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			<title>Libya beyond Qaddafi</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278895/libya-beyond-qaddafi</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278895/libya-beyond-qaddafi#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 11 17:21:58 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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				<![CDATA[The future is for the Libyan people to sort out for themselves and any meddling must be kept to a minimum.]]>
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				<![CDATA[News of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s death was greeted with the exultant aerial firing of AK-47s. This method of celebration captures in a nutshell the quandary Libya now faces. As happy as the people of the country may be at the demise of the hated tyrant, the process of building a society that is armed to the teeth and where a bunch of less-than-united rebels will now by vying for power could turn out to be a long and painful one. For the last year, Libya has essentially been mired in a low-grade civil war. The chance that the fighting will continue is unfortunately higher than the prospect of a smooth transition to a democratically-elected government.

Some of the early signs gave hope for cautious optimism. The National Transitional Council, which took over from Qaddafi, has pledged to write a new constitution that is disinfected of all traces of his legacy and promised to hold elections right after. The council is also claiming that it will voluntarily step down and allow a transitional government to replace it. But so far these are just words. Many of the members of the council have been credibly accused of engaging in violent reprisals against political enemies, a sign that the civil war may not only continue but also intensify. Human rights groups have accused many of the rebels of engaging in torture and other gross abuses. The worst prospect now facing Libya is that a long civil war will ensure and the winner will be Qaddafi 2.0, another dictator with scant regard for the wishes of his people.

Then, there is always the question of oil. Libya’s valuable natural resource will always make it a desirable fiefdom for any number of foreign powers. The only reason Nato intervened in Libya, and not any other Arab country, is because a dictator widely believed to be a madman controlled the oil. The western countries now need to take a step back. Any government that has an American imprimatur will lose legitimacy in the eyes of the Libyan people. The future is for the Libyan people to sort out for themselves and any meddling must be kept to a minimum.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>UN rights office urges inquiry into Qaddafi death</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278859/un-rights-office-urges-inquiry-into-qaddafi-death</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278859/un-rights-office-urges-inquiry-into-qaddafi-death#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 11 10:36:21 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[UN human rights spokesman says it is unclear how the deposed Libyan leader was killed.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.

"It is unclear how he died. There is a need for an investigation," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

Referring to separate cell phone images showing a wounded Gaddafi first alive and then later dead amidst a jumble of anti-Gaddafi fighters after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, he added: "Taken together, they were very disturbing."

An international commission of inquiry, launched by the UN Human Rights Council, is already investigating killings, torture and other crimes in Libya.

Colville said he expected that the team would look into the circumstances of Qaddafi's death.

"It is a fundamental principle of international law that people accused of serious crimes should if possible be tried. Summary executions are strictly illegal. It is different if someone is killed in combat," he told Reuters Television.]]>
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			<title>Qaddafi's death: Who pulled the trigger?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278790/qaddafis-death-who-pulled-the-trigger</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278790/qaddafis-death-who-pulled-the-trigger#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 11 05:34:05 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Footage of last chaotic moments of Qaddafi's life offer some clues into what happened.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Disturbing images of a blood-stained and shaken Moammar Qaddafi being dragged around by angry fighters quickly circulated around the world after the Libyan dictator's dramatic death near his home town of Sirte.
The exact circumstances of his demise are still unclear with conflicting accounts of his death. But the footage of the last chaotic moments of Qaddafi's life offered some clues into what happened.

Qaddafi was still alive when he was captured near Sirte. In the video, filmed by a bystander in the crowd and later aired on television, Qaddafi is shown dazed and wounded being dragged off a vehicle's bonnet and pulled to the ground by his hair.

"Keep him alive, keep him alive!" someone shouts. Qaddafi then goes out of view and gunshots ring out.

"They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," one senior source in the NTC told Reuters. "He might have been resisting."

In what appeared to contradict the events depicted in the video, Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said Qaddafi was killed when a gunfight broke out after his capture between his supporters and government fighters. He died from a bullet wound to the head, the prime minister said.

The NTC said no order had been given to kill him.

Qaddafi called the rebels who rose up against his 42 years of one-man rule "rats," but in the end it appeared that it was he who was captured cowering in a drainage pipe full of rubbish and filth.

"He called us rats, but look where we found him," said Ahmed Al Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway near Sirte.

On the ground, government fighters described scenes of carnage as they told stories of Qaddafi's final hours.

Shortly before dawn prayers, Qaddafi, surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr, broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.

They did not get far.

France said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to Qaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), but said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Qaddafi. A NATO official said the convoy was hit either by a French plane or a US Predator drone.

Two miles west of Sirte, 15 pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns lay burned out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity substation 20 meters from the main road.

They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels has assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.

There was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a jet fighter.

Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn across the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.

Mansour Daou, leader of Qaddafi's personal bodyguards, was with the former strongman shortly before his end. He told al Arabiya television that after the air strike the survivors had "split into groups and each group went its own way."

"I was with Qaddafi and Abu Bakr Younis Jabr and about four volunteer soldiers." Daou said he had not witnessed his leader's death because he had fallen unconscious after being wounded in the back by a shell explosion.

"My master is here"

Fighters on the ground said Qaddafi and a handful of his men appeared to have run through a stand of trees and taken refuge in the two drainage pipes.

"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot.

"One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.

"Then I think Qaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Moammar Qaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.

"We went in and brought Qaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said.

At the time of his capture, Qaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.

Other government fighters who said they took part in Qaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.

"One of Moammar Qaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan.

There were also other versions of events. NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters Qaddafi had been finally cornered in a compound in Sirte after hours of fighting, and wounded in a gun battle with NTC forces.

He said Qaddafi kept repeating "What is the matter? What's going on? What do you want?" and resisted as NTC fighters seized him. He added that Qaddafi died of his wounds as he was being transported in an ambulance.

"He was bleeding from his stomach. It took a long time to transport him. He bled to death (in the ambulance)," he said.

Another NTC official, speaking to Reuters anonymously, gave a violent account of Qaddafi's death: "They (NTC fighters) beat him very harshly and then they killed him. This is a war."

Some video footage showed what appeared to be Qaddafi's lifeless body being loaded into an ambulance in Sirte.

One of the fighters who said he took part in the capture brandished a heavily engraved golden pistol he said he had taken from Gaddafi.

Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Qaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.

Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.

Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.

Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway. One said simply: "Qaddafi was captured here."]]>
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			<title>Pakistan ‘favourite’ in faceoff over Security Council vote</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278684/pakistan-%e2%80%98favourite%e2%80%99-in-faceoff-over-security-council-vote</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278684/pakistan-%e2%80%98favourite%e2%80%99-in-faceoff-over-security-council-vote#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 11 04:33:11 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=278684</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Kyrgyzstan was a late entrant for the seat that Pakistan thought it had sealed up.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[UN Security Council elections on Friday could put nuclear rivals Pakistan and India at the centre of the global guardian of peace. The 193-member UN General Assembly will vote for five non-permanent members of the Security Council who will get a two year term.


Normally the seats are endorsed in advance by regional groups, but this time four of the five seats are contested. There is particular tension around the places for Asia, Africa and Europe. Kyrgyzstan was a late entrant for the seat that Pakistan thought it had sealed up. However, most diplomats consider Pakistan to still be the favourite.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by Kyrgyzstan Ambassador Alik Orozov in Islamabad maintained that the election would not influence “brotherly and diplomatic relations” between the two countries, adding that Kyrgyzstan had “no objection” to Pakistan’s election to the UNSC.

Pakistan was last on the Security Council in 2003 and it has been on the council with India in the past. Their UN envoys insist that any regional rivalry will be put aside.

“There will be no problem. We want to work together,” said Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan’s ambassador. “There are many issues where we have common views,” added India’s UN envoy Hardeep Singh Puri.

“The danger would be if something came up between them, like something in Kashmir or a terrorist attack,” said Thomas Weiss, head of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at City University of New York (CUNY).

“But they have already shown that they can operate on the Security Council at the same time.”

With topics such as the Syria uprising and Iran’s nuclear program again expected to stay near the top of the international agenda, Pakistan is likely to side with countries such as India opposing any sanctions, diplomats said. Weiss at CUNY said that the increasingly contested elections may be a good thing for the Security Council.

He pointed to the example of the UN Human Rights Council which this year expelled Libya because of Muammar Qaddafi’s crackdown. Weiss said this was a sign of the rights council’s greater standing after it introduced competitive elections for seats.

“I don’t know if the Security Council elections this year are the start of a new era, but there is more competition and there is a lot more discussion among countries about the pluses and minuses of different states,” Weiss said.

Five of the non-permanent seats on the Security Council are rotated each year. Britain, China, France, Russia and United States are permanent members of the council. The election will also see the end of the presence of all five BRICS emerging powers -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- on the council as Brazil will leave at the end of the year.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Last hours of resistance: Qaddafi slain in Sirte</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278690/last-hours-of-resistance-qaddafi-slain-in-sirte</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278690/last-hours-of-resistance-qaddafi-slain-in-sirte#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 11 01:30:45 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[agencies]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Interim rulers to declare formal liberation; Western backers hail new Libya.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Muammar Qaddafi was killed by Libyans he once scorned as “rats”, succumbing to wounds, some seemingly inflicted after his capture by fighters who overran his last redoubt on Thursday in his hometown of Sirte.            


Two months after National Transitional Council fighters ended 42 years of eccentric, often bloody, one-man rule by capturing the capital Tripoli, his death and the fall of the final bastion ended a nervous hiatus for the new interim government, which is now set to declare formal “liberation” with a timetable for elections.

The killing or capture of senior aides, as well as possibly two sons including Mohatassim, may ease fears of diehards regrouping elsewhere — though cellphone video apparently of Qaddafi alive and being beaten may inflame his sympathisers.

(Read: Qaddafi’s demise)

A Libyan official said Qaddafi, 69, was killed in custody. “We confirm that all the evils, plus Qaddafi, have vanished from this beloved country,” interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in Tripoli as the body was delivered to Misrata.

“It’s time to start a new Libya, a united Libya,” Jibril added. “One people, one future.” A formal declaration of liberation would be made by Friday, he said. In Benghazi, thousands took to the streets and danced under the old tricolour flag revived by Qaddafi’s opponents.

Shot in the head

A spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC) in Benghazi, Jalal al Galal, said a doctor who examined the fallen strongman in Misrata found he had been shot in the head and abdomen. Jerky video shown on Al Jazeera showed a man looking like Qaddafi, with distinctive long, curly hair, bloodied and staggering under blows from armed men, apparently NTC fighters.

“They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him,” one senior source in the NTC told Reuters. Driven in an ambulance from Sirte, his partially stripped body was delivered to a mosque in Misrata. Senior NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters that DNA tests were being conducted to confirm it was Qaddafi. He would be buried in Misrata, most likely by Friday.

Hailing liberation 

An announcement of final liberation was expected as the chairman of the NTC prepared to address the nation of six million. They now face the challenge of turning oil wealth to heal an array of tribal, ethnic and regional divisions.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the turn of events that few had expected so soon. But he also alluded to fears that the new Libya could descend, like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, into bloody factionalism: “The liberation of Sirte must signal ... the start of a process ... to establish a democratic system,” he said.

US President Barack Obama hailed Qaddafi’s death as a warning to authoritarian leaders across the Middle East that iron-fisted rule “inevitably comes to an end” and as vindication for his cautious US strategy on Libya. “This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine their own destiny,” Obama told reporters.

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and other world leaders say they will work with Libyans as they try to move forward and build a democracy after Qaddafi’s death. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi uttered a Latin phrase to say that everything was transitory. “So the glory of this world passes away,” said Berlusconi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Qaddafi’s demise</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278196/qaddafi%e2%80%99s-demise</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278196/qaddafi%e2%80%99s-demise#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 11 17:47:44 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[There is a forgivable tendency to romantacise those who have just died but this should be avoided in Qaddafi’s case.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Most dictators meet an end that is all too fitting given the brutality with which they rule their countries. They end up in an early grave, face an ignominious trial or have to while their days away in humiliating exile. Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi was no exception, although he managed to last longer than most tyrants. There is a forgivable tendency to romantacise those who have just died but this should be avoided in Qaddafi’s case. In his 42 years in power, Qaddafi ruthlessly suppressed any opposition and made his oil-rich country an international laughing stock with his eccentricities. His revolutionary committees made sure no one would challenge his absolute power at home while his involvement in terrorist activities abroad, including the bombing of a discotheque in West Germany in 1986 and the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 brought nothing but misery to his beleaguered people.

Qaddafi talked a good game about pan-Islamic and pan-African unity but used these movements simply to glorify himself, ready to abandon anyone if it was in his short-term interest. Pakistan, who even named its cricket stadium in Lahore after him, has particular reason to be aggrieved. Having long sought nuclear weapons, Qaddafi was spooked by the US invasion of Iraq and willingly sold out Pakistan and AQ Khan as his allies in this quest. During his lifetime, Qaddafi was mocked for his extravagant dress sense, retinue of all-female guards and the fancy titles he bestowed on himself (he liked calling himself Brother Leader and King of the Kings of Africa). In death he should be remembered only as an autocrat of the worst kind who ruled only for himself.

Qaddafi’s death alone will not be enough for Libya to shake off his malign influence. One of the lessons recent Arab and African history has taught us is that liberators often turn into tyrants themselves. From the Ayatollahs in Iran to Saddam Hussain in Iraq, we now know that shaking off one dictator is not enough if it simply leads to more one-person rule. Even now, Egypt is struggling to move from Hosni Mubarak’s rule to a functioning democracy. That is the challenge awaiting the Libyan rebels who defeated and ultimately killed Qaddafi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Muammar Qaddafi dead: NTC spokesman</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278152/qaddafi-captured-as-he-fled-sirte-ntc-official</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278152/qaddafi-captured-as-he-fled-sirte-ntc-official#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 11 13:50:05 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil to declare Libya's liberation by Friday and give details on Qaddafi's killing.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Veteran Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi  was killed on Thursday when new regime forces launched a final assault on the last pocket of resistance in his hometown Sirte, a National Transitional Council spokesman said Thursday.

"We announce to the world that Qaddafi has died in the custody of the revolution," Abdel Hafez Ghoga said.

"It is an historic moment. It is the end of tyranny and dictatorship. Qaddafi has met his fate," he added.

He said that the fugitive former despot's death been "confirmed by our commanders on the ground in Sirte, those who captured him after he had been wounded in the battle for Sirte."

A video circulating among NTC fighters in Sirte showed mobile phone footage of what appeared to be Qaddafi's bloodied corpse.

In the grainy images seen by an AFP correspondent, a large number of NTC fighters are seen yelling in chaotic scenes around a khaki-clad body which has blood oozing from the face and neck.

The body is then dragged off by the fighters and loaded in the back of a pick-up truck.

A stills photograph taken on a mobile phone and obtained by AFP showed Qaddafi heavily bloodied but it was not clear from the picture whether he was alive or dead at the time.

In the grainy image, Qaddafi is seen with blood-soaked clothing and blood daubed across his face.

National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters earlier that Qaddafi was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked. "He was also hit in his head," the official said. "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died." There was no independent confirmation of his remarks.

A pro-Qaddafi television website denied Thursday reports that the strongman had been killed or captured.

"The reports peddled by the lackeys of NATO about the capture or death of the brother leader, Moamer Qaddafi, are baseless," said Al-Libiya television.

Qaddafi’s final hours

Government fighters, video evidence and the scenes of sheer carnage nearby told the story of the dictator's final hours.

Shortly before dawn prayers on Thursday, Qaddafi surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.

But they did not get far.

NATO said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to pro-Qaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 am (0630 GMT) on Thursday, but the alliance said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Qaddafi.

Fifteen pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burnt out, smashed and smouldering next to an electricity substation some 20 metres from the main road, about two miles west of Sirte.

They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.

But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or had been strafed by a fighter jet.

Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn in the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.

Qaddafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have ran through a stand of trees towards the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.

But a group of government fighters were on their tail.

"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot.

"One of Qaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.

"Then I think Qaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Moamer Qaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.

"We went in and brought Qaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said.

At the time of capture, Qaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.

Other government fighters who said they took part in Qaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.

"One of Moamer Qaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan.

Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.

Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Qaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.

Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.

Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway.

"Qaddafi was captured here," said one simply.

From there Qaddafi was taken to the nearby city of Sirte where he and his dwindling band of die-hard supporters had made a last stand under a rain of missile and artillery fire in a desperate two-month siege.

Video footage showed Qaddafi, dazed and wounded, but still clearly alive and gesturing with his hands as he was dragged from a pick-up truck by a crowd of angry jostling group of government soldiers who hit him and pulled his hair.

He then appeared to fall to the ground and was enveloped by the crowd. NTC officials later announced Qaddafi had died of his wounds after capture.

NTC to announce liberation of Libya by Friday

Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil is to declare by Friday that the country has been liberated and give details on Qaddafi's killing, interim premier Mahmud Jibril told reporters.

"Abdel Jalil will come out today or at the latest tomorrow to declare the liberation of the country and to give details about the killing of Qaddafi," said the number two in the National Transitional Council.

"With the confirmation that all the evil people, including Qaddafi, have vanished from this beloved country ... it is time for Libyans to start a new country, a united Libya, one people with one future."

Qaddafi's son Mutassim found dead in Sirte: NTC commander

Mutassim Qaddafi, one of the ousted Libyan strongman's sons, was found dead in Sirte, a commander of the new regime forces told AFP.

"We found him dead. We put his body and that of (former defence minister) Abu Bakr Yunis in an ambulance to take them to Misrata," said Mohamed Leith.

Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam is believed to be still at large in Libya's desert, a member of the National Transitional Council has said.

Abdelmajid Saif al-Nasr told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite channel that Saif al-Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, was last known to have been in the area of Bani Walid and was believed to be "in the desert" around the town.

"But he will be captured soon," said Saif al-Nasr.

Obama hails Qaddafi's demise, warns Arab world

US President Barack Obama said the death of Qaddafi ended a long, painful chapter for Libyans and warned 'iron fist" regimes in the rest of the Arab world they would inevitably fall.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Obama said Qaddafi’s demise vindicated the collective military action of the West and said Libyans now had a chance to build a "democratic" and "tolerant nation.

US confident that Qaddafi is dead: White House official

The United States has "confidence" in reporting through diplomatic channels that deposed Libyan leader Moamer Qaddafi is dead, a senior White House official said.

