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Posted by Jas on 03/26/07 02:51
sorry, it's now off!!!!
"Richard C." <post-age@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:1eOdnS_6oI0bh5rbnZ2dnUVZ_sOknZ2d@comcast.com...
> Will it be on DVD soon?
> If not, quit cross-posting
> =======================
>
>
> "Jas" <jasmin1@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:eu75cs$ek0$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
>> Somalia: An Oily Clich March 25, 2007
>>
>> By David Barouski
>>
>> Today, it is a reflexive clich to claim the United States (U.S.) is off
>> on another oil-acquisition conquest anytime they invade an Arabic nation.
>>
>> In the case of Somalia, the clich may neverless true. While undoubtedly,
>> the U.S. and its Ethiopian proxy conqured Somalia and "liberated" it from
>> the clutches of Al-Qaeda primarily for geostrategic reasons (possible
>> launching point to attack Iran, more friendly territory close to Arabic
>> Sudan, more ports under their control, a possible regional base for the
>> AFRICOM command post, potential launching points to protect the Strait of
>> Hormuz [the primary shipping point of Middle Eastern oil], etc), Somalia
>> is awash in unspoken oil and provides a tantalizing business opportunity.
>>
>> Perhaps We Had Better Start From the Beginning?
>>
>> The story begins in 1990, just prior to the horrible famine of almost
>> Biblical porportions that claimed thousands of innocent lives in Somalia.
>> Mohamed Said Barre was in charge of the country. Barre signed of nearly
>> two-thirds of his country to Conoco, Amoco, Chevron, and Phillips (this
>> was prior to the Conoco-Phillips merger). Unfortunately for them, Barre
>> was overthrown by Mohammed Farah Aideed of the rival Hebr Gedr clan in
>> January 1991 and launched a civil war shortly thereafter.
>>
>> After Aideed started the civil war, the oil giants were unable to work
>> their concessions for two reasons. One, the constant fighting, robbery,
>> and pirating off the coast made it impossible. Second, it was technically
>> illegal because Somalia did not have a recognized government. Since
>> Somalia was run by a that it was illegal to do business with, the oil
>> companies were out of luck. Either the U.S. had to legitimize Aideed in
>> the eyes of the international community or remove him. Either way, the
>> fighting had to stop.
>>
>> As one of his last acts as President, George H.W. Bush (who owned oil
>> concessions across the Gulf of Aden in Marib, Yemen via Hunt Oil) sent
>> the first wave of U.S. soldiers to Somalia to officially help deliver
>> food to starving Somalis. Meanwhile, U.S. Special Envoy to Somalia Robert
>> Oakley kept in daily contact with Aideed from December 1992 to May 1993.
>> He was unsuccessful in his negotiations to end the fighting. President
>> Bill Clinton then resorted to "Operation Restore Hope." Conoco's office
>> in Mogadishu served as a de facto U.S. Embassy for the landing Marines
>> after the original building was shelled and looted. Mr. Oakley and Marine
>> General Frank Libutti wrote a letter of commendation to Conoco Somalia's
>> General Manager Raymond Marchand thanking him for his service.
>>
>> After a series of unsuccessful assassination attempts by U.S. forces, the
>> Somalis struck back during a U.S. raid in the infamous "Blackhawk Down"
>> incident (the U.S. Army dubbed it the "Battle of the Black Sea" while the
>> Somalis' called it "Maalinti Rangers" [Day of the Rangers]) on 3-4
>> October, 1994 that claimed the lives of 18 Americans and one Malaysian
>> soldier. President Clinton pulled out of Somalia and the place was left
>> to its own devices while the U.S. cultivated relationships with Ethiopian
>> Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Djibouti's President Hassan Gouled, and
>> Eritrea's President Isaias Afewerki. Aideed was assassinated in 1996 by
>> Osman Hassan Ali Atto.
>>
>> Somalia continued to be deeply fractured after the death of Aideed. The
>> extreme northwest corner of Somalia, known as Somaliland, declared
>> independence in 1991, but did not receive any diplomatic recognition. The
>> adjacent region to the east, known as Puntland, followed suit in 1998
>> under the leadership of presidency of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, but with one
>> major difference. They only wanted to be a separate Somali state, not a
>> country.
