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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Alex Thomson Saves African Migrants?

Caustic Logic
Feb. 20 / March 20-??, 2012

Feb. 20: This post is a spot for a fertile discussion I'm not following that's popped up in different spots. I don't even want to dig up the video links right now, but Channel 4's Alex Thomson famously visited the Khamis Brigade Yarmouk base some days after rebel victory there, August 28. Before seeing the shed massacre victims, burnt and otherwise, he 'happened upon' a scene of detained black men, acting terrified, crying, sweating. Threatened by rebel thugs as "Gaddafi fighters," they say they fear they'll be killed. Thomson intervened by staying until they were safe, apparently proven innocent by virtue of "their women" hiding nearby, etc.

What I'm hoping is some readers more versed and with a few minutes could re-gather the relevant known video / image /article links first, then provide commentary. This I can maybe read closer finally and respond, and either way pull the highlights of into this post, and delete the duplicate comments elsewhere, some other day.

March 20: Contributors have put this all together for me. Hurriya had the stories and videos, Felix had more, Petri found the location of the "Afromerc base," not far from the Yarmouk mosque dump site, and so on. Comments below until I get it all up here.

Videos: Daily Telegraph shows the arrest:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/libya-video/8728087/Libyan-rebels-arrest-men-they-suspect-of-being-mercenaries.html
A rebel fighter from Misrata, Mohammed Ayoun, says the suspects would be taken to a special council set up to deal with suspected mercenaries, and promises for the camera noone would hurt them, silly men, quit crying.

Thomson and Channel 4 show more of the drama after:
http://www.channel4.com/news/evidence-of-libya-massacre-as-remains-of-50-people-found
More notes here later.

After their release, due to a rebel, or Thomson, or whatever in combination, the media then followed the men farm they were hiding at and saw hundreds of African men and women living in fear.
AP/MSNBC: Gadhafi forces killed detainees, survivors say
On Sunday, in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, rebels apprehended a dozen black men and accused them of being mercenaries in Gadhafi's army. The detainees were occasionally punched before one of the rebels convinced his comrades the men were just migrant workers.

William Osas, a 32-year-old Nigerian, said he and other Africans had fled to a farm nearby to escape the fighting, and the men were detained while they were looking for food. Reporters from The Associated Press visited the farm and found hundreds of Africans living there, including many women.
They weren't saved yet.
Laub_updated 8/28/2011 8:50:38 PM ET
Now the rebels have told them they must get out.

"They told us that we have two days to leave here, and if we don't leave they'll kill us all," he said. "They said that Gadhafi uses blacks and that we are with Gadhafi, but we don't know anything about that."

He said all they want now is to return home.

There's a set of photos by Sergei Ponomarev and Giulio Petrocco, which can't be linked to individually. These show African migrants, women and men, looking on, packing up, lining up, as if leaving. They've been "asked to leave," pretty please, or die. One image shown elsewhere shows an armed guard waiting for the mercenaries to pack. Many other photos are mentioned and linked below.

Petri found an area he's sure is the one shown in photos. I agree it's at least an uncanny match in the area. Here's the spot.

It's about a kilometer south and west of the Yarmouk mosque dump site, where 22 executed black men were found on August 26, dead for a few days and bloated. Their bodies were later burned by rebels and removed, presumably to be called unrecognizable Libyan detainees, who will be recognized by light-skinned family.

It seems perhaps the occupants didn't leave even by the end of the month, and stayed alive there until a week later.
UN OCHR (Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Report no 55, 8 September 2011
More than 200 third country nationals were evicted on 4 September from a farm in the Salah ad-Din area in Tripoli. They were subsequently relocated to a nearby industrial site, where they were confronted on 5 September by members of the local community who did not agree to their presence in the neighbourhood. Around half the group was transferred to a facility near Mitiga, and others have gone to the port. The Protection Cluster is monitoring the situation.
It's not certain the uncertain number remained the same. SOme of these people could have been shaved off with no one but the mercenaries knowing.

Is Human Rights Watch, Sept. 4, referring to the same farm?
The de facto authorities in Tripoli, the National Transitional Council (NTC), should stop the arbitrary arrests and abuse of African migrant workers and black Libyans assumed to be mercenaries
[...]
Human Rights Watch has not found evidence of killings of Africans in Tripoli or systematic abuse of detainees
[...]
In Tripoli Human Rights Watch has found evidence that the Gaddafi government recruited and used African mercenaries from Chad, Sudan, and other countries. Human Rights Watch researchers located a large base used by hundreds of mercenaries from other African countries since February 2011, who were recruited and commanded by the 32nd Brigade of Khamis Gaddafi.

92 comments:

  1. The story in the media was that Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News saved
    the lives of nine Nigerian men.
    on Aug 30, 2011
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cslPrRLaQDI&feature=related

    http://i42.tinypic.com/2qk8ni8.jpg
    http://i44.tinypic.com/4qs8xv.jpg
    IN the Alex Thomson vid THEY pass a small road inside the base terrain to cool of.
    not sure they stand after with the yourno outside the base.

    Felix :
    Then look from about 0.52 onwards in this Telegraph video inside the Khamis Brigade base , Alex Thomson may be heard in one clip. Then compare the grouping with those whom Alex Thomson himself filmed for Channel 4. from about 1.25 onwards. The cast seems to change slightly, even the rebel in charge.Like where does the guy in purple go? I find it all very strange.
    http://www.togoforum.com/lybia2011/NoirsMassacres22.png
    http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5213/20682809.18b/0_727d8_589dd7e5_L.jpg

    3:05PM BST 28 Aug 2011
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/libya-video/8728087/Libyan-rebels-arrest-men-they-suspect-of-being-mercenaries.html

    They got captured at the same green door as on picture NYT 27 aug
    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/africa/2011-august-libya-slide-show.html#46
    Note : 11 Nigerians here on photo

    In the Telegraph vid they have another guard : Mohammed Ayoun, a rebel who had come from Misurata, said the suspects would be taken to a special council set up to deal with suspected mercenaries. 11 Nigerians?
    they seem to leave from the Eagle Gate
    http://i44.tinypic.com/99dr8w.jpg

    Note : the rebel @ 1.50 with gun @1.55

    http://www.allmediascotland.com/press_news/32922/--sex-trafficking--article-secures-awards-nomination-for-briggs
    Journalist of the Year :
    Alex Crawford - Sky News
    Alex Thomson - Channel 4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Hurriya! I hear Felix just re-located his links and stuff, if you didn't already get it all there. Soon all I'll have to for a kick-ass analysis is copy and paste and format a bit. Then, I'll have to even make the time for that... It'll happen! That's not very much time to ask.

