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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Nouri al-Mesmari, and Paris

April 24 2011
last update June 1


At the center of Franco Bechis' allegations of a pre-planned Libyan civil war is one Libyan defector and his hosts in Paris, France. Nouri al-Mesmari, formerly head of state protocol for Libya, is clearly of a shared spirit with those who've left service to side with the rebellion. But unlike the rest, seems to have split off from the Gaddafi regime four months before the February 17 uprising, rather than in the days and weeks after. In that time, he instead spoke to the world from Paris, as seen at left (al Jazeera, February 27).

And as for what he did with this four month head start, we have a report from Italian journalist Franco Bechis suggesting that with French support, Nouri al-Mesmari helped pre-arrange the rebellion-to-regime change in Libya that is still awkwardly unfolding. [1] Not all of Bechis' sources are verified to my satisfaction, but it's all consistent with what we do know (to be explained separately) and worth consideration. Following is an abbreviated chronology, drawn from that:

Oct. 20 2010 - Mesmari flies off to Tunisia, with his immediate family, for "health reasons" (heart-related).
Oct. 21 - The family is in France, reports Maghreb Confidential.
Nov. 28 - Libya issues an arrest warrant for Mesmari, for embezzlement of state funds. He's put under house arrest the next day.
Dec. 12 - An alleged meeting is held, in Paris, between al-Mesmari and three high-level members of the opposition February 17 movement.
Dec. 15 - He's released for irregularities, making his detention illegal, and housed at liberty on the state dime in a fancy hotel.
Feb 5 - Gaddafi’s son Moatassim returns alone after a week in Paris trying to presuade Mesmari to come back to Libya
Feb 1-16: The regime launches pre-emptive arrests of protest leaders (including the three who reportedly met Mesmari) and February 17 leader Jamal al Hajj, who had called for the uprising to happen.
Feb 15 - Protests begin two days ahead of the called-for "Day of Rage," marking a Benghazi uprising 15 years earlier. Violence flares from the start, with police stations and such attacked. Predictably, the state cracks down with counter-violence in numerous cities. Regime change wouldn't happen the way it did in Tunisia and Egypt.
Feb 18-22 - "Protesters" somehow seize all cities on the northeast coast and several cities in the west. They vow to topple the regime and, ideally, to kill Gaddafi.
Feb 22 - In protest, Mesmari formally resigns and joins the rebels, from Paris, on live TV. It's his first public appearance. As he said to al Jazeera on the 27th, complaining of the later defectors and resignations:
"Some of them are just resigning lately because they found out there is no choice for them only to resign. Why they did not do it from the beginning, from the starting? But at the moment, they didn't know that it would be successful. And now because it is the end of it, everybody is resigning."
Again, that was only ten days and about 400 dead into the civil war he allegedly helped engineer.

Reasons for Leaving Previous Job (please explain fully)
In the days after his resignation, al-Mesmari gave several TV interviews, in which he described himself as "a pure diplomat," who never participated in Gaddafi's terror machine, never tried to "polish his face," and "never been around with him." "I am [was] in charge of the diplomacy in Libya," he told al Jazeera on February 27. "Relationship with the embassies. And you can reference to those embassies how I was with them." [2] According the French news site Jeune Afrique, he also did things like arrange for the travel of world leaders in Libya, and even handled the routing of monthly payments from the treasury to col. Gaddafi's children. [3]

Mr. al-Mesmari has a lean and unsettled look, but adorned with with an artsy glasses-and-goatee combo, frequently dyed hair, and occasional Gaddafi-esque designer military costumes. Alex Lantier at the World Socialist Website describes him as "a prominent pro-free-market reformer in the Libyan ruling elite." [4] Considering the February 17 leaders are described (by another leftist at the Monthly Review) as western-educated "entrepreneurs," [5] this might give us a taste of the freedoms they seek. But I've yet to see (direct) supporting evidence of any of their economic inclinations.

Business intelligence site Maghreb Confidential reported on his arrival in France "normally, Mesmari sticks closely to his boss’s side, so there’s some talk that he may have broken his long-standing tie with the Libyan leader.” [4] But he's never given a reason for splitting, aside from the regime' response to protests in February. Until then he was in France for "health reasons" only. The exact motives behind his flight can't be known for sure, but if he'd decided to split with Tripoli, two possibilities pop to mind.

