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| US Black President Barack Hussein Obama unleashes drones on Africa |
If you live in West Africa and the United States
of America does not like your politics or views then you are in real serious
trouble.
The US is deploying killing machines in West
Africa which can find you and kill you.
One estimate
is that since the US started engaging in this type of warfare
thousands of opponents of US foreign policy and innocent civilians have
been cold bloodly rmrdered in Pakistan, Irag, Afghanistan and North Africa.
The establishment of a dron base by the US armed forces close by in Niger must be a huge source of worry for all
progressive West Africans.
The
insight is publishing an article jointly
arthored by Africa Hirsch in Accra and Paul
Harris In New York.
I t deals primarily with the establishment of
the US drone base in Niger and its implications for West Africa.
The US
government appears close to opening a new front in its fight against Islamist
militants by planning a new base for surveillance drones in the west African country of Niger.
American
forces are already assisting a French offensive in neighbouring Mali that is aimed at
recapturing the country's northern desert territory from the hands of Islamist
rebels. On Monday the US signed a military agreement with Niger that paves the
way legally for US forces to operate on its soil, prompting a series of reports
that the Pentagon was keen on opening a new drones base there.
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| Map of Africa |
That news appeared to be
confirmed by Niger government sources, who said the US ambassador in Niamey,
Bisa Williams, had asked Niger's president, Mahamadou Issoufou, for permission
to use surveillance drones and had been granted it.
"Niger has given the green
light to accepting American surveillance drones on its soil to improve the
collection of intelligence on Islamist movements," a Niger government
source told Reuters.
In Washington a diplomatic source
told the Guardian that the recently signed deal, known as a "status of
forces" agreement, was very broad. "There are no constraints to
military-to-military co-operation within the agreement," the source said.
The deal with Niger had been under
negotiation for some time but had got a sudden burst of urgency after the
dramatic events following the French intervention in Mali. Though French-led
forces have swept militants from key cities in northern Mali, the conflict has
focused diplomatic efforts on the security threat posed by Islamist groups in
the vast wilderness of the Sahel and Sahara.
It is believed that the US only
currently desires surveillance drones to be deployed to Niger though the
agreement could pave the way for more aggressive armed drones in the future. A
spokesman for the Pentagon did not return requests for clarification by email
and telephone.
The move
would be the latest in a gradual expansion of American surveillance drones
in Africa, which have so far been operated
from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. It would
represent an acknowledgement that the north and west African regions are
becoming a key battleground in the fight against Islamist groups. Aside from
the conflict in Mali, Nigeria is plagued by violent Islamists extremists in its
northern provinces and Algeria recently saw a high-profile and bloody attack on
western workers at an oil industry facility.
US military consultant Robert
Caruso said that any base in Niger would probably be similar to the one already
in Burkina Faso and use a variety of manned and unmanned craft to carry out
spying and monitoring missions. Caruso said it would make up for a lack of
human intelligence in the region.
"The reason we are having to
push so many drones to the Sahel is because we don't have any human
intelligence in the region – either through friendly countries providing it, or
through espionage," said Caruso. "We should have humans on the
ground, but we don't. When it comes to Mali, US policymakers really don't know
what's going on.
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| The lethal drone |
However,
the use of drones, even if just on surveillance missions, is controversial.
American drone strikes have been used to deadly effect in countries such
as Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia
but have caused outrage among civil liberties groups over the secrecy that
surrounds their operation and the high incidence of civilian casualties. The
London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has monitored American drone
strikes all around the world and calculates that in Pakistan alone there have
been some 362 strikes since 2004. They are estimated to have killed up to 3,461
suspected militants in the country and as many as 891 civilians.
Due to the US's broad definition
of "militant", many experts believe the number of dead civilians may
be much higher. But despite the controversy, President Barack Obama has made
the use of drones one of the centrepieces of his national security strategy,
overseeing a huge increase in their deployment.
If the use of drones in the Sahel
did escalate beyond simple surveillance and into active strikes, some experts
warn that the US risks a considerable backlash.
"The use of drone strikes in
the Sahel would become very problematic," said one senior diplomatic
source, who did not want to be named.
"There are already serious
issues with identification of targets and reliability with drones elsewhere,
even in Pakistan, where the CIA has a network of informants. But in north
Africa they have no idea who they are dealing with whatsoever."
The source added that there was a
paucity of intelligence as to who exactly US forces would be targeting when it
came to local Islamic groups. "The US has no one integrated into these
organisations. Intelligence is extremely poor.
