New World Order: CIA's rebels already establish new 'Central Bank of Libya'

The Economic Collapse

The rebels in Libya are in the middle of a life or death civil war and Moammar Gadhafi is still in power and yet somehow the Libyan rebels have had enough time to establish a new Central Bank of Libya and form a new national oil company.  Perhaps when this conflict is over those rebels can become time management consultants.  They sure do get a lot done.  

What a skilled bunch of rebels - they can fight a war during the day and draw up a new central bank and a new national oil company at night without any outside help whatsoever.  If only the rest of us were so versatile!  But isn't forming a central bank something that could be done after the civil war is over?  According to Bloomberg, the Transitional National Council has "designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi." Apparently someone felt that it was very important to get pesky matters such as control of the banks and control of the money supply out of the way even before a new government is formed.

Of course it is probably safe to assume that the new Central Bank of Libya will be 100% owned and 100% controlled by the newly liberated people of Libya, isn't it?

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The Euro-US War on Libya: Official Lies and Misconceptions of Critics

by James Petras and Robin E. Abaya

Introduction

Many critics of the ongoing Euro-US wars in the Middle East and, now, North Africa, have based their arguments on clichés and generalizations devoid of fact. The most common line heard in regard to the current US-Euro war on Libya is that it’s “all about oil” – the goal is the seizure of Libya’s oil wells.
On the other hand Euro –U.S, government spokespeople defend the war by claiming it’s “all about saving civilian lives in the face of genocide”, calling it “humanitarian intervention”.
Following the lead of their imperial powers, most of what passes for the Left in the US and Europe, ranging from Social Democrats, Marxists, Trotskyists,Greens and other assorted progressives claim they see and support a revolutionary mass uprising of the Libyan people, and not a few have called for military intervention by the imperial powers, or the same thing, the UN, to help the “Libyan revolutionaries” defeat the Gaddafi dictatorship.
These arguments are without foundation and belie the true nature of US-UK-French imperial power, expansionist militarism, as evidenced in all the ongoing wars over the past decade (Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc.). What is much more revealing about the militarist intervention in Libya is that the major countries, which refused to engage in the War, operate via a very different form of global expansion based on economic and market forces. China, India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey and Germany, the most dynamic capitalist countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East are fundamentally opposed to the self-styled “allied” military response against the Libyan government – because Gaddafi represents no threat to their security and they already have full access to the oil and a favorable investment climate. Besides, these economically dynamic countries see no prospect for a stable, progressive or democratic Libyan government emerging from the so-called ‘rebel’ leaders, who are disparate elites competing for power and Western favor.

(1) The Six Myths about Libya: Right and Left

The principle imperial powers and their mass media mouthpieces claim they are bombing Libya for “humanitarian reasons”. Their recent past and current military interventions present a different picture: The intervention in Iraq resulted in well over a million civilian deaths, four million refugees and the systematic destruction of a complex society and its infrastructure, including its water supplies and sewage treatment, irrigation, electricity grid, factories, not to mention research centers, schools, historical archives, museums and Iraq’s extensive social welfare system.
A worse disaster followed the invasion of Afghanistan. What was trumpeted as a ‘humanitarian intervention’ to liberate Afghan women and drive out the Taliban resulted in a human catastrophe for the Afghan people.
The road to imperial barbarism in Iraq began with ‘sanctions’, progressed to ‘no fly zones’, then de facto partition of the north, invasion and foreign occupation and the unleashing of sectarian warfare among the ‘liberated’ Iraqi death squads.
Equally telling, the imperial assault against Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, trotted out as the great “humanitarian war” to stop genocide, led to a 40-day aerial bombardment and destruction of Belgrade and other major cities, the imposition of a gangster terrorist regime (KLA) in Kosovo, the near-total ethnic cleansing of all non-Albanian residents from Kosovo and the construction of the largest US military base on the continent (Camp Bondsteel).
The bombing of Libya has already destroyed major civilian infrastructure, airports, roads, seaports and communication centers, as well as ‘military’ targets. The blockade of Libya and military attacks have driven out scores of multi-national corporations and led to the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of Asian, Eastern European, Sub-Saharan African, Middle Eastern and North African skilled and unskilled immigrant workers and specialists of all types, devastating the economy and creating, virtually overnight, massive unemployment, bread-lines and critical gasoline shortages. Moreover, following the logic of previous imperial military interventions, the seemingly ‘restrained’ call to patrol the skies via “no fly zone”, has led directly to bombing civilian as well as military targets on the ground, and is pushing to overthrow the legitimate government. The current imperial warmongers leading the attack on Libya, just like their predecessors, are not engaged in anything remotely resembling a humanitarian mission: they are destroying the fundamental basis of the civilian lives they claim to be saving – or as an earlier generation of American generals would claim in Vietnam, they are ‘destroying the villages in order to save them’.

