The Attempted Character Assassination of Laurent Gbagbo

"Time is running out. The United States is prepared to impose targeted sanctions, individually, and in concert with our partners on president Gbagbo, his immediate family, and his inner circle, should he continue to illegitimately cling to power."

PJ Crowley, U.S. State Department Spokesman

Alassane Ouattara has been recognized as the winner of last month's presidential elections. But Gbagbo won't budge. It leaves this nation of 21 million people winging between war and peace."

-- Al Jazeera correspondent

"The departure of president Gbagbo is not the order of the day. President Gbagbo was elected for five years. And our institutions have to be respected. France, the United States and the European Union are pressuring President Gbagbo. That does not bode well for the solution to the situation in our country."

-- Allain Toussaint, President Gbagbo Spokesman

"Ouattara remains holed up in a hotel in Abidjan.

The UN provides for his protection."

-- Al Jazeera correspondent

President Gbagbo has asked the UN to leave the Ivory Coast immediately. It is not unexpected that a concerted disinformation campaign has started to paint President Gbagbo as a criminal in the international media and in the mainstream U.S. media.

An article at Salon (i.e. the liberal media) takes a Washington lobbyinst for Laurent Gabgbo to task for associating with the "despot" Here is the unbiased (sic) take of Salon's Justin Elliott on the situation: "The lobbyist and the despot – Salon talks to Democratic lobbyist Lanny Davis about his controversial client, Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo."

Laurent Gbagbo wants to dislodge the entrenched interests of the international community in the form of the destabilizing influence of the UN, so he must be stopped at all costs!

Africa must not win this fight to remove the neocolonialist from their countries. If one domino piece falls over, than the rest may follow.

As Kwame Toure said (paraphrase), "we have the most corrupt leaders in the world (in Africa). We should roll them [neocolonialist collaborators] all up in a big black ball and shoot them."

President Gbagbo is showing that he is not a collaborator by carrying out the will of the people of the Ivory Coast in demanding that the UN leave immediately.

The media, which is often a tool of the U.S. government, used similar tactics to attack and demonize President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti. The campaign worked and the U.S., France and Canada was able to carry out the agenda of regime change in Haiti that they laid out at the Ottawa Iniative. The U.S. coup-knapped Aristide and took him to French neocolonial stronghold of Central African Republic, where their goons had control (see description of corrupt ball of collaborators).

The "liberal" media. In particular, The New York times took part in the demonizing of President Aristide with relish. That is; until the deed was done, than they printed a discreet mea culpa of sorts in the form of a mealy mouthed "investigation" that revealed the backroom maneuvers of Washington to bring about regime change in Haiti. The "investigation" was cleverly camouflaged under the unassuming title, "Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos."

While the UN is mulling over their chances of staying in the Ivory Coast as the leadership of the country rallies to push them out; the instigation of a "civil war" by playing the old "divide and conquer" game; they should also reconsider that their disastrous (sic) occupation of Haiti.

The Haitian people have demanded that the UN take their tanks, guns and cholera and leave immediately.

As for the Ivory Coast, they've had enough from the destabilization efforts of the "international community." Why don't international "peacekeepers" or more aptly "evildoers" leave already? Haven't Europeans killed enough Africans -- starting with the holocaust of the Middle Passage where countless millions and perhaps 100's of millions perished?

Ex-CIA operative John Stockwell in this "Like it Is" interview relates the harm he did in seeking to protect the "interests" of the U.S. government in Abidjan, Ivory Coast:

[ This video has been removed. When and if it ever becomes available, a link will be reposted. ]

More on CIA destabilization in the global south:

Secret Wars of the CIA: John Stockwell Lecture (Part 2)

It is always wise to question the reporting of the "liberal" media, particularly the New York Times.

President Gbagbo will succeed in removing the UN because he is upholding the will of the people of Africa.
___________________________
UPDATE 12.23.2010
Alassane D. Ouattara
Former Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), (July 1994-July 1999)

___________________________
UPDATE 12.24.2010

Slap in Sarko´s face: French Community in Ivory Coast says no to the recommendation of leaving the country. "Sarkozy represents the real problem and should stop interfering in IC internal affairs. The media distort the reality."

Invités à quitter le pays : Les Français de Côte d’Ivoire disent non à Sarkozy : Le Nouveau Courrier

lenouveaucourrier.ivoire-blog.com

In Le Nouveau Courrier N°161 du 23 Décembre 2010 par Emmanuel Akani Camouflet. Paris est de plus en plus en désaccord avec l’évaluation de la...

HatTip: Serge Njine

UPDATE: 12/29/2010

The Bubble Has Finally Burst in Ivory Coast Following Election Overturn

Cote D'Ivoire's constitutional court¹ has named Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president, as the winner of the country's presidential run-off vote, despite electoral official having earlier declared opposition leader Alassane Outtara as the victor.

The opposition has warned that the conflict over the results of Sunday's election threatens to push the West African nation back towards war.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reported from Abidjan that the violence has indeed materialised on the streets of the costal city late on Friday night.

