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 Libya: Flashpoint for Global Conflict - by Stephen Lendman

 

On July 3, Peter Dale Scott told Progressive Radio News Hour listeners what he fears most. He repeated it in a July 4 email, citing a Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com article, accessed through the following link:

 

http://www.infowars.com/report-ground-invasion-of-libya-within-two-weeks

 

Using information from DEBKAfile, a Jerusalem-based intelligence site with close Mossad ties (providing commentary and analysis on regional terrorism, intelligence, security, military and political affairs), he discussed a frightening prospect. More on it below.

 

Founded in June 2000, DEBKA calls itself independent, "pioneer(ing) intensive news coverage and analysis of global (Islamic, not Israeli, US, or other Western) terror before it hits" front pages.

 

Calling its reports "not infallible," Scott said its information deserves attention because some past predictions proved true. Specifically, he cited their June 25, 2003 story that "The Americans are secretly building two giant intelligence facilities in Iraq at a cost of some half a billion dollars."

 

Doing so and more makes it "seem that America is now indeed acting as recklessly and idiotically as Britain and France did in the (1956) Suez crisis...." 

 

On air and in his email, Scott wondered whether "Washington failed to take into account the reaction of Russia and China (the way Britain in 1956 insanely" didn't bank on America's response at the time). "Or is (America) counting on its (nuclear superiority) to deal with any problems in that area." 

 

Disturbingly, top US officials include extremists who think brute force solutions work best, even high risk ones like nuclear war or simultaneously waging too many conventional ones.

 

Scott told Progressive Radio News Hour listeners that he's warned for months about Libya being a flashpoint for escalated general war, similar to how WW I began.

 

Global Research founder/editor Michel Chossudovsky has similar concerns, including in his new E-book titled, "Towards a World War III Scenario," calling today's world "at a critical crossroads."

 

Citing two major incidents, Japan's Fukushima disaster and imperial war on Libya, he called "(t)hese two seemingly unrelated events....of crucial importance in understanding both the nuclear issue as well as the ongoing US-NATO sponsored war."

 

Fukushima's implications and fallout go largely unexplained. In fact, except for occasional misreporting, America's media now entirely ignore them, including warnings from Helen Caldicott and others that every commercial reactor is a ticking time bomb "atomic bomb factory." 

 

Moreover, Chossudovsky said "(n)uclear energy is not a civilian economic activity. It is an appendage of the nuclear weapons industry which is controlled by the so-called defense contractors."

 

In fact, secret "atomic-bomb research facilities (are) hidden inside Japan's civilian nuclear power plants," and perhaps also in America's.

 

It may not have been coincidence that Libya's war was launched within days of Fukushima's disaster. It's now dramatically escalated as part of America's broader Middle East/North Africa/Central Asia conflict, encroaching recklessly close to China and Russia's borders. Their concerns, in fact, may trigger counter-responses that could dangerously spin things out of control.

 

In fact, the war Obama won't call war potentially could trigger a "World War III scenario." It worries Chossudovsky, Scott and others enough to highlight it on air and in print. It's repeated in this article, citing another recent one discussing Barbara Tuchman's 1962 book, "The Guns of August," on how WW I began and its early weeks. 

 

Once started, it escalated out of control disastrously, involving dozens of countries directly and indirectly. Moreover, before it ended, over 20 million died, at least that many more were wounded, and a generation of young men were erased before nuclear and today's other mass destruction weapons and technologies existed.

 

Over a half century ago, it worried Einstein enough to say:

 

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones" if civilizations survive to do it.

 

Given the possibility of Libya triggering escalated general or global war, that scenario today is real, especially in light of a "1996 plan to bomb Libya using tactical nuclear weapons." It was shelved at that time, but never eliminated as a possibility against any nation. 

 

In fact, the Bush administration claimed the preemptive right to use nuclear weapons, including against non-nuclear states, based on alleged national security concerns. Obama recklessly maintains the same policy even though America hasn't had an enemy since Japan surrendered in August 1945.

 

Nonetheless, the prospect of escalating war with nuclear or other mass destruction weapons suggests frightening possibilities, including a potential WW III scenario. It's no less implausible now than WW I seemed in early 1914.

 

Worry most perhaps about what's least expected, especially to refocus angry millions (suffering from  global economic crisis misery) on something greater. It's worked many times before, notably post-9/11, escalating one war into multiple ones and counting.

 

Given America's out-of-control belligerence, perhaps ad infinitum wars will proliferate until America destroys planet earth to liberate it in a mushroom-shaped cloud. It's possible given alarming reports like Watson's July 4 Infowars one linked above.

 

On June 15, Infowars contributor Aaron Dykes named sources he called reliable, saying 30,000 US troops will invade Libya by October. Moreover, additional Special Forces are coming this month (besides those covertly there for months) in preparation for a ground war Obama "absolutely" promised was ruled out.

 

Read more through the following link:

 

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/colonizing-libya-by-military-financial.html

 

On July 2, DEBKA headlined, "US and NATO prepare final assault on Qaddafi. He threatens terror," saying:

 

Military sources report "last stage" NATO planning nears completion for an imminent Libya ground offensive. "It is expected to start in a couple of weeks with French and British troop landings....to be followed in its last stages by American forces."

 

Despite Obama claiming "American forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATO operation," it's well known that "US Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strike missions over Libya." America's media won't report it or anything truthful about Gaddafi and Washington's imperial intentions.

 

Gaddafi himself called France admitting it's supplying weapons to mercenaries "the final act in the scenario" against him ahead of NATO invaders to finish the job. 

 

Moreover, multiple sources (including Press TV, London-based Palestine Telegraph, and McClatchy News) report Libya's government saying two Qatari vessels were seized, carrying weapons for insurgents in violation of Security Council Resolution 1970, prohibiting supplying them to either side. 

 

Included were Belgian-made FN assault rifles and UK-produced ammunitions. One of many dirty secrets is that Qatar, other regional states, and Western ones began supplying rebels before fighting began last winter for a campaign to oust Gaddafi that was planned months or perhaps years earlier.

 

If DEBKA is right, invading Libya may be the coup de grace to do it. At the same time, its report contains considerable anti-Gaddafi disinformation, including misquoting him saying he'll attack Europe as well as falsely blaming him for downing Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

 

Clear evidence showed he and convicted victim Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi had nothing to do with it. In fact, Scottish judges knew Megrahi was innocent, saying so in their final opinion. In addition, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's investigation uncovered multiple reasons to believe his conviction was a gross miscarriage of justice, including no credible evidence of his involvement.

 

No witnesses, video, documentation, fingerprints or other corroboration linked him to the bomb inside a suitcase downing the plane. Even the court admitted:

 

"The absence of any explanation of the method by which the primary suitcase might have been placed on board KM180 (Air Malta to Frankfort) is a major difficulty'" in the case. 

 

Moreover, Gaddafi never admitted fault, saying only that Libya would take responsibility for the crime, solely to have international sanctions against him lifted. Nonetheless, he stands accused to this day, besides numerous other unfounded charges, including genocide as justification for removing him.

 

When Washington wages war, only conquest, colonization, pillaging, and domination matter - never truth, rule of law standards or democratic values. Iraqis understand. So do Afghans, Pakistanis, Somalis, Yemenis, Palestinians, and now Libyans. 

 

Americans are the last to catch on. Too often, in fact, they never do or realize one sitting government is as lawless as others. It's true despite a failed state's rotting stench permeating everywhere across the world, planning perhaps to blow it up to save it.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

 

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.