Hollande’s Africa Adventures

January 13, 2013

The foreign policy of France's president Hollande is confusing. First France supported Islamist in Libya to overthrow the Libyan government. These Islamist then ethnically cleanse the Tuaregs, which had worked for the Libyan army, and pushed them back into their homelands. Those Tuaregs took the Libyan army's weapons and went down to northern Mali to claim their own state.

The government of Mali could not prevent that as its army lacked equipment and support. One army officer, well trained by the United States, overthrew the government but didn't had any good idea of what to do after that had happened. Meanwhile some Algerian Islamists saw a good chance to move their operations away from Algeria where the Algerian military was quite successful in hunting them down. They moved into northern Mali to first support the Tuareg revolt but then to took over themselves.

After having helped the Libyan Islamist to overthrow the Libyan government France went on actively to support Syrian Islamist who try to overthrow the Syrian government.

But then the Islamist in northern Mali decided to take another small town and to thereby converge further south. Now suddenly such Islamist were bad and and had to be pushed back. France decided to send its military to kill these "terrorists".

But there was another problem that had to be cleared up first. Some Islamists in Somalia held a French hostage, an agent of the French secret service DGSE. An attack on Islamists in Mali would probably have had bad consequences for that officer so a urgent rescue operation was planned and executed. As usual for such French rescue missions in Africa that operation was a big failure:

Somali witnesses said on Sunday that at least eight civilians were killed in the disastrous French operation to rescue a kidnapped secret agent but France's defence minister defended the decision to launch the raid.

…
On Saturday, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that one French soldier died and another went missing during the raid, adding that 17 guerrillas were killed.

…
Le Drian said on Sunday that French troops underestimated the Islamist rebels' strength when they launched the overnight operation, which involved some 50 troops and at least five helicopters.

Derow meanwhile told AFP that "people saw (the French commandos) disembark in the fields. The Shebab were alerted that the helicopters had landed and that they let out soldiers, and so they (the Islamists) were able to prepare".

…
"These people were crazy," said another Somalian regarding the French commandos, an employee of a local humanitarian agency who wished to remain anonymous.

"We were told there were about 40 of them against more than 100 heavily armed Shebab fighters. Their mission was impossible and not very professional."

It seems that the Somali Islamists now have two French hostages. The original one plus the soldier that went missing in the botched rescue mission.

Meanwhile the operation in Mali, mostly through air attacks, started with another failure as one of the French helicopters pilots were killed and allegedly three helicopters got damaged in the very first attack.

France is again trying what always fails. Strategic bombing and other air attacks without decent ground support never win a war:

The unnamed Elysee Palace official quoted by AFP said on Sunday that French armed forces had been surprised by the fighting quality of the Islamist militants they were up against.

"What has really struck us is how up-to-date their equipment is, and the way they've been trained to use it…" the official said.

"At the start, we thought they would be just a load of guys with guns driving about in their pick-ups, but the reality is that they are well-trained, well-equipped, and well-armed.

These Ansar Dine folks have been fighting against the Algerian army for decades. They are supported by some of Tuaregs trained in the Libyan army on Libyan army weapons. Did the French think those folks would just lay down to get killed? Does no one in France remember the guerrilla fighting in Algeria or Dien Bien Puh?

Since the start of the French intervention on Friday, at least 11 Malian soldiers and a French helicopter pilot have been killed.

Human Rights watch believes 10 civilians, including three children, died in Konna as Malian forces fought to recapture the town.

Today France is continuing the bombing attacking Goa and the smaller towns of Lere and Douentza further south.

A few hundred rented soldier from Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Togo are supposed to come in over the next days and will, together with some folks from the Mali army, try to take the actual ground. They will likely get massacred.

Judging from comments on various German forums people in Europe are now confused. Why, they ask, are Islamist in nearby Libya and Syria who try to overthrow their governments "good" and deserve French support, while an Islamist takeover in far away Mali and Somalia is seen as "bad", threatens to create "terrorist states" and needs to be fought?

I am sure that people in France will have the same question. What is Hollande's answer to them?

