Former rebels Humala mounted Sparks swaps by default before the election

10: 22 Am EDT by Andrea Jaramillo and John Quigley, 06 April 2011

(Updates prices at paragraph 12).

April 6 (Bloomberg)--the debt against default Peru insurance costs are jumping to a maximum of five years from the Colombia colonel neighbours former army concern renegade Ollanta Humala will win the presidential election and extend the control of the Government of the economy.Peruvian five-year credit default swaps pink 35 basis points since out March 20 polls showed that Humala is gaining popularity, with 154 yesterday, is 49 more than similar on the Colombia contracts, according to CMA. The gap was by 1 basis point on 16 March, the day the Standard & Poor raised credit ratings of the Colombia at the same level BBB as the Peru, citing the policies of President Juan Manuel Santos reduce crime and attracted investments.Peru and the Colombia have benefited from increased foreign investment in the mining industry and the energy in the last decade as they recovered areas that were under the control of the guerrillas, which resulted in the most rapid economic growth for the two countries in the 1920s. Emergence of Humala in the polls before the vote of this weekend first round caused a borrowing of the Peru costs and sent the ground falling more between the currencies of emerging markets since March 20.You have a clear direction of the policy-mix in Colombia, advance, while in the Peru, you do that ", said Bret Rosen, a strategist of the debt of Latin America with the Standard Chartered Bank in New York." "The fear is that Peru will face a significant change in the investment climate."Gain PollsHumala, 48, received the support of 26 percent in a survey published on 3 April by researcher based at Lima Ipsos Apoyo, up 21 percent a week earlier, he put at the forefront among the candidates to succeed the President Alan Garcia for a term of five years. Three candidates were virtual equality for the second place, according to the survey, Ipsos Apoyo.Humala, leader of the nationalist party of Peru and an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was in fourth place in the polls in a month ago. It also consolidated its head in the polls published in the last week by IPC and Datum Internacional.While Humala has promised to renegotiate mining contracts with foreign investors he seeks to make it the sixth largest economy of the South America less dependent of exports and investments outside the chercheursSantos natural gas the Colombia, 59, is committed to avoiding "change the rules of the game" for foreign investors, said in an interview on March 31 that he would not raise taxes mining or oil. "I want foreign investors to see Colombia as a serious country,"he says.Attracted Colombia 6.90 billions of dollars of foreign direct investment in 2010 - 73 per cent of which came in oil and mining - after 7.14 billion in 2009 and a record of $ 10.6 billion in 2008, the Central Bank.Economic GrowthPeru is set to receive $ 50 billion of mining, energy investments and infrastructure over the next five years, according to the Ministry of finance. Foreign direct investment was $ 7.32 billion last year and could climb to 8.17 billion in 2011, the Central Bank estimates.In the 10 years, Colombia has recorded an average economic growth of 4.1%, compared to 5.7% in fresh Peru.The additional to the debt of the Peru instead of the Colombia is the highest since May 2006. The performance of the obligations of the Peru 6.55% dollar March 2037 reaches 27 basis points, or point percentage 0.27, to 6 per cent since March 20, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. Performance on the % of dollar Colombian bonds scheduled for September 2037 has increased by 10 basis points during the same period to 5.98%.Worst PerformerPeru currency, soil, decreased by 1.4 percent since March 20, the worst performance among 25 emerging markets currencies, followed by Bloomberg. The General Index of Lima has fallen 6.2% in the month, the fourth worst performance among primary index 90 followed by Bloomberg. "" While everyone was expecting this is a non-event election, we have proven wrong, "said Marjorie Hernandez, a strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc in New York currency. "The market was positioned this way." Everyone was long Peru everything. "Keiko Fujimori, a member of the Peruvian Congress and the daughter of the former President, had the support of 18 percent in the Ipsos Apoyo poll. Former President Alejandro Toledo had 17 percent, and former Finance Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had 16 percent. The survey of 2,000 people was taken from March 26 to April 1 and had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.A runoff between the two leading candidates will take place June 5 If no one WINS more than 50% in the first round of voting April 10 Congress. peaceful RevoltPeru has approved an amnesty for Humala in 2000 after taking control of a mining town and led a Pacific revolt in protest against corruption assailing the Government of President Alberto Fujimori, who later fled into exile.Cynthya Montes, a spokesman for the nationalist party, did not respond to a request by email for comments.While the popularity of the Humala climbs before the first round of elections, Rosen, Hernandez and Eduardo Suarez, a strategist at RBC markets of capital in Toronto, all predict that Humala will lose in a second round ballot as voters who do not like Humala will rally around his opponent.Suarez said in a report on March 29 that the chance to become President Humala is about 20 percent, and that these recent declines in asset prices are too. "The current liquidation should be seen as an opportunity to purchase, but timing is the key,"he wrote."Venezuelan ModelHumala, who said in his presidential campaign in 2006 that foreign companies were "looting" the resources of the country, said in a televised debate this week that he supports a "open and market economy" and supports investments that create jobs. He has also distanced Chavez, who nationalized the major part of the cement industry, imposed price controls and devaluation of the currency. Humala said March 31 that "the Venezuelan Government not applicable to the Peru model".A Presidency that Humala would adversely affect investors, said Hernandez. "If Humala came to power we will certainly see a big change in policy,"said Hernandez. "I do not think that anyone who trusts that this change in the strategy of the campaign is really a change in earnest."

