U.S. BACKS LIBYAN AL QAEDA WHILE HYPING TERROR ATTACKS AT HOME

Written by Paul Joseph Watson

 

Hypocrisy run rampant: Obama administration fearmongers about Libyan-backed terrorists carrying out reprisal attacks in America while launching air strikes to support terrorists in Libya

Achieving new heights of hypocrisy, the U.S government is hyping the threat of Libyan-backed reprisal terror attacks inside the United States, while launching air strikes in support of so-called “protesters” who have commandeered fighter jets and tanks, and are in fact Islamic fundamentalist Al-Qaeda cells who want to impose sharia law in Libya.

The New York Times reports that Libya may “lash out” against the Orwellian “no fly zone,” which in reality represents constant bombardment, by sending terrorists to carry out attacks against U.S. interests.

“Asked if American officials feared whether Colonel Qaddafi could open a new terrorism front, President Obama’s top counterterrorism official John O. Brennan said: “Qaddafi has the penchant to do things of a very concerning nature. We have to anticipate and be prepared for things he might try to do to flout the will of the international community.”

“Al Qaeda has a demonstrated track record of trying to exploit political vacuums, political change or uncertainty in a number of countries,” Mr. Brennan added. “The situation in Libya now will be no exception.”

This is pretty rich considering the fact that it was British MI6 and the CIA who paid Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda $100,000 dollars to assassinate Gaddafi in 1996.

In 2002 French intelligence experts revealed how western intelligence agencies bankrolled a Libyan Al-Qaeda cell controlled directly by Bin Laden to hatch a plot to kill Gaddafi that was foiled in March 1996. The cell was led by Anas al-Liby, who was with Bin Laden in Sudan before Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan.

Indeed, it was Gaddafi’s Libya who put out the first Interpol warrant for Bin Laden’s arrest in 1998. Western intelligence agencies blocked the warrant from being pursued, and allowed Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to go on and kill more than 200 people in the truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Some of the very rebels now being funded and trained by western forces were part of the Al-Qaeda cell that tried to kill Gaddafi on behalf of the United States and Britain 15 years ago.

As the London Telegraph reports, “The West and al-Qaeda on the same side.” Libyan Al-Qaeda leaders have offered their unanimous support for the ousting of Gaddafi.

“An al-Qaeda leader of Libyan origin, Abu Yahya al-Libi, released a statement backing the insurrection a week ago, while Yusuf Qaradawi, the Qatar-based, Muslim Brotherhood-linked theologian issued a fatwa authorising Col Gaddafi’s military entourage to assassinate him,” writes Richard Spencer, highlighting how the “rebels” are in fact religious extremists hell bent on imposing sharia law in Libya.

While the global establishment media has characterized these mobs as “protesters,” even as they commandeer fighter jets and tanks, and used allegations of Gaddafi brutality against them as a justification for air strikes, in reality they largely comprise of radical Islamic fundamentalists who will end up being more savage in their abuse of power than anything Gaddafi was ever accused of, should the air strikes lead to regime change. The ordinary Libyan people, the majority of whom support Gaddafi, are caught in the middle, which is why many of them are now trying to flee Tripoli.

The UN-backed air strikes have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with protecting the human rights of “protesters”. The air strikes and Tomahawk missiles have been launched in support of terrorist cells so that the US military-industrial complex can repeat its age-old trick of installing a radical Islamic regime which they can later overthrow, giving them strategic access to the region and allowing them to control the largest oil reserves on the African continent.

This is about giving war a new facelift, leaving the new world order free to pillage any country they like in the name of “humanitarian” assistance.

The fact that the establishment media, particularly the BBC, which has aggressively pushed this “humanitarian” hoax in its rapacious cheerleading effort for the conquest, is parroting the narrative that this is a just war, when in reality it is about helping Al-Qaeda terrorists to carry through a coup d’état, is the ultimate hypocrisy.

It’s a hypocrisy made more revolting by the fact that liberals who so vehemently opposed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are now willing to offer their enthusiastic backing for military attacks having bought the sickening lie that the likes of the United States, which kills scores of innocent people every week with predator drone strikes, has now suddenly developed a conscience for human suffering.

It’s also galling to witness the likes of Fox News and mainstream conservatives, who screamed until they were blue in the face about a mosque being built at ground zero in New York, now ignorantly applauding a United Nations-ordered war with no congressional approval which is solely designed to bring Al-Qaeda affiliated Islamic fundamentalists to power.

The whole farce mirrors Bill Clinton’s bombing campaigns in Bosnia and Serbia, which were also about helping Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to topple autocratic but relatively moderate regimes, and were also military conquests packaged in the cloak of “humanitarian” deception by the global establishment media.

Militant Attack Near Gwadar Claims 11

8 Pakistan military personnel, 3 NHA engineers killed in Gwadar attack, BLF claimed responsibility

Occupied Balochistan: At least 11 people, including seven workers of Frontier Works Organization (FWO), and three of National Highway Authority (NHA) Engineers, were shot dead and two others were wounded when Baloch Freedom Fighters opened fire at their camp near Phelleri area of Gwadar district on Monday night. The Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani while confirming the incident said “that eight men armed with sophisticated weapons on four motorbikes opened fire at FWO camp in Phelleri area of Gwadar. Resultantly 11 people were killed instantly while two suffered bullet injuries”. The Baloch freedom fighters also torched two vehicles of FWO after shooting. “They took away the vehicles and set them on fire some 5-kilometer away from the site where they killed the staff of FWO,” eyewitness accounts said. The attackers fled on their motorbikes after killing the military retirees. The camp was set up by FWO for their employees who were engaged in road construction. The dead were employees of FWO and NHA and most of them belonged to Punjab province. CNNreported that “The Frontier Works Organisation is controlled by the army and staffed by retirees”. Home Secretary said that without the help of local people no one can carry out such a deadliest attack whereas the Chief Minister of Balochistan Aslam Raisani has expressed his grief and sorrow over the human losses and asked the authorities concerned to take stern against the culprits involved in this heinous crime. “Some elements want to push the Balochistan into darkness by killing skilled workers. The spokesman of Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) has claimed the responsibility of the attack on FWO camp and vowed to carry out such attacks in future. The BLF has warned other such Companies to stop working in Balochistan against the will of Baloch people. It is pertinent to mention that the Baloch resistance Organisations [BLA, BLF and BRA] have time and time again warned the Pakistani and other International investment companies to stop working in Balochistan until the liberation of Balochistan. They had also urged the Baloch Nation to stay away from these companies and government infrastructures because the Baloch resistance Organisations will attack them whenever they see opportunity.

Radiation near Japanese nuclear plant 1,600 times normal level

The highest radiation level of 161 microsievert per hour has been detected in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture.

Radiation levels in some areas within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone around Japan’s troubled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is 1,600 higher than the norm, the Kyodo news agency said, quoting International Atomic Energy Agency officials.

Tests carried out by IAEA specialists in various locations around the plant showed radiation levels ranging between 2 and 160 microsievert per hour, while the normal level for the area should not exceed 0.1 microsievert per hour.

The highest radiation level of 161 microsievert per hour has been detected in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Kyodo said.

The Japanese government has set an exclusion zone covering areas within a 20-kilometer zone around the plant and has urged people within 20 to 30 kilometers to stay indoors.

Work to restore power supplies to three troubled reactors at the Fukushima plant resumed early on Tuesday after several hours of delay, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. Repair work at the reactors was suspended on Monday after the No.3 reactor emitted a cloud of gray smoke, leading to the evacuation of workers from the plant.

A powerful earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 triggered a number of explosions at Fukushima. The disaster knocked out cooling systems at several reactors, leading to a partial meltdown of fuel rods inside them and raising fears of massive nuclear contamination.

The official death toll from the disaster has risen to 9,000, with more than 12,000 people missing, Kyodo said.

MOSCOW, March 22 (RIA Novosti)

Wave and tidal power

last updated 07/00

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Originally appeared in FRR issue:September 1998, web version updated July 2000
Keywords: wave power, tidal power, oceans, currents, waves, electricity generation
Sources: The New Scientist, 16 May and 20 June 1998, Professional Engineering 10 June 1998, Renewable Energy, Sep-Dec 1996, vol. 9 No. 1-4, pp.870-874, Blue Energy Canada Website at http://www.bluenergy.com.

[Additional material from The New Scientist, 3 October 1998, Renewable Energy 2000 (held at Brighton, England July 2-4 2000), and the wavegen website (http://www.wavegen.co.uk) have been added to the original printed report.]

Abstract

Generating electricity from the oceans has been widely discussed for 40 years. Time and again attempts have been made to harness the both wave and tidal power, usually with little success. However, with advances in engineering in the past few years, the oceans have become an economically feasible source of energy.

Introduction

The World electrical energy market is at $800-billion-a-year(US) and rising. It has been estimated that ” there are 2 billion people who still lack electricity today, and the world demand in developing countries is doubling every eight years” (World Watch Institute, May 1997). In order to meet that demand, while limiting production of green house gases, renewable energy sources must be developed.

