LIBYA: The taking of Aisha Kadafi's pool [video]

 

Libyan opposition supporters have apparently been bringing their families over to the luxurious Tripoli home of Moammar Kadafi's daughter, Aisha. Among other things, they come to take a dip in the pool.

The video could not be independently verified. However, note the:

-- Kadafi poster-turned doormat;

-- Apparent cannonball contest underway in the deep end;

-- Gold bench rally/photo op (reminiscent of photos taken after troops seized Saddam Hussein's palaces);

-- Hot tub tour.

LIBYA: From Tripoli compound, surreal images of gold guns

 

Footage is still emerging online of rebels seizing control of Moammar Kadafi's Tripoli compound on Tuesday, including some odd images of fighters with looted gold-plated guns.

In one video, a rebel fighter wearing a scarf around his head and an armored vest, a long gun slung across his shoulder, holds up what appears to be a gold-plated rifle.

"God is great," he says in Arabic before striding off among the palm trees outside the compound as a compatriot flashes a V-for-victory sign.

Agence France-Presse also reported that a rebel emerging from the complex brandished a gold-plated rifle.

"Kadafi people killed us with it," he said.

Other reports circulated of a gold-plated pistol taken from Kadafi's fortress-like home.

The sights bring to mind the truckloads of gold-plated guns U.S. troops seized from a Baghdad villa in April 2003.

Many of those guns, which Agence France-Presse described as "greasy gold-plated Kalashnikov assault rifles and sniper rifles," also carried inscriptions.

"A gift from the president of the republic, Mr Saddam Hussein."

But that cache paled in comparison with the uber-gold guns recovered in recent years from Mexico's drug cartel fighters.

Last year, Mexican soldiers seized an arsenal of not only gold-plated but also diamond-encrusted weapons that allegedly belonged to allies of the Sinaloa drug cartel, according to the Daily Mail. One of the guns seized from a Guadalajara cartel member's home featured a gold-plated silencer, another a diamond-tipped trigger.

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U.S., U.N., EU may release frozen Libyan assets to new government

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Video: A Libyan rebel emerges from Moammar Kadafi's compound in Tripoli with what appears to be a gold-plated gun. Credit: YouTube

IRAQ: Nouri Maliki's uneasy alliance with Muqtada Sadr's movement

Editor’s note: This post is from analyst Maria Fantappie, below left, with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of the analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

Since recent developments have rocked the region, leaders are realizing that popular support is now necessary to remain in power. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is among those who seem to be aware of this change as he consolidates his rule over Iraq.

 

The Sadrists -- the Shiite militia-turned-political movement nominally led by cleric Muqtada Sadr --  have the appropriate tools to reach people on the ground and mobilize them in the streets. They are paradoxically becoming Maliki’s most dangerous political adversary as well as his most necessary ally. 

In 2007, Maliki’s forces drove the Sadrists’ Mehdi army out of Basra. Although allied in the central government, Maliki and the Sadrists are once again competing, but this time through political rather than military means.

Presiding over the federal administration and in control of the security ministries, Maliki is able to withhold funding, maneuver provincial alliances, and even deploy armed forces. But the Sadrists are positioned to fight back: in control of key ministries­­­ -- water, housing and construction, municipalities, and planning -- they are organized locally and best able to mobilize Iraqis in the streets. 

Southern Iraq remains the primary battleground. On the verge of establishing a stronghold in the provinces of Maysan, the Sadrists are slowly but surely making strides in the neighboring provinces and threatening Maliki’s State of Law coalition in the provincial councils of Basra and Baghdad.

SYRIA: Crisis may hurt economies of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq

Editor’s note: This post is from analyst Ibrahim Saif, below left, with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of the analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

Current events in Syria are expected to impact other states economically, especially neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan. The first potential effect is on bilateral trade between Syria and its neighbors. Turkey comes to the fore here, since its trade to and from Syria was valued at $2.27 billion last year.

The situation in Syria affects Turkey in two ways. The first is the potentially large drop in trade volume, especially since demand for imports and Turkish commodities –- which used to be high –- has dropped sharply since the beginning of the events. Some sources estimate that trade volume has dropped between 30% and 40%, and that these percentages could drop even lower with the expiration of prior arrangements and the continued state of chaos.

Meanwhile there is an absence of desire on both sides, Syrian and Turkish, to renew these contracts before matters become clearer. During 2010, Syrian exports to Turkey were valued at $1.6 billion, while Syrian imports from Turkey were around $630 million.

