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Warning: This site contains images and graphic descriptions of extreme violence and/or its effects. It's not as bad as it could be, but is meant to be shocking. Readers should be 18+ or a mature 17 or so. There is also some foul language occasionally, and potential for general upsetting of comforting conventional wisdom. Please view with discretion.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre: The UNHRC Reports

March 4, 2012
(incomplete)

UN Human Rights Commission Report on abuses in Libya, advance unedited version, March 2 2012.
Direct document download link:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/A_HRC_19_68_en.doc

I only skimmed most of it, but from what I see, it has some info on NATO bombing (some of which targeted non-military facilities and requires more investigation, the rest of which killed patriotic Libyans trying to protect their country - ie, "legitimate targets").

Mostly it focuses on conduct by the on-the-ground factions still sorting it out within Libya. Their reliance on available witnesses, primarily Rebels and those who support them, gives the report the usual skewing one would expect, allowing a hug portion of the crimes to still appear as if committed by the dying regime and its supporters. Various incidents are covered in this light; the 25 activists/17 corpses atrocity and other of the bizarre Tripoli massacres are discussed, the targeting of Tawerghans, rape, torture, all laid-out with Gaddafi regime and "Thuwar" (rebel fighter) violations listed.

Of interest to me now is their section on the Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre. This needs to be absorbed and worked into the body of knowledge before I can finish the report I'm slowly working into competence. In that interest, here is the presaging paragraph and then all the ones relating their findings on what happened at Yarmouk.
26. An informal detention centre was established in a warehouse adjacent to the 32nd Brigade’s base in Yarmouk, Tripoli. According to testimony received, torture and ill-treatment of detainees was routine there. On 23 August 2011, as Tripoli fell, guards threw grenades into the warehouse and then began to fire through the door, killing dozens. As the prisoners were so tightly packed, however, some survived and managed to escape. Two days later, the guards burned the bodies of those killed. Of the 157 detainees, only 51 survivors were confirmed. The Commission interviewed survivors, as well as two of the guards who admitted direct or indirect involvement. The testimony is broadly consistent and corroborative. The Commission’s forensic pathologist identified skeletal remains inside the warehouse. Other forensic evidence remaining at the site is considerable and supports the testimony closely. Six detainees, including three medical doctors, were shot a day earlier in a second warehouse, a few hundred metres away. Three of the six died.

The bolded: "Broadly" is just a big and vague enough word I'm forced to not call that an obvious lie.

The last part about a nearby killing: is this Qasr Ben Ghashir, about eight kilometers south, where two doctors among five men were first reported shot dead? Then another version had five of six people, includiong the doctors, killed instantly, with the sixth dying right after? Now it's six attacked, with three doctors, and three total survived? The date's never been clarified either: August 21 or 24 were given in the earlier versions. If this is the same, it's implied as August 22. Must be a separate incident. But even to that, one must say "what the hell? How confusing can this get?"

Returning to the main incident:
i. Yarmouk
27. After the February 2011 demonstrations started, an informal detention centre was established in an agricultural store adjacent to the base of the 32nd (Khamis) Brigade at Yarmouk, in the Khilit al-Ferjan area of Tripoli. The 32nd (Khamis) Brigade and the base itself were controlled by the son of Muammar Qadhafi, Khamis Qadhafi.
Allegedly -I'm on the fence whether anyone was or wasn't imprisoned there. A lot of people do say they were, that much is clear.

28. The warehouse was already receiving prisoners by March 2011 at the latest. The former detainees interviewed by the Commission had mainly been brought there in June 2011, by which time there were reportedly, up to 50 detainees in a space 20m by 9m. They were all accused one way or another of supporting the thuwar. They had been brought there from as far away as Zlitan and Garabulli (60 km from Tripoli) as well as from Tripoli itself. By the beginning of August 2011, numbers had risen to a reported 90.
These are among the things they say, true enough. Most of them, at least the survivors, seem to be from Zlitan, by the weird things they say. The shed size is close - using the imagery and scale from Google maps, the overall peaked roof area is 9 m by 16 m. They addedthe covered area between the shed and the side shack (but they didn't add the shack). The main chamber the prisoners all claim they were held in and fired on in, and making counts based on, is only about 9x12. The smaller chamber is only about 4 meters wide. There are a few burned bodies in there, but the main area is what they allrefer to, and it was nearly twice as crowded as they would have calculated.

