Will the Dems adopt my slogan?

GET BIN LADIN! was my first post here. I was still trying to recover from the Bush baby's re-election.

Today Dick Cheney said the Democrat plan was to "get bin Laden". Al Sharpton, not my favorite Democrat, points out that Bush said he was going to get bin Laden. Just a few weeks ago Bush himself said he was going to "get bin Laden." Even in South Carolina people are finally beginning to see that Bush can't come through on that promise. People everywhere are finally beginning to see that the invasion of Iraq was at best a diversion from the war, at worst a boon to bin Ladin.

So what are the Democrats offering as an alternative?

The Democrat plan offers to "Eliminate Osama Bin Laden, destroy terrorist networks like al Qaeda, finish the job in Afghanistan, and end the threat posed by the Taliban.

"Double the size of our Special Forces, increase our human intelligence capabilities, and ensure our intelligence is free from political pressure."

YES! We need more money for human intelligence, not just buying information from others overseas, but training more Americans who can understand what's happening around the world in other societies. And the Special Forces? They seem to be the only people who can get things right. They were Kennedy's idea, just like the Peace Corps.

Boy, do I miss Jack Kennedy! There was a president.

Everyone's entitled to a day in court.

Or so we were taught in America when I was young. The Constitution doesn't limit this right to citizens, as some would have us believe. It doesn't even limit the right to a jury trial. Here's what it says, even before the Bill of Rights was added (Article III, section 2):

"The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment; shall be by Jury;"

Everyone's entitled to a day in court, with a jury. Not a jury of their peers (that's the Magna Carta you're thinking of, which applied only to nobles, or "peers") but a jury nonetheless.

Americans as diverse as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and General Billy Mitchell have deliberately violated the law in order to get a day in court and use it as a forum for changing policies and laws.

Is this era coming to an end? The administration seems to think so. They might even reject the Supreme Court's jurisdiction, arguably placing the President above the law. If the US is fighting a war, then the Guantanamo detainees are POWs and entitled to Geneva Convention rights. If the US is suppressing criminal activities, then the Guantanamo detainees are criminal suspects and entitled to criminal law protections. Either way they are human beings, and entitled to the rights that human beings are naturally entitled to, according to American belief.

But not according to Justice Scalia.

Why don't the media call Bush on these lies?

I listened to Bush's press conference on NPR. Now I'm listening to it again on C-Span.org. I can believe the guy lies constantly. I'm used to that by now. But why does no one call him on the lies? Helen Thomas tried to but she could barely get any words in. Then the discussion on NPR never mentioned that he kept lying and lying and lying. Is the man a pathological liar? Does he think Americans are stupid?

Let me count the lies (or at least some of the biggest):

I didn't plan the Iraq war until 9/11 . . .
Iraq had something to do with al-Qa'ida . . .
The UN Security Council resolutions authorized the invasion . . .
Saddam Hussein wouldn't obey the Security Council resolutions . . .
Saddam wouldn't allow the inspectors to finish their work . . .

and that's just to one question by Helen Thomas. He wouldn't even answer her question about what was the real reason we went to war.

What else:

The enemy wants us out of Iraq. (Ultimately yes, but for the time being they want us in, alone, because not only is it easier to kill us there, but it inflames the Muslim world and gives them more and more recruits and imitators. Their plan is to bankrupt us through this war, which will make us withdraw not just from Iraq but from the entire Islamic World, by making us collapse (as they think they made the Soviet Union collapse), which is also the Grover Norquist plan to destroy the Federal government. Isn't that usually considered treason?)

Let's not even talk about what he says about Social Security, "democracies don't war" (Is he admitting that, thanks to Diebold, the US is no longer a democracy? Is that the real reason we went to war?), the decision about troop strength will be made by commanders on the ground or all the other lies.

And then there's the stuff he won't even talk about anymore, like yellowcake uranium from Niger and outing a CIA agent.

The biggest question to me is why the press is not performing its watchdog role by calling this man on his lies. They know the facts. Anyone who has been paying attention knows the facts. What is going on that our "free, independent" fourth estate cannot call the president on his lying?

My two cents about censure

Senator Russ Feingold has introduced a bill to censure President Bush. Democrats are rushing to support that bill. I am opposed. Let me explain why.

