Saturday, November 21, 2009

China-Africa Summit in Egypt Hailed as Success

China-Africa Summit in Egypt Hailed as Success

$US10 billion pledged by PRC to assist agricultural and other development projects

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
News Analysis

A new chapter in relations between the People’s Republic China (PRC) and the African continent began during the recently held 4th Ministerial Conference of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC) which was held between November 6-9 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. During the summit Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced eight new measures to enhance partnerships with 53 African states in the areas of agriculture, debt relief, market access expansion, climate change, medical affairs, education, environmental protection and promotion of investment.

The summit was addressed by Premier Wen and was also attended by the Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming. Wen said that Beijing is “committed to…going all-out to assist African countries in improving their agricultural production and infrastructure.” (South African Mail & Guardian, November 9)

According to a statement made by Premier Wen, “The Chinese people cherish sincere friendship toward the African people, and China’s support to Africa’s development is concrete and real. We will help Africa build financing capabilities. We will provide $10 billion for Africa in concessional loans.” (Money Morning, November 10)

This summit in Sharm el-Sheikh is a continuation of the 2006 meeting which was held in Beijing. Economic cooperation between the PRC and the African continent has accelerated in recent years.

During 2008, China exceeded the United States in becoming the largest trading partner with Africa. Total trade between Beijing and the African continent totaled $107 billion. This represents a tenfold increase since 2000.

The Chinese oil industry has announced plans to invest $16 billion in efforts to boost its imports from Africa. The Chinese state-owned company, CNOOC Ltd, is conducting negotiations with Nigeria to purchase 6 billion barrels of oil, which would total over 17 percent of the West African nation’s reserves.

This deal, if approved, could generate $30-50 billion in revenue for Nigeria. Other trade relations between China and Africa involves the importation of large supplies of gold, silver, copper, cobalt, bauxite, iron ore and nickel.

In his statement to the summit, Premier Wen stated in part that “The rapidly growing relations and cooperation between China and Africa have attracted the world’s attention in recent years. I would like to point out that it was not just few years ago that China suddenly started its presence in Africa or Africa started its support for China.” (Xinhuanet.com, November 9)

Premier Wen continued by discussing the shared history between the peoples of Africa and China in the struggle against foreign domination and exploitation. He stressed that “As early as in the 1950s and 60s, China and Africa fought shoulder to shoulder in the historic struggle against imperialism, colonialism and hegemony and worked side by side in the hard endeavor to revive our respective national economies.”

China Provides Viable Alternative to Relations With the West

During the same time period that the FOCAC summit was taking place in Egypt, there was a ministerial meeting held between the finance ministers of the Group of 20 in Scotland. The G20, which is dominated by the capitalist of the West and Japan, has failed to honor the promises made to the African continent over the last three years.

At the previous G20 meeting held in Pittsburgh during early October, it was noted by various African states that the economic grouping has not honored its pledges to work seriously towards the alleviation of underdevelopment on the continent. In fact, over the last two years as a result of the global economic crisis, over 50 million people in Africa have been thrust into poverty.

According to Money Morning managing editor Jason Simpkins, “While U.S. and European officials this weekend squabbled over the specifics of an economic recovery plan, China took another step to ensure long-term economic growth by inking another multibillion dollar deal with Africa.” (Morning Money, November 10)

Also Daragh Maher, deputy head of global foreign exchange strategy at Calyon Credit Agricole, said that “The G20 meeting failed to deliver any real specifics as to how it intended to rebalance the global economy, suggesting the drift in the dollar is not likely to be addressed on a coordinated basis.” (Associated Press, November 10)

In contrast to these developments in the capitalist states, China has been successful in implementing its economic stimulus program that has resulted in significant results. “Indeed, China has found exceptional economic growth at a time when most of the Western world is struggling back from the brink. A continent rich in commodities, which have been skyrocketing in value, Africa is integral to China’s plans for sustained growth.” (Money Morning, November 10)

Nonetheless, the imperialist states and its allies have attempted to distort the nature of China’s economic and political relationships with various African states. In a statement issued by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, it claims that the PRC “aids and abets oppressive and destitute African dictatorships by legitimizing their misguided policies and praising their development models as suited to individual national conditions.”

The Pentagon has criticized the $7 billion in arm exports to the oil-rich nation of Sudan between 2003-2007 as evidence of China’s support of African states that have been criticized and targeted for destabilization by the United States. Zimbabwe has also benefitted from political and economic support from China and the U.S. has often cited this as an indication that Beijing’s intentions in Africa are not genuine.

Both Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan were present at the FOCAC summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. In contrast to the statements made by the Heritage Foundation, Zimbabwe hailed the fourth ministerial meeting of FOCAC as a “very successful meeting.” (Zimbabwe Herald, November 11)

After the Zimbabwe delegation returned from Sharm el-Sheikh, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, who accompanied President Robert Mugabe to Egypt, said that “It was a very successful meeting and we are pleased with the manner in which cooperation between Africa and China is developing.”

The Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Minister continued by saying “At the last summit in Beijing in 2006, China pledged to assist in a number of ways and so far 95 percent of those promises have been fulfilled. We are confident that by the end of the year all the targets will have been met.” (Herald, November 11)

President Mugabe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks on November 7 in Egypt where they agreed on establishing a new development package for Zimbabwe which has been under western imperialist imposed sanctions since 2000. Zimbabwe came under attack after it enacted a reform program that returned significant land holdings to the African people. This land had been seized by the British colonialists during the 1890s.

In President Mugabe’s address to the FOCAC summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on November 8, he said that China’s cooperation with Africa provides the best model for relations between states in the economic, political and cultural spheres. Mugabe praised China-Africa partnerships stating that Beijing had built a strong economy without engaging in looting and plundering of the developing world as the West has done for centuries. (Xinhuanet, November 11)
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The Casablanca Connection

The Casablanca connection

Courtesy of the Zimbabwe Herald

IN 1978 Abel Muzorewa and Ndabaningi Sithole signed an agreement with Ian Smith to extirpate on the people of this land a mongrel offspring called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.

Muzorewa was without political guile and for that reason he thought he could convince independence-hungry Zimbabweans that his immoral alliance with Smith was real belly-filling sustenance.

Every sane person denounced this arrangement and Muzorewa discovered how lonely national politics can be for the naïve.

Ostracised like a leper by serious political parties at home, he sought international recognition and was badly burnt when he tried to address the UN Security Council soon after a ‘‘terrorist’’ called Robert Mugabe had been welcomed there and he was told where he could stuff his delusions of grandeur.

No one would touch the sick man of Southern Africa called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia even with a long stick . . . except, of course, for apartheid South Africa and the Kingdom of Morocco.

South Africa’s support for Smith and his idiocies was understandable.

What may not seem so obvious is the "Casablanca Connection".

But then again, Morocco was always a Smith supporter and stuck with the Rhodesians throughout their ungodly war on the owners of the land between the Zambezi and the Limpopo.

Morocco actively gave life to Rhodesia and was heavily involved in sanctions busting along with Jack Malloch’s Affretair (the same cargo line that reaped rich dividends from abetting Moise Tshombe in DRC, Jonas Savimbi in Angola and the Biafran civil war).

Moroccan royalty found it fitting to play host to a Rhodesian re-supply camp from which the victuals that kept white troops well fed enough to kill our people and with enough guns to believe the "not in a thousand years boast" were routed.

Morocco and South Africa were as thick as thieves and today Rabat remains probably the only capital in world that is yet to even consider the possibility of admitting to any sense of shame for having supported apartheid and tried at all costs to sustain it.

The people of Angola too know what kind of politics Morocco is interested in. They will tell you how the friendship with an American creation — an askari as Ayi Kwei Armah would say — called Savimbi almost totally destroyed their country.

What Morocco really is

Morocco has sycophantically sought to be in America’s good graces for over 300 years now and it is not surprising, therefore, that they have played the role of destabilisation agent in Africa with such gusto.

In December 1777, Morocco’s Sultan Muhammad III became the first leader in the whole world to recognise the newly-created Freemason’s State of America.

These ties were formalised in the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship negotiated by Thomas Barclay, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Sultan Muhammad III in 1786.

When Morocco became a Spanish colony America protested more loudly than it could ever do for the rest of the world.

In fact, America — in its typical shamelessness — never once considered the fact that it was busy colonising Latin America when it objected to imperial rule of Morocco.

During the incongruently named World War II Morocco lost hundreds of lives fighting for what was essentially a battle for supremacy between Western imperialist nations.

And from 1956 onwards Morocco remained America’s closest ally.

Today they are partners in the so-called war on terror and for its pains, Morocco has endured at least one major terrorist bombing in Casablanca in May 2003.

Unencumbered by the strictures placed on diplomats and our Foreign Affairs officers, I will say it — Morocco is the ugly wart on the face of Africa that everyone pretends does not exist.

Marechera, who was even more delightfully unburdened by common expectations of social tact, would have said Morocco’s foreign policy is the loud fart everyone silently agrees never happened.

A sordid present

That is Morocco’s sordid history.

But of what value is a history. Everyone has one of their own, some more unflattering than others, but there is always room for repentance otherwise evangelists would be out of business.

The problem is when you have a sordid present.

On Thursday Tsvangirai flew to Morocco for another date with the administration that has received more American money than any other African country bar one since 1950.

This is a meeting between America’s North African darling and its Southern African . . . I will let you, dear reader put in an appropriate adjective.

Morocco’s toadying has already been chronicled and Tsvangirai for his part has been buddy-buddy with Washington from the time he was sired as a political entity by the US foreign policy machine in the late 1990s.

Their love affair is well documented and needs no regurgitation here not only because of its tediousness but also because it leaves a sick feeling in the gut that hardly inspires hope for a truly independent Africa.

Zimbabwe’s foreign policy position on Morocco is as clear as Tsvangirai’s intentions in visiting that country are dim.

Morocco has refused to be a member of the African Union because it believes the bloc should allow Rabat to continue colonising and terrorising Western Sahara.

Zimbabwe, having fought a liberation struggle that left tens of thousands of this country’s finest sons and daughters in unmarked graves, can never countenance supporting Morocco’s actions in Western Sahara.

There is no need to ask what Tsvangirai has in common with Morocco.

What is imperative is to explore the possible outcomes of his inclination to be cosy with imperialists of any hue.

Beating Muzorewa’s vainglorious path

Is it a coincidence that Morocco supported that amorphous identity crisis-stricken thing called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia created to humour Muzorewa and frustrate true nationalism and self-determination and is now doing the same with the equally politically and ideologically schizophrenic IG?

What kind of advice is Tsvangirai likely to get from a Moroccan leadership whose moral compass has never quite known where magnetic north is for three whole centuries now?

But the apple never falls far from the tree and it is no great wonder that Tsvangirai will tend to gravitate towards those countries that have never hidden the fact that they love America more than they love themselves.

Maybe our Prime Minister is simply naïve and as such he deserves the benefit of the doubt while we keep our fingers crossed and hope that one day soon (the sooner the better).

Tsvangirai’s attempts to get legitimacy on Africa are eerily reminiscent of the path Muzorewa trod when he tried to sell himself to the continent as the Real McCoy.

There is an inherent internal conflict that has always plagued Tsvangirai’s bid to project himself as a statesman.

And it is the same conflict that afflicted apartheid South Africa which wanted to deny Pan Africanism but at the same time be politically accepted and recognised by independent African countries.

Tsvangirai wants Africa to accept him and yet he cavorts with people who are denying the people of Western Sahara their right to self-determination as the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Morocco, for its part, has no such ideological ambiguity.

They are decidedly pro-America and anti-Africa and that is why they pulled out of the then OAU in 1984 and today remain the only country on the continent that is not a member of the AU.

So the question rises again: at what level then does Tsvangirai engage with Morocco? Like Muzorewa? For his own sake hopefully not because we all know how that clergyman’s political career ground to a screeching and ignominious halt.

A few weeks back Tsvangirai was skipping all over Southern Africa, trying to get regional leaders to view President Mugabe as the intransigent and unco-operative partner that he would like us all to be believe he is.

Soon after whining that Mugabe has not appointed his rich white chum Bennett as a deputy minister (because he is facing terror-related charges in this world that is all agog with the war on terror), Tsvangirai takes the first opportunity to jet to Morocco to meet a group of politicians who would more likely want to see the inclusive Government collapse than see it thrive.

By entertaining Tsvangirai is Morocco trying to fragment Zimbabwe the way it has done to Western Sahara?

What he should remember is that issues like Bennett, Gono, Tomana and provincial governors are not as great a threat to the success of the inclusive Government as is wining and dining with people who are actively seeking the demise of that same arrangement.

The inclusive Government will not collapse because of all those things that Tsvangirai incessantly cries about like a heroin baby.

It will fail because of the this kind of naïve political brinkmanship that tries to create a new foreign policy that has no foundation in the principles that inform Zimbabwe’s and Africa’s ethos, i.e. nationalism and Pan Africanism.

mabasa.sasa@zimpapapers.co.zw
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Oprah Winfrey Announces Plan to End Television Program

Oprah Announces Plan to End Television Run

In a voice thick with emotion, Oprah Winfrey discussed ending her talk show in 2011 on her show today. Here are here remarks, which came at the end of Friday's show.

"After much prayer, and months of careful thought, I've decided that next season -- Season 25 -- will be the last season of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,'" Winfrey said Friday. "And over the next couple of days, you may hear a lot of speculation in the press about why I am making this decision now, and that will mostly be conjecture. So I wanted you to hear this directly from me.

"Twenty-four years ago, on Sept. 8, 1986, I went live from Chicago to launch the first national "Oprah Winfrey Show." I was beyond excited and as you all might expect, a little nervous. I knew then what a miraculous opportunity I had been given, but I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that have led me to this moment with you. [Her voice grows thick with emotion] These years with you, our viewers, have enriched my life beyond all measure, and you all have graciously invited me into your living rooms, into your kitchens and into your lives.

"And for some of you longtime Oprah viewers, you have literally grown up with me. We've grown together. You've had your families and you've raised your children and you left a spot for me in your morning or your afternoon, depending on when the Oprah show airs in your town. So I just wanted to say that whether you've been here with me from the beginning or you came on board last week, I want you all to know that my relationship with you is one that I hold very dear, and your trust in me -- the sharing of your precious time with me every day -- has brought me the greatest joy I have ever known.

"So here we are, halfway through Season 24 and it still means as much to me to spend an hour with you as it did back in 1986. So why walk away and make next season the last? Here is the real reason. I love this show. This show has been my life. And I love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye. Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number. The exact right time. ...

"So I hope that you will take this 18-month ride with me, right through to the final show."
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Friday, November 20, 2009

Honduran Resistance and Latin America

Honduran resistance and Latin America

Published Nov 19, 2009 9:14 PM

Excerpts from a talk by Berta Joubert-Ceci of Philadelphia to the WWP National Conference, Nov. 14.

I want to ask you to please stand up. Let us give homage to the courageous people of Honduras. That resistance that today, for 140 days, has been in the streets, demanding the restitution of their president, José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and the celebration of a Constitutional Assembly that will end injustice and inequality.

Let us applaud their courage and their fierce determination to end the criminal military coup perpetrated by the oligarchy and the U.S. This resistance that is armed only with their dignity face day by day military and police armed to the teeth by the U.S.

Let us not observe a moment of silence, comrades, but a moment of applause for the martyrs whose blood has instilled more strength into the people. For the resistance let us applaud.

This is a struggle between two classes—those who exploit: the oligarchy, the transnational corporations—and those who are exploited: the workers and peasants, the poor in Honduras. Two classes whose interests are totally contradictory. It might have not begun as such, but it has developed into it.

The constant demonstrations, the meetings to organize and to discuss the crisis, the interaction among unions, youth, peasants, Afro-Hondurans and women, have tremendously increased political consciousness. There has been a remarkable jump from quantity into quality. They see all the wealth that they have produced. First in the fields—remember Honduras was the “Banana Republic” of Chiquita—and now in the maquilas, the Adidas, the Nikes and so many others. They see all the wealth they make go into the hands of the rich families in Honduras and to the U.S. corporations.

Their struggle now is not only to reinstate Zelaya but for control of the resources, the economy and the country, to take it away from the hands of the oligarchy and the corporations. That is what the struggle for a Constitutional Assembly represents. That is why it is so important, because the current constitution paved the way to privatizations and the transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich and the corporations.

President Zelaya’s increasing the minimum wage was the lightning rod. The oligarchy and U.S. corporations initiated the road to the June 28 coup. They would not allow a wage raise or a change of their valuable constitution. But this was also a lesson for the masses: how not even a slight increase on their share of the profits would be tolerated by the rich! And the repression by the state has only pushed the struggle forward.

The struggle in Honduras is part of the tremendous popular developments in Latin America, where the people are trying to take control of their destiny away from U.S. imperialist domination. It is a struggle for the control of society between the workers and the peasants on one side, and the oligarchy and the U.S. corporations on the other. It is happening in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Progressive governments in those countries are allied with the masses and are trying to integrate their countries into a powerful bloc that stands up against imperialism. That is what ALBA represents.

But there are many other struggles in the region. For example, in Puerto Rico there is a workers’ movement against the layoffs by the pro-U.S. government of Luis Fortuño that has organized work stoppages and is planning a general strike. In Mexico, the movement is growing with militant actions after the layoffs of 46,000 workers from the electricity industry by President Felipe Calderón, a close U.S. ally. In Colombia, the criminal pro-U.S. Uribe paramilitary regime has continued to be fought by an armed insurgency and a popular movement, the former with weapons and the social movement with demonstrations.

Washington is preparing to mount a new military offensive in Latin America to break these progressive developments. The coup in Honduras has been a warning to these countries that imperialism will not stand quietly by and let the people choose their destiny.

That is why the U.S. will accept the result of the Honduran elections with or without President Zelaya restored to office. That is why the U.S. has just signed an agreement with Colombia for the use of seven military bases, which gives the U.S. military almost unlimited access to that country’s facilities and guarantees impunity for any criminal act by U.S. forces and that explicitly states the need to wage action against countries that the U.S. considers “enemies,” like Venezuela.

There is also the IV Fleet, which can even go into the rivers of the countries in Latin America, and the possibility of four new bases in Panama. And besides the direct military threats, there are the CIA operations to destabilize governments with the help of the opposition forces in those countries. The danger is real.

But the U.S. always discounts the peoples’ powerful will to struggle and international solidarity.

We, the working class of the world have a social connection. We have the same interests as the workers in Honduras, in Mexico and everywhere else. If their interests are threatened, so are ours. And so we must respond, with solidarity.

And for us, here in the U.S., it is crucial that we be the most internationalist, because this is the center of imperialism, we then MUST be internationalists to the core!

¡Viva la Resistencia hondureña!

Long live the workers’ struggle!

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!
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Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2009/world/honduras_1126/
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Michigan Appeal for Emergency Action: Call Gov. Granholm to Demand a Moratorium on Utility Shut-offs

Appeal for Emergency Action

Call Gov. Granholm at 517-373-3400

Action: Moratorium NOW! Coalition Wants Winter Halt to Utility Shut-offs--Group Writes Letter to Gov. Granholm to Impose Moratorium
Contact: Abayomi Azikiwe, 313.671.3715
Address: 5920 Second Avenue, Detroit MI, 48202
URL: http://moratorium-mi.org

Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility
Shut-offs Calls for Winter Halt to Heating, Electrical and Water
Service Terminations

A recent meeting of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition decided to appeal to Gov. Jennifer Granholm to impose an immediate halt to utility shut-offs in Detroit and throughout the state.

The letter reads in part as follows:

"At our last meeting on Wednesday, November 18, we held extensive
discussions on the economic conditions prevailing in Detroit and
throughout the state. The unemployment rate in Michigan, over 15
percent, is still above what exist in other states around the country.
Despite efforts to stem the tide of rising unemployment, the overall
net job losses remain far too large.

"As a result of high unemployment and underemployment, Michigan's, and particularly Detroit's, foreclosure and eviction rates along with utility shut-offs, are astronomical. In a meeting last summer with executives at DTE Energy, we were informed that over 150,000 of the company's customers have had their services disconnected during the last year."

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition letter to Gov. Granholm continues by saying that:

"Therefore, we are requesting that you utilize your political and
legal authority to impose a moratorium on utility shut-offs beginning
before the Thanksgiving holiday and extening until at least May 1.

"With Winter approaching absent of a moratorium on utility shut-offs,
hundreds of thousands of people around the state risk imminent danger that could result in serious injury, sickness and even death. We only need to remind ourselves of the deaths that occured last year as a result of utility shut-offs. In July the Reed-Owens family of
northwest Detroit lost four members after their power was shut-off by
DTE Energy."

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition is a community-based organization that was formed during the early months of 2008. Since its formation the organization has worked tirelessly to win a moratorium on home
foreclosures, evictions and utility shut-offs in the state of
Michigan.

This group intends to pursue the demand for a declaration of economic emergency in Michigan through public meetings, demonstrations and other actions aimed at organizing people who are the most severely affected by the current economic crisis.

