thiendella: Those malians really suck , what kind of people would let some arab invaders gain 2/3 of their country without opposing any resistance ? Negotiating with invaders smh

PAGAN 9JA:



please mind your language. The TOuareg are not arabs. they have their own language, culture SPirtitual beliefs, etc.

The Touareg have been living in the Sahel for Centuries. only a small fraction of the rebels are arabs.

thiendella:
kk but I still think they are armed by libya with the complicity of algeria and maybe mauritania

PAGAN 9JA:
im so depressed with whats going on.

see there is even a facebook group of Azawad wih mostly TOuareg members and it clearly states its agenda against islamic extremism:

http://www./408725049156227/

this is all such a big misunderstanding.

EFX001:

A FAMOUS BIBLE QUOTE SAYS"THE POPLE PERISH FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE" MY FRIEND THE TERRORIST GROUP IN MALI IS CALLED Ansar al-Din THEY ARE THE MAIN SUPPORTERS OF BOKO HARAM AND OTHER MEGREB TERROR ORGANIZATIONS. MISUNDERSTANDING KOO MISUNDERSTANDING NEEE !!!!!

The U.S. Military Swarms Over Africa

“The 2nd Brigade’s deployment is a much larger assignment, aimed at making all of Africa a theater of U.S. military operations.”

2013 is the year the U.S. kicks off its wholesale military occupation of Africa. The escalation should come as no surprise, since the Army Times newspaper [8] reported, back in June, that a U.S. brigade of at least 3,000 troops would become a permanent presence on the continent in the new year. On Christmas Eve, the Pentagon announced that 3,500 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade, in Fort Riley, Kansas, will be sent to Africa, supposedly to confront a threat from al-Qaida in Mali, where Islamists have seized the northern part of the country. But the 2nd Brigade is scheduled to hold more than 100 military exercises in 35 countries [9], most of which have no al-Qaida presence. So, although there is no doubt that the U.S. will be deeply involved in the impending military operation in Mali, the 2nd Brigade’s deployment is a much larger assignment, aimed at making all of Africa a theater of U.S. military operations.The situation in Mali is simply a convenient, after-the-fact rationale for a long-planned expansion of the U.S. military footprint in Africa.

The Pentagon’s larger purpose in placing an army brigade on roving duty all across the continent is to acclimate African commanders to hosting a permanent, large scale U.S. presence. This is a very different kind of invasion – more like an infiltration-in-force. The Pentagon’s strategy is designed to reinforce relationships that the U.S. Africa Command has been cultivating with African militaries since the establishment of AFRICOM [10] during George Bush’s last year in office. As an infiltrating force, AFRICOM has been a phenomenal success.

[b]“Militarily, the West Africans are totally dependent.”



Militarily speaking, the African Union has become an annex of the Pentagon [11]. The AU’s biggest operation, in Somalia, is armed, financed and directed by the U.S. military and CIA. The 17,000 African troops on so-called peace-keeping duty in Somalia are, for all practical purposes, mercenaries for the Americans – although poorly paid ones. Ethiopian and Kenyan forces act as extensions of U.S. power in the East Africa. U.S. Special Forces roam the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic – ostensibly looking for the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony but, in reality, establishing a web of U.S. military infrastructures [12] throughout center of the continent. Uganda and Rwanda keep the eastern Congo’s mineral riches safe for U.S. and European corporations – at the cost of 6 million Congolese lives. Their militaries are on the Pentagon’s payroll.

In northwest Africa, the 16 nations of the region’s economic community await the intervention of the United Nations [13] – which really means the United States and France – to “expel the Islamist forces” [14] from Mali. Militarily, the West Africans are totally dependent. But, more importantly, they show no political will to escape this dependency – especially after the demise of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

The creeping, continental U.S. expeditionary force, soon to be spearheaded by the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade, will bunk down in African military bases throughout the continent, not as invaders, but as guests. Guests who pay the bills and provide the weapons for African armies whose mission has nothing to do with national independence and self-determination. Three generations after the beginnings of decolonization, the African soldier is once again bowing to the foreign master.[/b]

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com [15].

