Lies too ridiculous even for imperialists - Susan Rice's weaponized Viagra

[khad]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42824884/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa


US intel: No evidence of Viagra as weapon in Libya

NBC News and news services
updated 4/29/2011 1:52:00 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS — There is no evidence that Libyan military forces are being given Viagra and engaging in systematic rape against women in rebel areas, US military and intelligence officials told NBC News on Friday. '

Diplomats said Thursday that US Ambassador Susan Rice told a closed-door meeting of officials at the UN that the Libyan military is using rape as a weapon in the war with the rebels and some had been issued the anti-impotency drug. She reportedly offered no evidence to backup the claim.

While rape has been a weapon of choice in many other African conflicts, the US officials say they've seen no such reports out of Libya.

Several U.N. diplomats who attended the closed-door Security Council meeting on Libya told Reuters that Rice raised the Viagra issue. The allegation was first reported by a British newspaper.

Pfizer Inc.'s drug Viagra is used to treat impotence.

Diplomats said if it were true that Moammar Gadhafi's troops were being issued Viagra, it could indicate they were being encouraged by their commanders to engage in rape to terrorize the population in areas that have supported the rebels. That would constitute a war crime.

But several diplomats said Rice provided no evidence for the Viagra allegation, which they said was made in an attempt to persuade doubters the conflict in Libya was not just a standard civil war but a much nastier fight in which Gadhafi is not afraid to order his troops to commit heinous acts.

"She spoke of reports of soldiers getting Viagra and raping," a diplomat said. "She spoke of Gadhafi's soldiers targeting children, and other atrocities."

And on Friday, military and intelligence officials, speaking anonymously, said there was no evidence that that was true.

[Chambered Word]

I guess they decided that one was just a bit too outrageous to be believed.

Gotta love the UN though, still waiting for them to actually stop any war crimes. :rolleyes:

[Sasha]

Yeah, almost as ridiculous as al-qaida spreading LSD laced Nescafe...

[khad]

Yeah, almost as ridiculous as al-qaida spreading LSD laced Nescafe...
And that's more believable. After all, Al-Qaeda is the biggest narcotics gang in north Africa, and the Benghazi mafia has come back in force since the start of this revolt.

Chance that drugs are causing youth to rebel: slim
Chance that major drug money is flowing into rebel coffers: about 100%

I can't blame you, though, because like most Westerners the amount of knowledge and concern you had for North Africa before these shenanigans started was approximately zero.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/morocco/101101/morocco-battles-al-qaeda-the-islamic-maghreb


CASABLANCA, Morocco — It seemed a monumental drug bust. Police captured almost three dozen Moroccans last month trying to move hundreds of pounds of cocaine through the country.

But it turned out to be much more than drug deal. Moroccan government officials now say those arrested have ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
"We are dealing with an apparent coordination and collaboration between drug traffickers and terrorists linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,” said Interior Minister Taieb Cherquaoui after the arrests. Thirty-four people were detained for smuggling more than 1,300 pounds of cocaine from Algeria and Mauritania.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I agree, what Susan Rice said was stupid. She's extracting a very serious allegation from rumors that some doctor heard that soldiers had viagra and condoms. The US admin is either incredibly credulous, or they think that the UN is. Even the US foreign policy "establishment" thinks the claim is based on weak evidence. (http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/04/28/moammar_qaddafis_viagra_war)


Human Rights Watch had interviewed the same doctor previously, and determined that he had no direct evidence to support the claims, and they were not able to identify victims and witnesses in Adjabiya who confirmed such reports. Though they also had no evidence to refute the claims.
Fred Abrahams, a special advisor for Human Rights Watch, said the organization takes reports of sexual attacks seriously, and "we are actively investigating" allegations of the use of sexual violence by Qaddafi's forces in the conflict. "We have a few credible cases of gender based violence and rape, but the evidence is not there at this point to suggest it is of a systematic nature, or an official policy. On Viagra and condom distribution we have nothing so far. It's not to dismiss it, but we do not have" the evidence.


Although I disagree with Khad's 2nd post ... Smuggling coke=/=putting LSD in people's nescafe to start a rebellion. I don't see how Gaddafi's claim is necessarily more "believable" than Susan Rice's on that regard.

[Jose Gracchus]

What drugs always are and always have been...is imperialism's bread and butter. From whiskey on the frontier, Opium Wars in China, and cocaine traffickers flying guns back to Contras on their trips out from the U.S....its a consistent pattern.

[Raubleaux]

You people are so fucking obsessed with that stupid Nescafe line. It was some stupid throw-away comment and you act like it somehow justifies everything you wish was true about the Libya conflict.