My Response To A Debate On African Leaders Being Direct Perpetrators Of African Crisis But Rather Blaming The Crisis On U.S. And The West.

DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA Message List Reply Message #150360 of 150728 < Prev | Next > RE: [Mwananchi] DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA No don’t bother. EM On the 49th Thé Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy" Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko" From: Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of FELIX DIAWUOH Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 9:49 PM To: mwananchi@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [Mwananchi] DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA HEM, Why should it be the responsibility of the West to decide who are good or bad African leaders to be removed or allowed to stay in office? I always appreciate it when you allow our dialog to continue for I am trying very hard to understand why you are are so infatuated with the West but defend the very bad African leaders. You are from Uganda and you should indicate any efforts on your part to delegitimize the Museveni's Regime for he has been the leader of Uganda since 26 January 1986 as many Administrative changes have been made in the Western countries. Can you please speak some logic here? Felix. To: Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com CC: zimsite@yahoogroups.com From: mulindwa@... Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 21:13:33 -0400 Subject: RE: [Mwananchi] DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA Felix Diawuoh The west did not remove Iddi Amin from power, Africans did. Why have they failed to remove Museveni for now almost 30 years? For The west wants him in power. Go back as history states and tell me one African dictator that has ever been removed from power when he is a friend of the West. And I’m done. EM On the 49th Thé Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy" Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko" From: Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of FELIX DIAWUOH Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 8:55 PM To: mwananchi@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [Mwananchi] DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA HEM, There are many of such pinion pieces you have posted here, written by foreign correspondents on many decades of violent African crisis. They attack foreign leaders rather than the African leaders themselves who perpetuate these violent conflicts with thousands if not millions of loss of lives of our own Africans. Their names are hidden as if they are ghost leaders. This is racism by default, repeated in cycles by the Western Leftist and Liberal mainstream media. Many of these African leaders who perpetrate these crimes on our people are still in power. Whether President Bush or Obama of U.S, President Sarkozy or Hollande of France, Chancellor Schroder or Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Blair or Brown of Britain, and Prime Minister Olmert or Netanyahu of Israel had been in power or not, these violent conflicts had and are still continuing in Africa unabated. The leaders of these democratic countries mentioned above are elected, respectively, by their respective citizens to govern their respective countries to advance the progress of their respective countries. This is why you never read in the news of their military attacking their own citizens. When will the mainstream media reports realize that Africa's salvation lies in our own hands and when we continue to elect the same bad leaders, no solution will ever be found in resolving the problems in the ever-deepening crisis-ridden African countries, even if we have Angels governing the Western democracies. You are here to perpetuate the myth of outside forces under-developing Africa and I will challenge you every time you do so. There are some African countries currently going through political changes to ensure true democratic leaders who will put the freedom and economic progress of their respective countries first.. Those are the efforts we should use this forum to encourage. Preaching to the West or indicting indicting them will not be enough to resolve African crisis. Your political activism at this forum needs to be re-examined for reflections on its impact to stop the violence in many parts of Africa. Please proof me wrong. Felix. ................................/ DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA Message List Reply Message #89177 of 150728 < Prev | Next > DARFURISM, UGANDA & U.S. WAR IN AFRICA The Spectre of Continental Genocide 29 October 2007 keith harmon snow President Bush meets with Uganda's President-for-life Yoweri Museveni in the White House on October 30, 2007. Meanwhile, a broad swath of Africa is engulfed in interrelated genocides and covert operations involving both the U.S. and Uganda, there is a growing demand to probe the accounts of "Save Darfur" to find out how the tens of millions collected are being spent due to allegations of arms-deals and bribery, and the SAVE DARFUR movement has become the false flag action of the West, supported by most everyone, people who know little or nothing about what it is they are supporting. When President George Bush meets with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at the White House on October 30 they will discuss much more than "Uganda's leadership in Somalia, the Lord's Resistance Army, and President Museveni's development plan for northern Uganda" or their "strong partnership to combat malaria and HIV/AIDS in Uganda," as announced by the White House Office of the Press Secretary. The role of Yoweri Museveni and his "government" in service to the Western economic neoliberalism and the shock doctrine of deconstruction and chaos is greatly misunderstood and deeply camouflaged by simplified establishment narratives like those above. Bush and Museveni will discuss the U.S.