Iraq War Continues: Bombings in Anbar Province Kills 14, Wounds Dozens

Iraqi police: Anbar bombings kill 14, wound dozens

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – A series of bombings killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more Sunday in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, said police and hospital officials, a worrying sign that violence may be on the rise in this former hotbed of the insurgency.

The first explosion occurred in a parking lot in Ramadi, when a parked car exploded near the police headquarters for Anbar province and the provincial council building, said a local police official.

As police and bystanders rushed to the scene, a second car parked in the vicinity blew up, said the police official. According to the official, a third vehicle exploded about an hour later near the gates to the Ramadi hospital.

Multiple explosions timed to kill rescuers and security forces responding to an earlier bomb were a hallmark of Al-Qaida in Iraq forces during the height of the insurgency.

One bystander, Musaab Ali Mohammed, said he was buying cigarettes from a shop near the police headquarters when he heard a big explosion and smoke billowing out from the parking lot.

“I saw police cars and firefighters, and they started to carry out the wounded and dead. … Minutes later, a second explosion took place,” he said, adding that many of the injured in the second blast appeared to be firefighters. “After that, policemen started to fire in the air and called upon civilians to leave, fearing a third blast.”

The police official said a total of 18 people were killed in the three explosions, while an official at the Ramadi hospital said 14 bodies were brought to the hospital.

Conflicting death tolls are common in the aftermath of bombings in Iraq.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Anbar province was the scene of some of the most intense fighting by U.S. troops during the insurgency.

Violence tapered off significantly after local tribes decided to ally with U.S. forces, but bombings such as those Sunday are a worrying sign of the insurgency’s resilience in the western province.

Nearly 100 Bank Failures This Year in the United States

October 11, 2009

Failures of Small Banks Grow, Straining F.D.I.C.

By ERIC DASH
New York Times

A year after Washington rescued the banks considered too big to fail, the ones deemed too small to save are approaching a grim milestone: the 100th bank failure of 2009.

In what has become a ritual, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has swooped down on a handful of troubled lenders almost every Friday, seizing 98 since January alone and putting their assets into the hands of another bank.

While the parade of failures still represents a mere fraction of America’s small banks, it underscores a growing divide between them and large institutions like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bancorp, which are slowly growing stronger as the economy improves.

Burdened by worsening commercial real estate loans, many small banks’ troubles are just beginning. Many analysts say that the now-toxic loans could sink hundreds of small lenders over the next few years and place a significant drag on the economy.

Already, the bank failures are placing enormous strain on the F.D.I.C. and its fund, which keeps depositors whole. Flush with more than $50 billion only two years ago, the fund recently fell into the red.

The prospect of more failures has led the F.D.I.C. to seek new ways to replenish the fund with higher and earlier payments by healthy banks, even after setting aside reserves for future losses.

The initial wave of failures has also unsettled some communities, even though most of the troubled institutions have been bought by other banks rather than shuttered. While deposits are safe thanks to federal insurance, the new buyers often do not have the same ties to local businesses as the former owners.

In some cases, they tighten lending and make it harder for longtime customers to obtain loans or favorable terms. In other cases, managers of the new bank make other changes, like ending offers for high-interest certificates of deposit and calling in certain lines of credit. In the longer term, some new owners are likely to close branches of the bank they have acquired in order to cut costs.

“In the near term, bank failures can be painful,” said Sheila C. Bair, the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But a bank that is teetering on collapse is not going to lend, she said, and “that’s not good for the economy.”

Regulators expect closures to ripple through hundreds of small banks over the next couple of years, especially in the Midwest and Southeast, where lenders have been hard hit by the recession.

These banks loaded their balance sheets with loans to home builders and other property developers to make up for lost business in credit card and mortgage lending that bigger competitors wrested away. They eased their lending standards during the boom years and made big bets on new housing developments, strip malls and office projects. Now, many of those deals are falling apart, and the lenders are scrambling to raise capital to cushion the losses.

“These banks were big enough that they could do loans that were fairly sizable,” said John R. Chrin, a former investment banker who is now an executive in residence at Lehigh University. “If they go bad, they are toast.”

The pace of bank failures is expected to accelerate in the coming months. There were just 25 bank failures in 2008 and just 10 in the five previous years. But in September alone, regulators took over 11 banks in nine states that were saddled with soured commercial real estate loans, from Corus Bank, a $7 billion construction lender based in Chicago that financed projects across the country, to Brickwell Community Bank in Woodbury, Minn., which had just a single branch and $72.6 million in assets.

Three others were taken over this month, including Warren Bank, a small lender just outside Detroit. Regulators swept into the offices on a recent Friday night after brokering a sale to Huntington Bancshares of Ohio, a regional bank with a big presence in Michigan.

By Saturday morning, Huntington had taken control of the bank’s computer systems, started reassuring depositors and placed vinyl signs with its name outside some of the Warren Bank branches.

Even though the process went smoothly, customers still found it unnerving.

