Article

2003-06-09 East/Subsaharan Africa

Mauritania rebel leader killed as coup fails

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Posted by Paul Moloney 2003-06-09 04:42 am|| || Front Page|| [9 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Am I the only person on the face of the planet to have never received either money or weapons from Saddam? Dammit, what's wrong with me? I can be evil, really, I can.

And now it's too late because Saddam is gone...

Posted by Chuck 2003-06-09 08:45:25|| [blog.simmins.org] 2003-06-09 08:45:25|| Front Page Top

#2 apparently taya had been close to saddam, then had a falling out, and in a reversal (fit of pique?) taya established relations with Israel, only 3rd arab country (after Egypt and Jordan)to do so.

So the islamists have lost one here.

Posted by liberalhawk 2003-06-09 09:18:56|| 2003-06-09 09:18:56|| Front Page Top

#3 I can't be the only one who had never even HEARD of this country before. Well, I guess his little falling out with Sadaam and recognition of Israel put him on the map...in bold letters no less.

Posted by Becky 2003-06-09 09:40:04|| 2003-06-09 09:40:04|| Front Page Top

#4 Becky,

Mauretania's (as a geographic area) has actually been around since pre-Roman times. I think they've changed religion since then, but other than that I don't think that much has changed.

Posted by Fred 2003-06-09 10:15:18|| 2003-06-09 10:15:18|| Front Page Top

#5 and its only marginally arab. According to CIA world fact book, only 30% identify as "Maur" (arab/berber) 40% are mixed maur and black, remaining 30% are black. Both Wolof, an African language and Arabic are official languages. While "maur" dominate, its not as bitter as in Sudan - perhaps cause most Wolof speaking blacks are muslims, unlike Sudan where non-arab blacks are mainly animists or christians.

Posted by liberalhawk 2003-06-09 10:28:30|| 2003-06-09 10:28:30|| Front Page Top

#6 To put this little fiasco in perspective, Mauritania shares a border with Algeria, Morocco/Western Sahara, Mali, and Senegal, and isn't that far away from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast. I think we all can remember, from our daily reading of Rantburg, something about rebels and uprisings taking place in most (if not all) of these countries over the last few months.

Posted by Old Patriot 2003-06-09 10:51:54|| 2003-06-09 10:51:54|| Front Page Top

#7 Fred and Becky -- the term Mauretania (with an "e") has been around since pre-Roman times -- but in those days it refered to kingdom in modern Morocco. The modern state of Mauritania emerged as a portion of French West Africa in 1960; it has no relationship with the ancient kingdom. Several other new African countries chose "classical" place names that that originally referred to other areas. Thus the original kingdom of Ghana was in modern Mali, just as the original Benin was in Nigeria. Many black Mauritanians, by the way, remain in slavery.

Posted by closet neo-con 2003-06-09 11:58:26|| 2003-06-09 11:58:26|| Front Page Top

#8 Yes, here on my desk globe Mauritania is colored purple!

Posted by Lucky 2003-06-09 12:06:42|| 2003-06-09 12:06:42|| Front Page Top

#9 Anyone else old enough to remember the map of Africa back in the 1950's. Simplicity reigned: French colonies shaded one color, British colonies another color, Portuguese yet another color, and the Belgian Congo smack in the middle. Then came SUEZ 1956, and the colonial spell began to break down. U.S. supported the heathens at that time and look where it got us...
_____________________________________borgboy

Posted by borgboy 2003-06-09 14:30:13|| 2003-06-09 14:30:13|| Front Page Top

09:33 raptor
09:01 raptor
08:06 raptor
03:24 Watcher
03:01 R. McLeod
02:21 Watcher
02:00 Watcher
01:54 Watcher
00:41 Anonymous Troll
00:34 Anonymous Troll
00:23 Anonymous Troll
00:08 Scott
23:28 Scott
23:19 Scott
22:49 Phil B
22:41 tu3031
22:15 Ptah
21:35 Mark IV
21:35 Chuck
21:27 Chuck
21:24 Chuck
21:22 lkl
21:20 11A5S
20:55 Old Patriot