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Temuan NASA: Dua Matahari Terbenam Bersama di Planet Kepler 16 B

2011-09-16T13:41:00.001-07:00

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID,JAKARTA--Dua matahari terbenam bersama setiap kali malam tiba di planet Kepler-16b, kata para ilmuwan di jurnal Sains, Kamis.
Peristiwa mirip fiksi ilmiah itu terpantau peneliti yang melakukan pengamtan dari pesawat antariksa Kepler NASA. Peneliti itu mendeteksi sebuah planet yang mengorbit dua bintang -- ini untuk pertama kali fenomena semacam itu dipastikan keberadaannya.
"Ini sungguh-sungguh pengukuran menakjubkan oleh Kepler," kata Alan Boss dari Lembaga Sains Carnegie, penyusun bersama laporan penelitian itu. "Hal yang betul-betul menarik adalah ada sebuah planet mengorbit dua bintang," katanya.
Bintang-bintang berpasangan -- yaitu dua matahari yang saling memutar -- sudah diketahui dan selama ini para astronom menduga ada planet yang mengitari mereka. Observasi Kepler itu merupakan konfirmasi pertama bagi kenyataan tersebut.
Gravitasi dua bintang, bahkan untuk bintang-bintang relatif kecil seperti di pusat sistem perbintangan ini, sangat berbeda dari gravitasi satu bintang, kata Boss melalui telefon.
Misi Kepler adalah menyelidiki wilayah kita di galaksi Bima Sakti mengenai keberadaan planet-planet di "zona bisa dihuni" yang tidak terlalu dekat atau jauh dari bintang-bintang yang mereka orbit.
Pesawat antariksa tersebut melakukan hal itu dengan menemukan bintang-bintang dengan cahaya meredup secara berkala, yang berarti ada benda angkasa yang mengorbit -- sebuah planet -- yang bergerak antara bintang itu dan instrumen Kepler. Ini dikenal sebagai sebuah transit planet.
Yang mengejutkan adalah bintang-bintang itu saling memudarkan satu sama lain ketika bintang yang satu menghalangi yang lain. Gerhana ketiga menunjukkan bahwa sebuah planet menjadi bagian dari sistem tersebut.
Karena kedua mataharinya lebih kecil dan lebih dingin daripada matahari kita, planet Kepler-16b sangat dingin, dengan suhu permukaan sekitar minus 73 hingga minus 101 derajat Celsius, kata Pusat Astrofisika Harvard-Smithsonian dalam sebuah pernyataan. Josh Carter dari lembaga itu adalah penyusun bersama penelitian tersebut.
Kepler-16b adalah sebuah planet gas besar dingin dengan ukuran serta massa yang sama dengan planet Yupiter, yang mengorbit kedua mataharinya setiap 229 hari pada jarak 104,6 juta kilometer. Jarak itu kira-kira sama dengan orbit Venus. Bumi mengorbit matahari setiap 365 hari pada jarak sekitar 149,7 juta kilometer.
Planet yang baru terdeteksi ini berjarak 200 tahun cahaya dari Bumi dan diperkirakan tidak ada bentuk kehidupan di sana. Satu tahun cahaya adalah jarak yang ditempuh cahaya dalam waktu setahun, sekitar 10 trilyun kilometer.

