KHALIFA HIFTER: THE CIA’S ASPIRING DICTATOR FOR LIBYA!

When the anti-Gaddafi Arab Spring protests started in Benghazi, Libya, both the U.S. and Great Britain dispatched CIA, Pentagon, and MI5 Intelligence officers to Benghazi to assess the situation and plan for a proper response to protect or advance their interests. Upon the team’s initial evaluation, the U.S. dispatched its “Off-the shelve” Libyan expatriates living in the U.S. Mahmoud Jibril and Khalifa Hifter, and pushed the post-Gaddafi “Libyan Transitional Council” to appoint Mahmoud Jibril as Prime Minister. Then it tried to push Khalifa Hifter, a former Gaddafi colonel as new Chief of the reconstituted Libyan army. The post, however, had been taken by Gaddafi’s Interior Minister, General Abdul Fatah Younis who joined the anti-Gaddafi protests that brought Gaddafi down. Mysteriously, however, Younis was assassinated, and Hifter was the main suspect, but he remained in flush and opposed by the emerged Libyan nationalist militias. He floated around with a band of supporters, probably hired mercenaries funded by the U.S., and he was viewed as a foreign stooge by the Islamist militias. Libyan militias cooperated among themselves, but Hifter was the odd-man-out -alone in the middle of hostile militias

Then, out of nowhere, Halifa Hifter moved West to Tripoli’s outskirts with armed supporters, declared himself the “Commander of the New Libyan Army” – probably with Mahmoud Jibril’s nod, but not with the “Libyan Transitional Council” authority, and tried to take over control of Tripoli’s airport that was guarded by a militia under the command of Abdel Khakim Belhadj (a formed CIA prisoner who claim he was tortured by the CIA while in custody, but was cleared and released later) and demanded from Belhadj to surrender the airport to him. Belhadj refused, and in the battle that ensued, Belhaji’s militia defeated Hifter’s men, and Hiftar left empty handed. Belhadj later formed the Al-Watan Party and was elected to the parliament. Mahmoud Jibril was purged form the Prime Minister job after reports in the foreign press (including mine here) depicted him as a “ shoed in U.S. puppet, “ while Hifter’s whereabouts remained unclear in the turbulent Libyan political scene. His move now to take over as Libya’s new dictator shows that he was preparing to take over the government -certainly at the behest of the West that it is heavily involved in Libya. (Russia, China and Iran are not involved in Libya, and Libya is, therefore, both an oil gold-mine and an open political field for the West. ) More information about the subject can be found in a 2001 Book printed in French “Manipulations Africaines,” published by the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomattique

Khalifa Hifter left Libya in the 1980‘s for the U.S., and set up residence 5 miles for the CIA. I believe that the CIA put him on its payroll as an “Of-The-Shelve” asset to be deployed when Gaddafi’s ouster or death occurred. After the Libyan Revolution, Hifter moved back to Libya as lions move in to take the carcass when hyenas have made a kill. The U.S. wanted to take control of the Libyan Revolution, and install its own puppet there – as it has done in Syria by shoeing in U.S. Syrian expatriates as leaders of the Free Syria Coalition (FSC). That is why the FSC has been discredited and Islamist groups prevail in Syria. Given the high anti-American hostility in the Arab and Muslims in general, any CIA smelling stooge is not welcomed anywhere in the Muslim world.

Why Khalifa Hifter made his move to overthrow the elected government of Libya now? He, and probably his CIA and British MI5 handlers, calculated that the global anti-Boko Haram outcry against Islamist militants has created the best environment for him to move against the elected Libyan government under the pretext of hunting Islamists. This move has the appeal that Libya needs a clean-up of Islamists before they become terrorist like Boko Haram. As an adage says: “You fool some; you win some, and you get there!” But Hifter’s Islamist hunting excuse is a “fig leaf.” His operation is a carbon copy of the Iranian General Faziollah Zahedi who under the CIA plan TPAJAX Project, and a con-join British Plan Operation Boot, was bribed to overthrow the Iranian Prime Minster Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. And it was about Iranian oil riches and exploitation. I believe that Khalifa Hifter is a de javu of 1953 for the U.S. and Great Britain as a reincarnation of General Faziollah Zahedi for Iran’s oil. Ideas can be wrong, but history is never wrong!

Multinational oil companies are building the Keystone pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas here in the U.S. to refine and export fuel to foreign markets where the prices per gallon are almost double the U.S. prices. But to do that, they need foreign cheap oil for U.S. consumption. Here is the fact of military coups and overthrowing foreign governments for oil – since the Industrial Revolution: “IMPORT CHEAPLY FOREIGN OIL FOR DOMESTIC USE, AND SELL YOUR REFINED DOMESTIC OIL TO FOREIGN MARKETS AT NEARLY DOUBLE THE PRICE!” Some big oil companies have reported salaries and bonuses for top executives as much as $ 9 millions a quarter (3 months). That is $ 3 millions a month, and much of this easy wealth flows to the U.S. politicians as “political contributions!” That is how $ billions are made, and that is why military coups, and Western stooges are so important to Western politicians who share in the purloined oil wealth. On this game, the losers are the citizens of oil rich countries that failed to see what was coming.