-Uganda military relations and bilateral involvement in the wars in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia. The "partnership to combat malaria and HIV/AIDS" is camouflage language for military vaccination and bio-warfare programs involving pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer. (A vaccine for malaria was developed for the U.S. military some time ago and this is shared only with certain U.S. client state partners.) The "development plan for northern Uganda" is euphemistic language for the ongoing depopulation and massive natural resource extraction (oil, gold, uranium) that today proceeds in parallel with the genocide of the Acholi people and the militarization in border regions to support covert programs in Sudan and DRC. The Darfur conflict rides along the fault line of continental warfare spread from Eastern DRC ("Congo" from hear on means the DRC) and Chad to Somalia, and from Rwanda, through Uganda and Sudan, to Eritrea and the Red Sea. Congo is at war with Uganda and Rwanda. Ethiopia is at war with Somalia, and poised to reinvade Eritrea. Ethiopia, Uganda and Chad are the three "frontline" states militarily destabilizing Sudan. Uganda is internally and externally at war. Ugandan troops have recently occupied towns in Orientale, Congo, and Uganda has intervened in Burundi. Rwanda is internally at war, fighting in Eastern Congo, meddling in Burundi, and has some 2000 troops in Darfur. Khartoum backs guerrilla armies in Uganda, Chad and Congo. The U.S. is all over the place, with both covert and over military programs. All these conflicts are intertwined, and the targeted populations have allegiances and alliances dictated by the pre-colonial boundaries demarcated in 1885 by the imperial doctrine of divide and conquer. PEACE IS WAR IS PEACEKEEPING On October 24, 2007, the United Nations awarded Lockheed-Martin subsidiary Pacific Architects and Engineers a $250 million no-bid contract to provide "infrastructure" for the United Nations "peacekeeping" missions now unfolding in Sudan (Darfur), Somalia, and Chad/Central Africa Republic. The newly announced contract is to build five new camps in Sudan's Darfur and Kordofan regions for 4,100 U.N. and African Union personnel. Lockheed Martin is the world's largest and most secretive aerospace and defense corporation. This is not Pacific Architects and Engineers' first contract in Darfur. PAE won the contract for staffing the deeply compromised "Civilian Protection Monitoring Team" (CPMT) under a U.S. State Department contract. In 2004 the CPMT office was being run by Brigadier General Frank Toney (retired), who was previously the commander of Special Forces for the United States Army; General Toney organized covert operations into Iraq and Kuwait in the first Gulf War. Pratap Chaterjee reported in 2004 how "Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Bittrick, the deputy director of regional and security affairs for Africa at the State Department, flew to Ethiopia to hammer out an agreement to support African Union troops by committing to provide housing, office equipment, transport, and communications gear. This will be provided via an 'indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity' joint contract awarded to Dyncorp Corporation, and Pacific Architects & Engineers (PAE) worth $20.6 million." [1] Meanwhile, the "Save Darfur" advocates pressing military intervention in Darfur as a "humanitarian" gesture have escalated pressure in the face of mounting failures, including allegations that millions of "Save Darfur" dollars fundraised on a sympathy for victims platform have been misappropriated. But the players, the private military companies, the arms dealers—and a handful of missing SRAM missiles armed with nuclear warheads dumped by an American B-52 before it crashed—are mostly unknown to the general public. These covert wars all involve different propaganda strategies to provide cover and deflect attention through "perception management"—managing the perceptions and creating false belief systems—of the North American and European public. Ranking the humanitarian catastrophes, at the top by a long shot is Eastern Congo, followed by northern Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, and—somewhere down the line—Darfur, Sudan. These humanitarian emergencies involve massive depopulation and death, internally displaced persons and trans-national refugees, all of which provide a lucrative business opportunity for Western "relief" and "development" organizations. Millions of people across the region are dying, while millions more are homeless, set adrift in a sea of nowhere, with no rights, no possessions, no protection and very little prospect for survival; their only hopes come from the false belief that the Western "humanitarian" AID enterprise is designed to rescue them. The engagement of the world's premier war-making industries—Lockheed Martin, Boeing, SAIC—behind a so-called "peacekeeping" platform is not new, and something is seriously wrong with this picture. THE SAVE DARFUR NARRATIVE SAVE DARFUR is the predominant propaganda front running on Africa and it has overwhelmed the public consciousness with deceptions. In this establishment narrative Arabs on horseback, the Janjaweed, backed by the Sudan government seated in Khartoum, are the purveyors of genocide. This mirrors the establishment narrative of Rwanda, 1994, which said that the Hutus and the nasty Interahamwe militias committed genocide against the Tutsis in 100 days of killing with machetes. The Rwanda genocide narrative—combined with the narrative about "humanitarian" intervention in Yugoslavia, a NATO bombing campaign that dismantled the country—set the stage for the Darfur genocide narrative. All over the United States, Britain and Canada advocates and activists who claim to be concerned about human rights, and even those who otherwise would not get involved, have supported the SAVE DARFUR movement, a political movement similar to the anti-Apartheid movement mobilized against South Africa in the 1980's. The SAVE DARFUR movement has resulted in a huge outpouring of funds, and it has mobilized support from people in all walks of life, and across the political spectrum, on the "never again" platform of "stopping genocide." Hollywood personalities dubbed "actorvists," including Mia Farrow, Don Cheadle and George Clooney, have helped to whip up the SAVE DARFUR hysteria. From Elie Wiesel to Barak Obama, people are "outraged" by genocide that the Bush Administration, we are told, is reluctant to stop. At a "Voices for Darfur" fundraiser held on October 21, 2007 at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, for example, the local chapter of the Congregation B'Nai Israel Darfur Action coalition, raised over $14,000 for "humanitarian" aid to Darfur. The B'Nai Israel Save Darfur Coalition had a broad array of public and organizational support, including other Jewish organizations, Smith College, Northampton Mayor Claire Higgins, Massachusetts' Senator Stan Rosenberg and Representative Peter Kocot. The campaign organizers claim that "more than 90% goes to direct-on-the-ground AID." Working with big humanitarian groups like Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children, it is impossible that 90% of funds will hit the ground in Darfur.