Medeshi
Sudanese President Received By Qatari Emir in Doha
March 29, 2009
Al-Jazeera Satellite Television at 1337 gmt on 29 March carries a live relay of the arrival of Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir at the Doha Airport and Qatari Emir Shaykh Hamad Bin-Jasim Al Thani giving him a red carpet reception.
Showing Umar al-Bashir walking out of the plane and received by the Qatari emir, A-Jazirah anchorwoman says: "Some of the Sudanese ruling party members had fears about the Sudanese president's decision to take this flight."
At 1340 gmt, Al-Jazeera interviews live over satellite Al- Jazeera's correspondent Muhammad al-Kabir al-Kutubi, from Doha, who begins by saying that the expected final statement of the Doha summit will voice solidarity with Sudan and rejection of the decision of the International Criminal Court, ICC. He adds that "Al- Bashir's arrival in Doha is the first success of the Qatari diplomacy which culminated in bringing the Sudanese president and in his participation, which will definitely steal the lights at the summit."
Speaking further of the expected final statement at the Doha summit, Al-Kutubi adds: "I would like to note that the draft statement has been approved by all Arab countries without exceptions, including Jordan, Djibouti, and Comoros who are signing parties to the ICC."
For her part, Al-Jazeera anchorwoman notes "news leaks to Al- Jazeera from the Arab League that Arab leaders will make a request or a recommendation that Arab countries in general reconsider dealing with the ICC."
Originally published by Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 1337 29 Mar 09.
(c) 2009 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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Book launch: "Diiwaanka Qosolka” - collection of Somali wisdom jokes
Medeshi March 29, 2009
Book launch:
"Diiwaanka Qosolka” - collection of Somali wisdom jokes
By Jamal Ali Hussein in London and Bristol
Language of the event: Somali
London: Saturday, 11 April, 14pm at Arts Lecture Theatre, Queen Mary, university London E1 4NSO
Bristol: Sunday, 12 April, 15PM at St Pauls Community Sports Academy, New Foundland Street, Bristol, BS2 9NH
Kayd Somali Art and Culture is very excited to launch “Diiwaanka Qosolka”- Collection of Somali Wisdom Jokes. This is the first time the book will be launched and we are glad that the author, Jamal Ali, will be with us to share and present some of the 150 wonderful and hilarious short stories and poems which he has collected. Jamal Ali Hussein has collected a total of seven thousand ‘wisdom jokes’ and this is the first publication of its sort.
This book will give you an insight into the richness of Somali ‘wisdom jokes’, which have their roots in the traditional, nomadic Somali life style as well as addressing conteporary issues of immigration, exile and urbanization. The book will provide a greater understanding of Somali traditions, codes and life style.
The author, who is an International Banker with Citibank/Citigroup, and the CEO of the Bank’s operations in Ivory Coast and West Africa, has proven with this collection of Somali ‘wisdom jokes’ that laughter may be the best answer to the credit crunch! In addition to our main guest, there will be other books available for sale and there will be other poets and writers presenting some of their works, including Mohamed Baashe H. Hassan, Mawliid Aadan Aideed , Faysal Aw-Abdi, Abdirahman Ibrahim (Abees) and more.
More information: Ayan Mahamud: 0790371-2949
Mohamed Baashe: 07852239595
Faysal Aw-Cabdi: 07931892659
HADALADII BUUGA XAGIISA DANBE (Back Coverka)
Sheekooyinka buuggan “Diiwaanka Qosolka” ku jiraa waxay qofka ka fududaynayaan culays saaran, aadna waa looga helayaa. Waxa loo baahan yahay in sheekooyinka Buuggan ku jira loo tarjumo bulshooyinka aan furfurnayn sida caalamka Reer Galbeedka. Jamaal Cali Xuseen waxa uu ka mid yahay inta xiisaysa sheekooyinka noocan ah. Inta samaysa ee hibada u lehna waa ka mid.
Maxamed Ibraahim Warsame (Hadraawi): Abwaan Weyn, Mufaker Maansoole iyo Xeel-dheere Aqoonta Bulshada
Daraasado badan oo ku saabsan cilmi-nafsiga ayaa sheegaaya in qosolku yahay astaanta caafimaadka isla markaana qosolku kobciyo farxadda iyo himilada qofka. Bulshadu dhibaatooyinka nolosha waxay kaga gudbaan ama ay isku illowsiiyaan sheekooyin qosol, farxad, iyo xikmad leh, sida sheekooyinkan uu Jamaal Cali Xuseen ku soo ururiyey Diiwaankan qiimaha leh.
Dr. Xuseen Cabdillaahi Bulxan: Guddoomiyaha Jaamacadda Hargeysa, Bare Sare (Professor) ka ahaan jirey Jaamacadda Boston ( USA ), Xeel-dheere Cilmi Nafsiga
About Kayd: Kayd promotes Somali Art & Culture through a broad combination of poetry, literature, music, film and discussions. We wish to contribute to the creation of a culture of tolerance in the context of an appreciation of the richness of Somali culture; the Somali Week Festival remains one of the key events for
Managing Director: Ayan Mahamoud,Tel: 0-44(0)7903712949,
Email: ayan_mahamoud@kayd.org,
Website: www.kayd.org
Book launch:
"Diiwaanka Qosolka” - collection of Somali wisdom jokes
By Jamal Ali Hussein in London and Bristol
Language of the event: Somali
London: Saturday, 11 April, 14pm at Arts Lecture Theatre, Queen Mary, university London E1 4NSO
Bristol: Sunday, 12 April, 15PM at St Pauls Community Sports Academy, New Foundland Street, Bristol, BS2 9NH
Kayd Somali Art and Culture is very excited to launch “Diiwaanka Qosolka”- Collection of Somali Wisdom Jokes. This is the first time the book will be launched and we are glad that the author, Jamal Ali, will be with us to share and present some of the 150 wonderful and hilarious short stories and poems which he has collected. Jamal Ali Hussein has collected a total of seven thousand ‘wisdom jokes’ and this is the first publication of its sort.
This book will give you an insight into the richness of Somali ‘wisdom jokes’, which have their roots in the traditional, nomadic Somali life style as well as addressing conteporary issues of immigration, exile and urbanization. The book will provide a greater understanding of Somali traditions, codes and life style.
The author, who is an International Banker with Citibank/Citigroup, and the CEO of the Bank’s operations in Ivory Coast and West Africa, has proven with this collection of Somali ‘wisdom jokes’ that laughter may be the best answer to the credit crunch! In addition to our main guest, there will be other books available for sale and there will be other poets and writers presenting some of their works, including Mohamed Baashe H. Hassan, Mawliid Aadan Aideed , Faysal Aw-Abdi, Abdirahman Ibrahim (Abees) and more.
More information: Ayan Mahamud: 0790371-2949
Mohamed Baashe: 07852239595
Faysal Aw-Cabdi: 07931892659
HADALADII BUUGA XAGIISA DANBE (Back Coverka)
Sheekooyinka buuggan “Diiwaanka Qosolka” ku jiraa waxay qofka ka fududaynayaan culays saaran, aadna waa looga helayaa. Waxa loo baahan yahay in sheekooyinka Buuggan ku jira loo tarjumo bulshooyinka aan furfurnayn sida caalamka Reer Galbeedka. Jamaal Cali Xuseen waxa uu ka mid yahay inta xiisaysa sheekooyinka noocan ah. Inta samaysa ee hibada u lehna waa ka mid.
Maxamed Ibraahim Warsame (Hadraawi): Abwaan Weyn, Mufaker Maansoole iyo Xeel-dheere Aqoonta Bulshada
Daraasado badan oo ku saabsan cilmi-nafsiga ayaa sheegaaya in qosolku yahay astaanta caafimaadka isla markaana qosolku kobciyo farxadda iyo himilada qofka. Bulshadu dhibaatooyinka nolosha waxay kaga gudbaan ama ay isku illowsiiyaan sheekooyin qosol, farxad, iyo xikmad leh, sida sheekooyinkan uu Jamaal Cali Xuseen ku soo ururiyey Diiwaankan qiimaha leh.
Dr. Xuseen Cabdillaahi Bulxan: Guddoomiyaha Jaamacadda Hargeysa, Bare Sare (Professor) ka ahaan jirey Jaamacadda Boston ( USA ), Xeel-dheere Cilmi Nafsiga
About Kayd: Kayd promotes Somali Art & Culture through a broad combination of poetry, literature, music, film and discussions. We wish to contribute to the creation of a culture of tolerance in the context of an appreciation of the richness of Somali culture; the Somali Week Festival remains one of the key events for
Managing Director: Ayan Mahamoud,Tel: 0-44(0)7903712949,
Email: ayan_mahamoud@kayd.org,
Website: www.kayd.org
Violence Hits Puntland
Medeshi
Violence Hits Quiet Somali Region
Written by The Media Line Staff
Published Sunday, March 29, 2009
At least one person was killed and three were wounded in two explosions that hit the relatively quiet Puntland region in northeastern Somalia on Saturday.
All the casualties were Ethiopian nationals, news reports said.
Witnesses said an explosion in of Puntland’s commercial city Bosasso took place near the headquarters of the Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS).
Last Monday, PIS agents arrested a cleric for alleged ties with A-Shabab, an Islamic group seeking to undermine the central government in Somalia, according to media reports.
Last week, at least two civilians and one policeman were killed and seven others were wounded after hundreds of stampeding demonstrators took to the streets of Bosasso to protest the cleric’s detention. Protesters hurled stones and metal objects while approaching a police post. Officers fired shots into the air in order to clear one of the nearby roads, but shot dead two of the protesters and wounded seven others, Nimco Afrah, a nearby shopkeeper told The Media Line. Puntland’s Vice President Abdi Samad Ali Shire said it was still uncertain whether troops arrested the sheikh, and urged people to maintain calm. However, Puntland Security Minister Abdullahi Said Samatar confirmed that security forces had arrested the sheikh and that he was being interrogated. Both Puntland and the neighboring Somaliland are relatively quiet areas of Somalia, which has been plunged in conflict for the past two years.
Puntland is a self-declared autonomous state, which has been self-governing since 1998, but unlike Somaliland, it does not seek independence from Somalia.
Puntland is home to a third of the Somali people.
Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991.
Violence in the country, particularly in the capital Mogadishu, has claimed thousands of lives. Many civilians have been killed in crossfire as gunmen roam the streets. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in recent months.
In addition, Somalia is also blighted by famine, disease, poverty and piracy.
Several Islamist groups do not recognize the new government, even though it is headed by the former leader of the Islamic Courts Union, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad.
The political vacuum and other problems have allowed lawlessness to flourish, with pirates controlling Somalia’s waters and Islamists and other factions the streets.
An AFP report last week said foreign jihad warriors have been flocking to Somalia over the past few months and joining forces with local Al-Qa’ida sympathizers in order to turn the anarchic country into an Al-Qa’ida haven.
According to the report, some 450 fighters are cooperating with the homegrown A-Shabab Islamists.
A former Somalia security official said the numbers of foreigners entering the country were increasing dramatically. He said they hailed from Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia, and many were concentrated in Puntland.
The Puntland government has dismissed the report as unsubstantiated and false allegations.
Violence Hits Quiet Somali Region
Written by The Media Line Staff
Published Sunday, March 29, 2009
At least one person was killed and three were wounded in two explosions that hit the relatively quiet Puntland region in northeastern Somalia on Saturday.
All the casualties were Ethiopian nationals, news reports said.
Witnesses said an explosion in of Puntland’s commercial city Bosasso took place near the headquarters of the Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS).
Last Monday, PIS agents arrested a cleric for alleged ties with A-Shabab, an Islamic group seeking to undermine the central government in Somalia, according to media reports.