-Editors: Brendan Walsh, Laura Zelenko

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Jaramillo in Bogota to ajaramillo1@bloomberg.net; John Quigley in the jquigley8@bloomberg.net Lima

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos to papadopoulos@bloomberg.net

View the original article here

Rebels scoff at nepotism's son acquisition

Nepotism's sons of floating one deal?New: Rebel withdrawal from al-BregaFormer forces staging Libyan Ambassador in United States in panic: nepotism's sons are "Murderers... just like her father" a Moammar nepotism sons could take over from his father, SaysClashes in Misratah can be a source five people dead and 24 injured

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) --sagte without end Libya's bloody war in sight, a source of close to the leadership of the country a Libyan envoy floats the idea of the ruler Muammar nepotism his pass makes a son-hold a term of the leader of the only cosmetic.

According to the proposal, Saif al-Islam help nepotism, 38, swift initiate reform, the source said. But SAIF has nepotism is one of the most outspoken defenders of his father since the start of the unrest, despite once perceived as a leading reformer in the Libyan Government.

But a proposal to the shift of power from nepotism to his second son is "a ridiculous offer," said Ali Aujali, a former Libyan Ambassador to the United States, which now represents the Libyan opposition in Washington.

"Libyan people who decided it, and they not back at all (to) nepotism or each Member of his family," said Aujali. "His sons, they are murderers - they are just like her father."

Aujali said the rebels Moammar nepotism and his family safe passage of Libya in exchange for an end to the K?mpfe--offer are willing, but that's as far as your offer is.

Nepotism of the forces of Rails have the upper hand Tuesday in renewed fighting in the city of al-Brega oil, where rebels in panic withdrawal under intense artillery bombardment, according to CNN reporter in the field of production have been.

The setback is the latest for a ragtag opposition, fighting, to maintain against the better trained and nepotism forces equipped, and less than a day after rebel commanders said they the longtime Libyan leader had forces on the defensive in al-Brega.

Now more carnage spread on Monday in the beleaguered city of Misurata, and a rebel spokesman said a NATO guided efforts not existing are, in some areas seemed to protect civilians.

Five people were killed and wounded Monday in clashes between pro nepotism 24 forces and rebels in Misratah, two sources told CNN.

Residents have said that city cut off was suffocated troops, with electricity and access to food by nepotism, from.

A resident that is not for security reasons, said "Every day life increasingly difficult, always is,". "There are long lines of people for bread and fuel."

He added that a few days at a time not their houses are left.

"There are snipers shoot anything that moves,", said the residents. "they are the main road outside the City control."

In al-Brega officer said opposition Monday that rebels surrounded the city from the North, East and West had had bombarded the area with rockets for much of the afternoon.

Major Miftah Omar Hamzah told CNN that 50 complete loads of loyalist troops in al-Brega remained, but he insisted that the nepotism of troops were put on the defensive.

