Category Archives: Darnah

“… To the shores of Tripoli”

America’s Military Connection to Libya and Tripoli’s Link to the US Marines’ Hymn

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Two Hundred years ago the newly independent U.S.A. won a military victory in Libya that inspired the famous words from Francis Scott Key:

THE MARINES’ HYMN

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land and sea.

United States relations with what is now Libya have a complex history going back to America’s first decades. Although two other North African states, Morocco and Tunisia, were among the first countries in the world to recognize the USA diplomatically, the new nation soon fought the Barbary Wars in the Mediterranean over attacks on its ships by pirates from Tripoli—the origin of the “shores of Tripoli” reference in the Marines’ Hymn.

Why the Corps were on the shores of Tripoli

President Thomas Jefferson became the first US president to bypass Congress and take the nation to war in 1801. It was the First Barbary War of 1801-1805. It was also a war of many firsts: the first foreign war fought by the US after the American Revolution,  the first time an American soldier shed blood on foreign soil, the first time the US Marines saw battle, and the first time the Stars and Stripes were raised over foreign soil after a military victory. It was also the first attempt by the US to overthrow a foreign ruler and install an American-friendly government – an attempt which ended in compromise, not in victory. The mission was embarrassingly abandoned yet oddly commemorated by the Marines who never actually made it to the shores of Tripoli.

The Barbary Wars


125px-Flag_of_the_Ottoman_Empire_(1453-1844).svgولايت طرابلس غرب =Vilâyet-i Trâblus Gârp = Flag of the Ottoman Empire -Tripoli

The “Barbary” states are actually the North African states of today’s Algeria, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia that were nominally governed by the Ottoman Empire. The Barbary Wars originated from the Barbary Coast pirates’ attacks on ships and crews along the North Coast of Africa. Since the 13th century, Barbary Coast pirates had attacked European ships in the Mediterranean, freeing crews and cargoes only after receiving ransom payments. For a higher price, the pirate states would agree to abstain from taking ships or hostages in the first place. During the 2nd half of the 18th century and before the Treaty of Paris, which granted America’s independence from Great Britain, American shipping was protected by France. Shortly after independence, more than one-fifth of U.S. trade then was with Mediterranean countries. And without the protection of the British and the French navies (then fighting each other elsewhere), American shipping began to fall prey to the pirates around 1784, sometimes at a cost of 20% of the US budget. The need to protect American shipping was a major factor in drafting a new and stronger US Constitution. James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers of “the rapacious demands of pirates and barbarians,” that should be a good reason for American states to unite into a strong central government.

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USS Philly 1799

Thomas Jefferson preferred “confrontation with Barbary to blackmail.” US naval squadrons began to appear off the North African coasts to demand  liberation of hostages as well as free trade and free passage. In October 1803, Tripoli’s fleet captured the flagship USS Philadelphia intact after the frigate ran aground on a reef while patrolling Tripoli harbor. The ruler of Tripoli,  Yusuf Karamanli, imprisoned the entire 307-man crew of the 36-gun frigate and aimed its cannon at the rest of the U.S. fleet. In February 1804 U.S. Marines stormed the vessel and set fire to Philadelphia.

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The burning frigate Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804, by Edward Moran, painted 1897.

In 1805, William Eaton, the former US Consul in Tunis, organized a land attack on Libya. He lead nine Marines and 400 mercenaries on a two-month march of 500 miles from Egypt to Darnah, then Libya’s second-largest city. U.S. Navy ships also  bombarded the town where more than 800 people were killed. Marines then raised the 15-star U.S. flag over Darnah’s harbor fortress. A month later, Karamanli signed a new treaty and released the captain and crew of the Philadelphia (in exchange for $60,000). The American victory in Libya (though not in the city of Tripoli proper) was a historic event which established the US new military prowess. It would be enshrined in the Marine Corps Hymn, written in celebration of William Eaton’s victory of 1805:

Francis Scott Key’s new poem, “When the Warrior Returns,” was about the battle in Darnah, Libya. In it was a phrase that he would use nine years later while watching the British attack Fort McHenry:

And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscured

By the light of the Star Spangled flag of our nation.

