I've said it before but I will say it again; the ACSS daily media review is where it's at! Click on this blog's title to go to their website and subscribe! As you can see below, their article list is pretty exhaustive and comprehensive.
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Media Review for March 28, 2011
Obama To Define Libya Mission In Monday's Speech
President Obama addresses the nation on U.S. military operations in Libya Monday night. The operation started nine days ago. Since then, Obama has faced criticism from Republicans - and some Democrats - for not having stated firm goals, and for not getting congressional approval first. NPR
One by one, the milestones on the road to Tripoli are falling
The last time the rebels made it as far west as Bin Jawad, it ended in disaster: their fighters ran into a murderous ambush, lost 70 men, and were forced into a terrifying retreat that nearly ended their campaign. But yesterday, after a stunning sweep across the territory for which they have fought so hard and for so long, they were back. The Independant
Libyan rebels are claiming to have captured the town of Sirte, the home of embattled Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Shamsi Abdul Molah, a spokesman for the opposition's National Council, told Al Jazeera that opposition forces had moved into the city at approximately 1.30am last night (local time). "[They say that] they found it an unarmed city. They had no problem getting in there, they did not encounter any resistance," reported Sue Turton, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Benghazi. Celebratory gunfire was head in Benghazi, the opposition's stronghold in the east of the country, as news filtered in of the taking of Gaddafi's hometown. Aljazeera
Libyan state television reports that international airstrikes are targeting Moammar Gadhafi's hometown and stronghold of Sirte for the first time. Foreign journalists in the city reported loud explosions and warplanes flying overheard. ABC News
The United States has undertaken the lion's share of coalition military sorties against Libya late Saturday and Sunday, despite NATO formally taking command of operations, Pentagon figures showed. AFP
AFRICOM's General Ham on Fox, NBC, CNN, BBC, AP
General Carter F. Ham, commander, U.S. Africa Command, was interviewed by Fox, NBC, CNN and BBC via the Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System and by AP via telephone March 25, 2011. The interviews focused on the future role of U.S. AFRICOM as NATO takes command of operations in Libya. "What makes me most proud is how quickly this coalition came together to operate very, very quickly," said Ham. "We'll now make sure this transition to NATO occurs very quickly and very precisely. It's a complex matter to do this transition while maintaining the momentum of the operation, but I'm convinced that this team that's been assembled can do just that." Africom
NATO took full command of military operations in Libya from a US-led coalition, empowering alliance forces to stage ground strikes to protect civilians threatened by Moamer Kadhafi's army. AFP
The Mediterranean Sea is the main battle front in the world currently, superseding the Afghanistan-Pakistan war theater, and the empire of the new third millennium - that of the U.S., the world's sole military superpower in the words of President Barack Obama in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, and its NATO partners - is completing the transformation of the Mediterranean into its mare nostrum. Scoop.co.nz
Libya Action Creates Risks for Obama
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, has raised the possibility of impeaching President Barack Obama for ordering aggressive airstrikes against Libya, while Mitt Romney, a potential Republican presidential candidate, has said the policy shows the commander in chief to be "tentative, indecisive, timid and nuanced." The New York Times
The French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy and Bernard Kouchner, founder of Doctors Without Borders and until last year President Sarkozy's foreign minister, have long been champions of "the right to protect" - that is, the right of the international community to intervene if a sovereign is committing crimes against his own people. The Huffington Post
In a sign of U.S. confidence that the weeklong assault on Libya has tamed Moammar Gadhafi's air defenses, the Pentagon has reduced the amount of naval firepower arrayed against him, officials said Sunday. AP
Gates: Libya not 'a vital interest' for US, but part of region that's of vital US interest <link> Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he doesn't think Libya is "a vital interest" for the United States, but he does say the North African nation is part of a region that's of vital American interest. Gates tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we clearly have interests" in Libya, though he doesn't believe it's a vital American interest. The Washington Post
How Qaddafi bought friends and influence on the African continent <link> Qaddafi certainly is an African problem. During the four decades that he has governed Libya, Qaddafi has entrenched himself as a dominant political force across the continent. Many an aspiring politician has sought his support; many a rebel movement has turned to him for weapons and training. African heads of state have gone to great pains to maintain good relations with the colonel knowing that to do otherwise might mean Qaddafi's next protégé rebel movement could crop up in their country. Which is why, even as the rest of the world has written off Qaddafi as a maniacal loon, the Libyan leader still has friends in Africa. Foreign Policy
How AU dropped the ball in North Africa <link> When the US and its allies started aerial attacks to enforce the UN's "no-fly zone" over Libya on March 19, among the first injuries were to the ego of some of Africa's most powerful men. The AU High-Level Ad-hoc Committee that was supposed to arrive in Libya the next day to push the pan-African body's search for an end to the crisis, ended up with egg on their faces, when the UN's enforcers refused to allow them to land. The mission flopped. That must have been tough, because the ad-hoc team comprises proud men who are used to having their way: AU Commission chief Jean Ping, Presidents Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, Dennis Sassou Nguesso (Republic of Congo), Mali's Amadou Toumani Toure, South Africa's Jacob Zuma, and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni. East African
