Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/...te-138203.html

Egypt prosecutor-general rejects removal

Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, Egypt's prosecutor-general, has rejected a move by President Mohamed Morsi to remove him from his post, a day after all 24 defendants in the Cairo "Camel Battle" case were acquitted, state media reports.

Mahmoud told Egyptian state media on Thursday that he would remain in post, saying that Morsi' move to remove him was beyond the mandate of the president's powers.

"I remain in my post," Mahmoud said. "According to the law, a judicial body cannot be dismissed by an executive authority."

Hours earlier, President Morsi's office announced that he had removed Mahmoud from his post and reassigned him as the country's ambassador to the Vatican. The state broadcaster said the transfer had been made by presidential decree.

Mahmoud was considered to be a remnant of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime.

On February 2, 2011, pro-Mubarak forces riding camels and horses, charged into the crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square. The "Camel Battle" became a symbol of the revolution and Mubarak's efforts to suppress it.

The ruling on Wednesday sparked anger across the country, and Mahmoud was blamed for presenting a weak case to the court.

A presidential spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the decision to reassign Mahmoud was in direct response to the demands of the Egyptian people.

He also said that a fact-finding commission set up by President Morsi earlier in the year would shortly be releasing "more facts and new evidence" that would lead to new cases against additional defendants and retrials.

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There seems to be a lot of intervention in Africa these days....
Ivory Coast, Libya, Somalia, and soon Mali.

https://twitter.com/columlynch

Mali envoy to UN says "secular nature of state i non negotiable."
3:21 PM

UNSC blesses Malian transitional government, authorizes deployment of military trainers and asks for UN intervention plan in 45 days
3:38 PM

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...&dlvrit=286409

Egypt prosecutor keeps job in blow to Mursi

Egypt's public prosecutor said on Saturday he will keep his job, in a blow to President Mohamed Mursi who just two days ago sought to replace the Hosni Mubarak-era official by appointing him as ambassador to the Vatican.

Mursi's effort to remove Abdel Maguid Mahmoud from his post was seen as a response to the acquittal of senior Mubarak-era officials who had been standing trial on charges of organizing violence during the uprising against the deposed leader.

But the move triggered an outcry from judges who said Mursi had exceeded his powers. Critics attacked the new president for a step they described as an attack on the independence of the judiciary.

In an elaborate resolution of the crisis, the Supreme Judicial Council presented Mursi with a petition on Saturday demanding Mahmoud stay in his job. The presidency in turn said Mursi would halt moves to make him an ambassador.

Al-Ahram, the state-run newspaper, declared it a "victory for the judiciary over the presidency".

Vice President Mahmoud Mekky, who also serves as Mursi's justice minister, told journalists that Mursi had appointed Mahmoud as an ambassador with his consent, denying the president had ever sacked him. He said the move was legally sound.

But perceptions that Mursi had tried to fire Mahmoud spread widely, prompting commentators to ask where Mursi gets his legal advice. "Since when has the president of the republic had the capacity to sack the prosecutor general?" Suleiman Gouda, writing in the widely read al-Masry al-Youm daily.

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Seeing reports that the president of Mauritania was shot and wounded in a shootout in their capital.
More info as I see it.


https://twitter.com/mpoppel

BREAKING -- Mauritania President Aziz injured after shootout in the capital, Al Arabiya reports.
5:44 PM

Latest update I've seen:

https://twitter.com/weddady

Aziz shot twice in the chest. Waiting to find out by whom. General Ghazwani becomes the de facto strong man.
5:58 PM

We don't know yet whether it's a coup in Mauritania there's general confusion. No reports of any army movements as of now.
6:03 PM

https://twitter.com/paulclammer

I was out walking the streets in Nouakchott in the past hour. All quiet, no security or sirens. News still filtering through?
6:01 PM

Just had phone call from friend in Nouakchott saying to stay indoors. Assassination attempt being reported on local radio.
6:02 PM

https://twitter.com/lissnup

Crowds gathered outside hospital in Nouakchott Mauritania where Aziz is receiving emergency treatment. pic.twitter.com/LNkq2pLk
6:07 PM

So he's not dead...at least not yet.


Hmmm. latest reports seem to indicate he wasn't hurt seriously, just shot in the arm.
I guess we'll see what's true soon enough.



http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89C0J020121013

Mauritanian president in hospital with gunshot wound: sources

Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is undergoing treatment for a gunshot wound in a military hospital in the capital Nouakchott, a source at the presidency and two military sources told Reuters on Saturday.

