Arab Spring an 'intel disaster' for West

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The Arab Spring has been "an intelligence disaster" for Western security services because of the fall of Middle Eastern leaders working with the United States and Europe, says a former Central Intelligence Agency chief.

"The help we were getting from the Egyptian intelligence service, less so from the Tunisians but certainly from the Libyans and Lebanese, has dried up -- either because of resentment at our governments stabbing their political leaders in the back, or because those who worked for the services have taken off in fear of being incarcerated or worse," said Michal Scheuer, who headed the CIA unit tasked with hunting down Osama bin Laden.

First and foremost, he says, is the loss of the so-called black rendition system the CIA launched after Sept. 11, 2001.

That involved the agency secretly flying captured terrorist suspects to Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and other Arab states for interrogation by their intelligence services, which frequently involved torture, rather than engaging in the legal niceties required for prosecutions in courts of law.

This murky operation allowed Western agencies, under scrutiny to one degree or another by their countries' legislatures, to claim they were not involved in nefarious or illegal activities while securing the "product" they need to counter terrorism.

Scores, probably hundreds, of suspects were thrust into the hands of Arab intelligence services that human rights organizations accuse of using systematic torture on political prisoners.

Western intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, garnered much invaluable information on al-Qaida and its allies and what they were plotting through the cooperation of friendly regimes across the Middle East.

The wave of pro-democracy uprisings across the Arab world, which are still in progress, was "an intelligence disaster for the U.S. and for Britain and other European services," Scheuer said while attending the Edinburgh international book festival.

The author of several books, including "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror" in 2004, Scheuer spent 22 years in the CIA and headed Alec Station, the unit tasked with tracking bin Laden, in 1996-99.

He teaches peace and security affairs at Georgetown University in Washington.

"The amount of work that has devolved on U.S. and British services is enormous, and the result is blindness in our ability to watch what's going on among militants," he said.

"The rendition program must come back -- the people we have in custody now are pretty long in the tooth in terms of the information they can provide in interrogations."

With the fall of Tunisian President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali Jan. 14 and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt Feb. 11, and even the collapse of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi in recent days, Western agencies found themselves cut off from a flow of vital intelligence on a global foe.

For 20 years, U.S. intelligence has relied on Mubarak's massive intelligence apparatus. The Cairo regime had fought and crushed Islamist militants for two decades but released hundreds of jihadist prisoners when Mubarak fell.

Mubarak's longtime intelligence chief, Gen. Omar Suleimani, was cut out of the loop after the president was forced from office. CIA sources say his successors are not so enthusiastic about helping Washington as he was.

In part that's because U.S. President Barak Obama abandoned Mubarak to the mob, a fear that now pervades other Arab allies.

That's particularly true in Saudi Arabia, which along with Jordan has one of the most effective intelligence services in the Middle East.

Although Gadhafi was branded a sponsor of international terrorism throughout the 1970s and '80s, in recent years his intelligence services had forged close links with their U.S. and European counterparts.

Gadhafi's veteran spymaster, Moussa Koussa, defected to Britain in March. Koussa, who headed the foreign intelligence organization, had played a key role in convincing the West to rehabilitate Gadhafi after he abandoned his secret nuclear program in 2003.

Qatar-based Aljazeera television reported Aug. 23 that another Libyan intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, Gadhafi's brother-in-law who was convicted in absentia in Paris of bombing a French airliner over Niger in 1989, had been killed.

The protracted upheaval in Yemen, the stomping ground of one of al-Qaida's most active groups, and the threat to longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh have seriously disrupted CIA efforts there.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/30/Arab-Spring-an-intel-disaster-for-West/UPI-78611314719813/.

Slavery in Thailand spreading

BANGKOK, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Human trafficking in Cambodia and Thailand is no longer limited to women and children, a Cambodian rights activist said.

Poor formers in Cambodia are convinced to leave home on the promise of better work in Thailand. Many are finding themselves on long-haul trawlers in the South China Sea and forced to work against their will.

"It's slavery. There's no other way to describe it," Lim Tith, national project coordinator for the U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN.

Exploitation is spreading beyond Cambodia and Thailand to Malaysia and Indonesian waters, with 25 men reportedly in slave-like conditions documented regionally this year.

"It's not just women and children anymore," San Arun, chairwoman of the Cambodian Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking taskforce, told IRIN.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the U.N. special envoy on human trafficking, said following a tour of Thailand that the country needs to do more to address demands for exploitative labor, a root cause of human trafficking.

Ezeilo testified from Bangkok that the number of people trafficked for forced labor in the agriculture, construction and fishing industries is growing in scale.

"Root causes of trafficking, particularly demands for cheap and exploitative labor provided by migrant workers, are not being effectively addressed," she said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/29/Slavery-in-Thailand-spreading/UPI-40171314630716/.

