The Site that Asks: Is the "dictator" justifying intervention by killing innocents? Or is someone else doing it for him? (previously The Libyan Civil War: Critical Views)
Warning
Warning: This site contains images and graphic descriptions of extreme violence and/or its effects. It's not as bad as it could be, but is meant to be shocking. Readers should be 18+ or a mature 17 or so. There is also some foul language occasionally, and potential for general upsetting of comforting conventional wisdom. Please view with discretion.
The following a largely re-posted article from Pravda, Jan. 29. I can't vouch for any of it, but find these excerpts highly interesting. (emphasis mine)
Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru
The National Transitional Council (NTC), Al Qaeda and other NATO backed terrorists are unable to subdue the country. Not only are they incapable of running a country or government, but they can't even agree among themselves and they are eating each other alive.
...
What the west fails to understand is the unique relationship among Libyans and their army and the fact that the Libyan people themselves were and are the true government of this country. It is called the Jamahiriya, Government by people's councils.
Any advances made by the west and their terrorist stooges are only temporary, the situation is fluid and changes on a daily basis.
The Green Resistance, formerly the Libyan Army, controls most of the country and every day, more and more areas are going Green.
[...]
At every opportunity, the Green Resistance, unlike the NATO installed terrorists, take the time and trouble to look after the needs of the Libyan people. No matter how difficult the fight, this remains true.
That would fit with what it seems like they did at Bani Walid. They helped the locals kickout the brutalizers, and then let the locals force down their proud green flags to prevent further trouble.
One reported example of them helping the world learn about what's happening in Libya was reported by Libya S.O.S., as Petri alerts me:
(3) In major military operations around Misrata at the coast of Libya, Green Army found bodies of 17 Somali immigrants at the coast of Misrata, cause of death remain to be established, an investigation was not immediately carried since it was a heavy fighting zone.
Continuing with Karpova, their spirit is spreading all over.
University students in Tarhunah hoist the green flag and chanted slogans of God, Muammar and Libya.
Clashes between the Libyan resistance and thieves in Gheryan result in the killing of 16 of the bands
The city of Bani Walid, recently liberated by Green Resistance reported NATO jets flying overhead while Al Qaeda is attempting to mount an offensive
... Chaos in Tripoli, says Karpova's sources
Explosion of a grenade on junta-rats military camp in [Abu] Salim, by brave green soldiers of resistence at [Abu] Salim.
SGP introduces a state of emergency in parts of Abu Salim, Ain Zara (auto explosion, three rats were killed), Al-Furdzhan [Khelet al-Furjan]. "The threat of attacks on important targets in these areas - the maximum." Squads of rats contract to these areas.
Touhami Dr. Hamza has occurred January 27, 2012, announcing the popular uprising in Benghazi. He said the real revolution began (not NATO revolution) and that young Libyans will release Libya, young people like Moatassem, Seif, Saidi, Aisha will create the new Libya and liberate the country. He added that the people of Bani Walid told France Presse that the Libyan leader is alive in the hearts of Bani Walid
I have an extremely vague idea, spurred to renewed life by a recent comment from contributor Afrikat. I've said in the past this is academic, a history project, and there's no rush to get things done. But really, that's just necessity speaking in a different voice. I just don't have enough time at one time to do even half of what I'm driven inside to do. So one gets zen with delayed grartification of the desire to know.
And then there's the desire to act, which I have a harder time with, and which was the focus of his comment. If I may:
Yes, the Rats and their coalition partners in the axis of evil cannot be allowed to get away with it, and that's why this site and this page in particular (IMHO) are important. You have said somewhere this is a "history project" and so there's no need for any haste. I'd suggest this is also a campaigning site of sorts. In view of all the past and current media and other orchestrated disinformation and bias through ommision, maybe we need not just to debate the issues but also to conduct an incisive analysis of the plentiful data available here, and to disseminate it widely, including to the UN Human Rights Commission and to ICC, and to Aisha and her lawyer, among others.
A laudable line of thinking, if a bit thick on praise for this site in particular. I have been readying to take the case for rebel authorship of the Khamis Brigade shed massacre - a point within the whole I have no shame taking great pride in - to Physicians for Human Rights (more on that line of work here), and to others. I'm becoming aware that I, or we, need to move soon. The deepening mythology of the massacre and its light-skinned 'rebular Libyan guy' Zlitny martyrs only helps cement the idea this lie has gone too far to turn back from, and that it must be pushed through no matter the cost. There's a Muslim proverb about that being ignored in Libya in droves right now.
From there, I don't know. Somehow I think getting members explicitly behind a common idea with a name is a good start. Inspired by the clownish 9/11 "reseachhers" Citizen Investigation Team, I could suggest Global Citizen's Public Inquiry into War Crimes in the Libyan War. Something else better will surely be suggested.
I have been hit with ideas with broader implications I'm definitely not ready to take on - Human Rights Fraud Watch, for example. Or broader yet, the Future or Reality Foundation, promoting science and reality-based, factual reportage to hamper the ability of governments and others to create false realities to justify their agendas. Not getting any NED grants for that one.
But even keeping it narrower, seeing any reality flesh in a body around those bones seems heavy,if do-able. We (whoever signs on) could maybe do, or just stand by, what we have been doing, or at least what I have - put the emphasis on solving a few specific cases, and then raising concerns over others, based on well-established precedent. Then, all still talk but getting clearer and louder, we make a fancy report or three, have a web-site (a pro one I will not be establishing), get it all out there to relevant professionals and to journalists, have a press release, try to make the news, in alternative circuits at least. Careful crafting of the message to make it even remotely palatable to the masses, excellent graphics, etc...
All things I could do, but it's daunting to even consider it all alone in the time I have between working, sleeping, and life (other). And even if I essentially go it alone talking to relevant people and demanding they talk back, it would be nice to have a group I'm compelled by, as opposed to just me and my idiosyncratic insecurity clashing with their position of unavailable authority.
Then, there's not necessarily any need to re-invent the wheel, as exciting as it can be. Perhaps its best to latch onto someone else, like Global Civilians for Peace. Maybe they'd be able to absorb a bunch of data, and help whip it up into something more actionable and even actionated. Specific ideas?
Straight to the ICC, UN bodies etc.? Somehow I have a hard time taking that as seriously. However, I imagine none of these people, aside from certain journalists maybe, wants to hear the troubling message that we all put bad guys in power there. And the ones who matter, as closed as they might make themselves, are who needs to be rung up about it.
Discuss, please. I'll be following this thread closer and contributing - research and writing break for a few days to focus on this bigger picture.
---
Jan. 27:
(continuing disinterest in tedium...)
The only thing that'll change or pierce my mood of "bleh", and force an enthusiastic response, would be some more input on this post and this post. Getting a group going, even just in name, a strategy discussed and agreed, the backlog of locked-up Arabic language evidence started on. THEN, when it's serving some concrete action on the hard parts, that will hopefully motivate me to magically be able to get all these other things done on top of the action stuff.
Maybe just the few most necessary things. Or maybe some volunteers can find a way to help with some of it? The list is right above. Whole re-formatted, updated, original posts can be submitted by e-mail, etc. Not to be presumptuous, and expect anyone to do anything, but...
Well, anyway, all my readers and contributors have been awesome, and the effect of this amazing mental activity all happening around me, coinciding what what "I find fascinating too!" is a bit of a rush. Lets my mind run away with me sometimes.
Anyone else so inclined? Let's run a ways, then.
Cheers!
- Undefined group explicit member #1 (in order of joining, not necc. rank), Adam Larson aka Caustic Logic, Spokane, WA, USA
- Others, may remain anonymous/screen name I think, right? Better than nothing...
I have an old Lockerbie research friend, Eddie, to thank for this tip and the intital research, to which I (and then contributors, via comments here) added a lot. It was thanks to my work he saw the significance when he stumbled across this character Dr. Salem al-Farjani. In two important ways this man may be relevant to our understanding of the mysterious massacres across the capitol in August and September.
First, an Associated Press Article by Vanessa Gera, December 10, explains al Farjani's relevance in "liberated Libya" as a big wheel in the NTC's search for the war's missing and unidentified. He's to specialize in the names without bodies and bodies without names, anonymous corpses in mass graves, from both sides but especially rebel people, since Gaddafi loyalists were the evil killer side. In part, his job will likely be to help the NTC put acceptable identities on the victims of massacres carried out by their own forces - disappearing loyalists, replacing them with more martyrs, made-up if need be, and more black paint for the past.
