An Open Appeal to the People of the United States and Great Britain

by Nazir Ahmed

We realize that it is difficult for the people in USA and Europe, who feel themselves absolutely safe, to understand how difficult it is to live under permanent air strikes, when every night war aircraft are flying above your head, and bombs and missiles are falling all around. But on the other hand it is easier for us to remember about GOD. As the main USA motto goes: “In God we trust”. Thus it is not a good idea to forget now that besides human trial there is DIVINE JUSTICE. Yes, Libyans cannot hit America back – in fact, they even have no such idea at all, they just try to defend themselves and their homes, – but God can. Unprecedented tornadoes in Alabama and adjacent states with casualties and destruction comparable to those in Libya – isn’t it a clear response to the American leaders’ irresponsible politics?

“HE THAT HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS…” After the latest sorrowful events in Tripoli, we, despite being the Orthodox Christians, together with our co-religionists from the Greek Orthodox Church as well as Roman Catholics in Tripoli, are praying for the souls of murdered Muslim Innocents. We repeat one prayer: «God save Libya!» If no human power can do it nowadays.

To the honest people of America:

Your ancestors were the first to become really free people. They threw off the yoke of the British Empire, proclaimed the independence and freedom, and started living in accordance to the people’s will. So, why now do your leaders not allow other peoples to have freedom and independence, and to choose their own way of life?

Before the war, Libya was a paradise for its people and for foreigners worked there, everyone felt himself safe and happy. Yes, this paradise was rather different from the American one, but is it a sound reason to destroy it? Please, try to understand this, and make your leaders stop killing innocent people, even if they ventured to have some other idea about life than in the USA!

To the people of the former Great Britain:

How do you allow your leaders to openly mock you all? In the day of the Royal wedding, the war hawks were planning to kill another country’s Leader. Do they think that such a murder would be the best wedding present to the offspring of their Sovereign? Or the Prime-minister considers the British Royal couple akin to King Herod and Herodias so as to bring them the head of Qaddafi? In fact, his plan failed, thus the slaughter of Innocents in Tripoli by modern Herods turned out to be his main – – and one would say rather insulting and arrogant – – gift to the newly-married couple. How could so proud a people as the British bear such a shameful behavior by their leaders?!

We plead with all the honest, good-intentioned people in the West and East to support our appeal to STOP WAR AGAINST LIBYA. We ask people to spread this letter everywhere possible – to news agencies, Human Rights Groups and other international and national organizations, even to one’s own friends – in order to force American, British and NATO war hawks and Satan’s disciples to STOP AGGRESSION AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF LIBYA !
Source of article here

Mexico is flooded with guns. Guess where they come from.

Day 73: Updates on War Against Libya and Africa, May 30

Posted: 2011/05/30

Daily updates from Rick Rozoff chronicling the attempt to recolonize Africa by taking out her strongest component first: Libya (Photo: Tornado fighter-bomber)

Summary:

* 73-Day War: 8,878 NATO Air Missions, 3,385 Combat Flights
* Algeria: Killing Of 40 Soldiers Related To Chaos In Libya
* Bulgaria: U.S.-NATO Missile System In Strategic Black Sea
* Bulgaria: NATO Chief Touts Interceptor Missile System
* Leading MP: Unilateral U.S.-NATO Missile Plan Unacceptable To Russia
* Afghanistan: Attack On NATO Base Kills At Least Four Soldiers, Wounds 2
Details available here

Safia Qaddafi Gives First Ever Interview To Media on Murder of Her Children

Posted: 2011/05/30
From: Mathaba


In a distressed telephone call, Mu'ammar Qaddafi's wife Safia tells of her horrible experience being targeted by NATO and having her youngest son and 3 baby grandchildren killed. Translation is from Arabic.

Safia said she wants to respond to those who doubt the death of her son Sayf Al-Arab, a young student who was studying in Germany and had returned home to visit his family. The following is a translation transcript from the Arabic recording, by Mathaba News Agency:

My son never missed an evening prayer. We had [air bombing] strikes every day and the strikes would start at evening prayer. Four rockets on one house. I was not there. But I wished that I was so I may die with him.

They are looking for excuses to target Muammar. What has he done to deserve this.

My children are civilians and they have been targeted. What do they have to do with this.

I want them to prosecute NATO. They killed my son and the Libyan people.

They are defaming our reputation. They are committing war crimes and accusing us of embezzling billions from the Libyan people. My conscience wouldn't allow such things.

Forty countries are against us. Life has no value any more. What would I want with life now? All I want out of life now is that the truth be heard.

By the will of God we will be victorious. We will live or die alongside the Libyan people. In the end, history will judge us.

Mrs Qaddafi said that she was speaking now because she believes her sons death was deliberately sidelined by the [fake] Bin Laden death by the united states and that the timing of the announcement of his "assassination" was an attempt to distract the world from the murder of her son Sayf Al Arab.

See link below to interview with Aisha, Al-Qaddafi's daughter, who also lost her baby in the same attack on their house which was repeatedly bombed by NATO in violation of all laws and morality, not long after the interview took place. Article source here

Sharing the same bed in Alberta - Keith Wilson explains how Albertans are getting sc.....d by their government

Keith Wilson and Joe Anglin will host public meetings in the Sundre Community Centre (June 16, 7pm) and the Rocky Community Centre (June 15,7pm) to explain the implications of Bills 19, 36 and 50 for landowners. For more information, phone 780 458-6332 or email- info@landownersagainstbills.com
Website: landownersagainstbills.com

Proposed Alberta power lines revisited

We Need a Judicial Inquiry
By Joe Anglin

In response to the opinion column story “Don’t believe Morton – new power lines are needed” by Lici Corbella, we say – Where is the proof?

Aside from Corbella’s claim that transmission lines are more efficient than generators, (it like claiming tires are more efficient than motors – the comparison makes no sense), Corbella raises some questions about the AESO that need to be answered.

The controversy over the issue of whether or not we need new transmission lines has always been about the ability of the proponents to prove that these lines are truly needed by Albertans. If these lines are critically needed, why did the AESO do nothing about this for two years? AESO is required by law to submit proof called a “Needs Identification Document (NID)” when they determine a line may be needed? Yet the AESO chose not to submit a NID for two full years while they waited for Bill-50 to pass.

