Clinton warns Africa of China's economic embrace

Andrew Quinn – Fri Jun 10, 4:15 pm ET

LUSAKA (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday warned Africa that China does not always have its interests at heart as economic ties expand, and offered the United States as an alternative.

Clinton arrived in Zambia to begin a five-day Africa trip that will also take her to Tanzania and Ethiopia to highlight the Obama administration's drive to help African countries meet challenges ranging from HIV/AIDS to food security and accelerate often impressive economic growth.

She quickly zeroed in on the fast expanding clout of China, which pumped almost $10 billion dollars in investment into Africa in 2009 and has also seen trade soar as Beijing buys oil and other raw materials to fuel its booming economy.

"The United States does not see these Chinese interests as inherently incompatible with our own," Clinton told reporters in Lusaka, adding that Washington believed everyone benefited as Beijing assumes "a greater and more responsible role" in world affairs.

"We are however concerned that China's foreign assistance and investment practices in Africa have not always been consistent with generally accepted international norms of transparency and good governance, and that it has not always utilized the talents of the African people in pursuing its business interests," she said.

Clinton's comments echo Washington's concern that China's quick economic push into Africa -- including billions of dollars in development aid unfettered by political or economic requirements -- risk scuttling efforts to help the continent develop a more mature and transparent economy.

Zambian President Rupiah Banda, whose country has attracted Chinese investment in mining and in May received a $180 million dollar loan to upgrade a major road, said Africa's ties with Beijing were healthy and long-standing.

"Our country has been in a close relationship with China since before independence (in 1964)," Banda said, adding that Beijing had helped many African countries weather the recent financial crisis.

NO INTEREST IN WORLD BANK JOB

Clinton's trip has been overshadowed by news that she has been in discussions with the White House about moving on next year to become the first female head of the World Bank.

Reuters on Thursday quoted three sources familiar with the matter as saying these discussions were under way, but the White House and State Department denied it and Clinton herself on Friday said it was incorrect.

"I have had no discussions with anyone. I have evidenced no interest to anyone. I do not have any interest, and am not pursuing that position," Clinton said.

Revelations about Clinton as a potential Bank nominee are sensitive because they come during a period of significant foreign policy challenges for the Obama administration.

In Lusaka, Clinton grooved with an ululating chorus of African businesswomen who have benefited from U.S. help at a meeting on AGOA, the U.S. program signed into law by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in 2000 to give trade preferences for some 37 eligible African countries.

"The most successful development program is one that will someday make itself unnecessary," Clinton said, describing a range of U.S. programs aimed at strengthening governance and accountability and supporting grassroots economic growth.

To get there, she said Africa's leaders still needed to deliver on promises to cut local trade barriers, streamline regulation and expand opportunities, particularly for women.

U.S. officials want Congress to extend AGOA when it expires in 2015, but say it is time to take a hard look at ways to address nagging bureaucratic and infrastructure problems, widespread corruption and often lopsided trade.

More than 10 years into AGOA, U.S. trade with sub-Saharan Africa remains small, accounting for just over 1 percent of total U.S. exports and about only 3 percent of U.S. imports.

Oil from countries such as Nigeria and Angola accounted for 91 percent of the $44 billion in U.S. imports from AGOA countries in 2010, raising questions about how U.S. trade benefits can be used to encourage more diversification.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

Bin Laden home videos expected to be released

AP – FILE - This May 3, 2011 file photo shows a view of Osama bin Laden's compo und in Abbottabad, Pakistan, …

LOLITA C. BALDOR and KIMBERLY DOZIER, Associated Press – Sat May 7

WASHINGTON – The world is expected to get its first glimpse at Osama bin Laden's daily life as the world's most wanted terrorist Saturday with the disclosure of home videos showing him strolling the grounds of the fortified compound that kept him safe for years.

The footage shot at the terror leader's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and propaganda tapes made there, are expected to be released to the news media Saturday, U.S. officials said.

They are among the wealth of information collected during the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden and four others. The information suggests bin Laden played a strong role in planning and directing attacks by al-Qaida and its affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, two senior officials said.

