U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth has accused the State Department officials of telling lies and signing false affidavits in hopes to derail lawsuits that sought information about Hillary Clinton's private email server and how she handled the Benghazi terror attack in 2012.

This took place during a hearing in Washington, D.C.

The judge said he was "shocked" to learn that Clinton's former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, had been granted immunity by the FBI during their investigation of Clinton's private email server.

In a combative exchange at a hearing Friday in Washington, D.C., a federal judge unabashedly accused career State Department officials of lying and signing "clearly false" affidavits to derail a series of lawsuits seeking information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

On Monday, a Belgian TV channel unveiled the investigations conducted by the Belgian Attorney-General, Georges Gilkinet, over the disappearance of billions of Euros from the accounts of Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Belgian banks.

According to RTBF, Gilkinet stated that “There has been an extensive investigation into the disappearance of billions of Euros from accounts belonging to Gaddafi in Belgium, in addition to the UN inquiry regarding the case.” Thus, the Attorney-General added that “about five billion Euros, the equivalent of $5.6 billion, have vanished from Belgian banks.”

Georges Gilkinet asserted that “the investigation shall be continued and the Belgian government will be required to provide solid clarifications regarding the matter,” noting that “the Belgian government has not complied with the UN resolution to freeze Libyan assets, especially those belonging to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi”, according to Sputnik News.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Belgian banks paid out interest and dividends on accounts frozen under UN sanctions in 2011 after the ouster of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Up to €5 billion ($5.7 billion) could have been disbursed to people controlling Libyan accounts, including militia groups in the country which stand accused of human rights abuses, according to a report by public broadcaster RTBF which cited an unidentified source.

RTBF said that when the UN agreed to freeze deposits held by Gaddafi’s administration abroad, Belgium had done so but had not halted payments of interest and dividends.

Those who supported the UN’s “humanitarian“ intervention at the time believed that the world should be celebrating that, at last, it had come together to carry out military intervention for purely for humanitarian reasons. We Libyans in particular we were supposed to jump for joy and happiness that the UN came to our rescue in an unprecedented way.

Yet the victory claimed in Libya seven years ago was nothing but another Western war aimed at weakening a previously-stable country. Western intervention aimed to change the Libyan regime by force, in contravention of international law and the UN charter, which prohibits any country from intervening in the internal affairs of another.

Look, Muammar Gaddafi was a thief, plain and simple – but he shared the wealth with his people, something you can’t say for the “leaders” of the US.

Before the US destabilization, Libya had the highest standard of living in Africa: free universal health care, free universal education, and many other benefits American citizens can only dream of.

Now the country is in ruins, it’s infrastructure destroyed, the social order is in chaos, atrocities have become a daily occurrence and its weapons stockpile is now in the hands of terrorists.

The US did that, not because Gaddafi was a threat, but because the US declared there was a “civil war” and they had to come down on the side of “freedom” and “humanitarian aid.”

Sound familiar?

This is the same scam Bill Clinton ran in Yugoslavia. The same scam being run now against Syria.

By the way, this operation was Hillary Clinton’s baby. She ran it from end to end.

The only promise that is new about the promised peace plan is the way it will be forced on the Palestinians: no one has promised that the plan itself will be new. With Saudi Arabia and Egypt—the outside—brought onside with the promise of continued military aid despite their crimes against humanity and violations of international law and the Palestinians weakened by being silenced, economically crushed and stripped of any friends to help them, the United States and Israel are now free to attempt to impose a peace plan on the Palestinians.

The UK Sun published a scandalous report alleging that Russia is trying to turn Libya into a “new Syria”, but objectively speaking and overlooking the unverified claims made in the piece, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if Moscow tried.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated on Friday that he is "alarmed by the increasing number of violations of the ceasefire" in the capital of Libya, Tripoli, which has led to the death of dozens of civilians.

