AFRICOM Related News Clips 5 December 2011

8/3/2019 AFRICOM Related News Clips 5 December 2011

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U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Office +49(0)711-729-2687 [email protected]

United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office5 December 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

Good morning. Please find attached news clips related to U.S. Africa Command andAfrica, along with upcoming events of interest for December 5, 2011.

Of interest in todays clips:

In Somalia: The AU has renewed earlier calls for a no-fly zone over Somalia andadditional sanctions to blockade three ports in Southern Somalia.

In Nigeria: A bomb attack in a northern town by suspected Boko Haram Islamists killsthree people.

In Sudan: Fighting flares up in South Kordofan region between Sudanese and SouthSudanese forces.

In Mali: Al Qaeda is using hearts and minds tactics on the population in Mali.

Provided in text format for remote reading. Links work more effectively when thismessage is viewed as in HTML format.

U.S. Africa Command Public AffairsPlease send questions or comments to:[email protected] (+49-711-729-2687)

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Top News related to U.S. Africa Command and Africa

African Union renews calls for no-fly zone over Somalia, wants 3 ports blockaded

(Afrique en ligne)http://www.afriquejet.com/security-no-fly-zone-2011120428798.html3 December 2011The African Union (AU) has renewed its earlier calls for a no-fly zone over Somalia andadditional sanctions to blockade three ports in Southern Somalia with a view to cuttingoff supplies to Islamic militants in Somalia. They also welcomed the decision of Ethiopiato support AMISOM and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Kenya'soperation in Somalia.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.afriquejet.com/security-no-fly-zone-2011120428798.htmlhttp://www.afriquejet.com/security-no-fly-zone-2011120428798.htmlhttp://www.afriquejet.com/security-no-fly-zone-2011120428798.htmlmailto:[email protected]


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please take water from the well. Before leaving, they rolled down the windows of theirpickup truck and called over the children to give them chocolate.

Non-state Fighters Gain Deadlier Weapons (Aviation Week)http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/dti/20

11/12/01/DT_12_01_2011_p32-394021.xml2 December 2011As the Libyan regime of Moammar Gadhafi withered and died after months of combatwith rebel forces, the weapons that the dictator stockpiled in his 42-year reign came upfor grabs.

Canada sends special forces to aid African al-Qaida fight (Montreal Gazette)http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Canada+sends+special+forces+African+Qaida+fight/5804679/story.html2 December 2011By David Pugliese

Canadian special forces troops from Petawawa, Ont., have been sent to Africa to providetraining to Mali's military, which is in the midst of a war against al-Qaida insurgents.

Tunisian Islamists and secularists face off (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112314837447708.html3 December 2011Thousands of Tunisian Islamists and secularists staged parallel protests outside theinterim parliament in a dispute over how big a role Islam should play in society after thecountry's "Arab Spring" uprising, and subsequent election.

Sudan: Bashir Restores Diplomatic Relations (All Africa)http://allafrica.com/stories/201112030218.html3 December 2011Sudan President Omar Bashir has reversed his decision to expel Kenya's ambassador inKhartoum, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula said yesterday.

UN Council refuses to delay Eritrea sanctions vote (AFP)http://www.modernghana.com/news/364704/1/un-council-refuses-to-delay-eritrea-sanctions-vote.html3 December 2011The UN Security Council on Friday refused to delay a vote next week on taking sanctionsagainst Eritrea so the isolated country's head of state can make his case, diplomats said.

President George W. Bushs Trip to Africa: Reflections on Foreign Policies toward

Africahttp://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/1202_bush_africa_kimenyi.aspx2 December 2011Former President George W. Bush and his wife are currently touring Africa and visitingTanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia from December 1 to 5. The president and Mrs. Bush willuse the trip to focus on some of the initiatives that Bush advocated for and strongly
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/dti/2011/12/01/DT_12_01_2011_p32-394021.xmlhttp://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/dti/2011/12/01/DT_12_01_2011_p32-394021.xmlhttp://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/dti/2011/12/01/DT_12_01_2011_p32-394021.xmlhttp://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Canada+sends+special+forces+African+Qaida+fight/5804679/story.htmlhttp://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Canada+sends+special+forces+African+Qaida+fight/5804679/story.htmlhttp://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Canada+sends+special+forces+African+Qaida+fight/5804679/story.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112314837447708.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112314837447708.htmlhttp://allafrica.com/stories/201112030218.htmlhttp://allafrica.com/stories/201112030218.htmlhttp://www.modernghana.com/news/364704/1/un-council-refuses-to-delay-eritrea-sanctions-vote.htmlhttp://www.modernghana.com/news/364704/1/un-council-refuses-to-delay-eritrea-sanctions-vote.htmlhttp://www.modernghana.com/news/364704/1/un-council-refuses-to-delay-eritrea-sanctions-vote.htmlhttp://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/1202_bush_africa_kimenyi.aspxhttp://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/1202_bush_africa_kimenyi.aspxhttp://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/1202_bush_africa_kimenyi.aspxhttp://www.modernghana.com/news/364704/1/un-council-refuses-to-delay-eritrea-sanctions-vote.htmlhttp://www.modernghana.com/news/364704/1/un-council-refuses-to-delay-eritrea-sanctions-vote.htmlhttp://allafrica.com/stories/201112030218.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112314837447708.htmlhttp://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Canada+sends+special+forces+African+Qaida+fight/5804679/story.htmlhttp://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Canada+sends+special+forces+African+Qaida+fight/5804679/story.htmlhttp://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/dti/2011/12/01/DT_12_01_2011_p32-394021.xmlhttp://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/dti/2011/12/01/DT_12_01_2011_p32-394021.xml


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supported while in office.

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UN News Service Africa Briefshttp://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA

DR Congo: Security Council welcomes holding of elections, urges calm2 DecemberThe Security Council today congratulated the people of the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DRC) for turning up in large numbers to cast their ballots in thisweeks presidential and legislative elections, calling it a demonstration of theircommitment to democracy.

Libya: Security Council extends mandate of UN support mission

2 DecemberThe Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nationsmission in Libya until the middle of March next year, and expanded its tasks to includeassisting the North African countrys transitional Government in its efforts to address thethreat of arms proliferation.

Ethiopia opens additional camp for Somali refugeesUN agency2 DecemberHundreds of refugees in southern Ethiopia have been relocated from anovercrowded transit centre to a new camp, the fifth one in the area for Somalis fleeingconflict and drought in their homeland, the United Nations refugee agency reportedtoday.

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Sudanese minister for Darfur crimes2 DecemberThe prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) today requestedan arrest warrant against Sudanese Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein forcrimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur.

DR Congo: UN envoy on sexual violence in conflict welcomes sanctioning of militia

leader1 DecemberThe United Nations official leading efforts to combat sexual violence inconflict today welcomed the decision by a Security Council committee to place a militialeader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) under sanctions for instigatingacts of sexual assault, including mass rape, in the east of the country.

(Full Articles on UN Website)

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Upcoming Events of Interest:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICAhttp://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICAhttp://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA


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Tuesday, 6 Dec:

Woodrow Wilson Center (WWC) Discussion on In the Middle of the Storm:

Development and Governance in the Arab World.Full agenda at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-middle-the-storm-development-and-governance-the-arab-worldWHERE: WWC, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWCONTACT: 202-691-4000; web site: www.wilsoncenter.orgSOURCE: WWCevent announcement at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-middle-the-storm-development-and-governance-the-arab-world

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Johns Hopkins

University Discussion on Preventing Conflict, Managing Crisis: European and

American Perspectives.

