at-Largely

Tunisian interim prime minister resigns

Excellent news:

"The interim prime minister of the North African country that inspired the ongoing uprisings throughout the Arab world resigned Sunday after a new round of daily protests resulted in three weekend deaths.

Interim President Fouad Mebazaa named Beji Caid Essebsi, a former foreign minister who served under Tunisia's long-ago President Habib Bourguiba, as new caretaker prime minister ahead of elections planned for the summer, state television reported.

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who served in the same post under deposed President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, bowed to public pressure and unruly street protests demanding that any traces of the former regime be purged from public life.

"After taking more than one week of thinking, I became convinced — and my family shared my conviction — and decided to resign as prime minister," he said in a televised address."

Exclusive: Amanpour Interviews Gadhafi's Son...

Apparently sniffing glue runs in the family:

"In an exclusive interview with "This Week" host Christiane Amanpour, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi and one of his chief advisers, insisted Libya was calm, the military has not attacked any civilians and reports of Libyan diplomats abandoning their posts were simply a "miscommunication."

here was a "big, big gap between reality and the media reports," Gadhafi told Amanpour. "The whole south is calm. The west is calm. The middle is calm. Even part of the east."

In response to President Barack Obama's call for Moammar Gadhafi to step down and the U.N. Security Council's unanimous vote to impose an arms embargo on Libya and urge nations to freeze Libyan assets, Gadhafi's son was defiant.

"Listen, nobody is leaving this country. We live here, we die here," he insisted. "This is our country. The Libyans are our people. And for myself, I believe I am doing the right thing."'

By the way, nice get for Amanpour.

Libya - Update 7

It looks like the rebels might actually do this thing (in which case the House of Saud needs to be very worried):

• Opposition forces move in on Libyan capital
• Reports: Shots Fired as Protesters March in Libyan Capital
• Thousands Slain in Libya Crackdown
• Qaddafi forces shoot hospital patients
• Libyan rebels say control oil fields, honour deals

Fox News Chief, Roger Ailes, Urged Employee to Lie, Records Show

I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you:

It was an incendiary allegation — and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie two years earlier to federal investigators who were vetting Bernard B. Kerik for the job of homeland security secretary.

Ms. Regan had once been involved in an affair with Mr. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner whose mentor and supporter, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, was in the nascent stages of a presidential campaign. The News Corporation executive, whom she did not name, wanted to protect Mr. Giuliani and conceal the affair, she said.

Now, court documents filed in a lawsuit make clear whom Ms. Regan was accusing of urging her to lie: Roger E. Ailes, the powerful chairman of Fox News and a longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani. What is more, the documents say that Ms. Regan taped the telephone call from Mr. Ailes in which Mr. Ailes discussed her relationship with Mr. Kerik.

Important stories round-up...

• Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators
• Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden
• Obama breaks silence, condemns Libya crackdown (finally!!)
• Qaddafi Massing Forces in Tripoli as Rebellion Spreads
• Ga. Law Could Give Death Penalty for Miscarriages

Those Neo-cons sure love dictators

From Laura Rozen:

One of the more unlikely figures to have advised a firm which has worked to burnish Libya's image and grow its economy is not registered with the Justice Department. Prominent neoconservative Richard Perle, the former Reagan-era Defense Department official and George W. Bush-era chairman of the Defense Policy Board, traveled to Libya twice in 2006 to meet with Qadhafi, and afterward briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on his visits, according to documents released by a Libyan opposition group in 2009.

Perle traveled to Libya as a paid adviser to the Monitor Group, a prestigious Boston-based consulting firm with close ties to leading professors at the Harvard Business School. The firm named Perle a senior adviser in 2006.

The Monitor Group described Perle’s travel to Libya and the recruitment of several other prominent thinkers and former officials to burnish Libya’s and Qadhafi’s image in a series of documents obtained and released by a Libyan opposition group, the National Conference of the Libyan Opposition, in 2009.

