Muslims Can't Be President - Fifi Kwetey

Source: The New Statesman
Politics | Tue, 06 Sep 2011

 

Deputy Finance Minister, Fifi Kwetey

Without the capacity to provide its own information, the mind drifts into randomness. By: roylexi.com

The then National Propaganda Secretary of the National Democratic Congress and now Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Fifi Kwetey, has stated in no uncertain terms that a Muslim can never become the President of the Republic of Ghana, according to a US embassy cable.

Fifi Kwetey made this known in an interaction with officials of the US embassy, in his capacity as propaganda secretary and advisor to former President Rawlings, on the 5th of October 2007, when the former was contacted for his views in the run up to the December 2007 congress of the New Patriotic Party as well as the 2008 elections.

When asked about the chances of victory of Vice President Aliu Mahama in the NPP congress, Fifi Kwetey in his usual self refused to comment on the strengths of the then Vice president but rather chose to focus on his religion as a Muslim.

'Concerning Vice President [Aliu] Mahama's Muslim faith, religion is an important factor in Ghanaian politics and many Christian Ghanaians would never vote for a Muslim presidential candidate.'

He went on further to say that whilst other will not openly say so, he was bold enough to state that a Muslim can never be President.

'While most Ghanaians would not admit this openly, a Muslim could not be elected President of Ghana,' Fifi Kwetey said.

The advisor to former President Rawlings and then national propaganda secretary also stated that the NDC would exploit the non-election of Alhaji Aliu Mahama for propaganda purposes in the northern region and as well as in the Muslim community.

'Some Ghanaians, particularly Northerners and Muslims, will feel that Vice President Mahama deserves the nomination and is being treated disrespectfully by his party after serving loyally as Kufuor's deputy. The NDC would exploit these negative sentiments to generate support for our candidate,' Fifi Kwetey said.

Fifi Kwetey, in that same meeting, further went on to confirm the largely held view that the NDC usurping the role of the Convention People's Party with the sole aim of obliterating it as a political party in Ghana. 'The NDC has largely taken over the CPP's role as Ghana's “Nkrumaist” political party, and that there has been weak support for the CPP in recent elections,' he added.

He also went to label Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom a 'traitor' because he served as a minister in Kufuor's government and dismissed his chances of securing the CPP's flagbearership slot.

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Oscar Winner Cliff Robertson Passes Away at Age 88

Source: The Associated Press

September 10, 2011

Cliff Robertson, who played John F. Kennedy in PT-109 and won an Oscar for Charly, passed away on Saturday, September 10, at the age of 88.

His secretary of 53 years, Evelyn Christel, said he died at Stony Brook University Medical Center on Long Island of natural causes a day after his 88th birthday, according to The Associated Press.

Robertson remained a popular actor from the mid-1950s into the following century. His later roles included Uncle Ben in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" movies.

"My father was a loving father, devoted friend, dedicated professional and honorable man," daughter Stephanie Saunders said in a statement. "He stood by his family, friends, and colleagues through good times and bad. He made a difference in all our lives and made our world a better place. We will all miss him terribly."

He won the Academy Award in 1968 for his performance in Charly playing a mentally disabled man who undergoes medical treatment that makes him a genius until he regresses to his former state.

Robertson's funeral is set for Friday in East Hampton. You can read more about his life and career by visiting this link.

Read more: Oscar Winner Cliff Robertson Passes Away at Age 88 - ComingSoon.net http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=81954#ixzz1Xdp2xN7M

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Documents shed light on CIA, Gadhafi spy ties

From Ben Wedeman, CNN

September 4, 2011 -- Updated 0353 GMT (1153 HKT)

Papers show U.S.-UK-Libya spy ties

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The cooperation emerged after Libya ended its WMD program
• There was an exchange of information between the agencies
• Renditions occurred amid concern over reports of Libyan torture
• U.S. official says this needs to be kept "in context"

