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Sunday, January 29, 2012

The Tripoli Massacres: See-Through Salem {Masterlist}

Dr. Salem al-Farjani Or, What Ever Became of Dr. Rajub? 
December 15, 2011
last edits May 24, 2012

<<The Tripoli Massacres


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.

See-Through Salem: Rise of a Massacre Masseuse
Government service, fact-finding about loyalist crimes tasked to the fact-seeding, fact-finding team of Dr. al Farjani and himself.

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.

Amnesty By Way of Fakery
A video, a good one (youtube link), covering all the above plus faker Bashir and another faker working with him in a team effort. Please note as the video wasn't able to that the confronted soldier therein is also apparently fake.


Al-Farjani's "Premature Dissolution"
So it seems he's now NOT working for the NTC, but still remains relevant.

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.

89 comments:

  1. I did get it all up in a day and a half, barely. I'm impressed. Probably a few typos left, ould stand to be trimmed-down a bit, but ...

    What I could use is second-guessing or critiques of the parallel I so quickly became attached to. Or, if you can't muster it, any other related findings, other thoughts, or nothing, as the case may be.

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  2. Wow, that's his identical twin brother...
    It's Vanessa Gera, not Gerin as made clear subseqently in your text. And as faithfully replicated by the increasingly ridiculous Guardian newspaper

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  3. Not sure if it is connected, but this version of the Gera article is accompanied by an AP photo by Abdel Majid Al-Fergany. عبد المجيد فرجاني who also photographed the "human bones" on 25 September near Abu Salim

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  4. It is interesting that the Tripoli Medical Center is also the place where David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy toured with Mustafa Abdul Jalil and Mahmoud Jibril during their visit to Tripoli.
    David Cameron calls on Colonel Gaddafi to surrender during triumphant visit to Libya by James Lyons, Daily Mirror 16/09/2011

    Dr Salim Rajub has a distinctive feature, a gap between the teeth of his lower jaw. I tried to find other photos of Dr. Salem al-Farjani, but could not find any. It would help if I knew how his name was spelled in Arabic.

    I then went looking for a "Dr. Salem" in the Tripoli Medical Center in Arabic language pages, but could not find anything. If this guy or his pall Othman Abdul-Jalil was really a doctor he should have left some trace on the Internet.

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  5. This list of Members of the scientific councils list 47 names accredited with the Tripoli Medical Center. One memeber of the Scientific Board of Emergency Medicine is named "د. فرج عبدالسلام" which Google translates to D. Salam Faraj. His specialty is stated as pediatrics.

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  6. Petri, Dr Salem leaves no trace for a cardiac surgeon. His arabic medical name would be
    الدكتور سالم فرجاني
    Indeed it appears on this page of CNN Arabic from 25 August 2011. (Libya mass grave)

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  7. Note, that the reason Dr Salim Rajub looks so round-faced is because he is standing too close to the camera.

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  8. Great additions. Little clear trace of the guy (seen yet) - except app.in Pediatrics, not cardiology or criminal forensics. Fixed the errant Gerin, last-minute half-asleep add in paragraph 1. New info next comment.

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  9. Same guy gave UN SecGen. Moon a tour:
    The Secretary-General then visited a mass-grave site near the capital and met with the survivors and families of victims of a massacre that had been carried out by the Khamis Brigade [...]
    After being briefed on the incident in the warehouse by Salem al Ferjani, the acting Chairperson of the National Missing Persons Commission, the Secretary-General told the group he was profoundly shocked by what he had seen and heard. He said the perpetrators of all such human rights crimes should be brought to account.

    http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sgt2817.doc.htm

    Familiar faces in this photo from that?

    Will add after time for any other worthy thoughts.

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  10. @ PK: Note, that the reason Dr Salim Rajub looks so round-faced is because he is standing too close to the camera.

    Maybe part of it, but his neck, shoulders even, all look thicker too. My guess is he either put on a few pounds (from eating on the road?) and then shaved for his role, or that's was how he usually looked then, but lost some fat and got beardy for the rebel job, hoping that would keep him from being identified and forced to resign as far too obvioius a faker for their tastes...

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  11. The only previous reference to Salem al-Farjani is in connection to the discovery of 1270 sets of camel bones at the Abu Slim prison. In your article on the topic you refer to him as Salim al-Serjani. Other sources say he is the vice-president of the newly formed National Commission for Tracing and Identifying Missing Persons. Here he is even interviewed by the New Scientist.

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  12. Isn't this Dr Salim Rajub speaking on this video from Misrata in June? The text says it is related to a Committee on Missing Persons. Could it instead be Salim al-Serjani, now vice-president of the National Commission for Tracing and Identifying Missing Persons?

    لجنة المفقودين.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScdhW8C1hAg
    Uploaded by freemisrata on Jun 10, 2011

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  13. I had a better look at the video, not the same person....

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  14. There are some more problematic issues on the Abu - Salim massive grave. See http://factdrop.blogspot.com/2011/09/concerning-recently-discovered-massive.html

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  15. Going slightly off topic here...but I just spotted the Irish commander-in-Chief of the Tripoli Brigade of rebels,who was recently in the news over a robbery at his home in Dublin, was on board one of the six ships of the June 2010 Gaza aid flotilla, along with another Libyan-Irishman, Isam Bin Ali. The photograph of 'Harati' accompanying the article in the Irish press is patently not of Al-Mahdi Al-Harati but of a Catholic priest (?) Curiouser and curiouser.

    Back on topic, Salim/Salem Sargani/Sarjani also creates no internet impression whatsoever, as a cardiac surgeon or any from other profession.

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  16. @factdrop
    Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 finds another Abu Salim massacre survivor, Wanise Elisawi, uploaded 28 August 2011..Abu Salim, the 'spark' of Libya's revolution.
    After doing his degree in the US, Wanise went to Morocco for military training, returning to Tripoli with a small band of men to attempt a coup against Colonel Gaddafi. It was May 1984

    Another video from the BBC, 25 September 2011 quotes the NTC's Dr Ibrahim Mohamed Abushima. Also here from 1 September, Jeremy Bowen reporting from Abu Salim.

