Armed robbers kill 20 in northern Nigeria: official

KANO, Nigeria — Armed robbers shot dead 20 people on Tuesday in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state, an area plagued by violent clashes between vigilante and criminal groups, an official said.

"Twenty people were killed today and two others were badly hurt by a gang of bandits in a raid on Kaboro village," state government spokesman Nuhu Salihu Anka told AFP.

"The bandits stormed the village and began shooting indiscriminately," he said of the attack in a remote area roughly 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the state capital.

After several people had been killed, the area's chief appealed to the gunmen to stop firing but they turned their weapons on him instead, according to the spokesman.

"The robbers shot (the chief) dead and then went door to door seizing cash and other valuables before fleeing," Anka said.

A gang of robbers killed 23 people in the nearby villages of Dan-Gulbi and Guru in June, in a raid where some of the victims' throats were slit.

The June slaughter was reportedly carried out by gunmen seeking revenge against a community militia.

Locals said at the time that the vigilante force, which had grown tired of repeated robberies in the area, had killed several people they accused of being gang members.

Raids in Zamfara have previously involved scores of attackers. Up to 80 gunmen riding on motorcycles were reported to have carried out the June massacre, while in January, around 100 robbers killed and then burned the bodies of 15 traders as they returned from a market in another state.

Northern Nigeria has also been hit by waves of attacks by radical Islamist group Boko Haram, but the worst violence has been concentrated in the northeast and central north.

Northwestern states like Zamfara have largely been spared by the extremist group and there was no indication that Boko Haram was involved in the latest attack.

Deadly communal and ethnic conflicts often occur in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer with some 160 million people and 250 ethnic groups.

Last month, armed robbers opened fire on a group of people as they left pre-dawn prayers at a mosque in Kaduna state, killing about 20 people.

Those killings were reportedly sparked by an ongoing rivalry between a community protection force and a group of thieves active in the area.

The scale of the violence in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north, including attacks blamed on Boko Haram, has prompted scathing criticism from activists, who accuse President Goodluck Jonathan's government of failing to protect the population.

...AFP

Shuttle Endeavour On Display

In what had taken a nationwide competition, three days of cross-country flight and a behind schedule jam-packed Los Angeles Streets 12-mile trek, the Shuttle Endeavour arrived its destination October 14, 2012 and formally opens on display today, October 30, 2012, where it's temporarily set up at the Samuel Oschin Space Display Pavilion. Museum visitors won't be able to go inside Endeavour but can navigate the flight deck and mid-deck by using a touch-tone display. Also on display is the Endeavour's zero-gravity toilet at the science center. Ehirim Files Images

Mitt Romney, The Spoiled Brat

In this May 18, 1964, Associated Press file photo, Gov. George Romney and his son, Mitt, look out over the New York World's Fair grounds from the heliport after attending a Michigan breakfast at the Top of the Fair Restaurant. The governor and a large delegation from Michigan are here for Michigan Day at the fair. At right is part of the Chrysler exhibit and behind them is the Ford exhibit. Long before Mitt Romney became the millionaire candidate from Massachusetts, he was his father' son, weeding the garden in the upscale suburb of Detroit where he grew up. He hated the chore. But he idolized the man who made him do it _ George Romney, the outspoken, no-nonsense, auto executive turned politician

Jonathan Orders Ribadu Committee to Submit Report Friday

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu

President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, headed by former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to submit a comprehensive report to him on Friday.

The 21-member committee is among three others set up by the Federal Government in the wake of the nationwide protests that trailed the deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry that led to the rise in the pump price of petrol from N65 per litre to the initial price of N141 per litre.

Two other committees set up by the Federal Government in the wake of the protests to examine other aspects of the country’s petroleum industry are to also present their reports to the president on Friday.

They are the committee established to design a new corporate governance code for ensuring full transparency, good governance and global best practices in the NNPC and other oil industry parastatals headed Mr. Dotun Sulaiman and the committee headed by Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, which was charged with conducting a high-level assessment of the nation’s refineries and recommending ways of improving their efficiency and commercial viability.

The other panel, a special task force to fast track the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law, chaired by former Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has since submitted its report, paving the way for the president to send the revised PIB to the National Assembly in July.

According a statement by the Special Adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, the demand for the reports of the panel is in furtherance of the administration’s commitment to transparency, probity, and accountability in the petroleum sector.

The Ribadu committee, which was set up in February 2012, was required to, among other tasks, determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes and royalties, etc,) due and payable to the Federal Government and to take all necessary steps to collect all debts due and owed; to obtain agreements and enforce payment terms by all oil industry operators. It covers the year 2002 to the present.

Part of the Ribadu panel report, published in the media last week, had reported Nigeria’s loss of tens of billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues over the last decade from cut-price deals struck between multinational oil companies and government officials.

The 146-page document provides new details on Nigeria’s long history of corruption in the oil sector, which has enriched its elite and provided the oil majors with hefty profits while two thirds of the people live in poverty.

