Folks, Things are going helter skelter......but, Do I Say.......!!!....... Judy Miriga Diaspora Spokesperson Executive Director Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com --- On Tue, 8/14/12, Jagem K'Onyiego <jairuschurch@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Jagem K'Onyiego <jairuschurch@yahoo.com> Subject: [PK] Kony and the Choppers To: "Progressive- Kenyans" <progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com>, "uchunguzi online" <uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com> Cc: "Wakenya Google group" <wanakenya@googlegroups.com> Date: Tuesday, August 14, 2012, 11:54 PM Sometimes back, an American came to Uganda and did some work which he believed would highlight what happens to children in the war torn Ugandan Northern region. He alleged that Kony had been using child soldiers to wage war against the Government. He highlighted this in a short documentary and posted the documentary he made on U-tube. Soon after, the man left Uganda and went back to the USA. As soon as he arrived there, some organization was to reward this man with $ 1 million. He went on a celebration Frenzy. Well, no sooner had he started celebrating, than he went bonkers. The man literally ran mad. He was to have the police chasing him on the streets to apprehend him when he was stark naked the way he was born. Since then the man has been in a Mad hospital getting treatment. This brings me to another mysterious happening that is related to this Kony person. Two days ago the Uganda military lost Choppers in Mt Kenya Forest under circumstances that are not easy to explain. Coincidentally these three Choppers were purchased by Uganda Military to help fight Kony deep in the jungle, in its Nothern boarder. Well, I do not qualify as a very superstitious person. Those kind of people are the religious type who can believe that a man who is long dead can bring them untold blessings. However, when I look deeply into This Kony's mystery, I see too many coincidences, which leaves me wondering if Kony uses a little Kamutii to cast a spell on his enemies? Those Military Choppers, were only recently fighting Kony before the Ugandan Military re-assigned them to beef up the East Africa Force in Somali. I ask this to the religious and the superstitious, "Does the power of African Magic work"? Jagem Kibaki mourns Uganda helicopter accidents victims The wreckage of one of the Ugandan helicopters that crashed in Mount Kenya August 14, 2012. President Kibaki has mourned those who lost their lives in the accidents. KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE By NATION Reporter Posted Tuesday, August 14 2012 at 16:31 In Summary
President Kibaki has mourned the victims of the Uganda helicopter accidents and wished the injured quick recovery. In a condolence message, the President said efforts to rescue the missing members of the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) would continue. President Kibaki assured Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni that Kenya will work closely with the UPDF to launch thorough investigations to establish the cause of the accidents. On Tuesday, the wreckage of two helicopters were found in Mount Kenya forest. The Russian-made attack helicopters were sighted by Kenya Wildlife Service(KWS) officers. The helicopters crashed in the dense Mount Kenya while flying to war-torn Somalia two days ago. The three Russian-made Mi-24 combat helicopters were flying to Somalia to support African Union troops battling Al-Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab insurgents, who have vowed to topple the country's Western-backed government. The aircraft came down in thickly forested mountainous terrain dominated by snow-capped Mount Kenya, Africa's second-highest peak at 5,199 metres (17,057 feet). A Mi-17 transport helicopter, which had taken off from Uganda on Sunday as part of the same mission landed without problems in the eastern Kenyan town of Garissa near the Somali border for a scheduled refuelling stop. Uganda provides around a third of the nearly 17,000-strong AU force in Somalia, and Kampala had said last week it would send its first combat and transport helicopters to the Horn of Africa nation. The aircraft are seen as key to extending gains made against the hardline Al Shabaab, who have fled a string of stronghold towns in recent months, stretching AU military resources over a far wider Museveni, Central Bank boss clashed over Sh63bn choppersBy NATION REPORTER Posted Monday, August 13 2012 at 21:21 In June 2011, Mr Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, the governor of the Central of Bank of Uganda, told the Financial Times he had disagreed with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni over a decision to spend $740 million (Sh63 billion) on helicopters. The decision had pushed the country's reserves down from six to four months of import cover. The Ministry of