When I cast Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and International Crisis Group Trustee, Emma Bonino one of the handmaidens of chaos, there was no outcry from her PR people. The reasons for this are pretty simple. First, dignitaries like Ms. Bonino must appear far too busy and important to address every criticism. Secondly, the roles of such people are now irrefutable within the real of digital media. The mountain of circumstantial and prima fascia proof disruptors like George Soros – his associates such as; Baron Malloch-Brown, Madeleine Albright, Lord Jacob Rothschild, and the artist of the Russian Afghanistan mess, Zbigniew Brzezinksi are just some of the cadre of interested parties in today’s foreign policy cataclysm. But their game is an old and well known contest for power and control. My focus this week has been more on the foot soldiers of this old-new-world-order, and their strategies to reshape nations. You’ve all been hearing about ISIL regrouping in war torn Libya, but I’ll wager few reading this understand what is really going on there. For insight into how these people work, how they practice “double speak”, this video just after Crimea began rejoining Russia sets the tone. In the clip from CNN, first Brzezinski, then Fullbright blame Putin for what was in effect perpetrated by the west.
Opinion on Libya’s Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi is divergent and wide-ranging. For most Americans, the so-called “strong man” was purported to be some kind of tyrant, or worse still, an incarnation of evil. Movies from back in my youth always put US Navy Seals or Spec Ops people thwarting some Libyan terror op, “Patriot Games”, with Harrison Ford showed us training camps via satellite linkup – and we believed Hollywood, of course. However, tyrant or defender of the faithful, Libya thrived under his rule – especially compared to now. It’s never been a secret that Washington and Tel Aviv wanted Gaddafi “gone” – all that was ever missing in supplanting him was an ample opportunity. And the opportunity was etched out, planned, and later executed by familiar names. That is another story though, today it’s more productive to look at the eventual future planned for this part of North Africa – Mohammed El Senussi is the New World Order’s “man who would be king” of Libya. Here is the story.
Prince Mohammed El Senussi Prince Mohammed, son of His Highness Prince Hassan El Rida El Senussi, Crown Prince of the Libyan Kingdom from 1956 to 1969, when he was overthrown by Colonel Gaddafi. The “legitimate” heir to the throne of Libya gave an interview to Al Jazeera English in February of 2011, and called for the international community to help remove Gaddafi from power, which the Obama White House supported. This call was published the day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the world “Gaddafi must go, and later British Prime Minister David Cameron proposing the “no fly zone” which essentially spelled the end for the Libyan leader.” The US Senate followed in tune with the evident plan, and on 19 March 2011, a multi-state coalition began a military intervention in Libya, supposedly to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973. Before elaborating on the prince further, right here it is essential the reader understand the role of Sarkozy, and French oil giant Total played. A recent revelation that came about because of former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s released Emails, tell us Sarkozy was “probably” helping to set up a future Libya all along. To quote at least one Email entry from March 22, 2011:
“Officers” with the General Directorate for External Security — the French intelligence service — “began a series of secret meetings” with Jalil and Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis in Benghazi in late February and gave them “money and guidance” to set up the council, whose formation was announced Feb. 27. The officers, “speaking under orders from [Sarkozy] promised that as soon as the [council] was organized France would recognize [it] as the new government of Libya.”
Furthermore, the report says, Sarkozy agents had urged the Libyans to set up in reserve for France and Total, some 35% of Libyan oil production for future considerations. But hundreds of investigative journalists and media have established well, the role oil and investing has in chaos taking place worldwide.
Turning back to my “kingmaker” contention, I need to share a more handiwork of these “Crisis” foot soldiers with you. Of the many Libya “experts” I’ve found in the last days, Claudia Gazzini is by far the most widely cited. Her thesis, “Jihad in Exile: Ahmad al-Sharif as-Sanusi 1918-1933” is quoted in more political and strategy journals than I can name here. I should not need to point out, is the grandson of the exiled founder of the Senussi order from Ms. Gazzini’s thesis. Naturally, the well renowned academian is also Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Libya. She’s so well known for expounding on the subject of Libya in fact, that this February 2011 TIME piece cited her in a literal prediction of Gaddafi’s fall. Perhaps it’s only coincidence that hours after Prince Hassan El Rida El Senussi called for a coup, TIME Magazine had the foresight to round up THE Libya expert, and to pave the way for one of the world’s most resilient leaders to be dethroned. Perhaps, but the article in question also condemns Italy’s leader in transition, Silvio Berlusconi. We’ve no space broaden the sphere of discussion, but the Italian “factions” working against one another are important to understand.
