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Late last week, in a West Village townhome, Hass Agili scrolled past the Facebook messages containing death threats and hate speech, past the harrowing notes disgracing him and his family, and tapped on a message from a college student living outside Tripoli. For privacy reasons, well call him Ali. Hes 18-years-old, and the cover photo on his Facebook profile is an image of Hass standing in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Their message chain is written in both Arabic and English, mixed with heart emojis and screenshots from secret LGBTQ Facebook pages with posts praising Hass. Exchanging messages with Hass, a gay Libyan who successfully gained refugee status and resettled in the United States, is like talking to a celebrity, says Ali. Ali asks Hass for advice on how he, too, can escape Libya, and wants to know what the U.S. Supreme Court ruling partially reinstating the travel ban means for potential refugees like him. Ali risks his life by sharing so much with Hass about how he survives as a gay person in Libya. If anyone were to find these messages, he would be outed and likely killed. Ali is just one of many gay Libyans now coming to Hass for help.

They are really scared and desperate to get out, said Hass.

Out of the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted to the US in 2016, Hass was the only Libyan, and there hasnt been another since. Hes now 34-years-old, living in New York City with a social security number and refugee status that expires this month. As required by law, Hass applied for a green card, and now he waits on the status of his application.

I worry that the Trump administration and repercussions from the travel ban might affect my application. But nobody will tell you anything. Theres nothing I can do but wait and see, said Hass.

In the meantime, Hass has found purpose in advising gay Libyans on how they, too, can find refuge from a country with harsh realities for gay individuals.

Hass arrived in the U.S. six months before President Donald Trump listed Libya among the Muslim-majority countries whose nationals would not be allowed entry into the United States, but it wasnt until a month after the executive order that word of Hasss story spread. A CNN story emerged that detailed Hasss escape from Libya. It explained how, in 2011, after the Gaddafi government fell to the Arab Spring, the situation for gay Libyans was dire. Hass remembers watching videos of gay people he knew being beheaded.

They put him in the center of a soccer stadium, Hass said, with kids and men and women watching, and killed him. He was a nice guy. We went out for drinks once.

Hass was outed as gay by a university classmate shortly after. He was ostracized and harassed. No longer safe in Tripoli, he scrounged up $300 dollars and set off for Jordan, then to Lebanon and, later, Slovakia. Hass spent 563 days enmeshed in the dizzying process of seeking refugee status with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and jumping through every hoop required of the few who are granted resettlement in the United States.

I had six in-person interviews, went through I dont know how many federal agenciesthere were eighthad three sets of fingerprints taken and a retinal scan. Hass arrived at JFK airport on June 6, 2016, thanks in large part to the support of journalist Andrew Solomon, who Hass met while Solomon was reporting in Tripoli in 2005. Hass now lives with Solomon and his family.

Hasss story made a splash in English-speaking media. The CNN video was viewed over one million times and the article reached over 150 million people on social platforms. Quickly thereafter, it went viral in Libya after being translated into Arabic.

I immediately got all these messages on Facebook, English and Arabic, from around the world, said Hass. The messages convey everything from support to disgust, and collectively, they paint a salient image of the seldom seen complexities that gay refugees face.

A friend from high school, hes actually a Libyan refugee in Norway, sent me an angry message. He said, Did you ever think of your family before doing this? Youre a horrible person, said Hass. Other past classmates taunted him on social media. They made fun of my mother, for some reason, and started arguing that Im not even Libyan.

The death threats came, too, from both home and abroad, from people of every creed. One note from a New York City resident read, We are in the city. Well find him, and well kill him.

The cultural hostility against homosexuals makes Hass hesitant to engage with fellow refugees or Libyan communities in the U.S. To many of them, I am like a dirty animal. To them, gay is sodomy, simple as that. Theyd say, He deserves to die and no one should shed a tear on you. This, compounded with the rejection of human diversity and celebration of exclusionary nationalism that has rapidly spread since the 2016 election, further isolated Hass.

I wish I could tell them it will work. But its a gambling process. You put your life at risk and wait.

The negative response spurred a bout of depression. I felt like I had this IV in my arm, and there was this poison going inside my veins. It felt like I hadnt left Libya, he said.

But the messages from gay Libyans brought an unexpected salve. Despite only knowing a handful of other gay men and women from his life in Tripoli, Hass became an overnight hero among Libyas LGBTQ community.

All these gay people and groups in Libya found me and told me they watch the video every day, he said. One of the first was Ali.

