‘Libya funded Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign’
Friday, 04 May 2012 00:00
TUNIS —
The late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime funded French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, lawyers for former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi said yesterday, quoting their client.
“Muammar Gaddafi, his regime and the officials who worked with him
financed Sarkozy’s election campaign in 2007,” lawyer Bechir Essed told reporters in Tunis, where Mahmudi is detained, mentioning the sum of some 50 million euros (US$65 million). Essed’s claims came after
the French Mediapart website published a document on Saturday which it said showed Libya’s financing of Sarkozy’s campaign.
Sarkozy has angrily dismissed Mediapart’s document as a deliberate forgery timed to destabilise his re-election campaign and is taking legal action against the website.
According to Essed, the deal was concluded by former Libyan intelligence chief Moussa Kussa on the instructions of Kadhafi and that “documents proving the transaction exist.”
Another lawyer for Mahmudi, who is facing two demands for extradition to Tripoli, confirmed the claim, adding that his client believes Sarkozy is behind his detention in Tunisia.
“My arrest and my detention in Tunisia were instigated by the French president so that the details of the financing of his 2007 campaign are not revealed,” Mahmudi said, according to his lawyer Mabrouk Kourchid.
A Tunisian court in February cleared Mahmudi of crossing illegally into Tunisia as he fled Libya last year but kept him in prison.
He remains the subject of two extradition requests from Libya, and Kourchid said he had been admitted to hospital on Wednesday after suffering a haemorrhage.
Mediapart on Saturday posted what it said was a 2006 document signed by Kussa referring to an “agreement in principle to support the 2007 campaign for the candidate for the presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, for a sum equivalent to 50 million euros.”
Sarkozy, who faces a tough second-round vote on Sunday against Socialist candidate Francois Hollande in his bid to win a second presidential term, dismissed it as a “crude forgery” and said he was taking legal action against Mediapart. — AFP.
Labels: FRANCE, LIBYA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, SARKOZY
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‘Gaddafi poured millions into Sarkozy campaign’
Wednesday, 14 March 2012 00:00
FRENCH president Nicolas Sarkozy received up to £42 million from the late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to fund his election bid in 2007, it was claimed on Monday. The report comes six weeks before the first round of France’s presidential election on April 22.
The funding however, did not stop Sarkozy from being at the forefront of the military campaign that ousted Gaddafi. Evidence made public in Paris is said to prove that the two men had an illegal financial arrangement that helped Sarkozy to power in 2007.
A governmental briefing note published by Mediapart, an investigative website, points to numerous visits to Libya by Sarkozy and his colleagues that were aimed at securing funding.
One meeting referred to in the note as having taken place on October 6, 2005, led to “campaign finance to NS (Nicolas Sarkozy)” being “totally solved”.
At the time Sarkozy was an ambitious interior minister raising money for his presidential election campaign.
Taking cash would have broken French political financing laws.
Mediapart claims that 50 million euros referred to in the note was laundered through bank accounts in Panama and Switzerland.
The Swiss account was opened in the name of the sister of Jean-Francois Cope, the leader of Sarkozy’s UMP party, and the president’s right-hand-man.
The money was then allegedly distributed through an arms dealer called Ziad Takieddine, who acted as a middleman between Arab leaders and French politicians.
In March 2011, as France and Britain spearheaded air strikes against Libya, Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam told Euronews TV that Libya had financed Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, which Sarkozy’s office also denied at the time.
Saif, who was arrested after the fall of his father’s government said, “Sarkozy must first give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign. We funded it.
“We have all the details and are ready to reveal everything. The first thing we want this clown to do is to give the money back to the Libyan people. He was given the assistance so he could help them, but he has disappointed us. Give us back our money.”
In December 2007, eyebrows were raised when Col Gaddafi was honoured with a state visit to Paris.
He was referred to as the “Brother Leader” by the French, and allowed to pitch his Bedouin tent next to the Elysee Palace.
Addressing the Peace and Security Commission meeting at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the end of January President Mugabe said: “I saw a picture yesterday of Gaddafi shaking hands with Sarkozy in France after they invited him there, but those hands that Gaddafi was shaking were the hands that were going to kill him a few months later.
“How far then do we go in associating with such people?”
The incriminating evidence came after a thorough investigation of Takieddine’s activities.
His doctor, Didier Grosskopf, told judges in Paris that he went on many of the trips to Libya and witnessed negotiations about political funding.
The discussions involved Brice Hortefeux, one of Sarkozy’s closest allies, who has confirmed to Mediapart the meetings took place, but would not comment further, beyond denying any wrongdoing.
The incriminating note, which is in the hands of the French police, was leaked to Mediapart along with other documents.
These include at least three letters sent from Sarkozy and his colleagues to the Libyan leader in 2005 and details of “one-on-one negotiations” between Sarkozy and Gaddafi.
Meanwhile, Sarkozy has denied claims he received money from Gaddafi to fund his first presidential bid in 2007.
“If he (Gaddafi) had financed it, then I haven’t been very grateful,” Sarkozy said when a journalist asked about the report on TF1 television.
Sarkozy lashed out at the journalist who asked him about the report and Saif’s claim, accusing her of sympathising with Saif.
“I am sorry for you that you are the spokeswoman for Gaddafi’s son,” Sarkozy said, visibly angered by the question.
