It's time to stop the Sudan horrors

[Cuban_Liberal]

With U.S. officials estimating a death toll of 350,000 in the Darfur region of Sudan, the level of inaction taken by the international community is appalling. In Darfur today, the Sudanese government is allied with the Janjaweed militias as they proceed to eradicate the African Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.

The African groups organized an uprising against the Sudanese government in early 2003 to gain political representation in the Arab-ruled state. They felt they were being marginalized economically and politically. The response of the Sudanese government was to foment terror. They armed, trained and organized poor Arabs into the Janjaweed. They exploited differences in ethnicity for political gain.

The Sudanese government did not simply use the Janjaweed to combat the rebel groups and put down the insurgency. They chose instead to destroy life. In terrifying blitzkriegs, Sudanese aircrafts bombed villages, even those without connection to the rebel groups, in Darfur followed by the Janjaweed coming on horses and destroying everything in their path. Further, there is evidence of the government tampering with mass graves in order to cover up their tracks.

They destroyed the farms that most in the Darfur region relied on. They raped the women. They executed the children. They have already killed tens of thousands, and those they haven't killed have been forced into refugee camps in harsh desert environments. It was recently estimated by USAID that unless the situation takes a drastic turn for the better, roughly 350,000 men, women and children will be killed in Darfur.

What action has been taken by the international community? Secretary of State Colin Powell and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan have visited Darfur. They have first-hand accounts of the tragedy. After meeting with Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Powell and Annan secured promises of an end to the violence and a disarming of the Janjaweed. This is not working. The violence, 17-months-old, is continuing.

It seems there is a clear enough first-step to save the people of Darfur. The world needs to stop trading arms with the Sudanese government. After all, they put weapons in the hands of the Janjaweed.

Even with thousands already dead, there is delay. The United States, along with Britain, France and Germany want a resolution approved that would ban arms in Sudan while allowing the government one month to make good on their promises to disarm the militias. But countries such as Russia and China are not ready to sign on. They believe that the way to secure the lives of those from Darfur is to wait for cooperation from the government that created this humanitarian crisis. It is worth noting that the Russians and the Chinese sell arms to Sudan for oil.

The world must not forget Rwanda, where the Hutu ethnic group attempted genocide on the Tutsis, the other major ethnic group in the country. The Rwandan government, in 1994, supported extremist Hutu militias who systematically murdered over 800,000 Tutsis in one hundred days. Meanwhile, members of the United Nations Security Council quibbled over the number of deaths that allow for the use of the word "genocide." Former President Clinton regarded his inaction during the state-sponsored killing in Rwanda as his greatest regret.

The Darfur situation is in principle the same. After the Holocaust, the world said "never again." After Rwanda, the world said "never again." Yet here we are facing the same problem and the world is turning its back on this vow. The world is appeasing the Sudanese government.

The government is helping kill thousands of its citizens. How many more deaths must Darfur endure before action is taken?

[Larkspur]

1. I agree

I have a cousin who is a missionary priest in southern Sudan. He's been there since the 1980's and got into the country after a decades long civil war had ended back then.

[Blue Wally]

2. Age old story

Years back, the Muslim Hausa in Nigeria committed genocide against the animist and Christian Ibos whowere attempting to form their own state of Biafra. The lack of international support for the Ibos was unreal.

[Cuban_Liberal]

3. Very true.

How many times will we watch genocide against 'brown' and 'yellow' people, without intervening? As a Hispanic, this concerns me deeply...

[gpandas]

6. the answer my friend..

is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind. same as the sixties, when we marched against racism, and vowed to end segregation. the racism that exists now is publicly subdued, but still burning in the hearts and minds of many americans. a positive note is that the young people seem to have a better grip on this situation. hopefully, a couple more generations will eliminate this horrid scourge on democracy.

[Padraig18]

8. We can only hope.

So long as there is hunger, opression and hopelessness, the seeds of our own detsruction will continue to be sown in fertile soil.

[Blue Wally]

10. What

What does racism in America have to do with two tribes in Africa butchering each other??

[gpandas]

15. my post was in response to cuban liberal's post...

not the om. read cuban liberal's post, and i'm sure you will understand.

[Blue Wally]

9. Except

The Hausa and Ibo were both black.

