africom related news clips 26 oct 2011

8/3/2019 AFRICOM Related News Clips 26 Oct 2011

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office26 October 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

Good morning. Please find attached news clips related to U.S. Africa Command andAfrica, along with upcoming events of interest for October 26, 2011.

Of interest in today’s clips:

AP reports that at a news conference on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panettadeclined to say whether the Obama administration intends to seek military ties with

Libya's new government.

In Djibouti: An article from La Nation (translated from French) describes AFRICOMCommander General Carter Ham's visit with Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh,during which they discussed the security situation in the Horn of Africa and the MiddleEast.

In Somalia: International media reports on the kidnapping of Western aid workers,including one American, in northern Somalia. Somalia’s President comes under fire for statements casting doubt on his government’s support of Kenya’s invasion against Al-Shabaab forces.

In Washington: The State Department and Pentagon testimony to Congress noted that thedeployment of 100 soldiers in support of counter LRA efforts will not be an open-endeddeployment, but could take months rather than weeks.

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U.S. Africa Command Public AffairsPlease send questions or comments to:[email protected] (+49-711-729-2687)

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Top News related to U.S. Africa Command and Africa

U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Office +49(0)[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



Panetta: No decision yet on US-Libya military ties (AP)

http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-25/news/30320966_1_mustafa-abdul-jalil-libya-mission-national-transitional-council25 October 2011U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pointedly declined Tuesday to say whether the

Obama administration intends to seek military ties with Libya’s new government, amiduncertainty about Islamist influences there after the demise of strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

U.S. enters Libya, leaves Iraq (CNN)

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/25/opinion/hayden-libya-iraq/?hpt=wo_t225 October 2011By Michael V. Hayden, CNN Contributor U.S. security policy showed the effects of two substantial pivots this past week: rampingdown our role in regime transformation in one Arab country even while ramping up our responsibility in another.

AFRICOM: Carter Ham in Djibouti (La Nation)

http://www.africatime.com/djibouti/nouvelle.asp?no_nouvelle=631586&no_categorie25 October 2011(Translated from French)

Yesterday, at the presidential Palace in Djibouti, President Ismail Omar Guelleh,welcomed General carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, with whom hediscussed the security situation in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.

U.S. Worries Grow Over Al-Qaida's African Presence (NPR)

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141661688/u-s-keeping-close-watch-on-al-qaida-in-africa25 October 2011By Dina Temple-RastonThe U.S. has had major successes against al-Qaida this year, taking out Osama bin Ladenin Pakistan and Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. But for American counterterrorism officials,concerns over al-Qaida in Africa keep growing.

Western aid workers kidnapped in Somalia: agency (Reuters)

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE79O0K120111025?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews25 October 2011By Mohamed Ahmed and Abdi SheikhGunmen kidnapped an American, a Dane and a Somali working for a Danish groupwhich clears landmines in northern Somalia on Tuesday, the second capture of Westernaid agency staff in the region this month.

Pentagon says military deployment to Uganda ‘will not be open-ended’ (The Hill)

http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/defense-homeland-security/189625-pentagon-uganda-mission-will-not-be-open-ended25 October 2011


http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-25/news/30320966_1_mustafa-abdul-jalil-libya-mission-national-transitional-council


http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/25/opinion/hayden-libya-iraq/?hpt=wo_t2

http://www.africatime.com/djibouti/nouvelle.asp?no_nouvelle=631586&no_categorie

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141661688/u-s-keeping-close-watch-on-al-qaida-in-africa

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE79O0K120111025?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews


http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/defense-homeland-security/189625-pentagon-uganda-mission-will-not-be-open-ended













By John T. BennettA senior Pentagon official told a House panel Tuesday the U.S. military deployment tocentral Africa to combat the Lord’s Resistance Army will last months but vowed it “willnot be an open-ended commitment.”

Administration Officials Face Skeptical Lawmakers on Uganda Operation (FOXNews)

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/25/administration-officials-face-skeptical-lawmakers-on-uganda-operation/25 October 2011The U.S. military operation against a ruthless guerrilla group accused of widespreadatrocities is a short-term deployment with the specific goal of ending the threat of theLord's Resistance Army in Africa, Obama administration officials insisted on Tuesday.

Somalia's president questions Kenya's al-Shabaab mission (The Telegraph)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/8848537/Soma

lias-president-questions-Kenyas-al-Shabaab-mission.html25 October 2011Somalia's president has criticised Kenya's military invasion of his country, raising fears of a split in support for the mission to hunt down al-Qaeda-linked Islamists.

Somali president blasted for anti-Kenya comments (Arab News)

http://arabnews.com/world/article524253.ece25 October 2011By Abdi SheikhSomali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed came under fire on Tuesday for casting doubt onthe government’s support for a Kenyan incursion into the south of the Horn of Africanation to take on rebels.

Tunisia election: Partial results suggest Ennahda win (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-1545357925 October 2011Partial official results from Tunisia suggest victory for the moderate Islamist partyEnnahda, in the first democratic elections prompted by the Arab Spring uprisings.

Iran's Ahmadinejad says West set to plunder Libya (Reuters)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/25/us-libya-ahmadinejad-idUSTRE79O2QK2011102525 October 2011Western countries supported Muammar Gaddafi when it suited them but bombed theLibyan leader when he no longer served their purpose in order to "plunder" the northAfrican country's oil wealth, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.

Africa: U.S. Tightens Military Grip on Africa (All Africa)

http://allafrica.com/stories/201110250430.html25 October 2011


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/25/administration-officials-face-skeptical-lawmakers-on-uganda-operation/


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/8848537/Somalias-president-questions-Kenyas-al-Shabaab-mission.html


http://arabnews.com/world/article524253.ece

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15453579

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/25/us-libya-ahmadinejad-idUSTRE79O2QK20111025


http://allafrica.com/stories/201110250430.html












By Glen FordScores of Somali civilians have been killed in U.S. drone attacks in the southern region of the country, as Washington tightens its military grip on much of the continent. Thecurrent offensive involves thousands of Kenyan troops that are threatening the major Somali city of Kismayo.

In Search of Terrorist Enemies in Africa (Huffington Post)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/in-search-of-terrorist-en_b_1031364.html25 October 2011By John Feffer During the Bush years, second fronts in terrorism proliferated as the rulingneoconservatives imagined remapping the globe to accommodate U.S. interests. Today,there is really only one second front, Africa. As U.S. forces continue to withdraw fromCentral Asia and the Middle East, this second front is fast becoming the war onterrorism’s first front.