Censure is not in the Constitution. It does nothing in a practical sense. It's just a means of getting steam off your chest about something. Henry Clay created it for political reasons. He didn't like what Andy Jackson was doing as president (specifically about the Bank of the United States) but he knew, even if he had the support of the Congress, that he couldn't legally impeach Jackson without the Constitutionally required "high crimes and misdemeanors" to charge him with.

Now, I think censure would have been perfect in Clinton's case, although impeachment would have been inappropriate. What Clinton did was clearly wrong. But it wasn't illegal. It certainly wasn't worth removing him from office. The whole thing was a political move. If they had the votes to impeach Clinton for zippergate, they would have had the votes to remove Gore for the Buddhist Temple thing. Then guess who gets to be President. That's right, Newt Gingrich, the Speaker of the House, would have become our next Commander in Chief. Of course he'd have had to call out troops to quell the public outcry, but dictatorship would be a small price to pay for (what? what possible advantage could Gingrich have offered over Clinton?)

The point is that impeachment was in no way justified by Clinton's actions, it is every way justified by Bush's actions, which are not just wrong, not just incompetent, but criminal. Censure may make people feel better about what's happening, but it won't fix the problems.

Anonymity: let me count the wherefores

1. Who am I? Why should it matter? Shouldn't the ideas, the facts, and the interpretation of them be important? What does it matter to you whether I am male or female, black, white or other, tall or short, skinny or fat, smoker or drinker or sex addict? Aren't these all just ad hominem arguments? Who cares? As the Diamond Sutra teaches us, material characteristics are not, in fact, characteristics. Don't ask me what that means. I don't claim to have had a satori, in Paris or elsewhere. I would just rather my ideas were judged on their own merits than on the basis of who they were espoused by. I've had good and bad experiences with academic "blind peer review" of my writings, and some bad ones. The bad ones were always caused by people trying (and sometimes failing) to figure out who I was, what my ethnic and/or national identity was, and judging the value of my ideas by who they thought I was (sometimes mistakenly), instead of judging the ideas on their own.

2. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I probably say much more dangerous things under my own name than I do here. Maybe the idea that I might lose out on some future job, or be dismissed from one of the ones I hold now, for what I say here is just crazy. But I think it was Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell who said that even paranoids have real enemies. He saw the enemies list, and he should know. I'm not under any illusion that I'm important enough to have a spot on Bush II's enemies list. However, I do feel a little more secure not putting my name out there for what's on this blog, and the crossposts at DailyKos and Wesley Clark's blog. I started my blog after Bush was re-inaugurated. John Dean (who should know) said that the Bush II administration was "worse than Watergate" and I remember Watergate. In fact I remember handing out flyers for McGovern in '72, when someone took me aside and said that I shouldn't be doing this because Nixon was going to be much harder on the opposition after he was re-elected with a landslide. I said I was too deep in it anyway. I probably am again. I can only hope Bush is impeached. After that, when I feel safer, maybe I'll tell everyone who I am. If anyone's actually reading this stuff enough to be interested.

3. OK, I admit, it just feels kind of neat to let off some steam anonymously. Think of it like cybergraffiti, only I'm not defacing anything except my own site. There's an old Latin satire that claims "The names of fools are inscribed on the walls of public buildings." (Yes, Rome had a graffiti problem, too.) I can write something wittier than my own name in Roman letters. In fact I could write my name in a few other scripts, too. I guess I don't have an ego that insists I must get credit (if not get paid) for everything I do. It's the deed that matters more than the doer. And the deed here is just a long, anguished scream.

4. I figure if I keep this up long enough I'll probably get outed sooner or later. I'd just as soon let it be later rather than sooner. I've been slowly dropping a lot of hints about who I might be. A good detective could probably figure it out now. How many people know Francis Fukuyama's SAT scores, what "fitnah" means in Arabic, and regularly submit articles for blind peer review? Maybe Alberto Gonzales, or his underlings, already know who I am and are preparing to render me to Gitmo. Maybe they could care less. Myself, I've become curious to see who figures out my identity first. Should I give them something my state is famous for producing?

