AFRICOM Related-News Clips 19 December 2011

8/3/2019 AFRICOM Related-News Clips 19 December 2011

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office19 December 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

Good morning. Please find attached news clips related to U.S. Africa Command andAfrica, along with upcoming events of interest for December 19, 2011.

Of interest in todays clips:

Libyas civilian toll, denied by NATO.

Somalia: Military action was planned for years, say U.S. cables.

Leon Panetta, defense secretary, offers support to Libya in historic visit.

Provided in text format for remote reading. Links work more effectively when thismessage is viewed as in HTML format.

U.S. Africa Command Public AffairsPlease send questions or comments to:[email protected]

421-2687 (+49-711-729-2687)

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Top News related to U.S. Africa Command and Africa

North Africa: Deadly Gas Enters the Arab Spring (IPS)

http://allafrica.com/stories/201112180001.html18 December 2011By Cam McGrathActivists across the Middle East are reporting a mysterious toxin, possibly a banned

nerve agent, in the thick clouds of tear gas used by security forces to suppress anti-government protests in recent months.

Libya's Civilian Toll, Denied by NATO (The New York Times)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11352/1197787-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml18 December 2011By C. J. Chivers and Eric SchmittNATO's seven-month air campaign in Libya, hailed by the alliance and many Libyans for

U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Office +49(0)[email protected]
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blunting a lethal crackdown by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and helping to push him frompower, came with an unrecognized toll: scores of civilian casualties the alliance has longrefused to acknowledge or investigate.

New clashes rock Cairo after 10 killed (AFP)

http://news.yahoo.com/clashes-rock-cairo-10-killed-061720131.html18 December 2011By Samer al-AtrushViolence raged in the administrative heart of Egypt's capital on Saturday as troops andpolice deployed in force after clashes with protesters against continued military rule left10 people dead.

Turnout low as Gabon votes amid opposition boycott (AFP)

http://news.yahoo.com/gabon-ruling-party-set-comfortable-reelection-052231969.html18 December 2011By Xavier BourgoisVoters trickled to the polls in Gabon Saturday in legislative elections expected to hand aresounding victory to President Ali Bongo's party in the face of a boycott by someopposition groups.

Famine stalks the Sahel (AFP)

http://news.yahoo.com/famine-stalks-sahel-190941101.html18 December 2011By Coumba SyllaLight rains, poor harvests and overpriced food will combine to create a severe famine forfive Sahel countries if urgent, large-scale measures are not taken, experts warn.

Somalia: Military Action Was Planned for Years, Say U.S. Cables (Sudan Tribune)

http://allafrica.com/stories/201112180073.htmlBy Kipchumba Some17 December 2011In January last year, a team of senior Kenya government officials met their UScounterparts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to lobby for international support for their solutionto the Somalia problem.

Kenya marches into Somalia but can't see the enemy (AP)

http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-marches-somalia-cant-see-enemy-154530838.html17 December 2011By Katharine Houreld

Kenyan troops marched into this decaying Somali fishing village two months ago, but theal-Qaida-linked militants they came to hunt are nowhere to be seen.

Leon Panetta, defense secretary, offers support to new Libya in historic visit (The

Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/leon-panetta-visits-libya-offers-aid/2011/12/17/gIQAHoR0zO_story.html17 December 2011

http://news.yahoo.com/clashes-rock-cairo-10-killed-061720131.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/gabon-ruling-party-set-comfortable-reelection-052231969.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/famine-stalks-sahel-190941101.htmlhttp://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=117ok4c3m/EXP=1325403301/**http%3A/www.afp.com/http://allafrica.com/stories/201112180073.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/kenya-marches-somalia-cant-see-enemy-154530838.htmlhttp://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=1165m5i80/EXP=1325403487/**http%3A/www.ap.org/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/leon-panetta-visits-libya-offers-aid/2011/12/17/gIQAHoR0zO_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/leon-panetta-visits-libya-offers-aid/2011/12/17/gIQAHoR0zO_story.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/clashes-rock-cairo-10-killed-061720131.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/gabon-ruling-party-set-comfortable-reelection-052231969.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/famine-stalks-sahel-190941101.htmlhttp://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=117ok4c3m/EXP=1325403301/**http%3A/www.afp.com/http://allafrica.com/stories/201112180073.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/kenya-marches-somalia-cant-see-enemy-154530838.htmlhttp://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=1165m5i80/EXP=1325403487/**http%3A/www.ap.org/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/leon-panetta-visits-libya-offers-aid/2011/12/17/gIQAHoR0zO_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/leon-panetta-visits-libya-offers-aid/2011/12/17/gIQAHoR0zO_story.html


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By Craig WhitlockNine months after American and NATO air power was deployed to rescue a falteringrebellion against Moammar Gaddafi, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta made a historicvisit here Saturday to offer symbolic support for Libyas post-revolutionary governmentas it tries to stabilize the North African country.

Panetta Is First U.S. Defense Secretary to Visit Libya (The New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.html17 December 2011By Thom Shanker and Liam StackPresidents from Thomas Jefferson to Barack Obama have waged war on these shores.Given such volatile relations, it is little wonder that no American defense secretary hadever set foot here.

Tunisia one year on: Where the Arab Spring started (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16230190?print=true

17 December 2011By Frank GardnerThe man who lit the touch-paper of revolt in North Africa exactly a year ago was no fieryrevolutionary. Mohamed Bouazizi was a young fruit and vegetable seller, supportingeight people on less than $150 (100) a month.

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UN News Service Africa Briefshttp://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA

UN mission on impact of Libyan crisis on Sahel region heads to Mauritania16 December A United Nations mission to assess the impact of the recent turmoil inLibya on the Sahel region is heading to Mauritania for talks with top officials in the WestAfrican nation, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moons spokesperson announced today.

ICC orders release of Rwandan rebel leader after dismissing charges

16 December Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) today ordered therelease of a Rwandan rebel leader after dismissing war crimes charges related to deadlyfighting in the far east of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in2009.

UN and major African bank in partnership to raise HIV/AIDS awareness16 December The United Nations body tasked with combating the spread of HIV/AIDSand one of Africas largest banks have formed a two-year partnership to raise publicawareness of the pandemic in the continent, the UN agency reported today.

South Sudan: UN envoy hails Vice-Presidents appeal for reconciliation in Jonglei

16 December The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan haswelcomed an appeal by the countrys Vice-President Riek Machar to communities in the

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16230190?print=truehttp://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICAhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16230190?print=truehttp://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA


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troubled Jonglei state to refrain from violence and to immediately engage in talks onreconciliation and peaceful coexistence.

Somalia: UN expert urges greater efforts to tackle violence against women

16 December An independent United Nations human rights expert today called for

greater efforts to improve the plight of women in Somalia, thousands of whom remainextremely vulnerable to discrimination and violence.

(Full Articles on UN Website)

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Upcoming Events of Interest

NSTR.

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Whats new on www.africom.mil

UN Forces Commander to South Sudan Speaks to Members of U.S. Africa

Command

http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=7499&lang=0Dec 16, 2011 Nigerian Army Major General Moses Bisong Obi, Force Commander ofUnited Nations Mission (UNMISS) to South Sudan visited U.S. Africa CommandHeadquarters in Stuttgart Germany on 13 December 2011 as part of the AFRICOMCommander's Speakers Series to discuss the new United Nations (UN) mission to South

Sudan.

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FULL TEXT

North Africa: Deadly Gas Enters the Arab Spring (IPS)

http://allafrica.com/stories/201112180001.html18 December 2011By Cam McGrath

Cairo Activists across the Middle East are reporting a mysterious toxin, possibly abanned nerve agent, in the thick clouds of tear gas used by security forces to suppressanti-government protests in recent months.

"I felt weak and dizzy for several days, and my hands wouldn't stop shaking," recallsMahmoud Hassan, an Egyptian marketing executive who was hospitalised last monthafter inhaling tear gas during a protest against military rule in Cairo. The gas used againstprotesters was many times stronger than that used by security forces during the 18-day

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uprising that toppled Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in February, he insists.

