Bloomberg
By Ben Moshinsky
Dec. 12 2009
BNP Paribas SA sold its 25.6 percent stake in Banque Commerciale du Congo to investor George Forrest, De Tijd reported, without saying where it got the information.
Forrest now has more than 37 percent of the Congolese lender, making him the largest shareholder, the Antwerp-based newspaper said today, without providing details of the deal.
12 December, 2009
Blackwater operating at CIA Pakistan base, ex-official says• Contractor said to be helping to load missiles.
The Guardian
By Declan Walsh and Ewen MacAskill
11 December 2009
The US contractor Blackwater is operating in Pakistan at a secret CIA airfield used for launching drone attacks, according to a former US official, despite repeated government denials that the company is in the country.
The official, who had direct knowledge of the operation, said that employees with Blackwater, now renamed Xe Services, patrol the area round the Shamsi airbase in Baluchistan province.
He also confirmed that Blackwater employees help to load laser-guided Hellfire missiles on to CIA-operated drones that target al-Qaida members suspected of hiding in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions, confirming information that surfaced in the US media in the summer.
The secretive base at Shamsi is a key element in the CIA co-ordinated missile strikes that have hit more than 40 targets in the past year. Officials in Washington said that a drone attack on Wednesday killed a senior al-Qaida figure. The officials declined to name the individual, other than to say it was not Osama bin Laden. It is the first time in almost a year that the US has claimed to have successfully targeted a senior al-Qaida figure.
The controversy over Blackwater stems mainly from its work in Iraq and Afghanistan that raised questions about the US use of private contractors in war zones. Several cases against the company are pending in US courts over violent incidents, including a 2007 Baghdad shooting spree.
The New York Times reported today that links between Blackwater and the CIA in Iraq and Afghanistan have been closer than has yet been disclosed, with Blackwater staff participating in clandestine CIA raids against suspected insurgents.
The US and Pakistan governments, as well as Xe, deny the company operates in Pakistan.
Blackwater is a particularly emotive issue in Pakistan, where the company's name, along with the drone strikes, have become lightning rods for anti-American sentiment. Television stations have run images of alleged "Blackwater houses" in Islamabad, while some newspapers regularly run stories accusing US officials and respected journalists of being Blackwater operatives.
US diplomats say the stories are mostly incorrect, and the Pakistani media has confused American contractors from other companies and aid workers with Blackwater employees. Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, offered to resign if Blackwater was proved to be in Pakistan.
But there is growing evidence to suggest that Blackwater is working in Pakistan. A serving US official said that Blackwater had a contract to manage the construction of a training facility for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, just outside Peshawar, this year. But most of the work on the project, the official said, was done by Pakistani sub-contractors.
Blackwater rebranded itself Xe after the shooting in a Baghdad square that left 17 Iraqis dead. The CIA director Leon Panetta earlier this year ordered that many contracts with Blackwater be terminated. A Congressional committee is investigating links between Blackwater and the intelligence services. Xe, in a statement, denied that Blackwater was ever under contract to participate in covert raids with the CIA or special forces in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.
In a separate development, five young Americans detained in Pakistan over alleged terrorist links will probably be deported, Javed Islam, a police chief, said. They had not been charged.
The US authorities have not yet said what action, if any, they will take when the five return. The five, aged between 19 and 25, are alleged to have made contact with militant groups. News of their arrest has renewed US fears on homegrown terrorists. The five all attended a mosque in Alexandria, Virginia, run by the Islamic Circle of North America.
By Declan Walsh and Ewen MacAskill
11 December 2009
The US contractor Blackwater is operating in Pakistan at a secret CIA airfield used for launching drone attacks, according to a former US official, despite repeated government denials that the company is in the country.
The official, who had direct knowledge of the operation, said that employees with Blackwater, now renamed Xe Services, patrol the area round the Shamsi airbase in Baluchistan province.
He also confirmed that Blackwater employees help to load laser-guided Hellfire missiles on to CIA-operated drones that target al-Qaida members suspected of hiding in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions, confirming information that surfaced in the US media in the summer.
The secretive base at Shamsi is a key element in the CIA co-ordinated missile strikes that have hit more than 40 targets in the past year. Officials in Washington said that a drone attack on Wednesday killed a senior al-Qaida figure. The officials declined to name the individual, other than to say it was not Osama bin Laden. It is the first time in almost a year that the US has claimed to have successfully targeted a senior al-Qaida figure.
The controversy over Blackwater stems mainly from its work in Iraq and Afghanistan that raised questions about the US use of private contractors in war zones. Several cases against the company are pending in US courts over violent incidents, including a 2007 Baghdad shooting spree.
The New York Times reported today that links between Blackwater and the CIA in Iraq and Afghanistan have been closer than has yet been disclosed, with Blackwater staff participating in clandestine CIA raids against suspected insurgents.
The US and Pakistan governments, as well as Xe, deny the company operates in Pakistan.
Blackwater is a particularly emotive issue in Pakistan, where the company's name, along with the drone strikes, have become lightning rods for anti-American sentiment. Television stations have run images of alleged "Blackwater houses" in Islamabad, while some newspapers regularly run stories accusing US officials and respected journalists of being Blackwater operatives.
US diplomats say the stories are mostly incorrect, and the Pakistani media has confused American contractors from other companies and aid workers with Blackwater employees. Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, offered to resign if Blackwater was proved to be in Pakistan.
But there is growing evidence to suggest that Blackwater is working in Pakistan. A serving US official said that Blackwater had a contract to manage the construction of a training facility for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, just outside Peshawar, this year. But most of the work on the project, the official said, was done by Pakistani sub-contractors.
Blackwater rebranded itself Xe after the shooting in a Baghdad square that left 17 Iraqis dead. The CIA director Leon Panetta earlier this year ordered that many contracts with Blackwater be terminated. A Congressional committee is investigating links between Blackwater and the intelligence services. Xe, in a statement, denied that Blackwater was ever under contract to participate in covert raids with the CIA or special forces in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.
In a separate development, five young Americans detained in Pakistan over alleged terrorist links will probably be deported, Javed Islam, a police chief, said. They had not been charged.
The US authorities have not yet said what action, if any, they will take when the five return. The five, aged between 19 and 25, are alleged to have made contact with militant groups. News of their arrest has renewed US fears on homegrown terrorists. The five all attended a mosque in Alexandria, Virginia, run by the Islamic Circle of North America.
US and Ethiopia agree to "cooperate" in Somlia and Darfur.
Sudan Tribune
12 December 2009
Ethiopia and the United States agreed to cooperate together in order to end the ongoing crisis in Somalia and Sudan’s Darfur
Meles Zenawi met on Thursday with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa, Vicki Huddleston and discussed with her the bilateral relations between the two countries and the situation in Somalia and Darfur.
Following the meeting with the Prime Minister on Thursday, Huddleston told reporters they agreed to work together toward resolving the existing crisis in Somalia and the Sudan. The US official did not elaborate on the mechanism of this cooperation.
Despite the good ties between the two countries, the Obama Administration reportedly told Addis Ababa earlier this year that it prefers to support directly the Somali army and urged Addis Ababa to not intervene militarily again in Somalia.
Meles expressed Ethiopia’s keenness to develop Ethiopia-US bilateral relations. He also reaffirmed Ethiopia’s willingness to work together with the US in efforts geared toward resolving the crisis in Somalia and in Sudan’ Darfur.
12 December 2009
Ethiopia and the United States agreed to cooperate together in order to end the ongoing crisis in Somalia and Sudan’s Darfur
Meles Zenawi met on Thursday with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa, Vicki Huddleston and discussed with her the bilateral relations between the two countries and the situation in Somalia and Darfur.
Following the meeting with the Prime Minister on Thursday, Huddleston told reporters they agreed to work together toward resolving the existing crisis in Somalia and the Sudan. The US official did not elaborate on the mechanism of this cooperation.
