AFRICOM Related News Clips July 26, 2010

8/9/2019 AFRICOM Related News Clips July 26, 2010

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office26 July 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

U.S. to step up efforts to train, equip African peacekeepers in Somalia (Stars andStripes)(Pan Africa) U.S. forces will step up efforts to train and equip African Unionpeacekeepers engaged in a fight against Islamic militants in Somalia, the commander of

AFRICOM said.

US Africa Command digs in, plans to give more aid to Amisom (East African)(Pan Africa) The United States military command for Africa (Africom) is gainingacceptance on the continent and is planning to increase its support for the AfricanUnion force in Somalia, the commands leader said last week.

U.S. Attorney General on Visit to Underscore Anti-Terror Cooperation(AllAfrica.com)(Pan Africa) Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to Kampala to address Africanheads-of-state during the opening day of the Africa Union summit on Sunday.

Officials say little about raid on terrorist camp in Sahara (Washington Post)(Mauritania) Mauritanian commandos backed by the French military carried out theraid in the dead of night, guns blazing as they pounced on a small terrorist campsite ina desolate stretch of the Sahara Desert.

Al-Qaida in N. Africa says French hostage killed (Associated Press)(North Africa) The leader of al-Qaida's offshoot in North Africa said in a messagebroadcast Sunday that the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger inApril.

Uganda president calls for Africa to fight terror (Associated Press)(Pan Africa) A top U.S. official on Sunday pledged continued support for Africanpeacekeeping efforts in war-torn Somalia, as Uganda's president urged African leadersto unite against terrorism just weeks after Somali militants set off deadly twin bombingsin Uganda.


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Kampala twin attacks expose US uncertainty over Somalia (East African)(Somalia) The terror attacks in Kampala have highlighted the Obama administrationsuncertainty over how to respond to the Al Shabaab insurgency, a leading US Africapolicy analyst says.

Al-Qaeda in the Sahel (Al Jazeera)(Algeria) A Saharan front in the GWOT was planned by the US and Algeria in 2002 andlaunched in early 2003.

Uganda bombings overshadow African Union summit (CNN)(Pan Africa) Heads of 35 African nations observed two minutes of silence Sunday tohonor more than 70 people killed in terrorist bomb blasts in Uganda earlier this monthas the African Union summit opened.

Guineans Will Bolster Peace Efforts in Somalia (New York Times)

(Somalia) Guinea has agreed to send hundreds of troops to Somalia to bolster theAfrican Unions peacekeeping force in the country after Somali insurgents claimedresponsibility for bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final that killed 76people.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Websitey ICC puts release of DR Congo warlord on hold pending prosecution appealy UNagency sounds alarm on deteriorating treatment of uprooted Somalisy Top UNofficials voice hope that refugees can return home to DR of Congo

-------------------------------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, July 28, 2:00 p.m., Rayburn House Office BuildingWHAT: National Security, Interagency Collaboration, and Lessons from SOUTHCOMand AFRICOMWHO: Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Witnesses by invitationonly.Info:http://www.oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=1&extmode=view&extid=195

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, July 29, 8:15 a.m., Woodrow Wilson International Centerfor ScholarsWHAT: African Growth and Opportunity Act Civil Society Forum 2010 A Decade ofProgress in Bridging the U.S.-Africa Trade GapWHO: Keynote Speakers include Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Senate ForeignRelations Committee; Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson, African Union*


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Info:http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=629709

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U.S. to step up efforts to train, equip African peacekeepers in Somalia (Stars andStripes)

STUTTGART, Germany U.S. forces will step up efforts to train and equip AfricanUnion peacekeepers engaged in a fight against Islamic militants in Somalia, thecommander of AFRICOM said.

Gen. William Kip Ward, in a speech Tuesday at a Washington-based think tank, saidU.S. policy would remain on course as his command looks for ways to lend moresupport to African Union soldiers deployed in Somalia to prevent the countrys weak

transitional government from being toppled.

However, more than five years after a Transitional Federal Government was installed inSomalia with international backing, there has been little progress in ending the chaosand anarchy that has gripped the country on the strategic Horn of Africa since thegovernment of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in January 1991. Al-Shabab,the home-grown Islamic militant group, has increased in strength and recently boastedit had spread its fight beyond Somalias borders, claiming responsibility for a bombingin Uganda.

Meanwhile, the turbulence on land has left Somali pirates free to wreak havoc offshorein the important shipping lanes off the countrys coastline.

In the six years since the U.S. adopted its containment strategy, there have been fewsigns of progress, prompting critics to ask if its time to find a new plan. Will moreweapons, training and logistical support for peacekeepers make a difference? Are therealternatives that U.S. policy makers should be considering? Or is the current strategythe best choice among a series of unattractive options?

Somalias U.S.-backed government still depends on African Union soldiers, mainlyfrom Uganda, for protection from al-Shabab. Amid the daily back-and-forth fighting in

Mogadishu, thousands of civilians have been killed by small-arms fire andindiscriminate mortar rounds fired by both sides, according to humanitarian groups.

For the U.S., the fear is that the anarchy in Somalia could turn the country into adestination point for groups like al-Qaida, who could take refuge and train for futureterror strikes abroad. While there is debate about the likelihood of Somalia serving as a


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safe haven, the twin bombings in Uganda claimed by al-Shabab also has U.S. officialsconcerned that al-Qaidas tactics are now being imitated by Somali terrorists.