Corbella makes a claim that the AESO is a not-for-profit agency of the province with an independent board of directors, but this is somewhat misleading! AESO’s Board of directors are hired and fired by the Minister of Energy – enough said! Further, David Erickson, president and CEO of AESO, said: "We have no vested interest other than doing the right thing for Albertans." Erickson’s statement contradicts AESO’s 2004 testimony where AESO executives, under oath, admitted that yearend bonuses were based on the approval of a new transmission line that benefitted only AltaLink. This is a potential conflict of interest.

Other claims by Corbella that Alberta has not had a major transmission upgrade since 1989 is also contradicted by AESO’s own December 8, 2010 Stakeholder’s report. This report boasts that there were a total of nine major transmission line upgrades completed in 2010. Furthermore, if it were really true that there were no major transmission upgrades since 1989 -- you might have to wonder what heck has AESO been doing? I mean, why are we paying these people if they haven’t done anything in nearly 22 years?

Corbella claims that the transmission lines are running hot. If the lines are heating up, it is because AESO is deliberately allowing the lines to run hot. There should be an investigation because this is evidence of incompetency. Any electrical system can be run hot. It is one of the functions of the AESO to prevent this from happening. If I understand Corbella correctly, AESO is not doing their job!

Claims that the system is losing $220 million are an example of AESO’s lack of professionalism. System losses are measured in terms of percentage of electricity lost. It is not measured in monetary terms. A normal electricity transmission system loses are between 5% -7% of the electricity transmitted. Alberta’s transmission system has been operating at less than 4% loss. This is hardly a system that is bleeding electricity. It is shameful that engineers at the AESO would present loss figures in fabricated monetary terms. AESO engineers should be held accountable by the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA) for engaging in this deceptive practice.

The government changed the law giving the authority to approve the need for a transmission lines to cabinet. Now one its members has come forward an announced that the cabinet has not been telling the public the truth. It is time we had full judicial inquiry into all the contradictory statements made by the AESO and the Alberta government. The testimony given under oath totally contradicts what is being told to the public, and now Lici Corbella says we shouldn’t believe Ted Morton when he tells us that the cabinet may be guilty of lying.

Joe Anglin
Rimbey AB
(403) 843-3279

Please remember: What you read, hear and see in the media has been created by someone, somewhere, for a purpose

A European perspective on the Strauss-Khan affair

Obama, financial war and the elimination of DSK

by Thierry Meyssan*

It is impossible to understand the downfall of Dominique Strauss-Khan without linking it to his project for the creation of a new international reserve currency, which was to be launched on 26 May 2011 at the Deauville G-8 summit. The project was paradoxically anticipated as much by the Emerging States as by stateless capital, but rejected by the U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex. Thierry Meyssan exposes the chicanery of the Obama administration to dodge its commitments. Article posted here

The Middle East counter-revolution

The photo that caused raucous in the United States: at the G20 Summit, President Obama bowed before the Saudi King and kissed his hand.

by Thierry Meyssan*

A Saudi clan, the Sudairi, is spearheading the counter-revolutionary tide unleashed by the United States and Israel in the Middle East. In a vast overview, published in serial form by the leading Russian language daily, Thierry Meyssan from Damascus paints a general picture of the contradictions which are convulsing the region.

Editor: A long and detailed article on Middle east political dynamics is posted here

Thor - a most persistent power broker, yesterday and today

Editor: Thor, the God of Power. He is always with us and we are reminded of this every THUR'sday of every week. The radioactive element Thorium can give us all the power we would ever need. The video below gives a quick glimpse of how this can be done in an easily absorbable way. The question remains: Why is high risk Uranium used in most reactors today? Is it because it is easy to create weapons grade plutonium from spent fuel?

Preparation for war includes many stage actors and arranged events

9/11 AND AMERICA'S "WAR ON TERRORISM"
PREFACE.
Read the critical research on 9/11 in this important book

by Prof Michel Chossudovsky





BOOK PREFACE:

At eleven o’clock, on the morning of September 11, the Bush adminstration had already announced that Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon. This assertion was made prior to the conduct of an indepth police investigation.

That same evening at 9:30 pm, a “War Cabinet” was formed integrated by a select number of top intelligence and military advisors. And at 11:00 pm, at the end of that historic meeting at the White House, the “War on Terrorism” was officially launched.

The decision was announced to wage war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in retribution for the 9/11 attacks. The following morning on September 12th, the news headlines indelibly pointed to “state sponsorship” of the 9/11 attacks. In chorus, the US media was calling for a military intervention against Afghanistan. Barely four weeks later, on the 7th of October, Afghanistan was bombed and invaded by US troops.Americans were led to believe that the decison to go to war had been taken on the spur of the moment, on the evening of September 11, in response to the attacks and their tragic consequences.

Little did the public realize that a large scale theater war is never planned and executed in a matter of weeks. The decision to launch a war and send troops to Afghanistan had been taken well in advance of 9/11. The “terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event” as it was later described by CentCom Commander General Tommy Franks, served to galvanize public opinion in support of a war agenda which was already in its final planning stage.

The tragic events of 9/11 provided the required justification to wage a war on “humanitarian grounds”, with the full support of World public opinion and the endorsement of the “international community”.

Several prominent “progressive” intellectuals made a case for “retaliation against terrorism”, on moral and ethical grounds. The “just cause” military doctrine (jus ad bellum) was accepted and upheld at face value as a legitimate response to 9/11,without examining the fact that Washington had not only supported the “Islamic terror network”, it was also instrumental in the installation of the Taliban government in 1996.

In the wake of 9/11, the antiwar movement was completely isolated. The trade unions and civil society organizations had swallowed the media lies and government propaganda. They had accepted a war of retribution against Afghanistan, an impoverished country of 30 million people.

I started writing on the evening of September 11, late into the night, going through piles of research notes, which I had previously collected on the history of Al Qaeda. My first text entitled “Who is Osama bin Laden?”, which was completed and first published on September the 12th. (See Chapter II.)

