When NATO undertook the job of providing air support for Libyan rebels one of the actions they were tacitly supporting was the demolition of the Libyan state security apparatus. A hated tool of repression, those employed in it were slaughtered where ever they were found, offices were looted, files were burned, and systems destroyed. The effort to stabilize the country now involves their former colonial masters, the Italians, helping to rebuild this government function. Rebuilding the Libyan Intelligence provides a decent read with Italian to English translation.
Tigris & Euphrates River Basin Water Loss
From the beginning of 2003 to the end of 2009, portions of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria that lie within the Tigris and Euphrates river basins shed 117 million acre-feet of water. That’s roughly equivalent to the volume of the Dead Sea.
