VATICAN CITY—“The news of the death of Col. Moammar Gadhafi ends the too-long and tragic phase of the bloody struggle to overthrow a harsh and oppressive regime,” the Vatican said in a statement released this afternoon.
“This dramatic event,” the communiqué continued, “forces us to reflect once again on the price of immense human suffering that accompanies the assertion and collapse of any system that is not based on respect and dignity of the person, but on the principal assertion of power.”
There were conflicting accounts regarding the circumstances of the dictator’s death.
According to Reuters, one source said Gadhafi was captured alive and, in resisting his captors, was beaten to death. Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council told Reuters Gaddafi was killed following his capture when a gunfight broke out between his supporters and government fighters. He died from a bullet wound to the head.
The Holy See announced that it would henceforth recognize the interim government as the legitimate rulers of the Libyan people, in accordance with international law.
The statement made no other specific reference to Gaddafi, but instead focused mainly on the future.
“We must now hope that, sparing the Libyan people from further violence derived from a spirit of revenge or vengeance, the new rulers can undertake, as soon as possible, the necessary work of pacification and reconstruction, with a spirit of inclusion on the basis of justice and law,” the statement read.
It also expressed hope that the international community would be committed to “generously helping to rebuild the country.”
Since the beginning of the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime earlier this year, the Catholic Church’s small community, which runs a number of care centers and hospitals in Libya, has been tending to the wounded. The Vatican assured the Libyan people that they would “continue to offer its witness and selfless service, in particular in the field of charity and health care.”
The Holy See also pledged to work in support of the Libyan people “with the tools it has at its disposal in the field of international relations, in the spirit of promoting justice and peace.”
According to the Oct. 20 statement, since the fall of the regime in August, the Holy See has been establishing contacts in Libya. The Vatican’s top diplomats have been renewing close ties with their Libyan counterparts, with the apostolic nuncio to Libya traveling to Tripoli earlier this month to attend talks with the prime minister and foreign minister of the National Transitional Council.
During these meetings, the Holy See said it took the opportunity to renew its support for the Libyan people and the interim government and wished the new authorities every success in the country’s reconstruction. For their part, the new Libyan leaders communicated their “appreciation for the humanitarian appeals of the Holy Father and the Church’s involvement in Libya, especially through the service offered in hospitals or other care centers of the 13 religious communities” in the country.
Throughout the fighting, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for dialogue and diplomacy aimed at restoring peace to the North African country. He expressed particular concern for the civilian population caught up in the conflict, urging that they have access to humanitarian aid and calling on neighboring countries to be generous in welcoming Libyan refugees.
Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.


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Congratulation for Libyan people…Time to stop war…make peace, an rebuild again yours
Congratulations to all Libyans.
Yee-haw. The next guy will probably be worse.
Our Canadian parties in Ottawa have supported a military mission in Libya under the euphemism of a humanitarian mission to defend a no-fly-zone and protect civilians. When looked upon closely our intervention is in violation of international law and as my letter will demonstrate involves the complicity of all four parties in war crimes.
Libyans didn’t seem too keen in welcoming our ‘humanitarian aid’ cause according to a May 2011 report from the U.N. some 750, 000 Libyans had already fled their country.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/18/c_13879664.htm
If the mission was to ‘protect civilians’ then why have on the ground journalists from Venezuela’s Telesur have reported some 50, 000 dead since NATO’s mission began?.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26618
We were told that we weren’t going to take sides but it didn’t take long before we heard reports that NATO was arming and directing the rebels,many of whom are linked to Islamic terrorists groups like Al-Qaeda.
And most recently, French jets targeted Gaddafi’s convoy which eventually led to his murder. This was never in the original UN mandate.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26255
The overthrow and assasination of Gaddafi was not in the cards but NATO bombs did drop on one of his home compounds killing one of his sons and three grandchildren.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382341/Libya-Nato-strikes-kill-Gaddafis-son-grandchildren.html
We were told that we will be protecting civilians from Gaddafi’s forces and enforcing a ‘‘no-fly-zone’’ order but what do you call 9000 strike sorties, tens of thousands of civilian targets: residential areas, government buildings, water supply and electricity generation facilities ? (See NATO Communique, September 5, 2011. 8140 strike sorties from March 31 to September 5, 2011)
An entire nation has been bombed with the most advanced ordnance, including uranium coated ammunition and unexploded bombs (land mines) scattered across the country.
Already in August, UNICEF warned that extensive NATO bombing of Libya’s water infrastructure “could turn into an unprecedented health epidemic “ (Christian Balslev-Olesen of UNICEF’s Libya Office, August 2011).
Is this what one calls a humanitarian mission or protecting civilians ? It sounds like a war crime to me.
