U.S. steps up campaign against Syrian government

The Bush administration has launched a campaign to isolate and embarrass Syrian President Bashar Assad, using parliamentary elections in late April as a lever, according to State Department officials and Syrian exiles.
…
The officials say the campaign bears the imprint of Elliott Abrams, a conservative White House aide in charge of pushing Bush’s global democracy agenda.
…
McClatchy Newspapers is withholding some details about Syrian groups and individuals involved in monitoring the April elections because their followers could face arrest in Syria.
But a classified government document that surfaced in December proposed a covert election-monitoring effort that would be funded by a State Department-run democracy promotion program known as the Middle East Partnership Initiative. MEPI has set aside $5 million for activities aimed at Syria.
…
The document identified the U.S. government-funded International Republican Institute as a potential partner in the effort. An IRI spokeswoman declined comment this week.
At least some elements of the plan appear to have gone forward.
Several Internet sites have been created to monitor and discuss the April elections, which are to be followed in May by a referendum on Assad’s rule. One, largely in Arabic, is http://www.transparentsyria.com.
As McClatchy Newspapers first reported last year, the Bush administration also has orchestrated meetings of Syrian opposition figures under the auspices of the Aspen Institute’s Berlin offices. White House officials have met with representatives of the National Salvation Front, a broad umbrella group that includes Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood and former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam.

Posted by: b | Mar 31 2007 7:41 utc | 3

b,
let’s not forget the racial angle: they might not have been half as offended if Jesus had been made up out of *white* chocolate

Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 31 2007 9:14 utc | 5

Terry Jones of monty python fame Call that Humiliation!
Excerpt:

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this – allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world – have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Mar 31 2007 9:26 utc | 7

Uninsured patient billed more than $12,000 for broken rib
Interesting story…another sheep gets economically slaughtered by U.S. healthcare system. Of course, he could hire a lawyer and then get slaughtered once more by the legal system.
I hope the guy doesn’t pay this fraudulent bill.

Posted by: Rick | Mar 31 2007 11:54 utc | 9

Readers here are probably familiar with my sincere compliments to Keith Olbermann of MSNBC TV. And although Keith’s exposure yesterday about Bush’s coverup of soldier Pat Tillman is to be praised, somehow a couple of words in his comments yesterday disturbed me.
At 2:24 seconds into this video, Keith Olbermann says that this cover up was not just about an “ordinary soldier”. What the hell is an “ordinary soldier”? And what about all the “ordinary” Iraqis who have died in “friendly fire”, purposely overlooked by our government officials and not covered in the media?
After all, this is not the first cover up of a friendly fire death, but because it was Pat Tillman, it is somehow now more important? Aren’t all the deaths in Iraq equally tragic, and by saying all deaths, I am not just talking about U.S. soldiers. In some way, this news story reminds me of missing/abducted children – so often only pretty white females from upper middle class families make the big news.
Maybe some consider this a trivial point and perhaps I am reading too much into this, but it bothers me. And this is nothing against the Tillman Family or the memory of Pat Tillman. I truly respect them. And I do not wish to single out Keith Olbermann in this discussion. My disgust is with the many people in the news media that so often let the public down regarding “ordinary” people.