Corruption Turning Afghan Prisons Into Taliban Bases

By Joshua Philipp
August 29, 2011

Cell Block 3 was in flames as prison riots continued in the next block over. The Taliban had grown too powerful, and the confinements of Afghanistan’s Pol-e-charki prison became little more than protective walls rendering them untouchable from the war raging outside.

The December 2008 riots at Pol-e-charki prison on the outskirts of Kabul served as a wake-up call to the severity of the corruption that had crept in through padded pockets and turning blind eyes. Captured Taliban commanders and radicalized prisoners had formed an operating center within Cell Block 3—armed with weapons, and with their own Shura Council to hold trials, vote, and eliminate those who refused to cooperate.

“The guards were not even allowed to go down into the cell block because they would be killed or kidnapped—I mean, its the Wild West out there,” said Drew Berquist, a former U.S. intelligence agent and author of “The Maverick Experiment,” in a phone interview.

Attention fell on the prison after the riots, and rebuilding efforts became focused on increasing security. This included eliminating cells for large groups, and replacing them with cells for smaller groups of between two and eight.

“You had a prison that was run by the Afghan government, but really, entire facilities within that prison were being used as training and education grounds for insurgent elements,” said Drew Quinn, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs director at the U.S. Embassy Kabul, on the NATO Channel in Nov. 2009.

Resolving such issues is no simple matter, and the battle behind prison walls continues to this day.

A rare news conference in Kabul, held by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security intelligence service in February, highlighted the breadth of the problem—noting that despite efforts to root out operations at Pul-e-Charkhi, it is still going strong.

Taliban commander Talib Jan, a prisoner at Pul-e-Charkhi, is one of the more extreme cases. He organizes suicide bombings across Kabul from within his cell—including the Jan. 28 suicide bombing of a supermarket that killed 14 people.

“Most of the terrorist and suicide attacks in Kabul were planned from inside this prison by this man,” said National Directorate of Security spokesman, Lutfullah Mashal, at the conference, New York Times reported.

The problem, according to Berquist, runs deep.

“The prison systems are corrupt,” Berquist said. “The safest place for the Taliban is the prisons because they can’t get caught again.”

Prisoners often use cell phones to communicate with, and give commands to, insurgents operating outside. Meanwhile, since captured Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders from across the country are at times detained together, the prisons give them an otherwise nonexistent opportunity to network and coordinate—since they are wary of gathering too many leaders in one place outside the prisons for fear of attack by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or special operations raids.

“The culture becomes so tough to break because these guys become so powerful within the prison,” Berquist said, adding that when they try to dismantle networks by moving prisoners to different cells, “they meet additional people and all it does is end up expanding things.”

A Corrupt System

Pol-e-charki is haunted by significant infamy, even for Afghanistan—its Soviet past of violence, terror, and political turmoil has been reanimated to face a new war. Impassible roads through communities supportive of the insurgents lead to its gates, while the now empty mass graves of political prisoners nearby stand as painful reminders of the prison’s Soviet founders in the late 1970s.

The problem is not limited to Pol-e-charki, however, as other Afghan prisons have met with similar problems.

The April 25 Taliban “Great Escape” at Saraposa prison in Kandahar dealt a blow to the image of Afghan prison security, when 500 inmates escaped through a 1,000-foot-long tunnel, and with the help of corrupt guards.

The incident happened after Saraposa was revamped, similar to Pol-e-charki, after a 2008 attack on the prison that freed 900 inmates in broad daylight. The whole area was known for corruption, with “assassinations of investigators, bribery of prosecutors, intimidation of justices, and attacks upon witnesses” that “obscured both evidence and law,” stated Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins in a Feb. 10 Department of Defense video conference, according to the Pentagon transcript.

Illegal use of cell phones by prisoners is one of the key problems, since they act as enablers for commanding troops outside, and efforts to take their phones have met with little success. “Most of them operate either with their own phones smuggled in, or they pay corrupt guards to use their phones to call not just people inside the prison, but also to other people in Afghanistan, and across the border into Pakistan,” Berquist said.

Meanwhile, non-insurgents going into the prisons can be thrown into a cycle of radicalization through Taliban and al-Qaeda members inside. Prisoners arrested for more extreme crimes also rarely serve their full sentences, which becomes a problem since “they start to get street cred having been in prison, when they get out,” Berquist said, “You get guys who become more extreme in prison then come out as a much bigger problem than when they went in.”

He added that, “because of how corrupt the system is, people frequently do get out because there are a lot of dirty parliamentarians and other government officials who take bribes.”

The flow of corruption into Afghan prisons is difficult to put a cap on.

“If you didn’t go in dirty there’s a reasonable chance you’re going to turn dirty because you’re going to get frustrated by how monotonous and how difficult it is to be in those positions, and just how tough life is there,” Berquist said. “Eventually that money starts to sound good, and it’s a slippery slope once you do that.”

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/corruption-turning-afghan-prisons-into-taliban-bases-60910-all.html.

