Footnotes

When Change Entails A Preservation Of The Status Quo.

2010-08-09T01:59:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since the much maligned DSO (Directorate of Special Operations) commonly refered to as the Scopions was disbanded. The Scopions, styled after the American FBI, had been established during the Mbeki era to specifically tackle corruption, sophisticated organised crime as well as international criminal groups with a footing in South Africa. The law enforecment agency with the power to both investigate and prosecute, however, fell out of favour once it started to investigate the very ANC government responsible for its existence as well as ANC connected politicians and business deals with allerged links to corruption such as the then Deputy President Jacob Zuma, Durban Businessman Shabir Shaik, Mac Maharaj and the South African Arms Deal. And so the Scopions were consigned to the grave of history and in their place the so called Hawks sprung up.
But if the happenings of the past few days are a testimony to anything, it is this; change in the South African political context is increasingly a preservation or maintenance of the status quo.
You may wonder what I'm refering to.
Well, Mzilikazi wa Africa is, by any standard a great journalist. He was, in case you've forgotten, the jorno behind the busting of the numerous forces at play in the infamous South African Arms Deal and the ensuing court drama that Zuma, and his so called financial adviser Shabir Shaik, experienced before the resurgent Polokwane ANC faction is said to have subverted the legal process and insured his freedom.
But wa Afrika's story in a recent edition of The Sunday Times concerning an allerged questionable signing of a new Police Head Quarters' lease agreement, worth a whooping half a billion rand by the SAPS' General Cele, appears to have so infurited the big wigs in the South African Police Service and and by implication the ANC at large that, wa Afrika was quickly and unceremoniously bundled up in a manner reminiscent of the Scopions era and locked away for several days. Coincidentally, those bigwigs are ANC members appointed into public positions by the selfsame ruling party!
For a Party that disbanded the previous crime fighting organisation partly on the pretext that the agency was conducting its activities in the full glare of the the public, that arrest, of wa Afrika, was nothing less than a disgrace, to say the least! One would have thought that the disbanding of the Scopions was done with the interest of the wider public at heart and that with the Scopions out of the way, never again would any individual be subjects to the 'Hollywood' style indignities said to have been visited on promiment individuals such as the present President of the Republic, Mr J.G Zuma. Nonetheless, the wa Afrika case proves that the ANC, in fact, disbanded the Scopions purely for its own selfish reasons, namely to protects its numerous corrupt brothers and sisters even as the Selebi conviction proved this very week. And if anything, the Selebi case proves that, had it not been for the intervention of goons in the NPA, epitomized by the former director of the NPA, Mokotedi Mpshe, Zuma himself would have today been donning a prison issue orange jump suit for the crimes he is alleged to have committed!
Therefore, the more one looks at the state of affairs of South African politics, especially under the ANC governament, the more one is reminded of the enduring lesson on the frailty of the human condition as vividly portrayed in Oswell's Animal Farm and all the while the adage that says "the more things change, the more they remain the same", is prove true.
For the ANC, it is certainly great now that the Hawks directorate of priority crime is functional as it assures it members of not being subjected to the indignities they 'suffered' under the tenure of Thabo Mbeki and his 'Scopions'. But even as its memebers are considered above the law and worthy of protection, member of the public especially the media, are increasingly being targeted because of their position as watchdogs on behalf of the common man.
May all, therefore, who value the freedoms enshrined in the supreme law of the land continue to speak vociferously against the blatant abuse of public institutions by the ANC government as it pursues narrow and petty vendettas against the long suffering members of the fourth estate as failure to do that would eventually undermine the numerous freedoms under the constitution and entrench an Animal Farm like dispensation in South Africa.

FIFA World Cup 2010: Justifying The Hosting Decision And Quantifying The Economic Benefits For The Host Country?

2010-06-11T02:43:00.000-07:00

With only minutes, as it were, before the kickoff of the first FIFA World Cup on Africa soil,the euphoria is pulpable. Flags are slapping the air and Vuvuzelas( South Africa's traditional soccer horns) were blown with even more vigor right around the country as members of the country's national team were treated to a heros parade, the other day, as they arrived at their World Cup base in Sandton, Africa's Premier real estate. And, of course, throughout the week, participating teams have been jetting in, in readiness for today's kickoff of the world's most spectacular sports event.
However, last night almost capped it all what with the Live Concert featuring the cream of local and international music stars belting it out in the middle of, Orlando, Soweto.

Regardless of all the euphoria, however, questions still linger on whether the decision to host the magnificent game can be morally justified let alone whether the expected economic benefits will be enought to offset the huge expenditure behind the construction and upgrading of stadia and other supporting infrastructure. Critics argue that for a country with an unemployment rate of 25 percent and glaring social inequality, spending 33 billion rand on an event such as the world cup is, plain and simple, immoral. Indeed, to hight-light the level of inequalities, in the past few days Helen Zille's Western Cape province has been in the news for installing toilets with no walls, in one predominant black area in Cape Town, that after the affected community member had agreed to provider the walling. These inequalities are, in fact, so pronounced that President Zuma's predecessor, Thabo Mbeki famously described the South African economy as a double decker economy in reference to the two clear and distinct societies that have to live and function side by side within the borders of the republic but whose fortunes are starkly different.
So, what does South Africa gain, monetary wise, for such a massive injection of precious funds into the hosting of the FIFA 2010 World Cup?

Quoting, Gillian Saunders of the Accounting firm, Grant Thornton, one South African source reveals that the country will get only a couple of hundreds of millions of rands while the rest of the benefits are expected to be marketing payoffs due to the global exposure that the country will have receive as a host of the premier sports event. Tourism is thus thought to be one of the long term beneficiaries of the country's sacrifices.