Nearly two years into the Obama administration, U.S. policy in Somalia remains mostlyunchanged since the Bush era: bolster the failed states federal government with the

idea that the clannish society will one day coalesce.

In an interview this month with the South African Broadcasting Corp., President BarackObama indicated that remained the policy when he told the network that al-Shababneeds to be countered.

The transitional government there is still getting its footing, Obama said. But whatwe know is that if al-Shabab takes more and more control within Somalia, that it isgoing to be exporting violence the way it just did in Uganda.

However, some Somalia experts while conceding there is no surefire strategy forsuccess say the U.S. and others in the international community need to become moreflexible in how they deal with Somalia.

Bronwyn Bruton, a Council of Foreign Relations scholar, said in a speech at AFRICOMheadquarters on Monday that the U.S. policy in Somalia is badly flawed and attemptingto prop up an unpopular transitional government actually could be contributing to theescalation of violence in the country.

The solution in Somalia isnt a military one, according to E.J. Hogendorn, a Kenya-

based scholar with the International Crisis Group.

What needs to be done is the TFG must do much more to reach out and reconcile withdifferent local actors on the ground, including moderate elements of al-Shabab, who arenot necessarily proponents of the regional expansion of this jihadi activity, Hogendornsaid. The international community needs to send clear signals that if they (TFG) do notdo this, it will be done for them.

Rather than only dealing with the TFG, the international community should startdealing directly with some of the more successful administrations in central andsouthern Somalia. Dont channel all the money to the capital.

Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic andInternational Studies, agrees that the U.S. needs to look for other players in Somalia towork with and not focus exclusively on the transitional government. But implementingsuch a strategy is complicated, she said.


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Weve been absent from Somalia for so long weve lost the ability to identify partners,Cooke said.

And while U.S. strategy revolves around the transitional government and the AfricanUnion soldiers who protect it, there is little support in Africa for the African Union

Mission in Somalia, which involves 6,000 Ugandan and Burundi troops. Following al-Shababs bombings in Uganda earlier this month, Ugandan officials said they wouldconsider sending more forces to Somalia. However, no other nation has offered help,and the mission remains well short of the AUs 8,000-troop goal. Other assessments,both by the U.N. and other experts, estimate a peacekeeping force between 20,000 and100,000 would be required to secure Somalia a country about the size Texas.

This mission is grossly understaffed for a peacekeeping mission, Hogendorn said.

With no international interest in making a serious military investment, some Somalia

scholars say the time has come for a radically different approach: abandon all effortsand let the Somalis figure it out on their own.

The more we intervene the more damage we do, Bruton, author of the recent Councilon Foreign Relations special report: Somalia: A New Approach, told AFRICOM staffmembers Monday.

During her visit to AFRICOM headquarters, as part of the commands guest speakerprogram, Bruton argued for a U.S. policy that disengages from dealing with the TFG.Bruton says the approach is too limited and indecisive to reverse the military stalemate.

Increased civilian casualties, largely attributed to foreign troops, also have turned thepopulation against the African Union mission, she said.

The African Union is even more toxic (in Somalia) than the United States, she said. Itwill be impossible for the TFG to win hearts and minds, she said.

In addition, the U.S.s continued backing of the mission could actually strengthen al-Shabab, which uses the foreign presence as a rallying point, Bruton said.

That critique goes to the heart of the challenge facing U.S. policy makers, who view theAU force in Somalia AMISOM as the best option in Somalia. Even before her visitto the Stuttgart headquarters, Brutons call for a constructive disengagement fromSomalia had gotten the attention of AFRICOM leadership. Her paper has been widelydistributed and is provoking discussion about U.S. policy in Somalia.

What youve said is that an increase in the size of AMISOM, in your view, is goingto be counterproductive to what we are trying to achieve? AFRICOMs civilian deputy


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commander Anthony Holmes asked Bruton on Monday. There is such a starkcontradiction.

While al-Shabab would likely seize control of Mogadishu if AMISOM pulled out,Bruton argues that the terror group would split apart under the burden of governing a

place as complex and splintered as Somalia.

Leave Somalis to solve the problem because this has been caused by externalintervention, she said. I dont think their solutions include a government right now.

But in the aftermath of the twin bombings in Uganda earlier this month, concern ismounting within the U.S. government that al-Shabab will become more expeditionaryin its deployment of terror.

To leave Somalia to its own devices, and hope Shabab disintegrates, requires a risky

leap of faith, argues Hogendorn.

Thats a big if, that al-Shabab is going to fall apart. Then what you have is somethingsimilar to the Taliban in Somalia, he said. There are elements of Shabab quite willingto export their jihad.--------------------US Africa Command digs in, plans to give more aid to Amisom (East African)

The United States military command for Africa (Africom) is gaining acceptance on thecontinent and is planning to increase its support for the African Union force in Somalia,

the commands leader said last week.

In a speech to a group of Africa specialists at a think tank in Washington, Gen WilliamWard emphasised that Africom is engaged in a sustained, long-term endeavour.

Saying we have turned a corner, Gen Ward suggested that African leaders aregrowing less sceptical of the purposes of the three-year-old command which isheadquartered in Germany.

African nations have been reluctant to host Africom due to suspicions of Americanintentions as well as fears that a US military installation would invite attacks

At the same time, Africom is moving to expand its operations not in the form ofuniformed US troops, but through private contractors who will assist in efforts tosafeguard American interests in Africa.


