After Finally Affirming Saudi Government Culpability for 9-11, What Next?

by Eze Eluchie,

Almost 15 years to the day Islamist Terror visited America, United States authorities (at least the Congress) have finally begun genuine effort to address the root cause of the dastardly attacks of 9^th September 2001. By its passage of a Bill which identified Saudi Arabia as the origin of the 9-11 attacks and making it possible for victims of the 9-11 attacks to sue the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for losses suffered therefrom, common sense and good judgement appears to be finally taking root in US response to terror.

The initial knee-jerk reaction of attacking, overthrowing and eventually killing President Saddam Hussein of Iraq had been based on a near-childish resolve of then President George Bush to ‘finish off the job his father had not finished’ and well orchestrated lies and deceit that the Iraqi authorities were acquiring Weapons of Mass Destruction which they will use to hurt US interests. This reaction has irreversibly destabilized the Middle East, institutionalized extremist Islamist terrorism as a fad and preferred option for thousands of misguided Muslim youths across the world, and unfortunately served to garner and deepen enmity against Western values by survivors of the atrocities unleashed against the Middle East.

The rush to vilify and condemn what was obviously one of the most liberal regimes in the Middle East (in terms of its ability to be all inclusive, allowing some level of equity amongst religious sects and appreciative of all genders) has since proved to be one of the most unwise steps ever taken in the anal of human history.  Blinded by pecuniary interests in the Black gold and a felt need to continue the maintenance of a suspect friendship with a most repressive dictatorial regime, the US had in its initial response to 9-11, incredulously opted to dispense with critical evidence that linked the perpetrators of 9-11 to the Saudi regime and mysteriously focused its arsenal on the Saddam regime that loathed Al Qeida to its core, a regime that should have served as a ready and willing partner in efforts to contain Osama bin Laden and his followers.

Will properly identifying the enemy 15 years down the line serve any useful purpose? Considering the damage already occasioned to the entire region resulting from the wrongs of the past 15 years: inclusive of the horrendous fatalities in Iraq, continuing bleeding of Libya, Saudi involvement in the civil war in Yemen, and of course the devastation Syria has now become, it will be extremely difficult to expect a mere token, the recognition of where guilt rightly laid for 9-11 attacks, to make much impact in the process – one cannot even refer to it as the ‘healing process’ or corrections as the expectations of the US Congress in declaring the Saudi Government culpable for 9-11 losses is again focused on pecuniary issues and in no way related towards addressing underlying issues.

The recognition of the culpability of the Saudi Government is however a step forward as it, in the very least, recognizes truth, a critical element in the healing process for any hurts. Yet another timeless historically error will be made if the recognition of the Saudi Governments culpability in 9-11 is viewed only in terms of the pecuniary rewards litigants may extort from the Kingdom. The US Congress Bill should, when passed into law, serve as a pedestal upon which genuine reconciliation may begin, starting obviously with apologies and redress (the damages done to these peoples is far and above what can be compensated for) to peoples whose countries and psyche has been destroyed in some instances, irreparably, particularly the Iraqis.

With the commencement of the processes of such reconciliation and redress, it will then be possible to come together and extinguish the vermin of extremist Islamist terrorism which is principally founded on the perception of the perpetuation of wrongs.

Picture:  Members of Saudi Royalty with the burning twin-towers in the backdrop.

Airstrikes Against Peace In Syria.

by Eze Eluchie,

One is really beginning to pity the people of Syria over the seemingly unending depreciation of their lives, country and future they have been made to endure these past 5 years. Without any doubts, there might have been genuine grievances against the Al-Assad regime which led to the commencement of efforts at revolt in 2011, at the same time the Arab world was engulfed in the now infamous Arab Spring. What has since become clear now is that foreign forces are now using the different sides in the Syrian conflict as pawns in a most atrocious proxy war which is leaving Syria and its people utterly devastated.

More worrisome is the unfolding reality that the conflict in Syria, going by observed trends, may continue in perpetuity, at least for the foreseeable future. This worry is rooted in the fact that any efforts at addressing critical issues in the conflict or opportunities to arbitrate or attain meaningful ceasefires are deliberately undermined in such a manner that encourages the various combatants in the conflict to dig deeper into their trenches.

Two instances of these ‘dashing-of-hopes-for-peace’ instances readily come to mind. Firstly, the Turkey shoot-down of a Russian Air Force jet at a time when ISIS and other collateral terrorists in the Syrian conflict were feeling the dire impact of sustained Russian air-power. The downing of the Russian jet by a NATO member-state, which was obviously hiding under the cloak of collective security offered by NATO membership, served to dampen Russian efforts at strafing ISIS out of existence and created a crack in the resolve by the international community to destroy ISIS. 

