Slavery In Libya A Surprise? You Weren't Reading Black Agenda Report

Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor

07 Dec 2017

If the news that black Libyans and black migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were being sold as slaves in Libya was a surprise to you, then you were not reading Black Agenda Report during the 2011-2012 NATO intervention in that country. We covered it. Almost everybody refused to question US foreign policy in Africa during the reign of our first black president. Many US news outlets, many otherwise reasonable people with access to foreign news, and countless others around the world averted their eyes and their ears to the anguish of hunted, lynched and massacred black Africans in Benghazi, in Tripoli, in Sirte and Bani Walid. But as the US Navy and US Air Force unleashed thousands of tons of bombs and missiles on innocent civilians and the military forces of the Libyan government, without which Uncle Sam’s and Barack Obama’s racist rebels could never have toppled Muammar Gadaffi, you heard and read about it each week in Black Agenda Report.

That is, if you were listening to or reading Black Agenda Report.

This kind of unflinching coverage is the reason Black Agenda Report has been targeted by Google, which now suppresses the appearance of our content in its search results alleging that we are so-called “fake news" or tools of the Russians. Of the roughly two dozen leftist publications singled out in this manner Black Agenda Report is the only one owned by blacks or oriented toward a black audience. There are slicker and prettier web sites with far larger audiences peddling other kinds of black experience and consciousness, profitably delivering black eyeballs to corporate marketers. These outlets do not challenge cherished beliefs. They neither question nor contradict the lies our corporate masters tell us, lies which some of us repeat to each other.

During the bloodletting in Libya Black Agenda Report carried accounts of responsible journalists and our own commentary in print, audio and video on the lynchings, the massacres and the politics behind them. Though many of these events were covered elsewhere on the African continent they were almost completely absent from US coverage of the Libyan crisis. Even DemocracyNow!, which had a correspondent on the ground and ran two, three or more Libya stories weekly for more than a year, only reported on the persecution of black Africans in Libya a handful of times with no followup. But Black Agenda Report helped give our audience a coherent picture of the US sponsored catastrophe that befell Libya in 2011 and 2012.

Since early 2011, Black Agenda Report has run about 60 articles on the Libyan crisis. You can find a list of their dates and authors and links to all these at the end of the print version of this article at BlackAgendaReport.com. They include audio coverage of a July 2011 Atlanta public report back in which former US Atty. General Ramsey Clark, former US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Rev. Derrick Rice of Atlanta's Sankofa Church of God and others who recently returned from Libya recounted their experiences in that unhappy country, and richly sourced accounts of the reasons the US and NATO overthrew what was once the most prosperous nation on the African continent.

Apparently that’s what you do if you want the Washington Post and Google to name you as a purveyor of "fake news" and a tool of the Russians. You tell the truth without fear or favor. Frankly, it can be a bad business model.

In the face of suppression by the corporate owners of social media, Black Agenda Report needs your help to keep on delivering news, commentary and analysis from the black left. There are three ways you can help.

Number one is to share the content of Black Agenda Report via email and social media with your friends.

Number two is to click the "subscribe" button at the top of each page, so Black Agenda Report will be delivered to your email each week. Google, Twitter and Facebook cannot determine what’s emailed directly to you. And number three is by clicking the donate button at the top of each page. Your one time or monthly donation will enable Black Agenda Report to keep delivering news, commentary and analysis from the black left as we have since 2006.

For Black Agenda Radio I'm Bruce Dixon. Find us on the web at www.blackagendareport.com and on Soundcloud at Black Agenda Radio and Black Agenda Radio Commentaries.