Inilah Isi Training FBI Tentang Islam

2011-09-16T13:40:00.001-07:00

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - FBI mengatakan Kamis bahwa kuliah kritis tentang Islam di akademi training mereka telah dihentikan. Salah satu mata kuliah menyebutkan, antara lain, bahwa Muslim lebih saleh memiliki peluang lebih besar untuk melakukan kekerasan.
Dalam bahan-bahan untuk presentasi instruksional disebutkan bahwa arus utama Muslim Amerika cenderung memposisikan diri sebagai simpatisan teroris; bahwa Nabi Muhammad adalah seorang pemimpin yang dikultuskan; dan bahwa praktik pengumpulan amal dalam Islam tidak lebih dari suatu mekanisme pendanaan untuk pertempuran.
FBI tidak mengidentifikasi siapa pemateri dalam training itu. Namun situs wired.com yang pertama kali membocorkan pelatihan itu menyebut seorang analis intelijen FBI bernama William Gawthrop sebagai sumber untuk banyak materi. Dia sebelumnya bekerja pada departemen kontraintelijen di lembaga itu.
Seorang pejabat penegak hukum federal, berbicara dengan syarat anonim tentang masalah pelatihan internal FBI, mengatakan kuliah itu hanya diberikan selama tiga hari pada April lalu.
Adalah Wired.com yang pertama mempublikasikan adanya pelatihan itu. Kuliah kritis atas Islam diberikan kepada seluruh agen FBI.
Sejak serangan teroris 11 September 2001, FBI telah menekankan pentingnya bekerja dengan para pemimpin dalam komunitas Muslim sebagai bagian penting dari perang melawan terorisme.
Soal pelatihan itu, mereka berdalih tujuan dari program pelatihan adalah untuk memberikan pandangan yang berbeda, tetapi dengan keseimbangan dan konteks yang tidak berlawanan.
Juru bicara FBI, Christopher Allen, mengatakan bahwa pasca kuliah, perubahan kebijakan telah dilakukan untuk lebih memastikan bahwa semua pelatihan konsisten dengan standar FBI.

Hari Ini, Belanda Mulai Haramkan Cadar

2011-09-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID,AMSTERDAM - Belanda bakal ikut serta mengharamkan cadar bagi rakyatnya. Negara itu tak memperdulikan sekitar seratus wanita di negaranya yang memakai cadar.
Pemerintah Belanda bakal memulai pengharaman itu sejak Jumat (16/9) ini. Belanda bakal menjadi negara ketiga yang mengharamkan cadar setelah Prancis dan Belgia. Wanita yang masih nekat memakai cadar bakal didenda 330 gulden.
Meskipun begitu, wanita masih diperbolehkan memakai cadar saat di masjid atau tempat-tempat keagamaan. Wanita yang melakukan perjalanan ke luar negeri juga diperbolehkan memakai cadar ketika berada di ruang tunggu bandara.
Menteri kabinet di Belanda memastikan pengharaman ini perlu karena tidak sesuai dengan masyarakat di negaranya yang dianggap terbuka. Jika memakai cadar, wanita dianggap tidak berpartisipasi dalam keterbukaan itu.
Parlemen Belanda adalah yang pertama kali mengharamkan cadar 2005 lalu. Mereka mengumpulkan suara dalam bentuk proposal yang dibuat oleh penghina nabi Muhammad SAW, Geert Wilders. Dia dikenal sebagai politisi anti Islam di Eropa. Namun demikian, pengumpulan suara tersebut tidak membuahkan hasil karena Belanda ketika itu disibukkan dengan pemilihan umum dan isu perubahan koalisi politik.
Semenjak itu dan pada pemilu berikutnya tahun lalu, Wilders kembali menyuarakan isu pelarangan cadar. Hal itu mendongkrak reputasi partai politiknya menjadi nomor tiga di Belanda.

