VIDEO: Surveying
the damage, talking with students
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91yClPLxvX0&feature=channel_video_title
More NATO "Humanitarian Intervention: The Bombing of Al Fateh University, Campus
B 14June 2011
By Cynthia McKinney
Since coming to Tripoli to see first hand the consequences of the NATO military
operations, it has become clear to me that despite the ongoing silence of the
international press on the ground here in Libya, there is clear evidence that
civilian targets have been hit and Libyan civilians injured and killed. This
Tuesday morning I was taken from my hotel across the city through its bustling
traffic to the Al Fateh University. On 9 June, Dean Ali Mansur was outside in
the parking lot. The sky was blue like Carolina blue. The clouds were white--no
chemtrails in sight. Puffy and white. Dean Mansur was visibly upset. It seems
that some of the young men at Al Fateh University, Campus B were fighting over
girls. He explained to me that Libyans are hot blooded. With a gleam in his eye,
he whispered to me that girls are important to young men. Yes, that was clearly
evident today as I approached the campus of Al Fateh University, Campus B,
formerly known as Nasser University. Under the trees, throughout the lawn as we
approached the campus gates, I could see young men and women talking to each
other, talking on cell phones, walking to and fro, assembled, probably talking
about the latest campus news--whatever that might be. Today, on the Al Fateh
campus, life was teeming. Student life seemed vibrant. This feel and ambiance of
this university was not unlike the hundreds of other universities that I have
visited in the US and around the world. Libyan boys and girls are like ours. My
son would easily fit into the life of this university. The campus seemed
vibrant, too. Cranes everywhere indicated a healthy building program, adding new
buildings to enhance the student learning environment. Despite the students'
fracas, Dean Mansur had everything to be happy about as he saw his university
becoming bigger, better, and stronger. Her told me that they had even signed an
agreement with a British university to begin programs in the English language.
Not English studies, Dean Mansur emphasized, but an entire curriculum of study
taught in the English language! Of course, he entoned, that's all
disappointingly ended now. Al Fateh University, Campus B consists of about
10,000 undergraduates, 800 masters degree candidates, and 18 Ph.D. students; 220
staff, 150 ad hoc professors, 120 employees. It has eight auditoriums, 19
classrooms, 4 extra large classrooms. It also has a rural campus at Al Azizia
where 700 students are taught and are a part of the university system. Dean
Mansur compares himself to a mayor because he has so many responsibilities
presiding over a large community of students engaging in a rich and vibrant
academic life. Dean Mansur told me that life at the university and, for him
personally, changed forever on the afternoon of Thursday 9 June, 2011. He
recalled that the university opened as usual around 8:00 am and was to close
later that evening at about 8:00 pm. Thursday, 9 June, he thought, was going to
be just like any other day, except for the fracas over the girls that had
cleared the campus of many of the students who didn't want to have any part in
the fighting. So, outside in the campus parking lot, Dr. Mansur told me he was
preoccupied thinking how he would deal with the disciplinary issue before him.
Then, out of nowhere and all of a sudden, he heard something loud up in the sky.
