The Troops are going to Africa

[Dee]

Cappy heard from a fellow worker today that his unit is being sent over to Africa

[Guest Guest]

I've looked and looked for a news story about this, but cannot find anything. I'll keep looking. This will end my support for President Bush. WE ARE NOT THE WORLD'S POLICE FORCE!

 

While looking, I found this article. Just what the west needs in our 5th year of severe drought. Our National Guard guys will most likely end up fighting terrorist set forest fires.

 

Forest fires latest terror threat?

Report: FBI memo warns al-Qaida plans 'catastrophic' blazes

Posted: July 12, 2003

5:30 p.m. Eastern

 

 

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

 

As brushfire season heats up, an FBI memo raises the alert that national forests in the West could be the next target for terror by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

 

The June 25 memo, obtained by the Arizona Republic, warns law enforcement that a senior al-Qaida detainee told interrogators he planned to spark multiple, catastrophic wildfires simultaneously in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming in order to strike a blow to the United States economy.

 

The plot called for three or four operatives to travel to the U.S. and set timed explosive devices in forests and grasslands, which would be detonated after the operatives had fled the country.

 

"The detainee believed that ... once it was realized that the fires were terrorist acts, U.S. citizens would put pressure on the U.S. government to change its policies," the memo stated, according to The Republic.

 

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Attorney's Office in Wyoming are unsure about the veracity of the detainee's information.

 

"The information provided may have been intended to influence as well as inform," the memo said.

 

The Forest Service took note of the warning, a spokeswoman told The Republic, but hasn't taken any action on it.

 

Similarly, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, took the alert in stride.

 

"It goes along with the rest of the alerts," Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the interagency fire center told the paper. "It's a reminder to be vigilant. We hope the public is, too. If you see something suspicious in an airport, report it. Likewise, if you see something suspicious in a forest, report it."

 

 

[Guest Guest]

This is all I could find:

 

http://www.drudgereport.com/bufsol.htm

 

Liberia Not Another Somalia, Citizens Stress

Despite U.S. Worries, 'We Are Tired of War'

 

By Karl Vick

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, July 14, 2003; Page A15

 

MONROVIA, Liberia, July 13 -- Liberia is about as far as you can get from Somalia and still be in Africa. But mention peacekeeping, Americans and Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in the same sentence and ordinary Liberians smile ruefully.

 

Many Liberians say they understand why President Bush is taking so long to decide whether U.S. troops will referee another civil war on the continent.

 

"The 'Black Hawk Down' movie, I saw it," said Eric Dumma, 22, referring to the film about the gunfight in Mogadishu a decade ago that left 18 U.S. soldiers dead. "What the blacks did to the Americans makes you fearful."

 

But he declared: "It won't happen here. We are tired of war. We are really tired, man."

 

Dumma stood in all he owned: a Nike T-shirt, a pair of navy pants and open-toed slippers. Militia fighters made off with his other possessions in an orgy of looting last month that followed a rebel offensive, which government forces pushed back from the foot of a road. Liberians call that road the only legitimate local reminder of the notorious last U.S. effort in Africa: Somalia Drive.

 

Bush is scheduled to discuss Liberia on Monday with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

 

"I know. I understand," said Mami Oldpe, a uniformed militiaman, who slowed the occasional minibus and battered sedan at the government checkpoint before Double Bridge. "The peacekeepers shouldn't be afraid of us. 'Black Hawk Down.' Somalia. We are different from them. Our conflict is different than theirs."

 

Settled by freed American slaves more than 150 years ago, Liberia is the closest thing to a former U.S. colony in Africa. But because it wasn't one, Liberian attitudes toward the United States contain none of the hate in the love-hate relationship between many former colonies and their former rulers.

 

"America is our father," said K.B. Jabateh, 52, standing beside the pavement with Mussa F. Donzo, who said: "How can you deceive your father?"

 

Somalis also welcomed U.S. troops when President George H.W. Bush sent peacekeepers to halt a famine aggravated by militias looting food aid. The troops saved countless lives, then stayed in a nation-building exercise that degenerated into urban warfare when the U.S. forces tried to capture a troublesome warlord.

