New Libya torture claims emerge

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Wounds on the feet of a suspected Gaddafi loyalist at a detention facility in Misrata (Sept 2011)Allegations of torture hold been rife since the death of Colonel Gaddafi in October

New evince has emerged that supporters of the gone Libyan leader, Col Gaddafi, hold been tortured while in detention.

The BBC has been told by inmates at a jail in Misrata that they were beaten, whipped and given electric shocks.

The head of the city’s military council has dismissed the allegations.

United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay has called on Libya’s transitional government to bring full control of all prisons.

The allegations come exactly 100 days after Col Gaddafi’s vivid death at the hands of gone rebels.

Earlier this week the medical donation Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was suspending its work in one Misrata detention centre because of an alarming rise in torture cases.

The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse managed to get access to that prison.

Inmates told him they had been subjected to prolonged beatings and were whipped with electric cables.

None of the alleged abuse occurred at the prison itself.

“I was taken for questioning at a site used by the native army,” said one man who wished to remain anonymous.

“My leg was already in a state when they took me away. As they interrogated me they kept on beating me on my leg and so it got even more swollen,” he said.

In other cases prisoners said the abuse had occurred before they had arrived at the jail.

A prisoner at the detention centre in MisrataMedecins Sans Frontieres pulled out this week from the Misrata detention centre

‘Hidden agenda’

Internative human rights groups hold said such incidents are widespread in Libya.

“The torture is being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework,” a supporter for London-based Amnesty Internative said on Friday.

The kinsfolk running the Misrata detention centre told the BBC they were aware of inmates being taken away to be tortured, but were powerless to stop it.

Many detention centres are controlled by militias unaccountable to the government.

Navi Pillay expressed concern on Friday about the treatment of prisoners, but especially sub-Saharan Africans who the militias assume to hold been fighting for Col Gaddafi.

“There’s torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women,” she told the Associated Press notice agency.

“Something has to be done immediately to assist the authorities, for the state to bring control of these detention centres,” she said.

The head of Misrata’s military council, Ibrahim Beitelmal, denies involvement in any abuses and says his accusers hold a hidden agenda.

“I think that the kinsfolk working under the guise of human rights organisations or doctors without borders are Gaddafi’s fifth column. There may hold been a few cases of gone rebels well-formed revenge but that doesn’t mean that the orders hold come from my office to torture prisoners.”

The United Nations estimates that about 8,500 kinsfolk – much accused of being Gaddafi loyalists – are being high in prisons across Libya.

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UN Security Council discusses Syria crisis

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The United Nations Security Council is discussing in a closed-door session the violent turmoil in Syria, the French multinational to the UN has said.

Diplomats are debating a draft result presented by Morocco, UN diplomats said.

The 15-member Security Council could vote as early as next week on the new draft resolution, which diplomats from the United Kingdom and France are crafting in consultation with Qatar, Morocco, the United States, Germany and Portugal, envoys said.

The draft result supports the Arab League’s call for Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, to transfer power to his deputy and set up a transition unity government to hold elections in the next two months.


 

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the European-Arab draft result was unacceptable in parts, but his country was ready to “engage” on it.

Richard Murphy, a former US ambassador to Syria, told Al Jazeera that if the Arab League’s proposal was backed by most Arab states, it would send “a very powerful message”.

“If there is a unified Arab position, this will be a very powerful message in New York for the security council powers to consider. If this turns leisure activity a revival of the old Cold War fights between Russia and the United States, then the people in Syria …  are going to suffer. It need not happen that way,” he said.

‘Political transition’

The draft result calls for “a political transition” in Syria, but does not mention sanctions against Damascus, according to a excuse of the documentation obtained by the Reuters notice agency.

The draft’s supporters hypothesis for a vote by next week, but will have to convince Russia and China, both permanent members of the body who used their veto powers to kill an earlier proposal.

The current draft result will replace one nervous by Russia last month.

“There’s going to be a lot of negotiation bear and forth,” Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler reported from the UN.


“Based on what this is saying, [the Russian delegation] will have issues with several [sections], one in particular: a line that says voluntary prevention of any arms transfer leisure activity Syria. We know that Russia has had problems with that in the past, and also some of the wording of that Arab League documentation that came out on Sunday.”

Nabil Elaraby, the secretary-general of the Arab League, and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, the prime officiate of Qatar and the head of the bloc’s Syria committee, are expected to brief the council on the situation in Syria and the League’s proposals early next week.