Violence escalated in the city in August, with rival militias fighting and with tanks and heavy artillery deployed into residential neighborhoods. News reports indicate that, to date, over 100 Libyans have been killed in the violence and dozens more injured.

The Secretary-General extended his condolences to those who have lost loved ones and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured as a result of the continuing violence.

The advisory also warns military activities linked to the bloody conflict in Syria have been ramped across Iran's airspace.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington are running high following Donald Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal re-introduce economic sanctions last month.

Flight Service Bureau, which provides safety information on airspace to airlines, said "without seeming alarmist", the deteriorating relationship between the US and Iran must be taken into account when planning flights in Iran's airspace.

In a brazen attempt to re-write history, President Barack Obama in a speech on Friday blamed “the politics of resentment and paranoia,” which he said had found a home in the Republican Party, for “wild conspiracy theories – like those surrounding Benghazi.”

What a reprehensible way to frame an event that killed four Americans while they waited for rescue and protection they deserved from people Barack Obama never sent. Of course, you only heard about Obama’s characterization of Benghazi if you pay attention to conservative media. By and large the mainstream press excluded references to Benghazi from their reporting of the speech.

With President Trump methodically erasing the Obama legacy, this bizarre attempt to reframe the narratives around Obama’s greatest failures should fool no one.

Today is the sixth anniversary of the Islamist attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi.

On Tuesday former Congressman Jason Chaffetz told Sean Hannity the rest of the story.

Chaffetz was the first US lawmaker to arrive in Benghazi after the attacks.

Tonight Chaffetz told Sean Hannity that the Benghazi heroes were fired after the arrived in Germany after the attacks.

Obama-Hillary fired them and they had to find their own way back to America.

And then the Obama admin took away their security clearances so they could no longer get work inside the government.

Hillary Clinton may have run out the clock on her illicit email scandal and her Uranium One scandal but a possible indictment for transporting arms to terrorists is not going to fade away anytime soon, according to Justice Department sources.

Meanwhile, Julian Assange could have a ‘November Surprise’ brewing for Hillary in the form of more compromising documents like the attached classified DIA cable linking Clinton to knowingly supplying Syria with weapons while she was secretary of state.

Assange is sitting on an arsenal of proof — emails and possible State Department materials — similar to this once-classified Defense Intelligence Agency cable. He hinted that a Hillary-related document dump in October. However, that did not transpire.

Hillary’s involvement and alleged illegal role in the Uranium One scandal is seemingly out of reach of the Justice Department, as the five year criminal statute expired two years ago.

A Benghazi hero said he’d like to “choke” former President Barack Obama after the Democrat noted during his headline-grabbing Friday speech that Republican outrage over the deadly 2012 attack was the result of “wild conspiracy theories.”

Kris Paronto — a former U.S. Army Ranger and CIA contractor who was guarding the Benghazi compound during the coordinated terror attack that took four American lives, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens — didn’t hide his anger at Obama during a Fox News interview Sunday.

Obama then attacked Republican members of Congress, accusing them of embracing "wild conspiracy theories like those surrounding Benghazi."

Shortly after Obama made his remarks, Kris Paronto, a former Army Ranger who was a private security contractor working for the CIA at the CIA annex in Benghazi, slammed Obama.

Paronto, who is credited with saving approximately 20 people during the attack, wrote on Twitter:

Two workers at Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) have been killed after a militant attack on the company’s headquarters in Tripoli on Monday, according to local law enforcement. They say two of the attackers were also killed.
"The death toll so far is two killed from NOC staff and two attackers," Ahmed Ben Salim, a spokesman for the Special Deterrence Force, told Reuters.

Earlier on Monday, witnesses reported hearing explosions and gunfire, with smoke rising from close to the NOC offices. Security officials said they were attempting to deal with militants attacking the building.

Security forces took up positions around the offices in central Tripoli, while surrounding roads were cordoned off. Witnesses said they saw ambulances leaving the site. A member of staff from a hotel next to the NOC offices said that he had heard around five blasts.

