Libya news of the day.....
“They wanted to overthrow the government,” Zeidan said, adding that members of the General National Council, the nation’s parliament, were involved in the plot.
The rebels, led by al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) fighters, moved against a handful of Alawite villages in the province in early August, going house to house, massacring adult men and taking the women and children hostage.
Indeed, US officials say that they are “losing patience” with President Hamid Karzai, who is holding back the deal over certain US demands to continue to launch unilateral operations in the nation, and a US refusal to guarantee that the deployed troops would help defend Afghanistan if it came under attack.
Latif was in an Afghan government convoy being taken to the NDS headquarters when the convoy was suddenly captured by the US military and Latif was carted off by the US forces, to be detained at Bagram as an “enemy combatant.”
Failed coup a turning point for the better: Zeidan
By Ashraf Abdul Wahab and Ahmed Elumami.
Libyans watched Zeidan on TV accuse opponents of political consiracy (Photo: Aimen Eljali)
Tripoli, 11 October 2013:
A clearly reinvigorated Prime Minister Ali Zeidan this evening delivered a hour-long fighting speech on national television, in which he described his abduction as a ‘coup’, blamed GNC opponents for sabotaging the business of government, vowed firm action against his abductors and signalled an imminent crackdown.
“I urge Libyans to understand the consequences of us using force against those who hold government to ransom” he said in a television broadcast , “and not to blame us when it happens ….Yesterday’s events will be a turning point for my government and we’ll make sure it is for the better.”
Zeidan said that a crisis committee had been formed, which included revolutionaries and that delayed budgets for police and security were now being paid out from the Central Bank of Libya.
He said that he and his administration had had enough of those who intimated them and frustrated the will of the Libyan people.
“The GNC is being intimidated by a dangerous loud minority,” said Zeidan, “who stop at nothing to pass their agendas…. Since the day I assumed office a group within the GNC has been doing nothing but work to oust me on no real grounds. This group wants to rule Libya on its own”.
Zeidan asserted that there had been concerted efforts to obstruct the formation of a new army and police force. He said: “I have been trying to avoid saying this, but I had to come out and speak because it’s becoming dangerous”.
He explained: “All my government’s plans to rebuild government institutions have been opposed and this group made sure that plans failed or never happened”. He cited delays from the Audit Office that had been holding up the training of thousands of soldiers in the UK.
Zeidan protested of the GNC: “Laws that require changes to make the government’s work easy haven’t been changed or are being delayed, making our job impossible”. He continued that those who compromised security or national interest through their political activities were against the rebuilding of Libya.
Turning to the armed groups, that his government has long sought unsuccessfully to disband or incorporate within the police and army, Zeidan said: “I don’t hate the Thuwar or the Revolutionaries, but I will never give in to the pressure by these groups using their arms.
“Most revolutionary groups come to me for money or positions in government and if I don’t comply, they say ‘You serve Qaddafi men’s agendas’.…Everyday we have at least three protests at the government headquarters and they’re usually armed, asking for salaries”.
He said his government had been under immense pressure from such groups claiming ‘revolutionary legitimacy’. That pressure currently included the kidnapping of the son of defence minister Abdullah Al-Thinni. This was another demonstration that the army and police were being opposed.
“Many of my ministers and deputies are revolutionaries who fought on the front lines,” he said, adding, “I pay my respects to the real Thuwar, who aren’t greedy or after money or power and just worked and continue to work for Libya ….We won’t give up Libya to those groups who want to claim the country their own. We won’t allow that to happen”.
When speaking of his own kidnapping, Zeidan said: “My abduction is a huge crime with so many sides to it, from lying to falsifying government documents and abducting the head of the government”.
He said that one hundred armed vehicles had driven up to the Corinthia Hotel where he was staying.
“This number of armed men and vehicles would never happen without being pre-organised. This was nothing less than a coup. The armed group claimed to have an arrest warrant and terrorised hotel staff and guests. Armed men forced their way into my room and demanded that I go with them. They stole all my personal belongings, including my clothes”.
Zeidan said that his political opponents had been behind his abduction, intent on forcing him to resign after they had failed to unseat him by forcing a vote of confidence in the GNC.
It was here that the prime minister made a point of refuting reports that, when GNC president Nuri Abu Sahmain had visited him where he was detained, the GNC leader had asked him to resign. Rather, said Zeidan, “ the head of the GNC has been very helpful and tries his best to help me out, but there are others who oppose any progress”.
The kidnappers advanced the Tripoli kidnapping last Sunday of Nazih Ruqaii (alias Abu Anas Al-Libi) by US special forces, as the grounds for their seizure of the prime minister, saying that he had had a part in it.
