Libya is outside US–British influence, and does not obey their orders...

Why Libya is under attack

WORKERS, JUNE 2011 ISSUE

Libya is Africa’s largest oil economy, with 46.5 billion barrels of proven reserves, nearly 80 per cent of them in the Sirte Gulf basin of eastern Libya. Libya’s oil, most of which was being sold to Europe, is valued for its light, low-sulphur quality. The market price of crude oil is well over $100 a barrel, but Libya’s oil is very cheap.

Before the war began, Libya was producing 1.6 million barrels a day, about 2 per cent of world output. The International Energy Agency said that by mid-March, Libyan oil production had “slowed to a trickle”, and that exports could be off the market for many months.

All companies operating in Libya must have Libyan partners, entitled to 35 per cent of the profits. Trading is via the Libyan Central Bank, in the Libyan dinar, not in US dollars. Of course, freezing Libyan assets puts a stop on this activity. This Bank is outside the IMF and the World Bank. Only four other countries do not have a Rothschild-model central bank – Cuba, Sudan, Iran and North Korea. There were two others – Iraq and Afghanistan – but they were assimilated straight after the US-British invasions.

In 2009, Colonel Gaddafi proposed nationalising all the foreign oil companies operating in Libya, saying, “Oil should be owned by the state at this time, so we could better control prices by increasing or decreasing production.” He was also planning to introduce a gold dinar – a new currency that African and Muslim nations would together create for their use to buy oil and other resources. Gaddafi’s idea would have strengthened all of Africa.

However, pricing oil in something other than the dollar would weaken US power in the world. The current dollar reserve system, which benefits the USA, is based on a deal made with Saudi Arabia in 1971 in which the Saudis, the world’s largest oil producers, agreed to accept only dollars for oil. This arrangement lets the USA print ever-increasing amounts of money, comparable to a central banking pyramid scheme.

The attack on Libya serves the same corporate interests as did the 2003 attack on Iraq. The aim is to seize Libya’s oil reserves and wreck its National Oil Corporation. The rebels have created a new Libyan Oil Company to replace the NOC. These and other corporate interests also want to reduce China’s access to oil and raw materials throughout Africa, with the result that the US state is targeting China’s allies there, Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

International law

The most fundamental principle of international law is that no state shall use force against another state, as outlined in article 2, paragraph 4, of the United Nations Charter. No state can violate this principle of international law, nor can the UN Security Council: article 24(2) of the Charter requires that the Council “shall act in accordance with the Principles and Purposes of the United Nations”.

Cruise missile being launched against Libya from a US ship.
Photo: US Navy

NATO is directly interfering in Libya’s internal affairs, in breach of article 2(7) of the Charter. It is also violating the terms of UN resolution number 1973 which it imposed, illegitimately, on the Security Council, on the pretext of protecting civilian lives.

Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy together wrote on 15 April, “Our duty and our mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians, and we are doing that. It is not to remove Gaddafi by force.” So when they went on to write, “Colonel Gaddafi must go, and go for good”, they went beyond the resolution, which made no mention of regime change. The clear attempts to assassinate Gaddafi by bombing, to kill the head of a sovereign state that has posed no threat to another state, are flagrant criminal acts.

Also in April, the Libyan government accepted the African Union’s peace proposal calling for “the immediate cessation of all hostilities, the cooperation of the concerned Libyan authorities to facilitate the diligent delivery of humanitarian assistance to the needy populations, the protection of foreign nationals, including African migrant workers living in Libya, and dialogue between the Libyan parties and the establishment of an inclusive transition period.” But the rebel Transitional National Council rejected the peace proposal and ruled out any solution short of regime change in Libya.

Reports from Benghazi suggest that the rebels are already getting arms and equipment, most likely from Britain and France, which are also deploying military advisers in Libya. French politicians are calling for the deployment of ground troops. Britain’s military commitment to help the rebels is open-ended (a spokeswoman for Cameron said, “We must prepare for the long haul”) and the cost is estimated to top £1 billion by the summer. The USA has already spent $608 million on the war.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned NATO’s murders of one of Gaddafi’s sons and three of his grandchildren, in the family home in a residential area of Tripoli. ■