"These groups and subgroups
and splinter groups are capable of division at a moment's notice. You might
know something about one group but you know nothing about the other. It is an
extremely unstable situation," the source said.
EDITORIAL
OH! SIR JOHN
Mr Owusu Afriyie,
alas Sir John, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party ( NPP) has done
it again.
As usual he is making extreme and dangerous
allegations.
According
to him, National Security Operatives attempted to Kill Dr Mamundu Bawumia, Vice
Presidential Candidate of the NPP, last Sunday.
Sir John claims that Dr Bawumia was traveling in
a brand new V8 land Cruiser and
therefore it is strange that the tyre of the vehicle burst.
He also claims that because the accident
happened in Bole, the home constituency of President Mahama, “ the Spokesman of
the umbrella” could have pierced the tyres.
The logic is of Sir John is very strange and his
irresponsibility is exceedingly huge.
Sir John
must be assuming that the people of Ghana are not capable of thinking.
If this
is how the mind of a General Secretary of the largest opposition party thinks, then Ghana is in real
big trouble.
Government Clarifies cost of Pastors trip to
Jerusalem
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| Mr Afriyie Ankrah |
Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Minister of
Youth and Sports has clarified issues related to th trip of selected pastors to
Jerusalem in Palestine.
The
Full text of a statement he issued in Accra is published below;
My attention has been drawn to media reports
regarding a planned pilgrimage of some 200 Ghanaian Pastors to Jerusalem,
Israel, under the auspices of the Ghana government.
The report contains a lot of inaccuracies and
misleading assertions intended to cause mischief, ridicule and public
disaffection for the government.
Ordinarily, I would have ignored these frivolous
reports and treated them with the contempt they deserve. However, I deem it
necessary to state the facts in order to disabuse the minds of right thinking
and discerning Ghanaians of the negative impression the reports seeks to
create.
The media crusade led by the Daily Guide
Newspaper in their Tuesday, March 12, 2013 edition and another on Thursday,
March 14, 2013 edition with issue number “NO. 061/13” stated that the
government is sponsoring some 200 Pastors affiliated to the ruling National
Democratic Congress (NDC) for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Israel at the cost of
2million dollars.
In addition, the reports claimed that the
intention of the sponsorship was to show appreciation to the Pastors for
supporting the NDC, and also enable them to pray in Jerusalem for President
John Dramani Mahama to avert a doomsday prophecy about his life.
The Daily Guide newspaper report claimed that
each Pastor would be given $10,000 thus amounting to $2million.
This ridiculous claim is supposed to be for only
their per-diem.
Further, the reports also stated that the
General Overseer of the Royal House Chapel International was part of the trip,
“particularly due to his close relations with the organizer of the trip, Elvis
Afriyie Ankrah, the Campaign Co-ordinator of the John Dramani Mahama 2012
Presidential Campaign and currently the Minister of Youth and Sports.”
The agenda to create a sensational news story
for gossip and discussion can be seen by the claim that some of the Pastors and
groups have rejected the offer because they deem it wrong to spend a huge sum
of money on a pilgrimage when the government needs resources to tackle socio
-economic problems.
Clearly, the above stated issues and points
raised by the said paper are total fabrications and a pack of lies geared at
tarnishing the image of the President and government.
Simple Facts of the Christian Pilgrimage to
Jerusalem are as follows: Over the years, various Christian and Church
organizations have called on government to sponsor and address the various
challenges they have encountered during their holy trips to Israel.
It is in response to these several calls that
Government then decided to facilitate and coordinate the Pilot Pilgrimage to
Israel, to help address some of the challenges Christian groups have
encountered on past trips which is nothing new just as government has been
doing for the Holy Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj to Mecca.
In the process, and with the increase in the
number of pilgrims, some Ghanaian philanthropists offered to provide
sponsorship for this year's trip.
Government then held several discussions and
consultation meetings with key stakeholders and subsequently, the decision was
duly communicated to the leadership of the various Christian bodies through
official letters and phone calls
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| NDC Logo |
Contrary to claims that this is a thank you
gesture to Pastors affiliated to the NDC party, government had no role in the
selection process. It is important to note that, Government left it to the
various groups to use their own criteria to select prospective pilgrims based
on the number allotted to them.
Again, my role for the trip was to coordinate
the Pilot Pilgrimage for the government and has nothing to do with my former
position as the John Mahama 2012 Campaign Coordinator.