They said Abdel Aziz was traveling by road when the incident occurred, but they did not give any further details. Security forces blocked roads leading to the hospital, witnesses said.

https://twitter.com/weddady

To be confirmed: Aziz slightly wounded in the arm by a Gendarmerie checkpoint at capital's entry: warning shot to force his car to stop.
6:10 PM

My gov source tells me: "Aziz's wound is superficial." I will believe it when I see the man on TV
6:16 PM

Aziz was on the way back to capital via the Akjoujt road. Gendarmerie fired a warning shot as result of heightened security.
6:18 PM

Aziz like many Mauritania officials drive in 4WD cars and don't use motorcades.. so can easily arouse suspicion. AQIM fear runs deep.
6:21 PM

https://twitter.com/mpoppel

Al Arabiya: Mauritanian president injured in the neck after shootout in capital
6:38 PM

I keep seeing conflicting reports on whether or not his wound(s) is/are serious.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa...=MasterAccount

Mali rebels threaten France over intervention

Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Mali have threatened to "open the doors of hell" for French citizens if France kept pushing for armed intervention to retake the rebel-held north.

The renewed threats against French hostages and expatriates came on Saturday as French-speaking nations met in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where French President Francois Hollande was expected to urge the rapid deployment of an African-led force to rout the rebels.

Hollande said the threat would not deter France's determination to quash the rebels in Mali.

"If he continues to throw oil on the fire, we will send him the pictures of dead French hostages in the coming days," said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for the armed group MUJWA, in apparent reference to the six French nationals still held by armed groups after being seized in the region.

MUJWA is among the groups which seized control of the northern two-thirds of Mali when fighters swept into the territory in April following a coup in the capital Bamako.

Regional and Western powers are now considering armed intervention to retake the area, with former colonial ruler France seeking swift military action by regional bloc ECOWAS.

The UN Security Council called on Friday for an intervention plan to be drawn up within 45 days after passing a French-drafted resolution to revive attempts to end the crisis.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268778/con...tguid=8eDtmScZ

Talk of N. Mali intervention grows, no action soon

The Obama administration, France and neighboring African countries are all weighing what will be the most effective policies to halt the rapid success of Islamic extremists in Mali. The 15-nation West African regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, has discussed sending 3,000 troops to help oust the Islamist militants from the north.

Many, though, question how Mali's weak military could take the lead on such an intervention.

"All the military force in the world cannot put Mali back together and sustain it unless there is a legitimate political process that the majority of Malians will accept," said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa program at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

Analysts believe ECOWAS would need to send more soldiers to take and hold the France-sized area of desert now controlled by the militants.

"There's been a serious mismatch between the type of mission that is talked about and the type of resources that anyone is willing to cough up in support of that mission," noted Pham.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously approved a plan to back an African-led military force to help the Malian army oust Islamic militants. But the plan still faces delays: The French-backed resolution gives Mali, the West Africans and the African Union 45 days to develop plans to recover the occupied territory.

Representatives of the United Nations, the African Union and ECOWAS are to consider the situation on Oct. 19 in a meeting in Mali's capital, Bamako. The head of the Germany-based U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter Ham, said recently that "a military component" would be a part of an overall solution in northern Mali, but he ruled out an overt U.S. military presence.

While diplomats from other countries discuss options, no action on the ground to retake the north appears imminent.

"We're in this period of stagnation, effectively a stalemate in the north," said Gregory Mann, a history professor at Columbia University who specializes in Mali. "Some form of outside intervention is probably both undesirable, inevitable and necessary."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89C0J020121014

Mauritania leader flown abroad after shooting

Mauritania's president was flown to France for surgery on Sunday after the Western ally against al Qaeda was shot by soldiers in what he said was an accident.

The shooting late on Saturday set the coup-prone northwest African country on edge and President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz appealed to Mauritanians to keep calm in a televised message from his hospital bed.

Although Mauritania has been stable politically since Abdel Aziz seized power in 2008, it lies on the fringes of the Sahara Desert where Islamist gunmen hold increasing sway.

"I want to reassure everyone about my state of health after this incident committed by error," Abdel Aziz said from his bed. "Thanks to God, I am doing well."

He was covered in a sheet up to his neck and the extend of the wounds was not clear. Medical sources said he had been shot in the abdomen.

