Libyan War

"Operation Odyssey Dawn"

breaking for Washington

by Thierry Meyssan

The French strikes against Libya are not a French operation, but a
subcontracting component of Odyssey Dawn Operation under the
authority of U.S. AfriCom. Their objective is not to rescue Libyan
civilians, but to serve as a pretext to pave the way for the landing of
U.S. forces on the Black continent, notes Thierry Meyssan.

At the London summit of 2 November 2010, France decided to pool defense

assets with the British, who depend on the United States.
It was France, the United Kingdom and the United States who submitted
to the UN Security Council the text which was adopted as resolution
1793, establishing a no-fly zone over Libya.

This initiative must be understood in two ways:

First, vis-à-vis public opinion at home Barack Obama could not afford to
take on a third war in the Muslim world after those in Afghanistan and
Iraq, where his country is still mired. Washington thus preferred to
delegate this operation to its allies.
Secondly, acting on behalf of U.S. interests favourable to the "special
relationship" between London and Washington, Nicolas Sarkozy’s priority
since the beginning of his mandate has been to bring French and British
defenses closer together. He achieved this through the defense
agreements of 2 November 2010 and found in the Libyan crisis an
opportunity for joint action.

With France’s reinstatement in NATO’s integrated command, voted on

17 March 2009 and ratified at the Strasbourg-Kehl summit of 3-4 April
2009, Nicolas Sarkozy abandoned the principle of an independent
French defense.
Through the Treaty of Lisbon, of which he claims to be one of the
principal architects, Sarkozy had already forced the European Union to
forego any form of independent defense and to rely permanently on
NATO.
A half-century later, his policy consecrates the triumph of the European
Defence Community (EDC) principle, historically opposed by the
Gaullists and the Communists.

Under the pretext of implementing economies of scale in times of crisis,

David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy dismantled the latest gains by the
nationalistic gallo-communist front and concluded two treaties.
The first one provides for increased co-operation as well as the pooling
of materials and equipment, including aircraft carriers. Above all, it
establishes an ad hoc Combined Joint Expeditionary Force, composed of
3 000 to 3 500 men, subject to deployment, with notice, for bilateral
NATO, EU or United Nations military operations.
The second treaty calls for industrial and research-development
projects. In particular, it envisages the pooling of technologies for
nuclear laboratory tests. This implies that the French nuclear deterrent
will no longer be independent, while the British deterrent is under U.S.
control.

To launch the Franco-British expeditionary force, the competent

ministers of both countries, Liam Fox and Alain Juppé (Minister of
Defense from 14 November 2010 to 27 February 2011) planned a large-
scale joint air exercise dubbed Southern Mistral, scheduled to take place
from 21 to 25 March 2011,

The peculiar Air Operations Command logo: the gladiator does not protect the
bird of freedom, but entraps it in his net instead.

It should feature "Composite Air Operations and a specific air raid

(Southern Storm), delivering very long range conventional strike. Over
500 personnel will contribute to this bilateral exercise", according to the
Southern Mistral website edited by the Air Defense Command and Air
Operations.

"Six Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s, one tanker Vickers VC-10 and one
Boeing E3D will be deployed together with French Air force Mirage
2000Ds, 2000Ns and 2000Cs operating with a fleet of around thirty
aircraft including helicopters, Boeing tankers and Awacs radar aircraft
(...)
Simultaneously, Paratrooper Commando Air 20 (CPA20) will receive its
British counterpart in Dijon: the RAF Regiment. Together they will train
for air base protection missions on operational theatres in compliance
with what is achieved today in Afghanistan.
Furthermore, RAF Regiment members will train in Captieux to
helicopters’ air policing measures. These specific procedures are
implemented on a daily basis by the Quick reaction Alert FAF air defence
helicopters to intervene against “slow movers”, further specifies the
official communique.

This exercise was to be directed by Generals Desclaux and de

Longvilliers (France), air Marshall Garwood and air commodore Maas
(United Kingdom).

Coincidence or by design? Be that as it may, it was not an exercise but

the real operation in application of UN Security Council resolution 1793
that was launched on 19 March 2011. Only France, the United Kingdom
and the United States participated in the first day operation. Pending the
enlistment of other NATO member states and the constitution of a
coalition command, all operations are being coordinated from AfriCom
Headquarters in Stuttgart (Germany) by U.S. General Carter Ham. Naval
forces - including Italian and Canadian vessels that join the area - and
the tactical command have been placed under the authority of U.S.
Admiral Samuel J. Locklear, on board the USS Mount Whitney. All that in
accordance with NATO’s precooked preparedness plan [1]. We are far
from the official rhetoric regarding the French initiative, but squarely
within the logic of subservience described above.

The French component of the operation has been denominated

Harmattan, after the dry and dusty wind that blows across West Africa.

Its British counterpart is called Operation Ellamy.

But "Odyssey Dawn" applies specifically to the U.S. component, so that

everyone understands that it marks the dawn of a U.S. odyssey in
Africa [2]. It is important here to note that, contrary to the soothing and
misleading speeches by Atlanticist leaders, Resolution 1793 is couched
in terms so vague that it may authorize the landing of colonial troops in
Libya. Indeed, the ban "excluding a foreign occupation force of any form
on any part of Libyan territory" does not apply to the creation of the no-
fly zone, but only to the operations of civilian protection (§ 4). This point
was raised by the Russian and Chinese Ambassadors to the Security
Council who received no response, hence their abstention during the
U.N. vote [3].
During his press briefing at the Pentagon on 19 March, Vice-Admiral Gortney
explained that the U.S. missile strikes were intended to shape the combat operations
theater for allied operations.

For the first day of Harmattan, the French forces deployed the
equipment which was to be used in the Southern Mistral exercise as well
as the two anti-aircraft and air defense frigates (the Jean Bart and the
Forbin) stationed offshore from Libya. They seemingly destroyed four
armoured tanks. On their side, the Anglo-American forces used a
Trafalgar class British submarine and eleven U.S. battleships - including
two destroyers (Stout and Barry) and three submarines (Providence,
Florida, and Scranton) - to launch 110 guided Tomahawk missiles.

This military operation could endure if the Libyan forces oppose a

resistance. At all events, the logic at play should lead to the situation
which had prevailed in Iraq between Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom: a
de facto partition of the country between loyalists and rebels.

[1] Press conference by Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Libya, by Anders Fogh Rasmussen,
Voltaire Network, 10 March 2011.

[2] On the manipulation of the Libyan crisis and U.S. designs on Africa, read "Proche-
Orient : la contre-révolution d’Obama", by Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 16 March
2011.
[3] UN security council resolution 1973 in favour of a no-fly zone in Libya, Voltaire
Network, 17 March 2011.

Thierry Meyssan

French political analyst, founder and chairman of the Voltaire

Network and the Axis for Peace conference. He publishes
columns dealing with international relations in daily
newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and
Russian. Last books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie
and Pentagate.

March 20th, 2011 

 
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