Landlocked Uganda has announced it will build a major pipeline to export its oil through Tanzania.
Uganda had planned to send the pipeline through Kenya, which wanted a joint facility for oil from its own fields that are under development. The pipeline will now be routed further south, with concerns about possible attacks by Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamists said to be a factor. The group has attacked targets close to where the pipeline would have passed.
Just looking at a map, the pipeline will need to be considerably longer if routed through Tanzania. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do...
The 1,400km (800 miles) pipeline will connect Uganda’s western region near Hoima, where big oil reserves have been discovered, with Tanzania’s port of Tanga. The project is expected to cost about $4bn (£2.8bn) and create 15,000 jobs.
The discovered oil reserves in Uganda are estimated at some 6.5bn barrels, and the country expects to start production in 2018. France’s Total, China’s CNOOC and Britain’s Tullow hold most of the licences.
Kenya, which has also struck oil, had wanted the pipeline to pass through its territory. Uganda had initially signed such a deal, but Total later questioned the plan over security concerns, the BBC’s Catherine Byaruhanga in Kampala reports.
Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa said on Saturday that the cost was also a factor in choosing the project. Reports also suggest that Uganda backed the Tanzanian route because the country’s port of Tanga is already fully operational, while Kenya’s Lamu port is still being built.
Meanwhile, Kenya said it would build its own pipeline from Lokichar, in the north-east, to Lamu.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Meanwhile, what the hell happened to the pipeline to connect South Sudan oil (which is already available) with Kenya? The Somali refugees have not only screwed up Minnesota, but Kenya as well.
Now, perhaps, when Boko Haram is nearly wiped out.
[ALLAFRICA] Kaduna -- The Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN), Mallam Nafiu Baba Ahmed, has said the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shiite poses greater danger to Nigeria than the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... terrorists.
Ahmed stated this while testifying before the judicial commission of inquiry set up by the Kaduna State Government to investigate the December 12-14, 2015, festivities between the Nigerian Army and the Shiites in Zaria.
He said the failure of the government to deal decisively with the alleged excesses of the Shi'ites may be catastrophic for the country.
Ahmed also revealed that the late leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, had some relationship with the Shi'ites prior to forming his own group, adding that both Mohammed and the Shiite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky had similar attitudes in holding onto their respective doctrines which, according to him, are contrary to Islamic principles.
He alleged that the Shi'ites had recently started adopting the Boko Haram strategy of intimidation and elimination of Ulamas who were opposed to their doctrines, saying that many have refrained from testifying before the commission for fear of the unknown.
Ahmed, who lamented the initial government handling of Boko Haram, noted that small fires become huge conflagrations if not tackled in an effective and timely manner, urging the government to learn from its experience with Boko Haram by dealing decisively with the Shi'ites.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] One of the "most horrific movements in the history of the world" is strengthening its links with Isis, officials have warned.
Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , a Nigerian terrorist group waging a bloody insurgency across parts of Africa, swore allegiance to the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... last year and co-operation between the two organizations is increasing.
Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, commander of US special operations in Africa, said the groups clearly share "tactics, techniques and procedures," from the way they conduct complex ambushes and set improvised bombs, to how they launch high-profile attacks on hotels.
A "large cache of different types of weapons" including machine guns intercepted by Chadian authorities on its way to Boko Haram from Libya.
"You can, I think, draw a conclusion," Brig Gen Bolduc said, suggesting the weapons may have been sent by Isis from its strongholds along Libya’s coastline.
He called the Lake Chad Basic region where Boko Haram is launching its insurgency as "ground zero" the fight against extremism in Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Several dozen migrants colonists managed to illegally cross from Greece into Macedonia on Saturday -- a border that has been shut since February, an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer reported.
The photographer saw the group in the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, across from Idomeni in Greece where more than 10,000 migrants colonists have been stuck for weeks in grim conditions after a series of border closures on the Balkan migrant route.
The photographer, who was travelling with a group of journalists, saw a person "jump out of the bush" in front of his vehicle.
"Then I saw two or three others, then around 50 resting in the bush," he said, estimating there were "many others" following this group.
The migrants colonists would have made a three-hour journey from Idomeni including the crossing of a river.
The group, including "many women, children, even a woman carrying a cat," then disappeared from the journalists' sight, the photographer said, adding that they "looked scared" and "tired".