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20130109_gf_USTroopsAfrica.mp3

UN Security Council approves military intervention in Mali
By Ernst Wolff and Alex Lantier
22 December 2012
On Thursday the United Nations Security Council authorized an intervention into the sub-Saharan country of Mali by foreign troops, under the pretext of freeing northern Mali from occupation by Al Qaeda-linked Islamists. The resolution was adopted unanimously.
The vote came only ten days after the forced resignation of Malian Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra and his replacement by Django Cissoko. Diarra was an outspoken defender of a foreign military intervention, whereas Cissoko, who was installed by the military junta under Captain Amadou Sanogo, has so far abstained from any commentary on foreign intervention.
The United Nations’ decision, which does not contain a specific time-table for military action, comes as a clear warning—firstly to the military junta, but above all to the workers and oppressed masses of Mali—that the imperialist powers intend to control the fate of Mali.
Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly called the resolution a “historic step,” adding that his government “commits itself fully” to fulfilling its obligations under the resolution.
To give itself a democratic touch, the resolution calls for “political reconciliation”, elections “as soon as technically possible,” and the restoration of constitutional order. It also asks UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to “confirm in advance the council’s satisfaction with the planned military offensive operation”. In reality, it is paving the way for another bloody war on African soil, setting the fuse for an explosion of the entire surrounding Sahel region.
Mali, one the world’s poorest countries, was shaken by a military coup in March. This was provoked largely by the occupation of northern Mali by heavily-armed Tuareg forces returning from the NATO war in Libya, where they had fought on Gaddafi’s side against NATO. Only months later, the Tuareg militias were forced out by Islamist fighters, who have ties to Al Qaeda and established rule by sharia law. They were joined by several thousand Islamists from North Africa and Asia, reportedly financed from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The UN resolution backs a decision by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy 3,300 troops in Mali to fight the Islamists. The mission is to be led by Nigeria and has drawn criticism from Algeria, which historically has objected to foreign military deployments in the Sahel.
The imperialist powers are trying to hide their agenda behind their regional proxies. The resolution officially authorizes an African-led International Support Mission, known as AFISMA, for an initial period of one year without making any mention of its size. It “welcomes” ECOWAS troop contributions and calls on member states, including those in the Sahel, to contribute troops to the mission.
It also mentions providing “a voluntary and a United Nations-funded logistics support packages to AFISMA, including equipment and services for an initial period of one year”.
The resolution asks the secretary-general to provide support in critical areas to help the Malian government to “extend its authority during or following a military operation, including in the rule of law, removing land mines, and promoting national dialogue and regional cooperation”.
Although the UN Security Council resolution was unanimously adopted, it appears that the detailed planning of an intervention is still ongoing. This is due above all to considerable frictions between the United States and France, the former colonial power in Mali, over the tactics of an invasion.
French imperialism is heavily dependent on the Sahel for uranium for it nuclear industry. It is demanding immediate military action—with ECOWAS countries providing ground troops as cannon fodder for the war, while Washington and its European allies provide logistical, air, and intelligence support.
Sections of the American ruling class opposed such plans, objecting that ECOWAS troops would not be militarily able to defeat the Islamists, and that other regional powers, such as Algeria, should be involved. US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice recently dismissed France’s plan based on ECOWAS as “crap.”
An imperialist-led intervention in Mali as outlined by the UN and discussed by the United States and the European powers would be yet another reactionary war launched on the basis of lies. The claim that the NATO powers must intervene in Mali because they need to halt the spread of Al Qaeda’s influence is absurd.
NATO wars are in fact one of the main bases on which Al Qaeda’s influence develops. The fighting in Mali grew largely out of the Libyan war, in which NATO relied to a large extent on far-right Islamists, including forces of the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Today, the US-backed opposition in Syria includes the Al Nusra Front, which the US government itself acknowledges is a terrorist group tied to Al Qaeda.
While using Al Qaeda as a tool of its imperialist policies elsewhere, in Mali the NATO powers are citing the threat of Al Qaeda as a lever to organize intervention in Mali and deepen imperialist control over all of western Africa. Negotiations are continuing with the ECOWAS states as well as with Algeria on how to proceed with the intervention. (See also: French president promotes corporate interests, Mali war in Algeria visit )
There are widespread expectations that an invasion of northern Mali will rapidly spread fighting throughout the Sahel, as northern Mali shares long borders with Algeria, Niger, and Mauritania. Comparisons are now openly being made between the war in Mali and the NATO war in Afghanistan, which has since spilled over into Pakistan and other neighboring countries.
Thus Algiers University Professor Ahmed Adhimi wrote, “Now we face the Afghanization of the Sahel region. Military intervention means that all adventurers, terrorists, and all those who want to fight the Crusaders will come to northern Mali. Then Algeria would become the Pakistan of Africa, and it would be easy to drag the region’s countries into war… [This would] drag Algeria into a war with which it has nothing to do, its objective is to drain the country’s wealth.”