      Delete
  2. Photos REUTERS / ANIS MILI

    Anis Mili 1
    A rebel fighter (L) gestures at men accused of being mercenaries fighting for Muammar Gaddafi, who are being detained at the Khamis 32 military encampment in southern Tripoli August 28, 2011
    photo
    Anis Mili 2
    Men accused of being mercenaries fighting for Muammar Gaddafi look on while being detained by rebel fighters at the Khamis 32 military encampment in southern Tripoli August 28, 2011.

    photo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Photos SERGEY PONOMAREV / AP

    Sergey Ponomarev 1
    African migrant workers whom rebels had suspected of being Colonel Qaddafi mercenaries were released outside a military base in Tripoli.
    used by..
    Ben Hubbard, Huffington Post
    In the Khallat al-Firjan neighborhood in south Tripoli, Associated Press reporters saw rebel forces punching a dozen black men before determining they were innocent migrant workers and releasing them

    Four further photos of the same group at AOL
    Sergey Ponomarev 2-5 African migrant workers whom rebels accused of being mercenaries seen detained in a military base in Tripoli, LIbya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One of the latter group of four used by Voice of America 6 September Aid Group: African Migrants Trapped in Libyan Town relating to Sebha

      Delete
    2. Sergey Ponomarev 6, Rebel fighters and a journalist who was helping translate look on at an African migrant worker whom rebels had accused of being a mercenary, seen detained in the military base in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011. The man and ten others were later released. Hundreds of migrant workers remain stranded in Libya after six months of war, unable to flee the country.

      The migrant is the one in purple shirt with thin white hoops who appears in the corridor with Thomson and the others. The scene is clearly an entrance to the Khamis base, very similar, without the doorway, to the main entrance gatehouse see at in the Al-Samoud video اقتحام معسكر اليرموك

      Delete
  4. LOUAFI LARBI / REUTERS

    National Post (Canada) Reuters
    Rebel fighters detain a man accused of being a mercenary fighting for Muammar Gaddafi near the Khamis 32 military encampment in southern Tripoli on Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
  5. On Sunday, in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, rebels apprehended a dozen black men and accused them of being mercenaries in Gadhafi's army. The detainees were occasionally punched before one of the rebels convinced his comrades the men were just migrant workers.

    William Osas, a 32-year-old Nigerian, said he and other Africans had fled to a farm nearby to escape the fighting, and the men were detained while they were looking for food. Reporters from The Associated Press visited the farm and found hundreds of Africans living there, including many women.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44308967/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/#.T0zaHfWibC6
    By Ben Hubbard and Karin Laub
    updated 8/28/2011 8:50:38 PM ET
    Now the rebels have told them they must get out.

    "They told us that we have two days to leave here, and if we don't leave they'll kill us all," he said. "They said that Gadhafi uses blacks and that we are with Gadhafi, but we don't know anything about that."
    He said all they want now is to return home.
    http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/20110828/foreigners-evacute-tripoli-110828/20110828/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome&subhub=PrintStory

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks to both Hurriya and Felix for putting all this together. I'll make it a post soon.

      This last from Hurriya is especially interesting. I recall seeing the story of the hiding hundreds, but didn't know it connected to this famous episode.

      What an insane threat: Leave, and go somewhere else where can find you again and kill you, without the media catching us killing people in a place we know is full of just refugees. If you don't leave and go somewhere else nice and convenient, we'll kill you right here, male and female unarmed cowering mercenaries.

      I wonder what ever happened to these people after those few had their moment in the limelight. Did they ever even get the food they started out looking for?

      Delete
    2. It must be really close by - see the set by Ponomarev same day, similar time...must be very close by as suggested above. Yet the cast of 9/10/11/12 is nowhere to be seen in any farm photos (there are others about I've noticed over time..)

      Delete
    3. I am only now starting to understand the importance of this incident: a camp on 300 African migrant workers only a few hundred meters from the Yarmouk mosque body dump.

      To sum up the story so far, AP reporters meet twelve frightened African workers at the Khamis brigade gate. Reporter Ben Hubbard and photographers Sergey Ponomarev & Giulio Petrocco follow the workers to their near-by camp where 300 Africans are hiding. Ben Hubbard is in fact seen in this picture taking notes.

      There is another version of the AP story with more detail:

      Hundreds of foreigners leaving Tripoli
      Monday, August 29, 2011
      Quote:
      The men came from a nearby abandoned farm, where around 300 Africans who had not been able to flee during the war had gathered, including some from Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and Ghana.

      They had only two spigots that sporadically provide brackish water. Most sleep on simple mats outside.

      William Osas, a 32-year-old Nigerian, said many of them were once farm workers. They fled the fighting and have been living there for months, often receiving food from the black soldiers in Gadhafi's army.

      Now the rebels have told them they must get out.

      "They told us that we have two days to leave here, and if we don't leave they'll kill us all," he said. "They said that Gadhafi uses blacks and that we are with Gadhafi, but we don't know anything about that."

      He said all they want now is to return home.


      The implication here is that the 22 black victims at the mosque dump may have been some of 300 from the migrant camp. The argument would be made stronger, if it could be shown that the distance from the camp to the dump is small. Time to look around!

      The evidence:
      When the twelve men leave the Khamis Brigade gatehouse, they cross the main Al Hadhbah Road, and seem to take the east-west road leading to the mosque dump. They are last seen opposite the Khamis Brigade gate in front of the property in the street corner of the mosque road. (another view of same building on Panoramio) On August 28th the 22 boudies would still be lying in the ditch, just 300 meters ahead.

      continued...

      Delete
    4. ...continued

      There is a large state farm halfway between Al Hadhbah Road and the Airport Road with 3 x 5 huge circular irrigated fields, each with a diameter of 800 meters. The distance from Al Hadhbah Road on the mosque road is exactly 2 km. The area between Al Hadhbah Road and the farm complex is covered by rectangular fields and farms that would fit the imagery we see in the photos.