[Padraig18]

11. I think he was trying to say 'non-white', honestly.

The only time the US seems to become interested in genocide is either when it involves white people, or when the world shames us into becoming interested.

:)

[Blue Wally]

12. No

He was trying to say that genocide only happens to the non-whites at the hands of whites.

Most genocides have been same on same.

Germans vs European Jews
Russian Communists vs Ukranians
Hausa vs Ibos
Chinese Commies against Chinese
Japanese against Chinese
Serbs vs Bosnians and Croats

[Padraig18]

13. I don't think that's what he was saying at all

I see nothing in anything he wrote that would support that contention.

[gpandas]

19. any good at map drawing, padraig...

since that appears to be the only way we can show wally what we are saying

[Padraig18]

21. Let me get my Etch-a-Sketch!

;)

[Mike Daniels]

40. Sounds like China and Russia are the feet draggers in this case

But then it's oh so easy to blame the US for "every" thing isn't it?

[gpandas]

17. wally, we are talking about intervention...

when genocide occurs. cuban liberal wondered why this country is so much less likely to intervene when the genocide occurs against brown or yellow people. the fact that both parties are black, imho, is not relevant to this discussion.

[Padraig18]

22. I concur.

That's exactly what I took away from reading his posts, too.

[Baltimoreboy]

23. So we only intervene militarily for genocide?

Where do you draw the line?

[gpandas]

37. didn't say that. again,

this discussion is about sudan and genocide and intervention. how could you possibly conclude "we only intervene militarily for genocide" from my posts?

[Baltimoreboy]

38. I am trying to differentiate between what you advocate

And Iraq. How do you draw the line? Where do you draw it?

Do we (meaning the U.S.) intervene in every major crisis? We don't have the troops for that even without Iraq.

Do we intervene in places where leadership is killing people? That covers a lot of the world, including Iraq.

[gpandas]

43. to me, intervene does not necessarily mean military

action. the use of diplomatic pressure, sanctions, threat of military action, recruiting others to join against this evil, are some of the ways to intervene without the use of military force. practicality is one way the line can be drawn. for example, when chairman mao was killing tens of millions of chinese people, it was completely impractical to invade china. to me, iraq is not an intervention to save the lives of innocent iraqis, it is part of a larger quest to establish military bases in the mid-east to control the supply of cheap oil. although i don't like the use of us troops in another country, there are times when we can do a lot to stop the massacre short of having our young men killed. bosnia was an example of this-a number of us airstrikes did much to stop the ethnic cleansing. i believe that some well-placed cruise missles would stop the killing by sudanese leaders. btw, this particular thread began when cuban liberal wondered about so little action being taken when the killed are yellow or brown skinned.

[Hoping4Change]

44. The Arabs perpetrating this are Semites not Caucasian.

Since you want to colour code people Semites fall into the brown category.

[Sweetpea]

4. Yes...this should be getting more coverage.

<https://ssl.charityweb.net/mercycorps/?DonorIntent=Sudan&Custom15=100>
<http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=1072182&cmp=KNC-1184150&xxwvCampaign=1184150>
<http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=Sudan+crisis%2C+organization&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3Dd28d3f12f92d64ea%26clickedItemRank%3D9%26userQuery%3DSudan%2Bcrisis%252C%2Borganization%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fsecure.ga3.org%252F02%252Fsudan04_oa%253Fsource%253Dsudan_hp%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DNSCPTop%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.ga3.org%2F02%2Fsudan04_oa%253Fsource%253Dsudan_hp>

Here are some relief efforts.

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. We sponsor a Sudanese child.

http://www.savethechildren.org .

[Padraig18]

7. Excellent post!

The world is so focused on Iraq that we forget the horrors that continue across Africa, including in the Sudan.

:cry:

[Zen]

14. Is there any oil in Sudan?

I didn't think so - neither was there any in Rwanda. Even the Dems are soggy when it comes to Africa. Shameful...

[Padraig18]

16. Yes, Sudan has oil.

They sell it to the Chinese and Russians.

[Zen]

20. Oh, then why aren't China and/or Russia helping out more??

Damn commies - lol - just joking!!

[MetaTrope]

32. Guess which country armed the rebel Christian warlords

in the oil-rich southern region?