The more recent scuttling of the Syrian ceasefire agreement painstakingly arrived at in the course of several meetings between the Foreign Ministers of the United States and Russia, via lethal airstrikes by US soldiers which killed over 60 Syrian soldiers in the area around the Deit al-Zour, is particularly unfortunate. The US airstrikes in question, attacks which accorded opposition/terrorist elements some advantage over the Syrian Government positions prior to the inception of the ceasefire, occurred barely 48 hours to occurrence of an important milestone in the ceasefire processes - the 7-day observance of cessation of hostilities, a milestone that would have for the first time witnessed the harmonization of intelligence capabilities of the US and Russian militaries towards confronting an identified adversary, extremist Islamist terrorist organizations. The world did indeed miss out on an opportunity to unify resources and efforts against ISIS, and by extension, global Islamist terrorism.

The US airstrikes against Syrian soldiers practically ended the ceasefire agreement. Feeble excuses of mistakes in targeting rendered by US authorities were rightly discountenanced – mistaken mass murders indeed! The official announcement of the end of the ceasefire agreement some 24 hours later by the Syrian Government was expected by all except the undiscerning. Once more, a unique opportunity to end the Syrian war and its attendant humanitarian crisis had been lost. The declaration of the end of the ceasefire was immediately followed by a most dastardly attack on the convoy conveying much needed United Nations humanitarian supplies to the besieged people of Aleppo, an attack which killed several humanitarian workers and volunteers.   

Opinions have been expressed in some quarters that the attack on the aid convoy and the killings of humanitarian workers therein amounts to war crimes. There is nothing wrong with that line of thought, so long as it also accepts that the perpetrators of the precipitating factor of the attack, the airstrikes on the Syrian soldiers in Deir al-Zour, should likewise be held accountable as accomplices to the crime.

It appears quite clear that forces outside of Syria and the control of Syrians are intent on ensuring the continuation of  war in Syria, and bombing this most historic of countries back into the dark ages. To end the multiplicity of conflicts raging concurrently in Syria, it is incumbent on the sitting Government of Bashir al-Assad to begin to exercise genuine leadership by firstly requesting all foreign forces not in sync with its authority to depart from Syrian territory and follow up with spirited extermination of the ISIS forces in its territory. Genuine peace overtures should thereafter be extended to the myriad of warring elements operating in Syria, some of which are affiliated to extremist Islamist entities, with a view to getting them on board a ‘transitional unity government’. The current Syrian Government and those willing to work in collaboration with it should not be deterred in frontally confronting any forces, internal or external, which continues to meddle in Syrian affairs after the olive-branch had been offered to all concerned.

The continuing carnage in Syria is a shame on all humanity.

The Syrian Government under Bashir al-Assad have a duty to stop, as soon as possible, the continuing bleeding of Syria and its peoples.

Picture: Continuing devastation in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city.

The Vultures are Gathering....

by Eze Eluchie,

Informed observers and commentators on the Nigerian socio-economic and political terrain, indigenous and foreign, all agree on one fact regarding the swift collapse of the national economy – Nigeria’s economic depression is policy-induced! It certainly is not by accident that a country of several million dynamic and hardworking peoples, that had successfully begun to diversify itself from a uni-product economy to one hinged on diverse sources suddenly awakes to find its fortunes violently depleted and reversed, with the supervisors of the national economy each passing day churning more regulations geared towards causing more harm and creating more confusion domestically and causing disinterest from foreign investors.

Those not familiar with the geo-politics of Africa’s erstwhile largest and fastest growing economy will wonder as to how any Government will be willing to deliberately ruin a national economy, cause great harm to the citizenry, heighten prospect of internal chaos, and ultimately destroy economic prospects and potentials. Well, welcome to the oddity of the Nigerian federation.