      Notable features: a large refrigerated warehouse, more detail, a field with 110kV and 20kV power lines in the background, another field, a paved straight road with vegetation, most likely east-west or north-south orientation.

      So far I have not been able to locate this on Google Earth.

      Delete
    5. I think I have found it: here:
      http://g.co/maps/gzb76

      The location is exactly 1 km southwest from the mosque dump site.

      Delete
    6. Excellent work, Petri. Also within earshot perhaps of the Yarmouk Mosque moezzin. The ridge of the warehouse roof and lane run north-south as in the photos/videos, though it looks from them, perhaps due to camera compression, that there are buildings opposite the warehouse. A white truck seems to be blocking the gate on the satellite view. Also power lines in the fields to the east.

      incidentally, HRW seems to have commented on the site but distorting the report with mention of mercenaries....Libya:stop arbitrary arrest of Africans
      In Tripoli Human Rights Watch has found evidence that the Gaddafi government recruited and used African mercenaries from Chad, Sudan, and other countries. Human Rights Watch researchers located a large base used by hundreds of mercenaries from other African countries since February 2011, who were recruited and commanded by the 32nd Brigade of Khamis Gaddafi.

      But who is to rely on HRW when they write this in the article, 4 September 2011: "Human Rights Watch has not found evidence of killings of Africans in Tripoli.. "

      Well, they must have been the only people in the whole of Tripoli who didn't.

      Delete
    7. @Petri - I can't open the Ben Hubbard taking notes photo link. Is there a url?

      The AP report seems to accompany the Reuters video, as put out by the Telegraph, similar to Thomson's.
      On Sunday, in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, rebels apprehended a dozen black men and accused them of being mercenaries in Gadhafi's army. They were occasionally punched before one of the rebels was able to convince his comrades the men were just migrant workers.

      Delete
    8. @ petri : could this be related to the farm :

      Found on a farm near tripoli - Democratic Underground
      Omar Ali Al-Kilani farm road to the airport in Tripoli Tripoli - the discovery of a huge amount of gerds rockets in a farm near airport , the farm ...
      http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1885982

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcTnkAN82kI&feature=youtu.be
      Mark


      h_eldressy: Victims were arrested in buslim ain zara, jdayda, Drebi, sorman, el jmel, masour daw & ali el kilani farms in the airport rd @libyaoutreach
      Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:45:14 +0000
      http://www.mapmonde.org/africa/libya/baladiyat-tarabulus/buslim-444153/twitts/buslim-history-2

      Delete
    9. So Ali El-Kilani and Mansour Daw had farms in the southern suburbs?

      Delete
    10. @felix :
      When asked why Minister of Defense Major General Abu Bakr Yunous has not been heard from
      http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?page=country&docid=4dad84ef2&skip=0&coi=LBY&querysi=television&searchin=fulltext&display=10&sort=date

      According to a STRATFOR source, the following military and civilian members within the Libyan elite are presently being discussed as candidates for a new ruling council:
      A STRATFOR source claims that Gen. al-Mahdi al-Arabi Abdulhafiz is leading this movement but that the officers are awaiting the results of a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) meeting that is currently in progress.
      http://americankafir.com/2011/02/22/libya-signs-of-an-army-led-ouster-in-the-works/

      I think that somewhere was posted a link about 40 deads found on a farm . Y know where ?

      Delete
    11. Here is another version of the photo of AP journalist Ben Hubbard

      Mideast Libya
      Rebel fighters and a journalist who was helping translate look on at an African migrant worker whom rebels had accused of being a mercenary, seen detained in the military base in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011. The man and ten others were later released. Hundreds of migrant workers remain stranded in Libya after six months of war, unable to flee the country. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

      Delete
    12. There is a high quality version of the Sergey Ponomarev/Associated Press photo of the migrant workers after their release on the New York Times site:

      Battle for Libya | August 27, 2011
      African migrant workers whom rebels had suspected of being Colonel Qaddafi mercenaries were released outside a military base in Tripoli.

      Delete
  6. Moises Saman also visited the farm the same day. The photographers were obviously take there by rebel forces - how else would they have found it? The interesting passage in Hurriya's CTV story is On Sunday, in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city, rebels apprehended a dozen black men and accused them of being mercenaries in Gadhafi's army. They were occasionally punched before one of the rebels was able to convince his comrades the men were just migrant workers.

    I'll add the farm photos here when I get a minute. One initial reaction, the "dozen" (or nine) don't have that dejected washed out look which most of the African migrants in detention do.

    Alex Thomson blogs about the encounter here, Caught up in somebody else's war

    We’d barely got through the imposing entrance to Khamis army base in southern Tripoli when all hell broke loose.

    Suddenly armed anti-Gaddafi fighters appeared, shoving and hitting nine black men into the guard post at the main gate.......
    A friend of mine here [in Tripoli not the base, I assume] – another journalist – says he witnessed an anti-Gaddafi fighter executing one of the colonel’s men this week. We had to stay...

    They said their women were “in the bush” close by. So we asked the fighters to take one of these terrified men as a guide, film the women as proof these men were not mercenaries, show it to the fighters and – insh’allah – god willing – we could all get on with life....

    All nine were Nigerian.


    The problem I have is that it is inconceivable the rebels would not have known the camp existed nearby "in the bush" (and it does look rural). And if they chose to arrest anybody in the camp there is nothing anyone could do about it. And in any case, what were the 9 (or 12) doing allegedly outside the Khamis base?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Moises Saman shows at Magnum a series of eight artistic photos which could be anywhere really, but the caption is worth recording..
      LIBYA. Tripoli. August 28, 2011. A group of about 200 African migrant workers living in a farm on the outskirts of Tripoli are stranded at this location with little food and water while being harassed by rebels accusing them of belonging to Qaddafi's mercenary militia.

      Delete
    2. Zohra Bensemra visited a farm on the outskirts of Tripolii on 30 Aug, taking this picture, ZB1, captioned A man of African origin hides in a farm in the outskirts of Tripoli due to fears of being accused of serving as a mercenary for former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi August 30, 2011. They have struggled to find food or water due to being in hiding.

