Since without a doubt Syria is certainly the baddest guy in the neighbourhood, what their president says about the prospect of stability in that country is of enormous importance for the stability of the whole area.

Therefore it’s good to take a closer look at what he actually said. I listened to him , but have only now been able to finally find a transcript from

Daily Alert ( naturally)

and here it is

Basher al Assad’s address to the Syrian Parliament

Compare Bashar al-Assad’s address with that of any of Senor Gaddafi’s….

It would also be un-reasonable to demand the lifting of  laws governing a state of emergency  right in the middle of an emergency, or rather in the middle of the storm that’s brewing, not in a tea cup but in the length and breadth of the old country and its cities in Syria…

( to be continued)

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Last night, I switched off the Sweden-Moldavia match after Sweden leading 1-0 was awarded a penalty which our boy, Sweden’s hero numero uno Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to score. I had expected the match to end 9-0 in Sweden’s favour, since Moldavia is a football nonentity.

You can ask, but most people haven’t ever heard that there’s a country whose people are called Moles or Moldavs (singular Moldaf – perhaps some distant cousin of  the  Muammar Gaddaf  who claims that our William Shakespeare was in reality an Arab whose real name was Sheikh Speare – just as perhaps Sheikh Gaddafi’s real name is Gandalf

And most people (you can count) don’t know where on the map the country  named Moldavia is, in either European history or geography or Tolkien mythology or whether they even play football in that unknown country. But alas – Sweden managed to win but only by 2-1 and yes, half a loaf is better than no bread at all, but what I saw didn’t impress me that much and apart from Sebastian Larsson scoring that first goal, we weren’t showing any colour or sparkle. The sun wasn’t shining.

Geographically speaking, Sweden is more of a polar bear nation and should perhaps advisedly stick to ice-hockey and with perseverance and much encouragement, all that training should pay good dividends and we shall through sleet and snow continue to shine in the Winter Olympics – the World Olympics specially designed for people born and bred in the North Pole kind of climate. People from more temperate climes or from the tropical summer zones are not cordially invited to compete since they would be chanslös…

The Great Brits gave us the game called foot-ball; they exported it – in fact it went hand in hand with British colonization and now all the former colonies are doing well in the game of football and most of them have football as their national sport – when it’s not cricket – the gentleman’s game, although when it’s between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, even though both of those nations love Cricket, for them it’s really a war, fought on the pitch, symbolically, and this time India won the war. At the shoot-out on the cricket pitch, on the exchange of Agni / nuclear fire,  India thrashed their political rivals Pakistan in today’s semi-finals in the world series.

Better luck next time, Pakistan…

Other political observers say that likewise it could have been better to have arranged a boxing match between George W Bush the Texan Cowboy and Saddam Hussein the Butcher of Baghdad. My friend from the Gambia says that at the end of round 8, Saddam would have taken off his gloves and gone for the jugular of the president of the United States of America and I ask him do you think that Sheriff George W Bush would be standing idly by allowing Saddam to continue doing just as he please ? George W would make some moves that you wouldn’t dream of. You saw how he ducked when he was targeted by that shoe thrower? George W would be sure to have something up his sleeve. And after George W had knocked Saddam down and out and he  finally woke up in his cell you’d hear George’s drawl inform Saddam, “You’re now under arrest.” To face  more Justice.

And a boxing match between Muammer al-Gaddafi and Barack Hussein Obama? Place your bets. Who would you put your money on, the old camel rider or the young basketball president?

And 12 Rounds David Cameron vs Mohammed Gaddafi?

I imagine that with a mighty roar of “Allahu Akbar !” Muammer al-Gaddafi (flee like a camel, pee like a bee) would enter the ring to make a rousing speech before the start of round one, issue a warning to the refer-ee, to the time kee-pers, to the Judges and assure his supporters that his blows would be delivered on their and on his own behalf, against Imperialism, Colonialism, NATO, the uncle toms in the Arab League and all those who want to steal his oil. My only fear for David Cameron is that – – no hooligan is he and yes he might be armed with a comforting vision of David and Goliath but Mr. Cameron in my view is not much of a pugilist not even by the Queensbury Rules standards,  if not backed by a few squadrons of the RAF and support helicopters.  I suppose that he would much prefer golf or tennis, or the literary and debating society or horse-riding, much prefer that to wobbling on the back of a camel – and of course, unlike Tony Blair I’m sure that Mr. Cameron would much prefer sipping tea with Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace – prefer that to shaking hands with  Colonel  Gaddafi in his tent in the middle of the desert or taking part in his coronation as “ king of kings of Africa”

But back to Bashar al-Assad. We understand the situation in Syria. We understand that it is a crime to even utter the name Israel in Damascus and that if you do that you are liable to be picked up by the State Security undercover Police who are supposed to be everywhere.