Go on, I'm sure you can guess... :kick:

[reorg]

26. 8 billion barrel oil in Sudan

According to this map, most of the oil wells are currently owned by the French TotalFinaElf. As far as I remember, two years or so ago India bought a substantial piece of this cake, they are also in the process of building a pipeline there.

Another interesting thing is that a German firm already has the contract to build a railway track from Sudan to Kenia.

That's probably why the Europeans (witness the increased output of the typical "genocide", "ethnic war" etc propaganda lately) are quite interested to get some troops there.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/2

[reorg]

25. oil oil oil - of course it's about oil: wells in sudan (8 billion barrel)

are shown in this map from Human Rights Watch:


http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/2.htm


This particular conflict, as well as the ongoing civil war for twenty something years is all about the spoils of oil. And the US as well as Europaen countries are very much interested in getting more direct influence there themselves. Rest assured that you will get your "humanitarian" intervention ...


Further info (collection of pertinent news articles):

http://www.sudan.net/news/news.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x677964#678091

[sweetheart]

18. in keeping with a nuclear-only foreign policy...

we should have a nuclear test in the uninhabited desert near khartoum.
and suggest another test nearby unless the situation changes.

I'll wager a total change in policy overnight. Amazing how we have
all these nukes yet have failed to use them to achieve any sort of
justice except global terrorism with them.

It shows bush's america to be what it is... a fraud. They can hide
behind the fuzzy tale of their FAUX, but the world sees the truth.

[sadiesworld]

24. Maybe we could get Wes Clark to go in...

OTOH, we could just cut to the chase and declare him a warmonger and dispense w/ the adventure.

Whatever.

[gottaB]

27. Yes, it is n/t

:kick:

[Valerie5555]

28. Should we Canadians threaten to have General Dallaire publicly

:puke: over world inaction in the face of another AFRICAN GENOCIDE????????????????????


He commanded the UN peacekeeping squad for Rwanda about 10 years ago and I think he's now medically retired due to PTSS from his Rwanda experiences.

[Blue Wally]

36. And????

Prime Minister Cretin could have sent his massive armed forces to Rwanda to reinforce Gen Dallaire.

[reorg]

29. aid or propaganda?

Are you calling for the US to take over the arms for oil trade with Sudan, or what? I think we have seen more than enough of this lately.

From what I read this conflict is not about ethnic cleansing, this is a civil war, and the evil doers are not only on the government's side as you seem to claim.

I don't think we need simplistic propaganda pieces and much less do we need more military interventions.

Jean Ziegler, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food:

"... voiced concern that international donors have not provided enough funds to match the scale of the humanitarian crisis, which senior UN officials have recently described as the world's worst.

'In two weeks, the rainy season will cut off access to many of the communities in west Darfur, the region worst affected by the conflict," he said. "The rainy season and flooding will also give rise to diarrhoeal diseases and malarial incidence, which all contribute to malnutrition and mortality rates.'

Mr. Ziegler said the Geneva-based Commission should hold a special session focusing on Darfur, a region roughly the size of France. ..."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0407/S00103.htm

[gottaB]

31. I believe you're mistaken. The conflict is about ethnic cleansing

I can cite reports by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, UNHCRC, UN special rapporteurs for human rights, Doctors without Borders, Physicians for Human Rights, the Institute for Security Studies, the Center for American Progress, the International Crisis Group, the Crimes of War Project, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as independent reports from the AP, Knight-Ridder, the BBC, the Guardian, the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others.

I can understand that you would suspect USAID of promoting propoganda, and I can understand suspicions about the veracity of politicians from both sides of the aisle, including leading Democrats such as Kerry, Daschle, Feingold and Pelosi. Will you dismiss any claim you disagree with as simplistic propoganda, or will you accept any of the above named sources as worthy of bringing to the discussion?

Here is one post listing many of these sources, on the issue of rape used as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=657738#657868

[reorg]

33. I dismiss any propaganda in favor of military intervention

... which almost all of your listed sources have been found guilty of lately, if you care to remember.

On the other hand:


KHARTOUM, 5 Jul 2004 (IRIN) -

Jan Egeland, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, was in Khartoum last week, travelling with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on a three-day visit to western Sudan's Darfur region and eastern Chad. In an interview on Saturday, he told IRIN that the UN’s efforts to provide humanitarian aid to the region were hampered as much by a lack of donor support as by a lack of access. He asked governments to issue fewer condemnations of the situation in Darfur and instead to start providing tangible support for the victims of the conflict – including helicopters, vehicles and hard cash.