From the very outset, I questioned the official story, which described nineteen Al Qaeda sponsored hijackers involved in a highly sophisticated and organized operation. My first objective was to reveal the true nature of this illusive “enemy of America”, who was “threatening the Homeland”.

The myth of the “outside enemy” and the threat of “Islamic terrorists” was the cornerstone of the Bush adminstration’s military doctrine, used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, not to xii America’s “War on Terrorism” mention the repeal of civil liberties and constitutional government in America.

Without an “outside enemy”, there could be no “war on terrorism”. The entire national security agenda would collapse “like a deck of cards”. The war criminals in high office would have no leg to stand on.

It was consequently crucial for the development of a coherent antiwar and civil rights movement, to reveal the nature of Al Qaeda and its evolving relationship to successive US administrations.

Amply documented but rarely mentioned by the mainstream media, Al Qaeda was a creation of the CIA going back to the Soviet- Afghan war. This was a known fact, corroborated by numerous sources including official documents of the US Congress. The intelligence community had time and again acknowledged that they had indeed supported Osama bin Laden, but that in the wake of the Cold War: “he turned against us”.

After 9/11, the campaign of media disinformation served not only to drown the truth but also to kill much of the historical evidence on how this illusive “outside enemy” had been fabricated and transformed into “Enemy Number One”. Article posted here

Wikileaks Shines Light on Alberta's $16-Billion Electricity Scandal

US cables signal project was for export, contrary to official claims.

Landowners' lawyer Keith Wilson: 'Now we know it's for export.'

By Andrew Nikiforuk, Today, TheTyee.ca


Critics of Alberta's program to build a $16-billion electricity transmission system without public need studies have called for a major judicial inquiry on the massive taxpayer funded project following new revelations from U.S. embassy cables released by Wikileaks.

Cables sent from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa in 2003 and 2008 show that Alberta politicians offered to export power to the United States using excess electricity generated by oil sands facilities.

Shortly after the last cable the Alberta government proposed a massive upgrade to its existing $2-billion transmission system.

Yet no other jurisdiction in Canada has proposed to build eight times its existing transmission infrastructure at taxpayers' expense with no public needs assessments. Nor has any other province proposed to give away that very infrastructure to two private transmission companies (Atco and AltaLink) along with a promised rate of return of nine per cent.

"The cables show that the government was going to export power all along and lied about what they were doing with transmission upgrades," says Joe Anglin, a former U.S. Marine and long-time advocate for electrical reform in Alberta. Article posted here

Phew!!, That was a close call!

EJECT! EJECT! A sequence of photos....

By Gary from Maryborough, Queensland, Australia

Interesting photos of the of the ejection from the F18 that crashed last year in Alberta, Canada. You may have seen the full sequence as the aircraft hits the ground several seconds later. This is the first time that I've seen the canopy being blasted off the aircraft by the twin rockets. In the second photo, note that the pilot is ejecting horizontal to the ground while the wings of the aircraft are perpendicular to the ground, which is about two seconds below.


Then comes the amazing change in direction for the ejection seat and pilot! Note how the directional control on the ejection seat rockets has automatically changed the pilot’s trajectory and attitude so that he is climbing away from the fireball that is about to happen. The canopy can be seen behind the aircraft. His drogue chute is also visibly deployed close to the rockets of the ejection seat.

The seat is now detached from the pilot. His chute is beginning to spread.


An almighty crash is about to occur!

4 blasts shake Tripoli after NATO sorties

A British RAF Tornado jet operating in Libya


Wed May 25, 2011 11:44PM





The sound of four explosions has echoed across Tripoli as NATO warplanes flew sorties over the Libyan capital and carried out another round of airstrikes.


The blasts rocked an area near the center of Tripoli late on Wednesday night, but the exact targets could not be identified, AFP reported. Early on Wednesday morning, several missiles hit the Bab Al-Aziziya district of Tripoli, where Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's residence is located.
NATO warplanes also attacked Gaddafi's residence on Monday. The Libyan government said nineteen people were killed and more than 150 others were injured in the airstrikes.
Earlier on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama said pressure on Gaddafi should continue until he is forced out of power.
Canadian Brigadier-General Richard Blanchette said on Wednesday that NATO airstrikes have made it difficult for Gaddafi to communicate with his forces. Blanchette added that NATO has carried out more than 3,100 aerial attacks on Libya since the outset of operations.
Meanwhile, Russia has once again condemned the NATO airstrikes that have caused civilian casualties. Moscow said the recent deadly attacks by the military alliance go beyond the UN resolution authorizing military action. And the African Union has called for a political solution to the crisis in Libya. The AU has voiced opposition to the military campaign in the North African country on a number of occasions. Article source here

Groping for Democracy - in Texas

Israel without the sugar coating

Libyan soil has drunk the blood of many fighting men...

A Distant Mirror for Imperialists in Libya: Lucan’s Pharsalia

Modern imperialists eager to rush into Libya should ponder Lucan’s Pharsalia, which treats of warfare in the Libyan desert during the contest between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great at the end of the Roman Republic. A critical passage in this Latin epic is the speech by Cato of Utica, a follower of Pompey, who urges his soldiers to undertake a suicide mission into Libya, saying: “Serpents, thirst, heat, and sand … Libya alone can present a multitude of woes that it would beseem men to fly from.” Cato goes forward, and finds “a little tomb to enclose [his] hallowed name, Libya secured the death of Cato….”

Editor: The above statement sets the scene for the article by Webster Tarpley introduced below. A multitude of special interest groups are evidently involved in the North African and Middle East upheavals at present. The article gives the reader a small piece of this complex picture.

The recycling of Bin Laden’s men
Once NATO enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, now NATO allies in Libya

by Webster G. Tarpley*

Drawing on the West Point Military Academy’s analysis of records seized in the Islamic Emirate of Iraq, U.S. historian and journalist Webster G. Tarpley demonstrates that the Libyan National Transitional Council is largely made up of elements affiliated with Al-Qaeda. In the context of a vast reorganization of its secret operations, the United States is enlisting in Libya - and in Syria - the jihadists that it is tracking down in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Bin Laden is dead! Long live the Bin Ladenists", cynics in Washington could well be proclaiming. Thoroughly researched article posted here

Inca Empire built on corn ... and poop

Photo by Alex Chepstow-Lusty

Llama excrement was used as a fertilizer for the maize that helped build the Inca Empire, including Machu Picchu shown here.

