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About 14,216 babies have been delivered in the last 15 months at the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure.

Disclosing this to
reporters at a news conference in the state capital yesterday, the
State Commissioner for Information, Ranti Akerele, explained that an
average of 20-25 deliveries are recorded daily, thereby making it the
busiest maternity hospital in Ondo State.

The 100-bed
facility is dedicated to the care of pregnant women and children less
than five years of age, offering tertiary level health services free of
charge. Mr Akerele explained that the management of the hospital is
currently working towards a partnership with the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Modern equipment

“As at 2 May 2011
about 15 months of operations,10,315 pregnant women, and 14,216
children (2,754) as pediatric inpatients have been registered and
treated with about 20 percent of them being non-residents of Ondo
State.

“Today the facility
at the Mother and Child hospital is amongst other things, a unique and
cost effective digitalised drug procurement system that has practically
eradicated out of stock syndrome, the bane of many free health schemes
across the country.

“The mother and child hospital has at its procession, state of the
art training equipment including electronic force monitoring birthing
and airway management simulators for life like practical demonstrations
and applications on emergency care.”

The strike embarked
upon by judiciary workers in Delta State on Monday stalled the
proceedings at the Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tribunal failed to sit on arrival at the
venue designated for it, as the premises had been locked by the
workers, who were on strike.

The striking workers pasted notices around the courts stating that the action would last indefinitely in the state.

The Secretary of the tribunal, Deborah Musa, told NAN that the strike had paralysed activities in the tribunal.

“We arrived for
work this morning and found the whole place locked up and we saw the
notice that judiciary workers in the state are on an indefinite strike.

“I quickly rushed
to look for the leaders of the workers and for more than one hour I
begged them to come and open the premises so that we can evacuate our
files and other items,” she said.

Asked where she would put the files, Mrs Musa said, “I don’t really know where I am taking them to.

You know, we don’t know anywhere or anybody here. Maybe I will put them in my hotel room in the meantime.”

Harmonised salary

When contacted, the
Vice-Chairman of the Judiciary Workers Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), James
Onanowe, said, “the workers want to be included in the harmonised
public service salary.”

He said that the union resorted to strike when the state government failed to respond to its letter on the issue dated April 4.

He added that the
decision to embark on the strike was taken by the union’s leadership on
Friday, adding that “before we took that decision, we exhaustively
deliberated on the matter.”

Also in his own
comments, the Commissioner for Information, Oma Djebah, said he was not
aware of the workers’ strike and pleaded for time to “find out the real
issues”.

The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday dismissed the court action instituted
by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) challenging the electoral
victory of its presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan,
saying it is not afraid of the suit.

The national
publicity secretary of the PDP, Ahmed Alkali said this while speaking
to journalists after the party’s national working committee (NWC)
meeting in Abuja.

The CPC, had
earlier, filed a petition at the Court of Appeal challenging the
victory of Mr Jonathan in the April 16 presidential election. The party
asked the court to nullify elections in about 24 states.

The PDP spokesman,
who expressed surprise that the CPC flag bearer, Muhammadu Buhari
changed his mind after pledging not to go to court to challenge the
outcome of the presidential polls, said the party is not bothered about
the court action. While acknowledging that Mr Buhari had the right to
contest the result of the elections, Mr Alkali, said that Nigerians had
thought that after the polls the system would be allowed to stabilize,
and those who lost would accept defeat to enable the winners settle
down to work.

“In some states we
lost the governorship, senatorial and house of representatives election
and we have come out to accept defeat and therefore others sould have
shown magnanimity,” he said.

Constitutional rights

“It is the right of
anybody whose loses election. If you stop him, what will be the basis
for that?” Alkali said. “The only unfortunate thing is that the CPC
candidate promised initially that he won’t go to court. We don’t know
why he changed his mind. The party will prepare to meet him in court.
PDP has no reason to be afraid. Everybody is commending the elections
and the chairman of INEC for conducting transparent polls.”

Mr Alkali said the
PDP was excited over its victory in most of the states as well as its
winning majority of the seats in the National Assembly.

