Thread: The Libyan Crisis

French lawyers plan Libya lawsuit against Sarkozy

"Two French lawyers said they planned to initiate legal proceedings against French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday for crimes against humanity over the NATO-led military campaign in Libya.
A Libyan justice ministry official Ibrahim Boukhzam told reporters in Tripoli that Jacques Verges and Roland Dumas had offered to represent families he said were victims of the NATO bombing campaign.

"The two lawyers are going to file a complaint in the French courts in the name of the Libyan families," Boukhzam said, at a press conference on Sunday attended by 30 representatives of the families.

Verges, whose past clients include Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal, denounced a "French state led by hoodlums and killers.

"We are going to break the wall of silence," he added.

Dumas, a former socialist minister, said the NATO mission, which was meant to protect civilians, was in fact killing them.

He denounced what he described as "a brutal assault against a sovereign country" and said he was ready to defend Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi should he ever be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Earlier this month ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked for arrest warrants for Kadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam, and his brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi as part of an investigation into crimes against humanity.

On March 19, Sarkozy announced the launch of military action in Libya, backed by Western countries and Arab allies, as Kadhafi's forces threatened the rebel-held city of Benghazi.

A French warplane was the first to enforce a UN resolution calling for a no-fly zone and protection of civilians in Libya.

Dumas and Verges were speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Libya. They said they would begin legal proceedings on their return to France on Monday."

Invasion allegedly already started. "Westerners" at 2.05


Footage shows 'armed Westerners' on ground in Libya - Telegraph

"The clip broadcast on al-Jazeera features a number of armed men, some wearing sunglasses and keffiyahs, or traditional Arab headscarves, who moved off when they realised they were being watched. The group of six westerners are shown talking to rebels: five of them were armed and wearing sand-coloured clothes in addition to peaked caps [two hats willy?], and cotton Arab scarves. The sixth, apparently the most senior of the group, was carrying no visible weapon and wore a pink [French?], short-sleeve shirt. He may be an intelligence officer [Could be ice cream salesmen though.]. The footage emerged after Britain and France said they will deploy attack helicopters over Libya to better pick out pro-Gaddafi forces, further deepening their involvement in the crisis. Helicopters are more vulnerable to attack from the ground than high-flying warplanes.

Col Muammar Gaddafi denies attacking civilians, saying his forces were obliged to act to contain armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants.
He says the NATO intervention is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil reserves.

Meanwhile Jacob Zuma, the South African president, said Gaddafi is ready to accept an African Union initiative for a cease-fire that would stop all hostilities, including Nato airstrikes in support of rebel forces.

"He is ready to implement the road map", Mr Zuma said.

Mr Zuma said Gaddafi insists that "all Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves" to determine the country's future. He did not say Gaddafi is ready to step down, which is the central demand of the rebels. In April, Mr Zuma led a delegation of the African Union to Tripoli with an AU proposal for a truce. Gaddafi said he would accept the truce but quickly ignored it and resumed his attacks, while the rebels rejected the cease-fire out of hand because it did not include Gaddafi's exit from power. Since then many cease-fire efforts have failed for similar reasons.

In Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital, Fathi Baja, the rebel foreign minister, rejected the African Union plan. "We refuse completely, we don't consider it a political initiative, it is only some stuff that Gadhafi wants to announce to stay in power," he said. He said he believes Mr Zuma is in Tripoli to negotiate an exit strategy for Gaddafi, though Zuma's office denies that. Baja also said the rebels would launch an offensive against Gaddafi soon."

Pentagon: Online Cyber Attacks Can Count as Acts of War - WSJ.com

"WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.
The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military.
In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official.

Recent attacks on the Pentagon's own systems—as well as the sabotaging of Iran's nuclear program via the Stuxnet computer worm—have given new urgency to U.S. efforts to develop a more formalized approach to cyber attacks. A key moment occurred in 2008, when at least one U.S. military computer system was penetrated. This weekend Lockheed Martin, a major military contractor, acknowledged that it had been the victim of an infiltration, while playing down its impact.
The report will also spark a debate over a range of sensitive issues the Pentagon left unaddressed, including whether the U.S. can ever be certain about an attack's origin, and how to define when computer sabotage is serious enough to constitute an act of war. These questions have already been a topic of dispute within the military.
One idea gaining momentum at the Pentagon is the notion of "equivalence." If a cyber attack produces the death, damage, destruction or high-level disruption that a traditional military attack would cause, then it would be a candidate for a "use of force" consideration, which could merit retaliation.
The War on Cyber Attacks

Attacks of varying severity have rattled nations in recent years.

