Dearest Cynthia McKinney,
Two years ago, you spoke out against Israel’s human rights abuses in Palestine. You were even put in an Israeli prison after your attempts to help deliver medical supplies and humanitarian aid on a ship to Gaza in 2009. For your sacrifices, you gained respect from many Palestinians all over the world.
However, we can’t help but be irked by your recent stance on Libya. It’s fine to be against NATO intervention in Libya. You’re entitled to your own opinion. But to praise Libyan dictator Muammer Gaddafi is completely unacceptable. Anti-intervention shouldn’t equate to whitewashing Gaddafi’s crimes.
Last month, you appeared on Libya State TV, a propaganda organ of the Gaddafi regime. In an interview, you said that the “last thing we need to do is spend money on death, destruction and war… I want to say categorically and very clearly that these policies of war…are not what the people of the United States stand for and it’s not what African-Americans stand for.”
Maybe you could have garnered some legitimacy with that statement if you weren’t speaking on a station run by Gaddafi. Or even better, if you at least offered some recognition that Gaddafi is guilty of perpetrating “death, destruction and war” on his own people.
In the interview, you also claimed you were in Libya on a “fact-finding mission” to “understand the truth.” But Ms. McKinney, you were only in Tripoli, a city under Gaddafi’s control. If you were really on a trip to Libya to see the truth for yourself, why didn’t you go to Benghazi and speak to the opposition movement as well?
Not only that, you praise Gaddafi in the interview, asserting that his Green Book advocates “direct democracy.” You also declare on your Facebook page that Gaddafi was “democratically elected.” Umm, you obviously haven’t met any Libyans before your trip to Tripoli. If you did, you’d know how the majority of Libyans feel about him. And if anything, someone ruling over a country for 42 years should be a hint that they aren’t democratically elected. Claiming that Libyans wanted Gaddafi as a leader is like saying Palestinians asked for Israel to occupy them. It just doesn’t make sense.
Now, you’re on a nationwide speaking tour, Eyewitness Libya: Cynthia McKinney reports back on the Massive Bombing of Tripoli. Also speaking on the tour will be Akbar Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition.
First of all, why aren’t there any Libyans speaking on this tour? Secondly, Nation of Islam? Really? The Nation of Islam has defended Gaddafi since the beginning of the Libyan pro-democracy protests in February. Of course, this is probably because the Libyan government has given the Nation millions of dollars over the years.
Not only are Libyans not invited to speak on your tour about Libya, but in Los Angeles, Libyans have been denied entry into the event itself.
Ms. McKinney, this is truly a disappointment. You support the Palestinians, but you are not supporting the Libyan people in their fight for freedom and dignity. What exactly is your motive? A charitable explanation is that you are just completely naïve to Gaddafi’s atrocities. Another reason is that you might support Gaddafi for ideological reasons, like Chavez or Castro. Or, worst case scenario, you could just be another tool on Gaddafi’s payroll. Whatever the case may be, we are extremely disheartened.
The Palestinian and Libyan peoples are connected, both struggling against state-sponsored brutality and political repression. Palestinians stand in solidarity with our Libyan brothers and sisters in their revolution against Gaddafi, as well as others rising up against oppressive dictatorships in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. The Palestinian movement for human rights, civil rights and equality has been invigorated and inspired by these pro-democratic movements.
Palestinians in Bil'in, West Bank protesting in support of the Libyan opposition movement
Ms. McKinney, your pro-Gaddafi stance is completely hypocritical and contradictory to your support for the Palestinians. Unless you retract your statements supporting Gaddafi, we don’t think you have any business sailing to Gaza again. We refuse to accept opportunistic support from people who advocate for murderers.
Sincerely,
A Group of (Severely) Disappointed Palestinians from Gaza, West Bank, and the US
Dear (Severely) Disappointed Palestinians,
First of all, Brother Gaddafi is not a Middle East Arab, he is a North African Arab and a bona fide African Revolutionary Hero and father of the great Libyan State in it’s present form. You are disapointed by the stance of our great African Sister Cynthia is really a cheap shot. Your great Middle Eastern Leaders with the exception of the late Revolutionary Hero Brother Yasser Arafat, all the rest of them including Kings, Presidents and other Heads of State surrounding your rightful land have ignored your pleas for help and sought to befriend the greatest enemies that mankind has on this earth since the end of World War 2. Brother Gaddafi has done everything for his fellow Libyans, given them security, excellent institutions of learning, medical facilities, pride and a sense of belonging as proud Arabs and even prouder Africans. What have your Middle Eastern leaders done for their citizens other than sell them out for Dollars, ignore the plight of their own citizens as well as those of the Palestinians. Spent their national wealth on wine, women and song in the West while Arabs are living in Poverty. Go see the standard of living in Libya, the Rebels are no better than your corrupt leaders who will rob and steal the future of the Libyans if they ever come into power, the Libyans have the most wonderful state under and the are the most educated and smartest Arabs in MENA. So please, if you ever had a champion it is Brother Gaddafi, a real man and true revolutionary.
You call him “Brother Gaddafi” then you r no different from him , a criminal , a killer and an insane dictator.
Who you call them “rebels” are the libyan ppl who fed up with his crazy chaotic regime who spent billions on some savage african tribes to call him king of kings leaving his ppl suffering poorness and hunger .
????? deluded.
@Global Peace Libya
Excellent reply (it is a really cheap shot in my opinion too).
Well, a rather interesting response to the letter.
1- You call him ‘brother leader’ very early on, clearly establishing that you are not objective on the matter.
2- Gadaffi did not create the Libyan State, not in its current form, nor in any form. Libya existed before Gaddafi, and will exist long after his downfall. The only reason he may be attributed to Libya ‘in its current form’ is because he has been leader for 42 years. An unprecedented number of years to lead a country.