Libya Update 6

You may have heard by now that Gaddaffi gave a little speech yesterday. Justin Raimondo transcribed the entire hysterical-pant-wetting mess here.

Now onwards to the latest:

• China begins evacuation of 33,000 from Libya
• European Union Suspends Arms Trade With Libya
• Protesters take control of east part of Libya (this is big... means 1/3 of the country under the control of protesters)
• Libyan crew abort bombing mission - crew bails out of plane

Libya chaos threatens Berlusconi-Gaddafi chumminess...

Dear Muammar, by all means take Silvio with you on your way out:

"Rome - Silvio Berlusconi has sought to strengthen Italy's ties with nearby Libya by cultivating a close personal friendship with Moamer Gaddafi. But the Italian premier's strategy could yet backfire in the wake of the popular uprising in the North African country.

Berlusconi this week followed other European leaders in condemning the brutal repression of anti-government protesters by Libya"

Italy has a long history in Libya. Hell, they even named the country, which was prior an Italian colony known as Italian North Africa. Gaddafi rose to power under later British occupation, but kept a close relationship with Italy - and especially Silvio in recent years. Gaddafi is a criminal and a dictator who should have been overthrown long ago, had it not been for Western interests - especially those involving oil - he likely would have been.

On Berlusconi and His Past

Silvio Berlusconi, a less obvious dictator - but a criminal with political power nevertheless - has been "elected" to office under various questionable circumstances four times. It probably helps too that he owns most of the major media in Italy and has at his disposal contacts he had made during his Propaganda Due (P2) years, including his pals in the Mafia (on more about P2 and the mafia, read Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic by Alexander Stille), and individuals who would later play a large role in the lead up to the US war on Iraq. Below is an excerpt from my good friend Craig Unger's excellent article on Iraq pre-war intelligence cooking, specifically the Niger forgeries:

"Because Italy emerged from World War II with a strong Communist Party, domestic politics had elements of a civil war, explains Guido Moltedo, editor of Europa, a center-left daily in Italy. That meant ultra-conservative Cold Warriors battled the Communists not just electorally but through undercover operations in the intelligence world. “In addition to the secret service, SISMI, there was another, informal, parallel secret service,” Moltedo says. “It was known as Propaganda Due.”

Led by a neo-Fascist named Licio Gelli, Propaganda Due, with its penchant for exotic covert operations, was the stuff of conspiracy fantasies—except that it was real. According to The Sunday Times of London, until 1986 members agreed to have their throats slit and tongues cut out if they broke their oaths. Subversive, authoritarian, and right-wing, the group was sometimes referred to as the P-2 Masonic Lodge because of its ties to the secret society of Masons, and it served as the covert intelligence agency for militant anti-Communists. It was also linked to Operation Gladio, a secret paramilitary wing in NATO that supported far-right military coups in Greece and Turkey during the Cold War.

In 1981 the Italian Parliament banned Propaganda Due, and all secret organizations in Italy, after an investigation concluded that it had infiltrated the highest levels of Italy’s judiciary, parliament, military, and press, and was tied to assassinations, kidnappings, and arms deals around the world. But before it was banned, P-2 members and their allies participated in two ideologically driven international black-propaganda schemes that foreshadowed the Niger Embassy job 20 years later."

<snip>

"In 1981, P-2 was outlawed and police raided the home of its leader, Licio Gelli. Authorities found a list of nearly a thousand prominent public figures in Italy who were believed to be members. Among them was a billionaire media mogul who had not yet entered politics—Silvio Berlusconi."

Berlusconi, Niger Forgeries and the Iraq War

Incidentally, it was through chasing down the Niger forgeries story that I ended up on the Plame-Wilson story. Ironically, P2 and Gladio (the best book to read on this is NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe by Daniele Ganser) been my pet projects for years. Old Silvio was a member of P2 as was his later head of SISMI (Italian intelligence agency akin to the CIA), Nicolo Pollari. Pollari and Berlusconi allegedly (wink wink) helped Bush and Cheney "fix the facts around the policy" for war in Iraq:

In a 2005 article in the newspaper La Repubblica [Polarri] was identified by investigative reporters Giuseppe D'Avanzo and Carlo Bonini, as has having brought the discredited documents at the center of the Yellowcake forgery scandal directly to Vice-President Dick Cheney's Office of Special Plans, bypassing the CIA, who knew the documents were forgeries.