Perhaps a deeper reason, as Jeune Afrique reported, "the gunshot murder of his son in 2007, disguised as a suicide by authorities." [3] That must have an interesting back-story (no further details available). However, the immediate temporal trigger has been speculated as a public slap to the face from col. Gadddafi, for some disappointment, at a mid-October African Union conference in Sirte. [3] He was in Paris within eleven days after that.

A month into his unscheduled vacation, Tripoli issued the arrest warrant over stolen money. If the Jeune Afrique report is correct, he might have access to state funds and perhaps decided to steal some he felt entitled to. Asked in if he had enriched himself under Gaddafi's rule, he responded:
Thanks to God I never done it, I - thanks to my family I can - I come from a rich family, I have even some of the wealth of my family have been monopolized [nationalized], and I am still struggling to get it back. I never enriched myself, I never touched the house of the people ... [6]
Jeune Afrique also noted Mesmari "is the son of a former minister of the monarchy, but he broke with his past by trading his name to that of Ben Shaban his tribe." [3] And he had his family money partly swallowed by the state, and his son potentially murdered by it. This is a man with grievances. However, these charges were only filed after he'd flown unauthorized to France, and it's not likely they only "noticed the money missing" after that. He was wanted back, but probably for something else. French inteligence DGSE called him a "Libyan wikileaks," according to Bechis. [1]

Libya tried hard to convey forgiveness and entice the defector back. On December 16, a state media official named Abdallah Mansour tried to meet with Mesmari in Paris, but was arrested. [1] At the end of January, the leader's son Moatassim Gaddafi was allowed to have meetings, but was unable to convince Nouri to return.
"[Gaddafi] left Paris alone on February 5. The son of Muammar Kadhafi, who had been staying at the luxury Bristol hotel since late January, failed to persuade Nuri Mesmari to return home. [...] While claiming 'everything has now been resolved’ with Libya, Mesmari seems reluctant to return without iron-clad 'guarantees.’" [4]
Or, alternately, he had a hunch the regime he was being invited to re-join would soon be overthrown. If any uprising or revolt was planned, February 17 would be the obvious zero day. Mesmari's unwillingness to return less than two weeks before this, might well have been taken as a bad omen.

Alleged Contacts, Notable Surprises
But the planners in Benghazi and the defectori in Paris appear on the surface as just ships passing in the night. Libyan rebel site Feb17.info included this in an article on post-rebellion defections:
A less expected deserter, however, was Nouri Mesmari, Libyan Chief of Protocol. Because of his long history of loyalty to the Gaddafi and his regime, Mesmari’s televised statement of resignation given on Tuesday from Paris (where he was staying for “health reasons”) came as a shock to Libyans around the world. [7]
Not necessarily so to those he'd been talking with secretly - including the GDSE. But to the rest of us outside that loop, the surprises kept coming from Paris. Well known for rejecting Cowboy Bush's Iraq war back in 2003, France took the lead in this UN Security Council-approved mission to keep Gaddafi from "bombing his own people." This "no-fly zone" acted as a trojan horse, releasing on Libya an unathorized full-on air campaign for regime change. From protecting innocents to tactical air support for rebel forces, the way was led, unexpectedly, by Sarkozy's France, the very nation that had hosted Mr. al-Mesmari. Coincidence?

His knowledge of the regime and the future are not so useful (see below) but his contacts apparently were. According to Bechis, he spoke with intelligence people while under custody, and put them on the path to contacting a potent clandestine dissident. This was Libyan Air Force colonel Gehani, whom agents managed to meet with in mid-November in Benghazi. [1]

Gehani then talked to whoever he did, and as the 15-year anniversary of the February 17 uprising drew nearer, three leaders of the group of that name reportedly flew to Paris and met with Mesmari. Bechis gives these as Fathi Boukhris, Farj Charrani, and Ali Ounes Mansouri, all arrested prior to the uprising, along with col. Gehani. [1] But as Bechis notes, it was too little too late - they'd managed to convey something from up north, steeling the resolve of those less known who remained at liberty and moved so effectively two weeks later.