Uganda opposition leader to stay under house arrest (Reuters Africa)http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE79O0AR2011102525 October 2011By Elias BiryabaremaUganda will keep opposition leader Kizza Besigye under house arrest until he promisesto stop participating in anti-government protests that have marred the nation's image,national police said on Tuesday.

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UN News Service Africa Briefs

http://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA

Darfur: UN peacekeeping chief urges more efforts to include rebels in peace process

25 October – While important progress has been made in the peace process in Sudan’swar-torn Darfur region, more needs to be done to bring on board rebel groups who arestill fighting the Government, the United Nations peacekeeping chief warned today.

(Full Articles on UN Website)

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Upcoming Events of Interest:

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Discussion on "Ends and Means: American

Security Strategy and Defense Budgets."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/in-search-of-terrorist-en_b_1031364.html

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE79O0AR20111025







Speakers: Introduction: Thomas Donnelly, AEI; and Speaker: Representative AdamSmith (D-WA), Ranking Member, House Armed Services Committee.WHEN: 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.WHERE: AEI, 1150 17th Street, NWCONTACT: Veronique Rodman at 202-862-4871 or [email protected]; web site:

www.aei.orgSOURCE: AEI - event announcement at: http://www.aei.org/event/100491

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New on www.africom.mil

Pandemic Disaster Response Exercise Kicks Off in Lagos, Nigeria

http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=7354&lang=0By Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel P. LapierreU.S. AFRICOM Public AffairsLAGOS, Nigeria, Oct 25, 2011 — More than 70 civilian and military representativesfrom 22 agencies came together in Lagos, October 24, 2011, for a weeklong exercise to prepare for a potential pandemic. The Pandemic Disaster Response Tabletop Exercisewas hosted by the Nigerian government and organized by U.S. Africa Command(AFRICOM) with the support of the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian AssistanceMedicine (CDHAM) and funding through the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID).

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FULL TEXT

Panetta: No decision yet on US-Libya military ties (AP)

http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-25/news/30320966_1_mustafa-abdul-jalil-libya-mission-national-transitional-council25 October 2011

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pointedly declined Tuesday to say whether theObama administration intends to seek military ties with Libya’s new government, amiduncertainty about Islamist influences there after the demise of strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Asked at a news conference whether Libya should be a U.S. military partner and whatsuch a relationship would entail, Panetta said the U.S. would take its lead from NATO,whose months-long air campaign helped Libyan rebels oust and eventually kill Gadhafi.


http://www.africom.mil/


http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=7354&lang=0




http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=7354&lang=0





Panetta offered no direct clues to the administration’s inclinations on establishingmilitary-to-military relations with the North African nation.

“A lot of that at this point still rests with NATO,’’ Panetta said, adding that the U.S.-ledalliance was discussing when to end its Libya mission. He added that he understood some

Libya leaders had called for NATO to continue its mission “during this interim as they tryto establish some new governance.’’

So I guess what I would do at this point is leave the decision as to future securityinvolvement in the hands of NATO and then beyond that, that will give us a basis onwhich to determine whether there is an additional role,’’ he said.

He said the immediate U.S. concerns in Libya are focused on the possibility of providingmedical assistance to Libya’s wounded and preventing weapons from falling into thewrong hands. Of particular concern are anti-aircraft weapons.

Questions also persist about the nature of the new Libya and the degree of Islamistinfluence in a government now led by National Transitional Council leader MustafaAbdul-Jalil, who said Sunday that Islamic Sharia law would be the main source of legislation, that laws contradicting its tenets would be nullified, and that polygamy would be legalized.

Libya is a deeply conservative Muslim nation, with most women wearing headscarves or the all-encompassing niqab. Islamists were heavily repressed under Gadhafi and are eager to have their say, raising the prospect of a battle for influence between hardline andmoderate Muslims.

During the rebel uprising, the U.S. military was a key participant in the NATO air campaign. But Washington chose not to provide training for the rebels or supply themwith weapons. Some in Washington have questioned the extent of their commitment todemocracy.

At his news conference with Japanese Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa, Panetta alsoexpressed satisfaction with Japan’s efforts to end a stalemate over the relocation of U.S.Marines on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

Panetta, on his first visit to Asia as Pentagon chief, was scheduled to travel Wednesday toSouth Korea to meet with government leaders and talk to U.S. troops.

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U.S. enters Libya, leaves Iraq (CNN)

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/25/opinion/hayden-libya-iraq/?hpt=wo_t225 October 2011By Michael V. Hayden, CNN Contributor






Editor's note: Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who was appointed by President George W. Bushas CIA director in 2006 and served until February 2009, is a principal with the Chertoff

Group, a security consulting firm, and a distinguished visiting professor at George

Mason University. He formerly was director of the National Security Agency and held

senior staff positions at the Pentagon.

(CNN) -- U.S. security policy showed the effects of two substantial pivots this past week:ramping down our role in regime transformation in one Arab country even while rampingup our responsibility in another.

First to Libya, where the death of Moammar Gadhafi has finally ended the first act of what promises to be a long drama. As Iraq and Afghanistan have amply proven,collapsing the old regime is the easy part; building a functioning civil society is the realchallenge.

Gadhafi's apparent execution after he was captured, on top of the still unexplained murder

of the anti-Gadhafi forces' commander Abdel Fattah Younis three months ago, highlightsthe chaos and infighting that still exist in Libya and the need to help the Libyans build aviable state.

Michael HaydenThere is more than altruistic international good citizenship involved here. If Libya is leftto its own devices, it is not difficult to conceive of it becoming Somalia on theMediterranean, an ungoverned space threatening the heart of Europe as well as criticalinternational lines of communication. We have already begun to fret over the loss of control of thousands of man-portable surface-to-air missiles. These are reasons enough tostay engaged.

There are other effects from this week's success that will also need to be managed. NATOstretched the United Nations' mandate to "protect civilians" as far as legally possible(about as far as we domestically stretched the definition of "not war"), actively isolated portions of the battlefield to ensure local advantage to the anti-Gadhafi fighters, andconducted what at times looked like close air support -- integrating NATO airpower withthe fire and movement of their ground forces. What impact will being the air force for the National Transitional Council's fighters have on Security Council members when nextthey face a question of "protecting" civilian populations?