For some Vatican elites and their friends from western govts to have taken the bait and supported the initial military mission displays either a lack of expertise in geopolitics or worse, stooges for empire.
Our govt and media have used the arguments of “genocide” and “bloodbath “against Gaddafi’s own people based on what evidence?
Why should we believe our leaders and media this time?
Remember the manufactured incubator story from Gulf War one? Or what about the Downing Street Memos that proved how the public was deliberately mislead about the WMDs? In addition, the “Yellow Cake ” story from Niger was a forgerie as demonstrated in July, 2005, by the Italian Parliament which concluded their own investigation and named four men (tied to U.S. Intelligence) as suspects in the creation of the forged documents, Michael Ledeen, Dewey Clarridge, Ahmed Chalabi and Francis Brookes. This report has been included in Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame, and Paul McNulty, the prosecutor of the AIPAC spy case. Should I add more examples ?
“Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State,” said the late James Jesus Angleton, CIA Counter-Intelligence Chief (1954-74)
Alan J. Kuperman, is a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas, the author of “The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention’’ and co-editor of “Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention,’’ and wrote the following in the Boston Globe on April 14th of this year,
EVIDENCE IS now in that President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya. The president claimed that intervention was necessary to prevent a “bloodbath’’ in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and last rebel stronghold.
But Human Rights Watch has released data on Misurata, the next-biggest city in Libya and scene of protracted fighting, revealing that Moammar Khadafy is not deliberately massacring civilians but rather narrowly targeting the armed rebels who fight against his government.
As exposed by a french journalsit in this interview with Dr. Sliman Bouchuiguir, leader of the Libyan League for Human Hights, much of the evidence about Gaddafi massacring his own people,which was used as a pretext to invade his country, emanated from this fellow. But he admitted that his evidence was taken from mostly NTC people,NATO’s ally. How on earth could this have been taken as reliable?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27101
American historian Dr. Webster Tarpley wrote,“They showed a picture of a jet fighter being shot down and claimed this proved Qaddafi was defying the UN by keeping up his air strikes. It later turned out that the destroyed plane had belonged to the rebel air force. Such coverage provided justification for the bombing attacks starting a few hours later. The parallels to the Kuwait incubator babies hoax of 1990 were evident.”
Gaddafi had even offered observors from the international community to come witness for themselves what was occurring on the ground
but our morally superior western leaders rebuffed him.
But lets say Gaddafi did kill his own citizens indiscriminately. International law still forbids invasion. Tarpley continued,” The United Nations Charter strictly limits Chapter 7 military actions to threats to international peace and security, which Libya has never represented, but rules out interference in internal affairs of member states. The pretext cited in this case was the protection of defenseless civilians, but it is clear that the rebels constitute an armed military force in their own right. Since no state can be an aggressor on its own territory, the Security Council resolution stands in flagrant violation of the UN Charter.”
Without even delving into long ago dirty tricks of imperialism, a basic understanding of recent NATO interventions in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq has shown us that the moment you open the door to defending a ” no-fly-zone” or the need for intervention to “protect” civilians you open-up a can worms to escalating horrors unimagineable: Islamic jihadists begin appearing coincidentally alongside NATO/CIA/French/British covert operations, mass looting, ethnic tensions,civil war, bombs begin dropping on civilian targets, infrastructure, rape, massive violence,etc… In other words a chaotic seen worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster that dwarfs whatever problems existed before the intervention.
So why the rush to military action on Libya? You can’t argue the protection of innocent Libyans. If that was the case then why haven’t we intervened militarily in the decades long Israel bloodbath against Palastinians? What about the other massacres by other corrupt regimes such as Yemen, Morocco,Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia,...all supported by western colonial powers???
Could it be cause Gaddafi wasn’t playing ball all the time with the three musketeers-France, England and Uncle Sam?
Could it be cause Gaddafi’s popular Green revolution in mobilizing African unity was going to cut the hands of western control? More importantly, Gaddafi’s plan to introduce the gold dinar, a single African currency made from gold, a true sharing of the wealth would enable them to sell oil and other resources around the world only for gold dinars?
Gerald Perreira , a founding memeber of Guyanese organizations Joint Initiative for Human Advancement and Dignity and Black Consciousness Movement Guyana , said it best:
“Qaddafi had amassed the necessary funds for the establishment of three African banks … It was this move, more than even Libya’s vast oil wealth that made Qaddafi and the Al Fateh revolution a target for this invasion”
Gaddafi was no saint but so is the case with Obama and many western leaders where millions from their own backyard are barely hanging on economically due to policies of their own and a media that lies to them. Lets not forgot the war crimes that Bush Co. and Obama and friends have committed from invading three countries to sanctioning torture and causing the maiming,displacement and deaths of millions from these interventions. This dwarfs whatever Gaddafi did but somehow no one has invaded USA?