TNC seeks extradition of Gaddafi family

Tue Aug 30, 2011

Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) has demanded the extradition of fugitive Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's wife and three of his sons from Algeria, where they earlier fled to.

Mahmoud Shammam, the TNC's Information Minister, said on Tuesday that Algeria's decision to accept members of the Gaddafi family was an “aggressive act against the Libyan people's wish,” Reuters reported.

"We are warning anybody not to shelter Gaddafi and his sons. We are going after them … to find them and arrest them," Shammam added.

He noted that TNC would formally demand their extradition and make arrangements to ensure their fair trial in Libya.

"We have promised to provide a just trial to all those criminals,” the official noted, adding that the Libyan council considers Algeria's move to give refuge to the Gaddafi family members “an act of aggression."

The developments come after Algerian foreign ministry confirmed the fleeing family arrived in Algeria on Monday.

"Muammar Gaddafi's wife Safia, his daughter Aisha, his sons Hannibal and Muhammed, accompanied by their children, entered Algeria at 8:45 am (0745 GMT) through the Algerian-Libyan border," the Algerian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Libyan opposition officials announced on Monday that Gaddafi's son Khamis was killed in a battle near Libya's capital Tripoli and buried in the western city of Ziltan.

Opposition fighters want to capture the country's fugitive dictator and his associates so they can proclaim final victory in the six-month-old uprising.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196521.html.

Algeria defends sheltering Gaddafis

Tue Aug 30, 2011

Algeria's UN envoy Mourad Benmehidi has defended his country's decision to give refuge to family members of Libya's fugitive ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

In an interview with the state-run BBC on Tuesday, Benmehidi described the move as "the holy rule of hospitality."

He made the remarks after opposition forces demanded Algeria to return Gaddafi's wife and daughter, along with two of his sons Muhammed and Hanibal.

The opposition called the move an "act of aggression against the Libyan people."

On Monday, Algeria announced that several members of Gaddafi's family had crossed into its territory at 08:45 local time (0745 GMT).

Meanwhile, clashes between opposition forces and troops loyal to Gaddafi are underway near the fugitive ruler's hometown of Sirte, which is one of the last areas still under control of loyalists.

Chairman of the Transitional National Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil on Tuesday gave an ultimatum to pro-Gaddafi troops to surrender until Saturday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196522.html

'Gaza convoy foils Israeli blockade'

Mon Aug 29, 2011

Interview with Sheikh Walid El Saadi, leader of the Africa to Gaza Aid Convoy, from Gaza.

The Africa to Gaza Aid Convoy has bypassed the Israeli blockade and reached the Gaza Strip where they are giving aid and supplies to the oppressed Palestinians.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Sheikh Walid El Saadi, leader of the Africa to Gaza Aid Convoy, tells us about his 60-day journey across rough African terrain to reach the impoverished Palestinians in Gaza.

Press TV: You arrived in yet another difficult time for Gaza, but can you tell me the feeling for your African convoy about being there now?

El Saadi: Indeed. Successfully yesterday, thanks God, we arrived in Gaza last night after a long journey. Sixty days driving from the city of Durban in South Africa right through Africa to Al Arish, to Egypt where we had a little bit of difficulty to cross last night because it was late and Gaza wasn't safe - they said it was being bombed. But we insisted that we will come inside Gaza, yesterday, even if the Israelis are bombing.

It was ten o'clock in the evening that we were in Gaza, thanks God, and the Gaza people received us in such a way that you cannot believe it. Our hearts were crying. Happiness by entering Gaza, successfully, completing our mission which started on June 26 and ended on August 26, today. Sixty days on the road.

It's a good feeling for my team, the 20 of us, and the team who joined us from Sudan, also, the 16 of them. So, we were 36 members in the convoy, all of us shouting “God is Great”, “Praise to God”, “Glorious is God,” honor us to enter Gaza after 60 days of driving through Africa, the most challenging roads, and to deliver the aid which we were carrying.

But the most important part of our trip was to conscientize Africa about what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in Palestine, the Holy Land.

Press TV: What is your aim now that you're there for the 36 of you? Are you staying with families there? Do you have some specific activities you hope to do in Gaza?

El Saadi: Sure. Today, because it's a Friday, we have met most of the organization leaders and we have Friday Jummah Salat [prayers]. And this evening is a big night, as you know, which is the 27th day of Ramadan.

From today until the last day of Ramadan, everyday in Ramadan, we'll have three tables of Iftar, each table with 300 people. We're going to split up, the 36 of us, to three groups with every group in a different table of Iftar.

Then we will have aid baskets distributed, about 2,500 of them. Then we will distribute the aid which we've been carrying with us which is medicine, wheelchairs, medical mattresses, milk powder for children, sweets for children, stationary, seven of our ambulances, and three trucks to give to the municipality of Gaza, God willing.