“My government didn’t know about the US operation” averred Zeidan, “and we condemn the US’s action in Tripoli and we’ll ensure Al-Libi’s rights are protected. We’ll give our full support to Al-Libi and his family and help them in all ways possible. We all want justice and we’ll ensure that al-Libi gets justice.”
Of his own abduction, Zeidan said that he had been told by his kidnappers that they came from all parts of the country except Zintan. He also said that he understood: “One of the people who was asked to help with my kidnapping refused and now he has been kidnapped and his whereabouts are unknown”. He said that prosecutions were being prepared against all involved in his seizure.
Zeidan thanked the Libyan people, singling out the locals in Fornaj who reportedly surrounded the building where he was being held, forcing the kidnapers to hand him over.
Libya PM: Kidnapping Was Attempted Coup by Political Rivals
Says Parliament Members Involved in Plot
by Jason Ditz, October 11, 2013
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s bizarre Thursday kidnapping by members of his own government’s security forces were part of an attempted “coup” by political rivals, according to Zeidan’s comments today.
“They wanted to overthrow the government,” Zeidan said, adding that members of the General National Council, the nation’s parliament, were involved in the plot.
The militia that captured Zeidan initially claimed to be executing an arrest warrant against him for corruption, and held him at the nation’s Interior Ministry before it was eventually revealed, hours later, that no such warrant existed.
Zeidan said his government will focus on security in the near term, pushing for militia factions not under the government’s direct control to disarm. His term in office remains very much in doubt, however, parliament is deadlocked on an election law and a “no confidence” vote against the current government could happen at any time.
Abdullah Senussi can be tried in Libya after all: ICC
By Hadi Fornaji.
Abdullah Al-Senussi now on trial
Tripoli, 11 October 2011
Libya has been authorised by the International Criminal Court to press ahead with the trial in Tripoli of Qaddafi’s former security chief Abdullah Al-Senussi.
ICC judges today upheld an appeal by Libya against the original order that Senussi be handed over for trial at the international court.
In its decision, judges said that after careful consideration, they had found that the Libyan prosecutor’s investigations covered the same ground as the ICC’s. They also noted the quantity and quality of the evidence collected against Senussi and the start of court proceedings this September. Further they lauded the efforts made to “resolve certain issues in the justice system by recourse to international assistance”.
In an oblique reference to the case of Saif Al-Islam, who is held by Zintanis who have so far refused to hand him over to state custody, the judgement said:” The Chamber’s decision took into account, holistically, the fact that Al-Senussi is not detained under State custody …” .
Zintan has said that it wants Saif tried for crimes against humanity in Zintan. It has in the meantime charged him with attempting to escape, proceedings which have delayed any move elsewhere. Saif has been arraigned in Tripoli, along with Senussi and 36 other top figures in the old regime. On 19 September opening of the pretrial hearing in Tripoli, justice officials were saying that the Zintanis would be bringing their star prisoner to the court. This did not happen. Instead Zintan issued a statement reiterating its determination that Saif should be tried in the town,
The ICC is continuing to demand that Saif be handed over to it, with court-appointed defence lawyers arguing that Qaddafi’s son cannot expect a fair trial in Libya. The 27-day detention of two of that defence team in Zintan after a meeting with Saif, in June 2012, has clearly hardened the ICC’s position on Saif.
Both the ICC prosecutor and Senussi’s ICC-appointed defence team may yet appeal today’s decision.
Syria items of note.....
Report Details Syrian Rebel Massacre Against Alawite Villagers
At Least 190 Villagers Slain in Offensive
by Jason Ditz, October 11, 2013
A new Human Rights Watch report details massive war crimes committed by Syrian rebel factions against civilians in the nation’s northwestern Latakia Province. The incident took place in early August.
The rebels, led by al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) fighters, moved against a handful of Alawite villages in the province in early August, going house to house, massacring adult men and taking the women and children hostage.
The rebels killed at least 190 villages all told in the offensive, and took over 200 other civilians hostage, who months later are still not released. AQI and the other factions involved had bragged about the attacks regularly at the time.
The US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) appears to have been involved in the massacres as well. FSA leader Salim Idriss bragged of this involvement in a video less than a week after the killings, saying that they were taking part in the Latakiaoffensive “to a great extent.” The scope of the FSA’s involvement is not confirmed, however.
Syrian President Bashar Assad is a member of the Alawite religion, and Sunni Islamist rebel factions have regularly targeted Alawite civilians as presumptive “sympathizers.” Such attacks have of course rendered the Alawites less than sympathetic toward the rebels.