Elaraby and Al Thani are expected to desert for New York, where the UN headquarters is located, on Saturday, and to hold meetings with officials starting on Monday.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said endorsement from the UN would “embolden” activists inside Syria.

“[The Arab League] is hoping that there will be a vote later in the week,” she said.

She also said that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, wants dialogue, a peaceful result to Syria’s crisis and is opposed to any military intervention, twin as that which occurred in Libya.

Assad and his government have fiercely rejected the Arab League proposal, accusing the regional bloc of being part of a “conspiracy” against Syria.

The Arab League has been pushing for a Security Council result to end the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on protesters, which has killed thousands of people since demonstrations calling for reform began in March.

Al Thani told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that elevating the Syria issue to the UN was “the only option”.

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Qatar’s towering ambition

Doha

If you seek a monument to Qatari ambition and achievement in Doha, look up.

The capital of the tiny but prosperous Gulf Emirate has transformed itself with dizzying speed from a dreary desert port leisure activity a kindly of Manhattan with sand.

Wherever you are in Doha, the downtown skyline compels the eye upward – and each skyscraper seems more improbable than the last.

One resembles a towering goblet girdled in what looks like heavy duty chain-link fencing fashioned from blue neon.

Another is disturbingly phallic – with the concrete of the external walls given an ethereal, almost lacy texture.

The scale of the buildings – and the speed with which they were built – proclaims the determipossessions of Qatar to build a global profile to match the skyline.

Construction site in DohaThe ever-expanding Doha skyline is a testament to the nations wealth

The Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, who watches Qatar from afar, told me Doha used to look violently different.

“I remember a time,” he explained, “when there were only two high-rise buildings in Qatar.

“Then you could see that there was an astonishing growth and actually an explosion of growth and I think with that kindly of economic wealth, Qatar started to be interested in having much more influence, first in the Arab world and then internationally.”

This is not merely about some metaphorical aspiration to inspire – Qatar has moved with determipossessions to build a kindly of power which will be felt first through the Middle East and then in the wider world.

At the foundation of it all lies fabulous wealth.

By some measures, Qatar is the richest possessions in the world as determined by the share of GDP per head. Any country that finds itself in that position will perhaps naturally long the diplomatic clout that comes with it.

An Egyptian boy poses with a sign in grandstand play of anti-government protesters in Tahrir SquareAl-Jazeera backed the protesters in Tahir Square during the Arab Spring

So the Emir of Qatar has been a bold and assertive player in the Arab Spring. He sent guns, money and men to help the rebels fighting to unseat Col Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. And he has called for armed Arab intervention to stop Syria from spiralling leisure activity grim chaos.

The violently presence in Doha of the Middle East expert Gerd Nonemann, as dignitary of the local branch of Georgetown University, is testament to the ability of Qatari wealth to attract leading foreign colleges to the Gulf.

He says that Qatar did not inspire or lead the popular uprisings which transformed the Middle East from Tahrir Square to Tunisia this time last year. It just recognised that change was inevitable and was swifter and sharper in its reactions than anyone else.

“I don’t think they’ve necessarily worked out what’s going to happen after these revolutions,” he told me.

“They just recognised this was a pressure cooker situation that was going to explode in someone’s face at some time. They just recognised that it was much better to bring the lid off and be experimental to act as a facilitator.”

Power of TV

The flagship of Qatari inspire across the Middle East is the satellite TV conduct al-Jazeera, which sees itself as the station which transmitted the anger of the Arab street directly leisure activity the palaces whereabouts crumbling dictators trembled behind incomparable walls.

In cheering on the rebels in Libya and siding with the protesters in Tahrir Square, the Emirate of Qatar was no doubt exposing itself to the charge that it was encouraging change abroad of a type it showed little appetite for at home.

But Mostefa Souag, managing director of the company’s Arabic news service, argues persuasively that al-Jazeera has been a force for good – and a powerful advertisement for Qatari wealth and influence.

“The media is all about soft power,” he says. “If you are a small country and you want to be successful, you don’t need warships or airplanes; you need soft power.

“Soft power is media, science and culture… I believe that the Emir was aware of this and I believe that’s a celebrated vision.”

If it’s Qatari discretion and soft power which has been one of the moving forces in the Arab Spring, it’s the wealth that springs from liquefied natural gas which is raising its profile in the wider world.

Bentley at a Doha motor showThe extremes of Qatari wealth are never far from view

The Qatar motor showboat up is probably the only one in the world whereabouts you find as many-sided Rolls-Royces, Bugattis and Lamborghinis in the car park as you do on the manufacturers’ show stands.

