Oil in Darfur? Special Ops in Somalia?

The New Old “Humanitarian” Warfare in Africa

keith harmon snow

www.allthingspass.com

First Published by Global Research, February 7, 2007.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20070207&articleId=4717

Revised June 19, 2007 (to correct the erroneous assertion that Rabbi Michael Lerner and Tikkun Magazine have been “staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause.”)

No matter how you look at it, people are dying in Sudan. The questions of who is dying and how many, of who is doing the killing, and why, all fly around. For most everyone associated with the “Save Darfur!” or “Stop Genocide!” movement for Sudan, the questions do not matter. Act now—to stop the killing—argue later: we are talking about genocide.

But there have been many remarkable and contradictory claims made about the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, and many remarkable positions taken. Is there oil in Darfur? Does it matter? As one concerned fellow told me: “If I were in Darfur I wouldn’t care who was killing people. I’d want to get my family out of there as fast as possible, and so would you.”

Seems reasonable enough. However, I disagree. If my family and I were at risk in a conflict zone like Darfur, or anywhere, I would be sure to know as much as possible about who the perpetrators are, and from where the threat was coming. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know where to run or who to run to. You don’t turn to the arsonist to put out a fire…unless you don’t know that the arsonists and fire department are one in the same.

*****

People in the United States and Europe are convinced that the conflict in Darfur is an egregious and indisputable campaign of genocide that the Islamist Government of Sudan (GOS) is waging against black African tribes in Darfur. The National Islamic Front has ruled Sudan from its capital, Khartoum, since the early 1990s, and according to Human Rights Watch and other Western rights agencies, it has pursued foreign petroleum exploration and extraction in parallel with a scorched earth campaign marked by genocide against the impoverished landowners of South Sudan and, now, Darfur.

However, a sizeable few westerners see the Darfur conflict as merely the latest campaign to overthrow an Islamist government by any means necessary, where the necessary means, in the case of Darfur, might be described as a conspiracy to wage war on Sudan by using “peacekeeping” or “humanitarianism” as policy instruments in combination with international threats of military action. The respected bi-weekly journal, Africa Confidential, has described the recent “peace settlement” of March 2002—which ostensibly brought to a close the decades old war between north and south Sudan—as “regime change by stealth.” Darfur was not included in the deal, and explosion of violence in Darfur, the journal noted, was rather suspect in its timing.

Nonetheless, Darfur is the cause celebre amongst people on the both sides of the political spectrum in the United States, and it is perceived as new Apartheid taken to the ultimate final solution: genocide. Indeed, Mel Middleton of the Christian faith-based organization Freedom Quest International makes the Apartheid model explicit:

“What we have advocated all along is the kind of international pressure that was placed on apartheid South Africa, and which, in the end, brought about the peaceful overthrow of the apartheid racist regime. But every western government that we've approached to adopt that method have rejected it. Why? The only logical answer short of alien reptilian race conspiracy theories is that they don't want to jeopardize their standing with China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Islamist world.” [1]

Both the political right and left in the U.S. have embraced the cause: Darfur is the new anti-Apartheid movement engineered as an anti-genocide movement seeking to “stop the slaughter in Darfur.” Millions of people have jumped on the bandwagon, and the campaign has reached new heights. You can buy T-shirts and buttons and bumper stickers to support the cause, and even play “Save Darfur!” video games. Early February 2007 saw a new thrust to bring the “Save Darfur!” movement into every high school in America. And you can purchase the freedom of a Sudanese slave, a black boy or girl captured by ruthless Arabs, through Christian AID charities and “Anti-Slavery” groups. What’s the price of freedom? Fifty bucks. Or even twenty.

But not everyone is buying.

*****

Staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause have claimed that the “Save Darfur!” movement is a Zionist conspiracy backed by Israel. An extension of this theme is the claim that Israel covets uranium reserves in Sudan for its nuclear programs. The leading advocates of the “Stop Genocide!” and “Save Darfur!” campaign point out that there is no substantive evidence of uranium in Darfur, or Sudan, and—anyway—that the moral imperatives of “Never Again” demand that politics be put aside in order to stem the tide of mass murder. These advocates appear to be correct: one is hard pressed to find any evidence anywhere of uranium reserves or interests in all of Sudan. It appears that there has not been a single article in the Western press that validates the uranium claim.

But that does not prove that the uranium claims about Israel aren’t true. For example, a U.S. Library of Congress Country Study for Sudan reports that uranium ores were discovered years ago around the Nuba Mountains and at Hufrat an Nahas in southern Kurdofan. If this is true, the war in the south has prevented them from being exploited. Minex Company of the United States obtained a 36,000-square-kilometer exploratory concession in the Kurdofan area in 1977, and the concession was increased to 48,000 square kilometers in 1979. Uranium reserves are also believed to exist near the western borders with Chad and Central African Republic—is that Darfur? Sure looks like it. Uranium prices have surged recently, and western companies are chomping at the bit for uranium concessions everywhere.

According to an interview with the ruler of North Darfur, Othman Yosuf Kibir, published in the United Arab Emirates’ Khaleej Times, the Darfur conflict revolves around oil and minerals, including uranium discovered in Hofrat an Nihas. Kibir stated that these resources have set off fierce competition between the U.S. and France. The U.S. has started to invest in oil industry in Chad, France's former colony, while France’s Total Corporation obtained drilling rights in Sudan.