The Libyan success will also have to be managed within NATO. It was Americanintelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, defense suppression, electronic warfare,refueling and precision weapons that kept the alliance in the game. Will the lesson be thatEuropeans will have to do more in the future? Or did the Libyan adventure teach themthat current levels of investment are "good enough"? It's not an idle question, as manyseem to already be crowding around the exits in Afghanistan.

And this week's events in Libya will have regional impacts. For Egypt and Tunisia, theyhold the long-term prospect of a like-minded neighbor. For rulers in Syria and Yemen,




they pose an existential question: Does Libya teach me what happens if I stay too long?Or does it simply reinforce what I already knew -- that the stakes of this game are veryhigh and I have to do whatever I have to do to win? For rulers in Teheran the issue is lessambiguous: So this is what the West might do to you if you give up your nuclear program.

While managing these byproducts of success in Libya, the president also announced that, by the end of the year, "the last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq withtheir head held high, proud of their success."

For some in the United States and in Iraq this was a rewarding moment, the end of a badchapter for both peoples. Others, though, smell danger. Many had expected a sustainedAmerican presence; even Iraqi military leaders had talked about the continuing need for training, intelligence, logistics and air defense from the United States.

There was also just the raw political impact of a continued American footprint. In the

north, Americans on the ground had dampened native passions along an Arab-Kurd-Turkmen fault line. American presence overall gave heart to those in the Iraqi politicalspectrum who would oppose undue Iranian influence in Iraqi affairs. That presence alsoseemed to help manage Turkish reaction (and potential overreaction) to PKK raidsallegedly mounted from Iraq. And for Iraqi Sunnis, a visible American footprint wasoften seen as their best guarantee against the actions of what many viewed as a predatoryShiite government.

In short, a continued American presence was seen as calming, buying time for Iraqi politics and institutions to grow to meet the demands they are facing.

To be sure, the United States is not abandoning Iraq. Our talented ambassador there, JimJeffrey, will have some 16,000 government employees and contractors under hiscommand. But this is not the same as an enduring military presence.

Many seemed to realize this. American commanders in Iraq regularly called for asubstantial five-figure residual force, and two successive secretaries of defense advocated publicly for a continued American presence, even as the president they served did notdraw back from his campaign commitment to end the American military's role there.

In the end, though, it was the Iraqis, and especially Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whocould not deliver on the one nonnegotiable American demand -- immunity from Iraqi lawfor U.S. troops. No American administration could accept anything less.

Given al-Maliki's worldview and his fragile political situation, it was hard enough towrest this concession from him in 2008. It required a sustained, unrelenting, personaleffort from the highest levels of the U.S. government, and success was never guaranteed.It is not clear that similar efforts were made in 2011.




In any event, the president chalked up the U.S. withdrawal as a "promise kept," even ashis officials worked to the last minute to sustain a U.S. presence.

In both Iraq and Libya it was an interesting week: engagement and disengagement,leadership and resignation, moving in and moving out -- with both the burden and the

necessity of global leadership on clear display.

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AFRICOM: Carter Ham in Djibouti (La Nation)

http://www.africatime.com/djibouti/nouvelle.asp?no_nouvelle=631586&no_categorie25 October 2011(Translated from French)

Yesterday, at the presidential Palace, President Ismail Omar Guelleh, received thecommanding general of the American forces of AFRICOM, General carter Ham, with

whom he discussed the security situation in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.

Yesterday, the President of the Republic, Ismail Omar Guelleh, received General Carter Ham, the Commanding General of AFRICOM in a meeting in the Presidential Palace.The meeting took place in the presence of the US Ambassador to Djibouti, Mrs. GeetaPasy.

This was a favorable opportunity for the Djiboutian President and the US military leader to address many topics including the situation in Somalia and security in the Middle East.They also discussed the military cooperation between Djibouti and the United States.Regarding this last topic, the two countries enjoy an important collaboration in the fightagainst international terrorism.

Also among the topics discussed were the laws dealing with the piracy spreading off of the Somali coast and in the Indian Ocean. It is noteworthy that General Carter F. Ham isvisiting Djibouti for the first time, the only African country hosting a permanentAmerican military base.

Let us also remind [our readers] that AFRICOM is the military command in charge of USmilitary engagements on the African Continent.

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U.S. Worries Grow Over Al-Qaida's African Presence (NPR)

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141661688/u-s-keeping-close-watch-on-al-qaida-in-africa25 October 2011By Dina Temple-Raston

The U.S. has had major successes against al-Qaida this year, taking out Osama bin Ladenin Pakistan and Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.








But for American counterterrorism officials, concerns over al-Qaida in Africa keepgrowing.

In North Africa, al-Qaida's arm, al-Qaida in the Islamic Magreb, is making millions by

kidnapping foreigners. In West Africa, a local Islamist group in Nigeria named BokoHaram has started attacking international targets with suicide bombers, an al-Qaida-liketactic. And in East Africa, foreign terrorists are traveling to Somalia to train for violent jihad.

U.S. officials see all these things as an indication that al-Qaida influence in Africa is becoming stronger.

"If you ask me what keeps me up at night, it is the thought of an American passport-holding person who transits to a training camp in Somalia, gets some skill and finds their way back to the United States to attack Americans here in the homeland," Gen. Carter

Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently. "That's mission failure for us."

A Foreigner In Somalia

If you ask me what keeps me up at night, it is the thought of an American passport-holding person who transits to a training camp in Somalia, gets some skill and finds their way back to the United States to attack Americans.- Gen. Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa CommandSo imagine the reaction when a little over a week ago an unusual video appeared onIslamic websites. It was of a white man with a scarf twisted over his face standing before bags of grain and piles of clothes in a desert in Somalia. In the video, he was addressingthe hungry at a local feeding station. He said his name was Abu Abdulla al-Muhajir, or "the foreigner." And there was one thing U.S. officials noticed about the man almostimmediately: He was speaking nearly perfect English.

"Alhamdulillah," or "Praise to God," he began. "We are honored and blessed to take thisopportunity to send our heartfelt greetings to our brothers and sisters in Somalia, and wealso take this opportunity to say we love you all for the sake of Allah, and we sincerelyrelate to your suffering and affliction during this testing time."