“People expect companies to go out of business, not banks,” said James R. Fouts, the mayor of Warren, Mich., whose working class city of 140,000 has had a front row seat to the collapses of General Motors and Chrysler. “That is something that you expect to hear about in the Great Depression, and it further exacerbates the feeling that financially, the country is not yet in stable shape.”

The banking system may also be facing a long recovery. About $870 billion, or roughly half of the industry’s $1.8 trillion of commercial real estate loans, now sit on the balance sheets of small and medium-size banks like these, according to an analysis by Foresight Analytics, a research firm. For most of the banks, this represents the biggest and riskiest part of their loan portfolio, since they lack the trading streams and fee businesses of their larger rivals. And as a group, small banks have written off only a tiny percentage of the losses that analysts expect them to incur.

In fact, applying only the commercial real estate loss assumptions that federal regulators used during the stress tests for the big banks last spring, Foresight analysts estimated that as many as 581 small banks were at risk of collapse by 2011.

By contrast, commercial real estate losses put none of the nation’s 19 biggest banks, and only about 5 of the next 100 largest lenders, in jeopardy.

Even Citigroup, the biggest and most troubled of the banks, has a relatively small portion of its loans tied to commercial real estate and may begin to recover faster than other rivals.

Gerard Cassidy, a veteran banking analyst, said the problems call to mind the wave of small bank failures in Texas and New England two decades ago during the savings and loan crisis — only on a national scale.

Back then, regulators closed more than 700 lenders in those regions. Today, Mr. Cassidy projects that as many as 1,000 small banks will close over the next few years and that their losses will be more severe. “It’s a repeat on steroids,” he said.

But Ms. Bair said the savings-and-loan crisis far surpassed the current situation. “We aren’t anywhere close to that today, and based on current projections, I don’t think we will get near that pace,” she said.

Even if hundreds of banks collapsed, they would not threaten to bring the financial system to its knees.

Together, the 8,176 smallest banks control just 15 percent of the industry’s $13.3 trillion in assets. And thanks to the expansion of the government’s deposit insurance program, regulators also appear to have squelched the threat of bank runs that brought down IndyMac Bank and Washington Mutual last year.

Consumer deposits are now insured up to $250,000 per account, and the F.D.I.C. offers unlimited coverage on noninterest payroll accounts used by businesses.

“We’ve passed the panic stage,” said Frederick Cannon, the chief equity analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York.

What is more, community bank supporters say the bulk of their institutions will emerge from the crisis stronger. “The community banks are picking up market share,” said Camden R. Fine, the head of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

“People are angry with all the shenanigans on Wall Street,” he said. “They believe their money stays local when they put it in a community bank, rather than sent off to Never-Never land.”

Longest Economic Downturn in 70 Years: Jobs Program Needed Now

Longest economic downturn in 70 years

JOBS PROGRAM NEEDED NOW

By Fred Goldstein
Published Oct 7, 2009 6:21 PM

The grim numbers are in. In September, 263,000 more jobs were lost. Official unemployment edged closer to 10 percent, going from 9.7 to 9.8. This was larger than predicted by capitalist economists and is the result of 21 consecutive months of economic downturn, the longest streak in 70 years.

In addition, the percentage of jobs lost, compared to the total work force, is 5.8 percent, the largest since 1946, when military contractors laid off workers en masse after World War II.

But there is more. The official unemployment rate would have been higher than 10 percent—except that 571,000 workers dropped out of the work force and therefore were not counted among the unemployed. In fact, so many workers have stopped looking, after repeatedly finding no jobs, that today 615,000 fewer workers are counted as part of the work force, compared to a year ago.

(The statistics cited in this article come from the Economic Policy Institute’s Jobs Picture report of Oct. 2, 2009.)

The only way the work force can shrink while the population grows is if massive numbers of workers give up looking for work. In fact, more than one-third of the 15.1 million officially unemployed—some 5.4 million—have been out of work for more than six months. In September alone 450,000 jobless workers reached this category.

Since the downturn started in December 2007, 7.2 million jobs have been officially lost. But the Department of Labor will be revising this figure upward, to 8 million, due to a so-called “benchmark revision.” Apparently, the model used to calculate job losses during the 12 months ending in March missed 824,000 layoffs!

The government estimates that, because of population growth, 127,000 new jobs are needed each month just to keep up with the growth of the work force. So in reality this downturn, which is now 21 months old, has resulted in a deficit of 10.7 million jobs.

To get back to pre-recession levels, it would take the creation of an average of 573,000 jobs every month for the next two years. That’s the equivalent of opening 200 to 250 brand-new auto plants each month for two years, just to absorb the unemployed.

These figures do not take into account the 9.2 million workers on forced part-time or the 2.2 million officially classified as discouraged workers. Including them would bring the total official unemployment rate to 17 percent—or more than one-sixth of the entire work force.

These numbers are grim for the workers. But for the bosses, the numbers are cheery. Profits are up, especially bank profits, and according to testimony by former Federal Reserve System chair Alan Greenspan, the capitalist economy is on a path to grow 3 percent this quarter. (Interview on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC-TV, Oct. 5)

Greenspan: ‘This is what a recovery looks like’

Greenspan, architect of the financial bubble and the ensuing housing bubble, declared in the same interview, “The job report was pretty awful, no matter how you looked at it. Indeed, not only did unemployment go up, but I was particularly concerned about the number of Americans who have been unemployed for six months or longer.