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A Paris-based newsletter reported last month that Africom is soliciting bids for an airreconnaissance programme as part of the State Departments Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership.

Under this initiative, Africom works with 10 countries in the Maghreb and West Africa

to monitor and disrupt Al Qaedas activities in those areas.

The surveillance operation outlined in Africoms call for bids will involve twounmarked reconnaissance aircraft as well as a drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle,according to Maghreb Confidential, a publication of the Africa Intelligence group.

Three teams of private contractors serving as pilots, analysts and technicians willconduct intelligence missions in coordination with the militaries of the countries wherethey will be based, the newsletter reported.

Africom will also buy 83 four-wheel-drive vehicles that must be able to driveunnoticed on African roads, according to the Maghreb Confidential account.

The unmarked vehicles are to be delivered to countries taking part in the Trans-Saharacounter-terrorism programme.

Africoms move to contract with private firms for counter-terrorism operationscoincides with a $375 million State Department initiative involving use of US profit-making companies to train the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo,Sudan and other African countries.

This African Peacekeeping Programme (Africap) also involves construction work onbehalf of selected countries militaries.

Private US military contractors have also worked with the Ugandan and Burundiantroops assigned to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).

And Gen Ward indicated last week that Africom will be seeking ways to bolsterAmisoms capabilities in the wake of the recent terror bombings in Kampala carried outby Somalias Al Shabaab insurgents.

He ruled out direct US military involvement in Somala on the grounds that it wouldrepresent an irritant and a distraction.

The US is also worried about the presence of Al Qaeda and other militant Islamistgroups in the trans-Sahara region.


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The instability they breed there as well as in East Africa can lead to attacks against USpersons and interests around the world, or, in the worst case, against the UShomeland, Gen Ward warned last week.

In his speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the general depicted

Africom as a force for stability and good governance in Africa.

He said its purpose is to help African leaders achieve their stated aim of developingself-sustaining, accountable security forces in their countries.

Gen Ward added that Africoms long-term commitment to assisting African forces willbe implemented on an African, not an American, time-line.

Some analysts argue that Africoms main aim is to help secure the oil and gas suppliesthat the United States relies on receiving from Africa.

--------------------U.S. Attorney General on Visit to Underscore Anti-Terror Cooperation(AllAfrica.com)

Washington, DC Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to Kampala to addressAfrican heads-of-state during the opening day of the Africa Union summit on Sunday.

Holder's trip, which includes two days in Cairo, comes two weeks after twin bombingsin the Ugandan capital caused 74 deaths and scores of injuries. The attorney generalwill meet African leaders "to discuss joint U.S.-Africa efforts to promote peace,

development and justice, including cooperation on fighting terrorism," a JusticeDepartment advisory says. He is expected to be joined in those discussions by the U.S.Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Johnnie Carson, who arrived in in Kampala aftera stopover in Addis Ababa.

The timing of the Africa visit by Holder, who as head of the Justice Departmentoversees the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug EnforcementAgency, underscores high-level concern within the Obama administration over thegrowing threat posed by insecurity in Somalia and the actions of the Somali insurgentmovements, particularly al-Shabaab, which claimed to have carried out the Kampalaattacks. The movement is waging a fierce battle inside Somalia to overthrow theTransitional Federal Government, which enjoys international recognition and U.S.backing but controls limited territory in the capital, Mogadishu.

Immediately after the July 11 bombings, which occurred during the final match of the2010 World Cup, an FBI team was dispatched to Kampala to help with theinvestigation.


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"We are making whatever assistance available to the Ugandan government as they dealwith the aftermath of this attack," a senior administration official told reporters in aWhite House briefing on July 14. "We've also made sure that other countries in theregion understand that the United States stands with them against these types of attacksthat are carried out by groups such as Al Shabaab."

Several leaders of Shabaab, which was designated a foreign terrorist organization by theUnited States in 2008, are reported to have ties to Al Qaeda. Executive Order 13536issued by President Obama in April "targets those who threaten peace and stability inSomalia and those who interfere with humanitarian assistance there," the official said.

"We have designated an Al Shabaab military commander, frozen the assets of a majorAl Shabaab financier, and increased the tools available to support international effortsto weaken this group."

Holder travels to Cairo on Tuesday, where he is scheduled to hold talks with PublicProsecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, Minister of the Interior General Habib Ibrahim al-Adly, Minister of Justice Mamdouh Merei and Minister of Legislative andParliamentary Affairs Dr. Mufid Mahmoud Shehab, the Justice Department said.

The attorney general will also host a round table with reporters at the U.S. Embassy onWednesday before returning to Washington.--------------------Officials say little about raid on terrorist camp in Sahara (Washington Post)

PARIS - Mauritanian commandos backed by the French military carried out the raid inthe dead of night, guns blazing as they pounced on a small terrorist campsite in adesolate stretch of the Sahara Desert.

The troops killed six members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Osama bin Laden'sloosely organized North African affiliate, but four militants escaped into thesurrounding wastelands, Mauritanian Interior Minister Mohamed Ould Boilil saidFriday.