"This wasn't tear gas, it was something else," says Hassan. "It burned the skin and lungs,and we all fell to the ground shaking uncontrollably."

A similar gas is suspected of causing the deaths of at least eight civilians in Bahrain sinceFebruary. In Yemen, doctors reported that anti-government protesters exposed to whatappeared to be tear gas arrived at field hospitals paralysed, unconscious, or inconvulsions. Routine treatments for tear gas exposure had no effect.

"We are seeing symptoms in the patient's nerves, not in their respiratory systems. I'm 90percent sure it's nerve gas and not tear gas that was used," Dr. Sami Zaid, a physician atthe Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa, said in March.

Conventional tear gas is a white powder composed of ortho-chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile, commonly known as CS. The chemical was developed for crowd control

in the 1950s, proving a more powerful irritant but less toxic than the chloroacetophenone(CN) series it has largely replaced.

It is unclear whether the numerous reports of a toxic incapacitating gas involve onechemical compound or manufacturer, or many. But the observed symptoms, whether inCairo or Sanaa, are remarkably similar: a severe burning sensation on the skin and in thelungs, nausea, paralysis, convulsions, and in some cases, death.

Tear gas canisters recovered from protest sites in Arab cities bear markings of severaldifferent companies. Most of the canisters found near Cairo's Tahrir Square after recentprotests carried the manufacturing stamp of Combined Tactical Systems (CTS), anAmerican firm that produces chemical irritants and smoke munitions for military andpolice forces around the world. Other CS canisters carried the markings of U.S.-basedfirm Federal Laboratories and British weapons manufacturer Chemring Defence.

"We think the CTS canisters are causing the strange symptoms (reported in Egypt)," saysSherif Azer of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR). "But we also foundsome canisters with no markings at all."

In contrast, most of the canisters recovered in Bahrain bear the markings of U.S. firmNonLethal Technologies. Federal Laboratories, CTS, Chemring, and French security firmSAE Alsetex also supplied tear gas to the Gulf Arab state in recent years. CTS is aleading supplier of riot control agents to the Yemeni government.

Rights activists investigating claims of a toxic tear gas are exploring several theories. Oneof the first to emerge was that the substance used against protesters across the region wasdibenzoxazepine (CR), a form of tear gas up to ten times more powerful than CS as alachrymator. The riot control agent produces similar effects to CS, but also inducesintense pain on exposed skin and membranes, which becomes more painful when flushedwith water.



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The highly persistent form of tear gas has been used by Israeli forces to suppressdemonstrations in the Palestinian Territories. It was also used by the American military toflush out enemy combatants, but shelved from civilian use due to its carcinogenicproperties.

While there are accounts of people seeing used tear gas canisters with CR markings inEgypt and Bahrain, journalists and rights activists investigating the issue have beenunable to verify their claims.

"We've only seen canisters marked CS, although we cannot rule out that some canisterswere mislabeled or tampered with to increase their potency," says Azer.

Another commonly heard accusation is that security forces are using expired tear gas.CS gas has a shelf life of three to five years, but activists in Bahrain and Egypt havepublished photos of used canisters with production dates more than ten years old. They

argue that over time the chemical components in CS break down, forming dangerousbyproducts.

One concern is a buildup of malononitrile in the expired canisters. When heated, theacidic powder degrades into highly toxic hydrogen cyanide gas - the same gas used withlethal effect in Nazi Germany.

According to medical sources, symptoms of cyanide poisoning include weakness, nausea,and difficulty in breathing. Higher concentrations can lead to a loss of consciousnessfollowed by convulsions, muscle twitching and apnea. Less than a gram of cyanide isfatal to humans.

Dr. Ramez Moustafa, a neurologist at Ain Shams University in Cairo, noted many ofthese symptoms during his visits to field hospitals in Tahrir Square last month.

"My colleagues and I saw cases where the tear gas caused people to have convulsions andinvoluntary movements," Moustafa told IPS. "Even in high concentrations, regular teargas does not (affect the) nervous system. There were reports that some people died ofseizures."

Experts, however, dispute the possibility of lethal chemicals forming spontaneously inaging or improperly stored tear gas canisters. They argue that like medicine, CS loses itsefficacy over time.

"Tear gases usually lose effectiveness and sometimes (do) not even ignite to start thesmoking process when they are expired," says Kamran Loghman, former president ofZarc International, a California-based manufacturer of non-lethal chemical sprays. "Theydo not turn into another chemical."

More likely, he suggests, the observed symptoms are the result of overexposure. Since the



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Arab Spring, security forces have stepped up the use of tear gas to counter protesters'growing tolerance to the chemical irritant - whether due to repeated exposure or physicalmeans such as gas masks and goggles. Videos show riot police saturating demonstrationswith tear gas, often in confined spaces.

The larger doses of tear gas could push an individual's exposure well beyond the"intolerable concentration" (IC), the mount required to incapacitate them. While themargin between the concentration giving intolerable effect and that which may causeserious injury is high, studies have shown that with prolonged or intense exposure thehuman body metabolises CS gas into deadly cyanide.

Lab testing has so far proven inconclusive. Egyptian health ministry officials declaredthat the spent tear gas canisters it tested contained no deadly toxins. Independent analysisallegedly found the tear gas used in Cairo contained a mixture of 2.5 percent brominecyanide and arsenic - though this could not be verified.

Further testing is under way.

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Libya's Civilian Toll, Denied by NATO (The New York Times)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11352/1197787-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml18 December 2011By C. J. Chivers and Eric Schmitt

TRIPOLI, Libya -- NATO's seven-month air campaign in Libya, hailed by the allianceand many Libyans for blunting a lethal crackdown by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi andhelping to push him from power, came with an unrecognized toll: scores of civiliancasualties the alliance has long refused to acknowledge or investigate.

By NATO's telling during the war, and in statements since sorties ended on Oct. 31, thealliance-led operation was nearly flawless -- a model air war that used high technology,meticulous planning and restraint to protect civilians from Colonel Qaddafi's troops,which was the alliance's mandate.

"We have carried out this operation very carefully, without confirmed civilian casualties,"the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said in November.

But an on-the-ground examination by The New York Times of airstrike sites across Libya-- including interviews with survivors, doctors and witnesses, and the collection ofmunitions remnants, medical reports, death certificates and photographs -- found credibleaccounts of dozens of civilians killed by NATO in many distinct attacks. The victims,including at least 29 women or children, often had been asleep in homes when theordnance hit.

In all, at least 40 civilians, and perhaps more than 70, were killed by NATO at these sites,

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available evidence suggests. While that total is not high compared with other conflicts inwhich Western powers have relied heavily on air power, and less than the exaggeratedaccounts circulated by the Qaddafi government, it is also not a complete accounting.Survivors and doctors working for the anti-Qaddafi interim authorities point to dozensmore civilians wounded in these and other strikes, and they referred reporters to other

sites where civilian casualties were suspected.

Two weeks after being provided a 27-page memorandum from The Times containingextensive details of nine separate attacks in which evidence indicated that allied planeshad killed or wounded unintended victims, NATO modified its stance.

"From what you have gathered on the ground, it appears that innocent civilians may havebeen killed or injured, despite all the care and precision," said Oana Lungescu, aspokeswoman for NATO headquarters in Brussels. "We deeply regret any loss of life."

She added that NATO was in regular contact with the new Libyan government and that

"we stand ready to work with the Libyan authorities to do what they feel is right."

NATO, however, deferred the responsibility of initiating any inquiry to Libya's interimauthorities, whose survival and climb to power were made possible largely by theairstrike campaign. So far, Libyan leaders have expressed no interest in examiningNATO's mistakes.

The failure to thoroughly assess the civilian toll reduces the chances that allied forces,which are relying ever more heavily on air power rather than risking ground troops inoverseas conflicts, will examine their Libyan experience to minimize collateral deathselsewhere. Allied commanders have been ordered to submit a lessons-learned report toNATO headquarters in February. NATO's incuriosity about the many lethal accidentsraises questions about how thorough that review will be.

NATO's experience in Libya also reveals an attitude that initially prevailed inAfghanistan. There, NATO forces, led by the United States, tightened the rules ofengagement for airstrikes and insisted on better targeting to reduce civilian deaths onlyafter repeatedly ignoring or disputing accounts of airstrikes that left many civilians dead.

