Libya 2003-2011 , from the Cold War to the imperialist aggression : the lost illusions of peaceful coexistence and the destruction of the Libyan Jamahiriya.
Luc MICHEL (* ) for CEREDD /
European Centre for Research and Study on Direct Democracy –
Centre Européen de Recherches et d’Etudes sur la Démocratie Directe /
With PCN- SPO – ELAC Website /
2014 01 21 /
LIBYA 2003-2011 , FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION :
THE LOST ILLUSIONS OF PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE
In 2003, in LIBYA NEWS & FACTS ( Bulletin of CEREDD ) and ALZZAHF ALAKHDER (” The Green March ” , the daily newspaper in Tripoli of the Libyan RCM ) – I published under the title ” LIBYA BETWEEN WAR THREATS AND IMPERIALIST BLACKMAIL ” (1) a lengthy discussion on the geopolitical choices of the Libyan Jamahiriya and the geopolitical context in which they were developed in the years 1998-2003 .
If there was missing , of course, the conclusion and the destruction of the Jamahiriya in 2011 (2) , I explained from 2003 why “peaceful coexistence ” between Gaddafi and the West could only be a game of dupes for the Libyan Guide (3) (4). Tripoli was indeed on the path of American imperialism in Africa and the Mediterranean, but also in Europe . I also drew a picture , unpublished elsewhere , of the Euro-African geopolitical vision of Gaddafi. There too the project of the Libyan leader could only meet the hostility of the U.S. and its military arm of NATO. Not to mention the appetites of France .
Therefore, the confrontation between Gaddafi’s Libya and the West was inevitable.
THE GEOPOLITICAL THESES OF GADDAFI
These geopolitical theses of Libya of the Years 2000-2011 , I knew them well , since I had introduced them in Libya in the mid 90s. The “Congress of Polish geopoliticians ” in 2010 also long focused its attention about it, hidden in Western Europe, but analyzed in the East ( 5).
“If sometimes Gaddafi is known as the wise man of Africa , guiding in the line of Nkrumah the Continent to its pan- African destiny , that other facet of the personality of the leader of the Libyan Revolution is not too often known: Gaddafi the European , one of the strongest support of European unification and its currency with the Euro”. I wrote in 2003. For Gaddafi knew that imperialism has no more dangerous potential enemy than Europe . And therefore had not ceased to promote the return to this ancient unity and make his Libya a bridge between Africa and Europe. African unity , which Gaddafi’s Libya was the ambassador in the Mediterranean, was intended to converge with the European unification in progress.
The geopolitical vision of Gaddafi peaked in the years 2007-2010. In October 2010 , I analyzed the geopolitical position taken by the Jamahiriya “The Europe -Africa Summit held in Sirte / Tripoli on November 29, 2010 marks the centrality of Libya both political as a driver of the African Union – which Moammar Gaddafi was the main initiator – and geopolitical as a bridge between the European Union and the African Union. The central role played by the dialogue of cultures is also the response proposed by Libya to the warlike theses of the “clash of civilizations” (…) The vision of Libya as a bridge between the Greater-Europe and the African Union , that we were the first to develop in the early 90s, is now widely accepted and adopted by the major players of African and European Unions. Note on this subject the official logo, adopted by the European Commission in Brussels , for the cultural project of cooperation between the EU and the African Union ” Visionary Africa “, where the Eurasian dimensional map of Greater-Europe includes Russia (6).
THE WAR AGAINST LIBYA IS FIRST A WAR AGAINST EUROPE
The aggression against the Jamahiriya, scheduled in November 2010 by the U.S., NATO and Sarkozy’s France again Atlanticist, will put a sudden stop to these projects of peace and cooperation. This ” outstretched hand , which paved the way for a more fraternal and united Mediterranean Area” , it was criminal to refuse .
And the war against the Jamahiriya as those against Afghanistan and Iraq , is above all a “war against Greater-Europe ” , in the words of General Von Lohausen , German geopolitical friend of Jean Thiriart (7) , about Afghanistan. A war waged by the “European” allies of Washington , the politicians of NATO and its political appendix, the EU . An EU that exchanged a peaceful project for a chaotic geopolitical environment – a Libyan Somalia at the gates of the EU – which only benefits Washington, Tel Aviv, their “Arab” allies and a few transnational corporations.
