Where should Libya's Saif Qaddafi be tried?

This question has been one of the chief controversies whirling around the Libyan situation ever since Saif al-Islam Qaddafi was captured and his father killed in the final days of the Mummar Qaddafi regime. Saif al-Islam Qaddafi was the child politically closest to the father and was being groomed as his successor. He was Mummar Qaddafi's second in command and is believed to have run the day-to-day operations of the regime both before and during the revolutionary struggle. With Mummar Qaddafi dead, he becomes the highest official from the Qaddafi regime that can be held to accounts.

He was captured by the Zintan Brigade in the last days of the falling regime and has been held by them ever since. Since the circumstances of his father's death are still unclear and there is good reason to believe he was murdered while in custody, many have feared for Saif's safety in the hands of one of Libya's many revolutionary brigades, however he has been held now for 5 months while waiting trial in Libya and is reportedly still in good health.

The International Criminal Court has also brought charges against Saif Qaddafi the they have insisted that he be transferred to the Hague for trial by the ICC. They have argued, as have the many critics of the Libyan revolution and the National Transitional Council, that Saif al-Islam Qaddafi simply can't get a fair trial in Libya. They argue, as in the LA Times article I cliqued yesterday that Libya [is] now ruled by the law of retribution and must be transferred to the Hague immediately to insure both his safety and a fair trial.

This struggle over Saif al-Islam Qaddafi between the Libyans and the ICC has been a very public one with the Zintan brigade adamantly hanging on to their catch, reluctant even to hand him over the Libyan government and the Libyan government adamantly demanding that he be tried in Libya ahead of any international tribunal.

While the US government, which itself doesn't recognize the authority of the ICC, has come out in support of the Libyan position and even the ICC has been forced to admit that by its own guidelines the national courts take precedence, most commentators in the Main Stream Media and co-incidentally among the anti-interventionists turned counter-revolutionaries, has been that because of the chaos in Libya, because many are seeking revenge, for his own safety, Saif Qaddafi should be transfered to the Hague ASAP.

This whole controversy came to ahead last week after Libyan authorities detained four of the ICC staff meeting with Saif Qaddafi. According to Reuters:

A four-member ICC delegation has been detained in the western mountain town of Zintan after one of its lawyers, Australian Melinda Taylor, was found to be carrying documents regarded as suspicious, for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a Libyan lawyer and a militia said on Saturday.

"The order has been given to put them in detention for 45 days," Taha Baara of the prosecutor-general's office said.

Libyan officials say Taylor and her female interpreter, as well as two male colleagues, are being held in a guesthouse in Zintan. An ICC team arrived in Tripoli on Sunday to try to secure their release.

The Reuthers piece also gives the specific reason they were detained:

A Libyan lawyer said the suspicious documents included letters from Saif al-Islam's former right-hand man Mohammed Ismail, as well as blank documents signed by the prisoner.

Now, if you have been following the news around this case even loosely, so far I haven't told you anything that you don't already know, and that's not why I wrote this dairy. I wrote this dairy because this morning I heard an interview with one of the leaders of the Zintan Bridage that is holding Saif Qaddafi. He spoke about why they are unwilling to give up their prize and he gave reasons that were new to me because they have not been raised either by the MSM or the anti-interventionists turned counter-revolutionaries in their extensive commentaries on this controversy.

They have serious fears about the safety of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi if he is transferred either to the NTC or the ICC:

"If we transfer Saif al-Islam out of Zintan, I am certain that he will be smuggled. Some want to sneak him out of the country and others want him killed. There are elements within the NTC that were involved in things to which Saif is the only witness so its in their interest to have him killed. There are also foreign elements from Britain and France with ties to the old regime and Saif is the only witness against them."

This is a view of the problem that I haven't seen considered before, either by the MSM or by the anti-interventionists turned counter-revolutionaries, and that is the reason for this diary.

When Saif al-Islam released the info about the Qaddafi campaign contributions to Sarkozy's campaign for the French presidency, that could have been a meant as a warning shot across the bow of all the imperialists outside of Libya and all the Qaddafi collaborators still in positions of power that they can't afford to have him stand trial in an open court in Libya.

So we must seriously consider how much of the hue and cry about getting Saif Qaddafi out of the hands of the Zintan Brigade and transfered to the Hague "for his safety", is based on justified concern for one Libyan dictator's son or a deep desire for "proper" international justice, and how much is motivated by a desire to keep imperial connections to the Libyan regime secret.