Petroleum and other companies targeted by the Save Darfur divestment movement for their alliances with the Government of Sudan in Sudan include Total, Agip, Talisman Oil, PetroChina and Asea Brown Baveri.[2] The latter company has close ties to former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: in the 1990’s Rumsfeld was on the board of directors.

Is there uranium in Darfur? Is there copper? Is there oil? According to some of the most vocal leaders of the “Save Darfur!” movement there are definitively NOT any natural resources up for grabs in Dardur. For others the presence or absence of natural resources in Darfur is irrelevant. For those who first vigorously reject the possibility of natural resources being in Darfur, but eventually accept that natural resources likely are up for grabs in Darfur, or at least might be found there, the point quickly shifts to the declaration that such resources are definitively NOT the issue in Darfur: what is important is to stop the ongoing genocide.

*****

On the “Save Darfur!” issue there is dissension within many ranks. Rabbi Michael Lerner, a leader of the Tikkun Interfaith community, whose main platform for advocacy seems to be Tikkun Magazine, is also supposed by many people to be a champion of the Palestinian cause, yet unlike the Palestinian supporters who see a clear Zionist plot in Darfur, founded on uranium or otherwise, Rabbi Lerner is a leading spokesman and advocate for the “Stop Genocide!” and “Save Darfur!” campaign.

“For many years Tikkun has been a lone voice calling on the US to support international action to save the people of Darfur from genocide,” reads a March 2006 story on the Tikkun web site. Another online Tikkun story, dated January 2007, puts forth the controversial thesis, under the same title, that “There is apartheid in Israel.” [F]ormer Israeli Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni argues that Apartheid is already happening in the West Bank under Israeli rule…

While there is dissension about Darfur in many ranks, the greater issue seems to be polarized around a deeper malaise based in the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians. Rabbi Micheal Lerner is not “a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause,” as his supporters claim. Just as Rabbi Michael Lerner champions the deep injustice against the Palestinians—refusing to acknowledge the Palestinian right of return to their homeland, so too does he now champion a Zionist Holy War against Sudan.

Responding to the charge that his support of the “Save Darfur!” campaign equates to supporting a regime change agenda, Rabbi Michael Lerner replied with one sentence: “I do not seek to overthrow the government of Sudan, but to stop them from murdering black African civilians.”

“The bare facts are that real live human beings are being exterminated like rats in Darfur while you spout your rhetoric,” wrote Rashna Singh, a supporter of Rabbi Micheal Lerner. Singh was responding to a single posting that challenged the “Save Darfur” campaign on the Pioneer Valley Interfaith listserve in Western Massachusetts. One post was made before the moderator censored all further posts that challenged the framework of the “Save Darfur” movement.

“Rabbi Lerner is a powerful and truly spiritual voice,” Singh continued. “He is a person of integrity and courage who has spoken repeatedly against the injustices committed against the Palestinian people. As a Rabbi, his voice carries weight and commands authority. People hear him. Jews hear him. Israelis hear him. People who are neither Israeli nor Jewish (like me) hear him. They hear and honor his voice, as do I. I don't doubt the reality of geopolitics and the involvement of powerful countries in the machinations of politics in Asia and Africa, but, with Rabbi Lerner, I call out for us to do what we can in the way we can to stop the genocides for purely humanitarian reasons, putting politics aside.”

Like war crimes and crimes against humanity, genocide advocates—predominantly from the West—perceive genocide as an issue that transcends politics.

*****

Libyan president Muammar Khadafy has claimed that Darfur is not about genocide but about Western imperialism. Khadafy has repeatedly defended the GOS, accusing the Western powers of using the genocide charge as a strategic and tactical weapon to leverage their own interests. What the West really wants, an angry Khadafy has claimed, is access and control of Darfur’s oil, for this they demonize the Government of Sudan. To the “Save Darfur!” advocates, this, of course, is a laughable charge. Always the premier terrorist in the world, on par with Fidel Castro, Khadafy’s claims of Western petroleum rapaciousness are dismissed out of hand, and anyone who holds a similar view is no better than Khadafy. Indeed, we are talking about genocide.

Christian groups working in Sudan, like Freedom Quest International, Voice of the Martyrs and Servant’s Heart—all of whom describe themselves as “non-government humanitarian relief organizations”—have accused the GOS of committing massacres which other international bodies or organizations have claimed did not happen. (An example is given below.) The GOS of Sudan has accused Western human rights agencies of exaggerating both the scale and nature of atrocities committed in the Darfur region.

The legitimacy of either side is always in question, from the others’ point of view. The Arab world claims it is a Judeo-Christian conspiracy against Islam, in pursuit of oil, and the rest of the English-speaking world accuses the Islamist GOS, and its Chinese, Malaysian, and other business partners, of genocide.

So where does that leave the general public? Either you buy the genocide argument, and jump on the bandwagon, and you quickly write-off anyone who challenges your belief system as uncaring about human life, or you sit on the sidelines and brood about what you believe to be true but simply cannot prove. From the point of view of the general public, at the end of the day, it is impossible to sort out who is honest and who is not. The only moral choice we have is to jump on the bandwagon right? We are talking about genocide: it’s no time to quibble amongst ourselves.

