U.S. Combatant Commands. U.S. Africa Command. French intervention in Mali to hit regional economy. Struggling to resume oil production in Libya. By Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Dougherty on assignment in Zurwarah, Libya Drive west from Tripoli along the Mediterranean coast for an hour an a half and you’ll see it in the distance: the gas flare at the Mellitah Oil & Gas Company’s massive processing plant in Zuwarah. Just a few weeks ago rebels and Gadhafi loyalists were shooting it out right down the road. Houses and stores are scarred with blackened holes where shells hit. The complex, which processes and exports crude oil, natural gas, condensed gas and other products, survived intact but the last export of crude oil was in March. Most of the Libyan workers were scared off by the fighting and foreign workers pulled out en masse. Some natural gas still is flowing to nearby power plants but gas exports to Europe stopped shortly after the revolution began.
By the water’s edge you can see the gas pipeline behind a fence, curving down like the crook of an arm and disappearing into the earth. Safety is another concern. Gaddafi gold-for-oil, behind Libya 'mission'? Libya Counts Its Martyrs, but the Bodies Don’t Add Up. Death of Libya's Gaddafi avoids awkward trial. Gaddafi dead: How much damage could Saif still do? By Richard Pendlebury Updated: 10:37 GMT, 22 October 2011 Saif al-Islam spent a lot of time in Britain, and is pictured here at his suite at Claridges in London A few days after the fall of Tripoli to anti-Gaddafi forces, I visited the newly reopened Libyan foreign ministry and took tea with the head of its ‘British desk’. Like a surprising number of senior civil servants under the old regime, he had survived the transition in place.
Our talk turned to the remarkable period during Britain’s New Labour government when Gaddafi’s Libya changed almost overnight from being a pariah state, whose operatives had killed a London policewoman and sponsored IRA terrorism, to our new best friend. A very public signal of this rapprochement was the 2009 early release on ‘humanitarian grounds’ of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan agent convicted of the 1989 Lockerbie bombing. Stricken with prostate cancer, Megrahi was said to have only months to live. Less so today. And what if he is caught? Documents shed light on CIA, Gadhafi spy ties. Papers show U.S. -UK-Libya spy ties The cooperation emerged after Libya ended its WMD programThere was an exchange of information between the agenciesRenditions occurred amid concern over reports of Libyan tortureU.S. official says this needs to be kept "in context" Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Documents seized at the Libyan intelligence headquarters have revealed a surprisingly close relationship between the CIA and their counterparts in the Gadhafi regime.
They highlight the cooperation between Libya and Western intelligence agencies after Libya ended its weapons of mass destruction program in 2004. They also shed light on the West's controversial rendition program -- the questioning of terror suspects in third-party countries. CNN saw documents in the former office of Libya's external security agency and received material from Human Rights Watch on Saturday. They are from 2004 and 2005. "Moussa Koussa was on a first-name basis with the CIA and MI6," said Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch. Files Note Close C.I.A. Ties to Qaddafi Spy Unit. Libya: Gaddafi regime's US-UK spy links revealed. 4 September 2011Last updated at 02:19 Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch: "The CIA sent the questions" US and UK spy agencies built close ties with their Libyan counterparts during the so-called War on Terror, according to documents discovered at the office of Col Gaddafi's former spy chief.
The papers suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli. The UK's MI6 also apparently gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents. The documents, found by Human Rights Watch workers, have not been seen by the BBC or independently verified. Meanwhile, the head of Libya's interim governing body, the National Transitional Council, said its soldiers were laying siege to towns still held by Col Gaddafi's forces. Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Sirte, Bani Walid, Jufra and Sabha were being given humanitarian aid, but had one week to surrender. 'Protecting Americans' UK officials were apparently keen for Tony Blair to meet Col Gaddafi in a tent Alleged CIA letter.
Tony Blair 'visited Libya to lobby for JP Morgan' But he added: "Saif and his father played these people like musical chairs. At the end the reputation of the LIA was really damaged because of these interventions. " Documents found by The Sunday Telegraph published this weekend showed Mr Blair had made at least three visits to Tripoli, twice in the lead-up to the release of the alleged Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Megrahi in 2008 and 2009 and once last year. On the first two occasions he was flown to the country on planes arranged by Col Gaddafi. A senior diplomat told The Daily Telegraph last night that the British embassy in Tripoli had arranged transport for Mr Blair and his entourage in Tripoli and ensured that representatives were there to “greet him and see him off” at the airport. Mr Blair stayed overnight at the ambassador’s official residence in Tripoli and was accompanied by “several” British police officers for protection.
The documents show that among the people he was due to meet in 2009 was Mohammed Layas, head of the LIA. Moammar Kadafi's hidden riches astound. Reporting from Washington — Moammar Kadafi secretly salted away more than $200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, about $30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, according to senior Libyan officials. The new estimates of the deposed dictator's hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are "staggering," one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday. "No one truly appreciated the scope of it. " If the values prove accurate, Kadafi will go down in history as one of the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre world leaders, on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire or the late Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.