    Other pieces which all centre on the lightly sourced but universally quoted 1,200 death figure are found on this page

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  17. It seems that the Tripoli Medical Center became some kind of revolutionary support center during the war, as it was afterwards rewarded by multiple state visits, including one by Hillary Clinton. The Center was main teaching hospital of the Al Fateh University and had a large foreign academic staff. With the English language comes dissent, and – ultimately, colonialism.

    Quote: Preference is given to non-Libyan consultants and universities, who are selected to bring international know-how and best-practice methods to Libya.

    The Vanessa Gera / AP story (with large images here) says Salem al-Farjani initially started recording names of dead government soldiers. He may well be the anonymous source of this story: Tripoli Medical Center refrigerators full of the bodies of al-Gaddafi.

    This New York Times story by Rod Nordland from September 17, 2011 – Libya Counts More Martyrs Than Bodies (mirror) – gives a summary of the bodies found in Tripoli.

    Quote:The Red Cross counted only 125 dead from the 13 sites it confirmed, with 53 of those found in a hangar near Tripoli’s airport.

    (Another confirmation that the claim of 150 bodies at the Yarmouk shed is a hoax.)

    The story also gives more details on Dr. Othman Abdul-Jalil, again with a different name:

    Quote: His view is shared by Dr. Othman el-Zentani, a forensic pathologist who has been put in charge of the National Council of the Missing, joining various ministries and international agencies like the Red Cross in an effort to rationalize the lists of missing.

    Dr. Othman el-Zentani seems to be a real person, some sources describe him as "Libya's chief pathologist."

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  18. I am still trying to find images of Salem al-Farjan / al-Serjani on Arabic language pages. The search has been frustratad by my inability (and Google's) to transliterate any of the three surnames mentioned here into Arabic script.

    A small breakthrough came when I finally found a document with the name el-Zentani in both scrips. Dr. Othman el-Zentani is "عثمان الزنتانى" (also translates to "Osman Alzentani"). This may be his Facebook page. Here is a video of him discussing the Gaddafi autopsy.

    Interview with the pathologist who performed the autopsy Gaddafi
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPqnSx5K92M
    Uploaded by alaantube on Oct 26, 2011

    Dr. el-Zentani seems to be a genuine expert. He presented two posters at the The 6th Jamahiriya Conference for Medical Sciences in Zawia in MArch 2009. This may be his thesis from 1998: Obscure death: the medico-legal dilemma in cases of undetermined cause and mode of death

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  19. So after getting up this exciting new post, I had additions in mind and comments to respond to, but then got Shanghaied into a family night at the bar as both my brothers tried to find some lady love and I just helped, slipped on the ice, etc.

    Off-topic.

    Ferjani/Serjani I'd think it's the same guy, from the job description. "now vice-president of the National Commission for Tracing and Identifying Missing Persons," prev. "acting Chairperson of the National Missing Persons Commission", S vs. F.

    The UN link has a photo at each link in the relevant paragraph - one seems to show him full-body next to Moon. He's a little guy, looks like, and not as lean on Nov.3 as the Nov. 30 face photo suggests. I wonder if registering there lets one download a higher-res version?

    @ Factdrop: Thanks for a first comment. That article is quite good and exhaustive. Much detail and reasonable.

    Others: Hospital and doctor notes, no comment yet... Good leads, tho I don't know how much internet trace most doctors in Libya would normally leave.

    What would really help is hearing al-Ferjani speak. He may have been trying to sound different as Rajub, but worth listening. He's a public news figure now, should have his voice about somewhere...

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  20. If the National Missing Persons Commission was for real, I would assume they would have some presence on the web. I have found nothing.

    The one person mentioned in the article that is trivially easy to find is Hatem el-Turki, the head of the Libyan Society of the Missing. He has a Facebook page that again links to the Facebook page of the society. Their official web page is at www.missing.ly

    I am still banging my head against the wall with Salem al-Farjan / al-Serjani. The only al-Serjani Google is aware of is Dr. Ragheb Al Serjani. If Salem spells his last name the same way, he would be "سالم السرجانى". There is a Facebook page for the name. No information is publicly available.

    Dr. Ragheb Al Serjani (born 1964) is a professor of medicine (urology) at the Cairo University. (Wikipedia) He is also an Islamist scholar who keeps his propaganda site at www.islamstory.com

    A Google image search shows that there is a strong likeness between the two doctors Serjani. I would not be surprised if a close relative of the Cairo professor Serjani was part of the foreign staff at the Tripoli medical Center.

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  21. I registered at the UN photo site over an hour ago and am still waiting for the automatic response with the password. In the meantime you could check if you can find Dr. Salim Rajub lurking somewhere at the Conference of the Society of the Missing.

    I compared the video of Dr Rajub with the high resolution 1300 pixel image of Dr. al-Farjani available at The Examiner. I find that all minor facial features match. Most telling are the wrinkles or folds underneath his cheeks.

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  22. I am trying to squeeze every last bit of information out of Google. Doing an image search on "سالم السرجانى" brings up three thumbnails it claims IT has seen on the Salem Serjani Facebook page. I cannot see anything there. Doing another Google image search on the thumbnail images returns two other Facebook profiles:
    http://www.facebook.com/uae.woman
    http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002227785377

    These profiles are somehow connected.

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  23. Petri - I also noticed that similarity between white haired Dr Ragheb Serjani, and our friend Salem.

    Now,here is our man Salem Ferjany speaking on AlManara Libya لقاء مع الدكتور سالم الفرجاني عضو اللجنة الوطنية للتعرف على هويات ضحايا حرب التحرير ,uploaded 1 October 2011.

