I read in Bloomberg that Paulson has recommended to countries where there may be food deficits to refrain from price controls and subsidies. The idea is that they should let their population starve so that prices, after a while, from a dimished population, may come down, so that the principles of economics may be upheld. I love this devotion to principles.

Posted by: jlcg | Apr 13 2008 18:27 utc | 1

Did you know that Mark Penn's company, Burson-Marsteller, who "advises" Clinton, also owns the company of Charlie Black who "advises" McCain?

That tells quite a lot about the "competition".

In recent years, Mr. Black’s clients have included AT&T, Johnson and Johnson, the worldwide lottery firm GTech, Lockheed Martin, United Technologies, Yukos Oil, and the governments of Greece, Armenia and Cyprus. BKSH worked for Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress, as well as the Lincoln Group, hired by the Pentagon to generate positive stories about the Iraq war.

Posted by: b | Apr 13 2008 19:35 utc | 2

re no. 1:

Remember, the market is not just a mere mechanism, it is an ideology, a manifestation of God's plan for us on earth.

Did Moses engage in business negotiations with God on Sinai? Did Jesus not stage a leveraged buyout of the moneylenders in the temple?

If we have to sacrifice a few million lives to maintain its integrity, then it is a worthwhile investment.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Apr 13 2008 19:44 utc | 3

notes from the iraqi resistance

This post is a transcript of the interview with M.Al-Shammari,(head of the Islamic Army of Iraq/IAI) aired on Al-Jazeerah on the 9th of April 2008, an interview conducted by Ahmad Mansour.

layla anwar tranlates

Posted by: annie | Apr 13 2008 20:36 utc | 4

If the IMF wants more buy-in from 1W countries to alleviate global starvation from
BushCo's SNAFU war-for-(reduction in supply of)-oil meme, they need look no further
that a windfall profits tax on global oil companies.

Check your history. Every time oil has fallen below the profit point for Saudi, $12.50 a barrel, beginning in 1973 on, there has been a staged war to suppress oil field production in Iraq: Iran:Iran 1980 (GBushSr_CIA), Iraq:Kuwait (GBushSr_CiC) and finally GW3 (GWB), no different that two warring Colombian drug cartels.

http://www.wtrg.com/oil_graphs/small/oilprice1947.gif

The BushCo Family has oil roots clear back to Zapata, tied directly to a Saudi bailout. Saudi has set the price, stating clearly in public that $25/bbl is plenty of profit for them. So anything above $25 is windfall profits for the Saudis, for EOX, RDS and so on, thus $115 is *800% windfall profit*, so far and away above reasonable profit the oil companies are buying back shares and throwing B dividends.

Should EOX, and so on, disgorge? Yes, if you hold to the concept of windfall profits tax. Should EOX, and so on, pay higher royalties? Yes, American oil belongs to every citizen in America. Should EOX, and so on, give up their oil depletion allowances? Yes! Should they comply with low-sulfur regulations, by actually building new sulfur-
reduction plant/equipment, instead of buying sweet crude futures, while at the same time receiving government tax incentives! Yes! Should the practice of "land-farming", volatilizing hundreds of thousands of tons of carcinogenic refinery wastes onto downwind communities, be halted? Yes! Should the greatest natural environmental catastrophe in our N.A. history (tar sands) be taxed cradle-to-brownfield? Yes! Should all US refiners be required to pay into an eventual cleanup program for that Peak Oil day when refineries are left as simmering slag heaps?

Yes! Why should American workers be subsidizing Big Oil investors?! Why not tax
their windfall profits and distribute those revenues as 3W food aid, immediately?

It won't happen. American Corporate Socialism will bring on Saddam-fascism for USA. Does that mean Houston will gas US Big Oil dissenters? No, they don't have to. Wall Street already dropped the credit.con neutron bomb. Average American savings rate hit zero in 2007. The average American credit balance is -$3,240. You parsing geniuses here on MoA surely understand the difference between average and median.

Crashing State and local tax revenues, crashing health and human services, a Fed wrapped up in destroying US with inflation and tax deficits, so they can bail out the banks, brokers and bonders, and you'll have the 1950's all over again, and just like the 1950's, pre- agricultural revolution, there will be 100's of millions starving.

And it all could have been prevented with a windfall profits tax on oil.

Then someone will set the spark off, and we will all be blown away.

Posted by: Petey Michelson | Apr 13 2008 20:49 utc | 5

bbc Israel 'using psychological torture'

It happened a day after Gheith was taken off to Qishlik police station. Plainclothes officers and troops returned to the house and searched through the family's belongings.

I was only in the room for a few seconds; we looked at each other but we were both too shocked to say anything
Um Gheith, mother of prisoner

Already in possession of their ID cards, one of the officers told the parents they must now go down to the police station where they would see their son.

'Too shocked'

The parents were taken into separate rooms at Qishlik station. Um Gheith - the mother - takes up the story.

"There were two men in the room. I sat down and one stood behind me while the other started shouting in my face in a most aggressive and intimidating way.

"I was shocked, it was the first time I had even set foot in a police station and this man was saying horrible things about what they were going to do to Gheith.

Posted by: annie | Apr 13 2008 22:00 utc | 6

Paulson and Bernanke and Friends can hardly give up the notion that the market comes first, comes before human beings. They can hardly avoid making whatever hard decisions must be made to stick with that approach.

They would have to be something they are not, in order to put the market AFTER human beings.

At the Wansee Conference, in 1942, the top leaders of the Nazi Party could hardly give up the notion that Jews were the cause of Germany's demise in WWI, and Germany's supposed decadence, and the degradation of the master race.

To avoid coming to the hard decisions they came to at Wansee, they would have had to be something they are not, in order to put human beings ahead of their ideology.

The only way for simple humanity to creep into the lives of ideologues is for them to feel the noose around their neck, to hear their sentence read out loud, and to realize at the last that they may have lost touch with the public they so assiduously served.

Posted by: Hobson | Apr 14 2008 0:55 utc | 7

@hobson

one of the spookiest things about the TPON documentary flick is the interviews with the neocons, who clearly still believe their own BS. you have the Soviet-threat exaggerators, who peddled the most fantastic fantasies completely unsupported by any intelligence field work, back in the 80's, and they are still insisting that the Soviets had secret invisible weapons and secret non-sonic submarine detection devices -- the fact that no such weapons were ever detected simply proved how incredibly clever and sophisticated they were and how right we were to be scared of them.

these people not only talk to their invisible friends, they shoot at them.

Posted by: DeAnander | Apr 14 2008 2:18 utc | 8

@8
and if the neocons were preaching global-harmony, kindness, brotherhood, international-cooperation ... they would'nt get very far because nothing draws peoples into compliance as well as fear does.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Apr 14 2008 3:42 utc | 9

Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum:

BROWN: But, Senator, you've been out there on the stump attacking him pretty aggressively over this. And his response has been -- and he said it pretty bluntly tonight -- shame on you. You know that he is a man of faith. This is what he's saying. And to suggest that he is demeaning religion is you playing politics.

CLINTON: Well, he will have to speak for himself and provide his own explanation. But I do think it raises a lot of concerns and we've seen that exhibited in the last several days by people here in Pennsylvania, in Indiana where I was yesterday, and elsewhere, because it did seem so much in-line with what often we are charged with.

Someone goes to a closed-door fund-raiser in San Francisco and makes comments that do seem elitist, out of touch and, frankly, patronizing. That has nothing to do with him being a good man or a man of faith.

We had two very good men and men of faith run for president in 2000 and 2004. But large segments of the electorate concluded that they did not really understand or relate to or frankly respect their ways of life. ...

So she thinks Obama is elitist, out of touch, and patronizing and that Bush is a very good man and a man of faith. How very revealing.

PASTOR JOEL HUNTER, NORTHLAND CHURCH: I'm fine, Senator. Good to see you. Senator, many of the issues we're going to be talking about tonight, Darfur, AIDS, abortion, torture, could present you with choices that will have life and death consequences for countless people around the world. What are the first principles you fall back on to make such decisions? Are there certain activities or references or people with whom you consult in order to do what is morally right?

CLINTON: You know, Dr. Hunter, I think this is one of the challenges that face any of us who are in public life where literally you do have the authority to make these decisions that could very well be life and death decisions and they are daunting and I do not pretend to know how I will deal with every single one of them.

But I do have a sense of the process by which I will try to approach them. And it really is rooted in, you know, my prayer, my contemplation, my study. I think you have to immerse yourself in advice, information, criticism from others. I don't pretend to even believe that I know the answers to a lot of these questions. I don't.

But I do believe that you have to be willing to expose yourself to many different points of view and then you have to make that decision. I think that for a lot of us, decisions are ones that you don't just make and put on a shelf. To be fair to be constantly struggling and challenging yourself, you have to keep opening up that decision and asking.

Even Bush had the common sense to decry torture in public despite the policy. This is a religous forum where people are looking to her to espouse the highest of ideals and when she is asked about torture and what is morally right she replies that she doesn't know the answer? She has a sense of process and she'll talk it over with others?

Posted by: Sam | Apr 14 2008 3:52 utc | 10

forgot the link

Posted by: Sam | Apr 14 2008 3:53 utc | 11

"TWO workers were killed today after a gas leakage at a Pakistani nuclear facility, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission said. The accident took place at the Khushab heavy water plant, which had been shut down for annual maintenance, the commission said.

The plant ,was immediately evacuated and there was no threat to the public, the commission said.

"(The) situation was immediately brought under control and two workers lost their lives while controlling the incident," it said.

