U.S. confirms Somalia air strikes

[Catchme]

Sigh!

And the National has really good coverage of this tonight apparently.

Helicopter gunships launched fresh attacks Tuesday against suspected al-Qaeda members in southern Somalia, a Somali official said, as the Pentagon confirmed at least one U.S. air strike the previous day.

Witnesses said 31 civilians, including two newlyweds, were killed in the helicopter assault. A Somali Defence Ministry official identified the helicopters as American.

"Clearly, the United States synchronized its operations with [the invasion]," Arkin told CBC News on Tuesday.

Response to the attacks so far appears to be muted as the world ponders the legality of such an operation, he added.

"This is the world we live in today," Arkin said. "The war on terrorism includes the ability of the United States and other nations to go after terrorists where they are, and the international community seems to turn in the other direction."

US in Somalia

Wasn't there just recently oil found in Somalia? A great deal of it, but it has not been mentuioned too much lately.

Oh here, I found something:

Far beneath the surface of the tragic drama of Somalia, four major U.S. oil companies are quietly sitting on a prospective fortune in exclusive concessions to explore and exploit tens of millions of acres of the Somali countryside.

That land, in the opinion of geologists and industry sources, could yield significant amounts of oil and natural gas if the U.S.-led military mission can restore peace to the impoverished East African nation.

According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January, 1991. Industry sources said the companies holding the rights to the most promising concessions are hoping that the Bush Administration's decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard aid shipments to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-dollar investments there.

So maybe our armed forces both USA, Canada and indeed NATO are being used by the oil companies as their own private army that we the tax payer fund?

http://www.netnomad.com/fineman.html

[Canadian Blue]

Somalia has always been a hotbed for extremist muslim's. I don't think it has much to do with oil as the air strikes targeted extremist militant muslims.

[Catchme]

Funny they have not cared for what 8 years now what was going on in Somalia? Since 1998 that would be.

But now things have turned up oil, the oil companies need their interests protected, the article noted that. And the US military, nor the White House informed Congress either, and that is strange indeed too. Acting in another country and blowing people up cause they say Al Qaeda is there, just at random without discussing it at a national leve,l is what okay a good thing to do?

Let me tell you, if Canada's military, under orders from the PMO's office alone, went into another country and opened fire killing civilians on mass, Canadians and parliament would be furious and rightly so.

The world is going to be screaming over this shortly, I am sure. Along with Congress in the USA.

[Fortunata]

More bushwacking. More war on terror just like Iraq was. More deaths and destruction for the Bush political agenda, softening up the American public for the big announcement of the "surge". Surge would have been good about the time he was on the good ship lollipop saying mission accomplished. This guy is a dangerous wackjob.

[geoffrey]

But now things have turned up oil, the oil companies need their interests protected, the article noted that. And the US military, nor the White House informed Congress either, and that is strange indeed too. Acting in another country and blowing people up cause they say Al Qaeda is there, just at random without discussing it at a national leve,l is what okay a good thing to do?

What a silly correlation. Oil companies don't need the US to defend their interests. Talisman, a small player, defended their interests in a very violent Sudan until shareholder pressure took them out.

The US is after terrorists. I have no problem with that.

[crazymf]

Yaddayadda.....

Put the blame firmly where it belongs.....on the uncivilized bunch of African Africans(n*ggers).

If they'd behave and act like people, none of this crap would happen. Same with Iraq, same with Afghanistan.

How many years have orgs like Oxfam and others been handing out aid to starving Africans? I'd say 50 years or more. Why can't they start to pick up and fend for themselves?

I wonder?? Perhaps they can't because they they're used to handouts? Welfare begets welfare imo.

Off my soapbox. This crap about American terrorism struck a bad nerve with me.....

[Black Dog]

Yaddayadda.....

Put the blame firmly where it belongs.....on the uncivilized bunch of African Africans(n*ggers).

If they'd behave and act like people, none of this crap would happen. Same with Iraq, same with Afghanistan.

How many years have orgs like Oxfam and others been handing out aid to starving Africans? I'd say 50 years or more. Why can't they start to pick up and fend for themselves?

I wonder?? Perhaps they can't because they they're used to handouts? Welfare begets welfare imo.

Off my soapbox. This crap about American terrorism struck a bad nerve with me.....

Reported.

[margrace]

But now things have turned up oil, the oil companies need their interests protected, the article noted that. And the US military, nor the White House informed Congress either, and that is strange indeed too. Acting in another country and blowing people up cause they say Al Qaeda is there, just at random without discussing it at a national leve,l is what okay a good thing to do?

What a silly correlation. Oil companies don't need the US to defend their interests. Talisman, a small player, defended their interests in a very violent Sudan until shareholder pressure took them out.

The US is after terrorists. I have no problem with that.

Didn't like Harper's substitute for Ambroise, friend of the oil companys, either did you. Wonder who you work for?

[crazymf]

Reported.

Reported for what? Maybe my language was rough, but that's how I feel. I guess you don't think we're all alowed our opinions???

