies total immunity from prosecution after months of having unarmed demonstrators killed every week (32).

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

In Bahrain – another absolute dictatorship that has been torturing, jailing and killing pro-democracy protesters, the US government and it’s allies have similarly never called for the dictatorship to go, never called for action to stop the killing, Instead, as in Yemen and Egypt they call for “restraint from both sides”, express “deep concern” – and keep on backing the dictatorship.

The Saudi military has played a big role in Bahrain – the Saudi monarchy sent them in to help crush the protesters out of fear of a) constitutional monarchy (apparently even this is too much like democracy for the Saudi monarchy) and b) a Shia uprising (much of Saudi Arabia’s oil is in parts of Saudi with a large Shia Muslim population, while the monarchy are radical Wahabbi Sunni Muslims.)

The British government and military have continued training and arming Saudi Arabia’s forces all through this, including in the use of sniper rifles, knowing Saudi troops may then use them in Bahrain, train the Bahraini military in turn, or use them on Saudi pro-democracy protesters if protests begin (33).

A British Parliamentary Select committee was reported as finding that ‘military trucks sent by the Saudis to help suppress demonstrations in Bahrain were British.’ (34).

Bahrain, Libya and Syria are the only countries in which arms sales from the UK seem to have been suspended.

Only look at what we’re doing in Libya and Syria

The war in Libya and the constant demands for action on the similar mass torture and killing of civilians in Syria have never been about protecting civilians or promoting democracy or human rights, but about overthrowing governments which were either not clients of the US and it’s allies (Syria) or which were demanding a higher share of profits from oil companies (Libya).

Gaddafi was a dictator who had civilians tortured and killed, so is Assad – but so are all the dictatorships the US and it’s allies back – in Saudi, Bahrain, Yemen and Egypt.

The war in Libya served a propaganda function for NATO governments in distracting their past (and present) support for murdering, torturing dictatorships – from their past support for (and involvement in) torture by Gaddafi’s torturers ; to the French government’s offer to send riot police to help the Ben Ali dictatorship crush the first Arab Spring protests in Tunisia ;  and continuing support for the dictatorships massacring people right now in Egypt and Yemen (35).

Standard power politics – attacking governments who don’t do what they’re told and backing ones that do no matter whether they’re torturing and murdering civilians or not – is presented as if it was high principle.

Because we can’t do everything are you saying we should do nothing where we can do something?

This is the standard propaganda line of NATO governments when asked why they are overthrowing some torturing dictatorships that are massacring their people while actively supporting and arming others. Of course they could do something easily in the cases of the dictatorships they continue to support – they could condemn them, demand they stop killing, torturing and jailing their people, end all military aid and arms sales to them and demand free and fair elections. They don’t. They’ve temporarily halted arms exports to Bahrain and reduced the number approved to Egypt, which is welcome, but their only calls for change are for one dictator to step down in favour of another.

So, no, we’re not saying you should do nothing – we’re saying you should stop supporting dictatorships, torture and massacre in some countries while only selectively opposing them in a handful of others who aren’t your client regimes – and you should stop trying to dress up cold-blooded power politics that has no concern for human suffering or human life, never mind democracy or human rights, as if it was high principle.

Given the hugely different treatment of people and governments guilty of exactly the same crimes, can anyone really believe the NATO governments’ motivations really have anything to do with human rights, freedom or democracy?

Arms Fair events in London, September 2011, 9 months into dictatorships massacring protesters, most murdering dictatorships welcome

The Economist, Channel 4 News and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade all reported on that various arms fairs and arms sale events held by the British government and British arms companies in September this year. The governments invited included ‘Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Vietnam’ as well as Yemen (36) – (37).

Every single one is either a dictatorship or a one party state (Vietnam) with the exception of Nigeria, which is technically a democracy, but in practice a plutocracy where foreign firms can effectively hire government troops and private security forces to attack anyone who opposes them – and massacres of unarmed civilians by government forces are regular occurrences.

Are the profits for a few arms companies worth the torture and deaths of so many people? Will they be worth it if they alienate people from the majority in these countries who will form the new governments in these countries and so harm our foreign and trade relations with them for decades to come, as happened in Iran? Is it worth it if by backing dictatorships that murder their own people we boost support for radical Islamists at the expense of more moderate democrats?

Sources

Repeating the Mistakes of the Past

(1) = Freedman, Lawrence (2008) 'A Choice of Enemies', Weidenfield & Nicolson, London, 2008, Ch 4, page 66

(2) = Pollack, Kenneth M.(2004), ‘The Persian Puzzle', Random House, NY, 2005 paperback, Ch5, p127-140

(3) = Reuters 25 Jan 2011 ‘US urges restraint in Egypt, says government stable’, http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE70O0KF20110125

Egypt

 (4) = Independent 22 Feb 2011 ‘Cameron attacked for Egypt visit with defence sales team in tow’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-attacked-for-egypt-visit-with-defence-sales-team-in-tow-2221695.html , ‘David Cameron faced charges of hypocrisy last night after he arrived for a tour of the Gulf with some senior figures from the defence industry…. After leaving Britain early, Mr Cameron became the first world leader to visit Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled…. Mr Cameron is still taking a large delegation from business and industry, including eight representatives of defence firms attempting to secure contracts in the Gulf states. Among them are: Ian King, chief executive of BAE Systems; Alastair Bisset, group international director at QinetiQ; and Rob Watson, regional director of Rolls-Royce.