Details of the attack, mounted early Thursday near the border of Mali and Mauritania,were tightly held by the governments concerned. But as reports filtered out, it seemedanother inconclusive chapter in the little-noticed struggle by several North Africannations to snuff out a tiny al-Qaeda-style movement hiding in the Sahara far from theheadline-making events of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

The French Defense Ministry said Friday that the Mauritanian military carried out theraid "with technical and logistical support" from France, without further defining the


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support. In Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, Ould Boilil said the raid was designedto prevent a planned attack on a military base in Mauritania.

French officials declined to comment on reports that the commandos and the Frenchmilitary had engaged in a joint operation to free a French hostage, Michel Germaneau, a

retired engineer who was kidnapped April 22 in neighboring Niger. The terrorist groupthreatened last week to execute Germaneau if several of its imprisoned members werenot released by Monday.

In a video distributed by the group in May, Germaneau complained of poor health andasked French President Nicolas Sarkozy to find a solution to his abduction. Six weekslater, the group published the execution threat.

The Web site of El Pas, a Madrid newspaper, quoted diplomatic sources as reportingthat French special forces were directly involved in the raid. El Pas said that the

unspoken goal was to liberate Germaneau but that he was not at the campsite, contraryto electronic intelligence supplied by the United States. Bernard Valero, a FrenchForeign Ministry spokesman, declined to confirm or deny the El Pas report. "From thebeginning, we have been fully mobilized to get our fellow citizen liberated," he said.

Operating in small groups believed to total no more than 500 combatants, al-Qaeda inthe Islamic Maghreb has remained largely in the isolated desert region where Mali,Mauritania, Niger and Algeria come together.

But terrorism specialists said some of its units have raised large amounts of moneythrough ransom and duties imposed on cigarette and drug smugglers passing throughthe remote desert.--------------------Al-Qaida in N. Africa says French hostage killed (Associated Press)

The leader of al-Qaida's offshoot in North Africa said in a message broadcast Sundaythat the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger in April.

In an audio message broadcast on Al-Jazeera, Abdelmalek Droukdel said the groupkilled the 78-year-old French hostage in retaliation for the killing of six al-Qaidamembers in a recent raid by Mauritanian forces aided by the French military.

The hostage, Michel Germaneau, was abducted April 22 in Niger and officials believedhe was subsequently taken to Mali. Al-Qaida demanded in several Internet messagesaddressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France help negotiate the release ofthe group's prisoners in countries in the region.


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"Sarkozy has (not only) failed to free his compatriot in this failed operation, but heopened the doors of hell for himself and his people," Droukdel said.

"As a quick response to the despicable French act, we confirm that we have killedhostage Germaneau in revenge for our six brothers who were killed in the treacherous

operation," he said.

French government officials would not immediately comment on Sunday's audiomessage.

The precise circumstances of the recent military raid in northwest Africa remain amystery. In announcing the operation on Friday, the French Defense Ministry wouldnot say when or where the raid took place.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais and other media have reported that the raid took place

early Thursday and was an attempt to free the French hostage. But El Pais said thetroops did not find Germaneau, who had worked for Algeria's oil industry.

The offshoot of the terror network, known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, hadgiven France until Monday to help secure the release of its jailed members in the region,warning that the aid worker would be executed if Paris failed to comply.

The group is also holding two Spanish aid workers, Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta,who were taken hostage in Mauritania in November.

Amid increasing concerns about terrorism and trafficking in northwest Africa, fourcountries Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger in April opened a joint militaryheadquarters deep in the desert. The goal has been to establish a collective response tothreats from traffickers and the al-Qaida offshoot.

The United States is also trying to help and has provided U.S.-run training sessions forAfrican troops in the area.--------------------Uganda president calls for Africa to fight terror (Associated Press)

KAMPALA, Uganda -- A top U.S. official on Sunday pledged continued support forAfrican peacekeeping efforts in war-torn Somalia, as Uganda's president urged Africanleaders to unite against terrorism just weeks after Somali militants set off deadly twinbombings in Uganda.

President Yoweri Museveni told some 35 heads of state who convened in Uganda'scapital for an African Union summit that the continent needed to step up its effortsagainst terror.


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"Let us work in concert to sweep (terrorists) out of Africa," he said.

The July 11 bombings in Kampala were claimed by an al-Qaida-linked militant group inSomalia. The group, al-Shabab, said the attacks were in retaliation for civilian deaths

caused by AU peacekeepers in Somalia. Al-Shabab has also called on Somalis to fightAU peacekeepers.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the top U.S. representative at the summit, said theU.S. will continue to support AU peacekeeping efforts in Somalia.

The AU mission in Somalia has about 6,000 troops from Uganda and Burundi, but theforce is expected to rise after Guinea and Djibouti pledged additional forces.

"The United States applauds the heroic contributions that are being made on a daily

basis by Uganda and Burundian troops," Holder said. "We pledge to maintain oursupport for the AU and the AU Mission in Somalia."

Holder condemned the bombings in Uganda and said a forensic team from the FBI ishelping Ugandan authorities with the investigation.

"Make no mistake, these attacks were nothing more than reprehensible acts ofcowardice inspired by a radical and corrupt ideology," Holder said.

Museveni also told leaders his government had arrested suspected organizers of the

bombings and that interrogations were yielding "good information."

The bombings were al-Shabab's first attack outside Somalia where last year theyclaimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack, among others, on a base of AU troopsprotecting the weak U.N.-backed Somali government.

Both men spoke at a summit that planned to focus on health issues, peace and security,infrastructure, energy and food security. But the twin bombings two weeks ago and theconflict in Somalia are likely to dominate many discussions at the three-day summit.

