More Foreign Aid Bollocks

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/272450/How-Britain-is-giving-355m-to-educate-the-girls-of-Asia-and-Africa




NICK Clegg triggered fresh outrage at Britain’s spiralling overseas aid budget by pledging £355million of taxpayers’ cash to educate girls in poor countries.


He announced the huge handout at the Lib Dem conference yesterday amid warnings of swingeing austerity for ­families at home.

The Deputy Prime Minister’s promise of cash for countries including South Sudan, Nigeria and Bangladesh also came as it emerged that a literacy drive in British schools is to be axed.

Nick Clegg was cheered by his party’s grassroots activists at their gathering in Birmingham yesterday.

But the move infuriated opponents of the Coalition’s policy of raising overseas aid to a massive £12.6billion a year by 2015 – equivalent to nearly £500 for every household in Britain.

Tory MP Philip Davies said: “This is totally unjustifiable. However nice these projects sound, they are simply unaffordable.


Nick Clegg announced the huge handout at the Lib Dem conference yesterday amid warnings of swingeing austerity for ­families at home



“What Nick Clegg should be focused on is raising educational standards in this country. He should look at the number of people who leave schools and cannot read or write.”

MEP Paul Nuttall, education spokesman for the UK Independence Party, said: “This is deeply unfair on the British taxpayers, who expect their taxes to be used to educate children in this country. Who does he represent?”

Mr Clegg announced the policy at a question-and-answer session, when a delegate asked what the Coalition was doing to increase aid spending.

“It is something I feel passionate about myself, having worked before I went into Parliament on development aid,” he replied. He said the ­policy was in the country’s “self interest” and that poverty in the Third World was “the breeding ground for terrorism, strife, mass movement of people”.


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Thanks to his pledge, £355million will be donated to the new Girls Education Challenge project by 2015 – enough to provide a million youngsters with secondary education for three years.

But the National Association of Head Teachers yesterday said Britain’s Reading Recovery Project was being dropped at many of the country’s schools.

Andrew Mitchell, Tory International Development Secretary, said: “Educating girls tackles the root causes of poverty. Research shows that providing girls with an extra year of schooling can increase their wages by up to 20 per cent, while also lowering birth rates.”

Officials say girls in developing countries who have been through secondary education are less likely to marry in adolescence, will have fewer children and will avoid becoming HIV positive.

Jews Flee Sweden

http://www.freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/63-acharya-s/594-sweden-unsafe-for-jews-women.html



I hate to see the land of my beloved ancestral heritage being destroyed - and some Swedes become apoplectic when such a situation is even mentioned - but here are the facts. Read them and weep, because just a couple of decades ago Sweden had attained one of the most advanced cultures in history.

First we discover that Jews in the Swedish city of Malmo have been fleeing, because of violence and abuse from Muslims:

Sweden's reputation as a tolerant, liberal nation is being threatened by a steep rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city of Malmo....

"I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime, not in Sweden anyway," Mrs Popinski told The Sunday Telegraph.

"This new hatred comes from Muslim immigrants. The Jewish people are afraid now."...

The city's synagogue has guards and rocket-proof glass in the windows, while the Jewish kindergarten can only be reached through thick steel security doors.

It is a far cry from the city Mrs Popinski arrived in 65 years ago, half-dead from starvation and typhus....

A Swedish newspaper reports that the Swedish government now must set aside funds to protect Swedish Jews from Muslim hate crimes:

The Government will spend four million kroner in 2012 on increasing the security and decreasing the vulnerability of the Jewish minority. Research shows that even though tolerance is increasing in society, anti-Semitic views have not decreased to the same extent. The Jewish minority is the subject of anti-Semitic hate crimes and harassment. Even children are harassed in everyday life. Many Jews in Sweden are afraid of openly showing that they belong to the Jewish minority.

Bizarrely, Jewish organizations apparently think that bringing in hordes of those most inclined towards "anti-Semitism" will help solve the situation, as expressed by this Jewish woman, Barbara Lerner Spectre, who says:

I think there's a resurgence of anti-Semitism because at this point in time, Europe has not yet learned how to be multicultural. And I think we are going to be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Europe is not going to be the monolithic societies [sic] that they once were in the last century. Jews are going to be at the center of that. It’s a huge transformation for Europe to make. They are now going into a multicultural mode, and Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role, and without that transformation, Europe will not survive.



