ICC Delegation Released by US-backed Libyan Rebels

International Criminal Court (ICC) Lawyer Melinda Taylor (R) and translator Helene Assaf (L) were released after negotiations with the Libyan rebels. They had been held for more than a month after meeting with Seif al-Islam in Zintan., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

2 July 2012
Last updated at 16:44 ET

Libya ICC lawyer Melinda Taylor and colleagues fly out

Four staff members from the International Criminal Court (ICC) have left Libya on the day they were released after four weeks' detention on suspicion of spying.

They left on Monday night to return to The Hague, the ICC said.

Their release came as ICC president Sang-Hyun Song was visiting Libya.

The team had been accused of spying while visiting Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in the town of Zintan.

Saif al-Islam has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity but Libya has insisted he should be tried by a Libyan court.

The ICC team flew out on an Italian military aircraft following a two-hour drive from the town of Zintan, says the BBC's Rana Jawad, in Tripoli.

They are still scheduled to appear before a court in Tripoli on 23 July for a final ruling on their case, a senior member of the Libyan attorney-general's office told the BBC.

"We expect them to come back for the hearing but if they don't, a ruling will be made in absentia," the source said.

Coded documents

During a news conference in the mountain town of Zintan, west of Tripoli, Mr Song offered an apology to the Libyan authorities for the "difficulties" caused by the mission.

Continue reading the main story Analysis Wyre Davies BBC Middle East correspondent

The dusty, desert town of Zintan is home to one of occupied-Libya's most powerful militias - its units control "security" at Tripoli's international airport and, of course, they hold Saif al-Islam Gaddafi at an unknown location.

The Zintanis have refused thus far to hand Colonel Gaddafi's most prominent son over to the International Criminal Court or, for that matter, to the Libyan rebel government.

It was in the gift of the Zintan militia, and its military commanders, to hand over the four ICC lawyers or to hold them indefinitely on spurious charges of "spying." That is not to say that the "new" central Libyan authorities were not party to the negotiations but ultimately they had little choice other than to support the case made by the Zintan militia.

The ICC, while apologising for any "misunderstandings", has never admitted its experienced team did anything wrong in their meeting with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. And those hoping to see a fair, speedy, trial for Gaddafi will not have been encouraged by events in Zintan.

The episode underlined who really wields power in tribal, rural Libya and the reluctance of those tribal leaders to comply with calls to hand him over in the near future.

He also thanked the Libyan rebels for arranging the "release of the four ICC staff to be re-united with their families".

Mr Song "expressed his relief that the ICC staff members were well treated during their detention".

The ICC employees had been accused of jeopardising Libya's national security, the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli reports.

One of the four, Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor, was accused of passing Saif al-Islam coded documents, allegedly written by his former right-hand man, during the team's visit.

Ms Taylor and her Lebanese colleague Helene Assaf, a translator, were then formally detained.

Their two other colleagues, Russian Alexander Khodakov and Spaniard Esteban Peralta Losilla, remained with them out of solidarity.

Last week, the ICC promised in a statement to investigate any claims of wrongdoing by its staff upon their release and to impose "appropriate sanctions" if necessary.

Ms Taylor was appointed by the ICC to help prepare the defence of Saif al-Islam, who was captured by the Zintan militia last November as he tried to flee the country.

The Zintan militia have refused to hand Saif al-Islam over to Tripoli, while the Libyan rebel regime is rejecting ICC demands to try him in The Hague.

Some have expressed concern that Saif al-Islam may not face a fair trial in Libya.

He was previously considered to be heir apparent to his father, Col Muammar Gaddafi, who was overthrown last year following a by US and NATO-backed uprising and imperialist air campaign mandated by the UN under the false claim of protecting Libyan civilians.

Col Gaddafi himself was killed after being captured during an assault on his hometown of Sirte in October.

Syrian Military Strikes Rebels in Damascus Suburb

A Syrian solidier stands atop of building as seen from the border with Turkey. Fighting continued on July 2, 2012 in the suburbs surrounding Dasmascus the capital of the Middle Eastern state., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Syria strikes Damascus suburb; U.N. decries arms flow

Mon Jul 2, 2012 9:12pm GMT
By Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian helicopters bombarded a Damascus suburb on Monday and Turkey scrambled warplanes near the border in the north, as the U.N. human rights chief warned that arms supplies to both the government and rebels were deepening the 16-month conflict.

Fighting has come to the gates of the capital in recent weeks and is also raging throughout the country as the battle to unseat President Bashar al-Assad increasingly takes on the character of an all-out civil war, fuelled by sectarian hatred.

Syrian government forces have launched an assault on Douma, a city on the edge of Damascus where they stormed a rebel stronghold two days ago, leaving bodies rotting in the streets of the nearly abandoned town.

"The bombardment of Douma continued today using helicopters. Some activists entered the city today and they saw at least seven decaying bodies in the streets under the sun. One man had been executed inside his house," said Mohamed Doumany, an activist who fled the city two days ago and was now nearby.

"There is huge destruction in the city, which is almost empty. Only a few of its people remain inside," he told Reuters by Skype.

The bitterness of the struggle has seen the rebel ranks swollen by defections among troops. Dozens more, including a general, fled into Turkey on Monday, sources in the Free Syrian Army there said. Turkish media said 85 soldiers had deserted.

United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay decried the flow of weapons to both sides. "The ongoing provision of arms to the Syrian government and to its opponents feeds additional violence," she said in the text of remarks made to the Security Council, obtained by Reuters. "Any further militarisation of the conflict must be avoided at all costs."

Pillay did not say where the weapons were coming from, though Russia and Iran are the government's main suppliers. U.N. diplomats say Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been transferring arms to the increasingly militarised opposition while the United States says it is supplying only "non lethal" aid to the rebels.

Diplomats from the West and Arab states who oppose Assad met the Syrian leader's allies Russia and China on Saturday in Geneva under the auspices of peace envoy Kofi Annan. However, they made no progress in persuading Moscow and Beijing to sign up to a statement calling for Assad to give up power, leaving the effort to forge an international consensus in tatters.

The failure of diplomacy to have any measurable effect on a conflict that the United Nations says has killed more than 13,000 people is testing the patience of countries in the region, especially Turkey, which reacted with fury 10 days ago when Syria shot down one of its warplanes.

FIGHTERS SCRAMBLED

Turkey said on Monday it had scrambled six F-16 fighters in response to three separate incidents of Syrian helicopters approaching the border. Turkey also scrambled fighters on Saturday and has moved guns and soldiers toward the frontier.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Syrian opposition figures gathered in Cairo that their struggle to unseat Assad would end in victory.

"The Assad regime's guns, tanks, weapons have no meaning in the face of the will of the Syrian people. Sooner or later the will of the Syrian people shall reign supreme. And you will lead this process," he said.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a former ally of Assad who has turned decisively against him, says Turkish military rules of engagement have been changed and any Syrian forces approaching the border and deemed threatening will be targeted.

The Syrian government tightly controls access, making it difficult to verify accounts of fighting on the ground.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen played down concerns about the military build-up by Turkey, a member of the alliance. Asked whether there was a risk it could lead to a confrontation with Syria, Rasmussen told a news conference in Brussels: "No, on the contrary. I commend Turkey for having shown restraint despite the very tragic aircraft incident."

"I find it quite normal that Turkey takes necessary steps to protect its population and its territory," he said.

UNITY CALL

At the Cairo talks, Turkey and anti-Assad Arab states urged the divided opposition to unite and form a credible alternative to the government.

The unity calls were made at the opening of a two-day meeting organised by the Arab League to try to rally Syria's opposition, which has been beset by in-fighting that diplomats say has made it tougher for the world to respond to the crisis.

"It is not acceptable to waste this opportunity in any way. The sacrifices of the Syrian people are bigger than us all and more precious than any differences or individual and party interests," Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said, addressing the roughly 200 Syrian politicians and activists.

Diplomats and officials at the talks, which are being boycotted by the Free Syrian Army which is leading the armed struggle against Assad's forces, said they did not expect a major agreement to emerge but hoped for some progress.

Anti-Assad activists said there were heavy clashes in Deir Ezzor province near the Iraqi border where villages were under army fire. Rebels destroyed two tanks, they said.

In rural areas near Aleppo south of the Turkish border there were clashes following explosions inside the city overnight. Forested areas near the border were on fire, activists said.

Syrian artillery pounded the village of Talbiseh near Homs on Monday, targeting an area near the mosque. Video footage posted on YouTube showed a blast hitting the mosque's slender minaret, engulfing it in a cloud of grey smoke and dust.

Other footage showed high explosive rounds slamming into an unseen target behind the mosque every minute.