Last week, at least two civilians and one policeman were killed and seven others were wounded after hundreds of stampeding demonstrators took to the streets of Bosasso to protest the cleric’s detention. Protesters hurled stones and metal objects while approaching a police post. Officers fired shots into the air in order to clear one of the nearby roads, but shot dead two of the protesters and wounded seven others, Nimco Afrah, a nearby shopkeeper told The Media Line. Puntland’s Vice President Abdi Samad Ali Shire said it was still uncertain whether troops arrested the sheikh, and urged people to maintain calm. However, Puntland Security Minister Abdullahi Said Samatar confirmed that security forces had arrested the sheikh and that he was being interrogated. Both Puntland and the neighboring Somaliland are relatively quiet areas of Somalia, which has been plunged in conflict for the past two years.
Puntland is a self-declared autonomous state, which has been self-governing since 1998, but unlike Somaliland, it does not seek independence from Somalia.
Puntland is home to a third of the Somali people.
Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991.
Violence in the country, particularly in the capital Mogadishu, has claimed thousands of lives. Many civilians have been killed in crossfire as gunmen roam the streets. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in recent months.
In addition, Somalia is also blighted by famine, disease, poverty and piracy.
Several Islamist groups do not recognize the new government, even though it is headed by the former leader of the Islamic Courts Union, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad.
The political vacuum and other problems have allowed lawlessness to flourish, with pirates controlling Somalia’s waters and Islamists and other factions the streets.
An AFP report last week said foreign jihad warriors have been flocking to Somalia over the past few months and joining forces with local Al-Qa’ida sympathizers in order to turn the anarchic country into an Al-Qa’ida haven.
According to the report, some 450 fighters are cooperating with the homegrown A-Shabab Islamists.
A former Somalia security official said the numbers of foreigners entering the country were increasing dramatically. He said they hailed from Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia, and many were concentrated in Puntland.
The Puntland government has dismissed the report as unsubstantiated and false allegations.
A Promising Glimpse of Africa's Future Can Be Found in its Children
Medeshi ,March 29, 2009
Queen Rania of Jordan
Ironic. The peace conference, that brought me to South Africa, has been postponed.
A gathering billed to bring people together... that symbolized the power of dialogue and intercultural understanding... that was to be a medium for solutions to ongoing conflicts around the world has, instead, polarized opinions, fuelled frustration, and caused divisions. (Photo: Queen Rania of Jordan with school children )
In many ways, this unfortunate turn of events underscores many of the unresolved problems that our global community faces today. In my part of the world, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is an open wound that we desperately need to heal. Perhaps if we all subscribed to the African concept of Ubuntu -- that we all become people through other people, and that we cannot be fully human alone, we could learn a lot. There'd be less hatred and more harmony.
And that's a good word on which to start my reflections because I had the best possible start to my working visit to Johannesburg: a meeting with President Mandela and Graça Machel. This was a moment in time...an experience to cherish forever.
In Madiba's presence, even before he speaks, something magical happens. Goodness and goodwill flow from this great man. Grace, humility, and courage light up the room. He makes you feel as if you, too, can be a force for good. People say that Madiba has slowed down, but as he spoke of his efforts to secure his legacy, especially for the children of South Africa, I wondered how everyone kept up with him.
He has said in the past, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."
Currently, only three children's hospitals serve the entire African continent with its population of 741 million. Countries like Australia, Canada, and Germany, each boast nineteen or more facilities. The inequity is glaring and unfair. Madiba's state of the art Children's Hospital, due to open in July this year, is an example of how he believes children should be treated.
He smiles, his eyes crinkle, his infectious laugh fills the room...and I leave feeling like I can take on the world.
Next stop, Soweto and the Phefeni Secondary School to learn about the Girls' and Boys' Education Movement (G/BEM) run by the South African government and UNICEF. South Africa is on track to meet the MDG gender equality goal by 2015, but there is still work to do. G/BEM empowers girls by involving girls and boys in activities and discussions covering everything from teenage pregnancies and drug abuse to sexual harassment and human rights. Their logo, rather movingly, reads, "I am my brother's and sister's keeper.' And they are.
When I was growing up, I remember being told what to do by adults. But, 16 year old, Zanele taught me something that day. Her name, in Zulu, means "girls are enough," and she certainly lived up to that. This unbelievably articulate young woman told me about the progress of the G/BEM club that she coordinates, and how poetry, art, music and drama give everyone the chance to express themselves. It struck me that peer-to-peer learning was much more effective than anything adults could hope to achieve.
On the way to my next stop -- one of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund projects -- I was able to bear the traffic with help from U2's new album on my iPod and the lush landscape passing by outside.
Kids' Haven, started by the big-hearted Moira Simpson in 1992, is a residential shelter offering care to children who have been abused or abandoned. Part of the haven is a children's village with six homes for girls and boys. The houses are very simple; the children don't have much, but there is warmth and love in every home; the children are grateful for a second chance.
One little boy I met, Moses, is 2 and the cutest little guy ever. He and his siblings are from Burundi, and have been at the village for five months. They were victims of last year's xenophobic riots in Soweto, during which his mother was arrested and jailed. Her five children were about to be deported back to Burundi, all alone, until Lawyers for Human Rights intervened at the airport and called Moira, who took them all in.
Each one of Moira's children has a frightening and heartbreaking story to tell. But no matter what trauma they've experienced, she believes that with love and support, they can live happy, fulfilled lives. And while her and her tireless team has the heart, they also need support.
Back in my hotel, sitting outside, dreamily watching the fish, on a balmy African evening, my husband calls to reassure me that he's conscientiously holding down the fort back home. I miss them all, but I worry about my youngest the most. He finds the disruption of our playtime, bath, dinner, story, and bed routine unsettling. But, he was sufficiently compensated today by the treat of having daddy pick him up from pre-school! I was told that as he climbed into the car, he cast a proud, almost boastful, glance at his toddler mates!
South Africa
Africa
Ironic. The peace conference, that brought me to South Africa, has been postponed. A gathering billed to bring people together... that symbolized the power of dialogue and intercultural understandi...
Ironic. The peace conference, that brought me to South Africa, has been postponed. A gathering billed to bring people together... that symbolized the power of dialogue and intercultural understandi...
Ironic. The peace conference, that brought me to South Africa, has been postponed.
A gathering billed to bring people together... that symbolized the power of dialogue and intercultural understanding... that was to be a medium for solutions to ongoing conflicts around the world has, instead, polarized opinions, fuelled frustration, and caused divisions. (Photo: Queen Rania of Jordan with school children )
In many ways, this unfortunate turn of events underscores many of the unresolved problems that our global community faces today. In my part of the world, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is an open wound that we desperately need to heal. Perhaps if we all subscribed to the African concept of Ubuntu -- that we all become people through other people, and that we cannot be fully human alone, we could learn a lot. There'd be less hatred and more harmony.
And that's a good word on which to start my reflections because I had the best possible start to my working visit to Johannesburg: a meeting with President Mandela and Graça Machel. This was a moment in time...an experience to cherish forever.
In Madiba's presence, even before he speaks, something magical happens. Goodness and goodwill flow from this great man. Grace, humility, and courage light up the room. He makes you feel as if you, too, can be a force for good. People say that Madiba has slowed down, but as he spoke of his efforts to secure his legacy, especially for the children of South Africa, I wondered how everyone kept up with him.
He has said in the past, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."
Currently, only three children's hospitals serve the entire African continent with its population of 741 million. Countries like Australia, Canada, and Germany, each boast nineteen or more facilities. The inequity is glaring and unfair. Madiba's state of the art Children's Hospital, due to open in July this year, is an example of how he believes children should be treated.
He smiles, his eyes crinkle, his infectious laugh fills the room...and I leave feeling like I can take on the world.
Next stop, Soweto and the Phefeni Secondary School to learn about the Girls' and Boys' Education Movement (G/BEM) run by the South African government and UNICEF. South Africa is on track to meet the MDG gender equality goal by 2015, but there is still work to do. G/BEM empowers girls by involving girls and boys in activities and discussions covering everything from teenage pregnancies and drug abuse to sexual harassment and human rights. Their logo, rather movingly, reads, "I am my brother's and sister's keeper.' And they are.
When I was growing up, I remember being told what to do by adults. But, 16 year old, Zanele taught me something that day. Her name, in Zulu, means "girls are enough," and she certainly lived up to that. This unbelievably articulate young woman told me about the progress of the G/BEM club that she coordinates, and how poetry, art, music and drama give everyone the chance to express themselves. It struck me that peer-to-peer learning was much more effective than anything adults could hope to achieve.
On the way to my next stop -- one of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund projects -- I was able to bear the traffic with help from U2's new album on my iPod and the lush landscape passing by outside.
Kids' Haven, started by the big-hearted Moira Simpson in 1992, is a residential shelter offering care to children who have been abused or abandoned. Part of the haven is a children's village with six homes for girls and boys. The houses are very simple; the children don't have much, but there is warmth and love in every home; the children are grateful for a second chance.
One little boy I met, Moses, is 2 and the cutest little guy ever. He and his siblings are from Burundi, and have been at the village for five months. They were victims of last year's xenophobic riots in Soweto, during which his mother was arrested and jailed. Her five children were about to be deported back to Burundi, all alone, until Lawyers for Human Rights intervened at the airport and called Moira, who took them all in.
Each one of Moira's children has a frightening and heartbreaking story to tell. But no matter what trauma they've experienced, she believes that with love and support, they can live happy, fulfilled lives. And while her and her tireless team has the heart, they also need support.
Back in my hotel, sitting outside, dreamily watching the fish, on a balmy African evening, my husband calls to reassure me that he's conscientiously holding down the fort back home. I miss them all, but I worry about my youngest the most. He finds the disruption of our playtime, bath, dinner, story, and bed routine unsettling. But, he was sufficiently compensated today by the treat of having daddy pick him up from pre-school! I was told that as he climbed into the car, he cast a proud, almost boastful, glance at his toddler mates!
South Africa
Africa
Ironic. The peace conference, that brought me to South Africa, has been postponed. A gathering billed to bring people together... that symbolized the power of dialogue and intercultural understandi...
Ironic. The peace conference, that brought me to South Africa, has been postponed. A gathering billed to bring people together... that symbolized the power of dialogue and intercultural understandi...
Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots
Medeshi
Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots
Waterboarding, Rough Interrogation of Abu Zubaida Produced False Leads, Officials Say
By Peter Finn and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 29, 2009
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.
The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.
In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.
Moreover, within weeks of his capture, U.S. officials had gained evidence that made clear they had misjudged Abu Zubaida. President George W. Bush had publicly described him as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations," and other top officials called him a "trusted associate" of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a major figure in the planning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. None of that was accurate, the new evidence showed.
Abu Zubaida was not even an official member of al-Qaeda, according to a portrait of the man that emerges from court documents and interviews with current and former intelligence, law enforcement and military sources. Rather, he was a "fixer" for radical Muslim ideologues, and he ended up working directly with al-Qaeda only after Sept. 11 -- and that was because the United States stood ready to invade Afghanistan.
Abu Zubaida's case presents the Obama administration with one of its most difficult decisions as it reviews the files of the 241 detainees still held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Abu Zubaida -- a nom de guerre for the man born Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein -- was never charged in a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, but some U.S. officials are pushing to have him charged now with conspiracy.
The Palestinian, 38 and now in captivity for more than seven years, had alleged links with Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda member dubbed the "Millennium Bomber" for his plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999. Jordanian officials tied him to terrorist plots to attack a hotel and Christian holy sites in their country. And he was involved in discussions, after the Taliban government fell in Afghanistan, to strike back at the United States, including with attacks on American soil, according to law enforcement and military sources.
