LIBYA: Sign petition opposing no-fly zone

SIGN PETITION, Please!
Tell Obama and Congress you oppose the no-fly zone over Libya

The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), and over 1600 others, in an open letter to President Obama, requested the president,

"Working closely with U.S. allies, NATO, and the United Nations to create a coalition that will impose as quickly as possible a no-fly zone for all Libyan military aircraft over the full extent of northern Libyan airspace, and implement such measures as may be required to render the Libyan air force inoperable throughout the country."

We believe the no-fly zone (a euphemism for war) is neither consistent with international law, nor is it a Just War, and have stated the reasons in an open letter to CSID.

If you agree, SIGN PETITION opposing no-fly zone — just click and send. Please do not alter the subject line.

Replies will be automatically tabulated, and will constitute your signature authorizing us to petition the President and Congress for an end to the no-fly zone over Libya.

Arab League criticizes Western strikes on Libya

The Arab League on Sunday criticized Western military strikes on Libya, a week after urging the United Nations to slap a no-fly zone on the oil-rich North African state.

Doesn't Amr Moussa know what happened in Iraq? Is he trying to eat his cake, and have it too? Is this statement intended to improve his chances for being elected president of Egypt?

Obama to send 'team' to Libya. What's the legal basis for intervening?

The Guardian reports that "Libya's revolutionary leadership has appealed for France and Britain to launch air strikes against an intensive assault by Muammar Gaddafi's forces that has forced the rebel army to retreat towards its eastern stronghold of Benghazi."

The White House announced that "it would send a government aid team into rebel-held parts of Libya, . . . [but] the administration stopped far short of recognizing the rebels' Transitional National Council as Libya's legitimate government".

What gives the U.S. the legal right to intervene in Libya?

The U.S. has not been invited by the Libyan government, it stated that it does not recognize the rebels' Transitional National Council, and it does not have a UN mandate.

Islamic radicalization hearing: 9/11 truth information distributed

I arrived at the Canon House Office Building, venue for the Homeland Security Committee hearings on Islamic radicalization, between 8:30 and 8:45. I met Enver Masud, founder of The Wisdom Fund, and congratulated Medea Benjamin on being accused by Glenn Beck of starting the Egyptian revolution(NOT). I then leafleted the press with Enver's letter and fact sheet to Chairman King until shooed away by the authorities. I found a couple of people to interview Enver. Pajama TV spoke to Enver but didn't interview him. Seemed the fellow was more interested in talking to young women. I spoke to a young Muslim woman from Texas. After explaining what Enver was trying to accomplish, she begged for understanding that it would be too dangerous for most mosques to address this. I agreed that I don't find fault with Muslim Americans for reticence NEARLY as much as with European Americans. Nevertheless, I predicted that if we don't confront the 9/11 lies we will come to live in a police state where Muslim Americans take the brunt of the repression. A European diplomat asserted 9/11 was too long ago to be relevant. Diplomats are good at talking points. I met a Muslim diplomat from a large Asian nation. He had never heard of WTC 7. He was very interested.

Randall Terry the abortion clinic protest leader arrived with video camera assistant. He was knowledgeable but hostile, asserting Islam to be a threat to Christianity. A Jewish man who taught classes on the history of Israel and Palestine was critical of Terry's DVD saying that if someone cherry picked language from the Torah as Terry had done with the Koran, it would seem Judaism was even more bloodthirsty that Terry's version of Islam. He attributed this to the age of the various scriptures.

Enver went home to watch on TV, and I didn't get in till 12:30 PM. I saw the last hour. Al Green of Texas was the high point. Noting he was the son of a preacher, he emphasized that the KKK used Christianity as an excuse for their terrorist activities.

At the and I leafleted the press inside the room. I said Enver was the most daring Muslim in the US and he was never invited to speak in mosques because of fear in the mosques of being associated with him. EVERY journalist took the letter. I got a list from Enver by phone of the committee members and delivered the letter to the offices of all but 2. Jane Harman had quit her Congressional seat anyway. She is succeeding Lee Hamilton at the Woodrow Wilson Center. To think her husband made his money from sound systems and thus popular music is quite an irony. I used the same introduction, which humble Enver was not happy with.

Let me ask, since those who advocate violence are foolish rather than daring, why isn't daring the right description of Enver's work?

David Slesinger

David Slesinger is a longtime advocate of nonviolence. He has been arrested over two dozen times for nonviolent civil disobedience, mostly in opposition to nuclear power. He was the first person to serve a sentence for protesting climate change. His focus now is on exposing the truth about 9/11.

Obama hoping to extract 'people's request' for invasion of Libya

Veteran Indian diplomat M K Bhadrakumar writes: "All indications are that the US and its allies who are assisting the Libyan rebels politically, militarily and financially have been hoping to extract a "request" from the Libyan people within a day or two at the most as a fig-leaf to approach the United Nations Security Council for a mandate to impose sanctions under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Libyan rebels are a divided house: nationalist elements staunchly oppose outside intervention and the Islamists among them are against any form of Western intervention. . . .

