THE West must not repeat the same mistake in Libya as it did in Iraq, Italy’s foreign minister said, warning against a full-scale purging of military officials and bureaucrats from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

“Why destroy all the structure, all the apparatus in Libya like we have done in Iraq, making a big mistake,” Franco Frattini told reporters at an economics forum in the Lake Como resort town of Cernobbio.

“We shouldn’t multiply, we shouldn’t double this mistake.”

Frattini, whose country kept strong economic and diplomatic ties with Gaddafi’s regime, suggested that lessons be learned from the period in Iraq after the US-led war drove Saddam Hussein from power. He was referring to the wide-scale purging of Iraqi soldiers and bureaucrats. Militant extremists quickly capitalised on the resulting discontent and power vacuum.

But Frattini also warned against possible infiltration by extremists in the future government of Libya, after rebels, aided by NATO’s airstrikes, ended Gaddafi’s 42 years of iron-fisted rule.

“A very important point is to eradicate any kind of infiltration of extremist organisations into the structure of government of the future Libya,” said the minister, who throughout the rebellion consulted frequently with the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council.

The council’s leadership was also in regular contact early on with officials of Italian energy company Eni SpA, which for decades has had natural gas and oil operations in Libya, Frattini said.

“The rebels in Benghazi immediately understood that Eni would have been a reliable partner” in a post-Gaddafi’s Libya, Frattini said.

Members of an Eni technical team in Libya are “exploring the fastest way to restore … the oil and gas production” there,” Frattini added.

Eni said last week it is too soon to say when oil production could resume from Libya, but its CEO Paolo Scaroni has set a target date of mid-October for natural gas delivery from its Greenstream pipeline operation, in time for winter use by Italian consumers. Libya is one of Italy’s main sources of energy.

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Danny Fitzsimons was escorted by police into a Baghdad courtroom Sunday.

He is the first Westerner to be tried by an Iraqi court since the start of the war nearly eight years ago and faces the death penalty if convicted.

He’s charged with two counts of murder for the 2009 shooting deaths of a British and Australian contractor with whom he worked and with attempting to kill an Iraqi guard.

Fitzsimons admits to shooting the men but claims it was self-defense.

The British man accused of murdering two contractors in Baghdad is in an Iraqi court for an expected verdict on the long-awaited case.

Danny Fitzsimons, 30, was escorted by police into a Baghdad courtroom Sunday. He is the first Westerner to be tried by an Iraqi court since the start of the war nearly eight years ago and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Fitzsimons is charged with two counts of murder for the 2009 shooting deaths of a British and Australian contractor who worked with him and with attempting to kill an Iraqi guard.

Fitzsimons admits to shooting the men but claims it was self-defense.

His family has worried about his ability to get a fair trial, while the victims’ family members expressed disbelief at Fitzsimons’ claim of self-defense.

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He has been recalled to explain possible gaps and inconsistencies almost a year on from his last session before Sir John Chilcot and his panel.

Since then, the inquiry has heard from scores more witnesses and it is thought that some provided evidence which contradicted that given by Mr Blair.

Sir John and his team have now also seen documents to which they did not have access a year ago.

Some of these documents have been declassified and placed on public record.

Others, including Mr Blair’s private notes to former US president George W Bush, have not.

Against the wishes of the inquiry, the Cabinet Office has refused to declassify a number of memos written by Mr Blair to Mr Bush in the months prior to the invasion.

The panel has seen the memos and claims they provide “important and often unique insights into Mr Blair’s thinking and the commitments he made to President Bush, not reflected in other papers”.

But because the memos have not been declassified, they are unable to refer to their contents in public.

Among the declassified documents that could be referred to today is a note written by the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to Mr Blair two months before the invasion.

In the memo marked “secret”, Lord Goldsmith states: “I remain of the view that the correct legal interpretation of resolution 1441 is that it does not authorise the use of military force without a further determination by the security council.”

In the margin, next to this statement, are the words “I just don’t understand this”, in Mr Blair’s handwriting.

In the past week alone, new testimony concerning the legal basis of the war has emerged.

In a new witness statement to the inquiry from Lord Goldsmith, there is a suggestion that Mr Blair had ignored, even contradicted, legal advice that he had been given.

Lord Goldsmith is asked whether the former prime minister’s words, in a speech to Parliament and a separate TV interview, were compatible with the advice he had given Mr Blair.

He replied “no”, adding that he had found Mr Blair’s language “uncomfortable”.

Also this week another witness, Sir Stephen Wall, who advised Mr Blair on European issues, claimed that Mr Blair deliberately misinterpreted the words of former French president Jacques Chirac.

According to Sir Stephen, Mr Blair knew that what he was claiming Mr Chirac had said was not an accurate translation of what he had actually said.