With this wave of delightful multiculturalism, Sweden has now become the rape capital of Europe:

Sweden has the highest incidence of reported rapes in Europe - twice as many as "runner up" the UK, a new study shows.

Researchers behind the EU study, which will be presented on Tuesday, conclude that rape appears to be a more common occurrence in Sweden than in continental European countries.

In Sweden, 46 incidents of rape are reported per 100,000 residents.

This figure is double as many as in the UK which reports 23 cases, and four times that of the other Nordic countries, Germany and France. The figure is up to 20 times the figure for certain countries in southern and eastern Europe....

Naturally, this article and others will not name the ethnicity/culture of the majority of rapists - Muslim immigrants - but Pat Condell has no problem doing so:



Yet, despite the reluctance to attach a name to the problem, the Swedish police are now admitting that "Islamic terrorism" is a major threat:

Islamic terrorism is key threat: Swedish police

Islamic terrorism remains the greatest threat to Sweden, according to Anders Danielsson, head of Sweden's Security Service (Säpo)....

Säpo's mission is furthermore to prevent terrorist crimes, Danielsson underlined.

"Our mission is not to get convictions for terrorist crimes, that is not a measure of our effectiveness," said Danielsson.

"We can and are likely to be exposed to terrorist attacks again. But it will not destroy our democratic system. Terrorism rarely does, even though it may seem that way."...

To summarize, in the face of Muslim violence, Jews are fleeing Sweden, while the government sets aside money to protect them. With Muslim immigration, Sweden has become the "rape capital" of Europe. Swedish police say the greatest threat to Sweden is "Islamic terror."

Lloyds sue Saudi Arabia for 911

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lloyds-insurer-sues-saudi-arabia-for-funding-911-attacks-2356857.html


A Lloyd's insurance syndicate has begun a landmark legal case against Saudi Arabia, accusing the kingdom of indirectly funding al-Qa'ida and demanding the repayment of £136m it paid out to victims of the 9/11 attacks.


The Brighton-based Lloyd's 3500 syndicate, which paid $215m compensation to companies and individuals involved, alleges that the oil-rich Middle Eastern superpower bears primary responsibility for the atrocity because al-Qa'ida was supported by banks and charities acting as "agents and alter egos" for the Saudi state.

The detailed case, which names a number of prominent Saudi charities and banks as well as a leading member of the al-Saud royal family, will cause embarrassment to the Saudi government, which has long denied claims that Osama bin Laden's organisation received official financial and practical support from his native country.

Outlined in a 156-page document filed in western Pennsylvania, where United Airlines flight 93 crashed on 9/11, the claim suggests that the nine defendants "knowingly" provided resources, including funding, to al-Qa'ida in the years before the attack and encouraged anti-Western sentiment which increased support for the terror group.

The legal claim states: "Absent the sponsorship of al-Qa'ida's material sponsors and supporters, including the defendants named therein, al-Qa'ida would not have possessed the capacity to conceive, plan and execute the 11 September attacks. The success of al-Qa'ida's agenda, including the 11 September attacks themselves, has been made possible by the lavish sponsorship al-Qa'ida has received from its material sponsors and supporters over more than a decade leading up to 11 September 2001."

The Lloyd's syndicate is known as a "run-off", meaning that it does not accept new premiums on the Lloyd's of London insurance market and instead deals with historic claims. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, its members settled a raft of multimillion-pound claims from affected businesses, including airlines, airports and security companies, as well as injured individuals and relatives of those killed.

Its complaint, which quotes heavily from US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks detailing investigations by the US authorities into al-Qa'ida, attempts to establish funding links between some Saudi charities, and the terror group, and implicate the Saudi government in that funding through its support of the charities.

The case singles out the activities of a charity, the Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya (SJRC), which was alleged by UN officials to have been used as a cover by several al-Qa'ida operatives, including two men who acted as directors of the charity. It is alleged that at the time the SJRC was under the control of Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, half-brother of King Abdullah and the long-standing Saudi Interior minister. The claim states: "Between 1998 and 2000, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the SJRC, diverted more than $74m to al-Qa'ida members and loyalists affiliated with SJRC bureaus. Throughout this time, the Committee was under the supervision and control of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz."

