Media Review for September 14, 2012

By Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Updated: 09/14/2012

Please note: The following news items are presented here for informational purposes. The views expressed within them are those of the authors and/or individuals quoted, not those of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the National Defense University, or the Department of Defense.

Today’s News

Revealed: inside story of US envoy’s assassination
The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach, The Independent can reveal. American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential. The Independant

U.S. officials: Lengthy stay, additional U.S. forces possible in Libya
U.S. defense officials on Wednesday told the E-Ring that the rapid reaction teams of roughly 50 Marines sent to Libya within hours of a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi could be the beginning of a much longer-term presence. Foreign Policy

Benghazi air space shut over security fears: Libya source
Air traffic has been suspended for security reasons to Libya’s second city Benghazi. [...] A military source would only say unspecified “threats” were behind the suspension of flights. According to witnesses, unmanned drone aircraft overflew Benghazi during the night and early Friday. It was initially believed that the four Americans were killed by a mob outside the consulate as they tried to flee an angry protest against a U.S.-produced movie deemed offensive to Islam. But it is now believed Stevens died from smoke inhalation after becoming trapped in the compound when suspected Islamic militants fired on the building with rocket-propelled grenades and set it ablaze. AFP on the Daily Star (Lebanon)

U.S. amassing Special Operations planes, gunships in the Mediterranean area
A small build-up is in progress in the Mediterranean area, following the Benghazi attack that cost the life of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three American officials, one of those was a former Navy SEAL. Along with a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST), a couple of destroyers equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, and, most probably the USS Iwo Jima and its MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit), Washington may have decided to move into position several Special Operations planes. According to the information posted on Scramble Messageboard, one of the most famous aviation forums, extremely popular among aircraft spotters from all around the world, at least a dozen Special Operation Hercules (MC-130Hs, HC-130Ns, HC-130Ps and AC-130Us) are currently in the process of crossing the Atlantic Ocean eastbound. The Aviationist

Libya Says Four In Custody In Connection To Consulate Attack
Two of the security personnel who were killed Tuesday along with Ambassador Chris Stevens and Information Management Officer Sean Smith have been identified. They are Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, both security personnel who died helping protect their colleagues. Both men were former Navy SEALs, according to a statement from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. NPR

Turmoil Over Contentious Video Spreads to Yemen and Iran
Deadly outrage in the Arab world over an American-made video insulting Islam’s founder spread to at least half a dozen places across the Middle East on Thursday and threatened to draw in Afghanistan, two days after assailants in Libya killed four American diplomatic personnel, including the ambassador, and caused a foreign policy political clash in the United States. The New York Times

Secretary Clinton Comments on Violence in Libya, Egypt and Yemen
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton comments on violence in Libya, Egypt and Yemen during her remarks at the U.S.-Morocco Strategic Dialogue at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on September 13, 2012. Youtube – State.gov

Diplomatic crisis in North Africa turns political
A day that started with a campaign pause for solemn remembrances of 9/11 ended with violence abroad and mudslinging here in America. The Daily Rundown’s Chuck Todd reports. MSNBC

Egypt Fans the Flames: Why Morsi Exploited the Muhammad Film — and Why that Was a Bad Move
The storming of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday echoed events following the 2005 Danish publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that led to widespread protest in 2006 and assaults on Danish embassies around the world. Today, Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, and his government are playing the same role that his predecessor Hosni Mubarak did then: provoking protest to consolidate power. Foreign Affairs

New details emerge of anti-Islam film’s mystery producer
Some time in the summer, a small theater in Los Angeles screened a movie to which hardly anyone came. It was a clunky film filled with scenes in a desert and in tents. The characters were cartoonish; the dialogue gauche. The actors who’d responded to a July 2011 casting call thought they were making an adventure film set 2,000 years ago called “Desert Warrior.” That’s how Backstage magazine and other acting publications described it. CNN

U.S. Embassy In Algeria Warns Of Protests, Tells Americans To Avoid Travel
The American embassies in Algeria and Tunisia warned of more protests Wednesday, following attacks by protesters in neighboring Libya in which the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff were killed. [...] In an emergency message, the embassy in Tunis warned Americans to avoid crowded places, saying that even gatherings “intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence.” The embassy in Algiers had similar advice. The Algiers embassy said unspecified groups were using online social networks to organize demonstrations “to protest a range of issues” there Wednesday. The Huffington Post