Somalia has not had a functioning government for 20 years. The current administrationholds a few blocks of the capital and has been hampered by squabbling and corruption.

The president recently reshuffled the Cabinet but many of the same officials remain andit is unclear how the new administration intends to provide services or security.


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The U.S. and the European Union have spent millions of dollars to train 2,000 Somaligovernment soldiers at bases in Uganda, but the program's success was questionedafter a group of Somali soldiers trained in Djibouti deserted because they were not paid.

Holder also announced Sunday that his office is forming a new initiative to combat

large-scale foreign official corruption. African countries are frequently criticized forcorruption, and Somalia has been named the world's most corrupt country byTransparency International.

Somalia's weak government is fighting an Islamist insurgency that is itself riven bydivisions. Al-Shabab, the strongest insurgent group, has pledged allegiance to Osamabin Laden, and the U.S. State Department says some of its leaders have links to al-Qaida.

Intelligence sources say hundreds of extremist foreign fighters are operating in the

failed state. Many of them are Somalis with dual nationalities and diplomats fear theymay one day launch an attack on the West.

Many of the fighters have experience in the battlefields of Afghanistan, Pakistan andIraq, international officials say.--------------------Kampala twin attacks expose US uncertainty over Somalia (East African)

The terror attacks in Kampala have highlighted the Obama administrations uncertaintyover how to respond to the Al Shabaab insurgency, a leading US Africa policy analyst

says.

I dont think the administration knows what to do about Somalia, commentsPrinceton Lyman, a former US ambassador to South Africa and now a scholar at thenon-governmental Council on Foreign Relations.

The United States cant just walk away from a government it recognises, Mr Lymansays, but adds that the current US approach is not succeeding.

He suggests Washington could try to apply an Iraq-type strategy in Somalia, wherebysome clans would be persuaded to fight against Al Shabaab.

Unlike in Iraq, however, the US has almost no presence on the ground in Somalia, MrLyman notes.

It is thus unlikely that US policy will change much in the short-term, he says.


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A State Department official meanwhile told The EastAfrican that Al Shabaabs attack inKampala furthers our resolve in backing the Transitional Federal Government (TFG)and the African Union military mission in Somalia (Amisom).

A senior Obama administration official added in a press briefing last week that the US

needs to build up the capabilities of Amisom as well as the TFG.

The State Department official said separately, however, that it may be premature tostart translating these attacks into an increase in Amisoms strength.

The African Unions recent call for a four-fold expansion of Amisoms current 5,000-troop level will be discussed at an AU summit in Kampala later this month, this officialadded.

A spokesman for the US National Security Council meanwhile told The EastAfrican that

US Attorney General Eric Holder and the State Departments top Africa specialistJohnnie Carson are scheduled to attend the AU summit.

The Obama administration is unequivocal in ruling out the option of withdrawingsupport for the TFG.

Reporters taking part in last weeks White House-organised press briefing were told byone of two US officials on hand the Kampala bombings show that what weve seen inKampala is a good example of why thats not a viable way forward.

The official was referring specifically to a Council on Foreign Relations report earlierthis year by Somalia expert Bronwyn Bruton, who called for constructivedisengagement from Somalia on the grounds that the TFG does not deserve continuedUS underwriting.

To Ms Bruton, the Kampala bombings validate her view that the TFG is incapable ofdefeating Al Shabaab.

Increasing US aid to the TFG would amount to rewarding incompetence, Ms Brutonsaid.

The Kampala attacks should be taken as a warning of the futility of escalatingAmisoms involvement in Somalia, she added.

Al Shabaabs killing of World Cup fans in the Ugandan capital was meant as directretaliation for the plan to increase the number of peacekeepers on the ground inSomalia, Ms Bruton said.--------------------


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Al-Qaeda in the Sahel (Al Jazeera)

A Saharan front in the 'global war on terror' was planned between the US and theAlgerian government in 2002 and launched in 2003.

In November 2009, Richard Barrett of the UN's al-Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team saidthat while attacks by al-Qaeda and its operatives were decreasing in many parts of theworld, the situation was worsening in North Africa. He was referring specifically to theSahel region of southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.

While the UN statement fits the catastrophic image being portrayed of the Sahara-Sahelregion by the US, European and other Western interests, the truth is not only verydifferent, but even more serious in that both the launch of the Saharan-Sahelian front inthe 'global war on terror' (GWOT) and the subsequent establishment of al-Qaeda in theregion have been fabricated.

These two deceptions have one key feature in common, namely that they were bothimplemented by Algeria's secret military intelligence service, the Dpartement duRenseignement et de la Scurit (DRS), with the knowledge and complicity of the US.

I will explain each in turn.

Militarising Africa

A Saharan front in the GWOT was planned by the US and Algeria in 2002 and launched

in early 2003.

The pivotal incident that justified the launch of the new front was the abduction inFebruary-March 2003 of 32 tourists in the Algerian Sahara, ostensibly by Islamicextremists of Algeria's Groupe Salafiste pour le Prdication et le Combat (GSPC) underthe leadership of Amari Saifi (aka El Para). However, it transpired that El Para was anagent of Algeria's DRS and his false flag operation had been undertaken with thecomplicity of the US department of defence.