President Barack Obama, who was to make a statement, "will cite the fact that Libyan officials have announced Gaddafi's death. We have also received similar reports through diplomatic channels and have confidence in this reporting," official said.

British PM says 'day to remember Qaddafi's victims'

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the death of Moamer Qaddafi was an occasion to remember his victims, while hailing it as a chance for a "democratic future" for Libya.

"I think today is a day to remember all of Colonel Qaddafi's victims" including those who died in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Cameron said in a statement outside 10 Downing Street.

Qaddafi's death marks 'end of an era of despotism': EU

The death of Qaddafi "marks the end of an era of despotism," European Union president Herman Van Rompuy has said.

The news that Qaddafi died in a raid in Sirte means an end also to the "repression from which the Libyan people have suffered for too long," Van Rompuy said in a joint statement with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

Qaddafi death 'historic transition' for Libya: UN chief

UN leader Ban Ki-moon said the reported death of Qaddafi marked an "historic transition" for Libya.

"The road ahead for Libya and its people will be difficult and full of challenges. Now is the time for all Libyans to come together," Ban said at the UN headquarters. "Combatants on all sides must lay down their arms and come together in peace. This is a time for rebuilding and healing."

IMF to send mission to Libya

The International Monetary Fund will send a mission to Libya soon to assess the country's economy, an IMF spokesman said after rebel forces killed Libyan strongman Qaddafi.

The IMF is planning to send the mission "in the coming weeks," following up on an October 6-13 fact-finding mission it undertook in cooperation with the World Bank, spokesman Gerry Rice said at a regular news briefing.

Libya now 'liberated': McCain

Senior US Senator John McCain said that the death of Qaddafi marked the end of "the first phase" of Libya's revolution and called for closer ties between Washington and Tripoli.

"The death of Moamer Qaddafi marks an end to the first phase of the Libyan revolution. While some final fighting continues, the Libyan people have liberated their country," the Republican lawmaker said in a statement.

Qaddafi captured as he fled Sirte: NTC official

Deposed Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi was captured and wounded near his hometown of Sirte at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked, National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid said on Thursday.

The senior NTC military official told Reuters by telephone that the head of Qaddafi's armed forces Abu Bakr Younus Jabr had been killed during the capture of the Libyan ex-leader.

"He has been captured. He is badly wounded, but he is still breathing," a National Transitional Council commander Mohamed Leith told AFP, adding that he had seen Qaddafi himself and that he was wearing a kaki uniform and a turban.

Libyan TV channel "Libya lil Ahrar" also said that he was in custody. In Sirte, medics said the defence minister in Kadhafi's ousted regime, Abu Bakr Yunis, had been killed in the final battle for the strongman's hometown.

His body was identified at the field hospital where it was brought in a pick-up truck on Thursday, Dr Abdul Rauf told AFP.]]>
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			<title>Timeline: Libya's civil war nears end</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278155/timeline-libyas-civil-war-nears-end</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/278155/timeline-libyas-civil-war-nears-end#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 11 12:26:01 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=278155</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Timeline of the civil war in Libya since protests against Qaddafi broke out.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Here is a timeline of the civil war in Libya since protests against Muammar Qaddafi broke out in February:

February 15/16, 2011 - The arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel starts a riot in Benghazi.

February 24 - Anti-government militias take control of central coastal city of Misrata after evicting forces loyal to Qaddafi.

February 26 - The U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions on Qaddafi and his family, and refers the crackdown on rebels to the International Criminal Court.

February 28 - EU governments approve sanctions against Qaddafi and his closest advisers.

March 5 - The rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) in Benghazi declares itself Libya's sole representative.

March 17 - The U.N. Security Council votes to authorize a no-fly zone over Libya and military action -- to protect civilians against Qaddafi's army.

March 19 - The first air strikes halt the advance of Qaddafi's forces on Benghazi and target Libya's air defences.

April 30 - A NATO missile attack on a house in Tripoli kills Qaddafi's youngest son and three grandchildren, his government says.

June 27 - The ICC issues arrest warrants for Qaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity.

August 21 - Rebels enter Tripoli with little resistance. Qaddafi makes audio addresses over state television calling on Libyans to fight off the rebel "rats".

August 23 - The rebels overrun Qaddafi's fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli, trashing the symbols of his rule.

August 29 - Qaddafi's wife, his daughter Aisha and two of his sons enter Algeria. Aisha Qaddafi gives birth in a clinic in a border town hours after crossing the frontier.

September 1 - Libya's interim rulers meet world leaders at a conference in Paris to discuss reshaping Libya. Qaddafi, on the 42nd anniversary of his coming to power, urges his supporters to fight on.

September 8 - Interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril arrives in Tripoli on his first visit since it was taken by his forces.

September 11 - Libya starts producing oil again. Niger says Qaddafi's son Saadi has arrived there.

September 13 - Interim government chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil makes his first speech in Tripoli to a crowd of about 10,000.

September 15 - France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's David Cameron land in Libya to a heroes' welcome.

September 16 - The U.N. Security Council eases sanctions on Libya, including on its national oil company and central bank. The U.N. General Assembly approves a request to accredit interim government envoys as Libya's sole representatives at the U.N., effectively recognizing the NTC.

September 20 - President Barack Obama calls for the last of Qaddafi's loyalist forces to surrender as he announces the return of the U.S. ambassador to Tripoli. Qaddafi taunts NATO in a speech broadcast by Syrian-based Arrai television station.

September 21 - The interim rulers say they have captured most of Sabha, one of three main towns where Qaddafi loyalists have been holding out since the fall of Tripoli. Qaddafi's birthplace Sirte and the town of Bani Walid continue to resist.

September 25 - The first Libyan crude oil to be shipped in months sails from the eastern port of Marsa el Hariga for Italy.

September 27 - NATO says Libya's interim rulers have taken full control of the country's stockpile of chemical weapons and nuclear material.

October 12 - Government fighters capture Qaddafi's son Mo'tassim after he tried to escape Sirte.

Oct 13 - NTC forces say they have control of the whole of Sirte except neighborhood 'Number Two' where Qaddafi forces are surrounded.]]>
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			<title>Natives, expatriates and the ISI</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/275288/natives-expatriates-and-the-isi</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/275288/natives-expatriates-and-the-isi#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 16 Oct 11 17:19:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tanvir.ahmad.khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=275288</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In “Time to take on Pakist­an’s Jihadi­st spies,” Ijaz lifts the lid from an episod­e that must not be brushe­d aside.]]>
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				<![CDATA[It will be difficult to understand contemporary history without getting to know the new factors of change. There are the dynamics of Davos, the G-20 meetings and other conclaves on economic issues taking place all over the world. Regime changes in our macro-region feature expatriates — individuals or small cabals — living in and working closely with the metropolitan states. The world knows only too well how the Iraqi Diaspora distorted the actual intelligence about WMDs in Iraq and how plane-loads of ‘exiles’ arrived in Baghdad to fill the top positions in the post-Saddam regime. Libya is a more recent example; amongst the new Libyan heroes, is a former al Qaeda notable who has made peace with the United States.

Pakistan has large communities abroad, distinguished by their fierce attachment to their country of origin. Their contribution to Pakistan’s economy is crucial. They remain deeply concerned about the state of things ‘back home’. Amongst them are individuals who have won the confidence of host governments. Most of them use their connections to Pakistan’s advantage. There are, however, easily identifiable individuals who promote themselves as middlemen, able to bypass Pakistan’s state structure and deliver political and financial deals for the states they have settled in. Some may even dream of landing in Pakistan one day, Mohammad Ali Bogra style, to rule this hapless country.

Be as it may, Mansoor Ijaz, an ‘American of Pakistani ancestry’, has now suddenly lifted the lid from an episode that must not be brushed aside. Writing in no less a newspaper than the Financial Times on October 10, under the provocative title “Time to take on Pakistan’s Jihadist spies”, Ijaz narrates a personal experience. He claims that early on May 9, a senior Pakistani diplomat telephoned him with the urgent request that President Asif Ali Zardari “needed to communicate a message to the White House national security officials that would bypass Pakistan’s military and intelligence channels”. Ijaz clarifies that the “embarrassment of bin Laden” being found on Pakistani soil had humiliated Mr Zardari’s “weak civilian government to such an extent that the president feared a military takeover was imminent”; furthermore, Zardari “needed an American fist on his army chief’s desk, to end any misguided notions of a coup — and fast”.

Ijaz is no stranger to Pakistanis and his narrative may be true, half-true or even total fiction. If true, any Pakistani observer of Pakistan-US relations can instantly identify the diplomat involved in it; the only question would be; what particular game this diplomat was trying to play. Stepping aside it, Ijaz leads his readers through an astonishingly convoluted reasoning to what he calls a “shadowy outfit of ISI dubbed ‘S-wing’ and then to a most audacious demand on the US. “The time”, urges Ijaz “has come for the State department to declare the S-wing a sponsor of terrorism under the designation of foreign governmental organisations”.

There are basic questions that the president’s office, the Foreign Office and Inter-Services Public Relations must clarify. In the absence of any evidence whatsoever, how did the apprehension of a military putsch emerge? Was this the brain child of the president’s men in Islamabad, or of the Machiavellian mind of the diplomat who phoned Ijaz? Was Ijaz the only, or the best, channel for Zardari to reach the White House? Why didn’t the Pakistan embassy in Washington speak to the national security officials, who according to Bob Woodward’s book, are easily accessible? We do not know if that mighty fist landed at General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s desk but why is he willing to let the Head of State be duped by the likes of this particular diplomat and Mr Ijaz? Ambiguity has its value, but there are situations when nations benefit from clarity. I haven’t the slightest idea what the dreaded “S-Wing” stands for but I find it absurd that Pakistan should be expected to dismantle its intelligence apparatus while secret services have expanded hugely in most other states during the last 10 troubled years. Ijaz’s fantasy that the “S-wing” is “undermining global anti-terrorism efforts” only shows how simplistic is his understanding of complex issues. As a confidante of our diplomat, he has had no hesitation in embarrassing President Zardari with his article.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan will recognize new Libyan government: Gilani</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/275207/pakistan-will-recognize-new-libyan-government-gilani</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/275207/pakistan-will-recognize-new-libyan-government-gilani#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 16 Oct 11 11:46:20 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=275207</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Gilani said that Pakistan believes in the sovereignty and independence of all countries.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that Pakistan will recognize the new government in Libya.

Talking to newsmen in Lahore on Sunday Gilani said that Pakistan believes in the sovereignty and independence of all countries, and does not interfere in the internal affairs of any country.


As reported earlier in The Express Tribune, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had asked the government to recognise the National Transitional Council (NTC) government in Libya that has taken control of the country after toppling Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.


In a letter written to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar asserted that lives and jobs of over 55,000 Pakistani expatriates would be highly vulnerable if there is a further delay in recognising the council.

On August 25 this year, the Libyan envoy in Islamabad, Ibrahim al Ebad, removed the green coloured flag, associated with the Qaddafi regime, and hoisted the de facto flag of Libya, used by the National Transitional Council at the Libyan embassy in Islamabad. According to official sources, however, the Libyan ambassador hoisted the new flag without the prior approval of the Pakistani government.

“It was mandatory for the Libyan ambassador to obtain prior permission from Islamabad to hoist the new flag of his country,” an official told The Express Tribune while requesting anonymity.

Furthermore, Ebad informed the foreign ministry about his decision to recognise the NTC as the only ‘true and legitimate authority in Libya’ and them to follow suit. The ambassador also confirmed that his fellow Libyan diplomats in Islamabad have disassociated themselves from the Qaddafi administration and pledged their loyalties to the NTC.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan must recognise Libya’s new regime: PML-N</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/274540/pakistan-must-recognise-libya%e2%80%99s-new-regime-pml-n</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/274540/pakistan-must-recognise-libya%e2%80%99s-new-regime-pml-n#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 15 Oct 11 04:28:16 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=274540</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Dar says lives and jobs of over 55,000 Pakistani expatriates would be vulnerable if decision is further delayed.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has asked government to recognise the National Transitional Council (NTC) government in Libya that has taken control of the country after toppling Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.


In a letter written to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani here on Friday, PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar asserted that lives and jobs of over 55,000 Pakistani expatriates would be highly vulnerable if there is a further delay in recognising the council.

The letter asks Islamabad to take lead from examples set by China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Gulf, African and other Middle Eastern states in recognising the council.

Dar reminded the premier of a statement by some elements within the NTC would substitute Pakistani workers with Indian ones if Islamabad does not recognise NTC’s rule soon.

“As we are well aware, the people of Libya have gone through a momentous struggle to install a new council to administer their country,” Dar highlighted in the letter.

“The transitional council that has replaced former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and his setup is almost in complete control of the land while running the administrative affairs of their country.”

The developments in last few months in Libya required government of Pakistan to review the situation on ground for the timely recognition of the new set-up in Libya.

“However, I regret to point out that the government of Pakistan has been extremely slow in taking a clear-cut direction on this critical subject,” the letter read.

“It  appears  that  perhaps  slow  action  on  the  part  of  the government of Pakistan could be connected to ties of personal friendship in the past but we must not forget that these are part of history now,” the letter concluded, alluding to former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s amiable relationship with Qaddafi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Blurred judgement: UK defence chief quits after scandal</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/274546/blurred-judgement-uk-defence-chief-quits-after-scandal</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/274546/blurred-judgement-uk-defence-chief-quits-after-scandal#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 15 Oct 11 04:09:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=274546</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Fox’s successor tasked with slimming down and restructuring military.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[British Defence Secretary Liam Fox resigned on Friday over his friendship with a businessman who posed as his adviser, jolting Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government and potentially slowing down efforts to reform the military.


Cameron named Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, generally seen as a safe pair of hands, as the new defence secretary. Hammond is considered to be on the right of the governing Conservative Party, but not to the same extent as Fox, around whom many ministers had rallied before his resignation.

Fox, 50, who oversaw Britain’s military operations in Afghanistan and Libya, admitted he had allowed the lines between his personal and professional life to blur. The British media have in the last week been awash with stories about the relationship between Fox and his former flatmate and best man, Adam Werritty, 34, who met often with Fox at the defence ministry and on his official trips abroad.

“I mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred,” Fox said in a resignation letter to Cameron.

“The consequences of this have become clearer in recent days. I am very sorry for this.” The loss of Fox amid accusations of impropriety could open Cameron up to allegations of sleaze, a failing that helped doom the last Conservative-led government in a 1997 election, relegating the party to opposition for the next 13 years.

Cameron can ill-afford the government’s authority to be compromised as it pushes through the toughest austerity measures in a generation to tackle a big budget deficit. The integrity of parliament itself has only recently recovered from an expenses scandal that saw several legislators prosecuted.

In a letter, Cameron said he was “very sorry” to see Fox go, and praised the “superb job” he had done. Fox’s successor would have to reconfigure the military, as well as manage the eventual return of British troops from Afghanistan and take decisive action during future conflicts.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2011. ]]>
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			<title>US Air Force calls drone fleet virus a 'nuisance'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/273166/us-air-force-calls-drone-fleet-virus-a-nuisance</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/273166/us-air-force-calls-drone-fleet-virus-a-nuisance#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 13 Oct 11 08:04:46 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=273166</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Air Force Space Command says computers at airbase Nevada were infected, plays down problem as minor headache.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[A computer virus that hit the US drone fleet last month created a "nuisance" but no serious threat to flight operations for the unmanned aircraft, the US Air Force said Wednesday.

Confirming the virus for the first time days after it was first reported, Air Force Space Command said computers at a Nevada air base were infected with malware but played down the problem as a minor headache.

(Read: US drones under attack?: Predators, Reapers keep flying despite virus threat)

Malware on the computers at Creech Air Force base, where drone planes over Afghanistan and elsewhere are piloted remotely, was first spotted on September 15, Space Command said in a statement.

"The infected computers were part of the ground control system that supports RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) operations," it said.

"The ground system is separate from the flight control system Air Force pilots use to fly the aircraft remotely; the ability of the RPA pilots to safely fly these aircraft remained secure throughout the incident," it said.

The malware, of a type that is "found routinely on computer networks and is considered more of a nuisance than an operational threat," had been isolated, it said.

Wired magazine first reported the virus last week, saying it had spread at Creech through removable hard drives used to load map updates and transfer mission videos from one computer to another.

Drone units at other US bases around the world have now been told to stop using the removable hard drives, the magazine reported.

A spokeswoman for Space Command said that rules prohibiting openly discussing the operational status of aircraft were waived to assure the public about the state of the drone fleet.

The Air Force "felt it important to declassify portions of the information associated with this event to ensure the public understands that the detected and quarantined virus posed no threat to our operational mission and that control of our remotely piloted aircraft was never in question," Colonel Kathleen Cook said in the statement.

The American military and intelligence agencies have come to heavily rely on the robotic aircraft to track enemy forces, with the planes transforming battlefield tactics and strategy in recent years.

The US military openly acknowledges drone flights in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya but the CIA declines to publicly discuss its covert missions using drones to take out Al-Qaeda extremists in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.]]>
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			<title>Timeline: Messages attributed to al Qaeda's Zawahiri</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/272377/timeline-messages-attributed-to-al-qaedas-zawahiri</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/272377/timeline-messages-attributed-to-al-qaedas-zawahiri#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 11 11:25:17 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=272377</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[A timeline of some of the major recent statements attributed to Ayman al-Zawahiri.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Following is a timeline of some of the major recent statements attributed to Ayman al-Zawahiri.     

June 2, 2009 - Zawahiri urges Egyptians to reject a visit by US President Barack Obama to Egypt during which he delivered a message to Muslims. He described Obama as a "criminal" and said his messages to Muslims had "already been received (through)... a bloody campaign against Muslims in Swat" in Pakistan.

July 19, 2010 - In an Internet message, Zawahiri mocks Obama for voicing confidence over victory in Afghanistan. He also says Arab government leaders allied to the West are more harmful to the Palestinians than Israel.

July 27 - Zawahiri, in an audio recording, condemns a French move to ban Islamic face veils and, urges Yemeni clerics to call for jihad against US operations in Yemen.

September 15 - Zawahiri releases an audio recording calling on Pakistanis to revolt.

