The Bush/Cheney "Democracy for All" is simply a political montra to continue to justify occupation of Iraq. It is a Domestic Political strategy to control elections in the USA. The FACT is if the populous of the USA ever began to understand how DEMOCRACY does not work around the world, we would dearly never have a reason for a military.
Osama bin Laden got his start in a country where The West TRIED but FAILED to instill democracy once before. Osama bin Laden is the product of failed capitalism ON THE STREETS of Somalia. The ONLY place the American Flag belongs is waving over it's own capital in Washington, DC.
Operation Eastern Exit (click here)
During 1980s the authoritarian regime of President Mahammad Siad Barre abandoned the previous government's policy of scientific socialism on Marxist-Leninist lines and implemented market-oriented structural reforms of economy, while consolidating personal political authority. Broad-based national opposition met escalating government repression and provoked armed revolt in 1988. The resulting civil war caused the eventual defeat of government forces and exile of Siad Barre in January 1991. Following the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991, Somalia fell under an interim provisional government established by Executive Committee of United Somali Congress (USC) and headed by provisional president Ali Mahdi Mahammad. As of September 1991, the country was effectively under control of as many as twelve rival clans and subclans. The central government authority at Mogadishu challenged by Somali National Movement (SNM), which in June 1991 declared independent Republic of Somaliland in former territory of British Somaliland.
On 01 January 1991, the US Ambassador to Somalia requested military assistance to evacuate the Embassy. Americans and other foreign nationals had sought shelter in the Embassy compound that day as the reign of Somali dictator Siad Barre disintegrated into a confused battle for control of Mogadishu. The next day, Operation EASTERN EXIT was initiated. Conducted between 2 -11 January 1991, participating units included USS Guam, USS Trenton, 4th Marine Expeditionary Bde, Air Force AC-130 (intelligence gathering and fire support, and 9-man Navy SEAL team), and other elements.
Responding to the deteriorating situation, Operation Eastern Exit involved the evacuation of 281 noncombatants from the US Embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia. Despite the priorities of the Gulf War, special operations forces helicopters were put on alert, Air Force C-130 transport aircraft were deployed to Kenya, and two Navy amphibious ships with elements of a Marine expeditionary brigade embarked were sent south from the North Arabian Sea toward Somalia.
Initial plans called for evacuation of the endangered Americans through Mogadishu’s international airport, utilizing Air Force aircraft staged in Kenya. The situation in Mogadishu rapidly worsened and aircraft, even those of the US Air Force, could not land safely at the airport. It seemed unlikely in any case that those sheltered at the Embassy could travel safely through the embattled city to the airport....
Geographical location of Somalia
African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty
also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba (click here)
Pelindaba Nuclear Facility
9 November 2007, 07:17
A brazen attack by four gunmen on the Pelindaba nuclear facility has left a senior emergency officer seriously injured.
Anton Gerber, Necsa emergency services operational officer spoke to the Pretoria News from his hospital bed hours after the attack.
He was shot in the chest when the gunmen stormed the facility's emergency response control room in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The shooting comes four months after Necsa's newly appointed services general manager Eric Lerata, 43, was gunned down in front of his Montana home after returning from a business trip in France.
Pelindaba is regarded as one of the country's most secure national key points.
It is surrounded by electric fencing, has 24-hour CCTV surveillance, security guards and security controls and checkpoints.
The attack comes as the country prepares to preside over an International Atomic Energy Agency convention on nuclear safety.
The convention is aimed at achieving a high level of global nuclear safety via safety related technical co-operation; establishing and maintaining effective defences in nuclear installations against potential radiological hazards and preventing accidents with radiological consequences.
A visibly shaken Gerber, who was rushed to Eugene Marais hospital, on Thursday said that he was sitting in the control room with his fiancée Ria Meiring when he heard a loud bang.
Meiring, who was working nightshift, is the supervisor of the control room.
Gerber said he kept Meiring company. "I do not like it when she is at work at night and I go with her to keep her company and ensure that she is safe," he said.
Describing the attack Gerber said they were inside the electronically sealed control room when they heard a loud bang.
They then spotted the gunmen coming into the facility's eastern block.
It is believed that the attackers gained access to the building by using a ladder from Pelindaba's fire brigade and scaling a wall.
The men are thought to have forced open a window by pulling out several louvers.
Pushing Meiring underneath a desk, Gerber attacked two of the gunmen as they forced their way into the control room and ran straight for the control panel.
"I did not know what they were going to do. I just kept on hitting them even when one of them attacked me with a screwdriver.
"I knew that if I stopped they would attack Ria or do something to the panel.
"I could not let anything like that happen," he said.
Unbeknownst to Gerber one of the robbers had shot him in the chest as he fought them off.
The bullet narrowly missed his heart breaking a rib before puncturing his lung. Doctors said the bullet missed his spine by 2cm.
Gerber, who at one stage thought he was going to die, said he had been very scared.
"The facility is meant to be safe. There are security guards, electric fences and security control points. These things are not meant to happen," he said.
Necsa spokesperson Chantal Janneker confirmed the attack.
She declined to say how the gunmen had gained access to the facility or whether they had stolen anything.
Janneker said Necsa was conducting an internal investigation into the attack.
Once the police investigation was complete Necsa would divulge what happened, she said.
Later in the afternoon, Pretoria News was phoned by a man identifying himself as a Necsa legal adviser, saying the newspaper will be breaching the National Keypoints Act by publishing the story.
He said that Necsa may seek a court order preventing dissemination of the story.
He claimed that the interview with Gerber was "unethical" as "he was under sedation and thus incoherent" when it was conducted.
Pretoria News sought and was granted permission to interview Gerber, by hospital management, and Gerber himself. While he was obviously in pain, he appeared coherent and made sense throughout the interview.
His recall of the events was sequential and to the point. He also agreed to have his picture taken in his hospital bed.
North West police spokesperson Superintendent Louis Jacobs said that no arrests had been made.
"A case of armed robbery and attempted murder are being investigated," he said.
This article was originally published on page 1 of
Death toll mounts in Mogadishu (click here)
Mustafa Haji Abdinur Mogadishu, Somalia
Ethiopian troops shelled suspected Islamist hideouts on Friday in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, where some of the worst clashes in months have left at least 43 dead in two days, many of them civilians.
The escalating violence came as the Ethiopian army tried to flush out pockets of insurgents in southern districts of the Somali capital, from which thousands of residents have fled in recent days.
Heavy fighting that erupted on Thursday went on into Friday when Ethiopian tanks fired shells on suspected hideouts in the notoriously dangerous Bakara market neighbourhood, killing six civilians."
A tank shell landed into a crowd in Bakara area and killed six people, including a woman and her son. Some of the bodies could not be identified because they were ripped to shreds," said Hanad Guled, a witness.
An Agence France-Presse correspondent saw shells being fired from the neighbouring Blacksea district, where witnesses said several Ethiopian tanks were posted.An Ethiopian shell killed four other civilians in Howaldag district, according to resident Mariam Hassan....
..."In Mogadishu now there is no safe place to go," he said. MSF is one of the only international organisations providing health services in Mogadishu. -- Sapa-AFP
