posted
The colonial power, France, is yet again meddling in Africa. It helped the rebels overthrow Gaddafi in Libya and now it is attacking a rebellion in Mali?
What are your thoughts? I know many Africans (supporters) were crying foul when France supported the rebels in Libya.
But many are moot now?
Is it possible (in our time) for a colonial power to be good? Or was France evil in Libya and is now Good in Mali?
So?
A. France = Evil in Libya/Good in Mali B. France = Evil in Mali/Good in Libya C. France = Good D. France – Evil E. Dunno
Posts: 2275 | Registered: Dec 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
The first Islamists to take over Mali were the radical branch of Tuaregs. They had connections to Arabs from Al Queda and opened the door to them But now Al Queda has taken over and both the Tuareg Islamists, the secular Tuaregs and the native Malians have lost the Northren half of the country. France's interests I haven't looked into. Good question. I think "good' and "evil' are often mixed
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
I wanted Ecowas members Nigeria, Niger and Senegal to send their armies to Mali and help the Malian expelle those assassin/hashishin Al Qaeda terrorist. Unfortunately Ecowas and Nigeria were very slow in helping the Malian.Nigeria who is suppose to be a regional power is not well organise or is incompetent militarily.By contrast the Ugandan army and Kenyan army by themselves defeated the Al Shabab terrorist in Somalia associated with Al Qaeda.The Ugandan and Kenyan know how to manage their armed forces.
France is a colonial and imperialist power who still think they are living in the colonial era, they want to exploit African country forever, France is treating African country like small children, France print the Franc CFA who is the currency of the ex French colony in West Africa, France Academia is still denying Egypt was a black African civilization.
France, Britain and the USA were behind the awful destruction of Libya the richest African country to keep them from creating an African bank and the gold dinar currency that would have challenge France and Britain hegemony in Africa.France and NATO are behind the destruction in Syria because they dont want economic competition from the middle east.
France save Mali from Al Qaeda invasion of South Mali.That is a good act that the Malian people, African people and I support.It would have been a disaster to let those Assassin/Al Qaeda religious fanatic to control all Mali and the Dogon region.France didnt save Mali from Al Qaeda because of philanthropic reason they are reenforcing their political and military power in Africa.
I think Nigeria with a population of 100 million peoples and one of the top oil expoter of the world have incompetent politician and army they missed the chance to show their power in Mali.I choose D France is a bad imperialist, neocolonial power that is doing a good thing fighting AlQaeda in Mali.
posted
This is ll part of the neocon Africom strategy, for which France Frogs, to its everlasting shame, is on board with the US/NATO empire. I'm not sure whether to feel amusement or disgust at the frogs claim that the aggression on their part was "seconded" by the US when it's obviously part of a coordinated plan. What a coincidence that a few mere days after the US claimed that "Al-Qaeda" was "destabilizing" Mali, the frogs send in the troops and start bombing. Canada is sending a military cargo plane in response. I suspect any support they provide the frogs is probably to ensure mining companies have a profitable future.
A report from Democracy Now states the French frogs receive about 70-80 percent of their uranium and energy needs from the Mali/Niger region. Like most thieving European countries, the frogs pay next to nothing for these valuable resources. If the Tuaregs gain control, it's believed the price of those resources will go up and the West will actually have to pay a fair market value just like in Iraq, Libya etc. I look forward to the frogs being sent back to France in body bags!
note: In the video Jeremy Keenan video from 2011 he was talking about a different hostage situation back then
In the current situation the Mali and Algeria situation are interconnected
Algerian forces seek 'peaceful' settlement of dramatic, deadly hostage crisis By Tricia Escobedo and Greg Botelho, CNN
NN) -- After three days of chaos, drama and an unknown number of deaths, Algerian special forces troops were holding their fire Saturday in the hostage crisis at a gas facility in the nation's remote eastern desert. Survivors described harrowing escapes from Islamic militants who attacked the site early Wednesday. Some invented disguises, others sneaked to safety with locals, and at least one ran for his life with plastic explosives strapped around his neck. Six Americans were freed or escaped, a U.S. official told CNN. The official provided no other information about their status or whereabouts. Other Americans were unaccounted for. Earlier Friday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said there were still American hostages. Yet others didn't make it -- either because they were killed or were still being held. Algerian troops staged a military offensive that some nations criticized as endangering the lives of the hostages. On Friday evening, they were trying a different tack, the state-run Algerian Press Service reported.
Number of hostages in Algeria unclear Algeria: Some hostages have been killed Irish Deputy PM gives account of Algeria Former hostage not surprised by attack "The special forces ... are still seeking a peaceful settlement before neutralizing the terrorist group currently entrenched in the refinery, and free a group of hostages who are still detained," it said. It was not clear how many hostages were seized by the Islamist militants and how many were being held. Thursday's military operation ended with 650 hostages -- including 100 foreigners -- freed, while at least 12 Algerian and foreign workers were killed, the Algerian Press Service reported in what it said was a "provisional toll." In addition, 18 of the attackers were "neutralized," APS said. The dead include one American, identified as Frederick Buttaccio, Nuland said, as well as one French and a Briton. At least 30 foreign workers were unaccounted for, according to the official media report. British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that significantly fewer than 30 of his countrymen remained hostage. There could be as few as three Americans still being held, two U.S. officials said earlier this week. The fate of eight workers with Norway's Statoil, some of them Norwegians, was unclear, the company said. The same was true for the 14 Japanese unaccounted for, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo. And Malaysia's state-run news agency, citing its foreign ministry, reported Thursday two of its citizens were held captive. A spokesman for Moktar Belmoktar, a veteran jihadist who leads the Brigade of the Masked Ones -- a militant group associated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb -- reportedly offered to free U.S. hostages in exchange for two prisoners. The prisoners are Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who orchestrated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman jailed in the United States on terrorism charges, the spokesman said in an interview with a private Mauritanian news agency. Asked Friday about the offer, State Department spokeswoman Nuland rejected it, restating U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Opinion: Algeria situation is a wake-up call for the U.S. "This is an act of terror," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday. "The terrorists ... are the ones who have assaulted this facility (and took) hostage Algerians and others (from) around the world who were going about their daily business." A dangerous escape The incident began when the militants -- apparently angry about Algeria's support in a rout of their comrades in neighboring Mali -- targeted the gas field, which is operated by Algeria's state oil company in partnership with foreign companies. At the start of the siege, the militants gathered the Westerners into a group and tied them up, survivors said.
