Kenyan leader, charged by ICC, invited to Somalia meeting in London

President-elect of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta waves to his supporters in front of a church in his hometown Gatundu (Marko Djurica Reuters, / March 10, 2013)

President Uhuru Kenyatta 

Newly elect faces high expectations and serious challenges ahead

 

Edmund Blair Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, is expected to visit London at Britain's invitation next week for a conference on Somalia.

It will be his first trip to a Western capital since his election in March. Britain and other countries said before his victory that, if he won, they would only have "essential contacts" with him because of the court case.

"Kenya is a vital partner on Somalia and we judge our contact according to the issue concerned," a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said.

Kenya was playing a crucial role in stabilizing neighboring Somalia and housing refugees, he added.

A source close to the Kenyan presidency and a diplomat both said Kenyatta was likely to travel to the meeting, which aims to build international support for Somalia, where Kenyan troops have battled Islamist militants.

The move reflected the West's desire to keep Kenya as a stable ally at the expense of other principles, Kenyan rights activist GeorgeMorara said.

"It is a U-turn in the UK and the Western world's approach to the whole issue of impunity," Morara said.

The March election passed off peacefully, a relief to many Kenyans after ethnic violence erupted following the vote five years ago. The charges against Kenyatta's in The Hague relate to allegations he had a role in orchestrating bloodshed last time.

Western states view Kenya as an ally in their battle against Islamist militancy in the region and it has sent about 5,000 troops to Somalia as part of an African force that has driven back al Shabaab Islamist fighters.

The British spokesman said the decision to invite Kenyatta was taken in part because the president had committed to cooperating with the court in The Hague.

Britain's high commissioner (ambassador) to Kenya, Christian Turner, whose remarks about essential contacts had angered Kenyatta's backers in the former British colony, offered the invitation during a meeting with him on Wednesday.

After the election result, Western diplomats had privately indicated that they would take a pragmatic or "flexible" approach in assessing the level of contacts with Kenyatta, 51.

As well as concerns about alienating an ally, Western powers are wary of jeopardizing trade ties with east Africa's biggest economy and worry the diplomatic wrangle could open the way for China and other Asian states to extend their influence.

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Israeli warplanes strike Syrian weapons facility, US official says

A Syrian weapons facility was struck early Friday by Israeli warplanes, a U.S. official told Fox News.

A source told Fox News that it is not clear whether the warplanes crossed into Syrian airspace or whether the missiles were fired from across the border.

The strike was confirmed by Israeli officials who said the country's air force targeted a shipment of "game changing" weapons bound for the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

One official told The Associated Press the target was a shipment of advanced, long-range ground-to-ground missiles but was not more specific.

They spoke to the news agency Saturday on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a secret military issue.

It was the second Israeli strike this year against Syria and the latest salvo in its long-running effort to disrupt Hezbollah's quest to build an arsenal capable of defending against Israel's air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that Israel would be prepared to take military action if chemical weapons or other arms were to reach Hezbollah.

When Israeli planes fired on a weapons convoy inside Syria in January, they remained outside Syrian airspace. The convoy was believed to be carrying Russian SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles.

"Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, specially to Hizbullah in Lebanon," an official from the Israeli Embassy in Washington told Fox News.

Syria's assistant information minister, Khalaf Muftah, told Hezbollah's Manar TV that he has "no information about an aggression that was staged," and said reports of an Israeli air raid "come in the framework of psychological war in preparation of an aggression against Syria."

Israel has targeted weapons in the past that it believes are being delivered to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. Earlier this week, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said his group would assist Syrian President Bashar Assad if needed in the effort to put down a 2-year-old uprising.

In 2007, Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria, an attack that embarrassed and jolted the Assad regime and led to a buildup of the Syrian air defense system. Russia provided the hardware for the defense systems upgrade and continues to be a reliable supplier of military equipment to the Assad regime.

The airstrike, first reported by CNN, came hours before President Barack Obama told reporters at a news conference in Costa Rica on Friday that he didn't foresee a scenario in which the U.S. would send troops to Syria. More than 70,000 peoples have died and hundreds of thousands have fled the country as the Assad regime has battled rebels.

