Cynthia McKinney - The Illegal War on Libya

The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.

Candidate Barack Obama, December, 2007

[T}he war is illegal under the United States Constitution and our War Powers Act, because only the US Congress has the authority to declare war and the president has been unable to show that the US faced an imminent threat from Libya. The president even ignored his top legal advisers at the Pentagon and the department of justice who insisted he needed congressional approval before bombing Libya.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Perhaps the greatest harm to humanity will be the long-term effects on international affairs from the use of force in a manner that is outside of the allowed exceptions of international law. In the Pact of Paris in 1928 and again in the UN Charter in 1945, States agreed not to use force against each other to accomplish their foreign policy ends. The Western world has appeared to repeatedly challenge this agreement in the last ten years, especially by its willingness to take military action against predominately Muslim States. In doing so they have sent an undeniable signal to the international community through their actions and despite some of their words, that international law does not matter to them. If this message is not answered by the proponents of international law then the advances we have made to ensure that the international community respects the rule of law may be undone for future generations.

Curtis Doebbler,JURIST Forum

The legal machinations Mr. Obama has used to justify war without Congressional consent set a troubling precedent that could allow future administrations to wage war at their conveniencefree of legislative checks and balances.

Bruce Ackerman, Professor of Law, Yale
Obamas Unconstitutional War,Foreign Policy

It was equally clear from the start that this Orwellian-named kinetic humanitarian action was, in fact, a war in every sense, including the Constitutional sense, but thats especially undeniable now. While the President, in his after-the-fact speech justifying the war, pledged that broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake, it is now clear that is exactly what is happening.

Glenn Greenwald
The Illegal War in Libya, Salon.com

2012 Dignity

ISBN: 978-0-9852710-6-0

0-9852710-6-X

E-book: 978-0-9853353-2-8

In-house editor: Diana G. Collier
Cover: R. Jordan P. Santos
Cover photo: Dedon Kamathi
Photo Cynthia McKinney: Wekesa Madzimoyo

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: Except for purposes of review, this book may not be copied, or stored in any informaion retrieval system, in whole or in part, without permission in wriing from the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The illegal war on Libya / edited by Cynthia McKinney.

p. cm.

A DIGNITY Project.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-9852710-6-0 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-9852710-6-X (alk. paper)

1. Libya-History-Civil War, 2011- 2. Libya-History-Civil War, 2011Mass

media and the war. 3. North Atlantic Treaty Organization-Armed Forces-Libya.

4. Regime changeLibya. 5. GeopoliicsLibya. I. McKinney, Cynthia, 1955- II. DIGNITY (Organization)

DT236.I55 2012
961.205dc23

2012023248

Clarity Press, Inc.
Ste. 469, 3277 Roswell Rd. NE
Atlanta, GA. 30305 , USA
http://www.claritypress.com

This book is dedicated to the people who want peace so badly that they will actually do something in order to obtain it. DIGNITY seeks first to find truth and work for justice, on which peace is built. The outcome of the struggle for truth, justice, and peace is Earth and human DIGNITY.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ORCHESTRATING CONSENT TO REGIME CHANGE

The Big Lie and Libya:
Using Human Rights Organizations to Launch the War

Was the Case for R2P Based on Fraud?
The Universal Periodic Review of Libya

The Racialization of the War:
Libya and the Clash of Civilizations

Petroleum and Empire in North Africa:
NATO Propaganda and the Betrayal of Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Qaddafis Speech to the United Nations
General Assembly, September 23, 2009

EDITORS NOTE

Cynthia McKinney

Think of this book as your primer on war propaganda, deliberate media deception, hidden political and personal agendas, and finally, on what a set of politically powerful and well-connected people will do to a country when they have access to military power and the will to use it. We now know that they will even use military power, killing innocent people, just to hide contacts and contracts that they would rather keep secret, like, for example, the alleged payments to Nicolas Sarkozy that financed his successful 2007 Presidential campaign in France

For me, the story of Libya begins during my days in the Congressional Black Caucus when Earl Hilliard, the first Black Congressman from Alabama since Reconstrucion, proposed that Members of the Caucus take a more active role in US policy toward Africa. I agreed with him. Subsequently, he traveled to Libya and began the thaw in relations between the US which, a decade earlier, had bombed Muammar Qaddafis home in an illegal assassination attempt, killing instead his young adopted daughter. For his temerityto actually think that he could act as a Member of Congress, serving on the House International Relations Committee, and engage Africa as a partnerEarl was targeted in the Summer of 2002 for ouster from the Congress by the pro-Israel Lobby. Then they came for me later that summer for my views and votes in favor of peace in Israel/Palestine.

Remembering Earl, I watched with sadness as, in the following Congressional term, Congressman Tom Lantos and others who represent the strength of the pro-Israel Lobby in US political circles, traipsed to Libya, purportedly to herald a new era of openness and dialogue between the two countries.

We now know of Israels Ostrovsky writes that Israel regarded Libya as an unpalatable arms supply route to the Palesinians and recounts numerous projects of Mossad to trick US leaders into believing Israeli versions or characterizations of Libyan leaders, especially of Muammar Qaddafi.

In The Other Side of Deception, Ostrovsky goes even further and describes the specific Operation Trojan that, once again, set Libya up for US retaliation for something that Libya did not do. Ostrovsky writes:

Ulimately, the Americans fell for the ploy head over heels, dragging the British and the Germans somewhat reluctantly in with them.

Operation Trojan could be regarded a success. It brought about the air strike on Libya that President Reagan had promised. The American attack achieved a triple result for the Mossad. It derailed a deal for the release of the American hostages in Lebanon, thus keeping the Hizballah (Party of God) as the number one enemy in the eyes of the West. It also sent a message to all the Arab world, telling them exactly where the United States stood regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict. Thirdly, the office came out of it as the big hero that saved the day, having provided the US with vital informaion in the struggle against world terrorism.

It was only the French that didnt buy into the Mossad trick and were determined not to align themselves with the aggressive American act. The French did not allow the American bombers to fly over their territory on their way to attack Libya, and in doing so placed themselves in clear opposiion to the acion.