by Tony Cartalucci
As reported earlier, weeks ago, rebel forces led by US State Department [1] and UK Home Office [2] listed terrorists from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) [3], a subsidiary of Al Qaeda, announced plans to starve out cities resisting their unelected, foreign backed bid for power. The London Telegraph reported in an article titled, "Libya crisis: Rebel leaders hoping to starve Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte into submission," that under the cover of heavy NATO bombing rebel leaders hoped "to starve Col Gaddafi's home town of Sirte into submission, laying siege to his last remaining stronghold in an attempt to avoid mass bloodshed, according to the man spearheading efforts for a peaceful takeover."
Fox News would relay an AP report on September 2, 2011, that rebel commanders declared, "we want to save our fighters and not lose a single one in battles with Qaddafi's forces. In the end, we will get Sirte, even if we have to cut water and electricity and let NATO pound it with airstrikes." AP cited Mohammed al-Rajali, a spokesman for the rebel leadership in the eastern city of Benghazi.
After weeks of attempting to encircle and starve into submission the cities of Bani Walid and Sirte, the "National Transitional Council" had claimed the resulting humanitarian disaster was of Qaddafi's own creation. CNN, after admitting earlier that anti-Qadhafi forces on the outskirts of Sirte and Bani Walid had cut off supplies into the cities and amassed weaponry for heavy battle, has reported in another article titled, "NTC claims humanitarian disaster in Gadhafi stronghold," that "that Gadhafi forces are robbing food stores, leaving civilian residents to starve." This was an attempt to explain the predictable atrocities that were soon to follow and shift the blame away from NATO and its rebel proxies.
This week, NATO's proxy rebel forces made yet another "final assault" on the coastal city of Sirte, accompanied by days of intense NATO bombardment (34 strike sorties on September 24 alone [4]). With the densely populated city's defenses still keeping rebels and presumably their NATO special operations advisers on the city's outskirts, it is a mystery as to how they claim to be identifying only military targets, let alone accurately hitting them. Such intense bombing could only be indiscriminately killing civilians, contra to the entire narrative NATO used to initiate their intervention in the first place.
Indeed, the Australian has reported, in an article titled, "Sirte civilians accuse NATO of genocide," that civilians fleeing NATO's premeditated humanitarian disaster are describing wanton genocide at the hands of NATO bombing and rebel atrocities on the ground. Civilians claim their homes have been destroyed and that female family members are being kidnapped as they attempt to escape checkpoints controlled by rebel forces.
Not surprisingly, the myriad of George Soros and US State Department funded "human rights advocacy" groups, including Amnesty International (page 10) [5], Human Rights Watch [6], as well as National Endowment for Democracy-funded Freedom House [7], Reporters Without Borders [8], and International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) [9], are no where to be found to verify these claims, or so much as bring them to light, and the Australian itself attempts to cast doubts on the accusations by claiming they only observed rebel forces handing out food and water at checkpoints - as if the rebels would kidnap refugee women in front of the international press.
The Australian also reported a Sirte resident as saying, "NATO bombing is killing civilians. Where is the United Nations? Where is the Muslim world to stop this genocide of the people of Sirte?"After the Libyan rebels, under UN sanctioned NATO air cover, have verifiably exterminated or exiled entire cities, as was the case for Tawarga, reported on by the Telegraph in their article, "Gaddafi's ghost town after the loyalists retreat," this is a very important question.
The answer unfortunately is that the United Nations not only knows what is going on, but doesn't care and is doing everything in its power to ensure it continues on in earnest. The entire purpose of these "international institutions" is to lend legitimacy to what would otherwise be a unilateral military campaign of conquest. And despite dressing it up with UN resolutions and a torrent of disingenuous corporate media propaganda, it is still just that - a genocidal, brutal, campaign of military conquest, not to protect "civilians," quite obviously, but to extend Anglo-American hegemony across the planet in the form of their "international order." [10]
[1] US State Department, List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, #26 Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)
[2] UK Home Office Proscribed Terrorist Groups, page 5
[3] 2007 West Point Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) report
[4] NATO Source, Alliance News Blog, Update: NATO activities in Libya on September 24
[5] Amnesty International 2010 Annual Report, page 10 listed as "Open Society Georgia" a Soros subsidiary.
[6] Human Rights Watch website, "Partners" listed as "Open Society Institute & Soros Foundations Network"
[7] National Endowment for Democracy website, Multiregional & Miscellaneous, listed as "Freedom House"
[8] Reporters Without Borders, Income & Expenditures, 2008: listed as "Private foundations included the the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Overbrook Foundation, the Center for a Free Cuba and the US National Endowment for Democracy."
[9] FIDH Financial Statements, Foundations, Associations and other institutions (right column)
[10] Brookings Institute's "Libya's Test of the New International Order," February 2011