The Israeli strike also follows days of renewed concerns that Syria might be using chemical weapons against opposition forces. Obama has characterized evidence of the use of chemical weapons as a "game-changer" that would have "enormous consequences."

While the U.S. has been providing nonlethal aide to opposition forces in Syria, even stepping up that form of support in recent days, the Obama administration has resisted calls from some American lawmakers to arm the rebels or to work to establish a no-fly zone to aid the insurgency.

On Thursday, however, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the administration is rethinking its opposition to providing arms to the rebels. He said it was one of several options as the U.S. consults with allies about steps to be taken to drive Assad from power. Officials in the administration who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy said earlier this week that arming the opposition forces was seen as more likely than any other military option.

Obama followed Hagel's comments by saying options will continue to be evaluated, though he did not cite providing arms specifically. Concerns that U.S. weapons could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked groups helping the Syrian opposition or other extremists, including Hezbollah, have stood in the way of that change in strategy.

"We want to make sure that we look before we leap and that what we're doing is actually helpful to the situation as opposed to making it more deadly or more complex," Obama said Thursday at a news conference in Mexico.

Pentagon spokesman George Little declined to comment on the report.

Op-Ed: Assata Shakur? How about these REAL terrorists living in the USA?

By Brett Wilkins

Washington - Yesterday the FBI added former Black Panther and convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur to its Most Wanted Terrorist list, placing a $2 million reward on her head. Shakur becomes the first woman and the second 'domestic terrorist' to make the list.

Shakur, whose birth name is Joanne Chesimard, was also a member of the Black Liberation Army. She was convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a May 2, 1973 shootout in which she was shot twice and one of her comrades was killed. With the help of some of her BLA militants and members of the radical group Weather Underground, Shakur busted out of prison in 1979. She escaped to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum and has remained ever since.

"I am a 20th century escaped slave," Shakur once wrote. "Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice but to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government's policy towards people of color."

To the FBI, Shakur is nothing less than America's Most Wanted Terrorist.

"While we cannot right the wrongs of the past, we can and will continue to pursue justice no matter how long it takes," Aaron Ford, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark, New Jersey office, told reporters while announcing Shakur's 'most wanted' status.

Well then, how about pursuing some of the many terrorists who are living in the United States, men who have been granted asylum, immunity or other protections because they took the "right" side during Washington's myriad worldwide interventions? Assata Shakur was convicted of killing one police officer. That's one too many, of course. But her crime pales in comparison to the horrific atrocities committed by many of the convicted human rights abusers who live freely in the United States.

For brevity's sake, here's a list of just six of the scores of human rights violators who the government's resources would be better spent on bringing to justice. We'll call them the "Dirty Half Dozen" and rank them in reverse order. Here goes:

 

Mohamed Ali Samantar

 #2- Mohamed Ali Samantar: This former Somali prime minister and defense minister was in charge of brutally crushing a pro-democracy movement during the 1980s. Somali government forces engaged in widespread murder, torture and destruction of property. In June 1988, government troops launched an all-out air and ground assault on Hargeisa, the nation's second-largest city. More than 5,000 civilians were killed. Samantar has admitted to giving the final order approving this operation. After the government fell in 1991, he moved to the United States. While Samantar was tried for some of his crimes in a US court and ordered to pay $21 million in damages, it now looks like Washington will honor a request by Somalia's new government to dismiss the lawsuit against him. Samantar lives in Virginia.

 

 #6- Santiago Alvarez: Alvarez is the founder of Alpha 66, a Miami-based anti-Castro domestic terror group that operates a terror training camp in the Florida Everglades. Alpha 66 has been linked to a series of bombings and assassinations in the Miami area during the 1970s, and Alvarez is responsible for a 1971 motorboat strafing attack on a Cuban fishing village that killed two men and wounded four people, including two small children. Alvarez has funded terrorists, including the man who's ranked #1 on this list. In 2005, federal agents found a weapons cache in Alvarez's Miami apartment that included machine guns, assault rifles, a grenade launcher and silencers. But Alpha 66 has long been one of Washington's most favored terrorist groups. Both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush count high-ranking members as personal friends, and Alpha 66 leaders have visited the White House. Alvarez ended up serving only two and a half years behind bars for illegal weapons possession. "You can bet your bottom dollar if his name was Mohammed, they wouldn't be that lenient," attorney José Pertierra quipped.