 

The 1993 battle that cost 18 American lives so soured the White House on troop deployments to Africa that the United States deflected entreaties to intervene a year later in Rwanda, where more than 500,000 people were slaughtered in genocidal conflict.

 

Somali society is grounded in tribal laws that demand blood for blood, and perhaps because of that, the civil war that drew U.N. peacekeepers in has shown few signs of easing, 10 years after driving them out. The country, wrapped around the Horn of Africa, still has no central government and has been a transit point for Islamic extremists, including an al Qaeda lieutenant linked to attacks on Western targets in neighboring Kenya.

 

Some analysts argue that the prospect of failed states across the continent in West Africa, where al Qaeda has converted cash to diamonds, supports the case for Western intervention in Liberia.

 

"You know in Liberia we have brotherly feelings for America," said Jeremiah Varmie, owner of Uncle Sam's Tele Link, where most of the long-distance calls placed are to the United States. "I can't speak for the soldiers, but I don't think your people would be attacked."

 

The soldiers say the same. Young men carrying weapons -- in some cases since 1989, when warlord Charles Taylor began the rebellion that eventually made him president -- say they want only to put down their guns and go back to school.

 

"Excuse me, the militia are happy. They want peace," said a government commander who asked to be identified only by his war name, Nasty Plastic. "We are tired now. I've been fighting more than seven years now."

 

Liberians on Somalia Drive, like policymakers in Europe and in the United States, say the timing of any U.S. intervention must be carefully decided. Taylor, who is under indictment by a U.N.-backed court for war crimes in Sierra Leone, has promised to accept exile in Nigeria, but not before peacekeepers arrive. A rebel group has vowed to attack Monrovia a third time if Taylor does not go first.

 

Hawa Massaquor does not want that. In the last round of fighting, she shielded her nephew's face while rampaging militiamen killed his father and mother, then, while laughing, opened their bodies down the middle.

 

Taking shelter from the rain under the rusting tin roof of the Big Sister Help Yourself Food and Tea Shop, Massaquor recalled how the family's tormenters dared her to show any emotion.

 

"They say, 'How do you feel?' You say, 'All right.' You can't cry," she said. "They say, 'Dance.' You dance."

 

Liberians and outside analysts say that although the conflict has been horribly brutal, it appears to be driven chiefly by regional rivalries and the ambitions of warlords following Taylor's example, rather than by deep-seated tribal hostilities.

 

"Basically there's several guys who think they ought to be president and get a lot of money," an aid worker said.

 

Provided an atmosphere of security and sustained international attention, educated Liberians who fled abroad -- often to the United States -- could build their own nation, many Liberians say. They add that the physical presence of U.S. forces would add a measure of validation to the effort.

 

"Every Liberian will feel proud seeing Americans here," said Joseph Chea, in the American Car Washing Station, a wide spot off Somalia Drive, with ready access to river water.

 

"We don't have confidence in one another now," said Nathaniel Sayeh, 38. "We need someone to come and stand between us."

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Here's the story:

 

U.S. sources: More military sent to W.Africa

Bush, Annan expected to discuss Liberia Monday

CNN Pentagon

Monday, July 14, 2003 Posted: 12:00 PM EDT (1600 GMT)

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the United Nations secretary-general was to meet with President Bush Monday about the crisis in Liberia, more U.S. military personnel and equipment was heading to the war-ravaged region, U.S. military sources said.

 

The U.S. European Command has sent more than 100 military personnel, three HH-60 helicopters and a C-130 aircraft to West Africa to support a 50-man U.S. military humanitarian assessment team already in Liberia, the sources said Monday.

 

President Bush sent the military assessment team to determine whether U.S. peacekeeping troops should be deployed to maintain a delicate cease-fire there between national forces and rebels.

 

Fighting has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Many have sought refuge in Monrovia, where they have virtually no food or water and sanitary facilities are poor.