The sea has long been seen as a source of energy. In the middle ages (1200-1500 AD) farmers used to trap sea water in mill ponds and use it to power water mills as the tide dropped. Over the last fifty years, engineers have begun to look at tidal and wave power on a larger, industrial scale. However, until the last few years, particularly in Europe, wave power and tidal power were both seen as uneconomic. Although some pilot projects showed that energy could be generated, they also showed that, even if cost of the energy generated was not considered, there was a real problem making equipment which could withstand the extremely harsh marine environment.

In the late 1990s, it has become clear that technology has advanced to the point where reliable and cheap electricity from the oceans is becoming a real possibility. The UK will have its first electricity supplied to the national supply by the year 2000, and other countries are seriously considering doing likewise.

Wave Power I – sea-based devices

Europe, and in particular the United Kingdom, are looking again at wave power. A recent review by the government has shown that there are now types of wave power devices which can produce electricity at a cost of under $US0.10/kWh, the point at which production of electricity becomes economically viable. The most efficient of the devices, the “Salter ”Duck can produce electricity for less than $US0.05/kWh.

The “Salter ”Duck was developed in the 1970s by Professor Stephen Salter at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland (email Shs@srv1.mech.ed.ac.uk) and generates electricity by bobbing up and down with the waves. Although it can produce energy extremely efficiently it was effectively killed off in the mid 1980s when a European Union report miscalculated the cost of the electricity it produced by a factor of 10. In the last few years, the error has been realised, and interest in the Duck is becoming intense.

Operation of the Salter Duck

©1996 Ramage

The “Clam” is another device which, Like the “Salter ”Duck can make energy from sea swell. The Clam is an arrangement of six airbags mounted around a hollow circular spine. As waves impact on the structure air is forced between the six bags via the hollow spine which is equipped with self-rectifying turbines. Even allowing for cabling to shore, it is calculated that the Clam can produce energy for around $US0.06kW/hr.

Wave Power II- Shore based systems

Where the shoreline has suitable topography, cliff-mounted oscillating water column (OWC) generators can be installed. OWC systems have a number of advantages over the Clam and the Duck, not the least of which is the fact that generators and all cabling are shore-based, making maintenance much cheaper.

The OWC works on a simple principle. As an incoming wave causes the water level in the unit’s main chamber to rise (see diagram), air is forced up a funnel which houses a Well’s counter-rotating turbine. As the wave retreats, air is sucked down into the main chamber again. The Well’s turbine has been developed to spin in the same direction, whichever way air is flowing, in order to maximise efficiency. Although most previous OWC systems have had vertical water columns, that in LIMPET is angled at 45° – which wave tank test show to be more efficient.

OWC schematic

OWC machines have already been tested at a number of sites, including Japan and Norway. A commercial-scale (500 kW) installation is due to be commissioned on the Scottish Island of Islay in September 2000. The Islay OWC (known as LIMPET) is a joint venture between Queens University, WAVEGEN, Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal), the European Union and Charles Brand Engineering. It is the direct successor of an experimental 75 kW turbine (built by researchers from the Queen’s University of Belfast) which operated on the island between 1991 and 1999. Another LIMPET is currently being developed (at pilot-plant scale) on the Azores.

Construction of OWCs

One of the great problems with shoreline-based OWCs is their construction, which must necessarily take place on rocky shores exposed to wind and waves. In the case of the prototype Islay OWC system it was relatively easy to build a temporary dam on the shoreline to protect the unit. However, LIMPET is a much larger system, with a lip 20m wide. It was therefore ultimately decided to build the unit back from the coastline and remove a bund to make the system fully operational (see figure, below).

Installing an OWC unit

However, both OWC-systems and ocean-wave systems suffer from trying to harness violent forces. The first Norwegian OWC was ripped off a cliff-face during a storm, the Islay station is completely submerged under storm conditions. Thus, researchers are looking at other ways of generating electricity from the ocean, and are increasingly turning to tidally-generated coastal currents.

Power from tidally-generated coastal currents

Over the past forty years, there has been constant interest in harnessing tidal power. Initially, this interest focused on estuaries, where large volumes of water pass through narrow channels generating high current velocities. Engineers felt that blocking estuaries with a barrage and forcing water through turbines would be an effective way to generate electricity. This was proved by construction of a tidal barrage at St. Malo in France in the mid 1960s. La Rance tidal power plant still provides 90% of Brittany’s, and a major refurbishment program (due for completion in 2007) means it will continue in operation well into the new millenium.

Despite the success of La Rance, no other major tidal barrages have been built since, due in some part to environmental concerns. Barages present a barrier to navigation by boats and fish alike; reduced tidal range (difference between high and low water levels) can destroy much of the inter-tidal habitat used by wading birds; and sediment trapped behind the barrage could also reduce the volume of the estuary over time. By the early 1990s, interest in estuarine-derived tidal power had largely ceased, and scientists and engineers began to look at the potential of tidally-generated coastal currents instead.

As tides ebb and flow, currents are often generated in coastal waters (quite often in areas far-removed from bays and estuaries). In many places the shape of the seabed forces water to flow through narrow channels, or around headlands (much like the wind howls through narrow valleys and around hills). However, sea water has a much higher density than air, meaning that currents of 5-8 knots generate as much energy as winds of much higher velocity. In addition, unlike the wind rushing through a valley or over hilltops, tidally-generated coastal currents are predictable. The tide comes in and out every twelve hours, resulting in currents which reach peak velocity four times every day. Two rival technologies — tidal fences and tidal turbines — are now being developed to catch the energy of these currents.

Coastal currents are strongest at the margins of the world’s larger oceans. A review of likely tidal power sites in the late 1980s estimated the energy resource was in excess of 330,000 MW. South East Asia is one area where it is likely such currents could be exploited for energy. In particular, the Chinese and Japanese coasts, and the large number of straits between the islands of the Philippines are suitable for development of power generation from coastal currents.

Tidal Fences

Tidal fences (see figure 1) are effectively barrages which completely block a channel. As discussed above, if deployed across the mouth of an estuary they can be very environmentally destructive. However, in the 1990s their deployment in channels between small islands or in straights between the mainland and island has increasingly been considered as a viable option for generation of large amounts of electricity.

A Tidal Fence

The advantage of a tidal fence is that all the electrical equipment (generators and transformers) can be kept high above the water. Also, by decreasing the cross-section of the channel, current velocity through the turbines is significantly increased.

The first large-scale commercial fences are likely to be built in South East Asia. The most advanced plan is for a scheme for a fence across the Dalupiri Passage between the islands of Dalpiri and Samar in the Philippines, agreed between the Philippines Government and Blue Energy Engineering Company of Vancouver, Canada in late 1997. The site, on the south side of the San Bernardino Strait, is approx. 41 m deep (with a relatively flat bottom) and has a peak tidal current of about 8 knots. As a result, the fence is expected to generate up to 2200 MW of peak power (with a base daily average of 1100 MW).

Once given final government approval (expected before the end of 2000), work will begin on a 4km-long structure designed to withstand typhoon winds of 150 mph and tsunami waves of 7 meters. The Dalupiri Ocean Power Plant will utilize 274 ocean-class Davis Turbines, each generating from 7MW to 14 MW. However, the $US2.8 billion project is just the first phase one of a much-larger proposed Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) project that will be transferred to the Philippines after 25 years. Used to generate large scale renewable energy, the San Bernardino passage could help the Philippines to become a net exporter of electrical power.

The modular nature of the Blue Energy Power System allows for power to be generated in the fourth year of the project, with the installation of the first module in the chain, which gradually increases to full capacity by project completion in year six. Once begun, this project will be one of the largest renewable energy developments in the world.

Tidal Turbines

Tidal turbines are the chief competition to the tidal fence. Looking like an underwater wind turbine they offer a number of advantages over the tidal fence. They are less disruptive to wildlife, allow small boats to continue to use the area, and have much lower material requirements than the fence.

Tidal turbines function well where coastal currents run at 2-2.5 m/s (slower currents tend to be uneconomic while larger ones put a lot of stress on the equipment). Such currents provide an energy density four times greater than air, meaning that a 15m diameter turbine will generate as much energy as a 60m diameter windmill. In addition, tidal currents are both predictable and reliable, a feature which gives them an advantage over both wind and solar systems. The tidal turbine also offers significant environmental advantages over wind and solar systems; the majority of the assembly is hidden below the waterline, and all cabling is along the seabed.

There are many sites around the world where tidal turbines could be effectively installed. The ideal site is close to shore (within 1 km) in water depths of about 20-30m. Peter Fraenkel, director of UK-based Marine Current Turbines, believes the best sites could generate more than 10 megawatts of energy per square kilometer. The European Union has already identified 106 sites which would be suitable for the turbines, 42 of them around the UK. Further afield, Fraenkel believes the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Japan could all develop underwater turbine farms.

Fraenkel intends to deploy a commercial-scale prototype turbine off the southwest coast of England in the summer of 2001. It will generate 300 kW (enough to power a small village). Although the cost of energy from the prototype turbine will be $US0.10/kW, costs will drop as the technology matures. Fraenkel hopes that the first “turbine farm” (£MW) will operational by 2004 and aims to have 300MW capacity being installed every year by 2010.

Artist’s impression of turbine farm

image © marine current turbines ltd.