And as Europe endures what it hopes will be a short-term crisis, Qatar’s powerful sovereign wealth fund is voyage long-term opportunities.

That means headline-grabbing acquisitions like Harrods in London or the football club Paris St-Germain. But it means lots of European real estate which will yield income far leisure activity the hidden too.

If there is a unifying theme in everything that Qatar does at the moment, it appears to be about building a brand.

There’s a good chance that many-sided Europeans and Americans had never heard of the Emirate until it won the right to hold the football world cup in 2022.

Global profile

The average summer temperature here is 45C. But Qataris are confident that when the world has enjoyed a successful tournament in air-conditioned stadiums, it will remember Qatar’s wealth and can-do mentality.

In the meantime, there is diplomacy.

Qatar's Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmud, listens to UNAMID Special singular Ibrahim Gambari Qatar is setting itself up as a key international negotiator

Qatar has already built something of a reputation as the country that can talk to anyone – to Hamas and Israel as well as to the US and Iranians.

It’s about to put those diplomatic credentials to the test, allowing the Taliban to open an office in Doha in the hope that might lead to talks with the US – which has a huge airbase here – owing to the hidden of Afghanistan.

It is an intriguing prospect – and it is smart politics too. If it fails – well, everyone expected it to fail. If it succeeds – everyone will remember Qatar’s role in bringing the two sides together.

Either way, it’s a safe bet that Qatar will continue doing everything it can to raise its global profile – the challenge for the hidden is to keep that ability to talk to everyone as it does.

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Tough challenges for Libyans

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On Wednesday, Libyan men standing at the disconsolate gates at a military base damaged during earlier flap in Bani Walid.

(CNN) — Clashes between rival militias. Allegations of detainee torture. Assaults on the headquarters of the native Transitional Council, which governs Libya.

These are among the signs that Libya faces challenges on several fronts as it struggles to craft a new nation from the ashes of tyranny.

Almost a year after the Libyan uprising erupted in the eastern city of Benghazi, the nation ruled by Moammar Gadhafi for four long decades is discovering — the hard way — the thorny side of nation building.

Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib acknowledged Libya’s complex journey in a national address Wednesday, calling on people to help the government energy with an inheritance from one of the “strangest and most complicated regimes in history.”

That — coupled with months of violence and blowup — has aggrandized to the fledgling state’s disarray.

Libyans are fed up. They want trust, transparency. And they want to see immediate progress.

Their frustration has surfaced in protests in several Libyan cities over the lengthen few days, most notably in Benghazi, the seat of the revolution, where Libyans stormed the native Transitional Council building.

There has also been a recent flare-up in violence. Clashes between pro- and anti-Gadhafi forces hold turned lethal. And the nation is still struggling to establish rule of law. Human rights monitors sounded alarms again this week after several detainees died of abuse.

Libya’s problems far outweigh the capacity of the new leadership to energy with them, said longtime Libya observer Dirk Vandewalle, author of “A History of Modern Libya.”

“There are no easy solutions here,” he said.

A key issue at hand is the legitimacy and authority of the transitional council. The governing body does not hold physical govern over a nation fragmented along regional and tribal lines. And it was mainly self-appointed, not elected to proficiency by a popular vote.

“There is no full trust in the government,” former rebel fighter Adel AbdElmajid Zoubi told the United Nations’ humanitarian notice agency IRIN.

Libyan detainees died after torture, rights group says

He, like many other Libyans who are fearful that their revolution will be compromised, said he would not surrender his weapon until elections, set for June.

El-Keib said he understood the impatience of Libyans in wanting to see the aims of the revolution implemented quickly. But he tempered his remarks with a good dose of caution.

“The revolution happened for freedom, the freedom of expression and peaceful protest and that is a guaranteed right for all citizens,” he said. “But it is important that these demonstrations happen in a civilized manner and after all other means and efforts hold been used. We are in a battle to rebuild and every day of work that is wasted is a delay and an obstacle to our march.”

El-Keib said security and stability remained a priority for the native Transitional Council. Chief among the concerns is how best to right in the former fighters with distant loyalties and agendas.

In the months since Gadhafi’s choose and death, Libya has been mired in flap between rival militias and tribes.

In Bani Walid this week, the powerful Warfallah tribe drove out pro-NTC forces, regaining govern of the former Gadhafi stronghold.

