For those who have not listened to this interview, I recommend it. It covers a lot of ground and is interesting. I never realized how much of the oil revenue he gave back to the people. Married couples, according to this interview anyway, got over 50,000 dollars to set up a house, etc...It appears as if he gave a lot of the oil revenue back to the people. What qualifies as a lot? Well I don't know, but maybe more than most dictators... The literacy rate, according to this interview is one of the highest in the world. College educations were free with a stipend for living expenses. Healthcare was provided according to Susan. The dictator may be a crazy bat but it appears as if he took relatively good care of his people. According to Susan the poverty rate was less than 5%, etc...
She left me with the impression that his people like him for the most part.
He is known for being crafty. If they find his gold without finding him and torturing him for it I might be surprised.
any news on 'ole crazy Muammar's all-female crack squad of pneumatic knock 'em dead close protection specialists ?
...Entitled Shadows of a Leader: Qaddafi's Female Bodyguards, Ajami focuses on how this group of women sets an example for Libyan society and womens' roles within it. In an interview published in the New York Times, Ajami stated: "'It's showing the notion of the female bodyguard as being these women who are liberated and how it extends to all sectors of society...Bodyguards are really a symbol of this new feminism that exists. One wonders, once Qaddafi is no longer there, will the women still have this future? Do they have a future without him?'
eyeno wrote:And why is not Farrakhan dead like Kennedy and Martin Luther King?
Because reductive caricature and the media's power of anathema are these days much more powerful silencing weapons than assassination.
I've only heard one part of Farrakhan's speech so far, but it was very cogent. Thanks for that eyeno.
Expectation calibration and expectation management is essential at home and internationally. - Obama foreign policy advisor Samantha Power, February 21, 2008
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) – A TV channel is quoting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi as saying he retreated from his Tripoli compound in a "tactical move" after 64 NATO airstrikes turned it to rubble.
Members of the Tripoli National Council enter the Radisson hotel for a meeting Tuesday in Tripoli, Libya. Hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Moammar Gadhafi's compound Tuesday.
By Sergey Ponomarev, AP
Members of the Tripoli National Council enter the Radisson hotel for a meeting Tuesday in Tripoli, Libya. Hundreds of Libyan rebels stormed Moammar Gadhafi's compound Tuesday.
Al-Rai TV said Wednesday it would air the comments from Gadhafi in full soon and reported an excerpt in which the leader of Libya's crumbling regime vows his forces will resist "the aggression with all strength" until either victory or death.
It was not clear from the remarks when Gadhafi abandoned the Bab al-Azaziya compound, which was overrun by rebel fighters Tuesday.
The rebel force entered the compound after fighting for five hours with Gadhafi loyalists outside, using mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They killed some of those who defended the compound and hauled off thousands of rifles, crates of weapons and trucks with guns mounted on the back in a frenzy of looting.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
MAN -- Part Two is awesome. Dat Minister do Tell It!
How I WISH our leaders could be forced to watch & listen to this talk 60-24-7-54 until they 'get it'.
I almost could hope America WOULD put troops on the ground, have them fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their 'Al Qeada' rebel brothers-in-arms, now THAT would be a rich contradiction for the White House and Pentagon to 'explain' to a baffled and bewildered public!
I absolutely DESPISE hypocrisy, especially that which is so self-righteous & self-enriching that it excuses itself, that harms people and destroys nations, that tramples justice and renders rights inconsequential, that poisons hearts and cripples minds.
The moral rot that infects America has been festering for over 50 years, its getting harder and harder to ignore or excuse-away. As it gets easier and easier to point-out and condemn.
StarmanSkye wrote:MAN -- Part Two is awesome. Dat Minister do Tell It!
How I WISH our leaders could be forced to watch & listen to this talk 60-24-7-54 until they 'get it'.
I almost could hope America WOULD put troops on the ground, have them fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their 'Al Qeada' rebel brothers-in-arms, now THAT would be a rich contradiction for the White House and Pentagon to 'explain' to a baffled and bewildered public!
I absolutely DESPISE hypocrisy, especially that which is so self-righteous & self-enriching that it excuses itself, that harms people and destroys nations, that tramples justice and renders rights inconsequential, that poisons hearts and cripples minds.
The moral rot that infects America has been festering for over 50 years, its getting harder and harder to ignore or excuse-away. As it gets easier and easier to point-out and condemn.
Yes, in part 2 he sticks it up the snout. part 2 is probably the best of all 4 parts.
Is anybody going to Al-Jazeera for news these days?
First and foremost Western leaders need to wipe that smug look from their faces and make sure not to gloat about doing the Arabs any favours.
Certainly the NATO aerial bombardment did help, but this was a revolutionaries' victory par excellence. The battle was won first and foremost in the hearts of the Libyans, just as with the Egyptians and Tunisians before them.
In this post, Joseph Cannon raises some poignant question regarding Libya. He references an old radio show which discusses two "rogue" CIA agents Ed Wilson and Frank Terpil. To crib quotes he cited which describe the radio show:
Mohammar Khadafy’s terrorist cadre, the Red Brigades and Carlos the Jackal were allegedly among the recipients of Wilson and Terpil’s expertise.
