United States Africa Command Public Affairs Office 16 Aug 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA Cuts, new AFRICOM focus could affect HIV prevention programs (Stars and Stripes) 15 Aug 2011 - Over the past decade, the rate of HIV infection in the Rwandan military has dropped from 10 percent to 4.1 percent. UN Envoy seeks cease-fire to break impasse in Libya with Tunisia meetings (Bloomberg) 15 Aug 2011 - Over the past decade, the rate of HIV infection in the Rwandan military has dropped from 10 percent to 4.1 percent. Gaddafi defiant as rebels claim gains in west (Aljazeera) 15 Aug 2011 - Opposition forces continue western offensive, as Libyan interior minister lands in Egyptian capital. Al-Qaida in North Africa seeks Arab Spring jihad (AP) 15 Aug 2011 - Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb wants to put its footprint on the Arab Spring now that violence is fueling the uprisings, and in a two-part video is trying to lure new followers for revolt by jihad. South Sudan offers Somalia African Union troops (BBC) 15 Aug 2011 - South Sudan has offered to send African Union troops to Somalia to back the weak interim government. Somalia: Rights group says all sides guilty of crime (BBC) 15 Aug 2011 - Human Rights Watch has said all sides in Somalia's conflict are guilty of serious breaches of international law. Maiduguri unrest: Nigeria police 'thwart suicide blast' (BBC) 15 Aug 2011 - Nigerian police say they killed a man who tried to carry out a car bomb attack on the police headquarters of a violence-torn north-east city. South African government moves to earlier HIV treatment (AlertNet)

15 Aug 2011 - HIV-positive people in South Africa will be able to access antiretrovirals (ARVs) sooner after the government raised the CD4 count necessary to access treatment. But some warn the victory is only half the battle. Dragon tries to slay US military (Asia Times) 15 Aug 2011 - The high-voltage drama played in the United States over the indebtedness of the world's biggest economy produced fission of a wholly different kind from its biggest creditor, as China expressed anxiety by treading on territory more strategically sensitive than routine calls for America to shoot down its ballooning deficit. Dangerous Liaison? Evaluating Relations Between Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda (International and Security Network) 15 Aug 2011 - The detention of Ahmed Warsame in the US has renewed the discussion about possible cooperation between the powerful Somali Islamist insurgent movement Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. -----------------------------------------------------------------------UN News Service Africa Briefs Full Articles on UN Website Upcoming elections in Liberia must be peaceful, free and fair Ban 15 August With preparations for the upcoming general elections in full swing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the people of Liberia to do everything possible to ensure the polls are free, fair and peaceful. Angola: UN expert team sent to help probe outbreak of unknown illness 15 August The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has dispatched a team of experts to Angola to help local authorities probe an outbreak of a mysterious but apparently non-fatal illness afflicting schoolchildren in the African nation. UN urges inquiry into alleged war crimes in Sudans Southern Kordofan state 15 August The United Nations today called for a thorough investigation into violations of international law committed in Sudans Southern Kordofan state in June which it said could, if substantiated, amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes. -----------------------------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST: WHEN: Aug. 16, 2011 at 1015 a.m. WHAT: Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will conduct a televised conversation on Tuesday, Aug. 16 at the National

Defense University, Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C. The event will take place at the National Defense University's Abraham Lincoln Hall at approximately 10:15 a.m. EDT. It will be moderated by Frank Sesno, Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. The event will be open to credentialed members of the media and streamed live on http://www.state.gov and http://www.defense.gov. Media wishing to attend must RSVP to Shelley.Su@ndu.edu or 202-685-2344. Please provide: full name, affiliation, e-mail address, phone number, and vehicle year, color, make and license plate number. Pre-set time for still photographers: 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. Final access time for journalists: 9 a.m. Media in cars should enter the gate on 2nd Street S.W. to allow time for a vehicle security search. Media on foot should enter at 4th and P Street S.W. Media point of contact at the National Defense University is Shelley Su, Shelley.Su@ndu.edu, 202-685-2344 WHEN: Aug. 18, 2011, at 12:30 p.m. WHAT: The Society for International Development, Washington, D.C. Chapter (SIDW) Middle East Workgroup Discussion Forum on "An Introduction to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) in the Middle East and North Africa." Speakers: Daniel Mahanty and Laurie Freeman, foreign affairs officers for the Office of Africa and the Middle East at the State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. WHERE: Partners for Democratic Change, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 515, Washington, DC. CONTACT: Jordana Fraider, 202-884-8590, events@sidw.org or Mona Lisa Salib, msalib@partnersglobal.org; web site: www.sidw.org NOTE: RSVP at https://web.memberclicks.com/mc/quickForm/viewForm.do?orgId=wdcsid&formId =105092] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------FULL ARTICLE TEXT Cuts, new AFRICOM focus could affect HIV prevention programs (Stars and Stripes) By John Vandiver 15 Aug 2011 - Over the past decade, the rate of HIV infection in the Rwandan military has dropped from 10 percent to 4.1 percent.

