Worse than Hiroshima - US war chemicals and stinking Hypocrisy

Source Video: Russia Today

One in three American servicemen permanently disabled, 'the worst genetic damage in any population ever studied', 'confirmed' US govt behind world record Afghan opium crop, and October's protest calendar. Seek truth from facts with Iraqi-Kurdish activist Houzan Mahmoud, Afghan war specialist Prof. Anatol Lieven, former intelligence officer Scott Rickard, Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Conn Hallinan, and the author of Questioning the War on Terror Dr. Kevin Barrett.

Full Transcript:

RT:My name's Daniel Bushell. Chemical agents are red lines except, critics say, when the US is using them on a far greater scale.

Announcer:

One in three US servicemen permanently disabled.

An explosion of birth defects they don't even have medical terms for.

And an FBI whistleblower ties America's drug epidemic to the highest levels of government.

Jeff Englehart, Iraq war veteran: White phosphorus was used which is definitely and without a shadow of a doubt a chemical weapon.

RT:US troops report orders to use white phosphorus in civilian areas.

The chemical nicknamed Whisky Pete by the US army is banned as a weapon. The Toxic Substances Agency notes it burns through eyes heart and bones of anyone in the vicinity.

Time after time officers in Iraq describe firing the chemical at people in a process they call shake 'n bake.

US army 2^nd battalion, Field Artillery magazine: We fired shake ’n bake missions using white phosphorus to flush them out.

Darrin Mortenson, Embedded reporter, Iraq: Again and again, sending burning white phosphorus they call shake ’n bake into buildings.

RT:The documentary Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre says it's obtained this footage of US forces firing white phosphorus into residential homes.

After the attack the area, and anyone in it, has simply disappeared.

The Guardian reports the Pentagon lied and denied using white phosphorus as weapons until the evidence became overwhelming.

Houzan Mahmoud lived through US occupation of Iraq, Operation Desert Storm in 1991 as well as Saddam's chemical attack on Halabja in 1988.

Houzan joins us, thanks very much for coming on. When first did you find out about chemical weapons use?

Houzan Mamoud, Iraqi-Kurdish activist: I never knew the words chemical bomb until Halabja was hit in 1988. And let's not forget who sold these weapons to Saddam at the time, it was the western governments.

In 1991 when allied forces attacked Iraq they have used various weapons like depleted uranium and so on, followed by the 2003 occupation of Iraq.

People were turned into guinea pigs and that of course we can see the consequences many children are born deformed.

Western government comes and talks about human rights and democracy and not using this and that - I find it a very huge double morality.

RT:The highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied, radiation expert Christopher Busby has reported from US depleted uranium munitions in Iraq.

Birth defects worse than after the US nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Democracy Now reports, are being found in babies.

Doctors told renowned war correspondent Dahr Jamail such injuries have simply never been seen before.

Dahr Jamail, Al Jazeera: Malformations that she said they don’t even have medical terms for. It’s common now in Fallujah for newborns to come out with massive multiple systemic defects. Babies being born with two heads, babies being born with half of their internal organs outside of their bodies. And it is ongoing.

RT:The BBC notes the Pentagon's response to complaints from Iraq about depleted uranium attacks.

James Naughton, Munitions director, US army material command: They want it to go away because we kicked the c*** out of them.

RT:But that doesn’t explain, says Common Dreams Newscenter, the shocking numbers of US vets affected.

Of 697,000 US troops in the First Gulf War, the Department of Defense now admits nearly 250,000 are permanently disabled. From a battle that lasted just a hundred hours one in three troops hit, notes the Beyond Treason documentary, is a simply incredible figure.

Guardsman Gerard Darren Matthew's daughter was born with most of her hand missing and other deformities. He believes his service in Iraq is to blame. Independent tests on the veteran found high levels of depleted uranium in his body.

Some veterans who have gone to court have received admissions that their disabilities could only have been caused by U-238.

Doug Rokke was put in charge of DU cleanup after Operation Desert Storm.

The army was well aware of its toxicity, he says, not only in areas they hit, butfor anyone working with it, in the vicinity of DU, or even breathing downwind of uranium particles.

Yet he says no one was warned of its incredible danger.

Truthout notes Doug Rokke now has radiation damage to his lungs and kidneys, brain lesions and serious damage to his eyes.

Major Doug Rokke, US army veteran: The United States army common task training states very specifically uranium contamination will make food and water unusable. And yet we use it in combat all over the place. That’s why the United Nations’ Sub-commission on Human Rights had ruled that uranium munitions were an illegal weapon, because they're indiscriminate they can’t be cleaned up and they last for eternity.

Leuren Moret, International radiation specialist: The United States invaded Iraq and used weapons of mass destruction against the Iraqis. Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.The Middle East, and Central Asia, and Yugoslavia, are contaminated forever.

RT:Tomorrow marks 12 years of the US-led bombing of Afghanistan, America's longest war.

The journal Military Medicine took samples from civilians in bombed areas and found concentrations of uranium higher by 8,000%.

This, claims the Afghan DU & Recovery Fund, is the result.

Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald says the US establishment is systematically hiding horrors committed by its forces from the American people.

Official casualty lists in mainstream media don’t evenmention the Afghans or Iraqis; civilians who die simply don’t exist in corporate sites.

That's why, says the site Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, the American public thinks just a few thousand civilians have been killed there.

Violent deaths from the invasion in Iraq, notes US-based organization Just Foreign Policy, is actually 1.5 million.

If you add those killed from Operation Desert Storm, followed by years of US sanctions, Countercurrents notes the 4.6 million matches the deaths from Nazi gas chambers.

Conn Hallinan writes for Foreign Policy In Focus, he joins us. Conn great to see you, how do we explain all this?

Conn Hallinan, Columnist, Foreign Policy In Focus: This American exceptionalism, 'Americans are better than everybody else, American democracy is better than any other democracy', even though we have one of lowest voting rates in the world for a major developed country, it also allows soldiers tokill people.