His English wasn't quite unaccented, and his word choice wasn't quite right — but it wasclose. The young man went on to tell the crowd that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahirihad sent him to Somalia to distribute food and clothing. "Al-Qaida, under the leadershipof Sheik Ayman al-Zawahiri, continues to highlight the plight of the [community] andcontinues to support them with every means at their disposal," he said.

Possible Links To Somali Militia




Counterterrorism officials say the release of this tape could mean al-Qaida is forgingcloser ties with the group that is controlling much of southern Somalia, an Islamist militiacalled al-Shabab. It has been fighting the transitional government in Somalia for yearsand, more recently, has banned most foreign aid organizations from the parts of Somaliawhere it has control.

A famine is sweeping through southern Somalia, and the United Nations estimates thattens of thousands of Somalis have already died of hunger. Al-Shabab has been criticizedfor making the disaster worse by threatening NGOs that want to provide food aid.

The food station where the young man was addressing the Somalis was one of the fewstations controlled by al-Shabab. The group has forged ties with al-Qaida in recentmonths. U.S. counterterrorism officials, like President Obama's counterterrorism chief,John Brennan, see al-Qaida following a familiar pattern — the group takes advantage of chaos.

"Al-Qaida traditionally has taken advantage of areas that are wracked by conflict, turmoiland lack of government, it is a safe haven they see to launch attacks," Brennan toldreporters recently. "Somalia is one of the most challenging areas of the world because ithas this internal conflict, it has such a devastating famine, and it is an area that al-Qaidahas tried regularly to exploit."

Against that backdrop, it is easy to understand why the video with this mysteriousEnglish speaker talking on behalf of al-Qaida got people's attention. Intelligence officialsare trying to determine who this young man is. They have done voice comparisons,taking the audio from this video and comparing it with recordings they have of foreignersthey believe have joined al-Qaida.

So far there hasn't been a match. Then again, intelligence officials are asking why al-Qaida would send an English speaker to Somalia in the first place? The people he wasaddressing at a food station would likely only speak Somali.

So maybe, the U.S. officials say, the English-language video was aimed at the U.S.

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Western aid workers kidnapped in Somalia: agency (Reuters)

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE79O0K120111025?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews25 October 2011By Mohamed Ahmed and Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped an American, a Dane and a Somaliworking for a Danish group which clears landmines in northern Somalia on Tuesday, thesecond capture of Western aid agency staff in the region this month.








"Today, at 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) in Somalia, three staff members from the DanishDemining Group have been kidnapped. One is a Somali man, two are international staff members, an American woman and a Danish man," the group said in a statement.

Danish Demining Group is part of the humanitarian agency the Danish Refugee Council

and works in 10 countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq, clearing landmines andunexploded ordnance.

Somali gunmen kidnapped two Spanish staff working for Medicins Sans Frontieres(MSF) from the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya on October 13 and took themacross the border into the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

Abshir Diini Awale, minister of the interior and national security in the Somali region of Galmudug, said the aid workers were seized in the southern part of Galkayo town shortlyafter arriving at the airport.

"We don't know who kidnapped them, but we have alerted our security forces to track down the hostages," he told Reuters.

Galkayo straddles the border between the semi-autonomous Somali province of Puntlandand the Galmudug region. Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels do not have a strong presence there.

Colonel Mohamed Hassan, a military official in Galmudug, said the workers may have been taken by their security detail. He said the kidnappers were heading towards theSomali coast.

A Somali pirate who gave his name as Abdi told Reuters from Galkayo that a group of pirates was behind the abduction and the captives were being taken to a coastal haven.

Somali pirates have made millions of dollars from hijacking ships in the busy shippinglanes off Somalia and keeping the crews hostage until ransoms are paid for their release.

However, more and more merchant vessels now carry well-armed security teams to fightoff pirate attacks at sea. Analysts and diplomats have warned that the seafaring gunmenmight turn to other targets to make money.

Besides the abduction of the Spanish aid workers, suspected Somali gunmen also seized aBritish tourist from a northern Kenyan beach resort in September and a French womanfrom the same area on October 1. The French woman later died.

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Pentagon says military deployment to Uganda ‘will not be open-ended’ (The Hill)









25 October 2011By John T. Bennett

A senior Pentagon official told a House panel Tuesday the U.S. military deployment tocentral Africa to combat the Lord’s Resistance Army will last months but vowed it “will

not be an open-ended commitment.”

Pentagon and State Department officials described the deployment of 100 U.S. Armyspecial operations troops to Uganda as one in which those American forces will helpUgandan and other regional fighters learn how to better combine intelligence data with battlefield planning.

White House and Pentagon officials say those American service members will be helpingregional forces and will not be engaging in combat unless necessary for self-defense.“We will not go on indefinitely,” Assistant Defense Secretary of Defense for InternationalSecurity Affairs Alexander Vershbow told House Foreign Affairs Committee members.

“We will pull back, and we hope [regional allied forces] will be able to continue with thistraining and finish the job.”

The Uganda deployment was set in motion last May, when Congress overwhelminglyapproved the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.The law, which received scant media attention at the time, authorized President Obama tosend U.S. troops to Africa.

Obama administration and military officials envision a small U.S. deployment that “runsmonths,” Vershbow said, telling the lawmakers the administration will evaluate theeffectiveness of the effort to boost regional forces in several months.

Vershbow first told the panel that the primary goal was to help U.S. partners in the regionremove strongman Joseph Kony and other Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leaders fromthe battlefield or capture them. Kony and LRA forces are accused of massacring civilians,including many children.

Under questioning from Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Vershbow later acknowledged thatthe mission could lead to Kony being “captured or killed.”

Committee members from both parties expressed skepticism about whether U.S. forceswould be able to stay out of the fighting between Uganda-allied forces and the LRA.

Vershbow and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs DonaldYamamoto were frank in saying the administration could not give Congress suchguarantees.

That’s because the deployment is different from other so-called “train-and-equip”missions that American forces conduct routinely, as it will send U.S. troops “into thefield” sometimes “at the platoon level” to assist allied forces, Vershbow said.




That will put American troops close to the front lines. State and Pentagon officialsexplained that this is why they will be sent to central Africa “combat equipped,” in casemust defend themselves.

The need to ensure the U.S. troopers were ready and equipped to fight, if needed, led theWhite House to determine that it should comply with the War Powers Act by formallynotifying lawmakers about the mission.