The governing National Transitional Council has founded a national commission to deal with the matter [of the thousands reported missing]. It is headed by al-Farjani, a cardiac surgeon, and a DNA specialist, Othman Abdul-Jalil [sic].
The DNA part of this "National Missing Persons Commission" can be quite helpful if done right, and I have no cause to doubt the credibility of his co-chair, actually named Dr. Mohamed Othman. But Dr.al Farjani, as we'll see, has known issues.
Dr. Salem's audition for his part of the job, as Gera describes it, was an insurgency-long, life-and-family-endangering, one-man fact-finding mission. On about February 20, “bodies of protesters that were brought to his sprawling 1,200-bed Tripoli Medical Center were seized by Gadhafi forces before their families could recover them." This fiendish behavior has been widely alleged, but never well illustrated. The doc plans to change that, and has for nearly a year now been taking careful note of the cartoonish villainy, even going outside the hospital on "fact-finding missions to the sites of suspected massacres or mass graves."
Did he take one of these trips, on August 27, to the Yarmouk military base south of town, site of a likely rebel massacre a few days earlier?
Field Work
Now for what the guy looks like, which-aside from the "Dr." part and "Salim" part, and proximity to massacres part, is what caught Eddie's attention: The photograph used in that article was also cited in a news blurb: “In this Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 photo, Dr. Salem al-Farjani, 43, speaks to a militia member as they stand in front of photos of men who went missing during Libya's civil war.” The photograph (cropped view below) shows a man who looks rather similar to another Tripoli-based Dr. Salim/Salem, who spoke to several media outlets in late August about a massacre he treaveled to the site of - though not far, he says.
The largest mass-killing allegation of all, over 150 people killed with guns and grenades, the alleged Khamis Brigade shed massacre with too many witnesses including himself, was right by this doctor's house south of Tripoli, he says. He saw it all happen, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP), Sky News, Anthony Loyd, Human Rights Watch, Liberation, perhaps the New York Times and even more, depending.
The facial similarity between the two is not overwhelming at all, but it is there. On closer inspection (keep reading), it gets better. I see the same distinct hairline, same eyebrows and eyelids, muscular, furrowed brows shading his eyes. I see a consistent long nose, cheeks, chin, and ears. He seems to have lost about ten pounds and grown in his beard between the two images. He could have more of a tan now as well, but the washed-out video (lightened more here) is not too clear. The taste in shirt colors is consistent enough too, if not any major clue.
Faces aside, recall that both men shown above are massacre-obsessed or massacre-witnessing, rebel-assisting Tripoli doctors named Salim/Salem (as given, anyway). What stands in the way of linking the two as one is the different last name, and that we have no reason to believe that Dr. Salim al-Farjani, one of the NTC's top massacre-solving and ID-deciding people, is such a total faker. Other than the fact that he may have been caught faking, known reason or not.
But faces not aside, two further images from between his Fat Elvis and Thin Elvis pahses show the transition. Felix found a valuable Youtube video that sinks it.
لقاء مع الدكتور سالم الفرجاني عضو اللجنة الوطنية للتعرف على هويات ضحايا حرب التحرير
[auto-translate: "A meeting with Dr. Salem Ferjany member of the National Committee to get to know the identities of the victims of the war of liberation"]
It was posted October 1, so presumably from shortly before that date. I had hoped a video would reveal enough of his voice to make a clear match, but in fluent Arabic Dr. Salem sounds little like Dr. Salim in his halting, funny-sounding English. The raw video is a bit too dark to be sure, but with enhancement (adjustment of "levels" in Photoshop - is that "gamma?" -may have over-done it, sorry), the man's face is uncanny in its similarity to Rajip's, as opposed to his own about two months later.
As a nail in the coffin goes, contributor Petri Krohn notes (in the comments here), and the image above confirms, both men have a distinctive gap in their lower teeth, apparently just left of center (our right). I suspect that upon seeing something, perhaps the October video, someone alerted the doctor how much he resembled the guy on the news. It was perhaps this that spurred him to start jogging heavily and to stop shaving, in the hopes no one else would notice.
More images: Dr. Rajub speaking to AFP, late in the afternoon, from a Spanish-dubbed broadcast. Tooth gap visible here too. Note the blue alligator shirt Dr. Rajub wears here, as when speaking to Sky News earlier (above).
Interesting then, as if we needed it at this point, is Dr. al-Farjani wearing the same shirt, when speaking about the "more than 1,700" prison massacre, on September 26. From an Al Arabiya video. He's starting a mustache it seems, suggesting the October 1 video was some days or weeks old as it was posted.
The Doctor's Dad
The Gera article metions how with even his wife out of the loop, the doctor's "only confidant was his father, who would travel with him on fact-finding missions to the sites of suspected massacres or mass graves. He hoped the presence of a 70-year-old man would make him seem less suspicious to Gadhafi’s men."
Survivor Fathallah Abdullah
- the doctor's dad?
It is noteworthy that among the too-many alleged miraculous escapees, there is one rather toothsome 70-year-old man who turned up at the massacre site and spoke with Bild (Germany) and BBC. This was on August 27, as "Dr. Salim Rajub" was there. He was named Fathallah Abdullah al Ashter, as given, and said he escaped but lost his three sons in the onslaught, none of them named Salem or Salim. It could be true, I suppose.
Further Adventures of See-Through Salem
See-Through Salem: "Dr.Salim" Speaks, Coach Salem Manages
The man called Rajub, on Aug. 27: What he said, to whom, and how he interacted with the other "witnesses," as seen on camera. Plenty of speculation, but no shortage of decent evidence to support it. Was he the puppet master here?
A "Dr. Salim," a "Mr. al Farjani, and a Key Escapee.
The link "Dr. Rajub" showed in apparently coaching escapee witness Atiri/el Hitri brings to point the question whether the Dr. is also Mr. Ahmed al Farjani, who says he sheltered the escapee. This, the el Hitri link, and their teamwork on getting this story to the International Criminal Court are explored here.
Al Farjani Hits the Big Time
Ramsay and Loyd and perhaps Worth were only the start for Dr. al Farjani's clandestine "fact-finding" missions at the Yarmouk shed. Within a month he was in the government's committees to solve massacres, and by November he was returning again and again to the massacre site with more influential people yet. On November 3, it was UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. On the 23rd, it was ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. The last has a video finally with the tour guide, wearing a jacket if not a tie, speaking in Dr, Rajub's English.
See-Through Salem Arrested?
It seems so, at Tripoli Medical Center, and he was carrried away by armed men. The details of why, by whom, and what next remain unclear.
Standing Questions / Troubling Implications
If he's not able to skate through with arguments that he didn't lie, what are the proper charges for the Libyan people to file for this crime against reality? Because behind this apparent deceit is a likely rebel massacre it was designed to conceal, and in front of it is the very real danger that the good doctor was hired to do much more of the same.
So ... Dr. Salem al-Farjani wants to help since “people are suffering. They want to know the fate of their loved ones.” There are families attached to the approximately 150-180 government soldiers and/or civilian others, many alleged "mercenary" types, who were apparently slaughtered at or near the Yarmouk military base. They never turned up acknowledged as captive, dead, or alive, though some said they "fled like rats" to nowhere in particular. From the timeline clues, one could fairly surmise that they were killed at their stations by NATO bombs and/or the Misrata Brigades, before the latter started burning their corpses after capturing the brutalized base late on the 23rd - the specified date of the massacre (see the link, entry "Wednesday, 6:15 am").
Will Dr. Farjani be helping solve that one, after fire has erased the best direct clues who the victims really were? After Dr. Rajub went there and pretended to see the vanishing soldiers themselves kill the same number of perhaps invented 'rebular' Libyan guys? After two dozen uninjured escapees, partly shepherded by the doctor, swore they escaped somehow from as many different versions of the massacre?
Our subject alleged regime use of acid to erase clues - fire was known to be used to erase clues at Yarmouk, and the rebels were apparently in control when the fire was set. Dr. al-Farjani might have been there when the cover-story was inserted in the place of those lost clues. He may have helped seed the lie himself, in a fact-making mission to a massacre site. And he even says Libya "won’t have reconciliation" until his work is enshrined in the nation's new legal history.
I must say this closing line from from the Gera piece is extremely reassuring as to how his commission will perform:
Officials stress that they want to help find the missing on all sides.
“We don’t discriminate,” said Hatem el-Turki, the head of the Libyan Society of the Missing.