November 4 - In a recording posted on the internet, Zawahiri calls for retaliation against the United States for sentencing Aafia Siddiqui to life in prison for shooting at FBI agents and soldiers. Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 by Afghan police, who said she was carrying 900 grams (2 lb) of sodium cyanide and crumpled notes referring to mass-casualty attacks and New York landmarks.

February 18, 2011 - Zawahiri condemns Egypt's regime under toppled leader Hosni Mubarak as corrupt, and praises an Islamic state as an appropriate alternative, in an audio recording posted on the Internet.

April 15 - Zawahiri says Muslims should fight NATO in Libya in an audio message. "I want to say to our Muslim brothers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and the rest of the Muslim countries, that if the Americans and the NATO forces enter Libya, then their neighbours.... should rise up and fight both the mercenaries of Gaddafi and the rest of NATO."

May 2 - Osama Bin Laden is killed in Pakistan by US forces after a 10-year hunt.

June 8 - Zawahiri mourns Bin Laden in a 28-minute eulogy on YouTube. He calls on Pakistanis to rise against what he called their corrupt rulers "just as your brothers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria have done".

June 16 - Osama bin Laden's long-time lieutenant, Zawahiri, is now the leader of al Qaeda, Al Arabiya television reports.

July 27 - Zawahiri urges Syrian protesters to direct their movement also against Washington and Israel, denouncing the United States as insincere in showing solidarity with them, according to a new Internet video issued. The video carried a date in June.  "You are standing with your bare chests facing tank and artillery shells and helicopters," Zawahiri said of the Syrians demonstrating against Assad, whom he denounced as "America's partner in the war on Islam in the name of fighting terror".

September 13 - Zawahiri voices support in an Internet video for popular revolts shaking the Middle East, saying Arabs no longer feared the United States. "Ten years have passed since the blessed attacks on New York and Washington and Pennsylvania, that mighty event which shook and continues to shake the pillars of the global crusade".

October 12 - Zawahiri urges Algerians in a video released to follow the example of Libyans and revolt against their leaders. He also attacks military rulers in his native Egypt for maintaining close ties with Israel.]]>
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			<title>Lybian rebels seize police building in Gaddafi's last stronghold</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/271785/lybian-rebels-seize-police-building-in-gaddafis-last-stronghold</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/271785/lybian-rebels-seize-police-building-in-gaddafis-last-stronghold#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 11 16:06:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=271785</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Forces found the police station, a site of heavy resistance deserted.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Fighters from Libya's new regime on Tuesday seized the police headquarters in the centre of Muamma Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte, the last stronghold for forces loyal to former Libyan president.

Meanwhile, National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters were gearing for a fresh onslaught on the desert town of Bani Walid, another remaining bastion of forces loyal to the ousted dictator, prompting civilians to flee.

In Sirte, jubilant NTC combatants celebrated the takeover of the strategic police building, which they found to be deserted.

They then proceeded to ransack the complex and destroy posters of the fugitive Gaddafi that they found inside.

The building's rooftop offers a panoramic view of the whole city, with the seaside 300-400 metres (yards) to the north and the massive Ouagadougou conference centre, captured on Sunday, several kilometres (miles) to the south.

In contrast to Monday, when NTC forces were pounded with rockets and gunfire as they battled Gaddafi loyalists street by street, they met no resistance on Tuesday as they edged into the city centre.

An advance force of about 30 fighters checked each house as they moved forward from the city's east, kicking in doors and covering each other against possible snipers hidden on rooftops.

Clothing abandoned by soldiers and remains of meals were found in some buildings.

The fighters became more cautious once they reached the city centre, sticking to its edges for fear that snipers were lying in wait.

Fighters celebrated by honking the horns of their vehicles and firing into the air, but the jubilation ended abruptly when one apparently shot himself in the throat accidentally and died on the spot.

Early afternoon, fighting erupted southwest of the central square, a vast esplanade that extends from the base of the police building and dominates the city, an AFP reporter said.

Fighters who had taken over the police headquarters regrouped and were seen heading in that direction.

The NTC forces had besieged Sirte from September 15 before launching on Friday what they termed a "final assault" that has seen at least 70 of their number killed and hundreds wounded, according to medics.

On Sunday, they also captured Sirte's university campus and main hospital.

Wissam bin Ahmid, commander of NTC forces on Sirte's eastern front, said on early Tuesday his fighters were close to overrunning the entire city but still feared for the safety of many civilians.

"There remains still two square kilometres (0.8 square mile) to take to free the city completely," Ahmid told AFP.

"There are still some snipers. But our main worry are the families still in the city who are too afraid to leave their houses as the snipers are using them as firing posts," he said.

Yusef Sultan, a man in his 40s, was hit by a bullet in the leg as he tried to flee in a car.

"We were nine families in one house, 35 people, mostly women and children. We had water but no electricity for two months and survived on rice and bread. The Gaddafi forces prevented us from leaving, slashing the tyres of cars in garages and forcing us to turn back," he said.

Forces close in on Bani Walid

In Bani Walid, an oasis 170 kilometres (105 miles) southeast of Tripoli, the military said NTC fighters withdrew from forward positions in a "tactical pull back" after intense fighting on Sunday.

"We lost 17 fighters in fierce clashes on Sunday and our forces have withdrawn from the airport where they had taken control," said Salem Gheith, head of the NTC military command centre in the capital.

"We've received reinforcements from Tripoli and the Nafusa mountains, and we will resume the offensive," he said.

Civilians fearing more clashes were fleeing Bani Walid on Tuesday, an AFP reporter on the edge of town said.

Fighters at Shumayh checkpoint near the oasis said between 20 and 25 civilian vehicles had passed through by mid-morning.

"We hear that there will be fighting. In the town, there is no doctor, no water, no electricity," said a man in a white Mitsubishi that also carried four veiled women.

He said "more than 20,000" civilians were still holed up in Bani Walid.

"There are mercenaries and militia in the streets," said the man, who was taking his family to a camp west of town for those displaced by the fighting.

NTC fighters distributed fruit juice and sweets to the fleeing families.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the alliance was close to terminating its mission in Libya, but despite NTC advances in Sirte, NATO "had no knowledge of the colonel's whereabouts," adding that Gaddafi "is not a target of our operation."

NTC commanders believe one of Gaddafi's sons, Mutassim, is in Sirte and that another, Seif al-Islam, once seen as the former strongman's successor, is hiding in Bani Walid, possibly with his father.

Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, head of the NATO military committee, said that while an NTC victory in Sirte "will be an iconic moment," the alliance will only end its air campaign once civilians are definitely out of harm's way and the NTC is capable of keeping the whole country safe.

"The fall of Sirte is an important element, but like any decision it will not be the only factor," he said.]]>
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			<title>UK defence aide’s fate hangs in balance</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/270697/uk-defence-aide%e2%80%99s-fate-hangs-in-balance</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/270697/uk-defence-aide%e2%80%99s-fate-hangs-in-balance#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 10 Oct 11 05:21:03 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=270697</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The opposition calls for a wider inquiry and an emergency statement from Fox.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The fate of Britain’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox may be decided next week after claims his relationship with a close friend and unofficial adviser may have breached national security.

The role of defence secretary is particularly sensitive in Britain because of the involvement of about 10,000 British troops in Afghanistan and its role in helping Nato protect civilians in Libya after the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi.

Fox returned to Britain on Sunday from Libya where his first visit to the country was overshadowed by the saga.

Prime Minister David Cameron has demanded the initial findings of an inquiry arrive on his desk on Monday after media furore surrounding his minister’s ties with a former flatmate and best man at his wedding, Adam Werritty, refused to go away.

Although Cameron has said he has “full confidence” in Fox, the 48-hour deadline was shorter than the two-week deadline Fox gave a top military civil servant to carry it out.

One defence analyst said Fox, who has been defence secretary since the Conservative-led coalition came to power in 2010, would fight to keep his job, saying Fox’s behaviour was more a case of poor judgment than a risk to national security.

But the opposition is calling for a wider inquiry, and will push for Fox to make an emergency statement to parliament on Monday, where he is already due to answer defence questions.

“I mean it’s not just the questions of national security and access to highly sensitive information. It’s also the question of the probity and procurement,” Harriet Harman, deputy Labour leader, told BBC television on Sunday.

“But there’s now a further question about Dr Fox’s integrity and the question of whether he actually answered truthfully and fully all the questions that have been put.”

Fox, on the right of Cameron’s Conservatives and seen as a leadership challenger, is sceptical on Europe and in favour of close cooperation with the United States on defence issues. His departure would leave Cameron searching for someone of similar political leanings to avoid accusations that his

coalition with the Liberal Democrats was getting dragged too far into the centre ground of British politics.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Breakdown of the grand bargain — II</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/270292/breakdown-of-the-grand-bargain-%e2%80%94-ii</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/270292/breakdown-of-the-grand-bargain-%e2%80%94-ii#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 09 Oct 11 19:17:29 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Shahid Javed Burki]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=270292</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The Arab Spring has resulted in breaking down the ‘grand bargain’ between the West and Arab and Muslim worlds.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Arab Spring has resulted in breaking down what might be called the ‘grand bargain’ between the West and the autocratic governments that had long dominated the Arab and Muslim worlds. This bargain filled in the vacuum created first by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early parts of the 20th century, followed by the end of colonialism a few decades later in the same century. But the Arab world was too important a geographic space to be left to the own devices of the countries that were created, most of them artificially, by the departing colonial powers. What was put in place was an informal arrangement that might be called the ‘grand bargain’.

It had four components. Three of these were promises of good behaviour in terms of the strategic interests of the West on the part of the ruling establishment. The fourth was the implicit — on some occasions explicit — promise by America and Europe to protect the establishment from its own people.

The West wanted the Arab leaders to ensure its access to the vast energy resources of the region. Its dependence on oil from the Middle East increased in the 1990s as the rates of economic growth in almost all countries in this part of the world reached levels without precedence in their recent economic histories. None of the western capitals wished to live through once again the uncertainty and economic upheaval caused by the oil embargo imposed by the Arab oil producers to punish the United States for its unqualified support of Israel. That was the first and only time the Arab governments took collective action to protest what they considered to be the wrong done to the Palestinians by the West, in particular by the United States.

The West also wanted unhindered access to the economically and strategically important sea lanes that pass through the waters controlled by the countries in the area. The memory of the 1956 nationalisation of the Suez Canal by Gemal Abdul Nasser, the nationalist leader of Egypt, while dimmed by time, was still a part of the strategic thinking in the West. The nationalisation was the only time that a deep fissure developed among the western countries in the post-World War era. Britain and France attempted to annul Nasser’s act by sending in their militaries while the United States was troubled by the moves of the two major European powers. The Israelis also moved their troops and flotilla and another war in the Middle East seemed imminent. However, Washington stepped in to prevent any such flare-up. President Dwight Eisenhower ordered London and Paris to pull back their assault troops, the only time the United States took an action that was not totally in favour of the Jewish state.

The third element in the grand bargain was the Arab acceptance of the creation of Israel and the recognition of the Jewish state. A significant step in that direction was taken by Egypt when its president on March 26, 1979 signed the peace agreement with Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel. The move was not welcomed for some time by the rest of the Arab world. A few months after the signing of the agreement in America, the Arab League expelled Egypt from its membership and moved its headquarter from Cairo and Tunis. While the boundaries of Israel were not defined in this agreement or the one signed subsequently with Jordan by Israel, the Israelis kept changing the ‘facts on the ground’ by expanding their settlements deep into the West Bank. They have continued to implement this strategy.

In return for these three parts of the grand bargain, the West implicitly pledged not only to tolerate the Arab regimes but provide them with military support when their existence was threatened by some internal forces. They also allowed the members of the establishment to store their looted riches in the West — in the form of large bank accounts and large real estate holdings. This is one reason why George HW Bush, then the American president, went to war in 1991 to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait after the latter had invaded the country in his immediate neighbourhood. Allowing Saddam to stay in Kuwait would have been against the grand bargain. He had to be expelled.

It didn’t matter that the regimes the West supported were often brutal towards their people and plundered the enormous wealth of the countries over which they presided. It should have been seen by the parties involved in the grand bargain that it would not produce a stable economic and political order. Several policy analysts had warned as long ago as the 1960s when their works were published in the United States that political institutions must be allowed to develop to accommodate economic change. One of them was Samuel P Huntington, a Harvard political scientist who was later to win fame by predicting what he called a clash between two civilizations, the West and Islam. In an earlier work he argued that economic progress produces societal tensions. He suggested, in a book titled Political Order in Changing Societies, that those who feel “relatively deprived” will agitate, if not altogether rebel, against the state. The same conclusion was reached by the economist Albert O Hirschman, also of Harvard University, who discussed the three choices that are available and could be exercised by the deprived – exit, voice or royalty. The Arab street chose voice over the two other options.

With the Arab Spring having disposed of three long-enduring regimes — in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, in that order —  and may succeed in bringing down at least three more — Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, difficult to say in which order — the will of the people can no longer be ignored. Factoring in what the people want in policymaking has already resulted in the collapse of the ‘grand bargain”. A new order has already begun to take shape and will affect the relations of the countries in the region with the West, in particular with the United States.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Football: Nigeria, South Africa miss out</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/270405/football-nigeria-south-africa-miss-out</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/270405/football-nigeria-south-africa-miss-out#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 09 Oct 11 18:05:46 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=270405</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Nigeria missed out on the finals after Guinea scored a 95th-minute equaliser to draw 2-2.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Nigeria and South Africa were among the heavyweight casualties on the penultimate day of African Nations Cup qualifiers as Angola, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Tunisia, Zambia and Niger all made it through to next year’s tournament. Libya also qualified as one of the two best runners-up but Nigeria missed out on the finals after Guinea scored a 95th-minute equaliser to draw 2-2 in Abuja. South Africa also failed to qualify after being held to a goal-less home draw by Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, Libya’s triumph came after a 0-0 draw with Zambia in Chingola.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Panetta admits to employing drones in Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/269384/panetta-admits-to-employing-drones-in-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/269384/panetta-admits-to-employing-drones-in-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Oct 11 20:13:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=269384</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Drone programme infected with keystroke recording malware.]]>
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				<![CDATA[US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday acknowledged what has long been an open secret - that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deploys armed Predator drones to hunt down militants in a number of countries.

The US government has previously officially declined to admit that the spy agency's drone strikes, but Panetta - who served as Central Intelligence Agency director until taking over the Pentagon in July -made two casual references to the CIA's use of robotic aircraft during a visit to US bases in Italy.

"Having moved from the CIA to the Pentagon, obviously I have a hell of a lot more weapons available to me in this job than I did at CIA -although Predators aren't bad," Panetta told an audience of sailors at the US Navy's Sixth Fleet headquarters in Naples.

Later at a joint US-Italian air base in Sigonella, Panetta thanked air crews for their role in the NATO air campaign over Libya as he stood in front of a Global Hawk drone, a larger unmanned aircraft that flies at high altitude for surveillance missions and is not armed.

Panetta cited the important role of drones in the Libya operation, including the Predator drones.

Predators are "something I was very familiar with in my past job," he said. During his tenure as the CIA chief, a majority of drone strikes by US were conducted inside Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After Panetta spoke, a Predator drone took off from the base - right on cue.

The military does not hide its own drone flights in Libya or the war in Afghanistan, in contrast to the CIA's covert missions to take out al Qaeda extremists in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

It was not the first time Panetta has made references to the drone programme, which US officials credit with severely weakening al Qaeda.

As CIA director, he once alluded to the drone strikes against al Qaeda as "the only game in town".

The Drones are infected with computer virus

A scoop by Wired.com magazine revealed that the drone programme had been recently struck by a virus.

The virus, which does not affect the ability of the remote operator to control or fire from the aircraft, records the pilot's every keystroke, compiling a log and sending it back to the worm creator.

The virus has so far resisted all attempts by technicians to remove the offending piece of code.

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”

According to Wired, one officer said that the virus could most probably be a common malware. While in itself it cannot harm the system, it could be potentially dangerous given to whom it communicates the logged keystrokes outside of military networks.]]>
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			<title>Nobel honours African, Arab women for peace</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/269036/nobel-honours-african-arab-women-for-peace</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/269036/nobel-honours-african-arab-women-for-peace#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Oct 11 16:13:43 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=269036</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[A Yemeni and two Liberians, including that country's president share Nobel peace prize.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Declaring women's rights vital for world peace, the Nobel Committee awarded its annual Peace Prize on Friday to three indomitable female campaigners against war and oppression -- a Yemeni and two Liberians, including that country's president.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman freely elected as a head of state in Africa, shared the award worth $1.5 million with compatriot Leymah Gbowee, who promoted a "sex strike" among efforts to end Liberia's civil war, and Yemen's Tawakul Karman, who called her honour "a victory for the Arab Spring".

"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society," Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told reporters.

"This is to highlight an incredibly important issue all over the world but especially in Africa and in the Arab world."

Karman, a 32-year-old journalist and veteran campaigner, has been a key figure in protests in the capital Sanaa this year:

"This is a victory for the Arab Spring in Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen," she told Reuters. "This is a message that the era of Arab dictatorships is over."

Typically, she was out demonstrating in a central square in Sanaa for the departure of veteran Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh when she heard the news.

Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, a former World Bank economist dubbed the "Iron Lady" by opponents, called it a recognition of her nation's "many years of struggle for justice, peace, and promotion of development" since a brutal decade of civil war.

"I believe we both accept this on behalf of the Liberian people, and the credit goes to the Liberian people," she said.

Gbowee, 39, was travelling in the United States. Her Women For Peace movement is credited by some helping end the war in 2003. Starting with prayers and songs at a fish market, she also urged the wives and girlfriends of leaders of the warring factions to deny them sex until they laid down their arms.]]>
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			<title>Breakdown of the “Grand Bargain” — I</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/265280/breakdown-of-the-%e2%80%9cgrand-bargain%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%94-i</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/265280/breakdown-of-the-%e2%80%9cgrand-bargain%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%94-i#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 02 Oct 11 17:36:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Shahid Javed Burki]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=265280</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The Arab Spring will affect not only the entire Middle East. It is also likely to profoundly impact South Asia.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[More often than not, change that makes history happens slowly, mostly unnoticed. Why it occurs is left to the historians to explain and argue about. Sometimes revolutions bring about change as happened in 18th century America and France and 20th century Russia and China. What we are witnessing now in the Arab world is a revolution. In the series of articles I begin today, and will continue to contribute to this space for weeks to come, I will explore the relevance of what is happening in the Arab world, not only for the countries that are its part, it will profoundly affect the rest of the world as well. And its impact on Pakistan will be significant. Well understood by the policymaking elite, the revolution on the Arab street could change Pakistan’s situation for the better.

