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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Did NATO order Gaddafi to be killed to prevent embarrassing trial?




Did NATO order Gaddafi to be killed to prevent embarrassing trial?



The videos of Gadaffi’s capture and his summary execution showed the world a few things apart from the callasnous of his capturers and their disregard to international law which under the Geneva conventions asert that any wounded combatant captured during combat should be given aid and treated well. They should not be shot at point blank range in the head.
We could endlessly debate the “evilness” of Gaddafi and any crimes he committed during his 40 year rule. I am sure that he had people tortured and killed himself but two wrongs do not make a right and the “west” often claims the high ground when it comes to human rights.
However, even though nations such as the USA and UK like to believe they hold some form of moral high ground when compared to other countries often their actions during combat fail to live up to their words especially since 9.11 and the war on terror which has legitimized torture and extra judicial killings by the state.
The death of Gaddafi shows us that either one of the following must be true:
1. The National Transiational Council of Libya, who supposedly commanded the forces attacking Sirat, had little or no control over their troops. Apparently the Western NATO nations involved had wanted Gadaffi captured alive so that he could be tried at the International Criminal Court in the Hague for war crimes. The NTC agreed to this.
“the ICC prosecutor, has been in contact with the country’s Transitional National Council regarding the three top Libyan leaders sought on war crime charges – the besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and Abdullah al-Senussi, the former head of Libyan military intelligence.”
“Mr Ocampo’s office said in a statement that he had been briefed on the security situation in Libya, and that “further conversations will define the precise way to move forward”. This would include ” the possibility to apprehend and surrender to the court the three individuals alleged to have committed crimes after 17 of February 2011, and also to investigate and prosecute them in Libya for crimes committed previously.”
After an initial air attack by NATO the NTC rebels captured Col Gaddafi alive, apparently finding him hiding like a rat in a drain pipe. They had the opportunity to detain him before transferring him to the Hague but didn’t. Instead they choose to execute him with a shot to the head and chest according to the following admission by a anti-Gaddafi solider.

2. The NTC gave an order to the troops attacking Sirat that if Gaddafi was found alive that he should be summarily executed. The videos we have seen of Gaddafi’s capture show confusion and a lot of argy bargy with what seems like major disagreement between the soldiers about what to do with him.
The solider in the above video claims “Some fighters wanted to take him away, that’s when I shot him twice, in the head and the chest”.
This seems to show no clear leadership amongst the capturers and no formal chain of command as otherwise the Captain, Sergeant or General in charge of the soldiers would have issued a command and it would have been followed – at least by any proper army.
This rag-tag bunch of fighters which contain elements of ex Gaddafi supporters, anti-Gaddafi tribal enemies and Islamic militants - including al-Qaeda terrorists who had previously been responsible for numerous car bombing attacks against US and UK troops in Iraq – seem to have no formal command structure so it only seems natural that official orders were light on the ground or ignored completely.
3. NATO wanted Gaddafi dead to prevent a trial in which embarresing details of secret deals, shady black hole prisons and close links between the CIA, M16 and Libyan intelligence from coming to light.
NATO had already tried to execute Gaddafi and his entourage that day, as it had done on many other occasion breaking their UN issued mandate to protect Libyan civilians by implementing a no-fly zone.
It was their bombing raid by a French fighter jet and a Predator drone on Gaddafi’s convoy that led to his capture and then execution. Therefore to claim that NATO wanted him alive to be tried is disingenuous at the least as for the whole half year war they had been trying to execute Gaddafi and his supporters from the air.
As the following news reports shows Hillary Clinton wanted Gaddafi captured “dead or alive” and told the NTC this on camera. To the west Gaddafi ending up dead helped to prevent the embarrassment of any public trial and the revelation of any dirty little secrets that may have been waiting to be uncovered.
It seems clear from statements made by the Libyan National Transitional Council that they are more than happy to help those who helped them remove Gaddfi from power reap the rewards of Africa’s largest oil producer.
NTC officials have already said that they intend to reward countries that were early to recognise the council as the legitimate representative of Libya, as well as countries such as the USA, France and the UK that have been involved in the international military intervention to suppress Gaddafi’s forces.
Among the “rewards” the council has offered to these countries are favorable oil contracts and other economic ties. On 15 July 2011, a council spokesman told members of the Libya Contact Group meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, that his government would not forge any new oil contracts and that an elected government must be in place before new deals could be made.
What is clear is that the killing of a prisoner of war is an international crime, whether or not that prisoner was heinous dictator.
Just like the summary execution of the unarmed Bin Laden who could have been captured alive but was instead shot dead unarmed and then dumped in the sea, or the extra judicial killing of an American citizen citizen al-Awlaki in Yemen – we do not hold our breath for any form of justice for those that the “rulers of the world” dislike.
International law is supposed to apply to everyone and every country.
It cannot and should not be a victors justice that is only imposed by the war mongering nations against the losers they have subjugated. If we are to live in a world in which every man is equal under the law whether they be peasant, Lord or dictator then the crime of Gaddafi’s execution should be investigated and the people responsible held to account for his murder.
However as these people are all nuclear powers, permanent security council members and neo-coloniasts that seem to be repeating the mistakes of the 30′s after the last great depression I hold out no hope of any form of justice at all.
It seems the majority of Libyan people are happy with Gaddafi’s death and unless Russia gets the investigation they have been calling for into NATO’s involvement in breaching their UN mandate I cannot see any kind of investigation occurring.
Gaddafi may have been a loon, a bad evil man and a supporter of terrorists but he didn’t deserve to die in the way he did.
The west likes to bleat on about Human Rights, Justice for all and international law but they are only ever interested if these lofty concepts are applied to others rather than themselves.
We will have to wait an see how Libya turns out but if it doesn’t become party time for huge western businesses that ends up turning the country with the highest living standards in Africa to one of the poorest I will be very pleasantly surprised.
Let me know what you think should have happened to Col. Gaddafi by answering this poll.

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