(2) War for Oil or Oil for Sale?

The ‘critical’ Left’s favorite cliché is that the imperial invasion is all about “seizing control of Libya’s oil and turning it over to their multi-nationals”. This is despite the fact that US, French and British multinationals (as well as their Asian competitors) had already “taken over” millions of acres of Libyan oil fields without dropping a single bomb. For the past decade, “Big Oil” had been pumping and exporting Libyan oil and gas and reaping huge profits. Gaddafi welcomed the biggest MNC’s to exploit the oil wealth of Libya from the early 1990s to the present day. There are more major oil companies doing business in Libya than in most oil producing regions in the world. These include: British Petroleum, with a seven-year contract on two concessions and over $1 billion dollars in planned investments. Each BP concession exploits huge geographic areas of Libya, one the size of Kuwait and the other the size of Belgium (Libyonline.com). In addition, five Japanese major corporations, including Mitsubishi and Nippon Petroleum, Italy’s Eni Gas, British Gas and the US giant Exxon Mobil signed new exploration and exploitation contracts in October 2010. The most recent oil concession signed in January 2010 mainly benefited US oil companies, especially Occidental Petroleum. Other multi-nationals operating in Libya include Royal Dutch Shell, Total (France), Oil India, CNBC (China), Indonesia’s Pertamina and Norway’s Norsk Hydro (BBC News, 10/03/2005).
Despite the economic sanctions against Libya, imposed by US President Reagan in 1986, US multinational giant, Halliburton, had secured multi-billion dollar gas and oil projects since the 1980’s. During his tenure as CEO of Halliburton, former Defense Secretary Cheney led the fight against these sanctions stating, “as a nation (there is) enormous value having American businesses engaged around the world” (Halliburtonwatch.com). Officially, sanctions against Libya were only lifted under Bush in 2004. Clearly, with all the European and US imperial countries already exploiting Libya oil on a massive scale, the mantra that the “war is about oil” doesn’t hold water or oil!

(3) Gaddafi is a Terrorist

In the run-up to the current military assault on Tripoli,the US Treasury Department’s (and Israel’s special agent) Stuart Levey, authored a sanctions policy freezing $30 billion dollars in Libyan assets on the pretext that Gaddafi was a murderous tyrant (Washington Post, 3/24/11). However, seven years earlier, Cheney, Bush and Condoleezza Rice had taken Libya off the list of terrorist regimes and ordered Levey and his minions to lift the Reagan-era sanctions. Every major European power quickly followed suite: Gaddafi was welcomed in European capitals, prime ministers visited Tripoli and Gaddafi reciprocated by unilaterally dismantling his nuclear and chemical weapons programs (BBC, 9/5/2008). Gaddafi became Washington’s partner in its campaign against a broad array of groups, political movements and individuals arbitrarily placed on the US’ “terror list”, arresting, torturing and killing Al Qaeda suspects, expelling Palestinian militants and openly criticizing Hezbollah, Hamas and other opponents of Israel. The United Nations Human Rights Commission gave the Gaddafi regime a clean bill of health in 2010. In the end Gaddafi’s political ‘turnabout’, however much celebrated by the Western elite, did not save him from this massive military assault. The imposition of neo-liberal ‘reforms’, his political ‘apostasy’ and cooperation in the ‘War on Terror’ and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, only weakened the regime. Libya became vulnerable to attack and isolated from any consequential anti-imperialist allies. Gaddafi’s much ballyhooed concessions to the West set his regime up as an easy target for the militarists of Washington, London and Paris, eager for a quick ‘victory’.

