Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi is the leader whom Nelson Mandeladubbed one of the revolutionary icons of our time.
With a special passion for Libya's international relations, St John has highlighted virtually all aspects of Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's foreign policy in numerous books and articles. His newest book, Libya: From Colony to Independence, fills an important gap in the literature on Libya
by presenting a history not limited to a certain time period.
'Libya' details the struggles of the state from Greek
settlements in the fifth century BC to the infamous Lockerbie
bombing.
For more resources see
History of Libya.
Key Point of the news: The operation to take control Tripoli , codenamed Mermaid Dawn. According to a rebel military spokesman quoted by AP, men from Tripoli who supported the revolution slipped out of the capital three months ago for training in Benghazi. They then infiltrated the city either by sea, posing as fishermen, or through the western mountains.
"They went back to Tripoli and waited; they became sleeper cells," said military spokesman Fadlallah Haroun, who helped organise the operation. He said that when the signal was given, on 21 August, about 150 men rose up inside Tripoli.
A US official was quoted as confirming reports that Qatari special forces had helped spearhead the rebel storming of Bab al-Aziziya, and that British, French and Italian advisers had played a role.
A word of comment: Mermaid Dawn Operation is no less than the invasion of foreign troops upon Libya.
Key Point of the news: Whether Gaddafi goes or not, this costly intervention has thwarted peace talks and betrayed its 'humanitarian' mission. Libyan rebels are now advancing on the capital city of Tripoli with the aid of Nato strikes; this is sure to result in a real bloodbath, as opposed to the one that was conjured in Benghazi this past winter. Nato is assisting rebels who are blocking food, water and medical supplies from coming into the capital city, and is stopping those who need advanced medical care from travelling to Tunisia to access it. Nato is bombing power stations, creating blackouts, and using Apache helicopters to attack Libyan police checkpoints to clear roads for rebels to advance.
A word of comment: While we do not know how many more civilians Mr. Obama is going to let die in Tripoli in the coming days for his war against Libya, this article has a right advise for him lest he along with NATO commit another fatal war crime.
'Libya campaign staged to start conquering Africa'
What is called public uprising of the free-loving people are actually coup attempts staged by the Western nations, Maysan says. The operation in Libya in particular is marked by an astounding number of lies fed to the public,
Opposition to U.S. wars grows, diversifies
Howard Dean, former DNC chairman and governor of Vermont, talks with Rachel Maddow about the newly bipartisan nature of criticism of American military activity abroad, and the Obama administration's interpretation of the War Powers Act with respect to Libya.
(msnbc June 16)
Key Points: A bipartisan group of US lawmakers have sued President Barack Obama for taking military action in Libya without authorisation from Congress.
The lawsuit, which also targets Defence Secretary Robert Gates, challenges the policy "that any president can take the US to war unilaterally", Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio said.
"We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies," he added.
We wonder if democracy is still healthy when media is manipulating information for war propaganda of the dictator of foreign policy.
Yet, we see a ray of hope for American democracy as Cynthia McKinney, the former US congresswoman and presidential candidate, went Libya to see the truth. As NATO attacks continue in Libya, ex US Congresswoman and former presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney went to the country on a non-governmental fact-finding mission to see what exactly is going on in the war-torn country. Cynthia McKinney believes the bombardments of Libyan cities and other measures taken by NATO, causing civilian casualties, represent the idea of "collective punishment".
Libya: From Colony to Independence