      The article quotes Medecins sans Frontieres who: said one community of around 1,000 refugees and migrants lives in and around boats on an abandoned military base. Another group of around 200 are sheltering on a farm.

      Delete
  7. The farm was visited by Giulio Petrocco (thanks to @Hurriya for tip).
    GP1 An African migrant workers (sic) look on at a farm where they had been hiding from rebel forces in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011. Hundreds of migrant workers remain stranded in Libya after six months of war, unable to flee the country

    Interestingly, the visits of Petrocco and Ponomarev were separated by many hours, as noted by the shadows.

    GP2 African migrant workers are seen at a farm where they had been hiding from rebel forces in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011. Hundreds of migrant workers remain stranded in Libya after six months of war unable to flee the country

    GP3 African migrant workers look on at a farm where they had been hiding from rebel forces in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011. Hundreds of migrant workers remain stranded in Libya after six months of war unable to flee the country.

    [Petrocco also took photos at the port of Tripoli that day where boats were evacuating refugees]

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Hurriyah alerts me to another more crowded clearance of African migrants from the farm..Sergei Ponomarev 6 in Knox News, Knoxville. A rebel fighter watches over African migrant workers who are being evicted from the farm where they used to live and work in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011. Hundreds of migrant workers remain stranded in Libya after six months of war, unable to flee the country.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Paul Chapman of Reuters visited the African Migrants' farm refuge in the later afternoon. Video African migrants flee Tripoli uploaded 30 August.

    From 1.30 in this Deborah Lutterbeck Reuters video, uploaded 31 August, Africans at risk in Libya , we hear
    "Many migrants have fled the capital, on a road south of Tripoli about 200 people hide in a small encampment they have no food and the water coming out of the outside tap is salty. They live in fear." (other Reuters and Daily Telegraph footage accompanies)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At the start of the Chapman Reuters video, the hinged dark red gates to the compound of the African migrants can be seen. A bit reminiscent of the Khamis shed compound entrance.

      Delete
    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=EY90TqF1fvQ
      Uploaded by bonanza91v on Aug 30, 2011

      @ felix : where is this fire @ 0.10 ????

      Delete
    3. @ felix : note you hear the muezzin in the chapman vid, so the mosque and the dry bed are not far away

      Delete
    4. @ felix : note you can hear the muezzin in the chapman vid, so the mosque and the dry bed are not too far

      Delete
    5. http://www.algeria-isp.com/public/libye3(30).jpg

      @ FELIX : is this our neighbourhood ?

      Delete
    6. Similar to the "Wheelbarrow" area - but not sure.

      Delete
  10. http://english.al-akhbar.com/photoblog/final-days-gaddafi

    @ felix @ petri : here y see the electric cables. behind the shed

    http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/6cols/photoblogs/libya_pic_4_0.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hurriya - thanks for reminding me of that pic. I think that the graffiti on the shed door, applied during the press fest, reads الشيطان or "the devil" (I don't see the dots under the i though) - Ash Shaytan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://dc02.arabsh.com/i/00172/lkg9edzg8qll.jpg
      الشيطان

      Delete
    2. http://kaifan5.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/photo_45931.jpg

      معمر ] القذافي

      Delete
  12. So Petri found the spot, sounds like. Now this post is ready to go, when I get it put together. Until then, it's in the comments anyway. The possible significance to the mosque dump and in fact to the shed massacre, makes this important enough to note and grasp in some detail. It'salready mentioned in passing in the KBSM report, and now will get more attention there.

    Felix, thanks for the Thomson blog. That's something I had seen and wanted included here, not that I remembered that until seeing it.

    Doesn't seem these guys and their couple hundred compatriots was saved for very long.

    Last: I thought that lettering said Gaddafi? Checking both in Google translate, it's not clearly either one, but close to both. Confused.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the most important find here is that done by Human Rights Watch: they found the fucking Afromerc base, together with hundreds of its Chadian and Sudanese mercenaries! If it really was "commanded by the 32nd Brigade of Khamis Gaddafi" (i.e. near by), then definitely it could provide all the nigger flesh needed to furnish any number of body piles or "Gaddafi massacres." Here I believe we have to take HRW by their word.

      William Osas from Nigeria also happens to confirm the "commanded by the 32nd Brigade" part. Quote: ...often receiving food from the black soldiers in Gadhafi's army.

      I think we can safely identify the HWR "mercenary base" with the "migrant worker camp" photographed by AP. In the future we should always refer to this camp as the "African mercenary base located Human Rights Watch" or "HWR's Arromerc camp." If HWR does not like this, they had better provide evidence that their Afromerc camp is in fact somewhere else.

      ***

      I am 100% confident on the location. The one thing that never stop astonishing me is the number of power lines crisscrossing Libya.

      The refrigerated warehouse appeared in the satellite images between May 2009 and October 2010.

      Delete
    2. @Adam - the lettering looks very like Ash Shaytan (anyone else???) . Nothing like Gaddafi or Moammar.(see graffiti on the guardhouse). Still need to analyse the video footage and photos in the hallway, comparing the group..I still think it was "created" for the cameras but that's all. My feeling is that it was a piece of rebel PR to counteract the claim that they were killing black Africans (for which HRW found no evidence, of course, not even all those black bodies in the streets...) What happened to the people subsequently I have no idea.
      So, "mercenaries" brought all their wives with them? I think Thomson knew about this facility though there is no sign of the women folk in his video despite mentioning them...they are 1km away. Did Thomson visit the farm warehouse?? I would have thought all local residents - eg Salem (allegedly) would have been very well aware of a migrant camp in the area containing 300 people. The rebels would soon home in on it on their arrival in the capital.

      Delete
    3. Looking again, I think it's Satan. Interesting. Off-topic here, sorry.

      I'm still neutral, leaning your way, on this being arranged. The cameras were there.

      Delete
  13. Diana Eltahawy seems to think that this victimisation of black Africans is all new, but on 2 March 2011, Jacky Rowland presented this clip for Aljazeera...Why are they lynching us in Libya? Kamit live in fear. . Anmesty International only getting exercised about human rights once Tripoli had fallen...
    Anmesty is not independent. Anmesty for regime change.

