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Following a positive Libya peace summit in Berlin, the EU needs to back up commitments with actions, although the path ahead remains fraught with difficulty, writes Tom Garofalo.

Tom Garofalo is the International Rescue Committees Libya Director

Libya finds itself in a race against time. Following the dramatic escalation in conflict in April, the chaotic civil war is on the brink of metastasizing into a multinational conflict with dire humanitarian consequences.

The positive conclusion of the Berlin Summit this week was a sign of real international commitment to save lives and protect people caught in the crossfire. The momentum created by the conference is a powerful example of the role the EU can play on the global stage when its members pull as one.

While the path ahead remains fraught with difficulty, Europe now has a unique opportunity to turn the tide by translating Berlin commitments into action step in, kick-offstabilisationefforts, and prevent Libya from becoming the next deadly arena for the Age of Impunity.

Foreign actors have correctly identified Libya as a vulnerable host preyed on by weak rivals and a lack of international leadership. The conflict is now propelled by deepening external involvement, including ongoing violations of the 2011 arms embargo.

Even more worrying is the recent surge in manpower, weaponry and liquidity from both Russia and Turkey in support of opposing parties to the conflict: the Libyan National Army and the UN-supported Government of National Accord.

With these actors increasingly pulling the strings, and a void of global leadership,Europe has a vital role to play as a credible mediator in the midst of an emergency burgeoning in its own backyard.

This action is urgently needed to prevent an otherwise low-intensity, pocketed crisis from evolving into a regional tinderbox. We have seen the impunity playbookin action in Yemen and Syria: where local conflicts have been allowed to escalate intointernationalisedproxy wars, ushering in unprecedented humanitarian suffering. UN Special EnvoyGhassanSalamehas repeatedly lamented this absence of leadership, to little effect.

Last year alone, the number of civilians killed or injured by explosive weapons rose by 131%. Over 140,000 have been displaced in Tripoli alone since April. The UN has tracked over 1000 airstrikes indiscriminately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure including over 900 drone strikes emanating from foreign parties.

The International Rescue Committee can testify to the growing human cost of Libyas unravelling from the front lines. With over 100 staff in Tripoli and Misrata, the IRC continues to assist people caught up in crisis. However, in the past weeks, violence has forced us to suspend some of our life-saving health activities operations in health facilities.

Against this backdrop, approximately 1 million refugees, migrants and Libyans have been caught in the crosshairs since 2011. Only last year, almost 10,000 migrants and refugees seeking safety in Europe were intercepted at sea by the Libyan coastguard and returned to detention camps where humanitarian and human rights breaches happen daily.

This situation traps highly vulnerable people directly in harms way; Julys strike on Tajoura detention center, killing 53, is a case in point and a tragic reminder that the EU has a responsibility to those who have no safe and legal means to access protection.

Under the best of circumstances, Libyan authorities struggle to provide adequate services to citizens. With the intensification of conflict fueled by outsiders, the positive outcome of the Berlin Conference offers a rare window of opportunity for the EU to take back a leadership role inLibya. Here are three key elements Europe needs to push for to prevent a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe on its doorstep and shore up prospects for peace.

Firstly, any response to the Libyan crisis must put the lives of people who are bearing the cost of war at the centre. While the recent estimates say that 900,000 people are in need of assistance, the humanitarian appeal for Libya is currently less than halfway funded.

As the worlds largest humanitarian donor, the EU and its member states can help by stepping up funding efforts in the country and pouring all their efforts into ensuring national systems are strengthened.

While legal pathways to protection to Europe are still missing, it is also critical that more EU member states urgently join the resettlement scheme of the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Niger and Rwanda, ensuring that the evacuations from Libya are increased in response to the spiking needs.

These actions would truly reflect the pledge to respect International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law found in the conclusions of the Berlin Summit.