The Saudi embassies in London and Washington did not respond to requests from The Independent for a response to the allegations in the claim. The 9/11 Commission, America's official report on the attacks, found that there was no evidence that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials individually funded al-Qa'ida.

Diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks showed that American officials remained concerned that the Saudi authorities were not doing enough to stop money being passed to the terror group by Saudi citizens.

Tony Blair and J P Morgan

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8772418/Tony-Blair-visited-Libya-to-lobby-for-JP-Morgan.html


A senior executive with the Libyan Investment Authority, the $70 billion fund used to invest the country's oil money abroad, said Mr Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen who regularly dealt with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former leader.

Saif al-Islam and his close aides oversaw the activities of the fund, and often directed its officials on where they should make its investments, he said.

The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were told the "ideas" they were ordered to pursue came from Mr Blair as well as one other British businessman and a former American diplomat.

"Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan," he said.

He said that unlike some other deals - notably some investments run by the US bank Goldman Sachs - JP Morgan's had never turned "bad".

]
But he added: "Saif and his father played these people like musical chairs. At the end the reputation of the LIA was really damaged because of these interventions."

Documents found by The Sunday Telegraph published this weekend showed Mr Blair had made at least three visits to Tripoli, twice in the lead-up to the release of the alleged Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Megrahi in 2008 and 2009 and once last year. On the first two occasions he was flown to the country on planes arranged by Col Gaddafi.

A senior diplomat told The Daily Telegraph last night that the British embassy in Tripoli had arranged transport for Mr Blair and his entourage in Tripoli and ensured that representatives were there to “greet him and see him off” at the airport.

Mr Blair stayed overnight at the ambassador’s official residence in Tripoli and was accompanied by “several” British police officers for protection.

The documents show that among the people he was due to meet in 2009 was Mohammed Layas, head of the LIA.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said that the visits had largely been to discuss Africa, and categorically denied that he had lobbied Said al-Islam on behalf of JP Morgan.

The spokesman said last night: "As we have made clear many times before, Tony Blair has never had any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the Government of Libya and he does not and has never had any commercial relationship with any Libyan company or entity."

Mr Blair began work in January 2008 as a £2million-a-yearn adviser to JP Morgan. Last month, American officials told the New York Post newspaper that the bank managed more than half a billion US dollars on behalf of the LIA.

The executive said that he did not see Mr Blair at the LIA headquarters in the modern Tower of the Revolution overlooking the seafront. He said officials like himself were given their instructions by two senior Saif aides, including Mohammed Ismail, a Libyan with British nationality.

One of the letters arranging the 2008 visit, in which an aide to Mr Blair told the Libyan ambassador to Britain that the former prime minister was "delighted" that "The Leader" was likely to be able to see him, was on notepaper headed "Office of the Quartet Representative", his formal title as Middle East envoy.

The Quartet he represents is made up of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States. A spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said: "It's up to him to explain why he did this."

The growing closeness of the Blair government to the Gaddafi regime has already come under fire. Abdulhakim Belhadj, former leader the Libyan Islamist Fighting Group and now head of the revolutionary Tripoli Military Council, is demanding an apology after papers showed MI6 arranged for his secret extradition from Malaysia back to Libya in 2004.

Many ordinary Libyans have also expressed surprise at the policy. After the latest revelations, Hoda Abuzeid, a British Libyan whose dissident father was murdered in London in 1995, accused Mr Blair of "selling out".

"People like Blair and those who had their eyes on the business opportunities that Gaddafi could provide sold out people like my family," said Miss Abuzeid, who has returned to the country for the first time since 1980.

"When he had tea in the desert with the 'Brother Leader' did he ever ask him who killed my father?"

Libya and the Propaganda War

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6480



This week Telesur welcomed home a news team just back from covering NATO’s war on Libya from that nation’s capital, Tripoli. On arrival at Venezuela’s Maiquetia International Airport, the journalists denounced the ongoing “fabrication of lies” by mainstream media outlets and accused the international press of “producing the arguments needed for a continuation of the war”. The Libyan people “have been invaded by destruction, war, suffering and death, when the solution to the conflict could have been secured by peaceful means”, affirmed Telesur journalist Rolando Segura, who spent the last four months in Libya alongside cameraman Henry Pillajo.