>>
>> Flash Forward?. Puntland had some lucrative oil concessions, but the
>> turnover of governments left most of the contracts null and void. The
>> companies also faced a legal problem. Since Puntland was not its own
>> autonomous state, the companies had to deal with the central government
>> in order to do business. The problem was?there was no central government
>> entity. That needed to be changed.
>>
>> Somalia began toying with creating a government in 2001. Indeed, the
>> French oil giant TotalElfFina signed an agreement with the Transitional
>> Government for a concession in southern Somalia. After lots of jockying
>> for power between the clans, the first government plan was signed in July
>> 2003. Kenya was overseeing the process and the federal charter was signed
>> in September 2003.
>>
>> Fighting broke out again in 2004, particularly in the south, and it
>> reached Mogadishu by the end of May. As a result, the Somali Government
>> was in exile in Nairobi. Despite the chaos, parliament members were sworn
>> in during August 2004. They voted Abdullahi Yusuf (from the Darod clan,
>> which is not liked in Mogadishu) president. Mr. Yusuf is a career soldier
>> who served as Somalia's mlitary attach to the Soviet Union. When the
>> U.S. backed Barre's rise to power, Mr. Yusuf refused to turn on his
>> Soviet Allies and was imprisoned. After he was released, he took part in
>> a failed coup attempt on Said Barre. He fled to Kenya and befrended the
>> Ethiopians. He later returned to northern Somalia and ran Puntland since
>> its independence in 1998, making him a valuble ally to U.S. oil interests
>> if he could shed his communist-supporting background.
>>
>> In December 2004, Ali Mohammed Gedi was appointed the Prime Minister. He
>> hails from the Abgaal sub-clan of Mogadishu's Hawiye clan, one of the two
>> largest clans in the country. The new government relocated to Mogadishu
>> and by May 2005, Mohammed Qanyare Affrah, Osman Ali Atto, and Muse Sudi
>> Yalahow united their militias as a de facto government army. By late
>> 2005, the government's transition process was derailed.
>>
>> Some factions were not happy the largest clans possessed all the power
>> positions. President Yusuf and Prime Minister Ghedi both survived
>> assassination attempts and retreated back to Kenya. By October 2005, the
>> Transitional Government was purchasing large amounts of arms from Yemen
>> and arming allied clans to defend Mogadishu and Baidoa to the south.
>> Ethiopia was also suppling the Transitional Government with weapons.
>>
>> Contemporary History
>>
>> From the beginning of 2006 until July, fierce fighting between rival
>> clans and political movements occurred. It culminated with the Union of
>> Islamic Courts (UIC) seizing control of Mogadishu, and in effect, the
>> country, though most of the Transitional Government was still located in
>> Baidoa. While Eritrea armed the UIC, the U.S. unsuccessfully backed the
>> opposing forces, called the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and
>> Counter-Terrorism (ARPC).
>>
>> The so-called warlords leading the ARPC, Mohamed Dheere, Bashir Raghe,
>> and Mahamed Qanyare, had been spying for the Central Intelligence Agency
>> (CIA) years. A U.S. diplomat at the Nairobi Embassy was even fired for
>> criticizing the CIA's policy.
>>
>> Once again, U.S. business interests were thwarted and the UIC's leader,
>> Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, was already on the U.S.' official terrorist
>> list for heading al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a group supposedly linked to
>> Al-Qaeda during the 1990s, making it illegal for them to do business with
>> his regime.
>>
>> "Slick" Business Deals
>>
>> Beginning in 2005, Prime Minister Gedi demanded all business proposals go
>> through the Transitional Government. He forbade anyone to approach the
>> local administrations in Puntland, but he was willing to allow business
>> there provided he approved of it. The Australian firm Range Resources
>> Limited signed an agreement with the government of Puntland for exclusive
>> rights to all their minerals, including oil, lead, zinc, copper, iron,
>> manganese, tin, beryl, tantalum, niobium (columbium), uranium, coal, and
>> gypsum.
