Selecting the next UN Secretary-General: Security Council holds first round of secret poll on candidates

Bloggers note: I will comment later.
But who are those who decide?? 
Who is this small group?? 
DO YOU CARE ? DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ??

Don't we still choose our elected official ??
Questions.. questions ..   Please google Question mark www.google.com


Selecting the next UN Secretary-General: Security Council holds first round of secret poll on candidates

A wide view of the Security Council. UN Photo/JC McIlwaine (file)

                       

21 July 2016 – Following its first-ever private discussions with the candidates vying for selection as the next United Nations Secretary-General, the UN Security Council today conducted the first round of informal polls on those seeking the world’s top diplomatic post.

  The current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, is the eighth occupant of the Organization's 70-year history. He took office in January 2007 and will be ending his 10-year tenure on 31 December 2016. Under the UN Charter, the Organization’s top official is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Council. 

Speaking to reporters at the UN Headquarters this morning, Ambassador Koro Bessho of Japan, which holds the Council’s presidency for July, confirmed that the first round of the so called ‘straw polls’ had taken place, and each candidate would be informed of the results through his or her country’s permanent representative to the UN. He also noted that he had informed that the President of the UN General Assembly that the vote had taken place.   

He said that the straw poll is “an indicative vote – to inform the candidates where they stand in the race, and to inform the Council members how the race might go from here.”

The straw poll followed a series of closed-door meetings in which each of the 12 official candidates, who have been nominated by their governments, was introduced to the Council members. Yesterday, Mr. Bessho said this is the first time the Council had held such informal meetings with each of the candidates for the next UN chief.


The Council met three candidates in June and the rest in July. He has said that the results of the polls would not be made public. “We would like to make sure that the fairness and confidentiality of voting is respected,” he said.

Ambassador Koro Bessho of Japan, President of the Security Council for the month of July. UN Photo/Mark Garten

As for the date for the second round of the poll, he said no decision has been made. There is no definitive deadline for announcing candidacy, but anyone considering throwing the hat in the ring should come forward as soon as possible so that the Council and the Assembly have a good amount of time to review the candidate, he added.
 

 

The UN Charter says relatively little about how a Secretary-General is to be selected, aside from Article 97, which notes that the candidate “shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.” 


At its first session in 1946, the Assembly approved resolution A/RES/1/11 determining that the Council take the lead in the selection process, agree on a single name in a private meeting, and pass that name down to the Assembly for a vote. Since 1946, the Council has done just that, discussing and voting behind closed doors in straw polls for members to ‘encourage’ or ‘discourage’ a candidate to continue.  


This process has come to be known as the ‘Wisnumurti Guidelines,’ named after Ambassador Nugroho Wisnumurti of Indonesia who held the rotating presidency of the Council in November 1996 when the guidelines were set. These straw polls continue until there is a majority candidate without a single veto from a permanent member of the Council.


That name is then officially transferred to the Assembly, whose membership historically chooses the candidate. This year, the Assembly took a more active role in the selection process, aiming to make it more transparent and inclusive. For the first time in history, the candidates were asked to submit their resumes and to take part in informal briefings with the Assembly.


 Along with the informal hearings, the UN last Tuesday held its first-ever globally televised and webcast townhall-style debate in the General Assembly Hall, where 10 of the 12 confirmed candidates took questions from diplomats and the public at large.


The two candidates unable to come to New York were invited to send video messages to be used in the event. Asked how the Assembly’s open dialogues with the candidates would affect voting decisions by Council members, Mr. Bessho, speaking in his national capacity, has explained that the candidates’ performances in the Assembly’s debates, as well as in the Council’s informal meetings, would be “reflected” in his recommendation to his Government.


    In addition to the five permanent Council members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – 10 non-permanent seats are currently held by Angola, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Later in the day, General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft issued a letter to all UN Member States and Observers in which he recognized the informal nature of the straw poll and took note that the outcome of this and future informal straw polls will not be communicated, but stressed that in his view, limiting the communication to the fact that the informal straw poll has taken place without any further detail “adds little value and does not live up to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency.”


