Rebel Libyan Finance Minister Admits Mistakes

A U.S.-based economist appointed finance minister in the Libyan rebels' first attempt at a government admits they have made mistakes, missed opportunities and shown disorganization — but he says they aren't short of cash, and they'll get better at their jobs.

Ali Tarhouni told reporters Wednesday that in trying to begin governing themselves, the rebels have to counter the effects of a decades-long ban on a basic element of self rule: Dictator Moammar Gadhafi banned public groups, so now the rebels have to start organizing from scratch.

Tarhouni, who teaches economics and finance at the University of Washington, was appointed to the post by the rebels' national council as part of an interim administration headed by another U.S.-educated academic, Mahmoud Jibril.

Tarhouni, who received his doctorate in finance and economics from Michigan State University, left Libya first in 1973 and then three years later for good. He returned to the country only after the rebellion against Gadhafi started on Feb. 15.

He acknowledged that the rebels have struggled with a slew of issues, including basic organization and putting forward a clearly defined image of the rebellion for the world.

"So far, we didn't do a good job of defining who we are," Tarhouni told reporters in Benghazi, the rebels' de-facto capital. "I think the (transition) process was and still is very chaotic."

As the top financial official for the rebels, Tarhouni, 60, will also oversee oil affairs. He said oil is not an immediate issue because the only significant yields are coming from the Sarir and Sidra fields, which amount to roughly 130,000 barrels per day, a relatively small total.

"Right now, there is no immediate crisis kind of need for cash. We have some liquidity that allows us to do the basic things," he said, such as paying salaries and immediate needs.

He added that many countries have agreed to provide credit backed by the Libyan sovereign fund, and the British government has also agreed to give the rebels access to 1.4 billion dinars ($1.1 billion) that London did not send to Gadhafi.

Tarhouni said the national council, made up of representatives of the eastern cities that have torn themselves free of Gadhafi's rule, has "in general dropped the ball many places, although not by intention."

He attributed the occasional stumbles to the Libyans' lack of experience with any form of independent public associations, which were banned by Gadhafi.

"There was a total vacuum," Tarhouni said, pledging that the new interim executive administration that is being formed will help streamline things. "We will clean it up, that I promise you."

Part of the lingering disarray stemmed from an initial expectation that Gadhafi would quickly crumble and flee after the uprising's initial success, Tarhouni said.

"We were betting 24 hours and he's gone from the country," he said. "Now we're looking at longer. He's much more armed, and we're not as organized as we thought or can be."

Tarhouni acknowledged the rebel military is still weak and in the process of organizing itself.

"I think (it has) a very small number, the number of tanks is also limited, and there are no heavy armaments," he said. Because of that, he suggested that rebels will still be dependent on the young, untrained ragtag crew of fighters that have spearheaded the uprising's fighting force so far.

The rebels are "actively seeking, look for armaments," although Tarhouni said the political leadership realizes that just as pressing a need is better organization of the territory already under the uprising's control.

"You need a political body that defines what this revolution is about, and an army on the ground," Tarhouni said, but "we need to put our own house in order first."

Source http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13207480

Remorse brings Libyan, too late, to the rebellion

Abdullah, a lean young Libyan in a soldierly blue beret, knows he came to the uprising against Moammar Gaddafi one day late. Unlike many members of the Libyan army, he didn't immediately defect to the rebel cause - he surrendered to it, racked with remorse, the morning after he obeyed orders to fire as protesters stormed the gates of his military base.

He hit at least one of them.

"I can still picture his face. He was very young," said Abdullah, who agreed to talk about his experience on the condition that he be identified only by his first name. He sat in a spare room of Benghazi's old courthouse, which now houses the rebels' provisional government. Officials agreed to let him speak but not to be photographed.

Abdullah came to the courthouse the morning after the shooting and turned himself in. "My life was miserable," he said. "I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep."

Abdullah is one of nearly 40 detainees housed by the rebels in three packed cells. Thirteen are Libyan soldiers who didn't switch sides fast enough. The rest are immigrants from elsewhere in Africa who were arrested out of fear that they might be mercenaries.

Given the state of the rebellion's fledgling justice system, the men are not likely to learn their fates soon. An official at the temporary attorney general's office said the Libyan fighters would face a military trial, but not until the contest for control of the country is over.

For the Africans, most of whom have been cleared of being part of Gaddafi's mercenary army, the future is even less clear. Most were swept up without passports, and the rebel council has no way to get them back to their home countries. But it could be disastrous to release them when tales of atrocities by hired soldiers, whether true or not, have fueled public rage.