We must also consider whose interests the "left" commentators, anti-interventionists turned counter-revolutionaries, serve when they echo the demand that Saif Qaddafi be turned over to the ICC.

Click here for a list of my other blogs on Libya

MSM plays Hankey Panky with Libya

In response to an email blast I sent out with the Subject line: Massive Effort to Prettify the Vietnam War has Started! and content similar to my most recent diary, I received this reply from fellow documentary filmmaker John Hankey, the maker of JFK II:

Re: you need to get to work to prettify the results of the Libya "revolution" you cheerleaded so enthusiastically

That was the subject line. The body was simply a link to Thursday's LA Times article on Libya. Here is a link to the Shabab Libya reprint.

My response to John Hankey is as follows: Funny how you anti-interventions are so quick to cite the Main Stream Media uncritically to condemn the Libyan Revolution. If it really was a Western-backed coup, I should think they would be singing its praises now, instead we find that you and they are on the same side of the Libyan Revolution. That is why I call you anti-interventionists turned counter-revolutionaries.

Below the fold we will turn our attention to the hatchet job that passes for journalist at the LA Times when it comes to Libya.

LA ANSWER Coalition members block Libyans from Libyan Forum June 18, 2011


The article is titled "Libya now ruled by the law of retribution" but this is immediately contradicted by the photo of Saif Qaddafi in detention below the title because if Libya were truly ruled by the law of retribution, that man would not still be alive.

Although the electricity is still on in Libya, the schools are back in session, people are getting back to work and oil production is now approaching pre-war levels, the focus of this article is what the LA Times considers the unduly harsh treatment of members and supporters of the Qaddafi regime.

Well, payback's a bitch. And then there is this:

History has shown that it is not enough for a revolutionary people to overthrow the old regime. If they are to consolidate the victory and be able to build on the freedom they have won with their blood, they must for a while, exercise a dictatorship over elements of the old regime.

Even though those elements may have formally been thrown out of power, they still retain many important advantages as compared to the revolutionaries. They have a certain know-how about making the society work, they retain their old contacts and generally a great amount of hidden wealth, and there is almost always international support for their counter-revolutionary plots. Even through the military phrase of the revolution may be over, wartime rules and attitudes cannot immediately be dispensed with. Even after they are defeated, elements of the old regime will still hold many of the levers of power in their hands. The LA Times article sees some of this contradiction when it notes:

the interim government is caught between the reality of having to engage with former Kadafi regime workers, who are highly trained and experienced in the machinations of governance, and its promises to hold to account those with blood on their hands.

Therefore it would be absolutely ludicrous for the victorious revolutionary people to allow all the elements of the old regime to remain at liberty just because they have laid down their arms, but this is exactly what the people at Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the LA Times seem to think should happen:

Retribution is the new law of the land in Libya. Summary executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and indefinite detention have emerged while the judicial system remains in a state of paralysis.

The result, rights groups charge, is an environment of impunity. In a country whose revolution's defining moment was arguably the apparent execution in October of Kadafi in captivity — a possible war crime that remains unpunished — dangerous precedents have been set.

I find it characteristic of this lot, that of all the atrocities commented in Libya, most at the behest of Mummar Qaddafi, it is his possible murder that they want to see punished first.

The truth is that they favor counter-revolution in Libya and so they are opposed to any revolutionary suppression of the old regime. That is the gist their fair sounding statement:

The issue is whether the law will be applied equally for pro- and anti-Kadafi factions.

Yes, that is the issue, because if the "anti-Qaddafi factions" i.e. the masses of people that organized themselves and shed much blood to overthrow a 42 year dictatorship, and the "pro-Qaddafi factions", i.e. the forces of the old regime, are treated equally under the law, that is all they need to restore their power.

Besides, whenever does that happen after a war? The pro- and anti-Kadafi factions, to use the LA Times happy terminology, just fought a viscous war that cost 30,000 lives and was imposed upon them by the pro-Qaddafi faction. Immediately after our own Civil War, were Northerners and Southerners treated the same under the law or were Federal troops sent down to Dixie to impose a dictatorship?

Libya's developing judicial system

While the LA Times writer would have you think that revolutionary Libya has no functioning judicial system, this article from Wednesday's Libya Herald tells a different story:

The governments of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are to appeal the conviction of 24 of their nationals imprisoned for providing military assistance to the Qaddafi regime during last year’s revolution.