In light of this, he said that future communications from his Office that informal straw polls have taken place would be conveyed via announcements on his web page as soon as they are received from the President of the Security Council.

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News Tracker: past stories on this issue

Selecting a new UN Secretary-General: a job interview in front of the whole world

Who will be the next UN Secretary General? Candidates and speculation

Candidates and speculation

 http://www.1for7billion.org/candidates/

The 1 for 7 Billion campaign calls for a selection process that will find the best person for the job, irrespective of gender, region or background.  To this end we are calling on governments, parliaments and civil society to put forward highly qualified candidates.

We have written to all official candidates, urging them to commit to making the process as open as possible; to present publicly their vision and objectives; to refrain from reserving key senior positions for certain member states; and to participate actively in hearings with states and civil society. We also encourage candidates to commit to serve a single, non-renewable term of office. Responses to our letter to candidates will be published on this page as they are received.
The 1 for 7 Billion campaign does not endorse or take a position on individual candidates for the role of UN Secretary-General but lists official candidates that have been confirmed by the President of the General Assembly and prospective candidates who have been named in the press. We also strive to provide objective information about the candidates' remarks, such as our summary of the General Assembly's informal dialogues with candidates in April 2016.  

Confirmed candidates

The following list comprises official candidacies that have been announced by the President of the General Assembly.

UN Photo/Mark Garten	Irina Bokova State: Bulgaria Position: Director-General of UNESCO Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 11 February 2016 View Irina Bokova's CV View Irina Bokova's Vision Statement View Irina Bokova's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas	Helen Clark State: New Zealand Position: Administrator of the UNDP, former Prime Minister of New Zealand Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 4 April 2016 View Helen Clark's CV View Helen Clark's Vision Statement View Helen Clark's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue View Helen Clark's reply to 1 for 7 Billion's letter Candidate's campaign tools: website | twitter | facebook
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas	Christiana Figueres State: Costa Rica Position: Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 7 July 2016 View Christiana Figueres's CV View Christiana Figueres's Vision Statement Candidate's campaign tools: website | twitter
UN Photo/Amanda Voisard	Natalia Gherman State: Moldova Position: Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Moldova Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 19 February 2016 View Natalia Gherman's CV View Natalia Gherman's Vision Statement View Natalia Gherman's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue Candidate's campaign tools: twitter
UN Photo/Mark Garten	António Guterres State: Portugal Position: Former UN High Commissioner for Refugees and former Prime Minister of Portugal Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 29 February 2016 View António Guterres's CV View António Guterres's Vision Statement View António Guterres's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue Candidate's campaign tools: website
UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras	Vuk Jeremić State: Serbia Position: President of the Centre for International Relations and Sustainable Development, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 12 April 2016 View Vuk Jeremić's CV View Vuk Jeremić's Vision Statement View Vuk Jeremić's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue Candidate's campaign tools: twitter
UN Photo/Evan Schneider	Srgjan Kerim State: Macedonia Position: Former Foreign Minister and former President of the United Nations General Assembly Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 15 December 2015 View Srgjan Kerim's CV View Srgjan Kerim's Vision Statement View Srgjan Kerim's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue Candidate's campaign tools: website | linked in
UN Photo/Kim Haughton	Miroslav Lajčák State: Slovakia Position: Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 27 May 2016 View Miroslav Lajčák's CV View Miroslav Lajčák's Vision Statement View Miroslav Lajčák's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue Candidate's campaign tools: twitter
UN Photo/Evan Schneider	Igor Lukšić State: Montenegro Position: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 15 January 2016 View Igor Lukšić's CV View Igor Lukšić's Vision Statement View Igor Lukšić's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue View Igor Lukšić's reply to 1 for 7 Billion's letter Candidate's campaign tools: twitter
UN Photo/Rick Majornas	Susana Malcorra State: Argentina Position: Minister of Foreign Affairs Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 23 May 2016 View Susana Malcorra's CV View Susana Malcorra's Vision Statement View Susana Malcorra's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue Candidate's campaign tools: website |twitter
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas	Vesna Pusić State: Croatia Position: Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 14 January 2016 View Vesna Pusić's CV View Vesna Pusić's Vision Statement View Vesna Pusić's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue View Vesna Pusić's reply to 1 for 7 Billion's letter Candidate's campaign tools: website | twitter | facebook | instagram
UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz	Danilo Türk State: Slovenia Position: Chair of the Global Fairness Initiative, former President of Slovenia Candidacy announced by the President of the General Assembly on 9 February 2016 View Danilo Türk's CV View Danilo Türk's Vision Statement View Danilo Türk's Informal Dialogue with the General Assembly View 1 for 7 Billion's Live Commentary from the Informal Dialogue Candidate's campaign tools: twitter