Please call Gov. Granholm to demand the imposition of a Moratorium on utility shut-offs immediately. Her number is (517) 373-3400.

To contact the Moratorium NOW! Coalition just reach out to us on the
numbers listed above.

Abayomi Azikiwe
Moratorium NOW! Coalition
Media Liaison
313.671.3715
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 5:29 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Revive Class Struggle, Strengthen International Solidarity

Revive class struggle, strengthen international solidarity

By Deirdre Griswold
New York
Published Nov 18, 2009 6:55 PM

Two main themes ran through the 2009 Workers World Party National Conference: the revival of serious class struggle in the United States as the capitalist crisis brutally strips the workers and oppressed of their jobs, homes and health, and the need to strengthen international workers’ solidarity in the face of corporate globalization and increasing militarism and war.

No one took these huge tasks lightly. But the many speakers resonated with confidence that WWP, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, had the experience and the program to rise to the challenges.

“Don’t be afraid of hard issues,” said Secretariat member Larry Holmes in a summation of the conference. “Surviving through years of political reaction has made us tougher. We have what the workers need. Build a workers’ world!”

The conference was held on Nov. 14-15 in New York. Even more than in previous years, this one rocked with the input of those most
oppressed: African American, Latino/a, youth, lesbian, gay, bi and
trans, and immigrant activists, who spoke from the stage and from open mikes in the audience. The majority of speakers were women.

The diversity reflected the party’s long history of applying affirmative
action internally while fighting racism, male chauvinism, immigrant
bashing and oppression of LGBT people.

The youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together detailed how the
worst economic crisis since the Depression of the 1930s was
devastating young people. FIST held a workshop so youth from different parts of the country could exchange ideas on how to coordinate struggles on campuses and in the communities.

Allies from different organizations and unions brought greetings to
the conference and contributed to the discussion. A high point was a
talk by Armando Robles, president of the United Electrical Workers
local that carried out a successful occupation of the Republic Doors
and Windows plant in Chicago, winning benefits the company had denied the workers when it summarily tried to close its doors and walk away.

Dante Strobino of FIST, himself a UE organizer, introduced Robles.
Jill White of Chicago WWP told of organizing a massive solidarity
demonstration with the Republic workers.

Using Marxism as a weapon

In prepared presentations, WWP leaders again and again used the tools of Marxism and Leninism to define the problems facing the working class and oppressed peoples today and to chart a path of resistance.

In the opening session FIST leader Larry Hales reviewed the horrific
statistics of youth unemployment and poverty, particularly in
communities of color. Capitalism makes people “bruised, brutal and
hurt,” said Hales, but there’s “a better world to fight for” and young
people can be made into revolutionary fighters for socialism.

Teresa Gutierrez, a member of the party’s Secretariat who recently
went to Honduras and then to a conference on migrants in Greece,
called the waves of migration caused by lack of opportunity a “crime
of capitalism” and saw the 200 million uprooted workers around the
world as “an army in the making.” Gutierrez and later speakers focused on the role of migrants in reviving May Day as an international day of workers’ struggle.

Dispelling any notion that the present “recovery” will help the
workers, Secretariat member and author Fred Goldstein went over the figures: more money in the pockets of the rich even as the job
hemorrhage continues.

Ford Motors got government subsidies but its sales are down and 53,000 Ford workers have been laid off.

“The system of capitalist exploitation is reaching its limits,” he said, and reviewed Marx’s findings on how the bosses will destroy their own markets to increase profits. Just as in the 1930s, it’s only militant workers’ struggles that can bring about any relief from the capitalist government.

Larry Holmes dealt with the relationship between the big union
federations and the Obama government. Why didn’t the unions bring
hundreds of thousands to Washington to demand single-payer health care, he asked. Without that kind of mass pressure, the Democrats came up with “a compromise on health care reform that betrays women.”

Holmes also urged the unions to help organize the jobless in their own interests—“Unemployment aids union busting and wage cuts,” he pointed out.

How militarism is deepening the economic crisis was addressed by
Secretariat member Sara Flounders. Capitalism can’t live without the
enormous Pentagon budget, but it’s dragging the system down.

Even with all its weaponry and high-paid mercenaries, the U.S. can’t defeat the resistance in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Flounders also pointed out that the federal government seized four
mosques in New York at the same time it imposed new sanctions on Iran. She called for solidarity with Arab and Muslim peoples.

Input from activists

The conference alternated prepared talks with an open mike for
questions and comments.

Jen Waller, a young activist, saw no future for the world under
capitalism, which exploits the land and the people. Julius Dykes, an
autoworker with 25 years’ seniority, told of the anger and fear among
workers regarding another upcoming layoff and how a friend had
committed suicide. He praised the party’s work in the Pittsburgh Jobs March and Tent City, and urged a national jobs march.

An Iranian said the attack on Muslims is an attack on the working
class. A young man shared that he was moving from anarchism to
communism. An immigrant from Los Angeles said the prisons are full of the youth and homeless. A woman from Rhode Island asked for solidarity with soldiers’ families who live below the poverty level.

People representing various struggle groups took the mike to thank WWP for its support.

Pam Africa of International Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal
acknowledged the party, and particularly Secretariat members Monica Moorehead and Larry Holmes, for their work in Millions 4 Mumia and in building a massive Madison Square Garden solidarity meeting for the imprisoned revolutionary journalist.

Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March Movement raised the need to bring the working class together for a strong May Day demonstration and the importance of education on the history of class struggle.

Ignacio Meneses of the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange called WWP “a point of reference for the struggle in the U.S.”

Shafeah M’Balia of Black Workers for Justice in North Carolina brought greetings from her group on behalf of “the oppressed working class of the Black nation.” She told of the many programs BWFJ has initiated to bring together women, workers and youth.

Representatives of Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the
Vancouver Mobilization Against War and Occupation were invited to the stage to deliver solidarity statements. Both groups have worked with WWP in a number of struggles. Bernadette Ellorin expressed greetings from BAYAN-USA.

Community organizer Rosie Bonds, aunt of baseball great Barry Bonds, told of homeless women sleeping under freeways while luxurious officers’ quarters go vacant at the nearby closed Alameda Naval Air Station. She is now distributing Workers World newspaper in Berkeley, Calif.

Fight imperialism, build the party

Other plenaries covered the global flashpoints of U.S. imperialist
aggression and WWP’s 50 years of struggle guided by its Marxist
analysis.

Monica Moorehead spoke on the task of a workers’ party to build
solidarity within the broader political movement, especially defending
the right to self-determination for oppressed nations. She explained
the need for a workers’ party to build unity among its ranks if it
hopes to win over the most class-conscious fighters.

Support for Palestine was covered by Bill Doares and Judy Greenspan. Doares recalled how back in the 1960s, when most progressives here refused to criticize Israel, WWP demonstrated in support of Palestine during the June War. Joyce Chediac talked about the struggle of Palestinians in Lebanon and the Lebanese people, who are represented by Hezbollah. All three speakers had been to the Middle East in the past summer.

Berta Joubert-Ceci, fresh from a solidarity delegation to Honduras,
told how the people are struggling to take back the wealth stolen by
the oligarchy and U.S. transnationals. “The coup started when
President Zelaya raised the minimum wage by 60 percent,” she reminded everyone. The Honduran struggle is part of a popular upsurge in all of Latin America. A message to the conference from Juan Barahona, leader of the Honduran Resistance, was read.

Abayomi Azikiwe of the Michigan Moratorium NOW! Coalition and a
contributing editor to Workers World newspaper traced the connection between the struggle for jobs and homes in Detroit and the mass dislocation and poverty in Africa caused by imperialism. Another dynamic speaker from the coalition was Sandra Hines, who called Detroit, with nearly 30 percent unemployment, “a Katrina without the water.”

Another Detroiter, Jerry Goldberg, spoke of building the party when
the Midwest was a stronghold of organized labor. Autoworker Martha
Grevatt of Cleveland reported how GM, Ford and Chrysler have abandoned Detroit, creating a disaster that is not “natural.” But Chrysler workers rejected recent concessions by a vote of 3-1, presaging renewed struggle in this vital industry.

LeiLani Dowell spoke of the party’s contributions to the struggle for
women’s and LGBT rights, and later on Bob McCubbin introduced
Stonewall rebellion participant Sebastian Pernice.

Sharon Black of Baltimore stressed how crucial Black-white unity was in building the Pittsburgh Jobs March.

John Parker of Los Angeles commended the party’s courage and
commitment in fighting against foreclosures and heading off attempts to divide the working class.

Julie Fry gave examples of WWP’s long history of support for the Cuban Revolution.

China’s tremendous importance in the world was stressed by Secretariat member Deirdre Griswold, who reviewed the political struggles there and their impact on revolutionary movements. She reminded everyone that Sam Marcy, who founded Workers World in 1959, had written as early as 1950 on the profound significance of the Chinese Revolution for the world class struggle.

Tribute was also given to legendary party founders Dorothy Ballan and Vince Copeland, as well as to those founding members still living whose 50 years of experience in the party continue to enrich it today.

At a session on party organization, labor militant Steve Kirschbaum of
Boston urged everyone to contribute to the WW national fund drive,
while Kris Hamel of Detroit stressed getting Workers World newspaper into the hands of workers with regularity and consistency. Richard Kossally of New York and Mike Martinez of Miami stressed the importance of political education.

It wasn’t all speeches. There was revolutionary music and poetry that
spoke to the heart, thanks to Miya Campbell and Nana Soul.

So many solidarity messages came from popular organizations and
communist parties all over the world that only excerpts could be read.

Workers World newspaper will publish the highlights of many of the
speeches in this and coming issues. Video podcasts of the plenary
presentations will be available at www.workers.tv.

The energy and optimism that flowed at this conference will surely be
felt as Workers World Party organizes new struggles in the year to
come. Hold onto your hat!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2009/us/wwp_conference_1126/
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The Need For a Revolutionary Response to the Current Crisis: From Africa to the Americas

The Need For a Revolutionary Response to the Current Crisis: From Africa to the Americas

by Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Note: The following is the text of the address delivered by Abayomi Azikiwe at the "National Conference on Preparing and Organizing for the Future" sponsored by Workers World Party.

Over the last year the global economic meltdown has continued unabated with rising unemployment in the United States, in Western Europe and throughout the both the industrialized and developing countries. Rates of poverty have increased significantly in the highly developed capitalist states as well as the former colonial territories where many, but not all, have now gained independence.

With specific reference to the conditions prevailing in the U.S., workers and the oppressed have continued to lose their homes, utility services, healthcare benefits, pension funds and access to quality education. Even under the notions of a “jobless recovery”, the corporate news commentators, government officials and “think-tank theorists” all state that there will not be an upsurge in employment for working people in the current period.

The Economic Crisis and the African-American National Question

It has been the African-American people who have borne the brunt of the burgeoning economic downturn. In a recent report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics it states that “Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points.” (BLS Employment Report, November 6, 2009)

This same report goes on to point out that “Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.7 percent) and whites (9.5 percent) rose in October. The jobless rates for adult women (8.1 percent), teenagers (27.6 percent), blacks (15.7 percent), and Hispanics (13.1 percent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted. “

Therefore we see that changes in the labor market as a direct result of the crisis has maintained the historically higher unemployment rate among African Americans but at the same time narrowed the traditional gap between unemployment rates between African-Americans and whites in the United States. This phenomena may hold significance for the coming period.

The higher unemployment rate for African-Americans is closely related to the disproportional impact of the so-called “sub-prime mortgage problem” which exposed the façade of capitalist expansion during the previous decade and accelerated the near-collapse of international system of finance capital during 2008. In the majority black city of Detroit, which since the post-World War II period saw perhaps the highest rate of home ownership in the country for the working class both African-American and white, people have been severely affected by the decline of the auto industry and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state of Michigan during present decade.

In an article published in the liberal journal The Nation, it points out that "Black homeowners have been hit particularly hard by the mortgage crisis, largely because predatory lenders have been steering them toward subprime loans for years, even when they could afford prime rates. According to Valerie Rawlston Wilson of the Urban League, home equity accounts for nearly 90 percent of black homeowners' total net worth. So as the housing market collapses, much of the trumpeted new wealth that has accumulated in black communities in recent decades will go with it." (The Nation, January 18, 2008)

Political Repression and the Prison-military Industrial Complex

With the rise of unemployment, foreclosure and eviction rates among African-Americans, we have also seen an increase in repressive actions carried out as state policy. There has been an epidemic of African-Americans who have been brutalized and killed by law-enforcement. We only need to acknowledge the situations involving Oscar Grant in Oakland, the Jena 6 in Louisiana, the murder of Robert Mitchell in Detroit and the brutal assassination of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah which took place recently right outside Detroit.

There are over one million African-Americans imprisoned in the United States. Black and Latina/o men and women constitute well over half of the prison population in the United States. Racial profiling is conducted as normal law-enforcement procedure where even prominent African-Americans in government, business, entertainment and even law-enforcement are subjected to harassment and possible serious injury or death.

The ongoing attacks against the Muslim community in the United States is justified by the state and corporate media utilizing the false notion of “Islamic extremism”. Imam Luqman’s assassination and the trumped-up charges brought against members of his mosque are carried out in an effort to justify the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, the spreading of the wars into Pakistan as well as the Horn of Africa and its surrounding waterways in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

At present U.S. imperialism is spending more money on war when the conditions of working people and the oppressed have reached near-depression levels in sections of the country. The anti-war and peace movements must link the rising pentagon budget to the intensification of the exploitation and impoverishment of the majority of working people and the oppressed inside the United States.

In order for this linkage to be made between the rising problems of poverty and repression and the imperialist war drive in the predominantly Muslim populated countries in Asia and Africa- but not necessarily limited to these particular states- there must be a mass struggle waged inside the most oppressed segments of the working class in the United States.

The proletariat must recognize and act upon the fact that the conditions of working people around the world cannot be separated in this period. The outmoded slogans utilized by unconscious elements within the labor unions which utilize national chauvinism and racism that is masked with slogans such as “buy American” and “protect American jobs” have done nothing to advance the interests of the working class inside the United States.

The African Condition and the World Economic Crisis

With reference to the continent of Africa, the current crisis in the capitalist-imperialist states has had a tremendous negative impact by thrusting over 50 million people back into poverty. With the continued dependence by the former colonial states on the foreign exchange earnings gained through natural resource and agricultural exports, the decline in demand in the West resulting from rising unemployment and impoverishment of the working class has created massive job losses and food deficits.

This economic downturn in Africa has been the most striking in countries that are closely allied with the United States such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria and Egypt. Oil exports from Nigeria have not prevented social unrest or political stability. Recently this West African state, that had been for years the major exporter of crude oil from the continent to the U.S., experienced a near-collapse of its financial sector quite similar to what is taking place on Wall Street.

In Somalia, U.S. imperialist interference has resulted in a civil war, mass dislocation of civilians, and the collapse of the agricultural and fishing industries which had sustained the population for years. The resistance movements inside Somalia who have risen up to fight against imperialist domination have prompted the U.S. to lead the largest military and naval build-up around the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in the region’s history. Under the guise of fighting “piracy” and “terrorism”, the U.S. has established a military base in Djibouti and dispatched flotillas of warships off the coast of the Horn of Africa.

The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) recently coordinated war games in various regions on the west of the continent in Gabon and the Gulf of Guinea. Multi-national oil firms are competing among themselves to prevent the People’s Republic of China from making significant investments in the exploration and export of the recently discovered oil deposits belonging to the nation of Ghana. Africa is increasing its exports of oil and other strategic minerals into the United States and consequently the imperialists will escalate their military interference in the affairs of the continent.

The only solution to the problems of underdevelopment and exploitation in Africa is for the workers and farmers to break with imperialism. Promises made by the United States, Britain, France, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have proved worthless. Aid agencies based in the imperialist states cannot solve the problems of food deficits and the lack of healthcare services without a fundamental transformation of the post-colonial societies and their subordinate relationship with the capitalist states and the multi-national corporations.

We Must Intensify the Struggle Against Oppression and Exploitation

Our focus in the coming period must be centered around the demands related to shutting down the war machines in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Korea, Latin America and throughout the globe. In taking a clear position against all forms of U.S. militarism we inevitably enhance the alliances between workers and the oppressed in both the capitalist states and the post-colonial nations.

Domestically we must continue our support for labor actions such as the sit-in that took place last year at the Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago. In Detroit we linked the struggle against foreclosure in the case of Loren Parker, who was threatened with eviction by the Bank of America, with the plant occupation carried by the UE workers.

In the French-controlled Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the workers built a united front of unions, youth and community groups that shut down businesses in the small nations for over six weeks. There is much to learn from these bold and creative actions led by militants within the international working class movement.

We must continue to engage the masses of workers and the oppressed inside the United States in order to form the necessary coalitions and relationships that will lead to the sharpening of our movement aimed at constructing socialism. If we have learned anything from our experiences with the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and the Bailout the People Movement in the present period, we will understand that there is no substitute for the difficult work of addressing the concrete needs of the people. When we do this there will be a qualitative leap in our efforts to end the current economic crisis and to build a socialist society and world.

When we have raised the demands for bringing the troops home now, the imposition of a moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs, full-employment, and the end to racism and national oppression, our program has been greeted enthusiastically by the masses.

In this period we must consistently raise socialism as a viable alternative to the capitalist crisis of overproduction and the imperialist quest for permanent war and military occupation. Socialism provides the only hope for the increasingly impoverished masses of workers and the oppressed throughout the world.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 11:03 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Detroit Demonstration Against Repression Outside Renaissance Center Today, 5:00-6:00pm

For Immediate Release

Media Advisory

Event: Protest the ALPACT Dinner With U.S. Atty. Gen. Holder & the FBI
Date: Thursday, November 19, 5:00-6:30pm
Location: Marriot Hotel at Renaissance Center, East Jefferson and Brush
Sponsor: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI)
Contact: 313.671.3715
E-mail: info@mecawi.org
URL: http://www.mecawi.org

Demonstration to Demand Justice for Slain Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah and Freedom for the Detroit 10

The Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust (ALPACT) dinner at the Ren Cen comes at a time when the FBI has shot down a respected Detroit Muslim leader, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. They have arrested 10 other Muslims on wild charges and media hysteria reminiscent of the Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro) that attacked Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik Shabazz), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, the American Indian Movement, Assata Shakur, and others.

At the same time the Detroit Police Department, and police agencies throughout Michigan and the nation, continue racial profiling, racist harassment and racist killings.

Nationally the FBI, the “Justice” Department and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), along with local police agencies, are hounding and deporting thousands of undocumented workers. Often families are torn apart with parents deported and children waiting for their parents who never come home.

United States jails are filled with victims of frame-ups, and death row inmates are legally lynched. Political prisoners languish in lock up such as Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier – both victims of police frame-ups.

This is no time to break bread and sip wine with the FBI.

DEMAND:
Justice for Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah
Free the Detroit 10 (Muslim prisoners of FBI frame-up)
End the ICE raids and deportations
Free Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier and all political prisoners
Stop racist profiling, harassment and killings

Members of MECAWI are available to the media for comment.
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FDLR Inc.: Congo's Multinational Rebels

FDLR Inc: Congo's multinational rebels

The German authorities have arrested leaders of a militia which operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo - but how strong is the case against them? The BBC's East Africa Correspondent Peter Greste investigates.

Over the past few months, I have been investigating connections between war crimes allegedly committed by the FDLR in the Congo, and their leaders living in Europe.

One of them is Callixte Mbarashimana, an unlikely-looking warlord, elegantly dressed in a suit, tie and overcoat. With his neatly trimmed goatee and easy smile, he looks more like a university professor than the second-most powerful man in one of Africa's most feared militias.

Mr Mbarashimana is the executive secretary of the FDLR - one of the most potent rebel forces fighting in the dense forests and bush-land along the eastern frontier of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

They are, he says, "a military-political organisation to protect Rwandan refugees and … to liberate the Rwandan people from the yoke of the fascist regime of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front)".

'Conglomeration'

These are claims that gall human rights workers, the United Nations and countless Congolese civilians, who accuse the FDLR of a catalogue of abuses, including mass rape, murder, forced recruitments, child soldiers, using slaves to illegally exploit minerals.

"It's just a conglomeration of criminals," according to the head of the UN's programme to demobilise the region's armed groups, Greg Alex. "What have they done in the Congo that's been righteous?"

According to UN investigators, FDLR executives operate relatively freely in North America, and Europe. Those connections have infuriated peacekeeping officials in the Congo who have repeatedly called on host governments to dismantle the support structure that keeps the rebels fighting.

"The linkages are clear," said a frustrated Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, head of the UN's peacekeeping force in the province of North Kivu.

"The FDLR has remained cohesive as it is now because of the political leadership in Europe. These are people that encourage those in the field to kill, to rape every day. These are crimes, so they should be prosecuted."