    This YouTube video,NATO and Libya: The search for missing relatives in Tripoli, Libya (w/subtitles) uploaded 11 October shows someone called Muhammed Hatem Musbah from the Community for Missing People(almost zero internet presence in English for it or the interviewee) uploaded by NATOchannelTV (er..) it also mentions the Libyan Society of the Missing.
    "There seems to be too many missing people organisations working independently of any official authority" (hence the near zero success rate)

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  24. I did not see the similarity with Ragheb, but I didn't try real hard. All info side dishes must wait for my attention as I keep getting so much juicy meat. Felix, that video is a POW! The voice doesn't sound clearly like goofy-English Dr. Rajub, but he looks exactly like him. And he's called here Dr. Farjani of the missing people's thing. Fucking liar, caught cold, sloppy on of a bitch.

    After this video, I suspect someone noted the "similarity"and he started jogging heavily and growing the beard.

    I will now finally fix some typos and such, and add the new stuff, in basic form at least. This is a bombshell here.

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  25. That's a very strange interview - very dark, shifty manner. Looks a bit like the dining room of the Hotel Corinthia / Bab Al Bahr. Might be wrong though...nice comment. Certainly to be filed under coflict of interest, rather than heart surgery.

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  26. @Felix – I wanted to be the first to first to congratulate you, but got caught up in other business. You nailed it! ...or should I say him?

    The man in the video is definitely the same man as Dr. Salim Rajub. He has the same tooth missing.

    The Arabic form of the name used on the video title is "سالم الفرجاني". Google search returns many people by that name, including a Libyan football player and an Egyptian Shura Council candidate.

    I will comment on the implications later.

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  27. I received my password for the UN press photos and downloaded the 8 megapixel high res images. The man hosting Ban Ki-moon is definitely Dr Salim Rajub.

    I found that there are other photos in the series, that are not linked from the press release. Some of these may be useful.
    493508
    493516
    493517

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  28. Thanks Petri - great pics,especially the middle one. Incidentally, here is a funny map page which came up in the search - منزل = home (of). Not important,just interesting. Wonder why it is marked??

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  29. Adam, I think you are paying far to much attention to the issue of whether rebels took the Yarmouk military base on August 23.

    August 23th is the date of the phantom "August 23th Massacre", the imaginary massacre where "150" were killed by "Gaddafi mercenaries." It was a hoax operation to blame Gaddafi and maybe dispose of bodies of victims of the Black Genocide in Libya. The location was not even decided on the 23th.

    On the base itself we do not know what if anything happened on August 23th. For all we know the bodies could have been planted in the shed on August 26th before being set on fire. Also, I do not think the burnt victims were base defenders. There is nothing shameful in killing Libyan soldiers. More likely they were "African mercenary" style "slaves", "niggers" and other African guest workers picked up from downtown Tripoli and targeted for execution and lynching.

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  30. Great work, guys. You realy worked out that our valued UN General Secretary was fooled by a liar.
    And the libyan chief investigator for war crimes appears under false name as a witness in the most important case he has to solve. Not bad...

    Just a small thing I'd like to stress: 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).
    Obviously he showed so much tallent as a faker and liar that he was allowed to fool Ban Ki Moon the next time. Indeed an impressive career in new Libya :)

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  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  32. Not forgetting, as reported by the Tripoli Post, 28 August..
    A Libyan by the name of Salim who lives close to the warehouse told the correspondent that he heard shouting and gunfire at the farm building....

    @petri - the TMC Pediatrician you quote reads as Dr Faraj Abdelsalim (or similar) (Comment 5)
    Regarding Comment 4, there was a big UK- Libyan health junket at the Tripoli Medical Centre on 14-17 Feb 2010, Promoting Healthcare Partnerships - delegation to Tripoli courtesy of the Libyan British Business Council - "building business bridges with Libya" Stuart Smalley seems to be the key figure there. See also here for UK - Libyan health collaboration 2008/9/early 2010. So what changed? Well, Cameron, Hague & Co. took over in May 2010...had they been doing some pre-planning before they took office?

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  33. Here is another printed version of the Stuart Ramsayinter view:
    'Mass Killing' Evidence Found In Libya

    Salim lives nearby and heard shouting and gunfire at the farm building which he said was next door to a military base.

    He said that as many as 150 civilians were killed but around ten people escaped.

    Salim said the military had not allowed anyone to enter the building recently, but local residents investigated after the troops left.

    He said he believed the massacre was carried out by pro-Gaddafi forces.

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  34. Who is Col. Salem Tweer, head of the al-Khoms military council?

    Quote: On September 8, the captured soldier took Tweer and a team from al-Khoms to a remote site called Wadi Dufan between Orban and Bani Walid, about 60 kilometers south of al-Khoms, where they exhumed the 18 bodies. Around 11 p.m. they brought the bodies by truck to the morgue at the Tripoli Medical Center, where they were briefly inspected by Human Rights Watch. Tweer said the bodies were of the men who had died in the containers.

    Libya: 19 Suffocated in Gaddafi Detention
    Bodies Revealed by Gaddafi Soldier
    HRW, September 9, 2011

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  35. Salim Twair is for real; here is his Facebook fan page:
    الشهيد البطل العميد مهندس سالم عبدالسلام الطوير
    (The hero martyr Brigadier Engineer Salim Salam Twair)

    I still do not trust him. Even less do I trust anything that has been handled by the Tripoli Medical Center.

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  36. what, 18 people die allegedly in shipping containers in Khoms, and they are disposed of 60 km distant

    "Instead, the guard drove the bodies to the remote location and buried them"

    It's a farce.

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  37. Another version of Dr. Salim Rajub speaking to Stuart Ramsay of SKY News. Almost the same testimony but filmed earlier: "I am living about 200 meters from here."

