Once again, a manipulated truth for lucrative gains

Omar Al-Ramlawi | Sep 21

darfurDarfur is a region of Eastern Sudan, an African country that has been plagued by wars and civil unrest since its independence from the United Kingdom in 1956. Sudan is a country with a diverse ethnic and religious population. In the north the majority of the population is Muslim, while the majority of Christians and other native religions occupy the south. Southern Sudan has its own share of sorrows and now maintains an autonomous region with a self-ruling government awaiting a referendum to gain independence from Sudan in 2011. It is safe to say that Sudan is a country, which, if taken a closer look at, reveals a more complicated situation where greed and foreign interests overlap, where the friends of yesterday become the enemies of today. The current unrest in Darfur started in 2003. The origins of the conflict trace to constant environmental

In a Capitol Hill meeting between Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee and Sayed El-Khatib Director of Center of Strategic Studies in Khartoum, Sudan, the stage was set for continuing discussions on normalizing relations between the U.S. and Sudan.

Representative Jackson-Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) gave El-Khatib indications of her intentions of visiting in Darfur and Sudan prior to the CBC Legislative Week End, occurring September 23rd-26th, 2009 in D.C. El-Khatib and Hodari Abdul-Ali of the Give Peace a Chance Coalition urged the Congresswoman to witness firsthand the improvement of the general situation in Darfur. It was agreed upon between the meeting’s participants that the term ‘genocide’ was far from accurate in describing Darfur’s situation during recent years.

Keith EllisonAugust 4, 2009…US Congressman Keith Ellison is visited in Sudan. He was expected in the Sudanese capital for talks with the Sudanese government officials on humanitarian situation in Darfur. Ellison who is a member of the US House Committee of Foreign Affairs, had been arrested last April in a protest in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington against the expulsion of 13 aid groups from Sudan following the ICC arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omer Al-Bashir. The Minnesota Congressman is African American and a first Muslim member of the US House. Ambassador Nasr Eddin Wali, the head of American Department at the foreign affairs ministry, said the visit aims to assess the situation in Darfur on the ground and discuss ways of boosting cooperation between the Sudan and the United States. The Congressman who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus will meet Presidential adviser Gazi Salah Eddin who is in charge of US relations and Darfur files. Congressman Ellison will pay a visit to North Darfur state where he will meet the governor in El-Fasher and UNAMID officials as well as internally displaced persons. Ellison will also visit Juba for talks with southern Sudanese officials on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The visit comes amid high expectations in Khartoum regarding the lifting of economic sanctions and Sudan’s removal from terrorism list. Give Peace A Chance Coalition (GPACC) Executive Director Hodari Abdul-Ali said, “We support the visit and hope that it sets a pace that will cause more members of the Congressional Black Caucus to access the situation there for themselves. U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan General Scott Gration has altered the debate on Sudan toward lifting of economic sanctions and normoralization of relations. We enthusicially endorse that such actions are taken by the administration and Congress”.

A recent Black Caucus delegation visitation to Cuba has riled up America’s anti-Fidel Castro forces. They are against lifting the 47-year-old trade and travel embargoes of that island nation. President Barack Obama proposes lifting travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans, but Black Caucus delegation members say the larger economic blockade of Cuba should also be brought to an end.

In East Africa hijacking has developed into a highly structured social and business model. Modern-day piracy is Somalia’s most lucrative business. In the booming pirate port of Ely, Somalia big villas and hotels are sprouting and former subsistence fishermen are driving Mercedes-Benzes.

Hodari Abdul-Ali, Muslim Alliance of North America, spoke at the ANSWER Coalition rally March 21, 2009 in Washington, D.C. prior to the March on the Pentagon and corporate military establishment in Crystal City, VA

March 29, 2009

The reality is America’s first black president governs in the same ways as the white ones. Since January 20, the Obama administration has continued the worst of his predecessor’s policies. Barack Obama is following President Bush’s dour treatment of Haitians.