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But the significance of this war for Africom went much deeper than that for, in taking out Muammar Gaddafi, Africom had actually eliminated the project's fiercest adversary.
Gaddafi ended his political life as a dedicated pan-Africanist and, whatever one thought of the man, it is clear that his vision for African was very different from that of the subordinate supplier of cheap labour and raw materials that Africom was created to maintain. He was not only the driving force behind the creation of the African Union in 2002, but had also served as its elected head, and made Libya its biggest financial donor. To the dismay of some of his African colleagues, he used his time as leader to push for a "United States of Africa", with a single currency, single army and single passport.
More concretely, Gaddafi's Libya had an estimated $150bn worth of investment in Africa – often in social infrastructure and development projects, and this largesse bought him many friends, particularly in the smaller nations. As long as Gaddafi retained this level of influence in Africa, Africom was going to founder.
Since his removal, however, the organisation has been rolling full steam ahead. It is no coincidence that within months of the fall of Tripoli – and in the same month as Gaddafi's execution – President Obama announced the deployment of 100 US special forces to four different African countries, including Uganda. Ostensibly to aid the "hunt for Joseph Kony", they are instead training Africans to fight the US's proxy war in Somalia – where 2,000 more Ugandan soldiers had been sent the previous month.
This is a far cry from the Africa of 2007, which refused to allow Africom a base on African soil, forcing it to establish its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Gaddafi's Libya had served not only as a bulwark against US military designs on the continent, but also as a crucial bridge between black Africa south of the Sahara and Arab Africa in the north."
Gaddafi also helped build businesses in the states as well.
"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad needed help and Qaddafi and Libyan Government extended a 3 million dollar loan to assist Mr. Muhammad. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had always held high praises for Brother Qaddafi and he was considered in deed a friend to the former slaves in North America. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had always held high praises for Brother Qaddafi and he was considered in deed a friend to the former slaves in North America.
Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad (Larry 4X Prescott) who served as the international representative of the Nation of Islam had traveled throughout North Africa and all of Africa building diplomatic relationships for Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. But no relationship would prove more valuable than the one he forged with Tripoli and the Libyan Government.Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad (Larry 4X Prescott) who served as the international representative of the Nation of Islam had traveled throughout North Africa and all of Africa building diplomatic relationships for Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. But no relationship would prove more valuable than the one he forged with Tripoli and the Libyan Government.
Qaddafi and the Libyan Government became the principle financiers of what eventually became the Clean-N-Fresh products (a beauty and cosmetic line) and manufactured and distributed by the Nation of Islam. The legendary George Johnson (owner of Johnson's Products) initially agreed to manufacture Farrakhan's cosmetic line. Qaddafi and the Libyan Government gave the Nation of Islam a five million dollar interest free loan. Thus, part of the money helped finance the Salaam Restaurant billed as a fine dining eatery on the Southside of Chicago; the edifice was exquisitely designed in which one of Minister Farrakhan's daughters played a huge role. Qaddafi and the Libyan Government became the principle financiers of what eventually became the Clean-N-Fresh products (a beauty and cosmetic line) and manufactured and distributed by the Nation of Islam. The legendary George Johnson (owner of Johnson's Products) initially agreed to manufacture Farrakhan's cosmetic line. Qaddafi and the Libyan Government gave the Nation of Islam a five million dollar interest free loan. Thus, part of the money helped finance the Salaam Restaurant billed as a fine dining eatery on the Southside of Chicago; the edifice was exquisitely designed in which one of Minister Farrakhan's daughters played a huge role.
Muammar Qaddafi transferred 5 million dollars over to the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan in which he had difficulty getting a black bank to receive this lofty deposit of 5 million from the Libyan Government; some of the United States black banks did not desire to be associated with Farrakhan (the alleged anti-Semite) and Qaddafi (allege strongman and dictator stigma) because of the false anti-Semitism charges that were waged by a sector of Zionist Jews against the Nation of Islam and Minister Louis Farrakhan, it frighten many of the so-called black intelligencer away from helping the Nation of Islam leader.Muammar Qaddafi transferred 5 million dollars over to the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan in which he had difficulty getting a black bank to receive this lofty deposit of 5 million from the Libyan Government; some of the United States black banks did not desire to be associated with Farrakhan (the alleged anti-Semite) and Qaddafi (allege strongman and dictator stigma) because of the false anti-Semitism charges that were waged by a sector of Zionist Jews against the Nation of Islam and Minister Louis Farrakhan, it frighten many of the so-called black intelligencer away from helping the Nation of Islam leader."