In the Macedonian capital Skopje, police denied any knowledge of the incident.
"I have no such information," police front man Toni Angelovski told AFP.
But he added: "We have these kind of illegal attempts to cross (into the country) on a daily basis, and police are taking measures to protect the border."
Some 54,000 people, many of them fleeing the war in Syria, have been stranded on Greek territory since the closure of the migrant route through the Balkans in February. More than 10,000 are in the overcrowded camp in Idomeni, separated from Macedonia with a double barbed wire fence.
Groups have intermittently tried to cross the border, where they face the Macedonian police and army.
Two weeks ago some 260 refugees were maimed when Macedonian police fired tear gas in a bid to prevent a large group from storming the border.
Last month, three Afghans drowned trying to wade through the river and cross into Macedonia, while another 1,500 or so who followed them made it across the border -- only to be rounded up and sent back by troops.
Describing the refugees, the photographer said he was struck by the tension on their faces, but added they did not seem to be concerned in being spotted by the journalists. They continued their journey without saying where they were going, but were probably heading north towards Serbia, the photographer added.
Last month a Macedonian army front man told AFP that the police and military "daily discover 50 to 300 illegal migrants colonists who are trying to enter into the country or break the fence" and send them back to Greece.
Macedonia, a non-EU and non-NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... country of two million people, has deployed its army at the border since August last year to control the influx of refugees and other migrants colonists hoping to start new lives in northern Europe.
[Breitbart] TEL AVIV - The U.S. is cosponsoring an Israeli-invented tunnel detection system that could prevent drug smugglers and illegal migrants from cross-border passage with Mexico, ISRAEL 21 reported.
The technology, which is being heralded as the underground Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, was behind the IDF's recent discovery of a 1.5 mile-long Hamas terror tunnel from Gaza and into Israeli territory.
The U.S. has earmarked $120 million over the next three years to help develop the system, the Financial Times reported.
#1
$120 million in research grant seed money? Unless we can appropriate ten times that amount with flexible cost overrun language, we'll never get Lockheed Martin or Boeing to bite.
#4
An 'all of the above' systems approach is needed. The successful Aerostat program should be expanded, ground sensors, drones, foot and mounted patrols, U2, SAT downlinks, along with Anti-Tunnel technology should all be integrated.
#6
I am sure some people 'look the other way' when employing folks. But my employer has thousands of Spanish-speakers on their payroll and I assure you - every single one of them has the necessary ID required by the Feds.
I did overhear the Company side of a conversation about a fella who shared a Social Security number with his cousin.
We also need to find and prosecute those making a profit from importing illegal aliens.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/25/2016 7:32 Comments ||
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#7
grom has a good point
E-verify, which was created by and is supported by the US Govt. is an effective system to identify which employees are legal. It is used by a lot of employers. Of course the system is not perfect (e.g., when people change their names after marriage).
However a lot of employers don't use it and in fact there are some barriers to its use. For example, California State Govt passed a low a few years ago prohibiting the use of E-verify in many cases. Illinois has fought tooth and nail against the use of E-verify/ The ACLU has also fought E-evirfy
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/25/2016 8:22 Comments ||
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#8
This all assumes the Regime wants to stop illegal immigration. Between future Dem voters and cheap labor for the Chamber of Commerce, our betters are getting what they want now
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/25/2016 8:48 Comments ||
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#9
At least twenty years ago the Pentagon was trumpeting the success of an anti-tunneling breakthrough that had virtually eliminated such activity between North and South Korea. Today, archaeologists use devices that penetrate rock to discover empty spaces. The fact that the science has existed for some time, doesn't this really demonstrate that the Obama administration has lacked the will to halt the drug and people-smugglers who cross our border? Just kick the can down the road for another three years?
#11
It is not a matter of technology. It is that the US political class does not have the willpower to apply it, and the population continues to re-elect them.
[DAWN] The US State Department has publicly acknowledged that after last week’s massive boom-mobileing in Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... it asked Pakistain to take concrete action against the Haqqani network.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack outside a building of the National Directorate for Security in Kabul on Tuesday that killed 64 people and injured more than 300 others.
Pakistain had condemned the attack hours after it took place. We condemn thee, we condemn thee, we condemn thee. There, that should do it.
