The Adventure

The city of Derna underwent a terrible recession in 1958, essentially due to the evil plots, staged by the British and the palace,  mainly to keep the city economically behind. This was planned especially after the 1956 Suez war, when Great Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt  which was under the command of President Gamal Abdulnasser. The war was named after the city of Suez, whose men confronted the triple aggression (Al-Udwan Al-Thulathi) with bravery and sacrifice, to counter the enemy, who tried to occupy the canal of Suez , the precious naval access and  main  artery to the Persian gulf and the far east. Britain, France and Israel intended to strongly react to the slap of the nationalization. It was one of the worst crisis in the history of the East-West struggle. The Soviet threat of intervention in the conflict (whether it was true or just an intrigue) and the rationality of the United States to ask its allies to withdraw their forces and end the conflict, have hindered the situation from escalating in a nuclear holocaust between the East and the West, where no one can be a winner. The Egyptian Media propaganda exploited this situation in the worst of ways and started talking about an alleged victory. Unfortunately, all the Arabs, from the Persian gulf to the Atlantic ocean, believed these allegations!

It was, obviously, a bulk of lies and a huge loss of thousands of the brave Egyptian soldiers in a war, lost in advance, because of the weak and unqualified Arab leadership.

The outcome was more tangible and obvious in the terrible setback and shocking surprise of the war of 1967, when the Israeli Army by itself and without any assistance defeated the Arab armies on three fronts and annexed lands on three fronts: Sinai in Egypt, the Golan heights in Syria and east Jerusalem and the West bank under Jordanian administration.

All the Arab prestige was lost because of the dictatorship, the deceptive media and the lack of awareness of the Arab people of what was going on behind the curtains and the hidden forces, working night and day for its destruction.

We were cursed by authoritarian military rulers, who appear as patriots loyal to the cause but in actuality they were stupid ignorants. They, knowingly or unknowingly, defied plans and strategies that were previously laid out. They firmly believed they were right  and no one from the large enthusiastic  masses could tell the truth, which is a real tragedy!

At that time, the people of Derna were patriotic, highly educated and very smart. They could read between the lines and decipher, before the others, about any conspiracy! The occupier was an occupier, no matter what the cover he uses, pretending to be peaceful and looking out for the interest of the occupied people; when in fact all their actions were like needles of anesthetic intended to numb the people so they would not rise and ask for their rights and acquire their freedom and democracy.

The nationalist and patriotic people of Derna, driven by enthusiasm, asked the British troops, who had their camp in the city, to leave, even though the city was thriving essentially on the presence of those British camps! They were brainwashed by the Arab nationalist propaganda and the dogmatic speeches of Egyptian president, Nasser; so they did not really calculate the impact of their action on the future of their city!  The British occupiers were shrewd, they may smile at you but they stab you in the back, as soon as they have the opportunity to do that!

Finally, the British conspired with their men in the palace, who hated the city and wanted it always to remain backwards. The British withdrew their troops, once and for all, toward Benghazi and Tobruk. Since that time Derna became besieged and jobless! It no longer had attractive business opportunities for the people from neighboring areas who used to visit the city to wheel and deal their agricultural products and livestock. The city started progressively to lose its importance and luster. Its inhabitants started to leave for better economic opportunities. With time, it retracted backwards as a result of its lack of vision, its fake radicalism and its defiance to the hidden giants, unable to coexist with them, respecting them or even taking as much possible advantage of them to get rid of  their difficult reality. Despite their intelligence and smartness, they finished by becoming miserable and marginalized and this is the fair price for their ignorance. They forgot that the general interest requires the intelligent use of the brains and the sages, in order to reach the higher goals.

With time (progressively) and as result of the deprivation, refusal, instability and lack of vision of the authorities and the decision makers and the frustration as well as the withdrawal of the strong men, the city started to go backward. As a result of the wrong policies and the corrupt revolutionary  committees, ignorants and criminals took the command of the city. They were unscrupulously stealing the city’s budget  which they were unlawfully and secretly dividing among themselves. These people had neither consciousness to dissuade them nor legal authority  to prosecute them for their abuses.

