It's pretty tough to try to predict the latest moves by Gadhafi and in forces that aim to keep him in power. But our FlashBrief contributors take it on and suggest there's a lot to consider here. Don't ASSUME anything. Gadhafi isn't going to necessarily fade into the woodwork. And don't forget...for the first time in a very long time, Western leaders seem in tune with the Arab Street.

Check out the FlashBrief!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Libya's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations was among the first to turn on his longtime leader. Ibrahim Dabbashi, at least for a short time, thought he had been "locked out" at the U-N as a result. In this interview he says everthing is "normal" for him at the U-N, but off-camera, told Correspondent Richard Roth (with delighted eyes) that "my ID still works!"

Here, Dabbashi calls for a no-fly zone and gets pressed on what he was really thinking about "the Great Leader" as he represented Col. Gadhafi's regime all these years.

Filed under: Uncategorized

There's much debate about the term "human trafficking" and whether if fully fits the scope of human slavery today. I'm not much for these kinds of debates. It's pretty obvious to anyone that the world has a growing problem of criminals, relatives, landowners and warlords forcing others to do what they don't want to do in order to earn profits. It's slavery. CNN is embarking on a yearlong project to attack - yes, attack - the problem and give voice to the victims and those who are standing up against human slavery.

In the months ahead, the Brief will carry a lot of stories and bring many discussions to your television screen. We believe in this project. This isn't just hype, this is something we're glad to be giving better coverage.

During the 1960's, I was eager to be involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It gave me a tremendous amount of satisfaction to be a white kid standing up for someone else's rights. When I was in Luxor, Egypt last December (2010,) I got to meet dozens of young people who have a similar enthusiasm and committment to the fight against Human Trafficking. You're inspiring! We're going to try our best to support the young people, to highlight their efforts and listen to their voices as part of the Freedom Project here at CNN.

Here's just one of many stories that lays out some of the basics. This one focuses on 'Who are the traffickers.'

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After we completed i-List Germany and a week of LIVE broadcasts of The Brief from Berlin, we traveled to Prague to sit down with Vaclav Havel. The playwright and human rights activist talked with us about the popular uprisings that have spread across the Middle East, much like the uprisings of 1989 across former Warsaw Pact countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Havel has some interesting points about why the young people in the Arab world face a more difficult task than did the anti-communist uprisings of 20 years ago.

Today, we learn that Havel has been hospitalized suffering from respiratory problems - a recurring problem since his years in a Communist prison in then Czechoslovakia. You can find a writeup and a complete transcript of the interview with Havel here.

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Just a day after we noted that Iran had been invited to talks over its nuclear program but not given a reply...Tehran obliged with a nod to meet the Americans and Europeans in the near future.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the U.S. and its allies had agree on terms even tougher than offered Iran in the last round of talks...talks that went nowhere because Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamanei, quashed the deal.

The Obama Administration has proposed terms that it hopes will keep Iran from holding enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

While we wonder what will come of it, our FlashBrief contributors reflect on some of the challenges and risks that remain.

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We've missed you and if you've been checking in, no doubt you've missed us, too!

I've been away on assignments for an extended period of time. But now is a great time to catch up with the news we're covering.

IRAN WATCH

This has been an interesting month for the Iranians. The Bushehr nuclear plant is being loaded with nuclear fuel as I write this. At the very least, it is a milestone for Iran's nuclear program and documents a technological achievement. The much more troubling aspect of the program for the West and Iran's neighbors is the enrichment program. That is the project that could ultimately enable Iran to create its own nuclear weapons.

One of the fears, of course, is that Iran's theocratic regime is seen as a threat by some of its Arab and Muslim neighbors. Progress by Iran could spur others into action, compounding the number of potential threats the IAEA and the West will need to track. Joe Cirincione, President of the Ploughshare Fund that specializes in nuclear non-proliferation says that's one concern. But he notes Iran also faces stiff economic sanctions that take a lot of the joy out of Iran's current trajectory with nuclear technology.

There is another series of developments that relate to Iran's interest next door in Afghanistan. This week, President Hamid Karzai admitted receiving "bags of cash" from Iran to help defray expenses in the Presidential office. As some of our viewers have noted, that isn't all that different from what the U-S has been doing all along, funneling cash to prop up a regime favored by Washington. Iran has a real interest: instability in Afghanistan is problematic for all of its neighbors.

The warning in Afghanistan may be that if the U-S and its allies are as successful as they claim in places like Kandahar, some in Iran may be inclined to send more assistance not only to Hamid Karzai, but the Taliban. Already, there is a long history of charges Iran is, in one way or another, helping the insurgents. By joining in recent talks held in Italy, Tehran is at least in a position to monitor just how much progress the U-S and its combat allies think they're making.

THE STORIES YOU MISSED – THE MINER'S STORY THAT WASN'T COVERED

Joshua Keating, one of the editor's over at ForeignPolicy.com joined us for another installment of news that somehow gets overlooked. As usual, his take was eye opening!

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I am going to be away for the next two weeks, or so and wanted to post some video clips from previous editions of 'The Brief' for viewers who may have missed them.

Errol Barnett and I will be attending the 60th World Congress of the International Press Institute in Vienna and Bratislava, Slovakia. While IPI is one of the oldest alliances of journalists, it is also on the cutting edge of change. In fact, this Congress will challenge journalists to consider where their profession is headed in 2010 and specifically whether the mainstream media is on a course to extinction.