Various speakers will discuss the new book, Preventing Conflict, Managing Crisis:European and American Perspectives, co-edited by Daniel Hamilton, Executive Directorof the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations (CTR), at this half-day conference. Acomplete conference agenda can be found at:http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2570392112/mcivteWHERE: SAIS, Rome Building, 1619 Massachusetts Avenue, NWCONTACT: Felisa Neuringer Klubes at 202-663-5626, [email protected]; web site:www.sais-jhu.eduSOURCE: SAISevent announcement at: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/calendar/index.htm

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Johns Hopkins

University Discussion on International Law and Terrorism: European and American

Perspectives.

Speakers: John Bellinger, partner at Arnold and Porter LLP and former legal adviser atthe U.S. Department of State; Peter Takse-Jensen, Danish ambassador to the UnitedStates; Amitai Etzioni, Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies atGeorge Washington Universitys Elliott School of International Affairs; and Kurt Volker(moderator), Managing Director of the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations (CTR).WHERE: SAIS, Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NWCONTACT: Felisa Neuringer Klubes at 202-663-5626, [email protected]; web site:www.sais-jhu.eduSOURCE: SAISevent announcement at: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/calendar/index.htm

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New onwww.africom.mil

Malaria Remains a Pronounced Threat to U.S. Service Members in Africa
http://www.africom.mil/http://www.africom.mil/http://www.africom.mil/http://www.africom.mil/


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AMISOMs current strength is 12,000 soldiers although the AU and IGAD, a regionalsecurity body formed by seven states in East Africa which has been seeking thedeployment of 20,000 troops to deal with the crisis in Somalia.

The AU further called on the UN to agree on a stable financing plan for AMISOM,

adding that it was time the funds were drawn from the UN budget.

It asked the UN Security Council to consider authorizing funding from the assessedbudget to AMISOM, of the required mission support, including the enhanced personnel,force enablers and multipliers and equipment.

The AU also requested the Council to boost the allowances for the troops and formedpolice units provided for in the strategic concept.

To deal with the security in Mogadishu, the AU asked the UN Security Council, which isdue to meet in New York to discuss the ongoing Kenyan operation in Somalia and

sanctions against Eritrea, to consider changing the troops mandate.

AU is requesting the immediate partial re-hatting of AMISOM as UN peacekeepingoperation in the sector of Mogadishu and its environments with a peace consolidationmandate, while the AU and the TFG-led efforts continue in the rest of the territory.

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Suspected Islamist bombers kill three in northern Nigeria (AFP)http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-bomb-blasts-kill-three-150826844.html4 December 2011

KANO, NigeriaBomb attacks by suspected Islamist militants Sunday left three peopledead in northern Nigeria's Bauchi State, an official and residents said.

The suspected members of the radical Boko Haram sect, armed with heavy machineguns, threw explosives and fired into a police compound in the town of Azare, setting thebuildings on fire, residents said.

"They came in a large convoy," resident Usman Musa told AFP, adding that theassailants hung a black banner at the entrance of the police station reading "AllahuAkbar" (God Is Great).

Musa said he saw the bodies of a soldier, a policeman and a police employee at a medicalcentre, where another two policemen were being treated for gunshot wounds.

The assailants also bombed and robbed two banks in the town, residents said.

Ihola Michael, spokesman to the Bauchi State governor, said state police commissionerOkechukwu Aduba had rushed to Azare.
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Aduba told reporters after visiting the scenes of the incidents more than 100 gunmencarried out the attacks."There were attacks by unknown gunmen on police facilities and banks in Azare earlythis morning. Three people, including one soldier, a policeman and a civilian were killed

in the coordinated attacks, while three soldiers and two policemen sustained gunshotwounds," he said.

"The attackers numbered about 100. Over 20 rocket-propelled guns were launched fromoutside the police area command headquarters which completely devastated thebuilding," he said.

He said there was heavy exchange of fire between the attackers and the police whichlasted for about four hours.

Aduba said police had launched a man-hunt for the gunmen.

Militants from Boko Haram, which means "Western Education Is Sin" in the regionalHausa language, have repeatedly targeted police and military, community and religiousleaders, as well as politicians, in Nigeria.

The radical sect has also claimed responsibility for the August suicide bombing of theUN headquarters in the capital Abuja which killed at least 24 people and coordinatedattacks in the country's northeast on November 4 that left some 150 people dead.

Another resident, Garba Mohammed, said the assailants bombed two banks and emptiedthe vaults, making off with the money.

Mohammed said unexploded bomb canisters littered the grounds and police keptonlookers away while an anti-bomb squad worked to make them safe.Local reporters said two truckloads of soldiers had been sent to the scene asreinforcement.

Boko Haram, which wants Sharia -- Islamic law -- to be adopted across Nigeria, launchedan uprising in 2009 put down by a brutal military assault that left hundreds dead.It appeared to go dormant for about a year before re-emerging with a series of attacks.

In September 2010, the sect raided a prison in Bauchi, freeing more than 700 inmates,and claimed to be behind bomb attacks at a military barracks on May 29 when PresidentGoodluck Jonathan was sworn in.

Sharia law is observed in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states, all of them in the mainly Muslimnorth.

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Sudan 'takes rebel border camp' in South Kordofan (BBC)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-160218704 December 2011

Sudan's military says it has captured a key rebel base in the embattled border state of

South Kordofan.

A spokesman said soldiers had taken a camp belonging to the Sudan People's LiberationArmy North (SPLA-N) - a claim denied by a rebel spokesman.

The SPLA-N fought for the creation of South Sudan during the country's civil war andwas left in the north when the south gained independence in July.

Khartoum and Juba accuse each other of supporting rebels in the border areas.

South Kordofan is one of three areas along the loosely demarcated border which have

been hit by conflict since July. The other areas are Abyei and Blue Nile.

'Not present'The Sudanese army says it took control of the SPLA base on Saturday afternoon.

Army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told AFP news agency that there were casualtieson both sides.

"This is a strategic area because it is the gateway to the south. The SPLA receive theirweapons and ammunition and supplies through it," he said.

It is not possible to verify the army's claim independently because Sudan has bannedjournalists from the region.

According to Reuters news agency, SPLA-N spokesman in South Kordofan, QamarDalman, denied the group had soldiers in the area.

"Our troops aren't present in that area," he told Reuters.

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Fighting flares in disputed Sudan region (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112443439155849.html4 December 2011

Fighting has erupted in a disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan, withthe Sudanese army claiming a strategic victory in its offensive against rebels in the stateof South Kordofan.

The army said on Saturday it had captured camps on a key supply route after deadly
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16021870http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16021870http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112443439155849.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112443439155849.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112443439155849.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16021870


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clashes.

"Today the Sudanese army took control of SPLA-N (Sudan People's LiberationMovement - North) camps in the lake Jau area," said Sawarmi Khaled, an armyspokesman.

"The fighting took place at around 4:30pm (13:30 GMT). There were a number ofcasualties and injured soldiers on both sides.

"This is a strategic area because it is a gateway to the south. The SPLA-N receive theirweapons and ammunition and supplies through it."

South Kordofan and Blue Nile states served as the ninth and tenth divisions of thesouthern rebel forces during the decades-long civil war between south and north, but thepeace pact that ended the conflict placed the areas they fought for in the north.

Many SPLA-N fighters' uniforms still show the flag of the former rebel group that nowgoverns South Sudan, which voted in a referendum for secession.

Sudan accuses its southern neighbour of arming fighters in the two states and has takenthe matter to the UN Security Council, but South Sudan rejects the charges.

Fighting in South Kordofan first erupted in early June, just weeks before theindependence of South Sudan, between the Sudanese military and Nuba armed groupswho fought alongside the former southern rebels.