Despite the good ties between the two countries, the Obama Administration reportedly told Addis Ababa earlier this year that it prefers to support directly the Somali army and urged Addis Ababa to not intervene militarily again in Somalia.
Meles expressed Ethiopia’s keenness to develop Ethiopia-US bilateral relations. He also reaffirmed Ethiopia’s willingness to work together with the US in efforts geared toward resolving the crisis in Somalia and in Sudan’ Darfur.
'CIA asked Blackwater to take out AQ Khan’
Daily Times
12 December 2009
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had asked private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide to kill Dr AQ Khan, the Pakistani scientist “who shared nuclear know-how with Iran, Libya, and North Korea”, agency’s founder Erik Prince admitted in an interview with Vanity Fair.
According to a source who spoke to the magazine, the authorities in Washington “chose not to pull the trigger”, however, adding “Dr Khan’s inclusion on the target list would suggest that the assassination effort was broader than has previously been acknowledged”.
Admission: The New York Times (NYT) reported that Prince also admitted to participating in some of the CIA’s most sensitive operations, including raids on suspected militants in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now known as Xe Services, “Blackwater’s role in both wars changed sharply when its guards began providing security for CIA operatives in the field”.
Raids on suspected insurgents in Iraq, known as ‘snatch and grab’ operations, began happening almost nightly during the worst years of the war between 2004 and 2006.
The paper quoted several former Blackwater guards as saying operations to capture and kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan became so routine that Blackwater personnel sometimes became partners in the missions rather than simply providing the security for the CIA officers.
The Washington Post’s sources reported that the actions taken by the agency’s personnel “went beyond the protective role specified in a classified Blackwater contract with the CIA” and included active participation in raids overseen by the CIA or special forces personnel.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Xe Services, was quoted as saying that Blackwater was never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Forces troops “in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else”. “Any allegation to the contrary by any news organisation would be false,” he said.
Several former CIA counterterrorism officials told WP that CIA headquarters was not aware of such actions and did not authorise them. Separately, the NYT quoted former Blackwater employees as saying they helped provide security on some CIA flights transporting detainees in the years after the 2001 terror attacks in the US.
George Little, a CIA spokesman, would not comment on Blackwater’s ties to the agency. But he said the CIA employs contractors to “enhance the skills of our own work force, just as American law permits”.
Intelligence officials deny that the agency has ever used Blackwater to fly high-value detainees in and out of secret CIA prisons that were shut down earlier this year. The Blackwater spokesman said company personnel were never involved in CIA “rendition flights,” which transferred terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation.
12 December 2009
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had asked private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide to kill Dr AQ Khan, the Pakistani scientist “who shared nuclear know-how with Iran, Libya, and North Korea”, agency’s founder Erik Prince admitted in an interview with Vanity Fair.
According to a source who spoke to the magazine, the authorities in Washington “chose not to pull the trigger”, however, adding “Dr Khan’s inclusion on the target list would suggest that the assassination effort was broader than has previously been acknowledged”.
Admission: The New York Times (NYT) reported that Prince also admitted to participating in some of the CIA’s most sensitive operations, including raids on suspected militants in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now known as Xe Services, “Blackwater’s role in both wars changed sharply when its guards began providing security for CIA operatives in the field”.
Raids on suspected insurgents in Iraq, known as ‘snatch and grab’ operations, began happening almost nightly during the worst years of the war between 2004 and 2006.
The paper quoted several former Blackwater guards as saying operations to capture and kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan became so routine that Blackwater personnel sometimes became partners in the missions rather than simply providing the security for the CIA officers.
The Washington Post’s sources reported that the actions taken by the agency’s personnel “went beyond the protective role specified in a classified Blackwater contract with the CIA” and included active participation in raids overseen by the CIA or special forces personnel.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Xe Services, was quoted as saying that Blackwater was never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Forces troops “in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else”. “Any allegation to the contrary by any news organisation would be false,” he said.
Several former CIA counterterrorism officials told WP that CIA headquarters was not aware of such actions and did not authorise them. Separately, the NYT quoted former Blackwater employees as saying they helped provide security on some CIA flights transporting detainees in the years after the 2001 terror attacks in the US.
George Little, a CIA spokesman, would not comment on Blackwater’s ties to the agency. But he said the CIA employs contractors to “enhance the skills of our own work force, just as American law permits”.
Intelligence officials deny that the agency has ever used Blackwater to fly high-value detainees in and out of secret CIA prisons that were shut down earlier this year. The Blackwater spokesman said company personnel were never involved in CIA “rendition flights,” which transferred terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation.
'Saudi, Israel tie-up' in Turkmenistan over Natural Gas.
UPI
10 December 2009
The drive by foreign companies to grab a piece of the action in gas-rich Turkmenistan is reported to be producing some strange bedfellows -- like PetroSaudi, owned by the son of King Abdallah, and Merhav, an Israeli conglomerate run by former intelligence officer Yosef Maiman.
According to Intelligence Online, a Paris-based Website that covers global security issues, the companies from these longtime Middle Eastern adversaries are negotiating a partnership "through intermediaries" to explore the Serdar field that straddles the border between Turkmenistan and oil-rich Azerbaijan.
It is reported to contain the equivalent of at least 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Turkmenistan is the world's 10th-largest gas producer. The United States, Europe, China, Russia and Iran are all clamoring for access to its vast gas fields.
These contain an estimated 20 trillion cubic meters of natural gas
-- enough to supply Europe for 66 years.
Maiman once worked for the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, and is reputedly linked to a network of companies owned by the agency.
He has been moving into Central Asia for some time, spearheading an Israeli effort to secure influence -- and a significant intelligence presence -- in the energy-rich Caspian Sea basin, the economic center of the five former Soviet republics that make up the Muslim region.
The Merhav Group has been involved in Turkmenistan's natural gas industry for years. In 2004 The Jerusalem Post described Maiman, a familiar figure in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat, as a "leading figure" in Central Asia's gas sector.
According to some reports, Maiman was made a citizen of Turkmenistan by decree of the country's eccentric and authoritarian president, Saparmurad Niyazov, who died of heart disease Dec. 21, 2006.
According to Intelligence Online, Maiman was behind the appointment of Israel's first ambassador to Turkmenistan, Reuven Dinia, by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently. Dinai is another ex-Mossad officer, who once ran its Moscow station until he was expelled in 1996.
Merhav has reportedly dominated foreign business in Turkmenistan, including brokering energy projects in the country.
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are closely linked to Israeli commercial interests -- not to mention Israeli intelligence -- and Maiman appears to be well-placed to broker an agreement between them over the disputed Serdar field, which Ashgabat and Baku both claim, and secure a contract.
The German-born entrepreneur, who became an Israeli citizen in 1971 and founded Merhav five years later, also has longstanding business links with Saudi Arabia.
These connections may well expand as Israel and Saudi Arabia both find themselves in confrontation with Iran.
Maiman has traveled to Riyadh several times in recent years on his collection of non-Israeli passports.
PetroSaudi, headed by Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, one of the sons of the Saudi monarch, thus may be a front-runner in Turkmenistan if it cements its partnership with Merhav.
They face competition from Total of France, Eni of Italy, Royal Dutch Shell, TNK-BP, Lukoil of Russia and Chevron of the United States.
These companies are being welcomed in Ashgabat because the country was badly hit in April, when Russia suddenly stopped importing Turkmen natural gas.
That slashed Turkmenistan's exports by 84 percent, because Russia was experiencing a gas glut. Without Russia as a customer, Turkmenistan is losing an estimated $1 billion a month.
"Right now Turkmenistan is looking for any energy deal it can make with almost any player, because Russia's sudden halt to natural gas imports has cut off most of Ashgabat's cash flow," according to the U.S.-based security consultancy Stratfor.
Turkmenistan does not have a viable alternative export route and, warns Stratfor, "could go bankrupt if energy revenues do not start coming in from somewhere."