New al-Brega, a suburban area of the houses of workers at a nearby oil refinery, near was partially under rebel control on Monday. Officers said opposition they were forces to disable still area of nepotism and a resident fled area CNN said that it is still uncertain.

There were no NATO air strikes in the area for at least 24 hours, he said.

The perceived lack of air force to protect a UN resolution to the civil life and enforcing an arms embargo brought criticism of rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani.

"You are to implement this resolution and clearly it is implemented not in Misurata, it is not implemented in Zintan or Zahwiya and we have questions about where they are?", he said.

Although nepotism showed no signs of a calming of the opposition or surrender to its power to anyone outside his family, cracks in his armor emerged.

His many years familiar and Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, fled London and his resignation recently after the Libyan Government announced. On Monday, the US Treasury lifted Koussa of assets freezing after his split from nepotism.

Gheriani said, while the conflict persists, there remains hope for a revolution.

"I think the regime nepotism within is crumbling," he said. "I think if you always be win look, people on history and I think, our victory."Reza Sayah, Ben Wedeman, Brian Todd, CNN's NIC Robertson and Yousuf Basil contributed to this report

View the original article here

April 1 is coming... Give life a little entertainment spirit... ...

April 1 is coming... Give life a little entertainment spirit... ...

A, office applicable

1. Modulation smell coke

Buy a bottle of coke, drank half later, adding vinegar, soy sauce, salt, mustard seasoning and so on, and carefully modulated a colour and lustre is normal smell coke. Meet acquaintances act like it is drinking, then naturally "coke" give up, the other side, the side of unsuspecting thanks big mouthful down, and then, to open the mouth will vomit. Eyebrows You can also make by old formula, such as to mineral water into wine, and to the spirit erguotou beer soap water etc. Against PM

2, toothpaste GaXinBing 

The GaXinBing unpacking and carefully through two cracker, remove the original sandwich, take out toothpaste (best is black teeth 

Cream, tastes good! ) Squeeze appropriate amount to bread, component follow individual "diet" habit, finally to Bob close, try to do too lifelike presentable. You generally no specially use, just put it to obvious place, best to prepare for the GaXinBing patches of the original watching TV and eating, would automatically someone patronage taste. This is called JiangTaiGong fishing, let person the bait. You can also the initiative, everywhere please people, although the risk bigger taste, but there must be many people trap. 

3, the song 

Prepare for a water or enamel washbasin (other can send out loud after by the blow of high decibels objects all but) and telephone. Try to use a very formal tone phone call for the other party, after connect according to below words: here is the music station, a X (can say don't say real surname), sir/miss for Y sir/miss point one song, if you wanted to hear, please dial "#" key listen to (average person can click). Thank you, the song is engine 

"When", please listen carefully. Then tap the prepared blow things out, knock only once, 1 of "when" in each other, not the reaction come over, say: thank you for listening before, happy April fool's day, goodbye! 

This method is applicable to between quarters, or available telephone contact friends, who is a close final. In addition on the phone process must not laugh, lest affect effect and atmosphere. 

 4, double postage 

Estimation good time, ahead of time to send a letter of your friends, but don't put stamps, also don't make your mail address write (or it will give you back). This April fool's day one day, your friend will receive a notification issued by the post office, was told that wins he have a postage due mail, please to so-and-so post office and pay for place on get double postage. When he arrived in so-and-so post office, dusty, humbly after sending the postage on double, opened the envelope, but found savoir inside a small note, top write "happy April fool's day." But the joke may time could achieve error, the effect that there may not be an imagination of so good. 

5, gifts 

If someone's birthday on April fool's day, they gave him a write "happy birthday" big box, the box, and filled with scraps of this fluffed up. When he picked up the box, this fall, scraps of fly all over the house, is going to be up for the was a fool. Half an hour 

6, measuring 

With a cut the rope pranksters, stopped a pedestrian, to him for help measure size. Then take the other side of the rope, turned the corner, and stopped another pedestrian, likewise. Then you can hide in the side to complainers. Two people may wait ten minutes, seeing no action to put down the rope head, to find each other ask clear, then just can discover fooled. This is the good way to fool strangers. 