June 2009: First version of Stuxnet virus starts spreading, eventually sabotaging Iran's nuclear program. Some experts suspect it was an Israeli attempt, possibly with American help.

November 2008: A computer virus believed to have originated in Russia succeeds in penetrating at least one classified U.S. military computer network.

August 2008: Online attack on websites of Georgian government agencies and financial institutions at start of brief war between Russia and Georgia.

May 2007: Attack on Estonian banking and government websites occurs that is similar to the later one in Georgia but has greater impact because Estonia is more dependent on online banking.

The Pentagon's document runs about 30 pages in its classified version and 12 pages in the unclassified one. It concludes that the Laws of Armed Conflict—derived from various treaties and customs that, over the years, have come to guide the conduct of war and proportionality of response—apply in cyberspace as in traditional warfare, according to three defense officials who have read the document. The document goes on to describe the Defense Department's dependence on information technology and why it must forge partnerships with other nations and private industry to protect infrastructure.
The strategy will also state the importance of synchronizing U.S. cyber-war doctrine with that of its allies, and will set out principles for new security policies. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization took an initial step last year when it decided that, in the event of a cyber attack on an ally, it would convene a group to "consult together" on the attacks, but they wouldn't be required to help each other respond. The group hasn't yet met to confer on a cyber incident.
Pentagon officials believe the most-sophisticated computer attacks require the resources of a government. For instance, the weapons used in a major technological assault, such as taking down a power grid, would likely have been developed with state support, Pentagon officials say.
The move to formalize the Pentagon's thinking was borne of the military's realization the U.S. has been slow to build up defenses against these kinds of attacks, even as civilian and military infrastructure has grown more dependent on the Internet. The military established a new command last year, headed by the director of the National Security Agency, to consolidate military network security and attack efforts.
The Pentagon itself was rattled by the 2008 attack, a breach significant enough that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs briefed then-President George W. Bush. At the time, Pentagon officials said they believed the attack originated in Russia, although didn't say whether they believed the attacks were connected to the government. Russia has denied involvement.
The Rules of Armed Conflict that guide traditional wars are derived from a series of international treaties, such as the Geneva Conventions, as well as practices that the U.S. and other nations consider customary international law. But cyber warfare isn't covered by existing treaties. So military officials say they want to seek a consensus among allies about how to proceed.
"Act of war" is a political phrase, not a legal term, said Charles Dunlap, a retired Air Force Major General and professor at Duke University law school. Gen. Dunlap argues cyber attacks that have a violent effect are the legal equivalent of armed attacks, or what the military calls a "use of force."
"A cyber attack is governed by basically the same rules as any other kind of attack if the effects of it are essentially the same," Gen. Dunlap said Monday. The U.S. would need to show that the cyber weapon used had an effect that was the equivalent of a conventional attack.
James Lewis, a computer-security specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has advised the Obama administration, said Pentagon officials are currently figuring out what kind of cyber attack would constitute a use of force. Many military planners believe the trigger for retaliation should be the amount of damage—actual or attempted—caused by the attack.
For instance, if computer sabotage shut down as much commerce as would a naval blockade, it could be considered an act of war that justifies retaliation, Mr. Lewis said. Gauges would include "death, damage, destruction or a high level of disruption" he said.
Culpability, military planners argue in internal Pentagon debates, depends on the degree to which the attack, or the weapons themselves, can be linked to a foreign government. That's a tricky prospect at the best of times.
The brief 2008 war between Russia and Georgia included a cyber attack that disrupted the websites of Georgian government agencies and financial institutions. The damage wasn't permanent but did disrupt communication early in the war.
A subsequent NATO study said it was too hard to apply the laws of armed conflict to that cyber attack because both the perpetrator and impact were unclear. At the time, Georgia blamed its neighbor, Russia, which denied any involvement.
Much also remains unknown about one of the best-known cyber weapons, the Stuxnet computer virus that sabotaged some of Iran's nuclear centrifuges. While some experts suspect it was an Israeli attack, because of coding characteristics, possibly with American assistance, that hasn't been proven. Iran was the location of only 60% of the infections, according to a study by the computer security firm Symantec. Other locations included Indonesia, India, Pakistan and the U.S.
Officials from Israel and the U.S. have declined to comment on the allegations.
Defense officials refuse to discuss potential cyber adversaries, although military and intelligence officials say they have identified previous attacks originating in Russia and China. A 2009 government-sponsored report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that China's People's Liberation Army has its own computer warriors, the equivalent of the American National Security Agency.
That's why military planners believe the best way to deter major attacks is to hold countries that build cyber weapons responsible for their use. A parallel, outside experts say, is the George W. Bush administration's policy of holding foreign governments accountable for harboring terrorist organizations, a policy that led to the U.S. military campaign to oust the Taliban from power in Afghanistan."