29. Detainees told the Commission that water and food were distributed rarely. They were not allowed out to use latrines and were forced to urinate in plastic bottles. (During its visit to the site in December, the Commission observed a number of bottles on the site filled with dark brown liquid which were identified by former detainees as having been used for this purpose. ) All the former detainees interviewed, as well as one of the former guards, confirmed that torture and ill-treatment was routine at the warehouse, with prisoners being beaten and electrocuted. . On the basis of those testimonies, torture was carried out by numerous individuals, including [070]. The torture of detainees led to their death in at least four cases. One week before Ramadan [044] and [038] were interrogating one of the detainees, in the office attached to the warehouse. They beat the detainee to death. [007] threw the body behind Camp 27. Three engineers, who were working for a communication company died under torture in Yarmouk at the end of May 2011 during interrogation by an officer called [025] - they were subjected to electric shocks and severely beaten with sticks, having been accused of communicating with NATO and providing information on military locations. After they died, [007] took their bodies and threw them in the sea at the end of Camp 27.
The guards, two of them already covered here. Witnesses say things. Some of this might well be true, I don't know. It's the cluster of miracles on the 23rd I'm most interested in.

30. The immediate commander of the centre was [056], supported by a Sergeant [030]. [056] reported to Brigadier [028] and reportedly at that time commanding the Khilit al-Ferjan zone in which Yarmouk is located. Brigadier [028] in turn at that time reported directly to Khamis Qadhafi, although he denied this to the Commission. The guards themselves appear to have made little secret of their names and a total 15 names were provided to the Commission both by former detainees and by guards now in custody themselves. One of the guards had even written his name in graffiti on the wall of the centre. The guards were named as [080, 019, 070, 066, 017, 037, 060, 036, 038, 065, 067, 056, 044, 054, 064, 007].
31. By the third week of August 2011, when the thuwar were closing in on Tripoli, the number of detainees had risen to 157. On 23 August 2011, at approximately 4pm, (3-4 hours before the massacre), Khamis Qadhafi, [028] and [056] were together at the warehouse in Yarmouk. Later, Khamis reportedly called and instructed [056] and [030] to “conduct the operation” and then join him in fleeing the city.
Make note of this Brigadier [028]. He's the one who was the alleged link betweenthe demonized Khamis and the fable of the shed massacre. He breaks script by saying there was no such link.

32. During the early evening (just after the mosques announced the start of the iftar others [066 and ‘Mustafa’ ] informed the detainees that he would leave the door of the warehouse open and turn the light off to allow the detainees to escape because “they wanted you all dead”. The guard then ran away, along with one of his colleagues [066]. The detainees did not flee, however, despite the open door. A number of other guards then came and demanded to know who had opened the door. The guards then closed the door and threw a number of grenades into the warehouse through the grill in the top of the doorway. The number of grenades used has been described by former detainees as between 6-8.
[066] must be Abdul Razak, or Abdul Razak Baroni. In this version, the UN cleared up the confusion between Razak and "Mustafa," (covered here) by having both guards existent and present, though no witness I'm aware of has described two - it was one or the other that set them free, or tried to, before, during or after the massacre, or neither of them. As usual, it's quite confused.

33. One of the two perpetrators spoken to by the Commission said that Sergeant [030] brought seven hand grenades from the military camp next door on 19 August 2011, reportedly telling one of the guards [066] that if the situation deteriorated he should use them to “carry out the task”. The guard, who was later reported to have been one of those who warned the detainees and fled before the massacre, reportedly refused to take the grenades. One of the guards who admitted throwing two of the grenades into the warehouse said he had been given them earlier by the centre commander [056]. The guard told the Commission that he had been threatened with being killed himself after he initially refused to take them.
Bolded should be "claimed,"or "alleged."

