All right y'all welcome back to the show It's anti-war radio Scott Horton, and I'm happy to welcome back to the show Jason Ditz.
He's the news editor of Anti-war comm that's news dot anti-war dot-com and more and more you can find his opinion pieces in Newspapers all across America welcome back Jason.
How are you doing?
I'm doing good Scott.
How are you?
I'm doing good so You write about everything important that happens in the world all day long and particularly in the Middle East So I was hoping maybe we could take a tour around CENTCOM and AFRICOM as the Pentagon calls this area of earth and But rather than starting the obvious Egypt news I was hoping we could start in Somalia the most important and least covered story in The world right now if you ask me So I know there's been a lot of news coming out of Somalia over the last week or so a week or two Perhaps you can catch us up on some of the most important stuff Well, there's been a couple of different types of news coming out of Somalia one is of course civilian killings which Are constantly coming out of the Somali government and the African Union?
Yesterday we had a Particularly embarrassing Incident where it started when?the police for the self-proclaimed Somali government shot and killed a member of their military and The military deployed some heavily armored vehicles towards the police And we're arguing with the police and a whole bunch of people gathered around to watch as the military and the police of this Sort of would-be government that only controls a few city blocks anyway, we're on the verge of clashing and What they're saying right now is an accident one of the soldiers accidentally pointed the Anti-aircraft gun on the back of his truck at the crowd of civilians and press the press the fire button and it jammed and The anti-aircraft gun just mowed through the civilians killed 17 and wounded somewhere between 60 and 80 others and that's that's been the big civilian incident of course we've also had the Political aspect of that government the African Union is talking about Extending their mandate because of course right now.
They're just a transitional government And they're standing their mandate from who the u.s.
Well they They gave themselves a mandate in 2004 when they were assembling on a soccer field in Kenya They gave themselves a mandate to rule Somalia through August 20th of 2011 at which point they would supposedly have such absolute control over the country that they would be able to stop calling themselves a transitional government and transition into an actual government But of course here we are six and a half seven years later and They control less of the country than ever they basically have the airport small Seaport a presidential palace and a couple of blocks surrounding it well, and how goes the Insurgency against them.
I know that this group al-shabaab grew up.
You know as the most radical young Rifle-toting militants in the war against the Ethiopians and the so-called transitional government How much sway do they have over the country at this point?
Do you know well ever since?for a long time there were clashes between them and as bull Islam which sort of a rival insurgency but After some pretty decisive al-shabaab victories and clashes between those two they've merged So at this point al-shabaab really control most of the country to the extent that anybody controls it, but They don't really exercise government style control over the people so for instance They do control technically most of the civilian population of Mogadishu, but it's not like they're You know patrolling the streets or yeah, they're just keeping the so-called government from being the government, right?
They're they're basically if if the government troops showed up, they'd chase them out and that's about it All right.
Now.
There's also been news that Blackwater is more and more involved in Somalia and training the bogus government there and then Where's this headline?
I've just had it here something about how In the name of the pirates now Perhaps the American military is going to go to war in Somalia outright.
Is that right?
Well, it's not Blackwater as such which is having the role in Somalia this group called Seraphim International, which is sort of a mercenary for hire group, which is currently employing in some Currently employing in some some shape or form Blackwater's founder Eric Prince and This group is sort of set themselves up to put together a big army to fight the pirates and They got some funding It's not really clear where all the funding came from.
So that supposedly came from Middle-East governments a lot of it was supposedly a couple of very wealthy private backers who had a grudge against the pirates and they're just up in the north of the country put together a mercenary army of tens of thousands of troops that they're planning on using to go after the coastal bases of the pirates use Well, there's this piece in all africa.com where they have a quote here from Vice Admiral Mark Fox saying Well, I'm not saying we I'm not advocating we suddenly come out with guns blazing and just change everything But I would advocate that we use the same techniques that have been successful in our counter-terror I guess policy that we have not heretofore used in our counter piracy Policy, so that's what worries me Is that here the only reason these people are pirates is because America's turned their entire society upside down They got no other way to make money other than stealing it and now that's going to be the excuse for further Escalation by the American Navy.
Well, I never mind those mercenaries and what's the difference between Going in guns of blazing and the u.s.
Anti-terror strategy.