RT:Anatol Lievin's the West's leading authority on the Afghan war. He lived during the 1980s with the mujahedeen and has met with Northern Alliance, Taliban and key US generals since. In his latest book Pakistan: A Hard Country he speaks to the people in a region critical to this war.

Professor Lievin, thanks very much for joining us, did you get the impression US elites just don't care about casualties?

Anatol Lievin, Author of ‘Pakistan: A Hard Country’: Well certainly and even more serious than that in both Afghanistan and Iraq the United States don’t even count civilian casualties which really gives the impression they don’t give a damn.A senior American general said to me that America is not fighting any more to win in Afghanistan, the whole American effort is to avoid the impression of losing.

RT:FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has claimed a more sinister financial incentive to continue a war generals say they can't win, and it involves a health catastrophe closer to home.

Production of opium since the US came in has taken off; Afghanistan now provides almost all the world's supply.

International calls to spray opium crops and end production, Reuters reports, are being blocked by the US government.

The huge increase in opioid consumption in the States, says the Center for Disease Control, is why an American now dies of drug abuse every 19 minutes.

Senior Pentagon sources confirmed to a Sunday Times investigation, Edmonds' revelations that US officials are fueling Afghan drug transport.

Fearing massive repercussions, the State Department, reports Ceasefire Magazine, put intense pressure on the Sunday Times, which pulled its correspondents off the four-part report.

Edmonds' evidence was eventually investigated by the Justice Department which, while keeping its findings classified, did admit crucially her findings were quote “supported”.

Let's speak to former intelligence officer Scott Rickard, great to have you on the show. First, how big is this problem?

Scott Rickard, Former intelligence officer: This country consumes 60% of the world's opiates, the stuff the Americans are basically hooked on. The oxycodone epidemic in Florida is out of control; you can’t imagine how many in my neighborhood have children and families that have been affected by the oxycodone epidemic.

RT:Yeah, who's profiting from this?

Rickard: So the Afghan farmer isn’t making as much, I mean he’s making the least amount. The real money comes in when it gets out of the country.

Daniel Hopsicker wrote a great book about the drug trade in Florida called Welcome to Terrorland instead of Welcome to Disneyland and it goes into the airfield where Mohamed Atta trained was a CIA operations field where they were flying in heroin.

You're talking about billions of dollars a year and the money that comes in, no one has to answer for it and it goes to the highest levels.

I asked John McCain a question in an institute meeting, I asked him 'What do you think about the amount of drugs that are coming out of Afghanistan making it into the streets of America?' He just said it's beneath him.

The Cocaine Cowboys documentary goes into complete detail around cocaine trade in the 70s and 80s. Seven times the deposits in Miami aloneof all the other Federal Reserve banks at the time was being laundered and deposited through the Federal Reserve in Miami so that should tell you something. It's a huge amount of money.

RT:The Justice Department says no one at HSBC will face trial for what Alternet calls massive drug money laundering and giving favored client status to known narcobarons.

An investigation in London's Observer newspaper goes further, claiming “the world's biggest drug money launderers are the City of London and Wall Street.”

The author of Questioning the War on Terror is Dr. Kevin Barrett, great to see you, what do you see as going on here?

Kevin Barrett, author of ‘Questioning the War on Terror’: The Taliban had stopped the opium crop; they’d shut down that business which took away a trillion dollars or so out of the coffers.

When the US invaded they just grabbed up all the opium lords and told them to plant and they had a bumper crop that set world records within a year or two.

And yes the Wall Street bankers are dependent on drug money laundering to keep their enterprises going. They're making all of these crazy gambles with derivatives. The estimates of the amount of derivatives floating around is in the hundreds of trillions, more than the real assets on earth, so this corrupt banking system is very vulnerable, and what they do is they leverage the drug profits.

RT:The State Department strenuously denies these claims. But in that case, asks leading terrorism analyst Nafeez Ahmed, why is it going to such extraordinary lengths to silence whistleblowers on this subject.

Critics say the case for illegal use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium appears more clear cut.

Alice Mahon quit as a Member of Parliament after 18 years, following the allied forces' official admission they used Mark 77 bombs containing white phosphorus on civilians.

Accusing other countries of using chemical weapons when you're doing so on a far greater scale, she says, “the hypocrisy is absolutely stinking.”

Seek truth from facts. This is The Truthseeker


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Horrors of war US UK munitions cause birth defects in Iraq

 

Iraqi women wait with their sick children at a Baghdad hospital.(AFP Photo / Karim Sahib)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/birth-defects-iraq-report-385/

US and UK weapons ammunition were linked to heart defects, brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs, according to a recent study. The report revealed a shocking rise in birth defects in Iraqi children conceived after the US invasion.

Titled ‘Metal Contamination and the Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities,’ the study was published by the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. It revealed a connection between military activity in the country and increased numbers of birth defects and miscarriages.

The report, which can be found here, also contains graphic images of Iraqi children born with birth defects. (The images were not published on RT due to their disturbing content.) It documents 56 families in Fallujah, which was invaded by US troops in 2004, and examines births in Basrah in southern Iraq, which was attacked by British forces in 2003.

The study concluded that US and UK ammunition is responsible for high rates of miscarriages, toxic levels of lead and mercury contamination and spiraling numbers of birth defects, which ranged from congenital heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs.

Fallujah, around 40 miles west of Baghdad, was at the epicenter of these various health risks. The city was first invaded by US Marines in the spring of 2004, and then again 7 months later. Some of the heaviest artillery in the US arsenal was deployed during the attack, including phosphorus shells.

A round lights up the night-sky before a U.S. bombardment over the Iraqi city of Falluja at the beginning, November 8, 2004.(Reuters / Eliana Aponte)

Shocking findings

Between 2007 and 2010 in Fallujah, more than half of all babies surveyed were born with birth defects. Before the war, this figure was around one in 10. Also, over 45 percent of all pregnancies surveyed ended in miscarriage in 2005 and 2006, compared to only 10 percent before the invasion.

