Striking at the Heart of Assad's Regime

Fighting has intensified in and around Damascus over the past couple of days, but today's news is breathtaking in its consequences. A suicide bomber, who apparently was a bodyguard, blew up at a meeting of high ranking security officials.

Bashar al-Assad's brother in law and defense minister were killed in the blast. At the same time several reports indicate that more generals have defected.

The assassinations were the first of such high-ranking members of the power elite in the 17-month revolt against Mr. Assad’s rule, and could represent a turning point in the conflict, analysts said, confirming that opposition forces have been marshaling their strength to strike at the close-knit centers of state power.

According to state television, the dead included the defense minister, Daoud Rajha, and Asef Shawkat, the president’s brother-in-law who was the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian military. But the television report rejected claims by activists that the minister of the interior also was killed, saying he remained alive and in stable condition.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said all the members of the crisis group set up by President Assad to try to put down the revolt were are either dead or injured. But there was no official confirmation of that account.

With tensions already high in Damascus after three days of clashes between the Syrian Army and rebels near the city center, SANA, the official news agency, described the assault as a “suicide terrorist attack.” Opponents claimed a major victory.

“The Syrian regime has started to collapse,” said the activist who heads the Syrian Observatory. “There was fighting for three days inside Damascus, it was not just a gun battle, and now someone has killed or injured all these important people.”

The Free Syrian Army has claimed responsibility and that they were able to infiltrate the ministry building shows that the opposition has managed to infiltrate the regime and its security measures.

It's premature to call this the beginning of the end of Assad's regime, but it's the beginning of the next phase in the ongoing civil war. Considering that those involved plotting in the brutal crackdown were among those killed, it's going to be interesting to see the strategy that Assad uses going forward. Considering how ignorant Assad is of the plight of his countrymen, I fully expect him to further intensify the crackdown and brutalization of the Syrian people.

We're already seeing that there is widespread shelling of civilian areas, as BBC reports.

The more that he uses violence, the more the country realizes that Assad has got to go. We're already seeing some of those dividends as more military leaders defect rather than stay and fight against their fellow countrymen.

The British Foreign Secretary, in condemning the bombing that took out Assad's defense ministers, also used it as an opportunity to again assert that the UN needs to act under Chapter VII (using force) to solve the crisis there.

Russia continues blocking UN Chapter VII-type actions, but it's again reiterating that it will not prop up Assad. That's rather duplicitous of them, considering that Assad is being propped up by Russia by their stubborn refusal to offer up Assad a golden parachute to exile that avoids the ignominious end that met the likes of Mumar Khadafi.

UPDATE:
I don't have a crystal ball about what will happen, but it might be instructive to look at Yemen's civil war/insurrection for guidance. There, Ali Abdullah Saleh was hit in a bombing and forced to leave the country for medical treatment but he and his regime never broke and he was able to return. The endgame there was that on January 22, 2012, the Yemeni parliament passed a law that granted Saleh immunity from being prosecuted and he left Yemen for treatment in the United States. Saleh stepped down and formally ceded power to his deputy Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi and Al-Hadi will be a caretaker for the government as a new constitution is drafted and new elections are scheduled for 2014. However, the security situation there remains dire as the government is locked in a battle with al Qaeda.

UPDATE:
Video is streaming showing fighting on the streets in Damascus despite propaganda video shown by Assad's media outlets attempting to show calm:

News Corp. Faces Expanding Scandal As More Reporters Arrested

News Corporation's The Sun faces a similar mess that sunk News of the World. In fact, the situation is even worse. Five more reporters were arrested for improper payments to police in a widening corruption and hacking scandal:

Four senior journalists from The Sun newspaper have been balied after they were arrested in dawn raids today over allegations of inappropriate payments to police.

In another devastating blow to News International police questioned five men from the paper on suspicion of corruption, aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and conspiracy.

The five members of Sun staff, all believed to be men aged between 45 and 68, are thought to be deputy editor of the paper Geoff Webster, chief reporter John Kay, picture editor John Edwards, deputy news editor John Sturgis and chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker.

A 39-year-old Ministry of Defence employee and the 36-year-old member of the Armed Forces have also been bailed to a date in May, Scotland Yard said.

One other journalist from the newspaper is still in custody over the probe into inappropriate payments to police and public officials.

Fears that the latest arrests could lead to News International owner Rupert Murdoch closing the title as he did with the News of the World has led to the Australian reassuring staff of his commitment to the title.

The surprise move by police which comes on a day when nearly all Sun staff are out of its offices comes just a fortnight after the paper's former managing editor and three of its most senior journalists were also held and then bailed over corruption allegations.

This is part of an ongoing pattern of business carried out by News Corporation news outlets in the United Kingdom, and the carousel of editors and reporters that has gone between the newspapers shows that the problems are widespread and aren't necessarily limited to just The Sun (and the now defunct News of the World). That's why the investigations continue and arrests continue to be made.

But the real issue is that the culture of News Corporation aided and abetted these kinds of ethical and moral choices that have led to so many arrests.

Rupert Murdoch may be claiming that he's got zero tolerance for this kind of behavior, but his bottom line approach means that as long as his papers sell and he can out-scoop the competition, he'll look the other way. Thus far, he's saying that he wont shutter The Sun, even though the pattern of behavior at the paper is akin to that of News of the World, which he did close.

Pressure is only going to increase on Murdoch to shutter the paper, and will raise the stakes on his newspaper and reporting business even further.