In Libya, NATO's inattention to its unintended victims has also left many woundedcivilians with little aid in the aftermath of the country's still-chaotic change in leadership.

These victims include a boy blasted by debris in his face and right eye, a woman whoseleft leg was amputated, another whose foot and leg wounds left her disabled, a NorthKorean doctor whose left foot was crushed and his wife, who suffered a fractured skull.

The Times's investigation included visits to more than 25 sites, including in Tripoli,Surman, Mizdah, Zlitan, Ga'a, Majer, Ajdabiya, Misurata, Surt, Brega and Sabratha andnear Benghazi. More than 150 targets -- bunkers, buildings or vehicles -- were hit at theseplaces.



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NATO warplanes flew thousands of sorties that dropped 7,700 bombs or missiles;because The Times did not examine sites in several cities and towns where the aircampaign was active, the casualty estimate could be low.

There are indications that the alliance took many steps to avoid harming civilians, andoften did not damage civilian infrastructure useful to Colonel Qaddafi's military.

Elements of two American-led air campaigns in Iraq, in 1991 and 2003, appear to havebeen avoided, including attacks on electrical grids.

Such steps spared civilians certain hardships and risks that accompanied previousWestern air-to-ground operations. NATO also said that allied forces did not use clustermunitions or ordnance containing depleted uranium, both of which pose health andenvironmental risks, in Libya at any time.

The alliance's fixed-wing aircraft dropped only laser- or satellite-guided weapons, saidCol. Gregory Julian, a NATO spokesman; no so-called dumb bombs were used.While the overwhelming preponderance of strikes seemed to have hit their targetswithout killing noncombatants, many factors contributed to a run of fatal mistakes. Theseincluded a technically faulty bomb, poor or dated intelligence and the near absence ofexperienced military personnel on the ground who could help direct airstrikes.

The alliance's apparent presumption that residences thought to harbor pro-Qaddafi forceswere not occupied by civilians repeatedly proved mistaken, the evidence suggests, posinga reminder to advocates of air power that no war is cost- or error-free.

The investigation also found significant damage to civilian infrastructure from certainattacks for which a rationale was not evident or risks to civilians were clear. Theseincluded strikes on warehouses that current anti-Qaddafi guards said contained only food,or near businesses or homes that were destroyed, including an attack on a munitionsbunker beside a neighborhood that caused a large secondary explosion, scatteringwarheads and toxic rocket fuel.

NATO has also not yet provided data to Libyans on the locations or types of unexplodedordnance from its strikes. At least two large weapons were present at sites visited by TheTimes. "This information is urgently needed," said Dr. Ali Yahwya, chief surgeon at theZlitan hospital.

Moreover, the scouring of one strike site found remnants of NATO munitions in a ruinedbuilding that an alliance spokesman explicitly said NATO did not attack.

That mistake -- a pair of strikes -- killed 12 anti-Qaddafi fighters and nearly killed acivilian ambulance crew aiding wounded men. It underscored NATO's sometimestenuous grasp of battle lines and raised questions about the forthrightness and accuracy ofthe alliance's public-relations campaign.



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The second strike pointed to a tactic that survivors at several sites recounted: warplanesrestriking targets minutes after a first attack, a practice that imperiled, and sometimeskilled, civilians rushing to the wounded.

Pressed about the dangers posed to noncombatants by such attacks, NATO said it wouldreconsider the tactic's rationale in its internal campaign review. "That's a valid point totake into consideration in future operations," Colonel Julian said.

That statement is a shift in the alliance's stance. NATO's response to allegations ofmistaken attacks had long been carefully worded denials and insistence that its operationswere devised and supervised with exceptional care. Faced with credible allegations that itkilled civilians, the alliance said it had neither the capacity for nor intention ofinvestigating and often repeated that disputed strikes were sound.

The alliance maintained this position even after two independent Western organizations --

Human Rights Watch and the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, or Civic -- metprivately with NATO officials and shared field research about mistakes, including, insome cases, victims' names and the dates and locations where they died.

Organizations researching civilian deaths in Libya said that the alliance's resistance tomaking itself accountable and acknowledging mistakes amounted to poor public policy.

"It's crystal clear that civilians died in NATO strikes," said Fred Abrahams, a researcherfor Human Rights Watch. "But this whole campaign is shrouded by an atmosphere ofimpunity" and by NATO's and the Libyan authorities' mutually congratulatory statements.

Mr. Abrahams added that the matter went beyond the need to assist civilians harmed byairstrikes, though he said that was important. At issue, he said, was "who is going to losetheir lives in the next campaign because these errors and mistakes went unexamined, andno one learned from them?"

Human Rights Watch and Civic also noted that the alliance's stance on civilian casualtiesit caused in Libya was at odds with its practices for so-called collateral damage inAfghanistan. There, public anger and political tension over fatal mistakes led NATO toadopt policies for investigating actions that caused civilian harm, including guidelines forexpressing condolences and making small payments to victims or their families.

"You would think, and I did think, that all of the lessons learned from Afghanistan wouldhave been transferred to Libya," said Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of Civic,which helped NATO devise its practices for Afghanistan. "But many of them didn't."

Choosing Targets

When foreign militaries began attacking Libya's loyalists on March 19, the United Statesmilitary, more experienced than NATO at directing large operations, coordinated the



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campaign. On March 31, the Americans transferred command to NATO.

Seven months later, the alliance had destroyed more than 5,900 military targets by meansof roughly 9,700 strike sorties, according to its data, helping to dismantle the pro-Qaddafimilitary and militias. Warplanes from France, Britain, the United States, Italy, Norway,

Denmark, Belgium and Canada dropped ordnance. Two non-NATO nations, Qatar andthe United Arab Emirates, participated on a small scale.

France carried out about a third of all strike sorties, Britain 21 percent and the UnitedStates 19 percent, according to data from each nation.

The attacks fell under two broad categories. So-called deliberate strikes were directedagainst fixed targets, like buildings or air-defense systems. These targets were selectedand assigned to pilots before aircraft took off.

Deliberate strikes were planned to minimize risks to civilians, NATO said. In Naples,

Italy, intelligence analysts and targeting specialists vetted proposed targets and compiledlists, which were sent to an operations center near Bologna, where targets were matchedto specific aircraft and weapons.

For some targets, like command bunkers, NATO said, it conducted long periods ofsurveillance first. Drones or other aircraft chronicled the daily routines at the sites, knownas "patterns of life," until commanders felt confident that each target was valid.

Other considerations then came into play. Targeting specialists chose, for example, theangle of attack and time of day thought to pose the least risk to civilians. They would alsoconsider questions of ordnance. These included the size and type of bomb, and its fuze.

Some fuzes briefly delay detonation of a bomb's high-explosive charge. This can allowordnance to penetrate concrete and explode in an underground tunnel or bunker, or,alternately, to burrow into sand before exploding -- reducing the blast wave, shrapnel andrisk to people and property nearby.

(NATO could also choose inert bombs, made of concrete, that can collapse buildings orshatter tanks with kinetic energy rather than an explosion. NATO said such weapons wereused fewer than 10 times in the war.)

Many early strikes were planned missions. But about two-thirds of all strikes, and most ofthe attacks late in the war, were another sort: dynamic strikes.

Dynamic strikes were against targets of opportunity. Crews on aerial patrols would spotor be told of a potential target, like suspected military vehicles. Then, if cleared bycontrollers in Awacs aircraft, they would attack.

NATO said dynamic missions, too, were guided by practices meant to limit risks. On Oct.24, Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, the operation's commander, described a



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philosophy beyond careful target vetting or using only guided weapons: restraint. "Onlywhen we had a clear shot would we take it," he said.

Colonel Julian, the spokesman, said there were hundreds of instances when pilots couldhave released ordnance but because of concerns for civilians they held fire. Col. Alain

Pelletier, commander of seven Canadian CF-18 fighters that flew 946 strike sorties, saidCanada installed a special computer software modification in its planes that allowedpilots to assess the likely blast radius around an intended target and to call off strikes ifthe technology warned they posed too great a risk to civilians.