Libya remains a lawless land, with rival militias fighting battles in the streets of Tripoli and over 1 million people in need of aid. But the West's 'liberal interventionists' aren't interested in the catastrophe they created.
"Hundreds escape prison amid deadly clashes in Tripoli," a headline on the BBC News website declared this week.

Over 60 people have died in the current fighting with many more injured and hundreds of ordinary citizens displaced. The latest disturbances began after the Tarhuna's 7th Infantry ''Kaniat' Brigade made advances into the capital from the south and clashed with a coalition of Tripoli militias.

It's really hard to keep up with who's fighting who. If you think the situation in Syria is complicated, you haven't been paying much attention to Libya. As the BBC article acknowledged: "Libya has faced continuing chaos since NATO-backed militia forces, some of them rivals, overthrew long-serving ruler Colonel Gaddafi in October 2011."

The text of the following statement on Libya was released by the Governments of the United States of America, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the result of the mediation reached today by the United Nations Support Mission that aims to deescalate violence in and around Tripoli and ensure the protection of civilians. We reiterate our strong support for Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame as he works to realize an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities in the Libyan capital, which is a critical step to advancing the political process in accordance with the United Nations Action Plan.

After we reported heavy inter-factional fighting within the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA)-controlled Tripoli last week, Libya's capital city has only descended into further chaos and is quickly sliding toward full-on civil war.

On Saturday a barrage of rockets rained down on the city center, reportedly striking residential homes and a popular hotel; and tanks continue to roam the streets amidst intensifying street-to-street fighting which after a week has left 40 dead, nearly half of those civilians, and four of those children. Local authorities also have cited over 100 wounded in battles that have often raged in the heart of residential areas in Tripoli's southern districts.

And what's more, the largest prison break in the country's recent history occurred on Sunday, with some 400 detainees taking advantage of nearby fighting in southern suburbs to escape Ain Zara prison, according to the AFP.

Renewed fighting has broken out between rival armed groups in and around Libya’s capital Tripoli despite a newly-reached truce in the area, leaving dozens of people dead or injured over the past week.

The violence erupted earlier this week, with two of the capital's largest warring factions linked to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) entangled in street battles over control of the city.

Clashes between the Seventh Brigade from Tarhouna, a town southeast of Tripoli where the GNA is based, and the Tripoli Revolutionaries' Brigades (TRB) further escalated after a barrage of rockets hit several parts of the capital.

The two rival groups have been vying to take control of the city despite a truce declared on Tuesday.

Long forgotten in Western mainstream media, Libya has suddenly come back into headlines as a small civil war is erupting within areas under control of the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

Scores of people have been killed and wounded amidst intensifying clashes in the Libyan capital as rival factions vie for control of the city.

Notably, the clashes have involved the shelling of residential areas in southern sections of Tripoli, street-to-street fighting, and tanks in the streets, reminiscent of the 2011 war which eventually led to a NATO air campaign and forcible removal and assassination of Libya's longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The reports that black Africans are being sold at slave markets in ‘liberated’ Libya for as little as $400 is a terrible indictment of the so-called ‘humanitarian intervention’ carried out by NATO to topple the government of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

In March 2011 virtue-signaling Western ‘liberal’ hipsters teamed up with hardcore neocon warmongers to demand action to ‘save’ the Libyan people from the ‘despotic’ leader who had ruled the country since the late 1960s. “Something has to be done!” they cried in unison.

Something was done. Libya was transformed by NATO from the country with the highest Human Development Index in the whole of Africa in 2009 into a lawless hell-hole, with rival governments, warlords and terror groups fighting for control of the country.

Why did a coalition of 19 countries including the US and NATO destroy the Libyan regime and in every sense, the stability of the country in 2011?

One reason of course was the financial independence of Libya, the plan to create the gold backed African Dinar currency as many people are familiar with (which was proven by leaked emails years after everyone already knew).