Conclusions

Wave power (and tidal power) are beginning to come into their own. They have many benefits, including:

• Renewable and sustainable resource
• Reduces dependence upon fossil fuels
• Produces no liquid or solid pollution
• Little visual impact
• Construction of large scale offshore devices results in new areas of sheltered water, attractive for fish, sea birds, seals and seaweed
• Present no difficulty to migrating fish (except tidal fences)
• Shelter the coast, useful in harbour areas or erosion zones
• Resource exists on a worldwide scale from deep ocean waters
• Short time scale between investing in the modular construction and benefiting from the revenue

Clearly there are still technical difficulties to overcome, but in the next few years, countries will begin to see wave power connected to national supplies. It will be a big market.

Reasonable Comparison To Third Reich–the New American Reich

NO OCCUPATION FORCE?

Address by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich, before the Reichstag.

Mr Speaker, some weeks ago the people of the Sudetenland took to the streets in protest.

President Edvard Beneš has resisted the wish of the people to take their destiny into their own hands.

Mr Speaker, intervening in another country’s affairs should not be undertaken save in quite exceptional circumstances.

That is why we’ve always been clear that the use of force would require three tests to be met.

First, demonstrable need.

The Benes regime has ignored the demand that it stop discriminating against the people of the Sudetenland.
Website for this image

Second, regional support.

In recent days I have spoken with leaders from Italy and Spain who support our demands.


Mr Speaker, the third and essential condition was that there should be a clear legal base.

France and the United Kingdom have agreed to the Munich Agreement.

We have no further territorial demands.

There will be no occupation force of any form, on any part of Libyan territory.

 

Israel Makes Move On Gaza While the World Watches Us Pound Qaddafi

Israeli jets strike Gaza after Hamas offers truce

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israeli jets carried out at least five air strikes in the Gaza Strip late on Monday in which 17 people were wounded, mostly lightly, Palestinian emergency workers said.

They said that two women and seven children were among those hurt.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Palestinian witnesses said that among the targets were a police post of the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules Gaza, and a training facility of its military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades which earlier offered to stop cross-border fire into Israel if the Israelis halted attacks on Gaza.

Ezzedine al-Qassam, which lobbed about 50 mortar rounds into Israel on Saturday, made the offer in a statement released after Israeli aircraft raided the enclave earlier on Monday evening.

It said Saturday’s barrage had been in response to an Israeli strike last week which killed two of its members, but that it was ready to call an end to the tit-for-tat violence if Israel also did so.

“If the enemy stops the escalation and aggression against our people we will implement the Palestinian national agreement,” the statement said, referring to a truce reaffirmed by the main militant factions in January.

The offer, however, came with a warning attached:

“The enemy will pay a heavy price if it continues its aggression and crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.

Israeli military and government officials declined to comment, but the Jewish state’s often-stated standing policy is to “respond forcefully” to every Palestinian attack.

In a later statement, Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said the movement’s Gaza government was committed to preserving the informal truce, with the backing of other militant groups.

“The government affirms that there is consensus among the factions regarding the security situation in the strip,” he said in a statement.

Shortly before the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades offer, Israeli warplanes raided the Gaza Strip, slightly wounding one man, local witnesses and medical officials said.

Witnesses said the target of the raid was a car repair workshop east of Gaza City, owned by the powerful Doghmush clan which has links to Islamic militants.

The Israeli military, however, said its aircraft hit what a spokeswoman described as “a terrorist tunnel” intended to launch attacks under the Gaza border fence into Israel.

Also on Monday, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon issued a death threat against Hamas leaders.

“If Hamas decides to escalate, we will put an end to it… We have several actions before putting ground forces in Gaza, including direct threats against Hamas leaders,” Ayalon told public radio.

A rocket fired from Gaza overnight on Sunday exploded in southern Israel, causing neither casualties nor damage, several hours after another rocket exploded harmlessly in the town of Ashkelon.

After Saturday’s mortar fire Israel pounded Gaza, wounding at least five Palestinians and cutting power supplies.

The mortar attacks, the fiercest since Israel carried out a 22-day offensive codenamed “Operation Cast Lead” against Gaza rocket fire in December 2008 and January 2009, wounded two Israelis and caused minor damage.

In January this year, Gaza’s main militant factions confirmed a year-old truce after weeks of increased rocket fire and spiralling tensions along the border prompted a warning from Arab leaders that Gaza risked a major new Israeli invasion.

On Saturday Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni called for just that in response to the mortar barrage.

“The right way to deal with it is with force, just like Israel did during and after Operation Cast Lead,” news website Ynet quoted her as telling local authority heads in the border region.

- AFP/de

 

 

 

Global rescue teams depart as winds threaten to turn nuclear cloud inland

• Brendan Nicholson
• From: The Australian
• March 22, 2011 12:00AM

AUSTRALIAN authorities have warned that the wind direction in the region surrounding the stricken Japanese nuclear reactors was set to change last night and could carry radioactive contamination over the mainland.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency said the prevailing wind had been carrying radiation out to sea since the Fukushima Daiichi power stations were damaged. But during the next 36 hours, a wind change is likely to produce a complex pattern of wind directions over mainland Japan.

“Any radioactivity that may occur from deterioration in the current status of any of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor units is predicted to pass across mainland Japan during this time.”

ARPANSA said the wind should swing back out over the ocean after that time.

Which Side’s Tanks Will Obama Bomb In Yemen?

[If we are lucky, Obama will bomb his own Yemeni team.]

Rival tanks deploy in streets of Yemen’s capital

file photo

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Rival tanks deployed in the streets of Yemen‘s capital Monday after three senior army commanders defected to a movement calling for the ouster of the U.S.-backed president, leaving him with virtually no support among the country’s most powerful institutions

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Rival tanks deployed in the streets of Yemen‘s capital Monday after three senior army commanders defected to a movement calling for the ouster of the U.S.-backed president, leaving him with virtually no support among the country’s most powerful institutions

 

Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the army’s powerful 1st Armored Division, was the most senior of the three commanders to join the opposition. He announced his defection in a message delivered by a close aide to protest leaders at the Sanaa square that has become the epicenter of their movement.

Some of the tanks and armored vehicles deployed in the Sanaa square where protesters have been camping out to call for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces opened fire from rooftops and killed more 40 demonstrators on Friday. Others were deployed at state TV, the Central Bank and the Defense Ministry.

Saleh, who has cooperated closely with a U.S.-backed offensive against his nation’s branch of al-Qaeda, looked to be far closer to what analysts increasingly have called inevitable: a choice between stepping down after 32 years in power or waging a dramatically more violent campaign against his opponents.

A senior opposition leader said contacts were underway with the president over a peaceful way out of the ongoing crisis. One option under discussion, he said, was for Saleh to step down and a military council takes over from him to run the country till presidential and legislative elections are held.

The leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the contacts, declined to say how much progress the talks have made, but gave 48 hours as the likely timeframe for a breakthrough.

Also Monday, Saleh sent his foreign minister to Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s powerful neighbor and the on-and-off backer of the Yemeni leader, with a message to King Abdullah. The contents of the message were not known.

At least a dozen tanks and armored personnel carriers belonging to the Republican Guards, an elite force led by Saleh’s son and one-time heir apparent, Ahmed, were deployed outside the presidential palace on Sanaa’s southern outskirts, according to witnesses.

The deployment appeared designed to counter the presence of elements of the 1st Armored Division elsewhere in the city.

All three officers who defected belong to Saleh’s Hashid tribe. A Hashid leader said the tribe, eager to keep the president’s job for one of its own, was rallying behind Maj. Gen. al-Ahmar as a possible replacement for Saleh.

The leader spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Saleh has now lost support from every power base in the nation. He fired his entire Cabinet Sunday ahead of what one government official said was a planned mass resignation, a series of ambassador have quit in protest and Sadeq al-Ahmar, the chief of the Hashid tribe, said Monday that he too was joining the opposition.

Regional TV stations reported that dozens of army commanders and politicians were joining the opposition, but there was no immediate independent confirmation.

Maj. Gen al-Ahmar has been close to Saleh for most of the Yemeni president’s years in power. He has close associations with Islamist groups in Yemen that are likely to raise suspicions in the West about his willingness to effectively fight al-Qaeda operatives active in the country.

He is a veteran of the 1994 civil war that saw Saleh’s army suppress an attempt by southern Yemen to secede. Al-Ahmar also fought in recent years against Shiite rebels in the north of the country.

His defection to the opposition was welcomed by protesters, but the warm reception may not guarantee him a political career in a post-Saleh Yemen given his close links to the president.

Popular among troops and viewed as a seasoned field commander, al-Ahmar also has widely been seen as a rival to the president and his son, who saw him as a threat to him succeeding his father.

Speaking to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television from Sanaa, al-Ahmar said the death of scores of protesters at the hands of security forces on Friday made him decide to back the opposition after weeks of trying to mediate between Saleh and the protesters.

“The demands of the protesters are the demands of the Yemeni people,” he said. “I can no longer fool myself, it is not the custom of men or tribes to do so.”

The two other officers who announced their defection were Mohammed Ali Mohsen and Hameed al-Qusaybi, who both have the rank of brigadier. Yemen’s ambassadors to Jordan, Syria and parliament’s deputy speaker also announced Monday they were supporting the opposition, further undermining Saleh’s weakening authority.