The undisputed winner, nonetheless, will be FIFA itself and to a lesser extent, the LOC( Local Organizing Committee).
FIFA's initial investment in the organizing of the event was to the tune of R7.83bn. That, however, was followed with a further R750m in May to assist with ensuring that all team training camps were ready in good time. All said, then, FIFA has invested just over R8.5bn in this spectacle. All this expenditure is estimated to represent 1.72 per cent of South Africa's GDP.
For it's efforts, FIFA, is expected to bring into it's coffers R35bn to R40bn which constitutes revenue from the sale of global Television rights, hospitality rights, marketing rights and licensing associated with the event. At the end of the day, and in sharp contrast with the meager monetary fortune of under a billion rand the host nation is expected to reap, FIFA is expected to rake in an operational profit of R15.37bn! And this is what is setting the tongues of the critics wagging even as the preparations for the event come to a climax.

On the other hand, however, are the sophisticated lot who argue that the hosting of the World Cup will elevate the fortunes of the nation as a whole. To illustrate they say that the massive investment in public infrastructure is and will be a catalyst for development.
Sipho Seepe, a local analyst, was on Al Jazeera the other day advancing this very view point but it would seem that it's no enough to pacify the disadvantaged masses who continue to struggle under the debilitating yolk of poverty half a generation into the new political dispensation. Critics, on the other side of the aisle, further argue that those who claim the event will lift the fortunes of the whole nation including the poor masses, in fact, are the people who have benefited from the massive infrastructure pro-gramme that preceded the event.
Not even the informal traders who ply their trade on the streets of South African CBDs will be allowed to be within 800 metres or the numerous soccer venue in line with the the marketing rights FIFA has sold to multinational franchises such as MacDonald's.
And in the Western Cape the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), not wanting to be outdone, have jumped on the band wagon 'fighting' for the poor, some say, their provincial government failed to lift out of poverty the last time they were in power.

But criticism or not, it will be "Let the games begin!" come this afternoon and our condolences to Madiba-the grandfather of the nation who won't be able to grace the occasion due to a bereavement in his family on the eve of the event he personally labored hard to bring to the shores of this continent, Africa, the cradle of mankind.

How Actionable Is Israel's Intelligence?

2010-06-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

It, most certainly, has been a momentous week. On monday, as the world awoke, the 24 global news channels were broadcasting the Israeli assault on the Gaza bound aid flotilla that had been in the new lately. The flotilla organisers' aim, as we all knew, was to breach the Israeli embargo on Hamas ruled Gaza. As expected, that effort was thwarted by the Israeli navy. However, as the news of the Israeli action began to unfold, it was clear that the flotilla activists had won the battle of the hearts minds of the world. The Israeli army's overwhelming use of force had resulted in almost 10 deaths and, by some accounts, at least 40 injuries of varying degrees.
The resultant diplomatic storm couldn't have been acurately predicted by the Netanyahu administration and the stupidity of the IDF(Israeli Defence Force) became clear by the minute.
To begin with, questios began to fly around; why did the Israeli government use commandos for the operation and not the coast guards? Why were the commandos equipped with paintball guns?
Soon it became clear that the IDF had once again fumbled; they had based their action on faulty intelligence.
One, however, begs to question, if the IDF claims to have acted on faulty intelligence, how are they to be trusted when they act against the Gaza based Palestinian factions? Are we to innocently assume that their 'intelligence' is acurate? If anything, the botched Israeli raid on the Gaza flotilla coming hot on the hells of the Mossad assasination of Hamas' Military Wing Founder, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a Dubai Hotel in January, has raised serious questions, in the minds of independent and unbaised observers around the world, as to the reliability of Israel's actionable intelligence. If Israel wasn't able to foresee, with all Arab animosity et al toward the Zionist state, the flotilla confrontation, how can we be certain that Israel's past operations against its oponents have been fair, to say the least? How often, for instance, has the IDF executed punitive missions based on such questionable intelligence. Would Arab anger, therefore, be considered missplaced in the face of such glarings blunders? And, how does this affect America's interest in the middle east and the wider Muslim world?
What would the reaction of the west be if such misdeeds were
Perpetrated by, lets say, China or Russia?
Reliable answers to the above questions would, by all means, be of benefit not only to the United States and it's allies, but to advocates of justice and fair play globally?

Iran Delivers Nuclear Deal Letter To The IAEA.

2010-05-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

Iranian media reports on monday indicated that Iranian diplomats delivered a letter to the official residence of the IAEA director general, Yukiya Amano, in Vienna Austria, informing the IAEA head of a break through in efforts to get Iran to accept having it's Low-Enriched-Uranium be shipped abroad for further enrichment, during a 45 minute meeeting. The deal brokered last week in Tehran by rising powers Turkey and Brazil, would enable Iran to hand over it's low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for medical isotopes for use in it's medical research reactor. An Iranian Television station, reports that Turkish and Brazilian diplomats were also seen arriving at Mr Amano's residence. The deal, if it stands, crystalizes what the United States and fellow members of the UN Security Council have failed to accomplish over the year. However, the deal has heen given a cold shoulder by the U.S.A which last week went ahead with efforts to institute a new sanctions regime against Tehran. Notably, Russia and China, who for sometime had been thought to be holding out on new santions went along with the latest proposal in the security council. The responsibility of hammering the details of the new sanctions rests with the U.S.A. The regime in Iran has, in the meantime, threatened to review it's cooperation with the IAEA if new sanctions are imposed on country.