PHOTOS: Moammar Kadafi | 1942-2011 Kadafi's death after he was captured Thursday outside his birthplace, the coastal town of Surt, not only all but ended the armed uprising that erupted in February. Beyond Al-Qaeda - The Outer Rings of the Terrorist Universe Part II. Somalia's al-Shabaab 'strongest Al Qaeda' Nor/AP An Al-Shabaab fighter displays weapon during military exercises in northern Mogadishu, Somalia. WASHINGTON - The Obama administration put Somali shipments on the no-fly list Monday, declaring the war-torn country's militants a direct threat to the U.S. homeland. "The ban on air cargo from Yemen will continue and has been extended to all air cargo from Somalia as well," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
Napolitano said toner cartridges over 1 pound won't be allowed to be shipped, either, because Yemen's Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula tried to conceal a PETN bomb in some last week to blow up cargo planes. Somalia's increasingly influential al-Shabaab "youth movement" is causing new jitters for U.S. terrorism fighters. The group, boasting alliances to AQAP in Yemen and Osama Bin Laden's Pakistani-based terror network, has up to 3,000 fighters - and a batch of American recruits.
"If they are able to leverage those thousands, that is not good," the official said. US drone strike kills six in Somalia. US drone strike kills six in Somalia American Predator drone firing a Hellfire missile (file photo) At least six people have been killed after the US military used a remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle in southern Somalia near the border with Kenya, Press TV reported. The US drone attack left six civilians dead and many more injured in the Dhoobley town located near Kismayo, the capital of the lower Juba region and a port city located some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday.
Hassan Ali, a Somali military official, told Press TV that the strike sought to target an al-Shabab base in the area. However, the casualties were all civilians. The drone attack comes as 20 civilians, among them eight women, were wounded in a US aerial attack on the outskirts of Kismayo late on Tuesday. Drone strikes in Somalia make the lawless state the sixth country where the US military has used remote-controlled aircraft to conduct such lethal strikes.
Al-Shabaab (militant group) Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (HSM) (Arabic: حركة الشباب المجاهدين; Ḥarakat ash-Shabāb al-Mujāhidīn, Somali: Xarakada Mujaahidiinta Alshabaab, "Mujahideen Youth Movement" or "Movement of Striving Youth"), more commonly known as al-Shabaab (Arabic: الشباب), meaning "The Youth", or "The Youngsters", is a jihadist group based in Somalia. In 2012, it joined the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda as a cell.[4] As of 2013, the group has retreated from the major cities, but imposes strict forms of Sharia law in some rural regions.[5][6] Al-Shabaab's troop strength as of 2013 was estimated at 4,000 to 6,000 militants.[7] In February 2012, the group's leaders quarreled with Al-Qaeda over the union,[8] and quickly lost ground.[9] Al-Shabaab has also been accused of being responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of elephants every year for their ivory, and for killing rangers hired to protect them.
Other leaders: Foreign al-Shabaab commanders include:[71] Trial of Americans in Egypt Shakes Nations’ Ties. U.S. Southern Command. U.S. Pacific Command. U.S. expands counterterrorism assistance in Cambodia in spite of human rights concerns. The Pentagon is expanding counterterrorism assistance to unlikely corners of the globe as part of a strategy to deploy elite Special Operations forces as advisers to countries far from al-Qaeda’s strongholds in the Middle East and North Africa. Much of the new assistance is being directed toward countries in Asia and has been fueled by the Obama administration’s strategic “pivot” to the region. In Cambodia, for example, the Defense Department is training a counterterrorism battalion even though the nation has not faced a serious militant threat in nearly a decade. The training has persisted despite concerns about the human rights record of Cambodia’s authoritarian ruler, former Khmer Rouge commander Hun Sen, who in the past has relied on his military to execute and intimidate political opponents.
President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are scheduled to make rare visits to Cambodia this week and next to attend a regional summit. Maj. Japan-China Crisis Is A Huge Geopolitical Problem. North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests. A New U.S. Grand Strategy. The strategic landscape of the 21st century has finally come into focus. The great global project is no longer to stop communism, counter terrorists, or promote a superficial notion of freedom. Rather, the world must accommodate 3 billion additional middle-class aspirants in two short decades -- without provoking resource wars, insurgencies, and the devastation of our planet's ecosystem.
For this we need a strategy. The status quo is untenable. In the United States, the country's economic engine is misaligned to the threats and opportunities of the 21st century. Abroad, Washington's post-Cold War pattern of episodic adventurism and incremental crisis management only creates further uncertainty, and rising powers will not lead. Simply put, the current U.S. and international order is unsustainable, and myriad disruptions signal that it is now in a process of collapse. This is not an over-the-horizon danger. Economic Inclusion The ranks of the world's nouveaux riches are swelling. U.S. U.S. European Command. U.S. Northern Command. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) On January 1, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico (NAFTA) entered into force. All remaining duties and quantitative restrictions were eliminated, as scheduled, on January 1, 2008.
