Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
October 5, 2011
Imperialist Pot Calls Imperialist Kettle Black

For the imperial war on Libya Qatar provided the propaganda via Al Jazeerah, it provided the crucial Arab League request for a "no-fly zone", its Special Force troops –like the Egyptians, French, British and Bulgarian- trained the rebels. Quatar took care of the oil the rebels wanted to sell and gave them money, it also provided lots of arms, Belgian FN assault rifles and Milan anti-tank missiles, to the rebels and its air-force took part in the bombing of the country.

Now it wants a say in what happens next in the "new" Libya.

But here it gets funny. "Western" imperialists do not like other imperialists, especially not darker skin Muslim imperialists in funny garbs, to do as they do.

Which brings us to this rather comical Guardian piece:

Qatar accused of interfering in Libyan affairs
Western diplomats say Arab state is bypassing international agreements, to pursue its own agenda.

The tiny Arab emirate of Qatar, a leading supporter of the revolution in Libya, has been accused by western diplomats of interfering in the country's sovereignty.

The claims come amid growing concern among Libyans in the National Transitional Council (NTC) and western officials that Qatar, which supplied arms to Libyan revolutionaries, is pursuing its own postwar agenda at the cost of wider efforts to bring political stability to the country.

A senior diplomat said: "There is a question now about what foreign players like Qatar are doing in Libya – whether it is being helpful and respectful of Libyan sovereignty. "Qatar is not being respectful, and there is a feeling that it is riding roughshod over the issue of the country's sovereignty."

One might think this is satire fresh out of The Onion. How could anyone dare to interfere in Libya's sovereignity? Such is just unthinkable!

But that "senior diplomat", after having broken the UN resolutions on Libya on several issues, after having ignored the sovereignty of Libya in all aspects and after having bombed the Libyan people, seems serious in this.

All foreign powers with an interest in Libya, among which are the US, Britain and France, have had their own agendas. However, the source said: "There is a feeling that Qatar has been providing money and support to certain individuals."

But that is exactly what the other countries have done as well. The National Transitional Council is filled with expats from Washington, London and Paris, financed by the various secret services of those countries.

The guy Qatar is accused of supporting is no other than Abdelhakim Belhadj, former CIA prisoner and freed from jail by Saif al-Islam Gaddhafi. Belhaj, commanding a large gang of experienced folks from his Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is currently the military commander of Tripoli.

At the centre of concerns are allegations that, rather than supporting the NTC, Qatar has chosen to back favoured key figures with financial and other resources. Most prominent among these would be the Islamist head of Tripoli's military council, Abdul-Aziz Belhaj.

The CIA abducted and tortured Belhaj and then provided him to Gaddhafi who kept him in jail for some years before he got freed. How come those "western" countries would object to this guy now? Is someone afraid of revenge?

Of particular concern over the last month has been how Qatar has chosen to throw its weight behind a group of Libyan individuals including Sheikh Ali Salabi, a Libyan cleric who resides in Doha and has close relations with Belhaj.

There has been the growing friction between Salabi and the NTC's interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril. Salabi has appeared on television to suggest Jibril is a "tyrant in waiting".

Salabi may be right on that.

He is, by the way, the senior cleric that brokered the deal between the senior LIFG leadership, including Bejhaj, and Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, for their release from prison. I would not be astonished to learn that Salabi is still in contact with Seif al Islam Gaddhafi.

Comments

Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

Posted by: dh | Oct 5 2011 18:09 utc | 1

there is more to it
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/05/world/africa/libya-anti-gadhafi-divisions/
looks like tripoli and western mountains are not fighting in Sirte for some reason, NTC still gives press conferences from Benghazi not Tripoli, I hear there is a Libyan group in Egypt waiting for every potential leader to be dead or exhausted to take over (they deserve to take over they are the most intelligent, unfortunately for them NATO seems to have a similar plan).

Posted by: somebody | Oct 5 2011 18:53 utc | 2

Abdelhakim Belhadj and his ally Ali Salabi controls Tripoli, he is still not transferring power to NTC

Posted by: nikon | Oct 5 2011 22:21 utc | 3

Personally, I think that if you invite foreigners in to help you, as the NTC did in Libya, you expose yourself to all sorts of machinations, in this case, conflicts between helpers.
Every foreign intervention is done for reasons in their own country. Many say here it is for oil; me, I think it was done by Sarkozy and Cameron for political credit: the electoral credit of the war hero.
Of course wars don’t turn out how you expect. I doubt that Cameron and Sarkozy will gain much.
Perhaps it was that they didn’t want to lose, by allowing another Srebenica. It may be that Qaddafi didn’t actually kill that many, but the blood-curdling threats from the son, Saif al-Islam, are there on video. The NTC had no choice but to invite in the foreigners.
But there is a price to pay. You invite in the foreigners, i.e. NATO, and they decide your future.
So far, it doesn’t seem too bad for the NTC. If they can get themselves together, the future is open. They can negotiate oil contracts as they wish.
If, however, they fall into confusion, the oil companies will exploit any weakness.

