U.S. Policy, Gadhafi and Libya

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Oct 25, 2011 - 12:14:28 PM

Excerpts from Minister Farrakhan's March 31, 2011 Press Conference

the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

[Editor's note: The following article contains excerpts from the Historic Press Conference Addressing Events in The Middle East & The Libya policy of the Obama Administration the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered live via Webcast from Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, March 31, 2011. In light of the recent death of Col. Muammar Gadhafi and recent developments in his country, The Final Call is reprinting these important and insightful words about U.S. involvement in Libya and the plot against the revolutionary leader. Click here to order this message in its entirety on DVD & CD.]

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

I love Muammar Gadhafi, and I love our president, Barack Obama. It grieves me to see my brother president set a policy that would remove this man not only from power, but from the Earth. That bothered me.

What is going on? Why, all of a sudden, is this rush to destroy Gadhafi? I have to ask this question of our government.

Now, I know why you are angry with him: Because he never agreed with your policies when it came to sucking the resources of Third World peoples, and putting in place dictators that would be amenable to America's policies. And whenever a government or leader arose, that wanted to use the resources of that nation for that nation's people, America, through the CIA, would plan insurrection, coups, terrorist activities and even assassination of good leaders to put in their place America's dictators!

How dare you, America, act like you're against dictators? When did America not love dictators? American people, I'm talking to you! We have researched the record of all the coups that have taken place since the 1950s to 1984: Your government is not clean! These are gangsters—but they wear suits; and they rob weak nations, and bring down strong ones!

Now some may say, “Farrakhan, you are anti-American!” Do you know the greatest Americans are those who will refuse to bend the Constitution for personal gain, party gain, and power gain? If there is such a thing in America as “freedom of speech,” then surely freedom of speech will allow America to hear her critics, and look at herself and make change.

The hypocrisy of America's ‘humanitarian concerns'

When sanctions came on Libya, Brother Muammar Gadhafi kept his nation going. These were very harsh sanctions; when we would go to visit, we couldn't fly, we had to go to Malta and take a boat, or we had to go to Djerba in Tunisia, and ride for 10 hours to Tripoli. His people suffered because he is a revolutionary.

During Press Conference, images of Western leaders with Col. Gadhafi were displayed on video monitors. (CCW from left) France Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy, Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Italy Pres. Silvio Berlusconi, UN Sec. General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Pres. Barack Obama.

I love Muammar Gadhafi, and I love our president, Barack Obama. It grieves me to see my brother president set a policy that would remove this man not only from power, but from the Earth.

Now, those who say that he is a “dictator” and a “repressive” man: Maybe so; but I, too, know something about repression … See, when you're a dictator for America, you have to have an army, you have to have the intelligence; you have to listen to what everybody is saying, so you have to put informers among everybody. And then you lock up those who speak against your dictatorship; you kill people. Yes, and America trained people to kill! Can any of you media people tell me that I'm out-of-step with reality? I don't think so. When President Ronald Reagan was against the Sandinistas [Contras] in Nicaragua, he called on his friend, the King of Saudi Arabia, because Congress wouldn't allow him the money to make war on the Sandinistas. After Saudi sent $10 million, the war kept going and there was a lot of killing of innocent civilians. Well, what about Rwanda? Wasn't that a humanitarian crisis? Weren't there many refugees? President Bill Clinton didn't do anything there. What about The Congo? Millions of lives lost in The Congo. What about Sudan? A war raging for 20 years! What happened to America's “humanitarian concerns”? I have to look at hypocrisy, and call it as I see it.

Did you know that with a government and a revolution like Brother Gadhafi's, you always have to have informants: People that listen to the people's talk against the so-called regime? As a result, there is going to be what? Repression. But when you have a government, and you're trying to keep your government going, can you stand for there to be a popular uprising with weapons? Fathers: If you've ever had your son push-up on you, did you “dialogue”?

The rebels in the eastern part of Libya are Muslims, and many of them, very good, sincere Muslims. Some of the scholars say there are more from the Wahhabi-Salafi strain of Muslims. And there's a study done that the Jihadists that were fighting in Afghanistan, many of the fierce ones came from eastern Libya. Now, when you see Muslims leaving their homes like The Mujahedeen, going to fight Russia in Afghanistan, they're not fighting about “money.” It's about a Cause worthy to spend your life.

In defense of Brother Gadhafi

Libya was once the poorest nation on Earth, now, the standard of living in Libya is the finest in Africa; and the per capita income is double that of the Egyptians. So if the people have free education, free housing, free medical … how is that the work of a “lunatic,” and a “mad man”?

