Obama Bombs Libya

by Stephen Lendman

Attacking other nations directly or indirectly posing no threat to America is longstanding US policy. Obama is the latest in a long line of warrior US presidents. He exceeds the worst of his predecessors. He's a war criminal multiple times over.

America's imperial agenda is lawless by any standard. It includes a sordid history of bombings, invasions, occupations, coups, assassinations, and other destabilizing activities aimed at making the world safe for monied interests - in blatant violation of core international law.

Since WW II, dozens of victimized countries include North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Indonesia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Pakistan (AfPak), Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Ukraine, Somalia, Palestine partnered with Israel, and on Sunday Libya again.

Reuters reported Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren announcing the following:

"Last night, the US military conducted a counterterrorism strike against an Al-Qaeda-associated terrorist in Libya. We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate."

It's unclear where the strike took place or what it accomplished. Allegedly senior Al Qaeda commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar was targeted.

Libya's US-installed stooge regime in Tobruk, outside the rival Islamist Tripoli government, claimed he was killed. Previous reports of his death proved false. A Tobruk statement said:

"The Libyan government announces that American planes undertook action that resulted in the death of the wanted terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a number of Libyans belonging to one of the terrorist groups in Eastern Libya, after consultation with the Libyan interim government to take action on terrorist leadership present on Libyan soil."

Washington's National Counterterrorism Center says he was a senior Al Qaeda Saharan branch commander before establishing his own "Signed-in-Blood Battalion."

An Algerian court sentenced him to death in absentia twice. It blamed him for a 2007 attack and siege on a gas facility, resulting in the death of 38 hostages, including three US citizens. A second sentence followed a 2008 incident.

Belmokhtar's militant roots trace from his anti-Soviet 1980s Afghanistan Mujahideen days. He returned to Algeria in the 1990s battle-scared from shrapnel wounds, including the loss of one eye. He operated in Mali and Libya.

CIA sources say they tracked him since the 1990s. He was known as MBM (his initials), Laaouar (the one-eyed), the Prince, and Abu Khaled.

The New York Times said unnamed US officials "confirmed" Belmokhtar was Sunday's airstrike target - "carried out by multiple American F-15E fighter jets."

"It was a strike on an extremist leadership target whom we believed posed a threat against American and Western interests" the official said.

So far no forensic evidence proves his death. Al Qaeda and similar groups are used strategically as both US allies and enemies.

The attack was America's first since Obama's 2011 Libya aggression leading to Gaddafi's ouster and murder. Months of naked aggression turned Libya into a cauldron of violence, instability, chaos and human misery.

On April 15, 1986, Ronald Reagan's Operation El Dorado Canyon bombing failed to kill Gaddafi. His infant daughter was killed when his compound was attacked. So were over 100 other civilians. Dozens were wounded, including two of Gaddafi's young sons.

The French, Swiss, Romanian and Iranian embassies were damaged. So were Japanese and Austrian diplomatic residences.

Dozens of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed. Libya's Central Hospital reported up to 100 people needing treatment for serious injuries, including infants.

War didn't follow. Does Obama have another one in mind now?

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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