DS sees BJP plan in Jagan rebellion

The PCC chief, Mr D. Srinivas, accused the former MP, Mr Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, and the BJP of entering into a secret pact to conspire against the Congress.

Addressing a media conference on Tuesday, Mr Srinivas said that if Mr Jagan won the Kadapa by-poll, both he and the BJP would try to weaken the Congress in the state.

“We are yet to collect full details of their conspiracy, but according to the information available with us, the BJP, through Karnataka tourism minister, Mr Gali Janardhan Reddy, had entered into a secret pact with Mr Jagan. That was the reason Mr Jagan left the Congress and was attacking Mrs Gandhi,” Mr Srinivas said. “Jagan is anti-Congress now, he also cannot sail with the third front at the national level as Mr Naidu is there, so he will have to support BJP at any cost,” reasoned the PCC chief.

Source http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/hyderabad/ds-sees-bjp-plan-jagan-rebellion-656

DiManno: Libya’s rebellion born in 1996 prison revolt

The old, crazed woman can be occasionally spotted scuttling around Liberation Square.

She is one of The Mothers, long ago deranged by grief.

While people are kind to the dishevelled lady, in the Muslim charitable way, her pain had for years been largely ignored, only vaguely acknowledged, in whispers. Now everybody understands, with clarity, and there is much regret, shame even, in not having clamoured for justice earlier.

The source of the woman’s inconsolable lamenting can be found on a wall of photographs displayed inside a tent erected by the Busleem Families Association: Portraits of two young men, her lost sons.

These brothers, along with more than 1,200 other political prisoners, were killed in what’s known as The Massacre of Abu Salim — a horrific crime against humanity, where corralled detainees who’d attempted a jailhouse uprising against their guards were mowed down by military police, all slain within a matter of hours on June 28, 1996, on the orders of Moammar Gadhafi.

Abu Salim is Libya’s Abu Ghraib — a dank, miserable, hellish facility in the suburbs of Tripoli run by the Internal Security Agency. It’s where alleged terrorists, Al Qaeda extremists, Islamists and political dissidents — those Gadhafi’s surveillance apparatus has identified as annoyances for the regime — are incarcerated, usually without trial, and left to rot.

Human rights groups also claim Abu Salim is one of the “third-country” black holes where the U.S. deposited detainees from its “war on terror,” including some transferred in or out of Guantanamo Bay.

For years Gadhafi denied any massacre had ever occurred at the prison, only conceding the fact in 2004, promising an investigation would be conducted, though its scope and results haven’t been released.

In 2005, the regime began informing families of loved ones who perished in the violently repressed revolt. Some death certificates were issued, though cause of death was not filled in and dates of death apparently picked at random. The bodies were never returned to relatives.

“My brother was not an activist, he was just a religious man who prayed five times a day,’’ says Abdulmunem Swairy, 30. “Gadhafi’s militia came to his house in the middle of the night and arrested him. We never saw Adel again.’’

Another brother and sister were also taken into custody at around the same time but released four months later. About Adel, the family heard nothing for years. Neither letters nor phone calls were permitted. Abdel’s father, in despair over his son’s fate, suffered two heart attacks and died.

Only in 2009 did the family receive a certificate confirming Adel’s death. “There was no reason written for why he died and a date long after the massacre,’’ says Abdulmunem. “The certificate is obviously a fake.’’

While not acknowledging responsibility for what had befallen Adel, the regime offered his family 200,000 dinars (about $157,000) in compensation, which they rejected.

“Gadhafi gave the Lockerbie families $10 million each,’’ says Adel, referring to the compensation package negotiated for victims of Pan Am Flight 103, the passenger plane blown up mid-air over Scotland in 1988. The terrorist act was plotted by two Libyan intelligence agents, for which the regime eventually accepted responsibility. “But Libyans are only worth 200,000 Gadhafis.’’

A Gadhafi is sneering slang for the 1 dinar note with the colonel’s face on it.

Since 2008, the “1,200 Families’’ have been holding weekly protests — a word they were never allowed to use for their gatherings, women taping their mouth symbolically — in Benghazi, outside the courthouse, posting obituaries on city buildings, demanding a trial for the perpetrators of the massacre, proper compensation and return of their relatives’ bodies.

Their defiance was a rarity in Gadhafi’s Libya and even here, epicentre of long-simmering resistance to the regime, few of the uninvolved paused to pay attention, most citizens clearly worried about repercussions from supporting the families.