Santiago Alvarez

#5- Armando Fernández Larios: Fernández was a Chilean officer who participated in the 1973 CIA-backed coup that overthrew democratically-elected President Salvador Allende and replaced him with the brutal dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Fernández was a member of a military unit responsible for the torture and execution of at least 72 political prisoners, the notorious "Caravan of Death." He also admitted to involvement in the Chilean-sponsored 1976 car-bombing assassination of former Chilean official Orlando Letelier and his American aide, Ronni Moffit, in Washington, DC. Fernández struck a plea deal in the Letelier case allowing him to remain in the United States, where he'd retired. He was later found guilty of torture, crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killing by a Miami jury and ordered to pay $4 million to victims for his actions in the "Caravan of Death." He lives in Florida.

#4- Emmanuel Constant: Founder of the Haitian FRAPH paramilitary death squad during the 1991-1994 military junta. According to the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), "FRAPH participated in a broad campaign of extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention," as well as a campaign of rape and other sexual violence against women. FRAPH was notorious for collecting and displaying the scalps and faces of its victims. Constant was convicted for his role in the 1994 Raboteau massacre, but was allowed to settle in the United States. That's partly because the CIA supported FRAPH and counted Constant as a paid asset. When the US government tried to deport Constant, he went on CBS "60 Minutes" and threatened to reveal damaging details of Washington's shameful role in forming and backing FRAPH. There was no deportation; Constant lives in New York City.

Col. Carranza

#3- Nicolás Carranza: Col. Carranza was El Salvador's vice minister of defense from 1979-1981, during which time horrific human rights abuses occurred under his watch. He commanded the National Guard, National Police and Treasury Police, all of which killed, tortured and raped innocent civilians with impunity. In 1980, four American women-- three nuns and a church lay worker-- were kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered by National Guard troops under Carranza's command. Most of the high-ranking Salvadoran officers who ordered the murder of the US churchwomen were trained by the US military, and Carranza was a paid CIA informant. In 2005, a federal jury in Memphis found Carranza guilty of killings and torture committed by Salvadoran troops under his command and ordered him to pay $1.5 million each to four of his victims. Carranza, who was granted US citizenship, lives in Tennessee today.

 

#1- Luis Posada Carriles: The Western Hemisphere's most notorious terrorist. Born in Cuba, Posada fled to the US following the 1959 revolution and immediately took up arms against the Castro regime. He helped plan the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. He then received CIA training in explosives and sabotage and put his skills to use carrying out numerous plots and attacks. The deadliest of these was the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455, which killed 73 innocent civilians. He was also involved in the Orlando Letelier assassination. In the 1980s, Posada worked as a CIA gunrunner during the infamous Iran-Contra affair. In the 1990s, he was behind a string of hotel bombings targeting foreign tourists in Cuba and over 40 terror bombings in Honduras. Posada eventually settled in Miami, where he and other anti-Castro terrorists like Flight 455 co-mastermind Orlando Bosch were hailed as heroes by their fellow Cuban exiles and Republican leaders like US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Posada was tried-- for immigration violations-- and acquitted in 2011. He continues to live freely in Florida.

The United States cannot bash the Cuban government for "harboring a terrorist" by providing safe haven for Assata Shakur when Washington allows mass-murderers, torturers, rapists and other extremely unsavory characters-- many of them Cuban exile terrorists-- to freely reside within our nation's borders. As is too often the case, hypocrisy reigns supreme in US policy and action. We would do well to remember those wise words of President George W. Bush: "If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist." Too right!

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/349359#ixzz2SM24TItl

 

Op-Ed: Assata Shakur? How about these REAL terrorists living in the USA?