Posted by b on January 13, 2013 at 16:31 UTC | Permalink

Comments

There is no confusion in Machiavellian realpolitics.
Anyone who is on the West side is “good” (even if its brutal dictatorship or Al Qaeda), and if someone is getting in West’s way – they are “bad”, regardless if they are good, bad or in-between. And if targeted country’s people support their leadership – too bad for them, they become “legitimate targets” as well.
As much as Hitler is demonized, he was no worse than many leaders of his or current times.

Posted by: Harry | Jan 13 2013 17:24 utc | 1

Hollande may not actually give this answer, but if he did it would be: When it suits French policy, Islamists are good, when not, they are the enemy!”.
The problem lies with French (and Western) policy. It is stupid to think that it is OK to “use” Islamists when convenient, and that it will not strengthen an entity that considers them a mortal enemy.

Posted by: FB Ali | Jan 13 2013 17:35 utc | 2

In idiomatic English, Hollande’s flexibility is proverbially known as `running with the hares and hunting with the hounds’.
Hollande is really on just one side, and that’s exploitative Western imperialism. But the hunter will eventually become the hunted. Or, as Mr B, said: they are likely to get massacred, along with their rent-a-soldier crew.

Posted by: nakedtothebone | Jan 13 2013 19:07 utc | 3

I think people put too much faith in the European/Western public to challenge their leaders on issues of wars and foreign policies. If anything, they’re all wilful accomplices to these crimes, one way or another.
Just today, I was watching TV and saw people protesting in France. For a moment I thought they were protesting Hollande’s latest escaped in African. Only to find out they were actually protesting about GAY RIGHTS!!! Yes, Gay rights are much more important to French people now than their shrinking economy on austerity.
Western leaders have come to realize that they can actually get away with this nonsense simply because there’s no accountability. The system’s rigged!!! Once they’re elected into office, the people can go hand. It gets even funnier. David – I want to get involved in all wars – Cameron, has just offered to lend the French 2 planes for their war effort in Mali – how cute? This is coming at a time when the UK’s economy is also in the shits. Again, they get away with it because the people are all in a state of mental dudness. Resistance is futile so might as well protest for more GAY RIGHTS, init!!!
This century’s seen uncut European/Western hypocrisy on full display. They don’t even pretend anymore. lol 😀

Posted by: Zico | Jan 13 2013 19:54 utc | 4

“An attack on Islamists in Mali would probably have had bad consequences for that officer so a urgent rescue operation was planned and executed.”
The following commentator believes the same:
France not speaking the truth about operations in Somalia: Nii Akuetteh
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/13/283387/france-not-speaking-truth-on-somalia/
“the French must have decided that if they can rescue their hostage from Somalia, they better do it because they knew once they get involved in Mali, their hostage in Somalia might be killed.”
He also mentions that the Islamists claim the French hostage is still alive in their hands, while the French government claims he is dead. That I’ve also seen said in other sources. Strange.
The interview also breaks down the groups attacking and gives some background. The UNSC had OK’d intervention. I’ve also seen elsewhere that the UK will be helping out with aircraft and logistics and that the USA is planning on some involvement. It’s likely the USA, with it’s greatly expanded AfrricaCom is already heavily involved in at least at the level of command of the ops and is providing the bulk of the “intelligence”. The latter may be why the French had such poor intelligence about what they were up against in Somalia. The USA has it’s own dismal famous history at those kinds of missions, in Somalia, and the massive botch up in Iran trying to rescue the embassy staff held there.

Posted by: вот так | Jan 13 2013 19:56 utc | 5

4
“Just today, I was watching TV and saw people protesting in France. For a moment I thought they were protesting Hollande’s latest escaped in African. Only to find out they were actually protesting about GAY RIGHTS!!! Yes, Gay rights are much more important to French people now than their shrinking economy on austerity.”
That is due to the opposition leadership in most of European countries having been corrupted through zionist/paleocon fascist infiltration and influence. The establishment beheaded the opposition, just like was done in the USA decades ago (and continues today). This corrupted leadership steers people towards “harmless” things like gay rights, which don’t have any meaningful impression against the establishment policies, and serve to vent the population’s frustrations, so population frustration doesn’t spill over into something that could effect these fascists, and instead of things like economic justice and antiwar, which actually could effect establishment policies. The corrupted leadership works also to fragment opposition so they do concentrate on these “harmless” single issues, rather than join together to fight the establishment.