Although the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, confirmed last Tuesday that she had received the report last month but that it was a draft and the government was still supposed to give its input. But the report submitted by the Ribadu committee was marked “final.”

The report concluded that oil majors - Shell, Total and Eni - made bumper profits from cut-price gas, while Nigerian oil ministers handed out licences at their own discretion.

This, while not illegal, did not follow best practice of using open bids. Hundreds of millions of dollars in signature bonuses on those deals were also missing, Reuters reported.

The presidency, however, has said that it will not any government official indicted by the Ribadu panel report.

It also reiterated the commitment of Jonathan to fight corruption, stating that it is with respect to this that he had directed that the report be submitted to him on Friday.

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said the president had neither seen nor received any copy of the Ribadu Committee Report.

“Essentially, what appears to have been irregularly released prematurely to the media is a draft copy which still requires full assent of all members of the committee and clarifications and due process from the originating Ministry before the official handing over to the presidency,” it added.

......MUHAMMAD BELLO/THIS DAY, OCTOBER 30, 2012

Artemis Wins Trial Over California $4 Billion Junk Bonds

(LOS ANGELES) - Francois Pinault’s Artemis SA holding company won a trial over $4.33 billion in profits and interest sought by the California insurance commissioner from a junk-bond portfolio sold to French investors in 1991.

A federal jury in Los Angeles today rejected the claim that if not for a conspiracy by the French investor group, then- Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, the conservator of Executive Life Insurance Co., would have accepted a bid in 1991 for the insolvent insurer’s assets from a group of guaranty associations that would have kept the profits from a junk-bond portfolio in the company.

The case, which first went to trial in 2005, dates back to the sale of failed Executive Life, at one point the largest California life insurer, and its junk-bond portfolio to a unit of Credit Lyonnais SA and a group of French and Swiss insurers organized and secretly backed by the French bank to avoid regulatory restrictions on the bank owning an insurer.

Artemis, the company through which Pinault controls PPR (PP) and its luxury goods brands including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, acquired part of the junk-bond portfolio in 1992 and a controlling stake in the rehabilitated insurance company. Artemis is the only one of the French defendants that didn’t settle with the insurance commissioner.

French Investors:

California claimed the profits that the French investors made from the junk bonds, which “went through the roof” after Garamendi sold them for $3.25 billion to Credit Lyonnais’s Altus unit, rightfully should have gone to Executive Life policy holders and the guaranty associations that made up shortfalls for some of the insured.

Lawyers for Artemis said during the trial that Garamendi never would have accepted a bid that would have kept the junk bonds, which caused Executive Life to collapse in the first place, in the rehabilitated insurer.

Garamendi in 1991 rejected the bid by the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations, or NOLHGA, because it would have left the policy holders exposed to the “toxic” junk bonds, Artemis lawyers said. The Altus bid was the only bid that offered cash for the junk bonds and took the risk out of the insurer, they said.

Lawyers representing current California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said during the trial that, had Garamendi known that Credit Lyonnais was lying to him and secretly buying the insurance company as well as the junk bonds, he would have accepted the NOLHGA bid.

The case is Garamendi v. Altus Finance SA, 99-02829, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

......EDWARD PETTERSON/BLOOMBERG NEWS, LOS ANGELES

Nigeria: Constitution Review Set For Public Hearings

The constitution review is now up for public hearings as the House of Representatives is said to have concluded its arrangements to review the 1999 constitution. According to the Deputy Speaker of the House, Emeka Ihedioha, the purpose of the public hearing would be to get the review closer to the people, and in addition, "various institutions, political parties" and and the general public have been invited to contribute their views. Tabled for national discourse would include among others: the six zonal structures, creation of states, funding and creation of local governments, indigenization, residency and citizenship. Image of Emeka Ihedioha courtesy of Daily Times.

I see revolution coming –Okoh

GODDY OFULUE/PUNCH INTERVIEW

The Primate/Head of Anglican Church in Nigeria, The Most Revd Nicholas Okoh, in this interview with GODDY OFULUE, warns that the rich in Nigeria will be targets of attack in a revolution if quick preventive steps are not taken

As a soldier, you fought during the civil war on the side of the Nigerian Army, with the war slogan, ‘To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.’ Do you still believe in that slogan, especially now that some Nigerians have advanced reasons why the country should split into independent states?

Yes, I still strongly believe in that slogan, I believe that Nigeria should remain one country. There are a lot of gains that come with diversity.

But those calling for a split argue that it’s been woes all the way.

What is happening now is that the diversity is being mismanaged; diversity is being misconstrued to mean that you don’t have to work but you can eat, especially as there is only one source of income. So, you don’t have to do anything as long as every month, people gather at the centre to share money.

But my belief is that even if we remain one and we continue this process of sharing money, we cannot be a great country; we need to go beyond that and work. Every segment of the country must be doing something and contributing to the economy.

It is because of this sharing-money mentality that people are asking for so many states. If states have to depend on what they gather, you will see that there will be less demand for the creation of states.

Would you then agree with those who blame the elite squarely for Nigeria’s woes?