I had predicted in previous articles here that were also published in Libya’s newspaper Tripoli Post, and in the Libyan Students Radio 17 web-site, as well as copied and re-published in other Arab web-sites -both in English and translated- that there would be moves by foreign powers to install a puppet regime in Libya and exploit its oil resources. I advised that the Libyan militias do not disband, but retained as a National Guard independent of the government control to prevent the emergence of another dictator like Gaddafi that will control a strong Libyan army.

That prediction came true now with Khalifa Hifter at the stage as the new would be post-Gaddafi dictator in Libya – under an Islamist Boko Haram threat smokescreen. The Voice of America, however, reported yesterday that the Parliament speaker Abu Sahmein, ordered the powerful umbrella of Libyan militias known as “Libya’s Central Shield” to mobilize against Hifter. I hope those militias have retained their fighting spirit and expertise and finish Hifter and his mercenaries once and for all.

Libya doesn’t need another “strongman” to replicate Gaddafi’s rule. Libya needs “decentralized militias” to protect against centralized corrupt power, or a foreign stooge planted by foreign powers as a dictator. The lesson learned from Hifter’s current power takeover move is this: “Strengthen and increase the size of “Libyan Central Shield” with better vetting, better pay, better training, and better weapons!” Khalifa Hifter won’t be the last foreign stooge trying to take over Libya. Foreign conspiracies for the Libyan oil will remain active and ongoing until the oil wells run dry! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

EDWARD SNOWDEN: A SAMARITAN, OR A FELON?

Edward Snowden in  an interview with the Washington Post has claimed:    “I have already won!”   Surely he has won the hearts and minds of the American people by opening their eyes about the Stalinistic spying on them by their government.  And the lawless cowboys in Washington are not happy about. They have put him in their cross-hairs as a felon and as a traitor for hanging out the NSA’s dirty laundry!  With the U.S. involved in wars with Muslims,  and in many subversives operations to bring down anti-American governments  (nearly all in Latin America, and elsewhere)  keeping the dirty laundry out of sight is important business in Washington!  It is a practice the U.S. government has adopted from Al Capone.  If anyone of his hoodlums became a “snitch,”  he became “trunk music,”  the mafia lingo for being killed, stuffed in the trunk of a junk car without license plates, and abandoned somewhere.  The U.S. doesn’t kill snitchers;  it locks them on its trunk - the federal prisons. That is where the fate of Edward Snowden is supposed to end.   But has Snowden committed a crime?  

When Snowden was offered a job at the NSA,  he nobly believed that he would be hunting for terrorist’s movements and communications.  But then he found out  there was no distinction between spying on terrorists or spying on American citizens.  The NSA dragnet functioned like the infamous Cheka of the Bolshevik Communist Party in the Soviet Union,  which later became the famous KGB - Putin’s former employer.  It watched over  everybody,  and  filled the Gulag in Siberia with millions of innocent people on suspicions only.  That is what the NSA has been doing, but its Gulag is the massive vault of “metadata,”  the Greek word “meta -mean after,”  which practically is what thick dossiers used to be before data was digitized.  And as Snowden told the British Channel 4 TV,  the NSA can watch us like courts can watch criminals on bail that wear a GPS device attached on their leg.  The difference?   The cell-phone in our pocket functions like a GPS that the NSA can track 24-7!   Add to that the NSA tracking  of Internet, and every click we make,  and we are all bagged - not the terrorists!  Reports from Yemen reveal that terrorists and jihadists have been educating themselves on the CIA and NSA tracking techniques and cut off the links.  We are the easy targets and the sitting ducks because if we turn off our phones they will be useless! 

What benefit do the Americans get from the NSA tracking?   None!   Barack Obama claimed that the NSA tracking helped the U.S. to thwart and eliminate 50 terrorists threats.  But the Committee of Experts he appointed to study the NSA spying and submit recommendations to him  told the press and media that they found no evidence that the NSA had interrupted or thwarted any such terrorist threat!”   The old adage “Never believe a politician”  proved itself here!  Count Obama as one of them!

Snowden’s discovery that the NSA spying net spread across the globe indiscriminately certainly weighed heavily on him -especially the wholesale spying on Americans.  It certainly weighs for Brasil that plans to built a fiber optic cable link to Europe to bypass the U.S. dragnet.  Could  Snowden have stayed on the job for a lifetime of good salary and job security?  Obviously no!  At some point he cracked,  bolted, out and crowed.  The crowing was for the U.S. his crime!  There are probably hundreds and maybe thousands of NSA employees that think likewise, but they swallow their guilt to hold on to their jobs.  Snowden, however,  had a higher sense of valor like former CIA agent Phillip Agee,  and former  Pentagon employee Daniel Ellsberg  that exposed CIA and Pentagon  crimes against humanity and were prosecuted.  Along with him is Wikileaks founder Julian Assange,  accused of publishing U.S. documents obtained illegally.   All of them  were deemed guilty by the U.S.  for exposing  its dirty laundry to humanity.  If they were Chinese or Russian dissidents and they had exposed Chinese and Russian dirty laundry,  the Western media would have touted them as heroes, and the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee would have awarded them Nobel Prizes!  Example:  A Nobel Peace Prize to Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov who exposed Soviet government abuses saying:  “I could not stop something I knew was wrong and terrible,” on quote.  That is exactly what Snowden thought and did,  but instead of a Nobel  he faces life in prison if he gets out of  Russian asylum in Shakharov’s backyard!   The valor of Shakharov is Snowden’s crime!