IRAQ: Nouri Maliki attempts to bolster his power by looking to the provinces

Editor’s note: This post is from an analyst with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of the analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

As a stalemate between the State of Law and Iraqiya coalitions continues to paralyze Iraq’s central government, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is looking to the governorates to tilt the political balance in his favor.

In the country’s south, Maliki is attempting to defend his base from the growing popularity of the Sadrist Trend. Meanwhile, in Iraqiya’s northern strongholds of Anbar, Ninewa, Salaheddine, and Diyala, the prime minister is mounting an ambitious campaign to consolidate his hold over Iraq. By attempting to break the link between provincial leaders and the Iraqiya coalition — his main parliamentary rival — Maliki is seeking to bind the governorates to Baghdad.

Already, public demonstrations and a deteriorating security situation in these governorates have challenged the credibility of local political leaders, who came to power following the 2009 provincial election. Governors, deputy governors and heads of provincial councils in all four northern governorates have been repeatedly confronted by protesters calling for service improvements. Recent attacks targeting provincial offices in Salaheddine and Diyala have called into question the competence of police and local security officials.

The Maliki-run central government now has an opening to play a greater role in provincial affairs.

In Ninewa, central government emissaries have ridden the wave of popular discontent to call for the resignation of local authorities. The army-run Ninewa Operations Command (NOC) has openly supported protests against the incumbent governor, Atheel Nujaifi.

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We hope to see your comments on Facebook.

-- The Foreign Staff of the Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: In a Baghdad cafe, Obama's speech gets thumbs-down

President Obama's speech on Mideast policy was greeted mostly with derision Thursday in Sahara, a Baghdad cafe where people drink coffee and smoke flavored tobacco in water pipes. Many in the audience mocked the U.S. president's words.

"America is like a theater. They all wear different faces, but eventually they are following the same scheme and policy," said Ahmed Qoraishi, 23, a university art student. "Don't tell me the 'Arab Spring' is due to his efforts. On the contrary, I can tell that, deep inside, the Americans prefer a dictator here or there if they take care of the American national interests."

Other cafe patrons expressed similar vitriol for Obama and the United States: "Obama's speech is like a joke for me," said Numan Qadis, 47, as he smoked his water pipe. He mocked Obama's calls for Israel to give up land in the Palestinian territories based on the Jewish state's pre-1967 war borders. "That is funny, there are tens of U.N. Security Council resolutions that call for that, and Israel is ignoring them all," Qadis said. "He has done nothing for poor Palestinians who die every day in Gaza. He will do nothing for them or for us. Rather, he talks in mere slogans seeking to increase his popularity. I think his only achievement was killing Bin Laden, that is all, man."

Then Qadis inhaled on his pipe and puffed out a cloud of smoke. "Look at this smoke ... it is like Obama's speech. Both vanish within seconds!" he said, letting out a big laugh.

There were a few people in the cafe that Obama won over. Abu Natheer, 40, said he viewed the president with pride. "At least he has Islamic origins. We should support him. He is like our representative over there. When I hear him talk, he is like one of our citizens," Natheer said. "I am supportive of whatever he says. Obama is the only hope for Arabs in the White House."

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-- Salar Jaff and Ned Parker in Baghdad

BAHRAIN: GCC troops to remain, face increasingly radicalized youth

Sunni monarchs determined to maintain control after crushing opposition protests in the kingdom of Bahrain may soon face a new threat from increasingly alienated youths in the majority Shiite nation.

On Thursday, Bahrain’s state news agency reported that troops from the Gulf Cooperation Council are expected to stay on even after the country’s state of emergency is lifted June 1.

Sheikh Khalifa Al Khalifa, head of the Bahrain Defense Force, told the state news agency that the forces, known as the Peninsula Shield, were sent to Bahrain after protests erupted in February to defend against foreign threats, including Iran. He said Iranian, Iraqi and western agents helped orchestrate the anti-government protests.

Timeline: Repression in Bahrain

Earlier this week, the GCC, a group of six Persian Gulf nations formed in 1981, invited Jordan and Morocco to join in what some analysts have called a consolidation of power by the “Sunni Kings’ Club” in the face of popular Shiite uprisings in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen.

Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Centre, said gulf leaders, led by Saudi Arabia, have become a “club of counterrevolutionaries” trying to reestablish an old order, with some resistance from Qatar and Kuwait, which is home to a sizable Shiite minority.