(5) = guardian.co.uk 21 Feb 2011 ‘David Cameron arrives in Egypt to meet military rulers’,http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/21/david-cameron-visits-egypt , ‘David Cameron has flown into Cairo amid tight security, becoming the first world leader to visit Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president in the revolution 10 days ago….Cameron is due to meet Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's minister of defence, who is the head of the supreme council of the armed forces….Arms sales are expected to be on the agenda throughout the week, and Cameron insisted there was no contradiction in promoting trade and pushing for political reform, the two themes of the rest of his Middle East trip.’

(6) = guardian.co.uk 22 Feb 2011 ‘David Cameron hits out at critics of Britain's arms trade’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/22/david-cameron-britain-arms-trade

(7) = US Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs  ‘Background Note : Kuwait’, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35876.htm

(8) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Kuwait

(9) = Human Rights Watch 21 Jul 2010 ‘Operation Roll Back Kuwaiti Freedom’, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/23/operation-roll-back-kuwaiti-freedom

(10) = Human Rights Watch 11 Dec 2010 ‘Kuwait: Permit Peaceful Political Gatherings  - Security Forces Violently Disperse Parliamentarians and Professors’,  http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/10/kuwait-permit-peaceful-political-gatherings

(11) = Human Rights watch 31 Jan 2011 ‘Kuwait: Free Speech and Assembly Under Attack’,http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/31/kuwait-free-speech-and-assembly-under-attack

(12) = Human Rights Watch World Report 2011: Kuwait , http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/kuwait ; ‘Freedom of expression markedly deteriorated in 2010. The government continued criminally prosecuting individuals based on nonviolent political speech, denied academics permission to enter the country for conferences and speeches, and cracked down on public gatherings. In April state security forces summarily deported over 30 Egyptian legal residents of Kuwait after some of them gathered to support Egyptian reform advocate Mohammed El Baradei.

In May prominent writer and lawyer Mohammad al-Jassim was detained for over 40 days and charged with "instigating to overthrow the regime, ...slight to the personage of the emir [the ruler of Kuwait],... [and] instigating to dismantle the foundations of Kuwaiti society" over his blog posts criticizing the prime minister. A judge released al-Jassim in June and adjourned the case until October.’

(13) = Independent 22 Nov 2011 ‘Dozens die, the cabinet teeters – and chaos rules’,http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/dozens-die-the-cabinet-teeters--and-chaos-rules-6265837.html , ‘At one point, the police appeared to fire live rounds in the direction of protesters…. five activists could then be seen…carrying a limp middle-aged man…Dr Magdy also said he had seen one dead body, of a person who appeared to have been hit by a live bullet directly through the spleen. "All we're asking for is our freedom," said Hassan Hani… Disturbing footage has since been uploaded on to the internet showing troops and police violently beating a man who appeared to have already been unconscious. Another showed an apparently lifeless protester being dragged across the square and dumped next to a pile of other bodies.’

(14) = Amnesty International Nov 201 ‘Egypt: Military rulers have 'crushed' hopes of 25 January protesters’, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/egypt-military-rulers-have-crushed-hopes-25-january-protesters-2011-11-22,‘Egypt's military rulers have completely failed to live up to their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights and have instead been responsible for a catalogue of abuses which in some cases exceeds the record of Hosni Mubarak, Amnesty International said today in a new report…. The report's release follows a bloody few days in Egypt that has left many dead and hundreds injured after army and security forces violently attempted to disperse anti-SCAF protesters from Cairo’s Tahrir square………. “By using military courts to try thousands of civilians, cracking down on peaceful protest and expanding the remit of Mubarak's Emergency Law, the SCAF has continued the tradition of repressive rule which the January 25 demonstrators fought so hard to get rid of," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Acting Director.’

(15) = BBC News 10 Oct 2011 ‘Egypt clashes: Copts mourn victims of Cairo unrest’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15242413 , ‘Thousands of Egyptian Coptic Christians have gathered for the funerals of protesters killed during clashes with security forces in Cairo on Sunday. Many mourners expressed anger at the army, which they blame for the deaths.The protesters say they were attacked by thugs before the security forces fired on them and drove military vehicles into the crowds.’

(16) = Reuters 26 Oct 2011 ‘Posters back Egyptian army chief for president’, http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E7LQ3G720111026

(17) = CAAT Country Data Egypt - Approved UK export licences’, http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/countrydata/?country_selected=Egypt, shows 6 approved arms export licences to Egypt in first quarter of 2011

(18) = guardian.co.uk 21 Jul 2011 ‘MP attacks Hague over review of arms sales to Arab regimes’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/21/uk-arms-sales-middle-east , ‘Senior MPs have delivered a severe rebuke to the government over its approval of the sale of a wide range of arms, including sniper rifles, machine guns and "crowd control goods" to countries in the Middle East and north Africa……….Britain supplied the weapons despite official guidelines stating that exports of equipment that could be used for internal repression must be blocked. In a damning report earlier this year, the Commons arms export controls committees demanded an urgent review of exports to "authoritarian regimes worldwide"………..They referred specifically to the Mubarak and Gaddafi regimes in Egypt and Libya, to Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Observers said military trucks sent by the Saudis to help suppress demonstrations in Bahrain were British.’

(19) = Channel 4 News 13 Sep 2011 ‘Arms fair opens in London amid protests’ , http://www.channel4.com/news/arms-fair-opens-in-london-amid-protests ,‘The countries invited from "authoritarian" regimes, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit are: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Vietnam.’