By John Roach

The seeds of the Inca Empire were planted about 2,700 years ago when a warm spell combined with piles of llama excrement allowed maize agriculture to take root high up in the South American Andes, according to a new study.

"They were constructing fields and weeding them. And probably trading took off, made possible by llama caravans transporting goods, such as maize, coca leaves, salt and a ceremonial product called cinnabar," Alex Chepstow-Lusty of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima told me Sunday in an email.

The finding is inferred by a record of pollen and mites in a core of mud taken from a small lake located at about 11,000 feet up in the Andes surrounded by agricultural terraces and next to an ancient trading route that connected tropical forest and mountain communities.

The Laguna Marcacocha core extends back over 4,200 years. The pollen tells Chepstow-Lusty about what plants were growing around the lake when. Mites eat plant detritus such as that found in excrement. "The more excrement, the more mites living in the soils close to the lake," he explained. Full article posted here

Africa: Battleground For NATO's 21st Century Strategic Concept

by Rick Rozoff

The war by major North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states against Libya is in its third month and has been conducted under the official auspices of NATO for the past fifty days.

According to the military bloc's daily online tally [1], Alliance military aircraft have flown over 7,200 missions and more than 2,800 combat flights since NATO inaugurated so-called Operation Unified Protector on March 31.

The world's only military alliance stands to match or exceed the 78-day duration of its air war against Yugoslavia in 1999 if not to deploy troops in Libya in what could expand into protracted combat and occupation roles like those in Afghanistan and adjoining nations where the Pentagon and NATO will mark the tenth anniversary of their invasion this October 7.

Recently Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko "Pointed out that the operation in Libya is becoming the first actual litmus test for NATO's new strategic concept," [2] a reference to the latest Strategic Concept adopted by the 28-nation alliance at its summit in Lisbon, Portugal last November, the first in this century and since that endorsed at the Washington summit in 1999 when NATO was waging its first war (against Yugoslavia) and incorporating its first post-Cold War recruits (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland).

The war against Libya was also the test case for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), the first overseas military command launched by the Pentagon since the end of the Cold War (its predecessor, Central Command, was created in 1983), whose Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn was in charge of bombing runs and cruise missile attacks in and a naval blockade of Libya from March 19-30.

The activation of AFRICOM as an independent command on October 1, 2008 and the expansion of NATO into Africa were integrally, inevitably related developments, as the top military chief of U.S. European Command, to which almost the entire African continent and the nascent AFRICOM were for years assigned, and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe are and for almost 60 years have been the same person, currently America's Admiral James Stavridis.

In what may have imminent and menacing implications for the ongoing conflict in Libya, Africa is also the laboratory for the 25,000-troop NATO Response Force, intended to be deployable within five days throughout the world and to sustain operations, including combat missions, for up to six months. In other words, the world's first international military strike force. The NATO Response Force was an initiative of then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which was endorsed by the Alliance at its 2002 summit in the Czech Republic, the latter only having been brought into NATO three years before.

Article here

The Military/industrial complex - Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960, p. 1035- 1040

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific/technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Full text of Eisenhower's speech available here

Editor; In light of the above, please check out NATO's website here. We have now moved beyond Eisenhower's concerns over a national military/industrial complex to a supranational organization shielded from effective national democratic control by a vast bureaucracy.

Libya: British attack helicopters to be deployed

British attack helicopters will be deployed in Libya within days in a significant expansion of the military mission against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

After more than four weeks of air strikes by Nato, Col Gaddafi's regime survives and the rebels trying to oust him have made little significant progress towards Tripoli

By Damien McElroy, James Kirkup and Thomas Harding 6:47PM BST 23 May 2011


The Daily Telegraph has learned that Apache helicopters will fly into Libya from a Royal Navy warship, in a joint operation with the French. As many as 18 British and French helicopters will be deployed to support rebels trying to consolidate gains against Gaddafi’s forces. The helicopter operation – expected to be supported by Special Forces troops – will take the allies closer still to a full ground operation in Libya. Whitehall officials said that later this week, the Apaches will begin flying missions in from HMS Ocean, a helicopter carrier in the Mediterranean. Their use was authorised by David Cameron at a meeting of the National Security Council after the Prime Minister asked military chiefs for new ways to increase the pressure on the Libyan regime. Article posted here

Editor: The Libyan War is now landing in the lap of the former colonial powers of Africa, Britain and France, as the "rebels" prove themselves to be quite ineffective on the ground. Yet another endless war has begun. It will become part of the mosaic of an overall geopolitical struggle for power and territory taking place under the noses of a misinformed and indifferent public in western nations.

Libya's money

Today Libya is still sitting on a cash hoard of far over one trillion, the second largest after China, but safer.


By Hermes MSafiri

In Tripoli the “journalists” of ABC asked me how long Gaddafi could last financially?
I answered them much longer than the US. They couldn’t believe me and continued: ”no seriously, how many months can he last?” My answer, 10/20 years, brought a very big surprised expression on their faces: “NO, impossible”.

Our society of money changers and bean counters is not able anymore to think about a solid society, not based on debt or credit. Libya has known an embargo for decades and a real ostracism for 42 years. Gaddafi was never understood nor accepted. He was declared crazy and loony from the very beginning because he didn’t accept the orders from his “betters”. His feeling of oppression by the Western powers that be and afterwards his betrayal by the Soviets convinced him to look for an alternative solution, based on their native tribal structure. He didn’t spend money because he couldn’t, the embargo obliged him to save money. This frugal lifestyle wasn’t really bad for the country, they learned to live with it.

Only the Western educated and latter “revolutionaries” wanted more pieces of the cake.
I have seen governors of provinces, with budgets of billions, walking around in old army fatigues and plastic sandals, driving in old Toyota Corolla’s, with absolutely no desire for more luxury. Gaddafi himself is of the same ilk, money doesn’t drive him, the fate of his country is his only driving force. If that is enough to consider him a lunatic than he will proudly declare himself a lunatic.

