The WoI Diplopolititary Brief

Frustrated at their inability to break the military deadlock in Libya and to stop the shelling of civilian areas, NATO commanders are expanding their air war by launching strikes against military command facilities and other regime buildings used by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and his top aides. – Los Angeles Times

NATO plans to step up attacks on the palaces, headquarters and communications centers that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi uses to maintain his grip on power in Libya, according to Obama administration and allied officials. – New York Times

The commander of NATO operations in Libya said Tuesday that alliance bombers attacked a large government compound in Tripoli on Monday to destroy command and control nodes, and not to assassinate Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi. – Washington Post

In a rare interview at her charitable foundation here, Ms. Qaddafi, 36, a Libyan-trained lawyer who once worked on Saddam Hussein’s legal defense team, offered a glimpse into the fatalistic mind-set of the increasingly isolated family at the core of the battle for Libya, the bloodiest arena in the democratic uprising that is sweeping the region. – New York Times

Military deadlock in Libya has exposed growing international rifts, with critics of NATO bombing calling it another case of the West trying to overthrow a regime by stretching the terms of a U.N. resolution. – Reuters

Libya imported gasoline from Italian refiner Saras in early April, taking advantage of a loophole in United Nations sanctions that permits purchases by companies not on a U.N. list of banned entities. – Reuters

The Libyan army has reinforced positions around the eastern oil town of Brega and dug in its long-range missile batteries to conceal them from attacks by NATO warplanes, a rebel army officer said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Libya’s rebel army has replaced ragtag volunteers with polished officers to guard the flash-point eastern town of Ajdabiyah, as it seeks to bolster its image as a credible adversary of Muammar Gaddafi. – Reuters

A delegation of Libyan officials is in Venezuela to discuss possible peaceful solutions to the war in the North African country, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Syria

Syrian troops sustained their bloody crackdown against anti-government protesters in the southern town of Daraa for a second day Tuesday, drawing harsh condemnations but no specific plans for action against Damascus from U.S. and European leaders. – Washington Post

Syria, facing mounting global pressure over its decisions to move tanks into cities against its own citizens and to shoot unarmed demonstrators, tried to defend its record against blunt denunciations from the United States and others on Tuesday at the United Nations, where the Security Council is struggling to forge a collective response. – New York Times

The United Nations Security Council adjourned without agreeing to condemn Syria’s military crackdown on dissent, as residents of the southern epicenter of protests described shelling, explosions, gunfire and more deaths on the streets. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Syria’s bloody crackdown on protesters — which seemed to signal a new, harrowing chapter in a conflict that has already killed nearly 400 people — provoked growing international concern on Tuesday with calls for the violence to stop and talk of possible sanctions. – New York Times

Underscoring sharp distinctions in Western responses to violent repression in the Arab world, Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, said on Wednesday that, despite hundreds of deaths of the streets of Syria, it was “not too late” for President Bashar al-Assad to enact reforms to end the crisis. – New York Times

Moved by escalating violence in Syria, European leaders warned Tuesday that they will impose new sanctions on Damascus unless President Bashar al-Assad halts his bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters. – Washington Post

Unrest roiling Syria, a linchpin state in the Middle East, is shaking the region in ways that even the revolution in Egypt did not, threatening to upend some longstanding alliances and encouraging neighbors to scramble for sudden advantage. – Los Angeles Times

The United States has evidence of active Iranian support for the Syrian government’s “abhorent and deplorable” crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said late Tuesday. – Associated Press

A convoy of at least 30 Syrian army tanks was seen moving on tank carriers on the Damascus circular highway on Wednesday, a witness told Reuters. – Reuters

Syrian security forces have shot dead at least 400 civilians in their campaign to crush month-long pro-democracy protests, Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Human rights groups and a growing number of governments are working to prevent Syria from being elected to the U.N.’s top human rights body, as President Bashar Assad’s security forces crack down on pro-democracy protesters. – Associated Press

U.S. and British defense chiefs played down on Tuesday the possibility of a Libya-style intervention in Syria, with Britain’s Liam Fox saying there were “practical limitations” to Western military power. – Reuters