Posted by: вот так | Jan 13 2013 20:11 utc | 6

This article on Syria is not bad:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/assad-still-confident-that-he-control-syria/2013/01/12/2e24a62e-5d01-11e2-b8b2-0d18a64c8dfa_print.html
**************************************************
But the rebels’ slower progress in recent weeks after a surge of gains late last year appears to lend further validity to Assad’s confidence. The rebel conquest of the Taftanaz airbase in northern Idlib province Friday came only after five months of fierce fighting.
Eroding support for rebels
Elsewhere in the country, the picture is more mixed. In Homs, the rebels are surrounded and pinned down in a few scattered neighborhoods that are becoming increasingly difficult to supply. An offensive launched with much fanfare last month in the province of Hama has fizzled. Battles for control of the suburbs ringing Damascus have swung back and forth for months, claiming thousands of lives without giving either side a clear advantage, offering a glimpse of the prolonged and bloody stalemate that could be in store if the current balance of power prevails indefinitely.
**************************************************

Posted by: KerKaraje | Jan 13 2013 20:15 utc | 7

“We were told there were about 40 of them against more than 100 heavily armed Shebab fighters. Their mission was impossible and not very professional….
At the start, we thought they would be just a load of guys with guns driving about in their pick-ups, but the reality is that they are well-trained, well-equipped, and well-armed.”
Need anyone say more? Yet some persist in the fiction that a well-armed citizen’s revolt in the US couldn’t possibly defeat the US military (as if it is even necessary to fight major engagements with the military to win a revolution). Hezbollah, the Taliban, the Iraqis and the Shebab have shown us that high-tech Western armies can be defeated.
As a former paratrooper, I can tell you that US troops are not all that well-trained, even in so-called “elite” units like the 82d Airborne, and the US in particular always underestimates the abilities of its enemies and overestimates the abilities of its own troops (Rambo syndrome).

Posted by: Sean | Jan 13 2013 20:57 utc | 8

It is clear that with the retreat of the US their is a new colonialist competition on. France is part of that.
Somehow I do not believe the Islamist story. Islamist Touareg does not rhyme.
Touareg are matrilineal, yes matrilineal. Meaning men marry into women’s families and inheritance is spread by women. The men veil, not the women. Yes the women are unveiled, whilst men hide their faces.
And the “Islamist leader” is a guy called Iyad Ag Ghaly whose biography Wikipedia describes the following way:

s a Malian Tuareg[4] militant from Mali’s Kidal Region.[5] In 1988, Ghaly founded the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad.[6] He has been active in the early 1990s Tuareg rebellion against the government of Mali since the 1980s, and has been leader of the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine since 2012…
After the 1996 ceasefire, ag Ghaly normalised relations with the Malian government.[9] In 2003, he was instrumental in negotiating the release of 14 German tourist hostages from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, then called “the Algerian Salafi Group for Call and Combat”. WikiLeaks later released a U.S. State Department cable in which the author described Ag Ghaly as a “proverbial bad penny” who always turned up when a Western government had to give money to Tuaregs.[5]
Ag Ghaly was appointed as a member of Mali’s diplomatic staff in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by President Amadou Toumani Touré in 2008.[10] Once “a great fan of cigarettes, booze, and partying”,[11] interested in music and poetry, with connections to the Tuareg band Tinariwen, he was proselytised to strict Islam by the Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement.[12] In Saudi Arabia he experienced a “religious re-birth”, growing a large beard and meeting with unnamed jihadists.[11] The latter action caused him to be recalled to Bamako.[10]…
Unable to take a leadership role with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the mainstream Tuareg rebellion,[11] ag Ghaly announced the formation of the Islamist Ansar Dine, which he claimed controlled much of northeastern Mali, in a video statement. Ag Ghaly also stated that his fighters were responsible for a bloody attack on the commune of Aguelhok two months before. He said the group would continue to fight until sharia law was established throughout Mali.[9][11] The announcement created friction with the MNLA, a secular group fighting for Azawad’s independence from Mali, including former allies of ag Ghaly who urged him to break his rumoured ties to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. When ag Ghaly reportedly refused to disavow any association with the al Qaeda offshoot,[9] the MNLA branded him a “criminal” and issued a statement claiming the “theocratic regime” envisioned by ag Ghaly contradicted “the foundations of [Tuareg] culture and civilization”.[11] Although ag Ghaly’s militants appeared to coordinate with the MNLA in the capture of Kidal, the Associated Press reported that the day after it fell to rebel fighters, Ansar Dine militants removed the colorful flags of Azawad planted by their MNLA comrades-in-arms throughout the city.[13]
Jeremy Keenan, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, stated that the military contribution of ag Ghaly’s fighters was slight compared to the much larger MNLA: “What seems to happen is that when they move into a town, the MNLA take out the military base — not that there’s much resistance — and Iyad goes into town and puts up his flag and starts bossing everyone around about sharia law.”[14] According to Keenan, Ag Ghaly is linked to the Algerian intelligence service.