...

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41994&SelectRegion=East_Africa


And this is what the Turkish newspaper Zalman reported on July 7:


Oil Underlies Darfur Tragedy

Zaman - Turkey
Cumali Onal - Cairo
July 7, 2004

The fighting in Sudan's Darfur region, which is being reported in the world press as 'ethnic cleansing' and a 'humanitarian crisis', reportedly stems from attempts to gain control over the oil resources in the region, claim Arab sources. These Arab sources find it interesting that such skirmishes occurred when a peace agreement that would have brought an end to 21 years of north-south conflict was about to be signed. The sources point out that oil fields have recently been discovered in Darfur.

So far at least 10,000 people have lost their lives as a result of the fighting between Arab residents and locals in Darfur, while over a million have fled their homes.

The Sudanese government claims that there is a serious humanitarian crisis in the region. However, the Khartoum administration adds that some countries and groups, primarily Western humanitarian aid foundations and media institutions, are playing up the incidents in an attempt to make Sudan appear unstable and in need of foreign intervention.

The Sudanese government announced yesterday that the African Union would meet in Ethiopia at the end of the month to find a peaceful resolution to the Darfur crisis. Sudan agreed to send more military forces to the region after the visits of US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Khartoum also declared that it would attempt to disarm the Janjaweed since they are believed to be behind the attacks.

In Sudan, Africa's largest country with more than 2.5 million square meters of land, more than 30 armed groups fight against the central administration.

Khartoum reached an agreement with one of these groups, Sudanese People Liberation Army (SPLA), to end the 21-year long conflict that has caused the deaths of over 2 million people. Issues such as how the authority will be shared and the region's autonomy are being discussed in the peace negotiations taking place in Kenya.

Nearly all of the groups fighting against the Sudanese government are supported by neighboring countries; however, there are reports that some of the groups are supported by Israel, European countries, and the US.

It is claimed that the American administration has given at least 20 million dollars worth of aid to the SPLA and other armed groups allied with this organization. Arab sources point to the involvement of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) in the Darfur incidents as the primary piece of evidence that the struggle is based on oil. SLA has close relations with SPLA, led by John Garang, and it is demanding oil form the government. Arab sources indicate that an oil agreement between the Sudanese government and SPLA could make the armed militias stronger.

...

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/8991.html

[gottaB]

34. Jan Egeland

which almost all of your listed sources have been found guilty of lately, if you care to remember

Sorry, that's too vague for me to work with. Since you cited Jan Egeland, let's look at the full corpus of his public statements and see how he defines the conflict in Darfur.

An ambiguous statement from the July Fifth interview you cited:

Q: What is happening to the areas of land in Darfur that have been cleared of people?

A: The refugees believe that there is indeed ethnic cleansing and their land is being taken over. I think we have more reports actually of a kind of scorched earth - and that nobody has taken over. The places have been burned, the wells have been destroyed, the irrigation has been destroyed, the cattle have been killed and the donkeys have been thrown in the wells to poison them, which means that nobody has taken over.

Q: In cases where people have taken over, who are they?

A: It's complex, because some have said that it doesn't fit the legal definition of ethnic cleansing. The same tribes are represented both among those who are cleansed and those who are cleansing.

On the one hand, Egeland seems to prefer the term "scorched-earth" to "ethnic cleansing," and he acknowledges that some dispute the use of the term "ethnic cleansing." On the other hand, Egeland has no problem using "cleansing" as a verb to mean "force tribes out of an area."

In June, Egeland used the term "ethnic cleansing" more freely.

Mr. Egeland said that, "to me, the massive depopulation of the areas" by the Janjaweed constituted ethnic cleansing against the local black African population. But he said some observers said the pattern of killing between ethnic groups was not so consistent as to equate to ethnic cleansing.

"It's not genocide yet and we can prevent it" from becoming so, he added.

Mr. Egeland, who is also Emergency Relief Coordinator for the UN, said too many NGO workers are still being prevented from providing assistance to civilians in Darfur because of visa delays by Sudanese authorities. Many vehicles used by aid agencies are also being held up at customs sites and, once cleared, he added, many no longer have radios and are thus inoperable.