"There is no threat to public life as all the leaking gas has been burnt in the flare system of the plant."

The town of Khushab is 240km southwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Orders have been issued to find out the cause of accident. The commission gave no further details but private television channels said a blast occurred in the hydrogen phosphate cylinders used in the production of heavy water.

Pakistan became the world's first Muslim nuclear power in 1998 when it carried out A-bomb tests in response to detonations by rival India."

Posted by: Jeremiah | Apr 14 2008 6:14 utc | 12

Interesting numbers from the other war: David W. Barno - Lt. General, USA (Ret.) - HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE TESTIMONY - April 2, 2008(pdf)

Since my time in Afghanistan from October 2003 until May 2005, much has changed. I’d like to draw a few comparisons between the mid-point year of my tour, 2004, and last year, 2007. Security incidents – defined as reported acts of violence nation-wide -- totaled 900 in 2004; last year, in 2007 they totaled 8,950 across Afghanistan. Roadside bombs amounted to 325 attacks in 2004; last year, 1,469. Suicide bombings – decidedly a non-Afghan phenomenon – totaled 3 in 2004; last year they exceeded 130, a deadly new tactic being imported from Iraq. Total bombs dropped by Coalition air forces in 2004 were 86; last year, NATO dropped 3,572 bombs in Afghanistan – noteworthy in a war all now commonly define as a complex counter-insurgency fight. Finally, poppy production in 2004 totaled 131K hectares, and while dropping to 104K in 2005, ballooned in 2007 to a new record of 193K hectares.

Posted by: b | Apr 14 2008 7:10 utc | 13

Headline says it all - Clinton offers steps to help defense industry

Posted by: b | Apr 14 2008 7:12 utc | 14

This made my http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=britmarathon030508&prov=reuters&type=lgns>made my day. In a 14 cigarettes, 8 pints of beer a day, sort of way.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 14 2008 8:59 utc | 15

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=britmarathon030508&prov=reuters&type=lgns>again

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 14 2008 9:01 utc | 16

Sam, I hope you didn't miss the bit where Clinton said Kerry and Gore were aloof elitist unbelieves, which was why they lost their elections. That a Dem candidate has the guts to pretend Gore actually lost the 2000 election is quite rare (and foolish). That HRC criticises anyone for being aloof, elitist, and not religious enough, is on par with BushCo hubris and hypocritical arrogance.
I wonder if she realises she just lost any possible chance of being the Dem nominee.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Apr 14 2008 9:54 utc | 17

You can be as aloof and elitist as you want, just don't come across that way.

Live in a gated community, send your children to private schools, have no personal contact with the underclasses, but claim to be a "compassionate conservative" at all costs.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Apr 14 2008 11:26 utc | 18

Here's a site that looks at oil influence on government:

Members of Congress Who Take More Money from Big Oil Vote More Often for Big Oil at the Expense of the Public Interest

For example this illustrates the influence on the pigs lined up at the Iraqi oil trough:

Overall, House and Senate members who voted to continue the war and occupation of Iraq accepted 3.2 times more oil money (3) than those who voted in the public interest.

But the public is catching on:

In the 2006 mid-term elections, four of the five biggest oil money Senators (7) were voted out of office in 2006. In contrast, all of the incumbents who took no oil money won reelection in 2006. In the House, 49 Representatives who voted with Big Oil 80% or more of the time retired or were voted out of office in 2006.

Follow the Oil Money Key Findings

Even more interesting is their Presidential candidate page with Guliani clearly the favorite, the difference between McCain and Hillory Clinton is negligable which is no surprise and Obama is the low man on the totem pole of the four.

Posted by: Sam | Apr 14 2008 15:05 utc | 19

Pakistan proposes building oil and gas pipeline to China

BEIJING, April 14 (RIA Novosti) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf proposed building an oil and gas pipeline to China during talks with Chinese leader Hu Jintao, the China Daily newspaper said on Monday.

The Pakistani president said that a pipeline would significantly shorten the route of China's energy supplies from the Gulf. Oil and gas are currently being shipped to China along the Indian coast and through the Malacca Straits.

He added that a railway along the Karakoram Highway, linking China and Pakistan should also be built.

"If we can supplement this (the Karakoram Highway) with a rail link, and also maybe an oil and gas pipeline link; and then you take the Central Asian republics with that, the whole area will open out through Pakistan to the rest of the world," the newspaper quoted Musharraf as saying.

China currently imports over 40% of its oil. Experts predict that annual oil consumption will reach 390-410 million metric tons by 2010, and by 2030 it is expected to almost double, to 620-650 million. Demand for gas in China is expected to reach 80-100 billion cu m by 2010 and 320-280 billion cu m in 2030.

Posted by: b real | Apr 14 2008 15:20 utc | 20

@b real - 20

That project isn't new. The ideal gas pipeline for China would be from Iran eastwards through Pakistan and then up north to China plus an oil pipeline from the harbor of Gwader which the Chinese are developing up north.

The comepetition to this is a gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan towards India.

This sets up an economic competition/conflict between China and India and Pakistan is looking for the best deal proposing to both sides.

Posted by: b | Apr 14 2008 15:41 utc | 21

Of the two big news stories that broke April 11, one had legs, and the other apparently did not: President Bush confesses he's a war criminal, so let's change the subject to Barack Obama's elitism. You would think that John McCain and Hillary Clinton could have spared a few words about White House crimes that made everything for which Richard Nixon faced impeachment seem like child's play, but apparently they were too busy piling on.

Posted by: Madison Guy | Apr 14 2008 17:51 utc | 22

looking for more confirmation on this, but from madrid's el imparcial yesterday

The Pentagon installs the Control of Africa in the south of Morocco (babelfish)

The United States has chosen the Atlantic coast of Morocco to install the new Control of Africa (Africom), that it will have like objective to control this continent militarily. With the approval of king Mohamed I SAW, the Pentagon constructs an enormous military base of thousand hectares of extension in the coastal locality of [Tan Tan], near the territory of the old Spanish colony of the Western Sahara and in front of the canary archipelago.
...
A report of the Committee of investigation of the Congress has considered to Morocco like "the more credible African country to lodge the Africom". Between the qualities that recognize the Kingdom of Mohamed I SAW, they are, next to its geostrategic situation, the internal stability and the solid friendship showed with the U.S.A. from end of World War II.
...
Mary Carlin Yachts, attached commander of the Africom for civil subjects, confirmed the [s]election of [Tan Tan] and kept awake that a special commission of the Congress had completed the modalities in the Agreement that will sign the United States and Morocco.
...
Also there has been confirmation by French part. ... Michel Rogalski, person in charge in the National Center of Investigaciones Cientificas (CNRS) French, has confirmed the agreement between the Moroccan Pentagon and authorities for the installation of this new one regional command.
...
According to sources of Moroccan Intelligence, the North American Department of Defense has begun to send communications equipment. The United States does not have, at the moment, troops in Morocco. The North American bases in the magrebí country were closed in 1963 and the facilities to the U.S. Navy in the port of Kenitra, interrupted in 1978. Nevertheless, Morocco have continued cooperating with Washington all these years, allowing to the Forces of Fast Intervention with base in Florida to make scales for their unfolding towards Oriente.medio during successive Gulfs War.

the machine translation is not the smoothest, but the article adds more to the story i pointed out back in january.

the sitemeter showed recently that the moroccan govt is searching the web to see who's it (or gain more info?)

in that january comment, i added the little known fact that

The U.S. and Morocco have a longstanding special relationship. They have had a treaty of friendship since 1787, the longest unbroken peace agreement the U.S. has maintained with any country in the world.

Posted by: b real | Apr 14 2008 18:11 utc | 23

dropped a word -- above should read "to see who's covering it"

Posted by: b real | Apr 14 2008 18:13 utc | 24

Remember those "shores of Tripoli" menioned in the US Marine Corps hymn? That goes back to the days of fighting the Barbary Coast pirates, in which Morocco aided the young USA.

Up to now, AFRICOM is stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, not because of any large immigrant African population there, but because they were still looking for a lace to keep it.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Apr 14 2008 18:48 utc | 25

Here's a poll done specifically on the currant housing market:

The number envisioning falling prices in their area has grown to one in four, while four in 10 think prices will rise, a decrease from two years ago.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004347654_webhousingcrisis14.html?syndication=rss
AP poll say pessimism over housing crisis grows

I know that the article projects a growing unease as more people are struggling but look at the numbers in the opposite camp. We are in the middle of a housing bubble and a debt crisis and 75% of them don't think prices will fall and 40% of them still think we are in a boom?

I know the power of the boob tube and the effect the "Flip This house" TV shows had on the market, but boy when it gets ingrained it sure has lasting effects.

And they call it the age of enlightenment.

Posted by: Sam | Apr 14 2008 18:51 utc | 26

AP poll say pessimism over housing crisis grows

Posted by: Sam | Apr 14 2008 18:53 utc | 27

wrt ralphieboy's mention of tripoli

i've pointed out tom naylor's fascinating/relevant radical history of the u.s. & those barbary pirates in his Ghosts of terror wars past? Crime, terror and America's first clash with the saracen hordes several times over the last year, but this is another good op, so here's a relevant extract from it

However, America's first foreign contest had an enormous propaganda effect back home, even inspiring the stirring lines in the Marine corps hymn: "...to the shores of Tripoli." Under the circumstances, it would have been mean-spirited to point out that U.S. forces were largely foreign mercenaries who came in by land and that Dernah was about 800 miles east of Tripoli. While the American population was exhulting in its first great victory over Islamic Terror, Mediterranean states were taking note of what seemed from their perspective an impressive Libyan military performance. For them there was no "shock and awe" from America's first overseas campaign, while its first "regime change" plot had been an utter failure. The American setback in Tripoli probably ensured that the U.S. would not become a colonial power in North Africa -- that honor would go primarily to France, with Spain, Britain and Italy vying for their share. Arguably, America's subsequent decision to focus its lunge for empire westward, across the Continent, then over the Pacific, grew at least in part out of less-than-inspired results in the Mediterranean; but there is little point in trying to explain that to the Pentagon today.

