The 270 victims of Pan Am 103 can rest easier now that their murderer has been toppled from power. And even as the world searches for Gaddafi's whereabouts, a day of reckoning must arrive for all the Westerners who supported him and kept him in power.
For decades the world tolerated the crazed and bloodthirsty Libyan leader for one reason: he had oil. And scores of people were prepared to sell their souls for money. The most egregious violators were the British. Prime Minister David Cameron and Labor leader Ed Miliband are late to the table in pointing out Britain's loss of morals, evidenced, they say, by the recent News of the World tabloid scandal and the riots that had London burning. In truth, the greatest evidence of the UK's moral bankruptcy was the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man Scottish authorities assured us was at death's door but who ironically might outlive Gaddafi himself. Not only must he now be recaptured and brought back to rot in jail, but all the documents detailing the secret deals that were done for his release must also see the light of day so we can know whether the sacred memory of 270 innocent victims was sold so that British oil companies like BP could benefit. We also need to know which British officials negotiated his release. David Cameron himself condemned "'the appalling dodgy dealings with Libya under the last [British] government." No doubt Gaddafi's sons, who are allegedly now in the custody of the rebels, will be prepared to spill the beans on the many dirty deals.
Which bring us to Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, whom the Daily Mail says reportedly went to Libya "on behalf of J.P. Morgan, an American bank which pays him a mere £2 million a year, and which has been keen to develop banking opportunities in the country." Will Blair and JP Morgan Chase clarify exactly what transpired between them and Gaddafi?
The Daily Mail also reported that the London School of Economics awarded Saif Gaddafi a doctorate even though there are suggestions, which the school is now investigating, that Saif cheated when submitting his thesis. Could the degree have had anything to do with the £1.5 million gift the school accepted from Gaddafi's son after his graduation, though only £300,000 has thus far been paid?
In our own town of Englewood, New Jersey, where the Libyans own an official residence immediately next door to me and which has been tax-exempt for nearly three decades, millions were spent to ready the derelict embassy for Gaddafi's use in the summer and autumn of 2009. Were permits granted too readily to allow the construction at such a hasty pace? I have a video of the time I confronted the contractors working on Gaddafi's home, after they cut down my trees and removed my fence. City official Peter Abballe, who was in charge of the Englewood's Department of Building and Code Enforcement and was responsible for enforcing the construction code and inspecting residential and commercial properties and issuing certificates of occupancy, was present in the contractor's trailer inside the Libyan compound. He intervenes and says the camera should be turned off. The same official was later arrested on charges of official corruption having accepted payments in another case and was recently sentenced. Did anything untoward happen when the same official worked with the Libyans and was anyone else involved?
It would also be nice if our Congressman from New Jersey's Ninth District, Democrat Steve Rothman, who originally joined us in strongly opposing Gaddafi's stay in Englewood, would apologize for the public advice he gave to me and the other neighbors of the Libyan residence, which includes the Jewish day school Moriah, when he told the press after my objections to Gaddafi's ambassador moving into the residence, "I hope everyone will be appropriately good neighbors." Advocating friendly, neighborly relations with the representative of a murderous, terror-sponsoring regime is surely advice the Congressman regrets and should publicly recant.
Speaking of Gaddafi's former ambassador, Mohamed Shalgham, my next-door neighbor, after serving for eighth years as Gaddafi's foreign minister and then as his ambassador at the UN, he did an about face when Gaddafi seemed doomed and denounced him at the United Nations Security Council. But if Shalgham is sincere in his renunciation, what is he doing sitting on millions of dollars of New Jersey real estate when the compound should presumably be sold and the money given to the new government who will need every penny to rebuild after the damage of a devastating civil war?
And what of Natural Selection, the Los Angeles-based film production fund founded by Matty Beckerman, which accepted a $100 million investment from Gaddafi's son, Al-Saadi Qaddafi. In February of this year Bloomberg News reported that money was being used to bankroll a film called The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, starring Mickey Rourke. The fund was also backing Isolation, a thriller with Susan Sarandon's daughter, Eva Amurri. Will we all be entertained with this blood money or will it be returned to the Libyan people?