This filthy environment facilitated the germination of radical groups, under the cover of religion, who were asking for reforms and jihad against the injustice and corruption. These groups were taking the religion as a cover and a mask, which made them very convincing for the simple citizens.

We Libyans are all muslims, who believe in Allah and the Islamic faith, including its tolerant rule, out of strong conviction and a deep spiritual belief. Islam is well rooted in our hearts, without violence. There is no one and no authority, no matter how radical or fanatic it can be, that can deviate us from our faith or direct us toward its ideology or  take it from our hearts and souls, except the almighty Allah!

 

Meanwhile, these people are stuck with the fundamentals and forgot very  important aspects of our religion. For example, they forgot that the Islam orders us, muslims, to seek the knowledge wherever it is, in accordance with the prophet Muhammad Hadith “Seek the knowledge even in China”  which was considered, at that time, the end of the world! This Hadith did not come out of nowhere but it is inspired to the prophet by the almighty Allah. God instructed us the right path and the peace, a noble feeling coming from the bottom of the heart and the consciousness . Allah specifically ordered us to abstain from violence, terror, murder and blood and to  continuously build good rapports , in good faith and between all humans, since confidence is the basis of the comfortable and happy life. The violence can only provoke violence and revenge and consequently there is no winner in this situation, since who ever is the winner will live in fear and terror, all the time, expecting the revenge that can occur anytime!

         

Humans have to cooperate and help each other, within the rules of good ethics, following the clear commandment of Allah: “ No violence in religion”

We are living today in the beginning of the 21st century and the world  has changed from the ignorance and the backwardness of the past to the era of globalization, built on progress and science. We are nowadays far away from the intrigues and the revenge. We’re living the era of Human Rights and the protection of minorities, whatever is their religion or orientation. Earth is not the property of any specific group of humans but it belongs to all the humanity. The faith shall always remain as an individual freedom and a personal choice. For example, if someone is not a believer or defies God willingly or unwillingly, are we, as humans, allowed to make pressure on him and force (through the use of violence or coercion) him to follow our faith, while many of us are radicals , who ignore  the true commandments of the religion?

Who gave us the right to be the unfair judges and the executioners at the same time? At that time, the sinner, instead of accepting the punishment  out of conviction, would certainly protest! These are questions that belong to God that we cannot understand the true motivation, whatever we do, because it is the will of God. Allah, the Almighty is, undoubtedly, able, in seconds, to lead us all to the same religion, prevent evil from existing inside us and in our lives, in this world and in the afterlife and make all humans tolerant. However, this is the basic essence of life; as much as there is goodness, security, safety and peace, there is evil and satan, who has been trying, since the first existence of humans on earth during the days of Adam and Eve, to deviate them from the right path.  Only the weak, the fool who pretends to be knowledgeable, would commit mortal mistakes, follow evil and defy the almighty. Therefore, he will be losing in our world and in the after-world!

What I want to underline in the respect for the human being as a human, whatever is his religion or color. We are all humans created from the same origin and earth can contain all of us. We can all get together  and live with love and real peace, instead of violence and fake challenges. We can all live in harmony and happiness because because we all need each other,no matter what can be the difference of our views . We can achieve that only through the honest dialog, confidence and paying respect to the others, especially the hidden powers and lobbies who are in control of this world, within sophisticated organigrams that we’re not able to understand. We have to use our brains in all consciousness and follow the modern science and latest technologies. We cannot defy with ignorance and arrogance or explain the sophisticated problematics as we want. We shall learn and train ourselves, whether we like it or not, for the cohabitation with the others, with all the due respect, within our religion and ethics. This is much better for us, instead of trying to obstruct their plans, or play with the fire pretending not to be aware that , one day, it will burn us. We have to train ourselves to move on and make abstraction of the futilities and the fake dilemmas. We shall avoid all confrontations or opposition to it so that they leave us to live in peace because as individuals, whatever our force can be, we will always be like an ant facing a high speed train who would smash us without even being aware of it!  