So in this case it seems the Islamist label is used to delegitimize a national movement and convince the Western public – again – that they have to go to war.
Some straw will break the camel’s back.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2013 21:03 utc | 9

Watching our “leaders” conduct foreign policy is like watching someone try to put out a forest fire with a flamethrower.

Posted by: gul | Jan 13 2013 21:14 utc | 10

“That appears to be Assad’s strategy — to wreak enough havoc that the rebels can’t win, even if he can’t win, either, a scenario that threatens even greater bloodshed than has gone before, said Fred Hof, a former State Department official”
Pretty much what I’d expect from a State Dept clown. Now remind me who is wreaking havoc again? Is it Assad, or is it the Islamists setting off car bombs, beheading people on video, invading major cities, and looting the population?

Posted by: gul | Jan 13 2013 21:18 utc | 11

little bit of topic, but it is in context of current events.

ROME (AFP) 09/09/2011
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Friday that ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was loved by his people and that the rebellion that toppled him wasn’t a popular uprising.
“This wasn’t a popular uprising,” like in other north African countries “where the wind of freedom begins to blow,” he told young supporters of his People of Freedom party gathered in Rome .
“Powerful men decided to give life to a new era by putting out Gadhafi,” he said.
“This wasn’t a popular uprising because Gadhafi was loved by his people, as I was able to see when I went to Libya .”
Italy is Libya’s former colonial ruler and enjoyed close economic and diplomatic ties with the Gadhafi regime prior to the conflict before joining international efforts against the leader.
He told party supporters that strengthening the country’s position in Libya was “important for oil and gas supplies.” Eni SpA (E), in which the Italian state holds a third share, was previously the main foreign hydrocarbon producer operating in Libya .
In order to maintain that situation Rome recently signed a deal with the new Libyan authorities.

Posted by: neretva’43. | Jan 13 2013 21:26 utc | 12

Somehow I think nothing like that has happened yet in Mali …
Are there really Islamists there?

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed “great interest in providing security, stability and democracy in the Sahel region in addition to the promotion of peace so as to ensure Malian territorial integrity”, Journal du Mali quoted a statement by her spokesman….
MNLA Secretary-General Belal Ag Sharif shared the view. He told El Khabar, “We are ready for negotiations leading to the end of the conflict that devastated the region and is behind the existence of extremist groups and very complex smuggling networks, due to the absence of Azaouads running their region. The conflict destroyed stability and spread to neighbouring countries.”
“We do not have any links to al-Qaeda,” he said. “Al-Qaeda is an organisation foreign to us in terms of behaviour and religious interpretation of the texts. Personally, I have not seen something called al-Qaeda in the Azaouad region.”
“As for Libyan arms, the stores opened with the fall of Kadhafi, as those who wanted to take them took them, and those who wanted to buy them bought them,” he continued. “But we did not import any arms, nor do we have the money to buy them at all.”