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Documents seized at the Libyan intelligence headquarters have revealed a surprisingly close relationship between the CIA and their counterparts in the Gadhafi regime.
They highlight the cooperation between Libya and Western intelligence agencies after Libya ended its weapons of mass destruction program in 2004. They also shed light on the West's controversial rendition program -- the questioning of terror suspects in third-party countries.
CNN saw documents in the former office of Libya's external security agency and received material from Human Rights Watch on Saturday. They are from 2004 and 2005.
CNN found an exchange of information between Libyan intelligence and Western intelligence agencies -- such as the CIA, the MI6 in Britain and Canada's intelligence service.
For example, the Libyans were interested to learn about alleged Islamic radicals involved in anti-Gadhafi activity in Canada, the United States and Europe. The United States and Britain were interested in any detail Libya could provide about al Qaeda.
One piece of correspondence focused on the prospect of Libya providing help to the United States in Somalia, where anti-American militants have a strong presence. There was contact between Porter Goss, who served as CIA director in the mid-2000s, and former head of external intelligence Moussa Koussa.
"Moussa Koussa was on a first-name basis with the CIA and MI6," said Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch. "There's Christmas greetings in here. There's documents saying, 'Thanks for the oranges you sent.'"
CNN's attempts to reach Goss on Saturday were unsuccessful.

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Reports of cases of U.S. rendition to Libya have emerged. It occurred amid regular State Department reports of Libyan abuse of prisoners, underscoring concerns of human rights advocates about the practice.
For example, the State Department's 2005 report on human rights in Libya said, "Security forces reportedly subjected detainees to cruel, inhumane, or degrading conditions and denied adequate medical care, which led to several deaths in custody."
One report, in The New York Times, said documents suggested that the United States "sent terror suspects at least eight times for questioning in Libya despite that country's reputation for torture." The newspaper said the documents cover 2002 to 2007, "with many of them concentrated in late 2003 and 2004."
Bouckaert told CNN the documents "establish conclusively what we've been saying for a long time -- that the CIA was capturing and rendering people to Libya so they could be interrogated by Libyan security."
"We even have the CIA questions they sent to be asked to the suspects that they rendered to Libya," he added.
And CNN saw a March 6, 2004, CIA letter to Libyan officials about Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former jihadist with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and now a senior commander in the anti-Gadhafi forces.
It concerned the Malaysian government's arrest of Abdullah al-Sadiq, Belhaj's nom de guerre for his rendition. A CIA officer said the man and his pregnant wife were being placed on a commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to London via Bangkok and then onto Libya.
"We are planning to arrange to take control of the pair in Bangkok and place them on our aircraft for a flight to your country," the officer wrote.
CNN's Nic Robertson recently profiled Belhaj. As a young man in the late 1980s, Belhaj was one of scores of jihadists in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who went to fight in Afghanistan. His military prowess soon made him a commander among his fellow fighters.
After the fall of the Taliban, Belhaj left Afghanistan and was arrested in Malaysia in 2004. After some questioning by the CIA, he was sent back to Libya and jailed.
Belhaj was released from Moammar Gadhafi's notorious Abu Salim jail last year. He and dozens of others of LIFG fighters negotiated with the Gadhafi regime for their freedom -- in return for denouncing al Qaeda and its philosophy of jihad.
Fran Townsend, CNN counterterror analyst who worked as President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser, said that when suspects were transferred to any country, not just Libya, U.S. officials asked the government for assurances that they wouldn't violate human rights of the person in question.
Also, they would oversee the process of incarceration and questioning to make sure the prisoner wasn't abused, she said.
"It wasn't just sign a piece of paper. It was also, by the way we have to have the right to visit them on short notice and speak with them," she said, referring to the suspects.
Townsend said the MI6 and the CIA worked very closely with Libyan intelligence in terms of persuading them to turn over their weapons of mass destruction program and to maintain a relationship with them.
The relationship, she said, was "by no means a straight line. It had its ups and downs."
The CIA would not comment specifically on the reports about the relationships between Libya and Western spy agencies.
But CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood did say, "It can't come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats. That is exactly what we are expected to do."
A U.S. official who would not speak for attribution because of the sensitivity of intelligence relationships said, "There are lots of countries willing to take terrorists off the street who want to kill Americans. That doesn't mean U.S. concerns about human rights are ignored in the process."
The official added this needs to be kept "in context."
"By 2004, the U.S. had successfully convinced the Libyan government to renounce its nuclear weapons program and to help stop terrorists who were actively targeting Americans in the U.S. and abroad," said the official.

The British Foreign Office said it does not comment on intelligence matters.