Algeria siege: What's at stake? UK offers Algeria intelligence support Balancing profits, security in Algeria The kidnappers were equipped with AK-47 rifles and put explosive-laden vests on some hostages, a U.S. State Department official said. Some escaped by disguising themselves, according to Regis Arnoux, who runs a catering firm at the site and had spoken with some of his 150 employees who were freed. He said they all were traumatized. Some Algerian hostages were free to walk around the site but not to leave, Arnoux said. Still, a number of them escaped, he said. As the Algerian military launched its operation Thursday, the militants moved some hostages, according to one survivor's account. With plastic explosives strapped around their necks, these captives were blindfolded and gagged before being loaded into five Jeeps, according to the brother of former hostage Stephen McFaul. McFaul, with the explosives still around his neck, escaped after the vehicle he was in -- one of several targeted by Algerian fighters -- crashed, his brother said from Belfast, Northern Ireland. "I haven't seen my mother move as fast in all my life, and my mother smile as much, hugging each other," Brian McFaul said upon his family hearing his brother was safe. "... You couldn't describe the feeling." McFaul said the other four Jeeps were "wiped out" in an explosion, and his brother believed the hostages inside did not survive. Nations mobilize to help citizens caught up in crisis U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking in London, said the United States was working round the clock to ensure the safe return of its citizens. Those freed include some Americans, while other U.S. nationals were unaccounted for, U.S. officials said. The United States was evacuating 10 to 20 people caught up in the crisis, a U.S. defense official told CNN on Friday. They were to be taken to U.S. facilities in Europe, where their condition would be assessed, the official said. Britain has sent trauma experts and consular affairs officers who can issue emergency passports to a location about 450 kilometers (280 miles) away from the plant, a Foreign Office official said, so they'll be "as close" as possible to the scene. BP, which helps operate the gas field, said Friday that a "small number of BP employees" were unaccounted for. The same held for some workers with Statoil, though nine others with the company -- including five who escaped -- were safe. Four Norwegians and a Canadian with that oil firm were in an airport hotel in Bergen, Norway, after being taken from Algeria, Statoil spokeswoman Sissel Rinde said. Both BP and Statoil -- two of the foreign companies with In Amenas operations -- were pulling their personnel out of Algeria, which is Africa's largest natural gas producer and a major supplier of natural gas to Europe. BP said it had flown 11 of its employees and several hundred staffers from other companies out of the North African country Thursday and was planning another flight Friday. Mark Cobb, a Texan who has a LinkedIn profile identifying him as general manager for a BP joint venture out of In Amenas, said he had escaped on the first day and was safe. A U.S. military C-130 plane flew 12 people who were wounded in the ordeal out of Algeria on Friday, a U.S. defense official said. None of them were Americans, though efforts continue to evacuate freed Americans. There is so much conflicting information on safety of the hostages. Yoshihide Suga, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Three workers for a Japanese engineering company that was working on the site have been contacted and are safe, said Takeshi Endo, a senior manager for JGC Corp. But the company had not been able to contact 14 others, he said. France's foreign ministry said that, in addition to one death, three of its citizens were rescued. Japan 'terribly disappointed' in Algerian military operation Algeria faces tough questions from governments of the kidnapped nationals over its handling of the crisis. Neither the United States nor Britain, for instance, was told in advance about Algeria's military operation Thursday. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his nation's officials had urged Algeria's government to avoid exposing hostages to danger. "We are terribly disappointed about the Algerians' military operation," Suga said. Japanese Vice Minister Shunichi Suzuki summoned Algeria's ambassador Friday to express Tokyo's concern. U.S. officials made a similar plea to the Algerians, urging them to be cautious and make the hostages' safety their priority, an official in President Barack Obama's administration said. A senior U.S. official said American officials did not trust information they got from the Algerians, "because we hear one thing and then we hear something else." But Algeria acted out of a sense of urgency after noticing hostages being moved toward "a neighboring country," where kidnappers could use them "as a means of blackmail with criminal intent," Communications Minister Mohamed Said told state television. Algerian troops fired on at least two SUVs trying to leave the facility, Algerian radio said. And a reporter saw clashes near the site, according to the Algerian Press Service and radio reports. "There were a number of dead and injured, we don't have a final figure," the communications minister said of casualties after the operation. Belmoktar, the man behind the group claiming responsibility for the attack and kidnappings, is known for seizing hostages. French counterterrorism forces have long targeted Belmoktar, an Algerian who lost an eye fighting in Afghanistan in his teens. Libyan sources said he spent several months in Libya in 2011, exploring cooperation with local jihadist groups and securing weapons. The militants said they carried out the operation because Algeria allowed French forces to use its airspace in attacking Islamist militants in Mali. Media in the region reported the attackers issued a statement demanding an end to "brutal aggression on our people in Mali" and cited "blatant intervention of the French crusader forces in Mali." Latest on the Mali situation French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the Algerian hostage situation "confirms the gravity of the terrorist threat and the necessity to fight it with a determined and united front." That sentiment was echoed by Clinton, the top U.S. diplomat. She stressed the need for a concerted, international effort to address terrorist and other threats around Africa. "It is absolutely essential that, while we work to resolve this particular terrible situation, we continue to broaden and deepen our counterterrorism cooperation," she said Friday. "It is not only cooperation with Algeria, it is international cooperation against a common threat."
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
France intervened only because it was being sidelined by AFRICOM in full virus-infection mode in Africa.
ECOWAS nations are fully infected with AFRICOM hence their lethargic stupor in responding to some unwashed Islamist crazies plundering their way in Mali.
Recall, it was France later joined by the U.S. and Britain that led the charge to destroy Libya.
It is just bad when any neocolonial power intervenes militarily in an ex-colony. In the case of Mali it just shows up the ideological bankruptcy of the corrupt and kept(like a kept woman) comprador classes of West Africa.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by lamin: France intervened only because it was being sidelined by AFRICOM in full virus-infection mode in Africa.
ECOWAS nations are fully infected with AFRICOM hence their lethargic stupor in responding to some unwashed Islamist crazies plundering their way in Mali.
Recall, it was France later joined by the U.S. and Britain that led the charge to destroy Libya.
It is just bad when any neocolonial power intervenes militarily in an ex-colony. In the case of Mali it just shows up the ideological bankruptcy of the corrupt and kept(like a kept woman) comprador classes of West Africa.
if the West does not intervene and mali becomes an Islamacist state and expands to Algeria impsoses sharia law with an eye on Nigeria. Do you think that is preferable to Western intervention if Afric countries won't stop it? Are the Islamacists not getting funding and arms from the Mid East already with an agenda from there coming in from outside Africa?
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Nigeria have a population of 170 million peoples and some people say a well trained army and a ok leadership.Nigeria send 1000 soldiers to Mali to fight Al Qaeda terrorist.The Nigerian troops look good on the BBC, they are in shape, well dress, well arms and they are dancing with joy.The Nigerian army look like an army that could secure the African continent if they had a big budget and good political leadership.The Chadian send 2000 soldiers in Mali.The Chadian are good in fighting in the desert.AlQaeda should go back to Saudi Arabia and Qatar and do its Assassin/Hashishin game there.
In symbology we see in the Catalan map the Malian king giving a gold disk to a black Moors on a camel.Maybe the Malian king financed the Moors and the rebuilding of Europe.In the middle Age the doctor of one of the Louis king of France was from Timbuctu.Im speculating about the Malian king.
posted
Nigerian soldiers arrive at the airport in Bamako on Thursday as part of the West African force meant to help French troops drive Islamists from their strongholds in northern Mali.
The first West African regional forces arrived in Mali on Thursday to reinforce French and Malian troops battling to push back al-Qaeda-linked rebels after seven days of French air strikes.
A contingent of around 100 Togolese troops landed in Bamako and was due to be joined by Nigerian forces already en route. Nigerien and Chadian forces were massing in Niger, Mali’s neighbor to the east.
Posts: 7419 | From: North America | Registered: Mar 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Nigeria deploys F7 Supersonic, Alpha jets to Mali
ABUJA - Following the directive by President Goodluck Jonathan to the Armed Forces to commence the deployment of 900 troops to participate in the military operation to liberate Mali from Islamist rebels, the Nigerian Air Force, yesterday, commenced moves to deploy two of its fighter aircraft and a transport aircraft for the combat operations.
