AFRICOM Related News Clips 1 July, 2011

8/6/2019 AFRICOM Related News Clips 1 July, 2011

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office1 July 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with al-Qaeda, official says (Washington Post)(Somalia) A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somaliorganization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S.military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday.

Somali jihadists battered by airstrikes (UPI)(Somalia) Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist group is reported to betransferring foreign fighters to Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden,possibly to reinforce al-Qaida militants there who have seized southerncities as the country teeters on the brink of civil war.

Libya mission becomes a burden for Obama (McClatchyNewspapers)(Libya) More than 100 days after the United States and NATO allieslaunched what was supposed to be a quick air campaign in Libya,Pentagon officials concede that the effort has little strategic value for

the U.S., and the alliance's desired outcome there remains unclear.

AU Summit Opens, Libya Crisis Expected to Dominate Talks(VOA)(Libya) African heads of state and various country representativesattend the opening session of the 17th African Union Summit, at theSipopo Conference Center outside Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, June 30,2011..African heads of state are meeting in Equatorial Guinea for theannual summit of the African Union. The ongoing conflict in Libya isexpected to dominate their two-day meeting.

The Libya Campaign (NYT)(Libya) Four months into the NATO air campaign, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is still in power, protected by loyalists and mercenaries.Americans are weary of war, and patience in Europe is also wearingthin. But NATO must not give up.

Libyan rebels hope French weapons will break Misratastalemate (The Guardian)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/us-drones-target-two-leaders-of-somali-group-allied-with-al-qaeda/2011/06/29/AGJFxZrH_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/us-drones-target-two-leaders-of-somali-group-allied-with-al-qaeda/2011/06/29/AGJFxZrH_story.htmlhttp://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/06/30/Somali-jihadists-battered-by-airstrikes/UPI-28201309460651/http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/AU-Summit-Opens-Libya-Crisis-Expected-to-Dominate-Talks-124794869.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/opinion/01fri2.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/01/libyan-rebels-french-weapons-misratahttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/01/libyan-rebels-french-weapons-misratahttp://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/06/30/Somali-jihadists-battered-by-airstrikes/UPI-28201309460651/http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/AU-Summit-Opens-Libya-Crisis-Expected-to-Dominate-Talks-124794869.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/opinion/01fri2.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/01/libyan-rebels-french-weapons-misratahttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/01/libyan-rebels-french-weapons-misratahttp://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/us-drones-target-two-leaders-of-somali-group-allied-with-al-qaeda/2011/06/29/AGJFxZrH_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/us-drones-target-two-leaders-of-somali-group-allied-with-al-qaeda/2011/06/29/AGJFxZrH_story.html


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(Libya) Libyan rebels in Misrata said on Thursday night that they are indiscussions with France to supply weapons and ammunition to fightersin the besieged coastal enclave.

Western Funds Are Said to Have Managed Libyan Money Poorly

(NYT)(Libya) Prominent American and European investment funds managedhundreds of millions of dollars in Qaddafi regime assets poorly,charging tens of millions of dollars in fees and producing low returns,according to a document obtained by the advocacy group GlobalWitness. The banks appeared to have taken advantage of a Libyaninvestment fund that was poorly managed and "a mess," according toa western official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

UN Criticizes China's Failure to Arrest Sudan's Bashir (VOA)(Sudan) The United Nations has criticized China for failing to arrest

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during his visit to Beijing this week.

Another Area Girds for Revolt as Sudan Approaches a Split(NYT)(Sudan) Children with shrapnel wounds lie on metal hospital cots.Thousands of others have been huddling in caves and stony riverbeds,fleeing the fighter jets and bombers prowling the skies. Villages areempty, fields unplowed. At the faintest buzz of a plane, people scatterinto the bush, in a panic.

Obiang Tells World Not To Intervene In Africa (AP)

(Pan-Africa) Foreign military intervention has caused massive sufferingin Africa, the African Union's current chairman said Thursday in amessage that is being seen as a jab at the NATO airstrikes in Libya.

Nation Tense As More Lightning Cases Reported (The Monitor)(Uganda) Ugandans yesterday woke up to news of more fatalitiescaused by lightning across the country. In Kiryandongo District onTuesday, 19 pupils of Runyanya Primary School were killed and 51others left with serious burns to their heads, fingers and hands, whenlightning struck the school.

Africom : the great machine for wind-brewing? (SahelIntelligence)At the tour of the Maghreb by the head of Africom, General Carter F.Ham, comes to an end, many observers wonder about the real utility ofthe United States Africa Command, which is the body officiallyresponsible "to coordinate all U.S. military and security activities onthe continent".
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/business/global/01libya.htmlhttp://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/UN-Criticizes-Chinas-Failure-to-Arrest-Sudans-Bashir---124771729.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/world/africa/01sudan.htmlhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137521400http://allafrica.com/stories/201106300151.htmlhttp://sahel-intelligence.com/diplomatie/168-africom--la-grande-machine-a-brasser-du-vent-http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/business/global/01libya.htmlhttp://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/UN-Criticizes-Chinas-Failure-to-Arrest-Sudans-Bashir---124771729.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/world/africa/01sudan.htmlhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137521400http://allafrica.com/stories/201106300151.htmlhttp://sahel-intelligence.com/diplomatie/168-africom--la-grande-machine-a-brasser-du-vent-


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AFRICOM: AF, Navy still flying Libya missions(Air Force Times)(Libya) Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strikemissions over Libya despite the Obama administrations claim thatAmerican forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATOoperation.

UN News Service Africa BriefsFull Articles on UN Website Regional drought causing alarming overcrowding at

Kenyan refugee camp: UN Sudan: UN chief welcomes agreement on security in

north-south border regions Youth education and employment key to progress in

Africa Migiro UN agency welcomes safe return of two missing staff in

Ethiopia-------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, July 12, 12:00 1:00 pm; Live Webcastfrom the Woodrow Wilson CenterWHAT: Libya: Death of an IdeaWHO: Karim Mexran, Director for Center for American Studies, RomeInfo: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=705279----------------------------------------------------------------------------------FULL ARTICLE TEXT

U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with al-Qaeda, official says (Washington Post)By Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoungJune 29, 2011A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somaliorganization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S.military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday.

The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amidgrowing concern within the U.S. government that some leaders of theIslamist group are collaborating more closely with al-Qaeda to strike

targets beyond Somalia, the military official said.

Zawahiri, a surgeon who spend years in underground Islamic groups inEgypt before joining al-Qaeda, had been serving as the militant groupssecond-in-command.More on this Story
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/06/defense-africom-air-force-navy-flying-libya-missions-063011/http://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICAhttp://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=705279http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=705279http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2011/06/defense-africom-air-force-navy-flying-libya-missions-063011/http://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICAhttp://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=705279http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=705279


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The airstrike makes Somalia at least the sixth country where theUnited States is using drone aircraft to conduct lethal attacks, joiningAfghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. And it comes as the CIAis expected to begin flying armed drones over Yemen in its hunt for al-Qaeda operatives.