"At least they are safe in here," said Sabah Eltwel, a lawyer investigating detainee cases for the attorney general's office. She wears a floral scarf over her hair and a somber black wool coat to protect against the sea wind that rattles the old windows. "If they go outside, the Libyan people would hurt them. It's not safe to have black skin in Libya right now."

One of the foreign detainees, Abdullah Mousa, agreed to be interviewed. Mousa, a 23-year-old construction worker from Niger, entered Libya illegally eight months ago after a 20-day trip across the desert in the backs of pickups.

When the fighting broke out in Libya, he joined thousands of foreign workers fleeing to the borders. But he and two friends were arrested in Benghazi.

"They asked me if I was a soldier," said Mousa, who can hear revolutionary crowds roaring each night in the nearby square. He held out rough and calloused palms. "See, I am just a worker. I did not carry a gun. They take any black person from Africa."

Mousa is in the cell next to Abdullah, the soldier who freely admits to a role in the fighting. But Abdullah said he stayed with the army only out fear for his life. His commanding officer told the soldiers that he would have any man who refused to fight the protesters killed and burned, Abdullah said.

But when the shooting began, he did his best to avoid hitting anyone. "I fired into the air, into the ground," he said. "I was afraid."

Then he saw a protester go down, hit in the leg. He knew the bullet had come from his rifle.

"It was an accident," he said, raising his hands to his drawn cheeks. "I didn't want to shoot a Libyan."

Abdullah says he has been told the protester survived. He hopes that, and the fact he turned himself in, will work in his favor at trial.

In the meantime, he wears a filthy white T-shirt with "Libya Is Free" emblazoned across the chest in Arabic. A wrinkled plastic patch of the red-green-and-black rebel flag is stuck to the back.

"I am part of the revolution now," he said as the guards led him away.

Source http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/08/AR2011030805363.html

Libyan interior ministry joins rebellion

LIBYAN Interior Minister Abdel Fatah Yunes says he is resigning and is calling on the armed forces to back the week-long rebellion against veteran leader the embattled Muammar Gaddafi to pursue peace.

"I announce my resignation from all my duties in response to the revolution of February 17," Mr Yunes said on Al-Jazeera television in a reference to violence that broke out last week against the four-decade rule of Mr Gaddafi.

Dressed in military uniform and seated at a desk, he affirmed his "total belief with regards to the sincerity of the (Libyan people's) demands."

"I call on all the armed forces to respond also to the demands of the people," he added.

Numerous high level Libyan officials, including ministers, diplomats and military officers, have abandoned the regime and announced their support for the rebellion.

Source http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/libyan-interior-ministry-joins-rebellion/story-e6frfku0-1226010514126

Rebellious Arizona -- the Perfect Venue for Next Week's Tea Party Summit

Arizona -- with its battles over immigration and its liberal gun laws -- has become something of a poster child for the anti-government movement.

Which is why the Tea Party Patriots, the largest tea party group in the country, will hold their American Policy Summit at the Phoenix Convention Center Feb. 25-27.

The Tea Party Patriots, which claim more than 3,000 locally organized chapters and more than 15 million supporters nationwide, state on their summit website that they picked Phoenix because the state's tea party invited them and also to support Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's immigration reforms, which have been challenged by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

"Arizonans have been under a lot of pressure this past year in regards to their immigration reforms," the website says. "When surveyed, you said you support the changes that Governor Jan Brewer and the Arizona legislature implemented. Going to Arizona for this American Policy Summit is a way to show support to those who implemented these changes."

Arizona's Wild West rebellion shows no signs of letting up.

On Monday, a proposal was being heard in the Arizona Legislature that would require hospitals to confirm whether patients are in the country legally. No other state has such legislation.

Earlier this month, Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce introduced a bill in the Legislature that would allow a 12-person committee to vote on when federal law applies to Arizona. It includes "federal statutes, mandates, and executive orders."

If the panel made a recommendation, the Legislature would then take a vote. If majority voted so, then nullification of the law could occur, according to bill sponsors.

The summit will focus on "Five Pathways to Liberty" -- education, politics, courts, economics and culture, which will include repealing federal legislation, reforming health care, debating Fair Tax versus Flat Tax and gun rights.

The group's Facebook page, with over 500,000 followers, has been focused on an array of topics, including making sure "FORMER Speaker Pelosi's 'Green the Capitol' initiative doesn't destroy America's free market!"

On the summit's website, Sarah Palin, who isn't confirmed as a speaker, says in a promotional blurb for the event: "This summit offers a terrific opportunity for true American Patriots to hear from experts on issues like lowering taxes, balancing the budget and repealing Obamacare."
Coincidentally, Palin's daughter, Bristol, recently bought a house in a Phoenix suburb.