    Sky News Shown Mass Grave In Tripoli - Up To 150 Reportedly Massacred
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLPktJPwAI0
    Uploaded by skynews on Aug 27, 2011

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  38. Colonel Salem Abdelsalam Al-Tweir of the Khoms Military Council can be seen hovering in the background in this video.
    This blog states that the town was liberated on 20 August. Container details emerge early September.

    The name crops in a tweet about a loyalist high ranking officer :

    @alchemist585 Nasr Anaizi
    #Gaddaf's Brigadier-General Mustafa Al-Tweir was killed along w/ a dozen mercenaries following a #NATO strike in the area of al-Khums.
    26 Jun


    Coincidence???

    ReplyDelete
  39. I'm back! Had to do something before people started thinking I'd died or something.

    @ Perti, re: Aug. 23. You have a point or two, but ... too complexfor now, will come back to it later.

    On the new Salim video and text sources, new outside shed massacre witness, new victim (one of the Misrata brothers (Hussain?) left in a house?) - great additions.

    I wondered about Dr. Salem's middle name. Might he try to skate through as a non-poser if his middle name were Rajub/Rajip? The 200 meters away home could be verified one way or another, but the name thing may work.

    Possibly related thing I stumbled upon today: Arab Society for Plant Protection (growing green plants), 9th congress anyway organized in al Baida, Libya, 2003.
    http://www.asplantprotection.org/8thACPP_En.htm
    8th Congress had a "Dr. Salem O. El-Ferjani" on the organizing committee, and a "Dr. Salem Omar El-Ferjani" on the fundraising one. He doesn't seem to pop up in later conferences.
    http://www.asplantprotection.org/PDF/8thACPP/En_8thACPP_APP1.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  40. I suggest there's a valid discussion to be had about two related issues here: the date - was it the 23rd, or prior? Or even maybe after?

    The best place for that would be the "early reportage" post dedicated to making the case against the official 26th/27th takeover stories. I'll be ready to step back and re-think it fairly soon here.

    And at least as valid,the number of dead. It is curious how about 100 bodies remain unfound 'til the last minute, then found but still unseen and just removed to... ??? all by the afternoon of the 28th. That could best be covered maybe there as well, if related enough. The shifting number of dead is already an issue there.

    Other points, next comment. I'm just amazed how much cool stuff you guys are all coming up with lately. I'll have my jacket off and ready to re-join the party in earnest tomorrow, I hope.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Something interesting has just occurred - on the labelled Wikimap of Tripoli, the house previously marked as belonging to Salem Al-Ferjani (inner white square) has been re-labelled so that both white and red boxes read Ahmed Bin Abdalla. Very strange. It is a good few kilometers from the shed, rather than 200m. Did someone realise?

    ReplyDelete
  42. Felix, that was his home allegedly marked? I didn't catch that. Whose home? Dr. Rajip's or al-Ferjani's? I'll need to catch-up here.

    Petri and Felix, The Khoms cargo container thing is interesting. That had crossed my radar before, but not enough to create a new post for it.

    Peet73, thanks for the reminder I need to address the media manager aspect to the doctor's presence there.

    ReplyDelete
  43. But if you insert "منزل سالم الفرجاني " into the search engine, you get the same map spot still...

    ReplyDelete
  44. Interesting... It's been re-named.I wonder who named it to begin with, when and why? But it's evidence of something...

    Search still going there confirmed,second hit on the list.

    This will go in the "local" section I need to add. I had updates half-done when the computer got switched-off. Just as well... a few quick touch-ups only for now.

    ReplyDelete
  45. @felix – I have spent three hours trying to figure out how Wikimapia works. It does not, the site is extremely poorly maintained and documented.

    Wikimapia is a wiki; there is a publicly accessible record of all edits. The "House of Salem Al-Ferjani" has last been edited three years ago. There are three labels total, two in Arabic (ar) and one in "English" (en). The "English" tag is also in Arabic, but has a different text. All three can be accessed through these links:
    http://wikimapia.org/8815364/ منزل احمد بن عبدالله (Tripoli)
    http://wikimapia.org/8815364/ar/ منزل سالم الفرجاني (طرابلس)
    http://wikimapia.org/8815600/ar/ منزل احمد بن عبدالله (طرابلس)

    ReplyDelete
  46. Great work on that last, PK. I figured it would be unreliable but checkable like that. If the house was marked three years ago, it's more credible to me than if it were recent, but also he could've moved. And it's still not worth much, because of the Wiki problems you point out.

    What'll be good now is this story to get taken seriously and reported widely, and for Libyans-if they're able to - to come forward with knowledge of this "doctor," his home location, whereabouts at 11 am on the 27th, etc...

    ReplyDelete
  47. I do not think you can discount or discredit al-Farjani for not revealing his true name. This happened on August 27th when the Battle of Tripoli was far from over – or if it was, you cannot expect locals to know about it. Dr. al-Farjani had every reason to be worried about his own security, even more so if he truly believed the shed victims were murdered by "Gaddafi" soldiers.

    We also have to excuse Dr. al-Farjani for not disclosing his true mission to the base: documenting massacre sites. Living near by is a perfect cover story. In understanding the events we must keep in mind that people meeting the press are often dragged into far more publicity than they vouched for. Also, Sky News might have pressed him into giving a 1st person account of the events of August 23th – he must have seen something, didn't he just say he lives next door.

    My belief is however that Dr. al-Farjani's role is not limited to false testimony and undisclosed conflicts of interest; he may have a far larger role to play.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Petri, that's a pretty brilliant counter-argument. At the very least, we should be ready to consider if such a counter-argument is offered as explanation. (As if one will ever be asked for...)

    He could have, as you suggest, traveled there to learn, and fearing reprisals (on the 27th seems a bit late, but...) he gives a false name, and explains his presence as by virtue of being a close neighbor. Then he could be pressed from that to give a false account to spice up the news.

    If that's about it, it's really not compelling. He could have declined to give a false narrative, or only claim he heard shooting, saw nothing. Smarter yet, don't let Sky film you, or talk to AFP, etc. , and don't linger around and bring forth other witnesses, etc...