Al-Shabab has battled Somalias tenuous government for severalyears. In recent months, U.S. officials have picked up intelligence thatsenior members of the group have expanded their ambitions beyondattacks in Somalia.

They have become somewhat emboldened of late, and, as a result,we have become more focused on inhibiting their activities, theofficial said.They were planning operations outside of Somalia.

Both of the al-Shabab leaders targeted in the attack had direct ties

to American-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, the military official said.Aulaqi escaped a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in May.

The White House declined Wednesday night to respond to questionsabout the attack.

But Obama administration officials have made repeated references toal-Shabab in recent weeks, indicating that the group has expanded itsaims and its operations. In a speech Wednesday unveiling theadministrations new counterterrorism strategy, senior White Houseaide John O. Brennan included Somalia among the countries where the

administration has placed a new focus on al-Qaeda affiliates.

As the al-Qaeda core has weakened under our unyielding pressure, ithas looked increasingly to these other groups and individuals to takeup its cause, including its goal of striking the United States, saidBrennan, Obamas chief counterterrorism adviser. From the territory itcontrols in Somalia, he said, al-Shabab continues to call for strikesagainst the United States.

And earlier this month, in a hearing to confirm him as Obamas newdefense secretary, CIA Director Leon Panetta told senators that the

agency had intelligence on al-Shabab that indicates that they, too, arelooking at targets beyond Somalia. Panetta said al-Qaeda had movedsome of its operations to nodes in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.The CIA, he said, was working with the U.S. Joint Special OperationsCommand in those areas to try to develop counterterrorism.

The Special Operations Command carried out last weeks Somaliastrike, the military official said, and it has been flying remotely piloted


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planes over Yemen for much of the past year. It has taken the lead inoperations in Yemen, where Aulaqi, a senior figure in al-Qaeda in theArabian Peninsula, is based.

U.S. aircraft and Special Operations commandos have carried out other

attacks in Somalia against militants linked to al-Qaeda, but the strikelast week appears to have been one of the first U.S. drone attacks inSomalia.It was not immediately clear what kind of unmanned aircraft was usedin the attack or where the drone originated.

The airstrike appears to be one piece of a larger effort to step upoffensive action against al-Shabab militants with ties to al-Qaeda inSomalia. Somali media have reported numerous rumors in recentmonths of U.S. airstrikes on militant camps.

Zawahiri, a surgeon who spend years in underground Islamic groups inEgypt before joining al-Qaeda, had been serving as the militant groupssecond-in-command.On April 6, an al-Shabab commander was reported to have been killedby an airstrike in Dhobley, a border town in southern Somalia,according to the Web site Long War Journal.

This month, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the alleged architect of the1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa, was killed in a shootout inthe Somali capital, Mogadishu, Somali officials said. Mohammed was afounder of al-Shabab and was considered the most-wanted man in East

Africa.

The United States conducted a DNA analysis to confirm Mohammedsdemise, a U.S. official said. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clintondescribed it as a significant blow to al-Qaeda, its extremist allies andits operations in East Africa.

In last weeks attack, local officials told the Associated Press thatmilitary aircraft struck a convoy carrying the militants as they drovealong the coastline of the southern port city of Kismaayo lateThursday. Other local residents told journalists that an air attack had

taken place on a militant camp near Kismaayo, an insurgentstronghold. Several residents were quoted as saying that more thanone explosion had occurred over a period of several hours and thatthey thought that at least helicopters had taken part in the attack.

An al-Shabab leader confirmed the airstrike and said two militantswere wounded. Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig, Somalias deputy defense


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minister, said the attack was a coordinated operation that killedmany foreign fighters.

I have their names, but I dont want to release them, he told the AP.

In the early days of the Obama administration, officials becameconcerned about Somali extremists and debated whether al-Shabab,despite some ties to al-Qaeda,posed a threat to the United States orwas primarily focused on Somalia. Some administration andintelligence officials said the groups objectives remained domestic andargued against any preemptive strike on its camps.

Over the past year, al-Shabab has focused more openly outsideSomalia in its statements and targets. In July, the group carried outsuicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, that killed 76 people, includingone American. Uganda is one of the countries providing troops to a

peacekeeping force that protects the U.S.-backed government inSomalia.

In August, the Justice Department charged 14 people in this countrywith providing support to al-Shabab. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.said that the indictments shed further light on a deadly pipeline thathas routed funding and fighters to al-Shabab from cities across theUnited States.-------------------------------Somali jihadists battered by airstrikes (UPI)By Unattributed Author

June 30, 2011 at 3:04 PMMOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist group is reportedto be transferring foreign fighters to Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden,possibly to reinforce al-Qaida militants there who have seized southerncities as the country teeters on the brink of civil war.

The reports from Somalia coincide with an apparent escalation in U.S.airstrikes against al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaida, at the sametime the U.S. covert war against al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate has alsobeen stepped up.

There have been at least three airstrikes against al-Shabaab in recentweeks. The first was April 6, when a jihadist commander was killed inthe town of Dhobley in southern Somalia. Some reports said 35 fighterswere slain.

On June 23, unidentified helicopters carried out a nighttime missilestrike on a convoy at the al-Shabaab military camp at Qandal outsidethe southern port of Kismayo.


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Two fighters were killed, al-Shabaab communiques said. But otherreports say there were 39 fatalities, including foreign fighters.

The targets of the airstrike were reportedly operatives close to Anwar

al-Awlaki, a key U.S.-born leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in theArabian Peninsula.

The Americans have marked him for assassination for his involvementin jihadist attacks against the United States.

He escaped a drone strike in Yemen carried out by the U.S. JointSpecial Operations Command, the elite unit responsible for theassassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Some reports say the raid was carried out by a U.S. armed drone. If

that's correct, it would be the first such attack by the Americans inSomalia.

It would add weight to evidence that the Americans are stepping upoperations against al-Shabaab as well as AQAP.

All previous airstrikes in Somalia have been carried out by helicopters,AC-130 Specter gunships or cruise missiles.

On June 28, three helicopters were reported to have hit a trainingcamp in the Afmadow district of Lower Juba province near the border

with Kenya in a nighttime raid.

There has been no official confirmation of these airstrikes by U.S.authorities.

The BBC reported Tuesday the United States has supplied droneaircraft to Uganda and Burundi, East African states bordering Somalia.

Those countries provide most of the troops for the 8,000-strong AfricaUnion peacekeeping force backing Somalia's Western-backedTransitional Federal Government, which al-Shabaab is battling to

overthrow.