Yemen

(20) = BBC 26 Mar 2011 ‘Saleh departure in Yemen: A matter of 'when', not 'if'’,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12868544 , ‘second last sentence reads ‘While some other military units have joined the opposition, the elite US- and British-trained troops, headed by Mr Saleh's son and nephew, remain loyal to the president.’

(21) = Amnesty International 19 Sep 2011 ‘Yemen violence surges as protesters are killed’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/yemen-violence-surges-protesters-are-killed-2011-09-19 , ‘The Yemeni authorities must immediately stop the killing of peaceful protesters by security forces, Amnesty International said today following reports that dozens of people have been shot dead in the capital Sana'a since Sunday….Hundreds more are said to have been injured after security forces used snipers and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) against protesters marching to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.,,Around 26 people were killed on Sunday. The continuing violence has seen more killed in Sana'a today.

(22) = AP 22 Oct 2011 ‘Clashes in Yemeni capital kill 20’, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45000453/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/clashes-yemeni-capital-kill/#.TsvornKKyuI , ‘Clashes between Yemeni government troops and a renegade army unit killed at least 20 people, including three civilians, in the capital Sanaa on Saturday, officials said.’

(23) = Al Arabiya 11 Nov 2011 ‘At least 15 Yemenis killed as Saleh’s loyalist forces shell southern city of Taez’, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/11/176529.html

(24) = AFP 25 Oct 2011 ‘15 dead as Yemen truce fails, Saleh says ready to go’, http://news.yahoo.com/five-civilians-killed-yemen-protests-110515565.html , ‘In Sanaa and in Yemen's second largest city Taez at least 15 people were killed, according to medical officials and tribal sources…..A seven-year-old child and a woman were among seven people killed in Taez, after what residents said was random shelling by government forces of neighbourhoods. The interior ministry said four policemen also died.’

(25) = Voice of America news 11 Nov 2011 ‘Yemeni Government Forces Kill 6 Civilians’, http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/11/11/yemeni-government-forces-kill-6-civilians/

(26) = AFP 05 Apr 2011 ‘No plans to suspend military aid to Yemen: US’, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/05/no-plans-to-suspend-military-aid-to-yemen-us/

(27) = Reuters 05 Apr 2011 ‘U.S. urges Yemen transition, no aid cut-off-Pentagon’,http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/us-yemen-usa-pentagon-idUSTRE7346V720110405

(28) = CAAT Country Data Yemen, http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/countrydata/?country_selected=Yemen ,(shows £800,000 worth of arms export licences approved in 2011 – more than twice the value of approved arms exports in 2010)

(29) = Campaign Against the Arms Trade  (CAAT) 09 Sep 2011 ‘Government tries to hide embarrassing truth about arms fair invitees’, http://www.caat.org.uk/press/archive.php?url=20110909prs ‘On Thursday, 8 September, the government supported events promoting arms sales to countries including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.’

(30) = AP 15 Nov 2011 ‘UN envoy: Yemen president should transfer power’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9947242 , ‘Yemen's embattled president must speed up reforms and begin a transfer of power according to a plan backed by the international community, said a U.N. envoy on Monday. …..Jamal Benomar visited Yemen for a week to promote a Gulf-backed proposal that calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution.’

(31) = guardian.co.uk 23 Nov 2011 ‘Yemen president arrives in Saudi Arabia to sign power transfer deal’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/23/yemen-president-power-transfer-deal

(32) = Amnesty International 22 Oct 2011 ‘UN Security Council resolution on Yemen falls short ’, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/un-security-council-resolution-yemen-falls-short-2011-10-22

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

(33) = Observer 29 May 2011 ‘UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab spring’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/28/uk-training-saudi-troops , ‘Britain is training Saudi Arabia's national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles… In response to questions made under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the national guard in "weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training". The courses are organised through the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, an obscure unit that consists of 11 British army personnel under the command of a brigadier…. Bahrain's royal family used 1,200 Saudi troops to help put down demonstrations in March.’

(34) = guardian.co.uk 21 Oct 2011 ‘MP attacks Hague over review of arms sales to Arab regimes’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/21/uk-arms-sales-middle-east

Only look at what we’re doing in Libya and Syria

(35) = Independent 27 Jan 2011 ‘World Focus: France favoured autocracy as a bulwark against radical Islam ’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/world-focus-france-favoured-autocracy-as-a-bulwark-against-radical-islam-2189240.html

Arms Fair in London, September 2011, all murdering dictatorships welcome

(36) = Channel 4 News 13 Sep 2011 ‘Arms fair opens in London amid protests’ , http://www.channel4.com/news/arms-fair-opens-in-london-amid-protests ,‘The countries invited from "authoritarian" regimes, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit are: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Vietnam.’

(37) = Campaign Against the Arms Trade  (CAAT) 09 Sep 2011 ‘Government tries to hide embarrassing truth about arms fair invitees’, http://www.caat.org.uk/press/archive.php?url=20110909prs ‘On Thursday, 8 September, the government supported events promoting arms sales to countries including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.’

Amnesty finds Libyan rebels lied about Gaddafi rape orders, mercenaries and anti-aircraft guns - and says some protesters might have been armed

In case anyone else hasn’t seen it yet there’s an article in the Independent newspaper quoting Amnesty International investigators saying they’ve found no evidence to support the Libyan rebels’ claims that Gaddafi ordered his troops to rape women and that much of the rebels’ supposed evidence for it was manufactured, along with some of their other claims.

Rebel claims that Gaddafi was using black African mercenaries have also been found false by Amnesty, with those ‘mercenaries’ shown to journalists by the rebels being migrant workers. Some black migrant workers in Benghazi were murdered as a result of the rumours.