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
Mar 2, 2011	African Migrants Targeted in Libya	Al Jazeera
Mar 2, 2011	Libya, Getting it Right: A Revolutionary Pan-African Perspective	Gerald A. Perreira
Mar 2, 2011	US Prepares to Make Its Lunge At Libya’s Oil Fields	Glen Ford
Mar 9, 2011	Race and Arab Nationalism in Libya	Glen Ford
Mar 17, 2011	UPDATE: The American Dilemma in Libya: To Bomb, Invade, Partition, Or All of the Above	Glen Ford
Mar 23, 2011	Coalition of Crusaders Join with al Qaeda to Oust Qaddafi and Roll Back Libyan Revolution	Gerald A. Perreira
Mar 23, 2011	Obama’s Imperial Twist: “Humanitarian” Regime Change in Libya	Glen Ford
Mar 23, 2011	Freedom Rider: Obama’s War in Libya	Margaret Kimberley
Apr 6, 2011	Lynch Law and Summary Executions in Rebel-Held Libya	Glen Ford
Apr 13, 2011	Libyan Rebels: Dependent Minions of US and Europe	Glen Ford
Apr 20, 2011	Euro-American Land Invasion of Libya Imminent	Glen Ford
Jun 15, 2011	The West's Obscene Demonization of Gaddafi	Glen Ford
Jun 29, 2011	U.S. Media Imagine Nonexistent Mass Rape in Libya But are Blind to Mass Murder of Black Africans	Glen Ford
Jul 20, 2011	A Defining Moment for Africa: North Atlantic Terrorists Will Be Defeated in Libya	Gerald A. Perreira
Jul 25, 2011	Eye Witness Libya's Atlanta Report Back, July 24, 2011 With Cynthia McKinney Part 1 of 7	The Editors
Jul 25, 2011	EyeWitness Libya, Atlanta Report Back, 2 of 7 Diane Mathowitz Speaks	The Editors
Jul 25, 2011	EyeWitness Libya, Atlanta Report Back, Part 3 of 7, Hon. Akbar Muhammad of the Nation of Islam	The Editors
Jul 25, 2011	EyeWitness Libya, Atlanta Report Back, Part 4 of 7; Rev. Derrick Rice of Atlanta's Sankofa United Church of Christ	The Editors
Jul 25, 2011	EyeWitness Libya, Atlanta Report Back, part 5 of 7, Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark	The Editors
Jul 25, 2011	Eyewitness Libya, Atlanta Report Back, Part 6 of 7; Atlanta's Lucy Greider-Bradley	The Editors
Jul 25, 2011	Eye Witness Libya's Atlanta Report Back, July 24, 2011 With Cynthia McKinney Part 7 of7	The Editors
Aug 17, 2011	Black Libya City Said to Fall to Rebel Siege	Glen Ford
Aug 24, 2011	The Libyan soldier: The True Heroes of NATO’s War	Glen Ford
Sep 14, 2011	Fauntroy's Libya Massacres Story: No Time for Teasing	Glen Ford
Sep 21, 2011	Obama Hosts International Debut for Libya’s Racist and Thoroughly Non-Revolutionary Regime	Glen Ford
Oct 5, 2011	Are Democracy Now!'s Libyan Correspondents Feeding Us the State Department and Pentagon Line on Libya?	Bruce A. Dixon
Oct 11, 2011	Black Libyans Make Their Stand in Sirte and Bani Walid	Glen Ford
Oct 25, 2011	Africa Open for Plunder Now that Libya Has Fallen	John Pilger
Nov 1, 2011	UN, NATO War Crimes in Libya Sparks Anger and Continuing Resistance	Abayomi Azikiwe
Nov 1, 2011	Western Mercenaries and Corporations Pouring Into Libya	Glen Ford
Dec 6, 2011	Demons Unleashed in Libya: NATO’s Islamists Continue Program of Ethnic and Ideological Cleansing	Gerald A. Perreira
Dec 6, 2011	Libya Still A Killing Zone	Glen Ford
Dec 21, 2011	NATO’s Depraved Disregard For Libyan Civilian Casualties	Glen Ford
Jan 24, 2012	12,000 US Troops Poised to Move From Malta to Libya?	Cynthia McKinney
Jan 26, 2012	South African President Attacks United Nations Over War Against Libya	Abayomi Azikiwe
Mar 12, 2012	US and NATO-supported Libyan "Rebels" Continue Persecution of Blacks in Libya	The Editors
May 30, 2012	Libya, Africa and A FICOM : The Ongoing Disaster	Dan Glazebrook
Oct 9, 2012	Libyan City Under Siege by Militias	Lizzie Phelan
Oct 23, 2012	A Year Later, the War in Libya is Far from Over	Horace G. Campbell
Jan 8, 2013	Book Review: Obama’s War Against Libya	Stephen Gowans
Jun 4, 2013	Libyan Rebels and International Criminal Court Battle Over Gaddafi’s Son	Abayomi Azikiwe
Jun 24, 2014	Iraq, Libya, Syria: Three reasons African Americans should oppose U.S. intervention in Africa	Ajamu Baraka
Dec 3, 2014	The Lessons of Libya	Dan Glazebrook
Feb 25, 2015	Freedom Rider: Media Silence on Libya	Margaret Kimberley
May 13, 2015	Britain, Libya and the Mediterranean: The Creation of a Humanitarian Emergency	Dan Glazebrook
Jun 15, 2015	U.S. Sets Stage for Libya-Like Regime Change in Eritrea, “Africa’s Cuba”	Glen Ford
Nov 3, 2015	Benghazi Smokescreen: Hiding Western War Crimes in Libya	Thomas C. Mountain
Jan 12, 2016	Clinton Email Shows that Oil and Gold Were Behind Regime Change In Libya	Washington's Blog
Apr 13, 2016	Freedom Rider: Barack, Hillary and the Libya Crime	Margaret Kimberley
Apr 19, 2016	Was Libya a Mistake or a Planned Imperialist Catastrophe?	Danny Haiphong
Apr 19, 2016	Libya: Hillary’s War, the Empire’s Mistake	Farooque Chowdhury
Jul 5, 2016	Whitewashing Libya: House Report on Benghazi Reveals Nothing, Hides Everything	Eric Draitser
Jul 29, 2016	The Obama Legacy Part VI: The Destruction of Libya and the US military Invasion of Africa	Danny Haiphong
Aug 9, 2016	The Façade of “Humanitarian Intentions” in Libya: A Review of Paolo Sensini’s Book	Edward Curtin
Mar 30, 2017	Why Obama Attacked Libya	Cynthia McKinney
Apr 19, 2017	Freedom Rider: Obama and Clinton Brought Slavery to Libya	Margaret Kimberley
Jul 24, 2017	Hiding US Lies About Libyan Invasion	Joe Lauria
Oct 24, 2017	Remembering Muammar Qaddafi and the Great Libyan Jamahiriya	Gerald A. Perreira
Nov 28, 2017	Thank CNN for the Slave Auctions in Libya	Danny Haiphong

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