Moscow, which remains the dominant power in Central Asia, is unhappy about Turkmenistan's efforts to bring in new energy partners.
China, with its insatiable appetite for energy to fuel its expanding economy, is likely to take Russia's place. Russia does not want to see any challenge to its influence in Central Asia. Neighboring Iran is another energy-hungry prospect.
"The geography of Central Asia, the competition among its five countries for resources and the increasing competition among outside powers for Central Asian energy seem to indicate that a fight for the region's energy resources in inevitable," according to Stratfor.
10 December 2009
The drive by foreign companies to grab a piece of the action in gas-rich Turkmenistan is reported to be producing some strange bedfellows -- like PetroSaudi, owned by the son of King Abdallah, and Merhav, an Israeli conglomerate run by former intelligence officer Yosef Maiman.
According to Intelligence Online, a Paris-based Website that covers global security issues, the companies from these longtime Middle Eastern adversaries are negotiating a partnership "through intermediaries" to explore the Serdar field that straddles the border between Turkmenistan and oil-rich Azerbaijan.
It is reported to contain the equivalent of at least 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Turkmenistan is the world's 10th-largest gas producer. The United States, Europe, China, Russia and Iran are all clamoring for access to its vast gas fields.
These contain an estimated 20 trillion cubic meters of natural gas
-- enough to supply Europe for 66 years.
Maiman once worked for the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, and is reputedly linked to a network of companies owned by the agency.
He has been moving into Central Asia for some time, spearheading an Israeli effort to secure influence -- and a significant intelligence presence -- in the energy-rich Caspian Sea basin, the economic center of the five former Soviet republics that make up the Muslim region.
The Merhav Group has been involved in Turkmenistan's natural gas industry for years. In 2004 The Jerusalem Post described Maiman, a familiar figure in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat, as a "leading figure" in Central Asia's gas sector.
According to some reports, Maiman was made a citizen of Turkmenistan by decree of the country's eccentric and authoritarian president, Saparmurad Niyazov, who died of heart disease Dec. 21, 2006.
According to Intelligence Online, Maiman was behind the appointment of Israel's first ambassador to Turkmenistan, Reuven Dinia, by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently. Dinai is another ex-Mossad officer, who once ran its Moscow station until he was expelled in 1996.
Merhav has reportedly dominated foreign business in Turkmenistan, including brokering energy projects in the country.
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are closely linked to Israeli commercial interests -- not to mention Israeli intelligence -- and Maiman appears to be well-placed to broker an agreement between them over the disputed Serdar field, which Ashgabat and Baku both claim, and secure a contract.
The German-born entrepreneur, who became an Israeli citizen in 1971 and founded Merhav five years later, also has longstanding business links with Saudi Arabia.
These connections may well expand as Israel and Saudi Arabia both find themselves in confrontation with Iran.
Maiman has traveled to Riyadh several times in recent years on his collection of non-Israeli passports.
PetroSaudi, headed by Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, one of the sons of the Saudi monarch, thus may be a front-runner in Turkmenistan if it cements its partnership with Merhav.
They face competition from Total of France, Eni of Italy, Royal Dutch Shell, TNK-BP, Lukoil of Russia and Chevron of the United States.
These companies are being welcomed in Ashgabat because the country was badly hit in April, when Russia suddenly stopped importing Turkmen natural gas.
That slashed Turkmenistan's exports by 84 percent, because Russia was experiencing a gas glut. Without Russia as a customer, Turkmenistan is losing an estimated $1 billion a month.
"Right now Turkmenistan is looking for any energy deal it can make with almost any player, because Russia's sudden halt to natural gas imports has cut off most of Ashgabat's cash flow," according to the U.S.-based security consultancy Stratfor.
Turkmenistan does not have a viable alternative export route and, warns Stratfor, "could go bankrupt if energy revenues do not start coming in from somewhere."
Moscow, which remains the dominant power in Central Asia, is unhappy about Turkmenistan's efforts to bring in new energy partners.
China, with its insatiable appetite for energy to fuel its expanding economy, is likely to take Russia's place. Russia does not want to see any challenge to its influence in Central Asia. Neighboring Iran is another energy-hungry prospect.
"The geography of Central Asia, the competition among its five countries for resources and the increasing competition among outside powers for Central Asian energy seem to indicate that a fight for the region's energy resources in inevitable," according to Stratfor.
11 December, 2009
Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the C.I.A.
New York Times
10 December 2009
By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials.
The raids against suspects occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater personnel playing central roles in what company insiders called “snatch and grab” operations, the former employees and current and former intelligence officers said.
Several former Blackwater guards said that their involvement in the operations became so routine that the lines supposedly dividing the Central Intelligence Agency, the military and Blackwater became blurred. Instead of simply providing security for C.I.A. officers, they say, Blackwater personnel at times became partners in missions to capture or kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, a practice that raises questions about the use of guns for hire on the battlefield.
Separately, former Blackwater employees said they helped provide security on some C.I.A. flights transporting detainees in the years after the 2001 terror attacks in the United States.
The secret missions illuminate a far deeper relationship between the spy agency and the private security company than government officials had acknowledged. Blackwater’s partnership with the C.I.A. has been enormously profitable for the North Carolina-based company, and became even closer after several top agency officials joined Blackwater.
“It became a very brotherly relationship,” said one former top C.I.A. officer. “There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency.”
George Little, a C.I.A. spokesman, would not comment on Blackwater’s ties to the agency. But he said the C.I.A. employs contractors to “enhance the skills of our own work force, just as American law permits.”
“Contractors give you flexibility in shaping and managing your talent mix — especially in the short term — but the accountability’s still yours,” he said.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Blackwater, said Thursday that it was never under contract to participate in clandestine raids with the C.I.A. or with Special Operations personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.
Blackwater’s role in the secret operations raises concerns about the extent to which private security companies, hired for defensive guard duty, have joined in offensive military and intelligence operations.
Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, said in an interview that “the use of contractors in intelligence and paramilitary operations is a scandal waiting to be examined.” While he declined to comment on specific operations, Mr. Holt said that the use of contractors in such operations “got way out of hand.” He added, “It’s been very troubling to a lot of people.”
Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, has come under intense criticism for what Iraqis have described as reckless conduct by its security guards, and the company lost its lucrative State Department contract to provide diplomatic security for the United States Embassy in Baghdad earlier this year after a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
Blackwater’s ties to the C.I.A. have emerged in recent months, beginning with disclosures in The New York Times that the agency had hired the company as part of a program to assassinate leaders of Al Qaeda and to assist in the C.I.A.’s Predator drone program in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, recently initiated an internal review examining all Blackwater contracts with the agency to ensure that the company was performing no missions that were “operational in nature,” according to one government official.
Five former Blackwater employees and four current and former American intelligence officials interviewed for this article would speak only on condition of anonymity because Blackwater’s activities for the agency were secret and former employees feared repercussions from the company. The Blackwater employees said they participated in the raids or had direct knowledge of them.
Along with the former officials, they provided few details about the targets of the raids in Iraq and Afghanistan, although they said that many of the Iraq raids were directed against members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. To corroborate the claims of the company’s involvement, a former Blackwater security guard provided photographs to The Times that he said he took during the raids. They showed detainees and armed men whom he and a former company official identified as Blackwater employees. The former intelligence officials said that Blackwater’s work with the C.I.A. in Iraq and Afghanistan had grown out of its early contracts with the spy agency to provide security for the C.I.A. stations in both countries.
In the spring of 2002, Mr. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, offered to help the spy agency guard its makeshift Afghan station in the Ariana Hotel in Kabul. Not long after Mr. Prince signed the security contract with Mr. Alvin B. Krongard (Buzzy), then the C.I.A.’s third-ranking official, dozens of Blackwater personnel — many of them former members of units of the Navy Seals or Army Delta Force — were sent to provide perimeter security for the C.I.A. station.
But the company’s role soon changed as Blackwater operatives began accompanying C.I.A. case officers on missions, according to former employees and intelligence officials.