By Brett Wilkins

Washington - Yesterday the FBI added former Black Panther and convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur to its Most Wanted Terrorist list, placing a $2 million reward on her head. Shakur becomes the first woman and the second 'domestic terrorist' to make the list.

Shakur, whose birth name is Joanne Chesimard, was also a member of the Black Liberation Army. She was convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a May 2, 1973 shootout in which she was shot twice and one of her comrades was killed. With the help of some of her BLA militants and members of the radical group Weather Underground, Shakur busted out of prison in 1979. She escaped to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum and has remained ever since.

"I am a 20th century escaped slave," Shakur once wrote. "Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice but to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government's policy towards people of color."

To the FBI, Shakur is nothing less than America's Most Wanted Terrorist.

"While we cannot right the wrongs of the past, we can and will continue to pursue justice no matter how long it takes," Aaron Ford, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark, New Jersey office, told reporters while announcing Shakur's 'most wanted' status.

Well then, how about pursuing some of the many terrorists who are living in the United States, men who have been granted asylum, immunity or other protections because they took the "right" side during Washington's myriad worldwide interventions? Assata Shakur was convicted of killing one police officer. That's one too many, of course. But her crime pales in comparison to the horrific atrocities committed by many of the convicted human rights abusers who live freely in the United States.

For brevity's sake, here's a list of just six of the scores of human rights violators who the government's resources would be better spent on bringing to justice. We'll call them the "Dirty Half Dozen" and rank them in reverse order. Here goes:

#6- Santiago Alvarez: Alvarez is the founder of Alpha 66, a Miami-based anti-Castro domestic terror group that operates a terror training camp in the Florida Everglades. Alpha 66 has been linked to a series of bombings and assassinations in the Miami area during the 1970s, and Alvarez is responsible for a 1971 motorboat strafing attack on a Cuban fishing village that killed two men and wounded four people, including two small children. Alvarez has funded terrorists, including the man who's ranked #1 on this list. In 2005, federal agents found a weapons cache in Alvarez's Miami apartment that included machine guns, assault rifles, a grenade launcher and silencers. But Alpha 66 has long been one of Washington's most favored terrorist groups. Both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush count high-ranking members as personal friends, and Alpha 66 leaders have visited the White House. Alvarez ended up serving only two and a half years behind bars for illegal weapons possession. "You can bet your bottom dollar if his name was Mohammed, they wouldn't be that lenient," attorney José Pertierra quipped.

Santiago Alvarez

#5- Armando Fernández Larios: Fernández was a Chilean officer who participated in the 1973 CIA-backed coup that overthrew democratically-elected President Salvador Allende and replaced him with the brutal dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Fernández was a member of a military unit responsible for the torture and execution of at least 72 political prisoners, the notorious "Caravan of Death." He also admitted to involvement in the Chilean-sponsored 1976 car-bombing assassination of former Chilean official Orlando Letelier and his American aide, Ronni Moffit, in Washington, DC. Fernández struck a plea deal in the Letelier case allowing him to remain in the United States, where he'd retired. He was later found guilty of torture, crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killing by a Miami jury and ordered to pay $4 million to victims for his actions in the "Caravan of Death." He lives in Florida.

#4- Emmanuel Constant: Founder of the Haitian FRAPH paramilitary death squad during the 1991-1994 military junta. According to the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), "FRAPH participated in a broad campaign of extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention," as well as a campaign of rape and other sexual violence against women. FRAPH was notorious for collecting and displaying the scalps and faces of its victims. Constant was convicted for his role in the 1994 Raboteau massacre, but was allowed to settle in the United States. That's partly because the CIA supported FRAPH and counted Constant as a paid asset. When the US government tried to deport Constant, he went on CBS "60 Minutes" and threatened to reveal damaging details of Washington's shameful role in forming and backing FRAPH. There was no deportation; Constant lives in New York City.

