Terror Fight Shifts to Africa -- Wall Street Journa

[longknife]

by War News Updates Editor

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U.S. Considers Seeking Congressional Backing for Operations Against Extremists.

WASHINGTON—Military counterterrorism officials are seeking more capability to pursue extremist groups in Africa and elsewhere that they believe threaten the U.S., and the Obama administration is considering asking Congress to approve expanded authority to do it.

The move, according to administration and congressional officials, would be aimed at allowing U.S. military operations in Mali, Nigeria, Libya and possibly other countries where militants have loose or nonexistent ties to al Qaeda's Pakistan headquarters. Depending on the request, congressional authorization could cover the use of armed drones and special operations teams across a region larger than Iraq and Afghanistan combined, the officials said.

Read more ....Terror Fight Shifts to Africa - WSJ.com

My Comment: Wow .... so the Obama administration now wants the authority to start and pursue unlimited war across numerous countries. But what strikes me is that there is no public debate. No public discussion. Pundits are all quiet. No protests. Little if any media attention. No disclosure.

 

[waltky]

Mooslamics desecratin' graves, tearin' up shrines, tombs in Timbuktu...

UN OKs military action to oust al-Qaida in Mali
December 21, 2012 — The U.N. Security Council on Thursday authorized military action to wrest northern Mali from the control of al-Qaida-linked extremists but demanded progress first on political reconciliation, elections and training African troops and police.

A resolution adopted unanimously by the U.N.'s most powerful body stressed that there must be a two-track plan, political and military, to reunify the country, which has been in turmoil since a coup in March. The Security Council authorized an African-led force to support Malian authorities in recovering the north — an area the size of Texas — but set no timeline for military action. Instead, it set out benchmarks to be met before the start of offensive operations, beginning with progress on a political roadmap to restore constitutional order.

The resolution also emphasizes that further military planning is needed before the African-led force is sent to the north and asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to "confirm in advance the council's satisfaction with the planned military offensive operation." U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said recently he does not expect a military operation to begin until September or October of next year.

France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters Thursday it's premature to say when the military operation will take place because African and Malian troops must be trained and much depends on the political process and the country's extreme weather. "Our goal would be to have a real political process which will allow the Malian army to go back to its barracks in the northern part of the country without fighting," he said. "That would be our preferred option."

Mali was plunged into turmoil after a coup in March created a security vacuum. That allowed the secular Tuaregs, who have long felt marginalized by Mali's government, to take half the north as a new homeland. But months later, the rebels were kicked out by Islamist groups allied with al-Qaida, which have now imposed strict Shariah law in the north. Many residents of northern Mali have expressed deep dismay at the timetable for the intervention, saying that the longer the world waits, the more entrenched the militants are becoming. El Hadji Baba Haidara, a member of the Malian parliament for the northern city of Timbuktu, welcomed the resolution "in the hope of seeing our cities liberated as soon as possible." "If we have wished for this resolution, it's not to wipe out our people with soldiers but rather to drive out the armed groups who occupy our towns," he said.

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Timbuktu mausoleums 'destroyed'
23 December 2012 - The Salafists of Ansar Dine condemn the veneration of saints

Islamists in Mali have begun destroying remaining mausoleums in the historic city of Timbuktu, an Islamist leader and a tourism official said. "Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu," Abou Dardar, a leader of the Islamist group Ansar Dine, told AFP news agency. Islamists in control of northern Mali began earlier this year to pull down shrines that they consider idolatrous. Tourist official Sane Chirfi said four mausoleums had been razed on Sunday. One resident told AFP that the Islamists were destroying the shrines with pickaxes.

Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th centuries. It is a UN World Heritage site with centuries-old shrines to Islamic saints that are revered by Sufi Muslims. The Salafists of Ansar Dine condemn the veneration of saints. "Allah doesn't like it," said Abou Dardar. "We are in the process of smashing all the hidden mausoleums in the area." Islamists seized control of Timbuktu in April, after a coup left Mali's army in disarray. The news that further monuments were being destroyed came one day after Islamists were reported to have cut the hands off two people.

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, another Islamist group operating in the area, warned that there would be further amputations, AFP reported. Last Thursday the UN Security Council gave its backing for an African-led military operation to help Mali's government retake the north if no peaceful solution can be found in coming months. A day later, Ansar Dine and the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA), a Tuareg separatist group, said they were committed to finding a negotiated solution.

