World outcry over Gaddafi’s murder

Let’s begin with a legal appraisal from the Jurist in an article, The Rule of Law and the Extrajudicial Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, by Curtis Doebbler of Webster University and the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, in Geneva Switzerland. Doebbler writes, “The killing of Muammar Gaddafi appears to be another violation of international law involving the US, sending the dangerous message that one must kill or be killed.”

He continues, “Although the facts are far from clear, most reports now seem to confirm that Muammar Gaddafi was killed after his convoy was attacked by NATO planes, including aircraft from the US and France, and after he was captured alive. If these facts are correct, they point to yet another serious violation of international law involving the US.

The willful killing or summary execution of a prisoner of war who is no longer participating in an armed conflict is a grave breach of the Third Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War of 1949, to which both France and the US are parties. It makes no difference how much one dislikes the particular prisoner of war. The resulting obligation for all parties to this treaty is that they investigate, arrest, and punish the perpetrators of such crimes.

“Of course, the Third Geneva Convention applies mainly during international armed conflicts. The armed conflict in Libya, however, had undoubtedly become international once NATO intervened. It makes no difference in this classification that the intervention was based on a UN Security Council resolution. Indeed, international humanitarian law applies to any international armed conflict, even an illegal one. If one of the domestic parties to a non-international armed conflict becomes an ally of a foreign power and commences fighting against its own people as NATO-led rebels, these rebels could be under enough control from foreign powers so as to make the foreign powers responsible for their acts.

“There is evidence that this was the case when Gaddafi was killed. More would have to be known, but the mere fact that Gaddafi’s convoy was first attacked by foreign air power and then by ground forces that, according to some reports, included foreign troops is quite telling evidence. Moreover, if as it looks, Gaddafi was fleeing Sirte, it would appear that he was attacked not as a threat to any civilians in Libya, the remit of the use of force provided by the UN Security Council resolution, but either as part of an indiscriminate attack or one aimed at killing people fleeing from an armed conflict. In either case, it would be a use of force against the political independence and territorial integrity of Libya, especially given the fact that the NATO-led rebels had expressly stated they do not form a new government of Libya. Such an attack, as had been going on for months, constitutes the crime of aggression. Such an attack, outside the remit of the mandate of the UN Security Council, which itself is bound by international law, also constitutes a serious violation of one of the most fundamental principles of international law prohibiting the use of force . . .” So, at least three international laws have been broken.

Let’s turn to Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman and activist, who writes in Ghaddafi a hero for African rights and liberation, “In 2005 in the basement of the United States Capitol at a meeting convened by Congressman John Conyers on the subject of the ‘Downing Street Memo,’ Ray McGovern uttered the following truth: he testified that ‘the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel, and military bases craved by administration neocons” so that ‘the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.’” McGovern went on to testify truthfully that ‘Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation. The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.’”

“The routine condemnations of McGovern could be heard from all of the sources inside the U.S. political structure that has at its base finance from pro-Israel sources; that included from Dr. Howard Dean who was Chair of the Democratic National Committee at the time. This finance nexus has been thoroughly identified by Dr. James Petras, for those who want to do further reading.

“Condemnations, however, do not disprove McGovern’s statement, but point, instead, to the political untouchability of the topic. However, if one wants to truly understand the formulation of U.S. foreign and military policies, one must carefully consider McGovern’s testimony.”

McKinney continues, “On December 7, 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev described the need for a ‘universal human consensus’ and he called that a ‘New World Order.’ And on September 11, 1990, President George Herbert Walker Bush characterized the crisis that led to his intervention in the Persian Gulf in Operation Desert Storm as an opportunity to move toward a ‘New World Order.’ Every president since Bush, including President Obama, has expressed some fealty in one way or another to the idea of a “New World Order” which represents the ultimate goal of internationalizing rule by a few oligarchs and the dissolution, by every means available, of dissent. On March 19, 2011, exactly eight years after George W. Bush launched ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,’ President Obama savagely bombed Libya.

She comments, “One can begin to gain an understanding of exactly who these oligarchs are by investigating the financial winners in the oligarchization of the U.S. economy, in much the same way that the Russian oligarchs were created and eventually identified.

“Israel was an important beneficiary of these economic operations and Israel has been an important beneficiary of certain U.S. military operations, exactly as McGovern testified.

“The clear losers in this process are the people struggling globally for truth, justice, human rights, and peace. And there are clear and identifiable winners—if one dares to look.

“Understanding who the winners are, is necessary if one is to be able to decipher what they do and why. Therefore, it is necessary to understand that a new type of language has been adopted where war is peace, freedom is slavery, lies are truth, and ignorance is strength: we already know this as Orwell Speak. Our job is to “pierce the intentional propagandistic obfuscations and expose the truth for those less aware of the modus operandi of the crafters of this new international order.

She reminds us, “’Nowhere should McGovern’s testimony be weighed more than in the context of the US-led ‘Global War on Terror,’ the more recent ‘revolutions’ of North Africa and West Asia, and more specifically for this paper, events unfolding in Libya.’

