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Monday, April 30, 2012

BACKGROUND / Bin Laden, a year after the raid that the Pentagon did not want

"My son, let Waziristan. It's too dangerous.The American bombs are killing colleagues and friends.Dive in Qatar: there'll be safe. " So reads a letter from Osama bin Laden to twenty Hamzi son, who lived in the area of Pakistan where they find refuge extremist groups. Tender father's heart! Ready to incite young Muslims, the children of others, to give his life for the war against the West corrupt, Osama bin Laden was more cautious with their offspring. Indeed, a good part of their children and grandchildren kept it around. When the two American helicopters and SWAT teams of men invaded his house in north-eastern Pakistan, May 1 a year ago, they discovered that the Scarlet Pimpernel of terrorism not only loved to surround himself with his wives, but also children they had. And indeed: he took so seriously the teaching of polygamy, which continued to pursue its activities as a lover, with the help of a homeopathic version of Viagra. In the six years that Osama has spent in the town of Abbotabbad also had two sons by his third wife, the Yemeni Amal, 26 years his junior. And maybe to keep her close to him, had taken to dyeing his hair to cover the signs of aging. Small miseries of life of a man who has terrorized the world, and that continued to send letters to his followers, instructing them on how to continue war. Shortly before being swept away by the mission "Spear of Neptune," the archenemy Barack Obama had made ​​with his generals, Osama had written to one of his followers claiming it would be "nice" if he had organized an attack with many deaths in the U.S., to "celebrate the tenth anniversary of September." The anniversary but did not see him, and his last sentence was for the young wife Amal: "Do not turn on the light," when American teams began to climb the stairs to his hideout. ten thousand details of the terrorist hunt, and organization of the mission a year ago led to his death, appearing in Manhunt (Man Hunt), a fascinating book by Peter Bergen, an American journalist who had actually met Osama in 1998 and then got to Abbotabbad visit the fort before the Pakistani government to shave the ground, to read mail from Osama, is to speak with U.S. officials in Pakistan. A preview of the book appears in the latest issue of Time magazine and on its website. Almost everything Bergen says it is now known at least in part. Life in the fort was simple and uncomfortable. The group was composed of Osama, three wives and twelve children, in addition to a crew member, and two couriers. Surrounded by walls, the fort was almost self-sufficient, and received a weekly supply of two goats for slaughter, branded Sasso olive oil, and Quaker oatmeal. Chickens, eggs, vegetables, were produced inside the fort, which had a large vegetable garden where every so Osama went for a walk, protected by American spy satellites by a sheet of waxed green. No air conditioning, despite the heat of summer. No warm, if not some heater, despite the cold in winter. That raid, which was attended by two helicopters, 23 Navy Seals and a dog (only he knows the name of Cairo) was prepared in absolute secrecy during eight months.The last meeting in the Situation Room between Obama and his loyalists took place April 28: Vice President Joe Biden is that then-Pentagon chief Bob Gates gave a negative opinion. Obama we slept on, and in the morning said, "It's a go ', knowing that failure would mean a catastrophe for the country and his presidency. In his eyes full of anxiety, immortalized in the historical photos taken during the mission, Law awareness that it has launched a challenge in which many people are risking their lives. And now, a year later, near the presidential elections, Obama uses that mission in a campaign ad, to remind Americans their great success.

Sudan declares state of emergency


Khartoum has declared a state of emergency Sunday along its southern border. The Governor of the State Border of the White Nile has ordered 12,000 southerners to leave the country. Some of these southern Sudanese have been living for months in makeshift shelters in Kosti, Khartoum and the southern border, while waiting to leave by barge chartered by IOM to transfer to Southern Sudan on the White Nile. "The presence of Southerners in Kosti threatens the safety and climate for the residents of Kosti," the governor said Youssef al-Chambali, quoted by Suna. They are part of some 350,000 southern Sudanese, according to figures from the Embassy of South Sudan in Khartoum, Sudan who remain after the deadline of 8 April by Khartoum set for departure from the country or regularize their situation.

Bomb attacks on Christians in Nigeria and Kenya

Bloody Sunday for Christians in Nigeria and Kenya: A terrorist attack on a university in the northern Nigerian city of Kano are at least 20 people were killed. In the Catholic "Bayero University" in the morning, three bombs exploded while there just Sunday Mass was celebrated. In a subsequent stampede, according to police and doctors, many people were injured. In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, threw a stranger a grenade into a Church. According to the Nigerian newspaper, half a dozen armed men broke through the morning in the auditorium, where Christian students tend to hold their religious services. The attack lasted half an hour , before soldiers Nigeria Joint Military Force could access the building, and were at least three explosions. The attackers threw explosives inside the room and sprayed from the outside people trying to leave the auditorium, as witnesses reported the incident to the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard . "The attack was one of the auditoriums, which is used by the Christian community for worship," said a spokesman for the Army. Soldiers had beaten back the attackers and cordoned off the building. The attackers drove up on motorcycles and threw firebombs into the hall and then fired on the people who fled the building, as security forces said. According to an eyewitness were gunshots and explosions, more than half an hour long. Boko Haram has committed in Kano in January its most serious attack to date. At that time, 186 people were killed. Nigeria has more than 160 million inhabitants the most populous country in Africa. The proportion of Christians and Muslims is largely offset, however, there are regional differences: Islam dominates the north, the Christian south. In Kenya, the end of March for two attacks on a Christian church and a restaurant in towns along the coast, a man killed and several others injured. Kenya is suffering increasingly from terrorist attacks since last year in Nairobi has sent troops into neighboring Somalia in order to fight the Islamist militia al-Shabaab.