9/11 memorial plaza in NYC to open to public

2011-09-12T02:24:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) — The plot of land that has been known for a decade as "the pile," ''the pit" and "ground zero" will welcome the public Monday for the first time since that terrible morning in 2001, and visitors will find a place transformed from the gray ruins place so seared into our collective imagination.
The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum planned to open its gates at 10 a.m., under fairly tight security, and allow a few thousand people to walk among hundreds of white oak trees on an 8-acre plaza and gaze at the two enormous fountains where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood.
Visitors will also be able to run their fingertips over the names of the 2,977 people killed in the terrorist attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, as well as the six slain during the bombing of the trade center in 1993. The names, etched in bronze, will ring the two pits.
The tree-adorned memorial plaza at ground zero opened to the families of the victims and assorted dignitaries for the first time Sunday, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
After locating the name of her sister in the bronze of the massive reflecting pool where the World Trade Center's south tower once stood, Salma Simjee was comforted by the knowledge it had a lasting place. Yet it was not enough to ease her heartache.
"I would rather not see her name there," said the Fresno, Calif., woman, who had traveled to New York City to mourn her sister, Nasima H. Simjee, a financial analyst killed in the 9/11 attacks. "But it's here."
Like so many of the hundreds of family members visiting the 9/11 memorial for the first time Sunday, Simjee was torn between wanting to celebrate that the victims now have a permanent memorial and the knowledge that there remained a void in their lives.
Her cousin, Sufia Simjee, of Baltimore, Md., said that at least they now have a place to leave flowers for Nasima — all the more important since they have never received her remains. "It gives us a place to honor her," she said.
Although thousands of construction workers have come and gone from the site over the years, Monday marks the first time that ordinary Americans without a badge, a press pass or a hard hat, will be able to walk the grounds.
"It will do what the terrorists tried to prevent, which is we've created a place where, regardless of political stripes, economic class, ethnicity, country of origin, people will be coming together, paying their respects at a place that's been transformed from one that was noted for such pain ... to a place of stunning beauty," memorial president Joe Daniels said as preparations were made for opening day last week.
It may be awhile yet before the memorial becomes truly reconnected with the city.
For now, public access to the site will be tightly controlled. Visitors will need to obtain passes in advance, allowing them to enter only at a reserved time. Security screening will be similar to the procedure at airports and courthouses. Visitors will have to empty their pockets, walk through a metal detector and send their handbags and backpacks through an X-ray machine.
Much of the memorial complex is still closed, and will remain so for another year. The museum pavilion, a tilting structure that subtly evokes the sections of the trade center facade that remained standing after the towers fell, is scheduled to open on the 11th anniversary of the attacks.
The underground portion of the site also won't open until 2012, meaning visitors will have to wait to see remarkable sights like the giant slurry wall, built to keep the Hudson River from flooding the trade center's foundations, or the survivor's staircase that allowed so many people to flee to safety.
But seeing the names was enough for many of the families.
"It breaks me up," said David Martinez, who watched the attacks happen from his office in Manhattan, and later learned that he had lost a cousin and a brother — one in each tower.
Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, cried when she found his name, grouped with other crew and passengers aboard the flight.
"These are all his crew," she said. "I know all their families. These passengers, I knew their families. These people are real people to me. It's very touching to see all these people here together."
The centerpiece of the memorial, the two giant, square pits and reflecting pools that sit in the footprints of the two towers, is a marvel. The waterfalls cascading down the four walls of each fountain are the largest such fountains in North America.
Maybe just as striking are the huge towers now pushing up toward the sky all around the plaza. One World Trade Center, the spire nicknamed the Freedom Tower, is now 1,000 feet high, and is well on its way to becoming the tallest building in the U.S. The steel skeleton of the new 4 World Trade Center is 47 stories high, and counting. Construction cranes sprout and sparks fly where workers are building a new rail hub.
The roar of construction will be a constant at the site for some time, but it is large enough, and open enough, that people standing in the memorial plaza may feel inspired by the march of progress, rather than overwhelmed by its noisy energy.
Some 400,000 people have already reserved tickets in the coming months, Daniels said. The memorial foundation has arranged for a separate entrance for relatives of the victims, and is planning on setting aside certain days or hours where the plaza will only be open to firefighters, police officers, and other emergency service workers from agencies that lost someone in the attacks.
"Once on the plaza, I think people will have that very special feeling of stepping on ground that the public has not in the last 10 years," he said.
If there is one defeat amid all the hope in the reconstruction of ground zero, it is that the terror inspired by the attacks still hasn't entirely released its grip on the city. The designers of the monumental space had envisioned it as one of the city's great public places, a status it can't attain until the security restrictions fade. That day will come, just not right away.
"It's an inconvenience, but if you think about any site in the world, I think this is a place that people will expect to go through some security," Daniels said.

F-16 pilot was ready to ram hijacked plane on 9/11

2011-09-12T02:22:00.001-07:00

An F-16 pilot who scrambled on 9/11 to prevent another attack on the US capital says she was prepared to ram her plane into a hijacked aircraft -- as there was no time to arm her plane with missiles.

Amid fears another hijacked airliner was barreling towards Washington, Heather Penney, then a lieutenant in the Washington DC National Guard, was one of two pilots ordered to take off without delay, she said in a recent interview.

The threat of an attack on US soil was seen as such a remote possibility at the time that the 121st fighter squadron at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington had no fully-armed fighter jets on standby.

With only 105 lead-nosed bullets on board, Penney and Colonel Marc Sasseville took to the skies, while two other F-16s waited to be armed with heat-seeking AIM-9 missiles, Penney told C-SPAN television this week.

The pilots had orders from the White House to take out any plane that refused to heed warnings and land, so the two pilots agreed on their plan.