TWO OPPOSITE VISIONS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
But from the start what else to expect from the EU ? Because the positions of the EU – “Barcelona Process ” or ” Euro- Mediterranean partnership ” – and those geopolitical of Gaddafi are two completely opposite visions of the Mediterranean .
In October 2007, at the forum of the WGBSS (8) in Tripoli in the auditorium of the General People’s Congress (the Libyan parliament, burned in late February 2011 by the NTC jihadists) , before 2,000 delegates from five continents I drew in my speech on behalf of the European delegations ( 9) , the finding of the ideological split between Gaddafi and the EU politicians : ” We also greet in Gaddafi a great European who has always supported the unification and emancipation of the European continent, which he saw as an essential element of a multipolar world, free from imperialist domination. Whose pioneering vision already combines African and European unities. In this vision, Gaddafi designs Libya as a bridge between Africa and Europe. We must emphasize how much this vision is different from the Atlanticist politicians of the European Union who, they, do not build bridges , but erect the walls of a fortress. ”
I remembered how the speech of Brussels and Strasbourg on the “open European society” does not match the reality of the Fortress Europe: “in Brussels or Strasbourg , these arrogant as helpless politicians give lessons to the entire world. “Human rights , freedom of movement, freedom” they tell us . But in reality these are the walls of a fortress they erect! Wall of Schengen in the East splitting Europe in two. Barbed wire of Schengen still at the border between Morocco and Spain. And even within the European Union, two-tier citizenship . Complete for the countries of the old EEC . Limited rights for Bulgarians , Romanians or Poles…
Unworthy treatment of the European peoples categorized in peoples superior in rights and peoples who are denied the same rights. Between 1933 and 1945 , under the Nazi Reich there was nothing else. But they said it more bluntly … ” People of Lords ” and ” subhuman Slavs !” ”
Finally, I opposed the Mediterranean vision of Gaddafi and the one of the EU : “The European Union also intends to make the Mediterranean a border , one more ! The “Barcelona Process ” or ” Euro- Mediterranean Partnership ” , which Libya has refused to participate , have no other meaning . Faced with this vision, there is that of Muammar Gaddafi. Who sees the Mediterranean as a place of culture , sharing , exchange . Again there Gaddafi has the memory of the past . The one when the Mediterranean was one. Libya, which also remembers its Roman past , which knows Leptis Magna gave the Roman Empire the emperors of the dynasty of Severus. European politicians have also forgotten it ! Yes, we European activists , we prefer to follow and listen to Gaddafi, who wants to build bridges to unite, than the politicians of the European Union, who build walls to separate ! ”
THE COUP OF FEBRUARY 2011 IS THE RESULT OF A PROCESS BEGUN IN LIBYA IN 2003
This is similar to the one that destroyed Yugoslavia from 1985 to 2001 had destabilized process and destroyed Gaddafi’s Libyan Jamahiriya.
Destroyed on a scenario , a ” transition process ” – the name of the NTC of Benghazi is inspired directly by it – reminiscent closely Yugoslavia and it is not a coincidence . The transition is obviously to the Western parliamentarism, liberalism , the global economy and alignment with the U.S. and NATO !
As in Yugoslavia , Libya too, since 2003 , had a liberal wing , opposed to the socialist patriots. That gathered behind Saif Al Islam , Gaddafi ‘s eldest son , who brought liberals and Islamists ( as NTC President Abdel Jalil) in power. Please read these revealing pages of Bernard- Henry Levy on Saif in his book of personal self- propaganda on Libya ” WAR WITHOUT LIKING IT “, where he asks the question that shocks ” how who was ours ( expression is of him) could he join his father ? ” …
The Libyan regime has been destabilized and attacked from within.
Before the bombs , armies and mercenaries of NATO and USA come to finish the job . I lived inside this capture of Libya, that the socialist wing of the RCM fought . I saw how the illusions of Tripoli on peaceful coexistence and the global economy led the Libyan Liberals to form in Trojan horse and prepare the exterior assault.
On the process of transition , in Belarus ( where President Lukashenko has stopped it) , in Yugoslavia (where President Milosevic has stopped it for a decade ) and in Libya in particular , I gave in 2011 a lengthy analysis entitled ” Model of Belarus as an alternative to globalization ” , in Minsk , on the occasion of the International Conference ” THE PROSPECTS OF THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP ” . It was filmed for PCN- TV and is available on its website (4).