News Corp. Settles With Victims Over Hacking Scandal

Jude Law, one of those who were victims of the hacking scandal, apparently settled with News Corporation for roughly $200,000:

The actor Jude Law received the highest disclosed payout of £130,000 damages plus costs as payments totalling £640,000 were made in 15 cases where the amount of amounts were made public.

The former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, received £40,000, Labour MP Chris Bryant received £30,000; Sadie Frost, Jude Law's former wife, received £50,000; and Gavin Henson, the Welsh rugby international £40,000. However, with damages from the other settlements and costs factored in, lawyers estimated that News International's bill could hit £10m.

That's an appallingly low sum considering what was going on here. It should also be sufficient to get further criminal charges going against all those involved in the scandal, particularly in the way some of the admissions were made.

Then again, the News Corp lawyers did their job too:

NGN made no admission as part of these settlements that directors or senior employees knew about the wrongdoing by NGN or sought to conceal it. However, for the purpose of reaching these settlements only, NGN agreed that the damages to be paid to claimants should be assessed as if this was the case."

They made sure that they limited liability and somehow managed to insulate key executives, made no further admissions, etc., but those admissions already made are pretty damning as it is.

Still, there are compelling reasons for a settlement by both sides. It would have been extremely costly and time consuming to the victims to pursue this in court while the bad press of delaying tactics would have harmed News Corp. Even if you're Jude Law, you don't have infinitely deep pockets to sustain a fight of this kind, despite the possibility of a jackpot verdict. News Corporation had every reason to delay and deny, but after a while that works against the company and they too want to limit the damage and potential of a massive verdict. It just came down to how much the sides were willing to forgo.

For News Corporation, it shows that they'll consider this as a cost of doing business and I wouldn't be surprised to see them engage in similarly disgusting behavior down the road. Heck, some of those involved in the scandal have ended up on their feet; one editor of News of the World landed on his feet at the New York Daily News as its editor-in-chief.

New Troubles For News Corp; Emails Show Top Execs Knew of Hacking

The smoking gun may have emerged that would strike at the heart of News Corporation as it continues to push back against allegations that top executives didn't know of the hacking work done by staffers at its various news outlets in the United Kingdom. Turns out that they did know, and they have the emails to prove it:

Clive Goodman, the former royal reporter jailed for his role in phone hacking, wrote a letter in 2007 claiming that phone hacking was "widely discussed" at editorial meetings, and that former editor Andy Coulson offered to let him keep his job if he agreed to say in court that he was a rogue element within the paper.

The claims are deeply damaging to Coulson, who has always maintained that he did not know about the hacking going on at his paper. They are also politically perilous for Cameron, who took Coulson on even as evidence mounted against him. Moreover, they raise fresh danger for James and Rupert Murdoch, both of whom claimed to know nothing about hacking. Before the documents were released, the select committee for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced that it is "likely" to recall James Murdoch when Parliament resumes in September.

The letter was one of several documents published by a parliamentary committee on Tuesday afternoon.
Goodman's letter is from March 2, 2007, after he was released from prison. In the letter, Goodman says he is appealing his firing from the News of the World specifically because he carried out his duties with the "full knowledge and support" of top journalists on the paper, and because the practice was so widespread at the paper.

The letter claims that hacking was so frequently talked about that Coulson—who went on to become David Cameron's top spin doctor—eventually was forced to ban mention of the practice. Goodman also says that he was repeatedly promised to be kept on, even after he was arrested. He further claims that the paper continued to pay and consult him on stories, even after it was known that he would plead guilty.

"[The paper's top lawyer] Tom Crone and the editor promised on many occasions that I could come back to a job at the newspaper if I did not implicate the paper or any of its staff in my mitigation plea," Goodman writes. "I did not, and I expect the paper to honour its promise to me."

The Guardian's Nick Davies also reports that Les Hinton, the former Dow Jones chief who resigned amidst allegations about his role in the scandal, received a copy of Goodman's letter but failed to pass it to the police. He then told Parliament that Coulson was completely unaware of the hacking going on.

Expect to see the Murdoch's hauled back before the British Parliament to deal with the new revelations, particularly because their earlier statements now look more and more like a coverup.

London Burning; Hundreds Rioting With Businesses and Cars Torched Across City

Three days of rioting is leaving its mark, and the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) is looking to deploy more than 10,000 police to quell the rioting. There's even word that the government will send in the Army to stop the protests.

At the same time, the police said they had launched a murder inquiry after a 26-year-old man, who was not identified by name, was shot and killed in a car in Croydon, south of London, late Monday as rioters torched and looted buildings — the first known fatality since the unrest began in another part of the city on Saturday.

Mr. Cameron spoke after cutting short a vacation in Tuscany to return home as violence convulsed at least eight new districts in the metropolitan area late Monday and early Tuesday and broke out for the first time in other locations including Britain’s second-largest city, Birmingham.

Coming after a cascade of crises, the measures announced by Mr. Cameron seemed to represent a bid to restore some appearance of official authority after nights of chaos and near-anarchy with rioters taunting or outmaneuvering the police, raiding stores and torching buildings.

This is a black eye on the government with the 2012 Olympics just a year away. Some of the businesses near Olympic sites have been hit by rioters.

And there's word that the rioting has spread to other cities as well.

So, what started the riots? Well, it appears to be traced back to the death of a suspected drug dealer at the hands of police. Yet, the riots went from being one of protest about the death to a general riot for the sake of rioting and copycatting. Some are also tracing the protests to cuts in various programs as part of the government's austerity package to bring the government spending in line with receipts.