I attribute that to our activities, said Eugene Zimulinda, who manages the U.S. Defense Departments HIV/AIDS prevention program in Rwanda. Truly, truly, were saving lives. But Zimulinda worries that the shrinking DOD budget and a new AFRICOM focus on more traditional military threats will jeopardize that success. Im very concerned, Zimulinda said Monday, the first day of an Africa Commandhosted conference on Defense Department HIV/AIDS prevention programs conference. It looks like a shift. While AFRICOMs new strategic vision doesnt eliminate the kind of soft power programs it has long touted as fundamental to the commands mission, those initiatives will come under more scrutiny as AFRICOM operates in a tougher budget environment, according to command officials. Were going to focus more on the threats to national security, said Navy Capt. Edward Bradfield, AFRICOMs regional chief for western and central Africa. The knife has started to cut, and its going to cut a lot deeper. HIV/AIDS program managers seeking more funding should keep the still-emerging strategy in mind as they make their cases for program support, Bradfield told conference participants. HIV prevention programs linked directly to U.S. national security interests will likely get higher priority, he said. Much of the five-day conference in Stuttgart, attended by HIV/AIDS program managers and workers from 31 African countries, is expected to focus on techniques and strategies for reducing HIV rates in African militaries. However, the opening day emphasis on a new threat-focused strategy at AFRICOM headquarters also offered a glimpse of how AFRICOM may operate under new commander Gen. Carter F. Ham. David Knack, AFRICOM strategy specialist, told the group of African health care workers that the command intends to become more focused on operations and exercises aimed at protecting the homeland and preventing terrorist safe havens on the continent. Were the American military, Knack said. Thats our job. Building the capacity of African militaries to deal with threats such as al-Shabab in Somalia, al-Qaida-affiliated groups across the Maghreb region, and the Lords Resistance Army in central Africa are top concerns. So is Libya, Knack said. Where does HIV prevention figure into the strategy? By keeping African troops healthy. Building the capacity of African militaries to conduct peacekeeping operations, as they do today in Somalia and other conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is high on the priority list, Knack said. HIV/ AIDS is a big problem because militaries that are highly infected cant do peacekeeping, he said.

Col. Robert Miller, AFRICOM command surgeon, said health care initiatives such as DODs HIV prevention program help counter regional instability. Theres a huge piece that deals with national security, he said. For now, there is no intent to cut funds to those efforts, officials said. But Zimulinda said he and many of his counterparts are aware that could change as the U.S. struggles to emerge from a bad economy. We are concerned about what the long-term impact will be on the quality of programs we provide, he said. Its going to be about trying to do more with less. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------UN Envoy seeks cease-fire to break impasse in Libya with Tunisia meetings (Bloomberg) By Flavia Krause-Jackson At a secret location in Tunisia, a United Nations special envoy will attempt to secure what five months of NATO air strikes have sought to achieve: a cease-fire in Libya. Abdel-Elah al-Khatib arrived in Tunisia today to meet with the prime minister and foreign minister. The former Jordanian foreign ministers visit coincides with the presence in Tunisia of representatives of both the Libya rebels and regime leader Muammar Qaddafi. The Jordanian diplomats trip marks a change after weeks of inconclusive shuttling between Tripoli, held by forces loyal to Qaddafi, and Benghazi, the headquarters of the rebels seeking to end his four-decade rule. On the sidelines, Khatib might meet with Libyan personalities residing in Tunisia, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who picked Khatib in March to lead political talks with both parties, said last week he was troubled by the lack of progress in negotiations. Russia has cited the Libya effect for its block of a potential UN resolution condemning a deadly clampdown in Syria. Things are coming to a close and Qaddafi may be getting serious, finally, about negotiating a way out for himself, said Karim Mezran, a Libyan exile and a political science professor at Johns Hopkins Universitys School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy. Libyan rebels and Qaddafi representatives met last night on the Tunisian island of Djerba, Al Arabiya television reported. Khatib is not participating in such talks as has been reported by some news agencies, Haq wrote in an e-mail. Civilian Casualties Even as rebel fighters claim advances on the battlefield, Ban has expressed dismay at reports of the unacceptably large number of civilian casualties due to the NATO-led bombing campaign. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies are seeking to wrap

up a mission that France promised at its March 19 outset would be counted in days and in weeks, not in months. The U.S., the U.K., Italy and France indicated last month they were willing to accept an outcome that may allow Qaddafi to stay in Libya, avoiding an exile abroad or a trial on war crimes charges. Qaddafi, who seized power in the oil-rich North African nation in a military coup in 1969, still controls the capital, Tripoli. He has told his followers to keep fighting even as the leader appears to be losing ground. Prepare for Battle Prepare for battle, prepare to march, Qaddafi said, according to the states Jamahiriya news agency, JANA, citing an address delivered yesterday in Tripoli. Rebel fighters have said they had taken Zawiya, a town west of Tripoli, and cut the coastal highway to Tunisia from the capital. They also said they took Tawarga, near the rebel-held western city of Misrata. In a further blow to Qaddafi, Al Arabiya television reported his interior minister arrived in Egypt with his family. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gaddafi defiant as rebels claim gains in west (Aljazeera) By A Non Attributed Author 15 Aug 2011 - Opposition forces continue western offensive, as Libyan interior minister lands in Egyptian capital. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has urged his supporters to fight for the country "inch by inch" as opposition forces launched a two-pronged offensive in western Libya that threatens to isolate the capital of Tripoli. Facing the sternest challenge of his decades-long rule, Gaddafi on Monday called on Libyans to arm themselves to liberate the country from "traitors and from NATO" in a broadcast on state television. The speech, which was broadcast in audio only with no images, was the first time Gaddafi had spoken in public since rebel fighters launched their biggest offensive in months. "The Libyan people will remain and the Fateh revolution [which brought Gaddafi to power in 1969] will remain. Move forward, challenge, pick up your weapons, go to the fight for liberating Libya inch by inch from the traitors and from NATO," Gaddafi said. "Get ready for the fight ... The blood of martyrs is fuel for the battlefield," he added. Meanwhile, Egyptian airport officials say the Libyan interior minister has arrived in Cairo with family members.