"People are dying because we were denied access for so long. People will be dying because we are still not able to get through all the things that we should be able to get through," he said.

UN Relief Official Says Mixed Progress in Helping Civilians in Darfur, Sudan

One might argue that Egeland was more apt to use the term "ethnic cleansing" prior to seeing conditions on the ground first hand. On the other hand, there have been reports that Annan's delegation was only allowed access to model refugee camps. I won't bother you with citations, since you have roundly impugned international reporting. However, to suppose that the Sudan is not adept at propaganda would be naive in the extreme. The inadequacy of the international relief effort is definitely a talking point of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry.

Now, Egeland's desire to remain neutral is understandable to a degree. His job is to provide aid to the victims in Darfur, and from his point of view whether they live or die will depend on contributions by donor nations and cooperation with the Sudanese authorities. But is a fallacy of the rudest kind to argue that the proximal cause of death of the Darfurians is or will be lack of donations, rather than the Government of the Sudan's policy of destroying food stores, poisoning wells, burning houses, murder, plunder, rape and, in general, "cleansing."

Egeland's bias towards non-judgemental langauge is, therefore, best explained as an aspect of his job, rather than a full and accurate report of how he sees the conflict. Even so, for one to take from his statements the notion that the conflict is not about ethnic cleansing represents an eggregious distortion of his position.

[bigbillhaywood]

30. Yeah, just what we need-- more foreign military interventions. n/t

[Valerie5555]

35. Did anyone figure that everyone should perhaps consider these 4 words or

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTIONS????????????????????????????


http://www.amnesty.org

[seemslikeadream]

39. The Dogs of War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=9558

The Dogs of War


Not even Frederick Forsyth thought of so many twists and riddles in his Dogs of War, probably the best-known novel about mercenaries.
The book was based on Forsyth's personal adventures - he was involved in an unsuccessful scheme to overthrow the head of state of Equatorial Guinea in 1972.
But even the Dogs of War cannot rival this bizarre tale of confusion.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn200...

Ladies and Gentlemen,
visitors from the darkside,
it is with much pleasure that I present:
AFRICAN OIL POLITICS
which offers
forward-looking views on african oil politics and related energy security issues
http://africanoilpolitics.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_afric...

This MOST INSIGHTFUL BLOG
offers information, interviews and analysis that cannot - to my knowledge - be found elsewhere.
As you all know, the US is VERY dependent on oil and as global oil reserves diminish, the West is once again aligned in a Scramble for Africa.
The Organization of African Unity, having seen what the the first Western-led Scramble for Africa did to the people and the resources of Africa, took the pre-emptive step, in 1999,
of permanently outlawing coups d'etat on African soil.
http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2003/04/22/2003042...
Unfortunately,
this action has not deterred certain nations (whose ideas of protective pre-emptive action consist basically of violating the Peace of Westphalia) from doing their darndest to destabilize African nations - and most especially those African nations who have oil.
http://www.netnomad.com/fineman.html
The African Oil Politics blog keeps a watchful eye on these and other oil-related developments.
But I digress.

Our story today,
starts in Madrid,
where a terrible bombing occurred on March 11, 2004.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1166996,...

The bombings in Madrid have distracted the attention of many from the events taking place in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe investigators allege that Spanish-based rebel leader Severo Moto offered the suspects money and oil rights to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea. Fifteen suspected mercenaries were also arrested in that country last week.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=79&art_id=qw107...

Pedro said the men were recruited by an agent representing Logo Logistics, which had connections with the now defunct Executive Outcomes (EO), a private security company owned by former South African Defence Force intelligence officer Eben Barlow.
The recruiting agent is known to be a former 32 Battalion sergeant.
EO is now operating under the name of Saracen and has close links with Logo Logistics, based in London.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn200...