Another reason they took out Gaddafi in Libya was because, as usual, they wanted to harvest everything they possibly could in the country. It’s common sense if you understand a little bit about power. A country is harvested if a regime isn’t in alliance with the most powerful alliance of nations: the leader is removed, the resources are stolen, the place is harvested in every possible way.

Call it as it is. Susan Rice is a liar. She has continuously lied to the American people and she lied to hide the crimes of the Obama administration. She is so good at lying that most people have forgotten her many fallacious testimonies before Congress. The recent surveillance “unmasking” of Trump and associates during the campaign is the tip of the iceberg.

The military targeting of civilian infrastructure, especially of water supplies, is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, writes Nafeez Ahmed. Yet this is precisely what NATO did in Libya, while blaming the damage on Gaddafi himself. Since then, the country's water infrastructure - and the suffering of its people - has only deteriorated further.

The UN Security Council selected, unelected but anointed Libyan government in Tripoli (the GNA) rejects the elected parliament in Tobruk’s decision announced by Field Marshall Haftar, to now keep funds of oil sales and not send such funds to Tripoli, after the victory of Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) in retaking the oil crescent.

When will the West stop interfering in Libya?

The UN-backed Libyan government warned on Tuesday 26 June that any attempt by the East (Tobruk) to export oil independently will be stopped.

“Exports by parallel institutions are illegal and will fail as they have failed in the past,” said the head of Libya’s Tripoli based National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanalla.

What humbug!

One of the biggest Western foreign policy adventures in recent years is underreported in the media. The so-called ‘intervention’ in Libya has created a failed state that is riven with extremists all vying for power.

The war was sold as allied forces intervening to deliver a virtuous and prosperous country. But in reality, they were only there for Libya’s resources.
So we ask, was destroying Libya just another day at the office for politicians, short-sighted bureaucrats, and vulture corporates who continually try to enforce global economic supremacy?

A Libyan man who took photos of himself posing at various spots across Beghazi in 2000 has revisited the same locations 18 years later to photograph life under the new "NATO liberated" Libya.

The "before and after" pics showing the utter devastation of post-Gaddafi Libya have gone viral, garnering 50,000 retweets after they were posted to an account that features historical images of Libya under Gaddafi’s rule between 1969 and 2011.

It appears people do still care about Libya even if the political elites in Paris, London, and Washington who destroyed the country have moved on. Though we should recall that British foreign secretary Boris Johnson was caught on tape in a private meeting last year saying Libya was ripe for UK investment, but only after Libyans "clear the dead bodies away."

A Libyan man who took photos of himself posing at various spots across Beghazi in 2000 has revisited the same locations 18 years later to photograph life under the new "NATO liberated" Libya.

The "before and after" pics showing the utter devastation of post-Gaddafi Libya have gone viral , garnering 50,000 retweets after they were posted to an account that features historical images of Libya under Gaddafi’s rule between 1969 and 2011.

It appears people do still care about Libya even if the political elites in Paris, London, and Washington who destroyed the country have moved on. Though we should recall that British foreign secretary Boris Johnson was caught on tape in a private meeting last year saying Libya was ripe for UK investment, but only after Libyans "clear the dead bodies away."

Before and after images are good for promoting healthy eating, but they have a dramatically different effect when it comes to war-torn countries, as proven by a Libyan man who took photos of himself in Benghazi in 2000 and 2018.

His photos posted on Twitter show the same locations in Benghazi after 18 years. Where there were once tall buildings and clean, wide streets, there are now bullet-ridden ruins following the 2011 uprising, which was backed by a bombing campaign by the US-led NATO bloc and led to the deposing and murder of long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Al Arabiya network says Israel's intelligence and special operations agency is responsible for liquidation of two Revolutionary Guards members who arrived in Libya from Tunisia; Iran is trying to promote its interest of obtaining uranium by sending military advisors to chaotic Libya and distancing its conflict with Israel from its border.