'Commander-in-chief'

The FDLR's president, Ignace Murwanashyaka, lives in Mannheim in Germany. He was arrested on Tuesday, charged with being a leader of a terrorist organisation, of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In interview after interview, serving and former FDLR officials told me that he is not only the ideological and political force behind the movement, he is its supreme military commander.

He is "like President Obama," according to the FDLR's spokesman in the Congo who goes by the nom de guerre of "La Forge".

"Just as President Obama is also the commander-in-chief of the US armed forces, so President Murwanashyaka is our military leader as well."

The BBC has obtained a log of calls from satellite phones owned by senior FDLR commanders that shows a regular and consistent communication with leaders in the diaspora, notably Ignace Murwanashyaka.

The evidence - supported by testimony from former officers - suggests that he personally directed strategy and approved operations.

Child soldiers

Captain Busokoye Donat is a former FDLR officer now in Rwanda under the demobilisation scheme. He used to be in charge of officer training before taking over what he described as "civil defence" - which is training civilian supporters in weapons and military tactics.

"You have to understand that in our organisation, Dr Murwanashyaka is like God," he said.

"He might not give tactical orders - that's the job of the officers who know the situation on the ground - but every operation is run past him for approval."

"He knows everything that happens in the field."

I asked Donat about reports that the FDLR is recruiting child soldiers.

"We have been losing a lot of troops through DDRRR (the UN's demobilisation programme) so we have to go to schools to get more soldiers. We have no choice," he said.

"Does Dr Murwanashyaka know this?" I asked.

"I told you. Dr Murwanashyaka knows everything that happens."

Donat also linked the leader to attacks on innocent villagers.

"I personally saw a telegram in which President Murwanashyaka told commanders that they should attack villages to force civilians to flee."

"That's to put pressure on the international community and Rwanda to negotiate with us," Donat said.

Justice

Before his arrest, we asked Mr Murwanashyaka for an interview. He referred us to his executive secretary Callixte Mbarashimana in Paris.

Mr Mbarashimana denied complicity in war crimes. "I am in a country where justice works. I am ready to face justice if there are any allegations that come with evidence."

"I have always claimed my innocence and I am ready - I repeat ready - to face justice if they come with allegations."

Mr Mbarashimana fiercely defended the FDLR's human rights record. "There is no FDLR policy to attack any civilian population," he said. "We condemn all those abuses. We have consistently called for an international investigation so that they can identify the authors of those abuses and bring them to justice. That is our policy."

The French authorities told me Mr Mbarashimana has broken none of their laws. They said free speech legislation protects his right to act as the organisation's spokesman, and they have not received any formal request for an investigation.

Crossing Continents: Congo Connection is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, 19 November 2009 at 1100 GMT and repeated on Monday, at 2030 GMT. It is also broadcast on the World Service's Assignment programme on Thursday, 19 November 2009
.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8364327.stm
Published: 2009/11/18 13:30:33 GMT
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Jennifer Hudson to Play Winnie Mandela

Jennifer Hudson to play Winnie Mandela: report

11-18-2009, 17h30
LOS ANGELES (AFP)

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson is to play Winnie Mandela in a film charting the turbulent life and times of the ex-wife of South Africa's first black president, it was reported Wednesday.

Hudson, who scooped a best supporting actress Oscar in 2007 for her performance in the musical "Dreamgirls", told Daily Variety the film would bring a "powerful part of history" to cinema screens.

"I was compelled and moved when I read the script," Hudson said. "Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I'm honored to be the actress to portray her. This is a powerful part of history that should be told."

The film will be directed by South African film-maker Darrell J. Roodt, whose films include "Cry, The Beloved Country" and "Sarafina."

News of the film comes as Hollywood prepares to release "Invictus" a Clint Eastwood-directed drama about Nelson Mandela, to be played by Morgan Freeman, and how the 1995 Rugby World Cup united the country after apartheid.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela campaigned tirelessly for her husband's release during his 27-year imprisonment in the apartheid era.

However her image was tarnished by a series of scandals including her links to the kidnap and murder of a young activist and a 2003 conviction for fraud.

She separated from Nelson Mandela in 1992, three years after his release.
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Aid Groups Pull Personnel From Northern Mali

Aid groups pull personnel from northern Mali

Reuters
November 18, 2009

Several humanitarian organisations including French group Action contre la faim (ACF) have pulled their expat employees from northern Mali for security reasons, sources said Wednesday

BAMAKO - Several humanitarian organisations including French group Action contre la faim (ACF) have pulled their expat employees from northern Mali for security reasons, sources said Wednesday.

"We just learned that some expats have narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping by armed Islamic militants in one of Mali's neighbours. Therefore we are taking security measures and are pulling back to the south of Mali," a source close to the ACF bureau in Gao, northern Mali, told AFP.

"Several European employees who are in Gao have been called back to Bamako as a security precaution," Amadou Senou, a regional official confirmed.

The Gao region some thousand kilometres to the north east of Bamako in the Sahel region which has been the scene of trafficking and smuggling of all kinds by organized crime groups.

Tuareg rebels and Islamic militants — who claim to belong to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) — roam freely between Mali and its neighbouring countries.

Several foreign nationals have also been kidnapped or detained in Mali and Niger in the last year in operations claimed by AQMI.
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Angola Prepares Glitzy Show For Nations Cup Draw

Angola prepare glitzy show for Nations Cup draw

by Louise Redvers Louise Redvers
Tue Nov 17, 8:43 pm ET

LUANDA (AFP) – Pop stars, politicians and a president are among those expected to attend the African Nations Cup draw being staged by tournament host Angola here on Friday.

The event, featuring Congolese artist Papa Wemba and other Angolan singers, is being held at a shiny new glass-and-steel convention centre in the purpose-built southern suburb of Talatona.

African Football Confedation (CAF) president Issa Hayatou and members of his executive committee can also expect a rare public appearance from President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, ruler of this oil-rich country for 30 years.

Representatives from the 16 qualifiers for the January 10-31 tournament will also be present to witness a split into four groups from which the winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

Portuguese Manuel Jose, coach of the host nation, said he did not mind who the Palancas Negras (Black Antelopes) come up against in the first round.

"I don?t have any preference," he told reporters after a training session ahead of a friendly against Ghana on Wednesday. "I would be lying if I said I didn?t want easier teams, but it?s dangerous to think that way."

The charismatic former coach of Egyptian club giants Al-Ahly took over Angola in June after they failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and suffered a string of friendly defeats.

"When we know the teams in our group, we will be analysing them as much as possible," said Jose.

"It?s not going to be easy because they will play little now, but we will be sending our scouts to any games they do play and we will be watching videos and DVDs to know their strategies better."

The draw is generating less discussion among Angolans than an on-going spat between Jose and star Manucho Goncalves.

Real Valladolid striker Manucho was dropped from the squad for friendlies against Congo and Ghana after arriving late for training in Portugal.

Jose publicly blasted the former Manchester United player, saying he needed to learn respect.

Manucho did apologise through the Angolan state media, claiming he was delayed by visa problems, but Jose said this was not good enough and the Angolan sports minister has joined the discussion.

Speaking at a football conference in the capital, Goncalves Muandumba said Angola needed Manucho in the team and that the player should have apologised directly to Jose, not through a media statement.

The 15 teams who have qualified to play in Angola are Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, defending champions Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia and Zambia.

The 32-fixture tournament will be played at four new Chinese-built stadiums in Luanda, Benguela, Cabinda and Lubango.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 12:43 PM 0 comments Links to this post

President Mugabe of Zimbabwe Blasts West's Agricultural Subsidies

President blasts West’s subsidies

From Hebert Zharare in ROME, Italy
Zimbabwe Herald

RICH countries’ agricultural subsidies and denial of market access to produce from developing countries were partly to blame for low crop production in developing nations, President Mugabe has said.

Addressing fellow Heads of State and Government at the Food and Agriculture Organisation Summit here yesterday, President Mugabe said other factors militating against global food security were climate change, inaccessibility to arable land, rising costs of farming inputs and general lack of money to finance farming operations.

Western subsidies, he said, were suffocating farmers in poor and developing countries.

"Add to this denial of market access to agricultural products from developing countries and that completes the host of factors which undermine crop production in our countries," said President Mugabe.

He told the summit that Zimbabwe’s situation was worsened by punitive policies of certain powerful countries that were against the equitable redistribution of land to correct colonial imbalances.

"We face very hostile interventions by these states which have imposed unilateral sanctions on us.

"This has had a negative impact on our farmers who, according to our neo-colonial enemies, must fail so as to damn the rain-fed agriculture; which FAO reports say will see the production of food going down by about 50 percent by 2050 due to climate change.

"To protect the country from the vagaries of the weather, Zimbabwe has an ongoing programme of dam construction across the country to harness water and develop reliable water sources.

"With adequate support, Zimbabwe has the potential to increase the land under irrigation from the present 153 000 to 453 000 hectares," he said.

President Mugabe said apart from water shortages, Zimbabwe had been affected by insufficient supplies of affordable farming inputs such as fertilizers, seeds and agro-chemicals.

He said the Government would continue supporting the agriculture sector through a cocktail of schemes including concessionary loans for working capital and for the procurement of machinery.

"To buttress these schemes, the Government has also introduced a Farm Mechanisation Programme targeting both the smallholder and commercial farming sectors.

"But we remain keenly aware that the mechanisation programme cannot be complete if it does not yield the capacity to enable us to export value-added products," he said.

The energy sector played an integral role in the agriculture sector, said the President, adding that the combination of the power deficit experienced by the Sadc region last year and rising oil prices had a serious negative impact on farming operations.

He said Zimbabwe had consequently embarked on a biofuel project to produce diesel and petrol from jatropha and sugarcane.

"To avoid the negative effect of using maize as biofuel feedstock, our project uses jatropha seed and sugarcane," he explained.

Turning to the ravaging effects of HIV and Aids, President Mugabe said despite declining prevalence rates in the productive 15-49 age group dropping to 13,7 percent, Zimbabwe was concerned that the figure was still too high.

In response to the impact of the pandemic on the agriculture sector, President Mugabe said the Government adopted the Zimbabwe Agricultural Sector Strategy on HIV and Aids to offset its negative consequences.

The President also paid tribute to Sadc and FAO for assisting Zimbabwe in mobilising farming inputs for the generality of the population.

These interventions, he noted, had resulted in an increase in cereal crop yields by over 75 percent this year.

He said Sadc’s agricultural inputs support initiative and the country’s homegrown agricultural policies were paying dividends.

"We are grateful for the support we have received from the Sadc region, which provided seed and fertilizers through the Sadc agriculture inputs support initiative.

"With this support from Sadc, the country experienced a dramatic 75 percent increase in maize production this year.

"For the 2009/2010 season, we have received support from various international co-operating partners who provided input packs through the smallholder emergency support programme, which is co-ordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and is expected to reach over 600 000 households. Zimbabwe is grateful for this support," he said.

The summit, which ends today, drew leaders from mostly developing countries.

Western countries snubbed the meeting, a decision that has been described as indicative of their lack of appreciation of the global food insecurity problem that led to food riots in 22 countries last year.


‘Continent must discard European script’

By Owen ‘Alik Shahadah

"MAN’S freedom is lacking if somebody else controls what he needs, for need may result in man’s enslavement of man." — Muammar al-Gaddafi

The premises behind much of the solutions for Africa are in the ideal that a hurting Africa needs a humanist hand from Europe. This is like appealing to the fox to save you from the wolf. An agreement in the United Nations’ Security Council or other diabolical agencies such as the World Bank is like an agreement among a choir, and such agreements are not agreements at all nor are they meant to provide any succour to the problems of Africa. NEPAD insist that a richer Africa is in the interest of the entire world, true or false will not appeal to the morality of a world system that never in its legacy has and does not act along a moral compass.

There is nothing but capitalism and illusions of democracy, which are alien to the aspirations of African people. "Feed Africa" to "Make Poverty History" are mere sloganeering programs with no genuine effect to the population of the continent. These campaigns are industries unto themselves that create billions of dollars and generate millions of jobs. They subsidise ailing industries in developed countries. We are naïve and childish to believe a richer Africa is in the interest of Europe.

Poor people do not have the luxury of liberalism and freedom of speech. Poor people have no point of view other than "feed me." Poor people are absent from the luxury of agency. A poor Africa will always be a slave to a richer Europe. Today, at every major anti-slavery or save Africa project, it is Europe deciding and inviting personalities from the African world to sit at "their" table, to discuss Africa’s problems. The frontline for Make Poverty History is a "museum of rock stars" beyond their performance years, probably seeking redemption and revival; Geldolf is the expert on famine, Bono the authority on AIDS. Bob Geldof, the Jesus and Tarzan character all rolled into one.

The first name to come to mind when abolition is whispered is William Wilberforce and Granville Sharpe.

Walking in the legacy of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume": A man who single-handedly ended the entire Arab Slave trade. Again, the agent in Africa’s liberation is Europe. Not even dealing with the aspect of how Africa found itself in the continuing hole. What kind of world do we live in when the views of the oppressed are expressed at the convenience of the rich?

Media: Black Story, White Voice

Name a "Black film" and look behind the lens; who wrote it, who produced it, who directed it? Amistad. The music by John Williams. The director? Mr. Spielberg. A Jamaican film called One Love, again the same pattern. Tsosti a story of violence in the African communities- violence is a natural reality of South African people in European perception; it sells and feeds their image of us of being gang bangers, and semi-noble savages.

It is almost impossible to consider a film that does not include a European central figure. The recent Last King of Scotland reflects this. It is in the legacy of Cry Freedom. The title shows the mindset behind it. It would not be sufficient to tell the story of Idi Amin; so infamous enough and surely notorious enough character in his own right. No, they say, this would reduce the value of the project. In comes the European into the storyline. It is actually amazing to see Mel Gibson attempt to make a film of a non-white people without a central European character.

Returning to the likes of Richard Attenborough, we cannot blame him for his bias in Cry Freedom, he is by nature a European and is simply acting out his European weighted worldview, avoiding Eurocentric as a term, as every healthy race is sensitive to his or her cultural perceptions. It makes no sense to ask Spielberg to give more "Africanness" in his Amistad or The Colour Purple (which was an amazing piece of cinema). Even stories of African struggle are without exception made by Europeans: Amandla (Lee Hirsch), Roots (Collection of Whites), War Dance (Sean Fine), Life and Debt (Stephanie Black), Rize (David LaChapelle).

This pattern speaks directly to the social disinheritance. Who is paid from our experience? Who is cashing in again and again on our tears? Why can’t Africans be the central authors of their stories? The issue is not for Europeans to become more sensitive in "pretending" to be African: the issue is amazingly simpler; it is for Africans to be agents in their stories and hence removing the problem all together.

The concept that Europe is qualified in bringing out indigenous people’s stories is just as arrogant as assuming Africans are and others are a worthless child-race. All nice intentions are welcomed by these are all rooted in the same racist presumption of racial incapability on the part of Africans and other non-European races.

A journey to the local media outlet see Michael Palin in Africa, or a PBS special on Africa produced by an all European cast called Tigress productions. This is the interface, which we need to challenge; many of us are caught-up in incidentals of our struggle.

Being seen on a screen is not self-determination, especially when the gatekeepers, decision makers who determining the validity of our work are all European. African stories are attempts to explain Africans to Europeans as opposed to Africans explaining themselves to each other. These mere fact renders the whole concept of "Black cinema" and "Black perspective" redundant.

Products, not producers

Once there was a web site called Africana which explored African history and generally empowering topics, where is that site today? It has been taken over by the commercial giants AOL and is now blackvoices, a collection of trite and pointless garbage that celebrates the emptiest aspects of African-American culture; the singers and the dancers, the entertainers and the clowns.

All the adverts centred on the "Black" people are relating to sex. The commodification of the African body is an industry to itself. Inter-racial dating, meet black singles, black gays, find black love- this is what African people have come to represent in the global world. These are problems created and nurtured by Europeans. They fail to understand it is also adversely affecting the very socio-cultural existence of Europe itself.

Europe has relegated the position of women to the doldrums; they see their women as objects of amusement, just mere flesh for quenching their thirst. Who needs any "meet single" if women are respected and given the right position? And certainly it is not a problem in Africa.

So why, is it that it is sent down our throats and now our people entering the bandwagon? Hip-hop to pop embraces nothing deep but the most base aspects of the human animal. Returning us to Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness," El-Hajj Malik Shabazz said: "we stand for nothing, fall for everything." Agency is the natural actions of a self-determined people; lack thereof is testimony to the shallow position Diasporian-Africans occupy.

--Owen ‘Alik Shahadah, is an African Cultural writer and a multi-award winning Filmmaker who documents African history and culture. Published with kind permission from African Holocaust.


West has obligation to help poor nations

EDITOR — Rich countries have shown their true colours by snubbing the Food and Agriculture Organisation summit underway in Italy.

This basically underlines the nature of the problem we have in the world today.

Rich countries dissociate themselves from problems that they perceive to affect only poor parts of the world.

Ironically, it is the same countries that help create problems for the poor nations.

Right now rich countries are not ready to commit themselves to a binding climate change deal while the climate change phenomenon has already started wreaking havoc on poor countries in Africa.

Hunger and food insecurity are a result of climate change.

Rich developed countries in the West are mainly to blame for climate change as their industrialisation polluted the air leading to the diverse and complex effects of global warming and climate change.

Successive droughts and flooding that we have seen in the past few years — which threaten food security and the livelihoods of billions of people — are also a direct result of the actions of rich nations.

Other problems that the rich nations have created for the poor developing world include access to land.

Many countries in the developing world simply do not have access to good, arable land, which impacts negatively on food security and poverty alleviation.

The indignation of Western countries over Zimbabwe’s land reform mirrors this attitude by the West to want to perpetuate poverty and food insecurity among poor nations.

It is also imperative to note that rich Western countries are not forthcoming in commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals, which stand to mainly better the lives of those living in the poor impoverished parts of the world.

Rich nations have a moral obligation to help the poor nations of the world.

Baba Tanaka.
Harare.


Foreign aid not good for Africa

By James Shikwati

I COME from Africa, a resource-rich continent which is depicted as poor by conventional development statistics — so as to justify foreign aid. Aid has driven Africans to lose confidence in their abilities and opportunities. It has promoted a culture of dependence — a culture of relying on other people’s help.

African children are born into a cycle of dependency. Imagine yourself as a child, growing up in a country where your parents have been reduced to mere procreators. They cannot feed you, because their indigenous foods have been crowded out by exotic foods that came from donors. They cannot choose the type of education you ought to get, because donors have supplied all sorts of "free education systems" that orient you to the West. You become an automatic candidate for the "brain drain", for immigration to the developed world — but your education does not prepare you to solve Africa’s problems.

You grow up in a confused political environment. Donors’ direct funding of civil society cuts your government out of the picture and leaves it impotent. On the other hand if the donors give direct funding to your government, they breed political cronyism, corruption and the evils of ethnic division. A mixture of both leads to political upheavals — as we saw in Kenya last year. Donors made Kenya into a country whose government does not pay attention to the electorate. At the same time they paid its civil society to organise citizens into agitators.

Attempts by donors to impose their organisational structures on Africa create confusion - and force people on the continent to focus on short-term goals. Although donors might brag about promoting education in Africa, they do not admit that they’re simply helping their own industry, by creating a supply of labour. Donors decry the dearth of leadership in Africa, but stop short of pointing out that the majority of the so-called "bad leaders" were educated in Western schools using donor funds.

We must question foreign aid’s embedded, corrupting system that takes people who reside in resource-rich countries and makes them poor. Computer experts talk about malware — a short form for "malicious software" that infiltrates a computer without the owners’ informed consent. Foreign aid — like malware — harms a country’s operating system. The term "aid" in itself is corrupting. What is the justification for using such a term when Africans repay their debts, amounting to US$20 billion every year?

Let us take a moment to look at some examples of hostile and intrusive programs run by the aid industry, particularly in Africa. Since food aid was introduced in the ’60s, African eating-habits have changed — and agriculture has been re-oriented to produce exotic crops that demand far more input than indigenous ones. Over 120 million people on that continent are faced with starvation. The cause — though blamed on drought — has everything to do with this change of crops — as opposed to what could be done if we got science to work on the indigenous crops.

The "Food-aid-malware" has disorganised Africa’s food production and is currently giving wealthy nations the excuse to acquire land there, on the distorted assumption that people in Africa are incapable of producing food.

Here’s another hostile intrusion into Africa’s system. Imagine an office that installs security cameras – but then one-day finds it’s been robbed. The owners rush to the monitoring room and discover blank screens — because the cameras were faulty. Aid works very much like that. It’s a CCTV system, deliberately put in to mislead. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo have vast amounts of geological resources; but donor countries parade this country among the poorest. Behind the scenes however, their companies are plundering minerals worth billions of dollars. Africa has been relying on a faulty CCTV system to gather data about itself. And all it gets is a frozen image in the monitoring room — the picture that shows the continent as poor.