The riots appeared to have little unifying cause — though some involved claimed to oppose sharp government spending cuts, which will slash welfare payments and cut tens of thousands of public sector jobs through 2015.

Others appeared attracted simply by the opportunity for violence. "Come join the fun," shouted one youth, racing along a street in the east London suburb of Hackney, where shops were attacked and cars torched.

Rioters were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods and able to plunder from stores at will or attempt to invade homes. Restaurants and stores fearful of looting closed early across London.

Expect the damage to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars before all is said and done - as businesses close in fear of damage and people attempt to recover from damage done to their properties.

News Corp Gearing Up For Scandal Spreading To US?

News Corp is busy hiring big-name lawyers to represent different portions of the company in the US against possible legal action from the hacking scandal that threatens to overtake the company in the UK.

The company's nine independent directors hired former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under President George W. Bush.

The directors are said to be increasingly concerned about Rupert Murdoch's stewardship of the firm and appear to be bracing for new U.S. legal trouble.

By denying knowledge of the phone hacking, bribery and hush money rampant at News of the World, experts said Rupert Murdoch and his son James may have left themselves open to shareholder charges of incompetence.

Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported News Corp. hired Washington lawyer Mark Mendelsohn, a top expert in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

These are prudent moves that any corporation would have to take, but it also signals just how serious the company is considering the possibility of charges in the US. They're worried about shareholder suits and criminal investigations.



At the same time, there are reports that there are still other news outlets in the UK that engaged in similar behavior, including ones that aren't affiliated with News Corp. They include The People (operated by The Mirror Group) and even Piers Morgan was accused of such tactics before coming to CNN.

On Tuesday, a member of Parliament accused the CNN anchor Piers Morgan of phone hacking when he was the editor of The Daily Mirror. Mr. Morgan strenuously denied the accusations and demanded an apology. And last week, news reports showed that the actor Jude Law has brought a hacking lawsuit against The News of the World’s sister newspaper, The Sun.

Five former journalists at The News of The World’s rival Sunday newspaper, The People, run by the Mirror group, said in interviews that they regularly witnessed hacking in that newsroom in the late 1990s to early 2000. “I don’t think anyone quite realized the criminality of it,” said one former reporter at The People, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A former reporter for the Sunday Mirror, another News of the World rival, described the extensive use of private detectives to obtain personal information. A former senior News of the World editor, Neil Wallis, who has been arrested on unspecified accusations of phone hacking, left The People in 2003 to join the Murdoch tabloid.

Nick Fullagar, director of communications for Trinity Mirror, the parent company of The Daily Mirror and The People, said, “Trinity Mirror’s position is clear. Our journalists work within the criminal law and the P.C.C. code of conduct,” referring to Britain’s press regulatory body, the Press Complaints Commission. Within Mr. Murdoch’s empire, the flagship daily tabloid The Sun has also been accused of hacking phones. The lawsuit by Mr. Law, filed last month, says that four articles published in 2005 and 2006 were based on intercepted voice mail.

It also comes as no surprise that News Corp affiliates are soft-pedaling the news coverage; the Fox News Network has devoted a fraction of the coverage that CNN or MSNBC has done, and the NY Post has all but buried the scandal as compared to either the Daily News or the NY Times. The Wall Street Journal has covered the story prominently, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

The scandal is also threatening to take down the British government as new revelations about the hiring of former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as Prime Minister David Cameron. Apparently, he didn't undergo the usual top level background checks of others up for similar positions.

Murdoch's Get Grilled By British Parliament; NY Post Silent

Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and Rebekah Brooks are all facing angry British Members of Parliament over the hacking scandal that has resulted in the shuttering of the News of the World and multiple resignations and arrests, including Brooks.

So why is it that the NY Post doesn't have a single link on the front page to the big news of the day - that the Murdoch's are being grilled by the MPs in the UK.

I wonder.

At least the Wall Street Journal is carrying the hearings live (it's another Murdoch-owned paper).

For more coverage, see the NY Times or Memeorandum.

The News Corp. Hacking Scandal Grows Out of Murdoch's Control

Rupert Murdoch attempted to engage in damage control on Friday, even as two of his top corporate allies resigned on Friday, Les Hinton and Rebekah Brooks. This morning, the other shoe dropped on Brooks, as she was arrested in connection with the British hacking scandal.

No amount of apologies and promises of compensation will make good on the fact that Murdoch's company condoned all manner of illegal activities in the United Kingdom over a period of years.

All the years of shady behavior, criminal violations, and unethical behavior is coming home to roost and Murdoch's media empire is crumbling all around him.

British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband is calling for an overhaul of British media ownership rules, essentially breaking up News Corp's hold on media outlets.

In a fresh salvo against Mr Murdoch's News Corp, the Labour leader said he wanted to forge a cross-party agreement on plans that would reduce the media mogul's UK market share.

In an interview with The Observer, he said: ''I think he has too much power over British public life.''

The News Corp empire has been diminished with the closure of the News of the World over the phone hacking scandal, but it still owns The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and 39 per cent of BSkyB.

Having already called successfully for the resignation of Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, Mr Miliband said the Government now needed to look at media ownership rules.

He said: ''I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 per cent of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News.

The scandal is also likely to claim individuals within Scotland Yard, and the all too cozy relationship between the police force and the media outlets has turned into efforts to control the damage. Heads should roll within the police force:

Inside was a treasure-trove of evidence: 11,000 pages of handwritten notes listing nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims whose phones may have been hacked by The News of the World, a now defunct British tabloid newspaper.