    @Hurriya - can you locate that video , I think with Susan Ormiston, where the female presenter sits down next to Diana Eltahawy and together they look at a lap-top showing images of the Khamis shed charred bodies and Eltahawy immediately says something like "these are obviously victims executed by Gadaffi soldiers..."???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. at the end of this CNN clip of Alex Thomson's visit to "save the black Africans", there is an interview with Diana Eltahawy of Amnesty International. A shame she didn't speak out about the alleged mercenaries ..

      Delete
    2. relationship?

      http://twitter.com/#!/monaeltahawy/status/26385324468862976
      Egyptian columnist Mona Eltahawy
      http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/01/17/libya-gaddafi-wages-war-on-the-internet-as-trouble-brews-at-home/
      Posted 17 January 2011 17:09 GMT/Libya: Gaddafi Wages War on the Internet as Trouble Brews at Home//Amira Al Hussaini

      Amnesty :

      Caustic : I was looking into when the Amnesty report was published. That early, just when on the 26th matters. According to this tweet, it was published no later than 10:45 am. I wonder if those cats feel a little weird now being so far ahead of the curve. They had to have most of their info together, including the "at least 23 witnesses" the night before.

      Delete
    3. As Libya splinters into infighting factions, with racist genocidal death squads scouring "undesirables" across the nation, entire regions of the country peeling off as semi-autonomous terror-emirates and with a BP, Shell, and Total-funded Petroleum Institute chairman installed as "Prime Minister," one can clearly see the tens of thousands of deaths brought about by the UN-sanctioned US-lead NATO campaign against the North African nation was an absolute failure. That is, if preserving innocent life was indeed its goal.

      However, if the goal was to fracture the nation into ineffectual, infighting micro-states, while installing a proxy government in Tripoli to green-light contracts with Western corporations to plunder the nation's national wealth, it was a resounding success.

      http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=517378&tr=y&auid=10445864

      Titled "Russia: No More Excuses, Stand Up Against Bloodshed in Syria,"
      Amnesty perversely attempts to twist around violence and unrest clearly fomented by the West inside Syria as somehow the result of Russia's refusal to capitulate in the face of another NATO intervention. An intervention, it must be added, that is sure to create widespread violence, ethnic divisions and bloodletting across Syria, as well as the plundering by Western corporations eager to fill the void left when Syria's nationalist establishment is violently excised as it was in Libya.
      http://www.activistpost.com/2012/03/amnesty-internationals-ultimatum-to.html

      Delete
    4. Amnesty comes to help the next country :

      Lindsey Hilsum ‏ @lindseyhilsum
      Ok it had to happen. I'm doing the #freeclooney story for @Channel4News tonight. Will raise awareness of #nubamountains. #sudan.

      http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/03/kony-2012-psy-op-collapsing.html
      http://rchelicopter3.hubpages.com/hub/Kony-2012-Its-All-About-Oil

      Amnesty , Sudan and George Clooney
      http://blog.amnestyusa.org/justice/george-clooney-members-of-congress-arrested-calling-for-human-rights-in-sudan/

      interesting organisations I did met again in the amnesty article :

      http://endgenocide.org/
      United to end Genocide

      http://www.enoughproject.org/
      the project to end genocide

      many times they were asked on Twitter to stop the genocide in Libiya : never they responded

      Delete
    5. The video is indeed Susan Ormiston of CBC. See from about 3.28...
      ..these are obviously extra judicial executions of detainees by Gaddafi loyalists...these detainees were not prisoners of war....

      Delete
    6. @hurriya - I think this blogger Stanley Colleymore here has summed up Eltahawy very well. Read the bit about doctors..I don't know the relationship with Mona, if any.

      Delete
    7. So many watchers involved and all stay silent about the holocaust in Libiya:


      On February 21, 2011 the LLHR got 70 other NGOs to send letters to the U.N. Secretary-General, President Obama, and Catherine Ashton demanding international action and intervention in Libya. The subsequent campaign against Libya was organized by U.N. Watch, a NGO that firmly works to protect and serve Israeli interests.

      http://www.arabhumanrights.org/en/countries/organizations.aspx?cid=10
      Libya: Human Rights Organizations

      http://www.shabablibya.org/donate
      LIBYA-SPECIFIC ORGANIZATIONS

      http://endgenocide.org/
      United to end Genocide
      http://www.enoughproject.org/

      It was these unverified claims coupled with the media lies about sub-Saharan African mercenaries in Libya, which portrayed black-skinned Libyans as non-Libyan foreigners, and the false claims about Libyan military jets firing on unarmed civilian protesters that were used to frame Libya and open the door to war for NATO.
      http://theglobalrealm.com/2011/12/03/libya-deja-vu-in-syria-using-human-rights-organizations-to-launch-wars/

      _

      Delete
    8. In the meantime many organisations stay focused on own martyrs :
      17 feb martyrs
      http://coalitiontripoli.com/?attachment_id=884
      http://coalitiontripoli.com/
      http://topsy.com/twitter/hima8881



      Figures of Benghazi were estimated 308 [ martyrs, loyalists, blacks?],Misrata 1500 [Towerghans,loyalists?] , Tripoli 60 martyrs acc to Bani.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrZc83I7dII&feature=endscreen&NR=1
      cemetary 7000 loyal victims in Misrata @ 0.55
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrZc83I7dII&feature=related
      http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkn67x_gunfire-in-tripoli_news
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPYhPkfHdw&feature=relmfu

      Delete
  14. Watch the "THEY DID" report :

    http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE19/025/2011/en/8f2e1c49-8f43-46d3-917d-383c17d36377/mde190252011en.pdf

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Mohamed Nabus...was shot dead..."
      allegedly. And everything else in it?