As far as the money of the country is concerned, the calculation is rapidly made.
The total revenue during 42 years went far over a trillion dollars. During the embargo time Libya spent only the interest of its investments, they didn’t touch their capital.
They had some amounts in foreign, US, European and Arab countries and banks.

That money was continuously siphoned off by those banks, they didn’t receive any interest on their money, the paid expenses every year on that money, pure highway robbery. Gaddafi is a very astute investor and made several very good investments worldwide, which saved Libya a lot of money and kept their capital intact.

Today Libya is still sitting on a cash hoard of far over one trillion, the second largest after China, but safer. China has too much worthless US paper. Because of his cash position, Libya was thinking to make Africans benefit of their commodities by introducing their own gold backed currency and their own Reserve Fund. This would have shown the decrepit situation of the world credit system and the real abysmal situation of the Western banks.

Because the emperor had no clothes anymore Gaddafi had to disappear. Russia and China are still hesitating what to do and whom to join. The sirene songs of Wall Street are very seductive but extremely empty.

The main US corporations are already voting with their feet to Asia, just in case.

Article source here

Victoria Day celebration in Caroline, Alberta

Wild West Willie was in the parade, Main Street in Caroline on Saturday, May 21.

The Queen was there

Proof that you can't underestimate the creativeness of Alberta boys for mischief.

Considering all the brilliant, devious minds we had in high school, I don't know how we missed doing this.

At a high school in Alberta, a group of students played a prank....they let three goats loose inside the school.

But before turning them loose, they painted numbers on the sides of the goats: 1, 2, and 4.

School Administrators spent most of the day looking for No. 3.

The unfolding story of the Spirit of Rachel Corrie

UPDATE Monday 23 May At 8.33am EDT (14.33pm local time)

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie lifted anchor and started sailing towards Gaza.

UPDATE: 9:53pm EDT, Egypt time 3:53pm

"The Egyptian Navy is forcing us out of their territorial waters and has asked us to go to international waters. One Egyptian patrol boat is coming very fast from behind with a gun pointing at us." Everyone is calm and steady. We are okay."

From our latest communication with the ship, it appears that the Egyptian Navy is collaborating with the Israelis with a view to endangering the security of the ship.


The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) carrying a humanitarian cargo to Gaza was attacked by an Israeli naval patrol within the so-called Palestinian Security Zone on May 15, at 10.54pm EDT. The ship is carrying 7.5 kilometers of UPVC (plastic) sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system in Gaza.

Global Research is a partner with the Perdana Global Peace Foundation's mission. A member of Global Research is on board the ship.

After being attacked by Israel and stranded in Egyptian territorial waters for 7 days, The Spirit of Rachel Corrie has lifted anchor and is sailing back towards Gaza [8.33am EDT, 14.33pm local time] in defiance of both the Egyptian and Israeli navy patrols.

We call upon human rights organizations, Palestinian solidarity organizations Worldwide to take an active position regarding the Spirit of Rachel Corrie.

SPREAD THE WORD, REPORT THIS MESSAGE ON FACEBOOK

Support the Spirit of Rachel Corrie's resolve to break the blockade. What happens in the next few hours will be decisive. Egypt is complicit in supporting the blockade.

The objective is to break the Egypt-Israel agreement and open up the border crossing by land and by sea between Egypt and Gaza.

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie Mission will inevitably have a direct bearing on future humanitarian endeavors including the Freedom Flotilla which is scheduled to sail to Gaza in June. Story origin here

Nicaraguan President call for an urgent meeting for UN to stop Nato's colonial aggression on Libya.

Last update 2011-05-22
In the final session of the 17th meeting for San Paolo gathering held in capital Managua on Friday, freedom-fighter president, Daniel Ortega, of Nicaragua Republic called for an urgent meeting for a UN to stop the crusader aggression led by Nato on Great Jamahiriya.

Automatic translation from Arabic. Source here

Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights, NATO's boss explains himself - You be the judge

SOLAR-POWERED PLANE ON INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT.

In a major step to the ultimate goal - a round-the-world flight without fuel - the world’s first international solar-powered flight over the European skies was completed May 13,2011 by Solar Impulse, a plane outfitted with solar panels. It landed in Belgium after a 12-hour journey from Switzerland May 13,2011, making its way through crowded European airspace, flying over France and Luxembourg before landing in Brussels to an enthusiastic welcome. The plane has made several short trips since its maiden flight last year, but negotiating the commercial air traffic system was a particular challenge. The project, by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros. A larger prototype is scheduled to fly around the world in 2013. Photo courtesy solarimpulse.com

Reflections by Comrade Fidel

THE UNSUSTAINABLE POSITION OF THE EMPIRE



Nobody can assure us that in its agony, the empire won’t be dragging human beings down to catastrophe.
As we know, while our species remains alive, everybody has the sacred duty to be optimistic. Ethically, any other behaviour wouldn’t be admissible. I remember well that one day, almost 20 years ago, I said that there was an endangered species: Man.
In front of a select group of bourgeois government leaders, flatterers of the empire, among them being the immense well-fed bulk of the German Helmut Kohl, and others like those forming the chorus of Bush Sr., less dismal and alienated than his own son, W. Bush, I couldn’t help but express that truth which I was seeing as being very real, even though it was more distant than it is today, with the greatest sincerity possible.

Turning on the television at about 12:15 at midday, because someone told me that Barack Obama was giving his announced speech on foreign policy, I paid attention to his words. I don’t know why, despite the piles of dispatches and news I listen to on a daily basis, not one of them mentioned that the guy would be speaking at that time. I can assure the readers that there are not a few stupidities and lies that, among the dramatic truths and facts of all kinds, I read, I hear or see in pictures every day. But this case was something special. What was the guy going to say at that time in this world overwhelmed with imperial crimes, massacres or unmanned planes dropping deadly bombs, that not even Obama, now master of some life and death decisions, was imagining when he was a student at Harvard just a few decades ago?