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan voiced concern on Tuesday over Syria’s violent crackdown on demonstrators and said he was sending an envoy to meet President Bashar al-Assad and encourage him to move toward democracy. – Reuters

Members of the Syrian opposition meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday pleaded for international help to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to halt a brutal crackdown on a popular revolt. – Reuters

Josh Rogin reports: Two weeks ago, however, the mood inside the administration changed in response to Assad’s brutal crackdown and the realization that he was not listening to pro-reform voices from inside or outside Syria. After a series of deliberations, culminating in a Deputies Committee meeting at the National Security Council last week, a new policy course was set. In the coming days, expect a new executive order on Syria, a draft presidential statement at the U.N. Security Council, new designations of Syrian officials as targets of sanctions, and a firmer tone on the violence that will include references to Iran’s unhelpful influence on Syria’s crackdown. – The Cable

Editorial: The Obama Administration’s single biggest strategic failure during this Arab spring has been not distinguishing between enemies and friends. Syria’s House of Assad is an enemy. The sooner the Administration abandons the counsels of the Syria Lobby, the likelier it will be that Syria becomes a country worth lobbying for. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Egypt

Key members of the youth alliance that led the protest wave that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said they were leaving the splintering coalition to build a new organization that will endorse political candidates, lobby for more reforms and educate the population about democracy. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

An explosion early Wednesday on a gas pipeline in the northern Sinai Peninsula cut supplies of Egyptian natural gas to Israel for the second time this year, according to Israeli and Egyptian officials, in what many here suspected was an act of sabotage by local Bedouin or possibly Palestinians. – New York Times

Protesters in Qena have ended an 11-day sit-in after Prime Minister Essam Sharaf suspended recently appointed Gov. Emad Mikhail, a Coptic Christian with ties to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. – Babylon and Beyond

In what may be a blow to the interests of Israel and the United States, Egypt has declared itself ready to re-establish links with Tehran in the wake of February’s overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak, who saw Iran’s Islamic regime as a bitter foe. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

A court adjourned Tuesday the trial of Egypt’s former interior minister on charges of killing anti-government protesters, delaying the verdict in a case seen as a test for the country’s ruling generals – Reuters

For decades, authoritarian rule and police brutality ensured the only voice heard from Egypt was that of its leaders. Since popular protests deposed President Hosni Mubarak, the silent majority has erupted into a cacophony. – Reuters

Yemen

Yemen’s government on Tuesday formally agreed to a plan that would pave the way for a peaceful transition of power, saying that a delegation from the governing party planned to travel to Saudi Arabia early next week to seal the deal. – New York Times

Clashes broke out in south Yemen between anti-government protesters who blocked roads with burning tires and security forces on Wednesday, killing one protester and two soldiers, hospital and local officials said. – Reuters

Bahrain

Bahrain ordered an Iranian diplomat to leave the island kingdom as ties between the two nations worsen and tensions rise between the Shiite powerhouse and Sunni Arab states in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. – Associated Press

United Arab Emirates

Five activists are in detention and under investigation for posing a threat to state security as the broad crackdown on dissidents in the UAE continues. – Babylon and Beyond

Tunisia

Senior members of Tunisia’s former ruling party will be banned from a July 24 election and the vote will be run by an independent body for the first time, Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi said on Tuesday – Reuters

Morocco

Morocco has agreed to raise public sector salaries in a handout estimated at more than $5 billion over three years as demands for reform put pressure on the Arab world’s longest-serving dynasty – Reuters

Iran

Two American citizens who have spent 19 months in detention in Iran, accused of espionage and illegal entry, will appear in court for a third time in May, according to their lawyer. – New York Times

Workers at the Alborz tire factory near Tehran have rallied in front of Iran’s presidential office to demand nine months’ of unpaid wages and the reopening of the plant, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Avi Jorisch writes: Most major financial institutions around the world have chosen to stop providing banking services to Iran. But some branches of designated Iranian banks are still operating in the capitals of some of American’s closest allies, in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. We need our partners to shut them down, lest they undermine the overall sanctions effort. – The Weekly Standard Blog