(4) The Myth of the Revolutionary Masses

The Left, including the mainly electoral social democrat, green and even left-socialist parties of Europe and the US swallowed the entire mass media propaganda package demonizing the Gaddafi regime while lauding the ‘rebels’. Parroting their imperial mentors, the ‘Left’ justified their support for imperial military intervention in the name of the “revolutionary Libyan people”, the “peace-loving” masses “fighting tyranny” and organizing peoples’ militias to “liberate their country”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The center of the armed uprising is Benghazi, longtime monarchist hotbed of tribal supporters and clients of the deposed King Idris and his family. Idris, until he was overthrown by the young firebrand Col. Gaddafi, had ruled Libya with an iron fist over a semi-feudal backwater and was popular with Washington, having given the US its largest air base (Wheeler) in the Mediterranean. Among the feuding leaders of the “transitional council” in Benghazi (who purport to lead but have few organized followers) one finds neo-liberal expats, who first promoted the Euro-US military invasion envisioning their ride to power on the back of Western missiles .They openly favor dismantling the Libyan state oil companies currently engaged in joint ventures with foreign MNCs. Independent observers have commented on the lack of any clear reformist tendencies, let alone revolutionary organizations or democratic popular movements among the ‘rebels’.
While the US, British and French are firing missiles, loaded with depleted uranium, at the Libyan military and key civilian installations, their ‘allies’ the armed militias in Benghazi, rather than go to battle against the regime’s armed forces, are busy rounding up, arresting and often executing any suspected members of Gaddafi’s “revolutionary committees”, arbitrarily labeling these civilians as “fifth columnists”. The top leaders of these “revolutionary” masses in Benghazi include two recent defectors from what the ‘Left’ dubs Gaddafi’s “murderous regime”: Mustafa Abdul Jalil, a former Justice minister, who prosecuted dissenters up to the day before the armed uprising, Mahmoud Jebri, who was prominent in inviting multi-nationals to take over the oil fields (FT, March 23, 2011, p. 7), and Gaddafi’s former ambassador to India, Ali Aziz al-Eisawa, who jumped ship as soon as it looked like the uprising appeared to be succeeding. These self-appointed ‘leaders’ of the rebels who now staunchly support the Euro-US military intervention, were long-time supporters of the Gaddafi’s dictatorship and promoters of MNC takeovers of oil and gas fields. The heads of the “rebels” military council is Omar Hariri and General Abdul Fattah Younis, former head of the Ministry of Interior. Both men have long histories (since 1969) of repressing democratic movements within Libya. Given their unsavory background, it is not surprising that these top level military defectors to the ‘rebel’ cause have been unable to arouse their troops, mostly conscripts, to engage the loyalist forces backing Gaddafi. They too will have to take ride into Tripoli on the coattails of the Anglo-US-French armed forces.
The anti-Gaddafi force’s lack of any democratic credentials and mass support is evident in their reliance on foreign imperial armed forces to bring them to power and their subservience to imperial demands. Their abuse and persecution of immigrant workers from Asia, Turkey and especially sub-Sahara Africa, as well as black Libyan citizens, is well documented in the international press. Their brutal treatment of black Libyans, falsely accused of being Gaddafi’s “mercenaries” , includes torture, mutilation and horrific executions, does not auger well for the advent of a new democratic order, or even the revival of an economy, which has been dependent on immigrant labor, let alone a unified country with national institutions and a national economy.
The self-declared leadership of the “National Transitional Council” is not democratic, nationalist or even capable of uniting the country. These are not credible leaders capable of restoring the economy and creating jobs lost as a result of their armed power grab. No one seriously envisions these ‘exiles’, tribalists, monarchists and Islamists maintaining the paternalistic social welfare and employment programs created by the Gaddafi government and which gave Libyans the highest per-capita income in Africa.

(5) Al Qaeda

The greatest geographical concentration of suspected terrorists with links to Al Qaeda just happens to be in the areas dominated by the “rebels” (see Alexander Cockburn: Counterpunch, March 24, 2011). For over a decade Gaddafi has been in the forefront of the fight against Al Qaeda, following his embrace of the Bush-Obama ‘War on Terror’ doctrine. These jihadist Libyans, having honed their skills in US-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, are now among the ranks of the “rebels” fighting the much more secular Libyan government. Likewise, the tribal chiefs, fundamentalist clerics and monarchists in the East have been active in a “holy war” against Gaddafi welcoming arms and air support from the Anglo-French-US “crusaders” – just like the mullahs and tribal chiefs welcomed the arms and training from the Carter-Reagan White House to overthrow a secular regime in Afghanistan. Once again, imperial intervention is based on ‘alliances’ with the most retrograde forces. The composition of the future regime (or regimes, if Libya is divided) is a big question and the prospects of a return to political stability for Big Oil to profitably exploit Libya’s resources are dubious.