Amnesty’s investigation also found it’s possible some of the protesters killed by Gaddafi’s forces in Benghazi and Baidi at the start of the uprising may have been armed (though they’re not certain of this) and that there was no evidence of anti-aircraft weapons being used against the protesters, only kalashnikovs (that last one isn’t a big difference but is more evidence that the rebels’ claims include at least as much propaganda as Gaddafi’s claims do)

This confirms my earlier suspicions that both sides were putting out a lot of false propaganda and that we should take claims about what was going on in Libya with a pinch of salt.

It also makes me even more certain that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates’ claim that Gaddafi’s people are killing people and then moving the bodies about from one place to another to pretend they were all killed in NATO air strikes is recycled propaganda similar to that he used (and later admitted was false) in relation to the Taliban and US air strikes in Afghanistan.

I don’t doubt Gaddafi is involved in some propaganda too. It seems highly unlikely that all the rebels are Al Qa’ida, as he claims they are ; and one member of a hospital’s staff gave journalists a note saying that a baby who Gaddafi’s spokesmen said had been injured by a NATO air strike was actually hurt in a car crash.

NATO has admitted it was responsible for other air strikes attempting to assassinate Gaddafi and members of his government and military by airstrike – and in those cases children were, very predictably, killed.

We should beware of claims about the war in Libya made by Gaddafi’s people, the rebels and NATO government and military spokespeople unless corroborated by journalists (doing more than just repeating them) or human rights groups. None of them are all that reliable – and even Amnesty has sometimes been fooled for a few months till it got to investigate further on the ground, though not often.

Of course this doesn't mean Gaddafi and his forces haven't committed any war crimes against civilians. For instance Amnesty has reported Grad rocket attacks by his forces on Misratah from April through to this month by his forces, which is indiscriminate fire which they know will kill civilians whether they're aiming to hit rebels or not - and Amnesty also reported evidence of sniper fire on civilians in Misrata in April (3) – (4).

(1) = Independent 24 Jun 2011 ‘Amnesty questions claim that Gaddafi ordered rape as weapon of war’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/amnesty-questions-claim-that-gaddafi-ordered-rape-as-weapon-of-war-2302037.html

(2) = Channel 4 News (UK) 09 Jun 2011 ‘Gaddafi ordered rape attacks as weapon of war- ICC’, http://www.channel4.com/news/gaddafi-ordered-rape-attacks-as-tactic-of-war-icc

(3) Amnesty International 05 May 2011 ‘Libya: Attacks against Misratah residents point to war crimes’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/libya-attacks-against-misratah-residents-point-war-crimes-2011-05-05

(4) = Amnesty International 23 Jun 2011 ‘Libya: Renewed rocket attacks target civilians in Misratah’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/libya-renewed-rocket-attacks-target-civilians-misratah-2011-06-23

The hypocrisy of governments that let protesters be murdered in Bahrain while talking of the responsibility to protect and freedom to protest in Libya

There is a stench of utter hypocrisy and double standards emanating from the British, French, Canadian and US governments on the murder of unarmed protesters by dictatorships in the Arab revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa. We know that in Bahrain the dictatorship’s forces have been murdering unarmed protesters and medical staff trying to treat them, just as Gaddafi’s forces have in Libya. Yet British Foreign Minister William Hague claims that Libya and Bahrain are “qualitatively different” because the King of Bahrain has offered dialogue with the protesters. Hague said that ““Yes Bahrain is a different case from Libya, it’s clearly a different case…In Bahrain the Government has offered a national dialogue to the opposition forces, they have offered a referendum on a constitution, you don’t see Colonel Gaddafi offering a referendum on a future constitution.” (1)

You miss out, William, that, as with Gaddafi’s government (which has also repeatedly offered “dialogue” or negotiations with the rebels) this was while the King of Bahrain was (and is) still having unarmed protesters and medical staff killed and using riot police to beat up hospital staff and to prevent wounded protesters getting treated (2) – (3). So Bahrain is not one tiny bit different from Libya, other than the failure of hypocrites like you, Clinton and Obama to do anything to stop murder by a dictatorship there or in Yemen or Oman or Egypt (and soon likely in Saudi).

The US Fifth Fleet is stationed in Bahrain within sight of the Pearl Roundabout where most of the killings have taken place. Obama or Clinton could easily have asked UN Security Council authorisation to put some marines in to protect the protesters from the police and military (4). Have they? Have they fuck. That and similar mass murder by government forces in Yemen and Oman has gone without anything but empty words from Clinton and Hague about “deep concern” and how “both sides should show restraint” (as if unarmed protesters and the armed people murdering them are equally responsible for their deaths) (5) – (6).

Clinton claimed that “We’re particularly concerned about increasing reports of provocative acts and sectarian violence by all groups.”  (7). What “sectarian violence by all groups”? Sunni and Shia protesters demonstrated against a dictatorship together – and Bahraini police and soldiers killed them. That simple. So could you and William see your ways to please stop lying through your teeth please Hillary? Or have you become two more conscience-less robots, for whom truth is whatever suits the most powerful at the time?

So all the talk about the Libyan intervention showing that the “responsibility to protect” principles (developed by an expert panel for the UN in 2001) have finally been taken seriously and enforced is bollocks (8). The US and it’s allies are intervening where regime change would suit them (Libya, with the world’s tenth largest oil reserves and a government that haggles too much on it’s share of oil profits) while not even threatening to intervene where it’s allies are murdering protesters and medical staff. It’s business as usual.

