How to Win Hearts and Minds

If this were opposite day, you'd do it like this:

Via Alternet

The Decider Emboldens the Evil-Doers

As Noam Chomsky has said, Washington was expecting the Iraq war to be a quick and easy win. The superior American military power should have easily overwhelmed a sanction-weakened Iraq. Saddam Hussein was indeed not loved by most of his people, and if his overthrow had been handled more carefully, there may have been significant support for the Americans. But the incredibly clumsy, arrogant and savage behaviour of the military (which for many reasons isn't the fault of individual troops who are doing their best to do their job) created increasing hatred towards the U.S.

Steadily losing control of the Iraqi population, the only tactic left for this brutal occupation is divide and conquer. The divide part has succeeded pretty well; the conquer part, not so much.

Of course, even if it were handled well, the occupation of Iraq would not have been justified. However, fewer people would have died, and that's no small thing.

Amnesty International Issues urgent appeal for detained CUD members at Maikelawi

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also in the news: [Islamic school for girls hit in worsening Somali violence] - [Interview: Released Islamic leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, rejects international forces] - [BBC: Eight killed and several seriously injured in attacks in Somalia's capital]

International: [Global Warming `Very Likely' Caused by Humans, UN Report Says] - [China's Hu visits Sudan, presses on Darfur] - [U.S. military says copter down in Iraq] - [Iranians seized in attack on Hamas enclave] - [Burglar caught red-handed in air conditioner] and more of today's top stories!

A young Somali participates in protests in Mogadishu. At least seven people have been killed and several others wounded overnight when gunmen fired mortar shells in at least three neighbourhoods in the volatile Somali capital, Mogadishu, residents have said.(AFP/File/Mohamed Mokhtar)

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Worldwide Demonstrations, Prayer and candle light vigils scheduled for Ethiopia’s prisoners of conscience:

-Los Angeles (little Ethiopia), candle light vigil - February 11
-Demonstration In front of CNN Los Angeles branch office - February 16
-Kinijit LA message - The time is NOW!
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A call for Peace (Amharic)
(By Girma Kassa)

(More...)

Amnesty International issues urgent appeal for detained CUD members at Maikelawi

Supporters of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) opposition party, are being held incommunicado at the police Central Investigation Bureau prison (known as Maikelawi) in the capital, Addis Ababa. According to reports, they may have been tortured, and are at risk of further torture or ill-treatment.

Endalkachew Melese, a 23-year-old IT student, was arrested on 15 December 2006 in Addis Ababa and has been detained incommunicado since then. His family was allowed to bring him food but has not been able to see him. He has been taken to court but has not yet been formally charged with any offence. He has allegedly been tortured and accused of having links with a little-known armed opposition group, the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF).

Over 40 other young CUD supporters are said to be held at Maikelawi prison on similar accusations. They include Zenebe Tadesse, a security guard, who was also arrested on 15 December. He is believed to have been tortured. Also detained is Daniel Hailemariam, who is said to be a US resident. The detainees include at least three women. (More...)

Interview: Released Islamic leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, rejects international forces

DUBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Exiled Somali Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed rejected the deployment of international forces in the Horn of Africa country and in remarks aired on Friday called for serious talks for national reconciliation.

"Peace does not come by force ... but by conducting talks and serious negotiations in which all the problems are identified and resolved," Ahmed told Al Jazeera television from Nairobi.

"The problem cannot be resolved by international forces because what has happened was an invasion and following up on that with international forces would further complicate the crisis," he added.

Ahmed, considered a moderate in the Islamist movement, is viewed by the United States as a possible key to Somali reconciliation talks.(More...)

BBC: Eight killed and several seriously injured in attacks in Somalia's capital

A mortar has landed on a Koranic school, killing a female student, following a series of overnight attacks on camps housing Ethiopian soldiers. A BBC correspondent in Mogadishu says the violence seems to be worsening. It is not clear who is responsible.

Islamist fighters said they would start an insurgency after they were defeated by Ethiopia-backed government troops. The BBC's Mohammed Olad in Mogadishu says dozens of female students began shouting and crying after the shell landed on the roof of their school, killing a student and wounding seven others.

Sheikh Soon Salad Ilmi, director of Mogadishu's Madina hospital, where the wounded were taken, said some had life-threatening injuries. (More...)

CNN: Islamic school for girls hit in worsening Somali violence

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- An explosion at an Islamic school for women and girls in Somalia's capital wounded at least seven people Friday, witnesses said, after a night of some of the worst violence in Mogadishu since the interim government took control from an Islamic movement.

At least three mortars launched by unknown attackers overnight killed at least eight people and injured 20. Violence has been escalating in Mogadishu, a city of more than 2 million people that is riven by clan rivalries and believed to still be harboring remnants of the Islamic movement who have vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency.

Friday's blast went off shortly before lunchtime at the Umu-A'isha school in southern Mogadishu, where 110 women and girls are enrolled. It may, like the overnight blasts, have been caused by a mortar. The attackers were unknown.(More...)

Global Warming `Very Likely' Caused by Humans, UN Report Says

Feb. 2 -- Global warming is ``very likely'' caused by humans, and temperatures and sea-levels will increase by the end of the century, the UN said in its most comprehensive report yet on climate change.

Global temperatures are likely to rise by 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century relative to the last, with a ``best estimate'' of 3 degrees, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in the report, published in Paris. Sea-level gain over the same period may range from 18 to 59 centimeters (7 to 23 inches), it said.

A key change in the report's language from that used in the panel's 2001 document showed there is more certainty that human activity is causing the warming. The report puts the probability of the link at more than 90 percent, compared with the 66 to 90 percent likelihood signalled in 2001.(More...)

