The Media Has Failed to Explain the New War on ISIS in Libya and the Chaos Wrought by NATO Regime Change

Libya remains embroiled in chaos. Its U.N.-backed government is falling apart, and internal wars continue to be waged on multiple fronts. ISIS ravages the north of the country. The U.S. is bombing it — again, in the second war in five years.

But what is rarely communicated in media reports is that the only reason ISIS is in Libya in the first place is because of the 2011 NATO regime change operation that toppled the government, giving Islamist extremists a vacuum in which to expand.

Western powers sold the 2011 bombing campaign as an ostensible humanitarian mission to protect rebels fighting the regime of Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi. Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, used NATO’s own materials, however, to conclusively show that “the Libyan intervention was about regime change from the very start.”

South Africa: President Zuma Arrives in China for G20

President Jacob Zuma has arrived in Hangzhou, China, to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

President Zuma will engage in talks at the summit, which kicks off on Saturday, over the work of the G20 this year, which had adopted the overarching theme of ‘Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy’.

South Africa is a member country of the Group of 20 (G20), which consists of 19 countries, with the European Union being the 20th member. South Africa’s participation in the G20 is aimed at advancing the national agenda, which is creating a better South Africa and contributing to a better and safer Africa and a better world.

The country’s participation in the G20 is to provide strategic foresight in establishing an economic and international policy platform that will drive and negotiate the best possible outcomes for South Africa, Africa and the developing world.

Kenyatta meets Zuma and Mugabe at TICAD

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and South African President Jacob Zuma met on Saturday on the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in Nairobi to discuss regional security and bilateral issues.

The two leaders discussed the situation in South Sudan and how the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was navigating the peace process in trying to restore sustainable peace, a statement issued by the presidential strategic communications unit said.

They also discussed decisions taken at the African Union summit in Rwanda, and how to accelerate implementation.

The two presidents also touched on deepening bilateral trade relations between Kenya and South Africa.

As a key step to enhance the existing relations between the two countries, Zuma confirmed that he would make a state visit to Kenya in October, the statement said.

Japan extends investment into SA

South Africa and Japan have recently concluded a deal that will see increased investment opportunities between the two countries.

The agreement, which was signed during a conference last week, is between Invest SA and Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), where South Africa will set up a Japan-specific desk and vice versa, SABC News reported.

South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, said: “We both agreed that there will be a Japan-focus desk on our side, and a South Africa-focused desk on their side, which is an indication that we are moving further forward in our relations.”

With South Africa shifting towards a cleaner and sustainable energy mix, it is looking to develop a partnership where it can employ Japan’s hydrogen fuel cell technology.

Japan invests in skills development

In addition, Japan has committed to to take 40 South African University students, double its previous figure, to attend training programmes in Japan.

China Makes Biggest South Africa Auto Investment in 40 Years

A Chinese state-owned car manufacturer agreed to build an 11 billion-rand ($759 million) auto plant in South Africa, the biggest investment in a vehicle-production facility in the country in four decades.

The Beijing Automotive International Corp. plans to start production at the facility in 2018, International Chief Executive Officer Dong Haiyang told reporters in the southern coast city of Port Elizabeth on Tuesday. The plant will be built in partnership with South Africa’s state-owned Industrial Development Corp. and have a capacity of 100,000 units a year by 2027, he said at the the industrial development zone where the factory will be located.

“South Africa’s automotive industry has received a major shot in the arm with the announcement of the biggest greenfield investment in 40 years,” the companies said in a joint statement.

South Africa and the United States: The Declassified History

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/publications/DOC_readers/saread/saread.html

Overview

South Africa and the United States: The Declassified History, a new publication by the National Security Archive, presents a 350-page compendium of the most important previously secret U.S. documents on the policy decisions, internal debates, and sensitive multilateral negotiations that guided U.S. actions toward the southern African region from 1962 to the present.

The primary source materials in this volume are the result of more than six years of research and use of the Freedom of Information Act aimed at compelling the U.S. government to declassify and release information on the hidden history of relations between the United States and South Africa. Virtually all of these records are published here for the first time.

Here are Five More Recent Examples of the CIA’s Operations in Africa

While much of the Central Intelligence Agency’s movements go under-the-radar, a bit of digging online reveals the agency has been extensively involved in African affairs. The BBC reports that the covert operative extensively influenced politics on the continent during the Cold War-era from aiding in the assassination of first Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba to playing a role in a coup to unseat Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah to aiding Hissene Habre depose Chad President Goukouni Oueddei, who had called on Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi for support.

But the U.S. foreign service’s meddling in Africa didn’t end with the Cold War; it continues into the present-day. Here are five more ways the CIA has a presence on the continent:

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED): The Legal Window of the CIA

In 2006, the Kremlin denounced the proliferation of foreign associations in Russia, some of which would have participated in a secret plan, orchestrated by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to destabilise the country. To prevent a “colour revolution”, Vladislav Surkov drew up strict regulation over these non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In the West, this administrative framework was described as a “fresh assault on freedom of association by Putin the “Dictator” and his adviser”.

This policy has been followed by other States who in their turn, have been labelled by the international press as “dictators”.

UN to probe whether iconic secretary-general was assassinated in South African plot backed by CIA

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will propose reopening an inquiry into allegations that Dag Hammarskjold, one of the most revered secretaries-general in the organization’s history, was assassinated by an apartheid-era South African paramilitary organization that was backed by the CIA, British intelligence and a Belgian mining company, according to several officials familiar with the case.

The move follows the South African government’s recent discovery of decades old intelligence documents detailing the alleged plot, dubbed Operation Celeste, that was designed to kill Hammarskjold. In a recent letter to the United Nations, South African authorities said the documents have been transferred to their Justice Ministry so UN officials could review them, according to diplomatic sources.

The South African Mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The CIA has previously dismissed allegations that it was behind Hammarskjold’s death as “absurd and without foundation.”

This new information (the discovery of which has not previously been reported) is surfacing more than a year after a UN panel of experts, chaired by Tanzanian Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, wrapped up a wide-ranging review of fresh evidence that had emerged in the years following the mysterious 55-year-old air tragedy. The panel urged the secretary-general, who is already required by a 1962 General Assembly resolution to report on any new evidence shedding light on Hammarskjold’s death, to keep pressing governments and their intelligence agencies to disclose or declassify information that could fill gaps in the evidence surrounding the tragedy.

Official of South African Government pledges allegiance to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

In Articles previous published in this blog, we had revealed  how the South African government had been infiltrated by the C.I.A  from the United States of America, using the so-called defender of our democracy,  Thulisiwe Nomkhosi Madonsela.