(6) “Genocide” or Armed Civil War

Unlike all ongoing mass popular Arab uprisings, the Libyan conflict began as an armed insurrection, directed at seizing power by force. Unlike the autocratic rulers of Egypt and Tunisia, Gaddafi has secured a mass regional base among a substantial sector of the Libyan population. This support is based on the fact that almost two generations of Libyans have benefited from Gaddafi’s petroleum-financed welfare, educational, employment and housing programs, none of which existed under America’s favorite, King Idris. Since violence is inherent in any armed uprising, once one picks up the gun to seize power, they lose their claim on ‘civil rights’. In armed civil conflicts, civil rights are violated on all sides. Regardless of the Western media’s lurid portrayal of Gaddafi’s “African mercenary forces” and its more muted approval of ‘revolutionary justice’ against Gaddafi supporters and government soldiers captured in the rebel strongholds, the rules of warfare should have come into play, including the protection of non-combatants-civilians (including government supporters and officials), as well as protection of Libyan prisoners of war in the areas under NATO-rebel control.
The unsubstantiated Euro-US claim of “genocide” amplified by the mass media and parroted by “left” spokespersons is contradicted by the daily reports of single and double digit deaths and injuries, resulting from urban violence on both sides, as control of cities and towns shifts between the two sides.
Truth is the first casualty of war, and especially of civil war. Both sides have resorted to monstrous fabrications of victories, casualties, monsters and victims.
Demons and angels aside, this conflict began as a civil war between two sets of Libyan elites: An established paternalistic, now burgeoning neo-liberal, autocracy with substantial popular backing versus a western imperialist financed and trained elite, backed by an amorphous group of regional, tribal and clerical chiefs, monarchists and neo-liberal professionals devoid of democratic and nationalist credentials – and lacking broad-based mass support.

Conclusion

If not to prevent genocide, grab the oil or promote democracy (via Patriot missiles), what then is the driving force behind the Euro-US imperial intervention?
A clue is in the selectivity of Western military intervention: In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar and Oman ruling autocrats, allied with and backed by Euro-US imperial states go about arresting, torturing and murdering unarmed urban protestors with total impunity. In Egypt and Tunisia, the US is backing a conservative junta of self-appointed civil-military elites in order to block the profound democratic and nationalist transformation of society demanded by the protesters. The ‘junta’ aims to push through neo-liberal economic “reforms” through carefully-vetted pro-Western ‘elected’ officials. While liberal critics may accuse the West of “hypocrisy” and “double standards” in bombing Gaddafi but not the Gulf butchers, in reality the imperial rulers consistently apply the same standards in each region: They defend strategic autocratic client regimes, which have allowed imperial states to build strategic air force and naval bases, run regional intelligence operations and set up logistical platforms for their ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their future planned conflict with Iran. They attack Gaddafi’s Libya precisely because Gaddafi had refused to actively contribute to Western military operations in Africa and the Middle East.
The key point is that while Libya allows the biggest US-European multi-nationals to plunder its oil wealth, it did not become a strategic geo-political-military asset of the empire. As we have written in many previous essays the driving force of US empire-building is military – and not economic. This is why billions of dollars of Western economic interests and contracts had been sacrificed in the setting up of sanctions against Iraq and Iran – with the costly result that the invasion and occupation of Iraq shut down most oil exploitation for over a decade.
The Washington-led assault on Libya, with the majority of air sorties and missiles strikes being carried out by the Obama regime, is part of a more general counter-attack in response to the most recent Arab popular pro-democracy movements. The West is backing the suppression of these pro-democracy movements throughout the Gulf; it finances the pro-imperial, pro-Israel junta in Egypt and it is intervening in Tunisia to ensure that any new regime is “correctly aligned”. It supports a despotic regime in Algeria as well as Israel’s daily assaults on Gaza. In line with this policy, the West backs the uprising of ex-Gaddafites and right-wing monarchists, confident that the ‘liberated’ Libya will once again provide military bases for the US-European military empire-builders.
In contrast, the emerging market-driven global and regional powers have refused to support this conflict, which jeopardizes their access to oil and threatens the current large-scale oil exploration contracts signed with Gaddafi. The growing economies of Germany, China, Russia, Turkey, India and Brazil rely on exploiting new markets and natural resources all over Africa and the Middle East, while the US, Britain and France spend billions pursuing wars that de-stabilize these markets, destroy infrastructure and foment long-term wars of resistance. The growing market powers recognize that the Libyan “rebels” cannot secure a quick victory or ensure a stable environment for long-term trade and investments. The “rebels”, once in power, will be political clients of their militarist imperial mentors. Clearly, imperial military intervention on behalf of regional separatists seriously threatens these emerging market economies: The US supports ethno-religious rebels in China’s Tibetan province and as well as the Uyghur separatists; Washington and London have long backed the Chechen separatists in the Russian Caucuses. India is wary of the US military support for Pakistan, which claims Kashmir. Turkey is facing Kurdish separatists who receive arms and safe haven from their US-supplied Iraqi Kurdish counterparts.
The North African precedent of an imperial invasion of Libya on behalf of its separatist clients worries the emerging market-powers. It is also an ongoing threat to the mass-based popular Arab freedom movements. And the invasion sounds the death knell for the US economy and its fragile ‘recovery’: three ongoing, endless wars will break the budget much sooner than later. Most tragic of all, the West’s ‘humanitarian’ invasion has fatally undermined genuine efforts by Libya’s civilian democrats, socialists and nationalists to free their country from both a dictatorship and from imperial-backed reactionaries.