Others in the U.S. government, including CIA officials, fear the consequences of taking a man into court who was waterboarded on largely false assumptions, because of the prospect of interrogation methods being revealed in detail and because of the chance of an acquittal that might set a legal precedent. Instead, they would prefer to send him to Jordan.
Some U.S. officials remain steadfast in their conclusion that Abu Zubaida possessed, and gave up, plenty of useful information about al-Qaeda.
"It's simply wrong to suggest that Abu Zubaida wasn't intimately involved with al-Qaeda," said a U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because much about Abu Zubaida remains classified. "He was one of the terrorist organization's key facilitators, offered new insights into how the organization operated, provided critical information on senior al-Qaeda figures . . . and identified hundreds of al-Qaeda members. How anyone can minimize that information -- some of the best we had at the time on al-Qaeda -- is beyond me."
Until the attacks on New York and Washington, Abu Zubaida was a committed jihadist who regarded the United States as an enemy principally because of its support of Israel. He helped move people in and out of military training camps in Afghanistan, including some men who were or became members of al-Qaeda, according to interviews with multiple sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He was widely known as a kind of travel agent for those seeking such training.
That role, it turned out, would play a part in deciding his fate once in U.S. hands: Because his name often turned up in intelligence traffic linked to al-Qaeda transactions, some U.S. intelligence leaders were convinced that Abu Zubaida was a major figure in the terrorist organization, according to officials engaged in the discussions at the time.
But Abu Zubaida had strained and limited relations with bin Laden and only vague knowledge before the Sept. 11 attacks that something was brewing, the officials said.
His account was echoed in another U.S. interrogation going on at the same time, one never previously described publicly.
Noor al-Deen, a Syrian, was a teenager when he was captured along with Abu Zubaida at a Pakistani safe house. Perhaps because of his youth and agitated state, he readily answered U.S. questions, officials said, and the questioning went on for months, first in Pakistan and later in a detention facility in Morocco. His description of Abu Zubaida was consistent: The older man was a well-known functionary with links to al-Qaeda, but he knew little detailed information about the group's operations.
The counterterrorism official rejected that characterization, saying, "Based on what he shared during his interrogations, he was certainly aware of many of al-Qaeda's activities and operatives."
One connection Abu Zubaida had with al-Qaeda was a long relationship with Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said. Mohammed had approached Abu Zubaida in the 1990s about finding financiers to support a suicide mission, involving a small plane, targeting the World Trade Center. Abu Zubaida declined but told him to try bin Laden, according to a law enforcement source.
Abu Zubaida quickly told U.S. interrogators of Mohammed and of others he knew to be in al-Qaeda, and he revealed the plans of the low-level operatives who fled Afghanistan with him. Some were intent on returning to target American forces with bombs; others wanted to strike on American soil again, according to military documents and law enforcement sources.
Such intelligence was significant but not blockbuster material. Frustrated, the Bush administration ratcheted up the pressure -- for the first time approving the use of increasingly harsh interrogations, including waterboarding.
Such treatment at the hands of the CIA has raised questions among human rights groups about whether Abu Zubaida is capable of standing trial and how the taint of torture would affect any prosecution.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a confidential report that the treatment of Abu Zubaida and other, subsequent high-value detainees while in CIA custody constituted torture. And Abu Zubaida refused to cooperate with FBI "clean teams" who attempted to re-interview high-value detainees to build cases uncontaminated by allegations of torture, according to military sources.
"The government doesn't retreat from who KSM is, and neither does KSM," said Joseph Margulies, a professor of law at Northwestern University and one of Abu Zubaida's attorneys, using an abbreviation for Mohammed. "With Zubaida, it's different. The government seems finally to understand he is not at all the person they thought he was. But he was tortured. And that's just a profoundly embarrassing position for the government to be in."
His lawyers want the U.S. government to arrange for Abu Zubaida's transfer to a country besides Jordan -- possibly Saudi Arabia, where he has relatives.
The Justice Department declined repeated requests for comment.
Even before President Obama suspended military commissions at the military base in Cuba, prosecutors had expunged Abu Zubaida's name from the charge sheets of a number of detainees who were captured with him and stood accused of conspiracy and material support for terrorism.
When they were first charged in 2005, these detainees were accused of conspiring with Abu Zubaida, and the charge sheets contained numerous references to Abu Zubaida's alleged terrorist activities. When the charges were refiled last year, his name had vanished from the documents.
Abu Zubaida was born in 1971 in Saudi Arabia to a Palestinian father and a Jordanian mother, according to court papers. In 1991, he moved to Afghanistan and joined mujaheddin fighting Afghan communists, part of the civil war that raged after the 1989 withdrawal of the Soviet Union. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel from a mortar blast in 1992, sustaining head injuries that left him with severe memory problems, which still linger.
In 1994, he became the Pakistan-based coordinator for the Khalden training camp, outside the Afghan city of Khowst. He directed recruits to the camp and raised money for it, according to testimony he gave at a March 2007 hearing in Guantanamo Bay.
The Khalden camp, which provided basic training in small arms, had been in existence since the war against the Soviets. According to the 9/11 Commission's report, Khalden and another camp called Derunta "were not al Qaeda facilities," but "Abu Zubaydah had an agreement with Bin Laden to conduct reciprocal recruiting efforts whereby promising trainees at the camps could be invited to join al Qaeda."
Abu Zubaida disputes this, saying he admitted to such a connection with bin Laden only as the result of torture.
When the Sept. 11 attacks occurred, Abu Zubaida was in Kabul, the Afghan capital. In anticipation of an American attack, he allied himself with al-Qaeda, he said at a 2007 hearing, but he soon fled into hiding in Pakistan.
On the night of March 28, 2002, Pakistani and American intelligence officers raided the Faisalabad safe house where Abu Zubaida had been staying. A firefight ensued, and Abu Zubaida was captured after jumping from the building's second floor. He had been shot three times.
Cowering on the ground floor and also shot was Noor al-Deen, Abu Zubaida's 19-year-old colleague; one source said that he worshiped the older man as a hero. Deen was wide-eyed with fear and appeared to believe that he was about to be executed, remembered John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer who participated in the raid.
"He was frightened -- mostly over what we were going to do with him," Kiriakou said. "He had come to the conclusion that his life was over."
Deen was eventually transferred to Syria, but attempts to firmly establish his current whereabouts were unsuccessful.
His interrogations corroborated what CIA officials were hearing from Abu Zubaida, but there were other clues at the time that pointed to a less-than-central role for the Palestinian. As a veritable travel agent for jihadists, Abu Zubaida operated in a public world of Internet transactions and ticket agents.
"He was the above-ground support," said one former Justice Department official closely involved in the early investigation of Abu Zubaida. "He was the guy keeping the safe house, and that's not someone who gets to know the details of the plans. To make him the mastermind of anything is ridiculous."
As weeks passed after the capture without significant new confessions, the Bush White House and some at the CIA became convinced that tougher measures had to be tried.
The pressure from upper levels of the government was "tremendous," driven in part by the routine of daily meetings in which policymakers would press for updates, one official remembered.
"They couldn't stand the idea that there wasn't anything new," the official said. "They'd say, 'You aren't working hard enough.' There was both a disbelief in what he was saying and also a desire for retribution -- a feeling that 'He's going to talk, and if he doesn't talk, we'll do whatever.' "
The application of techniques such as waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning that U.S. officials had previously deemed a crime -- prompted a sudden torrent of names and facts. Abu Zubaida began unspooling the details of various al-Qaeda plots, including plans to unleash weapons of mass destruction.
Abu Zubaida's revelations triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA and FBI investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms. The interrogations led directly to the arrest of Jose Padilla, the man Abu Zubaida identified as heading an effort to explode a radiological "dirty bomb" in an American city. Padilla was held in a naval brig for 3 1/2 years on the allegation but was never charged in any such plot. Every other lead ultimately dissolved into smoke and shadow, according to high-ranking former U.S. officials with access to classified reports.
"We spent millions of dollars chasing false alarms," one former intelligence official said.
Despite the poor results, Bush White House officials and CIA leaders continued to insist that the harsh measures applied against Abu Zubaida and others produced useful intelligence that disrupted terrorist plots and saved American lives.
Two weeks ago, Bush's vice president, Richard B. Cheney, renewed that assertion in an interview with CNN, saying that "the enhanced interrogation program" stopped "a great many" terrorist attacks on the level of Sept. 11.
"I've seen a report that was written, based upon the intelligence that we collected then, that itemizes the specific attacks that were stopped by virtue of what we learned through those programs," Cheney asserted, adding that the report is "still classified," and, "I can't give you the details of it without violating classification."
Since 2006, Senate intelligence committee members have pressed the CIA, in classified briefings, to provide examples of specific leads that were obtained from Abu Zubaida through the use of waterboarding and other methods, according to officials familiar with the requests.
The agency provided none, the officials said.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots
Waterboarding, Rough Interrogation of Abu Zubaida Produced False Leads, Officials Say
By Peter Finn and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 29, 2009
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.
The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.
In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.
Moreover, within weeks of his capture, U.S. officials had gained evidence that made clear they had misjudged Abu Zubaida. President George W. Bush had publicly described him as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations," and other top officials called him a "trusted associate" of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a major figure in the planning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. None of that was accurate, the new evidence showed.
Abu Zubaida was not even an official member of al-Qaeda, according to a portrait of the man that emerges from court documents and interviews with current and former intelligence, law enforcement and military sources. Rather, he was a "fixer" for radical Muslim ideologues, and he ended up working directly with al-Qaeda only after Sept. 11 -- and that was because the United States stood ready to invade Afghanistan.
Abu Zubaida's case presents the Obama administration with one of its most difficult decisions as it reviews the files of the 241 detainees still held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Abu Zubaida -- a nom de guerre for the man born Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein -- was never charged in a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, but some U.S. officials are pushing to have him charged now with conspiracy.
The Palestinian, 38 and now in captivity for more than seven years, had alleged links with Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda member dubbed the "Millennium Bomber" for his plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999. Jordanian officials tied him to terrorist plots to attack a hotel and Christian holy sites in their country. And he was involved in discussions, after the Taliban government fell in Afghanistan, to strike back at the United States, including with attacks on American soil, according to law enforcement and military sources.
Others in the U.S. government, including CIA officials, fear the consequences of taking a man into court who was waterboarded on largely false assumptions, because of the prospect of interrogation methods being revealed in detail and because of the chance of an acquittal that might set a legal precedent. Instead, they would prefer to send him to Jordan.
Some U.S. officials remain steadfast in their conclusion that Abu Zubaida possessed, and gave up, plenty of useful information about al-Qaeda.
"It's simply wrong to suggest that Abu Zubaida wasn't intimately involved with al-Qaeda," said a U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because much about Abu Zubaida remains classified. "He was one of the terrorist organization's key facilitators, offered new insights into how the organization operated, provided critical information on senior al-Qaeda figures . . . and identified hundreds of al-Qaeda members. How anyone can minimize that information -- some of the best we had at the time on al-Qaeda -- is beyond me."
Until the attacks on New York and Washington, Abu Zubaida was a committed jihadist who regarded the United States as an enemy principally because of its support of Israel. He helped move people in and out of military training camps in Afghanistan, including some men who were or became members of al-Qaeda, according to interviews with multiple sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He was widely known as a kind of travel agent for those seeking such training.
That role, it turned out, would play a part in deciding his fate once in U.S. hands: Because his name often turned up in intelligence traffic linked to al-Qaeda transactions, some U.S. intelligence leaders were convinced that Abu Zubaida was a major figure in the terrorist organization, according to officials engaged in the discussions at the time.
But Abu Zubaida had strained and limited relations with bin Laden and only vague knowledge before the Sept. 11 attacks that something was brewing, the officials said.
His account was echoed in another U.S. interrogation going on at the same time, one never previously described publicly.
