The Gaddafi regime carried out an extraordinary clandestine lobbying operation to try to stop the NATO bombardment of Libya, and thought the western allies were likely to launch a full-scale invasion in "either late September or October".
Secret documents in Tripoli reveal desperate attempts by the Libyan government in its final months to influence US and world opinion. It approached key figures from President Obama downwards.
The Libyan government tried to convince Dennis Kucinich to visit Tripoli as part of a hastily arranged "peace mission".
They certainly chose someone amenable to their position, but sadly without any influence whatsoever
Tut tut, he has enormous influence over the Kos Kiddies, enormous I say...
The regime offered to pay all costs related to the trip, including "travel expenses and accommodation".
A letter sent to Libya's prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, by a US-based lobbyist for the regime, Sufyan Omeish, stated that Kucinich was "concerned that his personal safety in Tripoli could not be guaranteed". His preference was to conduct meetings with regime officials outside Libya. There was a plan for Kucinich to meet "senior Libyan officials, including Gaddafi" which never materialized. Kucinich visited Syria instead.
Everyone can see how much good that trip did.
On 23 June the prime minister -- now reported to be in Tunisia -- wrote a surprisingly sycophantic letter to Obama. He addressed him as "Mr President", and politely fussed about Washington's "unprecedented decision" to confiscate Libya's assets -- "to please" the rebels. He also wrote to leading members of the US Congress, criticizing John Boehner after he described a letter by Gaddafi as "incoherent".
Gaddafi's furtive global campaign took place as the increasingly paranoid regime
It's not paranoia when the powers-that-be really are out to get you...
believed the US was planning to invade. On 28 June, Omeish, a US-based film maker, warned that the US Senate's decision to extend US involvement in Libya for another year prepared the way for a ground assault.
The letter to Baghdadi says: "It is clear that the NATO coalition forces have no intention of ending their military campaign over Libya anytime soon ... What is most concerning is that there are highly credible analysts and intelligence personnel in the United States who are exposing growing evidence of covert logistical military planning for a future ground invasion in either late September or October of this year."
He then discusses the urgent proposed peace mission to Libya. He writes: "We have already obtained confirmation of the involvement of a high-profile US congressman to participate ... and are making additional overtures to obtain further congressional involvement from other members.
"Moreover, we have also obtained a new confirmation from a high-profile Princeton professor of international law and a former UN fact-finding commissioner to join our delegation." Omeish also claimed that he was also working with "award-winning/Oscar-nominated filmmakers to help document the truth about Libya ... to ensure maximum world-wide exposure."
The correspondence shows that the Libyan regime was surprisingly well informed -- even if its sources were inaccurate at times. Baghdadi's personal papers include copies of the WikiLeaks documents written by US ambassador Gene Cretz. Cretz was forced to leave Libya after mentioning Gaddafi's "voluptuous" Ukrainian nurse. Someone had carefully annotated the English copy with Arabic.
#1
Hey, My Little Munchkin called on his grandstanding...
Sufyan Omeish, stated that Kucinich was "concerned that his personal safety in Tripoli could not be guaranteed". His preference was to conduct meetings with regime officials outside Libya. There was a plan for Kucinich to meet "senior Libyan officials, including Gaddafi" which never materialized. Kucinich visited Syria instead.
#2
It approached key figures from President Obama downwards. The Libyan government tried to convince Dennis Kucinich to visit Tripoli as part of a hastily arranged "peace mission".
How the mighty have fallen. The best Kadaffy could do was ex D.C. Congressman Walter Fauntroy the race baiter.
Should have shelled out more dosh and gotten Jesse Jackson, or for an extra grand, Al Sharpton. He has his own cable TV show, you know.
Ex-Member of Congress Detained in Libya Was on Vigilante Peace Mission Former U.S. member of Congress Walter Fauntroy, currently held in Tripoli's Rixos Hotel, had traveled to Libya on a self-appointed peace mission. His trip did not have his government's approval, though he appears to have planned to negotiate on behalf of his country, and came as a complete surprise to the State Department, government sources tell The Atlantic. Fauntroy is being detained by troops loyal to Muammar Qaddafi along with several Western journalists at the Rixos Hotel. It is not immediately clear if they is being held as hostages by the regime.