Security forces were also shelling towns in the province of Deraa, near the Jordan border, activists said.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon and Douglas Hamilton in Beirut, Jonathon Burch in Ankara, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Antakya, Turkey, Yasmine Saleh and Edmund Blair in Cairo, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations and Adrian Croft in Brussels; Writing by Peter Graff and David Stamp; Editing by Peter Millership and Alastair Macdonald)

United States Manufacturing Shrinks for First Time in Three Years

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, on right, with the MECAWI solidarity team which supported the UAW strike against American Axle. This photo was taken on Sunday, March 16, 2008. (Photo: Alan Pollock)., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

US manufacturing shrinks for first time in 3 years

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly three years, adding to signs that economic growth is weakening.

Production and exports declined, and the number of new orders plunged, according to a monthly report released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management.

The slowdown comes as U.S. employers have scaled back hiring, consumers have turned more cautious, Europe faces a recession and manufacturing has slowed in big countries like China.

"This is not good," said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at BTIG, an institutional brokerage. Though the report "does not mean recession for the broader economy, it is still a terribly weak number."

The trade group of purchasing managers said its index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.7. That's down from 53.5 in May. And it's the lowest reading since July 2009, a month after the Great Recession officially ended. Readings below 50 indicate contraction.

Economists said the manufacturing figures were consistent with growth at an annual rate of 1.5 percent or less. That would be down from the January-March quarter's already tepid annual pace of 1.9 percent.

"Our forecast that the U.S. will grow by around 2 percent this year is now looking a bit optimistic," said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics.

Stocks fell sharply after the report was released at 10 a.m. But investors appeared to shake off the bad manufacturing news by the end of the day. The Dow Jones industrial average recovered most of its early losses to close down just 8.7 points at 12,871. And broader indexes ended the day up.

Most economists aren't yet predicting another recession. Though the ISM report suggests manufacturing is contracting, it typically takes a sustained reading below 43 to signal the economy isn't growing.

Still, U.S. manufacturing, which has helped drive growth since the recession ended, is faltering at a precarious time.

Americans have pulled back on spending, which drives roughly 70 percent of growth. Europe's economy is likely in recession, which has hurt U.S. exports.

And China's manufacturing sector grew in June at its slowest pace in seven months, according to a survey released Sunday by the state-affiliated China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

Manufacturing will likely stay weak for the next few months. The ISM's gauge of new orders, a measure of future activity, plunged from 60.1 to 47.8. That's the first time it has fallen below 50 since April 2009, when the economy was still in recession.

Fewer new orders reflect growing concerns of businesses. In addition to slower global growth and less spending by U.S. consumers, many companies worry that U.S. lawmakers won't extend a package of tax cuts at the end of the year.

Bricklin Dwyer, an economist at BNP Paribas, said the uncertainty "has left businesses unwilling to invest."

A gauge of production in the ISM's survey fell to its lowest level in more than three years.

U.S. factories are also reporting less overseas demand. A measure of exports dropped to 47.5, its lowest level since April 2009.

A gauge of employment edged down but remained at a healthy level of 56.6. That suggests factories may still be adding jobs. Manufacturers have reported job gains for eight straight months.

Overall hiring has slowed sharply this spring. Employers added an average of only 73,000 jobs per month in April and May. That's much lower than the average of 226,000 added in the first three months of this year. The unemployment rate rose in May to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent, the first increase in a year.

Worries about slowing job growth are outweighing the benefits of lower gas prices. A measure of consumer confidence fell in June for the fourth straight month.

Slower job growth and falling confidence are weighing on consumers' willingness to spend. Americans cut back on purchases of autos and other long-lasting factory goods in May, the government said Friday.

The sharp drop in U.S. factory activity overshadowed more positive news on housing.

Construction spending rose 0.9 percent in May from April, the Commerce Department said in a separate report Monday. It was the second straight monthly increase, even though the level of spending still isn't healthy.

The increase was driven by a surge in residential construction. Home sales are up from the same month last year. Mortgage rates are at the lowest levels in history. And prices have begun to stabilize in most markets.

The economy could also get a boost this summer from lower gas prices, which have tumbled more than 60 cents per gallon since peaking in April. The result is that consumers have more money to spend on other goods, from autos and furniture to electronics and vacations, that fuel economic growth.

ANC Policy Conference in South Africa Refuses Accreditation to Western-backed Opposition Party From Zimbabwe

Zanu-PF delegation to the ANC Policy Conference, Professor Jonathan Moyo, ANC National Executive Committee member Winnie Madikizela Mandela and Senator Monica Mutsvangwa pose for a photograph on the sidelines of the conference ending June 29, 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

ANC snubs MDC-T

Sunday, 01 July 2012 00:58
Sunday Mail Reporter

The MDC-T tried to force its accreditation at the ANC Policy Conference in South Africa last Tuesday, arguing that it should have been allowed to attend the conference on GPA grounds since Zanu-PF was in attendance, it has been learnt.

It is understood that this “highly unusual, un-diplomat and impolitic” move by the MDC-T was flatly rejected by the ANC, leaving the MDC-T branch in Johannesburg livid.

As if undeterred by this stinging rebuff, it is understood that the MDC-T sponsored one of the delegates in the International Relations Commission at the conference to raise a complaint over its exclusion under the same argument that the party should have been invited because Zimbabwe has a hung Parliament which includes Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations.

Although MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora yesterday refuted the claims that his party sought to bulldoze its way into the conference, highly placed MDC-T sources at the Johannesburg branch, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Sunday Mail that the ANC was not amused by the approach and told the MDC-T that it had only invited fellow liberation movements.

The liberation movements that had been invited included Zanu-PF, Frelimo from Mozambique, MPLA from Angola, Swapo from Namibia and Chama cha Mapinduzi from Tanzania.

“The GPA is very clear and there are three political parties in it. There is MDC-T, Zanu-PF and Welshman’s (Prof Ncube) little party. Our partner in the GPA, Zanu-PF, was attending the conference and we should have been accredited to attend. We saw nothing wrong with that at all.

“However, our accreditation was turned down on flimsy grounds that the ANC had only invited liberation movements to its conference. So when it sees it fit, the ANC chooses to side with Zanu-PF. We find that very strange because how do we relate now in future,” said the MDC-T source on the phone from Johannesburg.

When the MDC-T-sponsored delegate raised the issue in the International Relations Commission, the ANC secretary-general, Cde Gwede Mantashe, rebuked him, adding that the ANC had only invited liberation movements of which the MDC-T was not.

“Mantashe even shot down a complaint that had been raised by one of the delegates regarding the same matter in the International Relations Commission. This shows that the ANC was not united in shutting us out. Clearly we were not happy and we will bring up this matter at an appropriate forum,” said the source.

However, Mr Mwonzora said: “An ANC conference is not an MDC-T conference and all our cadres in Zimbabwe and outside are aware of that. The MDC-T respects the sovereignty of other countries and political parties in those countries.

“We have never and will never interfere with the internal processes of any other political party whether in Zimbabwe or outside.”

Throughout its troubled tenure in the embattled inclusive Government, the MDC-T has sought to abuse its GPA status by portraying itself as an indispensable party that Zimbabwe’s neighbours in particular and Sadc in general must deal with because of its presumed support by America and its Nato allies.

Asked to comment about this incident, the leader of the Zanu-PF delegation to the conference, Professor Jonathan Moyo, said he was not aware of it as he was in the
Economic Transformation Commission and the not the International Relations Commission where Cde Mantashe rebuked the sponsored delegate.

However, he said he was not surprised to hear something like that, adding that “this is very typical of the antics that Tsvangirai’s MDC likes playing.

“The record will show that their party is not a people’s choice but is an imperialist voice and neo-colonial instrument for regime change in our country.

“As such, the MDC-T is a reactionary movement and not a liberation movement by any stretch of the imagination. The mere fact that it is part of the hung Parliament and is in the inclusive Government does not make it a liberation movement but is only a confirmation of the power and treachery of imperialism and neo-colonialism.

“This is the downside. The upside is that the people’s revolutionary momentum against imperialism and neo-colonialism in Zimbabwe is not only on the rebound but is in fact surging and the MDC should stop trying to gatecrash conferences of liberation movements and start counting its costs before the election in which it will be dealt a final blow.”

The Zanu-PF delegation, which received a standing ovation as it was being introduced to the conference, also included Deputy Minister Senator Monica Mutsvangwa.

The ANC conference ended on a high note on Friday with the liberation party adopting a new position on the strategies and tactics which marks a radical shift to the left since the dawn of a new South Africa in 1994 to advance and quicken the pursuit of a national democratic state in that country. The conference also made new and bold decisions on economic transformation, rural development, land reform, communications, gender, education, health, legislature, governance, peace and stability.

These historic decisions are set to be presented as policy decisions at the ANC’s 53rd National Congress to be held in Mangaung in December this year.

Sudanese Army Prepares to Target Rebels Wherever They Are

The official spokesman of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Colonel Sawarmi Khaled Saad, addresses the media in Khartoum on October 31, 2011 on the situation in South Kordofan state, where clashes have occured., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Sudanese army prepare to target rebels wherever they are - official

June 30, 2012 (KHARTOUM) - In reaction to recent attacks by rebel groups, the Sudanese army said it will carry out new attacks on the rebel groups, saying that the rebels are seeking to disturb civilian security in the Darfur region.