Noor al-Deen, a Syrian, was a teenager when he was captured along with Abu Zubaida at a Pakistani safe house. Perhaps because of his youth and agitated state, he readily answered U.S. questions, officials said, and the questioning went on for months, first in Pakistan and later in a detention facility in Morocco. His description of Abu Zubaida was consistent: The older man was a well-known functionary with links to al-Qaeda, but he knew little detailed information about the group's operations.
The counterterrorism official rejected that characterization, saying, "Based on what he shared during his interrogations, he was certainly aware of many of al-Qaeda's activities and operatives."
One connection Abu Zubaida had with al-Qaeda was a long relationship with Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said. Mohammed had approached Abu Zubaida in the 1990s about finding financiers to support a suicide mission, involving a small plane, targeting the World Trade Center. Abu Zubaida declined but told him to try bin Laden, according to a law enforcement source.
Abu Zubaida quickly told U.S. interrogators of Mohammed and of others he knew to be in al-Qaeda, and he revealed the plans of the low-level operatives who fled Afghanistan with him. Some were intent on returning to target American forces with bombs; others wanted to strike on American soil again, according to military documents and law enforcement sources.
Such intelligence was significant but not blockbuster material. Frustrated, the Bush administration ratcheted up the pressure -- for the first time approving the use of increasingly harsh interrogations, including waterboarding.
Such treatment at the hands of the CIA has raised questions among human rights groups about whether Abu Zubaida is capable of standing trial and how the taint of torture would affect any prosecution.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a confidential report that the treatment of Abu Zubaida and other, subsequent high-value detainees while in CIA custody constituted torture. And Abu Zubaida refused to cooperate with FBI "clean teams" who attempted to re-interview high-value detainees to build cases uncontaminated by allegations of torture, according to military sources.
"The government doesn't retreat from who KSM is, and neither does KSM," said Joseph Margulies, a professor of law at Northwestern University and one of Abu Zubaida's attorneys, using an abbreviation for Mohammed. "With Zubaida, it's different. The government seems finally to understand he is not at all the person they thought he was. But he was tortured. And that's just a profoundly embarrassing position for the government to be in."
His lawyers want the U.S. government to arrange for Abu Zubaida's transfer to a country besides Jordan -- possibly Saudi Arabia, where he has relatives.
The Justice Department declined repeated requests for comment.
Even before President Obama suspended military commissions at the military base in Cuba, prosecutors had expunged Abu Zubaida's name from the charge sheets of a number of detainees who were captured with him and stood accused of conspiracy and material support for terrorism.
When they were first charged in 2005, these detainees were accused of conspiring with Abu Zubaida, and the charge sheets contained numerous references to Abu Zubaida's alleged terrorist activities. When the charges were refiled last year, his name had vanished from the documents.
Abu Zubaida was born in 1971 in Saudi Arabia to a Palestinian father and a Jordanian mother, according to court papers. In 1991, he moved to Afghanistan and joined mujaheddin fighting Afghan communists, part of the civil war that raged after the 1989 withdrawal of the Soviet Union. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel from a mortar blast in 1992, sustaining head injuries that left him with severe memory problems, which still linger.
In 1994, he became the Pakistan-based coordinator for the Khalden training camp, outside the Afghan city of Khowst. He directed recruits to the camp and raised money for it, according to testimony he gave at a March 2007 hearing in Guantanamo Bay.
The Khalden camp, which provided basic training in small arms, had been in existence since the war against the Soviets. According to the 9/11 Commission's report, Khalden and another camp called Derunta "were not al Qaeda facilities," but "Abu Zubaydah had an agreement with Bin Laden to conduct reciprocal recruiting efforts whereby promising trainees at the camps could be invited to join al Qaeda."
Abu Zubaida disputes this, saying he admitted to such a connection with bin Laden only as the result of torture.
When the Sept. 11 attacks occurred, Abu Zubaida was in Kabul, the Afghan capital. In anticipation of an American attack, he allied himself with al-Qaeda, he said at a 2007 hearing, but he soon fled into hiding in Pakistan.
On the night of March 28, 2002, Pakistani and American intelligence officers raided the Faisalabad safe house where Abu Zubaida had been staying. A firefight ensued, and Abu Zubaida was captured after jumping from the building's second floor. He had been shot three times.
Cowering on the ground floor and also shot was Noor al-Deen, Abu Zubaida's 19-year-old colleague; one source said that he worshiped the older man as a hero. Deen was wide-eyed with fear and appeared to believe that he was about to be executed, remembered John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer who participated in the raid.
"He was frightened -- mostly over what we were going to do with him," Kiriakou said. "He had come to the conclusion that his life was over."
Deen was eventually transferred to Syria, but attempts to firmly establish his current whereabouts were unsuccessful.
His interrogations corroborated what CIA officials were hearing from Abu Zubaida, but there were other clues at the time that pointed to a less-than-central role for the Palestinian. As a veritable travel agent for jihadists, Abu Zubaida operated in a public world of Internet transactions and ticket agents.
"He was the above-ground support," said one former Justice Department official closely involved in the early investigation of Abu Zubaida. "He was the guy keeping the safe house, and that's not someone who gets to know the details of the plans. To make him the mastermind of anything is ridiculous."
As weeks passed after the capture without significant new confessions, the Bush White House and some at the CIA became convinced that tougher measures had to be tried.
The pressure from upper levels of the government was "tremendous," driven in part by the routine of daily meetings in which policymakers would press for updates, one official remembered.
"They couldn't stand the idea that there wasn't anything new," the official said. "They'd say, 'You aren't working hard enough.' There was both a disbelief in what he was saying and also a desire for retribution -- a feeling that 'He's going to talk, and if he doesn't talk, we'll do whatever.' "
The application of techniques such as waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning that U.S. officials had previously deemed a crime -- prompted a sudden torrent of names and facts. Abu Zubaida began unspooling the details of various al-Qaeda plots, including plans to unleash weapons of mass destruction.
Abu Zubaida's revelations triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA and FBI investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms. The interrogations led directly to the arrest of Jose Padilla, the man Abu Zubaida identified as heading an effort to explode a radiological "dirty bomb" in an American city. Padilla was held in a naval brig for 3 1/2 years on the allegation but was never charged in any such plot. Every other lead ultimately dissolved into smoke and shadow, according to high-ranking former U.S. officials with access to classified reports.
"We spent millions of dollars chasing false alarms," one former intelligence official said.
Despite the poor results, Bush White House officials and CIA leaders continued to insist that the harsh measures applied against Abu Zubaida and others produced useful intelligence that disrupted terrorist plots and saved American lives.
Two weeks ago, Bush's vice president, Richard B. Cheney, renewed that assertion in an interview with CNN, saying that "the enhanced interrogation program" stopped "a great many" terrorist attacks on the level of Sept. 11.
"I've seen a report that was written, based upon the intelligence that we collected then, that itemizes the specific attacks that were stopped by virtue of what we learned through those programs," Cheney asserted, adding that the report is "still classified," and, "I can't give you the details of it without violating classification."
Since 2006, Senate intelligence committee members have pressed the CIA, in classified briefings, to provide examples of specific leads that were obtained from Abu Zubaida through the use of waterboarding and other methods, according to officials familiar with the requests.
The agency provided none, the officials said.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
GOP Begs Dick Cheney: Go Back Into Hiding
Medeshi March 29, 2009
The Hill:
GOP Begs Dick Cheney: Go Back Into Hiding
Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input.
Displeased with the former vice-president's recent media appearances, Republican lawmakers say he's hurting GOP efforts to reinvent itself after back-to-back electoral drubbings.
Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input.
Displeased with the former vice-president's recent media appearances, Republican lawmakers say he's hurting GOP efforts to reinvent itself after back-to-back electoral drubbings.
Warmonger Rumsfled Struggles To Board Bus
From the archivesMedeshi March 29, 2009
Jason Linkins
One of the unseen costs of Tom Daschle using up all of America's car services is that ordinary war-mongering political has-beens are forced to fend for themselves at street corners, waiting for buses. That's the situation that ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found himself in Monday, in a report from Roll Call's Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton. (Roll Call's story is behind a pay-firewall. You can read John Byrne's witty retelling on Raw Story here.)
Basically, Rumsfeld was in Dupont Circle, attempting to catch the 42 bus, and all this happened:
With his SmarTrip card in hand -- the DC metro's rechargeable fare card -- Rumsfeld "stood quietly" waiting for the bus.
"It was almost like the guy at the first day of work," Heil and Brotherton's source remarked. "He was looking at the card, thinking, 'How does this work?'"
The bus eventually came but "was too packed to pick up any more passengers," the reporters wrote.
At least Rumsfeld was in possession of a SmarTrip card, clear and convincing evidence that he did not receive his public transportation intelligence from celebrated pinhead Douglas Feith.
Unable to board the bus, Rumsfeld took it on the arches. As Roll Call's source details, "He made it down the hill just fine...He didn't fall or anything."
So there you have it! Donald Rumsfeld, a man for whom reports of being able to walk must be corroborated by witnesses.
One of the unseen costs of Tom Daschle using up all of America's car services is that ordinary war-mongering political has-beens are forced to fend for themselves at street corners, waiting for buses. That's the situation that ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found himself in Monday, in a report from Roll Call's Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton. (Roll Call's story is behind a pay-firewall. You can read John Byrne's witty retelling on Raw Story here.)
Basically, Rumsfeld was in Dupont Circle, attempting to catch the 42 bus, and all this happened:
With his SmarTrip card in hand -- the DC metro's rechargeable fare card -- Rumsfeld "stood quietly" waiting for the bus.
"It was almost like the guy at the first day of work," Heil and Brotherton's source remarked. "He was looking at the card, thinking, 'How does this work?'"
The bus eventually came but "was too packed to pick up any more passengers," the reporters wrote.
At least Rumsfeld was in possession of a SmarTrip card, clear and convincing evidence that he did not receive his public transportation intelligence from celebrated pinhead Douglas Feith.
Unable to board the bus, Rumsfeld took it on the arches. As Roll Call's source details, "He made it down the hill just fine...He didn't fall or anything."
So there you have it! Donald Rumsfeld, a man for whom reports of being able to walk must be corroborated by witnesses.
Al-Shabaab nabs 50 over Khat ban demo
Medeshi March 28, 2009
Al-Shabaab nabs 50 over Khat ban demo
Al-Shabbab fighters have arrested more than 50 people in the southern Somali town of Baidoa for staging a protest against a ban on Khat.
(Photo:A market trader sells Khat in Somali capital, Mogadishu.)
(Photo:A market trader sells Khat in Somali capital, Mogadishu.)
Witnesses said hundreds of people took to the streets of Baidoa and blocked major roads in the city which consequently prompted Al-Shabba fighters to disperse the protestors using live bullets, Press TV correspondent reported.
The report added that Al-Shabaab militants went on rampage after the demonstration subsided, and destroyed kiosks used by traders to sell the popular narcotic drug in the town.
Al-Shabaab, which controls the southern Somali town imposed a ban on the sale of Khat, on Tuesday.
Khat leaves, used by Somalis for centuries, are known for their energy-giving qualities, and for making people more relaxed, talkative and friendly.
They are also said to improve sexual prowess -- although in some men it can actually have the opposite effect.
US military chiefs, who lost 18 soldiers during Operation Restore Hope in 1993, were amazed by the endurance of Somali militiamen who fought on for days boosted by Khat.
Many Somalis believe Khat is no more dangerous or anti-social than alcohol or tobacco and should not be criminalized. This is partly due to the fact that the Somali community has high levels of unemployment and non-engagement with the rest of society.
Somalia, located at Horn of Africa, has been mired in political and military anarchy since 1991 when Mogadishu warlords toppled former president Siad Barre.