A similar progression happened in Iraq, where Blackwater was first hired for “static security” of the Baghdad station. In addition, Blackwater was charged with providing personal security for C.I.A. officers wherever they traveled in the two countries. That meant that Blackwater personnel accompanied the officers even on offensive operations sometimes begun in conjunction with Delta Force or Navy Seals teams.
A former senior C.I.A. official said that Blackwater’s role expanded in 2005 as the Iraqi insurgency intensified. Fearful of the death or capture of one of its officers, the agency banned officers from leaving the Green Zone in Baghdad without security escorts, the official said.
That gave Blackwater greater influence over C.I.A. clandestine operations, since company personnel helped decide the safest way to conduct the missions.
The former American intelligence officials said that Blackwater guards were supposed to only provide perimeter security during raids, leaving it up to C.I.A. officers and Special Operations military personnel to capture or kill suspected insurgents or other targets.
“They were supposed to be the outer layer of the onion, out on the perimeter,” said one former Blackwater official of the security guards. Instead, “they were the drivers and the gunslingers,” said one former intelligence official.
But in the chaos of the operations, the roles of Blackwater, C.I.A., and military personnel sometimes merged. Former C.I.A. officials said that Blackwater guards often appeared eager to get directly involved in the operations. Experts said that the C.I.A.’s use of contractors in clandestine operations falls into a legal gray area because of the vagueness of language laying out what tasks only government employees may perform.
Mr. P.W. Singer, an expert in contracting at the Brookings Institution, said that the types of jobs that have been outsourced in recent years make a mockery of regulations about “inherently governmental” functions.
“We keep finding functions that have been outsourced that common sense, let alone U.S. government policy, would argue should not have been handed over to a private company,” he said. “And yet we do it again, and again, and again.”
According to one former Blackwater manager, the company’s involvement with the C.I.A. raids was “widely known” by Blackwater executives. “It was virtually continuous, and hundreds of guys were involved, rotating in and out,” over a period of several years, the former Blackwater manager said.
One former Blackwater guard recalled a meeting in Baghdad in 2004 in which Erik Prince addressed a group of Blackwater guards working with the C.I.A. At the meeting in an air hangar used by Blackwater, the guard said, Mr. Prince encouraged the Blackwater personnel “to do whatever it takes” to help the C.I.A. with the intensifying insurgency, the former guard recalled.
But it is not clear whether top C.I.A. officials in Washington knew or approved of the involvement by Blackwater officials in raids or whether only lower-level officials in Baghdad were aware of what happened on the ground.
The new details of Blackwater’s involvement in Iraq come at a time when the House Intelligence Committee is investigating the company’s role in the C.I.A.’s assassination program, and a federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating a wide range of allegations of illegal activity by Blackwater and its personnel, including gun running to Iraq.
Several former Blackwater personnel said that Blackwater guards involved in the C.I.A. raids used weapons, including sawed-off M-4 automatic weapons with silencers, that were not approved for use by private contractors. In separate interviews, former Blackwater security personnel also said they were handpicked by senior Blackwater officials on several occasions to participate in secret flights transporting detainees around war zones.
They said that during the flights, teams of about 10 Blackwater personnel provided security over the detainees.
“A group of individuals were selected who could manage detainees without the use of lethal force,” said one former Blackwater guard who participated in one of the flights.
Intelligence officials deny that the agency has ever used Blackwater to fly high-value detainees in and out of secret C.I.A. prisons that were shut down earlier this year. Mr. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesman, said that company personnel were never involved in C.I.A. “rendition flights,” which transferred terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation.
10 December 2009
By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials.
The raids against suspects occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater personnel playing central roles in what company insiders called “snatch and grab” operations, the former employees and current and former intelligence officers said.
Several former Blackwater guards said that their involvement in the operations became so routine that the lines supposedly dividing the Central Intelligence Agency, the military and Blackwater became blurred. Instead of simply providing security for C.I.A. officers, they say, Blackwater personnel at times became partners in missions to capture or kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, a practice that raises questions about the use of guns for hire on the battlefield.
Separately, former Blackwater employees said they helped provide security on some C.I.A. flights transporting detainees in the years after the 2001 terror attacks in the United States.
The secret missions illuminate a far deeper relationship between the spy agency and the private security company than government officials had acknowledged. Blackwater’s partnership with the C.I.A. has been enormously profitable for the North Carolina-based company, and became even closer after several top agency officials joined Blackwater.
“It became a very brotherly relationship,” said one former top C.I.A. officer. “There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency.”
George Little, a C.I.A. spokesman, would not comment on Blackwater’s ties to the agency. But he said the C.I.A. employs contractors to “enhance the skills of our own work force, just as American law permits.”
“Contractors give you flexibility in shaping and managing your talent mix — especially in the short term — but the accountability’s still yours,” he said.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Blackwater, said Thursday that it was never under contract to participate in clandestine raids with the C.I.A. or with Special Operations personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.
Blackwater’s role in the secret operations raises concerns about the extent to which private security companies, hired for defensive guard duty, have joined in offensive military and intelligence operations.
Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, said in an interview that “the use of contractors in intelligence and paramilitary operations is a scandal waiting to be examined.” While he declined to comment on specific operations, Mr. Holt said that the use of contractors in such operations “got way out of hand.” He added, “It’s been very troubling to a lot of people.”
Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, has come under intense criticism for what Iraqis have described as reckless conduct by its security guards, and the company lost its lucrative State Department contract to provide diplomatic security for the United States Embassy in Baghdad earlier this year after a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
Blackwater’s ties to the C.I.A. have emerged in recent months, beginning with disclosures in The New York Times that the agency had hired the company as part of a program to assassinate leaders of Al Qaeda and to assist in the C.I.A.’s Predator drone program in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, recently initiated an internal review examining all Blackwater contracts with the agency to ensure that the company was performing no missions that were “operational in nature,” according to one government official.
Five former Blackwater employees and four current and former American intelligence officials interviewed for this article would speak only on condition of anonymity because Blackwater’s activities for the agency were secret and former employees feared repercussions from the company. The Blackwater employees said they participated in the raids or had direct knowledge of them.
Along with the former officials, they provided few details about the targets of the raids in Iraq and Afghanistan, although they said that many of the Iraq raids were directed against members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. To corroborate the claims of the company’s involvement, a former Blackwater security guard provided photographs to The Times that he said he took during the raids. They showed detainees and armed men whom he and a former company official identified as Blackwater employees. The former intelligence officials said that Blackwater’s work with the C.I.A. in Iraq and Afghanistan had grown out of its early contracts with the spy agency to provide security for the C.I.A. stations in both countries.
In the spring of 2002, Mr. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, offered to help the spy agency guard its makeshift Afghan station in the Ariana Hotel in Kabul. Not long after Mr. Prince signed the security contract with Mr. Alvin B. Krongard (Buzzy), then the C.I.A.’s third-ranking official, dozens of Blackwater personnel — many of them former members of units of the Navy Seals or Army Delta Force — were sent to provide perimeter security for the C.I.A. station.
But the company’s role soon changed as Blackwater operatives began accompanying C.I.A. case officers on missions, according to former employees and intelligence officials.
A similar progression happened in Iraq, where Blackwater was first hired for “static security” of the Baghdad station. In addition, Blackwater was charged with providing personal security for C.I.A. officers wherever they traveled in the two countries. That meant that Blackwater personnel accompanied the officers even on offensive operations sometimes begun in conjunction with Delta Force or Navy Seals teams.
A former senior C.I.A. official said that Blackwater’s role expanded in 2005 as the Iraqi insurgency intensified. Fearful of the death or capture of one of its officers, the agency banned officers from leaving the Green Zone in Baghdad without security escorts, the official said.
That gave Blackwater greater influence over C.I.A. clandestine operations, since company personnel helped decide the safest way to conduct the missions.