"We extend our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to those who have lost their loved ones and pray for early recovery of the injured," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Commenting on Afghan government’s claim that Pakistain supported the group that carried out the attack, the director of the State Department’s Press Office, Elizabeth Trudeau, suggested on Friday evening that Islamabad continued to allow bully boyz to use its soil.
"We have consistently expressed our concerns at the highest level of the government of Pakistain about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups such as the Haqqani network operating from Pak soil," she told a news briefing in Washington. Obviously Trudeau has never visited a game farm. Hunting within the Tribal areas must be strictly controlled with price points which attact only the high-end, most discriminating customer.
"And we did again -- after this week’s attack, we have pressed the government of Pakistain to follow up on its expressed commitment not to discriminate between terror groups regardless of their agenda or their affiliation by undertaking concrete action against the Haqqanis," she added.
Within hours of the attack, Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. vowed "vengeance for each drop of blood spilled", while his chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... , cancelled a May 2 visit to Pakistain, citing the findings of a preliminary investigation.
On Friday, the Voice of America radio quoted Afghanistan’s deputy presidential front man Dawa Khan Menapal as claiming that Pakistain supported and armed the Haqqani network that carried out the attack.
"Attacks such as this clearly undermine US, Afghan and Pak efforts to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan," Ms Trudeau said. But you must understand, business is slow, very slow. Without the attacks, there are no cheques! We had only one UBL, you have taken him away, so we have nothing left but attacks.
The US official, however, disagreed with a journalist who suggested that the United States allowed Pakistain to continue supporting the Death Eaters by avoiding criticising its policies publicly.
Ms Trudeau said that Pakistain had reiterated that it would not discriminate between terrorist groups "and we continue to call on them to live up to that commitment".
When asked if "words match Pakistain’s actions", the official said: "I think words matter and we continue to encourage them to have their actions match those words."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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After a short-lived ceasefire gradually collapsed, bombs have started falling heavily on Aleppo, leaving people there with no choice but to think again about whether it is time to get out of a city at the epicenter of the Syrian war.
The brief normalcy brought by a truce has vanished, emptying, again, the parks and streets of the war-torn country. Residents count the explosions and the dead across the frontlines of a city divided between the government and rebels.
Hope does not loom on the horizon, especially with the government talking about a new attack against the areas of Aleppo under anti-government forces control. Such a campaign would likely aim to close up the last route into rebel-held areas. Air strikes on rebel-held areas have resumed.
Continued on Page 49
QAMISHLO – Kurdish officials suggest they will not withdraw from any places captured in the clashes last week with the Syrian regime despite the recently reached ceasefire in the northeastern city of Qamishlo.
“The regime forces consider themselves victorious after the Geneva peace talks and that’s why they tried to spread their authority over the people in Qamishlo (Qamishli),” Dr. Nasser Haji Mansur, a Kurdish official of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told ARA News, speaking about the clashes that started on 20 April and lasted until 23 April.
The Kurds say they will not make any concessions to the Syrian government.
“We will not return anything. Any area taken with the blood of martyrs is a red-line for us,” Hekem Xelo, a senior Kurdish official from the Hasakah province told ARA News about the areas captured by the Kurdish forces from the regime, such as the Alaya prison.
Syrian Kurdish regional interior minister Canaan Barakat on Sunday also confirmed they will not return any areas, after visiting the regime prison of Alaya which was taken from pro-Assad forces subsequent to heavy clashes.
“Our conditions for the ceasefire are to dissolve the [pro-Assad] National Defence Forces militia and take their weapons, and we will not return locations that we took,” Xelo added.
The Kurdish official also said that the regime should rehire locals that were fired from their government jobs for refusing to join the regime’s self-protection units.
The regime tried to push locals employed by the government in the Hasakah province to undergo militia training. The government is still one of the employers of civilians in the region.
“For two months they cut my salary for not joining the militia training,” a Kurdish government worker told ARA News, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Most Kurds didn’t join this militia,” he added.
Moreover, the Kurds want the regime to pay compensation for the damage done to civilian properties resulting from indiscriminate mortar fire, and to exchange all prisoners.
Wasfi Bave Dindar (55) told ARA News that mortar fire from the regime base destroyed his home.
“According to our information it came from the regime base, and thanks to God my children weren’t inside and left five minutes before the mortar hit the house,” he said. “I was the first person to witness the destruction after we returned.”