They even helped set the stage for what the Neo-cons hoped would be a second phase (post-Iraq) war with Iran. From one of my articles on this sordid mess:

"According to several intelligence sources on both sides of the Atlantic, the tale that "Ali" tells Weldon and others was as intricate as it was false.

"Ali provided information that indicated Iranian intelligence had sent a team to Baghdad to extract highly enriched uranium (weapons grade) from a stockpile hidden by Saddam Hussein," one intelligence source said.

Ali asserted that an Iranian intelligence team had infiltrated Iraq prior to the start of the war and stole enriched uranium to use in their own nuclear weapons program, sources say.

Ghorbanifar said "the team successfully extracted the stockpile but on the way back to Iran contracted radiation poisoning," one source remarked."

This was debunked by the CIA and on the ground by then-Paris station chief Bill Murray, who told me that:

"I met with the source, found that he was not credible, forwarded the information he gave us to Washington, where it was thoroughly analyzed by many people and found not to add anything new to what we knew about Iran. The sensational charges that the source made could not be substantiated."

And where were all of these allegations coming from? From several meetings in Rome that took place in December 2001. The attendants included Nicolo Pollari, who I found out was there from another person who attended, Michael Ledeen.

See the following additional articles I did on this:

• Intelligence Laundry: To Paris again
• American who advised Pentagon says he wrote for magazine that found forged Niger documents
• The Path of War Timeline

My point is, that Gaddafi is an obvious monster and hopefully on his way out of Libya. But Berlusconi is an avowed pro-fascist, who has had a hand in maintaining Gadaffi as dictator over the last decade and who has helped the Bush administration drag the United States into an endless war of aggression in Iraq. Silvio's "chumminess" with Gadaffi should be his downfall - but then again, or so should have many of his crimes have been.

Excellent reporting recognized

Excellent work recognized:

Investigative reports that exposed the devastating environmental and economic impact of the oil spill last year in the Gulf of Mexico and leadership failings in America’s military mission in Afghanistan were among the winners of 13 George Polk Awards for 2010 announced on Monday by Long Island University.

In particular, the work of Michael Hastings for Rolling Stone on General Stanley McChrystal:

The magazine reporting award went to Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone for “The Runaway General,” which revealed strategic problems, political infighting and contemptuous attitudes toward civilian authority in the American military command in Afghanistan. After the disclosures, President Obama dismissed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of American and NATO forces in the region.

Congratulations to Hastings and everyone else for work that is much needed and in short supply.

Libya - Update 5

After a weekend that seemed to indicate that protesters in Libya might be put down, it is starting to look like Libyans might actually turn Gadhafi out

• Libya defectors: Pilots told to bomb protesters flee to Malta
• Gadhafi's hold on power is suddenly under threat
• World Leaders Slam Libyan Violence

Libya Update IV

12:00 AM PT:

• Libya protests: 140 'massacred' as Gaddafi sends in snipers to crush dissent
• Gaddafi regime's snipers kill 15 mourners attending funeral of protesters in Libya

Libya Update III

9:51 AM PT:

• Libya protests: 84 killed in growing unrest, says HRW
• Libya protests: massacres reported as Gaddafi imposes news blackout
• Clashes in Libya Worsen as Army Crushes Dissent
• Hague condemns violence in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen

And justice for none...

The latest from the Jose Padilla tragedy or what we call justice now in the US of A:

A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit brought by a man convicted of plotting terrorism and who alleged he was tortured at a Navy brig in South Carolina, saying a trial would create "an international spectacle."

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel ruled Jose Padilla, arrested as an enemy combatant, had no right to sue for constitutional violations and that the defendants in the case enjoyed qualified immunity.

