Andrea Tornielli

“Today, Libya is experiencing a serious situation that leaves us stunned and helpless. I do not have the means to confirm the details that gave way to the revolt. However, it seems clear that it was fueled by a number of factors.” This is what the bishop of Tripoli, Giovanni Martinelli writes in the preface of an interesting and enlightening book entitled Libya 2011 (subtitle framed by an eloquent image of a bomber releasing its bombs: “If you don’t come to democracy, democracy will come to you”). The author of the essay, which includes a historical and an investigative section, is Paul Sensini (Jaca Book Editions, pp. 174, €12.00).

The pages by Sensini take into account the history of the “Benghazi rebels,” fomented by Islamic fundamentalism and organized, armed, funded by Western powers. They document the responsibilities of the Arab media, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera in accrediting the existence of massacres against civilians perpetrated by Gaddafi and which served to create that wave of emotion needed to justify the war with UN resolution number 1973, which kicked off a military intervention by the “coalition of the willing.” 

It has been said that Gaddafi ordered the bombing in Tripoli against the insurgents, which killed “more than 10 thousand people.” “Blatant falsification” according to Sensini, who recalls prominent journalists resigning and walking away from Al Jazeera. There was talk of “mass graves,” which instead were just “old cemeteries,” Indeed, pictures had been circulated of what were presented as hasty mass burials of corpses of rebels killed in the bombings by Gaddafi: “But they were just - writes Sensini - the filming of the cemetery of Sidi Hamed during normal work for shifting remains.” 

Once again, like other wars in recent decades, rather than with weapons, these are won or lost by directing and guiding public opinion. A real war, with the use of more than six hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles that carried half a ton of explosives each, destroying everything within a radius of fifty feet and threw debris up to five hundred meters high, was passed off as an intervention to “protect civilians.” To the point that even General Leonardo Tricarico, Chief of the Italian Air Force, called those used to describe the involvement of our people “crazy lexical stunts”: “Italian military operations, as demonstrated by the Libyan crisis, are always accompanied by ambiguity and hypocrisy.”

The most interesting part of Sensini’s book is that in which he documents the identity of the " Benghazi rebels" and that of some of the new rulers of Libya, linked to Islamic fundamentalism and Al Qaeda, fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, who were armed and used by Western governments as happened in the late seventies in Afghanistan when the U.S. supported Osama bin Laden’s mujahideen against the Soviet Union.

“The most famous Libyan inmate of Guantanamo at Derna - writes Sensini - is Sufiyan al-Koumi, a veteran of the Libyan contingent who worked for the Bin Laden holding in Sudan and then in a “charitable institute” linked to Al Qaeda. Arrested by the Americans and deported to Libya, he was released by Gaddafi's son in September 2010, thanks to the initiative "Reform and repent"... His current "job" is to "prepare recruits" to join the rebels.”

In the book Libya 2011, there is a great deal of helpful information, useful for understanding the motivations of the Western world’s attack against Gaddafi, compared to much milder or non-existent reactions against other popular repressions in Arab countries: the background of Libya’s sovereign funds, held in banks in France, Great Britain, the United States and Italy, all facing an unprecedented financial crisis; Libya’s energy resources which have always been coveted by multinationals; or better still the introduction of a single currency for all Africa and the unification of the black continent, of which Gaddafi's Libya was the major promoter.

Libya, the only Middle Eastern oil reality with a social redistribution of wealth, where today 88 percent of its population is literate (illiteracy was at 94 percent when Gaddafi came to power in 1969), it is also the top country with free education, free quality medical care and family promotion.

It is striking how little thought was given before starting the war against the Tripoli’s Rais. What is also striking is the silence of most of the Catholic world, as well as the low incidence of the Holy See's position in worldwide public opinion, which on previous occasions had make its voice heard loud and clear.

© http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it - 7 ottobre 2011