You don’t wait for war to buy fighter jets, says Gen. Museveni

One of the new Russian-made jet fighters prepares for a demonstration take-off during President Museveni’s tour. PHOTO BY MARTIN SSEBUYIRA                

Entebbe

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, yesterday conceded calls by opposition for the government to give priority to infrastructure and healthcare ahead of military hardware are plausible but said defence cannot wait for war to purchase equipment.

Mr Museveni, who was inspecting the new planes at the airbase in Entebbe, said the delivery of Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters was after a long procurement process. He said he travelled to Russia last year to visit the factory that manufactured the newly-acquired fighter jets that cost government Shs1.2 trillion. He equated the long procurement process of the jets to the procedure a buyer goes through before a tailor finally makes clothes.

“In the 1950s, people had two options when walking in a shop to buy clothes; either to buy the available clothes or be measured by the tailor to make new clothes. I travelled to Russia in August last year to be measured and got brand new planes whose fruits are being seen now,” Mr Museveni said.

He acknowledged the calls by the opposition to build roads, schools and hospitals instead of buying military hardware but said military equipment is not procured during war times. “You don’t wait for war to buy military equipment in security. It’s normally advisable to buy when there is no war,” he said.

Opposition lawmakers have described the procurement as illegal, and accused the government of draining the central bank’s reserves without parliamentary approval.

The purchase of the jets has also been criticised by technocrats, including Bank of Uganda Governor Tumusiime Mutebile. Mr Mutebile in June told the UK’s Financial Times newspaper that he had disagreed with the President over the purchase of fighter jets. But the President said the jets will beef the security capacity of the UPDF. He said the army relied on the M16 helicopters to end the LRA war.

The Russian-built Sukhoi SU-30 jet fighter is a twin-engine, all-weather aircraft, which can be deployed in air-to-air and air-to-surface missions. It can undertake combat missions within a 3,000-kilometre range, affording the UPDF the legroom to strike distant targets with precision and efficiency.

Libya: How U.S. And Moreno Ocampo Destroyed The ICC

Ocampo--The ICC's chief prosecutor has single-handedly destroyed the Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague is an undisguised instrument of Western foreign policy--especially that of the United States.

Ironically, it's a court whose jurisdiction isn't even recognized by the United States, which "unsigned" the Rome Statute creating the Court; yet it acts as a kangaroo court for going after perceived enemies and real opponents of the United States.

The ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has no credibility. He recently peddled allegations of mass rapes being used as a weapon by the Libyan army, citing the discovery of Viagra in war zones. The report was practically repudiated by a credible organization, Amnesty International.

It was a very sad display by Ocampo, who actually faced a credible allegation of sexual misconduct himself, from a South African journalist in 2005.

Last week Ocampo's court, in a political statement, announced arrest warrants for Libya's Muammar al-Quathafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi. The timing was no coincidence. U.S. support for NATO's war of aggression on Libya has so dissipated that by the end of the summer it won't be surprising if Congress forces the Obama administration to abandon this war of choice.

Ocampo wanted to throw a lifeline to the U.S. Administration by diverting the focus with the arrest warrants; shifting the lead story.

The U.S. is now in a presidential election cycle. Unemployment is at 9.1%, job growth is at snail's pace and the deficit has soared as President Obama averted economic collapse without Republican support. Still, in the U.S., Libya is seen as Obama's and Hillary Clinton's war. No wonder more than 60% of Americans now oppose the Libya misadventure.

France and Britain, former and again aspiring colonial powers in Africa, know U.S. support will evaporate completely by the end of the summer. Assassination attempts on al-Quathafi have failed. That's why in desperation Nicolas Sarkozy has been violating United Nations Resolution 1970, which imposed an arms embargo on Libya, by illegally dropping weapons to the NATO-backed insurrectionists. Will the United Nations punish or sanction France for violating the arms ban?

Don't hold your breath.

At the same time, many African American voters are enraged that President Obama would support the bombardment of an African country on behalf of "rebels" who have embraced a racist philosophy as The Wall Street Journal exposed in a June 21 article. The Journal reports that rebel units in Misrata have been renamed "The Brigade for the Purging of Slaves, Black Skins." The Journal's report affirms the overwhelming evidence, readily available on YouTube, that the NATO-backed insurrectionists have been lynching Black Libyans. The Journal reports that one neighborhood in Misrata that was once four-fifths Black has been emptied of its Black population.

Yet this campaign of ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans has not merited condemnation by The State Department or The White House. We don't expect disapproval from former and aspiring colonial powers France and Britain.

But if Europe can act collectively to violate an African country's sovereignty and promote a civil war and bombardment that claims African lives, is the African Union obligated to just stand and watch?

Libya is engaged in a Western-backed civil war through NATO. During this war, the U.N. has already reported, crimes have been committed by both combatants--the government army and the NATO-backed fighters based primarily in Benghazi. The ICC has ignored abuses by Benghazi, including beheadings. This is because the ICC, at the behest of the Western powers, is reluctant to expose the criminal disposition that would discredit the insurrectionists.

Most shameful of all is that the now repudiated allegations of mass rapes came from ICC Prosecutor Ocampo himself, given his own record. Ocampo is alleged to have coerced a female reporter in South Africa into having sex on March 28, 2005 during a visit for a conference there.