   

Well, our Tunisian brother said, spontaneously, during the revolution of January 14, 2011, in Tunisia: “We got old”! I, the Libyan revolutionary and long time militant within the Libyan opposition to Gaddafi, say: “We have learned a lot!”

I really don’t want to see the homeland, who’s going through a terrible 'giving-birth' period, facing a tremendous failure and falling in the trap, after the fall of Ghaddafi regime, as a result of lies and fake allegiances! Libya has to be very patient and learn! As I previously said, we have to avoid defying the hidden powers, who have a capital interest in our homeland! We have no choice other than to respect them and to cohabitate with them, as much as possible, so that we can be useful and take advantage, in the same time. We have to avoid radicalism and not to pretend to be strong, because WE ARE NOT! We have to be moderate and avoid to require too much or pretend the strength and the knowledge while we’re wea! We have to avoid demanding too much so that we don’t get confused and lose everything!

Meanwhile, we also have to avoid becoming weak followers, stupidly following their orders, or also being extremists, so that we don’t lose the sympathy of the world and the coming battles!

We simply have to accept our reality, without fake pride and use our wisdom. We have to always keep in mind our supreme goal! We have to avoid pushing the pretext of the dignity and patriotism or ask the super powers to treat us as equal to them because they’re running at the speed of sound while we’re still crawling! We also have to support each other and avoid competition, in the sense that we have to be aware of what’s going on around us, because it is a fierce competition and a real fight! We are obviously capable of winning the game and easily keep our dignity and pride, at the sine qua non condition of following the rules of the game and to cohabitate respectfully with the hidden powers, until we got the due respect among the civilized nations.

At the end, I can only reiterate and say again: “We’ve learned our lesson”!

God bless

Ragab Mabruk Zatout

The Independence

 
The 24th of December 1951 was a memorable day in the history of the Libyan modern state who rose from the ashes of the previous eras. Libya was part of the ancient  Greeks and Romans before  the Islamic conquests. Then, it became part of the  Ottoman era and Karamanli dynasty. Libya enjoyed the  advantages but also  endured  the tragedies of those eras. Later came the American invasion and the occupation of the city of Derna where the American Flag was raised for the first time outside  of  US territory for a short time before their subsequent withdrawal. Afterwards, it became part of the second Turkish era before the Italian invasion and the two world wars, the consequences of which were catastrophic on the innocent Libyan people who had nothing to do with the war. Finally came the independence for the first time in the history of Libya.

First, it was the result of the Jihad and the merciless fight and sacrifice for the homeland. This, was started in the east, under the leadership of the Sanussi family who had a great (tremendous) contribution in the direction of the battle. As well as the hero, Omar Al-Mukhtar who was a sheikh of one of its Zawiyas (Sanussias) who fought fiercely until he fell wounded  in a battle. He was identified and faced a quick trial and later hanged by the Italians, under the command of the General Grazziani. He was hanged without mercy or consideration for his old age (he was 80 years old).

In the west and south, there were many leaders and heroes as well as unknown soldiers whose stories are still untold, but their memory will remain with the Creator forever because they didn't give up and they scarified their lives for the sake of the freedom of the homeland and to get rid of the Italian occupier.

Second, as a result of the cold war, Libya became an independent state, a poor country with a small population, as a result of poverty, wars, starvation and ethnic cleansing. In the past, hidden forces  and the super powers ignored and marginalized Libya. It was not until the era of King Idris (may Allah rest his soul), the first and last monarch, when there was an explosion of wealth with the beginning of the oil production. This was a great reward and a gift from Allah to the poor Libya, who suffered tremendously all along its history and paid the high price, in blood and tears throughout all the empires and kingdoms of the preceding eras.