5. When people ask me questions privately I can answer them here. For example, someone from the Clark blog asked me about my Arabic. I studied classical Arabic, a dead language, for a few years. I even studied Islamic studies, and Middle Eastern Studies (they're not the same), at one of the best universities in the US. I try to contribute whatever I can to the desperate need of the American public, if not the current American administration, for more and better information, as I'm trying to continue educating myself. After 9/11 half the US wanted to learn more about what was happening in the Islamic world, the other half were going "NUKE THE CAMEL JOCKEYS!" I'd rather address the first group. I don't think they need to know who I am, especially if what I say can be independently confirmed.

6. That really brings up another point. I don't really have anything to say that depends on my identity. Unlike RiverBend, whose veracity depends on her identity as an Iraqi woman living in Baghdad (but who nevertheless, or perhaps therefore, remains anonymous), nothing I say here depends on who I am. It's all verifiable independently of me. You have no need to know who I am. All I know is what I read on the Internet (to update Will Rogers). Or at least all I post here is what I read on the Internet.

7. I suppose Google could find out who I am if they wanted to. I have to take the risk that they would turn me in to the Chinese government, or the US government as soon as the Bush administration gets around to bumping off its domestic opponents, but I just think that risk is small enough that I'll take a chance on it for the opportunity to mouth off like this. I guess Kos could find out who I am, too, but I'll take my chances on him. If he's going to turn me in I might as well give up.

8. General Clark can find out who I am anytime he wants just for asking, although he could probably ask the guys who run the blog for him, if he cares. I still have a lot of faith in General Clark, but not idealistic faith. (I still remember the guy working on the Carter campaign who said he would resign if we saw a Cy Vance as Secretary of State or Zbigniew Brzezinski as National Security Advisor. He didn't when we did.) I expect General Clark to administer from the center if he ever becomes president, like the Democratic Eisenhower many see him as. I'd even support him if he appointed a Republican (John McCain?) as Secretary of Defense. Lincoln, FDR and JFK had Secretaries of War or Defense from the other party and got a lot of support for their policies for it. Wilson and Nixon didn't. Wilson couldn't get the Republicans to support his League of Nations idea, with disastrous consequences for the US, not to mention the world. We all know what happened to Nixon. Not that I'm blaming the Democrats for going after him. In retrospect we can all be happy he didn't have a Democrat Secretary of Defense.

9. Well, that's about it. It's about all the reasons I can think of offhand. Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm a fox, maybe it doesn't matter at all. You can ask me questions privately if you want. I'll just answer them here. Or you can ask them as comments on my blog, and I can answer them as other comments there. When I get around to it. I really don't have time to get online everyday.

Ali's America

Anyone know what happened to a podcast called "Ali's America"? This was done by a rather conservative American from the heartland who happened to be Muslim, happened to be a Bush supporter in fact, and had an interesting, quirky sense of humor.

I've long been interested in the interaction of Islam and the United States, the way each poses challenges to the ohter, and just the general way they interact. America is a challenge to the Islamic tradition of religious states. Muslims who want to be Muslim in America will have to be Muslim on their own. The state neither enforces Islam nor persecutes it. They also have no normative Islam to reference. All the various immigrant and convert groups have different conceptions of Islam and none of them dominates. Pan-Islam can't be romantic anymore.

Islam challenges the US not only by having a stronger tradition of ties to the state than any other major religion, but in other ways as well. I'm not just talking about the al-Qa'ida challenge here, but the communitarian nature of Islam, it's close family values, and the potential it has (as Malcolm X pointed out) for being anti-racist.

Not that Muslims are necessarily more racist than other immigrants. The largest group of converts is African Americans, yet most immigrants are whites, not always anxious to associate with blacks. That's another challenge the US poses for Muslims. Can they really live up to their ideals on their own? America might be better if they did.

Michael Jackson, Daniel Pipes and Islam

Daniel Pipes had the following to say about Michael Jackson's possible conversion to Islam:

"Given Mr. Jackson's famous eccentricities, it is unclear what his Bahraini venture amounts to, but if he does convert to Islam, he will be following a path in place since the late 1940s, of African-Americans under stress turning to some form of Islam. . . .