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2013 21:29 utc | 13

What AFP did not wanted to translate and publish is this.
Source: http://www.tg1.rai.it

Journalist who runs the show asked Berlusconi to explain the role of Italy, because “it was an aggression on one sovereign country in which Italy was involved.”
Berlusconi has shocked Italian and international community with its answers. So far, the Internet portals and independent medias were the only who report them. This is the first time that something like this can be heard from the mouth of ex PM of one of the most influential country in EU.
Berlusconi said: “In Libya there were no spring, no revolution, people of that country loved Gaddafi. Maybe, there were no freedom in a sense how we see it, but they had bread and shelter and there were free. Decision to military intervene was made by French Gov. French displayed an events in Benghazi as revolution so we would have justification for intervention. Sarkozy was mad at me when I gone to visit to Gaddafi. He saw plenty of banners, 30×15 meters in size, where Gaddafi and I standing together. Sarkozy then said to its deputies that Italy and I grabbed a Libyan oil and gas.”
“Sarkozy (Berlucsoni did not call him the President during the show) had issued an order to French Air Force to attack Libya, before common decision had been made in NATO’s HQ.” The French bombarded Benghazi on its own. Sarkozy had deceived an international community and got permission for aggression, claim Berlusconi.
Journalist Travaglia noted “in spite his statement that Italy won’t fire one bullet on Libya, Italy was involved in aggression on Libya” Berlusconi replied “it was not possible to avoid it, and Italy participated in targeted attacks.”
Statements of ex-Italian PM are confirmed by reports published in recent months by security services. In one of them is stated that French security services are who killed the President Gadaffi.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 13 2013 21:32 utc | 14

Erdogan threatens Hollande
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/erdogan-demands-explanation-hollandes-link-murdered-kurdish-activists

Posted by: nikon | Jan 13 2013 21:44 utc | 15

But Berlusconi won’t tell that his Gov. supplied NATO mercenaries in Benghazi with the weapons from Jadran Express vessel whose final destination at that time was ex Yugoslavia. That ship was confiscated by NATO Navy because it was in violation of UN resolution. Funny this is that previous 18 ships sailed without any problem to it destination of port Koper in Slovenia.
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20110507/DEFSECT02/105070301/Libyan-Rebels-Say-Italy-Will-Provide-Weapons
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016516/Enough-weapons-start-win-small-war-missing-Italian-navy-yard.html
Just as the headline says, Enough weapons to start small war.
That weapons was stored in ex NATO attack nuclear submarine base on island La Madallena near Sardinia.
Eventually, the weapons or parts of it ended up in hands of NATO’s mercenaries in Syria (some of then I can see it on Youtube clips), and now in Mali, and god know where else.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 13 2013 22:02 utc | 16

ok. Touaregs sit on the French uranium supply in Niger next door to Mali.
So they have to fight “Touareg islamists”. Colonialists never change, do they.

“France is the world’s largest nuclear power generator: almost 80% of France’s electricity is nuclear generated. French nuclear-generated electricity is exported to neighbouring European countries.
France also has a large nuclear weapons arsenal and is dependent on Niger for its uranium supplies.
Niger is the world’s third-largest exporter of uranium. Uranium mining in Niger is dominated by Areva, the world’s largest nuclear corporation that is part-owned by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Areva gets 45% of its uranium from Niger.
Exploration licences to mine uranium have also been granted to mining companies from the US, South Africa, China, Canada and Australia.
The neocolonial secret agreements giving Areva below-market prices mean that very little of the wealth from Niger’s uranium remains in the country.”

So the fight against Touareg independence has been redefined into fighting Islamists. This here is a Reuters article talking about the Mali intervention against “Islamists” without mentioning the word Touareg once.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2013 22:06 utc | 17

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/19/italy-blocks-investigation-arms-cache
“Britain to send aircraft to Mali to assist French fight against rebels”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/12/mali-somalia-france-rebels-islamist-francois-hollande

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 13 2013 22:09 utc | 18

Obviously, all this above tells us that NATO/US strategy in planed well in advance. The cargo from the ship was seized (it was FREE for them) and stored for the planed “revolution(s)” in Libya, Syria, wherever it was going to be needed.
GCC and KSA provided the cash and satellite Thuraya phones. “Advisors and instructors” are paid by cash from mentioned countries. Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists provided manpower, an ideological framework was “sprin and revolution”, whatever, or “democracy”. Finally, propaganda from al-jazeera and CNN and the rest done what they do every day.
Colonialist/fascists disguised as liberal-democracy marching again.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 13 2013 22:23 utc | 19