He said it began out of no where, a loud roar. Then a frightful high pitched the
hissing sound. He said he looked up into the sky and couldn't hardly believe his
eyes: something shiny up in the sky appeared dancing in front of him. He said it
moved about like an atari game or something. It danced and zig-zagged all over
the sky. He said he was transfixed on the object for what seemed like minutes
but in truth must have only been seconds. Up and down and sideways it raced in
the sky and then, without warning, it just came crashing down into the ground
nearby. It was a NATO missile. Tragically it had found its target: Al Fateh
University, Campus B. Dean Mansur said he saw one missile, lots of fire, lots of
different colors all around it, and then a huge plume of smoke. He saw one
missile, but heard what seemed like many explosions. He said he now can't
honestly say how many. Dr. Mansur said the force and shock of the blast held him
frozen in his place. He said his heart stopped for a moment. He wasn't afraid,
just frozen. He didn't run away; he didn't cower; he said he just stood
stupefied. The force of the blast cracked thickened concrete wells, shattered
hundreds of windows and brought numerous ceilings down in lecture halls. Whether
it was a wayward Tomahawk Cruise Missile or a misdirected laser guided bomb, no
one knows. His immediate thoughts were for the thousands of his students in the
university and for his own three children who study there. After about 30
minutes, the Libyan press came to see what had happened. the University
President and other officials of the school all came. But to Dr. Mansur's
surprise not the international press. And what did they see? The media saw the
widespread structural damage to many of the buildings, all of the windows blown
out in every one of the eight auditoriums. Doors blown off their hinges. Library
in a shambles. Books and debris everywhere. The campus mosque was damaged. Glass
heaped up in piles. Some efforts at cleaning up had begun. Dr Mansur says that
they have kept the university, wherever practicable, in much the same condition
as it was on the day of the attack. Except that the main classroom area that
students work in has been cleaned and will be renamed the Seif Al-Arab
auditorium complex in memory of Muammar Qaddafi's son murdered on April 30, 2011
in his home by NATO bombs. On Thursday, NATO missiles. Friday and Saturday are
considered the weekend here. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the students are back
to school undaunted by the bombing. In many of the classrooms I saw today,
students were taking final exams amid the debris. As I walked around the campus,
one male voice shouted out and spoke to me in Arabic: "Where's Obama?" Good
question I thought. I've always wondered if the politicians who regularly send
our young men and women away to war and who regularly bomb the poor peoples of
the world have ever, themselves, been on the receiving end of a Cruise Missile
attack or placed themselves and their family at the mercy of a laser guided
depleted uranium bomb. Maybe, just maybe I thought, that if they had experienced
first hand the horror of a NATO attack on a civilian target they might just stop
and question for a minute the need to dispatch our armed forces to attack the
people of Libya. I didn't want to disturb the students taking exams so I found
some students standing outside not taking exams to talk to. I asked them if they
had anything to say to President Obama. One professor, a woman, spoke up readily
and said, "We are working under fire: physical and psychological." One student
spoke up and said that President Obama should "Free Palestine and leave Libya
alone." He continued, "We are one family." More on that later, but briefly,
every Libyan is a member of a tribe and every tribe governs itself and selects
its leaders; those leaders from all of the tribes then select their leaders, and
so on until there is only one leader of all of the tribes of Libya. I met that
one tribal leader yesterday in another part of Tripoli and I am told he is the
real leader of this country. He presides over the Tribal Council which
constitutes Libya's real policymakers. So when the young man said "We are one
family," that is actually the truth. Dr. Mansur, trained in the United States
and spoke fondly of his time in the US and the many friends he made there. He is
proud of his students and the richness of his university's community life. He
was just like any University Dean in the United States. In my view God
intervened on Thursday 9 June, 2011. On the day that the missile struck, not one
student was killed. It could so easily have been different. It could have been a
catastrophe taking the lives of hundreds of teenagers. I am told that in the
surrounding area immediately outside the university others were not so
fortunate. Reports are that there were deaths in the nearby houses. It's a funny
thing about war. Those who cause war become oblivious and removed from its
consequences; they seem happy to inflict harm on others and become numb to its
ill effects while war's victims find a way to normalize the abnormal and live
with the constant threat of death and destruction. After visiting Tripoli, I
remain as opposed to war as ever before. The students at Al Fateh University
continue their studies despite the siege that their country is under. And oh,
that second group of students that I randomly spoke to? I asked them how much
they pay for tuition. They looked at me with puzzled faces even after the
translation. I asked them how much they pay for their books. Again, the same
puzzled face. Tuition at Al Fateh University is 16 dinars per year--about $9.
And due to the NATO embargo on gasoline imports, the school now has started 10
free bus lines to its surrounding areas in order to make sure that the students
can get to school, free of charge. I told them that I was about to enter a Ph.D.
program in the US myself and that I needed tuition and book money costing tens
of thousands of dollars. I continued that my cousin is in debt $100,000 because
she went to the schools of her choice and received a Master's degree. They said
to me, "We thank Muammar Qaddafi. Because of Muammar Qaddafi we have free
education. Allah, Muammar, Libya obes!" Well as for NATO, they still cling to
the chimera that their strikes are against military targets only and that theirs
is a "humanitarian intervention." I'm still waiting to find evidence somewhere
in the world that bombing poor civilian populations of the Third World from the
air is good for their voting rights, democracy, medical care, education,
welfare, national debt, and enhancing personal income and wealth distribution.