The aircraft are the F7 supersonic jet fighter, the latest and most modern in the NAF inventory, and the Alpha jet fighter aircraft aka 'Dudu Bird' which fast tracked the surrender of the rebels in both the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars.
This came as Senate, yesterday, approved the deployment of 1,200 Nigerian troops to join French forces that are currently staging an onslaught against the Islamist militia in Mali.
Similarly, Chief of Army Staff, COAS, General Azubuike Ihejirika, yesterday, explained why Nigeria is a formidable part of the planned war against Islamic rebels in Northern Mali, saying it was to clean Mali of training camps where Islamic terrorists are trained to attack Nigeria.
-------------------- Lionz Posts: 7419 | From: North America | Registered: Mar 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Reading the replies the logical angle for France could be:
1. Stop/Prevent Islamist movement/wave/rebels from taking over Mali and destabilizing neighboring countries.
2. Control Uranium (flow/prices)
If #1 was true, then France would not have gotten involved in Libya, because that country will inevitably become an Islamic State. Sharia to some extent may very well be enacted there.
My understanding is that France militarily supported the revolution/rebellion in Libya with the goal of having a guaranteed source of Gas and Oil and also priority status in rebuilding Libya. With Libya, the motive of France was clear.
Posts: 2275 | Registered: Dec 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Mali is in West Africa. Mali is in sub saharan Africa....Its is to the west of both Niger and Nigeria and is clearly in sub saharan WEST Africa!
If you watch fox news you might not know this!
Posts: 3642 | Registered: Apr 2012
| IP: Logged |
posted
20 January 2013 Last updated at 16:12 ET Share this
Mali conflict: France aiming for 'total reconquest'
Foreign forces in Mali Some 2,000 French troops on the ground in Mali, with 500 or more to come French Mirage and Rafale jets, Gazelle helicopters Chad to send 2,000 troops Nigeria to send 1,200 troops; Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo expected to send 500 each, and Benin 300 Ghana and Guinea also to send troops UK providing two C17 cargo planes for French effort Belgium and Denmark also sending transport planes US to provide communications help
There are now some 2,000 French troops in Mali Continue reading the main story Mali: Divided nation Can France achieve its goals? 'Timbuktu joy' France's war Key players France's military aim in Mali is its "total reconquest", French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said.
"We will not leave any pockets" of resistance, he told French television.
France has sent in 2,000 troops to help Malian forces fight Islamist militants who now control the northern half of the country.
Mr Le Drian said the former Islamist stronghold of Diabaly had not yet been retaken, even though the militants withdrew from the town two days ago.
However, he added that "everything points to a favourable evolution of the situation in Diabaly in the coming hours".
Mr Le Drian also said during his interview that seven French citizens who have been taken hostage in Niger and Mali in recent years "are alive", and there have been "contacts with hostage-takers".
There had been concerns for their fate following France's decision to send troops into Mali earlier this month.
'Confused situation' French troops have been pushing northwards and are now in the town of Niono, 50km (30 miles) south of Diabaly.
Last week French forces carried out air strikes on Diabaly, which had fallen to the Islamists on 14 January.
Diabaly's mayor told the BBC that Malian and French forces have been patrolling the outskirts of the town, which is believed to be the base for the largest concentration of Islamists in central Mali.
The BBC's Mark Doyle, in Niono, says military patrols are being sent from there into Diabaly. Officials say the Islamists left Diabaly on Friday. However, the Malian military suspects the fighters are hiding in a nearby forest, our correspondent says.
"The situation in the vicinity of Diabaly is confused for the moment," a French colonel who gave his name only as Frederic told our correspondent.
A senior Malian military figure cautioned that parts of Diabaly's population were sympathetic to the Islamists, and this made their task difficult.
Officials say Mali's army has also retaken the town of Konna, whose capture by rebels triggered the French intervention.
Jean-Yves Le Drian's comments to French television echo a similar sentiment by President Francois Hollande who said French troops would remain in the region for as long as is necessary "to defeat terrorism".
But French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Saturday stated that West African countries must "pick up the baton" in the offensive to drive out the Islamists.
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara also called for more support for Mali, at a summit of West African leaders in Abidjan attended by Mr Fabius.
The French foreign minister has said both Russia and Canada had offered logistical support.
Islamist militants in Algeria who seized a gas facility in the Sahara desert, killing foreign hostages, claimed the attack was in retaliation for the French intervention in Mali, though many analysts doubt this.
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
Terrorists Who Attacked Algerian Gas Complex May Have Been Trained In Libya 19/01/2013 22:13:00
The terrorists who attacked the In Amenas gas complex in eastern Algeria appear to have been of several nationalities, and may have trained in jihadist camps across the border in southern Libya, according to Reuters sources
The news agency reported that the militants whose bodies had been recovered from the complex so far included three Egyptians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, a Malian and a French citizen.
Other sources said the leader of the hostage-taking commando group dispatched to carry out the attack was Abou al-Barra, a jihadist who had previously belonged to the group that later became al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
A US official said that the hostage-takers appeared to have crossed the Libyan border - some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the gas complex - to carry out the attack.
Western intelligence officials had reportedly established that the man had met Moktar Belmoktar - the overall leader of the group that assigned al Barra to carry out the attack - during a trip Belmoktar made to Libya late in 2011.
Reuters'source talked of the existence of three militant camps south of the desert town of Sabha, not far from the Algerian border, and that the three camps include jihadists from Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Mali as well as ethnic Tuaregs, and that it was highly possible that these camps were connected to the attack.
A former head of intelligence for the Transitional National Council in Libya is also reported to have confirmed that he was aware of three camps in the area. Rami El Obeidi told the news agency that the camps had been operational for about a year and confirmed that foreign fighters had been among the militants training there.
El Obeidi also said that extremist militia in Libya were financing militant groups in Mali and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as well as providing them with logistical support.
The former intelligence chief said the Libyan army had little capability in this vast area of desert and there was a fear of confronting the extremists.
With the French intervention in Mali, he said "a Pandora's Box has been opened" - and he believed oil fields in Libya were also at high risk of being attacked.
A Salafist group in eastern Libya has called for protests in Benghazi in response to the French intervention in Mali - posting on its Facebook page that "Mali is bleeding" because of the French involvement.
North African media have described Abou al-Barra as the one of the most effective commanders of the Al-Mulathameen Brigade that is led by Belmoktar.
He was born in Algeria in the 1970s and served in the Algerian army before joining the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which was heavily involved in the Algerian insurgency in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The group was held responsible for the kidnap of more than 30 European tourists in Algeria.
A Mauritanian news agency - Alakhbar - named another of the attackers killed as Zarghawi Al-Mouritani,18. His real name was Abdallahi Ould Hmeida, the agency said.
The Algerian Communications Minister, Mohamed Saïd, told state media that the terrorist attack was the work of a multinational group of terrorists whose aim was to implicate Algeria in the conflict in Mali, destabilise the Algerian state and destroy the Algerian economy, which is heavily reliant on oil and gas revenues.
Other Algerian officials have repeated that there would be no negotiations with such groups.
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
Libya favoured more talks not a rush to military action in Mali: Prime Minister Zeidan
Tripoli, 19 January:
Libya’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan revealed last Wednesday in his press conference, held immediately upon his return from his official visit to Qatar, that he was in favour of more talks on resolving the Mali issue rather than rushing into action.