Today, listening to Bashar al-Assad delivering his address to the nation not at a bombed-out shelter or raving, ranting , rambling on, stamping on the ground and  screaming like the maniac Gaddafi ,

Today, we were  in the presence of a very dignified Bashar al-Assad addressing the Syrian nation from the podium of their House of Parliament where all the nation’s representatives were assembled, quite an impressive spectacle. And what I saw and heard was a sophisticated, cultured, gentle, affable, likeable, reasonable Bashar al- Assad talking to his people in a way that went home with even me.

For a no-holds barred frontal on Syria from a radical Islamic point of view, here’s the best that you can get on the net.

I end with this signature which I have now chosen as my signature:

The Most reliable source of BREAKING NEWS!

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Must Go Where? It’s the billion dollar question. Gaddafi is not particularly fond of the US  or Brother Obama just now. He probably dislikes the democratically elected Brother Obama in particular, followed by President Sarkozy, Prime Minister David Cameron, the UN and the Arab League which he now probably hates  more than he hated Ronald Reagan and the Iron Lady. Brother Obama in particular, since the US has “frozen” $32 Billion of his money. So, it’s unlikely that he will be applying for asylum there. People usually fly to where their cash is stashed. And now they’ve gone out of their way to make things even more difficult for him, with this “no-fly zone” thing. A revolutionary leader, a great big man like him, king of kings of Africa, can’t even leave his kingdom  – fly out, travel by air, by his own free will. Come and go as he likes, because of ” Human Rights” and now they’re talking about trying him, in Europe, ” for Crimes against humanity” Yes, crimes against “his bepple”

” My bepple love me!” , he croons.

Well if he ” loves” them in return, how come he’s killing them ?

Hasn’t he heard of the Golden Rule? He should include the Golden Rule in his Green Book….

The Golden Rule

Here is another delightful version of the GOLDEN RULE

The only worrying thing is that since NATO is set to suspend their bombing for 24 hours, the Pro Gaddafis will be making as much hay as they can, while the sun is still shining on them…

The London Conference on Libya was a success. 40 Nations assembled and at the end of the day what has for so long been a premise is now a unanimous conclusion – and if they only could they would issue their religiously binding fatwa: Gaddafi Must Go

The Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al Thani was impressive. He put it straight and without prevarication expressed the concerns that we all have, all based on the human values, shared by civilised people – and in my opinion, anyone who acts like a savage is a savage! Singular, savage, and in the plural, savages . It’s a word that’s clearly defined even in French and you will find to your consternation that even when properly applied in describing those who have committed beastly acts people object to the accuracy of the description and once more “savages” make new headlines in the news

Those who confine themselves to vegetables are called vegetarians, and those who eat up other humans are not to be called humanitarians, because they are cannibals.

More good news: 8 Swedish Jas Gripen to help maintain the no-fly zone over Libya

The Jas Gripen is no ordinary plane. It’s reassuring to know that as long as the Jas Gripen are in the air, the no-fly zone will be maintained.

“An army without profanity couldn’t fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.”

Who said that?

George S. Patton

He also said “ The more I see of Arabs the less I think of them. By having studied them a good deal I have found out the trouble. They are the mixture of all the bad races on earth, and they get worse from west to east, because the eastern ones have had more crosses.”

“A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood. “ ( George S. Patton)

But that was when he must have been experiencing some difficulties

And some good football news too. I watched the whole match on TV England vs. the Black Star Nation GHANA at Wembley. The Black Stars were simply marvellous and England too were wonderful and delivered the best diplomatic result they could , on the home turf:

England 1 – Ghana 1

Gyan must be the happiest man on earth and feeling like the king of Africa, elected by popular acclaim

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 An impressive photo of the the aircraft carrier named after Gaddafi’s best friend

And where would the world be today, without the USA? Without the UK? Without Nigeria?