Two factions of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said this week they attacked Sudanese military convoys moving in Nyala-El-Fasher road in South Darfur.

The rebel said they had killed an important number of soldiers and captured over sixty vehicles. The Sudanese army did not deny these statements.

The army will conduct ground and air attacks against the rebel groups wherever they are because they are targeting civilians, said Al-Sawarmi Khalid, Sudan Armed Forces spokesman, on Saturday.

The military official, who accused South Sudan of providing logistical support to the rebels recently, pointed out that the rebels avoid confronting the army, instead attacking small villages and targeting markets.

He disclosed that they had monitored the arrival of rebels belonging to the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and SLM-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) groups together with a company of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N), in Koroma and Kira areas in Jebel Marra, South Darfur.

He further added that the Juba government did not take serious steps to expel Darfur rebels from its territory and continues to provide them with the necessary support.

Sudan and South Sudan continue, in Addis Ababa, to discuss the implementation of a number of security agreements they signed aiming to establish a buffer zone and to stop support to rebel groups.

The Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) failed this week to agree on a map of the buffer zone and the delegations are expected to resume talks on 5 July.

Before the 2 May decisions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demanding the two countries stop ground and air attacks, the Sudanese air force had carried out attacks inside the South Sudanese territory saying it was targeting camps of Darfur rebels.

It is not clear whether Khartoum intends just to alert the international community on recent violations of the resolution 2046 by the South Sudanese government or to prepare to resume air raids.

Sudan accepted this week formally a tripartite initiative to distribute humanitarian assistance in the rebel held areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

The long awaited humanitarian operation requires the two parties to observe a cessation of hostilities even if they did not sign it officially.

Observers fear that this de facto truce in South Kordofan might lead to a fresh outbreak in Darfur.

(ST)

Sudan Blames Zionist-American Plot for Unrest

An airstrike in Sudan took place on April 5, 2011 and it is suspected that the attack was carried out by Israel. The country has been attacked before in 2009 resulting in the deaths of several people., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Sudan blames Zionist-American plot for unrest

Sun Jul 1, 2012 1:41pm GMT
KHARTOUM

(Reuters) - Sudan accused unnamed "Zionist institutions" on Sunday of fanning anti-government protests as it tries to snuff out disturbances which echo Arab Spring unrest elsewhere.

For two weeks, anti-austerity protesters have been calling for the resignation of the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, one of Africa's longest serving leaders.

Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil revenue after South Sudan gained independence last year, forcing the government to impose cuts that have hit Sudanese who were already grappling with soaring inflation and a weakening currency.

"Zionist institutions inside the United States and elsewhere... are exploiting the latest economic decisions to destabilise the security and political situation," the state-linked Sudanese Media Centre quoted presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie as saying.

Nafie said the government had evidence of collusion between rebel groups in Darfur, politicians in arch-foe South Sudan and Zionist institutions in the United States to sabotage Sudan. He did not present the evidence.

The demonstrations have rarely gathered more than a few hundred people at a time, but have been an added pressure for Bashir's government, already trying to contain the economic crisis and multiple armed insurgencies.

Police used teargas to put down protests in Khartoum on Friday.

The Sudanese Commission for Defence of Freedoms and Rights estimated on Sunday that 1,000 people had been arrested since the protests began.

Demonstrators have chanted the widespread Arab Spring refrain: "The people want the downfall of the regime".

Unusually, there was no official ceremony on Saturday to mark the 23rd anniversary of Bashir's bloodless coup.

Instead, Bashir attended the opening of a shopping mall in central Khartoum. Sudanese media reported the state would donate 20 percent of revenues from the mall to the poor.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, charges Sudan has dismissed as baseless and politically motivated.

(Additional reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

Coptic Christians In the U.S. Fear for Egypt's Future

From left to right: Roma Aziz, Yasmine Gendy and Sarah Gendy attend service at St. Marks Coptic Christian Church in Fairfax. The Muslim Brotherhood's increased hold on Egyptian government has caused concern among local Egyptian-American Christians., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Coptic Christian emigres fear for Egypt’s future

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post
Sunday, July 1, 7:48 PM

In a summer camp playroom at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Fairfax, several dozen teenagers shrieked and giggled as they scrambled playing musical chairs. Then they gathered for a patriotic hymn in their native Arabic. “God save our country,” they sang. “Protect us from evil. . . We have no hope but You.”

Merna Towfaq, 15, knew all the words, but after a few verses her voice trailed off, and her shoulders heaved with sobs.

“I miss my friends. I miss my country. I want to go home, but I can’t,” she blurted, clutching a tissue in her fist. “I love Egypt, and I feel so bad for everyone there. I just feel so bad.”

Despite the upbeat camp spirit, the mood last week at St. Mark, a spiritual and political nerve center for the region’s large Egyptian Christian community, was one of deepening gloom and rising panic in the wake of elections in Egypt that propelled a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, to the presidency. He was sworn into office Saturday.

Everyone at the church seemed to have friends and relatives who were trying to leave Egypt. Parents picking up their kids said they were bracing for an Islamic takeover of their homeland. Church officials said there had been a steady stream of newcomers seeking help or coming to Arabic Masses. One man who arrived from Cairo three weeks ago, reached by a church counselor on a cell phone, nervously told his story through an Arabic translator.

“I am going to apply for asylum and get my family out as soon as I can,” said the man, 34, who gave his name only as Zekry. “The Islamists are taking over, and disaster is coming very soon.”

In the past several months, he said, he had been threatened for sheltering Muslims who converted to Christianity, and his wife had been harassed for not wearing a veil when she went to pay their Internet bill. “The clerk told her, ‘Next time come back with your head covered. Your time is over,’ ” he said.

For Egyptian Americans, the turbulent election 9,000 miles away was far more than a subject of heated but theoretical debate. Highly educated and politicized, their community is deeply involved with homeland politics. On Arabic Dish channels, they have followed every twist of the turbulent 16 months since the popular uprising in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Moreover, 27,000 longtime emigres are dual citizens or U.S. residents registered to vote in Egyptian elections. Last month, nearly half of them cast absentee ballots – about 3,000 at the Egyptian embassy in Washington and thousands more at consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

The choice, many Coptic Christian immigrants said, came down to the lesser of two evils. One of the final candidates was Ahmed Shafiq, a former cabinet minister for the ousted regime of President Hosni Mubarak that had oppressed religious minorities for 30 years. The other was Morsi, a conservative member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been an aggressive anti-Christian force in Egypt for just as long.

Among exiled voters in the United States, Shafiq won with 75 percent of the ballots. But in Egypt, Morsi won with more than 51 percent.

On Sunday, June 24, the results were announced in Cairo just as hundreds of people were arriving for the morning service at St. Mark. Suddenly, worshippers recounted, people in the pews started weeping or hugging. One man cried out, “Egypt is ruined!”

Area leaders of Coptic Solidarity, an exile movement that held a conference on Capitol Hill last week to assess the post-electoral situation and press for support from the Obama administration, were almost apocalyptic in their predictions of an increasingly bleak and suffocating fate for Copts and Egypt.

“We don’t hate Morsi, but we know the Brotherhood and its history,” said Magdi Khalil, one of the conference organizers, who is based in Virginia. “No matter what they say, the future is going to be darker and darker. They may not continue burning churches, but there will be a war of attrition against us, and Egypt will go towards a total Islamic state.”

At the conference, angry Egyptians in the audience accused State Department officials of abandoning their cause and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Michael Posner, an assistant secretary of state, tried to reassure the group, saying the Obama administration shares the Copts’ concerns. He said U.S. officials are pursuing a dialogue with Morsi “not because we agree, but because he is part of power now. The conversation is not light.”

Not all Coptic immigrants agreed with Khalil’s dire scenario. Some said last week that they were willing to give Morsi a chance, especially because he has been sounding magnanimous and inclusive in his post-election speeches.

Morsi, who once lived and studied in the United States, has promised to respect minority rights, penalize forces who killed unarmed protesters and appoint a Copt as one of his vice presidents.

Samia Harris, the principal of a private school in Woodbridge, said she decided to boycott the final election round because she was uncomfortable with both candidates. But she said she felt “better about Morsi’s intentions after I heard him speak. Now let’s see if he delivers on his promises.”

Harris, who is active in promoting U.S.-Egyptian relations, said she will be part of a delegation that travels to Cairo to meet with Morsi this summer.

“We want to offer our services, and we also want to keep him accountable,” she said.

Other Egyptian immigrants and analysts here, including moderate Muslims, offered a more sanguine assessment of the election results. Mohammed Elmenshawy, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, was one of the emigres who cast his vote at the embassy on Connecticut Avenue NW.