He praised Mr
Jonathan for ensuring transparent elections were held in the country.
Mr Alkali stressed that for the first time the country had elections
that were judged as transparent and open by both domestic and
international observers.

The PDP spokesman,
who lamented the party’s loss of five states – Zamfara, Oyo, Imo, Ogun
and Nasarawa – in the governorship election, said, “This is a sacrifice
that is high for the party. We won some seats in the National Assembly
though. For us, it was a huge loss. We also gained Kano.”

“We as a party have
demonstrated a lot of maturity because we did not instigate violence
rather we became victims,” Mr Alkali said. “You will recall the action
of our opponents after the presidential election. We commiserate with
the family of those who lost their lives and property.”

Biometrics to the rescue

Meanwhile, the CPC
yesterday claimed that transiting from a government to another via the
ballot box has always been problematic in the country.

Abubakar Malami,
its national legal adviser added that, “With every election, including
the last presidential election, the electorates continue to lose
confidence in the ability of the ballot box to express their will. This
is a dangerous trend that must not be allowed to continue, lest we find
our country sleepwalking into a disaster that we may not come out of.”

Mr Malami spoke
yesterday in Abuja at a briefing on the party’s petition which was
filed at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

He added that based
on lessons learned from past election tribunal cases, the party will
use scientific means to prove its case at the tribunal. “This case will
therefore depend mainly on the authentication and verification of the
fingerprints on the disputed ballot papers cast.”

“To the CPC, this
use of the Forensic/Biometric system based on INEC’s capturing of all
the 10 fingers of every voter is a novel idea that can help solve
forever the challenges of multiple voting and outright concoction of
results; two critical issues in our electoral malpractices,” Mr Malami
said. “Our present case in the tribunal is thus aimed at establishing
the truth and preventing future elections malpractices in our country’s
democratic experiment”.

Mr Malami
commiserated with the families of those who died and lost properties in
the post election violence that erupted in some northern states after
the declaration of the presidential elections results.

On the subject of the zoning of the positions of the senate
president, and the speaker of the house of representatives, the PDP
spokesman, Mr Alkali, refused to disclose the decision of the committee
on the sharing of the offices. He however said that the party will make
its decision public at the appropriate time.

Few days to the end of Adebayo Alao-Akala’s
administration as the Oyo State governor, cracks are appearing within
its ranks as the commissioner for health, Babalola Owolabi has accused
other government officials of plotting to take his life.

The commissioner, who raised the alarm in Ibadan at
the weekend, accused ‘some desperate, greedy and intellectually
percolated cabal’ in the state government of being behind the plot.

Mr Owolabi, who was attacked at the weekend by a
group of armed gang suspected to be assassins, said he is suspicious
that his assailants are after his life for being outspoken and denying
them the chance of a last minute raid on the state’s treasury.

Threats and attacks

A gang of ‘four to six hefty men’ reportedly attacked
the commissioner at Conoil filling station, Mokola, Ibadan around 8.30
p.m. when he wanted to refuel his car on Friday.

According to him, the men, who were armed with knives
and other dangerous weapons, trailed him to the scene and attacked him
from the back after he alighted from the car.

Just two days before the attack (on Wednesday), Mr
Owolabi was accosted, beaten and almost striped by some thugs while he
was leaving the executive chambers of the Governor’s office after
attending the weekly state executive council meeting.

It took the intervention of the state
attorney-general and commissioner for justice, AbdulSalami Ladi
Abdullahi, for him to escape.

His offence, according to sources in the government
circle, was his “audacity” to blame Mr Alao-Akala for the Peoples
Democratic Party’s poor performance in the general elections.

Giving his comments on the role of cabinet members in
mobilising and campaigning for the elections, the commissioner
reportedly told the governor that he committed a grave political
blunder by allowing the hospitals in the state to remain shut for about
eight, owing to a strike by state’s health workers.

Mr Owolabi also said he pleaded with the governor to
address the issues the doctors and other health workers were agitating,
but that the governor ignored his reasoning.