It's going to be an interesting gathering with many prominent journalists from around the world and we're glad we're a part of that. I'll try to update you on some of the events as it gets underway on September 11-14.

FLASHBRIEF: IRAQ TRANSITION

The recent memoirs of Tony Blair and the mission change for U.S. troops prompted us to ask our FlashBrief contributors about how they see the Iraq war. Whether liberal or conservative, there was a consensus. For those who live in the Middle East, there is a pronounced concern the effects may be felt for years to come.

MOSQUE CONTROVERSY

Two-thirds of New Yorkers think the planned Islamic Center near ground zero in lower Manhattan should be re-located. That's according to a poll on Friday (9/3) by the New York Times. How will it rank as an issue in the upcoming U.S. election?

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CNN's Anna Coren brought us LIVE coverage of the hostage drama as it played out in the streets of Manila on Monday. Minute by minute, Anna talked us through events that unfolded after a disgraced former police officer, wearing a uniform and carrying an M16 assault rifle, managed to climb aboard a tour bus carrying about 22 Hong Kong visitors.

The hostage scene itself was heartbreaking. After more than 8 hours of negotiating, the gunman suddenly started firing into his helpless hostages. The driver of the tour bus jumped out his window to safety and reported all of the tourists, their guide and friends were killed. It wasn't true...at least 7 people survived.

But it was difficult to watch in another sense: Manila police seemed unable to take charge and gain entry into the tour bus. Though they smashed windows with a sledgehammer, they had no ladder to assist them in getting aboard the vehicle. Eventually, the gunman was killed and tearful, exhausted captives stepped, or were carried away.

Here's a look at Philippine television coverage of the final moments.

IRAN FUELS BUSHEHR AND LAUNCHES NEW DRONE BOMBER

Iran announced over the weekend that it had a new, unmanned bomber to add to its fleet. Within 24 hours, officials in Tehran were also warning that any attack on its nuclear facilities would result in unpredictable consequences.

Fuel from Moscow has arrived in Iran for the Bushehr nuclear power plant that was built with Russian help. Conservative John Bolton, the former U-S Ambassador to the United Nations, had been warning Israel had only a matter of days to attack the facility before the fuel rods were loaded. But most see the liklihood of a military strike as diminishing as Washington tries to reassure Israel Iran is still some months away from even basic nuclear military capability.

Moreover, analysts have been warning for as long as we can remember that a military strike would be counterproductive and deprive the West of the IAEA inspection teams in the country who are keeping tabs on not just the Bushehr plant, but Iran's nuclear enrichment efforts.

Here's a FlashBrief...

So, why the announcement of a new, unmanned drone? International Security analyst James Walsh has some views he shared with Frederica Whitfield.

Filed under: Philippines

Few of us can fathom the depths of horror that have been visited upon the women of the Congo. Africa's "Forgotten War" has claimed millions of lives over the past 15 years. No one knows the death toll with any certainty, but more than 5 million people are believed to have died from combat, hunger and disease directly related to the conflict. It is the largest interstate war in Africa's modern history. The battes are fought over land, mining resources and political power. Rape has been used as a weapon on a massive scale and civilians have paid an extraodinarily high price. Lisa Shannon joined us on 'The Brief' to talk about her project to raise funds to directly help the women of the Democractic Republic of Congo.

You can learn more about Lisa Shannon's Run For Congo Women at her website. It costs $27 a month to lend support to a woman in the Congo and provides a direct link between your world and hers.

Posted by: Jim Clancy
Filed under: DR Congo •The Brief On Air

In 1994, while a small African nation was plunged into one of the most brutal genocides of the 20th century, the West and the rest of the world looked the other way. More than 800-thousand men, women and children were murdered by a regime that had plotted for years to unleash a torrent of hatred on an ethnic minority and all who would share power with them.

Paul Kagame, the Rwandese Patriotic Front general, led an "army of orphans" from exile in neighboring Uganda to the rescue of what few Tutsis and moderate Hutus had managed to survive. The U-N was out of ammunition before the slaughter began. President Bill Clinton and other world leaders declined to call it genocide, a word that would have required them to commit troops.

16 years later, Gen. Kagame again seems overwhelmingly favored to win. It will be his second election victory. But serious questions have been raised about political freedoms, the lack of a credible opposition and the brutal murders of some of those who have raised their voices against the RPF's method of rule.

It's no secret that the likes of Bill Clinton and others have apologized for failing to come to Rwanda's aid in 1994. It's a matter of record that when the poor and helpless of Darfur needed protection, tiny Rwanda was the first state to commit the lives of its soldiers in Sudan.

The world owes Rwanda and Paul Kagame nothing less than a demand for a full accounting of where democracy in that still struggling nation is headed. We must, if we would claim to be the friends of Rwanda, demand that the cases against political activists and journalists jailed on charges of "genocide denial" be fully laid out in public and answered publicly by prosecutors and defendants in a court of law.

We must ask President Paul Kagame why the police and security forces who have helped make Rwanda one of the safest countries in the world for ordinary citizens, visitors and his own political supporters find it impossible to solve the killings of those who have criticised his rule?

Those are challenges are difficult to ask of a nation that has endured so much agony and one man who has shown leadership above so many others on the continent. But we must insist. We owe Paul Kagame and the nation of Rwanda nothing less.

Posted by: Jim Clancy
Filed under: Rwanda