PAGAN 9JA:


These are no islamist-arabs. They are Touareg leaders.

PAGAN 9JA:
[size=16pt]WHY IS FRANCE POKING HER DIRTY NOSE IN THIS>>?? ? ?? ? [/size]


[size=16pt]THIS IS A TOUAREG RESISTANCE! THE ISLAMIC-ARAB PART CAME LATER, AND THEY ARE ALREADY BEING PUSHED OUT BY THE NON-ISLAMIC TOUAREG FACTIONS!

THE TOUAREG HAVE BEEN SUFFERING FOR YEARS IN THESE AREAS BY MALIS LACK OF DEVELOPMENT AND OPRESSIVE MEASURES! THEIR PASTURES HAVE BEEN BURNT DOWN AND THERE IS GENOCIDE AGAINST THEM NOT TO MENTION DROUGHT AND STARVATION!


I HOPE THE TOUAREG REBELS DEFEAT THEM!

THIS IS THE FIGHT OF THE NOMADS!

VIVA LA AMAZIGHEN!!!!!!!!!![/size]

PAGAN 9JA:


Ik now that is what ive been saying. ANSAR AL DEEN IS DIFFERENT FROM MNLA!

BUT BECAUSE OF THIS USELESS WAR AND FOREIGN INTERFERENCE, NOW THE MNLA STANDS A CHANCE TO LOSE GROUND. WITH MALI UNITED, THIS ANSAR AL DINE WILL BE ABLE TO SPREAD SHARIA'A!

EFX001:

A FAMOUS BIBLE QUOTE SAYS"THE POPLE PERISH FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE" MY FRIEND THE TERRORIST GROUP IN MALI IS CALLED Ansar al-Din THEY ARE THE MAIN SUPPORTERS OF BOKO HARAM AND OTHER MEGREB TERROR ORGANIZATIONS. MISUNDERSTANDING KOO MISUNDERSTANDING NEEE !!!!!

thiendella: Those malians really suck , what kind of people would let some arab invaders gain 2/3 of their country without opposing any resistance ? Negotiating with invaders smh

PAGAN 9JA:


that was in the past. now there is no muamar ghadaffi. algeria and mauritania are not much inovlved and algeria has a sizeable Berber population who are not so islamic.

mauritania maybe fosters al qaeda.


as i explained before, the MNLA is supported and funded by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) , whereas the Ansar Dine is supported by AL Qaeda.

Hardfact:
Is that really the case?

onatisi: while African leaders are still wasting and delaying time in helping Mali to fight her rebels france has already started the initiative and taken action, why is it that African leaders are always slow to react to matters of urgency .

thiendella: Those malians really suck , what kind of people would let some arab invaders gain 2/3 of their country without opposing any resistance ? Negotiating with invaders smh

Yewe2011:
exactly my sentiments.

If Mali is not serious about their sovereignty why should anyone else in West Africa?

Yewe2011:

there are 4 main groups in Northern Mali

1) MNLA (Azawad Independence movement)
2) Ansar Dine
3) MUJAO
4) AQIM

Tuaregs are apart of all the above groups

EFX001: NIGERIAN ARMY COVERT SPECIAL FORCES COMMANDOS ARE CURRENTLY IN MALI CARRYING OUT COVERT OPS AGAINST TERRORIST ELEMENTS. MY FREIENDS THIS WAS CONFIRMED YESTERDAY BY THE MALIAN GENERAL INCHARGE OF OPERATIONS. ITS A SECRET RAPID DEPLOYMENT. SHHHH! IGNORE THE MEDIA AND READ THROUGH THE LINES.

[b]

The Destabilization Of Africa
BLOOD MONEY OUT OF AFRICA
From Michael Ruppert
'From The Wilderness'
http://www.copvcia.com
5-6-1


[On 6 April, 2001 Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D), GA. Boldly sponsored a forum on the totally ignored rape of Africa - a key part of the current headlong rush toward globalization. FTW has been woefully silent about Africa as we have reported on trends elsewhere in the world. We admit that this has been partially out of ignorance which we begin to correct now by posting (with permission) this report on her forum. As the planet coalesces with frightening speed into three dominant economic regions (The Western Hemisphere, Europe and Asia) it is critical to understand that the carnage in Africa can only accelerate. McKinney, who sits on the House International Relations Committee, is to be commended for her non-partisan critique of both Democratic and Republican Administrations. The following is about as ugly as it gets. - FTW]
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

Covert Action in Africa: A Smoking Gun in Washington, D.C.
Rayburn House Office Building
Friday, April 6, 2001
10:00am - 12:00 noon

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

OPENING STATEMENT
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

I want to thank you all for coming today.

I especially want to thank our esteemed speakers for traveling, in some instances quite a long way, to be with us today.

Our speakers are courageous individuals who have gone to many of Africa's most dangerous and desperately poor locations, not for wealth or riches, but in order to merely discover the truth. They provide us with a remarkable insight into what has gone on in Africa and what continues to go on in Africa today.

Much of what you will hear today has not been widely reported in the public media. Powerful forces have fought to suppress these stories from entering the public domain.

Their investigations into the activities of Western governments and Western businessmen in postcolonial Africa provide clear evidence of the West's long-standing propensity for cruelty, avarice, and treachery. The misconduct of Western nations in Africa is not due to momentary lapses, individual defects, or errors of common human frailty. Instead, they form part of long-term malignant policy designed to access and plunder Africa's wealth at the expense of Africa's people. In short, the accounts you are about to hear provide an indictment of Western activities in Africa.

The West has, for decades, plundered Africa's wealth and permitted, and even, assisted in slaughtering Africa's people. The West has been able to do this while still shrewdly cultivating the myth that much of Africa's problems today are African made--we have all heard the usual Western defenses that Africa's problems are the fault of corrupt African administrations, centuries-old tribal hatreds, the fault of unsophisticated peoples. But we know that those statements are all a lie. We have always known it.

The accounts we are about to hear today assist us in understanding just why Africa is in the state it is in today. You will hear that at the heart of Africa's suffering is the West's, and most notably the United States', desire to access Africa's diamonds, oil, natural gas, and other precious resources.

You will hear that the West, and most notably the United States, has set in motion a policy of oppression, destabilization and tempered, not by moral principle, but by a ruthless desire to enrich itself on Africa's fabulous wealth. While falsely pretending to be the friends and allies of many African countries, so desperate for help and assistance, many western nations have in reality betrayed those countries' trust--and instead, have relentlessly pursued their own selfish military and economic policies. Western countries have incited rebellion against stable African governments by encouraging and even arming opposition parties and rebel groups to begin armed insurrection.

The Western nations have even actively participated in the assassination of duly elected and legitimate African Heads of State and replaced them with corrupted and malleable officials. Western nations have even encouraged and been complicit in the unlawful invasions by African nations into neighboring counties.

Something must be done to right these wrongs.

I invite you to listen and learn first-hand of the West's activities in Africa.[/b]

[b]Prepared Statement of
Wayne Madsen

WHAT A DIFFERENCE AN ELECTION MAKES:
OR DOES IT?

Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist who has written for The Village Voice, The Progressive, CAQ, and the Intelligence Newsletter. He is the author of Genocide and Covert Activities in Africa 1993-1999 (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1999), an expose of U.S. and French intelligence activities in Africa's recent civil wars and ethnic rebellions. He served as an on-air East Africa analyst for ABC News in the aftermath of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Mr. Madsen has appeared on 60 Minutes, World News Tonight, Nightline, 20/20, MS-NBC, and NBC Nightly News, among others. He has been frequently quoted by the Associated Press, foreign wire services, and many national and international newspapers.

Mr. Madsen is also the author of a motion picture screen play treatment about the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion. He is a former U.S. Naval Officer and worked for the National Security Agency and U.S. Naval Telecommunications Command.

---

I wish to discuss the record of American policy in Africa over most of the past decade, particularly that involving the central African Great Lakes region. It is a policy that has rested, in my opinion, on the twin pillars of unrestrained military aid and questionable trade. The military aid programs of the United States, largely planned and administered by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), have been both overt and covert.

ACRI, ACSS, and the covert programs all involve the use of private military training firms and logistics support contractors that are immune to Freedom of Information Act requests. More troubling than these overt problems are those that involve covert assistance to the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries. Sources in the Great Lakes region consistently report the presence of a U.S.-built military base near Cyangugu, Rwanda, near the Congolese border. The base, reported to have been partly constructed by the U.S. firm Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, is said to be involved with training RPF forces and providing logistics support to their troops in the DRC.

The increasing reliance by the Department of Defense on so-called Private Military Contractors (PMCs) is of special concern. Many of these PMCs -- once labeled as "mercenaries" by previous administrations when they were used as foreign policy instruments by the colonial powers of France, Belgium, Portugal, and South Africa -- have close links with some of the largest mining and oil companies involved in Africa today. PMCs, because of their proprietary status, have a great deal of leeway to engage in covert activities far from the reach of congressional investigators. They can simply claim that their business in various nations is a protected trade secret and the law now seems to be on their side.

THE DESTABILIZATION OF AFRICA

America's policy toward Africa during the past decade, rather than seeking to stabilize situations where civil war and ethnic turmoil reign supreme, has seemingly promoted destabilization. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was fond of calling pro-U.S. military leaders in Africa who assumed power by force and then cloaked themselves in civilian attire, "beacons of hope."

In reality, these leaders, who include the current presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Angola, Eritrea, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo preside over countries where ethnic and civil turmoil permit unscrupulous international mining companies to take advantage of the strife to fill their own coffers with conflict diamonds, gold, copper, platinum, and other precious minerals including one that is a primary component of computer microchips.

Some of the companies involved in this new "scramble for Africa" have close links with PMCs and America's top political leadership. For example, America Minerals Fields, Inc., a company that was heavily involved in promoting the 1996 accession to power of the late Congolese President Laurent-Desire Kabila, was, at the time of its involvement in the Congo's civil war, headquartered in Hope, Arkansas. Its major stockholders included long-time associates of former President Clinton going back to his days as Governor of Arkansas. America Mineral Fields also reportedly enjoys a close relationship with Lazare Kaplan International, Inc., a major international diamond brokerage whose president remains a close confidant of past and current administrations on Africa matters.

One of the major goals of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD), a group fighting the Kabila government in Congo, is restoration of mining concessions for Barrick Gold, Inc. of Canada. In fact, the rebel RCD government's "mining minister" signed a separate mining deal with Barrick in early 1999. Among the members of Barrick's International Advisory Board are former President Bush and former President Clinton's close confidant Vernon Jordan.

Currently, Barrick and tens of other mining companies are stoking the flames of the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Each benefits by the de facto partition of the country into some four separate zones of political control. First the mineral exploiters from Rwanda and Uganda concentrated on pillaging gold and diamonds from the eastern Congo. Now, they have increasingly turned their attention to a valuable black sand called columbite-tantalite or "col-tan." Col-tan is a key material in computer chips and, therefore, is as considered a strategic mineral. It is my hope that the Bush administration will take pro-active measures to stem this conflict by applying increased pressure on Uganda and Rwanda to withdraw their troops from the country. However, the fact that President Bush has selected Walter Kansteiner to be Assistant Secretary of State for African, portends, in my opinion, more trouble for the Great Lakes region. A brief look at Mr. Kansteiner's curriculum vitae and statements calls into question his commitment to seeking a durable peace in the region. For example, he has envisaged the splitting up of the Great Lakes region into separate Tutsi and Hutu states through "relocation" efforts and has called the break-up of the DRC inevitable. I believe Kansteiner's previous work at the Department of Defense where he served on a Task Force on Strategic Minerals and one must certainly consider col-tan as falling into that category -- may influence his past and current thinking on the territorial integrity of the DRC. After all, 80 per cent of the world's known reserves of col-tan are found in the eastern DRC. It is potentially as important to the U.S. military as the Persian Gulf region.

The U.S. military and intelligence agencies, which have supported Uganda and Rwanda in their cross-border adventures in the DRC, have resisted peace initiatives and have failed to produce evidence of war crimes by the Ugandans and Rwandans and their allies in Congo. The CIA, NSA, and DIA should turn over to international investigators both signals intelligence and human intelligence evidence in their possession, as well as overhead imagery, including thermal imagery indicating the presence of mass graves and when they were dug. There must be a full accounting before the Congress by the staff of the U.S. Defense Attaché's Office in Kigali who served there from early 1994 to the present time.[/b]

pappilo: How do the west decide who they support? Until I can work that out, I will remain confused. Why fight against Al Qaeda in Mali but support Al Qaeda in Syria and Libya? Why do they support 'people' who fight for their 'rights' with guns in Syria but oppose those fighting for their 'rights' with guns in Mali? Okay I get it; Mali is a 'democracy' but wait, the west didnt support people fighting for their rights in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia which are absolute monarchies (read dictatorship). Okay I am confused again.

The west don't give a toss about democracy and will only protect their interests. That is why they are antagonistic towards comrade Chavez and Ahmedinijad who were democratically elected in free and fair elections in Venezuela and Iran but are bed fellows with oppressive dictators in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.