Mounting Evidence of Rebel Atrocities in Libya
While the International Criminal Court has announced that it is investigating charges of war crimes against Muammar al-Gaddafi and other members of the Libyan regime, harrowing video evidence has emerged that appears to show atrocities committed by anti-Gaddafi rebels. Among other things, the footage depicts summary executions, a prisoner being lynched, the desecration of corpses, and even a beheading. The targets of the most serious abuse are frequently black African prisoners. The ultimate source of the footage appears to be rebel forces or sympathizers themselves.
(Warning: Due to the graphic nature of the videos linked below, viewer discretion is advised.)
What is probably the most harrowing of the clips depicts a public beheading. A man with a long knife can be seen alternately sawing and hacking at the neck of a man who has been suspended upside-down. The victim’s inert body is soaked in blood. The beheading takes place in front of a burnt-out building in what appears to be a public square. The Dutch public broadcaster NOS has identified the location as the main square of the rebel capital of Benghazi.
A crowd numbering at least in the hundreds cheers on the assailants. At one point, a man begins chanting “Libya Hurra!”: “Free Libya!” According to the NOS translation, someone can be heard saying, “He looks like an African.” As the principal assailant begins to saw at the victim’s neck, members of the crowd yell “Allahu Akbar!” Dozens of members of the crowd can be seen filming the proceedings with digital cameras or cell phones. (See clip #1 here or here.)
A second clip depicts a black African prisoner being aggressively questioned and beaten. The man is alleged to be a pro-Gaddafi mercenary. Extracts from the footage have been broadcast on both the Libyan state television Al-Libya and on Al-Jazeera. More complete “raw footage,” which is available on YouTube, shows the beating continuing even after the man is lying face down on the ground, the surrounding concrete splattered with his blood. By way of photographs and identity papers, a video from an unknown source on YouTube identifies the victim as a Libyan citizen and a regular member of the Libyan army. (See clip #2 here.)
Similar footage of rebels demanding a confession from an alleged black African mercenary has also been shown on Western television. It should be noted that even just the mere exposure of a prisoner to “public curiosity” constitutes a violation of the Geneva Conventions – to say nothing of acts of intimidation and abuse or the outright lynching that appears to be documented in the above clip.
A third clip shows a group of prisoners being questioned by an interrogator. Several of the prisoners are wearing army uniforms. A rough English translation has been added to a posting of the clip on YouTube. According to the translation, the interrogator appears to accuse members of the group of having opened fire on civilians. The prisoners insist that they were fired upon and that they only opened fire in self-defense.
As in other clips, a black prisoner is singled out for particular abuse. Barking out accusations, the interrogator hovers over him with what appears to be a sort of machete in his hand. In a later shot, what appears to be the same group of men is seen lying on the ground in pools of blood. Their eyes have been bound and they appear to have been shot in the back of the head. Persons walking among the corpses can be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar!” The footage was shown on a broadcast on Al-Libya television. But the “raw footage” and other apparently related footage is also available on YouTube. The actual shooting of the prisoners is not shown. (See clip #3 here or here.)
In a fourth clip, men can be seen holding up what appears to be charred human remains to the cheers of an assembled crowd. As in the beheading video, numerous members of the crowd can be seen filming the proceedings on digital cameras and cell phones. One of the “presenters” waves the red, black, and green flag of the Libyan rebellion. So too does a member of the crowd. A second group, again waving the flag of the rebellion, can later be seen parading around what appears to be the same remains on a rooftop. A smaller clump of carbonized matter receives particular attention from the revelers. According to one posting on YouTube, the object in question is the victim’s heart. (See clip #4 here.)
A fifth clip shows two black African prisoners who have been tightly bound from head to foot. Online postings suggest that they were captured by rebels in Misrata: a western Libyan city that was conquered by the rebels near the outset of the rebellion and that is presently the scene of heavy fighting. One of the men appears to be badly wounded; the other whimpers as he attempts in vain to wriggle free from his bindings. (See clip #5 here or here.)