RUSSIAN Su-34 aircraft “intercepted” Israeli F-16 fighter jets over Tripoli airspace despite a mechanism to avoid conflicts between Moscow and Jerusalem, it has been reported.

Reports including Israeli, Lebanese and Russian media outlets claim two Israeli Air Force F-16 planes were challenged by Sukhoi Su-34 jets over Libya.

Video circulated of Russian planes flying over Lebanon but the clip did not show any Israeli jets.

However, Moscow denied the allegations and said it does not conduct missions in Lebanese airspace.

The Russian Defence Ministry said: “The information spread by one of the Israeli news outlets about an alleged ‘interception' of two Israeli F-16s by a Russian Su-34 in Lebanese airspace is amateur nonsense.

Donald Trump has warned Kim Jong-un that North Korea will be “decimated” if it does not agree a nuclear deal, and that Mr Kim himself will be treated in the same manner as slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In comments to reporters that initially appeared designed to reassure Mr Kim, amid reports of potential brinksmanship from North Korea, the US president said his safety would be reassured and that he would remain in control of his country, following any deal with Washington. Yet he then suggested if a deal was not forthcoming, the North Korean leader might be treated much more harshly.

“The Libyan model was a much different model. We decimated that country. We never said to Gaddafi, ‘Oh, we're going to give you protection’,” he said. “We went in and decimated him, and we did the same thing with Iraq.”

There aren’t really examples of nations with substantial nuclear arsenals giving them up as part of a broad negotiated settlement and it working out. North Korea’s denuclearization, then, is very much uncharted territory. The Trump Administration, however, insists on drawing parallels to Libya.

National Security Adviser John Bolton in particular is trying to draw this comparison, even though there are obvious, dramatic differences between the two situations. North Korea is also furious about the Trump Administration’s talk of Libya, and it’s not hard to see why.

Libya never had functional nuclear weapons, and gave up its equipment in 2003 in hopes of ending its international isolation and reforming its image. North Korea’s interest in diplomatic engagement is one commonality, but makes it a particularly poor example, as Libya never really enjoyed much of a reward.

There aren’t really examples of nations with substantial nuclear arsenals giving them up as part of a broad negotiated settlement and it working out. North Korea’s denuclearization, then, is very much uncharted territory. The Trump Administration, however, insists on drawing parallels to Libya.

National Security Adviser John Bolton in particular is trying to draw this comparison, even though there are obvious, dramatic differences between the two situations. North Korea is also furious about the Trump Administration’s talk of Libya, and it’s not hard to see why.

Libya never had functional nuclear weapons, and gave up its equipment in 2003 in hopes of ending its international isolation and reforming its image. North Korea’s interest in diplomatic engagement is one commonality, but makes it a particularly poor example, as Libya never really enjoyed much of a reward.

Libyan National Army’s (LNA) Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has announced the start of a military operation to liberate Derna, which has been under terrorists' siege since the overthrow of country’s longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, LNA’s spokesman Ahmed Mismari said.

"Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has announced the start of operation to liberate Derna," Mismari said.

According to Mismari, the military warned local residents of the need to observe security measures, and in particular, called on the civilian population not to approach the places of concentration of militants.

Nicolas Sarkozy, a political bulimic, as Libération called him. And he remained even after political defeats and judicial processes. It was also in these hours, in a cage in the judicial police offices of Nanterre, questioned about the suspicions of Libyan funding in the 2007 presidential campaign.
See more at http://www.pravdareport.com/news/world/29-03-2018/140543-sarkozy_tears-0/

BRAVE GUATEMALAN air force pilots rebelled against a leftist regime in 1954 and used their planes to bomb the regime’s bases. Army commanders also rebelled; Guatemalans could hear them directing troop movements over the radio. Finally these patriots won their revolution. The United States trumpeted their victory around the world.

