France and the NTC deny claims in the Paris daily LibĂ©ration that they have signed a secret deal granting French companies exclusive access to 35% of Libya’s oil reserves. Qaddafi meanwhile charges imperialist designs on deep Saharan fossil aquifers.
AlJazeera claims to have uncovered documents in the ransacked offices of Qaddafi’s intelligence chief implicating US officials—including Rep. Dennis Kucinich—in secretly aiding the strongman, in violation of stated policy.
Abdelhakim Belhaj, recently appointed to Tripoli’s rebel military council, was a founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an anti-Qaddafi cell designated by the US State Department as a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called for a federal investigation and Senate hearings into an Associated Press report asserting that the CIA helped the New York Police Department in spying on the city’s Musilm communities.
Juan Cole was a hero of the left when he slapped down mainstream media jive on the Iraq war just a few short years ago. But now he takes on idiot-left jive on Libya—which has at times deteriorated into shameless cheerleading for Qaddafi.
BP is denying blogosphere reports that the company has contracted 40 vessels to contain a new “oil sheen” near the site of last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster—but the denials are full of “wiggle words” and obfuscation.
The Economist sees “Anarchy in the UK” in the riots that have spread from London to Birmingham and Liverpool, as Trinidadian writer Darcus Howe tells the BBC the riots are “an insurrection of the people,” similar to what “is happening in Syria.”
More than 200,000 marched in Tel Aviv, under a banner with the word “Go!” in Arabic—a key symbol of the protest movement that brought down Hosni Mubarak, and a clear reference to Bibi Netanyahu. Below, in Hebrew, were the words: “Egypt is here!”
A visit to Israel by PLA chief of staff Gen. Chen Bingde to meet with IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen.Benny Gantz signals an effort by China and Israel to rebuild commercial military ties that have been weakened by US pressure on Tel Aviv.
A group of tent town rent protesters have issued “Letter from Tel Aviv,” calling for Jewish-Arab unity in confronting the housing crisis, protesting the “Judaization” of urban space, and rejecting the colonization of the West Bank as a solution.
A federal appeals court rules that human genes can be patented, as the Daily Mail reveals that British scientists have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos. Relax, popcorn-heads, it’s only a movie.
Militant West Bank settlers have joined the Tel Aviv tent town protest, pitching a line that aggressive settlement of the Occupied Territory is the solution to the crisis. Will the protest movement take the bait?