---

Venezuela calls for Africa oil nationalization

Africa needs to nationalize their energy and mining sectors to secure the resources to fight poverty, Venezuela's deputy foreign minister for Africa said on Friday.

The foreign minister Reinaldo Bolivar, on a visit to Senegal, said his oil-rich South American nation would host a summit of African and South American nations in November to discuss cooperation ranging from energy to banking between the two regions.

Africa supplies nearly a fifth of U.S. oil imports.

"There are some things for (African countries) to learn: the principal of nationalisation of our basic industries, our natural resources in Venezuela, is something we consider necessary for our riches to benefit the people," said the foreign minister adding that Africa's oil should be for Africa.

African nations, which produce 15 percent of the world's oil, could learn from aspects of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's nine-year-old leftist revolution, Bolivar said.

"Africa's oil is plundered by multinationals: they sell it very expensively even here," he told Reuters observing that African countries produce 10 million barrels of oil a day and they could supply their own market if they were united.
...
While resources nationalism has swept the globe from Russia to Bolivia, with state oil companies tightening their grip on oil and minerals resources in recent years, sub-Saharan Africa has lagged behind because state companies such as Nigeria's NNPC or Angola's Sonangol lack technological know-how, experts say.

November's summit in Venezuela would discuss the expansion of Chavez's proposed South American multinational state oil company, Petrosur, to incorporate some African partners. ... It would also propose cooperation on education, with a university for developing nations, and the expansion into Africa of the state-owned Telesur media group operating in some South American countries. Libya, Algeria, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia had all expressed interest, Bolivar said.

"Now CNN cannot tell us what to say. We have created our own network and we want Africa to take part," Bolivar said. "We are breaking the bonds of slavery."

also, youtube documentary
The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba

Posted by: b real | Apr 14 2008 19:08 utc | 28

meanwhile, in europe - we picked the dumbest & most moronic crowd of motherfuckers to 'lead' us. from east to west to the northj & south - cretins - the elite of imbeciles

it could not be any more comic - mr jowels & his pontifical pauses in england, little & low mr bling bling imagining himselg talleyrand or condorcet, the little ex commie post mistress merkel, the not so exquisite cadaver berlusconi - it is enough to make you piss puss & it would seem the memory of europeans has a pox on it

time to move in with the comrades in katmandu

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 14 2008 19:23 utc | 29

#28 "We are breaking the bonds of slavery."

hear ye hear ye

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 1:02 utc | 30

thank you b real. i watched all 6 segments of The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba. the last one was the worst. the description in the german media (segment 4 or 5), horrific. imagining how the world could be w/out greed. not in my lifetime, maybe never.

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 2:00 utc | 31

didn't those smug bastards just make you sick? too bad i didn't have that link at the time uncle posted the obit for devlin. and that the filmmakers weren't packing...

Posted by: b real | Apr 15 2008 2:07 utc | 32

if at first you don't succeed...

garowe online: Suspicion as 40 sport utility trucks unload at Puntland port

BOSSASO, Somalia Apr 14 (Garowe Online) - A ship from the United Arab Emirates has been docked at the northern Somali port of Bossaso where security forces unloaded at least 40 Toyota sport utility vehicles over the past two days, confidential sources tell Garowe Online.

Port employees who chose to remain anonymous said the trucks were unloaded "free of charge" by senior officials from the Puntland Intelligence Agency (PIS), the reportedly CIA-funded intelligence arm of the Puntland regional government.

The vehicles were transported to the Bossaso home of an individual named Liban Muse Bogor, a relative of Puntland President Adde Muse, the sources said.

Mr. Bogor, a citizen of Canada, is a member of the board of directors of Range Resources, Ltd., a small mining company based in Australia that claims exploration rights to Puntland after signing a controversial deal in 2005 with President Muse.

In Somalia, sport utility vehicles are equipped with heavy artillery weapons and transformed to armored trucks known locally as "technicals" – war-torn Somalia's version of a tank.

let's see - in puntland there have been at least a couple PIS intel officers assassinated recently, lots of shenanigans going on over pushing through controversial oil legislation recently, which has raised intra-tribal animosity b/w yusuf & muse, reports of mass counterfeiting in somalia originating through puntland, and the ongoing friction w/ somaliland.

and speaking of somaliland,
Unease in Somaliland following president's term extension

HARGEISA, Somalia Apr 14 (Garowe Online) - Residents in Somalia's second-largest city have reportedly been surprised at government troops amassing along major city streets in recent days.

Local media reports indicate that troops loyal to the government of Somaliland, a breakaway republic in northern Somalia, have been redeployed from frontier regions to Hargeisa, the separatist government's capital city.

Hundreds of Somaliland soldiers backed by armored vehicles poured into Hargeisa from both the east and the west, according to Hargeisa-based daily Jamhuuriya.

Some of the Somaliland troops were redeployed from garrison towns in Sool, a disputed region etched between Somaliland and the rival Somali sub-state of Puntland.

According to the paper, other government troops were dispatched from bases in Awdal, a region west of Hargeisa that is the native home of Somaliland President Dahir Riyale.

It is not clear why the government of President Riyale has deployed soldiers on the streets of Hargeisa, a city renowned for its relative peace and order.

But locals have increasingly linked the troop deployment to growing anxiety in Hargeisa, where opposition party leaders have taken a strong stand against a parliament decision last week extending the term for President Riyale.

that's probably the more likely reason. it wouldn't make sense for the cia to be arming puntland to take on somaliland while DoS & DoD are cozying up to riyale. to get a feel for the outrage that riyale's move, which as i pointed out in the last OT was encouraged by his foreign supporters, has wrought on the breakaway republic, check out the latest issue of somaliland times.

Posted by: b real | Apr 15 2008 4:48 utc | 33

Morocco also being a stable right-wing dictatorship (under a king no less) that keeps on occupation going in one of its weaker neighbour states, can only be plus points for the US administration.

Speaking of wanna-be dictators, Berlusconi won the election in Italy. Sad day.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Apr 15 2008 11:38 utc | 34

b real didn't those smug bastards just make you sick?

yes, i was actually astounded they would allow themselves to be recorded..they feel no shame at all. to put a face on these murderers.

i have thought about that series all thru the night off and on.. intertwining thru my dreamworld. i recommend it highly for anyone who has not watched it. (#28 The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba).

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 15:31 utc | 35

incursion into Gaza

Israeli troops have clashed with Palestinian gunmen after launching an incursion into the southern Gaza Strip.

Reports said soldiers entered Gaza near the Kissufim crossing and took control of a school and several buildings.

The official Palestinian news agency said the Israeli army bulldozers wrecked a large area of agricultural land, knocking down olive trees.

Overnight, the army killed a Palestinian militant in an air attack in northern Gaza.

It said it targeted Ibrahim Abu Olba, from the Democratic Front of the Liberation of Palestine - a faction that has said it was involved in recent rocket attacks against Israel.

Palestinian medics said three bystanders were also injured in the attack.

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 16:28 utc | 36

Dozens dead as Iraq cities bombed

AQ is back

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 16:33 utc | 37

audio link

of tim robbins giving a 'colbert' speech to the The National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas yesterday.

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 18:10 utc | 38

david barouski has been posting some very enlightening documentation re the events surrounding the massacres in rwanda accumulated by the defense laywer coalition ADAD (association des avocats de la defence), who were shunned by the ICTR.

recommend starting w/ this one, esp from page 33 onward
ADAD Symposim Dossier

Special thanks to the ADAD and especially Professor Peter Erlinder for this document.

At the end of November 2007, an association of defense lawyers at the ICTR held a symposium to discuss a myriad of issues concerning the inability to obtain a fair trial, the decision to transfer detainees back to Rwanda for trial and/or incarceration, and the interference of outside governments in the proceedings. The following document is a brief that was handed out to participants in the trial and it summarizes the issues and the documentary evidence supporting the claims.

Posted by: b real | Apr 15 2008 18:14 utc | 39

it's not just people that are rioting over food

ZIMBABWE: Rampaging elephants destroying crops

BULAWAYO, 15 April 2008 (IRIN) - Marauding elephants that escaped from the Hwange National Park, an animal sanctuary in rural southwestern Zimbabwe, are destroying any hopes among peasant farmers of a moderately successful harvest.
...
Elephants from the 14,600 square kilometre nature reserve, which lies about 150km south of Victoria Falls on the main road to Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, are straying from the park in search of food, wreaking havoc on the meagre crops villagers were expecting to harvest after the summer rains ended prematurely.

Erica Hlongwane, 46, spends most of her time protecting the remnants of her wilting maize crop from further destruction by elephants, at the expense of her household chores.

"Life has become unbearable because of these elephants which destroy our crops," said Hlongwane, who lives with a teenage daughter and a younger son in the rural Tsholotsho district, about 100km northwest of Bulawayo, in Matabeleland North Province, while her husband works in neighbouring South Africa.