The officials say the minister, Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah, landed just before noon on Monday at the Cairo international airport, with nine members of his family. They say he arrived on a special plane from Tunisia and told Egyptian officials that he was "on a tourist visit''. The airport officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to talk to the media. Reports have been circulating for hours that the minister had defected from the side of Gaddafi, who is facing a possible breakthrough in a six-month-old rebel campaign to end his four decades in power. No officials from the Libyan embassy in Cairo were at the airport to greet the minister. Libyan officials were not immediately available for comment. Opposition fighters fought for control of the towns of Gharyan and Az-Zawiyah on Sunday, attempting to cut off the southern coastal route from Tunisia that Gaddafi uses for supplies. Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Az-Zawiyah, reported that the rebels had taken control of a bridge along which the highway from Tripoli to Tunisia runs, but that central areas of the city remained contested, with Gaddafi forces employing snipers and mortar fire. The battle also raged near the gates of the city. Al Jazeera's Khodr said opposition fighters claimed to have taken 70 per cent of the town, despite the threat of snipers. Bashir Ahmed Ali, the rebels' battalion commander in Az-Zawiyah, said that his forces had suffered "many casualties" due to sniper fire. He also told the AFP news agency that a tank and four fighters had been lost in a "friendly fire" air strike during the operation to take Az-Zawiyah. The gains were possible "because the Gaddafi forces' defences were weak and fighters received help from inside the city. As they expected, residents took up arms and fought alongside them when they arrived," Khodr reported. "The town had previously risen up against Gaddafi, but government forces quelled that uprising. "Today's victory would be the opposition's most significant in months because they were just 50km from Tripoli, a mere half an hour's drive, if they could hold the territory and stave off a Gaddafi counter offensive," our correspondent said. Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim rejected the claims: "Az-Zawiyah is completely under our control. A very small group of rebels tried to enter from the south of Az-Zawiyah but they were stopped easily by our armed forces."

Early on Sunday, rebel fighters claimed victory in Gharyan after Gaddafi's soldiers withdrew. Government forces returned several hours later, however, and clashes restarted. The rebels also claimed to have taken control of the western town of Surman. Rebel forces launched ground attacks after NATO planes hit targets in these areas. Clashes were also reported in the eastern oil town of Brega, where the rebels say they now control two-thirds of the town. Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting from Brega on Monday, said that the town showed signs of intensive fighting having taken place, and that the rebels were continuing a push to take the oil terminal and industrial area. The government denied on Sunday that rebel forces controlled any part of Brega. Opposition forces hope that by taking complete control of the city, its oil terminal and sea port will allow them to resume oil exports, and will give them a key staging area on the road to Sirte, a Gaddafi stronghold. Despite battlefield gains, the Libyan rebels still face the threat of internal divisions [Al Jazeera] On the western front, opposition commanders said they had control of the town of Tawurgha on Sunday, as they pushed to cut supply routes to forces loyal to Gaddafi. In a symbolic show of victory, fighters tore down green flags that had been hoisted atop buildings by Gaddafi supporters who had occupied the area. "Gaddafi is finished!" shouted a jubilant fighter. The rebels encountered heavy fighting and sizable pockets of resistance among a maze of buildings and date palms. Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Tawurgha, said it was a heavily coordinated operation with NATO, with six tanks involved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Al-Qaida in North Africa seeks Arab Spring jihad (AP) By Elaine Ganley PARIS (AP) Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb wants to put its footprint on the Arab Spring now that violence is fueling the uprisings, and in a two-part video is trying to lure new followers for revolt by jihad. The push comes as the group has sought to expand its operations beyond its Algerian base and desert outposts to countries around Africa, from Nigeria to Libya, after the death of Osama bin Laden and after being sidelined when the Arab revolts erupted earlier this year.

