The Quickening
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
The End of the World as We Know It? An Internal or External Shift?
(Click link if embedded url does not work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kHHZkUiRP30)
The Quickening
The Quickening
Occupy Wall Street: 20,000 To Gather On September 17th
Huffington Post
September 15, 2011
On Saturday, September 17th, organizers for the event Occupy Wall Street are calling for 20,000 individuals to join their cause for government and corporate change by way of peaceful, non-violent protests.
September 15, 2011
On Saturday, September 17th, organizers for the event Occupy Wall Street are calling for 20,000 individuals to join their cause for government and corporate change by way of peaceful, non-violent protests.
The large-scale event, originally published back in July by Adbusters, a not-for-profit magazine aimed to "topple existing power structures," was inspired by the revolutionary events that swept through the Middle East earlier this year. The group's site reveals their hopes to transform Lower Manhattan into an "American Tahrir Square."
How exactly will the group invoke such radical change? Details have yet to be revealed but Occupy Wall Street organizer, Will Russell, a grad student at Hunter College, explains to the Village Voice, that yoga, pitched tents, and dancing to 'Thriller' will be sure to take place.
The hacker group, Anonymous, also announced their participation in a video released below.
Saturday's events have garnered traction through various social media outlets, including Twitter, which has seen the use of the hasthtag, #OccupyWallStreet. The group's Facebook event directs protestors to meet at Bowling Green Park at noon and then at 3pm to move to One Chase Manhattan Plaza for a people's assembly.
How exactly will the group invoke such radical change? Details have yet to be revealed but Occupy Wall Street organizer, Will Russell, a grad student at Hunter College, explains to the Village Voice, that yoga, pitched tents, and dancing to 'Thriller' will be sure to take place.
The hacker group, Anonymous, also announced their participation in a video released below.
Saturday's events have garnered traction through various social media outlets, including Twitter, which has seen the use of the hasthtag, #OccupyWallStreet. The group's Facebook event directs protestors to meet at Bowling Green Park at noon and then at 3pm to move to One Chase Manhattan Plaza for a people's assembly.
London: Public Sector Cuts: The Worst is Yet to Come
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Calamitous as they may seem, the spending reductions that begin to take hold on Friday are only the start. The first cuts may well be the deepest, but they will not be the last, and nor will delivering them be the only challenge facing public services.
The UK's public services are about to step into a long age of austerity that will present them with twin agendas, both requiring unprecedented skill and ingenuity: to manage the cuts in as clever, socially just and strategic a way as possible; and to design and create affordable and innovative ways of meeting social need.
It might be tempting to assume that the worst is over. The finance director's spreadsheet might suggest the spending cuts trajectory is "smoother" in future years. But how many of the thousands of cuts plans lined up for implementation on 1 April will be neat and self-contained?
Public sector cuts: what we know so far | |
Sector | Total cut |
£20bn | |
£5.8bn | |
£4.4bn | |
£3.4bn | |
£3bn | |
£1.2bn | |
£819m | |
£350m | |
£211m | |
£165m | |
£36m | |
£9m | |
15.00% | |
What if the elegant savings plans don't deliver? A little-noticed warning a few weeks ago from the public sector accountants' body, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, pointed out that many local authorities, having struggled to set a legal budget, had serious reservations about whether those budgets would hold.
Half of the directors of finance surveyed worried that the complexity of the savings programmes meant they might cost more and deliver less than expected. Almost three-quarters feared that public opposition would mean changes will take longer to implement. An overspend at the end of 2011-12 will mean pain for staff (more job cuts), and for the providers and service users.
The consequences of cuts across the public sector will continue to ripple out. In local government, some difficult choices, which have been "parked" until after the local elections in May, will be revisited. Charities will go to the wall. The NHS cuts programme will heat up, with wards and perhaps even whole hospitals under threat. Cuts to the police frontline, moving on a slower cycle, will hove into view.
The speed and depth of the cuts means that the first part of the challenge – clever cuts – has been even more difficult than it should have been. There has been little time for reflection about what to cut, where, why and how much, and the avoidable waste, individual pain and destruction of skills, value and experience that that is causing will resonate for a long time. The effects will be seen from mental health, substance abuse and homelessness to libraries and swimming pools.
The second part of the challenge is to innovate. Ministers show no leadership or sophistication here: they deliver lumpen soundbites about cutting chief executive salaries, or ill-defined homilies to the "big society". They endorse "charities" and social enterprise as proxies for innovation, and yet oversee a huge, undiscriminating bloodbath of cuts among the civil society economy. The goal is always less: a smaller state, lower wages and lower prices.
Creating smarter, more efficient and socially just public services that deliver demonstrably higher impact and greater social value is the necessary task of the public and voluntary sectors over the next three years.
Investment in innovation at a time of terrible cuts? No one says it's going to be easy, but it just could be public services' finest hour.
UN Rights Council Seeks Access for Aid Agencies to NKorea
March 25, 2011
The UN Human Rights Council yesterday urged North Korea to allow relief agencies to have unimpeded access, as it voiced alarm at the "precarious humanitarian situation'' in the Stalinist state.
Thirty countries on the 47-member council voted for the resolution tabled by the European Union and Japan that also extended the mandate of a UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, and called on Pyongyang to grant him access to the country.
Three countries - China, Cuba and Russia - voted against and 11 abstained.
The resolution urged the North Korean leadership to "ensure full, rapid and unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance that is delivered on the basis of need, in accordance with humanitarian principles, coupled with adequate monitoring.''
Cuba, which called for a vote on the issue, dismissed the resolution as "politically motivated against the DPRK.".