I think all of us are to be blamed. The elite have not led well; the poor man also has practised wickedness. The four students who were burnt alive, that was not done by the elite. The killing of students in Mubi was the handiwork of poor people who have surrendered themselves to be manipulated by the elite. That they surrendered themselves to be manipulated is another evil. The railings on the bridges have been dismantled and yet these things were put there for public benefit. So, it is not just the elite. If you go to the market, you see how they have manipulated measures, all to maximise profit. So, it is both the elite and the so-called poor in our society. As far as all of us are concerned, there is a moral failure and our values have vanished.

What solutions would you proffer?

The solution to Nigeria’s problem is that, firstly, we should all appreciate the fact that if we continue to tear Nigeria the way we are tearing it, it will collapse; and when it collapses, all of us will suffer for it. The West African sub-region cannot contain us; we will all become refugees in our own places. You can’t go to Ghana, you can’t go to Benin, you can’t go to Cote d’voire, these places can’t contain us. So, it is in our common interest to sink our differences and behave ourselves.

The people who think they can force Nigeria to become an Islamic state should realise that it is an unattainable goal because people cannot just sit down and allow themselves to be turned into what other people desire.

Some Nigerians believe the convocation of a sovereign national conference will provide the solutions. Do you subscribe to this?

I don’t know what name it may be called, but a discussion forum is necessary.

Some say one of the solutions lie in the creation of state police…

Some say it (state police) is not due; but I believe that if checks and balances are put in place and we pursue it with open mind, it is practicable. They should have an unbiased mind; that is what I mean by an open mind. They should work out the operational mode; the relationship between the state police and the federal police; the roles of governors should be defined and state police commissions should be established to give operational guidelines and to ensure that the guidelines are followed. We will benefit more from the state police than we are benefitting from the federal structure.

When you have state police, the criminals will not have hiding places again because those who are going to be recruited already know the terrain. The national police commission will give state police what to do and what not to do.

There is nothing as permanent as change but in Nigeria, we are afraid of change. Why should we be afraid of change? Let’s practise it first and fine-tune the rough edges as we go on.

Look at what the vigilance group in Osun State accomplished by rescuing the wife of the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, who was abducted. I’m telling you the police would not have rescued that woman, but the vigilance group did because they are already familiar with the terrain.

Again, I believe that with state police, the accidental discharges by unknown police will no longer be there. If you shoot anybody, they will trace you to your family house. And this fact will prevent police officers from messing up.

What do you think is the major cause of the rising wave of violent crimes in the country?

One is lack of the fear of God. There is no meaningful teaching of religious knowledge in our schools again. Government should make the teaching of religious knowledge compulsory to restore the fear of God in the land. There is no sanctity of life again.

The second one is unemployment. Let there be employment. The devil uses idle hands. Most of the crimes in our land are committed by our graduates, highly educated graduates. Some of the okada riders are graduates.

I’m afraid of bloody revolution in the land. We’re sitting on a keg of gun powder, if they don’t take care of unemployment. Look at the sophisticated weapons being used by Boko Haram. Where are they getting them from? Look at the bombs they are using, even locally-made bombs. If there is revolution in the land, the rich will be the first target. So, we should take care of unemployment.

On the Boko Haram attacks, what is the church leadership doing to protect Christians?

Well, our charge is that Christians should defend themselves. The first law of nature is self-defence and self-preservation. They should not get involved in reprisal because the Bible says ‘thou shall not kill.’ But they should protect themselves from attacks, killing and maiming. They should protect themselves. God does not oppose self-protection.

"On One Nigeria" By Obi Nwakanma

Dr. Jacob "Yakubu" Gowon was celebrating his 78th birthday on October 19. Reporters cornered him, and asked him for a comment on Nigeria.

The General, former Military Head of State of Nigeria said, in reference to his leadership of the civil war, "I'll ever be grateful to all those who supported one Nigeria." To keep Nigeria one was his battle cry. He won a decisive battle over the secessionist republic of Biafra. He kept Nigeria one.

For that, Jack Gowon deserves his place as a defender of the republic. I did say that Gowon and the Federal Army won the decisive battle. But it seems it has not won the war. The war seems to be raging still in the quiet corners of Nigeria; in various homes; on the Nigerian streets, and up north and down south.

He won a war but not the peace because true peace is just and it is not merely declarative; nor does it thrive on the silence of the oppressed. Wars are won when peace returns to the land. But Nigeria is not at peace with itself, and many of us know why. Nigeria is not destined to be at peace in Jack Gowon's life time, and the signs are all there, because what Gowon won was a peace of the graveyard, in which he declared the hollow truce "no victor, no vanquished."

The fragility of Nigeria today stems from the irresolute and unfinished nation which Gowon and his war cohort left as legacy to Nigeria. As the Igbo would say, given the current situation, "onweghi ebe anyi ji azu eje" - we ain't going anywhere soon. We seem mired to one spot.

Even the General knows this, and that is perhaps why none of his children lives in Nigeria. His children are in some sort of permanent exile in the UK. For a man who fought to keep Nigeria one, it seems like an ambivalent gift to his own children - that war "for unity" fought even on the graves of other innocent children who were deliberately starved to death.