Quote:
Originally Posted by kovert
And for the record, NEITHER I OR ANY OF THE ARTICLES POSTED CONDONE ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN NONCOMBATANTS.
I hope the Maghrib Al Aqsa (Furthest Maghreb) also has a back up plan for when AFRICOM comes knocking on the door.
"Many of the Mena countries are pushing to become more of a financial hub, with Morocco leading the charge by renaming the Moroccan Financial Board the Casablanca Finance City Authority to help position the city as an international financial centre.
This is a strategy that appears to be working, with Casablanca appearing in the latest Global Financial Centre Index in March for the first time at number 62 out of 83. In total there were nine Mena financial centres in the index, with Tel Aviv in Israel ranked the highest at 21. Five of the eight returning centres also saw a move higher up the index.
In an environment where the developed world is in a fragile recovery and the traditional emerging markets are facing continued headwinds, the Mena region could be the next investment powerhouse."
"Born in a working-class neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco, Ms. Rejani moved to France with her family when she was 6 months old. Her parents, who kept Moroccan traditions at home and spoke Arabic to her, sold produce in Cholet.
Emboldened by the success of Shine France, Ms. Rejani decided to take her experience to northwest Africa, or the Maghreb. Until now, when a network received the rights for a program in the Arab world, it bought the rights for the nearly two dozen countries of the Arab League. For instance, viewers throughout the Middle East and North Africa see the same “Arab Idol,” which has the same basic format as its American counterpart.
But in the fall, there will be a version of “MasterChef” for Moroccans alone. It is produced by Shine France in partnership with a local production company for the Moroccan network 2M. The programs were shot during nine months and will feature Moroccan chefs and judges."
Given the grim outlook for confining the spread of Ebola Viral Disease to W. Africa, & possibly Nigeria, I think all Africom activity will be subordinated to support & supply the attempt to contain Ebola where it is now.
That's a v. tall order, as the countries there with weak governments, public health, police, hospitals, military go into convulsions. We'll have to hope that these aren't the death throes of central government in the affected areas.
You would think that Europe, especially NATO, as the nearest port in a storm, would be particularly concerned & would be mobilizing medical help & support & supplies to W. Africa & Nigeria, begin stockpiling medical supplies & scouting for emergency isolation beds & personnel & high-risk quarantine; & beginning to dust off military plans to interdict traffic from Africa, just in case.
Check out The Real News Network for different perspectives on so called "humanitarian" interventions.
"DESVARIEUX: So, for you, at the end of the day, they might be testing them in developing nations, but they're certainly not looking to these developing nations as being their market for these drugs.
WASHINGTON: Exactly. They certainly are testing them in developing nations. In fact, two out of every five clinical trials mounted by industry is conducted in the developing world. They go to the developing world not because they want to make drugs available for the people there, but because testing is cheaper and quicker, and time is money in testing. They have a narrow window in which to get approval. So it benefits the companies to go to these countries and get rather naive subjects, people who don't have any kind of health care, so they have special pressures to get what care they can, even when it comes wrapped around a clinical trial. And they can do it more cheaply, they can do it more quickly, they can do more high-quality trials, because health care workers in the developing world ask for and make less money. "
Gaddafi also helped build businesses in the states as well.
"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad needed help and Qaddafi and Libyan Government extended a 3 million dollar loan to assist Mr. Muhammad. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had always held high praises for Brother Qaddafi and he was considered in deed a friend to the former slaves in North America. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had always held high praises for Brother Qaddafi and he was considered in deed a friend to the former slaves in North America.
Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad (Larry 4X Prescott) who served as the international representative of the Nation of Islam had traveled throughout North Africa and all of Africa building diplomatic relationships for Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. But no relationship would prove more valuable than the one he forged with Tripoli and the Libyan Government.Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad (Larry 4X Prescott) who served as the international representative of the Nation of Islam had traveled throughout North Africa and all of Africa building diplomatic relationships for Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. But no relationship would prove more valuable than the one he forged with Tripoli and the Libyan Government.
"Farrakhan, who considered Qaddafi a friend, said those nations' establishment of a no-fly zone to stop Qaddafi's planes and offers of humanitarian relief to the Libyan people were intended to help oust Qaddafi from power and gain access to Libya's oil wealth.
``They succeeded in being the authors of the successful assassination of a sitting president,'' Farrakhan told WVON-AM in Chicago, adding that it placed America's interests in danger. ``No one can trust the United Nations because it is a pawn of the Western world. No nation will give up their weapons of mass destruction like Qaddafi did, because it is the only protection they have against the wicked witches of the West.''