During the mostly peaceful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the al-Qaida offshoot kept up sporadic attacks on Algerian security forces in its bid to overthrow the government and install an Islamist state. But the world was looking elsewhere. Now, with Arab uprisings meeting increasingly violent resistance from autocratic regimes in countries such as Libya and Syria, AQIM wants to be seen as an alternative force. Seeking a peaceful change of leaders is "like giving aspirin to a cancer patient," a member of AQIM's military board, Commander Abu Saeed al-Auresi, says in the lengthy video, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. SITE has made the video available and said it was posted Aug. 3 on jihadist forums. AQIM has entered a new phase and is no longer on the defensive, says Mathieu Guidere, an expert in strategic monitoring and al-Qaida specialist. Despite repeated threats, the group has provided no evidence it is capable of striking across the Mediterranean into Europe. But with bin Laden's death, Guidere said, AQIM promised to lead a military and media offensive in the north, south, east and west of the African continent. And, he argues, that is happening, with stepped up attacks on soldiers in Algeria the north in Mauritania the west as well as in Libya the east where the movement allegedly sent a "minimal" number of fighters. To the south, AQIM offered training, men and weapons in January 2010 to a feared Islamist sect in Nigeria called Boko Haram, the local Hausa language for "Western education is sacrilege," according to an AQIM statement provided by SITE. It was signed by AQIM's leader, Abelmalek Droukdel, using his nom de guerre Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, who evoked "the duty to support Muslims everywhere." Boko Haram has significantly raised its profile since the offer with numerous deadly attacks. There is no sign of a formal AQIM partnership with Boko Haram. British authorities said this month they were investigating a video claiming an unspecified al-Qaida group was holding a Briton and Italian man kidnapped in Nigeria in May. AQIM stepped up deadly attacks in Algeria in spring and registered more attacks in July than any time this year, according to Guidere. He counts attacks throughout AQIM territory, including in the desert Sahel region south of Algeria which crosses Mauritania, Niger and Mali, where hostage-taking is a main source of revenue. Four French hostages, captured in September 2010 in Niger, are still being held, possibly in Mali. For Guidere, AQIM has found a new legitimacy that it had lost at the start of the thenpeaceful Arab Spring. Its message is that people can demonstrate in vain against dictators or choose jihad.

"For me, this video is a turning point in the (AQIM) propaganda," Guidere said, because it is looking for a new way to reach the people. "AQIM is an elitist organization that believes it is chosen by God," he said, adding that it always presented its heroes as "exceptional." Now, "they want to mix the images of popular revolution and AQIM to show that they are the same." Part I of the nearly two-hour propaganda film shows protest rallies throughout the Arab world. It includes contrasting footage of various Arab leaders in clubby poses, from Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika kissing Egypt's now-deposed leader Hosni Mubarak to former French President Jacques Chirac shaking hands with the ousted Tunisian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Part II addresses efforts by the United States, France and Algeria to counter AQIM in the lawless Sahel region, but contrasts that with a deadly July 4, 2009 raid by AQIM's southern arm in Mali that killed 29 soldiers. For senior SITE analyst Adam Raisman, it is less the message than the medium a video that is a departure from previous AQIM propaganda. Audio messages supported the Tunisians as January protests forced their strong-armed leader to flee into exile. In what could be another part of AQIM's bid to appeal to new recruits, the video shows AQIM leader Droukdel taking part in what is claimed to be an April 15 attack on an Algerian army outpost carried out as the Algerian president gave a speech announcing constitutional and electoral reforms to calm daily demonstrations around the country. The attack near the town of Azazga, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Algiers in the mountainous Kabyle region an AQIM stronghold left 13 soldiers dead. It is rare to see an al-Qaida branch leader fighting alongside his men, Raisman said. Members of jihadist forums "were exhilarated to see him participating in battle, leading the charge," Raisman said. "He's firing his gun, he's hiding behind a rock, he's talking on a walkie-talkie, issuing orders. He's defiant." Often graying, aging fighters shown in the Arabic-language videos are filmed on their sorties through the craggy forested hills of Algeria's Kabyle region or in the Mali desert, accompanied in the videos by taped songs. As in other AQIM propaganda videos, the viewer is not spared the bloody bodies of attack victims and booty taken from the corpses, displayed and recorded almost tenderly by the camera. The video by AQIM's media arm is titled "Assault Them Through the Gate, For When You Are In, Victory Will be Yours." Using a Quranic reference, AQIM pleads for frontal action, not peaceful uprisings, to bring change. A photo of bin Laden, and scenes of him walking in rugged terrain, punctuate the videos. The North African al-Qaida affiliate was born in late 2006 out of the last remaining Algerian insurgency movement still organized enough to do harm, the Salafist Group