Saturday's fighting came weeks after rebels in Sudan's Darfur region and in the states ofSouth Kordofan and Blue Nile announced the formation of an alliance to overthrow thegovernment of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president.

The rebels said the alliance, called the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, was bent on"toppling the regime of the [Sudan's ruling] National Congress Party with all possiblemeans" and replacing it with a democratic system.

'Heavy bombardment'

The SPLA-N rebels were not immediately available to comment on the army's claimedvictory on Saturday. But it follows days of heavy fighting just north of Jau, a lakesidetown on a disputed stretch of the north-south border.

Yasser Arman, the SPLM-N leader, has said that Khartoum had launched a majormilitary campaign in South Kordofan earlier this week.

"There is a heavy bombardment against civilian populations and massive displacement,"Arman said in a statement.


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"This offensive is going to result in a much bigger humanitarian crisis than the lastoffensive that started in June."

Sudanese troops attacked SPLA-N positions on Wednesday in Buram county with heavyartillery and tanks, according to other rebel sources.

A barrage of army air strikes reportedly killed two civilians and badly injured four othersin the area.

The Sudanese government has prevented foreign aid workers and journalists fromvisiting the region, making it hard to verify information about the ongoing violence inSudan's two embattled border states.

In addition to the fighting in South Kordofan, there has been evidence of cross-borderattacks in recent weeks, the AFP news agency reported.

Witnesses said the army bombed a refugee camp last month in South Sudan'sneighbouring Unity state, just south of lake Jau, badly fraying relations between theformer civil war enemies.

The UN refugee agency said last week that the number of people fleeing the unrest inBlue Nile and South Kordofan was likely to reach 100,000 by the end of the year, upfrom about 80,000 now.

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U.S. sailors buried in Libya will stay there, for now (Washington Post)http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/sailors-buried-in-libya-will-stay-in-libya-for-now/2011/11/28/gIQAMxnlDO_blog.html1 December 2011By Jason Ukman

The remains of 13 American sailors buried in the Libyan capital of Tripoli for more than200 years may be there for a little bit longer.

The sailors were the casualties of a mission to destroy a once-thriving pirate fleet, andtheir descendants have sought for years to repatriate the remains. Their efforts have beenalternately blocked by the Gaddafi government and resisted by defense officials.

This week, three months after the ouster of the Gaddafi government, the Senate was onthe brink of passing legislation that would have required the Pentagon to seek the returnof the remains. But the provision now appears to be on hold.

As a result, the repatriation of the officers and crew of the USS Intrepid might not happenany time soon.
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The story of the USS Intrepid is part of the history of whats known as the First BarbaryWar. In 1804, the 13 sailors aboard the USS Intrepid were dispatched with explosives toblow up the Tripoli harbor. The citys ruler had been using it as a base for pirate shipsthat were pillaging American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, and the covertmission was a last-ditch effort to put an end to the practice.

The Americans vessel, however, exploded prematurely its unclear exactly why killing all on board. (Read more on the story of the Intrepid here.)

The Navy has respectfully declined to retrieve the remains, saying it believes Libya is thefinal resting place of the sailors and noting that it is custom to honor the burial groundsof those lost on ships and downed aircraft. There was a formal memorial ceremony heldin honor of the sailors and crew in Tripoli in 1949, and the Navy says that U.S. Embassypersonnel conducted regular services there for decades afterward.

The cemetery that is believed to be the site of most of the remains is U.S. diplomatic

property.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert considers the Tripoli Protestantcemetery to be the final resting place of the Intrepid sailors who sacrificed their lives forour nation, Lt. Cmdr. Alana Garas, a Navy spokesman, said in a statement this week,echoing the stance of Greenerts predecessor, Adm. Gary Roughhead.

Those behind the grassroots effort at repatriation, however, say the Tripoli cemetery ishardly Normandy.

The sailors are not honored there, Michael Caputo, the coordinator for the IntrepidProject, the group that has pressed to have the remains brought back. Theyre stashedthere.

The Navy has previously raised doubts about whether the remains could be found andidentified after 207 years. Caputo said his group has provided the Navy with historicalrecords that should allay those concerns.

Veterans organizations have backed the effort, as have key lawmakers on the Hill.

At the end of the day the families are not satisfied with the fact that [the military]marched around theplace and blew the Bosuns whistle, Caputo said. The Navy shouldbe concerned about the status of some of their earliest heroes, too.

In the spring, the House passed legislation that would compel the Pentagon to act. And itseemed likely that the Senate would support a similar provision in the DefenseAuthorization billuntil, according to backers of the measure, Sen. John McCain(Ariz.) blocked it.

A spokesman for McCain, a former Navy pilot and the ranking Republican on the Armed


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Services Committee, said the senator is still reviewing the issue, and has asked theNavy, the Defense POW/MIA Office and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command fortheir views on it.

Supporters of repatriation say theyre stunned.

Among those killed aboard the USS Intrepid were Capt. Richard Somers, the commanderof the ship, and his second in command, Lt. Henry Wadsworth.

A descendant of the lieutenant, William A. Wadsworth, a Republican representative inConnecticuts General Assembly, has been among those to recently rally to the cause forrepatriation of the remains.

He noted that several of his relatives served in the military and died in the line of duty.And while he has visited their graves, he cant easily do the same with the burial groundof Lt. Henry Wadsworth.

Unlike the others, he said, the lieutenants grave has not been treated with the samedegree of honor.

I think they owe us this much as a family, he said of the military, noting that the familyhas given rise to senators, soldiers and statesmen, not to mention the poet HenryWadsworth Longfellow, the nephew of the lieutenant.

Theres an opportunity to get [Lt. Wadsworth] back now to the United States, saidWilliam A. Wadsworth. I think we should take advantage.

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Iranian TV station 'faked' 1,370 Somali deaths by US drones (The Bureau ofInvestigative Journalism)http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/12/02/iranian-tv-station-faked-1370-somali-deaths-by-us-drones/2 December 2011By Emmy Slater and Chris Woods

An Iranian TV station appears to have faked dozens of accounts of US drone strikes inSomalia which it says have killed hundreds of civilians.

Press TV, which was fined 100,000 by Ofcom on Thursday after the station hid the factthat a 2009 interviewee was being forcibly detained in Iran, has reported the deaths ofmore than 1,370 people in drone strikes in Somalia since September this year, of which383 are categorised as civilians.

But research by the Bureau, published in the Guardian, has found no evidence of thealleged 1,370 fatalities, stemming from 56 claimed drone strikes.
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Highly suspectThe first known lethal US drone strike in Somalia occurred on June 23 2011. A smallnumber of similar attacks appear to have taken place since then, possibly in conjunctionwith operations by the French and Kenyan militaries.

The Pentagon does not comment on drone strikes, so there are no official figures for thenumbers of civilian deaths. For years, the US has been carrying out other covert missionsin Somalia, but started using armed drones in Somalia in June.

However the number of strikes reported by Press TV are questionable.

On September 15 2011, Press TV reported that US drone attacks on the outskirts ofKismayo town, Somalia, had killed nine women and children.

It was the first of many claims of drone strike civilian deaths in Somalia. No

photographic or video evidence has ever been shown in support. At least four reports areidentical in all but place name and casualty numbers, and sources are only named in fourof the 56 drone strike reports.

The Bureau has been unable to identify sources Hassan Ali and Colonel Aden Dheere,described as Somali military officials or Mohamud Abdirahman, an eyewitness,despite lodging a request with the Somali Government and with Press TVs Iranian HQ.