It seems clear to me that complex life issues require more complex intervention
than a Cruise Missile could ever deliver. Here is video of Michel Collon about
western wars and the media lies that accompany them (thanks to Rosemary Tylka
for sending this to me for forwarding): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXFAsz6_W50&feature=player_embedded
It's been a week
since we first started passing on the information coming to us from on the
ground in Tripoli, and you can see that the truth is quite a bit different from
the picture being painted by US media, including by such "progressive" outlets
as Democracy Now and post-coup Pacifica Radio. There are still remaining,
however, some free spaces within Pacifica where the word has been getting out -
more on that within.
Some of the Dignity delegation has returned to the US - our first two pieces
today are interviews conducted here in the US after their return.
First is an interview done yesterday with Dignity delegation member Dedon
Kamathi, a producer for Pacifica Radio's KPFK-FM in Los Angeles. That interview,
by Askia Muhammad, aired on Pacifica's Washington, DC station WPFW-FM yesterday.
You can hear it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REd_YtUfrio
Next is a piece written by Dignity delegation member Wayne Madsen, a Washington,
DC journalist who specializes in intelligence matter. That piece, entitled
"NATO's 'Alternate Universe' in Libya" begins as follows:
"The Pentagon and its NATO partners are engaged in one of the most obvious and
intensive propaganda ploys in their military operations against Libya since the
days leading up to the "Coalition of the Willing" attack on Iraq." The entire
piece can be found at http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=627079
I was interviewed by PressTV this past Thursday about the War on Libya,
including the attempt by the US to present it as a NATO, and not American,
enterprise, as well as how the cost of the US wars are impacting the US economic
crisis - that interview can be found at http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/183967.html
I am waiting for some further information about some rather graphic video I
received yesterday from Tripoli; when I receive it, I will post a link and
description of same.
It is now 1:10
in the afternoon and as the daily life in Tripoli unfolds that includes
teachers, staff, and children at school, shopkeepers working in their
businesses, streetsweepers sweeping the streets, people moving to and fro in the
cars, on bicycles, and on foot, Tripoli has thus far since around 11:00 up to
now, received at least 29 bombs.
Interestingly, the efforts of the Washington Post, New York Times, Associated
Press, and others to portray Libya claims on the bombings as "absurd" are
patently false and are merely efforts to defend in the court of public opinion,
the indefensible bombing of civilians going about their lives in a heavily
populated area. The Washington Post headlined "Libya government fails to prove
claims of NATO casualties" and the Los Angeles Times headline blared "Libya
officials put a spin on a conflict." These bombs and missiles are not falling in
empty spaces: people are all over Tripoli going about their lives just as in any
other major metropolitan city of about two million people.
Meanwhile, NATO has a spin machine of its own: NATO says it is making
"significant progress" in protecting Libyan civilians. "What we did target was
the military intelligence headquarters in downtown Tripoli," the alliance said.
I am currently with a delegation of former MP's and professors from France who
are here in Tripoli on a fact-finding mission. The program for today was to
visit the camps of internally displaced persons in this part of the country.
However, we are not able to complete our program while Tripoli is under attack.
I will do my best to visit some of the areas bombed today when/if this attack
lets up.
What were you doing today between 1:00 pm and now? The people of Tripoli endure
the trauma of repeated bombings in their immediate environment.
See video of wounded civilians, taped in
their rooms in El Khadra Hospital in Tripoli, at www.WBAIX.org
Huge
bunker-buster bomb creates devastating
damage in downtown Tripoli.
Saturday, June 25, 2pm National Black
Theatre
125th St. and 5th Avenue.
ALSO
SPEAKING: * Akbar Muhammad,
Nation of Islam * Ramsey Clark,
former Attorney General * Viola Plummer,
December 12th Movement * Brian Becker,
ANSWER Coalition
McKinney and the other speakers will shed light on the
devastating impact of the U.S./NATO bombing of Libya and
the extensive civilian casualties that the White House,
Pentagon and the media have persistently denied.
