PRESS ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
by Omowale
Clay, for the December 12th Movement International Secretariat
Today, under the banner of “Col. Qaddafi is killing his own people†the U.S. and European armed forces are bombing another developing country – Libya. Once again the Western “Fourth Estateâ€, the well organized and financed corporate media is telling a one sided story redundantly. So, today, many people who had little independent knowledge about Libya are now experts, trained and licensed by the New York Times, Daily News, NBC, etc. Even many who had supported Libya are now vacillating under the influence of the media blitz and America’s first Black President.
However, in evaluating what weight to give President Obama’s position on Libya, one should remember it was just eight years ago that another brilliant Black man, representing the highest levels of the United States Government and having garnered international respect and credibility, set before the world community and definitively told them – what he had come to know was a lie – Saddam Hussein had “Weapons of Mass Destruction.†It was February, 2003, and the man was then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell reporting to the United Nations. This is what Secretary Powell later revealed about his U.N. testimony, which history has well established was the decisive factor in getting U.N. approval to invade Iraq.
In speaking to the The British Guardian newspaper regarding his U.N. report, Sec’y Powell called on the CIA and Pentagon to explain how he was given unreliable information which proved key to the US case for invading Iraq. The Guardian reported that Powell’s landmark speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, cited intelligence about Iraq leader Saddam Hussein’s bio-weapons program gained from a defector, codenamed Curveball. But the defector, real name Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, admitted in an interview with The Guardian he lied to topple Saddam.
Speaking to the same newspaper, Powell said: “It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliableâ€, and he went on to say, “The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn’t known before the false information was put into the (report) sent to Congress, the president’s state of the union address and my 5 February
presentation to the UN.”This is a critical time for the Libyan people and I think it important to frame the country and its leadership in the words of South Africa’s first Black President and Freedom Fighter, Nelson Mandela, who called Muammar Qaddafi “one of this century’s greatest freedom fighters, and insisted that the eventual collapse of the apartheid system owed much to Qaddafi and Libyan support. Mandela said that in the darkest moments of their struggle, when their backs were to the wall, it was Muammar Qaddafi who stood with them.
One must remember that as Col. Qaddafi is demonized by the West, it was his vision and resources that brought together revolutionaries and freedom fighters from every corner of the globe to share ideas and develop their revolutionary knowledge. Many liberation groups throughout the world received education, training and support from Muammar Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution including ANC, AZAPO, PAC and BCM of Azania (South Africa), SWAPO of Namibia, MPLA of Angola, The Sandinistas of Nicaragua, The Polisario of the Sahara, the PLO, The Native American Movements throughout the Americas and the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan to name but a few.
The situation in Libya right now is complex but there are five important perspectives to understood:
1. There is no reliable or accurate count as to the number of people, inclusive of so-called opposition rebels from Benghazi., Government troops or civilians that have been killed or wounded in Libya. The press is reporting what ever is told to them by the “so-called rebels†without independent verification. While very little news from the government of Libya is allowed to come through. Two things are clear, however. First, there is a very fluid definition of who is a “civilian†in Libya today. The Western press is consistent in calling people civilians whether they are unarmed, armed or rebels assaulting government troops. Secondly, what is reported by the West is that hundreds of bombing runs and cruise missiles have been launched against Libyan government troops and cities. The Libyan government has from the very beginning indicated that the initial protest beginning on February 15th in Benghazi was the act of Islamic extremist with al Qaeda connections and drug gangs that been armed by foreign sources. The West has refused to review information provided by the Libyan government to confirm this information.
2. The Western powers have for decades supported financially and militarily the most oppressed regimes in the Middle East for purposes of maintaining control and domination of the world’s largest oil reserves. Towards that end the United States and Britain and France in particular have sought through covert and overt actions to support the repressions of millions of people in these Arab states, while insuring that any revolutionary movements are isolated and destroyed. Israel has been armed to the teeth, inclusive of nuclear weapons as a guarantee of European control. In addition, the United States has sought to base its AFRICOM military operations on African soil for years now. However, the African Union has taken a position, given its member states colonial past, to oppose foreign troops on African soil. The Libyan situation has created a cover for the United States for the first time to launch military operations against Africa under AFRICOM’s new Commander, General Carter Ham, who took over command of AFRICOM just days before military operations were launched against Libya.
3. The West has been waiting for an opportunity to bring about regime change in Libya. First, based on the necessity to control one of the world’s largest and highest quality oil reserves just a stones throw from Italy (Libya was its former colony) and energy hungry Europe. This plan falls within the on going strategic discussions on absorbing Northern African as an integral political and economic part of the European Union and NATO. Secondly, the West has been totally opposed the creation of a United States of Africa, which Col. Qaddafi has been pushing and supporting financially. The creation of an United States of Africa (U.S. of A.), with its continental economy, currency, army and development plans, would make Africa a global force with which to be reckoned. The U.S. of A. would prevent African states from dealing with global economy forces on a bi-lateral basis which has historically created unfair and exploitative trade relations.
4. The flag being flown by the so-called rebels in Benghazi is that of former king Idris, of Libya’s former monarchy – overthrown by Col. Qaddafi in 1969. Benghazi was King Idris’s most important political base and the center of many of the most reactionary forms of Islam fostering Islamic movements such as the Wahhabis, Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and the Libyan Islamic Brotherhood. Benghazi, has been a fertile ground for the opposition to Col. Qaddafi’s progressive Revolutionary Islamic political beliefs that saw a) women playing an equal role in society b) the people must control and own the wealth of the country 3) Black people were the true founders of Northern Africa 4) Anti-Captialist perspective on the economy 5) Pan-Africanism.
5. The United States led coalition under the cover of protecting civilians is bent on regime change in Libya – period. The day to day operations of the Western forces in Libya are a clear demonstration that the United Nations mandate is being violated.
This is why it is important to see through the dis-information campaign be waged by the media and the military campaign being waged by the Western armed forces against the people of Libya, to usher end the most backward forces with whom they can do business.
The December 12th Movement International Secretariat and the Coalition to Defend Libya and Africa, is calling for a Rally: U.S. Hands Off Libya and In Defence Africa,
Friday, April 1, 2011 from 4 PM to 6PM at the United States Mission to the United Nations, 799 1st Avenue, corner of 1st. Avenue and 45th St. NYC
NOTE:
December 12th Movement International Secretariat, a non governmental organization (NGO) with consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council, has participated in the Commission on Human Rights since 1989, representing 40 million Africans in the United States. The Secretariat has established firm ties and alliances with nations and international organizations around the world. Their consistent and persistent work has resulted in the pivotal hearings on racism in the United States conducted by the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Maurice Glele in 1994 in Harlem NY.
Further, the Secretariat was instrumental in organizing hearings on human rights abuses in the US criminal justice system / death penalty conducted by UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Bacre Waly Ndiaye in 1997 in Brooklyn NY. The December 12th Movement IS has participated in many international conferences and was instrumental in the call for the third United Nations World Conference Against Racism 2001.