The idea of creating false flag incidents to justify military intervention is not new in UShistory. In 1962, for example, the US joint chiefs of staff drew up and approved plans,codenamed Operation Northwoods, that called for CIA and other operatives to commitacts of terrorism on innocent civilians in US cities and elsewhere, thus giving theappearance of a Communist Cuban terror campaign in Miami, other Florida cities andeven Washington that would create public support for a war against Fidel Castro'sCuba. The plan was ultimately rejected by President Kennedy.


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Forty years later, in the summer of 2002, a very similar plan was presented to DonaldRumsfeld, the US defence secretary, by his Defence Science Board (DSB). The DefenceScience Board recommended the creation of a 'Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group(P2OG)', a covert organisation that would carry out secret missions to "stimulatereactions" among terrorist groups by provoking them into undertaking violent acts that

would expose them to "counterattack" by US forces, along with other operations which,through the US military penetration of terrorist groups and the recruitment of localpeoples, would dupe them into conducting "combat operations, or even terroristactivities". The first 'pilot' test of the P2OG was El Para's operation in Algeria.

I explained how and why this complex relationship between the US and Algeriansecurity services developed in my book, The Dark Sahara. But to explain it in a nutshell:for the US, the presence of terrorism, fabricated or real, in the Sahara-Sahel regionwould legitimise the launch of a new front in the GWOT in Africa. This, in turn, and asexplained subsequently by numerous US government officials, would justify the

'militarisation' of Africa (seen in the authorisation of AFRICOM in 2006 and itsestablishment in 2008) and the securement for the US of African oil resources.

For Algeria, its new relationship with the US would hopefully enable the procurementof modern high-tech military equipment for Algeria's run-down military and a returnfrom pariah status (after its Dirty War of the 1990s) to international acceptability asWashington's key ally in the GWOT.

The Saharan front

Within two months of El Para's hostage-takings, the US' top military commander inEurope (with responsibility for Africa), General James Jones spoke of "large ungovernedareas across Africa that are clearly the new routes of narco trafficking, terrorist trainingand hotbeds of instability".

Even before the hostages had been released, the administration of George Bush haddesignated the Sahara as a new front in the GWOT. Bush referred to El Para as 'binLaden's man in the Sahel', while Jones' deputy commander described the Sahara as a"swamp of terror", a "terrorist infestation", which "we need to drain". The US militaryeven produced a series of maps designating the Sahara-Sahel as a 'Terror Zone'.

In January 2004, Bush's Pan-Sahel Initiative (PSI) saw US troops, special forces and'contractors' being deployed into Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad. In 2005, the PSIwas expanded through the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) toinclude Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, thus linking two of Africa'smain oil and gas-producing regions, Algeria and Nigeria, into a military securityarrangement whose architecture was American.


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With no 'real' terrorism in the region, the US, through the region's repressive regimes,sought to provoke what it called 'putative terrorists'. Algerian police, acting as agentsprovocateurs, provoked riots in the city of Tamanrasset; in Niger, a trumped up murdercharge against a Tuareg minister was designed to trigger a Tuareg rebellion, while inMay 2006, the DRS, accompanied by some 100 US special forces, flown covertly from

Stuttgart to Tamanrasset, crossed into northern Mali to support a short-lived Tuaregrebellion.

Increasing political instability and insecurity, generated primarily by this fabricatedfront in the GWOT, the increasing repression of US-backed regimes and the associateddamage to local economies and livelihoods, led to the outbreak of Tuareg rebellions inNiger in February 2007 and in Mali a few months later.

The problem for the US was that the Tuareg rebellions were proof that political unrestin the Sahel, contrary to Washington's disinformation, had nothing to do with Islamic

extremism, but was the outcome of the US' own duplicitous policy in the region - whatAmericans call 'blow-back'.

All in a name

Hostage-taking has been used to justify launching the Saharan front [AFP/SITE]

However, US embarrassment at the Tuareg rebellions was spared by the concurrent re-emergence in the region of the name 'al-Qaeda'. In January 2007, two weeks before thestart of the Niger rebellion in Niger, the GSPC, which had been insignificant in the

region since El Para's operation, changed its name to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb(AQIM).

AQIM is structured into three 'components': the 'real' AQIM, AQIM cells that have beencreated by the DRS and AQIM cells that have been infiltrated by the DRS.

In the case of AQIM in the Sahara-Sahel, now known as al-Qaeda in the Sahel (AQIS) orthe 'Sahara Emirate' ('Imarat Essahra'), it is difficult to distinguish between the lattertwo. Of the AQIS's alleged leaders, Abdelhamid abou Zad, Yahia Djouadi (and theirmany aliases) and Mokhtar ben Mokhtar (MBM) all have linkages to the DRS.Abdelhamid abou Zad is closely associated with the DRS, being El Para's 'number two'in the 2003 operation; Djouadi was also a member of El Para's team, while MBM has amore 'freelance' relationship with the DRS.

In short, the AQIS is the latest manifestation of the DRS' successful creation andinfiltration of Islamic 'terrorist' groups, in much the same way that the GIA leadershipwas infiltrated by DRS agents Djamel Zitouni and Antar Zouabri in the 1990s. In the


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case of the GIA's successor, the GSPC founder Hassan Hattab now lives under theprotection of the DRS.

Since 2008, 15 westerners have been taken hostage either directly by the AQIS or bylocal criminals, and then handed over to the AQIS. Most have finished up in the hands

of Abdelhamid abou Zad. One of these, a Briton, was killed; three are still in captivity,while the remainder have been released, allegedly for ransom payments.