He denied reports in the media that Libya had supported French military action in Mali.
Zeidan did not go out of his way to condemn French Military action, but he was frank in admitting he had no input in the decision.
“It is not in our hands”, he admitted. “It is in the hands of the international community. We did not support the decision to use force”.
Zeidan then went on to frankly admit that he had “heard of it after it had started through the media”.
However, he went on to confirm that he was united with his Maghreb neighbours in taking actions to resist terrorist and criminal cross border activities with as much reduction of blood-letting as is possible.
Zeidan then went on to say that there were “no terrorist groups in Southern Libya”. Moreover, and in what seemed to contradict his statement that Libya knew nothing in advance of the French action in Mali, Zeidan said that Libya had “anticipated French action in Mali” and as a result had met with neighbouring countries in Ghadames to agree to take various actions.
When asked by journalists whether Libya would help France logistically if asked, Zeidan would not commit himself and replied “when I am asked I will reply to the question”.
Zeidan added that Libya will resist attempts to enter its territory illegally.
When asked who he thought was behind the various acts of terrorism in Libya, Zeidan would not specifically name any one.
However he said that “There are powers that don’t want stability involved in white slavery, drugs smuggling, arms smuggling, money laundering and others who want North Africa to be a theatre of instability”.Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Were not Obama, France and the U.N the very people who supported this madness..by killing Kaddafi.
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Tuareg separatist groups had staged previous unsuccessful rebellions in 1990 and in 2007. Many of the Tuaregs currently fighting in the rebellion have received training from Gadaffi's Islamic Legion during his tenure in Libya. Hence many of the combatants are experienced with a variety of warfare techniques that have posed major problems to the national governments of Mali and Niger.The Tuareg Rebellion of 2012, part of the 2012 northern Mali conflict, was a war of independence against the Malian government.For decades prior to the 2012 rebellion, Tuareg political leaders had asserted that the nomadic Tuareg people were marginalized and consequently impoverished in both Mali and Niger, and that mining projects had damaged important pastoral areas. The Islamist group Ansar Dine, too, began fighting the government in later stages of the conflict, claiming control of vast swathes of territory, albeit disputed by the MNLA. As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Northern Mali's three largest cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels[
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Taureg Rebellion is one thing, the ISLAMIST take over is another and its clear the Islamists have support from the Rebels who took over Lybia, as Al-kaida was fundamental in the Islamist Rebellion in Lybia.
so Lets be clear the Islamists are different than the normal Tauregs who want their own territory..
quote:Mali, a former French colony, is a West African nation that had often been cited as a democratic model. But in March 2012, mutinous soldiers in Bamako, the capital, rose up in a coup, overthrowing the elected government of President Amadou Toumani Touré.
The soldiers were angry over the government’s mishandling of a rebellion by nomadic Tuareg rebels in the country’s vast northern desert. But shortly after the coup, the Tuareg rebels first seized much of the north and then were themselves pushed out by Islamist extremists.
That development that raised worries around the world about the creation of a potential safe haven for terrorists. With Mali’s military reluctant to act, France began a military intervention in January 2013. After a round of air strikes failed to dislodge the rebels, the French military deployed ground troops and prepared for what it said could be a lengthy effort to retake the country’s north.
In retaliation, militants in Algeria seized dozens of hostages at an internationally managed gas field, raising fears of a potentially much broader North African conflict.
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Terrorism In Algeria-Mali: Command And Control In Pakistan By: B. Raman
January 20, 2013
In swift retaliation against the French military intervention against Al Qaeda-affiliated jihadi terrorists in Northern Mali starting from January 11, 2013, a group of pro-Al Qaeda terrorists, reportedly headed by Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri of Niger, raided on January 16 a huge gas production complex employing many foreign experts located at In Amenas at Tigantourine, about 40km (25 miles) south-west of the town of In Amenas and 1,300km (800 miles) south-east of Algiers, occupied the plant, mined it and took hostage the Algerian and foreign workers.
The gas facility, which is jointly owned by British Petroleum, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s state-owned oil company, employs hundreds of Algerians and 132 foreigners from France, the UK, the US, Norway, Austria, Romania, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines , Thailand and Colombia.
The terrorists reportedly demanded an end to the French intervention in Mali and the release of some terrorists held in prison in Algeria. The Algerian authorities rejected their demands and raided the gas facility. After four-days of bloody confrontation, they managed to re-capture the plant on January 19, 2013, after killing many of the terrorists, who before their death, are reported to have executed seven of the hostages taken by them.
According to the Algerian authorities, at least 32 terrorists and 23 hostages died during the operation. Some foreign hostages are still unaccounted for.
The exercise of the hard option by the Algerian authorities of not bowing to the demands of the terrorists and taking military action against them has not been questioned by the Governments of the countries to which the hostages belonged.
The French have been strongly supportive of the Algerian action despite the loss of many foreign lives. French President Francois Hollande defended the Algerian response to the crisis as being “the most suitable”. He told the media: “When you have people taken hostage in such large numbers by terrorists with such cold determination and ready to kill those hostages – as they did – Algeria has an approach which to me, as I see it, is the most appropriate because there could be no negotiation.”
Mr.Leon Panetta, the US Defence Secretary, has reiterated the determination of the US to hunt for Al Qaeda, wherever it may find sanctuary.
India, which is still paying a heavy price for the soft option adopted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government against the Pakistani terrorists who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar in 1999 and for the humming and hawing of the Dr.Manmohan Singh Government after the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai, has lessons to learn from the Algerian firmness.
It will be incorrect to assume that the bloody raid in Algeria must have been locally organized. It is likely that the ideological inspiration and operational guidance came from the command and control of Al Qaeda located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. As I had pointed out in my past writings, Dr.Ayman al-Zawahiri, the present chief of Al Qaeda, has for many years been stressing the importance of the African front in the so-called global jihad against the Crusaders and the Jewish People.
As part of the drive to neutralize the African front of Al Qaeda, Zawahiri has to be located and his sanctuary in Pakistan neutralized, in addition to the on-going action against the local cadres of Al Qaeda in North Africa.
Till now, one has been assuming that he must be hiding in the FATA. It is quite likely that, like bin Laden, he might be actually living in the non-tribal areas of Pakistan and from there commanding and controlling the activities of Al Qaeda in Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Algeria and other African countries. Searches should be made for him in other parts of Pakistan too.
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai and Associate, Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: [QB] The Taureg Rebellion is one thing, the ISLAMIST take over is another and its clear the Islamists have support from the Rebels who took over Lybia, as Al-kaida was fundamental in the Islamist Rebellion in Lybia.
so Lets be clear the Islamists are different than the normal Tauregs who want their own territory..
The three main Islamists groups in Mali are
1) Ansar Dine, (normal Tuaregs who also happen to be Islamic radicals)
2) Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao)
3) al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).
Ansar Dine, home-grown movement, led by renowned former Tuareg rebel leader Iyad Ag Ghaly.
The Islamist group Ansar Dine, too, began fighting the government in later stages of the conflict, claiming control of vast swathes of territory, albeit disputed by the MNLA. As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Northern Mali's three largest cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels
Mali’s Ansar Dine Islamist rebels said Thursday they had seized control of the central city of Konna, 700 kilometres northeast of the capital Bamako, marking a further push into government-held territory.