A ” DIALOGUE” WHICH IS CONCLUDED BY AN AGGRESSION
The response of NATO and the EU, that of Washington , to the geopolitical and ideological challenge posed by Gaddafi, who is also defined as ” opposing the World Order ” will be the imperialist war , first of all the coup of 15-16 February 2011, and its transformation into a war of aggression disguised as civil war.
The so-called “revolt against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi ” is in fact an insurgent coup organized by the U.S. and NATO with complicity within the Muslim-liberal wing appeared in Jamahiriya since 2003. It began in Cyrenaica by the establishment of a National Transitional Council in Benghazi. Eastern Cyrenaica ( Benghazi , Derah ) was from the 80’s a rebel area where Islamists organized a subversion fueled especially by the British secret service MI6 and MI5 from London , the capital of Islamist “Londonistan”. In 1996 broke out a large armed uprising , led from London, not easily crushed.
The U.S. and NATO have also seized Libya with the help of armed gangs and jihadists. And they are Islamists employed by the CIA, holding a U.S. passport since the early 80s, who run Libya under NATO occupation . “General” Hifter , CIA agent , controls the ” new Libyan army,” al- Megaryef , the leader of liberal forces , he too former employee of the Agency, chaired the first post NTC parliament. Premier Zeidan is also an employee of the CIA , liberal in economics but Islamist in politics.
THE JAMAHIRIYA WAS TAKEN FROM INSIDE
After the capture of Tripoli and the martyrdom of Sirte – the Libyan ‘Guernica’ – NATO and its jihadist proxy of NTC , Cyrenaica had proclaimed its independence which was not recognized by the authorities of the NTC . Behind this autonomy are the Libyan monarchists , driven out by Gaddafi and his Revolution of 1 September 1969 , hand-held directly by the British MI6 .
And with the monarchists , the famous ” brotherhoods Senoussi ” ( near the Turkish Islamic religious brotherhoods that form the basis of the AKP) , King Idris removed in 1969 was a Senoussi . And the leader of the new ” independent Cyrenaica ” 2013 is still a Senoussi , cousin of the king. As for the leader of the NTC , Mustapha Abdeljalil (now fled to Tunisia as indicted for the murder in July 2011 of General Younes , Chief of the katibas of the NTC ) , he was a radical Islamist unwisely placed in the government as Minister of Justice of the Jamahiriya by Saif al -Islam, and … one of the leaders of these brotherhoods Senoussi prohibited under Gaddafi . The Jamahiriya has been betrayed from within by its Islamo- liberal wing well before NATO carries the coup de grace …
The rise of Islamists and their alliance with the pro- Western liberals thus began well before the NTC of 2011. The leader of the NTC Abdeljalil was in fact the leader of the so-called “moderate” Islamists who were allied to the Liberal Libyans in Libya of the “peaceful coexistence with the West ” of after 2003, in their fight against the Jamahiryan socialist wing of the regime. Their leader , and that’s there all the drama of the Jamahiriya after 2003, was Saif Al –Islam, own eldest son of Gaddafi, who had installed the Islamists in the heart of the Libyan institutions. And especially Abdeljalil at the head of the Libyan High Court, where this extremist of Sharia had organized the case of the “Bulgarian nurses ” that cost so much to the Jamahiriya in terms of international image.
IT HAS ALSO BEEN BETRAYED BY ITS RUSSIAN ALLY
In parralel to all that, we must emphasize the fatal blow that was the dropping of Gaddafi by Moscow and the acceptance of the vote of the Security Council by Russia and China ( which followed ), which paved the way directly to the NATO aggression , at a time when the loyalist forces had restored the situation and had entered Benghazi.
A freelancer not very smart of RIA Novosti wrote at that time that “Russia had no fundamental geopolitical interests in Libya .” Huge stupidity! Moscow had there a friendly regime , economic interests and especially its single geopolitical ally in the Western Mediterranean . Who remembers that Russia should have , following the visit of Gaddafi in Russia in 2009 , had there a naval base ? Ironically, precisely in Benghazi … Upon his arrival in Moscow, end of March 2011 , the Russian ambassador , evacuated, said for his part that the dropping of Tripoli was “a crime against the vital national interests of Russia” …
The refusal of dialogue between the European and African Unions that suggested Gaddafi only benefits the enemies of the true Europe. Who were also and still are the enemies of Libya. ” In this context, the irresponsible policy of the French government, conducted on behalf of the interests of foreign lobbies , is not a fault, but a crime,” I concluded already in 2003. Need I say more ?