Segura and Pillajo are among the handful of independent journalists who covered largely underreported stories that include: NATO’s bombing of civilian targets; the indiscriminate killing of black migrant workers by rebel forces; the million strong ‘Green March’ held across Libya demanding reconciliation between the government and opposition forces; the rebel takeover and silencing of Libya’s public broadcasting channels; and the fabricated takeover of Tripoli’s Green Plaza late last month – filmed in Qatar and disseminated by international mainstream media outlets, the video successfully secured recognition of the NATO-backed National Transition Council (CNT) as the “new government in Libya” and convinced many Libyan embassy staff abroad to defect.

After an August 8-9 NATO missile strike killed 85 civilians, 33 of which were children, Telesur’s Segura interviewed Abu Mimiar, brother of one of those killed. Mimiar asked the Telesur reporter if the killing of his brother, a rural farmer, “is the protection of civilians they (NATO) talk about? Or is it that those of us who care for and support Gaddafi don’t deserve protection?”

50,000 KILLED IN LIBYAN WAR

According to Segura, who spoke Tuesday at a forum in Caracas organized by Correo del Orinoco, “there is talk of an estimated 1,800 killed by NATO bombs and, as a result of the entire conflict, something like 50,000 dead in total – persons who were massacred as a result of this invasion, this aggression, against Libya”.

The bombings, as well as advances made by NATO-backed rebel forces, “were made possible by the lies of the mass media that reproduced an editorial line without any questioning at all”, affirmed Segura. Segura’s blog [http://rolandotelesur. blogspot.com/], in Spanish, has been one of the only independent sources of news, analysis, and images in the aftermath of NATO bombings across Libya.

The Telesur crew left Libya late last week, traveling 36 hours by boat from the Libyan coast to Malta, an island just south of Sicily, Italy. The two crowded in a boat fit for 12 alongside 50 other passengers, all of whom sought refuge from war-torn Tripoli.

Since 19 March this year, the United States and its NATO allies have launched over 20,000 sorties over Libya, carrying out an estimated 9,000 air strikes. This past Sunday alone, NATO carried out 52 aerial attacks. Damage to the country’s highly developed infrastructure – including its oil industry, water supply networks, food storage facilities, communications installations, and public health system – has resulted in growing shortages of food, water, and medicine.

TELESUR VS. NEW FORMAT FOR WAR

Speaking to a crowd gathered on Monday, Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Andres Izarra praised Telesur’s role in Libya and said “US imperialism” had “sown together a new format for imperial aggression” by using “the hegemonic international media” to demonize governments opposed to US foreign policy. This new “format,” he said, involves “instigating revolutions of color, revolutions of spring” inn countries in which imperialism claims “civil liberties are restricted”. Demonization is followed by international media campaigns to topple anti-US governments and, if necessary, direct military intervention follows.

According to Izarra, this new method for attacking sovereign nations has “already had a partialn victory in Libya” and “at this moment is a serious threat to Syria”. Izarra praised Telesur reporters in Tripoli, who showed “a city that was going about living its normal, daily life” as international press attempted to portray “a dictator, Gaddafi, massacring his own people” in order to justify NATO’s war.

Jordan Rodriguez, Telesur´s reporter in Tripoli at the start of NATO bombings, told the press that NATO is currently the only force responsible for “bombings
that are taking place in Libya” and blamed the international force for “killing innocent civilians, women and children”. Rodriguez pointed out that while NATO bombs continue to hit populated urban centers, “we watch as the large networks like CNN and the BBC report on the precision of NATO bombs” instead of the impact these bombs have on the Libyan people’s daily life.

According to Rodriguez, Telesur has “shown another other side of the conflict”. “When we (Telesur) spoke to Libyans from rural and other areas, many showed a great deal of appreciation for Moammar Gaddafi. We are talking about the poorest country in all of the Maghreb, before the arrival of the Revolution. The proof is in the statistics, in the hospitals that look like high tech clinics, eightlane highways, the highest quality education”, he said.