Mali’s Ansar Dine Islamist rebels said Thursday they had seized control of the central city of Konna, 700 kilometres northeast of the capital Bamako, marking a further push into government-held territory. Mali’s Islamist rebels seized control of the central city of Konna Thursday, encroaching further on government-held territory, said the rebels’ spokesman.
Konna, a city of 50,000 people 700 kilometers (435 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako, fell from the government to the rebels, Sanda Abu Mohammed, spokesman of the Ansar Dine rebels, told The Associated Press on the phone from Timbuktu.
The fall of Konna marks a significant push by the rebels to Mali’s center.
A Mali army spokesman refused to comment on the loss of Konna but a soldier, who refused to give his name because he was not authorized to speak, said the army had retreated from Konna to the town of Sevare. Local residents said the government air force is sending out planes to battle the rebels from Sevare’s military airport.
The Mali army had been fighting the Islamist rebels since Wednesday with heavy weapons. Konna is strategic because it is the center of the country which divides the narrow-waisted country between insurgent-held north and the government-controlled south, government officials said Thursday.
Lt. Col. Diarran Kone, communications adviser for the Ministry of Defense, would not speak about the loss of Konna.
“I do not want to comment on the story much less our wounded military operations in the area,” said Kone. “But it is certain that we seek every opportunity to move northward and liberate the cities of Timbuktu , Kidal and Gao.”
Since April the Islamist rebels have occupied the vast desert of northern Mali, an area the size of France. The Islamists took advantage of a power vacuum in Mali following a March coup that overthrew the democratically elected president.
The Islamist rebels -- a coalition of three groups including Ansar Dine, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO -- have been implementing a strict version of Islamic law in the north, carrying out public executions, amputations and whippings.
The Islamists are carving out their own country in northern Mali and making it a center for extremism, threatening neighboring countries, according to security experts.
The United Nations Security Council has authorized military action to help the government regain control of the north, but says there must first be political progress made following the military coup last year.
(AP)
_____________________________________________
BBC
Mali crisis: Key players
Iyad Ag Ghaly is a Tuareg and leader of Ansar Dine
.
Of the three, Ansar Dine is the only genuine home-grown movement, led by renowned former Tuareg rebel leader Iyad Ag Ghaly.
Its objective is to impose Islamic law across Mali and its full name in Arabic is Harakat Ansar al-Dine, which translates as "movement of defenders of the faith".
In contrast, Aqim - the north African wing of al-Qaeda - has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the early 1990s, but has since evolved to take on a more international Islamist agenda.
It emerged in early 2007, after the feared Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) aligned itself with Osama Bin Laden's international network.
The group has since attracted members from Mauritania and Morocco, as well as from within Mali and its neighbours, such as Niger and Senegal.
Idolatry Aqim says its aim is to spread Islamic law, as well as to liberate Malians from French colonial legacy.
The movement is known for kidnapping Westerners, and ransom money is believed to be a key source of revenue for Aqim, alongside drug-trafficking.
The third Islamist group, Mujao, is an Aqim splinter group, formed in mid-2011.
Some analysts believe Aqim was wracked by racial tension within its ranks, causing Mujao to breakaway.
It says its objective is to spread jihad to West Africa rather than confine itself to the Sahel and Maghreb regions - the main focus of Aqim.
But Mujao's first major operation was in Algeria in October 2011, when it kidnapped three Spanish and Italian aid workers in the town of Tindouf. The hostages were freed in July 2012, reportedly after a ransom was paid.
Although it has many Malian Tuaregs within its ranks, Mujao is believed to be led by a Mauritanian, Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou.
Mujao's sphere of influence is mainly in north-western Mali, controlling key towns such as Kidal and Gao, regarded as the drug centre of Mali.
Ansar Dine's influence is mainly in the north-east, where it captured the historic city of Timbuktu in May 2012.
Aqim ( Aquim = al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) does not control any of the major towns, but operates freely across the north, as it has a loose alliance with Ansar Dine and Mujao.
There are unconfirmed reports that Aqim has also given training in the vast Malian desert to Boko Haram, the Islamist group which has carried out a wave of bombings and assassinations in Nigeria.
All militants follow the Saudi-inspired Wahhabi/Salafi sect of Islam, making them unpopular with most Malian Muslims who belong to the rival Sufi sect.
They have tried to impose their version of Islam, amputating limps of people accused of crime and and destroying Sufi shrines, which they claim promote idolatry.
The UN Security Council has warned that that the destruction of shrines in Timbuktu, a world heritage site, could amount to a war crime.
According to a report in India's The Hindu newspaper, Ansar Dine and Mujao have expanded the rebellion beyond the Tuaregs by incorporating a number of other ethnic groups like the Bella and Songhai (who have historically opposed the Tuareg) into a multi-ethnic force, motivated by religious fervour.Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think the media is overemphasizing/over estimating the AQIM. Most likely to justify French intervention. It's the M.O of colonial powers. First they need a “justification”, any for that matter, but preferably an excuse that the public can accept, finally they act based on that “justification.”
AQIM, according to the Council on Foreign Relations and other sources are only several hundred.
They are terrorists and have terrorist capabilities but they don't have the personnel/manpower to combat the Malian Army, French, Nigerians, Chadians, etc.
Posts: 2275 | Registered: Dec 2009
| IP: Logged |
Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Bah!
Mali needs the desert soldiers of Chad.
Chad could achieve Toyota War results for Mali.
Only battle hardened allies are more than symbolic aid.
Fear in one soldier's face can demoralize a whole army.
quote:Originally posted by mena7: Nigeria have a population of 170 million peoples and some people say a well trained army and a ok leadership.Nigeria send 1000 soldiers to Mali to fight Al Qaeda terrorist.The Nigerian troops look good on the BBC, they are in shape, well dress, well arms and they are dancing with joy.The Nigerian army look like an army that could secure the African continent if they had a big budget and good political leadership.The Chadian send 2000 soldiers in Mali.The Chadian are good in fighting in the desert.AlQaeda should go back to Saudi Arabia and Qatar and do its Assassin/Hashishin game there.
In symbology we see in the Catalan map the Malian king giving a gold disk to a black Moors on a camel.Maybe the Malian king financed the Moors and the rebuilding of Europe.In the middle Age the doctor of one of the Louis king of France was from Timbuctu.Im speculating about the Malian king.
quote:Originally posted by IronLion: Nigerian soldiers arrive at the airport in Bamako on Thursday as part of the West African force meant to help French troops drive Islamists from their strongholds in northern Mali.
The first West African regional forces arrived in Mali on Thursday to reinforce French and Malian troops battling to push back al-Qaeda-linked rebels after seven days of French air strikes.
A contingent of around 100 Togolese troops landed in Bamako and was due to be joined by Nigerian forces already en route. Nigerien and Chadian forces were massing in Niger, Mali’s neighbor to the east.
Posts: 8179 | From: the Tekrur straddling Senegal & Mauritania | Registered: Dec 2011
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Exiiled: I think the media is overemphasizing/over estimating the AQIM. Most likely to justify French intervention. It's the M.O of colonial powers. First they need a “justification”, any for that matter, but preferably an excuse that the public can accept, finally they act based on that “justification.”
AQIM, according to the Council on Foreign Relations and other sources are only several hundred.
