Ten days into the uprising in Benghazi, Libya, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council established the [b]International Commission of Inquiry on Libya[/b]. The purpose of the Commission was to “investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law in Libya.” ...
On March 2, 2012, the Commission finally produced a [url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session... hundred-page document[/url] that was presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Little fanfare greeted this report’s publication...
However, there were some factual problems. The Commission claimed that NATO flew 17,939 armed sorties in Libya. NATO says that it flew “24,200 sorties, including over 9,000 strike sorties.” What the gap between the two numbers might tell us is not explored in the report or in the press discussion subsequently. The Commission points out that NATO did strike several civilian areas (such as Majer, Bani Walid, Sirte, Surman, Souq al-Juma) as well as areas that NATO claims were “command and control nodes.” The Commission found no “evidence of such activity” in these “nodes.” NATO contested both the civilian deaths and the Commission’s doubts about these “nodes.” [b]Because NATO would not fully cooperate with the Commission, the investigation was “unable to determine, for lack of sufficient information, whether these strikes were based on incorrect or outdated intelligence and, therefore, whether they were consistent with NATO’s objective to take all necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties entirely.”[/b]
Three days after the report was released in the Human Rights Council, NATO’s chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen denied its anodyne conclusions regarding NATO. And then, for added effect, Rasmussen said that he was pleased with the report’s finding that NATO “had conducted a highly precise campaign with a demonstrable determination to avoid civilian casualties.” [b]There is no such clear finding. The report is far more circumspect, worrying about the lack of information to make any clear statement about NATO’s bombing runs.[/b] NATO had conducted its own inquiry, but did not turn over its report or raw data to the UN Commission.
NATO's Canadian Commander in Libya, Charles Bouchard, Must Stand Trial for Warcrimes 3
NATO 'Covers Up' Libyan Death Shame
http://rt.com/news/amnesty-strikes-civilians-deaths-887/
"NATO has failed to investigate scores of civilian deaths incurred during its seven-month military campaign in Libya, Amnesty International says. 'It is deeply disappointing that more than four months since the end of the military campaign, victims and relatives of those killed by NATO airstrikes remain in the dark about what happened and who was responsible,' said Donatella Rovera, the Senior Crisis Response Advisor at Amnesty International on Monday.
The Libyan Health Minister of the National Transitional Council estimated that 30,000 were killed during the conflict."
War Crimes in Libya and the March Shift - by Michael Collins
http://warisacrime.org/content/war-crimes-libya-and-march-shift
"...The full UN report is worthy of detailed review. It documents the assault on Libya from the organization that authorized that attack. 'Heads of States' can be held to account for these violations. Send the NATO leaders involved to the Hague and let them sort it out. If you do the crime, you do the time..."
Canada Spent $25 M Bombing Gadhafi Forces
http://www.canada.com/news/Canada+spent+bombing+Gadhafi+forces/6480439/s...
"Canada spent $25 million on the roughly 700 bombs the Royal Canadian Air Force dropped on Libya during last year's rebel uprising that deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Each bomb, the Department of National Defence told Post Media News, cost between $34,000 and $43,000.."
http://rt.com/news/nato-admits-civilian-deaths/
and the winners we helped bomb into power:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC778Fg1ZSE&feature=player=embedded
NATO Must Investigate the Civilian Casualties of its Libyan Campaign - by David Mepham
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/14/nato-civilian-casual...
"At least 72 civilians, including 24 children, were killed by NATO airstrikes during the alliacen's military campaign in Libya last year. Human Rights Watch has issued a report based on extensive on-the-ground research and multiple visits to bombing sites where civilians died, in which no clear evidence of a legitimate military target was found.
NATO and the nations that participated in the air campaign - including [Canada and] the UK government have refused even to acknowledge these fatalities, to provide specific information on the military target or to conduct a field investigation into the incident. No compensation has been provided to any of the families of the dead and wounded.
The response would be disappointing in any circumstances, it is particularly indefensible when the stated purpose of the NATO campaign and the legal authority for the action under UN Security Council Resolution 1973, was to protect civilians. NATO's claim that it cannot investigate civilians casualties because it has no mandate to be in Libya is feeble and disingenuous."
NATO Must Investigate the Civilian Casualties of its Libyan Campaign - by David Mepham
Canada's L'oil Opizishin isn't interested in investigating the killing of civilians in Libya by Bouchard's luftwaffe.