Iraq

Digital media have amplified the young voices of democracy ringing around the Middle East, but the flip side here is that the authorities and insurgents alike are also adept at using technology, particularly cellphones, largely unavailable here before the 2003 American invasion, as part of their arsenals of intimidation – New York Times

Iraq’s air force will need support beyond this year but any extended presence of U.S. troops would have to be supported by all the main political groups, Iraq’s prime minister said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Police officers are prime targets of a stubborn insurgency in war-ravaged Iraq: 8,813 have been killed and 7,570 wounded in the eight years since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, according to the Interior Ministry. Despite the danger, jobs with the Iraqi police, which pay at least $500 a month, are coveted in a nation trying to rebuild an economy crushed by years of war and decades of dictatorship. – Reuters

Asia
Afghanistan

Pakistan is lobbying Afghanistan’s president against building a long-term strategic partnership with the U.S., urging him instead to look to Pakistan—and its Chinese ally—for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the economy, Afghan officials say. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Government officials struggled on Tuesday, but with limited effect, to contain the damage from a spectacular jailbreak that freed 475 inmates, most presumed to be Taliban fighters, from southern Afghanistan’s largest prison. – New York Times

Afghan Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb faulted security forces for overlooking the more than 1,000-foot-long tunnel and failing to prevent the escape Sunday night and Monday morning from Kandahar’s Sarposa prison. Authorities estimate that militants spent five months digging the tunnel…But Ghaleb also blamed foreign troops, noting that Canadian forces had been stationed at the prison in the past, and that U.S. troops had been building living quarters and judicial offices at the prison for four months as the tunnel took shape beneath them. – Los Angeles Times

Six NATO service members were killed on Wednesday by a gunman wearing an Afghan Air Force uniform while attending a meeting of foreign and Afghan officers on the military side of Kabul International Airport, according to statements from Afghan and NATO spokesmen. – New York Times

The Obama administration is preparing to nominate Ryan Crocker to be the next U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, putting one of the nation’s most experienced diplomats in charge of the civilian side of the flagging U.S.-led war effort there, a White House official confirmed. – National Journal

The arrest in March of the suspected insurgent was one of many hard-fought victories the 3/5 Marines were savoring during their last weeks in Sangin. Even by Marine Corps standards and the long history of one of its most decorated battalions, their tour that ended this month was brutal. – San Diego Union-Tribune

John Bolton writes: There should be no mistake that a politically driven withdrawal of substantial U.S. forces will squander the victories won in Afghanistan since the 2009 surge. It will signal to the Taliban and Al Qaeda that their long travail is nearing an end. And it will signal to radicals in Pakistan and elsewhere that they too can act against the U.S. ultimately with impunity. All of these results will endanger not just the United States but peace and security worldwide. – Los Angeles Times

Pakistan

At least four people were killed in the southern port city of Karachi on Tuesday in bombings that struck two buses carrying Pakistani naval employees, a senior naval official said. At least 56 people were wounded. – New York Times

Pakistan’s interior minister strongly defended the country’s top spy agency on Tuesday after the publication of leaked documents revealed the U.S. military classified it as a terrorist support entity. – Reuters

China

China is known as an aggressor in cyberspace, but hundreds of Beijing’s own government networks are vulnerable to cyber-attack, says one security expert whose hobby is finding back doors into Chinese computer systems. – Washington Times

The Chinese government warned on Tuesday against using human rights disputes as what it called a tool to meddle, ahead of talks with the United States that will focus on complaints about Beijing’s crackdown on dissent. – Reuters

The harsh logic of China’s one-child policy is starting to unravel, and census data to be released on Thursday may well stoke debate whether the aging nation should relax restrictions. Demographers worry that without change, China will become the first country in the world to age before it gets rich. – Reuters

Chinese police have seized more than 26 tonnes of milk powder tainted with melamine from a ice cream maker in a southwestern city, state media said, three years after milk tainted with the industrial chemical killed six and made thousands ill. – Reuters

Tibet

Tibetan exiles elected a Harvard law scholar as their political leader, who is likely to bring in a more radical government-in-exile to challenge China after the Dalai Lama moved to relinquish his political role. – Reuters