Several other clips, which are available on YouTube, show the corpses of black Africans being publicly displayed and kicked and otherwise abused by “protestors.”
At first glance, it might seem odd that the rebels would document their own atrocities. But given all the indications that the eastern Libyan heartland of the rebellion is a bastion of jihadist militancy, it is in fact not so odd. It is standard jihadist procedure to film beheadings and other sorts of atrocities committed against captured enemy soldiers and hostages.
(For further evidence of the Islamist/jihadist influence on the eastern Libyan rebellion, see my previous articles here, here, and here.)
Certainly, one would not expect adherence to the Geneva Convention from such as these.
Mercenaries are not entitled to treatment as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. I am not defending the actions of the rebels but the misapplication of the rules regarding the treatment of prisoners of war only encourages combatants to ignore the rules. Prisoner of war status is the carrot to encourage honorable warfare.
That’s ridiculous. These guys don’t have the foggiest notion of what Prisoner of War status is, they wouldn’t care about it if they did. Not only that, they don’t want POWs – they’d have to feed them and care for them. Mercy isn’t in the culture, and the Koran is pretty clear about the issue, “hostages” are kept when there is some benefit financial or tactically. In any case, when has anybody seen a prisoner from any Arab conflict that wasn’t severely abused (if not executed and mutilated).
The atrocities, such as they are, are concentrated towards Gadaffi’s hire-to-kill mercenaries and sound like revenge killings. When the rebels start indiscriminately targeting Libyan noncombatants, we can start talking about a moral equivalency between the two sides.
Are you insane? What are babbling on about “moral equivalency” for, you turkey. It doesn’t matter whether the victim is a mercenary or not, this is sheer barbarism. But then, so is Islam. Heaven help us all.
Please answer, may be someone was bringing that people to the court, and, then there was an court verdict, that they’re ‘mercenaries’ or ‘cannibals’ or ‘evil alien species’ to publicly murder them?
I’m sure, that no.
There is no proof that they’re not just regular lybian army soldiers of any kind and origin or any random guys who was in inappropriate place in inappropriate time.
There was no court and no judge. Just violent public massacre.
Every black guy they see is an “African mercenary” to them, sent to rape their wives and kill their kids. There’s no independent verification the accusations are correct. Many captives swear they’re just workers, or are Libyans, but are called liars and shut up quickly. There’s no good reason to brush this off, even IF being a mercenary were cause to be beaten to death and de-pantsed, in public hanged, shot dead, hacked up, or burnt alive.
And my God, how can these people run around shouting “Allahu Akbar!” whenever blood is flowing?
The point is, the perpetrators are islamist barbarians and we are helping them. We backed the wrong side in Afghanistan in 1980 – we should have helped the Russians. We’re repeating the mistake here.
I agree David… does anyone believe that Libya will be a more ‘West friendly’ place when this hurricane of violence completes?
Total agreement, David. When it comes to liberations and democratization in the world of islam there are really only two things they are rebelling for: communism and/or islamization (with the undertone of sectarian warfare when it comes to islamization). A personal account of a late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is available on CD in your local library – I strongly recommend it. The newest trend, however, according to one muslim who is clingning onto me in my FB discussions sound like this:
“if u can have united states union of 52 states whats harm if we have our united states of 58 states and as u call your head of state as president we like to call our head of state as khalifa and as you call your spiritual head as pope we want to call ours as imam .u want pope and president to be two persons we want our khalifa and imam as one person .as queen of England is khalifa and imam both for govt of England and church of England .now tell me how we are threat to you in any way
… and, on behalf ot the American people, our president is giving them $25 million borrowed from the Chinese.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/19/libya-rebels-will-receive-25-million-from-us/
Wake up people your government has been co-opted by the enemy. We are paying those in Libya that we are paying our soldiers to kill in Iraq and Afghanistan. This oaf of president of ours needs to be impeached now. Long past time to clean the perversion out of the house, the senate and the judiciary. Meanwhile they are trying to make us slaves to their demonic ideologies.
