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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Fri Mar 25 2011 - 00:51:00 EST
Pigeons Of The Middle East And Africa – OpEd
http://www.eurasiareview.com/pigeons-of-the-middle-east-and-africa-oped-24032011/
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Written by: Press TV <http://www.eurasiareview.com/author/press-tv/>
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By Shiraz Paracha
The imperialist attack on Libya is yet another reminder that capitalism is
governed by Machiavellian principles and is based on lies and deceit.
Western politicians lie to their own public and every few years they go to
bloody wars in the name of humanitarian causes.
The attack on Libya is the repeat of the same old imperialistic adventure,
and for which the United Nations has been used as a tool. Throughout the
1970s and 1980s, Libya was an enemy of the Capitalist World due to its close
ties with the Soviet Union. However, in the late 1990s, the West started
secret negotiations with Libya for a rapprochement. As a result, the United
Nations lifted sanctions against Libya in 1999.
>From the toppling of the legitimate government of Mossadiq in Iran to the
occupation of the Suez Canal, and from Yugoslavia and Iraq to Afghanistan
and Libya, every time Western politicians and military commanders use fear
and psychological operations to seek their public’s approval for occupations
and military interventions.
<http://www.eurasiareview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Libya.jpg>
Libya
Freedom and democracy, fairness and justice, loyalty or friendship and even
honesty are not important to Western ruling elites. Western political and
economic system is driven by greed and self-interests and in doing so
cruelty and violence are acceptable means to achieve goals.
Leaders and rulers of the developing world, on the other hand, have been
foolishly proud. Often they are ignorant of the subtleties of Western
politics and the complexities of Western culture. Rulers of developing
countries make mistakes that pave the way for Western interventions. Libya’s
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been the latest prey.
Before Gaddafi, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain paid a heavy price for his
friendship with the West. Saddam trusted the West but he was used, dumped
and punished. Saddam faced the death with courage and dignity but his
bravery did not impress his captors.
Flattering, temptation and friendly manners are deadly weapons of the
Western ruling classes. In the 16th century, British traders of the East
India Company had courted the Mogul Emperor Jahangir to get trading rights
in India. The traders deceived the Mogul Emperor, who liked his predecessors
and followers, was fond of pleasing. Two hundred years later, the East India
Company colonized the whole India. History is full of such examples when
imperialist powers cheated and deceived their ‘friends’. And those
nationalist leaders who could not be bought or trapped were eliminated.
After years of anti-Capitalist campaigning and rhetoric, Gaddafi finally
decided to be ‘friends’ with the West perhaps due to pressure from his sons
who were dinning with crooks of the Capitalist world. By 1999, revolutionary
Gaddafi was tamed and in 2004 the West accepted the changed Gaddafi.
Interestingly, Gaddafi’s first European friends, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozi
and Silvio Berlusconi all have tainted reputations. The disgraced British
Prime Minister Tony Blair was the first one to land in Libya. Blair, with
his usual false grin, drank Arabic tea with Colonel Gaddafi in a Bedouin
tent. Following the visit, leaders of democratic Britain sold to Libya tear
gas, arms and different equipment to control protests. Britain also signed
contracts to train the Libyan police forces. Isn’t it ironic that when the
Libyan government used the British tear gas and the British trained forces
to control the protesting mobs, Britain decided to bomb Libya!
Tony Blair also managed to get a GBP560 million oil exploration deal for
British Petroleum (BP) in Libya. Several British high street retailers
opened branches in Libya and British exports to Libya reached to GBP 930
million while Blair became a trusted friend of Gaddafi.
Europe’s playboy Nicolas Sarkozy of France was the second Western friend of
Colonel Gaddafi. In December 2007, Sarkozy hosted Gaddafi in Paris for five
days and the Libyan leader agreed to buy French weapons worth billions of
dollars. In the later years, Gaddafi reportedly paid huge sums of money to
support Sarkozy’s election campaign. No surprise that in March 2011, it was
Sarkozy who pushed Americans and other Europeans to attack Libya under the
pretext of a UN Security Council resolution. French airports and jets are
now part of the bombing campaign against Libya.
Eighty percent of the Libyan oil is exported to Europe. BP, Italy’s Eni,
Spain’s Repsol and Royal Dutch Shell are some of the major companies with
big interests in Libya. France, too, wants a bigger stake in the Libyan oil
and the actual aim of the French bombing of Libya could be uninterrupted
access to ‘sweet’ Libyan crude that is easy to reach the French refineries
and is considered better than the Saudi crude.
Italy, the former colonial master of Libya which stole Libyan wealth for
years, also was a beneficiary of Gaddafi’s Bedouin generosity. Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been cheating his wife and people, and
he has the support of Italian mafias, became a personal friend of Gaddafi.
Tom Bawden and John Hooper of the British newspaper The Guardian wrote about
Berlusconi’s business interests in Libya in a report published on 23
February 2011: “Gaddafi and Berlusconi have a famously warm personal
relationship. Less well-known, however, is the fact that Berlusconi is in
business with one of the Libyan state’s investment vehicles.
In June 2009, a Dutch-registered firm controlled by the Libyan Arab Foreign
Investment Company, took a 10% stake in Quinta Communications, a Paris-based
film production and distribution company. Quinta Communications was founded
back in 1990 by Berlusconi in partnership with Tarak Ben Ammar, the nephew
of the late Tunisian leader Habib Bourguiba.
The Italian prime minister has a 22% interest in the company through a
Luxembourg-registered subsidiary of Fininvest, the firm at the heart of his
sprawling business empire. Last September, the Libyans put a director on the
board of Quinta Communications to sit alongside Berlusconi’s
representatives.
Libyan investors already hold significant interests in several strategic
Italian enterprises. They reportedly own around one per cent of Italy’s
biggest oil company, Eni; the LIA has an acknowledged 2% interest in the
aerospace and defense group, Finmeccanica; Lafico is thought to retain more
than 2% of Fiat and almost 15% of a quoted telecommunications company,
Retelit.
The Libyans also own 22% of the capital of a textile firm, Olcese. Perhaps
their best-known investment is a 7.5% stake in the Serie A side Juventus.
But undoubtedly the most controversial is another 7.5 per cent interest in
Italy’s largest bank, Unicredit.”
In its annual report on arms export the European Union mentioned names of
the European countries and companies that have been supplying military
equipment to Libya. Deutsche Presse-Agentur has published parts of the
report:
“Italy granted export licenses totaling 112 million Euros, with a single
108-million-euro license for military aircraft making up most of the amount,
[was the largest supplier]…Malta emerged as the second-largest exporter,
having authorized the sale of an 80-million-euro consignment of small arms.
Germany was third in the list, with 53 million Euros of licenses, mostly for
electronic jamming equipment used to disrupt mobile phone, internet and GPS
communication…France was next with 30.5 million Euros, followed by Britain
with 25.5 million Euros, and Belgium with 22 million Euros.”
The United States is leading the current military aggression against Libya.
Until recently the US was dealing with Colonel Gaddafi to get lucrative
business contracts. The US–Libya Business Association includes companies
such as BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, Fluor,
Halliburton, Hess Corporation, Marathon Oil, Midrex Technologies, Motorola,
Northrop Grumman, Occidental Petroleum, Raytheon, Shell and United Gulf
Construction Company. Prominent US figures and intelligence officials have
been engaged in building relations with Libya.
But once they got their feet into the country, new friends of Libya started
bombing Libya because each of them wants its share of Libyan resources
without Gaddafi. As expected, amidst the rain of fire and dance of death in
Libya, rulers of Africa and Middle East have closed their eyes like pigeons.
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