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Deadline for Libyan towns' surrender passes

By the CNN Wire Staff

September 10, 2011 -- Updated 0007 GMT (0807 HKT)

A picture of Moammar Gadhafi taken in 2009. Interpol has issued Red Notice warrants for the fallen Libyan leader.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• 18 bodies found in western Libya, Human Rights Watch reports
• Officials see heavy resistance in Bani Walid, fighting east of Sirte
• Negotiations were to end at midnight, deal or no deal, new Libyan leaders had said
• U.N. envoy Martin sees positive signs in Tripoli, along with concerns

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- A deadline set by Libya's new leaders for the surrender of the towns of Sirte and Bani Walid, bastions of hardcore supporters of Moammar Gadhafi, passed at midnight Friday without any apparent deal.

Before the deadline expired, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council said talks with loyalists were continuing into the evening. Absent a resolution, "it's up to military planners to decide how to move forward," Shamsuddin Ben Ali said.

Sticking points included the demand by Gadhafi loyalists for NTC fighters to enter their communities unarmed, and to refrain from searching houses. The loyalists also asked for blanket pardons, but the NTC wanted to prosecute loyalists with blood on their hands, Ben Ali said.

Sirte is on the Mediterranean coast east of Tripoli, and Bani Walid is southeast of the capital.

A military spokesman, citing heavy resistance from loyalists in Bani Walid, said anti-Gadhafi forces had retreated Friday.

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NTC media committee spokesman Jalal el Gallal said fighting for Sirte was taking place 55 kilometers (34 miles) east of the city.

El Gallal said NTC fighters were met with small-arms fire as they advanced from the east, and a battle ensued with heavy artillery. A Benghazi hospital received a number of casualties, he said.

Earlier, Abdallah Kenshill, an NTC chief negotiator, had told CNN that anti-Gadhafi fighters had been just 1.5 kilometers, nearly a mile, from the center of Bani Walid, situated on the north, east and south.

Anti-Gadhafi fighters captured seven loyalists, including a brigadier general, he said, and three loyalists were killed. An anti-Gadhafi fighter was killed and four others were wounded, Kenshill said.

CNN was not able to independently verify his account.

Inside Bani Walid, meanwhile, pro- and anti-Gadhafi groups clashed, but NTC fighters were not involved, said Badr Abu Shahma, assistant to the commander of Misrata's southern front.

Ben Ali also said he received intelligence reports that loyalist forces were moving captured NTC fighters to Qasr Bu Hadi for use as human shields. That town is 10 miles east of Sirte.

Mahmoud Jibril, chairman of the NTC executive board, will visit Misrata on Saturday to survey the damage in the city, where he has tribal ties, Ben Ali said.

The developments came as Interpol issued Red Notice arrest warrants Friday for Gadhafi, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity.

A Red Notice allows Interpol, the international police agency, to circulate arrest warrants widely with an intention to extradite suspects to the ICC.

At the United Nations, Ian Martin, the secretary-general's special envoy to Libya, told reporters that fears of a humanitarian disaster in the capital have not materialized.

City infrastructure has suffered little damage, the disruption of the water supply has been largely alleviated, supplies of fuel and electricity are improving, schools are slated to reopen September 17, and there has been no general breakdown of public order, said Martin, who had earlier briefed the Security Council after his return from five days in Libya.

"That's quite a striking conflict with other post-conflict" cities, he said.

But those advances do not minimize the enormous challenges that transitional authorities still face.

A Supreme Security Committee has been established in Tripoli to bring all armed elements under a single command, but "the proliferation of weapons is a major concern, including to Libya's neighbors," Martin said.

"The approach they're taking is to, at this stage, tell the very top echelon of the military, the police, the civil service, to remain at home while decisions are taken as to which of them should or should not be part of the future," he said.

Despite appeals by NTC leaders, acts of revenge have been carried out, "especially of sub-Saharan Africans accused -- often, I think, quite wrongly -- of having fought for the Gadhafi regime," he said.

In addition, "terrible evidence continues to come to light of the deliberate human rights abuses and crimes of the Gadhafi regime, both those that took place over many years and during the fall of Tripoli, when many of the prisoners were massacred," Martin said.

"This is going to be a very heavy burden for Libya's new leaders as they seek to show that there will be accountability within the law for the worst violations, but at the same time promote national reconciliation."