Malema's Disciplinary Hearing: A Case Of Chickens Coming Home To Roost

2010-05-12T09:13:00.001-07:00

So we hear Julius Malema, affectionately referred to by sections of the South African media as motor mouth, has been let off the hook with little more than a 'slap on the wrists', even as it was expected. With all the controversy that Mr Malema has hatched in the recent past, it's certainly flabbergasting that his disciplinary hearing should, as it where, come to nothing; at least to a sojourner. Keen observers of the South African social and political scenery must surely have seen this coming. For starts, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), of which Mr Malema is the highest office bearer, is widely considered the king maker within the ANC. In other words, no one assumes the ANC Presidency without the support of the ANCYL. And as we might all know by now, the President of the ANC, is the defacto President of the Republic of South Africa. To illustrate the foregoing analogue, Mbeki, the 'lofty Etonian wiseman', would not have ascended the 'throne' at the Union Buildings had it not been for the ANCYL support. Zuma's ascension should, of course, be viewed in a similar light. Such is the influence, therefore, of the ANCYL. The ANCYL, to briefly delve into it's history is, by and large, Nelson Mandela's creation. Formed in 1956, the ANCYL has always positioned it's self as a renegade within the ANC as a Liberation movement. In fact, the armed struggle it's self as espoused by the ANC and it's alliance, would not have been possible without the ANCYL. The armed struggle was instituted by the ANCYL under it's founder, Nelson Mandela with considerable opposition within the ANC. Since it's formation no individual, regardless of his percieved authority within the ANC, has ascended to the top post of the ANC without the sanction of the youth league.
However, this so called 'kingmaker' status seems, over the years, to have fostered a spirit of near presumptiousness in the hearts and minds of the youth league leaders. The infamous 'kill the Boer' song for which Mr Malema has gained notority of laye, was popularized by the youth league under the tenure of Peter Mokaba. Mbeki's ascension to the ANC Presidency, and by implication, the Republican Presidency, would not have been possible without the support of the ANCYL and it's leader, Peter Mokaba. To be certain, the League's support was essential for Mbeki to overcome Ramaphosa's challenge. To understand the strenght of the ANCYL's power, one's got to take into consideration the fact that, Ramaphosa was, during this campaign endorsed by the 'immortal saint' himself, Nelson Mandela! The fact that such endorsement could not enable Ramaphosa to carry the day, testifies to the enduring power of the ANCYL and the triumph of African democracy. Such is the auror of the ANCYL that Nelson Mandela's protege for the battle of the Presidency of the ANC lost to Mbeki thereby clearing the way for Mbeki to assume control of the Union Building and Mahlabandhlovu. That presumptiouness seems to have been carried to a higher degree under Julius Malema, however. The blame in this case must surely fall on Zuma and his 'camp'. While it's understandable that Malema and the ANCYL were instrumental in ensuring that Zuma was let of the hook on the numerous corruption related charges that he face under the tenure of former President, Thabo Mbeki, no effort should have been spared to ensure that he and the league he led was called to order even as the principles of Ubunthu dictate. I alluded to this in one of my article a while back. That, however, was not done and the result is that the youngman definately grew bigger than his pants( forgive the metaphor) and now it's clear that it's difficult to tame him and his organization. And now, I can tell you off the top of my head that, Malema and 'his' league will not take this 'slap on the wrist' lying down. The first thing that Malema and his henchmen will do is to reject the judgement that the ANC Displinary Committee has imposed on Malema. This will, of course, be surtley done that the ANCYL and not Malema, himself, has rejected the ruling against it's leader. The greater implications of this ruling are yet to be felt by Zuma himself. The fact is, the findings against Malema have raised the ire of the youth league and it's obvious that the league will embark on a campaign to rid the ANC of Zuma, on top of their perennial enemy, Manthashe the Secretary General of the ANC, at the 2012 elective conference. All this, however, could easily have been avoided had Zuma as the ANC President, after the Polokwane purge, had reigned in Julius Malema and stopped him from insulting the then President, Mbeki. The state of affairs that Zuma finds himself now is, to a keen observer of South African politics, a case of chickens coming home to roost, as an American would say.

British Politicians Need To Learn To Operate In A Coalition Environment

2010-05-08T03:38:00.000-07:00

So the Bookmakers weren't completely off the bet after all; Britain has gotten it's self a 'hung Parliament. Save for wrongly sandwiching Nick Clegg in between the two main protagonists, the chips have largely fallen in their rightful places.
However, when you think of it, the bookmakers can't help but be on top of their game lest they join the ranks of the unemployed. And this being a time of recession, that's not so good a prospect.
Okay then, back to the nitty gritty of the matter at hand.
For those of us who might have been vacationing on planet Mars or some other such place during these momentous past few days, a hung Parliament is a state of affairs where no single party emerges with an absolute majority after the vote count has been completed. In this case, the Conservatives have emerged with the highest number of votes followed by the incumbents, theLabour Party, and finally the Liberal Democrats, commonly referred to as the Lib Dems. But, why all the talk about the hung Parliament? In other words, what are the implications of a hung Parliament?
Well, the fact is, the implications of a hung Parliament are, to a large extent, felt by the party that assumes power on the back of such a less than adequate mandate. While such a party would enjoy free reign as far as it's executive agenda is concerned, the assumption is that, it's legislative agenda would be humstrung by the oposition. The belief, therefore, is that the 'majority' should, try as far as possible, to co-opt the 'minority' into forming goverment with it, thereby reducing the probability of a week government that would eventually be prone to collapse. Thats the reasoning, therefore, behind the manoveouring we have seen in the few hours post election results with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in courtship with a view of finding common areas as well as areas where compromise could be possible in the interest of forming a stronger government.
My belief, however, is that the whole issue has been exaggerated.
To start with, it certainly would be advantegous for Britain to have a coalition government, however, thats not a catholic rule. In fact, as a demonstration, of the sixteen member european states in the EU, only three have majority governments. Further, for a nation that gave the world the basic tenets of the rule of law, it is preposterous for British Politicians to feign the prospect of instability when presented with the possibility of a coalition government. If anything, its time they acted their age and embraced the idea of coalition governance as such a formations would, in all likelihood, be better suited to respond to the wishes of the electrorate thereby diminishing the chances of illicit adventures the kind of which George W. Bush and Gordon Brown's predecesor, Tony Blair, glaringly participated in, in Iraq. Politics have got to be about dialogue and governance consultative. Absolute majorities entail absolute power and as the hackneyed phrase says, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Hair-Splitting About Home Security This Festive Season

2009-12-21T00:26:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's almost difficult to comprehend that yet another year is gone and it's once again that time of the year when we, most of us at least, decide that it's time to take it easy or better still embark on an annual trek from all activity called work with a view of refreshing our souls and spirits in readiness for the coming year.