An what part has George Soros played in this whole sordid mess?
Shocking!
Say, who did you say these “rebels” were?
MSM all over this in 3….2….1….
start counting way higher than that. As soon as the war is over, and it’s time to weed out the “bad elements” this barbarity will finally be discussed a bit.
l should be shocked but l’m not, tbh l expected it.
Why are we involved with these people again? These societies have very little value for human life. Both sides in this and any other conflict that involves muslims are this way.
Stay our of it and let it play out. Then try to establish diplomatic relations with whichever side wins.
DO NOT give them money. What? too late? Ah nuts. Again.
War itself is a crime and this is no surprise. Had the West not intervened, fewer people would have died and this war would have ended long ago.
It was already at a point where it was a matter of how many would die not whether they would.
Ironic that the clueless and racialist Obama who is supported my Farrakhan, Jim Cone and Rev. Wright enabled this to happen. Had Obama known this would happen, he would have fought tooth and nail against intervention. If the MSM and Obama find out about this, watch them do a 180 on this one.
Obama should have fought tooth and nail to limit the bleeding in the first place – now that there is a racial dimension to it, his head will suddenly whip around and up at full attention. The MSM is caught between a rock and a hard place on this one when it comes to their agenda. They might be reduced to merely reporting.
I said all along that intervening in Libya would be a disaster and it has been. Now we have two sides radicalized even beyond where they were and with events easily manipulated to further set them against the West and the West itself against both sides. Nice going Mr. President. What has happened was easily envisioned as there are only several million people in the whole country unlike a much more complex Egypt with its huge population and complex groupings.
As the West turns its back on the rebels and perhaps even acts against them, it will be competition between the pro and anti-Gaddafi terrorists on who will kill the most tourists in Europe once this dies down.
Sometimes doing nothing is doing something. This is the real muslim world and not Washington Irving President Obama. Middle eastern muslims aren’t huge fans of black folks in the best of times and in the worst they enslaved them in their millions and the only reason that stopped is because of the colonialist decrepit white morons whose very story Obama hates so much.
Might be a time for a little re-evaluation eh there Prez? I don’t think Obama ever envisioned that his Presidency would consist of a series of reasons not to re-elect him.
I’m shocked!!! Shocked, I tell you. Who could expect such savage behavior from members of The Religion of Peace. Something must have happened that changed there behavior since 9-11. What? They cheered after the sand monkeys destroyed the WTC too? My optimism for their revolution is diminished.
These are the President’s people. He would gladly hand our country over to the mohamedan savages if he could.
Thanks Oprah!
But Oprah said she’s not going to promote Obama for 2012, she’s too worried about her OWN cable network channel going down the tubes.
I’ve been asking the same question over and over since the start of our “Libyan Adventure”. Who are the so called “rebels”? What are their goals? What kind of government are they trying to put into place? Does Libya have a history of a democratic style of government? Not as far as I can tell it doesn’t, so what makes Barry and the pin heads in his administration think that by ousting Kadaffy and supporting the “rebels” they will get a democratic style of government in Libya. They’re headed to an Islamist state, Barry, like it or not.
The black mercenaries were hired specificaly because they would be willing to kill Libian civilians. The Libian civilians reply in kind. Racial differences are part of the savagery on both sides, and both sides know it going in. To expect any party in this war to behave like friendly Americans who happen to be professional soldiers is naive. Sometimes if you choose sides, your choice is between evil and a greater evil. The worst thing we can do is keep this meat grinder going at a low level for a long time eating Libyans. Better to seriously target Gaddafi till we get him. Anyone within the bursting radius of a 1,000 bomb aimed at Gaddafi is a legitimate target. If that message got out and was believed he would be a lonesome man.
The black mercs. were hire to fight. It is moronic to think they were hired to target civilians. In Libya today you are not a civilian if you are armed, carrying supplies or working with the rebels you are a combatant not a civilian. Using your logic a guess that since they are evil mercs. it is OK to behead them? I will bet you that if the rebels win you will not see a Republic or a Democracy. You will not see a gay loving, hippie hugging, copy of Berkley.