"We wouldn't be shooting it down. We would be ramming the aircraft because we didn't have weapons on board to be able to shoot the airplane down," Penney said.
As they were putting on their flight gear, "Sass looked at me and said, 'I'll ram the cockpit.'
"And I had made the decision that I would take the tail off the aircraft," she said.
Penney said she "knew if I took off the tail of the aircraft, that it would essentially go straight down and so the pattern of debris would be minimized."
She said she thought about possibly ejecting just before impact.

"I would essentially be a kamikaze and ram my aircraft into the tail of the aircraft. I gave some thought to, you know, would I have time to eject?"

But the young pilot was concerned about failing to hit the target.

"I mean you only got one chance, you don't want to eject and have missed, right? "

When she took the plane down the runway, she said she believed it be the last take-off of her life.
In the end, Flight 93 never reached Washington, as passengers assaulted the hijackers in the cockpit and the plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
But the F-16 pilots did not learn of the aircraft's fate until later that day, said Penney, now a major.
"The people on Flight 93 were heroes, but they were going to die no matter what," she said. "My concern was how do I minimize collateral damage on the ground."
Later that afternoon, Penney helped escort Air Force One, with former president George W. Bush on board, back to Andrews Air Force base.
A few years later, she flew missions in the Iraq war, hunting for SCUD missiles and backing up special operations forces.

Penney was among the first wave of female fighter pilots and she has since stopped flying full-time. The mother of two girls, she now works as a corporate executive, according to the Washington Post.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Penney said she was absorbed with the urgent job at hand and had no time for emotions.

"It wasn't so much that I kept my emotions in check. It was that they didn't even exist," she said.

"There was significant adrelaine. It was really just, dear God please don't let me screw up."

Facebook: Media Nyaman Berburu Pasangan dan Selingkuh

2011-09-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

TRIBUNNEWS.COM - Jejaring sosial Facebook kian menunjukkan adanya perubahan sikap sosial masyarakat dalam berinteraksi terhadap sesama. Lewat Facebook, sejumlah aktivitas sosial, termasuk mencari pasangan, kini jadi tren yang unik.

Keistimewaan Facebook dalam memudahkan sosialiasi, menampilkan foto, hingga menyajikan berbagai informasi tentang diri membuat jejaring sosial ini dicintai oleh orang-orang yang ingin eksis dan suka tampil narsis.

Berbagai kelebihan Facebook (FB) itu ternyata membawa konsekuensi pada cara orang menarik perhatian lawan jenisnya. Malahan, karena tidak perlu bertatap muka secara langsung, FB kini menjadi tempat yang nyaman untuk saling menarik perhatian lawan jenis.

Dalam sebuah survei yang dilakukan oleh majalah pria Mens Health di Amerika, terungkap fakta-fakta mengejutkan seputar pengaruh jejaring sosial itu pada pola hubungan. Survei dilakukan terhadap 1.377 pria dan 1.540 wanita.

Sekitar 70 persen responden menjawab, mereka memakai Facebook untuk menggoda orang lain. Akibatnya, sebanyak 59 persen pengguna Facebook, mayoritas wanita, mengakui mereka merasa cemburu dengan interaksi pasangannya di Facebook, terutama interaksi dengan lawan jenis.

Dalam survei itu juga terungkap beberapa modus terjadinya perselingkuhan, seperti diawali saling mengirim komentar pada foto atau status, kemudian berlanjut dengan mengobrol (chatting), membuat janji pertemuan, dan sebagainya.

Mungkin karena ingin menggaet pasangan, sekitar 24 persen responden menjawab mereka tidak menyatakan dengan jujur status hubungan mereka. Kebanyakan menjawab masih lajang (single). Bahkan, sebanyak 27 persen tidak menyebutkan status hubungan mereka.

Dikutip dari Mens Health, sekitar 29 persen responden mengakui foto yang mereka tunjukkan atau ungkapan pikiran di dinding (wall) laman FB mereka memicu pertengkaran dengan pasangannya. Oleh karena itu, 11 persen responden menjawab mereka membuat batasan khusus sehingga pasangan mereka tidak bisa melihat berbagai aktivitas yang dilakukan (menulis status, komentar, atau mengunggah foto).