On Monday, the men were found guilty of a number of offences, including the setting-up surface-to-air missile platforms to target NATO aircraft. 19 Ukrainians were sentence to ten years hard labour, along with three Belarusians and a Russian. A second Russian national, said to be the coordinator of the group, was given life imprisonment.

“We respect the Libyan court, but we do not agree with the verdict”, said Oleg Nikolenko, First Secretary at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tripoli. “We do not believe the men are guilty. We want the decision to be reviewed and for the Libyan court to make another decision. We will appeal the verdict."

So does this one from Reuters on the same day:

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – The first trial of a senior Muammar Gaddafi-era official accused of crimes relating to last year’s war opened on Tuesday, in what will be seen as a test of the Libyan government’s ability to try high profile loyalists and family members of the ousted leader.

Under heavy security, Buzeid Dorda, a former intelligence chief arrested last September in Tripoli, appeared in the dock in the first such civilian hearing since last year’s uprising.

Judge Al-Ajaily Al-Maaloul read six charges against him – conspiring to kill civilians, providing weapons for the purpose of killing civilians, conspiring to provoke civil war, denying people their right to protest, unlawful detention and abuse of authority.

“I deny all these points. I will supply the evidence when I testify in court,” Dorda said.

The judge adjourned the trial until June 26, as demanded by defense lawyer Dhao Al-Mansouri Awon, who said he and his client needed more time to study the case files

However you look upon these proceedings, whether you agree with the verdicts or even the ordering of the trials, it is somewhat disingenuous to say "the judicial system remains in a state of paralysis" as the LA Times does without telling the reader any of this. Of course, from the POV of the MSM and the anti-interventionists turned counter-revolutionary, a proper judicial system would have made trying Mummar Qaddafi's alleged murders their first priority.

Next to seeing the killers of Mummar Qaddafi brought to trial, they believe that Saif Qaddafi can't get a fair trial in Libya and want to see him transfered to the Hague for trial by the International Criminal Court. The LA Times continues:

The position of Kadafi's onetime heir-apparent, son Seif Islam, underscores the problem. The International Criminal Court wants him transferred and tried in The Hague. The interim government insists on a trial in Libya but remains unable to extricate him from detention in the former rebel stronghold of Zintan, whose officials want him tried in that city.

Meanwhile, Seif Islam Kadafi and 8,000 other detainees held without judicial review remain in a state of limbo, guilty until proved innocent.

Frankly, I don't see how Saif Qaddafi can be found innocent and justice served at the same time. As for the 8,000 detainees, they of course should be subjected to judicial review ASAP, however the number does not seem unduly large given the circumstances. A May 2012 UN report by Ian Martin put the number at 7,000:

Martin said he believes the Libyan government is committed to ensuring access to justice for its citizens but "serious obstacles are hampering this process."

The transfer of prisons to the Ministry of Justice is progressing very slowly, with just 31 facilities and 3,000 detainees now under its control, Martin said.

"An additional number of detainees, perhaps around 4,000, are still in the custody of brigades, either at formal or secret detention facilities," he said.

Martin said "cases of mistreatment and torture of detainees continue," citing the deaths of three people at a detention center in Misrata on April 13.

According to an article in the Guardian Wednesday:

The US is backing Libya in its dispute with the International Criminal Court as Tripoli and The Hague wrestle over jurisdiction to try Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former dictator.

The US war crimes chief, Stephen Rapp, said Washington would like to see Gaddafi face a Libyan court because national justice is preferable
...
"Our preference is to try cases in the national system if you can have a process there that meets minimal standards of fair justice. The Libyan government says they can do that," said Rapp. "We certainly would like to see the Libyans provide a fair and appropriate justice at the national level. It won't be the same thing that happens in The Hague but The Hague is only for a relative handful of cases and the international system we see developing is one where countries do these cases themselves with international assistance, sometimes with international participation."
...
The new administration in Tripoli argues that Gaddafi should be tried at the scene of his crimes, Libya. The ICC last week dropped its demand that he be immediately handed over and said that he can remain in Libya while the court decides who has first claim.

I would also point out that Saif Qaddafi is being held by the Zintan Brigade with the agreement of the NTC. When the Zintan Bridage turned over the Tripoli Airport to the NTC, they stated publicly that they would turn Saif Qaddafi over to the NTC on demand. When another brigade briefly took over the Tripoli Airport last week, it was the Zintan Brigade that got it back and turned it right over to the NTC again, so there is no reason to disbelieve their promises with regards to Saif Qaddafi. Just some stuff the LA Times article failed to mention on this topic that I thought you should know about.

