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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Libya: Gaddafi's forces 'firing cluster bombs on Misurata'

By Damien McElroy
15 Apr 2011

Col Muammar Gaddafi's army is committing war crimes by indiscriminately firing cluster bombs into the besieged city of Misurata, according to witnesses.

Reports from the city on Friday said the Libyans had used mortar fired shells to disperse multiple bombs in residential areas.

The Geneva Convention 1949 protocol obliges armies to take all care to ensure civilians are not harmed in attacks on the enemy.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, condemned Col Gaddafis brutality toward civilians.

She said: "That is worrying information. And it is one of the reasons the fight in Misurata is so difficult, because it's at close quarters, it's in amongst urban areas and it poses a lot of challenges to both NATO and to the opposition."

Witnesses saw the cluster bombs explode in the overnight offensive. On Friday fragments of the Spanish made MAT-120 cargo mortar, which holds 21 smaller sub-munitions, were found. When scattered over a wide area, the bombs kill indiscriminately. Markings on the fragments show the mortars were made in Spain in 2007, which banned the weapon in 2008.

In a ferocious assault Col Gaddafi's troops killed dozens in Misurata on overnight from Thursday to Friday, including people in a bread queue.

"Last night it was like rain," Hazam Abu Zaid, a local resident who has taken up arms to defend his neighborhood, said, describing alleged cluster bomb drops.

Source: The Telegraph.
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8455041/Libya-Gaddafis-forces-firing-cluster-bombs-on-Misurata.html.

Swiss set to drop sanctions on ex-Libya minister

ZURICH | Fri Apr 15, 2011

(Reuters) - Switzerland is set to remove former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa from its sanctions list, a government spokeswoman said on Friday, following a similar move by the European Union.

In a move by the West to encourage more defections from Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the EU has lifted a freeze on the assets of Koussa, who fled to Britain on March 30. The United States lifted sanctions against him on April 4.

"The Swiss sanctions list will be adapted analogously to that of the EU," Antje Baertschi, spokeswoman for the State Secretariat for Economics (SECO) told Reuters. The SECO oversees the sanctions list.

Switzerland has sought to improve its image as a haven for ill-gotten assets and in February froze assets of 29 Libyans linked to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Relations between Switzerland and Libya have been poor in recent years after Geneva police arrested one of Gaddafi's sons on charges -- later dropped -- of abusing two domestic employees. Libya withdrew millions of dollars from Swiss banks, halted oil exports to Switzerland and barred two Swiss businessmen working in Libya from leaving the country.

(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/15/us-swiss-sanctions-libya-idUSTRE73E6WD20110415.

Muslim Brotherhood to launch TV channel in May

Hany ElWaziry
Fri, 15/04/2011

The Muslim Brotherhood announced plans to launch TV channel "Egypt 25" next month to represent their proposed Freedom and Justice Party. The group also said it plans to move its headquarters from the Manial to Moqattam neighborhood of Cairo.

The Brotherhood plans to launch the channel within two weeks, at which time it will announce the budget for the station, said member Sobhi Saleh.

"We make use of media professionals and experts from within and outside our administrative offices and from within and outside Egypt," said Saad al-Husseini, a member of the group's guidance bureau.

Al-Husseini said the group is checking the opinions of its local councils in various governorates on its party platform, which he said would be announced after the committee responsible for drafting the platform discusses the feedback.

The Muslim Brotherhood said it is waiting for a fair trial for former President Hosni Mubarak, his family, and the officials of the former regime in retribution for the deaths of protesters. A fair trial would prevent future presidents from repeating the 'pharaonic acts' of the old regime and would also help Egypt recover any stolen funds, according to the group.

In a press statement, the group supported activists' decision to suspend Friday protests this week, saying it would give authorities time to conduct investigations into corrupt officials.

The group added in its statement Thursday that people will take to the streets again if their demands are not met.

The Brotherhood also called on all classes to contribute to national production and prove that Egyptians are capable of saving their country from an economic crisis.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/401433.

Spy summit fails to resolve U.S.-Pakistan differences

By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON | Fri Apr 15, 2011

(Reuters) - A summit of spymasters this week eased tensions but failed to resolve issues over U.S. drones and espionage that have imperiled the vital relationship between the CIA and Pakistan's main intelligence agency.