“My own suspicion is that we’re going to penetrate the 10-percent barrier and stay there for a while before we start down,” he said.

Greenspan then hastened to look on the bright side, with typical understated heartlessness. “It is true, the last couple of weeks, some of the numbers coming in have been a little bit soft,” he said. “But,” he added, “this is what a recovery looks like.”

Of course, Greenspan did not clarify that the “we” who are going to “penetrate the 10-percent barrier” are the proletariat, the wage slaves of capital. It is capital that is going to make more and more profit by forcing the workers to “penetrate” the barrier through laying them off.

Nor did Greenspan specify what he meant by the workers staying in a state of mass unemployment “for a while,” or when the “start down” will be.

This mealy-mouthed acknowledgment of the contradictions of the present capitalist crisis that Greenspan was forced to admit in front of a Sunday morning television audience actually tells a lot that the workers need to take to heart.

‘Horrendous amounts’ of productivity

The truth is that close to 30 million workers are unemployed and underemployed. They cannot be put back to work because capitalism has no jobs for them and will not be able to create anywhere near enough jobs.

The bosses have done everything in their power to find ways to intensify the exploitation of labor—that is, to increase productivity. Their goal is to get workers to produce more and more in less and less time for lower and lower wages.

In other words, each capitalist tries to get along with fewer and fewer workers by laying them off. Those workers who remain are speeded up through technology, or just plain driven harder. According to MarketWatch, reporting on the Stephanopoulos interview:

“Pointing to the fact that businesses laid off ‘a very substantial number of people’ when the financial markets collapsed last year, Greenspan said the country got productivity gains ‘of horrendous amounts,’ which cannot continue.”

Technology in the hands of the bosses spells long-term mass unemployment for millions and millions of workers.

The capitalist economy, even while growing at 3 percent, still shed 263,000 jobs in the month of September. And, more importantly, the bosses are not hiring.

That means the fortunes of the exploiting classes are looking up while the fortunes of the exploited sink further into the depths of unemployment, poverty, foreclosures and homelessness.

Mobilize for a real jobs program

The only way out in the short run is for the workers, the unemployed and employed alike, to demand a real jobs program. The workers’ movement as a whole, and especially the trade union movement, must demand that the trillions handed over to the banks be taken and used to make real jobs. These jobs must be given directly to workers—not to some capitalist who might hand out a few jobs, but only after taking the profits off the top and after all the government officials and politicians get their cut.

No “market mechanism,” no automatic process of capitalism, and no government gift to the bosses and bankers is going to turn the situation around. This is rooted in the nature of the capitalist profit system itself.

No one should be plunged into poverty because the breadwinner or breadwinners are unemployed. Every worker must be guaranteed an income on which to live a decent life—including affordable, quality health care through a single payer or by whatever means.

Jobs, income, housing and health care must become political demands of the working class. But those demands must be backed up by mass mobilization and militant struggle. This is the only language the bosses understand.

The reason Greenspan is “particularly concerned” with growing long-term unemployment, and the reason he came out for extending unemployment benefits in the midst of this crisis, is not out of any sympathy for the workers. He has spent his entire life trying to help the bosses and bankers fleece the workers.

He is worried about a rebellion of the workers and the oppressed against capitalism itself.

While an immediate struggle for jobs is the priority of the moment, in the long run workers need to fight to overturn capitalism altogether and its system of exploitation, which puts profits above the lives of the masses of people. The workers need to take back what they have built and develop a planned economic system—socialism—that does away with the profit motive and restructures the economy to satisfy human needs.

Fred Goldstein is author of “Low-Wage Capitalism,” a book that analyzes the effect of globalization on the working class.
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ANC Youth League President Malema Says ‘Nationalisation of Mines WillHappen’

Malema: Nationalisation of mines will happen

MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 09 2009 16:02

The nationalisation of mines in South Africa is going to happen, African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema said on Friday.

“We seek to implement the ANC’s Freedom Charter and it says that mineral resources must be owned by the people,” Malema told the annual conference of the Black Management Forum (BMF) at Midrand.

“We want to transfer mines to the ownership of the people because we know that the little money the people will make will be invested in social responsibility.”

Malema said in Botswana a mine could only be owned privately with a 49% stake, with 51% owned by government.

Mining companies in South Africa had been disrespectful as they were not put off if graves were found around a mining site during exploration. They went ahead and mined.

“They don’t care if someone is dead,” Malema said.

If the people owned the mines, they would know not to tamper with the dead and the spirits.

“Capitalism doesn’t know spirits but we know spirits,” Malema said.

Turning to the cost of electricity, he said people were paying a lot of money for power which was generated by coal.

“This coal is mined privately — we buy it, use it to generate electricity and sell it at an abnormal price to the poor people who really own the coal.”