    What's missing from that offering is an explanation how he did in fact witness the massacre, with snipers holding him back from helping. Unless he does live there, chances he happened to be there as the alleged massacre happened are quite slim.

    That needs to be explained away to innocence, or it implicates him in lying about a massacre, which is important given his new job. Plenty of other clues suggest such a strategic and dishonest approach by Dr. Rajub/Farjani, that the NTC could well have comprehended, and chosen him because of.

    Central points: unaffected. Practice: useful.:)

    On the last, I agree. He's a full-spectrum guy, and given an uncertain but possibly God-like power over the same slice of the civil war I've taken such an interest in - who's been killing who?

    ReplyDelete
  49. I wonder how Dr. al-Farjani found the time to visit the Yarmouk massacre site on August 27th. His workplace the Tripoli Medical Center must have been overflowing with patients in critical condition.

    Moussa Ibrahim claimed that 1300 people were killed and 5000 wounded on August 21 in strafing by NATO fighter jets and attack helicopters. On August 26th the 17 remaining patients at the Abu Salim Hospital were moved by the Red Cross to the Tripoli Medical Center. The rest died because a lack of hospital staff.

    Luckily the Al Hadhbah Road had just been cleared by rebels, so he did not have to take the long detour via the Airport Road, past the Abu Salim Hospital and the Yarmouk Mosque dump.

    ReplyDelete
  50. News flash: Dr. al-Farjani seen wearing Dr. Rajub's blue "alligator" shirt. Thanks to a behind-the-scenes tip, to be added soon. Al Arabiya video on the ASP mass grave. 0:58, mustache starting (before or perhaps after the Oct. 1 video?).
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwh6DyE5M-c

    ReplyDelete
  51. There is a possibility that Rajub is Dr. Salem's real name. He may have taken a nom de guerre after he took up a position in the NTC government.

    Doesn't al-Farjani in fact mean "someone from Farjan? Or Furjan, or Khalet El Furjan / Khallat al Farjan? Could it be, that Dr. Salem has simple tapen his last name / pseudonym from the site of the fake massacre?

    ***

    Interesting that the old man speaks English? Not many in Libya do. Incidentally Dr. Salem also speaks English. Could they be related?

    ***

    Off topic:
    Something interesting happened. I made a search using Google's language tools in Arabic for Dr. Salem's first name and his father's (Fathallah Abdullah al Ashter) last name – adding in the qualifier "Tripoli". No one of interest came up, just same random pages on Tripoli with some names of unconnected people – if even these were there. "Salem" did make a connection with Abu Salim and the prison there.

    I would assume the search results reflect a general Arabic opinion of events Tripoli. The results really surprised me; even we here are not as anti-rebel (at least not openly) as the top sites.

    This is what I got in the top 10 for [Salem Ashtar Tripoli]

    1) ishtar-enana.blogspot.com:
    Mass grave in Tripoli: another lie

    2) taqadoumiya.net:
    Tripoli's rulers what they were shameful. By d. Faraj whirlpool

    3) facebook.com:
    Photo of Rat wearing NTC occupation flag

    4) taqadoumiya.net:
    Influence on the gun battle near the airport of Tripoli and the United States oversees the Libyan bombing of thousands of rockets

    5) zangetna.com:
    Urgent hunt for the rats in Tripoli

    6) taqadoumiya.net:
    International Crisis Group: the situation in Tripoli ... dangerous militia armies and special identity cards .. And the Council without the legitimacy and authority of a government without an executive

    7) syrianstory.com:
    David Ishtar - Syrian story

    8) arabhardware.net:
    Graphics Accelerator Vega for sale Gigabyte Geforce GTX 465 by Silver Member "Libya 7urra"

    9) alarab.com.qa:
    Tripoli: A summit of Baghdad to the circumstances of the region

    10) iraq4allnews.dk:
    Tripoli .. Administrative chaos and lead pouring from the sky and a heavy weapon on the streets

    Out of these ten the only rat / NTC / rebel supporter was the computer nerd. I bet he was selling his graphics adapter to buy an iPhone.

    ReplyDelete
  52. The Khalet al -Farjan / al-Farjani parallel crossed my mind too. Could be his people are from there, or from somewhere else with a common name, a coincidence.

    The direct connection you make didn't cross my mind. It's very interesting. It would be odd to give your real name when giving false testimony, publicly, relating to your field of study, just before getting the the job in that field for the government. Stranger yet to work for the government under a false name.

    If that were the case I'd wonder, as I already have, if he's doing this on purpose, some sleeper loyalist genius performance artist intent on embarrassing the NTC.

    It's off the wall, but so is the chutzpah this guy has on display. If it's like that, I'd have to say he did splendidly, glad I was there to help catch it, and so sad he'd have to go on his own missing persons list, offed by some sleeper loyalists for murky reasons, his replacement would find.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Happy Holidays!

    I think I have to log off for a few days.

    I thank Adam for the enormous work he has put into this site – and apologize for not joining earlier. This site makes the ICC stand in shame!

    ***

    Here is something to take your mind off this genocide:

    All I Want for Christmas Is... Jews
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LmMtScH3g
    Uploaded by HotBoxComedy on Dec 4, 2008

    ReplyDelete
  54. If the video is supposed to be ha-ha funny, I didn't get it, but it's nice.

    Merry holidays Petri! I have one Xmas eve post coming, then a slightbreak. You take any breather you need/want. I'm honored to have you here. Without you and Felix this site would be a half-informed mess and too quiet. I'm just honored to have created and barely maintained a platform worthy of others joining me on it.

    Thoughts and prayers for the dispossessed millions of Libyans who feel inside (better not say it out loud) that they lost this war for Libya's soul. May they stay safe and find a way to prevail again in 2012.