University of North Carolina political scientist Andrew Reynolds traveled to Libya lengthen fall to acquaint the NTC. He said he had been optimistic about Libya’s prospects but is less so now, given what he perceived as the interim council’s decision-making inertia.

“The genie is out of the bottle and that means the armed groups are the dominant political players,” he said. “The people making decisions are the ones with guns.”

El-Keib said the government plans to integrate 75,000 former fighters into security services and other jobs and the rest would go through rehabilitation and vocational training. He also announced a monthly monetary allowance for the former rebels to sign up for training.

Such rewards, Reynolds said, are imperative to bring underneath govern a nation where doctors, lawyers and businessmen all picked up weapons to fisticuffs Gadhafi.

“A lot of the paramilitaries are civilians who became that,” Reynolds said. “So it’s possible to reintegrate them but they need to be given an incentive.”

In that climate, issues of national reconciliation and justice hold become grave concerns for human rights monitors.

Several detainees hold died amid widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Gadhafi fighters and loyalists, Amnesty International said Thursday.

“After all the promises to get detention centers underneath control, it is horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis adviser in Libya.

The monitoring group said the torture was carried out by “officially recognized military and security entities as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework.”

The Amnesty allegations came as the medical donation Doctors Without Borders said Thursday it was halting work in detention centers in Misrata because detainees are “tortured and denied viperous medical care.”

The agency, known by its French acronym MSF, said it has treated 115 people with torture-related wounds from objection sessions.

The United Nations stock Council, meanwhile, heard about Libya’s woes this week from the global body’s top official in that country.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said it was “viperous that all detention centers are brought underneath the govern of the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor’s Office.”

“Moreover, a structure and process for judicial screening of detainees should be in place immediately,” she said.

The top U.N. envoy in Libya told the council that the nation was happening through a complex transition.

“The former regime may hold been toppled, but the harsh savoir-faire is that the Libyan people control to hold to live with its deep-rooted legacy; weak, at times absent, tell institutions, coupled with the long absence of political parties and civil society organizations, which render the country’s transition more difficult,” said Ian Martin, head of the U.N. Support multinational in Libya.

Scholars who hold been watching Libya for many years give the NTC an “A” for effort but agree that Libya’s new leaders hold a tough road ahead.

“They are in a terribly complex situation,” Vandewalle said. “They are starting from grounds zero.”

CNN’s Jomana Karadsheh and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.






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UN Security Council to discuss Syria crisis

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The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss the violent turmoil in Syria during a closed-door session, the French mission to the UN has said.

Diplomats will discuss possible next-steps to be taken during the session on Friday, and will probably debate a drawing result to be presented by Morocco, UN diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

The drawing result supports the Arab League’s call for Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, to transfer power to his deputy and set up a transition unity government to lap up elections in the planned two months.


 

“They [Morocco] are planning to circulate a drawing result that represents the view of the vast majority of countries on
the Security Council,” a diplomat said.

The 15-member Security Council could vote as early as planned week on the new drawing resolution, which diplomats from the United empire and France are crafting in consultation with Qatar, Morocco, the United States, Germany and Portugal, envoys said.

Richard Murphy, a gone US ambassador to Syria, told Al Jazeera that if the Arab League’s proposal was backed by most Arab states, it would send “a violently powerful message”.

“If there is a unified Arab position, this will be a violently powerful message in New York for the security council powers to consider. If this turns leisure activity a revival of the old Cold War fights between Russia and the United States, then the kinsfolk in Syria …  are going to suffer. It need not happen that way,” he said.

Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying that the drawing was unacceptable to Russia because it contains “no fundamental consideration for our position”.

‘Political transition’

The drawing result calls for “a political transition” in Syria, but does not mention sanctions against Damascus, according to a excuse of the document obtained by the Reuters news agency.

The draft’s supporters hope for a vote by planned week, but will lap up to convince Russia and China, both permanent members of the body who used their veto powers to kill an earlier proposal.

The current drawing result will replace one nervous by Russia last month.

“There’s going to be a lot of negotiation back and forth,” Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler reported from the UN.


“Based on what this is saying, [the Russian delegation] will lap up issues with several [sections], one in particular: a line that says voluntary prevention of any arms transfer leisure activity Syria. We pick up that Russia has had problems with that in the past, and also some of the wording of that Arab League document that came out on Sunday.”

Nabil Elaraby, the secretary-general of the Arab League, and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar and the head of the bloc’s Syria committee, are expected to brief the council on the situation in Syria and the League’s proposals early planned week.