And then there is Louis Farrakhan, the obsessively anti-Semitic head of Nation of Islam who condemned the United States last March for taking military action against Gaddafi and defended the murderer of the Libyan people. At a press conference in Chicago he said, "It is a terrible thing for me to hear my brother called all these ugly and filthy names when I can't recognize him as that. Even though the current tide is moving against him ... how can I refuse to raise my voice in his defense? Why would I back down from those who have given so much?"
In September 2009, while I spoke outside the UN at a Libyan dissident rally attacking Gaddafi while he gave his rambling address to the UN General Assembly, which included the allegation that the Israelis were involved in the murder of JFK, we were all but drowned out by hundreds of Nation of Islam followers who were bused in to support Gaddafi. Will the Nation pay any price for supporting a tyrant and a murderer, or will we who are responsible for the memory of the Lockerbie victims and the US servicemen whom Gaddafi killed be silent as his friends now go mum?
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who served for eleven years as Rabbi at Oxford University, is founder of This World: The Values Network, and will shortly publish 'Ten Conversations You Need to Have with Yourself' as well as 'Kosher Jesus.' Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
Follow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiShmuley
Qais Ghanem, MD: Good News From Libya -- at Last
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Libya: Col Gaddafi 'not brave enough to do a Hitler'
Clegg: Gaddafi irrelevant to Libya
Libyan internet briefly returns as rebels storm capital
Libya: Sky News reporter Alex Crawford praised for dramatic Tripoli reporting
'China respects Libyan people's choice'
Gaddafi whereabouts a mystery as rebels close in
That's a good thing, but, alas, no justice for the 290 civilians, 66 of them children, on Iran Flight 655, with those responsible still walking around free after the civilian airliner was shot out of Iranian territorial airspace and waters, proudly showing off the medals they received for their "heroic behaviour".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUTLIiYm3qw
President George H. Bush at the time was quoted saying on the matter:
"I'll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever, I don't care what the facts are."
If the good Rabbi Mr. Boteach wants Mr. Farrakhan and the Nation of islam "pay any price for supporting a tyrant and a murderer", could the Rabbi also cast some light on the price he thinks should be paid by those that are directly and personally responsible for over a million dead innocent civilians in Iraq?
Would the Rabbi agree that G.W. Bush, Tony Blair, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney belong in jail, or better, in the Hague?
Who are these "rebels" in Libya? Who are these "protesters" in Syria? ...and Egypt?
Wasn't there an agreement between Russia and Libya to build a nuclear reactor in Libya and Russia wrote off the $5,000,000,000 debt owed by Libya? Isn't there an agreement between
Russia Chavez in Venezuela to build a nuclear reactor? Wasn't there an agreement between the USA with the Saudi's to build them a nuclear reactor and also an agreement between USA and Columbia to build a nuclear reactor? Aren't there contracts with General Electric/Westinghouse to build 8 nuclear reactors in India? In 2008 didn't the World's oil supply peak?
It's about OIL. who has it, needs it, wants it and who will get it first,....then add the countries that are needed to build the pipelines to the Caspian sea and other sea ports? Then look at the countries with Uranium resources, needed for nuclear reactors? What about WATER? No ones talking about water shortages.
What two countries import the most OIL? The USA and CHINA. What happened to ALTERNATIVE energy? One of the largest natural gas reserves was found in Louisiana...the Haynesville Shale. What about wind turbins, solar entergy? Think the major OIL
companies are interested in alternative energy. NO!
www.salon.com/news/politics/war.../mccain_gadhafi_wikileaks - CachedMar 22, 2011 – WikiLeaks shows John McCain was strikingly friendly to the Libyan regime on a trip to Tripoli in 2009. By Justin Elliott. McCain was for Gadhafi ..."
What price do you think those who supported the Apartheid Regime of South Africa should pay? What price should the Great Nelson Mandela pay for considering Gaddafi his brother?
so good to see so many of this puppets go
sad thing is that you will see some nation see him escape and keep his billions safe, those billions should go into the hands of the young Lybians for education and rebuild
At this point the nation of Islam is defined by what it hates, not what it loves - and supporting Gaddaffi in the face of his actions and crimes is inexcusable - period.
Farakan pretends this should be an issue of personal relationship - when Gaddaffi was clearly ordering the massacre of his own people - who cares if you were friends, this is an issue of principal - it involves a moral imperative.
"Money doesn't talk it swears" ......thank you Rabbi for your clarity, your books, your lectures and for pulling the covers off all this dirty business.