China also opposed the resolution, saying Beijing is against ``exerting pressure on specific country issues'' as it only served to complicate the situation.
North Korea meanwhile angrily rejected the resolution, dismissing it as ``complete lies and fabrications,'' and "politically motivated.''
North Korea will "hold fast to the socialist system, the cradle of life and guarantee of happiness for our people,'' said the envoy.
Darusman told the council last week that the international community should provide relief aid to the impoverished communist state, saying that support should not be dependent on political conditions.
However, the special rapporteur also stressed that with any help should come with a requirement for access.
China Urges Quick End to Airstrikes in Libya
March 23, 2011
BEIJING - China escalated its opposition to American-led airstrikes on Libya on Tuesday, joining Russia and India in calls for an immediate cease-fire and suggesting that coalition forces were imperiling civilians by exceeding the United Nations-mandated no-fly zone.
The rising criticism among the so-called BRIC group - Brazil, Russia, India and China - came amid allegations by the Libyan government that allied bombings had killed or wounded scores of civilians, a claim rejected by American military officials.
On Monday, hours after the departure of President Obama, Brazil issued a statement condemning the attacks and urging “the start of dialogue.”
China’s response to the campaign has been the most forceful, warning that the assault could bring about a “humanitarian disaster.” In a news briefing Tuesday, Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, called for an end to hostilities. “We’ve seen reports that the use of armed force is causing civilian casualties, and we oppose the wanton use of armed force leading to more civilian casualties,” she said.
China was one of five countries to abstain from the United Nations resolution that authorized the allied airstrikes against the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, which have been seeking to crush a rebellion against his four-decade rule. Russia, Brazil, India and Germany also abstained, while South Africa joined nine other Security Council members in supporting the resolution approved last week.
In its decision to abstain rather than block the resolution through its veto power, China said it was heeding the wishes of the Arab League and the African Union.
During a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday, Russia’s defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, added his voice to those calling for a cease-fire, saying it was the best way to avoid civilian casualties, according to The Associated Press. On Monday, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin was unsparing in his criticism, comparing the allied campaign against Libya to the invasion of Iraq and likening it to a “medieval call for a crusade.” In a rare expression of dissent between the country’s two leaders, President Dmitri A. Medvedev later criticized the remarks as unacceptable.
On Tuesday, Indian officials joined those calling for a cease-fire. Pranab Mukherjee, the country’s finance minister and a leader of the lower house of Parliament, told lawmakers that the coalition had no right to oust the ruler of a sovereign nation.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Tuesday that Turkey supported providing humanitarian aid to Libya but that it would “never be the party that points weapons at the Libyan people.” Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO, had opposed an alliance plan for the no-fly zone.
The Chinese news media, meanwhile, have been vociferous in expressing opposition to the military campaign against the Libyan government, with articles and commentaries depicting the assault as an attempt to grab that country’s oil resources and expand American influence in the region.
A front-page article in People’s Daily on Tuesday said the United Nations resolution characterizing the Libyan army’s attack on civilians as a possible “crime against humanity” was simply cover for what it called the West’s hegemonic intentions.
“Historical experience has shown that humanitarian intervention is only an excuse for military intervention into other countries’ domestic affairs,” wrote the author, Tang Zhichao, a scholar at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. “They claim to be motivated by morality but in fact they are driven by narrow political and economic interests.”
An editorial in Global Times, owned by People’s Daily, went further, saying that Western nations should be penalized for “abusing” the Security Council resolution that paved the way for the attack. “Just let them agonize there in Libya,” the paper said, referring to the United States and its partners. “No matter what happens to Qaddafi, a chaotic Libya will become an unshakable burden for the West forever.”
China’s response to the campaign has been the most forceful, warning that the assault could bring about a “humanitarian disaster.” In a news briefing Tuesday, Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, called for an end to hostilities. “We’ve seen reports that the use of armed force is causing civilian casualties, and we oppose the wanton use of armed force leading to more civilian casualties,” she said.
China was one of five countries to abstain from the United Nations resolution that authorized the allied airstrikes against the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, which have been seeking to crush a rebellion against his four-decade rule. Russia, Brazil, India and Germany also abstained, while South Africa joined nine other Security Council members in supporting the resolution approved last week.
In its decision to abstain rather than block the resolution through its veto power, China said it was heeding the wishes of the Arab League and the African Union.
During a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday, Russia’s defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, added his voice to those calling for a cease-fire, saying it was the best way to avoid civilian casualties, according to The Associated Press. On Monday, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin was unsparing in his criticism, comparing the allied campaign against Libya to the invasion of Iraq and likening it to a “medieval call for a crusade.” In a rare expression of dissent between the country’s two leaders, President Dmitri A. Medvedev later criticized the remarks as unacceptable.
On Tuesday, Indian officials joined those calling for a cease-fire. Pranab Mukherjee, the country’s finance minister and a leader of the lower house of Parliament, told lawmakers that the coalition had no right to oust the ruler of a sovereign nation.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Tuesday that Turkey supported providing humanitarian aid to Libya but that it would “never be the party that points weapons at the Libyan people.” Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO, had opposed an alliance plan for the no-fly zone.
The Chinese news media, meanwhile, have been vociferous in expressing opposition to the military campaign against the Libyan government, with articles and commentaries depicting the assault as an attempt to grab that country’s oil resources and expand American influence in the region.
A front-page article in People’s Daily on Tuesday said the United Nations resolution characterizing the Libyan army’s attack on civilians as a possible “crime against humanity” was simply cover for what it called the West’s hegemonic intentions.
