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Monday, August 29, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Hundreds of Billions at Risk in Libya
The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) manages sovereign wealth funds estimated at about $70 billion U.S., rising to more than $150 billion if you include foreign investments of the Central Bank and other bodies. But it might be more. Even if they are lower than those of Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, Libyan sovereign wealth funds have been characterized by their rapid growth. When LIA was established in 2006, it had $40 billion at its disposal. In just five years, LIA has invested over one hundred companies in North Africa, Asia, Europe, the U.S. and South America: holding, banking, real estate, industries, oil companies and others.
In Italy, the main Libyan investments are those in UniCredit Bank (of which LIA and the Libyan Central Bank hold 7.5 percent), Finmeccanica (2 percent) and ENI (1 percent), these and other investments (including 7.5 percent of the Juventus Football Club) have a significance not as much economically (they amount to some $5.4 billion) as politically.
Libya, after Washington removed it from the blacklist of “rogue states,” has sought to carve out a space at the international level focusing on "diplomacy of sovereign wealth funds." Once the U.S. and the EU lifted the embargo in 2004 and the big oil companies returned to the country, Tripoli was able to maintain a trade surplus of about $30 billion per year which was used largely to make foreign investments. The management of sovereign funds has however created a new mechanism of power and corruption in the hands of ministers and senior officials, which probably in part escaped the control of the Gadhafi himself: This is confirmed by the fact that, in 2009, he proposed that the 30 billion in oil revenues go "directly to the Libyan people." This aggravated the fractures within the Libyan government.
U.S. and European ruling circles focused on these funds, so that before carrying out a military attack on Libya to get their hands on its energy wealth, they took over the Libyan sovereign wealth funds. Facilitating this operation is the representative of the Libyan Investment Authority, Mohamed Layas himself: as revealed in a cable published by WikiLeaks. On January 20 Layas informed the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli that LIA had deposited $32 billion in U.S. banks. Five weeks later, on February 28, the U.S. Treasury “froze” these accounts. According to official statements, this is "the largest sum ever blocked in the United States," which Washington held "in trust for the future of Libya." It will in fact serve as an injection of capital into the U.S. economy, which is more and more in debt. A few days later, the EU "froze" around 45 billion Euros of Libyan funds.
The assault on the Libyan sovereign wealth funds will have a particularly strong impact in Africa. There, the Libyan Arab African Investment Company had invested in over 25 countries, 22 of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and was planning to increase the investments over the next five years, especially in mining, manufacturing, tourism and telecommunications. The Libyan investments have been crucial in the implementation of the first telecommunications satellite Rascom (Regional African Satellite Communications Organization), which entered into orbit in August 2010, allowing African countries to begin to become independent from the U.S. and European satellite networks, with an annual savings of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Even more important were the Libyan investment in the implementation of three financial institutions launched by the African Union: the African Investment Bank, based in Tripoli, the African Monetary Fund, based in Yaoundé (Cameroon), the African Central Bank, with Based in Abuja (Nigeria). The development of these bodies would enable African countries to escape the control of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, tools of neo-colonial domination, and would mark the end of the CFA franc, the currency that 14 former French colonies are forced to use. Freezing Libyan funds deals a strong blow to the entire project. The weapons used by "the willing" are not only those in the military action called “Unified Protector.”
Il Manifesto, April 22, 2011
Translated from Italian by John Catalinotto
The Rest @ Global Research (Canada)
Manlio Dinucci is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research
Friday, February 04, 2011
Italian Tourist Kidnapped in Algerian
The woman had been heading towards the southern town of Alidena when militants armed with automatic weapons began following her in all-terrain vehicles.
The group captured the tourist but released her guide and cook.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is active in the area and has often abducted foreign tourists.
The Rest @ Indepth Africa.com
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Roman Ring Smuggle Mujahadin to Europe using Hawalas
Two more suspects had been taken into custody in France and Germany."Some of those being investigated are suspected of involvement in international terrorism," Piero Saviotti, a prosecutor in Rome, told reporters.The gang was made up mainly of Afghans, Kurds and Pakistanis and used the hawala money transfer system popular in the Middle East and North Africa.
Up to 200 Afghans including some 40 minors were brought into Italy and on to other parts of Europe every month by the gang, investigators said.The immigrants came mainly from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and were brought to Italy through staging points in Iraq, Iran and Greece.
The Rest @ Focus Fen
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Iranian State Reporter Arrested for Arms Trafficking
Italian anti-terrorist prosecutor Armando Spataro (right) views a selection of the weapons that were seized in March 2010. Italy has freed two Iranians who were arrested on suspicion of trafficking arms to the Islamic republic, according to Tehran's ambassador to Rome.
AFP - Italy has freed two Iranian men jailed since March on suspicion of trafficking arms to the Islamic republic but is keeping them under house arrest, Tehran's ambassador to Rome said on Friday.
Ali Damirchi-Lou and state television reporter Hamid Masoumi-Nejad were released from jail on Thursday and "placed under house arrest," Ambassador Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Fars news agency.
The Rest @ France24
Masoumi-Nejad's release was announced Thursday on state television by Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh, who is charge of expatriate affairs, but there had been no immediate word on Damirchi-Lou's fate.
Masoumi-Nejad was freed "after efforts by the expatriate Iranian's council, the presidential office and the foreign ministry," Malekzadeh said.
Iran's ambassador to Italy also said that a Milan deputy prosecutor told him that "Masoumi-Nejad will be able to resume his reporting job although he is under house arrest." He did not elaborate.
The Italian news agency Ansa on Thursday confirmed that Masoumi-Nejad had been released and placed under house arrest, adding however he would be allowed to go to work.
Masoumi-Nejad -- who worked as a reporter for state television in Rome -- was arrested along with Damirchi-Lou and five Italian businessmen in Turin in March on suspicion of trafficking arms to Iran in violation of UN sanctions.
Tehran insists that the Iranian men are innocent and has repeatedly called for their release.
"We will keep our efforts until we secure their innocence verdict and complete freedom," ambassador Hosseini told Fars news agency.
Italian anti-terrorist prosecutor Armando Spataro said in March that the pair worked for Iran's secret services and that two other Iranians, believed to be in the Islamic republic, were sought in the same operation.
Italian police said the businessmen, receiving orders from Tehran, bought weapons in Europe, mainly from Germany.
They allegedly transported the arms through third countries such as Britain, Switzerland and Romania before shipping them to Iran using other companies as cover.
Some shipments passed via the Gulf state of Dubai, according to Italian police.
The scheme fell apart following a simple check by a Romanian customs officials, who confiscated 200 gun sights. Another 100 were seized in London, the police said.
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