3- You condemn peninsula arab leaders for their links to western governments and how they spend money on material things on their travels to the west. Have you not seen images of Gaddafi meeting European and American leaders in his tent in Libya in recent years? Have you not seen the images of Saif, Saadi, Muaatasim in European nightclubs, drunk, surrounded by women? The images are common all over the public domain. Take the time to look them up.
4- You state that peninsula arab leaders have ‘neglected the plight of their people’. You are correct. But is Gadaffi an exception. Have you been to Tripoli and seen the districts of Hadba Shergeeya, AbuSleem, Hay Alislami, Soug al Jomaa to name only a handful? Is it acceptable that in 2001, in a country with vast oil riches, and after 42 years of trying, that this country still has raw sewage pouring onto streets where children play, that some parts of the capital do not have phone lines or water pipeline? Is this credible leadership?
5- You mention that in Libya there are ‘excellent institutions of learning’. This is nothing short of laughable. Did you know that some libraries in the main uni have no books? Did you know that in other libraries where they have sections for books, you are forbidden to enter these sections? Did you know that corruption in academic institutions is rife, where most lecturers take bribes to allow students to progress, largely because their wages are pathetic, and sometimes delay in receiving these wages sees them without pay for months. Did you know when the ‘brother leaders’ daughter was studying Law in the main uni they banned all males from the law school for the duration of her uni years? So if you were her age, male and wanted to go to law school at tripoli’s main uni….you couldn’t. Tough luck. The ‘brother leader’ says you cant, so you cant.
6- Please tell me i misread your statement that Libya has good ‘medical facilities’? Are you not aware that most Libyans who require specialist care travel to foreign countries to receive this care? some countries FAR poorer than ours, i.e. Tunisia. Such is the market for ‘medical-tourism’ to tunis that there are Libyan-only medical centres. Perhaps you dont know that you cant even get simple things such as the Flu jab in Libya. Its in such low quantities that it runs out within weeks. Perhaps you dont know that when one of my friends passed away with a heart attack the hospital where he was taken (well known) took 15 minutes to find an ECG that worked, and later kept replacing the defibrillator, because they were malfunctioning. Is this not a farce?
7- You talk of our sense of belonging to Africa. Do you not know how much money Gadaffi pumps into africa? Have you not heard of the war with Chad where countless libyans and chadians needlessly died? Do you not know of gaddafis funding of rebel movements around arfica contributing to more bloodshed?
You need to seriously revise your knowledge of the country if you want to be a credible activist for peace, or a worthwhile defender of gadaffi. You are doing him more harm than good by demonstrating your lack of grass roots knowledge.
good luck
Niz
I can find no better words to express what needed to be said. I believe in a free Libya and The Free Generation Movement, and I am grateful for you, Niz Ben-Essa, thank you for all you do and may God watch over you……Inshalla Ameen
Thanks for the excellent response, Niz. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Niz, everything you have said is true. Those who support Qaddafi have no idea of what Libya has been like for the past 42 years under Qaddafi’s rule, and how much the Libyan people have suffered.
The reason why people like Louis Farrakhan and his followers and Cynthia McKinney like and defend Qaddafi is because, at least in the case of Farrakhan, they’ve been given millions and millions of dollars from Qaddafi. Sadly, while Farrakhan was visiting Libya and being feted and given money, the Libyan people were living in poverty. OF COURSE Farrakhan speaks well of Qaddafi and tells his followers how “wonderful” he is (gag, gag, retch).
The health care there is appalling, more like third world than one of the richest oil countries in the world (the only rich people are Qaddafi’s family and cronies!), the roads are terrible, there are no facilities for disabled people, the car accident rate (not to mention the deaths from accidents) is one of the highest in the world, the schools are horrible, unemployment rate is sky high, wages are low-if you get paid at all-and don’t even let me get started on the atrocious human rights record! Thousands of people thrown in prison for nothing, tortured, detained for years, sometimes for decades, murdered…Ordinary, everyday citizens always have to watch what they say, what they do, what they read-oh, I forgot, the choice of reading material is severely restricted by the regime, so only material acceptable to them is allowed.
Why do people who are not Libyan and have never lived in Libya think they have the right to speak about Libya and what’s going on there? We are Libyan, we have lived there, WE know what the truth is-who do you think you’re fooling????
You are right, Niz. I don’t know what is driving this blind support of Gadaffi in certain camps of the Left, but it is severely discrediting to the anti-imperialist cause. Before the challenges to him in Libya began he was totally rehabilitated by those very western leaders who now attack him. So much so that he was whitewashed and forgiven for his virtual admitted sponsorship of the terrorist bombing of the plane over Lockerbee, Scotland, which he paid restitution for. His rehabilitation in the west began with European countries back in the late 1990s, at first it was downplayed, because they wanted the benefits of economic ties. The needs of capitalism were paramount and eventually the US got on board as well. He agreed to the restitution for the bombing to forge those ties.
But aside from that, Gadaffi is a war criminal who ought to have been sitting in the prisoners dock alongside Charles Taylor. He was the principal supporter, providing funds, weapons, and training, of the rebels who brought 11 years of civil war to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Mass destruction of those countries, horrific murders, rapes and amputations were the stock and trade of that conflict whose scars remain, and will long remain. His newfound favor with the west (before the current conflict in Libya) shielded him from having to answer for being a party to these crimes, but the people who suffered the horrors of that conflict have not forgotten.
Any claim that Gadaffi is some king of anti-imperialist champion is a joke. He had his own imperialist ambitions that encompassed much of sub-Saharan Africa, whose corrupt political leaders received his money and favors while doing nothing for their people except send many of them into Libya as guestworkers in low paying jobs.