Of course nobody should suppose that Obama is master of the situation; he merely handles some important words that the old system in its origin granted the “Constitutional President” of the United States. At this point, 234 years after the Declaration of Independence, the Pentagon and the CIA still have the basic instruments of the imperial power created: technology capable of destroying the human race in a matter of minutes, and the means to penetrate those societies, dupe them and manipulate them shamelessly for as long as they need to do so, thinking that the power of the empire is boundless. They trust they are handling a docile world, without even a single disturbance, for all future time.

It is the absurd idea upon which they base tomorrow’s world, under “the kingdom of liberty, justice, equal opportunities and human rights”, incapable of seeing what is really happening with poverty, the lack of the basic services of education, health, jobs and something worse: meeting life’s needs such as food, drinking water, house and many others.

Strangely enough, can anyone wonder for example what would happen with the 10 thousand dead per year as a result of drug-related violence, basically in Mexico, to which we could add the countries of Central America and several of the most populated countries in the southern part of the continent? I harbour absolutely no intention of offending those peoples; my purpose is just to point out what is happening to others almost on a daily basis.

There is one question that has to be asked almost immediately: what is going to happen in Spain where crowds are protesting in the country’s main cities against the unemployment of 40% of the young people, just to quote one of the causes of the demonstrations of that fighting people? Could it be perhaps that they are going to start bombing that NATO country?

Nevertheless, at this time, at 4:12 p.m., they still haven’t published the blessed official Spanish version of Obama’s speech. I hope you will forgive me for this improvised reflection. I have other things to take care of.

Fidel Castro Ruz
May 19, 2011
4:16 p.m.

Comparing leadership style

New info on the "bin Laden" raid

Editor: A full translation of the news story is posted here. It appears that a number of the Navy SEALs were killed when their helicopter blew up

Highway robbery reinvented

Not so chummy any more

Dominique Strauss-Khan and Timothy Geitner.

With many knives in his back, Julius Caesar turned around and saw his old friend
Brutus amongst his attackers and exclaimed: "And so you too Brutus?!"

Regime Change at the IMF: The Frame-Up of Dominique Strauss-Kahn?
by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

The arrest of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has all the appearances of a frame-up ordered by powerful members of the financial establishment, in liaison with France's Nicolas Sarkozy, whose presidency has served the interests of the US at the expense of those of France and the European Union. While there is for the moment no proof of a plot, the unusual circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment require careful examination.
Immediately following Strauss Kahn's arrest, pressures were exerted by Washington to speed up his replacement as Managing Director of the IMF preferably by a non-European, an American or a handpicked candidate from an "emerging market economy" or a developing country.
Since the founding of the Bretton Woods institutions in 1945, the World Bank has been headed by an American whereas the IMF has been under the helm of a (Western) European.
Strauss-Kahn is a member of elite groups who meet behind closed doors. He belongs to the Bildeberger. Categorized as one of the world's most influential persons, he is an academic and politician rather than a banker. In contrast to his predecessors at the IMF, he has no direct affiliation to a banking or financial institution.
But at the same time he is the fall guy. His "gaffe" was to confront the Washington-Wall Street Consensus and push for reforms within the IMF, which challenged America's overriding role within the organization.
The demise of Strauss-Kahn potentially serves to strengthen the hegemony of the US and its control over the IMF at the expense of what former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "Old Europe". Article published here

Super Storm on Saturn

Thermal infrared images of Saturn from the Very Large Telescope Imager and Spectrometer for the mid-Infrared (VISIR) instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, on Cerro Paranal, Chile, appear at center and on the right. An amateur visible-light image from Trevor Barry, of Broken Hill, Australia, appears on the left. The images were obtained on Jan. 19, 2011.


May 19, 2011: NASA's Cassini spacecraft and a European Southern Observatory ground-based telescope are tracking the growth of a giant early-spring storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere so powerful that it stretches around the entire planet. The rare storm has been wreaking havoc for months and shooting plumes of gas high into the planet's atmosphere.
"Nothing on Earth comes close to this powerful storm," says Leigh Fletcher, a Cassini team scientist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and lead author of a study that appeared in this week's edition of Science Magazine. "A storm like this is rare. This is only the sixth one to be recorded since 1876, and the last was way back in 1990." Article posted here

This guy just doesn't want to go away!

Free-Floating Planets May Be More Common Than Stars

This artist's concept illustrates a Jupiter-like planet alone in the dark of space, floating freely without a parent star.


May 18, 2011: Astronomers have discovered a new class of Jupiter-sized planets floating alone in the dark of space, away from the light of a star. The team believes these lone worlds are probably outcasts from developing planetary systems and, moreover, they could be twice as numerous as the stars themselves.
"Although free-floating planets have been predicted, they finally have been detected," said Mario Perez, exoplanet program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "[This has] major implications for models of planetary formation and evolution."
The discovery is based on a joint Japan-New Zealand survey that scanned the center of the Milky Way galaxy during 2006 and 2007, revealing evidence for up to 10 free-floating planets roughly the mass of Jupiter. The isolated orbs, also known as orphan planets, are difficult to spot, and had gone undetected until now. The planets are located at an average approximate distance of 10,000 to 20,000 light years from Earth. Article posted here

Heroes no more

Behind the attack on Libya are strategies of economic warfare

NATO concentrated its "aerial support" on the armed rebels around the Ras-Lanuf refinery, which accounts for two-thirds of the country’s refining facilities

by Manlio Dinucci

The West’s aggression against Libya was not motivated by its greed for oil, which foreign companies had already been exploiting since the thawing of diplomatic relations. What is playing out is therefore not a resource war. However - as expounded by Manlio Dinucci - the war situation, plus France’s hasty endorsement of the National Transitional Council (10 March) and the London Conference (30 March) are all factors that have enabled multinational enterprises to modify their contract terms, now paying only a token fee on their exploitation rights. Under this angle, it has indeed all the trappings of a classic colonial war.