Colonel Julian also said that NATO broadcast radio messages and that it dropped millionsof leaflets to warn Libyans to stay away from likely military targets, a practice Libyancitizens across much of the country confirmed.

A Blow to the RebelsCivilians were killed by NATO within days of the alliance's intervention, the available

evidence shows, beginning with one of the uglier mistakes of the air war: the pummelingof a secret rebel armored convoy that was advancing through the desert toward theQaddafi forces' eastern front lines.

Having survived the first wave of air-to-ground attacks, the loyalists were taking steps toavoid attracting NATO bombs. They moved in smaller formations and sometimes setaside armored vehicles in favor of pickup trucks resembling those that rebels drove.Pilots suddenly had fewer targets.

On April 7, as the rebel armor lined up on a hill about 20 miles from Brega, NATOaircraft struck. In a series of attacks, laser-guided bombs stopped the formation, destroyedthe rebels' armor and scattered the anti-Qaddafi fighters, killing several of them,survivors said.

The attack continued as civilians, including ambulance crews, tried to converge on thecraters and flames to aid the wounded. Three shepherds were among them.

As the shepherds approached over the sand, a bomb slammed in again, said one of them,Abdul Rahman Ali Suleiman Sudani. The blast knocked them over, he said. His twocousins were hit.

One, he said, was cut in half; the other had a gaping chest wound. Both died. Mr. Sudaniand other relatives returned to the wreckage later and retrieved the remains for burial inKufra. The men had died, he said, trying to help.

"We called their families in Sudan and told them, 'Your sons, they have passed away,' " hesaid.

Colonel Julian declined to discuss this episode but said that each time NATO aircraftreturned to strike again was a distinct event and a distinct decision, and that it was not a



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general practice for NATO to "double tap" its targets.

This practice was reported several times by survivors at separate attacks and cited toexplain why some civilians opted not to help at strike sites or bolted in fear soon afterthey did.

Colonel Julian said the tactic was likely to be included in NATO's internal review of theair campaign.

An Errant Strike

NATO's planning or restraint did not protect the family of Ali Mukhar al-Gharari whenhis home was shattered in June by a phenomenon as old as air-to-ground war: errantordnance.A retiree in Tripoli, Mr. Gharari owned a three-story house he shared with his adultchildren and their families. Late on June 19 a bomb struck it squarely, collapsing the front

side. The rubble buried a courtyard apartment, the family said, where Karima, Mr.Gharari's adult daughter, lived with her husband and two children, Jomana, 2, andKhaled, 7 months.

All four were killed, as was another of Mr. Gharari's adult children, Faruj, who wasblasted from his second-floor bed to the rubble below, two of his brothers said. Eightother family members were wounded, one seriously.

The Qaddafi government, given to exaggeration, claimed that nine civilians died in theairstrike, including a rescue worker electrocuted while clearing rubble. These deaths havenot been independently corroborated. There has been no dispute about the Gharari deaths.Initially, NATO almost acknowledged its mistake. "A military missile site was theintended target," an alliance statement said soon after. "There may have been a weaponssystem failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties."

Then it backtracked. Kristele Younes, director of field operations for Civic, the victims'group, examined the site and delivered her findings to NATO. She met a cold response."They said, 'We have no confirmed reports of civilian casualties,' " Ms. Younes said.The reason, she said, was that the alliance had created its own definition for "confirmed":only a death that NATO itself investigated and corroborated could be called confirmed.But because the alliance declined to investigate allegations, its casualty tally by definitioncould not budge -- from zero.

"The position was absurd," Ms. Younes said. "But they made it very clear: there was noappetite within NATO to look at these incidents."

The position left the Gharari family disoriented, and in social jeopardy. Another of Mr.Gharari's sons, Mohammed, said the family supported the revolution. But since NATO'sattack, other Libyans have labeled the family pro-Qaddafi. If NATO attacked theGhararis' home, the street logic went, the alliance must have had a reason.



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Mohammed al-Gharari said he would accept an apology from NATO. He said he couldeven accept the mistake. "If this was an error from their control room, I will not sayanything harsh, because that was our destiny," he said.

But he asked that NATO lift the dishonor from the family and set the record straight."NATO should tell the truth," he said. "They should tell what happened, so everyoneknows our family is innocent."

A 'Horrible Mistake'

In the hours before his wife and two of their sons were killed, on Aug. 4, Mustafa Naji al-Morabit thought he had taken adequate precautions.When Colonel Qaddafi's officers began meeting at a home next door in Zlitan, he movedhis family. That was in July. The adjacent property, Mr. Morabit and his neighbors said,was owned by a loyalist doctor who hosted commanders who organized the local front.

About a month later, as rebels pressed near, the officers fled, Mr. Morabit said. He and hisfamily returned home on Aug. 2, assuming that the danger had passed.

Calamity struck two days later. A bomb roared down in the early morning quiet andslammed into their concrete home, causing its front to buckle.

Mr. Morabit's wife, Eptisam Ali al-Barbar, died of a crushed skull. Two of their three sons-- Mohammed, 6, and Moataz, 3 -- were killed, too. Three toes on the left foot of FatimaUmar Mansour, Mr. Morabit's mother, were severed. Her lower left leg was snapped.

"We were just in our homes at night," she said, showing the swollen leg.

The destruction of their home showed that even with careful standards for targetselection, mistakes occurred. Not only did NATO hit the wrong building, survivors andneighbors said, but it also hit it more than two days late.

Mr. Morabit added a sorrowful detail. He suspected that the bomb was made of concrete;there seemed to be no fire or explosion when it struck, he said. NATO may have tried tominimize damage, he added, but the would-be benefits of its caution were lost. "I want toknow why," he said. "NATO said they are so organized, that they are specialists. So why?Why this horrible mistake?"

It is not clear whether the mistake was made by the pilot or those who selected the target.NATO declined to answer questions about the strike.

On Aug. 8, four days after destroying the Morabit home, NATO hit buildings occupied bycivilians again, this time in Majer, according to survivors, doctors and independentinvestigators. The strikes were NATO's bloodiest known accidents in the war.

The attack began with a series of 500-pound laser-guided bombs, called GBU-12s,



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ordnance remnants suggest. The first house, owned by Ali Hamid Gafez, 61, wascrowded with Mr. Gafez's relatives, who had been dislocated by the war, he and hisneighbors said.

The bomb destroyed the second floor and much of the first. Five women and seven

children were killed; several more people were wounded, including Mr. Gafez's wife,whose her lower left leg had to be amputated, the doctor who performed the proceduresaid.

Minutes later, NATO aircraft attacked two buildings in a second compound, owned bybrothers in the Jarud family. Four people were killed, the family said.Several minutes after the first strikes, as neighbors rushed to dig for victims, anotherbomb struck. The blast killed 18 civilians, both families said.

The death toll has been a source of confusion. The Qaddafi government said 85 civiliansdied. That claim does not seem to be credible. With the Qaddafi propaganda machine

now gone, an official list of dead, issued by the new government, includes 35 victims,among them the late-term fetus of a fatally wounded woman the Gafez family said wentinto labor as she died.

The Zlitan hospital confirmed 34 deaths. Five doctors there also told of treating dozens ofwounded people, including many women and children.

All 16 beds in the intensive-care unit were filled with severely wounded civilians, doctorssaid. Dr. Ahmad Thoboot, the hospital's co-director, said none of the victims, alive ordead, were in uniform. "There is no doubt," he said. "This is not fabricated. Civilianswere killed."

Descriptions of the wounds underscored the difference between mistakes with typicalground-to-ground arms and the unforgiving nature of mistakes with 500-pound bombs,which create blast waves of an entirely different order.

Dr. Mustafa Ekhial, a surgeon, said the wounds caused by NATO's bombs were far worsethan those the staff had treated for months. "We have to tell the truth," he said. "What wesaw that night was completely different."

In previous statements, NATO said it watched the homes carefully before attacking andsaw "military staging areas." It also said that it reviewed the strikes and that claims ofcivilian casualties were not corroborated by "available factual information." When askedwhat this information was, the alliance did not provide it.