The journalist reportedly interviewed Ocampo at the Lord Charles Hotel, near Cape Town. Ocampo then reportedly insisted on accompanying her to the beach even though she voiced reluctance. Upon return, the two had drinks, and she reportedly declined to accompany him to his bedroom--whereupon, Ocampo is said to have taken her car keys while still at the bar. The reporter was forced to follow him to his room, where she was reportedly coerced into having intercourse with Ocampo in order to get her car keys back.

The woman subsequently reported the forced-sex to an ICC official. Later, when Ocampo's Public Information advisor Christian Palme filed a complaint about the incident, he was terminated by Ocampo. Palme took the matter to the International Labor Tribunal and was awarded monetary compensation.

Ocampo's repudiated allegations of mass rapes in Libya is even more troubling given that real mass rapes of women are actually occurring on a daily basis in the Congo. Why pursue phantom rapists in Libya when real ones exist in eastern Congo?

 

Strauss-Kahn, French Rascal, Dodges Bullet And Could End Up President

Black Star News Editorial]
Accused rapist Dominique Strauss-Kahn could be eating croissants in France sooner rather than later.
Should he dodge the bullet, as now seems highly apparent, he could still end up occupying the Elysee Palace as President of France next year.
Can you imagine the welcome the French man would receive from supporters when he lands in Paris. Once seemingly a nightmare scenario, the rape allegations against him could actually boost him --as a victim wrongfully accused-- into hero status. Nicolas Sarkozy can’t be happy today.
Dramatic news have turned events away from Strauss-Kahn being the accused wrongdoer to the alleged victim becoming a convict in the eyes of the public. Ironically, the shift is so dramatic that the question of whether Strauss-Kahn actually committed sexual assault at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan is now overwhelmed by the focus on the alleged victims "credibility."
Those who alleged a sinister plot from Nicolas Sarkozy's camp could now even claim vindicated--even if, as it seems, there was no such plot.
The alleged victim faced hurdles from the get-go. A Black woman, an African immigrant, accusing a top and wealthy Frenchman, chief of the International Monetary Fund, and prospective president of France, of rape.
Yet, things seemed to be on the alleged victim's side for a number of reasons.
>She was said to have immediately reported the alleged sexual attack to her supervisors at the hotel.
>She was said to have been a quiet and devout Muslim woman, which would undermine Strauss-Kahn's contention of consensual sexual intercourse.
>She was reported to have been a hard worker, a single parent, who was keen on taking care of the welfare of her daughter.
>Strauss-Kahn had a reputation as a sexual predator and sexual coercer.
Yet as the case progressed, the District Attorney in Manhattan County discovered several damning issues that, while not directly tied to what happened in Strauss-Kahn's hotel room, undermines the woman's "credibility." Yes--the woman's not Strauss-Kahn's because when it comes to allegations of sexual attacks against a woman, it's actually the alleged victim who's always on trial:
>The DA has discovered that the woman lied on her U.S. asylum application that she had been gang-raped in Guinea. So while she lied in the past, even if she was indeed raped by Strauss-Kahn, all his lawyers would have to do is bring up this information at trial and her prospects are doomed.
>The woman is now reported to have lied about the immediate aftermath of the rape. She did not report it immediately. She is now reported to have even cleaned another room before reporting the attack. This in itself is not as damaging since she might have been traumatized and disoriented. What's more some women report rapes days, weeks, or months later. In the case of Tristane Banon, the French journalist who recently accused Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, it was nearly 10 years later. However, in this New York case, given the woman's "humble" position in the eyes of the American public --a Black woman against a wealthy White prospective president-- the bar is raised even higher.
>She is reported to have had a telephone conversation with a man behind bars who was allegedly detained for possessing 400 pounds of marijuana, and discussed the benefits of pursuing the case against Strauss-Kahn. This in itself, while wrongful, is not fatal, since she had already reported the alleged rape to law enforcement authorities. Had it been the other way around --reporting the alleged rape only after discussing it with a third party-- it would be potentially fatal. The conversation was recorded and of course, it is absolutely fatal, and she would be exposed to charges against her if the tape-recording revealed that she had not been raped. Yet the District Attorney would have revealed this already and dismissed the case against Strauss-Kahn.
>She is reported to have had sums of money totaling over $100,000 deposited into her account, from different cities over a two year period, by the suspect. Since the bar is high for this alleged victim, this is fatal information.
>She is reported to have paid hundreds of dollars per month to five different phone companies while lying that she only had one cell phone.
>It's highly likely that additional damaging information could still be revealed either by the District Attorney or the Frenchman's lawyers.

Based on all the above it's clear that the alleged victim won't be able to surmount the high bar she has to scale, not to get her day in court, but to first level the playing field, before even sustaining allegations of rape.

These are the considerations that faced District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The government agreed with Strauss-Kahn's lawyers' application that his bail conditions be eased and that he be freed from house arrest. While the DA still maintains the position that the woman was a victim of sexual assault he knows the reality of trying such cases.

Strauss-Kahn had reason to smile when he emerged from the hearing this morning. He knows that the burden of proof was on the woman who would have had to have been pristine. The next court date is later this month and his passport is still being held by the authorities. Yet the French scoundrel and his wealthy and ever forgiving wife --who seems to abet his peculiar proclivities-- might already be thinking about how to redecorate the Elysee Palace.