In Basrah’s Maternity Hospital, more than 20 babies out of 1,000 were born with defects in 2003, 17 times higher than the figure recorded in the previous decade.

Overall, the study found that the number of babies in the region born with birth defects increased by more than 60 percent (37 out of every 1,000 are now born with defects) in the past seven years. This rise was linked to an increased exposure to metals released by the bombs and bullets used over the past decade.

Hair samples of the population of Fallujah revealed levels of lead in children with birth defects five times higher than in other children, and mercury levels six times higher. Basrah children with birth defects had three times more lead in their teeth than children living in areas not struck by the artillery.

The intense fighting in Iraq led by the US and UK is not the only thing that harmed children in cities like Fallujah and Basrah – a new study revealed a shocking rise in birth defects in children conceived after the invasion. (AFP Photo / Odd Andersen)

The study found a "footprint of metal in the population,” Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report said. Savabieasfahani is an environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health.

"In utero exposure to pollutants can drastically change the outcome of an otherwise normal pregnancy. The metal levels we see in the Fallujah children with birth defects clearly indicates that metals were involved in manifestation of birth defects in these children," she said.

The study's preliminary findings, released in 2010, led to an in-depth inquiry on Fallujah by the World Health Organization (WHO), the results of which will be released next month. The inquiry is expected to show an increase in birth defects following the Iraq War.

According to the WHO, a pregnant woman can be exposed to lead or mercury through the air, water and soil. The woman can then pass the exposure to her unborn child through her bones, and high levels of toxins can damage kidneys and brains, and cause blindness, seizures, muteness, lack of coordination and even death.

US and UK 'unaware' of rise in birth defects

US Defense Department responded to the report by claiming that there are no official reports indicating a connection between military action and birth defects in Iraq.

"We are not aware of any official reports indicating an increase in birth defects in Al Basrah or Fallujah that may be related to exposure to the metals contained in munitions used by the US or coalition partners,” a US Defense Department spokesperson told the Independent. “We always take very seriously public health concerns about any population now living in a combat theatre. Unexploded ordnance, including improvised explosive devises, are a recognized hazard.”

An UK government spokesperson also said there was no "reliable scientific or medical evidence to confirm a link between conventional ammunition and birth defects in Basrah. All ammunition used by UK armed forces falls within international humanitarian law and is consistent with the Geneva Convention."

 

Britain was nuked by their own weapons

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232493.html

By: Peter Eyre - Middle East Consultant


Maybe all the people that live within an area from Birmingham across to Norwich and down to Bristol, Bournmouth and across to Dover and back up to Norwich were not aware that they may have been exposed, on more than one occasion, to extremely high levels of radiation from the weapons used by the US, UK and coalition forces in and around the Middle East war zones……not to mention the onslaught on Libya that saw an incredible amount of DU weapons being used and also possibly low yield nuclear weapons.

Back in the 1940’s during the Los Alamos nuclear test they discovered a type of poisonous gaseous substance that was emitted from the weapons. The Generals seized this new found substance as a potential people killer that basically would drift on the wind, have no footprint to identify the aggressor and would kill over a long period of time.

A secret memo to Brigadier General Grove clearly showed their intention to carry out mass genocide, mass depopulation and mass infertility using this technology resulting in the development of depleted uranium (DU) weapons as used extensively today in all areas of conflict. If you don’t believe me ask the people of Iraq, especially those living in Fallujah and Basra who may not to be able to ever have a child.

It was in more recent time they seized an opportunity to dispose of the nuclear waste from their nuclear programmes (Uranium 238 or DU) as existing stockpiles were massive and in very poor condition and so it made sense to give it away to the arms manufacturing companies to be used as a penetrator, shaped charged liner or simply for ballast in weapons and aircraft etc.

DU is pyrophoric which basically means it is self igniting at low temperatures around 170 degrees. When it leaves the barrel of a gun it is basically igniting, like tracer bullets. Upon hitting the target it erupts into a massive thermo nuclear type explosion in access of 5000 degrees and emits a huge cloud of radioactive nano-particles in their millions that then drift on the wind.

The UN/WHO state that DU is no risk to our health and it was the UN who carried out an extensive survey in the Balkans after the war which resulted in a rather pathetic report that really didn’t even address the main issue which was total contamination of the war zone making some areas almost totally uninhabitable.

If you were to scan any particle piece of earth where radiation exists in its natural form you would probably get a reading of around 5-15 pulses, on the other hand DU would go up to around 10,000.

When one breaths in the nano-particles from DU it’s extremely easy to become ill with many forms of cancer, especially the unborn fetus and children. One expert stated that breathing in just ten milligrams of uranium oxide dust would exceed any safe limit. From my perspective there is no safe limit of radiation and certainly no one has studied the impact of breathing in DU. A Dr Jack Valentin, stated “If you were actually inside, or immediately outside, the vehicle that's hit by a bullet, and if you survive that hit, you can imagine that person inhaling perhaps a hundred milligrams.”

My comment would therefore be if this is the case with a single bullet imagine the consequences of shells, bombs and cruise missiles that are fired off each and every day that contain thousands of kilograms.

If one can relate to the very high concentrations in the past and current areas of conflict it is fairly obvious what the New World Order is up too via its military arm NATO. Aaron Russo’s interview explain in great detail:

DU evidence simply lies around after every conflict i.e. the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Pakistan, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Somalia and now Libya. Its detected in damaged tanks, vehicles, spent rounds sitting on the surface, buildings, or simply in the soil. These deadly nano-particles are not only circling the countries of conflict but also adjacent countries and the world. Its half life is 4.5 billion years, every time it rains or snows it comes down to contaminate our soil, crops and water and continues to be stirred up by the weather, gales, sand storms which stretch across continents. Every time we drive or walk on it secondary contamination occurs.