Very interesting article posted here

Revealing interview on Democracy Now

The many deaths of Osama-bin-Laden

“Bin Laden died of disease in 2006” – former CIA agent

Published: 17 May, 2011, 23:41



Osama Bin Laden cheated the gallows and died five years before US security forces officially announced he was killed, says a former CIA agent, currently living in Turkey. “I knew Bin Laden’s Chechen guards very well,” Berkan Yashar, himself an ethnic Chechen, told the Russian TV station, Channel One.
“Samy, Ayub and Mahmud were with him right to the end. I remember well this date as there were three sixes in it – June 26, 2006. Those three men, as well as two Muslims from London and two from the US saw Bin Laden dead.He was seriously ill before his death. He faded away to skin and bone. The three Chechens washed his body before burying it.”
Yashar also said that on the eve of May 2, when President Obama announced that Bin Laden had been killed, the Americans found only Bin Laden’s grave near the Afghan-Pakistani border and staged an operation.
According to Yashar, US special forces started hunting Bin Laden’s Chechen guards after Bin Laden’s death was first announced at a conference in Washington in November 2008. The last of them, Samy, was taken by the American special forces a few days before Bin Laden was officially pronounced dead. Berkan Yashar believes Samy could have told them the exact place of burial.
Answering why he had decided to speak to the Russian channel, Berkan Yashar said that after all the recent developments he feared for his life.
Article source here

Interesting opinion on Strauss-Khan arrest

By Paul Craig Roberts

The International Monetary Fund's director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested last Sunday in New York City on the allegation of an immigrant hotel maid that he attempted to rape her in his hotel room. A New York judge has denied Strauss-Kahn bail on the grounds that he might flee to France.
President Bill Clinton survived his sexual escapades, because he was a servant to the system, not a threat. But Strauss-Kahn, like former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, was a threat to the system, and, like Eliot Spitzer, Strass-Kahn has been deleted from the power ranks.
Strauss-Kahn was the first IMF director in my lifetime, if memory serves, who disavowed the traditional IMF policy of imposing on the poor and ordinary people the cost of bailing out Wall Street and the Western banks. Strauss-Kahn said that regulation had to be reimposed on the greed-driven, fraud-prone financial sector, which, unregulated, destroyed the lives of ordinary people. Strauss-Kahn listened to Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, one of a handful of economists who has a social conscience. Article posted here

Mind massage - using the internet

Top US Government Insider: Bin Laden Died In 2001, 9/11 A False Flag

Posted: 2011/05/17

Top US government insider Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik said that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001 and that he was prepared to testify in front of a grand jury how a top general told him directly that 9/11 was a false flag inside job.

by Paul Joseph Watson (Prison Planet)

Top US government insider Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a man who held numerous different influential positions under three different Presidents and still works with the Defense Department, shockingly told The Alex Jones Show yesterday that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001 and that he was prepared to testify in front of a grand jury how a top general told him directly that 9/11 was a false flag inside job. Article here

BREAKING NEWS: Israel's Attack on Humanitarian Ship to Gaza. Updated Report

by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) carrying a humanitarian cargo to Gaza was attacked by an Israeli naval patrol within the so-called Palestinian Security Zone on May 15, at 10.54pm EDT.

In the course of the last few hours, Global Research has communicated several times with the Rachel Corrie vessel en route to Gaza. What is provided below is a detailed update. An earlier article was posted at 12.30am EDT

The vessel left the Greek Port of Piraeus, on Wednesday, May 11. The humanitarian initiative is sponsored by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), chaired by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad.

Participating in this mission are anti-war activists and journalists, consisting of 7 Malaysians, 2 Irish, 2 Indians and 1 Canadian. The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) is a partner in this endeavor. Global Research`s Julie Lévesque is on board the Rachel Corrie:

The cargo ship The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) is carrying 7.5 kilometers of UPVC (plastic) sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system in Gaza. The ship was named after the courageous American activist who was crushed and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 while trying to prevent the demolition of another Palestinian home. She died at 23. ( Perdana's Second Press Release, Nakba and the Spirit of Rachel Corrie: Humanitarian Ship Attacked by Israel now within 1.5 nautical miles of Gazan Waters Global Research, May 16, 2011)

Story posted here

Libya: Kwame Nkrumah Foresaw Western Re-Conquest of Africa

Black Star News Editorial
05-15-11


In the 1960s Kwame Nkrumah warned that unless the African continent united into a single continental government with a Africa-wide national army and command, the individual countries would never be able to protect their independence and secure their rich natural and mineral resources.
NATO's illegal war against Libya and the vicious bombardments is the best evidence of Nkrumah's fears coming to realization.
Using the insurgents in Benghazi as cover and abusing United Nations Resolution 1973, crafted to protect civilians caught in the civil war, the leaders of France and Britain, former imperial exploitators of Africa, have launched war on Libya and are determined to instal a puppet regime that will be pliant to Western interests.
All the social gains and programs built in Libya since the monarchy was deposed would likely be reversed and World Bank and IMF sanctioned regimes would take their place.

Yet this is the hour for Africa to stand up.

Challenging NATO's illegal war would insert the African continent prominently on the world stage and change the continent's heretofore servitude-like relations with the West. Yet even as NATO continues to destroy billions of dollars of Libya's property through the bombardments, the entire continent is completely mute because of a leadership vacuum. Article published here

Editor: From a geopolitical point of view, the NATO action in Libya and general unrest in the Middle East could be part of the Western Oligarchy's attempt to counteract rising Chinese influence in the region.

This man might have fallen out of favor with the Oligarchy

IMF head denied bail on sex-assault charges
Strauss-Kahn may face a new complaint from a French writer


LONDON (MarketWatch) — International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was held without bail Monday after he was arrested over the weekend and charged with the attempted rape, sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment of a New York hotel maid.
Judge Melissa Jackson of Manhattan Criminal Court backed prosecutors’ contention that Strauss-Kahn poses a flight risk and he is scheduled to reappear in court May 20, according to reports. Article here

BREAKING NEWS: Israel Attacks Humanitarian Ship to Gaza in International Waters

Rachel Corrie's memorial website is here

By Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, May 16, 2011


Montreal, 12.30 AM EST,

Global Research has been in contact with the Spirit of Rachel Corrie, a Malaysian ship carrying a humanitarian aid cargo to Gaza, which has been attacked in international waters by Israel. The vessel left the Port of Piraeus, Greece on Wednesday, May 11 carrying 7.5 kilometers of UPVC (plastic) sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system in Gaza. The humanitarian initiative is sponsored by Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) and participating in this mission includes anti-war activists and journalists, consisting of 7 Malaysians, 2 Irish, 2 Indians and 1 Canadian.

