Washington's Man in Tripoli

  Washington's Man in Tripoli

by Stephen Lendman

Mahmoud Jabril takes over as Libya's new leader. He heads its puppet government. 

Sham elections installed him. The process was farcical. Illusion substituted for reality. Obama called his ascension "another milestone in the country's transition to democracy."

EU leaders hailed "Libya's first free elections." They called them the "dawn of a new era." Scoundrel media acclaimed the end of the Gaddafi nightmare. 

A democratic facade masks New World Order neoliberal fundamentalism. Its holy trinity is eliminating public services, predatory capitalism writ large, and repression enforcing the message to non-believers. 

Libya gives Washington another beachhead for greater African adventurism. Unspeakable crimes of war and against humanity were committed establishing it.

Jabril's now its main man. He got his marching orders. He's expected to deliver. Otherwise another pro-Western hack will replace him.

Freedom is nowhere in sight. It's true everywhere Washington runs things. Inside the bubble, it's paradise. Outside it's dystopian hell. It features exploitation and denial of fundamental rights.

Everything Gaddafi gave is gone. The Libya that was no longer exists. A blank slate replaced it. Carving up its corpse for profit is policy.

In early 2011, reports suggested Jibril urged Western intervention to oust Gaddafi. After bombing began, he reportedly met Senator John Kerry (D. MA) in Cairo. 

He outlined his vision for Libya’s future. Kerry chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Jibril also met Clinton and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. 

Washington wants Libya transformed its way. What it says goes. Opposition won't be tolerated. Jabril was installed to assure it.

He heads Libya's so-called National Forces Alliance. Democracy isn't part of its agenda. Washington tolerates it nowhere.

One analyst described his dead banker eyes. He's a technocrat, an imperial tool. Before he defected, he headed Gaddafi's National Planning Council and National Economic Development Board. Other ministers reported to him. 

Mustafa Abdul Jalil served as Gaddafi's justice minister. On February 21, 2011, his true intentions emerged. He defected. On February 26, he established "transitional government." 

On March 6, the National Transitional Council (NTC) was formed. Jalil became chairman. Ousting Gaddafi was primary. 

Months of insurgent attacks and NATO bombing transformed Libya from Africa's most developed state into a charnel house. It remains so today. For Western predators, it's Libya, Inc.

Jabril became part of its NTC "executive team." On March 5, he was appointed prime minister. At the time, NTC spokesman Hafiz Ghoga said:

"We completely refuse any cooperation, discussion or dialogue with th(e Gaddafi) regime." He and other Western proxies wanted him overthrown by force. 

It sounds eerily like Syrian National Council leaders refusing negotiations and urging Western intervention against Assad.

A Libyan national, Jabril specializes in strategic planning and decision making. He and others drafted a Unified Arab Training manual. In the late 1980s, he organized and administered Arab training conferences.

He later managed training programs for senior managers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Britain. He established close ties with Western and Southeast Asian leaders. 

In Libya, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. Its history reflects a pro-business/anti-populist agenda.

In the 1970s, he studied economics and political science at Cairo University. After graduating, he came to America. He earned a University of Pittsburgh master's degree and doctorate in political science. He taught strategic planning there after graduating.

Time magazine calls him a "US-educated policy wonk." It interviewed him in 2010. He envisioned Western-style government. He hoped to transform Libya into a replica of neoliberal economies. He told Time:

"There must be a legal frame with division of powers, and the right of free expression. We are very late. We have to shorten the time span of things."

He's now able to institute what wasn't possible then. Doing so assures neoliberal harshness. It features plunder, exploitation, and repression. It's the usual formula applied to enrich privileged elites at the expense of all others.

Jabril earlier advised Arab governments on economic management. In 2007, he returned to Libya. Through early 2011, he served in Gaddafi's government.

In 2009, he told then US ambassador Gene Cretz that Libya was "opening widely and very fast." He said American companies could expect lucrative business opportunities. WikiLeaks released a cable quoting Cretz saying "Jabril is a serious interlocutor who 'gets' the US perspective."

His roots are from Libya's most populous Warfalla tribe. It had close ties to Gaddafi. Washington hopes he can co-opt it. Doing so furthers its agenda.

As head of Libya's Economic Development Board, Jabril earlier drafted his plan for a new Libya. It's neoliberal/anti-populist hardline.

Last October, he told Time that Gaddafi blocked his "reform" agenda. "They took everything they received from us and just threw in in the garbage." He omitted saying that's where it belongs.

He now says "(w)e have the plan ready." He plans implementing it. It's called the "Libya Tomorrow Project." It's right out of the IMF's playbook. 

It features looting Libya's resources, shifting public wealth to private hands, mass privatizations, deregulation, low wages, few or no benefits, unrestricted free market access for Western companies, corporate-friendly tax cuts, marginalizing or prohibiting trade unionism, and harsh repression against opposition to a system incompatible with social democracy, civil and human rights.

It's Chicago school fundamentalism writ large. It's long on free market triumphalism and void on how it treats people. Replacing the old Libya with a new one is policy. 

Jabril wants the country transformed into a regional model. He plans turning it into a giant free trade zone. Its core feature is pillage. Corporate utopia depends on it. Ordinary Libyans face dystopian harshness. 

George Bush turned "the cradle of civilization" into hell. Obama did the same thing to Libya. 

Jabril got his marching orders. His mandate is serving as Washington's enforcer. He'll stay in favor as long as he remembers who's boss.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

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