    ReplyDelete
  55. I hadn't seen this short piece before at NewsFlavor which quotes Dr Rajub. Nothing earth shattering,it's online publication by a Romanian - probably secondary sources - although the simple quotes are unique, but my eye caught the photo of the dashing gun-toting guy in the stipes outside the shed, with gap in his lower teeth and Fergany style hairline - a bit older and rougher than Salim. The spelling of Salaheddine is also unique in this nexus.
    Have you seen this photo before?

    Salaheddine also drew me to This France24 video,accompanying the article Une cinquantaine de corps calcinés découverts près du QG de Khamis Kadhafi by Christopher Moore and Noreddine Bezziou, quoting an escapee Moayed Burani The same actors in the shed also appear in footage from Euronews
    (comment carried on to Shed witnesses assessed)

    ReplyDelete
  56. If Dr. Salem's full name is Dr. Salem Ahmed al Farjani, as implied in this other post, then we have another oddity. In their report from Sirte Glogal Post interviewed another English speaking man of about 43 years, who also happens to be named Salem Hamed Forjani. (Note, that Hamed is an alternate transliteration / localization of Ahmed) Incidentally the report also shows a pile executed civilians with the claim that retreating Gaddafi loyalists executed at least 40 prisoners.

    I find it highly unlikely that both English speakers share exactly the same name. An alternative explanation is that James Foley of Global Post also interviewed Dr. Salem al-Farjani in Sirte, but then his notes somehow got mixed up, possibly in post production. This has happened before, in the very article that inspired this post Vanessa Gera takes Dr. Othman el-Zentani's first name but mixes in Mustafa Abdul Jalil's last name to produce the fictional "Othman Abdul-Jalil." In a combat situation, like in Sirte, mixing names would be even more likely.

    If Dr. Salem al-Farjani was in fact interviewed by James Foley then he is most likely the source for the claim that the murdered Gaddafi loyalist or Sirte civilians were executed by "al Gaddafi." And – if Dr. Salem al-Farjani was in Sirte at the time, then it is possible that he and his "medical team" were the source of all claims of Gaddafi culpability in the massacres.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Interesting thought,Petri. The guy doesn't look like he might be an English speaker. Surprising. BTW, who is the distinguished guy, perhaps 60 years old, in blue boiler suit and rimless specs,early on in the Global Post video? Like a northern european engineer...he doesn't seem to fit in but is getting on like a house on fire with a Dr Rajib type.

    ReplyDelete
  58. @ petri @ felix

    can't find my link of before about a ff fighter in sirte named : Salem Ahmed al Farjani
    can smb repost this link?

    But the sirte guy is definetly the same as in the link of felix :

    http://www.france24.com/fr/20110828-libye-tripoli-cinquantaine-corps-calcines-decouverts-qg-khamis-kadhafi-massacre
    Une cinquantaine de corps calcinés découverts près du QG de Khamis Kadhafi
    @0.19

    ReplyDelete
  59. @ Hurriya: Some excellent comments lately. The France 24 vid link. That could well be the same guy, dressed quite different, although I'm not sure of that yet... He's the one doing the hug/cry/sort of smile thing amid the charred remains of their enemies.

    As for the name, there could be other Salem al Farjanis about. I had found one Salem Omar al Farjani, who's also a doctor, helping a conference on green plants, but in fundraising and organizing capacities (in a comment above).

    The Ahmed implication is there, in that he wouldn't have to make it up if it were part of his name.But Rajub is there too, so maybe Ahmed and Rajub are made up. Maybe there's an Ahmed Rajub out there... (a quick search didn't say so)

    ReplyDelete
  60. there seems to pop up more information about the Farjani's :

    http://musl1m.tumblr.com/post/11785365966/you-might-take-my-life-but-you-cant-take-my-soul
    1996 1996: Gaddafi regime murders Khaled al-Farjani, with two of his brothers. The family learns of his fate in 2009. 1996: Gaddafi regime murders Saleh ...
    http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1614135/pg14

    http://i43.tinypic.com/ouwd5e.jpg
    http://i43.tinypic.com/wwcai0.jpg

    http://www.digitalhen.co.uk/news/world-africa-14945510
    NTC commander Hadi Farjani tells AP: "There are lots of snipers on


    sources to research :
    Khalifa Haftar, a member of the Farjani tribe and the commander of ...
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/50055633/Ronald-Bruce-St-John-Historical-Dictionary-of-Libya

    http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA369344
    Dr. Farjani ..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1996 1996: Gaddafi regime murders Khaled al-Farjani

      Friday 1 April 2011 God willing, they will begin with Ajdabiya and go to Brega and Ras Lanuf," Khaled al-Farjani, a Libyan air force captain fighting with the rebels, told Reuters.
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/apr/01/libya-uprising-moussa-koussa-defection-live-updates

      Delete
    2. a companion of khaled farjani :

      http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/4/1/1301652775925/A-rebel-fighter-test-fire-008.jpg

      1 April 2011 11.53am: This photograph shows a rebel fighter test-firing his machine gun as he waits for his convoy to move out after refuelling at a staging post on the western outskirts of Ajdabiya.

      http://www.libyaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Hamid-Hassi.jpg

      *

      http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/02/04/cyrenaica-military-leader-hassi-in-tripoli-hotel-seige/
      4 February 2013: No official reason for Hassi’s presence in Tripoli has been given although there have been reports that he had come to the capital to talk to about the possible replacement of Chief of Staff Yousef Mangoush and to present himself as a potential successor.

      Delete
  61. I must say, : I'm shocked.

    All the time thought al qaida did the beheadings, now it seems this LLRH party seems less democratic then I thought. An eye for an eye?
    dead of between 100.000 - 170.000 fellow country men.

