[The following is from an article with the above title by Col Oliver North published on 30 January 2009 on the Fox News website. The full text can be read here. Comment seems superfluous.]
During the interview [with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite network] Obama also spoke wistfully of the "respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago," and added, "there's no reason why we can't restore that."
Some will say it isn't fair to make our new commander in chief stick to the facts. That's the trouble with television interviews. They are on tape and stay around for years. If you are going to do them, it helps to know the facts.
Let's see, 30 years ago — 1979 — the year that Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran, the "Islamic Revolution" was proclaimed, the U.S. was first described as "the Great Satan," our embassy in Tehran was sacked and 53 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. That's probably not the kind of "respect" Mr. Obama had in mind.
How about 20 years ago — 1989: While investigators were still combing the wreckage of PanAm flight 103, in Lockerbie, Scotland, Libyan dictator Muammar Ghadafi sent MiG-23s to attack a U.S. Navy Carrier Battle Group in the Mediterranean.
EXTRACT FROM "MOVING THE WORLD: THE INSIDE STORY OF LOCKERBIE" by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph
ReplyDeleteBEGINS
Oliver North still has the blood of tens of thousands of innocent Nicaraguan farmers and civilians on his hands. In the words of the American media in 1987 he was a "patriot who went too far in his zealousness".
His task force officer for the covert Nicaraguan insurgency, Vincent Cannistraro would, in 1993, boast into the camera: "I developed the [1986] policy towards Libya. In fact I wrote the draft paper that was later adopted by the President... I worked next to Ollie [North] for about two years, and he was a man - err… that err... would err… do un... anything to achieve the objective he was working on. First he considered it the most important thing in the world, and secondly he would use any means, whether that meant lying, even to his friends, manipulating people, he would do anything to achieve the goal." [Hesitations exactly as per the film].
In a separate on camera interview Cannistraro added: "Oliver North was one of the principle proponents of the bombing of Tripoli in 1986, and as we understand now, did manipulate the press, talked quite freely with a lot of media people, and had no compunction about providing false information." In a world of smoke and mirrors we might wonder who was lying. Most probably they were both lying.
As regards North's claim about Gaddafi sending out ageing MIG fighters to attack the mightiest navy in the world - at that time constantly sailing into and out of Libyan territorial waters in order to provoke an attack - a series of emails exposed in 1995 by the National Security Archive of America revealed the truth.
The US technique in 1986 was not just a matter of Libyan boats emerging from territorial waters, or planes emerging from Libyan airfields, to be repulsed by justified American "self defence". A full range of targets was envisaged, several of which would be openly attacked. Admiral John Poindexter - effectively Oliver North's commanding officer - hoped to assassinate Gaddafi himself and destroy military equipment and facilities. He suspected, from intelligence received, that some in the Libyan military might have pro-U.S. feelings and therefore might turn against Gaddafi. Even if Gaddafi survived the American attack, a military coup might bring an end to his regime.
In time honoured imperial tradition, the dictionary is once again re-written. Dismembered civilians are collateral. There can be but one interpretation of Poindexter's concern: U.S. planes would be instructed to directly target the Leader, Gaddafi, and military facilities close to civilian areas. They would not target the Libyan forces directly. We should also recall that this was a dispute regarding territorial waters, and America believed it had a right, God-given of course, to be the World's policeman and a brutal one at that. The year, day and time when God handed the keys of the world and the Gulf of Sidra to the American Presidency remain unknown; but that remains an irrelevance to men determined to further their military and political careers.
"[28th March 1986] 10:17:59. NOTE FROM: JOHN POINDEXTER.
Subject: LIBYA NEXT STEPS.
Jim, why won't the JCS [JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF] consider the large military equipment depots in the desert? I also am concerned about collateral [CIVILIAN] damage. The intelligence report about the pro-us feelings of the military rings true to me. I think we have to be careful to go after Quadafi and military equipment and facilities."
Eight days later, on 5th April 1986, came the bombing of the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin. One American soldier and one Turk were killed, and many injured. America immediately blamed this on Libya. White House spokesman Larry Speakes called a press conference, and claimed that on April 4th the White House was aware - through monitored electronic communications - that the East Berlin Libyan People's Bureau had informed Tripoli that an attack would take place the following day, 5th April. The People's Bureau had then, following the bombing, informed Tripoli that the attack had been a success.
Yet some ten days later it was reported in Germany that the supposed telephone intercepts quoted by Speakes did not exist, and that West Berlin intelligence had only "suspicions" of Libyan involvement. Furthermore, in an interview on April 28th 1986, Manfred Ganschow, chief of the Berlin Staatschutz (domestic intelligence) and head of the one-hundred man team investigating the discotheque bombing stated, "I have no more evidence that Libya was connected to the bombing than I had when you first called me two days after the act. Which is none."
Ganschow's doubts were never reported at all in the USA, either by the media or the US investigation team. But the initial reports of "certainty" slowly mutated - through highly-placed leaks to the media - to "reportedly" and "alleged", with no comment by newspapers or television news channels. We should now view the doubts about this whole La Belle affair against the savagery that would ensue, all carefully timed to hit the Eastern standard time seven p.m. news deadline, and coincide with an up-coming vote in Congress on the matter of funds to aid the Nicaraguan "Christian Soldiers of Democracy". Over two nights, US fighter-bombers, flying from Lakenheath in the UK, carried out missile attacks on Gaddafi's residence and a number of civilian areas. Between forty and a hundred civilians were killed, and many more injured and maimed for life. Mrs Thatcher gloried in the result, but complained that the press had focussed on "weeping mothers and children." Some of us would love to stand beside her as she faces her creator and attempts to justify such words and actions.
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