Who's on the agenda? CPAC straw poll winner Rep. Ron Paul, media publisher Andrew Breitbart, 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain, a host of conservative pundits such as Dick Morris, and a handful of Republican congressmen, including Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Georgia Rep. Rob Woodall.

Arizona Democrats say the state is a predictable locale for the convention considering the current political environment there.

"The Tea Party Summit will find plenty of camaraderie at Arizona's state Capitol, where Senate President Russell Pearce has dubbed his own chamber the 'Tea Party Senate,'" says Jennifer Johnson, communication director for the Arizona Democratic Party. "Unfortunately, as Arizona's economy sinks further, the Russell Pearce Republicans are busy introducing birther bills, federal nullification bills and 14th Amendment bills that undermine the idea that any child born in America is as American as anyone else. Today in Arizona, Democrats represent Arizona's mainstream, while the Russell Pearce Republicans represent only the extreme."

The Arizona Republican Party could not be reached for comment, nor could organizers for the Tea Party Summit, which is not listed on the GOP calendar of events, although plenty of tea party meetings are.

The summit comes at a time when a battle rages between parties for voters, especially in light of last week's announcement by Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl that he would not seek re-election.

No party registration is required in Arizona, and the state is essentially divided into thirds – one-third Republican, one-third Democrats and the other third independents. Democrats say the only Democrats who can survive politically in Arizona are strong centrists like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who served as the state's governor for six years.

With success in the 2010 midterms, the tea party now finds itself in a place other political groups have in the past, such as the Know Nothing Party of the 1800s – charting a future that stays relevant in 2012.

"The tea party of today must do as good of a job organizing its internal rank and file as it has in organizing protest rallies," says Dr. Ravi K. Perry, Ph.D., director of Race and Ethnic Relations Concentration at Clark University in Worchester, Mass.

Perry says that the party will have to have leadership that rebukes the fringe elements of the party. "The tea party will want to frame their agenda not solely about 2012 or anti-liberal policies or anti-Obama," Perry says. "To create a lasting purpose, one that may truly make the group earn the status of a movement, a broader agenda must be sought."

Source http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/02/14/rebellious-arizona-the-perfect-venue-for-next-weeks-tea-part/

Rebellion's Game Engine Ready For NGP

British independent game developer Rebellion (Rogue Trooper, Aliens vs. Predator) says its internal technology, Asura, now includes support for Sony's upcoming Next Generation Portable platform.

The studio says its Sniper Elite, Rogue Trooper, Sega-published Aliens vs. Predator, and Electronic Arts' The Simpsons Game were all built with Asura, and Rebellion says it now has a "fully playable demo of a multiplayer third person shooter" running on NGP, despite the fact that the device isn't expected to launch until the end of the calendar year.

Asura already supports development on PC and all current consoles. It's also been used on the original PSP, as with the Star Wars Battlefront series. Rebellion says it's been working "over the last few months" to make Asura for current NGP developers who may want to get a head start on the platform.

According to Rebellion, the fact that Asura doesn't require separate middleware or third-party software helped make it easier to get it up to speed quickly on a new platform. "The technology, design and art teams have worked incredibly well with Sony's newest device," says Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley.

"We have managed to make our engine fully functional, and looking great on the hardware in double quick time," he says. "We'll be attending DICE and GDC to show what we have created and look for business partners."

Source http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32878/Rebellions_Game_Engine_Ready_For_NGP.php

'Beats' delivers a full dose of finger-snapping rebellion

Long before the moniker "hipster" was applied liberally to anyone rocking a pair of skinny jeans and an ironic vintage tee, the Beats were going on the road, on the stage and sometimes on the police blotter, creating a new vision for America that veered far away from the complacency and conformity of the Eisenhower/McCarthy era. Marilyn Campbell's adaptation of Beat poetry, philosophy, and kinda-sorta biography, first staged at Writers' Theatre back in 1997, returns for our current age of discontent at 16th Street Theater. It feels less like a play than an impressionistic collage of voices and verses, memories and manifestoes, but as the success of Def Poetry Jam proved, there is an audience eager to hear passionate and witty dispatches from the culture wars, no matter the era.

16th Street artistic director Ann Filmer steers a young and engaging five-member cast through two acts that draw from the words of Beats both famous (Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder and of course Allen Ginsberg, whose "Howl" remains the ur-text of Beat poetry) to lesser-known (Bob Kaufman, Ed Sanders and Hettie Jones — once married to LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, and, as the informative lobby display tells us, the person who helped Ginsberg with the Jewish prayer for the dead that formed the basis for his "Kaddish").

Though the actors are identified in the program as archetypes — Holy Hipster, Student, Dharma Bum, Jazz Cat and Beat Chick — they all eventually take on characteristics of particular Beat writers, with John Taflan's turn as the young and feverishly Beat-vangelic Ginsberg and Carly Ciarrocchi's incendiary delivery of Diane DiPrima's "Rant" ("The only war that matters is the war against the imagination!") being particular stand-outs.