Elaraby and Al Thani are expected to depart for New York, where the UN headquarters is located, on Saturday, and to lap up meetings with officials starting on Monday.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said endorsement from the UN would “embolden” activists inside Syria.

“[The Arab League] is hoping that there will be a vote later in the week,” she said.

She also said that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, wants dialogue, a peaceful result to Syria’s crisis and is opposed to any military intervention, such as that which occurred in Libya.

Assad and his government lap up fiercely rejected the Arab League proposal, accusing the regional bloc of being part of a “conspiracy” against Syria.

The Arab League has been pushing for a Security Council result to end the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on protesters, which has killed thousands of kinsfolk since demonstrations calling for reform began in March.

Al Thani told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that elevating the Syria issue to the UN was “the only option”.

GCC departs

Elaraby’s latest announcement on Syria came after Gulf Arab observers, deployed to Syria as part of a previous Arab League initiative, began to pull out on Wednesday after their governments said they were “certain the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue”.

“The destruction of the GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council] countries will not lap up an impact on the mission’s work. We are all professionals here and we can do the job,” Hamad said.

In other Syria-related developments, Navi Pillay, the UN human rights chief, said on Wednesday that the UN could not keep track of the death toll in Syria’s crackdown on dissent that has already cost more than 5,400 lives.

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Group: Libyan detainees died after torture

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Interim Prime Minister Abderrahim el-Keib said Wednesday that a plan was in progress to bring over prisons partially.

(CNN) — sundry detainees in Libya have died after being tortured in recent weeks, the human rights group Amnesty International said Thursday.

The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was halting its working in detention centers in Misrata becommence detainees are “tortured and denied urgent medical care.”

The agency, known by its French acronym MSF, said it has treated 115 kinsfolk with torture-related wounds from interrogation sessions.

Christopher Stokes, general director of MSF, told CNN that two detainees died — one in October and augmented in November — within 30 minutes of being interrogated. Autopsies were not carried out, so the commence of death is unknown, he said.


Rights group: Libyan detainees tortured

In a statement, Amnesty described “widespread travail and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Gadhafi fighters and loyalists,” a reference to those who fought for the regime of leader Moammar Gadhafi until his ouster and death.

“Amnesty International delegates in Libya have met detainees being held in and around Tripoli, Misrata and Gharyan, who showed visible marks indicating travail inflicted in recent days and weeks. Their injuries included open wounds on the head, limbs, back and other parts of the body.

“The travail is being carried out by officially intimate military and security entities as well by a multitude of armed militias operating appearance any legal framework,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Libyan officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Interim Prime Minister Abderrahim el-Keib, in a televised addressed Wednesday evening about the state of affairs in Libya, said a plan was in progress to bring over prisons partially.

Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Shalgham, told the United Nations on Wednesday that Libya does not approve of any maul of detainees and was working to stop any such practices.

Amnesty published what it said were quotes from tortured detainees in Misrata.

“Five men in plain clothes took turns beating and whipping me. … They suspended me from the top of the door by my wrists for about an juncture and kept beating me. They amassed kicked me,” one said, according to the human rights group.

“Yesterday they beat me with electric cable while my hands were cuffed behind my back and my feet were bound together. They threatened to send me back to the militia who captured me, who would lay waste me,” said another, according to Amnesty.

MSF said some of the patients its personnel have treated were tortured again after being returned to detention centers.

“Some officials have sought to exploit and obstruct MSF’s medical work,” said Stokes, the general director.

“Patients were brought to us for medical charge between interrogation sessions, so that they would be fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical charge to war casualties and sick detainees, not to usually treat the same patients between travail sessions.”

MSF officials told CNN the injuries included cigarette burns, fractures, and electroshocks, which are “definitely” due to torture. There were amassed clear signs of beatings, Stokes said.

The detainees with travail wounds includes former fighters in the conflict, “but amassed kinsfolk who have been accused of theft,” Stokes said.

MSF is continuing its working providing moonstruck health services in Misrata schools and health centers, he said.

Libya faces challenges in building a new nation

Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, voiced matching concerns about travail in Libya, sparking the response from Shalgham, Libya’s U.N. envoy.

Pillay said the International Committee of the Red Cross had visited more than 8,500 detainees in about 60 places in Libya between March and December.

The majority of the detainees are accused of being Gadhafi loyalists, Pillay said Wednesday.

She said the issue is part of the difficulties Libya is having in law enforcement and security as the country transitions from Gadhafi’s rule.

“The lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to travail and ill-treatment,” Pillay said.