‘Sense of responsibility’

Apart from his perceived effrontery, Mr Owolabi added
that he attracted the wrath of his adversaries in the cabinet for
allegedly declining the request to release N250 million from his
ministry’s treasury to an Ibadan-based socialite, arguing that there
existed no legitimate purpose and documents to justify the disbursement.

He was said to told a friend that he was not ready to do anything he would not be able to justify after leaving office.

Despite expressing fear for his life, Mr Owolabi
declined to suspects in the attacks, ‘in order not to jeopardize the
course of investigation’. He said he had reported the attacks and
expressed his fears to the Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bolanta
as well as State Security Service (SSS) in the state. Both of them, he
said, promised to protect his life and property.

“I am still a member of the state executive council
and I am under allegiance not to reveal what are not for public
consumption. But, all my actions have been out of very serious sense of
responsibility and trust to the Executive Governor of Oyo State and by
extension the good people of Oyo State,” Mr Owolabi said.

No retreat

Mr Owolabi, who said he would inform the governor of
his travails today (Monday), said his beliefs and position has not
changed, despite the attacks.

“I will not be a party to any last minute arrangement
to deplete the resources of our commonwealth, and to my mind, this is
being true to the cause. I intend staying on the course,” he said.

He added that he plans to continue working with the present
administration till the end, explaining that his life is not more
important than that of ‘NYSC members who paid the supreme price in a
bid to salvage and rebuild this nation’.

The leadership of the House of Representatives should
ensure an accelerated passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill as
passed by the Senate, anti-tobacco group, the Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), said to journalists
yesterday in Lagos.

The National Tobacco Control Bill was passed by the
Senate on March 15 this year, and it is currently awaiting a concurrent
passage by the House of Representatives and a presidential assent
before it becomes law.

“We are strongly in support of the concurrent passage
of the bill as passed by the Senate because it conforms to the
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and meets most international
standards and obligations regarding tobacco control,” said Akinbode
Oluwafemi, a director at ERA/FoEN.

“The bill is a veritable tool that will help Nigeria
to fight a deadly addiction, thereby protecting many lives and saving
costs of medicare.”

Speedy passage

The National Tobacco Control Bill, sponsored by
Olorunnimbe Mamora, a senator representing Lagos East constituency, was
first introduced to the Senate in 2008. After undergoing a second
reading in February 2009, a public hearing was held five months later.

Mr Oluwafemi appealed to the principal officers of
the House of Representatives to ensure that the tobacco bill is passed
this week, so it could be listed as “one of the dividends of
democracy.”

“The Senate has led the way,” continued Mr Oluwafemi.
“We hereby call on the House of Representatives to ensure a quick
passage of the bill as delay may be dangerous.”

The bill stipulates a fine of not less than N200 and
not exceeding N1,000 or imprisonment to a term of not less than one
month and not exceeding two years for any person who smokes tobacco
contrary to the provisions of the Act.

“We are very optimistic that for the first time, we
have a comprehensive bill that is taking enforcement very seriously,”
said Mr Oluwafemi.

“But beyond that, tobacco control is actually
citizen-enforced – the number one thing is to have the law, once we
have the law and the law states that smoking is prohibited in public
places… we can draw the attention of law enforcement agents to it.”

On the implication of the failure of the House to
pass the bill, Mr Oluwafemi noted that it would amount to “a waste of
energy and resources.”

“If it is not done, all the efforts, all the energy, all the
resources that have been committed both by the Senate and everybody is
going to go back to the start again and I think that is not the new
Nigeria we are all thinking about,” said Mr Oluwafemi, who also
expressed faith in the ability of the House to pass the bill. “If they
fail to do that, it’s going to be a colossal waste to the nation in
terms of resources. Of course, every day counts because lives are
lost.” </

The Inspector
General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, has been summoned by a Chief
Magistrate Court in Abuja to explain why he should not be committed to
prison for his continued disobedience of court orders.

His offence, as
contained in Form 49, is contempt of court for refusing to release a
man suspected to be an informant to the State Security Service, Aliyu
Tasheku, who for eight months had been unlawfully detained at the Force
Criminal Investigations Department in Area 10, Garki, Abuja, the
country’s capital.