The White House did just that on Oct. 14, the day it publicly announced the deployment.

There was skepticism over the mission from both sides of the aisle, with both Reps. DanaRohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) raised pointed questions.

Rohrabacher questioned the cost of such deployments and the wisdom of interjectingU.S. troops into African tribal disputes.

“The United States cannot afford to pay the price to win everyone’s freedom across theworld,” Rohrabacher said, pointing to the nearly $1 trillion cost to Washington of therecent Libya military intervention. (Rohrabacher said Libya should use its oil revenues to pay back Washington.)

Sherman was skeptical that U.S. troops would actually just be training and equippingUgandan and other allied forces, saying that proved not to be the case in Vietnam.

When Vershbow could not guarantee that American special operations forces would nothave to engage Lord’s Resistance Army forces in self-defense, Sherman questionedwhether the administration was giving too much legal and operational sway “tolieutenants.”

During the hearing, the officials and lawmakers described an LRA that consists of between 200 and 400 fighters.

In their efforts to assist African allied troops, Vershbow acknowledged that U.S. troopscould move across the central African region, operating in numerous nations includingUganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and others.

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) called the LRA “not a sophisticated insurgency.”

He also pressed the officials on whether Ugandan officials formally “requested [U.S.] boots on the ground.”

Vershbow danced around the question for several moments before telling Duncan “theywelcomed this kind of training.”




Connolly questioned the officials on just how the situation in Uganda and central Africafit within U.S. strategic and national security interests.

“Everything is interconnected,” Vershbow responded.

Terrorist organizations can use such “ungoverned” and “underdeveloped” nations to “runamok” by training for and planning attacks, Vershbow said, pointing to Somalia as a prime example.Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt of Ohio called for an estimate of how much the centralAfrican deployment would cost, saying, “someone should have some idea” about thelikely price tag.

The officials said U.S. Africa Command is now funding the operation with monies fromits operations and maintenance coffers, and a more thorough cost projection is in theworks.

###

Administration Officials Face Skeptical Lawmakers on Uganda Operation (FOX

News)

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/25/administration-officials-face-skeptical-lawmakers-on-uganda-operation/25 October 2011

The U.S. military operation against a ruthless guerrilla group accused of widespreadatrocities is a short-term deployment with the specific goal of ending the threat of theLord's Resistance Army in Africa, Obama administration officials insisted on Tuesday.

Facing skeptical members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, administrationofficials said the roughly 100 American troops -- mostly U.S. Army Special Forces -- had been dispatched to central Africa as advisers to regional forces pursuing leader JosephKony and top commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army.

The U.S. designated the group a terrorist organization in 2001.Alexander Vershbow, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs,said the guerrilla group had been reduced to about 200 core fighters spread across vast jungle terrain in Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. However, Konyand other commanders remain at large and continue to order atrocities, which requiredU.S. help with intelligence and coordination of operations.

"There are no doubt significant long-term challenges associated with building partner capacity in Africa, but this is a short-term deployment with specific goals and objectives,"Vershbow told the committee. He later added: "If we think adjustments to the mission arewarranted over time, we will consider them. If we do not believe our collective efforts areresulting in significant progress, we will not continue this deployment."








Pressed by lawmakers for a timetable, Vershbow said he couldn't offer any specifics, but"we're talking months. We will review in a few months."

Asked to define success, the Pentagon official said it was "capturing or killing Kony andother commanders." He also included defections from the guerrilla group.

Long considered one of Africa's most brutal rebel groups, the Lord's Resistance Army began its attacks in Uganda more than 20 years ago but has been pushing westward. TheObama administration and human rights groups say its atrocities have left thousands deadand have forced as many as 300,000 Africans to flee. They have charged the group withseizing children to bolster its ranks of soldiers and sometimes forcing them to become sexslaves.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for heinous attacks in multiplecountries.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama notified Congress that he was sending about100 U.S. troops to central Africa to advise in the fight against the guerrilla group.Vershbow said they are carrying small arms for protection and communication systems asthey operate in an advisory role.

Republicans and Democrats largely backed Obama's decision, seeing it as the next stepafter congressional passage in 2010 of the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which had strong bipartisan support. Congressionaloutrage over the guerrilla group and Kony also remains strong.

"We are not here to determine whether Joseph Kony is evil," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairwoman of the committee. "We know that he is."

Said Rep. Ed Royce, a Republican: "Sometimes just getting rid of one person does makea difference." Rep. Donald Payne, a Democrat, talked of a "madman."

Yet lawmakers are weary of war after a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,concerned about costs in a time of budget cuts and suspicious of a slippery slope whencombat troops are used as military advisers. The long Vietnam War and the disastrousU.S. involvement in Somalia in the 1990s still weigh heavily.

Rep. Donald Manzullo, a Republican, said there were concerns and anxiousness amonglawmakers that the operation could expand, requiring more troops.

Don Yamamoto, deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the short-termdeployment was part of a larger strategy in partnership with the United Nations, AfricanUnion and other partners.

"The protection of civilians continues to be central to that strategy," he said.




Frustration with Obama's use of the military in Libya without congressional approval alsoconcerned some lawmakers, particularly Republicans. However, one of the strongeststatements of support came from a conservative GOP senator who didn't attend thehearing but provided a statement.

"This is not a Libya,' said Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican, who later added: "It is time toend Kony's reign of terror."

Attending the hearing was 22-year-old Evelyn Apoko, who was abducted by the Lord'sResistance Army and maimed during years of captivity.

###

Somalia's president questions Kenya's al-Shabaab mission (The Telegraph)


25 October 2011By Mike Pflanz

Somalia's president has criticised Kenya's military invasion of his country, raising fears of a split in support for the mission to hunt down al-Qaeda-linked Islamists.Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said the operation, already in its tenth day, had begunwithout him being fully informed, which would "not be allowed".

"Somalia's government and its people will not allow forces entering its soil without prior agreement," he told reporters in Mogadishu.

"There is only one thing we know about the Kenyan forces, and that is their offer of training to the national army of Somalia." The statements appeared to contradict a deal on"co-operation in undertaking security and military operations" including "coordinated pre-emptive action" signed between Kenyan and Somali ministers last week.

The confusion threatens to destabilise relations between the two neighbours at a timewhen at least 2,000 Kenyan soldiers are deep within southern Somalia, hunting down al-Qaeda-linked Islamists accused of kidnapping Westerners.