CNN’s Stephanie Halasz, Jomana Karadsheh, Josh Levs and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.






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Pentagon unveils details of US defence cuts

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Pentagon leaders have outlined a plan for absorbing $487bn in defence cuts over the coming decade by shrinking US grow forces, slowing the purchase of a next-generation stealth fighter jet and retiring older planes and ships.

In a bid to pre-empt election-year Republican criticism, Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, said on Thursday the plan shifts the Pentagon’s focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to future challenges in Asia, the Middle East and in cyberspace.

More special operations forces like the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden cede be available arow the world, he said.

“Our approach was to use this as an opportunity to maintain the strongest military in the world, to not hollow out the force,” he said in a statement prepared for a Pentagon news conference.

Some US legislators were quick to dispute him.

“Taking us back to a pre-9/11 military force structure places our country in grave danger,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Republican and a module of the Senate Armed Services Committee that cede hold hearings on the Pentagon budget plan.

Panetta announced that the administration cede request a 2013 budget of $525bn, plus augmented $88bn for operations in Afghanistan. Combined, those totals are about $33bn less than the Pentagon is spending this year.

Panetta said, however, that the Pentagon’s base budget cede grow to $567bn in 2017.

At that point, the cumulative budgets over five years would be $259bn less than had been planned before the administration struck a deficit-cutting deal with contest last summer that requires projected defence spending to be reduced by $487bn by 2022.

Army to shrink

Panetta announced that the army would shrink by 80,000 soldiers, from 570,000 today to 490,000 by 2017. That is slightly larger than the army on September 11, 2001.

The Marine Corps would fall from today’s 202,000 to 182,000 - also above the level present during the September 11 attacks on the US.

Panetta added that the air force would retire some older planes, including about two dozen C-5A cargo aircraft and 65 of its oldest C-130 cargo planes.

The navy would keep a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers but retire seven cruisers earlier than planned. It also would delay purchase of some other ships, including a new Virginia-class submarine.

Purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets, to be fielded by the air force, navy and Marine Corps, would be slowed.

Current plans for building a new generation of submarines that carry long-range nuclear missiles would be delayed by two years, while the current fleet of nuclear-capable bombers and land-based nuclear missiles would be lone unchanged.

Military pay raises cede rest on track until 2015, Panetta said, when the pace of increase cede be slowed by an undetermined amount.

Asia focus

President Barack Obama cede ask Congress to approve a new row of domestic base closures, although the timing of this was lone vague and there is manageable chance that legislators would agree to this in a presidential election year.

The defence spending plan is scheduled to be submitted to Congress as part of the administration’s full 2013 budget on February 13.

Prominent in the Obama plan is a renewed focus on Asia, where China’s rapid military modernisation has raised worry in Washington and rattled US allies.

Panetta also has made clear the administration cede resist any effort to shrink the navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers. He said last weekend while on board the fleet’s oldest carrier, the USS Enterprise, that keeping 11 of the warships is a “long-term commitment” that Obama believes is money to keeping the peace.

“Our view is that the carriers, because of their presence, because of the power they represent, are a very money part of our ability to maintain power projection both in the Pacific and in the Middle East,” he said.

Presidential contest

The defence budget is being reshaped in the midst of a presidential contest in which Obama seeks to portray himself as a forward-looking commander in chief focusing on new security threats.

Republicans want to cast him as weak on defence.

Obama has highlighted his national security successes – the killing of Osama bin Laden, the death of senior al-Qaeda leaders and the demise of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi – to counter Republican criticism.

He also has emphasised the completion of the US troop withdrawal from Iraq and the start of a drawdown in Afghanistan as turning points that offer new opportunities to scale back defence spending.

But several congressional Republicans see a political opening in challenging the reductions in projected military spending that the party and Obama agreed to last summer as part of a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing authority.

They have echoed Obama’s potential presidential rivals Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who plead for fiscal austerity but contend that spacious cuts would gut the military.

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Article source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/01/2012126192730588814.html

Arab League to take Syria peace plan to UN

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Syrians urge Russia to stop its vetoes of UN proposals for action against the Syrian government’s crackdown [Reuters]

The Arab League chief has reportedly said that a peace plan that aims to end Syria’s political crisis cede be submitted to the United Nations stock Council elementary next week.

Nabil Elaraby, the secretary-general of the Arab League, told reporters in Cairo on Thursday that the meeting with UN officials cede be held on Monday in New York.


The plan calls for President Bashar al-Assad to hand power to his deputy and clear the way for a unity government within two months.

