Libyan TNC: No Islamic Extremists Here

The Chairman of the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, held a press conference this morning. Here are some of the highlights, via Al Jazeera Libya Live Blog:

"I can't say that the revolutionaries have complete control over Tripoli. Bab al-Azizyah and the surrounding areas are still outside our control, so we have no knowledge of whether he is there.



"As for cities currently under siege such as Sirte and Sabha, they will rise up from within as the stranglehold that Gaddafi's forces have them under eases."

Jalil repeatedly stated that a strict Islamist regime is not on the rebel's agenda:

"We are on the threshold of a new era ... of a new stage that we will work to establish the principles that this revolution was based on. Which are: freedom, democracy, justice, equality and transparency. Within a moderate Islamic framework.



Jalil has called on the rebels to show that Libya is a country of "religiously moderate" people, and has called upon "everyone to take care and guard properties both public and private."



Jalil has congratulated the rebels on taking Tripoli, and says that Gaddafi tried to "scare" the international community by saying that Islamic extremists were part of the rebels' movement.

How silly of Qaddafi to say that Islamic extremists were part of the rebels' movement!



But, maybe Qaddafi was referring to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Islamic extremist organization that was named as an affiliate of al-Qaeda by the UN 1267 Committee, and which is part of the Libyan rebel movement.



Last March, the leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group gave an interview about their relations with the Council of which Jalil is Chairman:

“We told [the Libyan National Council] that we are happy to work under you to help you. We are happy to put all our knowledge and experience under your control and we don’t have any separate strategy for our group. We are happy to fight under the [rebel] army’s command and we don’t ask to have a place in the leadership,” says Mansour.



The two men also disclosed that the LIFG had changed its name to Al Harakat al-Islamiya al Libeeya (Libyan Islamic Movement). Some 500-600 of its members have been released from jail in recent years. About 30 remain in Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison. Mansour says there is full agreement within the group regarding its position on the LNC.



The Libyan National Council responded positively to the LIFG’s approach, Mansour says. “They said the first thing they wanted to be sure of is that we are not linked with any other group so we confirmed this point. They also wanted to make sure that there were not any other people coming from outside Libya to help – they said this is a red line. In the end, they said if you try to help our people, to help the army, and co-operate and work together, we will be happy.”

In other words, 'you domestic extremists are okay but the foreign types will cause NATO heartburn, so keep them at arms length, please.' Message understood.



Or, it could be that Qaddafi read the interview in Le Figaro on June 24 in which the head of media relations for the National Transitional Council estimated that about 15 percent of the rebels are what he would call Islamic extremists:

Q: Some in the West are concerned about infiltration of the rebellion by al-Qaida. Is there reason to fear extremism?



A: [T]hey represent only a small portion, no more than 15% of the rebels, and are not, in our view, a threat.

Maybe the head of TNC media relations didn't get the press guidance before he gave that interview. Or else, Chairman Jalil just forgot that there are some Islamic extremists among the rebels, after all.



But then, what's extreme or moderate is all a matter of definition anyway. The TNC's draft constitution establishes in Article 1 that Islam will be the religion of the post-Qaddafi state and Sharia law will be the principal source of legislation, just as it was under Qaddafi's regime. That is as per usual in the constitutions of all Muslim states, e.g., Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and so on, and nothing extreme happens in those places, does it?



Now, once the mopping up of Qaddafi strongholds is done, Libya will move on to it's moderately Islamic future and "freedom, democracy, justice, equality and transparency" will rain down from the sky. In so far as they are not incompatible with Sharia law, of course.

Read More

Has The Qäddaferdämmerung Begun At Last?

Libyan news presenter Hala Masrati had a meltdown on the al-Libiyah television channel early this morning, Sunday August 21.







Source: Al Zajeera Live Blog.

"With this weapon, I either kill or die today, you will not take al-Libiyah channel. You won't take Jamahiriyah channel, Shababiyah channel, Tripoli or all of Libya, and even those without a weapon are willing to be a shield in order to protect their colleagues at this channel. We are willing to become martyrs."

The video is being run by various news outlets this morning, however, they report that it was originally posted by an unidentified social media source, so take that into account.



The news presenter, Hala Masrati, is a well-known Qaddafi loyalist of the over-the-top sort (google her), so I think the video is genuine.