Is Africa with its immense resources really poor? Japan with its limited territory imports and exports tons of goods to the global market; Switzerland produces the finest chocolate yet she has no cocoa plantations. The United States of America, Europe and China produce millions of cell phones and laptops by sourcing minerals such as Coltan from the so-called poor continent. There is no free lunch for Africa. Donor countries have high levels of political organisation. The executive, the judiciary and the legislature all promote the rule of law and above all — property rights! This has unleashed industrial ingenuity in the donor countries. Citizens in these countries pay for the upkeep of their own governments; why should Africans surrender their governments to donors?

Children growing up in Africa want to look into the eyes of their parents and draw inspiration to live. They need incentives to utilise their talents to confront their daily challenges. Foreign aid sustains the already skewed global market system and denies individuals and nations of the third world the ability to grow their economies.

It is wrong to perpetuate the notion that Africa is in a state of permanent emergency. A change of attitude and a new confidence among Africans will unchain the continent from poverty.

--James Shikwati is Director, Inter Region Economic Network. He can be reached on james@irenkenya.org. This article is reproduced from the African Executive.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 12:08 AM 1 comments Links to this post

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Zimbabwe News Update: President Mugabe Hails FAO; Mujuru, Nkomo Land VP Posts

President hails FAO

From Hebert Zharare in ROME, Italy

President Mugabe has thanked the Food and Agriculture Organisation for assisting Zimbabwe boost household food security through a US$70 million input facility targeting smallholder farmers.

Briefing the media after a meeting between President Mugabe and FAO director-general Mr Jacques Diouf here on Sunday, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Deve-lopment Minister Joseph Made said the exchanges had been fruitful.

"It was a very excellent meeting. His Excellency thanked FAO for assisting us in mobilising some farming inputs for the smallholder farmers under the US$70 million facility that is going to assist over 700 000 farmers.

"It (FAO) mobilised the farming inputs from some non-governmental organisations and was supported by some European Union countries," he said.

He said one of the issues raised in the meeting was the need for governments to come up with policies that could be implemented.

Minister Made said President Mugabe pointed out that Zimbabwe had dealt with the challenge of declining rainfall by setting up a Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development.

"During the meeting with Mr Diouf, we looked at Africa’s food security challenges in relation to development of irrigation schemes in order to enhance productivity on farms, support for the smallholder farmers by supplying them with seed, fertilizer and chemicals.

"It was agreed that US$65 billion is needed in order to develop water sources in Africa," Minister Made said.

Due to climate change, conventional rains are no longer reliable and farmers have to complement them by establishing irrigation schemes.

Zimbabwe is one of a few countries on the continent to come up with strategies to boost irrigation capacity through the central bank-driven Farm Mechanisation Programme.

The efforts to improve irrigation infrastructure were also designed to recoup losses suffered when some white farmers vandalised equipment when their farms were allocated to new black farmers under the land reform programme.

President Mugabe had also told Mr Diouf that Zimbabwe had introduced its own input subsidies, Cde Made said.

He said under the subsidy, smallholder farmers would purchase a 50kg bag of fertilizer for US$6,75.

"After looking at a number of factors, we have said the smallholder farmers and those in communal areas must buy a 50kg bag of fertilizer for US$6,75 and seed for 51 US cents per kg.

He said details on how farmers could access these subsidised inputs would be disclosed shortly.

President Mugabe, who is the Head of State and Government as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, will today address other world leaders attending the summit.


Mujuru, Nkomo land VP posts

By Lloyd Gumbo

ZANU-PF national chairman Cde John Nkomo has all but wrapped the Vice-Presidency after winning support from six provinces that nominated him as the ideal candidate to fill the post that fell vacant following the death of fearless founding nationalist, Vice President Joseph Msika, in August.

Bulawayo, Mashonaland Central, Manicaland, Masvi-ngo, Matabeleland South and North have already confirmed Cde Nkomo despite the latter submitting two nominations for the post.

This means the two posts of Vice-President are all but secured after VP Mujuru received the endorsement of eight provinces apart from Masvingo, which nominated Cde Oppah Muchinguri, and Midlands, which was still to nominate candidates.

In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa said the nominations had gone well and in line with party procedures.

He, however, said the Midlands Province — which did not sit for the nominations last week — had not officially communicated to him their position and thus he expected nominations from all provinces by the end of this week as outlined in the guidelines.

A senior party official in Matabeleland North who spoke on condition of anonymity said the province had nominated two candidates for each post — VP and chairman — because some cadres refused to go for a vote to nominate the two candidates only and decided to submit all the four names.

Attention has now been turned to the chairmanship race where a fierce tussle is now expected among senior party cadres — Cdes Mutasa, Simon Khaya Moyo, Obert Mpofu and Kembo Mohadi.

However, a political analyst yesterday argued that the real race was between Cde Mutasa and Cde Khaya Moyo with the former counting on yet to nominate provinces.

He lamented failure by other provinces to nominate candidates for the VP and national chairman posts, saying this was tantamount to "match-fixing" as their choices would be influenced by other provinces.

He argued that the rule was that all provinces should nominate at the same time to avoid cases of undue influence from other provinces as their choices were to be autonomous.

"The real battle is between Cde Mutasa and Cde Khaya Moyo without taking anything away from the other cadres.

"To me, these are the comrades who are contending for the post seriously. However, concern is around the failure by other provinces to nominate candidates to fill such posts as VP and chairman.

"Cde Mutasa will obviously be counting on yet to nominate provinces, especially Harare, Mash East and West and Midlands, because information on the ground is that these provinces are supporting him, while Cde Khaya Moyo will keep his fingers crossed for Masvingo and Mat North to change their minds."

In separate interviews, Cde Amos Midzi (Harare) and Cde Ignatius Chombo (Mashonaland West) said they were awaiting Matabeleland region to advise them on their nominations.

Cde Midzi — who is the Zanu-PF provincial chairman for Harare — said they deferred their nominations for the two posts to allow Matabeleland region to nominate as per party guidelines.

"We are still waiting for official communication from our colleagues on what position to take. Matabeleland hasn’t officially communicated their position, so we will wait.

"We don’t rely on unofficial information which comes through newspapers. The party has structures of communication," Cde Midzi said.

Cde Chombo, who is the party’s provincial secretary for lands in Mashonaland West, said they were also awaiting indications from Matabeleland region before carrying out their own verifications.

He was, however, confident that they would be able to meet Saturday’s deadline when the nominations would be submitted to the party’s secretary for administration.

"Nothing has been officially communicated from Matabeleland as of now on whom they have nominated for the two posts.

"However, we are confident that we will complete the process within the time stipulated by the secretary for administration," Cde Chombo said.

Nominations for the Presidium and Central Committee members began on Saturday and full lists are expected on Saturday when the secretary for administration receives them from the provinces.


Regional military training crucial: Mnangagwa

Herald Reporter

Cross-pollination of ideas between armies in the region is of great importance as it fosters unity in the face of common enemies, Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.

Addressing 56 Junior Staff Course graduates at the Zimbabwe Staff College in Harare last week, Minister Mnangagwa said regional military training programmes were vital to development and security.

"It is important that forces belonging to a regional body train together as this provides them with an opportunity to share ideas and understand each other.

"The skills and knowledge they acquire will be of great help to them when they conduct joint peacekeeping missions," he said.

Minister Mnangagwa said continuous training would help to improve efficiency and professional standards.

"The main objective of the course was to equip you with the requisite knowledge and skills necessary for your success in the uniformed forces.

"It was also aimed at moulding you into versatile and proficient officers in the areas of tactics, logistics, leadership, training and general management," he said.

He urged the graduates to maintain high standards of discipline that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces was renowned for.

Minister Mnangagwa urged the foreign students to be good ambassadors for Zimbabwe when they returned to their countries.

"Before you came here, you heard several bad things about Zimbabwe, but now that you have been here for 20 weeks, you definitely got a real picture of Zimbabwe," he said.

Zimbabwe Staff College commandant Brigadier-General Thomas Moyo said the course was aimed at grooming the next generation of army leaders.

"The course was aimed at grooming the officers to be able to successfully tackle challenges and command men on the battlefield.

"The officers are the future leaders of the 21st century, thus it is important that they are well-versed with latest war trends and skills. "Their curriculum included tactical, administration, peace support operations and the law of armed conflict," he said.


‘Desist from seeking external support on political disputes’

Herald Reporter

ZIMBABWEANS have been urged to desist from seeking external support to solve internal political disputes, as this would compromise and undermine the country’s sovereignty.

Addressing Joint Command and Staff Course number 22 students at the Zimbabwe Staff College in Harare yesterday, Democratic Republic of Congo Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Mawampanga Mwanananga said Zimbabweans should solve their own problems without external interference.

"It is not wise to internationalise your country’s problems and politics just to gain worldwide sympathy and intervention.

"Foreign assistance always brings its problems, chief among them, it undermines national sovereignty and security. We should only seek advice and guidance and not to be told what to do by external forces," he said.

He also said African nations should join hands in fighting poverty rather than relying on international assistance from Western powers.

"Africa must unite and increase trade among its members rather than trading with Westerners. The region has vast resources, which if properly administered will greatly improve the whole region from its current status to be the richest.

"We are our own saviours, let us work together like brothers and sisters who share the same continent and resources," he said.

Mr Mwanananga paid tribute to the Sadc region for its assistance during the time of conflict saying Western powers were there to destabilise so that they plunder resources at will. He also hailed the agreement between Zimbabwe and DRC of free movement of the nations’ citizens, saying the move is a positive development that promoted unity.

Zimbabwe Staff College invites foreign high profile dignitaries to present lectures about their countries foreign and defence policies to military students, among other issues.


Bennett’s trial opens

Court Reporter

THE High Court has ordered the State not to lead hearsay evidence in MDC-T treasurer Roy Bennett’s trial on allegations of possessing dangerous weapons and inciting acts of terrorism and insurgency.

Justice Chinembiri Bhunu also turned down an application by the defence for his recusal from hearing the trial.

Bennett’s lawyer, Ms Beatrice Mtetwa, had sought Justice Bhunu’s recusal, arguing that he once presided over Bennett’s alleged accomplice Peter Michael Hitch-mann’s bail application.

The court found that there would be no prejudice to Bennett and that the trial should start immediately.

Bennett yesterday entered a plea of not guilty and Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana called the State’s first witness, Chief Inspector James Makone, to testify.

While he was giving evidence, Ms Mtetwa raised an objection when he was about to tell the court what Hitschmann said to him during a search for weapons at his house.

Justice Bhunu ruled that the witnesses should restrict themselves to what they did rather than telling the court what they heard from Hitschmann.

The State has lined up 13 witnesses — including Hitschmann — to testify.

It is understood that most of the witnesses’ evidence hinges on Hitschmann’s statement.

Justice Bhunu said if Hitschmann’s statement was not admitted in his own trial, it would be absurd to use it against Bennett.

He said the State should first satisfy the court that the evidence was admissible against Hitschmann himself before it could be used against Bennett.

After that ruling on inadmissibility of hearsay evidence, Mr Tomana asked for a postponement to prepare the State case, saying they had not anticipated the development.

The trial continues today with Chief Insp Makone concluding his testimony.

Chief Insp Makone narrated to the court how he arrested Hitschmann in 2006.

He said he was part of a team of police and State security agents who arrested Hitschmann at a fast food outlet in Mutare.

Chief Insp Makone said they recovered a pistol and over 2 000 rounds of ammunition and proceeded to Hitschmann’s house where they recovered more weapons.

He was stopped before telling more.

In his defence, Bennett denied committing the said offence, saying that Hitschmann had since disowned the statement on which the State is relying.

Ms Mtetwa said none of the State witnesses had evidence incriminating Be-nnett.

Bennett denied possessing the said weapons, alleging that the charges were trumped up by his political opponents who were determined to block him from taking up the post of Deputy Agriculture Mini-ster in the inclusive Government.

He denied having communicated with Hitschmann via e-mail, saying that evidence could have been created and doctored by State agents.

The court also heard that Hitschmann once publicly vowed not to testify in the case.

Hitschmann’s lawyer, Mr Mordecai Mahlangu, tried to stop the AG from summoning his client as a witness and was arrested on a charge of defeating the course of justice.

He is awaiting trial.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 10:53 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Honduran Accord Fails as Right-wing Maneuvers to Prevent Zelaya's Restoration

Honduran accord fails as Right-wing maneuvers to prevent Zelaya’s restoration

By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Published Nov 13, 2009 8:15 PM

Nov. 9—”With or without Mel [Zelaya] there are no elections and who goes forward is the Resistance. Let’s go into the neighborhoods. ... Our only way out is the Resistance because together, we will never be defeated. My struggle began in 1954 and now we can talk and say that we are revolutionaries. ... We can now send to hell this Constitution that does not serve us. Until victory comrades, do not dismay, let us go forward now or never! Until the final victory!”

Dionisia Sanchez, the Grandmother of the Resistance and example of Honduran people’s fierce will to struggle, said these words on Nov. 9, after the Resistance met and decided not to participate in the general elections of Nov. 29, even if President Manuel Zelaya was reinstated to office.

At the time this article is being written, no resolution to the dangerous crisis in Honduras has been attained. The illegal usurper government of Roberto Micheletti continues holding on to power at all costs—in spite of having signed, on Oct. 30, the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord, which would have restored the legitimate president, Zelaya, to office before the elections.

Micheletti unilaterally announced on Nov. 5 the formation of a “Government of Reconciliation” presided over by Micheletti, and without Zelaya. This government body was proposed by the accord as a unitary government that would have included representatives from both Zelaya and the golpistas (coup plotters). After this action, President Zelaya publicly announced the termination of the accord and the end of any possibility of dialogue with the de facto government.

Micheletti made his announcement even before the National Congress decided on the reinstitution of Zelaya. Loyal to the golpistas, the congress had delayed the voting, with many excuses, in an obvious maneuver to stall the return of Zelaya to power. These underhanded actions were even witnessed by the “Verification Commission” present in Tegucigalpa, a formation mandated by the accord that would have had the duty of ensuring that the accord was carried out.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis was part of that commission.

Reaction of the Resistance

The Resistance, which for the last few days has been demonstrating daily in front of the National Congress, met to decide its position on the elections. They issued a communiqué on Nov. 9 stating that they reject the electoral process and that “participation in it would give legitimacy to the golpista regime or its successor who would fraudulently take office on Jan. 27, 2010.”

They refuse to participate even if President Zelaya is reinstated to office because “20 days or less give little time to dislodge the electoral fraud that was concocted to assure that a representative of the golpista oligarchy is installed to continue their antidemocratic and repressive project.”

They also charge the United States with complicity with the golpistas. At the same time, the Resistance reaffirmed their continued struggle to reinstate Zelaya and for a new constitution.

The independent candidate for president on behalf of the Resistance, Carlos H. Reyes, withdrew from the race for the same reasons.

What is behind the elections?

It is telling that immediately after the signing of the accord and before any substantial progress, both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her envoy, Thomas Shannon, hailed the treaty as a done deal. Hugo Llorens, U.S. ambassador in Tegucigalpa, also immediately called for the international recognition of the Nov. 29 elections. To this date, the U.S. is almost completely isolated on this position.

Why such a rush? What is Washington’s interest?

There are several U.S. lobby firms that work on behalf of the Micheletti government, the Honduran Association of Maquiladores and the Latin American Business Council, Honduras Chapter—representing, in the end, the financial and geopolitical interests of the United States. Among these firms are Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates; The Corman Group; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; and Visión Américas. Lanny Davis, former legal advisor to Bill Clinton, and Roger Noriega, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for western hemispheric affairs, work in some of these firms.

Besides these firms, there is a very powerful “non-governmental” agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Its website describes it as “an innovative and independent U.S. foreign aid agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty. Created by the U.S. Congress in January 2004 with strong bipartisan support, MCC is changing the conversation on how best to deliver smart U.S. foreign assistance by focusing on good policies, country ownership, and results.”

It is said in many circles in Honduras that the U.S. has a preferred candidate, Elvin Santos. Santos was Liberal Party vice-president under Zelaya but resigned last December in order to run for the presidency. He opposed Zelaya’s call for a Constitutional Assembly.

Santos is also from the oligarchy, a construction engineer whose family owns one of the largest construction companies in the country, Santos y Compañía. This company signed a $7.5 million contract with MCC (part of a $215-million MCC contract with Honduras) to improve transportation. Specifically, the contract was for the construction of Highway CA-5 that links Tegucigalpa with San Pedro Sula, the country’s main industrial area, and with Puerto Cortes on the northern Caribbean coast, the largest and only deepwater port in Central America. Highway CA-5 also connects in the south with the Port of Cutuco, on El Salvador’s Pacific coast.

This highway is part of the Atlantic Corridor of the International Network of Mesoamerican Highways, which is the transportation aspect of the Plan Puebla Panama. The plan is yet another attempt by the U.S. to steal the resources of the people in Central America, as well as Mexico and Colombia. It is presented as an integration project, but the purpose is to facilitate transportation through the area, from Mexico to Colombia, of U.S. products and merchandise assembled or made in the area, particularly in the infamous maquiladoras.

It’s a funnel to extract the wealth from Latin America toward the U.S.

Who is the chair of the MCC? None other than Hillary Clinton. Also on the MCC board are Timothy F. Geithner, U.S. secretary of the treasury and vice-chair of the MCC board, and Alonzo L. Fulgham, acting U.S. Agency for International Development administrator.

It is clear that the United States, by accepting the results of the elections beforehand, wants to guarantee the presence in the Honduras government of a representative of the pro-U.S. oligarchy that is invested in the capitalist exploitation of the masses. Even if Santos does not win, the other golpista candidates are loyal to the same oligarchy.

The tremendous power of the entrepreneurial sector in Honduras was explained by Carlos H. Reyes during a long and enlightening conversation while this writer was in Honduras in October with the U.S. Delegation of Labor, Community and Clergy in Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance. Reyes is the president of the STIBYS union of beverage industry and other workers. He was home recovering from an assault by the police during one of the Resistance demonstrations, in which his right wrist was severely fractured.

He explained the urgent need for a new constitution, and the passion with which the Resistance demands a Constitutional Assembly became very clear.

He explained that the current constitution was drafted during the 1980s, when the U.S. waged war against Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua under the criminal and vicious leadership of John Negroponte. Its purpose was to “sell the country” (privatize), reduce the state and put the military instead of the people in charge of upholding the constitution. In sum, it was a constitution to benefit the corporations and their stockholders.

Reyes exposed how power and wealth were transferred during these years. In 1981, the transnational corporations and landowners had 40 percent of the power, the state 40 percent and the people 20 percent. Now, 28 years later, the transnationals hold 75 percent, the state 20 percent and the people 5 percent. Because of the reduction of income, the state cannot afford services to the masses.

Reyes explained that Honduras is “a fiscal and labor paradise” because of low wages, the increase of temporary and subcontracted labor with absolutely no benefits or job security, and the enormous concessions to the corporations, which really control the government and run the country on their own behalf. This has resulted in the pauperization of the masses, but has been an enormously profitable experience for U.S. companies.

That is why President Zelaya’s plans to change the constitution and raise the minimum wage were so vehemently opposed by the Honduran oligarchy and the U.S.

U.S. plans more of the same in Latin America

The recent struggle in Honduras has been an attempt by the United Sates to put a hold on the progressive popular advances in Latin America, and particularly against the participating countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). That is the view of most Latin American presidents who have opposed the Honduras military coup from day one and who hold the U.S. responsible for not ending the coup. The U.S. is Honduras’ largest trading and military partner.

This coup has reinvigorated the right-wing oligarchies around the region that are associated with the U.S.

On Oct. 30, a military treaty was signed between Colombia and the U.S. giving the U.S. complete access to that country, including seven bases, among them the enormous Palanquero base close to the capital. It was not until Nov. 2, after the agreement was signed, that it was publicly released, even though Latin American countries had requested it. In Panama, there are talks for opening four air and navy bases to which the U.S. will have access.

Many consider the bases a threat to peace in the region, and a very dangerous precedent that announces the intent of the United States to wage war against the countries that are “anti-U.S.,” as exposed in an official document of the Air Force Department regarding the Palanquero Air Base. In it, the document cites the “constant threat ... of the anti-U.S. governments.” (www.centrodealerta.org)

In Paraguay, President Fernando Lugo had to substitute the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force with personnel in whom he was confident after rumors of a coup attempt by the right wing, which opposes Lugo’s progressive reforms.

But the United States does not realize that, as Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said, this is not a time of changes, but a change of times—referring to the tremendous uprising of the masses defending their sovereignty and opposing U.S. imperialism.

Next: More on Colombia, Panama and Venezuela.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Address by South African Vice-President Kgalema Motlanthe at the World Summit on Food Security

South African Government (Pretoria)

South Africa: Address by His Excellency Mr. Kgalema Motlanthe, Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa to World Summit on Food Security

16 November 2009

The following is the text of an address delivered before an audience by the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa at the World Summit on Food Security hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy.