The report added that Al-Shabaab militants went on rampage after the demonstration subsided, and destroyed kiosks used by traders to sell the popular narcotic drug in the town.
Al-Shabaab, which controls the southern Somali town imposed a ban on the sale of Khat, on Tuesday.
Khat leaves, used by Somalis for centuries, are known for their energy-giving qualities, and for making people more relaxed, talkative and friendly.
They are also said to improve sexual prowess -- although in some men it can actually have the opposite effect.
US military chiefs, who lost 18 soldiers during Operation Restore Hope in 1993, were amazed by the endurance of Somali militiamen who fought on for days boosted by Khat.
Many Somalis believe Khat is no more dangerous or anti-social than alcohol or tobacco and should not be criminalized. This is partly due to the fact that the Somali community has high levels of unemployment and non-engagement with the rest of society.
Somalia, located at Horn of Africa, has been mired in political and military anarchy since 1991 when Mogadishu warlords toppled former president Siad Barre.
The Unheard Saga of Oromo Refugees: The Unvoiced Weeps from Nairobi to Mogadishu
Medeshi March 28, 2009
The Unheard Saga of Oromo Refugees: The Unvoiced Weeps from Nairobi to Mogadishu
By Kadiro A. Elemo*
It is not exaggeration if I made a bold statement that Ethiopia is among those countries where the dignity of a human being is absolutely disregarded. This goes from the fact that human rights violations and naked tyranny are commonplace experiences under the regime of Meles Zenawi. There is no trend of improvement in human rights protection in the country and a general culture of impunity for violating human rights is rampant. Lack of respect for the fundamental human rights, arbitrary and illegal detentions, tortures, killings of members of the political opposition and demonstrators, summary executions of suspected insurgents, lengthy pretrial detentions, poor prison conditions, violations of individual privacy rights and laws regarding search warrants, and lack of freedom of press are among a few characterizing features of the police state of Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, all types of human rights are virtually violated and basic freedoms are infringed now and then. The routines of human rights violation, the lack of trend of improvement in human rights protection, and the culture of impunity for violating human rights by the oppressive regime loom largely over the Oromo nation, a numerical majority, but a political minority in Ethiopia.
Horn of Africa: Oromo Refugee Sufferingstock
It is not exaggeration if I made a bold statement that Ethiopia is among those countries where the dignity of a human being is absolutely disregarded. This goes from the fact that human rights violations and naked tyranny are commonplace experiences under the regime of Meles Zenawi. There is no trend of improvement in human rights protection in the country and a general culture of impunity for violating human rights is rampant. Lack of respect for the fundamental human rights, arbitrary and illegal detentions, tortures, killings of members of the political opposition and demonstrators, summary executions of suspected insurgents, lengthy pretrial detentions, poor prison conditions, violations of individual privacy rights and laws regarding search warrants, and lack of freedom of press are among a few characterizing features of the police state of Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, all types of human rights are virtually violated and basic freedoms are infringed now and then. The routines of human rights violation, the lack of trend of improvement in human rights protection, and the culture of impunity for violating human rights by the oppressive regime loom largely over the Oromo nation, a numerical majority, but a political minority in Ethiopia.
Horn of Africa: Oromo Refugee Sufferingstock
In order to escape persecution and harassment by the repressive regime, an exodus of Oromo refugees cross from Ethiopia into neighboring countries every day and every month. However, to the consternation of Oromo refugees, the other Horn countries are putting salt on the injuries of Oromo refugees. In other words, the reality for Oromo refugees in the other Horn countries squarely fits with the reality in Oromia, a TPLF open-field prison-house. Handing over Oromo refugees to the oppressive regime of TPLF, forcibly sending them back or detaining them with total disregard to international norms are part of common phenomena in the region. This aberration in international law happens repetitively in Kenya, Sudan, Djibouti and Somaliland. The case of Somalia is even worse to mention: the TPLF regime, exploiting the political anarchy and statelessness in Somalia, can jump to there anytime to massacre and torture Oromo refugees living there. In the worst scenario, the TPLF regime uses its warlord vassals in Somalia to wipe out Oromo political dissidents, who are lucky enough to escape from TPLF’s torture machinery at home. Oromo refugees are becoming more and more vulnerable to abuses of the state actors and non-state actors in the Horn. These days, being raped, being robbed, being attacked and being abused have become part of Oromo refugees’ daily lives. Moreover, becoming targets of terror attacks is a new emerging trend. The case in point is the heinous murders of innocent Oromo refugees by two simultaneous hand-grenade attacks in Bosaso restaurants.
Every single day, the agonies and plights of Oromo refugees are smoldering and touching. This is the ongoing problem and needs the attention of every person who feels the sufferings of human beings.
Are the Behaviors of the Horn Countries Acceptable under International Laws?
To understand the protection of the refugee law under international laws, it is necessary to understand the complementarity among the refugee protection law, international human rights law and humanitarian law.
International refugee rights are integral parts of the broader international human rights that an individual enjoys by virtue of humanity. Refugee rights have been anchored in several international human rights instruments. For instance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the bedrock of international human rights regime that has attained the status of customary international law and jus cogens, has clear provisions about the rights of refugees (asylum seekers). Article 14 of UDHR, the right to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries, is one of those principles, which reached the status of the peremptory norm binding on non-signatory states erga omnez.
Every single day, the agonies and plights of Oromo refugees are smoldering and touching. This is the ongoing problem and needs the attention of every person who feels the sufferings of human beings.
Are the Behaviors of the Horn Countries Acceptable under International Laws?
To understand the protection of the refugee law under international laws, it is necessary to understand the complementarity among the refugee protection law, international human rights law and humanitarian law.
International refugee rights are integral parts of the broader international human rights that an individual enjoys by virtue of humanity. Refugee rights have been anchored in several international human rights instruments. For instance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the bedrock of international human rights regime that has attained the status of customary international law and jus cogens, has clear provisions about the rights of refugees (asylum seekers). Article 14 of UDHR, the right to seek and enjoy asylum in other countries, is one of those principles, which reached the status of the peremptory norm binding on non-signatory states erga omnez.
Right to life, absolute prohibition of tortures, or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatments/punishments, and protection against genocides and crimes against humanity are also considered as some of the fundamental state obligations on the international plane. More importantly, these state obligations and international human rights instruments prohibit refoulement, sending back the refugee to the country where he/she fears persecution. Every country in the world, whether de facto or de jure state, (including Kenya, Somaliland, Puntland, Djibouti, Sudan…), has the duty to honor their international obligations by protecting individuals (Oromo refugees) from persecution. Hence, these countries cannot refouler Oromo refugees to Ethiopia since their lives and freedom can be threatened because of their race, religion, political opinions, and membership to particular social group.
In case of temporary protection, too, these countries are duty-bound to grant temporary protection status for the mass influx of the people falling outside the competence of 1951 Convention since forcible return can pose substantial threat to the lives, liberty, and security of these persons. Refoulement is tantamount with violation of the international law, and non-compliance with international obligations has consequences (at least in theory) on them. Hence, in this scenario, too, these countries have the incumbent duty to protect the right of refugee until the situation in the refugee’s country improves or the refugee is resettled in a third country. And also, in case of Protection Elsewhere (Third Host Countries), these countries have to observe their obligation to non-refoulement. The fact that refugee has got or might get protection in third country cannot discharge these countries from international obligation.
In a nut shell, these are among a few legal bases for the Horn nations not to hand over (refouler) Oromo refugees to Ethiopian authorities.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)The right to seek and enjoy asylum is a peremptory norm of international law binding an all states of the world. Logically, refoulement is forbidden to the state where life and freedom of the individual might be periled.
The Convention against Torture (CAT)The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment or Punishment provides protection from refoulement. This cardinal principle binds even those countries, which are not party to the Convention, on the ground that it has attained the status of customary international law.
The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) prohibits refoulement to torture. The Convention secures right to life (Article 6), protection from torture (Article 7), and more importantly, it says that these rights are applicable to all persons within territory or jurisdiction of state [Article 2(1)]. Optional Protocol 1 to this Convention gives individuals including refugees the right to bring complaint to Human Rights Committee if their rights are violated.
The Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) The Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), which applies to all children without discrimination, whether they are national or refugees or asylum seekers, prohibits refoulement.
Countries should honor their Constitutional and Municipal LawsHuman rights are inalienable, universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. No one can neither give nor alienate these especial entitlements of human dignity. As the result of their natures, human rights provisions are applicable to all human beings regardless of their nationality: the principle of non-discrimination. Therefore, it is plausible to argue that a refugee can benefit from the rights guaranteed by the Constitutions and municipal laws of the Horn countries. Forcibly returning refugees to the country, where they might be persecuted, is the violation of the laws of these countries. These also reinforce and supplement these countries’ duties to safeguard the right of refugees.
The examples given above are simply a tip of an iceberg. There are numerous international conventions and instruments that prohibit refoulement, such as International Convention on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, International Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women, International Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Racial Discrimination and so on.
What should the Oromo Diaspora do to ensure the maximum possible protection for the rights of Oromo refugees in the Greater and Unstable Horn of Africa?
To be continued …
* Kadiro Elemo is a host and a producer of Voice of Oromia (http://www.voiceoforomia.com/).
In case of temporary protection, too, these countries are duty-bound to grant temporary protection status for the mass influx of the people falling outside the competence of 1951 Convention since forcible return can pose substantial threat to the lives, liberty, and security of these persons. Refoulement is tantamount with violation of the international law, and non-compliance with international obligations has consequences (at least in theory) on them. Hence, in this scenario, too, these countries have the incumbent duty to protect the right of refugee until the situation in the refugee’s country improves or the refugee is resettled in a third country. And also, in case of Protection Elsewhere (Third Host Countries), these countries have to observe their obligation to non-refoulement. The fact that refugee has got or might get protection in third country cannot discharge these countries from international obligation.
In a nut shell, these are among a few legal bases for the Horn nations not to hand over (refouler) Oromo refugees to Ethiopian authorities.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)The right to seek and enjoy asylum is a peremptory norm of international law binding an all states of the world. Logically, refoulement is forbidden to the state where life and freedom of the individual might be periled.
The Convention against Torture (CAT)The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment or Punishment provides protection from refoulement. This cardinal principle binds even those countries, which are not party to the Convention, on the ground that it has attained the status of customary international law.
The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) prohibits refoulement to torture. The Convention secures right to life (Article 6), protection from torture (Article 7), and more importantly, it says that these rights are applicable to all persons within territory or jurisdiction of state [Article 2(1)]. Optional Protocol 1 to this Convention gives individuals including refugees the right to bring complaint to Human Rights Committee if their rights are violated.
The Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) The Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), which applies to all children without discrimination, whether they are national or refugees or asylum seekers, prohibits refoulement.
Countries should honor their Constitutional and Municipal LawsHuman rights are inalienable, universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. No one can neither give nor alienate these especial entitlements of human dignity. As the result of their natures, human rights provisions are applicable to all human beings regardless of their nationality: the principle of non-discrimination. Therefore, it is plausible to argue that a refugee can benefit from the rights guaranteed by the Constitutions and municipal laws of the Horn countries. Forcibly returning refugees to the country, where they might be persecuted, is the violation of the laws of these countries. These also reinforce and supplement these countries’ duties to safeguard the right of refugees.
The examples given above are simply a tip of an iceberg. There are numerous international conventions and instruments that prohibit refoulement, such as International Convention on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, International Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women, International Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Racial Discrimination and so on.
What should the Oromo Diaspora do to ensure the maximum possible protection for the rights of Oromo refugees in the Greater and Unstable Horn of Africa?
To be continued …
* Kadiro Elemo is a host and a producer of Voice of Oromia (http://www.voiceoforomia.com/).