When I responded to Ali, he could not believe it was me. And I could relate to that. I can imagine myself still in Libya, and the thrill I would feel if I could speak to that person, to know that this escape is doable. If someone can leave, I can too, said Hass.

Many of Hasss former counterparts wonder about the travel ban. Hass regrets that, to this day, he can offer them no material help. I have to tell them that the U.S. is probably not going to be up for resettlement right now, he said. Even if they manage to escape Libya, and are granted refugee status, they wont end up in the U.S.

For years, as the UNHCR referred individuals with refugee status for resettlementless than one percent of the more than 22 million refugees are resettledthe United States accepted more refugees than any other nation. (The year Hass arrived in U.S. so did 12,587 refugees from Syria and 9,880 from Iraq.) Those numbers have since declined. Last October, 9,945 refugees resettled in the US. In March of 2017, there were only 2,070, according to the Pew Research Center. This coincides with Trumps two executive orders stating that refugee admissions should observe a cap of 50,000; the Obama administrations annual ceiling was 110,000. Of course, Trumps pen stroke also excluded all nationals from six Muslim-majority countries, including Libya.

It was already bad, said Hass. With the U.S. leaving the picture, chances hit the floor. Waiting times will be longer now.

In his recent messages with Ali and other gay Libyans, questions arose about what subsequent rulings from the Supreme Court might mean for them as asylum seekers.

I told them it doesnt look much better, unless someone has close family in the States, Hass said.

Hass told me that If Ali did manage to leave Libya legally, hed have to go to a neighboring country and maneuver his way to a city where the UNHCR has an office. Hed apply for refugee status and have to convince officials that he is indeed gay and faces persecution back home. While Ali is in a vulnerable situation, in the grand scheme of the global refugee crisis, he lands somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy of risk. If Ali managed to get to Europe, some countrieslike Holland and the Scandinavian countrieswould provide him an allowance while he waits on his application. But the odds of being stuck in limbo, waiting on emails, letters, interviews, and approvals for years, are higher than ever. The system is inflexible and unconcerned by its own complexity.

I wish I could tell them it will work, that I could say, This is exactly how it will happen. But its a gambling process. You put your life at risk and wait. Meanwhile, theres nothing left in your country, you are running away for your life. So, you have to be willing to take the risk.

The time to leave may never come for Ali. Hed need great financial backing to leave Libya and sustain him during the arduous application process. Hass tells him that it may not be until the end of the Trump administration that he can offer substantive help. Nonetheless, Hass remains Alis source for counsel and hope, and, in turn, Hass has come to rely on Ali and other gay Libyans to find purpose in his new life.

It makes me feel like it was all worthwhile. One day, once Im a citizen, Ill be able to provide some real material help to these people. Hass still wants to become a doctor in the U.S., but his chances of doing so are slim. Hed have to start over from the undergraduate level. He may have a better chance of forging a new path working with asylum seekers tied up in the fraught system.

Hass says that, if anything, his experience thus far has taught him about the tenuous and volatile role of the country he now calls home.

Regardless of whats going on in this country with Trump, people all around the world are still looking up to the U.S. ... And being here now, I have to realize that when Im fighting for my rights, I am fighting for everyones rights all around the world.

Hass likes to think he will make the road easier for others who might follow somedaythat his story, and hopefully Alis too, will alter our understanding of the term refugee.

Read more:
The Lonely, Heroic Work of a Gay Libyan Refugee Living in America - Slate Magazine (blog)

Abdel Hakim Belhaj pictured in 2011 in Tripoli, Libya. He and his wife are suing those alleged to have been involved in their 2004 abduction. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

A husband and wife who were victims of a joint MI6-CIA rendition operation have been plunged into a Kafkaesque nightmare by the attempt to have their claim against the former foreign secretary Jack Straw heard in secret, the high court has been told.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a Libyan dissident, and his wife, Fatima Bouchar, who were abducted in 2004 and flown against their will to Tripoli, are suing Straw and the former MI6 counter-terrorism chief Sir Mark Allen as well as MI6 and the Foreign Office (FCO) for their alleged role in the operation.

Their claim is supported by a mass of documents discovered during the 2011 Libyan revolution, which detail the way in which Allen and MI6 took credit for the tip-off that enabled the CIA to kidnap the couple in Bangkok and fly them to one of Muammar Gaddafis prisons.

Government lawyers tried to persuade the supreme court to strike out the claim, but failed and are now asking the high court to agree to have much of the case heard in secret under the terms of the controversial Justice and Security Act.