Shortly after he visited the Khamis Brigade massacre shed, put on his "Dr. Salim Rajub" performance for the world's media (and helped the survivors put on their own), Dr. Salem al Farjani was hired by the interim NTC government. Perhaps specifically to repeat the feat more officially and nationwide, he was made co-chairman and sometimes acting chairman of the National Missing Persons Commission, dedicated to finding which of the dead and missing were Gaddafi regime victims. Judging by his performances so far, he will probably help find that all of them were.
Just when he took on this role is not entirely clear. But less than a month after his Rajub act, on September 25, he was speaking as a member of the government committee to prove the long-alleged regime atrocity of the "Abu Salim Prison massacre." He expressed certainty that the non-human bones found near the prison in August were of the alleged 1,270 victims (or "more than 1,700," as he rounded the number up).
(to be fixed-up later)
A recent Associated Press Article by Vanessa Gera, December 10, mentions al-Farjani's relevance in "liberated Libya." He's a big wheel in the NTC's search for the war's missing and unidentified, the anonymous corpses in mass graves, from both sides but especially rebel people, since Gaddafi loyalists were the evil killer side. In part, his job will likely be to put acceptable identities on the victims of massacres carried out by their own forces - disappearing loyalists, replacing them with more martyrs, made-up if need be, and more black paint for the past.
The governing National Transitional Council has founded a national commission to deal with the matter [of the thousands reported missing]. It is headed by al-Farjani, a cardiac surgeon, and a DNA specialist, Othman Abdul-Jalil [sic].
The DNA part of this "National Missing Persons Commission" can be quite helpful if done right, and I have no cause to doubt the credibility of his co-chair, actually named Dr. Mohamed Othman. But something tells me this is added just to sound fancy and lend finality to decisions made in other ways, with a careful system of endemic sample mix-ups. True science will likely have little effect on the process, aside from the sheen of hard science. Dr. Salem's audition for his part of the job, as Gera describes it, was an insurgency-long, life-and-family-endangering, one-man fact-finding mission. On about February 20, “bodies of protesters that were brought to his sprawling 1,200-bedTripoli Medical Center were seized by Gadhafi forces before their families could recover them." This fiendish behavior has been widely alleged, but never well illustrated. The doc plans to change that, and has for nearly a year now been taking careful note of the cartoonish villainy, even going outside the hospital on "fact-finding missions to the sites of suspected massacres or mass graves." As Eddie noted, the good doctor has to have seen a lot of the same shady things we have - probable rebel crimes pinned transparently on the villified, whipping-boy regime. He doesn't seem to have noticed, if so.
The surgeon took down the names of as many slain fighters as he could before they were hauled off by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, presumably to be buried in mass graves. He concealed his files at home, hiding his activities even from his wife because of fears of retaliation by the regime.
Now the evidence he gathered is helping Libya’s new leadership as it intensifies a search for fighters who went missing in the war. The uncertainty over their fate is adding to the grievances in a land still traumatized by the dictator’s long rule and lingering tensions between those who supported him and revolutionary forces.
“We won’t have reconciliation in the country if we don’t take care of this,”al-Farjani said. “People are suffering. They want to know the fate of their loved ones.” [VG]
The Gera article notes how there is no firm estimate even of how many went missing, from both/all sides combined, during the course of this war the rebels started and NATO escalated.
Al-Farjani believes there could be 25,000 people still missing -- though part of his mission is to confirm a more precise figure. International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo put the possible total at around 20,000. Many political and army leaders have refused to give estimates, saying it will take time to determine the scope of the problem.
Salim al-Farjani, a member of the committee set up to identify the remains, appealed for international help.
“We call on foreign organizations and the international community to help us in this task of identifying the remains of more than 1,700 people,” said Farjani.
“We were invited to visit the place where the corpses of the prisoners at Abu Salim were found, where we saw scattered human bones,” he said.
Farjani also referred to “egregious acts committed against dead bodies, on which acid was poured to eliminate any evidence of this massacre.” [AA]
I had wondered where the 1,270 (a highly suspect number itself) had become, as sometimes reported, 1,700 (or "more than" that). It seems our friend and detective Dr. Salem might be the origin. Last we heard, the bones seen on the surface werenot human, per the only people there qualified to even guess, and it has still, to my knowledge, never been exhumed (see here for details).
As we've previously established here (explained in the above link and illustrated at left), one very useful alleged witness to the Khamis Brigade shed massacre, called Dr. Salim Rajub, seems to be physically the same person as one Dr. Salem al Farjani. That matters because the latter works for the NTC government, finding facts about massacres they want to make sure Gaddafi Loyalists are blamed for. Working for Tripoli, he will be gathering "facts" on a massacre he himself seeded facts about, blaming loyalists under a false name.
The ethical implications are simply astounding.
Having established that, we turn to just what the this "Dr. Rajub" did with his 15 minutes of fame under his false identity. The visual cue we started with was his interview, at the massacre site south of Tripoli, with Stuart Ramsay of Sky News. Theirs was apparently the first news team at the site, around 11 am on August 27 by the angle of sunlight. The man who looks and talks just like al Farjani is actually in two different segments, interviewed each time.
AFP spoke with him the same day many hours later, by the late afternoon sunlight in the video (see at right), and apparently somewhere in-between he gave an interview for a fascinating Global Post video, a later discovery recently found and mined by readers here.
The correlation is only sometimes by name, and this is given differently throughout the time he spoke in this persona. Sky News called their interviewee first "Salim," then in the final, more inclusive report, as "Salim Rajip," no "doctor." In the first one he gives a fairly long version, mostly with standard details as below, not worth re-typing. At 1:55 he says "actually I'm living about 200 meters from here, and I heard some people shouting, from this place..."
At 3:25 he says "so, we guess about seven to ten people were escaped, and the rest of the people were killed here." He mentions three wounded escapees seen nearby shortly after the attack, who are now at the hospital and could be talked to. This local knows who can and can't be talked to and where they can be found. Take note. At 4:07, Ramsay asks al Farjani if any of the victims, any at all, might've been "mercenaries" killed by Rebels. He responds:
They were killed by Gaddafi forces, that's for sure. That's according to the witnesses, [pointing] and you can talk to them, and according to the people who actually escaped from here. That's for sure. They were killed by Gaddafi forces. That's sure. Sure.
We were here near this mosque [Hurriya wonders - this one?] and we heard some people shouting. Right? We try - we're but 5, 10 people, we, we want to come here to see what's happening and see whether some people are calling for help. We hear some guns are going on, and their bombs are going on inside. And then when we just come by near, we found some snipers there, above that (pointing) and they're start shooting. So we went back, right? Next day morning, I mean after maybe, I don't know, one hour or so, everything is quiet. And there were about three people. injured, and they're escaped, okay, and they are now in Tripoli Medical Center.
He's the only witness or survivor, I believe, to single out the TMC, Dr.al-Farjani's workplace at the time. His account delivery to Ramsay is less than convincing; feel free to watch the video and see for yourself (linked above). Was he at home, near a mosque,or at home near the mosque? Who are the other 4-9 members of this "we?"
This second report has "Salim" bring forth another witness, Mustafa Abdullah el-Hitri/Atiri. He wasn't named there, but it's him (explained here). For the first report, Atiri wasn't ready, but was surrounded by men talking with him, as he somehow prepared. Once ready, he tells the tale, "Salim" translating his story to English, with his arm around the witness' shoulders. It's an unconvincing delivery for both, but the short edit cuts out the details of Mustafa's detention and escape. This is probably the worst part of all judging by his fuller narratives to other news outlets.
Dr. al Farjani spoke to AFP as "Dr. Salim Rajub," the full name I've adopted here as semi-official.
Dr Salim Rajub, who lives near the base, told AFP: "I am shocked, I never imagined I would see a scene like this in Libya [...] On August 23, we heard gunfire before breaking the (Ramadan) fast and people shouting for help, but there were snipers outside and nobody could get close. These men were killed by Kalashknikovs and hand grenades, and then they were burned."
Confirming that, a "Dr. Salem" spoke to Alex Loyd (who also spoke with el Hitri) with strange factual authority, almost like a man in the midst of a fact-finding mission like Dr. al Farjani is said to have gone on at the time:
"There are about 65 bodies in all either in the barn or yard," said Dr Salem, a local resident. "But we know for a fact that there were more than 150 prisoners in the barn when the firing started and that only about ten escaped [25-50 now]. What has been done with the other bodies?"
