[All notes below by Tom Gross]

VIDEO OF “OPEN-MINDED REFORMER” SAIF GADDAFI CALLING ON PRO-DEMOCRACY DEMONSTRATORS TO BE SHOT

Here is a new clip of Saif Gaddafi, gun in hand, calling on his militias to use their weapons to shoot the regime’s pro-democracy opponents:

The crowd is chanting in Arabic:

* “For Allah, Muammar and Libya.”

* “You despicable Aljazeera, we want no one other than Muammar.”

* “The people only want Muammar the Colonel.”

***

Saif is the son of President Gaddafi, who, as noted in the previous dispatch, naïve journalists at leading Western media organizations have praised as a moderate in recent months. Among them:

* CNN’s Becky Anderson said Saif is an “open advocate of democracy”
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1005/26/ctw.01.html

* The New York Times’ Landon Thomas Jr wrote that Saif is a “symbol of [Libya’s] hopes for reform and openness.” www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/world/middleeast/01libya.htm

* The Financial Times’ Heba Saleh wrote Saif is “reform-minded… a defender of liberty.”
www.ft.com/cms/s/a6af1a42-4e28-11df-b48d-00144feab49a.html

***

Yesterday, Western intelligence said Gaddafi may now be prepared to use chemical weapons against his own people (in much the same way as Saddam Hussein did in the past in order to restore “calm” in northern Iraq).

 

Gaddafi with leading Western journalists

 

FINALLY, SOME OF GADDAFI’S WESTERN COLLABORATORS RESIGN

Finally, some of Gaddafi’s Western “useful idiots” have resigned. Attached below are statements by two of them. But why did they work with a terrorist psychopath who tortured dissidents to death, in the first place?

Why did almost the entire world media ignore the excesses of Arab dictatorships until recently, ferociously attacking instead the Middle East’s only democracy, Israel?

Why in a secret ballot at the UN General Assembly last year, did no less than 155 countries, representing 80 percent of UN members, decided Libya would be a superb choice and voted it on to the UN Human Rights Council. Why did websites like this one express concern when this happened but large media organizations such as the BBC didn’t?

Why was a representative of Libyan dictator Gaddafi appointed to chair the Durban II Main Committee in 2009? (Please see the video in item 2 here when she silences the Palestinian medical intern who, together with five Bulgarian nurses, was tortured by Libya in order to confess to trumped up charges of spreading the AIDS virus in Libya.)

 

STATEMENT BY NOBEL PRIZE WINNER SIR RICHARD ROBERTS

Sir Richard Roberts resigns from the Board of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation.

February 24th, 2011

As a member of the international governing board of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, I am appalled by the violence currently being perpetrated on demonstrators in Libya. In particular, I am very disappointed to learn that Dr. Saif El-Islam, the Honorary Chairman of the Board, has stated publicly that he endorses the violent response to these protests. This is contrary to both his previous statements and activities within the Foundation. In light of current events I can no longer serve on the Board and resign immediately.

I would urge everyone in Libya, especially the friends and colleagues that I have made over the past few years, to abandon the violence that is currently sweeping the country and to settle their disputes in the amicable manner that has been previously promoted by the Foundation.

Richard J. Roberts

***

Tom Gross adds:

Sir Richard J. Roberts won the 1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1993/roberts-autobio.html

Gaddafi has been murdering people and torturing political prisoners throughout Sir Richard’s tenure at the Gaddafi Foundation.

 

STATEMENT BY RESPECTED ACADEMIC AND AUTHOR BENJAMIN BARBER

The distinguished political theorist Benjamin Barber was also allowed to get away with associating himself with the Gaddafi family:

www.benjaminbarber.com/Benjamin%20Barber%20Qaddafi%20Foundation%20Press%20Release%202-22-11.pdf

 

LSE HEAD: TAKING MONEY FROM GADDAFI WAS OK BECAUSE SOROS WAS A JEW

In the previous dispatch, I criticized the London School of Economics (LSE) – a school to which many of “the global leaders of tomorrow attend,” according to its marketing material – for its shameless taking of money from Colonel Gaddafi. Several British media have followed up on this story since then.