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CIA officers working with Libya rebels

 LATIMES

CIA officers are coordinating with antigovernment fighters and sharing intelligence, but the Obama administration is undecided whether to supply weapons. Leading lawmakers from both parties are against the idea.

Reporting from Washington—

CIA officers are on the ground in Libya, coordinating with rebels and sharing intelligence, U.S. officials say, but the Obama administration has not yet decided whether to take the further step of providing weapons to those trying to oust Moammar Kadafi.

The issue of whether to provide the ragtag rebel forces with arms has been controversial in Washington. On Wednesday, two key lawmakers — a Republican and a Democrat — came out against the idea.

"We don't have to look very far back in history to find examples of the unintended consequences of passing out advanced weapons to a group of fighters we didn't know as well as we should have," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), in an apparent reference to U.S. aid to Afghan guerrillas fighting the Soviet Union during the Carter and Reagan administrations.

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Samsung laptops may have spyware pre-installed

  MSNBC

The South Korean electronics giant Samsung may be spying on its own customers, using a program pre-installed on laptops that secretly monitors every keystroke.

In a guest posting on NetworkWorld, Toronto security researcher Mohammed Hassan described how he found keylogging software on a brand-new Samsung laptop he bought last month. He deleted it and continued to use the laptop, until it developed other problems.
 

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Third Palestinian Intifada

In a single day and we got to 25.000 a joint Arab stand ready to march to the al-Aqsa mosque and edit .. Imagine if every member Send this page to a friend we will be 50.000 today Yes, we appreciate the one to do a call for a union of Arab youth under the banner of one - is no god but Allah Display page everywhere, as far as your love for Palestine and has contributed as much as a very simple in an attempt to liberate Al-Aqsa are coming, O Palestine Martyrs Millions 
http://www.facebook.com/Palestnian.Intifada

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Pakistan: Uniting Against Foreign Enemies

Sajjad Shaukat [Pakistan Observer]

At present, Pakistan and its security forces are facing suicide attacks, bomb blasts, sectarian violence and targeted-killings coupled with intermittent battles with the militants. Besides many innocent persons, more than three thousand military soldiers and police men have become martyrs in this different war in maintaining the integrity of the federation.

It is notable that some opportunist elements like the US, India, Afghanistan and Israel are in collusion as part of a plot to ‘destabilize’ Pakistan for their common strategic interests. For this purpose, American CIA, Indian secret agency RAW and Israeli Mossad including Blackwater have rapidly established their collective network in Pakistan. They have recruited Pakistani nationals who are vulnerable and can work on payroll, giving them high financial incentives to work for them. Further, some reports suggest that this notorious firm Blackwater has been recruiting smugglers, employees of the security companies, experts of the psychological warfare, scholars and journalists in order to fulfill anti-Pakistan designs of America, India and Israel.

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India: RAW officer under CBI scanner for spying

Express Buzz

NEW DELHI: A preliminary inquiry is underway by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the role of a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer in passing commercial information to a private company participating in a bid to sell surveillance equipment for two spy planes.The deal, in which US company Raytheon and Israel’s Elta Systems were competing, has already been put under review by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after discrepancies in the bidding process were flagged.The officer has been repatriated to the parent cadre but the tussle over the contract has stalled strengthening of spy agency’s air wing - Aviation Research Centre. 

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Iran to create new air defense bases at border

Trend

Iran will create new air defense bases at the borders to ensure security and improve air control in the near future, the Iranian Mehr news agency quoted the country’s Border Guard Commander, General Hussein Zulfugari, as saying.

Last year, electronic technologies were used at the border, Zulfugari said. "In order to strengthen security measures at the country’s borders a master plan has been prepared, and it will be approved in the coming days," Zulfugari said.

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BEWARE OF HYPOCRITES !

It has been observed since long by the authorities of Pakistan Armed Forces on mis use of their name, logo and info on the social media network. After detalied investigaions the authorities have broke their network and took appropriate actin in this regard. The pages used with the Name of different Pakistani Armed Forces were made by the group known as Brasstack owned by Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid and his team. They were using their fake Identities to brain wash the youth of Pakistan by showing their loyalty with Armed Forces through their pages.