The president had been flown to France - the former colonial power - for further treatment, communications minister Hamdi Ould Mahjoub told Reuters.

https://twitter.com/weddady

Video of General Aziz's tv appearance today http://bit.ly/QCgOao Mauritania
12:09 PM

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89D0F520121014

Libya's national assembly elects former diplomat as prime minister

Libya's national assembly elected former diplomat Ali Zeidan as prime minister on Sunday.

The previous prime minister, Mustafa Abushagur, was dismissed through a vote of no confidence earlier this month after he was unable to form a government acceptable to the national assembly.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/libya...y-context=user

Libya Congress elects rights lawyer prime minister

Libya's 200-member General National Congress has elected a former congressman and human rights lawyer as the country's new prime minister.

Ali Zidan, who resigned as a congressman to run as a candidate in the election, won 93 votes, securing him a majority from those present in voting.

Zidan was a diplomat under Moammar Gadhafi before defecting in the 1980s and joining Libya's oldest opposition movement, National Front for the Salvation of Libya, from Geneva where he resided.

The congress selected the new prime minister Sunday following last week's dismissal of Mustafa Abushagur after just 25 days in the post for failing to present a Cabinet list that satisfied legislators. Zidan had previously run against Abushagur and lost.

Minister for local government, Mohammed Al-Harari, came in second place with 85 votes.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...8Be68BkdE6L1pA

Salafists destroy ancient Morocco carvings: NGO

Stone carvings in Morocco's High Atlas mountains dating back more than 8,000 years and depicting the sun as a pagan divinity have been destroyed by Salafists, a local rights group said on Wednesday.

"These stone carvings of the sun are more than 8,000 years old. They were destroyed several days ago," Aboubakr Anghir, a member of the Amazigh (Berber) League for Human Rights, told AFP.

"One of the carvings, called 'the plaque of the sun,' predates the arrival of the Phoenicians in Morocco," Anghir said.

"It lies in a well-known archaeological site in the Yakour plain south of Marrakesh, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Mount Toubkal."

"There are several Salafist groups active in the region and it's not the first time these pre-Islamic sites have been attacked. We have sent a message to the ministry of culture, but have not yet received a reply," he added.

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Oh ****....

https://twitter.com/THE_47th

Early reports (non confirmed): Saudi coast guard captures 14 Iranians believed 2 b Revolutionary Guards on Saudi Khafaji beach. More soon.
3:48 PM

no media report of it so far
3:50 PM

Saudi/Qatari & Pan Arab stations still have no mention of this Iranian incursion on Saudi soil. This is big news. More to come.
3:51 PM

https://twitter.com/JKhashoggi

@THE_47th yes, number of Iranians RG were arrested .
3:47 PM

@the_47th there will be a detailed announcement shortly .
3:51 PM

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89I1F020121019

Palestinian push for U.N. upgrade likely to succeed: Jeremic

The push by the Palestinians for upgraded status at the United Nations is likely to succeed, the president of the U.N. General Assembly said on Friday, while warning the United States against cutting U.N. funding over the issue.

In his first major interview since winning a divisive campaign for the largely ceremonial U.N. post in June, former Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic also said he was seeking to improve coordination between the world body and the Group of 20 bloc of key developed and developing nations.

Having failed last year to secure full U.N. membership due to U.S. opposition, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last month he would ask the 193-nation General Assembly to approve a less-ambitious promotion of the Palestinian Authority's observer status to "non-member state," like the Vatican. It is currently considered an "entity.

Jeremic said Abbas is consulting with U.N. member states and is expected to call for a meeting on the Palestinian issue as early as next month, after the November 6 U.S. presidential election.

"Most people expect that it is going to be the second half of November," the 37-year-old former Serbian foreign minister told Reuters.

"If they decide to go for it after these consultations, which is what President Abbas announced in his speech in September, most people expect that this is going to pass," Jeremic added.

Some what ironic that this guy is supporting Palestinian statehood, after working hard against Kosovarian statehood.

---------- Post added October-19th-2012 at 08:05 PM ----------

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89I1GL20121019

Leaders meet on Mali crisis but little progress made

Regional leaders and international organizations met in Mali's capital Bamako on Friday to seek a response to the occupation of the north of the country by al Qaeda-linked Islamists, but failed to resolve differences on how to tackle the growing security threat.

Mali remains paralyzed by twin crises, with the leadership in Bamako still divided since a March coup that toppled the president and the rebel takeover of the north of the country.

Regional and international efforts to deal with the situation, which has created a safe haven for Islamists and international criminal gangs, have been hampered by divisions over how to help.