Yesterday, The Times of London interviewed the director of the LSE, Sir Howard Davies. He told The Times that it was ok for the LSE to accept £1.5m from Gaddafi, and for half the academic board of the LSE Middle East Centre to support mounting an academic boycott of Israel, because “The biggest donor to the School in the past year is George Soros, who of course is of Jewish origin. We operate, I believe, a very balanced view.”

Sir Howard previously gave the Bank of England “consultancy advice” about Libya and advised the British Foreign Office on how to expand bilateral trade between London and Tripoli.

Sir Howard seemed unconcerned that a female British police officer on a London street had been murdered in broad daylight by a Libyan sniper from inside the Libyan embassy in London; or that the U.S. had designated Libya as a state supporter of terrorism as long ago as 1979.

In recent years, The LSE has been at the forefront of stirring up hatred among students towards the state of Israel through a long series of hostile activities and lectures.

For example, recently Professor Martha Mundy of the LSE, an anthropologist, and co-chair the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, hosted a lecture for students at which Abdel Bari Atwan, a journalist and regular ‘expert guest” on the BBC, told LSE students that “If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight.”

The LSE also named its lecture theatre after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, the late dictator of the UAE. This was even after Harvard University had closed down its own Sheikh Zayed center in 2003 after it published a book propagating the lies of Holocaust deniers David Irving and Roger Garoudy, and hosted academics such as Mohammed Ahmad Hussain of Cairo University, who said Jews invented the Holocaust, and Saudi Professor Umayma Jalahma, who declared that “the Jewish people must obtain human blood so that their clerics can prepare for holiday pastries.” The Zayed Center also released a press statement that declared “The Zionists are the ones who killed the Jews of Europe.”

(For more please see: www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000269.html)

 

GADDAFI OWNS 7.5% OF LEADING ITALIAN SOCCER TEAM JUVENTUS

Gaddafi is the second largest shareholder in Juventus, the record 27-time Italian national soccer champion. Juventus has also twice won the European Cup, the continent’s top club competition. More here from Bloomberg News.

Other leading European soccer clubs Barcelona and Manchester City have also taken millions from Middle East despots, and Arsenal have named their stadium after the United Arab Emirates.

 

ISRAELI SONG BECOMES ACCIDENTAL THEME TUNE OF LIBYAN REBELS

An Israeli-produced YouTube clip has gone viral amongst Libyan rebels in the past few days and has now been watched almost two million times throughout the Middle East.

Opponents of Colonel Gaddafi in the Arab world who posted the video on their websites were apparently unaware that the video, a combination of Gaddafi’s speech and the hip-hop song “Hey Baby,” was created by an Israeli musician living in Tel Aviv, Noy Alooshe. Noy is a member of the techno band “Hovevey Zion” (The Lovers of Zion).

His clip shows Gaddafi’s speech last week on a balcony in Tripoli, and uses auto-tune to turn his words into an American rap song. In the chorus, the Libyan dictator “sings” that he will clean Libya “inch by inch, house by house, room by room, alley by alley.” (Alooshe called his song “Zenga, Zenga” – a play on the word “alley” in Arabic.)

One version of the song features bikini-clad women shaking their hips in time to the music. Alooshe removed the bikini from another version he posted on YouTube after being requested to do so by devout Muslims.

Arab YouTube viewers have now discovered Alooshe is Israeli, having unearthed his Facebook profile. This in turn has sparked a heated debate in Arabic among the talkback comments on YouTube about whether it is permissible to enjoy humor from an Israeli.

 

SPOOF VIDEO: GADDAFI WITH BORAT’S VOICE

Warning: It is rather crude, but I attach it as an example of the way Gaddafi is being mocked in the Arab world.