I completely support the ‘responsibility to protect’ principles under which a government’s sovereignty is not absolute but depends on it protecting the lives and welfare of it’s people by providing basic services, disaster relief and not massacring them (9). If it fails in any of these ways or does target it’s own people, other governments are justified in intervening to help them. What we have so far is just the usual opportunism though – applying the principle where it suits big business and governments’ interests and not bothering where it doesn’t.

When an actual Rwanda or Bosnia takes place - or the slow motion ethnic cleansing by air and artillery strike in Gaza and the West Bank, there is no interest in intervention from the “international community” states led by the US. There’s no interest from them in humanitarian intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo either as long as the massacres, torture and gang rape of civilians, as well as their use as slave labour for mining by militias trading with multinational firms in the Democratic Republic of continue to make big profits for US and European based multinational companies doing deals with those militias – as they have for decades now (10) – (11).

 (To be fair in Bosnia the US did eventually intervene from the air, after spending several years blocking UN action to ensure the UN looked useless and the US-led NATO had a role. Their Croat allies ethnically cleansed thousands of Serbs from the Krajiina region in the final offensive that ended the war, backed by NATO air forces. The US ambassador to Croatia at least came out of it with some credit – he drove with a convoy of Serb civilians to try to stop Croat attacks on them (12) – (13)).

When the Israelis killed a thousand Palestinians – over 700 of them civilians often in deliberate targeting of civilians and ambulances – in a few weeks in December 2008 to January 2009, as revenge for the death of one Israeli civilian killed in rocket attacks before the offensive, by a Palestinian terrorist group, the US and British governments responded, as they had during Israeli bombing of the whole of Lebanon in 2006, in which ambulances and civilians were again targeted, by refusing to back a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to the assaults. In the Lebanon war they were even sending the Israeli military plane loads of extra bombs to drop on those ambulances and civilians, in case they ran out (14) – (17).

Craig Murray and Democracy Now report Clinton also showed her hypocrisy by smirking as her security detail dragged ‘Veterans for Peace’ member McGovern out of a press conference for making a silent protest by standing up with his back to her while wearing a ‘Veterans for Peace’ t-shirt (you can see this part on CNN) (18). Clinton’s heavies then beat McGovern up. Clinton was making a speech railing against Gaddafi’s oppression of the Libyan people – including his refusal to give them the right to free speech and the right to protest peacefully. She may not have had McGovern shot by snipers, but her actions don’t exactly show her as a great defender of free speech either.

 (1) = Foreign and Commonwealth Office 20 Mar 2011 ‘UN intervention in Libya: Foreign Secretary on BBC Radio 5’, http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?id=569183782&view=News

(2) = Bloomberg 21 Feb 2011 ‘Libya Violence Deepens as Protestors Claim Control of Second-Largest City’,http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-20/libyan-revolt-widens-as-attacks-on-protesters-draw-condemnation.html

(3) Haaretz (Israel) 07 Mar 2011 ‘Gadhafi regime offers olive branch to rebels while fighting to regain control over east Libya’, http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/gadhafi-regime-offers-olive-branch-to-rebels-while-fighting-to-regain-control-over-east-libya-1.347653?localLinksEnabled=false

(4) = Al Jazeera 20 Feb 2011 ‘Bahrain protesters remain in square’, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/20112206279487320.html

(5) = Amnesty International 18 Mar 2011 ‘Yemeni authorities must act over sniper killings of protesters’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/yemeni-authorities-must-act-over-sniper-killings-protesters-2011-03-18

(6) = William Hague MP, Hansard 17^th Feb 2011http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110217/debtext/110217-0001.htm#11021765001329 , ‘We urge all sides to avoid violence and for the police to exercise restraint. The Bahraini Government should move quickly to carry out their commitment to a transparent investigation into earlier deaths, and extend that to include today's events and any alleged human rights abuses.

I also said to the Foreign Minister that this is a time to build bridges between the different religious communities in Bahrain. I said that we would strongly oppose any interference in the affairs of Bahrain by other nations or any action to inflame sectarian tensions between Bahrain's Sunni and Shi'a communities. We recognise that Bahrain has made important political reforms alongside its growing economic success. We strongly welcome such steps within the context of the long friendship between Bahrain and the UK under successive Governments. I was assured in Bahrain last week and again this morning that the Bahraini Government intend to build on these reforms’

(7) = US Department of State – Remarks by Sec. of State Clinton – Remarks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Al-Araby 15 March 2011 ‘Remarks With Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Al-Araby’, http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/03/158404.htm

(8) = LA Times 28 Feb 2011 ‘Clinton denounces Kadafi, calls on leader of Libya to step down’,http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/28/news/la-pn-clinton-un-20110301

(9) = International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty Dec 2001 ‘The Responsibility to Protect’,http://www.iciss.ca/pdf/Commission-Report.pdf

(10) = Human Rights Watch 01 Jun 2005 ‘D.R. Congo: Gold Fuels Massive Human Rights Atrocities’, http://www.hrw.org/node/70588

(11) = Guardian 22 Oct 2002 ‘Multinationals in scramble for Congo's wealth’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/oct/22/congo.rorycarroll

(12) = NYT 13 Oct 2002 ‘America's For-Profit Secret Army’,http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E7DF123AF930A25753C1A9649C8B63&pagewanted=3

(13) Human Rights Watch 1996 Annual Report – Croatia,http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1996/WR96/Helsinki-06.htm#P373_82578

(14) = See sources numbered (21) to (45) on the link below on Israeli forces targeting civilians in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank,  http://www.duncanmcfarlane.org/sevenliesthatkill/index.html#4