Libya Latest

Talking about Gaddafi’s pernicious influence in Africa here is some more food for thought

Gaddafi and the RUF

Gaddafi & the ICC

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy35-y6kb9k

“The second big mistake by Gaddafi was his position vis-à-vis the African Union (AU) Continental Government “now”. Since 1999, he has been pushing this position. Black people are always polite. They, normally, do not want to offend other people. This is called: ‘obufura’ in Runyankore, mwolo in Luo – handling, especially strangers, with care and respect. It seems some of the non-African cultures do not have ‘obufura’. You can witness a person talking to a mature person as if he/she is talking to a kindergarten child. “You should do this; you should do that; etc.” We tried to politely point out to Col. Gaddafi that this was difficult in the short and medium term. We should, instead, aim at the Economic Community of Africa and, where possible, also aim at Regional Federations. Col. Gaddafi would not relent. He would not respect the rules of the AU. Something that has been covered by previous meetings would be resurrected by Gaddafi. He would ‘overrule’ a decision taken by all other African Heads of State. Some of us were forced to come out and oppose his wrong position and, working with others, we repeatedly defeated his illogical position. ” ( Museveni)

The article

It’s significant that President Museveni talks about Gaddafi’s problems with “Africa South of the Sahara” ( Black Africa)

A question that must be in everyone’s mind is this one : If Gaddafi cannot achieve unity within his own borders in Libya, how on earth is he ( even as King of kings of Africa) going to preside over a “United States of Africa” ?

To get a more realistic idea of some of the hurdles and setbacks that could have to be overcome, in the long journey to birthing “ The United States of Africa “ – the whole continent, North and South, East , West and Central ( including Mauritius and Madagascar) let’s continue with the history of Gaddafi’s engagement for Arab Unity:

Pages 345-349 of Raphael Patai’s “ The Arab Mind “ ( 1983 edition)

“Consultations on the draft  constitution of the FAR took place on June 17-28. On August 20, the three heads of state approved and signed it in Damascus . On September 1, the referendum took place, and in each of these three countries the vote was very close to 100% for the federation. Next day, the name of Egypt, United Arab Republic ( this name was the last survival of the short-lived union with Syria), was changed to Arab Republic of Egypt. On October 4, the three-man presidential council meeting in Cairo, chose Sadat as president of FAR. Two days later, after approving plans for a foreign policy council, a federal cabinet, military coordination, the first meeting of the presidential council adjourned.

For the next several months the FAR seemed to be dormant. All that happened was that on December 24 the presidential council announced the first federation cabinet, and on March 12, 1972, the presidential council of the three member states took the oath of office as the presidential council ( after it had had a manner of existence for more than five months), and the first assembly of the FAR was convened in Cairo. On June 23-24, the three presidents met in Mersa Matruh and resolved to unify the trade unions and news agencies and to create a land transport company.

In contrast to these symbolic moves and minor technical steps, major differences began to emerge . Syria seceded from the federation. Egypt and Libya could not agree on the pace at which the union between them should be realized . On July 23, 1972, Qadhdhafi let it be known that as far back as February he had offered to merge Libya with Egypt, but that Sadat had asked for five months to consider the proposal. Finally in August 2, 1972, Sadat and Qadhdhafi announced in Benghazi that they had agreed to establish complete unity between Egypt and Libya, as soon as possible. Seven committees would be formed to draw up plans for a unified political leadership, to be submitted to national referendum by 1 September, 1973, exactly two years after the first referendum. At a subsequent (September 18,1972) Sadat and Qadhdhafi agreed that the two countries should have a single president elected by a popular vote, a single party, and a single government , and that the capital of the union should be Cairo. Meetings between Sadat and Asad ( September 28, 1972) and between Sadat, Asad and Qadhdhafi ( October 5 1972) continued , with some of them designated as official sessions of the presidency council of the FAR( February 4-5, 1973), at which problems of the unification were thrashed back and forth , plans were made only to be abandoned , ways of understanding were sought, and new differences surfaced.

On April 15,1973, Qadhdhafi , the younger and more impetuous of the two leaders, stated in a speech in Tripoli that the planned merger between Libya and Egypt was “ a matter of destiny and a matter of life and death.” In the same speech he accused Egypt and Syria, Libya’s partners in the FAR , of being willing to settle with Israel for the return of their territories seized by Israel in the 1967 war, and charged “the Arab regimes” in general with having destroyed the Palestinian revolution in collaboration with Israel. On June 28, he told reporters in Cairo that he and Sadat had differences over the proposed union of Egypt and Libya. Libya, he said, was prepared to sacrifice its wealth for a union, but not its cultural revolution. And he announced that if a complete union was not achieved by September 1 of that year, he would resign.

In order to increase pressure on Egypt, Qadhdhafi arranged on July 18, 1973, for an unusual mass demonstration: he sent 20,000 Libyans on trucks to Egypt. Sadat warned that the demonstrations would lead to “ risks and dangers,” and ordered his forces to stop the mechanised caravan at the border. The Libyans withdrew. The next day( July 19) , Cairo Radio announced that Egypt had proposed a plan to Libya under which the union would be postponed for at least a year. On July23, Sadat said that the union with Libya should be carried out in stages and that emotion was not a firm foundation for unity – a transparent rebuke of Qadhdhafi. On the same day Qadhdhafi announced that he withdrew his resignation of September 1, and would remain in his post until unity with Egypt was achieved.