Demonstrations against Sheikh Sharif's comments erupted in a border town between thetwo countries on Tuesday, where there appeared to be strong support for the Kenyanmission.

"We want Kenya and Somalia to fight al-Shabaab in every corner. We do not have anyother hope for life," Gedi Farah, an elder from the Dhobley area, told the Reuters newsagency.

"Kenya, do not believe the words of our weak, mad president. Please fight al-Shabaaband go deep into Somalia. We want to return to our homes." Sultan Ahmed Farah,








communications director for Sheikh Sharif's office, said that co-operation betweenSomalia and Kenya was ongoing and that the disagreement was simply over timing andsharing of information.

"The concern is that certain things have to be discussed first before proceeding with the

agreement of both parties," he said.

"In the regard of Kenya training Somalia's armed forces, and helping with logistics, thereis no issue. Only that for certain actions the information did not arrive before theoperations took place." A Kenyan government spokesman could not immediately bereached.

The diplomatic confusion came as Kenya stepped up security in its capital, Nairobi,following two separate explosions on a pub and a bus stop in the city centre on Monday,which killed one person and injured 24.

Police refused to link the attacks to threats from al-Shabaab to revenge the Kenyaninvasion with fresh terror strikes on Nairobi.

###

Somali president blasted for anti-Kenya comments (Arab News)

http://arabnews.com/world/article524253.ece25 October 2011By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU: Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed came under fire on Tuesday for casting doubt on the government’s support for a Kenyan incursion into the south of theHorn of Africa nation to take on rebels.

Ahmed said on Monday the Somali government was not happy with the deployment of Kenyan soldiers across the border because the incursion went beyond an initial agreementfor logistical support for Somali soldiers.

Kenya sent thousands of troops and heavy weapons into Somalia 10 days ago in acampaign to push Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab rebels away from the border,following a series of kidnappings by Somali gunmen on Kenyan soil.

Kenyan soldiers have advanced on several fronts along with Somali troops and alliedmilitias but there has yet to be a serious showdown with Al-Shabab. The first major confrontation is expected to be in the strategic transit town of Afmadow.

In the Somali town of Dhobley near the border with Kenya, hundreds of demonstratorstook to the streets on Tuesday waving Kenyan and Somali flags and burning pictures of the president.






“We want Kenya and Somalia to fight Al-Shabab in every corner. We do not have anyother hope for life,” Gedi Farah, an elder from the Dhobley area, told Reuters.

“Kenya, do not believe the words of our weak, mad president. Please fight Al-Shabab andgo deep into Somalia. We want to return to our homes,” he said.

Somali military officials and a spokesman for the pro-government Ras Kamboni militiaurged the demonstrators to calm down, saying the president’s remarks were not in linewith the Somali government’s position.

“The Somali government does not support Al-Shabab. It is only the president and thatwill be solved,” said Col. Yasin Warfa, a government military official.

Since being elected as president in 2009 under a UN-hosted peace process, Ahmed hasfailed to stamp any authority on a country that has lacked effective central governmentcontrol for two decades.

Since launching an insurgency in 2007, Al-Shabab has seized large chunks of southernand central Somalia and is still battling government troops and African Union soldiersfrom Uganda and Burundi in parts of the capital Mogadishu.

The group includes hundreds of foreign fighters who are urging jihad against thegovernment and Al-Shabab has also struck outside Somalia, killing 79 people in theUgandan capital Kampala last year.

###

Tunisia election: Partial results suggest Ennahda win (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-1545357925 Oct 2011

Partial official results from Tunisia suggest victory for the moderate Islamist partyEnnahda, in the first democratic elections prompted by the Arab Spring uprisings.The electoral commission said Ennahda was well ahead in the vote for a new assemblythat will write a constitution and appoint a caretaker government.

However Ennahda is not expected to have an overall majority. Coalition talks withsecular parties have begun.

Sunday's vote was hailed by observers.

The polls were Tunisia's first democratic elections, and followed the fall of PresidentZine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown in January after mass demonstrations. Hehad been in power for 23 years.






However, unlike its eastern neighbour Libya, Tunisia's transition from authoritarian rulehas been largely peaceful.

Caretaker government

On Tuesday the electoral commission said Ennahda had won 15 out of 39 domestic seatsdeclared so far in a new assembly of 217 seats.

This brings Ennahda's total to 24, after the party won nine of the 18 seats reserved for Tunisians living abroad, in results declared on Monday.

The party's leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, has pledged not to set up an Islamist state and torespect multi-party democracy.

Ennahda officials named have named two centre-left secularist groups, the Congress for the Republic (CPR) and Ettakatol, as possible coalition partners.

The CPR is in second place in the vote, officials said. Its leader, Moncef Marzouki, saidhe was ready to work with Ennahda and others.

"We wish to have a national government as wide as possible with all the parties," he toldReuters news agency.

Ettakatol leader Mustapha Ben Jafaar told AFP news agency coalition talks had alreadystarted.

The US and EU have praised Tunisia on the peaceful election process, with PresidentBarack Obama saying the vote was "an important step forward".

###

Iran's Ahmadinejad says West set to plunder Libya (Reuters)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/25/us-libya-ahmadinejad-idUSTRE79O2QK2011102525 October 2011

Western countries supported Muammar Gaddafi when it suited them but bombed theLibyan leader when he no longer served their purpose in order to "plunder" the northAfrican country's oil wealth, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.

While Tehran has applauded the people of Libya for overthrowing the man it consideredan illegitimate dictator, Ahmadinejad warned Libyans that the West now aimed to runtheir country for them.








"Show me one European or American president who has not travelled to Libya or has notsigned an agreement (with Gaddafi)," Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live inwhich he accused the West of ordering the former leader's execution.

"Some people said they killed this gentleman to make sure he would not be able to say

anything, just like what they did to bin Laden," he said.

Iran accuses the West of helping create the Sunni Muslim militant group al Qaeda run bySaudi-born Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in May.

Ahmadinejad derided the West's approach to the Security Council, which he called an"organization with no honor," saying the UN resolution to take action against Gaddafiwas used as an authorization to "plunder" Libyan oil.

"Any decision that would strengthen the presence, domination or influence of foreignerswould be contrary to the Libyan nation's interests," Ahmadinejad said.

"The expectation of the world of the Libyan nation is that they stand and run the countrythemselves."