Moreover, the Kurds want Syrian government militias to not interfere with the work of the local administration or to stop vehicles of Kurdish security forces, nor trying to expand its control.
“This last agreement between us and the Syrian government means that the regime is weak,” Xelo concluded.
It is yet unclear whether the Syrian government will compensate civilians or dissolve the NDF militia.
Many Kurdish civilians fear that at one day the clashes with the regime could re-erupt.
The Kurdish security police said in a public statement on Saturday that at least 31 regime fighters were killed and 102 captured. Moreover, in total 13 fighters on the Kurdish side were killed in the fight with the Syrian regime forces. Video report at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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Regional Kurdish security forces will keep territory taken from pro-Syrian government forces during a three-day outbreak of violence in northeastern Syria, a truce document announced on April 24 showed, with both sides to release prisoners taken during the clashes.
Fighting broke out between Kurdish Asayish forces and pro-Syrian government security forces on April 20 in Qamishli, near the Turkish border. A peace accord took effect at 3:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) on April 22 and the truce was holding on April 24. A Syrian Kurdish YPG official said this was the second biggest outbreak of fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's government and regional Kurdish forces since Syria's civil war began in 2011.
During the fighting, Asayish forces seized control of a number of government-controlled positions in the city of Qamishli in Hasaka province as well as its main prison.
The truce agreement said "the prevailing military situation will be maintained as it is," indicating territory taken from government control will not be returned.
Syrian Kurdish regional interior minister Canaan Barakat, speaking in Qamishli on April 24 to announce the terms of the truce, said 17 civilians, 7 Asayish members and 3 YPG members had been killed in the clashes.
The agreement also said: the structure of the pro-government national defence forces present in Qamishli will be reconsidered; prisoners and detainees taken by both sides will be released; compensation will be paid to civilians who lost relatives or suffered material damage during government shelling; and, the regime is to no longer interfere in the local society. The truce also stipulated the state of emergency in the city should be lifted. The Observatory said life is slowly returning to normal but the main market remains closed.
Qamishli, near the Turkish border, is mostly controlled by Kurdish security forces, though pro-Assad forces still hold a few areas in the city centre, and its airport. This co-existence is largely peaceful.
Syrian Kurdish forces now dominate wide areas of northern Syria and set up their own government there. Syria has become a patchwork of areas controlled by the government, an array of rebel groups, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, and Kurdish militia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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US President Barack Obama said Sunday he was not supportive of establishing the so-called safe zones in Syria as it would need a bulk of military contribution, Sputnik reported.
"As a practical matter, sadly, it is very difficult to see how it would operate short of us essentially being willing to militarily take over a chunk of that country," Obama stated at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, broadcast by the TRT World news channel.
The comment comes a day after Merkel urged to create security zones in Syria where displaced people could be guaranteed safety.
Anytime Ms. Merkel wants to commit German military forces to create the security zones she's welcome to do so.
White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said on Friday that securing a safe zone in Syria would be complicated to implement and would not be in line with Washington's national security interests.
And it might create another red line...
In February, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the administration was considering establishing a safe zone in Syria in the border area with Turkey, but also noted that such a feat would require additional troops and was 'complicated.'
We elect you guys to do the complicated things...
Did someone say 'Buffer or Safe Zone?' UNDOF Zone, the Golan Heights, est around 1973: The buffer zone is about 80 km long, and between 0.5 to 10 km wide, forming an area of 235 km². The zone straddles the Purple Line, separating the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights and the rest of Syria, where the west line is known as "Alpha", and the east line as "Bravo". The zone also borders the Lebanon Blue Line to the north and forms a border of less than 1 km with Jordan to the south.
Not sure how many refugees you can pack into the Zone but it wouldn't hurt to try...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah. Then the Muslim invasion of the West must continue. In the 8th year of Hussein's Presidency, the Muslim Brotherhood is more than satisfied with such historic progress.
Posted by: Ho Chi Crinens5363 ||
04/25/2016 0:36 Comments ||
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#2
Creating ‘safe zones’ in Syria impractical - Obama - or red lines.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] The US State Department has publicly acknowledged that after last week’s massive 
US President Barack Obama said Sunday he was not supportive of establishing the so-called safe zones in Syria as it would need a bulk of military contribution, Sputnik reported.