To juxtapose and sift through the information warfare being produced on Darfur we can compare and contrast the writings of Dr. Eric Reeves to those of Dr. David Hoile. These two individuals couldn’t be further apart in their positions and analyses about Darfur. The former, Dr. Eric Reeves, is perhaps the premier advocate for the “Save Darfur!” movement in the Anglo-American camp. We might even call him the self-declared, self-made Voice of Sudan. The latter, Dr. David Hoile, is one of the premier advocates for the GOS, or perhaps might better be called a challenger to the “Save Darfur!” campaign spearheaded by the Anglo-American camp. Both men write in English, and both have written volumes about the Darfur conflict.

Dr. Eric Reeves is a professor of English and Literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and he has traveled to Africa once or (maybe) twice in his life, for a grand total of about two or three weeks in South Sudan. Dr. Eric Reeves began writing about Sudan in 1998, after a meeting, he says, with Joelle Tanguay, the then U.S. director of Doctors Without Borders.

According to Mel Middleton, the Director of Freedom Quest International:

“Eric Reeves has spent about the same amount of time in Sudan as you have. But, unlike you, he has spent at least 8 years doing almost exclusive research on Sudan. He took a two-year sabbatical from teaching so that he could do that. He reads everything that is put out on Sudan; has an extensive base of first hand information—everywhere from State Department contacts to NGOs and locals on the ground.” [3]

In a court of law, such “first hand information” accumulated in Sudan and communicated to a man sitting in an office in a college in America would be called here-say. Nonetheless, it is a technique that is widely used in the modern information age, and one that this author also uses to come to some understanding about what is happening in a place the writer/researcher cannot always get to.

Dr. Eric Reeves writes prolifically about Sudan, and while he claims to be concerned about the human toll in lives and suffering, he has also been a staunch advocate for the overthrow of the Khartoum government. This is the mixing of “humanitarian concern” with militant hegemony. Apparently, there are a lot of people who see no contradiction in terms in calling for the freedom and liberty of a people under siege, if we are to believe the reams and reams of media coverage and human rights reports, all from the Western media and human rights establishment, which focus on the human toll in Darfur, and the agenda of overthrowing of a sovereign government. Indeed, the idea that the Government of Sudan has any legitimacy as a “sovereign” government in today’s world is dismissed outright. There is nothing legitimate about massacring unarmed men, women and children in the deserts of Darfur, Kordufan, or Upper Nile, Sudan. It is the responsibility of moral people and civilized society to take whatever action is necessary to stop such atrocities.

In one Washington Post article titled “Regime Change in Sudan,” Dr. Eric Reeves described the imperatives of overthrowing the government of Sudan, by any means necessary, and noted that some governing body needed to be created to take its place. “A proportionately representative interim governing council must be created externally but be ready to move quickly to take control when the NIF [National Islamic Front] is removed by whatever means are necessary.” [4]

Dr. Eric Reeves has not only called for the overthrow of the GOS, but he has called for this to be done by any means necessary, and for an externally created [emphasis added] “governing council” to be readied to fill the vacuum of state power. Under any other terms this would certainly be called a coup d’etat but the moral imperatives of genocide dictate that it be defined as a humanitarian gesture. Under any other terms the call for establishing an “externally created governing council” would be seen as inappropriate foreign intervention in violation of the Geneva Convention and other international covenants. No matter: we are talking about genocide.

Like the other leading advocates of the “Save Darfur!” movement, Dr. Eric Reeves frequently cites the new international humanitarian legal instrument titled “Responsibility to Protect” or “R2P,” a doctrine created by the “international community” in the new millennium to protect innocent people in cases where their own government is not taking appropriate action to protect them from harm: Sudan offers the first live test case where the “R2P” doctrine is being applied. The “R2P” was designed to override state sovereignty, and it dictates the “need” for international military action.

Whether he is presenting his statistics tallying the numbers of dead killed by the Government of Sudan or admonishing Western officials, Dr. Eric Reeves is published everywhere, and all the time: seems every word out of his mouth is news that is fit to print. Dr. Reeves’ writings on genocide in Sudan began as early as 1998. Of course, back then it was not genocide in Darfur, it was genocide in south Sudan, according to Dr. Eric Reeves and Mel Middleton, around a place called Juba, in regions other than Darfur, which no one on the world had heard of, where the GOS was, then as now, accused of committing massive atrocities, crimes against humanity, and genocide of southerners. The south of Sudan is said to be mostly Christian, with some yet-to-be-converted animists, pagan animal worshippers of traditional African religions.

Dr. David Hoile has lived in Sudan on and off, and he works for the European Sudanese Public Affairs council, and he is widely seen as a mercenary (writer) producing flak (propaganda) for the Government of Sudan. Dr. Reeves accuses Dr. David Hoile of the Sudan Public Affairs Council of being an unscrupulous mercenary and apologist for the crimes of the GOS, while Dr. Hoile accuses Dr. Reeves of being “the ugly American” and a propagandist for the West who embodies the age-hold white, Western imperialism.