No representatives from the UN, Amisom (African Union Mission in Somalia), NGOs orjournalists in Somalia were able to confirm the strikes.Tony Burns, director of operationsat Somali charity Saacid, which operates from Mogadishu, said that Press TVs casualtyfigures are simply not possible.SAACIDs experience has been that Press TV does have a penchant for exaggeration: inthe past they have published conflict reports which, in reality, never occurred, andcasualty figures that are simply not true.

A senior UN official focusing on Somalia agreed, said: Press TV is not a reliable source.It exaggerates and openly fabricates reports.

Some organisations have, however, repeated Press TVs claims. The Daily Nation, one ofEast Africas largest newspapers, has carried details of a number ofattacks, forexample. Global Research, a Canadian non-profit human rights group, has also givencredence to reports.

While Press TVs stories have been picked up around the globe, officials at the USembassy in Nairobi insist that the reports are wholly false. And a senior Pentagonspokesman, Lt Colonel Jim Gregory, told the Bureau that:

We cannot provide specific operational details; however we believe in providing timelyand accurate information when possible about our activities, and we encourage all


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international outlets to contact us when they need assistance with their stories. RegardingSomalia, we are supportive of the African Union Mission there and the TransitionalFederal Government efforts as they continue to fight terrorism.

Propaganda War

Jeremy Scahill of the Nation recently exposed secret CIA operations in Mogadishu. Hehas spoken publicly about US drones operating in Somalia and elsewhere.

Scahill believed that there could be innocent reasons for the misinformation, including abenign misinterpretation of events on the ground amid the chaos. And US attacks withother weaponsincluding cruise missiles or airstrikesmay be being misreported.

Alternatively the reports could form part of a targeted anti-US news campaign, saidScahill.

There is an extreme propaganda war going on between Iran and the US at the moment.

Youve got to assume that everyone has an agenda.

Asked if Press TV had exaggerated the number of drone strikes in Somalia, a spokesmanfor Press TV in Tehran yesterday declined to comment.

The Bureau presented its findings to Press TV in Tehran. Mr Barvasad, a senior Producerat the channel, said he had nothing to add.

OFCOM fine

Exposure of the Iranian TV stations fake reports comes as OFCOM, the UK mediawatchdog, this week fined the station 100,000. In 2009 Press TV committed a seriousbreach of the Broadcasting Code when it aired an interview with Maziar Bahari, aNewsweek journalist imprisoned in Iran.

Bahari says that he was interviewed under duress for the channel, and was forced to readfrom a prepared script: facts which Press TV hid from its its UK viewers.

The Bahari interview may not be the sole reason behind OFCOMs decision. In February2010, US and British diplomats met in London to discuss ways to circumvent Iransblocking of western satellite channels. A WikiLeaks diplomatic cable revealed that theUK government was looking for ways to limit Press TVs UK operations.

Direct contactAn insider with knowledge of the Bahiri affair told the Bureau this week that the FCOhas been in direct contact with OFCOM regarding Press TV - something which theregulator is unhappy with.

OFCOM doesnt like the Government being in touch with them on casework. Suchaction can make them look bad regardless of which way a decision goes.


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The source insisted, however, that the decision to fine Press TV was less linked togovernmental pressure and more to do with ongoing fallout from the News Internationalscandal. The regulator intends to crack down on all absentee landlords, the source said.

The regulator is also insisting that Press TV name on its licence the Tehran-based figurewho actually controls its UK-based operations, instead of the stooges currently named.If the channel fails to do soas some suspectPress TV may soon be off the air inBritain.

###

Gifts of cash, baby clothes, medicine: Al-Qaida uses hearts and minds approach

in Africa (Washington Post)http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/gifts-of-cash-baby-clothes-medicine-al-qaida-uses-hearts-and-minds-approach-in-africa/2011/12/03/gIQAWaraOO_story.html

3 December 2011

SOKOLO, MaliThe first time the members of al-Qaida emerged from the forest, theypolitely said hello. Then the men carrying automatic weapons asked the frightenedvillagers if they could please take water from the well.

Before leaving, they rolled down the windows of their pickup truck and called over thechildren to give them chocolate.

That was 18 months ago, and since then, the bearded men in tunics like those worn byOsama bin Laden have returned for water every week. Each time they go to lengths toexchange greetings, ask for permission and act neighborly, according to locals, in the firstintimate look at how al-Qaida tries to win over a village.

Besides candy, the men hand out cash. If a child is born, they bring baby clothes. Ifsomeone is ill, they prescribe medicine. When a boy was hospitalized, they dropped offplates of food and picked up the tab.

With almost no resistance, al-Qaida has implanted itself in Africas soft tissue, choosingas its host one of the poorest nations on earth. The terrorist group has create a refuge inthis remote land through a strategy of winning hearts and minds, described in rare detailby seven locals in regular contact with the cell. The villagers agreed to speak for the firsttime to an Associated Press team in the red zone, deemed by most embassies to be toodangerous for foreigners to visit.

While al-Qaidas central command is in disarray and its leaders on the run following binLadens death six months ago, security experts say, the groups 5-year-old branch inAfrica is flourishing. From bases like the one in the forest just north of here, al-Qaida inthe Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is infiltrating local communities, recruiting fighters,running training camps and planning suicide attacks, according to diplomats and
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government officials.

Even as the mother franchise struggles financially, its African offshoot has raised anestimated $130 million in under a decade by kidnapping at least 50 Westerners inneighboring countries and holding them in camps in Mali for ransom. It has tripled in size

from 100 combatants in 2006 to at least 300 today, say security experts. And its growingfootprint, once limited to Algeria, now stretches from one end of the Sahara desert to theother, from Mauritania in the west to Mali in the east.

The groups stated aim is to become a player in global jihad, and suspected collaboratorshave been arrested throughout Europe, including in the Netherlands, Spain, Italy,England and France. In September, the general responsible for U.S. military operations inAfrica, Army Gen. Carter Ham, said AQIM now also poses a significant threat to theUnited States.

The answer to why the group has thrived can be found in this speck of a town, where

homes are made of mud mixed with straw and families eke out a living either in the fieldsof rice to the south or in the immense forest of short, stout trees to its north.

Its here, under a canopy stretching over an area three times larger than the city of NewYork, that Sokolos herders take their cattle. They avoid overgrazing by organizingthemselves into eight units linked to each of the eight wells, labeled N1 through N8,along the 50-mile-long perimeter of the Wagadou forest. They pay $5 per year per headof cattle, and $3 per head of sheep, for the right to water their animals.

When the al-Qaida fighters showed up about 1 years ago with four to five jerrycans andasked for water, they signaled that they did not intend to plunder resources. They stoodout in their tunics stopping a little below the knees, small turbans and beards, a foreignstyle of dress associated with the Gulf states and bin Laden.

From the moment you lay eyes on them, you know that theyre not Malian, said 45-year-old herder Amadou Maiga.

They started to come every four or five days in Land Cruisers, with Kalashnikovs slungover their shoulders. At first they stayed for no more than 15 to 20 minutes, said thevillagers, including herders, a hunter and employees of the Malian Ministry of Husbandrywho travel to the area to vaccinate animals and repair broken pumps. If on Monday theytook water from one well, on Wednesday they would go to another, always varying theirpath.

Fousseyni Diakite, 51, a pump technician who travels twice a month to the forest tocheck the generators used to run the wells, first ran into the cell in May 2010, when hesaw four men in Arab dress inside a Toyota Hilux truck, all with AK-47s at their feet.

He said the men come with medical supplies and try to find out if anyone is sick.


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There is one who is tall with a big chest hes Arab, possibly Algerian. Hes knownfor having an ambulatory pharmacy. He goes from place to place giving treatment forfree, Diakite said.

