'Gaddafi's Spanish empire remains intact'

In an excellent piece of good journalism (we say somewhat in awe though not surprise) our friend Sancho has written an article under the title above on his blog Tilting at Windmills, in which he uncovers the fact that the Gaddafi family's fortunes have hardly been touched by the present crisis in Lybia. "The financial interests of Gaddafi and his family remain untouched in Spain," he says. "Clearly, for whatever reason, Spain has no wish to do this (block all his assets) and a game of buck passing is in progress with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisting it is a matter for Hacienda, the Interior Ministry and the Bank of Spain." It is well worth a read...

Qaddafi's cluster bombs were made in Spain

SPAIN/LIBYA (Agencies) The cluster bombs that are so much in the news these days because pro Qaddafi forces are bombing civilians in Misrata were made in Spain. The bombs being used by the forces loyal to Qaddafi were manufactured in 2007, a year before Spained signed the international treaty that banned them. Neither Libya nor the USA were signatories to the treaty, however. The company that made those in use on the population of Misrata is Instalaza, which claims it no longer sells them although they figure on the home page of their website under the same brand name they were sold over four years ago and supposedly destroyed after the treaty was signed. According to the New York Times,>