[2] Behind the SAVE DARFUR movement are fundamentalist organizations and think tanks with a deeply nationalistic, militaristic, religious fundamentalist agenda. One of these is the Center for Security Policy. The CSP, for example, supports the "star wars" Strategic Defense Initiative, Homeland Security—which is nothing more than expanding militarism and emasculated public rights—and the Biometric Security Project. The BSP centers around emerging biological technologies that will be used to register, identify, monitor, track and control each and every U.S. citizen. They call it "identity assurance," it involves state-of-the-art recognition equipment, sensors and security technologies, and it is a central component of the evolving national security and "counter-terrorism" apparatus. [3] The Center for Security Policy is the nerve center of the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus, a deeply nationalist, neoliberal think-tank and flak organization promoting the all-out attack against non-cooperative governments—dubbed "rogue states"—peripheral to Western economic control. These, of course, are primarily Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, North Korea and Cuba. Zimbabwe is a special case that has joined the list to some degree. What these states have in common is that they are all targeted for divestment by the Center for Security Policy brainchild, www.divestterror.org . Sudan is another of the rogue states targeted. Christian and Jewish involvement centers on a long-running but deeply manipulative narrative about slavery and genocide in South Sudan. The Holocaust Memorial Museum furthered the establishment narrative about Darfur in keeping with the genocide theme. No one ever examines the interests behind the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The new political and propaganda doctrine of "genocide inflation" is morally ambiguous, it attacks the crimes of some and passes over the crimes of others, using as its universal principle the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its complementary covenants and proclamations. Christian organizations involved in Sudan for years include Servant's Heart and Christian Solidarity International. On Servant's Heart's "Board of Reference" is British Baroness Caroline Cox, who is also closely affiliated with Christian Solidarity International (CSI)—one of the main Christian allies of the SPLM/A war in southern Sudan. The propaganda system advocates in favor of the "rebels" in Darfur using a handful of techniques developed in their propaganda campaign behind the "rebels" in South Sudan. Rebels are supported partly by never mentioning them, partly by decrying abuses against them, partly by providing sympathetic one-sided accounts of Khartoum government attacks, and partly by defending their excesses if and when—infrequently—the rebel abuses come to light. Christian Solidarity International (CSI) in 2006 issued press releases claiming that the Lebanese organization Hezbollah "is using Christian villages to shield its military operations in violation of international law." [4] It appears that Hezbollah learned something by studying SPLA (CSI) tactics in Sudan. Thus we have Hezbollah violating international law, but the SPLM/A—and the "rebel" groups in Darfur—while doing exactly the same thing—are not. The Establishment narrative on Darfur motivates U.S. citizens to take action to SAVE DARFUR, thus facilitating popular support for heightened US military involvement. The truth is that the United States military is already there, in its various incarnations, and it is involved in atrocities. THE UGANDA NARRATIVE In the northern Uganda region—involving South Sudan and northeastern Congo—another conflict has boiled for over 15 years between the government Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF), led by Yoweri Museveni, and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony. This war offers yet another one-sided Western establishment narrative that says that Kony and the LRA—always described as a Christian fanatical cult that captures and drugs children—is the primary problem in northern Uganda. (Usually African savages are not Christian enough for America's liking; here we find that they are too Christian.) The establishment narrative has been furthered across the popular culture, in everything from Vanity Fair to the BBC to America: The National Catholic Weekly. The newly established ENOUGH Project (ENOUGH genocide) picked up the mantle of LRA atrocities and, like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, has supported the establishment narrative which shields the Museveni government from the kind of criticism and international action that is called for in keeping with the scale of the atrocities the Uganda government has committed. In other words, Human Rights Watch has addressed torture in Uganda, and other problems, but they have not named names or corporations and they almost never link the conflict or the atrocities to Western interests. The net effect of these policy positions is genocide denial on Uganda. The Museveni war machine and its state terror apparatus have perpetrated massive atrocities in the region and it has evolved into genocide against the Acholi people of the north. The indigenous Acholi people have been forced onto concentration camps over the past 15 years, and these camps have become places of death. In the establishment narrative, the people are the victims of Kony's "rebellion." Yoweri Museveni and his business and military partners are responsible for millions of deaths, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Eastern Congo. The U.S. military invasion of Zaire (now Congo), involved with U.S. covert forces, U.S. military communications, logistical and weapons support, and Ugandan and Rwandan forces. Humvees, C-130's and black-skinned U.S. Special Forces entered South Sudan and northeastern Congo through the Gulu and Arua Districts of Uganda, the heart of Acholiland and the center of atrocities against the Acholi people. Ugandan and British interests living mostly in Britain and aligned with the former dictator Idi Amin have always backed the Lord's Resistance Army. Support also came from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The LRA stepped up its military actions in parallel with the UPDF invasion of Zaire (1996), and the subsequent years of warfare and plunder in Congo (1998-present). According to the investigations of the United Nations and the humanitarian law work of lawyer Karen Parker, the war in Uganda involves massive rapes, killing, tortures, and extrajudicial executions as a policy by the Ugandan military. Some 1.3 million people have been displaced in the Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts of northern Uganda. There are over 73 camps with from 1000 to 50,000 people in them, all forcibly displaced by UPDF soldiers, with over 350,000 people out of some 400,000 people displaced from the Gulu district alone.