And it further demonstrates to the U.S. that top al-Qaida commanders and other key insurgents are scattered throughout Pakistan, not just in the rugged border areas, and are being supported and given sanctuary by Pakistanis.

Despite protests from Pakistan, defeating al-Qaida and taking out its senior leaders in Pakistan remains a top U.S. priority. That campaign will not be swayed by Islamabad's complaints that the raid violated the country's sovereignty, a senior defense official said Friday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material.

Their comments underscore U.S. resolve to pursue terror leaders in Pakistan, particularly during this critical period in the Afghanistan war, as President Barack Obama moves to fulfill his promise to begin withdrawing troops this July.

Already the Afghan Taliban has warned that bin Laden's death will only boost morale of insurgents battling the U.S. and its NATO allies. Al-Qaida itself vowed revenge, confirming bin Laden's death for the first time but saying that Americans' "happiness will turn to sadness."

For its part, the U.S. has already launched at least one drone strike into Pakistan in the days since bin Laden was killed, and there is no suggestion those will be curtailed at all.

The strikes are largely carried out by pilotless CIA drones, and the expectation is that they will continue in the coming days as U.S. military and intelligence officials try to take quick advantage of the data they swept up in the raid before insurgents have a chance to change plans or locations.

The raid on bin Laden's compound deep inside the Pakistan border has further eroded already strained relations between Washington and Islamabad, and angry Pakistani officials have said they want the U.S. to reduce its military presence in their country. The Pakistani army, while acknowledging it failed to find bin Laden, said it would review cooperation with the U.S. if there is another similar attack.

Pakistani officials have denied sheltering bin Laden, and they have criticized the U.S. operation as a violation of their country's sovereignty.

But a senior defense official said recent protests by Islamabad about the raid will not stop the U.S. from moving against terror leaders that threaten American security.

Obama has made it clear that the U.S. will take action wherever necessary to root out al-Qaida, which has declared war on the United States and has been using Pakistan as a base to plot and direct attacks from there and other insurgent locations around the world.

The official also said there are no plans to scale back U.S. training of the Pakistani frontier corps and army. But the decision is up to Pakistan.

U.S. administration leaders have been careful not to directly accuse the Pakistani government of being complicit in the existence of sanctuaries that have cloaked bin Laden and his lieutenants. But U.S. lawmakers say it strains credibility that the most wanted man in the world could have been in living in a major suburb, one that's home to Pakistan's military academy, without someone knowing it.

CIA director Leon Panetta told lawmakers that "Pakistan was involved or incompetent," according to a U.S. official, who recounted to conversation on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door briefing.

Counterterrorism officials have debated how big a role bin Laden and core al-Qaida leaders were playing in the attacks launched by affiliated terror groups, particularly al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen, and al-Shabab in Somalia.

Information gathered in the compound, officials said, suggests that bin Laden was much more involved in directing al-Qaida personnel and operations than some analysts thought over the last decade. And it suggests bin Laden was "giving strategic direction" to al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, the defense official said.

Officials say they have already learned a great deal from bin Laden's cache of computers and data, but they would not confirm reports that it yielded clues to the whereabouts of al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.

Al-Zawahri is a leading candidate to take bin Laden's place as the leader of the terror group.

Obama met on Friday with the U.S. commandos who killed bin Laden after a decade-long search.

"Job well done," the president declared, addressing roughly 2,000 troops after meeting privately with the full assault team — Army helicopter pilots and Navy SEAL commandos — who executed the dangerous raid. Their identities are kept secret.

Gadhafi vows 'long war' as strikes hit his forces

AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

A Libyan man gestures next to a bus burning on a road leading to the outskirts of Benghazi, eastern Libya, Sunday, March 20, 2011.

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and RYAN LUCAS, Associated Press Hadeel Al-shalchi And Ryan Lucas, Associated Press – 8 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi vowed a "long war" as allied forces launched a second night of strikes on Libya on Sunday, and jubilant rebels who only a day before were in danger of being crushed by his forces now boasted they would bring him down. The U.S. military said the international assault would hit any Gadhafi forces on the ground that are attacking the opposition.

The U.S. military said the bombardment so far — a rain of Tomahawk cruise missiles and precision bombs from American and European aircraft, including long-range stealth B-2 bombers — had succeeded in heavily degrading Gadhafi's air defenses.