They venture into the camps where the herders sleep at dusk and hand out cash to

villagers who join them for prayers, he saidbills of 10,000 West African francs (about$20), equal to nearly half the average monthly salary in Mali.

Most of the herders sleep in lean-tos in camps at the forests edge. Because these aretemporary settlements, they do not have mosques, unlike most villages in this nationtwice the size of France that is 90 percent Muslim.

In Boulker, a hamlet near the forest, the fighters left 100,000 francs (around $200),instructing locals to buy supplies and build an adobe mosque, Diakite said.

They said that for every population center with at least 10 people, there should be a

mosque, he said.

Along with its poverty, Mali has an enormous geography and a weak central governmentnot unlike Afghanistan, where bin Laden first used the charm offensive to secure theloyalty of the local people, said Noman Benotman, a former jihadist with links to al-Qaida, now an analyst at the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

We used to teach our people about this. Its part of the military plan how to treatlocals. This is the environment that keeps them alive, said Benotman, who first met binLaden in Sudan and who spent years fighting alongside al-Qaida in Afghanistan. He saidbin Laden gave his fighters specific instructions on how to conduct themselves: Dontargue about the price, just make the locals happy. Become like oxygen to them.

AQIM is taking the lesson to heart. Soon after they began taking water, one of thebearded fighters approached a shepherd at the pump to buy a ram. The fighters werelooking to slaughter it to feed themselves. The shepherd offered it to him for freetooafraid to ask for money, said Maiga, the mans friend.

But the stranger refused to take the ram without payment, and immediately handed over agenerous sum.

They seem to know all the prices ahead of time. They point to a ram and say, Ill buythat one for 30,000 cfa ($60), said Maiga, quoting the highest sum a herder couldexpect to get for a ram in these parts. They never bargain.

AQIM grew out of the groups fighting the Algerian government in the 1990s, after themilitary canceled elections to stave off victory for an Islamist party. Over the nextdecade, they left a trail of destruction in Algeria. Around 2003, they sent an emissary toIraq to meet an al-Qaida intermediary, according to Benotman. Three years later, theinsurgents joined the terror family, in what second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri


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called a blessed union.

Since then, their attacks have taken on the hallmarks of al-Qaida. A pair of explosionsthis August killed 18 people as they tore through the mess hall of Algerias militaryacademy, with the second bomb timed to hit emergency responders.

Al-Qaida in turn appears to be learning from its affiliates, which have used kidnappingsfor ransom in Algeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. After bin Ladens death inMay, investigators found files on his hard drive showing plans to turn to kidnapping tocompensate for a decline in donations.

AQIM in particular has perfected what analysts call a kidnap economy, drawing on itsrefuge in Mali, according to diplomats, hostage negotiators and government officials. In2003, the group kidnapped and transported 32 mostly German tourists from southernAlgeria to Mali, where, according to a member of Malis parliament, they struck a dealwith local authorities that is still in effect today.

The agreement was, You dont hurt us, we wont hurt you, said the parliamentmember, formerly involved in hostage negotiations, who asked not to be identifiedbecause of the danger involved.

The government of Mali denies these accusations, but officials cited in diplomatic cablespublished by WikiLeaks make the same assertion. The president of neighboringMauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, told his American counterparts in 2009 thatMali is at peace with AQIM to avoid attacks on its territory. Whereas the al-Qaida cellhas captured more than 50 foreigners in Algeria, Niger and Mauritania, hardly any of theviolence has touched Mali.

The cell has also managed to recruit local fighters, including 60 to 80 Tuaregs, the olive-skinned nomads who live in the Sahara desert, according to a security expert. Andvillagers say they have seen black-skinned sub-Saharan Africans in the pickups speakingthe languages of Mali, Guinea and Nigeria.

The situation in Mali is they have become locals they are not foreigners, saidBenotman. This is really, really very, very difficult to do, and it makes it very hard toget rid of them.

One thing still stands in al-Qaidas way: Its hardcore ideology does not gel with themoderate Islam practiced by Malis nomads. Most of them said they were afraid, caughtbetween need for the money al-Qaida offers and wariness of its extremist beliefs.

When bin Laden died, the members of the local cell went from well to well to ask peopleto pray for his soul, according to Amaye ag Ali Cisse, an employee of the Ministry ofHusbandry who travels twice a month to the wells to oversee the vaccination of animals.

Everyone is uncomfortable, he said. This is a religion that doesnt belong to us.


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The herders say the fighters have not tried to impose their ideology by force. Instead,they say that the AQIM members wait until they have seen a herder at least a few timesbefore broaching the subject.

It was the third time that I saw them that they started preaching to me, said Maiga.They said that everything they do is in order to seek out God.

Herder Baba Ould Momo, 29, said he tries to come up with an excuse to leave when thepickup trucks arrive at the well, because hes afraid the terror cell will pull him in. Hesaid they backed off when they noticed he wasnt interested.

The first thing they try to do is invite people to join them in the forest. If they see thatthe person is wavering, its then that they start preaching saying everything istransitory, said Momo, who like most of the herders wears plastic flip-flops, with a robeof wrinkled cloth. But if the person is categorical in saying No, they leave them

alone.

In June, Mauritania and Mali led a rare joint attack on the al-Qaida cell in the WagadouForest. However, herders say that a week earlier, the al-Qaida fighters told them that anattack was imminent and that they had laid down land mines in the forest. Mauritaniablames Malian officials for tipping off AQIM.

The herders said that for around two weeks, they didnt see the bearded fighters. Thenthey returned with a new fleet of Hilux pickup trucks, and with more men. Since then, thefighters tracks have been all over the forest floor, in a map of constant movement, said60-year-old hunter Cheickana Cisse. They no longer sleep in the same place.

Just as Cisse was taking a drink of water at the N7 pump on a recent evening, two pickuptrucks mounted with anti-aircraft cannons and loaded with combatants drove up. The menhad chains of ammunition strapped across their chests, and belts loaded with cartridges.

They laid their AK-47s in a circle on the ground to create a space to pray, like a symbolicmosque. One of them asked Cisse if he had heard of bin Laden.

He said, Were like this with bin Laden, Cisse explained, intertwining his right andleft index fingers like a link in a chain. He said, Were al-Qaida.

The elderly hunter tried to slip away just as one of the fighters made the call to prayer.

And they said, You? Arent you going to pray? They told me to come into the circle. Icould feel them watching me, he said.

The men kneeled inside the circle of weapons. Four others guarded them, including onewho climbed on the roof of the truck. Cisse tiptoed inside and began going through theprayer. I kept stealing glances to see if they were doing the same moves as me, he said.


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I know the words, but I was scared.

When the group had finished, the four who had kept vigil took their turn inside the circle.Cisse quietly walked away.

They didnt try to stop him.

###

Non-state Fighters Gain Deadlier Weapons (Aviation Week)http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/dti/2011/12/01/DT_12_01_2011_p32-394021.xml2 December 2011

As the Libyan regime of Moammar Gadhafi withered and died after months of combatwith rebel forces, the weapons that the dictator stockpiled in his 42year reign came up

for grabs.

As the fighting in Libya intensified, concerns within NATO began to grow over the fateof thousands of Russian-made SA-24 man-portable air-defense systems (Manpads) thatwere in stockpiles. There are ringing indicators that some Manpads have left thecountry, U.S. Army Gen. Carter Ham, chief of Africa Command and point man forNATOs Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya, recently told an audience here.

The first question is, how many [missiles]were there? The weapons are considered tobe the most sophisticated portable antiaircraft missiles made by Russia, and they havelong been a hot commodity among non-state actors and insurgents shopping the blackmarket.