Yet from August 2006, when the items were seized, until the autumn of 2010, no one at the Metropolitan Police Service, commonly referred to as Scotland Yard, bothered to sort through all the material and catalog every page, said former and current senior police officials.

During that same time, senior Scotland Yard officials assured Parliament, judges, lawyers, potential hacking victims, the news media and the public that there was no evidence of widespread hacking by the tabloid. They steadfastly maintained that their original inquiry, which led to the conviction of one reporter and one private investigator, had put an end to what they called an isolated incident.

After the past week, that assertion has been reduced to tatters, torn apart by a spectacular avalanche of contradictory evidence, admissions by News International executives that hacking was more widespread, and a reversal by police officials who now admit to mishandling the case.

Murdoch is likely to be grilled by British parliamentarians on Tuesday, and some of the luster and fear of crossing him has faded in the UK.

Another News Corp. Exec Resigns: Dow Jones CEO Hinton Resigns

Les Hinton has submitted his resignation on the same day as Rebekah Brooks. The Hinton resignation qualifies as a Friday night news dump considering the timing late on Friday. Try to get the big names out of the way before the weekend when no one pays attention.

Les Hinton, who headed News Corp.'s News International unit when the phone-hacking allegations roiling the media empire first arose, on Friday will resign his post as chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Co., according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr. Hinton had come under increasing scrutiny recently as a cascade of allegations indicated the problems at the center of the scandal were more widespread than he had twice led a parliamentary committee to believe.

In 2007 and 2009, Mr. Hinton told the committee that the company had carried out a full investigation into the matter and was convinced just one of its journalists was involved.

Dow Jones & Co. is publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Hinton is a key figure in the scandal, and his statements before Parliament are in question as to whether he purposefully misled the British government over the scandal, or whether his investigations didn't uncover more malfeasance in News Corp's outlets.

He claims ignorance of the matter, but admits that his ignorance is not an excuse.

"I have watched with sorrow from New York as the News of the World story has unfolded," Hinton wrote in a section addressed to Murdoch. "I have seen hundreds of news reports of both actual and alleged misconduct during the time I was executive chairman of News International and responsible for the company. The pain caused to innocent people is unimaginable. That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant and in the circumstances I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp, and apologize to those hurt by the actions of the News of the World."

Murdoch has issued an apology to his readers/viewers, but apologies aren't going to be sufficient, not when your company has broken multiple laws and possibly across multiple jurisdictions (UK and possibly the US). His company has broken what little trust the public had in his reporting and ethics.

Insufficient heads have rolled, and while I understand his need to contain the problem to the UK outfits, with all the people have have swapped jobs in his organization, it would appear that more head will have to roll to clean up the mess and more will have to be done to set things right.

FBI Opens Investigation Into News Corp. At Behest of Bipartisan Political Pressure

The noose is tightening around News Corporation and Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has penned a letter to the FBI demanding that it open an investigation into whether any of News Corporation's affiliates engaged in wrongdoing, including wiretapping or hacking into voice mail accounts of victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The inquiry was prompted in part by a letter from Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, to Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, in which he asked that the bureau immediately open an investigation of News Corporation, citing media reports that journalists working for its subsidiary, The News of the World, tried to obtain the phone records of 9/11 victims through bribery and unauthorized wiretapping, the people said.

The decision to open a case in New York stemmed from the mushrooming hacking scandal that has wracked Britain for days, ever since The News of the World admitted that it had illegally intercepted the voice mail of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl abducted and murdered in 2002. It also follows a decision by the News Corporation chairman, Rupert Murdoch, to withdraw from the biggest media takeover bid in British history.

The investigation was expected to be handled jointly by two F.B.I. squads in the bureau’s New York office, one that investigates cybercrimes and another that focuses on public corruption and white collar crimes, one of the people said. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

That follows similar calls from Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) among others.

The British Daily Mail had alleged that the News of the World attempted to access the voice mails of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks or other Americans but thus far the Guardian has been unable to verify that report. With the FBI entering into the fray, this matter is going to come to a head.

If the FBI finds that one of News Corporation's outfits engaged in this kind of action, the gig will be up for the company and puts everyone associated with those media outlets in jeopardy - particularly editors and reporters who used that information or knew or had reason to know how such information was obtained, or condoned those kinds of activities.

The Coming Downfall of News Corp.

News Corporation, which owns the likes of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and British Papers such as the Sun and now-shuttered News of the World, and film and publishing companies is on the ropes following disturbing revelations about its improper conduct at several of its British papers over the past decade including hacking of voice mail accounts, bribing public officials, and a whole laundry list of other malfeasance.

As a result, Rupert Murdoch has abandoned his efforts to take over the British BSkyB television network.

A company statement quoted Chase Carey, News Corporation’s Deputy Chairman, President and Chief Operating Officer, as saying “We believed that the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation would benefit both companies but it has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate.”

“News Corporation remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it,” the statement said.

The development also seemed to end what, for years, had been a close, cozy and influential relationship with the British establishment.

Only hours before the announcement, Prime Minister David Cameron had sought to distance himself from Mr. Murdoch and had urged him to drop the bid for BSkyB. The announcement came just before Parliament was set to approve a cross-party call for Mr. Murdoch to abandon his long-cherished desire to take full control of the lucrative satellite broadcaster.

The scandal has also convulsed the British politicians, press and police, forcing them to contemplate unheard-of scrutiny of their ties with each other.

On Wednesday, Mr. Cameron offered details for the first time of a broad inquiry into those relationships to be led by a senior judge, Lord Justice Leveson. Mr. Cameron told Parliament that it would have the power to summon witnesses to testify under oath. The announcement came as Mr. Cameron fought to recover the initiative in a scandal that has turned into potentially the most damaging crisis of his time in office.

