Media Review for October 11, 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

Comittee on Oversight & Goverment Reform hearing: “The Security Failures of Benghazi”
Witnesses: Ms. Charlene R. Lamb (testimony), Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Programs, Bureau of Diplomatic Security – U.S. Department of State. Mr. Eric Nordstrom (testimony), Regional Security Officer – U.S. Department of State. Lt. Col. Andrew Wood (testimony), Utah National Guard – U.S. Army. Ambassador Patrick Kennedy (testimony), Under Secretary for Management – U.S. Department of State. Comittee on Oversight & Goverment Reform, United States House of Representatives [Video - Part 1] [Video - Part 2]

Top Obama terror aide presses Libya for action
The top White House anti-terror official John Brennan on Wednesday pressed Libyan leaders to hunt down those guilty of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. The White House said Brennan met Mohammed Megaryef, president of the Libyan national assembly, and addressed “specific additional steps Libya can take to better assist the US in ensuring that the perpetrators are brought to justice.” AFP on Straits Times

Person of Interest: United States U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice
[...] Rice did not make up the “spontaneous” story or have it handed to her by White House conspirators. She got it from the same daily intelligence brief given to the president. Those daily intel reports told the very story Rice repeated publicly, i.e., that the Benghazi mob formed more or less on its own, mainly in reaction to the American video cartooning sacred Muslim figures, and that extremists then took advantage to kill, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Rice didn’t make up that story. The problem was not with Rice; it was with the inevitably complicated U.S. intelligence process. The Daily Beast

Former Italian prime minister to lead UN response to crisis in Africa’s Sahel region
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi as his new Special Envoy for the Sahel region in West Africa. “The Secretary-General looks forward to Mr. Prodi’s leadership in shaping and mobilizing an effective United Nations and international response to the complex crisis plaguing the countries and people of this region,” said Mr. Ban’s spokesperson. UN

Burkina Faso deploys troops to region bordering Mali
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore has ordered 1,000 combat troops to be deployed in the northern region bordering crisis-hit Mali to guard against kidnappings, the foreign minister said Wednesday. AFP

Better To Elect Islamists Than Have Dictators?
“Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable,” economist John Kenneth Galbraith once said. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, dictators have been toppled and new leaders have begun to emerge. Islamists, once marginalized, have been voted into power. Which leadership scenario is better? NPR

Paul Kagame’s Rwanda: African success story or authoritarian state?
[...] President Kagame has similarly mesmerised Tony Blair (who called him a “visionary leader”), Bill Clinton (”one of the greatest leaders of our time”), Clare Short (”such a sweetie”) and Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, who was persuaded to invest here. Such idolatry raises the question, what spell does this flinty statesman with bookish, even nerdy looks, with no obvious charisma, cast over western leaders – and why is it now wearing thin? The Guardian

Zimbabwe energy minister arrested over Mugabe comments
Zimbabwe’s Energy Minister Elton Mangoma was on Wednesday briefly arrested for allegedly undermining veteran President Robert Mugabe in a speech at a rally, a party spokesman said. The spokesman for his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Douglas Mwonzora told AFP: “Minister Mangoma has been released after he was arrested this afternoon.” AFP

Pirates free ship in first Ivory Coast hijack: IMB
Pirates have released a Greek-owned oil tanker which they hijacked off the Ivory Coast over the weekend in the first such attack in this area, the International Maritime Bureau said on Wednesday. MSN News

After Kismayo: what next for Al-Shabaab and Somalia?
After a long wait, the Kenya Army finally entered the southern Somali port of Kismayo on 28 September, following an attack by sea, air and ground forces. Kenya deserves some praise for its effort to liberate Kismayo from the brutal rule of Al-Shabaab, but in the immediate aftermath it also seems to have missed the point, or an important part of it. African Argument

Minnesota Trial Offers Window On Jihadi Pipeline
A terrorism trial unfolding in a federal court in Minneapolis is providing a rare look inside a jihadi pipeline that funneled some two dozen young Somali-Americans to Somalia to join a terrorist group there. The testimony from three young men who joined a group affiliated with al-Qaida and subsequently returned to the U.S. has shown just how easy it is for young men to leave the U.S. and join a terrorist organization. NPR

