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Report: Israeli company recruiting Gadhafi mercenaries

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© Suhaib Salem / Reuters
Suspected African mercenaries held by anti-government protesters stand in a room at a courthouse in Benghazi on Friday February 25.
An Israeli company is recruiting mercenaries to support Moammar Gadhafi's efforts to suppress an uprising against his regime, an Israeli news site said Tuesday.

Citing Egyptian sources, the Hebrew-language news site Inyan Merkazi said the company was run by retired Israeli army commanders.

The report claims that many high-profile former Israeli officers have been illegally trading weapons in several African nations, and have faced interrogations over their activities in the past.

The news site said the head of the company recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli intelligence chief Aviv Cokhavi. It added that the officials all approved the company's recruitment of mercenaries to help Gadhafi.

Comment: Here's a translation from Avi, a regular commenter at mondoweiss.net, of the source article at Hebrew-language news site Inyan Merkazi:
The article states that the weapons were provided by an Israeli company that's made up of former generals in the Israeli army.

The article states that in the past, the company was under investigation for illegal sales to another African country, but this time, according to Egyptian sources, the company received explicit approval when the company's CEO whose name was specifically mentioned in the document (there's no link to that document within the body of the article) had met with the head of Aman (Hebrew acronym for Intelligence Directorate) Aviv Kokhavi and later with the Minister of Defense Barak and PM Netanyahu. That CEO, the article explains, had received the approval of the aforementioned officials to go ahead and recruit mercenaries as Israel fears the establishment of a Muslim Caliphate in Qaddafi's place.

It adds that the Libyan ruler seeks to establish an army of 50,000 mercenaries who will arrive from different areas in order to break apart the anti-government rebellion.

[Avi - Up until now I was paraphrasing the translation, but the article contains too many details. So, I'll resume verbatim:]

It is further reported that representatives of the Israeli company that deals in arms sales and serves as a broker for fighters had met with Libya's intelligence chief, Abdallah Sannusi. The meeting took place in Chad, another African state. The final details of the deal were agreed upon in that meeting. Chad, Libya's and Sudan's neighbor to the south has had intimate relations with Israel for several decades now.

It should be noted that mercenaries who had already arrived in Tripoli, left from Chad and that is a provable fact. According to publications in the west, Qaddafi pays the company that deals in recruiting mercenaries 2,000 USD per day, per fighter. From that, the mercenaries personally receive about $100 per day. This is a brokerage deal to the tune of billions of dollars. The money is paid to the African supervisors who bring their gangs and rake in a fortune. The large amounts include weapons and ammunition that mercenaries use, and compensation for the mercenaries' families in the event that fighters are killed, injured, or fall in captivity.

Simultaneously, it should be noted that the United States, Britain and perhaps NATO have decided to begin an aerial siege [no-fly zone] on Libya, also in order to prevent entry of mercenaries to the state.

The rebels in Libya have already succeeded in capturing a few tens of mercenaries and display them to the media. Qadhaffi himself denies having recruited fighters outside the country and said that more than half the subjects of Libya are "blacks, therefore the media errs for mistaking them for mercenaries".



Stormtrooper

Saudis mobilise thousands of troops to quell growing revolt

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Saudi security forces in armoured vehicles responding to the threat of a Shia uprising this week
Saudi Arabia was yesterday drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into its north-eastern Shia Muslim provinces, clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops in fear of next week's "day of rage" by what is now called the "Hunayn Revolution".

Saudi Arabia's worst nightmare - the arrival of the new Arab awakening of rebellion and insurrection in the kingdom - is now casting its long shadow over the House of Saud. Provoked by the Shia majority uprising in the neighbouring Sunni-dominated island of Bahrain, where protesters are calling for the overthrow of the ruling al-Khalifa family, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is widely reported to have told the Bahraini authorities that if they do not crush their Shia revolt, his own forces will.

The opposition is expecting at least 20,000 Saudis to gather in Riyadh and in the Shia Muslim provinces of the north-east of the country in six days, to demand an end to corruption and, if necessary, the overthrow of the House of Saud. Saudi security forces have deployed troops and armed police across the Qatif area - where most of Saudi Arabia's Shia Muslims live - and yesterday would-be protesters circulated photographs of armoured vehicles and buses of the state-security police on a highway near the port city of Dammam.

Wall Street

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Issues Layoff Warning Notices

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© AP Photo/Andy Manis
In this Feb. 1, 2011 file photo, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker issued layoff warning notices on Friday to unions representing state workers as a three-week-long battle between Republican and Democratic lawmakers over union bargaining rights took a new turn.

In an e-mail announcing the layoff notices, the governor's office said that "if the Senate Democrats come back to Wisconsin, these notices may be able to be rescinded and layoffs avoided. Without Senate action within 15 days, individual employees may begin to receive potential termination notifications."

Walker did not specify the number of workers affected but said this week about 1,500 employees would be affected. Friday's warning notices do not count as official layoff notices.

The letters to the statewide bargaining units notified them that layoffs will be possible starting in April. It said that the action was "due to the delay in the Budget Repair Bill."

Magnify

Oil Settles at Highest Level Since September 2008

oil_libya
© Unknown
Libya and US jobs report push oil prices above $104, to highest level since Sept. 2008

Oil prices rose past $104 a barrel to end the week at a 29-month high, as fighting in Libya intensified and the world's largest petroleum consumer, the U.S., reported that employers added nearly 200,000 new jobs in February.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9 percent in February. While that's positive news for the economy, the report also suggests that more people are driving to work at a time when world oil supplies are under pressure because of unrest in Libya and the Middle East.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery gained $2.51 to settle at $104.42 per barrel in New York, the highest level since Sept. 26, 2008.