 

NOW GADDAFI IS A JEW?

According to this report by The Associated Press, protestors in Libya have been employing the slogan “Gaddafi, you Jew” as a way of spurring on the crowds.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110226/ap_on_re_af/af_libya_51

Armed pro-Gadhafi gangs roll in Libyan capital
By Maggie Michael and Ben Hubbard
The Associated Press
Saturday, Feb 26, 2011

TRIPOLI, Libya – The embattled Libyan regime passed out guns to civilian supporters, set up checkpoints Saturday and sent armed patrols roving the terrorized capital to try to maintain control of Moammar Gadhafi’s stronghold and quash dissent as rebels consolidate control elsewhere in the North African nation.

Residents of its eastern Tajoura district spread concrete blocks, large rocks and even chopped-down palm trees as makeshift barricades to prevent the SUVs filled with young men wielding automatic weapons from entering their neighborhood – a hotspot of previous protests.

With tensions running high in Tripoli, scores of people in the neighborhood turned out at a funeral for a 44-year-old man killed in clashes with pro-regime forces. Anwar Algadi was killed Friday, with the cause of death listed as “a live bullet to the head,” according to his brother, Mohammed.

Armed men in green armbands, along with uniformed security forces check those trying to enter the district, where graffiti that says “Gadhafi, you Jew,” “Down to the dog,” and “Tajoura is free” was scrawled on walls.

Outside the capital, rebels held a long swath of about half of Libya’s 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) Mediterranean coastline where most of the population lives, and even captured a brigadier general and a soldier Saturday as the Libyan army tried to retake an air base east of Tripoli. The state-run news agency also said the opposition held an air defense commander and several other officers.

On Friday, pro-Gadhafi militiamen – including snipers – fired on protesters trying to mount the first significant anti-government marches in days in Tripoli.

Gadhafi, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation as he faced the biggest challenge to his 42-year rule.

“At the suitable time, we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire,” Gadhafi said.

The international community toughened its response to the bloodshed, while Americans and other foreigners were evacuated from the chaos roiling the North African nation.

The U.N. Security Council began deliberations to consider an arms embargo against the Libyan government and a travel ban and asset freeze against Gadhafi, his relatives and key members of his government. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said some estimates indicate more than 1,000 people have been killed in less than two weeks since the protests broke out in Libya.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday freezing assets held by Gadhafi and four of his children in the United States. The Treasury Department said the sanctions against Gadhafi, three of his sons and a daughter also apply to the Libyan government.

In Tripoli, most residents stayed in their homes Saturday, terrified of bands of armed men at checkpoints and patrolling the city.

A 40-year-old business owner said he had seen Gadhafi supporters enter one of the regime’s Revolutionary Committee headquarters Saturday and leave with arms. He said the regime is offering a car and money to any supporters bringing three people with them to join the effort.

“Someone from the old revolutionary committees will go with them so they’ll be four,” the witness said when reached by telephone from Cairo. “They’ll arm them to drive around the city and terrorize people.”

Other residents reported seeing trucks full of civilians with automatic rifles patrolling their neighborhoods. Many were young, even teenagers, and wore green arm bands or cloths on their heads to show their affiliation to the regime, residents said. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Tripoli, home to about a third of Libya’s population of 6 million, is the center of the eroding territory that Gadhafi still controls.

Even in the Gadhafi-held pocket of northwestern Libya around Tripoli, several cities have also fallen to the rebellion. Militiamen and pro-Gadhafi troops were repelled when they launched attacks trying to take back opposition-held territory in Zawiya and Misrata in fighting that killed at least 30 people.

Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, told foreign journalists invited by the government to Tripoli that there were no casualties in Tripoli and that the capital was “calm.”

“Everything is peaceful,” he said. “Peace is coming back to our country.”