If I have violated the rules, I apologise in advance. I didn't mean to.

[Black Dog]

Reported for what? Maybe my language was rough, but that's how I feel. I guess you don't think we're all alowed our opinions???

If I have violated the rules, I apologise in advance. I didn't mean to.

Racial slurs ain't cool. Whatever your opinions, surely you can voice them without invoking race.

[White Doors]

And if you insist, at least get the race correct.

[Catchme]

But now things have turned up oil, the oil companies need their interests protected, the article noted that. And the US military, nor the White House informed Congress either, and that is strange indeed too. Acting in another country and blowing people up cause they say Al Qaeda is there, just at random without discussing it at a national leve,l is what okay a good thing to do?

What a silly correlation. Oil companies don't need the US to defend their interests. Talisman, a small player, defended their interests in a very violent Sudan until shareholder pressure took them out.

The US is after terrorists. I have no problem with that.

Try telling that propaganda to someone who does not know better.

President and Vice President arrived in office deeply tied to the energy business (which has been a major supporter of the Republican Party) and promptly Halliburtonized the military, then Iraq, and later New Orleans; the administration's first National Security Advisor (now Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice had already had a double-hulled oil tanker named in her honor by Chevron. The first American ambassador to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and the present ambassador (think: viceroy) of Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, had been an advisor to Unocal, the energy company that negotiated unsuccessfully to put a natural-gas pipeline through the Taliban's Afghanistan.

In addition, Dick Cheney, charged with setting the administration's national energy policy, notoriously did so (while denying the fact) in secret meetings with Big Oil execs back in 2001. Officials from Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Shell, and BP America met with Cheney's aides, while at least the chief executive of BP met with Cheney himself. Chevron was one of a number of energy companies that, according to the Government Accountability Office, "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the Vice President's task force -- while, of course, environmentalists of every stripe were left out in the cold.

Oil controls the USA government

The following link contains links to oil controlling the Sudan and ME actions.

http://www.doublestandards.org/oil.html

Talisman defended nothing the USA did on behalf of the oil companies in the Sudan. Google is your friend!

A major expose in the Los Angeles Times on Friday revealed that the U.S. has quietly forged a close intelligence partnership with Sudan despite the government's role in the mass killings in Darfur. The Sudanese government has since publicly confirmed it is working with the Bush administration and the CIA.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/03/1357228

And Talisman should have gotten out of the Sudan long before it did, Blood for Oil!

[Catchme]

More info out about this action:

US Hides True Intentions in Somalia

January 10, 2007

The US has launched attacks against southern Somalia with airstrikes from helicopters and AC-130 gunships. Reports say that dozens of people are dead. The official justification for the attack was to kill an alleged Al-Qaeda cell in the country. As with Iraq, where the links between Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda network were never established this new assault is another attempt to disguise US interests behind the convenient bogeyman of terrorism. There is no proof that Al-Qaeda is working with the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) who are the real threat to US interests in the region and the main target of this assault.

Somalia, after years of lawlessness and the rule of clan warlords, finally achieved peace when the ICU entered the scene and took most of the country by July of 2006. ..The parallels between Somalia and Afghanistan are numerous. In both cases a US backed warlord government is being opposed by the people of the country because of growing popular discontent with constant violence and instability. Either way US meddling has once again destroyed the chance of peace and self-determination for the people of Somalia.

This is yet another aggressive act by the US which further threatens to destabilize the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. The peace movement calls on the government of Canada to condemn this action by the US and its regional allies, oppose any foreign intervention, and work for genuine self-determination for the people of Somalia.

http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/SomaliaStatement.htm

[White Doors]

Oh my, the poor terrorists were backed into the corner and the USA killed them with the UN - backed government's blessing and invitation yet catchme has a problem with it. how surprising!

If this was the 1970's she would be arguing how the SU was simplyh 'mis-understood'. Thank God for the Reagans of the world.

[White Doors]

The 'Canadian Peace Alliance' is really credible when they a self-contradicting sentence like this:

There is no proof that Al-Qaeda is working with the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) who are the real threat to US interests in the region and the main target of this assault.

I mean, My 6 year old niece could pick that out.

Oh! The stupidity!

[geoffrey]

Didn't like Harper's substitute for Ambroise, friend of the oil companys, either did you. Wonder who you work for?

I'm a contractor currently in the utilities industry. I've only briefly worked in oil and gas. I have no current interest in the industry, no more than you do through whatever investments you likely hold.

And either does Mr. Baird. Do you have any evidence that this Ottawa academic/career politican is in bed with oil? Or do you just assume that because Harper's from Calgary?

You need to get over this stereotype of westerners, we don't all work in oil and gas. And the ones that do, do so to benefit all Canadians.

[JerrySeinfeld]

Oil in Somalia is irrelevant.

You make it sound like oil is something you just grab and take home.

[GostHacked]

Reported for what? Maybe my language was rough, but that's how I feel. I guess you don't think we're all alowed our opinions???

If I have violated the rules, I apologise in advance. I didn't mean to.

