Qadaffi and Mariah Carey, Blair, Perle …

This music video is called Mariah Carey – Medley Glitter.

This blog post was written in February 2011.

From the New York Times in the USA:

WikiLeaks Cables Detail Qaddafi Family’s Exploits

By SCOTT SHANE

Published: February 22, 2011

WASHINGTON — After New Year’s Day 2009, Western media reported that Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, had paid Mariah Carey $1 million to sing just four songs at a bash on the Caribbean island of St. Barts.

That certainly is a blot on Ms Carey’s record. However, $1 million is a lot less than what Tony Blair probably got out of his cozy relationship with the Libyan dictatorship (not mentioning Blair‘s cozy relationships with other dictators). Blair also did a lot more for the Tripoli, Libya dictatorship than just singing four songs. And at least Mariah Carey can sing, which is more than what Blair with his history of a failed band can say.

Some others who did a lot more for the bloody Libyan dictatorship than singing four songs: Richard Perle, one of George W Bush’s Iraq warmongers. George Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, praised by the world’s capitalists for obediently shifting the burden of the economic crisis caused by the capitalists to the backs of the Greek people. Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy (accused by the Libyan opposition of having sent two days ago Italian warplanes to Libya to bomb Libyan civilians to keep the regime in power). And the Rightist Czech government, which a few days ago agreed with Berlusconi to support the Libyan dictatorship.

As for Western Big Business and armed forces:

Two years ago, the U.S. firm General Dynamics signed a $165 million contract to arm the Libyan Armed Forces’ elite second brigade. Halliburton, Shell, Raytheon, Dow Chemical and Chevron are all members of the U.S.-Libya Business Association. And in 2009, it was revealed that British forces were training Libyan special forces in counterterrorism techniques.

The New York Times article continues:

In the newspaper he controlled, Seif indignantly denied the report — the big spender [on Mariah Carey], he said, was his brother, Muatassim, Libya’s national security adviser, according to an American diplomatic cable from the capital, Tripoli. …

Visiting with a congressional delegation in 2009, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut told the leader and his party-loving national security adviser, Muatassim, that Libya was “an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting that common enemies sometimes make better friends.”

Before Condoleezza Rice visited Libya in 2008 — the first secretary of state to do so since 1953 — the embassy in Tripoli sought to accentuate the positive.

From Beyonce to Black Sabbath: numerous singers have performed for autocratic regimes – and often, it would seem, for considerable amounts of money: here.