Luc MICHEL
http://www.lucmichel.net/2014/01/21/ceredd-analysis-luc-michel-geopolitics-of-the-destruction-of-the-libyan-jamahiriya/
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(*) The Russian radio VOICE OF RUSSIA presented in December 2013 the ‘Libyan route’ of Luc MICHEL :
“Luc MICHEL , specialist in geopolitics and especially Libya (we owe him a GEOPOLITICS OF THE LIBYAN JAMAHIRIYA ) .
Organizer and man of action, he is also the creator throughout Europe from mid -February 2011 of the Committees ELAC / Euro – Libyan Action Committees and in June 2011 of their African branch , Committees ALAC / Afro – Libyan Action Committees (with the Chadian Djim Ley – NGARDIGAL ), an organization supporting the Jamahiriya which continues the fight. In April 2011, he organized with the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs , the Libyan National Youth Organization and ELAC the only international conference – Euro- Afro-Arab – of support to the Jamahiriya “Hands off Libya” in Tripoli under the bombs of NATO.
He also held leadership positions for the Jamahiriya. From 2004 , he has headed the Pan- European Network of the World Libyan Revolutionary Committees Movement ( RCM , the backbone of the Jamahiriya), the MEDD-RCM ( European Movement for Direct Democracy , the only organization of the RCM that remained active after 2011 and whose Secretary – General is Fabrice Beaur ) . In April 2011 , he was appointed by Tripoli President of the “International Commission of the Forum of Associations against the war in Libya ” and is responsible for the coordination of the fight for the Jamahiriya in Europe and Africa. He is also the editor of the ELAC & ALAC Website .
Luc MICHEL is both an analyst of Libya but also a great witness of the aggression against the Jamahiriya, which he lived from the inside, and an actor of its defense.”
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NOTES AND REFERENCES:
(1) LIBYA NEWS & FACTS , the newsletter of CEREDD , published in 2003 a FILE ” LIBYA 2003″ 5 special editions ( bilingual French – English) « LIBYA AT THE CROSSROADS “.
Among the articles :
Moammar Gaddafi : “The end of Arab Nationalism ”
Luc Michel : “Libya between War threats and imperialist blackmail ”
Mr Njem : “The Jamahiriyan Revolution in the perspective of a united Africa ”
( 2) I have not been the least one to announce, in Libya (where I was for the “6th European Convention of MEDD,” the pan-European network of the Libyan RCM held in Zawiah near Tripoli , 5-6-7 February 2011), from the early days of February 2011 the imperialist aggression announced against Tripoli (and Damascus). I was the only one among all the analysts and commentators to understand what is happening and take the exact measure of the event. At a time when all analysts let themselves to believe in the pseudo “Arab Spring.” Starting with the so-called journalists “not mainstream” shouting haro in February-March 2011 on Gaddafi as the imperialist storm rose on the Gulf of Sirte.
Cf. PCN-TV, “The Arab world is on fire”: Interview in French of Luc MICHEL for PCN-TV, on the so-called “Arab revolutions” (Tripoli, February 7, 2011).
VIDEO on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/26435385
VERBATIM in English on the Website THE JAMAHIRIYAN RESISTANCE NETWORK:
http://www.elac-committees.org/2011/08/08/february-6-2011-luc-michel-announces-from-tripoli-the-western-aggression-against-libya-and-syria/
(3) In another analysis, I came back from 2003 on the reasons that lead – and led in 2011-2012 – to the inevitable clash between the U.S. and the Arab revolutionary regimes.
Cf. Luc MICHEL, AMERICANO-ZIONIST AGGRESSION IS AN IDEOLOGICAL WAR AGAINST THE ARAB NATIONALISM: AFTER BAGHDAD, DAMASCUS AND TRIPOLI ARE IN LINE OF SIGHT! (2003),
on: http://www.pcn-ncp.com/editos/en/ld-031007.htm
(4) In the confidence trick of peaceful coexistence between the West and its enemies
See my analyzes of socialist reforms in the USSR, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Libya, Ba’athist Iraq and Syria.
