The Libyan Transitional Council Makes Its Excuses

The self-proclaimed National Transitional Council, the Libyan façade of the U.S., France and the United Kingdom in the war against Moammar Gadhafi, continues to exhibit its mercenary nature and its submission to the interests of the powers responsible for the brutal and bloodthirsty regime change in the northern African nation. In the last few days many Iraqis have been victims of fierce persecutions, accused of being Saddam Hussein’s followers and of wanting to revive his Baath Party once American soldiers retreat from that country this month. Apparently, the person who loosened up the tongue of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki about the supposed Baathist rebellion was Mahmoud Jibril, one of the leaders of the NTC.

According to an official source quoted by the New York Times — who preferred to stay anonymous because it is supposed to be a classified issue — Jibril gave the details of the supposed insurgent plan to al-Maliki when he paid a surprise visit to Baghdad recently. The files that could prove the existence of preparations for the Iraqi revolt had been found in the secret archives of the Libyan secret service, after the rebels took over Tripoli.

Of course, this detail of Jibril and al-Maliki’s meeting wasn’t made public at the time — but casually, soon after, the pro-American government of Iraq started a wave of random imprisonments against 600 former members of the Baath Party, which used to be led by Saddam Hussein, in the provinces of Al-Anbar, Kirkouk, Diyala, Salaheddin, Wasit, Najaf, Bassora and Baghdad. On the same grounds, another 140 teachers and employees at Tikrit University, in Hussein’s hometown, were also convicted.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officers try to establish a link between the now-banned Baath party and terrorism. The vice secretary of the Home Office (the same bureau that carried out the arrests) said to state TV channels that the plan they were trying to abort included terrorist operations and sabotages planned for after the departure of the American troops. That, up to now, hasn’t been proved, but the captors have already accused them; the adjective “criminals” is used to legitimize the repression.

The only thing that’s clear within such vague accusations is that the hundreds of prisoners had been members of the Baath party. Nevertheless, that reason lacks legal basis for the arrests. The Iraqi constitution of 2005 recognizes explicitly in article 135, subsection V, that simply belonging to the former party doesn’t represent a sufficient reason to prosecute someone.

Supposedly, according to the White House’s official announcement, the United States will withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of the year. It is disturbing that as the date approaches, new threats emerge against the order established by Washington in Iraq during the last nine years of occupation. Although the retreat will clearly be fake, as some private contractors, mercenaries and NATO will stay, the new Iraqi authorities want their bodyguards close to them.

The NTC did the same not long ago when it asked the Atlantic alliance to grant them security in Libya, at least up to December, and wanted them to create the perception of a large military base there. We will have to see how many other “secret” plans the Libyan council will try to pull out from their sleeves to continue gaining favors from its occidental allies — if it is true that there was a plan to resurrect the Baath Party, and this isn’t a facade of the pro-imperialistic government of Iraq and of Washington to make its ideological cleansing happen. (In Iraq, not a stone is put out of place before the American government acknowledges or orders it.)