"These and other examples establish Islam – in both its normative and Nation variants – as a leading solace for African-Americans in need. That helps explain why the United States has by far the largest Muslim convert population in the Western world (about 750,000 adherents). Each black public figure who converts to Islam or accepts Nation of Islam support creates an added impetus for other blacks to change religions, a pattern that has also emerged in other Western countries."

It is unfortunate that Professor Pipes only sees Michael as black. Americans (myself included) are so racist. What's the saying? "Americans can't see class because they're blinded by race. Brazilians can't see race because they're blinded by class." Can't Michael Jackson, like every other black, just be an individual human being without everyone making him represent the black community? Isn't it unfair?

But this isn't about race or even about class (how many Americans can afford to fly to Bahrain on a whim?) Not even class in the American sense in which Michael doesn't have any. (Not that he has much race, either.)

This conversion, if it happens at all, may have less to do with Jackson's (confused) racial identity than with his sexual proclivities. Like the use of slave soldiers, which Daniel Pipes is an acknowledged expert on, homosexual child-molesting is found in Islamic civilization but is against Islamic law, in fact it's even more obviously and clearly against Islamic law than are slave soldiers and officials although it may also be less coincident with Islamic civilization. I don't know off hand anyone who's written about it. I do know that Islamic states have more and more outlawed polygyny because it makes many men, especially those who can't afford to buy a bride, put off marriage, exacerbating their sexual frustration. They haven't been able to stamp it out. Maybe it has more to do with purdah than with polygyny as such, though.

Like the use of slave soldiers, it's an example of how Islam as a religion and Islam as a civilization can be in conflict. But most people don't want to talk about it. It would be completely unfair to characterize Islam as a faith as promoting homosexual child-molesting, of course, because it is a heinous crime meriting the death penalty. It is an example of contradictions within Islamic civilization, as well as an example of ancient Greek influence on Islam that neither Greeks nor Muslims wants to draw attention to.

Clark, Hackett, netroots and DLC

[Crossposted at Clark Community Network, with links]

General Clark's 2004 race for president was a unique opportunity not only to bring the U. S. together, but to bring the Democratic Party together. Of course he would have had to unite the Democrats behind him before bringing the country together, but if he had been able to unite Democrats, I believe that as a non-political general with ties to both parties, he could have united the country.

Uniting the Democratic Party is another question and probably more difficult, as the Paul Hackett affray testifies. The gap between the activist base (often referred to as the netroots) and the organization (often confused with the DLC, though there is much overlap) is once again threatening to tear the party apart.


The 2004 Clark campaign was a unique combination of netroots and DLC, that General Clark carefully balanced. Clark not only raised much money on the Internet, as did Dean, but he was propelled into the race by net activity as no other campaign was, arguably making his campaign the most Internet based campaign of all. His ties to Bill Clinton gave him access to so many DLC activists and contributors that Repbublican conspiracy theorists actually charged him with being a stalking horse for Hillary! Ultimately the Clark campaign failed to gain the nomination, but I sense there is still a chance for moderation to combine with passion, not only in 2006 when we have to take back Congress, but in 2008, when I hope General Clark will run again. And I'm also getting ahead of myself. Let me go back to the point.

The DLC attempt to be "Republican Lite" is a formula for disaster in many instances. There is, of course, no arguing with success, and Bill Clinton, who created the DLC and their formula of triangulation in an attempt to destroy or marginalize DSA, SDUSA and other Socialist groups active in the Democrats, was at least a partial success. Whatever one may think of their specific policy proposals, the word "Socialist" is such poison in the US that any attempt to turn the Democrats into a Socialist Party is doomed to failure. Perhaps the Democrats should join the Liberal International, as the Republicans have joined the Democrat International, but the United States is so nationalistic that perhaps they would be better off staying aloof and attacking the Republicans for international ties. Perhaps the party of Jackson should remember its Jacksonian roots.

MY POINT:

The United States, with its executive presidential constitution and tradition of single-seat constituencies, has two large parties that would be coalitions of parties in a differently structured democracy. Building a majority party involves creating coalitions within the party, not circular firing squads. That means we all have to compete cleanly within the party primary, then swallow our pride and support the nominee who was chosen by the majority of our fellow Democrats, who are not really our political opponents, much less enemies. Behind the scenes phone calls by Senators to donors, getting them to pull their money, and even worse, calls to candidates to get them to pull out of races (yes, I'm writing about the Schumer and Hackett affair here) are totally out of line. I e-mailed the DNC asking why I should continue to contribute money but I'm still waiting for an answer. Maybe I'll get it here.