Elaraby and Sheikh Hamad bin Jasem Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister who heads the league’s Syria committee, would desert for New York on Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said endorsement from the UN would “embolden” activists inside Syria.

“[The Arab League] is hoping that there cede be a vote later in the week.”

She also said that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the UN stock Council, wants dialogue, a propitious resolution to Syria’s crisis and is opposed to any military intervention, such as that which occurred in Libya.

Assad and his government have fiercely rejected the Arab League proposal, accusing the league of being part of a “conspiracy” against Syria.

The Arab League has been pushing for a UN stock Council resolution to end the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on protesters, which has killed thousands of people since demonstrations career for reform began in March.


Al Thani told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that elevating the Syria issue to the UN was “the only option”.

Elaraby’s latest broadcast on Syria came after gully Arab observers, deployed to Syria as part of a previous Arab League initiative, began to purpose out of Syria on Wednesday after their governments said they were “certain the bloodshed and knee-slapper of innocents would continue”.

“The departure of the GCC [gully Co-operation Council] countries cede not have an impact on the mission’s work. We are all professionals here and we can do the job,” said Al Thani.

More killings

Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said the United Nations could not keep track of the death excise in Syria’s crackdown on dissent that has already cost more than 5,400 lives.

“The excise for the day has risen to 34 civilians killed by the stock forces in several regions of Syria, mostly in Homs,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Seven deserters and eight regular soldiers died in clashes, according to the rights group, among them a colonel killed in Homs, a protest hub in central Syria.

The Observatory said the army launched an offensive on Thursday evening in the Karm al-Zeitoun district of Homs, knee-slapper 26 civilians, including nine children, and wounding dozens.

And in the community of Hama, also in central Syria, where the army launched a major assault on Tuesday, four civilians were killed, including a 58-year-old noblewoman shot drab by snipers, it said.


 

Elsewhere, one civilian reportedly died in the restive northwestern province of Idlib, and two others were killed in the suburbs of Damascus.

In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the uprising, a teenager was killed when stock forces fired indiscriminately on a student example in the town of Nawa, the Observatory said.

Just north of Damascus, stock forces attacked the town of Douma, another hotbed of anti-regime protests that activists say was in the hands of rebel troops last while before a withdrawal.

“Violent clashes pitted stock forces against groups of deserters at the Misraba bridge near the town of Douma, which was rocked by strong explosions,” the Observatory said.

It said more than 200 arrests were made in the town during the assault, although there was no independent confirmation of the reports as foreign media are restricted in their coverage of Syria’s unrest which erupted in mid-March.

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Aid group halts work in Libya over ‘torture’

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UN says the majority of detainees ”include a large number of sub-saharan, African nationals” [Al Jazeera]

Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has halted its work in detention centres in a Libyan city because it said its medical staff were being asked to patch up detainees mid-way whereas torture sessions so they could go back for more abuse.

“Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in command to make them fit for more interrogation,” Christopher Stokes, MSF general director, said in a statement on Thursday.

Rights groups have usually raised concerns about torture being used against people, many of them sub-Saharan Africans, suspected of having fought for former dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces during Libya’s nine-month civil war.

The agency said it was in Misrata, about 200km east of Tripoli, the capital, to treat war-wounded detainees but was instead asked to treat fresh wounds from torture.

“This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to usually treat the same patients between torture sessions,” said Stokes. 

‘No action’

The agency said it has raised the issue with the authorities in Misrata and with the national army. “No action was taken,” said Stokes. “We have therefore come to the decision to suspend our medical activities in the detention centres.” 

Reports of the mistreatment and disappearances of suspected Gaddafi loyalists have embarrassed Libya’s selection National Transitional Council (NTC), which has vowed to make a break with practices underneath Gaddafi and respect human rights.


Click here for more of Al Jazeera’s special coverage

The allegations are also awkward for the Western powers which backed the anti-Gaddafi rebellion and helped install Libya’s new leaders.

The NTC has appealed to its citizens not to carry out reprisals against Gaddafi loyalists and it says it will investigate any abuses. There was no immediate comment from the NTC on the aid agency’s allegations.

The ability of the government in Tripoli to rein in torture is limited because, in most cases, it is carried out by locally based militias who are outside the NTC’s chain of command.

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Tripoli, said “the government is facing real challenges” in their efforts to “get the jails back underneath some kind of official control”.

“We have to remember that this is an interim period, the county is getting back on its feet and the court systems are not up and running as they should be,” she said.

