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This is James Corbett of The Corbett Report with your Sunday Update from the Centre for
Research on Globalization at globalresearch.ca. And now for the real news.
New, unconfirmed reports out late last week suggest that the US is preparing to deploy
ground forces to Libya this fall in direct contradiction to all public assurances that
the conflict was merely a “kinetic military action” and would not involve boots on the
ground. The reports, citing military sources at Ft. Hood, indicate that additional Special
Forces will be sent to the region in July, with the 1st Calvary Division and three corps
to be deployed in the country in October or November. In total, nearly 30,000 troops are
said to be preparing for this escalation.
These reports are further bolstered by recently-released video showing what appear to be NATO military
advisers directly interfacing with rebel forces on the front lines of the ground conflict.
Now, a legal battle is shaping up on Capitol Hill between the White House and a bipartisan
group of Congressman and Senators who are formally challenging the legality of Obama's
use of the military in the region long after the expiry of the sixty-day War Powers Act
limit for the President to wage a military operation without congressional approval.
Remarkably, the Obama White House issued a breathtaking defense of its own illegal position
last week, continuing to use the argument that the bombardment of the civilian population
in Libya does not, in fact, constitute “hostilities” as set out in the War Powers Act.
This denial comes even as fresh reports surfaced last week that Tripoli's Nasser University
was bombed as part of the NATO campaign, with numerous univesity staff injured and killed.
The Centre for Research on Globalization published exclusive photographs of the bombing on globalresearch.ca
earlier this week. The photographs were supplied by Mohammed Al-Alam, one of the students at
the university, and include graphic photos of the civilian deaths in the bombing.
The United States is not the only administration increasingly under fire for its participation
in the NATO campaign. In an article late last week, Professor Michel Chossudovsky of the
University of Ottawa details how the Canadian parliament passed a resolution in favour of
extending Canada's participation in the campaign. Despite a recent election sending numerous
members of the far left and nominally anti-war New Democrats into the position of the official
opposition in parliament, the only person to vote against the resolution was Elizabeth
May, the leader of the Green Party.
For more on the preparations for ground war in Libya and their significance, I turned
to Professor Chossudovsky, director of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
[interview]
The corporate media has come under heavy fire from watchdog organizations and international
observers who have concluded that reporters are purposefully hiding the extent of the
atrocities being committed by the western-backed rebel forces even as dubious reports about
Gaddafi's atrocities, including tales that Libyan soldiers were given *** to help
fuel *** sessions on the Libyan population, have been reported unquestioningly.
A new team of independent media and observers are heading to the region to report on the
extent of the NATO bombardment and civilian casualties that have resulted from the conflict.
Joining us last week to talk about the media manipulations of the conflict was Global Research
associate Mahdi Nazemroaya.
[interview]
As escalation in Libya becomes more likely, alternative media voices become more important
in providing a counter-balance to officially sanctioned propaganda for the war effort.
One of those voices, Pepe Escobar of the Asia Times, talked to The Corbett Report last Thursday
about the specter of a ground war and the importance of an independent media in propagating
real news about the Libyan operation.