Kenya President vetoes huge bonuses for parliament
Kenya’s president vetoed a move by the country’s parliament to award legislators bonuses of up to $110,000 at the end of their term next year. The move is unconstitutional and untenable in the country’s prevailing economic circumstances, President Mwai Kibaki said late Tuesday. AP

Kenya to See First Presidential Debates
Kenyan media outlets have organized the country’s first-ever live presidential debates, with the first one scheduled to air next month. Debate organizers say the November 26 debate will be broadcast by eight television stations and 32 radio stations, in addition to being streamed on the Internet. Further debates are set for January 14 and February 11 of next year. VOA

Unknown fates for hundreds of Egyptians missing since revolution
[...] A March 2011 report found that 1,200 people went missing in the course of the uprising in January and February that year, according to Nermeen Yousri, co-founder of the Hanlaqihom (We Will Find Them) Campaign. The list of missing, which activists say is still with the cabinet of ministers, hasn’t been updated or cross-checked with lists of names of those found dead or in military prisons. Many believe those missing could be in military prisons without proper papers or may have been killed and buried without identification. During the uprising, there were forced, and sometimes temporary, disappearances of activists, and also random rounding up of citizens passing by sites of clashes and protests. CNN

Sit-in calls for re-opening Morocco-Algeria border
Moroccan and Algerian activists staged a symbolic sit-in Sunday (October 7th) to seek the re-opening of their countries’ shared land border. The protest was held on the side-lines of the second Maghreb Social Forum. The October 6th-7th forum in Oujda called for the unification of the Maghreb while the demonstration demanded the re-opening of borders between Morocco and Algeria, giving citizens the freedom to travel and reside in any of the Maghreb countries. Magharebia

Sudan, South Sudan pledge peace, seek investment
Sudan and South Sudan pledged to work together to rebuild their shattered economies and not to return to war in a joint plea for foreign investment after signing a critical trade and border agreement last month. In their first high-profile appearance together since signing the deals, ministers from the two countries told an investment conference in Vienna they would work to make peace. Reuters

Pirate fishermen off Sierra Leone ‘export to EU’
The vast majority of pirate vessels illegally fishing off Sierra Leone are accredited to export their catches to Europe, an environmentalist group says. An Environmental Justice Foundation report says West Africa has the world’s highest levels of illegal fishing. BBC

South Africa anger over funding of roads to Zuma’s home
The spending of taxpayers’ money on the upgrade of roads near the rural home of South Africa’s president should be investigated, the opposition says. President Jacob Zuma is already facing an official investigation over the multi-million dollar renovation of his homestead in KwaZulu Natal. It and a proposed building of a nearby town has been dubbed “Zumaville”. BBC

Women Entrepreneurs Drive Growth in Africa
Far too often, in the view of Africa’s budding female entrepreneurs, their continent is characterized as the recipient of aid that enables residents just to struggle by, and as a place that mistreats and marginalizes its women. [...] Data analysis from Google shows that since 2004, the most common single term related to searches from the United States for “Africa” has been “AIDS.” This year, the charity Save the Children named Niger the “worst place to be a mother.” On the United Nations’ Web site, Africa is the only continent listed under “Issues.” NY Times

The next human pandemic
[...]A group of boys that had gone hunting for porcupines, but instead found a dead chimpanzee. They brought it back to the village, where people cooked it and ate it. Two days later, all of them started getting sick, with vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, headache. Some of the family members who cared for them fell ill, too. In the end 31 people got sick and 21 died. One of the crewmen watched his brother and nearly all of his family die, holding his niece as she took her last breaths. French virologists later determined that an Ebola virus was the cause of what the villagers called “the epidemic”. It had most likely crossed from the chimp to humans during the banquet, what scientists label a spillover event. The Financial Time

FOR THE RECORD – AFRICA – U.S. Government Events, Statements, and Articles
A weekly compilation by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) .

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