DU weapons go back to the Yon Kippur War 1976 when the US first introduced it to the Israelis. They were also used extensively in the Balkans (1993-1995) by NATO with over 100,000 aircraft sorties. UN claim the main use of DU was only from A10 aircraft which was totally untrue, in actual fact bombarded the region with DU Shells, DU Bombs and DU missiles making the entire region almost uninhabitable. I have a detailed accounts of all weapons used and who used them!! All of the above countries are now suffering catastrophic medical problems.

I made up a chart showing how the upper winds move around the world on a given day and it clearly revealed how depleted uranium can become very mobile and the worlds air currents and jet streams carrying some of this contamination of nano-particles directly over the top of the Himalayas where many of Asia’s main rivers start and the millions of people that depend on those rivers for their survival, one can clearly see the problems that depleted uranium brings to our planet.

Depleted uranium is basically killing all around the world and to give you one very good example is the secret chart that was recovered from the research and development establishment in Aldermaston (Atomic Weapons Establishment) and who monitor via their atmospheric filters that check the level of radiation or DU in the region. In this graph it shows a base line (normal background radiation) and in several places there were peaks that directly related to events that had taken place in some far away conflict. In this case the peaks related to the US and coalition bombardment of Baghdad (Shock and Awe) and also when the US carpet bombed the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan etc. Each time this occurred massive amounts of depleted uranium dust as well as radiation from conventional Tactical Nuclear Weapons. (that were also discreetly dropped) got dumped in the skies over the UK and EU.

The graph proved that the UK was bombarded with extremely high levels of radiation from those conflicts and clearly shows my understanding that any contamination by such radioactive nano-particles does not recognise international borders and is therefore in clear violation of the Geneva Convention.

On one particular occasion I noticed that the contamination was taken up over the Caspian Sea, into Northern Russia where it then tracked westerly over Scandinavia and then down over Norway towards the UK where it got sucked into a very large low pressure area that just so happened to be centred near London. The graph I have in my possession from Aldermaston clearly proves the authenticity of such contamination.

Almost 90% of victims are innocent civilians.

It only takes about 50 tons (45,359 kgs) of DU dust to kill 500,000 people so in the case of Libya for example, during the initial onslaught, it is estimated that the US, UK and France used around 175,000 kgs, imagine at this value alone you are looking at millions of people succumbing to the effects of DU not only within Libya but also in adjacent countries and around the world. The contamination from Baghdad amounted to many thousands of tons of DU and arrived over the skies of the UK within 9 days.

I checked the upper winds during the Libyan War and the contamination from coalition forces was blown westerly over Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and out over the Mediterranean to Spain, Portugal to Mid Atlantic where it turned 180 degrees and looped back over the UK and Europe, such is the unpredictability of the upper winds.

Finally we can look at two very typical examples to prove that the west is carrying out mass genocide using weapons that violate the Geneva Convention on at least 4 counts,

Fallujah and Basra in Iraq have succumbed to extremely high levels of many forms of cancer as a direct result of the weapons used by the US, UK and coalition forces during the [Persian] Gulf Wars.

Falujah experienced a dramatic increase in infant mortality, cancer, leukaemia and birth defects that now exceeds those reported in Hiroshima back in WW2.

Doctors are overwhelmed with very serious birth defects, a four fold increase in adult cancers and a 12 fold increase in childhood cancer. DU directly attacks the DNA and can and does enter the nose-brain barrier resulting in terrible mutations, cancers, brain tumours and severe mental problems.

Infant mortality is 43 times higher than Jordon for example and 8 times higher that Kuwait (which kept some statistics under lock and key). DU was used heavily in Kuwait and the scene of a massive DU accident at the US base, Camp Doha. It was here that a chain of events caused a massive explosion of DU weaponry. The US government said there was no problem but the Kuwaiti Government made the US remove of 7,000kgs of top soil back to the US…….in actual fact this was and still is one huge cover-up as the cancer rates increase in Kuwait.

Fallujah that was declared a US Forces “Free Fire Zone” which assumes that civilians in the region are minimum and so basically one can blast the area with unrestricted fire power, this was a US cover-up because the area was heavily populated as most people stayed indoors and did not venture out. The result was a 38-fold increase in Leukaemia, a 10-fold increase in breast cancer and a significant increase in Lymphoma and Brain Tumours. What is also known is that the sex ratio is also now unbalanced which indicates Genetic Damage to the population, a typical sign of DU and its horrific consequences. Basra, Afghanistan, North Pakistan, North India are showing the same trend and we can expect the same situation to develop in Libya, the very country that Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Hague and Sarkozy said was all about being a humanitarian crisis and saving lives.

These wars have nothing to do with evil dictatorships but rather forced regime change to install their western friendly puppets who then allow the west to rape those countries of their oil, gas and precious metals.

Israel must be added to this list of scumbags for using the same weapons in Lebanon during the 2006 conflict and again in 2008/9 on Gaza. Israel actually nuked itself when the contamination drifted on the sea breeze from Southern Lebanon over into Northern Israel and again in Gaza when it drifted up the coast and to the east. Maybe they should start asking why there is an increase in cancers and infertility figures. I am sure many residents in Israel would be very shocked to learn of this fact.

On the question of US, UK, France, Israel v Iran, the catastrophic fallout from such an attack would immerse the entire region, including Israel, into very high levels of radioactive particles from Iran’s nuclear facilities, the thousands DU weapons and obviously tactical nuclear weapons that we now know have been used in the past, all within 2-4 days. It would initially cover an area from Turkey to Pakistan/India and from the Caspian down to Somalia!

DU is in violation of the Geneva Convention on at least 4 counts and its usage thus constitutes as being a war crime or a crime against humanity, it is not target specific, drifts on the wind beyond the battlefield and around the world. These are clearly Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Past and current Presidents and Prime Minister such as George Bush Senior and George Bush Junior, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, their Foreign Ministers, Ministers of Defence and their Israeli counterparts are all guilty of crimes against humanity, including the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.