And now, over to our star reporter:

Saturday, March 13, 2004
Before I start to the review of the most juicy stories of the day, let me urge you to visit Katryn Cramer's blog. She did a wonderful job tracking the N4610 plane background and posting updates. Katryn is a SciFi writer and editor from Pleasantville (NY). I wonder what grabbed her interest. Sometimes, Africa just looks like another planet and African Oil Politics reads like a pod conspiracy.
Today's media coverage was... average. No new interesting leads emerged. However, more western (mostly Bristish) newspapers dare report the story. But there's a specific twist and bias that is absent from the African papers reviewed here yesterday. I'll start with Nicholas Christian's piece which is clearly designed to arouse pity for Simon Mann - the poor little boy who finds himself in such a baaad situation:

FEARS were growing last night for a former British soldier who faces the death sentence after he was arrested in Zimbabwe and charged with aiding a coup plot against another African country. ... Amid reports he has homes in South Africa and in Hampshire, Mann’s nationality remains unclear. The army will sign-up those Britons with dual nationality and citizens from the Commonwealth but has not confirmed Mann was a member of the forces. He is said to be Sandhurst-trained and to have served in Northern Ireland with the Scots Guards and later in the 1990 Gulf War as an intelligence officer in Riyadh. His father is said to be the late George Mann, president of the Marylebone Cricket Club and a former captain of England’s cricket team. Since leaving the army, Mann has been employed as a computer consultant and linked to a number of ‘private military’ firms, including Sandline International and Executive Outcomes.

I love how hard he tries to turn the guy into a victim. Come on Christian, you're talking about a dog of war - a tough guy trained by the SAS and who makes his living organizing coups, killing people. And don't repeat that he's LINKED to a number of PM firms. Just say that he was he was one of the founders of Executive Outcomes and everybody will understand. But thank you for bringing us up to date about his film career. I didn't know he played Colonel Wilford in Bloody Sunday. I'll watch the DVD to check how the guy looks like.
http://africanoilpolitics.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_afric...

And now to Kathryn Cramer's blog.

First of all, N4610 isn't just any random former US cargo plane. Rather it is a specific military plane with a specific history which is relatively easy to find out on the web. As is widely reported, the plane was registered to Dodson Aviation, Inc. of Ottawa, Kansas. Jetliners.com lists the plane as operated by the U. S. Air Force. It also gives additional information: that the plane is a specific type of Boeing cargo plane, a C-22B, and it gives an additional identification number 83-4610. Airlink has a nice factsheet with a picture of the type of plane, a Boeing 727-100 modified for air national guard support missions.
<snip>
The plane in question was on display at the Andrews AFB, Department of Defense Open House on May 15, 1999. The records of the airshow suggest that it was also assigned to the 201st Airlift Squadron, District of Columbia Air National Guard.
The State Department disingenuous claim -- endlessly repeated in news stories around the globe -- is that they have " no indication this aircraft is connected to the U.S. government."
http://www.kathryncramer.com/wblog/archives/000457.html

Oh my!
http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/examples.osi.h...
http://www.moveon.org/censure/caughtonvideo /

Cde Mohadi said Mann had revealed that the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), America*s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Spanish Secret Service aided the group.
The secret services persuaded the Equatorial Guinea service chiefs, that is the head of police and commander of the army, not to put up any resistance.
They were promised cabinet posts in Moto*s government.
The agencies were responsible for the hiring of the Boeing 727-100 from Dodson Aviation and they also provided satellite communication system to link up Moto in Spain, Mann and du Toit in South Africa and Bonds in Malabo.
United States forces are reportedly carrying out military exercises around Equatorial Guinea.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200403100875.html



Surely this is is all an unfortunate coincidence.
There is NOTHING to link N4610 acts of international terrorism
such as the attacks in New York and Washington DC
by N334AA and N644AA.
Surely the 1/14/2002 FAA cancellation dates on
these three aircraft is just happenstance, or a mere coincidence.
OK,
so Auric Goldfinger stated bluntly that
"one is happenstance, two is coincidence, but three is enemy action"
but he is NOT a reliable source of information since Ian Fleming pulled a Jack Kelley when he came up with that quote.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-03-18-2004-03-18_kell...

Equatorial Guinea's state radio said Moto had paid South African Nick du Toit, 48, the leader of the advance party in Equatorial Guinea, $10-million (about R67-million).
Speaking on state television, Du Toit said the advance party would take strategic targets such as the presidency, the military barracks, police posts and the residences of government members.
South African security sources say the Zimbabwean group was heading to a covert military training camp in Cameroon that was to be the staging point for a seaborne assault.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=vn200...