When at his assumption of office, the present Nigerian ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, a former dictator who had in his erstwhile stint in office over 30 years ago driven the economy into depression, embarked upon a global frolic of major capital cities of the world telling whosoever cared to listen that he was now presiding over the ‘most corrupt people in the world’, in one instance, agreeing with the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s categorization of Nigeria as being ‘fantastically corrupt’; and with the damaging effects of such self-deprecation just beginning to manifest the regime rolled out conflicting fiscal pronouncements, particularly in the area of accessing foreign exchange, amounting to policy somersaults which served scare off hundreds of multinational companies from Nigeria (including Airlines, Manufacturing and service-sector conglomerates); and eventually capping the dire situation by deliberate acts of maligning the Judiciary and Legislative arms of government creating an impression before all and sundry that Nigeria was a banana republic where powers resided and emanated from one single individual; the hand writing on the wall was clearly discernible to all who were discerning – Nigeria was being systematically and serially depleted with cynical ulterior motives.

Finally, those who doubted reality are now able to have a glimpse at the wider picture via the recent kite flown by those who are profiting tremendously from the deprecation of Nigeria: having succeeded in pauperizing the Nigerian State, depreciating the value of the country and its national assets, reeking in enormous profits from a fraudulent foreign exchange regime, suggestions are now being arrogantly floated that the remaining real assets of the Nigerian State should be auctioned off for peanuts to supposedly ‘reinvigorate the economy’. Really? Nigeria’s prime national asset, the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) operations is now being particularly targeted by these hawks. Also in their sights are the Refineries, and other critical national infrastructure such as Water projects and Roads.

If these vultures are so smart and so rich, why don’t they build their LNG and Refinery Plants and other critical infrastructure and compete with those built  with public funds?

Knowing how the fraudulent system works in Nigeria, an avalanche of ten-a-dime ‘experts’ (local and foreign) will be assembled to support the floated idea, more punitive fiscal and socio-economic policies will be rolled out to squeeze the populace into believing that anything that brings in whatever amount of foreign currency into the system is good, and pronto, the LNG Plants and Refineries, and other major critical infrastructure would be auctioned for peanuts to spurious portfolio-companies registered in some offshore tax havens by unscrupulous who will suddenly turn up in ‘Forbes list of the richest’, whilst the poverty caused locally will unleash more domestic unrest and conflict.

As these vultures gather, is there anything a Government populated by vultures and or their stooges can do to forestall an impending disaster? Nothing! The people have to decide what they want of themselves by themselves. The people where these assets are located have every right to resist brigandage in the name of governance or government policies.

Restructuring and renegotiation of the Nigerian contraption will minimize these vile practices.

Picture: Nigeria’s Liquefied Natural Gas plant, Bonny, one of the assets now in the sights of the vultures.

Crimes Against Culture as a War Crime

by Eze Eluchie,

The recent arraignment, admission of guilt and conviction of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a member of the Taureg extremist Islamist militia, Ansar Dine, before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing ‘crimes against culture’ via the destruction of ancient religious artifacts, structures and literature and ‘historical monuments or buildings dedicated to religion’, as a war crime in contravention of Article 8(b)ix of the Rome Statute, is a monumental and welcome development in international criminal law.

The recognition that when a peoples culture is destroyed, their very being, existence and life is depreciated, irreversibly diminished, thrown into turmoil and their ability to make meaningful progress adversely impacted, ranking pari passu with such other vile acts as genocides, mass rapes and systematic torture amongst several other war crimes, will serve to put into proper context similar crimes against culture committed elsewhere which have seemingly been overlooked by civilizations and mankind.

The recent prosecution for ‘crime against culture’ and the rationale given as reason for the landmark prosecution of the Malian terrorist in question by the ICC, should serve as a prism through which the world may yet begin to understand the extent of harm inflicted upon and suffered by the so-called emerging economies and countries and brings to mind the wrongs done to the various peoples of the African continent by foreign missionary and colonialists who traversed the continent.

   

For centuries, crimes against culture were perpetuated against several indigenous peoples, particularly across Sub-Sahara Africa, with such high level of impunity and brazenness that the heinous crimes gained currency as norms. One prime activity Islamic and Christian missionaries who first set foot on Sub-Sahara African soil engaged in was the systematic desecration and ultimately destruction of traditional symbols of religious and temporal authority, artifacts and whatsoever items that served for purposes of communal identification, unity and cohesion of the various peoples and communities they sought to conquer, convert, rule and or colonize.

An integral part of the political conquest (under the guise of colonization) of the indigenous people who own the various territories the colonialists seized was the total annihilation of whatsoever traditional instruments of authority and or religion/worship of ‘colonized peoples’ – in other words, colonization in a nutshell, was a prolonged Crime Against Culture, a prolonged War Crime.