Well, now he is under attack by the western imperialists who once welcomed him back into the fold, an occasion for some on the left to reinvent him as some kind of revolutionary. This is outrage and an insult to the pantheon of revolutionary leaders. Gadaffi has no place among them.
Perhaps the Left is blinded by their binary ideology that frames anyone the west challenges as a hero. Such simplistic conclusions have no place in a critical analysis of imperialist geo-politics from a radical liberationist perspective or agenda. Keep this in mind, western leaders would have liked to keep him in power since it served their own strategic and economic interests, hence the slow reaction to the early unrest in Libya. But things went beyond the point where that was feasible so they found new opportunity in the revolt and forging ties with its leaders. I do not claim that the rebels are champions of the “people” of Libya or that they should be given moral or political support, but I do know that Gadaffi is a war criminal and dictator on account of his doings in Africa.
Any organization on the Left that casts his support to him is immediately discredited. All I would say to those who do is that most often things do not fall into the easy categories of black and white, “good and bad,” in international politics.
Nice letter, though I think you are being a little too charitable. Forget her words, judge her for her actions. I would like to hear some straight answers from her rather than to see how hard she’s working for her money as dafi’s mouthpiece. There certainly is blood on her hands.
An American friend of mine (not an American Arab by the way) had voted for McKinney in the past. After her recent deplorable shenanigans, he said she will never ever again get his vote. I just keep won,dering whether she is dumb or malignant. In either case, what she is doing can only be destructive to the aspirations of us Libyans for freedom a,nd democracy.
@Global Peace Libya : I feel that you, as well as Cynthia McKinney, are blinded by the word “African”. Gaddafi let you think that he is a true African, friend of Africans and so on, while his opponents are against Africans, mistreat blacks and so on.
Well, it is plainly BULLSHIT. Gaddafi has always maintained to be of Arabic (i.e. Asian) descent and has always denied the very existence of native North-Africans, i.e. Berbers. He has always struggled against them, trying to exterminate them and to eradicate their language and culture.
In these days he has used African immigrants stranded in Tripoli, compelling them to embark on small vessels in order to make pressure on Italy, well knowing that many of them were going to die in shipwreck – as it happened.
Gaddafi and his family are the worst kind of racists and treated black servants as slaves. Here two links to an article where a former servant of Gaddafi’s son tells how he was mistreated and tortured by this sadistic family:
http://www.alintibaha.net/arabic/news.php?action=view&id=6314
http://www.alintibaha.net/arabic/news.php?action=view&id=6313
My African friends of Jebel Nefusa have quite a different opinion of this “brother” of yours. Please, open your eyes and you’ll change your mind if you are honest.
Obviously she went there with inly one goal in her mind , to profit as much as possible from the blood of the Libyan ppl , to me she is not different from any mercenary fighting with the dictator today .
If she is really looking for the truth , a simple visit to Misrata will explain it all , but she is nothing more than a greedy money seeking hypocrite.
“Brother Gaddafi has done everything for his fellow Libyans..” Indeed he has, we witness it every day in various forms of mayhem, as we have experienced it in various other forms for over four decades
“given them security..” Yes, the type of security that is an unitended byproduct of the tight security he has established to keep himself in power. But Libyans never felt secure if they just wanted to express their mind, and every window and door on every house has metal bars.
“excellent institutions of learning..” where many college graduates cannot compose a proper letter in Arabic, let alone in English, both students and teachers complain of the pitiful quality of education, and where medical students study microbiology without a microsccope in sight.
“medical facilities..” from which patients flee to Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt and various European countries to seek proper treatment.
“a sense of belonging as proud Arabs..” That has been there before he came and will be there after he departs.
“and even prouder Africans..” One thing Libyans certainly do not feel is African. Libyans feel as much African as a Nigerian or Zambian feels Arab.
If you honestly believe what you write, you should educate yourself in the matter. If not, you really should desist from from such dishonorable behavior.
****Another reason is that you might support Gaddafi for ideological reasons, like Chavez or Castro.****
I just thought I should comment on this. Neither Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez have come out in ‘support’ of Gaddafi. All they did was emphasize that the civil war is an internal matter for Libyans to resolve and asked for Libya’s sovereignty to be protected, while opposing any NATO imperialist intervention.
As for the article and the responses it is engendering, I think there are problems on both ends. Of course, McKinney’s praise for Gaddafi is utterly ridiculous. The man is not a revolutionary in any way-at least, he hasn’t been one for a long long time. Gaddafi is not even consistently anti-imperialist: less then two years ago his security forces were being trained in the UK by the very same British imperialists who now bomb Tripoli. Libya has simply become another decrepit Middle Eastern military dictatorship with some stale, empty ‘revolutionary’ rhetoric sprinkled on top, which still seems to fool some people. I’m going to be charitable and assume that McKinney is being really, really stupid.
Having said that, I think people need to be a lot more critical of the Libyan rebels then they are. Whatever they were in the beginning, the rebels have essentially become mercenaries for NATO. This is no longer like Egypt or Tunisia where the regimes were toppled from within by indigenous, grassroots movements. The rebellion owes its continued existence to NATO and will be a compliant puppet for foreign powers if it does succeed in taking power ultimately.
And unlike the previous uprisings in which progressive forces such as women’s groups, peasants organizations, and labor unions played an important role, and openly communicated their demands with the outside world, we still have no clear idea at all what these rebels are fighting for. As awful as Gaddafi is, how do we know that the rebels represent anything better? How do we know this isn’t some tribal conflict? Or that these are Islamic fundamentalists? In addition to obvious fact that this rebellion is being openly supported and subsidized by foreign powers who are using the revolt for their own ends, what do supporters of the rebellion make of the reports of black workers being lynched in public in rebel-held Benghazi? Or the fact that the rebels set up a bank tied to the IMF back in March, less then a month after the revolt began??