Second, network application: 

1 the most primary methods: simple, suitable for all use computers 

The toilet while others in their computer screen saver, set on and adding * * * *; Fake website administrator speech: "system will restart, please keep hands quit after the work"; E-mail to a friend, first Winzip, packaging, packaging... again Finally make self-extracting files, so circulates several times, finally open letter other only six Word: today is April fool's day! 

2. Easy to let art: appropriate use MSN instant messaging software friends 

Use emergency will are using instant messaging software was a fool ZhiKai, open the instant messaging software revision personal data options, use a keyboard, mouse, will be a fool looks to a comprehensive network of modifications. As for how to change, then take your interest and ability. Finally, don't forget the destruction of all the evidence may expose evidences. This method will not be discovered, not only let be a fool 1:30 was friends don't know who he was, even be a fool myself also 1:30 was confused. 

3, another method is seeking to be fools MSN number 

Himself to apply for a MSN number, according to the details of fools provide your personal information. Will be a fool to join you apply new number contact list, and then began to grab the weakness of "big bombing". This method is mainly to don't let them know of who you are, so in use must note hidden, try not to let the other side to you have suspicion. 

Remind be fools: whenever and wherever there are ten million should remember will leave the computer system lock, again. Once the suspect in Plan, can only be careful, carefully to observe cracked. 

4, bait-and-switch: change is a fool some of computer Settings 

Using the microphone and Windows bringing "recorder" program to record some terrorist or extraordinary voice, and then the Settings for Windows open (closed) machine voice. So when be fools open (closed) machine, suddenly must be jump. Will be a fool in the computer "my documents" of the corresponding target folder change and let its mistake written document all disappear hard. Will be a fool commonly used some application shortcuts target change and let its click shortcut open procedure, but found start-up not and shortcut corresponding program. Note must will shortcut icon to maintain and original procedures. 

These methods a fool's effect is the first-class, enough to be a fool a racing heartbeat, increased blood pressure, emit cold sweat. But when use must careful, because but they made a great mistake. 

Remind: don't give anyone is April fool's day can be as close as your computer's chance. 

5, move hardware 

Computer broke down, average person can see program or whether Internet wrong, seldom consider that slight little hardware you can be a fool also did not go to work, and it will display before the power plug or mouse plug fluffed up so that when be fools work opened his computer will find display screen or hints the mouse can't find, as he did not know what to do, you will easily appears, brace again, then each other not only questions resolved never think be fooled, but also greatly appreciate you? 

Of course there are also "vicious" one court, that is will display contrast to adjust the minimum to screen for dark principle. So, unless the other very talk, or extremely difficult to find the real cause. If he feels is hardware that right, and likely will own computer "big discharging, in order to check eight" reasons. 

Remind: should pay attention to observe carefully monitor power indicator. Whether you can find the problem, see you Not deep spiritual deep. 

Retreat for Rebels; Libyan Foreign Minister Quits

The government advance appeared to return control of eastern Libya’s most important oil regions to Colonel Qaddafi’s forces, giving the isolated government, at least for the day, the east’s most valuable economic prize. The rout also put into sharp relief the rebels’ absence of discipline and tactical sense, confronting the United States with a conundrum: how to persuade Colonel Qaddafi to step down while supporting a rebel force that has been unable to hold on to military gains.

But the defection of Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister, showed that at least one longtime confidant seemed to be calculating that Colonel Qaddafi could not last. The news of Mr. Koussa’s defection sent shockwaves through Tripoli on Wednesday night after it was announced by the British government. Mr. Koussa had been a pillar of his government since the early days of the revolution, and previously led the fearsome intelligence unit.

Although American officials suspected him of responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mr. Koussa also played a major role in turning over nuclear equipment and designs to the United States and in negotiating Libya back into the good graces of Western governments.

Presumably, he is now in a position to talk about the structure of Mr. Qaddafi’s remaining forces and loyalists. What is unclear is whether his defection will lead to others. “We think he could be the beginning of a stream of Libyans who think sticking with Qaddafi is a losing game,” one senior American official said. “But we don’t know.”