People will think that why they were doing this???? Ansewr: To show and portray that they are funded by some of the Pakistani agencies and also supported by them, which is totally false and by doing this they try to get rpute among the youth of Pakistan. Mr. Zaid Hamid is a controversial personality and Paksitan Armed Forces have nothing to do with him/them. All the users of Social Network are strongly advised to avoid such kind of conspiracy and do not believe in them

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Philippines: Man accused of selling US spy plane on eBay

Reuters

(Reuters) - A Philippine man was arrested and charged with illegally selling an unmanned U.S. spy plane known as the Raven, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa said on Monday.
A grand jury indicted Henson Chua, 47, of Manila on March 10 on charges that he sold the Raven to undercover federal agents on Ebay.

He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of smuggling and violating the Arms Export Control Act.

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The Kill Team

How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon

By Mark Boal

Early last year, after six hard months soldiering in Afghanistan, a group of American infantrymen reached a momentous decision: It was finally time to kill a haji.

Among the men of Bravo Company, the notion of killing an Afghan civilian had been the subject of countless conversations, during lunchtime chats and late-night bull sessions. For weeks, they had weighed the ethics of bagging "savages" and debated the probability of getting caught. Some of them agonized over the idea; others were gung-ho from the start. But not long after the New Year, as winter descended on the arid plains of Kandahar Province, they agreed to stop talking and actually pull the trigger.

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Libya conflict 'could turn into another Iraq': Fears grow over lack of a clear exit strategy

The public are concerned that Britain could be dragged into 'another Iraq' style war in Libya, a survey has found.

Prime Minister David Cameron has insisted that military action against Colonel Gaddafi is 'not another Iraq' and has so far avoided committing ground troops.

But as airstrikes against the dictator continue into their second week the strategy for removing Gaddafi is beginning to come under scrutiny.

Seven out of ten people fear that the military action could result in Britain being stuck in a 'prolonged conflict like the Iraq war', a poll for the Independent found.

A further 24 per cent were at ease with the action and 5 per cent of the 1,000 people questioned had not made up their minds.

The findings will put added pressure on the Prime Minister to plan a clear exit strategy when he meets with other world leaders in London today.

Mr Cameron will reject a plan by Italy and Germany to let the tyrant go into exile and dodge war crimes charges. He believes that the embattled leader should stand trial for the alleged murders of thousands of his people.

MI6 officials and the SAS are understood to be in close contact with Libyan opposition leaders as the 'endgame' for Gaddafi's regime is plotted.

But the Prime Minister is still facing calls from MPs within his party who want to ensure that Britain leaves Libya as quickly as possible.

'Our MPs are supportive of going in but there is anxiety about being stuck there for a long time,' one senior Tory MP told the Independent.

Similarities: Seven in 10 people believe the prolonged conflict in Iraq caused by Saddam Hussein, 

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Facebook Won't Remove "Third Intifada" Page. OK. We Asked Nicely. Now, On To The Other Options . . .

israeljewishnews

B"H

OK.  Facebook won't remove the "Third Intifada" page.  I guess they are afraid of the warning that appears on the page, “If Facebook Blocked This  Page... All Muslims Will Boycott Facebook For Ever!”

But should they, seriously, worry about that?  Hello!  I don't think all the Muslims would boycott Facebook any more than all the Jews would boycott facebook if it didn't block the page.  Facebook has just become too big, too important for the spread of information.

So, why aren't they blocking it?  It clearly violates the terms of service for Facebook pages,  specifically Section 3, No. 6, 7, and 10:

• #6 states: "You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user;"  
• #7 states: "You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence;" and 
• #10 states: "You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.

So, what are we left with?  There are several options.

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Door-Andaish

Ameer-e-shahr gareebon ko loot leta hai
kabhi baheela muzhub kabhi banam-e-watan

Hassan Nisar interview by Syed Bilal Qutab on Door-Andaish program on Value Tv.

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Ahwaz protests condemn Iran at Cairo embassy

Al Arabiya

More than 40 people of different nationalities demonstrated on Saturday in front of the Iranian embassy in Cairo to protest and condemn alleged discrimination against Iran's ethnic Arab minority in al-Ahwaz (Khuzestan) province.

Europeans, Egyptians, and Iraqi members of the National Organization for the Liberation of Ahwaz rallied with Ahwazis at the Iranian embassy in Cairo to condemn “Iranian massacres” committed against the Arab-Iranian minority, the electronic version of the Egyptian newspaper al-Wafd reported Saturday.

A group of Ahwazis residing in Europe came to Egypt to protest the Iranian regime’s perceived injustice against its people, said Adel al-Sweidan, head of the media bureau of the Hazm organization for Ahwazi rights. 

“We were taken by surprise when employees at the Iranian embassy assaulted us and took all the banners and books we had to expose the brutality of the Iran against the Sunni Ahwaz minority,” he said.

