Libyan rebels using Western arms, looting Libyan Central Bank in Benghazi; Evidence of NATO war crimes
WAYNE MADSEN REPORTING
June 5, 2011
TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Shortly after Libya's rebel Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) seized control of Benghazi, the second-largest Libyan city, they discovered the two keys for the cash vaults of the Libyan Central Bank in the city. However, because of control mechanisms, the cash vault required a third key held at the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli, the capital. The rebel movement brought in a professional safe cracker from the United Arab Emirates who successfully opened the cash vault safe. The rebels had their hands on $900 million in Libyan dinars and $500.5 million in U.S. dollars.
According to Central Bank officials in Tripoli, the rebels have now spent or siphoned to their offshore bank accounts the entire Benghazi Central Bank cash reserves. In addition, the rebel movement has squandered millions of euros provided by the Euriopean Union. The rebel's theft of money is so great, the U.S. Treasury has refused to provide frozen Libyan central government funds to the rebel movement.
In addition to the Libyan dinars stolen from the Benghazi Central Bank, NATO countries have printed their own Libyan dinars abroad and have made the cash available to the rebels.
Under Qaddafi's Libyan Oil Wealth program, every Libyan family received a monthly payment of 500 dinars, their share of Libya's oil revenues. With the rebels controlling the finances of eastern Libya, families in the east are no longer receiving the oil wealth-sharing payments and the looting of the Central Bank in Benghazi has resulted in no money for civil servants and pensioners.
Prior to the NATO attack on Libya, Qaddafi was working with other African nations, including that of President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire, to establish an Africa-wide currency unit under the African Monetary Authority. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his French business friends saw Qaddafi's move as threatening the collapsing CFA franc, a neo-colonial contrivance used by France to maintain control over their former colonies in Africa. With Gbagbo ousted largely by French troops and Qaddafi under attack by French-and Israeli-backed rebels, Sarkozy and his banker and business friends feel that the CFA franc is safe and plans for the African currency unit are aborted.
One of NATO's first targets in Tripoli was the Office of Investigation of Corruption in Tripoli. Several of the Qaddafi ministers who defected to the rebels, including the former Justice, Interior, Planning and Economic Development, and Trade and Industry ministers, were being investigated for fraud by the Libyan government. The documents on corruption were backed up, however, and are now stored in a safe location.
The Libyan rebels, many of whom are Libyan mujaheddin Salafists from Afghanistan and Iraq, including many Libyans captured in Afghanistan and released from detention in Guantanamo, obtained brand new weapons not found in Libyan stockpiles at the outset of their rebellion. Other Salafists crossed into Libya from neghboring Darfur in Sudan.
Some of the Salafists are members of the Islamic Combatant Group while others have established the "Emirate of Derna" in the east that is under the control of a member of "Al Qaeda" named Sheikh Abdul-Hakim. The INTC has issued Hakim a false Libyan passport. The passport photo shows Hakim with a beard and the Qaddafi government prohibits passport photos showing beards.
Many of the Islamic mujaheddin groups began their campaign to topple Qaddafi on Facebook. In November 2010, a political officer for the US embassy in Tripoli was expelled for espionage. WMR has learned the diplomat was a CIA agent who was on a liaison mission with a Libyan rebel "sleeper cell" in Ifrane, about 100 miles southwest of Tripoli, when he was caught by Libyan security. Thne CIA's early involvement with the Libyan rebels, along with early support for the rebels by French and British intelligence, indicates that the Libyan rebellion was not based on events in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, but was designed to authorize the rebels to move when a favorable situation presented itself. The overthrow of the governments of Tunisia and Egypt provided just the right situation for the CIA and its French and British counterparts.
Many of the new weapons being used by the rebels are from the Belgian-based arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN), which has a CIA-connected subsidiary called FNH-USA. One FN rifle, the Fusil Automatique Léger (FAL), is the standard weapon being used by the rebels. The FAL, called the "Right Arm of the Free World" during the Cold War, only uses NATO standard rounds. The weapon was never used by the Libyan Army, which relied on Soviet weaponry. Claims by NATO that the rebels are using Libyan weapons captured from army arsenals and caches are, therefore, false.
Libyan rebels are also using U.S.-produced machine guns chambered for NATO rounds.
There are also reports that rebels have agreed to recognize Israel and allow Israel to maintain a 30-year lease for a military base in eastern Libya that would be used to check the Egyptian military should a future breakdown in Israeli-Egyptian relations occur.
NATO WAR CRIMES
In the current NATO war on Libya, the citizens of European and North American NATO countries are being treated to the largest propaganda blitz by their governments in cahoots with corporate media outlets since the U.S.-led invasions and occupation of Iraq. The situation on the ground in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.
The NATO missile attack that killed Muammar Qaddafi's son, Seif al Arab Qaddafi, on April 30, was an attempt to kill Muammar Qaddafi himself. This editor visited the devastated home where Seif was killed, along with his friend and three of Muammar Qaddafi's grandchildren. The only reason why Muammar Qaddafi survived the blast was that he was away from the main residence tending to some animals, including two gazelles, kept in a small petting zoo maintained for his grandchildren. Muammar Qaddafi escaped the fate of his son and grandchildren by only about 500 feet. The residence was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane. One of the warheads did not detonate and was later removed from what remained of a bedroom in the home. Libyan authorities do not have the technical capabilities to determine if the warhead contained depleted uranium.