You bring up a number of points about the “rebels”, but the you have a starting point to obtain answesr to each “how do we know X?”, ask a Libyan. See what they think. Ask them what the NTC represents. Ask them the tough questions of accountability. What is the vision for Free Libya, will they accept a new government that rules like Gaddafi rules? Will they accept anything short of a representative government?
You can’t dismiss the people fighting Gaddafi because of your ignorance.
Barry I think you make a good point about the rebels coming under the control of imperialism. However that is not to say that the fighters are imperialist ‘mercenaries’. If that were the case they would be armed and paid by imperialism. In fact most of the rebels benefit only from NATO bombing of Gaddafi’s forces which is calculated to bring the TNC to power. They do almost all of the fighting with inadequate weapons recovered from Gaddafi or from their own sources. This is evident in their heavy losses. This is what makes it possible to oppose imperialism, Gaddifi and the TNC leadership, and at the same time support the rebels armed struggle. The test will be whether or not the rebel fighters are able to win and maintain their independence from both Gaddafi and the TNC alternative government and the respective imperialist backers of these regimes.
Why Libyans would be opposed to the NTC? I think you’re another misguided one who has no idea what is going on in Libya. The Libyans who support the revolution also support the NTC and its members. You just need to listen to the common people. It’s not unconditional support of course. But in general they trust the new leadership. Comparing the Gaddafi regime to the NTC is ridiculous.
It seems that everybody is trying to create divisions among the oppositions forces. The ‘rebels’ are everybody, the fighters that are in the front line, the people celebrating their victories, the women that are organizing themselves, the people preparing food for the fighters, the artists and musicians who express creatively their opposition to Gaddafi, the new breed of journalists, the members of the NTC, and many more.
In this context I believe it is important to keep some differences between Tunisia, Egypt and then Libya:
When people started to protest and voice their demands/wishes in the streets in both Tunisia and Egypt the army maintained its unity and refused to take orders to shoot at the people. Ben Ali fled and Mubarak was pushed from power (it still remains to be seen where these revolutions end though).
In Libya Gaddafi had fragmented the army and had built loyalty in privileged parts headed by his sons. Therefore when the Libyans started to protest they were meat with gunfire from the start, and even though large parts of the army defected or sided with the people the regime maintained control of the major part of the military hardware. And the loyal core-structure of the army has been refitted with unknown numbers of mercenaries – some highly skilled, but most mere canon fodder flown in from Chad, Mali, Niger and other mainly African countries.
To ask of the Libyans to stay non-violent in such an environment is asking too much.
The rest is history, but I’m curious to know any suggestions to an alternative to the now NATO lead intervention(?).
If you do some research you’ll find proclamations of democratic and human rights intentions that – if made to happen – should satisfy you. But the uncertainty about how a free Libya is going to develop is unavoidable.
The “what’s with the bank” question has been raised by Russia Today and the Palestine Times (or something like that) + some US right wing figure. It is seen a an indication of US being behind the uprising (in the RT and PT versions) to avoid Libya leading Africa to establish an alternative currency system with the gold dinar. I don’t remember where the american went with it. But since the eastern part of the country has to function as a society during this fight it needs an institution to handle the financial sector.
Bjorn:
I have no problems with armed resistance. What concerns me is what the rebels are taking up the gun FOR.
And actually, no, proclamations about ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ don’t satisfy me at all, those are just meaningless phrases with no content behind them. When Egyptian trade unionists talk about building independent working class power that will fight structural economic inequalities in their society, that gives me confidence that the uprising could lead to something more then just an exchange of masters. I cannot speak for the rank and file of the rebels in Libya, but from what I read and hear there is every indication that the rebel leadership are nothing but pawns of the NATO powers who will completely open up Libya’s oil wealth to foreign multinationals even more then Ghaddafi did.
You don’t think there is anything weird about the bank? Have you heard of any rebel force in history that has set up its own bank before it has even taken power?
[...] Source Yansoon [...]
How sad that while NATO is turning Libya into another Iraq, there are Palestinians who have fallen for the anti-Gaddafi propaganda. Libya under Gaddafi was the most prosperous country in Africa. There were no homeless people in Libya. There were no poor people in Libya.
The so-called “rebels” are CIA stooges trying to help the US grab Libya’s oil and selling out their own people. If NATO succeeds in ousting Gaddafi, Libya will be turned into another open air prison like Palestine where the occupiers are free to arrest and kill anyone at any time. Siding with the oppressors won’t gain you points and could cost you some of your supporters. I’m not supporting Palestinian rights just so that ignorant Palestinians can become yet another racist fascist nation.
As a US citizen I support Palestine and I support Gaddafi. If you force me to choose between the two causes, I’ll stick with Gaddafi because he has done more for people of color and the poor than anyone else in Africa. Watch this video and learn the truth from Minister Farrrakhan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNLqQ2cN-PA
The so-called rebels (what they made is not a revolution, but a coup d’etat followed by a civil war, because their weakness) had detained, tortured and killed dozens if not hundreds of black people, lybians, chadians, nigerians, etc… who were workers, and whose only crime was the colour of their skin. Shame on that terrorist racist so-called rebels. The presence of Al-Qaeda members in the so-called rebels is well known by the NATO and the Western countries, but it seems that it doesnt scare dem. Curious that the same ones who were enemies in Irak or Afghanistan are now friends in Lybia. The thing is clear: As the USA, Europe and the Gulf states saw the rising of the Arab peoples in Western Sahara, in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Yemen, etc… they feel scared, so they decided to penetrate them revolutions with the aim of anullating them, by starting the war in Lybia. Probably, in part they succeed, as nowadays the triumph of the revolution is not clear neither in Tunisia, Egypt or Yemen. SHAME ON YOU, USA, EUROPE AND GULF STATES, YOU ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS.