This was a “false flag” operation — staged by one force but made to look as if someone else did it. Planes that bombed targets in Guatemala were painted with Guatemalan air force insignia, but the pilots were CIA contractors. Radio messages about troop movements had been pre-recorded at a CIA base in Florida. A revolution that seemed to be emerging from one country, Guatemala, was actually the project of another, the United States.

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar is receiving treatment at a Paris hospital, his spokesperson said late on Friday.

“During a scheduled visit programme to a number of countries, Marshal Haftar felt ill and visited a hospital in Paris for normal checkups,” Ahmed al-Mesmari wrote on Twitter.

The 75-year-old Haftar “will be back in Libya within few days,” he added.

Contradictory information about the strongman’s health and possible demise had been circulating in Libyan press and on social media this week.

Haftar had not made any public appearances recently, fueling the rumours.

Our friend Bobby Powell conducted this interview two months ago with Virginia Senator Richard Black. It's not like we haven't been telling people for years the truth about Syria and how the only real problem there is the US funding, training and arming Islamic jihadis to overthrow the Assad regime. And, despite a new president who told you that we didn't need to be there, he's already launched missiles into the country over rumors of an Assad attack with no evidence and is apparently getting ready to attack again with no evidence and no congressional authority as outlined in our Constitution.

Virginia Senator Dick Black exposes the WMD false flag in Syria, which was really carried out by the remnants of ISIS and not Syrian President Assad.

Think. Why would Assad use chemical weapons on civilians, knowing that it would draw world-wide condemnation and US intervention, when the jihadists are surrounded and on the brink of annihilation?

Late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to support the 2007 election campaign of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, earmarking millions of euros destined to help the politician win, Moftah Missouri, Gaddafi's aide and chief interpreter, told Sputnik.

The reports and allegations of Gaddafi's government's support for Sarkozy have been around for at least seven years, ever since civil war broke out in Libya.

Years of rumors culminated in Sarkozy's arrest last March. The former president was briefly detained and questioned over Libya's alleged contribution to his 2007 campaign. Afterward, Sarkozy was officially charged with corruption. The French politician has rejected all accusations.

Admission that the state was likely in contact with Libyan groups linked to Manchester bombing raises fundamental questions about British links to terrorism

The British government has said for the first time that members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group – widely suspected to be behind the Manchester bombing – were likely among those they supported in Libya to topple Muammar Gaddafi.

The US is back to bombing Libya, this time in an attempt to fight Al-Qaeda. The war-ravaged country has become a safe haven for terrorist groups after the NATO intervention brought down the Gaddafi government.

The airstrike conducted on Saturday killed two terrorists, “including Musa Abu Dawud, a high ranking al-Qa'ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official,” US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement on Wednesday, noting that no civilians were killed.

Dawud was an important Al-Qaeda operative, according to AFRICOM. He “trained AQIM recruits in Libya for attack operations in the region. He provided critical logistics support, funding and weapons to AQIM, enabling the terror group to threaten and attack US and Western interests in the region,” the statement added.

While the resurgence of human trafficking in war-torn Libya in recent years has occupied the headlines, trafficking in the UK has also climbed to an all-time high, according to the National Crime Agency.

Statistics released by the NCA show the number of potential victims of slavery has increased by 35% to 5,145 since 2016 - the highest since records began in 2009. And it's likely that number will only continue to climb, per RT.

The NCA said most victims are being used for sex or as drug mules by "county lines" groups, which use vulnerable children as couriers to transfer drugs from the city to rural areas.

British nationals comprised the largest group, followed by people from Albania and Vietnam. UK children accounted for 819 referrals, while 777 were Albanians, and 739 were Vietnamese.

Ziad Takieddine claims he met Sarkozy after 2004, contrary to the statements by the former French president, who is accused of bribery and illegal funding of his presidential campaign.

