Africans being tortured by the CIA-trained rebels now roaming the North African state of Libya. The rebels were supported and installed by the imperialist states., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Tunisian plane destroys 2 vehicles near Libya
Published June 21, 2012
Associated Press
TUNIS, Tunisia – A pair of Tunisian fighter jets attacked and destroyed two vehicles filled with weapons crossing the desert border from Libya, while a third escaped to Algeria, a Tunisian security official said Thursday.
The incident happened Wednesday evening near the triangle shaped no-man's land in the Sahara desert where the borders of Tunisia, Libya and Algeria converge.
The jets were on a routine patrol when they were fired on by the vehicles, which were carrying rocket propelled grenades, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a matter for the Defense Ministry.
The Defense Ministry has made no public comment about the incident, which has been widely reported in the Tunisian media.
There was no information about the number of victims or the weapons being carried by the vehicles.
Since the fall of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime last year, North Africa has been awash with weapons wrested from Libyan arsenals and many are being sold to smugglers and armed militants operating in the unsecured areas of the Sahara.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/21/tunisian-plane-destroys-2-vehicles-near-libya/print#ixzz1yR3TRfZU
Libya dashes hopes of early release for Australian ICC official
Melinda Taylor is being interrogated over claims documents were passed to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, says government spokesman
Chris Stephen in Tripoli
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 June 2012 07.04 EDT
Libya has begun "interrogating" an official from the international criminal court whom it has detained, apparently scuppering a deal for her early release brokered by Australia's foreign minister.
Melinda Taylor, an Australian ICC official, was arrested in the mountain town of Zintan on 7 June after meeting the indicted war crimes suspect Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who is being held by the town's militia.
Tripoli said on Wednesday night that Taylor, one of four ICC officers who were on an official visit to Libya, had tried to deliver documents to Saif that were not part of her work for the court.
"An interrogation of them is under way," said the Libyan government spokesman Nassar el-Manee. "There is evidence that proves they have breached the law."
Tripoli says the documents represented a "threat to national security", but has given no details.
The decision comes after the Australian foreign minister, Robert Carr, met Libya's prime minister, Abdulrahim el-Keib, earlier this week, announcing a hope that Taylor would be released if the ICC issued an "apology".
Manee said such an apology would not prevent a criminal case being launched. "They [the ICC] should say: 'We have made a mistake,'" said Manee. "When the interrogation is complete we will explain everything."
Taylor's three colleagues – a Lebanese translator, Russian diplomat and Spanish legal expert – have been told they are free to leave Zintan but have elected to stay with Taylor.
The arrest of Taylor is spiralling into the most serious crisis in the ICC's 10-year history. Never before has one of its officials been arrested and held in detention.
The ICC spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah told the Guardian on Thursday that the court was negotiating with the Libyan government, and that Taylor was being held in Zintan incommunicado, with ICC lawyers having been allowed only one visit to her, on 12 June.
"She has immunity like all delegation members," he said. "Libya has the obligation to fully respect obligations in resolution 1970 by the [UN] security council."
Carr said earlier this week that Tripoli would be likely to release Taylor if the ICC agreed that Saif could be tried in Libya, rather than The Hague.
But ICC judges can make such a decision only if they are satisfied that Libya, struggling to rebuild a shattered country after last year's civil war, can guarantee Saif al-Islam Gaddafi a fair trial with a fully functioning legal system.
Libya Seeks U.S. Investment in Areas From Oil to Tourism
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
June 21, 2012
Libya is seeking to boost its oil production by a third to 2 million barrels a day by year-end, surpassing last year’s pre-conflict level, Libyan ambassador to Washington Ali Aujali said.
How fast Libya returns to pre-war levels or surpasses them “depends also on the oil companies, how fast they are returning” to restart or expand operations, Aujali said, speaking at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington yesterday.
Beyond oil, Libya is eager for American investment in tourism, health care and education, he said. The nation, whose governance is still in flux, plans to hold the first election for the national assembly next month after four decades of rule by dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
“The environment is great” for U.S. companies, in large part because the Obama administration is credited by Libyans with pressing for NATO military action that helped topple Qaddafi last year, Aujali said.