The weight of that burden was underscored by a report by Human Rights Watch that 18 bodies were discovered Thursday in western Libya. The find corroborates reports by two survivors that the dead had been detainees held by Gadhafi forces in the town of al-Khoms who were killed in June.

The dead suffocated when they were locked inside two metal shipping containers, the group said.

A captured Gadhafi soldier led officials from the military council of al-Khoms, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Tripoli, to the bodies, which were buried between Bani Walid and Orban, HRW said.

"The Gadhafi forces threw detainees in metal containers with little water and air on a brutally hot day, and refused to let them out despite cries for help," said Fred Abrahams, special adviser at Human Rights Watch.

A 19th person died a few days later, so was not buried with the other 18, the group said.

A video that appears to have been shot by a Gadhafi soldier shows several of the detainees -- blindfolded and bound -- being kicked and whipped inside the container.

Meanwhile, an interim government is to be established within 30 days of the declaration of liberation, U.N. envoy Martin said. Until then, the NTC is assuming "caretaker responsibilities" to carry out urgently needed functions, he added.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed a support mission for three months, after which "we would then go back to the Security Council for a longer mandate," Martin said.

CNN's Kareem Khadder, Ian Lee, Jim Bittermann and Umaro Djau contributed to this report.

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Anna Hazare Forgives Manish Tewari But Lawyer Sends Notice

Anna Hazare Forgives Manish Tewari But Lawyer Sends Notice

[ Updated 11 Sep 2011, 10:02:25 ]

Pune, Sept 11: Gandhian Anna Hazare may have forgiven Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari for making allegations of corruption against him, but his lawyer Milind Pawar had sent a notice to Tewari. 

While addressing the media on Thursday evening in Ralegan Siddhi, Hazare had said: “I had challenged Tiwari's allegations against me. He apologised later in front of the media, which I now accept.”

But Hazare's lawyer Milind Pawar has sent a notice to Tewari asking for a written apology. “If my lawyer has sent a notice, then Tewari should reply to it,” Hazare said.

Tewari had called Hazare corrupt, an allegation that was strongly challenged by the Gandhian. Pawar had earlier stated that a criminal case would be filed against Tewari. Tiwari had stated that the Sawant Commission had indicted Hazare for “being steeped in corruption from head to toe.”

“Even though Tewari has apologised in front of the media, he owes a written apology to Anna. I had a discussion with Anna after he returned from New Delhi. We have decided to send the notice,” Pawar said.

The notice states that Tewari had committed an offence under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code by defamatory references to Hazare, and must apologise in a “written application.” The notice also asks Tewari to state in writing that he and his party “would not commit such false imputations and [issue] defamatory statements in future.”

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Chhatisgarh Police Arrests Journalist, Contractor For Trying To Send Cash To Maoists

Chhatisgarh Police Arrests Journalist, Contractor For Trying To Send Cash To Maoists

[ Updated 11 Sep 2011, 16:25:01 ]

Raipur, Sept 11:  The Chhatisgarh police on Friday  arrested a contractor B K Lala and journalist-activist Lingaram Kodopi on charge of going to hand over Rs 15 lakh cash to Maoists at a weekly market in Dantewada.

However, human rights bodies have termed the arrest of one of the two arrested as illegal and said he was framed in the case.

Police say Lala withdrew Rs.15 lakh from his State Bank of India account from Kirandul in Dantewada and was set to hand over the money on behalf of Essar group  at the Palanar weekly market to Maoists.

"Lala admitted to be carrying money on behalf of Essar while Kodopi was tipped to receive the money on behalf of Maoists," Dantewada Superintendent of Police Ankit Garg said.

Police say the two were  booked under under various IPC sections alongwith  clauses of a stringent Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, which rights activists have termed a "draconian law", framed to tackle Maoist sympathizers.

Human rights organisations claim that Chhattisgarh Police has been deliberately trying to frame Kodopi, a young tribal activist, for a long time. The People's Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi (PUDR) has strongly condemned the arrest of Kodopi and said he was picked up from his village Sameli in Dantewada.

"Kodopi was earlier also picked up by the police from his village in September 2009 and kept in illegal detention for 40 days. They tortured and forced him to become an SPO. A habeas corpus petition was filed by his brother in the high court after which he was released," a PUDR statement said.

However  recent WikiLeaks revelations  show that Essar Group was paying "protection money" to Maoists in Chhattisgarh. The company has refused to comment.

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