[Far-Right Sage]

The story of how one of the most developed countries in Africa has been turned into another Somalia and sold to a gaggle of fools the world over who ever believed for one fraction of a second this ever had anything to do with helping the Libyan people. What has happened should be a cautionary tale for Syrians - The downfall of their state would be a downfall for their society and another loss for civilization the world over.

Special report: We all thought Libya had moved on – it has, but into lawlessness and ruin

A little under two years ago, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, urged British businessmen to begin “packing their suitcases” and to fly to Libya to share in the reconstruction of the country and exploit an anticipated boom in natural resources.

Yet now Libya has almost entirely stopped producing oil as the government loses control of much of the country to militia fighters.

Mutinying security men have taken over oil ports on the Mediterranean and are seeking to sell crude oil on the black market. Ali Zeidan, Libya’s Prime Minister, has threatened to “bomb from the air and the sea” any oil tanker trying to pick up the illicit oil from the oil terminal guards, who are mostly former rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi and have been on strike over low pay and alleged government corruption since July.

As world attention focused on the coup in Egypt and the poison gas attack in Syria over the past two months, Libya has plunged unnoticed into its worst political and economic crisis since the defeat of Gaddafi two years ago. Government authority is disintegrating in all parts of the country putting in doubt claims by American, British and French politicians that Nato’s military action in Libya in 2011 was an outstanding example of a successful foreign military intervention which should be repeated in Syria.

In an escalating crisis little regarded hitherto outside the oil markets, output of Libya’s prized high-quality crude oil has plunged from 1.4 million barrels a day earlier this year to just 160,000 barrels a day now. Despite threats to use military force to retake the oil ports, the government in Tripoli has been unable to move effectively against striking guards and mutinous military units that are linked to secessionist forces in the east of the country.

Libyans are increasingly at the mercy of militias which act outside the law. Popular protests against militiamen have been met with gunfire; 31 demonstrators were shot dead and many others wounded as they protested outside the barracks of “the Libyan Shield Brigade” in the eastern capital Benghazi in June.

Though the Nato intervention against Gaddafi was justified as a humanitarian response to the threat that Gaddafi’s tanks would slaughter dissidents in Benghazi, the international community has ignored the escalating violence. The foreign media, which once filled the hotels of Benghazi and Tripoli, have likewise paid little attention to the near collapse of the central government.

The strikers in the eastern region Cyrenaica, which contains most of Libya’s oil, are part of a broader movement seeking more autonomy and blaming the government for spending oil revenues in the west of the country. Foreigners have mostly fled Benghazi since the American ambassador, Chris Stevens, was murdered in the US consulate by jihadi militiamen last September. Violence has worsened since then with Libya’s military prosecutor Colonel Yussef Ali al-Asseifar, in charge of investigating assassinations of politicians, soldiers and journalists, himself assassinated by a bomb in his car on 29 August.

Rule by local militias is also spreading anarchy around the capital. Ethnic Berbers, whose militia led the assault on Tripoli in 2011, temporarily took over the parliament building in Tripoli. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has called for an independent investigation into the violent crushing of a prison mutiny in Tripoli on 26 August in which 500 prisoners had been on hunger strike. The hunger strikers were demanding that they be taken before a prosecutor or formally charged since many had been held without charge for two years.

The government called on the Supreme Security Committee, made up of former anti-Gaddafi militiamen nominally under the control of the interior ministry, to restore order. At least 19 prisoners received gunshot shrapnel wounds, with one inmate saying “they were shooting directly at us through the metal bars”. There have been several mass prison escapes this year in Libya including 1,200 escaping from a prison after a riot in Benghazi in July.

The Interior Minister, Mohammed al-Sheikh, resigned last month in frustration at being unable to do his job, saying in a memo sent to Mr Zeidan that he blamed him for failing to build up the army and the police. He accused the government, which is largely dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, of being weak and dependent on tribal support. Other critics point out that a war between two Libyan tribes, the Zawiya and the Wirrshifana, is going on just 15 miles from the Prime Minister’s office.

Diplomats have come under attack in Tripoli with the EU ambassador’s convoy ambushed outside the Corinthia hotel on the waterfront. A bomb also wrecked the French embassy.