Ethiopia dam 'could spark water wars'
Medeshi March 27, 2009
Ethiopia dam 'could spark water wars'
By Peter Greste
BBC News, Ethiopia
Most people in Ethiopia's lower Omo River Valley continue to exist much as they have done for hundreds of years with virtually no concession to the 21st Century, with one disturbing exception: automatic weapons.
Almost every male carries a Kalashnikov or an M-16 assault rifle, and what might in the past have been a fairly innocuous dispute over grazing or water-rights between different groups, now frequently escalates into bloody warfare.
“ I don't think the government likes the Omo tribes. They are going to destroy us ” Bargaeri Mursi priest
Some fear the potential for dispute could be about to increase, because a huge dam - the second biggest in sub-Saharan Africa - is being built upstream.
The government denies that the river's flow will be affected and indeed says the Gilgel Gibe III Dam will reduce flooding.
"It increases the amount of water in the river system. It completely regulates flooding in the Omo, which has been a major problem," said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
But local people - and some academics - simply don't believe it.
'Rumours'
The Mursi people are one of about two dozen groups who depend, either directly or indirectly, on the river and its annual cycle of flood and recession for their survival.
They are famous for the coaster-sized clay disks that the women insert into their ear lobes and lower lips.
In the shade of a fig tree, a group of Mursi elders gathered to discuss "rumours" of the dam.
One of the senior community priests, Bargaeri, said although they were aware of the dam, they had heard nothing official.
"We will suffer because there will be no more floods," he said. "I don't think the government likes the Omo tribes. They are going to destroy us."
The floods lie at the very heart of the dispute over the dam.
The government plainly believes they will continue pretty much as they always have, except that the dam will allow the authorities to manage the timing and the height of the flood in a way that nature never did.
Richard Leakey - the renowned ecologist and most vocal critic of the dam - was blunt in his assessment of its consequences.
"My problem is that the dam is going to affect a huge number of people who have no voice, a huge number of people who will fight over the decreasing resources.
"Innocent people will be killed in conflict over those resources, and I don't believe it is necessary."
“ If the river goes down, there will be war ” Nyangatom elder
Mr Leakey's criticisms echo those of a collection of European, American and East African academics who have banded together as the "African Resources Working Group".
The group has released a highly detailed commentary on the electricity company's environmental impact assessment (EIA) that criticises almost every element of both the dam and the study.
In a section dealing with the impact on indigenous communities, the commentary asserts:
"Additional dispossession and disruption of the ethnic groups of the lowermost Omo basin, from the planned irrigation agricultural schemes and industrial projects described in the downstream EIA and planned by the Ethiopian government… will precipitate waves of new conflicts among groups already competing with one another over the shrinking natural resource base available to all of them."
Adaptation
The Nyangatom is amongst the most heavily armed of the communities in the Omo Valley.
Half of the group lives over the border inside South Sudan, where most young men fought with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement during its long civil war with Khartoum. They brought back training, experience and weapons, raising the stakes even further.
In the village of Kangaten, the Nyangatom's elder spokesman called Kai shook with rage as he condemned the authorities.
"Let them first bring helicopters to kill us all; then the government can build its dam," he said.
Another elder bluntly declared: "If the river goes down, there will be war."
According to anthropologist Marco Bassi, of Oxford University, the tribes have developed sophisticated agricultural techniques that have allowed them to live comfortably and sustainably for centuries.
Each wet season, the riverside communities retreat to higher ground, waiting for the flood that inevitably comes.
Once the waters retreat, the communities move back to plant their crops on the damp and newly replenished soils.
Their cattle feed on the fresh grasses. The higher the flood, the more land is inundated, and the more becomes available to farm.
“ They will not be able to... deal with this change. They will simply die ” Marco Bassi,
Oxford University
Even the highest of floods are necessary to replenish the outlying bush lands that the communities use to feed their livestock during the equally inevitable droughts.
"It looks very primitive from the outside," Mr Bassi said. "But when you investigate it, you discover that they have a very intimate knowledge of the land and its fertility.
"Each family has maybe seven or eight different varieties of sorghum that responds to different conditions. And combined, the community has 20 or 30.
"They know how to plant in a way that guarantees enough food whatever happens through the year."
But the tribal lands have become increasingly squeezed between newly gazetted national parks and large commercial landholders, and growing populations on the other.
The government has promised irrigation schemes as a way of mitigating any negative effects of the dam, but that too is dismissed by the community elders like Mursi priest Biyatongiya.
"It's not true," he said. "I haven't seen anything like irrigation before. They're just lying to us. Maybe they come and tell us these things but it's not true."
And anyway, Marco Bassi doubts the communities will be able to adapt to irrigated farming which would mean a wholesale transformation of their centuries-old nomadic cultures.
"The issue is how to empower these communities to face this change in a way that they can manage. How do you empower, enable these people to deal with this change?
"Under the current circumstances, they will not be able to do that… Simply, they will die."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Most people in Ethiopia's lower Omo River Valley continue to exist much as they have done for hundreds of years with virtually no concession to the 21st Century, with one disturbing exception: automatic weapons.
Almost every male carries a Kalashnikov or an M-16 assault rifle, and what might in the past have been a fairly innocuous dispute over grazing or water-rights between different groups, now frequently escalates into bloody warfare.
“ I don't think the government likes the Omo tribes. They are going to destroy us ” Bargaeri Mursi priest
Some fear the potential for dispute could be about to increase, because a huge dam - the second biggest in sub-Saharan Africa - is being built upstream.
The government denies that the river's flow will be affected and indeed says the Gilgel Gibe III Dam will reduce flooding.
"It increases the amount of water in the river system. It completely regulates flooding in the Omo, which has been a major problem," said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
But local people - and some academics - simply don't believe it.
'Rumours'
The Mursi people are one of about two dozen groups who depend, either directly or indirectly, on the river and its annual cycle of flood and recession for their survival.
They are famous for the coaster-sized clay disks that the women insert into their ear lobes and lower lips.
In the shade of a fig tree, a group of Mursi elders gathered to discuss "rumours" of the dam.
One of the senior community priests, Bargaeri, said although they were aware of the dam, they had heard nothing official.
"We will suffer because there will be no more floods," he said. "I don't think the government likes the Omo tribes. They are going to destroy us."
The floods lie at the very heart of the dispute over the dam.
The government plainly believes they will continue pretty much as they always have, except that the dam will allow the authorities to manage the timing and the height of the flood in a way that nature never did.
Richard Leakey - the renowned ecologist and most vocal critic of the dam - was blunt in his assessment of its consequences.
"My problem is that the dam is going to affect a huge number of people who have no voice, a huge number of people who will fight over the decreasing resources.
"Innocent people will be killed in conflict over those resources, and I don't believe it is necessary."
“ If the river goes down, there will be war ” Nyangatom elder
Mr Leakey's criticisms echo those of a collection of European, American and East African academics who have banded together as the "African Resources Working Group".
The group has released a highly detailed commentary on the electricity company's environmental impact assessment (EIA) that criticises almost every element of both the dam and the study.
In a section dealing with the impact on indigenous communities, the commentary asserts:
"Additional dispossession and disruption of the ethnic groups of the lowermost Omo basin, from the planned irrigation agricultural schemes and industrial projects described in the downstream EIA and planned by the Ethiopian government… will precipitate waves of new conflicts among groups already competing with one another over the shrinking natural resource base available to all of them."
Adaptation
The Nyangatom is amongst the most heavily armed of the communities in the Omo Valley.
Half of the group lives over the border inside South Sudan, where most young men fought with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement during its long civil war with Khartoum. They brought back training, experience and weapons, raising the stakes even further.
In the village of Kangaten, the Nyangatom's elder spokesman called Kai shook with rage as he condemned the authorities.
"Let them first bring helicopters to kill us all; then the government can build its dam," he said.
Another elder bluntly declared: "If the river goes down, there will be war."
According to anthropologist Marco Bassi, of Oxford University, the tribes have developed sophisticated agricultural techniques that have allowed them to live comfortably and sustainably for centuries.
Each wet season, the riverside communities retreat to higher ground, waiting for the flood that inevitably comes.
Once the waters retreat, the communities move back to plant their crops on the damp and newly replenished soils.
Their cattle feed on the fresh grasses. The higher the flood, the more land is inundated, and the more becomes available to farm.
“ They will not be able to... deal with this change. They will simply die ” Marco Bassi,
Oxford University
Even the highest of floods are necessary to replenish the outlying bush lands that the communities use to feed their livestock during the equally inevitable droughts.
"It looks very primitive from the outside," Mr Bassi said. "But when you investigate it, you discover that they have a very intimate knowledge of the land and its fertility.
"Each family has maybe seven or eight different varieties of sorghum that responds to different conditions. And combined, the community has 20 or 30.
"They know how to plant in a way that guarantees enough food whatever happens through the year."
But the tribal lands have become increasingly squeezed between newly gazetted national parks and large commercial landholders, and growing populations on the other.
The government has promised irrigation schemes as a way of mitigating any negative effects of the dam, but that too is dismissed by the community elders like Mursi priest Biyatongiya.
"It's not true," he said. "I haven't seen anything like irrigation before. They're just lying to us. Maybe they come and tell us these things but it's not true."
And anyway, Marco Bassi doubts the communities will be able to adapt to irrigated farming which would mean a wholesale transformation of their centuries-old nomadic cultures.
"The issue is how to empower these communities to face this change in a way that they can manage. How do you empower, enable these people to deal with this change?
"Under the current circumstances, they will not be able to do that… Simply, they will die."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Israeli warplanes conducted air strike on arms smugglers in Sudan: CBS
Medeshi
Israeli warplanes conducted air strike on arms smugglers in Sudan: CBS
March 25, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — An airstrike that targeted a convoy of arm smugglers inside Sudan last January was launched by Israeli planes and not American ones, according to a US television network.
Yesterday a Sudanese government official said that a “major power bombed small trucks carrying arms” Northwest of Port Sudan city killing Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians passengers.
An Egyptian newspaper had reported this week that US planes destroyed a convoy heading towards the borders carrying arms believed to be on its way to Gaza strip.
It also quoted an unidentified Egyptian official as suggesting that the planes flew from US bases in Djibouti.
However CBS news quoting unidentified US officials disputed the report about US involvement in the operation.
CBS News national security correspondent who covers the Pentagon was told by those officials that “Israeli aircraft carried out the attack”.
“Israeli intelligence is said to have discovered that weapons were being trucked through Sudan, heading north toward Egypt, whereupon they would cross the Sinai Desert and be smuggled into Hamas-held territory in Gaza” the officials said.
However the officials did not say whether they provided any assistance to the operation or if they were notified before it took place.
In Tel Aviv Israeli offcials speaking to Haartez newspaper refused to comment on the report of an air strike in Sudan or on the role that Israel may have played in that attack.
However Haartez said that Israeli defense sources reiterated on a number of occasions that Iran embarked on an intensive effort to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition during Operation Cast Lead.
Hamas Islamic group is in control of the Gaza strip.
In Cairo the Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor told reporters that he has no information on any airstrikes conducted in Eastern Sudan.
The US signed an agreement with Israel last January that calls for an international effort to stem the flow of weaponry and explosives to complement those of Egypt.
American and Israeli diplomats said at the time the agreement includes intelligence coordination to prevent arms from Iran from entering Gaza, maritime efforts to identify ships carrying weaponry, and the sharing of US and European technologies to discover and prevent the use of weapons-smuggling tunnels.
The convoy is believed to have consisted of 17 trucks carrying 39 passengers that were all destroyed in the operation. None of the people on board the trucks survived the attack.
Israeli officials in the past have said that arms are funneled into Sudan and then to Sinai, where they pass through the tunnels into Gaza.