So, what is this Nigeria that General Gowon fought to keep one? For whom did he fight? The idea of a "One Nigeria" seems loaded with possibilities. Let me make a confession: I do not mind one Nigeria. I love the idea of a great and vibrant multi-ethnic nation interfusing the cross-current energies of all its parts to form a colorful and powerful whole.

This was the dream and the vision of the Nigerian anti-colonial liberation movement. As a Zikist intellectual, I'm stirred by that vision. But I'm equally not unaware of the cynical use of the word "unity" that has shaped contemporary Nigeria.

......OBI NWAKANMA, VANGUARD NEWSPAPERS, OCTOBER 28, 2012

There May Not Be 2015 In Nigeria If… Kanti Bello

RUTH CHOJI/LEADERSHIP NIGERIA INTERVIEW

Sen. Mahmud Kanti Bello represented Katsina North from 1999 -2007. He explains why he is today a chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC after defecting from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In this interview with Ruth choji, he enumerates the excesses of the PDP, and takes a deep look into the continued existence of Nigeria as one indivisible country.

What was responsible for your defection to the PDP? How justifiable was your action?

It is simple. I am a patriotic Nigerian, and I am not playing politics for gain or to be in government. I am playing politics to help my people. I joined politics because I believe in the unity of this country and it has given me a lot of opportunity. I feel I should serve this country to the best of my ability. I was in PDP and I looked at the situation I found myself in.

Every morning when I buy LEADERSHIP Newspapers, in one corner, I see Sam Nda- Isaiah saying, ‘two point, three trillion dollar’ and at the end of the day, only some little kids were brought in, Bamanga’s son and so on. There have been many probes and every time, we hear ‘money has been stolen’. So I am not a thief, I can assure you. I graduated 41 years ago as an engineer, I have held so many positions of responsibility without being indicted by anybody about stolen money and it pains me that each time they say PDP is a bunch of crooks and somebody is going on.

So I started having a feeling that ‘I am not a thief,’ but if I keep working with this people in the same party, who already, everybody in the street, even local villagers believe are a party of thieves, it would be difficult for me and honestly I am not a thief. And I am not in a position to change the perception…

If everybody decamps like that, then who will change it?

Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, will change it. Whether you like it or not, there is no way you can say our leader, Muhammadu Buhari is a thief. Compare him with his contemporaries, you cannot say so. So we need a leader with the symbol of integrity.

Again I have come to realize after deep reflections that I have been in PDP for only 5years because I was an ANPP man anyway. On deeper reflection, I looked at what has changed in this nation since PDP has been in power? I happened to be living in Kano now as a temporary resident and I also have a lot of business links in Kano.

What I do know for certain and this is a fact is that I realized that I came from an area that in the last 13 years in Kano - you know how Kano used to the vibrant in the transport sector, that we used to have at least ten flights to Lagos per day, but today, it is just one flight to Lagos from Kano.

Since 1960 there were over two hundred and sixty companies in Kano state, oil mill factories, confectioneries, textiles factories, shoes factories and so on, but today, there are less than ten of such companies left. Our people are being subjected to economic degradation.

Come to Kaduna, go to Kakuri where there used to be factories, today it is infested by cockroaches and rats. What happened to federal government factories like the Steel Rolling mills? My people are agrarian, but government decided to sell even the fertilizer company, now we have to import fertilizer. People are now poorer and I look at it, if PDP continues ruling this country, there will be no future for our younger generation.

PDP is now a cult, some sort of secret society, it is a big cabal, they cannot stop stealing because they are accustomed to it, their hands are always itching to steal government money and they are so incompetent that if you are a competent person, they will not appoint you into any position. Only sycophants can be appointed and I want to serve my country. So when I think of these things and with my conscience was pricking me, I decided to leave the PDP to the CPC with the aim of changing this country for better.

So has your departure made any impact?

Well, find out. I joined politics alone and when I was leaving, I wrote them a letter that I am leaving and thanked them. I can’t start saying what I have done because everybody knows that Kanti Bello cannot be purchased. I am a principle man and I do things on principles.

But do you think credible elections will change the state of the nation?

That is our hope because if there are credible elections, I don’t see how PDP can win. I don’t think any sensible Nigerian will vote for them because it is not just the question of economy, even our security now is gone. If these people are not kicked out, I have my doubts if there will there be a Nigeria in 2015 with these killings. I am not saying that there will be a coup or something, but there might be civil disturbance.

Look at what is happening in Maiduguri and other places.

But will leaving the PDP make them stop what they are doing? If I know they will stop, I will not leave. But that is why I joined the CPC to kick them out in 2015. We want to chase the government from the federal level down to the state, and bring in people who can change this country. Look PDP doesn’t love this country at all. Look at the way they do things. The first lady left this country for about two months now; nobody is talking because the cabal has stopped the press.