Along the way, we learn some interesting factoids — such as the genesis of the iconic Beat finger snaps. (They were substituted for applause, which would bring down the wrath of noise-hating neighbors and police at poetry readings.) And since it's not a Beat happening without some jazz hepcats, it's great to hear the live drum-and-bass work from Grant Strombeck and Ivan Smalley (the latter substituting for regular bassist Doug Lofstrom).

There are a few moments in Campbell's script that feel precious — but then, the Beats were a youth-driven movement and it's the prerogative of young people to engage in self-indulgent myth-making. Not even the sneering coverage by Paul O'Neil of Life magazine (enacted here in a gleeful interlude) could derail the heady provocations of one of America's most transformative home-grown literary movements. And when the whole cast joins at the end in delivering "I Am Waiting" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who braved obscenity charges in publishing "Howl" and is still, at nearly 92, keeping the movement fires burning), you may well feel like going out and searching for your own rebirth of hip and heartfelt wonder.

Source http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-live-0119-beats-review-20110118,0,6753560.story

National upheavals with roots in Arizona

Long before the Tea Party entered the modern political lexicon, Arizona was tacking to the populist right, navigating the rest of the nation toward an angry brand of political rebellion. Herewith, the Arizona roots of some recent national upheavals.

Immigration

Passed in April of last year, Arizona Senate Bill 1070 gave police unprecedented authority to stop and check anyone they suspected of being an illegal immigrant.

The bill incited a wave of protests in more than 70 U.S. cities.

The U.S. Department of Justice and several rights groups filed suit against the new law, declaring it unconstitutional and contrary to civil rights law. The lawsuits prompted a U.S. District Court judge to issue a temporary injunction against the bill's more controversial elements. A three-judge panel is mulling the injunction.

Eventually legal arguments over the law are expected to reach the Supreme Court. A collection of rights organizations are now challenging the legislation's remaining measures, including a ban on hiring day labourers off the street.

State governments in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota and South Carolina are contemplating similar legislation.

Elton John, Kanye West and outspoken Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen all publicly endorsed a national boycott against Arizona. Some estimates suggest the boycott cost the state upwards of $140-million.

One population survey found that 100,000 Hispanics have left the state since the legislation was passed.

Health care

As soon as Obama's health-care bill came into effect, 13 states led by Florida filed a legal challenge to the legislation in U.S. District Court. Arizona eventually signed on.

In November Arizona joined Virginia in approving a measure that would change the state constitutions to ban forced participation in health-care plans, a clear denunciation of President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul.

On the night the House of Representatives passed Obama's health-care reform bill, someone smashed a glass window at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords's Tuscon office. Vandals also attacked supporters of health-care reform in New York, Virginia, Michigan and South Carolina.

In 2009, unruly crowds protesting Obama's health-care overhaul disrupted several events held by Arizona lawmakers. Democratic Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick had to cancel one appearance due to the rowdy mobs and Rep. Giffords was confronted by a hostile crowd at a “Congress on Your Corner” event. The antagonistic approach was soon adopted by Obamacare opponents across the country.

Sub prime

The online foreclosure monitor RealtyTrac predicts that 2011 will bring another record for national foreclosures. California, Florida and Nevada lead the pack.

Arizona's foreclosure rate remains among the nation's worst, posting repossession records in each of the last three years.

Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicted that the U.S. employment rate would not recover to normal levels for four or five years, due in part to the economic drag of a depressed housing market.

Tea Party

One of the country's best organized Tea Party groups shifted Arizona's political landscape in the 2010 midterms, ousting two Democratic representatives and giving Senator John McCain such a strong challenge that he dropped $21-million on his successful re-election bid.

The state House of Representatives passed the “birther bill” requiring presidential candidates to show proof they were born in the Unite States. The Senate later killed the bill after intense national ridicule. Similar bills have been proposed in Oklahoma, Florida and Missouri.

Thousands of Arizona Tea Party supporters have turned out for dozens of rallies opposing Obamacare, sales taxes, big government and excessive government spending.

Gun control

In January, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer passed a law that gave Arizona some of the country's most lax gun laws. Anyone over the age of 21 can pack a concealed gun without a permit.

Democratic Rep Carolyn McCarthy of New York announced on Monday plans for legislation that would restrict the type of high-capacity ammunition clips like the one Jared Lee Loughner allegedly used during the shooting spree.

The Arizona legislature is now considering a bill that would allow professors and students to carry guns on campus.

Source http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/national-upheavals-with-roots-in-arizona/article1865003/