Logic has nothing to do with it. In this situation neither side is going to behave civily to captives. They are ignorant mercs, fighting to preserve an evil ruler, for money, so yes, they are evil. But it would make no difference if they were not evil, captives do not fare well in the hands of irregulars anywhere, particularly not in the Middle east. Whoever wins I don’t think the place will turn into Berkley, which is good, we don’t need another Berkley. Maybe we could send Berkley to Libya to teach them to behave like civilized people. But then they could not drill for oil, and the place would make the short step back to the stone age, never mind.
Tom Horne
You wrote “Better to seriously target Gaddafi till we get him” But why should we? Why should America do anything to help one side or the other? They both hate the West (and particulary Amrika) and will promote anti-western attitudes but it least with Qaddafi there was some measure of stability in Libya. And the Libyan economy (and the life of “normal” Libyans)did improved. With the “rebels” you will get Taliban-like government, Taliban-like education and no one knows what their economic policies will look like.
Gaddafi has killed a bunch of Americans. The GIs in the ’86 Berlin Night Club bombing, that prompted Regan to try to kill him, then since Regan did not get the job done, in ’88 Gaddafi’s guys bombed Pan Am 103, killing 270, mostly americans. He has deserved killing since ’86, lets use this opportunity to get it done. We have already pissed him off. From his history, Gaddafi does not forgive and forget so who knows what he will do now. Kill a bunch of Americans would be a good guess.
He and Al Qaeda operate on the principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, so cooperation in the future is not out of the question. If Gaddafi prevails, they will have a common enemy, the US, Britain, Italy and France. Gaddaffi will be motivated for revenge and will have the resources of an oil rich nation state at his disposal. What could go wrong? Lots. Lets kill Gaddafi for his past crimes and deal with what shakes out. What shakes out may be worse than the status quo anti, but things have changed, there is no going back to the previous status quo with a guy with Gaddafi’s proven inclinations.
How I wish you were within the bursting radius of a 1,000 bomb aimed at Gaddafi .
no surprise for me …I would have bet that this would happen.
…..and it will get a lot worse. my advise to foreign journalists ..get out while you can.
Let’s see how the European ex-colonialists handle these emerging atrocities between their former colonists inside their former colonies.
Perhaps by abstaining from direct participation here, perhaps…perhaps….we Americans will not be held responsible, as has been the knee-jerk reaction from the international “community”, and the Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis.
This is why I preach Cold War-style isolation and containment of these Islamists at every opportunity…..such as right here, right now; along with our withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, and our being right in the middle of these barbarous factions.
Somehow, our at-that-time justified ouster of Saddam has metamorphosed into an Albatross, more rancid by the day.
you would have thought france learned something from their Algerian expedition. seems not.
This video is about 2 weeks old.
Mounting Evidence of Rebel Atrocities in Libya
Meanwhile, this just in: Excited Boxer Bites Unwary Postman
Read all about it.
$25 Million ObamaBUCK$ given to al Qaeda Libyan rebels today really out to help appease their temperament. News at 5.
The rebels are rewarded in the aount of 25 million dollars by our Barry.
Pahleeze! Our commie media is interested in things like this ONLY if they can claim they were done by the US military. All the anti-war protesters that used to march at the drop of a helmet are now busy doing other things like not being critical of anything the Kenyan does.
Rebels shown on BBC,CNN,EuroNewews at the talk distance are busy with the arms or idle.There are evident possibility to talk,but the reporters avoid the talks.I`m sure they are affraid of rebels` answers.
This report must be false.
The Obama administration just assured us that the “rebels” agreed to follow the Geneva Convention. I know I trust the promises of the Obama Administration.
Who knows the truth?
Let’s follow the events chronologically.
Gaddafy disappeared from the American radar when he dismantled his nuke- endeavor and paid compensation for the Lockerbie bomb victims.
After that things have turned weird.
The British released the Libyan terrorist under bizarre pretext that nobody believed.
