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Monday, March 19, 2012

See-Through Salem: Al-Farjani's "Premature Dissolution"

March 19, 2012

<< See-Through Salem {Masterlist}

We have just learned our celebrity faker Dr. al-Farjani has lost his perch helping the NTC figure out who killed who. His much-mentioned (by him) national commission for missing persons recently suffered a mysterious cancellation. Perhaps the problems first publicized here - his activities posing as a witness and coaching other witnesses to create the "facts" he was tasked with finding - contributed. Perhaps they were unrelated. No explanation has been publicly offered.

Previously, we outlined his late-2011 rise to authority in "Free Libya" and attainment of global recognition as the co-chair (and sometimes Deputy chairman) of the highly-relevant-sounding commission. As of mid-February he was mentioned not as a co-chair or deputy chair of anything, but rather “journalist Salem al-Farjani.” He told the Magharebia news service, one year after the civil war was begun, “it was the first time Libya had an occasion to celebrate” and he hoped “that the souls of martyrs won't go in vain.” Same guy? Major qualification just not mentioned?

In mid-March, he was scheduled to give a speech in Geneva sponsored by Swiss group TRIAL (Track Impunity Always). In the interests of holding war criminals accountable, they decided to host “a privileged meeting with Dr. Salem Alferjani, forensic scientist and human rights activist and former Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons in Libya,” speaking on “Identifying the Missing: Truth and Accountability in Post-Gaddafi Libya.” [TR] The possible liar and absolver of rebel war criminals was called an esteemed expert in how truth and justice relate to each other.

“With the support of Dr. Salem Alferjani, forensic scientist and human rights activist, TRIAL called for a temporary halt to all excavations… […] Dr. Salem Alferjani has been the Deputy-Chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons in Libya, which was in charge of the exhumation and identification […] Despite the premature dissolution of the Commission, Dr. Alferjani is convinced that the disclosure of the truth regarding these mass graves is the only way to provide the victims’ families with a minimum of justice, thus he is still engaged in the identification of the victims of human rights violations in Libya.”

The truth does in FACT underpin justice, noble convictions aside. That is why he was there from the beginning helping seed lies about the shed massacre, to ensure the rebel/NTC/NATO thugs were NOT held accountable, and loyalists were convicted.

There might be a temptation to write off the whole issue of “See-through Saelm’s” apparent deceit. Engendering that temptation might have been the very idea behind shutting his operation down. However, he and his baggage remain relevant in three important ways.

1) Even besides lectures, the man is still at work, at least according to TRIAL, who related his activities after the Commission’s unexplained end:
“Currently, Dr. Alferjani works together with several local and international NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross. He is also an important focal point in Libya for the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon.”

2) His past work hasn’t disappeared. He touched much (and many) while in charge, shaping a case that might be entirely bogus, a case which in all likelihood stands unchanged.

3) He might be a rare window into how these things work. It does Libya and the Truth no good if someone as deceitful as Dr. al-Farjani is shunted aside and replaced with someone just as crooked but less obvious about it.

22 comments:

  1. @ caustic : did y hear of this organisation?


    http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/A.HRC.17.44_AUV.pdf
    http://www.hpcrresearch.org/blog/rob-grace/2011-10-28/reports-extrajudicial-killings-libya
    Junior Associate
    Email Rob Grace

    Rob focuses on the Monitoring, Reporting, and Fact-finding (MRF) Project, which analyzes MRF bodies' efforts to investigate alleged violations of international law during armed conflicts. He also contributes to HPCR's "IHL in Action" blog. His research interests include international security, foreign policy, and the politics of international law.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HRC: As of 20 May, some 814,022 persons were reported to
      have left Libya.55 Amongst this group, 322,262 are estimated to be Libyan. A majority of those who have crossed borders are migrant workers.
      Wow (if true)

      Delete
    2. The link seemed so familiar to me , so I checked and found from where the wind blows :


      http://hrcpblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/international-federation-for-human-rights-fidh-libyan-league-for-human-rights-llh/

      The International community must respond urgently

      http://www.fidh.org/Massacres-in-Libya-The-international-community Paris, Monday February 21 – The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Libyan League for Human Rights

      Delete
  2. Rob Grace could start with :

    Victims’ families are generally unwilling to publicize their cases for fear of reprisals and to avoid the stigma of being labelled as al-Gaddafi loyalists or “anti-revolutionary”.