Don’t Give Up on the Arab Spring
The cruel irony of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens’s death will not be lost on Americans. If it wasn’t for President Barack Obama’s decision, however belated and reluctant, to intervene in Libya, the brutal dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi would very likely still be in power today. Stevens, in particular, had gained the respect of Benghazi’s rebels for his strong support of their cause. He was, to use the cliché, a friend of Libya. But he is now dead, for reasons that are apparently tied to a movie that no one is Libya has actually seen. Foreign Policy

A Depressingly Crowded Map of Conflicts in Africa
There have been hundreds – maybe thousands – of armed conflicts throughout Africa between 1997 and 2011. A new map shows them all. Created by design student Francisco Dans and the Center for Spatial Analysis at University College London, the map shows in vivid, horrible detail the overwhelming number of armed conflicts that have taken place over just a 15 year period. The Atlantic Cities

US Elections in 2012: The Implications for Sudan-South Sudan Relations
[...] Despite this tough policy towards Sudan, Washington developed a parallel line of cooperation and exchange of intelligence with Khartoum in the name of fighting terrorism. There is evidence that the US started training, equipping and conducting bilateral operations with Sudan’s intelligence since the early days of September 11 or even earlier, during the Clinton administration. This partnership seems to have been a tool for Washington to influence the regime in Khartoum. Sudan Tribune

South Sudan: First Paved Highway in South Sudan Constructed By USAID, Officially Opened
On September 12, U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan Susan D. Page and President of the Republic of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit inaugurated South Sudan’s 192-kilometer-long Juba-Nimule Road, the largest infrastructure project ever built in South Sudan, and the young nation’s first paved highway.

South Sudan to split Total oil block – officials
South Sudan will split a massive oil block largely held by Total into three parts, giving one to the French company and the others to two firms, officials said, in the biggest shake-up of the nation’s concessions since it seceded from Sudan. Reuters

Nigerians Demand Oil Spill Clean-up
A year after the U.N. Environment Program reported Ogoniland, Nigeria, should be the site of the biggest oil spill clean-up in history, activists say it is still not clear who will pay for it or when it will happen. While the oil company and the government argue about money, people say they are getting sick and dying. VOA

South Africa: Life in the army is terrible, says soldier
While Julius Malema used Wednesday’s meeting with the military to upstage the government, soldiers say all they want is for their plight to be heard. Mail and Guardian

South Africa throws U.N. nuclear meeting on Iran into disarray
South Africa proposed a last-minute change to a U.N. nuclear agency resolution rebuking Iran on Thursday, throwing the meeting into confusion, diplomats said. Reuters

Ethiopia ruling party to choose Meles successor
Ethiopia’s ruling coalition will hold a two-day governing council meeting from Friday to choose a leader to succeed former prime minister Meles Zenawi, who died last month, it said. AFP

An Expensive Farce: Germany’s Somali Pirate Trial Is Pointless
When 10 Somali pirates were brought to trial earlier this year in Hamburg, many viewed it as promising a minor victory against lawlessness on the high seas. But the trial has turned into a pointless and expensive circus. The battle against piracy off the Horn of Africa won’t be won in German courtrooms. Spiegle

WHO warns of Ebola virus spread in DR Congo
An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo risks spreading to major towns if not brought under control soon after the death toll doubled within a week, the World Health Organisation has warned. The number of people killed by the contagious virus for which there is no known treatment has now risen to 31, including five health workers. Ebola causes massive bleeding and kills up to 90 per cent of its victims. Al jazeera

Remarks at the Opening Plenary of the U.S.-Morocco Strategic Dialogue
SECRETARY CLINTON: Good morning. Well, let me welcome our friends and colleagues from Morocco here to the Benjamin Franklin Room on the eighth floor of the State Department for this very important first session of the U.S.-Morocco Strategic Dialogue. Before I begin to address the significance of this Strategic Dialogue and the next step in our long relations with Morocco, I want to say a few words about the events unfolding in the world today. State.gov

Officials: Kenyan police stop major terror attack
Kenyan police said Friday they disrupted a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition. The pair was arrested in a Somali immigrant area of Nairobi on Thursday night, said Boniface Mwaniki , the head of Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police Unit. He said the men are suspected of having links with al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group. AP on The Houstan Chronicle

North Mali robber describes Shariah amputation
Speaking from his hospital bed, a young man whose hand and foot were amputated this week by the radical Islamic group controlling northern Mali described an agony unlike any other – “a pain that made me forget everything.” He is one of five cousins, all in their 20s, and all but one from the village of Fafa, who were convicted of carrying out highway robberies. Stars and Stripes
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