*****

To compare and contrast the positions of Dr. Eric Reeves and Dr. David Hoile we can consider the case of the Servant’s Heart report of 22 May 2003, issued in alliance with their partners Freedom Quest and The Voice of the Martyr’s, which claimed that “thousands of unarmed civilians” were massacred in the South Sudanese villages of Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji and Yawagi in April 2002.

According to the Center for Religious Freedom, “Servant's Heart, Freedom Quest International and The Voice of the Martyrs (Canada) reported the incident, and called for an investigation by the international Civilian Protection and Monitoring Team assigned to monitor and report on human rights and other violations of the March, 2002 agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement.” [5]

“The Civilian Protection Monitoring Team (CPMT) began operations in late 2002,” writes Michael Kevane, a scholar from Santa Clara University who analyzed early CPMT data. “The organization is an odd entity in the annals of international organizations. It is funded largely by the United States, and consists of retired military officers, many from the U.S. Yet it claims to be independent of the U.S., Government of Sudan, and SPLA.” [6] The Sudan people’s Liberation Army is the military wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

Regarding the independence of the CPMT, on the one hand we find Dr. Eric Reeves complaining that the GOS has impeded the impartial work of the CPMT by denying the CPMT access to air transport within Sudan.[7] In this case Dr. Eric Reeves places an unwavering, and even unquestionable, faith in the U.S.-led CPMT, expecting or assuming that the CPMT’s reporting will be unbiased, by default, given the U.S. military leadership. On the other hand we find Dr. Eric Reeves complaining that “the U.S.-led Civilian Protection Monitoring Team has already been deeply compromised” and therefore its investigations and reporting on atrocities cannot be trusted. [8] Presumably, in the latter case, and according to Dr. Reeves, the CPMT is covering up for the Government of Sudan because the U.S. is unwilling to challenge the GOS and risk alienating its supporters or allies, including China, Egypt and Malaysia.

Indeed, Reeves wrote: “[A] careful analysis of the history of the US-led CPMT reveals on the part of the US State Department and the US charge d’affaires in Khartoum a shameful willingness to delay deployment, to compromise investigations, and to abandon the most successful methods and leaders in order to appease the sensibilities of the Khartoum regime. This conveys the ominous message that the US is willing to act expediently in dealing with Khartoum, mistakenly believing that this will entice the regime to make peace.” [9]

But what if it is not “appeasement” that drives the Bush administrations’ polices in Sudan, but rather direct collaboration? Second, is it beyond the realm of possibility that there are other business factions connected to or driving the “Save Darfur!” movement that are in conflict with those working with the Khartoum government?

Dr. David Hoile, working for the Sudan Public Affairs Council, has written at length about the conflict in Sudan, and Darfur, and Dr. Hoile has alleged that Servant’s Heart and Freedom Quest International’s charges that the GOS was responsible for mass killings and other atrocities have repeatedly been exaggerated or fabricated outright. [10]

Regarding the incident of April 2002, reported by Servant’s Heart in February 2003, Dr. Hoile reported that it was a fabrication that was later proven false by the Civilian Protection Monitoring Team. For proof he cites the CPMT report, “The Report Of Investigation: Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji and Yawagi Villages,” Civilian Protection Monitoring Team, Khartoum, 19 June 2003.

The CPMT, then led by retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Charles Baumann, apparently released the results of its investigation in a report on 19 June 2003, concluding that, “the claim that up to 2,500 people were killed has not been substantiated” proving that the wrongful allegations made by the organization against the Government of Sudan were unfounded and merely fabricated. The report apparently recommended that: “all sources carefully screen future allegations for credibility, source of information and accuracy.”

According to Michael Kevane, the CPMT investigated 50 cases over the years 2003-2004. Of those, five were deemed by the CPMT to have been cases of legitimate military activities, nine were found to be not substantiable, and 36 involved deliberate targeting of civilians, through intent or neglect. Of the 36 cases of targeting civilians, there were at least 254 casualties, according to the CPMT: of the 36 cases, 22 were cases where the Government of Sudan forces were at fault, 9 were cases where SPLA forces were at fault, and 5 were either cases where both parties were at fault or where militia forces (SSDF) [South Sudan Defense Forces] were at fault. [11]

Who do we believe, some folks from U.S. Christian missionary organizations? An Englishman accused of being the mouthpiece for the Government of Sudan? A retired Pentagon General? In the case of the villages of Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji, Yawagi, Dr. Davd Hoile’s claim that the CPMT proved the allegations to be unfounded was true, and according to the CPMT and Dr. Hoile the accusations of the Christian AID groups were unfounded to the point of drawing a mild reprimand from the CPMT.

*****

While focusing on Darfur, Dr. Eric Reeves has noted that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is linked to the GOS intelligence apparatus; there are other U.S. interests and corporate links to the GOS as well. The role of the Civilian Protection Monitoring Team is likely as compromised as Dr. Eric Reeves indicates. On this point it seems clear. Any investigatory body with such close ties to the U.S. State Department or branches of the U.S. military or intelligence apparatus as exist with the CPMT is, as Dr. Eric Reeves claims, “deeply compromised.” This is a given, not something that needs to be proven.

But just how deeply remains to be established.