On Saturday, crowds flooded cities and towns across Yemen to mourn the dozens of protesters killed when Saleh’s security forces opened fire on the demonstration in Sanaa.

Saleh and his weak government have faced down many serious challenges, often forging fragile alliances with restive tribes to extend power beyond the capital, Sanaa. Most recently, he has battled a seven-year armed rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south, and an al-Qaeda offshoot that is of great concern to the U.S.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which formed in January 2009, has moved beyond regional aims and attacked the West, including sending a suicide bomber who came tried to down a U.S.-bound airliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear. The device failed to detonate properly.

Yemen is also home to U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have offered inspiration to those attacking the U.S., including Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens in a 2009 shootout at Fort Hood, Texas.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Medvedev Objects to Putin’s Apt Description of American’ “Crusade” to Violently Reorder the World

Putin Slams West for Libya ‘Medieval Crusade’, Medvedev Says Remarks Unacceptable
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday slammed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s comments on military action against Libya as “unacceptable”, in the most public clash yet between Russia’s ruling tandem.

Putin earlier Monday denounced the U.N. resolution allowing military action on Libya as resembling a “medieval call to crusade”, in one of his most virulent diatribes against the West in years.

“Under no circumstances is it acceptable to use expressions which essentially lead to a clash of civilizations. Such as ‘crusade’ and so on,” Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying.

“It is unacceptable. Otherwise, everything may end up much worse compared to what’s going on now. Everyone should remember that.”

Medvedev took over the Kremlin in 2008 after Putin served two four-year terms as president. Putin immediately became a powerful prime minister and until now the two men have steered clear of clashes in public.

Putin said there was no “logic” or “conscience” to the military action against Libya.

“The resolution by the Security Council, of course, is defective and flawed,” Putin told workers on a visit to a missile factory in the central Russian region of Udmurtia.

“To me, it resembles some sort of medieval call to crusade when someone would appeal to someone to go to a certain place and free something there,” he said in televised remarks.

Putin’s comments marked a sharp hardening of Moscow’s rhetoric against the Western military action on Libya after Russia abstained from the U.N. resolution last week, refusing to use its veto which would have blocked its passage.

The Russian prime minister also lashed out at the “steady trend” of U.S. military intervention around the world, accusing Washington of acting without conscience.

“I am concerned about the ease with which the decision to use force was taken,” Putin was quoted as saying in reference to the current international campaign in Libya.

Noting that the United States had already involved itself in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, Putin added: “Now it’s Libya’s turn.

“And all of this under the guise of protecting peaceful civilians. Where is the logic, where is the conscience? There is neither one nor the other,” Putin said.

He did not elaborate over why Russia had abstained in the resolution vote when it was so staunchly opposed to the text.

Putin added that the events in Libya showed that Russia had taken the right decision in strengthening its military capabilities, in possible reference to its massive new $650 billion rearmament plan.

“Today’s events in Libya prove that we are doing everything right in terms of strengthening Russia’s military capabilities,” he said.

He also announced that Russia planned to double the production of strategic and tactical missile systems from 2013.

“Already from 2013 production of missile systems should virtually double,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.

Russian air-defense troops would also receive the S-400, an advanced surface-to-air missile system, as part of a current army overhaul, Putin was quoted as saying.

Putin’s hardline comments sit awkwardly with the reset in U.S.-Russia ties championed by his successor in the Kremlin, Medvedev, which has seen a swift warming of relations over the last months.

Putin’s comments came despite conciliatory remarks from U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates, who praised Moscow for refusing to block military action against Libya as evidence of “extraordinary” progress in U.S.-Russia ties.

Currently in Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg, Gates heads to Moscow on Tuesday to meet his Russian counterpart, Anatoly Serdyukov, and Medvedev.

However, conspicuously, there was no scheduled meeting with Putin for Gates’ visit.

Observers have long speculated that the U.S. favors Medvedev over Putin. Some reports even suggested that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden wanted to warn Putin against considering a return to the Kremlin in 2012 polls, on his visit to Russia this month.

Russia had initially backed international measures against the Gadhafi regime, signing on to U.N. Security Council sanctions that imposed an arms embargo against Libya and other sanctions against Gadhafi’s family.

Some Russian defense officials had initially expressed concern about the sanctions, saying the U.N. arms export prohibition may cost the country some $4 billion in current and future contracts.(AFP)

Putin compares UN Libya resolution with crusade call

Rio Novosti

Putin compares UN Libya resolution with crusade…, posted with vodpod

Author Links Homeless Man Arrested in Quincy, MA. TO Oklahoma City bombing

Author links man arrested in Quincy to the subject of her book on Oklahoma City bombing

John Doe Number Two

Quincy Police

Hussain Alhussaini,a 45-year-old homeless man, was arrested after allegedly striking another man in the face with a beer bottle, opening a large gash on the man’s cheek.

By Staff

The Patriot Ledger

It was a routine call for Quincy police about two homeless men fighting. Hussain Al-Hussaini was arrested. The victim was taken to the hospital.

Then came the surprise. Readers commenting on a story about Wednesday’s arrest on The Patriot Ledger’s website noted that a man with the same name was mentioned prominently in a book about the deadly bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

By Thursday afternoon, police had contacted the FBI and spoken to the book’s author.

Jayna Davis, author of the 2004 book “Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing,” said she asked a Quincy police detective if Hussain Al-Hussaini, the man police arrested, had a tattoo of an anchor with a snake wrapped around it. He did. Police sent her a photo of him.

“His age, his name, the picture, the mug shot – that’s him,” Davis told The Patriot Ledger via telephone after speaking with police. She said the anchor-and-snake tattoo was common among members of a branch of the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein.

An FBI spokesman in Boston, Greg Comcowich, said Thursday night that a man named Hussain Al-Hussaini was “thoroughly investigated” in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing and “was found to not have any role whatsoever in the attack on the Murrah Federal Building in 1995.”

Comcowich said the Hussain Al-Hussaini the FBI investigated had been seen with bomber Timothy McVeigh before the April 19, 1995, bombing, which killed 168 people.

“The investigation was closed and the FBI has no further interest in that individual,” he said.

Comcowich said he could not confirm whether the Hussain Al-Hussaini arrested in Quincy was the same Hussain Al-Hussaini investigated after the Murrah Building bombing.

The Al-Hussaini questioned by the FBI was never charged in connection with the bombing. McVeigh was executed for detonating the bomb in a truck he drove up to the federal building. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols is serving a lifetime prison sentence.

The Al-Hussaini investigated in the bombing sued Davis, a former television reporter, and Oklahoma station KFOR for a story that indirectly identified him as a potential bombing suspect dubbed “John Doe 2” by investigators. Al-Hussaini’s lawyer at the time claimed he was singled out because he was an Arab, according to a 2002 report in The Wall Street Journal.

Al-Hussaini claimed defamation, invasion of privacy and emotional distress. His suit was dismissed by a federal judge before trial after the defendants’ request for summary judgment. Al-Hussaini appealed the ruling but the decision was upheld.

Hussain Al-Hussaini, 45, was arrested around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday near 1250 Hancock St. and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Police allege he slashed another homeless man’s face with a beer bottle.

Police Detective James Lencki, who was working a construction detail nearby, spotted Al-Hussaini and arrested him after his description was broadcast.

He was arraigned in Quincy District Court later that morning, and held at the county jail in Dedham on $500 cash bail and an outstanding probation matter, said David Traub, spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.

Al-Hussaini was ordered to have no contact with the victim, a 37-year-old who was taken to Boston Medical Center, and to stay away from the Father Bill’s homeless shelter in Quincy.

The Al-Hussaini arrested in Quincy had been arrested in the city in 2007 on a narcotics charge and in 2009 for open and gross lewdness, Traub said.

Quincy police Capt. John Dougan said Al-Hussaini is known to police and was first arrested in Quincy in 1996 on a charge of driving without a license. He told police his native country is Iraq.