DAMN AL QAEDA.
SHUT DOWN THEIR TRAINING CAMPS.
WE DO NOT NEED TO DISCUSS INNOCENCE OR GUILT.
WE KNOW THEY ARE GUILTY.
HAND THEM OVER.
RIGHT NOW.

This is the US State Department 1996 report concerning
the Current Administration of President Teodoro Obiang, who,
"together with his associates, dominates the Government. The President's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) controls the judiciary and the legislature, the latter through fraudulent elections. "

d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Police routinely hold persons in incommunicado detention. The government arrested political figures and detained them for indeterminate periods. There were also credible reports that around five members of the Movement for the Autodetermination of the Island of Bioko (MAIB), an ethnically based political opposition group, were detained in prison for several weeks. At least 15 members of the opposition were arrested for political activity during the year.

In February, opposition leader Severo Moto and nine additional opposition and military figures were arrested and charged with treason.
At their trial in April (which lasted only 7 hours), one defendant was acquitted. The others were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Moto received a 28-year sentence. The trial was held in a military court which did not have jurisdiction over Moto, a civilian.
After extensive international criticism and an international campaign for his release, he and his fellow defendants were pardoned and released in August. Although the Government did not force Moto to leave the country, he left to reside abroad soon after his release.

There are nominal but unenforced legal procedural safeguards regarding detention, the need for search warrants, and other protections of prisoners' rights. Judicial warrants are required. Generally, however, the police arrest suspects without having obtained warrants.
Authorities also continued to hold citizens of Nigeria, Ghana, Gabon, and other countries to secure bribes.
The Government does not force citizens into exile.
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1995_hrp_report...

WHAT BARBARISM.
Thank God for our freedoms.

NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) - The euro rose against the dollar in early New York trade on Friday on reports of a bomb threat to Washington DC schools, traders said.
http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2004/03/19/r...

SO WHAT?
We are still WAY better than those heathens.

The Zimbabwe government said Simon Mann, an additional alleged plotter who had met the plane at the airport Sunday in Harare, confessed to having backing from London, Washington and Madrid.
Both British and U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said they knew nothing about the plane or the plot. Spain, named as a co-conspirator and home of purported coup plotter Moto, threatened to file a formal complaint with Zimbabwe's government.
Questions remain
What happens next to the alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe remains unclear. So far there appears to be little evidence that the men committed any crime beyond lying about the number of passengers on the flight, which Boshoff called "a small technical issue."
"You have to prove conspiracy, and that's not easy," he said. "What did they do wrong? That's my question."
Plenty of other questions remain as well. Could the apparent planned arms sale in Zimbabwe have been part of an entrapment plot, aimed at embarrassing Mugabe's enemies in the West? Was a flight plan filed in South Africa, indicating the plane was headed to Burundi, a smokescreen?
As South Africa's Star newspaper noted this week, "the solution . . . is easy. Frederick Forsyth just needs to write `Dogs of War II.'"


snip

[seemslikeadream]

41. GALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL ARMS DEALERS

VICTOR BOUT INTERNATIONAL ARMS DEALER


GALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL ARMS DEALERS



By Matthew Brunwasser

Victor Bout is the poster boy for a new generation of post Cold War international arms dealers who play a critical role in areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations.

Now, as FRONTLINE/World reports in "Gunrunners," unprecedented U.N. investigations have begun to unravel the mystery of these broken embargoes, many of them imposed on African countries involved in bloody civil wars. At the heart of this unfolding detective story is the identification of a group of East European arms merchants, with Victor Bout the first of them to be publicly and prominently identified. The U.N. investigative team pursued leads that a Mr. Bout was pouring small arms and ammunition into Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Congo, making possible massacres on a scale that stunned the world.

Despite being pursued for years by a flinty group of private and government arms investigators, a positive visual ID of this United Arab Emirates-based arms merchant only became available when two Belgian journalists ran into him at an airstrip in remote rebel-held Congo. And it was only recently that his name became familiar in the United States, following press reports of his role in arming the Taliban regime in Afghanistan five years ago. If not for this link to Afghanistan, it is probable that Bout would still be a low-profile character in the clandestine world of illicit arms trading.


more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/b ...