The Arab Spring is a movement that has brought the citizenry of the several countries affected by this unfolding drama to the centre stage of politics. If all goes well, those in power will no longer be able to ignore the wishes and aspirations of the people. People will have influence on the making of economic and social policy and policies affecting relations with the outside world. It will not be possible for the leadership in these countries to disregard what the ‘street’ thinks and believes in. Over time ‘the street’ will be replaced by the representatives of the people who will be able to hold the executive branch of the government responsible for the actions it takes. What keeps western leaders awake at night is the fear that they will have to make more than a phone call to persuade the various heads of state to walk their way.

They should also lose some sleep over the fact that by slipping over into the neighbouring regions, the peoples’ movement may further erode the global presence of the West. The Arab Spring will affect not only the entire Middle East and most non-Arab Muslim countries in the area. It is also likely to profoundly impact South Asia. That is likely to happen not only because a third of the South Asian population — half-a-billion out of the total of 1.5 billion people — are Muslims. There will be consequences for different countries in the region for different reasons. The peoples’ revolution would have come to Pakistan if the country had not opted in early 2008 for democratic governance. But it will still come through a different route, one which will take it out of the American orbit in which the country moved for more than half a century into one that has at its center some of the regional powers — Turkey, Egypt, perhaps also Pakistan itself.

The Anna Hazare movement in India has already exposed the shortcomings in the traditional democratic structure in which the elected parliament does not always seem to represent what the electorate really wants. That is why a large number of people, mostly from the expanding middle class, felt that their economic gains in recent years were not matched by any kind of political profit. Troubled by the fact that while their economic advance was the product of hard work and risk-taking enterprise, large fortunes had been made and were being made by misusing the power of the government. In Hazare they found a ‘saint-politician’ they were happy to support. The Indian system may also need some change as it is not working for the people of the less well performing regions of the vast country –they constitute the majority of the Indian population. The income and performance gaps between the states on the west coast compared to those in the country’s east are increasing. Millions of people in the poorer states feel and resent that the tide of ‘rising India’ is passing them by.

Bangladesh, the third largest country in the South Asian mainland, is also struggling to find its political feet. Like other South Asian countries, it has also not been able to institutionalise the process of political transition. Political power if not usurped by military leaders as was in its case and was also the case of Pakistan, tends to flow through dynastic channels. In Pakistan three major political parties are controlled by families. Pakistan Peoples Party is engaged in the process of preparing the third generation after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to take over its leadership. If the current plans succeed, India’s Congress Party will be handing over the reins of management to the fourth generation. In Bangladesh the two mainstream parties are led by the leaders who owe their positions to the members of their families who were once the country’s presidents. The current prime minister has removed one provision in the constitution through an amendment that had previously ensured some order in the transfer of power. The country’s president will no longer be able to let a caretaker administration take the responsibility for holding elections at the appointed time and in way that ensured political fairness.

One of the main lessons of the Arab Spring seems to have been lost on the leadership groups in South Asia, in particular on the families that have governed for so long and without being seriously challenged by political processes. One reason why so many people came out on the streets or assembled in public squares in so many different countries was the frustration with the fact that no political means were available for bringing about regime change. It is no coincidence that the three regimes that fell in less than one year had been in place for decades. The presidents of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya had governed for a total of 120 years. Populations frustrated with their performance and seeing no improvements in their own situation chose to rebel rather than continuing to remain passive and tolerant. There were many reasons why the street and the public square succeeded. One of the more important ones was that the established order did not have the support of the world outside the borders of the countries where people desired change. The “grand bargain” between the political elite and the West that had scaffolded the rule by the former finally broke down.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Targeting Anwar al Awlaki</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/265294/targeting-anwar-al-awlaki</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/265294/targeting-anwar-al-awlaki#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 02 Oct 11 16:04:15 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=265294</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Obama has failed to learn the lesson of the Bush presidency: terrorism is best fought with brains, not brawn.]]>
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				<![CDATA[US President Barack Obama swept to power on a promise of undoing the lawlessness of the Bush era. He vowed that the legal black hole that is Guantanamo would be shut down and that the US would regain its moral leadership under his rule. Guantanamo is still open for business and has been accompanied by an intensification of the drone campaign, both in war zones like Afghanistan and in the undeclared wars the US is fighting in Pakistan and Yemen. Obama has now also given himself the power to murder US citizens without any due process, simply on his orders. American citizen Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen by an airstrike almost certainly carried out by the US, has been described by the Obama administration as a top al Qaeda leader and one who needed to be eliminated to disrupt the terrorist group. The government, however, has not been able to provide much proof for these claims. Awalki was involved in dissemination of al Qaeda’s poisonous ideology and was thought by some experts to have a role in the outfit’s operations in Yemen.

Killing Awlaki without first getting a court order sets a dangerous precedent for a country that has always valued its fealty to its constitution. And it certainly seems as if the Obama administration has violated the Fifth Amendment to the US constitution which says: “No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law.” Add this to the fact that Obama launched a war in Libya without first seeking approval of Congress, again as mandated by law, and one finds an imperial presidency that is outdoing even George W Bush.

Questions of legality aside, the benefits of targeted killings such as that of Awlaki also need to be considered. In order to get Awlaki, the US has had to ally with the ruthless Yemeni President Saleh, a leader who has made killing his own citizens into a sport. Awlaki may also not have been too important in the al Qaeda set-up but now that he has been killed, the terrorist outfit will undoubtedly venerate him as a martyr and use his death to attract more people to their cause. Obama has failed to learn the most important lesson of the Bush presidency: terrorism is best fought with brains, not brawn.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Us threats : Tribal elders throw weight behind army</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/260505/us-threats-tribal-elders-throw-weight-behind-army</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/260505/us-threats-tribal-elders-throw-weight-behind-army#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 26 Sep 11 08:50:56 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=260505</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Tribal elders met with PPP leader Haji Ashraf Kakar on Sunday and lauded Chief of Army Staff Gen Kayani.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Tribal elders from Balochistan met with PPP leader Haji Ashraf Kakar on Sunday and lauded Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for his bold stance on the US allegations against Pakistan on the Afghan issue. Tribal elders included Malik Qayyum, Malik Shams, Malik Salam Noorzai, Nasibullah Otmankhail, Malik Habibullah Bazai and elders belonging to tribes including Kakar, Otmankhail, Yasinzai and Bazai. Addressing the meeting, Haji Ashraf Kakar, Malik Shams Kakar, Malik Qayyum and Malik Salam Noorzai pledged that cooperation would be extended to the Pakistan military for the defence of ideological and geographical borders of the country.  “The US should not take Pakistan as Iraq and Libya,” they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th,  2011.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Placing names on ECL: SHC displeased with SBP’s ‘shortcut tactic’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/259133/placing-names-on-ecl-shc-displeased-with-sbp%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98shortcut-tactic%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/259133/placing-names-on-ecl-shc-displeased-with-sbp%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98shortcut-tactic%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 24 Sep 11 02:31:31 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=259133</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Central bank does this to force people to meet demands.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Sindh High Court has warned the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) against recommending names for the Exit Control List (ECL) “at the behest of financial institutions which adopt [shortcuts to] forc[e] customers to surrender to demands”.

The unusual warning came from a bench headed by Chief Justice Musheer Alam and Justice Imam Bux Baloch of the Sindh High Court here on Thursday during the hearing of a constitutional petition filed by Hassan Raza, a resident of London, UK, and a former director of a company called Northen Chemicals (Pvt) Limited. He has challenged the decision to place his name on the ECL. According to Raza, the company took a loan from Pak Libya Company but defaulted due to bad economic conditions. In a compromise, the company then undertook to pay Rs106.271 million and the petitioner’s liability was fixed at Rs9.5 million.

When the petition came up for hearing, the bench took notice of the bank’s recommendation as disclosed by its assistant director Mudassir Latif.

The bench noted that a number of similar cases had surfaced in which the SBP had recommended placing someone’s name on the ECL which causes a “tremendous inconvenience” to them. In many cases, the SBP may be justified, but in a larger number of cases, their request seems to be only motivated at the behest of a financial institution which is taking a shortcut to “force a customer to surrender to their demands which are either sub judice before a court or otherwise”, the bench said in its order. It asked the officer in court to convey its “displeasure” to the relevant officer.

The bench ordered Latif to appear with a positive stance and policy directive if there are any, at the next hearing and said that if he fails to, he will be in contempt.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Blair used to take Libyan jets to meet Qaddafi</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/254955/blair-used-to-take-libyan-jets-to-meet-qaddafi</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/254955/blair-used-to-take-libyan-jets-to-meet-qaddafi#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 18 Sep 11 12:26:40 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=254955</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Documents recovered from Qaddafi's office show Blair visited Tripoli mulitple times in Libyan jets, met Libyan...]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Former British prime minister Tony Blair made two private trips to see Moamer Qaddafi in the run-up to the release of the Lockerbie bomber, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper revealed.

Blair, who left office in June 2007, used a Libyan regime jet to visit Qaddafi in June 2008 and April 2009, the broadsheet said, citing documents discovered in Tripoli since Qaddafi was ousted from power.

Blair played a major role in trying to bring Qaddafi in from the cold in exchange for giving up his nuclear weapons programme and first visited him in March 2004 in what was dubbed the "deal in the desert".

A spokesman for Blair acknowledged that the visits took place and that the Libyans had raised the issue of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi but the former premier simply told them that it was a matter for the Scottish authorities.

Megrahi is the only man convicted over the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people, mostly Americans, when it exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, was said to be only three months from death when he was freed from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds on August 20, 2009.

The Telegraph disclosure is likely to add to pressure for Blair to make public the full extent of his dealings with Qaddafi since leaving Downing Street.

The Sunday paper said that the documents showed that in both 2008 and 2009, Blair negotiated to fly to Tripoli from Sierra Leone in a jet provided by Qaddafi.

The documents also showed that Blair had a further private meeting with Qaddafi in June 2010.

The Sunday Telegraph said the visits raised concerns of possible conflicts of interest between Blair's roles as a Middle East peace envoy, a business consultant and a philanthropist.

Blair denies reports

A spokesman for the ex-premier said: "Tony Blair has never had any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the government of Libya and he has no commercial relationship with any Libyan company or entity.

"The subjects of the conversations during Mr Blair's occasional visits was primarily Africa, as Libya was for a time head of the African Union; but also the Middle East and how Libya should reform and open up.

"Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi. Mr Blair explained, as he always did, in office and out of it, that it was not a decision for the UK government but for the Scottish executive.

"No business deals of any nature were discussed. At the time, governments around the world were engaging with Libya. Qaddafi was received in several European capitals including Brussels, Rome and Paris.

"There was therefore at that time no reason whatsoever for not continuing to engage with him, especially since Mr Blair in office had been responsible for getting Qaddafi  to give up his chemical and nuclear weapons programme and renounce terrorism."

A review released in February found that the British government did "all it could" to help Libya in pursuing Megrahi's freedom, fearing that "UK interests would be damaged" otherwise.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Fair Trial Doubted: Niger won’t expel Qaddafi’s son</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/254318/fair-trial-doubted-niger-won%e2%80%99t-expel-qaddafi%e2%80%99s-son</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/254318/fair-trial-doubted-niger-won%e2%80%99t-expel-qaddafi%e2%80%99s-son#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 17 Sep 11 12:59:41 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=254318</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Qaddafi’s son Saadi fled to Niger after the collapse of the regime in Tripoli.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Nigerien government said on Friday it will not send fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saadi back home from Niger, where he fled after the collapse of the regime in Tripoli. Asked by journalists if Niger would turn Qaddafi’s son over to Libya’s new authorities, government spokesman Marou Amadou said, “No.” “With regard to (our) international obligations, we cannot send someone back there where he has no chance of receiving a fair trial,” he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Recognition of new Libyan authority: Tripoli issues warning as Pakistan treads cautious line</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/252791/recognition-of-new-libyan-authority-tripoli-issues-warning-as-pakistan-treads-cautious-line</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/252791/recognition-of-new-libyan-authority-tripoli-issues-warning-as-pakistan-treads-cautious-line#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 14 Sep 11 22:59:31 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[qaiser.butt]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=252791</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Wait-and-watch approach continues to recognise the rebel-led NTC.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) will not revalidate residential visas of Pakistan’s diplomats in Tripoli, if Islamabad does not recognise the new administration soon, official sources told The Express Tribune.

The Pakistani charge d’affaires in Tripoli was summoned by the Libyan foreign ministry to inform him of the decision.

According to the NTC, Tripoli will not revalidate residential visas issued by former leader Col Muammar Qaddafi to the diplomats of all those countries, including Pakistan, that do not recognise the new Libyan authority as a legitimate representative of the people. However, despite a recommendation by the Pakistani foreign ministry in favour of NTC, the Pakistani government has decided to delay recognising the new Libyan administration, another official source told The Express Tribune.

The ministry was asked by its high-ups to “wait and see” the Libyan situation for another couple of days, the source said. “It has been decided by the top leaders not to recognise the rebel-led NTC till the absconding Libyan leader Col Qaddafi is holding the gun.”

(Read: Libya situation - Pakistan adopts wait-and-watch approach)

However, at the same time Islamabad also chose to ignore the Libyan ambassador’s decision to hoist the new flag of Libya in Islamabad without prior permission from the government.

According to the official source, although Pakistan has reservations against the hoisting of the new tri-coloured national flag of Libya in Islamabad, it will not initiate any proceedings against the envoy.

“Under diplomatic norms and rules, it was obligatory for the Libyan ambassador to obtain formal permission from Pakistan before hoisting a new flag at his embassy building,” the source said, adding: “It is violation of rules and procedures on the part of the Libyan ambassador as we have not recognised the new flag yet.”

The Qaddafi-appointed Libyan ambassador in Islamabad, who switched loyalties to the rebels last month, had formally requested Pakistan to recognise the NTC as the legitimate authority of his country.

So far, 75 countries have recognised the NTC, while Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Central Asian States and Pakistan are yet to follow suit.

Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar told The Express Tribune that Pakistan will take its decision on the issue at an appropriate time. “We should keep in mind that many friendly countries of Pakistan and its neighbouring nations have not recognised the NTC-led administration in Tripoli, so far,” Babar said.

A former Pakistani ambassador, while supporting an immediate recognition of the NTC by Islamabad, said, “We should not have any sympathy for a dictator who caused the deaths of over 50,000 people within months to perpetuate his dictatorship.”

“It was the same Qaddafi who had caused serious damage to Pakistan by telling the US about Islamabad’s alleged support [to Libya] for manufacturing nuclear arms,” he told The Express Tribune requesting anonymity.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Libya disavows extreme Islam as world looks on</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/252252/libya-disavows-extreme-islam-as-world-looks-on</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/252252/libya-disavows-extreme-islam-as-world-looks-on#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 14 Sep 11 12:39:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=252252</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Libyans spurn militancy, Interim rulers want to promote tolerance.]]>
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				<![CDATA[When it comes to Islam, moderation is the keyword in Libya, a country at pains to assure the world that it will not become a centre of extremism now that Moamer Qaddafi has gone.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York by al Qaeda, Libya's new de-facto president made a point of addressing the future of Islam in his country, which many abroad fear could take a militant turn.

"Ninety percent of us are moderate Muslims ... five percent are on the right and left sides," said Mustafa Abdel Jalil late on Saturday, in his first public appearance in Tripoli since it fell to anti-Qaddafi fighters on Aug. 23.

He urged unity and asked those with more marginal views on religion to restrict their sparring to debate.

Many abroad point to the surge of militancy in Iraq after the US-led invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, but so far, Islam appears likely to have a more benign influence in Libya.

Long oppressed groups and institutions are quietly renewing themselves and swelling their ranks, but they say they have little political ambition for now, and are more interested in furthering national unity and Islamic values.

"We don't want power or position or politics," said Mohammed Hammadi, a heavily bearded Salafist..

"Look, if you're going to drink, drink at home, don't let it affect us," said Mustapha al-Kikili, another bearded Salafist standing outside a Tripoli mosque.

The long beards of the devout have proliferated in Libya after the fall of Qaddafi, who clamped down hard, seeing them as a threat to his absolute rule. Many extremists, or suspected extremists, were imprisoned and executed.

100 percent Muslim

 

Libya, with a population of six million, is almost completely Sunni Muslim and religiously conservative, but there are still varied views on Islam's role in post-Qaddafi Libya.

"A man who does not fear God has no place in Libya," said Nabeel Shoukry, an anti-Qaddafi fighter sitting at a coffee shop down the road from the Tripoli mosque.

Another man who sat nearby countered.

"But there are people, revolutionaries who stood with us, who do not pray," said sweet shop owner Nader al-Thayyab.

A third man butted in.

"Libya is 100% Muslim, but there are three levels. A small level that is devout, a second that just follow the general laws and a third who don't pray, the technocrats, and are Muslim only in name. All have a role in the new Libya," said unemployed Mohammed al-Sagheer.

Nader Omrani, who heads the Tripoli body that oversees the city's Islamic affairs and its mosques, said Western fears of extremism taking root in Libya were unfounded.

"That's a false idea. We've had six months of revolution and we haven't seen any evidence of this," he said.

Officials in the United States have said they see "flickers" of al Qaeda in the anti-Qaddafi ranks, but there has been little sign of overt militancy on the ground.

Omrani and his counterpart in Libya's second city of Benghazi say they hope to open more Islamic colleges and promote Islamic values, moves they say will stop deviant extremist ideas taking hold.

Religious observation would be up to the individual, and women's rights would be respected, he said.

"The religious bodies will encourage people to follow Islamic rules, but we won't force them," he said, adding that it was too soon to think about Islamic political parties.

"Maybe the Islamic front will have political ambitions. But what all Libyans agree on is that it's their choice. An Islamic political presence is still a distant prospect," he said.

Political ambitions

Libya's new interim leaders, the National Transitional Council, say they will hold elections and build a democratic society, which though based on Islamic law, or sharia, will respect the religious beliefs of others.