“Take notice that
the applicant will on the 10th day of May 2011 at the hour of 9 0’clock
in the forenoon, apply to this honourable court for an order for your
committal to prison for having disobeyed the order of court,” reads
Form 49, which was signed by the court registrar on May 3 and
acknowledged the next day by the Commissioner of Police in charge of
Legal matters.

Mr Ringim, who is
being summoned along with two other police officers, Ezekiel Rimans and
Bala Inusa of the Police Force Headquarters legal department, had
earlier been served Form 48 dated April 6, warning him of the
consequences of disobeying Chief Magistrate Binta Mohammed’s March 28
order granting Mr Tasheku bail.

Despite the court’s
pronouncement and several verbal and written reminders to the Police to
respect the law, the police had defiantly refused granting bail to Mr
Tasheku, who is accused of conspiracy, belonging to a prohibited
religious sect (Boko Haram), and inciting disturbance.

A recalcitrant force

Instead of
remanding Mr Tasheku at the Kuje Prison as directed by the court, the
Police detained him further at the Force Criminal Investigation
Department’s cell. For over a month after he met all bail conditions,
he was still not released. The Police on May 4 instead transferred him
to Maiduguri, where his lawyer, Kevin Okoro, remains uncertain of his
fate.

“This is the height
of gross disrespect for the constitution and the laws of this country.
It is a slap on the face of the judiciary, a disgrace to the democracy
Nigeria claims it practices,” Mr. Okoro says. “First, the police
breached his fundamental rights by exceeding the statutory period to
detain him. They refused him bail, now they are disobeying court orders
and have taken him to Maiduguri where nobody knows what will happen
next.”

In an initial story
published by NEXT on April 10, the Police Force spokesperson, Yemi
Ajayi, had been asked why the Police have refused to release Mr Tasheku
and disobeyed the court order. His response was that Mr

Tasheku has never been detained at the Force CID.

“We’ve searched and
gone through our records, there’s nobody that has been detained by that
name at Force CID. We don’t have anybody like that,” Mr. Ajayi had said.

This, however,
won’t be the first time the Police would deny the existence of Mr
Tasheku who for the first five months after his arrest on October 20,
2010, had been locked up at the Force CID without being charged to
court and allegedly tortured.

In an apparent case
of perjury, a police litigation clerk, Jonah Wutu, with the consent of
the Inspector General (the first respondent) had on March 8, 2011 lied
under oath to an Abuja High Court judge, Ishaq Bello, when a motion was
filed asking for the enforcement of Mr Tasheku’s fundamental rights to
personal liberty and dignity.

“The name of Mallam
Aliyu Tasheku is quite strange to the Force Headquarters of the Nigeria
Police. There is never a day when the first respondent order (sic) the
arrest and detention of the second applicant (Mr Tasheku) in any of the
Nigeria Police cell. There is nobody with a name Mallam Aliyu Tasheku
in the Force CID cell at areas 10. Garki, Abuja,” Mr Wutu said.

This lie was
uncovered after civil society organisations mounted pressure on the
Police, who eventually charged Mr Tasheku on March 28 at the Chief
Magistrate Court 1 at Wuse Zone 2, Abuja before Ms Mohammed who granted
him bail.

When Mr Ajayi was
told that NEXT in the first week of May actually visited Mr Tasheku,
who by virtue of his long detention had been christened “Presido cell
3”, at Force CID before his transfer to Maiduguri, he said the Police
legal department would counter the court’s notice for the IG to be
committed to prison.

“I cannot respond
to any of this [referring to the Form 48 and Form 49]. You can go ahead
with your story, after which we will consult our legal department for
advice,” he said.

The agent nobody wants

The gaze in Mr
Tasheku’s eyes while at the Police Force CID revealed a tired and
dejected looking man. Coming out of cell three dressed in a faded brown
Kaftan and looking much older than 39, Mr Tasheku stretched out his
hand. Under a muffled voice and with a solemn frown he pleaded for help.

“I have been told
they want to transfer me to Maiduguri. Why they want to take me there,
I don’t know. I am not from Borno, even my family is not from there. I
don’t know what the police are planning or what will happen to me
there,” he had said.