A number of the Christian bodies welcomed the
initiative, however although the Christian Council of Ghana, were happy with
the initiative they responded in a letter that they could not provide
representatives for the trip because of time constraints and NOT because they
did not want to participate as stated by the said paper. In fact, they
intimated in their letter to be part of any subsequent pilgrimages when given
sufficient notice.
The total cost of the sponsorship package for
the 200 pilgrims which includes Airfare, hotels and feeding is approximately
600,000 dollars, and not 2million US dollars as sensationally claimed by the
false reports. It is absolutely untrue that each pilgrim will be given $10,000
as per diem.
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| Jerusalem |
It is also untrue that during the tenure of late
Prof. J.E.A. Mills, he organized a similar trip and gave each person $10,000 as
per diem.
Again for the records, the government is NOT
sponsoring the trip from the state coffers but only facilitating and
coordinating the process and has no involvement in the selection of the prospective
pilgrims from the various bodies that would suggest an “NDC Pastors
Pilgrimage.”
Finally, it is deeply heart-warming that even at
the time of releasing this statement, several Christian organizations, churches
and pastors have requested, appealed and submitted names to be added to the
list. For them, the opportunity to trace the footsteps of Jesus Christ and walk
where he walked, pray for their families, their churches and their country
Ghana, is an opportunity they do not want to miss and a potential life
transforming event.
Signed by Hon. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah,
Coordinator, Jerusalem pilgrimage
CHINA WARNS THE POPE
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| Pope Francis |
China has warned the Vatican to stop interfering in
China’s internal affairs and called on the newly elected pope to adopt a
“practical and flexible” attitude.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Thursday that Beijing
hoped that the new Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis I will,
create conditions to improve China-Vatican relations.
Hua said that China had "two basic principles in dealing with
relations with the Vatican," which has been cut since 1951.
"It should sever its so-called diplomatic relations with Taiwan and
recognize the Chinese government as the sole legal representative of all of
China,” she said.
"The
Vatican should not interfere in China's internal affairs, including under the pretext
of religion," she added.
China has an estimated 12 million
Roman Catholics, and appoints bishops without papal approval.
On March 13, Cardinal Jorge Mario
Bergoglio of Argentina was named the new Pope of the Roman Catholic Church,
taking the nickname of Pope Francis I.
Pope Francis replaced Pope
Benedict XVI, who resigned on February 28, becoming the first pontiff in six
centuries to do so. He stated that the reason for his decision was his
deteriorating health due to old age.
John Kerry’s verified lie on
Syria
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| US Foreign Secretary John Kerry |
By Tony Cartalucci
The US State Department, and to a
greater extent, US foreign policy itself, having exhausted completely their
collective credibility, has attempted yet another “reset.”
By bringing in John Kerry to pose as the next US Secretary of State, it
is hoped global opinion will see US foreign policy in a new, more tolerant
light. Kerry, however, has wasted no time attempting to simply resell verbatim
the same failed, absurd policy US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton destroyed
her career peddling, spinning, and covering up - as finalized in the case of
Benghazi, Libya.
The Washington Post’s piece, “U.S. announces
expanded battlefield aid to Syrian rebels, but not arms,” rehashes the same
tired, patently false narrative that has been used throughout the duration of
the US-fueled Syrian conflict. The Washington Post reports:
“The Obama administration will
provide food and medicine to Syrian rebel fighters, Secretary of State John F.
Kerry said Thursday, announcing a cautious U.S. foray into front-line
battlefield support that falls far short of the heavy weapons or high-tech gear
the rebels seek. The stakes are really high, and we can’t risk letting this
country - in the heart of the Middle East - be destroyed by vicious autocrats
or hijacked by the extremists,” Kerry said following discussions among a group
of Western and Arab nations that are funding, and in some cases arming, the
fighters.
The United States will, for the
first time, send supplies through the rebels’ central military headquarters,
with U.S. advisers supervising the distribution of food rations and medical
supplies, U.S. officials said. The shift is intended to give the U.S.-backed
Syrian Opposition Coalition greater say over the aid, but it is also a test of
the rebels’ ability to keep donated supplies out of the hands of extremists in
their midst.”
The Washington Post report is a verified
lie. US assistance, cash, weapons, and covert military support had been ongoing
in Syria since 2007 - in other words - before the current conflict even began.
And the US has been providing this support not for moderates, but specifically
and intentionally for the ideological foundation of al-Qaeda itself, the
sectarian extremist Muslim Brotherhood, since the Bush administration.