“They appreciate what the Americans did,” he said, and American flags are often flown alongside Libyan ones around the country.
Libya’s governor for OPEC, Samir Kamal, set expectations lower than Aujali did, telling reporters last week in Vienna that the government hopes to reach 1.6 million barrels a day by year-end.
Aujali said the North African nation has restored crude oil production to more than 1.5 million barrels a day, or 90 percent of official production figures before Qaddafi was ousted in a violent uprising. The months-long conflict sent production levels plummeting to 45,000 barrels a day in August, according to a monthly Bloomberg survey of oil companies, producers and analysts.
Rising Output
Libyan production was restored to 1.45 million to 1.55 million barrels daily by the end of May, according to figures from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Oil Minister Abdul-Rahman Ben Yezza said last week that Libya plans to spend about $10 billion to develop long-term oil and natural gas projects and increase its crude production capacity. He said the country also has a five-year plan to increase production to about 2.2 million barrels a day.
Aujali said “we need more investment” to develop the oil industry and fulfill a longer-term goal of restoring Libya’s crude production capacity to its historical high. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates it exceeded 3 million barrels a day in the 1960s.
Aujali cited ConocoPhillips (COP) (COP), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) (XOM) and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) (OXY) as among U.S.-based multinational energy giants that have returned to Libya, and urged other U.S. companies to invest in all sectors of Libya’s economy.
American Opportunities
American companies need to “be more involved, to be more aggressive to visit Libya to see where they can make business,” he said, so they don’t lose opportunities to other countries such as Italy, which has been proactive in seeking business prospects.
Aujali cited health care, infrastructure, education and tourism as sectors in which the Libyan government is seeking foreign investment. He said tourism remains one of the least- developed industries, citing Libya’s 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) of beaches and its cultural attractions, including Leptis Magna, one of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the Mediterranean,
Aujali said Libya is seeking American universities and hospitals interested in assisting with training and technology and setting up branches or partnerships, as many have done in the Persian Gulf and North Africa.
Unfrozen Assets
Libya is looking to the U.S. and NATO countries to help rebuild after a bloody conflict that cost the nation billions of dollars in lost trade and revenue, according to the International Monetary Fund. The revolution killed 30,000 people and wounded 50,000 others, according to the Libyan government.
“You supported this revolution at a critical time,” he said. Still, “the new road is not built,” so the U.S. needs to stay involved to ensure the democratic transition is completed.
The Obama administration has done everything possible to assist Libya’s government, including making available $31 billion in Libyan government assets under U.S. jurisdiction that was frozen as a penalty on Qaddafi’s government, Aujali said.
The only Libyan assets that remain frozen by the U.S. are about $3 billion belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority, the government-managed sovereign wealth fund and holding company based in Tripoli, he said. The authority needs to be reorganized under a dependable board of directors before “we feel safe” asking for the funds to be released, he said.
Election Plans
Libya has scheduled elections for July 7. Aujali said 145 political parties have formed, with 3,000 candidates vying for 200 legislative posts. About 80 percent of eligible voters have registered, underscoring excitement about the democratic transition, he said.
Still, the situation remains volatile, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, said in an interview with state-run Qatar News Agency June 17. Libya risks descending into civil war if the current unstable security situation persists, he was quoted as saying.
Aujali said his country has studied other nations’ models for reconciliation and justice following long dictatorships during which many were persecuted. Libya is “not starting from zero. There are many with experience in the history and we learn from them.”
‘No Revenge’
While some members of the old regime are under arrest, “there is no revenge at the time being against the Qaddafi regime,” he said. “Reconciliation is important. But in the first place, justice has to be made.”
Aujali said he expects a speedy resolution of the “misunderstandings” in the case of a team from the International Criminal Court in the Hague that was detained June 7 by Libyan authorities. Libya accused Australian defense lawyer Melinda Taylor of trying to smuggle documents to Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi in a Libyan prison. The Libyan government accuses Qaddafi’s son of directing the killing of thousands during his father’s regime and during the rebellion.
“The Libyan people, they have the right before anybody else to try Saif al-Islam in Libya,” Aujali said of the effort to try him in the international court in the Netherlands.
To contact the reporter on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
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