News you may have missed #541
July 18, 2011 Leave a comment
Libyan rebels
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
►►Western-aided Libyan rebels use child soldiers as young as seven, loot towns and abuse civilians. Few in the West would argue that Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi is a humanitarian leader who deserves international support. It is way too often the case, however, that the Libyan rebels, who have been doggedly fighting Gaddafi for months, are portrayed in the West as angels in military fatigues. Two recent underreported articles from Libya may be worth noting in this respect. In one of them, a British war correspondent supplies substantial photographic evidence to show that anti-government rebels routinely use child solders as young as seven to fight in the civil war, which is both unethical and illegal. In another report, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch, tells Reuters news agency that Libyan rebel fighters who captured villages from forces loyal to Gaddafi have looted shops, burned homes and beaten civilians suspected of supporting the Libyan leader. This raises the question of what will happen to the masses of pro-Gaddafi supporters if the rebels capture the entire country? Should neighboring nations (including Libyan opposition supporters France and Italy) be preparing for an unprecedented exodus of pro-Gaddafi supporters? ►►UK politicians demand extra powers to hold spies to account. In Britain, meanwhile, a group of parliamentarians calling themselves The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), have called for immediate measures to improve the transparency and accountability of the country’s intelligence services. Read more of this post
intelNews.org 
News you may have missed #542
July 19, 2011 Leave a comment
Sir John Chilcot
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
►►Ex-spy says MI6 cut corners to back Blair’s Iraq war case. Britain’s ongoing Iraq Inquiry headed by Sir John Chilcot, heard last week from a former spy, identified in documents only as “SIS2”. The witness said that MI6 was “probably too eager to please” the government and was guilty of “flying a bit too close to the sun”. He was referring to the intelligence support provided by MI6 in support of the case for entering the Iraq War, made by the Labour government of Prime Minister Tony blair in 2003. He also told the committee that “the pressure to generate results, I fear, did lead to the cutting of corners”. ►►Medical group criticizes CIA’s vaccination scheme. A whimiscal tone prevails in most articles on the recent revelation that the CIA tried to collect DNA evidence on Osama bin Laden by running a phony vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan. But medical groups engaged in organizing vaccination schemes are not amused. French-based international medical aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières has lashed out at the CIA because, it said, by using a medical cover for its assassination scheme, the Agency endangered those who conduct life-saving immunization work around the world. Read more of this post
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 0 Ex-spy says MI6 cut corners to back Blair's Iraq war case, 0 Foreign spies stole weapons data from US contractor, 0 Medical group criticizes CIA's vaccination scheme, Abbottabad (Pakistan), assassinations, Chilcot Inquiry (UK), CIA, cyberespionage, cybersecurity, Doctors Without Borders, espionage, intelligence covers, intelligence outsourcing, Iraq Inquiry (UK), Iraq War, Médecins Sans Frontières, MI6, News, news you may have missed, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan, Sir John Chilcot, Tony Blair, UK, United States, William J. Lynn III