    ReplyDelete
  62. @caustic
    pls repost the sirte link ff fighter I gave in comment : a wild guess/ some days before

    This man in link Sirte and in link france 24 = brother of our man rajub imho

    ReplyDelete
  63. Worth posting these screenshots together of the English speaker, Sirte/Khamis shed. @hurriya - can't locate the earlier comment, but rememeber it well. Under "anonymous"? [btw we don't know that Al Hitri can't speak English - adds to the mystique if he can and it's translated by Salim...]

    ReplyDelete
  64. The missing Sirte video is this Global Post report with James Foley
    Sirte falls, Libya looks to future

    The man is named as Salem Hamed Forjani. He appears in the video at 2.14.

    ReplyDelete
  65. @ Hurriya mostly: Interesting tangents, but I think we're going a little overboard on the Farjani name links. Isn't it a pretty common name?

    But if it matters, we can't forget Nisreen al Farjani/Forgani, "admitted" (in a bizarre story) girl executioner for Gaddafi...

    ReplyDelete
  66. for my side : this is 3 times same person :

    http://www.france24.com/fr/20110828-libye-tripoli-cinquantaine-corps-calcines-decouverts-qg-khamis-kadhafi-massacre
    0.20

    http://www.globalpost.com/video/5678720/location-sirte-falls-libya-looks-future
    2.11

    http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/chainsawmoth/Libyan%20Civil%20War/shedmassacre_Ferjani_OctNov.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  67. Well, that goes even further. Same basic name, yes, but... not the same guy.

    Even between the gray bearded guys, one's in Sirte, the other in Tripoli. Two months apart, plenty reason for a fighter anyway to be in both places both times. IF these are the same guy, and I'll have a look now, it's big in some way.

    And, continuing the raining on parades (it tests a parade nicely), on the name mix-up idea, Dr. Salem could have gone to Sirte - His whereabouts are only known sporadically, late August, late Sept/early Oct. and late Nov. Hmm! Return home end of each month...

    But they certainly didn't need him. Rebel types have been saying from the outset "we just found it that way, Gaddafi did it." They did it sloppy, and he adds proof, witnesses, photos, which only makes it worse, really.

    ReplyDelete
  68. I'll double-check and post the graphics later, but I don't think it's the same man. His face and beard I'd say could be the same, with some fighting and growing out (seems a bit off, but I couldn't be sure). But the teeth aren't right. Forjani has the top one just right of front darkened, the shed guy doesn't. Not a normal change for two months time.

    Incidentally, anyone here understand French? He might be claiming to be a survivor. First words might "mon pere [sp]?" "my father." I might hear Kidnapped, Gaddafi brigade, Souq al Juma? If that's it, then he's a claimed relative, not an escapee apparently.

    ReplyDelete
  69. @caustic : he's 2 times in vid France 24 , check his clothes . Teeth not visible
    On the stand with ban ki moon also no teeth visible

    ReplyDelete
  70. Khaled est en état de choc. Il pleure, dans les bras d'un ami.
    KHALED CRIES IN THE ARMES OF A FRIEND.NOT WITHOUT REASON , BETWEEN THE BURNED BODIES FOUND ON SATURDAY WERE THE REMAINS OF HIS BROTHER.KIDNAPPED ON 18 JUNE

    ReplyDelete
  71. @hurrya. That guy in the Sirte video has lived in England - perhaps the Midlands. Listen when he says "you know what I mean" twice, although he has a strong overseas accent.

    ReplyDelete
  72. By the way, the ?freshly painted? graffiti on the shed wall seen at 0.34 in the France 24 video - perhaps for the benefit of visiting film crews - reads Victory or Death , النصر أو الموت which was the message or the audio tape which may or may not have come from Colonel Gaddafi on 24 August. More likely not. Actually it was more accurately Death or Victory. And reported by a Syrian TV station Al Orouba. Take home message: the Khamis brigade must have been here.

    ReplyDelete
  73. @Hurriya: You know French? "Etat du choc." What acool language, sometimes. I was totally guessing above.

    On the teeth, the caption and the NTCsay that's our Farjani with Moon. No teeth needed.

    On the non-Dr. Rajub people, also I still say no match. I can't pin down the facial differences, but I sense a different age and energy for each. And the teeth. Nowhere worth posting it on the blog, but I uploaded my comparisons:
    http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/chainsawmoth/Libyan%20Civil%20War/Forjani.jpg

    @Felix: Victory or Death, proof to many, all idiots. I've only seen rebels clumsily spray-paint anything, and that's everything they conquer. It's got a nice irony to it, writing that after you've killed the Khamis Brigade.

    I do think they were there, and that's who was killed, but it could also be, at least in part, random "mercenaries" or even embarrassing rape victims. Hell, fire can erase clothes and flesh, it can also erase gender except to an expert's eye that I doubt these remains will ever pass by. Just a thought I just now had.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Agree, don't think Forjani is our guy in the shed - eyebrows etc. Certainly UK connected I would think, though.

    ReplyDelete
  75. @ caustic : about the man Khaled in
    ..http://www.france24.com/fr/20110828-libye-tripoli-cinquantaine-corps-calcines-decouverts-qg-khamis-kadhafi-massacre


    Mohamed Hamil has 3 BROTHERS : KHALED, SALEH, SANOUSSI HAMIL MOUFTA AL-FARJANI of whom 2 DIED IN THE UPROAR 1996

    Mohamed Hamil has three brothers who died in
    custody: Khaled, Saleh and Sanoussi hamil
    Mouftah al-Farjani. Two died in Abu Salim Prison
    in 1996 and one in a detention centre in
    Benghazi. The three – aged between 22 and 26
    when they were arrested – were held completely
    cut off from the outside world. The family had
    to wait until March 2009 for the first official
    aknowledgement from the authorities that the
    three had died. No other details were provided
    http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE19/008/2010/en/25ba2f0d-7ed4-4a88-af29-9b4e5e2db1fe/mde190082010en.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  76. what occur as strange to me is : as Khaled and Salem died in 1996 in their twenties , they would, if alive , been around fourty years.

