The Libyan Job Goes Tribal

Update:  The United States has always played a double game, as the Lakota Nation found out after signing the 1868 treaty giving them what was already theirs for "as long as the grass grows and the waters run" only for whites to overrun the Black Hills and the Yellowstone country chasing gold within a decade later.  But perhaps the game has never been played more blatantly than in the case of Libya. While noises of triumph emit from western capitals over the ouster of their onetime collaborator, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi [photo], and their rebel quislings prepare for what could be the final assault of the war on loyalist forces at Bani Walid, some very inconvenient facts are being ignored by corporate media propagandists:

• NATO's "humanitarian mission" to prevent Gaddafi from slaughtering his own people quickly morphed into a full offensive against the dictator including western trained commando forces fighting for the rebels, some 20,000 ground support sorties by NATO warplanes, and direct resupply of rebel arms all in violation of the UN authorizing resolution; About 50,000 Libyans have died in the civil war according to the Benghazi rebels;
• Qaddafi never used aircraft against the Libyan people, a tactic the air embargo was ostensibly intended to prevent, nor did he order Viagra fueled rape of civilians; Syrian President Assad has killed more civilians than Qaddafi did in the early stages of Libyan civil war when the rebellion was not yet fully armed;
• Qaddafi did not plan genocide in Benghazi despite his sometimes bombastic rhetoric; he did not order mass killing of civilians in other towns his forces recaptured--Zawiya, Misrata, Ajdabiya; NATO bombing of Tripoli before it was overrun by rebels "degraded" Qaddafi forces by an esitmated 50% with 1300 killed in a single day;
• the Tripoli Brigade which took Qaddafi's compound in Tripoli and is now in control of the city is made up of Berbers trained for two months by US Special Forces, and led by a former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group founder, Abdelhakim Belhaj; LIFG was an al-Qaeda allied group that US intelligence tracked for years when Belhaj was finally arrested in Malaysia in 2003, rendered to Thailand, and duly tortured for information; he was sent back to Libya in 2004 as part of the thawing in relations between Gaddafi and the West; all the top commanders of the Tripoli Brigade are from LIFG that fought Qaddafi forces led by assassinated rebel General Abdel Younis in Cyrenaica; LIFG officially merged with al-Qaeda in 2007;
• Qaddafi may be beaten now, but if not captured or killed he possesses the resources and support to go into insurgency mode using the vast areas of uncontrolled desert territory where tribal affiliations (his wife is a Warfallah, Libya's largest) make a difference, thus the reason for the wild-west bounty on his head of $1.7 million;
• the Times of London revealed the West has a devious plan for the pacification of Libya and its now heavily armed tribal factions depending in large part on defection of Gaddafi's security apparatus to the National Transitional Council and a proposed "Tripoli task force" to protect key sites (read oil installations) and arrest high level Gaddafi officials (read non-collaborators) formed and supported by the United Arab Emirates, another front oil autocracy; western oil interests are clearly anxious to scoop up Libya's underutilized oil assets as result of Gaddafi's "resource nationalism".

And so it comes full circle in this wilderness of mirrors. The United States has spent 10 years, trillions of dollars, and 5,000 American lives fighting an international network of Islamic jihadists, but because of its addiction to oil, it now arms and defends the very terrorists it was seeking to destroy behind a tattered fig leaf of R2P. (2005 UN doctrine of "responsibility to protect") In reality the intervention is all part of maintaining empire, just one of the 700 or so military actions, covert and overt, to advance the interest of the plutocracy in ever-expanding 'markets'.  Our Nobel Peace Laureate in the White House has proven no bulwark to capitalism's exigencies. Given our nation's past aggressive record it is plausible that one in seven Americans erroneously believe our government is complicit in the terror attacks of ten years ago.  Gaddafi may be oddly quaint sitting in his tent wrapped in badawi robes, but he is not stupid: he said Operation Odessey Dawn is a neo-colonial war on his state, and he is correct in that assessment.