More BBC News - Timbuktu mausoleums 'destroyed'

 

[Mad Scientist]

Gotta' chase KONY who hasn't been seen in 5 years.

Don't worry though, dumbed down Americans will go along with it.

 

[waltky]

Mali becoming the next Afghanistan...

Mali on Brink of Becoming a Terrorist Safe Haven
December 24, 2012 - African and world leaders say they will not let Mali become a terrorist safe haven, a failed state, a so-called "Afghanistan" in the Sahel. The U.N. Security Council has backed a regional military deployment to Mali next year to deal with an ongoing political crisis in the capital and help the Malian army retake the north from Islamist militants. Will 2013 be the year that Mali pulls back from the brink? If so, at what cost?

2012 was the year that armed men seized control of Mali. And their grip looks stronger than ever -- both in the north and the south. Analysts say a military junta pulls the strings in the capital, Bamako. The soldiers, who mutinied and then overthrew the elected president on March 22, closed the year by forcing out the interim prime minister and his government in December. Meanwhile, al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants have controlled the northern two-thirds of the country since April. Their brutal application of Sharia law has included stonings and amputations. Nearly half a million people have fled. That number could swell by tens, or even hundreds, of thousands during expected fighting next year. African leaders now have U.N. backing for a phased military intervention to send in 3,300 regional troops to retrain and ultimately fight alongside the Malian army.

African Union ambassador Antonio Tete told the U.N. Security Council the deployment is an integral part of a three-track plan that includes negotiations and reinforcing the political transition in Bamako. "Any perception of a lack of decisiveness on any of these tracks may send the wrong message to the terrorist and criminal networks, as well as to the armed groups that are not committed to a negotiated solution, while prolonging the suffering of the civilian population and increasing the threat to regional and international peace and security," Tete said.

Impatience is growing in Mali. Ethnic northern militias are training near the front lines. Analysts say the fight to retake the north could descend into civil war and bloody reprisals. Experts warn that the Malian army is not ready. The U.N. resolution did not set a timeline for the military offensive. U.N. Special Representative to the Sahel, Romano Prodi, has said it's not possible before September 2013. "Any military effort in Mali must be undertaken after careful analysis and thorough preparation and that these efforts should be part of an agreed political process that tackles the roots of the conflic," Prodi said.

International Crisis Group West Africa Director, Gilles Yabi, said while months of preparation are needed, it's impossible to know the risk of waiting. "Will this time give the armed groups -- some of them known terrorists linked to al-Qaida -- more time to recruit and to train people to carry out attacks abroad? Does that mean we should move faster? That's hard to say, but urgency should not justify hasty decisions. Time invested now in negotiations could isolate the hardline terrorists and lead to an intervention strategy that minimizes the risk to civilians," Gilles said. Foreign Jihadists in northern Mali have threatened terrorist attacks in countries contributing troops. Attempts to oust the Islamists could also push fighters, and fighting, into neighboring countries.

Mali on Brink of Becoming a Terrorist Safe Haven

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Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali
Dec 31,`12 -- Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic fighters are burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defenses to protect what has essentially become al-Qaida's new country.

They have used the bulldozers, earth movers and Caterpillar machines left behind by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials describe as an elaborate network of tunnels, trenches, shafts and ramparts. In just one case, inside a cave large enough to drive trucks into, they have stored up to 100 drums of gasoline, guaranteeing their fuel supply in the face of a foreign intervention, according to experts.

Northern Mali is now the biggest territory held by al-Qaida and its allies. And as the world hesitates, delaying a military intervention, the extremists who seized control of the area earlier this year are preparing for a war they boast will be worse than the decade-old struggle in Afghanistan. "Al-Qaida never owned Afghanistan," said former United Nations diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by al-Qaida's local chapter, whose fighters now control the main cities in the north. "They do own northern Mali."

Al-Qaida's affiliate in Africa has been a shadowy presence for years in the forests and deserts of Mali, a country hobbled by poverty and a relentless cycle of hunger. In recent months, the terror syndicate and its allies have taken advantage of political instability within the country to push out of their hiding place and into the towns, taking over an enormous territory which they are using to stock arms, train forces and prepare for global jihad.

The catalyst for the Islamic fighters was a military coup nine months ago that transformed Mali from a once-stable nation to the failed state it is today. On March 21, disgruntled soldiers invaded the presidential palace. The fall of the nation's democratically elected government at the hands of junior officers destroyed the military's command-and-control structure, creating the vacuum which allowed a mix of rebel groups to move in.

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