Padilla claimed he was illegally detained as an enemy combatant and then held in a brig near Charleston where he was tortured. His lawsuit named government and brig officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Padilla alleged he was tortured by being kept in darkness and isolation, deprived of sleep and religious materials, and kept from family and attorneys.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on suspicion of plotting to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb."

It seems that Rumsfeld, Gates, et al continue to be above the law. See Glenn Greenwald for more.

Libya - Update II

9:25 PM PT

• Libya protests: massacres reported as Gaddafi imposes news blackout
• At Least 46 Killed as Protests Split Libya
• Libya internet service halted

 

Libya - Update

As of 10:25 AM PT:

-Security Forces Besiege Protesters-Occupied City, Dozens Killed across Libya

-Libyan troops attempt to put down unrest in east

-Dozens killed in Libya protests - rights group

Revolution Round-Up

• Algeria: Algeria braces for more protests
• Bahrain: Security forces fire tear gas on protest, Bahrain Army opens fire on protesters
• Egypt: Egyptians mass in Cairo to mark Mubarak fall

• Iran: Iran's opposition calls for more protests
• Iraq: Demonstrators Reportedly Killed in Kurdistan, Southern Iraq
• Jordan: Clashes erupt at pro-democracy rally in Amman

• Libya: Human rights groups urge Libya to stop using 'lethal force'
• Yemen: Tens of Thousands Protest Across Yemen
         

I will do an updated list later as there is a lot more happening. This should get you started, however.

 

Attacks on media continue in Bahrain, Yemen, and Iraq

Via CPJ:

Authorities in Bahrain and Yemen have escalated their physical attack on the press in order to censor coverage of spreading anti-government protests, the Committee to protect Journalists said today. Also, in Iraq, at least two journalists were attacked by guards for the Kurdistan Democratic Party's building, local journalists told CPJ. 

"Governments throughout the Middle East and North Africa cannot deny their citizens coverage of these momentous events across the region," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "Local and international media must be allowed to cover the news."

In Bahrain, ABC reporter Miguel Marquez was beaten early Thursday while covering a violent attempt by authorities to clear Lulu Square (Pearl Square) in Manama by what he described as "a gang of thugs." Marques can be heard shouting "journalist" while being attacked in an audio recording posted on the network's website. His camera was confiscated.

Several journalists also reported today that Bahraini authorities are barring journalists from entering the country. New York Times columnist Nickolas Kristof tweeted: "Bahrain barring journalists from entry at airport. King Hamad doesn't want witnesses to his brutality." Roy Gutman, a foreign desk editor for McClatchy Newspapers, told CPJ that McClatchy reporter Nancy Youssef was denied entry to the country.

Protests in Wisconsin

Powell demands answers from "Curveball"

No really! See below:

"Colin Powell, the US secretary of state at the time of the Iraq invasion, has called on the CIA and  Pentagon to explain why they failed to alert him to the unreliability of a key source behind claims of Saddam Hussein's bio-weapons capability.

Responding to the Guardian's revelation that the source, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi or "Curveball" as his US and German handlers called him, admitted fabricating evidence of Iraq's secret biological weapons programme, Powell said that questions should be put to the US agencies involved in compiling the case for war."

The CIA knew that Curveball was a bullshit artist, and this was conveyed to the Office of the Vice President - which was pressuring the agency to find evidence to justify war with Iraq. Publicly, the agency did not contradict the White House. But there were whistleblowers who came forward who tried to stop the war propaganda based in large part on Curveball's allegations, including former Ambassador Joe Wilson and then CIA Europe chief Tyler Drumheller, as well as others. 

The DIA knew this too. German intelligence had warned the US about Curveball's background. He had what is known as a 'burn notice' against him, which indicates an untrustworthy source. Even UN weapons inspector David Kay investigated his claims and found them to be false. Everyone knew - including the-then CIA head George Tenet - that Curveball was a liar.