I wonder where Castellano takes his informations. About the way of treating black people by the “brother” Gaddafy, much worse and systematic than any episode in free Libya, see my previous post above. As to Al-Qaeda, I still haven’t seen one, nor did NATO. They are so scared of them that they surely verified a lot this matter. Moreover, I give you another piece of information, that you maybe miss. The Berber Libyans who are fighting against Gaddafi (in the regions of Jabal Nefusa and Zuwara) are Ibadite muslims (Ibadism is a third branch of Islam, along with Sunnis and Shiites), while Al-Qaeda is a strictly Sunni sect. It is simply impossible for them to belong to Al-Qaeda!
He probably gets his information from Libya State TV or from that pathetic clown called Moussa Ibrahim! Not very reliable sources by any stretch!
[...] Yansoon This entry was posted in Editorials and tagged Cynthia McKinney. Bookmark the permalink. [...]
@Barry Lyndon
****”How do I know…?”****
OMG! Look around! There are tons of vids everywhere full of imgs of rebels, who often explain what they are, what they will and what they are doing. No one says “we support this or that tribe”, no one says “we want to impose sharia (the Islamic law)”, no one says “we are paid or commanded by NATO”. All they want is freedom. It’s not so difficult to understand.
I feel that you, like almost all “western” observers are still conditioned by “orientalism”, which makes “westerners” deeply convinced that “oriental” peoples are not like us. That ultimately they are fatalistic, lazy, unconcerned by matters as individual freedom and human rights, just capable of riots and unrest but not of a true “revolution”.
Open your eyes: they are just like you and me, they are struggling and fighting for an ideal, for a truly free and democratic Libya. A point that I have often heard in these days in many discourses by Libyans is this: “we have had a glimpse of what freedom means and now we can no longer get back. We better die than come back to an era when fear made us accept this unbearable lack of freedom”.
An interesting fact which is rarely stressed by those who speak of “freed” Libya, is the dramatic increase of free media: newspapers, radios, TV. Even in the small area of Jebel Nefusa, where the Berber minority lives, there have appeared several magazines and newspapers both in Arabic and in Berber. When my father tells me what was the most striking change in Italy after the fall of fascism, he says that it was the incredible number of newspapers which suddenly appeared, with the most heterogeneous ideas, after two decades of uniform regime press. I feel that facts like these are more convincing that words.
This woman is an epic moron! She’s interested in the truth yet she goes and support a loon who likes to cover the truth by not allowing freedom of speech or any media press that is not run by their family – it’s so sad many would listen to this woman’s delusion in regards to Libya. Her ignorance would have many more Libyans killed, ofcourse everyone wants peace but who’s peace is she referring to? Gadaffi’s peace of mind?
She needs to get her facts straight and live in the real world where sometimes people have to defend themselves in order to gain freedom and fight for their lives – these Libyan people are sacrificing their lives, their friends and their families for that very reason and the audacity of her to show her face on the Libyan State TV is a slap on the face to many. It’s amazing what people would do for attention and she certainly did just that – so damn sad!
Ms. Mckinney dumped her career in the trash after receiving some great deal of money from the Gaddafi family and this is absolutely certain, time will tell.
Gaddafi will go down no matter what, then people who supported him will stop getting money, then maybe they will see the truth (even though they see it now, but blinded by his money)
People like her make me sick to my stomach. Cheap, with nothing to truly stand for.
what do the ‘palestinians’ think of this?!
===============================
A Palestinian family of four was killed in a NATO airstrike Monday on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ministry explained in a statement published Tuesday on the government news agency Wafa, that the International Red Crescent Association had relayed the news.
The family, according to Wafa’s report, had lived in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, before moving to Tripoli.
Palestinian ambassador to Libya Atif Udah told Ma’an radio the family was in a three-story building targeted by a NATO air attack. He identified the victims as Abdullah Muhammad Ash-Shihab, his wife Karima and his 6-month-old twins Khalid and Jumanah.
He noted that President Mahmoud Abbas asked the foreign ministry and the embassy in Libya to send a protest note to NATO, the Red Cross, and the UN.
Earlier in June, Ma’an spoke to the PA’s Minister of Interior Sa’id Abu Ali about the status of Palestinian communities in Arab countries experiencing revolutions, such as Yemen and Libya.
He said that there was a special military committee that monitors Palestinian communities and provides help in moving them to safer areas.
Libyan officials reported that 15 civilians were killed on Monday in a NATO airstrike on Tripoli.
The treaty organization has been carrying out strikes against Libya since May, assisting rebel forces calling for the ouster of the country’s leader Mommar Gadhafi.
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m78832&hd=&size=1&l=e
I’m a westerner living in Denmark and I support my government and their decisions. Denmark have four airplanes above Libya flying missions two times every day. I’m so proud of my country’s contribution to the efforts to topple Gaddafi.
I’ve followed the Libyan revolution since day one. I simply don’t get people outside Gaddafi occupied territories supporting Gaddafi. You have all the access you could ever want to information about the war. Go to Facebook, go to Youtube, go to Twitter. Everytime I have a question about Libya I ask a Libyan on Twitter. They always happily reply.
Gaddafi claims following:
1. I’m loved by my people.
2. NATO are imperialists who don’t follow the UN RES 1973.
3. The rebels are drugged youngsters (Shabab), Alqaida and rats.
4. I have only done good for Libya
1. If you are loved by you people, how come they got so mad that they not only rose against you, but took control of more than half the country and are organizing them selves to a coordinated effort on three fronts? Only with one purpose (at the moment): to topple you.
If you are loved by the people, why do you bomb Misratha, Zintan, Nalut, Ajdabiyah and many other cities indiscriminately with grad missiles, mortars and howitzers? Thousands of unarmed civilians, women and children have died because of Gaddafis relentless revenge bombing campaign.