      Delete
  15. UN OCHR (Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Report no 55, 8 September 2011
    More than 200 third country nationals were evicted on 4 September from a farm in the Salah ad-Din area in Tripoli. They were subsequently relocated to a nearby industrial site, where they were confronted on 5 September by members of the local community who did not agree to their presence in the neighbourhood. Around half the group was transferred to a facility near Mitiga, and others have gone to the port. The Protection Cluster is monitoring the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIJ4vU6mf0Y
    @ 3.24 : any relation ?

    http://i41.tinypic.com/12660ds.jpg

    ‘The MoD would then be willing to have serving personnel from UK SF [Special Forces] visit and provide quality assurance.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_defense_contractors
    http://www.manta.com/ic/mxc287c/ca/arcturus-innovation-inc

    http://feraljundi.com/2536/industry-talk-secopex-ceo-pierre-marziali-killed-in-libya/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://menasassociates.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/uk-working-closely-with-algeria-on.html

      From Al Jazeera The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

      The paper said one secret document showed that Robin Searby, Blair's defence co-ordinator on Libya, had sent a confidential invitation in 2006 for Khamis and Saadi Gaddafi to watch "VIP demonstrations" of the SAS and its sister regiment, the Special Boat Service (SBS).

      "There can be no publicity at all connected with this visit, either here or in Libya," it quoted Searby as writing in the letter, found in Saadi Gaddafi's abandoned office in the Libyan capital.

      Britain's Ministry of Defence said the visits did not go ahead.

      "The article alleges that they were invited on two particular dates in 2006. We have checked and no such visits took place," a spokesperson told the AFP news agency


      Miles Amoore, Sunday Times: documents left lying around in the ruins of the British embassy in Tripoli for anyone to find.

      They include an MI5 paper marked “UK/Libya eyes only secret”,
      Oh yea...

      However, from the Guardian,another discovery was made by reporters and members of Human Rights Watch in the private offices of Moussa Koussa..The papers, which have not been independently verified

      Delete
    2. I think this is the other boss of Arturus Of course, intelligence could have been passed back to the UK about the capability of Gaddafi's defence that way under the guise of training....

      Delete
    3. http://mespectator.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-president-obama-can-help-libya.html
      The writer, a State Department official from 2006 to 2007, is a partner at Patton Boggs. He serves as legal counsel to the Transitional National Council of Libya.
      http://www.csfi.us/?page=about

      http://www.unveillance.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Project_Cyber_Dawn_Public.pdf
      http://www.csfi.us/

      Two lobbyists at Patton Boggs, Stephen McHale and Vincent Frillici, have filed so far to lobby on behalf of the council. Frillici previously served as the director of operations at NATO for the 50th Anniversary Host Committee and was deputy director of finance operations for the Democratic National Convention in 1996. McHale served as the first deputy administrator of the Transportation Security Administration and helped merge the administration into the Homeland Security Department.
      http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/08/26/lies-war-and-empire-nato%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Chumanitarian-imperialism%E2%80%9D-in-libya/

      The CIA officers in Libya, reported the Los Angeles Times, are “coordinating with rebels and sharing intelligence,” and that, “the CIA has been in rebel-held areas of Libya since shortly after the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Tripoli, was evacuated in February.” As the article pointed out, in a clear indication of where the war might be headed:
      http://i39.tinypic.com/63u68j.jpg
      http://i41.tinypic.com/1faav5.jpg

      In the early days of the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, teams of CIA officers and U.S. special operations troops entered secretly, coordinated with opposition groups and used handheld equipment to call in and aim airstrikes against the government armies.[36]

      It is quite clear that NATO’s war plans involve toppling the Gaddafi regime, at the cost of indiscriminately killing large numbers of Libyan civilians.

      http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/npac-j16.shtml

      Delete
    4. General Petraeus, meanwhile, aggressively pushed the military deeper into the C.I.A.’s turf, using Special Operations troops and private security contractors to conduct secret intelligence missions.

      In fact, the American spy and military agencies operate in such secrecy now that it is often hard to come by specific information about the American role in major missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Libya and Yemen.
      http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/central_intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org

      Delete
  17. US government officials requested that an American private security firm contact Syrian opposition figures in Turkey to see “how they can help in regime change,” the CEO of one of these firms told Stratfor in a company email obtained by WikiLeaks and Al-Akhbar.

    James F. Smith, former director of Blackwater, is currently the Chief Executive of SCG International, a private security firm with experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. In what appears to be his first email to Stratfor, Smith stated that his “background is CIA” and his company is comprised of “former DOD [Department of Defense], CIA and former law enforcement personnel.”
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/blackwater-veteran-took-part-gaddafi-killing-asked-us-help-syrian-opposition

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.infowars.com/stratfor-emails-us-government-contractor-was-involved-in-gaddafi-killing-now-aiding-syrian-regime-change/

      Smith fed intelligence back to Stratfor under the codename LY700, and was even apparently involved in the assassination of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the town of Sirte.

      Delete
  18. One must wonder who is directing these operations on the ground and perpetuating these myths. Could it be the many Anglo-American Special Forces troops that are admittedly on the ground in Arab disguises?

    One cannot say that this is occurring with any amount of certainty, but one can say, based on historical precedent that this is likely the case.
    Take, for instance, in 2005 when undercover British soldiers were arrested by Iraqi police for allegedly murdering an Iraqi policeman.

    This is just one of many examples of similar events occurring in Iraq and elsewhere to raise tensions and destabilize the region.

    While there is currently no evidence that proves foreign agents are behind inciting this racist violence, one can safely say that based on the past it would be hard to imagine that Western forces are not encouraging such actions.

    http://theinfowarriors.com/as-expected-widespread-racist-murders-in-libya-at-the-hands-of-rebel-forces-revealed/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “While there is currently no evidence that proves foreign agents are behind inciting this racist violence, one can safely say that based on the past it would be hard to imagine that Western forces are not encouraging such actions.”

      I know of no direct evidence for this point. However, ex-Congressman Walter Fauntroy apparently claimed that French and Danish troops “storm[ed] small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control.”

      Valencia Mohammed, “US Congressman Witnessed European Special Forces Beheading Libyans.” Posted on Mathaba 9 Sep 2011 http://mathaba.net/news/?x=628601.

      I don’t see any leap of imagination between what Fauntroy apparently reported and using western mercenaries to incite racial warfare.

      Art Bethea

      Delete
    2. I've hear that story, but don't put much stock in it. One guy, credibility unknown, extreme claim, they need no help. The rebels can cut off heads themselves just fine, and it would incite nothing to help them. The rebels are incited, not the cowed Africans. Helping them might accidentally satiate the. They're more useful hungry.