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie is an initiative of The Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) chaired by Malaysia's former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamed. The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) (Global Research) is also participating in this mission.

At 10.54 pm Eastern Time (EDT), the Spirit of Rachel Corrie was intercepted by an Israeli ship and a Egyptian ship in international waters.

10:54pm EDT, Gaza 5:54am: We have been intercepted by Israeli ship and Egyptian ship. We are disobeying the orders and sailing ahead to Gaza.

10:57pm EDT, Gaza 5:57am: One Israeli warship coming to us very fast! We are in international waters, therefore they have no right to attack us. We are still sailing ahead.

10:59pm EDT, Gaza 5:59am: They are opening fire across our ship! We are still sailing ahead.

11:09pm EDT, Gaza 6:09am: They are shooting all over the place. We can't continue ...

11:35pm EDT, Gaza 6:35am: They circled our ship twice and fired across our ship. Machine guns. No one was injured. One of the fishing nets caught the propeller, so we can't move now.

11:37pm EDT, Gaza 6:37am: The Israeli ship was coming from one end and the Egyptian ship was coming from another end. Firing. We are just stalled now. Everybody is okay. No one is injured.

In a subsequent communication from the boat, it would appear that Israel sought the collaboration of Egypt and the humanitarian vessel was escorted into Egyptian territorial waters. A subsequent report from the ship confirmed that the Egyptian vessel acted in support of the Mission.

We will be informing our readers as events unfold.

UPDATE

AFP REPORT

The first press reports state that

"Israeli naval forces fired warning shots at a Malaysian ship carrying aid to Gaza as it approached the shore, forcing it to withdraw to Egyptian waters, the vessel's Malaysian organiser told AFP."

"The MV Finch, carrying sewage pipes to Gaza, had warning shots fired at it by Israeli forces in the Palestinian security zone this morning at 0654 Jordan time (0354 GMT)," said Shamsul Azhar from the Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

Israeli naval forces fired warning shots at a Malaysian ship carrying aid to Gaza as it approached the shore, forcing it to withdraw to Egyptian waters, the vessel's Malaysian organiser told AFP.

"The MV Finch, carrying sewage pipes to Gaza, had warning shots fired at it by Israeli forces in the Palestinian security zone this morning at 0654 Jordan time (0354 GMT)," said Shamsul Azhar from the Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

"Currently the ship has been forced to anchor in Egyptian waters, 30 nautical miles from Gaza," he told AFP." [emphasis added]

Global Research is in contact with the Ship and will be providing updates in the next few hours.
Link to Global Research here

Aquarius: Ocean Circulation

Until now, researchers did not have a full set of data on ocean salinity and how it impacts climate change. Aquarius salinity data, combined with data from other sensors that measure sea level, ocean color, temperature, winds, and rainfall, will give us a much clearer picture of how the ocean works.

How to win friends and influence people

Muslim world in uproar as imams and sheikhs targeted in NATO bombing.

Mourners vowed revenge and rattled off heavy gunfire in a Tripoli cemetery on yesterday as they buried nine Muslim clerics and medics killed in a NATO airs-trike in Eastern Libya. NATO has been intensifying air-strikes in its assassination attempts against Muammar Qaddafi and the Libyan government and military in several areas of Libya. The sound of another apparent NATO airstrike was heard in Tripoli on Saturday night, in what has been a daily event for the past 2 months. Libyan state TV said it targeted a site at the Bab al-Aziziya military base that includes Muammar Qaddafi’s residence. NATO has countered the failure of its disastrous mission to murder Qaddafi under the guise of a "humanitarian no-fly zone" by placing advertisements in leading NATO-country newspapers in North America and Europe. It has also penned an article by a "Mr Con" in the neo-con mouthpiece The Telegraph, which painted a picture of NATO doing "everything it could" to avoid civilian deaths but failed outright to even mention the killing of the Imams nor of 3 babies and at least 7 adults including Qaddafi's son 2 weeks ago. Moussa Ibrahim reported that the men who were killed early on Friday 13th were clerics who met in the port town of Brega, which has been fought over throughout the three-month conflict, to pray for peace. Ibrahim said dozens of clerics hoped to head to the rebel-held eastern part of Libya to seek an end to the war. He and other government spokespeople said 11 were killed. He said 50 people also were wounded, including five in critical condition. A cleric who identified himself as a witness gave a different account and said that nine were killed. He said they were a group of 16 men sent by the country’s Islamic affairs department to Brega to demonstrate that the port city was firmly in the hands of government forces as an act of defiance.

“We wanted to show that Brega wasn’t in rebel hands,” the cleric said. “We wanted to prove it by praying in the mosque on Friday. But we didn’t make it — my friends were killed in the strike,” he said at the funeral in Tripoli’s main Shat al-Hanshir cemetery.

The cleric said three strikes hit their guest house and formed a crater he estimated to be 16 feet deep and 50 feet wide.

“It leveled the area,” he said. “We identified our friends from their clothing,” said the cleric.

He listed the names of seven fellow clerics he said were killed, including a leading cleric named Sheik Omar Ibrahim. Article source here


Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard.
The deputy commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has taken charge of NATO's operations in Libya for enforcing a no-fly zone.
Information source here

Editor: This individual is paid by Canadian taxpayers who are therefore indirectly responsible for what is happening in Libya

NATO's side of the story:

13 May. 2011
Brega Airstrike

A command and control bunker was struck in Brega early this morning as the structure was being used by the Qadhafi regime to coordinate strikes against the Libyan civilian population.

We are aware of allegations of civilian casualties in connection to this strike, and although we cannot independently confirm the validity of the claim, we regret any loss of life by innocent civilians when they occur.

The goal of NATO and its partners is to reduce the Qadhafi regime’s ability to attack civilians by weakening their command and control structure. The building struck had been clearly identified as a command and control centre.
Information source here