That was after the British parliament united in its call for him to drop the takeover bid. News Corp's got to fight a rearguard action to keep the mess from spreading, but because so many within the organization have switched jobs within the company - going from one of the British papers to a US outlet, or vice versa (including those at the heart of the scandal in the UK), trying to contain this is like a wildfire that is splitting out in hundreds of different directions at once and can't be controlled.

If it turns out that Americans, including 9/11 victims, were among the victims of a hacking effort by News Corporation affiliates, the company and Murdoch would be finished. The FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) is just the tip of the iceberg, and considering that there are inklings that they may have tapped phones, hacked accounts of 9/11 victims families, or otherwise engaged in illegal activities you're going to see prosecutors opening up cases in New York City and elsewhere.

An Odd Disparity

Why do British car purchasers buy vehicles that have a far higher average fuel economy than those in the US?

In 2009 (the last year that one can compare based on available statistics), the average new car fuel consumption for a gas-powered car was 43.6 miles per gallon (diesel vehicles actually pushes the fuel economy even higher). For the US, the new vehicle fuel efficiency for cars (which doesn't include SUVs) was 32.9.

That's a pretty big difference. Perhaps the difference is in the type of cars being purchased - the Brits are buying smaller vehicles than Americans and size directly correlates with fuel economy. It also goes to choice. Higher fuel economy is available for those who want it without the mandates - but people here in the US are by and large not interested in purchasing smaller cars.

Unitied Nations Authorizes No Fly Zone For Libya

Rebel groups are rejoicing as the United Nations has authorized a no fly zone and the British have already begun operations to support the effort.

Britain is poised to move fighter jets to bases from where they can help enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, after the UN Security Council gave the green light to conduct air strikes against Colonel Gaddafi’s forces, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday.

“Preparations to deploy these aircraft have already started and in the coming hours they will move to airbases from where they can start to take the necessary action.” Mr Cameron told parliament.

French president Nicholas Sarkozy will host talks in Paris on Saturday to discuss co-operation and co-ordinated action against Libya with representatives “at the highest level possible level” of the European Union, Arab League and African Union.

The UN Security Council on Thursday night approved a resolution authorising “all necessary measures’’ to protect civilians under threat from the Libyan regime.

As Col Gaddafi threatened to launch an imminent assault on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the Security Council passed a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone to halt government troops that are now around 60 miles from the city.

The UN Security Council also authorised “all necessary measures” – code for military action – to protect civilians against attacks by Col Gaddafi’s forces. Following the vote, Barack Obama, the US president, conferred with David Cameron, UK prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, to co-ordinate “next steps”, according to the White House.

A no fly zone would give rebel groups the opportunity to regroup without fear of airborne attack by Khadafi loyalists. Khadafi's thugs have been using airstrikes to beat back rebel advances towards Tripoli and retake territory captured by rebel groups including several important oil facilities.

For its part, China has expressed reservations about the no fly zone.

A no fly zone is not without serious risks, and could draw in foreign nations, including the US, into a potentially ugly civil war. Still, the benefit of preventing further harm to civilians is the driving concern here - Khadafi has shown a willingness to attack civilian populations, not including the attacks against protesters.

UPDATE:
Has the no fly zone already prompted Khadafi to moderate? According to MSNBC, his foreign minister is claiming that the Khadafi loyalists will stop military further military actions, but I wouldn't trust that to last.

Libya Descends Into Civil War

Mumar Khadafi continues to try and put down the insurrection against his regime with force and the opposition has also used force to hold territories it has liberated from the regime in Tripoli. Khadafi's loyalists have resorted to airstrikes as its ground actions have not been wholly successful at thwarting the rebel groups from gaining and maintaining ground as the noose slowly begins to encircle the capital of Tripoli.

Airstrikes have forced the rebel groups to pull back from Ras Lanuf, which is a key oil depot, and significant casualties were reported.

The situation can be considered a civil war for intents and purposes, which is what I've been calling it for the past week as the rebel groups continue to hold much of the territory in the Eastern half of the country and Khadafi has a tenuous hold on the capital and its environs.



The rebel groups are attempting to rearm and sustain their efforts against Khadafi, and there have also been reports that Egyptians have crossed into Libya to aid the rebel groups.

There is fighting throughout the country, although the focus is along the coastal cities where the majority of the population is situated and which are key transit points.

There was heavy fighting in Zawiya, and the civilian population is getting hammered by the Khadafi loyalists, often with sniper fire:


Khadafi's forces continue holding three Dutch airmen, and rebel groups note that the military efforts by NATO countries to rescue their citizens can be used as propaganda that plays into Khadafi's hands by seizing it as evidence of a Western conspiracy to overthrow his regime.

A British special forces team (SAS) was released by opposition groups after being briefly detained.

Earlier, two sources close to the Libyan opposition told CNN that negotiations between senior British officials and senior opposition leaders in Libya were under way to secure the release of the eight British special forces troops.

The Sunday Times of London reported that the unit of "up to eight men" was being held after "a secret mission to put British diplomats in touch with leading opponents of Moammar Gadhafi ended in humiliation."

British Prime Minister David Cameron said last week his government wanted to contact the opposition to find out who they were and what they wanted.

The newspaper said opposition figures were angry about the "intervention" of special forces troops and "ordered the soldiers to be locked up on a military base."

In an interview with the BBC, British Defense Secretary Liam Fox -- in response to a question -- said there was no plan to use British land forces on the ground in Libya.