As we proceed with our preparations, it is certainly imperative that we ensure that our homes and possessions are safe during our absence. And to this end it's noteworthy to state that its rather simple elements of security that most folk tend to neglect, that leave their homes and other property vulnerable during the festive season.

In fact, as you'll notice in our discourse, these elements of security are so simple it's easy not to appreciate their contribution to the overall security picture.

So, what are the elements we are talking about and how do they contribute toward your property's security or lack of it?

Constantly Full Mail Box

What's the first thing you think about when you notice an overflowing mailbox in your street or neighbourhood? The occupants must be away, of course! Isn't? Yes, an overflowing mailbox is a sure indication that 'nobody is home' and thus it can be a sure invitation to burglars!

Therefore, this festive season, if you decide to go away from home on holiday, avoid an overflowing mailbox by making arrangements, with friends or family living close by, to have your mailbox empted on a regular basis.

Ensure Your Garden Is Kept Manicured

Make further arrangements to have your Garden tended and manicured as usual for as in the mailbox case, any departure from the usual regime will inevitably communicate a 'nobody home' message.

However, if for some reason you do not trust your Gardener^{a}, it would be advisable to again arrange with somebody trustworthy to do that on your behalf.
Only remember not to give an obviously untrustworthy Gardener the impression that you would be going away from home during the holidays.

Perhaps the best way to communicate the right message would be to wish the Gardener a happy festive season while inform him that you would be tending the garden during the holiday season and that, therefore, there would be no need for him to report for work during the holidays. Hey! You surely can find something appropriate to tell a Gardener who's untrustworthy.

It may sound all tedious and boring to discuss this in such minute detail but just remember that the security of your property is, primarily, your business.

So, once again the message is: avoid sending the 'nobody home' message to potential burglars.

For further home security tips check this previous article.
Take what we've discussed here to heart as you go about preparating for your holiday. What's more! Enjoy your holiday!

{a}The writer wishes to put it on record that the title 'Gardener' has been loosely used in this article and that absolutely no offense is intended with the said use. It should be further noted that the article is largely informed the by the prevailing local circumstances in South Africa, the writer's country of residence.

For Thirty Coins Of Silver

2009-12-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

The Booing Of Malema

This past week, the long denied tensions within the tripartite alliance really came to an inevitable head with the booing of the flamboyant and oft controversial ANCYL President, Julius Malema, at the SACP's special conference at the University of Polokwane in Limpopo. However, unless one is absolutely oblivious to the political situation in the country, it was abandantly clear that a situation such as this was going to be upon us sooner than later.

The Setting Of The Booing Preceedence

In fact, if our collective memory serves us well, we as a nation, should have known that a bad precedence had been set when Mbeki was booed, not on one occasion but rather on numerous occasions while still head of state. What the alliance partners seem to conviniently ignore, nonetheless, is the possibility that by virtue of condoning such unbecoming behaviour, on the part of their rank and file, respect and mutual regard for divergency of views and opinion may have been disposed of for the proverbial thirty coins of silver. Indeed, the moment the 'transaction' went through the political scenery changed and political players, in the alliance specifically, should have immediately adapted to the new environment where simple regard for others and plain old-fashioned respect had been thrown to the wind. That adaptation, however, appears not to have transpired, hence Malema's haste retreat from the communist conference this past week as for some reason he and others of like mind, though Mbeki was deserving of the treatment accorded him and not them.

Yes, when mutual regard for divergent views points was disposed of for 'thirty coins silver', everyone in the alliance should have realised the gravity of such a scenario.
Opportunistically, it may have seemed good to parties that sort to boost their profiles as Mbeki's star waned, but a longer term pespective could have aided them in realising that such blatant disregard of leaders and colleagues spelt trouble for the leadership of the triumphant camp and the alliance in general.
And now, here we are, two years to day Mbeki et al were booed in Polokwane, Malema, one of the principal instigators of that despicable spectacle has been subjected to the same treatment at the selfsame venue in the selfsame city.

Can You Make A Bed And Lie On It?

The difference, however, instead of taking the experience with the stoic demeanor that Mbeki repeatedly exibited in the face of similar circumstances, Malema, to say the least, was less than 'graceful', raising tangible doubts whether the firebrand has learnt any lesson from the episode even as Comrade Cronin thought he would have.

But, if there was any lesson to be learnt by Malema and, indeed, the alliance partners it must be this: do not make a bed you aren't prepared to lie on yourself.

But then again, who said politicians are great at learning lessons?

Is The ANC Having A Rethink Of The Pre 1994 Polical Settlement?

2009-12-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

The Resurgency Of The Leftist Forces

The recent altercations between the ANCYL's President, Julius Malema, and the SACP's deputy general secretatary and Deputy Transport Minister, Jeremy Cronin are a sign that a growing chorus within the ruling tripartite alliance subscribes to the notion that it's negotiators at the talks to iron out the country's future adopted positions that increasing are being considered not to have been in the best interest of the disadvantaged masses of this nation.

While at present the debate centres on the hot topic of nationalisation of the mines, it is clear that the broader debate and it's arguments
have a reach wide enough as to encompass the greater South African economy. It is in this broad debate, therefore, that Malema must be seen as acting out as a hatchetman for disaffected elements within the alliance who believe the pre-1994 political settlement was an inadequate response toward the issue of economically empowering the previously disadvantaged masses in accordance with that hallowed of African documents, the Freedom Charter.

Nationalisation as a solution

To divorce the situation of niceties of diplomatic talk, a realisation-real or false-seems to have set in that perhaps too much ground was ceded, during the pre-democracy settlement, without enough reciprocal guarantees being secured from the representatives of the much loathed apartheid regime. The feeling among those of the disaffected, who by and large are the left leaning members of the ruling tripartite alliance, is that in a haste to reach a compromise with the apartheid regime, the negotiating party of the tripartite alliance made errors similar to the errors Robert Mugabe's PF is said to have made during the Lancaster House Negotiations and Agreement to secure Zimbabwe's future but during which the land question, a divisive and explosive matter was not settled. But would the nationalisation path be the remedy for the country's economic rebalancing?

