Why Progressives Should Oppose Imperialist Interevention in Africa

Is French Operation in Mali a neocolonial intervention?

The conflict in Mali is continuing full bore, with the French military taking the lead both on the ground and in the air and seemingly pushing back Islamic rebels based in the northern part of the country. The rebels, associated primarily with Ansar Dine, had overrun a number of cities in the central part of the country, and for a time were menacing the Malian capital of Bamako.

On Jan. 22, two key cities,Diabaly and Doutenza, were taken by French and Malian troops after the rebels holding them retreated. For the time being, this has ended the threat of the fall of the Bamako government and shifted the fighting back towards the northern part of the country. The French air force has been launching numerous airstrikes in northern Mali, including in the ancient city of Timbuktu, in an attempt to weaken the strongholds of the rebel forces.

The proposed “Africanization” of the conflict has yet to happen as troops from the Economic Community of West African States and other African states have as yet only trickled into Mali. At a recent emergency summit in the Ivory Coast, ECOWAS leaders called on the “international community” to provide financial support for their African military mission in Mali, which is slated to take over most ground operations from the French.

With many towns being taken without a fight, it is unclear if the rebel strategy is to retreat to strong points or launch a guerilla-style conflict. Ominously, human rights organizations have reported that Tuaregs and ethnic Arab civilians have been targeted by Malian security forces in a number of brutal attacks and killings…

Read more.

Source: Party for Socialism and Liberation

Al Qaeda Controlling Eastern Libya

Libya: Comment: On the 26th, Milan's Corriere della Sera published an article by an Italian journalist describing conditions in Libya, with special focus on eastern Libya, the region around Benghazi. Excerpts follow.

He wrote that Westerners are leaving eastern Libya. Businessmen, diplomats, and representatives of humanitarian organizations are leaving, along with the technicians who work in the oil industry.

"Rome considers that the Libyan authorities are currently 'incapable of ensuring effective control over the territory' against the Islamic fundamentalist threat. Thus 'travel in eastern, central, and southern Libya is absolutely discouraged unless motivated by stringent professional requirements which cannot opportunely be postponed.'"

Benghazi "is riven by feuding. The security forces are nowhere to be seen. The central government does not exist. The secessionist movement is growing. Garbage is rotting in the streets, and crime and the kidnapping industry are spreading...."

"Darnah, the coastal city nestling at the foot of the 'green mountains' …is now seen as an independent al-Qa'ida republic...."

" 'Al-Qa'ida's road blocks now control the roads in Darnah. They may comprise over 1,000 armed men. Their militia groups are spreading to the villages and they are occupying other cities such as Bayda in an attempt to reach Benghazi,' Libyan intelligence sources told us. The next deadline is…

Read more.

Source: Town Hall

Prof calls Zero Dark Thirty ‘propaganda film’ for positive depiction of waterboarding

By Oliver Darcy

A law professor dismissed Zero Dark Thirty as propaganda in an op-ed on Friday, saying the film portrayed waterboarding in a favorable light by depicting it as a crucial tool in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

A law professor skewered Zero Dark Thirty for allegedly portraying the use of enhanced interrogation techniques in a positive light.

Marjorie Cohn, a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law argued in a Huffington Post editorial on Friday that the controversial technique of waterboarding, which some consider torture, had not in fact lead to the death of Bin Laden.

“After showing footage of the 9/11 attacks, it [the movie] moves into a graphic and lengthy depiction of torture,” she wrote, apparently referring to waterboarding. “Responding to the torture, he divulges the name of the courier who ultimately leads the CIA to Bin Laden’s location and assassination.”

“It may be good theater, but it is inaccurate and misleading,” she concluded.

Cohn’s view of the role of…

Read more.

Source: Campus Reform

Forget Afghanistan—What was the most brutal guerrilla warfare campaign of all time?

The author of a new “epic history of guerrilla warfare” says Haiti’s independence struggle might hold the distinction as the most brutal guerrilla war of all time.

“There have been many brutal campaigns, but it is hard to top Haiti’s struggle for independence from France from 1791 to 1804,” Max Boot, whose “Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present” just hit book stores, told The Daily Caller.

“It began with a slave revolt. French colonists later testified to a litany of horrors allegedly committed by slaves seeking liberation. … In trying to put down the revolt, French troops were just as inhumane and vicious. … By some estimates the Haitian War of Independence claimed the lives of 200,000 blacks and mulattos, 25,000 white colonists, 50,000 French soldiers, and 15,000 British soldiers.”

“As one scholar notes,” he added, “‘Six times as many Haitians as Americans died during their respective wars for independence,’ even though the population of Haiti was one-fourth that of the North American colonies.”

Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has followed America’s current campaign against guerrillas in Afghanistan closely. He said keeping just…

Read more.

Source: Daily Caller

Reward Offers in USAID Murders Case

---

The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is offering rewards for information on two individuals involved in the January 1, 2008 murders of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) diplomat John Granville and USAID employee Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama.