More small clues in interviews
There are very few sources around of his words since "coming out" to the world as anti-Gaddafi. There are his two TV interviews of the February 23rd, available on Youtube. One in Arabic, channel unknown. [8] I cannot tell what he's saying, but he's got an odd and unhappy face. One eye blinks incessantly, the other - apparently prosthetic - not at all. It's this, plus his demeanor - awkward cadence, frequent devolution to frustrated shouting - that led one commentator to feel that
"[At] any moment, tentacles could burst from his chest to shoot acid or bat-like brain parasites at the studio crew. It makes me very uneasy to watch him, and my cats refuse to be in the same room when he is on the screen." [9]
A much longer video, done in English, was aired the same day on Qatar-based al Jazeera (in standard media disclosure form, it should be noted that Qatar is heavily underwriting the Libyan civil war which al Jazeera has reported on so partially). He discusses there the state of Gaddafi's regime now, from what he's seen on TV. Mercenaries have replaced the military, which has all either defected or was were in danger of such. "He has no more trust in the armed forces," he said, because they "let him down and went to the people." [6]

Four days later, he again spoke of a survival instinct among those who still remained loyal, to escape prosecution for past crimes abroad. [3] The free-form defection of Foreign Secretary Musa Kusa, who flew to London and then left for Qatar without being arrested for either Lockerbie or the Yvonne Fletcher shooting, again shows Mesmari's poor predictive skills. Mr. Kusa is currently living in Qatar, it must be noted, deciding not to taunt the brits by waltzing in - and out - again with his secret formula. [10] He remains there now, as the Qatari Mesmari.

From what he says to al Jazeera, the French one has not so much usable inteligence as well-rehearesed rebel talking points. For example, throughout these interviews, Mr. Mesmari and his anti-Gaddafi co-guests all agree in denying any silly talk of a civil war. That is Gaddafi propaganda to scare people, they all said in late Feruary, one whole week into it. The people as a whole, east and west, and the government, and the military, and the tribal leaders, had risen up unanymously in rejection of the governmnet.

Yet in coming weeks, all cities in the west reverted to government control with relative ease, aside from the vital and strategically-reinforced Misrata. Otherwise, as the front has stayed around or in Ajdabiya in the east, this really does look like an east-west civil war here with a few more weeks to feel it out. These are sometime solved by partition, which none of the rebels or western leaders seem favorable towards. They seem to require a full take-over.

Around 14:20 in the video, Mesmari almost seems to be reading from a teleprompter positioned below the camera. He seems to be moving his head to follow scrolling text, once stumbling over a word and having to catch up quickly. (14:48). If so, he's only getting prompts, not any well-written script (that would sound unnatural, wouldn't it?). What he says in that block is interesting:
"The time is coming and the date is coming and it is very short. Nobody saw it, nobody was expecting this revolution of my compatriots. They never expected. They just got upset, and they went so quickly. So quickly. They didn't receive any international aid. And I feel very sorry that the international aid is coming only now, and it is too late. They let my people down. Children, old people, old women dying in the streets, and God - knows - wherearetheir bodies now, buried - some - where" [2]
So the revolt was planned to happen a little more slowly, I gather, and with better material support at the very outset (remember, this complaint came only ten days after the Day of Rage). As far as I can tell, he pretty much went quiet after this period. But the plan he might have helped set up was well under way and other players - inside "free Libya," in world capitols and board rooms, in TV studios and command centers - were taking center stage in shaping the long-awaited new nation.