The international campaign went beyond hitting anti-aircaft sites. U.S., British and French planes blasted a line of tanks that had been moving on the rebel capital Benghazi, in the opposition-held eastern half of the country. On Sunday, at least seven demolished tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Benghazi, many of them with their turrets and treads blown off, alongside charred armored personnel carriers, jeeps and SUVs of the kind used by Gadhafi fighters.

"I feel like in two days max we will destroy Gadhafi," said Ezzeldin Helwani, 35, a rebel standing next to the smoldering wreckage of an armored personnel carrier, the air thick with smoke and the pungent smell of burning rubber. In a grisly sort of battle trophy, celebrating fighters hung a severed goat's head with a cigarette in its mouth from the turret of one of the gutted tanks.

The strikes that began early Sunday gave immediate, if temporary, relief to Benghazi, which the day before had been under a heavy attack that killed at least 120 people. The city's calm on Sunday highlighted the dramatic turnaround that the allied strikes bring to Libya's month-old upheaval: For the past 10 days, Gadhafi's forces had been on a triumphant offensive against the rebel-held east, driving opposition fighters back with the overwhelming firepower of tanks, artillery, warplanes and warships.

Now Gadhafi's forces are potential targets for U.S. and European strikes. The U.N. resolution authorizing international military action in Libya not only sets up a no-fly zone but allows "all necessary measures" to prevent attacks on civilians.

But the U.S. military, for the time being at the lead of the international campaign, is trying to walk a fine line over the end game of the assault. It is avoiding for now any appearance that it aims to take out Gadhafi or help the rebels oust him, instead limiting its stated goals to protecting civilians.

At the Pentagon, Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney underlined that strikes are not specifically targeting the Libyan leader or his residence in Tripoli. He said that any of Gadhafi's ground forces advancing on the rebels were open targets.

"If they are moving on opposition forces ... yes, we will take them under attack," he told reporters.

"We judge these strikes to have been very effective in significantly degrading the regime's air defense capability," Gortney said. "We believe his forces are under significant stress and suffering from both isolation and a good deal of confusion."

What happens if rebel forces eventually go on the offensive against Gadhafi's troops remains unclear. Gortney would not say whether strikes would hit Libyan troops fighting back against rebel assaults.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said late Sunday that the U.S. expects turn over control of the operation to a coalition headed by France, Britain or NATO "in a matter of days," reflecting concern that the U.S. military was stretched thin by its current missions. Turkey was blocking NATO action, which requires agreement by all 20 members of the alliance.

Danish Defense Minister Gitte Lillelund Bech confirmed to The Associated Press that four Danish F-16s took part in missions over Libya on Sunday. "We are using military means, but there are also a lot of other means we can use to make sure that Gadhafi will not be running Libya in the future," she said.

Sunday night, heavy anti-aircraft fire erupted repeatedly in the capital, Tripoli, with arcs of red tracer bullets and exploding shells in the dark sky — marking the start of a second night of international strikes. Gadhafi supporters in the streets shot automatic weapons in the air in a show of defiance. It was not immediately known what was being targeted in the new strikes.

Libyan army spokesman Col. Milad al-Fokhi said Libyan army units had been ordered to cease fire at 9 p.m. local time, but the hour passed with no letup in military activity.

Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In a phone call to Libyan state television Sunday, he said he would not let up on Benghazi and said the government had opened up weapons depots to all Libyans, who were now armed with "automatic weapons, mortars and bombs." State television said Gadhafi's supporters were converging on airports as human shields.

"We promise you a long war," he said.

He called the international assault "simply a colonial crusader aggression that may ignite another large-scale crusader war."

Throughout the day Sunday, Libyan TV showed a stream of what it said were popular demonstrations in support of Gadhafi in Tripoli and other towns and cities. It showed cars with horns blaring, women ululating, young men waving green flags and holding up pictures of the Libyan leader. Women and children chanted, "God, Moammar and Libya, that's it!"

"Our blood is green, not red," one unidentified woman told the broadcaster, referring to the signature color of Gadhafi's regime. "He is our father, we will be with him to the last drop of blood. Our blood is green with our love for him."