Where each radiant star gleamed a meteor of war,

And the turbaned heads bowed to its terrible glare.


handar4Translation into Arabic of the the Marines Hymn:

من قاعات مونتيزوما

إلى شواطئ طرابلس ؛

نحارب معارك بلادنا

والحفاظ على شرفنا النظيف ؛

في الهواء ، في البر والبحر ؛

الأولى للكفاح من أجل الحق والحرية

والحفاظ على شرفنا النظيف ؛

نحن فخورون للفوز بلقب

البحرية الولايات المتحدة

[MORE]——


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Remains of sailors from the USS Intrepid are buried at a cemetery overlooking the harbor in Tripoli. Some may be at a site nearby.


Remains of sailors from the USS Intrepid are buried at a cemetery overlooking the harbor in Tripoli. Some may be at a site nearby. (Courtesy U.S. State Department) A bipartisan group of senators is pressing to repatriate the remains of 13 American sailors who died two centuries ago fighting pirates off the Libyan coast.

The sailors’ remains have been buried near the shores of Tripoli for 207 years after the sailors died in a failed mission against Barbary pirates.

In recent years, a small group of descendants has been seeking to bring them back to the United States. That effort appeared to gain momentum last spring, when the House backed a measure that would force the Defense Department to repatriate the remains. But the measure stalled in the Senate.

This week, a group of key senators wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees, urging them to include a repatriation provision in the defense authorization bill that’s in conference committee. Although the cemetery was recently restored, the senators said, it remains in jeopardy because of concerns about U.S.-Libyan diplomacy..

“Today, the future of our relations with Libya is uncertain,” the senators wrote. “For this reason, the restoration and preservation of the American Cemetery and its graves for the Navy’s sailors are … problematic.”

The Navy, however, opposes bringing the remains back to American soil, saying it considers Libya to be the sailors’ “final resting place.” Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, has asked the Navy and other defense officials for more information about their views on the issue. The Navy has said it has concerns about the ability to identify the remains.

In their letter, the senators backing the measure said there was no comparison between the physical state of the cemetery in Tripoli and other overseas locations where U.S. troops are buried, and that, as a result, they supported the effort to “exhume, identify and to repatriate.”

An assessment from the Congressional Budget Office found that repatriating the remains would cost $85,000 to $100,000, according to the letter.

The letter was signed by Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Libya: revolution, 17 February, 2011

Libyans Revolution

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The Libyan League For Human Rights

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handar4Libyan Revolution Blogs, Tweets, etc.

handar4Revolutionary Situation in LibyaProf. Juan Cole @ University of Michigan

 

210px-Flag_of_Libya.svg Gaddafi’s flag

  • How To Spell Qaddafi/Gadhafi/Gaddafi/Qadhafi

    You may have noticed reading the news recently, that there is no agreed upon way to spell the name of the current Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. The controversy is well illustrated by a May 1986 letter to Minnesota second graders; Gaddafi signed his name in English “Moammar El-Gadhafi.” The AP reported the event, “Second-Graders Get Letter From Khadafy.”

    Librarians are all too familiar with the profusion of guises in which the name of Libyan dictator Qaddafi may be encountered in the Latin alphabet.  (The Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) preferred form of entry — Qaddafi- lists 72 alternate spellings). For the rest of the public out there it’s still mystery that still requires explanation.

    In 2009, ABC News listed 112 different ways to spell Gaddafi, which have appeared in various news outlets. The leader’s name was even the topic of a 1981 Saturday Night Live sketch, offering the most creative spelling a one-way ticket to Tripoli.

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    The Definition Of Democracy According to

    Gaddafi“!!!

    [YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP!!]

