TNC commander urges US, UK apology

Mon Sep 5, 2011

Senior Transitional National Council commander Abdul Hakim Belhadj demands an apology from the UK and US over their secret cooperation with Gaddafi regime.

Secret files found in Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence archives show that Belhadj was arrested by CIA agents in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, in 2004 and forcibly repatriated to Libya, Guardian reported on Sunday.

Belhadj told the Guardian that British spies were among the first to interrogate him after he was returned to Tripoli, and that he was very "surprised that the British got involved in what was a very painful period in my life".

"I wasn't allowed a bath for three years and I didn't see the sun for one year," Belhadj told the daily. "They hung me from the wall and kept me in an isolation cell. I was regularly tortured."

The now top security commander in Tripoli, Belhadj said he was considering suing over the episode, which raises further damaging questions over Britain's knowledge of the rendition and ill-treatment of prisoners.

Belhadj was released from the Libyan version of Abu Ghraib, Abu Selim prison, earlier this year after an amnesty announced by Gaddafi.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/197487.html.

Egypt builds wall around Israel embassy

Monday 05/09/2011

CAIRO (AFP) -- The Egyptian authorities are erecting a wall around the Israeli embassy in Cairo as relations between the two neighbors who signed a peace treaty in 1979 are at a delicate phase.

The wall, about two meters high, consists of prefabricated cement slabs that are being installed around the building that houses the Israeli embassy overlooking a bridge in Cairo.

Part of the wall has been painted with Egypt's national colors: black, white and red.

Outraged Egyptians last month staged huge protests outside the embassy and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador over the border deaths of Egyptian policemen killed as Israel hunted militants.

Egypt has asked Israel for an official apology and demanded a probe into the deaths of the five policemen.

During one of the anti-Israeli protests, an Egyptian man scaled the building housing the mission, removed Israel's Star of David flag and replaced it with Egypt's colors, as the crowds cheered him on.

Egyptian officials quoted by the local media have meanwhile stressed that the wall being erected around the embassy was aimed at protecting residents of nearby buildings.

Ali Abdel Rahman, the governor of Giza district where the embassy is located, told Al-Gumhuriyya newspaper the wall "has nothing to do with the protection of the Israeli embassy" but is for the protection of private citizens.

Egyptian opposition party Al Wafd said Sunday that a private contractor had begun to build a security wall around the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Israeli news site Ynet reported.

Egypt is the first Arab nation to have signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417911.

Russian prisons and concentration camps worse than Abu Ghraib

2 September 2011

A well-known Moscow human rights activist Lev Ponomarev published an article on the situation of inmates in Russian prisons and concentration camps. In it, he notes in particular:

"The information on the events in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison became known. It got the whole world talking. Putin said to Americans: you are demanding openness and disclosures from us - and look what is going on in your own back yard. Medvedev also said something similar.

Yes, it was the outright humiliation of prisoners. But they were not killed, they were not even tortured. They were simply photographed without clothes. This is undoubtedly bad and humiliating.

But in Russia, it is a norm to strip prisoners and keep them naked. Several times a day. Then they force you on your knees and look for something in your anus. Supposedly, a mobile phone. Several times a day! In some Russian prisons and concentration camps, it is just a norm.

Not to mention, for example, of a threat of real rape. The prisoner, who writes a complaint and threatens to expose the GULAG atrocities, is told: either you stop or ... silence. Then (I have many such testimonies) they get the biggest, ugliest beast out of criminals to come to you. The beast undresses and masturbates as if preparing for a rape.. And the prisoners break down and sign any papers.

I know that there are cases of real rape, but such complaints never reach higher authorities. Because if a person was raped, neither he nor his family would ever admit it. I know a case where a young man, eighteen or even sixteen years old, I don't remember exactly, was thrown into a cell to most ugly criminals, naked. And afterwards, he hung himself. What happened to him in the cell, we can only guess. The case was not investigated. That's what is scary.

Most terrible are so called torture zones. For instance, in Russian Investigation Prison # 1. A documentary film was made about it. Lawyer Belyak was shot on for it, just a few days ago, there was an attempt on his life. Luckily, it failed. The film is available online, and we distribute it. And there are published reports about tortures in Prison # 1. They name the criminal who tortures and kills for Russian police and the KGB there. That man is finished. He cannot get out. He cannot live outside the prison. As they say, he is a waking corpse. He lives there, in Prison # 1.

But he is provided with comfortable luxurious hotel-type environment. He lives in a separate room, it has a TV set. And (again from the information that we have) he is ordered to carry out the killings in other prisons and camps. If Russian authorities need somebody to get killed, -he is transported to another GULAG zone. He does the killing, and is returned to his home Detention Center # 1.

There are reports on a man who participated in beatings, and possibly murders. He repented and gave testimony. The testimony was recorded by a lawyer. It is on the Internet. We held a press conference about it. The lawyers read the testimony of this man. But Russian authorities never investigated the case".

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/02/15054.shtml.

Yemen: Mujahideen enter capital of Lahj province. Fightings intensify in Abyan

2 September 2011

The Mujahideen of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are prepared to liberate another province in the south, Lahj. That was claimed by local high-ranking puppet officials, reports the Yemen Post.