When Umaru Yar’Adua was sick and left this country, every day, even LEADERSHIP kept saying that, ‘we need to know” but this man even though he was sick talked to us through the BBC. But nobody told us what happened to our lovely first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. I sympathized with her and if she was sick, they ought to have told us so we prayed for her.

Why did they cover up? Why is it that nobody is talking about the cover up?

During Yar’Adua, they said there was some cabal who were covering up, but today the first lady had been away for over two months and nobody asked questions. May be we need the Bayelsa State government to tell us because she is their permanent secretary, but somebody should tell us something because that is what they did to Umaru. Else am forced to ask if we have a different standard for the North and South?

Do you believe INEC can conduct credible elections in 2015 , then?

I have my doubts because I believe Jega is so arrogant. He might be a straight forward fellow, but he has some air of arrogance that he doesn’t know things that are wrong. I have forgiven him for handing over my elections to people who were not elected by anybody. I think the judiciary connived and stopped the Katsina people from choosing who will lead them.

But it is too late now, I cannot change it. But the problem is that, I read recently that, the attorney general said, INEC chairman is not in a position to appoint the secretary of the organ. Now, the secretary is the main holder of the finance of the electoral body and is supposed to be appointed by government. This means that all the work we have done in the electoral laws have gone.

Whoever pays the piper dictates the tune. Jega may want to conduct credible elections by spending this amount or that, but the secretary might say no. So that is the beginning of rigging because then INEC is no longer independent.

An independent body should have a first line charge, they should have direct funding without going through protocols and whoever the chairman is, should be the accounting officer if you want credibility. There are so many insinuations about the last elections. You know they started elections in some places and by 12 noon, Jega was made to cancel it because they wanted to see the strength of PDP and by the next week, they knew what to do.

There were lots of speculations that South/South, South/East didn’t even vote, they just wrote their results. But all these allegations are there, Jega should try and redeem his own credibility. Even if he wants to do so, government is steeping in with some new things that will make it difficult for him to restore his credibility. For me he is no longer as credible as I thought he was.

Are you worried about the state of insurgency and unwarranted destruction of lives and properties in the North?

Who is not worried? Only Jonathan is not worried and doesn’t give a damn. But first we must find out what these Boko Haram want because they are just killing people, you must want something. I believe that there are original Boko Haram who believe that their leader was killed extra-judicially and then there are the criminals who go to villages and kill people indiscriminately and run away.

Then this government is not sincere because when the first bomb started in October 1, 2010, it was blamed on the North as then we were prompting IBB to contest. They even arrested the director of our campaign organisation and tried to put it on him. Only for that man to go to Aljeazera from South Africa, claiming responsibility and that he is from South/South and he was doing it because they were asked to blame Northerners.

This is very disturbing for us as a nation. If these allegations were true, then why did they elect Jonathan?

By now a serious country would have started asking for his extradition, but who is doing it. So you can see that, there is some elements of ‘kill them because they are northerners ’because if the north is destabilised, who will come out and vote in 2015? But if there is so much chaos in the North, do they think that this country can be stable? That is why some of us who are passionate about this country joined the opposition to see that these people are kicked out, including their people who are less sensible because the whole thing is damn irresponsible.

What is the way forward?

I don’t have a solution to it because they appointed a new security adviser and they have now put new service chiefs. Your question should be directed to Jonathan, not to me because I am just an ordinary citizen, I am even afraid for my life, I don’t know if tomorrow if I am passing on my way to Kaduna, somebody will stop and try to kill me at Gwanin Gora village, I am also afraid that they will not send somebody to kill me and say that, it is Boko Haram.

The thing started like a joke in 2010 and today, it is escalating. This means that the government is incompetent. People are more worried and afraid than when we had the civil war in the sixties and seventies.

There has been renewed agitation for a revisit of the on shore/off shore dichotomy, what is your take on this?
These are some of the things that made me afraid of the Jonathan leadership. He woke up one day and said that we should not talk about the on shore/off shore dichotomy. Some people are afraid that it is because it is more advantageous to the South-South, which is why he said it, the truth of the matter is that in any county, there is a limit of which one is on shore and which one is off shore within your continental shelf.

If anything is discovered on the high seas of any nation, it belongs to the whole nation, you cannot sit down and say that because my state is on the side of the sea and because I am producing oil, I must have the largest share or that it is my own.

At what level does a state become a state? So for me, this issue should be discussed and we find a way out. The truth of the matter is that, if there is any cohesion, anything found in the deep sea, it should belong to the whole nation, but then typical of Jonathan, he came out and said no, ‘most of our governors have also chickened out, the national assembly has chickened out, they cannot talk because the Boss has spoken, whether he is right or wrong, even the opposition is not saying anything.

The only opposition came from Kwankwaso who is also a member of PDP, but he had the guts and the thinking to talk about it. Like Shema now, he will not talk because he is not interested in the benefit of our people…

Kill List: U.S. Still Adding

Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez | U.S. Air Force | WAshington Post A U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone taxis at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, in December 2009. Since 2002, armed drones have become an increasingly important element of U.S. national security policy.