The U.S. Africa Command, based in Germany, said four drones hadbeen provided under a $45 million military aid package to boost theircounter-terrorism capabilities.


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But as far as is known these have not been in action, and neithercountry has the capability to conduct precision airstrikes at night likethose carried out in June.

For the intelligence services of the West and Saudi Arabia, a hookup

between AQAP and al-Shabaab to seize control of the Bab al-MandebStrait, a key oil artery linking the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, haslong been a nightmare scenario.

Such a merger would also intensify the jihadist threat against SaudiArabia, Yemen's northern neighbor and the world's leading oilproducer.

One report from Somalia said 76 foreign fighters, including severalcommanders, left Kismayo for Yemen aboard a small boat following theJune 23 airstrike.

It was not clear why, but it also followed a series of serious militarysetbacks for al-Shabaab inflicted by the TFG army and its allies inrecent weeks.

That suggests foreign fighters decided to pull out and join AQAP, one ofthe jihadist network's most effective groups.

It's also coming under increasing attack by U.S. Special Forces, nowaided by the CIA, as government authority crumbles in the face of amajor uprising to topple longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who

was badly wounded in a June 3 bombing inside his presidential palacecompound in Sanaa, the capital. The blast killed and maimed several ofhis key aides.

Saleh, 69, was airlifted to neighboring Saudi Arabia for treatment. Heremains there as his impoverished country, increasingly a keybattleground in the U.S. war against al-Qaida, falls apart.

AQAP, striking while Yemen's divided military fights amongthemselves, has seized towns in the south, such as Zinjabar, capital ofAbyan province on the Arabian Sea coast.

That's a dangerous development the Americans would want to crush asquickly as possible before it spreads.------------------------Libya mission becomes a burden for Obama (McClatchyNewspapers)By Nancy A. YoussefJune 30, 2011


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Libya - More than 100 days after the United States and NATO allieslaunched what was supposed to be a quick air campaign in Libya,Pentagon officials concede that the effort has little strategic value forthe U.S., and the alliance's desired outcome there remains unclear.

Instead, with NATO unable to bring an end to the fighting, the missionhas run into stiff opposition from both parties in Congress and ledmilitary officials to fret privately that even the limited U.S. role willgenerate more ill will in the Arab world.

What's become an open-ended conflict, military officers and expertssay, illustrates ill-defined U.S. objectives, the limits of relying solely onair power and the lack of diplomatic tools to broker an end to Col.Moammar Gadhafi's regime. Thousands of anti-Gadhafi rebels havebeen killed, and some at the Pentagon worry that the mounting deathsand reduced U.S. involvement have jeopardized what President Barack

Obama called a campaign to protect Libyan civilians.

"We are losing the goodwill this was supposed to create," said onesenior military officer who wasn't authorized to be quoted by name.

Perhaps undercutting Obama's rationale for war, Defense SecretaryRobert Gates, in a series of exit interviews ahead of his retirement, hasbegun to describe the U.S. involvement as payback to NATO nations -which depend on Libya's oil reserves - for joining American troops infighting in Afghanistan, which was mainly a war about U.S. strategicinterests.

"These allies, particularly the British and the French, and the Italiansfor that matter, have really been a big help to us in Afghanistan. Theyconsider Libya a vital interest for them. Our alliance with them is a vitalinterest for us. So as they have helped us in Afghanistan, it seems tome that we are in a position of helping them with respect to Libya,"Gates, who opposed U.S. involvement in Libya from the beginning, saidlast week on the PBS NewsHour.

On Wednesday, Obama vigorously defended the campaign, saying,"We've protected thousands of people in Libya, we have not seen a

single U.S. casualty, there's no risks of additional escalation, theoperation is limited in time and scope."

But Obama also said that Gadhafi "needs to go" and that no politicalsettlement is possible with him in power.

U.S. military officers say that NATO's commitment of military forcedoesn't match that goal.


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The NATO effort is almost exclusively an air campaign, which isdesigned to ground Gadhafi's warplanes and strike at his weaponssites. But at times it appears that NATO has tried to topple Gadhafi,which experts said demands ground forces, a larger air campaign and

a clear plan for who will lead Libya in the aftermath of the regime.

The hope was that by only using air power, NATO would reduce thecosts and risk to troops. But experts say that air power only rarelyleads to regime change and isn't always cheaper.

"It is very hard to create desired political outcomes merely using airpower," said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"There is a firm commitment to not put boots on the ground. And

diplomacy with the Gadhafi government has always beenunpredictable. So what are the instruments and what are theobjectives?"

For the U.S., Libya wasn't a clear threat. Indeed, there were signs thatLibya was helping America in the war against terrorism.

Gadhafi had expressed willingness to take back Libyan detaineesreleased from Guantanamo Bay. In March 2004 he tipped off Americanintelligence officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency abouta shipment of nuclear weapons components believed to have come

from Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, who'd worked closely withal-Qaida.

An April 2008 State Department cable, obtained by WikiLeaks andreviewed by McClatchy Newspapers, said that the Libyan government"had recently undergone 'an awakening' to the fact that there was areal problem with extremism in the east and was now making seriousefforts to counter the threat."

The Obama administration said that it decided to intervene to saveBenghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the de facto opposition

capital, from an imminent threat from charging Gadhafi forces inMarch. NATO believed that without Gadhafi's air power, the rebelscould claim control of the country within weeks - as quickly as theregimes fell in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.

But instead, the rebels now control less ground than they did when theNATO intervention began. While they've made tenuous gains in the


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western mountains, they've lost ground between Benghazi and Sirte,Gadhafi's hometown.

There have only been sporadic rebellions in Tripoli, where Gadhafiremains in control.

The operation began with strong support from the 22-member ArabLeague. But outgoing leader Amr Moussa told the Guardian newspaperlast week that he had second thoughts and called instead for a cease-fire and a political settlement that eased Gadhafi out of power.

"You can't have a decisive ending," Moussa told the British newspaper."Now is the time to do whatever we can to reach a political solution.That has to start with a genuine cease-fire under internationalsupervision."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week passed, on abipartisan vote, a measure allowing the operation to continue foranother year - but it included a provision that barred ground troopsexcept in very limited circumstances. The full Senate will take up themeasure in July, but lawmakers from both parties don't want themission to expand.

"The question that has not been answered is what happens afterGadhafi falls - what do we do?" said Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, aDemocrat who sponsored the provision.

Some believe that the fight has evolved into a battle over finances.Intelligence officials have said Gadhafi has billions in cash reservesthat he's using to buy weapons, pay off mercenaries and bribesupporters.

For the U.S. and NATO, the rising costs of a prolonged conflictincreasingly are causing controversy.