Human Rights Watch did not speak with Atiri, but on the 27th interviewed an unnamed "local resident" with medical training, possibly our subject, who said:
Last Wednesday [sic - Aug 24], sometime after the early evening prayer, I heard the sound of heavy gunfire and grenades, then complete calm. Then in the evening, my neighbors came to me. They asked if I could help people with gunshot wounds…I told them to take them to the hospital. [The neighbors] were scared to take them to the hospital, so they kept them [at home].
Which hospital, one wonders? TMC is not named here, going against the Farjani ID, but I still suspect it's him.
Global Post spoke on the 27th with an unnamed man who is clearly Dr. al Farjani (a still at left), apparently still playing the same role he did for Sky News. Here he said:
0:21 - "On Friday night, this area were liberated by the rebels, and this morning, we just come and see this place [on fire?]."
0:58 - "For the last 40 years, I hear that some people killed, executed, that they were hanged, but this is the first time I see people, they kill them and they [bury?] them."
James Foley: "They burn them."
Dr. al Farjani: "Yeah, they burned them, yeah. Yeah, I mean it's a [?buy?], to kill somebody and burn him again? I mean, for what? I mean, they are trying to hide their crime? [shaking head slowly with an odd smile] No.
Libération also spoke with our subject, as "le docteur Salem Rajab" for a report not run until August 29. Again, they also spoke with his kiddo el Hitri/Atiri (as Moustapha el-Etri) and perhaps with Atiri's escape companion, Gazi Tarrar (see below). Here's what Jean-Louis le Touzet wroteabout "Dr. Rajab" and then I let Google translate mangle:
This is Dr. Salem Rajab, who said to keep a medical office in the district, which carried the death toll Saturday afternoon.
[...]
According to Dr. Salem Rajab, "between 140 and 160 prisoners from the jails of Gaddafi were gathered in the courtyard Tuesday 23 [August, ed]." Then, still on Tuesday, shortly before breaking the fast, he heard gunshots. A lot. He and the neighbors came immediately, "but the soldiers shot Kadhafi the top of the mounds of sand from the cement plant. There were three big explosions and screams, and saw the flames. As there was fighting in the barracks, could not close until this morning [Saturday]. "
[...]
"We are looking for 90 missing bodies," says Dr. Salem Rajab. And these three bodies outside, one of which has its feet in a noose? The doctor, while Moustapha said nothing: "These are three soldiers who refused to participate in the implementation and the mercenary," he said, mimicking the scene, "killed on the spot."
And the good doctor possibly spoke, at a later date, to Robert F. Worth at the New York Times, as covered in the article A "Dr. Salim," a "Mr. al Farjani, and a Key Escapee. No mention is made of a Dr. or a Salem, but Worth did speak with his protege el Hitri (as Mustafa Abdullah Atiri), who told him about his co-escapee "Taha" (Tarrar apprently does translate that way sometimes...). Mustafa also mentioned the local man, Ahmed al-Farjani, who took in on both he and Taha on about August 24. Mr. al-Farjani, who is Dr. al-Farjani's same age (but a construction worker), spoke to Worth as well and agreed he saved Atiri, the same kid the doctor he probably looked just like would take to the media in a few days.
Did the NTC's massacre-solving czar leave us the full name Dr. Salem al-Farjani, spread out over two fake witnesses, both flanking Mustafa el Hitri?
Coach Salem?
Beyond his own voluminous words to the media, perhaps under two or more untrue names (is Rajub/Rajip really a transliteration issue?), Dr. al Farjani seems to have had a hand with some of the other, far-too-numerous alleged witnesses to the massacre. He of course physically held Atiri/el Hitri while translating for him, after pre-announcing him and then walking him up. As contributor Peet 73 said just from that:
The Sky Video show's quite clearly that the doctor is the puppet master behind this presentation. He's not only the most educated and "serious" witness he's also the man who guides the journalists around and leads other dummies to them. It's very revealing how he backs the other, less profesional liar with his arm around his shoulder (after 2:34).
Taking "presentation" narrowly as of young Mustafa, that's fairly apparent. But to take it further and to offer a competing metaphor, he might be the dungeon master of this whole multi-witness massacre role-playing game. I could see it then, but wasn't ready to say it yet.
We had a look in Seamus Murphy's VII photo library for any glimpses of Dr, Farjani, but no identifiable views appeared. However, this image (crop at left) could possibly show his chubby arm raised behind the foreground character (also an alleged witness, unnamed), as he helps prepare Mustafa (orange shirt) for Ramasy's coming visit. This and other photos suggest Murphy was there shooting at around 9:30 to 10:30 am, when Sky Seems to have filmed about 11:00 (all by rough reading of sunlight "azimuth").
That arm's gesture says, perhaps, "this is a huge story, huge. You can't screw this up." Atiri's might say "but I haven't even been inside there yet. How am I gonna know what to say?"
Just from that, the possibility of witness coaching is there, but only with one witness we've already seen him translate for. But contributor Felix noticed the signs of another case of fondling by the coach, in the final clip of the Global Post video report by James Foley. This regards the sobbing man, an unnamed, gaunt man with a lean intensity, a "grief-stricken relative and/or survivor" seen in solitary anguish in a photo here, and then being comforted by many here, here, here, here, and here (17th image in that slide-show).
Then, in a more chipper mood off to the side, apparently after this session, what seems to be the same man can be seen at the end of that GPvideo (1:23). He's first smiling, talking to another, chubbier man who's patting him on the back. That arm, again all we can see of him, looks a hell of a lot like Dr. Farjani's. One can imagine this saying "that was some serious grief you gave them. You earned your pay today, son." The sobbing man seems aware, if "Salim" isn't, that a camera was suddenly filming them, and he quickly moves away from the pat, leaving the doctor's hand lingering and sliding off his back, along the way revealing the short sleeve of that goofy blue "aligator" (Lacoste?) shirt.
That's sloppy, sloppy work. Lucky the world doesn't give a shit.
After
Dr. Rajub was just an ordinary man, an anonymous local whose only claim to fame was witnessing this loyalist massacre with his own eyes and ears, knowing many of its escapees, apparently in a supervisory capacity, and bringing all that together for the world's gathered news media. It's only natural that we should never again hear from Dr. Rajub once his public work was complete. Afterwards, the strangely similar Dr. Salem al Farjani, who's apparently the same guy in fact, took over this massacre, its witnesses and escapees, its presentation to men of power, its mythology and its utility in the continuing persecution of Libyan loyalists.
I'm woefully uninformed on the situation in Bani Walid, even before the reported takeover by Green/Jamahiriya/Loyalist forces the other day. It seems the rebels sort of went around it to wallop Sirte, and then implicitly must've taken control sometime after. Now, the Bani Walid local (NTC) council says they were driven out and the green flag was raised, at least temporarily.
Such things have been reported before in Green news sources, almost all unverifiable and not carried by the mainstream media, suggesting a pitched civil war the loyalists were winning. This is the first time I know of where mainstream media-al Arabiya, the Guardian, BBC, CBS, everyone now, reports this as news.
Confusion surrounds events in the Libyan town of Bani Walid after fighting broke out between armed groups on Monday, leaving four people dead.
The head of the local council has said a local militia was attacked by remnants of forces supporting late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
But the post-Gaddafi government has denied pro-Gaddafi forces were involved, saying instead the fighting was between rival militias.
The town is now reported to be calm.
I suspect the claim from Tripoli is bullshit. Loyalists are the ones who've been so good at re-taking Bani Walid at will. But then, that was back in the late summer last year. Is the city calm, or just reported so? By which set of competing authorities? Is it calm under green or red-black-and-green (or just black) control?
The state-run Libyan news agency WAL quotes the head of Bani Walid's council, Mubarak al-Fatamni, as saying that forces loyal to the new government were attacked on 23 January in a "barbaric manner" by members of the "remnants of the Gaddafi regime".
Mr Fatamni said pro-Gaddafi forces raised their green flag over the town for a short time on Monday afternoon, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Why briefly? They took their own flags right back down? Someone forced them to? Who? How?
But spokesmen for the prime minister and defence ministry have told the BBC the dispute is a local one.
I'm sure it was local. The Greens live inside Libya and always have, and recently center themselves around a few places like Bani Walid. Is this an acknowledgement from Tripoli it wasn't one of their own brigades made up of mixed Libyans, Qatari, Irish, American, Canadian, and Australian foreign adventurers?