BY GREG MILLER/THE GADSEN TIMES/WASHINGTON POST

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list called the “disposition matrix.”

The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations. U.S. officials said the database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the “disposition” of suspects beyond the reach of drones.

Although the matrix is a work in progress, the effort to create it reflects a reality setting in among the nation’s counterterrorism ranks: The United States’ conventional wars are winding down, but the government expects to continue adding names to kill or capture lists for years.

Among senior Obama administration officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade. Given the way al-Qaida continues to metastasize, some officials said no clear end is in sight.

“We can’t possibly kill everyone who wants to harm us,” a senior administration official said. Generating lists and carrying out strikes is “a necessary part of what we do. … We’re not going to wind up in 10 years in a world of everybody holding hands and saying, ‘We love America.’”

That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism. Targeting lists that were regarded as finite emergency measures after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now fixtures of the national security apparatus. The rosters expand and contract with the pace of drone strikes but never go to zero.

Meanwhile, a significant milestone looms: The number of militants and civilians killed in the drone campaign over the past 10 years will soon exceed 3,000 by certain estimates, surpassing the number of people al-Qaida killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. The Obama administration has touted its successes against the terrorist network, including the death of Osama bin Laden, as signature achievements that argue for President Obama’s re-election. The administration has taken tentative steps toward greater transparency, formally acknowledging for the first time the United States’ use of armed drones.

Less visible is the extent to which Obama has institutionalized the highly classified practice of targeted killing, transforming ad-hoc elements into a counterterrorism infrastructure capable of sustaining a seemingly permanent war. Spokesmen for the White House, the National Counterterrorism Center, the CIA and other agencies declined to comment on the matrix or other counterterrorism programs.

Privately, officials acknowledge that the development of the matrix is part of a series of moves, in Washington and overseas, to embed counterterrorism tools into U.S. policy for the long haul.

White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan is seeking to codify the administration’s approach to generating capture/kill lists, part of a broader effort to guide future administrations through the counterterrorism processes Obama has embraced.

CIA Director David H. Petraeus is pushing to expand the agency’s fleet of armed drones, U.S. officials said. The proposal, which would need White House approval, reflects the agency’s transformation into a paramilitary force, and makes clear that it does not intend to dismantle its drone program and return to its pre-Sept. 11 focus on gathering intelligence.

The U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, which carried out the raid that killed bin Laden, has moved commando teams into suspected terrorist hotbeds in Africa. A rugged U.S. outpost in Djibouti has been transformed into a launching pad for counterterrorism operations across the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.

JSOC also established a secret targeting center across the Potomac River from Washington, U.S. officials said. The elite command’s targeting cells traditionally have been located near the front lines of its missions, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. But JSOC created a “national capital region” task force that is a 15-minute commute from the White House so it could be more directly involved in deliberations about al-Qaida lists.

The developments were described by current and former officials from the White House and the Pentagon, as well as intelligence and counterterrorism agencies. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

These counterterrorism components have been affixed to a legal foundation for targeted killing that the Obama administration has discussed more openly over the past year. In a series of speeches, administration officials have cited legal bases, including the congressional authorization to use military force granted after the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the nation’s right to defend itself.

Critics contend that those justifications have become more tenuous as the drone campaign has expanded far beyond the core group of al-Qaida operatives behind the strikes on New York and Washington. Critics note that the administration still doesn’t confirm the CIA’s involvement or the identities of those killed. Certain strikes are now under legal challenge, including the killings last year in Yemen of U.S.-born al-Qaida operative Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son.

Counterterrorism experts said the reliance on targeted killing is self-perpetuating, yielding undeniable short-term results that may obscure long-term costs.

“The problem with the drone is it’s like your lawn mower,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and Obama counterterrorism adviser. “You’ve got to mow the lawn all the time. The minute you stop mowing, the grass is going to grow back.”

The United States now operates multiple drone programs, including acknowledged U.S. military patrols over conflict zones in Afghanistan and Libya, and classified CIA surveillance flights over Iran. Strikes against al-Qaida, however, are carried out under secret lethal programs involving the CIA and JSOC. The matrix was developed by the NCTC, under former director Michael Leiter, to augment those organizations’ separate but overlapping kill lists, officials said.

The result is a single, continually evolving database in which biographies, locations, known associates and affiliated organizations are all catalogued. So are strategies for taking targets down, including extradition requests, capture operations and drone patrols.

Obama’s decision to shutter the CIA’s secret prisons ended a program that had become a source of international scorn, but it also complicated the pursuit of terrorists. Unless a suspect surfaced in the sights of a drone in Pakistan or Yemen, the United States had to scramble to figure out what to do.

“We had a disposition problem,” said a former U.S. counterterrorism official involved in developing the matrix.

The database is meant to map out contingencies, creating an operational menu that spells out each agency’s role in case a suspect surfaces in an unexpected spot. “If he’s in Saudi Arabia, pick up with the Saudis,” the former official said. “If traveling overseas to al-Shabaab [in Somalia] we can pick him up by ship. If in Yemen, kill or have the Yemenis pick him up.”

