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Friday, July 17, 2009
July 17 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: (From the archives) Murder, Apologies, 'Themistan', and Our Presence In Central Asia
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now." July 17 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: (From the archives) Murder, Apologies, 'Themistan', and Our Presence In Central AsiaPrefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [192kbps VBR 20:30 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] Twitter This Commentary |
The commentaries:
[August 04 2005] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: A Laymans Guide to the 'Stans: Chapter 1 - 'Themistan'
[March 24 2005] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: The 'Stans & The U.S. Military Presence In Central Asia
[June 23 2005] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: We're Going To Need Some Practice - Apologies, Saving Face, And Other Painful Lessons That Nations Learn
The reason we 'need to learn'... [April 06 2005] Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: All Murder, All The Time... American Television and 'The Media Complex' are Creating A Violent Society...
Wherein it causes us, as individuals in American society, to no longer notice the mayhem we create by our actions around the world
At the top of the news, the Nigerian rebel group MEND declares a ceasefire two months after they declared "all out war". The ceasefire was announced after the the Nigerian government's release of MEND's leader Samuel Okah. (See: Friday, May 15, 2009 No More 'Fun & Games' - Nigeria's MEND declares 'all-out war' in the Niger Delta for a historical overview) Their attacks on Shell oil facilities and other petrochemical infrastructure in the Niger Delta had brought oil output down to 300,000 BPD from a nominal 1 million+.
They have a great sense of humor too, when MEND managed to chase Shell Oil out of the delta for a few years a while back, 435 miles of pipeline simply disappeared... That's more than the distance from San Francisco to Los Angeles (387 miles).
But it's not over for oil wars on the African continent. So lets discuss what's most likely to be our next regional war, the extractive resources war on Africa, with the focus on oil... "AFRICOM, Let's translate the ad-speak. Partnership means: We give you weapons and training and you give us oil".
Partnership sounds nice. But as FPIF contributor Gerald LeMelle argues in Revealing the Real Africa Policy, the administration's Africa agenda make "no reference to the recent FY 2010 budget that doubles the size of AFRICOM's funds. Nor does it mention the doubling of financial support for counterterrorism projects throughout the continent — including increasing funds for weapons, military training, and education at a time when U.S. foreign aid money is stagnating."
And despite his pointed remarks against dictators and military conflicts, Obama neglected to mention Uganda, where AFRICOM supports the Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) with arms and training. "Northern Ugandans have innumerable stories about the abuses committed by the UPDF in their communities," writes FPIF contributor Beth Tuckey in Denouncing Dictatorship in Uganda. "Although the UPDF's behavior has been slightly better in recent years, it would be a mistake for the United States to train and equip such a force for combat. Museveni has shown no interest in relinquishing his presidency, and yet the United States continues to shower his so-called democracy with aid and military support.
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In Nigeria, which will soon provide up to one-quarter of all U.S. imported oil, the government recently launched a full-scale offensive against armed resistance groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The Nigerian government receives official military assistance from the United States, as well as tens of millions of dollars in commercial U.S. military sales. "Peaceful resistance of minority ethnic groups across the Niger Delta has been met with brutal military repression and the broken promises of oil companies, with no opportunity for dialogue or genuine negotiation in 50 years," writes FPIF contributor Kia Mistilis in Niger Delta Standoff. "In this environment, the armed resistance group, the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta Peoples (MEND) emerged in 2006. The group targeted oil installations and caused a 40% drop in supply, from 2.4 million to 1.3 million barrels per day" (a 60-Second Expert version of her commentary is here).
So, the United States is indeed helping Africans help themselves…to natural resources and the labor of the disenfranchised.
[In Full with lots of linkage at Foreign Policy In Focus]
Currently, the Cost of War Has Topped $915 Billion Dollars ($687 billion for Iraq $228 billion for Afghanistan)
NOW, let's focus on what that money buys... such as the US-CIA backed Opium growing mercenaries in Afghanistan... The Northern Alliance.
Northern Alliance leader Abdul Rashid Dostum who is about to be reappointed as military chief of staff to the Afghan president has been accused of massacring 2,000 surrendered Talib by Physicians for Human Rights.
PHR is calling on the US government to stop covering it up and begin a full investigation... This has also been demanded or requested by officials from the FBI, the State Department, the Red Cross and other human rights groups.
Allegedly Dostum's fighters, WHILE HE WAS ON CIA PAYROLL, put the captured Talib fighters in container trucks where many died from the heat/lack of water while others either simply suffocated or were killed when Dostum's crew sprayed the containers with gunfire, and then buried them in a mass grave, which according to reports has been tampered with, including the removal of large quantities of soil.
More at The World According to Bill Fisher
Historically, DemocracyNow! had covered this on November 13, 2001, October 10, 2001 (As the U.S. Rushes to Support to the Northern Alliance, Human Rights Watch Declares the Group Is Responsible for Widespread Human Rights Violations), and November 15, 2001
Also notable, the Northern Alliance was one of Victor Bout's customers... Mr. Bout, now in jail after his apprehension by INTERPOL, was the 'gentleman' who 'lost' 200,000 AK47s for the Pentagon which were due to be delivered to the Iraq Security forces. General Petraeus wrote the whole affair off as a 'bookkeeping error'. But Da' Buffalo is keeping 'another set of books' and I think we might be a little closer to knowing where those errant AKs ended up.
Bouts other customers have included the U.N., NATO in Kosovo (the Kosovo connection to Osama bin Laden?), AND the Taliban
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