Mr. Gafez issued a challenge. An independent review of all prestrike surveillance video,he said, would prove NATO wrong. Only civilians were there, he said, and he demandedthat the alliance release the video.

Ms. Younes said the dispute missed an essential point. Under NATO's targeting guidelines



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and in keeping with practices the alliance has repeatedly insisted that it followed, shesaid, if civilians were present, aircraft should not have attacked.

The initial findings on the Majer strikes, part of the United Nations' investigation intoactions by all sides in Libya that harmed civilians, have raised questions about the

legality of the attack under international humanitarian law, according to an officialfamiliar with the investigation.

Homes as Targets

NATO's strikes in Majer, one of five known attacks on apparently occupied residences,suggested a pattern. When residential targets were presumed to be used by loyalist forces,civilians were sometimes present -- suggesting holes in NATO's "pattern of life" reviewsand other forms of vetting.

Airstrikes on June 20 in Surman leveled homes owned by Maj. Gen. El-Khweldi el-

Hamedi, a longtime confidant of Colonel Qaddafi and a member of his RevolutionaryCouncil. NATO has said the family compound was used as command center.

The family's account, partly confirmed by rebels, claimed that the strikes killed 13civilians and wounded six more. Local anti-Qaddafi fighters corroborated the deaths offour of those killed -- one of the general's daughters-in-law and three of her children.

General Hamedi was wounded and has taken refuge in Morocco, said his son Khaled.Khaled has filed a lawsuit against NATO, claiming that the attack was a crime. He saidthat he and his family were victims of rebel "fabrications," which attracted NATO bombs.On Sept. 25, a smaller but similar attack destroyed the residence of Brig. Gen. MusbahDiyab in Surt, neighbors and his family members said.

General Diyab, a distant cousin of Colonel Qaddafi, was killed. So were seven womenand children who crowded into his home as rebels besieged the defenses of some of theQaddafi loyalists' last holdouts, witnesses said.

By this time, tables in Libya had turned. The remaining loyalists held almost no territory.They were a dwindling, disorganized lot. It was the anti-Qaddafi forces who endangeredcivilians they suspected of having sympathies for the dying government, residents of Surtsaid.

On a recent afternoon, Mahmoud Zarog Massoud, his hand swollen with an infectionfrom a wound, wandered the broken shell of a seven-story apartment building in Surt,which was struck in mid-September. His apartment furniture had been blown about by theblast.

He approached the kitchen, where, he said, he and his wife had just broken theirRamadan fast when ordnance hit. "We were not thinking NATO would attack our home,"he said.



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Judging by the damage and munitions' remains, a bomb with a delayed fuze struckanother wing of the building, burrowed into another apartment and exploded, blastingwalls outward. Debris flew across the courtyard and through his kitchen's balcony door.His wife, Aisha Abdujodil, was killed, both her arms severed, he said. Bloodstains still

marked the floor and walls.

###

New clashes rock Cairo after 10 killed (AFP)

http://news.yahoo.com/clashes-rock-cairo-10-killed-061720131.html18 December 2011By Samer al-Atrush

Violence raged in the administrative heart of Egypt's capital on Saturday as troops andpolice deployed in force after clashes with protesters against continued military rule left10 people dead.

Smoke billowed over Tahrir Square, the iconic focus of the protest movement thatoverthrew veteran president Hosni Mubarak in February, after two nearby governmentoffices caught fire, an AFP correspondent said.

Demonstrators pelted security forces with rocks and petrol bombs as they fought runningbattles in the streets around the square and an adjacent bridge across the River Nile.

Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzuri raised tensions by accusing the protesters of beingcounter-revolutionaries and denying security forces had opened fire as they broke up asit-in against his nomination last month outside the cabinet office.

Troops and police moved to retake control of the area around the office early on Saturday,erecting razor-wire barriers.

But after several hours of calm, new clashes erupted, overshadowing the count in thesecond phase of the first general election since Mubarak's ouster.

By midnight soldiers had withdrawn behind a concrete wall hastily erected in theafternoon on a street leading to the cabinet offices.

Protesters threw petrol bombs and stones over the wall. Barrages of rocks and fireworks

were aimed at the protesters from a building on the other side of the wall.

Seventeen people arrested over the unrest were remanded in custody for four days.

On Saturday, 11 members of a civilian council set up in November to advise the militaryafter anti-army demonstrations, resigned in protest at the casualties, the vice president ofthe 30-member body said.

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"We made recommendations yesterday (Friday) but today we were surprised that not onlywere they not implemented, but there were further casualties," said Abul Ela Madi, whoalso heads the moderate Islamist Wasat party.

After the resignations the military rulers expressed "regret," the official MENA news

agency reported.

The military council later posted footage on its Facebook page and Youtube of protestersransacking a government office on Friday, with a brief message asking: "Is it not our rightto protect the people's property?"

The footage was the latest in a media war with activists, who circulated on Twitter apicture of soldiers beating a women on the ground whose shirt had been ripped off, andother soldiers making obscene gestures at protesters.

Friday's fighting, which raged from dawn well into the night, was the bloodiest since five

days of protests in November killed more than 40 people just before the first round of thephased parliamentary election.

The health ministry said 10 people were killed in the violence, in a statement publishedby MENA on Saturday night.

One of the dead was Emad Effat, a senior cleric in the government-run Dar al-Ifta, theofficial interpreter of Islamic law, the institution said in a statement published by MENA.

Footage posted on YouTube showed the bloodied cleric lying on the street beforeprotesters carried him away.

"The people demand the execution of the field marshal," the demonstrators chanted inreference to Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF),which took over following Mubarak's ouster.

State television reported that Tantawi, in a gesture apparently aimed at mollifyingprotesters, ordered that wounded civilians be treated at military hospitals which are betterequipped.

Pictures of a military policeman grabbing a woman by her hair and of another loomingover a sobbing elderly lady with his truncheon quickly circulated on social networkingsite Twitter, enraging activists.

But at a news conference on Saturday, Ganzuri accused the protesters of being counter-revolutionaries and denied that security forces had opened fire.

"Those who are in Tahrir Square are not the youth of the revolution," he said."This is not a revolution, but a counter-revolution," added Ganzuri, who also served aspremier under Mubarak.



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He said 18 people had been wounded by gunfire on Friday and, without elaborating,blamed "infiltrators" who he said "do not want the best for Egypt."

It was the SCAF's nomination of Ganzuri as premier on November 27 that prompted the

protesters to launch their sit-in outside the cabinet offices. They continued it after hisinterim government was sworn in on December 7.

The demonstrators want the military to hand power immediately to a civilianadministration with full powers.

France on Saturday denounced the use of force against protesters.

"France is worried about the violent incidents that have taken place on Tahrir Square inCairo," a foreign ministry statement said, adding that Paris "denounces the violence andexcessive use of force against protesters."

The military has said it will step down only once a president has been elected by the endof June in the final stage of a protracted transition.

The count continued on Saturday in the second stage of elections for the lower house ofparliament. A third stage next month will be followed by a similar three-phase election tothe upper house before the presidential vote.

As in the first phase last month, Islamist parties had a commanding lead over the liberalsin the second stage, according to initial results cited by state media.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party condemned "the assault onprotesters and the attempt to disperse them."

Leading secularist Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear watchdog chief turneddissident and presidential candidate, condemned what he called a "savage" attempt todisperse the sit-in.

###

Turnout low as Gabon votes amid opposition boycott (AFP)

http://news.yahoo.com/gabon-ruling-party-set-comfortable-reelection-052231969.html18 December 2011By Xavier Bourgois

Voters trickled to the polls in Gabon Saturday in legislative elections expected to hand aresounding victory to President Ali Bongo's party in the face of a boycott by someopposition groups.

Bongo's Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) and its allies hold 98 of the 120 seats in

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parliament in the west African oil state and are not expected to lose much ground giventhe splintered opposition. Results are due Thursday.

Polling stations closed at 1700 GMT, although some shut earlier because of the lowturnout and a lack of electricity as darkness fell.

At two polling stations in the capital Libreville, for instance, only 61 people cast ballotsout of 704 registered voters, according to Germaine Mianga of the election commission.