    Some go as far as disguising the identity of the perpetrators.
    The assumption is that anyone targeted by the thuwwar must be al-Gaddafi loyalists and “anti-revolutionary”.
    Relatives of a former member of the security forces who was abducted from his home by armed opposition fighters and found dead the following day – his hands and feet were bound and he had been shot in the head – told Amnesty International that they had registered the deceased as a “martyr of
    the revolution” and a victim of al-Gaddafi forces.


    Several detainees, including Libyan and foreign civilians, as well as captured soldiers, told Amnesty International that they were tortured, in most cases immediately upon capture by those who seized them and in some cases during the first days of detention. Allegations of beatings and ill-treatment upon capture were frequent, and allegations of torture in detention were particularly common in the Zarouq detention centre in Misratah, as well as in a building separate from the detention facility in the 17 February military camp.

    He wears glasses,is about 40 years old and people call him ‘Abdellatif. There are some others also who come with him but not every time.”

    Amnesty International was also shown video footage of a group of supporters of the opposition taunting and humiliating captured soldiers receiving treatment at the al-Jala’a Hospital in Benghazi, including forcing them to repeat “I am a Gaddafi dog” and chewing paper.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hurriya, thanks for highlighting this:
      Relatives of a former member of the security forces who was abducted from his home by armed opposition fighters and found dead the following day – his hands and feet were bound and he had been shot in the head – told Amnesty International that they had registered the deceased as a “martyr of the revolution” and a victim of al-Gaddafi forces.

      I have that report, but hadn't noticed that passage. Fascinating. Maybe Dr. al-Farjani's lists were largely of the actual people killed here or there, and even fair DNA work would show it, only with the stories surrounding their ideology and death falsified... the executed soldier was now a former soldier who had joined the rebels, but was catured and killed by loyalists just after the rebels arrived and caused all the soldiers to vanish, leaving behind only "martyrs..."

      Delete
  3. Mohamed al-Allagi,before the chairman of the human rights committee of the Gaddafi Foundation. Nowadays Libyan Minister of Justice and Human Rights :

    Al-Allagi, , Libyan Minister of Justice and Human Rights, was the first representative of Libya to take the floor following the UN’s recognition of Libya’s new government, the National Transitional Council (NTC). Al-Allagi added that the NTC is willing to fully cooperate with the Council’s Commission of Inquiry into human rights crimes in the country.

    http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/18495.html
    http://www.libya-index.com/wp-content/plugins/rss-poster/cache/945fe_6163008574_b422302ac5.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  4. “Mass Grave of Libyan Prisoners Found.

    on Sunday, September 25, 2011, Salem Fergani, a member of Abdel Jalil’s TNC
    yanked from his magician’s hat another horror: a mass grave of murdered prisoners.

    headlined without casting the least doubt on the facts by Al Jazeera

    ReplyDelete
  5. -Abu Saleem Prisoners freed in 2010 and 2011 by initiative of Zeef al Islam related to :
    Mass Grave of Libyan Prisoners Found

    705 prisoners have been released as part of the initiative. Tuesday’s release followed the release of 214 men in March, and on Tuesday Mohamed al-Allagi, the chairman of the human rights committee of the Gaddafi Foundation, stated,
    http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/opinion-editorial/item/513-ex-guantanamo-prisoner-freed-in-libya-after-three-years-detention-and-information-about-ghost-prisoners

    Under the influence of Saif al-Islam, one of Gaddafi’s sons and the head of the Gaddafi Foundation, a charity that includes a human rights committee, the Libyan regime has, in recent years, sought to reconcile itself with former political opponents, leading to the release of hundreds of prisoners since 2007.

    As Reuters explained, five of the prisoners released on Tuesday had links to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Some of the released LIFG figures :

    -Khaled Sharif/Khaled al-Sharif aka Abu Hazem;
    Khaled al-Sharif : " Libya finds 1270 bodies from 1996 massacre "

    Sami Saadi / Abu Munder al-Saadi,Sami Mustafa al-Saadi ,
    "I am happy this revolution succeeded, and that our country will be better,” said 45-year old Sami al-Saadi, who believed two of his brothers died in the massacre

    Belhadj, one of three significant LIFG figures released in March, along with “military chief” Khaled Sharif and “ideological official” Sami Saadi (as AFP described them) also said that the rest of the prisoners released on Tuesday had been detained “because they sympathized with Islamist militant movements, but were not LIFG members.”

    The Wall Street Journal reported in early April that ex-Mujahideen (CIA-trained) fighters from the Afghan-Soviet war are in Libya aiding the rebels. The ex-Mujahideen fighters that the West trained, armed and supported in Afghanistan in the 1980s are now referred to in common parlance as “al-Qaeda,”
    unless of course we are supporting them

    http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/08/26/lies-war-and-empire-nato%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Chumanitarian-imperialism%E2%80%9D-in-libya/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the site [near Abu Salim prison in Tripoli] , was identified earlier on 20 August.

