Posted on 12/01/2001 6:53:56 PM PST by NC Conservative
LONDON: The United States has asked Britain to help prepare military strikes against Somalia in the next phase of the global campaign against terrorism, the Sunday Telegraph reported here. US President George W Bush indicated last week that Somalia, Yemen and Sudan were likely to be the next targets in the war on terrorism because of their links to Al-Qaeda.
A team of British military top-brass which visited the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, last week was asked to prepare a strategy for attacks on sites in Somalia, the paper said. They have now returned to London to discuss the plan with Ministry of Defence ministers, it added. According to the paper the request came as it emerged that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was funding a number of terrorist training camps in Somalia used by a militant Islamic group with close links to Al-Qaeda.
Hussein has agreed to help out the Al-Itihaad group in return for assistance from the Somali authorities in avoiding UN sanctions, the Sunday Telegraph said, quoting Iraqi dissident groups based here.
Bin Laden's network is known to have several training camps in southern Somalia and there has been speculation that he might head there if forced to flee Afghanistan.
Western intelligence agencies told the paper that members of Al-Itihaad had been trained at Al-Qaeda camps and that members of the group are suspected of involvement in the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The Pentagon officials have confirmed that US naval ships have been stationed off the Somali coast to prevent Bin Laden gaining access to the country by sea, the paper said.
Another British Sunday paper reported that the next phase of the war was being planned not against Somalia, but Iraq. The US is planning to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by giving armed support to Iraqi opposition forces across the country, The Observer said.
Bush has ordered the CIA and top military personnel to draw up detailed plans for an operation that could begin in months, according to the paper. The plan is being opposed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other EU leaders and threatens to blow apart the fragile international coalition, the paper added. It envisages a combined operation with US bombers targeting key military installations with ground troops assisting opposition groups in the north and the south of the country.
Sources quoted in the paper say the trigger for such an invasion would be the refusal of Hussein to resubmit to weapons inspections under the UN sanctions imposed after the Gulf war.
Washington has been told that evidence it has presented on an Iraqi link to September 11 is at best circumstancial. "In the past week the Americans have shut up about Iraqi links to September 11 and have been talking a lot more about their weapons programme," said a European diplomat quoted in the paper.
Pastors, humanitarians lobby Capitol for action in Sudan
China and Sudan:Trading oil for humans
Former slave decries atrocities against Christians, blasts Clinton
Nope. That's the Evangelical Church in America (ELCA) that's leftish. The remainder of Lutheran synods and conferences in the US are more conservative theologically.
Non-ELCA Lutherans also tend to be conservative politically as well.
No wonder everything seems to the left of you.
So it is bigoted to think that if a country has a high rate of aids, a person from that nation may have it. We have interesting definitions of bigot these days. And it is easy enough to try to brand a person as a bigot if that person voices any concerns about those people.
Seems everyone is O.K. as long as everyone agrees with what's being said. No free thought.
And I see that you love to also play the race card. The leftists do love to do that.
The race issue was what he was "dealing," Don. I'm not going to ignore that just because the subject of race has been missused by someone else.
Tell you what, do a search for christian identity interracial and sin. See what you come up with. Take a look at what you find and then try an tell me that race should be left out of criticising his comment about interracial dating.
It does not matter whether we talk about the Sudanese/White girls or whatever, sexual sin is condemned by God, and there are punishments. The young people will do what they want to do. They will not listen to anyone. God has ways of correcting situations.
Anyone with any sense will be very cautious about the partners they choose. I am not looking for a mate. I am happy that I am not. It would be difficult to find a quality girl in this day.
But saying as much means nothing -- unless he's being denied his first amendment rights. He doesn't get a free pass on his opinion just because he says he has one. No one does.
Again why is the fact that his girlfriend is white relevant? Wouldn't it be just as much a tragedy if his girlfriend were black? Or do you not care about HIV-transmission in the black community? I'm guessing you don't but again you won't do us the favor of being honest.
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