34. The detainees were tightly packed and in consequence, some of the blast was absorbed by the bodies. The blast blew the doors open. The guards then began to fire AK-47 assault rifles through the door. As some of the survivors from the initial blast tried to get out, the perpetrators moved backwards into the yard and continued firing. Detainees variously described the firing as continuing for between 10-30 minutes, before the guards ceased firing and retired to the supply room. The detainees speculated to the Commission that this was to resupply with ammunition. As the prisoners were so tightly packed however, quite a few of the prisoners were still alive and those who could, escaped through the door and ran across to one corner of the compound, where they used a vehicle as a stepping stone to climb the wall and escape into the surrounding area. One detainee showed the Commission evidence of a bullet graze sustained during the escape.
A graze doesn't sound like Mabrouk Abdullah's totally healed full-on entry wound. Another verified gunshot injury allegedly from the massacre itself?

Soldiers backing up? Because prisoners were"trying"to get out? And again, it's silly they'd go to re-load AND leave the doors open, as implied here (ability was the only thing keeping all from running out) or any such thing. If they were dead, no need to re-load. If they were much alive, they should have re-locked the doors.

Fifteen or so other points of disconnect I could go on about...

35. While detainees named various guards as having been responsible for the actual killings, former guards themselves specifically named four individuals as having been responsible thrown the grenades or fired the rifles [038, 036, 017] and a volunteer named [057] under the orders of Sergeant [030]. [036] had thrown the grenades while Sergeant [038] and [017] used AK-47s to shoot the prisoners. The specific role of [056] was not stated. The officer in charge of the centre [056] was not present, having already left prior to the executions.
No notes here yet.

36. Following the killing, one of the guards was ordered by Sergeant [030] to collect the bodies. He counted 109 bodies, including the ones inside the warehouse, on the street and in the yard in front of the warehouse. A Caterpillar digging machine was brought but it did not function properly. Having failed to locate another, he then came back and asked one of the other guards, [019] what to do with the bodies. The other guard suggested they burn the bodies inside the warehouse and then use a tank to shell the warehouse and claim that NATO had bombed the warehouse. Two days later, on 25 August 2011, they brought fuel and burned the bodies.
A specified burn date for the first time. This makes moderate sense given the smoke still rolling off well into the 28th. None of those saying the fire was started the 23rd or 22nd makes sense. Too bad the clues are coming to light that the rebels were in charge the whole time from massacre date forward through all possible burn dates. Those in charge doing the erasing of clues suggests what?
37. The next day, Friday 26 August 2011, local people were able to get into the warehouse, having seen that the guards had left. They found a total of 57 burnt bodies inside. There was still smoke in the air. 20 bodies lay outside on the ground with gunshot wounds. The bodies were subsequently collected in body bags and reburied at Sidi Hamed in Gargarish.. Of the 157 believed to be in the warehouse on 23rd August 2011, only 51 survivors were confirmed, with 106 believed to have died.
Did they leave before or after the seven-hour battle on the morning of the 27th? Or was it the night of the 23rd? What did they think of almost the whole Gaddafi family converging there and leaving at 4:30 PM?  Did these locals enter before or after that? Before or after the rebel victory of about noon that same day? Which parallel universe did this occur in?
38. In addition to viewing video footage taken at the time of human remains inside the warehouse, the Commission also visited the Yarmouk warehouse itself and examined evidence remaining there. The Commission noted that there were still some charred fragments of human skeletal remains inside the warehouse. The Commission’s forensic pathologist identified a number of these various bones as a calcaneus, fragments of the cranial vault, metatarsus, radius, tibia, fibula, pubic bone, ulna, metacarpals and 1st phalanges. Alongside the remains, the presence of maggots was noted. Empty cartridge cases were visible beside the human skeletal remains, as well as on the ground outside. The large metal door of the warehouse contained a number of holes consistent with bullet hole entry points. There were also holes in the metal doors of the warehouse consistent with bullets exiting the warehouse from the inside, along with holes in the door and roof which were consistent with shrapnel burst from the hand grenades.
Bones were indeed found, just like the "witnesses," and a ton of photos and videos, had reported. That's science at work, proving the "witnesses" correct, right? Maggots were noted. That suggests organic things rotted. Huh! The alleged victims were organic! The bones had shell casings next to them suggesting they were shot on-site, or had casings from elsewhere laid by them.