The United States and Pakistan have an uneasy alliance as U.S. soldiers fight the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and the fragile government in Islamabad faces internal threats from Islamist militants and anti-American sentiment.

The case of a CIA contractor who killed two Pakistanis sent anger boiling and threatened the CIA's campaign of aerial drone strikes against militants hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The U.S. spy agency is willing to expand consultations with Pakistan over drone operations, U.S. officials told Reuters after CIA Director Leon Panetta hosted Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

But demands by some Pakistani officials for sharp cuts in drone attacks are unacceptable, the officials said, as are suggestions the United States should return to a Bush-era policy limiting the strikes to "high-value" militant targets.

"Panetta has an obligation to protect the American people and he isn't going to call an end to any operations that support that objective," one U.S. official said.

Despite public protestations by Islamabad about the drone strikes, Pakistan hopes the United States will move ahead with long-stalled plans to supply a fleet of the remotely piloted aircraft, according to a source familiar with its wish-list.

U.S. officials also worry that Islamabad has been slowing routine rotations of American personnel, including spies, diplomats and military trainers, which could become a serious drag on routine and secret U.S. activities in the region.

The issue of U.S. personnel levels in Pakistan -- a Muslim nation with nuclear arms and a history of conflict with India -- was discussed during Pasha's visit, one U.S. official said.

GOOD RAPPORT

The meeting between Panetta and Pasha was a relatively brief but the CIA said it was productive.

"We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and we work through concerns when they arise," CIA spokesman George Little said. "That's the nature of a solid partnership."

Privately, officials said the meeting showed an improvement in relations from earlier this year, when U.S. authorities were enraged by the jailing of CIA contractor Raymond Davis after he shot two Pakistani men who he said were trying to rob him.

Davis, who Washington said should have been given diplomatic immunity, was released after compensation was paid to the families of the men he killed.

In the wake of the case, media reports quoted Pakistani intelligence sources as saying the ISI wanted drastic concessions from Washington.

But U.S. officials said many of the sharpest demands floated by the Pakistani sources were never raised by Pasha and that he and Panetta have a good personal rapport.

Some U.S. officials say Pakistan's recent vitriol about CIA activities may be largely posturing -- a ploy to extract more financial and military aid from the United States. But the issue of drones remains a sore point.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, when the administration of President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to use drones to kill suspected militants, the rules of engagement were tight.

The CIA was allowed to fire drone-borne missiles only if it was confident of the whereabouts of a senior militant. Under those rules, drone strikes were rare and, according to Pakistani sources, routinely cleared in advance.

In the summer of 2008, Bush relaxed the rules. Potential targets were expanded to include suspected encampments of "foreign fighters" -- a broad and elastic category -- and the pace of drone strikes increased sharply.

After Barack Obama became president in January 2009, he stepped up drone strikes further. Under Obama's current policy, the source said, drone strikes are not cleared with Pakistan.

DRONES AND DELAYS

Before Pasha's meeting with Panetta, a person familiar with Pakistan's position said the Pakistanis wanted to return to the policy of supposedly having drone attacks fully cleared in advance.

After this week's meeting, U.S. officials said the CIA's willingness to increase "consultation" did not mean the United States had agreed to clear every drone strike with Pakistan.

U.S. officials said the Unite States was not interested in getting clearance for drone attacks. It was unclear whether Pasha raised that issue with Panetta.

The Davis case brought to the surface apparent anger in Pakistan that the CIA was sending operatives into the country without notifying the ISI.

News reports before the Pasha-Panetta meeting said some Pakistani officials believed as many as 300 undeclared CIA operatives may be in Pakistan. A source close to the government in Islamabad told Reuters his estimate was closer to 35.

U.S. officials say, in recent months, Pakistani authorities have used delays in issuing visas to slow the rotation into Pakistan of CIA operatives, U.S. military trainers -- believed to number around 120 -- and State Department diplomats.

If the visa delays continue, one U.S. official said, eventually they could cut into the numbers of U.S. personnel conducting critical counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan.

But so far, a second U.S. official said, the visa delays are not degrading U.S. operations.

(Additional reporting Missy Ryan and Phil Stewart in Washington and Christopher Allbritton in Pakistan; Editing by John O'Callaghan and Bill Trott)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/15/us-pakistan-usa-spies-idUSTRE73E73E20110415.