According to them, several large units of Mujahideen from neighboring Abyan have recently entered Lahj. In the ongoing battles in the Emirate of Abyan, al-Qaeda regrouped its forces and directed them to neighboring provinces.

On the streets of the town of Howtah, the provincial capital of Lahj, there were dozens of Islamic fighters last Friday. According to the CNN, at least 100 Mujahideen of al-Qaeda were present there.

However, the provincial puppets are in no hurry to offer any resistance to AQAP:

"We have not received orders from the government to arrest any suspects, but the interior ministry is focusing on this issue with great concern", said a provincial official.

In turn, residents of the province confirmed that representatives of the regime do not hinder the movement of forces of al-Qaeda to Lahj. Among the residents, there are rumors that the "administration" of the province is preparing for a major exodus, as it was in Abyan.

It is to be recalled that government officials of the Saleh's regime, along with its security and military forces, left the Islamic Emirate of Abyan, for fear of bloody fightings with the al-Qaeda Mujahideen, who had been already for some time on the outskirts of Zinjibar.

Such a scenario could happen again. Earlier, the Mujahideen stormed the capital of Lahj, the town of Howtah.

Then the Islamic fighters took control over several administrative buildings and a radio station. However, they left the town later, for tactical reasons.

The situation for the puppet regime in this province is complicated by the fact that most people of Lahj defected and joined protesters against Saleh.

Meanwhile, a complicated situation, as claimed by western media, is also formed on the outskirts of Zinjibar, the capital of the Islamic Emirate of Abyan.

France-Presse reported, with reference to the Yemeni puppet security forces, that the Saleh's military regime allegedly seized the main approaches to the city and are heading to the center.

During a large-scale offensive, the apostates from the 201st and 209th brigades managed to join the 25th mechanized brigade, which had been besieged for months by the Mujahideen.

The Saleh's military command said that the army had occupied a football stadium, Al-Wahda, earlier liberated by the Mujahideen. However, the claims of the puppets and Western media reports were not confirmed by independent sources.

Severe battles are taking place for the town. Minions are facing strong resistance from the Mujahideen. As a result of the fighting, about 15 Mujahideen martyred, a source claimed to AFP. In this war, the puppets exaggerated the number of martyred Mujahideen exactly 2 times, claiming that 30 Mujahideen had martyred (Insha'Allah). The puppets gave no information about their own fatalities.

It is to be recalled that according to the opinion of doctors working in hospitals in Abyan, the Saleh's regime routinely exaggerates the number of casualties among the Mujahideen.

For example, recently, representatives of the puppet police stated that during the fighting in the Islamic Emirate of Abyan in May alone, up to 300 Mujahideen martyred. The puppets claimed their own fatalities as only 183 soldiers.

However, the experts say that these figures are unreliable. Thus, an expert and political scientist Ali Al-Jarad indicates the discrepancy between the figures that are periodically released by the structures of the puppet regime.

Thus, in February, a so-called "foreign minister" Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said that "just a couple of hundred fighters of al-Qaeda" remain in Yemen.

"If we take in consideration what the "foreign minister" said earlier this year and what the "interior ministry" announced ... there are supposedly no more al Qaeda fighters in Yemen", the expert said.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/02/15055.shtml.

Turkey talks about possible war with 'Israel'

2 September 2011

Following the statements of the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu about calling off the ambassador from Tel Aviv and reducing the level of diplomatic relations with "Israel", the leader of the Turkish opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, expressed concern about possible clashes between the Turkish and the "Israeli" Navy forces, reports CNN Turk.

It is to be recalled that on Friday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that diplomatic relations between Turkey and "Israel" went over to the secondary level, in addition, Ankara has frozen its military cooperation with Tel Aviv.

The minister also said that Turkey called off its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

Davutoglu also emphasized that relations between Tel Aviv and Ankara will not be restored until the "Israel" will not bring an apology to Turkey.

Relations between Turkey and "Israel" until recently worked closely in the military-political sphere, deteriorated sharply after attacks of the Zionist militants on humanitarian convoy Freedom Flotilla on May 31 last year that was moving to a blocked Gaza.

After the attack, in which the Jews according to official data killed nine Turks, and wounded many (according to unofficial data there were more victims), Ankara announced a review of relations with Tel Aviv and demanded an official apology for the attack and compensate the families of those human rights activists killed by Jews.

It is to be mentioned in this context that the relations between Turkey and "Israel" began to deteriorate long before the massacre perpetrated by the Zionist forces against international humanitarian convoy Freedom Flotilla.

In 2010, Jordanian sources spread a report that the Turkish security forces managed to thwart an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which was preparing a subversive and terrorist organization Mossad.

Al-Majd newspaper issued in Jordan quoted an informed source in Ankara as saying that the investigations conducted with arrested Turkish and Kurdish terrorist cells, who tried to carry out the assassination operation on Prime Minister, unveiled they were linked to the Mossad in "Israel".

