Passaparola - Why they killed Gaddafi - Massimo Fini
(13:36)

Gaddafi was barbarically murdered because the Western powers could not allow a trial to reveal their joint responsibilities. The Libyan leader was not the only dictator. His supporters in the Country held off the NATO attack forces for eight months in a very unevenly matched armed conflict.

Interview with Massimo Fini

Why did they kill Gaddafi?
Massimo Fini: Well, I believe there are two reasons. The first was the brutal ferocity of those Libyan pseudo-revolutionaries and the second was that there was no way that the West could afford to allow Gaddafi to be brought to trial because such a trial would have revealed a whole series of joint responsibilities, particularly over the past ten years.

Blog: But why was Libya attacked?
Massimo Fini: Well, to most mere mortals, that seemed somewhat strange at the time because, until just two or three months earlier, Gaddafi was being received with full pomp and ceremony, not only by Berlusconi in his obviously grotesque manner mind you, but also by Sarkozy, etc. The most obvious reason for this was that they were all trying to get their hands on his crude oil and turn Libya into a protectorate, at which point they would have walked away with the bulk of the spoils and left nothing but a few crumbs for the Libyan people.
Surely there can be no other logical explanation as to why the same dictator who, as we said, was being received with full pomp and ceremony and with whom all sorts of deals were being made, now suddenly being portrayed as a monster. Just in passing, this war actually showed that indeed Gaddafi was not the only dictator and that he must have had a pretty solid support base, otherwise how could such an unevenly balanced war have gone on for eight months, a war with NATO using its bomber planes and the other side without any remaining planes or anti-aircraft weapons. Furthermore, the war took on even more grotesque undertones because it began as the policing of a “No-fly Zone” so that Gaddafi would not have aerial superiority over his enemies and that then became a complete turnaround where Gaddafi no longer had any warplanes of his own, whereas the other guys did. It was all a farce anyway because in an operation that was ostensibly begun to protect civilians, NATO killed off many more civilians in its collateral bombing raids. Then there’s the matter of the last bombing raid. Precisely what kind of threat did this desperately fleeing convoy of 15 or 20 pick-up trucks or suchlike pose anyway? They were obviously not posing any threat to anyone but were merely trying to escape. So all this was the usual arrogance of the West, combined with ever increasing western hypocrisy. In this sense we have taken a backward step. Once upon a time there were certain powers that, if they wanted something, they simply sent in their battleships and took it without hiding behind any kind of false moral indignation. Intellectually speaking, at least what they did was more honest and forthright. These days, however, the powers are doing the very same thing, and indeed worse, except that they pretend that they are doing so due to certain principles or for moral or ethical reasons. In my opinion this is particularly hideous because the politics of power have always been part of life, however, this is like some sort of global Holy Inquisition. During the Holy Inquisition, they used to beat the soles of their victims’ feet and force them to drink pints and pints of water, which wasn’t such a great thing, but they used to pretend that what they were doing was for the victim’s own good and that’s precisely what we westerners are doing today!

Blog: Are you saying that the Libyan people could become the victims of the West?
Massimo Fini: They are exchanging one type of serfdom for another, the only difference being that their former lords were Libyans whereas the new lords will be westerners. They didn’t fight for their freedom on their own. They wouldn’t have gotten anywhere, but they managed to liberate themselves thanks to the NATO bombers. Whenever this kind of thing happens, there are always consequences, after all, that’s precisely what happened here in Italy where we certainly didn’t free ourselves from fascism thank to our own efforts or on our own merits. The Resistance was a kind of moral ransom paid for by tens of thousands of courageous men and women who offered the resistance. But we convinced ourselves that we won a war that we indeed lost in the most shameful manner possible. These kinds of misinterpretations inevitably have certain consequences over time. Just cast your mind back to the terrorism that modelled itself on the Resistance. Our Country became an American Protectorate and NATO became the tool by which the Americans achieved political, military, economic and eventually also cultural nomination over Italy and the rest of Europe, but Italy more so than the other Countries.

So who are these new would-be revolutionary Libyan representatives?
Massimo Fini: They are all former Gaddafians who changed sides when the time was right. This makes me wonder whether there was perhaps already an agreement in place prior to the attack, in which case these guys would have known that NATO would intervene. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand how this Minister of Justice suddenly received a revelation on the way to Damascus and decided to become a rebel fighter, almost as if, looking a little further back in history, Galeazzo Ciano had succeeded Mussolini.

Blog: With the downfall of Arab leaders culturally aligned to the West, is there a risk of some sort of pan-Islamism or pan-Arabism gaining the upper hand in terms of relations with the West?
Massimo Fini: Most certainly! In reality, virtually the whole history of the past twenty years, and that of the United States in particular, is made up of actions that have suddenly backfired. I think, for example, of the attack on Saddam Hussein, which mainly favoured the Shiites in Iraq, so now the Iranian Ayatollahs are the ones that are really in charge in Iraq, the very people that America has been fighting against in various ways since 1985. So yes, I honestly think that this would be more or less the right type of punishment, or at the very least serve as a warning not to make use of such violence, arrogance and an attitude that says that we are the good guys and we know who the bad guys are, which is precisely the kind of totalitarian attitude of the West.

