Lord Mayor's Show
Following the 2010 parliamentary elections, Prime Minister David Cameron pursued commercial interests of the City of London elites with unceasing determination. Although he announced the withdrawal of the British troops from Afganistan by 2015, in 2011 he agreed to engage British army in a military operation in Libya, the country which was within a sphere of interest of the Anglo-American oil companies, in particular British Petroleum (BP). Shortly before his resignation, in May 2007, Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Libyan leader Moammar El-Gadhafi in a tent in the Libyan desert near Gadhafi’s home town of Sirte, where he assisted British Petroleum (BP) in sealing an energy deal to explore for natural gas in Libya.499 As part of the so called “desert deal”, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (who in 1999 was handed over to western authorities in return for lifting of sanction on Libya), was released from Scottish prison, officially due to his illness. MI6 continued to watch carefully over Gadhafi's steps and worried about his plans that could make Libya and the rest of African states more independent. In September 2009, during second Africa-South America summit held in Venezuela, Gadhafi proposed a formation of military alliance mirroring the NATO. “For African countries”, he said, “it’s closer to visit our brothers in South America. We share the same interests of liberation and revolutionary ideals. Colonialism humiliated us, insulted us and robbed us of our riches.”500 The revolutionary president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who hosted the summit, said it was essential to diminish the influence of “imperialism” and boost ties with “brotherly” countries rich in mineral resources such as Angola and Nigeria, which were members of OPEC. The plans were also made to create a state mining company to prevent the Anglo-American interest, controlled by the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds and their associates, from monopolizing the whole mining industry. Gadhafi, who held the largest reserves of gold among all African countries – about 143 tons - had also boldly proposed to the African states to create a new pan-African currency based on a Libyan gold-minted Dinar, which could be used as primary means of payment for oil and other resources.501 This worried the French, as many of the interested nations were using the French franc (CFA) as a prime African currency, and it worried the elites of the United States which felt that new currency could jeopardize petrodollar system. The western powers were also concerned with the increasing Chinese investments in the Middle East and Africa. During the November 2009 Chinese-African Forum in Egypt, the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao pledged a low cost loan of 10 billion dollars to Africa and offered multiple other investment projects.502
As the elites of the City of London and Washington D.C. felt they were loosing control in the Middle East, they planned to stir social unrest that would justify military action. In the United States, the 2008 presidential elections were won by Democratic leader Barack Hussein Obama, first Afro-American President in the White House, who for many years lectured law at the Rockefeller's University of Chicago. His inauguration fund was subsidized in 90% by corporations from Wall Street.503 President Barack Obama appointed Hilary Clinton, a senator from New York and wife of a former president Bill Clinton, new Secretary of State. In May 2010, Howard Kohr, the executive of America's most influential pro-Israeli lobby, the American Israel Public Defense Committee, in short AIPAC, successfully lobbied with President Obama to support Israel by giving it $205 million, ostensibly for its Iron Dome short-range missile defense system.504 This was one of many “donations” that Israel had received over the past decades from the American government for its secret operations in the Middle East. Various politicians questioned the righteousness of such donation to a foreign government in time of economic recession, until the riots kicked off in Tunisia in December 2010 and spread across the region, providing justification for subsidies to Israel. The incident that triggered chain reaction was reportedly a fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi who lit himself aflame following his apprehension by police for failing to have a license to sell goods. On January 14, 2011, after nearly a month of protests, with public anger mounting over the violent response of the security forces, Tunisian President Ben Ali flew to Saudi Arabia. By late January widespread protests affected Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Yemen. The slogans on the banners were everywhere the same: democracy, free elections, respect for human rights. U.S. technology companies Facebook, Twitter and other major social media played a key role in agitating the collective action especially among the Egyptian and Tunisian activists.505 On February 11, Egyptian President Hoshni Mubarak decided to step down. By mid-February unrest erupted in Bahrain and Libya. In Libya, MI6 agents were already on the ground. Daily Mail reported in March 2011 that an agent of MI6, Tom Smith, had been working on a farm in Libya and “that the job provided a cover to make contact with the rebels.”506