“Historical experience has shown that humanitarian intervention is only an excuse for military intervention into other countries’ domestic affairs,” wrote the author, Tang Zhichao, a scholar at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. “They claim to be motivated by morality but in fact they are driven by narrow political and economic interests.”
An editorial in Global Times, owned by People’s Daily, went further, saying that Western nations should be penalized for “abusing” the Security Council resolution that paved the way for the attack. “Just let them agonize there in Libya,” the paper said, referring to the United States and its partners. “No matter what happens to Qaddafi, a chaotic Libya will become an unshakable burden for the West forever.”
Police in Azerbaijan Arrest Antigovernment Protesters
12 March, 2011
MOSCOW — The police in Azerbaijan arrested 50 protesters on Saturday, the second day of demonstrations in Baku, the capital, calling for the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev, whose family has been ruling the oil-rich state since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Police officers cordoned off the site of an antigovernment protest that drew hundreds Saturday in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital.
Several hundred protesters gathered Saturday for a rally organized by an opposition party, Musavat, which intended to ride the wave of revolts in the Middle East and North Africa. On Friday, about 60 people showed up to protest, following instructions on a Facebook page to wear red and find one another on the streets.
On both days, the police were waiting for the demonstrators, arresting them as soon as they began to gather.
They had a harder time controlling the fluid crowd on Saturday, filling a series of vans with detainees and calling in reinforcements.
“It is impossible to live under an authoritarian regime,” said one protester, Elkhan Alnagiyev, who was promptly arrested by undercover police officers who had seen him speaking to a journalist.
Another protester, Rashad Aliyev, said he had come because he was unemployed.
“It’s not that there are no jobs; it’s that I don’t know anyone who will put me in a job,” Mr. Aliyev said.
“They are oppressing us.”
Azerbaijan, a major producer of oil and natural gas with a population of nine million, was ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world last year by Transparency International.
The authorities have begun a campaign to crack down on graft, with high-profile firings of university administrators and other officials.
Mr. Aliyev has also been criticized for restricting the press and for failing to create meaningful democratic institutions.
Over the past week, the authorities warned university students that they could be expelled if they missed classes during the protests. Mubariz Qurbanli, a member of the governing New Azerbaijan Party, said the low turnout on Friday proved that the people of Azerbaijan did not support the opposition.
“Everyone understands that confrontation and chaos harm each member of society,” Mr. Qurbanli said in comments that were carried by the Interfax news service on Friday. “All such attempts will meet the same fate because there is no support for more radical politics in Azerbaijan.”
The Interior Ministry reported that 43 people had been detained on Friday and 50 on Saturday, and said that about 40 of those were likely to be prosecuted, according to Interfax.
Among those detained before the protest were Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, the only organizer of the Friday protests who is living inside the country; he was taken into custody on March 4.
The United States Embassy said in a statement that it was following reports of Mr. Hajiyev’s detention “and, in particular, allegations that he may have suffered abuse and been denied legal counsel.”
The police also detained Etibar Salmanli, who was shown on a YouTube video distributing pink leaflets about the protests. On Thursday, the Justice Ministry closed the Azerbaijan Human Rights House, which that assists activists and defenders of human rights.
The protest on Friday was among the first to be organized online in Azerbaijan, where the number of Facebook users has jumped in recent months.
According to Socialbakers.com, a Facebook traffic-tracking Web site, Azerbaijan’s Facebook use grew by about 5 percent in February to reach 324,880 people, more than three-quarters of whom are 18 to 34 years old.
“Facebook is a huge asset for us,” said Turgut Gambar, who was arrested and released Friday after the police spotted him with a group of young people dressed in red.
“I hear people talking about the 11th of March without us making a huge, huge effort.”
On both days, the police were waiting for the demonstrators, arresting them as soon as they began to gather.
They had a harder time controlling the fluid crowd on Saturday, filling a series of vans with detainees and calling in reinforcements.
“It is impossible to live under an authoritarian regime,” said one protester, Elkhan Alnagiyev, who was promptly arrested by undercover police officers who had seen him speaking to a journalist.
Another protester, Rashad Aliyev, said he had come because he was unemployed.
“It’s not that there are no jobs; it’s that I don’t know anyone who will put me in a job,” Mr. Aliyev said.
“They are oppressing us.”
Azerbaijan, a major producer of oil and natural gas with a population of nine million, was ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world last year by Transparency International.
The authorities have begun a campaign to crack down on graft, with high-profile firings of university administrators and other officials.
Mr. Aliyev has also been criticized for restricting the press and for failing to create meaningful democratic institutions.
Over the past week, the authorities warned university students that they could be expelled if they missed classes during the protests. Mubariz Qurbanli, a member of the governing New Azerbaijan Party, said the low turnout on Friday proved that the people of Azerbaijan did not support the opposition.
“Everyone understands that confrontation and chaos harm each member of society,” Mr. Qurbanli said in comments that were carried by the Interfax news service on Friday. “All such attempts will meet the same fate because there is no support for more radical politics in Azerbaijan.”
The Interior Ministry reported that 43 people had been detained on Friday and 50 on Saturday, and said that about 40 of those were likely to be prosecuted, according to Interfax.
Among those detained before the protest were Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, the only organizer of the Friday protests who is living inside the country; he was taken into custody on March 4.
The United States Embassy said in a statement that it was following reports of Mr. Hajiyev’s detention “and, in particular, allegations that he may have suffered abuse and been denied legal counsel.”
The police also detained Etibar Salmanli, who was shown on a YouTube video distributing pink leaflets about the protests. On Thursday, the Justice Ministry closed the Azerbaijan Human Rights House, which that assists activists and defenders of human rights.
The protest on Friday was among the first to be organized online in Azerbaijan, where the number of Facebook users has jumped in recent months.