Absolutely not and no one should know this better than the ANC it's self!

Having spent time in exile both here on the continent and in the states of Eastern Europe where Socialism held sway, one would assume that valuable lessons may have been learnt about the serious pitfalls of socialism both as a creed and a practise. If that is the case, why then this call for socialism in the 'perfect' guise of nationalisation?

New NPA Head Named

2009-11-25T05:40:00.000-08:00

The South African Presidency announced wednesday the appointment of Advocate Menzi Simelane, the former director general of justice, as the new head of the National Prosecution Authority with effect from the 1st of December.

Fort Hood Killer's Radical Emails Were Ignored By Intelligence And Military Officials

2009-11-21T11:31:00.001-08:00

Clearly radical email exchanges between Maj. Nidal Hasan, the renegade soldier responsible for shooting 13 people at Fort Hood Military Base early this month, and an American born Yemeni based radical islamic preacher, Anwar al-Awlaki, were intercepted but largely ignored by both the intelligence and military officials.
Nidal who is reported to be paralysed from the waist down, has been placed on pre-trial detention in a San Antonio military hospital by his military superiors.
In the emails obtained by an FBI-led task force, Maj.Hasan discusses with Awlaki issues ranging from the permissibility of killing innocents in suicide attacks to his financial transfers abroad. In another message Hasan intimates to al-Awlaki that he " couldn't wait to join him in the discussions they would have over non-alchoholic wine in the afterlife".
Al-Alwaki's militant teaching have been linked to Islamic terror plots in at least three countries including the U.S.A, Canada, and Britain. He's also believed to have been a spiritual advice to three of the 9/11 suicide attackers.
The revelations have led the senate armed services committee's chairman, Carl Levin, to say he would launch an investiation into why the intelligence agents did not forward the email to the military until after the fatal shootings.
And in a further twit to the story it has emerged that a top psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Military Centre was so concerned about Hasan's incompetence and reckless behaviour that he wrote a memo to Fort Hood upon Hasan's tranfer to alert his new superiors but apparently the advice was ignored and Hasan was assigned to counselling troops returning from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanstan.

Jackson's Doctor Took More Than An Hour To Call For Emergency Assistance After Singer Collapsed

2009-11-21T06:19:00.001-08:00

Police documents released this weekend indicate that Jackson's Doctor, Conrad Murray, waited over one hour to call the emergency services after the singer collapse at his rented mansion on 25 June, mid this year. This information which further shows that the doctor made three calls to unidentified parties during the time he claims to have been administering CPR to the singer, raises even further questions about the doctor's motives, questions that have already been doing the rounds amoung the singer's circles of fans.
Dr Murray called the emergency services at 12:22, more than an hour after Mr Jackson had had a
cardiac arrest. This was after the doctor administered an injection of Propofol, a powerful anaesthetic that should be used in surgery setting but which is not strictly controlled in the U.S.A. The doctor claims that he administered the drug after repeated pleas from the singer.
It is believed Mr Jackson had a cardiac arrest 20 minutes later.
The documents are part of the request Police made to search a Las Vegas Pharmacy in August. Eight different bottles of sedatives were found at Jackson's residence. The Police have not yet charged the doctor with any wrong doing over the case.

Pin-pointing The Rot At The Heart Of The SANDF's Unruly Protest.-Part 1

2009-08-30T11:01:00.001-07:00

To many it came as a shock; scenes of members of the SANDF in running battles against the Police right on the outskirts of the perimeter fence of the Union Building, the seat of government, in Pretoria. But was the behavior of the disgruntled soldiers really a surprise? Unless, you had just dropped in from outter space, this certainly wasn't a surprise. For a while now, a systematic undermining of law and order has been underway in South Africa. Infact, it started under the previous administration of President Mbeki and it has sped up under the present administration. The much publicised conflicts between the SAPS and the now disbanded Scopions were part of this rot. When the striking Metro police clashed with the SAPS members on the streets of Johannesburg it was a symptom of the same rot manifesting it's self. When the former President Mbeki alluded to, in court papers filed in Pikoli's case, the SAPS' readiness to battle against the arrest of the then police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, that was a sign that the law was being undermined. In Durban, president Mbeki was boored down, in public, in front of the visiting prime minister of India. When the unions representing members of the security industry went on strike, score of innocent individuals where killed in the process. All these events were and should've acted as warnings that the rule of law was under threat and measures should have been taken to rectify the situation. However, nothing was done! In the meatime, disregard for the office of the president was the order of the day and Zuma's camp seemed to be tacitly supportive of these unfortunate machinations which later resulted in a Mbeki defeat in Polokwane and subsequent forced resignation from the position of state president. With Mbeki gone, an automatic return to regard for the law proved to be elusive, however. In any case old habits are said to die hard. And so it was business as usual for unruly elements. And with the tacit support that they seem to have been given by the Zuma team before, they were willing to leave no stone unturn to achieve an 'activist state.' This time, 'activism' started in the western cape with protests, against the new premier- Helen Zille- organized by MKMVA. Simultaneously, 'service delivery' protests were being organized against the new DA administration, even though the service backlog was accumulated under the ANC watch! And as usual, not much was done to nip this anarchy in the bud.

