Senator McCain And The New Apartheid Regime in Libya

As far as McCain’s concerned, so what if Benghazi slit the throats of migrant workers from other African countries and of Black Libyans? So what that the NTC rebels ethnically cleansed Misurata and Tawergha, as documented by The Wall Street Journal in articles on June 21 and September 13?

[Black Star News Editorial]


Senator John McCain was in Libya yesterday praising the NTC rebels who ethnically cleansed Tawergha of its 35,000-strong Black population and didn’t denounce these apartheid-type atrocities.

“We believe very strongly that the people of Libya today are inspiring the people in Tehran, in Damascus, and even in Beijing and Moscow,” McCain declared. We know McCain, accompanied by Republican senators Lindsey Graham, Mark Kirk and Marco Rubio, will hear it soon from Beijing and Moscow.

These McCain pronouncements shouldn’t be surprising. Why would John McCain cringe from an apartheid-type regime? He voted on at least six occasions (five times in 1985 and once in 1986) against the U.S. imposition of sanctions against apartheid South Africa.

What’s more, when McCain was a congressman, in 1983 he voted against a federal holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even then Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyoming) and then Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia), voted for the holiday.

In 1986, a bill to honor Dr. King didn’t make it through the Arizona legislature. Democratic Governor Bruce Babbitt issued an executive order recognizing the holiday. His successor, Republican Governor Evan Mecham rescinded the order; McCain supported Mecham’s move.

As far as McCain’s concerned, so what if Benghazi lynched, or slit the throats of, migrant workers from other African countries and of Black Libyans? So what that the NTC rebels ethnically cleansed Misurata and Tawergha, as documented by The Wall Street Journal in articles on June 21 and September 13?

The Journal reported that the atrocities were carried out in Misurata by a unit called “The Brigade for Purging Slaves, black skin.” The Journal reported that in the burned down homes in Tawergha were scribbled the words “slaves” and “Negroes.”

Did McCain condemn these war crimes and crimes against humanity — since that’s exactly what ethnically and racially targeted massacres are?

Hardly. The New York Times today reports McCain “also said American investors were watching Libya with keen interest and wanted to do business here as soon as the Transitional National Council, as the new government is known, has pacified the country and routed the vestiges of resistance by Colonel Qaddafi and his fugitive loyalists, who have refused to acknowledge defeat after seven months of conflict.”

While Black Libyans, and migrants from other African countries, are being exterminated, and African women reportedly being raped, McCain is celebrating the possibility of more dollars for his campaign contributors.

Similarly, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, fearing the U.S.’s and NATO’s culpability would also be exposed for having supported the “rebels” have chosen to ignore the war crimes. The United Nations and ICC maintain silence, to avoid upsetting the U.S.; in effect the institutions designated to expose and punish war crimes are covering it up.

It’s akin to the U.S. support for Paul Kagame’s RPF in the 1990s by Bill Clinton, who also ignored his atrocities, because the objective was ridding Rwanda of the Habyarimana regime at all cost.

Rep. Jesse Jackson to his credit is the only senior American elected official who’s courageously called for an investigation by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court into the war crimes.

As he told The Black Star News: “Racism in the form of ethnic cleansing, killing and genocide is wrong anytime, anyplace and against anybody in the world.” Rep. Jackson should lead a delegation that includes members of the Congressional Black Caucus to Libya; escorted by an international security force of course.

As for so-called “maverick” John McCain, he’s nowhere to be found when it comes to doing the right thing.

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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