[5] THE U.S.-UGANDA INVASION OF ZAIRE The forced displacements of Acholi people began with Museveni's ascension to power in 1986, but major forced displacements occurred throughout the 1990's. However, there was a massive displacement operation in 1996 that occurred appears to have been coordinated in part with the planned U.S. invasion of Zaire from Northern Uganda and Rwanda. The UPDF Army barracks at Masindi and airstrip at Gulu, both in Northern Uganda, served as the staging grounds for the U.S. invasion of Zaire. The Museveni government organized the closure of northern Uganda in October 1996 ostensibly because of heightened LRA attacks. The UPDF, in chronological coincidence with the U.S. invasion, forced hundreds of thousands of Acholis into concentration camps in the fall of 1996, often by bombing and burning villages and murdering, beating, raping and threatening those who would not comply. According to testimony from eyewitnesses, on Oct 26, 1996 the top Ugandan brass behind the invasion of Zaire met at the village of Paraa, in the Murchison falls National Park, near Lake Albert, in the Gulu District. At the meeting were: [1] UPDF Brigadier General Moses Ali—Idi Amin's right hand man who later became Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Disaster Preparedness, and Deputy Prime Minister in the Museveni administration; [2] Museveni's half-brother Salim Saleh; [3] then Colonel James Kazini, who later led troops involved in atrocities against hundreds of thousands of people in Congo; and [4] Dr. Eric Adroma—head of Uganda National Parks. The meeting was ostensibly about security and it was announced that due to a recent LRA rebel attack at Paraa, the UPDF would be placing parts of Northern Uganda off limits to all non-military personnel. The main road from Karuma to the border town of Pakwach was closed. This road apparently served as a primary transport route for Ugandan and non-Ugandan military—including black U.S. special forces—who invaded Zaire.[6] On November 6, 1996, Bill Clinton was elected. From November 21-23 Boeing C-130 military aircraft passed over the region every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, heading both north and south. The C-130's apparently landed at Gulu airstrip—closed by the Museveni government for a two-week period—and offloaded military equipment then moved by roads—closed by the UPDF—to the border. Some C-130's were charted on a course believed to take them to Goma, Zaire. Around 10 November 2007 an armored 4x4 Humvee (HUMMWV)—heavily rigged with sophisticated communications equipment inside and out—was encountered carrying two black U.S. special forces in the Murchison Falls region: the soldiers were wearing UPDF uniforms. Two busloads of black U.S. special forces were encountered at a UPDF checkpoint on the Karuma-Pakwach road; wearing civilian clothes, with duffel bags, the muscled and crew-cut "civilians" showed U.S. passports and claimed they were "doctors" heading to the tiny Gulu hospital. From mid-November to February 1997 access to northwestern Uganda regions was highly restricted. On 1 March 1997 another wave of C-130's passed over the region. The UPDF used the LRA threat as cover for massive military operations involving the invasion of Zaire for the United States of America.[7] The in-country U.S. Ambassador to Uganda at the time was E. Michael Southwick (October 1994-August 1997). Oil surveys began in 1998 and the entire Northwestern Uganda region is now designated as oil concessions controlled by Heritage Oil and Gas, Hardman and Tullow Oil, three Anglo-American companies connected to British mercenary Tony Buckingham (founder of he mercenary firms Sandline International and Executive Outcomes) and his partners.[8] Nexant, a Bechtel subsidiary, is involved with the trans-Uganda-Kenya pipeline. South African firm Energem—tied to Tony Buckingham through Anthony Texeira, the brother-in-law of Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba—is also involved. Another Energem and Buckingham affiliated company tight with the Museveni regime is Branch Energy, involved with the oil pipeline and mining in Uganda. The China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Company is also involved in the Uganda-Kenya pipeline, offering an interesting comparison for people concerned about China's involvement in atrocities in the Darfur region. And, after much scrambling, Libya was cut out of the Kenya-Uganda pipeline deals.[9] Uganda's representation at the International Criminal Court exploring war crimes in Congo has involved at least two very high-profile lawyers from Foley Hoag LLP, an influential Washington law firm deeply entrenched in the proliferation of the mainstream narratives and the victor's justice doled out—through the ICTY and ICTR tribunals—on Yugoslavia and Rwanda,. The Pentagon seconded its lawyers from the Judge Advocacy General's (JAG) Corp to the ICTR to "try" those unfortunate "enemies" both arbitrarily and selectively accused of genocide.[10] The people most responsible for atrocities in the region—unprecedented human bloodletting, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide—are protected. Foley Hoag LLP is also tied to the U.S.-Uganda Friendship Council. On May 6, 2002 in Washington D.C. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and wife Janet were special guests at US-Uganda Friendship Council event sponsored by members Coke, Pfizer and Chevron-Texaco. Coke director Kathleen Black is a principle in the Hearst media empire, while Coke directors Warren Buffet and Barry Diller are directors of the Washington Post Company. Museveni also met with President Bush at the White House. Uganda's image is sanitized by one of the world's largest PR firms, London's Hill & Knowlton. In 2005 Uganda spent some $700,000 on a Hill & Knowlton contract to facilitate and "encourage dialogue between the Ugandan government and people like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, Oxfam." [11] THE RWANDA NARRATIVE Museveni's bush war began in 1980. Paul Kagame, current President of Rwanda, was Museveni's Director of Military Intelligence in the mid-1980's. Kagame led the invasion of Rwanda in 1990. The two military commanders utilized terrorist tactics that assigned blame for atrocities they committed—against both their enemies and their own people—on their enemies. They used psychological operations, embedded international reporters, and fabrication off massacres. These tactics have continued to the present. While Rwanda is billed as a major "success story" of recovery and development after a devastating genocide, the country is ruled with an iron-fist and a finely tuned intelligence and torture apparatus involved in political assassinations, suppression of information and disappearances. Huge areas of Rwanda were entirely depopulated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front and UPDF as they hammered away at Rwanda beginning in October 1990. The invasion culminated in a coup d'etat that succeeded, with broad U.S. military support, in capturing Kigali in July of 1994. From 1994 to the present Paul Kagame has used the genocide card and the establishment narrative to institutionalize repression, further depopulate rural areas for "development" benefiting corporate interests. Another member of the U.S.-Uganda Friendship council is the Honorable Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta and U.S. Ambassador. Andrew Young and his firm Goodworks International have helped whitewash the image of the Rwanda government and its state apparatus of terror. Andrew Young, Quincy Jones and other wealthy Americans have built (are building) mansions on the shores of Rwanda's Lake Mwazi in areas where peasants were driven off the land or killed by the Kagame terror machine before, during and after 1994. This is ongoing along Lake Kivu and in the Volcanoes National Parks region. Rwanda gains currency and good press through big HIV/AIDS projects run by Paul Farmer but funded by the Clinton AIDS foundation. Rwanda was overthrown by and for the Pentagon on Clinton's watch. Hillary Clinton toured Uganda in July 1997, wore African clothes, danced African dances, and spoke about "democracy" and "development" and a partnership against HIV/AIDS. The Kagame regime has recently awarded petroleum concessions to Canada's Vangold Resources for the project titled "White Elephant" in northern Rwanda—2700 sq. kilometers of land depopulated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army[12] between 1990 and 2007. Contracted to provide "feasibility studies" of petroleum infrastructural development in Rwanda is the San Diego firm Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a deep intelligence and defense entity connected to U.S. beyond top-secret "black" programs. [13] Petroleum, defense and mining interests connected to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International programs in "gorilla conservation" led to the production of high-tech satellite prospecting data, gathered by remote sensing over-flights (1994-2000), delivered to the Rwandan Ministry of Defense.[14] The Pentagon has been involved in building military bases in Rwanda, installing military and civilian communications infrastructure, and training Rwandan Defense Forces; a military-communications radar installation has been constructed with U.S. support on Mt. Karisimbi. It is believed that Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) sent to Darfur on the African Union "peacekeeping" mission include black U.S. Special Forces disguised as RDF—just as the black U.S. Special Forces were disguised as UPDF during the invasion of Zaire. LOCKHEED MARTIN PEACEKEEPING Lockheed Martin is a California-based aerospace and defense giant involved in classified black programs that are beyond "top-secret" and shielded from government oversight. In September 2003, CNN—a corporate-military "news" agency deeply embedded with the Pentagon—reported "[a]ccording to the U.S. Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) classified or black programs account for about $23.2 billion or 17 percent of the 2004 budget request for the Department of Defense." According to United Nations spokeswoman Michele Montas the six-month Darfur contract with Lockheed-Martin subsidiary Pacific Architect Engineers, Inc. was awarded without competitive bidding "because of complex requirements and a short timeline." Reporting from the United Nations, Inner City Press said the terms of the contract will not be public and the United Nations has violated numerous UN charter laws in the tendering of this award.[15] The no-bid award process followed the United Nation's issuance of an official "Expressions of Interest" notice on October 9, 2007. "The United Nations is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from experienced Multi Functional Logistics Services (MFLS) contractors," the UN's EOI notice reads, "for the provision of a wide range of services at headquarters, logistic bases, military and police camps, airfields and water resources at various locations in any or all of the following: the Darfur Region of Sudan, Chad/Central African Republic (CAR), and Somalia." Inner City Press reported that the EOI solicitation, made after the rules had already been waived to allow the transfer of $250 million to Lockheed Martin for six months in Darfur, is intended to try to clean up the process after-the-fact.[16] Another multinational aerospace and defense corporation directly benefiting from this regional U.S. war is Boeing Aircraft Corporation. The U.S. military used Boeing Chinook helicopters in the U.S. invasion of Somalia in 2006. Tom Pickering, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, is senior vice president for International Relations and a member of the Boeing Executive Council since January 2001. Pickering played a decisive role in the Clinton Administration overthrow of Rwanda (1990-1994) and Congo (1996-1997). He is a leading advocate for the SAVE DARFUR propaganda. He is also a member of the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa along with Ed Royce (R-CA), former U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker, Donald Payne (D-NJ), and Andrew Young. While the New York Times reported in December 2006 that the U.S. invasion began in late December, military involvement of U.S. covert forces had been ongoing, and was heightened significantly in the early spring of 2006 when the U.S. Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency openly complained about cross purposes in Somalia. Private military companies were all over Somalia, as were known international arms syndicates, including of course the criminal networks of John Bredenkamp, one of Britain's fifty richest tycoons and one of the primary financial backers behind the rise and fall of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. John Bredenkamp reportedly acquired three SRAM missiles with nuclear warheads jettisoned in shallow water off the coast of Somalia by a U.S.A.F. B-52 that soon after crashed into the Indian Ocean near the U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The U.S. invasion of Somalia is believed to have been partly an aborted attempt to recover the lost nukes—called "broken arrows" in Pentagon speak. While the story of the nukes dumped by Cheney has received some attention, no one has publicly identified John Bredenkamp as the likely weapons dealer involved.[17] COVERT OPS IN SOMALIA The war in Somalia dates back to deep U.S. involvement in the 1980's, where major oil concessions were awarded to four Western multinational petroleum giants: Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Philips petroleum. The infusion of Western "AID" provoked destabilization of Somalia, leading to the U.S. military invasion that culminated in the October 3, 1993 mission where scores of U.S. Special Operations Forces were killed when their Blackhawk helicopter was shot down over the capital city, Mogadishu. The mythology of U.S. involvement was indelibly inscribed in the popular consciousness through the Hollywood/Pentagon film Blackhawk Down. Part of the consistent propaganda on Africa is that "the U.S. does not want to get involved and potentially face another Somalia." U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) did not cease Special Ops deployments in Somalia with the U.S. withdrawal and covert operations have proceeded on and off, with heightened activity through the late 1990's. The Pentagon confirmed in November 2006 that SOCOM forces were in Somalia as of October "providing military advice to Ethiopian and Somali forces on the ground." The U.S. Navy moved "additional forces" into waters off the Somali coast, where the Pentagon said they "conducted security missions, monitoring maritime traffic and intercepting and interrogating crew on suspicious ships." These included the USS Ramage guided missile destroyer, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, the USS Bunker Hill and USS Anzio guided missile cruisers, and the USS Ashland amphibious landing ship.[18] On June 2, 2007, a U.S. Navy destroyer shelled northern Somalia. Somali media reported that News media reported that the strikes destroyed farms, flattened hilltops and killed or injured an unknown number of villagers.[19] The British Navy's newest warship HMS Bulwark was also stationed off the Somali coast in early 2006. The HMS Bulwark deployed to the Indian Ocean on 9 January 2006 for the first live operation of this "unique Commando Assault ship" (as it is described by the British Navy).[20] However, sources in Kenya and Eritrea reported "snatch and grab" terrorist operations involving massacres and torture that were run by SOCOM forces inside Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. There are some 52,000 U.S. special operations forces on active duty and reserve military, including SEALs, Green Berets and commando-style troops from the 10th Mountain Division and others. The establishment narrative was that Ethiopia invaded Somalia to displace Al-Qaeda terrorists and check the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, both of which are propaganda themes that misrepresent the reality of U.S. and allied military interventions. Ethiopia, the Pentagon's premier partner in the Horn of Africa, has converted millions of dollars in "AID" to weapons and militarization and seeks to control Somalia to gain access to a much-needed deepwater seaport. Ethiopia's oil concessions are contiguous with the oil reserves in Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Yemen. Hunt Oil, the Chinese National Petroleum Company and many others are active in Ethiopia.[21] The U.S. has several permanent bases in Ethiopia where SOCOM launches operations. The U.S. military used Ethiopian air bases modernized by infusions of millions of dollars of "AID" funds to launch attacks against Somalia. U.S. spy satellites were used provide intelligence to Ethiopian troops as they swept across the Oganden basin and Somalia. Presidents Bush and Zenawi both denied that the invasion was coordinated and well planned, and both denied the involvement of the U.S. The Ethiopian government retained former U.S. Republican house majority leader Dick Armey as a lobbyist in Washington to whitewash the Ethiopian regimes' crimes.[22] ETHIOPIA'S GENOCIDES The Ogaden, Oromo and Anuak regions of Ethiopia have seen massive military occupation and state repression. The Ethiopian government of Meles Zenawi has perpetrated mass starvation and scorched earth policy in the region. There has been very little international media coverage and most is favorable the Zenawi regime or pressing the upside-down stories about "relief" and "starvation" that serve the Western "humanitarian" business sector. The Ogaden basin is a bloodbath today. Applying the same legal standards as in Darfur, all three Ethiopian regions qualify as ongoing genocides against indigenous people.[23] Failure to apply the genocide standards constitutes genocide denial. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1778 (2007) on 25 September 2007 established the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT). According to the UN's October 2007 Expression Of Interest, "[i]n it's Presidential Statement of 30 April 2007, the Security Council requested the Secretary General to 'immediately begin appropriate contingency planning for a United Nations mission to Somalia'. At this early stage it is planned to have a UN logistics base at Mombassa, Kenya to support the main supply line from Mombassa to Kismayo, Mogadishu and Hobyo, which will serve as secondary logistics bases in Somalia. At this early stage the number and location of these sites is unknown, but it is envisaged that approximately 24,000 personnel may be required." Ethiopia's war in Somalia has taxed the government drawing widespread criticism. The U.S. is pressing for an African Union mission as a proxy force to replace the Ethiopian troops and further U.S. interests. Mombasa, Kenya is a U.S. military port. Kenya is also awash in oil development, poverty and destitute refugees. The U.S. war in Somalia is ongoing. In March 2007 the Pentagon deployed an additional 150 SOCOM Forces in Uganda. The troops were part of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn-of-Africa, an "anti-terrorist naval force" deployed around the Horn of Africa with support points in Bahrain and Djibouti. Ugandan sources divulged that the SOCOM troops would be dispersed "around the country" to "support UPDF troops" and "provide support to distribute humanitarian aid." It was openly reported that the SOCOM are "possibly training the South Sudanese army, which has just signed an agreement for this with its Ugandan counterpart, strengthening Ugandan capacity to fight terrorism." The U.S. military has also modernized the old Entebbe airport for UPDF operations, and the Entebbe airport supports a small but permanent U.S. military contingent. [24] It is believed that U.S. SOCOM troops are operating in blood-drenched Eastern Congo. Ugandan opposition sources have reported that SOCOM forces in UPDF uniforms have joined the more than 2000 Pentagon-trained UPDF forces sent by Museveni to Somalia. The UPDF troops operating in Ethiopia behind a "peacekeeping" propaganda front have been accused of widespread atrocities. More than 1000 people die daily in Eastern DRC where fighting since 1996 has claimed at least 7 million lives. The Democratic Republic of Congo has seen multiple genocides, and multiple genocide denials are ongoing. DARFURISM The Darfur region of western Sudan has been a hotbed of clandestine activities, gunrunning and indiscriminate violence for decades. The Cold War era saw countless insurgencies launched from the remote deserts of Darfur. Throughout the 1990's factions allied with or against Chad, Uganda, Ethiopia, Congo, Libya, Eritrea and the Central African Republic operated from bases in Darfur, and it was a regular landing strip for foreign military transport planes of mysterious origin. In 1990, Chad's Idriss Deby launched a military blitzkrieg from Darfur and overthrew President Hissan Habre; Deby then allied with his own tribe against the Sudan government. Sudanese rebels today have bases in Chad, and Chadian rebels have bases in Darfur, with Khartoum's backing.[GN1] When the regime of Ange-Félix Patassé collapsed in the Central African Republic in March 2003, soldiers fled to Darfur with their military equipment. Khartoum supported the West Nile Bank Front, a rebel army operating against Uganda from Eastern Congo, commanded by Taban Amin, the son of the infamous Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, who heads Uganda's dreaded Internal Security Organization. Darfur is another epicenter of the modern-day international geopolitical scramble for Africa's resources. Conflict in Darfur escalated in 2003 in parallel with negotiations "ending" the south Sudan war. The U.S.-backed insurgency by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the guerilla force that fought the northern Khartoum government for 20 years, shifted to Darfur, even as the G.W. Bush government allied with Khartoum in the U.S. led "war on terror." The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)—one of some 27 rebel factions mushrooming in Darfur—is allied with the SPLA and supported from Uganda. Andrew Natsios, former USAID chief and now US envoy to Sudan, said on October 6, 2007 that the atmosphere between the governments of north and south Sudan "had become poisonous." This is no surprise given the magnitude of the resource war in Sudan and the involvement of international interests. Roger Winter, USAID chief in Khartoum today, is directly linked to the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army and U.S. military campaign that destabilized Rwanda and decapitated the leadership of Rwanda and Burundi. USAID's affiliations with the Department of Defense are now openly advertised with the propaganda peddling AFRICOM—the Pentagon's new Africa Command. AFRICOM combines U.S. CENTCOM, PACIFICOM and EUCOM operations in Africa; it is nothing new, merely the consolidation and expansion of widespread and ongoing involvement.[25] Darfur is reported to have the fourth largest copper and third largest uranium deposits in the world. Darfur produces two-thirds of the world's best quality gum Arabic—a major ingredient in Coke and Pepsi. Contiguous petroleum reserves are driving warfare from the Red Sea, through Darfur, to the Great Lakes of Central Africa. Private military companies operate alongside petroleum contractors and "humanitarian" agencies. Sudan is China's fourth biggest supplier of imported oil, and U.S. companies controlling the pipelines in Chad and Uganda seek to displace China through the US military alliance with "frontline" states hostile to Sudan: Uganda, Chad and Ethiopia. Israel reportedly provides military training to Darfur rebels from bases in Eritrea, and has strengthened ties with the regime in Chad, from which more weapons and troops penetrate Darfur. The refugee camps have become increasingly militarized. There are reports that Israeli and U.S. military and intelligence operate from within refugee camps. African Union (AU) forces in Darfur include Nigerian and Rwandan troops responsible for atrocities in their own countries. Ethiopia has committed 5000 troops for a UN force in Darfur. AU troops receive military-logistic support from NATO, and are widely hated. Early in October 2007, SLA rebels attacked an AU base killing ten troops. In a subsequent editorial sympathetic to rebel factions ("Darfur's Bitter Ironies," Guardian Online, 10/4/07) Smith College English professor Eric Reeves espoused the tired rhetoric of "Khartoum's genocidal counter-insurgency war in Darfur," a position counterproductive to any peaceful settlement. To minimize the damage this rebel attack has done to their credibility Reeves and other "Save Darfur" advocates cast doubt about the rebels' identities and mischaracterized the SLA attackers as "rogue commanders." However, there is near unanimous agreement, internationally, that rebels are "out of control," committing widespread rape and plundering with impunity, just as the SPLA did in South Sudan for over a decade. Debunking the claims of a "genocide against blacks" or an "Islamic holy-war" against Christians, Darfur's Arab and black African tribes have intermarried for centuries, and nearly everyone is Muslim. The "Save Darfur" campaign is deeply aligned with Jewish and Christian faith-based organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. These groups have relentlessly campaigned for Western military action, demonizing both Sudan and China, but they have never addressed Western military involvement—backing factions on all sides. There is growing dissent within the "Save Darfur" movement as more supporters question its motivations and the Jewish/Israeli link. "Save Darfur" leaders have been replaced after complaints surfaced about expenditures of funds. Many rebel leaders reportedly receive tens of thousands of dollars monthly, and rebels emboldened by the "Save Darfur" movement commit crimes with impunity. There is a growing demand to probe