If you are loved by the people, why did you give your soldiers orders to mistreat every prisoner? There’s so much evidence that Gaddafi troops deliberately are mistreating POW’s in the most horrible ways. And a lot points in the direction that it is based on orders from above – not privates letting out steam.
If you are loved by the people, why don’t you let them demonstrate? The only reason Libyans decided to pick up arm was that you shot them when they went to the streets.
If you are loved by the people, why don’t you speak the truth? Why are the journos at Rixos held as prisoners? Why not let them go to Misratha and Zintan? Why not let them speak to whoever they like?
2. I don’t get the buzzword “imperialist”. What does that even mean? When Benghazi was invaded and nobody else cared, western diplomats worked around the clock to get UN RES 1973. In the nick of time french fighters destroyed Gaddafis invasion force at the gates of Benghazi. Events in Misrata and Nafusa mountains have shown that without NATO help thousand of Gaddafi tanks, grads, ammunition stores, communication facilities and other weapon systems would still be intact and personally I doubt whether the Libyan freedom fighters would have been able to withstand his might on their own. Also without the NATO involvement it would be much easier for Gaddafi to get reinforcements, supplies and fuel across the borders and through his harbors.
In witch way are NATO imperialistic? By defending civilians? By doing everything they can to avoid civilian casualties? By not setting economic demands to NTC? (NATO is everyday spending millions of dollars that the respectable countries taxpayers have to pay and have made no demand of refund.)
Somebody please tell me in witch way NATO are imperialistic.
3. The third one is laughable. First of all, the idea that a couple of drugged youngsters have kept a party going for four month and during this party they have taken control of more than half of Libya, organized coordinated attacks from Wazin to Brega, has established a functioning temporary government, have gained control of a lot of embassies across the world. I don’t want to elaborate anymore. The argument are a complete failure.
Then the revolution should be led by Alqaida. This is how simple it is. If that was true, NATO would pull out right this minute. I have seen tonnes of videos on youtube, twitter and elsewhere from the liberated areas. There’s no sign of any religious extremism – what I find a bit surprising hence Libya is a very conservative country.
Then there’s the rat-thing… Who’s the one hiding in a sewer?
4. For 42 years Gaddafi has exploited Libya for his and his families personal gain. A lot of his neglect has been described elsewhere. Poor roads, healthcare, educational system, infrastructure and so on. What I noticed in the first days of the revolution was that 1.5 million foreign worker fled Libya. What where 1.5 million foreign workers doing in a country with a unemployment rate of 30%? When Benghazi was liberated, for a short time they faced a hunger problem, because no Libyans where able to operate the machinery at the bakeries. They has all been foreign workers.
The future will tell us, whether I’m right or not, but right now I’m convinced that the high number of foreign workers in Libya was a deliberate attempt from Gaddafi to keep the country in poverty and ignorance.
So to you people who believe in Gaddafi. Why? You can’t prove a single word of what you’re saying. You know Gaddafi is lying. You know he is terrorizing his own people through indiscriminate bombing. You know he’s torturing thousands of Libyans. Why do you defend this guy?
[...] open letter originally appeared on the blog Yansoon. The authors of this piece are a group of 5 Palestinian youth in the US, Gaza and the West Bank who [...]
My rather extended family is in Tripoli. Is there a chance that the bombing could injure one or more of them? I’ve been aware of that from the beginning. Do I want the bombing to stop? Absolutely not. Am I insane? Certainly not. I know reliably that that is the sentiment of the majority of the population of Tripoli. The bombing is a real misery, but it is the only hope that could save us from a far greater country-wide catastrophe.
@ ME Smith: As a Libyan, the idea of informing myself through Farrakhan is, to say the least, ludicrous. As a matter of fact, it is ludicrous for anyone to get information on this subject from him: he has reveived too much money from Gaddafi in the past.
I am sick and tired of people who know nothing about the Libyan situation and who live in a separate reality lecturing us about it.
You “know reliably” that the majority of Tripoli want the bombing to continue?
What utter, laughable nonsense.
Do yourself a favor, actually go and meet a Libyan.
Find a libyan at a local mosque or look up a Libyan community group and just talk to them. This isn’t a trick, you can easily do this.
If you are really this surprised to hear these statements, you’ll learn a lot.
Ask them how their families back in Libya feel, how they are dealing with the issues we are arguing. If you care about Libyans, you wouldn’t be averse to doing this.
It is a form of arrogance to profess to speak on behalf of Libyans without even bothering to meet a few. Even more insulting to dismiss the words of actual Libyans.
It is usually hard to make sense of obsessed and hate driven people.
Do you really believe such an evident bullshit? That’s purely science fiction. If you believe this, you can accept every story this bloody nutcase tells you. A galactic conspiracy by UFOs would be more credible.
Yasoon is unashamedly pro-war with respect to Libya, and this anonymous letter from unknown ‘disappointed Palestinians’ raises more questions than it answers.
It’s doing a damn good job of marginalising McKinney. She is the only high profile person giving the Libyans a voice, a voice that the Americans/NATO do not want to be heard. Considering that this letter reads like it was written by Hillary Clinton, I think we should be very cautious.
http://empirestrikesblack.com/2011/06/a-note-on-the-disappointed-palestinians/
So, McKinney “is the only high profile person giving the Libyans a voice”? How? Keeping Libyans out of her meetings?
Does she speak in the name of the people you see in these vid, killed by a high profile cockroach last February in Libya?
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everwyere”-MLK
For the Arab/African Spring to bear fruit,we as human beings must condem killing anywhere and EVERYWHERE. We cannot with a clear conscience chose to support a dictator because he helped you or hate another because he didn’t. Yes,Gadaffi did alot to build the country. But Sister McKinney,he is killing his own people for simply expressing a grievance non-violently. Not to mention the massive wealth stripped of that country by Gaddafi,most of which benefited Europe. Gadaffis best chums were Blair and Berlusconi. All repressive regimes,whether they are in Syria,Iran,Yemen,Saudi Arabia or Israel must be scrutinized under the same microscope. Thats Democracy.