"The main challenge today is how to deal with the dangerous situation in the north of the country expeditiously," the African Union's new chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma told the meeting.

"This is a threat we cannot afford to take lightly, and...the danger it poses extends far beyond the African continent. The sooner we deal with it, the better."

In a document adopted during the talks involving Mali's west and north African neighbors, the African Union, the United Nations and the European Union, delegates called for sanctions against terrorist networks and Malian rebels who refuse to break ties to them and join talks.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89M10620121023

Qaeda goes underground in Yemen against U.S.-driven crackdown

A U.S.-backed military onslaught may have driven Islamist militants from towns in Yemen they seized last year, but many have regrouped into "sleeper cells" threatening anew the areas they vacated, security officials and analysts say.

The resilience of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), despite increased U.S. drone strikes to eliminate militants, is worrying for top oil exporter Saudi Arabia next door and the security of major shipping lanes in the seas off Yemen.

When a nationwide uprising against autocratic rule erupted last year, tying up security forces and causing a power vacuum, militants charged into the major south Yemen towns of Zinjibar, Jaar and Shuqra and set up Islamic "emirates".

"After their sudden withdrawal from Abyan, it ended with no one victorious or defeated," said Aden-based commentator Madyan al-Maqbas. "They had suddenly come, they took over, then they fled to the hills, and they left behind sleeper cells."

A rash of deadly violence in the major southern province of Abyan ensued, indicating that Ansar militants were still lurking in the vicinity of the towns they had once controlled.

Nine jihadis including the head of the Jaar "emirate" Nader al-Shaddadi were killed by a U.S. drone missile fired into a farmhouse where they were hiding just outside town on October 19.

Five of the militants were teenagers from Jaar itself who had quietly moved into the farmhouse as a typical sleeper cell, a Yemeni security source told Reuters.

The next day, militants ambushed an army base in Shuqra, killing 16 soldiers, after apparently slipping out of lairs in the barren rugged mountains rearing up above the town.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/video/afric...=MasterAccount

No Mali offensive against rebels until 2013

Western officials say a planned military push to reclaim northern Mali from armed rebel groups is unlikely to begin before next year - despite concerns about an escalating "terrorist" threat posed by the fighters there.

Proposals for an offensive by Mali's forces, supported by troops from neighbouring nations and other African Union states - but not Western countries - are to be discussed at a meeting of African officials in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on Wednesday.

An international plan is being finalised to help Mali's weak interim government take on the groups, including armed Islamist groups and Tuareg rebels, that have become the de facto rulers of the country's north following chaos prompted by a military coup in March.

However, diplomats expect that the preparations and moves to secure a UN Security Council resolution to authorise the action could take months.

Britain's special representative to the Sahel, former aid minister Stephen O'Brien, said nations will take until December to work out what help to provide to the troubled West African country, which is likely to include training for the nation's armed forces, help with military logistics and work on a plan to hold elections in 2013.

"That will all, around the turn of the year, start developing a very clear twin track approach - on both the political and the possible military side," O'Brien said.

France, which plans to move surveillance drones to West Africa and is holding secret talks with US officials on Mali, has pressed for quicker action, as have some African nations.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89N0WJ20121024

Mauritania president discharged from Paris hospital

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has been discharged from the Paris hospital where he was being treated for a gunshot wound, a presidency official said on Wednesday.

Abdel Aziz, an ally of the West in its fight against al Qaeda in Africa, was flown to France on October 14 after his government said a military patrol had fired on his convoy accidentally.

"The president has indeed left Hôpital Percy and has gone to Mauritania's embassy in Paris," spokesman Rassoul Ould Khal told Reuters, adding Abdel Aziz was in good health.

He did not say when Abdel Aziz would return to Mauritania, a coup-prone West African state that is fighting the rising influence of al Qaeda's north African wing.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89O07Y20121025

Special Report: In the land of "gangster-jihadists"

A military helicopter arced through the dusty yellow haze and dropped onto the sand a few kilometers from Timbuktu on April 24, settling inside a ring of Islamists armed with AK47s and anti-aircraft guns.

A general from neighboring Burkina Faso and a Swiss government aid worker emerged and joined an Islamist leader sheltering in a tent; they exchanged pleasantries over roast goat and cans of fruit juice. About an hour later, after the Swiss official and Islamist leader had spent five minutes alone in the helicopter, a pick-up truck arrived carrying Beatrice Stockly, a Swiss missionary who had been kidnapped nine days earlier.