So far, gulf leaders have achieved an “uneasy calm” in Bahrain, he said, but have been unable to broker a political agreement there or in Yemen that would transform the states into constitutional monarchies.

“If you don’t come to some sort of political agreement, you’re going to have a young generation of Shiite youth who will not forget this and will be radicalized,” Shaikh said. “The danger is that they won’t be listening to anybody except maybe Iran.”

Already, he said gulf leaders may have missed their chance in Bahrain, where the government’s violent suppression of protests and alleged torture of political dissidents and medical staff, reported this week by Al Jazeera, has weakened their ability to negotiate with the opposition.

“A lot of young Bahrianis I talk to now dismiss those people, especially young Shiite Bahrainis, and seem to be moving on,” Shaikh said of the government.

IRAQ: At least 14 dead in attempted escape by Al Qaeda-linked prisoners

A man accused of attacking a Baghdad church last year wrestled a gun from a guard overnight to free fellow Al Qaeda-affiliated detainees and launch an assault that killed at least 14 people, including a top counterterrorism officer, according to Iraqi officials and Associated Press reports.

Abu Huthaifa Battawi, who was being held in connection with an October church attack that killed 68 people, tried to drive out of Baghdad's Interior Ministry with fellow inmates when he was gunned down by guards Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

At least 10 prisoners and four Iraqi security forces were killed in the attack, including Brigadier Muaeid Mohammed Saleh, the head of a department responsible for combating terrorism and organized crime in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. The AP reported 17 dead.

Nine Iraqi police and soldiers were injured, as well as seven prisoners, according to Iraqi officials.

It was still unclear Sunday how a group of dangerous prisoners being held at one of the most secure facilities in Iraq nearly managed to escape.

IRAQ: Government to disband tribunal set up for Saddam Hussein trial

A special court set up to prosecute former leader Saddam Hussein and his associates after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq will be disbanded, the Iraqi government said Wednesday.

A proposed law to disband the tribunal has been sent to the parliament, according to a government statement. The legislation sets June 30 as a deadline to close the court, a spokesman, Raid Juhi, told the Associated Press. Juhi said the court had completed its work, aside from a few minor cases.

Hussein was hanged in 2006 for his role in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims after an attempt on his life in 1982.

The fairness of the court's proceedings, involving the trials of dozens of former officials, has been questioned by members of Iraq's Sunni Muslim community and a number of international human rights organizations.

-- Emal Haidary

 

IRAQ: In country's north, a youth-led 'Kurdish spring' blooms

Editor’s note: This post is by Maria Fantappie, an analyst with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of Carnegie's analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

Inspired by events in Egypt, demonstrators in Sulaymaniyah -- northeast Iraqi Kurdistan -- recently renamed the city's central square Liberation, or Azadi, Square.

Whereas in the rest of Iraq demonstrators called for a variety of demands, in Kurdistan most of protesters were young and voiced their discontent against Kurdistan's traditional leadership. The future of these leaders now depends on their ability to regain legitimacy with these youth.

The protests served as a wake-up call for the region's two-party leadership: the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, led by Massoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, led by Jalal Talabani. Both parties have ruled Kurdistan since the establishment of a regional government in 1992.

The KDP and the PUK built their legitimacy on the struggle against Saddam Hussein's regime and the creation of the Kurdistan region. But Kurdistanis between the ages of 15 and 30 -- approximately 40% of the population -- grew up in an already semi-autonomous Kurdistan. Most of them only heard about the struggle against the former regime from their parents and grandparents.

They did, however, witness the armed struggle for power between the KDP and the PUK from 1994 to 1997, and have lived under two-party rule that dominates political representation, resource management and access to employment. They have little or no contact with the rest of Iraq, attend Kurdish universities, speak Kurdish better than Arabic -- and hold Irbil politically accountable before Baghdad.

In the eyes of this youth, the KDP and PUK have spent the past 20 years prioritizing parochial interests over the national good. 

IRAQ: At least nine killed in Baghdad bombing

At least nine people were killed and many wounded Tuesday in a car bomb explosion in south Baghdad, officials in Iraq said.

The blast occurred in front of a cafe, according to news reports. Many of the dead and injured were young people, police and medical officials said.

"It was a bomb inside a vehicle which resulted in the death and injury of a number of civilians in the district of Abu Dshir," said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta Moussawi, spokesman for security forces in Baghdad, Reuters news agency reported.

No one had claimed responsibility for the attack by late Tuesday.

-- Emal Haidary