Officials declined to disclose the identities of suspects on the matrix. They pointed, however, to the capture last year of alleged al-Qaida operative Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame off the coast of Yemen. Warsame was held for two months aboard a U.S. ship before being transferred to Justice Department custody and charged in federal court in New York.

“Warsame was a classic case of ‘What are we going to do with him?’” the former counterterrorism official said. In such cases, the matrix lays out plans, including which U.S. naval vessels are in the area and which charges the Justice Department should prepare.

“Clearly, there were people in Yemen that we had on the matrix, as well as others in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” the former counterterrorism official said. The matrix was a way to be ready if they moved. “How do we deal with these guys in transit? You weren’t going to fire a drone if they were moving through Turkey or Iran.”

Officials described the matrix as a database in development, although its status is unclear. Some said it has not been implemented because it is too cumbersome. Others, including officials from the White House, Congress and intelligence agencies, described it as a blueprint that could help the United States adapt to al-Qaida’s morphing structure and its efforts to exploit turmoil across North Africa and the Middle East.

A year after Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta declared the core of al-Qaida near strategic defeat, officials see an array of emerging threats beyond Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia — the three countries where almost all U.S. drone strikes have occurred.

The Arab spring has upended U.S. counterterrorism partnerships in countries including Egypt, where U.S. officials fear al-Qaida could establish new roots. The network’s affiliate in North Africa, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, has seized territory in northern Mali and acquired weapons that were smuggled out of Libya.

“Egypt worries me to no end,” a high-ranking administration official said. “Look at Libya, Algeria and Mali and then across the Sahel. You’re talking about such wide expanses of territory, with open borders and military, security and intelligence capabilities that are basically nonexistent.”

The creation of the matrix and the institutionalization of kill/capture lists reflect a shift that is as psychological as it is strategic.

Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States recoiled at the idea of targeted killing. The Sept. 11 commission recounted how the Clinton administration had passed on a series of opportunities to target bin Laden in the years before the attacks — before armed drones existed. President Bill Clinton approved a set of cruise-missile strikes in 1998 after al-Qaida bombed embassies in East Africa, but after extensive deliberation, and the group’s leader escaped harm.

Targeted killing is now so routine that the Obama administration has spent much of the past year streamlining the processes that sustain it.

This year, the White House scrapped a system in which the Pentagon and the National Security Council had overlapping roles in scrutinizing the names being added to U.S. target lists.

Now the system functions like a funnel, starting with input from half a dozen agencies and narrowing through layers of review until proposed revisions are laid on Brennan’s desk, and subsequently presented to the president.

Video-conference calls that were previously convened by Adm. Mike Mullen, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been discontinued. Officials said Brennan thought the process shouldn’t be run by those who pull the trigger on strikes.

“What changed is rather than the chairman doing that, John chairs the meeting,” said Leiter, the former head of the NCTC.

The administration has also elevated the role of the NCTC, which was conceived as a clearinghouse for threat data and has no operational capability. Under Brennan, who served as its founding director, the center has emerged as a targeting hub.

Other entities have far more resources focused on al-Qaida. The CIA, JSOC and U.S. Central Command have hundreds of analysts devoted to the terrorist network’s franchise in Yemen, while the NCTC has fewer than two dozen. But the center controls a key function.

“It is the keeper of the criteria,” a former U.S. counterterrorism official said, meaning that it is in charge of culling names from al-Qaida databases for targeting lists based on criteria dictated by the White House.

The criteria are classified but center on obvious questions: Who are the operational leaders? Who are the key facilitators? A typical White House request will direct the NCTC to craft a list of al-Qaida operatives in Yemen involved in carrying out or plotting attacks on U.S. personnel in Sanaa.

The lists are reviewed at regular three-month intervals during meetings at the NCTC headquarters that involve analysts from other organizations, including the CIA, the State Department and JSOC. Officials stress that these sessions don’t equate to approval for additions to kill lists, an authority that rests exclusively with the White House.

With no objections — and officials said those have been rare— names are submitted to a panel of National Security Council officials that is chaired by Brennan and includes the deputy directors of the CIA and the FBI, as well as top officials from the State Department, the Pentagon and the NCTC.

Obama approves the criteria for lists and signs off on drone strikes outside Pakistan, where the CIA director decides when to fire. But aside from Obama’s presence at “Terror Tuesday” meetings — which usually are devoted to discussing terrorism threats and trends rather than approving targets — the president’s involvement is more indirect.

“The president would never come to a deputies meeting,” a senior administration official said, although participants recalled cases in which Brennan stepped out of the situation room to get Obama’s direction on questions the group couldn’t resolve.

The review process is compressed but not skipped when the CIA or JSOC has compelling intelligence and a narrow window in which to strike, officials said. The approach also applies to the development of criteria for “signature strikes,” which allow the CIA and JSOC to hit targets based on patterns of activity — packing a vehicle with explosives, for example — even when the identities of those who would be killed is unclear.

For an administration that is the first to embrace targeted killing on a wide scale, officials seem confident that they have devised an approach that is so bureaucratically, legally and morally sound that future administrations will follow suit.