Outright admissions by administration officials,
Saudi and Lebanese officials working in tandem with the US, and US intelligence
agents have outlined a criminal conspiracy that has now transcended two
presidencies and provided the clearest example yet of the corporate-financier
driven “continuity of agenda” that truly guides Western foreign policy. This
criminal conspiracy has also incurred a staggering list of egregious crimes
against humanity, crimes we are reminded of daily by the very interests
responsible for them, including the 70,000 alleged dead in the Syrian conflict
so far.
Secretary John Kerry’s Narrative Is a Verified Lie
Secretary Kerry’s “desire” to keep weapons out of
the hands of extremists is willfully disingenuous misdirection. It has been
extremists the US has been, on record, purposefully propping up in Syria years
before the conflict even began in 2011.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, in
his 2007 New Yorker report titled, “The Redirection: Is the
Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?”,
stated explicitly that:
“To undermine Iran, which is
predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to
reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration
has cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine
operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is
backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at
Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the
bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam
and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”
Hersh’s report would also
include:
“the Saudi government, with
Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the
government of President Bashir Assad [sic], of Syria. The Israelis believe that
putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory
and open to negotiations.”
Hersh also reported that a
supporter of the Lebanese pro-US-Saudi Hariri faction had met Dick Cheney in
Washington and relayed personally the importance of using the Muslim
Brotherhood in Syria in any move against the ruling government:
“[Walid] Jumblatt then told me that
he had met with Vice-President Cheney in Washington last fall to discuss, among
other issues, the possibility of undermining Assad. He and his colleagues
advised Cheney that, if the United States does try to move against Syria,
members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood would be “the ones to talk to,”
Jumblatt said.”
The article would continue by
explaining how already in 2007 US and Saudi backing had begun benefiting the
Brotherhood:
“There is evidence that the Administration’s
redirection strategy has already benefitted the Brotherhood. The Syrian
National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition groups whose principal
members are a faction led by Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian
Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the Brotherhood.
A former
high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, “The Americans have provided both
political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead with financial
support, but there is American involvement.” He said that Khaddam, who now
lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the
White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met with officials
from the National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former White
House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of the Front with
travel documents.”
At one point in Hersh’s report, it is even admitted
that officials from US ally Saudi Arabia admitted to “controlling” the
“religious fundamentalists.” The report states specifically:
“[Saudi Arabia’s] Bandar and other
Saudis have assured the White House that “they will keep a very close eye on
the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was ‘We’ve created this
movement, and we can control it.’ It’s not that we don’t want the Salafis to
throw bombs; it’s who they throw them at - Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran,
and at the Syrians, if they continue to work with Hezbollah and Iran.”
While Kerry, as did Clinton before him, and others
throughout the Western establishment attempt to portray the rise of the Muslim
Brotherhood, and its armed front, al-Qaeda, in Syria as an unforeseeable,
unfortunate consequence of an equally unforeseeable, unfortunate conflict - it
is clear that in 2007, such “consequences” were essential elements of a
premeditated conflict the West had poured cash, weapons, and logistics into the
creation of, along with its partners in the Middle East, including Israel,
Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
Also in 2007, the Wall Street Journal would
publish a report titled, “To Check Syria, U.S. Explores Bond With Muslim
Brothers.” In this report, it was revealed that even in 2007, Syrian
opposition groups were being created from whole-cloth by the US State
Department and paraded around in front of Syria’s embassies in the West. The
article begins with one such protest, stating:
“On a humid afternoon in late May,
about 100 supporters of Syria’s largest exile opposition group, the National
Salvation Front, gathered outside Damascus’s embassy here to protest Syrian
President Bashar Assad’s rule. The participants shouted anti-Assad slogans and
raised banners proclaiming: “Change the Regime Now.”
Later in the article, it would be
revealed that the National Salvation Front (NSF) was in contact with the US
State Department and that a Washington-based consulting firm in fact assisted
the NSF in organizing the rally:
“In the
weeks before the presidential election, the State Department’s Middle East
Partnership Initiative, which promotes regional democracy, and NSF members met
to talk about publicizing Syria’s lack of democracy and low voter turnout,
participants say. A Washington-based consulting firm, C&O Resources Inc.,
assisted the NSF in its planning for the May 26 anti-Assad rally at the Syrian
embassy, providing media and political contacts. State Department officials
stress they provided no financial or technical support to the protestors.”