By Sept. 27, when NATO's authorization in Libya expires, U.S. officialsbelieve the war will have cost the U.S. at least $1 billion. According toan estimate by a British newspaper, the U.K.'s involvement will have

cost about $1.6 billion.

Last week, Italy's foreign ministry called for an immediate end tohostilities in part because of the costs of the war.

NATO has said it is committed to supporting the rebels if the Gadhafiregime falls. But at the same time there's concern about how long itcould take. And it's unclear who will be in charge.


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"The way this will be judged is in the political outcome, which is asunclear now as it was two months ago," Alterman said.

(William Douglas and David Lightman contributed to this report.)

------------------------AU Summit Opens, Libya Crisis Expected to Dominate Talks(VOA)By Scott StearnsJune 30, 2011Dakar - African heads of state and various country representativesattend the opening session of the 17th African Union Summit, at theSipopo Conference Center outside Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, June 30,2011..African heads of state are meeting in Equatorial Guinea for theannual summit of the African Union. The ongoing conflict in Libya isexpected to dominate their two-day meeting.

Representatives from Moammar Gadhafi's government and the rebelTransitional National Council (TNC) are both at the AU summit outsideMalabo where African leaders will present their roadmap for endingLibya's crisis.

The proposal is being drafted by five African presidents - South Africa'sJacob Zuma, Mauritania's Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Uganda's YoweriMuseveni, Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali and Denis Sassou-Nguessoof the Republic of Congo.

It calls for a ceasefire and a transition to democratic elections. TheGadhafi government appears to accept the plan, but rebels want it toinclude demands that the Libyan leader step down immediately.

African Union Commissioner Jean Ping says the 53-nation bloc wants apeaceful solution.

Ping says while there are many issues before this summit, the AfricanUnion's deliberations on the Libyan crisis are unquestionably the mosteagerly anticipated.

The summit will also discuss the continuing crisis in Somalia and thecoming independence of south Sudan, where Ping says the AfricanUnion has played an important role.

Ping says the challenges are great, but because of the perseverance ofthe AU mediation team, there is now a final accord on securityarrangements for the disputed Abyei region. He urged both north and


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south Sudan to continue working toward all aspects of their 2005comprehensive peace agreement.

The summit opened Thursday with a moment of silence in memory oftwo former heads of state who died this year, Frederick Chiluba of

Zambia and Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic.-------------------------The Libya Campaign (NYT)By Unattributed AuthorJune 30, 2011Four months into the NATO air campaign, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi isstill in power, protected by loyalists and mercenaries. Americans areweary of war, and patience in Europe is also wearing thin. But NATOmust not give up.

If Colonel Qaddafi is allowed to have his way, thousands more Libyans

will die. The credibility of NATO and this country would also be severelydamaged. Colonel Qaddafi, who has a long history of sponsoringinternational terrorism, is not one to let bygones be bygones.

There is progress. The make-shift rebel army aided by British,French and Italian advisers and armed by France and Qatar is slowlyimproving. NATO strikes on military command centers, includingColonel Qaddafis compound in Tripoli, have done real damage. Thisweeks International Criminal Court indictment of Colonel Qaddafi, oneof his sons and his intelligence chief on charges of crimes againsthumanity should be a warning to all of his cronies.

A naval blockade and international sanctions are increasingly havingan effect. Oil revenues, the governments main income, are down bytwo-thirds. There are reports of long gasoline lines in Tripoli and risingbread prices. On Thursday, people fleeing Tripoli told of overnightgunfire and signs of revolt.

The Qaddafi clan is watching closely for signs that NATOs will isflagging. Italys recent call for a cease-fire (which could givegovernment forces time to regroup) and second-guessing by the ArabLeagues outgoing leader, Amr Moussa, are not helpful. Neither are

Congressional efforts to force an end to American support for the aircampaign.

President Obama was wrong to ignore the War Powers Act, but thatshould not stop the House and Senate from adopting the Kerry-McCainresolution authorizing the mission to continue for another year.


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NATO must help, but the Libyan people are the only ones who canbring the regime down.

The rebels need more military advisers and weapons and access to$30 billion in frozen Qaddafi government funds. The United States and

other countries need to remove the legal obstacles to getting thatmoney.

The alliance should extend sanctions to more of Colonel Qaddafiscronies and the subsidiaries of state-owned enterprises. Washingtonand its partners should also help the rebels start building the politicaland civil institutions they will need to keep a post-Qaddafi Libya fromdescending into chaos.

There has been recent talk by all sides about a possible deal betweenthe rebels and the government. We are eager to see an end to the

fighting. But Washington and the NATO alliance must stand firmly withthe rebels and reject any solution that does not involve the swift ousterof Colonel Qaddafi and real freedom for Libyans.------------------------Libyan rebels hope French weapons will break Misratastalemate (The Guardian)By Chris StephenJuly 1, 2011Misrata - Libyan rebels in Misrata said on Thursday night that they arein discussions with France to supply weapons and ammunition tofighters in the besieged coastal enclave.

The frontlines have remained in stalemate for more than a month, withthe city enduring nightly bombardments from rockets, and rebelfighters saying they lack the heavy weapons to break the ring ofgovernment forces around the city.

"We are in discussion with France to supply us with the guns," saidrebel military spokesman Ibrahim Betalmal. "We are trying to do ourbest to get ammunition and guns from France and inshallah [Godwilling] we are going to get those guns. These are negotiations withFrance, not with Nato."

The news comes after reports from Paris said France airdroppedweapons and ammunition to rebel forces battling pro-Gaddafi forces inthe western mountains who are pushing towards Tripoli from theTunisian border.

Rebels in Misrata say their efforts to expand the pocket around thebattered city are frustrated because of a lack of artillery, mortars and


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tanks. For the past four weeks successive rebel offensives pushingwest towards Tripoli have been turned back by pro-Gaddafi forces dugin around the town of Zlitan.

Nato has stepped up air strikes against government positions in the

past two weeks and has used warships for shore bombardment, butthey have not been coordinated with rebel troop movements.

Betalmal said negotiations were being handled by the rebelgovernment, the National Transitional Council, and refused tospeculate on what kind of weapons might be offered or when theymight arrive. The UN has imposed an arms embargo on Libya and Natowarships patrol the coastline to intercept ships suspected of bringingweapons to either government or rebel forces.

"We notice that Nato over the past two weeks has increased air strikes

for which we are grateful," said Betalmal.

Libya's opposition leader had earlier on Thursday said that rebelsneeded more weapons and funding, as China and Russia raisedconcerns over revelations that France had supplied arms.

Mahmoud Jibril, of the Transitional National Council, said foreigndeliveries of military hardware would give the rebels a chance to"decide this battle quickly [and] to spill as little blood as possible".

