Gaddafi spokesman Musa Ibrahim is actually Musa Mansour, and his doctorate is in 'digital cinema'

Published: March 30, 2011 at 3:03pm

Julia Ramelow, wife of Gaddafi spokesman Musa Ibrahim, aka Musa Mansour, with their infant son

Ah, the riches of the internet. The information somehow leaked out that the wife of the Gaddafi spokesman and press minder, who calls himself Musa Ibrahim, is the expatriate woman known only as Julia who writes a blog at haderza.blogspot.com.

The information she gives about herself is scant. Her name is Julia. She is married to a Libyan man with whom she has an infant son. She is pro-Gaddafi. She is German but lived in England for 11 years.

Scant, yes – but enough. I distinctly remember Musa Ibrahim, who is on our television screens every night either translating for a government minister or talking to journalists himself, saying at a press conference that he lived in London for 11 years.

From there it was but a hop, skip and a jump away to an internet search which reveals that Julia’s full name is Julia Ramelow, and that she is married to Musa Mansour, a ‘Libyan film-maker’ with a doctorate in digital arts from Royal Holloway.

She is, just as I thought, one of those German tree-hugger types who live in a world of their own, cycle for the universe and don’t wear make-up, while he – as the photograph on their ‘cycle along the Thames for charity’ webpage shows, is the man who speaks English to the press on behalf of Gaddafi.

Musa Mansour aka Musa Ibrahim is also on Facebook and so is Julia Ramelow. His Facebook friends are pro-Gaddafi and some of them use photographs of Gaddafi or the green flag as their profile pictures.

Julia Ramelow has her privacy settings on and her name won’t come up in a Facebook search – but go into Musa Mansour’s Facebook page and you’ll find her among his ‘friends’.

And please don’t say that it figures she’s German or ask whether her grandfather was a Nazi guard, because comments coming in to her blog from fellow Germans ask her to please not broadcast the fact that she’s German too, because her attitude is disgraceful.




17 Comments Comment

  1. Gaddafi spokesman Musa ‘Ibrahim’ in his other life in London:

    http://www.justgiving.com/cyclingthethames

    And here’s her blog:

    http://www.haderza.blogspot.com

  2. Corinne Vella says:

    The bombing of Al Saeed Hospital for Children in Misurata City

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZByDfn8a20U

  3. Matthew says:

    The Royal Holloway connection was confirmed here:

    “The Qaddafi government’s experiments in Tripoli with the free press have sometimes been jarring. The host, Mr. Ibrahim, 36, recently received a doctorate in digital media studies from the Royal Holloway, University of London and was the founder of a center for media studies here before he was enlisted to coordinate the foreign press. ”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/africa/17tripoli.html?_r=1

    The best part of that article, though, is the description of a press conference with an “al Qaeda fighter” hosted by Ibrahim. The fighter ended up giving a pretty accurate analysis of why Islamism would never take off in Libya, and they are not fighting for it.

  4. Tim Ripard says:

    The German tree-hugger types, i.e. the Greens, have of course just won elections in two German states, the reason for the Greens’ victory being, in one word, Fukushima.

    This is not to say that all Germans are pro-Gaddafi, far from it (as the comments you refer to show) but tree-huggers are on the up and up, I’m afraid. Our tree-hugging deputy mayor here in Vienna is basking in the reflected glory and promising nationwide Greens’ victories here come general election time.

    • Eike says:

      Nonsense. The Greens were the first to call for an arms embargo (they are presently very much into lobbying against arms trade, due to Merkel’s tanks-for-the-Saudis deal).

      There is a bunch of leftover oldschool lefties, “anti-imperialists”, who never saw the Wall come down. They are pro-Gaddafi. Many of them have turned to the “New Right” nationalists by now, or become “Truthers”. These too are pro-Gaddafi.

      The radical Left is generally smart enough to recognize a popular uprising when they see it, and in part (those outside party politics) is perhaps the only segment of the German political sphere which has supported the “rebels” from the word go. They are not blindly loyal, but e.g. German indymedia tends to bluntly delete all pro-Gaddafi that are put up (neo-Nazis and “Truthers” often try to spam indymedia).

      The Left (Democratic-Socialist) party is deeply split, due to it being anti-US but supportive of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings. The dividing line runs between the “anti-imperialist” faction and the “modern Socialist” faction; the older the members are the more they tend to be pro-Gaddafi. Note that they have a Ramelow too, but he’s not related (the name apparently originates from a Mecklenburgian toponym).

      The Social Democrats have chosen to stay mostly out of it and call for humanitarian aid. Who rules Libya does not seem to be high on their priority list.

      The Conservatives are anti-Gaddafi in theory (being the governing party of a NATO country), but as Merkel was already in charge when Gaddafi cozied up with the West after 2005, she basically has hands-on knowledge of all the major shady deals that went on since then. Basically it’s a question of strategy, so they are noncommitted. Seeing that Sarkozy (Merkel’s competitor in the EU) is the leading anti-Gaddafi politico in the EU, and seeing that the Republicans don’t like Obama’s support of Sarkozy, the Conservatives by and large don’t openly commit either, but one gets the feeling that they wouldn’t have batted an eye if Gaddafi hat flattened Bengazi.