Malema again complained that no “African child” had ever been made finance minister in the ANC government.

“We’re preoccupied with the markets which means we can’t appoint an African child as finance minister,” he said.

“Since 1994, things have been very difficult in the ministry of finance, and here I’m talking succession, not that someone be removed.”

Malema denied questioning the struggle credentials of any individual.

“But we should see one of our own successfully running the economy. The markets must learn from the ANC. The ANC is a teacher and has taught many people lessons,” he said. — Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-09-malema-nationalisation-of-mines-will-happen

Malema attacks Nedbank BEE strategy

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 09 2009 16:28

One of South Africa’s largest banks came under fire from African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema on Friday when he attacked Nedbank’s black economic empowerment strategy.

“Nedbank Retail has appointed a black woman as chief financial officer, but they’ve also created a new position for a chief operating officer at the same time — so her powers were removed,” he told the annual conference of the Black Management Forum in Midrand.

Malema was referring to the appointment of Raisibe Morathi as chief financial officer earlier this year and the appointment of Graham Dempster as chief operating officer and Morathi’s superior.

Malema also attacked Nedbank for sending only its junior black management to meet him.

“They say we’re meeting the youth league so it must be a black-on-black meeting,” Malema said.

“We said to them that we won’t meet them until they send their chief executive officer,” he said.

The ANCYL was still waiting to talk to Nedbank, Malema said.

“We don’t have an agenda against Nedbank, but we can close all our accounts.

“People move accounts every day just because they don’t like the woman on the front desk at the bank,” he said to peals of laughter.

He also referred to the fact that Nedbank had withdrawn its sponsorship of Athletics South Africa following athlete Caster Semenya’s gender verification saga. The bank has denied that this was the reason.

“Nedbank can’t renew a sponsorship because of one man. Why punish our children for the sins of the father?” Malema asked. — Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-09-malema-attacks-nedbank-bee-strategy

The Islamic Republic of Iran Warns the State of Israel

Iran warns Israel

AFP

Iran will “blow up the heart” of Israel if attacked by the Jewish state or the United States, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on Friday as saying.

“Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our land, before the dust is settled, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel,” state news agency IRNA quoted Khamenei’s deputy representative to the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour, as saying.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that Teheran would carry out severe reprisals if Israel or the United States attack the country.

The United States and its regional ally Israel have never ruled out a military option to stop Teheran’s nuclear drive, which the West says is aimed at making nuclear weapons while Iran says it is solely for peaceful ends. At the end of September, armed forces chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi dismissed Israeli threats against Iran, saying the Jewish state was a “paper tiger”.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Teheran withdrew its recognition of Israel. The Jewish state considers the Islamic republic to be its arch-enemy after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the holocaust was a “myth” and that Israel is doomed to be “wiped off the map”.

Cabinet in drowning Maldives to meet underwater

The president of Maldives, who last year proposed relocating his entire country, is set to chair an underwater Cabinet meeting this month to highlight the threat global warming and rising sea levels pose to his low-lying nation,

“It’s definitely intended to bring attention to how climate change will affect us and to call upon the entire world to come up with a concrete solution,” said Aminath Shauna, the deputy undersecretary in the president’s office, on Wednesday.

President Mohamed Nasheed will head the meeting on October 17. The 14 ministers in his Cabinet will don scuba gear and descend to a table 20 feet (6 meters) underwater.

To prepare, the ministers have been learning the basics of scuba diving on the weekends. Nasheed already is a certified diver.

At the meeting, Cabinet members will communicate using hand gestures. The president will ratify a pledge calling on other countries to slash greenhouse emissions ahead of a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.

“The document will be in a water-proof plate pinned on to the table,” Shauna said.

Maldives is grappling with a very likely possibility that it will go under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels.

Most of the archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands, located south-southwest of India, most of it lies just 4.9 feet (The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change has forecast a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches (18 cm) by the end of the century.

The country’s capital, Male, is already protected by sea walls. But creating a similar barrier around the rest of the country will be cost-prohibitive.

Soon after his election last November, Nasheed raised the possibility of finding a new homeland for the country’s 396,000 residents.

The tourist nation — whose white sandy beaches lure well-heeled Westerners – wants to set aside part of its annual billion-dollar revenue into buying a new homeland, he said at the time.

“We will invest in land,” he said. “We do not want to end up in refugee tents if the worst happens.”

Nasheed’s government said that it has broached the idea with several countries and found them to be “receptive.”

Land owned by Sri Lanka and India were possibilities because the countries have similar cultures, cuisine and climate as the Maldives. Australia is also being considered because of the vast unoccupied land it owns.

Shauna said the scuba lessons are going well. Twelve of the 14 ministers have already been trained.

“It has given them a whole different perspective to what climate change can do,” she said. “We are seeing quite drastic changes in coral (reef) bleaching — and having them see it in person is a completely different thing than seeing it on TV.”