Prospective candidates named in the press and elsewhere

The following comprises a list of individuals whose candidacies (as far as we are aware) have not been officially acknowledged by the President of the General Assembly.  It has been collated objectively using online news articles.  Those listed should not be considered as potential candidates beyond the realms of speculation and hearsay. 

UN Photo/Marco Castro	János Áder State: Hungary Position: President Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe	Michelle Bachelet State: Chile Position: President of Chile, former Head of UN Women Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz	Alicia Bárcena Ibarra State: Mexico Position: United Nations Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas	José Manuel Barroso State: Portugal Position: Former President of the European Commission Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Marco Castro	Carl Bildt State: Sweden Position: Foreign Minister Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Michelle Poiré	Mircea Geoană State: Romania Position: Former President of the Senate Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas	Kristalina Georgieva State: Bulgaria Position: EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Ryan Brown	Dalia Grybauskaitė State: Lithuania Position: President Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras	Rebeca Grynspan State: Costa Rica Position: Secretary General of SEGIB, Ibero-American Secretary General, former UN Under-Secretary-General Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe	María Ángela Holguín State: Colombia Position: Foreign Minister Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Ryan Brown	Ján Kubiš State: Slovakia Position: Head of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), SRSG Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Aliza Eliazarov	Angela Merkel State: Germany Position: Chancellor Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Mark Garten	Amina Mohammed State: Nigeria Position: UN Secretary-General's Special Advisor on post-2015 Development Planning Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Ryan Brown	Romano Prodi State: Italy Position: Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Sahel, former Prime Minister of Italy Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas	Dilma Rousseff State: Brazil Position: President Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Mark Garten	Kevin Rudd State: Australia Position: Former Prime Minister Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas	Radek Sikorski State: Poland Position: Marshal of the Sejm, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Source: click here for further information
UN Photo/Mark Garten	Alexander Stubb State: Finland Position: Prime Minister Source: click here for further information

---

Please note, this page does not represent an official or definitive list of candidates for the position of UN Secretary-General and should be considered for information purposes only.  Whilst we review this page regularly, we are unable to guarantee that the information is accurate and up to date. Names on this page are listed in alphabetical order.

Who will be the next UN Secretary General?

Bloggers note: see also  Candidates and speculation   

Who will be the next UN Secretary General? Voting begins to choose from 12 candidates 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/21/who-will-be-the-next-un-secretary-general-voting-begins-to-choos/

 Harriet Alexander, New York

21 July 2016 • 2:46pm

The race to succeed Ban Ki-moon moved up a gear on Thursday, as voting began to decide who will be chosen as the next Secretary General of the United Nations.
Twelve people have presented themselves as candidates – half of them women. The UK and the US have been particularly strident in their call for a woman to lead the UN, for the first time in its 70-year history.
And there is a strong sense within the organisation that the next leader must be someone who can revitalise an organisation seen as obtuse, unaccountable and ineffective.
The UN has been criticised for its ineffectiveness in the face of the Syrian war, and damaged by scandals involving sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Africa. It was also seen as slow to respond to the Ebola outbreak.

How is the vote carried out?

It is all done behind closed doors.
At 10am, the Security Council – the five permanent members of Russia, the UK, China, France and the US, plus the 10 rotating members – will begin the process.
They hold what is known as a straw poll, with each of the 15 countries asked to note their opinion on each candidate. They can either encourage a candidacy, discourage it, or declare no opinion.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Credit: AFP

The votes are then tallied, and each candidate will be informed of the outcome: how many votes they got encouraging and discouraging, plus what the strongest and weakest candidate received.
Some candidates may well drop out after this first round, if they get a significant number of “discourages” and know they have little hope of getting the job.
A second vote will be held next week, with several more before the UN meets for its annual General Assembly in September. It is hoped that, by then, there will only be two or three candidates remaining.

