War Lies Refuted

Not one member of the “coalition of the willing” is supposedly willing to waste time considering sending ground troops into Libya. On Thursday, official government sources in Washington confirmed that the United States had CIA agents operating in Libya who were supporting the rebels and aerial operations. The German press agency DAPD reports that military analysts have come to the conclusion that without such support they will not be victorious against the Gadhafi regime. Experts recommend that Gadhafi’s military arsenal and strength be analyzed so President Obama will be better able to assess the extent of weapons deliveries necessary to assist the rebels. At the same time, several media outlets have said that dozens of British special forces troops and the MI6 intelligence service have been active in Libya for some time already. The New York Times assumes they have been directing the air strikes and are instrumental in tracking the movement of Libyan army armored units, as well as pinpointing the locations of artillery and missile installations. They also apparently coordinate rebel activities and are instrumental in urging high-ranking Libyan military and political figures to defect. They reported one success on Thursday, when Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa was brought to London after debriefing by British agents.

Up to now, ground-based missions had been as controversial as the supplying of weapons to the rebels, but as early as Tuesday, Obama refused to absolutely rule out such deliveries in a television interview. Without further ado, the British prime minister told parliament in London that U.N. Resolution 1973 “would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances.” On the handover of military leadership from the United States to NATO last Thursday however, NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, “We are not in Libya to arm people, but to protect people.”

The result of this protection was clarified by the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, Bishop Giovanni Martellini, as reported by the Vatican news agency on Thursday. Martellini claimed that the so-called humanitarian intervention had already caused dozens of civilian casualties in some neighborhoods in Tripoli.

The Enhedslisten (Red-Green Alliance) in the Danish parliament, among other groups, said that they had supported Danish involvement in the Libyan war based on the propaganda lie that residential areas would not come under attack. Against the backdrop of massive internal political criticism, they now withdrew that support. The party leadership claimed on Thursday evening that the character of the mission had changed and that they were now taking sides in a civil war.

Chinese President Hu Jintao again condemned the attacks on Libya on Thursday during a meeting with French President Sarkozy saying, “If the military action brings disaster to innocent civilians and creates a bigger humanitarian crisis, that would violate the original intention of the Security Council resolution.” Hu called for an immediate cease fire and expressed concern that Libya could possibly end up divided.