On Sept 13, Jalil used his first public Tripoli speech to call for religious moderation and the rule of law.

"We seek a state of law, prosperity and one where Sharia is the main source for legislation, and this requires many things and conditions," he said, adding that "extremist ideology" would not be tolerated.

The exact place of Sharia in the legal system in practice will only be settled once a new constitution is written by a constituent assembly and approved by a referendum, steps that are many months away.

Several other Arab states' laws are technically based on Sharia, but the extent to which it is applied varies widely.

One person who does have political ambitions is Alamin Belhaj, a member of the NTC and a senior member of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood, a group inspired by the powerful Egyptian group of the same name.

"Of course I've read a lot about the concerns of the West, but I can assure you that the Islamists in Libya, mostly or 100 percent are moderate," he said.

"Our belief is in a democratic state, in all the democratic mechanisms. We need to base our democracy on Sharia," he added.

Libya's Brotherhood has fewer than 1,000 members because under Qaddafi recruitment was secretive and restricted to elites, Belhaj said. However, membership has doubled in size since the February revolt against Qaddafi's rule, he added.

Like Omrani, he also said it was too soon to think about a political party, expecting the Brotherhood instead to initially take a nationalist stance to foster unity after six months of war and division.

Alamin pointed to one other group he said had political ambitions, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a now defunct organisation that waged a failed insurgency against Qaddafi in the 1990s and whose leaders took refuge in Afghanistan. Its leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj is now head of Tripoli's new military council. Alamin and Abdel Hakim are not related.

The group has recently changed its name to the Peaceful Change Movement, while Belhadj, who once spent time with al Qaeda men in Afghanistan, has renounced religious militancy, said Alamin, who knows Belhadj well.

Western uncertainties about Libyan militants centre partly on the LIFG's record and partly on a lack of information about the current activities, and views, of scores of young men who went to fight US troops in Iraq in the mid-2000s and who returned and dropped out of sight.

Some LIFG members in exile are believed by Western officials to have helped a number of young men in the Arab diaspora to travel to Iraq to fight.

As many as several dozen Libyans have joined al Qaeda's Algerian-based north African offshoot in recent years, counter-terrorism officials say. But when al Qaeda's central leadership in Pakistan announced a merger with the LIFG in late 2007, the Libyan group rejected the move and embarked on a reconciliation process with the Libyan government which ended with the group disbanding itself in mid-2009.

Belhaddj's group was not immediately available for comment, but earlier this month he told a French newspaper:

"There is nothing to fear, we are not al Qaeda, I have never been in it, I can say that with complete tranquility."]]>
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			<title>Turkish PM to visit Egypt, boost regional influence</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/250670/turkish-pm-to-visit-egypt-boost-regional-influence</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/250670/turkish-pm-to-visit-egypt-boost-regional-influence#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 12 Sep 11 08:32:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=250670</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Erdogan's trip will be followed by visits to Libya and Tunisia, which, like Egypt, have thrown off long-time rulers.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan meets Egypt's new military rulers during a visit to Cairo starting on Monday that is likely to be scrutinised by Israel whose once cosy ties with both Muslim states have been shaken.

Erdogan's trip will be followed by visits to Libya and Tunisia, which, like Egypt, have thrown off long-time rulers, highlighting Turkey's bid to expand its regional influence.

Egypt has long viewed itself as a leading voice in the Arab world but Turkey's influence has risen steadily with its growing economic might and its assertive policy in the region, notably towards Israel, which has drawn praise from many Arabs.

"There will be rivalry over a regional role for sure. Egypt is not in a position to play such a role at the moment so Erdogan is trying to take advantage of that," said Adel Soliman, head of Cairo's International Centre for Future and Strategic Studies.

Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador in a feud over an Israeli raid last year that killed nine Turks on a flotilla bound for the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

Egypt said it would withdraw its ambassador from Tel Aviv last month after five Egyptian border guards were killed when Israel repelled cross-border raiders it said were Palestinian.

But it did not follow through with the threat.

Egypt's army rulers have struggled to quell the public fury over the incident, which boiled over into an attack by protesters on the Israeli embassy that prompted Israel to fly its ambassador and embassy staff home on Saturday.

Both Egypt and Israel say they want a return to normal diplomatic activities. Cairo has vowed to protect the embassy and try the attackers, offering some reassurance to Israel over its commitment to a 1979 peace treaty.

"Theatrics"

Despite their spats with Israel, Soliman played down prospects of the two nations aligning policies against the Jewish state.

"I don't think they will have any big agreements when it comes to Israel," he said. "There is a lot of exaggeration, I see it more as theatrics than anything practical."

Egypt has received billions of dollars in U.S. military and other aid since signing its peace treaty with Israel, so the ruling generals face a balancing act when responding to public calls for a more assertive policy to towards the Jewish state.

When asked on Sunday about the attack on Israel's Cairo embassy, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu only said Egyptians had given their own reaction and said Israel was more isolated.

But he added: "We as Turkey say that we will continue to bring on to the agenda Israel's incorrect attitudes in all global platforms in the framework of international law and after this Israel will become even more isolated."

Moshe Yaalon, Israel's vice prime minister called on Erdogan in a speech in Tel Aviv on Monday to reconsider Turkey's attitude in relations with the Jewish state.

"We have no interest in deteriorating relations with Turkey and we are worried that this attitude will encourage the terror groups. Therefore we call on Prime Minister Erdogan to change course," Yaalon said.

Uzi Rabi, Middle East analyst at Tel Aviv university, said Erdogan's trip was part of his bid to "strengthen his foothold in the Arab world".

"He will use his visit to Cairo as a barometer to measure just how popular he is in the Arab street but some Arab leaders may not be as enthusiastic about seeing him feed on this popularity," he added.

Erdogan will meet Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling council that took over when Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February. He is expected to address the Cairo-based Arab League.

The Turkish prime minister will also meet his Egyptian counterpart Essam Sharaf. The two are due to sign a political declaration to create a strategic council for cooperation and will sign economic, trade, investment and other accords.

Erdogan is due to visit Tunisia on Wednesday and hold talks in Libya on Thursday.]]>
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			<title>Qaddafi son flees to Niger, fighting flares in Libya</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/250663/qaddafi-son-flees-to-niger-fighting-flares-in-libya</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/250663/qaddafi-son-flees-to-niger-fighting-flares-in-libya#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 12 Sep 11 08:03:23 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=250663</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Saadi, 38, the third of Qaddafi's seven sons and known as a playboy, had last month offered to give himself up.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Moamer Qaddafi's son Saadi has fled to Niger, an official said, as Libya's new regime promised an interim government in 10 days and fighting flared at one of the deposed leader's remaining strongholds.

"Today, September 11, a patrol of the Nigerien armed forces intercepted a convoy in which was found one of Qaddafi's sons," Niger government spokesman Marou Amadou said on Sunday.

It was Saadi Qaddafi, "the footballer", said Amadou, who is also Niger's justice minister.

"At this moment the convoy is en route to Agadez (northern Niger). The convoy could arrive in Niamey between now and (Monday)," he added.

Saadi, 38, the third of Qaddafi's seven sons and known as a playboy, had last month offered to give himself up "if my surrender stops the spilling of blood."

He was hired in 2003 to play for Italian first division club Perugia but barely kicked a ball when he was suspended for eight months after testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.

He renounced his football career in 2004 to join the army, where he led an elite unit.

Niger vowed Friday to respect international commitments if wanted Libyans entered its territory, and confirmed that three Qaddafi-era generals, including his air force chief, Al-Rifi Ali Al-Sharif, had arrived in Agadez.

Niamey has denied that Qaddafi himself was on its soil.

Mahmud Jibril, deputy head of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), said in Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday that a new transitional government would be formed within 10 days.

Rebel forces were still "in the process of liberating Libya, and revolutionary combatants are still on the fronts," Jibril said. Another government would be formed once "Libya is liberated", he added.

NTC fighters on Sunday clashed with Qaddafi's forces at Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli and moved closer to the Mediterranean city of Sirte, the toppled autocrat's hometown.

In Bali Walid, 180 kilometres (110 miles) from Tripoli, an AFP correspondent said at least three fighters were killed and 15 wounded in skirmishes on the outskirts of the town.

Forces loyal to Libya's new rulers have gathered there awaiting the final signal from their commanders to storm the oasis town.

NTC interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil on Saturday gave the green light to attack Bani Walid, Sirte and Sabha in the deep south. The deadline for pro-Qaddafi enclaves to surrender had passed, he said.

Clashes erupted in the afternoon in Bani Walid neighbourhoods of Al-Mansila and Al-Hawasim, according to fighter Ahmed al-Warfalli, but military commanders insisted that the main assault had yet to begin.

All afternoon, a pro-Qaddafi radio station broadcast an appeal to residents to rally against the attackers.

"They want to spread corruption and destruction everywhere," said the broadcast.

"Go today, today, today -- now you are armed there is no excuse. This is the time for jihad (holy warfare)."

By evening, ambulances were rushing to and from the front line, and an AFP reporter counted three fighters killed and 15 wounded. The fighters said they had lost as many as 10 men.

Skirmishes on Friday night saw four NTC fighters killed and 26 wounded.

Sami Saadi Abu Rweis, a fighter returning from Bani Walid, reported snipers everywhere.

"They are shooting at us from two kilometres away. Bani Walid is full of arms -- every household has them.

"There is some type of treason going on. People pretended to be with the rebels but are really with Qaddafi."

Another AFP correspondent said that west of Sirte, around 200 pick-ups with mounted light artillery had gathered before dawn in the desert and began moving south, cutting through villages to the west and southwest, meeting no resistance.

Armed with Katyusha and Grad rockets, anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns, they ripped down pro-Qaddafi flags en route, and were met by villagers flashing victory signs and shouting "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)."

NTC leader Abdel Jalil arrived on Saturday to a red-carpet welcome at Tripoli's Metiga military base where he was mobbed by hundreds of supporters.

The visit, his first to Tripoli since his forces seized the city last month, was eagerly awaited in the hope that it would help tackle rivalries emerging among the groups that overthrew Qaddafi.

Relations are particularly strained between Tripoli and the second-largest city Benghazi, which was the rebels' wartime base; and the third-largest city Misrata, which endured a prolonged siege by Qaddafi forces.

Anti-Qaddafi fighters in Misrata have started to challenge NTC authority, refusing to turn over abandoned tanks as requested by interim leaders.

In western Libya, at least 12 people were killed and 16 wounded when two groups of fighters opposed to Qaddafi turned on each other, two officials said on Sunday.]]>
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			<title>Helping Hand: G8 raises Arab Spring financing pledge</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/249601/helping-hand-g8-raises-arab-spring-financing-pledge</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/249601/helping-hand-g8-raises-arab-spring-financing-pledge#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 10 Sep 11 21:13:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=249601</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The IMF promised a further $35 billion in funding to countries affected by Arab Spring uprisings.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Group of Eight finance chiefs pledged $38 billion on Saturday in financing to Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan over 2011-13, widening a deal agreed in May and offering Libya the chance to partake too. The IMF promised a further $35 billion in funding to countries affected by Arab Spring uprisings and formally recognised Libya’s ruling interim council as a legitimate power, opening up access to a myriad of international lenders as the country looks to rebuild after a six-month war. G8 chair France said the figure agreed at talks in the Mediterranean port of Marseille was roughly double a sum agreed in May, when the eight economic powers met in the northern French seaside town of Deauville. “The institutions pledged to increase their financial network to $38 billion compared with the $20 billion pledged at Deauville,” Baroin told a news conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Al Qaeda shadow of former self 10 years after 9/11</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/248626/al-qaeda-shadow-of-former-self-10-years-after-911</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/248626/al-qaeda-shadow-of-former-self-10-years-after-911#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 09 Sep 11 08:47:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=248626</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Al Qaeda's core leadership is badly wounded and incapable of mounting another attack, say US security officials.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Al Qaeda's core leadership is badly wounded and almost certainly incapable of mounting another attack like the one on September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington, according to US and European security officials.

But even as the threat of spectacular, coordinated mass-casualty attacks by al Qaeda seems to have faded, it has been replaced by new worries -- the network's violent spinoff groups and individual radical "lone wolves," to name two.

In an illustration of such concerns, US officials said on Thursday there was a credible but unconfirmed threat involving Washington and New York ahead of Sunday's 10th anniversary of the attacks on those cities.

Officials have said that intelligence gathered from the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May highlighted the al Qaeda leader's persistent interest in attacking the United States around the anniversary of the 2001 attacks.

But it is unclear if those plans ever evolved beyond aspiration. "AQ Central has never been weaker, they have been pounded into submission" by CIA drone attacks, said Roger Cressey, a former top White House counterterrorism official, referring to al Qaeda by its initials.

"If the threat was prioritized as AQ Central, the affiliates and self-radicalized individuals in that order after 9/11, the opposite order is true today," Cressey said.

The near-demise of al Qaeda, the Islamic militant network that grew out of the fight by bin Laden and fellow Arabs to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan in the 1980s, goes beyond bin Laden's killing by US forces in Pakistan.

The latest milestone was the killing last month in a US drone strike in Pakistan of Atiyah abd al-Rahman, a Libyan whom US officials called the No. 2 to Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as al Qaeda chief.

Rahman was the latest target of the dramatically intensified US drone campaign which, for all the controversy it has sparked in Pakistan and elsewhere, has become a lethal weapon for which al Qaeda leaders have offered no adequate answer.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said part of the significance of Rahman's demise was that unlike bin Laden, he tried to operate below the radar of Western spy agencies. Yet he was still identified, located and killed.

The vacuum created by the disintegration of al Qaeda's central command is being filled by Qaeda "franchises" -- spinoff or copycat branches of bin Laden's original network, counterterrorism officials say.

"The movement fueled by a common ideology has morphed into more of an AQ hydra, with the old core weakened but new franchises and inspired individuals taking on the global jihadi mantle," said Juan Zarate, a White House counterterrorism adviser to former President George W. Bush, referring to the multi-headed serpent of Greek mythology.

Al Qaeda propagandists and apologists have also established a formidable presence on the Internet to promote the group's ideology and indoctrinate militant wannabes.

'Lone wolves'

A worrisome development is the proliferation of individual violent militants -- the "lone wolves" -- who operate unseen by intelligence agencies and police and can create mayhem with a carful of home-made explosives or guns.

The result is a lower risk of future large conflagrations but a growing threat of smaller attacks that could be harder to detect and thwart.

"Future attacks against America will be less complex, less well organized, less likely to succeed, less lethal if they do succeed. They will just be more numerous," said retired General Michael Hayden, who led the CIA and National Security Agency.

Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA analyst who has advised Obama on counterterrorism policy, sounded a note of caution about the original al Qaeda.

"Al Qaeda's old core is badly wounded but still has powerful allies like the Pakistani Taliban that can serve as force multipliers," Riedel said.

Riedel said the next iteration of al Qaeda may be a proliferation of militants "trained for one-time missions to hemorrhage the US" -- people like Faisal Shahzad.

The Pakistan-born US citizen radicalized himself through the Internet, spent a few days with militants in Pakistani tribal areas, then tried last year to attack New York's crowded Times Square with an incompetently built car bomb.

Al Qaeda's core group headed by Zawahri retains a training and propaganda capability, US and European officials say. Its resources for training field operatives are nothing like the system of relatively sophisticated paramilitary encampments it operated in Afghanistan before the 2001 attacks.

At best, officials said, al Qaeda's central command can organize small-scale, temporary and discreet training sessions in remaining safe-havens in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The results of such efforts are mixed. Shahzad trained for a week or two with suspected al Qaeda militants in North Waziristan. But he failed to build a gasoline-based bomb that could actually explode. He was arrested at New York's JFK Airport as he tried to flee the United States.

Al Qaeda affiliates in Yemen (known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP) and north Africa (known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) are seen as the best-organized franchises of bin Laden's original network.

Somalia-based al Shabaab, which has recruited native Somalis in the United States and has growing ties to the Yemen affiliate, is also seen as a major concern.

The Yemen-based group is viewed with particular wariness because it has shown the capability for imaginative attack tactics such as underwear and printer-cartridge bombs. It also has been working, intelligence reports say, on a grisly innovation: bombs that would be surgically implanted inside a militants' body to deceive security screeners.

American-born imam

Its ambitions sparked particular concern in the US government because of the role in it played by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born imam who US officials believe has built a substantial following in the United States and other Western nations through English-language postings on the Internet.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Awlaki "pulled back" from public activities in recent months amid growing interest in him by US and European intelligence agencies.

Awlaki and others in the group have "isolated themselves" from the Internet and other electronic devices to improve their security, the official said.

One of the biggest concerns about Awlaki is his success in attracting and inspiring disaffected young Muslims, some of them converts to Islam. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist who is charged with killing 12 people in a shooting spree at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009, was an Awlaki admirer and e-mailed the preacher.

The extent to which Awlaki responded is unclear. Investigators said "lone wolves" sometimes become radicals on their own without direct contact with other militants.

These people, who get their ideology and potential tactical guidance exclusively from their computer screen, are difficult, if not impossible, for intelligence and security agencies to detect.

An August report by the RAND Corp. found that al Qaeda's use of the Internet to recruit home-grown US militants had largely failed, with only 10 of 32 plots going beyond the discussion stage, and six of those 10 broken up by FBI stings.

"America's home-grown jihadist terrorists have not shown great determination or very much competence," said Brian Michael Jenkins, the study's author.

Al Qaeda's decline also is thought to have greatly reduced the possibility that militants will acquire weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological or nuclear arms -- in the foreseeable future.

John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, said in June that U.S. officials can envision the "demise of al Qaeda's core leadership in the coming years."

Brennan said that over the past 2 1/2 years -- the period since Obama became president -- more than half of al Qaeda's top leaders have been eliminated and virtually every affiliate has lost its key leader or operational commander.]]>
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			<title>Forging new alliances: Pakistan to recognise rebel-led Libyan govt</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/247644/forging-new-alliances-pakistan-to-recognise-rebel-led-libyan-govt</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/247644/forging-new-alliances-pakistan-to-recognise-rebel-led-libyan-govt#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 08 Sep 11 00:07:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[qaiser.butt]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=247644</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan gearing up to officially recognise the NTC as the sole representative of the Libyan people.]]>
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				<![CDATA[After weeks of avoiding a stance on the Libyan situation, Pakistan is finally gearing up to officially recognise the National Transitional Council (NTC) as the sole representative of the Libyan people.