The government's claim, explained:
A source within the Libyan government, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC the fighting broke out after a group of former rebel fighters, the 28 May Brigade, arrested one person.
The fighting was "more a clash between local people regarding a difference of who this [arrested] person was," the source said. "But of course now other people seem to be involved as well. The situation is not very clear who is who. It's still confused."
See, they know just what they're talking about. The Green Flags must have been imagined. All is under control in Libya, the fake-out takeover has still unquestionably won.
--- Update Jan. 25: Anger, chaos but no revolt after Libya violence
Oliver Holmes, Reuters, Jan. 24
...a day after townsmen put to flight a force loyal to the Western-backed interim administration in Tripoli, elders in the desert city, once a bastion of support for Muammar Gaddafi, dismissed accusations they wanted to restore the late dictator's family to power or had any ambitions beyond their local area.
"Allegations of pro-Gaddafi elements in Bani Walid, this is not true," said Miftah Jubarra, who was among dozens of leading citizens gathered at a local mosque to form a municipal council now that nominal representatives from the capital have fled.
"In the Libyan revolution, we have all become brothers," Jubarra told Reuters. "We will not be an obstacle to progress."
[...]
People in Bani Walid urged the NTC to keep back...
But they kicked out the government. They insist on staying there, outside NTC control, but not as an obstacle. It seems they did take down any green flags that may have been (were) displayed on first conquest. It also seems it did start as a dispute over one arrest among the many they've been dealing with there.
...those willing to talk to reporters insisted the violence was no revanchist putsch but was provoked by local abuses allegedly committed by The May 28th Brigade, a militia loyal to the NTC.
"When men from Tripoli come into your house and harass women, what are we to do?" said Fati Hassan, a 28-year-old Bani Walid resident who described the men of May 28th as a mixture of local men and outsiders, former anti-Gaddafi rebels who had turned into oppressors when given control over the town.
"They were arresting people from the first day after liberation. People are still missing. I am a revolutionary and I have friends in The May 28th Brigade," said Hassan, who said he urged them to ease off. "The war is over now."
[...]
Jubarra, who sat at the meeting of elders, gave details of the incident which, he said, caused patience to snap among the people of the town.
"On Friday, the May 28th Brigade arrested a man from Bani Walid. After Bani Walid residents lodged a protest, he was finally released. But he had been tortured.
"This caused an argument that escalated to arms.
"Bani Walid fighters took over the 28th May camp, confiscated weapons and pushed them out of the city," Jubarra explained to the elders, who sat in silence around him, many of them wrapped in traditional white woollen blankets.
The government response - military - was swift to set itself up and then wait.
Residents heard warplanes overhead late on Monday as NTC forces hastily drove south from Tripoli to take up positions 50 km from Bani Walid. But those troops had, as yet, no orders to move on the town, where Gaddafi loyalists fought rebel forces to a standstill before negotiating a surrender in October.
Interior Minister Fawzi Abd al-All told a news conference in Tripoli would "strike with an iron fist" anyone who posed a threat to Libyan security - but he also said there would be no NTC move against Bani Walid until it was clear what happened.
It's been like one day, and they're proud of the lack of "iron fist" activity that sounds eerily reminiscent of something Gaddafi, or any world leader faced with an insurgecy, would say. Time for humanitarian intervention? Better proof already that Tripoli is bombing people (jets overhead) than we ever had last year when Gaddafi was in charge.
I'm for calling this a local decision, perhaps assisted by a hidden green strike force. That could also be pure propaganda by the driven out May 28 ruffians, to ensure some "iron fist"revenge. But the sudden overwhelming strike by purely local (under occupation) fighting men takes a little explaining.
I imagine the NTC will demand authority back but will have to "acknowledge grievances," maybe charge someone, promise "reforms and oversight," maybe even "hold off until after elections" on implementing any of it (likely bumped back forward in short order). But then they'll get someone else in there who'll quietly show those little punks who's in charge - it ain't the Warfalla.
--- Jan.26:
Reuters, via NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/world/africa/libya-government-yields-to-tribe-in-bani-walid.html
Libya on Wednesday recognized a government dominated by a powerful tribe in Bani Walid, a stronghold of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The move occurred days after the tribe violently expelled pro-government forces and illustrated the power of tribal leaders over the fragile interim government. Salah al-Maayuf, a member of the Warfalla elders council in Bani Walid, said that on Tuesday, his body appointed a new local council that was recognized by the defense minister on Wednesday. The tribe long benefited from Colonel Qaddafi’s rule.
But the NTCis keeping its options open - militias from the Nafusah mountains are there to surround the town and "keep the peace," not to enter it, just yet.
BBC with video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16734332
Gathered fighters loyal to the Transitional National Assembly in Libya at a checkpoint outside the Bani Walid on Tuesday after the pro-Muammar Gaddafi took control of the city and the green flag of the former regime.
Which is the largest operation since the formation of new government in Libya
Said Abdullah Mohammed, Chairman of the Board of Bani Walid military we are well equipped and highly trained
Those following the Libya S.O.S. link here, please re-direct HERE
---
This is not ready to post - my list is just too sloppy still. But I wanted a place for readers toplace or even re-post links of people to compare to people (seen at or related to the shed massacre) in a set spot. Later, I'll pull these together with what I've already got, but even before that people can know where to look and find it in the comments.
It'll be in about this format, as I've done before:
Ron Haviv / VII
RH1 - RH2 - Aug. 27. Desc: "Relatives mourn the victims of a massacre allegedly committed by forces ..." Shown, embracing, 'the sobbing man" and the red-robed man. To the side, an elderly black man. RH3 - Aug. 27. Desc: same as above. Shown, embracing, 'the sobbing man" and possibly Bashir al-Siddeq
RH4 -
...
I haven't been trying to follow the news out of Libya closely, but I just saw a dispatch in the Dec. 27 news page at the Libya S.O.S. site about new protests in Benghazi against the NTC government. Doing a news search, I find that there were huge protests reported in Benghazi in mid-December anyway, demanding the resignation of NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel-Jalil. I'm not sure yet whether the Western news is being hugely censored and manipulated here, if the S.O.S. is a little, er... over-informed, or if both types of protests have been happening at different times.
Solidarity with Tripoli
The top, or last, entry on the S.O.S. dispatch, apparently a summary, reads "22h/ BENGHAZI - People of Benghazi in solidarity with the people of Tripoli , raising the pace of protests until the Jalil 's government falls, and him and other puppets go back to the West." From the usual tone of the site, "the people of Tripoli" sounds like Gaddafi loyalists unhappy with their recent "liberation." And it has Benghazi protests, not Tripoli ones showing support for that. No sources are given, but a photo (uncredited) is attached, presumably as evidence. For anyone who can read the sign or place the photo in time or space, here it is:
Same day, earlier development: "11h/ BENGHAZI - Protesters from Benghazi Libya say somebody shot at them with snipers. It seems that NATO has same snipers ready for each and every FalseFlag or ScareFlag - > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhO3Wu10gvk" The source here is a videoof people who do seem agitated over some damage, and are shouting.Are these thesame green solidarity protesters implied in the later entry? For those who can understand what they're saying:
And earlier yet, the protesters were making their own offensives.
"09h/ BENGHAZI - Demonstrators are breaking into the so-called local Council of Benghazi, and surrounding its members, which resulted in Bboshna suspending the membership of each of employees of the local council, so as not to be able to implement any demonstrator's demands through them."
Previous days' dispatches seem to give more on the protesters and how they got started, citing a wave of them in virtually every Libyan city in recent days, all apparently demanding a return to the previous green system.
Anti-Reconciliation Protests
But I had to see what the mainstream sources, who do give more details and sources, are saying. It's roughly the opposite. A Google News search seems to unearth nothing about pro-Gaddafi/Jamahiriya protests anywhere in December until now. But it does have nods to some timid demonstrations in Tripoli against armed militias still freely roaming the city, and quite a fair amount about multiple days of rowdier protest in Benghazi.
For one thing, the demonstrators were reportedly mad at the uncertainty over whether Benghazi would be the "economic capitol" of Libya. They quickly recieved assurances from Tripoli that, whatever makes the most actual sense, they will be that. And they took offense to statements by Abdel-Jalil about pardoning (or perhaps "forgiving") pro-Gaddafi fighters in the name of reconciliation and/or avoiding future violence.