(15) = Human Rights Watch 13 Aug 2009 ‘White Flag Deaths  - Killings of Palestinian Civilians during Operation Cast Lead’, http://www.hrw.org/node/85014

(16) = Amnesty International 02 Jul 2009 ‘Israel/Gaza: Operation "Cast Lead": 22 days of death and destruction’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/015/2009/en

(17) = BBC News 27 Jul 2006 ‘Beckett protest at weapons flight’,http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5218036.stm

(18) = CNN 15 Feb 2011 ‘During a speech about internet freedom, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is interrupted by a heckler’,http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2011/02/15/clinton.freedom.protester.cnn.html

In Bahrain as in Libya unarmed protesters and medical staff are being killed with helicopters, live fire and snipers

Bahrain’s military and police, along with Saudi and UAE troops are now doing everything Gaddafi’s forces have been condemned for. They are killing unarmed protesters using ground forces and helicopters, as well as firing at medics, seizing ambulances and using them to attack protesters ; and preventing doctors treating the wounded and using snipers to stop the wounded or doctors getting into hospitals. They are also occupying hospitals and beating doctors and nurses there, resulting in the deaths of wounded patients who haven’t been treated as a result. Snipers have been killing protesters in Bahrain for weeks now. The only reaction from the Obama administration is to tell the King of Bahrain that he should show more “restraint” and claims that the US government is “deeply concerned”. Similar actions by Gaddafis forces in Libya warranted reference to the International Criminal Court and talk of military intervention from the air (1) – (6). Hilary Clinton has even ludicrously suggested that Saudi forces sent into Bahrain to help crush the protests “should be used to promote dialogue” (7).

Amnesty International reports that even in earlier incidents “Dr Hani Mowafi, a US medical doctor who was part of the Amnesty International team, found a pattern of fatal and serious injuries during February’s violence showing that the security forces used live ammunition at close range, and apparently targeted protesters’ heads, chests and abdomens. They also fired medium-to-large calibre bullets from high-powered rifles on 18 February. The worst violence before today took place early on the morning of 17 February, when five people were killed. Witnesses told Amnesty International that, in scenes that would be repeated on 16 March, tanks blocked access to the Pearl Roundabout as police used shotguns as well as tear gas, batons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters, many of whom were camping there. Among the injured were people clearly identifiable as medical workers, who were targeted by police while trying to help wounded protesters at or near the roundabout.” (8)

If western governments are to have any credibility they must condemn these attacks on civilians and medical staff as much as they have those by Gaddafi’s forces in Libya, end all provision of arms and ‘crowd control’ devices to these governments and consider military intervention in Bahrain too if necessary.

Clinton has also described the attacks on the protesters as “sectarian violence” as if this was a matter of equally armed Sunnis and Shia fighting one another (9). This is nonsense, just as it was in Iraq. This is democracy protesters (Sunni and Shia) against a dictatorship. While some of the wealthier Sunnis back the dictatorship this is merely to preserve their own jobs from competition with the majority. In Iraq similarly some Shias were loosely allied to the US and Iranian governments (the SCIRI faction of mostly wealthier shia) while others – the Sadrists who represented most of the poorer Shia – demanded an immediate end to the occupation. When Sadr was targeted by US forces during what were meant to be peace negotiations he fled to Iran and accepted Iranian support. In Iraq too US forces promoted divisions between Sunnis and Shia in order to try to focus them on fighting one another rather than Coalition forces.

(1) = guardian.co.uk 16 Mar 2011 ‘Bahrain unleashes forces on protesters' camp’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/16/bahrain-protesters-military-operation-manama ; Military troops have opened a large-scale assault against hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying a landmark square in Bahrain's capital. At least two protesters and three policemen were reported to have been killed, and hundreds injured when riot police overran Pearl roundabout, the focal point for a two-month anti-government uprising.

Gunfire was heard throughout the capital and at least five helicopters were circling scenes of clashes, amid widespread panic on the streets below.

Riot police also entered Manama's Salmaniya medical centre for the first time since the demonstrations began and doctors reported they were being prevented from reaching the hospital and treating patients inside.

(2) = BBC 15 Mar 2011 ‘Bahrain king declares state of emergency after protests’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12745608

(3) CNN 16 Mar 2011 ‘Witnesses: Security forces attack protesters and doctors in Bahrain’,http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/03/16/bahrain.protests/index.html Security forces blocked highways leading to the capital and formed a ring around the country's main hospital, Salmaniya Medical Complex, not letting people enter or leave, witnesses said. Security forces then stormed the hospital and beat staffers, several doctors there said.  Doctors have been hiding in rooms, said Yousif Sharaf, a doctor at the hospital. "We are trapped," Sharaf said. "We are asking for the security forces to please stay outside the hospital. They are beating the staff." Fatima Haji, another doctor, also said she was trapped in the hospital."We are in a small group hiding," Haji said, her voice rising with emotion. "This is a government hospital. How can this happen in a government hospital?"Haji said two people had died in the hospital Wednesday morning, and she feared for the other patients there because the doctors were not able to work.