"On one hand we worry about the prospect of hunger because of crop failure, while on the other we count the losses stray elephants are causing daily," she told IRIN, displaying a few maize cobs she had managed to salvage after a herd of elephants rampaged through her small field the previous night.

"We also fear the elephants might demolish our pole-and-mud huts," she said. Despite attempts by the villagers to scare away the elephants, using drums and hand-made cymbals, she said bull elephants would sometimes charge the villagers, who are no match for an elephant.

Posted by: b real | Apr 15 2008 18:21 utc | 40

What are they up to now?

US top officials in Iraq meet Saudi King

US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and American top Commander in Iraq General David Petraeus met here [Riyadh] Tuesday with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and discussed the situations in Iraq, state-run news agency (SPA) said.
(snip)

Posted by: Alamet | Apr 15 2008 20:58 utc | 41

Cernig at Newshoggers may have a point:

Assassination Attempts On Two Sistani Aides

(snip)
We might be seeing outward signs of a behind-the-scenes struggle to determine who picks Sistani's successor. It's worth keeping an eye on - Sistani has been the "cat herder" who has kept Bad and Sad mobs from outright warfare for a long time and if one group gets to pick a next Grand Ayatollah who will favor their side then that warfare will accelerate rapidly.

Posted by: Alamet | Apr 15 2008 21:02 utc | 42

Drumroll... Iraqi Accord Front returns to the fold.

IAF presents its candidates’ names to return to government

Posted by: Alamet | Apr 15 2008 21:05 utc | 43

Brian Cloughley sums up amerikan military arrogance around our planet.
For his first example: Last month one of the hundreds of waterborne traders who ply their business trading with passengers on boats travelling through the Suez canal was shot and killed by a bored special forces person angered at the gall of being harassed on one of amerika's waterways. Of course a clumsy cover-up was attempted and failed:

These are not just indications of dishonesty and evil in the Bush-Cheney administration : they are evidence of the deep and horrible malaise that has penetrated Washington's officialdom. Who killed the man? We don't know. We will never know. Nobody will ever be prosecuted for the slaughter of this Egyptian citizen. He is a non-person : just another raghead who got in the way of the United States of America. The lies about his murder by a "warning shot" didn't work, but who cares, anyway?

Cloughley goes on to detail other instances of amerikan murdering about the planet, instances that may not be reported on CNN or Faux but which are reported in the areas they occur.

I tried to explain this a couple of posts ago and didn't really get to grips with it but Cloughley's article has helped crystallise my thoughts on this.
The level of antipathy felt by ordinary people around the world towards amerika and amerikans is unprecendented. This is vastly different from the the cliched cries of "imperialist paper tiger" during Vietnam.

The atrocities there occurred in a small relatively isolated area but now in "The Global War on Terror"© they occur all over the globe and are arrogantly dismissed as a 'non-event' by their planners and perpetrators.

Amerikans are largely unaware of much of this; firstly because the incidents are rarely reported in their own media, and secondly amerikans who travel are generally middle class and as such when they do interact with locals it is normally with fellow middle class locals.

That isn't to say that middle class people outside amerika don't feel the same animosity as others when an amerikan enters their space though.

One of the ugliest things about bourgoisie anywhere is that the quickest way to climb into that despicable class is by being expert at hiding your feelings and speaking misleadingly.

From the salesman to the executive's trophy wife, the bourgoisie rarely reveal what they are thinking unless it is going to be to their advantage, insulting guests is rarely seen as a ticket to a better hi definition Vid screen.

So one is now treated to the sight of a complete change in atmosphere when an amerikan leaves the room. Because of course the other ugly side of modern existence is the way people are encouraged to personalise issues. In exactly the same way as every african american is held responsible for what the rev Wright allegedly said, every amerikan is held responsible for what Shrub did say.
Any unconscious indication of exceptionalism on the part of an amerikan is immediately leapt upon to 'prove' that 'this one' is an arrogant murdering fuck too.

Pretty soon everyone is discussing how they were treated at LAX last time, and how they will never set foot in the asshole of a joint again, thereby increasing the odds of further isolation of amerikan humans from the rest of us.

The groundswell of amerikan antipathy to anything foreign is out there for all to see whenever one watches a newscast from the amerikan media, but the groundswell of reaction against that from those outside amerika is hidden and driven by a passion, maybe misplaced passion, but passion all the same, not pushed along artificially by the media.

There is little more to say except that everyone should recognise that this is how big wars start.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Apr 15 2008 21:09 utc | 44

Iran Says US Aids Rebels at Its Borders

The violence may be driving Tehran's efforts to back its own allies in Iraq.

Related, from MoJo Blog

While Iranian officials were quick to portray an explosion at a Shiraz mosque Saturday that killed 12 people as an accident, analysts aren't so sure.

Posted by: Alamet | Apr 15 2008 21:10 utc | 45

alamet #42 if one group gets to pick a next Grand Ayatollah who will favor their side then that warfare will accelerate rapidly.

one group out of how many? the jerusalem post huh? one wonders if maybe the US, israel, iran or a host of other characters might have a preference outside of the 2 'sides' ('bad and sad mobs'!! lol, sorry i just find those descriptions funny) in iraq vying for influence.

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 22:02 utc | 46

annie # 46 - more sides here than just those two - you are right, of course! But I think Cernig's connecting of the assasination attempts to reports of Sistani's ill health has merit.

Posted by: Alamet | Apr 15 2008 22:50 utc | 47

me too alamet.

Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2008 22:59 utc | 48

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph, chockful of figures as usual:

Global warming rage lets global hunger grow

(snip)
The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.

We are all part of this drama whether we fill up with petrol or ethanol. The substitution effect across global markets makes the two morally identical.

Mr Diouf says world grain stocks have fallen to a quarter-century low of 5m tonnes, rations for eight to 12 weeks. America - the world's food superpower - will divert 18pc of its grain output for ethanol this year, chiefly to break dependency on oil imports. It has a 45pc biofuel target for corn by 2015.
(snip)

Posted by: Alamet | Apr 15 2008 23:01 utc | 49

Alamet,

Dollars to donuts the meaningless move by Accord to rejoin the government will be spun as a sign of reconciliation - accomplished no doubt by the war on Sadr.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 16 2008 2:14 utc | 50

dow jones newswire: Darfur Rebel Group Wants Western Oil Cos To Replace Chinese

LONDON, April 15, 2008 (Dow Jones Newswires)

A leader within a powerful rebel faction in Sudan's troubled Darfur region wants major Western oil companies to replace Chinese companies in the country, adding that new attacks were being prepared against them.

Offering better guarantees of oil revenue redistribution and environmental protection, "we would love to have Western companies," replace Chinese ones, Eltahir Abdam Elfaki, chairman of the legislative council of the Justice and Equality Movement, said in a recent interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

"We don't want China. We want to expel them. We have the means" to do so, he added. "We are preparing new attacks."

At risk is some of the half-a-million barrels of crude pumped daily in the troubled northeast African country, of which more than 200,000 barrels are imported by China, making Sudan its fourth-largest provider of crude.
...
Another faction, the Sudan Liberation Movement of Abdel Wahid al-Nur, has also threatened attacks on Chinese companies.
...
The Justice and Equality Movement's leader, Khalil Ibrahim, is listed by the U.S. Treasury as an individual "contributing to the conflict in the Darfur region", a designation, Elfaki said, tied to Ibrahim's past association with Sudanese Islamist ideologue Hassan al-Turabi.

But the movement is now in favor of a secular, democratic regime in Sudan and "we really want dialog with the U.S.," Elfaki said.

Indeed, by supporting Chad -- whose main oil project is the Chad-Cameroon pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil Corp -- the movement has "definitely" helped U.S. oil interests in the region, he added.

Though mostly Muslims, Darfur rebels have also sought support from Israel.

The Sudan Liberation Movement has opened an office in the country. Elfaki welcomed the move, saying Israel is "supportive of Darfur" and has hosted refugees from the region. The Hebrew state "is a democratic country" and "the Palestinians themselves are negotiating with Israel," he said.

uh-huh. sure.

and somehow the dow jones failed to include this relevant information in their piece, something that seems pretty important imo, esp since that's where el-faki was speaking from.

sudan tribune: US envoy holds rare direct talks with Darfur rebel JEM

April 15, 2008 (PARIS) — The US efforts to boost efforts in the war ravaged region of Darfur took an unprecedented turn Tuesday with a senior official holding a rare meeting with a rebel movement in France.

The US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson met with a high level delegation from Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to discuss the resumption of peace talks and cessation of hostilities in Darfur.

JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein told Sudan Tribune from Paris that the meeting was supposed to include Khalil Ibrahim leader of JEM but said that “logistical difficulties due to his presence in Darfur” prevented him from attending.

However Hussein disclosed that that Williamson had phone conversation with Ibrahim earlier today and that the latter will meet with the US envoy “very soon” to discuss ways of “bringing about a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Darfur”.

The meeting is the first of its kind since the US administration imposed sanctions on Ibrahim for his role and accused him of “activity aimed at further destabilizing the situation on the ground [in Darfur]”.
...
The JEM delegation in the talks with the US envoy was headed by Dr. Mahmoud Abakar Tinawi, the vice chairperson of the general congress; Dr El-Tahir Adam El-Faki, the Chairman of JEM Legislative Council and Ahmed Hussein who is JEM spokesperson and in charge of relations with Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM).
...
The Darfur rebel group underscored to Williamson the need for the full deployment of UN-AU hybrid force (UNAMID) for a “constructive environment”. The US official raised the need for cessation of hostilities “in the coming period”.