“Gaddafi (Saif), who is known for talking nonsense, even said that there were cheques. Well then the son should just go ahead and produce them then,” he said.
Yves Thibier a political analyst said if the allegations are proved those involved face prison sentences. He added, “There are frequent funding scandals involving domestic donors, but a Gaddafi funding scandal is something else”.
— dailymail.co.uk/ The Herald/Reuters.
Labels: ELECTIONS, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, SARKOZY
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Mugabe: AU a toothless bulldog
31/01/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has blasted the African Union as a “toothless bulldog” for failing to stop the NATO-led campaign which led to the fall of Libyan strongman, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. Addressing the AU summit in Addis Ababa, Mugabe said: "We should have said no, no to NATO.
“We fought imperialism and colonialism and forced them out of Africa . . . Our founding fathers did not have the means, but they stood up and said ‘no' but here we are absolutely silent.”
Last year NATO launched a bombing campaign to back Libyan rebels in a nine-month uprising which led to the fall of Gadaffi who was later killed after being captured while trying to escape.
Mugabe said the AU should have stood up to the West and opposed the bombing campaign adding the continental body was also wrong to recognise the NTC without investigating Gadaffi’s murder.
"Gadaffi was killed in broad daylight, his children hunted like animals and then we rush to recognise the NTC," he said.
"Well, well that was Libya. Who will be next? Let us take care, all of us. It has not just happened to Gadaffi.”
Mugabe said the West had now realised that "we are toothless bulldogs" and warned that Africa faced a new wave of colonialism as the West battles a deepening economic crisis.
"They have an economic crisis in Europe, they have exhausted their resources,” he said.
"Africa still has plenty of them. We are discovering more oil, more minerals, gold more diamonds.
“We still have our natural resources, natural gas, so another recolonisation might take place.”
"I saw a picture yesterday of Gadaffi shaking hands with Sarkozy in France after they invited him there, but those hands that Gadaffi was shaking were the hands that were going to kill him a few months later.
"How far then do we go in associating with such people?”
Labels: AU, LIBYA, MUAMMAR AL-GADDAFI, NATO, ROBERT MUGABE, SARKOZY
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Article Sheds Light on the Fabrication of Charges Against Strauss-Kahn
by Patrick Martin
Global Research, November 30, 2011
World Socialist Web Site
A lengthy article by long-time investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein, published in the New York Review of Books, sheds new light on the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, last May in New York City on bogus rape charges.
The article suggests that the arrest may have been the product of a sting operation mounted with the knowledge of top French government officials, including the chief intelligence adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Strauss-Kahn was at the time the frontrunner for the presidential nomination of France’s Socialist Party (PS) and was leading Sarkozy in the polls for next year’s election. His arrest led to his resignation as IMF managing director and the selection of PS chairman François Hollande, a weaker candidate, as the party’s presidential nominee.
The most remarkable aspect of Epstein’s article is how unremarkable his investigation was. There is no sensational breakthrough, no new and unexpected witness, only a careful compilation of facts available in court and public records. On this basis, Epstein points to numerous conflicts between the factual record and the account given by the woman who claimed she was raped by Strauss-Kahn—Nafissatou Diallo, a housekeeper at Sofitel, the luxury hotel where the assault allegedly took place.
Epstein is an experienced investigative reporter, going back to his book-length analysis of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Inquest, which rebutted the claims of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone assassin. What he does in the New York Review of Books could have been done by the New York Times or any of the television networks, had they desired to seek the truth about the Strauss-Kahn affair.
These media outlets spearheaded weeks of witch-hunting reports on the supposed rape case, which ultimately collapsed after the New York District Attorney’s office found it impossible to conceal the gross contradictions in Diallo’s accounts. Neither the Times nor the networks have yet reported on Epstein’s article, although accounts have appeared online and in the wire services.
Epstein established a detailed timeline of the events of May 14, 2011—based on the evidence of room-access cards used by the staff and guests, cell phone records, and time-stamped videotapes from several surveillance cameras. The sexual encounter between Strauss-Kahn and Diallo could have taken place only during a seven-minute interval between 12:06 p.m., when Diallo entered Strauss-Kahn’s hotel suite, and his 12:13 p.m. phone call to his daughter, Camille.
The article notes that a male hotel employee used his access card to enter the Strauss-Kahn suite one minute before Diallo, making the sexual assault even less plausible. This employee, Syed Haque, worked for room service and was to clear dishes from the suite. The access cards record only entry and not departure from a room, so it is not known whether he was in the suite when Diallo came in, or during the alleged sexual encounter. Haque refused to speak with attorneys for Strauss-Kahn.
Epstein calls attention to the access card records for an adjacent room, 2820, which Diallo entered before she went into Strauss-Kahn’s suite and again after the supposed “rape,” before she reported to hotel security that she had been assaulted. In her statements to prosecutors, Diallo repeatedly lied about visiting room 2820 before and after the event, until the access card records were produced.
Prosecutors described Diallo’s actions in concealing her repeated visits to 2820 as “inexplicable,” noting in their motion for dismissal that if she had made mention of these visits, the room would have been searched as part of the crime scene.
