Now i'm watching, later i'll recognize i'm witnessing history!
— Esr? (@LadyGorge0us) August 8, 2012#Libya#NTC2GNC
The National Transitional Council will officially hand over power to the General National Congress at 2:00pm pst in the first peaceful transfer of government in Libya's history.
LIVESTREAM HERE!
Uff, after 10 security checks made it inside Nasr conference hall
— AC Tripolis (@david_bachmann_) August 8, 2012#NTC2GNC twitter.com/david_bachmann…
AFP is reporting:
Libya’s elected congress to take power WednesdayThis might be a good time to look back on some of the "left" predictions as to what would happen to Libya if the "NATO-backed rebels" won and to consider the effects of intervention in light of the success the non-interventionists have had with the implementation of their policies in Syria.
Government — August 6, 2012 at 03:24
TRIPOLI — Libya’s interim authorities said they will hand over power to a newly elected congress on Wednesday, less than a year after its fighters overthrew the regime of Moamer Kadhafi.
“We affirm that August 8, 2012 will be the day that power will be transferred peacefully,” Saleh Darhoub, spokesman of the outgoing National Transitional Council, told journalists in Tripoli on Monday.
Libyans cast ballots on July 7 in the country’s first free elections following a 2011 popular uprising that escalated into a civil war and overthrew the regime of now slain dictator Kadhafi.
They elected a 200-member legislative assembly comprising party and independent representatives, which will replace the NTC and lead the country until fresh elections can be held on the basis of a new constitution. More...
Below the fold is some of what I found Googling around yesterday.
The US Sixth Fleet has begun repositioning its ships in the Mediterranean, triggering speculation of a NATO invasion of Libya.Russia Today | 3 March 2011
On Wednesday two US military ships heading towards the Libyan coast entered the Suez Canal.
It comes as Libya's long-time leader Colonel Gaddafi remains besieged in the capital Tripoli, with opposition forces nearby.
The worst thing that could happen to the people of Libya is U.S. intervention.Sara Flounders | 2 March 2011
The worst thing that could happen to the revolutionary upsurge shaking the Arab world is U.S. intervention in Libya.
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Clearly these CIA-financed forces and old monarchists are politically and socially different from the disenfranchised youth and workers who have marched by the millions against U.S.-backed dictators in Egypt and Tunisia and are today demonstrating in Bahrain, Yemen and Oman.
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It is vital for the U.S. political and class-conscious movement to resist the enormous pressure of a U.S.-orchestrated campaign for military intervention in Libya. A new imperialist adventure must be challenged. Solidarity with the peoples’ movements! U.S. hands off!
The goal of anti-war activists right now seems pretty clear to me--we should be doing everything we can to expose the U.S./NATO war for what it is and building as much support as we can to stop it. There is nothing "humanitarian" about this war--there has never been, nor will there ever be a humanitarian intervention by the U.S., NATO or the UN in their current forms. A short look at history confirms this: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yugoslavia and so on.Ian Thompson, ANSWER Coalition, Los Angeles | 22 June 2011
This article by Clay does not help build a stronger movement against the war on Libya.
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ANSWER will continue to speak out and organize against the war on Libya. People who want to oppose the war can do so with us. We don't have to agree on everything as long as we oppose imperialist intervention and support the right of oppressed nations and people's to self determination. On July 9, ANSWER and others are organizing a march and rally in Washington, D.C. in front of the White House to demand an immediate end to the war on Libya.
Once the Libyans realize what the Iraqis and Afghans have bitterly discovered—that we have no interest in democracy, that our primary goal is appropriating their natural resources as cheaply as possible and that we will sacrifice large numbers of people to maintain our divine right to the world’s diminishing supply of fossil fuel—they will hate us the way we deserve to be hated.Chris Hedges | 5 September 2011
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History is replete with conquering forces being cheered when they arrive, whether during the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine in World War II, the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon or our own arrival in Baghdad, and then rapidly mutating from liberator to despised enemy. And once our seizure of Libyan oil becomes clear it will only ramp up the jihadist hatred for America that has spread like wildfire across the Middle East.
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The force used by the occupier to displace the old regime always makes sure the new regime is supine and complaint. The National Transitional Council, made up of former Gadhafi loyalists, Islamists and tribal leaders, many of whom detest each other, will be the West’s vehicle for the reconfiguration of Libya. Libya will return to being the colony it was before Gadhafi and the other young officers in 1969 ousted King Idris.
