{"id":1553,"date":"2011-04-14T11:13:43","date_gmt":"2011-04-14T16:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2016-05-08T11:16:14","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T16:16:14","slug":"libyan-television-chief-describes-arab-western-conspiracy-against-tripoli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=1553","title":{"rendered":"Libyan Television Chief Describes Arab-Western Conspiracy against Tripoli"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew McGregor<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 14, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Libyan poet Ali al-Kilani is a member of Mu\u2019ammar Qaddafi\u2019s inner circle and has been described as the \u201cpoet of the Green Revolution.\u201d As director of Libyan television, al-Kilani has played an important role in defining and presenting the regime\u2019s version of events in Libya. Al-Kilani gained international attention in 2007, when he wrote a song entitled \u201cAl-Qidis Saddam<\/em>\u201d (The Holy Saddam), which praised the late Saddam Hussein and denounced his executioners (al-Bawaba, July 19, 2007; al-Sharq al-Awsat<\/em>, December 3, 2009). He recently gave his views on the current rebellion and his perception of bias in the Arab media to a pan-Arab daily (al-Sharq al-Awsat<\/em>, April 12).<\/p>\n

\"Qaddafi\"<\/a>Mu’ammar Qaddafi<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

From the beginning of the rebellion, the Qaddafi regime has condemned the coverage provided by most of the Arab media, going so far as to jam satellite channels such as al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya. Al-Kilani insists that their coverage is inaccurate and influenced by foreign powers: \u201cThese channels say that al-Qaddafi is in Venezuela, while al-Qaddafi is in Libya; they say that al-Qaddafi\u2019s daughter has fled, while she is in Libya. This is deceptive news, unfair and supported by foreign funds against Libya.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Kilani is particularly angered by the portrayal in the Western and Arab press of armed rebels as \u201cinnocent civilians\u201d: \u201cHow can civilians possess RPG and Kalashnikov weapons, and come out with these weapons from their region to Tripoli? … From Derna to Benghazi, to Ajdabiya and to Burayqah they move riding tanks and military transport vehicles with U.S. aircraft over them; what kind of civilians are these?\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Kilani describes the rebellion as a mix of religious, political, media and military elements forming a \u201ctight-knit conspiracy.\u201d On the ground the Libyan regime faces \u201cthe weapons of terrorism and al-Qaeda,\u201d supported by deviant clerics and F-16 aircraft.<\/p>\n

Rejecting all foreign intervention in Libya, al-Kilani states the conflict is an internal affair: \u201cToday some 500 rockets from Qatar and the UAE have been used; these are our brothers; what have we done to them? We go to them as tourists; what have we done to them? What have we done to [Arab League Secretary-General] Amr Musa?\u201d Though Qaddafi\u2019s Libya is famous for its meddling in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, al-Kilani claims \u201cIf there is a dispute between a Qatari man and his father and brother, we have nothing to do with it; if there is a dispute in the UAE, we have nothing to do with it; therefore this is our own affair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to reports carried by the Arab press that members of the Libyan government are confined to the Bab al-Aziziyah barracks in Tripoli, al-Kilani insisted that these were \u201clies and falsifications.\u201d When asked why Minister of Defense Major General Abu Bakr Yunous\u00a0 has not been heard from (he was reported to have been detained by Qaddafi in the early days of the rebellion when he refused to issue orders to fire on demonstrators), al-Kilani said: \u201cHe is there in his ministry, may God prolong his life. He is a struggler. Come and see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the April 14, 2011 issue of the Jamestown Foundation\u2019s Terrorism Monitor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew McGregor April 14, 2011 Libyan poet Ali al-Kilani is a member of Mu\u2019ammar Qaddafi\u2019s inner circle and has been described as the \u201cpoet of the Green Revolution.\u201d As director of Libyan television, al-Kilani has played an important role in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1555,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/1555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}