Foreign interference grows in the vacuum of diplomatic action and respect for international law. However challenging, the EU must make every effort to use its diplomatic leverage to place the ceasefire back into the UN framework and ensure the enforcement of the arms embargo, which otherwise pours fuel onto the conflict. Restoring the naval assets of Operation Sophia to monitor the embargos implementation is also indispensable.

Thirdly, the UN-led process isLibyas best near-term chance of laying a foundation for political stability and peace. Germanys efforts to bring parties to the table in Berlin and breathe new life into the UN process- is a positive and crucial first step in this regard.

Acoordinated strategy that bolsters the UNs diplomatic efforts will give the EU the best chance to promote civilian protection and prevent a void that can exploited by foreign interference.

As the worlds leading humanitarian actor and respected diplomatic power, the EU must do all it can to help pull the country back from the brink or watch as yet another protracted catastrophe unfolds at its borders.

The rest is here:
After Berlin, the EU needs to translate commitments on Libya into actions - EURACTIV

With abuse of the Internet and social media channels by terrorist organizations a growing concern for police, INTERPOL said it has conducted a training course for Libyan law enforcement officers on how best to exploit the Internet and specific social media sites in counter-terrorism investigations.

Held in Tunisia from January 20 to 24, the course was attended by 20 law enforcement professionals from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and General Investigation Department (GID) in Tripoli, Libya.

Terrorists use the Internet and social media channels for radicalization, recruitment, funding, planning and execution of terror activities, making it vital for law enforcement to collect, analyse and share data gathered from online sources, INTERPOL noted.

The course provided participants with recommendations on how to employ intelligence techniques to leverage online resources in compliance with human rights, the Libyan data protection mechanism, and international privacy and data protection standards.

Focused on boosting the operational and analytical skills of Libyan law enforcement officers, the course is part of ongoing cooperation between INTERPOL and Libya in this domain, which includes the provision of technical equipment.

At least three of the best-performing participants will be selected for further training and to take on additional responsibilities, in order to fully embed these investigation techniques into Libyas counter-terrorism activities.

Supporting the implementation of INTERPOLs Global Counter-terrorism Strategy, this initiative was funded by the Canadian Government (Global Affairs Canada) and attended by a representative from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

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Libyan Officers Trained On Tackling Online Activities Of Terrorist Targets - Eurasia Review

BETTENDORF, Iowa As they streamed out of the ballroom following a Scott County fund-raising banquet Saturday night, one after the other Iowa Democrats admitted that they still had not decided whom to support just over a week before the states presidential caucuses.

But by not mentioning his name as they rattled off their short lists, they made it clear whom they would not support: Senator Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont who has taken the lead in recent polls.

Instead, every one of the 30 still-undecided Democratic activists here rattled off some combination of the same four names Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.

As Mr. Sanders tightens his grip on the partys young and left-wing voters in Iowa, more traditional Democrats, the ones who happily sit through marathon banquet dinners to hear the candidates and their representatives, remain split between his four leading competitors or remain unsure altogether about whom to rally behind.

I have told my colleagues all along: Bernie Sanders can win with 27 percent of the vote here, said Representative Dave Loebsack, an Iowa Democrat supporting Mr. Buttigieg, alluding to his fellow lawmakers, many of whom are deeply uneasy about running with Mr. Sanders on top of the ticket.

The fracture among mainstream Democrats here carries profound implications for a primary that has already unsettled the party establishment and prompted late entrants into the race.

Mr. Sanders is threatening to seize control in the early states, taking narrow but clear polling leads in Iowa and New Hampshire and increasingly menacing Mr. Bidens advantage in national polls. With his mammoth online fund-raising operation, Mr. Sanders appears to be in a position of financial strength unmatched by any other candidate besides Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City.

Mr. Sanderss endurance, and his apparent rise in the earliest primary and caucus states, reflects both the loyalty of his core supporters and their conviction that Mr. Sanders would bring the same fighting resilience to the general election. But even among many liberals who admire Mr. Sanderss campaign, or some of his policy ideas, there is deep concern about the implications of nominating a candidate from the left whom President Trump is sure to portray as extreme.