Bila pada awalnya FB ditujukan untuk mempertemukan penggunanya dengan teman-teman lama atau teman yang pernah dikenal secara fisik, kini FB lebih banyak dipakai untuk mencari kenalan. Sekitar 23 persen responden menyatakan mereka mengirimkan permintaan pertemanan pada orang-orang yang mereka anggap menarik.

Upaya menarik minat lawan jenis juga dilakukan dengan pemasangan foto yang menarik. Sekitar 11 persen responden wanita mengaku mereka sengaja memasang foto yang provokatif untuk menarik perhatian pria.

Kemudahan akses informasi pada jejaring sosial ciptaan Mark Zuckerberg ini juga membuat 85 persen responden sering tergoda untuk melihat laman FB milik mantan kekasih. Sebanyak 17 persen responden menjawab, setidaknya seminggu sekali mereka mengecek laman FB mantannya.

Sekitar 32 persen responden wanita secara blak-blakan mengakui mereka mencoba berhubungan kembali dengan mantannya melalui FB dan 16 persen dari mereka sebenarnya sudah berstatus sedang menjalin hubungan dengan orang lain.

Bagaimana dengan responden pria? Tak jauh berbeda. Sebanyak 36 persen dari mereka juga mencoba kembali dengan mantannya, dan 1 dari 5 pria ini sudah berpasangan dengan orang lain.

Mengenal 'Sang Pembunuh' Usamah bin Ladin, Mata-Mata yang Seperti Pustakawan

2011-09-05T05:35:00.000-07:00

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON--Lazimnya seorang intelejen, sosok Michael G Vickers, sangat berbeda jauh dari gambaran agen-agen rahasia di film Hollywood.
Vickers malah lebih mirip dengan seorang pengacara yang rapi, dengan jas hitam, kemeja putih, dan kacamata. Bukan seseorang yang mengerti tentang rudal Stinger atau senjata AK-47.
Adik Vickers, Richard, yang bekerja sebagai pegawai rumah sakit, mengatakan, "Tiap kali saya mengenalkan kakak saya ke teman-teman, mereka selalu mengatakan dia sangat sopan. Mereka kira dia kerja di perpustakaan."
Dalam buku Charlie Wilson's War, yang diangkat menjadi film oleh Hollywood, Vickers digambarkan sebagai sosok agen intelejen yang romatis dan doyan film-film James Bond.
Vickers bersekolah di Hollywood High School. Dia tadinya bermimpi jadi atlet. Namun gagal dan banting setir jadi anggota pasukan khusus Baret Hijau pada 1973 di usia 19 tahun. "Saat itu jadi Baret Hijau kedengerannya sangat keren," kata dia.
Selama 10 tahun berikutnya, Vickers belajar menjadi agen intelejen yang mumpuni. Ia bisa terjun payung dengan membawa senjata nuklir. Belajar mengenai persenjataan Uni Sovyet, dan ikut serta dalam pembebasan sandera di Honduras.
Pada 1983, Vickers bergabung dengan CIA unit paramiliter. Dia dikirim ke Lebanon untuk mengumpulkan data intelejen terkait pemboman barak militer marinir AS di Beirut pada 1983. Tak lama kemudian, Vickers mulai berurusan dengan hal ihwal Mujahidin di Afghanistan.
Vickers hengkang dari CIA pada 1986. Selama 20 tahun setelah itu ia sibuk dalam sejumlah lembaga penelitian dan universitas (Vickers lulus master dari Wharton School dan doktoral dari John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies).
Presiden George W Bush terkesan dengan keahlian Vickers saat ia diundang untuk rapat terkait situasi terkini di Irak. Vickers kemudian masuk ke dalam tim Menhan Robert Gates dan berlanjut ke pemerintahan Presiden Obama.
"Vickers adalah satu satunya orang yang mengerti soal bisnis (Alqaidah) ini," kata Wakil Direktur CIA Michael J Morell saat penyerbuan ke rumah Usamah, Mei lalu.
Jauh hari sebelum penyerbuan ke markas Usamah di Abbottabad, Vickers sudah mengurusi tetek bengek laporan intelejen dari Pakistan. Vickers yang mengusulkan agar AS mengirimkan tim Navy Seal ke rumah Usamah. Sementara banyak petinggi Departemen Pertahanan dan Pentagon AS keberatan dengan rencananya itu karena terlalu berisiko.
Kini, 10 tahun setelah peristiwa 9/11 yang menghancurkan menara kembar World Trade Center, Vickers masih terus berjibaku dengan Alqaidah. Ia disebut-sebut bakal jadi direktur CIA di masa depan. Namun ia tak mengendorkan pengintaiannya atas Alqaidah, "Mereka masih sangat berbahaya," kata dia.