Having abandoned Bin Jawwad and the oil port of Ras Lanuf on Tuesday, the rebels fled helter-skelter before government shelling from another oil town, Brega, and stopped for the night at the strategic city of Ajdabiya. As the rebels retreated in disarray, a senior rebel officer, Col. Ahmaed Omar Bani, pleaded for more weapons. He conceded that rebel fighters had “dissolved like snow in the sand” but framed the retreat as a “tactical withdrawal.”

Vowing that “Ajdabiya will not fall,” he claimed that rebels were still fighting on the east and west sides of Brega, suggesting that pockets of resistance persisted even if the main force had fled.

He acknowledged that the rebels had no answer to the artillery pushing them back unless foreign governments provided parity in arms. “The truth is the truth,” he said. “Even if it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.”

The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, released a statement responding to a report of a presidential finding authorizing covert support for the rebels. It said: “No decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya. We’re not ruling it out or ruling it in.”

Whether more weapons or longer-range weapons would make a difference is an open question, however. Leadership and an appreciation for tactics were noticeably missing in the rebels’ battle lines.

Faced with fire, the rebels seemed not to know how to use the relatively simple weapons they had in any coordinated fashion, and had almost no capacity to communicate with one another midfight. Throughout the spontaneous retreats on Wednesday, not a single two-way tactical radio was visible.

The rout put civilians to flight as well. By Wednesday evening, Ajdabiya’s hospital patients were evacuated and a long stream of vehicles packed with forlorn residents filled the road north to Benghazi, the rebel capital.

Abdul Karim Baras, a young man with a crackling bullhorn, tried to buoy their spirits. “God will rescue Libya from this moment!” he shouted repeatedly as he stood on the highway median.

A few of the displaced — many of whom made the same trek a week ago, before the allied airstrikes that reversed the loyalists’ first push — smiled or gave desultory victory signs as they passed through rebels’ disoriented ranks.

There were few signs of renewed airstrikes. But an American military spokesman said coalition warplanes resumed bombing pro-Qaddafi units on Wednesday, without specifying where. “The operation is continuing and will continue throughout the transition” to NATO command, Capt. Clint Gebke said.

C. J. Chivers reported from Brega and Ajdabiya, Libya, and David D. Kirkpatrick from Tripoli. David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington; Kareem Fahim from Benghazi, Libya; and Edward Wong from Beijing.

Source: CIA operating in Libya, consulting with rebels

 Weather prevents new coalition airstrikesCIA operating in Libya, in contact with opposition, source saysLibyan foreign minister quits, U.K. saysOpposition says it is carrying out "tactical withdrawal"

Benghazi, Libya (CNN) -- CIA operatives are providing intelligence from Libya, where opposition forces are on the run and the defiant government suffered the embarrassing defection of its foreign minister Wednesday.

The NATO-led coalition, which is enforcing a no-fly zone and protecting civilians from the intense fighting, got no help from the weather in its ongoing efforts to protect the fragile opposition movement.

"The weather conditions did not allow close combat support by aircraft in the last couple of days," said Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Moammar Gadhafi's government, for its part, kept up the war of words.

State-run Libyan TV late Wednesday quoted a military source as saying a "civilian location was shelled tonight in the city of Tripoli by the colonizing crusader aggression."

Amid debate on whether the allies will arm the retreating and undertrained rebels, a U.S. intelligence source told CNN the CIA is in the country to increase the "military and political understanding" of the situation.

"Yes, we are gathering intel firsthand and we are in contact with some opposition entities," said the source.

The White House refused to comment on a Reuters report that President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel troops.

"I will reiterate what the president said yesterday -- no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya," said White House press secretary Jay Carney in a statement. "We're not ruling it out or ruling it in. We're assessing and reviewing options for all types of assistance that we could provide to the Libyan people, and have consulted directly with the opposition and our international partners about these matters."

According to the Reuters report, Obama signed the covert aid order, or "finding," within the past few weeks. Such findings are required for the CIA to conduct secret operations, the report said.

A U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly could not confirm the finding, but noted when there are crises like this, "you look at all instruments of national power."