Australia

China aspires to play a greater role in Australia’s economy, one of the country’s top leaders said Tuesday, signaling Beijing’s aspirations for its companies to make inroads beyond simply extracting resources. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Japan

Investigators may take months or years to decide to what extent safety problems or weak regulation contributed to the disaster at Daiichi, the worst of its kind since Chernobyl. But as troubles at the plant and fears over radiation continue to rattle the nation, the Japanese are increasingly raising the possibility that a culture of complicity made the plant especially vulnerable to the natural disaster that struck the country on March 11. – New York Times

The Japanese government said Tuesday it had bumped the president of the utility running Japan’s stricken nuclear power plant from a military transport flight a few hours after a tsunami triggered an accident there, saying it needed the plane to fly supplies to the battered northeast. – Wall Street Journal

The reconstruction of Japanese towns and cities devastated by a deadly earthquake and tsunami last month could take a decade, an advisory panel to the government tasked with coming up with a blueprint for rebuilding said on Tuesday. – Reuters

Koreas

Imjingak, the site of a ferocious battle during the Korean War, has become a favored launching site for some of the South Korean activists who send propaganda balloons northward…It is flying season now, with robust winds blowing through the Korean Peninsula, and the activists are eager to get their balloons and leaflets in the air. Some of the balloonists are political agitators, others are Christian proselytizers, most are North Korean defectors. If the wind is at their backs, they say, millions of leaflets will be sent aloft in the coming weeks. – New York Times

A North Korean patrol boat briefly crossed a tense maritime border with rival South Korea late on Tuesday before retreating when the South’s navy fired warning shots, the military said on Wednesday. – Reuters

Southeast Asia

Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said the U.S. needs to put its fiscal house in order to recover its competitiveness and suggested U.S. President Barack Obama would improve both his re-election chances and U.S. standing in Asia if he finds a way to work with Republicans and “tackles this problem.” – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party will face its biggest election fight since the city-state’s independence, as opposition parties contest a record number of seats in the May 7 general elections. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

A Vietnamese appeals court on Tuesday reduced the jail sentence given to a former Communist Party official turned democracy activist convicted of posting articles on the Internet calling for a multiparty system and democracy, his wife said. – Associated Press

Thai and Cambodian troops clashed with heavy artillery for a sixth day on Wednesday near two disputed 12th-century Hindu temples, the Cambodian defense ministry said following a night of shelling that killed a Thai villager. – Reuters

James Goldston writes: More than 30 years after the murderous Khmer Rouge were driven from power in Cambodia, the U.N.-backed effort to bring justice to the victims of the killing fields stands on the brink of ignominious failure due to political interference from the Cambodian government and the indifference of the international community. – International Herald Tribune

Russia/Europe
Russia

An independent commission appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev has accused Russian police of fabricating charges against an anticorruption lawyer whose death in prison sparked an international outcry. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The Russian military successfully test launched a Sineva ballistic missile from a submarine in the Arctic on April 26, the Interfax news agency quoted a Defense Ministry spokesman as saying. – AFP

France

Al Qaeda’s north African branch released messages from four French hostages it kidnapped in Niger, who called for France to respond to the militant group’s demand that France withdraw troops from Afghanistan. – Reuters

Belarus

Russia and Belarus may agree on terms of a loan to the cash-strapped former Soviet republic within two to three weeks, a Russian Finance Ministry official said Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

A prominent Belarus opposition leader arrested in a crackdown after President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s disputed election victory on trial on April 27 on charges of organizing mass protests. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Azerbaijan

The offices of the Azerbaijani opposition Musavat Party were raided in Baku by police and investigators on April 26, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Africa
Congo

A new U.S. law requires publicly traded companies to ensure key minerals in their products aren’t coming from the Congo’s rebel-controlled mines…The Dodd-Frank financial-regulation law, enacted last year, identifies four minerals—tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold—that are mined in the Congo and are blamed for helping to fund violent conflict there – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Rape in Congo is widespread and often systematic. Despite a few high-profile prosecutions this year, activists say, impunity for rape is common and soldiers and civilians continue to rape without fear of retribution…Activists say rape in Congo rips apart lives and communities, drives the people further into poverty and continues to be a weapon in the war that has claimed more than 5 million lives since it began in 1996. – Washington Times