This practice of destruction of people’s cultural heritage and identity has rather than abate, continued till date with greater frenzy and violence – at times supported by instrument of State authority. Till date Islamic and Christian groups, acting independently of one another but unified by their hatred of traditional culture and religions, take pride in public destruction of Traditional Masquerades, Religious Charms and Amulets, and Shrines dedicated to various Gods in traditional communities. Ironically, some States in Sub-Sahara Africa acting under the influence of the two religious bodies which institutionalized crime against culture in the continent, now serve as instruments to deepen crimes against culture against their own peoples, passing legislation's which seek to ‘criminalize’ traditional heritage, indigenous cultural practices and religions.

Considering that the devastation and harm caused by crimes against culture is a continuum, and that the crimes were so endemic and coordinated as to be deemed to be perpetuated in perpetuity, it would be interesting to know what the opinion of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the ICC itself would be towards investigating and ultimately prosecuting the principal custodians of the Islamic and Christian faiths and the present beneficiaries of years of commission of crimes against culture against peoples of Sub-Sahara Africa (to wit: the King of Saudi Arabia/Custodian of the Two Holy Temples {Islam}, the Pope of the Catholic Church and the Head of the Church of England/Anglican Communion {Christians}, and the complicit governments.

If the destruction of one mosque in Timbuktu will result into a conviction for Crime Against Culture, how would the ICC treat the obliteration of a peoples religion, culture and way of life?

Picture: A traditional masquerade (representative of the Gods) amongst the Igbo ethnic nationality in Nigeria.

Tacit US Acquiescence To Impending Acts of Mass Atrocities In Niger Delta Region?

by Eze Eluchie,

Is the present belligerent posture of the Nigerian ruler towards the Niger Delta issue in any way traceable to the recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry?

Were there any assurances given to Nigeria’s rulers by their august visitor that when Nigeria’s military starts killing Nigerian citizens with US supplied weapons that the US will simply look the other side?

The above twin questions becomes pertinent when one contrasts the dispositions and mannerisms of the ruling junta in Nigeria to activists in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta region prior to and subsequent to Mr. John Kerry’s visit.

Prior to the visit, the Nigerian government had been appealing to all quarters for dialogue, sending all manners of emissaries to try and reach out to the various leadership of myriad activist elements and organizations in the Niger Delta region. As the date of the visit approached and thereafter, all such efforts at dialogue evaporated and was replaced with expedited and ferocious military build-up, militarization of the Delta region and a sudden fatalistic and threatening disposition and a military operation code-named ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ – a crocodile, supposedly, only smiles when it has made a kill.

The Nigerian military has laid siege on the Niger Delta region. There is apprehension that buoyed by the visit of the US Secretary of State, a repeat of previous acts of mass atrocities carried out by the Nigerian State against its citizens in the Niger delta region (particularly the genocidal attacks on Odi, Bayelsa State in 1999 and Gbaramatu in Delta State in 2009),  might, once again, be in the offing.

An inkling as to how much tension the visit of Mr. Kerry has generated amongst divergent interest groups in Nigeria can be gleaned at from the fact that, in a most unusual development, the umbrella organization of Christians in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), issued a stringent Press Release expressing dismay at the skewed ethno-religious slant of the US Secretary of State’s itinerary and dispositions during his recent visit. Some Nigerians who feel threatened with the probably outcome of the Kerry visit have taken the added option of petitioning authorities in the US who they feel will have powers to prevent or forestall what appears to be a pending doom resulting from interferences from Mr. Kerry.

In the 15 months it has thus far been in power, the Nigerian government led by Muhammadu Buhari has shown an appetite to use excessive military force against its own citizens for merely expressing constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and express contrary opinion such as with the massacre of members of the Independent Peoples of the Sovereign State of Biafra (IPOB) in Aba (Abia State, South-east Nigeria),  and the mass killings of Shi’a adherents in Zaria (Kaduna State, North-central Nigeria) both in December 2015.

It is thus with a view to avoiding an imminent mass wastage of lifes to suppress agitators for equity, regionalism and restructuring of Nigeria, following the amassing of military personnel and firepower in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region by the Nigerian Government, that FREEMIND joins other people and organizations of goodwill, including the Chairman of the United States House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Judiciary, Congressman Tom Marino, to urge the Government of the United States, considering its obvious influence over the Buhari regime, to use its immense reach to ensure that the recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, does not get turned into a vague acquiescence for plans to commit mass atrocities against Nigerian citizens.

Picture: US Secretary of State and Nigeria’s ruler, Muhammadu Buhari during tgeh formers visit to Abuja September 2016.