During Monday’s presidential debate, Republican nominee Mitt Romney made it clear that he would continue the drone campaign. “We can’t kill our way out of this,” he said, but added later that Obama was “right to up the usage” of drone strikes and that he would do the same.

As Obama nears the end of his term, officials said the kill list in Pakistan has slipped to fewer than 10 al-Qaida targets, down from as many as two dozen. The agency now aims many of its Predator strikes at the Haqqani network, which has been blamed for attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

In Yemen, the number of militants on the list has ranged from 10 to 15, officials said, and is not likely to slip into the single digits soon, even though there have been 36 U.S. airstrikes this year.

The number of targets on the lists isn’t fixed, officials said, but fluctuates based on adjustments to criteria. Officials defended the arrangement even while acknowledging an erosion in the caliber of operatives placed in the drones’ cross hairs.

“Is the person currently Number 4 as good as the Number 4 seven years ago? Probably not,” said a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official involved in the process. “But it doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”

In focusing on bureaucratic refinements, the administration has largely avoided confronting more fundamental questions about the lists. Internal doubts about the effectiveness of the drone campaign are almost nonexistent. So are apparent alternatives.

“When you rely on a particular tactic, it starts to become the core of your strategy — you see the puff of smoke, and he’s gone,” said Paul Pillar, a former deputy director of the CIA’s counterterrorism center. “When we institutionalize certain things, including targeted killing, it does cross a threshold that makes it harder to cross back.”

For a decade, the dimensions of the drone campaign have been driven by short-term objectives: the degradation of al-Qaida and the prevention of a follow-on large-scale attack on U.S. soil.

Side effects are more difficult to measure — including the extent to which strikes breed more enemies of the United States — but could be more consequential if the campaign continues for 10 more years.

“We are looking at something that is potentially indefinite,” Pillar said. “We have to pay particular attention, maybe more than we collectively have so far, to the longer-term pros and cons to the methods we use.”

Obama administration officials at times have sought to trigger debate over how long the nation might employ the kill lists. But officials said the discussions became dead ends.

In one instance, Mullen, the former Joint Chiefs chairman, returned from Pakistan and recounted a heated confrontation with his counterpart, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Mullen told White House and counterterrorism officials that the Pakistani military chief had demanded an answer to a seemingly reasonable question: After hundreds of drone strikes, how could the United States still be working its way through a “top 20” list?

The issue resurfaced after the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden. Seeking to repair a rift with Pakistan, Panetta, the CIA director, told Kayani and others that the United States had only a handful of targets left and would be able to wind down the drone campaign, former officials said.

A senior aide to Panetta disputed this account and said Panetta mentioned the shrinking target list during his trip to Islamabad but didn’t raise the prospect that drone strikes would end. Two former U.S. officials said the White House told Panetta to avoid even hinting at commitments the United States could not keep.

“We didn’t want to get into the business of limitless lists,” said a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official who oversaw the lists. “There is this apparatus created to deal with counterterrorism. It’s still useful. The question is: When will it stop being useful? I don’t know.”

Washington Post staff writers Karen DeYoung, Craig Whitlock and Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Partnership Walk Aims To Reduce Global Poverty

The Southland event begins at the Santa Monica Pier. Proceeds help the poor in Africa and Asia to create long-term self-help solutions to lift themselves out of poverty.

Southern Californians can strike a blow against poverty in Africa and Asia by joining Sunday in the 18th annual Partnership Walk.,br />
The event, which begins at 10 a.m. at the Santa Monica Pier, is held in 10 major U.S. cities each year. Money raised goes to reduce global poverty and its close companions: hunger, illiteracy and poor health.

Last year's Los Angeles area walk raised more than $400,000, according to Rafiq Ghaswala, a spokesman for the Aga Khan Foundation USA, which established the Partnership Walk.

"Participants help communities in some of the poorest areas of Africa and Asia to create long-term, self-help solutions to lift themselves out of poverty," the organization said in a written statement about the project. "These contributions make a tremendous impact in creating opportunities for girls in Afghanistan to go to school, for farmers in Mali to feed their families and mothers in India to lead healthy lives."

This year's speaker is Jim Dyer, district governor-elect for the Rotary Club of America. Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom will be among opening ceremony participants. Other special guests include TV actors Noureen DeWulf of "Anger Management" and Parvesh Cheena of "Outsourced."

Walkers can learn more about the project and sign up at http://www.partnershipsinaction.org/LA. Registration can also be done at the pier on Sunday, starting at 9 a.m. Another option is to sponsor a walker.

Other cities holding Partnership Walks are Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Memphis, Tenn.; Orlando, Fla.; San Antonio; and San Francisco.

The foundation's PartnershipsInAction activities, including annual walk and golf events, have drawn more than 380,000 participants and raised $48 million, foundation officials said.

Established in 1981, the foundation is a private, non-denominational, nonprofit international development organization committed to alleviating poverty. It is part of the Aga Khan Development Network.

.......JEAN MERL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 28, 2012