The US, and it appears that NATO, are looking to agree on the terms of a cyber attack and when it would be considered an act of war.

The definition used as an example is " Gauges would include "death, damage, destruction or a high level of disruption".
If this is an agreed definition of an actual, physical, act of war will the US congress demand that the US president submit to it’s approval for the illegal war currently being waged against the legal Libyan Government and it's population? Similarly the NATO countries should also pass legislation to legitimise the murderous attacks or run the risk of being taken to a court for crimes against humanity.

NATO warplanes pound Tripoli ahead of Russian mediator

NATO warplanes pound Tripoli ahead of Russian mediator’s visit

Monday, 06 June 2011

Five powerful blasts rocked Tripoli late Sunday after three waves of explosions during the day. (File photo)

By SARA GHASEMILEE
Al Arabiya with Agencies

NATO warplanes battered Muammar Qaddafi’s command network in Tripoli, it said Monday ahead of a visit to Libya by an envoy from Russia, which has raised concerns about the military campaign.

Five powerful blasts rocked Tripoli late Sunday after three waves of explosions during the day, as warplanes overflew the city which has been the target of intense NATO raids for the past two weeks.

In a statement, the military alliance said it conducted "intensive and sustained strikes against pro-Qaddafi facilities in Tripoli throughout the day and night," including command and control centers.

"We will continue to erode (the Qaddafi regime's) foundations until the violence against the Libyan population ends," it quoted Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, commander in chief of the NATO mission, as saying.

The latest salvos came as Russian mediator Mikhail Margelov prepared to head the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Monday after Moscow voiced concerns at the weekend about the NATO operation sliding towards a land campaign.

Mr. Margelov, President Dmitry Mevedev's special representative on Africa, said he plans "to meet leaders of Libya's National Transitional Council," Interfax news agency reported.

Russia, which is calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict, expressed alarm at the weekend as NATO's air war entered a new phase with the deployment of British and French attack helicopters.

"We consider that what is going on is either consciously or unconsciously sliding towards a land operation," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"That would be very deplorable," Mr. Lavrov, quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency, added of the British and French decision.

It was a concern reiterated on Sunday by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who expressed doubt that NATO's use of helicopters was an acceptable way to impose a no-fly zone set out under a UN resolution.

"(NATO is) using attack helicopters on land targets, which is in my view the last but one step before the land operation," said Mr. Lavrov.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Sunday defended the use of the helicopters and ruled out putting forces on the ground, saying NATO would stick to the terms of UN Resolution 1973 passed in March to protect civilians.

Mr. Hague admitted the NATO operation was "intensifying" and that there was no deadline, but denied any "mission creep" for the aerial bombing campaign launched nearly three months ago.

"We're not going to set a deadline. You're asking about Christmas and who knows, it could be days or weeks or months, (but) it is worth doing," he told BBC television.

"This is not mission creep, changing the nature of the mission, this is intensifying what we are doing in order to make this mission a success," he added.

Mr. Hague made the remarks a day visiting Benghazi where he met the head of the opposition National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, and toured a medical centre treating war wounded.

Mr. Jalil had praised the decision by Britain and France to deploy the attack helicopters, saying: "We welcome any action that could precipitate the end of (Muammar) Qaddafi’s regime."

Britain said on Sunday its Apache helicopters destroyed a multiple missile launcher operated by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces near the eastern oil hub of Brega.