      What the West did, intel/media/whatever, all the same, is pass along as prob'ly true the reports of mercenaries and rape and hacking people up that sought to invoke ethnic cleansing and split the Arab identity of Libya forever from the African. No surprise, Gulf Arabs and al Jazeera played heavily in this. No surprise NATO sat by, annoyed by Gaddafi's abstention from AFRICOM's plans for the continent...

      Delete
  19. Jehad Gna seems to be crammed in the shed in march together with Cobb :

    Soon after we arrived, the photographer that I was traveling with, Jehad Nga, recognized the place.

    He had been held there in March when Qaddafi soldiers detained him for three days, subjecting him to brutal beatings and endless questioning from officers who insisted he was a spy. Nga found the desk where he was interrogated for eight hours at a stretch. He traced a message in the thick dust that now covered the desk surface: “I told you I’d be back.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/magazine/the-surreal-ruins-of-qaddafis-never-never-land.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://twitter.com/#!/jawaln/status/105764732929191937
      Jawal Nga : I’m not interested in forming a dialogue editorially. It is without question the most important thing in my life – it’s not an assignment. I feel like its my destiny to be there. It’s a culmination of all the roads I’ve pursued over these years and I absolutely have to respond to that.
      http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2011/07/jehad-nga/all/1
      And so thanks, Colonel Gaddafi.Long you reigned. Long may you rot.
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jawal-nga/thank-you-colonel-ghaddaf_b_939082.html

      Jehad Nga for The New York Times
      http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/09/25/magazine/25libya_span/mag-25Libya-t_CA0-articleLarge.jpg

      Delete
    2. @Hurriya - did you notice from that article that Jehad Nga visited the Khamis shed and photographed the feet bound with green rope? Looks like he was there early , perhaps before or the same time as Sky. Late morning 27th from shadows.

      Nga has an axe to grind...
      http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread729922/pg1

      Delete
    3. I can't find anything contemporary about Nga's alleged detention in March 2011. Also, he was reporting from Doha Qatar for the NYT on 23 August 2011. The Frontline Club, London - home for spook photographers. What do you make of this one? Looks a bit like the African Migrants' farm .

      Delete
    4. I wondered about that, but sounds like a different place Nga was allegedly held at. Some intelligence building in an unspecified area near another intel building.

      Delete
    5. Are such journalists “war profiteers” since they get richer and become even more famous because of these wars?

      http://www.alternativeinsight.com/The_Media_And_The_Attack_On_Libya.html
      The Media and the Attack on Libya

      Nothing but the usual scare techniques and on inside pages:
      http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23times.html?pagewanted=all
      Times 4 Journalists Held Captive in Libya Faced Days of Brutality,March 22, 2011

      Delete
    6. Thanks for reminder - I want to write something about the kidnaps of journos who entered illegally. Freelancers...who pays?? Must be rich! Or?

      Delete
  20. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?type=politics&f=/n/a/2012/03/21/international/i122504D68.DTL
    Serious crimes committed by former rebels in Libya risk going unpunished because members of the U.N.'s top human rights body show little appetite to press the new government to investigate abuse committed since the fall of the Gadhafi regime, rights groups warned Wednesday.

    A U.N. expert panel report published earlier this month found former rebels continue to persecute people perceived as loyal to late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Militias are holding thousands of people in makeshift detention where torture is rife, the report said.

    "The transitional authority is not willing to investigate what these militias are doing," said Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty International.

    "They are not even willing to admit the extent of the problem. For those people who are victims of the militias they have nobody to turn to," she said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Inside this Hauslohner nasty propaganda piece :

      On Monday, rebels who had taken over a military airbase outside the capital prodded two new prisoners in the bed of a truck.

      They were Sudanese men who the rebels said were certainly mercenaries because they had no papers. "The Sudanese rape women," one rebel said matter-of-factly.

      related ? :
      More than 120 other suspects — most of them foreign Africans — are being held at a school in central Tripoli, in the absence of a functioning government or justice system. There are rumors of other ad hoc prisons. And a guard, Jamal Mohamed, is sure the captives are snipers.

      At least two admit to being members of the regime's forces.

      http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2091293,00.html#ixzz1qVCWEm57

      Delete
  21. @Hurriya - can you locate a Stuart Ramsay video, around 30 or 31 August. which seems to show a narrow road, with some activity in the distance, cleansing the suburbs of Gaddafi loyalists allegedly, Tripoli suburbs. I thought it might be the lane on which the African migrants' farm was located. Ramsay doesn't go close.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @ felix : do you mean this vid :

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjJw-tvy0Ck&feature=related

      LIBYA: 'GADDAFI SON'S CAR WRECKAGE' 8/30/11
      @ 2.21

      Delete
    2. Brilliant, thanks Hurriya. Might be the road - might not. It seems to be running N-S with the building under attack on the east side......south of tripoli,a loyalist refuses to surrender to rebels in a smart farm suburb"

      Delete
    3. @Felix – The road look very similar to the road by the Afromerc base, but the details just do not match.

      Delete
  22. But where is the leader?
    28.08.2011

    The highway to the south is empty on Saturday morning, uncomfortably empty. The concrete tower of Furusia-riding club stands out between acacia trees, which several years ago received Gerhard Schröder to Gymkhana games.

    A solitary revolution guard stands post where as one of the two massive buildings have been accurate bombed to rubble .
    Uniform parts lying around, dozens of boxes of ammunition, a horse did not survive the fighting, the carcass is already so bloated that the legs protrude into the air.

    The road continues along a abandoned guardhouse to the once heavily guarded farm. Everything is quiet, the door is open, a few trees rustling in the hot wind.

    Miles of smal asphalt stripes pull themselves through a somewhat overgrown farm, out of nowhere on five large tents....
    http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,782959,00.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. interesting set of photos there. Text on one says 2/3 of the Khamis base was destroyed by NATO bombing. When was it evacuated??

      Delete
  23. Most fighting is currently taking place around Bu Sleem.

    Fighting is expected in farming areas (south of Tripoli) in the coming hours or days.

    http://reports.wbmonitor.com/reports/view/808
    Libya: Tripoli update 24-25 August 2011 0 Verified

    ReplyDelete
  24. The uncensored Alex Thomson C4 video, showing the identity cards allegedly found in the Khamis base is at this Human Rights Investigations page (as noted elsewhere in this blog, The Dead outside the Shed - just for reference.