According to Socialbakers.com, a Facebook traffic-tracking Web site, Azerbaijan’s Facebook use grew by about 5 percent in February to reach 324,880 people, more than three-quarters of whom are 18 to 34 years old.
“Facebook is a huge asset for us,” said Turgut Gambar, who was arrested and released Friday after the police spotted him with a group of young people dressed in red.
“I hear people talking about the 11th of March without us making a huge, huge effort.”
McCain Warns of Threat From China
10 March, 2011
US senator John McCain has warned that Australia and the US must collaborate to counter China's rise as an Asia Pacific military power.
Julia Gillard has backed his concern, saying she expects increased military co-operation with the US as well as close diplomatic engagement with China.
After opening a photographic exhibition commemorating the 60th year of the ANZUS treaty, Senator McCain, who was the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2008, said yesterday he was disturbed by recent Chinese claims that the South China Sea should be seen as "a special zone".
"They have been acting very assertively in the region," he said. "The fact is they are a rising power and they are a military power.
"Now that doesn't mean to me that there is going to be conflict . . . but it does mean that Australia and the United States must ensure that basics like freedom of the seas are observed by the Chinese."
Senator McCain said China had recently boosted its defence budget by 12 per cent, and added that the true size of its military budget was unknown. He said no one should be in any doubt that China was building up its military strength, and the best way Australia and the US could respond was to assert basic rights such as freedom of passage.
The Prime Minister said Australia and the US were working closely together as the US continued its defence posture review, which is designed to reconfigure the country's global military footprint in line with changing circumstances such as the increasing influence of India and China.
"I think Australia and the US need to co-operate on all strategic challenges, and what is happening in our region is largely being defined by the rise of China," Ms Gillard said.
"So we constructively engage with China. That's our policy [and] it's the policy of the US. We also have frank discussions with China, where we have differences."
Asked whether she expected the rise of China would lead to more US military resources based in Australia or using Australian ports, she said US deployment was a matter for the Americans.
"But, yes, we are collaborating in that global posture review, and the outcome of that will be known later this year, so we will be able to comment with some certainty then about the deployment of US military assets," she said.
War Porn is Back
The Roving Eye
March 3, 2011
Forget "democracy"; Libya, unlike Egypt and Tunisia, is an oil power. Many a plush office of United States and European elites will be salivating at the prospect of taking advantage of a small window of opportunity afforded by the anti-Muammar Gaddafi revolution to establish - or expand - a beachhead. There's all that oil, of course. There's also the allure, close by, of the US$10 billion, 4,128 kilometer long Trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria, expected to be online in 2015.
Thus the world, once again, is reintroduced to war porn, history as farce, a bad rerun of "shock and awe". Everyone - the United Nations, the US, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - is up in arms about a no-fly zone. Special forces are on the move, as are US warships.
Breathless US senators compare Libya with Yugoslavia. Tony "The Return of the Living Dead" Blair is back in missionary zeal form, its mirror image played by British Prime Minister David Cameron, duly mocked by Gaddafi's son, the "modernizer" Saif al-Islam. There's fear of "chemical weapons". Welcome back to humanitarian imperialism - on crack.
And like a character straight out of Scary Movie, even war-on-Iraq-architect Paul Wolfowitz wants a NATO-enforced no-fly zone, as the Foreign Policy Initiative - the son of the Project for the New American Century - publishes an open letter to US President Barack Obama demanding military boots to turn Libya into a protectorate ruled by NATO in the name of the "international community".
The mere fact that all these people are supporting the Libya protesters makes it all stink to - over the rainbow - high heavens. Sending His Awesomeness Charlie Sheen to whack Gaddafi would seem more believable.
It was up to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to introduce a note of sanity, describing the notion of a no-fly zone over Libya as "superfluous". This means in practice a Russian veto at the UN Security Council. Earlier, China had already changed the conversation.
In their Sheen-style hysteria - with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton desperately offering "any kind of assistance" - Western politicians did not bother to consult with the people who are risking their lives to overthrow Gaddafi. At a press conference in Benghazi, the spokesman for the brand new Libyan National Transitional Council, human-rights lawyer Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, was blunt, "We are against any foreign intervention or military intervention in our internal affairs ... This revolution will be completed by our people."
The people in question, by the way, are protecting Libya's oil industry, and even loading supertankers destined to Europe and China. The people in question do not have much to do with opportunists such as former Gaddafi-appointed justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who wants a provisional government to prepare for elections in three months. Moreover, the people in question, as al-Jazeera has reported, have been saying they don't want foreign intervention for a week now.
The Benghazi council prefers to describe itself as the "political face for the revolution", organizing civic affairs, and not established as an interim government. Meanwhile, a military committee of officer defectors is trying to set up a skeleton army to be sent to Tripoli; through tribal contacts, they seem to have already infiltrated small cells into the vicinity of Tripoli.
Whether this self-appointed revolutionary leadership - splinter elements of the established elite, the tribes and the army - will be the face of a new regime, or whether they will be overtaken by younger, more radical activists, remains to be seen.
Shower me with hypocrisy
None of this anyway has placated the hysterical Western narrative, according to which there are only two options for Libya; to become a failed state or the next al-Qaeda haven. How ironic. Up to 2008, Libya was dismissed by Washington as a rogue state and an unofficial member of the "axis of evil" that originally included Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
As former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark confirmed years ago, Libya was on the Pentagon/neo-conservative official list to be taken out after Iraq, along with Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria and the holy grail, Iran. But as soon as wily Gaddafi became an official partner in the "war on terror", Libya was instantly upgraded by the George W Bush administration to civilized status.