Chairperson, Prime Minister Berlusconi;
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon;
Your Excellencies Heads of States and Governments;
The Director-General of FAO, Dr. Diouf;
Heads of Delegations
Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Firstly, allow me, chairperson to congratulate you on your election to facilitate the proceedings of this important summit. We are participating here with a sincere hope that this gathering will mark a departure form the past by producing a clear programme of action with measurable targets and monitoring mechanisms to track progress.

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of food security and agriculture summits. At these gatherings, commitments were made even as recent as the May 2008 Summit which happened against the backdrop of food, finance and fuel crises. There too commitments were made and a declaration adopted.

In spite of these summits, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) State of Food Insecurity in the World Report estimates that the number of hungry people has increased to unprecedented levels of 1 billion in 2009. The figure is expected to increase further should there be no decisive actions to reverse the trend within the context of meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) targets. it is even more obvious now that radical solutions is needed to alter the conditions of the majority in the world in light of the most devastating global economic meltdown ever experienced since the Great Depression.

This summit comes in the wake of the recent G20 Meeting were leaders made a commitment to, among others, promote employment through structural policies, work to address excessive commodity price volatility by improving the functioning and transparency of physical and financial markets and promoting a closer dialogue between producer and consumer countries.

They further welcomed the swift implementation of the $250bn trade finance initiative and reaffirmed a commitment to fight all forms of protectionism and to reach an ambitious balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Round.

More importantly, this summit precedes the next round of WTO negotiations and the December Copenhagen meeting on climate change. Honourable ladies and gentlemen, agriculture and food production will be adversely affected by climate change with devastating effects on food security. Adaptation or mitigation will be costly but necessary for food security, poverty reduction and maintenance of the ecosystems.

As we look ahead to Copenhagen, we should be resolute in our commitment to create jobs, raise incomes and improve security through a green economy (i.e. promote environmentally friendly production methods) without jeopardizing any country’s right to exploit their natural endowments.

There is indeed a proliferation of summits within and outside the UN System dealing with similar challenges of poverty, inequality and global economic imbalances. Is it not time to ask: who is connecting the dots, coordinating implementation and assessing the impact? In other who is pulling together all these initiatives into one coherent response the aforementioned challenges?

Excellencies,

Although there are some signs of recovery from the global economic crisis in certain sectors, it is important to emphasise that the majority of developing countries are far from recovery. In fact sustained negative growth rates together with historical imbalances continue to reproduce worse forms of human suffering.

As a result, we should caution against complacency and parochial solutions based on narrow vested interests. This crisis presents a unique opportunity to world leaders to honestly examine the existing global economic and financial systems and endeavour to reform these crises.

In this context, our leaders must give effect to their commitment to reform the international financial and economic institutions to properly reflect the interest of a sustainable and inclusive global economy. In fact many of the global leaders gathered here have already made this undertaking in many for a within the UN system and at G20 level.

The volatility of agriculture commodity prices demands of us to move faster to conclude a truly developmental Doha Round that would lead to a real and substantial reduction in trade and production distortions.

To this end, we add our voice to the call for the speedy conclusion of the Doha Development Round negotiations.

Conclusion of these negotiations must necessarily lead to a concrete and comprehensive response to the difficulties experienced by developing countries in accessing markets in the developed world and to protect the competitiveness of farmers from the developing world. For as long as we fail to conclude those negotiations, many of the plans of this summit and others will remain just that – plans.

Furthermore, we support the call for intensive investment in small rural based agriculture, strong support for women farmers and the restoration of livelihood of rural communities. Under-investment is rooted in the economic policy measures which unfortunately encouraged developing countries to reduce or eliminate agricultural services extended to farmers such as credit extension and infrastructure support. This resulted in substantial decline in agricultural production.

Chairperson,

This gathering dare not fail! It must create conditions for eliminating hunger and food insecurity. Consequently, only an agreement on a set of practical measures that must address in a concise and comprehensive manner, the challenge of food insecurity and poverty eradication, will meet the expectations of the one billion starving people across the globe.

This is the essence of the urgent task facing this summit! And to equal this task we need strong accountability, follow-up mechanisms, monitoring, evaluation and matching funding to implement our decisions. The world cannot afford another summit in the face of increasing number of hungry people; let this summit help end hunger.

We are encouraged by efforts to develop a coherent, integrated, inclusive and participatory global governance system on food security. However, this should be anchored on the centrality of the United Nations in the multilateral system. Therefore, we welcome all efforts to reform FAO to effectively respond to the global challenges of food insecurity amid plenty and wastage!

Chairperson,

in Africa there is a general consensus that agricultural reforms within the framework of Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) remains an effective means to achieve, among other things, targeted investments in agricultural production, irrigation infrastructure, access to fertilizer and seeds, agro-processing and market development including extension services, general human resource and meaningful involvement of women. To achieve CAADP objectives, a strong partnership with international community is required.

In conclusion, my delegation wishes to express its outmost appreciation to all public, private and multilateral institutions for relentless efforts to end global hunger. As I have mentioned, we are participating in this summit with a sincere hope that it is different from its predecessors; different in that it will produce concrete actions to help eliminate the scourge of hunger.

Let us remind ourselves that in any struggle victory always goes to those with the clearest understanding of what the next step is.

I thank you
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Selebi Case Resumes in South Africa

Selebi case resumes

The corruption case of former police chief Jackie Selebi resumes on Tuesday, amidst reports that key witness Billy Rautenbach is missing.

Last Thursday, Judge Meyer Joffe adjourned court proceedings in the Johannesburg High Court at the state's request because of "difficulty" in consulting witnesses.

On Sunday, the City Press reported that prosecutor Gerrie Nel and his team were trying "frantically" to find ex-Hyundai boss Rautenbach.

Previously Nel told the court that not all the witnesses were in the country.

"There is difficulty I have had with consulting the next three witnesses... to prepare them for court," said Nel. "I would require the court to stand down."

He also said he had to consult with certain legal teams.

On Sunday, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga refused to comment on the matter.

Rautenbach, who lives in Zimbabwe, spent almost a decade on the run before entering into a plea-sentence agreement with the NPA on tax evasion charges on September 16, just 16 days before the start of Selebi's trial.

Under the deal, Rautenbach, as a director of SA Botswana Hauliers, agreed to pay a fine of R40-million on 326 counts of fraud.

Convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti testified that Rautenbach paid him $100 000 as an alleged bribe for Selebi to assist him with his run-ins with the law.

Agliotti said Selebi, who was also president of international police body Interpol, was to check whether there were any international warrants out for the then-fugitive Rautenbach.

Selebi is being tried on a count of corruption and another of defeating the ends of justice in connection with at least R1.2-million he allegedly received from Agliotti, Rautenbach and others in return for favours. - Sapa

Published on the Web by IOL on 2009-11-17 02:32:51
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4 Killed and 5 Others Including South Sudan Minister Wounded in Ambush

4 killed and 5 others including South Sudan minister wounded in ambush

Tuesday 17 November 2009.
By James Gatdet Dak
Sudan Tribune

November 16, 2009 (JUBA) – A minister in the Government of Southern Sudan narrowly escaped with gunshot wound on Sunday as his convoy was ambushed by unknown gunmen.

Four were killed and five others wounded, two in critical condition, as the vehicle carrying minister Dr. Samson Kwaje of Agriculture and Forestry was riddled with more than twenty bullets by assailants.

The attack took place as the minister was returning on road from Wonduruba to Lanya County in Central Equatoria state.

Among the dead included the minister’s driver and bodyguard.

Dr. Kwaje who was shot on his right arm said the attackers opened fire on his vehicle from both sides of the road.

The minister and other survivors were scattered into the forest and hunted down by the attackers.

He was rescued after a force of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was sent from Lanya to the scene.

An helicopter was sent in by the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) which flew the minister to Juba.

More than twenty suspects are reported to have been arrested in the area for investigations.

Minister of Internal Affairs, Gier Chuang Aluong condemned the attack.

He said such a violent act was not the right way to address any issues that might have arisen and led to the criminal act.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit of the Government of Southern Sudan had declared seven days public holiday from November 11th to 17th for constitutional post holders to enable them travel to their respective areas and enlighten the potential voters to register.

Dr. Kwaje was on the enlightenment tour of his home areas where he mobilized the citizens to turnout for the voter registration.

He is also member of the SPLM Political Bureau, the highest leadership structure of the party.
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African Youth Summit Begins in Abuja Today

Monday, November 16, 2009

African youth summit begins in Abuja today

From Terhemba Daka, Abuja
Nigerian Guardian

AHEAD of the world summit for children in Sweden, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is to host the first African Children and Youth Multimedia Conference from today to next Friday in Abuja, the organisers have said.

The conference with the theme, 'Multimedia: A Tool for Advancing the Development and Empowerment of Future Leaders,' is to commemorate the United Nations Universal Children's Day and prepare Africans for more participation at the 6th World Summit on Media for Children and Youths in Sweden, 2010.

Briefing reporters on preparations for the conference, the programme co-ordinator, Nkem Oselloka-Orakwue, explained that the meeting was to create the awareness and conditions that would promote sustainable multimedia education in Africa as it is obtainable globally, especially as plans are on to start the Africa Media Education Centre in Nigeria.

She further explained that the conference is intended to bring together stakeholders and experts in the fields of children's education, communication and multimedia to brainstorm on how to give children's broadcasting a priority in Africa's radio and television.

She said that it is also intended to advocate for the enactment of the Child Rights Act in other African countries and the domestication in some states in Nigeria, as well as encourage the use of Information Communication Technology in monitoring, reporting and dissemination of information on Child Rights' issues.
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France Returns Nigeria's Stolen Artefacts

Monday, November 16, 2009

France returns Nigeria's stolen artefacts

From Oghogho Obayuwana, Abuja
Nigerian Guardian

TWO stone monoliths stolen from Nigeria by Camerounian poacher and taken to France were handed over to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, in Abuja at the weekend.

Nigeria's envoy to France, Ambassador Gordon Bristol, who presented the items returned by the government of France, said experts traced the origins of the monoliths to the different sub-groups of the Bakar people of Cross River State - the Nnam, Nselle and Ekujak. The monoliths are actually known as Akwanshi, representing the ancestors of the Akwanshi ethnic group, duly recognised by the Nigerian government as national monuments under Decree 77 of 1979 (now an act of the National Assembly)

According to Bristol, the mission in France took possession of the monoliths from the Mid-Pyranees regional headquarters of the French Customs in Toulouse on June 22, this year, after the necessary documentation. Bristol also happens to be a former Nigerian envoy to Cameroun.

He said: "The monoliths were smuggled into France in 2004 by a Camerounian woman who claimed that they originated from that country and that they were not of any commercial value. But the French authorities and the National Commissioner for Museums and Monuments, Dr. A.S. Edet, have since concluded otherwise and confirmed source of origin...the Camerounian purveyor of these stolen but now retrieved artefacts had, six months after the seizure, furnished photographs purportedly showing her in company of some stone carvers at work in Foumban, a town in the west province of Cameroun where she claimed to have sourced the Monoliths..."

Expressing the gratitude of President Umar Yar'Adua to the French government for its prompt action on the artefacts, Maduekwe noted at the handing over ceremony that "through the protection of our arts, we can create peace, joy, harmony and create jobs''

The minister said: "I have just returned from the United States (U.S.) where our arts are appreciated. The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is celebrating Nigerian art one year to our golden jubilee celebrations. They are already celebrating us while we were still preparing. Whether at Smithsonian or the Louvre in Paris, our art works are venerated and appreciated. And that is the reason why I have often spoken of cultural tourism as key to the revival of the Nigerian economy. Nigeria can actually earn more money from tourism than from crude oil. Check the statistics, tourism is always among the top 10 revenue earners"

Maduekwe continued: "It is clear that the humanising power of culture to save is no longer an option. It is the only condition for survival. Maybe it is time for a re-awakening of the global interest in the art and spirituality of Africa. The home of humanity, and its most undeveloped, may well have secrets yet to be yielded on how to save the world in spite of its challenges of pandemics, post-colonial conflicts and democratic challenges. The pilgrimage to Africa is overdue. We have to show greater capacity for the security of works of art like these, otherwise, they might be stolen again."

Fielding reporters questions, Bristol said since France is a signatory to the convention on the protection of artefacts and UNESCO is in fact domiciled in the country, Nigeria can expect action to be taken against the fraudulent Camerounian woman, as she also violated French laws."
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Sentence of 13 Years for Ex-Louisiana Congressman

November 14, 2009

Sentence of 13 Years for Ex-Louisiana Congressman

New York Times
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON — Former Representative William J. Jefferson, a New Orleans Democrat whose political career once seemed to hold high promise, was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison for using his office to try to enrich himself and his relatives.

The sentence was far less than recommended by prosecutors, who had sought at least 27 years. Mr. Jefferson, 62, who was convicted on Aug. 5 of bribery, racketeering and money laundering involving business ventures in Africa, might have had to spend the rest of his life behind bars with such a sentence, since there is no parole in the federal prison system, and the only leniency is 15 percent off for good behavior.

Judge T. S. Ellis III sentenced Mr. Jefferson in United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., where a jury had found him guilty of 11 of 16 counts.

Mr. Jefferson said nothing before sentencing. His chief lawyer, Robert P. Trout, has said he would appeal the conviction.

The jury concluded, after a six-week trial, that from 2000 to 2005 Mr. Jefferson sought hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from companies involved in oil, sugar, communications and other businesses, often for projects in Africa. In return, prosecutors said, he used his post on the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee to promote the companies’ ventures without disclosing his own financial interests in the deals.

Mr. Trout tried to convince jurors that, while the business-promotion activities might have been unwise, they were not criminal because they did not qualify as “official acts” under public corruption laws.

Mr. Jefferson graduated from Harvard Law School. In 1990, after 11 years in the Louisiana State Senate, he became the first black person from Louisiana elected to Congress since Reconstruction, according to The Almanac of American Politics. From time to time, he showed interest in running for senator or governor. But mired in scandal, he lost his House seat in the 2008 election.

Prosecutors said that while he might have sought millions of dollars in bribes, Mr. Jefferson might have actually received less than $400,000. In any event, his case gave rise to episodes of near-comedy, and to an intragovernmental battle with constitutional implications.

In a raid on Mr. Jefferson’s Washington-area home in August 2005, federal agents found $90,000 neatly wrapped in aluminum foil in a freezer. Prosecutors said the money was from Kentucky business interests and was supposed to be a bribe for a high Nigerian official, who later denied being part of any scheme.

In May 2006, agents raided Mr. Jefferson’s Congressional office, the first time the Federal Bureau of Investigation had ever searched a Congressional office, and the action was denounced by lawmakers in both parties as an unconstitutional intrusion on Congressional independence by the Justice Department.

A federal judge upheld the raid, but an appeals court ruled that it was constitutionally flawed. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court.
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Friday, November 13, 2009

Activists, Family Demand Justice in Death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah

Activists, family demand justice in death of imam slain by FBI

By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Assistant Editor-
Nov 10, 2009 - 8:53:27 AM

Filled with emotion, Omar Regan, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah's 34-year-old son, spoke at a demonstration in front of the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit on Nov. 5. Another of the imam's sons, Jamil Carswell looked on

DETROIT, Mich. (FinalCall.com) - Activists continue to demand answers in the death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the 53-year-old leader of Detroit's Masjid Al-Haqq gunned down by the FBI under suspicious circumstances.

Despite cold whipping winds, a spirited demonstration demanding an independent investigation into the shooting was held on Nov. 5 at the McNamara Federal Building. Supporters said the man described in the FBI's 43-page affidavit, and portrayed by the mainstream media as something of a Muslim mafia don, was not the man they knew and loved.

Filled with emotion, Omar Regan, Imam Abdullah's 34-year-old son, challenged the media to tell the truth about his father and challenged law enforcement to reflect on their own humanity.

“It's not right for them to set up traps and try to assassinate our character. It's not right for them to say my father, my brother and all of their friends were a danger to their community. They're not in the community! The community loves us!” shouted the young man who lived with Imam Jamil al-Amin for several years as a teenager. “There are people in the community now sad because of the loss of my father wondering if people are still going to be there to feed them, to give them clothes to take care of them. If they want to know about my father, go inside of the community and ask the community who he was!”

Some in the crowd began to shed tears listening to his heartfelt words.

“The man has 13 children and none of us have a criminal record!” said Mr. Regan. “I want to say to the people, even the ones who are holding the badges and holding the guns, why don't you do your research and stop looking at it is as just a job? Find out—if you truly have a heart—and stop trying to just earn a check and learn how to be decent human beings! That's what I learned from my father! How to care about people!”

Members of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice and the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality spearheaded the rally to show support for Detroit's Islamic community.

The groups said the community has come under siege from federal and local law enforcement officials.

Members of the Nation of Islam were in attendance as well as Muslims from a variety of mosques in the Detroit metropolitan area and surrounding suburbs.

A broad-based coalition of activists have protested Imam Abdullah's death, including members of the Detroit Green Party, and many Christian pastors and organizations.

As the speakers addressed the crowd during rush hour, people drove by, honked their horns in support, and waved at those gathered.

Sandra Hines, an activist with the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice and the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, spoke at the demonstration.

“It appears as if this whole incident that took place was entrapment by the FBI and it almost makes you feel that they may possibly be some kind of front group against people of color,” said Ms. Hines.

“They have not cracked down on these right wing groups,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan African News Wire. “They have even shown up at events were the president was—armed. If we would have shown up someplace when Bush was president—armed—we would have been shot on sight,” Mr. Azikiwe added.

“We think people outside of the Muslim community have to take a stand on this. The Muslim community has been under fire since 9-11,” Mr. Azikiwe said. He called on President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to “stop the murderous policies against Muslims in this country.”

Neo-COINTELPRO underway

In an exclusive interview with The Final Call at the Michigan office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Imam Dawud Walid, the group's area director, and Ron Scott, head of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality both expressed concern of what they believe to be a “neo-COINTELPRO” directed at organizations with Black Nationalist and Islamic leanings.

COINTELPRO was a covert operation employed by federal and local law enforcement to disrupt and destroy Black and progressive organizations during the civil rights and Black Power movements.

Mr. Scott said Black men labeled as “radicals” mixed with Islam are an “obvious target” and another primary issue is funding for law enforcement.

The multi-jurisdictional task forces of the FBI and ATF, along with a number of agencies, want funding from the Justice Dept., so there is motivation to keep the threat level high, he said.

“The more threat they have, the more money they get, the more they are able to continue this, in addition to the fact of the actual bias,” said Mr. Scott. “There has always been a Black scare coming out with the COINTELPRO program of which I was a victim of, along with many others,” added Mr. Scott, a former Black Panther active with the organization in the 1960s.

Increased scrutiny of Islamic charities such as the Holy Land Foundation in Richardson, Texas, has had a “chilling effect” on American Muslim organizations nationwide, said Imam Walid. This “was only the first step” in a growing focus on charitable, humanitarian and service oriented groups with members who practice Islam, he continued.

Calling the use of agent provocateurs “a national policy issue,” Imam Walid criticized the use paid informants inside mosques, intimidation by law enforcement and selective outrage by politicians.

In the final days of the Bush administration, former attorney general Michael Mukasey introduced controversial new FBI guidelines related to an initial threat assessment, he observed. Under the new guidelines, race and religion can be used as primary factors to begin an initial assessment without any real proof that anything is planned or whether any terrorism connections are present.

A June 2009 study by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) titled “Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity,” found the U.S. government's efforts—which many activists call harassment—unfair and ineffective while “seriously undermining American Muslims' protected constitutional liberties and violating their fundamental human rights to freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom from discrimination.”

The religious leaders of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan released a statement Nov. 6 decrying the use of informants and agent provocateurs sent into mosques on “fishing expeditions.”

Questions about government investigation of imam's shooting

As a standard procedure, the FBI dispatched a Shooting Incident Review Team following the fatal encounter with Imam Abdullah. The results of the review will be forwarded to the Justice Dept. Many activists say the FBI's nefarious dealing with Black people and organizations brings no confidence the agency can fairly investigate itself and the actions of field agents.

Dearborn police are involved in the investigation, which also troubles Mr. Scott. “The Dearborn Police Department has a horrendous and vicious history of racism and Islamophobia,” he said.

In the FBI's 43-page affidavit attached to the criminal complaint, Imam Abdullah is described as “a highly placed leader of a nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group consisting primarily of African-Americans, some of whom converted to Islam while they were serving sentences in various prisons across the United States. Their primary mission is to establish a separate, sovereign Islamic state ‘The Ummah' within the borders of the United States governed by Shariah law.”

Stemming from a federal investigation of the group which began in 2007, the FBI said Imam Abdullah and the other defendants are charged with running an interstate crime ring that received and sold stolen goods, engaged in mail and insurance fraud, illegally possessed firearms and body armor and tampered with motor vehicle identification numbers.

Andrew G. Arena, special agent in charge of Detroit's FBI office, has consistently said his agents acted appropriately on Oct. 28 when, according to the FBI, during a raid on a warehouse just outside of Detroit, Imam Abdullah refused to surrender. An FBI dog was dispatched to go after him and, according to FBI, after Imam Abdullah shot the dog, they fired, killing him.

