A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Rev. Walter Fauntroy has so far failed to follow up on his abbreviated tale of witnessing European special forces troops on an orgy of massacres and beheadings in Libya. The former DC congressional delegate's story loses credibility with each day that he withholds further information. “It is mind-boggling to imagine why the French and the Danes would need to commit on-the-ground atrocities of their own, when they have at their disposal thousands of bloodthirsty Arab jihadis who have no problem doing their own massacres.”
Fauntroy's Libya Massacres Story: No Time for Teasing
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“Why didn’t Fauntroy invite the national and international media to a press conference, once he was back in Washington?”
Former Washington, DC congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy’s tale of French and Danish special forces rampaging through Libyan villages, killing and beheading both Gaddafi supporters and rebels, alike, is – well, there is no other word for it but bizarre. It jars the mind, not because there is any limit to the barbarity of which Europeans are capable, certainly not in Africa, but because of the manner in which Fauntroy, himself, has been behaving. The 78-year old minister and former colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who served for nearly 20 years as Washington’s non-voting representative on Capitol Hill, traveled to Libya this summer on what he said was his own mission of peace. He spent lots of time in Libya with progressive journalists associated with former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s fact-finding mission in Tripoli, and was reported by the Washington Post to have left a luxury hotel along with many corporate journalists on August 24, in a convoy arranged by the International Red Cross. When he arrived back home in Washington, Fauntroy claimed that he had gone “underground” for about a month in Libya after having witnessed the French and Danish special forces slaughtering Libyans in the streets of small villages – meaning he witnessed this in more than one village. Fauntroy told this story from his living room to Valencia Mohammed, who wrote for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper. He said, “The truth about all this will come out later." We have heard nothing more from Fauntroy since the piece appeared on September 7th.
“Jihadis have no problem doing their own massacres.”
So, what are we to make of Fauntroy’s story? NATO’s half-year bombing campaign in Libya has slaughtered thousands of civilians and soldiers. But, blond-haired NATO killers beheading Libyans on the ground, and then telling the rebels that they will have to take the blame for it – that is a world-shaking story! So, why didn’t Fauntroy invite the national and international media to a press conference, once he was back in Washington? Given Fauntroy’s stature, the corporate media, especially the Washington Post, the nation's second most important newspaper, could not have avoided giving coverage. But Fauntroy’s own failure to forcefully put forward his story, beyond a living room interview with one person, cannot help but diminish its credibility.
It is also mind-boggling to imagine why the French and the Danes would need to commit on-the-ground atrocities of their own, when they have at their disposal thousands of bloodthirsty Arab jihadis who have no problem doing their own massacres. They don't need European special forces troops as role models for mass political murder. They assassinated their own military commander back in July. They have beheaded, lynched and burned countless Libyans, without the necessity of prodding from NATO. They laid siege to the black city of Tawergha, vowing to “purge black skin” and wipe the town from the face of the earth. Tawergha is now empty, its inhabitants slaughtered and dispersed, ethnically cleansed from the new Libya. And there are many more massacres to come, as NATO aircraft blast a path for the rebels into the dark-skinned south of the country. These so-called rebels are not people that require white men to teach them how to murder. They are quite capable killers, on their own.
So, Rev. Fauntroy, if you have a story, please tell it to the world, in full. This is no time for teasing. For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
This week’s featured author is Amanda Lock Swarr. Swarr is Associate Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington.
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