An eye opener on Libya

Ameer Hamza The original Lockerbie culprits were CIA operatives in Syria and Lebanon, says Susan Lindauer, a former US Asset who covered Libya at the UN from 1995 to 2003. German listening networks caught the plotting in the 1980s! Lindauer goes public with her insider's story in an article titled 'Whistleblower: Libya "Vampire War" is about Oil, Lockerbie and CIA Heroin Op' (www.opednews.com) written soon after the West's offensive against Gaddafi began. This scribe thinks what Lindauer has to say ought to be disseminated for a wider public in this part of the world where most of the mainstream media keep on parroting what the US-UK propagate. Even so-called 'Buddhijibis' here are not beyond demonising Gaddafi, the unconventional nationalist. For interested readers, here is the gist of the above insider's article: Last October, US oil giants -- Chevron and Occidental Petroleum -- pulled out of Libya, while China, Germany and Italy stayed on, signing major contracts. About July, I started hearing that Gaddafi was exerting heavy pressure on US and British oil companies to cough up special fees and kickbacks to cover the costs of Libya's reimbursement to the families of Pan Am 103. Payment of damages for the Lockerbie bombing had been one of the chief conditions for ending UN sanctions on Libya that ran from 1992 until 2003. The United Nations forced Gaddafi to hand over two Libyan men for a special trial at The Hague. I was convinced that Gaddafi bided his time until he could make US oil companies pay up. That's exactly how he operates. The US was hopping mad about it. The Vampire of our age -- the Oil Industry -- roams the earth, sucking the life out of every nation to feed its thirst for profits. Only when they got to Libya, Gaddafi took on the role of a modern-day Robin Hood, who insisted on replenishing his people for the costs they'd suffered under UN sanctions. In August 2009 the lone Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, Abdelbasset Megrahi, was granted his request to die at home with dignity from advance cancer --- in exchange for dropping a legal appeal packed with shocking revelations of corruption at the special Court of The Hague that handled the Lockerbie Trial. Prosecution witnesses confessed to receiving payments of $4.0 million each from the United States, in exchange for testimony against Megrahi! In the 1980s the CIA got mixed up in heroin trafficking out of the Bekaa Valley during the hostage crisis in Lebanon. The Lockerbie conspiracy had been a false flag operation to kill off a joint CIA and Defense Intelligence investigation into kickbacks from Islamic Jihad, in exchange for protecting the heroin transit network. The CIA had established a protected drug route from Lebanon to Europe and on to the United States on Pan Am flights. The Defense Intelligence team in Beirut suspected that CIA infiltration of the heroin network might be prolonging the hostage crisis. The team raised the alarms in Washington that a CIA double agent profiting from the narco-dollars might be warning the hostage takers. Washington sent a fact-finding team to Lebanon to gather evidence. On the day it was blown out of the sky, Pan Am 103 was carrying that team of CIA and FBI investigators, the CIA's Deputy Chief assigned to Beirut, and three Defense Intelligence officers on their way to Washington to deliver a report on the CIA's role in heroin trafficking, and the impact on terrorist financing and the hostage crisis --- everyone with direct knowledge of CIA kickbacks from heroin trafficking. All died on Pan Am 103. A suitcase packed with $500,000 worth of heroin was found in the wreckage --- as proof of the corruption. The US State Department issued an internal travel advisory, warning that government officials should get off that specific flight on that specific day, because Pan Am 103 was expected to get bombed. Unforgivably, nobody told the intelligence team flying in it. But other military officials and diplomats got pulled off the flight. Megrahi was condemned to cover up the CIA's role in heroin trafficking and false testimony purchased to shut him up for life. The United Nations then had forced Libya to fork over $2.7 billion in damages to the Lockerbie families, a rate of $10 million for every death. Once it became clear the US paid two key witnesses $4.0 million each to commit perjury, Gaddafi decided to act, demanding compensation from US (and probably British) oil corporations operating in Libya. More than likely, Libya's demands extended to other European oil conglomerates as well -- particularly France and Italy -- all spearheading attacks on Libya. Gaddafi's attempt to balance the scales of justice demonstrated a flair of righteous nationalism. Alas, Gaddafi was playing with fire, no matter how justified his complaint. You don't strike a tyrant without expecting a tyrant to strike back. And that's exactly what's happening today. This is an oil war, and it smacks of imperialist double standards. There is simply no justification for US or NATO action against Libya. The UN charter acknowledges the rights of sovereign nations to put down rebellions against their own governments. War planning started months before the democratisation movement kicked off throughout the Arab world --- a cover for US and European oil policy. Gaddafi's fate was decided months ago, when Chevron and Occidental Petroleum complained to Capitol Hill, that Gaddafi's nationalism interfered with their oil profiteering. From that moment, military intervention was on the drawing board as surely as the Patriot Act got stuck in a drawer waiting for 911. The message is simple: Challenge the oil corporations and your government and your people will pay the ultimate price: Give us your oil as cheaply as possible. Or die.