As I’ve stated before, whether or not experts in these situations act out of complicity or ignorance of their actual roles, their influence still weighs heavily on world changing decisions. The situation is no different for Claudia Gazzini. Her dedication to studying Libya notwithstanding, it’s those in the international community “using” her expertise know full well the balance of power. Just the other day, she and Fred Wehrey, Senior Associate, of the Middle East Program, for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, gave testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on behalf of the International Crisis Group, concerning “The Path Forward in Libya.” In the testimony there is not one inkling of insinuation as to “who” caused the strife that now engulfs the people of Libya. The Crisis Group expert has not qualms about dropping the names of people like Bonino or General Wesley Clark, but the only hint Libya has been destroyed comes from Gazzini’s offhand mention of oil revenues having plummeted and banks closing. You can read the testimony here (PDF), but her rhetoric brilliantly interjects, with precision innuendo, the return of the Senussis. Please understand how complex and carefully any prognosticator has to be, in suggesting to a US Senate a coronation.
“The Libyan conflict is multidimensional and complex. The political dimension cannot be dealt with separately from the economic dimension, and both are dependent on the security dimension. The international community should not repeat the mistake of last December, when it decided to push ahead with a political agreement with insufficient preparation, announcing a unity government when no unity was achieved and no body of any sort was in a position to govern.”
Furthermore, illustrative of these “crisis players’” clinical and callous attitude toward the very chaos they’ve caused, their conclusions wreak of ideological self interest. The testimony of the aforementioned Fred Wehrey ends:
“Unlike in Iraq or Syria, the Islamic State cannot prey on sectarian fears in Libya. It has not shown an ability to set up durable governance structures in areas it controls. Libya still has multiple societal and political actors capable of and willing to fight back against the group. The Western approach should work carefully to ensure that it harnesses and unifies these actors rather than dividing them.”
As an historian, the dogma makes me recall the days before CIA legend, Allen Dulles instigated the overthrow of Iran’s leadership in order to install the puppet Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. As was the case back in 1953 in Iran, the interference of foreign intelligence agencies goes on in North Africa too. Returning now to the role of the Senussis, this document on the order offers a chilling revelation about the new “Libya” these people have planned, and I quote from
“The Sanusi Order successfully developed mutually beneficial political and economic relationships with the surrounding tribes, who lacked defined leadership structures (such as the primary Saadian and Marabtin tribes in the area. As a religious order the Sanusi was easily assimilated into the tribal traditions of North Africa, it had the prestige to gain respect and over time it developed political power as both an arbiter and controller of regional affairs. The Sanusi developed in to a political order largely because they identified with the tribal system of the Bedouin, they showed a marked Ogirisi: a new journal of African studies tolerance towards other Orders, given that there were no doctrinal differences and often they worshipped together.”
As you can see, the expertise and advice Gazzini and others are giving governments is not idiotic, nor is it insanity. Put simply, what we see taking shape with ISIL and the whole Arab Spring cataclysm, is nothing more than a history redux. Research into what worked before now bears fruit in the Middle East and elsewhere. And for those convinced I have a conspiracy theory wish, Twitter already tweets about the return of the king of Libya. Also, the New York Times has also begun “informing” the world about the “idea” of restoring the Libyan monarchy as a resolution. This article from last month begins creatively, with imagery of the evil “Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s virulent rejection of Libya’s monarchy.” The author of the piece is skilled, as you would expect, and the premise will take hold. Calls for reinstituting the Libyan constitution of 1951 can be heard from many corners, and in many languages.
For those seeking any “truth” for Libya, or for any of the war torn states we observe today, all I can offer is this. It is true that a “circuit” of interested parties, experts, decision makers have conspired (one way or another) to irreversibly alter the path of humanity. It’s fair to say, money and influence leverage thousands, who are otherwise in pursuit of answers to societal or political upheaval. I know personally, that the CIA and other organizations recruit and cultivate students who are “susceptible” to being used for state purposes. And I also know that the division in between the “state” and business is non-existent today. George Soros and others are often mentioned in between the lines of war and cataclysmic story. The International Crisis Group, whether infiltrated or empowered by such influencers, still impacts negatively, the very chaos and human conflict it is supposed to alleviate. The only truth anyone can grapple is the truth of what was, under leaders like Gaddafi, compared to the misery imposed on people for huge corporations like Total, Exxon, Dutch Royal Shell, BP, and 100’s of others. Under Gaddafi’s administration, Libya was nearly a classless society. Libyan’s once enjoyed free university education, free healthcare, and the literal elimination of homelessness. And today the masses there live in fear and poverty.
It is a surety that authoritarian rules are often too hard on their citizens. Surely, he was called “despotic, cruel, arrogant, vain and stupid” by his detractors too. But when he was needlessly killed US President Barack Obama could muster no kind word, but only beat his own drum saying; “the shadow of tyranny over Libya has been lifted.” Was it? Was Libya’s leader of a martyr or a villain? And should we believe the men and women who were hell bent and determined to overthrow him and others?
As for good intentions, and thinking of the right or wrong of a Libyan monarchy, I leave you with the words of Mohammed el Hasan el Rida el Senussi, from July of last year, for who is to say what is best for the people of Libya? Certainly, it is not me, nor any “would be” expert of a foreign land with hidden purposes.
“Good and benevolent efforts will not be lost but instead will help return Libya – God willing – to be the best of nations in our lifetime. Libya will be – God willing – a force for stability, a home for the renaissance of civilization, a bastion of peace and security.”
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