And they were fumed about the retention of one single Gaddafi-era official, the NTC's finance minister Taher Sharkas, appointed "by Gaddafi" (by the government at the time) on August 18, as rebels closed in on the capitol itself. Anyone with any history deeper than that was already well outside the bounds of employment. That this one last-minute appointee was allowed to stay on was a major scandal that had people demanding Abdel-Jalil's ouster. Not encouraging.
Most specifically, as Rami al-Shaheibi reported for AP on Sharkas' Christmas resignation, "the government has said it is open to some reconciliation with former regime officials, but protesters are mostly opposed." As AFP reported, Dec 12 "The people want another revolution!" chanted the crowds as they waved Libya's new flag." It's a powerful drug. I didn't imagine they'd be happy with the one hit they were allowed.
By this, the masses have spoken, and want no reconciliation, so peaceful merging of all remaining Libyans. Grudges and exclusion are to rule the day, the sore winners say, and what else to do with the people not embraced? Lock them all up? make them "go away?" Leave them at liberty to launch an insurgency?
I want to hear more now about these more sane, inspirational, perhaps excessively bold, green Libyan protests. I do hope they're happening, and they force at least some kind of rational compromise. Libya needs one that doesn't insult the intelligence and dignity of those who know how massively their country was just screwed. I fear it's not possible with what both sides have been left with, and Libya faces a prolonged dark age. Whether the darkness is carried only in the hearts of the defeated green masses like it is now, or in the violence they inflict and absorb trying to right things, only time will tell.
Leader of the military local council of Tripoli resigned due to the mass demonstrations against him on Monday. Meanwhile, rebel protesters want a "course correction" of the Revolution, by pressuring officials of the city in order to meet their demands.
Nothing in the news on military council resignations since al-Madhi Hatari stepped down to return to Ireland or, actually, to Syria. More protests are reported in Tripoli and Tarhunah, and another image, at right. Marches are being led by a man named Arafat, it's said. In Tarhouna, protests are escalating, the S.O.S. reports.
In respect of the events in Tarhunah, a witness from the city, said in a telephone conversation with the "Arabs today," that after a clashes broke out, angry demonstrators burned the building of local radio in the city and blew up a vehicle of the Supreme Security Committee, and siezed a range of weapons and three four-wheel vehicles.
The source, who preferred not to be named, said that head of the security committee was injured as a result of hostilities between the NTC battalion and pro-Gaddafi protesters, result was that a number of fighters from NTC battalion called "loyal Tarhunah" got killed.
Also, an armed group of unsatisfied Pro-Gaddafi citizents attacked the headquarters of the local rebel military council in the Sakra, city of Sabha, with RPGs mortars, at least on person was killed.
The deputy head of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Sunday he was resigning after a series of protests against the new government which the country's leader warned could drag Libya into a "bottomless pit".
[...]
Late on Saturday, a crowd demanding the government's resignation forced their way into the NTC's local headquarters in Benghazi while the NTC chief was inside, in the most serious show of anger at the authorities since Gaddafi's ouster.
[...]
The location of the protests is particularly galling for the NTC. Benghazi, in eastern Libya, was the birthplace of the revolt against Gaddafi's rule and the site of the NTC's headquarters during the revolt.
The NTC was formed in the early days of the revolt against Gaddafi from a hastily-assembled group of lawyers, government officials who defected, Muslim clerics, tribal leaders and civil society activists.
At the time, Gaddafi's troops were using automatic weapons to fire on protests in Benghazi and elsewhere [wrong], and there was little time to vet the members [if premised on the first, wrong].
But nearly six months on from the moment the rebellion took control of the capital Tripoli, Libyans are started to question the council's legitimacy.
The complaints still include too many people with previous government service back when Gaddafi was the figurehead, but they're showing more savvy as well, it seems.
"We hoped for security, peace and transparency. We have seen the opposite," said Miftah Al-Rabia, 28, who was standing outside the NTC's Benghazi headquarters on Sunday with a group of protesters.
[...]
"We still don't know who exactly is in the NTC. There is no transparency," said Al-Rabia, a protester standing outside the building with a group of about 30 other men.
Another protester, 24-year-old Mohammed Mahmoud, said he fought against Gaddafi during the revolt and wounded his shoulder and hand.
"We fought on the front line and received injuries but we did not see the NTC with us," he said. "I have one single question: Why has the NTC failed at everything except selling oil? We want to correct the path of the revolution."
Selling oil = selling out. We always knew they'd be good at that and little else.
The government response confirms that the protesters are getting it right. Ghoga complained that, as Holmes put it,"the national consensus [wrong] that helped the country rise up and end Gaddafi's 42-year rule had not lasted into peace-time, giving way to what he [Ghoga] called an atmosphere of hatred." He means hatred of the NTC and for himself, having been jostled bodily by a mob shortly before this. Back when the hate was safely directed only at the Gaddafi government and its millions of supporters, it was nothing but useful and encouraged. For his part, Mr. Abdel-Jalil said, as mobs threatened a sitting government of Libya for the second time in a year, suddenly "there is something behind these protests that is not for the good of the country." Chances are then it is for the good of the country and I encourage more of the same.
The comments section at the Shed Massacre witness list page has become full and won't take new messages. Apologies for the inconvenience. It would be a lot of work to clean that up, though I might. But even then, there are many comments left to make on this sprawling and sometimes confusing issue.
So, just for a post to gather more comments beneath, I guess we have about 100-150, depending, before it's full too. So don't hold back, but also lets try not to glut it too much.
And Discussion of the "Facebook Witnesses" January 22, 2012 (incomplete, last updates Feb. 6)
The following is a rush posting to prevent a flood of comments at the wrong post(s). Those that belong here, can now go beneah this post, and my own starters can go in it.
A New York "Human Rights" Campaign
Early report to Amnesty, HRW and others later, mass media help saturating the global public with the rebel version of "what happened at Yarmouk."
Then with time to be more scholarly, Physicians for Human Rights failed anyway in late November with their PHR shed massacre report
A Social Media Campaign
Petri Krohn alerts me:
In fact there is a whole Facebook page dedicated to the Yarmouk prison massacre: مجزرة معتقل اليرموك http://www.facebook.com/alyermok We also have the Association of families of victims of the Holocaust Guantanamo Yarmuk [!!] – رابطة اهالى ضحايا محرقة معتقل اليرموك http://www.facebook.com/rabta2011
I'm having problems with these pages, where I can read for a little while until it tells me I need to log in. I don't really want to, but I will try again later when I'm signed in and see if it lets me look around then.
This gives us a new alleged escapee, "Mahmoud Mukhtar (Or Mukhtar Mahmoud) Zadam" ("مختار محمود الزدام"), who was also named, perhaps as the baseball-cap-wearing central speaker in this August video featuring other known alleged survivors (which I did not know 'til the other day). It's entitled (translated) "Survivors of the massacre of the Yarmouk camp telling details of the massacre." Here on the Facegook group's page, Petri found, he's mentioned, and the first part of his saga related. Translated from Arabic:
Mahmoud Mukhtar Zadam, born in 1988, a resident of the city of Zliten, was arrested on Friday, 6/17/2011 AD. Mokhtar was arrested by some of the volunteers in the city of Zliten, with some of his cousins for being a family Zadam, which was attended by some of her children in the events of June 9
Some others I found searching for "escaped" and "survivor" (in Arabic) on these pages: http://ar-ar.facebook.com/notes/الشبكة-الليبية-للإعلام-the-libyan-network-of-media/قصة-محرقة-اليرموك-والنجاة-من-جحيم-المعتقل/243672759037799 (Later moved, pulled, or permission to view denied) "Said Mahmoud Falba a survivor of the Holocaust, which [happened at] Yarmouk camp, 32nd brigade ... the story of the Holocaust from the hell of prison escape..."
By the photo, he's the sad faced man in the Yarmouk video, who walks with a cane, and hobnobs with Sabri Tabbal. He sounds like a (claimed) onetime prisoner, rather than an escapee of the actual massacre, from what I could translate. He worked for Sun Microsystems, and found many co-workers imprisoned too, for suspicion of helping NATO bomb their country. (can anyone re-locate the page? I didn't get the photo)
Hisham Al Taher al-Sari [mast], a survivor of the massacre of Yarmouk .... Zliten ... Date of arrest 18 \ 8 \ 2011 has been arrested after storming into the house in a non-moral ... Check-out 23 \ 8 \ 2011 ... Of people who know them in prison Yarmouk gift Ahmidan .. Issam Ahbich ... Hakim large Tripoli ... A.-M. donkeys ...