Col. Carranza

#3- Nicolás Carranza: Col. Carranza was El Salvador's vice minister of defense from 1979-1981, during which time horrific human rights abuses occurred under his watch. He commanded the National Guard, National Police and Treasury Police, all of which killed, tortured and raped innocent civilians with impunity. In 1980, four American women-- three nuns and a church lay worker-- were kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered by National Guard troops under Carranza's command. Most of the high-ranking Salvadoran officers who ordered the murder of the US churchwomen were trained by the US military, and Carranza was a paid CIA informant. In 2005, a federal jury in Memphis found Carranza guilty of killings and torture committed by Salvadoran troops under his command and ordered him to pay $1.5 million each to four of his victims. Carranza, who was granted US citizenship, lives in Tennessee today.

Mohamed Ali Samantar

#2- Mohamed Ali Samantar: This former Somali prime minister and defense minister was in charge of brutally crushing a pro-democracy movement during the 1980s. Somali government forces engaged in widespread murder, torture and destruction of property. In June 1988, government troops launched an all-out air and ground assault on Hargeisa, the nation's second-largest city. More than 5,000 civilians were killed. Samantar has admitted to giving the final order approving this operation. After the government fell in 1991, he moved to the United States. While Samantar was tried for some of his crimes in a US court and ordered to pay $21 million in damages, it now looks like Washington will honor a request by Somalia's new government to dismiss the lawsuit against him. Samantar lives in Virginia.

#1- Luis Posada Carriles: The Western Hemisphere's most notorious terrorist. Born in Cuba, Posada fled to the US following the 1959 revolution and immediately took up arms against the Castro regime. He helped plan the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. He then received CIA training in explosives and sabotage and put his skills to use carrying out numerous plots and attacks. The deadliest of these was the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455, which killed 73 innocent civilians. He was also involved in the Orlando Letelier assassination. In the 1980s, Posada worked as a CIA gunrunner during the infamous Iran-Contra affair. In the 1990s, he was behind a string of hotel bombings targeting foreign tourists in Cuba and over 40 terror bombings in Honduras. Posada eventually settled in Miami, where he and other anti-Castro terrorists like Flight 455 co-mastermind Orlando Bosch were hailed as heroes by their fellow Cuban exiles and Republican leaders like US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Posada was tried-- for immigration violations-- and acquitted in 2011. He continues to live freely in Florida.

The United States cannot bash the Cuban government for "harboring a terrorist" by providing safe haven for Assata Shakur when Washington allows mass-murderers, torturers, rapists and other extremely unsavory characters-- many of them Cuban exile terrorists-- to freely reside within our nation's borders. As is too often the case, hypocrisy reigns supreme in US policy and action. We would do well to remember those wise words of President George W. Bush: "If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist." Too right!

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/349359#ixzz2SM24TItl

Somalia: Government recommits to protection of journalists

Mogadishu 3.5.2013: ARTICLE 19 welcomes the commitment made by the Somali government at an ARTICLE 19 conference in Mogadishu to take special measures to ensure perpetrators of violence against journalists are held accountable.  

Among the measures announced during today’s World Press Freedom Day celebrations include the speeding up of thorough investigations into the killing of journalists and better collaboration between security agencies and media workers. 

"We are particularly pleased that the Ministry of Information has prioritised protection of journalists. The state of lawlessness in Somalia has had a terrible impact on freedom of expression and if implemented we believe these renewed efforts will help prevent the targeted killings of journalists" Henry Maina, Director, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa. 

Speaking during a national conference hosted by ARTICLE 19 and held in Mogadishu to mark World Press Freedom Day, the Deputy minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunications, Abdishakur Ali Mire said that his Ministry together with the Parliamentary Committee on Information and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) will work together to ensure crimes against freedom of expression are punished. 

The government also stated that the process of reviewing the Media Law is on-going and that journalists from Puntland and Somaliland will also be consulted to give their input.  In 2012, 18 journalists were killed in the country.

There has been only one conviction in relation to one of these cases. A military tribunal sentenced Adan Sheikh Andi Sheikh Hussein to death in March of this year for the killing of Radio Maanta’s Hassan Yusuf Absuge in September 2012. 

The situation for 2013 does not look to be showing any signs of improvement. Four media workers have been killed so far this year. Despite these widespread attacks, there is little accountability for violence against media workers, leading to a high level of self-censorship and forcing many journalists to escape into exile.