In November, Al Qaedas North Africa affiliate claimed it had acquired part of thisdeadly arsenal. Speaking with the Mauritanian news agency ANI, Mokhtar Belmokhtar,one of the leaders of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, said that we have been one ofthe main beneficiaries of the revolutions in the Arab world, especially since the grouphas acquired Libyan armament, although he refused to describe what the group claimsto have.

There have also been clashes between the Nigerian army and heavily armed men movingsouth out of Libya. One fight in early November killed one Nigerian soldier and 13 menin a convoy, while producing a small cache of weapons, including two 14.5-mm machineguns, four 12.7-mm machine guns, several dozen assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenadelaunchers and a large amount of ammunition. After a battle in June, Nigerian forcesclaimed to have seized more than 600 kg (1,320 lb.) of high explosives.

And then there are the unsecured chemical weapons. Of the 23 tons of mustard agent thatGadhafi claimed to have in 2003 when he made his bid to remove Libya from theinternational list of pariah states, there are still 9 metric tons in the Libyan desert. The
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program to destroy the stockpiles began in late 2010, and by February all but the last 9tons had been destroyed. The mustard agent (which is unweaponized) is out therewithout any sort of knowledge over its security or whether it was being sold, accordingto nonproliferation expert Paul Walker, director of security and sustainability at GlobalGreen USA. International weapons inspectors are due to arrive in Libya before the end of

the year, but the fact that there is so much of this dangerous gas in such an unstableenvironment is cause for concern.

Walker is also concerned about the discovery of two undisclosed chemical weapons sitesin Libya, and that the level of security at these sites is uncertain. Still, he cautions, even ifterrorists were to obtain some of the mustard agent, it isnt easy to disperse chemicalweapons in a manner that would cause a lot of harm to humans. It would be much morepractical for terrorists to use conventional explosives than chemical weapons, he says.

But back to the missing Libyan Manpads. The U.S. State Departmentwith an assistfrom the Pentagonhas found and destroyed more than 32,500 excess, loosely secured,

illicitly held or otherwise-at-risk Manpads in over 30 countries since 2003, according toa report released in July. Given estimates that more than 1 million Manpads have beenmanufactured worldwide since 1967, there has been a years-long effort to round up asmany as possible to ensure they dont fall into the hands of terrorists or other non-stategroups. The report says that while there are an unknown number of these systems incirculation around the world, and the effort to locate them continues, the U.S. believesthat most of these systems are either stockpiled in national inventories or have beendestroyed.

Still, about 20 countries have produced or have licenses to produce Manpads or theircomponents, including China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and Serbia. Since1975, 40 civilian aircraft have been hit by them, causing 28 crashes and more than 800deaths. Two of the most recent attacks highlighted are a 2003 hit on a civilian cargo planeupon takeoff from Baghdad International Airportthough the plane landed safely and noone was injuredand a 2007 strike on a cargo plane over Mogadishu that killed 11crewmembers.

Im concerned about heavy weapons mounted on technicals (armed commercialvehicles) far more than [surface-to-air missiles], says Andrew Lebovich, an analyst whocovers the Middle East and North Africa for the New America Foundation. I think[SAMs] are still a threat. But its the technicals that are going to make conflict reallynasty in the Sahel (an area between the Sahara Desert and the savannas of Sudan), hesays. The technicaloften a Toyota Hilux pickup truck with a heavy weaponis theubiquitous symbol of insurgencies the world over. This cheap troop carrier with easilyreplaceable parts and durability that makes it an excellent gun truck, can cause a lot ofmayhem in a short amount of time. Just a few technicals can deposit dozens of fighters inalmost any terrain while laying down a withering barrage to cover their movements.These are the weapons that are going to stay in the field for a long time, Lebovich says.

But the weapon that has grown quickly to become the most hated among government


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forces battling insurgencies is doubtless the improvised explosive device (IED).Relatively cheap and easy to make and transport, the IED is the biggest killer of U.S.,NATO and government troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. A staggering 80% of the IEDsplanted in Afghanistan, and 90% of U.S. casualties there, can be traced to IED bomb-making chemicals that come from two legal factories in Pakistan. And while NATO

forces know where the factories are, and the brokers who sell the materials, there has sofar been nothing they can do to stop the flow of bomb-making chemicals to Afghaninsurgents, according to Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, head of the Pentagons JointIED Defeat Organization (Jieddo).

Each year the factories each turn out 400,000 metric tons of ammonium nitrateacommon fertilizer used by farmers but also a component of some explosives. About 1%of that makes it to insurgents, Barbero says. What we dont understand is how thisammonium nitrate gets from these factories to the insurgents.

Once insurgents get the material, it takes 40-60 minutes of processing to make the

fertilizer into bomb materials, he says. Echoing U.S. officials who have long complainedabout Pakistan acting as a haven and resupply point for Afghan insurgents, Barbero saysthat we cant solve the IED problem in Afghanistan, in Afghanistan.

And the bombs keep coming. Compared to this time last year, the number of IEDs foundand destroyed is up almost 100%, and the destruction of caches of bomb-makingmaterials is up 200%. Were seeing historic highs of IEDs, with a record 1,600events in June and July, he adds. Still, Jieddo was given $2.4 billion for the anti-IEDfight in 2011, a figure that Barbero expects to remain the same for the next two years.

Lt. Col. Thomas Enke, chief of the multinational explosive ordnance control center of the1st German Netherlands Corps, assigned to NATOs International Security AssistanceForce in Afghanistan, identified trends in IEDs at Rheinmetalls Infantry Days inUnterluess, Germany. He pointed to ammonium nitrate, but added that he expects morehomemade explosives such as potassium chlorate and aluminum derivatives, along withnew peroxide mixtures to gain use by insurgents and non-state groups. Another trend isthe use of mines, artillery shells and other explosives packed with metallic fragments thatincrease their killing power.

The IED isnt confined to Iraq and Afghanistan. Outside those combat zones there aremore than 500 IED attacks a month, notably in Pakistan, but also Somalia, Algeria,Russia and Colombia, and increasingly in Mexico, where drug cartels have acquired asophisticated understanding of complex tactics, techniques and procedures for luring lawenforcement and military into elaborate, multiple-IED attacks.

The U.S. so far has been spared, though Barbero says there has been some talk aboutmodifying [Jieddos] authority in the future to support other federal agenciesdomestically in uncovering terrorist networks in the United States.

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Canada sends special forces to aid African al-Qaida fight (Montreal Gazette)http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Canada+sends+special+forces+African+Qaida+fight/5804679/story.html

2 December 2011By David Pugliese

Canadian special forces troops from Petawawa, Ont., have been sent to Africa to providetraining to Mali's military, which is in the midst of a war against al-Qaida insurgents. Themembers of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) are not involved in anyfighting, nor do they accompany Malian troops into battle.

But the Canadians are providing training in basic soldiering, including communications,planning, first aid and providing medical aid and support to civilian populations.

Defence analysts say such training is needed, as Mali and other countries in the region tryto counter the growing threat from al-Qaida and armed gangs.

al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, operates from bases in northern Mali and isbelieved to be behind the recent kidnappings of five European tourists and the murder ofa sixth.

"This is exactly the place we should be in terms of trying to develop a counter-terrorismcapacity in the Sahel and in North Africa," said Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, head of theOttawa-based Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. "This is a natural fit forus."

Other western nations are providing training to militaries in other countries in the regionas part of the international effort to combat AQIM.

