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Fine, I said I'd look into it and here is what I've found. It is certain that some prisoners died during or after a hostage-taking incident, but everything else is pretty sketchy. The events were not reported at the time but were later investigated by Human Rights Watch. Here is their report: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/06/27/libya-june-1996-killings-abu-salim-prison HRW's report is based on two sources. One is an emigre report, citing an unidentified prisoner as the source, by the National Salvation Front, a US-based group which dates back to 1981 when there was an earlier Benghazi-based attempt to kill Gadhafi. The other is a single former prisoner at Abu Selim who was living in the U.S. and applying for asylum at the time the report was compiled. According to the former prisoner's report, the incident took place during and after a hostage-taking incident in which one guard died. He says that he worked in the kitchen and estimated the number of dead as 1200 on the basis of how many fewer meals he had to produce. The report also states, that "since 2001 the authorities have notified 112 families that a relative held in Abu Salim is dead, without providing the body or details on the cause of death. In addition, 238 families claim they have lost contact with a relative who was a prisoner in Abu Salim." It then cites an interview with one family member who was told that an inmate had died of illness, but who said that the body had not been returned. They then speculate that if someone's body was not returned, this might mean that he was killed in 1996. As for the government's side, HRW says, "In May 2005, Internal Security Agency head Khaled told Human Rights Watch that prisoners had captured some guards during a meal and taken weapons from the prison cache. Prisoners and guards died as security personnel tried to restore order, he said, and the government had opened an investigation on order of the Secretary of Justice." Naturally I would say that prisoners ought not to be killed after a hostage incident is resolved just as a matter of reprisal, no matter how many it was. If someone wants to argue that these prisoners were merely political prisoners of conscience in the first place, that's another whole issue. Having said that, do we now KNOW that 1200 prisoners were "killed in cold blood" at Abu Selim prison? Do we KNOW that any prisoners at all were killed in 1996 beyond what was thought necessary to restore order at the time? I don't. Might it be true? Sure. But might it be largely blown up into propaganda by people with nefarious motives? It might. I don't know. Don't ask me to put percentages on it. So, this report was produced in 2006, but was largely unnoticed in the world press until February 2011. There is certainly nothing in the New York Times index about it during that entire period. If anyone else gave it attention from any perspective, it hasn't come to my attention. Then the Benghazi revolt begain, the press releases about 1200 Islamists killed in cold blood went viral, and the Obama administration has issued sanctions against the guy supposedly responsible, although there is no more information than there was in 2006 as far as I can tell - reports by one named person and one anonymous source. There you have it, Lou Paulsen Chicago ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