Posted by: Rick | Mar 31 2007 15:15 utc | 11

After all, this is not the first cover up of a friendly fire death
i am not convinced this is a friendly fire death. he was killed by 3 shots to the head. his clothes were burned, his diary was burned, he was known to have had serious doubts about the mission, doubts he didn’t have when he joined, i presume.
this could have been a fragging. he could have become persona non gratis in his unit.
there was a very swift consensus amongst many people to cover this up, why? how many people were present when his uniform was burned? what was the thinking and rationale behind this action. in what scenario does it make sense? how does burning a uniform serve a purpose? did it serve a purpose, if not was there a ritual, ceremonial quality associated w/this?
seriously, i want to know. if someone is shot in the head 3 times, what kind of evidence remains on the uniform that burning it will erase? if there was no evidence erased, there must have been a very odd consensus to perform this act? a lord of the flies type mentality??
because it was Pat Tillman, it is somehow now more important?
this event is not more important because he ‘wasn’t ordinary’. yet because of his fame this event has gotten press and attention the way an ‘ordinary’ families questions are not answered. had this been an ‘ordinary’ friendly fire there would have been an ‘ordinary’ response. it is not the public that made this soldier and the circumstances surrounding his death extraordinary, it was the army, the president, the media. the family is doing what any family would do, because pat was famous, they are getting an extraordinary response. events became extraordianry the moment the coveup began, what i am wondering, is if they were extraordinary prior to his death.

Posted by: annie | Mar 31 2007 17:16 utc | 13

The book is THE WAY OF THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR
Link to Book on Amazon
Amazing what the internets and the google can do in just a minute.

Posted by: Susan | Mar 31 2007 17:37 utc | 15

two freak alert posts
cnn
can’t they keep these religious freaks on the religious stations?
john doe my ass

Posted by: annie | Mar 31 2007 17:41 utc | 17

Rove spotted in Chattanooga with brochure for gwb43.com nameserver host. Can we subpoena the records now?
re: Tillman
…”i am not convinced this is a friendly fire death.”
I’m with annie on this one, nor am not convinced this was a friendly fire death.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 31 2007 18:35 utc | 19

third day of heavy fighting continues in mogadishu, somalia as u.s.-trained ethiopian forces attempt to bomb the communities into submission under the unpopular TFG. (while the ugandan peacekeeping forces stand around & watch, assumedly)
Somalia clan leaders asks for world interference

Mogadishu 31, March.07 ( Sh.M.Network) The traditional elders of Hawiye, Somali’s powerful tribe Saturday appealed to the international community to make interference to the fighting raging in the Somalia capital Mogadishu.
Ahmed Direi Ali, the spokesperson of Hawiye said the residents fled the capital while the bodies of innocent people scattered on the grounds. “What is happening in the city is total carnage against the civilians,” he said.
He accused the Ethiopian government of being responsible for what he called ‘the massacre on the people.’
Dirie said they would not tolerate the attacks by the Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu.
He asked for the United Nations, Arab League, USA, EU and OIC to make interference into the war in Mogadishu and stop the Ethiopian aggression.

the hawiye clan earlier reached a truce w/ the ugandans to avoid armed conflict. they had attempted the same w/ the ethiopians and some reports say that an agreement was reached and then breached by the ethiopians when they began their assault on the city three days ago. other reports say that an agreement between the hawiye and the ethiopians was never reached, due to the latters’ declared intention of disarming neighborhood militias by force.
today, shabelle news is reporting that

At least 16 people mostly civilians including women and children have been killed and dozens more were wounded in today’s violence. Some of them were killed by stray bullets, medical officials at Medina hospital told Shabelle radio.
This brings the total number killed in the three-day clashes to 150 people and 350 others were injured, medical sources added.
There are unknown casualty civilian figure that trapped in the villages of the capital.
Meanwhile, around ten artillery fires have been fired into the presidential palace where the Ethiopian forces were firing the shells. It is not yet clear the casualty on the Ethiopian soldiers.

if that report is correct, the ethiopian army is firing from yusuf’s presidential palace. that won’t help win any hearts & minds for the TFG. it sounds like a bloodbath is currently taking place, as various militias defend their neighborhoods & reject the imposition of a u.s./ethiopian-backed govt authority.
other sources report many bodies, possibly “hundreds”, left in the streets and lots as civilians flee in mass from the conflict.
shabelle itself, one of the key sources of news from mogadishu, issued a notice to their online audience today that it is having difficulty maintaining operations as “[t]he largest exodus ever witnessed in the last decade and half is ongoing in Mogadishu.”