The narrative delivered by the FBI is widely disputed.

Members of Masjid Al-Haqq said Imam Abdullah surrendered along with the others, and only fired on the FBI dog after the dog was specifically sent to attack him. Family members were told Imam Abdullah was handcuffed after being shot and left bleeding and dying, while the wounded FBI dog was taken via medical helicopter to a treatment center. Family members ask why officials chose not to take Imam Abdullah to the hospital after being shot, when they argue, the only reason to handcuff him would be if he were alive after being wounded.

Official autopsy results have not yet been released, which adds to the uncertainty, and necessitates an independent investigation, said activists.

Hodari Abdul-Ali, a radio host and chair of the Social Justice Task Force for the Muslim Alliance in North America, served with Imam Abdullah on the Majlis ash-Shura, the governing body which sets policy for the organization. He told The Final Call everyone should speak out against injustice, otherwise they might be the next victims.

“The FBI and all of these right wing racist hate-mongers with microphones are just stirring up this anti-Islamic fervor around the country and this is something that all right-minded people need to speak out against,” said Mr. Abdul-Ali. “I think of that statement Angela Davis made back in the day, ‘If they come for me in the morning, they'll come for you at night.'”

Imam Walid said after the initial report of the Oct. 28 shooting appeared in the media, he contacted many publications directly, protesting some headlines, challenging news reports and telling journalists not to simply “regurgitate the government line.”

When asked by The Final Call why it appeared as if the preliminary information about the shooting was so sensationalistic and inaccurate, he attributed the problem to “lazy reporting.”

“With so much left unknown in the developing case, MPAC is warning government agencies and media outlets of the alarming exploitation of this isolated incident that is stigmatizing Muslim American communities around the country,” said the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, in a statement.

“This imam was for the Yemeni community, for the Black community, for the Latino community. We know him as a person who feeds the hungry, opens his home, opens his mosque, he would give you the coat off his body for you to be warm,” said Ibrahim Aljahim, president of the Detroit-based Arab American Outreach.

“This was a set up by the government. We have to wake up and realize it. He was getting stronger and stronger and they didn't want that,” said Mr. Aljahim. Many strong leaders, such as Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, are also feared and targeted, added Mr. Aljahim.

Mr. Scott agreed. “It is a very dangerous situation and it is being pushed via propaganda. And it is either allowed to be done, or planned, so that any potential unification of Islam whether it is between Arabs and African Americans, or unification of younger and older African Americans, and unification of any group of people who are in favor of progressive movement, that is what they are concerned about,” said Mr. Scott. “That is why I believe they are beginning to start a new movement and Muslims are an obvious target and African-American Muslims are a specific target.”
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 1:41 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Demonstration Against Government Repression Outside Renaissance Center, November 19

For Immediate Release

Media Advisory

Event: Protest the ALPACT Dinner With Atty. Gen. Holder & the FBI
Date: Thursday, November 19, 5:00-6:30pm
Location: Marriot Hotel at Renaissance Center, East Jefferson and Brush
Sponsor: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI)
Contact: 313.671.3715
E-mail: info@mecawi.org
URL: http://www.mecawi.org

Demonstration to Demand Justice for Slain Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah and Freedom for the Detroit 10

The Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust (ALPACT) dinner at the Ren Cen comes at a time when the FBI has shot down a respected Detroit Muslim leader, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. They have arrested 10 other Muslims on wild charges and media hysteria reminiscent of the Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro) that attacked Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik Shabazz), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, the American Indian Movement, Assata Shakur, and others.

At the same time the Detroit Police Department, and police agencies throughout Michigan and the nation, continue racial profiling, racist harassment and racist killings.

Nationally the FBI, the “Justice” Department and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), along with local police agencies, are hounding and deporting thousands of undocumented workers. Often families are torn apart with parents deported and children waiting for their parents who never come home.

United States jails are filled with victims of frame-ups, and death row inmates are legally lynched. Political prisoners languish in lock up such as Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier – both victims of police frame-ups.

This is no time to break bread and sip wine with the FBI.

DEMAND:
Justice for Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah
Free the Detroit 10 (Muslim prisoners of FBI frame-up)
End the ICE raids and deportations
Free Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier and all political prisoners
Stop racist profiling, harassment and killings

Members of MECAWI are available to the media for comment.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 1:34 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Federal Government Moves to Seize Four Mosques in the US

Feds move to seize 4 mosques, tower linked to Iran

By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered.

John D. Winter, the Alavi Foundation's lawyer, said it intends to litigate the case and prevail. He said the foundation has been cooperating with the government's investigation for the better part of a year.

"Obviously the foundation is disappointed that the government has decided to bring this action," Winter told The Associated Press.

It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.

"Whatever the details of the government's case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.

"No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those properties," U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said. "The tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as they have before today's filing. There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants."

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.

The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.

"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.

As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment.

Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.

At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.

The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.

The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.

The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.

Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.

The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.

But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.

"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."

Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.

The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah.

In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian businesses.
___

Associated Press writers Samantha Gross in New York City, Juan A. Lozano in Houston, investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York City and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Maryland contributed to this report.
___

On the Net:

http://www.alavifoundation.org
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 1:17 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Bomb Hits Pakistan's Spy Agency in Nothwest

Bomb hits Pakistan's spy agency in northwest

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A suicide car bomb devastated Pakistan's main spy agency building in the northwest Friday, killing at least 7 people and striking at the heart of the institution overseeing much of the country's anti-terror campaign.

The blast in Peshawar was the latest in a string of bloody attacks on security forces, civilian and Western targets since the government launched an offensive in mid-October against militants in the border region of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding out.

Security forces guarding the Inter-Services Intelligence agency building opened fire on the attacking vehicle to stop it, but the bomber was able to detonate his explosives, said an intelligence official.

The early morning blast, heard across the city, destroyed much of the three-story structure and many cars on the street outside. Most of the dead were guards trying to protect the complex, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene within minutes saw several dead or badly wounded bodies being taken away. Seven bodies and 35 wounded people were admitted to the nearby Lady Reading Hospital, police officer Ullah Khan said.

Just over an hour later, another suicide car bomb wounded 10 people at police station in Bakakhel, a town in the semiautonomous tribal regions, intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because of the nature of their work.

The government has vowed that the surging militant attacks will not dent the country's resolve to pursue the offensive in South Waziristan, where officials say the most deadly insurgent network in Pakistan is based. The army claims to be making good progress in that campaign.

The ISI agency has been involved in scores of covert operations in the northwest against al-Qaida targets since 2001, when many militant leaders crossed into the area following the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan. The region is seen as a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.

Its offices in Peshawar are on the main road leading from the city to Afghanistan. The agency was instrumental in using CIA money to train jihadi groups to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Despite assisting in the fight against al-Qaida since then, some Western officials consider the agency an unreliable ally and allege it still maintains links with militants.

Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are waging a war against the Pakistani government because they deem it un-Islamic and are angry about its alliance with the United States.

The insurgency began in earnest in 2007, and attacks have spiked since the run-up to the offensive in South Waziristan.

Areas in and around Peshawar have experienced the brunt of the recent militant attacks. A car bomb exploded in a market in Peshawar at the end of October, killing at least 112 people in the deadliest attack in Pakistan in over two years.

On Oct. 10, a team of militants staged a raid on the army headquarters close to the capital, Islamabad, taking soldiers hostages in a 22-hour standoff that left nine militants and 14 others dead.

The U.S. has urged Pakistan to persevere with its South Waziristan offensive because militants have used the area as a base to attack Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Militants have also targeted convoys in Pakistan delivering supplies to soldiers in Afghanistan. Attackers fired rockets at a group of tankers near the southwestern city of Quetta on Friday that were delivering fuel to U.S. and NATO troops. One driver was killed and five tankers were torched, said local police chief Bedar Ali Magsi.

Around 80 percent of all nonessential supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan are trucked through Pakistan after landing at the Arabian Sea port of Karachi. NATO and U.S. officials say the attacks do not affect their operations.

___

Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar contributed to this report from Quetta.
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Fort Hood US Army Suspect Charged With 13 Counts of Murder

Fort Hood suspect charged with 13 counts of murder

By ANGELA K. BROWN and LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

FORT HOOD, Texas – An Army psychiatrist was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the Fort Hood massacre as he lay in a hospital bed Thursday, while President Barack Obama ordered a review to determine if the government fumbled warning signs of the man's contacts with a radical Islamic cleric.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan could face the death penalty if convicted.

Army officials said they believe Hasan acted alone when he jumped on a table with two handguns last week, shouted "Allahu akbar" and opened fire. The dead included at least three other mental health professionals; 29 were injured.

Additional charges were possible, said Chris Grey, spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command. It had not been decided whether to charge Hasan with the death of the unborn child of a pregnant soldier who died, officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly.

Meanwhile, Obama ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan to determine whether it was properly shared and acted upon within the government. John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, will oversee the review. The first results are due Nov. 30. Obama also ordered the preservation of the intelligence.

Members of Congress are pressing for a full investigation into why Hasan was not detected and stopped. A Senate hearing on Hasan is scheduled for next week.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and others have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical imam and others of concern to the U.S., and what they did with the information. Hoekstra confirmed this week that the U.S. government knew of about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam, beginning in December 2008.

A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan's repeated contact with a radical Muslim cleric who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism.

Hasan was charged in the hospital without his lawyers present, said John Galligan, his civilian attorney.

"What I find disturbing is that my client is in ICU, and he's 150 miles south of his defense counsel, and he's being served with the charges," he told The Associated Press. "Given his status as a patient, I'm troubled by this procedure and that I'm not there. I'm in the dark, and that shouldn't be the case. I am mad."

Months before the shootings, doctors and staff overseeing Hasan's training reported viewing him at times as belligerent, defensive and argumentative in his frequent discussions of his Muslim faith, according to a military official familiar with several group discussions about Hasan. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hasan was characterized as a mediocre student and lazy worker, which concerned the doctors and staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a military medical school in Bethesda, Md., the official said.

Even outside the military, Hasan's behavior drew attention. Golam Akhter, a civil engineer from Bethesda, Md., said Thursday that he had spoken with Hasan about 10 times at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring before Hasan left for Texas last summer.

"He used to not believe that 9/11 was solely the work of Middle East people," Akhter said. "His main thing was, 'America is killing Muslims in the Middle East.' That made him very, very upset."

Akhter said he sensed that Hasan was "a troubled man" and feels guilty for not alerting others.

"I tried to convince him to try to be a moderate Muslim," Akhter said.

Hasan repeatedly referred to his strong religious views in discussions with classmates at Walter Reed, his superiors and even in his research work, the military official said. His behavior, while at times perceived as intense and combative, was not unlike the zeal of others with strong religious views.

But some doctors and staff were concerned that their unfamiliarity with the Muslim faith would lead them to unfairly single out Hasan's behavior, the official said.

Some questioned Hasan's sympathies as an Army psychiatrist, whether he would be more aligned with Muslims fighting U.S. troops. There also was some concern about whether he should continue to serve in the military, the official said.

But they saw no signs of mental problems, no risk factors that would predict violent behavior. And the group discussed other factors that suggested Hasan would continue to thrive in the military, factors that mitigated their concerns, the official said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he was appalled at news leaks about the investigation into last week's deadly shootings at Fort Hood.

"Frankly if I found out with high confidence anybody who's leaking on the Department of Defense, who that was, that would probably be a career-ender," he told reporters traveling with him to Oshkosh, Wis. "Everybody ought to shut up."

___

Baldor reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Brett J. Blackledge, Richard Lardner, Devlin Barrett, Pauline Jelinek, Eileen Sullivan and Pamela Hess in Washington; David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., and Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 12:50 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Black Panther Party 43rd Anniversary Celebrated in Oakland During October

Black Panther Party 43rd Anniversary History Month

Posted By blockreportradio

This October marked the 43rd anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party. To celebrate this milestone, the It’s About Time Committee and The Commemorator presented a two-day Book Fair and Teach-In at the Laney College Student Center, 900 Fallon St., on Friday, Oct. 23, 12-3 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., as just one of many scheduled October events.

We celebrated the birthday of Bobby Seale, co-founder and chairman of the Black Panther Party. There was also a presentation by Elbert “Big Man” Howard, an original founding member and international spokesperson for the BPP, who will introduce his idea for an historical site which would serve the Oakland community and attract visitors and revenue to Oakland.

Historically, the Black Panther Party contributed to the Oakland community by starting the first Free Breakfast for School Children program and free Medical Clinics which served the people and led to testing and research for sickle cell disease. These programs in Oakland evolved into nationwide programs and set models for ones which exist today.

Our school, the Oakland Community School, served as a model for the charter schools of today.

It is a known historical fact that before the Black Panther Party, candidates of color did not get elected here in the city of Oakland. This practice was changed forever after the Black Panther Party led a voters’ registration drive that engendered votes and support for Black candidates.

The election of candidates to public office who are Black, Asian, Native American and Hispanic, past and present, such as Lionel Wilson, Ron Dellums, Barbara Lee, Willie Brown and many others, owe their successes in part to what the Black Panther Party initiated so many years ago.

The Black Panther Party led the way and laid the groundwork nationwide that made it possible for the disenfranchised and the oppressed to vote and elect candidates who would reflect the needs of the community and, thus, better serve them.

Every October in Oakland and many other cities, there are educational events held to commemorate the unique and important contributions that the Black Panther Party made to our collective history.

For more information and updates, visit our websites: http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com and http://www.bigmanbpp.com

Demonstrating that the legacy of the Black Panther Party remains relevant and very much alive, check out the short film “Operation Small Axe,” directed by Adimu Madyun, a documentary centered on Prisoners of Conscience Committee Minister of Information JR and the internationally renowned Block Report Radio show.

It was screened at two of the month’s events: first during the Black Panther Film Festival, Saturday, Oct. 17, 1:35 p.m., at the West Oakland Library, 18th and Adeline in West Oakland and also during the celebration at Laney College, on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 5:23 PM 0 comments Links to this post

10 States Face Looming Budget Disasters in the US

Report: 10 states face looming budget disasters

By JUDY LIN, Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A study released Wednesday warns that nine states are barreling toward an economic disaster similar to California's ongoing fiscal crisis that has been marked by IOUs and budget-busting deficits.

The budget woes could mean higher taxes, accelerated layoffs of government employees, more crowded classrooms and fewer services in the coming year for some of the nation's most populous states.

Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin join California as those most at risk of fiscal calamity, according to the report by the Pew Center on the States.

Double-digit budget gaps, rising unemployment, high home foreclosure rates and built-in budget constraints are the key reasons.

The analysis urged lawmakers and governors in those states to take quick action to head off a wider economic catastrophe. The 10 states account for more than one-third of America's population and economic output, according to the report.

"While California often takes the spotlight, other states are facing hardships just as daunting," said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based center. "Decisions these states make as they try to navigate the recession will play a role in how quickly the entire nation recovers."

California leads the most vulnerable states identified by Pew, which describes it as having poor money-management practices. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, California has made nearly $60 billion in budget adjustments — in the form of cuts to education and social service programs, temporary tax hikes, one-time gimmicks and stimulus spending — since February as tax revenues plunged.

Many of those fixes aren't expected to last. The state's temporary tax hikes will begin to expire at the end of 2010, while federal stimulus spending will begin to run out a year after that.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimates California will likely run a deficit of between $12.4 billion and $14.4 billion when he releases his next spending plan in January. The top estimate amounts to 17 percent of the state's $84.6 billion general fund budget, the main account for day-to-day spending. General fund spending in California has dropped nearly $20 billion over the past two years.

The governor warned that the toughest cuts are ahead.

"I think that we are not out of the woods yet," Schwarzenegger said this week.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 4:51 PM 0 comments Links to this post

South African Gold Fields Facing Strikes at the Continent's Largest Mines

Gold Fields Facing Strikes at Africa’s Largest Mines

By Ron Derby

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gold Fields Ltd. is facing a strike by 45,000 workers across all its operations, including Africa’s two largest gold mines, should a dispute over recruitment fail to be resolved, a labor union said.

“We have today taken a certificate that allows us to strike,” said Kenneth Bhuda, a coordinator for the National Union of Mineworkers, in an e-mailed statement. Labor unions in South Africa must seek a certificate from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration permitting them to take strike action.

Gold Fields operates Driefontein and Kloof, the biggest gold mines on the continent, which are located in the Witwatersrand area west of Johannesburg.

The company’s recruitment system is a barrier to employment for new recruits and employees coming back from annual and maternity leave, Bhuda said.

No strike notice has been issued, Gold Fields spokesman Julian Gwillim said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg News. “We are confident that a process of dialogue should be able to resolve this issue,” Gwillim said.

Gold Fields, Africa’s second-largest miner of the metal after AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., rose 1.70 rand, or 1.6 percent, to 109 rand in Johannesburg trading, valuing the company at 81.9 billion rand ($11.2 billion).

To contact the reporter on this story: Ron Derby in Johannesburg at rderby1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 11, 2009 12:10 EST


NUM may strike over Gold Fields' assessment system

Business Day
Published: 2009/11/11 03:19:04 PM

THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) today warned that a strike was looming at Gold Fields (GFI) over the way it assesses potential employees.

The trade union said it has taken a certificate of non-resolution at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), which would culminate in over 45,000 workers across Gold Fields operations going on strike.

It said the dispute was over a recruitment assessment method called Functional Work Capacity, which the trade union says has proved to be a barrier to employment for new recruits and employees coming back from annual and maternity leave.

"The method has been implemented unilaterally and it has seen many people falling to get employment or re-appointed at Gold Fields," said Keneth Bhuda, NUM Mining House coordinator.

The NUM is demanding that the system be scrapped and that the old physical testing and acclimatisation method be reinstated.


Malema's mines bid fails

By CARIEN DU PLESSIS
Business Report

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has been sent back to the drawing board after he tried to force a debate on nationalising the country's mines at the ANC's national executive committee at the weekend.

Malema was told to follow correct channels and put the youth league's ideas in writing before they could be discussed by ruling party structures, ANC spokesman and NEC member Jackson Mthembu said on Monday.

"Our understanding is that the youth league should go and prepare a document, and let us interact with this discussion document," Mthembu said.

"It must start at the (ANC's) economic transformation committee and we must get the pros and cons of (the nationalisation of mines). (We must ask ourselves) is it okay from reading the document, does it make sense?"

"And then the economic transformation committee, which the youth league is part of, will bring such a discussion to the NEC and the NEC might then request that such a call go to the national general council (set to take place in September next year)."

Mthembu said the national general council would discuss the matter only if the NEC deemed it fit for discussion.

ANC spokesman Floyd Shivambu said on Monday that the youth league had already compiled a rough draft of the proposal.

The youth league had already raised the matter with the ANC's economic transformation committee and would develop a "national perspective paper" for the ANC's national general council.

Last week, ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa said nationalisation was neither ANC nor government policy, while secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the youth league's "shotgun approach" to the debate was not going to work.

Published on the web by Business Report on November 10, 2009.


SA's factory output decline slows, worst over

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Nov 10 2009 15:00

South Africa's factory output shrunk by less than expected in September, indicating the sector was on the mend although a recovery was expected to be slow.

Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday manufacturing output shrunk by 11,4% year-on-year in volume terms in September compared with a revised 15,2% contraction in August. A Reuters poll showed analysts expected a 13% fall.

On a monthly basis, factory production rose by a better-than-forecast seasonally adjusted 3,1% in September compared with forecasts of a 0,9% rise.

Output was up 2,6% in the three months to September.

"This is confirmation that we probably have seen the worst in the current slump. The PMI numbers have been signalling that we're heading towards some improvement," said Monale Ratsoma, economist at Thebe Securities.

The purchasing managers' index climbed to 45,9 in September and hit a one-and-a-half year high of 47,6 in October, inching closer to the 50 break-even mark.

Ratsoma said manufacturing output on an annual basis would likely continue to fall but at a slower pace and could start turning positive in the middle of next year.

The sector is the second biggest in the economy, contributing about 14% to GDP. It has been hard hit by the global economic downturn and helped drag the local economy into its first recession in 17 years.

Nedbank economist Johannes Khosa said although the manufacturing data indicated the worst of the recession was over, demand-side indicators were showing the economy was still weak, supporting the case for an interest-rate cut next week.

"Other indicators, like retail sales, credit numbers, still reflect that the economy, in general, is still weak. So based on that, and lower inflation, we still expect that the Reserve Bank may opt to cut rates again at next week's meeting."

The central bank's monetary policy meeting will meet from Monday, with the decision due on Tuesday. -- Reuters

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-11-10-sas-factory-output-decline-slows-worst-over


DRDGold to seek judicial order for struggling mine

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Nov 09 2009 13:04

DRDGold said on Monday it would seek a high court order to place its troubled Blyvoor mine under judicial management to save it from liquidation.

DRDGold said the move had been prompted by the operation's continued losses, which had now reached R27-million a month, as well as extensive damage to higher-grade underground production areas caused by seismic activity in May.