And finally, translated,"The names of some of the survivors of massacre Guantanamo Yarmuk" http://ar-ar.facebook.com/rabta2011/posts/217335248332204http://ar-ar.facebook.com/rabta2011/posts/217335248332204
Proceed with a list of 40 Arabic names... Have at it, anyone. Should be fun, so I'll leave it others. How many we already had on the witness list? Not many, I'd guess... (I peeked - there are several, but many, many new names) "This list is not final," it says, in anticipation of more survivors to be found. I don't think all of these even claim to have escaped the actual massacre. The list is reproduced and partly translated/transliterated, in comments below, by contributor Petri. Thanks, Petri, for that.
Update Feb. 6: In the comments below is a great working analysis of the Facebook list of 40, a separate claim that 41 witnesses from Zliten alone (no names given) managed to escape the massacre and live to tell. Another witness account emerges, 16/17-year-old escapee Tahir Ahmed el-Bahbah, who supports el-Hitri on the guard Abdul Razak (though with the maner of a different named guard, analysis forthcoming), and names three cousins (same last name) arrested with him, two of which apparently escaped, both listed along with him on the list of 40 survivors.
"the brigade for purging slaves, black skin" - slogan seen painted in rebel country
Note, Jan. 23 2012: I didn't bother updating this post after the conquest of Tripoli, despite the abundant examples of still un-checked rebel racism and brutality that emerged. By then it was more commonly known and discussed, if always in curiously limp terms given the usual world response to such things as ethnic cleansing. I've decided now to simply bump the post with a punchy new intro, the same un-finished collection of long quotes that is the main "article,"and add two snapshots of racism since the rebel victory brought freedom (to lynch with impunity) to Libya.
Feb. 19, The Face of the Future
Bad signs emerged from the very beginning. On February 19, two days after the "Day of Rage"
In Az Zintan, apparently, they killed a black-skinned soldier of Internal Security. In his puffy blue camouflage uniform, he was presumably a Libyan citizen. They didn't just kill him but snapped his finger in half, tore open his cheek, and sliced off his nose. By the look on his face he died in exquisite pain and horror. Then they cold dragged his stiff body before their cameras, showed the world what they do to black Libyans, and staright-up called him, with no evidence, a mercenary from neighboring Chad. They implicitly promised, and rthen delivered, more of the same, continuig now for the better part of a year, most of that lynching done with NATO air support helping them overcome the of government's defenses
They showed this man no mercy, for whatever reasons. That was a bad sign. Because he could be thought of as a low-life mercenary, a hired killer and a nigger one at that, the world didn't much care, about this or dozens of similar cases nationwide. They were only mad about the alleged hiring of nigger killers from dark Africa. That was a worse sign yet. The Rebel mob's self-appointed blank checking account to cleanse Libya ethnically had been verified. The first checks were cashed, no questions asked, and that Spring and beyond they went on quite a spending spree.
Original Post as of late August:
Michael McGehee wrote in Victims of a Civil War, Z Magazine, April 5:
Libya, located in northern Africa, has a majority Arab population. It also has a racism problem. In a country of over 6 million people where a third of which are black Africans—the most oppressed group in the country—it would be completely appropriate to ask: Why aren’t they a part of the rebellion? Why is this an "Arab revolt"? It is very astonishing to see the most oppressed group not only uninvolved with a revolution but fleeing it in terror. Another interesting question is: If the rebels need foreign assistance to win, and to protect themselves from a massacre, then why have they not appealed to the black community to join their struggle in solidarity?
No, instead they were sent running "back to Africa." As Mr. McGehee notes, the non-black pride seems to be a central part of their rejection of the Gaddafi system - "there is a video of the protesters floating around the internet showing them chanting, "We are Arabs!" (at around 2:20)
The battle that is being waged in Libya is fundamentally a battle between Pan-African forces on the one hand, who are dedicated to the realization of Qaddafi's vision of a united Africa, and reactionary racist Libyan Arab forces who reject Qaddafi's vision of Libya as part of a united Africa and want to ally themselves instead with the EU and look toward Europe and the Arab World for Libya's future.
One of Muammar Qaddafi's most controversial and difficult moves in the eyes of many Libyans was his championing of Africa and his determined drive to unite Africa with one currency, one army and a shared vision regarding the true independence and liberation of the entire continent. He has contributed large amounts of his time and energy and large sums of money to this project and like Kwame Nkrumah, he has paid a high price.
Many of the Libyan people did not approve of this move. They wanted their leader to look towards Europe. Of course, Libya has extensive investments and commercial ties with Europe but the Libyans know that Qaddafi’s heart is in Africa.
A merging, and perhaps mutual dilution of Africa's native Black peoples and the late-arriving, Muslim Crusader Arabs. It should be noted Gulf states like Saudi Arabia have long frowned on Gaddafi's agendas, and have promoted in Libya certain notions about Gaddafi. One is that he is secretly Jewish, and as Jews often do is such cosmologies, was trying to smoosh the good Arabs together with black people and blur the races.
"Funny cartoons" collected by John Rosenthal at Pajamas Media, reveals much of this line of fear emerging in the graphic work of "pro-democracy protesters." One is a photo of a wall painting of "the leader":
[T]he Arabic writing is “a reference to Qaddafi’s self-declared title ‘The King of Kings of Africa.’” In fact, the title was bestowed upon Gaddafi by a meeting of traditional African rulers, which was hosted by the Libyan government in 2008. The meeting happens to have been held in Benghazi. As the AP caption notes further, the writing on the mural replaces the title “King of Kings of Africa” with that of “Monkey of Monkeys of Africa” — a phrase that manages at once to insult Gaddafi and all the African notables that attended.
(The fame of the mural, incidentally, is partly due to a recent New Yorker report, which claims that the artist was shot dead in late March immediately after completing his work. As the above photo demonstrates, however, the mural in fact already existed much earlier. The photo is dated February 23.)
Others are more explicit in their primate references. This artist might have a future at the Cartoon Network, but not at the museum of tolerance.
As billions flowed out in aid [to sub-Saharan Africa], and visa-less migrants flowed in, Libyans feared they were being turned into a minority in their own land. Church attendance soared in this Muslim state. . . . Black-bashing has become a popular afternoon sport for Libya's unemployed youths. The rumour that a Nigerian had raped a Libyan girl in Zawiya was enough to spark a spree of ethnic cleansing. . . . In their rampage on migrant workers, the Libyan mob spared Arabs, including the 750,000 Egyptians. (The Economist, "Pogrom," 14 October 2000)
The Independent's Michael Mumisa observed that "foreign media outlets have had to rely mostly on unverified reports posted on social network websites and on phone calls from Libyans terrified of Gaddafi's 'savage African mercenaries who are going door-to-door raping our women and attacking our children'," and he speaks of "a Twitter user based in Saudi Arabia," who "wrote how Gaddafi is 'ordering african mercenaries to break into homes in Benghazi to RAPE Libyan women in order to detract men protesters!'"
It was of course repeatedly widely, varied and elaborated wildly. The effect on human lives was real, and useful, in clearing the cities in rebellion of one known source of pro-regime sentiment (to believe Mr. Pirerra's analysis, anyway). Thus "the people" of these cities, those remaining both there and alive, who dared step outside, had risen up against Gaddafi.
“Come see the black working class,” yells Asante Jonny, a Ghanaian migrant worker who has been stuck at the Egypt-Libya border for four days. [...] “Life in Benghazi now is very dangerous for blacks,” says Jonny, who fled after Qadhafi’s forces were routed by defectors from a local security brigade and pro-democracy protesters, who took full control of the city. “Walking around town can get you killed. I had to run for my life after my friend from Cameroon was killed because his dreadlocks were seen as suspicious.”
As one city after the other gets "liberated", mostly following the defection of Libyan army and police units, civilians and Libyan troops agree to stop mentioning the recent fights between Libyan nationals. The "mercenaries" were and are the enemy.
Sidsel Wold, an experienced journalist from Norway's 'NRK' broadcaster currently in Al-Bayda, experienced the rhetoric first-handedly. She was told that the large battle about this east Libyan city had been fought around an army barrack, which everybody referred to as being defended by "mercenaries".
[Allowed] to film the captured "mercenaries", most turned out to have an Arab appearance. The few persons of sub-Saharan African appearance were all in civilian clothes. It became clear that several of these African "mercenaries" had been captured after the fighting.