I've got an anlysis on the building damage forthcoming, and no great counter-points yet. Indeed, weapons like those described seem to have been used there and chipped up the walls, torn through the thin metal wherever possible, etc. It all looks pretty random, really. Bullets from inside could be from the guards having stepped in through the doors to shoot prisoners, as some reported (they only started backing out later), then briefly turning around and shooting back at the doors. Who knows?
39. The Commission received testimony from numerous survivors, witnesses to the aftermath and two of the guards, who admitted direct or indirect involvement in the killing to the Commission. In addition, the Commission also interviewed Brigadier [028], who was reportedly at the warehouse earlier on the day of the massacre. He told the Commission he was simply in charge of personnel at the Military Intelligence (Istikhbarat). He reported directly to [008] and him alone. All orders came through [008] and he says he never was tasked directly by members of the Qadhafi family. When asked about his knowledge of the massacre, he claimed he only heard about it after the event and “if you’re interested in human rights violations then I don’t know why I am here”.
"Admitted" suggests a bias on the part of the writers to believe what should be "claimed." This sets apart the one guard who didn't tell it the same way, who refused to "admit"to anything. Again, we see him apparently breaking script. Is Brigadier [028] still alive?
40. The testimony from all parties who were at the warehouse at the time of the massacre is broadly consistent and corroborative. In addition the forensic evidence remaining at the site is considerable and supports the testimony closely, in relation to the conditions they were kept, the torture they sustained whilst in detention, the use of hand grenades and AK-47s to execute prisoners and finally the attempted destruction of the bodies. While there are small discrepancies, the evidence collected by the Commission is also consistent with that collected by human rights organizations at the time and in the aftermath of the massacre.
Pathetic. Otherwise, more later.

20 comments:

  1. Which people with normal functioning brains can accept a story where from march 2011 90 till 200 prisoners were brought in a shed, electric tortured, tased and nobody heard a sound till the famous date 23 aug or 24 aug when shots were heard by locals?

    While some locals live very close to the shed : 50 mtr, 200 mtr, 700 mtr.

    It is a big omission in their story :
    they should have talked about all the prison cars and about all the cries of pain echoing in the neighbourhood day and night during all these months.

    Logically thinking I do more believe the testimonies who talks about weapons brought to the shed many months.

    Btw : the presentator witness in the
    "what happened in yarmouk" vid talks about doing their shit in the holes outside.
    How many guards are needed to prevent 200 desperate men of escaping?

    The same person who talks about being hanged every day at the iron construction of the corridor.

    The corridor with the roof as can be seen in every vid except the "what happened in yarmouk"vid

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ the name Baroni
    http://i39.tinypic.com/be6nt2.jpg
    ************************************
    In a speech he delivered, Mr. Hassen Al-Baroni, the charge d’affaires of the Libyan embassy, “prayed for mercy for the souls of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the Libyan people, and wished the wounded to heal and the missing to return to their families.”
    http://geghna-eritrea.blogspot.com/2012/02/eritrea-which-never-acknowledged-fall.html
    Al-Baroni added that Libya is seeking to build a state based on the principle of “free economy and fair competition and the exploitation of natural resources that God bestowed on Libya, and put it to the service of the nation and the citizens and their development to the level of developed countries.”
    **********************
    Baroni, who comes from a prominent family which prospered before Qaddafi came to power, says the Amazigh and towns like Jadu were deliberately isolated by Qaddafi, who feared the Amazigh would rise up against his Arab state.
    http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/25/179187.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ human right organisations :

    PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS :

    Physicians for Human Rights only investigated the abuses committed by Gaddafi forces.

    The timing of their visit, and its focus on Misrata, meant that PHR was not in a position to comment on allegations of rights violations by the Libyan rebels or by Nato, the group said.

    It said NATO should investigate any credible claims made against the allied force that supported the rebels, largely through thousands of bombing sorties.