#3
If I were Khaddafy, I would looking at some country like Sierra Leone or Haiti for a refuge: offer to fund $500 million a year in infrastructure projects in the country for political asylum. The Khaddafy clan has billions in gold, bearer bonds, and secret bank accounts in the Arab world to draw on. And that arrangement would let them live reasonably well for a couple of decades anyway. After all, he could invest a couple of hundred million in short-term Kuwaiti or Saudi bonds and get the 15% interest that they pay for that.
#4
Just doing pick and shovel projects in those countries would let you employ 100,000 workers at $100 a month, which is good wages in those countries. Then you pay to have T-shirts silk-screened with the name of the political party that cut you the deal and hand them out to the workers, along with locally produced straw/grass hats, and you have a political structure that supports you.
#8
I'd pay good money to see that, JohnQC - she'd kick his a**.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/26/2011 17:27 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The apparent shennanigans keeps getting better ...
To wit,
* FREEREPUBLIC > GADDAFI'S DAUGHTER HANA DEATH IN 2006 ALL A HOAX?
* NEWS KERALA > GADDAFI FLED IN GOLF CART THRU TUNNEL [undergound network = complex under Palace]?
ARTIC = Rebels claim to had found AN OLYMPIC-SIZED SWIMMING POOL, + GARAGE FULL OF EXPENSIVE LUXURY CARS.
* SAME > LOCKERBIE BOMBER [al-Megrahi] ESCAPED WID GADDAFI?
versus
* WAFF > [Russia Today] "BEFORE NATO INTRUSION, LIBYA WAS AFRICA'S SWITZERLAND".
Twas NATO, not Uncle Muammar, whom refused to conduct or engage in proper investigations, diploamcy, etc. as per various allegations agz the Gaddafi Regime???
text size A A A August 26, 2011
The death toll climbed as workers continued to pull bodies out of a burned casino in northern Mexico, where gunmen spread gasoline and ignited a fire that trapped and killed at least 53 gamblers and employees.
Family members gathered at the caution tape outside the Casino Royale after the Thursday afternoon fire in the northern industrial city of Monterrey, some crying and others yelling at police for providing no information. Later they were allowed to view bodies in the morgue to help identify the victims.
Francisco Tamayo, 28, of Monterrey, said he and family members looked at some 40 bodies in search of his mother, Sonia de la Pena, 47, who loved to gamble at the casino and was there on average four days a week. They had yet to find her.
When Tamayo learned of the fire from television, he first went to the scene.
"She's probably here," said Tamayo, who repeatedly called her cell phone, only to hear that it was out of the area of service.
Gov. Rodrigo Medina told the Televisa network late Thursday that the death toll had reached 53. The fire in a city that has seen a surge in drug cartel-related violence represented one of the deadliest attacks on an entertainment center in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.
Calderon tweeted that the attack was "an abhorrent act of terror and barbarism" that requires "all of us to persevere in the fight against these unscrupulous criminal bands."
Attorney General Leon Adrian de la Garza said a drug cartel was apparently responsible for the attack, though he didn't name which one. Cartels often extort casinos and other businesses, threatening to attack them or burn them to the ground if they refuse to pay.
It was the second time in three months that the Casino Royale was targeted. Gunmen struck it and three other casinos on May 25, spraying the building with bullets, but no was reported injured in that attack.
The fire in the two-story casino, which advertised sports book and bingo, was reported just before 4 p.m. local time, a slow time of day when normally about 80 people played the tables and slots, said former security guard Alberto Martinez Alvarado, 30. Martinez, who on his way home from work Thursday when he saw the fire, said the casino could hold hundreds, perhaps 1,000 people.
"We're lucky we weren't there," he said. "Why couldn't the people who did this do some honest work instead?"
State police officials quoted survivors as saying armed men burst into the casino, apparently to rob it, and began dousing the premises with fuel from tanks they brought with them. The officials were not authorized to be quoted by name for security reasons. De la Garza said the liquid appeared to be gasoline.
With shouts and profanities, the attackers told the customers and employees to get out. But many terrified customers and employees fled further inside the building, where they died trapped amid the flames and thick smoke that soon billowed out of the building.
Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal said many of the bodies were found inside the casino's bathrooms, where employees and customers had locked themselves to escape the gunmen.
Authorities commandeered backhoes from a nearby construction site and made a brief attempt to break into the casino's walls as smoke billowed from the main entrance, hindering firefighters.