Defence, under President Museveni's directive in early 2011, withdrew a reported $400 million from the Central Bank to pay for helicopters without parliamentary approval. On March 24, 2001 President Museveni met MPs from his ruling NRM party and asked them to rubber-stamp the purchase under a classified vote. The President told the MPs that the planes were necessary for Uganda's defence now that it had confirmed oil reserves. The first two aircraft were delivered in July 2011, followed by another two in October the same year. The last two were delivered on May 30, 2012. It is understood three of these six aircraft were involved in Sunday's mishap. The hard questions on Uganda crashesUpdated 6 hrs 37 mins ago By FRANCIS NGIGE President Kibaki condoled with Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and assured him Kenya would get to the bottom of his military choppers' crashes on Mount Kenya as eight more soldiers were rescued. The message went out as intriguing questions arose about the near-simultaneous helicopter crashes, two of which burnt out on the ground, even as two soldiers were confirmed dead and four missing. On Tuesday evening the bodies were moved to Nairobi, along with the eight soldiers rescued Tuesday and seven on Monday. Top on the list of questions is whether it is true the four Ugandan pilots landed their helicopters in an isolated private farm in Kapchai village in Sirisia, while in the full knowledge they were ferrying heavy military weapons to Somalia in anticipation of African Union's strike at the heart of Al-Shabaab. Even more poignant is the interest Kenya Government took on this claim to the extent that Tuesday its regional administrator was at the farm linking the farmer with Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua for a phone conversation. At the end of which the old man said the helicopters merely flew low above his land, and he could see the occupants. Strange coincidence Secondly, is why the lead pilot in the formation sauntered through the bad weather over Mt Kenya, while the other three came down within a 500m radius of each other. Investigators would also be asking about the technical capabilities of the military helicopters, which ideally should move at night and even pick out targets, but which in this case seemingly could not survive foggy and turbulent winds. They will also be interested to know about the pilots' level of training and experience, and whatever technical support they got from the Kenya Defence Forces, which gave them a safe passage Although bad weather has largely been blamed for the accident, the cause of the multiple crashes is not conclusive given the lingering questions. The crash, perhaps the first on Kenya airspace involving multiple aircraft from a foreign army, has raised other burning questions, including the strange coincidence that three came down, but the one leading the formation made it to Mogadishu. Kenyan and Ugandan investigators would be interested to know if the pilots' unfamiliarity with the route, despite their training and guidance from the helicopters' own gadgets, could have contributed to the disaster. Officials explained the pilots were new to the terrain and might have followed a wrong route, which on aviation is marked a No-Fly Zone, and ran into turbulent weather. But could the lead helicopter have changed course and the others did not quickly pick out the deviation because they were flying with their radios strategically on silent mode, and visibility turned poor? They will also be asking, like many Kenyans, if KDF guided their colleagues around the safest route and if loss of communication was to blame. Chief of General Staff General Julius Karangi Tuesday said his team was in touch with the four helicopters until after refueling in Nanyuki, adding his Force had made all necessary arrangements for their safe flight. He said KDF learnt of the missing choppers at 5pm when one of the soldiers in the ill-fated helicopters made a distress call using his mobile. Gen Karangi told Parliament's Defence and Foreign Relations Committee the last reported stopover for fuelling was Nanyuki, where a Kenyan soldier was present. But from Nanyuki, Gen Karangi added, only one helicopter made it to Garissa on Sunday. The other three reportedly crashed 30 minutes into their flight to Garissa. One of the seven soldiers rescued on Monday in the first helicopter recovered, recounted how their pilot scrambled to turn his flight back in the final moments. UGANDA SOLDIERS SILENT Brigadier Francis Ogolla of KDF explained that after the four helicopters had left Nanyuki Airstrip, one of them reported it had crash-landed inside the forest. "The other one, which was leading the formation, landed safely in Garissa, but also reported that it had lost communication with the rest," he said at a media briefing in Nanyuki. The Kenya Wildlife Service Senior Warden in charge of Mount Kenya, Simon Gitau, said