    Qaddafi’s Arabic etymology of democracy:  ديمو كراسي

    Qaddafi gave a live interview with Al Jazeera in which he expounded on the meaning of the word “democracy.” According to him, the word “Democracy” is actually an Arabic word that means to sit in one’s chair, because apparently “cracy” is an Arabic plural that sounds like the word for chairs “karasy = كراسي” … and “demo” ديمو in Arabic means “to stay” or “to last a long time.”  The word “karasy” (cracy) in Arabic (pl.)  usually refers to the thrones or seats of power of ruling dictators, who tend to “sit on the chair” for life. Gaddafi, who has been on the chair himself since 1969, seems to understand that democracies are meant to be dictatorships, and vice-versa. “A system where you have a party, a president and a government is ridiculous,” he said.

    He ended the interview with the usual plug for his book, The Green Book (“all this is in The Green Book,” he concludes), a manifesto for government based on the “Third Universal Theory,” which proposes a solution to economic and social problems for humanity. If followed correctly, governments and societies would look much as Libya does.

    *******

    Who is Muammar al-Gaddafi?

    AllGov.com

    *******

    Fatwas, or religious edicts, Against Gaddafi

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    Several moral figures, both inside and outside Libya, backed the pro-democracy protesters and the spreading rebellion against his regime.

    Libyan authorities arrested Islamic Scholar Al Sadeq Al Gheryani after he spoke to Al Jazeera Arabic program over the phone (Feb-20-11) … during which he issued a holy decree (FATWA, or, Islamic edict), saying that it was “everyone’s duty to get out on the streets and topple Gaddafi.”

    Libyan cleric issues fatwa against Gaddafi gift cash

    On Tuesday (March 1st), one of Libya’s most prominent religious scholars issued a fatwa against the 500 dinars now being handed out to every Libyan family. In his fatwa, Sheikh Al Sadeq Al Gheryani said the money was tantamount to accepting a bribe from the Kadhafi regime. Such a fatwa is likely to be implemented by his followers, who represent a large section of the Libyan people.

    This fatwa was endorsed later by Sheik Ali Mohammed al-Selabi, who is considered to be the most influential religious scholar among Libyans abroad.

    Refused an appeal from one of Colonel Gaddafi’s sons, Saadi el-Qaddafi, to issue a fatwa banning demonstrations against his father. “Saadi, Qaddafi’s son, asked me to say a word against the protests; I refused to back him because they were killing innocent people, killing old men and peaceful demonstrators.” The cleric issued a fatwa against Gaddafi instead, saying that “it’s a religious obligation” to fight oppressors and to provide medical and humanitarian help for the protesters.

    The Saudi cleric said that he refused to back the Libyan regime because of its “injustices against the Libyan people. That regime is not offering security and peace to the people but it is offering the opposite.”

    The Grand Imam of Al-Ahmed Al-Tayeb, head of al-Azhar University in Cairo, calls for the Libyan army to disobey orders Gaddafi.

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    handar4Seif Qadhafi’s PhD thesis from LSE

    A copy of the PhD thesis Seif al-Qadhafi, son of Muammar al-Qadhafi, filed in September 2007 at the London School of Economics (whose former chancellor, Tony Giddens, was an advisor to his father). It’s called “The Role Of Civil Society In The Democratisation Of Global Governance Institutions: From ‘Soft Power’ to Collective Decision-Making?” [See more about academics-turned-consultants, Anthony Giddens and Benjamin Barber, according to guardian.co.uk]

    **********However********

    A careful Wiki-study of Saif al-Gaddafi’s PhD thesis at the London School of Economics yields an astonishing amount of suspicious, non-cited similarities to other texts.

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    As government security forces were reported to be firing into crowds of civilian protesters on Monday, and with Gaddafi Jr appearing on television to threaten a civil war in which the regime “will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet”, many of his erstwhile associates were questioning their friendships with him… More about this—

    handar4An inquiry into the LSE’s links with Libya and lessons to be learned (October 2011) This Report has been prepared by the Woolf Inquiry, an independent inquiry appointed by the Council of the LSE [London School of Economics] to establish the full facts of the LSE’s links with Libya.

    At the time Tony Blair was anxious to secure a rapprochement with the Libyan regime. The call from the Foreign Office to Professor Valpy FitzGerald, the head of Oxford’s Department of International Development, came in the spring of 2002. …    Continue reading Libya: revolution, 17 February, 2011