They are terrorists and have terrorist capabilities but they don't have the personnel/manpower to combat the Malian Army, French, Nigerians, Chadians, etc.
Islamacist groups have already taken over half of Mali, what does that tell you about the Malian army?
The three main Islamists groups in Mali are
1) Ansar Dine, (Tuaregs ) seeks to impose Islamic law across the country A number of its militants are Tuareg fighters who returned from Libya after fighting alongside Muammar Gaddafi's troops
2) Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) ( Mauritanian led) (Aqim splinter group)
3) al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim). (Algerian)
You don't understand the recent history. There was a coup by the Mali governement's own military due to the fact that the leadership could not handle the rebellion
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Touaregs are than 1% of Mali's population of 16 million. They are a nomadic trekker group of mostly illiterate desert people living with goats, camels, kettles, and sweet tea. Some are heavily involved in smuggling, kidnapping and the drug smuggling. Africa had hardly afford another piddling state run by corrupt crooks. Why would a desert kingdom run by Touareg illiterates be any different.
Al this nonsense with Islamist violence derives from the vile slave state Saudi Arabia flush with petrodollars which it uses to fund terror and their dumb Wahabi cult. Malians are Muslims but they draw the line at the murderous BS pushed by Saudi and U.S. financed(in Libya and Syria the U.S is on the side of the throat slitters and founded and nurtured Al Qaeda in and ASrab its war against the Soviets in Afghanistan) AlQaeda with its nihilistic and savage public lashings and stonings. The ignoramuses destroyed Sufi tombs and now bent on banning music. Only cretinous jackasses would ever think of banning Malian music.
It all goes back to the alienated African/black soul. The African/black soul is trapped in the prison of Jewish and Arab ritualistic folklore with its major totems of the Jewish Christ and the Arab Muhammad.
Ancient Egypt last 3,000 years and each attack from Asia was eventually repulsed until the 26th Dynasty. Then the poison gas of Christianity and Islam seeped in.
In the Sudan stupid fools were/are killing each other over Jew and Arab totems--Christ and Muhammad. In Nigeria stupid Boko Haram fake Saudi Arab fools kill and maim over the same confounded alienating totems. In Mali, the same alienating BS over the stone-age rules of their beloved Sharia is causing death and mayhem.
When Greece and Rome entered Africa they did not stray too far from the coast. But when the Arabs rampaged in they came with mainly atavistic nonsense just the right kind of ideas for weak and feeble minds. And because the West cannot do without carbon-origined fuel the dissolute and Stone Age Wahabi Saudis are hell-bent on pushing their BS on Africa--hence Boko Haram and desert rabble like Al Qaeda and Ansar Dine. But the Saudis are too dumb to see that they are pushing BS.
The West entered Africa mainly to loot, plunder and enslave for material resources. The fellow-traveling missionaries jumped on the band wagon and softened up the African mind for big-time alienation. The old parable: The white man told the African to close his eyes and pray. The African dutifully did so and the white man ran off with the gold and land. Africa is still praying. The same with the weak and almost retarded Saudi Arab. The story: the feeble and weak Saudi with a stupid grin on his face told the African--"Look Bilal was a good singer he was a faithful friend of the Prophet, so take this book and learn to read it but you must as we say: 'Pray 5 times a day and you must follow our rules'. The African dutifully followed and ran into the Arab ritual house for salvation. But the rot continues.
The West tried to penetrate China by drugging the coastal inhabitants with opium. Mao came on the scene and put a stop that project. But the African mind today does not need opium to calm it down so that the West can plunder at will. The natural drug is money and property. The African who is exposed to Western material culture believes that happiness can come with grand theft and larceny. Ten mansions built with stolen money while the population languishes in poverty. A pink face has learnt how to mesmerise the African/black. If not then explain how a nation of 160 million people can muster only a small contingent of 1,500 men to stop the rot in a member ECOWAS state? A country with 160 million people should be able to easily field an army of 300,000 men all ready to smash desert trash like AlQaeda, Ansar Dine and fake Saudi Arabs like Boko Haram.
And they have to be memerised to be taking orders from France and the U.N. as to what to do in a situation that directly affects them.
An African/black mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
what you don't consider is that secular Tuaregs who don't want sharia law still have a primary common agenda with the radical Islamists, that being wanting a separate state and independance from Mali. But only the Islamacists have the strength to attempt it. And naturally they will accept support from the Arabian penninsula or pakisatn as fellow muslims. Islamic fundamentalism has a long history in the region going back to the Almoravids, yet these history lessons are irrelevant to ground realities. If your position is anti-Western than sit back and side up with the jihadists take over Mali, Algeria and perhaps in the future Nigeria. To some that is preferable. Only they have the ability to resist the West. This is not my postition. And if the Chinese are such great friends of Africa then what about them militarily intervening soemwhere?
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
You stupidly did not understand what I wrote. Let me break it down for you. 1) Mali's population is 16 million, the Touaregs are less than 1% of the population. Like the Gypsies of Europe they have no conception of statehood. It's all phoney. 2) Africa should be equally hostile to Arab BS as well as Western ideological BS. Get it?
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by lamin: You stupidly did not understand what I wrote. Let me break it down for you. 1) Mali's population is 16 million, the Touaregs are less than 1% of the population. Like the Gypsies of Europe they have no conception of statehood. It's all phoney. 2) Africa should be equally hostile to Arab BS as well as Western ideological BS. Get it?
More than 90% of the population is in the South mainly Bamako. The Tuareg are about 8-10% of the Mali population get your facts straight. They are in the North and control most of it of threat now to the South The Islamacist branch of theTuaregs with help from like minded Algerians and now recruiting even some Bella and Songhai and with millions in money from kidnappings, finance and arms support form other muslims outside of Africa they could overrun the entire country, spill over to Algeria wake the hell up Sanogo even attcked his own government over the failings of the Mali government and removed the president from office so stop thinking this is some little stuff
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Get your facts straight, the Touareg population in Mali is less than 1 million. But even if they were 10% that does not warrant a separate state. That would represent just another confounded attempt to truncate the African continent already render almost irrelevant with a plethora of piddling mini states.
But again, do you understand what you read?
Questions for your little uninformed brain. How was Al Qaeda formed and funded? Where do the crazy head-chopping Islamists get their money from?
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Al Kieda was formed by the U.S/CIA et al. but not in some crazy paranoid way but by simply "inventing" a new "unified" Islamic enemy of the west. The Truth is prior Islamists were a bunch unorganized bunch of disillusion, ignorant, stupid and barbaric people but after 9-11 the Bush Admin. invented a unified Al Keida and the Islamists adopted this invention. There is a good BBC documentary that spells this out.
quote:Originally posted by lamin: Get your facts straight, the Touareg population in Mali is less than 1 million. But even if they were 10% that does not warrant a separate state. That would represent just another confounded attempt to truncate the African continent already render almost irrelevant with a plethora of piddling mini states.
But again, do you understand what you read?
Questions for your little uninformed brain. How was Al Qaeda formed and funded? Where do the crazy head-chopping Islamists get their money from?