As for the UN Security Council unanimously deciding to refer the Gaddafi regime to the International Criminal Court (ICC), it's useful to remember that the ICC was created in mid-1998 by 148 countries meeting in Rome. The final vote was 120 to seven. The seven that voted against the ICC were China, Iraq, Israel, Qatar and Yemen, plus Libya and ... the United States. Incidentally, Israel killed more Palestinian civilians in two weeks around new year 2008 than Gaddafi these past two weeks.
This tsunami of hypocrisy inevitably raises the question; what does the West know about the Arab world anyway? Recently the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised a certain northern African country for its "ambitious reform agenda" and its "strong macroeconomic performance and the progress on enhancing the role of the private sector". The country was Libya. The IMF had only forgotten to talk to the main actors: the Libyan people.
And what to make of Anthony Giddens - the guru behind Blair's "Third Way" - who in March 2007 penned an article to The Guardian saying "Libya is not especially repressive" and "Gaddafi seems genuinely popular"? Giddens bet that Libya "in two or three decades' time would be a Norway of North Africa: prosperous, egalitarian and forward-looking". Tripoli may well be on its way to Oslo - but without the Gaddafi clan.
The US, Britain and France are so awkwardly maneuvering for best post-Gaddafi positioning it's almost comical to watch. Beijing, even against its will, waited until extra time to condemn Gaddafi at the UN, but made sure it was following the lead of African and Asian countries (smart move, as in "we listen to the voices of the South"). Beijing is extremely worried that its complex economic relationship with oil source Libya does not unravel (amid all the hoopla about fleeing expats, China quietly evacuated no less than 30,000 Chinese workers in the oil and construction business).
Once again; it's the oil, stupid. A crucial strategic factor for Washington is that post-Gaddafi Libya may represent a bonanza for US Big Oil - which for the moment has been kept away from Libya. Under this perspective, Libya may be considered as yet one more battleground between the US and China. But while China goes for energy and business deals in Africa, the US bets on its forces in AFRICOM as well as NATO advancing "military cooperation" with the African Union.
The anti-Gaddafi movement must remain on maximum alert. It's fair to argue the absolute majority of Libyans are using all their resourcefulness and are wiling to undergo any sacrifice to build a united, transparent and democratic country. And they will do it on their own. They may accept humanitarian help. As for war porn, throw it in the dustbin of history.
Migrant Workers Pile Up at Libya’s Borders
The New York Times Africa
March 2, 2011
RAS AJDIR BORDER CROSSING, Tunisia — Tens of thousands of migrant workers fleeing Libya found themselves in a desperate crush of refugees trying to cross the border into Tunisia on Wednesday.
March 2, 2011
As they wait — some as long as four days — many are sleeping on dusty concrete and hard-packed dirt, shielded against the cold in blankets handed out by the Tunisian government and aid groups; others have hung the blankets from trees to create makeshift tents.
More than half of the estimated 180,000 people fleeing Libya in the past 10 days have sought refuge in Tunisia. Appealing for international help on Wednesday, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said: “We need concrete action on the ground to provide humanitarian and medical assistance. Time is of the essence. Thousands of lives are at risk.”
Several aid groups were operating on the Tunisian and Egyptian borders, handing out food and supplies to the refugees and assessing the situation for providing more help.
But it was the Tunisian border that worried aid groups the most.
“There is an absolutely mammoth task that is absolutely imperative” to ease pressure on the border area, Sybella Wilkes, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva, said Wednesday. “The capacity of the border area is bursting.”
Britain and France said Wednesday that they would send planes to airlift stranded Egyptians — a majority of the refugees, along with Bangladeshis, sub-Saharan Africans and others — from the Tunisian border. (Many Egyptians have headed to the Tunisian border because it is closer to Tripoli, Libya’s capital, where most had worked.)
Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, told lawmakers in London, “I think it is vital to do this; these people shouldn’t be kept in transit camps if it is possible to take them back to their home, and I am glad that Britain can play such an important part in doing that.”
The French government said it would send several planes and a ship to take up to 5,000 Egyptians, and Italy said it would help set up a camp on the Tunisian border offering food and medical assistance.
Tunisian officials sought to maintain order on Wednesday, picking smaller groups to cross from among the crowds waiting at the crossing.
At one point, officials seemed to single out a small group of people from Guinea-Bissau, who held signs announcing their country of origin, and invited them to cross. The move appeared to upset a much larger group of migrant workers from Bangladesh, who surged around the main gate, forcing the authorities to escort the Guinea-Bissau group through a side door.
Once across, refugees board buses to a nearby airport — though many have limited means to buy tickets.
On Libya’s border with Egypt, the flow of new arrivals has decreased over the past several days. But there, too, thousands of migrants remain, sleeping on floors and outdoor pavement as they wait for their embassies to approve visas and arrange for flights.
In the Egyptian town of Salum, international assistance began trickling in, with medical supplies and assessment teams gathering at the border checkpoint.
Two Red Cross trucks filled with medical supplies idled on the Egyptian side of the border, and the authorities requested that the equipment be moved from an Egyptian truck to a Libyan one before it could cross, according to Samir Hadzimustafic, a Red Cross representative there.
A group of United Nations officials arriving at the crossing said they were headed to Benghazi, the emerging capital of rebel-controlled eastern Libya, partly to see if the port there could be turned into a full-fledged corridor for humanitarian relief.
The opposition’s control of eastern Libya creates complications for assistance organizations because they are not being invited in by the official government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, said Abdul Haq Amiri, the head of the regional United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
“It is a first mission, intended to determine whether there is a need for help,” Mr. Amiri said.