Epstein writes, “Given Diallo’s conflicting accounts, all that we really know about what happened in the nearby room 2820 is that Diallo went there both before and after her encounter with DSK and then omitted the latter visit from her sworn testimony to the grand jury. We still do not know if there was anyone in 2820 when she entered it again following the encounter with DSK or if, prior to the police arriving, anyone influenced her to omit mention of room 2820.”
The clear implication is that the nearby room could have served as a command point for a sting operation against Strauss-Kahn, with Diallo checking in with her handlers before and after the supposed “attack.” Sofitel has refused to divulge who occupied room 2820 that day, citing privacy grounds.
Epstein suggests that those directing Diallo and orchestrating the sting were linked to the Sarkozy administration in France. He notes that when John Sheehan, security director at the hotel, was alerted to the reported “rape,” he called a 646 area code number at Accor, the French corporation that owns Sofitel.
Sheehan’s boss at Accor, René-Georges Querry, is a former top French police official who, Epstein writes, “had worked closely in the police with Ange Mancini, who is now coordinator for intelligence for President Sarkozy. Querry, at the time that Sheehan was making his call to the 646 number, was arriving at a soccer match in Paris where he would be seated in the box of President Sarkozy.”
One could easily conclude from this chain of connections that the news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest could have passed directly to the French president.
Another possibility offered by Epstein is that Sheehan called a lower-ranking security official at Accor, Xavier Graff, who was later suspended by the company when it was revealed that he had boasted in an e-mail to a friend that he had been involved in “bringing down” Strauss-Kahn.
The most extraordinary evidence brought forward in the Epstein article concerns the actions of Brian Yearwood, the hotel engineer, and an unidentified man, apparently a security agent of some kind, who are seen on the videotape accompanying Nafissatou Diallo to the security office where she reported the attack. About an hour afterwards, the security office placed a 911 call to the police—a delay which Epstein notes as peculiar and unexplained.
Two minutes after the 911 call is placed, bringing the police into the case officially and ensuring the public vilification and humiliation of Strauss-Kahn, Yearwood and the unidentified man appear on a security videotape giving each other high-fives and performing what lawyers for Strauss-Kahn described as a victory dance. What were they celebrating?
There are other aspects to the case that raise questions, according to Epstein. Strauss-Kahn had been notified that day that Sarkozy aides had been reading his private e-mail messages, and he had asked for a technical analysis of his IMF Blackberry. The Blackberry subsequently disappeared—its GPS locator terminated at 12:51 p.m. that day—and it has never been found.
Another mystery is the long delay in obtaining medical treatment for the alleged rape victim. As Epstein writes: “After she said that she had been the victim of a brutal and sustained sexual assault, it is hard to understand how the security staff would have ruled out that she might require immediate medical attention. But as has been seen, until 1:31, several minutes after receiving a message from Sheehan, the security staff did not make the 911 call. She did not arrive at St. Luke’s Hospital until 3:57 p.m., nearly four hours after the alleged attack.”
All the issues raised by Epstein call into question the decision to charge Strauss-Kahn and the subsequent media frenzy over the case. As the World Socialist Web Site pointed out at the time, there were basic issues of democratic rights at stake, including the presumption of innocence.
The prosecution rushed to indict Strauss-Kahn before any of the evidence could be examined and considered objectively, so as to accomplish his political destruction. This was a goal shared by the Obama administration, in conflict with the IMF director over global economic policy, and the Sarkozy administration in France.
The corporate-controlled media was mobilized for that purpose, along with its acolytes in the petty-bourgeois “left” publications, from the Nation to Socialist Worker. Not for the first time, and not for the last, a lurid sex scandal was used to regulate the internal affairs of the imperialist bourgeoisie.
Strauss-Kahn is, of course, a representative of big business, no different from Sarkozy, Obama or any other capitalist politician in that respect. The warning to be made is that if such brutal treatment, and such a fabricated case, can be carried out against such an individual, what will the ruling elite prepare against individuals from the working class, who lack Strauss-Kahn’s access to millions of dollars and high-priced legal backing?
Patrick Martin is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Patrick Martin
Labels: CORRUPTION, DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN, IMF, SARKOZY
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America's Conquest of Africa: The Roles of France and Israel
Introduction by Cynthia McKinney
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya and Julien Teil
Global Research, October 6, 2011
Introduction: “Operation Gladio” Then and Now...
I will begin with the scandal of Operation Gladio that climaxed in the murder of former Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, who on the day of his kidnapping, was to announce an Italian coalition government that would include the Italian Communist Party.
Leader of the Christian Democratic Party at that time, Francesco Cossiga, admits in the 1992 BBC Timewatch documentary about Operation Gladio, that he chose to “sacrifice” Moro “for the good of the Republic.” Not unlike the targeted assassinations that the U.S. government engages in around the world, where someone extrajudicially makes decisions on who lives and who dies. In the three-part documentary, Cossiga states that the decision caused his hair to turn white.
Operation Gladio is the ugly real-life tale of the U.S. government’s decision to hire members of the state security apparatus of various European countries, and in collaboration with recruited community allies, wreak terror on innocent citizens by blowing up train stations, shooting customers in grocery stores, and even killing police officers in order to convince populations in Europe to give up their rights in exchange for certain security measures and enhanced state power.