In the western economic capital of Port-Gentil only 78 of the nearly 500 registered votersturned up at one polling station.

Poll officials in the northern town of Medouneu, an opposition bastion, said turnout atvarious stations hovered between 10 and 40 percent.



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In the first legislative election since his father Omar died in 2009 after 41 years in power,Bongo, 52, has campaigned on his economic achievements and the co-hosting of the2012 Africa Cup of Nations with Equatorial Guinea, an event that has spurred majorinvestment.

"It's a citizen's duty to go and vote, but it's true it's not very crowded," said voterAntoinette Ntsame-Sima at a polling station in Medouneu, the stronghold of leadingopposition figure Andre Mba Obame.

Many eyes were on Medouneu, where Mba Obame won 96 percent of the vote in the2009 presidential election which brought Bongo to power, to see whether voters wouldobserve the boycott.

PDG candidate Maxime Ondimba is facing off against Claude-Guy Assey of the Rally forGabon -- part of the presidential majority supporting Bongo -- for the seat vacated byMba Obame, who is ill and undergoing medical treatment in France.

Mba Obame's supporters went out in small groups in Medouneu to urge people not tovote, prompting an outburst from the town's mayor Pauline Ossone of the PDG.

"They are trying to scare people so that they won't vote. Even little old ladies! It'sunacceptable," Ossone charged.

The private channel TV+ belonging to Mba Obame had its programmes interrupted lateSaturday due to sabotage, a director of the network told AFP.

"We were off the air for a second time since 8:05 pm (1905 GMT). A cable was severed.It was sabotage," Franck Nguema said adding that transmission could only resume onMonday.

Reached by telephone earlier in Paris, Mba Obame said: "Today they will say that theytook Andre Mba Obame's seat. It's true they will have a deputy, but they haven't taken myseat. They don't represent anyone."

A total of 746,000 people are registered to vote in the country of 1.5 million inhabitants,sub-Saharan Africa's fourth largest oil producer.Despite the recent emergence of a middle class, disparities are huge, with more than halfof the population living on less than two dollars a day.

Inspired by the Arab Spring and a string of protest movements against long-standingrulers in sub-Saharan Africa, Gabon's opposition initially looked to be mounting a seriouschallenge, but it was split over the boycott issue.

Mba Obame's supporters joined forces with 12 other opposition parties in November toreject the elections over the absence of biometric polling materials.



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A number of ruling party dissidents joined opposition ranks in recent years in a bid topush for more democracy, but the PDG old guard that once protected Omar Bongo'sstatus as Africa's longest-serving leader appears to have won the day.

"The PDG runs Gabon. We have to vote for Ondimba because if you vote for him, the

president (Bongo) will trust us and we'll have schools, roads and everything," said NestorAboghe, a PDG supporter.

###

Famine stalks the Sahel (AFP)

http://news.yahoo.com/famine-stalks-sahel-190941101.html18 December 2011By Coumba Sylla

Light rains, poor harvests and overpriced food will combine to create a severe famine for

five Sahel countries if urgent, large-scale measures are not taken, experts warn.

"The crisis is already here. All you can do is try to lessen its impact on people,especially ... the most vulnerable," said Thomas Yanga, head of the WFP's west Africanregional office.

Niger, Chad, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali face the worst threat, while Senegal andGambia are also at risk, he said.

Between five million and seven million people face food insecurity and need immediateassistance in the Sahel, the southern rim of the Sahara, Yanga said.

The Oxfam food charity estimates six million people in Niger and 2.9 million in Mali"live in areas vulnerable to the coming crisis," and 700,000 in Mauritania are at risk ofsevere food insecurity.

According to unofficial figures, nearly two million people are going hungry in BurkinaFaso, and 13 of Chad's 22 regions "could be affected," Oxfam said.

"The situation is looking extremely worrying for millions of people in west Africa, butthe worst is not yet inevitable," it added. "The crisis has been identified early, and weknow that there are cost-effective measures that can be taken now to protect those mostvulnerable. This time we can act before the emergency hits."

Rains in the Sahel have been sporadic, and remittances sent from relatives abroad havediminished, Oxfam said, adding that food prices have gone up an average of 40 percentsince 2006.

Niger is already seeing people displaced by hunger.Dari Harouna, who fled to Niamey from southwestern Tillaberi in order to survive, told

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AFP: "In my village there's no more to eat. Everyone has fled, even women and children.There are only old people left."

In Chad, authorities estimate a grain shortfall of 650,000 tonnes, especially in westernKanem where "the situation is truly alarming," said its governor, Ngamaye Djari, noting

that the province took in more than 10,000 "returnees" from the conflict in Libya.

"The able-bodied have left the region for the south of the country," unable to farm theland, he said.

"What I saw in my field this year were stalks that were devoured by insects," saidAbdoulaye Malimy, a farmer from Kanem. "If nothing is done for us we will die."

The Sahel has drought every four or five years on average, said Mamadou Biteye ofOxfam in Dakar.

Some countries have adopted plans to address the crisis and have sought aid from theUnited Nations, the European Union and charities to avoid a repeat of the food crisis of2009-10 that affected some 10 million people.

Mauritania, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are planning to distribute free or low-costfood, seed and farming equipment.

Ouagadougou will start distributing free food in January, predicting that by March orApril "some modest families will have serious difficulties facing food needs," BurkinaFaso Agriculture Minister Laurent Sedogo told AFP.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is planning an intervention in eight Sahel countriesfor children threatened with malnutrition, while France will provide 10 million euros($13 million) in emergency food aid for the Sahel to WFP.

"What is undertaken today will determine whether a new major food crisis will occur" inthe region, said Vincent Taillandier, an official of Action Against Hunger.

"But it's the cumulative effect of the current situation, less than two years after the lastbig food crisis, which presages the worst crisis since 2005."

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Somalia: Military Action Was Planned for Years, Say U.S. Cables (Sudan Tribune)

http://allafrica.com/stories/201112180073.htmlBy Kipchumba Some17 December 2011

In January last year, a team of senior Kenya government officials met their UScounterparts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to lobby for international support for their solution

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to the Somalia problem.

The "Jubaland Initiative" as the secret plan it was dubbed, proposed the creation of aseparate state in southern Somalia called Jubaland to cut off the Al-Shabaab from Kenya.

Citing increased threats to national security posed by Al-Shabaab, the Kenyan delegationled by Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula said the initiative was necessary tosecure Kenya's borders.

They made a passionate appeal for US "understanding and support."

Occurring on the margins of an African Union summit, the meeting also featured the thenChief of General Staff Gen Jeremiah Kianga, Defence minister Yusuf Haji and thedirector of National Security Intelligence Service Maj-Gen Michael Gichang'i.

The Addis forum was just one in a number of meetings held between high-ranking

Kenyan and US officials in the campaign to enlist US support for the initiative.

Faced with US scepticism, the Kenyan delegation said the Jubaland Initiative was in factthe idea of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.

A lot of lobbying went on and, nearly two years later Kenyan Defence Forces rolled intosouthern Somalia for their first ever foreign military operation much to the enthusiasm ofthe local population and utter dismay of the international community.

Details about the lobbying are contained in diplomatic cables released by the anti-secrecywebsite Wikileaks early this year.

The cables reveal how Kenya engaged the US in a tussle of wills for more than two yearsin its determination to militarily neutralise Al-Shabaab's threat, resulting in the launch ofOperation Linda Nchi on October 6 this year.

The cables also say the military action took years of planning and was not a spontaneousreaction to abductions conducted by the Islamist group on Kenyan soil as repeatedlystated by government officials.

The abductions seemed to provide Kenya with a convenient excuse to launch the planwhich, officials argued, was necessary to ensure protection against threats posed by anunstable neighbour.

The cables indicate that the operation enjoyed unqualified support from both sides of thegrand coalition government. President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga werefirmly behind it.

Planning committee



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One of the cables indicates that Mr Wetang'ula informed US Ambassador for AfricanAffairs Johnnie Carson that the planning committee was working from Mr Odinga'soffice.

