US President Barack Obama has authorised the use of covert US support for the Libyan rebels, as forces loyal to President Muammar Gaddafi pushed the poorly-disciplined rebels out of several recently-taken towns.
His signature has been widely reported as the first stage of authorising the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to arm the rebels, however neither the CIA or the US State Department would confirm the decision.
Obama never ruled out providing direct assistance, and Saudi Arabia and Qatar have expressed support for arming the rebels.
“It’s fair to say that if we wanted to get weapons into Libya, we probably could. We’re looking at all our options at this point,” Obama told US media.
Involvement of Western powers in Libya following the UN Security Council’s resolution has escalated from initially disabling Gaddafi’s air defenses in order to provide a no-fly zone, to attacking armour columns threatening rebel-held towns, and now to providing direct assistance to opposition forces.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi’s Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, also the head of the country’s infamous intelligence service, has defected from the Libyan dictator and arrived in London via Tunisa.
Koussa reportedly told waiting UK officials that he was “no longer willing” to represent Gaddafi’s government.
The US was also this week grappling with the fallout of an article in Rolling Stone magazine and German newspaper Der Spiegel, concerning a rogue army unit in Afghanistan accused of killing three civilians for sport and cutting off their fingers as trophies.
Photos collected by the soldiers showed members of the Fifth Stryker Brigade posing with the dead bodies. The soldiers involved reportedly killed the civilians and planted ‘drop weapons’ near the bodies, claiming they were enemy combatants.
After a concerted effort to repress the photos from publication, the Pentagon has apologised and claimed the images are “in striking contrast to the standards and values of the United States Army.”
Five soldiers have been charged with murder and are being tried in a military court.
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Politicians never learn from historical mistakes. Especially if they are American, French or British politicians.
The article in Rolling stone magazine clearly shows that its not only a "single rouge unit" which carried out those massacres, but those type of behavior is very wide spread in the US army and takes place with the knowledge of higher authorities. so, the "charging" of 5 low ranking soldiers is just a farce.
and its not "only three civilians" which were killed for sport, investigators has found many fingers which did not match up with the initial victims. this shows that these western forces have taken many more innocent lives just for fun.
If you dont believe me, just read the article in http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327 and see for yourself.
will we ever get justice for this? will international war crimes charges ever be brought? The answer is no. because Americans, Israelis, Britians, etc.. can do anything they wish to muslims and they are not answerable to anyone. well, they can get away with these in this life, but eternal justice awaits them in Akhirath. we take confidence in that.
when US/westerners kills innocent civilians its not terrorism.
When they drives around town shooting people at random its not terrorism.
When they bombs civilian homes killing women and children inside, its not terrorism.
When they cut out body parts of the victims they have killed and use it as trophies, there is nothing wrong with that too.
Perhaps the most interesting and sinister field in Intelligence is Covert Action (also referred to as Clandestine Operations, Black Ops, and Black Operations). Some do not consider Covert Action as being part of the traditional Intelligence mission, and they therefore believe that it should be treated independently and even organized within a separate organization. Others feel that, because it often interrelates with Intelligence Operations and Counterintelligence Operations, it should continue to remain within the same ruling organization or apparatus.
There are many types of Covert Action operations, not all of them violent. For example, if a government wishes to influence the politics of another country’s government, the government may secretly fund an opposition party in that country in order to influence that country’s elections. Another method is to employ foreign newspaper reporters to write articles that give the version of events, the propaganda, that you want people to believe, even if it is the furthest thing from the truth. Or perhaps the owners or editors of a newspaper or media service can be bought or won over to allow articles or news stories created by the Intelligence organization for propaganda purposes to be planted in the newspaper or media service. A slant can then be given to influence public perceptions. For example, mercenaries can be referred to as “contractors”, thus making people believe that casualties among the mercenaries are innocent civilian construction workers who were unjustly victimized.
The main thing about Covert Action is that it must be deniable. There is a term called “plausible deniability”. When a government authorizes a covert action operation, the operation must be done in such a way that the government can claim that it knows nothing about it; in other words, the operation must not be attributable to the government that authorized it.
Covert Action operations are often Disinformation Operations, which are conducted in such a way as to discredit the opposition or the enemy. This is done, for example, by doing a violent action, such as a bombing, but making it look like the forces of another country or group did it. Such operations are sometimes called False-Flag Operations, meaning that the operation is conducted to make it look like it was done by people serving under another flag, preferably the enemy’s flag. If the operation succeeds as designed, people will blame the action on the wrong party (the enemy). Thus, public opinion will be won over to the side that actually did the killing. Such false-flag, covert action operations are often referred to as Dirty Tricks.
where is the "great" writer yaamyn who is so interested about writing articles related to world affairs and muslims? I guess he should write an article about the http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327 too. Because
1. It is a world affairs story
2. It is related to muslims
ricky's comments are informative...wonder if the Maldives has ever been manipulated subtly or otherwise...maybe I should ask Dr. Shaheed, Ibrahim Hussein Zaki, Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed, the writers of Minivan, the Climate Change Mafia....but how would they know????
Americans funding rebels? thats great. Its the same thing they did with Thaliban, created them funded them and now destroying them.
My assumption is after couple of years when an american place is blown up (maybe americans doing it on their own just to frame these people) they can put the blame on the american funded rebel group, label them as terrorists and go and occupy Libya(same like Afghanistan), make military bases in libya and, off course, get control of the vast oil fields of Libya.
why are Americans so concerned about the killing of civilians by dictator Gadhaffe?
Were they concerned when Israelis killed civilians by bombing Gaza city by air? did they enforce a no-fly zone?
If Americans are so concerned about the death of innocent civilians why are they killing civilians themselves? For fun, why did they threw a grenade and started shooting at an innocent 16 year old Afghan boy working in his farm? Why did the top general told his soldiers to make sure the boy is dead and why did they again shoot him on the brain? After his death why did they strip him naked and posed pictures with his dead body? and why did they cut off his pinky finger for a "memory of the kill"?
To Mr.jj Robinson,
I have commented on the story you did yesterday about syria, requesting you to write about the rollingstone story about Americans committing horrendous war crimes in Afghanistan. It seems that you have written about it. Thanks for that.
I guess that story is not that important to give its own heading and to be covered in a little more detail and i guess its okey to conceal it in an article about Libyan foreign minister. After all its the Americans who are killing the innocent muslims and not vice verse. Plus this story doesnt fit to the general theme of minivan news, which is to cover any news portraying muslims in a negative light.
suppose an Afghan killed an American and took trophy photos, it will be immediately reflected on his religion!!!
now, no one mentions that these Americans who committed these horrendous crimes are Christians/Jews/atheists.
Did anyone notice how the words are arranged to cover the devilish acts of US troops> "a rogue army unit" in Afghanistan "accused of" killing "three" civilians for sport and cutting off their fingers as trophies.
now why is this article hidden? its nowhere in the front page where things older than this are also visible.