More on Iyad ag Ghali
“Iyad ag Ghali made his fortune leading Tuareg rebels against the Malian government in the early 1990s. He was also one of the first Tuaregs to negotiate with their enemy, pushing for the 1996 Peace Talks, where he was the Tuareg representative. He disappeared for a while, presumable running trafficking schemes in the borderless Azawad desert. Due to his secret contacts, he was the point negotiator for foreign governments with AQIM in 2003 and 2008. In 2006, once again he led another Tuareg upheaval against Bamako. The next year he was dispatched as a diplomatic envoy to the Malian consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The location was not a coincidence–Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz University is the brain centre of Islamic fundamentalism, through which al-Azzam, al-Zawahiri, and Osama bin Laden passed.
After he was declared a persona non grata by the Saudi government for his Jihadist links, Iyad ag Ghali went back to Mali. Once again, he aimed to lead the last Tuareg insurgency, resulting from the spillover effect of the Libyan war as fighters returned home.
However, this time he failed: the continual switching of sides and the al-Qaeda links diminished his authority among Tuaregs. In order to maintain his power among the rebels, he established the Islamist group Ansar Dine, meaning “Defenders of the Faith”. Initially, he backed the Tuaregs of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad against the Malian central government. When they unilaterally declared independence, Iyad ag Ghali, along with al Qaeda-linked groups, repressed their aspirations and seized Azawad strongholds, imposing Sharia law.
Some academics are claiming that this is only a strategy of tension created by the U.S. and a main ally in the Global War on Terror, Algeria. There is a series of Wikileaks cables reporting meetings between U.S. agents and Iyad ag Ghali when he was their informer and negotiator with AQIM and the Tuareg rebels led by Bahanga. However, this theory does not really match the character of Iyad ag Ghali, who has wanted to play the role of supreme leader in Azawad since 1990.
Despite his Jihadist proclaims about Holy War, everybody knows that he has different aims in holding Azawad and its population hostage. Likely, he is just attempting to re-legitimize his authority as the main interlocutor between Tuaregs and international governments, as well as AQIM. In this case, he would also find economic returns. For this reason, an international military intervention would be counter to his interests. Consequently, his strategic advisors suggested he send envoys to Algeria and Burkina Faso for initiating Peace Talks.
This latter choice seems to open the likelihood of Iyad ag Ghali as the chief of the Islamist political party at the negotiation rounds in Bamako. Thus, he rejected his linkage with AQIM, which recently changed leadership, resulting in the Mauritanian group MOJWA (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in Western Africa) becoming the main terrorist power in Azawad.
Although Iyad ag Ghali lost legitimacy among rebels of any side, he holds the balance of power. If he switches sides once again, Tuareg rebel supporters will turn against AQIM and MOJWA. War or peace, once again the stability and the future of Mali rests on Iyad ag Ghali.”
Sounds like he did not make it this time. He his reported dead.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 13 2013 23:08 utc | 20

Q: What is Hollande’s answer to them?
R: “Au reste, après nous, le Déluge…”

Posted by: Daniel Rich | Jan 13 2013 23:15 utc | 21

I’ve found that between 340.000 – 500.000 marched today against gay marriage.
Half million of people isn’t interested in foreign policy, while they Gov. killing and spending country which they probably never heard of? Is this famous “secularism” in French and the Western Europe?
Vatican and Le Pen (read, Racists) are still major player in “civilized” world. They always has been.
Colonizers and racists should to undergo themselves to La mission civilisatrice.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 13 2013 23:24 utc | 22

“Christians of the Levant Accuse France of Plotting to Displace Them”
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/01/christians-levant-displacement.html
This is what Racist known the best.
Swapping people, territories, drawing maps and boundaries between people and ethnic groups. Classified people as majority and minority, percentage of majority and minority. Sowing hate and discord. Stealing and plundering. Rape and abuse and killing of natives.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 13 2013 23:34 utc | 23

This looks like one of those Keystone Cops episodes in which an Argentinian plane blows a British ship out of the water with a French made flying fish. The settling smoke spells one word: ‘hypocrites.’

