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Sudan – Erratic Diplomacy at Best
Note this excerpt from a recent Reuters story: "U.S. Fears Serious Famine in Troubled Sudan Region" By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:52 pm EST “The United States fears a large-scale famine in Sudan’s restive border states of Southern...
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Sudan: A Legacy of Tribal and Ethnic Conflicts
“Africa Has a History of Irrational Borders” (Excerpts from When the White House Calls, and February 8, 2012 Commentary, Sudan- Erratic Diplomacy at Best) In the seventh-century Arab traders sailed into the various ports along the coastline of the Horn...
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Syria: Regime Change Will be Bloody Without a Diplomatic Endgame Plan
The Wall Street Journal article, “U.S. Envoy Paints Dire Syria Scenario”, of May 31, 2012, writers Joe Lauria and Nour Malas note remarks by Ambassador Susan Rice made at the UN. “Urging Security Council penalties on Syria, [Rice] sketched out an...
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The 14th Anniversary of Terrorist Attacks on America
As I sat in our New York apartment on Friday looking across Central Park I could see the early morning runners, bike riders, and people just leisurely walking through the maze of tree lined walkways. It suddenly dawned on me today was September 11, the...
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The 2012 Election Polls in Mali May be in Trouble
Note this recent news out of sub-Saharan Africa: "Gaddafi’s Influence in Mali’s Coup" By Thomas Fessy BBC News, West Africa correspondent 22 March 2012 last updated at 16:36 ET BBC NEWS AFRICA “It did not take long for the Libyan conflict to spill over...
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The Arab Spring didn’t buy us many friends
The Arab Spring brought about regime change. At the same time it emboldened a new generation of Salafi Islamists-- spurred on by ultraconservative imams who had been muzzled for years. They were now able to freely spew their anti-Western venom. The...
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The Diplomatic Security Service Failed to Protect?
“After the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was attacked in 1983, the Inman Advisory Panel on Overseas Security issued a report in 1985, which led to the establishment of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.” We are living in the most crucial time in modern...
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“Is it about liberation of Mali, or Uranium and Oil Resources?” The Arab Spring uprising led to the U.S.-backed NATO incursion into Libya last March, in which Muammar Gadhafi was assassinated. Some experts believe the real motive was Libya’s oil, the...
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The Increase of Islamist Attacks is Alarming
We are living in the most crucial time in modern history since the Cold War. Today’s enemy is not a standing army of a sovereign nation. It is a theological movement with a mission to destroy Western civilization. As the Cold War ended in the 1980s,...
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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Wahhabism and Oil Exports
Wahhabism in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Horn of Africa, East Africa and Sahel region The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Arabian Peninsula, which borders on Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates,...
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The Malian Diaspora: A Product of the Arab Spring
“Over 400,000 refugees from Mali have fled to Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Algeria” On September 10, 2012 Yeah Samake, the mayor of Ouéléssébougou in Mali, and I visited the Mintao Refugee Camp located in the northern Burkina Faso town of Djibo....
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The Republic of Mali: Under Siege
In the 1950′s, the independence movement became endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with Ghana in 1957. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a socialist, became Ghana’s first president. Nkrumah founded the Pan-African movement with the goal of liberating and...
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The Republic of Yemen: Al-Qaeda’s Backyard
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Horn of Africa, East Africa and Sahel region The Republic of Yemen is divided into two principal Islamic religious factions, the Shia Zaydi sect in the north, and Sunni Shafi sect in the south. Before...
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Timbuktu ‘Festival of the Desert’ May be Catalyst for Peace
Last year I met Malian musician Mamadou Diabate, the 2009 Grammy Award winner of the “Best Traditional World Music” for his album ‘Douga Mansa’. Mamadou had also composed the song ‘Bogna’ meaning “Respect is the healing medicine of peace. Peace is the...
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I have been writing about Mali, even before the military coup that took place in March 2012, since my friend Mayor Yeah Samake was running for president. The coup destabilized the country, and the elections were called off. In the aftermath the...
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U.S Consulate in Benghazi: Attacked by Terrorists
“Al-Qaeda has been working hard to gain a foothold in every country that has a significant Muslim population, and to destabilize the region, and attack Western interests. The attacks on September 11, 2012 were well planned and executed. To believe they...
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U.S. at War: Airstrikes have begun in Syria
Fighting between tribal and religious factions is not new. Rulers and dictators have come and gone through history. In the 12th century Sultan Saladin’s Muslim forces defeated the Crusaders, and created a caliphate in the Middle East and North Africa....
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U.S. CODEL Visits Mali for a Day
On Monday February 18, 2013 a U.S. congressional delegation (CODEL) visited Bamako for one-day. Headed by Senator Christopher Coons, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa, he was accompanied by Senator Johnny Isakson,...
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U.S. Policy Advisors on the Middle East Region
The world is wondering why the United States has moved so slowly to wipe out radical Islamist groups, as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that are destabilizing much of the Middle East and parts of Africa. Battle-hardened rebels have been...
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What Did the Arab Spring Accomplish?
The root of discontent stemmed from unjust governance, poverty, food insecurity and unemployment issues. Regime change did not build democratic institutions. The political instability opened the door to Islamists bent on creating Islamic states. The...