NAFTA created the world's largest free trade area, which now links 450 million people producing $17 trillion worth of goods and services. Trade between the United States and its NAFTA partners has soared since the agreement entered into force. U.S. goods and services trade with NAFTA totaled $1.6 trillion in 2009 (latest data available for goods and services trade combined). Exports totaled $397 billion. Imports totaled $438 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with NAFTA was $41 billion in 2009. The United States has $918 billion in total (two ways) goods trade with NAFTA countries (Canada and Mexico) during 2010.
Trade in services with NAFTA (exports and imports) totaled $99 billion in 2009 (latest data available for services trade). Exports. The Future of North American Integration. North American Regional MeetingToronto, Ontario - Nov. 1-2, 2002Opening Session Three papers (download here) have been prepared by authors from Canada (Wendy Dobson), Mexico (Luis Rubio) and the United States (Robert Pastor) to provide a framework for discussion at the opening session of our November 1-2 meeting. None of the papers purports to represent the positions of the three governments or even a sense of the debate on the issue of integration within each of the countries. Nonetheless, in their own way, each represents the distinct style of each country while offering personal ideas on ways to deepen integration among the three. The authors encourage members to read the three papers to get a flavor of their different arguments, but they have summarized these perspectives in this short paper and pose questions that Commissioners may wish to address in their discussions.
Starting Points Within this context, interpretations of NAFTA's significance vary. Questions for Commissioners. NASCO. Canada New Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiating Partner. Washington, D.C. – President Obama announced today that the United States and the eight other countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement have extended an invitation to Canada to join the TPP negotiations, pending successful conclusion of domestic procedures. In addition to the United States, the current TPP countries are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. “Inviting Canada to join the TPP negotiations presents a unique opportunity for the United States to build upon this already dynamic trading relationship.
Through TPP, we are bringing the relationship with our largest trading partner into the 21st century,” said Ambassador Kirk. “We look forward to continuing consultations with the Congress and domestic stakeholders regarding Canada’s entry into the TPP as we move closer to a broad-based, high-standard trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region.” State Department Keystone XL review. At the same time, the Consumer Energy Alliance, a group funded partly by oil and gas firms, issued an economic analysis that said the 1,700-mile pipeline connecting Alberta’s oil sands to Texas refineries would generate $580.2 million in direct spending over two years in Nebraska.
And 10 Republican governors and Saskatchewan’s premier sent a letter to Obama that urged him to approve the pipeline, which would ship 700,000 barrels of crude daily from Canada to the United States. The State Department’s draft Environmental Impact Statement, which could come in the next few weeks, will be open to public comment before it is finalized. Obama initially rejected the project a year ago on the grounds that his administration needed more time to review its effect on the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region in Nebraska.
The pipeline’s builder, TransCanada, revised the route and moved it farther east of Nebraska’s Ogalalla Aquifer, a key water supply. Gov. Integrated electric grid for United States, Canada. U.S., Latin America Nations New Economic Relationship. U.S., Mexico should develop their economic bond. Mexican immigration to U.S. at a standstill. Banks Financing Mexico Gangs. U.S. Sends Drones to Fight Mexican Drug Trade. Mexico still waiting for answers on Fast and Furious. U.S. Widens Role in Mexico’s Fight Against Crime. National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive. H.R.645 - to establish emergency centers. Internment / Resettlement Specialist. New Madrid Seismic Zone - Catastrophic Earthquake Planning Project. RFI for Pre-Packaged Commercial Meals. RFI - Blankets for Disaster Relief.
RFI - Hydration Supplies for Disaster Relief. Various Fuels in Support of Disaster Relief. Request For Information - Underwater Body Bags. Pentagon Exam Calls Protests 'Low-Level Terrorism,' West Point center - dangers of 'far right' in U.S. Secret panel can put Americans on kill list' Bill Maher on Gun Contol and Civil Rights. "Anti-Occupy" law ends American's right to protest. U.S. Central Command. U.S. Plans Post-Iraq Troop Increase in Persian Gulf. Afghanistan war marks 10 years with little commemoration. U.S.-Financed Groups Had Supporting Role in Arab Uprisings. Small protests have big impact in Saudi Arabia. Saudi protests gain momentum. Israel dominates the Middle East. Israel sees new US poise to curb Iran. American Strategy Towards Iran. Judge Rules Iran Connected To 9/11. Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales. U.S. Cyberattacks Against Iran.
Cyber Attacks on Iran — Stuxnet and Flame. Halliburton sold nuclear technology to Iran. NATO support to Turkey : Background and timeline. Homs, Syria, Spirals Down Toward Civil War. EU slams Syria's al-Assad, slaps sanctions on Iran. Iran warns against Patriot deployment on Syria frontier. Panetta to Reinforce Strong U.S.-Turkey Partnership.
CIA drone strikes get pass. NATO. Redefining Security - NATO's Role in the 21st Century. German Firearm Registry. The U.S. and Europe Are Blocking Global Cooperation. Defense Strategy for the 1990s. Operation Northwoods. 9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon. Stonewalled by the C.I.A. Dick Cheney’s Song of America. Retired 4 Star General on Foreign Policy Coup.