>>
>> Range Resources obtained permission to exploit the land from Puntland
>> President Mohamud Muse Hirse on 18 October, 2005, and from Prime Minister
>> Gedi on 2 November 2005. They are also bidding to buy addition
>> consessions from the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC). Range
>> Resources is run by Non-Executive Chairman Sir Samuel Kwesi Jonah. S
>>
>> ir Jonah is a Board Member of: Lonmin, the Commonwealth African
>> Investment Fund (Comafin), Transnet Limited, Anglo-American Platinum
>> Corporation Limited, the Ashesi University Foundation, Equinox Minerals
>> (Chairman), the uranium-producing nuclear power company UraMin
>> Incorporated (Chairman), Anglo-American Corporation, Moto Goldmines
>> Limited, Scharrig Mining (Chairman), Sierra Rutile Limited (Chairman),
>> Sierra Resources Holding, Titanium Resources Group, Copper Resources
>> Corporation (with George Arthur Forrest and George Andrew Forrest),
>> Standard Bank Group of South Africa, Bayport Holding Limited, Transnet
>> Limited, Equator Exploration Limited in Nigeria and So Tom - Prncipe
>> (with Baronness Chalker), and Mittal Steel (currently in the proverbial
>> hot seat for a contract they signed with the government of Liberia).
>>
>> He is a Advisory Council member of the U.N. Secretary General's Global
>> Compact, South African President Thabo Mbeki's International Investment
>> Advisory Council, the African Regional Advisory Board of the London
>> Business School, First Atlantic Merchant Bank, Defiance Mining, Ghanian
>> President John Kufuor's Ghana Investors' Advisory Council, President
>> Obasanjo Nigerian Investors' Advisory Council, and serves as a
>> Presidential Advisor to President Mohamud Muse Hersi of the Somali state
>> of Puntland. He also holds an honorary British knighthood, the Star of
>> Ghana and several other international awards and titles.
>>
>> Meanwhile, Perth-based Ophir Energy seeks to drill in Somaliland. Ophir
>> is led by Alan Stein and is 50%-owned by South Africa's Mvelaphanda
>> Holdings. Mvelphanda is run by Tokyo Sexwale and its Board of Directors
>> includes Michael Beckett (former Chairman of Ashanti Goldfields, a
>> company prevously run by Sir Jonah), and Bernard Van Rooyen (former
>> director of the Canadian firm Banro Resources). Ophir was reportedly
>> introduced to Somalia by Mvelaphanda's partner Dr Andrew Chakravarty,
>> who's wife is a well-connected Somali national. Mr. Chakravarty's Rova
>> Energy Corporation acquired offshore concessions formerly belonging to
>> Equitable Life Investment Company and its U.S. partner Somapetroleum.
>> Ophir currently is a 75% shareholder of Rova.
>>
>> The Rest, as They Say, is History
>>
>> Somalia's Transitional Government desired to keep Puntland as a part of
>> the larger Somalia. This fact, coupled with several nations'
>> unwillingness to work with the UIC (who may or may not recognize the
>> contracts) led to a need to restore the Transitional Government in
>> Mogadishu and remove the UIC. This line of thinking was directly in line
>> with the U.S., who wanted to control Somali for the aforementioned
>> geostrategic reasons and also to prevent the nation from becoming a
>> "terrorist safehaven." The U.S. backed Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia to
>> stamp out the UIC once-and-for-all. They also supplied air support and
>> Special Forces soldiers to aid in the mission. The UIC was run into
>> Kenya, where many of its leaders were arrested. Others fled into hiding
>> in southern Somalia.
>>
>> The U.S. officially continues to hunt Al-Qaeda in Somali. They are
>> pushing for an African peacekeeping force to be deployed in the nation as
>> soon as possible.
>>
>> Unsurprisingly, two nations with a history of acting as U.S. proxies in
>> the region answered the call. The Ugandan People's Defense Force (UPDF)
>> pledged two battalions to enforce the peace and train the Somali army.
>> The U.S. has pledged to provide logistics support for Uganda,which likely
>> will include airlift support.