UPDATE:
The NY Times has a good feature showing the progress of fighting through the country, and notes that the rebel groups are closing in on Khadafi's home town of Surt. I would expect Khadafi to try and hold Surt at all costs, but Khadafi isn't just fighting the rebels, he's fighting reality.

He continues to claim that his countrymen love him and that the opposition isn't nearly as strong as they appear to be. His is a cult of personality that is going to come crashing down on him and his loyalists:

But accuracy and logic have never been the tenets of Colonel Qaddafi’s governing philosophy, and their absence is especially conspicuous now, as rebels pose the greatest challenge to his four decades of enigmatic rule.

Not a day passes in Tripoli without some improbable claim by Colonel Qaddafi or the top officials around him: there are no rebels or protesters in Libya; the people who are demonstrating have been drugged by Al Qaeda; no shots have been fired to suppress dissent. In an interview broadcast on Monday with the France 24 , Col. Qaddafi called his country a partner of the West in combating Al Qaeda, insisting that loyalist forces were confronting “small groupings” and “sleeper cells” of terrorists.

He put the death toll on both sides at “some hundreds,” disputing estimates that the tally ran to several thousand.

A segment of the Libyan population appears to admire his defiant promotion of his world view, and confusion and obfuscation help explain how he keeps his rivals off balance.

Foreign news organizations were reporting, based on firsthand observations, that rebel forces were under fire but remained in control of the eastern half of the country, as well as many pockets in the west. The government’s main victory over the weekend appeared to be driving the rebels from the town of Bin Jawwad, which they had taken Saturday night. And both sides continued to prepare for a decisive battle in the Qaddafi stronghold of Surt.

But many Tripoli residents seemed happy to ignore such reports on Sunday and chose to accept Colonel Qaddafi’s narrative — that his loyalists were at the gates of the rebels’ headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi, or were in control of it already, or had captured the rebels’ top leader.

For more than four hours, Qaddafi supporters fired triumphant bursts of machine gun fire into the air from cars and among crowds in the downtown area. As many as 2,000 of them waved bright green flags and bandannas — and, in many cases, guns — as they rallied in Green Square, and several hundred of the pro-Qaddafi demonstrators were still at it at sunset.

Many of the people in Green Square lashed out at the Arabic news channels Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, calling them liars that had confused and inflamed Libya’s young people. The crowd’s fist-pumping ardor was a testament to the strength of the mythology of epic heroism that Colonel Qaddafi has instilled since he seized power at the age of 27.

He did it in part by making sure that his was virtually the only voice in public life. News reports try not to refer to other top government officials, or even soccer players, by name, ensuring that Colonel Qaddafi is virtually the only public figure in Libya.

British Courts Convict Bangladeshi Man of Terror Plot

A British jury convicted a Bangladeshi man of plotting to kill airline passengers in a plot concocted along with al Qaeda's cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. The man, Rajib Karim, 31, sought a job as an airline attendant so as to gain access to planes.

A jury convicted a former British Airways computer specialist of plotting with U.S.-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to blow up an airplane in an attack intended to kill hundreds of people.

Rajib Karim, a 31-year-old Bangladeshi man, was found guilty Monday of four counts of engaging in preparation for terrorist attacks.

He already had pleaded guilty to five other terrorism offenses, but denied plotting an attack in Britain.

A jury deliberated for 16 hours before agreeing with prosecutors who said Karim used his position at the airline to conspire with al-Awlaki, a notorious radical preacher associated with al-Qaida and thought to be hiding in Yemen.

Al Qaeda continues attempts to penetrate airline security measures by any means necessary. Using someone in Karim's position would allow al Qaeda access to security measures, the means to evade them, and access to airports and airlines so as to carry out future attacks.

Karim had contacted Awlaki and Awlaki asked Karim to research how to put a bomb or a person with explosives on board an aircraft.

This scenario is yet another reason why airline crews need to be screened just as passengers - the possibility that al Qaeda or a lone wolf jihadi inspired by extremists may be among the air crews and ground staff of airports and could attempt to circumvent security measures to carry out attacks against the planes and their passengers is an ongoing threat. So, while measures to expedite those crews and staff through screening makes sense, eliminating those screening measures would open a gap in security that al Qaeda could potentially exploit.

Khadafi Still Does Not Get It Even As Country Revolts Against His 40 Year Regime

After two attempts to rally his own thugs and loyalists in rambling speeches, Mumar Khadafi is now trying to bribe his way out of trouble by raising wages, increasing subsidies, and other assorted bribes.

The time to try and bribe the populace is not when pretty much the entire army has defected, tribes have sided with regime's opponents, and your loyalists have murdered the opposition en masse.

The time to do that was at the earliest stages of potential unrest.

Those efforts wont be any more successful than the violent attempts to suppress the opposition that has left hundreds, if not thousands, dead.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the death toll in Libya at nearly 300, according to a partial count. Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of some 1,000 people killed were "credible." French estimates suggest some 2,000 people may have died.

Gadhafi's response to the uprising in his country has been the harshest by any Arab leader in the wave of protests that has swept the Middle East recently, toppling the presidents of Libya's neighbors Egypt and Tunisia.

In Brussels, NATO also planned to hold an emergency meeting Friday to consider the deteriorating situation in Libya. It had received no requests to intervene said it would only do so if it were given a United Nations mandate.

Khadafi's time is pretty much up, and the only one to not realize this salient fact is Khafadi and those who surround him.

His regime is pretty much in control of Tripoli, while the opposition is consolidating its control over the rest of the country.