Racial slurs ain't cool. Whatever your opinions, surely you can voice them without invoking race.

I did not see it as a racial slur, but more of a hit on the ignorant. He would have spelled it out if he wanted to but using an asterix clearly shows he had something else in mind. He is saying, since they are BLACK or MUSLIM or whatever .. clearly not a WASP (I actually got called that on a tech call once, then I asked what the hell it meant, to which the caller replies White Anglo Saxon Prodistant....) people will not care about it at all. THAT is what he is saying.

I am amazed that people just read what is up there without actually reading the thread and how his contextual reply is not a racial slur.

And those warlords/al-qaeda/terrorists that the US was after? They did not get a SINGLE one of them. Not one. What a freaking waste of resources.

[GostHacked]

Oil in Somalia is irrelevant.

You make it sound like oil is something you just grab and take home.

Remember that next time you go fill up your car at the petrol station.

[JerrySeinfeld]

Oil in Somalia is irrelevant.

You make it sound like oil is something you just grab and take home.

Remember that next time you go fill up your car at the petrol station.

huh?

oil is produced then sold according to and international price.

all the lefties make it seem like the USA is walking into Iraq and Somalia and shipping home big vats of oil to the good ol' USA which is complete hogwash.

Oil is sold on the world market.

[Black Dog]

I did not see it as a racial slur, but more of a hit on the ignorant. He would have spelled it out if he wanted to but using an asterix clearly shows he had something else in mind. He is saying, since they are BLACK or MUSLIM or whatever .. clearly not a WASP (I actually got called that on a tech call once, then I asked what the hell it meant, to which the caller replies White Anglo Saxon Prodistant....) people will not care about it at all. THAT is what he is saying.

Come on. There's no way this:

Put the blame firmly where it belongs.....on the uncivilized bunch of African Africans(n*ggers).

If they'd behave and act like people, none of this crap would happen. Same with Iraq, same with Afghanistan.

...is anything but a statement saying "what's wrong with them lazy darkies?"

huh?

oil is produced then sold according to and international price.

all the lefties make it seem like the USA is walking into Iraq and Somalia and shipping home big vats of oil to the good ol' USA which is complete hogwash.

Oil is sold on the world market.

Oh god, not this again. So if Al Qaeda overthrew the House of Saud, you'd be okay with them sitting on one of the world's biggest oil producers?

[JerrySeinfeld]

I did not see it as a racial slur, but more of a hit on the ignorant. He would have spelled it out if he wanted to but using an asterix clearly shows he had something else in mind. He is saying, since they are BLACK or MUSLIM or whatever .. clearly not a WASP (I actually got called that on a tech call once, then I asked what the hell it meant, to which the caller replies White Anglo Saxon Prodistant....) people will not care about it at all. THAT is what he is saying.

Come on. There's no way this:

Put the blame firmly where it belongs.....on the uncivilized bunch of African Africans(n*ggers).

If they'd behave and act like people, none of this crap would happen. Same with Iraq, same with Afghanistan.

...is anything but a statement saying "what's wrong with them lazy darkies?"

huh?

oil is produced then sold according to and international price.

all the lefties make it seem like the USA is walking into Iraq and Somalia and shipping home big vats of oil to the good ol' USA which is complete hogwash.

Oil is sold on the world market.

Oh god, not this again. So if Al Qaeda overthrew the House of Saud, you'd be okay with them sitting on one of the world's biggest oil producers?

ummm...ever heard of OPEC? Last I checked Ahmedinijad, Hugo Chavez and Khadafi weren't getting christmas cards from the Bushes.

and you're proposing a world where Al Qaeda is financed by oil money? OH MY GOSH - WHAT A CONCEPT!!!

[Black Dog]

ummm...ever heard of OPEC? Last I checked Ahmedinijad, Hugo Chavez and Khadafi weren't getting christmas cards from the Bushes.

and you're proposing a world where Al Qaeda is financed by oil money? OH MY GOSH - WHAT A CONCEPT!!!

No. I'm talking about Al Qaeda having direct control over the oil supply.

[JerrySeinfeld]

ummm...ever heard of OPEC? Last I checked Ahmedinijad, Hugo Chavez and Khadafi weren't getting christmas cards from the Bushes.

and you're proposing a world where Al Qaeda is financed by oil money? OH MY GOSH - WHAT A CONCEPT!!!

No. I'm talking about Al Qaeda having direct control over the oil supply.

what about it?

[crazymf]

Come on. There's no way this:

QUOTE

Put the blame firmly where it belongs.....on the uncivilized bunch of African Africans(n*ggers).

If they'd behave and act like people, none of this crap would happen. Same with Iraq, same with Afghanistan.

...is anything but a statement saying "what's wrong with them lazy darkies?"

Actually, I was trying to be slightly funny. What is an African African? One that hasn't emigrated to the USA yet so they can be an African American.

To call the USA or basically us as well, terrorists, is just plain propaganda meant to incite reactions like mine. I will not stand down and take the insult of our democratic ways and especially the people in our forces lightly.