Ziad Takieddine, a French businessman of Lebanese origin, claims that he not only met with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy after 2004, but also helped to transfer money from Libya for his election campaign, cites the French news portal France Info.

"He was there, and I met him, I even greeted him, he took the suitcase, he put it aside, he did not even want to count [the money]," Ziad Takieddine said.

Armed groups execute and torture civilians in Libya in almost complete impunity seven years after the revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, the United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday.

Libyans and migrants are often held incommunicado in arbitrary detention in appalling conditions, and reports persist of captured migrants being bought and sold on “open slave markets”, it said in a report to the Human Rights Council.

Libya is split between rival governments in the east and west while ports and beaches are largely in the hands of armed groups who smuggle mainly African migrants onto boats heading for Italy and Europe.

“Extrajudicial and unlawful killings are rampant,” Andrew Gilmour, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, told the Geneva forum.

NATO’s 2011 war on Libya was unanimously sold across the West as a necessary humanitarian operation against the proverbial evil dictator (Hillary Clinton: “We came, we saw, he died.”). Russia and China were firmly against it.

Now, in a stunning historical reversal, the ghost of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seems to have come back to haunt former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the self-described superstar of that R2P (“responsibility to protect”) spectacular.

The French know that their politicians receive money from every possible source. But the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy is now charged with having gotten some of his from dictator Moammar Gadhafi may cross the line for many.

Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif Al-Islam, who plans to run in the presidential election this year, is widely supported by ordinary people hoping to rescue Libya from the chaos caused by the NATO-backed revolt, his lawyer told RT.
While it is not yet certain when Libya will vote in a presidential election, due to varying interpretations of the electoral process by the power-seeking factions of the country, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, announced on Monday his bid to run in the race as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya (PFLL). His candidacy bid was confirmed to RT by his lawyer, Khaled Al-Ghwail, who believes that his client has a good chance of winning.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been detained on the grounds of financing his election campaign

Sarkozy has been taken into custody in Nanterre at the request of the anti-corruption unit of the judicial police. Currently, he is being interrogated.

The investigation of possible violations in the financing of the 2007 presidential campaign was launched in 2013. He is suspected of illegally raising funds, including from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and heiress of the L’Oreal empire Lillian Betancourt.

It is generally common knowledge that Gaddafi helped Sarkozy run his campaign – after which Sarkozy betrayed him, in his support for the Western coalition operation in Libya.

Libya’s former leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was killed by a French secret service agent, acting on the direct orders of France’s ex-President Nicholas Sarkozy, media reports out on Saturday have claimed.

According to sources quoted in UK’s Daily Mail newspaper, Sarkozy who ruled France from 2007 to 2012, sent secret service agents to infiltrate local gangs that were trying to locate Gaddafi as his regime collapsed in the wake of the Arab Spring.

The agent then shot Gaddafi in the head, the Daily Mail quoted a “well-placed sources in the North African country” as saying.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into alleged funding in elections by ex-Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy is being questioned by magistrates regarding claims his campaign team accepted a 50 million euro ($62 million) donation from Gaddafi during the 2007 French elections, according to news reports.

His former associate, Alexandre Djouhri, was arrested in London and released on bail as part of the investigation weeks earlier.

Sarkozy had previously refused to respond to a summons for questioning in the case, AFP reported.

Former minister former minister Brice Hortefeux is also in custody and being questioned by investigators, Reuters reported.

The probe opened in 2013 following claims by Gaddafi and his son Saif that provided funds to Sarkozy’s election team.

Over 16 billion euros were located in four accounts opened for the Libyan Investment Authority and Libyan Foreign Investment Company.

Belgium discovered the disappearance of a significant part of these funds in the fall of 2017, when an investigation into money laundering sought to seize the 16 billion euros.

“It turned out that on the four accounts just over 5 billion euros remained.” Le Vif added.

According to the Belgian Ministry of Finance, Belgium did not take any decision to unfreeze these assets.