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The Truth about the Kennedy Assassination & Obama

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Sarkozy And The Revived Neocon War Agenda

Sarkozy could also spark military intervention in Iran. With France advocating such intervention, which could also attract some of Iran's enemies in the Arab League, it might be difficult for Obama to resist, given the precedent set in Libya, and especially since the neocons and some liberal interventionists will be pushing him in that direction.

Stephen Sniegoski

French President Nicolas Sarkozy not only took the lead in bringing about the military attack on Libya but now has stated that all rulers face Libya-style intervention if they violently suppress anti-government protesters. He focused on Arab rulers but did not exclude others.

 

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Pakistan's Foreign Office: Pentagon injected $130m in Western media to destabilize Arab countries

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has disclosed that Pentagon injected $130 million in western media to destabilize the Arab Countries and US is supporting opposition in these countries as well. 

The disclosure was made before the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign affairs chaired by Senator Salim Saifullah on Saturday. The meeting was attended by Senator Khursheed Ahmed, Senator Jan Jamali and other officials. 

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National Policy Against Terrorism : Gulfraz Khatak

National Policy Against Terrorism : Member of Central Coordination Committee MQM Gulfaraz Khan Khatak

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Aalam-e-Islam Ki Makkaar Tareen Ashrafiya

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IMRAN KAHN demands apology from Pakistan to Bangladesh

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has demanded an official apology from the Government of Pakistan to the people of Bangladesh for the atrocities allegedly committed by the Pakistan Army in 1971.

Imran Khan stunned everyone during a live television show hosted by Hamid Mir on Geo News and Geo Super TV channels on Wednesday afternoon just a few moments before the start of a cricket match between Pakistan and West Indies in Mirpur, Bangladesh.

Hamid Mir invited Imran Khan in his live TV show on March 23, which was Pakistan Day. He asked a question to Imran Khan about the expected behaviour of Bangladeshi crowd in Mirpur. Imran Khan said that Bangladeshis will support the Pakistani cricket team.

Hamid Mir informed Imran Khan that today (March 23) is Pakistan Day and Bangladeshis will support Pakistani cricket team “Don’t you think that the time has come that the Pakistani government must apologise to the people of Bangladesh for Army operation in 1971”? Imran Khan immediately agreed with Hamid Mir and said that previously he was also of the opinion that Army operation was a good thing because there was no independent media in Pakistan in 1971. Imran Khan said that when he went to England in 1971, his Bengali friends told him the reality of the Army operation. Imran Khan said that he experienced the love and affection of Bangladeshis during an exhibition match in Mirpur in 1989.

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Pakistan Embracing China As New Strategic Arms Partner, Leaving US Behind

Dominic de-Natale [Fox News]

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is beefing up its arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles by embracing China as its new strategic arms partner and backing away from the U.S., analysts have told Fox News.

Pakistan earlier this month test-fired a nuclear-capable missile from an undisclosed location – the second in a month of try-outs for its short-range surface-to-surface Hataf 2 class rocket, co-developed with the Chinese.

It was the latest in a series of arms collaborations between the two nations, which view their strategic partnership as a counterweight to a boldly confident India, which has American support.

Until the mid-1960s, the United States was the principal supplier of weapons to Pakistan, the world’s eighth most-powerful nuclear nation. But the U.S. began to back away from the relationship after years of difficult and sometimes unpredictable relations following the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. no longer fully supports the military ambitions of a Pakistan that is being destabilized by an insurgency it cannot control, rising radicalism and anti-Westernism, and a government considered by some too weak and corrupt.

That led Pakistan to replace the U.S. with China as a main source of defense material, at least in terms of arsenals, development and training.

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Petraeus Warns US Against Attack On Pakistani Tribesmen

The News

KABUL/RAWALPINDI: ISAF Commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus apprising the US government of severe protest by the Pakistani Army leadership over the Dattakhel drone attack in which 44 people lost their lives, has demanded that in future such attacks that target tribesmen should be avoided otherwise the cooperation of the Pakistan Army with respect to the war on terror would end.

Defence sources told Online that Gen Petraeus contacted the senior Pakistan Army leadership and had to face a tough reaction.

It was made clear to him that innocent people and tribesmen were targeted in the drone attacks. These people had always cooperated with the Pakistan Army against the terrorists. The drone attack not only damaged the Pakistan Army but also benefited the terrorists. 