We hope to have the Eid celebration with the people of Gaza, it would be a pleasure to have it, God willing, but it depends on how the program will go.

Press TV: We wish you safety and congratulate you on a successful mission. I know that you'll be looked after well by the people of Gaza. Thank you very much.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/196296.html.

Daughter Gadhafi said was dead apparently lives

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI - Associated Press
Tue, Aug 30, 2011

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Since the rebel takeover of Tripoli, evidence has been mounting that Moammar Gadhafi may have lied about the death of his adopted baby daughter Hana in a 1986 U.S. airstrike.

The strike hit Gadhafi's home in his Tripoli compound, Bab al-Aziziya, in retaliation for the Libyan-sponsored bombing of a Berlin nightclub earlier that year that killed two U.S. servicemen. At the time, Gadhafi showed American journalists a picture of a dead baby and said it was his adopted daughter Hana — the first public mention that she even existed.

Diplomats almost immediately questioned the claim. But Gadhafi kept the story alive through the years.

Then, when investigations into the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, pointed to a Libyan hand in the attack, some theorized that Gadhafi had ordered it to avenge Hana's death in the U.S. airstrike.

But when Libyan rebels took over Tripoli and Bab al-Aziziya last week, they found a room in Gadhafi's home with Hana's birth certificate and pictures of a young woman with the name "Hana" written on the back, possible indications that she lived well beyond infancy. A Tripoli hospital official surfaced, saying Hana worked for him as a surgeon up until the rebels came to town.

And on Tuesday, Swiss officials confirmed that Hana's name had briefly appeared earlier this year on a Swiss government document listing the names of senior Libyan figures targeted for sanctions.

Many Libyans believe Hana was never killed and talked about her existence openly.

Adel Shaltut, a Libyan diplomat at the U.N. in Geneva, said it was common knowledge that Hana Gadhafi wasn't killed in the airstrike.

"All Libyans knew from the very beginning that it's a lie," he told The Associated Press, saying that Hana was married and had children.

However, some in Libya believed that after Hana's death, Gadhafi adopted another daughter and gave her the same name in a memorial tribute.

Adding to the mystery, two AP photographs from the 1990s show an adolescent girl identified in captions as Gadhafi's daughter Hana. In one of them from 1999, she is standing next to South African President Nelson Mandela, with his arm around her, during a family visit to Cape Town. Gadhafi's only biological daughter, Aisha, stands on Mandela's other side and Gadhafi's wife Safiya is next to the girl identified as Hana.

In another AP photo from 1996, Gadhafi is seen wiping the face of a girl identified in the caption as his daughter Hana Gadhafi.

Despite these sightings of Hana, in 2006 Gadhafi organized an event called the "Hana Festival for Freedom and Peace" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. Performers reportedly included Lionel Richie and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras.

Last week, after rebels stormed the Bab al-Aziziya compound where Gadhafi and family members lived, journalists saw a room in his home filled with stuffed animals, photos of a young woman with the name "Hana" written on the back in Arabic and a birth certificate of "Hana Gadhafi."

Rebels touring the room told reporters that everyone in Libya knew that the daughter who the world thought was dead was, in fact, alive.

Hana's current whereabouts are unknown. Her mother, sister Aisha and two brothers fled to Algeria on Monday, with their spouses and children. She was not identified among those who had left the country. Her father and brother Seif al-Islam, once the heir apparent to rule Libya, are believed to still be in Libya.

Gassem Baruni, head of the Tripoli Medical Center, said Hana worked for him as a surgeon before she disappeared Friday.

"She was very tense and nervous as soon as the revolution started," Baruni told the AP. "She told me not to treat the rebels, but I told her: 'If we don't treat everyone, it would be a crime.'"

The doctor said he used her influence to stock up the hospital with supplies and medicine, keeping the fact he was coordinating with rebels secret from her.

"I pretended that we needed the stuff to treat the Gadhafi troops," Baruni said.

The British Council confirmed that someone named Hana Gadhafi studied English at the British Council in Tripoli in 2007, and again in 2009.

"We can confirm that a student by the name of Hana Gadhafi did study English with us in Libya. However, we don't have access to any documents as we don't have access to our Tripoli office, which we had to leave earlier this year," a spokesman told the AP. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with council policy.

"Our country director in Libya did query this, given reports of Hana Gadhafi's death," he said.

"The widely held belief in Libya at the time was that this was a different daughter, adopted by Col. Gadhafi after Hana's death, and given the same name as a tribute. This is, in fact, a common practice in Libya as a memorial to a dead child."

A Swiss government document earlier this year listed the names of senior Libyan figures who were to be targeted for sanctions briefly included Hana Gadhafi's name, but it was quickly removed, Swiss officials said Tuesday. They were responding to questions by the AP.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Adrian Sollberger, said the list was revised to conform with sanctions imposed by the United Nations. He declined to say why someone with the name Hana Gadhafi had featured on the original sanctions list, and whether Switzerland had evidence the Libyan leader's daughter was alive.