“I voted for Morsi, even though I am not an Islamist, because I could not vote for the past,” Elmenshawy said. “The revolution was about change, and this was an historic moment — the first real election ever held in Egypt. In the past, Mubarak always got 99.9 percent of the vote. It was new for us not to know the outcome in advance.”

Elmenshawy acknowledged that he, too, was worried about the Brotherhood’s intentions, given its historic ambition to bring sharia rule to Egypt. But he also noted that 80 to 90 percent of Egyptians are Muslims, and most of them are poor. Morsi, who comes from a modest economic background and whose wife wears traditional Muslim garb, offered them an appealing contrast with the modern, secular elite that allowed the country to languish in poverty and dictatorship.

“This is about class, too,” he said. “The other evil was really evil.”

The Copts have particular reasons to fear for the future. For more than 40 years, their sect, the largest Christian group in the Middle East, was led by Pope Shenouda III, a conservative figure who preached patience and pacifism to his minority flock of about 8 million. Shenouda died in March, at age 88, leaving the Copts without a unifying and protective figure at a time of uncertain change.

Some Coptic activists here said they were afraid the leaderless Christians will not be able to withstand the uglier manifestations of rising Islamist ambition among Brotherhood supporters and others. A number of Copts interviewed at St. Mark and elsewhere described relatives and friends back home being harassed by crowds outside churches or pressured to abandon their faith.

Abdul Malik, 24, is a Copt from a conservative family who initially opposed the uprising against Mubarak. But soon afterward, he joined a Coptic think tank and began to speak out for religious rights. Later he came to Washington, and while he was still here in October, security forces attacked a crowd in Cairo that was protesting some church burnings. At least 25 people were killed, including two of his friends.

“After that, I knew I couldn’t go back,” Malik said Thursday during a break in the Coptic Solidarity conference. “People used to think that Mubarak was the problem. But now I fear that sectarian hatred is becoming bigger than anyone can control.”

Shortly after the October massacre, Malik applied for political asylum in the United States. Two weeks ago, his petition was approved. He will soon start a new job as an aide at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Demand Immediate Intervention To Save The Life Of Dr. Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi

NTC rebel operatives holding former Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi have been accused of beating and torturing him. There is an international appeal to bring about his release., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Urgent Appeal To The International Community

Demand Immediate Intervention To Save The Life Of Dr. Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi

Posted on June 27, 2012
Alexandra Valiente
Libya 360°
Viva Libya!

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF EVENTS

Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer acting on behalf of Dr. Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, stated that within hours after his extradition to Libya, his client was tortured. He had been taken to Tripoli's Mitiga military airport where Libyan security officers proceeded to beat him until he was critically injured, with broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Marcel Ceccaldi added that with regards to assurances given to Tunisian authorities by Libya's National Transitional Council of humane treatment and a fair trial, the agreement was breached within hours of Dr. al-Mahmoudi's arrival. He was informed that Dr. al-Mahmoudi was in a coma. He is presently in hospital under guard. (The Guardian)

According to Reuters, Mabrouk Khorchid, Mahmoudi's lawyer in Tunisia, said neither he nor Dr. Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi's family had been given any prior warning that he was about to be extradited.

"I believe this is a state crime and is against human rights," he said. "This is a sad moment for human rights in Tunisia. I think he's going to be tortured and treated illegally and believe that those who handed him over bear part of the responsibility." (Reuters)

Members of the Defence Committee of Baghdadi Mahmoudi told Tunis Afrique Presse that their client was transferred from the Prison of Mornaguia to the Military Airport of Aouina at 5 a.m. ahead of his extradition to Libya.

They regard the entire operation as "illegal" and stated that it was conducted in a "surreptitious" way "without informing either the committee members or the family of their client."

Mr. Maher Amayed described the decision taken by the Interim Prime Ministry to extradite Baghdadi Mahmoudi as a violation of all the laws and commitments of Tunisia to international human rights defense organizations.

Conditions on the protection of extradited persons were not guaranteed, he added, saying that a government delegation had visited Libya two days ago without however making public its report on guarantees required in the extradition, contrary to what had been indicated by the President of the Republic a few weeks ago." (Baghdadi Mahmoudi's Defence Committee Considers His Extradition 'Unlawful')

In January, 15 Tunisian and international human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, signed a statement opposing Al-Mahmoudi's extradition, saying he risked death or torture if he was returned to Libya.

International Law is clear regarding extraditions.

"The principle of non-refoulement constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee protection. It is enshrined in Article 33 of the 1951 Convention, which is also binding on States Party to the 1967 Protocol.5 Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention provides:
"No Contracting State shall expel or return ("refouler") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his [or her] life or freedom would be threatened on account of his [or her] race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

The prohibition of refoulement to a danger of persecution under international refugee law is applicable to any form of forcible removal, including deportation, expulsion, extradition, informal transfer or "renditions", and non-admission at the border in the circumstances described below. This is evident from the wording of Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention, which refers to expulsion or return (refoulement) "in any manner whatsoever". It applies not only in respect of return to the country of origin or, in the case of a stateless person, the country of former habitual residence, but also to any other place where a person has reason to fear threats to his or her life or freedom related to one or more of the grounds set out in the 1951 Convention, or from where he or she risks being sent to such a risk.

The principle of non-refoulement as provided for in Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention does not, as such, entail a right of the individual to be granted asylum in a particular State. It does mean, however, that where States are not prepared to grant asylum to persons who are seeking international protection on their territory, they must adopt a course that does not result in their removal, directly or indirectly, to a place where their lives or freedom would be in danger on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. As a general rule, in order to give effect to their obligations under the 1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol, States will be required to grant individuals seeking international protection access to the territory and to fair and efficient asylum procedures. " (Advisory Opinion on the Extraterritorial Application of Non-Refoulement Obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol* )

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE APPEAL

Given the facts that;

•Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi's extradition to Libya violated International Law,
•that the Libyan National Transitional Council flagrantly violated the agreement made with Tunisian authorities when they granted assurances that Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi would be humanely treated, guaranteed a fail trial and not executed,
•that he was tortured and critically injured within hours after his arrival in Libya,
•that the Libyan National Transitional Council have denied Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi access to his legal counsel,
•that the International Red Cross and Human Rights organizations have been denied access to Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi in order to assess his condition,
•that the Libyan National Transitional Council are notorious for their well documented, excessive human rights abuses, including torture and execution of prisoners with differing political views, denying prisoners access to legal counsel, and are incapable of conducting fair and lawful trials,

As People of Conscience, We demand that The United Nations, The European Union, The African Union, The International Criminal Court, the World Governments and International Human Rights Organizations and specifically, The Government of Tunisia and The Libyan Transitional Government (NTC), ensure that the rights of Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi are upheld in full compliance with International norms and that there be prompt intervention to protect him from further harm and ensure his urgent medical needs are attended to.

We also demand that Human Rights Organizations and The International Red Cross (Crescent) have immediate access to Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, that they might document what has taken place and use every power available to them to remove Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi from Libya, taking him under their protection while his legal counsel can make more suitable arrangements.

We demand that Dr. Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi be granted immediate unobstructed and unconditional access to his chosen legal counsel in accordance with International Law as defined in, THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

•Statement Of The Libyan People's National Movement On The Criminal Extradition Of al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi
•Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi Tortured And In Hospital
•In Violation Of International Law, Tunisia Extradites Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi To Libya
•Dr. Baghadi Al-Mahmoudi's Press Statements
•Statement Of The Libyan People's National Movement On The Criminal Extradition Of al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi
•Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi Tortured And In Hospital
•Extradition To Libya = Extradition To Torture
•Tunisian Human Rights Group: Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi Faces Torture And Death If Extradited To Libya
•Tunisie: l'extradition de l'ex-Premier ministre libyen Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi est "irrévocable"
•'Tunisia Will Not Extradite Al-Mahmoudi If It Feels His Life In Danger'
•Tunisian Court Approves Extradition Of Former Libyan Government Official, Milad Abdul Salam
•Tunisia: Courts To Release Baghdadi Mahmoudi
•Tunisia Must Stop Returning Asylum Seekers To Libya
•Stop The Extradition of Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi
•Former Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi Is In Serious Condition In Tunisia Baghdadi Al Mahmoudi's Lawyer Demands His Immediate Release
•Tunisia Violating International Law by Extraditing Baghdadi Mahmoudi

Our Targets Are:

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
United Nations New York
NY 10017 USA
212-963-5012
fax: 212-963-7055
ecu@un.org

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
High Commissioner Ms. Navanethem Pillay
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
infoDesk@ohchr.org

Amnesty International
+44 (0) 20 7413 5566 +44 7778 472 126
gvunpost@amnesty.org
press@amnesty.org
amnesty-eu@aieu.be
mena@amnesty.org
ai-aro@amnesty.org
msk@amnesty.org

Amnesty International - Individuals At Risk
iar@amnesty.org.uk

Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue
34th floor New York
NY 10118-3299 USA
Tel: +1 212 290 4700
Fax: +1 212 736 1300
hrwnyc@hrw.org