When Powell infamously made his case for war to the United Nations, Tenet sat behind him to show that he stood behind the claims Powell was making. How is it that Powell did not know what so many knew? I find his sudden demand for an explanation entirely suspect. Thoughts?

Rape, the everlasting gobstopper

As we have all heard by now, CBS journalist Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted in Cairo last week. Not much has been revealed by CBS over the particulars and with good reason. Most outlets have respected CBS' stance on this, but not The New York Post, which instead ran an inflammatory article based on a single anonymous source in which the following allegation is made:

"A network source told The Post that her attackers were screaming, "Jew! Jew!" during the assault. And the day before, Logan had told Esquire.com that Egyptian soldiers hassling her and her crew had accused them of "being Israeli spies." Logan is not Jewish."

Not surprisingly, this account of events has quickly been picked up by the Muslim hating far-right as a talking point to justify more wars against more nations and to justify more violence against more people.

All of this goes too far. All of this is parasitic and ugly - yet more rape of a rape victim. Sadly, all of this is typical too in a society where everything that can be used and re-used for the political is and as such, is divorced from any sense of real-life meaning and consequences. Bloggers sitting at their desks in the US have no concept of reality in Cairo, nor do they much care. New York Post shills might have some concept of what is going on in Egypt, but they are entirely irresponsible as journalists in favor of selling an agenda.

There is a very real tragedy here and it is a very simple narrative: Rape is rape. It does not matter who the victim is. It does not matter who the perpetrator is. It does not matter in what country the rape took place. Rape is a horrific crime suffered by women (and men) the world-over. That is the lesson, although apparently one lost on far too many grown-ups in the United States who are too busy waging a domestic war of ideologies to notice that they have lost their humanity entirely.

The reactions to the attack have also resulted in the usual counter response opinions, blog posts, and so forth. Welcome to our national embarrassment: the everlasting apology for a comment that everyone knows was meant and will continue to be meant, long after the apology is made.

Journalist Nir Rosen used the opportunity to express his bad-taste by opining via a series of Tweets that:

“Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal.” ...

"Yes yes its wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don’t support that. But, it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too.” ...

“Jesus Christ, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major war monger.”

Perhaps not the most sensitive of men, Rosen should have been bitch-slapped by every female member of his family. Instead, Rosen has since apologized and resigned from his fellowship with NYU (after some aggressive pressure from the blogosphere). Were his comments in bad-taste? Yes. Were his comments offensive? To some. Was he lecturing at an NYU classroom when he made these tasteless jokes? No. Was his resignation necessary? No. He has now been obliterated from the planet of course, likely to never be heard from again. But since he cried uncle, that means that politically someone has a scalp. Mind you that his scalp was called for by people on the far right who have consistently defended torture.

Political correctness is all-the-rage and from both the right and the left. It does not matter so much that this woman was raped. All that matters is that one group has a new political cudgel they can use against the other side.

Case in point, the apology being demanded by Media Matters of right-wing blogger Jim Hoft who had this to say about the attack on Logan:

Lara Logan is lucky she’s alive.
Her liberal belief system almost got her killed on Friday. This talented reporter will never be the same.

Why did this attractive blonde female reporter wander into Tahrir Square last Friday? Why would she think this was a good idea? Did she not see the violence in the square the last three weeks? Did she not see the rock throwing? Did she miss the camels? Did her colleagues tell her about the Western journalists who were viciously assaulted on the Square? Did she forget about the taunts from the Egyptian thugs the day before? What was she thinking? Was it her political correctness that about got her killed? Did she think things would be different for her?

Who is Hoft supposed to apologize to and for what? Is he supposed to apologize for being an irrelevant right-wing idiot to Media Matters? He would hardly apologize for that. In asking for his apology, is Media Matters not making him more important than he is? And if he does apologize, will he suddenly change his worldview? No. he would not. What is the point really?

In the real world, all of this means very little.

A woman was sexually assaulted by a group of men. What the rest of the world sees is not a nation standing behind the victim, but countless groups and their politics fighting over the leftovers of a brutal attack in hopes of scoring some irrelevant domestic political points.