Will America Learn From the Libya Attacks?

Ben Swann

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This is Your Murderous War Policy on Blow(back): Any Questions?

Activist Post

For those still confused about what the term "blowback" means in regards to America's despicable foreign policy of preemptive war, violent regime change, and sponsorship of terrorist groups to do their dirty work, perhaps the two images below can clarify what many peace activists have been warning about for some time.

NATO cheered Gaddafi being murdered and dragged through the streets
by terrorist rebels sponsored by the West.

Key US Senate panel backs limited Libya conflict

Libyan rebels capture a network of bunkers
in the desert around 25 kilometres (15 miles)
from the hilltown of Zintan
© AFP Florent Marcie

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A key US Senate panel voted Tuesday to authorize limited US strikes on Libya as part of a NATO-led campaign against Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi but to forbid the deployment of ground troops.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 14-5 vote set the stage for what was sure to be a volatile full Senate debate as early as this week, with lawmakers deeply divided on whether President Barack Obama's Libya policy flouts US law.

The panel heard earlier from US State Department legal adviser Harold Koh, who argued Obama's approach did not violate the US Constitution or the 1973 War Powers Resolution that aims to constrain presidential war-making authority.

“After you Brother!” Qadaffi stays and Obama leaves?

Dees Illustration

Franklin Lamb LLM, PhD
Activist Post

Tripoli, Libya -- The 6/27/11 International Criminal Courts (ICC) arrest warrants issued for Muammar Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, and Libya intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi, however pleasing to the “rebels” and NATO, probably won’t have much effect on negotiating a settlement between the two camps and certainly the warrants will not facilitate a voluntary regime change. Quite likely, the warrants effects will tend toward the obverse, with the Libyan government ignoring, but ridiculing the much criticized ICC and pointing out its historical pattern of targeting African leaders. At Tripoli’s Rixos Nasser Hotel, just a few hours after the arrest warrants were announced, Libya’s Justice Minister and a high ranking Foreign Affairs official did just that and then refused to take any questions from the large gathering of western journalists of whom Libya is distrustful of, given a spate of recent false main stream media reports that have been exposed as hoaxes.

Colonel Qaddafi and his supporters, in a series of what this observer refers to as “Hezbollah style free give and take dialogue sessions” are making it very plain that they will prevail in re-unifying Libya and probably before Ramadan which begins, this year, in early August. They argue that the “rebels” are increasingly fighting among themselves and are losing popular support. It’s an argument similar to the one the “rebels” are using to explain how their victory is all but assured, also by the end of Ramadan.

WWIII in Libya AND Syria in Days

Anthony Freda Illustration

Chris Kitze
Before It's News


A trusted Before It's News source, one who told us about Osama bin Laden's death four hours before it was reported in the mainstream media, has alerted Before It's News that big moves are afoot in the Middle East.


"The real war is going to start in Libya and Syria in seven days.  It might be a few more days than that, but it's definitely coming."


Upon first hearing this news, this long term military intelligence officer told me "I'm really shaken, today, I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do."  He believes this is the start of WWIII.

War Counsel: Obama shops for Libya advice that lets him ignore the law

President Woodrow Wilson asking Congress to
declare war on Germany, 2 April 1917 - Wiki Image

Jacob Sullum
Reason Magazine 

During the Bush administration, when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) got into the habit of rationalizing whatever the president wanted to do, Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen dreamed of an OLC that was willing to "say no to the President." It turns out we have such an OLC now. Unfortunately, as Barack Obama's defense of his unauthorized war in Libya shows, we do not have a president who is willing to take no for an answer.

While running for president, Obama criticized George W. Bush's lawless unilateralism in areas such as torture, warrantless surveillance, and detention of terrorism suspects. "The law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers," he declared in 2007, condemning "unchecked presidential power" and promising that under his administration there would be "no more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient."

Obama's nomination of Johnsen to head the OLC, although ultimately blocked by Senate Republicans, was consistent with this commitment; his overreaching responses to threats ranging from terrorism to failing auto companies were not. Last week, by rejecting the OLC's advice concerning his three-month-old intervention in Libya's civil war, Obama sent the clearest signal yet that he is no more inclined than his predecessor to obey the law.

Helicopter lost over Libya is new US drone: officials

An unmanned MQ-8B Fire Scout
© AFP/File Jim Watson

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A drone helicopter that lost radar contact with NATO over Libya is a Fire Scout, an unmanned US chopper, defense officials said Tuesday, revealing the use of the new robotic aircraft in the war.

