Diplomacy and Profitability
All eyes swivelled from Egypt toward Libya. The garrulous, gruff and confident Col. Moammar Gadhafi who so enjoyed tongue-lashing the Arab League for its failures to confront Israel, and who gained the confidence of the West when he agreed to forego any further work on attaining nuclear weaponry and cease stockpiling chemical weapons, and agreed to settle down and bring a halt to his traditional support of international terror has now re-caught the world's attention.He never quite vanished from the attention of those who recalled his funding of the IRA, of Idi Amin's terror reign, of Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, the Sandanistas and Salvadorean guerrillas, his relationship with Pakistan's A.Q. Khan in nuclear technology transfer, and his proxy status with the Soviet Union, his KGB training camps for Libyan military. His settling of accounts with the U.S. by planning the in-air flight explosion at Lockerbie.
But then, when he became rather nervous after the U.S.-and-the-coalition-of-the-willing invasion of Iraq, post 9/11, he re-thought his agenda and became an aid in the war against al-Qaeda and international terror. Becoming everyone's idea of a seen-the-light convert. Libya was 'respectable' enough to be nominated to sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council. Along with other respectable, human-rights-respecting countries like China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.
The reality is that he was a supporter of terrorism. Of violent actions against civil society. He used his oil money to fund terror. He planned terrorist acts himself and had his underlings carry them out. So why would he suddenly assume the mantel of respectability? He was a dauntless human rights abuser. Yet here was this man, representing his repressed country, sitting on the United Nations Human Rights Council.
This voice for reason and humanity has promised publicly that he will unleash the forces of terror against Libyan protesters. He and his sons have spoken of rivers of blood to flow. Thousands of protesting Libyans have already perished. There is no end yet in sight to the conflict, where Gadhafi pits his helicopter gunships and his tanks and his mercenaries and his warplanes against his people.
A few months ago he was receiving accolades, when Syria lauded him: "The Libyan Arab Jamahiriva has a unique experience in democracy that has allowed for growth and development in promotion of human rights." The Palestinian Authority observer at the UNHRC: "We highly commend the national report. This proves the Jamahiriya's keen interest in improving and promoting human rights." And Saudi Arabia: "The interest shown by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriva ... shows very clearly the importance it attaches to human rights."
Russia was selling the latest in warfare technology to Libya. Great Britain was also involved in selling armaments to Libya, and helping to train its military in crowd control techniques. This reprehensible mass murderer whom the world had only a decade earlier spoken of dismissively as a "mad dog", untrustworthy and vicious, suddenly became an ally of the West in the fight against international terrorism.
The European Union is highly dependent on Libyan sweet light oil for its energy needs. Much can, and will be forgiven in the name of profit, and European, American and Canadian oil companies all have made huge investments in the country - and accordingly profits.
Labels: Africa, Economy, European Union, Technology, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, February 27, 2011
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