Such exchanges - usually secret - lie at the heart of a multi-million dollar kidnap and ransom industry in West Africa's dry north. Governments, including the Swiss, deny paying ransoms, but deals are done, according to U.S. officials and Swiss government reports. Alongside networks smuggling everything from cigarettes to guns, people and drugs, they form a lucrative criminal economy that has helped drive this year's implosion in Mali, a state that has lost control of an area in its north bigger than France.

Flush with cash, Al Qaeda-linked gunmen - dubbed "gangster-jihadists" by French parliamentarians - are now key players in a web of Islamists and criminal networks recruiting hundreds of locals, including children, and a trickle of foreign fighters. Among the shifting alliances, Al Qaeda's North Africa wing, known as AQIM, has forged links with Malian Tuareg Islamists, and MUJWA, a group that splintered off from AQIM but still operates loosely with it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89N1N220121024

France gives Burkina Faso planes to tackle Mali Islamist threat

France has provided Burkina Faso with three light aircraft to help it monitor its northern border with Islamist-occupied northern Mali, the head of the West African nation's army said on Wednesday.

Islamist fighters, some with links to al Qaeda, seized the northern two-thirds of Mali earlier this year, raising fears that militant groups could spread their influence beyond the country's porous desert borders.

"These three planes will allow us to carry out aerial reconnaissance in the north," Brigadier General Nabere Honore Traore, the head of the army, told the state-owned Sidwaya newspaper.

"The security of the sub-region requires exactly these kinds of missions," he said.

France also provided Burkina Faso's military with a number of ground vehicles, he said.

---------- Post added October-25th-2012 at 12:00 PM ----------

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89O0WR20121025

Yemeni counter-terrorism official shot dead

Masked gunmen shot dead a counter-terrorism official south of Sanaa on Wednesday, a security source said, the latest in a series of assassinations as the U.S.-allied government battles al Qaeda militants.

Ali al-Yamani was shot by two motorcycle gunmen in Damar province where he was leading counter-terrorism efforts, the source said, adding the gunmen who fled were suspected of being linked to al Qaeda.

Another assassination attempt on the mayor of Sanaa, Abdulkader Ali Hilal failed earlier Thursday, the official Saba news agency reported.

Hilal was inspecting preparations for the Muslim festivities of Eid when a man on a motorbike attempted to shoot him, the agency said citing a security source.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8LP4V020121025

Algeria accepts last-resort Mali intervention -sources

Algeria has given its tacit approval for an Africa-led military intervention in northern Mali to rout Islamist militants despite reservations the operation could spill over into its territory and neighbouring countries, Algerian and French sources said.

Africa's biggest country and a top oil and gas exporter shares a 2,000 km (1,242 mile) border with Mali and sees itself as the major regional power, wary of any outside interference.

It fears military action in Mali could push al Qaeda militants back into southern Algeria as well as triggering a refugee and political crisis, especially among displaced Malian Tuaregs heading north to join tribes in Algeria.

Although Algiers would not be able to veto an operation, it would be diplomatically risky for African countries backed by Western powers to intervene in Mali without Algeria's consent, especially as the conflict could drag on for many months.

However, after weeks of diplomatic cajoling led by former colonial power France, Algiers has now reluctantly agreed that foreign troops will be needed to eradicate the Islamist threat. It continues to rule out any direct support to the mission.

"At the end of the day, we won't oppose a military intervention in Mali as long as foreign troops are not stationed on our soil," an Algerian source informed about discussions on Mali said.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89S0UC20121029

Clinton presses Algeria on Mali intervention plan

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed regional power Algeria on Monday to support an Africa-led military intervention in northern Mali, a senior U.S. official said.

Clinton's one-day visit comes amid mounting international pressure on Algeria over the crisis in Mali, where a March military coup was followed by a revolt that has seen Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants, some linked to al Qaeda, seize control of the northern two-thirds of the country.

The senior U.S. official said after the talks that Clinton argued strongly that counter-terror efforts in Mali could not wait for a political resolution to Mali's problems.

"The secretary underscored ... that it is very clear that a political process and our counter-terrorism efforts in Mali need to work in parallel," the official said.

"We have an awful lot at stake here, and an awful lot of common interests, and there's a strong recognition that Algeria has to be a central part of the solution," the senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Clinton.

"They are going to be supportive of a major effort in Mali to both restore democracy and restore order in the North. Everyone has their favorite institutions to work with, and there's a lot that has to be sorted out in the geometry of the thing," the official said before Clinton's talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.