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| The US backed Rebels killing babies and Pregnant women in Syria |
And while the Wall Street
Journal then, just as the US State Department and the Western media houses
are now portraying the Syrian opposition as representing a wide range of
interests across Syrian society, it was admitted then, just as it is plainly
obvious now, that the sectarian extremist Muslim Brotherhood was in fact at the
very center of the “uprising:”
“One of the NSF’s most influential members is the
Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood -- the decades-old political movement
active across the Middle East whose leaders have inspired the terrorist groups
Hamas and al Qaeda. Its Syrian offshoot says it has renounced armed struggle in
favor of democratic reform.”
It was evidently clear, even in 2007, that
extremists would play a leading role in any future armed conflict to overthrow
the Syrian government, and now, years later, that engineered conflict has been
executed verbatim and to horrific consequence - consequences the West not only
refuses to take responsibility for, but seeks to further compound with
increased aid to the forces of armed sedition it itself created.
Absurdity of Kerry’s Narrative Only Outdone by
Proposed Solution
The solution Kerry proposes is to flood Syria with
more cash, equipment, training, weapons, and other aid, either directly, or
laundered through proxies such as al-Qaeda’s chief financiers and arms
providers, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Washington Post’s report states:
“The goal of the new money is to counter the
increasingly effective network of services provided by militants.”
Unfortunately, the so-called Syrian Opposition
Coalition handcrafted by the US, and founded in Doha, Qatar, is led by an
extremist, Mouaz al-Khatib, who openly embraces al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra front in
Syria, credited with some of the most heinous atrocities committed during the
two-year conflict, as well as systematic abuse, oppression, and subjugation in
all areas along Syria’s border with NATO-member Turkey it controls.
In late 2012, al-Khatib demanded that the US
reverse its decision to list al-Nusra as a foreign terrorist organization.
Reuters quoted al-Khatib as saying:
“The decision to consider a party
that is fighting the regime as a terrorist party needs to be reviewed. We might
disagree with some parties and their ideas and their political and ideological
vision. But we affirm that all the guns of the rebels are aimed at overthrowing
the tyrannical criminal regime.”
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| President Barack Hussein Obama |
The more recent Washington Post article, in fact, reaffirms al-Khatib’s
support for extremists groups, stating:
“Coalition chairman Mouaz al-Khatib
angrily appealed for a humanitarian corridor to the besieged city of Homs and
said the rebels are tired of Western complaints about extremists in their
ranks. He argued that the real enemy is the Assad regime but said too many
outsiders are worried only about “the length of a beard of a fighter.”
“No
terrorists in the world have such a savage nature as those in the regime,”
Khatib said in Arabic.
The Syrian opposition leader’s
finger-jabbing anger was in marked contrast to Kerry’s clipped and measured
tone. Kerry looked at Khatib without expression as the Syrian spoke.”
And yet this US-created
“opposition” movement, run by a leader openly embracing and defending al-Qaeda,
will be the recipient of some $60 million in “non-lethal aid” and “training” to
allegedly “undermine” al-Qaeda. The Washington Post indicated that
France and the UK were even considering sending armored vehicles to the openly
pro-al-Qaeda front.
The face-value absurdity of current Western foreign policy in the wake
of a decade-long “War on Terror” that has left it bankrupt, thousands of its
soldiers dead, tens of thousands more maimed or mentally ill, is perhaps so
profoundly acute, it is hoped it is easier to instead believe US Secretary of
State John Kerry’s repeated lies.
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| The Syrian people stand with Assad |
And astonishingly, even as French soldiers die fighting militants in
Mali - armed, trained, and funded by NATO’s similar intervention in Libya in
2011, and allegedly still funded and armed by US, UK, and French ally Qatar -
the Washington Post article indicates France will be eagerly making the
same “mistake” in Syria, and will be further assisting terrorists there,
including the training of rebel forces “outside Syria.”
The exhausted legitimacy of the West, punctuated by unhinged hypocrisy,
and rapidly unraveling financial and military might, would seem a perfect
opportunity for the United Nations to prove its relevance or legitimacy by
condemning the purposeful expansion of an already intolerable proxy war
initiated by Western interests. Instead, it remains silent, or worse yet,
complicit in the premeditated, documented assault on Syria under the
increasingly tenuous guise of “democracy promotion,” “revolution,” and
“humanitarian concern.”
Nations existing outside the West’s unraveling international enterprise
would do best to continue resisting, and increasingly condemning the overt
state-sponsorship of terrorism that is destroying Syria. For the rest of us, we
must identify the corporate-financier interests driving this agenda - interests
we most likely patronize on a daily basis, and both boycott and permanently
replace them to erode the unwarranted influence they have used to both plan and
execute this assault on Syria’s people.
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