The current situation in Libya

Since the point of the LA Times article and many other such pieces both from the bourgeois press and the anti-interventionists turned counter-revolutionary media is to imply that Libya has no functioning government right now, it might be instructive to note some highlights of the government’s weekly press conference, June 7th:

Yesterday’s official weekly government press conference was dominated by the attack on Tripoli International Airport and the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Although official spokesperson for the Prime Minister, Nasser Al-Mana , did his best to try and distract the general public away from the two biggest events of the week by making the media sit through nearly an hour of routine news before making his way to these attacks.

Tripoli Airport attack

Al-Mana said that ‘government institutions had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the missing person’, the Tarhuna military commander Abu-Ajilah Habshi, who was kidnapped by unknowns on Tripoli Airport road last Sunday. This was given as the reason by the Tarhuna militias for their attack on Tripoli Airport.

Nevertheless, he ‘condemned the kidnapping of anyone’ and he equally condemned ‘any attack on any public institution for any reason’.

The spokesperson revealed that the government had given orders to the Interior Ministry and the Army to use force against anyone who attacks government institutions. He confirmed that the airport was reclaimed within hours and that arrests were made and vehicles were held.

He pointed out that both Tarhuna Military and Local Councils had distanced themselves from this brigade from Tarhuna.

A committee had been formed to investigate the incident. Investigations were continuing.

When challenged by journalists as to how such a relatively small group of militias were able to occupy Tripoli airport, and how they were not spotted en route to the airport, the spokesperson admitted that ‘mistakes were made’ and that the government ‘should learn from these mistakes’.

Benghazi attack

The spokesperson had nothing new to add to the incident of the attack on the US consulate building in Benghazi. He confirmed it was some kind of homemade device and that it had hit the outside wall of the consulate causing little damage. He had no evidence of the people behind the attack. He said investigations were continuing.

More prisons and courts are ready and operational

The spokesperson announced that the Ministry of Justice reported that the second batch of members of the Justice Police had graduated. These are the official security personnel responsible for security at Libya’s prisons and courts.

He also pointed out the regular media reports of an increasing number of prisons being handed over to the government by militias.

He admitted, however, that because of ‘exceptional circumstances‘ quite a few state prisons or prisoners were still being secured by militias. He felt that the circumstances were now quickly changing as the state was slowly re-establishing itself and taking more and more control with each passing day.

‘The law’ is now in operation in Libya

Al-Mana also reviewed the two prominent court cases of the week of Qaddafi’s last foreign intelligence head, Abu Zaid Dorda, and the appeal against Law 37, which bans the glorification of Qaddafi and his ideas.

The spokesperson was eager to highlighting the fact that Libya’s court system was now operational and stressed that Libya was now a state of the law.

It’s an information war…

Al-Mana warned the media and the general public against the media war being conducted by the enemies of the new Libya. He warned against false facts and allegations such as the claim that Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi had escaped to a neighbouring country.

The spokesperson warned that the more stable and secure Libya became, the more effort its enemies made in an attempt to de-stabilize it.

And from the Libyan Tweepforum, one of the many English language forums to come forward since the revolution, we have another take on the chaos in Libya:

Libya takes steps toward democracy
Opinion — June 8, 2012 at 11:21

THE CLAIM that the NATO-backed overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi has produced little but chaos in Libya got a boost on Monday when gunmen briefly took over Tripoli’s international airport, fired a few shots and grounded the international airliners that only recently had begun to arrive. Less well-reported was the follow-up: The dust-up ended in a few hours without fatalities, and the airport was back in business Tuesday. Such is Libya: a country awash in militias and weapons and almost entirely lacking in institutions that nevertheless appears to be taking a couple of steps toward a new democratic order for every step back.

Among the recent steps forward: The interim government registered 90 percent of the country’s eligible voters for what would be the first elections in 60 years; 47 percent of those who signed up were women. Some 4,000 candidates have presented themselves for the election of a 200-member national assembly that will be charged with writing a new constitution, appointing a new interim government and overseeing another election a year from now.