Libya had been a land of transit for the civilizations and the different conquering armies, who had forgotten, or made forgotten the previous civilizations who dominated its lands. Libya was the cradle of  ancient civilizations, like the advanced Garamantes civilization in the south west. They are credited for using underground irrigation systems. There are many rock art remaining in the Fezzan area of Libya, as well as a huge area that has not been excavated. One day, all this will be discovered and when that will happen, it will change the history of the world and prove to everyone that Libya had a great contribution to the human civilization and its progress.

The new kingdom came out of the blue and crossed its way through the darkness to the daylight.

At the opposite of what the old regime media was pretending, out of ignorance, so that the era of the kingdom wouldn’t have the due respect, even though it lasted for eighteen years. The independence of Libya was not an easy accomplishment, as described by the Gaddafi regime media. The honorable man of Libya made a huge sacrifice. Pushed by their strong faith, will, and determination to end the aggression, whatever the cost would be and the price to pay. Barefoot and hungry toward an independent state of Libya, for Libyans, who does not follow or receive instructions from anyone. They would not stop their dream until they reached their goal and accomplished the independence of the homeland.

After the end of World War II, the allies divided the cake among them. Libya was temporarily part of the British empire. There was a non binding agreement between the prince Idris Alsanussi (head of the Sanussi Rite, after his uncle, Sid Ahmed Alsanussi who abdicated the throne, before leaving to Istanbul) and the British forces, stipulating that the Eastern province would support the allies in their war against the Axis. In counterpart the allies would recognize Barga and its right for auto-determination. A pro Allies battalion was founded to support the Allies efforts in the War. The Sanussis played an important role in the War, through its leaders and supporters, providing the Allies with valuable intelligence about the Axis forces. As a result of that intelligence, many temporary airfields, as well as, several weapon storage rooms, belonging to the Axis forces, were destroyed by the Allies air forces (no satellites at that time) which made it very difficult for the Axis forces to make any advance in the war.

The Sanussi Army made many heroic acts (unfortunately only few of them were ever mentioned) that tremendously benefited the Allied forces, such as saving the life of the ejected pilots from crash jets (during the air battles from the Axis air force or shot down from the land). As well as providing, guides for the explosive teams to destroy the weapon storage facilities and ammunition, fuel and landed aircrafts and much other logistic help. After the victory of the allies, the Sanussis requested the British to fulfill their promise. The political movement continued all over Libya through strikes and demonstrations during the time of the British administration from 1944 to 1951. After many meetings, challenges, differences and competition, they reached an agreement to nominate the prince Idris Al-Sanussi as the leader and the first king of the country. They were honest men of honor and incorruptible. They only cared about the interest of Libya and the unity of the homeland. They set aside all their internal quarrels and made the liberation of Libya their ultimate goal, as well as, the creation of a new state.

        Great Britain opposed the union and independence of Libya, behind the curtains, with all the intrigues and political shrewdness, fruit of its global expertise in keeping peoples under control, in many corners of the globe. The British were accustomed to create problems between leaders and abolish their creation of political parties and groups of interest. They utilized many pretexts to stop the people from learning political games and how to make their point. They neglected the fact that Libyans were born naturally intelligent, very patient and extremely brave, which makes them resilient and ready to easily make sacrifices when needed.  The last thing they needed was to witness the giant coming out of the bottle.

        A great fortunate event that played a major role in the independence of Libya occurred when Russia requested the use of one of the Libyan seaports as a naval base. The West was obviously horrified over the Russian/Communist presence in the Mediterranean basin. After many rounds of deliberation, they reached an agreement to submit the case to the United Nations council to decide. Obviously, it was a well-planned strategy, organized by the West to keep Libya under their control. The plan was to keep Tripoli under Italian control, even though Italy lost the war, Barga under British control and Fezzan under French control. The Allies who won the war were dividing our homeland without any consultation with us. They did not even inform us. How tragic is that?