    PHR particularly raised the issue of medical neutrality in war time, accusing the Gaddafi forces of attacking hospitals, clinics and ambulances, and preventing doctors from reaching or treating injured civilians.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNnbDVTPTp0
    'One father told PHR how (Gadhafi) soldiers forced his two young children to sit on a military tank
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031710/Libya-Father-slit-throats-girls-raped-Gaddafis-men.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Nato :

    http://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2011/08/21/live-blog-libyan-rebels-pour-into-tripoli/

    4:10 pm . NATO Releases Some Libyan War Statistics

    Since March 31, NATO planes have flown 19,877 sorties, of which 7,505 were offensive strike sorties. Those planes have destroyed a total of:

    4,490 legitimate military targets
    1,130 military facilities
    500 radar systems and storage facilities
    275 command/control sites
    555 tanks and armoured vehicles
    610 other military vehicle
    285 artillery and rocket launchers
    1,115 ammunition facilities
    10 aircraft
    10 ships

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk0_DNU1T4I
    traitor taher/ eye clinic : nato comes with apaches to buildings/some km from the green square [ note all vid apache proof aug deleted from you tube]

    http://www.armyrecognition.com/august_2011_news_defense_army_military_industry_uk/british_and_french_special_forces_with_libya_rebels.html

    British TACP team shown with their equipment

    http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/tech-won-libya-war/?pid=638&viewall=true

    http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/24/those-drones-you-use-in-modern-warfare-2-they-could-be-illegal-in-real-life/

    http://www.sott.net/articles/show/226335-Depleted-Uranium-A-Strange-Way-To-Protect-Libyan-Civilians

    a cloud of microscopic fuel particles in the air before exploding
    http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/clinton-cluster-bombs-and-claimes-of-victory/

    ReplyDelete
  5. While NATO’s impact on the rebel’s military campaign has been decisive, it was fighting against a regime military that was of 1960s and '70s vintage, says David Hartwell, a senior Middle East and North African analyst at IHS Jane's.

    Mr. Hartwell says that given decade's long sanctions, Col. Gadhafi's Libyan military had not been able to update or even buy spares for their forces.

    "He was still fighting with the same army he had 20 or 30 years ago," he said. That army had been mainly equipped with Soviet military technology of the time.

    "This is a chance for Europe to shine," said one EU diplomat. "We have a really good story to tell in terms of… contingency planning."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Doctors @ Mitiga hospital and UK cum suis could arrange with bodies how they liked .

    Think about the truck with 17 bodies also found there near the shed.

    And thousands of bodies to be disposed of
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPYhPkfHdw&feature=relmfu

    What is found in the shed is burned beyound recognition and that should make someone suspicious.

    they started the uprising with burned bodies of the other side, claiming it were victims of their own side and probably trying it now again.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMd-QHT-dHw

    So everybody can know the goodies have won, and the baddies are defeated

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice (lower) video about propaganda - worth saving.

      Delete
    2. another not trustworhy institute :

      Libya War crime: Red Crescent provided weapons to Libya rebels [libyasos]

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa1tZnyoPxY&feature=player_embedded

      Delete
  7. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/world/africa/united-nations-report-faults-nato-over-civilian-deaths-in-libya.html?_r=3

    U.N. Faults NATO and Libyan Authorities in Report

    Published without publicity on the Web site of the United Nations Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, the report details the results of an investigation by a three-member commission of distinguished jurists. It paints a generally gloomy picture of the level of respect for human rights and international law in Libya

    NATO air raids that killed civilians in Libya have been criticized by rights groups, and the alliance’s refusal to acknowledge or investigate some of the deaths has been the subject of earlier news reports, including an extensive account in The New York Times last December. The new report represents the first time that NATO’s actions in Libya have been criticized under the auspices of the United Nations, where the bombing campaign in the name of protecting civilians from Colonel Qaddafi’s forces was authorized by the Security Council.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Informed, honest people do not dispute this point: NATO’s real aim was regime change. If the goal were truly just to protect civilians, the west would have bombed only to keep Jamahiriya forces out of Benghazi, but in fact NATO kept bombing and bombing and bombing, destroying the military and police that supported the Jamahiriya government. Indeed, a western air strike on March 19, 2011, targeted one of Qaddafi’s residences, and there is prima facie evidence that NATO murdered him.