The investigation into billions of Gaddafi assets held in Belgium discovered big, regular outflows of stock dividends, bond income, and interest payments, the paper suggests.

The United States has stepped up air strikes against ISIL in Libya in recent months, concerned that the terrorist organisation is regrouping there after punishing defeats in Syria and Iraq.

From bases deep in the desert, ISIL continues to launch attacks, on Friday killing three members of the Libyan National Army at a checkpoint near the eastern town of Ajbabiya.

The threat from the insurgents has not gone unnoticed in Washington, where the head of the Pentagon's Africa Command, revealed earlier this week that there have been eight strikes against ISIL targets in central Libya since September, the first during President Donald Trump's administration.

"As terrorists flee from the Middle East because of our successful military efforts there, I'm concerned about other terrorist threats trying to establish operatives in Africa," Marine General Thomas Waldhauser told the House Armed Services Committee in the US capital.

Belgian authorities have discovered the disappearance of 10 billion euros of frozen Libyan assets kept in the Euroclear Bank during the period 2013 to 2017, according to the Le Vif weekly paper.

According to Le Vif magazine, these funds were controlled by the inner circle of ousted and killed Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

Over 16 billion euros were located in four accounts opened for the Libyan Investment Authority and Libyan Foreign Investment Company.

The Belgian authorities found the disappearance of a significant part of these funds in the fall of 2017, when an investigation into money laundering sought to seize the 16 billion euros. It turned out that on the four accounts just over 5 billion euros remained.

In Libya, a dominant military figure stands out as a possible new leader of a unified country – that is, of course, if he wins at the polls – or even if he doesn’t. But can the UN or the West even organize an election?

Some seven months have passed since Libya’s two rival leaders met with the newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. One is Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of the Government of National Accord, who lives in Tripoli and is supported by the UN and the West.

The other, Khalifa Haftar, is a military commander who controls Benghazi and can take credit for crushing Al Qaeda. The West considers him a maverick military type, however, who has little time for the tedious travails of diplomacy or democracy.

The United States has issued a new round of sanctions targeting oil smugglers in Libya aimed at blocking exploitation of natural resources that is driving instability, the US Treasury Department said on Monday.

In a statement, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it was sanctioning six people, 24 companies and seven vessels in a move that prohibits Americans from engaging with those targeted and freezes any related property under US jurisdictions.

The sanctions target people from Libya, Malta and Egypt for "involvement in the smuggling of petroleum products from Libya to Europe".

Issued under the authority of a 2016 executive order by then President Barack Obama, companies based in Italy, Libya and Malta are also targets, the statement said.

The fall of Gaddafi’s administration has created all of the country’s worst-case scenarios: Western embassies have all left, the South of the country has become a haven for terrorists, and the Northern coast a center of migrant trafficking. Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia have all closed their borders with Libya. This all occurs amidst a backdrop of widespread rape, assassinations and torture that complete the picture of a state that is failed to the bone.

The United Nations Libya mission demanded on Thursday the immediate surrender of Mahmoud al-Werfalli after fresh footage emerged of him personally carrying out summary executions.

The special forces commander, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges, served in the Al-Saiqa Brigade, an elite force of military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s so-called Libyan National Army (LNA).

A pair of car bombs were detonated in central Benghazi in Libya Tuesday, killing at least 33 and leaving more than 50 others wounded, per Reuters.

How it happened: The first bomb went off outside a mosque as attendees were leaving evening prayers. As ambulances and security officers arrived at the scene, a second bomb exploded about 10 minutes later across the street. It is not yet clear who is responsible for the attack.

After spending the last six years incarcerated by a militia in the wake of the systemic destruction of Libya by NATO-backed forces in 2011, the second son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, confirmed that he will run for president of Libya in 2018.

Through family spokesman Basem al-Hashimi al-Soul, Gaddafi confirmed to Egyptian television that he plans on running in what will likely be a tenuous election in the highly fragmented state.