51, Avenue Blanc
1202 Geneva Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 738 0481
Fax: +41 22 738 1791
hrwgva@hrw.org

2-12 Pentonville Road 2nd Floor
London N1 9HF
UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995
Fax: +44 20 7713 1800
hrwuk@hrw.org

Human Rights Watch, Middle East and North Africa Division
salahh@hrw.org

Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights Council of Europe
Strasbourg, FRANCE
+ 33 (0)3 88 41 34 21
+ 33 (0)3 90 21 50 53
press.commissioner@coe.int

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
19 Avenue de la paix CH 1202 Geneva
Tel: +41 22 734 60 01 Fax: +41 22 733 20 57
webmaster@icrc.org

ICRC delegations: Libya

These are the key ICRC contacts to target:

sanderson@icrc.org
hihassan@icrc.org

ICRC delegation
Ibrahim Al Houni Street
10.53.050
Diagonally Opposite Brother's Clinic (Al Okhowa)
Nouflieen,TRIPOLI
Phone: (+218) 21 3409 331, +218 21 340 92 62
mobile: (+218) 91 941 80 66, +218 92 523 65 82
tri_tripoli@icrc.org

Head of delegation:
Mr Georges Comninos
Media contact person:
Ms MESSOUDI Soaade
(+218) 913 066 198
Languages spoken: English/French/Arabic

ICRC Benghazi Al Andalus Street, Al Fwihat, Benghazi, LIBYA
Phone:( + 218) 92 807 7405
Head of offce: Mr. Patrick Schwaerzler
ben_benghazi@icrc.org

Media contact person:
Ms Dibeh FAKHR Mobile:
+218 (0) 92 330 4560 Sat: +870 772 390 124
Languages spoken: English/French/Arabic/Spanish

GOVERNMENT EMAIL ADDRESSES
ChinaMissionUN@Gmail.com, rusun@un.int, India@un.int, portugal@un.int, contact@lebanonun.org, chinesemission@yahoo.com, delbrasonu@delbrasonu.org, siumara@delbrasonu.org, bihun@mfa.gov.ba, colombia@colombiaun.org, pmun.newyork@dirco.gov.za, perm.mission@nigerdeleg.org, aumission_ny@yahoo.com, presidentrsa@po.gov.za, info@new-york-un.diplo.de, dsatsia@gabon-un.org, LamamraR@africa-union.org, waneg@africa-union.org, JoinerDJ@africa-union.org, gabon@un.int, Nigeria@un.int, unsc-nowar@gmx.com, i_chunfu@mfa.gov.cn; li_guixi@mfa.gov.cn; sun_xiaobai@mfa.gov.cn; zhu_jing3@mfa.gov.cn; he_yan@mfa.gov.cn; cnnyconsulate@mfa.gov.cn; lu_kang@mfa.gov.cn; zhang_lei1@mfa.gov.cn; jks3@mfa.gov.cn; guo_xiaofeng@mfa.gov.cn;mission@algeria-un.org, themission@angolaun.org, unmission@abgov.org, nyconsulate@abgov.org, argentina@un.int, mission@bahamasny.com, newyork@bahrainmission.org, bangladesh@un.int, belmission.contact@gmail.com, belarus@un.int, newyorkUN@diplobel.fed.be, newyorkUN@diplobel.be, blzun@belizemission.com, beninewyork@gmail.com, bhutan@un.int, delbrasonu@delbrasonu.org, info@bruneiembassy.org, cambodia@un.int, canada@un.int, prmny@international.gc.ca, capeverde@un.int, contacto@chileabroad.gov.cl, chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn, colombia@colombiaun.org, comoros@un.int, congo@un.int, missioncostaricaun@yahoo.com, cotedivoire@un.int, cotedivoiremission@yahoo.com, cyprus@un.int, nycmis@um.dk, djibouti@nyct.net, domun@onecommonwealth.org, drun@un.int, missionecuador@nyct.net, elsalvador@un.int, equatorialguineamission@yahoo.com, Mission.NewYork@mfa.ee, ethiopia@un.int, mission@fijiprun.org, sanomat.yke@formin.fi, france@franceonu.org, gabon@un.int, gambia@un.int, ghanaperm@aol.com, info@greeceun.org, grenada@un.int, guyana@un.int, haiti@un.int, honduras_un@hotmail.com, new.missions@kum.hu, titkarsag.new@kum.hu, unmission@mfa.is, india@un.int, ind_general@indiaun.net, ptri@indonesiamission-ny.org, iran@un.int, info.italyun@esteri.it, jamaica@un.int, missionun@jordanmissionun.com, kazakhstan@un.int, infokenya@kenyaun.org, jojiambo@kenyaun.org, jmugodo@kenyaun.org, ssalim@kenyaun.org, kabagerobert@kenyaun.org, lao@un.int, mission.un-ny@mfa.gov.lv, lebanon@nyct.net, postmaster@liberia-un.org, ltuun@undp.org, newyork.rp@mae.etat.lu, repermad@verizon.net, MalawiU@aol.com, MalawiNewyork@aol.com, malnyun@kln.gov.my, malionu@aol.com, marshallislands@un.int, mauritania@un.int, mauritius@un.int, mongolia@un.int, mozambique@un.int, myanmarmission@verizon.net, namibia@un.int, nepal@un.int, netherlands@un.int, nicaragua@un.int, nigerun@aol.com, delun@mfa.no, oman@un.int, info@pakun.org, mission.pakistan@ties.itu.int, mission@palauun.org, paraguay@un.int, onuper@unperu.org, newyork.pm@dfa.gov.ph, newyorkpm@gmail.com, nowyjork.onz.sekretariat@msz.gov.pl, korea@un.int, unmoldova@aol.com, misiune@romaniaun.org, romania@un.int, rusun@un.int, sknmission@aol.com, mission@svg-un.org, samoa@un.int, senegal.mission@yahoo.fr, seychelles@un.int, sierraleone@un.int, sierraleonemission@verizon.net, singpm_nyc@sgmfa.gov.sg, un.newyork@mzv.sk, mny@gov.si, simun@foreignaffairs-solomons.org, somalia@un.int, mail@slmission.com, sudan@sudanmission.org, suriname@un.int, swaziland@un.int, sweden@un.int, vertretung-UN@nyc.rep.admin.ch, syrianmission@verizonmail.com, tajikistan@un.int, tajikistanun@verizon.net, thailand@un.int, tto@un.int, turkmenistan@un.int, tuvalu@onecommonwealth.org, info@ugandamissionunny.net, ugandaunny@un.int, uae@uaemission.com, tzny@tanzania-un.org, uruguay@un.int, uzbekistan@un.int, vanunmis@aol.com, misionvene@venezuelaonu.gob.ve, info@vietnam-un.org, zambia@un.int, zimbabwe@un.int;li_chunfu@mfa.gov.cn; li_guixi@mfa.gov.cn; sun_xiaobai@mfa.gov.cn; zhu_jing3@mfa.gov.cn; he_yan@mfa.gov.cn; cnnyconsulate@mfa.gov.cn; lu_kang@mfa.gov.cn; zhang_lei1@mfa.gov.cn; jks3@mfa.gov.cn; guo_xiaofeng@mfa.gov.cn;