Posted by: b real | Mar 31 2007 19:12 utc | 21

rick- uncle linked to a cnn article yesterday that reported that pat tillman’s mother would not rule out the suggestion that her son was shot intentionally
if he was into chomsky, as i’ve elsewhere, his diary would not be helpful were it to fall into enemy — i.e., non-totalitarian types — hands

Posted by: b real | Mar 31 2007 19:30 utc | 23

Some sanity on Dafur reporting? WaPo: Fracturing of Rebel Groups Adds to Chaos in Darfur

The quasi-rebel group ostensibly controlling this desert town of displaced thousands is called SLM-Minni, which stands for Sudan Liberation Movement, Minni Minnawi faction.
In the increasingly perplexing world of rebel politics in Darfur, SLM-Minni is not to be confused with SLM-Free Will, SLM-Unity or Greater-SLM, whose leader was a spokesman for SLM-Minni until he became disillusioned and left to form his own group.
…
The situation is complicated, but there is a growing sense that the biggest obstacles to peace in Darfur are not only the Sudanese government and its militias, but the Darfur rebels themselves.
…
Officials monitoring the region and aid groups say that as the rebel groups splinter, they are increasingly moonlighting as roving bandits, attacking humanitarian organizations, African Union soldiers and whoever else might have the coveted trucks and satellite phones that are the means to power in this rugged region.
…
Observers note that rebel groups have spawned their own hierarchies and bureaucracies and suggest that their cause has become less about the suffering millions in Darfur than their own survival.
Some rebel leaders have not even set foot in Darfur in years: Wahid has been living in Paris. Others are in Germany. Mini Minnawi is in Khartoum, where he is increasingly isolated from his organization.
…
As others did, Adowman was quick to blame government militias for such violence.
But when he was asked who carried out the attacks against the aid groups in December, he just looked off. “I don’t know,” he said.

Posted by: b | Mar 31 2007 20:53 utc | 25

rosie

Posted by: annie | Mar 31 2007 22:15 utc | 27

Well, it looks like the ideology war has been exposed on dkos and caused quite a stir. the concept of Separation of Church and State was originally an Anabaptist idea that began in 16th Century Switzerland, It’s the old, time honored divide and conquer game.
No, Virginia, the Constitution is Not “American”
all of these oaths, dogmas and creeds regarding nationalism or religionism are indoctrination or brainwashing into a cult of one sort or another. Those of us who have traveled and/or bothered to explore various cultures around the world often find ourselves too expanded to share in such limited concepts of reality.
Those of us who have traveled and/or bothered to explore various cultures around the world often find ourselves too expanded to share in such limited concepts of reality. For someone who has lived in a variety of countries, absorbed and studied much of the cultures and traditions of those countries, and learned the languages of such countries, it is impossible to declare, “I’m patriotic,” or “I’m American,” or “I believe in America.” To do so would be to negate the wisdom of every other culture and to hold one’s own above the rest, as if it is the only worthy place on earth. One who has traveled extensively can justly say that is simply not the case.
But with all this arrogant and egotistical “we are the superior nation of the world” and “I’m a patriotic American” shit, one should be firmly reminded that the glorious-‘though-imperfect Constitution is not a purely “American” construction but is based on the wisdom of many cultures, including those of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Renaissance Europe, Persia, Native America, et al. The Constitution is a pinnacle in that it is built upon past cultures and experiences, and as such it is an improvement over such governing bodies. But this is also not to say that today we are much more advanced than we have been in the “barbaric” past. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that life goes not in constant linear improvement but in cycles, reaching great peaks of evolution and falling back to primitivity and savagery.
This is evidenced by the past “Golden Ages” of Greece, Egypt and Rome, which were followed by such unlovely times as the Dark Ages, where nearly everyone was toothless and illiterate.
Keeping all this in mind, that ancient peoples have had a great deal of wisdom, as do peoples of nations other than the United States, and that this is a small planet, of which we are all citizens, let’s drop the nationalistic rubbish – wherever we live – once and for all and declare, “We are all members of the cosmos.” This is the only way we can end separation between peoples and have peace on earth – if that will ever be possible. Simply for the reason stated above, aka the elite, want us fighting amongst ourselves instead of questioning them.
I have said it before, we are seeing the purposeful unraveling of the ideals of the enlightenment; a Straussian mandate. The Culture war.
Religious Schools Train Lawyers for Culture Wars