"We don't know yet" why NATO's command center in Naples, Italy lost contact with the MQ-8B Fire Scout, a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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Bill would approve US role in Libya retroactively

US Senator John Kerry
© AFP/File Aamir Qureshi

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two top US senators on Tuesday introduced a bill that would retroactively support America's military role in Libya, amid a raging debate over whether President Barack Obama flouted the law by not getting prior congressional approval.

"I believe we will find a strong, bipartisan majority that is in favor of authorizing our current military operations in Libya and seeing this mission through to success," said Republican US Senator John McCain, one of the authors of the bill.

"That is a message that (Libyan President Moamer) Kadhafi needs to hear. It is a message that Khadafi's opponents, fighting to liberate their nation, need to hear," McCain told his fellow senators during floor debate in the Senate, as he urged a vote on the measure "as soon as possible."

John McCain, Imperialist

McCain's treasonous trip to Benghazi, Libya

Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

"Senator" John McCain is a traitor in every sense of the word. He is a man who has overtly divorced himself from the US Constitution (see also: McCain's support for the Patriot Act) he has sworn an oath to defend, first as a Navy pilot, then as a Senator. He consorts with, lobbies for, and procures money and resources for real terrorists while citing battalions of fictitious bearded men to justify his numerous transgressions against America's Bill of Rights. When John McCain isn't literally shaking the hands of terrorists in Benghazi, fresh back from Iraq and Afghanistan with American blood on their hands, he is berating Americans who believe US imperialism must end.

CNN's article, "McCain slams GOP hopefuls' 'isolationism'" is a profile of astounding servile obedience to the corporate interests that craft the agenda he attempts to foist upon the American people on a daily basis. In the article McCain claims, "We cannot repeat the lessons of the 1930s, when the United States of America stood by while bad things happened in the world." In reality, the "bad things" happening in the world now are a direct result of men like McCain, the organizations he is complicit with, the imperial networks and governments they are attempting to sow throughout the world and the inevitable violence that has ensued as nations resist yet another parasitic empire as it attempts to spread across the surface of the planet.

NATO's Terror Over Tripoli

NATO slowly admits what the Libyan government has said all along. 

Dees Illustration

Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Bangkok, Thailand June 19, 2011 - The NATO excursion into Libya started withdisingenuous humanitarian concernstranslated into a no-fly zone, which incrementally transitioned into attacks on Qaddafi's ground forces, targeted assassinations against Qaddafi himself, then talk of destroying civilian infrastructure and a full-out ground invasion. NATO declared mid-May that it would be "increasing the range of targets" it could hit, including "government infrastructure." With a residential area hit and NATO playing dumb over its role in murdering the very civilians it is supposedly protecting, it appears they made good on their promise.

The key to Qaddafi's long reign, his survival and resistance in the face of NATO's relentless attacks is the support he garners from his own people. While the mainstream media preys on the ignorance of its audience, those who took the time to examine the demographics of Libya would realize the current fighting is split along traditional tribal lines where animosity has existed, and in fact been funded and fostered by the West for at least three decades. With NATO incapable of handing their inept terrorist stooges on the ground the country with airstrikes alone, it appears they are attempting the same terroristic "shock and awe" tactics used against Iraq to break the will of the population with overwhelming violence.

NATO Preparing Ground War in Libya (Video)

YouTube -- GlobalResearchTV

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'Up To Nine Dead' Civilians In Tripoli Air Strike

Sky News

Libyan officials have said up to nine civilians were killed in a Nato air strike in eastern Tripoli in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Reporters were taken by Libyan government officials to a residential area in the Arada neighbourhood of Tripoli and saw a body pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed building.

"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told reporters at the site.

"This is another sign of the brutality of the West."

According to Sky's Sam Kiley, reporting from Tripoli, Nato has responded to the claims and said it is looking into the air strike allegations.

There were heaps of rubble and chunks of shattered concrete at the scene, which a large crowd of what appeared to be local residents were helping to clear.

At a local hospital, reporters were shown three bodies, including a child, which government officials said were people killed in the air strike.

Read Full Article 

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Kucinich and Rand Paul Talk About Bipartisan Lawsuit Against Libya War (Video)

Youtube

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US lawmakers file suit over Obama's Libya war

Speaker of the House John Boehner
© AFP/Getty Images/File CHIP SOMODEVILLA

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) -  The White House will deliver a report to Congress Wednesday explaining its involvement in Libya, as a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed suit charging US military action in the war-torn nation is unconstitutional.