As Canadian economist Dr. Chossudovsky writes,” whatever one’s views regarding Moamar Gadaffi, the post-colonial Libyan government played a key role in eliminating poverty and developing the country’s health and educational infrastructure…Public Health Care in Libya prior to NATO’s “Humanitarian Intervention” was the best in Africa. “
According to a U.N. report, as early as prior to your humanitarian mission in Libya , it was number one on the Human Development Index for Africa and it had the highest life expectancy on the continent.
But this is okay cause the $150 billion dollars belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority, not Gaddafi’s personal treasure chest as our media has been playing it, will now go to western firms for reconstruction after their NATO goon-squads finished bombing them to hell.
And in the end NATO’s NTC and their ‘revolutionary’ rebels will bring stability, peace,justice and a fairer distribution of wealth than Libyans ever saw before. Just like the sunshine we brought to the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and others.
For years now our govts. in Ottawa and even progressively oriented groups have lost a sense of direction and sadly the masses haven’t realized that their being sold a bunch of hollow goods,as the masses voted in droves for Obama and to a certain extent here with the NDP.
A team of French lawyers, including a former foreign minister, in the event of Gaddafi’s capture were going to gear-up to defend him & press charges against Sarkozy for war crimes. Unfortunately, it was too late. Maybe it’s a matter of time before our own Canadian politicians, Vatican elite and others will be held to account also.
Dear Holy Father,
As a believer in the message of Christ I was distraught when I learned that in my country our Canadian parties in Ottawa and many from the Vatican’s elite have supported a military mission in Libya under the euphemism of a humanitarian mission to defend a no-fly-zone and protect civilians. When looked upon closely our intervention is in violation of international law and as my letter will demonstrate involves the complicity of all four parties in war crimes.
Libyans didn’t seem too keen in welcoming our ‘humanitarian aid’ cause according to a May 2011 report from the U.N. some 750, 000 Libyans had already fled their country.
If the mission was to ‘protect civilians’ then why have on the ground journalists from Venezuela’s Telesur have reported some 50, 000 dead since NATO’s mission began?.
We were told that we weren’t going to take sides but it didn’t take long before we heard reports that NATO was arming and directing the rebels,many of whom are linked to Islamic terrorists groups like Al-Qaeda.
Regime change, the overthrow and assasination of Gaddafi was not in the cards but NATO bombs did drop on one of his home compounds killing one of his sons and three grandchildren.
And most recently, French jets targeted Gaddafi’s convoy which eventually led to his murder. This was never in the original UN mandate.
We were told that we will be protecting civilians from Gaddafi’s forces and enforcing a ‘‘no-fly-zone’’ order but what do you call 9000 strike sorties, tens of thousands of civilian targets: residential areas, government buildings, water supply and electricity generation facilities ? (See NATO Communique, September 5, 2011. 8140 strike sorties from March 31 to September 5, 2011)
An entire nation has been bombed with the most advanced ordnance, including uranium coated ammunition and unexploded bombs (land mines) scattered across the country.
Already in August, UNICEF warned that extensive NATO bombing of Libya’s water infrastructure “could turn into an unprecedented health epidemic “ (Christian Balslev-Olesen of UNICEF’s Libya Office, August 2011).
Is this what one calls a humanitarian mission or protecting civilians ? It sounds like a war crime to me.
For some Vatican elites and their friends from western govts to have taken the bait and supported the initial military mission displays either a lack of expertise in geopolitics or worse, stooges for empire.
Our govt and media have used the arguments of “genocide” and “bloodbath “against Gaddafi’s own people based on what evidence?
Why should we believe our leaders and media this time?
Remember the manufactured incubator story from Gulf War one? Or what about the Downing Street Memos that proved how the public was deliberately mislead about the WMDs? In addition, the “Yellow Cake ” story from Niger was a forgerie as demonstrated in July, 2005, by the Italian Parliament which concluded their own investigation and named four men (tied to U.S. Intelligence) as suspects in the creation of the forged documents, Michael Ledeen, Dewey Clarridge, Ahmed Chalabi and Francis Brookes. This report has been included in Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame, and Paul McNulty, the prosecutor of the AIPAC spy case. Should I add more examples ?
“Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State,” said the late James Jesus Angleton, CIA Counter-Intelligence Chief (1954-74)
Alan J. Kuperman, is a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas, the author of “The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention’’ and co-editor of “Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention,’’ and wrote the following in the Boston Globe on April 14th of this year,
EVIDENCE IS now in that President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya. The president claimed that intervention was necessary to prevent a “bloodbath’’ in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and last rebel stronghold.
But Human Rights Watch has released data on Misurata, the next-biggest city in Libya and scene of protracted fighting, revealing that Moammar Khadafy is not deliberately massacring civilians but rather narrowly targeting the armed rebels who fight against his government.