On August 5-10 , Egyptian Deputy Premier Abd el-Qadir Hatim held talks in Tripoli with Qadhdhafi about the planned unification and on the 7^th Cairo Radio said that the two countries had reached agreement on the “steps and manner“ of declaring a union on September 1.

On August 26, Qadhdhafi arrived in Cairo unexpectedly to discuss the proposed merger , but the next day he announced that Egypt had turned down a proposal to hold a referendum asking voters to decide between immediate unity or unity in steps. Two days later ( August 19) it had become clear that Sadat’s plan of step-by-step union had won out over Qadhdhafi’s insistence on instant union. The two leaders issued a joint statement that said that on September 1 ( that is, three days later) Egypt and Libya would (1) establish a constitutional assembly to draft a joint constitution; (2) adopt a new monetary unit, the dinar, for trade between the two countries; (3) exchange resident ministers , and (4) set up a joint secretariat to assist the constituent assembly and the resident ministers.

Having effectively blocked Qadhdhafi’s plan for an immediate union on September 1, Sadat devoted his attention to other issues, which he considered more urgent. On September 10-12 he conferred in Cairo with President Asad of Syria and King Hussein of Jordan , the main subject presumably being the plan to attack Israel on October 6. The absence of Qadhdhafi from this strategic meeting was conspicuous. Nor did Libya play any role in the October war launched by Egypt and Syria against Israel. Only after the cease-fire between Egypt and Israel did Qadhdhafi arrive in Cairo ( October 25) to discuss the military situation.

During the ensuing six months , again no significant development occurred with respect to the Egyptian -Libyan union, although the Egyptian. Syrian- Libyan Federal Assembly continued to exist, at least on paper. On February 16, 1974, Qadhdhafi announced that he was ready to train revolutionaries to impose unity on Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt. Two days later he paid one of his surprise visits to Cairo.

In the spring of 1974, the relations between the two countries , which were supposed to be on the verge of union , deteriorated rapidly. On April 19, a group of leftists and leftist students attacked the Egyptian Military Technical College. Elven persons were killed and twenty-seven injured. That the attack was instigated by Libya was taken for granted in Egypt. As a first reaction, the Egyptian members of a mixed parliamentary delegation from the Egyptian—Syrian-Libyan Federal Assembly refused ( on April21) to travel to Libya, in protest over alleged Libyan contact with leaders of the attack. Three days later, Egypt’s state prosecutor charged that the attack was a plot to overthrow Sadat, and that its leader had previously had a long meeting with Qadhdhafi. On April 28, Egypt and Libya simultaneously took steps that increased the tension between the two states which officially were still committed to a complete union: an official Egyptian document explicitly accused Qadhdhafi of having instigated a plot to arrest Sadat and to overthrow his moderate government; and Qadhdhafi said that Egypt had forfeited its right to financial aid as a “ confrontation state” – the term used to designate those Arab sates whose attitude to Israel was most bellicose.

In May and June, 1974 Libyan Premier Abd al-Salam Jallud had several nonproductive meetings with Sadat ( on May 12 he arrived in Cairo unexpectedly.) Libya thereupon recalled the mirage jets it had loaned to Egypt. On August 7, Sadat unleashed a strongly worded attack on Qadhdhafi. Three days later Qadhdhafi again appeared unexpectedly in Alexandria in an apparent move to improve strained relations between the two countries.

For more than a year thereafter , the situation was quiescent. It heated up up again in June , 1975, when the Libyan Revolution Command Council condemned Egypt’s opening of the Suez Canal as “high treason” . On the 24^th, the Egyptian police broke up a ring of saboteurs allegedly backed by Libya and training to assassinate political leaders. In August, Libya banned Egyptians from entering the country, and a border clash took place between Libya and Egypt. After another seven months of silence, events took a dangerous turn. IN the spring of 1976 the two countries mutually accused each other of sabotage, and travel across the border was banned. In the summer there were numerous bombings in Egypt for which Libya was considered responsible; the Libyan ambassador was expelled from Egypt; Egypt sent troops and weapons to its Western border to protect it from Libya; and on August 19,  it closed its Libyan border. Libya in turn asked Egypt to close its diplomatic bureau in Benghazi ( August 23) , and arrested two Egyptians who, it was announced confessed to having been sent to Libya to carry out assassination and sabotage. Frustrated in his plans to bring about a union between Libya and Egypt in which he would have been the chief of the united forces, Qadhdhafi resorted in September 1976, to a gesture that had no practical significance , but which represented symbolically what he was unable to achieve in reality: he had official maps issued that showed some 52,000 square miles of Algerian, Chadian and Nigerian territory as being within the borders of Libya.