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 1 2007 0:54 utc | 29

America is the only country I know where being bilingual is considered a bad thing.
nobody really believes knowing 2 languages is bad, this is just the rightwing tactic to keep children of immigrants out of the school system. in most districts they have at least one school w/a bilingual program w/bilingual teachers to accommodate kids who can’t speak english. especially kindergarten. they are trying to make these classes illegal because they are racist bastards who wrap their bigotry in the cloak of patriotism.

Posted by: annie | Apr 1 2007 1:56 utc | 31

No problem.
About Somalia, I heard on the radio today that refugees are being picked up by the kenyan and ethiopian governments, interogated (with assistance from US specialists) and then send back to Somalia (except the unlucky ones I guess). The situation there is sickening.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Apr 1 2007 3:21 utc | 33

@askod – somalia – McClatchy: U.S. diplomat visits American detainee in Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s intelligence service is holding an American who fled Somalia’s fighting in a secret facility pending a hearing on his status next month, U.S. officials said Friday.
Ethiopian authorities on Friday allowed a U.S. diplomat to visit Amir Mohamed Meshal, 24, of Tinton Falls, N.J., only the second such visit since he was incarcerated in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, about six weeks ago.
Meshal was among some 160 people who fled the fighting in Somalia in January and were detained in Kenya on immigration charges in a roundup that was coordinated with the United States.
In Kenya, Meshal told investigators that he’d stayed briefly in an al-Qaida camp in Somalia, but he denied undergoing training or being a fighter. FBI agents interviewed him twice and decided not to press charges against him. Kenyan authorities sent him and some 80 others back to Somalia with no legal proceedings, and from there Meshal was sent to Ethiopia.
…

Posted by: b | Apr 1 2007 6:18 utc | 35

Meet John Nowacki: Acting Counsel to the Director/ Political Operative [Justice Department official]

So far the Justice Department and Congress have named only a handful of Senior Justice Department officials who are going to be interviewed before their respective committees and Subcommittees. Those names are as follows: Paul McNulty, William Moschella, Michael Elston, William Mercer, David Margolis, and Monica Goodling (who is pleading the 5th). Former employees Michael Battle and Kyle Sampson will also be interviewed. While this is a good start in the investigation one of the key doors for information has been excluded so far: His name is John Nowacki and he is the Principal Deputy Director as well as the Acting Counsel to the Director.

misterapologist has identified another wacko political operative in the DoJ — one with critical function in the U.S. Attorney management. This operative formerly worked with the Free Congress Foundation — right wing religious NUTS. In 2003 he went from Free Congress to the DoJ, where he works as senior counsel in the Justice Department’s public affairs office.
Here’s misterapologist’s opening salvo:
“John Nowacki is the go-between for most of the Justice Department and all 93 US Attorney’s. He is the guy that gets letters, emails, phone calls, and other bits of information that he then passes up the chain of command. The documents contained below demonstrate his central role in important meetings, his role in gathering information on prospective US Attorney’s, and organizing complaints of current US Attorney’s. The final document (a portion of Nowacki’s schedule) demonstrates that his informants ( Investigator Warren Hamilton) help to fulfill his obligation to the other members of the Justice Department by supplying information that fits with a specific agenda. It is extremely important that the House and Senate Judiciary Committee’s interview John Nowacki in order to establish the links between the Justice Department officials, the US Attorney’s in the field, and the political operatives who helped remove the targeted US Attorney’s. The officials that have been called to be interviewed by the relevant committees are as follows (As you read the documents below notice the amount of conversations between these top officials and John Nowacki): Paul McNulty, William Moschella, Michael Elston, William Mercer, David Margolis, Monica Goodling (pleading the 5th…), Michael Battle (Resigned), and Kyle Sampson (Resigned).”
He follows that with some FINE documentation and research.
Now watch with me as the Dem’s never ever bring this guy in to testify.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 1 2007 12:00 utc | 37