Local elections have already been held in the cities of Benghazi and Misrata. In those big cities and in Tripoli, policemen and the regular army keep order, and daily life has mostly returned to normal. So has the engine of the economy: Oil production has reached 90 percent of its prewar level. The government has recovered more than $100?billion in frozen reserves, giving it ample resources for a population of 6 million people.

That still leaves plenty of dangers. Militias control parts of the country and hold hundreds of prisoners — alleged accomplices of the Qaddafi regime — in detention centers where human rights groups have documented abuses. Fighting among tribes and between Arab and sub-Saharan peoples has destabilized several southern cities. Al-Qaeda is seeking a foothold, and a militant Islamist militia leader, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, has formed one of the larger of the 140 new political parties.

The LA Times article didn't mention this positive stuff going on in Libya because that is not their mission. Anti-interventions turned counter-revolutionaries like John Hankley promote the LA Times take on Libya because they have the same mission.

Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

Major Vietnam War makeover planned!

As US capitalism continues to recede from its industrious past, it has come to rely all the more on financial manipulation and war making as the economic engines of the empire. Just as the military-industrial complex grows in significant so does the nation's perceptions about the Vietnam War because the experience of that war has played a central role in the development of an American opposition to all wars.

Therefore it is not surprising that the Obama administration has just launched a major campaign to prettify the Vietnam War. A PR campaign that is expected to last more than a decade and cost tens of millions of dollars was officially kicked off by President Obama on May 28th. From Jack A. Smith in the Activist Newsletter, June 7, 2012:

REVERSING THE VIETNAM WAR VERDICT

The Pentagon has just launched a multi-year national public relations campaign to justify, glorify and honor Washington's catastrophic, aggressive and losing war against Vietnam — America's most controversial and unpopular military conflict.

President Barack Obama opened the militarist event, which was overwhelmingly approved by Congress four years ago, during a speech at the Vietnam Wall on Memorial Day, May 28. The entire campaign, which will consist of tens of thousands of events over the next 13 years, is ostensibly intended to "finally honor" the U.S. troops who fought in Vietnam. The last troops were evacuated nearly 40 years ago.

However, I have already fashioned a powerful weapon with which to dispatch this latest attempt at Vietnam War revisionism - Vietnam: American Holocaust. [IMDB] Brave New Theaters

I started production on Vietnam: American Holocaust back in 2006 because I saw this coming in the new crop of Vietnam War docs designed to revise that history for a new generation. I cajoled Martin Sheen into narrating it because, when it comes to narrating an antiwar Vietnam doc, who you going to call? I put three years of my life and the little nest egg I had from selling my late mother's house into the project. Now I have a clue as to how Noah must have felt when the rain started to fall.

I found out last year that the great documentary filmmaker Ken Burns was working with PBS to give the Vietnam War the whole "Ken Burns" treatment with a new 12 hour documentary film series on the Vietnam War slated for broadcast in 2016. I've offered them my services, contacts and expertise in this area, and they said they would be in touch. That was months ago and that is the last I've heard from them. Now I suspect that the Ken Burns Vietnam doc is part of this pentagon Vietnam War makeover and they really aren't interested in telling the story the way I have told it.



Currently as many as 5000 people a day are watching my 90 minute doc, on YouTube, getting an anti-imperialist perspective on the Vietnam War and a real taste of its horror. It has only been on YouTube 14 months but is expected to reach the quarter-million mark in views this weekend, so Ken Burn and all will have some catching up to do.

I am now seeking funding and other support so that I can finish the sequel Vietnam: People's Victory and it would now seem that completion of that project is more important than ever!

Jack Smith continues on the Vietnam War Commemoration plans:

In reality, the unprecedented project — titled the Vietnam War Commemoration — will utilize the "pro-veteran" extravaganza to accomplish two additional and more long lasting goals:

• The first is to legitimize and intensify a renewed warrior spirit within America as the Pentagon emerges from two counter-productive, ruinously expensive and stalemated unjust wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and prepares for further military adventures in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Within days of Obama's speech, for instance, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced a big increase of U.S. Navy forces in the Pacific, a move obviously targeting China. At the same time the Obama Administration's drone wars are accelerating as the Oval Office's kill list expands, and the president engages in cyber sabotage against Iran.

• The second is to dilute the memory of historic public opposition to the Vietnam war by putting forward the Pentagon's censored account of the conflict in public meetings, parades and educational sessions set to take place across the nation through 2025. These flag-waving, hyper-patriotic occasions will feature veterans, active duty military members, government officials, local politicians, teachers and business leaders who will combine forces to praise those who fought in Vietnam and those on the home front who supported the war. There won't be much — if any — attention focused on the majority of Americans who opposed this imperialist adventure, except as a footnote describing how tolerant U.S. democracy is toward dissent.