A private U.S. military company with a less than stellar record won the contract for staffing the CPMT under a U.S. State Department contract: Pacific Architects and Engineers (PAE). In 2004 the CPMT office was being run by Brigadier General Frank Toney (retired), who was previously the commander of Special Forces for the United States Army; General Toney organized covert operations into Iraq and Kuwait in the first Gulf War.

*****

It is fairly widely reported that the CIA has maintained ties to some intelligence networks in Sudan. By revealing this point for the clandestine link that it is, “Save Darfur!” advocates like Mel Middleton and Dr. Eric Reeves gain credibility. For those on the political left who see the Central Intelligence Agency as a nasty, secretive organization aligned with the “shadow government”” of the United States, the CIA is always the very problem, never the solution. As Middleton puts it:

“The CIA, as well as the State Department, are bending over backwards to ensure that the NIF fascists in Khartoum remain in place, and have done everything possible to thwart attempts to remove it by the people of Sudan and the international human rights community. The State department has consistently downplayed the extent of the genocide; Khartoum's direct links to international terrorism (including Al Qaeda) and, since George W. Bush took office, has consistently taken the appeasement route, which, with criminal dictatorships, never works. [12]

For those who see the CIA as an essential element in the maintenance of U.S. national security interests and the “War on Terror” the people like Dr. Eric Reeves and Mel Middleton are as likely as not seen as dangers to free and democratic [sic] societies like the U.S. and Canada. Because the anti-Khartoum lobby has challenged certain Chinese, Malaysian and Canadian oil companies, Talisman Oil in particular, and other powerful interests—something this author respects very much—they have at times put their lives at risk.

“I have received numerous death threats, false accusations and slander,” Mel Middleton said. “Talisman has threatened to ‘put me in jail’, and others have done all they can to destroy my reputation and credibility.”

Mel Middleton has a long and deep history of working on behalf of the disenfranchised people of South Sudan, where the operations of Talisman Oil have been connected to atrocities. Talisman is one of the powerful Adolph Lundin companies (Lundin Oil is another) with nefarious mining and petroleum operations connected to war and mass murder in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. A Swedish national, Adolph Lundin has a deep history of connections to the G.H.W. Bush family. In 1996, for example, just weeks before the U.S.-backed invasion of Zaire commenced, G.H.W. Bush personally telephoned Zaire/DRC strongman, Mobutu Sese Seko, on Lundin’s behalf. [13] Adolph Lundin’s Tenke Mining Corporation today holds major concessions in Katanga, DRC.

While Dr. Eric Reeves has written about the Central Intelligence Agency with his recent focus on Darfur, at least, he has in the past taken the position that there is no CIA connection to Sudan or its internal affairs. In a personal communication in 2001 Dr. Eric Reeves said: “I don’t know that there’s any significant CIA role in Sudan…No, the CIA is not involved there.”

However, ties to U.S. intelligence predate the current Islamic regime. From 1964 to 1984 Sudan was run by the corrupt U.S. client dictatorship of Col. Jaafar Nimeiri. Within three days of the March 4, 1984 visit by former CIA Director and then Vice-President George H.W. Bush—which came under the U.S. propaganda banner of food AID for starving millions—Nimeiri instituted a purge against Islamic society, including mass arrests, executions and torture. Draconian IMF and World Bank "reforms" led to starvation, unemployment, mass riots and state repression. As Nimeiri stood arm-in-arm with Ronald Reagan for a New York Times piece in April, the U.S. quickly sent $64 million of a $181 million aid package to Khartoum in an unsuccessful attempt to crush the insurrection which soon toppled "old friend" Nimeiri. [14]

In September of 1983, to gain support from the increasingly important Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, President Nimeiri introduced the so-called Islamic law system of Sharia for all of the country, even the southern Christian and animist regions. Thus we can say that Christians in Sudan—and their brothers and sisters abroad—who are complaining about Sharia law and religious intolerance coming out of Khartoum today should trace their complaints about Sharia (Islamic Fundamentalist Law) back to the Central Intelligence Agency and their man Nimeiri.

In an interview with Howard French, former Africa bureau chief of the New York Times now based in Shanghai, French responded incredulously to the suggestion that the CIA was not involved in Sudan.

“Sudan has been an area of deep CIA involvement for many, many years. [To say that the CIA is not involved there] is just nonsense. Anyone who says that the CIA is not involved in Sudan, you know, is either willfully ignoring the truth…or just…stupid. It’s just not plausible. First of all [Colonel Jaafar Mohammed Al-Nimeiri], the former Sudanese President, was a CIA operative.” [15]

At the time, writing about South Sudan, Dr. Eric Reeves’ denial of CIA involvement supported his position; either due to ignorance, willful neglect or unconsciousness, the CIA link was dismissed. This is not the only case of Dr. Eric Reeves dismissing information of relevance to the “humanitarian” conflict he is concerned about.

*****

On 26 December 2006, a letter to the editor by Smith College professor Dr. Eric Reeves was published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, a small local newspaper in Northampton, Massachusetts. Dr. Eric Reeves and Smith College both reside in Northampton, and it is also very close to home for this writer. The letter irrefutably establishes that Dr. Eric Reeves does not in any way equate the conflict in Darfur to oil.