[ Download ]

Read More

Unconfirmed Report Qaddafi Has Fled Libya

Tweeted by NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel around 4 PM this afternoon, EDT.



There is much more rumor and speculation here.

Read More

Good Shooting Stance In UK Police Video

Cities in the UK are pretty much blanketed with surveillance camera coverage, and it shows in this video montage of a mob rampaging through a Birmingham suburb ten days ago. They smash shop windows and set buildings on fire. In other words, the usual. Amazing to watch but, sadly, nothing new.



What was new is that the video captured one of the hoodie'd yobs firing a pistol, and, when a police helicopter closed in on him, he raised his pistol and reportedly fired another round at the helo (although it was not clear to me from the video that he actually fired).



I'll say this for the shooter - he consistently uses a good Isosceles stance, with both arms held up in line with the shoulders and his weight shifted forward onto his weak-side leg.



























He even maintains good control and muzzle discipline when he lowers the pistol.



























Our own domestic hoodie'd yobs most often use a silly one-armed stance with the pistol turned sideways in the style made popular by gangster rap videos. This makes me think the Midlands gunman has better than average taste in music and movies, and probably got his firearms training by watching the more realistic sort of cop shows.



The video, still photos, and details are here.

Read More

The Statement Department

"The Statement Department." I like it. It suggests an agency that makes remarks, declarations, and assertions, and reports facts and opinions.



Too bad Rev Al wasn't around when Thomas Jefferson was thinking up a name for the first federal agency.

Read More

Sweetshop Labor On J-1 Visas

"The Exchange Visitor Program promotes mutual understanding between the people of the United States (U.S.) and the people of other countries by educational and cultural exchanges, under the provisions of U.S. law. Exchange Programs provide an extremely valuable opportunity to experience the U.S. and our way of life, thereby developing lasting and meaningful relationships." - U.S. State Department



----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------



I'm sure the J-1 visa program provides an extremely valuable opportunity for someone, but not for the exchange visitors who are earning $8 an hour doing warehouse work for a Hershey subcontractor. Those students, or visitors, or workers, or whatever they are, are protesting their conditions:

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — Foreign students working at a candy warehouse protested conditions and pay for a second day Thursday, chanting on Chocolate Avenue under streetlights shaped like Hershey’s Kisses, arguing that they were employed under the guise of a cultural exchange but toil away in what amounts to a sweets sweatshop. The State Department said it was investigating.



More than 100 students gathered in touristy downtown Hershey, home to the nation’s second-largest candy maker, complaining of hard physical labor, steep pay deductions for rent that often left them with little spending money, and no cultural enrichment. They said their concerns were met with threats of deportation.



“We have no money, we have no time and we have no power,” said Yana Brenzey, 19, a journalism student from Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine. She said she had no idea that she would be lifting 40-pound boxes or netting only about $200 a week when she began working in early May at the warehouse run by Westerville, Ohio-based Exel Inc.



A spokesman for the Hershey Co. would say only that the corporation expects its vendors to treat employees “fairly and equitably.” An Exel spokeswoman said the company was working with SHS Staffing Solutions of Lemoyne, Pa., which helped place the students, to resolve the situation.



The students earn about $8 an hour, the same as their American counterparts, and were fully informed about the nature of the work, SHS spokesman Sean Connolly said. The company does not intend to fire the students for their protest, he said.



[TSB Note: The Pennsylvania minimum wage is only $7.25 an hour, and state labor law counts "the reasonable cost to the employer of board, lodging and other facilities" as part of the minimum wage. If Hershey's indentured foreign servants are actually receiving $8-something per hour, I assume that is the local prevailing wage.]



“We continue to discuss the concerns they have,” Connolly said. “We hope there’s a resolution.”



The leader of the Council for Educational Travel USA, a nonprofit based in San Clemente, Calif., that also helped place the students, asserted that their motives weren’t entirely pure.



[TSB Note: By "their", the Council for Educational Travel USA is referring to the students-visitors-workers. If any of the other parties in this deal have impure motives, the Council isn't saying.]



“Somebody has been circulating a letter that they will get several thousand dollars back if they protest and be a part of this movement,” said CEO Rick Anaya. “We have not gotten any cooperation from the kids. Somebody is promising them a lot of money in order to participate in this protest.”