        The homeland is valuable and has its honest and great men who are incorruptible. The Libyan delegation members, Mr. Omar Faiq Shenib, Mr. Abdulraziq Shagloof and other good and patriotic men have succeeded to establish strong ties with other states’ representatives, which had a tremendous effect on the outcome of the vote. On the day of the vote at the council, it was a tied game, half of the members for the independence of Libya and the other half against Libyan autonomy. The remaining vote was the representative of Haiti, who was a friend of the Libyans and instead of following the instructions of his government (who ordered him to vote for the west), he gave his vote for Libya. That was a big slap on the face of Great Britian and a great victory for the Libyan delegation in New York.

        The Libyan people were excited with jubilation upon hearing the good news and happiness spread throughout the country. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the real hero, Emile San Lao. Great Britain was very upset and out of anger and grudge it refused to pay the Libyan delegation expenses (hotel accommodation, food and travel expenses). The delegation members had no other choice than to borrow an amount of money to pay their bills and travel tickets back to Libya.

Moreover, under Western pressures,  the Haitian government terminated  Mr. Emile San Lao from his position which pushed him to poverty at an old age. He even visited the Libyan consulate in New York City to ask  for help. Unfortunately, his request was denied from Tripoli which reflected the ingratitude of the Libyan government under Gaddafi's rule.  How tragic was that?!

To summarize the situation, we can say that Britain intended to rule Libya through deception, using the Sanussi family as  a cover while the real rulers were the Shalhis. It also revived the tribal and regional sensitivities, until they gained influence, especially in the Western province of Libya. There was a competition between the Sharif family and the Shali family. Each side was demanding British support, assistance and patronage, especially, when oil was discovered in large quantities with great quality.  The situation got worse because of the unwillingness of King Idris to continue to rule the country as he got older and wanted to retire and seek refuge in the oases of Jaghbub.

Meanwhile, the opportunists, hypocrites and social climbers succeeded to manipulate the masses to come together,  from all over Libya, and march toward the royal palace in Tobruk, to request the king to revoke his resignation. The pressure escalated upon King Idris when he went out to the balcony and saw the thousands of Libyans  chanting and demanding him to stay in power. The King was not aware of what was happening behind the scenes and the lobbies taking advantage of maintaining him on the throne. All what those greedy lobbies wanted was to remain in the effective power and fatten their accounts with the stolen wealth from the oil commissions.

They certainly forgot that the people would one day wake up and demand their right to freedom and independence. No matter how long it takes, individuals would die and vanish one day; but peoples remain alive until the end of days. The competition and challenges between the two families escalated to murder and assassinations of one another. This situation resulted in the hidden forces and international lobbies strongly supporting the ‘black coup’ (Fateh Revolution) of the 1st of September 1969, when a monster reached power and destroyed Libya with terror and oppression for more than 42 years. God Almighty finally granted us the glorified revolution and the monster tyrant  was destroyed forever.

May Allah rest the soul of King Idris, the descendent of the noble family, who tremendously suffered from the intrigues and conspiracies of some of the men of his era. One of the most important statements that I have heard in his speech on the radio in the first celebration of the independence was: ‘keeping the independence is harder  than obtaining it.’

Now that we are freed  twice; the first one was from the Italian colonization and the second was from the dictatorship, I ask everyone to strongly keep the king legacy and not to forget it with time so that we enjoy our independence and stay forever free.

This is a memorable legacy that can not  be forgotten, because it is the first time for Libya to become an independant state. This was the fruit of a fierce fight and sturple against oppression under all its forms and names.

We ask the Almighty Allah to keep our wealth and that the good men among the revolutionaries, keep their eyes open so that our revolution won’t be stolen by other adventurers and that we keep our independence, the backbone of our union, cohesion and strength.  Only then we would  go together forwards.

God bless.