The Department has authorized rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the capture of Abdelbasit Alhaj Alhasan Haj Hamad and Mohamed Makawi Ibrahim Mohamed, two of five individuals convicted in Sudan for the murders.

Granville, a U.S. citizen, and Abbas, a Sudanese national, were leaving a New Year’s Eve celebration in Khartoum, Sudan, when gunmen opened fire on their car, killing both of them. Granville worked on democracy and governance programs for USAID. He was credited with being the driving force behind the distribution of over 200,000 solar-powered radios used to inform citizens in remote areas of Sudan of their rights and responsibilities under the historic 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and subsequent 2010 national elecions. Abbas was born in Juba, now the capital of South Sudan, and began his USAID career in 2004 as one of the original members of the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team for Darfur.

Five men were tried and convicted in 2009 by a Sudanese court for their involvement in the murders. Four of those men – including Abdelbasit and Makawi -- were convicted of murder and sentenced to death but escaped from prison on June 10, 2010, before their sentences could be carried out. Of the four escapees, one was recaptured. A second was reportedly killed in Somalia in May 2011. Abdelbasit and Makawi remain at large and are believed to be in Somalia.

Makawi had ties to the Sudan-based terrorist organization al-Qaida in the Land of the Two Niles, which conspired to attack other U.S., Western, and Sudanese targets. He was the leader of the attack that killed Granville and Abbas and was identified as one of the gunmen. Makawi was born in 1984 in Sudan and speaks English and Arabic.

Abdelbasit was the second shooter in the attack. He was born in Sudan and has used birthdates in 1979 and 1983. He also speaks English and Arabic.

More information about these individuals is located on the Rewards for Justice web site at www.rewardsforjustice.net. We encourage anyone with information on these individuals to contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, or the Rewards for Justice office via the website (www.rewardsforjustice.net), e-mail (RFJ@state.gov), or mail (Rewards for Justice, Washington, DC 20520-0303, USA). All information will be kept strictly confidential.

The Rewards for Justice program is administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Since its inception in 1984, the program has paid more than $125 million to more than 80 persons who provided actionable information that put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide.

University’s ‘large-scale terrorist’ drill features simulated grenades, gunfire and explosions

Campus police at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) hosted a massive “terrorist training exercise” on Thursday which included simulated explosions, gunfire, and actors playing shooting victims.

This photo, posted by a user on Twitter, shows part of a massive "terrorist training exercise" staged by over 20 law enforcement agencies.

More than 200 law enforcement officials reportedly participated in the drill, dubbed by university police as "Operation Eagle Swoop.”

A statement released by the school on Wednesday described the drill as a “full scale terrorist training exercise” which would include  “a large volume of emergency vehicles.”

Regardless, students turned to the Internet on Thursday to express confusion over events on campus.

“What’s going on at #nccu,” tweeted a…

Read more.

Source: Campus Reform

Neoconservative Fallacies in Aggressive Foreign Policy (part 2)

By Zach Foster, resident writer of A Blogging Spot

Al Qaeda certainly needed to be punished for the horrific 9/11 terror attacks and much of the world agreed, but having hundreds of military bases in over a hundred countries didn’t stop the attacks from occurring.  Furthermore, invading Iraq plus getting involved in Libya, Syria, and central Africa isn’t doing much for national security. Both parties in government like spending more money than they take in and both started or got our country involved in wars we didn’t need to fight. Anyone is free to ask any Iraq or Afghan war veteran if he or she really think the Iraqis or Afghans will figure out and embrace democracy and human rights anytime soon, and the response will most likely be “No.”

Many neoconservatives attempt to justify the Iraq and Afghan wars (as well as the African sideshows) by comparing them to the First Barbary War or to World War II.  Their logic is faulty at best as the nature of the centuries-past conflict differs greatly.  The First Barbary War (1801-1805) was initiated after semi-independent sultans of the Ottoman Empire’s buffer states had been authorizing pirates to kidnap…

(Read more)

Source: A Blogging Spot

Neoconservative Fallacies in Aggressive Foreign Policy

By Zach Foster, resident writer of A Blogging Spot

Many neoconservative Republicans enjoy using the same amount of straw man arguments and slippery slopes that leftists use against the GOP’s libertarian/Constitutionalist faction.  Their methods are often the same while only the content of their rhetoric differs.  One of the neoconservatives’ main criticisms of the liberty faction is the fallacious slippery slope that not having American military bases all over the world will lead to constant terror attacks against the homeland and possible invasions by foreign armies.

Many neoconservatives who most fanatically support a foreign policy of imperialism under the euphemism of Pax Americana will tout their own military service from a bygone era, most often occurring during a time of peace.  Discussions with actual combat veterans reveal that those who fought in America’s wars tend to be warier of an aggressive foreign policy, being fully conscious of the possibility that the beloved country for which they fought and bled may begin to resemble the aggressive evils they fought against.

Neoconservatives with veteran status often attempt to…  (Read more)

Source: A Blogging Spot