NATO and the Pentagon claimed the residence was a military compound, yet there is no evidence that any military assets were located in the residence that was flanked by the homes of a Libyan doctor and businessmen. The Qaddafi residence actually is owned by Qaddafi's wife. The neighbors' homes were also badly damaged in the U.S. air attack and are uninhabitable. Only a few hundred yards away from the Qaddafi compound sits the embassy of Cote d'Ivoire.
The presence of a foosball table and swing set in the yard of the Qaddafi compound belies the charge by the Pentagon that the home was a military target. However, considering that Qaddafi was present in the compound during the attack, it is clear that President Obama violated international law and three Executive Orders signed by three past presidents -- Ford, Carter, and Reagan -- in trying to assassinate the Libyan head of state. In fact, while Obama's order to kill Qaddafi was being carried out, the President of the United States was preparing to yuck it up with Washington's illuminati and Hollywood's glitterati at the White House Correspndents' Dinner in Washington.
Obama's order to kill Qaddafi is reminiscent of George W. Bush's order to kill Sadaam Hussein at the outset of the U.S. war against Iraq, an assassination order that was also a violation of international and U.S. law.
Putting into context what occurred at Mrs. Qaddafi's home and the aftermath, let one say that there is an unprovoked and surprise enemy missile attack on a secondary U.S. presidential residence, say Camp David. The world's major media then claims that the attack was justified because the U.S. president was committing unsubstantiated war crimes, all reported from sketchy sources. A group of independent journalists and human rights activists drive to Camp David and are welcomed by a plainclothes member of the Secret Service's Presidential Protective Division.
The Secret Service official then proceeds to show the delegation one of the bombed out bedrooms of the main residence and points out that one of the pulverized bedrooms is where the president's daughter was killed in the attack. The delegation is then shown the First Lady's singed handbag thrown several hundred feet away in the explosion. Although the President was taking a walk away from the main residence, the delegation is shown a windbreaker bearing the presidential seal lying on the couch of the destroyed living room. A room said contain military command and control systems is then found by the delegation to have a destroyed pool table and a shattered pinball machine. The attacking nation claims that the Camp David compound was a security threat. But the American people rally to support their president and his family after the attack. Now, you can begin to understand how the people of Libya feel after the U.S. attack on Mrs. Qaddafi's house that killed her and her husband's son and three grand children, along with a family friend.
More at www.waynemadsenreport.com
June 5, 2011
TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Shortly after Libya's rebel Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) seized control of Benghazi, the second-largest Libyan city, they discovered the two keys for the cash vaults of the Libyan Central Bank in the city. However, because of control mechanisms, the cash vault required a third key held at the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli, the capital. The rebel movement brought in a professional safe cracker from the United Arab Emirates who successfully opened the cash vault safe. The rebels had their hands on $900 million in Libyan dinars and $500.5 million in U.S. dollars.
According to Central Bank officials in Tripoli, the rebels have now spent or siphoned to their offshore bank accounts the entire Benghazi Central Bank cash reserves. In addition, the rebel movement has squandered millions of euros provided by the Euriopean Union. The rebel's theft of money is so great, the U.S. Treasury has refused to provide frozen Libyan central government funds to the rebel movement.
In addition to the Libyan dinars stolen from the Benghazi Central Bank, NATO countries have printed their own Libyan dinars abroad and have made the cash available to the rebels.
Under Qaddafi's Libyan Oil Wealth program, every Libyan family received a monthly payment of 500 dinars, their share of Libya's oil revenues. With the rebels controlling the finances of eastern Libya, families in the east are no longer receiving the oil wealth-sharing payments and the looting of the Central Bank in Benghazi has resulted in no money for civil servants and pensioners.
Prior to the NATO attack on Libya, Qaddafi was working with other African nations, including that of President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire, to establish an Africa-wide currency unit under the African Monetary Authority. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his French business friends saw Qaddafi's move as threatening the collapsing CFA franc, a neo-colonial contrivance used by France to maintain control over their former colonies in Africa. With Gbagbo ousted largely by French troops and Qaddafi under attack by French-and Israeli-backed rebels, Sarkozy and his banker and business friends feel that the CFA franc is safe and plans for the African currency unit are aborted.
One of NATO's first targets in Tripoli was the Office of Investigation of Corruption in Tripoli. Several of the Qaddafi ministers who defected to the rebels, including the former Justice, Interior, Planning and Economic Development, and Trade and Industry ministers, were being investigated for fraud by the Libyan government. The documents on corruption were backed up, however, and are now stored in a safe location.
The Libyan rebels, many of whom are Libyan mujaheddin Salafists from Afghanistan and Iraq, including many Libyans captured in Afghanistan and released from detention in Guantanamo, obtained brand new weapons not found in Libyan stockpiles at the outset of their rebellion. Other Salafists crossed into Libya from neghboring Darfur in Sudan.