Mr Tasheku is
assertive of what he says he knows. He arguably has answers to numerous
issues revolving around Nigeria’s seeming failure in fighting terrorism
and tackling the Boko Haram issue in Northern Nigeria.

He readily mentions
names of past and serving heads of the SSS and the Police, including
former Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro, all whom he said for
several years he constantly gave information on the activities of Boko
Haram.

But like the Police, the SSS have denied any knowledge of him.

The Service spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, stated categorically that no records exist of Mr. Tasheku in their database.

“I took time to go
through our records. He is not an informant to the SSS. If he had been
our informant we would owe him a duty to protect him unless he goes to
do things that are inimical to the Service. He has never been our
informant because we don’t have his details in our records,” Ms. Ogar
said.

Though a man not
many are willing to associate with, Mr Tasheku’s opinion was evidently
respected and sought by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the
Voice of America who in October 2010 interviewed him on solutions to
ending the Boko Haram crisis. His response during the interview, which
he said he got clearance from top security officials to grant, got him
arrested a week later.

“All I told the BBC
is if Nigerian government want solution they should stop arresting Boko
Haram members, release all those arrested, allow members to perform
their religious worship in peace and they should be treated with
equity,” Mr Tasheku said.

These were the same
things listed in the Police First Information Report (FIR) which the
Police used as evidence to charge him to the Chief Magistrate Court,
stating the interview incited public disturbance.

Mr Okoro is,
however, apprehensive of the tactics deployed by the Police and the
presidency, despite his petition dated March 31, 2011 calling on
President Goodluck Jonathan to prevail on Mr. Ringim to obey the court
order to release his client.

Several phone calls and delivered text messages at getting the
presidential spokesperson, Ima Niboro, to state the present situation
with Mr Okoro’s petition went unanswered.

The gubernatorial
candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Akwa Ibom
state, Larry Esin, has rejected the victory of the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) candidate, Godswill Akpabio, describing it as a sham.

He also faulted the
decision of some political parties in the state to congratulate Mr
Akpabio on his victory in an election he said full of illegalities.

Speaking yesterday
in Uyo, Mr Esin explained that to accept the state’s gubernatorial
election which was riddled with irregularities was to entrench
criminality into the country’s polity.

“To accept the
results of April 26th election is to applaud illegality and entrench
criminal behavior into our politics, this will not serve either side
well,” he said. “There was no election in Akwa Ibom State, and there is
overwhelming evidence to prove this. The Akwa Ibom people were denied
their right under the constitution to choose their leaders and
government. This is a grave violation of our fundamental human rights.”

Mr Esin said there
was evidence to prove that the governorship election in the state was a
fiasco and that the election was a ridicule of the political integrity
of the state and country.

The opposition
politician, who said the endorsement of the election was a sham,
described the action as akin to dining with someone whom you had caught
stealing your precious jewelry.

While urging his
supporters to remain calm and not take the law into their hands, Mr
Esin maintained that any democracy built on a weak platform would
degenerate into chaos, anarchy, corruption and deprivation.

“Cases of ballot
box snatching, intimidation, killing, and the use of underage voters
were not only commonplace in the elections, but evidence of the
violation of the universal adult suffrage,” he said, saying results
obtained from such method should be nullified.

The director of the
media and publicity committee of the Akpanudoedehe Positive Change
Campaign Organisation, Thomas Akpan, also said their lawyers were
collating all available facts for presentation at the tribunal which
would commence sitting in the state on Wednesday.

Mr Akpan, who said he believed in the judicial system, said his group would not relent in getting back their mandate.

“We cannot allow
that kind of robbery to go unchallenged. It’s a stolen mandate. We will
get it from him in the court. We cannot allow our mandate to lie there.
We are going to challenge it in court. We’ll take back our mandate
because Akpabio is not going to have it in peace,” he said.

Opposition noise-making

However, the state
commissioner for information and social re-orientation, Aniekan Umana
has insisted that the position of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
and the CPC was “noise-making” devised to heighten political tension in
the state.