The New World Order (NWO) plays a major part in all of these horrific crimes and many False Flags in conjunction with the CIA, MI5/6 and Mossad such as the mass killings at 9/11 and 7/7 (both inside jobs) all in the name of “Geo Politics.”

Zionists and their “Mafia Style Groups” are prepared to let the people of Israel be eliminated if necessary to achieve their goals and one can see a real possibility of this should the US, UK, France and Israel attack Iran

Obama keeps Libya sanctions in place for another year

US President Barack Obama

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/228305.html

US President Barack Obama has told Congress that the sanctions his administration imposed on Libya last year will be extended for another year, White House officials said.

Obama informed Congress on Thursday that the national emergency order allowing sanctions against Libya will continue, noting that Washington was concerned by ongoing threats posed to US interests by the family of Libya's slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

“The situation in Libya continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” Obama said in a letter to congressional leaders.

“We need to protect against this threat and the diversion of assets or other abuse by certain members of Gaddafi’s family and other former regime officials," he said.

"Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to Libya," he wrote.

Obama declared the national emergency over Libya on February 25, 2011, citing threats to US national security and foreign policy posed by Gaddafi and his government in their "extreme measures" against the people of Libya.

National emergency regulations authorize the US president to impose sanctions on foreign countries.

Sanctions imposed on overseas Libyan assets by the United Nations, the United States, and other nations have unwound slowly since Gaddafi’s death last year. However, releasing the assets is both politically and legally complicated, because the frozen funds include investments and property owned by private individuals.

Pro-Gaddafis gain control of Bani Walid

Loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi. (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/222659.html

Following a deadly attack against a base in Bani Walid, loyalists of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi have reportedly gained control over his one-time bastion.

"The loyalists of Gaddafi took control of the entire city of Bani Walid," former National Transitional Council (NTC) member M'barek al-Fotmani said on Monday.

The latest developments follow an attack by loyalists against a base, killing at least five “thuwar” (anti-Gaddafi revolutionaries) and injuring tens more. A commander is reportedly among the dead.

According to Fotmani, the loyalists were carrying green flags and chanting pro-Gaddafi slogans.

Bani Walid, 170 kilometers (110 miles) south of Tripoli, was one of the last pro-Gaddafi bastions to fall in the deadly uprising against the former dictator's rule.

Meanwhile, the US has sent some 12,000 troops to Libya. The deployment is said to be aimed at generating stability and security in the region, the troops are expected to take control of the country's key oil fields and strategic ports.

The security situation in the country remains fragile months after the overthrow of Gaddafi. Militias have largely refused to heed calls to disarm.

In Libya, protesters have been holding regular demonstrations for weeks, demanding the ouster of Gaddafi-era officials and more transparency about how the NTC is spending Libyan assets.

US deploys 12,000 troops in Libya

Smoke coming from an oil terminal in the Libyan port city of Brega. (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/222317.html

The United States has sent some 12,000 soldiers to Libya, in the first phase of deployments to the oil-rich North African nation.

According to Asharq Alawsat, the troops landed in the eastern oil port city of Brega.

Although the deployment is said to be aimed at generating stability and security in the region, the troops are expected to take control of the country's key oil fields and strategic ports.

Brega, the site of an important oil refinery, serves as a major export hub for Libyan oil. The town is also one of the five oil terminals in the eastern half of the country.

Following the popular uprising of the Libyan people, NATO launched a major air campaign against the forces of the former regime on March 19, 2011 under a UN mandate to “protect the Libyan population.”

The Western military alliance, however, was heavily criticized for its failure to protect civilians and taking action beyond the terms of the UN mandate.

On October 20, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed in his hometown of Sirte, eight months into an uprising that put an end to his 42-year dictatorship.

Human rights groups have accused NATO of committing war crimes and human rights violations against Libyans.

Libyan protesters storm local NTC HQ

People protest against the National Transitional Council and its chairman, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, in the city center of Benghazi, Libya, on December 16, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/222382.html

Angry protesters have stormed the local headquarters of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in the eastern coastal city of Benghazi after besieging the building for hours.

Witnesses said the incident occurred late on Saturday after wounded veteran revolutionary fighters held a demonstration outside the NTC's headquarters in Benghazi -- situated 651 kilometers (404 miles) east of the capital Tripoli -- and a group of them stormed the building.

Protesters, armed with stones and iron bars, ransacked the offices. Some people even hurled empty plastic bottles at NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil as he came out to calm down the crowd.

“Go away, go away," protesters chanted as Abdul Jalil spoke. Demonstrators also damaged a vehicle used by the NTC chairman.

A brigade of guards finally secured a passage, allowing Abdel Jalil and other NTC members to leave the building.

The incident happened two days after NTC Deputy Chairman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga was manhandled by university students in Benghazi.

Benghazi is the birthplace of the Libyan uprising, which ousted former dictator Muammar Gaddafi in August 2011.

Protesters have been holding regular demonstrations in Benghazi for several weeks, demanding the ouster of Gaddafi-era officials and more transparency about how the NTC is spending Libyan assets.

NATO rapped over 'war crimes' in Libya

A file image of a NATO airstrike on a residential area in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in June 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/221883.html

A new report by human rights groups in the Middle East has charged NATO with committing war crimes and human rights violations in Libya.

The report was published on Thursday by the Arab Organization for Human Rights, together with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium.

Following interviews with eyewitnesses and victims of the Libyan war and after examining areas bombarded by NATO fighter jets, the report states that the Western military alliance targeted a number of civilian areas instead of military sites, particularly in the city of Sirte, during its war in the North African country.

The development comes as NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen claimed in a recent statement that “NATO carried out this operation very carefully, without confirmed civilian casualties."