Sources:
[1] Bechis, Franco. "Sarkozy manovra la rivolta libica." Libero March 23 2011. Original text (Italian): http://www.stampalibera.com/?p=24406
[2] Interview with Mesmari. "Inside Story." Al Jazeera. February 27 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObAbe2CvjjA
[3] Barrouhi Abdelaziz. "Fin de partie pour Mesmari." Jeune Afrique. December 7 2010. (Google translation used) Original URL: http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAJA2604p021.xml0/arrestation-mouammar-kaddafi-seif-el-islam-detournement-de-fondsfin-de-partie-pour-mesmari.html
[4] Lantier, Alex. "Reports suggest French intelligence encouraged anti-Gaddafi protests." World Socialist Website (WSWS). March 28 2011. http://wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/inte-m28.shtml
[5] Prashad, Vijay. MR zine, Monthly Review. April 2 3011. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/libya030411p.html
[6] Interview with Mesmari. "Inside Story." Al Jazeera. February 23 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uUNZDD1LAE
[7] It's Easy to Jump a Sinking Ship. By contributor "F4T1." Posted February 28 2011. http://feb17.info/editorials/it’s-easy-to-jump-a-sinking-ship
[8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmGYl2YlWNo

[9] http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/note_to_al_jazeera_for_the_love_of_god_please_stop_interviewing_nouri_masoo/
[10] Daily Mail. April 14. http://m.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377043/Libya-Anger-Musa-Kusa-allowed-flee.html

10 comments:

  1. Hi

    How can I get some of this stuff that your smoking? I want to dream up some conspiracies and suck up to dead dictators.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suggest you stay on dream with MSM , alcohol helps to repress clear thoughts

      Delete
    2. The words conspiracy theory and conspiracy theorist have suffered the same abuse as the word “stuff” has suffered in science. Have you ever thought about what “stuff” means ?

      It´s a perfectly legitimate word. It´s something that is mentioned or understood, or present, but it is not named. In materialistic sciences it´s often used derogatively. All that stuff, like all that pseudo science or worse than that, all that annoying stuff that we can´t explain.

      And yet, funny enough, todays science declares that the things within the known universe, which are explainable within strictly materialistic terms and sciences, only account for and explain seven or ten percent of all that is out there while the remaining 90% are some “Stuff” like dark matter, subtle or sexy energy and what not.

      Let´s say that “many conspiracy theorists” are made to suffer the same fate by politicians, police, intelligence services and armed forces, as the word “stuff” suffers from the scientific community. Everybody knows it´s out there. Everybody knows it´s true. It´s almost undeniable, and everybody hates it.

      http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/cheers-to-conspiracy-theorists-and-stuff/

      Delete
    3. With Jalil and Jibril are the February 17 movement’s men.
      They take their name from an uprising in Benghazi on February 17, 2006, that was crushed by [Gaddafi].
      These men (Fathi Boukhris, Farj Charrani, Mustafa Gheriani and All Ounes Mansouri) are all entrepreneurs.
      Gheriani told Jon Lee Anderson that they are “Western-educated intellectuals” who would lead the new state, not the “confused mobs or religious extremists”.

      In December 23, 2010, before the Tunisian uprising, Boukhris, Charrani and Mansouri went to Paris to meet with [Gaddafi]’s old aide-de-camp, Nuri Mesmari, who had defected to the Concorde-Lafayette hotel.

      Mesmari was singing to the [French secret service] DGSE and Sarkozy about the weaknesses in the Libyan state.

      His man in Benghazi was Colonel Abdallah Gehani of the air defence corps.
      But Gehani would not be the chosen military leader.

      The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) already had its man in mind. He would soon be in place.

      By March 14, the military wing of the Benghazi rebellion had been turned over to an ex-colonel of the Libyan army, Khalifa Hifter and to the former interior minister, General Abdel Fateh Younis.

      Heftir made his name in [Gaddafi]’s war against Chad in the 1980s. At some point in that conflict, Hifter turned against [Gaddafi], joined the Libyan National Salvation Front,
      and operated his resistance out of Chad.

      hen the US-supported government of Chad, led by Hisséne Habré fell in 1990, Heftir fled Chad for the United States.
      It is interesting that an ex-colonel of the Libyan army was able to so easily gain entry into the United States. Also of interest is the fact that Hifter took up residence in Vienna, Virginia, less than seven miles from Langley, Virginia, the headquarters of the CIA.