 

Nearby Nigeria has offered asylum to Liberian President Charles Taylor, whom Bush has called upon to leave the country so civil strife can end. Taylor has agreed to step down but has offered no timetable.

 

A U.N.-backed special court in Sierra Leone indicted Taylor on war crimes charges in June, accusing him of arming and training rebels in exchange for diamonds during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war that, according to the U.S. government left 50,000 people dead. Taylor denies the charges.

 

The Liberian crisis is expected to be a main topic of conversation Monday during Bush's scheduled meeting in Washington with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

 

"I hope my discussions in Washington today will be helpful to the Liberian process and that in the not-so-distant future, the president will take a decision which I hope will bring happiness to lots of people in the region," Annan said after a Monday morning meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

 

U.S. personnel mostly support, maintenance

The U.S. helicopters and personnel en route to the region will operate between Sierra Leone, Senegal and Liberia, the U.S. military sources said. The aircraft will allow the assessment team to move about more freely. Most of the additional personnel are crews and support and maintenance specialists for the aircraft. Until now, U.S. troops in the region had relied on helicopters hired locally for brief periods, according to the sources.

 

Some additional U.S. military personnel are also in the region, working out of Ghana, to determine what military forces from West African nations might contribute, U.S. military sources said.

 

In addition, the top U.S. European Command special operations commander has been sent to the region to talk with regional military forces and to assess their capabilities, the sources said.

 

European Command sources told CNN that Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, chief of Special Operations Command Europe, as well as members of the assessment team and the aviation units are expected to remain in the region to pave the way for any further deployment of U.S. forces.

 

But several European Command and Pentagon officials said it appears less likely the administration will send a large group of U.S. peacekeeping troops, given recent remarks by Powell indicating that West African units will lead the effort.

 

Instead, the United States may focus on sending support units to the region that could provide West African peacekeepers with crucial operations such as communications, transportation or logistics support. Sources emphasized the president has made no decision.

 

U.S. military sources indicated there may, however, be additional deployment of heavily armed U.S. troops to provide additional force protection and security before any support troops are sent in, if so ordered.

 

 

[Dee]

I wash my hands of Bush! The man is a powerdriven war monger. Now he's talking about putting North Korea in their place... what a stupid stupid man. The N. Korea Army is massive and can wipe our military out with minimal fight! Your right Mare... we shouldn't have to police the whole world. Its our military people who are getting hurt and killed trying to protect the peoples of these radical countries. We have no business over there...

Bush should stop playing war with his buddies and fix the [censored] economy in this country and help those here who have lost jobs by keeping companies in this country. Under Bush the unemployment has risen astronomically and continues to grow. When his daddy was in office I think unemployment was at an alltime high of seven percent and now Bush has it up to over the 6% level in this country from Clintons 4% that Clinton got it back down to after he took the office over after Big Daddy Bush lost the election to him.

I don't like what Clinton did as far as the affair or affairs he has had but by God the guy brought down the National Debt to the positive and we actually had surplus built up then when Little Hoss got into office we now have deficits in the billions and billions of dollars while he and his buddies line their pockets.. see VP Chaney's oil company theft from Iraqs oil producers. and Bush said it wasn't about the oil! YEA RIGHT! Why do you think he has been visitng Africa and wants to get into Liberia... OIL! Check out the statistics for these oil producing countries.

I want to remind everyone to that ITS BUSH who wants to cut the retirement funding for THOSE MEN AND WOMEN whom HE sent over to " protect" the US and other countries from dictators who were suppose to have weapons of mass distruction which we have yet to be shown. 9-11 just gave Little Hoss the ammuniton to settle the score with Saddam because Saddam plotted to have Big Daddy Bush murdered while Clinton was in office ( The Clinton Whitehouse got this information and acted on it immediately and notified Bid Daddy Directly) Unfortunately Big Daddys memory forgot about that! and so did the republican guard in the US. I am tired of hearing everything is Clintons fault when Clinton hasn't been in office for a few years!

 

[Guest Guest]

Hey Reci, tell us what you REALLY think!

[Guest Guest]

*Giggle* I almost posted that myself!!! But I restrained myself!