JEM is thought to have the largest military rebel force in Darfur and has gained extra prominence in recent months through a series of clashes with government forces. But other groups, chief among the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) faction led by founder Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur, have huge support among Darfur’s displaced populations.

But Hussein said that the JEM delegation told Williamson that the movement “is not just a military power but managed to transform itself in many parts of Darfur and that many people look at them for hope”.

sounds like JEM wants the coveted puppet role

Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2008 4:32 utc | 51

b real:

sounds like JEM wants the coveted puppet role

Yeah from the Shah to bin Laden to Saddam they line up and beg for the coveted puppet role for the arms and power that comes with it. They all claim in their polls to dislike Israel until the US decides to funnel them arms through Israel. They beg us for help to kill their countrymen if we promise them money and power. They pay us to invade their neighbors as the Saudis paid us to bomb Iraq in Desert Storm. They come to our country and beg us to drop bombs on their homeland as Iraqis begged us for Shock and Awe. When we occupy thier country their leaders come to our centres of power proclaiming their own poeple are terrorists and we must stay and slaughter them all.

Ahh life, ain't it grand?

Posted by: Sam | Apr 16 2008 5:26 utc | 52

jesus sam. have you watched the bank job?

They come to our country and beg us to drop bombs on their homeland as Iraqis begged us for Shock and Awe.

e few iraqis is not 'iraqis'. most iraqis did not beg us for shock n awe.

They beg us for help to kill their countrymen if we promise them money and power.

i hope you are being facetious. more like we threaten to kill them if they don't accept our poison candy. it only takes a few greedy men. iraqis are no different from other people. don't speak as if we are passively doing their dirty deeds for them, as if we are servants carrying out their wishes.

Posted by: annie | Apr 16 2008 6:27 utc | 53

annie:

e few iraqis is not 'iraqis'. most iraqis did not beg us for shock n awe.

I never said most Iraqis. If most Iraqis felt that way there wouldn't be over 4,000 dead and over 30,000 wounded US troops in Iraq. I would think this would be obvious. But there were a lot of them including 150 that were put up in Virginia to shill for the invasion, many of the currant members of the government and many more attended the meeting Britain to discuss with the planners how they would share in the spoils, the Iraq Dawa party attended and supported it, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq attended it and supported it, many Sunni collaborated with the CIA, many Iraqi Americans spied for the CIA and I could go on but I think you get the picture. Many thousands of Iraqis work for the government today arresting and killing other Iraqis every day.

i hope you are being facetious. more like we threaten to kill them if they don't accept our poison candy.

Just speaking the truth. Nobody threatened to kill Ahmed Chalabi, or Kanan Makaya or Iliad Alawi. If you have evidence showing otherwise please post it.

it only takes a few greedy men. iraqis are no different from other people. don't speak as if we are passively doing their dirty deeds for them, as if we are servants carrying out their wishes.

I said no such thing, in fact I have posted before, the scheme was cooked in the WH and you have read that. We aren't passively doing anything. We are actively putting Iran's buddies in power in Iraq and pleading with them to allow some of Saudi's buddies to participate too. We have actively strengthened SCIRI, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. We are actively shovelling hundreds of billions of windfall oil profits into the pockets of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, Russia and Venezuela as a result. We are actively lengthening the recruitment lines of Al Queda. Any more questions?

Posted by: Sam | Apr 16 2008 8:28 utc | 54

Statistics:

US will provide $200 million in emergency food aid to help ease the crisis

Last year the US provided $2.1 billion in food aid.

The US is the largest supplier of food aid

The amount spent per week in iraq is $3 billion.

Posted by: Sam | Apr 16 2008 8:59 utc | 55

So Musharraf is in China courting stronger military and economic ties and the government back home is at peace with the Warlords in Waziristan:

Pakistan has been struck by an unprecedented wave of suicide bomb attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants since an army assault on a radical mosque in Islamabad last July in which more than 100 people were killed.

Last month, a Turkish woman was killed and four U.S. FBI agents were wounded in a bomb attack on a restaurant in Islamabad.

But there have been no major attacks since a new government that has proposed talks with the militants took office this month.

Olympic torch kicks off Asian journey in Pakistan

It's going to be a tough slog in Afghanistan this summer.

Posted by: Sam | Apr 16 2008 9:10 utc | 56

Report: Netanyahu says 9/11 terror attacks good for Israel

The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv on Wednesday reported that Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience at Bar Ilan university that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks had been beneficial for Israel.

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq," Ma'ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events "swung American public opinion in our favor."

Posted by: b | Apr 16 2008 11:37 utc | 57

@b 57

It's nice to see that at least some are being honest about it.

Posted by: L'Akratique | Apr 16 2008 12:50 utc | 58

i see that gates & rice were before the house armed services committee tuesday, for a hearing titled "Building Partnership Capacity and Development of the Interagency Process", asking again that section 1206 authority be made permanent

gates:

..the Global Train-and-Equip program – known as Section 1206 – provides commanders a means to fill longstanding gaps in the effort to help other nations build and sustain capable military forces. It allows Defense and State to act in months, rather than years. The program focuses on places where we are not at war, but where there are both emerging threats and opportunities. It decreases the likelihood that our troops will be used in the future.
...
..the Department came to the Congress three years ago asking to create a DoD global train-and-equip authority. We knew that the military could not build partner capacity alone. We recognized this activity should be done jointly with State, which has the in-country expertise and understanding of broader U.S. foreign policy goals. For that reason, Defense asked the Congress to make State a co-equal decision maker-in-law – hence the dual “turn key” mechanism.

The primary benefits of global train-and-equip will accrue to the country over 10 to 15 years. But the 1206 program already has shown its value. Examples include:
• Providing urgently needed parts and ammunition to the Lebanese Army to defeat a serious al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist threat in a Palestinian refugee camp;
• Supplying helicopter spare parts, night-vision devices, and night-flight training to enhance Pakistani Special Forces’ ability to help fight al Qaeda in the Northwest Territories; and
• Setting up cordons run by partner nations in waters surrounding Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines that, over time, will reduce the risk of terrorism and piracy in Southeast Asia.

But we need help from the Congress to sustain this program that military leaders – from the combatant command to the brigade level – say they need, as Section 1206 is due to expire at the end of this fiscal year.

And so we would ask you to:
• Make 1206 permanent in recognition of the enduring DoD mission to build partner capacity;
• Increase its funding to $750 million, which reflects combatant commander requirements;
• And to expand Section 1206’s coverage beyond “military forces” to include “security forces” that are essential to fighting terrorism and maintaining stability.

rice:

Secretary Gates has talked about the 1206 authorities. We believe at State that this additional military assistance that has become available under Section 1206 of the National Defense Authorization Act has proven invaluable. We fully support this and other complementary foreign assistance authorities within the jurisdiction of this Committee, most notably the extension and expansion of 1206 and 1207 authorities.

In 1206, we have provided a dual key approach of delivering resources for emergent short-term military assistance needs and counterterrorism activities. Let me underscore that this is not a substitute for more robust funding for security assistance accounts, but we strongly advocate continuing these important contingency authorities and they are the additional tools that we need to meet emergent exigent problems that very often emerge out of budget cycle. Secretary Gates mentioned the Lebanon situation. I think had the United States not been able to respond to the needs of the Lebanese armed forces for immediate military assistance in fighting the al-Qaida-linked terrorists in the Nahr El Bared refugee camp, we might have seen a very different outcome. In the case that we were able to respond, we saw a Lebanese army and a Lebanese government -- democratically elected government -- able to respond to that exigency.

related materials

jim lobe: POLITICS-US: Foreign Policy Increasingly Flows Through Pentagon

GAO report - Section 1206 Security Assistance Program—Findings on Criteria, Coordination, and Implementation [pdf]

senate foreign relations committee - EMBASSIES AS COMMAND POSTS IN THE ANTI-TERROR CAMPAIGN

Final report of the task force on non-traditional security assistance, Center for Strategic and International Studies - Integrating 21st Century Development and Security Assistance [pdf]

Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2008 15:45 utc | 59

badger's on a roll

Another lesson in civil-war creation: The Gaza model in Sadr City

Posted by: annie | Apr 16 2008 15:49 utc | 60

michael klare: The End of the World as You Know It …and the Rise of the New Energy World Order

The combination of rising demand, the emergence of powerful new energy consumers, and the contraction of the global energy supply is demolishing the energy-abundant world we are familiar with and creating in its place a new world order.
...
This new world order will be characterized by fierce international competition for dwindling stocks of oil, natural gas, coal, and uranium, as well as by a tidal shift in power and wealth from energy-deficit states like China, Japan, and the United States to energy-surplus states like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. In the process, the lives of everyone will be affected in one way or another -- with poor and middle-class consumers in the energy-deficit states experiencing the harshest effects. That's most of us and our children, in case you hadn't quite taken it in.

Here, in a nutshell, are five key forces in this new world order which will change our planet:

...

Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2008 15:51 utc | 61

I thought for sure that Bush would be our Hoover. But I guess I was wrong.

McCain Announces that he will run for Hoover

Mr. McCain painted his Democratic rivals, who want to roll back some of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy to pay for their health care plans, as tax raisers. “They’re going to raise your taxes by thousands of dollars per year, and they have the audacity to hope you don’t mind,” he said

Apparently, McCain thinks wealthy people are "you" and everyone else is nobody. Definitely running for Hoover.

On the bright side, I'm no longer worried about this election. If McCain wins, the Republicans and their stab in the back crap will be decisively repudiated in 2012. And it is our fate to pay the prices of war and famine. And if someone else wins, we'll see if they have the sac to start breaking the media and business combines that are turning this place into a tyranny of fear.