    But now it seems that a Khaled and a Saleem [Saleeh?] pop up in the press.

    There is always a possibility in the families of before with 10 to 12 children a new born got the same name.
    But the mentioned Khaled and Saleem are too old for this option.

    Also it has to be said that Saleem is the fore man of the committee digging up the remains of the Abu Saleem victims. They have been dug up in Subha, Benghazi and two places in Tripoli


    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Mass-grave-of-prisoners-executed-in-1996-found-in-Tripoli-NTC/articleshow/10122616.cms

    http://empirestrikesblack.com/2011/09/libya-bbc-concocts-mass-grave-story-in-brazen-propaganda-piece/

    ReplyDelete
  77. @felix : exiles, volunteers, jihadi's, mercs, special forces should have a thread apart

    I must say that it hurts to see everybody was totally free and encouraged to come kill in Libiya

    The tickets from Manchester to Benghazi were very cheap at that time

    It seems american citizens are allowed to fight/kill abroad

    Tho not illegal fr Americans to fight in other countries’ wars, cld raise Qs dwn the rd, esp if #NTC forces accused of humn rghts violations

    ReplyDelete
  78. Did somebody notice that in the vid france 24 lasting 1 minute something the new Khaled wears a white and after a orange shirt? never heard of somebody changing his clothes every half a minute,spending his days there as PR man?

    ReplyDelete
  79. @Hurriya: Hmmm! A Saleh al-Farjani was among the "more than 1,700" Dr. Salem al-Farjani, same app. age, wants investigated and seems sure he'll find the bodies for. I've been slow to grasp that idea, but I'll have to see about that soon....

    As for "exiles, volunteers, jihadi's, mercs, special forces should have a thread apart"
    This post could suffice, I think, for all foreigners who came of choice to help the rebels (but dare not come be a"mercenary"for the other side) and it has some good comments already. This guy might belong, with his English connection.

    ReplyDelete
  80. @Hurriya: Dr, Salem,Abu Salim prison victim:

    It would require some unusual but possible things between, like an exile somewhere (hints of a French accent in his English?), a family willing to call him dead, etc. It could also be a real victim, or a separate fake identity with lying relatives, later adopted by researcher/activist Dr. Farjani.

    It would require a slight name change: Saleh to Salem. Sort of odd but possible.

    And some age fudging. No ages given for each brother, but if we say Saleh/Salem was the oldest, 26 in April 1996, he'd be 41 in April 2011. Dr. Salem was already 43 by Nov. 30. "Ahmed al Farjani" was 42 in late August.

    Since a name and age similarity are all we had to go on, I'd call that not clear enough to run with at all. But this guy and his connections are just weird enough, I wouldn't rule it out either.

    ReplyDelete
  81. One man received a death certificate from the People’s Leadership Committee on May 24,2009, informing him that his brother Fathi had died. He told Human Rights Watch that herejected the offer of compensation of 120 thousand Dinars as “insufficient” because “theypaid 10 million dollars for Lockerbie victims and they offer us 120,000 Libyan Dinars? Wedon’t want their money, we want the truth and to bury our relatives.”
    150
    Saad el Ferjany’s sonSalah was arrested on January 14th, 1989. Since that time Saad el El Ferjany was only able tovisit him once in the first years in Abu Salim and he fears that his son was among thosekilled but has not received any official notification. He told a journalist that “since the Libyanstate refuses to tell us of the fate of our children, we will ask the outside world for our rights...I want to know the fate of my son, and this offer of compensation is unjust

    One of the main coordinators of the committee, Mohamed Hamil al-Ferjany, who left Libya inMarch 2009 and is currently in the US, told Human Rights Watch that, at the beginning,senior security officials and ministers were engaging with the committee. Security officialsinvited him to Tripoli for consultations for two weeks in February 2009, in which he met withsenior security official Abdallah al-Sanussi and the Secretary of Justice Mostafa Abdeljalil. Itsoon became clear, however, that there was no willingness on the part of the authorities toprosecute any of those responsible for the Abu Salim killings, he said. Since this was anunshakeable demand by the committee, negotiations broke down. “They think they cansolve it through money and that’s enough, so they’ve stopped dealing with the families,” al-Ferjany told Human Rights Watch

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/56707491/34/Unprecedented-Activism-%E2%80%93-the-Demands-of-the-Families

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  82. @hurriya
    Did you catch my comment that the BBC calls Salem Saleh (without further names) and they are good pictures of him. Where does this fit in?

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  83. (this the "Al Forjani" who appeared at Sirte, comment here at Sirte Massacres {Masterlist})

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  84. @ felix : what a good catch & observation
    this saleh [ for me the man with ban ki moon] seems to have a problem to his upper teeth, while rujib has not closing teeth beneath.

    and how he fits in : let me gamble saleh = mohamed & rajub = relative living in neighbourhood.
    the man in the orange sweatshirt is for my feeling also a relative , son of saleh.have no link or proof , just feeling, au contraire of your careful look,think and talk with the other contributors.

    http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/chainsawmoth/Libyan%20Civil%20War/shedmassacre_Ferjani_OctNov.jpg

    http://www.viiarchive.com/webgate/thumb.php/00109398.jpg?OGSESSION=3ef6067aa32ce6c1afb56a6b1b9fce2b&UN=MTExMTE=&LANGUAGE=eng_usa&IMAGESIZE=2&CHANNEL=&RENDERSIZE=500&IMAGENUMBER=00109398&WSID=1&STATIC=0

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  85. Felix pointed out the scene at the very end (1:23) of this Global Post video where Dr. Salem al-Farjani is seen giving praise and instructions to a co-conspirator. The same man is desperately crying in this photo. Crocodile tears!

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  86. Col Saleem al-Ferjani was appointed yesterday as chief of the Internal Security Organization (ISO).

    https://twitter.com/Morning_LY/status/543011176385634304

    11 Dec 2014

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