Yes, Operation Gladio, along with Operation Northwoods and U.S. policy toward Libya, shows us that the United States is willing to create terror groups in order to justify a fight against terrorists! Sadly, this has become the modus operandi of our government in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Europe and Africa. And the U.S. government after 9/11/01 has become like a “Gladio laboratory” of state policies that rip the U.S. Bill of Rights to shreds and lie to the public.
The beginning of the end of Operation Gladio occurred when the existence of the U.S. program was revealed. Characteristically, instead of stopping such insanity, the Europeans joined in creating multiple other “Operation Gladios.” Placed in this context, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya’s second installment in a four-part series reveals how U.S. policy in Libya falls right in line with U.S. actions in the past. In my opinion, Libya will not be the last location for such illegal activities unless we stop our government.
Along with French videographer Julien Teil, Nazemroaya weaves the incredible-but-true scenario of U.S. finance of alleged terrorists, wanted by Interpol, who became the chief protagonists in the NATO genocide currently unfolding in Libya.
Cynthia McKinney, 1 October 2011.
Cynthia McKinney is a former U.S. Congresswoman who served in two different Georgia federal dictricts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2007 as a member of the U.S. Democratic Party. She was also the U.S. Green Party presidential candidate in 2008. While in the U.S. Congress she served in the U.S. Banking and Finance Committee, the U.S. National Security Committee (later renamed the U.S. Armed Services Committee), and the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee (later renamed the U.S. International Relations Committee). She also served in the U.S. International Relations subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. McKinney has conducted two fact-finding missions in Libya and also recently finished a nationwide speaking tour in the United States sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition about the NATO bombing campaign in Libya.
Libya and the Big Lie: Using Human Rights Organizations to Launch Wars
- by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya -
The war against Libya is built on fraud. The UN Security Council passed two resolutions against Libya on the basis of unproven claims that Qaddafi was killing his own people in Benghazi...
Order from Chaos?
A repeat of the disorder and pandemonium generated inside Afghanistan is in the works for the continent of Africa.
The United States, with the help of Britain, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, created the brutal Taliban and then eventually waged war on its Taliban allies. Similarly, across Africa, the United States and its allies are creating a new series of future enemies to fight, but after initially working with them or using them to sow the seeds of chaos in Africa.
Washington has literally been helping fund insurgencies and regime change projects in Africa. “Human rights” and “democratization” are also being used as a smokescreen for colonialism and war.
So-called human rights and humanitarian organizations are now partners in this imperialist project directed against Africa.
France and Israel: Is Washington Outsourcing its Dirty Work in Africa?
Africa is just one international front for an expanding system of empire. The mechanisms of a real global system of empire are at work in this regard. Washington is acting through NATO and its allies in Africa. Each one of Washington’s allies and satellites has a specific role to play in this global system of empire.
Tel Aviv has played a very active role on the African continent. Israel was a major supporter of South Africa under the apartheid regime.
Tel Aviv also helped smuggle arms into Sudan and East Africa to balkanize that sizeable African nation while contributing to the destabilization of East Africa.
The Israelis have been very active in Kenya and Uganda. Israel has been present wherever there were conflicts, including those pertaining to blood diamonds.
Israel is now working with Washington to establish total hegemony over the African continent. Tel Aviv is actively involved -- through its business ties and intelligence operations -- in securing the contacts and agreements required by Washington for the extension of its interests in Africa. One of Washington’s major objectives is to disrupt the development of Chinese influence in Africa. Israel and Israeli think-tanks have also played a major role in shaping the U.S. geo-stratagem in Africa.
France, as a former colonial master and a declining power, on the other hand, has traditionally been a rival and competitor of Washington on the African continent.
With the rise of the influence of non-traditional powers in Africa, such as the People’s Republic of China, both Washington and Paris envisaged ways of cooperating. On the broader global stage this is also evident. Both the U.S. and several of the major powers in the European Union consider China and other emerging global powers as a threat. They have decided to end their rivalries and work together. Thus, a consensus between Washington and the E.U. unfolded, leading to some forms of political integration.
This consensus may have also been manufactured by growing U.S. influence in E.U. capitals. Whatever the case, it has been boosted since the beginning of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency in 2007.
President Sarkozy also wasted no time in pushing for the reintegration of the French military command structure within NATO. The consequence of this action has led to the surbodination of the French military to the Pentagon.
In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle pulled French forces out of NATO and removed France from the military command structures of NATO as a means of maintaining French independence. Nicolas Sarkozy has reversed all of this. In 2009, Sarkozy ordered that France rejoin the integrated military command structure of NATO. In 2010, he also signed an accord to start amalgamating the British and French militaries.
On the African continent, Paris has a special place or niche in the U.S. system of global empire. This role is that of a regional gendarme in North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and all the countries that were former French colonies. France’s special role, in other words, is due to its history and the existing, albeit declining, position of France in Africa, specifically through the “Françafrique.” The Union of the Mediterranean, which Sarkozy officially launched, is one example of these French interests in North Africa.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has also been working through France’s International Federation of Human Rights (Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme, FIDH). The FIDH is well established in Africa. The NED has essentially outsourced its work to manipulate and control African governments, movements, societies, and states to the FIDH. It was the FIDH and the affiliated Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR) that helped orchestrate the various pretexts for the NATO war against Libya, endorsed by the United Nations Security Council through unsubstantiated and false claims.
