Introduction: Lion of the Desert is a film epic of the history of Omar Mukhtar, known as the Lion of the Desert, was a Bedouin who led the Libyan resistance in a war against colonization of Libya by the Italian army leading up to WWII. The film can be viewed below in English with Spanish subtitles in a 10 part series, each running from 9-10 minutes. The final video, Part 10 is in Arabic. Below these videos we provide an account of Libyan history from the reign of King Idris to the 2011 US/NATO war. In an article republished on Axis of Logic today from Voltaire.com, Pepe Escobar suggests that Col. Muammar Qaddafi could become Libya's new Lion of the Desert.

Update - September 27, 2011. Colonel Qaddafi, his sons and Libya's commanders continue to lead the legitimate Libyan military and the heroic Libyan people in their war of resistance against the NATO/NTC invaders. There is are solid reasons to believe that they are prevailing on many fronts. Through tactical guerrilla methods on the battlefield, infiltration of the NTC and news received today that thousands of Tuaregs and Mujahedin are pouring into the country to join them. Col. Muammar Qaddafi has already proved his mettle as Libya's reincarnation of Omar Mukhtar. If you want to know what these warriors are made of, watch the movie.

- Les Blough, Editor

In the film, Anthony Quinn plays the part of Omar Mukhtar and Oliver Reed, in the role of Rodolfo Graziani. The film was banned for 28 years by the Italian government after PM Giulio Andreotti declared in 1981 that the film was "damaging to the honor of the army." It was first broacast on Italian television in Italy on June 11, 2009 during the state visit to of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi.

LION OF THE DESERT PART ONE

LION OF THE DESERT PART TWO

LION OF THE DESERT PART THREE

LION OF THE DESERT PART FOUR

LION OF THE DESERT PART FIVE

LION OF THE DESERT PART SIX

LION OF THE DESERT PART SEVEN

LION OF THE DESERT PART EIGHT

LION OF THE DESERT PART NINE

LION OF THE DESERT PART TEN
In Arabic

We are grateful to Argentinomias 4 Indo Americano Censura en la Red for placing uploading this movie to You Tube.

Estamos agradecidos a Argentinomias 4 Indo Americano Censura en la Red para cargar esta película a You Tube.

The following history of Libya is offered as background and context for the current war being waged on Libya by western countries.

In 1910 Italy waged war against the Ottoman Empire, gaining control of the Ottoman colony that is now modern day Libya, and set out to establish "The Fourth Shore," the rebirth of the Roman Empire in Africa. In 1911 Italian forced deportation of Libyans to the Tremiti Islands and by 1912, a third of these Libyan refugees died from starvation and a lack of shelter.

Libya became an Italian colony from 1910 when the Italians attacked Tripoli and lasted until to 1947. After World War I Italy called it's policy in Libya "economic colonization" meant to exploit the country's natural resources. When Italy colonized the country in 1910 they began to develop and exploit Libya's petroleum and never allowed the Libyans to take control and nationalize their own oil fields. Through the years, Italy managed 90% of Libya’s oil refinement.

In 1934 Italy divided the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaicaland into four provinces—Tripoli, Misrata, Benghazi, and Darnah and called it the Colony of Libya - a name Diocletian gave the land 1500 years earlier.

The film, Lion of the Desert is devoted to the 20 year war between Libyan Revolutionaries and Italy. In 1929, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was faced with what would be a 20-year long war against the Libyan people. At the time he had over a million Italian soldiers stationed in Libya. Mussolini appointed Italian General Rodolpfo Graziani as his sixth governor in Libya and Graziani was determined to defeat Omar Mukhtar and his guerilla fighters. Mukhtar was a teacher turned guerilla to defeat the invading fascists.

Graziani led the Italians to commit atrocities, destroying crops, killing civilians, executing prisoners of war and imprisoning Libyans in conscentration camps surrounded by barbed wire. In contrast, Mukhtar trained his guerilla fighters not to kill captured Italian soldiers because it is forbidden by Islam and that they were only fighting to defend their homeland. He declared that Muslims are taught to hate war itself.

Graziani had to his advantage the might of the Italian Army and used tanks and aircraft in the desert for the first time in history. The Libyan Arabs and Berbers on the other hand fought with primitive weapons that were no match for the Italian war machine and they suffered heavy losses as a result. In spite of this huge power differential, Mukhtar and the fighters he led into battle denied the Italians a victory for 20 years.

Idris as-Senussi, became Libya's first and only king reigned came into power with British backing after supporting the west during WWII.

Unless otherwise indicated by hyperlinks, the following history is based upon reports from the BBC and China.org

In 1942 the U.S. Euro allies forced Italy out of Libya leaving Fezzan in French control and Cyrenaica and Tripolitania under British control.

In 1949 with the approval of the U.K. and the United Nations, King Idris declared Libya to be the independent Emirate of Cyrenaica in 1949. He wrote a new constitution, rubber stamped by his National Congress who then elected him as King of Libya. During his reign as King of Libya from 1951 to 1969 the country's oil fields fell into the hands of western oil companies and the U.S. Air Force established the Wheelus Air Base near Tripoli.

In 1951 King Idris gave Britain the right to establish military bases for 20 years and in 1954 gave the US similar rights. The first US air base began with he crowning of Idris I in 1951 when the U.S. Air Force took over a former Italian air base and renamed the Wheelus Air base.

In 1956 Libya granted two American oil companies a concession of some 14 million acres.

In 1969 Libyan revolutionaries led by Muammar Qaddafi overthrew his monarchy the day before he was to turn it over to his son, the crown prince.