Rebel reinforcements arrive at Gadhafi stronghold

2011-09-05T05:19:00.000-07:00

TARHOUNA, Libya (AP) — Rebel reinforcements arrived outside one of Moammar Gadhafi's last strongholds in Libya on Monday, even as the forces arrayed against the toppled dictator gave the town a chance to surrender and avoid a fight.

Thousands of rebels have converged on Bani Walid, a desert town some 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. Gadhafi has been on the run since losing his capital last month.

Rebel forces control most of Libya and are setting up a new government. They can't declare total victory, however, until Gadhafi is caught and areas like Bani Walid are subdued, so they have shown they are willing to be patient, perhaps hoping to avoid a bitter inter-clan fight that could create lasting divisions.

The rebels have extended to Saturday a deadline for the surrender of Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte and other loyalist areas, but some have warned they could attack Bani Walid sooner because many prominent former regime officials were believed to be inside.

The scene was calm early Monday, with rebels brewing tea and lighting morning cigarettes, at a checkpoint about 40 miles (70 kilometers) from Bani Walid's center. Then a convoy of nine trucks flying the independence-era tricolor the rebels have adopted arrived. As his men fired rifles into the air and shouted "God is great!" commander Ismail al-Gitani said they were part of a larger force and that he was ordered to reinforce the northern approaches to Bani Walid.

He refused to say how many fighters he had brought.

"We won't go inside Bani Walid unless the Warfala tribe invites us," he said, referring to Bani Walid's main tribe. "The Warfala have to lead us into Bani Walid. Hopefully no one will be shot. We don't want to use our weapons. But if the Gadhafi loyalists shoot at us, of course we will return fire."

The Warfala are believed to be about 1-million-strong, one-sixth of Libya's population.

Earlier, another rebel commander at the checkpoint, Mohammed al-Fassi, says the door was still open for negotiations over the town's surrender.

Al-Fassi said the rebels had offered during the negotiations that those "who killed in the name of Gadhafi, whose hands are stained in blood" be placed under house arrest in Bani Walid until a government is formed that can try them.

The rebels have said the hard-core loyalists are a small minority inside the town, but are heavily armed and stoking fear to keep other residents from surrendering, telling residents the rebels will rape their wives and daughters.

"We know (the loyalists) are trying very hard to avert Bani Walid's surrender," said Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for Libya's opposition council.

The rebels also say Gadhafi has some genuine supporters in Bani Walid, mainly people linked to the dictator through an elaborate patronage system that helped keep him in power for nearly 42 years.

Some of the rebels on the outskirts of Bani Walid have more reason than most to be impatient. Abdel-Basit bin Balla, a 31-year-old businessman, said he was arrested in Bani Walid during anti-Gadhafi protests in his hometown in May. He was taken to Tripoli's Abu Salim prison, infamous as a detention center for political dissidents.

Bin Balla was freed when rebels took Tripoli, and has joined their forces, though he did not look much like a fighter in his sweat pants and plastic sandals.

"I want to enter Bani Walid with the rebel flag in my hand," he said.

While it is now held by loyalists, Bani Walid also has a history of opposition to Gadhafi. Western diplomats in Libya and opposition leaders abroad reported in 1993 that the air force had put down an uprising by army units in Misrata and Bani Walid. They said many officers were executed and arrested.

NATO, meanwhile, reported bombing several targets near Sirte and other areas overnight.

NATO has been bombing Gadhafi's forces since March under a United Nations mandate to protect Libyan civilians. But that mandate expires Sept. 27, and the rebels may be eager to end the fight before it runs out — since it may be politically difficult to get it renewed.

In Tripoli, el-Gallal said Libya's transition to democratic rule would begin with a "declaration of liberation," starting the countdown on an eight-month deadline for Libya's transitional council to arrange elections for a national assembly.

"When the clock starts ticking on those eight months remains to be seen," said el-Gallal. He said it wasn't yet clear what defined liberation — whether it was when the rebels control the entire country, or the arrest of Gadhafi.