Comments for Annals of the Imperium: A Brief Round-Up at http://chris-floyd.com , comment 1 to 6 out of 6 comments http://chris-floyd.com Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:32:12 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/3/1203-annals-of-the-imperium-a-brief-round-up.html#comment-4324 Posner and all the other wingnuts want to put away all Muslims as de facto terrorists. Here in beautiful green Eugene, OR the feds have just finished putting away a bunch of white people for extended sentences as eco-terrorists because they torched SUVs and animal labs a while back. [url]http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/07/01/a1.theten.0701.p1.php?section=cityregion[/url] and [url]http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/07/01/a1.arsonbookclub.0701.p1.php?section=cityregion[/url] Apparently the FBI considers eco "extremism" or "terrorism" the most serious sort of homegrown threat facing our homeland. Obviously much more serious than a fruitcake who goes around blowing up federal buildings and killing hundreds of people. After all, these are SUVs we're talking about. - Delia789 Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:08:15 +0100 http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/3/1203-annals-of-the-imperium-a-brief-round-up.html#comment-4323 ignore the many, many egregious mistakes in the narrative (don't they use fact checkers anymore?), but the la times actually points out that the warlord govt in somalia is a bunch of terrorist thugs w/ cia-connections. [url="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-somalia30jun30,1,492393.story?track=rss"]Somalia's rough tactics seen backfiring[/url] [i]In all, more than 1,500 people have been detained in the last few months. About 1,000 remain behind bars, many without charges, according to civil society groups. Many of those released complain of torture, beatings or extortion by the police. "We don't even know the exact number of people still in prison because the government won't acknowledge it," said Abdullahi Mohammed Shirwa, an activist with Somali Peace Line, a local watchdog group. After his organization complained about arrests, he said, top government officials warned its members to stop getting involved in "politics" or other activities that might be viewed as aiding terrorists. "You are either with them or against them," Shirwa said. "They just dictate. But I think they are creating terrorists by harassing the people."[/i] there are no reliable reports on exactly how many people have been jailed or renditioned. and, wrt that last comment quoted, the guy has it backward. it's the TFG that, not having popular support, is terrorising the people. isn't that one of the accepted definitions of terrorism -- using force & violence against civilians to impose a political, social, and/or ideological agenda? the la times article focuses on the warlord mayor of mogadishu [i]The man given the task of restoring security to Mogadishu is former warlord Mohammed Omar Habeb (aka dheere), known for his ties to the U.S. and Ethiopia. ... Even supporters call his style blunt and unpolished. When battling Islamic militants this year, he reportedly gunned down 130 fighters as they ran away, later quipping that he was helping the Islamic soldiers "get to paradise." When a frustrated businessman confronted Habeb recently about the repeated closure of his shop, the mayor's bodyguards beat the man nearly to death and dragged him through the street in front of horrified spectators, witnesses and the man's family members say. Government leaders make no apologies. "[b]This is not the time for[/b] soft, reflective [b]consensus[/b] builders," said Gedi, the prime minister. "[b]We need strong leaders who can implement their programs[/b]. Mohammed Dheere is the right man at the right time."[/i] sounds like a terrorist to me. [i]Habeb's brashness at times has put him at odds with the authorities of the day. In 2005, he kicked government officials out of Jawhar and looted their buildings. Later he joined the "anti-terrorism coalition" of warlords who said they had been given CIA funding to kidnap Islamic extremists and suspected terrorists. That offensive backfired and spawned an Islamist uprising, which chased him into Ethiopia.[/i] backfiring. get used to it. from sunday's [i]the standard[/i], out of nairobi [url="http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143970675"]Bush hits dead-end in Somalia[/url] [i]Chances are that the United States has run out of options in Somalia after the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Ms Jendayi Fraser conceded last week that Washington’s support for the ouster of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) by Ethiopia might have been a miscalculation. In an interview with BBC, Fraser conceded that the use of force in Somalia had only aggravated an already atrocious situation. Asked to comment on the spiralling armed violence, Fraser said: "It is hard to say whether it (Somalia) is better or worse off because I think Ethiopia’s action was an action in the context of other actors’ actions. It is difficult to frankly say so. What is better is that the international community has converged on a set of recommendations for a way ahead." The statement is perhaps the boldest ever admission by the Bush administration that it had hit a dead-end in its fight against terrorism in East Africa, with Somalia regarded as the gateway for terrorist groups and organisations opposed to Washington’s hegemonic presence in the region. Fraser spoke two days before UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Thursday that more than 3,500 people had fled the capital Mogadishu this month following an escalation in violence in urban areas. The UNHCR report added that some 123,000 of an estimated 401,000 civilians who fled heavy fighting in Mogadishu between February and May had returned to the capital to find their shelters either shelled by insurgents or demolished by the government. The UNHCR update on the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia, although familiar, came just two weeks after US-sponsored political reconciliation talks failed to kick off on Somali soil as the insurgents intensified their onslaught on the transitional government. Against this backdrop of utter gloom and despair, Fraser, who was in East Africa when the Ethiopia-backed transitional federal government forces drove ICU out of Mogadishu in February, conceded that the invasion had [b]inadvertently[/b] subverted peace-building process in the war-weary Horn of Africa nation.