I think that Bernie is just a bridge too far for the country, said Bonnie Campbell, a former Iowa attorney general who is supporting Mr. Biden. Ms. Campbell said she would have no difficulty supporting Mr. Sanders in the general election, but added, I can tell you, I hear from friends and colleagues who say: Oh my God, what are we going to do if Bernie wins?

But in Iowa, Democrats who hope to avert that outcome do not appear close to settling on another candidate as an alternative to Mr. Sanders. And if more moderate voters dont coalesce behind an alternative by next weeks caucus, party traditionalists fear, Mr. Sanders could win Iowa with only a modest plurality, emboldening his leading rivals to remain in the race, and then notch another victory again a week later in New Hampshire. No Democrat in modern times has lost contested races in both Iowa and New Hampshire and claimed the nomination.

The early primary and caucus outcomes could have an outsize impact on later primaries, including the large states voting in March, some of which begin collecting mail-in and early ballots in the immediate aftermath of Iowa. If a candidate like Mr. Sanders were to seize momentum next week, it could help him build a head start in states like California and Texas.

It is a scenario that is deeply alarming to establishment-aligned Democrats, if not unfamiliar. Four years ago, convinced Donald Trump could not win the presidency, they watched with delight as he snatched the Republican nomination without winning majorities because his more traditional rivals divided the vote and refused to bow out.

The Democrats in this race have been as reluctant to target Mr. Sanders as the Republicans were to target Mr. Trump four years ago; in each case they were skeptical of his staying power and believed they had more to gain by attacking other rivals.

Even now, as Mr. Sanders takes a lead in the first two early states, his opponents have not delivered a sustained argument against his candidacy, and remain reluctant to take him on: while Mr. Buttigieg drew attention for warning in a fund-raising solicitation that a Sanders nomination would be too risky, he notably declined to amplify his rhetoric in television interviews over the weekend. The closest he has come to confronting his rival on the left is to make oblique references to the often-bitter 2016 primary between Hillary Clinton and Mr. Sanders.

Most of us would agree the less 2020 resembles 2016 the better in all respects, Mr. Buttigieg said in a brief interview. Each of the would-be Stop Sanders candidates has built enough political strength to justify forging ahead: Mr. Biden remains the national front-runner, with unmatched support among black voters; Mr. Buttigieg and Ms. Warren both have double-digit support in New Hampshire polls, and sizable war chests; Ms. Klobuchar has the thinnest operation beyond Iowa of the group, but over the weekend she earned the endorsement of New Hampshires influential Union Leader newspaper.

Should all four move forward from Iowa, with their perceived strengths and weaknesses, it could make it difficult for any of them to become a rallying point for voters uneasy about Mr. Sanders.

Complicating matters further for traditionalists, and making this race potentially even messier than Mr. Trumps primary, is the presence of Mr. Bloomberg, who is not contesting the traditional early states in February but has already poured more than $270 million in advertising into later contests and made clear to allies that he will remain in the race should Mr. Sanders come roaring into March.

Mr. Bloomberg was on Ms. Klobuchars mind as she left the dinner here Saturday. She was asked if she would remain in the race if she did not break into the top three in the caucuses, which has often been the number of viable candidates who leave the state.

Even if youre in fourth, she was asked?

You think its only going to be down to four candidates even by New Hampshire? she said before answering the question. No, its not.

Then, pointing to Mr. Bloomberg, she explained why the Democratic vote may remain splintered.

Why would I get out while hes still in? Ms. Klobuchar demanded.

With nearly 40 percent of Iowa voters indicating in a new New York Times-Siena College poll that they were still not certain about whom to support, Mr. Sanders could still suffer a reversal of fortune here.

Thats in part because of the states complex, multiphase caucusing process, which allows supporters of underdog candidates to shift to stronger contenders. If Mr. Sanders has the most enthusiastic base of support in Iowa, he may be less well positioned to expand his bloc in later rounds should moderate voters rally to one of the four other leading candidates.