    Wars of aggression, while frequent, are illegal. NAZIS were hung for invading Poland. NATO fought a war of aggression against the Jamahiriya.

    Even if Jamahiriya forces were responsible for the shed massacre—and Adam Larson’s many essays on this subject make me think the opposite—we’re talking about 100 people dead, not tens of thousands (source: Lizzie Phelan) or 160,000 (source: Thierry Meyssan).

    The illegality of NATO’s war is the single biggest human rights violation in Libya by far. This point needs great emphasis.

    Art Bethea

    PS: This is my understanding of the UNHRC’s take on the shed massacre. About 150 men were confined in a tiny space. Soldiers armed with grenades and AK-47s set about to kill the prisoners. Shooting went on for 15-30 minutes. AND ONE IN THREE SURVIVED???

    If any reader knows military personnel, run this scenario by them. Would they think it plausible? Yes, a few prisoners might have survived, because guys get lucky. BUT ONE IN THREE LIVED???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the great summary at the end there, Art. Great way to put it. Here we've been scraping to prove the 7-10-18-24 survivors claim was overshot, had it up to 35 escapees confirmed with details, then yoink, it's 51. Our list with maybes (not verified enough yet) runs to 71. I think we have like 65 claimed, and the UN's 51 probably has ten we've never heard of.

      Anyway, one in three, man. MIRACLES! Proof al Allah's blessing, that's gonna be built into Islamist propaganda. The harvesters of obsequious superstition in the Gulf are grinning now.

      The whole scale and scope of what NATO and its related organs did underpins all this, and is of course the master crime.I too feel it's of an invasion of Poland character, and by all rights, there'd be someone to punish the transgressors.

      Here, I 've got these on-the-ground interests, which is what helps inform the supposed justness of the air war and all-fronts war against Libya's sovereign government. I don't mean tode-emphasize anything, but there's ... I dunno, sorry, it's late. You have much to say. Hang around and share some more.

      Delete
  9. In my previous post, I neglected to put quotation marks around “shed massacre.”

    Was there a massacre at all? Yes, dead bodies were found, but who killed whom, how, and where?

    As a simple rule of thumb—and I base this on having read thousands of articles about Libya in the past year—if the victims are black or if bodies have been burned, this is a sign the Qaddafi opposition did the killing. A sign, but not absolute proof. (The key premises are that Colonel Qaddafi enjoyed very strong support from black Libyans, and the opposition, in Misrata and in east Libya, demonstrated virulent racism. Also, burning corpses expresses racial rage and erases skin color, making it easier to blame the Jamahiriya for the dead.)

    So I should have said before, even if Jamahiriya forces did massacre 100 unarmed people, this pales in comparison to NATO’s violation of human rights by fighting a war of aggression against Libya’s government. I am convinced that Cameron and Sarkozy’s Libyan coup would have collapsed in March if the west had not bombed. The death total would have been approximately 250-2000 (sources: Toni Solo and Horace Campbell). Instead, because Obama, Cameron, and Sarkozy insisted on regime change, tens of thousands have died.

    Art Bethea

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Donatella Rovera, a spokesperson at Amnesty International, has been talking regularly with medical staff in Benghazi in the last few days.

      INJURIES WERE TO THE HEAD, NECK, UPPER CHEST & ABDOMEN, SAID ROVERA

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtV9xlxb2JM&feature=channel
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8g0MMFiP58
      see @ 2.14 and more

      Delete
    2. And how many civilian loyalists have been killed in Benghazi ?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oQtM-59jDAo

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUyIS5kGl98&feature=endscreen&NR=1

      Former Benghazi mayor and Gaddafi loyalist Huda Ben Amer’s mansion “is now a charred husk….gutted by fire and obscene graffiti….”
      As a result, “(m)any associated with (Gaddafi) have been arrested, exiled or killed,” in a rampaging purge, “raising some uncomfortable issues” for rebel leaders and independent observers.

