A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

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       *  Tripoli gets privatised mercenaries at bargain prices

 
 
Tripoli gets privatised mercenaries at bargain prices
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 05:40 AM PST

Really:

Khamis Gaddafi, a son of Libya ruler Moammar Gaddafi, recruited French-speaking Sub-Saharan African mercenaries to shoot live rounds at pro-democracy protestors, reported Al Arabiya, citing sources in the city of Benghazi.
These sources claim this knowledge because they’ve captured some of the mercenaries, who confessed their identity and the fact that Khamis Gaddafi hired them.
The sources also said they saw non-Libyan mercenaries flown in from other African countries land in the Benina International Airport near Benghazi.
Al Arabiya did not report or speculate on which countries these mercenaries are from. Many African mercenaries have historically come from South Africa. Ironically, Libya is another country known for supplying mercenaries around the continent. However, because these mercenaries are non-Libyan and French-speaking, they’re probably not from these two countries.
Rania Masri, a Lebansese activist, said via her Twitter account that analysts think the mercenaries may be from Chad, a French-speaking African country.

 

 
Britain suddenly discovers that democracy is a jolly good idea?
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 05:10 AM PST

Sure, British Prime Minister David Cameron is traveling the Middle East selling weapons of death and yet he’s also giving this curious speech about allegedly backing democracy. So I presume he’ll be calling for immediate engagement with Hamas and Hizbollah, then?

Britain has been guilty of a prejudice bordering on racism for believing that Muslims cannot manage democracy, David Cameronforeign policy in light of protests across the Arab world. will say as he recasts
In a speech at the national assembly in Kuwait, the prime minister will abandon decades of so-called “camel corps” diplomacy by saying Britain was wrong to prop up “highly controlling regimes” as a way of ensuring stability.
Cameron – who is facing anger in the UK for placing defence exports at the heart of his long-planned visit to the Gulf – will use the speech to show that Britain is promoting political reform in the region.
The prime minister, who attended a ceremony in Kuwait with Sir John Major to mark the 20th anniversary of the first Gulf war, said: “Now, once again, this region is the epicentre of momentous changes, but pursued in a very different way. History is sweeping through your neighbourhood.”
Cameron, who on Monday visited the scene of the demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, said the protests had highlighted a hunger for freedom across the Middle East.
He depicted the protests as “movements of the people” that were not ideological or extremist.
But he indicated that the demonstrations presented a challenge for Britain as he dismissed as a “false choice” the old calculation that authoritarian regimes needed to be supported as the price of ensuring stability.
“For decades, some have argued that stability required controlling regimes and that reform and openness would put that stability at risk,” Cameron said.
“So, the argument went, countries like Britain faced a choice between our interests and our values. And to be honest, we should acknowledge that sometimes we have made such calculations in the past.”
He added: “But I say that is a false choice. As recent events have confirmed, denying people their basic rights does not preserve stability – rather, the reverse.”
The prime minister said Britain and other western countries cannot impose any democratic model on the Arab world, but stressed: “That’s not an excuse, as some would argue, to claim that Arabs or Muslims can’t do democracy – the so-called Arab exception.
“For me, that’s a prejudice that borders on racism. It’s offensive and wrong and it’s simply not true.”
Cameron’s speech has been designed to lay to rest decades of British foreign policy which held that authoritarian regimes in the Gulf must be supported to guarantee stability. The strongest example is Britain’s close relationship with Saudi Arabia.
The prime minister will not be visiting Saudi Arabia during his three-day tour of the Gulf. This is because King Abdullah is in poor health and not because Cameron wants to distance the UK from the kingdom.
He is also distancing himself from US neocons who believe democracy can be imposed.
Cameron outlined his thinking on this issue on Monday in Cairo, when he said: “Democracy is an important part of our foreign policy.
“But I am not a naive neocon who thinks you can drop democracy out of an aeroplane at 40,000ft or that, simply by holding an election, you have satisfied the needs of democracy. You have had plenty of elections in Egypt, but that does not mean you have had a functioning democracy.”