Farrakhan also noted that the people now claiming leadership of Libya are advocating Islamic Sharia law, something that he contends the U.S. has opposed.``It wasn't the money, but the principles that made me his brother,'' Farrakhan said. Farrakhan said Libyan oil revenue was used to build schools and universities that increased literacy, and he credited Qaddafi with establishing a health care system that he said was the best in the Third World."
Quote:
Originally Posted by kovert
And for the record, NEITHER I OR ANY OF THE ARTICLES POSTED CONDONE ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN NONCOMBATANTS.
"A simple glance at the anticolonial movements in Africa shows that America never supported the struggle of Africans to be free from European rule. The United States never sent its military to an African nation to oust or overthrow the European imperialist nations that occupied African territory. In fact, not one single African nation gained its independence due to the military support of America. Just the opposite was true. America openly supported its European brothers as they colonized African people and their land. Many of the nations that did gain their independence from European colonizers found their leadership assassinated or deposed with the aid, knowledge and/or support of America. Patrice Lumumba was assassinated with US support to the Belgians.
Kwame Nkruma, the Ghanian president, linked the Zionist project with other colonial projects when he stated, "At present, there is in Africa an intensification of struggles and conflicts between imperialism and its class allies on the one hand, and the vast mass of African peoples on the other . . . there has been an intensification of already existing western capitalist intelligence networks which work in close co-operation with neocolonialist governments to block socialist advance. Most prominent and active in Africa are those of the USA, Britain, West Germany, France, Israel, Portugal, Rhodesia, and South Africa." Nkruma too was overthrown, also with US support. When the Herero people were slaughtered by the Germans, the United States did not come to their aid. The United States also sided with the UNITA rebels over the Cuban-backed MPLA, who were also in solidarity with the African National Congress. In South Africa, the United States supported the white racist apartheid government until world opinion turned against it, but not before it assisted the South Africans in capturing and jailing Nelson Mandela.
Turning back to Israel, the US government shielded the Israeli government diplomatically while it shared close military ties to the apartheid government, even when Israel continued to do business with the racist apartheid South African government despite the sanctions that had been imposed against such business. It was the Palestinians and the Cubans in particular - not the Americans, and surely not the Israelis - who pledged solidarity with African freedom movements, specifically in South Africa. This is why Nelson Mandela publicly refused to denounce Yassar Arafat and Fidel Castro, because, as he said to Ted Koppel, they helped the African National Congress when the West wouldn't, and therefore the West (America and its European allies) did not get to choose the friends of the South Africans."
Quote:
Originally Posted by kovert
And again, NOT IN SUPPORT OF ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN NON-COMBATANTS.
Herodotus wrote thousands of years ago that the Aegytini believed in reincarnation and I hope there may be some truth to this because if there were more cats like Nasser and Qadafi around there would not be the chaos and destruction that's going on their now.
"Whenever Arab-African ties come into question, one cannot help remembering the days when colonialism was the threat closer to home and one Arab leader was always at hand to lend support to those Africans who wished to throw off its yoke. That was the time of solidarity, of a common Arab-African dream, of nations taking their first steps to freedom. That was Nasser's time. The solidarity between Arab and non-Arab Africans is not a historic accident. It is rooted in a common vision, drawn from a common cause. It all started in the late 50s and early 60s, when Africa's leaders-to-be were still freedom fighters, and Nasser was their closest ally.For Nasser and his fellow African leaders, African liberation was a historic duty. They lived and died for the cause of national liberation. Few Arab leaders of Nasser's stature were involved as intimately as he was in the struggle to liberate Africa from colonial rule. It was this dedication to the cause of African liberation that endeared him to like-minded African leaders. What they had in common was a radical agenda of social change, a task they knew would not be easy, a mission that remains, to this day, incomplete.It is difficult for me to write about the icon that Nasser was without mentioning something of the man. His role in rescuing my family from possible perdition in the aftermath of the bloody 24 February 1966 coup that overthrew my father, Kwame Nkrumah, has been documented elsewhere. Nasser's personal involvement with the fortunes of his fellow African leaders and their families was based on a political outlook characteristic of the time. Personally, I have had an unusual opportunity to watch Nasser's Pan- African contribution at close quarters and observe the close friendship he had with those who spearheaded the anti-colonial struggle in Africa.