The report will include legal analysis arguing that President Barack Obama did not overstep his powers in the conflict in the north African nation.

"The president has acted in a manner that is consistent with the War Powers Resolution," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, arguing the 30-page report would show the "success" of the mission to protect Libyan civilians.

Obama's Libya policy fell under the spotlight in court as anti-war Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich filed the lawsuit challenging what it described as the Obama administration's circumvention of Congress in using military force in a protracted effort to oust longtime ruler Moamer Kadhafi.

"With regard to the war in Libya, we believe that the law was violated. We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies," said Kucinich, who was joined in the suit by nine other House members including Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

'NATO bombs civilians!' - Cynthia McKinney from Tripoli with truth (Video)

YouTube -- RT


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US Congress votes against Libya funding

An explosion following a NATO air-raid in Tripoli
© AFP/File

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives voted to prohibit the use of funds for American military operations in Libya.

Lawmakers adopted the amendment to a military appropriations bill by a vote of 248 to 163.

A number of members of Congress have recently expressed their dissatisfaction at President Barack Obama's decision to go ahead with operations in Libya in March and to continue without congressional authorization.

6 in 10 Americans Now Oppose Obama's War in Libya

The president has made himself vulnerable by launching the conflict without congressional cover. Will Republicans capitalize?

Conor Friedersdorf
The Atlantic

Six in 10 Americans don't think the U.S. should be involved in Libya, according to a new CBS News poll. It found that only 30 percent of Americans think we're doing the right thing by intervening militarily in that country. That includes majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents. As a point of comparison, 51 percent of Americans and a majority of Republicans think we're "doing the right thing" in Afghanistan. The Libya numbers are bad news for the man in the Oval Office.

What does it mean for a president seeking reelection to have launched a wildly unpopular war without congressional approval? That his Republican challengers should run to President Obama's left on at least some aspects of national security. It might've been awkward to do so given that much of Obama's national security strategy is identical to the one that Republicans praised under George W. Bush. But this affords a surprisingly easy opportunity to win support from an electorate that is tiring of expensive foreign wars: The GOP nominee need not disavow conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan that rank and file conservatives defended for so long. He or she need only rail against the expense, execution, and questionable strategic value of fighting in Libya.

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NATO shortcomings 'could jeopardise Libya mission'

© AFP/File

AFP

BRUSSELS (AFP) -  US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned on Friday that military shortcomings among NATO members could jeopardise the alliance's air war in Libya.

With half of the countries in the 28-member alliance not participating in the Libya campaign, Gates said it reflected a worrisome lack of military assets.

"Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they cannot. The military capabilities simply aren't there," Gates said in a speech in Brussels.

US calls Libya rebel council 'the legitimate interlocutor'

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shakes
hands with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheik
Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan
© AFP/Pool Susan Walsh

AFP

ABU DHABI (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton here Thursday described the Libyan rebel council as "the legitimate interlocutor" of the Libyan people, a senior US State Department official said.

Clinton "used the word 'the' rather than 'a' in describing the TNC (Transitional National Council) as the legitimate interlocutor for the Libyan people through this interim period," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Clinton, he said, made the distinction in a speech to representatives of world powers preparing for a Libya without Colonel Moamer Kadhafi.

"This is our own signal of moving toward that transition of working with the TNC on its own roadmap through this interim period," he said.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license.

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Oil price rises sharply after Opec meeting collapses in disarray

• Proposal to increase production rejected by 6 of 12 members
• Analysts foresee Opec's power base weakening

Gas prices rising wikimedia image

Terry Macalister and Heather Stewart
Guardian

Hopes that Opec would bring relief to motorists and wider western economies from soaring energy prices were today dashed when a crunch meeting of the oil cartel broke up in disarray without the expected agreement to increase crude output.

Political turbulence in North Africa and the Middle East undermined the usual consensus at the meeting in Vienna and led to speculation that new internal rivalries could split the group, leading to even more market chaos.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and influential Opec dove, was outmanoeuvred by Iran, Venezuela, Libya and others, later describing the summit as "one of the worst meetings we have ever had".

The price of Brent crude soared a further $1.65 to $118.43 a barrel as an expected Opec agreement to raise its production quotas by about 1.5 million barrels a day failed to materialise.

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