 

 
Australia’s distaste for Muslims gets noticed globally
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 04:59 AM PST

 

 

A non-controversial proposal; Arabs have right to vote for whomever they want
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 02:17 AM PST

Here’s to small blessings. A rather good editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald that calls for a re-thinking of years of imperial attitudes in the Arab world and an opening to Islamists who get elected. Bravo:

The patronising orientalism that the Arabs or even Muslims in general are somehow culturally conditioned to political slavery is being ripped up in front of our eyes. It is a time of great upheaval, partly the result of an open information age that perhaps ironically one of the Gulf’s autocrats, Qatar’s emir, embraced with his sponsorship of the pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera. It will be hard to put the genie back in the bottle.
The West is left looking flat-footed by developments. Britain has been shamelessly cosying up to Gaddafi. America has relied on regimes now facing popular uprisings. Even Australia has its substantial military presence at the Al Minhad Air Base in Dubai.
The situation demands a steady stand on principles by our governments, firmly supporting the right to free expression. We should be ready to accept, as the West hasn’t always done (as in Algeria, Gaza and Lebanon), that free elections sometimes may not bring the results we want.

 

 
West has rather liked Gaddafi for quite some time
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 02:07 AM PST

These were the good old days; 2005:

As it struggles to combat Islamic terrorist networks, the Bush administration has quietly built an intelligence alliance with Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, a onetime bitter enemy the U.S. had tried for years to isolate, topple or kill.
Kadafi has helped the U.S. pursue Al Qaeda’s network in North Africa by turning radicals over to neighboring pro-Western governments. He also has provided information to the CIA on Libyan nationals with alleged ties to international terrorists.
In turn, the U.S. has handed over to Tripoli some anti-Kadafi Libyans captured in its campaign against terrorism. And Kadafi’s agents have been allowed into the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba to interrogate Libyans being held there.

 

 
CNN reports from inside Libya
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 01:59 AM PST

CNN’s Ben Wedeman reports from eastern Libya, reportedly the first Western TV reporter to enter the country during the current revolution:

“Your passports please,” said the young man in civilian clothing toting an AK-47 at the Libyan border.
“For what?” responded our driver, Saleh, a burly, bearded man who had picked us up just moments before. “There is no government. What is the point?” He pulled away with a dismissive laugh.
On the Libyan side, there were no officials, no passport control, no customs.
I’ve seen this before. In Afghanistan after the route of the Taliban, in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Government authority suddenly evaporates. It’s exhilarating on one level; its whiff of chaos disconcerting on another.
The scene on the Libyan side of the border was jarring. Men – and teenage boys – with clubs, pistols and machine guns were trying to establish a modicum of order.
Hundreds of Egyptian workers were trying to get out, their meager possessions – bags, blankets, odds and ends – piled high on top of minibuses.
Egyptian border officials told us that 15,000 people had crossed from Libya on Monday alone.
“Welcome to free Libya,” said one of the armed young men now controlling the border.
“Free Libya” was surprisingly normal, once we got out of the border area. We stopped for petrol – there were no lines – and saw some stores were open. The electricity was working. The cell phone system is still functioning, though you can’t call abroad. The internet, however, has been down for days.
On the other hand, we did see regular groups of more armed young men in civilian clothing, stopping cars, checking IDs, asking questions. All were surprised, but happy, to see the first television news crew to cross into Libya since the uprising began February 15.
They were polite, if a tad giddy. Having thrown off the yoke of Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year rule (longer than most Libyans have been alive), it’s understandable.
As we made our way westward from the border, driver Saleh gave me a running commentary on all the sins of the Gadhafi family and its cronies:
“You see all the potholes in this lousy road? This should be a four-lane highway. Gadhafi spent hardly a dinar on this part of the country.”
“You see that rest house? Gadhafi’s son built it, and overcharged the government.”
“You see that house? It was stolen from its owner and given to one of Gadhafi’s sons.”
“You see those flashes? That’s an ammunition dump an army officer loyal to Gadhafi set on fire before fleeing to Tripoli.”
Saleh was also full of useful advice, I think.
“If you get stopped by forces loyal to Gadhafi, tell them you’re a German doctor. Don’t say you’re a journalist. And say your colleagues are doctors, too.”