This attempt at rewriting history in the name of the Vietnam veterans will also be powerfully opposed by those Vietnam veterans that learned from Vietnam how to love peace and hate war.

Veterans for Peace, which showed my film at its national convention and sells it on their website; Scott Camil, the decorated Vietnam vet that appears in my film and has been a strong supporter: Ron Kovic, who wrote & lived Born on the 4th of July, and, together with Martin Sheen, serves as honorary co-chair of my fund-raising committee; and all those who fought in the Vietnam war and came to oppose it, you will be called upon to serve your country once again because a battle royal is about to be joined for the Hearts & Minds of the American people.

Jack Smith also includes a strong critique of Obama's Memorial Day speech and brief refresher on the history of the Vietnam war in which he rebuts the nonsense. Read the full article at Activist Newsletter here.

Buy the Vietnam: American Holocaust DVD on Amazon. Help me complete the sequel. We still need a lot of help if we are to finish Vietnam: People's Victory. Support this work with a PayPal donation or [Click Here] to make your tax deductible Now! We can also accept checks made to "From the Heart" for tax deductible contributions. Send to Linux Beach Productions, 116 Rose Ave, #9, Venice, CA 90291

Another "Houla style" massacre in Syria

Tonight we are learning about what is already being termed another "Houla style" massacre in Syria. Given the deafening silence from the US left with regards to Assad's atrocities in Syria, the ordinary observer, not schooled in the "anti-imperialist" perspective, might well conclude that while the left may care a lot about the Palestinians, they obviously don't give a fuck about the Syrians.



They may also conclude that these leftists are really more anti-Israel than they are pro-Palestinian the way they were more anti-NATO than they were pro-Libyan.

They don't get that while Israel's atrocities are what they are, and Egypt's Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali were clearly tools of imperialism, Libya's Mummar Qaddafi and even Syria's Assad have received the left's goodhousekeeping seal of approval and should be given a pass when they try to roll over popular opposition with tanks.

The BBC News had an interesting segment tonight, an interview with a Chinese activist named Shen Tong. Shen Tong has a rather unique life history. He was an activist in Tienanmen Square 23 years ago and targeted by the Chinese government. Later he was able to escape to New York where he created a successful software business, but when Occupy Wall Street broke out, he found that he was called back to his activist roots and got fully involved. From his point of view both were popular struggles for social justice. Separated by 23 years and 10,000 miles, they were the same struggle.

Violence and the coming world revolutions.

Why the left should have an uncompromising stance with regards to the use of military power against peaceful protesters.

I'm afraid the final struggle against capitalism may be a very bloody one. Before it is overthrown worldwide, the use of military violence against peaceful protesters, as practiced by Mummar Qaddafi and Bashar al-Assad, could well become the norm in many countries including in North America and Europe.

It is against the future interest of the people everywhere for the left to tolerated a regime's use of such violence against a popular opposition anywhere, as it did with regards to Qaddafi's violence in Libya and, most shamefully, continues to do with regards to the plight of the Syrian people today.

After Qaddafi initiated the use of military power against the non-violent Arab Spring, in February 2011, regimes in Yemen, Bahrain and most significantly, Syria, followed suit. The gloves were coming off.

I think it extremely important, and I mean on a world historic level, that Qaddafi's use of military violence against a popular uprising did not succeed in Libya. That reason alone is enough to support the outcome, regardless of future developments in Libya. Successes tend to be imitated and if Qaddafi had shown that the violent beat down could keep him in power, neighborhoods around the world would be more likely to come under artillery fire in the future.

It is now equally important that Assad not prevail. If for no other reason than his widespread use of military power against a largely peaceful opposition, for wantonly shelling rebellious neighborhoods, he must go down! Anyone on the left, that is to say, anyone who thrives to be a true champion of the people and their future must demand it.

"Rules of Engagement" for the class struggle

Fundamentally what groups like HRW, AI and UNHCR are about is trying to establishing some basic "rules of engagement" for the class struggle. What will and won't be allowed. No land mines, no cluster bombs, no torture, no shelling of neighborhoods, etc. This is not the same as an end to all violence against the people, nothing will but an end to capitalism, the last system of the class exploitation that gives that violence its energy. In the meantime, any effort to minimize the level of violence used against the people is welcomed.