Although they supposedly performed as renegades, they claimed that their activities supportive of “left” terror were performed at the bequest of U.S. intelligence.
Program Highlights Include: the group’s use of active-duty Green Berets to train Khadafy’s terrorists; Ed Wilson’s operation of Task Force 157, an intelligence operation that spawned the Nugan Hand Bank (a CIA-connected bank that laundered drug and arms deal profits); Wilson’s role in brokering shipments of U.S. arms to Egypt; Eyewitness substantiation of the duo’s connection to Carlos the Jackal; the role of former CIA officials Theodore Shackley and Thomas Clines in Terpil and Wilson’s activities; the untimely deaths of numerous witnesses to, or participants in, the pair’s operations; Wilson’s past operations for CIA, including the Bay of Pigs project and the U-2 spy plane; Wilson’s alleged role in procuring explosives for the assassination of Orlando Letelier; Wilson’s connections to Republican kingmaker Robert Keith Gray; allegations of connections between Terpil and a drug-smuggling gang known as “The Company;” Terpil’s claims that drug profits from the above-mentioned Nugan Hand Bank sustained U.S. electronic surveillance facilities in Australia; statements from former U.S. intelligence officers that the Terpil-Wilson operations in Libya were, indeed, officially sanctioned; allegations that a “tame CIA insider” deflected Congressional inquiries into Terpil and Wilson’s activities; Libyan strongman Khadafy’s bankrolling of the Paladin Group, a fascist mercenary organization; a Latin-American assassination consortium known as “Operation Condor.”
Will developments in Libya allow informed responses to any such inquiries? Or has that all been swept away?
We discover ourselves to be characters in a novel, being both propelled by and victimized by various kinds of coincidental forces that shape our lives. ... It is as though you trapped the mind in the act of making reality. - Terence McKenna
Another aspect of CIA-linked dirty-tricks connection to the Lockerbie frame-up and cover-up.
It always gets me when individuals deep in the Military industrial Complex and Intel/Security racket find themselves in the shit, targetted by the very same unscrupulous forces they faithfully served for so long, suddenly surprised at how treacherous, venal and ruthless these forces are despite having seen their dishonourable, corrupted nature from their priveleged front-row up-close association.
I guess he was OK with it as long as he was well-recompensed with luxurious perks like wealth and status and could keep his hands relatively clean, but when his Pentagon-mob bosses asked him to pull his weight and he balked, THEN he grows a conscience and takes their bitter retribution personally.
Its kinda hard to feel sorry for this guy, considering how much misery and suffering he abetted by playing his dutiful role as facilitator hand-holding Congress as a MIC gopher. But I DO honour his courage in taking a stand in telling his tale so a lesson CAN be learned. *******
What would you do if your government told you to kill someone?
In "Truth Never Dies" (ISBN 1461064449), Dr. William C. Chasey tells the true story of his downfall at the hands of the United States government. He explains the book is not intended to express anger or seek vengeance, but rather to present an honest account of what happened to Chasey and his family when he refused to participate in a CIA-sponsored assassination.
Chasey explains that "Truth Never Dies" reads like an international thriller written by a creative Hollywood screenwriter. Although the story is a thriller, the author asserts that it's not the product of imagination; rather it is the compelling true story of one of Washington's most successful lobbyists, William C. Chasey. For over 20 years, Chasey enjoyed extraordinary access to the U.S. Congress. He was at the top of his game. He had wealth, power and prestige. This former Marine Corps Officer had the world at his finger tips. No one ever questioned his motives or integrity.
This all changed when he opened communications between Libya and the U.S. Congress over Pan Am 103. Chasey explains that he did his job too well and shocked the Clinton Administration when he took a U.S Congressman to Libya for discussions with Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi. The last thing the administration wanted was a Congressional oversight investigation by some of Chasey's Congressional friends.
According to Chasey, when the CIA saw how close Chasey had gotten to the Libyan leadership, they tried to blackmail him into using his unique access to the Libyans to initiate a CIA-sponsored assassination of the two Libyan intelligence officers who were indicted for blowing up Pan Am 103, Abdel Al -Megrahi and Lamin Fhimah. Chasey refused to be a part of this plan.
Chasey's shocking story describes what these feared institutions, working together, did to punish him and his family. His refusal to cooperate with the CIA resulted in the obliteration of his reputation, a 6-year FBI investigation, an FBI sting operation, financial ruin, criminal charges and incarceration in federal prison.
"I love my country, but I fear my government," Chasey says. "I fully expect that the government will deny what I've said. Now that my story is written, I am confident that it will never die, because truth never dies."
Chasey hopes that readers will be outraged as he explains that the government stopped at nothing to get even with him for not performing according to their expectations, no matter how credible and honest he was. Chasey also believes that international audiences interested in current affairs, politics, government and Pan Am 103 will find his book compelling.