I certainly hope that this is a poorly chosen April Fool joke, but Erich Blumrich’s BUSHFLASH site is down today. If you go there, an eagle pops up with the announcement that the site is down while the owner is investigated for violating a provison of the Patriot Act.
If this is an April Fool joke, it is not funny.
The fraud monitor on my computer virus checker says that the site is genuine–I believe that it is.
Please tell me that it is a joke. If it is not, then I think it is time to leave now.

Posted by: Anonymous | Apr 1 2007 12:49 utc | 39

forgot the title, that was about TILLMAN

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 1 2007 14:49 utc | 41

in somalia the reports are that a fourth day of fighting continued in mogadishu on sunday, though not as heavy. while additional ethiopian troops are moving into the capitol, attempts at reaching a ceasefire are ongoing, though it sounds like the ethiopian & interim govt forces are not willing to find common ground.
shabelle is carrying a press release issued by the leaders of the hawiye clan following a meeting today.

Mogadishu 01, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network) Traditional elders of Mogadishu’s dominant Hawiye tribe who had intensive meeting on Sunday issued a press release containing of six articles after receiving a contact from the Ethiopian military officials yesterday over how to reach ceasefire agreement as the Hawiye leaders accepted the proposal.
With the regard to early ceasefire between the Hawiye elders and the Ethiopian government on 22 March 2007.
With the reference to carnage, destruction, the massive displacing subjected to civilians and the property destroyed for the last few days, the Hawiye leaders jointly issued the following articles as below:
1. To cease the fire from 2:00pm today, April 1 2007 in throughout the capital.
2. Wishing the Ethiopian government to announce ceasefire and also keep it emplaced.
3. The Ethiopian forces should withdraw from all the locations they had entered through the fighting to let the civilian people back to their homes.
4. Within 24 hours, peace dialogue should be opened to discuss the extant of the casualty resulted from the fighting in the capital.
5. the international community such donor countries, human rights organizations and aid agencies particular the Red crescent and Red cross to provide help to 1.5 million displaced people inside and outside of Mogadishu and also in the nearby regions. The human rights abuse done by the Ethiopian forces and interim government troops should be taken into inquiry during the war.
6. We are asking for international support to burry the dead people and treat the wounded.
7. The Ethiopian forces and the transitional federal government to release the innocents they had arrested them illegally.
Despite the truce announcement, there is fighting continuing in the capital as the sounds of heavy artillery and gun fires could be heard through the city.

the organization Somali Diaspora Network issued a press release on march 29th to help draw attention to the ongoing atrocities
Death, Destruction, and Devastation Unleashed on Somalia by the Ethiopian Occupying Forces and their Pawns