Gasoline prices have shot up an average of 35 cents per gallon since an uprising in Libya began in mid-February. A gallon of regular gained another 4.4 cents overnight to a new national average of $3.471 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service.

Footprints

Bernie Madoff: 'The whole government is a Ponzi scheme'

If there's one person who knows a Ponzi scheme, it's Bernie Madoff, the perpetrator of the largest one in world history. And now, locked away in prison, he claims that it wasn't just him, or even just the financial sector.
Madoff99
© Unknown

Madoff believes the entire US government is a Ponzi scheme.

In an interview with New York Magazine's Steve Fishman, Madoff sought to "set the record straight," and unloaded on the state of financial regulation in the United States and the impropriety of the banks.

Bizarro Earth

"Rigging" the Markets: Oil settles at highest level since Sept. 2008

Investors fret about rising demand as supply gets squeezed

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© Unknown
New York - Oil prices rose past $104 a barrel to end the week at a 29-month high, as fighting in Libya intensified and the world's largest petroleum consumer, the U.S., reported that employers added nearly 200,000 new jobs in February.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9 percent in February. While that's positive news for the economy, the report also suggests that more Americans are driving to work at a time when world oil supplies are under pressure because of unrest in Libya and the Middle East.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery gained $2.51 to settle at $104.42 a barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest level since Sept. 26, 2008.

In London, Brent crude rose $1.18 to settle at $115.97 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Most of Libya's oil production has been shut down because of the crisis, and experts say the country's oil fields will be threatened as long as there's no clear leader in charge.

Comment: Investors fret about rising demand as supply gets squeezed? How can that be true if the value of the item which is demanded has a value that is skyrocketing? Would you fret if your oil stocks were making you lots of money? ...


Cell Phone

China plans to track Beijing citizens through their mobiles

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© Michael Reynolds/EPA
Human rights activists believe the Chinese government is exploiting mobile technology to control unrest.
Government claims technology will ease transport congestion, but experts warn it could be used to control dissent

Human rights campaigners have expressed concerns over plans to track every mobile phone user in Beijing through global positioning technology.

Chinese media reported this week that pilot schemes were being introduced for an "information platform of real-time citizen movement" to help with traffic management.

Li Guoguang, deputy director of the Beijing municipal science and technology commission, said the project would be used to tackle congestion by allowing officials to monitor the flow of people through the transport system.

"To some degree, [it] can effectively increase citizens' travelling efficiency and ease traffic jams," he told the Beijing Daily.

He added that citizens would be able to buy the information, although more sensitive information - such as the location of individuals - would not be available.

Evil Rays

Reporter quits in protest at British tabloid's 'anti-Muslim' coverage

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The Daily Star has been accused of printing fictional stories by a disgruntled reporter who has resigned over its "hatemongering" anti-Muslim propaganda.

In a resignation letter, Richard Peppiatt said he was leaving after the Star gave sympathetic coverage to the far-right English Defence League last month.

Peppiatt admits producing a number of fictional stories about celebrities during his two years at the tabloid, a practice he implies was sanctioned by his seniors.

The reporter, who was once made to dress up in a burqa, now accuses the paper of inciting racial tensions and Islamaphobia. "You may have heard the phrase 'the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas'," Peppiatt wrote to the proprietor, Richard Desmond, in a letter seen by the Guardian.

"Well, try this: 'The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved-in down an alley in Bradford.' If you can't see that words matter, you should go back to running porn magazines."

MIB

Renault industrial espionage scandal may have been a hoax

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French car company admits the possibility that it was tricked - but motive remains a mystery

The French carmaker Renault is facing embarrassment after admitting that the spying scandal that prompted its biggest ever industrial espionage investigation may have been a hoax.

France's most famous company has acknowledged that it may have been tricked and has reasons to doubt it has been a victim of industrial espionage.

The saga of a suspected spy ring, in which insiders were thought to have sold secrets of its electric car technology to shadowy foreigners, has been likened by the French press to "an incredible thriller" worthy of John le Carré. When it emerged in January that three executives had been escorted from their offices at Renault's Technocentre outside Paris, the French government warned it was the victim of an "economic war". President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered his intelligence services to investigate a Chinese link, which threatened to trigger a diplomatic row.

Renault never detailed its exact accusations against the three executives but the investigation centred on alleged bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein through which the spies could have received cash for revealing Renault's secrets, in the competitive automobile world's race to produce the most effective electric cars.

Bad Guys

Terror Bots Being Designed to Hunt You Down

Robot Cheetah
© Boston Dynamics

A headless metal warrior stomps towards you, shooting. Fortunately, you've been training for a marathon and easily jet off to safety down an alleyway. But wait - - now a metal cheeta-bot is after you, racing faster than your puny legs can go. As the space between you and the galloping beast closes, you round a corner, see a door and dive through. It slams behind you. As you freeze, holding your breath, the robotic cat passes by outside with a wake of metallic echoes.

Relieved, you exhale into the dark. A fatal mistake - - outside, another robot has detected your breath and alerted the enemy to your location ...

Waking up from this nightmare is a way to save yourself, for now, but in fact all three 'terror' bots it featured are based on actual prototypes being developed in California and Boston (though not with directly malicious intentions). Here's an introduction to the motley three.