They're much more interested in [url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/05/11/pol-libya-mission-costs-de... much all that killing cost[/url] the poor overburdened taxpayers of Canada.
When Protector Turned Killer - by Vijay Prashad
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31550.htm
"NATO has consistently blocked any attempt to scrutinise the warcrimes it commited during the 'humanitarian intevention' in Libya. Back in January Faiz Fathi Jfara of Bani Walid asked a simple question, 'I just need an answer from NATO: why did you destroy my home and kill my family?' NATO refuses to answer..."
@ M. Spector
'L'oil Opizishin' is fab! The no difference party is not only immoral and depraved, for their total disregard for the aftermath of their unanimous vote for imperial war and plunder in Libya - but stupid politicians as well. Here is a perfect opportunity to pretend concern for the NATO casualties they helped cause, salvage their bs 'good-guys' cred with gullible Canucklheads, and lambaste the Cons for the bloodthirsty warmongers they are. And reinforce the bogus set-up by Human Rights Watch of these ridiculously under-estimated bombing deaths.
Remember Sirte! Heroism and Apocalypse in the Libyan Desert - by Thomas Mountain
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/02/heroism-and-apocalypse-in-the-lib...
"The month of October 2011 stands as an historical monument to heroism and apocalypse in the Libyan desert as the people of Sirte, hometown to Col Gaddafi, staged a desperate, doomed fight to protect their families and homes from the might of NATO and its allied bands of Libyan rebels..."
do our mps have no curiosity let alone regrets as to what they helped do to Libya? And are they really ready to do the same again in Syria or Iran?
'War Crimes': Gaddafi, HIs Son and Over 60 Loyalists Executed by Rebel Fighters - HRW
http://rt.com/news/libya-gaddafi-execution-hrw-608/
"LIbyan rebels abused and mass murdered Col Gaddafi, his son Mutassim, and 60 loyalists, after their capture a year ago, Human Rights Watch says. It calls for an investigation and prosecution of those responsible for what they slam as a 'war crime'..."
When Libyans Die From NATO Airstrikes, It's Not Benghazi
http://fair.org/blog/2013/05/10/when-libyans-die-from-nato-airstrikes-it...
"...then there's another Libya story that should be getting attention. It's not, and never really has, because the dead are Libyan civilians, killed by US/NATO airstrikes..."
and your General in charge, 'Butcher' Bouchard did it Canada and all of your 'representatives' approved it and now it's all past and forgotten right?
Wrong.
When Libyans Die From NATO Airstrikes, It's Not Benghazi
http://fair.org/blog/2013/05/10/when-libyans-die-from-nato-airstrikes-it...
"...then there's another Libya story that should be getting attention. It's not, and never really has, because the dead are Libyan civilians, killed by US/NATO airstrikes..."
and your General in charge, 'Butcher' Bouchard did it Canada and all of your 'representatives' approved it and now it's all past and forgotten right?
Wrong.
And no comments from the pro NATO bunch as this can all be wrote off as "conspiracy theory." NATO nations gladly conspiring to murder innoncent civilians? No, it's merely "collateral damage" as far they are concerned. Murdering scores of civilians in order to get to one guy? We've seen it before. They can justify anything in their loyalist minds. And may God save Liz and Phil Windsor.
The glasnost if half full.
Safia Qaddafi Calls For Justice and the Intervention of the International Community
http://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/safia-qaddafi-calls-for-justice...
"In the memory of NATO's aggression against my country, which turned Libya into chaos..."
And to Canada for the 'heavy lifting' - and the unanimous 'R2P' parliamentary approval to make it all happen. Please forward this to your culpable and complicit MP.
This thresd suggests that legal solutions to world problems (imperialism, inequality, war, the enviroment) are possible. Who would put the Bushes, Blairs and Bouchards on trial ? The ICC, largely a creation of the NATO countriers ?
You're absolutely right. The criminals themselves are in control of these 'just-us' processes. It's a fixed game. And the ICC is a disgusting imperial kangaroo court of the first order. There is no justice here.
Remember Libya Canada? Remember your MPs voted UNANIMOUSLY for this...?
"There is no doubt in my mind that the work we did in Libya was right. Our view was to create an environment where diplomacy and dialogue would take place,..where people would start talking." RCAF Lt Gen Charles Bouchard (ret), now head of Lockheed Martin Can.
And. It's. Working!!