The high court has heard that MI6 and the FCO have not given any indication even during secret sessions whether they intend to contest the allegations.

Absent that, we are in a wholly Kafkesque situation in which I do not know the response of the defendants to the most basic points, said Richard Hermer QC, for Belhaj and Bouchar.

The claim is based on documents that have been reported upon globally and never challenged, said Hermer, adding that the CIAs post-9/11 rendition programme is so widely understood that a hearing in open court would not damage UK-US relations.

The exceptionally serious allegations were supported by a wealth of evidence, and hearing the case in secret raises a very serious risk of dragging justice into disrepute, he said.

Rory Phillips QC, for the government, Straw and Allen, said the open justice principle was important, but parliament has recognised there is a higher public interest in allowing the government to defend itself more fully under the provisions of the Justice and Security Act.

Straw denies the allegations against him and has said he welcomed the chance to defend himself.

However, Phillips said that if the high court did not agree that the governments evidence was so sensitive that it should be presented only in secret, the government might still forbid Straw and Allen from relying upon it, meaning they would be in breach of the Official Secrets Act if they attempted to do so in open court.

The judge, Mr Justice Popplewell, described this scenario as having rather troubling ramifications.

Bouchar had been pregnant at the time of the abduction. She was released from prison shortly before giving birth. Her husband, who had been a leading member of an anti-Gaddafi militia, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), was detained for six years.

He alleges he was severely tortured throughout this time. He also says he was interrogated by British intelligence officers, who indicated to him that they knew he was being tortured.

A second LIFG leader was also abducted and flown to Tripoli along with his wife and four children. His damages claim against the British government was settled when he was paid 2.2m. Belhaj says he will settle for 1, but insists he and his wife also receive an apology.

Separately to the damages claim, lawyers for Belhaj and Bouchar are seeking a judicial review of the decision to not bring criminal charges against Allen. The decision was announced last year by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) following a lengthy Scotland Yard investigation.

Hermer told the high court that the CPS announcement had confirmed that the British government had been involved in the couples rendition. He said it also confirmed that Allen was the suspect in the police investigation, and that he had sought political authority for some, but not all, of his actions. This authority must have been sought from Jack Straw, as foreign secretary, Hermer said.

Popplewell will make a decision on the governments secrecy application later in the year.

Read the original post:
Libya rendition case is 'Kafkaesque nightmare' for victims, court told - The Guardian

Oil ended modestly higher Monday as news that Libya and Nigeria have been invited to join OPECs meeting with other major producers later this month provided support to futures prices, which suffered from a drop of nearly 4% last week.

The two countries had been exempted from the pact among major oil producers, led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, to limit global production and ease a glut of oil that has plagued the industry.

The belief is that rising Libyan and Nigerian output are undermining both the efforts at rebalancing the market and the unity of the OPEC/non-OPEC coalition, Michael Lynch, president of president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, told MarketWatch.

Whether the group can extract more than some promises [from Libya and Nigeria] remains doubtful at this point, he said. But it is also doubtful whether Nigeria and Libya can continue growing their production.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August West Texas Intermediate crude CLQ7, +0.23% tacked on 17 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $44.40 a barrel, after tapping a low of $43.65. September Brent LCOU7, +0.60% on Londons ICE Futures exchange, also added 17 cents, or 0.4%, to $46.88.

Prices for WTI and Brent settled Friday at their lowest levels since June 26, according to FactSet data.

Late last week, oil reversed much of the gains seen during the two-week rally from late June, losing nearly 3% on Friday alone, as global oil output remained robust though demand was flat, leaving inventories near historic highs.

Providing some support for oil prices, however, OPEC is considering putting a cap on how much oil members Nigeria and Libya can pump, cartel delegates said.

Its quite remarkable how the supply cut exemptions from some OPEC members have come back to punish the cartel, as production in June climbed to the highest level so far in 2017, said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, in a daily note. With the increasing output from Nigeria and Libya threatening to disrupt the efforts made by the rest of the group to rebalance the markets and not being something that was priced in, the price of oil could remain under pressure.

Libyas crude-oil output has surged to more than one million barrels a day, up from 400,000 in October, while Nigerias output has risen to 1.6 million barrels a day, up from 200,000 barrels a day in October, according to JBC, a Vienna-based energy-industry consultancy.

The two OPEC members have now been invited to a meeting of major oil producers thats planned for July 24 in Russia, according to The Wall Street Journal Monday. The story cited comments from Kuwaits oil minister on the sidelines of an Istanbul oil conference.