Much publicity has recently been given by Western intelligence services and the mediato the assumed link between trans-Saharan trafficking of cocaine, flown into Sahelstates, especially Mali, from South America, and AQIS. While a complex network doesexist between the drugs traffickers and AQIS, Western intelligence services have failedto point out in their briefings, reports and 'leaks' to the media that the leaders of bothAQIS and the drug trafficking operations are either agents of or closely linked to thehighest levels of state security in the countries concerned, namely Algeria's DRS and

Mali's state security.

American, British and other Western intelligence services are all aware of the way inwhich the DRS has effectively constructed the AQIM/AQIS in the Sahara-Sahel, buthave failed to take action against it. This is because AQIS, far from being a threat to theWest, is more of an adjunct to the West's overall strategies in the region. It provides theUS with further justification for AFRICOM while providing European powers, notablyFrance whose nuclear industry is powered by the Sahel's uranium, with the justificationto intervene militarily in the resource-rich corridor of the Sahel. And, of course, the'threat' of al-Qaeda so close to Europe, provides European countries, such as the UK,

Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, with justification for their immigration,security and 'counter-terrorism' policies.

Self-fulfilling prophecy?

The key player, however, in this duplicitous strategy is probably no longer the US, butthe Algerian DRS. Since 2006, the DRS has been operating increasingly independentlyof its US and European counterparts. It is also dangerously riven by internal divisions,as reflected in Algeria's current political crisis.

The key focus of any further analysis should therefore be directed primarily at Algeria.Through its DRS, Algeria is now operating increasingly autonomously in presentingitself to the US and Europe as the indispensable ally of the West. This is, however, avery dangerous game.

On the one hand, the DRS, through its infiltration and control of AQIS, is maintaining asufficient threat in the region to justify its military expansion - on behalf of both theWest and its own hegemonic designs in the region. On the other hand, some elements


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within the Algerian regime are opposed to such a strategy and the possibility ofWestern intervention in the region.

At the same time, the DRS' control of the 'Sahara Emirate' is by no means absolute. Asan increasing number of young Muslims in Mauritania, Mali and elsewhere look to the

'Emirate' to provide a solution to their own repressed lives, a purposeful ideology andeven adventure, there is a very real threat that it could become a self-fulfilling prophecyand take on a life of its own.

While this is unlikely, the West would be better advised to question why Algeria ismaking so much publicity about raising troop levels in the region to the absurd figureof 75,000 by 2012. Who is the enemy they will fight? The DRS currently puts the numberof named suspected terrorists (including its own agents) in the Sahel at only 108, whilethe less well informed CIA estimates 300 to 400.

The answer is not in the threat posed by al-Qaeda, but in the far more dangerouspolitical crisis emerging within Algeria itself.--------------------Uganda bombings overshadow African Union summit (CNN)

Munyonyo, Uganda - Heads of 35 African nations observed two minutes of silenceSunday to honor more than 70 people killed in terrorist bomb blasts in Uganda earlierthis month as the African Union summit opened.

"Our condolences go to the people of Uganda for the tragic loss of lives following that

tragic incident," said Bingu Wa Mutharika, AU chairman and Malawian president.

"Terrorism has no place in Africa; it has no place in the developing world," he said. "Letus all condemn these acts."

The summit, which formally opened Sunday following a week of conferences, is beingheld at a resort hotel in Munyonyo, about 12 kilometers south of the Ugandan capital ofKampala on the shore of Lake Victoria. On July 11, three bombs at two sites in Kampalakilled 74 people and injured more than 80. Many of the victims had gathered to watchthe World Cup finals.

The Al-Shabaab militant group, which is currently battling the weak transitionalgovernment in war-torn Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying theywere in retaliation for Uganda's contribution of troops for peacekeeping operations inSomalia. About 6,000 Ugandan and Burundian troops were deployed for thepeacekeeping mission more than two years ago in the Horn of Africa nation, which hasbeen at war for more than a decade.


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Mutharika, in his remarks, stopped short of making any commitment toward AUpeacekeeping missions in Somali and the Darfur region of Sudan. However, AUCommission Chairman Jean Ping said on Friday that Guinea and Djibouti havebattalions of soldiers ready to be be deployed to Somalia.

Forty-three heads of state have said they will attend the Summit. Thirty-five hadarrived by Sunday, including Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and Nigerian presidentGoodluck Jonathan.

"While people were enjoying the World Cup, Uganda was having the dark side of it,"Jonathan told the conference. "Nigeria condemns that terrorist attack on innocentpeople in totality and we stand in solidarity with Uganda."

While the theme of the three-day summit is maternal, infant and child health, thesubject has been overshadowed by the Ugandan attacks, the deteriorating security

situation in Somalia and the attacks by Al-Shabaab.

"We find the terrorist bomb attacks in Kampala despicable," Ping told attendees Friday."We welcome the pledges of other countries in providing the troops to Somalia,including from Djibouti, which already has a battalion ready."

Ping said he has been discussing the issue throughout the week with various Africanauthorities and by the end of the summit, he expects more nations to pledge troops toSomalia peacekeeping efforts.

The attacks are cause for Africa to change its stance on terrorism, Adris Piebalgs,European Union commissioner for development, told reporters at the summit.