VICTOR BOUT
FACT SHEET
BORN:
1967, Dushanbe, U.S.S.R. (now Tajikistan); an ethnic Russian.

PASSPORTS:
At least five, two of which are Russian and one Ukrainian.

ALIASES:
Often referred to in law enforcement circles as "Victor B.," as he is thought to have at least five aliases: Butt, Butov, Badd, Bulakin and others.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow.

PREVIOUS CAREER:
Until 1991, served as an interpreter in a now-disbanded military transport aviation regiment in Vitsebsk (now Belarus). Translated for U.N. peacekeeping force in Angola, 1987. Left the military as a lieutenant.

LANGUAGES:
Russian (native), Farsi (Persian, also the language of Tajikistan), English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Xhosa, Zulu.

MOST RECENTLY:
Last seen at liberty in Moscow in March, 2002.

CRIMINAL RECORD:
June 2000: Charged with forging documents in the Central African Republic and convicted in absentia. Charges were later dropped; no explanation was given.
February 2002: Belgium issued an arrest warrant for Bout on money laundering charges.
more
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/b ...


MERCHANT OF DEATH
Viktor Bout standing near an airplane.

Published on Friday, May 21, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
Arms Dealer Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq
Coalition forces find new uses in Iraq for an arms dealer they had branded a villain in Africa.

by Julio Godoy

PARIS - Arms dealer Viktor Bout was the merchant of death wanted for feeding conflicts in Africa - until Iraq happened.

Today the United States and Britain are using his extensive mercenary services in Iraq. The condemnation of his role in the diamond wars and other conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa over the past ten years is being silently erased.

The Tajikstan-born Bout would be an embarrassing ally to acknowledge publicly. But the coalition partners are showing him exceptional favors as he does some of their job for them.

The UN Security Council drafted a resolution in March to freeze the assets of mercenaries and weapons dealers who backed ousted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. Bout should top that list, French diplomatic sources say. But the diplomats and UN sources say the United States has been working to keep Bout off that list.

U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS.

The tanks were believed to have been transported by one of Bout's air freight companies in a deal conducted through Pakistan's secret service. The deal was uncovered by the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR in Kabul, Der Spiegel reported.

more
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0521-12.htm

"The top arms manufacturers -- and the U.S. sells more weapons than the rest of the world combined -- have a vested interest in keeping their product on the move, legally or otherwise. And aren't there also simply times when a government decides it's in its best interest, and its citizens' best interest, to let traffickers traffic?... According to Clinton administration N.S.C. officials, from its first days the Bush administration didn't see transnational crime as a national-security issue, and it didn't share their fixation on Victor Bout Condoleezza Rice instructed the N.S.C. to work the Bout problem diplomatically. ''Look but don't touch'' is how one former White House official put it to me. After Sept. 11, Rice called off the Bout operation altogether. Moscow was not to be pressured on arms trafficking in general and Victor Bout in particular. The reasoning, according to a source who talked to Rice, was that they had ''bigger fish to fry.'' (Rice refused to comment for this article.) " , nyt, 08.17.03
http://www.bushwatch.com/comment.htm
January 19, 2001

New United Nations sanctions against Afghanistan take effect, adding to those from 1999 (see November 14, 1999). The sanctions limit travel by senior Taliban authorities, freeze bin Laden's and the Taliban's assets, and order the closure of Ariana Airlines offices abroad. The sanctions also impose an arms embargo against the Taliban, but not against Northern Alliance forces battling the Taliban. But this doesn't stop the illegal trade network the Taliban is secretly running through Ariana (see Mid-1996-October 2001). Two companies, Air Cess and Flying Dolphin, take over most of Ariana's traffic. Air Cess is owned by the Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, and Flying Dolphin is owned by the UAE's former ambassador to the US, who is also an associate of Bout (see October 1996). In late 2000, despite UN reports linking Flying Dolphin to arms smuggling, the United Nations gives Flying Dolphin permission to take over Ariana's closed routes, which it does until the new sanctions take effect. Bout's operations are still functioning and he has not been arrested. Ariana is essentially destroyed in the October 2001 US bombing of Afghanistan.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline_pf.jsp?time ...

[theboss]

42. After that month, what happens?

I'm all for stopping genocide as much as the next suburbanite, but I don't know how you do it without sending in a large military presence for at least a generation.