The independent report also implicates other warring factions and participants in the war, including forces loyal to former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi as well as the nation's revolutionary forces in its war crime charges.

Meanwhile, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo stated in November 2011 that an investigation would be carried out on the role of the NATO alliance as well as the two Libyan groups involved in the operations.

NATO launched a major air campaign against forces of the former Libyan regime on March 19, 2011 under a UN mandate to “protect the Libyan population.”

The Western military alliance, however, was heavily criticized for its failure to protect civilians and taking action beyond the terms of the UN mandate.

MESSAGE FROM MUAMMAR AL GADDAFI, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Source: Mathaba News
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=628579

Libyan Brother Leader Muammar Qaddafi Speech on September 8th, 2011

To our brave Libyan people that are resisting,

The land of Libya is your property and your right from the days of your grandfathers and great grandfathers.

Those that attempt to revoke it from you are foreign backed mercenaries, stray dogs, those foreigners that have resided in Libya for a long time, that attempt to take the land of your grandfathers away from you.

This is impossible. We will never leave the land of our grandfathers. Their families back then where spies for Italy, and now are spies for France and Britain. The same sons are following in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers, the steps of dishonor.

These rats and armed scum are examples of their grandfathers. Each one of them is a clone and a mock-up of traitor-ship. They are not Libyan.

Ask about any of those that are backed by NATO, that destroy Libyan infrastructure and kill Libyan children, and you will find that his grandfather and his dad where traitors. They carry the genes of traitors.

Do you think those who carry the genes of traitors from their grandparents and great grandparents are going to decide the fate of the Libyan people?

When they realize that the Libyan people have turned up the ratchet and have refused to accept them they revert to the dirty tricks of the villainous Arab TV channels and the gulf donkeys.

They ask them to come up with any lie to save them. They tell them we feel the earth tremble under our feet, and we feel the masses advance towards us, and that we will lose the ground that we have gained, please save us! with a lie or a rumor that will destroy the morale of the resistant Libyan people. That will destroy the morale of the sons of the Al-Fatah revolution.

They ask the villainous horns of lies to save them with a lie or two, a rumor here and there.

At the beginning they said he’s gone to Venezuela. It turned out to be a lie. Now they are fed up and they have said he has gone to Niger to destroy your morale and make you surrender.

This is an indication that they know that your morale and spirits are high.

The people in Tripoli are getting ready to destroy the rats and capture the mercenaries which are like a pack of weasels with no agreement among themselves. Their masters will abandon them soon, even their bomb supplies have been depleted nor do they have aircraft to fight with.

They think that NATO will stay forever in the skies. NATO will return defeated, whether it likes it or not, because its financial position does not allow it to continue with its air bombardments. They feel that they are on the battlefield alone.

They bring the horns of lies to rescue them by spreading rumors and lies such as Qaddafi has been injured, Qaddafi has fled, such and such has happened to Qaddafi. This means that they are facing a bottleneck and that their masters are going to desert them. That they will flip on one another.

The Libyan people in its “Million Man Marches” indicated its position to the world, these people are still alive. They have nothing to resort to now but psychological warfare to influence you. Do not be influenced by these psychological advertisements or lies. This should make you able to mock the weak enemy that is in front of you, a bunch of traitors and drunkards, a bunch of Islamists that have strayed from law and order that have no objective but to destroy the country.

They do nott even have a diplomatic or economic plan. They want to destroy the country. You saw what that the armed rebels did when they entered Tripoli. They looted it. They looted homes and stole the gold that belonged to the women.

Each individual ran back to his tribe with the stolen booty, laid down his weapons and claimed that he is victorious.

The Libyan people should not be silenced by such individuals. We should not leave our land to such menial cowards to steal the land of our grandfathers that are backed by the crusaders that are now looking back at their failed colonialist plot and are repeating their calculations. They will be left on the battlefield alone to resort to things that affect your morale the most.

The last thing from them was that we saw Qaddafi’s convey enter Niger. What nonsense. This is not the first time conveys have been seen in the area, from Mali, Chad and Algeria, entering and exiting the Sahara desert. It’s as if it is the first convey ever to enter Niger!

Be careful. Look to your homeland and stay determined against these lies and false propaganda.

Allahu Akbar to the front !

Britain wars all based on lies

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/197799.html

The British government has participated or launched three wars in the last decade, all of which have been started based on a bunch of lies.

The UK government under Tony Blair lied to its people, when it joined the so-called “coalition of willing” more than 10 years ago to launch an invasion against Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on US soil.

The Blair government unleashed a huge media campaign to persuade Britons that the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists were definitely behind the 9/11 attacks.

The then government of Britain also used, as a pretext, the ideology of the extremist Wahabis to fool the British into believing that if those radicals behind 9/11 attacks were not stopped they would definitely launch a similar attack on British soil.

Wahhabism itself is a product of a British conspiracy, perpetrated to be applied for their own sinister purposes to destroy Islam during the 18th century.

Now, more than a decade after the invasion, doubts are emerging one after another about the motives behind the campaign, and the UK politicians are leading so-called peace negotiations with the Taliban to pull themselves out of the quagmire their predecessors have created for them.

Again in March 2003, the Blair government lied about the executed dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, when he claimed that “We had to launch an attack on Iraq because its regime possesses weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that could be activated within 45 minutes,” and that wasn't true either.

In fact, the West wanted to topple a regime it had fully supported in the 1980s, when Saddam's regime imposed an eight-year war against Iran.

The then Western leaders including the British were not happy with the Iraqi dictator anymore and they used WMDs as a pretext to justify a military intervention to topple his regime.

The real motives behind the war had nothing to do with WMDs but was all about US control of Iraq's oil resources and to strengthen their presence in the Middle East.

However, US president George W. Bush and British Prime minister Tony Blair needed a more compelling reason to win public support for going to war.