Libyans said Gadhafi wanted to drum up sympathy for himself and hatred toward the west by claiming Hana was killed in 1986 and Gadhafi's son Seif al-Arab was killed in May during a NATO airstrike.

Mohammed Ammar, a Tripoli resident who said his cousin graduated with Hana from medical school last year, was among those who believe the death of Hana was a myth.

"It is not surprising he would lie about his own child's death," he said. "He is capable of killing a whole population, why not his own child?"

____

Associated Press reporters Jill Lawless in London and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.

Israel sends 2 warships to Egyptian border

August 30, 2011 — JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel sent two more warships to the Red Sea border with Egypt, the military said Tuesday, part of a military reinforcement there following warnings that militants are planning another attack on southern Israel from Egyptian soil.

Earlier this week, Israel's military ordered more troops to the border area following intelligence reports of an impending attack, days after militants crossed into Israel through the Egyptian border and killed eight Israelis in a brazen attack that touched off a wave of violence between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip.

Relative calm has returned, but Israel has remained on alert since the deadly Aug. 18 raid, closing roads near the border and warning citizens against traveling to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, a popular vacation destination for Israelis.

Israel's Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai said Tuesday that militants from the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad were in Sinai, waiting to strike. "The Palestinian Islamic Jihad wants to carry out a terror attack along the Egyptian border," Vilnai told reporters. "The Egyptian border is absolutely porous. We have known this for many years."

The attack this month sparked calls to increase security on both sides of the frontier and created new tensions between Israel and Egypt, which have maintained cool relations since signing a 1979 peace treaty. The violence shattered the usual sense of calm that has held for decades along the border, though there have been sporadic attacks in Sinai.

Beyond announcing that two more warships were patrolling the border area, the military would give no further details. Israel has a permanent naval presence with a base in Eilat, at the northern tip of the Red Sea on the Egyptian border. The Israeli military would not disclose the number of warships usually positioned on its maritime border with Egypt or from where the two extra ships were sent.

Access for ships to the Eilat naval base from the rest of Israel is possible only through Egypt's Suez Canal. Egyptian officials there were not immediately available for comment. No changes in security alignments have been observed on the Egyptian side of the border in the last two weeks. Earlier this month, the Egyptian government dispatched thousands of additional troops to Sinai as part of a major operation against al-Qaida inspired militants who have been increasingly active since longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February.

Violent protests signal power struggle in SAfrica

August 30, 2011 — JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Violent protests Tuesday by supporters of South Africa's firebrand youth leader are the latest political salvo in a power struggle that could determine the future of South Africa's president and the man who helped catapult him to power, youth league chief Julius Malema.

Demonstrators burned flags of the ruling African National Congress and ran through the streets of downtown Johannesburg holding up flaming T-shirts bearing the image of President Jacob Zuma. "Zuma must go!" they chanted.

When the protesters began lobbing stones and bottles, police detonated stun grenades and turned water cannons on the crowd of thousands. Later, they fired rubber bullets to get protesters off the roof of an armored car.

The focus for Tuesday's demonstration was the start of a disciplinary hearing for Malema and five other youth league officers accused of bringing the ANC into disrepute with their calls for the ouster of the democratic government of neighboring Botswana. They face expulsion or suspension from the party.

Analysts say the hearing is a pretext to confront the growing power of Malema, who has mobilized disillusioned and unemployed youth with demands that the government nationalize the wealthy mining sector and appropriate white-owned farm land for black peasants.

Malema, 30, says that is the only way to address growing inequality and poverty in Africa's richest nation and better distribute wealth that remains firmly entrenched in the minority white community and among a few thousand blacks who have grown wealthy mainly off government contracts.

Malema indicated Monday that he too believed that was the real issue, telling reporters that "This (disciplinary hearing) does not delay our economic struggle. We see this as a setback for the revolution we are pursuing. We will continue to push for economic freedom in our lifetime."

On Tuesday, he emerged from the hearing to appeal to thousands of cheering militants for a peaceful protest and to chastise them for burning the party flag and T-shirts. He urged them to respect the ANC and its leaders.

"You are here because you love the ANC. We must exercise restraint," he said. "We cannot burn ourselves." The cheers turned to a roar when Malema insisted that the ANC youth league speaks "for the poorest of the poor" and will pursue a "radical and militant" revolution that also must be peaceful.

The disciplinary hearing that began Tuesday and could last for days is a response to the youth league's announcement last month that it would send a committee to work with opposition parties in Botswana against democratically elected President Ian Khama. They accused Khama of cooperating with "imperialists" and undermining "the African agenda" in Libya's revolution.

Malema said the youth league would help bring "regime change" in Botswana. This embarrassed Zuma and other party officials who have been leading African condemnation of the United States, Britain and France for allegedly abusing a U.N. resolution to effect regime change in Libya.

