Six In The Morning

U.S. Faces a Tricky Task in Assessment of Data on Iran

By JAMES RISEN

While American spy agencies have believed that the Iranians halted efforts to build a nuclear bomb back in 2003, the difficulty in assessing the government’s ambitions was evident two years ago, when what appeared to be alarming new intelligence emerged, according to current and former United States officials.

Intercepted communications of Iranian officials discussing their nuclear program raised concerns that the country’s leaders had decided to revive efforts to develop a weapon, intelligence officials said.

That, along with a stream of other information, set off an intensive review and delayed publication of the 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified report reflecting the consensus of analysts from 16 agencies. But in the end, they deemed the intercepts and other evidence unpersuasive, and they stuck to their longstanding conclusion.

The secrets of Saif Gaddafi’s jail: chef, satellite TV and a basketball court for just one

Muammar Gaddafi’s eldest son is due to be taken to a prison within a prison in the suburbs of Tripoli to await trial

Chris Stephen

The Observer, Sunday 18 March 2012

Behind a grey forbidding wall on the outskirts of the Libyan capital sits a secret prison constructed to hold just one prisoner – Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The heir apparent to Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi will be moved here from custody in the mountain town of Zintan in the coming weeks to face a controversial war crimes trial that will pitch Libya against the International Criminal Court.

Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council is taking no chances: to house this one man, they have emptied Tripoli’s biggest jail, Al Ahdath, and built a prison-within-a-prison to accommodate him. The Observer was last week granted exclusive access to the jail, which sits amid warehouses and sprawling countryside in the suburb of Tajura.

  An IoS investigation: To the Chinese and the Indians, the spoils of a terrible war

Allies pay in blood while others plot to exploit Afghanistan’s rich natural resources

David Randall , Jonathan Owen

Sunday 18 March 2012

The money and blood pit that is Afghanistan – where the US and Britain have expended more than 2,100 lives and £302bn – is about to start paying a dividend. But it won’t be going to the countries which have made this considerable sacrifice. The contracts to open up Afghanistan’s mineral and fossil-fuel wealth, and to build the railways that will transport them out of the country, are being won or pursued by China, India, Iran, and Russia.

The potentially lucrative task of exploiting Afghanistan’s immense mineral wealth – estimated to be worth around £2trn, according to the Kabul government – is only in the early stages. But already China and India in particular are doing deals and beginning work. Facilities already established are being protected by local army and police, part of whose funding, and most of whose training, has been a US/UK responsibility.

 Search for Identity Reveals World War II Crime

 New Zealander George Jaunzemis spent 30 years searching for his true identity. Now, with the help of the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross, he finally knows who he is. But his story, which involves a World War II crime, turns up more questions than answers.

By Barbara Hardinghaus

They were standing behind a rustic fence on a small street in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, men in ironed shirts and women in blouses, waving to George Jaunzemis as he got out of the car. He felt them touching his arms and slapping him on the back, and he heard their voices, which seemed nearby and distant at the same time. He looked around at these people he didn’t know, and yet many of them knew him.

They served traditional crumb cake on the patio behind the house. Jaunzemis ate some cake, answered questions and asked some of his own. He sat on the green artificial turf and held his glasses tightly in his hands. He looked around a second time. He didn’t recognize the house. But when he stood in the garden later on, surrounded by the fruit trees and with the wind blowing, he thought that perhaps he had been in this place once before.

Africa Union fails to break leadership deadlock

Leaders of eight African Union countries failed on Saturday to break a deadlock over the leadership of the 54-member body

  COTONOU, BENIN – Mar 18 2012 06:37

The talks in the Benin port of Cotonou were called after neither of the two frontrunners for the AU commission chairperson post — former South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon — managed to secure an outright majority during a voting contest in January.

“Consultations will continue … notably [between] Gabon and South Africa,” said a statement issued after the Cotonou talks by leaders of those two countries as well as officials from Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria, Ethiopia, Benin and Angola.

 Syrian surgeon: Why I’m risking my life to treat protesters

More than 8,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began a year ago, and many more injured . Fearing ill-treatment at official hospitals, demonstrators have sought help at underground clinics. One Damascus surgeon tells his story.

The BBC   18 March 2012  

I was at home, looking out of the window, watching a demonstration, when I saw a car being driven very fast. Two men from the security forces leaned out and started shooting randomly at the demonstrators – shooting to kill.

The demonstrators were doing nothing, just shouting for freedom. There were a lot of dead and injured people on the ground.

The demonstrators ran inside a mosque, and some began shouting over the loud-speakers: “Stop killing us! We don’t have guns, we are peaceful! We have injured men, we have to treat them!” They asked for doctors, nurses, medical supplies and blood bags.