Maria Tomas Navarro, 42, stood weeping at the edge of the police tape stretched in front of the smoke-stained casino building. She was hoping for word of her brother, 25-year-old Genaro Navarro Vega, who had worked in the casino's bingo area.
Navarro said she tried calling her brother's cell phone. "But he doesn't answer. I don't know what is happening," she said. "There is nobody to ask."
Monterrey has seen bloody turf battles between the Zetas and Gulf cartels in recent months. Once Mexico's symbol of development and prosperity, the city is seeing this year's drug-related murders on a pace to double last year's and triple those of the year before.
Last month, gunmen killed 20 people at a bar in Monterrey. The attackers sprayed the bar with rounds from assault rifles, and police later found bags of drugs at the bar.
State police officials initially said witnesses reported hearing three explosions before Thursday's fire started, but later said a flammable material was used. The officials were not authorized to be quoted by name for security reasons.
The reports of explosions may have been the sound of the ignition of the liquid.
Norma Reyes, 45, was one of the people who received good news Thursday. Her son called her before she even heard about the fire to say he was all right. Jonathan Reyes, 25, who worked as an area supervisor, told his mother he was at the hospital trying to find out what happened to his co-workers.
JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $88.3 million as part of a settlement with the Treasury Department over a series of transactions involving Cuba, Iran and Sudan, the agency said on Thursday. Treasury officials called the banks actions egregious and said that JPMorgans managers and supervisors acted with knowledge of the conduct constituting the apparent violations and recklessly failed to exercise a minimal degree of caution or care. A spokeswoman for JPMorgan said the company never intended to violate the Treasury Dept. regulations.
#1
So where are the criminal actions? If you can be prosecuted as a criminal when you didn't know anything was amiss, why are there no prosecutions when they know something was amiss?
Congress approves billions of foreign aid for Pakistan in 2012. Dollars, some of which will surely make their way to the ISI and be funneled into Afghanistan in form of roadside bombs and weapons used to kill and maim or servicemen and women.
#1
The GZM financiers are the same ones who told us that the funds for the mosque would be collected "from the neighborhood."
The insurance fraud may prove that to be partly true since the fraud involved policy holders "from the neighborhood."
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/26/2011 4:09 Comments ||
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#2
So when is some elected official with some cajones or some governmental body going to pull the plug on this bunch of common thugs, criminals, and scam artists behind the Ground Zero victory mosque?
#3
JohnQC I am with you on this. This will not happen. Money the votes or power will rule the day. I wonder what would have happened if they had wanted to build a Mormon Temple there. They never would have had a chance.
[Dawn] At least 50 religious figures associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) have declared haram (forbidden) the promotion of prejudices among Mohammedans on the basis of colour, race or language.
In a decree issued by them here on Wednesday, it was said that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in his last sermon warned Mohammedans against inflaming linguistic and other biases.
It appealed to those who were promoting hatred on linguistic basis to make Islam and Pakistain their identity instead of introducing them selves as Mohajir, Pathan, Balochi, Sindhi or Punjabi. It said gunnies were making their place in hell, as they were killing innocent people.
The decree said Islam allowed the rulers to crush those patronising the killers, punish them or banish them from the country.
The decree said the army chief of an Islamic state was responsible for crushing any uprising in the state and that was what first caliph Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (R.A.) did in his time.
It said it was the time for the army to play its role to protect life, honour and property of more than 20 million Bloody Karachiites, as police had completely failed to quell violence, which had paralysed the port city for the last many months.
Allama Muhammad Sharif, Syed Husainuddin, Pir Afzal Qadri, Dr Ashraf Jalali, Sahibzada Abdul Malik, Mufti Fazlur Rehman, Prof Ashfaq Jalali, Iqbal Chishti and Mufti Imran Hanfi were among those who signed the decree.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I think the term "Koran-Literalists" is more accurate than Hate-Preacher.
[Dawn] Federal Minster for Interior Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Thursday reiterated that the 'targeted operation' started in Bloody Karachi would continue until peace was established, DawnNews reported.
Malik said that police and Rangers were carrying out raids effectively on the basis of intelligence.
The law enforcing agencies had conducted 48 raids in different areas of the city and apprehended 90 suspects so far, he added.
The interior minister said providing peace to the citizens was a basic responsibility of the government and the operation would not be halted until the achievement of the objectives.
He further said that the media would be briefed about the nabbed criminals and seized weapons in a presser later today.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] An accused in Benazir Bhutto murder case on Wednesday withdrew his bail application from the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench over non-maintainability in the court.