Source:
Cable News Network, “Cabinet in drowning Maldives to meet underwater” accessed October 8, 2009

Semenya Fallout Continues

Saturday, October 10, 2009
00:47 Mecca time, 21:47 GMT

Semenya fallout continues

The joy of victory has been short lived for Caster Semenya

Three South African athletics associations want the country’s top officials in the sport to resign over the gender dispute involving Caster Semenya.

The affiliates of Athletics South Africa, Boland, Eastern Province and Western Province, said Friday in a joint statement that the ASA board and senior management should “take collective responsibility” for the “gender row fiasco and resign with immediate effect.”

Semenya won the 800 metres at the Berlin world championships in August.

Before the final, the International Association of Athletics Federations said it had ordered gender tests.

Last month, ASA president Leonard Chuene admitted he lied about his knowledge of the tests performed on the 18-year-old athlete.

However, despite calls for his resignation he received a vote of confidence at an ASA council meeting soon afterward.

A major bank has since pulled its sponsorship of ASA, and South Africa’s Olympic committee began its inquiry Friday into the athletics body’s handling of the issue.

Dissidents

The three dissenting affiliates expressed concern over allegations of racism made by Chuene against the IAAF.

Race is still a sensitive issue in South Africa, where the scars of apartheid are still felt keenly, especially in sport.

“The entire senior structure is standing together and must take collective responsibility, regardless of race or other affiliation,” said the joint statement on the South African Press Association.

“Any attempt by anyone, from whatever political background, to bring race into this matter must be rejected.”

The president of the Boland association is South Africa team doctor Harold Adams.

Chuene acknowledged that he declined to take the advice of Adams and withdraw Semenya from the race with questions being asked about her gender.

Another Boland member, track coach Wilfred Daniels, resigned soon after returning from Berlin over the treatment of Semenya.

The three affiliates have reportedly been unable to voice their criticisms within ASA.

Chuene is a powerful figure in South African sport and has the backing of some ruling politicians.

The ruling African National Congress has called for the ASA leadership to be censured, but stopped short of calling for Chuene to be axed.

Failure

The three affiliates have also accused the ASA of a failure of corporate governance, saying last year’s financial statements have not been made available to members, SAPA reported.

They also expressed concern about the effect the sporting crisis was having on the country’s athletes.

Local media have reported that there were fierce disagreements at a meeting called by some concerned athletes to discuss the state of the sport.

“The (ASA) board and senior management have not taken responsibility for the events which have occurred, choosing rather to allow the president of ASA to bear that responsibility,” the affiliates said.

“It needs to be pointed out that the president of ASA is, in terms of its constitution, a non-executive president and that he alone cannot take all the blame.”

Source: Agencies

An Open Letter to President Sheikh Sharif of Somalia: It Is Time to GoHome!

It is Time to Go Home

by Hassan Mohamed Abukar
Thursday, October 08, 2009

Dear Sheikh Sharif,

Before I start my letter, I have a confession to make. I have never supported you before nor did I attend any of your speeches in America. In fact, I have been suspicious of the way you became president, or even the way you escaped from Somalia after the collapse of the Union of Islamic Courts.

I do not subscribe to conspiracy theories, but let me just say that your meteoric rise to ‘power’ will be an intriguing subject matter for Students of Somali history and politics. In political parlance, I see you a politician who is two notches better than those who oppose your rule.

Many Somalis in the big cities like Minneapolis and Columbus came and heard your stomp speeches. Some were motivated while others were curious. Of course, there are many who paid no attention to your visit. I think you have been gone from Somalia since September.

You went to Saudi Arabia, then New York to participate the U.N General Assembly meeting. Then, you went to Washington D.C where you spoke at Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic Studies. Many Somalis honored you, in a reception that was held on your behalf, in the Washington area. From there, you went to Minneapolis, and then Columbus.

Sheikh Sharif, it was helpful that you came to the States and met many of our people. Your speeches, though reassuring, were meaningless. Your position in Mogadishu is tenuous and your popularity among many leaves a lot to be desired.

The fact that you control a few blocks in Mogadishu is palpable. You have the recognition and the support of the international community yet you have failed to capitalize on it. It has been said that you have a young talented and educated staff.

There is a great deal of disorganization in your ranks, like defections to the radical groups and mismanagement of the tons of arms that the Americans have given you. Your record of saying what people want to hear is legendary. It started when you were the face of the Union of Islamic Courts. I was always puzzled by the double-talk you used to engage when your colleagues at the time were making radical pronouncements.

In spite of all these foibles, you are the best hope Somalia has now. Your rivals are two extremist groups that are bent on destroying whatever is left of the country and more. Al-Shabaab is a radical group that, if it succeeds, will introduce a new brand of Islam that is intolerant, pervasive, intrusive, and draconic.

The fact that they have allowed foreigners fighters to join their ranks is ominous. Foreigners should be welcomed to Somalia if they want to help the reconstruction of the country, but they should not be part of the further dismantling of the country. Hizbul islam is no better. Hassan Dahir Aweys is the epitome of power-hungry, myopic, and self-righteous individual.