French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said on

Wednesday that France had airlifted weapons to Libyan civilians in amountain region south of Tripoli. The deliveries of guns, rocket-propelled grenades and munitions took place in early June in thewestern Nafusa mountains, when Gaddafi's troops had encircledcivilians.

Gaddafi's prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi predicted thatFrance "will suffer for this", saying that the weapons could end up inthe hands of terrorists.

"Many more French citizens will die because of these acts," al-

Mahmoudi told a small group of reporters in Tripoli, according to apartial transcript of his remarks obtained by the Associated Press.-----------------------Western Funds Are Said to Have Managed Libyan Money Poorly(NYT)By DAVID ROHDEJune 30, 2011


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Prominent American and European investment funds managedhundreds of millions of dollars in Qaddafi regime assets poorly,charging tens of millions of dollars in fees and producing low returns,according to a document obtained by the advocacy group GlobalWitness. The banks appeared to have taken advantage of a Libyan

investment fund that was poorly managed and "a mess," according toa western official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The document, a September 2010 summary of Libyan InvestmentAuthority assets, showed poor performance by European and Americanmoney managers and a Libyan with close ties to the Qaddafi regime.Libyan Investment Authority officials complained that a $1.7 billioninvestment they made in six different funds generated returns farbelow the industry benchmark.

To date, we have paid in excess of $18 million in fees, for losing us

$30 million, the report says at one point, referring to a fundreportedly managed by the son-in-law of the head of Libyas state oilcompany.

The report, prepared by the London office of the consulting firm KPMG,shows that a $300 million Libyan investment in Permal, a hedge fundthat is a unit of the Baltimore-based Legg Mason, lost 40 percent of itsvalue from January 2009 to September 2010. At the same time, Permalreceived $27 million in fees. Consistently negative performance sinceinception, Libyan officials said in the report. Very high fees for novalue.

The Libyans voiced similar complaints about investments in fundsmanaged by European firms that also lost value. Despite producing lowreturns, the Dutch firm Palladyne received $19 million in fees, theFrench bank BNP Paribas earned $18 million, Credit Suisse took $7.6million and the Swiss firm Notz Stucki had $5 million. KPMG analystsalso warned that the Libyan Authoritys investment in such funds wastoo high compared with other types of investments.

Representatives for the firms declined to respond publicly or could notbe reached for comment. KPMG declined to comment, but The New

York Times was able to independently verify the documentsauthenticity.

An official at one firm criticized in the report, who spoke anonymously,blamed the poor investments on middlemen and denied that the firmhad received high fees. Its not as straightforward a picture as itperhaps should be, the official said.


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In 2008, Goldman Sachs lost more than $1 billion in Libyan InvestmentAuthority money in currency and other trading, The Wall Street Journalreported in May. The Securities and Exchange Commission isinvestigating whether an offer by Goldman to pay a $50 million fee aspart of a package to help the fund recoup its losses violated American

bribery laws. Goldman has denied any wrongdoing and declined tocomment on Thursday.

Doing business with Libya was legal for American companies from2004 to 2011. American banks, oil companies and constructioncompanies rushed to do business in Libya after Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi renounced terrorism and halted his attempt to develop nuclearweapons and the Bush administration lifted sanctions in 2004. TheObama administration reimposed sanctions in February after theQaddafi regime began brutally repressing an uprising in the country.

The creation of the Libyan Investment Authority in 2006 set off afrenzy in banking circles. Leading financial firms scrambled for theopportunity to manage the authoritys $40 billion in assets.

Managing the sovereign wealth funds for oil-rich states some ofwhich are authoritarian is an enormous business for Western banks.For example, the Libyan Investment Authoritys total assets grew by$10 billion over three months, to $64 billion in September 2010 from$54 billion in June, according to the newly released document.

The document also showed that the British bank HSBC became the

Qaddafi regimes largest Western banking partner in September 2010,receiving $1.4 billion in Libyan money. The document showed that theamount of Libyan state oil money managed by HSBC soared to $1.42billion in September 2010 from $282 million in June 2010. Thedocument also corroborated a document leaked by Global Witness inMay showing that Goldman Sachs managed about $45 million andJPMorgan Chase about $173 million for the Libyan regime in 2010.Socit Gnrale and other European banks also helped the Qaddafiregime manage oil proceeds.

Under current American and British law, the business relationships

between sovereign wealth funds and Western banks can be keptsecret. In a statement, Global Witness called for such dealings to bemade public so that citizens of oil-rich and Western countries couldunderstand what was taking place.

Banking secrecy laws still mean that citizens are left in the dark abouthow their own states funds are managed, said Robert Palmer, acampaigner at Global Witness. We cant continue with a situation


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where information about how a state handles its assets is only madeavailable once a dictator turns violently on his own people andinformation is leaked.

Evidence of cronyism appears in the report as well. The state fund

invested $300 million in a Palladyne fund managed by the son-in-law ofthe head of Libyas state oil company, according to The Wall StreetJournal.

Forty-five percent of the $300 million investment was held in cash, thereport said. In addition to losing $30 million while charging $18 millionin fees, the fund performed 39 percent below a worldwide index ofsimilar funds.--------------------UN Criticizes China's Failure to Arrest Sudan's Bashir (VOA)By Unattributed Author

June 30, 2011The United Nations has criticized China for failing to arrest SudanesePresident Omar al-Bashir during his visit to Beijing this week.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Thursdayshe is "disappointed" China welcomed Bashir, who is wanted by theInternational Criminal Court.

The ICC has charged Bashir with war crimes, crimes against humanityand genocide in Sudan's Darfur region.

Pillay said Thursday that even though China is not an ICC member,Beijing still has a responsibility to ensure the African leader is broughtto trial.

China's foreign ministry said this week that it reserves judgement onthe ICC's prosecution of Bashir.

The United Nations says fighting in Darfur has killed some 300,000people and displaced 2.7 million since 2003.

President Bashir and Chinese President Hu Jintao signed loan and

economic cooperation agreements in Beijing on Wednesday.

China is a key arms supplier to Sudan and its biggest purchaser of oil.----------------Another Area Girds for Revolt as Sudan Approaches a Split(NYT)By Tyler HicksJune 30, 2011


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LEWERE, Sudan Children with shrapnel wounds lie on metal hospitalcots. Thousands of others have been huddling in caves and stonyriverbeds, fleeing the fighter jets and bombers prowling the skies.Villages are empty, fields unplowed. At the faintest buzz of a plane,people scatter into the bush, in a panic.

A health coordinator in Kauda took cover as a plane flew overhead.Many have fled bombings.Just lie flat, or you could get killed, warned Nagwa Musa Konda, thedirector of a local aid organization, as a plane growled closer.

Despite an agreement signed only days ago to bring peace to this partof central Sudan, it seems to be sliding inexorably toward war.