‘Returnees From Albania’ Case Report

‘Returnees From Albania’ Case Report Ends

Document Number: FBIS-NES-1999-0310
Document Type: Daily Report
Document Title: FBIS Translated Text
Document Region: Near East/South Asia
Document Date: 09 Mar 1999
Division: Arab Africa
Subdivision: Egypt
Sourceline: MM1003112499 London Al-Sharq al-Awsat in Arabic 9 Mar 99 p 10
AFS Number: MM1003112499
Citysource: London Al-Sharq al-Awsat
Language: Arabic
N/A
Subslug: Part four of a four-part report by Khalid Sharaf-al-Din from Cairo:
“Investigations Solve Mystery of Some Violent Incidents, Assassinations,
and Explosions in Egypt Over 12 Years. Defendants Justify Attacks on
Tourists as Pressure on the State. They Tell How They Watched the Houses
of Some Security Officials and Police Officers”

[FBIS Translated Text] One of the incidents attributed to defendant Husam
Nuwayr, who is now on trial in the Returnees from Albania case, was the
attack on the Egyptian National Bank 7 February 1994 in which defendant
Ahmad ‘Abd-al-Fattah Sayyid planted an explosive device in front of the
bank. Another incident was the 15 February 1994 attack on the
Alexandria-Kuwait Bank in which defendant Hasan Salih Mahmud planted an
explosive device in front of the bank as he had been instructed to do.
Other incidents included the attack on the International Commercial Bank
in al-Muhandisin 23 February 1994, the attack on the Mustafa Kamil Branch
of Misr Bank, the attack on the Egyptian-American Bank in al-Muhandisin,
and the attack on the Nile Office Tower in al-Jizah. All these attacks
were carried out on his instructions, and he personally provided the
weapons for them. The defendant’s response to all these charges was just
one word: No.
The State Security Prosecution Office’s investigator continued to
confront the defendant with the evidence. He leveled a number of charges
against him, some of them related to his ties before he fled from Egypt
with Tal’at Yasin Hammam, one of the fundamentalist organizations’
leaders who was later killed in a confrontation with the security forces.
Other charges related to his ties abroad, both with the Afghan and the
Balkan groups, in addition to his constant presence at the acts of
violence that Egypt witnessed throughout all these years. The most
notable of these acts were the attacks on banks and important
installations and the assassination of Maj. Gen. Ra’uf Khayrat, assistant
director of the Higher State Security Intelligence Service, who at the
time was in charge of monitoring the activities of the extremist
fundamentalist organizations. Nuwayr responded to all these accusations
with one single word: No.
The investigator recorded the following: As the defendant Ahmad Jabr was
in the Prosecution Office building to be questioned in the case, we
summoned him. When brought face to face with the defendant Husam Muhammad
Khamis Nuwayr, defendant Ahmad Jabr confirmed that he was the person he
knew as ‘Adil Anwar. Defendant Husam denied any connection with him. We
decided then to ask him the following:
[Question] What is your comment on defendant Ahmad Jabr’s confessions, his
recognition of you, and the details of your arrest?
[Answer] What happened was that at the end of April I was performing the
afternoon prayers at the Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani Mosque in Harun
al-Rashid Street in Heliopolis. When I left the mosque, I bought the
Al-Ahram al-Masa’i paper and began to read it. But I was arrested for no
reason that I knew of.
[Question] When and how did this happen?
[Answer] I do not remember exactly when this happened but it was in the Harun
al-Rashid Street in Heliopolis.
[Question] What was the reason for your presence there at that time?
[Answer] I was performing the afternoon prayers at the Jamal-al-Din
al-Afghani Mosque.
[Question] Who was with you at the time?
[Answer] I was alone.
[Question] What did you tell the person who arrested you?
[Answer] We did not talk.
[Question] What do you say about your admission in the record of your arrest
that you had in the past organizational and ideological links with
leading Islamic Group [IG] figures inside and outside the country?
[Answer] I heard about Safwat ‘Abd-al-Ghani because his name and photograph
were frequently in the papers because he was a defendant in the al-Mahjub
case who had escaped. His photograph was in the papers all the time. But
I know nothing about Mamduh ‘Ali Yusuf, ‘Izzat al-Salamuni, Usamah
Siddiq, or any of these names at all.
[Investigator] The record of your arrest also said that you had ties with
leader
‘Izzat al-Salamuni, who asked you to recruit new members and put you in
charge of organizing the IG’s actions in the ‘Ayn Shams area. The record
also said that leader Safwat ‘Abd-al-Ghani asked you to help ‘Izzat
al-Salamuni manage the IG’s organizational work in Cairo city.
The record of your arrest said that leader Mamduh ‘Ali Yusuf asked you
to travel to Asyut to obtain and bring back the automatic rifles which
were used in the assassination of [Former People's Assembly Speaker] Dr.
Rif’at al-Mahjub.
The record also said that, following the assassination of Dr. al-Mahjub
and the arrest of the perpetrators, you went to live in the apartment of
defendant Ahmad ‘Abd-al-Fattah Sayyid ‘Uthman in the Bulaq al-Dakrur area
until you subsequently managed to escape.
It said too that you were responsible for protecting defendant Tal’at
Yasin Hammam when he went out to call the IG leaders abroad. You were
also responsible for the exchange of the organization’s messages
containing Tal’at Yasin Hammam’s instructions to defendant Muhammad
Fawzi. Hammam also asked you to hide a quantity of copper strips that
were used in the explosions and which you received from him in defendant
Ahmad ‘Abd-al-Fattah’s apartment in al-Zaytun. Tal’at Yasin also asked
you to hand over these strips to defendant ‘Ali Sirhan. He asked you to
hand over a quantity of explosives to defendants Ahmad ‘Abd-al-Fattah,
Hasan Salih, and Hasan Hamid and to order them to use these explosives in
the attacks on police officers and banks. The record of your arrest said
that you took responsibility for manufacturing the explosive devices
following the arrest of defendant Ahmad ‘Abd-al-Fattah. You moved 21 hand
grenades, 20 kgs of TNT, and some of the organization’s papers from its
hideout in al-Zaytun to the Kafr al-Shurafa’ area.
The firm reply to all these charges was the same: No.

ASSASSINATION OF A MAJOR GENERAL [subhead]

The investigations can possibly be said to have included the history of
all the bloody events in Egypt since the death of Dr. al-Mahjub until the
arrest of the defendants in the Arab Albanians case.
‘Isam Shu’ayb, who joined the IG in the 1980s, continued his confessions
before the Higher State Security Prosecution Office. These confessions
accurately highlighted roles that had remained mysterious in a number of
violent incidents in Egypt over the past 12 years. His confessions
touched on a number of political and security figures who were closely
watched by the IG throughout these years. Its attempts to assassinate
them ended in failure for one reason or another.
The investigator asked the defendant the following at the start:
[Question] What was your partners’ role in watching these figures as reported
in the memorandum of the State Security Intelligence service? What was
their specific role in the attacks on tourists in the Pyramids area?
[Answer] Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim’s usual role was to provide security backup.
He stood at the point that controlled the site we had under surveillance.
Shaykh Yasir Sidqi’s role was to implement the action. In this incident,
he stood on the safety island in the middle of the road near a park and
at a distance of around 25 meters from me so that he could point out to
me the bus when it arrived. The signal was for him to put his hand on his
head.
[Question] What weapons did each of you carry?
[Answer] Shaykh Yasir did not have any weapons. I and Shaykh Ibrahim carried
a bundle of explosives.
[Question] On which part of the bus did you throw the explosive device?
[Answer] At the windows in the middle of the right hand side of the bus.
[Question] What were you wearing?
[Answer] Shaykh Yasir was wearing light-colored jeans and a blue jacket. This
jacket is in my house in al-’Imraniyah. I was wearing a loose
light-colored jacket over a vest. I do not remember exactly whether it
was a vest or a shirt. I wore checkered trousers and sports trainers. As
far as I can remember, Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim wore light-colored jeans,
a black leather jacket, and a koufiyah [traditional Arab headdress].
[Question] What was the aim of the attack?
[Answer] To harm the tourist sector.
[Answer] Did you not check the explosive material inside this device?
[Answer] It was black gunpowder.
[Question] How do you justify the killing of tourists?
[Answer] In the first place, tourists come to Egypt and teach our sons vice
and corruption and spread AIDS. Our youths were not like that but have
become delinquent as a result of tourism, which brings in big revenues
for the infidel regime. Therefore damaging it means exerting pressure on
the regime.
[Question] Does the shari’ah permit the killing of tourists as you say?
[Answer] I am not well versed in shari’ah. There are brother scholars who
know the details of the shari’ah and we trust them. At any rate, these
are things I do not know much about.
[Question] What were your detailed activities in the acts of monitoring,
surveillance, and assassination?
[Answer] First of all, I did not have any role in the assassination actions.
My monitoring and surveillance role was very limited. There were several
levels in this action. It started with the obtaining of information, then
came a normal watch, and this was followed by meticulous and extensive
surveillance. I never did such a thing with anyone.
[Question] Which figures did you help keep watch on, as you said in your
remarks?
[Answer] I only provided information about them. It concerned just one
person, a fellow called Majdi who lived in the Pyramids area. He and his
brothers had a sign saying Lawyers, but he was in fact an officer at the
Liman Turah Prisons. I knew because I worked in an air conditioning
workshop and used to see him. I got my information from my presence in
the area and reported his description to Shaykh Muhammad. He was 1.73
meters tall, well built, black and white hair, a moustache, and he had a
swarthy complexion.
[Question] How did you know whether any of these figures were in their houses?
[Answer] By the guards around the house. I started asking questions as soon
as I saw guards and hence knew the identity.
[Question] Did you report this information in writing?
[Answer] No. It was all done orally.
[Question] When did you report the information you collected about the figures
you have mentioned?
[Answer] It was in early 1993 for the brigadier general living in Faysal. I
reported on his physical build, rank, and residence. I know how to reach
his house but I do not know the name of the street. As to the senior rank
(he meant the senior officer) in al-Rawdah, that was done during Ramadan
of the same year. I also passed information at that time about the writer
or journalist in al-Manil (…). I obtained the information about Maj.
Gen. Mansur al-’Aysawi (a prominent security official who was director of
security in Cairo and then governor of al-Minya in Upper Egypt) when I
was in his place of residence. Doormen, people who live on other floors,
and shop owners usually talked about people like him who lived in the
same area. I recall that it was Shaykh Yasir who told me that Maj. Gen.
al-’Aysawi was living in that area. I confirmed this from the doormen. At
the same time, there were guards in the al-Qasr al-’Ayni Street. Shop
owners and sandwich or fruit juice sellers there talk without anyone
asking them. I knew from their remarks and gossip that the education
minister and a judge in the military courts who sentence the bothers to
death lived in that building. One month later, I reported on the major
general in the square near the Sheraton Hotel. I reported this
information to Shaykh Muhammad Mustafa, who had asked me to report to him
any information I could get about any police officer so as to assist in
his assassination.
[Question] Who were the targeted figures when your activities went beyond the
level of just reporting information to the higher level of a normal
watch?
[Answer] There were three persons: An officer called ‘Isam Fathi, an informer
in the State Intelligence Service called Nafadi, and Maj. Gen. Ra’uf
Khayrat.
[Question] What happened when you watched and monitored Maj. Gen. Ra’uf
Khayrat?
[Answer] I want to say something important first about these three figures.
Muhammad Mustafa or Yasir Sidqi used to tell me to go and watch this
person in this area or to go and watch a police officer. They were the
source of the information, not I. I agreed to meet Sayyid in the al-Haram
Street where Maj. Gen. Ra’uf lived and to walk to his house. I and Sayyid
stayed together during most of the watch. The first time we went there,
it was noontime and we did not find him. I said to Sayyid: Come, let us
go and perform the noon prayers, eat, and then come back. When we
returned, I knew from the number of guards that he was back. Thus we knew
that he would be at home between 1300 and 1400 hours. To obtain more
information, I said to Sayyid: Let us come here early in the morning so
as to learn more about his schedules. Sayyid continued to go there in the
mornings, while I went in the afternoons. Sayyid knew that he left the
house in the morning at 0800. But he could not come into the main street
directly because there was no opening to it. He had to leave from the
back, turn around and enter al-Jizah. He rode in a white Peugeot. That
was all the information we could collect about him, and we reported it to
Muhammad Mustafa.
[Question] How many times did you watch him?
[Answer] Every day, but we never stayed there all day. If we did not happen
to see him, we would continue to walk. But the watch went on daily for
more than 10 days.
[Question] What means did you use to watch him?
[Answer] We went in person and saw with our own eyes.
[Question] Were there any reasons why you should have been in the surveillance
area?
[Answer] There was a real estate agent in the area whose name I do not
recall. I used to go and sit next to him to ask about the price of
apartments and shops. He wore glasses, a gilbab, and a turban and was
over 50 years old. There was one person selling Pepsi at the street
corner. I and Sayyid used to buy Pepsi from him. There was a wall there
on which we sat to drink the Pepsi. That was on the other side of
al-Haram Street just before the building where Maj. Gen. Ra’uf Khayrat
lived. We did so so as not to arouse suspicion.