Sher Zaman filed the application before the high court's two-member bench comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed on March 29.
Khurram Qureshi, the counsel for the accused, took the bail plea back after prosecution argued that it could only be filed before the trial court.
In its application, Khurram Qureshi stated that neither any proof was found against his client, Sher Zaman, nor had he given any confessional statement.
He said that despite all the facts, his client had been in jail for the last more than three years.
During the hearing, FIA Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar argued before the court that Sher Zaman could not obtain post-arrest bail on the ground that he was being kept in the jail without trial.
"According to the law, any person could not be jugged in jail without trial for more than two year," he said and added that the bail application of Sher Zaman was set aside by a trial court where the accused had not cited the reason of delay in trial.
"If Sher Zaman wanted to obtain bail on this ground, he should approach the trial court," FIA prosecutor maintain.
After the completion of the arguments, LHC division bench said the matter would again be taken up after Eidul Fitr. On this, the defense counsel said he wanted to withdraw the bail plea.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- UN special coordinator Robert Serry expressed deep concern Thursday over the continuation of incidents in Gaza and southern Israel. "In the interest of protecting the lives of civilians and for the calm to succeed, a complete halt to the firing of rockets from Gaza and a display of maximum restraint by Israel are required," Serry said in a statement. He deplored the loss of civilian lives and called on both sides to take steps to prevent any further escalation. Thanks. That'll do...not much.
According to report the three were members of extremist Islamic group, one of whom escaped from Egyptian prison during revolution against Hosni Mubarak.
At least three of the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the road to Eilat last Thursday were Egyptian citizens, according to a report in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Yaoum.
The report, based on a probe carried out by the Egyptian security forces, says that the three were members of an extremist Islamic group. One of them had escaped from an Egyptian prison during the revolution against Hosni Mubarak.
In addition to the three, five Egyptian policemen and soldiers were also killed in the various firefights.
Haaretz has learned that 12 terrorists, in four groups, carried out the attack. The groups were dispersed over an area 12 kilometers long. At least some of the attackers wore brown uniforms, similar to those used by the Egyptian Army.
The terrorists also waved white handkerchiefs to fool Israeli motorists, pretending to come in peace. They opened fire at an Israel Defense Forces helicopter in a bid to shoot it down.
The investigation by the Egyptians has shown that Israeli troops entered into the Sinai Peninusla chasing after the terrorists. During the pursuit, fire was exchanged with Egyptian police. Moreover, an Israeli helicopter, according to the Egyptian probe, fired two rockets at the terrorists and fired machine guns at Egyptian policemen.
The gunship fire resulted in the death of an Egyptian officer, Ahmed Jalal, along with two policemen. In a later incident, another two Egyptian soldiers were killed. An Egyptian security vehicle making its way to the area of the incident was also attacked, but it remains unclear who was responsible.
Despite protests in Cairo, it is clear there is an awareness in Egypt of the possibility that some soldiers serving near the area of the attack had been involved in the shooting at Israelis.
Egyptian intelligence is also aware of cooperation between members of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip with Islamist activists operating in the Sinai desert.
The attack ultimately proved contrary to the most likely scenarios.
At the point where the attack occurred, the IDF had actually amassed forces. North of the area a Golani force had been deployed, and there were additional forces to the south.
The incident involving the Egyptians occurred later in the afternoon, while the chief of staff and the defense minister held a press conference north of Eilat. An IDF force rushed to an area where there had been more shooting. Egyptian soldiers were seen holding three men at gunpoint.
When the Israeli officers asked for the captives to be handed over, an Egyptian officer claimed that they were Egyptian soldiers. At some point the troops came under fire, and a sniper killed the anti-terrorist police officer Pascal Avrahami.
IDF and Egyptian soldiers were facing each other along the border and they came under fire from one of the groups of terrorists. They were neutralized by the soldiers. The incident ended about 6 P.M.
While Egyptian security conducted a search in the Sinai Peninsula, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device.
Egyptian security forces claimed to have killed two terrorists. The IDF and special police forces claimed eight terrorists killed. Apparently, two others were not caught.
The incident, in spite of the planning by the terrorists and the timing, could have had much worst results. The army's presence in the area and the aggressive response by the anti-terrorist police unit and the soldiers proved effective.