Posted by: Daniel Rich | Jan 14 2013 0:28 utc | 24

@ nereveta’43 [#23],
off topic.
Q: Swapping people, territories, drawing maps and boundaries between people and ethnic groups.
R: Didn’t that happen in Europe after The Great War, when the ‘good old boys’ gave the world the now defunct Czechoslovakia and such? Have they ever stopped?

Posted by: Daniel Rich | Jan 14 2013 0:32 utc | 25

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-20/asma-al-assad-profile/3900816
Asma al-Assad: A hate figure for many
Character assassination is a favorite tool in toolbox of Orientalists and propagandists. This is classic example of carefully crafted a pamphlet of the President Assad’s wife, a pamphlet how to de-humanize her and them. Vocabulary and lexicon used is intended to make, and elevate her and her family to the level of the devil. There is undertone in article, like lamenting her, because she is “A British-educated former investment banker, she cultivated the image of a glamorous yet serious-minded woman with strong Western-inspired values.” Also, “she was an ‘element of light in a country full of shadow zones’”.
And when the journalist is “back to reality” for him she is only savages’ wife. What’s missing here is, she is not “deranged” or “irrational” (she is British citizen) what’s usually follows in this type of narrative.
This vicious lies that steam from this text have only one aim – political violence. The author obviously is counting on victory of mercenaries, and playing with idea that she will be an executed. Or, perhaps I did misunderstand him, this is free speech!
“Zayed, angrily comparing Ms Assad to Marie Antoinette or the wife of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, called on the Syrian leader’s wife to “make a stand for your own sake, for your own people”.
It is no accidental that he is invoking the names of these two women, I guess, we are all know how they ended.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 14 2013 0:45 utc | 26

Actually African leaders better get their act together – European colonialists are back, all of them, like vultures …
Erdogan in Niger to boost African ties

Erdogan arrived in Niger after visiting Gabon in the first leg of his current African tour. Turkey does not see diamonds in Africa, but rather a common history of friendship and brotherhood, Erdoğan said Monday in Gabon. “The ones who stole Africa’s diamonds, gold, resources and even people, dooming them to starve, will be judged by history,” Erdoğan said during his speech at the Parliament of Gabon in Libreville. By highlighting the significance of Africa for humanitarian heritage, Erdogan emboldened Africans to stand up to those who deprive them of their own resources. He referred to Ottoman culture in his statements, saying it was the symbol of peace and brotherhood in the region at time of its reign, expressing his desire to reincarnate that historical brotherhood among Turkey and Gabon again.

Erdogan is rewriting history. This is Hürriyet writing about the historical Istanbul slave market.

The slave market at Nuruosmaniye was closed down in 1846, but the closure didn’t stop sales.
Circassian women to serve as concubines and blacks were sold elsewhere. Some were available in hans in the Fatih district, while the Circassians were sold in Tophane’s Karabaş area. Slavery was abolished in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century but probably persisted illegally into the first half of the 20th.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 14 2013 1:59 utc | 27

26
Surprising the the zionist run, Israel loyal ABC didn’t equate Ms. Assad with Eva Braun.

Posted by: вот так | Jan 14 2013 2:11 utc | 28

US forces participated in failed French rescue attempt in Somalia: Obama
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/14/283408/us-had-role-in-failed-french-operation/
“The United States says its forces participated in France’s failed effort to free a kidnapped French intelligence officer in Somalia.”
I had suspected as much. They were probably involved to a larger extent than Obama has claimed.

Posted by: вот так | Jan 14 2013 2:34 utc | 29

More info:
Eight Civilians Killed in Botched French Raid on Somalia
Obama: US ‘Helped’ With French Operation
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/01/13/eight-civilians-killed-in-botched-french-raid-on-somalia/
“Locals are confirming that at least eight civilians were killed in the botched French raid on the Somali town of Bulo Marer, including two women and two children. The raid was aimed at rescuing a French spy named Denis Allex.
French officials say they believe Allex has probably been executed by his captors since the failed raid, but al-Shabaab denied this, saying Allex was still in their custody and that they also captured a French soldier in the attack.”
Eight humans being murdered to get back one soulless spook.