Rodriguez accused the US and NATO allies of instigating, arming and training the rebel forces. He said that when speaking to anti-Gaddafi rebels on the ground, “all they said is that they wanted ‘Gaddafi to go,’ giving no argumentation”.

Gaddafi was forced into hiding after NATO-backed opposition forces seized on weeks of airstrikes in Tripoli, capturing government offices and the presidential palace. Footage of the socalled “Fall of Tripoli” was widely disseminated by the mainstream media and opposition forces received almost immediate recognition as the “new government” in Libya.

VOICE OF TRUTH

According to Telesur President Patricia Villegas the Caracas- based Latin American news outlet plans to keep staff in Libya indefinitely as NATO steps up efforts to destroy support for Gaddafi and maintain the pro-Western “transitional government”.

According to Villegas, the station’s overall objective “has always been” to provide a “voice to the victims of conflict,” as was the case during the 2009 military coup in Honduras, the attempted ouster of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in 2010, the popular uprising against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and most recently, the NATO bombing of Libya.

“We didn’t arrive (in Libya) alongside the invaders”, affirmed Villegas. “We didn’t arrive with the bullets…Other media outlets did. Other media outlets are riding in the rebels’ cars; others are protected by private securitycompanies. This is not the journalistic practice of Telesur. We have told this story since it first began”, she said.

“Regardless of whether or not the leader (Gaddafi) is ‘correct,’ we have been witness to exceptional acts of aggression by NATO; of NATO bombs not only attacking military but also civilian targets”, she affirmed.

CHAVEZ PRAISES TELESUR

Over the weekend Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised Telesur’s coverage of the war on Libya, stressing the importance of breaking apart the media blockade imposed by “US Empire” and its allies in international and local media networks. “I want us to award the Telesur correspondents with an honor, the highest honor given by the Republic. Those people are the ones telling the truth”. said Chavez. “Our recognition and admiration goes out to Telesur and its correspondents in Libya…What courage!” he said.

Oil and ther Falklands

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Oil-and-the-Falklands-the-Saga-Continues.html


Like some dimly remembered Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, pitting Hardy British tars against perfidious foreigners, the Falklands periodically recycles into the gaze of bemused international observers every decade or so.

Since the brief 1982 war between Argentina and Britain, the issue of sovereignty of the Falklands has lurked beneath the internationals diplomatic surface, an irritant but hardly threatening to reignite a new round of hostilities. Three decades on from that unfortunate confrontation the issue of the Falklands is again roiling Argentinean-British relations over the possibility that the archipelago contains beneath its surrounding waters something of value - oil.

British oil group Rockhopper Exploration has unveiled optimistic plans for a $2 billion oil infrastructure investment in the Falkland Islands announcing on 14 September that it expected to start pumping oil in 2016 from its four licensed Sea Lion concessions totaling 1,500 square miles, with a projected production rate of roughly 120,000 barrels of oil per day by 2018. Rockhopper Exploration said the fifth well in the Sea Lion complex "had found a high quality reservoir package and oil column."

This roseate picture is somewhat clouded by several facts, including that currently Rockhopper Exploration has on hand a mere $170 million, enough to pay for two more scheduled wells. Nevertheless, Rockhopper Exploration shares, which have outperformed the European index of oil and gas companies by 14 percent since August, were up 1.1 percent in early trading after the company's announcement.

A second element in this picture is a sobering fact that while both British and Argentinean companies have drilled a handful of exploratory wells in the water surrounding the Falklands, only Rockhopper Exploration has discovered petroleum.

And thirdly last but certainly not least is the issue of the islands sovereignty, contested by both Argentina and Britain for the last 198 years.

While various City pundits excitedly speculate that the Falklands is to become another North Sea, the above facts taken together indicates at the very least a far greater degree of risk in underwriting Rockhopper Exploration’s ambitious program.

So if the Falklands oil potential is so promising, then why are the international major oil companies not involved? The answer is in brief that they have looked at the islands’ potential and given a pass.

According to a US embassy cable dating from February 2010 and leaked last year by Wikileaks, “ExxonMobil International chairman Brad Corson told us he does not believe there is enough oil on the Falkland Islands continental shelf to be profitable, citing Shell's earlier oil exploration attempts which they abandoned.”

