Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

When it comes to the Middle East, the UK is nothing but a rogue state

"By 2003, the Libyan government had entered into relations with the International Monetary Fund, privatizing a number of state-owned enterprises. In 2004, Libya opened up 15 new offshore and onshore blocs to drilling. Campbell also chronicles the burrowing actions of the “Western-educated bureaucrats [who] worked to bring Libya into the fold of ‘market reforms,’ and the deepening commercial relations with British capital.”  In 2007, British Petroleum inked a deal with the Libyan Investment Corporation for the exploration of 54,000 square kilometers of the Ghadames and Sirt basins. It also signed training agreements for Libyan professionals, helping create a base for neoliberalism within the government. By 2011, 2800 Libyan professionals were studying in the United Kingdom, learning “Western values” of destatization and thus the removal of the possibility for production and power to be responsive to the demands of the people.  Libya under Qadhaffi was mercurial, but against the

Obama says Libya was 'worst mistake' of his presidency Fuck you and your 'international community'

Libya: Nermin Al-Sharif

"Libya doesn’t want them, Europe doesn’t want them and even their own countries don’t want them." Apart from the smugglers, Libya, the EU and their "own countries" do not think that there is any profit to make out of these people at the moment. The migrant slave trade

Hafter: Israel's new friend in Africa

Imeprialist and criminal regimes have to be inconsistent sometimes. That is build in they strategical calculations whether at home or abroad. Gaddafi, Manchester, etc and the lesson the British still to learn?

"It's a weird time. This week I'm noticing two rather disturbing bandwagons rolling, both arising from Manchester. One is about UK domestic politics and the other international politics but they are linked by an understandable desire not to see the attack as being used to advance the agenda of the Tories and specifically, to help their election campaign. Both though are ultimately very unhelpful. One is about the need for soldiers on the streets because Theresa May  cut police budgets as Home Secretary. I've seen unlikely people sharing tweets from redundant cops. Tempting to undercut May this way, but wrong - more armed cops do not equal fewer attacks like Manchester. The other is pinning the blame for Manchester on the UK intervention in Libya.  Again, understandable.  But it's important to see that the problem in Libya was not the attempted regime change as such but the regime that people tried to change i.e. Gaddafi's tyranny. It was a regime that - like

"[T]his  reactionary isolationism represents "a national-selfish attitude that doesn't care about what happens to the rest of the world as long as 'we' are not directly concerned and our well-being is not affected - or (the leftwing version) as long as our 'anti-imperialist' conscience is not troubled by any of the complexities of the real world."

African migrants sold in Libya 'slave markets' — BBC: "How do you stop this?" — Me: By more aid, more celebrities showing the way, more NATO interventions ... 

" As well as former Labour MP Mr Straw, the case brought by Mr Belhaj and his wife is against former senior MI6 official Sir Mark Allen, the UK security services, the Foreign Office and the Home Office - all have denied liability." The rendition programme was/ has bren a well-known criminal, terrorist programme. The terrorist states of the US and Britain and others in collaboration with others states, inlcuding Arab and non Arab ones, have been involved in this programme. Denying any involvement is not a surpriss; history is full of such examples. Denial also demonstrates cowardliness. For a background of the story, see September 11 and the functions of the 'war on terror"

The Great Libya War Fraud Analysis by Hugh Roberts  Who said Gaddafi had to go?

Just another news item "As the rescuers approached, they found overloaded wooden vessels and rafts that evoked scenes of the slave trade."

The Great Libya War Fraud

" On Wednesday a foreign affairs committee chaired by the Conservative MP Crispin Blunt delivered its excoriating verdict on   David Cameron’s Libyan adventure . Few people will rush to Cameron’s defence. Yet the former prime minister might be forgiven for feeling a pang of irritation at the committee’s uncompromising verdict. In March 2011, when Cameron went to the Commons to propose bombing Libya, no fewer than 557 MPs voted with him. Just 13 voted against. Those 13, just in case anyone is interested? They did not include Crispin Blunt. They did not include Theresa May. They did not include Owen Smith, Corbyn’s rival for the Labour leadership or Angela Eagle, who kicked off the leadership challenge (she abstained). But they did include Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell. That’s what many of us call leadership. A parliament full of criminals and they call it democracy

The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between  by  Hisham Matar

The biggest terrorist state on earth is failing to fight individual terrorism What a surprise!

" The ceremony was followed by a panel discussion about trade union rights in the Middle East in which I participated, together with three people who've been featured in LabourStart campaigns: Nermin Al-Sharif, head of the Libyan Dockers’ and Seafarers’ Union, victim of an assassination attempt. Kamal Abbas, founder of the Cairo-based Centre for Trade Union and Workers Services, arrested numerous times by the authorities for his work. Mahdi Abu Dheeb, president of the Bahrain Teachers Association, just released after five years in prison."

Joseph Sassoon, Anatomy of Authoritarianism in the Arab Republics

Who Said Gaddafi Had to Go? An in-depth analysis of what happened then.  See also the comments and the reply.