| Media Search: |
News@6: 61 OFWs mula Libya, nakabalik na sa bansa || Sept. 12, 2014
News@6: 61 OFWs mula Libya, nakabalik na sa bansa || Sept. 12, 2014 (Ulat ni Ralph Obina) *** Join PANGARAP.PH Online Video Competition Check out contest det...
By: PTV
Originally posted here:
News@6: 61 OFWs mula Libya, nakabalik na sa bansa || Sept. 12, 2014 - Video
Drifting with a fuckin #39; tank (only in Libya)
i think the man doesn #39;t have much time for war.
By: Abdu Mad
Go here to read the rest:
Drifting with a fuckin' tank (only in Libya) - Video
The seaside hotel that serves as the last redoubt of Libya's internationally recognized government is named Dar al-Salam, or House of Peace. But beyond the confines of this modest port city nearly a thousand miles from the capital, this country teeters on the brink of civil war.
In the three years since longtime dictator Moammar Kadafi was toppled and slain, the energy-rich North African nation has struggled fitfully to reach some power equilibrium among heavily armed groups, fractured along ideological, regional and tribal lines. But over the last four months, the level of violence has escalated as the various groups fight for influence and riches, and the very notion of Libya as a state is slipping away.
Residential neighborhoods in the two biggest cities Tripoli, the capital, in the west and Benghazi in the east have been smashed by battlefield-grade weapons. Most diplomats, aid groups and foreign enterprises have fled. The fighting has driven civilians from their homes by the tens of thousands. At least 150,000 people, many of them impoverished foreign laborers, have swamped the frontiers in a perilous scramble to escape. Assassinations are commonplace.
In Tripoli, where Islamist-linked militias have seized control, government ministries are guarded by fighters but virtually empty of employees. The international airports are shuttered, their runways and terminals pocked by shellfire. People in the once-cosmopolitan capital scramble for daily necessities such as gasoline and drinking water even as they cling to vestiges of normality, such as the daily routine of whiling away time in coffeehouses.
"We have no real state," said Vice President Mhamed Ali Choueib, interviewed in Tobruk, 85 miles from the Egyptian border, where the parliament elected in June has set up shop. In Tripoli, militias from the coastal city of Misurata have ensconced their own rival legislature and sworn in their own prime minister.
With rival governments each dismissing the other's legitimacy, Tobruk, a onetime Roman fortress, is now a Libyan version of Baghdad's Green Zone: heavily fortified, but with questionable writ outside its boundaries. In a key test of power for the Tobruk-based parliament, lawmakers on Sunday dismissed the head of Libya's central bank, but it was not yet clear who would emerge with control of $100 billion in cash reserves and investments.
Analysts describe the crisis gripping Libya as far more serious than the upheaval that triggered NATO's intervention in 2011, as Kadafi was fighting to cling to his power and his life. This time around, though, Libya's descent into chaos has been eclipsed by catastrophes erupting elsewhere in the region the juggernaut in Syria and Iraq of the radical Islamic State, this summer's war in the Gaza Strip and in the wider world as well, with the conflict in Ukraine and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
So even as the chaos mounts, the country has been largely left to its own devices as it is carved into fiefdoms by rival militias. And the fight is fast becoming a proxy war among rival regional powers. The United Arab Emirates, with an assist from Egypt, has staged airstrikes against the Islamist-linked militias, with more strikes reported Monday outside Tripoli. Meanwhile, the Tobruk-based administration accuses Qatar and Sudan of providing arms to the Islamists.
All this has led to an unraveling whose scope has caught even experts by surprise.
"It's been clear since the end of the revolution that the militias have been paramount, but the ability to abrogate the institutions of the Libyan state has been shocking," said Jason Pack, a Cambridge researcher who runs the strategic forecasting company Libya-Analysis.com. "That veneer of official legislative control has disappeared."
The rest is here:
Libya's leaders shelter by the sea as country tilts toward civil war
Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department is launching a broad initiative to have local officials and community leaders play a bigger role in the battle against violent extremists -- such as ISIS.
"Today," Holder said in a video released Monday morning, "few threats are more urgent than the threat posed by violent extremism. And with the emergence of groups like ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL), and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, the Justice Department is responding appropriately."
Holder said the department is teaming with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center to launch urban pilot programs designed to bring together community representatives, public safety officials, religious leaders, and United States Attorneys to "improve local engagement ... counter violent extremism ... and - ultimately - to build a broad network of community partnerships to keep our nation safe."
Play Video
The attorney general announced that the Justice Department is exploring new ways to stop Americans who want to travel overseas and join terror gr...
He also announced that the White House will be hosting a Countering Violent Extremism summit in October.
"Ultimately," Holder said, "the pilot programs will enable us to develop more effective - and more inclusive - ways to help build the more just, secure, and free society that all Americans deserve."
Holder cautioned that, "Our work must continue to be guided by the core democratic values - and the ideals of freedom, openness, and inclusion - that have always set this nation apart on the world stage. We must be both innovative and aggressive in countering violent extremism and combating those who would sow intolerance, division, and hate - not just within our borders, but with our international partners on a global scale.
"And we must never lose sight of what violent extremists fear the most: the strength of our communities; our unwavering respect for equality, civil rights, and civil liberties; and our enduring commitment to justice, democracy, and the rule of law."
Holder noted that, "Through law enforcement agencies like the FBI, American authorities are working with our international partners and Interpol to disseminate information on foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, including individuals who have traveled from the United States. We have established processes for detecting American extremists who attempt to join terror groups abroad. And we have engaged in extensive outreach to communities here in the U.S. - so we can work with them to identify threats before they emerge, to disrupt homegrown terrorists, and to apprehend would-be violent extremists.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced a Justice Department program to try to thwart recruitment by extremist groups such as ISIS, attempting to involve social and mental health workers as well as religious leaders and police to spot radicalization early.
This effort is an outgrowth of existing community outreach programs that in recent years have linked Justice Department prosecutors, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security with imams and local organizations hoping to prevent young people from joining terror groups.
Despite those efforts, authorities say more than 100 Americans have traveled in recent years to join groups involved in the Syrian civil war. More than a dozen are believed to have joined ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State.
The FBI and other agencies are grappling with trying to track those who not only support radical groups online but also help recruit and try to travel to join the fight.
The Obama administration says the new program will reach out to social services and mental health workers to help spread what is known about extremist groups' recruitment methods. The idea is not only to counteract recruitment but also to encourage local community intervention efforts before law enforcement has to pursue possible prosecution.
"We have established processes for detecting American extremists who attempt to join terror groups abroad," Holder said in a video message posted on the Justice Department's website.
"And we have engaged in extensive outreach to communities here in the U.S. -- so we can work with them to identify threats before they emerge, to disrupt homegrown terrorists and to apprehend would-be violent extremists. But we can -- and we must -- do even more."
A U.S. official said one of the first such places expected to be part of the new program is Minneapolis, where in recent years young people have been recruited to join the Islamist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and more recently Syrian Islamist rebel groups.
The Justice Department has worked with local religious and community groups to help provide support when those communities face discrimination while using those contacts to find out when there are concerns about radicalization.
However, in recent years, some imams and family members have complained about the heavy law enforcement response when they contact officials to express concern about specific members of their community.
See the article here:
Holder unveils program to counter extremists