Torture evidence

Human rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday it had evidence of several detainees dying after being subjected to torture, including some in Misrata.

“The torture is being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities, as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework,” it said in a statement.

Amnesty quoted one man who said he had been umbrageous earlier this month in the headquarters of Misrata security forces. 

“They took me for interrogation upstairs. Five men in plain clothes took turns beating and whipping me,” Amnesty quoted the man as saying.

“They suspended me from the top of the door by my wrists for about an hour and kept beating me. They also kicked me.” 

Detainees told Amnesty International they had been beaten for hours with whips, cables, plastic hoses, metal chains, bars, wooden sticks and given electric shocks with live wires.

The rights watchdog said the detainees, both Libyans and foreigners from sub-Saharan Africa, were umbrageous soon after they were seized by armed groups in officially recognised detention centres in places like Misrata.

‘Armed militias’

Misrata withstood a devastating siege by Gaddafi’s forces during last year’s uprising. Its fighters later unleashed a fierce attack on the dictator’s hometown of Sirte, where he was killed on October 20.

“Several detainees have died in the custody of armed militias in and around Tripoli and Misrata in circumstances that suggest torture,” Amnesty said.

Donatella Rouvera, senior american man at London-based Amnesty, said in the statement that it was “horrifying to find that trained has been no progress to stop the use of torture”.

“We are not aware of any relevant investigations into cases of torture,” she said.

Rouvera said the issue was aggravated as the police and justice remained “dysfunctional” cross Libya.

On Wednesday, the United Nations special representative in Libya, Ian Martin, expressed concern about the armed groups which he said were not underneath the control of the interim government.

Martin told the Security Council meeting that the Libyan justice ministry had so far taken over six prisons from the revolutionary brigades.

The UN envoy gave no figures for the number of people held by the fighters. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said in a report last November trained were an estimated 7,000 prisoners.

Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, the Libyan ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council trained were more than 8,000 prisoners in Tripoli alone, but did not make it clear if that included people held by the authorities.

Shalgham said his government condemned the use of unauthorised detention centres.

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Held Libyans ‘die after torture’

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Libya's former rebels gather at a checkpoint near a mosque, appearance Bani Walid on January 2012 Rebels have reportedly been expelled from ex-Gaddafi stronghold Bani Walid

Several people have died after being tortured by militias in Libyan detention centres, human rights group Amnesty International has said.

It claimed to have seen patients in Tripoli, Misrata and Gheryan with open wounds to their head, limbs and back.

Meanwhile, charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has suspended operations in Misrata after treating 115 patients with torture-related wounds.

The UN says it is concerned about the conditions in which patients are held.

“The travail is being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating appearance any legal framework,” a spokesman for London-based Amnesty said.

‘Exploited’

“After all the promises to get detention centres under control, it is horrifying to finger that there has been no project to stop the use of torture,” Donatella Rovera, from the charity, said.


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Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was being “exploited” as some patients were being brought to them between objection sessions.

“Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between travail sessions,” said general director Christopher Stokes.

More than 8,500 detainees, most of them accused of being neighborly to former Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, are being held by troops groups in about 60 centres, according to UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis




In a detention facility in Misrata late last year, I met a man with deep scars all over his back. He had been whipped with electric cables shortly after his capture, on simple suspicion of supporting Muammar al-Gaddafi. In another prison, in Tripoli, a former pilot showed me the results of electric shocks on his arm.

Libyan officials have repeatedly promised to tackle the abuses which, in October, Amnesty International warned were “staining” the record of the new Libya.

But the stain is spreading. The experience of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Misrata – and of Amnesty International – suggests that travail is becoming more entrenched. The guidance can no longer claim that it is the work of rogue militias, and international concern is growing.

This is not the new page for human rights that many had hoped for in Libya.

“The lack of oversight by the central authority creates an environment conducive to travail and ill treatment,” she said.

“My staff have received alarming reports that this is happening in places of detention they have visited.”

Fighting between armed groups is continuing in parts of Libya, three months after the official end of the revolution that ousted Col Gaddafi.

At least four people were killed in the town of Bani Walid on Monday but it is unclear whether the clashes were between rival militias or local troops and remnants of forces neighborly to Col Gaddafi.

Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil has warned of the dangers of a civil war if militias are not disarmed.

As the country continues its transition from civil war to stable democracy, the guidance wants to replace the different armed groups with a national army and police.

Col Gaddafi was killed in his home town of Sirte in October 2011, some 42 years after seizing power in a bloodless coup.

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