The Real and Only “Al-CIAda,” Ali Mohamed, a 48-year-old Egyptian–(October 21, 2000)

Former GI Pleads Guilty In Embassy Bombings Egyptian-born ex-sergeant says he helped bin Laden Los Angeles Times Saturday, October 21, 2000

(09-10) 04:00 PDT New York — A former U.S. Army sergeant charged in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa pleaded guilty yesterday, telling the court during his proceeding that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden examined a photograph of the embassy in Kenya and pointed to the spot where a truck bomb could do the most damage.

Ali Mohamed, a 48-year-old Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, said that in late 1993, he was asked by bin Laden to conduct surveillance of U.S., British, French and Israeli targets in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, as part of a plan to retaliate against the United States for its peacekeeping role in neighboring Somalia.

“I took pictures, drew diagrams and wrote a report,” Mohamed said, describing how he later traveled to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, where bin Laden and top advisers reviewed his “surveillance files.”

“Bin Laden looked at a picture of the American Embassy and pointed to where a truck could go as a suicide bomber,” Mohamed said.

On Aug. 7, 1998, explosions ripped though the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, killing more than 220 people, including 12 Americans, and injuring more than 5,000. Mohamed was the first person to plead guilty in the case, and his statement was a major victory for prosecutors who are preparing for the trial in January of the other five defendants in custody.

U.S. government lawyers are seeking to extradite three defendants from Britain, while eight others — including bin Laden — remain fugitives. The Clinton administration has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the Saudi millionaire, who is believed to be in Afghanistan.

Mohamed, balding and wearing a baggy light blue prison uniform, entered the New York courtroom in leg shackles yesterday to appear before U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand, who will also preside at the January trial.

The former Army sergeant, who took basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., and spent the rest of his military career at Fort Bragg, N.C., pleaded guilty to five federal counts of conspiracy, which included plotting to kill U.S. citizens, destroy U.S. facilities and murder U.S. soldiers in Somalia and Saudi Arabia.

Throughout the proceedings, his demeanor was calm and he spoke precisely as he outlined his relationship with bin Laden’s organization and other suspected terrorist groups.

SEARCHING FOR TARGETS

Mohamed told the court that he became involved with bin Laden in the early 1990s, later training the Saudi’s bodyguards and scouting locations in Africa for possible attacks.

He said that in the early 1980s he was involved with the militant Islamic Jihad in Egypt, and through that group was introduced to Al Qaeda, the organization headed by bin Laden.

Mohamed said he helped transport bin Laden from Afghanistan to Sudan in 1991, and the next year conducted military and basic explosives training for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

“In the early 1990s, I assisted Al Qaeda in creating a presence in Nairobi, Kenya,” he told the court, saying he worked on the project with Abu Ubaidah, bin Laden’s military commander, who later drowned in a ferry accident.

“A car business was set up to create income,” he explained, along with a charity organization to provide members of Al Qaeda with documents. “We used various code names to conceal our identities. I used the name Jeff.”

Among the potential targets in Nairobi that he scouted in 1993 for possible attacks included the U.S. Embassy, U.S. agricultural and aid offices, the French Embassy and the French Cultural Center.

SURVEILLANCE MISSION

He said bin Laden sent him to the East African nation of Djibouti in 1994 on a surveillance mission of several facilities, including French military bases and the U.S. Embassy. The same year, after an attempt was made on bin Laden’s life, he traveled to Sudan to train the militant leader’s bodyguards.

Mohamed told the court he arranged security for a meeting in Sudan between bin Laden and a leader of Hezbollah, a militant Lebanese Islamic organization.

“Hezbollah provided explosives training for Al Qaeda and Al Jihad,” he said. “Iran supplied Egyptian Jihad with weapons. Iran also used Hezbollah to supply explosives that were disguised to look like rocks.”

Mohamed said he returned to the United States in 1994, after receiving a phone call from an FBI agent asking to speak with him about the forthcoming trial of Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Egyptian sheikh who was later found guilty of conspiring to blow up targets in New York, including the United Nations.

Mohamed said he spoke to the FBI, “but didn’t disclose everything that I knew,” and after reporting on his meeting was told not to return to Nairobi. Later, he obtained a list of co-conspirators for the sheikh’s trial and sent it to Kenya, expecting it would be forwarded to bin Laden.

After the embassy bombings, he planned to travel to Egypt and later Afghanistan to meet with bin Laden. Before he could depart, he was called before a federal grand jury in Manhattan investigating the twin terrorist attacks.

“I testified, told some lies, and was then arrested,” he said.

This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

67 Known Cases of Extroardinary Rendition–Mother Jones

 

Disappearing Act: Rendition by the Numbers

Piecing together a picture of the CIA’s secret rendition program.

Mother Jones

An extraordinary rendition may be defined as the extrajudicial transfer of an individual to a country where there is reasonable probability he will be tortured. In our research we have counted 67 known cases of extraordinary rendition by the United States since 1995. While the details are often incomplete, they help paint a more complete picture of this secretive and controversial Central Intelligence Agency program.

Our research is based on reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU Law School, Andy Worthington’s The Guantanamo Files, Stephen Grey’s Ghost Plane, and media accounts. (Special thanks to Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch for her invaluable assistance.)

Before September 11

Then-CIA director George Tenet testified before the 9/11 Commission that there were more than 80 renditions before September 11, 2001. We found information on 29 cases of extraordinary and ordinary rendition prior to 9/11. Of the 14 that qualify as extraordinary renditions, 12 were to Egypt.

Prisoners who remained in American custody generally were accused of involvement with terrorist actions, such as the 1985 Egypt Air hijacking, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the 1998 African embassy bombings.

Names in parentheses are alternate spellings or aliases.