(4) = BBC News 20 Feb 2011 ‘Bahrain protests: Your stories’,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-middle-east-12504658

(5) = BBC World Service 16 Mar 2011 ‘Bahrain security forces in crackdown on Pearl Square’,http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2011/03/110316_bahrain_sl.shtml

(6) = BBC News 16 Mar 2011 ‘Bahrain crackdown on protests in Manama's Pearl Square’,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12755852

(7) = Independent 17 Mar 2011 ‘Bahrain protesters driven out of Pearl Square by tanks and tear gas’,http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/bahrain-protesters-driven-out-of-pearl-square-by-tanks-and-tear-gas-2244165.html

(8) = Amnesty International 17 Mar 2011 ‘Evidence of Bahraini security forces’ brutality revealed’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/evidence-bahraini-security-forces%E2%80%99-brutality-revealed-2011-03-16

(9) = See (7) above

Libya is not like Iraq in 2003, but Iraq at the end of the 1991 war - no intervention will mean massacres

Too many people, including me, have been looking at what's happening in Libya through wariness of the war propaganda on Kosovo in 1999 or Iraq from 2002 on. There is some definite propaganda today. Megrahi’s trial was a sham and no-one actually knows who carried out he Lockerbie bombing ; and Gaddafi has never used chemical weapons against Libyan rebels. Some of what we are hearing from all sides is probably propaganda based on past wars (e.g the 1991 Iraqis throw Kuwaiti babies from incubators lie and the equally false story about the 20 Albanian school-teachers beheaded by Serbs during the Kosovo war (1)).

What's happening in Libya is far more like Iraq at the end of the 1991 war, than Kosovo in 1999 or Iraq in 2003. At the end of the 1991 in Iraq there were rebellions with majority support against the dictatorship, but the dictatorship’s stronger military crushed them because the US and it's allies allowed them to, on the calculation that a successful Shia rebellion would increase Iranian influence in Iraq (2) – (3). Similarly the Obama administration is wary of supporting rebels some of whom, like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), have been allies of Al Qa’ida in the past (4) – (5).

However the rebels are mostly not LIFG. If we don't back them now with arms supplies and air support the likelihood is they will be massacred just like Shia rebels and civilians in the South of Iraq were in 1991. It’s right to be uncertain of recent reports based on past propaganda like the 1991 ‘babies thrown from incubators’story and the 2002-2003 Iraqi WMDs-Al Qa’ida lies; and right to remember the ulterior motives of most governments, but we know from Gaddafi’s past practice that many of those who criticised him, never mind fought against him, will be killed in public hangings or private disappearances if his forces win (6) – (9).

That doesn't mean sending in ground troops - and in fact the rebels say they'd fight them if any were sent, to prevent another Iraq or Afghanistan style occupation. It does mean arming the rebels, providing humanitarian aid to cities and migrant workers and providing air cover.

CORRECTIONS AND UPDATES 14^th March :

I've not found any report saying the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group are involved in the current fighting. There are claims from Gaddafi's government that various "Islamic Emirates" groups are involved like the Islamic Emirate of Barqa  (10)

Al Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghrib has said it supports the rebels (though whether it's provided any support beyond words is not known) (11)

There are also some reports that Gaddafi has offered rebel fighters who surrender and hand over their weapons an amnesty (12)

(1) = Phillip Knightley (2000) ‘The First Casualty’ (revised edition), Prion, London, 2000, page 508 of paperback edition

(2) = Galbraith, Peter W. (2006) ‘The End of Iraq’, Pocket Books paperback, 2007, Ch4, especially page 46

(3) = Aburish , Said K (2000) ‘Saddam Hussein - The Politics of Revenge’ Bloomsbury , London , 2000  - 2001 paperback edition, Ch11, especially p308 and footnote 60 p379

(4) = Mark Curtis (2010) ‘Secret Affairs – Britain’s collusion with Radical Islam’, Serpent’s tail books, London, 2010, chapter 13, pages 225-231 of paperback edition

(5) = Al Jazeera 16 Feb 2011 ‘Libyan police stations torched’, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/20112167051422444.html ; ‘Meanwhile, a local human rights activist told Reuters news agency that the authorities have decided to release 110 prisoners jailed for membership of banned organisation, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.The prisoners to be freed on Wednesday, are the last members of the group still being held and will be set free from Tripoli's Abu Salim jail, Mohamed Ternish, chairman of the Libya Human Rights Association said.Hundreds of alleged members of the group have been freed from jail after it renounced violence last year.’

(6) = Geoff Simons (2003) ‘Libya and the West’ Center for Libyan Studies, Oxford, UK, 2003, Chapter 6 , especially pages 103 -115 (also cites summary executions of Libyans stopped at road blocks etc)

(7) = Ronald Bruce St. John (2008 ) ‘Libya – From Colony to Independence’ , Oneworld books, Oxford, UK, 2008, pages 165-171, 256-257 of paperback edition

(8) = Human Rights Watch World Report 2011 – Libya,http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/libya ; There are still dozens of unresolved disappearance cases in Libya, including those of Libyan opposition members Jaballa Hamed Matar and Izzat al-Megaryef, whom Egyptian security arrested in 1990 in Cairo. Their families later learned that Egypt had handed them over to Libyan security officials, who detained them in Abu Salim prison. Prominent Lebanese Shia cleric Imam Musa al-Sadr disappeared in Libya 32 years ago; his fate remains unknown.

(9) = Amnesty International 2010 World Report – Libya,http://report2010.amnesty.org/sites/default/files/AIR2010_AZ_EN.pdf#page=156; Hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances and other human rights violations committed in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s remain unresolved, and the Internal Security Agency, implicated in those violations, continued to operate with impunity.

