VOD ed: Below is a section of a Reuters report indicating that it was a US drone that took out Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s convoy as it fled Sirte, which had been destroyed by US/NATO bombs. In the video link, Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News’ chief Pentagon correspondent, says the U.S. knew Qaddafi was in the convoy and deliberately targeted him. Only the day before, Hillary Clinton had met with the NTC to tell them the U.S. wanted Qaddafi captured or dead. (See following story.)
“U.S. officials told NBC News that a Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile and a NATO warplane also launched a missile at the 15-vehicle convoy about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, destroying several vehicles and scattering the rest. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said a French aircraft was involved in the attack. Click on link for video below.
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/us-drone-fired-missile-leads-to-capture-of-gadhafi/6t7oaog
Some two miles west of Sirte, 15 pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burned out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity sub station some 20 meters from the main road.
Nelson Mandela and Col. Gadhafi outside his home, which the U.S. bombed in 1986, killing his infant daughter.
They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.
But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or that it had been strafed by a fighter jet.
‘My master is here’
Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn across the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.
Gadhafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have run through a stand of trees toward the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.
But a group of government fighters were on their tail.
“At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use,” said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. “Then we went in on foot.
“One of Gadhafi’s men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me,” he told Reuters.
“Then I think Gadhafi must have told them to stop. ‘My master is here, my master is here,'” he said, ‘Moammar Gadhafi is here and he is wounded,'” said Bakeer.
Another of the fighters who said he took part in the capture toted a heavily engraved a golden pistol he said he took from Gadhafi as he was hoisted on the shoulders of his comrades.
Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. National Transitional Council officials later announced he was dead along with Gadhafi’s fourth son, Muatassim.”
VOD ed: Below is a video from CBS News that illustrates the suffering of the people of Sirte as their city was destroyed.
Read the following article from The Final Call, “The Gadhafi I Know–A Commentary on the Libyan Leader,” which details what Gadhafi achieved for the Libyan people and the whole of Africa under his administration, including housing, jobs, education, and all the necessities of life. The U.S. and NATO forces have now laid waste to a country that was a virtual paradise. The enormity of their war crimes cannot be measured.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/article_8232.shtml
Long live Muammar Qaddafi!
The summary execution of Muammar Gaddafi
October 20, 2011
The capture and summary execution of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is being hailed by imperialist politicians and media as “liberation” for the Libyan people. In fact, it means just the opposite. While the final bullets that killed Gaddafi may have been fired by troops of the Libyan “National Transitional Council” (NTC), the real victors in this war are the U.S. government and its British, French and Italian allies.
Without NATO intervention, the Libyan rebel forces would have long ago been defeated. The NTC billboard welcoming Sen. John McCain to Benghazi, Libya a few months ago read: “USA: You have a new ally in North Africa.” To be really accurate, “client” should have been substituted for “ally.”
Video: NATO-led rebels parade and outrage the bodies of Muammar Gaddafi and his son Muttassim in Misrata
Wefaq Libya
While facetiously pretending that their 7-month-long intensive bombing campaign was to “protect civilians,” the NATO air forces waged a ruthless war that left cities like Sirte in utter ruin. The defenders of the city determinedly held out for months against overwhelming NATO force until the city was completely destroyed.
The U.S./NATO conquest of Libya is another step in a new scramble for Africa, this time with the U.S. rather than the European powers in the lead. Libya was the first war of the recently formed AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s military command for Africa, established to facilitate a new type of colonization of the resource-rich continent.
Brian Becker
In an interview on Russia Today, ANSWER Coalition national coordinator Brian Becker said: “[This is] the act of the NATO powers, the United States, Britain and France, the former colonizers and enslavers of Africa, who have carried out regime change in many countries, they’ve done it again. They’ve taken out the leader and replaced him with a new government, which will be basically a NATO client regime. I think it’s a great tragedy for the people of Libya.”