The best way to prevent the kind of "brusing primary battles" that Schumer and others urging Hackett to drop out feared is to adopt something like the Republicans old "11th Commandment" - "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Or in our case, fellow Democrat. We need to keep ALL negative campaigning and name calling out of primary races and other internal party squabbles. We need to be able to united against Republicans in the general election, and most of all we need to avoid alienating swing voters in the general election by attacking fellow Democrats, who may not be perfect (no one is) but are infinitely preferable to Republicans. DLC is not going to win general elections by alienating the activists, and activists are not going to win general elections by alienating moderates, either.

Honor the fallen

even if some others don't!

Islamists vs. warlords in Somalia

Fighting has broken out in the world's only real existing anarchism, Somalia, between Islamic militants tied to Sharia courts and what the UN calls "a newly created group - the Alliance for Peace and Fight Against International Terrorism - which comprises several Mogadishu-based faction leaders" (sounds like the warlords to me. Hard to tell who to root for at this time. I wonder who the "international community" (i.e. the rich, white, industrial countries) will root for.)

more from the UN: (Reuters has the same story)

"Abdullahi Shirwa, a member of Civil Society in Action, an umbrella organisation made up of over 12 groups in Mogadishu, however, said the fighting was an attempt by the alliance "to arrest the influence of the Islamic courts", which, he said, has brought a semblance of order in areas they control."

Somalinet: has basically the same information rewritten.

BBC reports "Somali warlords battle Islamists" and further adds "Supporters of some of the city's militia leaders have clashed with an armed Islamist group which is trying to establish law and order.

"Their opponents say the Islamic courts are terrorising local people. A top cleric says fighting will continue until the other side surrenders.

"Many of the at least 15 deaths have been civilians hit by stray bullets."

. . .

"Their critics accuse the courts of being behind the killing of moderate Muslim scholars."

I suspect that the best information is, as usual, from the Beeb. Their information is probably as spot on as it always is.

There's a poll on the D-Kos site about it.

U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review

from the NYT, but there are other sources out there, too:

"WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 — In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians."

. . .

"Another historian, William Burr, found a dozen documents he had copied years ago whose reclassification he considers "silly," including a 1962 telegram from George F. Kennan, then ambassador to Yugoslavia, containing an English translation of a Belgrade newspaper article on China's nuclear weapons program."

After neoconservatism

February 19, 2006After Neoconservatism
By FRANCIS FUKUYAMA

"As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a self-fulfilling prophecy: Iraq has now replaced Afghanistan as a magnet, a training ground and an operational base for jihadist terrorists, with plenty of American targets to shoot at. The United States still has a chance of creating a Shiite-dominated democratic Iraq, but the new government will be very weak for years to come; the resulting power vacuum will invite outside influence from all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran. There are clear benefits to the Iraqi people from the removal of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, and perhaps some positive spillover effects in Lebanon and Syria. But it is very hard to see how these developments in themselves justify the blood and treasure that the United States has spent on the project to this point."

This is already well diaried at DailyKos, in fact diaried twice. I left comments there, so I won't repeat them here. Surf for yourself.

Bin Laden compares U.S. "barbaric" crimes to Saddam’s

Not that I think much of bin Ladin's opinion, but the following is from al-Jazeerah:

"In the tape posted Monday, bin Laden also promised never to be captured alive. "I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," he said."

It wouldn't surprise me if he did it. That's the competence of the Bush administration!

Paul Hackett

You don't need me (I hope!) to give you the news about Paul Hackett.

You don't even need me to bring up the DNC's position.

What I would like to point out is that the decision to cut off Hackett's funding (and then unironically criticize his fundraising ability) was taken by two Senators. Is there any way to take action on this? At the very least Reid should drop his position of party leadership. He and Schumer should have let the Democrats of Ohio decide this.

