[Reader-list] Massacres by NATO

[A. Mani]

NATO, Rebels Accused of War Crimes in Libya

by Alex Newman

	
Global Research, August 19, 2011
The New American


The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is being heavily
criticized for civilian casualties and a series of bombings apparently
targeting essential non-military infrastructure in Libya, with some
observers calling the actions war crimes. The Libyan rebels being
supported by coalition forces have also been accused of wanton
savagery and even crimes against humanity.

Most recently, a NATO bombing campaign near the Libyan city of Zlitan
earlier this month reportedly killed almost 100 civilians — more than
half of them women and children. The attack sparked a new wave of
outrage worldwide as journalists and activists called for
investigations.

Representatives of the Gaddafi regime took a large group of foreign
reporters to the site. They were reportedly shown bodies of women and
children, including the remains of a baby. Multiple bombed out homes
were also presented to international journalists.

“Today was yet another crime by NATO against civilians,” Libyan regime
spokesman Moussa Ibrahim was quoted as saying by Fox News about the
attack, noting that over 1,000 civilians had been killed by NATO so
far. “They are killing women and children. This happens every day.
Help us to stop this madness.”

The Western military alliance defended the strikes, saying they were
against “legitimate” targets. According to NATO spokespeople, the
coalition believed the town was being used as a staging ground for
pro-Gaddaffi forces and tribes aimed at repelling an upcoming rebel
invasion of Tripoli.

But the victims cited in news reports said that was not the case.
"NATO bombed us, for what reason? We did not do anything to them. We
are civilian people," a man who lost his daughter and his home in the
strike was quoted as saying in The Australian newspaper. “Why did they
kill us? We had peace in my house with our family. What did we do to
the other countries?"

International law expert Franklin Lamb, writing in the Foreign Policy
Journal from Tripoli over the weekend, accused NATO of committing a
“massacre” after visiting the bombing site. Citing international
lawyers, U.S. congressional staffers and human rights activists
visiting the war-torn nation, he charged that NATO had “committed war
crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Other foreign reporters — particularly from Russia — have been
fiercely critical of the NATO campaign for months. “Do those who
planned this and other crimes have a right to live? I'm talking about
the Bilderberg club. What would they feel if their families are also
deprived of a quiet life, and then killed in cold blood?” wrote
Russian columnist Konstantyn Scheglikov following the bombings,
attacking the “NATO maniacs who do not like the resistance of the
small North African country.”

Other reporters who toured the site offered similarly devastating
analysis of what happened. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya with the Centre for
Research on Globalization said civilians in Tripoli and other major
Libyan cities were “bombed indiscriminately by NATO” in recent weeks.

“In Zliten, 85 people were killed including 33 children, 32 women, and
20 men as a result of NATO’s deliberate targeting of residential areas
and civilian infrastructure,” he wrote, posting a dozen pictures
showing the aftermath of the attack, which he called “photographic
evidence of NATO war crimes.”

International human rights groups also had questions about the
bombing. "NATO continues to stress its commitment to protect
civilians,” said Amnesty International’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui in a
statement. “To that effect, it should thoroughly investigate this and
all other recent incidents in which civilians were reportedly killed
in western Libya as a result of air strikes."

In addition to the hundreds or even thousands of “collateral damage”
deaths so far, NATO is also under fire for air strikes on civilian
infrastructure. On July 25, the Associated Press reported that the
international coalition bombed a hospital, leaving several doctors
dead.

Another infrastructure attack that drew international condemnation was
the bombing of facilities associated with Libya’s so-called Great
Man-Made River system, a pipeline that delivers water to a large
percentage of the population. The Pakistan Observer said the attack
was “a clear war crime” and could easily lead to a “humanitarian
disaster.”

On July 30, NATO warplanes also repeatedly bombed a Libyan television
station, killing three and injuring 15. Surviving journalists blasted
the attack and called for international support from other reporters.

“We are not a military target, we are not officers in the army and not
a threat to civilians,” the Libya Broadcasting Department Employees
said in a statement after the attack, which it called an “act of
international terrorism” and a violation of international law. “We are
doing our job as journalists in representing what from the bottom of
my heart we believe is the reality of the NATO aggression and violence
in Libya.”

Countless press-freedom groups including the International News Safety
Institute and the International Federation of Journalists have
demanded an investigation of the attack. But NATO defended the
bombing, saying the TV station was being used to spread pro-Gaddafi
propaganda.

A separate incident in early August involving NATO’s alleged failure
to rescue ocean-bound refugees in distress has also been widely
criticized around the world. According to news reports, up to 100
people died escaping Libya on a rickety boat after the engine died and
nearby NATO ships failed to respond to SOS calls.

“The idea that NATO, with all its surveillance technology, was not
aware of a boat of this size is a story that not even Little Red
Riding Hood would believe,” charged Italian Parliamentarian Roberto
Castelli. The government of Italy has requested an inquiry to find out
why the refugees were apparently left to die.

The internationally backed rebels trying to seize power in Libya have
also been accused of numerous war crimes and wide-scale barbarity —
some of it too horrendous even to mention. Numerous gruesome videos
have been posted online showing beheadings, lynchings and other
crimes, proving that at least some of the allegations are true.

“The evidence provided by these videos makes clear that the rebels'
conception of warfare has more in common with that of Al-Qaeda than
that of the Geneva Conventions,” explained John Rosenthal in a piece
for the U.S.-based Hudson Institute. “The abuses documented in the
videos could serve as textbook examples of precisely the sort of
savagery that the Geneva Conventions were supposed to prevent.”

As The New American and countless other sources have reported, the
NATO-backed rebels are, in many cases, led by self-described leaders
of al Qaeda and other extreme Islamic groups that have boasted of
battling American forces everywhere from Iraq to Afghanistan. Some of
the leaders are even former U.S. prisoners who were held in Guantanamo
Bay.

Suspicions about the rebels’ true motives and supporters were also
raised when the self-proclaimed Interim Transitional National Council
announced the creation of a new central bank weeks after the NATO
invasion. It remains unclear whether the new monetary authority will
follow the Gaddaffi regime’s state-owned model, or if it is to be
privately owned like the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Though Western powers were arming the rebels well before intervention
became official, the Obama administration and NATO publicly intervened
in Libya in mid-March to enforce a United Nations resolution. Since
then, the “mission” has morphed into “regime change,” with foreign
powers hoping to oust dictator Gaddafi and install the rebels as the
new government.

Without congressional approval, which Obama himself acknowledged in
2007 is required by the U.S. Constitution prior to foreign militarism,
critics have charged that American involvement is itself illegal. And
while the administration has already informed Congress that it would
ignore any attempt to rein in the war, critics worldwide are still
hoping that there will eventually be some accountability and justice
if crimes were indeed committed.

Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages

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http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com

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