UNITED NATIONS EMAIL ADDRESSES
mission@algeria-un.org, themission@angolaun.org, unmission@abgov.org, nyconsulate@abgov.org, argentina@un.int, mission@bahamasny.com, newyork@bahrainmission.org, bangladesh@un.int, belmission.contact@gmail.com, belarus@un.int, newyorkUN@diplobel.fed.be, newyorkUN@diplobel.be, blzun@belizemission.com, beninewyork@gmail.com, bhutan@un.int, delbrasonu@delbrasonu.org, info@bruneiembassy.org, cambodia@un.int, canada@un.int, prmny@international.gc.ca, capeverde@un.int, contacto@chileabroad.gov.cl, chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn, colombia@colombiaun.org, comoros@un.int, congo@un.int, missioncostaricaun@yahoo.com, cotedivoire@un.int, cotedivoiremission@yahoo.com, cyprus@un.int, nycmis@um.dk, djibouti@nyct.net, domun@onecommonwealth.org, drun@un.int, missionecuador@nyct.net, elsalvador@un.int, equatorialguineamission@yahoo.com, Mission.NewYork@mfa.ee, ethiopia@un.int, mission@fijiprun.org, sanomat.yke@formin.fi, france@franceonu.org, gabon@un.int, gambia@un.int, ghanaperm@aol.com, info@greeceun.org, grenada@un.int, guyana@un.int, haiti@un.int, honduras_un@hotmail.com, new.missions@kum.hu, titkarsag.new@kum.hu, unmission@mfa.is, india@un.int, ind_general@indiaun.net, ptri@indonesiamission-ny.org, iran@un.int, info.italyun@esteri.it, jamaica@un.int, missionun@jordanmissionun.com, kazakhstan@un.int, infokenya@kenyaun.org, jojiambo@kenyaun.org, jmugodo@kenyaun.org, ssalim@kenyaun.org, kabagerobert@kenyaun.org, lao@un.int, mission.un-ny@mfa.gov.lv, lebanon@nyct.net, postmaster@liberia-un.org, ltuun@undp.org, newyork.rp@mae.etat.lu, repermad@verizon.net, MalawiU@aol.com, MalawiNewyork@aol.com, malnyun@kln.gov.my, malionu@aol.com, marshallislands@un.int, mauritania@un.int, mauritius@un.int, mongolia@un.int, mozambique@un.int, myanmarmission@verizon.net, namibia@un.int, nepal@un.int, netherlands@un.int, nicaragua@un.int, nigerun@aol.com, delun@mfa.no, oman@un.int, info@pakun.org, mission.pakistan@ties.itu.int, mission@palauun.org, paraguay@un.int, onuper@unperu.org, newyork.pm@dfa.gov.ph, newyorkpm@gmail.com, nowyjork.onz.sekretariat@msz.gov.pl, korea@un.int, unmoldova@aol.com, misiune@romaniaun.org, romania@un.int, rusun@un.int, sknmission@aol.com, mission@svg-un.org, samoa@un.int, senegal.mission@yahoo.fr, seychelles@un.int, sierraleone@un.int, sierraleonemission@verizon.net, singpm_nyc@sgmfa.gov.sg, un.newyork@mzv.sk, mny@gov.si, simun@foreignaffairs-solomons.org, somalia@un.int, mail@slmission.com, sudan@sudanmission.org, suriname@un.int, swaziland@un.int, sweden@un.int, vertretung-UN@nyc.rep.admin.ch, syrianmission@verizonmail.com, tajikistan@un.int, tajikistanun@verizon.net, thailand@un.int, tto@un.int, turkmenistan@un.int, tuvalu@onecommonwealth.org, info@ugandamissionunny.net, ugandaunny@un.int, uae@uaemission.com, tzny@tanzania-un.org, uruguay@un.int, uzbekistan@un.int, vanunmis@aol.com, misionvene@venezuelaonu.gob.ve, info@vietnam-un.org, zambia@un.int, zimbabwe@un.int

International Media Contacts:
letters@msnbc.com
onlyonfox@foxnews.com
editor@nypost.com
editor@nypost.com
stella.dawson@reuters.com
contact@lefigaro.fr
mail@mondepub.fr
letters@examiner.ie
letters@thetimes.co.uk
insight@sunday-times.co.uk
letters@guardian.co.uk
mena@amnesty.org
gvunpost@amnesty.org
ai-aro@amnesty.org
msk@amnesty.org
hrwnyc@hrw.org
berlin@hrw.org
press.commissioner@coe.int
stella.dawson@reuters.com
mail@mondepub.fr
letters@examiner.ie
Letters@thetimes.co.uk
insight@sunday-times.co.uk
letters@guardian.co.uk
hrwgva@hrw.org
rusun.press@gmail.com
rusun@un.int
press@amnesty.org
blatche@hrw.org
paris@hrw.org
international@guardian.co.uk
foreigneditor@independent.co.uk
foreign@washpost.com
aji-london-newsdesk@aljazeera.net
anthea.lipsett@guardian.co.uk
news@standard.co.uk
newseditor@independent.co.uk
news@dailymirror.co.uk
press.int@aljazeera.net
londonnews@bbc.co.uk
news@sky.com
jon.snow@itn.co.uk
politics.editor@london-student.net
politics@guardian.co.uk
englishnews@alarabiya.net
laura.tait@newsint.co.uk
bo.wilson@thelondonlite.co.uk
bccreports@socialistworker.co.uk
info@electronicintifada.net
editorial@camdennewjournal.co.uk
news.london@ukmetro.co.uk
5live.planning@bbc.co.uk
5newsdesk@itn.co.uk
fourmanfilms@hotmail.co.uk
filkaler@googlemail.com
stguest2@sunday-times.co.uk
news@standard.co.uk
cceditor@standard.co.uk
d.macleod@guardian.co.uk
r.mccarthy@guardian.co.uk
reports@socialistworker.co.uk
worldwidetv.letters@bbc.co.uk
mschwanhausser@sjmercury.com
insidetrack@toronto.cbc.ca
jonathannicholas@news.oregonian.com
jennifer.ruark@chronicle.com
tpugh@krwashington.com
JWeeks@dallasnews.com
submissions@commondreams.org
lbeil@dallasnews.com
kathy.kristof@latimes.com

This appeal campaign is © Copyright by Libya 360° and Viva Libya!. Republication is strictly forbidden without the written permission of the author. You are however permitted, encouraged and welcome to post the link to the original letter of appeal and petition. On behalf of Libya's political prisoners, we thank you for your support and cooperation.

Crowds Attack Libyan Sham Election Commission

Protesters set fire to piles of voting materials after storming the office of the national election commission in Benghazi July 1, 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Libya election commission attacked

By AYA BATRAWY
Associated Press

CAIRO -- Libyan protesters and militiamen stormed the headquarters of the election commission in the eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday, setting voting slips on fire, a militia commander said, a week before the country holds its first general election in nearly five decades.

In southern Libya, a leader of Libya's Tabu tribe threatened to boycott the election if the government does not withdraw its forces and tanks from a southern desert city where clashes have killed dozens.

The violence and calls for boycotts threaten to tarnish the process of electing a 200-member assembly to form a government and oversee writing of a constitution.

In Benghazi, where the revolt that unseated longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi began last year, Fadallah Haroun, commander of a former rebel militia, said he joined protesters in the attack on the election commission. This came after the ruling transitional council in Tripoli turned down demands to give the east an equal share of seats in the assembly. He said that two other cities in eastern Libya have witnessed similar incidents.

"We want justice," Haroun said. "We lost tens of thousands of martyrs because we want a state built on justice, law and equal rights."

As the situation stands now, Tripoli and western Libya would have 102 seats, while the oil-rich east's share would be 60. The rest would go to the sparsely populated south.

Eastern leaders charge this leaves them with no influence over drafting the constitution.

The July 7 vote will be the country's first nationwide election since the 1960s. Gadhafi, who ruled for 42 years, banned political parties and elections.

Benghazi, the largest city in eastern Libya, suffered marginalization under Gadhafi's rule. In March, top leaders and commanders held a meeting to discuss plans for semi-autonomous rule in the east. The ruling transitional council accused them of trying to split the country into mini-states.

In the south, African Tabu leader Issa Abdel-Majid told The Associated Press by telephone that his tribe will not vote if government troops continue to deploy tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and snipers against Tabu fighters battling a rival Arab tribe, Zwia, in the city of Kufra. He said dozens of Tabu men, women and children have been killed and homes destroyed in the clashes.

Neither government officials nor groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has in the past helped evacuate wounded from Kufra, could immediately determine the number of people killed in the latest round of fighting over the past week.

Armed clashes have erupted several times over the last few months, leaving dozens killed and injured, mainly among the Tabu, the original inhabitants of south Libya, who were heavily suppressed under Gadhafi.

Abdel-Majid said his tribe is calling for an international peacekeeping force to be stationed in Kufra, and for Tabu representatives to be given seats in the country's Cabinet.

"If our demands are not met, we are boycotting the elections," he said.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Rights group Amnesty International's Libya researcher Diana el-Tahawy said the government failed to send a fact-finding mission to Kufra after clashes that killed more than 100 people broke out in February, to determine who was behind the attacks and compensate the victims. Unresolved disputes have boiled over since.

"The (government) is either unwilling or unable to control these various militias," she said.

Former Libyan Prime Minister al-Mahmudi Beaten, Tortured by US-backed NTC Rebel Regime

Demonstration against the extradition, beating, torture and humiliation of former Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi by the NTC rebels in the US-backed occupied North African state. The rebels have denied the reports., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

First Published: 2012-06-27

Libya denies extradited former premier beaten

Medics, officials deny claims by lawyer of Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, Gathafi's last premier, that he was beaten, hospitalised after his extradition from Tunisia.

Middle East Online

Ceccaldi: Mahmudi had been hospitalised with haemorrhage

TRIPOLI - Libyan medics and officials on Tuesday denied claims by the lawyer of Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, Moamer Gathafi's last premier, that he was beaten and hospitalised after his extradition from neighbouring Tunisia.

"I deny it completely," Hisham al-Atri, a doctor who daily visits the detention centre in the suburbs of Tripoli where Mahmudi is being held, said.

"I check on him every day. There were no signs of beatings. He only has diabetes and no other condition," he added, saying Mahmudi was given a full medical evaluation on arrival.

"He was psychologically nervous when he first arrived ... but yesterday and today he is better," Atri said.

The doctor said prisoners are checked on daily and that specialists are on call in the case of any eventuality.

On Sunday, Tunisia extradited Mahmudi, who served as the late Gathafi's last prime minister, stirring controversy.