Vaughn Meader

I don't know why I'm thinking of Vaughn Meader today. I've almost forgotten about him since the Kennedy assassination, as have most people. He could have been Mayor Quimby on the Simpsons if he (or they) had thought of it. Too bad no one can make fun of Bush as well as Meader made fun of Kennedy. Maybe Bush isn't as funny, or maybe Bush is just no laughing matter. Maybe Bush is too good a self-satire, a sort of unconscious low-camp president, or presidential impersonator himself.

Bush reminds me of Ford in that he handles the ceremonial work that usually goes to the Vice-President, like going to Corretta King's funeral. When they don't even inform the (titular) Commander in Chief that they think the country is under attack you have to wonder how seriously the guy is president, or how seriously he takes himself.

So what's with the US labor movement?

I haven't heard much about the split in the AFL-CIO. This is potentially one of the biggest stories of the century in labor. The one thing I did hear (and that was some time ago) that intelligently and in detail dealt with the split told me that those who left were interested in organizing, hostile to politics and wanted a more industrial than craft structure. Sounds like the CIO, except for the hostility to political action, which sounds more like the IWW, at least after the first few years. I know this is significant, but Can't really say how.

I'm not interested in prognostication, although don't let that stop you. I am interested in finding out more about what is going on and what its significance is. It's hard to get that out of the mainstream media, so I thought I'd ask around here.

SOTU

"President Warns About Dangers for Nation in Isolationism"

How about warning us against the Hawley-Smoot tariff, Mr. President? Or the gold standard? Or some other discredited political ideology?

People who want a sensible foreign policy are NOT, repeat, NOT ISOLATIONISTS!

Please stop smearing your opponents and going after straw men. We have enough real enemies abroad whom you need to confront.

Warrantless wiretapping

There's so much information out there about this I don't think I need to link to anything.

Other than the paperless, hacked voting, this is probably the greatest threat to the Republic that's out there. I mean seriously, why can't they ask for warrants? The whole process is secret, and they can ask for warrants up to 72 hours after they wiretap. If, as the president says, they are only interested in taping people who are getting calls from al-Qa'ida overseas that is certainly probable cause, and they have no problems.

The only reason they could logically have is if they don't have probable cause for some of the wiretaps. Now why would they be taping someone without probable cause? Who are they really taping and why? This is potentially much more serious than Nixon's taping.

Mixed feelings about Google

On the one hand Google defies US over search data.

On the other hand "Google is reportedly amending its index to exclude information to which the Chinese government objects."

Personally I wish they'd stand up to both governments, but then I don't own stock in Google.

What do you think they should do? What would you do? Do you own stock in Google?

Sudan raids human rights group on eve of AU meeting

African Union or dictators' trade union? The African Union has really reached a crossroads. Will it be an institution capable of solving Africa's problems, or will it degenerate into just a dictators' trade union the way the Organization of African Unity did?

The current summit meeting in Khartoum may prove decisive. Let's see what kind of news we can get out of Sudan today.

BBC notes that the Sudan was the only country to put its name up to chair the AU next. However, having Sudan chair the AU may result in some bad publicity for the Organization: "A meeting of human rights delegates in Khartoum was broken up on Sunday by Sudanese police, who detained them and took their photographs, reports said." Not to mention ongoing genocide: "More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur in the past three years and two million people have been forced from their homes." (sounds like Bosnia all over again, n'est pas?) "Africa is split down the middle over Sudan's candidacy, says the BBC's Adam Mynott in Khartoum."

The Beeb says that Nigeria's president Obasanjo is leading the opposition to Sudan's taking the chair. According to the Nigerian "This Day" the process for electing judges to the African Court on Human and People's Rights is also fatally flawed: "South African lawyer, Nobuntu Mbelle, Regional Coordinator of the Coalition for an African Court on Human and Peoples'­ Rights and a principal author of the report said: 16 countries have nominated 21 candidates, of whom only five are women, and barely one-third have experience in human rights. We can do better."

Human Rights Watch has a press release about it.

And the latest from the Sudan Tribune:

Sudanese police raid human rights groups' meeting
Darfur crisis, a destructive force against the Sudan peace deal
West falls for Sudan's tricks
Sudan: Hosting the African Union Summit