At this point contact was resumed between Egypt and Syria, and, after talks in Cairo between Sadat and Asad , the two countries announced on December 21, 1976, that they would form a “united political leadership, ” and study the possibility of a future union. This announcement was a masterpiece of vagueness as it represents a verbal statement of intention without any concrete commitment to its realisation.

In February 1977, events between Egypt and Libya took a further turn for the worse. A bombing in Alexandria was followed by a confession by five suspects of being Libyan agents sent to Cairo to commit sabotage ( March 11) Thereupon , on March 26, Egypt again closed its borders with Libya , and, on April15, shut down its consulate in Benghazi. On July 21, fighting broke out between Egyptian and Libyan troops, with each side calling the other aggressor; air strikes were carried out on both sides of the border, and, according to Libya, even deep inside Libya. Armed conflict inevitably brought into play the traditional Arab method of ending it by accord. However the war of words between Egypt and Libya continued.”

( To be continued)

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fwm3l

This throws some light on the present and is Well worth listening to, it was broadcast today, featuring among others, Sweden’s Foreign Minister , Carl Bildt: : BBC World Debate on “The West and the Middle East ( there’s some discussion about The Arab League etc.)

For now, I’ll side-step but will later return to Yoweri Museveni’s contention that “Idi Amin came to power with the support of Britain and Israel because they thought he was uneducated enough to be used by them. Amin, however, turned against his sponsors when they refused to sell him guns to fight Tanzania.”

Museveni says of Gaddafi’s coup and taking over the reins in Libya: “ We welcomed him because he was in the tradition of Col. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt who had a nationalist and pan-Arabist position.”

Museveni says that “The second big mistake by Gaddafi was his position vis-à-vis the African Union (AU) Continental Government “now”. Since 1999, he has been pushing this position .“

This sort of persistence goes to show that the old Gaddafi is as determined in his last days as he was in his first days and for an explanation of this we have to go to the history of his earlier Pan- Arab engagements, without getting trapped in that history since there is always a possibility of flexibility and change as a way forward/ approach  to even a fixed goal….

Well, here is an interesting aspect of the earlier Gaddafi and if we understand that past we are then in a better position to understand his relationship to the Arab League and to his dogged determination to press ahead with the birthing of a United States of Africa, having transferred his energies, his ambitions and his petro-dollars to his African dream, mostly on his own terms – and our understanding should not diminish our admiration for his commitment to the idea of unity – but unfortunately, in all instances it seems that he is always in such a great hurry – and in al-Islam the watchword is “ al-Sabr ” ( patience/ endurance ) as enshrined in al-Asr .

I have a stack of Jerusalem Post International print editions going back about a year and I’m still catching up with my reading – old issues, even last week’s edition as history, a sort of contemporary history , not the sort of history that’s written retrospectively. And that’s what’s interesting reading, Raphael Patai’s The Arab Mind 1983 edition ( downloadable through that link) -  The Arab Mind has the same characteristic often missing in retrospective histories, the feeling that we do not know the future and are dealing with contemporary events without the advantage of hindsight. My quotes here are from his last chapter pages 314 – 356 – the postscript, entitled “ The Last Ten years.”

Pages 344-345:

“On December 27, 1969, Nasser, President Ja’far al-Numieri of Sudan and the ruler of Libya , Col. Mu’ammar Qadhdhafi , signed The Tripoli Declaration, establishing a triple alliance and a revolutionary Arab front. Nasser’s death on September 28^th 1970, prevented the realisation of this plan.

Despite these invariably negative results of experimentation with a union between Egypt and other Arab countries, Nasser’s successor , President Anwar Sadat , could not resist the lure of Arab unity and embarked on a series of attempts at unifying , or federating, Egypt with one or more other Arab States. The first of these attempts was initiated a few weeks after Sadat assumed the presidency, in October 1970. In November, negotiations began for a federation between Egypt, Libya and Sudan. On November 8, the leaders of the three countries announced that they had reached an agreement to work towards a federation that would become the nucleus of unity for the Arab nations. On November 27 , after talks between Sadat and Syrian premier Hafiz al- Asad, it was announced that Syria would join the Egyptian -Libyan- Sudanese alliance. On January 20, 1971 ,  a conference took place in Cairo between the four heads of state followed by additional meetings in March and April. On April 17, it was announced that Libya, Syria, and Egypt had reached an agreement to establish a Federation of Arab Republics ( FAR), providing federal rule by a presidential council, a single constitution, and joint defence and foreign policies. A referendum to endorse the pact was to take place on September 1, 1971.. No mention was made of Sudan, nor any explanation given as to why it no longer figured in the planned four-state federation.