I oppose the western military intervention in Libya because I support the independence of the revolution. Despite all my disagreements with those who welcomed the West – and they are many – the blame for this war is with Gaddafi and his regime.
Those who deny, or attempt to whitewash, the scale and brutality of this regime, and the ferocious and savage attack on civilians and peaceful demonstrations, simply reinforce that feeling among many Libyans that they have no choice but subjugate their revolution to the needs of western powers.
The articles in Yansoon are part of a debate about the future directions of the Arab revolutions – anti- and pro- western intervention. This is a real debate among people who have grasped the difficulties faced by the revolutions, and its dangers. There is certainly no place for those who seek to justify, deny or excuse, the actions of a despotic mass murderer.
I hope to continue the arguments with those who support intervention, as a debate between people who think the revolution is worth fighting for. To justify or excuse Gaddafi’s actions, or paint him as some kind of anti-imperialist hero, is in my opinion, beyond comprehension.
In the 90′s there were many Iraqi patriots who fervently wished and worked for the overthrow of Hussein by the Iraqi people and opposed the destruction of their country by U.S. imperialism. Now I am stuck on the question, how could any patriotic person ask for NATO bombs to rain down on the heads of their own people?
I will certainly be accused of being a Qaddafi supporter for even asking the question but that is not the case. What I am is an anti-imperialist. I don’t think that imperialist control of Libya is good for Egypt, Tunisia and certainly not Palestine. Those NATO/US bombs destroying Tripoli are not free. I think it’s a little disingenuous to act as though this is a simple question.
That’s probably the easiest question to answer. There was a 4km long line of tanks, APCs and soldiers minutes away from Benghazi. Gaddafi had just finished given yet another speech promising to cleanse Libya of all those who oppose him.
He was in the process of attacking other cities who had rose up against him.
Pilots of his defected, informing the international community of their orders to bomb their fellow countrymen.
Libyans had no choice but to ask for help from the international community. Arabs passed the buck to the UN.
The way you present the story, you make it seem like one day Libyans woke up and called NATO.
The request was for protection from soldiers who have shown they have no problem targeting civilians.
Keep your scepticism. History makes it relevant to be on the alert. But besides the latest (insert some negative words here) war in Iraq there are other examples – like Bosnia and Kosovo – of humanitarian motivated military interventions.
In this case like E.E. I think it’s necessary to consider the alternative (and please find my short description of the military situation in my earlier comment).
Is the bombs for free. No they are paid by taxpayers in the coalitions countries. And what do they want in return? A better world would be a nice price to most I think…if Libya together with Tunisia and Egypt + others disproves the Islamophobes here it will be worth a lot.
I’m aware that huge business interests are at stake as well, but I don’t see Libya loosing it’s chances of independence as a consequence of the military intervention.
Bombing of Bosnia and Kosovo was a humanitarian mission?? You gotta be kidding.. Have a look at this, and open your eyes please..
@ Leelola
“Now I am stuck on the question, how could any patriotic person ask for NATO bombs to rain down on the heads of their own people?”
That is a good and honest question. I will suggest the two hypothetically possible answers. One is that all those Libyans who are calling for the bombing to continue, those living in the Libyan east or the Libyan west or abroad, young and old, men and women, laborers, fighters, teachers, engineers, dressmakers, university professors, shopkeepers, journalists, bakers and students are not patriots. The other is that they have reasons that are difficult for the outsider to understand. Try to accept the second answer at least as a possibility. Most likely, there is not a single Libyan family that has not had at least one memebr killed, injured or imprisoned by Gaddafi’s forces since February alone. I never, not in my wildest nightwares, imagined that I could possibly take the position that I have, but asking for the bombing to stop is tantamount to asking Libyans to line up for the massacre.
“I will certainly be accused of being a Qaddafi supporter for even asking the question but that is not the case. What I am is an anti-imperialist.”
Your honesty precludes the possibility of accusing you of that. As for imperialism, Arabs in general, including Libyans, are very much aware and wary of hidden agendas. We are well aware of several possible agendas NATO might have in mind. But here again, our situation is so dire that getting rid of Gaddafi over-rides all other concerns for the time being.
@ Another Libyan
I can see that your position is sincere and the situation is clearly a difficult one from a Libyan perspective. I presume you would agree that the situation would have been better if people had been strong enough to succeed by themselves.
I must speak from where I am, an activist in the U.S. anti-war movement. I hold to the politics of consistent anti-imperialism and the idea that to support independence and liberation we have to oppose foreign intervention especially by the U.S. If I am being asked to hold a sign supporting the bombing of Libya, and from the comments I suspect that I am. I cannot, to do so would violate my most deeply held principles.
Is the goal getting rid of Qaddafi or is it an independent Libya? I would argue that the imperialists do not intervene for humanitarian reasons, pretty much ever. Imperialism will be happy to rain bombs on those who act somewhat independently from them, like Hugo Chavez, while leaving their friends like Al Khalifah alone. If Qaddafi is overthrown by the barrel of NATO’s gun, how can an independent Libya be constructed? Are there positive examples that one can look to?
I know I am going over old ground and I am saying nothing that you haven’t considered. Please don’t think me to be arrogant, I ask these question to better understand your position.
Of course Imperialists never act on other than Imperialist motives – if they did they wouldn’t be genuine Imperialists.
@ Leelola
Now I am stuck on a question too, but I’ll come to that in the end. First, I’ll try to answer you following the flow of your post.