The support of Malema and his youth league was instrumental in getting Zuma elected party president in December 2007 and unceremoniously ousting former President Thabo Mbeki. Protesting youth leaguers Tuesday threatened to do the same to Zuma at the 2012 ANC congress.

"In 2012 we are voting Mbalula," they chanted, referring to former youth league president and current Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula. Whoever wins the party presidency gets to run for president. The ANC remains unchallenged politically in the country.

Party leaders have condemned Malema in the past for his divisive tactics, including the singing of a racist song calling for people to "kill the boer," or white farmer. In May, the party disciplinary committee fined Malema and ordered him to apologize for sowing discord in the party and undermining Zuma's authority.

Critics accuse Malema of being an opportunist. They point to the massive mansion he is building in Johannesburg's luxury Sandton suburb and allegations of corruption. His supporters say those charges are trumped up.

The police and public prosecutor announced this month that they are undertaking a formal investigation into Malema's business dealings.

AP Television cameraman Nqobile Ntshangase contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

Nigerian-built satellite acquires first image just days after launch

Guildford UK (SPX)
Aug 30, 2011

The Nigerian-built satellite, NigeriaSat-X, has acquired its first satellite image just three days after the successful launch on 17th August.

Revealing buildings and the landscape surrounding the city of Auckland, New Zealand, this image demonstrates that the satellite's enhanced 22m wide-area multi-spectral imagery for mapping, agricultural monitoring and disaster relief programs works well.

NigeriaSat-X was built by engineers from Nigeria's National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) under the supervision of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL).

The new generation of Nigerian scientists and engineers trained up under the NigeriaSat-X project will continue to support Nigeria's space program, ensuring its continued success and sustainability. In total, 26 Nigerian engineers were located at SSTL's facilities in Guildford for 18 months throughout the design and test phases.

Currently two joint NASRDA-SSTL teams are working in parallel in Abuja and Guildford to commission NigeriaSat-X and NigeriaSat-2, which was launched at the same time.

After the initial commissioning phase is complete, the NASRDA team in Guildford will return to Nigeria to continue NigeriaSat-X operations from the Abuja ground station.

SSTL Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting, commented, "NigeriaSat-X is the product of Nigeria's training and development program here at Surrey. It is a great credit to NASRDA and their engineers that this satellite is performing well and its operations are progressing so quickly.

These highly skilled engineers will not only help Nigeria to manage its resources, but also bootstrap its fledgling high tech economy alongside a growing nucleus of highly trained people."

The launch of NigeriaSat-X adds a third 22m imager to the seven-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation that is coordinated by DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) to provide governmental and commercial imaging campaigns.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Nigerian_built_satellite_acquires_first_image_just_days_after_launch_999.html.

Lost Russian satellite poses threat to space navigation

Moscow (XNA)
Aug 30, 2011

The Russian heavy satellite Express-AM4 lost on Aug. 18 might pose a threat to other space vehicles, local media reported Friday.

Citing a source in the space industry, Interfex news agency said the Express-AM4 "will stay on its orbit for years or even for decades."

The Express-AM4 may collide with other telecommunication satellites from Glonass and GPS groups as well as with the Globalstar and Iridium satellites, the source said.

However, the source stressed the lost satellite posed no danger to the International Space Station (ISS) because it had been placed on a higher orbit with the minimum distance from the Earth of 696 km.

Russia's space monitoring system, a subdivision of the Space Forces, is working with the U.S. United Space Operations Center to locate the Express-AM4 positions before further launches of new space vehicles, the source said.

Russian Space Forces have little hope of regaining control of the Express-AM4 because its batteries were discharged soon after it separated from its booster, the source said.

On Aug. 18, a Proton-M carrier rocket failed to deliver communication satellite to its correct orbit.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Lost_Russian_satellite_poses_threat_to_space_navigation_999.html.

Filling the pantry for the first voyages to the Red Planet

Denver CO (SPX)
Aug 30, 2011

A green thumb and a little flair as a gourmet chef may be among the key skills for the first men and women who travel to the Red Planet later this century, according to a scientist who reported here on preparations for the first manned missions to Mars.

Speaking at the 242nd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Maya R. Cooper said that provisioning the astronauts with food stands as one of the greatest challenges in scripting the first manned mission to Mars.

ACS, the world largest scientific society, opened the meeting at the Colorado Convention Center and downtown hotels. With more than 7,500 reports on new advances in science and some 9,500 scientists and others expected in attendance, it will be one of 2011's largest scientific gatherings.

Cooper explained that the challenges of provisioning space vehicles and Martian surface bases begin with tangible factors, such weight and nutrition, and encompass psychological nuances, such as providing a varied, tasty menu that wards off boredom.

The solutions envisioned now include requiring astronauts to grow some of their own food and engage in much more food preparation than their counterparts on the International Space Station.