Today's Top Stories

-China's Hu visits Sudan, presses on Darfur
-U.S. military says copter down in Iraq
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-Burglar caught red-handed in air conditioner


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RSF: 32 Journalists Jailed in China, 24 in Cuba and Ethiopia up one spot to third with 21

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also in the news: [ETHIOPIA Food Security Update:10m need humanitarian aid] - [Somali newspapers: Washington negotiating with Islamists over the release of US soldiers] - [Burundi joins Somalia peace force] - [Sheikh Sharif Ahmed released, heading to Yemen] - [Hundreds protest in Somali capital]

International: ['Clean' Obama remark stalls Senator's presidential bid] - [Al-Maliki: Iraq won't be battleground for U.S., Iran] - [Indonesia to declare H5N1 disaster] - [Exxon Mobil reports $39.5B annual profit] - [Reuters: Beyonce named most desirable woman] and more of today's top stories!

US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Jendayi Frazer (L) and UN special envoy to Somalia Francois Fall. The United States believes that Somali Islamists who had, until recently, been running parts of the country, are regrouping in Saudi Arabia and Eritrea, Frazer said in an interview with the Financial Times. Photo:Simon Maina/AFP (More...)
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Worldwide Demonstrations, Prayer and candle light vigils for Ethiopia’s prisoners of conscience continues:

-Los Angeles (little Ethiopia), candle light vigil - February 11
-Demonstration In front of CNN Los Angeles branch office - February 16
-Kinijit LA message - The time is NOW!
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Somali newspapers: Washington negotiating with Islamists over the release of US soldiers

The US government began to negotiate with the leader of the ousted Islamic Courts Union Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed over the release of 11 American personnel that had reportedly been captured by the defeated Islamists in southern Somalia, unnamed source reports on Monday.

The Dubai based Al-Khaleej newspaper quoted reliable diplomatic sources indicating that the US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger had had four rounds of talks with the detained Islamist leader Sheikh Ahmed over the American soldiers who are hostage to his supporters hiding in southern jungles of the war-torn country, Somalia. (More...)

Also see:
-US diplomat bids the release of 11 US soldiers seized in Somalia

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed released, heading to Yemen

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- seen by many as a key to reconciliation in post-war Somalia -- has left the custody of Kenyan intelligence and was reported by a Web site to be heading to Yemen.

"It's true that I'm heading to Yemen," he was quoted as saying on the Web site of the London-based ONKOD news agency run by a Somali journalist.

Contacted by Reuters at an undisclosed location in Nairobi, Sharif said he was in good health but declined to confirm his future plans. "I am 100 percent fine," he told Reuters.

"But there are no questions I can answer at this time." Several Islamist leaders have taken refuge in Yemen since their movement's defeat over the New Year in an offensive by Somali government forces backed by the Ethiopian military.(More...)

Reporters Without Borders issues its 2007 annual press freedom survey

32 journalists jailed in China, 24 in Cuba and Ethiopia up one spot to third at 21: Reporters Without Borders

The Ethiopian regime of prime minister Meles Zenawi has blocked openly-critical websites and blogs since May 2006. For the first time in its history, the Ethiopian government appears to have launched itself into web censorship.

From May to June 2006, most blogs and opposition websites were inaccessible in the country. The government denied being behind it. However, at the end of November, these online publications against mysteriously disappeared, which makes the hypothesis of political censorship appear more plausible.

In Ethiopia, around 20 newspaper publishers and editors are still imprisoned, accused of “high treason” for having backed an opposition challenge to the May 2005 election results. Neither the international outcry nor the protests of its western allies have been heeded by the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, which has put out callous statements about the prisoners, one of whom gave birth to a baby boy in the prison infirmary. [Read full report]

Also see:
-Group: 81 Reporters Killed in 2006 - Ethiopia third jailer
- Deadliest Year For Journalists In Decade

ETHIOPIA Food Security Update:10m need humanitarian aid

About 1.9 million (82 percent of the 2.3 million) of the people in need of emergency assistance in 2007 are in pastoral areas of the south and southeast with 56 percent in Somali Region and 26 percent in Oromiya Region.

Given the current food security situation, there is unlikely to be a significant upward revision of needs during the year unless the forthcoming belg/gu season (late February to May) for belg dependent and pastoral areas fails. Historically when this occurs an additional 2 million people can find themselves in need of assistance. (More...)

Hundreds protest in Somali capital

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Hundreds of Somalis demonstrated Thursday against a plan that would place foreign peacekeepers in the country.

The protesters chanted anti-government slogans and burned tires, a day after the African Union said three battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria were ready to be deployed in Somalia and will be airlifted in as soon as possible.

"We will not tolerate foreign troops coming to our country," demonstrator Saida Hussien said. "We will show the world that we are against the foreign troops."

The demonstrators, who protested in northern Mogadishu — an area known for its strong support of the Islamic group — carried placards that read, "We don't want foreign troops," and "Down with Ethiopia," referring to Ethiopia's military intervention that routed the Council of Islamic Courts. (More...)

Today's Top Stories

-Burundi joins Somalia peace force
-'Clean' Obama remark stalls Senator's presidential bid
-Olmert testifies to commission investigating Lebanon war
-Al-Maliki: Iraq won't be battleground for U.S., Iran
-Exxon Mobil reports $39.5B annual profit
-Indonesia to declare H5N1 disaster
-75,000 protest tortilla prices in Mexico
-Berlusconi Makes Public Apology to Wife
-Beyonce named most desirable woman: survey
-Big baby causes sensation in Cancun






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