Militant Islamist Must Be Confronted With Force

2009-07-30T03:05:00.001-07:00

Militant Islamist are, once again on the rampage in the, mostly Islamic, Northern States of Nigeria. The latest episode comes bearly six month after the factional upheavals that plagued the region late last year. This time round, Boko Haram, the group behind the violent confrontation with the authorities has
made it clear that they do not intend to engage with the rest of the Nigerian society by peaceful means. Since this past weekend, the militant group went on rampage attacking individuals and infra-structure associated with law and order namely, government. In the face of such open insurrection, the government was, certainly, left with little choice but to come down hard on these lawless elements. For observers casually watching the incident from around the world, it would seem like the government used excessive force. However, wherever militant Islam has raised it's ugly head on the planet, it's done so with an almost gratuitous spilling of, mostly, innocent blood. One just has to do a mental count of a few spots on the planet that have been touched by this dispeakable scourge, to realise the great danger that such militancy obtains for the world at large. Somalia, the Philipines, Indonesia, USA, Britain, Afghanstan, Pakistan, Spain..., the list goes on and on of countries that have been touched by this, seemingly borderless,scourge. In many instances, excuses have been freely banded around as to why militancy is persued by these disgruntled elements. The most common of these has been to equate militancy to resistancy. To this end, examples have been given of the Mujahedin fighting the Russians in Afghanstan. The aim, of course, has been to accomplish, a sort of, bizzare sanctification of some of these conflicts by attaching a 'resistance' lable of legitimacy to them. But doing so neither legitimizes these actions nor absorbs the perpetrators of due guilty for their actions. Further, innocent civilians should and must never be targets of so called, legitimate resistance. The sooner these militants realise this, the better. Think of the 9/11 episode. I'm pretty sure the architects of those atrocities would have us believe that was a resistance battle against the US government! Oh! Please, you have to be demented to believe that. For starters not a single American foreign policy architect was as little as sratched in that attack! And to top it all, the majority of the victims weren't even Americans!

Scores Arrested For Corruption In New Jersey

2009-07-24T10:17:00.001-07:00

A two-pronged FBI investigation on curruption in New Jersey, has netted 44 people including Rabbis, prominent Politicians and state offials. The ten year investigation code named "Operation Bid Rig"
, used an informant charged with bank fraud three years ago, to reveal a money laundering syndicate, organ trafficking and corruption. Among the politicans and officials arrested are, the mayor of Hoboken, Peter Cammarano III, who stands accused of accepting $25 000, the mayor of Secaucus, Denis Elwell, accused of accepting $10 000 worth of bribes, mayor of Ridgefield, Anthony Suarez, accused of agreeing to recieve $10 000 in bribes, the deputy mayor of Jersey City, Leona Badins, accused of conspiring to commit extortion by taking $20 000 in illegal campaign contributions, and two state assemblymen, Harry Smith and Daniel van Pelt, accused of taking payoffs. Ed Kahrer, an FBI special agent in charge of the Agency's white-collar and public corruption programme in the city of Ney Jersey, called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state." Mr Kahrer said that, " New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst , if not the worst, in the nation." He further said that, " it (corruption ) has become so ingrained in New Jersey's political culture." The arrested politicians are believed to have taken advantage of loopholes in local state law to disguise bribes as campaign contributions. Among the five Rabbis arrested are the Chief Rabbi of Syrian Jews in the U.S.A, Saul Kassin and Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, a Rabbi from New York. Rosenbaum is charged of conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for $160 000 for the informant's ficticious uncle. He was quoted as saying that he had a ten year track record in the illegal kidney trade. The money laudering syndicate is alleged to have laundered tens of millions of dollars through a network of Jewish charities controlled by Rabbis in New York and New Jersey. There were shock images on Television screens across America as the FBI agents hauled in the handcuffed suspects, including the men of the cloth, clad in traditional Orthodox Jewish garb, into custody in the city of Newark. The majority of the corruption suspects were released on bail. The money laundering suspects' bail was said to be between $300 000 and $3 000 000. They were further ordered to submit to electronic monitoring.

Madiba's Greatness

2009-07-18T08:36:00.001-07:00

Rarely is a human being recognised in the manner that Nelson Mandela is recognised by the world. In fact, if my mind serves me well, the last person to have been so recognised was Jesus Christ, the son of God. Why! Calls are now being made for Mandela's birthday to be observed world over! That is the equivalent of, modern day, Christmas day! Mrs Sarkozy, the wife the French President is one of those to have honored the greatest living saint of mankind in New York, with personal service. The who is who of this world regularly trip over each other to elicit the attention of Mr Mandela. In fact, there's an ultimate dream come true in this world, it to meet Madiba in person! The greatest lesson, however, that can be learnt from all this is that the surerest way to ensure one's longevity in the annuals of the greatest amoungst humanity is by setting a lasting example in service to Mankind. The three decades that Mr Mandela expendend on behalf of South Africa and oppressed Mankind in general, were certainly not expended in vain. And if service to Mankind was the sole criteria for determining an individual's greatness, Mr Mandela would, in all likelihood, rank with the likes of Napoleon and Alexandra the Great, and at once be regarded as one of the greatest beings to have walked the earth.

North Korea Fires More Missiles

2009-07-04T03:06:00.001-07:00

The North Koreans are at it again. The North fired 6 more missiles, off the Eastern Coast into the Sea of Japan. The latest salvo comes on the eve of the American Independence day. The sixth missile was fired at 07:10GMT.

African Union To Cease Co-operation With International Criminal Court

2009-07-03T13:21:00.001-07:00

The African Union has resolved, at its meeting in Libya, to suspend its co-operation with the International Criminal Court because of the courts refusal to set aside its indictment of Sudans Omar al-Bashir. Bashir, the only sitting head of state to be indicted by the court, is accused of presiding over genocide and other war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan. Bashirs government has been fighing rebels in the area since 2003. Thirty member states of the African Union are signatories of the founding statute of the court and therefore the AUs decision effectively gives the Sudanese President the freedom to roam within Africa without the spectre of being arrested and handed over to the ICC at the Hague.

Date For Michael Jackson Memorial

2009-07-02T09:58:00.001-07:00

Sources close to the Michael Jackson family, have said that the late singers memorial has been set for Tuesday 7th of July, 2009. The memorial is to be held in the cavenous, 20 000 seat, Staples Centre Coliseum downtown Los Angeles, where the singer rehearsed the day before he died. And the mother of two of Michael Jacksons children, Debbie Rowe, has vowed in a telephone interview with NBC TV that she will fight to get custody of her children from the Jackson dynasty. Debbie further said she was ready to undergo DNA testing, if need be, to prove that she is the mother of the two children. She also indends to apply for a court order to keep the childrens grandfather away from them.