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
lamin it doesn't matter what you think warrants a separtae state. The Toureg are about 1.5 Million and most of the Mali population is in the South most Tuaregs both secular and jihadist want a separate state, despite your lack of approval, and they have control of about half the country in the North. Al Qaeda is only in there in recent years because for decades the Touregs have wanted a separate state and they have formed loose allieances wiith militant Islamcist Touregs but also have their own agendas. The secular Tuareg separtist group the MNLN are not allied with Al Queda but they don't have the power that Ansar Dine, the Islamacist Tuareg group has. Ansar Dine controls major towns in the region and they are the ones who destroyed the shrine in Timbuktu. They a force to be reckoned with. Who chops heads is irrelevant, there are several militant groups trying to form a separate Islamic state one that could extend into other countries such as Algeria
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Truth is Mali was never an Islamic State, Ever. Islam and the Koran represents some of the most backward, vile and utterly useless garbage ever compiled by mankind. Mali has always mixed indigenous concepts with "Islam" You can read many first hand accounts on this, and after colonization was a model for Democracy. In Mali women are not required to wear the hijab, You have Music, Animism, Love for Past Culture etc. Now the Islamists from Saudi Arabia are looking to destroy this even the Manuscripts written by Muslim Scholars, why ....Why The F@ck are these Desert Nomads from Arabia IN Africa in the First place, WHY?? Why are they destroying African Relics and forcing African Women to Wear the Hijab.
quote:Originally posted by lamin:
Al this nonsense with Islamist violence derives from the vile slave state Saudi Arabia flush with petrodollars which it uses to fund terror and their dumb Wahabi cult. Malians are Muslims but they draw the line at the murderous BS pushed by Saudi and U.S. financed(in Libya and Syria the U.S is on the side of the throat slitters and founded and nurtured Al Qaeda in and ASrab its war against the Soviets in Afghanistan) AlQaeda with its nihilistic and savage public lashings and stonings. The ignoramuses destroyed Sufi tombs and now bent on banning music. Only cretinous jackasses would ever think of banning Malian music.
It all goes back to the alienated African/black soul. The African/black soul is trapped in the prison of Jewish and Arab ritualistic folklore with its major totems of the Jewish Christ and the Arab Muhammad.
Ancient Egypt last 3,000 years and each attack from Asia was eventually repulsed until the 26th Dynasty. Then the poison gas of Christianity and Islam seeped in.
In the Sudan stupid fools were/are killing each other over Jew and Arab totems--Christ and Muhammad. In Nigeria stupid Boko Haram fake Saudi Arab fools kill and maim over the same confounded alienating totems. In Mali, the same alienating BS over the stone-age rules of their beloved Sharia is causing death and mayhem.
When Greece and Rome entered Africa they did not stray too far from the coast. But when the Arabs rampaged in they came with mainly atavistic nonsense just the right kind of ideas for weak and feeble minds. And because the West cannot do without carbon-origined fuel the dissolute and Stone Age Wahabi Saudis are hell-bent on pushing their BS on Africa--hence Boko Haram and desert rabble like Al Qaeda and Ansar Dine. But the Saudis are too dumb to see that they are pushing BS.
The West entered Africa mainly to loot, plunder and enslave for material resources. The fellow-traveling missionaries jumped on the band wagon and softened up the African mind for big-time alienation. The old parable: The white man told the African to close his eyes and pray. The African dutifully did so and the white man ran off with the gold and land. Africa is still praying. The same with the weak and almost retarded Saudi Arab. The story: the feeble and weak Saudi with a stupid grin on his face told the African--"Look Bilal was a good singer he was a faithful friend of the Prophet, so take this book and learn to read it but you must as we say: 'Pray 5 times a day and you must follow our rules'. The African dutifully followed and ran into the Arab ritual house for salvation. But the rot continues.
The West tried to penetrate China by drugging the coastal inhabitants with opium. Mao came on the scene and put a stop that project. But the African mind today does not need opium to calm it down so that the West can plunder at will. The natural drug is money and property. The African who is exposed to Western material culture believes that happiness can come with grand theft and larceny. Ten mansions built with stolen money while the population languishes in poverty. A pink face has learnt how to mesmerise the African/black. If not then explain how a nation of 160 million people can muster only a small contingent of 1,500 men to stop the rot in a member ECOWAS state? A country with 160 million people should be able to easily field an army of 300,000 men all ready to smash desert trash like AlQaeda, Ansar Dine and fake Saudi Arabs like Boko Haram.
And they have to be memerised to be taking orders from France and the U.N. as to what to do in a situation that directly affects them.
An African/black mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: [QB] The Truth is Mali was never an Islamic State, Ever. Islam and the Koran represents some of the most backward, vile and utterly useless garbage ever compiled by mankind. Mali has always mixed indigenous concepts with "Islam" You can read many first hand accounts on this, and after colonization was a model for Democracy. In Mali women are not required to wear the hijab, You have Music, Animism, Love for Past Culture etc. Now the Islamists from Saudi Arabia are looking to destroy this even the Manuscripts written by Muslim Scholars, why ....Why The F@ck are these Desert Nomads from Arabia IN Africa in the First place, WHY?? Why are they destroying African Relics and forcing African Women to Wear the Hijab.
These are general remarks about Mali rather than specific to the Tuaregs
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Lets be honest here the Ansar Dine "Tauregs" and many other Tauregs who support Sharia DO NOT SEE THEMSELVES are Africans/Berbers but ARABS and Many of them are ARABS. These are the Same Tauregs who claim enslaved Southern Malians/Sonnike people are the reason for the "Black Tauregs"...I mean really despite documented Evidence going back to the Classical Era, despite the fact that many Noble Tauregs are Pitch Black.
Many of these Tauregs are Arabs or Arab minded Mulattoes and natives who dont even identify with Berbers let alone other Africans from the South. Well If they want to be Arabs, Fine, Take their Dirty asses to Arabia, GTFO.
I mean it pisses me off to see a bunch of Barbarics destroying a Culture BUILT by AUTHENTIC Tauregs who called themselves "THE BLACK MAN" Like Ahmed Baba. The Tauregs (along with the Sonnike and other Africans) BUILT Sankore, Timbucktu and Mali, yet We are supposed to believe the very same people are willing to destroy their ancestors own culture and work. Please.
quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: lamin it doesn't matter what you think warrants a separtae state. The Toureg are about 1.5 Million and most of the Mali population is in the South most Tuaregs both secular and jihadist want a separate state, despite your lack of approval, and they have control of about half the country in the North. Al Qaeda is only in there in recent years because for decades the Touregs have wanted a separate state and they have formed loose allieances wiith militant Islamcist Touregs but also have their own agendas. The secular Tuareg separtist group the MNLN are not allied with Al Queda but they don't have the power that Ansar Dine, the Islamacist Tuareg group has. Ansar Dine controls major towns in the region and they are the ones who destroyed the shrine in Timbuktu. They a force to be reckoned with. Who chops heads is irrelevant, there are several militant groups trying to form a separate Islamic state one that could extend into other countries such as Algeria
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well because my comment was about Mali, which is true and not about the Tauregs. Lets make it clear...THE TAUREGS BUILT Mali....Let me repeat...
THE TAUREGS WERE FUNDAMENTAL IN THE CREATION of what we call "Mali". They Together with the sedementary Africans BUILT Mali, Many of the Scholars of Sankore were TAUREGS. And now Suddenly these same Tauregs who are supposed to have ancestral ties to Mali and its history are willing to Destroy what their Forefathers helped build.