The National Endowment for Democracy and its Partnersip with the International Federation of Human Rights in Africa
Following the 2007 election of Nicolas Sarkozy as the leader of the French Republic, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) started to develop a real partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy. Both organizations are also partners within the World Movement for Democracy. Carl Gershman, the president of the NED, even went to France in December 2009 to meet with the FIDH to deepen collaboration between the two organizations and to discuss Africa. [1] He also met individuals who are are considered as pro-Israeli lobbyists in France.
The partnerships between the FIDH and the NED are mostly based in Africa and the intersecting Arab World. These partnerships operate in a zone that covers countries like Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Niger, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
North Africa, which includes Libya and Algeria, has been a specific area of focus for the FIDH, where Washington, Paris, and NATO clearly have major ambitions.
The FIDH, which is directly implicated in launching the war on Libya, has also received direct funding, in the form of grants, from the National Endowment for Democracy for its programs in Africa. In 2010, a NED grant of $140,186 (U.S.) was one of the latest amounts given to the FIDH for its work in Africa. [2] The NED was also one of the first signatories, along with the Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR) and U.N. Watch, demanding international intervention against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. [3]
AFRICOM and the Post-9/11 Road Towards Conquering Africa
In 2002, the Pentagon started major operations aimed at controlling Africa militarily. This was in the form of the Pan-Sahel Initiative, which was launched by the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). Under the banner of this project, the U.S. military would train troops from Mali, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger. The plans to establish the Pan-Sahel Initiative, however, date back to 2001, when the initiative for Africa was actually launched after the tragic events of September 11, 2001 (9/11).
Washington was clearly planning military action in Africa, which already included at least three countries (Libya, Somalia, and Sudan) identified as enemy targets to be attacked by the Pentagon and the White House according to General Wesley Clark.
Jacques Chirac, the President of France at the time, tried to offer resistance to the U.S. push into Africa by reinvigorating Germany’s role in Africa as a means of supporting France. In 2007, the Franco-African summit even opened its doors to German participation for the first time. [4] Yet, Angela Merkel had different ideas about the direction and position that the Franco-German partnership should take in regards to Washington.
Since 2001, the momentum towards creating U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) had started. AFRICOM, however, was officially authorized in December 2006 and the decision to create it was announced several short months later in February 2007. It was in 2007 that AFRICOM was established.
It is important to note that this momentum also received Israeli encouragement, because of Israeli interests in Africa. The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), for example, was one of the Israeli organizations supporting the creation of AFRICOM.
On the basis of the Pan-Sahel Initiative, the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) was launched by the Pentagon in 2005 under the command of CENTCOM. Mali, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger were now joined by Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, and Tunisia in the ring of African military cooperation with the Pentagon. Later, the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative would be transferred to the command of AFRICOM on October 1, 2008, which is when AFRICOM would be activated.
The Sahel and Sahara: The U.S. Clearly Adopts France’s Old Colonial Projects in Africa
“Fighting terrorism” and executing “humanitarian missions” are just façades or smokescreens for Washington and its allies.
While the stated goals of the Pentagon are to fight terrorism in Africa, the real aims of Washington are to restructure Africa and to establish a neo-colonial order. In this regard, Washington has actually adopted the old colonial projects of France in Africa. This also includes the U.S., British, Italian, and French initiative to divide Libya after 1943 as well as the unilateral French initiative to redraw North Africa. In this scheme, the U.S. and its cohorts plan on creating ethnic wars and sectarian hatred between the Berbers, the Arabs, and others in North Africa.
The map used by Washington for combating terrorism under the Pan-Sahel Initiative says a lot. The range or area of activity for the terrorists, within the borders of Algeria, Libya, Niger, Chad, Mali, and Mauritania according to Washington’s designation, is very similar to the boundaries or borders of the colonial territorial entity which France attempted to sustain in Africa in 1957. Paris had planned to prop up this African entity in the western central Sahara as a French department (province) directly tied to France, along with coastal Algeria.
This French colonial entity in the Sahara was named the Common Organization of the Saharan Regions (Organisation commune des regions sahariennes, OCRS). It comprised the inner boundaries of the Sahel and Saharan countries of Mali, Niger, Chad, and Algeria. The French goal was to collect and bind all the resource-rich territories of these countries into this one central entity, the OCR, for French control and extraction. The resources in this area include oil, gas, and uranium. Yet, the resistance movements in Africa, and specifically the Algerian struggle for independence, dealt Paris a hard blow. France had to give up its quest and finally dissolve the OCRS in 1962, because of Algerian independence and the anti-colonial stance in Africa. Because of the push towards independence in Africa, France was finally cut off from the inland area in the Sahara that it wished to control.
Washington clearly had this energy-rich and resource-rich area in mind when it drew the areas of Africa that need to be cleansed of alleged terrorist cells and gangs. The French Institute of Foreign Relations (Institut français des relations internationals, IFRI) has even openly discussed this tie between the terrorists and energy-rich areas in a March 2011 report. [5] It is also in this context that the amalgamation of Franco-German and Anglo-American interests and companies has allowed France to become an integrated part of the U.S. system of global empire with common interests.
