After meeting with Libya's embattled leader Muammar Qaddafi, South African President Jacob Zuma came away with a cease fire offer by the Libyan leader, along with a promise to hold negotiations with Libya's NATO-supported rebels. However, Qaddafi rejected leaving Libya and Zuma said he fears for Qaddafi's personal safety amid a continuation of NATO's military campaign against Qaddafi's government. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has received an additional three-month mandate to continue NATO's military campaign against Libya.
The NATO campaign reportedly is expanding from aircraft and missile attacks on Qaddafi's forces to the insertion of British and French combat helicopters in Libya, as well as placing ex-British special forces personnel, now private military contractors, with Libyan rebel forces in key contested cities, including Misrata. Qaddafi's government claims that, to date, the NATO bombing campaign has killed 718 civilians.
In a set-back for Qaddafi, Malta announced that it was recognizing the rebel National Transitional Council, based in Benghazi, as the only point of dialogue between Malta and Libya. The announcement falls short of full recognition by Malta, which appears to be hedging its bets since it has maintained a number of lucrative joint business ventures with Qaddafi's government.
It is becoming apparent that the NATO campaign in Libya was largely the brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Rasmussen, the former Danish Prime Minister. There are reports that Sarkozy and Rasmussen were selected at an early stage of their political careers by Mossad to be future agents of influence for the Israeli government and its interests.
Rasmussen, known as one of George W. Bush's major European backers for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, became NATO Secretary General after conducting a major political operation on behalf of the alliance. As Danish prime Minister, Rasmussen successfully blocked moves toward total independence by Denmark's North Atlantic colonies, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, thus ensuring their continued inclusion inside NATO's North Atlantic zone of control.
Denmark calls the two colonies "self-governing" territories, although they have no control over defense or foreign affairs matters. NATO was happy to reward Rasmussen with NATO's top job as a reward for his efforts. Rasmussen now stands as one of the most expansionistic NATO Secretaries General in the alliance's history.
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