a search and rescue team found the two wreckages barely a kilometre from the one found on Monday. "We found two bodies, one of the pilot strapped to his seat, and another a few metres away." He added: "The helicopter was burnt to ashes in the middle part." The eight survivors were rescued from the wreckage 36 hours after the crash. They were all from the third chopper, which was found overturned at the base of a nearby valley. They were spotted away from the crash scene at 7am. "From the scene it appears that the soldiers were safe and were possibly walking to safety," said Ogolla. But the Kenyan Military and their Ugandan counterparts remained tight-lipped on whether heavy artillery was lost in the crash. An official involved in the operation said the rescuers did not go near the burnt helicopters for fear the ammunition could explode. "We saw large containers that appeared to have ammunition and other military paraphernalia, which we thought was dangerous," said the official, who did not want to be named. The missing choppers were located about 1,200 feet up the mountain. According to one of the officers involved in the rescue operation, one of the choppers was a burnt out shell. It appeared it burst into flames before it crashed, as its destroyed parts were scattered at the scene. The helicopter number AF 808 bearing Ugandan colours was still smouldering when the rescuers arrived at the scene at 7.30pm. The intensity of the fire at the crash scene was evident. There were twisted metals strewn around the site with vegetation seared by fire. The other was found hanging on a cliff. Unlike the previous day when those rescued were flown to a Nanyuki private airstrip, Tuesday the survivors were taken to the Laikipia KDF Air Base. The Kenyan military, responding to concerns raised about the level of their involvement in rescue mission, said it was in charge of the evacuation. Kenya Air Force called a rare press conference at the Laikipia Air Base where it gave a chronology of events leading to the crash. "We have been co-ordinating the rescue efforts together with Kenya Wildlife Service and Tropic Air," Brigadier Ogolla told the media, in reference to the heroic forays a private citizen, Captain Ben Simpson, had made to the first crash site and saved first batch of Ugandan soldiers on Monday. Brigadier Moses Rwakitarate of the Ugandan People's Defence Air Force was present at the briefing. Ogolla explained a combined team of Kenya Army, Kenya Air Force, KWS, and Tropic Air Aviation Services were involved in the rescue since Monday. Brigadier Ogolla said six helicopters were being used in the rescue. "We used Tropic Air because it has a fleet of small helicopters that are capable of landing in a small place. Some of our military helicopters that headed for the scene were not able to land there," he said. — Additional reporting by Cyrus Ombati and Steve Mkawale. Mystery of missing Ugandan helicoptersBy ALEX B. ATUHAIRE & RISDEL KASASIRA (newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com) Posted Monday, August 13 2012 at 23:30 Two Ugandan Russian-made attack helicopters are still missing in Kenya while the crew of another was airlifted to safety from Mt Kenya, according to Kenyan and Ugandan military authorities. A transport helicopter, which was part of the group flying to Somalia in readiness for the attack on Kismayu, arrived safely in Mogadishu. Ugandan military spokesmen dismissed speculation about foul play and blamed the string of bizarre accidents on bad weather. (READ: Poor weather hinders search for Uganda's missing helicopters) However, the loss of three relatively modern aircraft — the helicopters were bought last year — flown by pilots who were reported to be experienced will be one of the more notably puzzling incidents in aviation history. According to Ugandan authorities, four helicopters, all Russian-type Hind aircraft, left Soroti Flying School in Eastern Uganda on Sunday. The choppers landed in Eldoret at 11am and took off again for Nanyuki air base. They are said to have left Laikipia at 4pm, enroute to Wajir, a key staging point for the war in Somalia. Yet to be found Three of the helicopters never made it. Ugandan military spokesperson, Col Felix Kulayigye, told reporters in Kampala that one — Mi-17 transport chopper, with its 13-member crew on board — made it to Mogadishu, while two of the three Mi-24 attack helicopters are yet to be found. One Mi-24 was flown by Lt Col Chris Kasaija crash-landed in Castle Forest, about 14 kilometres from Kimunye Forest Service station on Mt Kenya and all its 7-man crew was rescued on Monday afternoon and safely evacuated by the Kenyan military to Nanyuki base. Col Kulayigye had earlier told journalists that all four helicopters had been found but after a meeting with Defence minister, Dr Crispus Kiyonga, he clarified that two were still missing. "We want to thank our Kenyan counterparts for the rescue operations. I