He reminds me of Abdullahi Yusuf whose long and arduous quest of becoming Somali president, by any means necessary, wrecked havoc in the country. Aweys will not stop until he erects a tent in Villa Somalia. I would humbly advise you the following;

First, go back to Mogadishu because that is where you are needed now. It is good to meet Somalis in the Diaspora and hobnob with some of the American officials. Your job is to be in Mogadishu and start building coalitions instead of pleading for more AMISOM troops.

Do you think 10,000 African troops will annihilate the Shabaab and Hizbul Islam? I believe more African troops will weaken you even further. Like Hamid Karazai of Afghanistan, you are seen as a leader beholden to foreign powers. It is time that you take the risky path of incrementally extricating yourself from these foreign entities. It is your life-line now but the longer you cling to them the more you alienate many Somalis.

Second, you need to build a coalition of clans rather than a coalition of warlords. I am amazed at how you and your Prime Minister have assembled a mind-boggling cabinet. Apparently, whoever owned a sizable number of ‘technicals’ (with the title of ‘Shaikh’ before his name) ended up in the cabinet? It is ludicrous that a leader like you, who has some of the brilliant minds as advisers, will have war-criminals like “indhacadde” as Defense Minister.

In all fairness, you do have some capable ministers in the government. I know that you will say that it’s Omar A. Sharmarke’s job to appoint the cabinet. But, Sheikh Sharif, the current structure of power is that of a strong president. The collection of these dubious Ministers and their technicals has not produced good results. In fact, there are still issues of loyalties with the very people who serving in your government.

Some are patiently waiting to see where the wind will blow. It is time that you start thinking of broadening your coalition. I will start with clan elders. Somalia elders, though weak militarily, can play a decisive role in preventing the spread of this pernicious disease of religious fanaticism. Somali people have no taste for the type of radicalism that Al-Shabaab espouses.

Third, the current fighting between Hizbul Islam and Al-Shabaab in Kismayo, though tragic to many innocent civilians, is a short term opportunity to exploit in your favor. The skirmishes have exposed the fact that these so-called “Mujahiddin” are primarily engaged in a new type of Jihad.

It is “business jihad”. It is the pursuit of profits and revenues. This is the time your charm and power politicking must come to play. Dividing these two evil forces, when they are engaged in bloody confrontation, is necessary and commendable. I give you some credit for initiating talks with some of the leaders of Hizbul Islam. Of course, more is needed to draw a wedge between these two groups.

In a nutshell, Sheikh Sharif, there is a lot to be done. The bulk of your work is waiting for you in Mogadishu. Hurry up and head home. Every day that passes, while you are touring in America or elsewhere, is a day wasted. The people who need your leadership and service are in Mogadishu and its vicinities; not in Columbus or Minneapolis.

Hassan Mohamed Abukar
Abukar60@yahoo.com

Somalia News Update: US Government to Set New Aid Terms; ThousandsAmass at Kenyan Border

SOMALIA: US government to set new aid terms

NAIROBI, 6 October 2009 (IRIN) - The US government is to put special conditions on its humanitarian grants for at least 13 aid agencies operating in Somalia.

This could unlock millions of dollars in relief resources that had been on hold due to US anti-terrorism rules.

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued in August said delayed US funding was affecting food relief and other operations.

“It is true that some humanitarian funding was placed on hold, pending resolution of the OFAC [US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control] issue,” Russell Brooks, a press officer at the State Department, told IRIN by e-mail.

Now, however, “USAID, State, and Treasury have reached an agreement that will enable humanitarian programmes to move forward, pending implementing partner acceptance of a series of conditions that must be written into each award,” Brooks wrote.

Anti-terrorism measures

The delays began earlier in the year when, senior humanitarian sources say, some USAID funding for Somalia was unable to meet the approval of OFAC, which enforces US anti-terrorism and other sanctions.

Large parts of southern and central Somalia are under the control of armed groups regarded as terrorists by the US. The US, in common with the UN, African Union and EU, supports the fragile Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The country as a whole is not subject to US sanctions.

USAID, State and Treasury departments appear to have found a solution for the delivery of aid to continue legally, without violating sanctions on groups or individuals, including Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab.

“It is Al-Shabab, not US bureaucracy, that threatens to deny Somalis urgently needed humanitarian aid,” Brooks stated.

Agencies affected by the USAID funding delays include UN agencies and NGOs.

The nature of the proposed “series of conditions” was not stated.

In US financial year 2008, USAID provided US$319 million ($274.2 million in humanitarian assistance and food aid) to Somalia; in 2009 it has provided $189 million in humanitarian assistance.

“We are concerned about the situation in Somalia and determined to assist the people of Somalia,” Brooks added. “USAID will continue to review its policies and procedures for the provision of humanitarian assistance in Somalia, and this review will include ensuring compliance with US laws designed to prevent potential support to terrorists.”

Responses

Concerned by the recent reports about aid being held back, the Somali government has urged agencies working in Somalia to provide assistance to all drought-affected and displaced people regardless of who they are or where they live.

“The policy of this government [TFG] is to encourage all of our partners to provide assistance to all of our people, regardless of where they are,” Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the Interior Minister, told IRIN.