“It is about
noise-making. They know the due process, not even the noise and
post-election riot in the north could stop Jonathan from being elected
president of the country,” he said. “In Akwa Ibom State, Godswill
Akpabio clearly won. So, no matter the amount of noise-making. When
Babatunde Fashola won in Lagos State, the Peoples Democratic Party
honoured itself gallantly when Ade Dosunmu congratulated Fashola. What
then is the noise here about?”

Mr Umana advised losing candidates to follow the path of honour and congratulate the governor on his victory in the polls.

“They think Akwa Ibom is where they will come and seek financial
benefits where they did not sow. That is not the case,” he said. “Akwa
Ibom is for the Akwa Ibom people and will be developed for Akwa Ibom
clan. That is what Akpabio is championing, the true development of the
state, not an attempt to sell out the state in whatever interest in the
name of selfish political scheme.”

If anyone thinks
America has a particularly peaceful or passive president, the commando
raid that killed Osama bin Laden is one more reminder they’re wrong.

Unlike his
predecessor, George W. Bush, Barack Obama avoids calling his security
policy a “war on terrorism,” but from Kabul to Cuba, Mr Obama is still
fighting it hard.

“He was able to
have a strong foundation of anti-terrorist efforts,” said former Bush
spokesman, Ari Fleischer. “All that is what Barack Obama continued,
that George Bush started.”

For the mission
against bin Laden, Mr Obama decided to send US troops into Pakistan
without its government’s approval, on the basis of intelligence that
may have been collected through torture.

Mr Obama has
escalated the US effort in Afghanistan with an additional 30,000
troops, so that there are now 100,000 Americans fighting the longest
war in US history.

There are roughly
47,000 troops still in Iraq. They are being gradually withdrawn, but no
faster than the pace planned before Mr Obama was president.

Mr Obama brought
America into its third overseas conflict with its air strikes in Libya,
a country that posed no immediate threat to American security or
interests, but has a long history of support for terrorism.

Mr Obama has also
decided to maintain the US prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo
Bay and increase drone attacks against suspects in Yemen and Pakistan
as well.

The muscular
tactics aren’t all popular inside the US or out of it either, but at
least for now Mr Obama is profiting politically.

A new CNN/Opinion
Research Corporation poll conducted right after the bin Laden raid
found that two-thirds of respondents approve of how the president is
handling terrorism. In fact, they like it better than the rest of his
work in the White House. The poll indicates that just over half of
respondents express approval for his performance as president.

Mr Obama is not a bellicose leader, and even won the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts at better international relations.

In fact, before bin Laden’s death, some of Mr Obama’s opponents questioned his commitment to fighting terrorism.

Now both they and
his supporters are reminded that Mr Obama isn’t especially gentle when
he believes America’s security is at risk.

Jonathan Mann
presents Political Mann on CNN International each Friday at 18:30
(CAT), Saturday at 3pm and 9pm (CAT), and Sunday at 10am (CAT).

Pakistani security
officials reacted with skepticism on Sunday to a U.S. assertion that
Osama bin Laden was actively engaged in directing his far-flung network
from his compound in Abbottabad where he was killed on May 2.

Washington said on
Saturday that, based on a trove of documents and computer equipment
seized in the raid, bin Laden’s hideout north of Islamabad was an
“active command and control center” for al Qaeda where he was involved
in plotting future attacks on the United States.

“It sounds ridiculous,” said a senior intelligence official. “It doesn’t sound like he was running a terror network.”

Pakistan, heavily
dependent on billions of dollars in U.S. aid, is under intense pressure
to explain how the al Qaeda leader could have spent so many years
undetected just a few hours’ drive from its intelligence headquarters
in the capital.

Suspicion has
deepened that Pakistan’s pervasive Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
spy agency, which has a long history of contacts with militant groups,
may have had ties with bin Laden — or that at least some of its agents
did. The agency has been described as a state within a state.

Pakistan has
dismissed such suggestions and says it has paid the highest price in
human life and money supporting the U.S. war on militancy launched
after bin Laden’s followers staged the September 11, 2001, attacks on
America.