"At sea, HMS Ocean launched her British Army Apaches against a multiple rocket launch system positioned on the Libyan coast near Brega," Major General Nick Pope, spokesman for the Chief of Defense Staff, said in a statement.

"The attack helicopters used Hellfire missiles to destroy their target before returning safely to the ship."

British Tornado strike warplanes separately joined other NATO aircraft in a "major strike on a large surface-to-air missile depot" in Tripoli, Mr. Pope added.

Western governments and the Libyan rebels say a combination of NATO air strikes, diplomatic isolation and grass-roots opposition will eventually end the Libyan leader's 41-year rule.

But they are worried that his departure could leave a vacuum that leads to violence and instability, as happened in Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein.

The rebel National Transitional Council, based in the eastern stronghold of Benghazi, has a plan for how it would act if Colonel Gaddafi left but it is only embryonic, Mr. Hague told the BBC.

"We're encouraging the National Transitional Council to put more flesh on their proposed transition -- to lay out in more detail this coming week what would happen on the day that Gaddafi went -- who would be running what, how would a new government be formed in Tripoli?"

Mr. Hague said the rebels planned to bring technocrats from Colonel Qaddafi’s ruling circle into the new leadership, a lesson learned from Iraq where the decision to bar members of Saddam’s Baath party from government posts fuelled instability

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said meanwhile that it was only a matter of time before Colonel Qaddafi’s aides abandoned him.

"It's only a matter of time (before he falls)," Mr. Gates said. "I don't think anyone knows how long. But I think you see signs the regime is getting shakier by the day.

"It's just a question when everybody around Colonel Qaddafi decides it's time to throw in the towel and throw him under the bus," he said on a visit to Afghanistan.

Colonel Qaddafi says he has no intention of stepping down. He says he is supported by all Libyans -- apart from a minority whom he has described as "rats" and Al Qaeda militants -- and says NATO has intervened to steal Libya's oil.

Libya rebels eye oil restart, win aid pledges | Reuters

"(Reuters) - Libya's rebels said they hoped to restart oil production and gained pledges of more than $500 million of aid on Thursday as Western powers press them to plan for the day after Muammar Gaddafi leaves power.
While NATO continued to pound Tripoli from the air, Western and Arab nations met the rebels in Abu Dhabi to focus on what one U.S. official called the "end-game" for the Libyan leader.

At the United Nations, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said its investigators had found evidence linking Gaddafi to a policy of raping opponents.

A possible war crimes prosecution could be an incentive for Gaddafi to cling to power, but Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade offered to help ease his former African Union ally's exit from power and appealed to him to step down.

"It is in your own interest and the interest of all the Libyan people that you leave power in Libya and never dream of coming back to power," Wade said during a visit to the rebel-held east Libyan city of Benghazi.

"I can be one of those who help you pull out of political life and the sooner you leave the better," Wade said.

A bipartisan group in the U.S. Congress urged President Barack Obama to use frozen Libyan government assets to pay for humanitarian aid for Libyan people caught up in the civil war.

NATO air strikes resumed in Tripoli on Wednesday night after a lull following the heaviest day of bombings since March, with new blasts shaking the city on Thursday morning and afternoon.

Rebel Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said the Benghazi-based leadership hoped to restart production of up to 100,000 barrels a day "soon," without specifying a timeframe, and called for more aid, immediately.

"It is a failure if there is no clear financial commitment to it," he told reporters. "Our people are dying ... So my message to our friends is that I hope they walk the walk."

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Reuters Italy would give the rebels up to 400 million euros ($586.1 million) of cash and fuel aid backed by frozen Libyan assets. Kuwait said it would immediately transfer $180 million to the rebels.

That pledge of assistance came at a meeting of the so-called Libya contact group, including the United States, France and Britain, as well as Arab allies Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan, which is pressing the rebels to give a detailed plan on how they would run the country if Gaddafi stood down or was toppled.

"The international community is beginning to talk about what could constitute end-game to this," one senior U.S. official told reporters aboard U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's plane which landed in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night.

That official listed scenarios including a cease-fire, which Tripoli has demanded include NATO and leave Gadaffi's fate open.

The rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) and its Western allies have rejected Libyan government[s 7] cease-fire offers that do not include Gaddafi stepping down first.