The former American intelligence officials said that Blackwater guards were supposed to only provide perimeter security during raids, leaving it up to C.I.A. officers and Special Operations military personnel to capture or kill suspected insurgents or other targets.
“They were supposed to be the outer layer of the onion, out on the perimeter,” said one former Blackwater official of the security guards. Instead, “they were the drivers and the gunslingers,” said one former intelligence official.
But in the chaos of the operations, the roles of Blackwater, C.I.A., and military personnel sometimes merged. Former C.I.A. officials said that Blackwater guards often appeared eager to get directly involved in the operations. Experts said that the C.I.A.’s use of contractors in clandestine operations falls into a legal gray area because of the vagueness of language laying out what tasks only government employees may perform.
Mr. P.W. Singer, an expert in contracting at the Brookings Institution, said that the types of jobs that have been outsourced in recent years make a mockery of regulations about “inherently governmental” functions.
“We keep finding functions that have been outsourced that common sense, let alone U.S. government policy, would argue should not have been handed over to a private company,” he said. “And yet we do it again, and again, and again.”
According to one former Blackwater manager, the company’s involvement with the C.I.A. raids was “widely known” by Blackwater executives. “It was virtually continuous, and hundreds of guys were involved, rotating in and out,” over a period of several years, the former Blackwater manager said.
One former Blackwater guard recalled a meeting in Baghdad in 2004 in which Erik Prince addressed a group of Blackwater guards working with the C.I.A. At the meeting in an air hangar used by Blackwater, the guard said, Mr. Prince encouraged the Blackwater personnel “to do whatever it takes” to help the C.I.A. with the intensifying insurgency, the former guard recalled.
But it is not clear whether top C.I.A. officials in Washington knew or approved of the involvement by Blackwater officials in raids or whether only lower-level officials in Baghdad were aware of what happened on the ground.
The new details of Blackwater’s involvement in Iraq come at a time when the House Intelligence Committee is investigating the company’s role in the C.I.A.’s assassination program, and a federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating a wide range of allegations of illegal activity by Blackwater and its personnel, including gun running to Iraq.
Several former Blackwater personnel said that Blackwater guards involved in the C.I.A. raids used weapons, including sawed-off M-4 automatic weapons with silencers, that were not approved for use by private contractors. In separate interviews, former Blackwater security personnel also said they were handpicked by senior Blackwater officials on several occasions to participate in secret flights transporting detainees around war zones.
They said that during the flights, teams of about 10 Blackwater personnel provided security over the detainees.
“A group of individuals were selected who could manage detainees without the use of lethal force,” said one former Blackwater guard who participated in one of the flights.
Intelligence officials deny that the agency has ever used Blackwater to fly high-value detainees in and out of secret C.I.A. prisons that were shut down earlier this year. Mr. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesman, said that company personnel were never involved in C.I.A. “rendition flights,” which transferred terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation.
10 December, 2009
US spy drones are latest weapon in fight against Somali piracy.
Times Online
10 December 2009
By Tristan McConnell
US spy drones launched from the Seychelles have joined the fight against Somali piracy as the international community searches for ways to end the threat to global shipping routes.
The latest weapon in the battle against the pirates is the remote-controlled MQ9 Reaper surveillance aircraft, with a 20-metre wingspan, capable of flying sorties of up to 18 hours. The aircraft can cover vast areas of ocean much quicker than the warships deployed by the European Union, Nato, the US and other nations.
Vessels at sea almost anywhere within one million square miles of the Somali coast are at risk as pirates now regularly attack vessels as much as 1,000 miles off the African coast. Many of the recent attacks have taken place close to the Seychelles.
Joel Morgan, Transport and Environment Minister for the Seychelles, said: “This [surveillance] programme specifically will be able to help to monitor large areas and detect the presence of pirates who operate in small boats that are often difficult to spot.” The Seychelles economy has been hit hard by piracy. Tourist numbers have fallen as cruise ships and superyachts avoid the dangerous Indian Ocean waters. Income from the tuna fishing industry has also plummeted as fishing boats are targeted by pirates.
The drones deployed over the Indian Ocean are unarmed but Reapers can be equipped with a dozen Hellfire missiles and precision-guided bombs.
US military officials from the Africa Command (AFRICOM) based in Stuttgart, Germany have not ruled out arming the drones. Some analysts claim the drones will also be used to track suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia.
10 December 2009
By Tristan McConnell
US spy drones launched from the Seychelles have joined the fight against Somali piracy as the international community searches for ways to end the threat to global shipping routes.
The latest weapon in the battle against the pirates is the remote-controlled MQ9 Reaper surveillance aircraft, with a 20-metre wingspan, capable of flying sorties of up to 18 hours. The aircraft can cover vast areas of ocean much quicker than the warships deployed by the European Union, Nato, the US and other nations.
Vessels at sea almost anywhere within one million square miles of the Somali coast are at risk as pirates now regularly attack vessels as much as 1,000 miles off the African coast. Many of the recent attacks have taken place close to the Seychelles.
Joel Morgan, Transport and Environment Minister for the Seychelles, said: “This [surveillance] programme specifically will be able to help to monitor large areas and detect the presence of pirates who operate in small boats that are often difficult to spot.” The Seychelles economy has been hit hard by piracy. Tourist numbers have fallen as cruise ships and superyachts avoid the dangerous Indian Ocean waters. Income from the tuna fishing industry has also plummeted as fishing boats are targeted by pirates.
The drones deployed over the Indian Ocean are unarmed but Reapers can be equipped with a dozen Hellfire missiles and precision-guided bombs.
US military officials from the Africa Command (AFRICOM) based in Stuttgart, Germany have not ruled out arming the drones. Some analysts claim the drones will also be used to track suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia.
Ukraine reaches $2.5B arms deal with Iraq.
By SIMON SHUSTER, Associated Press Writer
December 9, 2009
KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine will provide Iraq with $2.5 billion worth of weapons and military equipment under a deal intended to shore up Iraq's fledgling armed forces before the planned pullout of U.S. troops, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker said Wednesday.
Anatoly Grytsenko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's security and defense committee, said the agreement with the Iraqi ministry of defense calls for Ukraine to produce and deliver 420 BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, six AN-32B military transport planes and other military hardware to Iraq.
"It's worth around $2.5 billion," Grytsenko, who previously served as Ukraine's defense minister, told The Associated Press after being briefed on the deal Wednesday by state arms exporter UkrSpetsExport. UkrSpetsExport, which is handling the contracts, declined numerous requests for comment Wednesday.
"The deals have been concluded. They are now formalizing the contracts," Grytsenko said. "The contract is to be carried out in stages and, from what I was told, just the first stage is worth $400 million."
Grytsenko said the deal also included repair work on two Mi-8T military helicopters for Iraq.
President Barack Obama laid out plans to withdraw troops from Iraq and pass security operations in the country back to Iraqi police and armed forces.
The United States is providing billions of dollars in military aid to ready the Iraqis for the task of policing a country still plagued by insurgents and suicide bombings. A string of suicide bombings Tuesday killed at least 127 people and wounded over 500 in the Iraqi capital.
The deal will be the largest in Ukraine's history and could elevate the former Soviet nation to the ranks of the top arms dealers in the world this year, said Sergei Zgurets, head of research at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS), a Kiev-based think-tank.
December 9, 2009
KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine will provide Iraq with $2.5 billion worth of weapons and military equipment under a deal intended to shore up Iraq's fledgling armed forces before the planned pullout of U.S. troops, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker said Wednesday.
Anatoly Grytsenko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's security and defense committee, said the agreement with the Iraqi ministry of defense calls for Ukraine to produce and deliver 420 BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, six AN-32B military transport planes and other military hardware to Iraq.
"It's worth around $2.5 billion," Grytsenko, who previously served as Ukraine's defense minister, told The Associated Press after being briefed on the deal Wednesday by state arms exporter UkrSpetsExport. UkrSpetsExport, which is handling the contracts, declined numerous requests for comment Wednesday.