      If that is the case, why is the media making all this noise now?
      http://cirqueminimeparis.blogspot.com/2011/10/normal-0-0-1-1288-6184-106-17-9018-11.html

      Libiyan tv closed 22 aug

      http://libya-revolution.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

      The Libyan television showed the sites that NATO planes had bombed and one of those sites is located in Abu Salim center where is a political and security prison known as Abu Salim.

      The news is that the rebels were able to free prisoners detained in prison, "Abu Salim" after NATO targeted security gates in the vicinity of the prison, and armed clashes and demonstrations were recorded in some neighborhoods.

      http://translate.google.nl/translate?hl=nl&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flibya-revolution.blogspot.com%2F2011_08_01_archive.html

      Delete
    2. It could be very well possible that these mad men caused all the dead in abu saleem area on 20 aug. But the media give as date 24 aug. Other options for an inside job : the Sjeich al Furjani club or the Ragai club with his command of 70 misrata veterans or the 12 Alex Thomson UK Service members

      From 690 prisoners escaped buslim yesterday 540 were al qaeda member
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTkge56M7ts

      A cell block n Abu Salim prison on Sep 5. No crowds. I was there with a friend who was released Aug 24 twitpic.com/6iuq03

      Two other Libyan nationals, transferred from Guantánamo Bay in December 2006 and September 2007 respectively, were also detained at Abu Salim Prison at the time of Amnesty International’s visit.
      http://legalift.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/amnesty-international-confirms-detention-of-at-least-6-individuals-transferred-from-secret-us-custody-to-libya/
      http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/25/four-prisoners-freed-from-guantanamo-three-in-albania-one-in-spain/
      http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/04/01/more-dark-truths-from-guantanamo-as-five-innocent-men-released/

      "Where were you when I was being tortured in American jails"?

      The men claimed that before they were sent to Libya, US forces had tortured them in detention centers in Afghanistan, and supervised their torture in Pakistan and Thailand.

      http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/05/11/libyaus-investigate-death-former-cia-prisoner

      Delete
    3. Amnesty has more details about one ghost-detainee:

      Khalid al-Sharif, known as Abu Hazem, spent about five years detained in Libya before his release in March 2010. He agreed to talk to Amnesty International. He described his arrest by US and Pakistani forces in Peshawar on 3 April 2002 along with Mohamed Shu’iya, known as Hassan Ruba’i and his detention in various facilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan – in Peshawar, Islamabad, Kabul and Bagram.


      http://www.danieletter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/de_110907_3983_web.jpg
      Abdul Rahman Muftar Ali Ahmed Sharif, 23, shows where he was bound to be tortured in a factory in Khoms, Libya, Sept. 7, 2011. During the last days of the Gaddafi Regime he was held in a shipping container with nine others, who all died of suffocation or dehydration. Sharif was taking part in protests against Gaddafi and he thinks he was arrested because someone saw him spraying anti-government grafitti.
      http://www.danieletter.com/beyond-gaddafi/

      Anees al-Sharif, a spokesman of the new #Tripoli military council … “We will not accept Jibril’s authority over us,” he told CNN". #Libya

      Delete
    4. For now, however, I am delighted that his main compound in Tripoli and his gaudy palaces have been ransacked, and, in particular, that his main prison, Abu Salim, has been liberated. My interest in Libya stems not only from a general revulsion at the barbarity of dictatorships, but also through my friendship with Omar Deghayes, the former Guantánamo prisoner who came to the UK as a child in the 1980s after his father, a lawyer and trade union activist, was murdered by Gaddafi.
      http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/08/27/an-end-to-gaddafis-tyranny-the-liberation-of-the-hated-abu-salim-prison/


      Omar Deghayes studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and later studied in Huddersfield.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Deghayes
      http://www.scribd.com/doc/44719907/Wikileaks-Cablegate-Madrid
      http://brockley.blogspot.com/2009/10/remembering-our-dead-2-dave-hann.html


      UK born muslim from Wolverhampton joins rebels/al qaeda in Libya
      http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2011/08/28/wolverhampton-man-is-among-libyan-freedom-fighters-66331-29317322/

      Delete
    5. Thanks Hurriya - very spooky stuff. And a very very full Wikpedia entry.