Letter to the Editor

Daily Hampshire Gazette

www.gazettenet.com

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Darfur tragedy isn't linked to an oil-exploration effort

To the editor: The Gazette's important reporting December 9 [2006] on local Darfur advocacy notes the views of Keith Harmon Snow, including his mistaken assertion about the role of oil development in the Khartoum regime's genocidal counter-insurgency strategy in western Sudan.

Having worked and published on oil development issues in Sudan for the past eight years, including traveling to the working oil regions, I believe Gazette readers should know that there is not a shred of evidence—seismic or geological—of significant oil reserves in Darfur. All oil development and production activities occur in southern Sudan (primarily Upper Nile Province) and the very south of Kordofan Province.

There exists not a single credible report indicating oil in Darfur, except for one very old and small site in the most southeastern corner of this immense province (closest to Upper Nile). There is not a single photograph of oil exploration or development infrastructure anywhere else in Darfur; no credible human rights or humanitarian organization has presented evidence of significant oil development in Darfur, even as many have frequently reported on the massively destructive consequences of Asian, Canadian and European oil development in southern Sudan.

It is convenient to explain away the passionate American outcry over genocide in Darfur as somehow orchestrated by big oil interests. It is also perversely wrong.

Eric Reeves

Northampton 

Dr. Eric Reeves is adamant.

Since the very first reports about atrocities in Darfur began to appear, the contention of this writer has been this: get the facts out on the table, all the facts, and then we can talk about what needs to be done to stop the massive loss of human life which the Western mass media is hitting us over the head with, day in, day out. Until all the facts and all the interests have been made transparent, the work is not to “Stop Genocide!” but to make transparent the facts and interests behind the “genocide” and the movement to “stop genocide.” Unless we understand who is manipulating this issue, and how, we are open to be too easily manipulated—in service to yet another military debacle by the U.S. its allies.

Now, let’s evaluate the above claims by Dr. Eric Reeves.

*****

The 9 December 2006 Gazette article which Dr. Eric Reeves references in his letter above was a very long front page article which continued inside the newspaper. It was also one of many articles whose slant and focus was overwhelmingly supportive of the satellite “Save Darfur!” coalition in the Northampton area, and its international agenda. A local Jewish activist group connected with the B’Nai Israel Synagogue spearheads this movement, which has a mutually supportive relationship with Dr. Eric Reeves.

As everywhere, however, the local Western Massachusetts base of support for the “Save Darfur!” campaign includes people of both Christian and Jewish faiths, and others both right and left of the political spectrum. It includes Quakers from the American Friends Service Committee and human rights campaigners from Amnesty International’s local Amherst (MA) chapter; it also included Mayor of Northampton (MA) Claire Higgins. In the middle of this extensive article further cheering on the “Save Darfur!” movement there were found several comments by this writer suggesting that the entire “Save Darfur!” movement revolved around powerful interests seeking to overthrow the Government of Sudan and/or gain access to the petroleum and other natural resources in Darfur specifically, and in Sudan more generally. The comments, out of their original context, did not reflect the complexity of the issues or the deeper questions that will be raised in this writing. There have never been any articles in this local newspaper that examine the other questions and therefore balance out the reportage and the issue. Given the preponderance of coverage in favor of his cause, Dr. Eric Reeves still felt it necessary to pen a separate letter to attack the singular point made in one or two brief remarks.

“The Gazette's important reporting December 9 [2006] on local Darfur advocacy notes the views of Keith Harmon Snow, including his mistaken assertion about the role of oil development in the Khartoum regime's genocidal counter-insurgency strategy in western Sudan.”

From paragraph one of his letter we can also consider the “counter-insurgency” language used by Dr. Reeves. In order for there to be a “counter-” insurgency one would reasonably assume that there is an insurgency. In fact, that is a rather specious assumption in today’s world: the United States has a long history over the past five decades designing and implementing “counter-insurgency” operations to root out insurgents that didn’t actually exist. Similarly, today, we see a U.S. strategy of “counter-terrorism” which is in fact a complete inversion of the facts: the U.S. government is itself engaged in acts of terrorism all over the world—terrorism and terrorist acts that provide the fait accompli justification for foreign military or economic intervention. Counter-insurgency programs created by the Pentagon include programs to massacre, rape, torture and assassinate, and these are routine, not accidental or one-time jobs committed by “a few rogue soldiers” or “a few mentally unbalanced individuals,” as is always claimed.

Nonetheless, in the case of Darfur, Sudan, we find that there is indeed an insurgency led by several “rebel” factions, including the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A). But Dr. Eric Reeves says very little about these insurgents, and what he does say does not add up to much, if it adds up at all. Ditto his analyses and writings about greater South Sudan from 1998 to the present: the true role of the “rebel” Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is never revealed. The fact remains that Dr. Eric Reeves has in this simple letter shared something he hardly pays any attention to in most all of his extensive writings: this is a war involving more than one party.

Paragraph two opens with a statement meant to establish the credibility of the writer, Dr. Eric Reeves:

“Having worked and published on oil development issues in Sudan for the past eight years, including traveling to the working oil regions, I believe Gazette readers should know that there is not a shred of evidence—seismic or geological—of significant oil reserves in Darfur. All oil development and production activities occur in southern Sudan (primarily Upper Nile Province) and the very south of Kordofan Province.”