for Call and Combat. Pledging its allegiance to bin Laden's operation provided new dynamism for an increasingly battered insurgency movement. Today, AQIM, like other al-Qaida arms, claims it set the spark for the uprisings around the Arab world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------South Sudan offers Somalia African Union troops (BBC) By a non attributed Author 15 Aug 2011 - South Sudan has offered to send African Union troops to Somalia to back the weak interim government. South Sudan, which became independent on 9 July, made the offer on the day it joined the African Union (AU). The AU has 9,000 troops in Somalia, but it says it needs up to 20,000 soldiers to repel the Islamist group, al-Shabab. Deng Alor Kuol, South Sudan's foreign affairs minister, said the new state was prepared to bolster the force to show its commitment to peace in Africa. "It is part of our responsibility to help our Somali brothers and sisters to achieve peace," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "We, as Africans, must be in the lead to alleviate problems before we ask the Western world, or anyone else, to come and help us." South Sudan's independence followed more than two decades of north-south conflict, which ended with a 2005 peace deal. Somalia has been without an effective central government since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, while a famine has gripped parts of the country since June. Al-Shabab - which is fighting for Islamic rule and has links to al-Qaeda - controls large swathes of south and central Somalia - including regions worst affected by the drought. Earlier this month, it said its forces were making a tactical retreat from the capital, Mogadishu. Afterwards, the AU force commander in Somalia, Maj Gen Fred Mugisha, appealed for an immediate deployment of 3,000 extra troops. Last year, the UN Security Council approved a 12,000-strong AU force for Somalia, although the AU said it needed 20,000 troops. Several African countries, including Nigeria and Malawi, have failed to fulfil promises to send troops because they fear being dragged into the long-running conflict. All the current troops are from Uganda and Burundi.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Somalia: Rights group says all sides guilty of crime (BBC) By A Non Attributed Author 15 Aug 2011 - Human Rights Watch has said all sides in Somalia's conflict are guilty of serious breaches of international law. The campaign group says civilians are bearing the brunt not just of a famine but also a failure by any side to protect them. It says Islamist group al-Shabab is guilty of unrelenting brutality, while government troops carry out arbitrary arrests and detentions. HRW also criticises the West for not exerting pressure to stop the abuses. A spokesman for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) denied the accusations, and said the body was committed to human rights. The HRW report, You Don't Know Who to Blame, says all sides in the conflict should end abuses against civilians and ensure Somalis have access to aid. The report's author, Ben Rawlence, told the BBC that al-Shabab carries out unrelenting daily repression and brutality in areas under its control, taxing the population for access to water, forcefully recruiting men so they cannot grow crops and restricting access to aid agencies. "Al-Shabab must carry the burden of that responsibility for the way in which the demands of the fighting has led to human rights violations which have contributed to famine," he said. Mr Rawlence said al-Shabab often fired from within populated areas towards TFG troops and UN peacekeepers, who responded "without paying too much attention to who is there". The report also accuses the TFG of carrying out arbitrary arrests and detentions, and says those who flee the country face more problems, enduring rape and extortion, allegedly by the Kenyan police. Mr Rawlence said support for the TFG had to come with pressure for it to respect human rights and improve accountability of its security forces and government. But Abdi Rashid Aseed, a spokesman for TFG, said the information used for the report was inaccurate and denied the accusations in it. "When you are restoring law and order certain things are going to happen; collateral damage happens not only in Somalia but in all parts of the world where there is trouble and wars," he told the BBC.

"This Transitional Government is committed to human rights. We are happy to listen but criticism has to be constructive." Somalia has been without an effective government for 20 years - much of southern and central Somalia is controlled by al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda and has imposed strict Sharia law. Some 1.4 million people have been displaced within the country and hundreds of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries to escape fighting and food shortages. The World Health Organisation estimates that 2.8m people are in need of food aid. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Maiduguri unrest: Nigeria police 'thwart suicide blast' (BBC) By A Non Attributed Author 15 Aug 2011 - Nigerian police say they killed a man who tried to carry out a car bomb attack on the police headquarters of a violence-torn north-east city. The man was shot dead as he drove the explosives-laden car into the police compound in Maiduguri, police said. Police spokesmen said several containers of both gunpowder and petrol were found in the car. Maiduguri has been in the grip of fighting between soldiers and the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram. Thousands of people have fled the area in recent weeks as fighting around the city has intensified. The group, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is forbidden", is fighting to topple the government and create an Islamic state. "Our men succeeded in killing a would-be suicide bomber who attempted to force his way into the police headquarters," state police commissioner Simeon Midenda said. He said the incident happened during the screening of potential police recruits and 1,500 hopefuls were in the grounds at the time. "Our initial suspicion is the attacker is from the Boko Haram sect," he was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying. Two years ago, Nigeria's security forces brutally suppressed an uprising by the sect, destroying its compound in Maiduguri - the capital of Borno state - and then capturing and killing its leader Mohammed Yusuf. Instead of disappearing, the group re-emerged last September and vowed to avenge its leader's death. The BBC's Bilkisu Babangida in Maiduguri says it is the first time the police headquarters in Maiduguri has been targeted by a car bomber.

Last month, motorbikes were banned in of Maiduguri to prevent drive-by assassinations of security officers and politicians by sect members. In June, Boko Haram said it had carried out an attack on the headquarters of the Nigerian police in Abuja, which killed at least six people. In response, the security forces launched another crackdown on the group and fighting has intensified in recent weeks. But correspondents say many people in Maiduguri and elsewhere in the state of Borno say they do not know whether to be more scared of Boko Haram or the security forces. The governor of Borno recently admitted that the army has been guilty of excesses during operations to counter Boko Haram. A committee is due to report back to Nigeria's president on the security situation in Borno state and the prospects for opening negotiations with Boko Haram. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------South African government moves to earlier HIV treatment (AlertNet) By A Non Attributed Author 15 Aug 2011 - HIV-positive people in South Africa will be able to access antiretrovirals (ARVs) sooner after the government raised the CD4 count necessary to access treatment. But some warn the victory is only half the battle. The announcement by Kgalema Motlanthe, the Deputy President, on 12 August now allows for any HIV patient with a CD4 count of 350 or below, a measure of the immune system's strength, to access ARVs with immediate effect, according to the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) spokesman Junaid Seedat. Until now HIV patients had to wait until their CD4 counts were below 200. The World Health Organization recommended the higher threshold in November 2009. South African HIV activists became frustrated when a few months later, the government updated its national HIV treatment guidelines to allow only HIV-positive pregnant mothers and those co-infected with tuberculosis (TB) to access treatment at the WHO-recommended CD4 levels. The government, which continues to fund about 80 percent of HIV public sector treatment, cited financial concerns and fears that large-scale earlier treatment would overwhelm the already overburdened health systems. However, latest costing studies prove the affordability of earlier treatment for all HIV patients. While the government has not released details of these costings, previous