(ST)
March 25, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — An airstrike that targeted a convoy of arm smugglers inside Sudan last January was launched by Israeli planes and not American ones, according to a US television network.
Yesterday a Sudanese government official said that a “major power bombed small trucks carrying arms” Northwest of Port Sudan city killing Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians passengers.
An Egyptian newspaper had reported this week that US planes destroyed a convoy heading towards the borders carrying arms believed to be on its way to Gaza strip.
It also quoted an unidentified Egyptian official as suggesting that the planes flew from US bases in Djibouti.
However CBS news quoting unidentified US officials disputed the report about US involvement in the operation.
CBS News national security correspondent who covers the Pentagon was told by those officials that “Israeli aircraft carried out the attack”.
“Israeli intelligence is said to have discovered that weapons were being trucked through Sudan, heading north toward Egypt, whereupon they would cross the Sinai Desert and be smuggled into Hamas-held territory in Gaza” the officials said.
However the officials did not say whether they provided any assistance to the operation or if they were notified before it took place.
In Tel Aviv Israeli offcials speaking to Haartez newspaper refused to comment on the report of an air strike in Sudan or on the role that Israel may have played in that attack.
However Haartez said that Israeli defense sources reiterated on a number of occasions that Iran embarked on an intensive effort to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition during Operation Cast Lead.
Hamas Islamic group is in control of the Gaza strip.
In Cairo the Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor told reporters that he has no information on any airstrikes conducted in Eastern Sudan.
The US signed an agreement with Israel last January that calls for an international effort to stem the flow of weaponry and explosives to complement those of Egypt.
American and Israeli diplomats said at the time the agreement includes intelligence coordination to prevent arms from Iran from entering Gaza, maritime efforts to identify ships carrying weaponry, and the sharing of US and European technologies to discover and prevent the use of weapons-smuggling tunnels.
The convoy is believed to have consisted of 17 trucks carrying 39 passengers that were all destroyed in the operation. None of the people on board the trucks survived the attack.
Israeli officials in the past have said that arms are funneled into Sudan and then to Sinai, where they pass through the tunnels into Gaza.
(ST)
.Somali pirates hijack 2 tankers in 24 hours
Medeshi March 26, 2009
Somali pirates hijack 2 tankers in 24 hours
Somali pirates hijack 2 tankers in 24 hours
BRUSSELS – Pirates armed with machine guns pursued and captured a Norwegian chemical tanker off the coast of Somalia on Thursday, the owners said, less than 24 hours after a smaller Greek-owned vessel was seized in the same area.
The U.S. 5th Fleet, which patrols the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, confirmed both hijackings and said they happened in the same area but separate from the gulf, one of the world's busiest — and now most treacherous — sea lanes.
The 23,000-ton Norwegian-owned Bow Asir was seized 250 miles (400 kilometers) off the Somali coast on Thursday morning, and the 9,000-ton Greek-owned Nipayia, with 19 crew members, was attacked about 450 miles (720 kilometers) off Somalia on Wednesday afternoon, the European Union's military spokesman said.
Norway's shipowner's association said the Bow Asir had a crew of 27 with a Russian captain, but the 5th Fleet said there were 23 crew on board. Fleet spokesman Lt. Nate Christensen said the Norwegian ship was Bahamian-flagged, but he did not know its cargo. U.S. Cmdr. Jane Campbell confirmed the hijacking on Wednesday of the Nipayia.
Both vessels are chemical tankers but their cargoes were not immediately made public
A Nairobi-based diplomat said the Nipayia had 18 Filipinos on board and a Russian captain. He said the ship is managed by Athens-based Lotus Shipping, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The owner of the Norwegian Bow Asir, Salhus Shipping AS, said it received a security alert message from the Bow Asir at 0729GMT saying the ship was being chased by two small boats with suspected pirates on board.
At 0745GMT, the captain reported that the pirates had boarded the vessel, and three hours later, Salhus Shipping received an e-mail from the ship confirming that 16 to 18 pirates carrying machine guns had gained control, managing director Per H. Hansen said in a statement.
"We have no reports of any injuries," he said. "We are doing our utmost to ensure the safety of the crew, and have established communication lines with naval forces, insurance companies, flag state and charterer."
NATO announced Thursday that its anti-piracy flotilla of five ships was resuming patrols off the Horn of Africa, joining an international squadron already operating in the region.
The flotilla will join at least 20 warships from the EU, the U.S., China, Russia and other navies are patrolling the region in an effort to prevent pirate attacks on the sea lanes around the Horn of Africa.
An earlier NATO mission — sent to the region in October in response to appeals by the United Nations — was replaced in December by an EU flotilla. Its main task is to escort cargo ships chartered by the U.N. World Food Program carrying humanitarian aid to Somalia, which has been without a functioning government since 1991.
Naval officers say controlling an ocean area the size of Western Europe is difficult, even with the help of ships' helicopters and maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
Pirate attacks off the Somali coastline hit unprecedented levels in 2008. The pirates made 111 attacks and seized 42 vessels, mostly in the Gulf of Aden last year. Seven have been seized so far this year, although there were roughly 10 times as many attacks in January and February 2009 as there was over the same period last year. There have been almost daily attacks in March, including an incident in which a Korean sailor received a bullet wound in the head.
The U.S. 5th Fleet, which patrols the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, confirmed both hijackings and said they happened in the same area but separate from the gulf, one of the world's busiest — and now most treacherous — sea lanes.
The 23,000-ton Norwegian-owned Bow Asir was seized 250 miles (400 kilometers) off the Somali coast on Thursday morning, and the 9,000-ton Greek-owned Nipayia, with 19 crew members, was attacked about 450 miles (720 kilometers) off Somalia on Wednesday afternoon, the European Union's military spokesman said.
Norway's shipowner's association said the Bow Asir had a crew of 27 with a Russian captain, but the 5th Fleet said there were 23 crew on board. Fleet spokesman Lt. Nate Christensen said the Norwegian ship was Bahamian-flagged, but he did not know its cargo. U.S. Cmdr. Jane Campbell confirmed the hijacking on Wednesday of the Nipayia.
Both vessels are chemical tankers but their cargoes were not immediately made public
A Nairobi-based diplomat said the Nipayia had 18 Filipinos on board and a Russian captain. He said the ship is managed by Athens-based Lotus Shipping, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The owner of the Norwegian Bow Asir, Salhus Shipping AS, said it received a security alert message from the Bow Asir at 0729GMT saying the ship was being chased by two small boats with suspected pirates on board.
At 0745GMT, the captain reported that the pirates had boarded the vessel, and three hours later, Salhus Shipping received an e-mail from the ship confirming that 16 to 18 pirates carrying machine guns had gained control, managing director Per H. Hansen said in a statement.
"We have no reports of any injuries," he said. "We are doing our utmost to ensure the safety of the crew, and have established communication lines with naval forces, insurance companies, flag state and charterer."
NATO announced Thursday that its anti-piracy flotilla of five ships was resuming patrols off the Horn of Africa, joining an international squadron already operating in the region.
The flotilla will join at least 20 warships from the EU, the U.S., China, Russia and other navies are patrolling the region in an effort to prevent pirate attacks on the sea lanes around the Horn of Africa.
An earlier NATO mission — sent to the region in October in response to appeals by the United Nations — was replaced in December by an EU flotilla. Its main task is to escort cargo ships chartered by the U.N. World Food Program carrying humanitarian aid to Somalia, which has been without a functioning government since 1991.
Naval officers say controlling an ocean area the size of Western Europe is difficult, even with the help of ships' helicopters and maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
Pirate attacks off the Somali coastline hit unprecedented levels in 2008. The pirates made 111 attacks and seized 42 vessels, mostly in the Gulf of Aden last year. Seven have been seized so far this year, although there were roughly 10 times as many attacks in January and February 2009 as there was over the same period last year. There have been almost daily attacks in March, including an incident in which a Korean sailor received a bullet wound in the head.
Associated Press correspondents Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya, and Katarina Kratovac in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.
SOMALIA: Thousands need aid to return home from Somaliland
Medeshi
SOMALIA: Thousands need aid to return home from Somaliland
HARGEISA, 26 March 2009 (IRIN) - At least 15,000 Somalis, who had fled to the self-declared republic of Somaliland to escape violence in Mogadishu, want to return home following the recent change of government but lack the means to do so, aid workers said.
Moreover, the circumstances of the estimated 2,500 families are complicated by the fact that Somaliland authorities consider them refugees while aid agencies consider them internally displaced.
"The families want to return due to the difficult conditions they live in here," Zainab Mohamud, head of the Gashan Women’s Development Organisation, who works with the displaced families, told IRIN on 25 March.
She said the families shared camps with locally displaced people and "receive very little help. The main problem is the lack of clarity over their status; are they refugees or displaced?"
She said the families had received some food aid from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) but little else.
Mukhtar Mohamed, a father of six who fled Mogadishu and now lives in Mohamed Moge district of Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, said: "I have been in Somaliland for the last nine months and have received very little help. We have safety but nothing else."
Mohamed Moge district is one of the most populated IDP settlements in Hargeisa.
Since the situation in Mogadishu seems to be improving, Mohamed said, he would like to return home, "but I lack the means to do so".
According to Mohamud, in the past two months more than 15,000 Somalis displaced in Somaliland and in neighbouring Djibouti had returned home to Somalia through Somaliland.
She said the families in Hargeisa should be assisted to return home, "instead of living in these difficult conditions and in limbo”.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Somaliland is hosting 80,000 IDPs.
Roberta Russo, associate public information officer for UNHCR Somalia, said: "No IDP has approached UNHCR to ask for assistance to return to south-central Somalia yet."
She said that since the beginning of 2009, at least 52,000 people had returned to Mogadishu. However, she cautioned that the "returnees are mainly heads of families coming to assess the situation, leaving the rest of their families in IDP camps".
Russo said the humanitarian community "is seriously concerned about the spontaneous returns to Mogadishu as the security situation is still volatile and basic services to help the returnees are not in place".
A task-force, which includes UNHCR, has been set up to assess as soon as possible the situation in the capital "and make recommendations on how best to assist people who are spontaneously returning as well as people who are still in the camps", she added.
HARGEISA, 26 March 2009 (IRIN) - At least 15,000 Somalis, who had fled to the self-declared republic of Somaliland to escape violence in Mogadishu, want to return home following the recent change of government but lack the means to do so, aid workers said.
Moreover, the circumstances of the estimated 2,500 families are complicated by the fact that Somaliland authorities consider them refugees while aid agencies consider them internally displaced.
"The families want to return due to the difficult conditions they live in here," Zainab Mohamud, head of the Gashan Women’s Development Organisation, who works with the displaced families, told IRIN on 25 March.
She said the families shared camps with locally displaced people and "receive very little help. The main problem is the lack of clarity over their status; are they refugees or displaced?"
She said the families had received some food aid from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) but little else.
Mukhtar Mohamed, a father of six who fled Mogadishu and now lives in Mohamed Moge district of Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, said: "I have been in Somaliland for the last nine months and have received very little help. We have safety but nothing else."
Mohamed Moge district is one of the most populated IDP settlements in Hargeisa.
Since the situation in Mogadishu seems to be improving, Mohamed said, he would like to return home, "but I lack the means to do so".
According to Mohamud, in the past two months more than 15,000 Somalis displaced in Somaliland and in neighbouring Djibouti had returned home to Somalia through Somaliland.
She said the families in Hargeisa should be assisted to return home, "instead of living in these difficult conditions and in limbo”.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Somaliland is hosting 80,000 IDPs.
Roberta Russo, associate public information officer for UNHCR Somalia, said: "No IDP has approached UNHCR to ask for assistance to return to south-central Somalia yet."
She said that since the beginning of 2009, at least 52,000 people had returned to Mogadishu. However, she cautioned that the "returnees are mainly heads of families coming to assess the situation, leaving the rest of their families in IDP camps".
