We are being told that the U.S. led intervention into Libya’s civil war is being carried out to protect the rebels from being slaughtered by Col. Moamar Gaddafi’s forces. But, considering that multitudes of dissidents in Bahrain and Yemen have been murdered recently by government forces in those countries and Obama and his British counterpart have remained silent—a solely humanitarian mission seems a bit unlikely.
Of course, as is always the case…simply follow the money.
That trail begins in the summer of 2009, with the release of Libyan terrorist Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi from a Scottish prison.
In 2001, Al Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison for masterminding the terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103. On December 21, 1988, 270 people including 189 Americans were killed when the plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In 2009, Al Megrahi was released after serving only eight years if his sentence, after because Scottish said that it was important to show compassion to the 57-year-old terrorist, who supposedly had terminal cancer, with only a few months to live.
Of course, Al Megrahi is still very much alive and living a life of luxury in Libya…almost two years later.
While the outrage over his release spread throughout the West, Great Britain came heavy scrutiny after Moamar Gaddafi’s son publicly admitted that the terrorist was used as a bargaining chip by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
While being interviewed on Libyan television network Al Mutawassit, Seif al Islam reported that every time Blair visited his country, the Prime Minister made it clear that Megrahi's release was possible.
Al Islam said: “In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with Britain, (Megrahi) was always on the negotiating table.”
In short order, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "There is no deal. All decisions relating to Megrahi's case have been made exclusively by the Scottish Ministers, The Crown office in Scotland, and the Scottish Judicial Authorities.
“No deal has been made between the UK Government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country,” the official adamantly claimed.
However, the Libyan leader himself, Col. Gaddafi declared: “I say to my friend [Gordon] Brown, the Prime Minister of Britain, his Government, the Queen of Britain, Elizabeth, and Prince Andrew, who all contributed to encouraging the Scottish government to take this historic and courageous decision, despite the obstacles.”
Libya has the largest oil reserves in all of Africa, and the fourth largest natural gas reserves on the continent.
British Petroleum (BP) signed a $900 million deal to develop 54,000sq km of Libya‘s largely untapped oil fields. The agreement was announced in Tripoli during a visit from Tony Blair. Two other British companies have also struck similar deals with Libya’s leadership.
The deals are vital to Great Britain, due to fears that their North Sea gas fields are quickly being depleted. It is estimated that by 2015, Britain will be importing 80 percent of their natural gas.
The British companies’ deals represent a coup, as they are in direct competition for access to Libya’s rich fuel reserves with the French company Total, America’s ConocoPhillips, China National Petroleum Corp, as well as the Russia’s state-owned Gazprom.
Since Libya has abandoned their plans to develop nuclear weapons, and at least publicly, Gaddafi denounced terrorism, it was once again acceptable for Western nations to do business in the African nation.
In 2009, Tim Marshall, writing for Sky News said: “Soon Libya was off America's list of rogue states, and Tony Blair was inside Gaddafi’s tent. A massive multi billion dollar deal with BP followed. But, there was a messy, unhelpful, loose end to be tied up--Lockerbie.”
“The Libyans made it clear; if Al Megrahi came home, things would be much easier for British diplomats or business people who might want to pass through Tripoli,” Marshall wrote.
After last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Libya’s oil fields became even more important to BP and the recent uprising and Gaddafi’s threat to destroy the oil wells if he was forced out of power may have been just enough for Great Britain to start dropping bombs on the Gaddafi’s forces.
However, the British needed help…enter the United States.
Over the weekend, 112 cruise missiles were fired into Libya from U.S. Navy ships, while two left were fired from a British submarine. In addition to the missile attacks, U.S., British and French jets have been hitting the Libyan military as well as Gaddafi’s headquarters.
Each Tomahawk missile fired from U.S. ships cost roughly $600,000, which translates into $67,200,000, that, combined with the costs of flying B2 Stealth bombers from a base in Indiana to hit targets in Libya and F-16 strikes on the Libyan military and other operating costs—it is safe to say that the American taxpayers just had a very expensive weekend…to the tune of about $100,000,000!
So, just as we went to war in Iraq eight long years ago and never received a gallon of their oil, it would seem that the great American taxpayer will now be forced to hand over more money (that we don’t have) to protect the profits of yet another oil company.
Now can anyone on the left explain to me the difference between Obama and Bush?
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