January 2007

Here’s a petition urging the Italian media to give more coverage and attention to the sweet disaster known as Darfur:

“I write to complain about the little space dedicated by your network to the genocide that is taking place in Darfur in Sudan. In Darfur for 3 years people are dying but the alarm launched by humanitarian organizations and militants for civil rights remains unheard by great part of the Italian media. Up until now 300 thousand dead, 200 thousand refugees and 2.5 million homeless have been counted which gives this crisis the title of “genocide”.

Everyday the TV networks reach a great part of the population of the peninsula as the primary source of information if not the sole source. TV retains the power of information, even newspapers, although in lesser proportion, can converge to inform the Italians to what is happening in Darfur. Often, what isn’t told by the mass media doesn’t exist for great part of the Italian families.

Nourishing a major conscience of the genocide in Darfur, the Italian mass media can help to stop the injustices and the atrocities that are taking place in that region.

For this reason I ask you to increase the space dedicated to information about the genocide in Darfur, thus putting a stop to the grave actions against human rights and the dignity of mankind.

As a consumer of these public and private services, I beg you to give major importance to the tragedy in act, through programming that gives space even daily to services and dossiers on the genocide in Darfur.

I would appreciate your immediate attention to this matter.

Yours faithfully”

Sign it! And here’s to hoping that they actually end up describing the conflict accurately. The pages on Darfur-Awareness.org should defintely help.

Here are the 3 main reasons:

1- The Muslims being killed are “dark blackies” so that makes them less Muslim.

2- The killers are fellow Muslims or ehm ehm “Muslims” and NOT Zionist “piggy apes” CrUSAders.

3- The Muslims being killed are… no wait, killed? KILLED? Are they really? But I thought this whole thing is a lie being propagated by “piggy apes” and is simply part of their Zionist conspiracy against the Muslim ummah.

An interesting post at Tsedek’s blog. Meanwhile, it looks like Israel’s apartheid has been verified by a former Israeli cabinet minister. No?

I’ve talked about this before and I’m still waiting for the outcome. I’m not terribly excited as you can tell. Meanwhile Chad has announced it will withdraw from the AU if Sudan takes over the presidency:

Jan 27, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Chad will withdraw from the African Union if Sudan takes the chairmanship of the body next week, Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi said on Saturday.

A diplomatic deadlock is expected at an AU summit next week as Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir hopes to secure the chair of the pan-African body after a promise made a year ago.

But spiralling violence in Sudan’s Darfur region has fuelled strong opposition to his bid. As host last year, Sudan wanted the leadership but Congo’s President Dennis Sassou Nguesso took over in a compromise.

Sudan becoming chairman of the AU will obviously turn the purpose of the AU troops in Darfur into a complete joke. I wonder how Werner K feels about that.

I’m back people! Sorry for the long absence and lack of posts during the previous days. Things have been pretty damn hectic. Blogging duties shall resume tonight. Oh ya and guess what? I just met The Usual Suspect. More later!

Sorry daaaamn busy… anyways for now check this out… and the response to it. Interesting! Oh ya and there’s also an interesting debate going on in the previous post… Hmmm… thoughts on that later.

Call me crazy but I believe that might end up being the case. It seems like an American firm is going to start training South Sudan forces. I’ve been hearing about this news for a while now:

Jan 19, 2007 (NORFOLK, Va) — An official with the Sudanese government said he expects a North Carolina military-training company to soon start working with security forces in the southern part of the country.

Blackwater USA, based in Moyock, N.C., could start training exercises within the next few weeks, Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, head of mission in Washington for southern Sudan’s regional government, told The Virginian-Pilot.

…The company has more than $300 million in contracts with the State Department to guard diplomats and staff in Iraq.

Meanwhile… Iran offers to equip and train Sudan’s army, (as in ehm ehm “northern army”):

Jan 19, 2007 (NICOSIA) — Teheran has discussed weapons sales to and training for Khartoum’s military and security forces. They said Sudan has sought to bolster its military to quell rebellion in Darfour.

“There is strong interest in acquiring Iranian missiles, RPGs, UAVs and other equipment,” an Iranian source said, referring to rocket-propelled grenades and unmanned aerial vehicles.

On Jan. 17, Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Hussein concluded a visit to Iran, Middle East Newsline reported. Hussein met his Iranian counterpart, Mustafa Najar and discussed arms procurement.

…For his part, Najar said Iran and Sudan plan to bolster defense cooperation. He did not elaborate.

So am I paranoid and crazy? Okay maybe a little bit.

The following is Via Freedom’s Zone:

Scary!

China has shown it can destroy a satellite in orbit. What could the U.S. do to stop Beijing, if it decided to attack an American orbiter next? Short answer: nothing. - Defense Tech

China has just fired the opening salvo of what is certainly to become a “Starwars” race that will reach across the entire globe. Aviation Week & Space Technology will report in its Jan. 22 issue that the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, NASA and other government organizations have a full court press underway to obtain data on the alleged test.

Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center.The attack is believe to have occurred as the weather satellite flew at 530 mi. altitude 4 deg. west of Xichang located in Sichuan province. Xichang is a major Chinese space launch center.

Although intelligence agencies must complete confirmation of the test, the attack is believed to have occurred at about 5:28 p.m. EST Jan. 11. U. S. intelligence agencies had been expecting some sort of test that day, sources said.

