[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE No US/NATO military intervention in Libya, say US Greens

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, March 8, 2011


The US and NATO must not intervene in Libya, say US Greens

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on foreign policy:
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php

• 'GreenStream Wednesday', March 9: discussion on Libya and intervention, 9 pm
ET, 6 pm PT on the Green Party's Livestream channel
(http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus), with guests Patricia Hill
(http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=249), Keith
Harmon Snow
(http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com/2011/03/petroleum-empire-maps-for-north-africa/),
Glen Ford (http://www.blackagendareport.com/blog/101), and Bernard White
(former Program Director of WBAI Pacifica radio)


WASHINGTON -- Green Party leaders strongly urged the White House not to launch
a military intervention in Libya, saying that democracy must be achieved by
Libyans without meddling by the US or NATO.

Greens insisted that the US and NATO honor the request of human rights lawyer
Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, spokesman for the new Libyan National Transitional
Council, who said, "We are against any foreign intervention or military
intervention in our internal affairs... This revolution will be completed by
our people."

"We're seeing a repeat of the kind of propaganda, deception, and phony
rhetoric about liberation, democracy, and human rights that were used to boost
the US invasion of Iraq," said Leenie Halbert, co-chair of the Green Party of
the United States and a member of the party's International Committee
(http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).  "Liberation, democracy, and human rights
were never on the table when the US government made deals with Gadhafi for
Libyan oil or when President Obama promised him a $77 million dollar military
aid package (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110307/ap_on_re_us/us_arming_libya).
  The real goal of a military intervention in Libya is control over the
country's oil resources and the planned Trans-Saharan gas pipeline from
Nigeria to Algeria."

Green Party leaders warned that a foreign 'special forces' action in Libya
that was ostensibly in support of the Libyan people would have the opposite
effect, compromising the democratic uprising and subjecting the country to the
kind of destruction and mass casualties that resulted from the invasions of
Iraq and Afghanistan.

Green Party leaders also said that medical and other aid, as well as asylum
for those fleeing the country, are urgently necessary for Libyans suffering
from Gadhafi's actions to crush the rebellion.  But Greens added that such aid
must come from humanitarian organizations and opposed the linking of such aid
to US and other western military and political objectives.

"The Obama Administration must reject all the resurrected neocon arguments for
military action in Libya.  The fact that standards for intervention are based
on access to oil shows that the US government hasn't begun to liberate our own
country from dependence on fossil fuels and the political grip of oil
companies.  Fossil fuel addiction remains the greatest threat to both global
climate and global peace," said Muhammed Malik, co-chair of the Miami-Dade
Green Party (http://www.miamidadegreenparty.org) and a member of the Green
Party's International Committee.  Mr. Malik helped organize a rally at the
Federal Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale on Feb. 26 against US military
intervention in Libya.  This summer, he will address the dangers of military
intervention at a forum, entitled "Self-Determination: Opportunities and
Challenges" at Florida International University.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php

"Intervention in Libya would poison the Arab revolution"
By Seumas Milne, The Guardian, March 2, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/intervention-libya-poison-arab-revolution

"War porn is back in Libya"
By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, March 3, 2011
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MC03Ak03.html

'GreenStream Wednesday': Weekly news and discussion on the Green Party's
Livestream channel
http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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