See especially: International conference “The prospects of the Eastern partnership” – Minsk 05.05.2011:
Conference of Luc MICHEL (PART.1 – 2) recovery on PCN-TV, on “Model of Belarus as an alternative to globalization” (where I mention longly the peaceful coexistence in Libya);
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xj9esr_the-prospects-of-the-eastern-partnership-lecture-of-luc-michel-part-2_news
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjjmbi_the-prospects-of-the-eastern-partnership-conference-de-luc-michel-part-3-conclusion_news
(5) The “3rd Congress of Polish geopoliticians” – III Zjazd Geopolityków Polskich – held in Wroclaw (Poland, 21 and 22 October 2010) was the opportunity for a brilliant intervention of Kornel Sawinski entitled “Znaczenie LIBII w geopolitycznych koncepcjach Nacjonal-Europejskiej Partii Komunitarnej (PCN) “,” Libya in the geopolitical concepts of PCN-NCP. ”
Geopolitical expert, sociologist, analyst at the ” Europejskiego Centrum Analiz Geopolitycznych” Sawinski is the Uniwersytetu Śląskiego PhD – University of Silesia – he prepares a thesis on “The geopolitical ideas of Jean Thiriart.”
The geopolitician and Polish researcher develops at length in “Libya in the geopolitical concepts of PCN-NCP” the general transnational action of the PCN-NCP and mine for over 25 years, amplified and continued in that of MEDD-RCM (the pan-European network of the Libyan RMC, remained organized in Europe). And its roots in the work of the pan-European leader and theorist Jean THIRIART in the 60s. He outlines the important and influential role played by the transnational Organisation of the PCN-NCP as a school of thought and “think tank” (as understood by the Anglo-Saxons). Finally, he reaches the heart of his presentation: the ties with the Libyan Jamahiriya, the proximity of Muammar Gaddafi’s geopolitical theories with mine (in 2004 I became the Coordinator-General of RCM in Europe) and the PCN-NCP on the Eurasian Greater Europe, the necessary emergence of a multipolar world, the Mediterranean conceived as a place of common civilization, or the role of Bridge of Libya between the European and African Unions.
Sawinski finally evokes the theme of Direct Democracy (in its Libyan and European versions), the role it plays in my mind and that of MEDD-RCM as a fundamental alternative to bourgeois parliamentarism.
The Polish version of the conference – with French and English summaries, has been the subject of an issue of LIBYA NEWS & FACTS (No. 2054, November 17, 2010), the Bulletin of CEREDD;
Pdf available at: http://ceredd.free.fr/accueil.htm
Report on : http://midd.free.fr/pdf/bdd24(e).pdf
(6) Cf. Luc MICHEL, “VISIONARY AFRICA” DIALOGUE OF CULTURES AND COOPERATION BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN AND AFRICAN UNIONS!, in LIBYA NEWS & FACTS newsletter CEREDD, No. 2151, October 25, 2010
Pdf on: http://ceredd.free.fr/accueil.htm
(7) Austrian General and geopolitical scientist Lohausen (1907-2002), former member of the General Staff of Marshal Rommel, close to the anti-Nazi patriots of 20 July 1944, is part of the result of the geopolitical theories of Jean Thiriart “Europe from Vladivostok to Dublin.” He wrote glowing pages on the European draft of Thiriart the Years 1960-1975.
The general’s main book of geopolitics MUT ZUR MACHT. DENKEN IN KONTINENTEN, translated for the story in French by one of the secretaries of THIRIART, is part of the School of HAUSOFER, but also incorporates many concepts of THIRIART. Lohausen in particular speaks of “Europe from Madrid to Vladivostok.” In the copy offered by Lohausen to Thiriart in 1983 (which I got with his library in 1999) is the following dedication: “In respectful tribute to a great European.”
(8) WGBSS acronym for the World Green Book Supporters Society , which united the supporters of the Libyan Direct Democracy .
(9) Luc MICHEL, Speech on behalf of the Delegations of the European continent, at the Opening of the First World Assembly of the “International Association of Supporters of the Green Book,” Tripoli, Libya, 25 October 2009: THINKING CONTINENTS !
FOR A PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION! A CALL FOR ACTION OF PHILOSOPHY: CHANGE THE WORLD!,
on: http://midd.free.fr/asipalv2009-1.html
I borrowed my title “Thinking Continents” in the French version of the German book of geopolitics “Mut zur Macht. Denken in Kontinenten “of General Jordis Von Lohausen.