With him were representatives of the World Food Program, Unicef, the World Health Organization and the United Nations refugee organization.
Other groups heading to the area include the International Medical Corps, Mercy Corps and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
On Wednesday afternoon in Salum, a medical tent set up by the Egyptian Health Ministry was empty except for Nasr Abit Abdu el-Wadid, 32, an Egyptian laborer who had fled from Misurata, a city 130 miles from Tripoli that had seen heavy fighting. Soldiers, he said, had kicked him in the head, and doctors said his severely bloodshot eyes and swollen nose were evidence of head trauma.
He had fled with two friends from Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown. “The soldiers asked for my passport, and took my passport,” he said. “They took my mobile phone. They took all of our mobile phones. They took our money.”
Six professional basketball players from sub-Saharan Africa who were playing for teams in Benghazi arrived at the border on Wednesday, saying they feared being killed by Libyans who were assuming that any black Africans they encountered were mercenaries.
“All Africans are in trouble now, they will arrest you,” said Sunny Daykins, 19, a Liberian who played for a team called Al Hillal. “They don’t even give you time to speak.”
The United Nations said Wednesday that thousands of sub-Saharan Africans might cross into poverty-stricken Niger from Libya in the coming weeks because of those fears, Reuters reported.
In Salum, several women waited among the crowds of men. “There are more women inside Libya, but they are afraid to come out,” said Laura Seulu, 29, from Cameroon, who had been a maid for a family in Benghazi. Rebels, she said, had broken into her house, and she had left as soon as she felt there was a sufficient lull in the violence.
Several aid groups were operating on the Tunisian and Egyptian borders, handing out food and supplies to the refugees and assessing the situation for providing more help.
But it was the Tunisian border that worried aid groups the most.
“There is an absolutely mammoth task that is absolutely imperative” to ease pressure on the border area, Sybella Wilkes, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva, said Wednesday. “The capacity of the border area is bursting.”
Britain and France said Wednesday that they would send planes to airlift stranded Egyptians — a majority of the refugees, along with Bangladeshis, sub-Saharan Africans and others — from the Tunisian border. (Many Egyptians have headed to the Tunisian border because it is closer to Tripoli, Libya’s capital, where most had worked.)
Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, told lawmakers in London, “I think it is vital to do this; these people shouldn’t be kept in transit camps if it is possible to take them back to their home, and I am glad that Britain can play such an important part in doing that.”
The French government said it would send several planes and a ship to take up to 5,000 Egyptians, and Italy said it would help set up a camp on the Tunisian border offering food and medical assistance.
Tunisian officials sought to maintain order on Wednesday, picking smaller groups to cross from among the crowds waiting at the crossing.
At one point, officials seemed to single out a small group of people from Guinea-Bissau, who held signs announcing their country of origin, and invited them to cross. The move appeared to upset a much larger group of migrant workers from Bangladesh, who surged around the main gate, forcing the authorities to escort the Guinea-Bissau group through a side door.
Once across, refugees board buses to a nearby airport — though many have limited means to buy tickets.
On Libya’s border with Egypt, the flow of new arrivals has decreased over the past several days. But there, too, thousands of migrants remain, sleeping on floors and outdoor pavement as they wait for their embassies to approve visas and arrange for flights.
In the Egyptian town of Salum, international assistance began trickling in, with medical supplies and assessment teams gathering at the border checkpoint.
Two Red Cross trucks filled with medical supplies idled on the Egyptian side of the border, and the authorities requested that the equipment be moved from an Egyptian truck to a Libyan one before it could cross, according to Samir Hadzimustafic, a Red Cross representative there.
A group of United Nations officials arriving at the crossing said they were headed to Benghazi, the emerging capital of rebel-controlled eastern Libya, partly to see if the port there could be turned into a full-fledged corridor for humanitarian relief.
The opposition’s control of eastern Libya creates complications for assistance organizations because they are not being invited in by the official government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, said Abdul Haq Amiri, the head of the regional United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
“It is a first mission, intended to determine whether there is a need for help,” Mr. Amiri said.
With him were representatives of the World Food Program, Unicef, the World Health Organization and the United Nations refugee organization.
Other groups heading to the area include the International Medical Corps, Mercy Corps and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
On Wednesday afternoon in Salum, a medical tent set up by the Egyptian Health Ministry was empty except for Nasr Abit Abdu el-Wadid, 32, an Egyptian laborer who had fled from Misurata, a city 130 miles from Tripoli that had seen heavy fighting. Soldiers, he said, had kicked him in the head, and doctors said his severely bloodshot eyes and swollen nose were evidence of head trauma.
He had fled with two friends from Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown. “The soldiers asked for my passport, and took my passport,” he said. “They took my mobile phone. They took all of our mobile phones. They took our money.”
Six professional basketball players from sub-Saharan Africa who were playing for teams in Benghazi arrived at the border on Wednesday, saying they feared being killed by Libyans who were assuming that any black Africans they encountered were mercenaries.
“All Africans are in trouble now, they will arrest you,” said Sunny Daykins, 19, a Liberian who played for a team called Al Hillal. “They don’t even give you time to speak.”
The United Nations said Wednesday that thousands of sub-Saharan Africans might cross into poverty-stricken Niger from Libya in the coming weeks because of those fears, Reuters reported.
In Salum, several women waited among the crowds of men. “There are more women inside Libya, but they are afraid to come out,” said Laura Seulu, 29, from Cameroon, who had been a maid for a family in Benghazi. Rebels, she said, had broken into her house, and she had left as soon as she felt there was a sufficient lull in the violence.
Iran Warns West Against Military Action in Libya
2 March 2011
TEHRAN — Hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday warned the United States against military intervention in Libya, saying such action would create a graveyard for its soldiers.