Since the third week of March 2007, Ethiopian Occupation Forces along with the Transitional Federal Government’s (TFG) clan-based militia, launched in Mogadishu an operation dubbed “Sifeynta”, which means cleansing, to forcefully disarm and collect weapons, and detain those who are suspected of opposing the Ethiopian occupation and the TFG. The systematic murder of innocent civilians including children and women has recently intensified and continues to deteriorate day-by-day.
The Somali Diaspora Network strongly condemns the Ethiopian forces and the TFG leadership for this indiscriminate killing of civilians. This genocide must be stopped now. The people of Mogadishu resisted this illegal operation because of its narrow objective of targeting certain clans in the capital, and its dominance by other clans allied with Ethiopia and the TFG. The Ethiopian occupying forces and the President of the TFG’s clan militia indiscriminately shelled civilians in the illegal tactic of collective punishment. The heavy shelling of civilian neighborhoods for the past one and half months has resulted in the deaths of many civilians, injury and maiming of many others, extensive destruction of property, and the mass exodus of women, children, and the elderly from Mogadishu. This forced exodus has created a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions.
These gross human rights violations, including the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of civilians by the occupying forces and their pawns have created the humanitarian tragedy currently unfolding in Somalia, and has left the country terrorized and totally devastated. Despite this massive suffering and destruction, the United Nations (UN) and the international community at large, continues to remain silent. The Somali Diaspora Network (SDN) condemns this lack of action and silence from the UN and the larger international community. We regard this silence as tantamount to support of the atrocities committed by the occupying forces and their protégées.

a quick scan of the reuters & other wire service articles on the events in somalia shows a preponderance to define the fighting taking place as targeting radical islamist insurgents and remnants of the islamic courts union. no mention of context, no questioning of how this is a peacekeeping operation.
also, the first ugandan troop fatality was reported today, as a peacekeeper guarding the presidential palace was killed in a mortar attack. yesterday i linked to an article reporting that some of the shelling of residential areas was coming from the palace.

Posted by: b real | Apr 1 2007 17:15 utc | 43

US jet fighters violate Iran’s airspace: military

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 1 2007 17:26 utc | 45

@b real – a big thanks for keeping us updated on Somalia – the Ethiopian dictator promissed his folks to pull the troops back but at the same time sent more troops down the drain. I wonder how long he can keep such up …

Posted by: b | Apr 1 2007 18:21 utc | 47

I read section 802. This business with bushflash.com is starting to look less and less like a joke. Apparently, any item that ‘incites or persuades civilians’–a web cartoon maybe? is now Domestic Terrorism.
I hope that the Kucinich campaign has someone on top of this. Blumrich was working with them.

Posted by: Anonymous | Apr 1 2007 19:38 utc | 49

GI SPECIAL 5C28:

July 4, 2007
FTA News Service
In other news, reports reached Washington this afternoon that at least five combat-ready brigades of U.S. troops have placed their commanding officers under arrest at Army and Marine bases in North Carolina, Georgia and New York today, elected new officers, and are moving on the nation’s capitol to express their own views of how to end the war in Iraq.
A spokesperson for the troops, speaking for background only, told FTA News Service that as a result of their action, neither they, nor any other troops, will ever be deployed from the United States to Iraq or Afghanistan again.
However, she said that their newly-formed Joint Armed Forces Council — made up of delegates elected from the Army, Navy, Marines, Airforce, National Guard and Reserves — which now commands the armed forces of the United States, view it as dishonorable and cowardly to leave their brothers-and sisters-in-arms facing death in Imperial war overseas while they are safe at home.
She told FTA News “The Joint Armed Forces Council has agreed that upon arrival in Washington, and liberating it from the domestic enemies who now control the government, it will be necessary to order that all our brothers and sisters be brought home immediately.”
She thanked the hundreds of thousands of citizens and veterans who are surrounding military bases all over America to show their support for the troops’ decision to obey their oath to defend the Constitution and American citizens “from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

I moved the date up one year, I was feeling so bad. These folks are trying to encourage resistance from within the armed forces, a la vietnam.
I wonder if we Americans, who have fallen and appear unable to get up, are not now ready to cheer the legions, naming their own emperors.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 2 2007 7:27 utc | 51

