Libya: Behind the phony ICC ‘rape’ charges

The following statement by Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, was posted at www.iacenter.org on June 10.

Without presenting a shred of reliable evidence, NATO and International Criminal Court conspirators are charging the Libyan government with conspiracy to rape — not only rape as the “collateral damage” of war, but rape as a political weapon.

This charge of an orchestrated future campaign of rape was made at a major press conference called by the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on June 8. The even wilder, unsubstantiated ICC charge that Libya plans to mass distribute Viagra to its troops confirms this as the most tawdry and threadbare form of war propaganda.

It is important to understand that NATO countries, with the full complicity of the corporate media and the ICC, are spreading this Big Lie in order to win support for and close down all opposition to a ground assault of Libya — something that would otherwise be unpopular in both Europe and the United States.

This wild charge adds to the evidence of a massive escalation in bombing of urban targets in Libya, the use of British and French helicopters that give close support to ground troops, and positioning in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya of U.S. warships that can quickly land troops. The NATO alliance is desperate to put Libya beyond all discussion or defense and raise the NATO war to the level of a “Holy Crusade” to defend women.

Lies used to justify imperialist wars

The charge of rape as a political weapon was spread — without evidence — against Serb forces to justify U.S. plans for the first NATO bombing campaign in the history of the military alliance in 1994 in Bosnia and was used again in 1999 in Serbia in the first NATO occupation. The rape charge was used to soften up the U.S. and European population for the criminal war against Yugoslavia. Now a similar plan is in the works for Libya.

All too often wildly fabricated lies are spread to justify imperialist wars. In 1991 the first war against Iraq was justified by outrageous charges that the Iraqi army had grabbed Kuwaiti babies from incubators and smashed the babies to the floor. This was presented as reliable “testimony” to the U.S. Congress and in the U.N. Months later it was confirmed as a total fabrication. But the lie had served its purpose. In 2001 the corporate media and U.S. politicians claimed that they had to bomb and then massively occupy Afghanistan to win rights for women that the Taliban had taken away. The situation for women in Afghanistan and for the entire population has deteriorated further under U.S./NATO occupation.

Despite video and photo evidence that the entire world has seen through WikiLeaks, the International Criminal Court has never considered for a moment filing criminal charges against U.S., British, French or German troops.

The pictures, videos and reports in major newspapers of sexual torture and humiliation at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by U.S. soldiers and the testimony by the U.S. soldiers involved in rapes, tortures, mutilations and executions in Iraq and Afghanistan confirm the brutal reality of U.S. wars. These wars have never been to “save” women.

As an African country, Libya can hardly expect a fair hearing or any form of justice from the ICC. The International Criminal Court, created in 2002 with high hopes of international justice, has been used against seven countries — all in Africa. Meanwhile, the ICC has never examined U.S. drone attacks on defenseless civilians in at least eight African, Arab and South Asian countries. Nor has it even touched U.S. invasions and occupations. Israeli bombing of the Palestinian people is “off limits.”

This is an essential time to remind all people concerned about the rights of women that U.S. intervention or any imperialist intervention has never protected women. Even women serving within the U.S. military machine are not “safe.” According to a study published by the Journal of Military Medicine, 71 percent of women soldiers have been sexually assaulted or raped while serving in the U.S. military. Women who have been assaulted consistently report poor medical treatment, lack of counseling, incomplete criminal investigations and threats of punishment for reporting the assaults.

In 2009 the Pentagon admitted that approximately 80 percent of rapes are never reported — making it the most underdocumented crime in the military. In addition, U.S. military bases are all too often surrounded by an entire sex industry of abused women forced by hunger, dislocation and lost families to work in bars and clubs.

Rape in every society has always been about imposing power and domination.

The “political rape” charge in this case makes no sense and has no basis beyond the U.S.-NATO desire to justify expanding the war against Libya.

Stop U.S.-NATO intervention in Libya.