Ahmadinejad, under whose presidency animosity between Tehran and Washington has heightened, said the current situation was completely different to what it was during the tenure of former US president George W. Bush.
Ahmadinejad, under whose presidency animosity between Tehran and Washington has heightened, said the current situation was completely different to what it was during the tenure of former US president George W. Bush.
“(Bush) used a deception named September 11 to prepare the ground to invade Iraq and Afghanistan,” Ahmadinejad said at a public speech in the western province of Lorestan.
“Be warned that if you intervene militarily one more time, in any of the countries in North Africa or the Middle East, the regional nations will rise and dig the graves of your soldiers,” he said, referring to reports that the West was weighing up military option to oust Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
Ahmadinejad, in his speech broadcast live on state television, reiterated all the regional “dictators” were backed by Washington.
“Today, they (the US and its allies) claim they are confronting dictators... (But) everywhere in the world, in all of the Muslim world, in all of the Middle East, wherever there is a dictator, he is backed by them,” he said.
“And now they come and say they want to support the people... but your plans have been derailed... today no one recognises your claim of supporting the people.”
Ahmadinejad said on Monday that US weapons were “killing” the protesters in the uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.
On Tuesday, Iran’s foreign ministry also warned against military action in Libya.
Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the “inhumane violence” unleashed by Gaddafi loyalists against Libya’s “popular movement... should not provide an excuse for military interference by other countries.
“They (Western countries) should not try to turn countries into military bases,” Mehmanparast was quoted as saying on the website of Iran’s English-language Press TV channel.
The Iranian statements came in response to reports that the West, including the United States, was considering the military option against Gaddafi’s embattled regime.
However, such intervention was looking less likely on Wednesday after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said “there is no unanimity within NATO for the use of armed force” against Gaddafi.
“We also have to think about frankly the use of the US military in another country in the Middle East,” Gates added.
Although Gaddafi’s military is badly outgunned by US and NATO aircraft, the regime has dozens of surface-to-air missiles that could target invading warplanes.
More than 100,000 people have already left Libya to escape a vicious crackdown by Gaddafi loyalists which has left at least 1,000 dead, according to conservative UN estimates.
The revolt against Gaddafi’s 41-year rule is part of anger at authoritarian Arab regimes sweeping the Middle East and North Africa and even the Gulf states of Kuwait and Oman.
The Arab uprisings were triggered by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt which led to ouster of their respective presidents.
Spy War Threatens Pakistan-US Ties
Monday 28th February 2011
ISLAMABAD: Four weeks into the Raymond Davis affair, an ongoing and very public spat between the ISI and the CIA threatens to engulf the fraught relationship between Washington and Islamabad.
Partners in the war on militancy, the two spy agencies have never had an easy relationship. But ties hit a new low after the revelation that Davis was part of a clandestine CIA network operating in Pakistani cities.
“We feel betrayed by the CIA operations behind our back,” said an ISI official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
ISI officials claim more than 50 CIA agents are still active in the country and are involved in intensive intelligence gathering without the knowledge of the ISI. “The Davis affair is just a tip of the iceberg,” commented one senor official.
The tensions were further set to escalate in recent days when the ISI prepared a statement — held back from publication at the last moment — in which the agency accused the CIA of being ‘arrogant’ and not showing ‘respect to the host country’.
The unprecedented riposte was meant to counter a comment made by an unidentified CIA official to an American newspaper that the ISI had suspended its cooperation.
However, repeated telephone contacts between CIA chief Leon Panetta and his Pakistani counterpart, Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, in the past week helped prevent a complete breakdown in the relationship.
The meeting last week in Oman between General Kayani and the top US military leadership also helped lower tensions. Although the Oman meeting had been long planned to review the situation in Afghanistan, discussions also focused on the fallout of the detention of the CIA contractor on the relations between the two allies.
According to some high-level sources, the meeting showed the determination of both sides not to let the Davis affair bring down the strategic ties between the two countries. “Sanity has prevailed,” claimed an ISI official.
Relations between the ISI and the CIA, rebuilt after 9/11, have been close in some areas, but a deep mistrust on both sides has remained. “It was a dysfunctional marriage at best,” conceded a Pakistani official.
In recent months, the tensions had once again escalated. A summons issued against Gen Pasha to appear in a New York court in connection with a private lawsuit centring on the Mumbai attacks was followed by the unmasking of the identity of the CIA station chief in Islamabad, forcing him to leave Pakistan.
But even before, for at least the past couple of years, some Pakistani newspapers have been publishing stories leaked by the ISI regarding the influx of US security contractors in large numbers. “They have to dismantle those networks if they really want our cooperation,” said an ISI official. “We have warned them that they cannot do things behind our backs.”
At present, there are some indications Washington is increasingly looking towards the Pakistani military leadership to help resolve the Davis affair. A possible reason is a feeling in Washington that the civilian government here is too weak and unpopular to deliver on the Davis issue.
Further complicating the issue, however, are the divergences between the civil and military leaderships in Pakistan. The military and the ISI now publicly criticise the civilian government’s decision to relax visa policies, a move that has led, according to the military, to scores of undercover US intelligence officials entering the country.
An ISI official claimed that 400 visa applications were processed by Pakistan’s embassy in Washington over a single weekend after the government on July 14, 2010, removed the requirement for intelligence vetting.
But some senior government officials privately blame the ISI for trying to instigate public opinion on the Davis issue.
The multiple power centres in the country has been a major reason for the Davis affair becoming a politically volatile issue, making it more difficult to find a diplomatic solution.