“The government is at war with Al-Shabab but not with the Somali people… we will not do or advocate anything that will add to suffering of our people.”

Timothy Othieno, a London-based conflict analyst, said any policy of giving aid only to areas under government control could not work and could have unintended consequences.

“It may be counter-productive, especially in terms of winning the hearts and minds of displaced people and Somalis in general,” he said. “Psychologically, it would give the insurgents an opportunity to justify their opposition to the TFG and its allies.”

Asha Sha’ur, a prominent member of civil society in Somalia, pointed out that the displaced did not choose where to live. “I think most of them will tell you they want to go home,” she explained. “They have no say on who controls their area. If they did I am sure many of these groups would not be there,” she added.

Somalia is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years, according to the UN. An estimated 3.8 million need aid - almost half the total population. UNHCR estimates that the number of displaced who fled fighting between government forces and two Islamist insurgent groups has reached more than 1.5 million.

Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86452

This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the Pan-African News Wire

SOMALIA: Thousands stranded near the Kenyan border

The displaced in Bulo Hawo: With the expected onset of the short rains, the IDPs face the growing threat of disease outbreak at their makeshift camps, which are located near the town’s rubbish site

NAIROBI, 6 October 2009 (IRIN) - At least 5,000 conflict- and drought-displaced Somalis are facing an uncertain future in Bulo Hawo, a town controlled by Al-Shabab on the border with Kenya, locals told IRIN on 6 October.

“There are about 900 families [5,400 people], mostly in a makeshift camp in no-man’s land on the outskirts of town, hoping to cross into Kenya,” said Ugas Mohamed Sheikh Ahmed, a senior elder in Bulo Hawo.

He said most of these families had fled the violence in Mogadishu while others had been displaced by drought.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR Kenya) told IRIN: “Although we are not present in Mandera [on the Kenyan side of the border], we are in touch with authorities there. Most refugees are, however, entering Kenya through Liboi [to reach the Dadaab camp, 590km southwest of Bulo Hawo].”

Ahmed said some of the would-be refugees were being hosted by relatives in the small town. “Almost all families in Bulo Hawo are hosting other families. We have been announcing in mosques for locals to come forward with help.

“As of now there has been no assistance from any quarter,” Ahmed said. The locals were doing all they could to help “but some of them are no better off than the displaced”.

He said many families continued to arrive from Mogadishu daily, “but others are also coming from the countryside after losing all their livestock”.

Orow Nasjel, an internally displaced person (IDP) from Mogadishu, told IRIN she arrived in Bulo Hawo three months ago after her husband was killed by a stray shell.

“I just took my children and came here to find safety for the rest of my family.” So far she had failed to cross into Kenya. “They won’t let us in; I don’t know why,” Nasjel said.

A local journalist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN the people were not allowed to enter Kenya through the Mandera border post. “They have to go to the Dadaab camp.”

However, Hassan Isak Abdi, another IDP, said the displaced did not have the means to reach Dadaab. “We cannot even afford to buy one meal for our children; how can we pay for transport [to Dadaab]?”

Many of the displaced were surviving on help from the local community and odd jobs in Bulo Hawo, he added.

Abdi said the displaced lacked even the basics. “We eat when we get something from the town’s people or find some work. I hope we will be allowed to cross to Kenya. At least there you find some help.”

With the expected onset of the deyr (short) rains, the IDPs face the growing threat of disease outbreak at their makeshift camps, which are located near the town’s rubbish site.

“There are no health facilities and health workers to assist them [IDPs],” said the journalist. “The most pressing needs are shelter, food, water and some form of healthcare.”

Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86456

This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the Pan-African News Wire

Mbeki Delivers Sudan Report; He Deserves Nobel Prize, Not Obama

Mbeki delivers Darfur report

BBC

An African Union panel has handed over a report aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki led the inquiry and delivered his findings to the AU in Ethiopia.

The bloc set up a commission after a global arrest warrant was issued for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, accusing him of war crimes in Darfur.

The UN says fighting in the region since 2003 has led to 300 000 deaths.

Sudanese officials say about 10 000 people died.

The BBC’s Uduak Amimo, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where the AU’s headquarters are based, says Mr Mbeki’s remit of balancing the need for justice, peace and reconciliation in Darfur was a daunting one.

Mr Mbeki said he would not make the document public.

But analysts say it is likely to recommend a local tribunal — backed by the AU, Sudan and possibly the Arab League — to deal with the abuses committed in Darfur.

Critics say the AU is using the commission only to find a way of avoiding the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for Mr Bashir’s arrest — claims Mr Mbeki strongly denied.

The AU has already refused to honour the warrant and Mr Bashir has rejected the charges against him, accusing the ICC of colonialism.

Our reporter says analysts will be watching keenly to see whether the AU will accept and implement the recommendations of the commission it set up.

It comes after the UN’s outgoing commander in Darfur said in August that the region was no longer in a state of war, but rather faced low-level conflict and criminality.

Analysts have pointed out that fighting in southern Sudan has claimed more lives this year than violence in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur flared in 2003 when black African rebel groups took up arms against the government in Khartoum, complaining of discrimination and neglect.