can confirm that five people have been rescued. Ten are unaccounted for. But unconfirmed reports is good news that there are no fatalities," he said. The two missing helicopters, Col Kulayigye said, could have made "a hard landing" anywhere between Nanyuki and Garrissa in North Eastern Kenya. "They landed on un-gazetted surface," he said. This was the second batch of the helicopters to be dispatched to Mogadishu in one week. Col Kulayigye denied reports that there was foul play or the incident could have been the result of poor training of the crew. "The Kenyan air space is safe," he said. The Kenyan Department of Defence, Director of Communications, Mr Bogita Ongeri said on Monday: "Two of the helicopters have been accounted for. The one which landed at Garissa in north eastern Kenya and the one which crash landed on Mt Kenya". Mr Ongeri said that seven crew members had been rescued and efforts to rescue all the others were on going but being hampered by the weather. Mystery of missing Ugandan helicoptersBy ALEX B. ATUHAIRE & RISDEL KASASIRA (newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com) Posted Monday, August 13 2012 at 23:30 The multiple accidents and the length of time it has taken to find the plane, if at all they crashed or crash-landed, remains strange. Modern attack helicopters have sophisticated navigation equipment, which allows them to fly and find targets even in the dark, and tell the pilot where he is at all times. Equally, aircraft of that nature, even from a close ally, are likely to have been monitored by Kenyan air traffic control authorities, particularly at the Laikipia air force base. A Kenyan Office of the President official, who is briefed on security matters but is not authorised to comment on defence affairs, said the helicopters, in formation, flew out of Nanyuki air base south west of Garrissa and may have encountered bad weather, which is common in the mountain region. The official claimed that the choppers were maintaining radio silence while in flight and that, information flying the pilots at the back followed the leader. The crashed plane was found high in the mountain, 11,000ft where rescue operations are quite difficult, the official said. In the past it has taken days to locate aircraft and survivors on the mountain. Officials discovered all was not well when the pilot of the cargo chopper landed after 5.30pm and discovered that he was all alone. All the helicopters had a seven-man crew when they were flagged off by the Chief of Ugandan Defence Forces Gen Aronda Nyakairima on August 6. According to a route chart, the helicopters were expected to fly to Mogadishu through Soroti flying school in eastern Uganda, Eldoret airport, Laikipia, and Wajir all in Kenya before refuelling and flying to Baidoa base in Somalia where they were to be armed before proceeding to Mogadishu. The Ugandan Air force Commander, Lt Gen Jim Owoyesigire, during the flagging off said the choppers were supported to provide air power for the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) as the allied Ugandan, Kenyan and Burundi forces, fighting alongside the Somali army to remove Al-Shabaab from Kismayu. Lt Gen Owoyesigire said the Ugandan airforce wing would provide air support to both Uganda and Burundi convoys and operations outside Mogadishu, conduct reconnaissance of Amisom's main supply routes, provide combat medical evacuation, perform air search and rescue plus engaging the Al-Shabaab in combat operations. Uganda military sources told the Nation on Monday that the helicopter crashes will significantly affect the plan to attack Kismayu as the Ugandan air wing was earmarked to lead the air strikes, with the Kenyan contingent facilitating the naval assault — as both contingents move ground troops to squeeze the Al Shabaab. Military sources said the assault on Kismayu may be postponed. The commanders were yesterday called back to Nairobi for a meeting expected to start at the weekend. Amisom spokesperson Mr Eloi Yao on Monday said he was not in position to comment about the mishap and the plans for Kismayu. The choppers are part of the six aircraft the Ugandan Ministry of Defence, under President Museveni's directive in early 2011, bought for a reported $400 million without parliamentary approval. The whole transaction cost a total of $74m. Uganda military now says 2 choppers still missing A fleet of the Ugandan attack helicopters which were flagged off at Entebbe Military Airbase last week. PHOTO / MARTIN SSEBUYIRA By ALEX B. ATUHAIRE & RISDEL KASASIRA Posted Monday, August 13 2012 at 16:51 A cloud of confusion and obfuscation descended on the missing Ugandan attack helicopters, after Kampala recanted its initial account and said it still could not account for two helicopters. And as Kampala struggled explaining the numbers, the Kenyan government kept mum on the whereabouts of her neighbour's military helicopters within her airspace.
