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POPSGet Lost, Khadafy! Realtor Nixes Uptown Rental!
Residents of Englewood, NJ, had already rejected his plan to stay at a home the Libyan Mission owns there, so diplomats approached Haber about the swank rental pad he was peddling at 5 E. 78th St. "They were very rude on the phone, and I asked who it was for. They said it was for a high-ranking member of the Libyan delegation, and they said there would be high security," he said. "It sounded more and more to me as we spoke that this was for Khadafy." But while only one of the building's three apartments was on the block -- a 3,700-square-foot duplex for $28,000 a month -- the Libyans insisted on renting the whole building. "At that point, I knew the deal couldn't happen, so I was hoping maybe I could solve an international political situation through a simple real-estate deal -- but I guess it wasn't meant to be," he said. Following that rejection, the Libyans finally settled on housing their leader at the country's East 48th Street mission.
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POPS Africa MPs Cheer Lockerbie Bomber September 9, 2009 Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi has made his first public appearance since receiving a hero’s welcome on his return to Libya. The BBC’s Rana Jawad, in Tripoli, says a nurse wheeled Megrahi to a small stage in the lecture hall at the city’s medical centre. He appeared to be frail, wearing a surgeon’s mask that covered most of his face and a colourful, sequined traditional skullcap, she says. After he started coughing, he was immediately wheeled off the stage. Our reporter says it seemed a carefully orchestrated event intended to send a signal to the Scottish, British and US governments. Hey, let’s send a few more hundred billion taxpayer dollars to Africa.
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POPS Lockerbie, The Anger Jack Straw, the justice secretary, revealed this decision in a letter to his Scottish counterpart. He cited “wider negotiations” and the “overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom”. Sources in the UK and Tripoli said last week that those wider interests included BP’s hoped-for share of Libya’s untapped oil and gas reserves. The decision to include Megrahi in the prisoner transfer arrangement was seen by Libyan officials as paving the way for his release " and BP’s much-coveted deal was finally ratified." -more So tell me. Are you surprised?
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POPS History Repeats Itself “The Algerine depredations,” as these outrages were called at the time, continued with more and more hostages taken and ransoms paid. Finally, Congress was spurred to allocate money for a proper navy. George Washington signed “an act to provide a naval armament” and ax men were hired to fell trees from New England to Georgia. Up to 100 American merchantmen were plying the Mediterranean at any time in those days, and when Thomas Jefferson was elected the U.S. was paying one-fifth of its annual revenue in ransoms and to guarantee safe passage to Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Tribute went beyond mere money. The United Sates built a warship for the Barbary pirates, named “Crescent,” which was launched in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, while Old Ironsides was still being built. The U.S. tried treaties with the Barbary states of North Africa, but they didn’t solve the problem.
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POPSIn the land of the blind....whose in bed with who? Libyan oil exports to the US were resumed and in 2005, US energy companies invested in the country for the first time in more than two decades. In May 2006, Washington announced the full resumption of diplomatic ties with Libya. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has signed an agreement to pay Libya $5bn as part of a deal to resolve colonial-era disputes. Rome and Tripoli have spent years arguing over compensation for the colonial period. Mr Berlusconi's investment company controls Italy's three biggest private television stations. And, when he is in office, his appointees also run three public ones. Opponents complain that an Italian voter cannot escape blanket coverage favourable to Mr Berlusconi. They also say his control of the media extends beyond the news agenda, and that comedians who lampooned him when he was last prime minister never appeared on TV again.
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POPSDesert Fox to African 'King of Kings'??? Tensions between Libya and the West reached a peak during the Ronald Reagan administration, which tried to overthrow Gaddafi. The Reagan administration viewed Libya as a belligerent rogue state. On April 15, 1986, Ronald Reagan ordered major bombing raids against Tripoli and Benghazi killing 45 Libyan military and government personnel as well as 15 civilians. Among the fatalities of the April 15 retaliatory attack by the U.S. was Gaddafi's adopted daughter, Hannah.
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POPSDear Ali Khameini, Here's How To Get Nukes by Claudia Rosett Who are we? Our team includes experts skilled in leveraging the biggest bang for the buck in one of the world's few remaining bull markets: Nuclear proliferation. For years, we have been pooling our knowledge and talents to serve a sophisticated and select clientele (including each other). What's the secret of our success? It all begins with the basic confidence that if you really want to get the bomb, no one is going to have the nerve to stop you (except maybe the Israelis, but we're working on that). Sure, those democratic states will talk, and bargain, and hog air time on Al-Arabiya. But in this global game of chicken, if we put the pedal to the metal, they'll flinch. Worried about U.N. sanctions? Fuggedaboutit. We have compiled a full set of sanctions-busting best practices, field-tested by Saddam Hussein under Oil-for-Food and Kim Jong Il during the Six-Party Talks, with input from the Somali pirates and the offshore-banking division of the Myanmar junta;
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POPSThe First Barbary War On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yussif Karamanli, the Pasha (or Bashaw) of Tripoli, demanded $225,000 from the new administration. (In 1800, Federal revenues totaled a little over $10 million.) Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, in May of 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents but by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate.
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