	Name	Citizenship	Rendered From	Rendered To	Date	Outcome
1	Abu Talal al-Qasimi (Talat Fouad Qassem)	Egyptian	Croatia	Egypt	September 1995	Questioned on a U.S. ship off the coast of Croatia; transferred to Egypt in 1998; executed in Cairo
2	Ahmed al-Naggar	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	July 1998	Hanged in Egypt, February 2000
3	Mohammed Hassan Tita	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	July 1998	Sentenced to 10 years in prison in Egypt
4	Shawki Salama Attiya	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	July 1998	Sentenced to life imprisonment in Egypt
5	Ahmed Ismail Osman Saleh	Egyptian	Albania	Egypt	August 1998	Hanged in Egypt, February 2000
6	Essam Abdel Tawwab Abdel Halim	Egyptian	Bulgaria	Egypt	August 1998	Sentenced to 10 years in prison in Egypt
7	Ihab Mohammed Saqr	Unknown	Azerbaijan	Egypt	Fall 1998	Unknown
8	Ahmed Mohammed Mabrouk	Unknown	Azerbaijan	Egypt	Fall 1998	Unknown
9	Essam Mohammed Hafez Marzouq	Unknown	Azerbaijan	Egypt	Fall 1998	Unknown
10	Mohammed al-Zawahiri (brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri)	Egyptian	United Arab Emirates	Egypt	April 1999	Imprisoned in Egypt
11	Hani al-Sayegh	Saudi	U.S.	Saudi Arabia	October 1999	Deported to Saudi Arabia, October 1999
12	Hussein al-Zawahiri (brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri)	Egyptian	Malaysia	Egypt	December 1999	Released in 2000
13	Abdul Rahman Muhammad Nasir Qasim al-Yaf’i	Yemeni	Egypt	Jordan	October 2000	Returned to Yemen, March 2001
14	Rifa Ahmed Taha (Abu Yasser)	Egyptian	Syria	Egypt	2001	Unclear if rendered before or after 9/11

After September 11

We found information on 117 renditions that have occurred since September 11, 2001. When we excluded renditions to Afghanistan, CIA secret prisons (or “black sites”), Guantanamo, or American custody, we found 53 cases of extraordinary rendition. All individuals for whom the rendition destination is known were sent to countries that have been criticized by the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which document “torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Of these 53 prisoners, more than one quarter have explicitly claimed that they were tortured while in foreign custody; four claim they were tortured while passing through American custody either en route to or following foreign custody. Four others may have been tortured while in foreign custody based on secondhand accounts or vague descriptions of treatment in prisons in their destination countries. Sixteen of the 53 individuals have been released after extraordinary renditions, and half of them claimed they were tortured while in foreign custody; two claim they were tortured while in American custody.

	Name	Citizenship	Rendered From	Rendered To	Date	Outcome
1	Jamal Mohammed Alwai Mar’i	Yemeni	Pakistan	Jordan	September 2001	Says he wasnot tortured in Jordan; transferred to Guantanamo
2	Mamdouh Habib	Australian	Pakistan	Egypt, Afghanistan	October 2001	Tortured in Egypt; transferred to Guantanamo; released January 2005
3	Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed	Yemeni	Pakistan	Jordan	October 2001	Unknown
4	Muhammad Haydar Zammar	German (Syrian descent)	Morocco	Syria	November 2001 or December 2001	Tortured in Syria; now in Syrian custody
5	Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Abu Musab)	Mauritanian	Mauritania	Jordan, Afghanistan	November 2001	Tortured in Jordan; transferred to Guantanamo
6	Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi (Ali Abdul-Hamid al-Fakhiri)	Libyan	Pakistan	Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya	In CIA custody as of November 2001; rendered to Libya late 2005/early 2006	Possibly tortured in Egypt; sent to Libya
7	Ahmed Agiza	Egyptian (living in Sweden)	Sweden	Egypt	December 2001	Tortured in Egypt; still imprisoned there
8	Muhammad Zery	Egyptian (living in Sweden)	Sweden	Egypt	December 2001	Tortured in Egypt; released October 2003
9	Hassan (Raba’i)	Libyan	Pakistan	Libya, Afghanistan	2002	May have been rendered to Libya in late 2005 or 2006; status unknown
10	Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni	Egyptian (held Pakistani passport)	Indonesia	Egypt, Afghanistan	January 2002	Fellow prisoners say he was tortured in Egypt; transferred to Guantanamo
11	Walid al-Qadasi	Yemeni	Iran	Afghanistan, Yemen	January 2002	Tortured in “dark prison” in Afghanistan; transferred to Yemen April 2004; released February 2006
12	Anas al-Libi (Anas al-Sabai, Nazih al-Raghie)	Libyan	Sudan	Probably Egypt	February 2002	Unknown
13	Abduh Ali Shaqawi (Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi; Riyadh the Facilitator)	Yemeni	Pakistan	Jordan, Afghanistan	February 2002	Transferred to Afghanistan January 2004; transferred to Guantanamo September 2004.
14	Abou Elkassim Britel [Abu al-Kassem Britel]	Italian/ Moroccan	Pakistan	Pakistan, Morocco	March or May 2002	Tortured in Morocco; released February 2003; recaptured May 2003; currently in Moroccan custody
15	Suleiman Abdalla Salim (Suleiman Abdalla, Issa Tanzania)	Yemeni, Tanzanian	Somalia	Afghanistan or Kenya	March 2002 or March 2003	Claims he was tortured in U.S. custody; status unknown
16	Binyam Mohamed al-Habashi	Ethiopian	Pakistan	Morocco, Afghanistan	April or July 2002	Tortured in Morocco; transferred to Guantanamo, September 2004
17	Barah Abdul Latif	Syrian	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Questioned in Palestine Branch Prison, Damascus
18	Bahaa Mustafa Jaghel	Syrian	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Questioned in Palestine Branch Prison, Damascus
19	Abdel Halim Dalak	Unknown	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Student arrested in November 2001; Status unknown
20	Omar Ghramesh	Unknown	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Arrested with Abu Zubaydah; Status unknown
21	Unidentified teenager	Unknown	Pakistan	Syria	May 2002	Status unknown
22	Abu Zubair al-Haili (Fawzi Saad al-’Obaydi)	Saudi	Morocco	Morocco	June 2002	Tortured in Morocco; Status unknown
23	Sheikh Ahmed Salim (Swedan)	Kenyan	Pakistan	Unknown	July 2002	Status unknown
24	Yasser Tinawi	Syrian	Somalia	Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria	July 2002	Interrogated by U.S. agents in Ethiopia, then flown to Cairo; transferred to Syria
25	Omar bin Hassan	Palestinian	Somalia	Ethiopia	July 2002	Released after questioning on Somali border
26	Maher Arar	Syrian/ Canadian	New York	Syria	September 2002	Tortured in Syria; released February 2004
27	Hassan bin Attash	Saudi (born in Yemen)	Pakistan	Jordan, Afghanistan	September 2002	Tortured in Jordan; transferred to Guantanamo
28	Saif al Islam el Masry	Egyptian	Georgia	Possibly Egypt	September 2002	Believed to be held in a secret CIA prison
29	Abdallah al-Sadeq (Sadek)	Libyan	Thailand	Libya	2003	Libyan custody
30	Abu Munder al-Saadi	Libyan	Hong Kong	Libya	2003	Libyan custody
31	Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Abu Omar)	Egyptian; asylum in Italy	Italy	Egypt	February 2003	Tortured in Egypt; released February 2007
32	Aafia	Siddiqui	Pakistani	Pakistan	March 2003	Status unknown
33	Saud Memon (involved in Daniel Pearl slaying)	Pakistani	South Africa	Pakistan	March 2003	Released April 2007 “badly injured and emaciated”; Died May 2007
34	Laid Saidi	Algerian	Expelled from Tanzania to Malawi	Afghanistan; Algeria	May 2003	Says he was tortured at Bagram; transferred to Algeria; released August 2004
35	Safwan al-Hasham (Haffan al-Hasham)	Saudi	Pakistan		May 2003	Appeared on a congressional “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” list in July 2006; status unknown
36	Jawad al-Bashar	Egyptian	Pakistan		May 2003	Status unknown
37	Mahmoud Sardar Issa	Sudanese	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
38	Fahad al-Bahli	Saudi	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
39	Arif Ulusam	Turkish	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
40	Ibrahim Itabaci	Turkish	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
41	Khalifa Abdi Hassan	Saudi	Malawi	Zimbabwe, Sudan	June 2003	Released July 2003 in Sudan
42	Salah Nasser Salim ‘Ali	Yemeni	Indonesia	Jordan, Afghanistan, Yemen	August 2003 / October 2003	Tortured in Jordan; held in Yemen
43	Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah	Yemeni	Indonesia	Jordan, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, Yemen	October 2003	Tortured in Jordan; released March 2006
44	Salah Nasir Salim ‘Ali Qaru	Yemeni	Jordan	Djibouti, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe	October 2003	Tortured at a “black site”; returned to Yemen May 2005
45	Muhammad Abdullah Salah al-Assad	Yemeni	Tanzania	Djibouti, Afghanistan, Yemen (CIA custody)	December 2003	Harsh conditions in secret prisons (no direct mention of torture); released March 2006
46	Khaled al-Sharif (Abu Hazem)	Libyan	Pakistan	Libya, Afghanistan	Late 2003	May have been rendered to Libya in late 2005 or 2006; status unknown
47	Ibad al Yaquti al Sheikh al Sufiyan	Saudi	Pakistan	Unknown	January 2004	Status unknown
48	Walid bin Azmi, USS Cole suspect	Unknown	Pakistan	Unknown	January 2004	Status unknown
49	Marwan Ibrahim Jabour	Palestinian (born in Jordan)	Pakistan	Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel	May 2004	Tortured in Pakistan; released in Gaza November 2006
50	Sharif al-Masri (Abd-al-Sattar Sharif al-Masri. Told Pak. authorities of Al Q plan to smuggle nuclear materials to U.S. from Mexico)	Egyptian	Pakistan	Unknown	August 2004	Status unknown
51	Qari Saifullah Akhtar (Amir Harkat-ul-Ansar Qari Saifullah)	Pakistani	United Arab Emirates	Pakistan	August 2004	Appeared on FBI’s “Terrorists No Longer a Threat” list in July 2006; status unknown
52	Mustafa Setmariam Nasar (Abu Musab al-Suri)	Syrian-Spanish dual	Pakistan	India? Syria?	November 2005	Arrested by Pakistani police; was in U.S. custody in early 2006; now likely in Syrian custody
53	[First name unknown] al-Mahdi-Jawdeh (Abu Ayoub, Ayoub al-Libi)	Libyan	Pakistan	Libya	2006	Status unknown

Re-arrest of Zawahiri’s brother for investigation in the case of ‘Albania returnees’

Photographed by other

Egyptian security sources said on Monday that security forces rearrested Mohamed al-Zawahiri, brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization’s second-in-command.