Yeah, I'm not sure what that means either Yeah Well, you know for what it's worth Somalis.
I'm sorry.
I don't know how to stop them or I would I it's terrible Yeah, I recommend everyone go to Human Rights Watch and read about the humanitarian Catastrophe in that country.
It's absolutely sickening It's a nightmare and it's mostly America's government's fault there if you ask me Hey They even have an American citizen is the puppet dictator or puppet president guy of the four city blocks in downtown Mogadishu now, right?
They're not even hiding anymore.
Well, he's the Prime Minister.
Yeah Muhammad Abdullahi Muhammad who was formerly the Head of the public housing development in Buffalo, New York Now the Prime Minister of Somalia Which I'm not sure is a step up in his career.
It seems like he controls considerably less territory now Nicer title Yeah, well You know, it's the title is everything I guess once you're you know that level of bureaucrat run an award All right, well so there's so much other news to cover we still got I guess about a minute minute and a half before the Break, so let's why don't you give me the headlines out of Jordan today, Jason?
Okay.
Well Jordan King has Backed his Prime Minister and his cabinet Seems like he's trying to react earlier to the public protests then And if the other governments around the region did and they've had a lot of protests there in Jordan, uh, they've had some Over the past few days.
They haven't been as big but they've been growing I wonder if he just set the precedent and King Abdullah there that oh, yeah, I'm a pushover come and get me I guess we'll see what happens there.
All right, hold it.
Hold it right there.
But it's Jason Ditts news dot anti-war.com We'll be right back You All right, y'all welcome back since I wore radio Scott Horton, I'm talking with Jason Ditts news dot anti-war.com.
He's our news editor there and he's been keeping track of the Region wide into FATA which started in Tunisia has spread to Egypt as we were discussing before the break there There are have been protests in Jordan that are already getting somewhere.
I guess we'll see But before we get back to Jordan, which I do want to get back to I think I wanted to ask you What's the latest out of Tunisia because the latest that I knew about it?
Was and but I've had a sore tooth and I haven't really been reading But the last I'd heard they the revolutionaries weren't satisfied The government had only partially been dismissed and they wanted even more ministers out Where do we stand as far as the original revolution that sparked this whole thing Jason?well, they've they got rid of a few more of their ministers and that convinced some of the protesters particularly one of the big labor unions there to Be satisfied, but there still have been some protests going on and the police have been Smashing up a lot of the protest tents over the past couple of days saying not the protests are over Once once the Union accepted it, they figured that was good enough and now they're just chasing everyone else off the street, but What's the Union that big of a percentage of the whole thing?
Oh, well, they were They were they were the major group, but they probably weren't a big percentage of the overall protest But yeah, I'm going home kind of put the damper on the rest.
It sounds like huh?
Yeah.
Well, so What percentage or do you know can you estimate you know, how much of a turnover and their highest leadership they've had there Well, I'm not entirely sure what what percentage they've they've gotten rid of I'm sorry That's a funny way to ask it But you know, I know the president and his wife had to flee her family's basically been driven out of their wealth and power there But I don't know about the defense ministers and the interior minister and all that.
They did get rid of some more ministers I'm not exactly sure which ones I know they originally tried to do the unity government where they appointed three opposition Party members to the three most trivial ministerships possible and that didn't really take and those guys resigned like 16 hours after they were appointed but since then they've they got rid of quite a few more and it seems like it was Enough for at least some of the people to be satisfied Yeah.
All right now so back to jordan here for a minute Uh, there hasn't been too much media attention on what's going on in jordan I think sort of a hear no evil see no evil monkeys with fingers in their ears kind of thing here at least in terms of tv media, but uh How big were these protests that led to king abdullah sacking virtually his entire government?well, they were uh In the tens of thousands a couple of times in in amman jordan, uh the the protests mostly centered around interestingly enough around criticizing the prime minister and Some of the other ministers and not the king himself.
They wanted to have free elections to elect their prime minister and elect their senate which right now Uh right now they have two houses of parliament.
They have a senate and a pretty weak house of representatives and they're allowed to elect the house of representatives But the senators are all appointed by the king and the prime minister and the whole cabinet are all appointed by the king And they're hoping to have elections where they can uh elect more of these people But they haven't really turned on the king as such it seems like they're more going for the the british model where the Royal family is still there But doesn't really have the power All right.
