Search results for Qaddafi

Hidden Influence, Threats to Democracy
October 20, 2011 |

WhoWhatWhy’s Libya Primer: The (Still) Untold Back Story to Qaddafi’s Demise

Reading Time: 1 minute And so begins the deluge of “coverage” on the end of Muammar Qaddafi. But will you learn anything substantive about how and why he met his end? Don’t bet on it. However, at WhoWhatWhy, we’ve been providing fresh and unique reporting and analysis about Libya and the West’s murky role over there, from the beginning. If you haven’t been reading us, here’s your chance to catch up. And feel free to share with others.

Threats to Democracy, World Politics
June 11, 2011 |

Did Qaddafi Really Order Mass Rapes? Or is the West Falling Victim to a Viagra-strength Scam?

Reading Time: 6 minutes Pro-invasion elements are whipping up new hysteria against Qaddafi. Now, it’s that he personally ordered hundreds of rapes by troops backing him. Think about it: would that be a wise course of action for someone who needs sympathetic opinion domestically (and internationally) now, more than ever? Who’s fact-checking this headline-making story? No one, it seems.

Hidden Influence
February 25, 2011 |

Qaddafi, Bush And The Iraq Big Lie

Reading Time: 2 minutes While the US government expresses outrage over the brutality of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi toward his own people, we’re missing a complex but significant wrinkle that ties Qaddafi to America’s cover-up of the true path to war in Iraq.

In May, 2009, a man named Ibn Shaikh al-Libi supposedly committed suicide while being held in a Libyan jail. Al-Libi is a deeply, deeply interesting fellow. Back in 2002, he was tortured by Egypt under US direction. It appears that the reason the US government had him tortured was not to stop some imminent attack on the United States, but to generate alleged—and false— links between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein that could justify invading Iraq.

Hidden Influence
May 22, 2012 |

Burying the “Lockerbie Bomber”—And the Truth

Reading Time: 7 minutes Everyone’s in a hurry to say goodbye to the “Lockerbie bomber,” the man convicted of bombing Pan Am 103. But a closer look is warranted—as usual—when the stakes are so high. Was Libya really behind the atrocity, or was some other country or element involved?

Hidden Influence, Threats to Democracy
June 15, 2011 |

WhoWhatWhy Factchecks the Media: More Questions About the Libyan Sex Atrocity Reporting

Reading Time: 6 minutes While the eyes of the US and the world were on Anthony’s wiener, a second salacious story, with far greater potential consequences, began making the rounds. It’s a doozy: Libyan madman Qaddafi ordering his troops to commit mass rape, and dispensing Viagra to ramp up the damage. Even the BBC is rushing into this one. But is it true? New doubts—and new reckless reporting.