The downfall of Gaddafi, after he gave in to pressure to abandon nuclear work, hasreinforced the view of hardliners in Tehran that no good would come of makingconcessions to the West.

Iran has been subjected to four rounds of sanctions by the United Nations since 2006 over its disputed nuclear program. Western powers accuse Iran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon, but Tehran insists its program is peaceful.

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Africa: U.S. Tightens Military Grip on Africa (All Africa)

http://allafrica.com/stories/201110250430.html25 October 2011By Glen Ford

Scores of Somali civilians have been killed in U.S. drone attacks in the southern region of the country, as Washington tightens its military grip on much of the continent. Thecurrent offensive involves thousands of Kenyan troops that are threatening the major Somali city of Kismayo. The American drones are supporting the Kenyan invasion. Thedrones' origins are officially secret, but it is known that the U.S. operates drone bases inEthiopia and Djibouti, which is home to a huge American base.

For all practical purposes, the U.S. has made proxies of Ethiopia and the five member states of the East African Community: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.The Ugandans and Burundians safeguard the airport that is the lifeline for Somalia's puppet regime in Mogadishu, where the CIA operates a major facility. In September, the






militaries of the East African Community held joint exercises with AFRICOM, the U.S.Africa Command.

Such exercises with American forces have become commonplace. The U.S. DefenceDepartment is busily training the militaries of Mali, Chad, Niger, Benin, Botswana,

Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Gabon, Zambia, Uganda, Senegal,Mozambique, Ghana, Malawi and Mauretania. ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, is considering asking the U.S. navy to help it out with its pirate problem. Most of the militaries of the African Union already communicate withAmerican command-and-control equipment, requiring U.S. advisors. The overlappingentanglements have allowed the U.S. military to achieve deep penetration of the armedforces of most African nations.

In such a web of dependency, few standing African armies are capable of defendingthemselves if the aggressor is the United States. But in most cases, the U.S. would likelyget its way without a fight, since the officer class of so many African militaries have

direct ties with their American counterparts. The U.S. has so thoroughly infiltratedAfrican armies, many, if not most, would be of no use for national defence against theAmericans.

The Americans are almost everywhere, but the French never left Africa. Although Franceand the U.S. were long-time rivals in Africa, waging proxy wars against each other through their African flunkies, their joint actions against Haiti and Libya, and in bringingdown the government in the Ivory Coast, signal that the French and Americans are full partners in neo-colonialism.

Now President Obama has officially sent 100 U.S. Special Forces troops to Uganda andneighbouring countries, ostensibly to track down a rebel force. They will also operate inthe new nation of South Sudan.

Meanwhile, the NATO attack on Libya threatens to set the whole northern tier of Africaablaze, a pretext for further U.S. and French operations. American penetration of Africahas reached the point that any nation "such as Eritrea "that does not have a militaryrelationship with the United States is marked for regime change. Instead of the pan-Africanist dream of a United States of Africa, we are seeing an Africa under the militarythumb of the United States.

###

In Search of Terrorist Enemies in Africa (Huff Post)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/in-search-of-terrorist-en_b_1031364.html25 October 2011By John Feffer

An informal competition took place during the Bush years for the title of "second front"in the war on terror. Administration officials often referred to Southeast Asia as the next






major franchise location for al-Qaeda, with the Philippines in particular slated to becomethe "next Afghanistan." Then there was the border between Brazil, Argentina, andParaguay, which State Department officials termed a "focal point for Islamic extremismin Latin America." Worried about the spread of al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa, theBush administration also developed the Pan-Sahel Initiative, which became the Trans-

Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative before finally being folded into the Pentagon's newAfrica Command.

In none of these regions did a new Afghanistan in fact develop. Still, U.S. counter-terrorism operatives continue to ply their trade all over the map. The "second front"thesis, meanwhile, is alive and well and living in Africa and its immediate environs.

Last summer, long before the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the CIA was already billing al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as the most urgent threat to the UnitedStates. Beginning in May, the shadowy Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) beganusing drones to target AQAP leaders in Yemen, which lies across the Red Sea from the

horn of Africa. The campaign escalated over the summer, culminating in the killing of AQAP leader, U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, at the end of last month. The administrationhas also emphasized the link between al-Qaeda and the al-Shabaab militias in Somalia --through AQAP as a go-between -- and is now supporting Kenya's recent incursion intothat country. Then there's the recent dispatch of U.S. Special Forces to central Africa,with Pentagon chief Leon Panetta worrying about "elements there that either have ties toal-Qaeda or that represent the forces of terrorism on their own." And plenty of punditsand politicians are urging the administration to address the prospect of radical Islamiststaking over the North African countries liberated during the Arab Spring.

It might seem a strange time for all this terrorism talk to resurface. Osama bin Laden isdead, and his cohort in Pakistan is beleaguered. There are fewer than 100 al-Qaedaoperatives in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a spent force, and the Obamaadministration announced last week that all U.S. troops will be out of the country byyear's end (though as many as a thousand may in fact remain behind).

After the first Gulf War, Colin Powell complained that the United States was running outof enemies to fight. Now, the United States is discovering that it might be running out of terrorists to fight as well.

Ah, but "terrorism" is a flexible term, and Africa is a big place. The "second front" thesiscontinues to thrive. But it’s just as full of hot air as before.

Let's start with AQAP, the CIA's greatest terrorist concern. It's not particularly large, probably no more than 300 core operatives, according to Fawaz Gerges in his new book The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda, and it lacks any mass following. "Although AQAP isextremely dangerous -- as shown by its offensive against the Yemeni authorities, thefailed underwear bomber, and the foiled mail bombings – it poses a relatively slightchallenge to Yemen and a limited security menace to the West," Gerges writes. "It doesnot possess the material, human means or endurance to sustain a transnational campaign,




nor does it have the assets or resources to build viable alliances with Yemeni tribes and asocial welfare infrastructure."

The situation in Yemen is complicated by a major grassroots effort to unseat the country’slong-serving authoritarian leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Obama administration has

called on Saleh to step down. But it has also relied on Saleh's support to conduct aerialattacks. Indeed, as Ibrahim Sharqieh of Brookings Doha Centre has pointed out, theUnited States is worried that Yemen's Islamist-flavored opposition, should it take power,would not continue to fight AQAP. Just as in Pakistan, however, the drone strikes inYemen are focusing anger at the United States and helping to create future terrorists. TheObama administration would be well-advised to stop the drone attacks, decisively end itsrelationship with Saleh, and welcome a new political order in Yemen. Given the deep-seated rift between Islamist politicians and al-Qaeda terrorists, this would also make for the most effective counter-terrorism policy.