A prominent member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization led by his brother Ayman, he received a life sentence in 1999. On Thursday, the military released him with 59 detainees who had been convicted of belonging to Islamist groups.

The security official said on Monday that the Egyptian Mohamad al-Zawahiri was sentenced in absentia by a military court in a case known to the media as “The returnees from Albania.”

The sources said by revisiting the records of al-Zawahiri, the authorities found that he was charged in another case. After 3 days from releasing him, the police re-arrested al-Zawahiri, and he awaits trial.

The name “Albania returnees” was given to the Islamist militants who were said to have been active in the Balkans for years of war side-by-side with Muslim residents of the region against attacks by groups, organizations, and state governments.

It is recalled that the influx of these Mujahideen into the Balkan region began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 under the pretext of supporting the resistance. Some then returned to Egypt while others went to fight other wars in Albania and the Balkans during the 1990’s.

The Egyptian authorities charge the “Returnees” with working to overthrow the government, killing civilians, and targeting tourists and Christians.

Nizar Ghorab, a lawyer, has submitted a report to the attorney general accusing Minister of Interior Mansour al-Essawy of detaining al-Zawahiri and taking him to an unknown destination without a judiciary warrant. Ghorab said it is difficult for him to communicate with his family and lawyers.

Ghorab told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the detention is evidence that the State Security Investigation Service (SSIS), last week declared dissolved by al-Essawy, continues to operate in secret. SSIS offices nationwide were shut down and the service was replaced by the new National Security agency, tasked with countering terrorism without interfering in citizens’ personal affairs.

Scumbags From MI6 Taunt Their Libyan Counterparts

MI6 puts gun to generals’ heads: Our spies phone Gaddafi’s men direct to warn: Defect or die

By MICHAEL SEAMARK and TIM SHIPMAN

Defect or die: MI6 have issued military commanders a stark warning – telling them remaining loyal to Colonel Gaddafi could be fatal

British intelligence is warning Colonel Gaddafi’s generals that it could be fatal to remain loyal to the Libyan leader.

MI6 spies and military officials are contacting commanders in Tripoli trying to persuade them to defect, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Their message is blunt: ‘General, we’ve got the GPS co-ordinates of your command post. They are programmed into a Storm Shadow missile. What do you want to do?’

As Gaddafi vowed to wage a long war with the ‘crusader alliance’, British officials said the intelligence services had the telephone numbers of many key military officials in his regime.

A senior source said: ‘They will be doing their best to get in touch. This is a situation where success breeds success. Once you get air superiority it becomes suicidal for Libyan army commanders to want to move tanks or to use artillery.

‘That’s pressure. It worked in Iraq.’

Former Army chief Lord Dannatt said: ‘If I was a Libyan military commander I’d be thinking very closely about my loyalty.

‘What about loyalty to my country, my tribe? I think it’s those ground commanders’ loyalty we expect to see changing when they realise they have no hope against the international air forces.’

Colonel Gaddafi was heard but not seen yesterday as he vowed to fight with ‘unlimited patience and deep faith’.

Obama is a liar. Obama is a liar.

‘America wants full dominance over ME’

Interview with Stephen Lendman, writer and radio host, Chicago

The world is finding out what a “no fly zone” means to “the coalition of the willing.” The promised minimal role by the US exploded from the start into massive continual aerial assaults against both military and illegally against civilian targets. Hospitals have been bombed in Libya by NATO.

While the rhetoric expounds so-called guarantees that ousting Gaddafi is not a main target, Press TV discusses the disturbing turn of events with Stephen Lendman, writer and radio host in Chicago.

Press TV: Some 60 civilians or more have been killed by NATO air and missile strikes in Libya in just the past 24 hours. How do you understand the current situation in Libya?

Stephen Lendman: I’ve seen this too many times before and it’s very disturbing. I absolutely agree with Hugo Chavez’ remarks — the purpose very definitely is to oust Gaddafi. And it is really an utter betrayal because relationships with the US were established back in 2003; he was greeted on one memorable occasion by Hilary Clinton.

For months what began yesterday — the air attacks, cruise missiles, B52 stealth bombers bombing targets; and by the way two hospitals were struck, either heavily damaged or maybe destroyed; a third medical clinic was attacked. These are civilian targets — civilian as well as military targets are being attacked in outright naked aggression and the idea is to oust Gaddafi, colonize the country, steal its resources, and exploit its people.

The same thing that went on in Iraq, the same thing that’s going on in Afghanistan and in parts of Pakistan and Somalia — proxy wars America is engaged in. As soon as I saw America beginning to engage in Libya, rhetorically back in February, which was picked up very easily on US media, there was violence in Bahrain in Tunisia in Libya, all ignored, virtually nothing in the US media reporting on any of these countries. Obama isn’t saying anything about it. Hilary Clinton isn’t saying anything about it. Secretary of Defense Gates isn’t saying anything about it.

But Gaddafi is the only one they’re going after.

The hypocrisy is absolutely gross and again it’s very clear what America wants. America is leading this aggression. The key co-belligerents are America with France and Britain with some support from Canada, Italy and Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

I think there is a split feeling in NATO especially and the UN resolution that went through. I was astonished that the resolution went through, because there is a lot of opposition to what America wants.

You put a no fly zone in — that is an act of war that guarantees air attacks. A no fly zone means to deploy aircraft over the country so you have to destroy its air defenses and therefore begin targeting these defenses, then employ the no fly zone.

French aircraft also attacked and there are unconfirmed reports that three French planes have been shot down.

Press TV: Yes, unconfirmed reports say that three French aircraft have gone down probably over Benghazi as French aircraft are flying 24 hours a day over Benghazi not over Tripoli so thanks for sharing that.

Gaddafi has come out defiant after the no fly zone operation commenced. He has talked of opening up the arms depots to the people, of dying like martyrs, etc. Not all the revolutionaries wanted a foreign military interference while others did, but they were standing against Gaddafi. Do you think this current development could cause a shift where some of these people will now fight for Gaddafi?

Stephen Lendman: I don’t think so. But this is no revolution, it is no uprising — this is an insurrection. US and British operatives have been in Libya enlisting opposition, recruiting them and funding them; this has been going on for many weeks probably months because operations like this take time. To attack another country, months of planning are involved that includes targets being chosen, tactics solidified, troops deployed; it takes a great deal of planning — it could have been six months.

Gaddafi has been in power for 42 years. Where has the opposition been? There has been no uprising against him in 42 years. All of a sudden you get this well-armed opposition exploding in the country.

I am no Gaddafi fan; Libya would be much better off without Gaddafi. But he responded to an insurrection. Any responsible leader, even a despot, has the right to respond to an insurrection and that’s what he did. He did not begin it, but responded to something that was western influenced, Western financed, Western instigated and America is the lead belligerent as it always is. America wants full dominance over the Middle East. Make no mistake about it, including over Iran.

It could be that after Libya if they get rid of Gaddafi, the next target could be Iran — that’s the dominant country — oil rich — and America wants to get its hands on it.

Beginning back in 1990 preceding the Gulf war, the sanctions by the US administration were applied that killed 1.5 million Iraqis in the 1990s — a shocking story completely suppressed in the US media. And then of course everything leading up to the 2003 war, which began on March 19th, the Libyan war began March 19th; it looks like the same script with some variation about whether there will be an occupation or not; Obama says absolutely not.

Obama is a liar. Obama is a liar, George Bush was a liar. Nothing these people say should be believed. He promised a very limited US role; he promised humanitarian intervention. America will not tolerate humanitarian intervention; America will not tolerate democracy. They don’t have it at home so certainly they won’t allow it in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya. America wants one thing: imperial conquest and domination.

We have no money to spend at home in the US, we’re broke. But we have limitless billions of dollars to spend attacking other countries illegally. These are illegal wars in violation of international law and US law. And the US public I’m afraid is very very much in the dark; they don’t understand it due to the way the US media explains it.

SC/MMA

Naked Aggression: ‘Libya assault planned months ahead’

Naked Agression: ‘Libya assault planned months …, posted with vodpod

Bombs for peace? ‘UN completely disgraced in Libya’

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US Sec. Def. Rejects the Idea of Killing Gaddafi

US defense chief rejects targeting Gaddafi