US intelligence on Arab unrest draws criticism
Saturday, 05 February 2011
Tunisia took fresh steps Friday to draw a line under the old regime, paying families of victims killed during the revolution as Europe froze the assets of 46 associates of the ousted president.
Tunisia's interim government began paying compensation to relatives of those killed during the uprising in Ben Arous, on the outskirts of Tunis: 20,000 dinars (€10,300, $14,000) for those killed; 3,000 dinars for the injured.
Earlier this week the United Nations Human Rights Council said at least 219 people were killed and 510 wounded in protests that began in mid-December and culminated in the downfall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last month.
The European Union meanwhile said it had added 46 members of Ben Ali's inner circle on a list designed to freeze their assets, which previously featured only Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi.
Tunisia's former first family and their entourage are suspected of having pocketed much of the country's wealth over the years and of having taken personal stakes in most of the economy.
But Switzerland dropped businessman Aziz Miled from the list. His friendship with French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie triggered a political row in Paris, where some lawmakers have called for her resignation.
There were signs that life was returning to normal in Tunisia, with a government decision to shorten the curfew in place for nearly a month.
Tourism Minister Mehdi Houass said the country will next week lift a state of emergency that was imposed last month by Ben Ali at the height of the revolt against him.
The state of emergency, alongside a curfew and a ban on public gatherings, were imposed by Ben Ali on Jan. 14, a few hours before he fled the country.
Authorities have since then reduced the curfew period as protests abated.
"We wanted to do this step by step out of caution and to ensure total security for people," Houass said.
And public employees were expected to fully return to work on Monday.
The port of Rades, where 70 percent of the country's trade with the rest of the world is concentrated, was bustling with activity.
Major street protests have dried up in Tunisia in recent days, after a reshuffle purged the interim government of most Ben Ali loyalists, but many Tunisians have called for more members of the old guard to be removed.
But unrest simmered in the country as several hundreds of people rallied late Friday in front of a police station in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, to protest the deaths of two detainees.
The bodies, both of which showed burn marks, were brought to a hospital, medical staff said. But the circumstances surrounding their deaths remained unclear.
It was in Sidi Bouzid that a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, died after setting himself on fire on December 17, triggering the uprising.
US intelligence
Did anyone in the world predict that a fruit vendor in Tunisia would light himself on fire and spark a revolution? No 
Meanwhile U.S. intelligence agencies are drawing criticism from the White House and Congress that they failed to warn of revolts in Egypt and the downfall of an American ally in Tunisia.
President Barack Obama sent word to National Intelligence Director James Clapper that he was "disappointed with the intelligence community" over its failure to predict the outbreak of demonstrations would lead to the ouster of Ben Ali in Tunis, according to one U.S. official familiar with the exchanges, which were expressed to Clapper through White House staff.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence, said there was little warning before Egypt's riots as well.
At the White House on Friday, spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked several times about the quality of the intelligence and denied that Obama was disappointed with it.
"The president expects that, in any case, that he will be provided with relevant, timely and accurate intelligence assessments and that's exactly what's been done throughout this crisis."
Top senators on the Intelligence Committee are asking when the president was briefed and what he was told before the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.
"These events should not have come upon us with the surprise that they did," the committee's chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said in an interview. "There should have been much more warning" of the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, she said, in part because demonstrators were using the Internet and social media to organize.
Top CIA official Stephanie O'Sullivan told senators Thursday that Obama was warned of instability in Egypt "at the end of last year." She spoke during a confirmation hearing to become the deputy director of national intelligence, the No. 2 official to Clapper.
In the aftermath of the botched call on Tunisia, the intelligence community widened the warnings to the White House and the diplomatic community that the instability could spread to much of the Arab world.
The White House publicly rejected charges that intelligence agencies underperformed on Tunisia and said the intelligence community warned the president that Tunisia's protests could inspire copycats.
"Did anyone in the world predict that a fruit vendor in Tunisia would light himself on fire and spark a revolution? No," said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.
"But had the diplomatic and intelligence community been reporting for decades about simmering unrest in the region? About demographic changes including a higher proportion of youth? About broad frustration with economic conditions and a lack of a political outlet to exercise these frustrations? Absolutely," Vietor said.
Of major concern to U.S. intelligence officials is the possibility that the political upheaval in Egypt could be "hijacked" by the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned but politically popular religious and political movement that provides social and charitable support for much of Egypt's poor.
The Tunisian surprise, followed by the worsening events in Cairo, has led some intelligence officials to question whether the hunt for al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, has starved other parts of the intelligence arena of resources and hampered long-term strategic analysis and prediction.
No comments:
Post a Comment