Ragab M. Zatout

Introduction

    

 Five  months and several days have passed and we are still struggling and fighting at the height of murder and  bloodshed  since the outbreak of the blessed Libyan revolution. This glorious youth revolution of  February 17, 2011 is the revolution of the free patriotic men and women  who toiled under the oppression of the tyrant, for a period of more than four decades. Most of these rebels are young in age; in their twenties and thirties and from the “black coup” of the 1969 generation.  They know very  little of the honorable  history of Libya, obliterated by the Gaddafi media which intentionally  faked the country’s history and glorified Gaddafi, his relatives and acquaintances; and made them at the summit and weaved stories of them being heroes. When in fact, they are  simple, unknown and insignificant individuals who do not have any glorious history in the golden patriotic fight for freedom and dignity, neither in the past nor in the present. But  for each country, there are as I say “pseudo-men”! 

In my quest to gain the maximum support for the revolution, I traveled between the cities and capitals of the world,  utilizing my relationships, friends and acquaintances  to mobilize the leaders and the decision-makers in the governments and in international organizations.  I had the opportunity to sit with many patriotic young men. We talked about  many personal stories of past Libyan heroes who were never mentioned in the history of Libya. I was surprised that only few knew about their existence and their heroism. Unfortunately, these heroes were illiterate and never recorded their stories; their stories were only mentioned during  late night conversations until they passed away. 

In the past, we Libyans, as a result of ignorance and lack of interest, were not used to writing and recording such things as: historical events, national events, or personal memoirs. If it wasn’t for the efforts of a few historians, may Allah bless their good deeds, many important events of our national  history would have been lost forever.

Through great research, I found only a few stories written about the lives of our national heroes. I have never  heard of any stories glorifying these heroes  while listening to the radio or  watching television. These heroes and their untold stories are buried in their respective graves forever; with the exception of some stories related to the famous martyr, Omar Mukhtar.  This is mainly caused by the fact that those who are in charge of the media and run it , are mostly young people who have limited-knowledge and they do not know the true history of their homeland.

During the decades of the Gaddafi regime,  his media did not mention the nation’s true heroes. That was done on purpose in order to deflate the patriotic spirit of the young nationals with a few exceptions programmed according to studies and strategies by experts. Most of the journalists and correspondents are directed to disseminate news serving the best interest of the tyrant and they painted a rosy picture of him to attract  the masses. 

Libya has a truly honorable and noble history. It is built on noble causes such as defending personal honor, homeland, religion, and the willingness to  sacrifice our blood and soul for them. Our great grandfathers have defended the homeland for thousands of years.  They always maintained deep convictions for their cause. Especially, during the era of colonialism; the brutal Italian occupation from October 1911 until the end of World War II. They also continued their defense throughout successive administrations and governments until the “black coup” of September 1969. 

The Gaddafi era started with lies and mellifluous promises for freedom, power and wealth to the people. Propaganda that played on the emotions of the people and attracted the masses. These sugar coated promises were like mixing poison in honey. To make matters worse, the Egyptian media exacerbated the situation with further propaganda against the West. Everyone rushed to support, with the exception of a few. That minority had the knowledge and expertise to understand the gravity of the situation and understood the dramatic long-term effects on everyone.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten all the merits  of the royal era and the tremendous efforts and sacrifices of its men when Libya was poor, neglected and marginalized. Despite all the difficulties and deterioration  after the war, the pain of the people and loss of loved ones, the destruction of the infrastructure,  the dire need of reconstruction and development of major cities,  our pious and humble king along with a group of patriotic men managed to lay down the foundation of a new, modern state.

The kingdom was like a newborn who grows up every day with a new sunrise. Little by little, the country was advancing in  all fields. But the evil hidden forces and the international lobbies were  interested in the exploitation of goods and wealth, unknown to the simple people at the time who were unaware of  what was happening behind the scenes. They did not accept to let the newly rich nation emerge  and shine and become a beacon within time. The Eastern and Western interests did their best to squander vast wealth from oil income in war and conflicts so that the country would always remain backwards. 