Now I know in yemen Well, if I remember it, right, I guess I shouldn't claim to know it if I remember right you had a story a week and a half ago or something that said the the Um dictator there salih, uh, whatever his official title is I forget uh had made himself or had Forced an amendment to the constitution that would allow him to be president for life and that Now due to massive protests again peaceful You know amazing Uh protests if they're anything like what's going on in egypt, uh, or have forced him already to back down from that He claimed I think he wrote that oh, I never meant that president for life.
No.
No, I We're having a fair election next time don't worry Yeah, and and now he's also said he's not going to run in the uh in the next election And uh, wow, so that's backing down quick they put the fear into him, huh?
Yeah, it it was it was bizarre because he sort of went with You know, there are protests from time to time in yemen.
It's it's been a pretty repressive system and A small protest cropped up at the university.
So he arrested the Woman that was leading the protesters And usually that would be the end of it But this time instead of that being the end of it, there was an even bigger protest the next day complaining And demanding that she be released which she was released less than 48 hours later and Then when she got out, she started organizing more protests and The capital city has had major protests pretty much since then and now the latest in yemen is there are protests sometimes as big as two or three thousand people in you know the desert parts of the country the tiny little towns in the center of the country and And protests in the mountainous regions in the south that used to be south yemen well when the empire loses slay I wonder if they'll ask themselves if Using reaper drones to murder women and children by the dozens and dozens in that country has anything to do with that I guess they probably won't It probably didn't help but the ways has had a pretty long history of making a lot of enemies Yeah, apparently so so, I don't know man, I got to tell you just my gut feeling here jason is that this is the Fall of the soviet union kind of thing going on here.
The velvet revolution has begun It's just incredible see millions of people more than a million in tahir square in cairo They're saying hundreds of thousands in sinai and in alexandria and and wherever peacefully protesting, uh, what was it I just read and said it's the the Feeling in the air is like a festival.
It's a big party.
It's a it's Uh, not there's not a bunch of fighting and looting and burning and these kinds of things I guess they burn party headquarters, but for the most part, uh, this is you know, a big gandhi mlk type No, really?
We insist you're fired kind of thing without a war at least so far right, it seems like all the violence was when the police were using live rounds on the protesters they Burned a few police stations and set fire to mubarak party headquarters but other than that it's been just People in the streets.
Yeah, which of course makes it that much more difficult for the military to take on an attitude of Being against them.
They kind of have to admit that like hey Wow, this is the these are the husbands and wives the mothers and fathers of cairo out here, you know It's really amazing to behold and I just wonder you know, what what's the average tv watching?you know family, uh saying over dinner in pakistan this week and Kuwait, is there any news out of kuwait?
Uh, I haven't heard any news out of kuwait.
I know out of pakistan the prime minister, uh Insisted that pakistan isn't like tunisia or egypt Which of course is what egypt insisted right before the protests broke out there and what yemen insisted right after the protests broke out there Wow, so we got hezbollah rising in uh influence big time up there in lebanon Uh, we've got iran in iraq.
We've got uh, the beginning of the end of the american-backed dictators in in the region, I don't know how long it'll be before the saudis fall, but Uh looks like there are major changes going on in the balance of power over there.
Jason well, there seems to be quite a bit of concern among uh, the u.s diplomats of what's this all going to lead to And it probably is going to lead to uh Some less supportive governments because if If you're a voter in egypt and you've had a u.s-backed dictator for the last 30 years You know, you're probably not Whoever the u.s is going to endorse in that election Right.
Yeah.
Um, well and I guess it remains to be seen Uh, you know, I was asking eric margulies earlier, you know, how against egyptian foreign policy are the egyptian people and and uh He said, you know, they it's not like they want war with israel, but they don't want to be The puppets they don't want another mubarak who's going to do whatever the lakud party dictates.
That's for sure That's probably good news for the gaza strip Yeah, well you'd think so but uh, yeah, and in fact boy, I wish I could uh Teleport and stuff.
I sure would like to know what's going on on that gaza border this minute But i'll just keep my eye on news dot anti-war.com.
Thanks.
Jason Thanks for having me.
All right, everybody.
Thanks for listening.
We'll be back tomorrow again.
That's jason.
Ditz news dot anti-war.com
