The Islamic State Is Pretext To
Again Mug Libya
By Moon
Of Alabama
March 19,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Moon
Of Alabama"-
There are currently two governments in Libya. A
"moderately Islamist" one in the west in Tripoli and
one in the east in Tobruk. The eastern one is
internationally recognized and "secular" but also
supported by some Salafist groups. Both governments
have their own parliament and various supporting
militia. In the middle of the long east-west
coastline the Islamic State led by some cadres from
Iraq and Syria has taken a foothold in Sirte. It is
recruiting followers from north Africa and moving to
capture nearby oilfields to finance its further
expansion.
The "west"
is alarmed about this development and wants to
intervene with military force. Special forces from
several countries are
already on the ground. But both governments and
their parliaments
do not want such foreign intervention.
The UN or
someone came up with the glorious idea of creating a
third government which is supposed to supersede the
two existing ones. The task of this third government
will be to "invite" foreign forces and to
rubber-stamp whatever they will
do. That third government is now constituted in
Tunisia and has zero power on the ground in Libya:
[T]here is
no guarantee that the other factions will back
down. So what is a war between two rival
governments backed by militias risks becoming a
war among three rival governments, none of which
recognize the others ..
Naturally
the Libyans hate that idea of a foreign imposed
government. They will likely fight any third force
that tries to usurp their sovereignty. Confronted
with a foreign imposed government and foreign
military forces more Libyans will join the Islamic
State to fight the intruders. The shortsightedness
of the UN and the "western" governments on this
issue is breathtaking.
But there
is still a lot of money to be made in Libya and
especially the French and British governments want
to keep robbing the country blind. This requires
some feet on the ground. The "brain" and a likely
main profiteer behind all this seems to be one well
known figure.
A
revealing piece in the Times of Malta
describes some of the astonishing political-business
connections behind the scenes:
[A] major
military operation by a collection of foreign
powers is in the works to tackle Isis and
install a UN-backed government but the shabby
way it has been put together carries the risk it
will blow back in everyone’s faces.
First,
there is the strange situation that [Britain’s
Ambassador to Libya, Peter] Millett takes his
orders from Britain’s Libya envoy, Jonathan
Powell, a contractor to the FCO. Yes, the same
Powell who, along with then prime minister Tony
Blair, brokered the deal with Muammar Gaddafi to
end his dictatorship’s isolation a decade ago -
and lead to fat Blair consultancies with that
same tyrant after the prime minister left
office.
Among
other beneficiaries of this new opening up of
Gaddafi’s dictatorship was a massive property
development contract handed out to a company
chaired by none other than Powell’s brother,
Lord Charles Powell, which also involved an
array of colourful London-based, well-known Arab
millionaires. Which makes Powell more of a close
relative of an interested party.
Libya is
awash with weapons and munitions of all kinds and
these are bought and sold in open markets. With the
right amount of money one can easily buy powerful
anti-tank weapons or anti-air guns readily installed
on the ubiquitous Toyota technicals. But Britain
also wants to sell, not buy weapons:
Millett
revealed that he wants to sell Libya yet more
[weapons] - but only to the ‘right’ militias,
that is, those supporting the new UN-backed
government of national accord (GNA).
The
GNA, designed to replace Libya’s two warring
governments, in Tripoli and Tobruk, is the
cornerstone of Western policy in Libya, designed
to unite the country to turn its united guns on
Isis. Hence the weapons.
Millett
insists the weapons will only go to the ‘right’
militias, an echo of a Western statement about
supporting the ‘right kind’ of terrorists in
Syria in the war against Isis.
Here now
comes the real business part with the most valuable
piece being the Libyan Investment Authority with
some $65 billion in assets. This fond is owned by
the Libyan people but whoever controls it will be
able to siphon off tons of money:
Much of
the fallout for this clumsy step to create a
third government for Libya will be felt in
Malta, where commercial battles rage between the
two existing Libyan governments over control of
a host of enterprises headquartered here - and
which are soon to have unity government leaders
also pushing for control.
The
Valletta court battle for the public
telecommunications company LPTIC highlighted the
complicated split and a new tussle is underway
for control of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA),
the Tobruk-appointed office of which is situated
in Malta.
For
now, the LIA battle is in London but in a
bizarre twist the case was last week
controversially stopped in mid flow on advice
from Britain’s Foreign Office.
The
judge making the order, which keeps both
existing governments from getting their hands on
this $65 billion asset, is none other than
William Blair, brother of - you guessed it,
Tony.
Never
mind that Tony worked with the LIA in the latter
Gaddafi years.
Conflict of interest?
Well, you
decide. But to me this looks like another coup in
the making this time by introducing a third
government that will be completely controlled by
foreigners. All this not to "fight the Islamic
State" but for Tony Blair and others to control and
rob whatever assets the Libyans have left. (How, by
the way, is the
Clinton Foundation involved in this?)
I can not
think of any positive outcome this hapless robbery
attempt under the disguise of fighting the Islamic
State will have for Libya and its people. Or for the
people of those countries who's "elites" now again
move to wage war on Libya. |