Posted by: alexno | Oct 5 2011 22:29 utc | 4

Why would Cameron and Sarkozy care about “another Srebenica?” They both exhausted themselves cheering as they watched Gaza, and Iraq and the attack on south Lebanon. They had no misgivings about Fallujah and they don’t seem to have lost any sleep over Afghanistan and Somalia, Yemen, Bahrain and… the list goes on.
So why would they care about Benghazi?
They didn’t of course, and they don’t. They are part of the Imperial ruling class and they had a grudge against Ghadaffi, just as they did against Saddam and as they don’t against Kings called Abdullah.
Of one thing you can be certain, Cameron, Sarkozy and their like have as much contempt for, and fear of, the Libyan working class as they do of their own.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 5 2011 22:57 utc | 5

Why would Cameron and Sarkozy care about “another Srebenica?”
That’s a point of view typical of a non-European. Sarkozy and Cameron care primarily about their electoral future. Their interests – surprise – do not correspond with American interests.
It’s amazing how people forget what was the situation six months ago. Then, there was a real fear that Sarkozy and Cameron would be seen as weak, but there was also the chance of a little successful war.
They were wrong, of course. Wars never turn out how you expect.
Sarkozy may have gained politically, Cameron not at all. He has not mentioned Libya in his conference address.

Posted by: alexno | Oct 5 2011 23:28 utc | 6

yes, seems satire; like when the Us where protesting against “foreign interference” in Iraq

Posted by: claudio | Oct 6 2011 0:11 utc | 7

This is off-topic, except as an another example of hypocrisy: after months of preliminarly legal maneuvering the U.S. vs. Victor Bout trial begins next Tuesday.
One interesting tidbit from the above link:

In another [related?] case, Russian cargo pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko and his Nigerian broker were found guilty in April of conspiring to traffic more than US $100 million worth of cocaine into the United States and Europe from ports in West Africa. Yaroshenko is reported to have negotiated a lighter sentence for testifying against Bout, with whom he has been associated. The US Drug Enforcement Agency arrested Yaroshenko in Liberia in May 2010. Four metric tons of cocaine were seized in the bust.

I get the feeling that the judge in the case smells a rat in the prosecution’s brief, but will be unable to administer the case without succumbing to the rip tide current sweeping toward a “necessary” conviction based on testimony from such coerced witnesses as Smullyan and Yaroshenko.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 6 2011 8:37 utc | 8

What is happening in Libya is beyond cynical. And I do not think it is accident we did not hear from the ICC lately.
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Rebels-play-a-long-game.6838666.jp
So according to the Scotsman the “strategy” in Sirte is to kill anybody who is resisting, and they are resisting because they know they will be killed anyway.
In other news Nato does not seem to know what to bomb anymore
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-panetta-nato-libya-20111006,0,3241171.story
And in other places realization sinks in that they might have to get rid of 30-40 percent of the Libyan people
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/05/141092142/gadhafi-may-be-hard-to-find-but-not-his-supporters

Posted by: somebody | Oct 6 2011 9:01 utc | 9

oh and now the real fun starts
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44786058
UPDATE 1-Libya official denies Heritage deal, company affirms

Posted by: somebody | Oct 6 2011 9:41 utc | 10

Mainstream media is not reporting new bombing campaign against sirte
http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/new-attack-on-sirte-at-closing-of-nato-summit/

Posted by: nikon | Oct 6 2011 15:42 utc | 11

Nsbc is doing what no corporate and most surviving left wing media(such as Democracynow) are not doing: reporting on real events in Libya and from the point of view of the victims.
‘And in other places realization sinks in that they might have to get rid of 30-40 percent of the Libyan people’
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet, attending a meeting of NATO defence ministers, when asked under what conditions NATO would end the bombings of cities – “There should no longer be any pockets of resistance and the NTC must request it…” http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/06/us-nato-libya-france-idUSTRE7951MO20111006
‘Pockets of resistance’: This means killing off most of the civilian population. The french and other europeans need to challenge this War(not defence) minister, because what he has just said amounts to a threat to commit genocide.

Posted by: brian | Oct 6 2011 21:42 utc | 12