Regime Change in Libya and the National Endowment for Democracy: A Nexus of Terrorism and Human Rights
Since 2001, the U.S. has falsely presented itself as a champion against terrorism. The Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI), which opened the doors for AFRICOM in Africa, was justified as necessary by Washington to fight organizations like the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in Algeria and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in Libya. Yet, Washington is cooperating and using these very same groups in Libya, along with the National Front for the Salvation of Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood, as foot soldiers and proxies. Moreover, many of the key Libyan individuals that are members of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) are members of these groups and have also been part of conferences and longstanding plans pushing for regime change in Libya.
One of the key meetings for establishing what would become the current Transitional Council in Libya took place in 1994 when the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) organized a conference with Ashur Shamis and Aly (Ali) Abuzakuuk. The 1994 conference’s title was “Post-Qaddafi Libya: The Prospect and the Promise.” In 2005 another conference with Shamis Ashur would be held in the British capital of London that would build on the idea of regime change in Libya. [6]
So who are these Libyan opposition figures? A series of questions must be asked. Are their tie to Washington new or old? Who do the associate with? Also, have they had longstanding support or not?
Ashur Shamis is one of the founding members of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, which in 1981 was founded in Sudan. He has been wanted by Interpol and the Libyan police for years. [7] Ahsur is also listed as someone who has been a director in the National Endowment for Democracy in the Libyan Human and Political Development Forum. He is also the editor of the Akhbar webpage, which was registered under Akhbar Cultural Limited and tied to the NED. He has also participated in recent key conferences for regime change in Tripoli. This includes the conference in London held by Chatham House in 2011, which discussed NATO plans for the invasion of Tripoli. [8]
Like Ashur, Aly Abuzaakouk is also a member of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya and tied to the National Endowment for Democracy. He was one of the key participants and attendees at the roundtable held for the 2011 Democracy Awards by the NED. [9] Like Ashur, he is also wanted by Interpol and serves as a director at the Libyan Human and Political Development Forum. [10]
There is also Noman Benotman, a former leader and founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and a wanted terrorist. He is presented as a former terrorist. Benotman conveniently left the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Benotman is not only a National Endowment for Democracy (NED) director in the Libyan Human and Political Development Forum, he is also tied to the news network Al Jazeera.
Not only have these three men lived in Britain without any problems while they were wanted by Interpol and sought because of their ties to terrorism or, in the case of Abuzaakouk, drug-related crimes and forgery, but they also received grants from the United States. They received U.S. grants which formalized their affiliation to various NED sponsored organizations, which have supported the regime change agenda in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. This regime change agenda has also been supported by MI6 and the CIA.
Moreover, the legal documents that have been filed by the NED regarding these individuals have been deliberately and illegally tampered with. One key individual’s identity has been hidden in the list of NED directors. Thus, legal documents have been fraudulently filled out to hide an individual’s identity under the alias of “Beata Wozniak.” Even Wozniak’s birthday is invalid, appearing as January 1, 1 (01/01/0001). She is an person who has been on the board of all these NED organizations. She is listed as a director and secretary of Akbar, Transparency Libya Limited, and several British companies.
The “Long War” Enters Africa: The Gate into Africa has been Opened
The fanning of terrorism in Africa is part of a deliberate strategy used by the U.S. and its allies, including NATO. The strategy consists in "opening the door to the African continent" by expanding the so-called “Global War on Terror.” The latter provides a justification to the U.S. objective of expanding its military presence in the African continent. It was also used as a pretext to create the Pentagon’s AFRICOM.
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is meant to “manage Africa” on Washington’s behalf. It consists in creating an African version of NATO with a view to carrying out the occupation of Africa. In this regard, the U.S. and its allies have already established a budget to fight the very terrorist organizations which they have created and supported (including with military aid and weapons) across the map of Africa from Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Mali to Mauritania, Niger, Algeria, and Nigeria.
The terrorists not only fight for America on the ground, they also liase with Washington and act as frontmen through so-called human rights organizations which have a mandate to "promote democracy".
On the ground these same individuals and organizations are used to destabilize their respective countries. They are also supported internationally by Washington to actively work towards for regime change and military intervention in the name of human rights and democracy. Libya is a clear case in point.
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a Sociologist and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montréal. He specializes on the Middle East and Central Asia. He was on the ground in Libya for over two months and was also a Special Correspondent for Flashpoints, which is a program based in Berkeley, California. Nazemroaya has been releasing these articles about Libya in conjunction with aired discussions with Cynthia McKinney on Freedom Now, a show aired on KPFK, Los Angeles, California.
Julien Teil is a videographer and investigative documentary film maker from France. He was also recently in Libya for about one month.
NOTES
[1] National Endowment for Democracy, “NED Strengths Democracy Ties with France,” March 16, 2010:
˂http://www.ned.org/for-reporters/ned-strengthens-democracy-ties-with-france˃
[2] National Endowment for Democracy, “Africa Regional,” August 2011:
˂http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/africa/africa-regional˃
[3] United Nations Watch et al., “Urgent Appeal to Stop Atrocities in Libya: Sent by 70 NGOs to the US, EU, and UN,” February 21, 2011:
˂http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1330815&ct=9135143˃
[4] Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs (France), “XXIVème sommet Afrique-France,” February 2007:
˂http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/pays-zones-geo_833/afrique_1063/sommets-afrique-france_326/xxiveme-sommet-afrique-france_15947/24eme-conference-cannes-15-16.02.07_46313.html˃
[5] Etienne de Durand, “Francs-tireurs et Centurions. Les ambiguïtés de l’héritage contre-insurrectionnel français,” Institut français des relations internationals, March 2011:
˂www.ifri.org/downloads/fs29dedurand.pdf˃
[6] The National Conference of the Libyan Opposition, “The National Accord: The National Conference of the Libyan Opposition, London, 26th June 2005,” 2005.