      Claiming only pro-Gaddafi supporters “with blood on their hands” are being targeted, youth gangs are terrorizing Libyans, using “rat-hunting” harassment, arrests, and “spontaneous roadside executions.”
      Actions, in fact, are so out-of-control that unchecked witch-hunt justice threatens anyone suspected of pro-regime support. In other words, they’re guilty by accusation, rebels acting as judges, juries and executioners with full Western backing.

      Bodies are showing up around Benghazi. “Three weeks ago, a traveler spotted (one) in farmland on the city’s outskirts, shot twice in the head with his hands and feet bound.” He disappeared the previous day after visiting a market. Days later, another one was also found, murdered the same way. “Masked, armed men had taken him from his home the night before, without giving a reason, his wife said.”

      Like many others, both killings are unsolved, and in rebel-held territory, investigations aren’t conducted in a climate of death squad justice. As a result, Benghazi residents are “paranoid,” wondering who’s next, and when lawless killings will stop.

      In fact, the entire city is unsettled, intimidated by rebel gangs rounding up suspected Gaddafi sympathizers. Unless stopped, “it will pose a (stiff) challenge to (insurgent leaders) trying to present a vision of a new country committed to the rule of law, while potentially undermining hopes for” peace and justice.

      n early May, “about a dozen men wearing balaclavas (ski masks) and carrying guns arrived at the house of Youssef al Tobouli in three pickup trucks.” A former prison guard, he defected and was at his store. “His terrified relatives called friends, and in the gunfight that followed, the room (he) shared with his wife and three children was destroyed by fire.”

      Numerous other attacks are reported. According to Benghazi Jalaa Hospital’s Dr. Omar Khalid, bodies of executed men show up regularly though no one knows if they were regime sympathizers. Some were shot. Others had their throats cut. They all came dead on arrival.

      Deadly episodes leave everyone gripped with fear. “Last week, rebel fighters in pickup trucks rushed to the city’s radio station,” suspecting Gaddafi loyalists inside. “Guns were fired, and a bystander was….killed….This is a war of rumors,” said the station’s security guard. “People are very edgy” with good reason.

      Delete
    3. @Art Bethea / Anonymous – Re: Was there a massacre at all? Yes, dead bodies were found, but who killed whom, how, and where?

      I do not think there was any massacre in the shed. The people died or were killed somewhere else and placed on the shed. Most likely the shed served as a morgue even before August 23th.

      The mostly black bodies outside the shed may have been killed on site.

      Delete
  10. 1745 GMT: Having found out around 150 dead bodies in a warehouse used by the Khamis Brigade, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he may also apply for an arrest warrant for Gaddafi's son Khamis.

    http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/8/29/libya-syria-and-beyond-liveblog-closing-in-on-qaddafis-homet.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We should also note that the ICC has little credibility. E.g., a former de facto head of state, Moammar Qaddafi, is murdered, and there is much visual evidence. But the ICC does not investigate.

      NATO militiamen fire heavy weapons indiscriminately at Sirte, a war crime which is noted by a Reuters reporter. Moreover, apparently hundreds of people are murdered in Sirte (battlefield executions). But there is no ICC investigation.

      Moreno-Ocampo was working for regime change and his own career. (Franklin Lamb suggests MO was hired by the NTC; MO wasn't going to get a second term as ICC prosecutor). MO was not working for justice.

      Art Bethea

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  11. Maybe I’ve become paranoiac in my old age, but I think the UNHRC report fits into a propaganda game for western leaders who drove regime change in Libya. Incessantly, these leaders and their minions repeated, “Qaddafi is killing his own people!” The UNHRC report can be spun to support this allegation and is especially useful propaganda if political rivals complain about atrocities committed by NATO militia.

    Obama and his cohorts enabled massacres; they didn’t prevent them. This interpretation is not mainstream, however, as Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy, etc. control the mainstream narrative and, I suspect, the findings of groups like the UNHRC.

    And is it more paranoia to suspect CIA/M16/French intelligence is involved in shaping the “shed-massacre” narrative?