What happens then?

The final candidate will, it is hoped, be selected by October – to take over on January 1.
As the numbers are whittled down, it will eventually come to a Security Council vote.
Each of the permanent members has a veto, so they must agree on a candidate amenable to all. It will then be approved by a final vote at the assembly, essentially rubber stamping the Security Council decision.

Why so much secrecy?

The UN has been long accused of choosing its leader through a Byzantine, shadowy process – somewhat akin to a Papal enclave.
But this year they have tried to make it more transparent, introducing an interview process for the first time, with each candidate submitting a plan of their intentions, appearing at a public question and answer session, and a televised debate.
Matthew Rycroft, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, said that a degree of confidentiality was essential for any vote. But, he argued, a necessary measure of transparency had been injected into the process, which he hoped would lead to the strongest possible candidate getting the job.
“The added transparency and all the other measures the UK has advocated have increased the chances of getting the strong Secretary General which the UK wants,” he said.

Who are the front runners?

The UN has said that it would particularly welcome a female leader, and Eastern Europe is the only region of the world not to have fielded a Secretary General.
However, that does not mean the next leader will be a woman from Eastern Europe – and the race is wide open at the moment.
Current favourites include Antonio Guterres, the Portuguese former head of the UN refugee agency, Danilo Turk, former president of Slovenia, and Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former prime minister and head of the UN Development Project.

Helen Clark, former New Zealand prime minister Credit: EPA

Susana Malcorra, Argentina’s foreign minister, is seen as an experienced candidate, but her time as Mr Ban’s chief of staff would not satisfy those hoping for a fresh perspective after a decade with the South Korean at the helm.
Irina Bokova, from Bulgaria, was an early favourite but her star has burnt out somewhat, given that many feel she is too close to Russia.

CONGO Patience is Key to Ensuring Legitimate DRC Polls

   Patience is Key to Ensuring Legitimate DRC Polls
 
https://theglobalobservatory.org/2016/07/drc-congo-kabilia-katumbi-ceni/

June’s sentencing of opposition leader Moise Katumbi to three years in prison is the latest indication of suspected political influence over judiciary decision-making in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Former Haut-Katanga Governor Katumbi was prosecuted in absentia for allegedly selling his familial home despite not owning its title deed—a verdict his legal team intends to appeal.

 The ruling comes amid another judicial process targeting Katumbi for hiring foreign nationals in his personal security detail, which his lawyers deem permissible under the DRC’s laws.


These charges also follow a May edict by the DRC’s Constitutional Court that President Joseph Kabila would be legally allowed to extend his presidency beyond its expiration on December 20 this year if a scheduled election were delayed past that point. 

There is good reason to consider these legal decisions as related, with sustained political instability seen as the key to delaying a vote and to Kabila maintaining his grip on power.

In recent months, Kabila has repeatedly sought a way to render himself eligible for reelection despite being barred from serving more than two terms. His attempts to amend the constitutional clause regulating term limits incited widespread protests in August 2015 and January 2016, which spread from the riverside capital of Kinshasa to outlying cities such as Bukavu, Goma, and Kisangani. Any further moves by Kabila to seek a third term are likely to elicit similar unrest.


Under the circumstances, postponing the ballot pending a definitive rejection of Kabila’s tactics is probably the safest and most effective means of maintaining the tenuous political status quo. While delays would undoubtedly serves the president’s interests, forging ahead with the November poll could ultimately be more destabilizing without some larger resolution.

With its efforts to extend Kabila’s presidency ongoing, the DRC government has shown itself woefully unprepared, perhaps deliberately so, to organize an election that could be deemed legitimate by the opposition and independent observers. A resulting government would subsequently suffer from this same lack of legitimacy, including internationally.