      In Virginia, Hifter formed the Libyan National Army. In 1996, Hifter’s army attempted an armed rebellion against [Gaddafi] in the eastern part of Libya.
      It failed. But that did not stop his plans. History called him back 15 years later. In March 2011, Hifter flew into Benghazi to take command of the defecting troops, joining Younis whose troops had been routed from Ras Lanouf on March 12. They faced the advance of [Gaddafi]’s forces toward Benghazi.

      http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/03/Test-CIA/LIBYA
      http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/03/31/america-s-libyans/

      Delete
  2. Conspiracies seriously you still believe that it was that. I suggest doing some resarch you might learn something.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Basma El Masmari, the niece of Mustafa Abdel Jalil who leads the National Transitional Council, said she had not slept because of the news emerging from Libya.

    Speaking outside the Libyan embassy in London, she said: "I'm so happy, I couldn't sleep all night. I want to thank the Libyan people so much, I have been waiting for this."
    http://www.channel4.com/news/live-blog-battle-for-tripoli-rages-in-libya

    ReplyDelete
  4. 17/11/2012 /The former Libyan leader's companion, Nouri Massoud El-Mesmari, who defected October 21, 2010 ,
    one of the pioneers of the conspiracy against the Libyans currently lives in Jordan with a Jordanian passport.

    He has invested 200 million euro in Jordanian real estate in hotels and showrooms for cars.

    He lives under royal protection in the area of the royal palace in Oman.

    He drives a Ferrari.
    http://www.algeria-isp.com/actualites/politique-libye/201211-A13415/libye-nouri-massoud-mesmari-vit-belle-vie-jordanie-novembre-2012.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Abdulsalam Mesmari : the housing crisis caused by domestic economic policies 17 january 2011

    The lawyers gave a statement in which it condemned the widespread chaos and looting of housing projects in Libyan cities.


    http://www.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2011/1/17/1_1036403_1_23.jpg

    Urgent and very important this evening in the city of Benghazi and specifically in the building
    next to the Open University
    and in the house of Mr. Abdulsalam Mesmari
    meeting of all the institutions of civil society and the sheikhs and notables eastern region

    *
    Nouri Mesmari did not rule out that Gaddafi could use chemical weapons against protesters demanding he steps down.


    *
    5 february 2011 March of the Alawakir tribe in response to Gaddafi's despicable lie

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvGNnq3EHPc

    @ 3.41 بد الجواد البدين Abdel Gawad Butterball with rifle
    @ 2.08 Qatar billboard

    *

    -Abdel-Fattah Younis spoke together with tribe Alawakir in Benghazi in their headquarters
    at the Open University in the pool area to join the revolution

    They refused him strongly because they are masters of Benghazi
    They have a battalion of their own heavily armed with weapons and people
    *

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq2W5NicJvc
    Abdel Gawad fat saraya rebels

    *
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/world/africa/05libya.html?_r=0

    ReplyDelete
  6. 8 march 2012 the zubair , abu saleem connection :

    Young tribe Alawakir: the announcement of the province of Cyrenaica is an individual act,
    a departure from the national consensus
    http://www.almanaralink.com/press/wp-content/uploads/436x328_16286_199010-300x225.jpg

    The statement stressed that the young tribe Alawakir have had an important role in this revolution the likes as
    Assad Rav Alshata and Commander hero Abdel Gawad Butterball\ they are descendants of the heroes and martyrs of the Battle of Slaoui and a lot of them were killed in Abu Salim prison for the right word,

    *
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D9%83%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B7%D9%84-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%8A/180841298660836


    Assad Rav Alshata
    *

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq2W5NicJvc
    Abdel Gawad fat

    *
    tribe Alawakir from the cities cities of Benghazi and Derna and bayda as it is preparing for the arrival at Bani Walid
    Benghazi 2012

    ReplyDelete
  7. 30 may 2013 Benghazi Burning cars and
    Sam bin Humaid Masrati
    in his home held by young tribe Alawakir

    Urgent Benghazi 21 hours ago omar‬
    The attack on the home of hero Mujahid bin Ahmid Medal by young Alawakir

    It is noteworthy that Mujahid bin Humaid was one of the first who defended Benghazi
    in the face of overwhelming forces at the time when the tribe Alawakir erected tents in Sellouk and slaughtered carcasses in preparation for receiving the criminals and mercenaries battalions

    https://www.facebook.com/tripolicouncil?hc_location=timeline

    ReplyDelete

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