Further: {30.8.11} UK First Post reveals that Qatari special forces were responsible for overwhelming Col. Qaddafi's compound in Tripoli yesterday. British trained Qatari commandos were seen coordinating a final NATO missile barrage prior to overrunning the Bab al-Aziziyah residence. Qatar, a western client state, has emerged as a major player in the Libyan endgame. It has supplied rebels with weapons and apparently combat forces too, contrary to the terms  of UN Resolution 1973 authorizing a "no-fly". The Arab oil emirate also hosted an international conference to discuss rebuilding post war Libya. Any pretense NATO's intervention was for humanitarian purposes only lies in tatters on the floors of Bab al-Aziziyah. The rebels are still fighting battles with Qaddafi forces inside Tripoli. If the Benghazi council can pull together rival Libyan tribes to form an effective government it will be much friendlier to western oil interests eager to resume exploitation of Libya's vast oil resources. Qaddafi's whereabouts are still unknown, but he vowed on TV audio channel to fight to victory or much more likely, martyrdom.
والله رحيم

More: {23.8.11}Who to believe? What is clear is that Libyans enjoy tweaking the nose of western media attempting to keep track of the players in the civil war. Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam [photo], reportedly in rebel custody, appeared to western journalists to claim that the government was still in control of Tripoli. It's not over until it's over.

Update: With astonishing speed not displayed before the NATO backed Benghazi rebels have entered Tripoli. Western powers are taking credit for organizing the victorious pincer movement on three fronts. Rebel fighters were often disorganized and easily dislodged by heavy weapons in the six month civil war. After intense fighting in the western mountains and eastern coastal plain, rebel forces took strategic Zawiyah and Brega. Roadways were cleared of government forces and Tripoli targets bombed by NATO air support. Informed of crumbling resistance from Muammar Qadaffi's professional troops, rebels poured into Tripoli over the weekend meeting scattered resistance. The elite Khamis Brigade loyal to Qaddafi did not put up a fight. Apparently, Benghazi rebels were aided by insurgents inside Tripoli also rising to join the revolt. The former dictator's whereabouts have not been reported, but rebels said they captured three of Qadaffi's sons. Prominent officials of Qadaffi's regime have already defected or left the country, and major western governments have already recognized the Benghazi interim council as Libya's legitimate government. The rapid fall of Qadaffi's capital marks the end of a forty two-year dictatorship that brought significant improvements to the country's standard of living as well as political oppression and official brutality. There are reports of organized fighting by government forces and the Qadadfa tribe's hold on Sirte is still unchallenged.

AFP/Getty: Younis funeral, Benghazi

{3.8.11}Western leaders were dismayed by the news of the assassination of rebel military leader Abdul Fatah Younis. The details are confused, but he was apparently killed by his own associates. Younis was suspected of working for Muammar Qaddafi. He was a member of the Obeidis tribe, the largest in Libya, and the tribe has sworn revenge for his killing. What was already a chaotic situation in Benghazi, headquarters of the uprising, has gotten noticeably worse. Now, the Libyan Tribal Council, the leadership organization for Libya's 200 tribes, is preparing to weigh in against the NATO backed rebellion. It issued a manifesto on July 26th in which it makes clear that it intends to end the civil war and expel "NATO crusaders" while achieving reforms. The Council also wrote that the Transitional Council in Benghazi, "was imposed by NATO on us and we completely reject it". The United States, France and United Kingdom have recognized the Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya. Daily bombing strikes by NATO air forces have increased since the manifesto was issued. The alliance attempted to take Col. Qaddafi off television by bombing three Tripoli TV towers at the Libyan Broadcasting Authority. The raid killed three employees and wounded 15 others. According to a western observer in the country, NATO has bombed around 1600 civilian sites including hospitals, food storage warehouses, and water distribution facilities. Rebel defectors say that NATO has lost the respect of both Libyans and Africans. The African Union has told it member nations not to respect the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Col. Qaddafi for war crimes. The rebels themselves have been accused of atrocities by Human Rights Watch.

Qaddafi's forces are fighting to retake the town of Ziltan in the western mountains. Rebel casualities are reportedly heavy. The rebels, despite close air support from western forces, have been unable to mount a sustained campaign to take Tripoli. The possibility of a partitioned Libya is becoming greater as the civil war drags on.