Pro-government Arab militias then started a campaign of violence, targeting the black African population.

The UN says this led to some 300 000 deaths and forced more than two million people from their homes.

The US said it amounted to a genocide, but the ICC rejected a request to charge Mr Bashir with genocide.

The Sudanese government has always denied charges that it helped organise the militia attacks.

Mr Bashir has been charged by the ICC with two counts of war crimes — intentionally directing attacks against civilians and pillaging.

He is also accused of five crimes against humanity — murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape.

Mbeki, not Obama, deserved Nobel

What exactly has President Barack Obama achieved to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

This question is crying out for answers in the wake of last Friday’s shock announcement that the United States leader has clinched the 2009 accolade.

As one cynical commentator aptly put it, now that President Obama has been awarded the prize, he must go out there and start earning it.

Other analysts have come to Mr Obama’s defence, saying he deserves the award — if anything For Not Being George W. Bush.

What an interesting way of looking at it. In other words, Mr Obama won the prize because of what he represents rather than what he has accomplished in his nine months in office.

We are the first to admit that Mr Obama is a sleek and tantalising politician who has shattered many barriers on his amazing journey to the top. His message to the American people is generally refreshing. His message to the world is quite uplifting. No serious watcher of global politics can begrudge him that.

The problem with the Obama presidency so far is that although he has been big on rhetoric, he has been abysmal when it comes to real action. He certainly knows all the right sound bites and how to package them for a media-savvy audience, but he has been found wanting on the practical side of things.

Let’s make one point clear here. We do not expect President Obama to wave a magic wand and single-handedly solve all the problems under the sun. Far from it. That would be impossible.

What we expect is that as commander-in-chief of a war-mongering superpower that has a lot to atone for, he should back up his rhetoric with real substance. Uncle Sam’s hands are dripping with the blood of the innocent all over the world and he had done precious little to redeem the US.

In his nine months in office, President Obama has squandered many opportunities to rehabilitate Uncle Sam and transform him into a respectable law-abiding member of the international community.

Here in Zimbabwe, the Obama administration has been disappointing. Zimbabweans reacted with stunned disbelief when President Obama renewed the US government’s illegal sanctions on this nation.

By making this unfortunate decision to prolong the suffering of innocent Zimbabweans, Mr Obama squandered a glorious opportunity to show the world that he is not cut from the same cloth as George W. Bush. The illegal US sanctions on Zimbabwe are not the only blot on Mr Obama’s record. There is the heart-rending issue of Cuba. Last month, the US leader extended by another year the evil 47-year-old economic embargo against the gallant people of Cuba.

To add insult to injury, the US government is also refusing to release the Cuban Five—brave patriots who are languishing in US jails for the simple crime of defending their motherland.

While the sanctions law against Zimbabwe was given the sickeningly deceptive title of “Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act”, the US war against Cuba has been waged under the bluntly named “Trading With The Enemy Act”. Perhaps the Nobel Committee has no problem with these evil embargoes?

In Afghanistan and Iraq, innocent civilians are losing their lives at the hands of a US-led invading force. Although President Obama has promised a phased withdrawal of American soldiers from these countries, he is yet to take concrete action on the ground to justify this newly bestowed title of “peacemaker”.

Palestinians are still suffering in the Middle East, thanks to a US-armed Israel that rides roughshod over human rights while recycling the excuse of an imaginary threat posed by Iran.

Surely, the Nobel Committee ought to know that the Western nations, in the volatile post-9/11 era, will never taste real peace until the Palestinian people find justice. After all, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

One obvious question that arises in this debate is: which world figure would have been a worthier recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize than President Obama this year?

Well, forget all the useless names that have been bandied about by political opportunists in recent weeks. One towering giant who would have clearly deserved this award is former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

President Mbeki may not be popular with certain figures in the West, but there is no doubt that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

He used South Africa’s moral authority and economic leverage to champion peace and reconciliation across the entire African continent. Burundi, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Liberia are some of the countries that benefited from Cde Mbeki’s peacekeeping initiatives.

On the Zimbabwe question, President Mbeki was unjustly criticised for his so-called quiet diplomacy. But he silenced his critics when he successfully brokered last year’s September 15 Global Political Agreement that gave birth to a coalition Government bringing together Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC. His tireless mediation carried the day. If his efforts do not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, then let’s forget about this Norwegian charade.

President Mbeki not only spoke of an “African Renaissance” but also lived it. His remarkable qualities came to the fore when the ruling African National Congress ordered him to step down as president of the republic before the end of his term. President Mbeki could have easily resisted, dragging South Africa into a bloody conflict. He did not cause a fuss, stepping down gracefully, once again outflanking his critics.

For these commendable efforts and more — and even though the Nobel Committee’s nomination process is scandalously subjective — Cde Mbeki should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

But again, what do you expect from the Nobel Committee?

Remember, Adolf Hitler has been nominated in the past for this award and the laughable Desmond Tutu is one of the proud laureates!