By association, the DRC’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) remains equally unprepared for November. In a  leaked 2015 communiqué its officials noted that the organization had received a mere 17% of funding required to organize the ballot. The letter was alleged to have been drafted in response to government spokesman Lambert Mende’s claim that CENI had been provided sufficient funding for the purpose. 

In response, Mende said the $1 billion estimated cost of the elections was excessive in a country with a national budget of just $8 billion.

Time is also a crucial factor. CENI noted in January 2016 that it would need at least 18 months to ready the country’s electoral roll before any legitimate voting process could be held. 

This would mean elections being held mid-2017 at the very earliest. While questions have been raised as to why this timeframe is nearly triple the average of preparatory phases preceding both the 2006 and 2011 elections, little has been done to update the country’s voter roll—an undertaking deemed by DRC analyst Christophe Vogel as the sine qua non to holding credible elections. 

Even if an earnest attempt at updating the voter registry was to commence soon, in a country the size of Western Europe, yet far less accessible, the most optimistic of timeframes would still voting taking place in 2017.

Finally, there is the issue of security. For an inclusive, free, and fair ballot to be held, the government would need to guarantee the safety of the electorate. The task seems almost insurmountable at present, with myriad armed actors operating in the country’s insurgent-embattled northeastern provinces, where violence has displaced an estimated 2.2 million people since 2012.

 In addition to placing the lives both of voters and electoral organizers at risk, holding elections in such a climate could lead to further insecurity. This was exemplified following the DRC’s 2011 elections, when accusations of malfeasance against Kabila was among the self-proclaimed motivations for the formation of the so-called March 23 Movement, which posed one of the most significant threats to the incumbent’s tenure, up until its disbanding in November 2013.

The key to maintain security in the DRC will be ensuring a perception of legitimacy of state institutions among the public throughout the current political crisis. Questions regarding the fairness of Katumbi’s trial have already seen his supporters partake in violent and disruptive protests in the city of Lubumbashi. Whether these protests will translate into wider instability will be dependent on perception of the judiciary’s legitimacy in issuing its rulings.

Similarly, the DRC’s level of overall political stability will be dependent on the manner in which the upcoming elections are perceived to be taking place. While much attention has focused on the instability that could be wrought by Kabila’s illegitimate possible third-term bid, the fallout of an illegitimate electoral process in which he doesn’t ultimately participate could also be massive.

TRY Understanding Russia ( While the United States of America leading NATO)

Opinion:
Some links to better understand what the hell is going on and how the isolation of the BEAR ( Russia) by NATO countries is NOT a good Idea ...

The onslaught of anti Russia propaganda since NATO expansion began encircling Russia years ago, has biases the western population's public opinion to the MAX . and the scene is quite distorted...

NATO and the EU moving into Ukraine was the last straw that broke the camels back..

RUSSIA has NO choice but to fight (the BEAR is back to the Wall) or face to be totally surrounded and economically destroyed

WARNING: War become imminent...Détente  is not an option for NATO, WAR is becoming the path of choice to settle the Trillions of deficits in the USA and in the EU

The oncoming war is precipitated by the USA and the EU Financial  Mismanagement and the ideology of Domination Power over what they do not yet control..

Canada and the WORLD is disparately in need of a GONZENKO II  and the revelation of the Names of Canadians and Americans that were divulged by  Igor Gouzenko 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko in the mid and late 40s...the list was put in TOP SECRET for 50 years by Joe Clark 1979-80 under the directive of Pierre Trudeau days before the transfer of power JUNE 4th 1979   ((16th Prime Minister of Canada, from June 4, 1979, to March 3, 1980    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Clark ))

On June 4, 1979, Trudeau resigned as Prime Minister.