The Ugandan military had on Monday morning said it could account for all of its four attack helicopters that went missing on Sunday while flying on Kenyan airspace on their way to Somalia. It also stated that all its 28-crew members in the four helicopters were safe. It said one helicopter had landed safely at the Kenyan base in Wajir, another crash-landed on Mt. Kenya, while two crash-landed in Garissa. (READ: Ugandan Choppers: All four now found) However at an afternoon press conference in Kampala, Ugandan military spokesperson Col. Felix Kulayigye that one helicopter – MI-23 transport chopper - made it to Mogadishu, while two of the three MI-24 attack helicopters were yet to be found. He added that one MI-24 attack helicopter operated by Lt. Col. Chris Kasaija crash landed in Mt. Kenya and all its 7-man crew were rescued and evacuated by the Kenyan military to Nanyuki. Col Kulayigye conceded they could not account for two of the attack helicopters. The press conference that was initially to be addressed by Defence Minister Dr. Crispus Kiyonga. The four helicopters were headed to Somalia to shore up the final attack on the port city of Kismayu.
The Kenyan and Ugandan military had launched a joint rescue operation on Monday morning for the helicopter that had crash-landed on Mt Kenya. (READ: Poor weather hinders search for Uganda's missing helicopters) The search yielded with the rescue of all seven crew members on board.
Venezuela embassy linked to drugs
A news photographer walks on July 27, 2012 near the main entrance the Venezuelan embassy residence in a Nairobi suburb. Venezuela's acting ambassador, Olga Fonseca, was found strangled at her Nairobi home, Kenyan police said. Photo/AFP By ANGIRA ZADOCK zangira@ke.nationmedia.com Posted Sunday, August 12 2012 at 23:30 In Summary
Venezuelan ambassador to Kenya was strangled after she stumbled upon a cocaine smuggling ring, newspapers and bloggers claim. Ambassador Olga Fonseca, who was murdered only a few days after taking office, is alleged to have discovered that officials were smuggling drugs in diplomatic pouches from Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. Local dailies in Venezuela reported last week that the ministry was likely to be a hub for trafficking narcotics internationally in the pouches that are immune to inspection, search and seizure under the laws of international diplomacy. The papers also speculated that Ms Fonseca's could have been killed because of orders she issued immediately upon assuming her new post that all diplomatic pouches from Caracas be delivered to her unopened and with the official diplomatic seals intact. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (April 2011), Venezuela is the most prominent country of origin for direct cocaine shipments to Europe, with the drug coming mainly from Colombia. It is estimated that over 200 tonnes of the drug are smuggled through Venezuela per year. However, Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Tareck Zaidam El Aissami Maddah last week dismissed the allegations and maintained that Ms Fonseca's murder had nothing to do with drug trafficking. He also dismissed reports that his government had reached out to the Kenyan government quietly, seeking ways of settling the matter. The diplomatic pouches are also suspected to be used in laundering hard currency out of Venezuela.
President Hugo Chavez's regime has been accused of funding political groups in countries that do not share his radical Marxist revolutionary ideas. President Chavez has not commented on the diplomatic scandal in Nairobi. Ms Fonseca, who was murdered only 12 days after assuming her new post in Nairobi, had replaced former Ambassador Gerardo Silva, who fled Kenya last March after he was accused of sexually harassing three male Kenyan employees. Meanwhile, the Kenya Police, who have sought the assistance of the Interpol, have intensified the search for the another suspect in the murder, Dr Muhammed Hassan. All embassy workers who had been arrested in connection with the murder have been released and have resumed work. However, their phones were confiscated by detectives and they report to Gigiri Police Station every day.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran is playing a growing role supporting the Syrian regime and is helping to build and train a militia to fight opposition forces, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters that the militia, which is generally made up of Syrian Shiite forces, is being used to take the pressure off the Syrian regime forces, which have been at war for almost 18 months. "Any army would be taxed with that kind of pace," Dempsey said. "They are having re-supply problems, they are having morale problems, they are having the kind of wear-and-tear that would come of being in a fight for as long as they have." Dempsey also said that it appears Syrian rebels were able to shoot down a Syrian warplane, but said he has seen no indication that they are armed with heavy weapons or surface-to-air missiles, at least not yet. He says the MiG fighter could have been shot down with small arms fire. Syria has blamed the crash on a technical malfunction, but Dempsey said the cause "didn't appear to be mechanical." Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta voiced concerns about Iran's growing presence in Syria, even as President Bashar Assad's regime steps up its aerial attacks against the rebel forces. Fierce fighting and attacks from warplanes and helicopter gunships have pushed the opposition forces back in key fronts, such as Aleppo. And the fighting — including alleged massacres by the regime — have led to the deaths of more than 20,000, according to activists. Panetta said it has become obvious that Iran is doing more for the Syrian regime, including providing assistance and training. "We do not think that Iran ought to be playing that role at this moment in time," the defense secretary said. He said that "it's dangerous, that it's adding to the killing that's going on in Syria and that it tries to bolster a regime that we think ultimately is going to come down." Asked about military options for intervention in Syria, Dempsey said the U.S. has been in discussions with Jordan and Turkey about the possible need for a safe zone, because the two countries neighboring Syria are seeing an influx of refugees fleeing the fighting. "And with a safe haven would probably come some form of no-fly zone, but we're not planning anything unilaterally," Dempsey said. Panetta repeated assertions he made during an Associated Press interview Monday, saying that right now, creating a no-fly zone in the region "is not a front-burner issue" for the U.S. Instead, he said, the U.S. is focusing on providing humanitarian and non-lethal assistance and on ensuring the chemical and biological weapons in Syria are secure. A no-fly zone is a militarily enforced area in which outside nations would prohibit Syrian warplanes from flying and attacking its own people. The Obama administration has insisted repeatedly that Assad must go, and that diplomatic and economic pressures, including sanctions, must be given time to work. Defense officials, including Panetta, have warned that putting a no-fly zone in place would be difficult because of the Syrian regime's relatively modern and plentiful air defense systems. In other comments, Panetta and Dempsey said commanders in Afghanistan are taking new, additional steps to deal with the increasing number of insider attacks against U.S. and coalition forces. Panetta said more intelligence officers will be added to the larger military units to help root out possible attackers, and officials will do more in-depth forensic reviews of the incidents, in which Afghan Army or police members — or militants in disguise — attack and kill American troops and other allies. Dempsey said Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has created a new team that will review the attacks to determine whether the recruiting process was followed properly, including the required vetting of the Afghan security force members, and whether there were indicators of possible problems that were missed. Earlier this year, Allen increased security measures to protect U.S. forces from such attacks, including a program that assigned "guardian angels" — troops that watch over their comrades — when they are sleeping, working out or doing other tasks. Panetta said Allen plans to meet with Afghan security leaders to talk about any other steps that can be taken, and also is gathering all the senior U.S. and coalition officers for a conference to talk about any other steps commanders can take to safeguard the troops. According to the Pentagon, there have been 37 U.S. and coalition troops killed in 29 insider attacks this year. Of those killed, 21 have been U.S. service members.
Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.
Lolita C. Baldor can be followed on Twitter: http://twitter.com/lbaldor
As a furious volley of firepower hit the streets of Aleppo, Syria, today, the country's former prime minister spoke out for the first time since his defection. Ex-Prime Minister Riyad Hijab said that President Bashar al-Assad's control was crumbling. "The regime is spiritually, financially and militarily cracked," ex-Prime Minister Riyad Hijab said. "And it only controls 30 percent of Syrian lands." Although the State Department did not confirm the 30 percent, its spokeswoman today agreed with Hijab's assessment that the regime is weakening. "As we've been saying for a number of weeks now, we do believe that the opposition is gaining control of more and more territory," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said today. "I can't speak to the precise number that the former prime minister cited." Today, Assad's forces appeared to move street to street, leaving the dead and wounded in their path - even as the cracks seemed to grow despite beneath the show of force. Hijab is among several who have defected, including generals and ambassadors. While the U.S. has been providing humanitarian aid and nonlethal help, the country is no closer to providing what the rebels desperately want - help in stopping the regime's attacks from the air. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today that the U.S. was not interested in establishing a no-fly zone over the skies of Syria as it did to effectively topple Libya's Moammar Khadafi. "With regards to the no-fly zone," he said, "that is not a front-burner item for us." It would be a dangerous mission. Syria has 20 times the number of surface-to-air missiles that Libya did - 4,707 to 216. Syria has far more combat aircraft than Libya - 555 to 394 - and its pilots are far more capable. In addition, the Syrian population is three times that of Libya's - 22.5 million to 6.5 million. "This is a country that we, as a United States is war-weary," said retired Gen. James Cartwright, an ABC News consultant. "We have fiscal challenges of our own and to get in the middle of a civil war. … I just don't see it happening."Also Read |
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