Chinese Children Sold For Adoption Without Parental Consent

2009-07-02T08:56:00.001-07:00

A state-owned newspaper in China, The Southern Metropolis News, reports that 80 girl children from a county in the Province of Guizhou, have been sold for three thousand dollars each to couple from the United States and some European countries. The children are part of those confisticated from parents who had broken the law that limits the number of children parents are allowed to have. The chinese law allows rural parents to have a maximum of two children and urban parents one child. Breaking this law attracts hefty penalties of three thousand dollars, an amount that is way above what the rural, mostly farming, families earn. The result of the failure to pay the fines is that the children are removed from their natural parents and placed in orphanages where they can be sold mostly to foreign couples. But since the natural parents are largely out of the picture, it is said that the officials routinely forge documents to enable them to push the adoptions through. The money realised in the process, is shared between the officials and the ophanages. In 2006 china passed rules for adoption but with rampant corruption those rule are regularly sacrificed.

Doome Air France Plane Hit The Water Intact

2009-07-02T07:26:00.001-07:00

Investigations into the Air France passanger jet that crashed into the Atlantic ocean, en route from Rio de Janeiro, to Paris, on the 1st of june, indicate that the plane plunged into the sea intact at a vertical angle. The investigators, drew their conclusions from the 600 plus pieces of debri found floating in the vicinity of the crash site. However, the most important pieces of the complex puzzle to try and piece together what transired on the night of the tragedy, the flight information and cockpit voice data recorders, remain missing at the bottom of the Atlantic. Air France, further, announced that the search for these boxes will continue for the next ten days. The search for bodies was discontinued a few days ago but all in all, 51 badly mutilated bodies were recovered including those of the Pilot and a Cabin staff.

Shame On The Iranian Regime

2009-07-02T05:11:00.001-07:00

If there was a single thing that the ahmadinejad regime in tehran managed to accomplish with its bloody crack down on pro-democracy opponents in the immediate aftermath of the disputed june 12 elections, it was to prove that its claims of being a democracy are a stretching of the truth. All indications are that the protesters were not a violent lot that the regime would want to paint them. Infact, others such as poor neda, whose death came to symbolize the protest movement itself, was said to have been shot while standing on the sideline, as it where, watching the protests. And yet, true to the brutal nature of the sadistic regime, no regret was extended to her family concerning her death. Instead, she was painted as one of the protesters and even her family was pinalised to the extent that they were not even allowed to mourn her. Reports even indicated that the family was forced to move out of the family home! Only the most sadistic of regimes can be so vindictive, in my view. And at the end of the day, the regime turned around and blamed the west for instigating of the unrest. How convenient, except no one is so febble minded as to believe such irrationality. However, what this shows, is a government thats so out of touch with its own people that it believes they can swallow such naked and thread bare lies wholesale! If this is how the Iranian government regards its own people, it goes a long way to explain why it thought its people could be easily cheated out of an election. What a miscalculation it was! But, the terrible thing is that the regime seemsto have learnt little from its errors. Why! Reports from there now indicate that executions are underway of participants in the recent turmoil and in all likelyhood the regime will get even more ruthless as it tries to regain its total control. Regardless of all this, however, the regimd has lost something that it most certainly wont be able to regain, namely legitimacy in the eyes of its own people. This was clear from the calls made by the protesters. Never before had death to Khamenei calls been heard in Iran. And that alone is, to keen observers, a sign that the beginning of the end of the current status quo in Iran, may have began.

Michael Jackson- Peter Pan The Eternal Boy-Dies

2009-06-26T09:05:00.001-07:00

Michael Jackson, the king of pop, has died at the age of 50. The consummate entertainer, who was adoled by millions and reviled by many, died after collapsing at his, $100,000 a month, rented mansion on the famed Sunset Boulevald. It is understood that, Jackson who next month was to emback on a career resuscitating concert series in London, had of late been on a physically demanding exercise regime to get in shape for the all important concert series. Its suspected he collapsed after one such session around midday on Thursday the 25th of June 2009. At 12:26 pm, a call was made to the county emergency services from his home, a mere six minutes drive away. Upon arriving on the scene, the medical team administered CPR on Jackson all to no avail. Thereafter, the singer was tranported to the Ronald Reagan Medical Centre at UCLA, where frantic efforts continued to try and save his life. Sadly, all these efforts proved futile and Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm, two hour after the emergency services were summoned. The remains of the singer were, thereafter, airlifted to the coroners office for an autopsy later on friday. Unconfirmed reports have began to emerge, indicating that the singer may have been addicted to, Demerol, a prescription drug very similar to Morphine. He is also said to have been on a cocktail of other painkillers including Oxycontin. Jackson, who started his singing career at a tender age of 4, shot to worldwide fame as a solo artist on the back of his best selling album, Thriller, in 1982. The multi-platinum singer, went on to sale more than 750 million records of his albums and collected 13 Grammy awards in the process.Thirteen of his singles reached the number one position on the music charts. Later, however, his life and fame became dogged by controversy. He was accused, and tried in a court of law, of pedophilia but eventually he was acquitted after his young accuser was deemed unreliable. After his brush with the law, Jackson went on a sabatical to the Middle East and let his career lie in a limbo. Reaction and tributes to his death came in thick and fast. In the hours following his death, twitter the social networking site, froze due to the sheer volume of messages generated by the singers fans from around the world. Later, twitter reported that the volume of messages had surpassed the volume generated in the aftermath of both the swine flu outbreak and the recent Iranian elections. In both Japan and France, ministers issued statements. The Governor of his state, the former actor Arnold Swazzenegar, posted a tweet in tribute to Jackson. The queen of pop, Madonna, said she couldnt stop crying on account of the news. Long time close friend, Elizabeth Taylor said she was too devastated to make a statement and Quincy Jones said he had lost a little brother. The Whitehouse, sensitive to the controversy that dogged the singer, released a statement on the singers death that aside from recognising his spectacular talent, also mentioned the tragic aspect of his life. Michael Jackson will be remembered as much for his tantalizing moon dance and dazzling custom costumes as with his eccentric and usually controversial lifestyle. Jackson is survived by his three children, Prince Michael Jackson, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince Michael Jackson II. Results of the friday autopsy are expected only after five to six week.