Young men here in the Nuba Mountains are being mobilized intomilitias, marching into the hills to train. All the cars in this area,

including humanitarian vehicles, are smeared with thick mud tocamouflage them from what residents describe as unrelentingbombings. And opposition forces vow to press their fight until they winsome form of autonomy, undeterred by the governments push tostamp them out.

Its going to be a long war, said Ahmed Zakaria, a doctor from theNuba Mountains who recently quit his job to become an oppositionfighter. We want a secular, democratic state where we can be free torule ourselves. Like Kurdistan, Dr. Zakaria said, smiling. And we willfight for it.

The conflict is overshadowing one of the biggest events in Sudanshistory: the independence of the southern part of the country and thecreation of two Sudans. In just over a week, southern Sudan willofficially break off from the north, the capstone of decades of civil warand years of international negotiations to stave off further bloodshed.

But the fighting in the Nuba Mountains, which sit in the northsterritory, underscores how fractured Sudan will remain even after thesouth secedes. The same demands being espoused by oppositionfighters here have been the kindling for major conflict and major

suffering in several other corners of northern Sudan, where thegovernment is determined to keep a firm grip across a country ofdiverse groups clamoring for their rights.

In the few towns in this vast landscape of terraced mountainsides andthatched-roof villages, the northern government has been amassingtanks, rocket launchers, artillery and thousands of soldiers and allied


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militiamen, either to pressure Nuba leaders into disarming or toprepare for a major offensive once the rains stop in a few months.

While the hillsides are slick and muddy, the government can do littlebut bomb, as it admits doing. But government officials say their fight is

solely with opposition fighters, not with civilians, contending thatwidespread reports of civilian casualties are fabrications intended torally Western nations against Sudan.

The government is trying to control and take care of the people forpeace and security and actually defeat and remove all the traces ofrebels from the area, said Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman.We are not against the people, Mr. Atti added.

But as the conflicts in the western region of Darfur and southern Sudanlong before that have proved, counterinsurgencies often cast a wide

net.

At a small, mountainside hospital here in Lewere, an entire ward isfilled with victims who said they were at a well, fetching water, whenthey were bombed. Most are children. Their whimpers filter throughthe mesh windows, along with the pungent smells of antiseptic solutionand decaying flesh.

Inside, Winnasa Steven, a 16-year-old girl, writhed on a cot. From herhip, doctors cut out a three-inch chunk of ragged shrapnel, which hermother keeps, wrapped in white paper.

I am in big pain, Winnasa said.

Next to her, a toddler cried, his face a map of bandages. Not far away,a little girl sucked down spoonfuls of porridge. Her mother tried not tolook at the gaping hole in her leg.

Tensions had been building steadily in the Nuba Mountains since adisputed election in May. The governing partys candidate, AhmedHaroun, who has been indicted on charges of war crimes in Darfur bythe International Criminal Court, won the governorship of Southern

Kordofan, the state that encompasses the Nuba Mountains, by amargin of 6,500 votes out of a total of 400,000, defeating a popularNuba leader who used to be a guerrilla fighter.

The Carter Center endorsed the election, but people say thegovernment fiddled with the tallies because Southern Kordofan was tooimportant to lose. It has the most productive oil fields in the north andborders the south, making it a useful rear base for the militias widely


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believed to be armed by the north. Kordofan also has fertile land,minerals and gum arabic, an ingredient in countless Western products.

This area has a history of oppression and resistance. The Nubapeople were enslaved by their neighbors hundreds of years ago,

bombed by the British and subjugated by the north. The people hereare not Arab like the northerners, and many are Christian. Tens ofthousands of Nuba fighters joined southern rebels during the north-south civil war. It is these southern-allied fighters who are refusing todisarm, and clashes erupted in June.

In Kadugli, the biggest town in the Nuba Mountains region, manywitnesses say the Sudanese Army and allied Arab militias have gonehouse to house, methodically executing civilians. Kamil Omer El Amin,a Nuba agricultural officer, matter-of-factly described what happenedto his friend Philip.

He drove up to the U.N. compound, Mr. Amin said. The intelligenceagents told him to get out of the car. He sat down. They shot him inthe chest.

United Nations officials confirmed the killing, but said theoverwhelming number of northern troops rendered them powerless tostop it, even though the shooting happened right outside the UnitedNations base.

Many Nuba professionals have fled to the opposition-controlled

mountaintops.

We spent two weeks up there, drinking something you can barely callwater, said Caddy Ali, who worked for a project financed by the WorldBank.

Ms. Ali said the agreement signed on Tuesday between southern-alliedopposition leaders and the government, which outlined steps forpolitical compromise and a cease-fire, was meaningless.

Were never going to forgive them now, she said. Do you know how

many people Ive seen die right in front of me?

Aid workers said hundreds of civilians had been killed in the bombings.The Sudanese Army is also blockading roads and bombing airstrips,essentially cutting off food supplies. These people are going tostarve, one Western aid worker said.


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On Thursday, some Nuba aid workers stopped their car to pick upsome deleib, a wild mushy fruit that looks like a coconut.

This is what the fighters lived off in the 1990s, Dr. Zakaria said. Itseems some people are preparing to live off it again.

-------------------Obiang Tells World Not To Intervene In Africa (AP)By Unattributed AuthorJune 30, 2011MALABO, Equatorial Guinea - Foreign military intervention has causedmassive suffering in Africa, the African Union's current chairman saidThursday in a message that is being seen as a jab at the NATOairstrikes in Libya.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who is the president of Equatorial Guinea,also blamed outside "agents" for sparking pro-democracy

demonstrations in countries across Africa including his own.

"The intervention for human rights are nowadays causing a massivescourge," he said at the opening of the AU's biannual summit beingheld in this capital, located on an island off the western coast of Africa."The uncounted number of victims, among them women and children,displaced people and the destruction of economic infrastructure doesnot justify such interventions. Instead of providing solutions toproblems we are complicating and worsening world conflicts."

Obiang did not specifically mention Libya, but the AU has come out

forcefully against the bombardment that is threatening to toppleMoammar Gadhafi, whose grip on power was thought to be absolute.

His fall would be discomforting for the other entrenched rulers inAfrica, including Obiang, who has maintained total control of stateinstitutions in Equatorial Guinea since his uncle was overthrown andkilled in a coup 32 years ago.

Obiang's country is considered among the most undemocratic in theworld, one that has never had elections deemed free and fair, andwhere opponents to the regime are systematically tortured, according

to Human Rights Watch and the report of the United Nations' SpecialRapporteur on Torture.

Speaking about the popular uprisings in North Africa, Obiang said theyouth are right to protest when their cause is "just and necessary," butadded that outside "agents" are in some cases attempting tomanipulate public sentiment in order to cause unrest.