Mr Blair, it was claimed, told his director of communications Alastair Campbell to brief the tabloid newspapers with this incorrect interpretation in order to blame the French for the failure of securing a second UN resolution.

Another development since Mr Blair’s last appearance comes in the form of his autobiography, A Journey, which was published last September.

In it, Mr Blair talks of his “anger and anguish” at being asked during his last appearance whether he had any regrets. He admits that his answer to the question was “incomplete”.

He writes: “The anger was at being put in a position in an inquiry that was supposed to be about lessons learned, but had inevitably turned into a trial of judgement…”

He is bound to be pressed again on any personal reflections and regrets he may have.

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Stephen Wall, Blair’s former EU adviser, said the ex-prime minister ordered his media chief Alastair Campbell to tell journalists that Chirac had threatened to veto any Security Council resolution — even though they knew Chirac had not.

“The prime minister was giving Alastair his marching orders to play the anti-French card,” Wall told the Iraq war inquiry in London.

“I do recall getting a call from Joyce Quin, a former Europe minister, who said to me ‘Do the prime minister and Alastair know that what they’re claiming Chirac said isn’t what he actually said?’ and I said ‘Joyce, I believe they do know’.”

The evidence comes before Blair is due to make his second appearance before the inquiry on Friday, following a highly charged session in January last year on the lead-up to the invasion.

Blair’s dealings with Chirac were famously strained and they clashed over a range of issues, especially the invasion of Iraq, which Chirac steadfastly opposed.

Wall said Blair’s actions reflected the strain he was under at the time of the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Britain eventually pulled out of the country in 2009.

“I can remember about that time Tony Blair coming into my room. He said: ‘I am like a man walking across a precipice upon a tightrope with only a straw to balance with.’ That was a reflection of how dire the domestic situation was,” the aide said.

Chirac earned plaudits for standing up to US president George W. Bush but Blair is still loathed by many for following the United States into Iraq, with protesters saying they will target his appearance at the inquiry this week.

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‘If the (Iraqi) government serves the people and their security, we are on its side,’ AL-SADR Update

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The radical cleric’s comments Saturday came in his first public speech in Iraq since his self-imposed exile to Iran nearly four years ago.

He told the crowd of thousands to “reject America” and urged his followers to “target only the occupier with all means of resistance.”

He said Iraqis should not kill Iraqis.

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Undercover radio reporters managed to take steak knives, screwdrivers, razors, pairs of scissors and even syringes on to flights without detection.

The Eyewitness News reporters tested 10 flights at various host city airports.

“In more than half of the incidences, we managed to get on to flights with these illicit items,” senior reporter Mandy Weiner told Sky News.

She said although an attempt to take fake explosives on board a plane failed, airport officials did not recognise the scale of the threat the genuine article would pose.

Ms Weiner explained: “It was essentially just two bottles, one filled with salt and one filled with green liquid, but they were labelled as two products which if combined in that particular amount, could bring down an aeroplane.

“The bottles were confiscated but the security officials didn’t acknowledge that they were in any way explosive.”

Eyewitness News, which broadcasts on South African radio station Radio 702, passed on its findings to world football’s governing body Fifa and the tournament’s local organising committee.

“(The organistions have) taken note of what we have done and say that while they are concerned that we managed to breach security like this, they are confident that ACSA has done enough,” Ms Weiner said.

The Airports Company South Africa manages the biggest airports in the country.

“They are adamant that security at the airports is tight. They believe it is world class,”Ms Weiner added.

“The general consensus among South Africans is that security is sufficiently tight at airports around the country.

“But I think that our investigation has shown that these security checkpoints may be far more porous than the public and officials care to admit.”

Meanwhile, South African police have attempted to demonstrate the strength and range of their security arrangements.

Officers paraded fire engines, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles through Johannesburg.

The show came as Iraqi security forces revealed they had detained a Saudi army officer suspected of planning a “terrorist act” at the tournament, which kicks off on June 11.

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A French criminal probe into the affair was closed in 2007, and the prosecutor’s office last year recommended dismissing the case against Total’s chief executive and other current and former employees.

But a new investigating magistrate decided in early 2010 to place the company under formal investigation on “bribery charges as well as complicity and influence peddling,” Total said in its annual report published late last week.

“This formal investigation has been pronounced eight years after the beginning of the investigation without any new evidence being added to the affair,” Total said.

“The company believes that its activities related to the ‘Oil-for-Food’ programme have been in compliance with this programme,” Total added.

Total’s shares were up 1.8 percent at 0914 GMT (10:14 a.m. British time), outperforming a 0.7 percent rise in the French benchmark CAC 40 index .

The United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme ran from 1996 to allow Iraq to export oil for imports of food and other humanitarian goods to relieve the impact of UN economic sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein’s regime.