the accounts of "Save Darfur" to find out how the tens of millions collected are being spent due to allegations of arms-deals and bribery—rebel leaders provided with five-star hotel accommodations, prostitutes and sex parties. "Save Darfur" is today the rallying cry for a broad coalition of special interests. Advocacy groups—from the local Massachusetts Congregation B'Nai Israel chapter to the International Crises Group and USAID—have fueled the conflict through a relentless, but selective, public relations campaign that disingenuously serves a narrow policy agenda. These interests offer no opportunity for corrective analyses, but stubbornly press their agenda, and they are widely criticized for inflaming tensions in Darfur. This is what we might call Darfurism—a mass movement designed to channel popular sympathy and agitate people to act on a cause they know nothing about, but think they do. The latest Lockheed Martin contract with the United Nations illustrates the final stage in the transformation of international conflict whereby military-industrial giants are openly engaged, rather than clandestinely, as has been previously the case. This development parallels the rise of Darfurism—a pathological mix of fear, patriotism, social immaturity, opportunism and unconsciousness akin to fascism. Under the current climate of apathy, fear and public opinion, anything goes, and warfare involves humanitarian agencies as active players in the mix. They are seen as neutral, described as apolitical, but nothing could be further from the truth. The United Nations and African Union serve as pseudo-privatized military forces backing a hegemonic, corporate, political and economic agenda. The future has arrived, and it uses human rights institutions, the label of genocide and accusations of atrocities, and the ever-expanding international AID and charity industry—operating out of pure profit motives—as pivotal elements in the Western portfolio of soft and hard weapons used to further the prerogatives of Empire and clear the land for absolute corporate exploitation. ~ keith harmon snow—www.allthingspass.com—is an independent human rights investigator and war correspondent who worked with Survivors Rights International (2005-2006), Genocide Watch (2005-2006) and the United Nations (2006) to document and expose genocide and crimes against humanity in Sudan and Ethiopia. He has worked in 17 countries in Africa, heavily focused on the Great Lakes region, and he recently worked in Afghanistan. * Please take action today: XPOSE UGANDA'S GENOCIDE: http://www.exposeugandasgenocide.blogspot.com/ Further info and resources: CEGUN: Campaign to Stop Genocide in Uganda Now http://www.cegun.org/ UNIGHT: FOR THE CHILDREN OF UGANDA http://www.unight.org/ ________________________________ [1] Pratap Chatterjee, "Darfur Diplomacy: Enter the Contractors," CorpWatch, 21 October 2004, < http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11598 >. [2] See: Michael Maren, The Road To Hell: The Ravaging Affects of Foreign Aid and International Charity, 1996. [3] From the BSP web site: "As biometrics becomes an increasingly important component of physical and logical security systems there is a need for an authoritative and regularly updated reference and data base on virtually all aspects of biometrics and identity assurance." . [4] "Hezbollah is Using Christian Villages to Shield its Military Operations in Violation of International Law," Christian Solidarity International, 1 August 2006, < http://www.csi-int.org/lebanon_immediate_release_c.php >. [5] Karen Parker, Forced Displacement in Northern Uganda, United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, . [6] Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellen Press, 1999. [7] Private interview, eyewitness, October 2007. [8] See: Tullow, Hardman and Heritage Oil concessions maps: . [9] Angelo Izama, "How badly did Libya want the Kenya-Uganda oil pipeline deal?" Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections, Vol. 11, Issue 12, November 24, 2006. [10] Ralph G. Kershaw, "Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: International Justice According to Washington," Covert Action Quarterly, No. 74, Fall 2002. [11] Jeevan Vasagar, "Uganda hires PR agency to buff up its image," The Guardian, May 21, 2005. [12] The Rwandan Patriotic Army was renamed the Rwanda Defense Forces. [13] "Uganda: Kampala-Kigali Oil Pipeline Estimated at $ 193.6 Million," 16 October 2007, Rwanda News Agency, . [14] keith harmon snow and Georgianne Nienaber: "Gorillas 'Executed' Stories front for Privatization and Militarization of Congo Parks, Truth of Depopulation Ignored," ZNET, August 3, 2007; and "King Kong: The Map, The Mad Scientist, and the Mayor," . [15] Mathew Russel Lee, "At UN, Darfur No-Bid Contract Spun by UK, Chad and Somalia Preemptively Bid Out," Inner City Press, October 24, 2007, . [16] Mathew Russel Lee, "At UN, Darfur No-Bid Contract Spun by UK, Chad and Somalia Preemptively Bid Out," Inner City Press, October 24, 2007, . [17] See, e.g., Wayne Madsen, "The CIA's Counter-Proliferation Division (CPD) and British intelligence have evidence that then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney lost three nuclear weapons in 1991," Madsen Report, May 2, 2007; Alexander Cockburn, "Broken Arrows and Iran," Counterpunch, August 3, 2005. [18] Pauline Jelenek, "U.S. special forces in Somalia," Associated Press, November 1, 2007. [19] Stephanie McCrummen, "U.S. Warship Fires Missiles at Fighters in Somalia," Washington Post, June 3, 2007. [20] "HMS Bulwark welcomed home after Lebanon operations," defense news, 15 August 2006. [21] See: keith harmon snow, Today is the Day of Killing Anuaks, Genocide Watch and Survivor's Rights International Report, February 25, 2004. [22] Xan Rice, "US military 'used Ethiopian base' to attack Somali militants," Guardian Unlimited, February 23, 2007. [23] See: Livelihoods and Vulnerabilities Study, Gambella Region of Ethiopia, UNICEF report, December 13, 2006. [24] "Uganda: American Advisors Being Deployed," Indian Ocean Newsletter, No. 1209, March 3, 2007. [25] AFRICOM . -- _____________________________________________ When a culture is prohibited or denied from flourishing, its people are weakened and subject to destruction. (Grace Stiles) www.youtube.com/deriveonline DERIVE. Creative solutions to maximize your potential. www.deriveonline.com Sincerely, Daudi Kololo --------------------------------------------------------------------- http://lwoculturalgroup.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom. Albert Einstein: The Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"