Saadi Gaddafi Torture Video
Remember Libya Canada? Remember your MPs voted UNANIMOUSLY for this...?
Remember also that Elizabeth May wasn't in the House of Commons at that time. She was the only one who voted against the extension.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-s-mission-in-libya-extended-1.988569
Islamic State Seizes UNESCO Heritage Site in Libya
"Islamic State fighters have seized control of the Libyan town of Sabra, the site of one of the world's best preserved ancient Roman theatres. Destruction of the ruins, which rival or even surpass those of Palmrya in Syria, would be regarded as one of the great cultural disasters of modern times."
Because there are also very rich oilfields in this vicinity, don't be surprised to see the new War of Terror return to a Libya completely destroyed. Canada, good job, your NATO mission accomplished!
The Dreadful Chronology of Gaddafi's Murder
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/05/the-dreadful-chronology-of-gaddaf...
"NATO went there like modern Barbary Coast Pirates to loot Libyan gold..."
Kind of a weird and backwards political analogy. Libya WAS one of the barbary states.
The Barbary Wars (the first U.S. overseas war, and the source of that "shores of Tripoli" line in the U.S. Marines hymn) was AGAINST those privateers, and bent on establishing European and American dominance in the mediterranean.
If the political line is that they are all freedom fighters against western imperialism then why would counterpunch (and yes, I know it is a quote from someone else) use them as an example of invaders in their own countries and call them pirates? Shouldn't it have been evil Marines?
(though their main business wasn't gold, it was capturing people - the valuable ones for ransom, and the rest for the slave trade)
Since the irony of the analogy troubles you, why not email the author and ask?
No need to ask, because it is just as clear as if he had called people "savages". And it doesn't trouble me.
But it does show quite a bit of ignorance of history, in perpetuating western imperialist stereotypes about people in that part of the world. They weren't the invading pirates. They were the people who lived in the barbary states.
The Dreadful Chronology of Gaddafi's Murder...
...Thanks for this.......it is an essential task to put Canada, its political leadership and the General Bouchard into Federal Court charged with crimes against humanity, complicity and violations of Canada's own Antiterrorism Act......
I would do so in a flash, if there was support.
Nothing will ever change in this country as long as our leaders complicit in terrorist activities and crimes against humanity remain free of life prison sentences...and as long as the august institutions they represent, retain allegiance and confidence of the Canadian public!
Nothing will ever change in this country as long as our leaders complicit in terrorist activities and crimes against humanity remain free of life prison sentences
I'm pretty sure I've read here, about a thousand times, that longer sentences aren't actually a deterrent to crime.
Did you mean to demand that they be rehabilitated?
How NATO Set The Stage For Open Air Slave Markets In Libya
https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/nato-backed-anti-black-rebels-...
"...The Canadian Air Force flew a full 10 percent of NATO's missions against Libya. The Citizen noted that later, members of the Canadian military would privately joke about Canada's CF-18s, being part of 'al Qaeda's air force', since their bombing runs helped to pave the way for rebel groups aligned with the group..."
When will Canada take responsibility for its criminal complicity in this war and its inevitable, continuing consequences...?
'NATO Intentionally Hit Civilian Targets': Libyan Sues Alliance For 2011 Bombing
Lt Gen Charles Bouchard RCAF, was the NATO official in charge of all targeting decisions in Libya. The same was pronounced a 'hero' by Canadian politicians, who unanimously supported the war, and have never accepted responsibility for the horrific still continuing consequences.
7 Years After - We will Never Forget Canada's Shameful Participation in this War!
Hillary Clinton's Libya 'Tick Tock' Details
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/711976341692747776
"How she led the destruction..."
Gadaffi, May 2011, - As Lt Gen Charles 'The Butcher' Bouchard, RCAF, Bombed Libya Into the Stone Age For NATO, Supported Unanimously by all MPs in Canada's Parliament.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/667449198783111168
"Now listen you people of NATO. You're bombing a wall which stood in the way of African migration to Europe, and in the way of Al Qaeda terrorists. This wall was Libya. You're breaking it. You're idiots, and you will burn in Hell for thousands of migrants from Africa and for supplying Al Qaeda. It will be so. - M.G.-
And it was so.
But nobody spoke of it.
"Expected bloodbath in Tripoli an outcome of ill-advised NATO toppling of Gaddafi' (and vid)
"Historian tells RT..."
"Our soldiers are heroes." - NDP