Ms Wold also witnessed and filmed the interrogation of a captured Chadian citizen by a defected army officer. The Chadian, with civilian clothes, insisted he was a normal "civilian; a worker." Asked why he and four other Africans had been observed fleeing, he said he had been "scared by the shooting."
The defected Libyan army officer clearly stated he did "not believe" him. The attempt by a group of five sub-Saharan Africans to escape the city was "suspicious" in itself. The group was kept in detention - however in seemingly humane conditions - suspected of being "mercenaries".
[...]
Reports from other "liberated" Libyan cities are similar. In Benghazi last week, citizens attacked and destroyed a building housing 36 citizens from Chad, Niger and Sudan. The Africans were accused of being "mercenaries" and subsequently arrested, local residents told Western journalists.
It is not a simple matter of the Libyan opposition showing signs of xenophobia -- if that were true, it would resent the involvement of North Americans and Europeans. Instead, this is a racially selective xenophobia, with a preferential option for Western (i.e., U.S. and European) intervention, and against the presence of "Africans" (code for Sub-Saharan, black Africans). It reminds me of an old racial saying I learned in the Caribbean, truncated here: "If you're white, you're alright . . . and if you're black, go back."
The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching, the whole world is watching as innocent Africans are being lynched in Libya. The time to act is right now since nobody acted yesterday or day before. It started as a rumor, then it was reported on social network and now we know it is real. The world must act and act quickly.
There are men, women and children dying in the hands of Libyan mobs simply because they look Africans and must therefore be mercenaries because they cannot place their hands on Gadhafi.
"We left behind our friends from Chad. We left behind their bodies. We had 70 or 80 people from Chad working for our company. They cut them dead with pruning shears and axes, attacking them, saying you're providing troops for Gadhafi. The Sudanese, the Chadians were massacred. We saw it ourselves."
Of those captured who were killed and mutilated by "pro-democracy demonstrators," and proudly shown on Youtube and Facebook, a clear majority were "mercenaries," meaning dark Africans.
"I am a worker, not a fighter. They took me from my house and [raped] my wife," he said, gesturing with his hands. Before he could say much more, a pair of guards told him to shut up and hustled him through the steel doors of a cell block, which quickly slammed behind them. Several reporters protested and the man was eventually brought back out. He spoke in broken, heavily accented English and it was hard to hear and understand him amid the scrum of scribes pushing closer. He said his name was Alfusainey Kambi, and again professed innocence before being confronted by an opposition official, who produced two Gambian passports. One was old and tattered and the other new. And for some reason, the official said the documents were proof positive that Kambi was a Kadafi operative.
[...]
All I know is that the Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits prisoners of war from being paraded and questioned before cameras of any kind. But that's exactly what happened today. The whole incident just gave me a really bad vibe, and thank God it finally ended . . . . [O]ur interpreter, a Libyan national, asked [LA Times reported David] Zucchino: "So what do you think? Should we just go ahead and kill them?"
Again, considering the near-total lack of evidence of African mercenaries, aside from a few extracted "confessions," the myth of them took on a life of its own and fueled this ethnic cleansing. Who, besides anonymous Twitter accounts was responsible for spreading these horrible lies? Consider this, shared by Maxmilian Forte:
"They [the mercenaries] are from Africa, and speak French and other languages." He said their presence had prompted some army troops to switch sides to the opposition. "They are Libyans and they cannot see foreigners killing Libyans so they moved beside the people." [...] "People say [the mercenaries] are black Africans and they don't speak Arabic. They are doing terrible things, going to houses and killing women and children."
The answer is:
Ali Abd-al-Aziz al-Isawi who previously served as Secretary of the General People's Committee of Libya (GPCO) for Economy, Trade, and Investment -- now responsible for "foreign affairs" and "international liaison" as the third-ranked member of the TNC [rebel Transitional National Council]. ... At the time of the [2000] race riots, the then Minister ... al-Isawi -- stated about the African presence: "it is a burden"; and then he added this: "They are a burden on health care, they spread disease, crime. They are illegal."
Update, June 29
The Wall Street Journal, of all sources, just ran a story dealing with racism among Libyan rebels, especially in the besieged Misrata, against the nearby, mostly-black and government-loyal, town of Tawergha.
Many Misratans are convinced that Tawerghans were responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed during their city's siege, including allegedly raping women in front of their relatives and helping Gadhafi forces identify and kidnap rebel sympathizers and their families.
Yeah, and don't forget the snipers that shot at least two little Misrata children in their little chest, says an X-ray image. Mighta been those same folks. A neighborhood of Misrata once dominated by Tawerghans was flushed out early on, some likely making cameos as "captured African mercenaries."Either way, they aren't taking it anymore.
Ibrahim al-Halbous, a rebel commander leading the fight near Tawergha, says all remaining residents should leave once if his fighters capture the town. "They should pack up," Mr. Halbous said. "Tawergha no longer exists, only Misrata."
Some of the hatred of Tawergha has racist overtones that were mostly latent before the current conflict.
On the road between Misrata and Tawergha, rebel slogans like "the brigade for purging slaves, black skin" have supplanted pro-Gadhafi scrawl.
And remember, these monsters are the "good guys," the ones the government there is bombed to smithereens for resisting, the ones NATO is trying to hand all of Libya over to. Please, those who are powerless to put a stop to this enormous and amoral machine, just pray for Libya. An atheist like me can't do it.
Update August 5: A noteworthy addition - Fox News of all outfits spoke with a doctor, apparently black, who left Benghazi, his home of 21 years, after having dealt with the rebels.
“They wanted to kill blacks there,” he says. “I’d be killed if I stayed.”
“They catch [detain] me with a gun in front of my wife and kids. They arrested me, tied me up and covered my eyes and took me to their camp for questioning about Muammar Qaddafi.”
It was only after local hospital officials confirmed his identity that he was freed. He left the city, his home for the past 21 years, and headed for the Egyptian border with his wife, two small boys and just two bags. From Egypt, the family was taken to Tunisia and then to Tripoli and finally to this remote refugee center.
Snapshots, added Jan. 23 Snapshot 1: Late August, Abu Salim, Tripoli
As rebel forces from the racist Misrata brigades or the racist Zintan brigades swept through the holdout parts of town, none was a larger target or more rife with brutality than the largely-Black, mostly loyalist, working-class neighborhood of Abu Salim.
No mercy in Tripoli fighting
By Marc Bastian (AFP) – Aug 26, 2011
On Thursday as the two groups clashed heavily in the capital, rebel fighters showed two corpses lying in a hall of a building. “These residents refused to take weapons given by the men of Gaddafi to fight us. They were executed with a bullet in the head,” said a rebel, whose claim was backed by several locals from Abu Slim. A few hours later, the rebels captured several prisoners, a man was pinned to the ground and a shot rang out. The body did not move.
A separate incident occurred as a group of rebels began lynching another prisoner, he was saved from a worse fate when a rebel noticed a journalist shouting “Stop, Stop! Journalists!”.
A rebel in his fifties who gave his name as Abdelnasser justified the fury of fellow rebels. “Most people here are pro-Gaddafi and shoot at us. We cannot trust them, even young people.” he said.
Snapshot 2, late January, 2012
Nearly a year on, and the ethic cleansing, or incessant toying at the fringes of it, continues. In Depth Africa reports:
Somali asylum seekers who fled Libya by boat and were brought to Malta last weekend tell Patrick Cooke that Africans still risk beatings and even death in post-Gaddafi Libya.
Zakaria and a fellow Somali were exhausted after carrying out back-breaking manual labour for a Libyan man who had picked them up in ‘Krimea’, an area of Tripoli where the city’s underclass of sub-Saharan Africans congregate in the hope of finding work.
At the moment all Libyans have guns… there is no security and no stability
“When we finished, he told us ‘you are a friend of Gaddafi so I will not pay you, you killed our brothers’. Then he beat us with sticks and threatened us with a gun,” Zakaria tells The Sunday Times.
“Africans are being beaten and killed in Libya and no one there cares,” he adds to nods from his companions inside Lyster Detention Centre, where the 68 Somali asylum seekers rescued at sea last weekend are being housed.
A crowd gathers to share or listen to stories of life in post-revolution Libya for dark-skinned Africans, which are articulated into English by Zakaria and another asylum seeker, Abdul Karim.
‘Murtazaka’ – meaning ‘mercenary’ in Arabic – is a word they all know too well.
“Even now they all call us murtazaka. We cannot say anything because we have nothing and all Libyan men have guns. They say we are the brothers of Gaddafi,” says Abdul Karim.