      The only significant political party in Germany which is as pro-Gaddafi as they can legally get is the Free Democrats (Libertarians), co-governing with Merkel. They are generally as much anti-Israel as they can get away with and support Arab nationalism ever since this stopped being socialist. Abstaining from UNSC resolution 1973 was their work (it came as a surprise even to Merkel). The minister of economy (Bruederle) has permitted certain exports (some suspected, some proven) from Germany to Libya which legally are not quite kosher and were used by Gaddafi in the attempt to crush the uprising: Internet killswitch, riot suppression gear and other heavy-duty police equipment, and allegedly a black-market sale of G36 rifles (Saif is known to own one, despite no official sales of such guns to Libya ever taking place and the weapon being too new to be easily procured on the “open” black market). They can’t say it openly, but they hate the “rats” with a vengeance. Their minister of economic development today flatly stated that “Libya is too rich for us to give them aid”. Go figure.

      As regards Ramelow, she’s probably one of those “anti-imperialist” folks, or used to be. Met her husband at a 2003 anti-Gulf War rally.

  5. Grezz says:

    It looks like Julia Ramelow aka Mrs Musa Mansour (Ibrahim) is being bombarded verbally.

    “Esra said…
    oh its me again. just wanted to remind you that your dear husband, the one you love oh so much, has been targeted personally and by name by the ICC for crimes against humanity. This is a fact, one that cannot and will not be changed. I hope you are deeply concerned for his personal future, if my husband had wronged someone I would do my duty and try to help him. Maternity wards have been bombed, there is footage of this. I hope you think of your dear son, the one you love so much, when you read this. Imagine someone doing to you what your husband is doing to these innocent victims.

    30 March 2011 02:45” http://haderza.blogspot.com/2011/03/libya-united.html#comments

  6. Grezz says:

    Bedtime reading for those who believe that Malta should remain neutral (for the good of Malta, without giving a toss about the millions of people whose lives are – and will continue to be – at risk for as long as Gaddafi and his family are around):

    “Safai Eddine Hilal al-Sharif, a 41-year-old father of five who worked as a technician in an oil company in Ras Lanouf, was arrested at his home on 24 January 2011. Since then, his family have been unable to obtain any information about him or even an acknowledgement of his detention by the authorities in Tripoli. His family told Amnesty International:

    At about 8pm (on 24 January 2011) six men in plainclothes, probably members of the ISA, asked the children who were outside if their father was at home and to call him. He went out and the men took him away with them; he was in his pyjamas. After about half an hour they brought Safai Eddine back and came into the house and searched the house. Safai asked them what they were looking for, and one said: ‘We have an order to search all your properties.’ Safai asked who gave that order, and the man answered: ‘We cannot say.’ They took two computers, a camera, a camcorder (video) and a mobile phone. They allowed him to get dressed and took him away. It was 9:30pm. Since then we have had no news about him. An acquaintance who had contacts in the ISA said that Safai Eddine was taken straight to Tripoli, but we have not been able to know anything about where he is held, if he is in good health, what do they want from him; nothing. We don’t understand why they have taken him. He was just an ordinary guy who spent his time between his family and his work. He was not involved in politics. He liked to browse the Internet and Facebook, but nothing more than that. We just want to know where he is, why he was taken.” http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE19/011/2011/en/5a97c7df-aee8-4830-9f2b-d54f805d2dc1/mde190112011en.html

    • Malta is a beautiful country with beautiful people and a beautiful culture which anguishes me when I see their confusion on the neutrality issue. The neutrality clause in their constitution does not prevent their action in enforcing UN SC Resolutions. Besides, as good global citizens they have a duty and responsibility.

  7. Musa Ibrahim/Mansour makes (crap and corny) films and here’s his channel on YouTube:

    http://www.youtube.com/musa1274

  8. http://www.thames21.org.uk/news/cyclingthethames06.html

    It looks like Musa Ibrahim/Mansour is a it of a tree-hugger too. How did he go from that to being spokesman for a murderous tyrant?

    I suppose he always had it in him. Or maybe Gaddafi put drugs in his Nescafe.

  9. kev says:

    Prosit tassew, Sherlock. Qbadna ohra minnhom, dawn. B’din ir-rata, kollha naqbduhom!

  10. Ixak says:

    I suspect she doesn’t really mean much of what she says – everything she writes is probably monitored, and she probably posts that tripe to keep her husband safe from suspicion. Notice that the blogs that she links to are all pro-opposition.

  11. Klaus-Hamburg says:

    Julia
    why don`t you share the real life of your people, your parents in law aund your friends, just your community ?
    Don`t hide youself. There is only this one way in saying I LOVE YOU – really to share their life (not just in the sense: no risk, no fun, but: I CARE FOR YOU) but not in permanent fear of a hangman now and in future. This is THE ONLY WAY TO A FREE LIFE !

    Please remember in your community there might also be an other understanding in going with parents and others who are also around you and are meant to be near to you.
    Let them be proud of you, you are more than just a mother !
    Don`t waver and wander also from the way of living, you shared in your early childhood also with your classmates !

    How will you explain your way of life in these days to your boy ?
    Hiding is no decision, is no way of living and in no way claiming: I LOVE YOU !
    You are part of a tree – YOUR TREE – also in a symbiotic way / meaning, you can`t escape from !
    – this I would say to my daughter –

  12. Carlos says:

    The Lybia she knows isnt the same Lybia Media shows to you. For this only reason you cant understand why a European can became pro-Kaddafi.

    Just seach in Google Mages: “great man made river”

    Look for Lybia in Human Development Index – there is nothing better than Lybia in Africa, and you, europeans, are helpinginquisotors fundamentalists to destroy it!

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