The Obama Administration has taken a somewhat muted approach to the ongoing violence in Libya, but is consulting with France, Italy, and the UK over a course of action.

While some critics say the Obama administration has been slow to react to the deteriorating situation in Libya, the statement said Thursday's discussions were to "coordinate our urgent efforts to respond to developments and ensure that there is appropriate accountability."

"The leaders discussed the range of options that both the United States and European countries are preparing to hold the Libyan government accountable for its actions, as well as planning for humanitarian assistance," the White House statement said.

U.S. officials have said all options were under consideration, including sanctions and enforcement of a no-fly zone, to try to stop the Libyan government from attacking protesters.

A statement by the French Embassy said Obama discussed steps the United States plans to take regarding Libya in his phone call with Sarkozy.

Calls for arms embargoes and no-fly zones wont do much to quell the violence, as Khadafi's loyalists are more than capable of unleashing a bloodbath without additional arms shipments. The Libyan air force isn't reliable, particularly after several pilots have defected or deliberately crashed their planes rather than fire on the crowds.

UPDATE:
Al Jazeera is once again reporting that Khadafi loyalists have opened fire on protesters killing at least six people in Tripoli. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets throughout the country to demonstrate against Khadafi. Those protesting in Tripoli are in grave danger considering that the city is Khadafi's last bastion.

UPDATE:
Via BBC, there are reports that one of the military airbases near Tripoli from which aircraft took off that strafed crowds has now fallen to the opposition:

#
1457: The Guardian correspondent Martin Chulov tweets from Benghazi: "The Mitiga air base is confirmed to have fallen in Tripoli. #Libya. #Ghaddafi. Planes that strafed citizens took off from here."

UPDATE:
Khadafi was again out addressing his supporters, and claimed that he would arm his loyalists to go and kill those opposed to his regime. He's still convinced that the uprising is part of a foreign conspiracy and continues to think that the West, or al Qaeda, or drugs are behind the threat to his regime.

"We can defeat any aggression if necessary and arm the people," Gaddafi said, in footage that was aired on Libyan state television on Friday.

"I am in the middle of the people.. we will fight … we will defeat them if they want … we will defeat any foreign aggression.
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"Dance … sing and get ready … this is the spirit … this is much better than the lies of the Arab propaganda," he said.

The speech, which also referred to Libya's war of independence with Italy, appeared to be aimed at rallying what remains of his support base, with specific reference to the country's youth.

His last speech, on Thursday evening had been made by phone, leading to speculation about his physical condition.

The footage aired on Friday, however, showed the leader standing above the square, waving his fist as he spoke.

No one knows for sure just how many of his supporters are out there, but there's more tangible evidence that he's brought in mercenaries to do his dirty work.

Khadafi and his son are going to get their wish if they keep up with their dead-end strategy:

Muammar Gaddafi has appeared in Tripoli's Green Square to address supporters. The embattled Libyan leader told the crowds: "We will continue to fight. We will defeat them. We will die here on Libyan soil." (See 4.54pm.) Earlier Gaddafi's son Saif vowed his family will "live and die in Libya".

• The entire Libyan mission to the UN in Geneva has quit, its second secretary calling for a moment of silence to "honour this revolution" (see 3.32pm). Most of Libya's delegation to the UN in New York had already abandoned the regime. The Libyan delegation to the Arab League in Cairo has renounced Gaddafi and condemned his attack on "unarmed citizens" (see 3.41pm). Libya's ambassadors to France and Unesco quit and condemned the violence. Prosecutor-general Abdul-Rahman al-Abbar became the latest senior official to resign and join the opposition.

• There are reports of troops firing on protesters in Tripoli (see 4.11pm and 4pm).

UPDATE:
This is a pretty fascinating (and frightening) report about an interview given by one of Khadafi's sons who happens to have been educated in London. The son, when asked if his father and the regime have a plan B if he's ousted, notes:

"We have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya."

Double Dose of Junk Science Vaccine Insanity

First up is Prince Charles of England, who has no qualms about giving a Royal warrant to a company that sells bogus "polio, typhoid, and yellow fever vaccines" based on homeopathic idiocy. As the article notes, homeopathy involves diluting substances to levels that make it all but impossible for the original substance to even exist in the solution.

Homeopathic remedy are commonly diluted, in their parlance, to 24C – that is, diluted to one part in a hundred, then that diluted solution is diluted to one part in a hundred, 24 times. To give you some idea of how dilute that is, the allowable concentration of arsenic in US tapwater is 4C, and at 12C there is only a 60 per cent chance of a single molecule of the original substance existing, if you started with a mole** of the substance. Or – I love this – one-third of a drop of the original substance would create a 13C solution if it were evenly mixed in all the oceans of the world. 13C is, remember, 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger than 24C, a common dilution. A 200C dilution of duck liver is given as a treatment for the flu. That’s the equivalent of one molecule of duck liver in 10320 universes the size of our one. The more dilute it is, most homeopaths say, the better.

Polio is one of a few diseases that could be eradicated worldwide (following smallpox) but efforts have been stymied in the past by rumors that vaccines cause sterility or AIDS or other dangerous rumors. Instead of wiping out this scourge, it persists in parts of Africa and Asia despite the best efforts of scientists to immunize rural populations.

Vaccination is key, and now you've got Prince Charles (by giving the business Royal warrant) is endorsing junk science - homeopathy - as it provides "alternative travel vaccines" alternatives to conventional travel immunizations. Given the way that diseases can circumnavigate the globe in the time it takes to fly around the world, this is a stupendously stupid idea. It exposes the population to diseases that should be protected via standard vaccines and immunizations.

