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Mabuhay, Kadhafi forces! DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 08/26/2011

Friday, August 26, 2011

Mabuhay, Kadhafi forces!

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/26/2011
The strategies employed by the US and Nato are all too familiar by now: First, a massive disinformation campaign, followed by a mobilization of armed opportunistic defectors.

Then, as more gangster and terrorist elements are recruited, massive Nato bombings are set off to precede an actual armed incursion.

Ostensibly, the assault to re-colonize Libya officially began in February 2011 with the disinformation that Moammar Kadhafi’s air force had strafed and bombed “peaceful” demonstrators — who, in no time, had lots of arms and SUVs outfitted with anti-aircraft artillery. A UN resolution for a “humanitarian no-fly zone” was thereafter rushed, which, to date, has yielded 20,000 bombing sorties that have brought death and destruction to thousands upon thousands of innocent Libyan civilians. Of course, the script will never be complete without an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of Kadhafi and his family.

But despite the promise of a “short campaign” lasting a few days or weeks from US President Barack Obama, it’s been almost seven months now and still, Kadhafi continues to be a pain in his backside.

Remember the reports early on of a Kadhafi plane landing in Venezuela, insinuating an escape? Well, it’s the same kind of blatant disinformation resorted to recently, where Khamis Kadhafi, the son in command of elite forces, was said to have been killed; followed by claims of another two of Kadhafi’s sons being captured.
Between the disinformation that Khamis had been killed and the rebel “invasion” of Tripoli, French journalist Thierry Meyssan reported on GlobalResearch.ca that “(by) evening, a motorcade of official cars carrying top government figures came under attack… (forcing it to flee) to the Hotel Rixos, where the foreign press is based… At 1 a.m., Khamis… came to the Rixos… personally to deliver weapons for the defense of the hotel. He then left… (after which) heavy fighting all around (ensued)…”

We all know that Libyan political leader Seif Al-Islam, another of Kadhafi’s sons, appeared later in public to rally the troops, belying western media claims that he had been arrested by rebel forces.

Moreover, as Sunday’s reports of the rebel advance into Tripoli blared, Meyssan recounted on PrisonPlanet.com eyewitness reports detailing that “a Nato warship sailed up and anchored just off the shore at Tripoli, delivering heavy weapons and debarking al-Qaeda jihadi forces… led by Nato officers… (Then, after) intense firefights… drones and aircraft (of Nato) kept bombing in all directions… straf(ing) civilians in the streets with machine guns to open the way for the jihadis.”

Kadhafi had repeatedly pointed to these al-Qaeda jihadis as the rebels’ main fighting force. So, even with al-Qaeda’s status as the West’s public enemy No. 1, it should be clear to all that these so-called “enemies” have long worked together, just as Osama bin Laden did with the CIA in Afghanistan.

Overall, since the initial assault of Nato’s sleeper elements almost seven months ago, Kadhafi had quickly regrouped and turned the tables on his foes. Indeed, while the US and Nato believed that drones and air power alone were enough to neutralize Kadhafi in weeks, they didn’t count on his troops hiding their tanks and SUVs from Tunisia to disguise themselves as rebels moving about the desert.

Now that the fighting is all over Tripoli and the other cities of Libya, there’s no denying the tenacity and “brilliance” of Kadhafi’s forces in surprising the enemy. As I have said many times, “The fighting ain’t over till it’s over.” And, going by an old military adage saying, “Let the snake’s head enter then cut it off,” the entry of rebel forces into Tripoli may well be the proverbial snake’s head that Nato-bombarded Kadhafi forces are waiting to decapitate.

Even western media have reported of an imminent “counter attack” by Kadhafi — this, as they expressed fears of a possible crack in the already fractious rebel forces, made evident by the murder of their erstwhile head, Gen. Abdul Fatah Younis, by elements believed to be linked to al-Qaeda. And as the power-crabbing and grabbing of the factions within the rebel forces may erupt any moment, time is not necessarily on Nato’s side. The longer the Kadhafi family keeps the fight going, the greater the chance for a turnaround against it.
Whatever the final outcome of the battles in Tripoli and in Libya as a whole, the conflict will exacerbate beyond the leaders of today, as what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq. Expect Libyan per capita income, at $12,000/annum under Kadhafi, to be slashed to half (and then a fourth), not only because of the war but because of the West devouring the lion’s share of the wealth of Libya’s oil fields already nationalized by Kadhafi.

Both the US and Nato will continue their war campaign against Syria, and then Iran, with their ultimate goal being China — not because the emerging superpower is a threat but because war is necessary for the western oligarchs to survive and for their populations to be continually distracted — all to feed the military-industrial complex (now celebrating its 50th year) that former US President Dwight Eisenhower had warned about, which the world has unfortunately failed to act on.