research by Boston University assistant professor Gesine Meyer-Rath found the move would add about 13 percent to the cost of treatment in South Africa. A more recent study published in the 20 July issue of the medical journal, PLoS one , found that not only would early treatment involve only a modest increase in costs but was likely to lead to cumulative net savings in about 16 years. South Africa runs the worlds largest ARV programme, with an estimated 1.4 million people on treatment. The country has an HIV prevalence rate of about 18 percent. According to Seedat, government has budgeted US$700 million for treatment this year, with $840 million in the next financial year. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) found that patients in Lesotho who started treatment above 200 were almost 70 percent less likely to die and about 40 percent less likely drop out of treatment than those who began taking treatment when their CD4 counts were below 200. Reduced mortality was also shown to accompany earlier ARV initiation at a 350 CD4 count versus one of 200. "The decision to start people on HIV treatment earlier, before they become sick with diseases like tuberculosis, marks a critical moment for this country that is so hard hit by the epidemic" said MSF medical director in South Africa, Gilles van Cutsem. "We also know that HIV treatment dramatically reduces the spread of the virus to others - by making people more than 96 percent less infectious. Early treatment is better for everyone: for the individual and for the community." The recently reported HPTN-052 study showed that starting HIV-positive people on ARVs at CD4 counts of between 350 and 550 reduced their risk of infecting HIVnegative sexual partners by about 96 percent. South Africa is drawing up a new national strategic plan on HIV, the first to include a focus on TB, the leading cause of natural deaths in the country. The document, which includes the revised CD4 count threshold, is looking to take advantage of biomedical developments in areas such as treatment as prevention, Seedat told IRIN/PlusNews. But in a country where people continue wait until they get sick to test for HIV, Seedat cautioned that offering ARV treatment earlier is only half the battleThe move to a 350 [treatment initiation threshold] is great, especially for people who know their status and want to maintain their own wellness. Our big problem was not that our threshold was too low, but that people are presenting for treatment too late. The average CD4 count of patients starting ARVs continues to be low at about 80-100 a statistic that has not changed in the past four years, according to research from the Wits Reproductive Health and Research Institute. There is hope that the national voluntary HIV testing and counselling (VCT) campaign may help. Aiming to test 15 million South Africans by April 2011, the campaign has now tested about 14 million people, some 2.2 million of whom tested HIV-positive,

according to Mark Heywood, executive director of the human rights organization, Section27 and SANAC deputy chairman. About two million people have been referred to HIV care and treatment facilities, Seedat told IRIN/PlusNews. An additional 1,600 health facilities have been accredited to dispense ARVs since the campaign started and nurses continue to be trained to initiate and manage ARV patients moves that he said the government hoped would increase early HIV testing and treatment. However, he added that HIV testing uptake among men remained worryingly low, comprising 30 percent of those tested through the VCT campaign. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dragon tries to slay US military (Asia Times) By Sreeram Chaulia 16 Aug 2011 - The high-voltage drama played in the United States over the indebtedness of the world's biggest economy produced fission of a wholly different kind from its biggest creditor, as China expressed anxiety by treading on territory more strategically sensitive than routine calls for America to shoot down its ballooning deficit. Shortly after Standard and Poor's downgraded the United States credit rating from a much coveted AAA status, China's state-owned media took aim at US military spending, contending that downsizing that part of the national accounts ledger absolutely necessary for Washington to put its fiscal house back in order. The Xinhua news network spearheaded this line of attack with the obvious imprimatur of the Chinese Community Party bigwigs who One of its commentaries accused the US of overspending on its military "to meddle everywhere in international affairs, advancing hegemonism, and paying no heed to whether the economy can support this". It went on to recommend that the debt woes presented "the right time" for Washington to reflect on the economic hardships of its people and "change its policies of interference abroad". The US and Europe should cease "incessant messing around over selfish interests" in order to stabilize the global economy, Reuters cited the People's Daily as saying last week. The message was point-blank - China should not be expected to finance the US military and Beijing has the right to exert greater leverage over the Pentagon's humungous budgetary allocations (currently at $649 billion per annum). The new assertiveness on the part of China over US military spending is more radical that any spending-cuts proposal from the deficit-phobic Republican Party, as the former takes a stab at the core of American hard power and might in the world. Since the earliest days of the Cold War, liberal discourse has maintained a biblical faith in a robust and globally dominant US military as necessary for protecting trade,