"Obama's calculation is that if only a Libyan "people's request" could be generated, that would in historical terms absolve him and the West of the blame of invading a sovereign member country of the United Nations - from a moral and political angle, at least - as well as push the Arab League and African Union into the enterprise."

Libya oil grab disguised as humanitarian assistance

While others clamor for a no-fly zone over Libya, the Libyan rebels' themselves need to be heard

Yesterday, a CBS News headline read "Libya rebels beg for no-fly as bombings persist". What is remarkable is that the article gives virtually no information on who are the Libyans begging for the no-fly zone.

The only information CBS provides as to the identity of the beggars is in the following paragraph:

In a firsthand look at why Libya's rebels are begging for a no-fly zone, CBS News was first on the scene after a bombing. People ignored the danger and raced to show the damage.

But there's no shortage of others begging for a no-fly zone.

According to the Agence France Presse (March 7), "The Gulf Cooperation Council demands that the UN Security Council take all necessary measures to protect civilians, including enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya".

The Guardian (March 4) reported that the British prime minister, David Cameron,

caused some surprise on both sides of the Atlantic when he called for Britain and its allies to draw up plans for a no-fly zone over Libya, was offered important support by Barack Obama on Thursday night. American military planners had been instructed to draw up a full range of options, including a no-fly zone, Obama said at the White House during a press conference with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon.

And one has only to turn on CNN to see that most of the debate is about a no-fly zone over Libya. Essentially missing are the voices of the Libyan rebels themselves.

"Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the protesters' new National Libyan Council, insisted that calls for foreign intervention were entirely unwelcome, adding that the protesters have taken most of the nation and "the rest of Libya will be liberated by the people", according to Jason Ditz, at Antiwar.com.

Yesterday's editorial in the Guardian offers sound advice:

Some Libyan rebels have called for a no-fly zone, but until now - and this may change - the mood of the Libyan uprising is that this is their fight and their fight alone. Quite apart from the unwarranted legitimacy a bombing campaign would (once again) confer on the Libyan leader among his rump support in Tripoli and the damage it would do to attempts to split his camp, a major western military intervention could have unforeseen political consequences for the very forces it would be designed to support. A no-fly zone saved lives in Kurdish northern Iraq, but failed to protect the Shias in the south under Saddam Hussein. The moral strength of the Libyan rebels and their political claim to represent the true voice of the people both rest partly on the fact that, like the Egyptians and the Tunisians, they have come this far alone. The revolt is theirs, they are no one else's proxy, and the struggle is about ending tyranny rather than searching for new masters. Even if Gaddafi's forces succeed in checking the advance of rebel forces, and the civil war becomes protracted, it is the home-grown nature of this revolt that contains the ultimate seeds of the destruction of Gaddafi's regime. Thus far, it is Gaddafi and his sons who have had to import hired guns from abroad.

Jeremiah (Jerry) Haber (his nom de plume), an orthodox Jewish studies and philosophy professor, who divides his time between Israel and the US is more specific:

President Obama has already said that Muammar Gaddafi has lost his legitimacy as Libya's leader, so an important and necessary precursor to the whole debate about providing military or non-military assistance to Libya's revolutionaries, is formal recognition of their leadership: the Interim National Transitional Council in Benghazi.

The Council has formed an executive team headed by Dr Mahmoud Jebril Ibrahim El-Werfali and Dr Ali Aziz Al-Eisawi who will represent Libya's foreign affairs and have been delegated the authority to negotiate and communicate with all members of the international community and to seek international recognition.

The Transitional Council's third decree dated March 5, ends: "we request from the international community to fulfil its obligations to protect the Libyan people from any further genocide and crimes against humanity without any direct military intervention on Libyan soil."

That seems to leave open the question about whether a no-fly zone is being sought.

Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. All that oil, and "the allure, close by, of the US$10 billion, 4,128 kilometer long Trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria, expected to be online in 2015" has many U.S. elites salivating at the prospect of U.S.-European intervention in Libya.

Veteran Indian diplomat M K Bhadrakumar writes:

Clearly, the "intervention option" is propelling the Anglo-American juggernaut. A little behind, France tags along not to miss out on the "peace dividends" that follow the intervention - Libyan oil. The parallel with the Iraq war is striking, except that things are on a fast-forward mode.

Let's wait until the Interim National Transitional Council in Benghazi asks for a no-fly zone or other assistance. In the meantime, check out reports that may lead one to conclude that the Interim National Transitional Council is itself a creation of the the U.S.



Enver Masud Founder, The Wisdom Fund

Hearings on Islamic radicalization: go get'em, Pete King

. . . God-speed with the hearings, Mr. King. Do us proud, like the good old days. Root out those leaders who acquiesce in terror. Hang 'em from a tall oak tree.

God Bless America