Russo said the humanitarian community "is seriously concerned about the spontaneous returns to Mogadishu as the security situation is still volatile and basic services to help the returnees are not in place".
A task-force, which includes UNHCR, has been set up to assess as soon as possible the situation in the capital "and make recommendations on how best to assist people who are spontaneously returning as well as people who are still in the camps", she added.
Yoshia Morishita:Distance matters but every little connection also matters for the future
Medeshi March 26, 2009
Section 3 of 3:
Distance matters but every little connection also matters for the future.
By Yoshia Morishita
By Yoshia Morishita
Saporro, Japan
Reading newspapers of Japan and Europe is pretty interesting. Different headlines, different issues, and different perspectives, even about the same story. One thing for sure is that with only Japanese media, my awareness of international issues will definitely decline. In general Japanese people are less aware of international issues than other nationals.
(The picture attached shows an aquaduct in France. I attached it because I hope my articles will play a role of a bridge that connects Japan, Somalia/land and the Horn!
The other day Japan won the international baseball tournament! We are still excited, too excited )
This may be good in some ways though; in general, many ‘foreign’ cultures are new to them and so Japanese people are curious about different cultures and do not discriminate against them. Also, I have heard that people in developing countries, for instance, do not complain about Japan’s development assistance because Japan does not tell them what to do; you are less bossy when you show respect to and interest in others who have different perspectives. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun of Japan and BBC, Japan, together with Canada, is considered as having the most positive impact on the international society, although some Japanese critics say that no one needs to complain about Japan because the country has no strong opinions or does not play an influential role internationally. It is like one of your classmates who always goes out for lunch with you, smiles, nods and is ready to pay for a few of the classmates’ meals who are currently short of money.
In Section 2 of this article I wrote that although the dispatch of a few Japanese Navy ships to the areas off Somalia/land is a big issue, the vast majority of Japanese people do not take it as seriously as they probably should. We import a wide range of commercial goods carried by vessels that go through the sea areas in question. Our economy depends so much on trading. By dispatching the Navy ships, we may be able to get rid of the image that Japan contributes to the international society only financially. We know that financial contribution, however big it is, does not bring a good international reputation or respect (e.g. Kuwait never thanked Japan for our financial help during the Gulf War, and Japan never seems to get a permanent seat at the Security Council despite its financial contribution the amount of which is the second biggest, or actually the biggest as the US does not pay as much as they should in time).
The politicians of Japan’s government party argue that by the dispatch Japan would be properly recognised as a committed and cooperative nation; it is good for national interest. Maybe... Politicians represent citizens in democratic countries and are supposed to think and act in future-oriented ways, although they often pursue short-term interests. Some of the Japanese media do support the dispatch. They do mention protecting Japan-related vessels is very important given the economic structure of Japan, but also tend to say that the dispatch is necessary because a number of other countries have already dispatched their war ships. Japan does not have the courage to do anything new. The country prefers to see what others do before it takes action itself, meaning that it is, in a sense, very cooperative and clever.
Distance also matters. Africa in general and Somalia/land are unknown and a probably-never-to-visit continent. No direct flights. Very limited connections. A distant place that suffers and needs help. On top of it, the pirates, which we only see in films or amusement parks. Naturally, all these are beyond ordinary Japanese people’s imagination. Protecting Japan-related vessels is important, but the dispatch and all the related issues, probably to many people in Japan, sound like other people’s business. Many others are already operating near Somalia/land and so it should be safe and legitimate to go there to join them. Supposedly this is how ordinary Japanese people see the issue of the dispatch.
One of Japan’s neighbours is that mysterious North Korea. Compared with Somalia/land, it is just a stone’s throw away from us, and yet we know very little about the country; we only know it is such a troublemaker. However, we pay attention to North Korea as it is near to us and preparing for a missile launch in early April. It may affect us. When we still do not know much about our troublesome neighbour, how come we are aware of issues surrounding Somalia/land which is really far? The necessity to know such issues is minimal. There are plenty of other issues to be dealt with in our daily life… One thing for sure is that Japan has no intention of expanding its sphere of influence to Somalia/land. It is simply too late and too far in the first place. I think Japan only wants to protect unarmed commercial vessels (and civilians like that Japanese female medical doctor who was kidnapped to Somalia when she was treating the disadvantaged in the Horn) from heavily armed people, be it Somalis or others.
The above being said, very few people have hatred towards Somali/land. We are very far, very different and so on. I hope my articles will help the visitors to the web site Medeshi to know that there is an ordinary Japanese citizen like me who wants to contribute to building an invisible but solid bridge between the two countries. That way, little by little, the distance will be overcome.
Thank you for reading! ( End of Section 3).
About the writer : (Mr) Yoshia MORISHITA is a Japanese national who studied and worked in the UK, as well as Turkey and Eritrea. He has visited around 25 countries of the world and developed his international perspectives. He has a Master’s degree in International Development from UCL, University of London and worked as a research associate at a British NGO. Currently he is living in Japan running a small business in the area of various international programmes and businesses facilitation and co-ordination, while reading sociology at Hokkaido University.
Reading newspapers of Japan and Europe is pretty interesting. Different headlines, different issues, and different perspectives, even about the same story. One thing for sure is that with only Japanese media, my awareness of international issues will definitely decline. In general Japanese people are less aware of international issues than other nationals.
(The picture attached shows an aquaduct in France. I attached it because I hope my articles will play a role of a bridge that connects Japan, Somalia/land and the Horn!
The other day Japan won the international baseball tournament! We are still excited, too excited )
This may be good in some ways though; in general, many ‘foreign’ cultures are new to them and so Japanese people are curious about different cultures and do not discriminate against them. Also, I have heard that people in developing countries, for instance, do not complain about Japan’s development assistance because Japan does not tell them what to do; you are less bossy when you show respect to and interest in others who have different perspectives. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun of Japan and BBC, Japan, together with Canada, is considered as having the most positive impact on the international society, although some Japanese critics say that no one needs to complain about Japan because the country has no strong opinions or does not play an influential role internationally. It is like one of your classmates who always goes out for lunch with you, smiles, nods and is ready to pay for a few of the classmates’ meals who are currently short of money.
In Section 2 of this article I wrote that although the dispatch of a few Japanese Navy ships to the areas off Somalia/land is a big issue, the vast majority of Japanese people do not take it as seriously as they probably should. We import a wide range of commercial goods carried by vessels that go through the sea areas in question. Our economy depends so much on trading. By dispatching the Navy ships, we may be able to get rid of the image that Japan contributes to the international society only financially. We know that financial contribution, however big it is, does not bring a good international reputation or respect (e.g. Kuwait never thanked Japan for our financial help during the Gulf War, and Japan never seems to get a permanent seat at the Security Council despite its financial contribution the amount of which is the second biggest, or actually the biggest as the US does not pay as much as they should in time).
The politicians of Japan’s government party argue that by the dispatch Japan would be properly recognised as a committed and cooperative nation; it is good for national interest. Maybe... Politicians represent citizens in democratic countries and are supposed to think and act in future-oriented ways, although they often pursue short-term interests. Some of the Japanese media do support the dispatch. They do mention protecting Japan-related vessels is very important given the economic structure of Japan, but also tend to say that the dispatch is necessary because a number of other countries have already dispatched their war ships. Japan does not have the courage to do anything new. The country prefers to see what others do before it takes action itself, meaning that it is, in a sense, very cooperative and clever.
Distance also matters. Africa in general and Somalia/land are unknown and a probably-never-to-visit continent. No direct flights. Very limited connections. A distant place that suffers and needs help. On top of it, the pirates, which we only see in films or amusement parks. Naturally, all these are beyond ordinary Japanese people’s imagination. Protecting Japan-related vessels is important, but the dispatch and all the related issues, probably to many people in Japan, sound like other people’s business. Many others are already operating near Somalia/land and so it should be safe and legitimate to go there to join them. Supposedly this is how ordinary Japanese people see the issue of the dispatch.
One of Japan’s neighbours is that mysterious North Korea. Compared with Somalia/land, it is just a stone’s throw away from us, and yet we know very little about the country; we only know it is such a troublemaker. However, we pay attention to North Korea as it is near to us and preparing for a missile launch in early April. It may affect us. When we still do not know much about our troublesome neighbour, how come we are aware of issues surrounding Somalia/land which is really far? The necessity to know such issues is minimal. There are plenty of other issues to be dealt with in our daily life… One thing for sure is that Japan has no intention of expanding its sphere of influence to Somalia/land. It is simply too late and too far in the first place. I think Japan only wants to protect unarmed commercial vessels (and civilians like that Japanese female medical doctor who was kidnapped to Somalia when she was treating the disadvantaged in the Horn) from heavily armed people, be it Somalis or others.
The above being said, very few people have hatred towards Somali/land. We are very far, very different and so on. I hope my articles will help the visitors to the web site Medeshi to know that there is an ordinary Japanese citizen like me who wants to contribute to building an invisible but solid bridge between the two countries. That way, little by little, the distance will be overcome.
Thank you for reading! ( End of Section 3).
About the writer : (Mr) Yoshia MORISHITA is a Japanese national who studied and worked in the UK, as well as Turkey and Eritrea. He has visited around 25 countries of the world and developed his international perspectives. He has a Master’s degree in International Development from UCL, University of London and worked as a research associate at a British NGO. Currently he is living in Japan running a small business in the area of various international programmes and businesses facilitation and co-ordination, while reading sociology at Hokkaido University.
Arab unity in the shadows of empire
Medeshi March 26, 2009
Arab unity in the shadows of empire
In the midst of huge strategic and economic upheavals, the leaders of the Arab world appear divided.
Immersed in domestic disputes and bilateral bickering, Arab nations are facing stark choices.
Emerging from a history of colonial domination, the Arab world is now influenced by competing global and regional powers.
The failure of George Bush's policies to transform the greater Middle East through military force has left new threats and new opportunities for this energy rich, conflict-ridden region.
In the new world order, we examine the possibilities of Arabs engaging with the world's superpowers on an equal footing.
But with countries as diverse as Egypt and the Comoros Islands, is the era of pan-Arabism an outdated concept?
On the eve of the Arab League Summit in Doha, Empire asks the questions that have divided generations: How can Arabs improve their poor standing in the world and at the same time, deal collectively with the dramatic regional and global challenges engulfing their countries?
Empire, Arab Unity in the Shadow of Empires can be seen from Wednesday March 25 at the following times GMT: Wednesday 1900; Thursday 0600 and 1400; Friday 0300 and 1000.
Immersed in domestic disputes and bilateral bickering, Arab nations are facing stark choices.
Emerging from a history of colonial domination, the Arab world is now influenced by competing global and regional powers.
The failure of George Bush's policies to transform the greater Middle East through military force has left new threats and new opportunities for this energy rich, conflict-ridden region.
In the new world order, we examine the possibilities of Arabs engaging with the world's superpowers on an equal footing.
But with countries as diverse as Egypt and the Comoros Islands, is the era of pan-Arabism an outdated concept?
On the eve of the Arab League Summit in Doha, Empire asks the questions that have divided generations: How can Arabs improve their poor standing in the world and at the same time, deal collectively with the dramatic regional and global challenges engulfing their countries?
Empire, Arab Unity in the Shadow of Empires can be seen from Wednesday March 25 at the following times GMT: Wednesday 1900; Thursday 0600 and 1400; Friday 0300 and 1000.
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Qaar ka mid ah Ururada Bulshada Rayidka ah oo walaac ka muujiyay mudo dhaafka golayaasha deegaanada
Annaga oo ah Ururada Bulshada Rayidka ah ee Madaxa-banaan waxaanu si wayn uga walaacsanahay