Of course, any attempt to enforce "rules of engagement" any attempt to bring a level of civility to warfare will ultimately crash upon the rocks of desperation, but since we will win by numbers, not by violence, anything that lowers the level of violence, even if in only a particular sector or short period, works in our favor.

The left must also be involved in establishing and enforcing "rules of engagement" for popular uprisings. I think we should now have "rules of engagement" that say if you shell rebellious neighborhoods, if you use helicopter gunships against popular assemblies, etc, you will go down! A worldwide network of activists will immediately direct its focus on you. The view we should be promoting is that if you do that, as Qaddafi did and Assad is doing, you will immediately become the target of the full force and fiery of the world's people!

Every head of state who violates these rules of engagement should end up like Qaddafi did. I disagree with the protesters in Tahrir today demanding a new sentence of death for Mubarak. I say let Mubarak live with his life sentence, he never opened up with his tanks in his efforts to stay in power. Let Ben Ali escape to Saudi Arabia, his army didn't open fire on the protesters. In every successful uprising, the rulers will be tempted to use massive violence to save themselves. They must all be taught a lesson. They must all know that if they don't, they may be allowed to live, but if they do, they will come to the same ignoble end that Qaddafi did.

The neoliberal trend that is in the leadership of NATO also currently sees these attempts of dictators to use massive violence to stay in power as counter-productive to their goal of imperial domination with stability. In this regards, they have some tactical agreement with us. The army brass in both Egypt and Tunisia are very much influenced by both NATO and this neoliberal thinking. That is why they refused to open fire when first Ben Ali in Tunisia and then Mubarak in Egypt ordered them to. Better to ditch the one man that had become identified with the dictatorship and preserve as much of the old order as possible than to have an all out fight to the end with the risk that the imperialist loose all their influence. This is what has almost happened in Libya.

In Libya, the people responded to Qaddafi's use of massive military violence against peaceful protests with massive courage from the beginning and finally by waging a people's war that, for the first time in the Arab Spring revolts, sweep away not only the dictator, but also the dictator's army and all the organs of state power. In Libya today, they have reclaimed the term 'revolutionary' from the revisionist Qaddafi and they are creating a new Libyan state from scratch.

Certain refineries in France and Italy are designed to run on the type of crude that is Libya's specialty. So, with the world economic crisis and all, the EU, UK & US needed Libyan oil back on line ASAP, this and the fact that NATO cultivates a reputation of being the good guys that they have to uphold, meant that they were willing to give limited support to the Libyan opposition. The Libya opposition wisely kept that limited to air support and that air support was far from what many on the left have cracked it up to be.

It was far, far from the massive air campaigns than we have seen in the past over Vietnam and even over Iraq. I have written about this in the past, Renfrey Clark did a good piece analyzing NATO's air campaign over Tripoli. While thousands of 'so-called' strike missions were flown by NATO, most did not actually bomb targets. Of the targets that were hit, most were air defense targets and since the Libyan opposition didn't have any planes, that wasn't such hot news to them. That the UN investigation found only 72 civilians killed accidentally by NATO bombs, an extraordinarily low number, in the Libyan campaign is a testament not just to the accuracy of the NATO bombs, but also to their rarity.

But that won't stop the NATO leaders from claiming credit for the Libyan people's hard won victory over Qaddafi, of the anti-interventionist left giving it to them.

While on the subject of NATO, there is also the interesting way that the contradictions within NATO played out during the Libyan campaign. US anti-interventionists have been so quick to see the US masters of war as ramrodding NATO and even controlling the Libyan NTC, that they probably didn't notice that US forces carried out less than 20% of the air strikes, or ask themselves why. Defense forums and other NATO watchers became keenly aware of the power struggle being played out between the US and its European allies in the Libyan campaign, but i have yet to see anyone on the left address this.

If violent revolution has been more the norm than the exception, it is because those in power have shown time and time again that they will stop at nothing to stay in power. The left must never give such violence a pass or fail to support those people facing it. The almost complete failure of the organized US left to support "regime change" in Libya when the regime was raining cluster bombs on its people was shameful, and it's failure to demand "regime change" in Syria, as that regime daily goes from massacre to massacre is disgusting.

Syrian people rise up against the massacre

After #Houla "the time has come to thank #KofiAnnan for his services and send him back home to Geneva."