"The Kenyan effort was being coordinated by a team based in Prime Minister Odinga's

office, Wetang'ula said, but the Prime Minister and President Kibaki co-chair the effort inorder to make it truly bipartisan," reads part of the cable.

Kenyan officials enumerated the problems caused by Al-Shabaab insurgency: refugeeinflux into Kenya, radicalisation of the Kenyan youth, proliferation of small arms, anddistortion of market prices as result of piracy money flowing into the Kenyan economy.

"Saitoti also noted that Somali piracy has hurt Kenya. He claimed proceeds from ransomspaid to Somali pirate syndicates are being used to purchase expensive commercial andresidential properties in Kenya at inflated prices, thus affecting the Kenyan economy bydistorting the real estate market.

"In addition, quantities of small arms and light weapons from Somalia are entering theblack market in Kenya," reads part of one cable.

The strategy devised by security officials was rather easy: enter southern Somalia, driveaway Al-Shabaab, create a buffer zone to allow the fledgling Transitional FederalGovernment to take control and increase its capacity to retain it.

Key to the success of this operation was reclaiming the port of Kismayu, which was themain source of funds for the insurgents, according to Director of Military IntelligenceBrig Philip Kameru.

Brig Kameru's observations in regard to Al-Shabaab threat would prove quite prophetic.In a cable dated August 2, 2010, he told the visiting US ambassador-at-Large forCounterterrorism Daniel Benjamin that Al-Shabaab was about to begin deadly incursionsinto Kenyan territory.

"He added that the DMI expects Al-Shabaab to begin cross-border incursions into Kenyaand he claimed to have received reports indicating Al-Shabaab has plans to useimprovised explosive devices and landmines against security personnel and civiliantraffic inside Kenya.

"Kameru said there are other reports of Al-Shabaab stockpiling weapons in borderregions," reads the cable.

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Kenya marches into Somalia but can't see the enemy (AP)

http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-marches-somalia-cant-see-enemy-154530838.html17 December 2011

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By Katharine Houreld

BUR GARBO, Somalia Kenyan troops marched into this decaying Somali fishingvillage two months ago, but the al-Qaida-linked militants they came to hunt are nowhereto be seen.

The Kenyan military says it's getting ready to push forward with its offensive against theal-Shabab insurgents, who are blamed for attacks on Kenyan soil including touristkidnappings.

For now, though, the soldiers spend their days among ramshackle huts and along thesandy shoreline without cover or body armor.

"The more they delay, the more time al-Shabab has to prepare. They have already beenmaking strong propaganda to make people afraid," Somali government spokesmanAbdirahman Omar Osman said. "The confidence of people that al-Shabab will be

defeated is dying down."

The town of Bur Garbo is only 60 miles (100 kilometers) away from Kismayo, theinsurgency's main stronghold. Residents report that al-Shabab militants already aredigging trenches and tunnels around another strategically located town in the area.

But the militants in Bur Garbo have retreated to heavily wooded banks across a creek,where they occasionally exchange potshots across the river with the Kenyan soldiers."We haven't really seen much of the enemy," said the soldier in charge of the village,Maj. Solomon Wandege. "But we know they are there and we are on our guard."

Around him, mud and stick houses lean drunkenly over footpaths overgrown with weeds.On the beach, bleached fishing boats bake in the sun the Kenyans have forbidden themto go out too far "for security reasons." Near the green patch cleared as a helicopterlanding, soldiers have thrown camouflage mesh over artillery guns. So far, there's beenno one to shoot them at.

In January, Somalia's civil war will enter its 21st year. The Kenyans are just the latest in along line of forces to arrive in Bur Garbo. They have Humvees, helicopters, and rationpacks with sweet canned pineapple, Weetabix and powdered milk for tea. But there are noKenyan civilians along to reach out to Somali civilians. Nation-building, the Kenyansinsist, is not on the cards.

As any Somali will tell you, it's easy to take ground in Somalia. It's holding it that's hard.Just ask the Americans. Their involvement, and that of a subsequent U.N. mission, endedin 1994 after Somali fighters shot down two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters, killing 18American servicemen. A generation later, nothing has changed.

"We have never seen a government here," said 19-year-old Khadija Ali Ibrahim, foldingher arms across her long black robes.

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She'd like someone to set one up, she said, because she thinks it could help people. Rightnow the town is loosely governed by elders, but they don't have the power or resources tomake any improvements. Ibrahim has never been further from her home in her life thanKismayo where the Kenyans say they now are heading.

"We are here to defeat al-Shabab. We are committed," said Kenyan Maj. Seif Rashid,who carries two magazines of ammunition velcroed across his chest. "So far we've had adegree of acceptance because we've brought an element of security. But unless people'slives improve, they will eventually turn against us."

The Kenyans have been counting on international aid groups to prop up theircounterinsurgency campaign the phrase "hearts and minds" crops up repeatedly inconversations with the soldiers. But the humanitarians say they target the weakest, not themost strategically important, and that they're not interested in following the Kenyan armyaround.

The Kenyans may find it hard to explain these distinctions to the Somalis, especiallysince they shut down the town's two main revenue sources fishing and the charcoaltrade because they didn't want strange boats coming close to shore.

"We want the rest of the world to assist us. There is insecurity here. There is no food,"said Mohamed Farah Ali, the bearded commander of the local Somali forces in town.

The Kenyans describe the Somali fighters as government soldiers, but they're reallycloser to a clan militia. The weak U.N.-backed government only holds onto the capitalwith the help of nearly 10,000 African Union peacekeepers. Government forces in thecapital are paid for by Italy and the U.S. Somali government influence in Bur Garbo isnil. The Somalis here say they are paid by the Kenyans.

They have rifles from the Kenyans too, and uniforms, they say, motioning to the olivegreen trousers they wear above the plastic flip flops. Since the Kenyans are paying them for now they don't have to prey on the civilian population. Or so the families say, asthe soldiers lean in to listen to the journalists' questions.

But if the Kenyans leave, or there's a problem with payments, or not enough to eat, thenthe Somali fighters may start to extract the type of taxes that eventually made al-Shababso unpopular here.

And the militia, or its heirs, will be waiting somewhere, ready to re-emerge. For now,they are just across the river.

###

Leon Panetta, defense secretary, offers support to new Libya in historic visit (The

Washington Post)



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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/leon-panetta-visits-libya-offers-aid/2011/12/17/gIQAHoR0zO_story.html17 December 2011By Craig Whitlock

TRIPOLI, Libya Nine months after American and NATO air power was deployed torescue a faltering rebellion against Moammar Gaddafi, Defense Secretary Leon E.Panettamade a historic visit here Saturday to offer symbolic support for Libyas post-revolutionary government as it tries to stabilize the North African country.

Panetta, who took office in July as the civil war was raging, is the first Pentagon chief tovisit Libya after decades of hostile relations between Washington and Gaddafi. His tripwas the latest effort by the Obama administration to encourage Libyas fledglinggovernment to move quickly to transition to democracy even as the United States seeks toavoid the appearance of interfering in the countrys volatile internal affairs.

Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people, Panetta said at a news conference atthe Libyan Defense Ministry. This will be a long and difficult transition, but I haveevery confidence that you will succeed in realizing the dream of a government of, by andfor all people and achieve a more secure and prosperous future.

Panettas message to Libyan leaders echoed comments he had made two days before inBaghdad, where he led a ceremony to markthe end of the war in Iraq. Although theircircumstances differ, both countries are struggling to adopt democratic practices after theU.S. military ousted, or helped oust, a long-serving autocrat.

Panetta met with Libyas new prime minister, Abdurrahim el-Keib, as well as its defenseminister, Osama al-Jwayli. He was accompanied by Army Gen. Carter Ham, the chief ofthe U.S. militarys Africa Command and a leading player in NATOs Libya campaign.

The defense secretary said Washington was prepared to provide whatever assistance thatLibya believes it needs but added that he did not discuss specific aid proposals withLibyan leaders. They have to determine what their needs are, he said.

Panetta also laid a wreath at a small cemetery in Tripoli that for two centuries has beenthe resting place for five American sailors. The sailors were part of a 13-member crewwho died during a mission by the USS Intrepid against a Barbary pirate fleet in Tripolisharbor in 1804.