"The deals have been concluded. They are now formalizing the contracts," Grytsenko said. "The contract is to be carried out in stages and, from what I was told, just the first stage is worth $400 million."
Grytsenko said the deal also included repair work on two Mi-8T military helicopters for Iraq.
President Barack Obama laid out plans to withdraw troops from Iraq and pass security operations in the country back to Iraqi police and armed forces.
The United States is providing billions of dollars in military aid to ready the Iraqis for the task of policing a country still plagued by insurgents and suicide bombings. A string of suicide bombings Tuesday killed at least 127 people and wounded over 500 in the Iraqi capital.
The deal will be the largest in Ukraine's history and could elevate the former Soviet nation to the ranks of the top arms dealers in the world this year, said Sergei Zgurets, head of research at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS), a Kiev-based think-tank.
09 December, 2009
Chinese Firms Pour Millions Into Zimbabwe.
The Herald (Gov-owned newspaper)
9 December 2009
Zimbabwe and two Chinese investors on Monday signed four multi-million dollar deals that will see the Asian companies investing in the mining and transport sectors.
The memoranda of understanding signed between the Government and China International Fund and Sino-Zimbabwe Development Company will see investment in the construction of the Harare-Chitungwiza and Harare-Gweru railway lines, the extension of the Harare International Airport runway and a new taxi way in addition to aviation consultancy.
The Chinese will also pump in US$90 million for the resuscitation of Connemara Gold Mine near Gweru.
US$10 million will, within the next three days, be invested in diamond mining at Chiadzwa.
Speaking after the signing of the MoUs, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda said the agreements were a sign of the ever-strengthening relations between Zimbabwe and China.
He said China continued to have confidence in Zimbabwe in spite of the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West.
"This is an acknowledgement of the confidence China International Fund and Sino-Zimbabwe Development Company have in our economy.
"This comes at a time when there are some in the international community who are sceptical of our inclusive Government," Dr Sibanda said.
He reiterated calls for the removal of the illegal sanctions that have crippled the economy.
"I want to assure you and other investors that the President and the Government of Zimbabwe will continue to make the environment for investment conducive.
"The handicaps we had and the crippling sanctions did not bar you to come and assist us and you really are our friends indeed. We continue to call on those who have imposed sanctions to come on board and immediately remove these sanctions," Dr Sibanda said.
He said Zimbabwe was ready to work with any country and said Government would ensure the quick implementation of investment deals.
A representative of the investors said the signing of the MoUs was another example of the benefits of South-South co-operation and promised that China would continue to look for more investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.
"Today is a big day for Zimbabwe's Government and for us. This is based on the spirit of South-South co-operation.
"Today's achievements are a demonstration of the good relations between Zimbabwe and China and we believe there are more and more areas we can participate in and co-operate," he said.
The construction of the Harare-Chitungwiza railway line has been on the drawing board for a number of years and its completion will ease transport woes and costs for commuters who ply the route daily.
The extension of the airport runway and the taxi way has been noted as one way of luring back major airlines as Zimbabwe will be able to handle larger traffic volumes, especially with the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa only seven months away.
Only two weeks ago, Zimbabwe and another Chinese joint venture investment company, Sonangol, signed five investment deals worth over US$8 billion covering oil and gas exploration, gold and platinum refining, fuel procurement and distribution, and housing development.
The investment has flown in the face of claims that Zimbabwe's Look East Policy has not paid dividends.
9 December 2009
Zimbabwe and two Chinese investors on Monday signed four multi-million dollar deals that will see the Asian companies investing in the mining and transport sectors.
The memoranda of understanding signed between the Government and China International Fund and Sino-Zimbabwe Development Company will see investment in the construction of the Harare-Chitungwiza and Harare-Gweru railway lines, the extension of the Harare International Airport runway and a new taxi way in addition to aviation consultancy.
The Chinese will also pump in US$90 million for the resuscitation of Connemara Gold Mine near Gweru.
US$10 million will, within the next three days, be invested in diamond mining at Chiadzwa.
Speaking after the signing of the MoUs, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda said the agreements were a sign of the ever-strengthening relations between Zimbabwe and China.
He said China continued to have confidence in Zimbabwe in spite of the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West.
"This is an acknowledgement of the confidence China International Fund and Sino-Zimbabwe Development Company have in our economy.
"This comes at a time when there are some in the international community who are sceptical of our inclusive Government," Dr Sibanda said.
He reiterated calls for the removal of the illegal sanctions that have crippled the economy.
"I want to assure you and other investors that the President and the Government of Zimbabwe will continue to make the environment for investment conducive.
"The handicaps we had and the crippling sanctions did not bar you to come and assist us and you really are our friends indeed. We continue to call on those who have imposed sanctions to come on board and immediately remove these sanctions," Dr Sibanda said.
He said Zimbabwe was ready to work with any country and said Government would ensure the quick implementation of investment deals.
A representative of the investors said the signing of the MoUs was another example of the benefits of South-South co-operation and promised that China would continue to look for more investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.
"Today is a big day for Zimbabwe's Government and for us. This is based on the spirit of South-South co-operation.
"Today's achievements are a demonstration of the good relations between Zimbabwe and China and we believe there are more and more areas we can participate in and co-operate," he said.
The construction of the Harare-Chitungwiza railway line has been on the drawing board for a number of years and its completion will ease transport woes and costs for commuters who ply the route daily.
The extension of the airport runway and the taxi way has been noted as one way of luring back major airlines as Zimbabwe will be able to handle larger traffic volumes, especially with the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa only seven months away.
Only two weeks ago, Zimbabwe and another Chinese joint venture investment company, Sonangol, signed five investment deals worth over US$8 billion covering oil and gas exploration, gold and platinum refining, fuel procurement and distribution, and housing development.
The investment has flown in the face of claims that Zimbabwe's Look East Policy has not paid dividends.
Nigeria: FG - China's $50bn Oil Offer Still on Course.
This Day
Chika Amanze-Nwachuku
9 December 2009
China has not given up on its attempt to become a player in the Nigerian oil industry. Consequently, the $50 billion offer to the Federal Government to enable it acquire 49 per cent stake is still on the table. This translates to some six billion barrels in oil reserves.
Several state-run Chinese oil firms, including the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are currently in talks with the government to advance the Asian country's interests. Their business proposals include incursions into some oil blocks held by Royal Dutch Shell.
The Presidential Adviser on Energy Matters, Mr. Emmanuel Egbogah, said the deal which was proposed in June could help the country fund its joint ventures with oil majors. "Chinese people are not buying fields ... they want to acquire reserves in Nigeria. Specifically the application was to acquire reserves of six billion barrels which we are currently discussing," Egbogah explained on the sidelines of an energy conference in New Delhi, India. "They are prepared to spend as much as $50 billion," he told Reuters.
He also said that the country's inability to fund its joint ventures with International Oil Companies (IOCs) had negatively impacted capital expenditure requirements for increasing production levels from the existing joint venture fields. He disclosed that Nigeria's funding shortfall had steadily increased to $6 billion from a few million dollars when joint venture arrangements were created in the early 1970s. The funding shortfall has forced Nigeria to consider alternative ways to bridge the gap. Shell, ExxonMobil and Total have all had to provide billions of dollars in bridge financing to the Nigerian National Petr-oleum Corporation (NNPC) to plug funding shortfalls.
Egbogah however affirmed that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), expected to be passed into law this month, would address a lot of problems faced by the industry. Reuters quoted unnamed industry executives as saying that Nigeria is using the spectre of a Chinese bid for its oil as leverage in difficult contract renewal negotiations with its existing Western oil partners. Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajum-ogobia, had in September stated that China would not be given all the reserves it was seeking. But the NNPC could sell stakes in joint ventures with existing oil partners if Beijing offered the right price.