Chief executive Niel Pretorius also said the mine's situation had been worsened by a recent four-week strike by workers over pay and power utility Eskom's higher winter tariffs, compounded by a 32% increase in July.

"We now need a rescue plan that holds real promise of saving Blyvoor from insolvency," Pretorius said in a statement.

"Judicial management is the only appropriate course of action for us to take in the face of the combined negative impact of circumstances beyond the control of the board of directors and management."

He said the company had spent R75-million over the past three months to try to save the operation.

Under judicial management, the High Court of South Africa would appoint a judicial manager who would seek to save the struggling mine through a number of actions.

"These could, for example, include giving certain creditors temporary preference over others and agreeing compromises with creditors without the risk of committing an act of insolvency and thereby exposing the mine to liquidation," the company said.

It expected the mine to remain under judicial management until the high-grade production areas that were closed due to seismic activity were reopened. -- Reuters

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-11-09-drdgold-to-seek-judicial-order-for-struggling-mine


SA unemployment rate increases

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 29 2009 12:36

South Africa's official jobless rate increased to 24,5% of the labour force in the third quarter of 2009, from 23,6% in the second quarter, while the labour force fell sharply, a report showed on Thursday.

In its latest quarterly Labour Force Survey, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said the total number of unemployed people stood at 4,19-million in the three months to September.

Stats SA said the number of employed people fell by 484 000 to 12,89-million.

The rise in unemployment was exacerbated by a fall in employment, with 510 000 people either giving up looking for work or taking themselves out of the labour force completely -- some opting to further their studies.

"These patterns suggest that there was a shift from employment into unemployment, discouragement and inactivity," Stats SA said.

"They show the continued deterioration in the South African labour market ... job losses were widespread, affecting most industries."

The manufacturing sector, one of the hardest-hit by a global downturn and domestic recession, shed 150 000 jobs -- 8% of total jobs for the industry -- while wholesale and retail trade lost 110 000 jobs.

The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those people that have given up looking for work, climbed to 34,4% from 32,5%. -- Reuters

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-29-sa-unemployment-rate-increases
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 4:41 PM 0 comments Links to this post

What Judge Goldstone Says About the United States in Relationship to Israeli Policy

Wednesday, November 11, 2009
14:09 Mecca time, 11:09 GMT

What Goldstone says about the US

By Mark LeVine
Courtesy of Al Jazeera

Richard Goldstone walked through Gaza City after Israel's war on the territory

Opponents of the Goldstone report might well be hoping that after its lopsided condemnation in the US House of Representatives and successful relegation back to the UN's Human Rights Commission, the report will become little more than an historical footnote in a decades-long conflict.

This might in fact occur, given the imbalance of power between the contending sides. But historians can do a great deal with footnotes.

When the glare of history is finally shone upon the whole affair, it might well turn out that the reasons for such vehement opposition from US politicians, and only tepid (at best) support for it among other major powers, have far more to do with their own geostrategic interests than with protecting Israel.

The report, written by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, has caused uproar in Israel and the US for its alleged bias against Israel and avoidance of serious criticism of Hamas. The condemnation, House Resolution 867, passed by a 344-36 vote.

Before the vote on the resolution, Goldstone sent a letter to members of Congress refuting most of the allegations contained in it. But his rebuttal did not lead to substantive changes in the report's accusations and apparently had no effect on the vote.

Given the way in which opposition to the report unfolded it would be easy to conclude that this is merely another case of the vaunted Israel lobby shutting down any debate over Israel's actions in the Occupied Territories.

Yet while Israel's supporters no doubt took the lead in pushing the resolution, there is a back story to this drama that has likely played an equally, if not more important, role in the firestorm it has generated.

Why would the House go so far out of its way to stamp out even the consideration of war crimes accusations against Israel? And why would Barack Obama, the US president, have pressured Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, not to push the report in the UN when he had to know that such actions would cost Abbas most of his little remaining credibility among Palestinians?

Accessory to war crimes

There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, if Israel is guilty of committing systematic war crimes across Gaza and the West Bank, then the US, which supported, funded and armed Israel during the war, is an accessory to those crimes.

Goldstone explains in no uncertain terms that Gaza was not an aberration in terms of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Rather, it marked not only a continuation of Israel's behaviour during the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, but "highlights a common thread of the interaction between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians which emerged clearly also in many cases discussed in other parts of the report.

It referenced continuous and systematic abuse, outrages on personal dignity, humiliating and degrading treatment contrary to fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and human rights law".

"The Mission concludes that the treatment of these civilians constitutes the infliction of a collective penalty on those persons and amounts to measures of intimidation and terror. Such acts are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and constitute a war crime," the report says.

Put simply, if there is blood on Israel's hands, than it is has dripped all over America's shirt.

Israel could not and would not have engaged in the level of wholesale destruction of Gaza painstakingly catalogued in the report without the support of the outgoing Bush administration, and acquiescence of the incoming Obama administration.

Israeli narrative challenged

Not only that, but on the same day the report was released the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel's military leadership is preparing the country for yet another invasion of Gaza in the near future.

It is not clear how much of Gaza is left to be destroyed, but the report's detailed discussion of Israel's attacks on innumerable homes, mosques, schools, hospitals and other civilian facilities show what lengths Israel will go to to punish Gazans, and Palestinians more broadly.

There is also the larger context of the peace negotiations. If Israel can be guilty of humanitarian crimes at this level, then it puts the entire Israeli narrative about the occupation - that it is ultimately about preserving the country's security - into question.

In fact, the report declares precisely this, in paragraph 1674, when it argues that the Gaza invasion "cannot be understood and assessed in isolation from developments prior and subsequent to it. The operation fits into a continuum of policies aimed at pursuing Israel's political objectives with regard to Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole".

Almost everyone outside the US, including in Israel, understands that the occupation has always been about settlement, not security, since Israel could have militarily occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 indefinitely without establishing a single settlement, and could withdraw from all its settlements tomorrow and maintain a military occupation until it felt secure enough to turn the territory over to Palestinians.

As famed general Moshe Dayan once put it, the settlements in the Occupied Territories are essential "not because they can ensure security better than the army, but because without them we cannot keep the army in those territories. Without them the IDF would be a foreign army ruling a foreign population".

But the US remains heavily invested in maintaining this security narrative; both because it is the core of the strategic alliance between the two countries with all the military, strategic and financial implications that come with it, and because, as with the Gaza invasion, the settlement enterprise could never have proceeded without US support, or at least acquiescence.

This dynamic continues to operate today, as the same day House Resolution 867 was passed, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, explained that the US preferred to return to peace talks even without a settlement freeze, despite the fact that not stopping settlement construction during negotiations has been deemed by former senior Israeli negotiators such as Moshe Ben Ami and Yossi Beilin as among the single biggest factors dooming the Oslo peace process.

The Obama administration refuses even to push the parameters painstakingly set by his Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, before leaving office, to which both Israelis and Palestinians were very close to agreeing.

Alarming precedent

One has to wonder whether the US Middle East policy-making establishment, which is dominated by defence and security interests, is even interested in bringing about a speedy resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Beyond what the Goldstone report says about America's role in Israel's actions, the report holds a mirror up to US actions in its 'war on terror'. In so doing it paints for US policy-makers and politicians a more frightening picture of a future in which all countries are held accountable for their actions.

Here it becomes clear that, as it has been for four decades, Israel is both the spear and the shield for the projection - and protection - of US power in the Middle East. It engages in activities the US cannot do openly, and it acts as the first line of defence when US interests might be attacked diplomatically.

In going after Israel, the report, however unintended, is going after the US, which has committed many of the same crimes (of which Israel is accused) in its occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps through its drone attacks, in Pakistan and other countries. This is the report's true danger, and why - from the US perspective - its accusations against Israel cannot stand.

Specifically, the idea of treating a Western-allied state, Israel, and a resistance movement, Hamas, as equally capable of committing war crimes and being held accountable for them, sets an alarming precedent for the US as its engagement in Iraq stretches on indefinitely and deepens in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Why not hold the US (or Pakistan, China, Russia, or India for that matter) to the same standards as we hold the Taliban, al-Qaeda, or opposition movements in Kashmir, Chechnya or Tibet? None of these powers would allow this to happen.

Universal jurisdiction

Moreover, the report condemns the "Dahiya doctrine," which involved the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations.

Although claiming to work hard to protect civilians in the countries it is occupying, one of the primary complaints against the US by citizens of Afghanistan or Iraq is the frequent killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure, particularly if it could be deemed to be "supporting infrastructure" for "terrorists".

And when such abuses are committed, paragraph 121 of the report reminds the world that "international human rights law and humanitarian law require states to investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute allegations of serious violations by military personnel".

This is an indirect stab at the US judicial system, which has so far failed to hold anyone but a few low-level soldiers accountable for the numerous abuses committed by the US in Iraq and the 'war on terror' more broadly.

Perhaps the most dangerous suggestion in this regard is the report's call for applying "universal jurisdiction" to the conflict.

As paragraph 127 states: "In the context of increasing unwillingness on the part of Israel to open criminal investigations that comply with international standards, the mission supports the reliance on universal jurisdiction as an avenue for states to investigate violations of the grave breach [of the] provisions of the Geneva Conventions."

There is no power that wants its officials or military and security personnel subject to prosecution by other countries.

Uncritical victimology

In this regard, it is not coincidental that the same day resolution 867 was passed an Italian court convicted 23 former CIA agents of participating in the illegal rendition of an Italian imam, who claims he was subsequently tortured in captivity.

Have US policy interests in the Middle East impacted their rejection of the report? [AFP]
In June, the Italian newspaper il Giornale published an interview with Robert Seldon Lady, the CIA's Milan station chief, in which he admitted, "Of course it was an illegal operation. But that's our job. We're at war against terrorism".

This is a crucial statement, for it reveals that the US establishment believes that in a 'war on terror', there are no legal limits to what it can do. And if Israel is condemned for the same attitude, this would vitiate America's ability to take whatever actions it desires, however illegal, to pursue its interests.

Obama might not take such actions, but his successors might. And if another major terrorist attack were to occur on US soil, there is little doubt that the gloves would once again come off, whether Obama wanted to keep them on or not.

In such a situation, the psychology of uncritical victimology that characterised post-9/11 America will be crucial to enabling such policies to be (re)put in place.

As the report quotes an Israeli professor (paragraph 1703): "Israeli society's problem is that because of the conflict, Israeli society feels itself to be a victim and to a large extent that's justified and it's very difficult for Israeli society to move and to feel that it can also see the other side and to understand that the other side is also a victim." This problem is equally difficult for Americans to overcome.

Report's historical imprint

Among the final coincidences accompanying the passage of resolution 867 was its release the day after Clinton held a high-profile meeting in Morocco to champion the country's recent official promotion of democracy.

But in her celebration of the Moroccan example she neglected to mention that press freedoms, the core of any democratic system, are suffering increasing restrictions in the country. Freedom of speech or challenging the country's political-economic elite remains heavily circumscribed, especially when it comes from the country's principal Islamically motivated opposition movement.

Of course, Clinton cannot push too hard for democracy in the Muslim world; democratically-elected governments would not tolerate many of the US' core policies in the region, from uncritical support for Israel to its own military and economic alliances and activities.

The day after her Morocco meeting, Clinton was in Egypt, meeting once again with the Egypt's autocratic leader, Hosni Mubarak, with not a word about democracy.

Against such policy interests, it might well be that the Goldstone report will be relegated to history without being acted upon.

What few of its opponents understand is just how big an imprint this most exhaustive study of the Israeli occupation will leave.

It might not help Palestinians and Israelis achieve peace today, but future historians will likely look upon it as a crucial document in exposing the realities of the American dominated Middle Eastern system for the world to see.

Mark LeVine is currently Visiting Professor at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University, Sweden. His most recent books include Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books, 2009) and Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel-Palestine (Rowman Littlefield, 2008).

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera
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Palestinians Mark Fifth Anniversary of Arafat's Death

Wednesday, November 11, 2009
16:49 Mecca time, 13:49 GMT

Palestinians mark Arafat's death

Thousands of Palestinians are marking five years since the death of Yasser Arafat, their iconic leader who led them for nearly four decades, pushing the struggle for an independent homeland onto the world stage.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, addressing a rally honouring Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, where Palestinians remain divided, said he was extending a hand to Hamas for reconciliation.

Abbas addressed the crowd amid grim predictions by his aides that he may resign as president which could lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, which was established by Arafat during the Oslo peace process in the 1990s.

The beleaguered Palestinian president said he did not want to talk anymore about his decision not to run for president for a second time due to stalled peace efforts that have failed to bring about an independent Palestinian state.

He insisted the Palestinians remain committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict and accused Israel of hindering peace efforts by expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem.

"We see Israel confiscating land, building settlements and Judaising Jerusalem with unprecedented speed ... and then they ask that we return to negotiations," Abbas told the huge crowd.

"The return to negotiations depends on Israel adhering to the terms of reference of peace and that means halting all settlements, including natural growth and Jerusalem," he said.

'Moment of truth'

Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, told the AFP news agency: "The moment of truth has come and we have to be frank with the Palestinian people that we have not been able to reach a two-state solution through 18 years of negotiation."

Referring to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the Six Day War, he said: "We have become convinced that Israel doesn't want a Palestinian state on lands it occupied in 1967."

If Abbas were to resign, it would throw the divided Palestinians into new legal and political limbo, analysts say.

According to Palestinian Basic Law, Abbas's resignation has to be approved by two-thirds of the Palestinian parliament in order to become effective.

But the chamber has not convened since 2006 and it is unclear whether it would do so if he quits.

If the resignation is approved, Aziz Dweik, the speaker of parliament of Fatah rival, Hamas, would assume the presidency until new elections are held within 60 days.

Abbas called for elections to be held in January but Hamas, which has urged Palestinians to reject his leadership, called on voters to stage a boycott.

Source: Al Jazeera
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Ethiopian Opposition Says Food Aid Kept From Members

Ethiopia opposition says food aid kept from members

Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:14am GMT
By Barry Malone

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian opposition parties said on Wednesday that their members were being refused food aid to force them to join the ruling party before national elections are held in May next year.

The Ethiopian government says 6.2 million people will need emergency food this year and has appealed to the international community for help.

Another 7 million Ethiopians are part of a long-running food-for-work scheme, which means more than 13 million of the country's 80 million people rely on aid to survive.

"Our members can't get on the food-for-work scheme," Gebru Asrat, spokesman for the opposition coalition Medrek, told Reuters. "Only ruling party members can now join the programme, so it forces desperate people to leave the opposition."

People who joined the ruling party would not be able to work for the opposition or stand as opposition candidates.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's administration rejected the opposition complaint.

"It's simply a ridiculous and outrageous thing to say," Bereket Simon, government head of information, told Reuters.

He said the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party had fewer than half the number of people currently enrolled in the food-for-work scheme.

Aid workers say a five-year drought is afflicting more than 23 million people in seven east African nations, with Ethiopia worst affected. Ethiopia's latest appeal came on the 25th anniversary of the 1984 famine that killed more than 1 million.

"PROGRAMME FOR POOR, NOT POLITICS"

"The government is trying to control what parties people join," Medrek's Gebru said. "Food aid should not be used as a political weapon."

Medrek is a coalition of eight parties and is seen as the most serious threat to Meles' nearly 20 years in power.

The prime minister has agreed a "code of conduct" for the elections with three parliamentary opposition parties -- two of which opponents say are government "satellites".

Medrek refused to sign that agreement, demanding bilateral negotiations with the government on issues that they say were left out of the deal, including reform of the electoral board.

The government strongly denied the allegations of food being withheld from the opposition. "That programme is designed to help the poor in our society. Ethiopia doesn't discriminate on political grounds when distributing food," Bereket said.

Security forces killed about 200 protesters after the opposition said the government rigged elections in 2005. Seven policemen were also killed. Most analysts agree Meles' EPRDF will win easily at the ballot box next year.

The opposition says this is because candidates are routinely intimidated and jailed -- mostly in remote areas outside the capital Addis Ababa. The government says the opposition has no chance of victory and just wants to discredit the poll.

Ethiopia has never had a peaceful transition of power. Meles took over in 1991 after a rebel group led by him and others overthrew a communist regime.
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John Allen Muhammad Executed in the State of Virginia

D.C. sniper Muhammad executed for 2002 attacks

By DENA POTTER, Associated Press Writer

JARRATT, Va. – John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind behind the sniper attacks that left 10 dead, was executed Tuesday night as relatives of the victims watched, reliving the killing spree that terrorized the Washington metro area for three weeks in October 2002.

He looked calm and stoic, but was twitching and blinking as the injections began, defiant to the end, refusing to utter any final words. Victims' families sat behind glass while watching the execution, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses.

"He died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims," said Prince William County prosecutor Paul Ebert, who witnessed Muhammad die by injection at 9:11 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond. Muhammad, dressed in a blue shirt, jeans and flip-flops, had no final statement.

Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during the three-week spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was gunned down as she vacuumed her van at a Maryland gas station said when he watched Muhammad's chest moving for the last time, he was glad.

"I feel better. I think I can breathe better and I'm happy he's gone. Because he's not going to hurt anyone else," he said.

Dean's brother, Bob Meyers, said watching the execution was a point of closure but that he was "overcome by the sadness that the whole situation generates in my heart."

"Honestly it was surreal watching the life being sapped out of somebody intentionally was very different," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad's attorneys, described his client in his final hours as fearless and still insisting he was innocent.

"He will die with dignity — dignity to the point of defiance," Gordon said.

The shootings terrorized the region, as victim after victim was shot down while doing everyday chores: going shopping, pumping gas, mowing the lawn. One child was shot while walking into his middle school.

People stayed indoors. Those who did go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves a less easy target.

The campaign of terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected. Malvo is serving a life prison term.

They also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Muhammad's final appeal Monday and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied clemency Tuesday.
___

Associated Press Writer Steve Szkotak and Bob Lewis contributed to this report.
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The Voice That Inspired Many Women in Zimbabwe

The voice that inspired many women

By Joyce Jenje Makwenda
Zimbabwe Herald

IN the olden days, women used stories as a way of educating children.

They had skills to tell relevant stories according to age, for instance, children’s stories were told through characters of animals because they knew that animals fascinated children.

We still find this tradition adapted to modern technology through films like Lion King, which borrowed the African story-telling method.

Sometimes women would talk affectionately to their children, through reference to the family’s totem; for example it could be a lion, crocodile, elephant etc and this could be followed by praise of that family.

Women were custodians of the values of their families, communities and society.

Women were also very good at getting information quicker than men were, and disseminating it to different appropriate groups.

This information could be news about bereavement, or about possible attack, or what is negatively referred to as gossip, which entails information and women have skills to pay attention of what they see and hear and as a result are always the first to get information.

When women came into the city they did not have the power they had, that of telling stories to children, educating and informing.

New storytellers called journalists, producers and complicated technology, replaced them and they got lost in the new order.

Women in the 1950s realised that if they wanted to remain as custodians of society they had to know how to use the media as a way of communicating.

Ambuya Miriam Mlambo (Ambuya Chiramba Kusakara), used the media to teach, tell stories and entertain children since 1956.

During that time, the children’s programme was broadcast from Zambia during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland up to 1958, when it moved to the Harare (Salisbury) studios. "Zipper-a-di-do-da. Zipper-a-di-diday. Mayo Mayo what a wonderful . . . " was a popular signature tune for a children’s programme produced and presented by Ambuya Mlambo.

She also presented a programme called "Children’s Corner", on Radio One.

Women journalists like Baphelile Hove, Angeline Makwavarara, Mavis Moyo, Gladys Matema, and Canaan Jenje used the media in the 1950s to educate women who were trying to find their feet in the early urban set up, they also used the media to celebrate women’s achievements through home craft clubs.

They also used media to highlight the plight of women in the townships through different mediums.

Baphelile Hove became a radio producer in 1954.

"There were not many radios in those days. Women gathered in their Home Craft clubs at a centre to listen to radio programmes that were aired which had to do with women’s development. Unfortunately the Home Craft Club was banned, probably because it had become so powerful and the authorities felt threatened," said Baphelile Hove in an interview that I had with her in 1993.

"I don’t know why it was banned, maybe we used to speak politics without realising."

Baphelile Hove went to London in the 1950s and continued producing women’s programmes and sending them back home; she was driven by her sense of duty to educate women through the media.

Mavis Moyo was another of the trailblazers.

She started journalism as a part-timer in 1953, and became a regular correspondent for the African Daily News.

Children who came to school hungry and with torn clothes would disturb her having been in the teaching field for 13 years.

With knowledge that she had herself got from the media by reading magazines and listening to the BBC Women’s Half Hour, she realised the power that the media had, as through the media she could solve some of her problems or get the information she needed.

She started writing for some newspapers as a way of educating the community, unfortunately most of the women whom she was trying to target could not read or write.