Some of the Salafists are members of the Islamic Combatant Group while others have established the "Emirate of Derna" in the east that is under the control of a member of "Al Qaeda" named Sheikh Abdul-Hakim. The INTC has issued Hakim a false Libyan passport. The passport photo shows Hakim with a beard and the Qaddafi government prohibits passport photos showing beards.
Many of the Islamic mujaheddin groups began their campaign to topple Qaddafi on Facebook. In November 2010, a political officer for the US embassy in Tripoli was expelled for espionage. WMR has learned the diplomat was a CIA agent who was on a liaison mission with a Libyan rebel "sleeper cell" in Ifrane, about 100 miles southwest of Tripoli, when he was caught by Libyan security. Thne CIA's early involvement with the Libyan rebels, along with early support for the rebels by French and British intelligence, indicates that the Libyan rebellion was not based on events in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, but was designed to authorize the rebels to move when a favorable situation presented itself. The overthrow of the governments of Tunisia and Egypt provided just the right situation for the CIA and its French and British counterparts.
Many of the new weapons being used by the rebels are from the Belgian-based arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN), which has a CIA-connected subsidiary called FNH-USA. One FN rifle, the Fusil Automatique Léger (FAL), is the standard weapon being used by the rebels. The FAL, called the "Right Arm of the Free World" during the Cold War, only uses NATO standard rounds. The weapon was never used by the Libyan Army, which relied on Soviet weaponry. Claims by NATO that the rebels are using Libyan weapons captured from army arsenals and caches are, therefore, false.
Libyan rebels are also using U.S.-produced machine guns chambered for NATO rounds.
There are also reports that rebels have agreed to recognize Israel and allow Israel to maintain a 30-year lease for a military base in eastern Libya that would be used to check the Egyptian military should a future breakdown in Israeli-Egyptian relations occur.
NATO WAR CRIMES
In the current NATO war on Libya, the citizens of European and North American NATO countries are being treated to the largest propaganda blitz by their governments in cahoots with corporate media outlets since the U.S.-led invasions and occupation of Iraq. The situation on the ground in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.
The NATO missile attack that killed Muammar Qaddafi's son, Seif al Arab Qaddafi, on April 30, was an attempt to kill Muammar Qaddafi himself. This editor visited the devastated home where Seif was killed, along with his friend and three of Muammar Qaddafi's grandchildren. The only reason why Muammar Qaddafi survived the blast was that he was away from the main residence tending to some animals, including two gazelles, kept in a small petting zoo maintained for his grandchildren. Muammar Qaddafi escaped the fate of his son and grandchildren by only about 500 feet. The residence was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane. One of the warheads did not detonate and was later removed from what remained of a bedroom in the home. Libyan authorities do not have the technical capabilities to determine if the warhead contained depleted uranium.
NATO and the Pentagon claimed the residence was a military compound, yet there is no evidence that any military assets were located in the residence that was flanked by the homes of a Libyan doctor and businessmen. The Qaddafi residence actually is owned by Qaddafi's wife. The neighbors' homes were also badly damaged in the U.S. air attack and are uninhabitable. Only a few hundred yards away from the Qaddafi compound sits the embassy of Cote d'Ivoire.
The presence of a foosball table and swing set in the yard of the Qaddafi compound belies the charge by the Pentagon that the home was a military target. However, considering that Qaddafi was present in the compound during the attack, it is clear that President Obama violated international law and three Executive Orders signed by three past presidents -- Ford, Carter, and Reagan -- in trying to assassinate the Libyan head of state. In fact, while Obama's order to kill Qaddafi was being carried out, the President of the United States was preparing to yuck it up with Washington's illuminati and Hollywood's glitterati at the White House Correspndents' Dinner in Washington.
Obama's order to kill Qaddafi is reminiscent of George W. Bush's order to kill Sadaam Hussein at the outset of the U.S. war against Iraq, an assassination order that was also a violation of international and U.S. law.
Putting into context what occurred at Mrs. Qaddafi's home and the aftermath, let one say that there is an unprovoked and surprise enemy missile attack on a secondary U.S. presidential residence, say Camp David. The world's major media then claims that the attack was justified because the U.S. president was committing unsubstantiated war crimes, all reported from sketchy sources. A group of independent journalists and human rights activists drive to Camp David and are welcomed by a plainclothes member of the Secret Service's Presidential Protective Division.
The Secret Service official then proceeds to show the delegation one of the bombed out bedrooms of the main residence and points out that one of the pulverized bedrooms is where the president's daughter was killed in the attack. The delegation is then shown the First Lady's singed handbag thrown several hundred feet away in the explosion. Although the President was taking a walk away from the main residence, the delegation is shown a windbreaker bearing the presidential seal lying on the couch of the destroyed living room. A room said contain military command and control systems is then found by the delegation to have a destroyed pool table and a shattered pinball machine. The attacking nation claims that the Camp David compound was a security threat. But the American people rally to support their president and his family after the attack. Now, you can begin to understand how the people of Libya feel after the U.S. attack on Mrs. Qaddafi's house that killed her and her husband's son and three grand children, along with a family friend.
More at www.waynemadsenreport.com