Posted by: citizen | Apr 16 2008 15:53 utc | 62

What the hell citizen, I've been saying "Fuck bush" at beer:30 for going 8 years; "Fuck mccain" sounds just as good.

Posted by: beq | Apr 16 2008 17:09 utc | 63

McCain Campaign Farfallegate

laughing... crying... laughing...

I can't decide how to act here. You see, this scandal is in "stupid", the official Esperanto of politics

stupid -- 4)a) the vernacular of politics; famous for having no words with which to signify "justice", "compassion", or even "illegal".

so it may just be the United States' most important news of the month.

Posted by: citizen | Apr 16 2008 18:16 utc | 64

second day in a row that the unocha's news service IRIN is running one of these type of stories (see #40 for yesterday's story)

KENYA: Wild animals compete with humans for scarce water resources

GARISSA, 16 April 2008 (IRIN) - Ahmed Diriye had taken his goats to a stream in Mogogashe near the northern Kenyan town of Garissa and was waiting for them to drink when he was attacked by baboons.

"I killed a baboon after they tried to force me from the 'lagadera' [stream in Somali]," he said, holding out his bandaged arm. "They were thirsty and wanted water just like my goats. The well is the only one with water."

At another well, four girls abandoned their water containers after thirsty baboons attacked them. The next day, five goats were killed by the creatures while two herders sustained serious injuries following an attack by a lion.

A month after the rains were expected to start, northern Kenya is still gripped by drought conditions. Water pans, boreholes and wells have all dried up, creating problems for the pastoralist communities of the region.

"We are in the middle of a very serious crisis," said Hussein Ali from Sericho, a remote trading centre along the Isiolo and Garissa district boarder. "We are faced with the problem of water, pasture and now wild animals have worsened our situation."

Like domestic livestock, the wild animals have also been affected by scarcity of water. Local residents of Isiolo and Garissa say the situation has forced the animals to struggle for the little available water with humans.

Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2008 18:39 utc | 65

Chaos Capitalism: every cloud a silver lining

Downright decent of them, don't you think, b real? Gently introducing us to the inevitable social duty we humans will have to protect our precious fluids by killing the wild "animals".

Posted by: citizen | Apr 16 2008 19:02 utc | 66

RTI

Gulf-Country Embassy-official detained in Damascus for involvement in Mughniyah’s assassination

Sources told al-Watan that investigations on the assassination of Hizballah’s official Imad Mughniyah reached its final stages, and there are evidence of the involvement of an official working in one of the Gulf-countries embassies in Damascus, he confessed of connection to the exploded car, the source also said that the official is still under arrest.

The sources confirmed that 42 Jordanian from Palestinian origin related to the assassination also has been arrested, and confessed of cooperation with the Israeli Mossad to carry out the assassination of Mughniyah.

heaven's that is a lot of collaboration. i wonder how they got confessions out of 42 people. hmm. i wonder what the reputation of al-Watan is.

Posted by: annie | Apr 16 2008 19:23 utc | 67

quite good hour-long interview w/ michael klare on kpfa's against the grain wednesday dealing w/ many of the topics in his new book. (mp3 archive will be available @ the link later today). covers russia, caspian sea, china, sudan, africa etc...

Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2008 19:57 utc | 68

From b real's link @ 59:

The program focuses on places where we are not at war, but where there are both emerging threats and opportunities. It decreases the likelihood that our troops will be used in the future.
...
And so we would ask you to:
• Make 1206 permanent in recognition of the enduring DoD mission to build partner capacity

Hey that sounds familiar especially that part about building partner capacity. That's what they told us when they helped install our man in Iran the Shah. That's what they told us when they armed and funded our "freedom Fighter" friend bin Laden. That's what they told us when they gave WMD to our close ally Saddam in Iraq. That sure worked out well didn't it?

Posted by: Sam | Apr 16 2008 20:47 utc | 69

A quote for Billmon regarding falling silent:

(Source: Mother Jones)

Solnit [reminded] those of us ready to listen that "activism is not a journey to the corner store; it is a plunge into the dark"—and that history "is like weather, not like checkers. A game of checkers ends. The weather never does." It was, she wrote, too soon to tote up the "score" or declare matters over on the invasion of Iraq or much else. In fact, it's always too soon, since you can never really know what effect your actions have had—or where, or on whom. Which was, and still is, the reason for none of us to pack our bags and go home, for none of us to fall silent.

Posted by: John | Apr 16 2008 21:51 utc | 70

some excerpts from the land of make-believe, wherein the guy playing the role of the president of a nation that often takes on the name of an entire continent (in vain) says to the guy playing the role of the spiritual head of the largest cult on the planet,

Here in America you'll find a nation of prayer. Each day millions of our citizens approach our Maker on bended knee, seeking His grace and giving thanks for the many blessings He bestows upon us.
...
Here in America you'll find a nation of compassion. Americans believe that the measure of a free society is how we treat the weakest and most vulnerable among us. So each day citizens across America answer the universal call to feed the hungry and comfort the sick and care for the infirm. Each day across the world the United States is working to eradicate disease, alleviate poverty, promote peace and bring the light of hope to places still mired in the darkness of tyranny and despair.

Here in America you'll find a nation that welcomes the role of faith in the public square. When our Founders declared our nation's independence, they rested their case on an appeal to the "laws of nature, and of nature's God.
...
Here in America, you'll find a nation that is fully modern, yet guided by ancient and eternal truths. The United States is the most innovative, creative and dynamic country on earth -- it is also among the most religious. In our nation, faith and reason coexist in harmony. This is one of our country's greatest strengths, and one of the reasons that our land remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for millions across the world.

Most of all, Holy Father, you will find in America people whose hearts are open to your message of hope. And America and the world need this message. In a world where some invoke the name of God to justify acts of terror and murder and hate, we need your message that "God is love." And embracing this love is the surest way to save men from "falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism."

In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred, and that "each of us is willed, each of us is loved" -- (applause) -- and your message that "each of us is willed, each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary."

In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred, and that "each of us is willed, each of us is loved" -- (applause) -- and your message that "each of us is willed, each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary."

In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject this "dictatorship of relativism," and embrace a culture of justice and truth. (Applause.)

may god strike me dead if i'm lying

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2008 2:53 utc | 71

damnit! was laughing so hard didn't realize i pasted that penultimate paragraph twice

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2008 2:57 utc | 72

Here in America you'll find a nation of compassion. Americans believe that the measure of a free society is how we treat the weakest and most vulnerable among us. So each day citizens across America answer the universal call to feed the hungry and comfort the sick and care for the infirm. Each day across the world the United States is working to eradicate disease, alleviate poverty, promote peace and bring the light of hope to places still mired in the darkness of tyranny and despair.

Is he talking about those mayonnaise jars with the photocopied pics of people dying of spina bifida and so forth that you see on gas station counters, at least around here? Those 'give us your spare change, and perhaps my husband can live another six months' appeals? Millions of people must approach those every day, I suppose, countrywide, as they go to buy their lottery tickets on their way to bend their knee before our Maker. They always seem to die, those people in the pictures. But, you know, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. So that's all right, then.

He also said 'modren' instead of 'modern.'

Posted by: Tantalus | Apr 17 2008 3:35 utc | 73

bizarre photographic moment @ the u.n. security council mtg today -- check out the third photo here

not that any of the accepted meanings behind the proverb apply to any of these characters, so it's just a coincidental oddity & i must add that i have some reservations about even propagating it b/c of the subtle racist implication

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2008 3:38 utc | 74

Well, considering the countries involved, it made me laugh, and could think of any number of other countries reps being just as funny.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 17 2008 4:49 utc | 75

Inspector lohmann, someone I have read for years, suggests, a good article and comment which posits, 'sociopathic behavior becoming the norm'

Good read, if you got the will...

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2008 5:51 utc | 76

An Inconvenient Audit

The Pentagon's $1 Trillion Problem. Even as the Defense Department prepares to send Congress its $481.4B FY2008 budget request, it also prepares to admit -- for the 18th year in a row -- that its finances are in such poor shape that it is effectively impossible to audit or account for over a trillion dollars in past expenses.

"For the first three quarters of 2007, $1.1 trillion in Army accounting entries hadn't been properly reviewed and substantiated, according to the Department of Defense's inspector general. In 2006, $258.2 billion of recorded withdrawals and payments from the Army's main account were unsupported. It's as if the Army had submitted multibillion-dollar expense reports without any receipts."

Not that it's a new problem, however:
"In 1990, Congress enacted legislation requiring all federal agencies to pass independent audits. Every year, the Defense inspector general dispatched dozens of auditors to the military's financial and accounting centers. Every year, they reported back that the job couldn't be done. Defense Department records were in such disarray and were so lacking in documentation that any attempt would be futile. In 2000, the inspector general told Congress that his auditors stopped counting after finding $2.3 trillion in unsupported entries made to force financial data to agree." Annual audits were suspended indefinitely in 2002.

And in an interesting historical note: the 'Mechanization of Contract Administration Services' (MOCAS) system, which "pays invoices and vouchers for hardware supplies and services"*, was originally brought on-line in 1958, making it half a century old this year.

Many interesting embed links above...

And of course they left out my American Enantiodromia vid showing a cool 2.3 trillion missing.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2008 6:15 utc | 77

@ b 57

IIRC, Netanyahu blurted out a similar comment shortly after the attacks, and rapidly
"corrected himself" for his American audience. One has to wonder why he would repeat
that gaffe, albeit at a safe distance in time and space, and before a friendly public.