The major challenge is to balance weight, food acceptability and resource utilization, Cooper explained. She is a senior research scientist at the NASA Johnson Space Center in the Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston, Texas. For flights on the space shuttles and the International Space Station, astronauts get 3.8 pounds of food per day. For a 5-year round-trip mission to Mars, that would mean almost 7,000 pounds of food per person.

"That's a clear impediment to a lot of mission scenarios," Cooper said.

"We need new approaches. Right now, we are looking at the possibility of implementing a bioregenerative system that would involve growing crops in space and possibly shipping some bulk commodities to a Mars habitat as well. This scenario involves much more food processing and meal preparation than the current food system developed for the space shuttles and the International Space Station."

Bioregenerative systems involve growing plants that multi-task. They would supply food, of course. But just as plants do in natural environments on Earth, those growing in bioregenerative systems also would release oxygen for the astronauts to breathe, purify the air by removing the carbon dioxide that crews exhale and even purify water.

Ideally, these plants would have few inedible parts, would grow well with minimal tending and would not take up much room. Ten crops that fit those requirements have emerged as prime candidates for the Mars mission's kitchen garden. They are lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, green onions, radishes, bell peppers, strawberries, fresh herbs and cabbages.

Cooper cited another option for these missions, the first of which could launch in the 2030s, according to some forecasts. Shipping bulk commodities to Mars could involve unmanned spacecraft launched a year or two before the astronauts depart to establish stashes of food with long shelf-lives that the crew could use while exploring the Red Planet.

Engaging astronauts in food production and preparation is the latest concept in a 50-year evolution of technology for filling astronauts' and cosmonauts' larders, Cooper noted. It began when Yuri Gagarin reportedly munched on pate and caviar during that first manned spaceflight in 1961.

Space food has come a long way since the days of freeze-dried food blocks and squeezing gooey foods out of toothpaste tubes that astronauts ate in the earliest days of space flight. By the late 1960s, astronauts for the first time could have hot food and eat their food with a spoon in a special bowl. Other utensils were introduced in the 1970s with Skylab - the U.S.' first space station.

These astronauts could choose from 72 different foods, some of which were stored in an on-board refrigerator or freezer - a first for space cuisine.

In recent years, space shuttle astronauts could drink a coffee with their scrambled eggs for breakfast, snack on chocolates or a brownie and choose from chicken al a King, mushroom soup or rice pilaf among other foods for lunch and dinner - just like on Earth. These prepackaged foods take only a few minutes and little effort to prepare.

"The NASA Advanced Food Technology project is currently working to address the issues of food variety, weight, volume, nutrition and trash disposal through research and external academic and commercial collaborations," Cooper noted.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Filling_the_pantry_for_the_first_voyages_to_the_Red_Planet_999.html.

Oceans of energy to power a planetary civilization

Urbana IL (SPX)
Aug 30, 2011

University of Illinois scientists have engineered a new strain of yeast that converts seaweed into biofuel in half the time it took just months ago. That's a process that's important outside the Corn Belt, said Yong-Su Jin, a University of Illinois assistant professor of microbial genomics and a faculty member in its Institute for Genomic Biology.

"The key is the strain's ability to ferment cellobiose and galactose simultaneously, which makes the process much more efficient," Jin said.

Red seaweed, hydrolyzed for its fermentable sugars, yields glucose and galactose. But yeast prefers glucose and won't consume galactose until glucose is gone, which adds considerable time to the process, he said.

The new procedure hydrolyzes cellulose into cellobiose, a dimeric form of glucose, then exploits a newly engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae capable of fermenting cellobiose and galactose simultaneously.

The team introduced a new sugar transporter and enzyme that breaks down cellobiose at the intracellular level. The result is a yeast that consumes cellobiose and galactose in equal amounts at the same time, cutting the production time of biofuel from marine biomass in half, he said.

The research, performed with project funding from the Energy Biosciences Institute, included team members Suk-Jin Ha, Qiaosi Wei, and Soo Rin Kim of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Jonathan M. Galazka and Jamie Cate of the University of California, Berkeley.

Jin compared the previous process to a person taking first a bite of a cheeseburger, then a bite of pickle. The process that uses the new strain puts the pickle in the cheeseburger sandwich so both foods are consumed at the same time.

Co-fermenting the two sugars also makes for a healthier yeast cell, he said.

"It's a faster, superior process. Our view is that this discovery greatly enhances the economic viability of marine biofuels and gives us a better product," he added.

Is seaweed a viable biofuel? Jin and his colleagues are using a red variety (Gelidium amansii) that is abundant on the coastlines of Southeast Asia. In island or peninsular nations that don't have room to grow other biofuel crops, using seaweed as a source of biofuels just makes good sense, he noted.

But biofuels made from marine biomass also have some advantages over fuels made from other biomass crops, he said.

"Producers of terrestrial biofuels have had difficulty breaking down recalcitrant fibers and extracting fermentable sugars. The harsh pretreatment processes used to release the sugars also result in toxic byproducts, inhibiting subsequent microbial fermentation," he said.