There are a series of events that sent  the country down a spiral.  First, the arrival of Gaddafi as the head of state was baffling mystery. No matter how much we know, we will never comprehend his evil ruling. Secondly, the greed of the  international forces of evil supported him until he took power.  Third, we had to learn a harsh lesson so that we go back to the path of true faith, to learn that freedom is never granted without  sacrifice and blood. The Coup of 1969 (the so called “revolution”) was almost peaceful with the exception of  few men of honor, who defended the monarchy till the end. They were not remembered because of the fake glory that followed the Coup and their memory was hidden by the “revolution” of backwardness so that they won’t become martyrs and heroes in the eyes of the free patriotic men with time. 

The other side of the ugly face hidden behind a mask  was the unpredictably of Gaddafi.  He controlled  the country by force and  violence. The massive and systematic violation of human rights consisted of  the imprisonment of thousands of patriots, the general practice of  torture , the murder and the hangings in jails under the pretext of security and safety of the revolution ( coup ). He  expropriated all the private assets and nationalized the properties under fake revolutionary slogans. All these commotions preoccupied the people and distracted them so he did as he pleased without without any control. 

One of the most abominable atrocities committed by the Gaddaffi regime, was  the mass murder  at Abu Salim prison in Tripoli in the mid- nineties of the last century to about 1,300 prisoners.  Hundreds of others like them killed throughout the dark regime by  hanging in silence and were  buried in secret and undisclosed locations. It is a black bloody history under the  orders of a fool executed by corrupt agents  imported from  of neighboring countries who do not have a conscience. 

The financing of terrorism in the world using  flimsy excuses of supporting freedom fighters  to achieve freedom in their countries where we as Libyans have no reason to interfere or being involved is inexcusable under any circumstances. We were still very weak, barely able to live ourselves and we need a long time to build and construct our country. 

Dark pages were written down in the history of the nation as a result of the rule of a fool with multiple personalities who thought he was the one and only  because of all the hypocrites around him.  He even believed that he was “the king of all kings” and he forgot that he was a demon in the form of a man,  a common mortal, no matter how long,  will die and end .

The glorious revolution of February 17, did not come out of the blue  but as a result of many factors;  terror, murder, hangings , imprisonment, torture , corruption, many restrictions  for the citizens of the simplest and most trivial things, and the lack of personal freedoms. All these factors led to the backwardness of the homeland for many years at all levels.

The outcome of all theses abuses was the revolution that God willing will shortly prevail, thanks to the strong will and patience of the young revolutionaries who stood in defiance with their small arms, pistols, rifles, little ammunition and lack of training against the heavily armed and well trained brigades of the tyrant. Their strength was derived from their faith and their conviction that this regime must come to an end at any price. 

I have so many stories I wish to share before I leave this earth so that they won’t be forgotten and erased hoping that those who need to put the whole puzzle of Libya together might find pieces among my work. This is my humble contribution to focus the spotlight on some of the heroes, some of whom I had the pleasure to know closely either while I was growing up in Libya or during my fugitive days. I had to flee the country when all my assets  were confiscated by the Gaddafi regime. My life became in danger and I was hunted by the Gaddaffi, so called “revolutionary” committees and their agents. I have tried to write honestly and with conscience and not to blur any facts to the best of my knowledge in witnessing, so that their memory will not be lost with time. 

In 2011, I was 68 years old and I thank God that I lived to see the glorious revolution.  As a child, I lived during the prosperous era when Libya was a kingdom and I witnessed the “black” coup. I lived during its tragedies and was burnt by its fires. I had to flee the homeland and struggled with all I have, effort and money. I prayed to God to extend my life till the day I see the joy of victory over the tyrant and the establishment of a new Libya founded on democracy and the laws of God according to our present era. A country where we can live free in peace and harmony, security and safety for all so we can get up and move forward and our country Libya becomes a beacon radiating goodness for everyone. It is about time to finally remove the stigma of evil and terrorism as has been happening. 

I have accompanied many of the freedom fighters who have become now martyrs and moved to the mercy of God Almighty , but their fragrant memory will remain immortal and they will be always remembered as an important part of the history of Libya. 

                                                                 God  bless  

Ragab Zatout