From here on the development took a leisurely course.”

( To be continued, through the many exciting twists and turns. )

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Farrakhan defends Gaddafi and pans US role in Libya

at the

6th Annual Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Conference

at which

he must have felt like a giant barracuda swimming in familiar waters

Once Again, Hon. Minister Farrakhan is bitter and mostly repeating himself and not really saying anything new – although he says something new in the interview he gives in his Final Call that, “And, he ( Gaddafi) wrote in his Green Book that he saw the future of the world in the hands of Black people.” – which should cheer up especially the Black people in this forum…

Now what’s all this, that Gaddafi “has played the role of a forceful parent in post-colonial Libya.”?

So that’s what forceful parents do, is it, kill or execute all their children who don’t agree with them?

Is that one of the reasons why the US or indeed any other nation “ lacks the moral authority to intervene in the Libyan conflict”?

Is it the same consideration “ lack of moral authority” that should prevent or have prevented the US from intervening during the slaughter in Rwanda?

I don’t want to take this further because I have a lot of respect for Minister Louis Farrakhan in some other quarters….and he should stop turning a blind eye to the faults of his friend Gaddafi and he should reconsider the maxim when assessing these kinds of situations, that “ two rights don’t make a wrong.” – because he seems to be always saying that because the US has not done enough for the poorer and more disadvantaged members of US society, people like Gaddafi should be allowed to get away with mass murder.

Minister Farrakhan says that he is being misinterpreted

And according to King Gaddafi’s Sheikh Speare,  here are the words of an English King, breathing war, once more

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First of all, very briefly, the exact nature and content of the relationship between the anti-Semitic Gaddafi and his dear friend Idi Amin, prior to the Entebbe Operation – before Amin’s eventual defeat and his self-imposed exile, first to Libya in 1979 and then when the heat was too great for him, he fled from Libya to Saudi Arabia in 1980.

Gaddafi, not a man known for modesty, later on took on the title of “king of kings of Afrika” (but of course not of Saudi Arabia and the Arabs, since that would have been impertinence if not insolence and he would have been thrown out of the Arab League, peremptorily).

Lord Idi Amin also a man fond of titles, had decorated himself with the Imperial title of Emperor of the living and the dead, as “His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.”

Amin had travelled half the world, his mission, to obtain weapons with which he believed he would fulfil his ambitions of imperial expansion, starting with the conquest and annexation of Tanzania and the capture of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere as a prisoner of war. His mission was a step closer to fulfilment when he arrived in Tripoli and Gaddafi finally asked him , “ So weapons is your problem? “

“Yes Bwana Muammer” guffawed Idi , “ Weapons! If I could only get my hands on them”

“No problem”, the Libyan colonel assured Dada Amin; “ I will supply you with all the weapons that you need, but on one condition ”

“ Only one? “

“ Yes”, smiled the revolutionary colonel, “the one condition is this: When you get back to Kampala you must make sure that you completely fuck up all the Israelis in your territories! “

They then shook hands on the deal and on the same night that Idi Amin arrived in Kampala, he gave the order that all Israelis and Jews within his dominions were given 48 hours to leave the country or report to the nearest Police Station, because after those 48 hours had expired he would no longer be responsible for their safety in Ugandan territory.

The rest is history.

My beef here is not with Yoweri Museveni but with Muammer Gaddafi the strongest man of Libya.

At least Museveni is not silent like some of the other African leaders who are also beholden to Gaddafi , since he has bankrolled them and certain projects and in some cases taken over responsibility for large chunks of their national budgets and in a few cases is even maintaining them in power ( monetarily speaking)

As promised I will take up what Museveni says in that article ( in its chronological order) and deliver a blow by blow commentary and analysis:

He says “By the time Muammar Gaddaffi came to power in 1969, I was a third year university student at Dar-es-Salaam. We welcomed him because he was in the tradition of Col. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt who had a nationalist and pan-Arabist position.”

It would seem that Museveni is hereby at least tacitly in agreement with Colonel Gaddafi’s method of “coming into power” – by a military coup d’etat. A bad precedent for the bullet and not the ballot method as a good way “for coming to power”. There have been so many coups in Africa, after Gaddafi, who in 42 years has still not held an election….