 

 
Villawood guards blow whistle on abuses at detention centre
Posted: 22 Feb 2011 12:32 AM PST

My following investigation appears in today’s edition of Crikey:

Three security guards working at Sydney’s Villawood detention centre have exposed occupational health and safety breaches at their workplace, in exclusive interviews with Crikey.
The three employees of MSS Security, one of the companies contracted by British multinational Serco in its management of asylum seekers, have told of staff being continually forced to work in unhealthy conditions.
MSS Security are contracted to monitor the outside perimeter and provide basic security at the Villawood centre but not manage, guard or interact with the asylum seekers. The Immigration Department told Crikey that MSS is contracted for “non-client contact”.
All three MSS employees spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Greg (not his real name) said that fellow MSS guards are routinely told to undertake tasks for which they have no training. Serco staff are given minimal training to handle refugees (MSS staff call them “clients”) but due to routine Serco understaffing and incompetence, Greg claimed, they are told to guard asylum seekers and then blamed by Serco if anybody escapes.
“During the last protest at Villawood,” he told me, “when a refugee climbed onto the roof, Serco didn’t respond for five hours by which time 11 had got onto the roof. Serco just didn’t want to confront the situation, hence inaction for so long. We all suspect that regular escapes are either gross incompetence on the part of Serco or certain Serco staff knowing the refugees and helping them escape.
“Serco has problems with absenteeism, so MSS sometimes fills the gaps inside the centre, which we aren’t qualified to do. Serco doesn’t want to do outside perimeter monitoring because the facilities [for staff] aren’t very good.”
 