Silence followed on the US side.
A mysterious, spontaneous (??) revolution swept across the Arab world with obscure players whose identities were and are unknown even today.
All of a sudden the French and the Brits made war on Libya under false pretext, all by themselves.
Why? What is their furtive goal?
Obamao jumped into the fray without even bothering to give an explanation: Germany stayed away while the trio seems to escalate the war in order to destroy Libya.
Apart from the standard pious, fake humanitarian pontification no official statement has come forth with credible explanation.
The success of complete blockage of news is astounding: no Wikileaks, no “investigative” journalism, no N.Y. Times divulgence, nothing…this feat in itself is remarkable.
What’s the Over/Under for the Century these savages are living in?
Tenth Century A.D.? Eleventh?
THIS is Obama’s humanitarian crowning achievement. Twenty years from now, there will be Obama’s supporter claiming that the millions deaths in Libya war could have avoided if Gadhafi had not quelled the rebels violently. Such is the swan song of US wars, from VN to Libya, and soon, to prove that he is not discriminating against Syria for not having oil to get re-elected, to Syria.
Stay Out Of Libya. It is just another Muslim kill zone. They kill without thought or remorse. Anybody, anytime. Nodody can be shocked by their behavior. For them, it is normal. Stay away and let them sort it out.
Unfortunately, it seems “we” helped set it up to begin with. Look up Nouri al-Mesmari, and Abdullah Gehani and February 17 leaders meeting GDSE in Benghazi and Paris, October – January. Franco Bechis wrote about it.
And to think the honourable West is backing these filthy cretins.
“Allahu Akbar” or should that be ‘seig heil’.
Don’t wanna defend the rebels (they’re probably Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda), but the “black africans” are probably mercenaries.
IIRC, even under the current “laws of war” mercenaries are subject to execution.
The saddest aspect of all this is how Col. Gaddafi hired his mercenaries. Most of them were young teenage boys lured out of sub-saharan orphanages with wads of cash. Gaddafi himself would often personally visit these orphanages and throw $$$ out of his limo window as he departed.
These mercenaries who took up Gaddafi’s offer were brainswashed into becoming zombie-like killing machines but have now become fodder for the Jihadist rebels in Eastern Libya. What a tragic, pitiful, and dreadful waste of life.
Don’t talk nonsense.
Apparently John McCain hasn’t read Mr. Rosenthal’s article.
McCain Lauds Anti-Qaddafi Forces During Libya Visit
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/22/mccain-travels-libya-meet-rebel-forces/
“They are my heroes,” McCain said of the rebels as he walked out of a local hotel in Benghazi. He was traveling in an armored Mercedes jeep and had a security detail. A few Libyans waved American flags as his vehicle drove past…
To all you racists against Pakistanis,Palestinians,Libyans,Egyptians,Iranis, and so on, Never forget what you did to the Muslim people in the name of “God” in the eleventh century onward. Which makes this look merciful. The eisenhower death camps and the Palestinian Genocide starting in 1948-Present is another example of your profit-driven death.
Again, I’m justifying this act, but like all the racists blaming Obama for this, you have no business to talk! The American “civilized” troops did worse in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or recently in Afghanistan. Or do you thugs consider what the Christian troops “forgiven?” And the troops represented a country (the USA) – unlike this person who may have killed a Ghaddafi terrorist who indiscriminately killed Libyan civilians.
It is well-known that Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood are the most powerful force within the Libyan rebels. The U.S. government is eager to support them.
Yesterday, the UK Daily Mail described America’s extremely dire financial situation as a “financial Chernobyl”. The Obama administration is going out of their way to support the most radical Islamic elements in Libya and other countries. G-D, help and protect all innocents.
washingtontimes: Libya rebels will receive $25M from U.S.