Brother Gadhafi was ill-prepared for war; my brother had been lulled to sleep. What was the rush? Brother Gadhafi had good relations with Italy, with France, with Germany, with Britain. He was on the good side of America. He gave up not some of his weapons of mass destruction, he gave them all up. Now they're trying to say, “Well, he kept some sarin gas”; or, “he kept some mustard gas, or poison gas.” That's a predicate for putting “boots on the ground.” Our brother, as we speak, is in trouble in Libya. Why did England, France, NATO, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and The Arab League say, “we need a ‘No-Fly Zone'”? Brother Gadhafi, if you look in his face, he was completely in shock at the betrayal of all his partners in Europe.

Let me tell you what I know about this brother. He took power in a bloodless coup; he didn't kill anybody. My brother took the king out of power, and refused to live in his palace. And it's there in Tripoli today as a museum. He was a man from the desert. He chose to live in the desert.

At the time that he took power, America had a base there, Britain had a base there; they were in control of the oil. Gadhafi put the Americans out, put the British out, and nationalized the oil. Now wait! Is that a bad thing to do? I know the price of your gas is going up, but I'm talking about was that a bad thing for a leader of a nation to do, when the oil that's under their foot really belongs to the Libyan people? I read in the Book of John that Jesus was doing all these good works and he asked the people, “For which one of my good works do you stone me?” I want to look at some of the good things that I know of Brother Gadhafi.

He didn't want your democracy. He announced he was “Socialist.” That got him in trouble with the Muslim Brotherhood, that got him in trouble with the Wahhabis, and others, who are strict in their interpretation of the Qur'an. But Gadhafi started like Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser, as a “Socialist.” When he came to power, all of a sudden the Libyan woman is educated, she's free. She's helping to build her nation. I don't know how many homes of American people have been foreclosed on, but it's in the millions! While we are losing homes, Gadhafi took the oil money and was building homes so that every Libyan has either a home or a flat that belongs to them. He built one hospital that I saw that was $500 million, with 18 operating theatres, and across from that they were making their own medicines. And he built another hospital, $500 million!

And I just read that in 2009, Brother Gadhafi said that he wanted to nationalize all the oil to get more money for the Libyan people. And guess who would be suffering? Western and European oil companies such as Anglo-Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Hess Corp., Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum and ConocoPhillips, the Spanish Repsol, Germany's Wintershall, Austria's OMV, Norway's Statoil, Eni and Canada's Petro Canada. They could still get oil, but Brother Gadhafi would be in control of the fluctuation of production so he could keep prices at a reasonable rate.

But, my point is that I was in Libya, where I saw Gadhafi and his engineers: They found water in the desert. He brought water up from the desert, way out in Benghazi; and brought that water from Benghazi almost to the border of Tunisia. And I was one of those privileged to be there when the water started flowing. Gadhafi's hand, my hand, Ghana President Jerry Rawlings' hand, and another president—we hit the button together, and the water flowed.

Americans took all this Stimulus money to build infrastructure, but Gadhafi was building infrastructure. America's bridges are falling down! Americans can't get hospital treatment! In fact, the poor Brother President passed a medical healthcare bill, and the Republicans are about to destroy it! But not in Libya! Free health care. That's a “lunatic”?

He saw corruption in his popular committees, and he was about to disband the government and give direct money to the Libyan people in 2009! You know, when you start making changes like that, who do you anger? Your inner circle.

The last point: Brother Gadhafi wrote in “The Green Book” that the Black race would prevail in the world. And when the Arab League decided that they were going to let the West do to Iraq and Saddam what they did, he condemned them, and walked out. The Qur'an says, “Let not hatred of a people cause you to act unjustly.” Gadhafi is not loved by a lot of people, especially leaders. Now, there's some blame maybe on him; but you know, in God's Scale, He puts the good on The Scale with the evil, and the Qur'an says good outweighs evil.

Now when a man has done all of what Gadhafi has done for his country; he turns over his nuclear material and weapons of mass destruction, saran gas and mustard gas; and that man was so in tune with peace that even when the sanctions were lifted, he didn't spend money increasing the technology of his armaments, he was not prepared for what happened.

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So my friends, my brothers, my sisters, since Brother Barack said that Brother Gadhafi has lost legitimacy to rule; and since the UN said “cease fire,” who was the ceasefire on? Was it just Gadhafi, or, not the combatants in the east? So if Gadhafi says, “I'll take the ceasefire,” but the combatants of the east say, “We want to go all the way to Tripoli and get rid of Gadhafi!” then the Qur'an says, “Fight with those who fight with you!” The Qur'an says when they betray you like this, seize them and slay them wherever you find them! That man wasn't going there to kill innocent people; he was killing the traitors! What the hell do you do, America, to your traitors?

So, in conclusion, I would ask America and the United Nations: Have a genuine ceasefire on both sides. If you really don't want humanitarian crisis, stop the fighting.

My warning to my brother president: Do you see all of the betrayals that are going on in Libya now? Well, I'm looking at us, because what's over there is right over here.

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