McKinney is currently on her second trip to Libya during
the NATO bombing. During her time there, she has visited
several hospitals, and has conducted video interviews
with doctors and the wounded.
Under the guise of humanitarian intervention and
protecting civilians, NATO has carried out a massive
bombing of the country in Africa with the largest oil
reserves. McKinney's report shows how devastating the
bombing has been for civilians in Tripoli and elsewhere.
Other major tour stops include: San Francisco, Chicago,
Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
Cynthia McKinney
brought her national tour to Harlem on June 25, 2011 to discuss the
results of her fact-finding mission to Libya earlier in the month.
Speakers include Don DeBar, Viola Plummer, Ramsey Clark, Brian Becker,
Akbar Muhammed and Cynthia McKinney.
Please bring your
friends, family members,
neighbors and co-workers to the
White House on Saturday July 9,
2011, to demand “Stop the
Bombing of Libya!”
Buses
and car caravans are coming from
New York City, Boston,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, New
Haven and other cities and
towns.
Hundreds of organizations and
individuals are coming together
to mobilize for the July 9
demonstration at the White
House, which was initiated by
the ANSWER Coalition following
the Cynthia McKinney national
speaking tour titled “Eyewitness
Libya.”
Following the July 9
protest at the White House, we
will be mobilizing for a mass
action against the bombing of
Libya taking place on Saturday,
August 13 in Harlem. The
demonstration is initiated by
the December 12th Movement and
has the support of a large
number of organizations. More
details are coming soon.
Contrary to the absurd argument
that the bombing of Libya does
not constitute a “hostility,”
this is fierce and illegal war
aimed at carrying out regime
change in the country that
possesses the largest oil
reserves in Africa and the ninth
largest in the world.
Hundreds of thousands of people
demonstrated in Tripoli on June
17 against the U.S./NATO bombing
and the terrible toll it has
taken on the people, economy and
infrastructure of Libya. Of
course, you didn’t see any
coverage of this huge
demonstration in the corporate
media. That massive outpouring
of humanity undoubtedly included
many people who have grievances
against the current Libyan
government. But the people of
Tripoli, like people everywhere,
stand together against bombing
by foreign powers in pursuit of
an imperial agenda. Libyans want
peace and they must be free to
determine their own destiny.
The
people of the United States are
adding their voice of opposition
on Saturday, July 9 at the White
House. By a margin of 2-to-1,
the American people oppose this
illegal and criminal war. There
is no such thing as a
“humanitarian” cruise missile.
The U.S. government is spending
$10 million a day bombing Libya
while it bombs Afghanistan and
still occupies Iraq with 47,000
troops.
In
the name of “protecting
civilians” NATO is killing
civilians—and describing them as
“legitimate military targets.”
On
June 20, for instance, NATO and
the Pentagon pummeled the
birthday party of a
four-year-old boy with heavy
missiles. They killed 16
civilians, including the
four-year-old and his mom, as
well as other children and their
parents. The four-year-old was
the grandson of Khweldi el-Hamedi,
an associate of Colonel Gaddafi
who participated in the 1969
coup that overthrew the old
monarchy.
NATO
is killing the civilian family
members of the Libyan government
in an attempt to break the will
of those they have targeted for
destruction and overthrow. The
Pentagon used the same type of
tactic in the 1991 Iraq war.
At a
time when the U.S. government
says that it is broke and that
tens of thousands of teachers
and nurses and other workers are
being fired because of the
“budget crisis,” there seems to
be limitless funds for war,
bombing, invasion and
occupation.
Please join us Saturday, July 9
at the White House.
Transportation
centers have
been created in
numerous cities
to bring people
by bus, van and
car caravan to
to the White
House on
Saturday, July
9, at noon to
demand: Stop
Bombing Libya!
Find the
transportation
center nearest
you.
After more
than 100
consecutive days
of bombing, the
main complaint
of the NATO
bombers is that
they are running
out of missiles
and bombs. Join
with people from
all over this
Saturday, July 9
at 12noon at the
White House to
demand an end to
the criminal
bombing.
Immediately following the September 11 attacks, the ANSWER Coalition was formed with the goal of building a mass movement to oppose U.S. imperialist policy. Our work depends entirely on your generous donations.