      Delete
  7. Mansour Khikia , member of LLHR



    Mansour Kikhia : where he is believed to have been executed
    http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,IRBC,,DEU,,3df4bed31c,0.html
    The League was founded in 1989 by Soliman Bouchuiguir, Hussein Raiani, Mohammad Zayyan, and Mansour Kikhia. Mansour Kikhia, former Libyan ambassador to the United Nations, had defected to the US in 1980 and, in December 1993, was kidnapped in Egypt and subsequently transported to Libya, where he is believed to have been executed. The current Secretary-General of the League is Hussein Raiani.
    http://libyanleague.org/


    City Representatives:
    Mansour Kikhia - City of Benghazi
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Transitional_Council

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Free Generation Movement of Mervat Mhani (public school English accent...) is involved with listing missing persons through Mafqood.org.
    https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=186052631489364 That was December...to urge the Minster to "...2- Contact Military councils and get a list of their prisoners (katayeb), as many of these prisoners are considered missing by their families.

    3- Request list of buried katayeb for cross-referencing..."
    I wonder how that is progressing??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's quite interesting. It's kind of nice, but also weird and awkward to see spots of sanity in "Free Libya." Sort of complicates things from the complete Orwellian inversion they usually seem to be
      .

      Delete
    2. Nizar, the oral surgeon from Cardiff, and his sister Mervat, had started a campaign of civil disobedience,/Nizar Mhani (Niz Ben-Essa)
      Niz Mhani had lived in Britain for ten years, becoming a successful dentist

      But Niz's cousin, Mukhtar, an IT expert in a government department, hacked in to the Libyan regime's own computers and set up a clandestine link to the outside world through his ministry's own satellite dish.

      Perhaps its most important role, however, was as a provider of intelligence to Nato forces which were daily bombarding the capital.
      "We would give them logistical advice – there's a tank here, artillery there, this area's not well defended, this is where katiba [military units] are being housed," said Niz

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgc2cpr8OGI
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGVb_VEnc18

      FGM is putting the database together to help Libyans trace family members who were victims of the regime or were arrested and lost during the conflict.
      http://revolutionaryprogram.blogspot.com/2011/10/tripolis-free-generation-movement.html

      Delete
  9. hot, not checked it yet, but names sound familiair : 21 may


    NATO mercenaries dragging Dr.Salem Ferjani out of the Tripoli medical center: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=337047939701449&set=a.154538474619064.40814.154528817953363&type=1 Thx for your support @matt_vandyke !
    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=337047939701449&set=a.154538474619064.40814.154528817953363&type=1

    ReplyDelete
  10. This photo is not in the prison of Abu Ghraib, not at Guantanamo Bay ... !!
    This is an image in the Tripoli Medical Center, and the treatment of Dr. "Salem Ferjani" after attending a management center to complete the procedures for delivery and receipt,

    This is the new Libya This is the democracy , this is justice and human rights that were promised to the people, deceived by the world in the clearest images and the hands of the so-called temporary Supreme Security Committee Tripoli.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ??? They're carrying a man whose midsection looks fat enough to be him. No back-story, no clear images... I hope any good mission he was secretly on will bear fruit (it's in our hands and doing okay) without him having to suffer too much. Premature dissolution needn't be this extreme.Will need to learn more, later today.

      Delete
  11. " His much-mentioned (by him) national commission for missing persons recently suffered a mysterious cancellation."

    16 aug 2012
    http://www.libyaherald.com/?p=12814

    The support centre, the first of its kind, has been set up by the ‘Mafqood‘ or ‘Missing’ campaign in partnership with the Free Generation Movement (FGM) and Creative Associates International, an organisation dedicated to supporting people around the world make positive changes.

    Mafqood was founded by FGM and is run by a team of volunteers who input data on missing persons into a central database and offer support to friends and families of missing persons.

    The support centre is headed by Dr. Mervat Mhani, a key activist in FGM.

    She has recently been appointed as Head of International Relations at the Ministry of Martyrs and the Missing, which seeks to help the search for missing persons through improved communications across the country.
    http://www.libyaherald.com/?p=12814

    Niz_FGM Niz
    updates made to the site. please access and share….. ESSENTIAL. mafqood.org #Tripoli #Libya

    A facebook page with pictures of those missing in #Libya and contact numbers if you have any information www.facebook.com/MissingLibyans?sk=wall #Feb17

    Niz_FGM Niz
    a member of the Free Generation Movement will be speaking to LibyaAlAhrar about the Mafqood.org project in about 2 hours from now….
    Any photos of Tripoli Martyrs send to Tripoli.Latest@gmail.org
    Niz_FGM Niz

    ReplyDelete

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