Jackson Diehl: Darfur on Their Radar

The result, according to several sources, is that the United States and Britain may finally make an effort, beginning this month, to push for serious punishment of the regime of Omar Hassan al-Bashir at the U.N. Security Council — and to shame the governments, such as China’s, that have blocked multilateral action. Britain takes over Security Council chairmanship this week from South Africa, another resister of action on Darfur, while the United States’ turn follows in May.
Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been feeding each other’s passion on Darfur. They’ve decided “to stop watering down U.N. resolutions before they are even introduced,” one official said. “This time they will ask for what they want,” including both economic and military sanctions. As for China, which buys Sudan’s oil and invests in its industry while shielding the government from international pressure, the official predicted: “There will be an international campaign against countries that are obstructing action by the council.”
In the meantime, Bush is expected to approve more unilateral U.S. sanctions against Sudan, probably sometime after Easter. Among other steps, these will target assets of three Sudanese leaders and prohibit business in dollars with several dozen Sudanese companies, including an oil services firm. The United States could also help to rebuild former rebel forces in southern Sudan, which signed a peace deal with the government in 2005.
…
Curiously, the resolve of the two leaders has hardened at a moment when the situation in Darfur may be softening. Attacks by the Sudanese military have fallen off during the past several months — since Feb. 8 the United Nations has recorded only one, with no casualties. Assaults by government-backed janjaweed militias against civilians have also appeared to slacken.

Looks like the conflict in Dafur is calming down. Bush and Blair need to do something about that – like “rebuild” the conflict in southern Sudan undoubtly by delivering weapons ….

Posted by: b | Apr 2 2007 8:40 utc | 53

while attacks by sudanese govt forces have tapered off, the rebels have been busy
AU, UN Condemn Killing of Darfur Peacekeepers

The African Union (AU) has launched an investigation into the killing of five of its peacekeepers by unidentified assailants in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, saying attacks against its troops are increasing.
“It was a heinous crime against peacekeepers,” Noureddine Mezni, spokesman for the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS), told IRIN on Monday.
The attack was carried out late on Sunday at Um Baru, some 220 km from El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, Mezni said. The soldiers were guarding a water point when they came under attack. Four of them died on the spot while the fifth one succumbed to his injuries on Monday morning. Three of the assailants were killed in an exchange of gunfire with the peacekeepers.
…
The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) strongly condemned the killings, describing it as a serious violation of international law and relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.
“UNMIS stresses the urgent need to identify those responsible for the attacks on AMIS and to hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” the mission said in a statement.
On 5 March, armed men abducted and subsequently killed two AMIS soldiers in the town of Gereida, South Darfur. A third soldier was seriously injured in the incident. AMIS blamed the attack on “elements belonging to the SLM/A [Sudan Liberation Movement/Army]” faction led by Minni Minnawi.

and in somalia, it sounds like the ceasefire brokered on sunday has held for now. only “sporadic gunfire” reported on monday, allowing time for attending to the wounded, fleeing the city, and burying the dead.

Posted by: b real | Apr 2 2007 16:04 utc | 55

I recommend Uncle’s link to Naomi Klein on Democracy Now … here’s a nugget or two:

The stakes could not be higher. What we are losing is the incentive, the economic incentive, for peace, the economic incentive for stability. When you can create such a booming economy around war and disaster, around destruction and reconstruction, over and over and over again, what is your peace incentive?
…

The Davos dilemma is this: for decades, it’s been conventional wisdom that generalized mayhem was a drain on the global economy, that you could have an individual shock or a crisis or a war that could be exploited for privatization, but on the whole … there needed to be stability in order to have steady economic growth; the Davos dilemma is that it’s no longer true. You can have generalized mayhem, you can have wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, threats of nuclear war with Iran, a worsening of the Israeli occupation, a deepening of violence against Palestinians, you can have a terror in the face of global warming, you could have increased blowback from resource wars, you can have soaring oil prices, but, lo and behold, the stock market just goes up and up and up.
…
there’s a lot of guns being sold, enough guns to buy a hell of a lot of caviar. And Blackwater is, of course, at the center of this economy.
The only way to combat an economy that has eliminated the peace incentive, of course, is to take away their opportunities for growth.

Posted by: jonku | Apr 2 2007 19:52 utc | 57

more shit hits more fans

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 3 2007 1:49 utc | 59