The U.S. official said there have been talks on what might happen to Gaddafi but nothing specific on "where he should go, or whether he should remain in Libya for that matter." Gaddafi's "days are numbered," Clinton said in a statement.

"PRESSURE WILL INCREASE"

U.S. officials on Wednesday announced delivery of the TNC's first U.S. oil sale, part of a broader strategy they hope will get money flowing to the cash starved group.

U.S. oil refiner Tesoro said in May it had brought 1.2 million barrels, which U.S. officials said was due to arrive in Hawaii on Wednesday on a tanker chartered by Swiss trader Vitol.

One of the highest-ranking defectors, ex-Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, said the rebels needed $3 billion to cover salaries and food costs for the next four months. Libyan assets in Italy could contribute to that sum, he said.

NATO defence ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday, but there were few signs of willingness to intensify their mission, which after nearly four months has failed to oust Gaddafi.

The alliance says the bombing aims to protect civilians from the Libyan leader's military, which crushed popular protests against his rule in February, leaving many dead.

Critics say NATO has gone beyond its U.N. mandate in seeking to force Gaddafi out. The Libyan leader says the rebels are Islamist militants and NATO attempting to grab Libya's oil.

At the United Nations, the ICC prosecutor said its investigators have evidence linking Gaddafi to a policy of raping opponents and may bring separate charges on the issue.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested arrest warrants on May 16 against Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and the country's spy chief on charges of crimes against humanity committed during attempts to crush the country's rebellion.

At a U.N. news conference on Wednesday, he said the question until recently had been whether Gaddafi himself ordered the rapes "or is it something that happened in the barracks?"

"But now we are getting some information that Gaddafi himself decided to authorise the rapes, and this is new."

At the United Nations human rights body, Libya's envoy rejected a separate U.N. report claiming Gaddafi's forces had committed war crimes, and accused the rebels of cannibalism and slicing off the breasts of women.

MISRATA ATTACK

Rebels in the besieged western city of Misrata said thousands of pro-Gaddafi forces launched a major advance on the city and killed at least 12 people with a barrage of shell fire late on Wednesday, though NATO disputed that account.

"We didn't see anything anywhere near the thousands. There were some small groups of pro-Gaddafi forces who were trying to advance towards the centre of Misrata ... but I think this is an embellishment," a NATO official said.

On Thursday, a separate rebel spokesman, Suleiman, contacted by telephone, said the city had been bombarded in the morning from the east, south, and west.

Gaddafi troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks between the eastern towns of Ajdabiyah and the Gaddafi-held oil town of Brega. Rebels also control the western city of Misrata and the range of western mountains near the border with Tunisia."

The crusader coalition has started unfreezing the Libyan Peoples money so that it might be used for "humanitarian aid" bombs, missiles and bullets.

The US has taken delivery of a cargo of Libyan oil in Hawaii

NATO has announced that the ITC terrorist are "exaggerating" their claims of Libyan Government attacks. Maybe NATO should have been a little circumspect of their claims from day one.

double post

Originally Posted by Butterfly

all paid for by American and its allies

Reuters

Libya rebels eye oil restart, win aid pledges

"A bipartisan group in the U.S. Congress urged President Barack Obama to use frozen Libyan government assets to pay for humanitarian aid for Libyan people caught up in the civil war."

"Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Reuters Italy would give the rebels up to 400 million euros ($586.1 million) of cash and fuel aid backed by frozen Libyan assets."

"U.S. oil refiner Tesoro said in May it had brought 1.2 million barrels, which U.S. officials said was due to arrive in Hawaii on Wednesday on a tanker chartered by Swiss trader Vitol."

"One of the highest-ranking defectors, ex-Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, said the rebels needed $3 billion to cover salaries and food costs for the next four months. Libyan assets in Italy could contribute to that sum, he said."

"We didn't see anything anywhere near the thousands. There were some small groups of pro-Gaddafi forces who were trying to advance towards the centre of Misrata ... but I think this is an embellishment," a NATO official said."

The crusader coalition has started "unfreezing" the Libyan Peoples money so that it might be used for "humanitarian aid" - bombs, missiles and bullets. Aiding and abetting one side in this illegal massacre of Libyan civilians. As I previously suggested the IOU's are being called in.

The US is buying oil from the TNC terrorists - against the UNSC resolution.