It ended in November 2003 after sanctions were lifted following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. A UN report subsequently revealed corruption on a global scale, with more than $10 billion (6.5 billion pounds) misdirected.

A number of current and former Total employees, including Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie, formerly president of its Exploration and Production division, had been placed under criminal investigation for possible charges.

However, the criminal investigation was closed in 2007, and the case was transferred to the prosecutor’s office, which subsequently recommended it should be dismissed.

It is the investigating magistrate, however, who decides whether or not a case should be pursued in France, meaning Total may now have to appear in court, although the prosecutor’s office could still appeal.

An independent investigation was carried out into the U.N. Oil-for-Food programme by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Total said the Volcker report had “discarded any bribery grievance within the framework of the ‘Oil-For-Food’ programme.”

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The loss-making airline ran 78 percent of its long-haul flights and 50 per cent of its short-haul flights over the first two days of the strike over planned changes to pay and conditions, it said.

“Contingency plans for the three days of industrial disruption have been very successful,” it said in a statement, adding that 68 percent of seats were filled on long-haul and 69 percent in short-haul flights.

“Current best estimate is that the three-day industrial action will cost seven million pounds a day,” it added.

Referring to a further threatened action including a four-day strike starting next Saturday, it said: “Assessmentof the cost of potential future industrial action can only be made after the event.

“As a result full year earnings expectations to March 31, 2010 remains broadly unchanged,” it added.

The dispute centres on attempts by loss-making BA to downgrade its employees’ pay and perks packages, which are among the most lucrative in the industry.

BA and the Unite union — which represents its 12,000 cabin crew – disputed the strike’s impact at the weekend. The airline claimed it had held up well, but Unite said fewer than 20 percent of crew had turned up for work.

Brown is battling to prevent the strike — also threatening Easter holiday plans next weekend unless a deal is struck — clouding his political hopes weeks ahead of a general election expected on May 6.

But a business group warned Monday that the action threatens Britain’s global reputation.

“The strike is reminiscent of a best-forgotten era,” said Jo Valentine, head of business group London First on the last of an initial three-day strike over planned changes to pay and conditions.

“The message from BA’s London-based business customers to both sides is: get back to the negotiating table, and to union members: get back to work in the meantime.”

A full BA service is set to resume rapidly on Tuesday after the first three-day action ends — but unless a solution is found, staff will walk out again next Saturday for four days.

The main opposition Conservatives have accused the government of a limp response to the strike because Unite is a major donor to Brown’s Labour Party.

“Once again, under Gordon Brown the vested interests triumph and the people lose out,” Conservative leaderDavid Cameron said at the weekend.

Labour, long languishing far behind the Conservatives in opinion polls, has clawed back to within a few points in recent weeks, fuelling speculation that there is all to play for in expected May 6 polls.

A spokesman for Brown said the premier was following developments very closely. “The prime minister has always been conscious throughout this period that the people who really suffer are the customers,” he said.

Unite chief Tony Woodley meanwhile called for more talks with BA management.

“The economics of the madhouse should now be put to one side,” he said, addressing workers near Heathrow Airport, west of London.

“We need to reach a sensible, fair deal, to get this company up and running again, to get passengers flying again, to get all of the planes off the ground.”

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“Alliances in forming the coming government are a must,” he said in remarks carried by the state-owned National Media Centre.

“Coalition with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) and the Kurdish coalition is an important issue in building the country. These blocs enjoy historical relations that the political process and national unity need.”

Maliki’s comments were the clearest signal yet that his State of Law coalition hopes to join forces with rival blocs after the polls.

They might also constitute an acknowledgement that his own support may be less than anticipated — although few political experts expected any single electoral bloc to form a majority on its own in a society as fractured as Iraq’s.

Maliki, who has gathered strength and popularity since being selected as a relatively obscure compromise candidate in 2006, did well in provincial polls in early 2009, but his law-and-order message has taken a hit after a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad.

His current government is an alliance of majority Shi’ites with Kurds and Sunnis. After his strong performance in 2009, Maliki decided his ostensibly non-sectarian State of Law alliance would run against the other main Shi’ite groups.

Wheeling and dealing after next Sunday’s election could mean it takes weeks or even months to form the next government.

The INA is Maliki’s main rival for the Shi’ite vote, while the Kurdish coalition is dominated by the two parties that control Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region: the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Kurds are seen as kingmakers in the polls, as their support could give any bloc decisive weight in forming a government.

The polls may mark a watershed for Iraq as it struggles to end seven years of violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. But they could also renew political feuds that have fuelled greater violence in the past.

Maliki’s broad-based alliance includes members of his Dawa party, a party founded in the 1950s to give Shi’ite Islam greater power in public life, and other groups including some Sunni tribal leaders, Shi’ite Kurds, Christians and independents.

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