He acknowledged that the jobs are “fast-paced” and involve heavy lifting, but said the students knew what they would be doing. He said he became aware of complaints two weeks ago and sent managers to Pennsylvania to work out differences.



The students were offered the opportunity to leave the job if they were unhappy, he said.



They are among more than 100,000 college students who come to the U.S. each year on J-1 visas, which supply resorts and other businesses with cheap seasonal labor as part of a program aimed at fostering cultural understanding.



An Associated Press investigation published in December found students who were forced to work in strip clubs instead of restaurants, others taking home $1 an hour or even less, some living in crowded apartments or eating on floors. Members of Congress have expressed concern about misuse of the program.



The State Department is sending staff to Pennsylvania to investigate.



“The Department of State takes its responsibilities for administering the J-1 Visa Program seriously,” spokesman Mark Toner said. “It is our responsibility to ensure that all J-1 visa participants are accorded their rights under all provisions of the Summer Work Travel program.”



Yilmazcan Cebe, 20, a civil engineering student from Ankara, Turkey, said that his complaints were met with threats to force him to pay the remainder of his housing costs and that he might be barred from returning to the United States.



“We are not real workers,” said Cebe, who blamed a persistent wrist pain on the tough labor. “We are just students.”



Student protesters also came from China, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland and Romania. They said their goals were to have all the companies related to their employment negotiate on repaying them and converting their jobs to living-wage positions.



The walkout is in its second day. On Wednesday, about 150 people picketed outside the warehouse several miles away in a protest organized by the National Guestworker Alliance. Three people were arrested, including Pennsylvania AFL-CIO president Rick Bloomingdale and two other organized labor officials.



On Thursday, the students protested with a bullhorn, leaflets and a petition they planned to present to Hershey executives.



“All we can do is work and sleep,” said Godwin Efobi, 26, a Ukrainian student originally from Nigeria.



Most students showed up for the first shift Thursday, and the walkout isn’t disrupting warehouse activities, Exel spokeswoman Lynn Anderson said.



The complaints began this year with two students from Central America who went to the state AFL-CIO, which referred the matter to the national office and the New Orleans-based National Guestworker Alliance, Bloomingdale said.



One foreign worker, he said, showed him a paycheck for 32 hours — at $8.35 an hour — that amounted to just $44 after state and local taxes and deductions for rent.



“I’m shocked that all of this is happening in modern-day America,” Bloomingdale said. “These are 400 warehouse jobs, packing jobs.”



Danielle Grijalva, director of the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students, an advocacy group in Oceanside, Calif., said the problems faced by the workers at the chocolate plant are not unique.



Similar complaints have been made for years across the country, and the State Department has not done enough to fix the J-1 program, she said.



“People are leaving our country hating America, hating Americans,” she said. “If this is the impression of the United States that we want these students to have, then perhaps we should thank the State Department, because they are not implementing regulations to protect these students.”

The National Guestworkers Alliance posted this video with student-visitor-worker interviews on its YouTube Channel:

[ Download ]

Read More

Syrian Regime Condemned, But Not By Everyone

Secretary Clinton delivered some strong remarks on the situation in Syria this morning.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Good morning. For months, the world has borne witness to the Asad regime’s contempt for its own people. In peaceful demonstrations across the nation, Syrians are demanding their universal human rights. The regime has answered their demands with empty promises and horrific violence, torturing opposition leaders, laying siege to cities, slaughtering thousands of unarmed civilians, including children.



The Asad government has now been condemned by countries in all parts of the world and can look only to Iran for support for its brutal and unjust crackdown.

Only to Iran ... and to our close ally Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq, who has gotten very friendly with Asad's government lately.

Mr. Maliki last month hosted a delegation of Syrian government officials and businessmen to discuss closer economic ties, including the construction of a gas pipeline that would run from Iran through Iraq to Syria. A month earlier, Syria’s foreign minister visited Baghdad.



In a television interview this week, Mr. Maliki said that the protesters should use the democratic process, not riots, to voice their displeasure, though Syria does not allow competitive, free elections.



He put most of the blame on the protesters and said little about the government’s ending the bloodshed.

Somehow that source of support for Asad's government got overlooked in Hillary's remarks.

Read More