THIS DAY had reported that CNOOC recently made a $50 billion offer to the Federal Government under the auspices of Sunrise Consortium. The report was being given consideration as instructions had gone out for the data on the blocks to be released to Sunrise by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). A negotiating committee was said to have been set up in NNPC to handle discussions with the company. The committee is to consider the request and determine an optimum price for the reserves in the blocks.
The IOCs had expected the automatic renewal of licences that expired last year. But the Federal Government stalled that move, preferring to renew them for only one year in order to take into account the realities of the present times with the passage of the PIB.
After intense horse-trading, the Federal Government last month renewed three shallow water oil licences jointly operated by the NNPC and ExxonMobil, granting the US energy giant leases a further 20 years with the option to renew again. Other western oil companies including Shell, Chevron and Total have commenced negotiation on their oil licences as well as new deals ahead of the passage of the PIB.
In a related development, a pipeline feeding the Nigerian crude grade Qua Iboe has ruptured, according to West African crude trading sources. The unnamed pipeline, according to a source, is able to feed between 120 -140,000 b/d to the crude grade. He said the cause was unknown but was "apparently not sabotage." Qua Iboe is one of Nigeria 's key crude grades and produces around 400,000 b/d, according to Qua Iboe terminal operator ExxonMobil.
Chika Amanze-Nwachuku
9 December 2009
China has not given up on its attempt to become a player in the Nigerian oil industry. Consequently, the $50 billion offer to the Federal Government to enable it acquire 49 per cent stake is still on the table. This translates to some six billion barrels in oil reserves.
Several state-run Chinese oil firms, including the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are currently in talks with the government to advance the Asian country's interests. Their business proposals include incursions into some oil blocks held by Royal Dutch Shell.
The Presidential Adviser on Energy Matters, Mr. Emmanuel Egbogah, said the deal which was proposed in June could help the country fund its joint ventures with oil majors. "Chinese people are not buying fields ... they want to acquire reserves in Nigeria. Specifically the application was to acquire reserves of six billion barrels which we are currently discussing," Egbogah explained on the sidelines of an energy conference in New Delhi, India. "They are prepared to spend as much as $50 billion," he told Reuters.
He also said that the country's inability to fund its joint ventures with International Oil Companies (IOCs) had negatively impacted capital expenditure requirements for increasing production levels from the existing joint venture fields. He disclosed that Nigeria's funding shortfall had steadily increased to $6 billion from a few million dollars when joint venture arrangements were created in the early 1970s. The funding shortfall has forced Nigeria to consider alternative ways to bridge the gap. Shell, ExxonMobil and Total have all had to provide billions of dollars in bridge financing to the Nigerian National Petr-oleum Corporation (NNPC) to plug funding shortfalls.
Egbogah however affirmed that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), expected to be passed into law this month, would address a lot of problems faced by the industry. Reuters quoted unnamed industry executives as saying that Nigeria is using the spectre of a Chinese bid for its oil as leverage in difficult contract renewal negotiations with its existing Western oil partners. Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajum-ogobia, had in September stated that China would not be given all the reserves it was seeking. But the NNPC could sell stakes in joint ventures with existing oil partners if Beijing offered the right price.
THIS DAY had reported that CNOOC recently made a $50 billion offer to the Federal Government under the auspices of Sunrise Consortium. The report was being given consideration as instructions had gone out for the data on the blocks to be released to Sunrise by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). A negotiating committee was said to have been set up in NNPC to handle discussions with the company. The committee is to consider the request and determine an optimum price for the reserves in the blocks.
The IOCs had expected the automatic renewal of licences that expired last year. But the Federal Government stalled that move, preferring to renew them for only one year in order to take into account the realities of the present times with the passage of the PIB.
After intense horse-trading, the Federal Government last month renewed three shallow water oil licences jointly operated by the NNPC and ExxonMobil, granting the US energy giant leases a further 20 years with the option to renew again. Other western oil companies including Shell, Chevron and Total have commenced negotiation on their oil licences as well as new deals ahead of the passage of the PIB.
In a related development, a pipeline feeding the Nigerian crude grade Qua Iboe has ruptured, according to West African crude trading sources. The unnamed pipeline, according to a source, is able to feed between 120 -140,000 b/d to the crude grade. He said the cause was unknown but was "apparently not sabotage." Qua Iboe is one of Nigeria 's key crude grades and produces around 400,000 b/d, according to Qua Iboe terminal operator ExxonMobil.
08 December, 2009
White House wants suit against John Yoo dismissed.
San Francisco Chronicle
By Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does not allow damage claims against lawyers who advise the president on national security issues.
Such lawsuits ask courts to second-guess presidential decisions and pose "the risk of deterring full and frank advice regarding the military's detention and treatment of those determined to be enemies during an armed conflict," Justice Department lawyers said Thursday in arguments to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Other sanctions are available for government lawyers who commit misconduct, the department said. It noted that its Office of Professional Responsibility has been investigating Yoo's advice to former President George W. Bush since 2004 and has the power to recommend professional discipline or even criminal prosecution.
The office has not made its conclusions public. However, The Chronicle and other media reported in May that the office will recommend that Yoo be referred to the bar association for possible discipline, but that he not be prosecuted.
Mr. Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, worked for the Justice Department from 2001 to 2003. He was the author of a 2002 memo that said rough treatment of captives amounts to torture only if it causes the same level of pain as "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." The memo also said the president may have the power to authorize torture of enemy combatants.
In the current lawsuit, Jose Padilla, now serving a 17-year sentence for conspiring to aid Islamic extremist groups, accuses Yoo of devising legal theories that justified what he claims was his illegal detention and abusive interrogation.
The Justice Department represented Yoo until June, when a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the suit could proceed. The department then bowed out, citing unspecified conflicts, and was replaced by a government-paid private lawyer.
Yoo's new attorney, Miguel Estrada, argued for dismissal in a filing last month, saying the case interfered with presidential war-making authority and threatened to "open the floodgates to politically motivated lawsuits" against government officials. The Justice Department's filing Thursday endorsed the request for dismissal but offered narrower arguments, noting its continuing investigation of Yoo.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and accused of plotting with al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb." He was held for three years and eight months in a Navy brig, where, according to his suit, he was subjected to sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation and stress positions, kept for lengthy periods in darkness and blinding light, and threatened with death to himself and his family.
He was then removed from the brig, charged with and convicted of taking part in an unrelated conspiracy to provide money and supplies to extremist groups.
Padilla's suit says Yoo approved his detention in the brig and provided the legal cover for his allegedly abusive treatment. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White refused to dismiss the case in June.
The Justice Department's filing Thursday said Padilla is asking the courts to determine the legality of Yoo's advice, Bush's decision to detain Padilla, the conditions of his confinement and the methods of his interrogation - all "matters of war and national security" that are beyond judicial authority.
By Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does not allow damage claims against lawyers who advise the president on national security issues.
Such lawsuits ask courts to second-guess presidential decisions and pose "the risk of deterring full and frank advice regarding the military's detention and treatment of those determined to be enemies during an armed conflict," Justice Department lawyers said Thursday in arguments to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Other sanctions are available for government lawyers who commit misconduct, the department said. It noted that its Office of Professional Responsibility has been investigating Yoo's advice to former President George W. Bush since 2004 and has the power to recommend professional discipline or even criminal prosecution.
The office has not made its conclusions public. However, The Chronicle and other media reported in May that the office will recommend that Yoo be referred to the bar association for possible discipline, but that he not be prosecuted.
Mr. Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, worked for the Justice Department from 2001 to 2003. He was the author of a 2002 memo that said rough treatment of captives amounts to torture only if it causes the same level of pain as "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." The memo also said the president may have the power to authorize torture of enemy combatants.
In the current lawsuit, Jose Padilla, now serving a 17-year sentence for conspiring to aid Islamic extremist groups, accuses Yoo of devising legal theories that justified what he claims was his illegal detention and abusive interrogation.
The Justice Department represented Yoo until June, when a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the suit could proceed. The department then bowed out, citing unspecified conflicts, and was replaced by a government-paid private lawyer.