And its Ms. Klobuchar whom Iowa Democrats are watching most closely. If she does not reach 15 percent in most precincts, her supporters could determine the statewide winner if they migrate mostly to one candidate.

Former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Mr. Bidens most prominent supporter in the state, was blunt about why Ms. Klobuchars backers should support the former vice president.

Mr. Biden has the best chance of winning the general election, he shares Ms. Klobuchars pragmatic politics and Joe is going to need a running mate, Mr. Vilsack said.

A more urgent concern for Mr. Vilsack was the prospect of Iowa producing a muddled result, a scenario thats more likely this year because the state party, for the first time, is releasing raw vote totals from the initial round of balloting as well as the final results and delegate allocations.

If I had to make one prediction, there will be a split decision and thatll have repercussions, he said. Because whoever quote-unquote wins can claim that they won, and talk about it going into New Hampshire.

So while they still hope to best Mr. Sanders in Iowa or New Hampshire, several of Mr. Sanderss rivals have begun emphasizing their strengths in states later in the calendar.

Mr. Bidens advisers and surrogates have been stressing his support among minority communities that become important starting with the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22, while Ms. Warrens campaign circulated a memo last week detailing its preparations in the March primaries that will award most of the delegates that will settle the Democratic nomination.

And in a conversation with volunteers before a town hall-style meeting in Davenport on Sunday, Ms. Warren reiterated her determination to compete into March and beyond, telling supporters she already has staff in 30 states, according to a volunteer who attended the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

We all know that this is very likely to be a long nomination process, said California Assemblyman David Chiu, who on Sunday was opening a campaign headquarters in San Francisco for Ms. Warren and said of her campaign: They are going to put up a tremendous fight here in the state.

That phase of the race is also when Mr. Bloomberg, with his vast personal fortune, could become a more urgent factor, either rising as an obstacle for Mr. Sanders or further fracturing the partys moderate wing.

In California, Mayor Robert Garcia of Long Beach, who endorsed Mr. Biden this month, said he expected the former vice president to consolidate support there once it becomes clear that theres a few candidates left.

But gathering support around just a few candidates could also be difficult in California, Mr. Garcia noted, because the states mail-in ballots would list the names of candidates who falter or withdraw over the course of February.

There are going to be a lot of candidates in California, because they are going to be on the ballot, he said. There will be some drop-off, but theyre all competitive here and thats going to continue.

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In Iowa, the Not Sanders Democrats Find Voters Torn - The New York Times

Thanks to strong support from younger voters, 78-year-old Bernie Sanders is the front-runner for Utahs Democratic presidential primary on March 3 doubling the percentage of support from his nearest rival in a huge field. But one of every five likely voters is still undecided.

Sanders, a liberal Vermont senator, attracts support from 26.5% of Utahns who say theyll vote in the March 3 Democratic primary, according to a Salt Lake Tribune survey conducted by Suffolk University. Fellow progressive Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator, is No. 2 with 14.4%.

Trailing them in the top tier of candidates are two moderates: former Vice President Joe Biden with 12.1% and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with 9.9%. The poll of 132 likely Democratic primary voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 8.5 percentage points.

He starts with a foundation of individuals who previously supported him in the presidential contest," Magleby said, and those folks are likely to return and participate in 2020.

It looks like I got some bad information, Sanders said, looking over the first vast crowd. Somebody told me Utah was a Republican state. He has yet to visit the state this year.

Sanders generates most of his Utah support now and in 2016 from younger voters.

In the new poll, Sanders won 49% of the support from likely Democratic voters ages 18-34 and 40% of those ages 35-44 double to tripling what other candidates received from those age groups. Older age groups are far more evenly split. Warren led with those ages 45-54, Bloomberg led among those 55-64 and Biden led among those 65 and older.