Museveni welcomes Gaddafi because he believes that Gaddafi is “in the tradition of Col. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt who had a nationalist and pan-Arabist position.”

Sounds like Museveni was about to send in his application for Uganda to join the Pan-Arab Movement even back then in 1969 ?

It would seem that with a United States of Africa with Gaddafi as it’s first president, in no time at all the United States of Africa would be invited to join the Arab League, under the benign gaze of President Gaddafi….

I have just watched the ( for me) sorrowful interview of Jean Ping, on BBC Hardtalk … it seems that Ping would have liked the African Union to have gone into some meaningless talk with Gaddafi , about a ceasefire, 48 hours before – according to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi – the entry of pro-Gaddafi forces in Benghazi where they were going to show “no mercy”.to inhabitants of the opposition’s headquarters…

Interesting to note that Ping reveals Gaddafi has not paid its dues to the African Union these past two years, “ to put pressure” on the African Union , to accelerate their movement towards achieving “The United States of Africa” ( of course with him as president for life…)

We are at the very beginning of Museven’s article, in fact we are still on the second sentence of his apology for Gaddafi….. I should like to say a few words about Pan – Arabism in relation to the rest of Africa, and Europe, when I continue with my commentary…..

(Somewhere else, in a pro-Gaddafi article there is some small-talk about

” the liberatory Islam articulated by Gaddafi”…

My question is : What/where is this so called “liberatory Islam articulated by Gaddafi”?

Mind you, my question does not imply that I espouse or in any way endorse this guide-book :

The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran

or the books written by  Ibn Warraq

But it’s Museveni’s article that we are concerned about here, and I’ll stick to just that in the succeeding episodes….):

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At this point in time I am particularly incensed by this story now filling media space about

this poor woman who was raped in Libya and has now been bundled into a jeep and driven to an unknown fate and and destination by Gaddafi’s jihadists

In the meantime, this  good-willed message arrived in my mailbox, unexpected and  unheralded:

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series – Day 37/103. The great Gaddafi now has 37 days of uprising behind him…

Reply

from Dompere, Kofi Kissi <kdompere@howard.edu> to “usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com” <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> cc Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> date 25 March 2011 21:36 subject RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series – Day 37/103. The great Gaddafi now has 37 days of uprising behind him… mailed-by howard.edu

hide details 21:36 (22 hours ago)

DEAR CORNELIUS HAMELBERG

Your analysis is always neocolonial in orientation.
THANKS FOR JOINING THE WESTERN PROPAGANDA MACHINE.

Do you remember all the lies that were promoted by UN on Iraq?
Instruments of mass destruction?
Collateral damage,
Bringing democracy…………of course to the dead
Brutal dictators except when it is working to steal resources for the Western imperial system
Friends of the West
Against the Western interest.
Stability even if the citizens are being cluttered as in Yemen and Bahrain
Overthrow of democratically elected government;
Chile
Vietnam
The Congo
What about the imperial racism and racialism that are the characteristics of this imperial system
Is UN not a dictatorial organization imposing the will of the imperial system on the rest of the world?

These statements are sometimes racist in orientation
“Distance, or a lack of closeness or empathy with the victims of Gaddafi’s brutality towards his own people must be the reason why some people think that Gaddafi is right in doing what he’s doing.”

Perhaps because he is not  he’s not doing it to those we consider to be  ”our own”, people?

“If  any of our African countries South of the Sahara, say Nigeria or Ghana, had someone like Gaddafi doing the same things to our people, or Gaddafi himself  was doing the same to Nigerians and Ghanaians  I’m sure that the reaction  would be even much stronger : it would be a universal  hue and cry from this forum: Gaddafi must go”

Not content with the heinous crime of bombing Libya’s mosques, the villain Sheikh Gaddafi now bombs the main hospital at Masuria, not from the air but with bombardment from tanks and heavy artillery on the ground. This means that to protect CIVILIAN LIVES, the Allies will and MUST engage the madman’s troops on the ground.”

QUESTION: When the Europeans came to AFRICA, did they bring democracy or terror?
Any way thank you.
RHYTHM, JUSTICE AND PEACE
KOFI KISSI DOMPERE

My reply was equally polite:

from Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> to “Dompere, Kofi Kissi” <kdompere@howard.edu> cc “usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com” <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> date 26 March 2011 17:12 subject Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series – Day 37/103. The great Gaddafi now has 37 days of uprising behind him… mailed-by gmail.com

hide details 17:12 (2 hours ago)

Kofi Dompere Kissi,

I haven’t seen your kind letter surface on the List serve, perhaps because in compassion towards you it would be better for it not to appear there since I’d have to dress you down , in order to defend myself and our interests..