In early March, a U.S. official told CNN "the intelligence community is aggressively pursuing information on the ground" in Libya.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that he has not ruled out arming the Libyan opposition, but added that Britain has not made the decision to do so.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provided classified briefings to House and Senate members who asked whether the United States intended to arm the rebels, participants told CNN.

Clinton and Gates made clear that no decision had been made, and Congress members from both parties said they believed it would be a bad idea, according to participants.

Regarding the committing of U.S. forces to the U.N.-backed operation, the White House has said Obama acted within his authority under the War Powers Act. It notes that the president and other officials consulted congressional leaders several times in the run-up to the March 19 deployment of U.S. forces to the U.N.-authorized Libya mission.

Clinton told members of Congress the administration acted within the requirements of the War Powers Act and needed no authorization for further decisions on the mission, lawmakers said.

The opposition got a boost Wednesday with news that Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa willingly traveled to London and told the government there that he has resigned, the United Kingdom Foreign Office said.

CNN's Ben Wedeman, who has been reporting from Libya for several weeks, said that Koussa's departure is a significant blow, but not a critical loss to the regime.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said Koussa was one of the most senior figures in Gadhafi's government "and his role was to represent the regime internationally -- something that he is no longer willing to do."

The department provided no other details on the surprise move.

CNN's Nic Robertson, who previously met with Koussa, said the former head of intelligence once was a stalwart defender of the government.

The Senate's Rogers called Moussa's defection "huge news."

Libya's opposition said its fighters are executing a "tactical withdrawal" from a swath of territory they once controlled, a move that comes as Gadhafi's forces relentlessly pound them.

Col. Ahmed Bani, speaking at a news conference in the opposition capital of Benghazi on Wednesday, said his forces are being outgunned by the superior military power of loyalists, spared the wrath of coalition airstrikes.

They have been pushed eastward over the last two days after CNN reported on Sunday that rebels took Brega, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad and reached a town just east of Sirte.

Rebel forces have now lost Bin Jawad and the key oil town of Ras Lanuf and are backed up to the Brega area, Bani said. Ajdabiya, which is east of Brega, will be prepared as a "defense point" if the withdrawal continues farther east, he said.

CNN's Wedeman said the rebels continue to have no effective command and control.

Bani called on the international community to supply opposition fighters with better and more powerful weapons to hold off the Gadhafi forces. He said the opposition was open to foreign troops training rebel fighters. Bani asked for tanks, heavy artillery and communications and logistics equipment.

The rebels have been demanding an end to Gadhafi's almost 42-year rule in Libya, but they have been facing "sustained attacks in the face of the coalition bombing" in Misrata, Ras Lanuf, and Bin Jawad, Robertson reported.

In an address to the House of Commons in London on Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that "regime forces have intensified their attacks, driving back opposition forces from ground they had taken in recent days." He cited the violence in the western town of Misrata.

"Misrata also came under heavy attack yesterday, with further loss of civilian life, including children, from mortars, sniper fire and attacks on all sides from regime tanks and personnel carriers," Hague said.

In the outskirts of Ajdabiya -- which was recently taken over by opposition forces -- Gadhafi's regime planted several dozen land mines, Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday.

"Given the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area, the mines were clearly laid while government forces were in Ajdabiya," the group said.

Human Rights Watch also said 370 people are missing in the eastern part of the country, with some suspected to be in government custody. That list includes rebel fighters and civilians, including doctors, the group said.

CNN's Reza Sayah, Dana Bash, Pam Benson and Nic Robertson contributed to this report

C.I.A. Agents in Libya Aid Airstrikes and Meet Rebels

 

While President Obama has insisted that no American military ground troops participate in the Libyan campaign, small groups of C.I.A. operatives have been working in Libya for several weeks as part of a shadow force of Westerners that the Obama administration hopes can help bleed Colonel Qaddafi’s military, the officials said.

In addition to the C.I.A. presence, composed of an unknown number of Americans who had worked at the spy agency’s station in Tripoli and others who arrived more recently, current and former British officials said that dozens of British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are working inside Libya. The British operatives have been directing airstrikes from British jets and gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of Libyan government tank columns, artillery pieces and missile installations, the officials said.