An INTERESTING BOOK spy novel if you want>>  HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES OF INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTER INTELLIGENCE    www.lander.odessa.ua/doc/Nigel-West-Historical-Dictionary-of-International-Intelligence.pdf


NATO PICKS A NEW FIGHT WITH RUSSIAN   https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/03/nato-picks-a-new-fight-with-russia/          

WARSAW PACT  www.ansible.wikia.com/wiki/Second_Warsaw_Pact
Warsaw Pact   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact



WARSAW PACT ON YOUTUBE             https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=warsaw+pact   








MORE LINKS AND QUESTIONS
   The Warsaw Pact is dead, so why is NATO still alive?       https://www.rt.com/op-edge/324840-warsaw-pact-nato-us/                 

 Warsaw Treaty Organization    www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Warsaw_Treaty_Organization.aspx

Hillary emails confirm US and NATO destroyed Libya over gold-backed currency

is this true...
Hillary emails confirm US and NATO destroyed Libya over gold-backed currency      

 www.hangthebankers.com/hillary-emails-us-nato-libya-gold-backed-currency/   

Newly disclosed emails show that Libya’s plan to create a gold-backed currency to compete with the euro and dollar was a motive for NATO’s intervention.

The New Year’s Eve release of over 3,000 new Hillary Clinton emails from the State Department has CNN abuzz over gossipy text messages, the “who gets to ride with Hillary” selection process set up by her staff, and how a “cute” Hillary photo fared on Facebook.

But historians of the 2011 NATO war in Libya will be sure to notice a few of the truly explosive confirmations contained in the new emails: admissions of rebel war crimes, special ops trainers inside Libya from nearly the start of protests, Al Qaeda embedded in the U.S. backed opposition, Western nations jockeying for access to Libyan oil, the nefarious origins of the absurd Viagra mass rape claim, and concern over Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves threatening European currency.

Gaddafi addressing the United Nations

Hillary’s Death Squads

A March 27, 2011, intelligence brief on Libya, sent by long time close adviser to the Clintons and Hillary’s unofficial intelligence gatherer, Sidney Blumenthal, contains clear evidence of war crimes on the  part of NATO-backed rebels. Citing a rebel commander source “speaking in strict confidence” Blumenthal reports to Hillary [emphasis mine]:

Under attack from allied Air and Naval forces, the Libyan Army troops have begun to desert to the rebel side in increasing numbers. The rebels are making an effort to greet these troops as fellow Libyans, in an effort to encourage additional defections.

(Source Comment: Speaking in strict confidence, one rebel commander stated that his troops continue to summarily execute all foreign mercenaries captured in the fighting…).

While the illegality of extra-judicial killings is easy to recognize (groups engaged in such are conventionally termed “death squads”), the sinister reality behind the “foreign mercenaries” reference might not be as immediately evident to most.

While over the decades Gaddafi was known to make use of European and other international security and infrastructural contractors, there is no evidence to suggest that these were targeted by the Libyan rebels.

There is, however, ample documentation by journalists, academics, and human rights groups demonstrating that black Libyan civilians and sub-Saharan contract workers, a population favored by Gaddafi in his pro-African Union policies, were targets of “racial cleansing” by rebels who saw black Libyans as tied closely with the regime.[1]

Black Libyans were commonly branded as “foreign mercenaries” by the rebel opposition for their perceived general loyalty to Gaddafi as a community and subjected to torture, executions, and their towns “liberated” by ethnic cleansing. This is demonstrated in the most well-documented example of Tawergha, an entire town of 30,000 black and “dark-skinned” Libyans which vanished by August 2011 after its takeover by NATO-backed NTC Misratan brigades.

These attacks were well-known as late as 2012 and often filmed, as this report from The Telegraph confirms:

After Muammar Gaddafi was killed, hundreds of migrant workers from neighboring states were imprisoned by fighters allied to the new interim authorities. They accuse the black Africans of having been mercenaries for the late ruler. Thousands of sub-Saharan Africans have been rounded up since Gaddafi fell in August.

It appears that Clinton was getting personally briefed on the battlefield crimes of her beloved anti-Gaddafi fighters long before some of the worst of these genocidal crimes took place.

Al-Qaeda and Western Special Forces Inside Libya

The same intelligence email from Sydney Blumenthal also confirms what has become a well-known theme of Western supported insurgencies in the Middle East: the contradiction of special forces training militias that are simultaneously suspected of links to Al Qaeda.

Blumenthal relates that “an extremely sensitive source” confirmed that British, French, and Egyptian special operations units were training Libyan militants along the Egyptian-Libyan border, as well as in Benghazi suburbs.