The Turkish source added that the head of the national Turkish intelligence is making great efforts to strengthen the role of this agency in protecting the decision-makers in Turkey after receiving confirmed information that the Mossad is looking for ways to carry out assassinations in the country through the Kurdistan workers' party (a terrorist organization even according to the US-"Israeli" templates) and terror groups inside the country.

He noted that the Turkish political leadership remained silent on this matter for political and security considerations.

The disclosure of such information has taken place as "Israel" announced that its deputy premier would leave for Ankara to meet with Erdogan's opponents.

A year before this publication, in March 2009, Turkish authorities have confirmed reports that Mossad had a clear intention to kill Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This was become evident by the publication of data by Turkish security forces.

According to the results of investigations conducted in connection with the activity of group Ergenekon, accused of attempting a coup and overthrow the government formed by a democratically elected party Justice and Development (AK Party), the organization has cooperated with the Zionist terrorist service Mossad.

According to intelligence services of Turkey, the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, has established contacts with the head of one of the Turkish political parties and made it clear that his agents were willing to "accomplish the mission" in case the consent of the political structure.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/02/15056.shtml.

Iran nuclear plant linked to grid: atomic agency

Tehran (AFP)
Sept 4, 2011

Iran's first nuclear power plant has been hooked up to the national grid supplying 60 megawatts of its 1,000 megawatt capacity, the country's Atomic Energy Organization announced on Sunday.

"Last night at 11:29 pm (1859 GMT), the Bushehr power plant was connected with 60 megawatts to the national grid," the organization's spokesman Hamid Khadem Qaemi, told Al-Alam television.

The connection of the Russian-built plant in southern Iran to the national grid was originally scheduled for the end of 2010.

The Bushehr plant was started up in November 2010 but repeated technical problems delayed its operations, leading to the removal of its fuel rods last March.

"The capacity will gradually increase and it (is going through its) testing phase and on Shahrviar 21 (September 12) in a ceremony the power plant will reach its 40-percent capacity," Khadem Qaemi said.

The deputy atomic chief in charge of power plants, Mohammad Ahmadian, told state television the plant was expected to reach full capacity at "around the end of Aban or beginning of Azar (November)."

"But it is very important for us to take these final steps with utmost safety concerns in mind. We want to have guaranteed functional operation," Ahmadian added.

In mid-August, Iran's atomic organization chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani said the plant was expected to reach "full capacity of 1,000 megawatts" in late November or early December.

Russia, which built the plant, has pinned the delays on Iran, saying its engineers have been forced to work with outdated parts. The latest delay in March was blamed on wear and tear at the plant.

Construction started in the 1970s with the help of German company Siemens, which quit the project after the 1979 Islamic revolution over concerns about nuclear proliferation.

In 1994, Russia agreed to complete the plant and provide fuel for it, with the supply deal committing Iran to returning the spent fuel to allay Western concerns over its nuclear ambitions.

Western governments suspect Iran is seeking an atomic weapons capability under the guise of its civilian space and nuclear programs, a charge Iran vehemently denies.

Iran on Friday welcomed as a "step forward" an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on its nuclear activities, saying it highlighted positive steps taken by Tehran towards "cooperation and transparency."

But the UN atomic watchdog said in a confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Friday, that it was "increasingly concerned about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed nuclear related activities involving military related organizations."

These included "activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile", according to the report, which is due to be discussed by the IAEA's 35-member board of governors at a September 12-16 meeting.

Source: Nuclear Power Daily.
Link: http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Iran_nuclear_plant_linked_to_grid_atomic_agency_999.html.

Lebanon warns Israel sea border threatens peace

Monday 05/09/2011

BEIRUT (AFP) -- Lebanon warned the United Nations on Monday that Israel's proposed sea border threatens peace and security, as tensions rise between the neighbors over offshore oil and gas reserves.

"Foreign Minister Adnan Mansur has sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rejecting geographic coordinates Israel submitted to the United Nations concerning the northern part of the waters it claims," said the ministry.

It said in a statement that the Israeli claim "infringes on Lebanon's Exclusive Economic Zone," a sea zone that gives a state the right to explore its maritime resources.

"This is a clear violation of Lebanon's rights... over an area of some 860 square kilometers, and puts international peace and security at risk," it said, adding, "We urge the secretary general to take all necessary measures to avoid conflict."

Lebanon and Israel, which remain technically at war, locked horns over the maritime border after the discovery of potential offshore energy reserves.

The Israeli cabinet in July approved a map and submitted it to the United Nations, which has been asked to mediate the growing conflict.

The Israeli map conflicts with Lebanon's proposed borders, which give Israel less territorial waters and was submitted to the United Nations last year.

Beirut argues its map is in line with an armistice accord drawn up in 1949, an agreement which is not contested by Israel.

Israel -- arch-enemy of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah -- has for months been moving to develop several large offshore natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, some of which are shared with Cyprus.

Lebanon's Hezbollah-dominated government has meanwhile warned Beirut will not give up its maritime rights and accuses Israel of violating Lebanese waters, territory and airspace.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah fought a deadly war with Israel in 2006 which destroyed much of Lebanon's major infrastructure and killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=417829.