The decision comes after the Libyan mission in Islamabad hoisted the rebel flag on August 25, without proper authorisation, followed by a switch of loyalties from the Qaddafi-appointed ambassador in Islamabad, The Express Tribune learnt. An official announcement by the Pakistani ministry of foreign affairs is expected soon, the source added.

(Read: Libya situation - Pakistan adopts wait-and-watch approach)

“Pakistan is with the people of Libya,” the source said while explaining Islamabad’s policy on the Libyan crisis.

On August 25, the Libyan envoy in Islamabad, Ibrahim al Ebad, removed the green coloured flag, associated with the Qaddafi regime, and hoisted the de facto flag of Libya, used by the National Transitional Council at the Libyan embassy in Islamabad. According to official sources, however, the Libyan ambassador hoisted the new flag without the prior approval of the Pakistani government.

“It was mandatory for the Libyan ambassador to obtain prior permission from Islamabad to hoist the new flag of his country,” an official told The Express Tribune while requesting anonymity.

Furthermore, Ebad informed the foreign ministry about his decision to recognise the NTC as the only ‘true and legitimate authority in Libya’ and them to follow suit. The ambassador also confirmed that his fellow Libyan diplomats in Islamabad have disassociated themselves from the Qaddafi administration and pledged their loyalties to the NTC.

(Read: Voices from Libya)

Over 75 countries, including Russia, have recognised the NTC as the sole representative of the Libyan people. However, Libyan ambassadors and diplomats in India and Turkey have split up into pro and anti-Qaddafi camps.

Al Ebad and other Libyan diplomats had been active in seeking Pakistan’s support for Colonel Muammar Qaddafi until August 21, however after the fall of Tripoli at the hands of the rebels, they decided to dump the embattled Libyan leader in a state of haste, another official said on the condition of anonymity. There was also a sense of fear among Libyan diplomats that Pakistan might hand them over to the United States, as Qaddafi loyalists, after the NTC established its authority in Libya, the source added.

The Pakistani diplomatic mission in Tripoli, in a recent report, said that the NTC controls 95 per cent of the country, while Qaddafi loyalists were holding their control over the remaining 5 per cent. The report added that a majority of the 140 tribes representing Libyans had also recognised the NTC.

Furthermore, most of Libya’s African neighbours, except Algeria, have recognised the NTC. Iran and Saudi Arabia have not recognised the NTC as of yet but the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had accorded recognition to the new administration of Tripoli.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th,  2011.

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			<title>Dangers ahead</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/246466/dangers-ahead</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/246466/dangers-ahead#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 Sep 11 19:20:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tariq.fatemi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=246466</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Washington insiders speak of increasing anger  with Pakistan, starting with reduction in aid, blaming all on Pakistan.]]>
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				<![CDATA[It was inevitable that US-Pakistan relations should be a major subject of discussion in meetings with old friends and new acquaintances during the past weeks spent in the American capital. Regrettably, what one has been able to gather is not likely to provide much comfort back home.

For one, the anger emanating from the Abbottabad episode has continued to simmer; the US sense of deep disappointment continuing to fester like an open wound. This would have been worrying at any time, but far more so when the White House has trumpeted its resolve to end combat operations in Afghanistan by 2014.

The Obama administration has few, if any, complaints with Pakistan’s political leadership, notwithstanding the latter’s widely acknowledged corruption and near absence of governance, primarily because it believes that the civilians have little say on national security issues. The military and intelligence agencies are therefore seen as villains, responsible for pursuing an agenda that the US views with deep mistrust and escalating suspicion.

Consequently, Washington’s impatience is exacerbating an already bad situation, especially as it recognises that there are no neat solutions to its predicament in Afghanistan. Thus there is a tendency to lash out at Pakistan and hold the latter responsible for all that ails the US in Afghanistan. What has further handicapped the US approach is an absence of clarity and an inability to get all its players on the same wavelength. The president’s political associates appear to have a better feel for current ground realities in Afghanistan, which has led them to the conclusion that not only is a decisive victory out of the question, but even ensuring a reasonably decent ‘exit’ may well be problematic.

Moreover, with the economy showing no sign of recovery — the latest figures have added to deepening gloom — and Republicans demonstrating unprecedented intransigence, there is virtual deadlock on all issues, especially those relating to the economy. The president may therefore have little to offer on the economic front, which is what matters to the electorate, leaving him with no option but to toss foreign policy ‘crumbs’ at them to bolster his election prospects. Libya has proven to be a small but helpful development, but come election time it may not even be a small blip on the radar screen. However, an end to the Afghan fiasco, which has already cost the US nearly half a trillion dollars, could be sold as powerful evidence of Obama’s wisdom and resolve. Of course, this will happen only if the American exit can be wrapped up in an international agreement that talks of reconciliation within Afghanistan and provides for guarantees of non-intervention and non-interference by the neighbours.

But even this minimalist agenda requires clarity in Washington’s policy and determined pursuit of clearly articulated goals. Washington insiders, however, claim that while the White House is determined to bring about a ‘closure’ to its engagement in Afghanistan, the Pentagon remains opposed to an early end to combat operations, convinced that such a policy would be an incentive to al Qaeda and the Taliban to simply outsit the Americans and then plunge the country back into chaos that will serve its strategic objectives. And this is an approach that reportedly finds favour with the secretary of state, who is distancing herself from the White House’s strategy in Afghanistan.

In the meanwhile, Washington insiders speak of intense anger increasing with Pakistan, particularly if it is seen as not being helpful, especially on the Haqqani issue. A reduction in the Kerry-Lugar assistance package could be an early first step to convey Washington’s displeasure. And if Afghanistan turns out to be a bigger mess than it already is, Pakistan could be a convenient fall guy. This does not mean that a major crisis in relations is imminent, but unless both countries take immediate and concerted efforts, it could become inevitable. The danger signs are all there.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Libyan army convoy in Niger may be Qaddafi deal</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/246268/libyan-army-convoy-in-niger-may-be-qaddafi-deal</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/246268/libyan-army-convoy-in-niger-may-be-qaddafi-deal#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 Sep 11 06:57:26 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=246268</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Convoy of between 200-250 vehicles given escort by army of Niger might be joined by Qaddafi en route for Burkina Faso.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Qaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday.

Several hours later, Al Jazeera television reported that rebels had struck a deal with delegates from the Qaddafi holdout town of Bani Walid, 150 km south of Tripoli, to enter it without fighting later on Tuesday.

The pan-Arab news channel, citing the anti-Qaddafi forces, said the fighters were expected to enter the town after the deal is formalised, which would likely be around midday.

Bani Walid has been one of the main remaining pockets of Qaddafi resistance in the country.

The convoy of between 200 and 250 vehicles was given an escort by the army of Niger, an impoverished and landlocked former French colony to the south of Libya, and might, according to a French military source, be joined by Qaddafi en route for neighbouring Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum.

It was not clear where the 69-year-old former leader was. He has broadcast defiance since being forced into hiding two weeks ago, and has previously vowed to die fighting on Libyan soil.

Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, the heir apparent before the uprising which ended his father's 42 years of personal rule two weeks ago, also was considering joining the convoy, the French source added. France played a leading role in the war against Qaddafi and such a large Libyan military convoy could hardly have moved safely without the knowledge and agreement of NATO air forces.

Sources told Reuters that France may have brokered an arrangement between the new Libyan government and Qaddafi.

But a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry in Paris could not confirm the report of the convoy's arrival in the northern Niger desert city of Agadez nor any offer to Qaddafi, who with Saif al-Islam is wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Officials in other Western governments and in Libya's new ruling council were not immediately available for comment.

The sources said the convoy, probably including officers from army units based in the south of Libya, may have looped through Algeria rather than crossing the Libyan-Niger frontier directly. It arrived late on Monday near the northern city of Agadez. Algeria last week took in Qaddafi's wife, daughter and two other sons, angering the rebels who ended his 42-year rule.

"High spirits"

NATO warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft have been scouring Libya's deserts for large convoys of vehicles that may be carrying the other Qaddafis, making it unlikely that it could have crossed the border without some form of deal being struck.

Libya's new rulers have said they want to try Qaddafi before, possibly, handing him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has charged him with crimes against humanity.

Qaddafi's fugitive spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said on Monday that the former ruler was in good health and good spirits somewhere in Libya. "Muammar Qaddafi is in excellent health and in very, very high spirits," Ibrahim said in remarks broadcast on television.

"He is in a place that will not be reached by those fractious groups, and he is in Libya," Ibrahim told Arrai TV.

The head of Qaddafi's security brigades, Mansour Dhao, along with more than 10 other Libyans, crossed into Niger on Sunday, two Niger officials had said earlier on Monday.

The French military source said he had been told the commander of Libya's southern forces, General Ali Khana, may also be in Niger, not far from the Libyan border.

He said he had been told that Qaddafi and Saif al-Islam would join Khana and catch up with the convoy should they choose to accept Burkina Faso's offer of exile.

Burkina Faso, also once a French colony and a former recipient of large amounts of Libyan aid, offered Qaddafi exile about two weeks ago but has also recognised the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya's government.

Burkinabe Foreign Minister Yipene Djibril Bassolet said that Qaddafi could go into exile in his country even though it is a signatory of the ICC treaty.

Qaddafi has said he is ready to fight to the death on Libyan soil, although there have been a number of reports that he might seek refuge in one of the African nations on whom he once lavished some of Libya's oil wealth.

His spokesman Ibrahim said: "We will prevail in this struggle until victory ... We are still strong, and we can turn the tables over against those traitors and NATO allies."

Besieged town

Last week, a senior NTC military commander said he believed Qaddafi was in Bani Walid, along with Saif al-Islam. Libyan forces have massed outside the town and built a field hospital in preparation for a possible last stand.

Some NTC officials said they had information that Saif al-Islam had fled Bani Walid on Saturday for the southern deserts that lead to the Niger and Algerian borders.

On-off talks involving tribal elders from Bani Walid and a fog of contradictory messages in recent days, reflected the complexities of dismantling the remnants of Qaddafi's rule and building a new political system.

At a military checkpoint some 60 km north of the town on the road to the capital, Abdallah Kanshil, who is running talks for the interim government, told journalists a peaceful handover was coming soon. Nevertheless, a dozen vehicles carrying NTC fighters arrived at the checkpoint.

"The surrender of the city is imminent," he said on Monday.

"It is a matter of avoiding civilian casualties. Some snipers have surrendered their weapons ... Our forces are ready."

Similar statements have been made for days, however. With communications cut, there was no word from inside Bani Walid.

But 20 km closer to the town, NTC forces built a field hospital and installed 10 volunteer doctors to prepare for the possibility that Qaddafi loyalists would not give up.

"The presence of pro-Qaddafi forces in Bani Walid is the main problem. This is their last fight," said Mohamed Bin Dalla, one of the doctors. "If Bani Walid is resolved peacefully then other remaining conflicts will be also be resolved peacefully."

Forces loyal to the National Transitional Council are also trying to squeeze Qaddafi loyalists out of his hometown of Sirte, on the coast, and a swathe of territory in the desert.]]>
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			<title>Talks fail for surrender of Qaddafi bastion</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/245187/talks-fail-for-surrender-of-qaddafi-bastion</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/245187/talks-fail-for-surrender-of-qaddafi-bastion#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 05 Sep 11 06:46:49 +0500</pubDate>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Negotiations for the surrender of Qaddafi's forces in Bani Walid have failed and will not resume, official says.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Negotiations for the surrender of Moamer Qaddafi's forces in the Libyan town of Bani Walid have failed and will not resume, an official said, opening the way for a military attack.

"I am leaving the military commander to resolve the problem," said Abdullah Kenshil, the chief negotiator for the anti-Qaddafi National Transitional Council (NTC).

The town southeast of Tripoli is one of the last strongholds of pro-Qaddafi fighters where at least one of the ousted despot's sons is reputed to be hiding.

Kenshil said the fighters had wanted to come out with their weapons on Sunday but were refused.

"They demanded that the revolutionaries enter Bani Walid without their weapons," he added, charging that it was a pretext for an ambush.

Kenshil also said Qaddafi himself, his sons and many of his family had been in Bani Walid, without specifying when. Some had left but two of Qaddafi's sons, Saadi and Mutassim, are suspected of still being there.

Negotiations through the intermediary of tribal leaders began several days ago with the hope of taking Bani Walid without bloodshed.

Meanwhile NTC military spokesman Ahmed Omar Bani confirmed earlier reports of the death of Qaddafi's son Khamis, and said that the son of the strongman's spy master Abdullah Senussi was also killed.

"I can confirm that Khamis and Mohammed (Senussi) both of them (were) killed around Tarhuna," he told reporters in Benghazi, adding that Khamis had been buried near Bani Walid and Mohammed in southern Libya.

Khamis, 28, the youngest son of Qaddafi, commanded a brigade seen as the most effective and loyal force of the Libyan leader. Rebel fighters captured its base south of Tripoli in fierce fighting last week.

Bani Walid is the heartland of the powerful Warfalla tribe, which made up the core of Qaddafi's army and was given top political positions within the regime.

But it has split over whether to back Qaddafi or not, said tribesmen who have sided with the NTC and are among the NTC forces besieging the town.

Kenshil said earlier that the pro-Qaddafi forces numbered between 30 and 50 men, "very well-armed, with machine-guns, rocket-launchers and snipers."

Anti-Qaddafi fighters had previously moved to within 15 to 20 kilometres of Bani Walid with a view to launching an assault if the talks broke down.

They had set a deadline of 0800 GMT Sunday for its surrender, though the TNC last week announced an overall truce until September 10 in a bid to negotiate the surrender of centres such as Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte as well as Bani Walid.

Kenshil said the forces holding out in Bani Walid had been assured they would be well treated if they gave up.

Civilians coming from Bani Walid said most of Qaddafi's forces had now fled, taking their heavy weaponry with them into the surrounding mountains.

In London, NTC spokesman Guma al-Gamaty said that when captured Qaddafi should stand trial in Libya and not at the International Criminal Court in The Hague that has issued an arrest warrant for suspected crimes against humanity committed during the uprising.

"The ICC will only put Qaddafi on trial for crimes committed over the last six months," Gamaty told BBC television.

"Qaddafi is responsible for a horrific catalogue of crimes committed over the last 42 years, which he should stand trial for and answer for and he can only answer for those in a proper trial in Libya itself."

Gamaty said it would be up to the court to determine whether a death sentence was appropriate for Qaddafi, but added: "The court will be fair and just and will meet all international standards.

"It will be a fair trial, something that Qaddafi has never offered any Libyans who criticised him over the last 42 years."

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini warned against too thorough a purge of Qaddafi appointees in the Libyan apparatus, pointing to the chaos that had ensued in Iraq when even low-ranking officials of Saddam Hussein's Baath party were stripped of their jobs after the 2003 US-led invasion.

In fresh revelations from documents obtained by media and rights groups in Tripoli, Britain's Sunday Times said London invited two of Qaddafi's sons to the headquarters of the SAS special forces unit in 2006 as then premier Tony Blair tried to build ties with the Libyan regime.

The Mail on Sunday said Qaddafi's regime warned of "dire consequences" for relations between Libya and Britain if the cancer-stricken convicted Lockerbie bomber died in a Scottish jail.

Senior British officials feared Qaddafi "might seek to extract vengeance" if Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was not released, it said.

Megrahi is the only man convicted of the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people when it exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

He was said to be only three months from death when he was freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government on August 20, 2009, but he was found to be still alive, though very feeble, in Tripoli last week.

Interim defence minister Jallal Dghaili arrived in Tripoli from Benghazi on Sunday with a large following as the NTC gradually transfers from its eastern base to the capital.

Anwar al-Feitiri, interim communications and transport minister, told AFP there are now regular connections between the two cities, although every flight requires NATO permission due to an air embargo that is still in force.

Meanwhile, a senior senior Libyan rebel commander Monday demanded an apology from Britain and the US after seized documents suggested both countries were complicit in a plan that led to his detention and torture.

Files unearthed from Qaddafi's intelligence archives documented the capture by the CIA of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj in Bangkok in 2004 and his forcible repatriation to Libya, where he had fought the old regime.

He was then jailed in Tripoli's notorious Abu Selim prison for seven years and maintains he was questioned by British intelligence officers during his captivity.

Belhaj, now military commander of Tripoli, told BBC: "What happened to me was illegal and deserves an apology." Britain's Guardian newspaper Monday quoted him as saying he he was considering suing both the governments.

"I was injected with something, hung from a wall by my arms and legs and put in a container surrounded by ice," he said of his time in prison. "They did not let me sleep and there was noise all the time. I was regularly tortured.

"I'm surprised that the British got involved in what was a very painful period in my life," he added.]]>
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			<title>China offered Qaddafi weapons: Report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/245184/china-offered-kadafi-weapons-report</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/245184/china-offered-kadafi-weapons-report#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 05 Sep 11 06:36:17 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[State-controlled Chinese arms companies were ready to sell weapons and ammunition worth at least $200 million.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[China offered huge stockpiles of weapons to Moamer Qaddafi during the final months of his regime and held secret talks on shipping them through Algeria and South Africa, The Globe and Mail reported.

State-controlled Chinese arms companies were ready to sell weapons and ammunition worth at least $200 million to Qaddafi in late July, despite UN sanctions, the Canadian daily said, citing secret documents it had obtained.

The papers do not confirm whether any military assistance was delivered, but senior members of Tripoli's new ruling council say they reinforce their suspicions about the recent actions of China, Algeria and South Africa, the report said on Sunday.

Algeria, China and South Africa have been reluctant to endorse NATO's actions in Libya, the Toronto newspaper recalled.

Omar Hariri, chief of the transitional council's military committee, reviewed the documents and concluded they explained the presence of new weapons on the battlefield, The Globe and Mail said.

"I'm almost certain that these guns arrived and were used against our people," Hariri said.

The documents were discovered in a pile of trash sitting at the curb in a neighborhood known as Bab Akkarah, where several of Colonel Qaddafi's most loyal supporters had homes.

They showed that Qaddafi's top security aides made a trip to Beijing in mid-July, where they met with officials from China North Industries Corp. (Norinco); the China National Precision Machinery Import &amp; Export Corp. (CPMIC); and China XinXing Import &amp; Export Corp.