After an initial tough position, the Obama administration seemed willing to step back and negotiate an out of court settlement that would have included a public apology for the incident, the promise of a criminal investigation into the killings under US laws and the payment of compensation to the families of the victims.
But now, four weeks into the crisis, a resolution appears as distant as ever. Privately American diplomats believe it may take months for the Davis issue to be resolved.
“And it will take years to repair the damage the issue has done to Pak-US relations,” said an American diplomat.
SKorea, US Begin Annual Drills Amid NKorean Threat
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South Korean activists and former North Korean defectors release balloons with Korean words reading, "Overthrow Kim Jong Il Dictatorship," and carrying leaflets condemning the North Korean leader during a rally at the Imjingak pavilion nearthe border village of Panmunjom, South Korea. The North's military warned on Sunday Feb. 27, 2011, that it would shoot directly at South Korean border towns and destroy them if Seoul continued to allow activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the communist country, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said. |
28 February, 2011
SEOUL, South Korea—South Korean and U.S. troops began annual military drills Monday that North Korea slammed as a rehearsal for an invasion that could trigger a nuclear war on the divided peninsula.
Despite North Korea's threat to retaliate, South Korea and the United States went ahead with the drills, which are the allies' first major combined military exercises since the North shelled a front-line South Korean island in November, killing four people.
That barrage came eight months after 46 sailors were killed when a South Korean warship was sunk, an attack that an international investigation blamed on a North Korean torpedo, though Pyongyang denies it was involved.
Animosity over the bloodshed drove ties between the Koreas to one of their lowest levels in decades.
Animosity over the bloodshed drove ties between the Koreas to one of their lowest levels in decades.
About 12,800 U.S. troops and some 200,000 South Korean soldiers and reservists are to participate in the drills, which are aimed at defending South Korea and responding to any attack.
The main part of the drills, which will involve computer war games and live-firing exercises, will last 11 days, while some field training will continue until late April, according to the South Korea-U.S. joint forces command in Seoul.
The drills "are planned months in advance, and they are not connected to any current world events," the joint command said in a statement.
Hours after the exercises started, North Korea warned of a nuclear war on the peninsula.
"It's an anti-national scheme aimed at prolonging the stage of confrontation and tension to realize a plot to start a northward invasion," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "The danger of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula is deepening."
On Sunday, the North said that if provoked, its military would turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" and start a full-scale war with "merciless" counterattacks.
South Korean and U.S. officials have repeatedly said the drills are purely defensive.
"Denouncing these kinds of drills as an aggression and provocation won't be a help to South-North Korea relations at all," South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters Monday.
A South Korean military official said there have been no suspicious activities by the North's military. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.
After weeks of high tension following its November bombardment of the island, North Korea recently pushed for dialogue with South Korea and expressed a desire to return to stalled international talks on its nuclear program.
Military officers from the two Koreas met earlier this month but failed to make progress.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty
'Rivers of Blood' to Run in Libya as Gaddafi Clings to Power
22, Feb., 2011
COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi's son warned yesterday that "rivers of blood" would run through Libya if protests continued and the regime would fight to "the last man standing".
As fighting reached the capital and mainstays of the regime were torched in Tripoli, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi warned Libyans to "be prepared for civil war" as his 68-year-old father fought to avoid the fate of Egypt's leader Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
"Forget oil, forget gas, forget these resources -- get ready for chaos," Saif Gaddafi said on television before the station that broadcast the address was stormed by protesters.
"Our spirits are high and the leader Muammar Gaddafi is leading the battle in Tripoli and we are behind him, as is the Libyan army.
"We will keep fighting until the last man standing, even to the last woman standing . . . we will not leave Libya to the Italians or the Turks."
Using the same argument that Mr Mubarak had used in neighbouring Egypt before he fell, Saif Gaddafi said chaos would result if the regime fell. "Libya is not Egypt, it is not Tunisia," he said.
But despite the tough talk, Saif Gaddafi also made some concessions -- pledging a new constitution and new liberal laws.
In the first acknowledgment by the regime that it was losing control, he said: "At this moment in time, tanks are driven about by civilians."
Portugal last night sent a military plane to pick up its citizens and other EU nationals.
Turkey sent two ferries to fetch construction workers stranded by the country's bloody unrest, as oil and gas companies said they were putting together plans to evacuate some of their employees.
Protesters yesterday took control of the eastern cities of Benghazi and Baida, while in Tripoli the interior ministry and police stations were torched and hundreds of protesters were reported to be near the Bab al-Aziziya military camp where Colonel Gaddafi lives.
The government shut down phone lines and the internet to prevent communication and coverage of the uprising, but Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people had been killed in the five days of protest against the 42-year rule of Colonel Gaddafi.
Sixty of the deaths occurred in a single day in Benghazi as the Libyan regime unleashed the harshest crackdown by any government since the uprising gripping the Middle East started in Tunisia late last year.
"We're seeing massacres in broad daylight," Shadi Hamid from the Brookings Doha Centre told French TV. "We're seeing a spiralling out of control."
Reports said the regime had flown mercenaries into Tripoli from African countries -- mainly Chad and Zimbabwe -- and then taken them by bus to outlying cities to attack protesters.
It appeared that security forces had opened fire with machine guns on protesters. Divisions began appearing at government level. A diplomat in China and Libya's representative to the Arab League, Abdel Moneim al-Honi, resigned in protest at his government's crackdown on protesters.
"I am joining the ranks of the revolution," Mr Honi said.
Police and the army appeared to have abandoned Benghazi and retreated to their compounds. This followed reports of sections of the security forces defecting to back the protesters and other army and police officers refusing to engage in confrontations.
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