commerce, democracy, and capitalism itself. This article of faith received a new fillip in the last two decades, as economic globalization was believed to be bookended by the US military's hegemonic presence and control of spaces around the world. Thomas Friedman, the columnist for The New York Times, succinctly summarized this link between economic freedom and the overwhelming might of the American military by contending that "McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15". Several other champions of a colossus-like US military have opined that it is the only armed force providing global public goods such as tranquility of the sea lanes and protection of democracy and human rights. Despite being joined at the hip with the US through the $2 trillion in Treasury bonds and the $400 billion worth of annual bilateral trade flows, Chinese strategic thinking after the collapse of the Soviet Union has not accepted the logic of desiring a hulking US military. China does not limit its attention to threats posed by the US military in the East Asian and Southeast Asian theatres. Lin Zhiyuan, a scholar at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences set the tone by denouncing the new US Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2007 as a blatant move to "step up military infiltration in Africa". Chinese strategists are almost unanimous in seeing US military bases, naval exercises and aerial surveillance operations around the world, including in China's own backyard, as unwelcome and unwarranted. The support system for authoritarian regimes generated by US military presence in numerous countries also belies the liberal claim on moral grounds that the American marine or GI Joe is the best bet for international peace and security. Chinese opinion does not tread this path because China is hardly a paragon of virtues in promoting human rights or democracy. Yet, Chinese media have frequently gloated at the fact that AFRICOM has not yet managed to find African states that are willing to host it. The debt ceiling and sovereign downgrade episodes in the US offer China a stick with which to beat Washington for military profligacy. They enable Beijing to rebut frequent American allegations that China's own military spending is opaque and growing at a dizzying pace. With undisguised schadenfreude, China is implying that no state has the authority to keep on multiplying its military arsenal when its national debt has hit the roof. With healthy budget surpluses and record foreign exchange reserves, China thinks that it has every right to keep modernizing and beefing up its military, unlike the debtplagued US. Can China's criticism of the Pentagon's extravagant spending actually yield the outcome Beijing wants; a US military no longer able to project power globally and incapable of dictating political and economic outcomes through gunboats and apaches? Supporters of American global leadership, such as the liberal scholar Joseph Nye, have not responded directly to Beijing's agenda of forcing a steep cut in the Pentagon's budget, but are essentially echoing similar sentiments that the US must "move from exporting fear to inspiring optimism and hope".

The push from the far right Tea Party movement to cut US spending even in the sacrosanct terrain of the military is also adding to the chorus to at least pare down costly, non-essential military equipment procurement and deployment. The only difference between China and the anti-spending forces within the US is in intention. The likes of Nye and the non-traditional Republicans want the US to move to a smarter but still preponderant position in the world order, where the military's footprint is reduced but only optimally. China prefers a much more drastic weakening of the US military in pursuit of its oft-stated objective of a "multipolar world". The new US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has launched a major publicity exercise to stop the axe from falling on the military budget. China's attempts to link this issue with the value of the dollar and safety of its dollar-denominated assets could play into the hands of advocates within the US defense establishment for more and more investment into an awesome military to stay several notches above China in military matters. Beijing will be well advised to draw back its sword on explicitly pressing for substantial cuts in the Pentagon's budget and to allow the domestic consensus on debt reduction within the US to move in the direction of showing the military industrial complex its place in the overall economy. The last thing anti-militarist movements in the US would want is the risk of being painted as stooges of a Chinese blueprint. The extent to which China has been successful in converting its economic advantages in bilateral relationships into political and strategic gains varies from one dyad of countries to the other. Market analysts in the West note that China has no exit option from the US Treasuries market, irrespective of S&P's recent harsh medicine. The extrapolation is that Beijing can whine as much as it wants about excess US military spending and growth, but it will still finance them in the end by parking its reserves in the only safe haven when the globally economy tumbles - the dollar. However, an unlikely coalescing of interests between anti-war activists and the anti-big government lobbies in US domestic politics might upend such smug calculations, as President Barack Obama could be pushed into extreme re-election tactics amidst the sullen economy. The Pentagon might not shrink under Chinese pressure, but it can be tamed by the American people. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dangerous Liaison? Evaluating Relations Between Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda (International and Security Network) By Christopher Anzalone 15 Aug 2011 - The detention of Ahmed Warsame in the US has renewed the discussion about possible cooperation between the powerful Somali Islamist insurgent movement Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The Obama administrations July announcement of its capture and secret two-month detention and interrogation of a young Somali man, Ahmed Abdul Qaadir Warsame,