@ SKOD 34 It's hard to decide what is more depressing, the landslide victory of Berlusca and his northern ally Bossi, or the complete disappearance of the "radical left" from the Italian parliament, partly as a result of the decision of Veltroni's center left party to run without coalition partners (except for DiPietro's party).
One can hope that the defeat will bring some clarity and concreteness to the opposition, but for now that remains only a hope.

Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | Apr 17 2008 8:32 utc | 78

Did coalition copter leave weapons for Taliban?

KABUL, Afghanistan - A coalition helicopter trying to supply Afghan police with munitions dropped them in the wrong location and Taliban fighters later recovered the weaponry, an Afghan intelligence official said.

A member of parliament, however, said he did not believe the arms drop was an accident.

Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan's intelligence service, told a parliament security committee that "coalition forces" intended to place weapons, ammunition and food at a police checkpoint in a remote section of the southern province of Zabul in late March.
...
Hamidullah Tukhi, a lawmaker from Zabul, told the security commission the weapons were placed 300 feet from the home of a Taliban commander named Mullah Mohammad Alam. He said the supply drop contained heavy machine guns, AK-47s, rockets and food.

Posted by: b | Apr 17 2008 8:51 utc | 79

You'll rember this one ...

Sailors captured by Iran were in disputed waters: report

LONDON (AFP) - Fifteen British troops who were held by Iran for two weeks last year were in disputed waters when they were captured, not in Iraqi waters as the government had publicly claimed, The Times reported Thursday.

Citing documents released by the defence ministry under Freedom of Information laws, the newspaper said the contingent of Britons was captured because the US-led coalition in Iraq had unilaterally designated a maritime boundary for Iraq and Iran without informing the latter.

The 15 sailors and marines were seized on March 23 near the Shatt al-Arab waterway which divides Iran and Iraq, and were released nearly two weeks later.
...
The documents, which were addressed to the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, blamed their capture on the absence of agreed-upon maritime borders between Iraq and Iran, and a failure to co-ordinate any boundaries between Iraq, Iran, and the coalition.

Posted by: b | Apr 17 2008 10:13 utc | 80

more on a story i pointed out in the previous OT

US Navy Ships and Planes allegedly visit Somaliland port

Berbera(QARAN)- The are have been unconfirmed reports from the city of Berbera in the Sahil region of Somaliland that two United States Naval ships briefly anchored near the port and at least six navy planes landed at the Berbera airport.

According to reports from several journalist in the city of Berbera along with some of the residents of the town state that these two naval ships anchored near the port of Berbera and several planes from these ships made a brief sojourn at the Berbera airport.

There have been no official confirmation from both the Somaliland and the United States governments regarding these alleged events.

According to one of the journalist reporting from Berbera "These ships are seen as the precursor to an establishment of a naval base in Berbera by the United States" speculated the journalist. [airstrip is in lower left @ link]

There have been comments recently by the Somaliland President, Mudane Dahir Rayale Kahin regarding the possibility of the United States establishing a base in Berbera, but there has been no official confirmation from either side.

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2008 15:08 utc | 81

"...Sir Jock Stirrup"??

Posted by: beq | Apr 17 2008 16:44 utc | 82

@b real - the "planes" coming from the ships were of course helos.

Hmm - no dates there - but could that have been a support mission for the recent French raid on the Somali pirates that had captured the luxory yacht in the Gulf of Aden?

The French have little support assets in the area and might have requested U.S. help.

Posted by: b | Apr 17 2008 17:45 utc | 83

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation

While we've now become accustomed to the barrage of prescription drug commercials on prime-time TV, it's jarring to learn that this advertising is legal only in the United States and New Zealand. The pharmaceutical industry doesn't just target Americans directly, but also spends roughly $25,000 per physician per year. With the aid of information from data mining companies, a pharmaceutical representative knows exactly how many prescriptions for what medication a doctor has written, allowing the industry to individually target them.

How Americans came to this fraught relationship with the pharmaceutical industry and its drugs -- particularly antidepressants -- is the subject of Charles Barber's new book, Comfortably Numb. A veteran of mental health programs in homeless shelters and a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Barber trains his eye to the confluence of science and culture that have led to the widespread prescribing of medications once reserved for the most serious cases.

Smoke your Prozac like a good little citizen...

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2008 17:53 utc | 84

could that have been a support mission for the recent French raid on the Somali pirates that had captured the luxory yacht in the Gulf of Aden?

that french raid took place last friday. all mentions i see of the u.s. ships docked at berbera start yesterday. other than the link i posted, the only other english-language article i've found so far is from iran's press tv, which contained even less detail than the qaran story. there is some blog chatter on this topic in some somali forums. so far it seems to be in reference to these two published pieces. no translation avail on this bbc-somali article/audiocast, which may be related. i'm taking it that this is a recent development, as in the last few days, otherwise it would have been brought up earlier. i recall reading earlier mentions of u.s. visits to berbera over the past year, though. as stated in the qaran article, the connection being made is w/ riyale's public invitations to the u.s. to resume their permanent basing operations at the port.

one commentary already mentions the docking in the past tense

As an analyst, I believe the two US War Ships that had docked to Berbera Port is the first step of relocating AFRICOM from Germany to Somaliland.

that's a pretty big leap in logic imo. no way the u.s. is gonna move that many staffers & their families anywhere in somalia for the foreseeable future, much less try to base the entire command in predominately muslim territories. nix on a HQ role. but as i've documented here before, the port has been a very important geostrategic asset for u.s. policies in the region in the past & was one of the locales they considered for CJTF-HOA before settling for the current real estate in djibouti.

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2008 19:10 utc | 85

Somalia is fucked. I remember a Red Cross pilot who I shared a few beers with telling me he dropped arms shipments over Somalia at night and landed planes full of Khat during the day. Berbera is a perfect port and logistics centre. The Russians knew this many years ago.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Apr 17 2008 19:55 utc | 86

HKO@78
One has to wonder why he would repeat
that gaffe, albeit at a safe distance in time and space, and before a friendly public.

I believe this is more of the "brazen through" strategy which has become the norm here - in which you repeat an outrageous statement till it is safe for others to assert that it is not outrageous but ordinary, see how often it gets said!

Posted by: citizen | Apr 17 2008 22:14 utc | 87

smokin prozac and being bombed by homeland security drones*... yep, what a future, dear Uncle... what an acomplishment, dear amerrika...

*somewhere in the bar, b wonders in how long this' gonna happen

Posted by: | Apr 17 2008 23:06 utc | 88

I suppose that it is no surprise that peeps in NZ are more aware of the fact their country is one of only two that allows direct to consumer prescription drug advertising, than the peeps in the other country, amerika. The deregulation may be newer here, but since it occurs within the continuum of a semi-socialised health system is it certainly more controversial. Physicians and other health professionals complain of the difficulty of treating a patient who believes they already know what they need having diagnosed their malady and selected their remedy on the basis of a 20 second TV commercial.

The law was changed during the first flush of neo-liberal 'let the markets decidism' At that time all censorship laws and anti-pr0n legislation was also abolished - although that was re-introduced when the most awful snuff movies starring no longer economically viable german heroin addicted sex workers began to proliferate.

Since then slightly 'lefter' in name if not in action, governments have allowed the commercials to continue. This after no holds barred negotiations with big Pharma.

The pharmaceutical companies are forever trying to prevent their brand name drugs from being replaced with no name generics, and have deliberately withdrawn drugs from NZ for which there is no generic alternative if Pharmac (the government drug buying authority) allows generic alternatives to other drugs on their list.

It gets nasty and of course deadly since these are life and death decisions. So by way of a trade off the government has agreed to let the makers of Viagra, Ritalin, even Vioxx until that became a little how shall we say it, controversial? In return for funding generics Pharmac is extorted into allowing big Pharma to advertise their product, which if the patient insists, is prescribed (and funded) ahead of the generic.

Of course that isn't the worst that the drug corporates get up to here. The old favorite of promising "wonder drug" -like properties on some chemical that they hold exclusive rights to, then promising dying people that this drug will fix them, if only the mean interfering nanny-state will pay for it, is still popular.
Women who are considered the best target for these campaigns by big pharma, as it is widely held most men usually only worry about being sick when they are mortally ill. Anyway women are continually told that Pharmac is conspiring to kill them.

Some wonder drug which can help in limited instances of breast cancer has been pushed to women as their new saviour. Doctors with nothing better to do than push their own barrow are leading the charge for 100% funded Herceptin for all women with the particular form of cancer that Herceptin can assist in.

On the surface that seems fair enough until one discovers that the manufacturers charge over $US100,000 for each course of treatment of Herceptin. Not because it costs anything like that to produce, but because that is how much they can get.

Well just pay the $100,000 is what anyone with a loved one with breast cancer would say. Thing is when the health budget is finite as it is; is it morally acceptable to spend $100,000 on something that might extend a person's life for several more years knowing that money could also be used to pay for several open heart operations, or many other treatments which would give life to more people. In addition accepting the drug manufacturers extortion will guarantee that every other corporation will also ramp up their prices for their sole patent drugs.

The govt attempted a compromise. Herceptin treatment normally runs for 12 months but they uncovered some research which they claim shows nearly as good a success rate with a much shorter treatment period, 9 weeks.

That didn't go down well with the corporate propagandists who rarked up the "Herceptin Heroines" into refusing the shorter treatment thereby endangering their own lives (drug companies will stop at nothing it seems) to demand the full 12 months, which is apparently not affordable.