The Canadian Special Operations Regiment sent one small team this summer to northernMali to provide instruction for that country's special forces. Another team is currently inthe capital city of Bamako providing counter-terrorism skills training and officer training.

The teams number fewer than 15 soldiers.

AQIM traces its roots to Islamic insurgents fighting the Algerian government. Theinsurgents have since become associated with al-Qaida and have branched out to conductattacks in other countries in the region, as well as kidnapping westerners.

Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were held by AQIM after beingkidnapped in December 2008. They were released 130 days later amid claims bygovernment officials in Mali that four AQIM detainees were set free in return.

AQIM helps finance its operations through kidnappings and weapons and drug
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smuggling.

The recent kidnappings have significantly hurt Mali's tourism trade, particularly atTimbuktu, once a popular travel destination for adventurers. Mali's government recentlychartered a plane to take about 20 tourists out of Timbuktu, while various governments

are warning their citizens to stay out of the region.

Mali has also sent its soldiers to join French commandos in the hunt for two French menwho are among those kidnapped.

Earlier this year, the Mauritanian army announced it had killed three AQIM insurgentswho had planned to assassinate Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

In early January, AQIM was in the news after two French men were executed during anattempted rescue mission by troops from France and Niger. They had been kidnapped bygunmen in Niamey, Niger.

Fowler has said Canadians should be concerned about AQIM. It is the largest of the al-Qaida "franchises," he notes, and could directly affect Canada's business and foreigndevelopment interests in the region.

During his captivity, Fowler said AQIM made it clear to him that not only did theydespise what they called the "infidel occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan," but that theyhad the same view of the United Nations and aid workers in the region.

All such individuals, according to them, are legitimate targets, Fowler was told.

In 2008, AQIM in Algeria used a car bomb in an attack on a bus carrying employees ofthe Quebec engineering company SNC Lavalin. Twelve of the firm's Algerian employeeswere killed and 15 wounded.

One of AQIM's most significant attacks involved the 2007 bombing of the UnitedNations office in Algiers, which killed 17 staff and at least 14 other people.

The deployment of Canadian special ops to Mali is expected to be an ongoing mission,with small teams moving in and out of the country whenever it is determined that Malianforces need such training, Thompson said.

It is similar to another training regime the regiment has undertaken in Jamaica, where itinstructs that country's counter-terrorism troops, he added.

In 2009, the Citizen reported that CSOR helped train the Jamaican counter-terrorismteam that stormed a hijacked CanJet airliner in Montego Bay and captured a mentallytroubled gunman without firing a shot. The hijacker had earlier allowed 159 Canadianpassengers and two crew members to leave the chartered aircraft. Members of theCanadian Special Operations Regiment did not take part in the raid.


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CSOR was created in 2006 to help support the Ottawa-based counter-terrorism unit, JointTask Force Two, as well as to conduct its own missions. Its soldiers have undertakenoperations in Afghanistan, but the details of those missions are secret.

CSOR trained Malian special forces earlier this year. In February and March, about 15CSOR members took part in Exercise Flintlock in Senegal. That U.S.-led training eventsaw CSOR members paired with Malian troops, instructing them in small-unit tactics andother military skills.

In addition, the exercise focused on improving the sharing of information and increasingco-ordination between the various countries.

Other countries involved in Flintlock included Spain, France, The Netherlands andGermany, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal.

Canadian special forces will also take part in the Flintlock exercise to be held in 2012,this time in Mali, Thompson said.

###

Tunisian Islamists and secularists face off (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/12/201112314837447708.html3 December 2011

Thousands of Tunisian Islamists and secularists staged parallel protests outside theinterim parliament in a dispute over how big a role Islam should play in society after thecountry's "Arab Spring" uprising, and subsequent election.

Tensions have been running high between the two camps since the revolt in Januaryscrapped a ban on parties that advocate political Islam, paving the way for a moderateIslamist party to come to power at the head of a coalition government.

The latest round of protests was sparked when a group of hardline Islamists occupied auniversity campus near the capital to demand segregation of sexes in class and the rightfor women students to wear a full-face veil.

About 3,000 Islamists gathered outside the constitutional assembly in the Bardo districtof the Tunis on Saturday, separated by a police cordon from a counter protest by about1,000 secularists.

The Islamists say the secularist elite which has run the country since independence fromFrance is still restricting their freedom to express their faith. Their rivals say the Islamistsare trying to impose an Islamic state in what has been one of the Arab world's mostliberal countries.
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The Islamist protesters at the rally carried placards saying: "We support the legitimacy ofthe majority!," "Islamic Tunisia is not secular!," and "No to secularist extremism."

High suspicions

An Islamist protester, Nourdine Machfer, said the Tunisian people had expressed theirwill when they handed victory to the moderate Islamist Ennahdha party in an election inOctober.

"It's bizarre. Today in Tunisia we are living in a dictatorship of the minority," Machfertold the Reuters news agency. "They should respect the will of the people, who havemade their views known."

The Islamists waved Ennahdha flags but also the black banners of the ultraconservativeHizb Tahrir, which has not been legalised in the north African country.

Ennahdha issued a statement saying that it did not support the Islamist protest outsideparliament.

However, secularist opponents said they believed Ennahdha's true agenda was to createan Islamic state by stealth.

"The Islamists ... want to use the constitution to take power, and stage a coup d'etatagainst democracy," said one of the secularist protesters, Raja Dali.

"They want to give all the power to the prime minister," she said, referring to seniorEnnahdha official Hamadi Jbeli who is his party's nominee to lead the coalitiongovernment.

Tunisia's struggle to reconcile the rival camps is being watched closely in Egypt, wherean Islamist-affiliated party performed strongly in the first phase of a parliamentaryelection.

Simultaneous protest

Tunisia became the birth-place of the Arab Spring when a vegetable seller, MohamedBouazizi, set fire to himself in protest at government repression. His suicide prompted awave of unrest which forced president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to step down.

Tunisia's revolution inspired revolutions which ousted entrenched rulers in Libya andEgypt, as well as upheavals in Syria and Yemen.

Saturday's protest was the first time that both Islamists and secularists had stagedsimultaneous protest. Shouts and jeers were exchanged between the two groups but therewere no clashes.


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Ennahdha is in an awkward position because it wants to be seen to be defending therights of Muslims to express their faith but at the same time it is wary of alarmingsecularists and Western governments by appearing too close to Islamisthardliners.

The latest flare-up of tension is complicating efforts by Ennahdha and its two secularistcoalition partners to agree on the make-up of a coalition government.

It is also distracting the country's new rulers from addressing the high unemployment andlow incomes that are the main preoccupation for ordinary Tunisians.

One young man on Saturday stood between the rival crowds with tape over his mouth, aloaf of bread in his hand, and a placard which read: "I am with neither of you I am infavour of jobs and dignity."

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Sudan: Bashir Restores Diplomatic Relations (All Africa)http://allafrica.com/stories/201112030218.html3 December 2011

NairobiSUDAN President Omar Bashir has reversed his decision to expel Kenya'sambassador in Khartoum, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula said yesterday.

Speaking at Wilson Airport shortly after he arrived from Khartoum, Wetang'ula saidKenya had managed to avert a diplomatic row with Sudan following a High Court rulingto execute an ICC arrest warrant on Bashir if he comes to Kenya. "Sudan had also set outa raft of reprisals that would have affected our economy," Wetang'ula revealed.

The reprisals included blocking Kenyan flights over Sudanese airspace, breaking tradelinks and expelling more than 1,000 Kenyans in Sudan, some of them students. Bashiralso intended to expel Kenyans in the UN peace mission in Darfur. Bashir would haveboycotted any meetings organised by Kenya as the chair of Igad on the CPA and wouldhave not been receptive to any talks on the Nile waters.