has renewed discussion about the possible links between the powerful Somali Islamist insurgent movement Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen (Movement of the WarriorYouth, hereafter Al-Shabab) and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemen-based organization that has proven itself to be the most capable of striking far outside of its base of operations. Warsame is charged in the U.S. Southern District of New York with nine counts, including providing material support to Al-Shabab and AQAP and receiving military training from the latter. U.S. authorities also allege that he was an Al-Shabab leader, though his name has not come up in this authors research into the Somali insurgent movement. Reports, citing unnamed U.S. officials, have emerged that he was also in communication with Anwar al-Awlaki, the militant American Muslim preacher who is either affiliated with or a member of AQAP. Considering the new attention to the relationship between Al-Shabab and AQAP, it is well worth reviewing and critically evaluating their past communications. Al-Shababs leaders and al-Awlaki have a long-established history of mutual praise for one another. On December 21, 2008 the American preacher, who at that time had yet to publicly affiliate himself with AQAP, wrote a laudatory post on his now defunct blog about the insurgent movement. We are following your recent news and it fills our hearts with immense joy, al-Awlaki wrote. We would like to congratulate you for your victories and achievements. He went on to cite Al-Shabab as a shining example for other militant Islamist movements, dubbing the Somali arena a university that will graduate distinguished alumni who can assist other mujahideen in implementing similar programs and successes in their own countries. [Somalia] will provide its graduates with the hands-on experience that the Ummah [global Muslim community] greatly needs for its next stage. Al-Awlaki urged Muslims everywhere to support the insurgent movement further its victories and progression to the formation of a state. He reiterated similar praise and again cited Al-Shabab as an example to follow in his first video interview with AQAPs Al-Malahem (Epic Battles) Media Foundation, which was released in May 2010. In response, Al-Shabab released a statement on December 27 thanking beloved Sheikh Anwar for his encouragement and words of advice. The statement went on to label al-Awlaki as one of the very few scholars who stand firm upon the truth and defend the honor of the Mujahideen and the Muslims by continuously uncovering the feeble plots of the enemies of Allah. Al-Shabab and its affiliated media networks have continued to promote the American preacher as an exemplary mujahid-scholar and have even translated some of his media releases and writings into Somali. Al-Shabab received a more senior endorsement from AQAP in a February 2010 audio message from the organizations deputy leader, Said al-Shihri, a former U.S. prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. The Saudi AQAP leader addressed insurgent commanders as the great leaders of Somalia and prayed to God to reward them for their efforts on behalf of the mujahideen and Ummah. He also urged cooperation between Al-Shabab and AQAP: Let us all work together, each in our own arena in our future battle with

AmericaWe are both on the shores of the Mandab Straitso let us collaborate with each other, referring to the relatively narrow strait that separates Yemen from northern Somalia/Somaliland/Puntland. Two years earlier, Saleh Ali Saleh al-Nabhani, a Kenyan-Yemeni Al-Qaeda Central (AQC) operative in East Africa, called for foreign recruits to join Al-Shababs military wing, Jaysh al-Usrah (Army of Difficulty/Hardship) and made a specific call to those from Yemen and Sudan. Rhetorical affinity, though, is not necessarily synonymous with operational cooperation. Despite growing evidence of communications between Al-Shabab and AQAP, specific evidence of their operational collaboration remains largely unknown, particularly in open source materials. Their official communications, in the form of press statements and media releases have contained little, if any, detailed information about any operational ties or cooperation. In a recent post at his blog Waq al-Waq, Yemen and AQAP expert Gregory Johnsen notes that little evidence is available about the nature of the Al-Shabab-AQAP relationship. From the Al-Shabab side, this author has also found only occasional references to AQAP in official insurgent communiqus and media materials, though what mentions there have been are consistently laudatory of the Yemen-based AQC affiliate. Other anonymous U.S. officials have claimed that Warsame was attempting to extend Al-Shababs reach beyond Somalia, though it is unclear exactly how he was allegedly seeking to do this. The Somali insurgent movement is already known to have wellestablished networks throughout parts of East Africa, such as in the Eastleigh district of the Kenyan capital city Nairobi, and recruiters with access to Somali diaspora communities throughout Europe and North America. The purpose of these networks, however, has been, at least thus far, to funnel foreign and diaspora fighters to the battlefront inside Somalia. Some analysts point to Al-Shabab operations in East Africa, such as last Julys suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda and recent cross-border military strikes and other attacks in Kenya as evidence of the insurgent movements growing international ambitions. However, these operations, though some of them certainly terrorism, defined here as the targeting of non-combatants, were still intimately tied to events onthe-ground inside Somalia. The Kampala bombings, for example, were carried out to pressure the Ugandan government of President Yoweri Museveni to withdraw its thousands of soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) military force in Mogadishu, and Al-Shabab leaders said as much in official claims of responsibility and other communiqus following the attacks. In other words, these military operations and other attacks should still be seen as an extension of the ongoing civil war inside Somalia that pits Al-Shabab against the weak and corrupt Transitional Federal Government (TFG), AMISOM, and an umbrella organization of Sufi Islamist militias that call themselves Ahlu-Sunnah Wal-Jamaacah (People of the Prophetic Tradition).

The Al-Shabab-AQAP relationship, though probable, remains largely shrouded in supposition that is based on relatively scarce detailed information. From a logistical and strategic point of view, such a relationship makes sense, particularly given the relatively close geographic proximity of the Somali movement and AQAP as well as a significant number of stated ideological intersections between the Al-Shabab and AQAP leaderships. More concrete details may emerge from the trial of Ahmed Warsame or possibly from the two militant organizations themselves, but until more concrete evidence emerges, the nature of the Al-Shabab-AQAP operational relationship will continue to remain largely obscure. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------