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"I draw attention here to those agents accustomed to manipulating theinnocence and the good faith of our youth and inexperiencedpopulation to unnecessarily cause sterile revolutions," he said inSpanish, the national language of Equatorial Guinea. "This is the caseof my country, Equatorial Guinea, which is victimized by a systematic

campaign of misinformation by these agents."

The wave of popular protest that has swept across the northern part ofthe continent has so far not spread dramatically south, largely becauseleaders like Obiang have clamped down at the slightest sign of dissent.

In Malabo, reporters were told by the minister of information that stateTV would not be discussing the events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libyabecause they do not have correspondents in those countries who canascertain if the information being reported by the international mediais correct.

In Zimbabwe where summit attendee Robert Mugabe has been inpower for 31 years, even watching video footage of those uprisings canlead to treason charges punishable by death.

And in Cameroon, where 77-year-old President Paul Biya has ruledsince 1982, the government ordered cell phone companies to suspendmobile services for Twitter after citizens used the site to organize a"Drive Out Biya" march.

Traditionally the AU has chosen to support its leaders at the expense of

the people they govern, but the recent conflict in Ivory Coast may havemarked a turning point.

An African Union panel charged with finding a solution to the conflictinitially backed Laurent Gbagbo, the country's outgoing president wholost last year's presidential election and took his country to the brink ofcivil war in an effort to stay in office.

Under immense international pressure, however, the panel thatincluded Obiang eventually called for Gbagbo to step down.

The same evolution may be in the works on Libya. The ad hoccommittee charged with dealing with the crisis has issued numerousstatements supporting Gadhafi and advocating for talks between theLibyan leader and the rebels attempting to overthrow him.

The proposal was rejected outright by the rebels and the internationalcommunity, which views Gadhafi as the problem and not a part of thesolution.


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On Sunday, the committee reversed course, however, saying theywelcomed Gadhafi's decision to not be part of the negotiation process.

In a statement issued Thursday, the committee said it had met in

Malabo and agreed on a set of proposals to help Libya emerge fromthe crisis. It said the proposals would be submitted to the AU assemblyfor their support.

"I believe there is certainly a change in the whole perception ofGadhafi. We are in a very different position to the one we were in justfive, six weeks ago," said Britain's Minister for Africa Henry Bellinghamwho attended the first part of the conference.

He said he had met with many of the foreign ministers of the 53member nations attending the conference, and found that even those

that were previously reluctant to call for Gadhafi's ouster are nowprivately agreeing that he should go.------------------Nation Tense As More Lightning Cases Reported (The Monitor)By David Mafabi, James Eriku, Steven Ariong, Cissy Makumbi, RajabMukombozi, Livingstone Kidega, Francis Mugerwa &george Muzoora.30 June 2011Ugandans yesterday woke up to news of more fatalities caused bylightning across the country.

In Kiryandongo District on Tuesday, 19 pupils of Runyanya Primary

School were killed and 51 others left with serious burns to their heads,fingers and hands, when lightning struck the school.

Police in the area have since urged home owners and institutions toensure that their buildings have earth wires and conductors which canmitigate lightning strikes. The Midwestern Regional Policespokesperson, Ms Zurah Ganyana, said 15 of the injured weretransferred to Mulago Hospital. At least 36 others are still undergoingtreatment at Kiryandongo Hospital. "The most affected were the pupilswho were in P3, P4 and P6 classes," Ms Ganyana observed.

In Sironko District, one person was killed on Tuesday during a heavydownpour accompanied by hailstones. Hassan Wandulu, 58, who hadvisited a friend, Aramanzan Dongo in Mpogo in Sironko, was struck atabout 3pm.

Ms Hamida Kakai, who had accompanied Mr Wandulu, was also struck.She was reportedly thrown to a corner but quickly regainedconsciousness and left the refuge of the house. "We were seated


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outside when it started raining heavily," Ms Kakai told Daily Monitoryesterday. "We immediately went inside the house...... Shortly therains increased, there was lightning that forced itself through the doorway inside, it sent my brother on ground in one corner and I was alsosent in another corner."

And in Kotido, Raffle Lotyang, a P3 pupil at Kotido Army PrimarySchool, was killed while another was left unconscious during anafternoon downpour, also on Tuesday. Confirming the incident, MrGeorge Obia, the Kotido Police spokesperson, said Lotyang and hisfriend were walking home from school in Rengen Sub-county in KotidoDistrict when they were struck by lightning.

In southwestern Uganda, Jennifer Kiiza of Rubirizi District, KatereraSub-county was struck dead on Tuesday evening as she attempted tocollect rain water outside her house. Farouk Musindo Basiime, Patrick

Tumusiime and Didas Gumirensi - all residents of Kakoba Division inMbarara town - were also struck dead as they took shelter from adownpour at a butchery. Unconfirmed reports also indicate that threemore people were struck dead in Kibaale yesterday.

Isingiro District environmentalist Joseph Mwesigye attributed theincreased cases of lightning to human activities like deforestation,wetland encroachment and pollution. These activities, he said, haveled to the generation of a lot of heat which when mixes with rainclouds, they become heavy bringing about lightning. Local leaders innorthern Uganda and Karamoja yesterday called on the clergy to

spearhead special prayer sessions over the increased attacks.

Mr Alex Ojera, the Pabo Sub-county LC3 chairman in Amuru District,told this newspaper that his council had resolved to ensure all publicmobile phone charging premises install lightning conductors for safely.Patrick Wokorach, a pupil of Pabbo Primary School, was struck dead onTuesday, leaving 13 others in critical condition in hospital.-------------------------Africom : the great machine for wind-brewing? (SahelIntelligence)By Marion Zunfrey

7 June 2011(translated from French)At the tour of the Maghreb by the head of Africom, General Carter F.Ham, comes to an end, many observers wonder about the real utility ofthe United States Africa Command, which is the body officiallyresponsible "to coordinate all U.S. military and security activities onthe continent".


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In fact, the main mission of AFRICOM is to help secure the Sahel, butthis U.S. command is best known for its delay in choosing a seat, or itsinefficiency in training personnel from countries bordering the Sahelbelt. And what a surprise it was for the Malian General in charge ofhosting the Africom trainers specialized in counter-insurgency when he

found out that none of them spoke French.

Among the other (juicy) anecdotes reported by various armies of theSahel countries is that AFRICOM mainly specializes in the organizationof costly conferences to which Western experts are always invited, orin the maintenance of the Magharebia website which wasted millions ofdollars for an audience which is disappointing at best.

Above all, from a strategic point of view, the stiff language practicedby the command of AFRICOM and its concern to maintain "politicalcorrectness" impedes efforts by the countries bordering the Sahel to

lay the groundwork for a genuine regional cooperation.