Taking advantage of the unrest in Libya, British Prime Minister David Cameron teamed up with French President Nikolas Sarkozy, whom former President Jacques Chirac described as "nervous, impetuous, bubbling over with ambition, doubting nothing, least of all himself".507 508 Subsequently David Cameron and Nikolas Sarkozy, with support from US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, pushed for military action against the government of Moammar El-Gadhafi. The official reason was an urgent need to protect civilian population from the “Gadhafi regime”. David Cameron later described that he “took the decision to go to war on a mobile phone in France.”509 On March 17, 2011, UN Security Council imposed a ban on all flights in the country’s airspace — a no-fly zone — and authorized member states to take "all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi”. Russia and China, as well as three nonpermanent members of the Security Council, Brazil, Germany and India, abstained from voting. Two days later, NATO forces, predominantly British and French, launched air strikes on Libya's government targets. Instead of protecting civilians, the NATO forces condoned the slaughter of the Libyan population by the rebel groups. This was confirmed by Hilary Clinton’s closest adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, an employee of a Clinton foundation, which was subsidized by Saudi Arabia, ostensibly to do “important philanthropic work around the world.”510 Blumenthal explained in an email sent on March 27, 2011 to Hilary Clinton that “[s]peaking in strict confidence, one rebel commander stated that his troops continue to summarily execute all foreign mercenaries in the fighting.”511 Such executions were a violation of the Geneva Conventions, but neither Blumenthal nor Hillary demonstrated much concern. The NATO forces also bombed the Brega pipe factory, part of Gadhafi's Great-Man-Made-River engineering project and critical civilian infrastructure, which was in breach of international humanitarian law.512 In August 2011, after six months of fighting, the rebels, who were additionally supported by the Qatari forces,513 took Tripoli killing thousands of people, mostly Black Libyans, whom they wrongly accused of acting as mercenaries for the Gadhafi regime.514 Among the rebel leaders was Abdelhakim Belhaj, the leader of Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who had links to Al-Qeada, and who attempted in the past to kill Gadhafi with the help from MI6. Around October 20, 2011, Moammar El-Gadhafi, the revolutionary leader of Libya, was cornered near his home town, the coastal city of Sirte, after moving between abandoned homes to avoid the fierce shelling by anti-Gadhafi militias from Misrata, Benghazi and elsewhere, who had surrounded the area. Already bleeding from a shrapnel wound, he was subjected to the most humiliating treatment from the pro-NATO rebels being stabbed in the buttocks with a bayonet and mercilessly beaten. Before he was shot, alongside his son and about 66 people, who accompanied him, he asked: “WHAT DID I DO TO YOU?”515 516
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499 “Update 4 – Blair meets Gadaffi as BP lands energy deal”, Reuters, 29 May 2007 https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-africa/update-4-blair-meets-gaddafi-as-bp-lands-energy-dealidUSL2965086120070529 »
500 “Gadaffi proposed the creation of a South Atlantic Military Alliance”, MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency., 28 September 2009 http://en.mercopress.com/2009/09/28/gaddafi-proposed-the-creation-of-a-south-atlantic-military-alliance »
501 Brad Hof, “Hillary Emails Reveal True Motive of Libya Intervention”, Foreign Policy Journal, 6 January 2016 https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/ »
502 Barney Jopson and Jamil Anderlini, “China pledges $10 billion in low-cost loans to Africa”, The Washington Post, 9 November 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/08/AR2009110818002.html »
503 Christopher Cooper, Brody Mullins, “Wall Street is Big Donor to Inauguration”, The Wall Street Journal, 9 January 2009 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123146096981566339 »
504 Ron Kampeas, “Obama authorizes $205 million for Iron Dome”, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 14 May 2010 https://www.jta.org/2010/05/14/news-opinion/politics/obama-authorizes-205-million-for-iron-dome »
505 “Civil Movements: The Impact of Facebook and Twitter”, Arab Social Media Report, May 2011 https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DSG_Arab_Social_Media_Report_No_2.pdf?x20117 »
506 Barbara Jones, “What was Our Man on the Libyan Farm really up to? Hard-working manager met with SAS troops before farcical operation to meet rebels”, Daily Mail, 13 March 2011 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365736/What-Our-Man-Libyan-Farm-really-Hard-working-manager-met-SAS-troops-farcical-operation-meet-rebels.html »
507 Kim Wilsher, “Jacques Chirac memoir savages Nicolas Sarkozy”, The Guardian, 9 June 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/09/jacques-chirac-savages-nicolas-sarkozy »
508 “Nicolas Sarkozy Widely Disliked Due To Jewish Roots, ex-France FM says”, Haaretz, 16 October 2014 https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/ex-fm-sarkozy-disliked-due-to-jewish-roots-1.5316025 »
509 Anthony Seldon & Peter Snowdon, Cameron At 10. The Verdict, p. 106 »
510 Rosalid S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, “Foreign governments gave millions to foundation whilst Clinton was at State Department”, The Washington Post, 25 February 2005 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/foreign-governments-gave-millions-to-foundation-while-clinton-was-atstate-dept/2015/02/25/31937c1e-bc3f-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html?utm_term=.d7d5b5011572 »
511 Dan Kovalik, Clinton Emails on Libya Expose the Lie of 'Humanitarian Intervention”, Huffington Post, 22 January 2017 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/clinton-emails-on-libya-e_b_9054182.html »
512 “NATO bombs the Great Man-Made River”, Human rights investigations, 27 July 2011 https://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/07/27/great-man-made-river-nato-bombs/ »
513 Ian Black, “Qatar admits sending hundreds of troops to support Libya's rebels”, The Guardian, 26 October 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/26/qatar-troops-libya-rebels-support »
514 Alex Newman, “Libyan Rebels Accused of “Ethnic cleansing”, Black Genocide”, The New American, 15 September 2011 https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/africa/item/8351-libyan-rebels-accused-of-ethnic-cleansing-blackgenocide »
515 Peter Beaumont, Chris Stephen, “Gaddafi's last words as he begged for mercy: What did I do to you”, The Guardian, 23 October 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/23/gaddafi-last-words-begged-mercy »
516 “Libya: New Proof of Mass Killings at Gaddafi death site”, Human Rights Watch, 17 October 2012 https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/17/libya-new-proof-mass-killings-gaddafi-death-site »