To add insult-to-injury to Snowden’s revelations,  under American laws whistle-blowers  are protected and rewarded, but not when they expose the illegal or even criminal activities of government agencies.  They are the “Sacred Cows!”  Example:  U.S. Federal Agencies in an operation named “Fast and Furious” exported thousands of AK-47 and ammunitions to drug cartels in Mexico, and an Federal Drug Administration agent was killed with them.  There were no charges filled and no convictions; the case was swept under the rug!  The moral of the story:  U.S. Government agencies -NSA included-  are not always the law-keepers;  there are wild-cards of the global political antagonisms,  the sub-level of the Cold War that still continues unabated.  Their functions spread across legal and illegal activities

in the subterranean world under the motto  “the end justify the means!”  In this stratum there are no morals, no conscience,  and nothing is spared!  And as the U.S. spying on U.S. allies has proven,  the NSA sees only foes everywhere - even on Americans who pay their plum salaries, benefits and pensions!  And if anybody blows the whistle,  he is deemed a criminal and charged!  That’s Snowden! 

The U.S. “Public Broadcasting System”  (PBS)  broadcasts daily this parable:  “Democracy is not what the governments do; democracy is what the people do!”  Under this motto - which is certainly promoted by the U.S. government that funds most of the PBS,  the NSA spying  on Americans is not what the U.S. government (the NSA) does, but “what the American people do!”  Had the American people -with their vote-  authorized, or approved,  the NSA to spy on them?  Of course not! It is a preposterous definition of democracy.  Aristotle said that only tyrants employed foreign mercenaries as bodyguards, as Uganda’s late dictator Idi Amin did,  and their secret police listened to every congregation of people.  That regime is a tyranny,  not a constitutional government.  The purpose of any constitution is to protect the public from abuse by leaders who turn abusive or become dictatorial  once in power,  or to protect the public from  abusive royal courts and abusive officials appointed by inept or incompetent leaders.  Count Barack Obama as one; he should have fired NSA’s James Clapper and General Alexander immediately  after Sbowden’s revelations -  unless he had authorized them without actually knowing what he was doing!  I believe that is the core of the Snowden case.

Is wholesale spying on people by the government - for no apparent or legal reason- constitutional?   Of course not, and a U.S. Federal Judge has already ruled so! !  If anything, the U.S. laws rewards whistle-blowers that expose “illegal activities” by government agencies,  and many whistle-blowers have reaped $ millions for doing so.  Why not Snowden?  Snowden’s motive,  as he stated it was:  “All I wanted was for the (American) public to be able to have a say in how they are governed,”  on quote!   Obama’s appointed commission of experts found -according to press reports-  47  wrong things in NSA activities!  Whys is then Snowden prosecuted?  Because he exposed Obama’s incompetence or complicity in the NSA spying!   After getting a mouthful of complaints from German chancellor  Angela Merkel and Brazil’s president Dilma Yousef,  Obama needed someone to take the blame -  especially after former federal officials told the media that Obama gets a briefing every morning, and he knew what the NSA was doing!   Snowden’s prosecution is , therefore,  designed to cover up Obama’s ineptness or complicity in the NSA scandal! 

Is Edward Snowden a  “personal privacy crusader” as  90% of the American people certainly believe, or a traitor and felon as the U.S. government does?  Whistle-blowers are people of high morals and deep conscientious convictions - not traitors.    His revelations were meant to give the American people a view of what their government does to them.  He has not provided any foreign government with anything that they can use to spy on the U.S.,  or anything that compromised the U.S. national security.   But Obama feels too embarrassed to admit that he had allowed  the NSA to treat every American as a potential terrorist,  probably through incompetence rather than malice,  and he tries to prevent a blot on his presidential tenure.  Nixon did it in the Watergate scandal too,  but those years presidential briefings were officially recorded for history and they did him in!  He lied at first,  but the recordings couldn’t lie,  and Nixon’s fate was sealed. Without such tapes, Obama is free to toss blame around - except on himself!   Theodore Roosevelt said:  “Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity!”   Obama’s played aloofness   spells calamity for Snowden by a president who is intent to unload his approval  of NSA illegal and unethical practices on him.  His prosecution would serve as the detergent to launder Obama’s acquiescence in the whole scheme!

The NSA widespread spying would live on - with cosmetic changes which will be touted as safeguards for public consumption.  History is telling us that no genie has ever gone back into the bottle!  

Nikos Retsos, retired professor