˂http://www.libya-nclo.com/English.aspx˃
[7] Interpol Wanted Notice for Ashour Al-Shamis :
˂http://www.interpol.int/Wanted-Persons/%28wanted_id%29/2001-50173˃
[8] Foreign and Commonwealth Office (U.K.), “Chatam House event: the future of Libya,” June 2011:
˂http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/global-issues/mena/libya/future-of-libya-chatham-house/˃
[9] National Democracy for Democracy, “2011 Democracy Award Biographies,” June 2011:
˂http://www.ned.org/events/democracy-award/2011-democracy-award/2011-democracy-award-biographies˃
[10] Interpol Wanted Notice for Ali Ramadan Abu Za Kouk:
˂http://www.interpol.int/Wanted-Persons/%28wanted_id%29/1985-1748˃
Global Research Articles by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Global Research Articles by Julien Teil
Labels: AFRICOM, CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY, NEOCOLONIALISM, SARKOZY
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Davos 2010: Sarkozy calls for revamp of capitalism
By BBC NEWS
Thu 28 Jan. 2010, 10:20 CAT
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a fundamental rethink of capitalism in the aftermath of the financial crisis. "We need deep profound change," he said in his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
His comments came as bankers and regulators clashed over proposals to break up banks that threaten the whole financial system. President Sarkozy said he wished to restore a "moral dimension" to free trade.
"Were we not to change, we would be showing tremendous irresponsibility," he told the bankers and politicians that gather annually in the Swiss alpine resort.
Bank reforms
France has supported forcing banks to hold more capital and curbing bonus payments in global negotiations over the past year on how to reform the system to prevent future crises.
US President Barack Obama has proposed curbing the size of banks, preventing key financial institutions from owning hedge funds and barring them from proprietary trading - investing to make a profit for themselves rather than on behalf of customers.
Bankers in Davos were less than pleased with the ideas.
Earlier on Wednesday, Barclays boss Bob Diamond said he had "seen no evidence ... to suggest that shrinking banks and making banks smaller and narrower is the answer."
Other bankers, like Jacob Frenkel of JPMorgan Chase, have said they were worried about "bad regulation".
'Moral dimension'
President Sarkozy told the delegation - to scattered applause - that governments and companies in the world economy could not pretend it was business as usual.
"We are not asking ourselves what we will replace capitalism with, but what kind of capitalism we want?" he said.
"We must re-engineer capitalism to restore its moral dimension, its conscience," he said. "By placing free trade above all else, what we have is a weakening of democracy.
While saying that those who ran companies that made money deserved to be compensated well, President Sarkozy hit out at huge bank bonuses that have caused public outcry in the US and UK.
"There are remuneration packages that will no longer be tolerated because they bear no relation to merit," he said.
Earlier in Davos, legendary investor George Soros backed President Obama's proposed reforms to limit the size of banks and told journalists that Wall Street bankers who opposed the plans were "tone-deaf".
Labels: CAPITALISM, DAVOS, NEOLIBERALISM, SARKOZY
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Over one million workers march over Sarkozy policies
Xinhua.
PARIS. More than
1 million people marched against President Nicolas Sarkozy across France on Thursday in a nationwide strike and protest over what they see as the government’s unjust economic policies.
Across the country an estimated 2,6 million people attended around 200 rallies, according to the General Confederation of Labor, one of the nation’s largest unions.
Police, however, put the number of protesters at 1,2 million. Nevertheless, the national strike, the second of its kind in only seven weeks, was reported as one of the biggest since Sarkozy took office in May 2007.
The protests showed dissatisfaction of French people with social consequences of the global financial crisis.
"The replies from the bosses and the government are not enough," said Francois Chereque, leader of the big CFDT union federation.
"Salaried workers won’t any longer accept being the victims of this crisis, which they had nothing to do with," Bernard Thibault, secretary of the workers’ confederation, was quoted as saying by BFM Radio.
The unions jointly called on the government to do more to safeguard jobs and to improve workers’ purchasing power.
Trains, government offices and schools were disrupted but public transport in Paris worked almost as normal.
According to the Education Ministry, about 30 percent of France’s teachers were on strike on Thursday.
Meanwhile, utilities, ports and refineries were also disrupted. Air France said most of its flights were operating normally from Charles de Gaulle Airport, while about one-third of its flights from Orly Airport had been canceled.
Thursday’s marches included an unusually large number of private sector workers as the past month has seen a daily roll-call of factory closures. In the northern town of Clairoix, around 10 000 people protested over the closure of a tyre plant by the German Continental company with the loss of 1 120 jobs.
Many others are worried about job losses as 2 million were already unemployed and 350 000 more layoffs are expected this year.
According to opinion polls, up to 80 percent of the public supported the protests. France faces mounting dissatisfaction amid rising unemployment as a result of the economic downturn.