Blog: Do you see any potential danger from pan-Islamism?
Massimo Fini: If we continue to bust their chops, then yes because, in the end, this entire propaganda campaign that the west is throwing at Islam, namely that Islam should be more moderate, that Islamic women should become more like Western women, etc, results in even the most moderate Muslims fighting back and claiming back their own identity. I remember something that happened a few years ago in Egypt, where three female Egyptian Television presenters who wouldn’t normally have dreamed of covering their heads with veils under normal circumstances suddenly appeared on television wearing veils, precisely to establish their own identity and as a sign of rejection of the anything but innocent cultural colonialism being practiced by the West. However, if you remove the woman’s role in Islam, then you destroy Islam far more effectively than dropping a nuclear bomb on it! That’s why they keep fighting this thing. It reminds me of the story of that Iranian woman by the name of Sakineh who was sentenced to death by stoning. Now, obviously death by stoning is a something disgraceful, however, here in Italy we immediately began seeing banners proclaiming “Free Sakineh now”. The fact of the matter is that this woman killed her husband, so it’s a bit like saying “Free Mrs. Franzoni now”.
So there is a kind of twisting of the facts, a kind of ongoing and consistent “disinformation” regarding the Muslim Arab world and Iran, which is yet another matter, and this can only benefit radicalism in the long run. I think that if I were a Muslim, I regret to say that I would probably also be radical.

Blog: Now that the domino effect is reaching Syria and perhaps even Yemen as well, is it possible that NATO and the USA, or perhaps even the allied forces, have their eye on Iran?
Massimo Fini: It is very possible indeed because Iran has already been in the spot light for a number of years. Just think of the whole Iranian nuclear issue. After all, Iran signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and when they opened up their nuclear sites, they granted the UN inspectors access to go and inspect these sites. Even today there are inspectors in Vienna that are getting ready to leave. It has been verified that their uranium enrichment is at the 20% level, but you need 90% in order to be able to manufacture a bomb. This notwithstanding, sanctions have been introduced against Iran and there have been further ongoing threats, as if, for some unknown reason, these guys were not entitled to utilise nuclear energy for civilian electricity generation or medical purposes. It’s as if we wanted to re-open the decommissioned Caorso nuclear power station, which we are not about to do, but let’s say Italy wanted to re-open Caorso and we were told: “no, because in theory you could be developing a nuclear bomb”. This attitude towards Iran is extremely aggressive, so that could well become their next objective, although it would be a difficult objective for them to achieve in that if they were to do so, fifty atomic bombs would fall on them and destroy the Country. We really do have some very twisted perceptions about that Country, after all, Iran is a major cultural centre. I remember when I visited the Country, the previous bourgeoisie not only knew all about our greats, by that I mean greats such as Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch, but at that time they were also reading the works of Calvino and Moravia, whereas, at best, we have heard of Omar Khayyam. We always have this attitude that believes that other cultures are inferior. The concept of cultural superiority has become a new form of racism that can thankfully no longer exist after Hitler, but it is precisely the same sort of thing.

Blog: It would appear that the UN threw its weight behind NATO in this attack. Was this real support or was it all merely for show? What role is the UN now playing in these matters?
Massimo Fini: Please excuse the rather crass expression, but the UN goes up and down like a foreskin. When they need backup, somehow they get it, but when they don’t have the support, as in the case of the attacks against Serbia or attacks on Iran, then it doesn’t really matter and they carry on regardless. Therefore, in my opinion, the UN doesn’t matter in the least, after all, all it takes is for the five countries that have the veto right, to agree. They are the world’s most powerful countries anyway and they have therefore rewritten the book of International law to suit themselves. What has happened in Libya, and in Serbia before this, is a prime example of what I was saying. There is in fact, what is to my mind a sound principle that must be adhered to, namely that no one should ever intervene militarily in the internal affairs of another sovereign Country.

It would appear that China and Russia are watching all of this from the sidelines. What could we realistically expect in the future?
Massimo Fini: What I believe is that, even if it means swallowing the bitter pill of the Chechen genocide perpetrated initially by the Soviets and then by the Russians, we should far rather move closer to Russia than to America. Perhaps that these Arabian revolutions and all that goes with them may also, at some point, eventually spread to this infamous regime that we currently have here in Italy. I’m thinking of a proper uprising like the one that has taken place in Tunisia, which has proven to be the cleanest of all the Arab revolts. It was a violent but unarmed revolt that led to the ousting of that Country’s leader in just two days. In my mind, this would be possible right here in Italy if only we were to put our mind to it, even though the average age of the Tunisian population is 32 years while that of the Italian population is 44.5 years. In fact, what we’re lacking is the will, in addition to the fact that there are certain groups that oppose this course of action and are simply doing their job, like your movement (the MoVimento 5 Stelle, ed.) and other smaller and less well known groupings. However, this is mainly an issue of culture and it is going to take some time, perhaps too much time, for us to get to that point.

Blog: But is there not some risk of foreign intervention in the event of such a radical change taking place here in Italy?
Massimo Fini: Well, there could be some attempts at foreign intervention but I very much doubt that anyone would resort to this kind of action if such a revolution should occur here in Italy because our history is somewhat different. I don’t believe that we would accept protectorates in this case, but first of all we have to get rid of these guys, then we’ll think about it! By “these guys”, I mean the entire Italian political class, which also includes some good guys and, in this regard, I could certainly mention a few names, but the bulk of them is what we see, both left wing and right wing, with the latter being slightly worse than the former, although they are actually much of a muchness.