“Initially, the U.S. effort against Qaddafi’s Administration in Libya was termed a ‘humanitarian intervention’ to protect the people. But, when since September 11, 1990 have U.S. troops been mobilized to innocently rescue civilians in danger? In reality, the U.S. military has been selectively called into action to cause civilian pain, suffering, destruction, and death since September 11, 1990 and to further unstated objectives.

And lastly, “The U.S. military was not called into action after its ally, Paul Kagame, oversaw the murder of two democratically elected presidents, when their plane was shot from the air by a U.S. missile left over from Operation Desert Storm that found its way to Uganda and from Uganda into Kagame’s possession. The murder of the two sitting Presidents by way of shooting down their plane was an act of terror . . .” Again, see more at the link.

From Sara Flounders writing at Global Research.ca comes Murder of Gadhafi is next stop to wider US wars in Africa. She writes, “The brutal lynching of Moammar Gadhafi, the leader of Libya, is the latest criminal act in NATO’s seven-month war of regime change and conquest.

“Gadhafi died resisting to the very end U.S.-NATO war, as he said he would. He refused to negotiate with NATO an ignominious departure for himself or to surrender. He chose a martyr’s death for Libya’s independence and sovereignty. Despite ridicule in the West in Africa Gadhafi will be remembered as an anti-imperialist fighter.

“The gross and disrespectful behavior of the National Transitional Council (TNC) in the display of Moammar Gadhafi’s body confirms to the world in the most graphic way that these elements, who the imperialist powers have given official recognition, are in fact crude, low-life gangsters.

“Instead of burying Gadhafi within a day as required under Islamic law, they chose to display Gadhafi’s battered, half naked body—bloody, unwashed and uncovered—on a soiled mattress in a meat locker at a shopping center.

“This affront to religious and national custom will further deepen outrage and resistance.

“TNC militias did no real fighting. These divided, competing military bands operate as scavengers or vultures, calling in air strikes and lying in wait to pick over the death that NATO bombers have blasted in front of them. In seven months of NATO bombing they have shown themselves capable of firing endless weapons in front of cameras and brutalizing Black Libyans, yet incapable of conducting any independent military action.

“U.S. and NATO forces bear responsibility for this latest crime and the way it was carried out. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded like a gunslinger in a Hollywood western in Tripoli the day before Gadhafi’s murder, demanding his capture—dead or alive.” One wonders if she’s become brain-dead as Secretary of the State of Havoc.

Writing from Venezuela, Professor Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson, International League of People’s Struggle’s piece came to me without a URL, but I’ve selected some particularly relevant paragraphs from his essay . . .

“Following the murder and martyrdom of Gaddafi, the U.S. and NATO allies are jubilant over the prospect of collecting the spoils of war. They control the huge amount of Libya’s sovereign wealth deposited in various Western banks. They are poised to collect payment in advance for the overstated costs of the bombardment and destruction of Libyan lives [60,000] and property. They are set to tighten their control over the oilfields, grab the gold resources and privatize the water system of Libya and cash in on contracts for the reconstruction of what they have destroyed . . .

“The National traitors that have collaborated with the US and the other Western powers in taking over Libya have been in disarray and will continue to be so to the full advantage of their imperialist masters. So far, they have been put together under the monarchist flag of convenience by their hatred of the Gaddafi regime and by special advisors and special forces who have been kept invisible by television. The US expects to lord over the local conflicting forces by establishing in Libya a US military base for its AFRICOM . . .”

AFRICOM will be a staging area to monitor all of Africa, a Beirut-like Green Zone Plus, to spread out the tentacles of US Colonialism by force in perpetuity. Yet the good Professor Sison closes his two-page essay on a positive note: “The anti-imperialist successors of Gaddafi are still the ones in the best position at the moment to carry out a national liberation struggle. But the conditions are also favorable for the rise of patriotic and progressive forces, including the revolutionary party of the working class, the trade union movement and other democratic mass formations, which have been suppressed since 1973 under Gaddafi’s anti-imperialist but anti-communist rule.”

Hopefully that is good news and not the addition of a new competing factor for the peoples and assets of Libya and Africa. Lastly, from Information Clearing House by Reuters is a piece titled Fidel Castro calls NATO “brutal” for Libya Role” that flows into The Rise Of NATO Genocidal, which is written by the ever-controversial Fidel Castro. I quote his last paragraphs . . .

“I am therefore compelled to a synthesis of the essential ideas that I presented, and the facts that have been happening as envisaged, now a central figure in this history, Muammar Al-Gaddafi, was seriously wounded by the latest NATO fighter-bombers, [that] inundated intercepted his vehicle, yet captured [him] alive and killed by men armed [by] that military organization.

“His body has been kidnapped and displayed as a trophy of war, conduct that violates the most elementary principles of Islamic rules and other religious beliefs prevailing in the world. It was announced that Libya will soon be declared [a] “democratic and human rights defender.

“I am forced to spend several thoughts on these important and significant facts.

“Will continue Monday.”

Perhaps we all will continue Monday, Señor Castro, until this wretched mess of the New World Order and its purveyors dissolve like cosmic dust in the endless night.

Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer, life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.