29 September 2011.
This video from the USA says about itself:
26 April 2011Sen. John McCain yesterday became the highest profile U.S. official to visit Libya since international military intervention began, and gave a hearty endorsement to the rebels fighting the Gadhafi government … “They are my heroes,” he said … he called his visit “one of the most exciting and inspiring days of my life”.
….McCain‘s last visit to Libya was very different, and it’s amazing that U.S. media outlets reporting on his remarks yesterday are pretending this other visit never occurred. It was just 18 months ago that McCain traveled to Libya and cozied up to Gadhafi, visiting with him at the dictator’s home in Tripoli, shaking his hand, and even bowing a little to Gadhafi:
The point of the meeting was for McCain to discuss delivery of American military equipment to the Libyan regime. I guess the rebels didn’t hear about this? And that American media outlets simply forgot it happened?
Politics Daily (August 2009): Sen. John McCain, visiting Libya this past week, praised Muammar Gaddafi for his peacemaking efforts in Africa. In addition, McCain called for the U.S. Congress to expand ties with Gaddafi’s government, according to Libya’s state news agency. McCain had a face-to-face meeting with Gaddafi, which he detailed on his Twitter page with the following message:
“Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his “ranch” in Libya — interesting meeting with an interesting man.”
Source: here.
By Tom Mellen:
Republican hawks touch down for Libya visitThursday 29 September 2011
Four hawkish US Republican senators travelled to Libya today to meet leaders of the new National Transitional Council regime which rules most of the oil-rich state.
The visit by Arizona’s John McCain, Illionois’s Mark Kirk, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio of Florida was shrouded in secrecy but they reportedly planned to tour Tripoli’s main square.
Militiamen aligned with the NTC and backed by Nato air strikes seized the capital and much the country late last month but supporters of former leader Muammar Gadaffi remain in control of Sirte, Bani Walid and Sabha despite fierce bombardments.
Mr McCain and Mr Graham had pressed US President Barack Obama for military intervention in Libya weeks before the UN security council’s March resolution authorising military action to protect civilians.
Mr McCain, the top Republican on the Senate armed services committee, also rushed to defend Mr Obama after he came under attack for going to war without congressional approval and in April he visited Benghazi, where he hailed the rebels as “patriots” and “heroes.”
Probably one of the reasons why McCain was and is so eager for violent war, not just against Gadaffi but also against many Libyan civilians who had and have nothing to do with Gadaffi, was to hide his own recent past as a Gadaffi crony.
From The Raw Story in the USA:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised to help former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi obtain U.S. military hardware as one of the United States’ partners in the war on terror, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released Wednesday by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
The Tom Mellen article continues:
Mr Rubio is a neoliberal hardliner who has been called the “crown prince” of the right-wing Tea Party movement.Mr Graham argues that the US should keep at least 10,000 troops in Iraq into 2012 despite Washington’s deal with Baghdad to withdraw all troops at the end of this year.
And Mr Kirk stirred controversy when he said he was “OK with discrimination against young Arab males from terrorist-producing states.”
In a recent teleconference with US businessmen, Washington’s ambassador to Libya let slip a telling phrase while referring to the North African nation’s oil reserves: here.
Libyan civilians rallied in central Tripoli today to press the Nato-backed NTC regime to rein in its heavily armed militias, which they accused of intimidating residents and raiding homes with impunity: here.
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Administrator on October 2, 2011 at 1:01 pm said:
Red Cross warns of medical emergency in Sirte
By Rory Mulholland (AFP) – 3 hours ago
MISRATA, Libya — The international Red Cross warned of a medical emergency in Moamer Kadhafi’s hometown Sirte as the battle for the fugitive Libyan strongman’s largest remaining bastion raged into Sunday.
A Red Cross team, which delivered desperately needed supplies to medics in the besieged coastal city on Saturday, said the hospital had come under rocket fire as new regime forces stepped up their assault on Kadhafi diehards.
A large force of National Transitional Council fighters pushed in from the south to lay siege to the Ouagadougou Conference Centre, a showpiece venue close to the Ibn Sima hospital where Kadhafi hosted the launch of the African Union.
Intense exchanges raged for at least two hours despite pleas from the Red Crescent for a lull while the International Committee of the Red Cross team made its delivery, NTC fighters said.
“It’s a dire situation,” ICRC team leader Hichem Khadhraoui told AFP.
Staff at the Ibn Sima hospital told the team that “because of lack of oxygen and fuel for the generator, people are dying.”
Other wounded or ill people cannot get to the hospital because of the fighting and NATO air strikes, Khadhraoui added.
“Several rockets landed within the hospital buildings while we were there. We saw a lot of indiscriminate fire. I don’t know where it was coming from,” he said.
After the ICRC team went in, NTC fighters launched a ferocious attack with rockets, anti-tank cannons and machinegun fire from a position less than a kilometre (half a mile) from the hospital.
Kadhafi loyalists responded with mortar and sniper fire.
“We were surprised” that the attack took place while the team was visiting, Khadhraoui said, adding that they had “contacted all parties to say we were going in.”
The hospital’s water tower was hit, forcing staff to bring in water from outside, he said.
A force of some 100 NTC vehicles, including anti-tank guns and multiple missile launchers, had pushed in towards the city centre around midday (1000 GMT) and laid siege to Kadhafi diehards in the conference centre, one of the largest complexes in Sirte.
“We are surrounding the Ouagadougou Centre,” fighter Osama Blao told AFP as he returned from the front line.
Several NTC fighters said the Red Crescent had asked them to stop firing because the ICRC team was in the nearby hospital.
After two hours of intense clashes, some fighters pulled back, they added.
The ICRC had been trying for weeks to enter Sirte, which has been under siege by NTC forces since the middle of last month.
It had sought to bring medical supplies in by boat but abandoned that idea because of security concerns. Sirte’s port is now in the hands of NTC forces and there has been fierce fighting around it since its capture.
Khadhraoui’s team on Saturday included a doctor, a first aid medic and a logistician, he said. It delivered about 150 body bags and 300 “war wounded kits” consisting of drips, drugs, gauze and other medical equipment.
The team did not tour the wards or carry out a full assessment of the hospital’s medical needs but hopes to return soon to bring in more supplies. “Oxygen is the main thing they asked for,” Khadhraoui said.
Some of the hundreds of residents fleeing Sirte said there had been civilian casualties there when residential buildings were hit, either by artillery fire from besieging new regime forces or by NATO air strikes.
“I left with my family as we are caught between NATO bombings and shelling by rebels. NATO, in particular, is bombing at random and is often hitting civilian buildings,” said a man who only gave his first name, Ali.
A rocket killed two children when their family joined the desperate exodus of thousands fleeing Sirte on Saturday.
The two children killed “were torn to pieces,” said Ahmed Abu Aid, a field medic on the western side of Sirte. “They collected the body parts in bags.”
Redwan Abdulrahim, whose small truck was piled high with suitcases and other possessions as he drove out on the coast road to the west, said the situation in the city was increasingly difficult.
“It was really bad. We didn’t know where the bullets and rockets were coming from.”
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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