After the king had fled the country, the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the constitution and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic with the motto "freedom, socialism, and unity."

In 1970 the Libyan government shut down the British airbase in Tobruk and the giant US Wheelus air force base in Tripoli and began to nationalize most government property, the nation's oil fields and other commercial businesses in the country The British agreed to pull all of its military out of Libya the same year.

In 1973 Libya, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states declared a total ban on oil exports to the United States.

From 1972 to 1980 Col. Qaddafi attempted to unify Arab states in negotiations with Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. Libya and Tunisia reached an agreement to form the United Arab Republic but due to western intervention it was not achieved.

In 1981 the United States shot down two Libyan aircraft over the Gulf of Sirte over Libya's territorial waters.

Statue created by Libyan sculptor commemorating the U.S. attack on Libyan aircraft in 1981

Following the deadly U.S. attack, the Libyan government erected a statue with a fist dragging down a U.S. war jet. As part of their deceptive media campaign to demonize Col. Qaddafi, CNN and other western media repeatedly showed the mercenaries tearing down the stature during their looting of Qaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli on August 23, 2011. The corporate media intent was obvious - deliberately giving the impression that the statue signified Qadaffi's pride about the terrorist attack that brought down a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie in December 1988 and blamed on Libya despite Libya's denial and a lack of evidence that Libya was involved.

1988 is the year the PanAm flight from London to New York blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. Libya was blamed for the attack. A year later France blamed Libya for the downing of a French airliner over Niger that killed 170 people and in 1999, France convicted six Libyans in absentia. The Libyan government denied responsibility.

There were a number of serious irregularities in the investigation into the Lockerbie which was shrouded in controversy. Despite Libya's acceptance of responsibility under tremendous international pressure and threat, questions remain to this day. For example, in October 2009 Detective Stuart Henderson who headed the original Lockerbie investigation revealed that eight "high level suspects" of the bombing were never interviewed. He said they were all male and were never ruled out of the investigation for the terrorist attack. Hendeson told The Scotsman:

“We submitted eight other names of people that we wished to interview that were strong suspects. Unfortunately, we never got that opportunity. I am delighted they are making moves to see if there is anything further, because no matter what anybody says, we did not ever say it was just Megrahi we were after. We never said that. We were after his bosses.”

In 1992 the UN imposed sanctions on Libya for the Lockerbie bombing which remained for 7 years until 1999.

In 1999 Libya sent two men accused of the Lockerbie bombing to Netherlands for trial leading the UN to suspend sanctions and the UK to restore relations with Libya. One man was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after losing his appeal but later released from prison to return to Libya. The other man was found not guilty by the Dutch courts.

In September 2000 criminal elements in Libya killed dozens of African migrant workers - which has now been repeated in 2011 by the NATO radicals and mercenaries but this time on a much larger scale.

After the U.S. attacked Iraq in 2003 on the pretext of having "weapons of mass destruction, Libya was also accused of having WMD and the government announced that it will abandon its WMD programs. International weapons inspectors confirmed that Libya had indeed abandoned development of so-called WMD.

Also in 2003 Libya agreed to pay families of the Lockerbie bombing victims $2.7bn and accepted responsibility for the bombing in a letter to the UN Security Council. In 2004 Libya agreed to pay families of victims of the 1989 bombing of French passenger aircraft over Sahara and to pay $35m to to the victims of the 1986 bombing of the Berlin nightclub.

After those concessions by the Libyan government Tony Blair visited Libya in 2004 and the EU agreed to ending the EU-Libya arms embargo imposed in 1986.

In 2005 Libya auctioned oil and gas exploration licenses which opened the country to the return of US energy companies for the first time in more than 20 years. A year later, the U.S. restored full diplomatic ties with the Libyan government.

In 2006 February Libyan Muslims in Benghazi joined international protests angered by the Danish newspaper's cartoon by a Zionist that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a bomber.

In 2008 Italian PM Berlusconi apologized to Libya for damage inflicted by Italy during the colonial era and signs a $5-billion investment deal by way of compensation. In the same year, George Bush sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to meet Col. Qaddafi in Tripoli, which was the first visit by a US secretary of state since 1953. After the visit, Rice said relations between the United States and Libya have entered a "new phase."

In 2009 Col. Qaddafi made his first visit to Italy and he shook hands with Barack Obama at the G8 summit there.

In 2010 Russia agreed to sell Libya weapons including fighter jets, tanks and air defence systems, a contract worth $1.8bn. Also in 2010 British Petroleum began drilling for petroleum off the Libyan coast.

Last December Wikileaks disclosed US diplomatic cables showing that Col. Qaddafi threatened to cut trade with Britain.

After coming to power in 1969, the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) government nationalized Libya's natural resources and some commercial property. This was followed by government action directing revenues from Africa's biggest petroleum industry into education, healthcare and public housing as human rights or all Libyans. Public education was made free and primary education compulsory for both boys and girls and health care is provided at no cost. In 1977 the government changed the name of Libya to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. "Jamahiriya" was coined by Col. Qaddafi and is translated "the state of the masses".

In early 2011 the U.S. and NATO incited violence among some disgruntled tribesmen eastern Libya, hired mercenaries from neighboring countries, members of Al Queda among them, and launched a bombing campaign that has destroyed the country over the last 7 months. Motivation for the criminal war involves theft of Libya's petroleum, destabilization for an expanded Israel and as James Petras points out, a response to Arab Spring to use Libya as a warning to other Arab peoples not to rise up against western-backed Arab dictators.