The Chinese companies offered the entire contents of their stockpiles for sale, and promised to manufacture more supplies if necessary, The Globe and Mail said.

The hosts thanked the Libyans for their discretion, emphasized the need for confidentiality, and recommended delivery via third parties, it added.

The Chinese companies also noted that many of the items the Libyan team requested were already held in the arsenals of the Algerian military and could be transported immediately across the border, The Globe and Mail said.

Appendices stapled to the main memo show that the parties discussed truck-mounted rocket launchers, fuel-air explosive missiles and anti-tank missiles, among others items, the report said.

The Chinese apparently also offered Qaddafi's men the QW-18, a surface-to-air missile, which is roughly similar to a US Stinger and is capable of bringing down military aircraft, the paper said.]]>
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			<title>Publication claims: German spy-Qaddafi collaboration uncovered</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/245032/publication-claims-german-spy-qaddafi-collaboration-uncovered</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/245032/publication-claims-german-spy-qaddafi-collaboration-uncovered#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 05 Sep 11 04:12:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[agencies]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[With Libyan help, Berlin fended off terrorist threats.]]>
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				<![CDATA[German intelligence services cooperated with the spy network of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, a former top official said on Sunday, after documents emerged appearing to show links between the CIA, MI6 and Libya.

Bernd Schmidbauer, coordinator of Germany’s secret services between 1991 and 1998, told the Bild am Sonntag weekly: “It revolved mainly around information about the fight against terrorism and Germany’s security interests.”

“The Libyan security service had access to sources that the Germans did not have. Thanks to these sources, we were able to defend ourselves against terrorist threats to our country,” added Schmidbauer. However, he stressed that Germany did not carry out joint operations with the Libyan spies, as the British and American intelligence services appear to have done. “We did not cross this line,” he said.

Germany’s current government declined to say whether this cooperation had continued in recent years. “As in all affairs relating to intelligence, we do not comment,” a government spokesman told AFP. Files unearthed from Qaddafi’s intelligence archives and seen by AFP appear to document deep cooperation between the CIA, MI6 and the former Libyan regime, including the shipping of terror suspects for interrogation.

And in fresh revelations from documents obtained by media in Tripoli, Britain’s Sunday Times said London invited two of Qaddafi’s sons to the headquarters of the SAS special forces unit in 2006 as former premier Tony Blair tried to build ties with the Libyan regime.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Voices from Libya</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241907/voices-from-libya</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241907/voices-from-libya#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 04 Sep 11 07:40:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kiran.nazish]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=241907</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Whatever the endgame, the Libyan people will pay a heavy price for this war.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Hamed Karim has been standing in front of a wall in Benghazi for hours now, staring at the portraits and pictures that cover it. The people in these photos are Libyan rebel fighters and civilians, who were killed or abducted in the rebellion against Muammar Qaddafi’s dictatorial regime. Among hundreds of these framed faces, four images belong to Hamed’s brothers and three to his close friends. As a tear slides down Hamed’s cheek, over 650 kilometres to the west the capital of Tripoli is rocked by explosions as Nato jets bomb Qaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound.

By the time you read this, Qaddafi’s tottering regime may have fallen, and the colonel himself may be dead or in custody or still in hiding. But however the endgame pans out, it will be left to the Libyan people to count the price they paid.

Accurate figures are impossible to get from a war zone, and depending on who you ask, anything from 3,000 to 13,000 lives have been lost. Many times that number opted to flee the country towards Europe, Egypt and Tunisia, with estimates as high as 100,000 — even more if you factor in the immigrant workers who fled the conflict.

“Schools have been closed since February,” says Maimoona, a second year student at the University of Misrata, who managed to escape Libya during the war. Along with other Libyans, Maimoona and few of her family members managed to take a 17-hour boat out of Misrata, to Tobruk.

“It was terrifying, and we didn’t know if we’d be able to make it out. Qaddafi’s forces were shooting any boats they’d catch sight of.” Of the thousands who took to the sea, many were reportedly killed by patrolling loyalist forces. Since Nato joined the war, “things became better”, she says.

For those who stayed behind, survival was difficult. Food stocks were available in Misrata, but were sold at such inflated rates that most people could not afford to buy. But, at least in mostly middle-class Misrata, no one went hungry. In the nearby small towns, populated mostly by low-income families, having enough to eat was a luxury. With business and markets completely shut down, daily-wage earners were the worst hit. It was the network of family and tribal ties that saved them from starvation. “Libyans treat each other like family and are very generous when it comes to sharing food and supplies with those who can’t afford the inflated rates,” says Maimoona. “So as long as you have an extended family which can afford to buy food, you don’t go hungry.”

The real problem was the uncertainty. “Everyone was affected by the war in one way or the other,” says Maimoona.  Many of her friends from university were kidnapped by Qaddafi’s army while many others joined the rebel forces against Qaddafi’s. “My friend’s uncle was abducted in February and no one ever heard back from him. Some of the arrested people were taken to prison from the battlefield, and kept in isolated conditions. But some (very few) managed to flee.”

The lucky ones who managed to escape tell tales of containers being used as makeshift prisons-cum-torture cells. A few prisoners were released after being brutally tortured, in order to serve as a warning for others. It clearly had the opposite effect.

“The people couldn’t watch their loved ones being tortured and killed, and joined the rebel armies to ensure Qaddafi’s defeat,” says Maimoona.

Maimoona’s brother, an X-ray technician at Misrata Hospital stayed back to help the wounded.  “He knew he was not safe, he didn’t know whether he would live through these times, but he wanted to be there in the fight. He wanted to make sure the hospital didn’t lose staff-strength and that no one died due to a lack of staff. So he stayed back to work on, from body to body.” In a wavering voice, she adds, “He wanted to do his part.”

Maimoona and others who escaped Libya, had to struggle to be able to speak to their families in Misrata. Most of the phone lines were down, and those that did work were tapped by the government. “Only journalists were allowed any form of communication. They had satellite phones and the internet.”

Initially, Qaddafi tried controlling people’s minds and the flow of information by giving false reports.  “He constantly lied on national radio and television” about the intrusion of external forces and enemy attacks. Alaa, a Libyan based in Qatar, who was in touch with her family in Zawwiya and Tripoli, explains her shock when she woke one February morning and saw Qaddafi giving a speech blaming ‘anti-state forces’ for causing trouble.

“My uncle had been kidnapped a night before from his own house, by Qaddafi’s army. Qaddafi would tell these lies, but no Libyan would believe him.” Alaa’s father, who speaks to Al-Jazeera regularly about events in Libya, was also under constant threat by the government. Earlier one of Alaa’s other uncles was also killed by the same forces.

Even though the game seems to be up, the possible consequences of Qaddafi’s defeat send chills down the spines of those whose loved ones are missing. “Qaddafi’s forces still have the prisoners and no one else knows where they are hidden,” says Hamza Malik who has been sending updates from Libya via Twitter and Facebook. “I don’t know what he will do to the thousands of prisoners if he becomes desperate.” Indeed, Qaddafi’s unpredictability is in itself a cause for concern. “Qaddafi was always delusional beyond belief,” warns Malik, “and one has to be careful of what steps he may take, as his narcissistic attitude could lead to more lives being lost.” For the rebels, only his capture or death will bring closure. “We will chase Qaddafi from hole to hole,” one injured fighter told the BBC.

As Benghazi was liberated, Libyan political analyst Ana El Gomati struck a note of caution. “There is an immense level of hope, but also a healthy amount of scepticism in the air which means it will be necessary to proceed with caution for the process of nation building to be a successful endeavour. I have attended the funeral prayer of a martyr and with the same people kissed the head of a baby born during the revolution, and so life continues in this incredible city.”

The hard task of rebuilding this war-torn land is a challenge for the immediate future. For the moment, the overwhelming emotion here is relief. Hamza Malik captures the feeling of millions of Libyans when he says, “We will celebrate this Eid as free men, inshaAllah.”

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 4th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Shoulder to shoulder: Confessions of a perfect ‘Qaddafi-girl’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244541/shoulder-to-shoulder-confessions-of-a-perfect-%e2%80%98qaddafi-girl%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244541/shoulder-to-shoulder-confessions-of-a-perfect-%e2%80%98qaddafi-girl%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 04 Sep 11 05:04:14 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[harald.doornbos]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=244541</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Former Libyan leader’s female guard thought she was fighting ‘al Qaeda’.]]>
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				<![CDATA[As the door opens to a poorly-lit room at the new rebel headquarters in the western Libyan town of Zawiya, three guards enter with a female prisoner of war (PoW). Tall and thin, the woman wears a blue scarf and is dressed in military uniform.


As she is ordered to take a seat, two Kalashnikov-carrying male guards take position at a distance of five metres, while an unarmed female guard sits immediately behind the PoW, who by now has removed her scarf.

The name of the uniformed woman is Aisha Abed El Salaam Ali. And she is not your average Arab woman.

Ali, who holds the rank of lieutenant-colonel, was one of the highest ranking female officers in the Libyan army, as well as a member of the Revolutionary Guard. Until recently, she was responsible for the world famous group of female bodyguards who protected former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

Ali, who is unmarried and hails from the town of Traghan in south Libya, joined Qaddafi’s army in 1984.

She was captured by rebels last week, following heavy fighting in Zawiya, 50 kilometres southwest of Tripoli.

This is the first time she has spoken to a newspaper.

“There were three permanent bodyguards,” Ali recalls, while her guards keep an eye on her. “They would travel with Qaddafi to many destinations.” But on every foreign trip, Ali explains, Qaddafi wanted an additional four female bodyguards. “I would choose those girls,” Ali says, “The women would be very excited if they were picked for a Qaddafi trip.”

When asked what makes a woman a perfect ‘Qaddafi-girl’, she replies: “They all had to be army officers. They must be tall, because they would stand behind Qaddafi.”

Beautiful? “Not necessarily,” she says, “With a little make-up, every woman can look pretty.”

“I never accompanied him outside Libya, but I was his bodyguard during a trip to the town of Sirte,” she says.

The story goes that Qaddafi wanted to be protected exclusively by women after having watched one too many James Bond movies. But Ali claims the real reason is more ‘down to earth’. “Qaddafi wanted to show that Libyan women had equal rights to their male counterparts.”

Ali herself was captured during heavy fighting in Zawiya, where her unit was dispatched after they lost all communication with Qaddafi.

“We had long lists with names of opposition members,” she says, “It was my job during the last six months to interrogate people we suspected of rebel activities...We never thought it was possible we would lose this war.”

But on one recent morning, she and her comrades heard the battle cry ‘Allah-u-Akhbar’, from nearby. “We...panicked,” she recalls.

Ali now regrets she fought for Qaddafi. “I have to admit the rebels treated me better than I treated them,” she says, adding: “I can only hope for their forgiveness.”

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Change in Libya and our FO</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244141/change-in-libya-and-our-fo</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244141/change-in-libya-and-our-fo#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 03 Sep 11 15:43:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[letter.]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Incidentally the new Libyan flag is a wondrous look alike of the tricolour flag of the Pakistan Peoples Party.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The whole world has recognised the historic and momentous change which has swept through the length and breadth of Libya, incidentally under a flag which is a wondrous look alike of the tricolour flag of the Pakistan Peoples Party. However, even as this is going on, the Foreign Office of Pakistan seems to be enjoying sound slumber sleep.

How can the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handle formidable challenges following the Abbottabad raid, post Nato-US, Afghanistan and Kashmir if it cannot address the rather simple and straightforward matter of a changed reality in Libya? By the time my former colleagues wake up from a state of self-imposed hibernation, the world would have changed beyond recognition.

BA Malik

Former ambassador

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Documents show tight CIA-Libya cooperation: Report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244049/documents-show-tight-cia-libya-cooperation-report</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244049/documents-show-tight-cia-libya-cooperation-report#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 03 Sep 11 07:05:59 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=244049</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The CIA moved to set up in 2004 &quot;a permanent presence&quot; in the country, says Wall Street Journal report.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Files found at a Libyan government building show strong cooperation between the CIA and Moamer Qaddafi's intelligence agencies, including shipping terror suspects to the North African country for interrogation, a report said Friday.

The Central Intelligence Agency, under the administration of then-president George W. Bush, brought terror suspects to Libya and suggested questions that Libyan interrogators should ask them, the Wall Street Journal said, citing documents found at the headquarters of Libya's External Security agency.

The CIA also moved to set up in 2004 "a permanent presence" in the country, the Journal said, according to a note from CIA top operative Stephen Kappes to Libya's intelligence chief, at the time, Moussa Koussa, was head of Libyan intelligence.

Suggesting the close relationship between the two top clandestine services officials, the note begins "Dear Musa" and was signed "Steve," said the Journal.

An unnamed US official quoted by the daily noted that, at the time, Libya was breaking diplomatic ice with the West.

"Let's keep in mind the context here: By 2004, the US had successfully convinced the Libyan government to renounce its nuclear-weapons program and to help stop terrorists who were actively targeting Americans in the US and abroad," said the official.

The files were uncovered by Human Rights Watch researchers who toured the Libyan government building, and gave copies to the Journal.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Analysis: Why UN statehood for Palestine is pointless</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244007/analysis-why-un-statehood-for-palestine-is-pointless</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/244007/analysis-why-un-statehood-for-palestine-is-pointless#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 03 Sep 11 00:48:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[gloria.caleb]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=244007</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Palestinians view the move by the PA president as a safeguard against a popular uprising similar to the Arab Spring.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Out on the streets of Beirut and particularly in and around the crowded Palestinian refugee camps in the last week of July, one frequently saw Palestinians chanting slogans and waving their national flag. No matter what the occasion, these gatherings always reiterate Palestinian people’s right to return to their homeland from which they were expelled six decades ago on the creation of Israel.


With the same goal in mind, the Palestinian National Authority (PA) will present its case of recognition as a state of a broken up rump Palestine  – bits and pieces of Palestine that remain on the West Bank – to the United Nations next month.

But for many, returning home still seems like a far-fetched ideal.

At the Viva Palestina Arabia conference at the American University of Beirut, there was little enthusiasm among the Palestinians for the idea of a UN membership for rump Palestine.

Far from helping it, the PA’s bid for UN recognition has worsened its political crisis. Palestinians point out that it is meaningless for towns, villages and refugee camps surrounded by Israeli walls to be presented as a sovereign state.

Dr Ghada Karmi, a leading Palestinian activist and writer, has for decades been an ardent supporter of a civil revolt as opposed to armed resistance. She, however, was severely critical of the insistence of PA president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group on talks with Israel. “They (Fatah) have closed all doors,” said Karmi, 74, while referring to the president’s position that negotiations are the only means to a solution. “Once your enemy knows that carrying out [futile] talks is all you are capable of, he won’t care. You can talk for as long as you like and they (the Israelis) will build settlement upon settlement,” she added.

Among the most prominent sceptics of the idea of a premature state is Leila Khaled, a leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Khaled, 67, who herself is a refugee from Palestine, is an icon for Palestinians since her hijacking of a TWA airliner in 1969. “People who support negotiations, must identify whom the Palestinians must negotiate with,” she said at the Viva Palestina event. For her the United States’ repeated use of its veto power in favour of Israel is the main reason for the stalled progress on the road to a solution of the Middle East dispute.

The US insistence on a mediatory role between the two parties is inconsistent with its policies in the Middle East which are hostile to Arabs. Armed intervention in the name of democracy in Iraq and support to the Western-backed Libyan rebels makes Palestinians understandably wary of the prospect of Americans being interlocutors in negotiations with Israel.

Palestinians generally view the move for UN-sanctioned statehood as a desperate move by the PA president as a safeguard against a popular uprising similar to the Arab Spring.

 

(Read: Youm-Al-Quds: Protesters demand America, UN to stop playing double game in Palestine)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Qaddafi says he will not surrender</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/243498/qaddafi-says-he-will-not-surrender</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/243498/qaddafi-says-he-will-not-surrender#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 02 Sep 11 11:25:18 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=243498</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[&quot;Even if you cannot hear my voice, continue the resistance,&quot; Qaddafi said.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Fugitive Libyan leader Moamer Qaddafi vowed again Thursday not to surrender, in a message broadcast on the 42nd anniversary of the coup which brought him to power.

In the message put out by the pro-Qaddafi Syria-based Arabic-language Arrai Oruba satellite television, the fallen strongman said he was prepared for "a long battle" even if Libya burns.

He urged his supporters to keep up their resistance to the insurgency that has conquered most of the country and forced him into hiding, as a major conference opened in Paris on aiding the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) to set up a new administration.

"Even if you cannot hear my voice, continue the resistance," Qaddafi said.

"We will not surrender. We are not women and we are going to keep on fighting."

"If they want a long battle, let it be long. If Libya burns, who can govern it? So let it burn," he added in the message sent from an unknown location.

A senior rebel leader dismissed the speech as a reflection of Qaddafi's "despair" at the success of the insurgency.

"Qaddafi's speech is a sign of misery and despair," Ahmed Darrat, who is overseeing the interior ministry for the rebels until a new government is elected, told AFP in Tripoli.

Qaddafi claimed there were splits between NATO, "the alliance of aggression" whose warplanes have paved the way for the insurgents' advance, and the rebels, "its agents.

"His message followed similar defiant words from his son Seif al-Islam on Wednesday night, who said he, his father and "the whole family" were still in Tripoli, which fell to the rebels on August 20 after days of fierce fighting.

But rebel sources said unconfirmed reports put the Qaddafis in the loyalist-held town of Bani Walid, southeast of the capital.

"We have reports that Moamer Qaddafi has been in Bani Walid for the past two days, but these reports are not totally confirmed," NTC vice chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told AFP.

He said clashes were still going on between rebel and pro-Qaddafi forces near the town.

"The revolutionary fighters are making progress and we are hoping for an end to the conflict soon," he said.

A rebel commander, Abdel Raziq, said in Tarhuna, between Tripoli and Bani Walid he believed Seif al-Islam and another son, Mutassim, were in the latter town.

"About 80 percent of the people in Bani Walid are with the rebels and only 20 percent are with Qaddafi," he said.

"We expect them to surrender, but if they don't we will attack from three fronts," he added without giving other details.