Indeed it would have been far better if Libyans can do it on their own, but that is wishful thinking. Once the events started (initially related to protests demanding full information about 1200 prisoners who were mowed down in one day inside a prison years ago, something the Gaddafi government acknowledges grudgingly), they had one of three ways they could have proceeded. One was to stop as soon as killing of unarmed civilians on the streets began, the other was to continue unarmed with massive numbers of deaths and injuries, as well as imprisonments, only to be forcibly silenced some days later and to be followed by indescribable violent oppression, and the third is to take the path that it did. We can speculate with hindsight on what would have been better, that is easy, but in reality we are here, and where we are we cannot possibly succeed alone, and stopping does not mean going back to how things were before.
I have always had respect for antiwar movements. When Nixon was president, on several occasions I participated with American friends in the US against the Vietnam war. Much later, I participated in demonstrations against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and against the Israeli “incursion” into Gaza. I have never been a supporter of military solutions. I am not gung ho. But one can never negate the right to defend oneself, even by force, or to accept any form of assistance when one is under terminal oppression. Considering the age of Gaddafi, would it have been better to wait until he died? I would answer yes, except that Gaddafi has been setting up a dynasty with several sons waiting on the bench. To accept a fate like that stands against the dignity of Man. Should we have hoped in resignation that his sons would turn out to be better? The branches of a tree all bear the same fruit. We see that in Syria.
Our goal is an independent Libya where people enjoy the ordinary freedoms so many people in the West enjoy take for granted, but this can never be accomplished in the presence of Gaddafi. As removing Gaddafi is an indispensible means, it becomes a goal in its own right. I agree with you that “the imperialists do not intervene for humanitarian reasons, pretty much ever.” I also agree that the future of a Gaddafi-free Libya is not clear, but we have high hopes and strong determination. Are there positive examples? No, and for a good reason. Can you find an example of the Libyan situation? There is no case in which the representative of a government asked the Security Council, with widespread blessing from his country’s population, for military intervention in his own country. No other country has seen the extent of defections among ambassadors and other diplomats, top level civil servants and military personnel. No intervention has received such widespread support from the people: in Tripoli they go on rooftops to cheer when the bombs fall. That bit is not from correspondents, but from personal contacts. Libya is a unique situation, and that is why so many outsiders find it dumbfounding, and I cannot give an example of the outcome of an ongoing unique event. But are we Libyans to be denied the opportunity to create a better life for our children because Western nations have their own agendas and we cannot demonstrate that our endeavor will be successful. It would have been more merciful not to initiate the no-fly zone and allow Gaddafi to finish up the uprising then than to withdraw now, because the consequences of stopping the war would be far more catastrophic.
Finally, I come to the question with which I am stuck. You want the war to stop. But do you have any solutions for how the internal Libyan situation can be handled to the benefit of the people? Holding elections in the presence of Gaddafi, as his son has suggested, is certainly not an option. You anti-war principles are to be admired, but I feel certain that the consequences of stopping this war will violate other principles every anti-war activist holds dear. Should one hold immutably to anti-war activities in a particular context even if that means quashing the aspirations of millions and condemning them to life as chattel?
I appreciate this exchange of ideas.
[...] News, opinion and analysis on the Middle East and North Africa, primarily from a young, progressive Arab perspective. BlogAboutContactComment Policy « Open Letter to Gaddafi Supporter Cynthia McKinney from Disappointed Palestinians [...]
For all those who think that Gaddafi is crushing a terrorist putsch, please have a look at this link:
http://feb17martyrs.com/
To all the Libyans posting here who think NATO bombing will lead to good things, I have Iraqi relatives who found Saddam Hussein’s rule so unbearable they thought that the US invasion in 2003 was preferable to the continuance of his rule. Look at Iraq 8 years later- the infrastructure destroyed, over a million people dead, children being born deformed in cities like Fallujah because of depleted uranium of US shells, entire neighborhoods depopulated from ethnic cleansing by rival sectarian militias. At this point it will take decades, generations perhaps, for Iraq to be anything resembling a functional society. US imperialism has actually succeeded in making life for the people of Iraq much worse then it was under Saddam Hussein, and that is quite an accomplishment.
I can’t make the point any more emphatically- calling in imperialism to help you with ousting Ghaddafi is like calling in the Mafia to help you rid your neighborhood of the local thugs. It might help you in the short term, but in the long term they will come demanding their pound of flesh. And they are not going to leave once they get in the door.
For all those who think that the so-called “rebels” are fighters for democracy and liberty, please see this link:
http://www.obamaslibya.com/
Sometimes the truth is ugly…
It seems that the reply of Empirestrikesblack hurted Yansoon, dont you think?
I’m just going to leave this here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/amnesty-questions-claim-that-gaddafi-ordered-rape-as-weapon-of-war-2302037.html
Apparently supporters of the rebels(and the rebels themselves) like to make shit up.
She holds the same position toward Ahmadinejad and even went to dinner with him in NYC together with more than a hundred other so called progressives. After all the brutal crimes of the Iranian government against Iranian people, and the aggressive neoliberal economic policies they are pursuing, this position is collaboration and support of these crimes. The fact that these people call themselves leftist and cannot distinguish between ultra right and left, is just pathetic.
Read more: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/683/solidarity-and-its-discontents
Hi, we’re almost finished with this month of August, and I have been reading discussions on the conflict. I so appreciate all of the info coming from people within and outside of the conflict but primarily from those directly affected by it. I hope you have all survived the continuing violence, and I send my hopes and prayers for you and for your huge challenge now to build a free Libya, with, hopefully, the representative govt of your choice. Strength to you in rebuilding after war. I can’t imagine a more difficult task, caught between regimes and lacking basic services and infrastructure, and the availability of your own countries money. Who will you emulate? Who will follow to emulate you? Peace to you and thanks for educating the ignorant.