American officials hope that similar information gathered by American intelligence officers — including the location of Colonel Qaddafi’s munitions depots and the clusters of government troops inside towns — might help weaken Libya’s military enough to encourage defections within its ranks.

In addition, the American spies are meeting with rebels to try to fill in gaps in understanding who their leaders are and the allegiances of the groups opposed to Colonel Qaddafi, said United States government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the activities.? American officials cautioned, though, that the Western operatives were not directing the actions of rebel forces.

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment.

The United States and its allies have been scrambling to gather detailed information on the location and abilities of Libyan infantry and armored forces that normally takes months of painstaking analysis.

“We didn’t have great data,” Gen. Carter F. Ham, who handed over control of the Libya mission to NATO on Wednesday, said in an e-mail last week. ? “Libya hasn’t been a country we focused on a lot over past few years.”

Several weeks ago, President Obama signed a secret finding authorizing the C.I.A. to provide arms and other support to Libyan rebels, American officials said Wednesday. But weapons have not yet been shipped into Libya, as Obama administration officials debate the effects of giving them to the rebel groups. The presidential finding was first reported by Reuters.

In a statement released Wednesday evening, Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, declined to comment “on intelligence matters,” but he said that no decision had yet been made to provide arms to the rebels.

Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who leads the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that he opposed arming the rebels. “We need to understand more about the opposition before I would support passing out guns and advanced weapons to them,” Mr. Rogers said in a statement.

Because the publicly stated goal of the Libyan campaign is not explicitly to overthrow Colonel Qaddafi’s government, the clandestine war now going on is significantly different from the Afghan campaign to drive the Taliban from power in 2001. Back then, American C.I.A. and Special Forces troops worked alongside Afghan militias, armed them and called in airstrikes that paved the rebel advances on strategically important cities like Kabul and Kandahar.?

In recent weeks, the American military has been monitoring Libyan troops with U-2 spy planes and a high-altitude Global Hawk drone, as well as a special aircraft, JSTARS, that tracks the movements of large groups of troops.? Military officials said that the Air Force also has Predator drones, similar to those now operating in Afghanistan, in reserve.

Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint eavesdropping planes intercept communications from Libyan commanders and troops and relay that information to the Global Hawk, which zooms in on the location of armored forces and determines rough coordinates. The Global Hawk sends the coordinates to analysts at a ground station, who pass the information to command centers for targeting. The command center beams the coordinates to an E-3 Sentry Awacs command-and-control plane, which in turn directs warplanes to their targets.

Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, who recently retired as the Air Force’s top intelligence official, said that Libya’s flat desert terrain and clear weather have allowed warplanes with advanced sensors to hunt Libyan armored columns with relative ease, day or night, without the need for extensive direction from American troops on the ground.

But if government troops advance into or near cities in along the country’s eastern coast, which so far have been off-limits to coalition aircraft for fear of causing civilian casualties, General Deptula said that ground operatives would be particularly helpful in providing target coordinates or pointing them out to pilots with hand-held laser designators.

?The C.I.A. and British intelligence services were intensely focused on Libya eight years ago, before and during the successful effort to get Colonel Qaddafi to give up his nuclear weapons program. He agreed to do so in the fall of 2003, and allowed C.I.A. and other American nuclear experts into the country to assess Libya’s equipment and bomb designs and to arrange for their transfer out of the country. ?

?Once the weapons program was eliminated, a former American official said, intelligence agencies shifted their focus away from Libya. But as Colonel Qaddafi began his recent crackdown on the rebel groups, the American spy agencies have worked to rekindle ties to Libyan informants and to learn more about the country’s military leaders.

A former British government official who is briefed on current operations confirmed media reports that dozens of British Special Forces soldiers, from the elite Special Air Service and Special Boat Service units, are on the ground across Libya. The British soldiers have been particularly focused on finding the locations of Colonel Qaddafi’s Russian-made surface-to-air missiles.

A spokesman for Britain’s Ministry of Defense declined to comment, citing a policy not to discuss the operations of British Special Forces.

Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting from London, and David E. Sanger from Washington.

View the original article here