(Click image to see larger view and source)The NYT paints a dim picture for the planet:

“This is the first real escalation in the weaponization of space that we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “It ends a long period of restraint.”White House officials said the United States and other nations, which they did not identify, had “expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese.” Despite its protest, the Bush administration has long resisted a global treaty banning such tests because it says it needs freedom of action in space.

Jianhua Li, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said that he had heard about the antisatellite story but that he had no statement or information.

At a time when China is modernizing its nuclear weapons, expanding the reach of its navy and sending astronauts into orbit for the first time, the test appears to mark a new sphere of technical and military competition. American officials complained yesterday that China had made no public or private announcements about its test, despite repeated requests by American officials for more openness about its actions.

The weather satellite hit by the weapon had circled the globe at an altitude of roughly 500 miles. In theory, the test means that China can now hit American spy satellites, which orbit closer to Earth. The satellites presumably in range of the Chinese missile include most of the imagery satellites used for basic military reconnaissance, which are essentially the eyes of the American intelligence community for military movements, potential nuclear tests and even some counterterrorism, and commercial satellites.

Experts said the weather satellite’s speeding remnants could pose a threat to other satellites for years or even decades.

Now we know that there has been good reason for the United States to have consistently deflected Chinese advances for closer cooperation on the two nations’ space programs - owing to concerns about the involvement of China’s military. The Chinese kickoff of what amounts to now as a Starwars race, in the context of a Chinese government defense paper released last month saying that its defense expenditure had grown by more than 15 percent every year since 1990, certainly signals the likely beginings of an arms race with possible disastorous concequences for the entire planet. At a time that the world is dealing with the plague of radical Islam, we certainly didn’t need the introduction of yet another one. Of course that doesn’t matter now that we have two. Starwars has begun.

Many Sudanese are happy about the fact that China has such close relations with Sudan. They love the idea of a broken America and a new Chinese super power filling the vacuum. I don’t. Frankly, the idea worries me. I would honestly prefer for America to be the sole super power rather than it being China. I fear what I don’t understand and I don’t understand China’s intentions well (maybe I should engage Chinese bloggers more often). I do however understand America’s and the West’s much better. Therefore I don’t mistrust them much. Moreover China is no democracy. It’s a country with no real freedom and a place where human rights are not well respected. It is communist, it is against religious freedom and it is essentially God denying. That does not sit well with me.

Sure. America is no angel. America is not perfect, America has made mistakes (Iraq anyone?), America has done bad things and it still continues to (Guantanamo anyone?). However America is by far better than China when it comes to freedom, respect for human rights and democracy. I do understand that China isn’t waging any wars… for now though (see, I told you I mistrust and fear what I don’t understand) but China is profiting from its activities in Sudan without caring much about what’s happening in Darfur. It’s doing the same in other places too.

Just picture a world with a broken America and China as a sole super power instead. For most in the Middle East that would mean: Yaaay, broken America means broken Israel. Yaaay, death to the filthy Jews! Woohooooooo!

By the way Americans… aren’t YOU worried? The actions of your country and the good relations you have with China say you’re not.

Oh yes it is:

Jan 20, 2007 (FRANKFURT) — German engineering giant Siemens is pulling out of Sudan on moral and political grounds, its chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld said in a magazine interview released on Saturday.

Despite strong financial results, Siemens’ reputation has been hit by a 200-million-euro ($260 million) bribery and embezzlement scandal as well as by its involvement in Sudan, where 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the four-year-old conflict in Darfur.

Kleinfeld insisted to German magazine Der Spiegel that Siemens’ policy was never to pay bribes to secure contracts, and was asked if the company would ever cease operating in a country for political or moral reasons.

“That’s what we are doing in Sudan. We have decided to pull out all our business divisions — and not for security reasons,” he replied.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they used to bribe Sudanese government officials to get contracts. It happens all the time. Anyways, I wonder how man more companies are going to pull out of Sudan. Oh ya and did you know that Siemens built the gas chambers used by the Nazis during the Holocaust? What a shame. How has it been able to survive and a grow as an international company since that time? They must have spent tons of money on PR to repair their super damaged image. Yo Jews in da house, any of you still buying Siemens products?

A new African blogging initiative. Good luck guys! I would have joined you if I didn’t have enough things already. I hardly have time even for this blog or Mideast Youth nowadays.

One of the best posts on Islam I’ve ever read on the blogosphere.

I just watched both the Obama and Hillary videos on their websites. I’ve gotta say… I’m really starting to like Obama. He seems to be an excellent and passionate speaker. Go Obama! Too bad I think America is not ready for a black president yet. Ah maybe a Hispanic one in the not too distant future.

I can’t wait!!

While Egypt’s Mubarak has an obvious anti-Iran stance, al-Bashir’s NCP is getting closer and closer to Iran. The Sudanese defense minister is there right now seeking mutual military cooperation. Could it be really true that high ranking officials in the NCP have indeed become heavily influenced by Shia ideology to the extent that they want Sudan to be allied with Iran? That will explain a lot. My friend’s dad who’s an ex member of the NCP but is still in contact with other NCP members thinks so. So does my dad and some of his well informed Sudanese friends. Plus, even if high ranking officials aren’t being influenced, others on the Sudanese street defintely are. Sudan has enjoyed good relations with Iran for a long time but only recently has there been increasing military cooperation between us and the Iranians. Isn’t Mubarak worried about that? If Sandmonkey is right which I fear he might be, then at least we have an idea of where Sudan could be standing. Hmmmm…