Afghanistan items of note.....
US, Growing Impatient, Likely to Miss Deadline on Afghan Deal
Kerry in Afghanistan for Emergency Talks
by Jason Ditz, October 11, 2013
US officials claimed nonspecific “progress” on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) to keep US troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, but with the deadline President Obama set just three weeks away, a deal remains far from imminent.
Indeed, US officials say that they are “losing patience” with President Hamid Karzai, who is holding back the deal over certain US demands to continue to launch unilateral operations in the nation, and a US refusal to guarantee that the deployed troops would help defend Afghanistan if it came under attack.
As with the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that kept troops in Iraq beyond 2008, the US seeks to retain more or less all of the unilateral authority it enjoyed in the wake of the initial invasion, and is once again finding that a tough sell.
Secretary of State John Kerry is in Afghanistan right now for “urgent” talks aimed at the BSA, but the reality is that there is virtually no chance of a deal by President Obama’s October 31 deadline, after which he threatened a full withdrawal.
The withdrawal is unlikely to happen either, of course, since the Pentagon by all accounts hasn’t even seriously considered getting the pullout done by the end of 2014. A deal may ultimately wait until after the April 2014 election, on the assumption that Karzai’s successor, whoever it may be, could be sold on the deal.
US Troops Capture Pakistani Taliban Leader, Foiling Peace Talks
Key TTP Figure Was Snatched From Afghan Govt Convoy
by Jason Ditz, October 11, 2013
Several months of intense negotiations by the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) almost bore fruit this week, when they finally managed to convince a key Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader, Latif Mehsud, to come to NDS headquarters to help organize peace talks.
Latif was in an Afghan government convoy being taken to the NDS headquarters when the convoy was suddenly captured by the US military and Latif was carted off by the US forces, to be detained at Bagram as an “enemy combatant.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is said to be enraged by the move, and the tension may further aggravate the negotiations over post-2014 terms for US military operations in the country.
At the same time, the US operation foiled a key effort at peace with a major Taliban faction, and such peace deals would make it a lot easier for Karzai or any subsequent Afghan leader to reject a continued occupation. As it stands, the US seems to oppose peace talks if they undermine the war talks.
US officials confirmed the capture of Latif, but declined to offer any further details, citing the “sensitivity of the issue.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/09/new-details-emerge-about-how-four-us-military-members-died-in-afghanistan/?
As the coffins of four U.S. service members returned to Dover, Del. Wednesday amid outrage over the government’s inability to pay their families death benefits or travel expenses, Fox News has learned new details about the attack in which they died Sunday in Afghanistan.
The incident, which occurred in Panjwai district 25 miles west of Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, is currently under investigation by the U.S. military.
Fox News has learned that 13 other service members were also severely injured in the assault.
The injured began arriving at Walter Reed National Army Medical Center earlier this week although some were not yet stable enough to move from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
Senior U.S. military sources describe the attack as “complex”.
A Ranger regiment that included 36 troops and a canine unit were attempting to capture a high value target in Panjwai in southern Afghanistan. When the troops arrived at the home, U.S. military officials said, the unit did a typical “call out” asking for those inside to come out.
One man appeared. Reports from the battlefield suggest he dropped to his knees and lifted his shirt to show the U.S. forces that he was not wearing a suicide bomb vest.
As several members of the Ranger unit moved toward the man to begin questioning him, a woman wearing a suicide vest emerged from the house and blew herself up, killing several members of the unit instantly, along with the dog, and injuring others.
Another Afghan male tried to escape from the compound.
As U.S. army medics, explosives specialists and others in the unit moved in to help the wounded, 13 improvised explosive devices went off, killing and injuring more U.S. forces.
They were the last casualties before the Afghan war entered its 13th year Monday.
The four killed were Army Rangers Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins, 25, assigned to Company B, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, at Fort Benning, Ga.; Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, 24, assigned to Company B, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, at Fort Benning, Ga.;1st Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, 25, assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., and attached to a joint special operations task force as a Cultural Support Team member; and Special Agent Joseph M. Peters, 24, assigned to the 286th Military Police Detachment (CID), 5th Military Police Battalion, Vicenza, Italy.
U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan Matthew Leas said Wednesday, “At this time, we cannot confirm the details of the operation as there is currently an ongoing investigation, which is standard practice. We can confirm that in addition to the four soldiers killed in action, 13 soldiers were wounded in action, but out of respect for their privacy, will not
elaborate on the extent of their injuries."
elaborate on the extent of their injuries."
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