Prince Charles' position may lead to death or needless illnesses.

That's child's play compared to the damage done by Andrew Wakefield, whose bogus findings claimed to link MMR vaccines to autism. Parents have needlessly exposed their kids to easily preventable illnesses because a ginned up study by an anti-vaccine advocate claimed that there was a link.

There was none as researchers continue looking into the study data.

The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues were renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.

A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.

Called 'an elaborate fraud'
Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.

While the British government stripped Wakefield of his right to practice medicine, he will not face justice for the fact that measles cases in the US and UK have exploded to epidemic levels as a result of his bogus study.

It will take years to recover from the damage done by this junk science.

Loquacious Leaker Wants Leaks Licked; Assange Calls For Investigation Into

Julian Assange is a hypocrite among his other notable traits. His legal team is now trying to get prosecutors to launch an investigation and bring charges against the individual or individuals who has released salacious details relating to the rape allegations brought against him in Sweden.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is irked by government leaks . . . about Julian Assange.

British papers over the weekend printed bits of a police report accusing Assange of committing a variety of sex crimes during a 10-day trip to Sweden this past summer.

Now his lawyer wants the leaker unmasked -- plus a criminal investigation of the leak itself.

Imagine that.

Live by the leak, die by the leak -- isn't that fair, Julian?

Assange doesn't have a problem with obtaining and transmitting hundreds of thousands of classified documents about US foreign policy that can affect US national security, foreign policy, diplomacy, and international relations, but the moment someone releases salacious information about Assange's dirty little secrets and the ongoing investigation into the alleged rapes in Sweden, he gets righteous about confidentiality and the law.

Wikileaks Founder Freed On Bail Pending Extradition to Sweden On Rape Charges

Julian Assange will be allowed to stay out of prison while awaiting extradition, ruled a British court. The court will require him to remain at a country estate of a supporter and must wear an electronic bracelet on his ankle.



Assange will be released upon the showing of bail. The court wants the cash in hand, not merely having the pledge of the money:

The judge's decision came during a hearing in downtown London, drawing cheers from a group of Assange's supporters who had gathered outside the court building. As of early afternoon in London, the hearing was still ongoing, with the exact conditions of Assange's bail not yet known. But they are likely to be stringent. On Tuesday, a lower-court judge granted bail but demanded that Assange, an Australian, surrender his passport and submit to monitoring by electronic tag. He would be expected to stay at the country estate of a friend and report daily to the police.

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Also, Assange, 39, can walk out of the south London jail where he has been held since Dec. 7 only after the money for bail has been posted. On Tuesday, the lower court set the amount at $312,000, to be paid in cash.

Before the high-court hearing Thursday, Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, said the money was available.

"We believe that we will have the money today. It appears to be in the banking system," Stephens said, adding, "We certainly have pledges from the people who stood behind him on previous occasions."

UPDATE:
In case you were wondering upon the onerous conditions, it includes allowing Assange to stay at the country estate of one of his supporters:

Not too shabby. Indeed, it's a home that most folks would envy with all the amenities available.

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Arrested In Britain On Swedish Rape Charges: UPDATE: Bail Denied

British law enforcement has arrested Julian Assange, one of the founders of Wikileaks on rape stemming from a purported incident in Sweden. International arrest warrants were issued last week after the Swedish government got its investigation in order.

The arrest is not on any charges stemming from the group's release of hundreds of thousands of classified and sensitive US State Department and Pentagon memos/reports, though more than a few people will make the connection that had Wikileaks not released those documents, the Swedish government would not have come forward with these charges.

But his associates said his detention would not alter plans for further disclosures like those it has made in recent months relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and, over the past 9 days, disclosing confidential diplomatic messages between the State Department and American representatives abroad.

“Today’s actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won’t affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal,” a posting on the WikiLeaks Twitter account said.

Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard’s extradition unit when he went to a central London police station by prior agreement with the authorities, the police said.

Hours later, he arrived at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court near the Houses of Parliament on the banks of the River Thames.

Travelling in an unmarked car with his lawyer, Mr. Assange used a rear entrance to the eight-story building to skirt the scrum of television cameras, satellite vans and international reporters. Officials said he would appear in court at around 9 a.m. Eastern time.

The court was likely to set the date for a further, more substantive hearing to consider whether Mr. Assange is granted bail, legal experts said.

In a statement earlier on Tuesday, the police said: “Officers from the Metropolitan Police extradition unit have this morning arrested Julian Assange on behalf of the Swedish authorities on suspicion of rape.”

Some people think that Assange is a hero for releasing all these documents and that such classified information should be freely available.

I'm not one of them. He and his cohorts violated US law and should be punished for their criminal acts. They undermine international relations and US diplomatic and security initiatives, but that was the point. Moreover, Assange threatens still more releases as a result of his arrest.

In the process, he's also unwittingly caused a reevaluation of what information will be made available through various channels that ended up being released in the cache of documents - and will likely result in fewer documents ending up in that status classification. It will result in less information being transmitted and may make diplomats and personnel less candid about their evaluations.

Assange is only the latest in a long line of anarchists who want to upend the international order. Assange thinks that he knows better than those in government about classified information and what should be available to the public. Christopher Hitchens thinks that he's a micro-megalomaniac, and he's on to something, but what exactly is Assange's endgame? Clearly, it's to upset the international order by the means at his disposal.

UPDATE:
British authorities have denied bail, meaning that Assange will remain in jail.