The fact is that Dr. Eric Reeves has spent roughly two weeks in his entire life in Africa, and these were in South Sudan: the remainder of the “past eight years” of his life dedicated to Sudan have been based out of Smith College. Why is Dr. Eric Reeves taking such a hard “no oil in Darfur” line? It’s certainly not because the oil isn’t there.

*****

There are many sources of high standing that have publicized the Darfur oil link. A typical middle-of-the-road example is the article “Oil found in South Darfur—Oil issues threaten to derail Sudan hopes for peace.”

“The report also reveals that the president of Sudanese oil exploration company Advanced Petroleum Company (APCO), Salah Wahbi, told The Sunday Business Post that oil had been found in South Darfur. He said that oil had been found in south Darfur and he urged the [Darfur] rebels to return to the negotiating table.” [16]

The Advanced Petroleum Company (APCO) concession is located in South Darfur and the name “APCO” is denoted on the petroleum map of Sudan that is produced by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan, a “watchdog” organization which appears to involve some of the perpetrator companies that are charged with gross human rights violations and named herein. [17]

Other credible sources that clearly see the evidence of oil in Darfur include AlertNet, a syndicated on-line journal which positions itself as a leader in “alerting humanitarians to emergencies.” Published in London by the highly respected Reuters Foundation, the award-winning AlertNet was launched in 1997 “to provide support services for aid agencies,” and it reports current membership of over 300 leading agencies in some 80 countries.

“London (AlertNet): The existence of big oilfields in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region has added a new twist to a bloody, two-year-old conflict, potentially turning the quest for peace into a tussle over resources.”

“Sudan announced in April [2005] that its ABCO [sic: APCO] corporation, which is 37 percent owned by Swiss company Clivenden, had begun drilling for oil in Darfur, where preliminary studies showed there were “abundant” quantities of oil.”

“The issue of oil in Darfur isn’t very different from the issue of oil anywhere else,” said Mike Aaronson, director general of British NGO Save the Children. “It’s potentially a tremendous blessing, and potentially a tremendous handicap.” [18]

According to Ken Bacon, President of the non-profit U.S. advocacy organization Refugees International, petroleum is a central issue behind the war in Darfur. In an interview with AlertNet media, Bacon was repeatedly quoted for his comments about oil in Darfur in the context of its importance to external governments and corporations. Bacon went on to describe the conflict as a “land grab” by powerful economic interests. The displacement of populations, he said, was a means to access and control the land they live on.

“‘There’s some speculation that one of the reasons that these land grabs are going on is to get the African tribes off the ground so they can be controlled by the government in Khartoum,’ ” Ken Bacon, president of U.S. advocacy organization Refugees International, told AlertNet.”

“The United States has maintained a trade embargo against Sudan since 1997, so there is no legal U.S. investment in the country.”

“Cliveden, the biggest stakeholder in ABCO [sic: APCO] corporation, is a Swiss company, but an investigation for British television Channel 4 revealed that Cliveden’s chief executive, Friedholm Eronat, swapped his U.S. passport for a British one shortly before signing an oil deal with the Khartoum government in October 2003.” [19]

Above we find executives from two major non-profit organizations stating, in articles published by mainstream news corporations, that the Darfur conflict revolves around Darfur’s oil. Professionals from both Save the Children and Refugees International directly contradict Dr. Eric Reeves’ absolutist statements about oil in Darfur, and both are organizations that Dr. Eric Reeves cites as respectable and credible. Dr. Eric Reeves has also declared that Save the Children is one of the beneficiaries of his fundraising efforts for the people of Sudan.

Not a shred of evidence?

*****

Another 2005 news account that directly establishes that Darfur is about oil is one that was reported by the syndicated Reuters agency and published in the left-leaning CorpWatch:

“Sudan on Tuesday said its ABCO [sic: APCO] corporation—in which Swiss company Cliveden owns 37 percent—had begun drilling for oil in Darfur, where preliminary studies showed there were ‘abundant’ quantities of oil. ‘The Sudanese people have never benefited from these (oil) discoveries,’ said Ahmed Hussein, the London-based spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement [rebels of Darfur]. ‘The oil must wait until a final peace deal is signed.’” [20]

Is there oil in Darfur?

*****

“In fact, a huge strategic game is taking place in central Africa for control of black gold,” wrote Africa Research Bulletin. Indeed, Darfur proves a pivotal geographic prize: who ever controls Darfur not only controls Darfur’s oil but also has potential to control the oil in Chad:

“While financing the [Darfur] rebels, Beijing apparently has its attention focused on Chadian oil (200,000 barrels a day) extracted in the south of the country through a US-Malaysian consortium and conveyed to the United States via Cameroon ports and the Gulf of Guinea. A more favorably disposed government in N’Djamena [the capital of Chad] could grant oil permits and authorize an oil pipeline joining southern Chad and Sudan in order to reverse the flow of black gold. China apparently also has an interest in the sub soil of Darfur, which might harbor fossil fuels. So it seems that the war between Washington and Beijing has already begun, amid the sands of Africa.” [21]

When the conflict in Darfur spread to Chad and Central Africa Republic the Western media echoed the constant “genocide” refrain. With the above we find that the reality is a little more deeply submerged beneath the headlines. It appears that Chad is a pivotal element in the disastrous “Save Darfur!” equation. However in an international debate published by the BBC on 27 October 2007, Dr. Eric Reeves stated: “”Chad tells us nothing about Darfur.”