Among the targets hit in the first night of strikes before dawn Sunday was one of Libya's main air bases, on Tripoli's outskirts, the opposition said. Also hit, it said, was an air force complex outside Misrata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya — which has been under siege the past week by Gadhafi forces. Those forces have been bombarding the city from the complex, which houses an air base and a military academy.

Despite the strikes, the troops resumed bombarding Misrata during the day Sunday, said Switzerland-based Libyan activist Fathi al-Warfali.

"Misrata is the only city in western Libya not under Gadhafi's control; he is trying hard to change its position," said al-Warfali, who told The Associated Press he was in touch with residents in the city.

In Benghazi, the rebel capital and first city to fall to the uprising that began Feb. 15, residents were celebrating the dramatic turn of events. The day before, Gadhafi's forces pounded the city of around 700,000 with artillery and tank shells and punched through the outskirts in heavy street battles. Along the tree-lined road into Benghazi, buildings riddled with pockmarks and burnt-out cars, buses and tanks gave testimony to the ferocity of the fighting.

"Yesterday was a catastrophe," said Salwa el-Daghili, a member of the opposition national council that governs rebel-held territory. "Today, there is hope — you can see it on the streets."

Outside the city, hundreds of men roamed the wreckage of the tanks and army vehicles hit by the allied strikes. Shredded blankets, torn foam mattresses and empty cans of tomato paste littered the field.

"Thank you, France. Thank you, America," said Abdul-Gader Dejuli as he surveyed the wreckage. "Obama good, Sarkozy good."

The allied assault began in the early hours Sunday with a wave of strikes by French warplanes in the east, followed by a barrage of 112 cruise missiles fired by U.S. and British warships and submarines in the Mediterranean targeting radar systems, communications centers and surface-to-air missile sites. Bombings mainly from American aircraft — including B-2 stealth bombers and F-15 and F-16 fighter-bombers — then targeted Libyan ground forces and air defenses, the U.S. military said.

The systems targeted most closely were Libya's SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, Russian-made weaponry that could pose a threat to allied aircraft many miles off the Libyan coastline. Libya has a range of other air defense weaponry, including portable surface-to-air missiles that are more difficult to eliminate by bombing.

Libya said 48 people were killed, including many civilians. That brought criticism of the campaign from the head of the Arab League, which last week took the unprecedented step of calling for a no-fly zone. On Sunday, Arab League chief Amr Moussa criticized the allied strikes, saying they went beyond what the Arab body had supported.

"What happened differs from the no-fly zone objectives," Moussa told reporters in Cairo. "What we want is civilians' protection not shelling more civilians."

Nevertheless, France on Sunday said warplanes in the Arab Gulf nation of Qatar would participate in the campaign, a sign of continued Arab support.

The prospect of Gadhafi remaining in control of at least a portion of the country raises questions about how far the Obama administration and its European and other partners are willing to go with military force.

Obama referred to Libya but did not discuss the unfolding operation during remarks in Brazil.

"We've seen the people of Libya take a courageous stand against a regime determined to brutalize its own citizens," Obama said.

"No one can say for certain how this change will end, but I do know that change is not something that we should fear. When young people insist that the currents of history are on the move, the burdens of the past can be washed away."

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was pressed repeatedly during a round of Sunday television interviews to explain the mission's objectives. He said the main goal is to protect civilians from further violence.

"I think circumstances will drive where this goes in the future," the admiral said on ABC's "This Week." "I wouldn't speculate in terms of length at this particular point in time."

Asked whether it was possible that the military goals might be met without Gadhafi being ousted, Mullen replied, "That's certainly potentially one outcome." He described the Libyan strongman as more isolated than ever, adding that Gadhafi is "going to have to make some choices about his own future" at some point.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that although ousting Gadhafi is not an explicit goal of the campaign, his departure might be hastened as the conflict continues.

"The opposition is largely led by those who defected from the Gadhafi regime or who formerly served it, and it is certainly to be wished for that there will be even more such defections, that people will put the future of Libya and the interests of the Libyan people above their service to Col. Gadhafi," she said.

___

Lucas reported from Benghazi, Libya. Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Cairo and Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.