    ReplyDelete
  25. In the Khallat al-Firjan neighborhood in south Tripoli, Associated Press reporters saw rebel forces punching a dozen black men before determining they were innocent migrant workers and releasing them.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44361720/#.T344hNVIvC4

    ReplyDelete
  26. Interesting photo from Jehad Nga : http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/21/return-to-libya-reflections-on-a-photographers-personal-conflict/#2 Is this the migrants' shed, but stuffed with arms?? Just labelled Tripoli. The next one, #3 is of a burning compound

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What makes you think this is from the migrant compound? I cannot see a similarity.

      Number 15 in the set is most interesting. The graffiti on the wall spells it all out: the intention of the rebels was not to liberate Libya, but to Libya their slave – especially the green and Black part of it.

      Delete
  27. Interesting article and video on Black Africans on KPRU. http://kp.ru/daily/25745/2732642/ - The revolutionary government of Libya refutes the genocide blacks (Google translation)
    A sad shot of Africans half-heartedly wagging the new flag and giving Victory V signs...
    They would, of course, if they knew that was good for them.

    ReplyDelete
  28. In today's news:

    Syrian Rebels Set Trap for British Journalists
    Tony Cartalucci, June 9, 2012

    Alex Thomson narrowly escapes attempt to kill his Channel 4 team, "clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army."

    Quote:
    British Channel 4's Alex Thomson, one of the few Western journalists not only in Syria legally, but attempting to cover both sides of the conflict, was purposefully led by rebels into a trap designed to have him and his team killed by government troops.

    "Set up to be shot in Syria's no man's land?" featured on Thomson's personal Channel 4 blog describes a tale of violence on both sides - very uncharacteristic of Western and particularly British media coverage. While BBC was busy posting fake pictures for their one-sided Houla Massacre coverage, Thomson was busy trying to interview belligerents on both sides of the Syrian conflict.


    The original:

    Set up to be shot in Syria's no man's land?
    Alex Thomson, Friday 8 June 2012

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, sorry it took a few days. I caught this already elsewhere, and man, what a turn. I'm so glad they didn't kill him, because if they had, he wouldn't be able to tell his end of it. Activists would say instead, as usual. Further comments at the Houla post.

      Delete
  29. It's a long video, but shows the attacks on Alex Thomson when he reported on being nearly killed by the FSA in Syria. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6u18tBff3g

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quote: "Many people have recognized this and other blatant false-flag martyr operations, and for three years psyops has kept these deceptions quiet by very simple means: Massive coordinated group attacks to harass, discredit, intimidate and threaten anyone daring to speak the truth."

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6u18tBff3g?t=8m33s

      Delete
    2. Damnit, watched half the video waiting for the inside video of the attack on Thomson's car.

      Still, it is fascinating - a lot of people suddenly wanting proof, and talking about journalistic ethics. If he'd died and had only the FSA report of what happened and the media considered that fact, no complaints, you can be sure.

      The black car wasn't FSA. Really? The regime faked FSA status to trick Alex into a sniper trap in rebel country, to create a crime that would be blamed right on the regime. Only one reason would they go to these lengths, and that's if they secretly wanted to help the rebels with propaganda hits and give them a clean slate in comparison. Their phantom loyalists and Shabiha ghost army do fit the bill, but the real government and all its supporters and dependents are supposed to pay.

      Delete
  30. JASON BEAUBIEN: A dozen black men are cowering in the back of a guard post on a military base in the south of Tripoli.

    The base used to be home to Moammar Gadhafi's feared 32 Brigade headed by Gadhafi's son, Hamis,

    until it was torn apart by NATO bombing and overrun by the rebels.

    The rebels say these foreign men are Gadhafi mercenaries. The men claim they're construction workers.

    Mr. GODSPOWER WILFRED (Construction Worker): No. No, I'm not fighting for anybody. Please, I'm not fighting here. I'm working in this Libya since two years and five months.


    BEAUBIEN: Thirty-seven-year-old Godspower Wilfred is from Nigeria. He says he and the others have been hiding during the recent fighting and they just now come out into the streets to look for food. Wilfred says he's terrified the rebels are going to execute him.

    Mr. WILFRED: I beg, I'm innocent. I don't know anything. I beg.

    (Soundbite of honking)

    BEAUBIEN: Rebels in front of the shattered remains of the military base are shooting their guns in the air and honking their horns in celebration. The ground is covered in shattered glass and bullet casings.

    (Soundbite of gunfire)

    BEAUBIEN: OK. So the rebels have just told these guys that they're free to leave. However, they're still a bit hesitant to go out the door, because they're nervous about what might happen as soon as they get out the gate.

    Just as the men start to walk across the road, another rebel, Mohamed Taraf, orders them back into the base.

    What's going to happen with these guys?

    Mr. MOHAMED TARAF: These people are killer, you know. They will (unintelligible),

    BEAUBIEN: A half hour later they're released again. This time they manage to walk about a mile to where a couple of hundred other foreigners, all from Sub-Saharan Africa, are staying inside a large dusty lot. They say the owner has let them camp here.

    There's one group of Somalis who've been traveling across the desert to try to get to Europe. There are numerous Nigerian construction workers and about two dozen women. A 24-year-old Ghanaian in a tattered British soccer jersey says he wants to go back home, but he can't even leave the lot.

    Then a rebel soldier with an AK-47 who won't give his name arrives and orders all of the Africans out of the compound.

    Unidentified Man: OK. Go, go.

    BEAUBIEN: Samsee John, a bricklayer from Nigeria, says they have nowhere else to go and he hopes the United Nations or some international group will come and rescue him.

    Mr. SAMSEE JOHN (Bricklayer[b]): They are going to kill us. There is no life here really. We're scared to stay here. Maybe God bless us.[/b] Really, I don't know what's going on.

    BEAUBIEN: The black Africans frantically pack clothes and blankets into small backpacks and then file out into the dusty street. The group lingers outside the gate until the rebel waves them away with his rifle.

    Unidentified Man: OK. Go. Please. Go, go, go.

    BEAUBIEN: But they don't go far. A day later, when Othman Belbeisi from the IOM, the International Organization for Migration, arrives, most of them are back inside the lot.

    ReplyDelete

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