Yoo's new attorney, Miguel Estrada, argued for dismissal in a filing last month, saying the case interfered with presidential war-making authority and threatened to "open the floodgates to politically motivated lawsuits" against government officials. The Justice Department's filing Thursday endorsed the request for dismissal but offered narrower arguments, noting its continuing investigation of Yoo.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and accused of plotting with al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb." He was held for three years and eight months in a Navy brig, where, according to his suit, he was subjected to sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation and stress positions, kept for lengthy periods in darkness and blinding light, and threatened with death to himself and his family.
He was then removed from the brig, charged with and convicted of taking part in an unrelated conspiracy to provide money and supplies to extremist groups.
Padilla's suit says Yoo approved his detention in the brig and provided the legal cover for his allegedly abusive treatment. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White refused to dismiss the case in June.
The Justice Department's filing Thursday said Padilla is asking the courts to determine the legality of Yoo's advice, Bush's decision to detain Padilla, the conditions of his confinement and the methods of his interrogation - all "matters of war and national security" that are beyond judicial authority.
07 December, 2009
PRIEST KILLED NEAR BUKAVU.
MISNA
7 December 2009
A Congolese priest, Father Daniel Cizimya, was killed on Saturday night by unidentified gunmen in the presbytery of his parish in Kabare, 15km from the city of Bukavu in the north-eastern province of South Kivu, Fr. Justin Nkinzi of the diocesan Justice and Peace told MISNA. Fr. Cizimya, 51, born in Kabare, was shot twice at point blank and few objects of little value were stolen by the killers before fleeing the scene. The local clergy are under shock at yet another act of violence against religious personnel in the region, theatre to widely denounced renewed insecurity. “Despite intimidation, we know that our villages belong to us, we have to protect them and learn to live in them. Despite everything, we must have courage”, wrote in a message Monsignor Pierre Bulambo Lunanga, vicar general of Bukavu, denouncing the spread of “a culture of trivialising life and of impunity”. The death of Fr. Daniel sparked tension in Kabare: an angry crowd intercepted a car yesterday with three people onboard suspected to be connected to the priest’s death; a person was killed and various wounded after the police intervened to restore order.
7 December 2009
A Congolese priest, Father Daniel Cizimya, was killed on Saturday night by unidentified gunmen in the presbytery of his parish in Kabare, 15km from the city of Bukavu in the north-eastern province of South Kivu, Fr. Justin Nkinzi of the diocesan Justice and Peace told MISNA. Fr. Cizimya, 51, born in Kabare, was shot twice at point blank and few objects of little value were stolen by the killers before fleeing the scene. The local clergy are under shock at yet another act of violence against religious personnel in the region, theatre to widely denounced renewed insecurity. “Despite intimidation, we know that our villages belong to us, we have to protect them and learn to live in them. Despite everything, we must have courage”, wrote in a message Monsignor Pierre Bulambo Lunanga, vicar general of Bukavu, denouncing the spread of “a culture of trivialising life and of impunity”. The death of Fr. Daniel sparked tension in Kabare: an angry crowd intercepted a car yesterday with three people onboard suspected to be connected to the priest’s death; a person was killed and various wounded after the police intervened to restore order.
ITALIAN JOURNALIST SHOT DEAD IN HAITI.
MISNA
7 December 2009
Francesco Fantoli, who collaborated with the Haiti Press Network, was shot on Saturday night by unidentified gunmen and died after undergoing surgery at a hospital run by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Trinité, in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Fantoli, who had lived in Haiti for over 12 years, was a big soccer fan and was known for sports commentary on local television, including the Italian soccer championship that is very followed in Haiti. He recently founded a soccer school that he was due to inaugurate on January 20 in Jacme, a southern coastal city where he had a home and opened a movie-club projecting and commenting films every Saturday night. “In Francesco’s restaurant you could eat pasta he personally prepared for clients”, writes the ‘Haiti en marche’ news site, emphasising that in his activities the Italian always attempted to portray a positive image of Haiti. Fantoli made a series of reportage for the Europe Union office in Haiti on the daily life of the country, for which he received an award.
7 December 2009
Francesco Fantoli, who collaborated with the Haiti Press Network, was shot on Saturday night by unidentified gunmen and died after undergoing surgery at a hospital run by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Trinité, in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Fantoli, who had lived in Haiti for over 12 years, was a big soccer fan and was known for sports commentary on local television, including the Italian soccer championship that is very followed in Haiti. He recently founded a soccer school that he was due to inaugurate on January 20 in Jacme, a southern coastal city where he had a home and opened a movie-club projecting and commenting films every Saturday night. “In Francesco’s restaurant you could eat pasta he personally prepared for clients”, writes the ‘Haiti en marche’ news site, emphasising that in his activities the Italian always attempted to portray a positive image of Haiti. Fantoli made a series of reportage for the Europe Union office in Haiti on the daily life of the country, for which he received an award.
ITALIAN JOURNALIST SHOT DEAD IN HAITI.
MISNA
7 December 2009
Francesco Fantoli, who collaborated with the Haiti Press Network, was shot on Saturday night by unidentified gunmen and died after undergoing surgery at a hospital run by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Trinité, in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Fantoli, who had lived in Haiti for over 12 years, was a big soccer fan and was known for sports commentary on local television, including the Italian soccer championship that is very followed in Haiti. He recently founded a soccer school that he was due to inaugurate on January 20 in Jacme, a southern coastal city where he had a home and opened a movie-club projecting and commenting films every Saturday night. “In Francesco’s restaurant you could eat pasta he personally prepared for clients”, writes the ‘Haiti en marche’ news site, emphasising that in his activities the Italian always attempted to portray a positive image of Haiti. Fantoli made a series of reportage for the Europe Union office in Haiti on the daily life of the country, for which he received an award.
7 December 2009
Francesco Fantoli, who collaborated with the Haiti Press Network, was shot on Saturday night by unidentified gunmen and died after undergoing surgery at a hospital run by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Trinité, in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Fantoli, who had lived in Haiti for over 12 years, was a big soccer fan and was known for sports commentary on local television, including the Italian soccer championship that is very followed in Haiti. He recently founded a soccer school that he was due to inaugurate on January 20 in Jacme, a southern coastal city where he had a home and opened a movie-club projecting and commenting films every Saturday night. “In Francesco’s restaurant you could eat pasta he personally prepared for clients”, writes the ‘Haiti en marche’ news site, emphasising that in his activities the Italian always attempted to portray a positive image of Haiti. Fantoli made a series of reportage for the Europe Union office in Haiti on the daily life of the country, for which he received an award.
Ethiopian Government Repression of the Free Press Freedom Continues.
Voice of America/Reporters Without Borders
7 December 2009
One of Ethiopia's best-read non-government weekly newspapers has shut down and three of its senior staff have fled the country. The editors of Addis Neger say they have faced a government campaign of intimidation and black propaganda.
The closure of the Amharic-language newspaper, known for its lively discussion of political issues, comes as campaigning heats up in advance of next May's parliamentary election.
In a news release, the paper's editors blamed their decision to close on what they called "another crackdown on free speech and freedom of the press in Ethiopia".
The Paris-based press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, condemned the "climate of fear" prevailing in Ethiopia. It says the spectre of the media and opposition crackdown that followed the disputed 2005 election is resurfacing.
7 December 2009
One of Ethiopia's best-read non-government weekly newspapers has shut down and three of its senior staff have fled the country. The editors of Addis Neger say they have faced a government campaign of intimidation and black propaganda.
The closure of the Amharic-language newspaper, known for its lively discussion of political issues, comes as campaigning heats up in advance of next May's parliamentary election.
In a news release, the paper's editors blamed their decision to close on what they called "another crackdown on free speech and freedom of the press in Ethiopia".
The Paris-based press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, condemned the "climate of fear" prevailing in Ethiopia. It says the spectre of the media and opposition crackdown that followed the disputed 2005 election is resurfacing.
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