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The National Transitional Council has announced that it opposes the presence in Libya of U.N. military observers and police, despite widespread atrocities committed by Gadhafi loyalists. The observers and police have been offered to help quell the chaos, train new security forces and provide independent verification of what is happening inside Libya. But just as Gadhafi preferred to do dirty work in secret, so will the new regime.
there are no signs that the rebels, backed by the United States, NATO and the European Union, have any substantial support in western Libya.Cynthia McKinney | 5 June 2011
The grossly distorted news reports paint a picture of a besieged regime about to collapse at any second. Further, the spiritual leader of the Libyan revolution, Muammar Qaddafi, is represented as a hated and unpopular leader. I want to take this time to disabuse all that read my report.Cynthia McKinney | 20 June 2011
We’ve seen this movie before in Iraq. It means the usual ‘collateral damage’ of widespread civilian death and destruction—all done in the name of preventing civilian deaths.CCDS Statement on Libya | March 25 2011
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We in the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism join with many others around the world to oppose this aggression and call for its immediate and unconditional cessation. Cease Fire!
We urge that Libyans resolve their differences without resort to arms. We support international diplomatic efforts aimed at assisting Libya to resolve their conflict politically – a path that was ignored in the lead up to the intervention by the U.S. and others.
At bottom – ‘kinetic military activity’ – the new Pentagon euphemism for imperialist war is simply a grab for power and oil in a third world country temporarily weakened by an internal crisis. Libya has huge oil reserves that are state owned—including much oil that is easily accessible.
NATO has proven it has the capacity to kill thousands of Libyan soldiers from the skies, but it cannot “convey honor and legitimacy” to the rebels under its killer wings. “They are little more than extras for imperial theater, a mob that traveled under the protective umbrella of American full spectrum dominance of the air.A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Washington-led NATO turned Libya into a hellish inferno - step one before occupying and exploiting its resources and people. Months ago its wealth was stolen. Ahead will be its future if Libyans don't struggle and win their freedom.Stephen Lendman | 28 August 2011
What has developed in Libya is a conundrum for NATO. They may have imagined that with such vicious ongoing bombing raids, Qaddafi’s forces would have crumbled. Instead, they have witnessed the opposite. In the face of this all-out aggression, now into its fifth month with over 10,000 bombing raids, the Libyan patriotic and revolutionary armed forces and the vast majority of Libyans have remained steadfast and loyal, defending their revolution and its leader.Gerald A. Perreira | 25 June 2011
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Every day the rebels reveal themselves to be mere surrogates of an imperialist plot to overthrow the Libyan revolution.
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NATO picked on a country that has experienced a profound political and social revolution for the past 40-plus years. The majority of Libyans only know life in the Jamahiriya and have lived in its dignity, comfort and calm all their lives, causing many of them to perhaps become complacent, taking much of what they had for granted. However, there is no doubt that their revolutionary spirit has been reignited by NATO’s bombs and they are standing behind the Al Fateh revolution. As one female student from Al Fateh University put it, “Libya is our mother and Qaddafi is our father.”
Political analyst Webster Tarpley answered that question Monday, June 6, on Press TV, stating that the “goal of all this all along has been to smash Libya into various parts to drive Qaddafi out of power and to seize control of the oil to re-impose the yoke of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in still more severe form than we ever had it.”Webster Tarpley | 6 June 2011
“And I think right now desperation is growing, especially in London and Paris, that old Suez 1956 combination of unreconstructed imperialists,” said Tarpley.
“They are desperate now because their methods so far are not working. They tried high level bombing, combined with this rebel rabble underground with a lot of al-Qaeda fighters included in it and that’s not working.”
The cheerleaders for this "democracy movement" went from right-wing Republicans to some liberal Democrats. It is a repeat of the political alignment that led to the first Iraq war in 1991 and the Yugoslav war in 1999. In this case too, they were joined by some in the U.S. anti-war movement, including some self-described "socialists," desiring to show their "democratic" credentials and wanting to accommodate to liberal mainstream public opinion. By their cheerleading for a rebellion whose leaders demanded foreign intervention, and focusing all their fire on the Libyan government, they only contributed to confusion in the weeks leading up to the onslaught against Libya. They are embarrassed about their position now that the imperial carnage is clear for all to see.Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition | 21 March 2011
Inside Libya itself, thousands of citizens have resisted the rebel forces backed by the U.S. and other former colonial powers such as France, Britain and Italy, which had colonized Libya for many decades.Workers World Party | 24 March 2011
Thousands of Libyans have flocked to government buildings to act as human shields against the bombs being dropped by the Western military forces. Gadhafi on March 21 called for a civilian march on the city of Benghazi, where the rebels remain under the protection of bombs being dropped by the U.S., France and Britain.
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On April 9 there will be national anti-war demonstrations in New York and San Francisco whose demands include a halt to U.S. and European aggression towards Libya.
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