Among the avatars of this non-cooperation is the chronic rivalrybetween Morocco and Algeria that the Americans have failed toovercome by their inability to bring the two countries around the sametable. The timid tone of the successor of General Ward, Carter Ham,has led this observer of U.S. politics to say that AFRICOM is more like a"sub-department of the State Department than an army corps."

This situation seems to concern NATO which had hoped that AFRICOMwould be much more severe with Algeria; especially after the discovery

by the transatlantic organization that the Polisario was sendingmercenaries to Libya with the possible help of the Algerian intelligenceservices.

Algiers has vigorously denied its involvement in sending Sahrawimercenaries to Libya but NATO appears to have overwhelmingevidence according to the British newspaper, "The Telegraph".-------------------------AFRICOM: AF, Navy still flying Libya missions (Air Force Times)By Dave MajumdarJune 30, 2011

(Libya) Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strikemissions over Libya despite the Obama administrations claim thatAmerican forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATOoperation.

An Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokeswoman confirmed Wednesdaythat since NATOs Operation Unified Protector (OUP) took over from theAmerican-led Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 31, the U.S. military


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has flown hundreds of strike sorties. Previously, Washington hadclaimed that it was mostly providing intelligence, surveillance andreconnaissance (ISR) and tanker support to NATO forces operating overLibya.

U.S. aircraft continue to fly support [ISR and refueling] missions, aswell as strike sorties under NATO tasking, AFRICOM spokeswomanNicole Dalrymple said in an emailed statement. As of today, and since31 March, the U.S. has flown a total of 3,475 sorties in support of OUP.Of those, 801 were strike sorties, 132 of which actually droppedordnance.

A White House report on Libya sent to Congress on June 15 says thatAmerican strikes are limited to the suppression of enemy air defenseand occasional strikes by unmanned Predator UAVs against a specificset of targets. The report also says the U.S. provides an alert strike

package.

Dalrymple named the Air Forces F-16CJ and Navys EA-18G Growlerelectronic attack aircraft as the primary platforms that have beensuppressing enemy air defenses.

However, those F-16s are not solely drawn from units based inSpangdahlem, Germany, or Aviano, Italy. The service has reportedlydeployed U.S.-based units to Europe to conduct these operations.

Earlier this month, Malta Today reported that two F-16s from the 77th

Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Wing, made emergency landings on theisland. The 20th Fighter Wing is based at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.The AFRICOM spokeswoman did not address why U.S.-based units weredeployed for the mission.

The Navys Growlers are based at Whidbey Island, Wash.

However, those may not be the only strike aircraft flying over Libya.Last week, Air Force F-15E crews attending the Paris Air Show, alongwith their public affairs officer, said they could not talk about theiractivities in Libya during Odyssey Dawn because they are not able to

comment on current operations.AFRICOM couldnt immediately say when the last U.S. strike sortie overLibya was flown.

The fact that the U.S. is conducting strike missions over Libya shouldnot come as a surprise, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula,the services former intelligence chief.


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Its no surprise to me that weve been participating, because were amember of NATO, Deptula said.What is different now, he said, is that sorties are planned differentlyunder NATO control. Deptula said it is not particularly surprising thatadditional units would be brought in to support those operations.

The revelation comes as a debate rages in Washington over the 1973War Powers Resolution, which calls for the president to ask Congressfor permission to deploy American forces into combat longer than 60days. If the Congress does not grant that permission within that span,U.S. forces must be withdrawn within 30 days.

Its not necessarily a violation of the War Powers Resolution, saidretired Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap, now associate director ofthe Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, and visiting professorof the practice at Duke University School of Law. [But] it does raise

questions about the scope and intensity of our participation versus howits been represented.

Others disagreed. The president is in clear violation of the War PowersResolution, said Robert Turner, co-founder of the Center for NationalSecurity Law at the University of Virginia. Under the legal definition ofhostilities, even providing logistical support or intelligence dataqualifies as such, he said, never mind firing missiles from PredatorUAVs or F-16 fighters.

However, the resolution itself is unconstitutional because treaties are

effectively part of the Constitution the way the framers wrote thedocument, he said.

Legally, this is his discretion, but he is in clear violation of thestatute, Turner said. The reason hes not bound by that is becausethe statute is clearly unconstitutional.

Dunlap said he is less sure. It does raise that specter [of violating theConstitution], but in any event, it doesnt seem to track with whatweve been told about the relatively benign participation of U.S.forces, he said.

The Obama administration has said that the War Powers Resolutiondoes not apply to the Libya operation because the U.S. role is limited.

The White House declined to comment on how 801 strike sortiesconstitutes limited involvement, but Harold Koh, a State Departmentlegal adviser, said in testimony before the Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee on Tuesday that when U.S forces engage in a limitedmilitary mission, that involves limited exposure for U.S. troops, and


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limited risk of serious escalation, and employs limited military means,we are not in the kind of hostilities of the kind envisioned by the WarPowers Resolution.

He said there have been no active exchanges of fire with hostile

forces despite AFRICOMs statement that weapons had been droppedduring 132 sorties.Many in Congress on both sides of the aisle vehemently disagree withthe White Houses contention.

Most air assets involved in the campaign are reconnaissance aircraft,including the U-2 high-altitude spy plane, E-8 Joint Surveillance TargetAttack Radar System ground surveillance aircraft and the Navys P-3COrion maritime patrol aircraft. The U.S. provides nearly 70 percent ofthe NATO operations ISR capacity, according to the White Housereport.

Additionally, the Air Force is still providing EC-130J aircraft to theoperation to conduct psychological warfare operations by broadcastingcoercive messages.The remaining aircraft operating in the theater are aerial refuelingtankers, including KC-10s and KC-135s. The U.S. also provides themajority of the alliances tanker capability.

(Staff writer Kate Brannen contributed to this report.)-------------------------UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website

Regional drought causing alarming overcrowding at Kenyanrefugee camp: UN30 June The United Nations humanitarian agency reported today thatthe numbers of new arrivals of Horn of Africa drought victims at analready overcrowded refugee camp in north-eastern Kenya is growingat alarming rates.

Sudan: UN chief welcomes agreement on security in north-south border regions

30 June Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the signingof an agreement between the governments of Sudan and SouthernSudan on border security and a joint political and securityarrangement, urging both parties to conclude and implement acessation of hostilities pact as well.

Youth education and employment key to progress in Africa Migiro


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30 June The United Nations today urged African countries toempower the continents youth through schooling and jobs, stressingthat the foundation for peace and development lay in giving youngpeople opportunities to build better lives for themselves.UN agency welcomes safe return of two missing staff in

Ethiopia30 June The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) confirmedtoday that two Ethiopian staff members who went missing after adeadly incident in mid-May have been safely recovered.

AFRICOM Related News Clips 1 July, 2011

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