Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire

Another war is brewing in Libya.

When the current Libyan government was hand-picked by the Washington-London-Paris axis in 2012-2013, anyone who was actually paying attention knew that it would eventually end in tears, and so it has.

From its onset in 2011, NATO’s regime change operation in Libya has been one long unbridled disaster. This week the violence has escalated – with car bombs in Tobruk, Coptic Christians being killed, and the government launching airstrikes against its own cities. The broken nation of Libya has officially descended into a full-blown Civil War.

The west’s hand-picked regime in Libya has extended beyond the pale – finally launching airstrikes against its own people (see article below)…

NATO’s proxy rebel army is also responsible for the persecution, lynching and ethnic cleansing of black Africans in Libya (Image: Phantom Report)

Back in 2011, NATO demanded regime change and the immediate removal of Libya’s head of state, Muammar Gaddafi, before bombing Libya into the stone age under the disguise of a “humanitarian intervention”. Back then the rhetoric was über confident, with British PM David Cameron boasting at the time that he would not rule out “the use of military assets”, as Britain “must not tolerate this regime using military forces against its own people”. Back then, the Club of NATO managed to hoodwink the UN Security Council in order to pass one of the most deceptive resolutions in the history of the United Nations. Hungry to decapitate the nation of Libya, western double-talkers insisted that UN Resolution 1973 formed the “legal basis” for military intervention in Libya’s internal conflict. They demanded “an immediate ceasefire” (by the Libyan government, and not the western backed-rebels), and went on to enforce a No-fly Zone, which was simply a transient excuse that would act as cover for a protracted bombing campaign by NATO air forces.

The war finally ended in October 2011, when Libyan leader Gaddafi was publicly executed (under CIA supervision out of camera view), with his body dragged through the streets. The new NATO-installed government’s reputation was stained by the brutal public slaying. British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond even admitted as much, saying at the time, “The fledgling Libyan government will understand that its reputation in the international community is a little bit stained by what happened.” So proud was the US State Department of their apparent accomplishment, that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously described the victory in a few words, “We came, we saw, he died” (followed by a loud cackle). See here statement here:

The current basket case government in Libya was hand-picked NATO, and it’s doing exactly what the West had accused Gaddafi of: using the military against its own people – just like the other NATO-backed regime over in Kiev, Ukraine – using its military against its own people. Back then it seemed urgent enough to beg for a UN resolution and lynch a head of state. Only this time we hear no hollow cries and pedantic shrieks of righteous indignation from heirs Cameron, Hague, Hollande, Kerry, or Obama about either Libya or Ukraine. The hypocrisy of western leaders has never been so stark as it is in 2014.

After Gaddafi’s head was delivered (so to speak) to Brussels and Washington, anarchy quickly became the order of the day, and Libya quickly broke into three separate sub-states.

In addition to bombing Libya in 2011, the US and Britain also armed their favored “rebel forces” in Libya. Those same “rebel forces” in Libya are now fighting NATO’s artificial Vichy government in Libya. With the logistical help (including arms) from the CIA and MI6, many thousands of Libyan rebels traveled to Syria via Turkey (another NATO member) back in late 2011 and early 2012. Some stayed in Syria and Iraq, and some are now fighting with ISIS, while others have returned back to Libya to fight against their puppet regime in Tripoli. The western media are also now reporting that ISIS has entered the conflict zone in Libya, giving the West the perfect pretext for military intervention there. If all this sounds like a classic western-style Mongolian barbeque – that’s because it is.

Back then the usual parade of western “intelligence experts” appeared on TV around the clock, calling these same armed insurgents “Arab Spring protesters”, “democracy activists” and even “rebels”, but now they’re “anti-government forces” or “anti-government militia”. It’s that subtle turn of phrase that’s used a lot these days in the West, utilizing a simple one word prefix that completely changes the narrative of the conflict for western audiences. Is it an uprising, or is it an insurgency? That’s not for you to decide as a US or European news consumer – how it’s characterized will be decided by the US State Department or NATO, who will in turn instruct the newsroom editors at CNN, the BBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, Reuters and others. The whole exercise is designed for one simple reason: to conceal reality from the public, and that reality is normally an illegal covert and undeclared proxy war, being waged by the usual NATO suspects in order to secure long-term transnational corporate and geopolitical goals of the member states.

Back in 2011, the city of Misrata (in Tripolitania) was a flash point as Libya fought against NATO’s proxy rebel army, one of the final battles in a war which would ultimately end in the brutal destruction and dismemberment of a nation state.

Today, we’re drawn back to the conflict theater of Misrata again. So what exactly have we learned in 4 years?

Watch, as Libya becomes Washington’s next focus, in its epic search for the next “good war” in the run-up to the US 2016 Presidential election. Watch as this new narrative is formed by Washington in the coming weeks and months.

The latest phase of a conflict which has no end in sight…

(Photo by Kadir Aksoy, Creative Commons License)

Air Strikes Hit Libya’s Militia-held Misrata for First Time

Middle East Eye

MISRATA – Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognised government have carried out their first air strikes against militia-held third city Misrata on Sunday, a spokesman said.
 
Colonel Ahmed Mesmari said the strikes were in response to a renewed attempt by the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia on Sunday morning to seize the key Al-Sidra oil export terminal.
 
Residents said the air strikes hit the school of aviation close to Misrata airport, the port and a steel plant. There are some reports that a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul had been on the ground preparing for take off when the airport was targeted. Those on board were hurried off the plane but a couple of hours later were allowed to re-board ready to make their journey.

Fajr Libya has been attempting to take Al-Sidra and the nearby Ras Lanuf terminal since Thursday when it killed at least 22 soldiers in a surprise attack by speedboat.
 
Seven of the 19 oil tanks at Al-Sidra were ablaze on Sunday as a result of the fighting, an oil official said…

#LibyaCrisis

Blaze caused by fighting at Libya’s largest oil terminal has destroyed more than 2 days of country’s oil production http://t.co/9wabTv2Kzl

— Mary Fitzgerald (@MaryFitzger) December 29, 2014

#Libya: Impact of bomb from air strike targeting the steel factory this morning in Misrata pic.twitter.com/cb0gVAshMo

— James Wheeler (@wheelertweets) December 28, 2014

Tonight (December 27) at Al-Sidra / Es-Sider, #Libya‘s largest oil terminal pic.twitter.com/a8gTG5AlGK

— James Wheeler (@wheelertweets) December 28, 2014

Since clashes first erupted around the export terminals on 13 December, Libya’s oil production has dropped to less than 350,000 barrels per day compared with 800,000 previously, according to industry experts.

READ MORE LIBYA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Libya Files 

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