This was frustrating to Mavis Moyo as her efforts were in vain. For her to reach a wider audience radio broadcasting became the answer.

"I realised that through radio women would be educated as long as they can hear they can learn something."

Since 1959, Mavis Moyo has used the radio as a tool for change in its true sense.

Moyo believes that people in the media have a duty to critically look at the way society functions and especially at the position of women and to try to promote change and strengthen women’s aspirations.

She says women themselves have to be the main agents in changing their own subordinate status.

Women should be involved in important issues that impinge on their work.

Although she retired from broadcasting in 1994, she was one of the longest serving journalists in the country.

Mavis was the founding member of the Federation of African Media Women of Zimbabwe, and she established a communication system called Development Through Radio.

Angeline Makwavarara is the first black woman in the print media, she was a champion in many fields. She was also the first Permanent Secretary for Development of Women’s Affairs and was also first woman ambassador appointed after the attainment of independence.

Angeline got into journalism because of the problems that women faced in the townships. She also felt that because of women’s diversity they could gather news fast.

Angeline trained as a nurse in Durban after completing her secondary education at Nada Secondary School in Natal. Although nursing was the order of the day as there were not many choices, she says she has no regrets as the nursing profession influenced the rest of her life, being in contact with different people from different backgrounds made her understand the broader and complex issues of the society.

Angeline’s first community project of looking after women who had given birth and had no one to bring them food made her realise the importance of the media.

In an interview in 1999, she said: "During the 1950’s when I was staying in Mbare women would give birth and no one brought them any food except if they had relatives who brought food from home, but for those who did not have any relatives they would just starve."

It was during this time that Angeline and other women came up with an idea of forming Batanai Women’s Club in order to organise food for the expectant women.

"We looked for people who could publicise the plight of the mothers through the radio and papers so that they could get more help.

"It was through the media that the municipal council started preparing food for the women."

Having realised how powerful the media was Angeline began writing articles to the African Daily News advising and educating the public on how to prevent certain diseases and how to have them treated.

She was approached by the Daily News to be a fulltime staff writer and editor, but as she was on maternity leave and had preferred to raise her child on her own, she turned down the offer.

It was only after she had been assured that she could take the baby with her to work that she accepted the offer and she became the first black woman in the print media. "I used to go with the baby and her baby-sitter at the office as I felt my baby was safer with me."

Mothering has been a stumbling block for many women to venture or to excel in a number of professions, but Angeline was to change all that.

Canaan Jenje was the second female print journalist. She worked for the Daily News. Before she became a journalist she was a teacher in her home area in Gwatemba and taught at Zishabeni and Mwele Schools and when she came to settle in the then Salisbury she worked as a secretary. Writing and stories had always fascinated her and in 1959 she joined the Daily News as editor/journalist.

Unfortunately when she left for maternity leave she could not go back to work as a journalist, but the short time that she was in journalism had an impact on those who were around her. She inspired my sister Josephine, my daughter Tandiwe and myself to take up journalism.

Canaan was my teacher when I was studying journalism and she is the one who encouraged me to take up the course as I had started writing without any formal training, but what she did not realise is that she had for many years trained me informally to be a journalist. It is through the stories that she told me that I came to understand about women’s lives, their struggles, their tribulations and their achievements. This shaped my perception as regards women.

The 1960s and 70s saw few women in the media industry.

Some of them were Shieka Khumalo, Jane Esau, Tandiwe Khumalo, Mandi Mundawarara and Jean Zulu.

Since 1980 women have made strides in the media industry; radio, television, print, and some have branched off into public relations, becoming spokespersons for the corporate world and international organisations.

However, many women did not end in those sectors, they went on to form organisations to advocate, and educate, women journalists and women in general about the use of the media as a voice.

Some of the women who have made notable achievements in the media are Sekai Holland (Hove), Busi Chindove, Musi Khumalo, Jennifer Makunike-Sibanda, Tsitsi Vera, Sarah Chiumbu, Millie Phiri, Tsitsi Mawarire, Josephine Zulu, Ropafadzo Mapimhidze, Alice Mutema, Dorcas Hove, Elizabeth Karonga, Susan Njanji-Matetakufa, Tendai Manzvanzvike and then came Hazvinei Sakarombe.

Hazvi as she is affectionately known, enjoys the road that was paved for her by the women, who came before her.

We celebrate early women journalists through young women like Hazvinei DJ Chilli (Woza Friday). She will liven up your Friday.

This is how F. Kadzere describes Hazvinei, " . . . Unhindered, uninhibited.

Totally in your face. When she’s on the set of Woza Friday the 28-year-old Hazvi, a.k.a. DJ Chilli, takes it to a whole new level . . . "

We will continue to feature women in the media and celebrate their achievements. The history of women in film will also be celebrated in this column.

--Joyce Jenje Makwenda is a Researcher, Archivist, Writer and Producer. She can be contacted on: joycejenje@gmail.com
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Glen Beck's Mumia Abu-Jamal Obsession: Fox Finds a New Black Boogeyman

http://www.counterpunch.org/
November 9, 2009

Glen Beck's Mumia Obsession: Fox Finds a New Black Boogeyman

By LINN WASHINGTON, Jr.

Relax Rev Jeremiah Wright.

The Fox News cable channel crew has discovered a new all-purpose black boogey-man to rile latent racial animosity in America: Mumia Abu-Jamal, the internationally acclaimed death row journalist.

Abu-Jamal is now a regular reference in the weapons of mass deception arsenal employed by Fox and its friends to demonize their enemies de jour.

A few weeks ago, the campaign mounted by two Fox ideological allies that successfully sacked Fox liberal commentator Dr. Marc Lamont Hill highlighted Hill’s backing of a fair trial for Abu-Jamal as an objectionable offense.

Far-right agitators David Horowitz and Cliff Kincaid saw sinful scandal in FOX simply employing Columbia University Professor Hill for what the scholar was: a liberal hired by Fox to question postures conservatives proclaim sacrosanct.

Kincaid, in an October 19th posting on his Accuracy in Media site, scored Hill for calling Abu-Jamal a “freedom fighter and political prisoner.”

Earlier this summer Fox’s onslaught against now former White House ‘Green Jobs Czar’ Van Jones frequently cited Jones’ support for Abu-Jamal who is on Pennsylvania’s death row due to a controversy mired conviction for killing a Philadelphia policeman.

For weeks, Fox’s popular Glenn Beck bashed Jones for supporting efforts to free “a communist cop killer” – irrespective of the fact that Abu-Jamal is not a communist and card carrying communists never reference Abu-Jamal as a member of their movement.

Frequent emphasis by advocates of Abu-Jamal’s execution, including Fox hosts, that courts have repeatedly held-up Abu-Jamal’s conviction ignore an improbability embedded in that accurate statement about this case.

The same Philadelphia and Pennsylvania courts that have found major flaws in 86 Philadelphia death penalty convictions between Abu-Jamal’s December 1981 arrest and October 2009 declare that not a single error exists in America’s most publicly contentious murder case.

Pa courts, for example, find no foul in prosecutors improperly excluding blacks from Abu-Jamal’s trial jury, manipulating evidence and making secret deals with alleged eyewitnesses – all fundamental fair trial violations producing favorable actions by those courts for defendants in numerous cases.

Another example is Pa State and federal courts voiding 22 death penalties because of failures by defense lawyers to present any mitigating evidence for their clients during death penalty phase hearings following guilty verdicts.

However, those same courts found no fault in the failure of Abu-Jamal’s trial counsel to present any mitigating evidence during the penalty phase hearing.

A problem more troubling than the penchant of Fox and friends to fudge facts is the fact that too much of the mainstream media uncritically embraces rhetoric oozing from the far right, rarely subjecting that rhetoric to full and fair reporting that is supposed to be the cornerstone of journalism.

This lack of full and fair reportage polluted coverage of the onslaught against Van Jones and has long corrupted coverage of the controversial Abu-Jamal conviction.

A September 6, 2009 New York Times article on the resignation of Van Jones from his White House post listed Jones’ public support of Abu-Jamal as one of Jones’ alleged liabilities.

However, that Times article lacked any reference to the fact that Jones, as an Ivy League trained lawyer involved with social justice issues, could legitimately have concerns about the disturbing evidence of fair trial rights violations enmeshed in Abu-Jamal’s conviction.

“Human rights organizations have pointed to egregious procedural mistakes in Abu-Jamal’s original trial, which were obviously rooted in a background of prevalent racism,” stated a resolution approved on October 28th by the City Council of Munich, Germany. Elected leaders in over twenty-five cities from San Francisco to Copenhagen have approved resolutions demanding a new trial for Abu-Jamal.

The seminal February 2000 Amnesty International report on the Abu-Jamal case concluded that “numerous aspects of this case clearly failed to meet minimum international standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings.”

Yet, the New York Times and other major American newspapers deemed Amnesty International’s Abu-Jamal report not worthy of coverage despite major papers carrying nearly thirty articles referencing other AI actions during a ten-day time period surrounding release of that Abu-Jamal report.

Philadelphia’s largest newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, ran a 53-word News Brief on page 2 of its B-section on that thirty-five page AI report.

Although the AI report was the first from a major organization to thoroughly document egregious shenanigans by the Pa Supreme Court in the Abu-Jamal case, – the Inquirer did not consider that report significant enough for full article coverage despite having published 67 articles mentioning Abu-Jamal in 1999 alone.

The mainstream news media’s mile-wide-but-inch-thick coverage of Abu-Jamal aids the ability of Fox, its friends and others to exploit public misunderstandings about this case.

Fair trial proceedings are a fundamental tenant of American democracy.

Yet, the judge presiding during Abu-Jamal’s trial displayed unfair bias by proclaiming before jury selection that he was going to help prosecutors “fry the nigger.”

While such an overtly racist remark generally constitutes a judicial error requiring reversal of a conviction, a Philadelphia judge ruled no error existed because the jury not the judge convicted Abu-Jamal.

That ruling contradicts the reality that judges control what evidence a jury hears.

That Amnesty International report noted that “the jury was left unaware of much of the crucial information regarding” the policeman’s death due in part to “the overt hostility of the trial judge.”

Surprisingly, a mainstream media usually quick to prick racially inflammatory remarks exhibits little interest in numerous instances of racism infecting the Abu-Jamal case.

Evidence of outrageous errors underlying Abu-Jamal’s conviction literally hides in plain sight.

One glaring example is photos of the December 1981 crime scene taken by police investigators that do not show a critical element of the prosecution’s case against Abu-Jamal.

The eyewitness testimony of cab driver Robert Chobert was a central pillar of the prosecution’s case against Abu-Jamal but police crime scene photos do not show Chobert’s cab behind the slain officer’s patrol car where prosecutors claimed it was parked when Abu-Jamal killed Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Four police photos capturing different angles of the crime scene contained in the trailer for a forthcoming film about Abu-Jamal’s case do not show Chobert’s cab.

There are only two possible scenarios for the missing cab in those crime scene photos: either police tampered with the crime scene by removing the cab or the cab was never there. Either scenario is a major legal violation warranting a new trial.

Curiously, inconsistencies in crime scene evidence and irregularities in court rulings rarely elicit attention in mainstream media coverage of the Abu-Jamal case that takes a guilty-as-charged tact.

Yet these inconsistencies and irregularities are what fuel the vast international movement supporting a new trial for Abu-Jamal.

On Thursday, November 12th, Abu-Jamal supporters have scheduled a rally at the US Justice Department headquarters in Washington, DC urging Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a civil rights investigation into violations rampant in this contentious case.

One major civil rights violation often overlooked by Abu-Jamal supporters and ignored by his opponents occurred during a critical 1995 appeal hearing.

Pa’s then Governor Tom Ridge sabotaged that proceeding by improperly issuing a death warrant based on confidential information Ridge’s aides obtained from state prison personnel who were illegally intercepting mail sent to Abu-Jamal by his defense lawyers.

Ridge’s warrant enabled biased trial Judge Albert Sabo to rush that appeal hearing where Sabo denied defense lawyers standard opportunities to adequately gather and present evidence.

While a federal appeals court faulted prison personnel for illegally opening Abu-Jamal’s legal mail neither federal nor state courts have found any fault in the damage to fair trial proceedings done by Ridge’s malicious action.

One problem with mainstream media coverage of the Abu-Jamal case and other instances of racial related injustices from the criminal justice system to other sectors of society like education or employment is that coverage presents racial inequities as isolated instead of endemic.

Failure to present inequities in context deprives the public of proper understanding. The 1968 Kerner Commission Report on race relations in America faulted the news media for this failure.

As noted in the Kerner Report, “If what the white American reads in the newspapers or sees on television conditions his expectation of what is ordinary and normal in the larger society, he will neither understand nor accept the black American.”

Linn Washington Jr. is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. He writes regularly on the Abu-Jamal case, inequities in the justice system and racism in the news media.
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Free All Political Prisoners!
nycjericho@gmail.com • http://www.jerichony.org
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 12:59 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Obama Administration Plans to Escalate War in Afghanistan

White House: Obama weighs 4 options in Afghanistan

By ANNE GEARAN and STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is considering four options for realigning U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, his spokesman said Tuesday, while military officials said the choices involve several ways the president could employ additional U.S. forces next year.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama will discuss the four scenarios with his national security team on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Fort Hood, Texas, Gibbs would not offer details about those options. He insisted that Obama has not made a decision about troop deployments.

Gibbs said that anybody who says Obama has made a decision "doesn't have in all honesty the slightest idea what they're talking about. The president's yet to make a decision" about troop levels or other aspects of the revised U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama traveled to Killeen, Texas, Tuesday, where the president spoke at a memorial service for those killed in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision is pending, said the military services are developing presentations to explain how various force levels could be used in Afghanistan and how various deployment schedules could work, given recent promises to give soldiers more rest time at home.

Military officials have said Obama is nearing a decision to add tens of thousands more forces to Afghanistan, though probably not quite the 40,000 sought by his top general there.

Republican senators planned to send a letter to Obama Wednesday urging him to move quickly to fully answer Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for additional troops and resources. Officials have told The Associated Press that McChrystal prefers an addition of about 40,000 troops next year.

In their letter, the Republican senators reminded Obama that they have supported his moves on Afghanistan so far but are concerned about the stress on the current U.S. force of 68,000.

"We urge you to move now to fully support Gen. McChrystal's call for resources and troops," the letter reads.

A copy of the letter was provided to the AP.

Gibbs said Tuesday that a decision still is weeks away. He had earlier said no announcement is expected until late this month, when the president returns from an extended diplomatic trip to Asia.

An Army brigade that had been training for deployment to Iraq that month may be at or near the vanguard. The brigade, based at Fort Drum in upstate New York, has been told it will not go to Iraq as planned but has been given no new mission yet.

Military officials said Obama will have choices that include a phased addition of up to 40,000 forces over some six months or more next year, based on security conditions and the decisions of NATO allies.

The Army would contribute the vast bulk of any new commitment, along with a large Marine Corps infusion. Both services are counting on plans for a large withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq to take place as scheduled next spring.

Even so, it is not clear that large numbers of new forces could go to Afghanistan before March. Administration officials have told the AP that some of the expected deployment would probably begin in January with a mission to stiffen the defense of 10 key cities and towns.

Several officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been made also said Obama's announcement will be much broader than the mathematics of troop numbers, which have dominated the U.S. debate.

It soon will be three months since Afghan commander McChrystal reported to Obama that the U.S. mission was headed for failure without the addition of about 40,000 troops.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because final plans have not been disclosed, dubbed the likely troop increase as "McChrystal Light" because it would fall short of his request. They also said additional small infusions of troops could be dispatched next spring and summer.

The more gradual buildup, the officials said, would allow time to construct needed housing and add equipment needed for transporting the expanded force.

Besides being sent to cities and towns, the new forces would be stationed to protect important roads and other key infrastructure.

As he makes his decision, Obama told ABC News that he wanted to make sure "that if we are sending additional troops that the prospects of a functioning Afghan government are enhanced, that the prospects of al-Qaida being able to attack the U.S. homeland are reduced."
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Associated Press writers Jennifer Loven and Ben Feller contributed to this report.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 12:50 AM 0 comments Links to this post

American Imam Wanted in Yemen Over Alleged Al-Qaida Connections

US imam wanted in Yemen over al-Qaida suspicions

By AHMED AL-HAJ and DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writers

SAN'A, Yemen – A radical American imam who communicated with the Fort Hood shooting suspect and called him a hero was once arrested in Yemen on suspicion of giving religious approval to militants to conduct kidnappings. Yemeni authorities are now hunting for Anwar al-Awlaki to determine whether he has al-Qaida ties.

Al-Awlaki, who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims around the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, disappeared in Yemen eight months ago, according to his father. Yemeni security officials say they believe he is hiding in a region of the mountainous nation that has become a refuge for Islamic militants.

After his arrest in 2006, investigators were unable to prove any links to al-Qaida, and he was released in late 2007, according to two Yemeni counterterrorism officials and an Interior Ministry official. They spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of killing 13 people in a rampage at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas. He communicated with al-Awlaki in e-mail exchanges 10 to 20 times over several months last year, according to a U.S investigative official in Washington and Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

The communications, which were intercepted by the FBI, consisted primarily of Hasan posing questions to the imam as a spiritual leader or adviser, and their content was "consistent with the subject matter of (Hasan's) research," a law enforcement official said. The law enforcement and investigative officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

In the Army, Hasan was working with patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Associates and relatives have said he was disturbed that U.S. Muslim soldiers could fight against fellow Muslims in those countries.

The FBI investigated at the time and concluded that Hasan was not a threat. And investigators say now that there is no evidence Hasan received help or orders to carry out the Fort Hood attack.

But the man to whom Hasan turned for advice has for years preached in sermons circulated on the Web that the United States was engaged in a war against Islam and urged Muslims to fight it.

In January, al-Awlaki posted an article called "44 ways to support jihad," saying that joining or helping "holy warriors" fight the U.S. and its allies is "obligatory for every Muslim." The article encouraged Muslims to donate and raise money for mujahedeen and to encourage people to join.

The 38-year-old al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, preached at a Virginia mosque that Hasan's family attended.

He has had several encounters with al-Qaida figures. In 2000, he met two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, at a San Diego mosque where al-Awlaki was a preacher. The U.S. government's 9/11 Commission report says the men "respected al-Awlaki as a religious figure and developed a close relationship with him." They were aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

The FBI investigated al-Awlaki in 1999 and 2000 after learning he may have been contacted by a possible "procurement agent" for Osama bin Laden. His telephone number was also found when police raided the Hamburg, Germany, apartment of Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni al-Qaida figure believed to have been a key facilitator of the 9/11 attacks, according to the commission report.

After he returned to Yemen in 2002, al-Awlaki taught at San'a's Iman University, the same university that John Walker Lindh, the American caught with the Taliban in Afghanistan, used to visit while living in Yemen. The university is headed by Abdulmajid al-Zindani, a prominent Yemeni cleric often described as a religious mentor to bin Laden.

Al-Awlaki was arrested in 2006 with a group of five Yemenis accused of kidnapping a Shiite teenager for ransom, according to the Yemeni counterterrorism and Interior Ministry officials. Al-Awlaki was the group's spiritual leader and had issued a fatwa, or religious decree, permitting them to kidnap foreigners and rich Yemenis, the officials said.

The group also plotted to kidnap the U.S. military attache in Yemen and rented a villa near the attache's house using a fake ID, the officials said. There was no immediate confirmation of the plot from American officials.

But investigators could not find any evidence for al-Qaida ties. Tribal leaders — who hold enormous influence in Yemen, where the central government is weak — intervened and pushed for the group's release, the Interior Ministry official said. The group was freed in December 2007 after they signed documents promising to remain in Yemen and to avoid any contacts with militants.

But authorities' suspicions over al-Awlaki were raised again several months after his release because he stopped checking in regularly with security officials as required under his release agreement, the officials said. Also, months later, another member of the group arrested with al-Awlaki left Yemen and was arrested in Syria on terrorism charges.

In response, al-Awlaki was put on a wanted list on suspicion of possible al-Qaida links, the Interior Ministry official said.

He and the counterterrorism officials said al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding in Yemen's Shabwa or Mareb provinces, which along with Jof province make up the so-called "triangle of evil" because of a heavy presence of al-Qaida militants. Fighters from the terror organization have been increasingly entering Yemen and finding refuge among tribes disgruntled with the central government.

Still, al-Awlaki appears to be maintaining his Web site. On Monday, he posted a statement declaring that Hasan "is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."

Al-Awlaki's father, Nasser al-Awlaki, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he has not had any contact with his son in eight months and did not know his location. Anwar's wife and five children — three boys and two girls — are staying with Nasser al-Awlaki, he said.

The father, who was studying agriculture in the U.S. when Anwar was born and later served as Yemen's agriculture minister, insisted his son has no links with al-Qaida.

"He has nothing to do with al-Qaida. But he's a devout Muslim. He has never been involved in anything against anybody," he said.
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Associated Press Writer Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report.
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 12:32 AM 0 comments Links to this post
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