Posted by: вот так | Jan 14 2013 2:50 utc | 30

@ BOT TAK [#30]
Q: Eight humans being murdered…
R: Are you crazy? ‘We’ don’t label it ‘collateral damage’ fer nuttin’!

Posted by: Daniel Rich | Jan 14 2013 3:04 utc | 31

“This looks like one of those Keystone Cops episodes in which an Argentinian plane blows a British ship out of the water with a French made flying fish. The settling smoke spells one word: ‘hypocrites.'”
Daniel Rich
Daniel, you’re firing on all cylinders

Posted by: arthurdecco | Jan 14 2013 3:35 utc | 32

вот так @ 28.
Amen.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 14 2013 4:13 utc | 33

severely off topic:
The Free Syrian Beheaders now have their own ‘secret police’… cough… They wanted to name it after their friend Mubarak, but as that sounded awfully like Assad’s ‘Mukhabarat’ they settled for ‘Brigade of the Elite, Horse-mounted and English-trained, Armed Division.

Posted by: Daniel Rich | Jan 14 2013 7:31 utc | 34

AlJazeerah has an excellent overview over the various groups involved in North Mali.
Making sense of Mali’s armed groups
There is little “AlQaeda” and “terrorists” and much Tuareg and other ethnic groups independence movement.

Posted by: b | Jan 14 2013 9:02 utc | 35

yep, the French government could not sell it to the French especially not to the French socialists (who are romantic we learnt on the Kurdish issue) that their government takes part in bombing against Touareg independence.
They are back to the culture of fear.
The nightmare illusion

Posted by: somebody | Jan 14 2013 9:54 utc | 36

The articles by Andy Morgan are the best informed description of the conflict I could find
Causes of the uprising in Northern Mali
and interview with Andy Morgan explaining the above in more vivid detail
It has got nothing to do with Islamism though probably Saudi Arabia and Quatar pay for cultural influence.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 14 2013 10:35 utc | 37

#9 claims that “Islamist Touareg does not rhyme.”
Well, no one says that it does. If you’d been paying attention to news from Mali over the past year, you would know that MUJAO split off from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and that it went on to collaborate with a Tuareg uprising against the government of Bamako. When the objective of the two groups was accomplished (i.e. chasing government authority from the north of the country) the MUJAO then staged a coup against the Tuaregs, defeating them easily.
In NO WAY is the designation of Islamism a cover used to attack a national liberation movement. The MUJAO is very definitely Islamist, as evidenced by its rampant destruction of “idolatrous” shrines in and around Timbuktu, its stoning to death of innocent people for behavioural “crimes” and its amputation of limbs for alleged theft.
Although the French intervention will surely bring even more misery, the Malian people definitely do not want the islamo-nihilists there in their country, and the MUJAO & AQIM leadership is mostly Algerian, not Malian.

Posted by: David Montoute | Jan 14 2013 13:03 utc | 38

Although the French intervention will surely bring even more misery, the Malian people definitely do not want the islamo-nihilists there in their country

Neither do majority of Syrians or Libyans or Somali’s
Contributors who make out that they have “sure” information WRT Syria should put the same information to Syrian Perceptive Ziad has a lot of knowledge of what is happening inside, he maybe slightly biased but admits when he is wrong. You get me somebody!

Posted by: hans | Jan 14 2013 13:32 utc | 39

From the interview with Andy Morgan I linked to above

What about the AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)? Does this group exist and are there any links with the MNLA as some have suggested?
No Tuareg has ever killed or maimed another human being in the name of religion – certainly not in the last sixty years. I say that just to make clear that there is no cultural affinity between the Tuareg and AQIM. There is no question that AQIM does actually exist, this has been verified, but the more difficult question is who are its friends and enemies? They carry out kidnappings and have murdered people, including soldiers and policemen and have carried out suicide attacks. But there is a great deal of conjecture about this whole issue. What does certainly happen is that many western African and North African governments use Al Qaeda to discredit political or independence and autonomy movements.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 14 2013 14:22 utc | 40

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