Dismissing concerns over possible links between Libyan rebels and al Qaeda, the Obama administration has notified Congress it is providing $25 million in nonlethal aid to the rebels’ effort to drive Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime from power.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/19/libya-rebels-will-receive-25-million-from-us/
Its getting dirtier all the time: http://www.copts.com/english/?p=1686
to make one thing clear to each and every person on here sayin that these people are mercenaries….Libya has over 500.000 black Libyans, so the story about them being mercenaries are far from true….on youtube there’s even a american scholar, who on a english program told the host way over a month ago that these “Rebel” tribes from the east are racist…
look it up, but i guess it doesnt matter, since nobody cares when US soldiers take pictures of Afghan boys as if they were hunting trophys
there were black Libyans from western and southern tribes…..
get your facts right
Wars and rumors of wars ………..
I just wanted to say this was an excellent article, and add a few things. The video #3 you reference is something I’ve studied. The English subtitles are helpful in that. The article I wrote is called “Behind the Scenes of the al-Baida massacre” and worth looking up.
An important point missed here is that the corpses video following the interrogation has been widely seen and totally misattributed. It shows 22 bodies, reported on Feb 23 to be among the 130 gov’t soldiers – 130 of them – EXECUTED BY THEIR OFFICERS, we were told, for REFUSING TO SHOOT PROTESTERS. This was stated as fact by the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR/FIDH), and they refuse to respond to my messages alerting them they were horribly wrong. They just don’t care about truth, only about latching onto the “right” side in these “humanitarian” crises that can only be solved by regime change and re-structuring the Libyan economy.
Isn’t this taking “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” a wee bit too far?
The FACTS:
- The propaganda machines, worldwide, have ramped up to warp speed,
- “Atrocities” – it’s what they DO … BOTH sides,
- The dust-up in “Lybia” is NOT a threat to AMERICAN security,
- We don’t know who those people (the rebels) are,
- America’s stated position IS “Regíme change”. That would include assassination, no matter America and International Law. The spin has been ineffectual,
- Sadly, John McCain apparently will say anything to exercise military might,
And finally, how well has America fared in the past while siding with SOME Muslims against other Muslims?
McCain’s Rohrsach Test can only connect those dots with a Freudian dreamscape.
Stop It. Get Out. Now.
~(Ä)~
The free world should not have got involved in this. Let them kill each other. The free world should be instigating trouble between the two sides so that there will be more killings. The world will be far much better without these in-bred sub-animals. It will be less to kill when that day arrives. We just love the smell of a nuclear strike in the morning. Kill them all.
I wonder how many morons like Tom Horne you have in the US…
Probably very many… which is why you won’t be able to free yourselves anytime soon from your treasonous internationalist elites and their jewish masters. I bet he still views the Russians and Serbs as enemies. Pathetic…
Watchman: there is no more “free world”, at least not where you think it exists. Without a shadow of doubt, Russians have more of the freedoms that matter than we have in the west.
In every single war, there are atrocities. The Germans did it, the Turks did it, Americans did it (yep, they like to keep that out of history books) when we were expelling native americans from their lands by force. They’d capture men, women and children non combatants and execute them all and toss their bodies in mass graves. It happens. Is it a good thing? of course not. It cannot be avoided. I don’t see what the big hoopla is. The difference between the rebels and Gaddafi is however, is that when the rebels do it, it’s a civilian mob committing a revenge killing on foreign mercenaries and they are isolated incidents, they aren’t planned or systematic. Gaddafi was specifically hiring mercenaries to find civilians in support of the rebellion and execute them systematically. That’s a war crime. Atrocities committed by the rebel public are not. It is not the rebel military committing the atrocities, therefor it’s not a war crime. IT doesn’t make it right, but oh well, nothing can be done. The whole point here is honestly moot. Also on the be-headings. That’s a cultural issue. To westerners beheading someone is barbaric and savage, but to a middle eastern muslim that’s a common and acceptable way to execute someone according to their culture and religion. It’s kind of like why some people think the electric chair or a fire squad is inhumane, and some don’t.
I see a lot of people using the phrase “Islamic barbarian” or something similar. That is a fallacy that highlights the growing prejudice the West has against Islam. These kind of atrocities are seen in any rebellion in any region by any kind of people.