Last year Kenya's tea exports to Sudan were worth US$200 million, Kenya's fifth leadingforex earner, Wetang'ula said. Wetang'ula was accompanied by Defence minister YusufHaji to deliver a special message from President Kibaki to Bashir. "We managed to stopthe reprisals and secure a stay for our ambassador who was supposed to leave Sudan atthe lapse of 72 hours on Thursday night," said Wetang'ula.

He said they told Bashir that "Kenya needs the least problems added in its basket", takinginto account the Operation Linda Nchi, the military undertaking in which Kenya isfighting the al Shabaab in Somalia. Wetang'ula briefed PM Raila Odinga who was also atthe airport before addressing the media.
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UN Council refuses to delay Eritrea sanctions vote (AFP)http://www.modernghana.com/news/364704/1/un-council-refuses-to-delay-eritrea-sanctions-vote.html3 December 2011

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Friday refused to delay a votenext week on taking sanctions against Eritrea so the isolated country's head of state canmake his case, diplomats said.

The vote is set for Monday but President Issaias Afeworki does not have enough time toget to New York, according to the UN envoy for the impoverished nation, which isaccused of plotting an attack on an African Union summit this year.

Several Security Council members, including Russia, China and South Africa, argued ininformal talks for the vote to be delayed for two days, diplomats said. But the 15-member

body stuck to the schedule demanded by the United States and Gabon, which drew up theresolution.

"It is going to be Monday," said Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin after the talks,but he said the details of who would be present are not clear. Some East African ministersare expected to address the meeting by video-link.

Afeworki asked in October to speak to the Security Council which sent an invitation thisweek.

Eritrea's UN ambassador Araya Desta told AFP that Afeworki wanted to attend but didnot get a visa to enter the United States on time to organize a flight.

However US officials said visas were granted within hours of the application being made.Diplomats said Afeworki still had three days to get to the UN headquarters.

Council members Gabon and Nigeria drew up the sanctions resolution against Eritrea.Gabon, backed by the United States, had pressed for a vote last Wednesday but they werepersuaded to wait until Monday to give Afeworki a chance.

Ethiopia and other East African countries have led the campaign outside the council fortougher action against Eritrea.

Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993 and the two have remained arch-rivals ever since.

A UN report this year accused the Asmara government of involvement in a plot to bomban African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital.

Kenya has complained about Eritrea's backing for Shebab Islamist militants in Somalia,while Djibouti has a border dispute with its neighbor.
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The UN sanctions monitoring group said in a report released in July that Eritrea wasgiving political, financial and logistical support to Shebab and other groups.

The draft sanctions resolution would widen a travel ban and assets freeze against Eritrean

individuals and entities passed by the Security Council in 2009.

It demands that Eritrea "cease all direct or indirect efforts to destabilize states, includingthrough financial, military, intelligence and non-military assistance." It also "condemns"the alleged Eritrean plot to bomb the African summit.

The government has denied the allegations and the Eritrean ambassador called theresolution "outrageous".

Demands in the first draft resolution to ban investment in Eritrea's key mining industryand a government tax on remittances sent back by Eritrean workers abroad have been

dropped.

The resolution "decides" that Eritrea shall "cease using extortion, threats of violence,fraud and other illicit means to collect taxes outside of Eritrea from its nationals."

The document also expresses concern at the "potential use" of Eritrea's new miningrevenues to "destabilize the Horn of Africa region". It calls on UN states to use greater"vigilance" in dealing with the Eritrean mining sector.

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President George W. Bushs Trip to Africa: Reflections on Foreign Policies toward

Africahttp://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/1202_bush_africa_kimenyi.aspx2 December 2011

Former President George W. Bush and his wife are currently touring Africa and visitingTanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia from December 1 to 5. The president and Mrs. Bush willuse the trip to focus on some of the initiatives that Bush advocated for and stronglysupported while in office. Despite demonstrating a unique commitment to the Africancontinent, much like President Clinton before him,- Bushs record tends to be underratedand he scored consistently lower than Obama in a 2008 PEW survey that askedindividuals from various countries whether each candidate would do the right thing inworld affairs.Conversely, Bush has high approval rating on the continent itself, makingit instructive to reflect on the former presidents African initiatives, which bring him suchadmiration from sub-Saharan Africa. Interestingly, this trip takes place just after the GOPcandidates have expressed their views on foreign policy with most GOP candidateslooking critically at spending on assistance for development.

Bushs most important initiatives focused on alleviating major heath challenges facing
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the African people. In 2003, President Bush launched the Presidents Emergency Plan forAIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was then the largest single effort by any nation targetinga specific disease. The program sought to establish and scale up HIV/AIDS prevention,care and treatment programs. According to the PEPFAR program website, during itsfirst phase, PEPFAR supported the provision of treatment to more than two million

people, care to more than 10 million people, including more than four million orphansand vulnerable children, and prevention of mother-to-child treatment services. UnderPresident Bush, this program was criticized for its emphasis on abstinence basedprevention, but on the whole this initiative was an unprecedented attack against the AIDSpandemic.

Bush then targeted another deadly disease with the launch of the Presidents MalariaInitiative (PMI) in 2005. The PMI had the initial goal of reducing malaria-related deathsby 50 percent in 15 focus countries. Malaria places a huge burden on Africanscausingmillions of adult deaths every year and significant reductions in productivity. Results onthe PMI website show that the program has major effect in reducing prevalence of

malaria, child mortality and related deaths.

The Bush administrations African foreign policy did not stop with health initiatives.Bush led the push for the G-8 nations to demand the multi-lateral debt relief initiative(MDRI), which encouraged the IMF, World Bank and the U.S. to reduce the debt burdenof highly indebted poor countries. According to the African Development Bank, as of2009 the MDRI relieved debt for 21 African countries. In 2004, Bush also successfullypassed reforms that converted poor country debt into grants. Additionally, Bush tackledsecurity issues. The president was one of the first world leaders to label the conflict inSouth Sudan genocide. Although, Bush received criticism for not recognizing theindictment of Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court, he did put in placesanctions on oil coming from the Republic of Sudan in order to pressure a peace deal.These sanctions currently remain in place. Bush was also determined to create an Africa-based central command for U.S. forces. However, he did not win the support of Africanleaders to base the command, now called Africom, on the continent, with the base nowresting in Germany. Africom, however, is now an implementing partner for theDepartment of Defense and PEPFAR, supporting training and testing throughout Africa.

Following the format of Presidents Carter and Clinton, Bush continues to focus on globalhealth beyond his two presidential terms. His global health cause clbre is the PinkRibbon Initiative, an organization formed by the George Bush Presidential CenterInstitute in partnership with the U.N. and the Susan J. Komen Foundation, to expandaccess to cervical and breast cancer screening in Africa and Asia. Testing for cervicalcancer can be done easily with a drop of vinegar quickly highlighting cancerous tissue;however, screening remains unavailable in many parts of Asia and Africa. Both Lauraand George Bush will try to build awareness of this issue during their trip this week.Despite the perception that Bush was only involved in counterterrorism, he built anexpansive African foreign policy base that bears as much recognition as the Clintonadministrations African Growth and Opportunities Act and Global Health Initiative.


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The presidents trip is welcome and demonstrates his continued interest on issues thataffect the continent. Reflecting on President Bushs initiatives shows that he has notreceived due credit for his support of Africa and African issues and, despite themisconception that he focused only on terrorism and national security, his commitment toAfrica leaves a strong legacy that is difficult to ignore.

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END REPORT

Documents

AFRICOM Related News Clips 5 December 2011