Still, the main point of concern for investors is rising U.S. production. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed U.S. production increasing to nearly 9.34 million barrels a day last week, up from 9.25 million barrels a day the week prior. Production was up nearly 11% from a year ago and nearly back at its 10-month high.

Fridays updated rig count from Baker Hughes Inc. BHGE, -1.79% also point to production increases. Oil producers added seven more rigs to their working fleet, rising to 763, up more than double from the 351 at work a year ago.

Elsewhere on Nymex, prices for petroleum products inched higher. August gasoline RBQ7, -0.10% rose under half a cent to $1.501 a gallon, while August heating oil HOQ7, +0.04% added just over a half penny to $1.454 a gallon.

August natural gas NGQ17, -0.17% settled at $2.929 per million British thermal units, up 6,5 cents, or 2.3%.

See more here:
Oil notches a gain as traders weigh output-cap prospects for Libya and Nigeria - MarketWatch

The policy, if approved, would aim to further the existing US goal of supporting reconciliation between rival factions in eastern and western areas of Libya. The policy could also lead to the eventual re-opening of the US embassy and the establishing of a new intelligence sharing effort led by US special forces, according to the officials.

If approved, this would be the latest country in which President Donald Trump is expanding the US counterterrorism effort.

The new approach could lead to more regular visits to Libya by diplomatic personnel, including the US ambassador, who has not been stationed in the country because of the unstable situation.

The US is also considering re-establishing a presence in Benghazi after a 2012 attack that killed four Americans -- and also re-establishing a coordination center for some US forces and Libyan officials to facilitate counterterrorist intelligence sharing. US troops could also carry out a training and advisory role in conjunction with Libyan forces.

It's also expected that if approved, up to 50 US special operations troops could be sent to Libya on a rotating basis to share counterintelligence information.

Officials caution all of this could take months to implement and intelligence sharing and training efforts in Somalia are seen as the model for the new policy.

Small teams of US military and intelligence personnel have gone in and out of Libya in recent years for just a few days at a time to meet and share information with Libyan counterparts.

But it is significant that a more permanent US presence is being considered for the first time since the US closed its embassy in Tripoli in 2014 after the situation deteriorated following the 2012 attack at the US compound in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

On a practical level, these new strategy goals will be difficult to achieve, the official acknowledged.

The critical challenge continues to be forming a broad national government that would be accepted by both the internationally accepted Government of National Accord led by Prime Minister al Sarraj which controls much of the west of Libya and the Libyan National Army headed by Kalifa Haftar which dominates the east. The official said that the new policy calls for closer cooperation and intelligence sharing with Haftar.

While the intelligence sharing would largely focus on counterterrorism, the US is likely to provide assistance to Libya to address the migration crisis in the country.

The rest is here:
US military considers ramping up Libya presence - CNN International

12:53 Monday 10 July 2017

The government has missed a deadline to respond to critical recommendations that it resolves compensation for Libya-IRA victims by the end of this year.

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) published a report in May which found successive UK governments had failed to support victims of Libyan-IRA terrorism, while French, American and German governments had successfully pressed Libya to pay compensation.

The committee called on the government to secure compensation by the end of this year.

The late Libyan dictator Col Gaddafi provided millions of pounds and 120 tonnes of weaponry to the IRA, including Semtex.

The government was due to respond to the NIAC report by Friday last week, July 7, but failed to do so.

Lawyer Matt Jury, who helped lead the Omagh bomb civil action and is acting for Libya-IRA victims, said the delay was unacceptable.

Does the government not realise that every time it fails to live up to an expectation, obligation or assurance it is unnecessarily adding to the victims pain and suffering? he said.

The victims have waited too long for this issue to be resolved and delays like this, without explanation, are simply inexcusable.

The inquirys recommendations were clear, as was its position that this matter should be resolved by the end of the year. The inquiry called for action, not procrastination, and the clock is ticking.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office missed its July 7 deadline despite assurances made to the victims lawyers that the deadline would be met, he said.

Victims only learnt of the plan not to respond in time through an answer to a parliamentary question last week, he added.

In an email to some campaigners on the day of the deadline, the FCO said the delay was because government was in purdah for much of the time between May 2 and June 30 due to the election and ministers had only limited time to consider the committees report in detail. It said a response would be given in September.

The government has persistently opposed moves by UUP peer Lord Empey to tap 9.5bn of terror-linked Libyan assets frozen in the UK to compensate victims.

Excerpt from:
Government misses deadline on Libya-IRA report - Belfast Newsletter