"The recent bombings in Kampala have changed things greatly. We have just witnessedAU leadership during the opening of the summit today paying more attention onterrorism coming (from) Somalia," Piebalgs said. "We are seeing real commitment, withmore countries contributing to the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia." The EU willcontinue its support of the mission, he said, and urges more African nations to getinvolved and "deal with the problem."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder also spoke at the summit, saying the United States"recognizes that ending the threat of al-Shabaab to the world will take more than justlaw enforcement. That is why we are working closely with the AU to support theAfrican Union's mission in Somalia ... we pledge to maintain our support."

The United States also recognizes that ending the threat of al-Shabaab to the world willtake more than just law enforcement. That is why we are working closely with the AUto support the African Union's Mission in Somalia. The United States applauds the


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heroic contributions that are being made on a daily basis by Ugandan and Burundiantroops, and we pledge to maintain our support for the AU and the AU Mission inSomalia.

Some 20 people have been arrested in connection with the Kampala blasts, Ugandan

leader Yoweri Museveni told the summit, and have been giving investigators "useful"information about terrorist operations.

"The organizers of these attacks have been arrested. Their interrogations are yieldinguseful information," Museveni said.

"I have great contempt for the authors of terrorism," he told the summit. "... They attackinnocent people. I recommend (to) the AU leaders not to accept this terrorist arrogance."

Museveni told the summit the mandate of the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia

should be changed, with troops able to beyond Mogadishu and hunt Al-Shabaab andother militant groups. Piebalgs said he would support a wider mandate for the missionfrom the United Nations Security Council, and urged AU leadership to seek it.

Somali insurgents reportedly killed two Ugandan peacekeepers this week in attacks onAU and government military positions in Somalia's battered capital, Mogadishu.

"How can these people dare attack the AU flag?" Museveni said. "These terrorists can beand should be defeated. Let us act in concert and sweep them out of Africa. Let them goback to Asia and the Middle East where they came from."

--------------------Guineans Will Bolster Peace Efforts in Somalia (New York Times)

KAMPALA, Uganda Guinea has agreed to send hundreds of troops to Somalia tobolster the African Unions peacekeeping force in the country after Somali insurgentsclaimed responsibility for bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final that killed76 people.

The announcement, made on Friday, came during the 15th African Union summitmeeting in Kampala, the normally peaceful Ugandan capital, which was deeply shakenby the attacks on July 11.

More than 50 heads of state are expected to attend the meeting, whose theme ismaternal and child health and development in Africa. But the attacks have threatenedto overshadow the gathering, and the troop announcement offered an early indicationof how the African Union intended to respond to the deadliest strike by Somaliinsurgents on a neighboring country.


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The troops from Guinea a battalion in all are expected to join a separate force fromDjibouti, making for the missions first deployments from predominantly Muslimcountries. Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, called the new troopsa major boost for the peacekeeping force in Somalia, and said it could push thenumber of soldiers on the ground to close to 10,000.

The Shabab, Islamist insurgents who control much of Somalia, said the World Cupattacks in Kampala were retaliation for the involvement of Ugandan troops as thebackbone of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. The peacekeepingmission has been there since 2007, helping to prop up a Western-backed transitionalgovernment that would almost certainly fall without the outside support.

The insurgents have been enforcing their harsh version of Islam in Somalia banningmusic, bras and soccer and have been fanning a religious war against thepeacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, two predominantly Christian nations.

The Shabab have at times called the peacekeepers infidels, and accuse the Ugandantroops of committing crimes against Somali civilians. The African Union has beenwidely criticized as shelling residential areas indiscriminately.

Since Guinea and Djibouti are predominantly Muslim nations, the choice to send theirtroops to Somalia may have been an attempt to help neutralize tension.

We welcome them, said Felix Kuliagye, a Ugandan military spokesman. Religionplays a key in acceptability.

The African Union summit meeting in Kampala is still officially supposed to focus onmaternal health and public policy. African Union member states pledged in 2001 toincrease health care spending to 15 percent of their national budgets, but this year onlythree countries are expected to meet that goal, according to public health advocates.

Activists are using the attention of the meeting in Kampala to voice their concerns bystaging mock debates, perhaps the first at an African Union summit meeting and atestament to the regions passionate and creative civil society.

But in this city, now besieged by security forces, the original focus of the conferencemay be lost.

We are calling on leaders to be serious this time, said Beatrice Were, a South Africanpublic health advocate. Look at how they react to the terrorist attacks here in Kampala.Our leaders should act the same way towards AIDS.--------------------UN News Service Africa Briefs


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Full Articles on UN Website

ICC puts release of DR Congo warlord on hold pending prosecution appeal

23 July The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) todaysuspended the decision by the trials chamber to release war crimes suspect Thomas

Lubanga Dyilo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), pending thedetermination of the prosecutions appeal of the verdict.

UNagency sounds alarm on deteriorating treatment of uprooted Somalis23 July In the wake of recent terrorist attacks by a Somali rebel group in Uganda, theUnited Nations refugee agency today expressed its alarm over xenophobic incidents,round-ups and deportations of displaced Somalis both within and outside theircountrys borders.

Top UNofficials voice hope that refugees can return home to DR of Congo

23 July The top United Nations food and refugee officials today expressed hope thatsecurity will soon improve to allow people uprooted by years of conflict in the volatileeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to return home and begin farmingtheir land.

Documents

AFRICOM Related News Clips July 26, 2010