NATO has announced that the TNC terrorist are exaggerating/embelleshing" their claims of Libyan Government forces attacks. This has been going on since day one why wasnt NATO circumspect of their claims before today?

The french also seem to be pulling the same trick, lending money to be repaid by the TNC terrorists

US, Allies Eye Post-Gadhafi Libya - WSJ.com


“ABU DHABI—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strengthened the U.S.'s embrace of Libya's rebel movement Thursday, calling it "the legitimate interlocutor" for the international community—capping a day in which Libya's main opposition group won more diplomatic support but appeared unable to secure the funding it sought.
Arab and Western officials meeting here agreed Col. Moammar Gadhafi's days were numbered and committed to helping Libya's rebel Transitional National Council prepare a political process for a transition from his 41-year rule.

Mrs. Clinton said the U.S. is aware of "continuing discussions by people close to Gadhafi" that include the potential for a transition away from his rule. "There is not any clear way forward yet," she said. The U.S. would start to work with both the council and those in contact with the Gadhafi regime on such a transition until the contact group's next meeting in Istanbul in July, she said.

Other Allied powers echoed the need to begin preparing for Libya's post-Gadhafi political future. Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said the four-month uprising against Col. Gadhafi's rule was approaching "a turning point," adding "Gadhafi's rule is coming to an end."

Libya's rebels made political headway at Thursday's meeting, as Australia recognized their council and Mrs. Clinton said their intended plan for the country's future was "very impressive." Though the U.S. stopped short of formal recognition of the council as the legitimate government of Libya, Mrs. Clinton's remarks represented a strengthening of the U.S. position. "It is different, in that she went from 'a' legit interlocutor to 'the' legit interlocutor but she did not formally recognize them," a senior U.S. official said.

The $26.5 million in new humanitarian aid for Libya announced by the U.S. on Thursday doesn't bring the council closer to unlocking $34 billion of frozen assets by the U.S., largely due to legal obstacles that were widely recognized among allies at the meeting.

The U.K., represented by minister for Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt, said it was working to find a legal way to unfreeze Libyan assets it intends to later channel to the right authorities. "We have to figure out another way of doing that," the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister said.

A financial support mechanism agreed for the rebel council addresses state contributions, but not loans or funds freed up by unfreezing assets. The meeting authorized drawing from a multibillion-dollar fund the contact group had agreed to set up at a May meeting in Rome. "It could go through the same channel, but there are some legal aspects we are talking about," Sheik Abdulla bin Zayed al Nahayn said of funds from frozen Libyan assets. The U.A.E., host of Thursday's meeting, also said it took a step toward recognizing the Libyan rebel's council, but stopped short of formal recognition.

Rebel officials provided assurances that loans provided to the council would be honored under by any future Libyan government they run.

Overall, the financial support secured at the meeting fell short of rebel officials' calls for urgent help. They estimated the rebels need $3 billion over the next four months. "The fact of the matter is, even our friends still don't understand our needs," the group's finance and oil minister Ali Tarhouni said, as rebels pressed for ways to channel funds from what they estimated as $170 billion of Libyan assets frozen world-wide under international sanctions. "Our people are dying, we're in a war," he said.

While they focused on lobbying for more aid, the rebel officials also presented a political road map to Western and Arab leaders in which they said the council had begun planning for a "stabilization and reconciliation" postconflict phase, the second of a five-phase transition process the council sees for Libya, according to a copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The road map emphasizes "national cohesiveness," particularly in parts of Libya still under Col. Gadhafi's control, and an expansion of the council's representation across the country.

"There is a lot of work ahead of the [council], work to expand its reach…to be more inclusive," Mrs. Clinton said. "But I think that they have issued statements of their intent of the kind of Libya that they would like to see in the future which are very impressive."

In Tripoli, NATO warplanes resumed their strikes Wednesday night after a lull following the heaviest day of bombings since March. Explosions echoed across the city on Thursday."

The crusader coalition has stated that no new moves on stopping this illegal murderous war until July.

The crusader coalition is trying to find a way legally of unfreezing the Libyan Governments sovereign assets to allow them to be used by the "right authorities" - their friendly TNC terrorists.

How many years did it take to get the NAZI loot released, and returned to their rightful owners, from the banks after WWII?