(10) = AFP/ Sydney Morning Herald 21 Feb 2011 ‘Libyan Islamists seize arms, take hostages’,http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/libyan-islamists-seize-arms-take-hostages-20110221-1b19c.html

(11) = CNN 24 Feb 2011 ‘Al Qaeda's North African wing says it backs Libya uprising’,http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-24/world/libya.qaeda.statement_1_libyan-islamic-fighting-group-islamic-maghreb-al-qaeda?_s=PM:WORLD

(12) = guardian.co.uk 02 Mar 2011 ‘Muammar Gaddafi offers rebels an amnesty’,http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/02/muammar-gaddafi-offers-rebels-amnesty

Libya : Most Libyans don't want any foreign military intervention - and that includes the vast majority of Gaddafi's opponents

Something those people calling for military intervention in Libya (and condemning the UN and Obama for not ordering it) should hear, is that even most of Gaddafi's opponents in Libya don't want any foreign military intervention in their country - and even many exiles are against it

For instance an NPR reporter in Bengazhi found

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro said …Protesters also made clear that they do not welcome foreign intervention in Libya…….“They don't want to be rescued, they don't want any military intervention,” Garcia-Navarro reported from Benghazi. “They have done this themselves, they say, and they will get rid of Moammar Gadhafi finally themselves, as well.” (1)

Mahmoud Al Nakou, a Libyan exile in London, wrote

Despite the heavy sacrifice they are offering every day, Libyans utterly reject any foreign intervention, even for their defence and protection. From the outset, Gaddafi warned his overthrow would make Libya the same horrific, chaotic arena that Iraq and Afghanistan are today. But the people are adamant that this revolution is theirs alone. (2)

Al Jazeera reports that

Opposition protesters in eastern Libya have formed a national council, pledging to help free areas of the country still under Muammar Gaddafi's rule. Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the new National Libyan Council that was launched in the city of Benghazi on Sunday, said …..

…“We will help liberate other Libyan cities, in particular Tripoli through our national army, our armed forces, of which part have announced their support for the people," Ghoga said.

Ghoga said the newly formed council was not contacting foreign governments and did not want them to intervene.

His comments came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was "reaching out" to opposition groups in the east.and was prepared to offer "any kind of assistance" to Libyans seeking to overthrow the regime. (3)

No doubt opinion is divided and there will be a minority in favour of it, but it’s clear the vast majority of Gaddafi’s opponents don’t want any foreign militaries in their country and after the bloodbaths and systematic torture in Afghanistan and Iraq and Western governments’ ulterior motive in Libya – disputes with Gaddafi over oil profits, who could blame them?

Even resigned Libyan Justice Minister Abdel Jalil (another member of the ‘National Council’ of the revolution), who seems to be the Libyan version of Curveball, a defector who tells Western governments whatever lies they want to hear to get their favour, said he was against foreign military intervention in a TV interview with Al Jazeera.

UPDATE: Mustafa Abdel Jalil has replied to questions on a no fly zone and foreign military intervention by saying “What we want is an air embargo to stop Gaddafi bringing in mercenaries.” but that “Any intervention will be confronted with more force than we are using against Gaddafi.” , which sounds like the Council do want a no-fly zone but don't want foreign troops on the ground, assuming Jalil speaks for the whole Council(4).

UPDATE 5th March : Since the 1st of March some rebels in Benghazi have been calling for both a no-fly zone and air-strikes against Gaddafi's forces, but only if this is a UN authorised operation (5). It seems unlikely the Russian or Chinese governments will approve either on the UN Security Council unless Gaddafi starts using his air-force against civilians (as previous reports said he was). The Libyan airforce has switched to targeting arms and ammunition dumps to stop them falling into rebel hands - although there are also reports of water pipelines to rebel held cities being targeted, which - if they succeeded in hitting and cutting them (which they don't seem to have so far) could kill a lot of civilians and rebels through shortages of clean water (as they have in Iraq from 1991 to present). The Iraqi no-fly zones were never UN authorised, though the Bosnian no fly zone was.(6) - (8)

There is no reason why humanitarian flights of food, water, aid and to help transport migrant workers trapped on the Libyan/Egyptian and Libyan/Tunisian borders home should not be increased though, with military escorts if necessary. No-one could deny the need for these flights and many lives are already being saved by relatively small scale humanitarian flights by the British government and others (9)

(1) = NPR (US National Public Radio) 27 Feb 2011 ‘Libyan Rebels Close In On Tripoli’,http://www.npr.org/2011/02/27/134101354/libya-rebels-control-closest-city-to-capital

(2) = guardian.co.uk 27 Feb 2011 ‘Libya: neither tribal nor Islamist’ by Mahmoud Al Nakou,http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/27/libya-democracy-freedom-extremists-gaddafi

(3) = Al Jazeera 27 Feb 2011 ‘Libya opposition launches council’,http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/2011227175955221853.html

(4) = Sky News 28 Feb 2011 'Libya: Rebels 'May Use Force To Take Tripoli'', http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201102115942113

(5) = Washington Post 05 Mar 2011 'As Gaddafi holds on, some Libyans seek foreign intervention', http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030106963.html

(6) = BBC 01 Mar 2011 'Libya ammunition dump avoids air attack' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12614632

(7) = CNN News Stream transcript 03 Mar 2011 'Fight for Libya Heating Up; Crimes Against Humanity in Libya; Mubarak Corruption Allegations', http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1103/03/nwsm.01.html

(8) = NYT 28 Feb 2011 'Qaddafi’s Forces Hit Back at Rebels',http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/africa/01unrest.html

(9) = guardian.co.uk 02 Mar 2011 'Libya: Britain sends planes to help with mass airlift of refugees', http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/02/libya-britain-sends-planes-refugees