Qaddafi, however, boasted that his last bastions were impregnable."Who can overcome Bani Walid, Sirte or Tarhuna? These towns are home to armed tribes and nobody can govern Libya without their consent," he said in his fourth audio message since rebels entered Tripoli on August 20, seemingly unaware that insurgents were already in Tarhuna.

"At the end of the day, we will win the battle, the colonisers will go back to their countries and the agents will be finished with," Qaddafi said.

The insurgents had earlier said they believed Qaddafi was hiding in his coastal hometown of Sirte, but another rebel commander said on Thursday they no longer thought that.

Seif al-Islam also vowed that the loyalists would fight to the death, in a separate audio message broadcast by Arrai.

But at the same time another son, Saadi Qaddafi, told the Al-Arabiya television channel he was ready to give himself up "If my surrender stops the spilling of blood."

Algeria allowed one of Qaddafi's wives, two of his sons and some of his grandchildren to cross the border on Saturday and seek sanctuary, angering the NTC.

But Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said on Thursday there was no question of granting Qaddafi himself asylum.Officials in the rebel base of Benghazi said on Thursday a deadline for forces loyal to Qaddafi to surrender had been extended by a week to September 10, but others in Tripoli denied it.

However Jalal al-Digheily, defence minister in the NTC, said at Nofilia, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Sirte, "There will be no attack on Sirte just now. We continue to negotiate to enter the city peacefully."Rebel forces west of the town told AFP said they had been ordered to pull back from Abu Grain, 80 kilometres from Sirte, to Al-Sadaada, 160 kilometres away.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Clinton calls for reconciliation in Libya</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/243446/clinton-calls-for-reconciliation-in-libya</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/243446/clinton-calls-for-reconciliation-in-libya#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Sep 11 17:39:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=243446</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says work does not end with the end of an oppressive regime, coming days will be critical.]]>
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				<![CDATA[US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Libya's interim leaders on Thursday to seek reconciliation not retribution after their victory over Muammar Qaddafi and pledged support for the transition to democracy.

Clinton said NATO's military campaign should continue as long as civilians are under threat, but said UN sanctions should be lifted in a responsible way and the new leaders should be given Libya's UN seat.

"The work does not end with the end of an oppressive regime," Clinton told an international meeting in Paris on Libya's future.

"Winning a war offers no guarantee of winning the peace that follows. What happens in the coming days will be critical."]]>
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			<title>Cheney book renews post-9/11 US policy fights</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/243302/cheney-book-renews-post-911-us-policy-fights</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/243302/cheney-book-renews-post-911-us-policy-fights#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Sep 11 05:59:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=243302</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The book, &quot;In My Time,&quot; has grabbed headlines for Cheney's attempts to settle scores with foes.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Former Vice President Dick Cheney's new memoir revives the fierce battles over US national security policies after the Sept 11 attacks as it rips open old wounds among aides to President George W. Bush.

Cheney describes his upbringing on the Wyoming prairie where he hunted jackrabbits and learned to fish before turning his attention to his eight years in the Bush White House, where he pushed a "go-it-alone" world view that enraged his critics.

The book, "In My Time," has grabbed headlines for Cheney's attempts to settle scores with foes such as former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

Powell accused Cheney of taking "cheap shots" at his former colleagues.

Rice, in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, said she did not appreciate Cheney's "attacks on my integrity."

Beyond such skirmishes, the book also highlights how far the national security debate has shifted as the United States prepares to mark the 10-year anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York.

Cheney's unapologetic defense of policies he advocated, such as harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects and interventionist foreign policy, surprised few in Washington.

Perhaps more surprising was the marked shift away from the vision championed by Cheney, who won many of the policy arguments in the early Bush years only to see his influence wane in the Republican president's second term.

"The majority of what is associated with Cheney and what Cheney embraces in the book, a unilateralist, American exceptionalist, 'our way or the highway' approach to the world, has been completely abandoned," said David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official and author of a book about the White House National Security Council.

Go-it-alone vs Multilateralism

US war-weariness after Iraq and Afghanistan has become so pronounced that advocacy of a muscular US foreign policy pushed by former Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008 has gotten little emphasis among Republicans vying to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

And Republican lawmakers were among the most vocal in questioning Obama's decision to intervene in Libya in March.

Rothkopf noted that the manner of intervention, in which the Obama administration insisted on multilateralism and wanted other countries to take the lead, is the reverse of the approach favored by Cheney.

While Cheney pushed a hawkish approach toward Iran and Syria and even suggested bombing a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, the idea of US military intervention in either of those two countries is not currently part of the national dialogue.

On counterterrorism policies, one of Obama's first acts when he took office in 2009 was to disavow harsh interrogations and promise to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, though the detention center remains open to this day because the administration has struggled with a lack of feasible alternatives.

In his book, Cheney puzzled over Obama's view that the facility harms America's image in the world even though Bush himself expressed sympathy for that perspective in a 2006 news conference in which he said he'd prefer to close Guantanamo if an alternative could be found.

"It's not Guantanamo that does the harm, it is the critics of the facility who peddle falsehoods about it," Cheney writes.]]>
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			<title>Moment to savour</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/242673/moment-to-savour</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/242673/moment-to-savour#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 11 17:57:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tariq.fatemi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=242673</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Obama maintained a discreet distance from military operations even when his opponents faulted him, he led from behind.]]>
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				<![CDATA[For President Obama, who has been buffeted over the past months for failures — real and imagined — the collapse of the Qaddafi regime in Libya has been a small but important moment to savour.

Even if partisan American politics prevents his opponents from appreciating his Libya policy, with one Republican publicist accusing the president of being an “effete vacillator who is pushed around by his female subordinates”, the White House is quietly enjoying this rare success.

Contrary to urgings of those who questioned letting the Europeans take the lead on an issue that they claimed should be the super power’s sole preserve, Obama chose to maintain a discreet distance from actual military operations. Moreover, with little interest in this country for another foreign intervention, the initiative was left in Nato’s hands — primarily French and British — even when Obama’s opponents faulted the president for not involving American troops in the conflict. This prompted his critics to accuse him of introducing a new concept of ‘leading from behind’! Nevertheless, Washington has spent nearly a billion dollars on its Libya operations, while its intelligence and weapons, including satellites, played a critical role in ensuring victory. And, inevitably, US experts are already scouring Libya looking for stockpiles of missiles and chemicals.

There is, however, growing appreciation now in the US that the Obama administration’s seemingly hands-off approach, based on multiple factors that included understanding of regional politics and appreciation of local sensitivities, may have helped bolster the credibility of the rebels and permitted some Arab states to join the coalition.

Nato’s involvement has admittedly taken some of the sheen off the results. Had it been a purely domestic effort, the impact would have been greater — with some calling it liberation through occupation. It would, however, be premature to assume that with the rebels having gained control of the capital, the game is over and done with. In fact, Qaddafi’s fall may well be the easy part of what could become a long and tortuous struggle to build the country anew.

The scholars I spoke to in Washington last week remained cautious, pointing out that after the colonel’s four-decade-long authoritarian control, Libya has no institutions and little civil society. These have led to fears that post-Qaddafi Libya could come to resemble post-Saddam Iraq, especially if Qaddafi succeeds in eluding capture for the next few months.

Moreover, with no example in the region of a peaceful transition to democracy, it could take years to usher in a new order and, in the meanwhile, the country could witness bitter and violent struggle among the various tribes and political factions. The overlying ethnic and tribal divisions are the ideological fault-lines separating the secularists from the Islamists. However, most of the seculars were of the view that while some chaos was inevitable, the manner in which the disparate elements rallied round to oust Qaddafi, could provide the cement to keep the country together.

As unpredictable as Libya may prove to be, Qaddafi’s ouster has already reinforced the belief in the region that there countries are participants in unprecedented events that contain good reasons for hope and optimism. While there can be no one-size-fits-all for the region, as each of these uprisings has its own peculiar characteristic, it would be wrong to presume that the overthrow of Qaddafi will not have a profound impact on the other states. Authoritarian regimes of all shades and denominations are right to fear the fury of the unknown. Each upheaval is creating new heroes and a new vocabulary that emboldens the common people, especially the youth, to seize the moment.

The sudden and unexpected fall of Tripoli has managed to give a fresh boost to the Arab Spring, something that some had come to doubt, especially after the brutal and apparently successful crackdown in Bahrain. The Middle East is in the midst of a historic change, even if the outcome of the Libyan revolution remains uncertain.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Qaddafi’s wife, children flee to Algeria</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/242373/qaddafi%e2%80%99s-wife-children-flee-to-algeria</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/242373/qaddafi%e2%80%99s-wife-children-flee-to-algeria#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 11 04:27:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[agencies]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=242373</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Reports surface that the Libyan leader may be holed up in the town of Bani Walid.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s wife and three children, Aisha, Hannibal and Mohammed, crossed into Algeria on Monday morning, the Algerian foreign ministry said.


The Algerian authorities said their arrival had been reported to the United Nations and the Libyan rebel authorities. “This information has been brought to the attention of the United Nations secretary-general, the Security Council president and Mahmud Jibril, president of the executive council of the National Transitional Council (NTC),” the interim administrative body set up by the rebels fighting Qaddafi for power in Libya, the ministry statement said.

The Italian news agency Ansa reported meanwhile that Qaddafi and his sons Saadi and Seif al Islam are in the town of Bani Walid south of Tripoli.

Ansa also cited the same sources in Rome as saying that at least four members of his family were in Algeria. The Algerian foreign ministry later confirmed the four crossed into Algeria earlier Monday.

Ansa said that another son of Qaddafi, Khamis, had “almost certainly” been killed on the way from Tripoli to Bani Walid. The fate of Khamis has been the subject of intense controversy in recent days, with the rebel leadership thrice claiming his death on the battlefield.

Former prime minister Abessalam Jalloud, who has fled to Rome, last week said Qaddafi could be hiding south of Tripoli.

“There are two possibilities: either he is hiding south of Tripoli or he left some time ago,” Jalloud told reporters.

The leader of the rebel National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, on Monday cautioned against a let-up in international action against Qaddafi saying he “still poses a danger, not only for Libya but for the world.”

“That is why we are calling for the coalition to continue its support,” Abdel Jalil said at a meeting of chiefs of staff in Doha of countries militarily involved in Libya. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Is Pakistan suffering from too much democracy?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241776/is-pakistan-suffering-from-too-much-democracy</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241776/is-pakistan-suffering-from-too-much-democracy#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 11 16:03:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[jonathan.p.middleton]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=241776</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Commentators expend considerable time asking whether Pakistan is ungovernable and the answers appear sceptical.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Out of a fiery and war-torn haze, a new zeitgeist in Libya will rise with tomorrow’s dawn, a future many hope will be one of a functioning democracy. As we see Karachi ablaze, with over a hundred people killed in a week, people are asking, will Pakistan ever escape its own haze and become a functioning democracy? But is that the most important question to ask?

Commentators expend considerable time asking whether Pakistan is ungovernable and, increasingly, the answers appear sceptical. LUMS professor, Mohammad Waseem, has called the situation symptomatic of the institutional weaknesses within the Pakistani state. Some time ago, Medha Bisht, writing for the Kashmir Sentinel, posed the same problems when asking is “Pakistan collapsing?”

The frames used for analysis invariably involve economic factors, foreign intervention, the ‘Three As’ (Allah, America and the Army), colonialism and elitism. The list could go on ad nauseam. These are important, but another way of looking at the recent disturbances in Pakistan is to consider if Pakistan actually has too much democracy rather than a dearth of it.

The thought that a state can have too much democracy appears antithetical to the ideals of freedom and rationality. The reason the question is worth asking is because it allows us to see events in Karachi and elsewhere in another light. Theorists and social commentators often compound two separate but linked ideas about democracy. On the one hand lies what might be called ‘democracy from below’. This can be seen in the more immeasurable ‘feelings’ of democracy. It can take the form of, for example, people understanding the role they play in the decision-making process. Alternatively, it could take the shape of forming groups, civil society in a de Tocquevilleian sense, in an attempt to influence the world around them. On the other hand sits what we might call the institutions of democracy, such as parties and elections. What it takes for a successful democracy is the linking of both these forms. However, when they fail to link up and one becomes too powerful for the other, democracy can be weakened.

Pakistan, especially in urban areas, does not seem to have a problem with civic organisations. Political activism is evident on its streets even if you look beyond the activities of local and national political parties. On one end of the spectrum are the numerous religious organisations which are present all over Pakistan. The work of the Edhi foundation, for example, is clearly inspired by the faith of Abdul Sattar Edhi. Such organisations represent sites of microprocesses of democracy. They are where for the majority of the population politics becomes a verb and political action takes place. They may not be democracy with a capital ‘D’ as we usually accept it, but they are democratic with a small ‘d’ in how they encourage public participation in politics. On another end of the spectrum are organisations like Kuch Khaas in Islamabad. Those sitting in the cafe in Kuch Khaas may seem a world away from the ambulance runners of the Edhi organisation and, in many ways, they are. However, both represent the strength of public participation in Pakistan, a healthy sign of the democratic process.

The problem arises because this world of small ‘d’ democracy and that of capital ‘D’ democracy fail to line up in Pakistan. Far too often, local political parties and national parties have failed to represent the people. This leaves a disconnect between what is happening at the local and national arenas, and results in growing frustration in those at the bottom of society. Because the avenues for public participation are limited due to the infrastructural weaknesses of Pakistani democracy, local participation often spills out of the formal avenues of activism and onto the streets.

Thus, what could be contained and channelled if the systems were in place takes the form of unruly activism. The question is not whether Pakistan can function as a democracy. It already does, although an imperfect one. The question is whether it has too much democracy for the institutional systems it has in place. To this the answer is clearly yes. Re-engaging the politics of the street with the politics of the state may not solve all of Pakistan’s problems, but it would be a start..

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Libya rebels on outskirts of Qaddafi's last bastion</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241649/libya-rebels-on-outskirts-of-qaddafis-last-bastion</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/241649/libya-rebels-on-outskirts-of-qaddafis-last-bastion#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 11 08:09:50 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Widespread speculation Qaddafi holed up in Sirte, 360 kilometres east of Tripoli, among tribal supporters there.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Libyan rebels backed by NATO were on the outskirts of Moamer Qaddadi's hometown of Sirte on Monday as they closed in from east and west for the final big battle for full control of Libya.

Sirte is the elusive Qaddadi's last bastion after rebels smashed his forces in Tripoli and seized his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters.

Fierce fighting also raged in the west of the country as rebels trying to wrest control of the region from Qaddadi's forces said they had fallen into an ambush in a town southwest of Zuwarah.

Rebel forces moved to within 30 kilometres of Sirte from the west and captured Bin Jawad 100 kilometres to the east, the rebel commander in Misrata, Mohammed al-Fortiya, told AFP.

"We took Bin Jawad today" on the eastern front, and "the thwar (rebel fighters) from Misrata are 30 kilometres from Sirte" in the west, Fortiya said.

Rebels pushing west from the oil hub of Ras Lanuf had been stuck for four days outside Bin Jawad, a key town on the coast road of the Gulf of Sirte, as Qaddadi's forces kept up a defiant resistance.

Although Qaddadi's whereabouts remain a mystery, there is widespread speculation that he is holed up in Sirte, 360 kilometres east of Tripoli, among tribal supporters there.

"We are negotiating with the tribes for Sirte's peaceful surrender," Fortiya said, adding that only tribal leaders were involved, and that to his knowledge no direct contact had been made with Qaddadi himself.

But a spokesman for the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), Mahmud Shammam, warned that negotiations for Sirte's peaceful handover would not be open-ended.

"The negotiations will not go on for ever," he said. "The talks are still going on... We would like to unify Libya very quickly."

Sirte has been targeted by NATO warplanes, which in the past few days have destroyed more than 50 military vehicles, two military shelters, a military observation point and a military engineer asset.

The strikes follow a bombing raid by British warplanes against a large headquarters bunker in Sirte late Thursday.

As rebels scrambled to get Tripoli back on its feet and appealed for funds, the Arab League on Sunday urged the UN Security Council to unlock billions of dollars in Libyan assets and property.

Some 70 percent of homes in central Tripoli have no running water because of damage to the network, but potable water is being distributed from mosques, NTC officials said.

Abed al-Obeidi, deputy chief of the transitional council in Tripoli, said the water problem was because of technical faults, denying that sabotage by Qaddadi's forces was to blame.

In the rebel bastion of Benghazi, military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani told reporters more than 10,000 captives have been freed from Qaddadi's jails since the fall of Tripoli but almost 50,000 others are still missing.

"The number of people arrested over the past months (of the anti-Qaddadi revolt) is estimated at between 57,000 and 60,000," he said. "Between 10,000 and 11,000 prisoners have been freed up until now... so where are the others?"

"We hope that Qaddadi is still in Libya so we can rid the world of this insect," he said. "The only way to treat this pest is to make him accountable for the crimes in Libya."

NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil has promised that Qaddadi and his senior aides would be given a fair trial if they surrendered.

"We call on Moamer Qaddadi and his associates to surrender so we can protect them and spare them illegal execution," he said in Benghazi. "We guarantee them a fair trial, whatever their position."

The rebels have offered a $1.7 million-dollar reward for Qaddadi's capture, dead or alive.

Rebel pleas for cash help were heard loud and clear at Arab League headquarters in Cairo where a special meeting of foreign ministers urged "the UN and countries concerned" to "unfreeze the assets and property" of Libya.

Dr Najib Barakat of a local rebel council for Tripoli said there were enough medical supplies for three or four weeks, and that some 60 percent of the capital's medical staff were at work.

"All of Tripoli's hospitals are working," Barakat said, except at Abu Slim where around 80 decomposing bodies had been found. "The bodies have been removed and the hospital is being disinfected."

On Sunday, insurgents expanded their control over the airport and other parts of Tripoli where some resistance remained.

They captured the base of the elite 32 Brigade, commanded by Qaddadi's son Khamis, on Saturday after a NATO air strike and seven hours of fierce fighting that left 11 rebels dead.

In an adjoining cinder-block building, an AFP correspondent saw the charred remains of some 50 people who residents said were captives killed by Qaddadi forces on Tuesday with rifle fire and grenades.

A half dozen explosions were heard in the distance early Monday in Tripoli just after a NATO warplane flew over the Libyan capital.

The blasts were heard as rebels across the city celebrated their victory against the Qaddadi regime, firing automatic weapons into the air.]]>
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