So went a popular tweet after the Houla massacre.

Now, after the Al-Kubeir massacre, it is time to call the UN mission to Syria for what it is, an enabler of massacres. Since, in the age of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, news of Assad's slaughter is bound to get out, its simply not practical to do nothing, hence the Kofi Anon plan, make speeches, send 300 monitors, etc. i.e. appear to be doing something so long as it does nothing to stop the slaughter.

This was demonstrated most tragically in the case of yesterday's massacre of men, women and children in the tiny Syrian settlement of Al-Kubeir. According Mail Online UN monitors are accused of ignoring 30 calls for assistance as the massacre was taking place.

A man who survived a massacre which left most of his village dead has described how his mother and six of his siblings - including 10-year-old twins - were brutally executed.

Leith al-Hamwy fled to an olive grove about 800 metres from the the tiny settlement of Al-Kubeir when soldiers closed in.

He finally emerged from hiding to find the men - allegedly government troops - had set his home on fire. His family burned to death inside.

'I saw bodies everywhere,' he said. 'Entire families shot or killed with sharp sticks and knives.'

‘(There were) burned bodies of children and women and girls were on the ground.

'I saw something you cannot imagine. It was a horrifying massacre... people were executed and burned. Bodies of young men were taken away.'

Around 100 people died at the site, many of them children. Eighteen homes had either been destroyed by shelling or burned down.
...
He vented his fury at UN observers for not arriving at the scene on Wednesday when they were called 'about 30 times, begging them to come to Al-Kubeir to see what was happening.'

'But they did not come. They might as well be working with the shabiha. We just can't take this any more... people are being killed, everything is a set-up, a lie. We only have God to rely on. Only God will help us.'
...
He also blamed UN observers for not heading to the site of the massacre quickly.

'When the army deployed there, and the shelling of around 20-25 houses started, activists called the UN monitors, who said they could not go because it was late in the day."

"Late in the day?" I'll say! I think it time we tell the UN monitors good night and good bye.

The Syrian people are organizing their own response to these atrocities. This just in:

Revolution Leadership Council of Damascus | Media Committee

Damascus – Thursday, June. 7th, 2012

____________________________________________________

Midday Report - for Media Outlets

exceptional: about the dynamic in Damascus after the Massacre of “al-Qubeir”

_______________________________

Damascus was heated with late demos as people took to the streets in different areas of the city in protest to the Massacre. the following areas has witnessed late demonstrations:

Qaboun | people took to the street in a spontaneous demo despite the sounds of gunfire and blasts in the quarter

New Zahira |



Ruken Eddin | Regime forces faced protesters who took to the street after midnight with live ammunition and hand grenades. protesters made a prayer for the victims

http://youtu.be/yd6iqZ77ALg

http://youtu.be/wdhXwIXCgzA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2GcXUBTtiA

another demo in the quarter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-fQEnCSYJSY

Khaled bin al-Walid St. |

http://youtu.be/7JZUrEpa_J8

Midan |

a demo was staged after midnight in protest to the massacre committed in Hama (no video available)
another demo was staged after dawn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX8pm-o_paQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSpQ3R1UOIA

A morning demo was staged in Dakkak in solidarity with Hama

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=478013422214795
al-Hajar al-Asswad |

a campaign of graffiti writings on the walls calling for a strike in solidarity with the victims of al-Qubeir Massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTgjn9UBkHM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT_th3yJpTY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Rin9anvyI

An interview with the activist spraying the walls with writings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poj2Absn4pc

Qudsayya |
A demo was staged after dawn in solidarity with Hama

http://youtu.be/4i7x1CYatJo

================================
The dynamic in Damascus since morning till 5:00 pm

Al-Hajar al-Asswad |

A demo staged in solidarity with Hama and al-Haffa and the distressed cities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XScs5h2LAm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RliQtP95RFg

A general strike in the quarter in protest to al-Qubeir massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8bcTtliRdc
Mezzeh |

A victim called “Mutaz Baha Haroub” was buried under security surveillance and siege by seven people only. The victim was killed earlier by the regime forces and his dead body was abducted by the regime forces.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=429064357115405
Kaber Atika |

A civilian called “Iyad Ibrahim Zarzar” was shot dead in Qazzaz Quarter yesterday evening. and his funeral is staged today in the afternoon.

==============

End of the Midday Report

5:00 pm (Syria Time)