[/i] yes, because everyone knows how well illegal invasions -- esp by your biggest enemies -- strengthen peace-building processes. these people are insane. - b real Sun, 01 Jul 2007 05:16:29 +0100 http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/3/1203-annals-of-the-imperium-a-brief-round-up.html#comment-4322 Rebels in Ethiopia's remote eastern Somali region, accused the government on Monday, of using warplanes to bomb three villages, killing around 40 people, in an escalating offensive against the insurgents. The government said it had the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) "on the run", but denied using planes during fighting in the poor and arid region on the border of Ethiopia and Somalia. An ONLF spokesman said as well as the victims of air raids, 57 more civilians had died in the past 10 days of battles. "This is a big offensive, mostly targeting the population because they cannot beat us," said Abdirahman Mahdi, an ONLF founder member and now its UK-based spokesman. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced a crackdown against the ONLF, one of several guerrilla groups fighting his government from remote corners of the vast nation. The ONLF drew international attention with an April raid on a Chinese-run oil exploration field that killed 74 people. That was one of the bloodiest attacks in a sporadic but long-running conflict between government forces and the ONLF, which seeks more autonomy for the under-developed region. The government calls them terrorists and says they are supported by neighbor and arch-foe Eritrea. The Ethiopian army has lost between 200 and 300 soldiers in the last 10 days, compared with 20 to 30 deaths on the rebel side. [i][u] And as of June 22nd, 2007 :[/u][/i] [b] SOMALIA FOOD AID TRUCKS STRANDED[/b] The stranded food would feed 100,000 people for three months. The UN has appealed to Kenya to allow food aid for more than 100,000 people through its border to war-torn Somalia. The 140 trucks have been stranded on the border for nearly a month, the UN's World Food Program (WFP) says. Kenya closed its border with Somalia in January to people and commercial traffic but humanitarian assistance has previously been allowed to cross the border. Thousands have fled continued unrest around the capital, Mogadishu, where a curfew has been imposed. Sea routes to Somalia are plagued by pirate attacks. The UN has warned of rising malnutrition rates in Somalia, where it plans to assist more than 1 million people. [u]DIRECT REFERENCES USED IN THIS BLOG[/u] [url]www.flysouth.co.za/news/2007-06-29/Ethiopia rebels say govt kills 40 in air raids.shtml[/url] [url]www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=312340[/url] news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6230030.stm - BLAQFATHER 1 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:31:17 +0100 http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/3/1203-annals-of-the-imperium-a-brief-round-up.html#comment-4320 I'm aware that the assassination was a trigger for a war with other causes; and I have been writing since 2001 about how the "War on Terror" has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. My point -- hastily sketched, I'll admit -- was to draw attention to the fact that these two events used as a casus belli were in fact matters that in a sane world would have been treated as law enforcement issues. And to underscore the fact that the Terror War, just like WWI, will have decades of horrible ramifications far beyond the control or even the imagination of those who have set it in motion. - Chris Floyd Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:54:28 +0100 http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/3/1203-annals-of-the-imperium-a-brief-round-up.html#comment-4319 Wouldn't the world be a better place today if the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand had been dealt with as a "law enforcement matter," instead of the cause of a world-shattering war? Er...I supose, but I think we're confusing what was merely a trigger with the actual cause of the war. If the Terror War actually were a war on terror, then of course it would be treated as a law enforcement matter, but in fact the Terror War is about something else entirely. - Hieronymous Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:36:24 +0100 http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/3/1203-annals-of-the-imperium-a-brief-round-up.html#comment-4318 Hi, I dunno. I think we've passed 1914, and are well into 1915-1916 at this point. Seems to me like there's a full on world war already going on. There is already a million or so people dead in Iraq, not to mention other places, and the US actively involved in wars in at least a half dozen countries that I can count. That wasn't true in 1914. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already spread to Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia and other places. Sure looks like world war to me. People seem to be really in denial as to the extent of this world war. For instance, I hear people talking about the possibility of war with Iran. We're already in a war with Iran. We have special forces on the ground there, and are engaging in what is certainly military actions. That is war. And Russia and China and others are certainly preparing for war. They'd be fools if they didn't. The US plan to introduce nuclear missiles into Europe, for tbe first time ever, is certainly an act of war. Putin has no doubt about that. Chavez just the other day told the Venezuelans to prepare for war with the US. It's already started folks, so get ready. Sure doesn't look to me like the US can possibly win either. Hope I'm wrong. - mikep Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:51:13 +0100