Argentina is not taking the news lightly, declaring its intention following Rockhopper Exploration’s to both file an official complaint against Britain for oil exploration activities in Falklands/Malvinas disputed waters before the United Nations Decolonization Committee along with inviting the U.N. Special Committee of the 24 on Decolonization Chairman Francisco Carrion-Mena of Ecuador to visit Argentina to hold a meeting on the issue in Buenos Aires.

The Falklands now have the dubious distinction of joining the list of contested offshore maritime oil and natural gas concessions spewed by two or more countries.

These include a growing dispute in the eastern Mediterranean between Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel and Turkey, the final disposition of the Caspian's offshore waters currently contested by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkmenistan Russia and rising confrontation in the East China Sea over the region's offshore waters which involves the Spratly island’s more than 750 islands, islets, atolls and cays, whose various portions of offshore waters are claimed by China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

What makes the Falklands Argentinean-British dispute unique however is the fact that in 1980 to the countries actually fought a brief vicious war over the archipelago and its surrounding waters. At the time oil exploration of the Falklands waters had yet to begin, and the node and Argentinian writer Jorge Borges famously compared the dispute to “two bald men fighting over a comb.” The stakes are much higher now.

Common sense would seem to indicate that the best way for might be a possible joint venture between the two nations to explore their offshore waters oil potential hand, if any significant reserves are found jointly to develop them with an agreed-upon program of profit sharing, but given the increasingly strident claims sole sovereignty over the archipelago this seems increasingly unlikely.

If therefore Rockhopper Exploration’s drilling programs prove successful, a number of developments seem increasingly clear. First is that, depending on the political temperature in Buenos Aires, future activities may well need the protection of the Royal Navy.

Secondly is Latin America's increasingly lining up behind Argentina's claims to the islands, and Brazil recently stated that it would not allow British exploration vessels to use Brazilian ports to exploit any possible oil developments in the Falklands, Rockhopper Exploration will need to source virtually all of the necessary equipment from the other side of the Atlantic as well as possibly Britain, both major expenses for a company which states it has only $170 million of available cash. Furthermore should development go forward, then a total lack of access to Latin American hydrocarbon infrastructure support means that Rockhopper Exploration will probably be forced to use a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to store and transport its output.

Last but not least, the de facto boycott by Latin America of any future Falklands oil production means that the oil at the very least will have to transit South Atlantic before reaching potential markets, further increasing both development costs and shrinking potential profits.

In light of the above, a joint venture would seem to be the most common sense way to proceed, but given the rising jingoistic nationalism flaring over the issue in both London and Buenos Aires, don't count on any time soon.

While in history is rife with examples of daring oil explorers making fortunes, the number of examples shrink dramatically when major oil companies give a pass on projected production and you future output is situated in a contested site which less than 30 years ago was a “hot” war zone.

By. John C.K. Daly of OilPrice.com

SAS Captured In Libya

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8772710/Libya-Gaddafi-forces-claim-to-have-captured-British-mercenaries.html




"A group was captured in Bani Walid consisting of 17 mercenaries. They are technical experts and they include consultative officers," Moussa Ibrahim told Syrian-based Arrai TV.

"Most of them are French, one of them is from an Asian country that has not been identified, two English people and one Qatari," he added.

He said the 17 would be shown on television at a later time, but did not give more details.

It was not immediately possible to verify the claims. The French foreign ministry said it had no information regarding the report.

NATO, French and British officials had on Saturday denied a report by Arrai TV that some NATO troops had been captured by Gaddafi loyalists.

Western special forces are known to have been in Libya and to have liaised with anti-Gaddafi officials during the conflict. Private security firms have also been helping anti-Gaddafi forces, according to Western media reports.

Meanwhile, interim government forces have fled in chaos from the town of Bani Walid and pulled back from Sirte after yet more failed attempts to storm Gaddafi's final bastions and take control of the entire country.

Since taking Tripoli last month, National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters have tried several times to storm Bani Walid, 150 km (90 miles) southeast of the capital, only to retreat under heavy fire and in disorder.

NTC fighters said they had planned for tanks and pickup trucks with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers to lead Sunday's attack, but foot soldiers had piled in first.

"There is a lack of organisation so far. Infantry men are running in all directions," said Zakaria Tuham, a senior fighter with a Tripoli-based unit.