Blair and his government lied to the British public in order to wage a war against Iraq. In his statement to the British parliament, Tony Blair told four lies as follow:

First, he lied when he said: “Iraq has chemical and biological weapons” and that, “Saddam has continued to produce them”.

Secondly, he lied when he asserted that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes.

“He [Saddam] has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes”, Blair said.

Thirdly, the former Prime Minister lied when he said “Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger in Africa in order to produce a nuclear warhead”.

“In addition, we know Saddam has been trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa”, Blair said.

And the forth lie was that Tony Blair did not say the intelligence assessment was that Iraq would only use chemical or biological weapons if attacked.

The current UK government and its allies unleashed a bombing campaign against crisis-hit Libya to enforce a UN Security Council resolution, which called for a no-fly zone over the North African country to protest its civilian population from being killed at the hands of its long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

But, the UN mandate turned out to be a pre-planned plot to overthrow the regime of Gaddafi on the back of a popular uprising fuelled by discontent inside the country.

Now that the Gaddafi regime has been toppled, Britain and other western powers have unveiled bids to secure a slice of the oil prize in Libya with France saying it was "fair and logical" for preference to be given to those who first helped the revolutionaries.

Actually, British Prime Minister David Cameron lied to the British people, when he told the parliament that his government was attacking Libya out of humanitarian concerns.

The Libya invasion was a pre-written scenario to enforce regime change and to control the impoverished country's vast oil resources on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to steer the domestic political agenda in order to decieve the British public into believing that their government was acting as an international player.

But, the world's public opinion in general would never ever again accept the so-called Western humanitarian concerns as a good excuse for supporting evil objectives behind military interventions elsewhere around the globe.

Libyan revolutionary leader to sue Britain

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/197521.html

A Libyan revolutionary leader has demanded an apology from the British officials as he announced plans to sue the government realizing Britain's role in his rendition.

Abdel Hakim Belhadj (also known as Abdullah al-Sadiq), the military commander who led the revolutionary forces into the Libyan capital Tripoli, was detained by the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Malaysia in 2004 over the suspicions of having links to Al-Qaeda.

The American forces transferred Belhadj to Thailand for interrogation. Nonetheless, after the interrogation, they rendered Belhadj to Libya delivering him to Gaddafi, apparently, in exchange for information which Gaddafi's agents had given to them.

Gaddafi regime sent Belhadj to its notorious Abu Salim prison where he was tortured and imprisoned for seven years.

Secret documents found by emergencies director for Human Rights Watch, Peter Bouckaert, revealed Britain's complicity in the rendition plot that delivered Belhadj to Gaddafi.

Bouckaert discovered a memo entitled “for the urgent personal attention of Musa Kusa” in an office used by Libya's former head of external security, Musa Kusa. The memo was dated March 18, 2004 with the address being “London SE1.”

Belhadj, the head of Tripoli's military council who commands about 8000 revolutionary forces in Libya, has asserted that the British government betrayed him when he sought asylum through the British High Commission in Malaysia in 2004.

“His suffering is very difficult to forget and he deserves a clear apology from the US and UK ... He may one day take legal action,” said a spokesman for Belhadj.

The revelations come as leaked documents revealed the British government's close relationship with Gaddafi's regime to the extent that Britain provided the regime with information about anti-Gaddafi activists living in the UK.

As the coalition government officials try to distance themselves from the revelations, some political analysts have broached the fact that the intelligence and Foreign Office staff are still in post, therefore the government should respond to the allegations.

NATO: Libya mission to continue

A US fighter jet takes off at the Aviano NATO airbase, in Aviano, Italy. (File photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196994.html

Western leaders have agreed to continue the military mission in Libya "as long as necessary," NATO's secretary general says.

"We have announced that operations will continue as long as necessary, as long as there is a threat to civilians," Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after talks in Paris between Libyan interim leaders and the international community.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron whose governments led the military campaign in the North African country, stressed their warplanes would continue operations in Libya.

"NATO and our allies will continue our operations to implement UN resolutions ... as long as we are needed to protect civilian life," Cameron said, at a joint press conference with Sarkozy and Libya's interim leaders.

UN Resolution 1973 authorized a no-fly zone over Libya, permitting all necessary measures to protect civilians against Gaddafi forces.

The Western military alliance has carried out 21,090 sorties, including 7,920 strike sorties on targets claimed to be of military nature.

However, hundreds of Libyan civilians have reportedly lost their lives since NATO took command of airstrikes on March 31.

NATO airstrikes have also severely damaged Libya's infrastructure.

UK to send team to secure Libya oil deals

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196891.html

After imposing the war for oil in Libya, the British government is to send a team of negotiators to Tripoli to make sure that UK firms do not lose out to Russian and Chinese companies over oil contracts with the new Libyan government.

The government department responsible for the promotion of the country's business revealed that its team of trade officials will go to the Libyan capital “very soon” in order to begin talks with the new ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) and to sign lucrative oil deals.

Senior Whitehall officials confirmed the news, insisting that British Trade and Investment is planning to renew its oil contracts in Libya quickly, amid rising fears that Russian and Chinese oil firms are seeking to secure the best of the contracts.

“British oil companies have been major players in Libya and I'm sure that they will want to get back in there,” a Whitehall source said.

UK Trade & Investment's spokesman earlier disclosed that the government is planning to win the lucrative deals in Libya's oil market. Saying: “As soon as the situation on the ground allows, UKTI has plans to provide in-country support and advice to companies wishing to be part of the reconstruction effort.”

Libya is a country possessing a tremendous amount of oil, which is sweet crude. Right before the Western powers launched their air strikes back in March, the oil-rich country produced around 1.6 million barrels per day. It was the world's seventeenth-largest oil producer and the third largest in Africa. However, after six months of war, Libya's oil production has been reduced to just 100,000 barrels per day.

While Russia and China declined to support the NATO military operation in Libya to oust Muammar Gaddafi, they are now fighting to land profitable energy and construction contracts with Libya.