Ivory Coast

Cocoa exports from Ivory Coast resumed last week, marking the first shipments of the commodity since the seizure of former president Laurent Gbagbo. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Criminal investigations against former president Laurent Gbagbo, his wife and 100 other people in his close circle have begun, Ivory Coast’s new government said on Wednesday. – Reuters

Americas
United States of America

The U.S. military involvement in Libya should prompt lawmakers to rethink U.S. involvement in NATO, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Tuesday. – The Hill

Venezuela

New Venezuelan taxes on windfall oil revenue will let socialist President Hugo Chavez boost spending on popular social programs by billions of dollars ahead of his re-election bid next year. – Reuters

Canada

A surprising shift to the left by Canadians voters in the last few days of a federal-election campaign has thrown a wrench into handicapping the outcome of the May 2 poll. The left-leaning New Democratic Party, which held fewer seats in the last parliament than any of Canada’s four main parties, has surged in recent polls. Some polls have the NDP running second to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Others show it in a dead heat with the Liberal party for the No. 2 position. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Efforts to save money and improve efficiency in the Canadian Forces at a time of tight budgets are being blocked by the government as well as by some inside the military. – Defense News

Mexico

Mexican officials insisted Tuesday that the northern state of Tamaulipas has not fallen under criminal control, but they provided few new details into horrific mass killings and abductions just across the U.S. border. – Washington Post

Guatemala

Guatemalan police on Tuesday arrested a 71-year-old suspected drug trafficker that the United States has sought for alleged ties to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel. – Reuters

Security
The War

The secret assessment of Mr. Gharani, like many of the detainee dossiers made available to The New York Times and other news organizations, reflected few doubts about the peril he might have posed. He was rated “high risk,” and military officials recommended that he not be freed. But now, a comparison of the assessment’s conclusions with other information provides a case study in the ambiguities that surround many of the men who have passed through the prison at Guantánamo Bay. – New York Times

Classified military files obtained by the WikiLeaks website reveal a range of potential al-Qaida plots against the U.S., including post-9/11 aircraft attacks on the West Coast, The New York Times reported Monday. – Associated Press

Defense

Within weeks, roughly a dozen of the U.S. military’s most popular and highest-ranking officers will begin rotating out of some of the highest-profile jobs in the armed forces. – Stars and Stripes

In addition to overseeing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya, the successor to Defense Secretary Robert Gates will likely walk into the job at the end of the summer just as the Pentagon wraps up a “fundamental” review of its missions and capabilities to help identify $400 billion in savings in security spending over the next 10 years. – Defense News

After months of wrangling, U.S. Air Force officials have decided to conduct competitions for two major helicopter requirements—the Common Vertical Lift Support Program (CVLSP) and an HH-60G recapitalization effort. – Associated Press

The U.S. Defense Department must change the way it uses energy on the battlefield as conflicts become longer and more expeditionary, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said April 26. – Defense News

Directed-energy weapons are being paired with traditional kinetic naval weapons to produce an advanced shipboard defense against people, small arms, light boats and unmanned aircraft. Options include non-lethal and low-power effects. But the new combinations also offer lethal, higher-power capabilities for a much larger target set including enemy air defenses and anti-ship cruise missiles. – Aviation Week

Wikileaks

WikiLeaks, the Web site responsible for publicizing millions of state secrets in the last year, has tried to pick its media partners carefully. But the site has become such a large player in journalism that some of its secrets are no longer its own to control. – New York Times

On Monday, hours after WikiLeaks, The New York Times and other news organizations began publishing the documents online, the Justice Department informed Guantánamo defense lawyers that the documents remained legally classified even after they were made public. – New York Times

Obama Administration
President Obama is expected to announce long-anticipated changes in his national security team this week, including a new ambassador to Afghanistan, according to administration officials familiar with internal deliberations. – Washington Post

Democracy and Human Rights
The Arab League on Tuesday condemned the use of force against pro-democracy protesters in several Arab countries, saying they “deserve support, not bullets.” – Reuters

courtesy of the hyper puissant fans @ FPI