    On a related matter—MSM propaganda—Libya 360° just published, with some criticism, an AP piece entitled “Another Dubai or Another Somalia?” (4 March 2012). The key technique to this lying is omission, which is a devastating weapon in the hands of a skillful liar. Here is a whopper:

    “Misrata was one of the few major cities in the west to rise up against Gadhafi last year, and paid for it with a months-long, devastating siege by regime forces. After repelling the assault, its militias joined the final march on Tripoli that captured the capital and brought down Gadhafi in August. It was Misrata militamen who found Gadhafi in his final stronghold, the city of Sirte, and killed him in October.”

    Where’s NATO??? I would bet money that NATO bombing “repelled” the seige of Misrata, not the Misratans, and there is prima facie evidence that NATO murdered Qaddafi; the Misratans did not “find” Qaddafi in Sirte. There is no mention of the almost certain agreement that existed for Qaddafi and his group to leave Sirte. How else can we explain the presence of a neutral extraction team in Sirte or a large convoy’s movement in broad daylight? Note, too, the word “killed” and not “murdered”; Moammar was not killed in battle, but one might infer that from the AP propaganda. Indeed, video evidence strongly indicates that an unarmed 70-year-old man was lynched and murdered, but none of this is mentioned. There is also no mention of the hundreds or thousands of Qatari soldiers who invaded Tripoli and, obviously, no mention that the presence of Qatari soldiers, as well as Special Forces, constituted a war crime.

    Indeed, in describing the fall of Qaddafi, the AP story never, not one time, mentions the word “NATO.” This is an Orwellian whitewash of history.

    Given this kind of propaganda—is it paranoiac to believe that the UN human rights group assessing Libya is similarly propagandistic? I.e., the UNHRC report is intentionally wrong, as powers sympathetic to Libyan regime change heavily influence the organization’s findings just as they enormously influence western press.

    Art Bethea

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    1. Paranoia is a heightened state of awareness. Sometimes it's not organized or whatever, can give bad results. But when fact-finder after fact-finder finds "facts"like what the UNHRC, HRW, AI, the media, and Dr. al Farjani's missing persons commission... it's a fairly rational thing to suspect they're not really trying to get the full truth.

      How they could overlook a month-plus of indiscriminate shelling, heavy bombing, and a total life embargo I've never heard of anyone else being allowed to carry out. That baffles me, if they were trying to even appear even-handed. My God, that was brutal, and nothing about war crimes or violations (that I know of)for NATO or the rebels feeding them bombing coordinates and doing all the other strangling.

      Just how, I don't know. I doubt they're given exact orders. It's all probably in subtle psychological traits all appointed directors happen to possess in spades.

      That said, I'm trying to write to some of these guys, take them seriously, and spur them to re-think. So I have to remain ambiguous. Maybe there is a script for all this, unwritten I'd guess, but scripts can be broken, so it's worth a try.

      And is it more paranoia to suspect CIA/M16/French intelligence is involved in shaping the “shed-massacre” narrative?
      I can see how there's a slot for that thought opened up, but this whole thing might be too messy for that. I think we have "fog of war" among uncoordinated rebel thugs and liars to thank for the huge number of holes we have in this case. That's why it's such a great case study. They're a bit more slick already, but too late to save "the most clear-cut war crime of the six-month uprising," prior to Sirte.

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  12. http://apimages.ap.org/search.aspx?st=mfe&id=630082&showact=results&sort=date&cfas=country%3Acountryname&sh=10&dtebf=9%2F24%2F2012&dteaf=8%2F18%2F2011&kwstyle=or&adte=1314226149&moid=150109&pagez=60&cfasstyle=AND&country%3Acountryname=%22libya%22&page=5&dah=55%2C55%2C55%2C55%2C55%2C55%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2C102%2C102%2C102%2C102%2C102%2C102%2C102%2C102%2C102%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2CX%2C20%2C20%2C20%2C20%2C20%2C20%2C20%2C20%2C20%2C63%2C63%2C63%2C63%2C63%2C63%2C63%2C63%2C63

    http://i50.tinypic.com/2z4ent3.jpg

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