While analysts have long speculated as to the “when and where” of Western ground troop presence in the Libyan War, this email serves as definitive proof that special forces were on the ground only within a month of the earliest protests which broke out in the middle to end of February 2011 in Benghazi.

By March 27 of what was commonly assumed a simple “popular uprising” external special operatives were already “overseeing the transfer of weapons and supplies to the rebels” including “a seemingly endless supply of AK47 assault rifles and ammunition.”

Yet only a few paragraphs after this admission, caution is voiced about the very militias these Western special forces were training because of concern that, “radical/terrorist groups such as the Libyan Fighting Groups and Al Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are infiltrating the NLC and its military command.”

The Threat of Libya’s Oil and Gold to French Interests

Though the French-proposed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 claimed the no-fly zone implemented over Libya was to protect civilians, an April 2011 email sent to Hillary with the subject line “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold” tells of less noble ambitions.

The email identifies French President Nicholas Sarkozy as leading the attack on Libya with five specific purposes in mind: to obtain Libyan oil, ensure French influence in the region, increase Sarkozy’s reputation domestically, assert French military power, and to prevent Gaddafi’s influence in what is considered “Francophone Africa.”

Most astounding is the lengthy section delineating the huge threat that Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves, estimated at “143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver,” posed to the French franc (CFA) circulating as a prime African currency. In place of the noble sounding “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine fed to the public, there is this “confidential” explanation of what was really driving the war [emphasis mine]:

This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA).

(Source Comment: According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.)

Though this internal email aims to summarize the motivating factors driving France’s (and by implication NATO’s) intervention in Libya, it is interesting to note that saving civilian lives is conspicuously absent from the briefing.

Instead, the great fear reported is that Libya might lead North Africa into a high degree of economic independence with a new pan-African currency.

French intelligence “discovered” a Libyan initiative to freely compete with European currency through a local alternative, and this had to be subverted through military aggression.

The Ease of Floating Crude Propaganda

Early in the Libyan conflict Secretary of State Clinton formally accused Gaddafi and his army of using mass rape as a tool of war. Though numerous international organizations, like Amnesty International, quickly debunked these claims, the charges were uncritically echoed by Western politicians and major media.

It seemed no matter how bizarre the conspiracy theory, as long as it painted Gaddafi and his supporters as monsters, and so long as it served the cause of prolonged military action in Libya, it was deemed credible by network news.

Two foremost examples are referenced in the latest batch of emails: the sensational claim that Gaddafi issued Viagra to his troops for mass rape, and the claim that bodies were “staged” by the Libyan government at NATO bombing sites to give the appearance of the Western coalition bombing civilians.

NATO bombing Libya

In a late March 2011 email, Blumenthal confesses to Hillary that,

I communicated more than a week ago on this story—Qaddafi placing bodies to create PR stunts about supposed civilian casualties as a result of Allied bombing—though underlining it was a rumor. But now, as you know, Robert gates gives credence to it. (See story below.)

Sources now say, again rumor (that is, this information comes from the rebel side and is unconfirmed independently by Western intelligence), that Qaddafi has adopted a rape policy and has even distributed Viagra to troops. The incident at the Tripoli press conference involving a woman claiming to be raped is likely to be part of a much larger outrage. Will seek further confirmation.

Not only did Defense Secretary Robert Gates promote his bizarre “staged bodies” theory on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” but the even stranger Viagra rape fiction made international headlines as U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice made a formal charge against Libya in front of the UN Security Council.

What this new email confirms is that not only was the State Department aware of the spurious nature of what Blumenthal calls “rumors” originating solely with the rebels, but did nothing to stop false information from rising to top officials who then gave them “credence.”

It appears, furthermore, that the Viagra mass rape hoax likely originated with Sidney Blumenthal himself.

[1] The most comprehensive and well-documented study of the plight of black Libyans is contained in Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War on Libya and Africa (publ. 2012, Baraka Books) by Maximilian Forte, Professor Anthropology and Sociology at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec.

SEE ALSO: 
– 10 things about Gaddafi they don’t want you to know
– The truth about Gaddafi and Libya (watch and learn)

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