The Russian Africa envoy, Mikhail Margelov, revealed that the Russian government who had signed energy and infrastructure deals worth billions with Gaddafi's regime, would not miss out. “We intend to uphold Russian economic and other interests in Libya,” he said.

'British forces in Libya to hunt Gaddafi'

British soldiers (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196818.html

Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) officers are in Libya to search for the fugitive ruler Muammar Gaddafi as his son, Seif al-Islam pledges to continue fighting, a report says.

Large numbers of SAS officers have arrived at Libyan coasts to start hunting for Gaddafi and his network of supporters, sources in Libya told Britain's ITV News on Wednesday.

A smaller group of British special forces have launched their operations from the eastern city of Benghazi, the report said.

Britain's Ministry of Defense has refused to confirm the report, saying the government is not willing to comment on operations carried out by special forces.

Since NATO launched its air campaign in Libya, Britain has conducted secret operations in the North African country to cut off the regime from its vital resources, British media said.

British government has set up "Libya Oil Cell" to cut the Gaddafi regime access to fuel and make sure revolutionary fighters in eastern Libya can get the reserves.

A British Royal Air Forces plane on Wednesday flew nearly 280 million Libyan dinars ($212 million) to Libya to be distributed to banks to enable them to pay the public sector workers who have not received their salaries during the six months of conflict in the country.

Britain's move comes a day after the UN gave permission to the European country to release some of the frozen assets of the Libyan fugitive ruler.

Gaddafi sons send mixed signals

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196807.html

Two of the sons of Libyan fugitive ruler Muammar Gaddafi have given contradictory messages, one vowing to fight defiantly while the other negotiating his surrender.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi said on Wednesday that the fight against revolutionary forces still continues and “victory is near.”

“I am talking to you from a suburb of Tripoli. We want to reassure the Libyan people that we are still here. The resistance continues and victory is near,” Seif al-Islam said.

He made the remarks in an audio tape on the Damascus-based Al-Rai television station, AFP reported.

Gaddafi's son urged the Libyan people to fight against the “enemy.”

Gaddafi's other son, Saadi, has reportedly held negotiations with officials from the Transitional National Council about his surrender after he told an Arabic television that he had no problems with revolutionary forces if they take over power.

The TNC said they would provide security for Saadi if he surrenders.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Wednesday that Gaddafi is hiding somewhere in the desert, ruling out speculations that the fugitive ruler has fled to neighboring Algeria with his family members.

Gaddafi's wife Safiya, his daughter Aisha, and his sons Hannibal and Mohammed, entered Algeria on Monday morning through the Algerian-Libyan border.

UK, France deploy ground troops to Libya

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196546.html

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has confirmed that some of its member countries such as Britain and France may have troops deployed to Libya.

An unnamed NATO official admitted that Britain and France have deployed ground troops inside the Libyan territory, but said it would be "unfair to call them NATO forces."

Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said there is "direct evidence" that British and French Special Forces were carrying out ground operations in Libya in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1973.

The resolution, passed in March, authorized a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said last week the alliance had no troops on the ground in Libya, and would not have any after the regime fell.

"The leading role in the post-Gaddafi period in supporting the Libyan people rests with the United Nations and the Contact Group. NATO will be in a supporting role… NATO will have no troops on the ground," Lungescu told reporters in Brussels.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told Sky News last week that the [revolutionary forces] were getting intelligence and reconnaissance assistance from NATO.

Last week, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper claimed that Britain's elite Special Air Service regiment (SAS) were helping the [revolutionary forces] hunt down Col Muammar Gaddafi, whose forces have lost control of most of the country including the capital Tripoli.

Gaddafi's whereabouts remain unknown, though the transitional government says he is still in hiding in Tripoli.

The [revolutionary forces], who seized Tripoli a week ago, have offered a USD1.3 million reward and amnesty from prosecution for anyone who kills or captures Gaddafi.

UK soldiers on Libyan soil

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195838.html

The British government has taken another step to violate the UN resolution, as its Special Forces are revealed to be on the ground in Libya to hunt for fugitive Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

According to the Daily Telegraph, soldiers from 22 SAS Regiment started leading Libyan opposition fighters after being ordered in by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Defense sources admitted that SAS soldiers have been in Libya for several weeks. Adding they had been sent to the country to direct air strikes on major military targets and have been ordered to aid Libyan opposition forces on the ground to find Gaddafi.

As a £1 million bounty was proposed on Gaddafi's head, the British soldiers, who dressed in Arab citizen clothes and holding revolutionary forces weapons, have been ordered to look for Libya's falling dictator.

Defense Secretary Liam Fox declined to comment on the presence of UK soldiers on the ground in Libya, claiming only British military advisers are now in Libya, aiding the fighters with "communications, logistics, the chain of command and so on.”

“NATO is providing intelligence and reconnaissance assets to help in the hunt for Gaddafi and the remnants of the regime,” he added.

The head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) Mustafa Abdel Jalil insisted they wanted Gaddafi “dead or alive,” adding the council would provide amnesty for members of Gaddafi's close circle who kill or capture the ruler.

"Businessmen in Benghazi have set-up an award of two million Libyan dinars for anyone who captures Gaddafi and from another hand, the National Transitional Council announces that anyone from his inner circle who kills Gaddafi or captures him, shall receive amnesty from the community," Jalil said.

“We know Gaddafi's regime is not over yet. The end will only come when he's captured, dead or alive. Gaddafi's forces and his accomplices will not stop resisting until Gaddafi is caught or killed,” he added.

Western governments including Britain, France, and the US began bombing "military targets" over Libya on March 19, after the UN Security Council approved a resolution on March 17, authorizing force by whatever means necessary, with the exception of a ground invasion, to "protect civilians."

Since March 31, when the US-led Western military alliance took over command of the air strikes on a UN mandate, its warplanes have carried out around 11,644 sorties over the country.