Unless we stop them soon, we’ll be in for the real holocaust. For now, Kadhafi has done his part to forestall that march toward global war. To him we say, “Mabuhay ka, Kadhafi!”

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5 to 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives; and e-mail me at mentong2011@gmail.com)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110826com6.html

Peace hardly at stake EDITORIAL 08/26/2011

Peace hardly at stake

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
08/26/2011
Drop the substate proposal and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is expected again to unleash Umbra Kato to wreak havoc again in parts of Mindanao that the rebel group wants to carve out from the country.

Kato is the trump card of the MILF, the reason he remains free to roam the supposed MILF-dominated regions in Mindanao despite his being declared a renegade within the rebel group.

The continued recognition of the MILF control over some parts of the country also is not a palatable fact for a sovereign nation.

Noynoy, for his part, should be faulted for agreeing to include the creation of the substate in the peace negotiations..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110826com1.html

Realization FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 08/26/2011

Realization

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
08/26/2011
It is a good move on the part of the Senate to free former LTA bookkeeper Rowena del Rosario from detention, because if the senators didn’t, the Senate could have had an egg land on its face, if the appellate court ruled in favor of the petition for habeas corpus filed by Rowena’s husband.

But even more than that possibility is the fact that the Senate was already steadily losing public support and respect amid the many criticisms, with some of its senators bringing their institution down by arrogantly demanding from an “invited” guest to their hearing who attended it voluntarily, to give them the answers that they wanted, such as making her state that it is not Iggy Arroyo who, as president of LTA, leased the five helicopters but his brother Mike Arroyo.

Pro-Noynoy senators and naturally anti-Arroyo senators, were seen by the public as being much too vindictive, apart from their usual style of bringing about the trial and conviction of those whom they have already judged as guilty, no matter the lack of solid evidence with which to make a strong case against the Arroyo brothers, and of course Gloria.

Filipinos didn’t like what they were witnessing during these Senate hearings, mainly because of the way these senators were in clear disrespect in treating their “invited” guests, ordering their arrest and “indefinite detention” in the Senate, and acting like prosecutor, judge and jury rolled up in one..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110826com2.html

Crimes against humanity mounting in Libya courtesy of US and NATO

Crimes against humanity mounting in Libya courtesy of US and NATO


“The video shows the war crimes committed by Nato, as well as those committed by the Western media, which has decided to obfuscate the casualties and human suffering of the Libyan people and uphold the humanitarian fiction of Nato’s R2P mandate.” – Professor Michel Chossudovsky

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
As bombs and heavy artillery continue to fall like rain over Libyan capital Tripoli, the western media agencies have chosen to be highly selective in its reporting. Crimes against humanity are being perpetrated with impunity, but with the virtual news blackout, voices of outrage are not being heard globally.

According to Prof. Michel Chossudovsky of the site Global Research on Globalization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched intense attacks on Libyan civilians in the night of August 8 and in the early hours of August 9, 2011 from approximately 2:00 am to 4:00 am Eastern European Time (EET).

According to Global Research, civilians in Tripoli and many other cities in Libya were bombed indiscriminately by Nato. A large number of casualties occurred in the city of Zliten, in the district of Misurata. In Zliten, 85 people were killed including 33 children, 32 women, and 20 men as a result of NATO’s deliberate targeting of residential areas and civilian infrastructure. Many of the injured civilian victims are in critical condition and near death.

Zliten has been under constant Nato bombardment for several days. At least seven civilian homes belonging to local farmers were destroyed, killing entire families. The 20 families who were affected were the targets of the NATO bombings.

NATO’s official military spokesperson for Operation Unified Protector Colonel Roland Lavoie, NATO’s official military spokesperson for Operation Unified Protector, confirmed to US media in a press conference that the Nato did bomb Zliten on August 8 and 9, said the targets were legitimate.

Global Research posted a video on its site directly belying and condemning Lavoie and the Nato’s declarations about the bombing.

“The video shows the war crimes committed by Nato, as well as those committed by the Western media, which has decided to obfuscate the casualties and human suffering of the Libyan people and uphold the humanitarian fiction of Nato’s R2P mandate,” said Chossudovsky.

The video is titled “Make No Mistake. Nato is Committing War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in Libya” and shot and edited by Julian Teil, Mathieu Ozanon, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya.

On Aug. 8 when Libyans and the rest of the Muslim world marked the breaking of the Ramadan fast, Nato launched its “Operation Mermaid Dawn” against Libya. According to reports, a Nato warship sailed up and anchored just off the shore at Tripoli, delivering heavy weapons and debarking rebel forces, who were led by Nato officers.