During the recent heatwave in Sydney, Greg said the MSS staff had no access to cold water because Resolve, another company sub-contracted by Serco at Villawood, which, according to Greg, wants the security contract, switched off the tap. “I’ve been calling for more breaks because in summer we can’t get out of the sun at all,” Greg said. “Twelve hours in the open with often no shade. People looked sunburned when they come off a shift. Workcover has said it’s a disgrace but nobody is doing anything about it.”
MSS is constantly under intense pressure from Serco “because they’re eternally paranoid about losing the contract [with the federal government] and they blame us,” said Greg.
According to Greg, MSS management often takes out its frustrations with Serco by pressuring its own staff, including making them walk many kilometres around the perimeter.
“On the day I was keeling over from heat,” Greg recalled, “my supervisor said, ‘where’s your tie’?”
Another MSS guard, Sharon (not her real name) told Crikey that resentment and physical pain is part of the job and health-and-safety legal requirements are routinely ignored.
“As perimeter guards we have to wait sometimes 20-30 minutes for a toilet break due to how busy our supervisor is and we do not get lunch breaks, as such, so we eat at the [security] boxes, where it’s dusty and muddy, hot or freezing, depending on the weather. Outside the boxes there are ant nests everywhere and inside you find ants and spiders. Fumigation has happened once in six months and did nothing to keep undesirables out.”
Sharon confirmed that Serco remains heavily understaffed at Villawood and as a result MSS is forced to take up the slack. “Serco officers think … that we are taking their jobs, especially in the perimeter. Many Serco staff are being sent to Christmas Island and Darwin even though I’ve seen Serco staff at Villawood playing pool with clients and using the gym.”
She wonders how Serco will handle the ever-increasing influx of refugees being held in mandatory detention. A recentFairfax report confirms that Serco and the Immigration Department are under-resourced countrywide to handle the system imposed by Canberra.
Crikey investigated MSS Security in November and found a lack of accountability between the company and Serco.
MSS did not answer repeated requests for comment, as well as emailed written questions.
MSS has about 20 staff working at Villawood during the week and about 12 people on the weekends.
Serco told Crikey that the company “values health and safety and adopts a policy of zero-harm to all of its employees, including subcontractors. Serco has key performance indicators established with its security subcontractors that must be met or they risk penalties, including termination.”
Serco confirmed that at the end of February Wilson Security will replace MSS Security at Villawood but stressed that this wasn’t “termination” of the contract, merely “an operational decision”.
Greg told Crikey that MSS is currently in the process of “terminating” the employment of many casuals and some full-timers. There is talk of union and legal action.
The three whistle-blowers all expressed concern that Wilson guards would inevitably face the same problems MSS staff has suffered.
The Immigration Department told Crikey that “MSS Security staff members have undertaken proscribed training. It has always been the agreement with Serco that MSS Security staff would provide perimeter and basic security; that is, non-client contact.”
The evidence from the MSS staff directly contradicts this claim, as they are routinely asked to monitor refugees. Sharon said that one day she was told to guard 20 “clients” and she felt “intimidated” without any training or back-up.
A third MSS whistle-blower, Monica (not her real name), said that “the so-called staff from Serco supposed to be dismissed after the last escape are still at Villawood. Serco guards are covering for each other and sleeping on night shift because they are so understaffed that every night staff are being asked to stay back”.
Saturday’s Daily Telegraph claimed in a cover story headlined, “35 Asylum Sneakers”, that refugees have escaped immigration detention and Serco were principally to blame for not carefully guarding refugees during outside excursions. The federal Labor government said it would not hesitate fining Serco again for the alleged breaches.
Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan tweeted to me over the weekend after I had blogged about this story: “Don’t ever let the facts get in the way of a tabloid yarn. There is neither substance nor truth associated with this report.”
Crikey has been told of numerous stories by the three whistle-blowers that suggest that Serco and its various subcontractors are constantly struggling to manage the ever-changing requirements of their main employer, the federal government.
The poor working conditions for MSS staff has caused many of them to resent what they see as the relatively good living conditions of the refugees. Sharon said that, “they get free English classes, computer classes, hair-stylist, dental, glasses, mental health, doctors and hospitalisation or operations as soon as required. During the Muslim fasting period special meals are delivered at a time when they are allowed to eat”.
Resentment increases when security staff are given no guidance as to how to handle the situations before them. Sharon said that “clients can threaten or swear at you but if we do this, clients will lodge formal complaints with Serco or the Immigration Department, which could mean our dismissal.”
She recalled a recent incident when a MSS guard was told that a threat by a refugee against them could not be investigated — Serco allegedly covered up the problem by convincing the “client” not to lodge a formal complaint — but MSS was blamed for the issue.
“After the incident, the MSS guard had to beg for counselling, got one session and then was told by the human resources department of MSS that “my hands are tied” and the only way the guard would get any more counselling would be if they went on worker’s compensation, which they avoided due to the delicate nature of the claim.”
*Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist and author currently working on a book about disaster capitalism and privatisation.

 

 
Just another day in British democracy (by selling weapons to thugs)
Posted: 21 Feb 2011 04:31 PM PST

And the West wonders why the Arab world regards its calls for democracy as hollow as Netanyahu’s love of freedom for Palestinians:

David Cameron‘s efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East by becoming the first foreign leader to visit Cairo were overshadowed as it emerged that he will spend the next three days touring undemocratic Gulf states with eight of Britain’s leading defence manufacturers.
After a hastily convened stopover in Egypt, where he spoke of being “inspired” by protesters, the PM began a long-scheduled trade mission by landing in Kuwait, a key military ally. Britain has approved 1,155 arms export licences for Kuwait since 2003, worth a total of £102.3m, according the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
Key deals on the table this week include the sale of Eurofighters to the Gulf.
Meanwhile Gerald Howarth, a British defence minister, was also attending the region’s largest arms fair, in Abu Dhabi, where a further 93 British companies are promoting their wares. They included companies selling rubber bullets and CS gas for crowd control as well as heavily armoured riot vans.
The marketing drive aimed at military and police buyers was backed by a 15-strong delegation from UKTI, the trade promotion wing of the department for business which is co-hosting a British pavilion with ADS, the UK arms trade association.
Critics rounded on Cameron for continuing with his trip despite the crackdown on protesters across the region. Kevan Jones, the shadow defence minister, said: “The defence industry is crucially important to Britain but many people will be surprised that the prime minister in this week of all weeks may be considering bolstering arms sales to the Middle East.”
Denis Macshane MP, a former foreign office minister, added: “It shows insensitivity and crassness of a high order for the prime minister to take arms salesmen with him on his Middle East trip.”
Britain faced embarrassment over the weekend when it was forced to revoke arms export licences to Bahrain and Libyaamid fears that British arms may have been used in the violent crackdown on protesters. Cameron, who is seeking assurances that no British arms were used against protesters, insisted that Britain has some of the toughest rules on arms exports in the world. But he admitted that the system had failed in Libya and Bahrain.

 

 
Talking to Finkel, Anderson and Stewart in India on occupation
Posted: 21 Feb 2011 03:41 PM PST

I recently attended the Jaipur Literature Festival in India and moderated a session with three men who know something about war and conflict. Brit Rory Stewart, New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson and the Washington Post’s David Finkel.
The video of the event is now online (the sound and picture aren’t perfectly in sync but you’ll get the idea).

 

 
Just how many Afghans is Australia murdering in Afghanistan?
Posted: 21 Feb 2011 03:31 PM PST

It’s called counter-insurgency but in many cases this is simply operations to train, capture and allow the subsequent torture (and/or murder) of supposed Afghan insurgents. A failed strategy that deserves exposure:

Counterinsurgency, also known as COIN, is the main focus in Afghanistan.
It is a partnered effort between Afghan government and coalition forces to bring peace to the nation by gaining the confidence of the people, and it will soon be fully led by Afghan National Security Forces.
Counterinsurgency, also known as COIN, is the main focus in Afghanistan. It is a partnered effort between Afghan government and coalition forces to bring peace to the nation by gaining the confidence of the people, and it will soon be fully led by Afghan National Security Forces.
On Feb. 16, a class of 20 ANSF members and their Australian mentors received training on COIN tactics as part of an ongoing effort to give the Afghan military the lead in upcoming operations.
The goal is to teach ANSF members the best way to defeat the insurgents, which is to build trust in the Afghan government, said Staff Sgt. Neil Frachiseur, COIN instructor from 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment.
“Everything we do is seen and interpreted – by ourselves, by the enemy and by the population,” said Al Bachus, an instructor for the COIN Training Center in Afghanistan. “Your actions continue to have an effect. Just like when you throw a pebble into the lake; the water will continue to ripple until it hits the shore.”
The key to counterinsurgency, he said, is to understand every ripple and its consequences – good or bad.
The class starts by teaching students how much they already know about COIN. An open discussion led by the instructor allows students to find the answers to common counterinsurgency problems.
From there the instructors build upon what the class already knows, said Frachiseur, a Tampa, Flla., native.
Every class taught at the COIN Training Center is tailored to fit the needs of the class and their level of understanding.
“This training has been very useful,” said Col. Hajji Fazal Ahmad Fahim, operations officer for the Operations Coordination Center – Uruzgan Province. “It helps us separate the enemy from the regular people.”
Ultimately, the plan is to have Afghans teaching COIN to other Afghans and have them learning from each other from the start.
Frachiseur said, the Afghan people know what their country needs, so it’s important for them to take control.
The COIN Training Center now has a permanent team dedicated to training Afghans in the Uruzgan province and plan to continue to offer counterinsurgency training to ANSF.
“Eventually, the Afghans will take control of the entire class,” said Frachiseur. “We’ll still be here in an advisory role, but the course will be theirs.”

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