Jin cited two other reasons for use of seaweed biofuels. Production yields of marine plant biomass per unit area are much higher than those of terrestrial biomass. And rate of carbon dioxide fixation is much higher in marine biomass, making it an appealing option for sequestration and recycling of carbon dioxide.

Source: Bio-fuel Daily.
Link: http://www.biofueldaily.com/reports/Turning_seaweed_into_biofuel_in_half_the_time_999.html.

Rebel leader sentenced to hang in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A rebel leader was sentenced to death by a Sudanese court for his role in fighting against Sudanese forces in South Kordofan, a judge said.

A judge in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan state, sentenced Al-Tom Hamed after Hamed was convicted on charges of undermining the constitution and "stirring up war," the state-run Sudan News Agency reports.

The rebel leader was captured by Sudanese forces following a raid by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement against military forces in South Kordofan.

The state news agency identified Hamed as JEM's political representative in the Nuba Mountains. He denied playing a role in attacks in the southern state.

Conflict erupted in June following attempts to disarm ethnic Nuban fighters along the border between Sudan and South Sudan. Khartoum denies allegations that it was involved in an ethnic cleansing campaign in the region.

A report from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documents serious rights violations near the Nuba Mountains in the region. The report accuses the north's armed forces and the south's army of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other atrocities.

The Sudanese ambassador said the United Nations should wait to discuss the matter until Khartoum conducts its own investigation into the claims.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/29/Rebel-leader-sentenced-to-hang-in-Sudan/UPI-58101314630950/.

Syrian activists warn against taking up arms

August 29, 2011 — BEIRUT (AP) — Syrians should not take up arms in their uprising against President Bashar Assad or invite foreign military action like the intervention that helped topple the government of Libya, a prominent activist group warned Monday.

There have been scattered reports of some Syrians using automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and improvised weapons to repel government troops, but there appears to have been no organized armed resistance to Assad during the five-month uprising.

Calls to launch such a resistance have been rare, but they were more widely reported than usual by witnesses at protests in Syria on Friday, at the end of a week that saw Tripoli fall to rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi with the help of NATO.

"While we understand the motivation to take up arms or call for military intervention, we specifically reject this position," said a statement emailed by the Local Coordination Committees, an activist group with a wide network of sources on the ground across Syria. "Militarization would ... erode the moral superiority that has characterized the revolution since its beginning."

The prime minister of Turkey, a former close ally, warned Assad that his regime could face a demise like those in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya if the violent suppression of protests does not stop. The comments were some of the bluntest warnings yet and were particularly biting because they came from a leader whose government had extensive diplomatic ties with Syria.

"The only way out is to immediately silence arms and to listen to the people's demands," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in his monthly address aired on Turkish TV late Sunday. "We have been watching the fate of those who did not chose this path in the past few months in Tunisia, in Egypt — and now in Libya — as a warning and with sadness."

Human rights groups say more than 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the uprising in March. Witnesses and activists said the crackdown continued Monday as Syrian security forces pursuing anti-government protesters stormed several towns and villages, killing at least six people — including a child — and wounding many others during raids and house-to-house searches.

The largest operation appeared to be in Sarameen in the northern Idlib province, where the London-based Observatory for Human Rights said five people were killed and more than 60 wounded. One person also died during raids in Qara, a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

Similar raids were reported in the village of Heet near the border with Lebanon, along with a military buildup just outside the central town of Rastan, which has become a hotbed of dissent against Assad.

The Syrian government has placed severe restrictions on the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify witness accounts. Syria's opposition has no clear leadership or platform beyond the demands for more freedom and for Assad to step down, and several attempts to form a national council have failed because of disagreements between opposition figures, and in particular, divisions between the opposition inside and outside Syria.

In a sign of just how fragmented the opposition is, a relatively unknown dissident Monday announced the formation of a 94-member national council. The announcement, made in Ankara, Turkey, was greeted with excitement on social networking sites — but the celebrations were premature. Several opposition figures whose names appeared on the list told The Associated Press they had not been consulted.

Meanwhile, in New York, Security Council ambassadors met behind closed doors Monday to discuss rival U.N. resolutions on Syria. Russia introduced a resolution Friday that called for Assad's government to halt its violence against protesters and expedite reforms, but it made no mention of the sanctions sought by the U.S. and European nations in draft resolution circulated earlier this month.

Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, said afterwards that it was a useful and constructive session and all 15 council members agreed on the necessity of adopting a resolution. Council members will continue discussing what should be included in the resolution, the diplomats said.

After months of deadlock, the Security Council finally responded to the escalating violence in Syria on Aug. 3, condemning Assad's forces for attacking civilians and committing human rights violations in a weaker presidential statement. It called on Syrian authorities to immediately end all violence and launch an inclusive political process.

Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.