Killing civilians left and right

The United Nations Security Council has given the task to Nato to protect civilians in Libya. Consequent reports have been proving that instead of protecting civilians, however, Nato forces have been killing them left and right and justiiying them as part of their offensives against the government of Muamar Ghadafi. Nato drones and aircraft have been shown on mainstream media reports to conduct bombing attacks in all directions while Nato helicopters strafed the streets with machine guns..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/08/25/crimes-against-humanity-mounting-in-libya-courtesy-of-us-and-nato/

After 9/11 attacks, a military transformed — and exhausted focus 08/26/2011

‘Real stakeholders’ oppose planned evacuation of mental hospital, sale of Welfareville

We only learned about the fast-tracked evacuation and bidding plans after we got hold of a copy of the ‘not-for-circulation’ documents on the planned sale of Welfareville,” Romy Valenzuela, NACEMHEA –AHW President


By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman already has her hands full since she is heading the lead agency that is implementing the Aquino government’s flagship conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. Yet she still managed to make time for meeting with “stakeholders” last June 29 to plan the evacuation of the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) and Correctional Institute for Women (CIW). The land where the two institution sit on is targeted for public bidding on July 2012. Soliman also heads the Welfareville Development Project.

But in the said meeting June 29, Soliman excluded the director of NCMH, the representatives of the health workers and residents of Welfareville. It is they as well as their thousands of patients who would be most affected by the sale, the union said.



Mental hospital workers in this week’s protest in front of the DOH.(Photo courtesy of AHW / bulatlat.com)
“We only learned about the fast-tracked evacuation and bidding plans after we got hold of a copy of the ‘not-for-circulation’ documents on the planned sale of Welfareville,” Romy Valenzuela, National Center for Mental Health Employees Association (NACEMHEA) –AHW President, told bulatlat.com. He named Soliman, Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos and Finance Secretary Cezar Purisima, as some of the “stakeholders” in the Welfareville Development Project. He added that the document also indicated that the World Bank will provide technical assistance.

Both the NCMH and the CIW should have been relocated and transferred before the sale of the 110-hectare land property in Mandaluyong City targeted by July 2012, according to the documents on the planned sale of Welfareville.....MORE

Source: Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/08/24/real-stakeholders%E2%80%99-oppose-planned-evacuation-of-mental-hospital-sale-of-welfareville/

After 9/11 attacks, a military transformed — and exhausted focus 08/26/2011

After 9/11 attacks, a military transformed — and exhausted

focus

08/26/2011
WASHINGTON — After the 9/11 attacks, the US military found itself ill-prepared for waging war against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, forcing a costly transformation that has left the force exhausted after a decade of combat.
It took only weeks to topple the Taliban in Kabul and Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, but American troops soon found themselves in a protracted battle that they had not trained for against insurgents using crude but lethal weapons.
The Bush administration went to war with an “exaggerated confidence in the efficacy of high-tech warfare to cope with low-tech adversaries and an aversion to the whole concept of nation building,” wrote James Dobbins, a former US ambassador now at the RAND Corp. think tank.
Having discarded counter-insurgency tactics after the Vietnam conflict, the military’s captains and majors had to learn again how to fight militants armed with kalashnikovs and homemade bombs.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110826com3.html

Words of wisdom C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 08/26/2011

Words of wisdom

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
08/26/2011
Thanks to friends who have apparently taken the task of putting together materials about the real P-Noy and his band of “wang-wang” transformers, those who continue to be flabbergasted by the seemingly inchoate, some say incoherent, initiatives taken to undertake this daunting national task can now breathe a sigh of relief. I just received a number of such materials including P-Noy’s statement in the 1981 Ateneo Yearbook Aegis which should provide some sense into what critics say are differing accounts of this administration’s policies and programs. Our people, some of whom have expressed exasperation over the endless initiatives taken by the administration on every conceivable concern under the sun, but sadly without any overarching theme except getting rid of the wang-wang culture — remember those placards asking where’s the over-all plan, the road map to recovery and growth — deserve to be afforded a view of the thinking processes percolating around the current leadership from P-Noy to his Cabinet members and their subalterns. Thus, with this piece I will now try to feature once-a-week a reprint or a paraphrase of the “words of wisdom” coming from these potentates. Here goes:.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110826com5.html

Senate frees ex-LTA staffer By Angie M. Rosales 08/26/2011

Senate frees ex-LTA staffer

By Angie M. Rosales 08/26/2011

Bowing to public sentiment against the Senate on the arrogant and abusive treatment certain senators give their “invited” resource persons and guests whom they categorize as “hostile,” the Senate yesterday freed former LTA bookkeeper Rowena del Rosario from detention.

She was earlier placed under arrest and ordered detained “indefinitely” for being evasive in her answers to the questions posed to her by the senators, who didn’t like her answers, as she held on to her claim that it was Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo who had leased the helicopters and not bought them.

But the former bookkeeper of Iggy for the past 11 years yesterday admitted before Senate probers that she was unaware of the existence of his supposed Jose Pidal bank accounts while he was still her boss.