Sincerely said

your anti-colonial chimpanzee – which as you can imagine, does not refer to me….

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The article

http://english.alshahid.net/archives/19376

I’ve read through the unabbreviated version of Museveni’s article and intend to do a critical blow by blow commentary on all that he says, beginning with what I believe to be his deliberate miss-interpretation and concealment of Gaddafi’s anti-Semitism as a motivating factor – - the rabid passion that motivated Gaddafi to exploit and manipulate Idi Amin the way he did, with this ultimately leading to Operation Entebbe on 4^th July 1976… I was in New York on that day…..celebrating 200 years of American Independence.

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=Operation+Entebbe

I say “ deliberate miss-interpretation and concealment of Gaddafi’s politics of anti-Semitism“, because we are all fully acquainted with the facts, and Mr. Museveni himself has had time to consider and reflect on what happened, how it happened and why it happened, so it’s not as if he is failing to give an accurate picture, due to any oversight.

Museveni writes:

“Idi Amin came to power with the support of Britain and Israel because they thought he was uneducated enough to be used by them. Amin, however, turned against his sponsors when they refused to sell him guns to fight Tanzania. Unfortunately, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, without getting enough information about Uganda, jumped in to support Idi Amin. This was because Amin was a ‘Moslem’ and Uganda was a ‘Moslem country’ where Moslems were being ‘oppressed’ by Christians. Amin killed a lot of people extra-judicially and Gaddafi was identified with these mistakes. In 1972 and 1979, Gaddafi sent Libyan troops to defend Idi Amin when we attacked him. I remember a Libyan Tupolev 22 bomber trying to bomb us in Mbarara in 1979. The bomb ended up in Nyarubanga because the pilots were scared. They could not come close to bomb properly. We had already shot-down many Amin MIGs using surface-to-air missiles. The Tanzanian brothers and sisters were doing much of this fighting. Many Libyan militias were captured and repatriated to Libya by Tanzania. This was a big mistake by Gaddafi and a direct aggression against the people of Uganda and East Africa.”

I will narrate the exact nature and content of the relationship between Gaddafi and Amin later. Their relationship prior to the Entebbe Operation.

There are a number of holes to be discerned in Yoweri Museveni’s apologies on behalf of Colonel Gaddafi, Libya’s dictator of the past 42 years.

I’ll identify some of them, one at a time and I intend to do so on Sunday, as I do not have time to do so between now and then. I should take a good shot at this and treat the matter most seriously, since he is after all one of the more serious-minded presidents of Africa and probably someone who by Sheikh Abdul’s standards could be called a “great thinker”

For just now, first of all let’s take a look at the man who is doing the tattling:

Museveni himself ( lived in Sweden for a couple of months in the 70s) is one of the long-lasting presidents of Africa – he’s been president of Idi Amin’s Uganda for the past twenty five years, and on his way to the Ugandan presidency he fought against Dada Idi Amin and was part of the rebellion that deposed Milton Obote in 1985. Since 1986 when he first became president of Uganda he has given himself two presidential life extensions by amending the Ugandan Constitution to allow himself to run for President for the fourth and fifth and sixth time…. and so it’s understandable that he would tend to apologise for his brother Gaddafi’s extended reign of 42 years without pause or interruption or even an election,democratic or sham – with all the added powers that come with incumbency.

Mr Museveni expressing some understanding : “However, in condemning his (Gaddafi’s) long stay in office, it is important to take a closer look at the monarchical culture of the Arabs.”

In Gaddafi’s case, it’s been a sort of self-appointment-for-life, achieved through overthrowing the monarch, King Idriss of Libya by a military coup in 1969 – and it should be in place to note, the fact that he later on crowned himself “King of Kings of Africa” only goes to show how deeply this desert revolutionary esteems the institution of monarchy which he overthrew in Libya, only to confirm it in himself, by crowning/ enthroning himself as the “ King of Kings of Africa” – king of Kings over  Youweri Museveni himself and the rest of Africa, without as much as a squeak of protest from the likes of Museveni who were gathered around King Gaddafi’s throne, to adore him – not at the Royal Palace but presumably at his Bedouin Arab tent….

I wonder what Chancellor Williams himself would have thought of the event.

Or Duke Ellington. Would he have composed a special piece for Yoruba drums and Abdullah Ibrahim on Jungle piano?

And Paul Robeson?

There He STOOD

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