Nasser's African connection was in no way restricted to the Nkrumah family. Indeed, he took a special interest in the resettlement of Lumumba's family after the Congolese leader was brutally assassinated at the hands of the henchmen of the Mobutu Sese Seku, the late Zairean military strongman. Lumumba's widow and children fled to the safety of the Egyptian embassy in Kinshasa and they were spirited away to Cairo in a harrowing rescue mission. Nasser's gallant gesture further enhanced his stature in the entire African continent. Nasser's Egypt became the Lumumbas adopted home. Egypt's July Revolution was an inspiration to people who lived under colonial rule across the world, especially for Arabs and Africans. For the first time in three millennia, Egypt was ruled by an Egyptian, one who was just as proud of his African heritage as of his Arab identity. Nasser embarked on a radical policy of land reform and redistribution. He confiscated 2,430 square kilometres of farmland from the tiny land-owning elite and gave them to dispossessed peasant families. Nasser's socialist-inspired policies prompted him to nationalise banks and major industries. But the turning point, perhaps, was his nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956. This was the act that brought him instant admiration across the Third World, and the wrath of former colonial powers, particularly Britain and France. Soon after the evacuation of British troops from the Suez Canal zone in June 1956, Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt in what became known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression.
African leaders like Nasser and Nkrumah were aware that the world was watching their political, social, and economic endeavours. It was the success, not the failure, of Nkrumah's policies that triggered the CIA-inspired coup of 24 February 1966. Nkrumah, like the core leftist African leaders of his generation, looked to Nasser's Egypt as a bulwark against colonialism and imperialism. Socialist leaders in Africa watched closely the agrarian reform and the ambitious industrialisation drive of Nasser's Egypt.
"In Accra, Kozonguizi and I contacted the special representative of President Gamal Abdel- Nasser of Egypt, who came to attend the Positive Action Conference. He gave us a very sympathetic hearing. Egypt's first practical help came from President Nasser's special representative who gave £100 (sterling) to each of us. With part of the money I was given, I bought an Olivetti portable typewriter, which I used for many years during the struggle and which I still have," wrote Namibian President Sam Nujoma in his autobiography Where Others Wavered. "At the beginning of March 1961, I attended the third All-African People's Conference in Cairo ... I requested President Nasser to offer the opportunity of military training to SWAPO members. Nasser assured me of such opportunities if I could get a group of SWAPO members from South West Africa. He urged all African independent countries to render the necessary assistance to the national liberation movements, including military training, in order to free their countries from colonial occupation and foreign domination. He also urged the independent African states not to allow the imperialist powers to maintain and promote neo-colonialism and disunity among the African countries," Nujoma said in his tribute to the late Egyptian president. This was how July Revolution inspired African leaders throughout the 1950s. "When in 1963, the first group [of Namibian freedom fighters] went for military training in Cairo, this was possible because President Gamal Abdel-Nasser of Egypt had offered me training and tickets. Nasser was a dedicated supporter of African liberation," Nujoma added. Small wonder that when Nasser passed away on 28 September 1970, many Africans felt the loss. "The world has lost a great man and all those who fight for freedom and human dignity have lost a brother in the struggle. The people of Namibia join you in mourning President Nasser's tragic death," Nujoma, still a political exile and freedom fighter lamented. Nujoma attended Nasser's funeral in Cairo. "Nasser had inspired us in Namibia as far back as 1956 when he fought against the British, French, and Israelis after he had taken the Suez Canal. When we read about the fighting, in the newspapers in then South West Africa, we were firmly on the Egyptian side," Nujoma said."
Quote:
Originally Posted by kovert
And again, NOT IN SUPPORT OF ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN NON-COMBATANTS.
"Kindness may be its own reward, but in the case of the US military, CMO benevolence is designed to influence foreign governments and civilian populations in order to “facilitate military operations and achieve US objectives.” According to the Pentagon, humanitarian assistance efforts are engineered to improve “US visibility, access, and influence with foreign military and civilian counterparts,” while HCA projects are designed to “promote the security and foreign policy interests of the United States.” In the bureaucratic world of the US military, these small-scale efforts are further divided into “community relations activities,” like the distribution of sports equipment, and “low-cost activities” such as seminars on solar panel maintenance or English-language discussion groups. Theoretically at least, add all these projects together and you’ve taken a major step toward winning Africans away from the influence of extremists. But are these projects working at all? Has anyone even bothered to check?
In the meantime, the hearts and minds of allied African military leaders appear unswayed by AFRICOM’s efforts. Over two days at the “Land Forces East Africa” conference here in Dar es Salaam, I listened to generals and defense analysts from around the region speak on security matters affecting Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, and Tanzania. They touched on the key issues -- extremism, terrorism, and piracy -- that the American hearts-and-minds campaign is meant to counter, but the United States was hardly mentioned. Tanzanian officers I talked with, for instance, were pleased to be receiving American funds, but less so with direct US interventions of any type on the continent."
Quote:
Originally Posted by kovert
And again, NOT IN SUPPORT OF ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN NON-COMBATANTS.
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There's a shoe in the works