One of the many failings of the post-Gaddafi government is its inability to revive the moribund economy. Libya is wholly dependent on its oil and gas revenues and without these may not be able to pay its civil servants. Sliman Qajam, a member of the parliamentary energy committee, told Bloomberg that “the government is running on its reserves. If the situation doesn’t improve, it won’t be able to pay salaries by the end of the year”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/special-report-we-all-thought-libya-had-moved-on--it-has-but-into-lawlessness-and-ruin-8797041.html

So, protesters are being shot dead and the acting government has vowed to "bomb from the air and sea" its own people? Why not one voice of international outrage or concern? Why not any such noises from those who supported that terrible sham of a campaign here? I believe we all know full well why.

These events, which are as the article reported and confirmed in innumerable other sources, and the fact that there is zero "international" response, no threats against the current regime, no calling anarchy for what it is, not even a mention of the shooting of dozens of protesters by militias, no UN Security Council resolution, etc. should be enough to prove to anyone with a functioning mind what an absolute lying fucking sham that entire operation was.

Libya may be destroyed now and take another half century or more to once again have an independent government which can raise up and govern the country, but it is important not to let the story of the reality of what is happening there die or be ignored as those responsible for this monstrosity would love, as it's a blueprint for Syria and other nations which do not meet a certain economic/political paradigm. Driven by the same individuals and international actors who talk global peace and "human rights" while funding throat-cutting, heart-eating, black-lynching rapist mercenaries who have committed every offense under the sun and running them against healthy states.

There will come a time of great cleansing of these parasites, internally and externally.

[Decky]

So, protesters are being shot dead and the acting government has vowed to "bomb from the air and sea" its own people? Why not one voice of international outrage or concern?

It is only evil if the government do these things as part of helping their people (e.g. the Soviet Union in the 20s). The west seems to be remarkably ok with people murdering the fuck out of other people. It is only when killing is combined with a non capitalist political program that it is evil.

Killing = Harmless fun
Killing + the emancipation of the working class = Evil

[Rei Murasame]

Cue all the liberals on PoFo saying: "Give it more time, you'll see how wonderful freedom is soon!"

It's amazing.

[Quercus Robur]

Humanitarian intervention-lite by an intensely disliked cluster of foreign powers does seem to be a massive failure in Libya.

The chaotic manner in which Muammar al-Qaddafi was allegedly captured, injured, and then killed is emblematic of the mismanagement and blunders of the Libyan National Transition Council. Worse, the barbaric manner in which--at least according to several photographs--the killers surrounded his blood-soaked corpse does not bode well for the emergence of a democratic culture inside Libya soon.

Within an hour of reports of Qaddafi being captured or killed, NTC leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil was preparing to brief the world's media while two of his colleagues, Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam and military commander Abdulhakim Belhadj, were already briefing the press in an attempt to undermine his moment in the limelight, despite close coordination by the NTC with NATO and Western publicity agencies. This sequence of events tells us about the infighting that dominates the rebels who are now Libya's government. Underlying this is the complex network of tribes across the country that will now question the legitimacy and authority of the NTC.

Three other problems will beset Libya in coming months, making NATO's presence in Libya lengthier than anticipated.

First, Qaddafi's networks of loyalists still remain across the country. Their sense of deep humiliation at the way in which their leader was killed will most likely prompt revenge attacks. At their helm is the British-educated, defiant, and media-savvy Saif al-Qaddafi, Qaddafi's son. Emotionally volatile, highly ambitious, and now an enemy of the West, he can become a rallying force for his late father's loyalists unless he is captured and put on trial soon.

Second, the combination of extensive caches of weapons in Libya along with NATO-trained fighters who were united against Qaddafi but now have no unifying cause could result in disintegrationof the strength of purpose that led to NATO backing the NTC. Combined with the manifestations of the infighting we saw this morning, there is a real risk of conflict around the question of who governs Libya with legitimacy.

Third, and perhaps most problematic, is the emergence of Islamist extremist and Salafist hardliners from within the ranks of the Libyan rebels. It was instructive that Saif Qaddafi attempted to out-Islam the Islamists by adopting a beard, religious language, and Arab headscarves around his shoulder in an attempt to marshal support. The head of the military council in Tripoli, Belhadj, for example, is a prominent figure of that Islamist trend. How will they respond to a secular government in Libya? Across the Middle East, the greatest political benefactors thus far have been Islamist groups. Qaddafi's killing will set in place a new beginning for Libya that will pose difficult policy challenges for Libyans and NATO.