#2
"At least three of the perpetrators . . . were Egyptian citizens"
So were a lot of the cheerleaders. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/26/2011 21:48 Comments ||
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#3
EGYPTIANS IN ISRAEL ...
versus
* RIAN.RU > [Group of] UKRAINIANS FIGHTING FOR GADDAFI CAPTURED IN LIBYA, SAYS REBELS.
* TOPIX > LIBYAN REBELS HOLD TALKS WID RUSSIAN DELEGATION.
Methinks we once again just discovered the general or strategic direction Uncle Muammar may be heading iff he survives the Reb onslaughts but chooses to stop resistance + go into international exile???
[An Nahar] March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... -led opposition lawyers are expected to hold a presser next week to snap back at Loyalty to the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... bloc MP Mohammed Raad, An Nahar daily reported Thursday.
On Tuesday, Raad accused Israel and the U.S. of drafting the indictment published by the Special Tribunal for Leb. It accuses four Hizbullah members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 liquidation case.
He said during a presser he held at parliament that the indictment's aim was to blackmail Hizbullah and topple the resistance.
Retired judge and legal expert Salim Jreissati presented a 20-page legal study after Raad's statement, saying the STL had several loopholes.
The investigation into Hariri's murder should have reached conclusions and direct evidence and not only circumstantial evidence, he said.
The March 14 lawyers will stress in their conference that the protection of the four suspects is a crime punishable by law, An Nahar said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] A senior Syrian general who was assassinated in 2008 was most likely the victim of a power struggle between figures linked to Bashir al-Assad's regime, La Belle France told U.S. envoys at the time.
According to a U.S. diplomatic cable published online by the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks, a senior adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... and an expert from the foreign ministry branded the killing a "mafia-like hit".
Brigadier General Mohammed Suleiman was slain in the Syrian coastal city of Tartus in August 2008. At the time it was widely rumored that he was bumped off by an Israeli sniper hidden on board a yacht moored offshore.
But, according to the U.S. cable, French intelligence believed that he may have been killed because he "knew too much" about the Assad regime's nuclear program and ties to Leb's Hizbullah.
Alternatively, he could have been a victim of a struggle for influence and access to corrupt wealth between rival members of the business elite linked to Assad's ruling clan, Sarkozy's adviser Boris Boillon told U.S. officials.
"When asked how he interpreted the killing, Boillon said several theories presented themselves, the only common denominator of which was internecine rivalry in the entourage close to Bashir al-Assad," the cable said.
"He flatly rejected the notion that the Israelis had taken out Suleiman, particularly the theory that a sniper had shot him," it continued
"French information was that the hit was more 'classic' and 'mafia-like' with police stopping traffic in the immediate vicinity, bodyguards looking the other way, and the assailant pumping a slug into Suleiman's head."
The official floated a theory the killing could have been ordered by Assad's powerful brother, Maher al-Assad, a military commander and regime insider -- sometimes referred to as the second most powerful man in Syria.
"Boillon described Maher as ambitious, a bit of a wild man, and determined to increase his power and influence within the inner circle," the cable said.
The envoys said "Boillon's rundown of the various theories sounded like he had recently read a finished French intelligence assessment of the situation."
Ludovic Pouille, a senior Middle East expert at the French foreign ministry, was "less forthcoming" about his theories in a separate 2008 meeting with U.S. officials, but he agreed the killing looked like an inside job.
"He was equally categorical in disputing the theory that the Israelis were responsible," the cable recounted.
According to Pouille, the French ambassador in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... believed Suleiman might have died because he knew too much about the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and about Syria's nuclear program.
According to the cable, French officials said Sarkozy planned to "cultivate his personal relationship with Bashar" hoping to convince him to make peace with Israel, "stop destabilizing Leb" and review his ties with Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2011 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#2
Most likely, Suleiman listened to Sarko too much, or Mossad made Bashar think he did...
Interesting picture of Ernst Roehm, the "man" in the Hitler-Roehm homo couple...the little fat red scarface was too fond of young boys to stay alive...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Gaddafi regime carried out an extraordinary clandestine lobbying operation to try to stop the NATO bombardment of Libya, and thought the western allies were likely to launch a full-scale invasion in "either late September or October".
Punjab
Federal Minster for Interior 
A senior Syrian general who was assassinated in 2008 was most likely the victim of a power struggle between figures linked to Bashir al-Assad's regime, 