For his academic research, Magleby interviewed some of Sanders 2016 managers for media and fundraising about why the senior citizen is so popular with younger voters.

Their answer is: Hes seen by young people as authentic, Magleby said. Sure, hes older. Sure his hair is a little frizzy. But what those young people like in Sanders is that hes the real Bernie. Hes authentic.

Mike Oberbrockling, 35, of Layton, is one of the people polled who plans to vote for Sanders.

After Bernie wins, he is going to do the things he says he is going to do, Oberbrockling said. He seems to be pretty upfront with everything. You watch a lot of interviews with most politicians, and they give long, drawn-out answers that arent clear. Bernie doesnt beat around the bush.

Magleby said many younger voters also seem to see Sanders as a father figure, or a grandfather figure, and Oberbrockling agrees.

Some people call him Americas dad, Oberbrockling said. And just like any dad, he wants whats best for everybody. And the cool thing about Bernie Sanders is it doesnt matter if you support him or not he still wants those better things in place for you, such as Medicare for all.

Magleby said younger voters are also part of an enthusiastic liberal wave that often appears in Democratic presidential campaigns. In contrast, he said, older voters tend to be more centrist and more interested in experience. That is shown by Gaye Anthony, 66, of Taylorsville, one of the Biden supporters among poll respondents.

At this point in our democracy with whats going on [with President Donald Trump], she said, we need [Bidens] experience and temperament to help bring our country back to an order that is more stable and more friendly, and more in keeping with our traditions and our expectations.

Magleby said the poll also shows the strength of the liberal wing in the Utah Democratic Party in a state controlled by Republicans. He notes that progressives Sanders and Warren are capturing 40% of the vote, while centrist moderates trail well behind.

This is not uncommon in one-party states, he said, where the out party is more interested in making a statement than winning an election.

Magleby added it reinforces a perception that the Utah Democratic Party is well left of the Utah mainstream, and that isnt going to help Democrats win any office in the state of Utah, where party labels are on the ballot.

Warren visited Utah last April and announced this week that she hired senior staff here to oversee a grassroots campaign.

Mary Blair, 44, of South Ogden, is one of those polled who is excited about Warrens anti-corruption message. I like that shes not taking any type of PAC money ... because I believe that big business money has to come out of politics. So Im all in on Elizabeth Warren and have been for a long time.

Other candidates in the poll who received some support include: entrepreneur Andrew Yang and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 4.6% each; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, 3%; and billionaire Tom Steyer and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, 0.8% each.

Originally posted here:
Utah Democrats haven't lost their love for Bernie Sanders, who leads the pack in new poll - Salt Lake Tribune

We have to decide whether to give into the fear or whether to fight back," Warren said. Me, Im fighting back. That's why I'm in this. Im fighting back. Im fighting back because we are at our best as a nation when we fight back. When we see big problems and we take them on and we fight back."

Buttigieg has become Warren's rhetorical opposite, especially as he rose sharply in the Iowa polls last fall.

Having attacked the idea that fighting is the point" at a gathering of thousands of Iowa Democrats in November, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, typically only mentions Trump by name once in his standard speech, when he asks his audience to imagine the day after Trump leaves office.

When the on-cue burst of cheers subsides, he speaks of an America in the ashes of an impeachment, a divisive election and, as he did in Fort Dodge on Saturday, in need of being brought together, in need of healing and common purpose."

Biden, a veteran of decades of congressional battles who served as Barack Obama's right-hand man, strikes a balanced tone.

In Ames last week, he said, One of the things a president has to do is you have to be a fighter and a competitor, but a president also needs to be a healer. You have to heal the country." He repeated that theme on Sunday in Marshalltown, saying, We can't go on with this endless political war.

Even as Sanders, who labeled Trump a racist, a sexist, a homophobe and a religious bigot" in his opening remarks to a college audience in Ames on Saturday, unity has emerged as a theme as caucus night has approached.

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Democrats' Competing Impulses: Should They Fight or Unite? - The New York Times