He said the regime wants negotiations with the opposition and said there were “two minor problems” in Misrata and Zawiya. There, he said, “we are dealing with terrorist people,” hut he hoped to reach a peaceful settlement with them.

Most shops in Tripoli were closed and long lines formed at bakeries as people ventured out for supplies.

In the Souq al-Jomaa neighborhood, piles of ashes stood in front of a burned-out police station. Graffiti on the walls read, “Down, down with Gadhafi.” Elsewhere, shattered glass and rocks littered the streets.

A law school graduate walking to his house in the Fashloum area said he had seen many people killed by snipers in recent days.

“People are panicked, they are terrified. Few leave their houses. When it gets dark, you can’t walk in the streets because anybody who walks is subject to be shot to death,” he said.

He said Gadhafi’s use of force against protesters had turned him against the regime.

“We Libyans cannot hear that there were other Libyans killed and remain silent,” he said. “Now everything he says is a lie.”

In Tripoli’s Green Square, where state television has shown crowds of Gadhafi supporters in recent days, armed security men in blue uniforms were stationed around the plaza. Pro-Gadhafi billboards and posters were everywhere. A burned restaurant was the only sign of the unrest.

Supporters in about 50 cars covered with Gadhafi posters drove slowly around the square, waving green flags from the windows and honking horns. A camera crew filmed the procession.

Taxi driver Nasser Mohammed was among those who had a picture of Gadhafi and a green flag on his car.

“Have you heard the speech last night?” he asked. “It was great. Libyans don’t want anyone but Gadhafi. He gave us loans.”

Mohammed, 25, said each family will receive 500 Libyan dinars (about $400) after the start of the protests, plus the equivalent of about $100 credit for phone service. State TV said the distribution will take place starting Sunday.

Gadhafi loyalists manned a street barricade, turning away motorists trying to enter. After turning around, the drivers were then stopped at another checkpoint, manned by armed men in uniform, who searched cars and checked IDs of drivers and passengers.

In Misrata, a resident said the opposition was still in control of the city, which was calm Saturday, with many shops open and a local committee running civic affairs.

But the opposition only held parts of the sprawling Misrata Air Base after Friday’s attack by Gadhafi supporters, he added.

The troops used tanks against the rebels at the base and succeeded in retaking part of it in battles with residents and army units who had joined the uprising against Gadhafi, said a doctor and a resident wounded in the battle on the edge of opposition-held Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) from the capital. The doctor said 25 people were killed in fighting at the base since Thursday.

The resident said pro-Gadhafi troops captured several members of the opposition Friday and now the two sides are talking about a possible swap since the opposition also captured a soldier and a brigadier general. Libyan state TV confirmed that an army Brig. Gen. Abu Bakr Ali was captured, although it said he was “kidnapped by terrorist gangs.” The state-run news agency JANA also said regime opponents held the commander of the air defense’s 2nd Division and several other officers.

State-run TV reported that the website of the JANA news agency was hacked.

The opposition also held complete control of Sabratha, a town west of Tripoli famed for nearby ancient Roman ruins, with no police or any security forces associated with the Gadhafi regime, said Khalid Ahmed, a resident. He added that tribes were trying to organize a march on Tripoli, although a checkpoint outside the capital would stop anyone from entering.

“All of Libya is together,” Ahmed said. “We are not far from toppling the regime.”

Thousands of evacuees from Libya reached ports Saturday across the Mediterranean, with many more still trying to flee the North African nation by sea, air or land.

More than 2,800 Chinese workers landed in Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete aboard a Greek ship Saturday, while another 2,200 Chinese arrived in Valletta, the capital of Malta, on a ship from the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi.

Thousands of expatriates streamed out of Libya at the bustling Tunisian border, most of them Egyptians and Tunisians.

More than 20,000 have arrived since early this week, said Heinke Veit of the European Union Humanitarian Aid group. Food, water and medical help is available, as are facilities to contact their families.