His French lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi said on Monday that Mahmudi had been beaten up on arrival in Libya and hospitalised with a haemorrhage.

"This is an extradition towards a rogue country by a government using gangster methods," Ceccaldi said in Paris.

But Libya's deputy justice minister also rejected the claims.

"I completely deny reports that Baghdadi al-Mahmudi was assaulted," Khalifa Ashur said.

"He is being treated well in line with international standards and it is impossible for such an act to occur. He is in a safe place and his guards were carefully selected," he said.

French website Mediapart quoted Ceccaldi as saying Mahmudi had been interrogated by Abdelhakim Belhaj, a former jihadist who resigned in May as military commander in Tripoli to run as a candidate in the upcoming elections for a national assembly.

Belhaj categorically denied any involvement in such an incident.

"I didn't see him at all or go to him," Belhaj said.

He added that he was in Benghazi on Sunday, the day of Mahmudi's arrival, and that he had returned to Tripoli on Monday.

"I have no relation with him and I don't want to see him. I am not an investigator and I have nothing to do with prisoners," he stressed.

Ashur, the deputy justice minister, said the public prosecutor's office had been in charge of Mahmudi since his arrival and insisted he would be given a fair trial.

The public prosecutor's office took charge of Mahmudi "as soon as he arrived" and preliminary investigations were already underway, Ashur said.

"Many charges have been brought against him, including ones relating to financial corruption and crimes committed after the February 17 revolution."

Mahmudi would enjoy a fair and public trial, he added.

The ex-premier's extradition came as a boon for the ruling National Transitional Council, which is keen to prove that it can conduct fair and safe trials for high pro-file figures.

But the decision plunged neighbouring Tunisia into a political crisis because the extradition was opposed by President Moncef Marzouki.

Libyan Tabu People Threatens Election Boycott

Libyan women hold pictures of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in Tripoli on March 19, 2011 during a protest against the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 which authorise all necessary measures to establish a no-fly zone which resulted in regime-change., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Libyan Tabu tribe threatens election boycott

Published July 01, 2012
Associated Press

CAIRO – The head of Libya's Tabu tribe said Sunday his people will boycott this week's national election if the government does not withdraw its forces and tanks from a southern desert city where deadly clashes have killed dozens.

The violence and calls for an election boycott threaten to tarnish the process of electing a representative assembly that would draw up a new constitution and name a new government. The July 7 vote to elect a 200-member body is the first nationwide vote since the ouster and killing of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi last year.

African Tabu leader Issa Abdel-Majid told The Associated Press by telephone that his tribe will not vote if government troops continue to deploy tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and snipers against Tabu fighters battling a rival Arab tribe in the southeastern city of Kufra. He said dozens of Tabu men, women and children have been killed and homes destroyed in the clashes.

Neither government officials nor groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has in the past helped evacuate wounded from Kufra, could immediately determine the number of people killed in the most recent round of fighting over the past week.

Armed clashes have erupted several times over the past few months, leaving dozens killed and injured, mainly among the Tabu, the original inhabitants of south Libya who were heavily suppressed under Gadhafi, and their rivals, the Arab tribe of Zwia.

Abdel-Majid said his tribe is calling for an international peacekeeping force to be stationed in Kufra, and for Tabu representatives to be given seats in the country's Cabinet.

"If our demands are not met, we are boycotting the elections," he said.

Some leaders in eastern Libya are also calling for an election boycott, pushing for semi-autonomy instead. They called for staying away from the elections unless seats of the elected assembly are equally distributed among different regions.

Eastern Libya suffered neglect under Gadhafi, and the uprising that toppled him started there. Leaders there charge that the situation has not improved enough under the transitional government that replaced his regime.

Abdel-Basit Haroun, one of hundreds of tribal leaders and militia commanders in the east pushing to form a semi-autonomous region, said the government's Libya Deterrence Forces are in Kufra making matters worse.

"They want to create strife so that there is no unity in the east. All of this is planned and plotted," he said.

Haroun is a leading member of the eastern city of Benghazi's security militia that sent forces to try to mediate in Kufra.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Rights group Amnesty International's Libya researcher Diana el-Tahawy said the country's National Transitional Council failed to send a fact-finding mission to Kufra when clashes that killed more than 100 people broke out in February, to determine who was behind the attacks and compensate the victims. Unresolved disputes have boiled over since.

"The NTC is either unwilling or unable to control these various militias," she said.

The Tabu's Abdel-Majid linked the recent bout of violence to "politics" and accused Tripoli's Arab leaders of racism against his African tribe.

"We are surrounded and occupied by tanks and weapons," Abdel-Majid said. "We want the (government) forces out of Kufra."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/01/libyan-tabu-tribe-threatens-election-boycott/print#ixzz1zOiQQNxZ

Transition Plan for Syria Falters

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad talking with people inside the country. The Syrian government has accepted a peace plan peddled by former UN General Secretary Kofi Anan., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

July 1, 2012, 2:01 p.m. ET

Transition Plan for Syria Falters

By SAM DAGHER
Wall Street Journal

BEIRUT—A plan by world powers for a Syrian political transition appeared doomed Sunday, with Bashar al-Assad's regime interpreting the outcome as a fresh lifeline from Russia—its principal international backer—while the lack of any reference in the plan to Mr. Assad's departure from office angered the Syrian opposition.

With no sign of any commitment by Syria's warring sides to embrace the transition plan outlined in Geneva on Saturday, many warned that violence could worsen even beyond the levels seen in June, which is now believed to have been the bloodiest month in the Syrian conflict.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition group, nearly 4,000 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed since May 26.

At the core of the latest initiative by the international community to resolve the nearly 16-month conflict, which many now describe as a civil war, is the creation by "mutual consent" of a new transitional government that would have much of the executive powers exercised by President Assad and bring together members of the current government, the opposition and other groups, according to the communiqué issued at the end of the Geneva meeting.

The meeting brought together foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China—as well as Turkey, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. European Union and Arab League officials also attended.

It excluded Iran—after U.S. objection to the participation of a Syrian ally seen as aiding the regime in its domestic crackdown—and Saudi Arabia, a main supporter of Syrian political and armed opposition groups.

Kofi Annan, a former U.N. chief now serving as special envoy for the Syrian crisis, described the latest proposal as "a serious agreement on how we can help Syria at this grim and brutal time," but said everything hinged on the implementation of a cease fire, the first item of an existing U.N. and Arab League-backed six-point peace plan already in tatters.

"The bloodshed must end, and the parties must be prepared to put forward effective interlocutors to work with me toward a Syrian-led settlement," Mr. Annan said at the end of the meeting.

As of Sunday, there was no official reaction from the Syrian government to the idea of creating a new transitional government with significantly more powers, but state media outlets framed the result of the Geneva meeting as a victory for the regime and its ally Russia.

"Today we are witnessing the birth of a new school in international diplomacy," said Abdel-Hadi Nasri, a pro-regime commentator on Syrian state TV, referring to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In his news conference after the Geneva meeting, Mr. Lavrov insisted there was nothing in the proposed political plan stipulating that Mr. Assad should leave power and said his country succeeded in blocking the inclusion of language in the final communiqué that would have called for making the plan obligatory under the U.N. Chapter 7 provision.

In his remarks, Mr. Lavrov put the onus for the success of the latest initiative on the willingness of armed antiregime opposition groups to lay down their arms and for countries like the U.S., U.K., Turkey and Gulf Arab states to stop backing them.

Nadim Shehadi, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, called the Geneva meeting "a flop" except for the opportunity it gave Russia to once more flex its muscles as a key player in Syria and the Middle East.

"The Russians are basking in their glory to have such a significant role," said Mr. Shehadi.

Radwan Ziadeh, a Washington-based senior member of the main opposition group known as the Syrian National Council, said the meeting was "irrelevant" and repeated previous calls for international intervention in Syria outside the framework of the U.N. Security Council, where Russia and China have sparred with Western powers over Syria.

Omar Idlibi, spokesman for the opposition's Local Coordination Committees, said the Geneva communiqué stood no chance of being accepted by most of the rebel groups fighting the regime inside Syria because of the absence of any reference to Mr. Assad relinquishing power or punishing anyone in the regime for crimes committed so far.

Mr. Idlibi, who spoke from the Turkish border city of Antakya, said he just spent two months inside Syria and that rebels were in control of large sections of central and northern Syria and had no incentive to compromise with the regime and were determined to fight until the end.

"We have burned the ships," he said.

Write to Sam Dagher at sam.dagher@wsj.com

Another Imperialist War Must Be Stopped!

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, was featured on Press TV News Analysis discussing US foreign policy toward Syria. The program aired on December 30, 2011., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Another Imperialist War Must be Stopped

Lessons for the Current Situation Involving Syria

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Note: The following talk was delivered on June 30, 2012 at a public forum on the political situation Syria. The forum sponsored by Workers World in Detroit featured Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center.