French companies shed the most jobs in 40 years during the fourth quarter of last year.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon, referring to the huge national deficit, declined further measures to push the economy.
He said protesters voiced a "legitimate concern" but he urged the people to wait for the 26-billion-euro stimulus package launched in December last year to bear fruits.
A similar strike on Jan. 29 with civil service stoppage and street marches ended after the government pledged over 2 billion euros of new benefits for the low-paid and unemployed. — Xinhua.
Labels: DEMONSTRATION, LABOUR, SARKOZY
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Sarkozy desires strong relations with Cuba
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Friday, February 27, 2009 9:46:16 PM
FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he desires strong relations with Cuba. On meeting Cuban President Raul Castro Ruz on Wednesday here in Havana, President Sarkozy’s special envoy Jack Lang informed his host that the French leader was eager to foster relations with the Communist island and to work to promote ties between Cuba and the European Union.
Lang informed President Raul that the relations President Sarkozy desired would be based on reciprocal respect.
Lang, a former culture minister in the 1980s under president Francois Mitterrand, comes to Cuba soon after the US House of Representatives passed a bill that could lead to easing restrictions on Cuban-Americans willing to travel to the island.
The US bill, although in itself does not mean the USA is lifting the financial, commercial and trade embargo against Cuba, would enable Cubans in America to visit their relatives on the island once in a year as opposed to once in three years as used to be the case under former president George W Bush’s prescription.
The move also relaxes the requirement for Cuban authorities to pay for US food products upfront. If enacted into law the measure would create a general travel licence for Americans trading in food and medical supplies to Cuba and would receive payments once their products arrive on the island.
However, the bill will have to pass in the US Senate where it faces some opposition before it becomes law.
President Raul said he appreciated President Sarkozy’s initiative.
He said, according to a communiqué in the official paper the Granma, that President Sarkozy’s move was a positive initiative.
President Raul said Cuba was interested in revitalizing traditional political and economic relations including bilateral cooperation with France for the benefit of both countries.
He also said Cuba would continue pursuing political dialogue with the European Union reinitiated last October in Paris, France on the basis of mutual respect.
The EU last year voted to end the sanctions the block had slapped on Cuba in 2003.
Europeans imposed sanctions on Cuba after the arrest of alleged government opponents in 2003.
Labels: CUBA, SARKOZY
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Sarkozy 'not welcome' in DR.Congo
AFP
Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:47:00 +0000
A GROUP of opposition Congolese lawmakers said they opposed an upcoming trip to Kinshasa by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a statement released on Monday.
"The visit of President Nicolas Sarkozy, scheduled for March, in as much as it endangers the fundamental interests of the Congolese people, is not desirable," said the group of senators and deputies in the text received by AFP following a meeting in the capital.
In his New Year's address to diplomats in Paris this month, Sarkozy said a "fresh approach" was needed to resolve the instability and share the wealth in the Great Lakes region, which includes part of Democratic Republic of Congo.
He also touched on "the future of Rwanda".
Sarkozy's remarks triggered an uproar here, with the Congolese media suggesting he wanted a "balkanisation" of DR Congo.
The lawmakers said Sarkozy's desire to see broad-based discussions as to the "sharing of space and the riches of our country is strange", and added in the statement that while Sarkozy had "the right to please Rwanda", that did not give him the right to serve up Congolese wealth "in order to improve diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda".
Paris and Kigali have been at odds for years over who bears responsibility for Rwanda's 1994 genocide that killed some 800 000 people in a matter of months.
- AFP
Labels: DRC, RWANDA, SARKOZY
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Sarkozy issued Tsvangirai with travel documents
Ralph Mutema
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:47:00 +0000
THE French President made all the necessary arrangements to facilitate the Movement for Democratic Change leader to travel to the European Union. The MDC-T president, Morgan Tsvangirai is currently in travelling the EU on what his party calls a “consultation” tour of the European region.
Tsvangirai’s spokesman, George Sibotshiwe told Voice of America radio that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France had made all the necessary arrangements for the MDC-T leader to tour the region despite holding an Emergency Travel Document only allowing him to travel to South Africa where he was attending an Extra-Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
Any other travel from has to be negotiated with countries that he is visiting…
“He has travelled on the goodwill of other African countries,” … (and) with the negotiation of the various governments,” said Sibotshiwe.
He added that “President Sarkozy and his foreign affairs department saw it fit to extend an invitation to him and made all the necessary arrangements.”
Sibotshiwe also said the objective of Tsvangirai’s visit to the EU was to “get some humanitarian support for the people Zimbabwe”. He added that there has been a good response to that plea.
The MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, refused to answer questions on why the MDC-T leader snubbed a meeting of his National Council, opting instead to travel to the EU.
A member of the Zanu PF who spoke to the Zimbabwe Guardian on Monday said Tsvangirai had snubbed a meeting of his National Council as he had made arrangements to travel to the EU from South Africa.
“It is now clear that the MDC president did not want to return to Zimbabwe as he would not have been able to secure an ETD to travel to the EU in time for the European Development Days conference in Strasbourg,” said an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Zimbabwe.
Sibotshiwe also indicated that Tsvangirai is due to meet President Sarkozy today (Tuesday) to brief him on the status of the power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe.
President Sarkozy is the current chair of the European Union.
Labels: GEORGE SIBOTSHIWE, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, SARKOZY
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