>>
>> If the private military contractor Military Professional Resources
>> Incorporated (MPRI) gets involved in the logistics like they have in
>> Darfur, the context of U.S. involvement in Somalia could take on a whole
>> new outlook, especially if counterinsurgency operations become the norm.
>>
>> MPRI offers a perfect opportunity to embed U.S. operatives to do the
>> illicit bidding of the Pentagon the U.S. Armed Forces cannot. The Somali
>> Government has been reinstalled in Mogadishu and though violence is
>> constant in the city, the government has moved forward. Many of the
>> cabinet members are dual citizens, with the majority coming from Canada.
>> Others are former warlords.
>>
>> The Deputy Prime Minister is Hussein Farah Aideed, the son of the late
>> warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed. In contrast to his father, Hussein is
>> actually a naturalized American citizen and a former U.S. Marine who
>> served in the Gulf War. He even served as a U.S. emissary during
>> Operation Restore Hope, where he met with his father several times.
>>
>> With a central government in place, the corporations with concessions in
>> the more peaceful northern region of the country can begin their work.
>> ConocoPhillips has stated they are not interested in doing business in
>> Somalia at this time. Will ChevronTexaco and other American oil giants
>> take advantage of the opportunity to exploit Somalia? Only time will
>> tell, but Ophir, Rova, and Range Resources are probably grateful to the
>> U.S. and Ethiopia.
>>
>> 1. Madsen, Wayne. "Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999."
>> Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales, United Kingdom: Edwin Mellen Press, Limited.
>> 1999. pg. 31.
>>
>> 2. "The Oil Factor In Somalia," Mark Fineman. Los Angeles Times. 18
>> January, 1993.
>>
>> 3. Bowden, Mark. "Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War." New York, New
>> York: Penguin Putnam Incorporated. 1999.
>>
>> 4. "UN: Arms Pouring Into Somalia," Al-Jazeera. 8 October, 2006.
>>
>> 5. "U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia," Karen DeYoung, Emily Wax.
>> The Washington Post. 17 May, 2006. Note: A confidential U.N. Security
>> Council report revealed several armed Islamic groups armed and fought
>> with the UIC, including Hezbollah and fighters from several Islamic
>> nations including Saudi Arabia.
>>
>> 6. "Somalia: Fighting in the Shadows." Jeffery Bartholet, Michael Hirsh.
>> Newsweek. 5 June, 2006. Note: One of the planners for these types of
>> intelligence operations was Steven Cambone's Deputy Undersecretary of
>> Intelligence at the Pentagon, General William "Jerry" Boykin, who is
>> known for his anti-Islamic comments. Boykin commanded the Delta Force
>> team deployed in Mogadishu in 1993.
>>
>> 7. "Profile: Somalia's Islamist Leader," Joseph Winter. BBC News. 30
>> June, 2006.
>>
>> 8. Range Resources Limited. "Exclusive Rights to All Minerals in
>> Puntland." Company Announcements Office. 5 October, 2005.
>>
>> 9. President Mohamud Muse Hirse. "Letter to Consort Private Limited and
>> Mr. Tony Black." Office of the President. 18 October, 2005; Prime
>> Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi. "Letter to Puntland State of Somali and Vice
>> President Hassan Dahir Mohamud. Offic of the Prime Minister. OPM/251/05.
>> 2 November 2006.
>>
>> 10. "Minnows See Oil Seeping Out From Fractured State," Eleanor
>> Gillespie, Jon Marks. African Energy. Issue 100. 20 July, 2006.
>>
>> 11. Ibid.
>>
>> 12. State House of the Republic of Uganda. "'US to Provide UPDF Support
>> to (sic) Somalia' - Frazier." Press Release. 29 January, 2007.
>>
>> 13. Confidential Source. 2007.
>>
>> 14. Kevin Sites. "Son of Aideed." Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone. Yahoo
>> News. 29 September, 2005. http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs1077.
>>
>> Appendix I: Documentation
>>
>> Letter from President Hirse to Consort Private Limited:
>> http://www.zmag.org/racewatch/LetterHirse.pdf Letter from Prime Minister
>> Gedi to the Government of Puntland:
>> http://www.zmag.org/racewatch/LetterGedi.pdf
>>
>>
>
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