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Bangladesh Accuses India Of Killing Hundreds Of Citizens

Times of Assam

Just a day before celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Bangladesh Independence, the country’s Home Minister Shahara Khatun reporting the death of as many as 136 Bangladeshis due to gunshots by Indian Border Security Force since January, 2009 has raised eye brows across diplomats of South Asia. Her further stating about 1,000 Bangladeshis were killed by Indian border guards over the last decade, as reported by Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group also comes as an important cause of concern between the relationship of the two countries. However, the Bangladesh Home Minister did try her best to maintain a positive stand with Indian during this declaration by stating that Bangladesh has already protested this killings by Indian forces and the Indian authorities have responded well. She confirmed that India has provided assurances of necessary measures to stop the killing of innocent Bangladeshi people along the border and Indian authorities has already ordered BSF to use rubber bullets and the test non-lethal weapons in the Indo – Bangla border.

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Libyan Rebel Abdel-Hakim Al-Hasidi Admits Links To CIA's Al Qaeda

Steve Watson [InfoWars]

The commander of anti Gaddafi rebels forces in Libya has admitted that among the ranks of those fighting against the government are militants who have fought and killed US troops in Iraq, otherwise known as “al Qaeda” fighters.

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, who made the remarks in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian newspaper, admitted that he had previously recruited fundamentalists to fight in Iraq, and said that the fighters are “today are on the front lines in Adjabiya”.

al-Hasidi described the fighters as “patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” adding that “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader”.

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MI6 paid Libyan al-Qaeda cell to assassinate Gaddafi, halted bid to arrest bin Laden

Empire Strikes Back

British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.

The latest claims of MI6 involvement with Libya’s fearsome Islamic Fighting Group, which is connected to one of bin Laden’s trusted lieutenants, will be embarrassing to the Government, which described similar claims by renegade MI5 officer David Shayler as ‘pure fantasy’. 

The allegations have emerged in the book Forbidden Truth , published in America by two French intelligence experts who reveal that the first Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden was issued by Libya in March 1998. 

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Israel assisting India in its security needs: Envoy

Deccan Herald

"There is a defence relationship with India. Not only there is defence relationship, Israel has been and is of assistance to India in its security needs. We are proud of being there," Israeli Ambassador to New Delhi, Mark Sofer, told a group of Indian journalists here.

However, Sofer refused to divulge further details about India-Israel defence ties, at a luncheon hosted by the US-based 'The Israel Project', which has now started its India programmes.

"I am not going to say anything on the figures and the projects that are on the table," the Israeli Ambassador said.

Sofer identified India and Israel as the two countries who viewed the world with very similar eyes.

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Yemen Army Battalion Resists CIA's Al-Qaeda Offensive, Kills 12 Insurgents

Mohammed al-Kibsi [Yemen Observer]

Local sources in Abyan province told the Yemen Observer that at least 12 al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters were killed and five others wounded during clashes with army forces in Lawder district's Akad area on Tuesday.

The source said that the AQAP fighters launched an offensive at a military battalion located in Akad area in Abyan province. The source added that the battalions resisted the offensive.

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Jitters in India over Pakistan`s World Cup Prospects

NEW DELHI: An India-Pakistan semi-final in Mohali now looks set to be the highpoint of the current cricket World Cup but the possibility of Pakistan going on to play the finals in Mumbai is giving nightmares to the Indian security apparatus, the Indian Express said on Thursday.

“Pakistan’s successful run in the ongoing Cricket World Cup has given fresh jitters to India that now anticipates a deluge of visa applications, over and above the 5,000 already processed,” the newspaper said.

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KARACHI families fraught by firing

“For the last two days, my family and I have become prisoners in our own home,” said Liaquatabad resident Fareed Hussain. Firing could be heard as he spoke.

As the death toll in target killings rises every day, residents of Baloch Para, near Teen Hatti, find themselves in a war-like situation.

The trigger was a raid on Tuesday by the Rangers in which one alleged drug peddler was killed. The gambling and drug-peddling gangs have been firing in retaliation since then.

The Rangers began the raid after receiving a tip-off and were looking for a drug peddler named Majeed alias Chota Baloch. However, Amjad alias Bara Baloch was killed.

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A New Tool For U.S. Intelligence: Google?

Traditionally, intelligence agencies have relied on top-secret information to track changes in other countries. But wiretaps and secret intercepts didn't help U.S. officials predict the Arab Spring that has brought revolution across the Middle East and North Africa.

In hindsight, officials say there could have found some clues about what was about to happen if they had read open sources more closely. Now they are searching for systematic ways to do that.

The uprisings in the region have shown intelligence officials that they need new ways to understand what motivates people around the world. While traditional intelligence tools can help, they are limited in their ability to put their fingers on the pulse of society or anticipate fickle human behavior.

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