As exposed by a french journalsit in this interview with Dr. Sliman Bouchuiguir, leader of the Libyan League for Human Hights, much of the evidence about Gaddafi massacring his own people,which was used as a pretext to invade his country, emanated from this fellow. But he admitted that his evidence was taken from mostly NTC people,NATO’s ally. How on earth could this have been taken as reliable?
American historian Dr. Webster Tarpley wrote,“They showed a picture of a jet fighter being shot down and claimed this proved Qaddafi was defying the UN by keeping up his air strikes. It later turned out that the destroyed plane had belonged to the rebel air force. Such coverage provided justification for the bombing attacks starting a few hours later. The parallels to the Kuwait incubator babies hoax of 1990 were evident.”
Gaddafi had even offered observors from the international community to come witness for themselves what was occurring on the ground
but our morally superior western leaders rebuffed him.
But lets say Gaddafi did kill his own citizens indiscriminately. International law still forbids invasion. Tarpley continued,” The United Nations Charter strictly limits Chapter 7 military actions to threats to international peace and security, which Libya has never represented, but rules out interference in internal affairs of member states. The pretext cited in this case was the protection of defenseless civilians, but it is clear that the rebels constitute an armed military force in their own right. Since no state can be an aggressor on its own territory, the Security Council resolution stands in flagrant violation of the UN Charter.”
Without even delving into long ago dirty tricks of imperialism, a basic understanding of recent NATO interventions in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq has shown us that the moment you open the door to defending a ” no-fly-zone” or the need for intervention to “protect” civilians you open-up a can worms to escalating horrors unimagineable: Islamic jihadists begin appearing coincidentally alongside NATO/CIA/French/British covert operations, mass looting, ethnic tensions,civil war, bombs begin dropping on civilian targets, infrastructure, rape, massive violence,etc… In other words a chaotic seen worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster that dwarfs whatever problems existed before the intervention.
So why the rush to military action on Libya? You can’t argue the protection of innocent Libyans. If that was the case then why haven’t we intervened militarily in the decades long Israel bloodbath against Palastinians? What about the other massacres by other corrupt regimes such as Yemen, Morocco,Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia,...all supported by western colonial powers???
Could it be cause Gaddafi wasn’t playing ball all the time with the three musketeers-France, England and Uncle Sam?
Could it be cause Gaddafi’s popular Green revolution in mobilizing African unity was going to cut the hands of western control? More importantly, Gaddafi’s plan to introduce the gold dinar, a single African currency made from gold, a true sharing of the wealth would enable them to sell oil and other resources around the world only for gold dinars?
Gerald Perreira , a founding memeber of Guyanese organizations Joint Initiative for Human Advancement and Dignity and Black Consciousness Movement Guyana , said it best:
“Qaddafi had amassed the necessary funds for the establishment of three African banks … It was this move, more than even Libya’s vast oil wealth that made Qaddafi and the Al Fateh revolution a target for this invasion”
Gaddafi was no saint but so is the case with Obama and many western leaders where millions from their own backyard are barely hanging on economically due to policies of their own and a media that lies to them. Lets not forgot the war crimes that Bush Co. and Obama and friends have committed from invading three countries to sanctioning torture and causing the maiming,displacement and deaths of millions from these interventions. This dwarfs whatever Gaddafi did but somehow no one has invaded USA?
As Canadian economist Dr. Chossudovsky writes,” whatever one’s views regarding Moamar Gadaffi, the post-colonial Libyan government played a key role in eliminating poverty and developing the country’s health and educational infrastructure…Public Health Care in Libya prior to NATO’s “Humanitarian Intervention” was the best in Africa. “
According to a U.N. report, as early as prior to your humanitarian mission in Libya , it was number one on the Human Development Index for Africa and it had the highest life expectancy on the continent.
But this is okay cause the $150 billion dollars belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority, not Gaddafi’s personal treasure chest as our media has been playing it, will now go to western firms for reconstruction after their NATO goon-squads finished bombing them to hell.
And in the end NATO’s NTC and their ‘revolutionary’ rebels will bring stability, peace,justice and a fairer distribution of wealth than Libyans ever saw before. Just like the sunshine we brought to the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and others.
For years now our govts. in Ottawa and even progressively oriented groups have lost a sense of direction and sadly the masses haven’t realized that their being sold a bunch of hollow goods,as the masses voted in droves for Obama and to a certain extent here with the NDP.
A team of French lawyers, including a former foreign minister, in the event of Gaddafi’s capture were going to gear-up to defend him & press charges against Sarkozy for war crimes. Unfortunately, it was too late. Maybe it’s a matter of time before our own Canadian politicians, Vatican elite and others will be held to account also.
Kindly,
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