Rowena told the blue ribbon committee that she did not know or encounter the controversial bank account alleged to be owned by former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110826hed1.html

Lacson berates Rowena; Senate to pin down Arroyos on tax evasion By Angie M. Rosales 08/26/2011

Lacson berates Rowena; Senate to pin down Arroyos on tax evasion

By Angie M. Rosales 08/26/2011

Not a single centavo was paid as tax by Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo or his family’s company, LTA Inc., in the transactions with Lionair Inc., Senate probers were told yesterday.

As such, possible new charges, that of apparent tax evasion would likely be among the recommendations by the Senate blue ribbon committee chairman, Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona said.

Culpability of some members of the First Family on the alleged anomalous P105-million deal can be pursued “based on the statement of facts that implicate the LTA and the Arroyos,” he added.

Former LTA bookkeeper Rowena del Rosario openly admitted before senators that they were not paying taxes, including value added tax (VAT) charges concerning payments and other transactions involving Lionair in which the Arroyo-owned firm allegedly entered into a lease agreement on the use of its helicopters..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110826hed2.html

Kadhafi forces fight back as reward offered for strongman 08/26/2011

Kadhafi forces fight back as reward offered for strongman

08/26/2011
TRIPOLI — Fighting raged yesterday as Moammar Kadhafi’s troops fought back at his Tripoli compound a day after it was captured, while rebels offered a $1.7-million reward for the elusive strongman, dead or alive.

Diplomatic efforts, meanwhile, were launched at the United Nations and in Qatar by backers of the insurgents to secure the unlocking of billions of dollars of Libyan assets for the rebels.

Washington, for its part, said Libya’s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction had been secured and that it was confident the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) could set up governing structures after overrunning Tripoli.

A group of mostly foreign journalists who had been confined to Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel by pro-Kadhafi hardliners were freed but other loyalists kidnapped four Italian journalists near the capital, and two French journalists were wounded by stray gunfire at the compound but were recovering..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110826hed3.html

MILF raps gov’t ARMM bets list as ‘move to sow discord’ By Michaela P. del Callar and Mario J. Mallari 08/26/2011

MILF raps gov’t ARMM bets list as ‘move to sow discord’

By Michaela P. del Callar and Mario J. Mallari 08/26/2011
Muslim rebels yesterday refuted a supposed government list that included its senior officials among those nominated to become the acting go-vernor of the Auto-nomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), calling it a “mischievous and malicious” move to sow discord.

A list of nominees for the post was posted by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) wherein two top officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) central committee and two members of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel were named as contenders to the ARMM post.

They were Aleem Abdulaziz Mimbantas, vice-chairman for military affairs, and Ghazali Jafaar, vice chairman for political affairs and two members of the MILF peace negotiating panel, Datu Michael Mastura and Abdulla Camlian.

The MILF said the mentioned MILF members “publicly deny having given their consent to the DILG” to include their names in the list of nominees..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune


URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110826hed5.html

Magsaysay scores one over Carandang in ‘showdown’ By Gerry Baldo and Charlie V. Manalo 08/26/2011

Magsaysay scores one over Carandang in ‘showdown’

By Gerry Baldo and Charlie V. Manalo 08/26/2011

Communications Secretary Ricardo “Ricky” Carandang yesterday took a crash course on “courtesy 101” before irate lawmakers asking him questions about his purchase of computers worth P1.6 million without bidding.

Carandang earned the ire of the lawmakers when he arrogantly responded to a question with, “Was that a rhetorical question or do I need to answer that?”

According to Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, Carandang should “leave his antics as a spoiled brat at home.”

“Don’t be arrogant when you are (being) asked… Arrogance has no place in public service. Is that the kind of message your President wants to impart?” Magsaysay told Carandang..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20110826nat1.html

CA junks US government plea to extradite Pinoy wife’s killer By Benjamin B. Pulta 08/26/2011

CA junks US government plea to extradite Pinoy wife’s killer

By Benjamin B. Pulta 08/26/2011

A taco restaurant owner who took out a murder contract on his wife 19 years ago in California to cash in on proceeds of an insurance scam will escape justice in the United States after the Court of Appeals (CA) turned down the bid of the American government to extradite him.

The appellate court said the Americans failed to present proof of conspiracy between the Filipino-American businessman, Abelardo Tasa, who was subsequently nabbed by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Kalibo, Aklan.

Tasa is facing trial in the Supreme Court of California, County of San Diego, Central Division for allegedly conspiring to kill his wife to collect $300,000 in life insurance.

In a 21-page decision by Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr., the CA’s Eight Division affirmed the decision issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 41 which dismissed the extradition case filed by the US government through the Department of Justice against Abelardo Tasa for lack of probable cause..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20110826met1.html

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