Is Zimbabweas GNU just another attempt at window dressing?

2009-06-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwean prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has just wrapped up his first official visit to the United States Of America and key European states including,Germany, France, Sweden Belgium and the United Kingdom. It goes without saying that the purpose of his trip was to solicit badly needed financial aid for the unity government formed between his MDC, Arthur Mutambaras smaller breakaway MDC-M faction, and Mugabes own ZANU-PF in February earlier this year. However, a quick postmortem of the mission indicates it was a failure. In the United States Of America, for instance, President Obama while praising the prime ministers tentative progress, dismissed Tshwangirai with nothing more than a polite hand shake, a photo-op in the oval office and promises of conditional aid to the tune of 73 million dollars. And due to the lingering scepticism as to the wisdom of the Zimbabweans going the GNU route, that aid will be channelled directly to the needy Zimbabweans through aid agencies, effectively bypassing the unity government. In the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown pledged 5 million pounds- 4 million pounds for food security and 1 million pounds for school textbooks- to be delivered through agencies. The response was basically the same in all other european states the prime minister visited. Not even the hordes of zimbabwean exiles in London could be swayed by the prime ministers sweet as they booed him off the podium, barely at the beginning of his sales pitch, in the british capital as he tried in vain to woo them back home. It seems the world has understood the new deal between the two protagonists as little more than window dressing. But, in all fairness, who can blame them considering Mugabes past behavior and naked disdain for political partnerships and percieved rivals. Few students of Zimbabwean political history can forget Mugabes political marriage with his contemporary, Joshua Nkomo, in the eighties and how Nkomo was eventually rendered politically useless. From inception of zimbabwe, Mugabes foot soldiers made it their mission to destroy Nkomo and his party, ZAPU. In the most extreme of these efforts, weapons were said to have been planted on farms belonging to Nkomos party, by elements of the notorious CIO. False intelligence about this was then generated and fed to Mugabe who then reacted by accused Nkomo of trying to overthrow the government. The fallout of these machinations was the infamous fifth brigades Gukurahundi operation in Matabeleland, Nkomos tribal area, which resulted in the massacre of upwards of 20 000 Ndebeles. Then, on the 7th of march 1983 Nkomo, fearful for his life, is said to have escape into Botswana, disguised as a woman. He later went in exile in the United Kingdom. Later, he would remark that nothing in his life had prepared him for persecution at the hands of a government led by black Africans. Talk about African idealism! To hush the bloody history between them, in 1987 the two protagonists went into a powersharing arrangement. The effect of this agreement, however, was that Nkomo became a largely powerless vice president while his party, ZAPU, was swallowed whole by Mugabes ZANU, leading to the formation of ZANU-PF. Having been completely vanquished by the Mugabe steamroller, Nkomo would later state that he went into the powersharing agreement with Mugabe to protect his fellow Ndebeles from being exterminated by the Shonas, Mugabes tribe. And of course analysts point to Kenan Bananas fate as another one of Mugabes propensity to deal ruthlessly with percieved enemies. Certainly, whatever the reality might be, current world statesmen can and must have learnt a lot about the Mugabe method of dealing with both percieved opponents and potentially irritating powersharing arrangements from the way he is said to have dealt with both issues in the past. Infact, these lessons seem to have come in hand this time round, as Tsvangirai embarked on his begging mission, soon after the formation of the hard negotiated government of national unity. The negotiations for the selfsame government dragged on for such a long time as Mugabe was reported not to be willing to share any meaningful executive power with his MDC opponents. Proof of this seems to have become evident when Tsvangirai refused to sign the deal unless his party was given some coersive powers in the new unity government in the form of oversight over the interior ministry. The contestation was so fierce that even as the deal was consummated, some key government department appointments had not yet been made. Even at the time of this writing, contestation is ongoing for positions including those of the Attorney General and the Central Bank Governor. As for the interior department, two ministers- one from Mugabes ZANU-PF party and the other from Tsvangirais main MDC faction share stewardship there. In the meantime its business as usual as far as farm attacks, imprisonment of MDC activists and other state machinery abuses are concerned. To keen observers, infact, the situation is just as deplorable as before the global political agreement or the GPA came into effect. On the basis of the foregoing, therefore, would it not be fair to assume that perhaps a wait and see attitude on the situation in Zimbabwe would be the best policy to implement at this particular moment? Well, I dont know about you but as for me, Im inclined to think that is the best policy at this stage.

An End Of An Era Of Preponderance?

2009-06-21T04:11:00.000-07:00

So, iran is in turmoil. A suspect election triumph on the part of ahmadinejad has set of ventings of anger never seen on the streets of the conservative nation since the upheaval of the ousting of the shah in 1979. Members of the media, both local and foreign, have been restricted in their reporting. The little officially sunctioned news able to filter through, mostly from the state controlled presstv, is nothing short of pathetic, to say the least! And in the midst of all this media blackout, an unlikely messanger and hero of sorts, twitter, has come to the service of the world. Its truely difficult to imagine what the world could have been able to glean of the iranian mess had twitter not been on the scene and, equally, its also difficult to imagine the future suppression of news anywhere in the world, by shameless despots, except in the most under developed corners of the world. Considering the effect that twitter has had and what it may have in future, is not fitting to think of this service as epoch making, in its own right? Whatever your view is, however, you will surely, agree that the period of preponderance by the global cable and satellite television media conglomerates is beginning to come to a close.