Obama is making similar mistakes just across the Red Sea in Africa proper. Last week,

Kenya sent troops and tanks 100 miles into Somalia to fight the militant organization al-Shabaab, which it accused of kidnapping several foreigners in Kenya. Although the U.S.government has denied conducting air strikes in support of the operation, U.S.ambassador to Kenya Scott Gratian pledged technical assistance to the Kenyans. Whatseemed initially to be an invitation to the Kenyans to intervene has turned into somethingaltogether different. Although equally disposed against al-Shabaab, the Somaligovernment has rejected the invasion, thinking that Kenya was only intending to providetraining and logistical support. The last time a country invaded Somalia – Ethiopia in2006, with U.S. support – the disastrous action gave birth to the very al-Shabaab thatKenya is now fighting.

Al-Shabaab, Arabic for "the youth," is not exactly a group of choir boys. In 2010, thegroup announced its formal affiliation to al-Qaeda. Despite this announcement, thegroup's ties to al-Qaeda are likely to be weak, and its popularity recently plummeted because of its culpability for the famine that has struck Somalia. But there's nothing like aforeign invasion to bring a country together across ideological lines, as happened after theEthiopian invasion five years ago. Al-Shabaab might just have been given a new lease onlife by Kenya's actions.

In nearby Uganda, meanwhile, the dispatch of U.S. Special Forces is, on the face of it,about dealing with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by the pathological JosephKony. The LRA certainly qualifies as a terrorist outfit, but Kony is no Islamic radical. Heconsiders himself some form of Christian. So why is Panetta suddenly talking about al-Qaeda in this case? It goes back to the link the United States has asserted between al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda in Somalia.

"The Ugandans did not pull out from Somalia following the 2010 Kampala bombings,"writes Foreign Policy In Focus contributor Paul Mutter in Great Game in the Horn of Africa, "and remain committed to maintaining a force there, something other U.S. alliesin Africa have been reluctant to do. Those boots on the ground might go some way in




firmly establishing a central Somalia government the United States and Uganda can livewith."

Terrorism is, of course, not the only thing the Obama administration is looking at inAfrica. Securing access to oil is a key priority for the United States, and it needs relative

stability to guarantee that access. Uganda is just starting up a new oil industry. Energycorporations are ramping up their exploration in Kenya. To the north, the oil fields of South Sudan have outside investors salivating.

On the other side of Africa, Ghana has also recently discovered black gold, and it'salready had an effect on its economic statistics. "According to Economy Watch, Ghanawas the world’s fastest growing economy in the first half of 2011 with a GDP growth rateof 20 percent, which is six percent higher than the first runner-up, Qatar," writes FPIFcontributor Kwei Quartey in Dismantling Elmina Castle. But the oil profits remainconcentrated in the hands of the few in a country where the gross national income per capita hovers around $700 and life expectancy is only 57.

The discovery of new oil fields in Africa raises the stakes considerably. The intersectionof oil and militarism, what Kevin Philips has called petro-imperialism, has transformedthe U.S. military into a "global oil-protection force." The maps of oil fields in Africa andU.S. military involvement in the continent correspond all too closely. The threat of terrorists from Africa sponsoring another lone suicide attack on America certainlycaptures headlines. But the threat of terrorists disrupting the flow of oil from the region isthe more immediate concern of national security officials.

During the Bush years, second fronts in terrorism proliferated as the rulingneoconservatives imagined remapping the globe to accommodate U.S. interests. Today,there is really only one second front, Africa. As U.S. forces continue to withdraw fromCentral Asia and the Middle East, this second front is fast becoming the war onterrorism’s first front. It will be a terrible irony if the first American president with rootsin Africa ends up turning the continent upside down in America's endless search for, and production of, enemies.

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Uganda opposition leader to stay under house arrest (Reuters Africa)

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE79O0AR2011102525 October 2011By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda will keep opposition leader Kizza Besigye under housearrest until he promises to stop participating in anti-government protests that have marredthe nation's image, national police said on Tuesday.

A senior official in his party rejected the demand and said his supporters were mobilisingto free Besigye.






Early this year, a spate of opposition led, anti-government protests -- stoked by rampantinflation, escalating corruption and extravagance of public officials -- rocked the eastAfrican country boasting the third largest economy in the region.

Besigye, head of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda's biggest opposition party ranged against long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni, has been the galvanisingfigure for the popular unrest.

He has been confined to his home in the town of Kasangati outside the capital Kampalasince October 18, when he attempted to join the second round of the so-called "walk-to-work" protests.

"We'll keep him under preventive arrest and our personnel will not allow him to leave hishouse," said police spokeswoman, Judith Nabakoba. "Regaining his liberty and freedomwill depend on his judgement. He will have to first renounce participating in violent

activities and disrupting peace."

Police have arrested dozens of opposition members across the country over the lastseveral days for joining the protests, in which motorists and commuters abandon vehiclesand instead walk to their workplaces.

Seven of those arrested have been charged with treason and three with concealment of treason.

FDC deputy foreign secretary Ann Mugisha said Besigye would not comply with policedemands and that his backers were being summoned to converge at his home to liberatehim.

"Besigye is a strong and determined man and he won't give in to intimidation... We'remobilising his supporters and they're the ones who will go to his home and liberate him."

The commander of the police unit stationed outside Besigye's gate, Sam Omara, toldlocal television on Monday evening that they had banned Besigye from receiving visitorsafter being embarrassed by a group of university students.

After a brief visit to Besigye, the students donated a potty, a bucket and rolls of toilet paper to the policemen who Besigye had accused of lacking toilet facilities.

"Of course their intention is starve him, they have already remanded his aides... but thereare thousands of people of good who will keep sending him food," Mugisha said.

For the third time, Besigye stood and lost to Museveni in an election in February thisyear, but he rejected the results, asserting that the vote had been rigged.




In power for 25 years, Museveni was initially credited with restoring the rule of law andfixing a broken economy in Uganda but has subsequently been accused of becomingincreasingly autocratic and seeking to be president for life.

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END REPORT

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