Some of the sailors descendants have sought for years to have their remains returned tothe United States. The Navy favors leaving the cemetery undisturbed, calling it the finalresting place of the sailors. Congress, however, passed a measure last week calling onthe Defense Department to study the possibility of bringing the sailors remains home.

Panetta did not comment publicly during his visit to the cemetery, which sits on a bluffoverlooking Tripolis harbor. In a statement issued afterward, he praised the Libyan

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governments efforts to preserve the grave sites. The cemetery had been in a dilapidatedcondition for many years until a restoration project was completed in January, whenGaddafi was still in power.

Panetta made his brief stopover in Libya despite continuing unrest, including outbreaks

of gunfire at the Tripoli airport earlier in the week. Rival militias that had banded togetherto oust Gaddafi are vying for control and influence in the new government.

Keib said he reassured Panetta that the government was doing its best to unify the militiasunder a single banner. We know how serious this issue is, he said. We know its notjust a matter of saying, Okay, put down your arms and go back to work.

Panetta is the second member of Obamas Cabinet to visit Libya in two months,following an appearance in Tripoli by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Oct.19, two days before Gaddafi was killed by rebel forces.

Although U.S. and NATO bombing helped drive Gaddafi from power, the Obamaadministration avoided deploying U.S. ground forces to Libya. Only a handful of U.S.military personnel are in the country, assigned to security duties at the U.S. Embassy.

One priority for Libyas new leaders has been to gain access to billions of dollars inassets that Gaddafi had stored in overseas accounts. On Friday, the White Houseannounced that it has lifted remaining sanctions against Gaddafis government and that itwill unfreeze an estimated $37 billion in Libyan government assets under U.S.jurisdiction.

###

Panetta Is First U.S. Defense Secretary to Visit Libya (The New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.html17 December 2011By Thom Shanker and Liam Stack

TRIPOLI, Libya Presidents from Thomas Jefferson to Barack Obama have waged waron these shores. Given such volatile relations, it is little wonder that no American defensesecretary had ever set foot here.

But on Saturday, Leon E. Panetta became the first defense secretary to visit Tripoli. Hearrived to assess the progress and challenges facing a postrevolutionary governmentstruggling to control the disparate rebel bands that ousted Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi withthe support of NATO attacks from the air and sea.

I have come here to pay tribute to the courage and determination of the Libyan people,Mr. Panetta said as he stood next to Prime Minister Abdel Rahim el-Keeb. They bravelycame together. They rose up against an oppressive regime. They fought, and many died,

http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Hillary_Rodham_Clintonhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/world-politics/in-a-switch-for-us-panetta-praises-nato/2011/10/05/gIQA7XmwNL_story.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/leon_e_panetta/index.html?inline=nyt-perhttp://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Hillary_Rodham_Clintonhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/world-politics/in-a-switch-for-us-panetta-praises-nato/2011/10/05/gIQA7XmwNL_story.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/leon-panetta-defense-secretary-libya-visit.htmlhttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/leon_e_panetta/index.html?inline=nyt-per


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to chart a better future for themselves and for their children.

Mr. Panetta said he was looking forward to building a close partnership with the Libyangovernment, and he pledged that the United States stands ready to offer securityassistance cooperation once the government identifies its needs.

But he also listed challenges facing the new government, including bringing together allof the revolutionary forces that fought from west to east, securing weapons stockpiles,confronting terrorism, professionalizing the army and police, and developing theinstitutions of a free and representative government.

In response, the prime minister said his nascent government understood the seriousnessof integrating militia bands into official security services or disbanding them.

The militias have emerged as major power brokers in postwar Libya. Many of the mostinfluential portfolios in Mr. Keebs government, including the Defense and Interior

Ministries, have been awarded to representatives of powerful militias from places likeMisurata and Zintan.

The groups are especially troublesome in the capital, which has been occupied by apatchwork of heavily armed bands from across the country since Colonel Qaddafisforces fled the city in August. The government has asked out-of-town militias to leave thecapital by Tuesday, but the most powerful ones have shown few signs of complying withthat demand.

Hundreds of armed men backed by pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons, likeantiaircraft guns or rocket launchers, have staked out territory across Tripoli.

Skirmishes between them are common, and tensions have already emerged betweenmilitia commanders and figures in the transitional government. Last weekend, fightersfrom the Zintan militia clashed with soldiers from the fledgling army loyal to Gen.Khalifa Hifter.

In the last several days, Zintan fighters have shot and wounded one of General Hifterssons and arrested another.

In a somber tribute to past American conflicts in Libya and nearby seas, Mr. Panettavisited the cemetery that is home to remains of some of the 13 American sailors killedoffshore on Sept. 4, 1804. Their mission was to sail the Intrepid into a pirate fleetanchored in Tripoli harbor, then detonate explosives packed on board to destroy as manyof the buccaneer vessels as possible.

The charges aboard the Intrepid detonated prematurely; all 13 American sailors werekilled before they reached their targets.

When their bodies washed ashore the next day, the American sailors were buried in a



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grave outside Tripoli. In the 1940s, the local government dug up the area and moved anunknown quantity of the remains to be interred in five tombs on a hill above a busythoroughfare that traces Tripolis harbor.

Some descendants of the Intrepid crew have called for repatriating the remains, and

Congress has requested that the Pentagon study the feasibility of doing so.

But Mr. Panetta released a statement that indicated he found the cemetery, which at onetime had fallen into disrepair, to be well tended.

It is a sign of the great friendship between the American and Libyan people that, in spiteof the differences that have marked our governments relations over the years, the Libyanpeople have maintained this cemetery with the respect and honor that it deserves, Mr.Panetta said in an official statement.

###

Tunisia one year on: Where the Arab Spring started (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16230190?print=true17 December 2011By Frank Gardner

The man who lit the touch-paper of revolt in North Africa exactly a year ago was no fieryrevolutionary. Mohamed Bouazizi was a young fruit and vegetable seller, supportingeight people on less than $150 (100) a month.

His ambition was to trade up from a wheelbarrow to a pick-up truck.

"On that day Mohamed left home to go and sell his goods as usual," said his sisterSamya."But when he put them on sale, three inspectors from the council asked him for bribes.Mohamed refused to pay."

"They seized his goods and put them in their car. They tried to grab his scales butMohamed refused to give them up, so they beat him," she said.

Whether he was also insulted and spat at by a female official is disputed, but somethingsnapped inside the 26-year old grocer.

He went to the governor's office to ask for his goods back; the governor would not seehim.

So he acquired a can of petrol, poured it over himself and lit a match.

'Wave of sympathy'

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Mohamed Bouazizi was rushed to hospital in a coma with 90% burns, but his act ofdesperation brought angry crowds onto the streets.

There was something about his helplessness in the face of corrupt officialdom, risingprices and lack of opportunities that triggered a wave of sympathy.

Faced with brutal security forces, the protesters did not back down, they grew bolder.

As President Ben Ali came under growing pressure he visited Mohamed Bouazizi inhospital.

When Bouazizi died of his wounds on 5 January the rioting intensified. Hundreds werekilled, hundreds more arrested.

Tunisia's President Ben Ali, a military autocrat in power for 23 years, went on televisionto appeal for calm.

"Unemployment was a global problem," he said.

He blamed the violence on masked gangs, calling them "terrorists".

Like so many rulers in the Arab world, Tunisia's president saw himself as a bulwarkagainst Islamic extremism.

He believed that alone gave him carte blanche to crush anything approaching democracy.But he under-estimated the depth of resentment his people felt at the cronyism, thecorruption, economic hardship and simple bad governance.

Eulogised

Just nine days after the death of the street vendor, Tunisians heard the prime ministerannounce that the president was "unable to carry out his duties".Mohamed Bouazizi's mother says she is happy that her son's death has helped Tunisiamove on.

In fact he had fled abruptly with his family, trying first to escape to France, which refusedto let his plane land, then to Saudi Arabia, which granted him asylum if he gave up allpolitical activities.

The rule of President Ben

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AFRICOM Related-News Clips 19 December 2011