The Obama administration

has seen no
evidence Pakistan’s government knew bin Laden was living in that
country before his killing, the U.S. national security adviser said on
Sunday.

Prime Minister
Yusuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to “take the nation into confidence” in
parliament on Monday, his first statement to the people more than a
week after the incident embarrassed the country.

Pakistani officials
said the fact that there was no internet connection or even phone line
into the compound where the world’s most-wanted man was

hiding raised doubts about his centrality to al Qaeda.

Analysts have long
maintained that, years before bin Laden’s death, al Qaeda had
fragmented into a decentralized group that operated tactically without
him.

“It’s bullshit,”
said a senior Pakistani security official, when quizzed on a U.S.
intelligence official’s assertion that bin Laden had been “active in
operational planning and in driving tactical decisions” of the Islamist
militant group from his secret home in the town of Abbottabad.

On Saturday, the
White House released five video clips of bin Laden taken from the
compound, most of them showing the al Qaeda leader, his beard dyed
black, evidently rehearsing the videotaped speeches he sometimes
distributed to his followers.

None of the videos was released with sound. A U.S. intelligence
official said it had been removed because the United States did not
want to transmit bin Laden’s propaganda. But he said they contained the
usual criticism of the United States as well as capitalism.

Forces loyal to
Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi are hiding tanks and artillery and using “shoot
and scoot” tactics in Misrata, frustrating NATO air efforts to break a
weeks-long siege of the rebel-held Libyan city.

Despite repeated
bombing raids by the Western alliance, Gaddafi loyalists continue to
lay siege to the city and its vital port — making it one of the
bloodiest battlefields of Libya’s two-month-old conflict.

Rebels say
pro-Gaddafi forces are concealing tanks in buildings and artillery
beneath trees, firing from civilian-populated areas and near mosques.
“NATO can’t strike those places,” said Safieddin, a rebel spokesman in
the city.

Government forces
have abandoned the city centre to the rebels, but are entrenched in the
built-up outskirts, sometimes firing from the open and scuttling for
cover between buildings.

“There are houses
there. It’s not as densely populated as downtown Misrata but still it’s
the city,” said NATO’s senior military officer, Admiral Giampaolo di
Paula.

“So therefore they
are still continuing to use the tactics of shoot and scoot and that’s
why we need to continue to systematically degrade their military
firepower,” he said.

Two graphic examples came earlier this week.

After after two
days of NATO bombing raids, pro-Gaddafi forces rained artillery on the
port as an aid ship docked to evacuate hundreds of African migrant
workers and wounded Libyan civilians. Five people were killed, rebels
said, and hundreds were left stranded on the dock.

On Saturday,
pro-Gaddafi artillery strikes destroyed four fuel storage tanks in
Misrata, insurgents said, leaving the city facing fuel shortages.

“NATO is working, but Gaddafi’s forces are also working,” said a second rebel spokesman in Misrata, named Abdelsalam.

“Piece by piece”

“NATO has been more successful at destroying troops and military vehicles on the move than static forces,” he said.

“Every tank or
rocket battery destroyed by NATO is immediately replaced. Add to this
that they have been hiding tanks in the sand and inside buildings and
that they fire artillery rounds from under trees.” Rebels and residents
say the government forces’ snipers and mercenaries, many of them
sub-Saharan African migrants forced to fight, are holed up in
buildings, firing freely.

Libyan officials
deny that government forces are attacking civilians in Misrata, and say
they are fighting armed gangs linked al Qaeda. Media access is limited,
making it difficult to verify reports from battle zones.

Human rights groups
say hundreds of people, including many civilians, have been killed in
the fighting in Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of the Libyan
capital, Tripoli.

Much of the city centre is in ruins.

Critics say NATO’s
inability so far to silence the guns demonstrates the limits of waging
war from the skies — amply demonstrated in the 1999 NATO bombing
campaign in then-Yugoslavia to force the withdrawal of Serb forces from
Kosovo. It took 78 days, and the credible threat of ground forces,
before Slobodan Milosevic’s forces retreated.