As I've pointed out before, the amerikan health system's appallingly inefficient and discriminatory structure impacts on everyone else's health system around the world. If amerika did introduce a form of complete health coverage for all citizens, the pharmaceutical corporations would lose their guaranteed 'earner' of unquestioning support for those elites with five star corporate coverage, (probably coverage underwritten by insurance corporations which hold stock in the drug corporates), and have to negotiate with health authorities world wide on a more equal footing. If the various government bodies responsible for public health funding decisions, about this planet stood together, some remarkable changes in healthcare affordability must ensue.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Apr 17 2008 23:07 utc | 89

uops
i was #88

Posted by: rudolf | Apr 17 2008 23:08 utc | 90

well, rudolf #88 & 90

"...being bombed by homeland security drones"

whadya know, something quite similar is already begining to happen:

US war robots in Iraq 'turned guns' on fleshy comrades

Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired from combat pending upgrades.

The revelations were made by Kevin Fahey, US Army program executive officer for ground forces, at the recent RoboBusiness conference in America.

Speaking to Popular Mechanics, Fahey said there had been chilling incidents in which the SWORDS* combat bot had swivelled round and apparently attempted to train its 5.56mm M249 light machine-gun on its human comrades.

"The gun started moving when it was not intended to move," he said.

Apparently, alert American troops managed to quell the traitorous would-be droid assassins before the inevitable orgy of mechanised slaughter began. Fahey didn't say just how, but conceivably the rogue robots may have been suppressed with help from more trustworthy airborne kill machines, or perhaps prototype electropulse zap bombs.

No humans were hurt, but it seems that the struggle was sufficiently terrifying that it may be some time before American troops are ready to fight alongside robots again.

As Fahey pointed out, "once you've done something that's really bad, it can take 10 or 20 years to try it again". That said, it seems he expects to deploy a new and more trustworthy armed ground automaton within a year - perhaps the MAARS**, an upgraded SWORDS packing a heavier 7.62mm machine-gun and featuring improved safety features.

MAARS is also said by its makers to have "Transformer-like" abilities akin to those of Optimus Prime. Rather than being able to disguise itself as, say, a mobility scooter or a dessert trolley, the MAARS is actually only able to transform - with help from human allies - into a slightly different robot.

The Pop Mech analysts consider that the rattled GIs in Iraq are just being silly:

So SWORDS was yanked because it made people nervous. Meanwhile, the V-22 Osprey program has killed 30 people during test flights, but the tiltrotor aircraft is currently in active service.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2008 23:17 utc | 91

Also see, Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq

How It Works: The Flying Laser Cannon -- Boeing's new laser cannon can melt a hole in a tank from five miles away and 10,000 feet up—and it’s ready to fly this year

Well, okay, the 2nd one isn't necessarily robotic, but I hadn't heard of it yet and found it while looking for robotic DARPA stuff...

Human simulation software

The next logical step is to recruit 11-year-old kids to man those remote controls, telling them it's a really cool computer game and hero's for empire! Killed by an army of
pre-teens!

The killing game

Finally,

Sing it with me kids, the ratchet and clank courtney gear song

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2008 23:33 utc | 92

Also see, Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq

How It Works: The Flying Laser Cannon -- Boeing's new laser cannon can melt a hole in a tank from five miles away and 10,000 feet up—and it’s ready to fly this year

Well, okay, the 2nd one isn't necessarily robotic, but I hadn't heard of it yet and found it while looking for robotic DARPA stuff...

Human simulation software

The next logical step is to recruit 11-year-old kids to man those remote controls, telling them it's a really cool computer game and hero's for empire! Killed by an army of
pre-teens!

The killing game

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2008 23:33 utc | 93

one assumes that folks in New Z would be more... how can i say... aware... of the world outside their bubbles than amerrikan folks...
anyway, corporate democracy seems to rule... it was amazing watching The Corporation, and see them checking mark every single characteristic of a psycophatic condition on the corporate behavior...
...talkin on documentaries, I was amazed knowing that Anna Freud is almost the MOTHER of the American Way of Life (The Century of the Self)
and more than that was discovering that one of her guinea pigs died in deep alcoholism and the other comited suicide in the very Freud's house!!
(i think both docs had been linked here by Uncle $cam, the century for sure)

the medical prospects to the AWoL are nooooot gooood
(and to anyone who follows their behavior, as a matter of fact)

Posted by: rudolf | Apr 17 2008 23:34 utc | 94

Finally,

Sing it with me kids, the ratchet and clank courtney gear song

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2008 23:34 utc | 95

hey Uncle $!
i'll dig into the links, thx

was wondering if it could be a micro$ft or a goo$le software embeded in the flip flop drones... or perhaps an islamofaxist virus freaked the drones out...

i'd say drones are here to stay, with heavy loaded guns, an all-seeing eye camera, and a kid operating it, in some bedroom in a countryside, any countryside...

Posted by: rudolf | Apr 17 2008 23:43 utc | 96

started with the last link...
oh, man, you do really like a viral video, don't you?
****)

yep, the kids are ready to operate the robots that'll xterminate all organic life
: : holie s..t

Posted by: rudolf | Apr 17 2008 23:53 utc | 97

anyone else in the central u.s. get woken up early this morning by a little shaking?

Posted by: b real | Apr 18 2008 14:55 utc | 98

The Pirate Bay Launches Uncensored Blogging Service

Posted by: | Apr 18 2008 16:32 utc | 99

in #33 i pointed out a story about the "reportedly CIA-funded intelligence arm of the Puntland regional government" unloading at least 40 toyota trucks which sources said were finding their way to a relative of the puntland president (who also happens to be a board member of range resources, ltd - the australian minnow at the center of some controversial oil exploration contracts in northern somalia)

during the same period, garowe online reported that the puntland president, muse, paid a mysterious visit to the former interim somali PM at his nairobi estate, which had me wondering at the time if there was any connection between the two stories. there very well may not be, but these dots are interesting nonetheless.

before i get to that article, an interesting sidenote is that gedi's home in nairobi was reportedly paid for w/ embezzled saudi donations earmarked earlier last year for a 'national reconciliation' process. gedi is also reported to have other residencies financed from the same fund - for instance, steve bloomfield's february article in the independent states that, after pocketing most of a $32 million "donation",

In return for stepping down, Gedi was given asylum in the United States and was allowed to keep the remains of the Saudi money. He has bought a house in Los Angeles and US officials have negotiated a position for him at the University of California in Los Angeles.

i've yet to find confirmation of the latter, as reports occasionally surface putting gedi in the mix of events in the horn of africa -- plus he's still a member of the somali parliament -- as, now getting to it, this article last week on muse & gedi's mtg shows

Puntland leader meets privately with Somalia's former PM

NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 12 (Garowe Online) - The president of Somalia' s Puntland State government met privately with former Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Friday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Gen. Mohamud "Adde" Muse, the president of Puntland, flew from neighboring Ethiopia where he held extensive talks with government officials there regarding security and economic relations.

In Nairobi, President Muse's vehicle drove straight from the airport to the residence of former Prime Minister Gedi, where the two men talked privately for at least three hours, according to reliable sources.

It is not clear what Muse and Gedi discussed during their meeting, but the two men have been political adversaries for most of Gedi's three years in office as Prime Minister.

Gedi opposed an exploration contract Muse signed in 2005 with a small Australian mining firm, giving the company rights to explore for oil and other resources in Puntland.
...
Muse and other Puntland administration officials had boasted that Gedi resigned from the office of the Prime Minister after becoming an obstacle to the ambitious plans of the Puntland leadership.

It is not clear how Muse's private meeting with Gedi will affect the Puntland leader's relations with President Yusuf, who is not satisfied with Muse's leadership, according to sources close to the President.

Mr. Gedi, who is still a Member of Parliament, leads an opposition wing from his Nairobi residence and has publicly announced he plans to run for Somali president in the 2009 elections.

and then, in today's news, one can read of gedi & a fleet of toyota trucks

Ethiopian soldiers confiscate ex-Prime Minister’s weapons

MOGADISHU, Somalia Apr 18 (Garowe Online) - Ethiopian soldiers deployed in southern Somalia confiscated heavy weapons belonging to former Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Friday, sources said.

The Ethiopian soldiers, who were accompanied by officials from the Somali Ministry of Defense, confiscated the weaponry from the private residence of the ex-Prime Minister.

Witnesses reported that 10 Toyota trucks equipped with anti-aircraft guns were pulled out of the Mogadishu residence of Mr. Gedi, who is still a member of parliament.

A Gedi aide who lives in Mogadishu privately confirmed to Garowe Online that the armored trucks were confiscated by the Ethiopian troops on behalf of the Somali government.

It is not clear why the interim government has confiscated the weaponry at this time, but insiders said Defense Ministry officials had indicated before that they would collect private weapons in the hands of government officials.

Mr. Gedi becomes the first individual whose weapons have been confiscated in this ongoing process, the sources added.

The former Prime Minister, who has lived in Nairobi since resigning last October, is a close associate of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Observers say Mr. Gedi is quietly leading a political arm opposed to the leadership of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf from his Nairobi base. The ex-Premier has publicly announced plans to run for Somali president in the 2009 elections.

now were these trucks recent acquisitions or are they from gedi's private security forces during his stint in mogadishu? gedi wasn't previously a warlord as many of the other transitional govt officials are, though w/ money & connections one can easily finance their own army if need be. gedi has long ties w/ ethiopia's meles zenawi, who, afaik, is still backing yusuf's presidency. will be interesting to find out more on this episode.

Posted by: b real | Apr 18 2008 20:18 utc | 100