These Ansar Dine and other Islamist Tauregs are No different than the Muslim Egyptians who Flooded Nubia, the Janjaweed Muslims who caused the break up of Sudan, the Somali Islamists who attack Ethiopia etc. A bunch of Arab wannabe Nigg#rs, plain and simple.
quote:Originally posted by the lioness,:
quote:Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: [QB] The Truth is Mali was never an Islamic State, Ever. Islam and the Koran represents some of the most backward, vile and utterly useless garbage ever compiled by mankind. Mali has always mixed indigenous concepts with "Islam" You can read many first hand accounts on this, and after colonization was a model for Democracy. In Mali women are not required to wear the hijab, You have Music, Animism, Love for Past Culture etc. Now the Islamists from Saudi Arabia are looking to destroy this even the Manuscripts written by Muslim Scholars, why ....Why The F@ck are these Desert Nomads from Arabia IN Africa in the First place, WHY?? Why are they destroying African Relics and forcing African Women to Wear the Hijab.
These are general remarks about Mali rather than specific to the Tuaregs
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Also we need to remember that NATO, and Septimius Obama Severus the Warmonger are directly Responsible for whats going on in Mali, their support of Islamist Armed Rebellion against Kaddafi
quote:Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: Also we need to remember that NATO, and Septimius Obama Severus the Warmonger are directly Responsible for whats going on in Mali, their support of Islamist Armed Rebellion against Kaddafi
Many Tuareg fighters in both the MNLA and Ansar Dine had previously supported the Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi and reentered Mali with weapons from Libya after he was ousted. Stop making up stuff
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
A lot of misinformation here. If MNLA and Ansar Dine had previously supported the Gaddafi regime why didn't they not fight off the vile racist settler-Arabs who engaged in the racial/ethnic cleansing of Africans from Libya? Libya is a vast state; why didn't they not petition Gaddafi to give them a state or homeland in Libya?
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
African Armies are not Armies in a true sense, designed to keep invaders out. They are purely there to protect the interests of the colonial overlords and their companies. That is why they are most often involved in wars against their own people and not much else as the paid mercenaries for corporate interests. Another thing they are good for is participating in bogus conflicts against fake rebel groups set up and armed by the same colonial overlords that primarily kill civilians and clear them off lands desired by foreign corporations. And what do you expect when the nation is still primarily one big colonial estate or plantation where the only jobs are for colonial companies or on plantations paying little more than slave wages? How else do you keep the people in line?
These same colonial overlords also use rebel groups as agents to keep instability and chaos at large in order to maintain their domination of resources. So when one African puppet gets old or weak, send in some new younger forces to take over in the form of a rebel organization whose sole purpose for existence is to take over in the name of the colonial overlord. Not one of these rebel movements is invested in any kind of nationalist agenda at claiming the land or resources for Africans and none are about divesting Africa of the colonial overlords.
And this is why the Arab/Islamic rebel groups are the most favored of them all. Their ideology is easily used to support the suppression of local populations, while at the same time they are easily demonized to justify intervention by larger colonial forces in an overt takeover.
Posts: 8896 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Great analysis Doug M.The colonial overlords use rebels groups as agents to keep instability and chaos at large in order to maintain their domination of resources.The spy agency of the imperialist powers like the USA, UK, France are behind the civil wars, rebellions and coup in Africa and the middle East to maintain their exploitation of those country.Remember they stole the election from Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast and they use rebel forces to install IMF pupett Alasane Ouatara in Power.
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Pres Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola and other are very strong President of Independant states not colonial estate.
quote:Originally posted by lamin: A lot of misinformation here. If MNLA and Ansar Dine had previously supported the Gaddafi regime why didn't they not fight off the vile racist settler-Arabs who engaged in the racial/ethnic cleansing of Africans from Libya? Libya is a vast state; why didn't they not petition Gaddafi to give them a state or homeland in Libya?
They did fight them. hundreds of Tuareg fought for Gaddafi as mercinaries paid up to $1000 a day but they lost, but don't worry they have North Mali now 2011 Tuareg mercinaries for Gaddafi
Ever since the start of the uprising in Libya there had been reports of Colonel Gaddafi using "mercenaries" to put down the protesters.
Eyewitnesses had talked of Africans of darker skin firing on protesters, speculating that they might be coming from countries such as Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Mali and Sudan.
The Tuareg and Colonel Gaddafi have a long history.
In the early 1970s, Gaddafi created his Islamic Legion. This was supposed to be an Islamic military force that would fight for a unified Islamic state in north Africa.
Many Tuareg joined up, lured then too by the promise of cash salaries at a time when the Sahel-Sahara zone was experiencing a terrible drought.
The Legion ended up fighting in places like Chad, Sudan and Lebanon but in the late 1980s it was disbanded. Many Tuareg stayed in Libya and joined the country's armed forces.
The other major link between the Tuareg and Col Gaddafi's government is the various Tuareg rebellions in the region.
The Tuaregs in Mali and Niger have fought on and off for many years with their central governments, demanding greater independence or at the very least more investment in the areas they live.
Col Gaddafi has been accused of supporting these rebellions. What is sure is that he has helped broker peace deals and offered sanctuary to former rebels when the fighting was over.
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
You keep posting these unalloyed Western sources of news naive to the fact that their function is just to disseminate pro-Western propaganda.
The point still stands: the whole situation is still very murky when it comes to the so-called Touareg independence movement and the Touaregs living in Mali and Libya.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
"Concern at the international composition of the Algerian kidnap brigade will be compounded by reports from residents in Diabaly, Mali, that Islamists who overran the town last week contained English-speakers and militants of European appearance. Speaking to The Independent yesterday after French and Malian forces had retaken the town, student Amadu Dumbia said: “I definitely heard them and there’s no chance that I made a mistake with another language. They spoke like they were from England, but had darker skins.”
quote:Originally posted by lamin: You keep posting these unalloyed Western sources of news naive to the fact that their function is just to disseminate pro-Western propaganda.
The point still stands: the whole situation is still very murky when it comes to the so-called Touareg independence movement and the Touaregs living in Mali and Libya.
whats murky about it what do you mean? You will have to be more specific about what facts you are disputing
There are both secular and Islamacist Tuaregs who want an independant state. And of the radical Islamacist groups in Mali and the whole Maghreb they don't all think the same and don't agree on everything.
What happened in Liyba was that Gaddafi during the rebellion employed some mercinaries many who were dark skinned blacks. They were poor and he was paying alot of money. The rebels rounded them up and then they started accusing black people who were not mercinaries of being mercinaries and ronded up and abused them as well. The Taureg are multi ethnic some dark some relatively lighter. They were part of mercinary forces employed by Gaddafi. - I think your frustrated because when we look at the situation more in depth it's more complex and doesn't fit into simpler pre-conceived political analysis if the situation
Example:
quote:Originally posted by Exiiled:
A. France = Evil in Libya/Good in Mali B. France = Evil in Mali/Good in Libya C. France = Good D. France – Evil E. Dunno [/QB]
^^^ it's not so simple and cut and dry, eventually you have to make choices and they will be compromises
Posts: 42934 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
The topic opener broaches a strange question. Of course, the French involvement in Mali is the result of self-serving calculations of the French elite, as was the case in their involvement in the Libyan conflict.
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
The Taureg are multi ethnic some dark some relatively lighter.
The Kel Tamasheq Imazighen generally consider the so-called "Tuareg" a single ethnic unit.
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic