Mainstream Media Reports On Libya From 2011 Are Disturbingly Similar To Current Ones On Syria.

A Look Back At Mainstream Media Reports On Libya Serve As A Cautionary Tale For Current Coverage Of Syria

Some Background on Syria and Libya

It is fair to say many see the fall of the Assad regime in Syria as a massive positive for the future of Syria. There is no doubt that there are understandable reasons for thinking this. Assad was a brutally repressive dictator and seeing the many political prisoners being liberated from his barbaric torture dungeons- which Amnesty International called “human slaughterhouses”- is certainly a positive development.

However, what I think some are missing in their analysis of Syria is that just because one Tyrant is removed does not mean the situation will necessarily get better and there is even a strong possibility of it getting even worse.

What I find many overlook in Syria is the nature and history of HTS, the rebel group that overthrew Assad, and its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani who doesn’t exactly have a clean record. As the New York Times reported Jolani “went to neighboring Iraq to join Al Qaeda” in 2003 and then “emerged in Syria around the start of the civil war and formed the Nusra Front, a Qaeda affiliate”.

As late as 2017, The United States officially labeled him a “terrorist” and put a ten million bounty on his head. They also claimed he has “carried out multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria, often targeting civilians”.

His group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS is officially labeled as a “terrorist” group by the U.S. and the UK government has said HTS “should be treated as an alternative name for the organization Al Qa’ida”.

While the reign of Assad abuses in Syria is over, its new de facto leader al-Jolani’s rap sheet on human rights abuses isn’t exactly clean either. Human Rights Watch has documented that under his watch, HTS has committed “Executions, Indiscriminate Shootings, and Hostage Taking”.

These abuses aren’t exactly in the distant past, as late as March of this year protests spurred against Jonali in the Syrian city Idlib- which he and HTS controlled -for his “ arrests and enforced disappearances of thousands”. According to a report from the German outlet DW, the protests in Idlib erupted over “the death of a prisoner in jail, apparently through torture at the hands of security forces of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham”.

The other issue I think some are missing in Syria is what happens in the aftermath of the collapse of the state. Assad was a monster, but so was Saddam Hussien, this does not mean that the collapse of the state in Iraq didn’t have terrible consequences. In fact this problem is what Assad banked on to get people to support him despite his brutality, and for a time it worked.

A 2015 report from PBS’s Martin Smith, who traveled to government-held Syria found that while many did not like Assad, they ended up opposing regime change over this very fear. As he put it

They saw what happened in Iraq after Saddam, and in Libya after Qaddafi. They watched as state infrastructure — schools, hospitals, police, water, electricity — crumbled with the fall of the central government, and they didn't want the same to happen to them.

While not exactly the same situation, there are certainly some major parallels between Syria and Libya.

In Libya, NATO intervened to help jihadists overthrow Muammar Qaddafi and completely destroyed the country. A UK parliament autopsy on the intervention found that

The threat of Islamist extremists, which had a large influence in the uprising, was ignored — and the NATO bombing made this threat even worse, giving ISIS a base in North Africa.

The uprising — which was violent, not peaceful — would likely not have been successful were it not for foreign military intervention and aid.

and that

The NATO bombing plunged Libya into a humanitarian disaster, killing thousands of people and displacing hundreds of thousands more, transforming Libya from the African country with the highest standard of living into a war-torn failed state.

While Syria is certainly a more complicated situation than Libya, the parallels are worth noting. As stated earlier there is a parallel between the ignored extremist elements of the rebellion in Libya and the extremist elements of the rebellion in Syria.

While U.S. involvement in the overthrow of Assad was not as direct as Libya they certainly played a role. As I wrote about recently the CIA spent billions of dollars arming and training rebels fighting Assad, much of which went to groups like HTS and Al Nusera and the U.S. helped harm Syria’s economy through sanctions and occupying the oil and wheat-rich areas of the country to be used “as leverage for effecting the overall broader Syrian conflict” in the words of the defense departments Dana Stroul.

How the Media Covered Libya

The current narrative in the mainstream media is that Syria is now liberated from oppression and has a bright and possibly democratic future ahead of it. The biggest concern with this coverage is that it is exactly how they covered the fall of Gaddafi, which eventually led Libya to become a war-torn failed state with ISIS bases and open slave markets.

While this does not automatically mean that Syria will turn into Libya, it serves as an important warning sign for what may come and as a reason to be skeptical of the overly optimistic mainstream media coverage of Syria.

Starting with the BBC, their reports on Libya in 2011 portrayed the overthrow of Gaddafi as a good move that Libyans were happy about. In a video report very similar to the current reports coming out of Syria, the video showed footage of Libyans celebrating the fall of Gaddafi while the BBC narrator said:

As news emerged of the death of Libya’s fugitive leader, the capital erupted in an explosion of relief and joy , with fighters and civilians young and old all headed onto the streets

The BBC reporter even followed this by saying: “Libyans can now hope to bury their past and build a new future in a country that suffered so much.”

The video ended by showing a celebration of Gaddafi's fall with the reporter saying “for these Libyans, the only thing that mattered was that the man they hated and feared for so long was gone” and interviewed a 12-year-old Libyan girl who said, “I feel so happy, like just so amazing we never felt more happier than today”.

Another BBC article covered the fall of Gaddafi in a similar way writing:

What often appeared to be staged festivities - of cheering crowds pledging loyalty to the regime over the years - has now been replaced with a palpable sentiment of celebration that has continued ever since Tripoli fell into rebel hands.

The article also wrote that

The walls have transformed into public canvases, where young men are eagerly leaving their artistic mark as they paint the red, black and green colors of the pre-Gaddafi monarchy flag.

The article even went as far as to claim that Libyans had a “spirit of sheer elation” at their “newly found freedoms”. Near the end, the article also claimed that Libya was a nation that “cheered for newly found freedoms”.

Keep in mind the regime change operation eventually led to ISIS bases and open slave markets, not exactly things associated with freedom.

The American media wasn’t much different from the British in their coverage of Gaddafi's fall. In 2011 the New York Times wrote:

Late into the night, Libyans celebrated Colonel Qaddafi’s death, as did some elsewhere in the Arab world, seeing it as a lesson to autocrats in Yemen and Syria

The Times even quoted Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, a member of Libya’s supposed transitional post-Gaddafi government saying the fall of Gaddafi was “the end of tyranny and dictatorship” in Libya. The article also quoted Barack Obama, the architect of Libya’s destruction saying:

The dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted, and with this enormous promise the Libyan people now have a great responsibility to build an inclusive and tolerant and democratic Libya

Far from the only mainstream American outlet to cover Libya in this way, The Wall Street Journal wrote at the time that the fall of Gaddafi was “setting the stage for the nation to reinvent itself after a 42-year dictatorship.”

The paper also wrote that

The first leader killed in this season of uprisings across the Arab world—sparked jubilant celebrations across Libya, as citizens absorbed the news that the man who ruled over them with an iron fist for most of the nation's modern history was gone.

and wrote that:

streets in downtown Tripoli were mobbed with honking cars and families shouting for joy, while the city's mosques chanted celebratory prayers.

and that

Dozens of people remained in the streets before dawn Friday morning, waving flags, pumping their fists in the air, and chanting in celebration.

NPR similarly wrote at the time that after Gaddafi fell “Tripoli Rejoiced” and wrote that

networks are showing scenes of jubilation in the streets of Tripoli as Libyans celebrate the news of Gadhafi's death

NPR also quoted a reporter in Tripoli that said:

wild celebrations across Tripoli. ... Wherever I've gone [there are] people dancing and flashing 'V' signs."

The Huffington Post at the time wrote that:

Libyans around the world have celebrated the death of former dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi

and wrote that

Fireworks marked the news in the capital, while fighters and civilians poured into Martyr's Square waving the flags of the new country.

The article even quoted a Libyan living in the UK who said “I am here to celebrate Gaddafi’s death”, “He killed our people, he killed our children and he put people in prison for no reason. Today, I feel I can fly”.

Even Al Jazeera wrote at the time that “Mustafa Abdel Jalil, its interim leader, called for calm, urging rebels not to launch reprisal killings against Gaddafi supporters” a statement similar to Jolanis current promises to not support sectarian or revenge killings in Syria.

These Reports Are A Warning Sign

The fact that the media reported on Libya in 2011 in the same way that they are reporting on Syria now does not mean that Syria will turn into Libya but it certainly is a concerning warning sign.

The Libyans covered by the mainstream media were certainly justified in celebrating the end of a repressive leader, but the media was mostly ignoring the Libyans who were fearful of what would come next or the extremist elements of the rebellion.

The same is likely true in Syria where the media is covering the Syrians who are understandably rejoicing at the fall of their brutal dictatorship that they have had to live under since 1971. Similarly, the media is whitewashing a group that not long ago was recognized as an Al Qaeda affiliate. The media is also ignoring the Syrians who are fearful of what will come next in the country, such as the Syrian friends of journalist Rania Khaleck who said that HTS is “behaving like religious extremists” and that they “see on social media everyone is so happy, but the victors are controlling everything,"

Currently, many Libyans are looking at the situation in Syria and seeing parallels between it and what happened to them. Alarabiya news reported that “Residents of Libya’s capital Tripoli drew comparisons between Syria and the first days of the post-Gaddafi era.”

Syria may end up stabilizing but given the history of similar situations such as Iraq or Libya, that outcome is unfortunately unlikely.