Libyan rebels blame West for lack of cash

Libyan rebels blame West for lack of cash

news.yahoo.com

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Rebels waging a drawn-out war to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have run out of money, their oil chief said on Saturday, and he accused the West of failing to keep its promises of urgent financial aid.

"We are running out of everything. It's a complete failure. Either they (Western nations) don't understand or they don't care. Nothing has materialized yet. And I really mean nothing,"

"I don't expect us to produce oil any time soon. The refineries have no crude

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Well here we go - the predictable shake-down. This misguided policy throughout the Middle East is an absolute disaster. A neo-con disaster.

We're in three wars now - Libya is without question a war. Looking to get into Yemen and Syria and its looking like the "good guys" in Egypt are not so good since they are tossing thousands of folks in jail in what is essentially a political purge. Pakistan has essentially become an enemy in public with arresting the informants and Robert Gates coming out publically last week calling them all liars. Osama out, new dude in - don't worry we'll kill him too!

Generals coming out and admitting that Afganistan will never be a reasonable civil society (but the troops are making progress!) and that we'll be on the ground there for decades.

The Middle East is merely another region of the world where our foreign policy is failing is right next door where 40K Mexicans have lost their lives in a year in what in any reasonable definition is an outright civil war.

NATO an alliance in name only with the majority of countries happy to be in the alliance but not willing to be an active part. What a great bargain that is!

The entire business is an incoherent, corrupt mess.

The costs, direct military, aid, in-kind aid, waste, intelligence/black funding, opportunity costs, lives are mind boggling.

What is also mind boggling is the cash flowing to shops like Northrup Grumman, Haliburton, GE, Blackwater, Booz Allen, Boeing and the rest of the military industrial complex.





news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by dolphinfan


The Western powers have already run off with Ghaddafi's frozen assets and the NATO crew have probably already looted what cash stash Ghaddafi had (just like the many billions of $$$ that up and disappeared from Saddam's palaces and banks) so it will never see the light of day again in Libya!

I'm not surprised atall from the west.
They were VERY keen to sieze billions of gadaffi funds It makes you wonder where these funds are now mabe proping up the uk's and the US's failing economies the west has quite literally,raped gadaffi and the next stop is libya's vast natural resources. Its totally obvious what they are up to

reply to post by TREASONFX


All of on the backs of the US taxpayer and through the lives of our military.

It would be fantastic to see a real and honest audit of this nonsense or any of the nonsense performed by the government. Where is the money? How is it being used? What banks got it and what are they doing with it?

Is there any doubt what so ever that this money is going to banks who are then lending it to folks who then turn around and cause the insurgencies to continue? At the end of the day the west finances people to fight against - its what the complex wants and its what they wanted all along. Give the cash to the bankers who get rich, the bankers give it to the military industrial complex who influences policy to require more of their services, making them rich and enabling them to pay back the bankers. Its a great system if your a senior executive of either a bank or a military contractor. Bad system if you're struggling to make ends meet and have to pay taxes. Worse yet if you are in the infantry.

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by dolphinfan

 

The Western powers have already run off with Ghaddafi's frozen assets and the NATO crew have probably already looted what cash stash Ghaddafi had (just like the many billions of $$$ that up and disappeared from Saddam's palaces and banks) so it will never see the light of day again in Libya!

It is not Qaddafi frozen assets, it is Libyan foreign investment. Please get your facts right.

The rebels are CIA pawns, they have no legitimacy, not one bit. These pawns have traded their country, and now they get what they deserve. It was at the hands of these pawns that NATO began the destruction of the most prosperous nation in Africa.

reply to post by confreak


You're right and its a really fascinating concept. The western powers and take over/freezen assets of the soverign wealth fund of a country, which are nothing more than investment accounts typically segmented and dolled out to western investment banks who run them on a fee/asset size basis with oversight by a governance body made up of senior government officials and experts. Once the assets are "seized" nothing happens except one thing and that is that the soverign nation no longer benefits from the returns of the assets nor has control over the investment strategy, other than, in the case of most Muslim soverign wealth funds that the investments will still be in accordance of Shiria law and still subject to scrutiny by a Shiria investment oversight committee. While those bodies may be made up of citizens of the nation in question, their mandate is narrow and focuses solely in Sharia compliance.

Fantastic business for a shop like Goldman Sachs. Say they have a $bn piece of a soverign wealth fund that they are running getting a negotiated fee of say 30 basis points. The US/NATO seizes the assets, yet the $5bn still sits on Goldman's books and they are free to do with it what they wish. To the extent that there are investment gains on the $5bn, Goldman nets the dough. To the extent that there are investment losses, too bad for the country in question. Goldman turns the cash back over the the government of the nation in question when the business is over with.

Its a brilliant and one of the reasons that western investment firms fight so hard to run the soverign funds of teetering countries. You would think that nobody would want Syrian assets due to the risk associated with government stability. To the contrary. It is the instability that makes the investments attractive. These banks hope that these governments will fail. In the era of massive soverign wealth funds, global instability is huge bonus on top of an already lucerative business.

There is a reason that history has called Afghanistan, "The graveyard of Empires." The only way to rule that region is through force. Force that no one (and I don't blame them, morals and ethics wise) is willing to use. Besides, it's not profitable.

As for the Libyan rebels, oh well, suck it up. I compare them to a rebellious teenager who wants to use the family car, without paying for gas or insurance. In my house, "ya wanna play, ya have ta pay."

I know others have commented on this situation as well, but mark my words. No good is going to come from this.

nvm