An imperialist-engineered war is well underway against the Middle Eastern nation of Syria. Over the last 15 months, opposition forces inside the country have been demanding outside intervention from the United States and NATO in order to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party (ABSP) has been in power in Syria since 1963. This is the same party that was in power in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, although the Iraq wing and the Syrian faction have been split since 1966.

Over the last year, the Syrian government under President Assad has been attempting to initiate reforms in the political system. Just recently elections were held and political opposition forces have been brought into a new coalition government.

Nonetheless, this entire process has been ignored by the imperialist states, their allies in the Gulf monarchies and the armed opposition forces popularly known as the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Other political elements have also entered the efforts to overthrow the Assad government including elements of al-Qaeda.

Imperialists Using Similar Playbook Around the World

What is striking are the similarities between the process of isolating Syria and what has occurred in other states throughout the region and in Afghanistan over the last 11 years. In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the U.S. and Britain utilized these attacks to escalate the militarization of capitalist economies in North America and Europe and to intensify repressive measures domestically within various western states.

The passage of the USA Patriot Act and other measures by Congress during the fall of 2001 served as the forerunner for the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan. At the same time efforts were underway to link the 9-11 attacks to the Hussein government in Baghdad.

When the war against Afghanistan began in October 2001 a general hysteria had been created inside the U.S. The government and corporate media made it appear that the general population was under imminent threat of another attack.

Various modes of security alerts were imposed utilizing color codes. Muslims, Arabs, Africans and South Asians were rounded up by the security apparatus under the guise that they posed a threat to the state.

After bombing and toppling the Taliban government in Kabul, utilizing sophisticated weapons, ground troops and the so-called Northern Alliance, the U.S. installed Hamid Karzai as a puppet leader of the Central Asian country. Karzai had been an executive of a U.S.-based energy firm, clearly revealing the real agenda behind the intervention.

During the spring of 2002, a naval build-up began in the Persian Gulf targeting the government in Iraq. By the summer and fall of the year it was quite obvious that there would be another invasion of Iraq, this time on a more massive scale.

Of course the corporate media between September 2001 and March 2003 ignored nearly all efforts aimed at an objective analysis and evaluation of the situation involving both Afghanistan and Iraq. Television and radio program which did not fall in line with the war propaganda were forced of the air.

However, there was a tremendous popular response to the war drive that astonished both the ruling class and people within the U.S. and around the world. Demonstrations were held between the fall of 2001 and the initiation of the Iraq war that attracted millions throughout the U.S., Europe and around the world.

Most people inside the U.S. did not support the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The war against both Afghanistan and Iraq were based on fabrications and were designed to position the U.S. imperialists and their NATO allies to reap enormous profits at the expense of the working class and nationally oppressed domestically and internationally.

Military service and security contracts looted hundreds of billions of dollars out of the national treasury of the U.S. This paralleled the boom in predatory lending and other financial activity by the banking sector which brought the capitalist economies around the world to the brink of disaster during 2007-2008.

The wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq proved to be disastrous even for the ruling class themselves. In Afghanistan and Pakistan resistance grew to the intervention of the Pentagon and NATO leading to the eventual deaths of over 2,000 foreign occupation troops and the wounding and injuring of tens of thousands more.

In Iraq, the resistance was fierce from the beginning. By 2011, when the White House announced a “withdrawal”, over 4,500 U.S. troops had been killed, tens of thousands were wounded. Hundreds of thousands more were inflicted with closed-head injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Tragedy in Haiti

In the meantime there were other wars as well. In Haiti, the U.S. invaded the country in February 2004 and overthrew the government of President Bertrand Aristide. President Aristide was kidnapped and forcibly exiled in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The intervention of the International Action Center was key in bringing about his release and the granting of political asylum by the African National Congress government of President Thabo Mbeki in the Republic of South Africa. Aristide returned to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti two years ago, yet he has not been able to re-enter politics despite the fact that his party is the most populous in the country.

The invasion of Haiti by the U.S., France and Canada worsened the conditions for the masses. Those who sought to flee this horror were returned by the Coast Guard or threatened with deportation by the Bush and later Obama administrations.

Today Haiti is still suffering from the impact of the January 2010 earthquake. The United Nations occupation forces are carrying out atrocities against the population and a cholera epidemic brought there by the MINUSTAH forces has killed hundreds and sickened thousands.

The Proxy War in Somalia

In the Horn of Africa, the U.S. has targeted Somalia for destabilization and occupation. Claiming that the country is a base for “terrorist” activity, since 2006, the White House, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has supported war lords, financed and trained surrogate military forces and provided direct on the ground operatives to target resistance forces.

In recent months the U.S. has launched numerous drone attacks on Somalia killing hundreds of people. These drones have struck alleged al-Shabaab training camps and internally displaced persons (IDP). U.S. interference in Somalia and the Horn of Africa has resulted in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and the establishment of a military base for the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in neighboring Djibouti at Camp Lemoinnier.

The war has drawn in troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sierra Leone. Other military forces from France, Israel and Britain are also involved in the Somalia war.

Yet the people of Somalia are continuing to resist the onslaught by imperialism. Despite years of efforts extending back to 1992, the U.S. has still not been able to subdue the country.

Libya: AFRICOM First Project in Africa

Libya was the most prosperous and stable country in Africa. The government under Col. Muammar Gaddafi had provided assistance to many national liberation movements throughout Africa and around the world.

The oil industry resources were utilized for the national development of the country and a political system of direct democracy served to empower people on the grassroots level. Libya was host to over two million guest workers who were employed in the oil, construction, health care and service industries.

When the U.S. initiated an internal rebellion inside the country in February 2011, they expected the government to collapse within days. However, the Libyan military and civilian forces were able to not only resist the rebels but bring about the near defeat within a matter of four weeks.

When the defeat of the rebels become evident, the imperialist went to the United Nations Security Council to get the passage of Resolutions 1970 and 1973, which imposed an armed embargo on the government and provided for a so-called “No-fly Zone” over Libya. On March 19, 2011, the U.S. and NATO began to bomb Libya and this campaign lasted for seven months.

Some 26,000 air missions, 10,000 bombings, a naval blockade, the freezing of over $160 billion in foreign assets along with the electronic vilification of the government by the corporate press was carried out. The leader of the Libyan Revolution, Muammar Gaddafi, was hunted down by the U.S. and assassinated on October 20.

Today Libya is a classic example of the impact of imperialist war on nations within the developing world. Although much oil is being pumped out of the country, the masses are living in poverty and armed militias roaming the country are the law unto themselves.

People are being disappeared on a daily basis and fighting is continuing at a phenomenal rate. Bombing are occurring every week in various parts of the country particularly in the eastern region known as Cyrenaica around Benghazi.

In the South of the country, factional fighting has led to the deaths of hundreds over the last several months. The fighting has spilled over into Mali resulting in the partition of that country and the assumption of power by the military during March.

Sham elections are scheduled next week in Libya which are being touted by the corporate media as the first of its kind in the history of this North African state. Yet the supporters of the Jamahiriya are excluded from participation and members of the former government are being held in prison under tortuous conditions. Many others have been killed including members of Gaddafi’s family.

Seif al-Islam, the son of Gaddafi and his heir-apparent, is being held by the Zintan militia. A recent scandal has erupted with the detention of four members of a delegation from the International Criminal Court (ICC), one of whom is from Australia.

The corporate media and the imperialist governments have been virtually silent around these developments in Libya. AFRICOM, the CIA, the transnational oil firms are swarming the country stealing wealth and setting up conditions for further destabilization of the oil-rich state.

Impact of Imperialist Wars on the Domestic Situation

Since the advent of the Afghan war some 11 years ago, the conditions of workers and the oppressed have worsened to unprecedented levels. The economic crisis facing the world is the most severe since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Over ten million jobs have been lost in the U.S. and many more in Europe and other parts of the world. There is no way out for the imperialists other than additional wars of aggression and occupation and the imposition of austerity.

This will of course not work. The imperialists cannot cut their way out of this crisis of over production and unequal distribution of wealth. The working class is becoming more conscious and is learning tremendous lessons for future battles.

This is why it is so important to have an anti-imperialist and internationalist viewpoint. The conditions in Detroit, Stockton, California, Birmingham, Alabama, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Providence, Rhode Island and other cities are clearly related to the crisis in Athens, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome and Paris.

The two parties of the U.S. ruling class have no solution to the crisis. They are in fact the agents of finance capital which is the source of the problem.

What we need is a party of the working class and the oppressed that will organize and mobilize the masses for the construction of socialism. Socialism provides the only solution to the current crisis and the sooner we dispose of the exploitative system the better of we all will be in the long term.

Consequently, another war in Syria will occur at the expense of the people of that country, the Middle East and the people of the U.S. and the world. We must do whatever we can to stop this calamity and crime against humanity.

No Imperialist War Against Syria!
Solidarity With the People of Syria and the Middle East!
Long Live International Solidarity!
Workers and Oppressed of the World Unite!