But it was the arrest in February of a civil rights lawyer representing the families, Fathi Terbil, which spawned the revolutionary uprising, at first initiated by Terbil’s lawyer colleagues and then seized upon by thousands of students, academics and the professional class.

Gadhafi’s 42-year dictatorship has been on the bubble ever since.

“My brother was killed (15) years ago but this revolution was given life because of him, because of all the martyrs who were massacred at Abu Salim,’’ says Abdullmunem Swairy.

For Abdelislam Al-Mshaity, the only communication with his cousin over 11 years was a note brought out from Abu Salim in the shoe of another released prisoner.

“My cousin was an educated man, an oil engineer who attended university in England,’’ says Al-Mshaity, pointing out a photo of his relative in the Busleem mourning tent. The picture shows a 30-ish fellow with the full beard of a conservative Muslim.

“He was never politically active. Was he an Islamist? If by Islamist you mean someone who prays five times a day and has memorized all of the Qur’an. That means he was religious, not radical. He never went to fight with the militants in Afghanistan or anywhere else.’’

The cousin was imprisoned at Abu Salim twice; the first time for seven years, at which point he was briefly released before being arrested again, though no charge was ever specified.

“They gave us a death certificate, too, which means nothing,’’ Al-Mshaity continues. “That was during the period when the regime was trying to calm everybody down and Gadhafi was presenting himself to the world as a reformed leader, an ally in the war on terror. We were even allowed to sue the government for compensation but all the family was offered in the beginning was 80,000 dinars (about $64,000).’’

They didn’t accept it, as indeed more than 300 families have rejected the compensation outright.

Abduhamid Mahdi calls it, bluntly, “blood money,” saying his family wanted no part of the compensation. His brother, 60-year-old civil servant Edris, disappeared in 1995, sucked into the maw of Abu Salim, leaving behind a wife and eight children.

“He was a political activist,’’ says Mahdi. “We all tried many times to persuade him to be quiet but he wouldn’t be convinced. He spoke publicly about the crimes and corruption of the Gadhafi regime and in this country, that’s more than enough to get a man in trouble.’’

Dissent was in Edris’ blood, Mahdi adds. Their grandfather had been arrested and imprisoned by Italian authorities in 1917, when Libya was an Italian colony, for promoting Libyan independence.

“In all the years he was at Abu Salim, we only had news once, from another released prisoner. He told us Edris was always kept alone in an isolated cell. We don’t believe he would have been able to participate in the revolt.’’

Almost all that’s known of the 1996 uprising came from a former inmate, Hussein Shafai, who worked in the prison kitchen and was interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 2004 and 2006.

As detailed in a “legacy report’’ published by the agency, the prison rebellion began with detainees demanding better living conditions, hearings on their cases, and the right to see their families. The inmates took two guards hostage.

Senior government officials arrived to manage the crisis. Prisoners agreed to return to their cells and release the hostages (one of whom had died) in exchange for negotiations. They asked for clean clothes, outside recreation, better medical care and family visits.

But in the morning, hundreds of inmates from five cellblocks were herded into several courtyards, with security forces arrayed on the prison roof.

Shafai’s account: “At 11 a.m., a grenade was thrown into the courtyard. I did not see who threw it but I am sure it was a grenade. I heard an explosion and right after a constant shooting from heavy weapons and Kalashnikovs from the top of the roofs. The shooting continued from 11 to 1:35.

“I could not see the dead persons who were shot but I could see those who were shooting. They were a special unit wearing skaki military hats . . . and green bandanas.

“At 2 p.m., they used pistols to finish off those who were not dead.’’

Shafai estimated the dead by comparing the number of meals he was told to prepare before and after the massacre.

The next day, said Shafai, the bodies were removed in wheelbarrows. The dead were allegedly thrown into a trench 1 metre wide and 100 metres long.

Salah Mahashash, whose teenage brother was arrested in 1988, told the Star his family actually received a casket from the government three years ago.

“It was empty, of course. We’ll never get my brother’s body back. And none of the men who committed the massacre will ever stand trial for their crime.

“I pray some day Gadhafi will himself be imprisoned in Abu Salim. But even that would be too good for him.’’

Source http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/969577--dimanno-libya-s-rebellion-born-in-1996-prison-revolt

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