On the contrary, the evidence suggests that Dr. Eric Reeves tells us nothing about Darfur. In fact, it appears that Dr. Reeves wields information with expedience: if it serves his purposes he uses it; any inconvenient facts are ignored if they don’t fit the explanation or admonition of the moment, and then utilized when it serves the new or adjusted argument. On 27 October Dr. Eric Reeves stated: “Chad tells us nothing about Darfur.” As the conflagration unfolded in neighboring Chad and Central Africa Republic, Dr. Eric Reeves was singing a different tune: “The situation in eastern Chad cries out desperately for urgent deployment of a robust international security force,” he wrote on 13 December 2006. [22]

Indeed, in the same article in early December 2006 we find Dr. Eric Reeves advocating military actions that clearly indicate that he is party to the aggressive propaganda campaign which serves the military campaign being waged by Western interests:

“Such a [robust international security] force would also send a clear signal of international resolve, and put in place military resources that would be hours, not weeks or months from being able to respond to events on the ground in Darfur.” [23]

Dr. Eric Reeves, as seen above, is an advocate for military operations; he goes on to underscore his failure to either comprehend or illuminate the deeper geopolitical forces at work in the region.

“But without French leadership, including in passing an authorizing UN Security Council resolution, there is no chance of forward movement. The Financial Times reports that France appears to be waiting for US leadership on the issue; but if this is French strategy, it is finally disingenuous:

“[A Bush administration official said] that the US wanted to work with France in Chad, where Paris has a small contingent of troops, to help President Idris Deby fend off Sudanese-backed rebels. French diplomats said there had been no approach yet from Washington about military action and Paris would only envisage military initiatives within a multilateral framework.” (Financial Times [London] [dateline: Washington, DC], December 12, 2006).” [24]

What is “French strategy” in the region? According to Dr. Eric Reeves France is “waiting for the US leadership” and this “is finally disingenuous.” On the contrary, France and the United States have been at war over Africa. Rwanda from 1990 to 1994 was predominantly a war between France and its allies and the United States and its allies. Ivory Coast is one of the latest areas of French-U.S. conflict; Gabon will be a future area. But France has had a deep hand in supporting the Khartoum regime, and it has been primarily in defense of French interests from the slow, steady challenge by U.S. interests seeking to displace them (French interests).

The northern people of Sudan have historically been very hostile to the people of the south, denying them any kind of equitable development. And then Chevron—with the help of USAID and a company called HTSPE (Hunting) Ltd.—discovered oil. And so, while John Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation started out as a true African liberation force, liberation is something the Western world will not accept for African populations, especially when there is American oil under their soil. Every single liberation struggle has been co-opted or curtailed by Western powers. John Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), through clandestine deals with powerful Western institutions, was transformed, fairly early on, from a people’s movement to just another mercenary army serving the imperatives of power and private profit. The SPLA leader John Garang was a Christian of the southern minority Dinka tribe with a degree from Grinnell College (Iowa) and advanced degrees from Iowa State, and with military training from the U.S. Army's Fort Benning Georgia, the U.S. military academy which includes the infamous School of the Americas, notable for training Latin American militaries in torture, massacres and assassinations. [25]

Other examples of sell-out “African” liberation movements include Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe; Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress in South Africa; and the unified Ethiopian liberation struggle against the Dergue regime of Mengitsu in Ethiopia, which ultimately brought the current brutal regime of Meles Zenawi to power. Where bribery and coercion did not succeed in punctuating liberation movements, assassination was used: Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Claude Ake, and Ken Saro-Wiwa all provide notable examples. In the end, it was likely some U.S. or allied intelligence that eliminated John Garang in the helicopter “crash” in South Sudan that occurred soon after the peace deal with Khartoum was signed; Garang had simply become too powerful.

Iran, Iraq, Libya and France have all provided military and intelligence support to Khartoum. Garang received military support and protected border sanctuaries from Museveni in Uganda, with backing from the U.S. It wasn’t long before France’s worst nightmare became a reality: through low-intensity conflict, a pro-U.S. regime was installed in South Sudan. Responding to U.S. infiltration of on the continent the French Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieur (DGSE) began collaborating with Sudanese intelligence in the mid-1990’s; Sudanese intelligence was provided with state-of-the-art satellite imagery pinpointing SPLA bases in South Sudan. The French also provided secure communications equipment and listening devices. According to one French human rights group, Survie: “Satellite photographs were handed out so that the Sudan population in the south could be bombarded. Genocide is taking place in the South of Sudan and France is quietly taking part.” [26]

According to intelligence insider Wayne Madsen, Khartoum agreed to keep its Darfur province, which bordered on Chad, free of rebels fighting against the pro-French Chadian government. In return, France agreed to pressure its ally, the government of Central Africa Republic, to permit Sudanese troops to cross its territory to attack SPLA guerrillas in South Sudan. [27]

Understand the conflagration in Darfur means understanding Darfur’s relationship to Chad and Uganda. Like Uganda, the U.S. penetration into Chad is today very significant. The French military has provided air transport for some rebels of the Darfur conflict. The U.S. is wo