Turkey offers to broker Libya ceasefire as rebels advance on Sirte <link> The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signalled that Turkey is ready to act as a mediator to broker an early ceasefire in Libya, as he warned that a drawn-out conflict risked turning the country into a "second Iraq" or "another Afghanistan" with devastating repercussions both for Libya and the Nato states leading the intervention. The Guardian
Bruised and bloodied, Libyan woman bursts in on journalists to tell of her ordeal <link> A woman eludes security to reach a roomful of journalists at a hotel to tell of her abduction and rape at the hands of Moammar Kadafi's forces. The reporters take notes and document her injuries before she is taken away. LA Times
Libya may be placing corpses at bombed sites <link> US intelligence reports suggest that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces have placed the bodies of people they have killed at the sites of coalition air strikes so they can blame the West for the deaths, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said in a television interview on Saturday. Mail and Guardian
Migrants From Libya Reach Italy <link> A boat carrying nearly 300 African migrants fleeing the fighting in Libya has arrived in Italy. Those on board were mostly Eritreans and Ethiopians. It is believed to be the first boat to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy since the Libyan rebels launched their campaign to oust Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's leader, last month. At least two more boats are reported on their way. VOA
Obama urges Ivory Coast president to cede power <link> While keeping up with developments in Libya, Syria and other parts of the Middle East, President Obama also found time this weekend to urge the defeated president of Ivory Coast to cede power and avoid a civil war. "Last year's election was free and fair, and President Alassane Ouattara is the democratically elected leader of the nation," Obama said in a video message. USA Today
Ouattara Rejects New Ivory Coast Mediator <link> Efforts to resolve the political crisis in Ivory Coast suffered a new setback Sunday when one of the two rival presidents rejected a proposed mediator. Alassane Ouattara, who most countries recognize as president of Ivory Coast, said in a statement he was not consulted before the African Union put forward the name of Jose Brito, Cape Verde's former foreign minister. VOA
The Case for Intervention in the Ivory Coast <link> New bodies turn up on the streets and in the morgues nearly every day with bullet wounds, slashed throats, and charred skin from being burned alive. As in Libya, a desperate regime clings to power and makes murderous threats against its own people. And, in both cases, peaceful protesters are being mowed down by machine guns. Foreign Policy
Egypt Will Recognize Independent Southern Sudan, Minister Says <link> Egypt will recognize Southern Sudan as a separate country when it is declared independent in July, Foreign Minister Nabil El-Arabi said today in Sudan. "Egypt intends to be the second to recognize the south" after the Sudanese government, El-Arabi told reporters in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. He was in Sudan with an Egyptian delegation that included Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, who was sworn in March 7. They will travel to Southern Sudan tomorrow. Bloomberg
Violence: Jonathan Considers Massive Security Operations <link> The escalating pre-election violence in the country may be met with a stiff crackdown as the Federal Government prepares to deploy massive security measures ahead of the polls. THISDAY learnt Sunday that President Goodluck Jonathan may seek the nod of the Council of State to roll out tough security measures to tackle the violence which is spreading to more states of the federation. This Day
Somalia: Uganda to Send 2,000 More Troops <link> Uganda and Burundi will each add 2,000 peacekeepers in Somalia by mid this year to raise the number from 8,000 to 12,000, an increment approved by the UN Security Council in December last year. The offer to increase troops in the volatile Somali capital, Mogadishu, was announced last week in Mogadishu by Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, and his Burundian counterpart, Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare in a joint statement to all field commanders of AU forces in Somalia. allAfrica
Ghana Border Town Braced for Influx of Ivorian Refugees <link> As many as a million people have fled Côte d'Ivoire's commercial capital, Abidjan, due to intensified fighting. Many people are fleeing to areas in the north, centre and east of the country as thousands of youth answered a call to join forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo; others are trying to leave the country. IPS
Africa fears loss of Libyan investment <link> As part of his pan-African vision, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has invested heavily in businesses and projects across the continent. But as upheaval rages in the country, the future of those investments is uncertain. Deutsche Welle
Norfolk-based Navy ships send pirates scampering <link> The first call for help went out Thursday morning. From a Philippine-flagged merchant vessel in the Arabian Sea, a voice came over the radio: Pirates are about to hijack us. Less than a hundred miles away, sailors aboard two Norfolk-based ships were listening. The aircraft carrier Enterprise and the cruiser Leyte Gulf were off the coast of Pakistan to launch fighter jets over Afghanistan. Now they had another mission, too. Stars and Stripes
Ethiopia: The great land-grab debate <link> Ethiopia has little time for critics of its large-scale land-leasing policy, insisting the millions of dollars of foreign investment will create jobs, improve domestic agricultural expertise and reduce both poverty and the country's chronic food insecurity. IRIN
Kinetic military action' or 'war'? <link> Police action, conflict, hostilities and now "kinetic military action." They're all euphemisms for that word that this White House and many before it have been so careful not to say: War. Administration officials told congressional aides in a closed briefing earlier this week that the United States is not at war with Libya, and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes danced around the question in a Wednesday exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One. Politico