"It's bad news from Abidjan tonight. Those outbreaks of violence that people had feared, particularly amongst supporters of the opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara, have started to break out across Abidjan," Ndege said.

Ivorian court reverses poll result

Last Modified: 04 Dec 2010 03:39 GMT

Violence as court overturns provisional results favouring opposition candidate and declares incumbent president winner.

US says talk of anti-Gbagbo plot 'absurd'

Dec. 29, 2010

Gbagbo's forces remain firmly in control of Abidjan, where they have been accused of killings in pro-Ouattara areas. UN rights officials say at least 173 people have died in post-election violence.

Gbagbo's interior minister had earlier accused the United States of sending in a team of "mercenaries" under the guise of investigating a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that struck the embassy on December 16.

Emilie Guirieoulou said the team had in fact landed in a stronghold of the "New Forces," northern rebel fighters loyal to Ouattara's prime minister Guillaume Soro.

The pro-Gbagbo press said the men were Germans hired by Washington to eliminate the embattled leader.

Pentagon spokesman Major Chris Perrine said an assessment team had been dispatched from Stuttgart, Germany, where the US Africa Command is based, in order to assist the ambassador should he need to evacuate the embassy.

"The team serves as a US military planning liaison element to the US embassy, should the ambassador request an evacuation of US citizens that would require US military support," he said.

Negotiations to resume next week in Ivory Coast
Dec 29, 2010

For now at least, West Africa's military option to solve the political crisis in Ivory Coast is on hold.

Neighbors put Ivory Coast military option on hold
Wed, Dec 29, 2010

West African leaders blinked in their showdown with Laurent Gbagbo on Wednesday, taking a military intervention off the table for now so that negotiations can continue with the incumbent leader who refuses to hand over power in Ivory Coast.

¹ The Ivory Coast's highest legal body.

Update 01.08.2011
2010 Elections in Cote D' Ivoire: What most media do not tell you

WHAT THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA IS REFUSING TO ALSO STRESS OR MENTION:

• The report sheet of the majority of members of the Electoral Commission in the north of the country admitted that the elections were highly flawed in that area.


• They also refused to mention that results were cancelled in virtually all of France where Gbagbo's party had a resounding majority. Yet, the president of the EC paid a blind eye on what happened in the north since he knew certain international media and countries will back his action.


• The international media is mentioning that the President of the Constitutional Council is pro Gbagbo but fails to admit that the President of the Electoral Commission as well as its Permanent Secretary and Spokesman are all pro Ouatara. What an unnecessary hype.


• The international media focuses on the tearing of results sheet by a pro'-Gbagbo member of the EC. without investigating what provoked such actions. The action of the EC member was uncivil though.


• The international media fails to emphasize that the election results had not been harmonised before the spokesman rushing to make inflammatory declarations.


• The international media fails to equally reiterate that the results were released in a hotel hide out rather than from the Electoral Commission’s office and without other members of the Electoral Commission. They also fail to mention that this hotel was candidate Alasane Ouatara's base.


• The international media fails to mention that in several areas in the North, Ouatara is said to have had more votes than all of the registered voters in the polling centres concerned. That can only happen in Cameroon under Paul Biya.


• The international media fails to mention that it is this same Alasane Ouatara who has been acused of being behind the rebellion in Cote D Ivoire that killed several people. The rebellion then divided the country into two there by creating a country (North of Ivory Coast) within a country , that is Ivory Coast itselt. Ouatara has always refused this acusation though. However this video of one of the rebel commanders who Ouatara is said to have trained and sponsored is clear testimony [link to video not provided].


• The international media has carefully avoided what other election observers like the AU and other independent monitors said about the elections. They prefer to hinge on what EU, French and UN team are claiming.


• The international media with the exception of BBC failed to relay or analyse an ultimatum given by French President and Foreign Minister to the EC of Cote Ivoire. It read “the election results MUST be published today” that was Wednesday December 01, 2010. Who are they to give ultimatums to a sovereign nation and what was the reason behind such an irritating statement?


• The international community represented by some powerful capitalists and imperialist bodies, think they can use the so called International Tribunal at The Hague to threaten nationalist African leaders. The headline of Le Nouveau Reveil of December 03, 201, a pro Ouatara newspaper even confirms this.

And finally, the whistleblower Wikileaks in one of its cables revealed that Nicholas Sarkhozy is France’s closest American ally of all past French presidents since WWII. And you may not know the reason behind this. This is simply because Sarkhozy needs the support of USA and allies in consolidating his grip on Africa and he wants to retake or re-colonised Africa and the rights Africans were beginning to take after some of us gained consciousness. It is because of such backing that his country will mete out the most inhuman treatment on Africans in France, yet no nation/ international media would bother to talk about, less of making it a hype. Where is the RUPTURE he promised?

Please do not fall prey to the media psychological warfare. I know many of you are defeated already.

Let all colonial and neo-colonial troops leave Cote D ‘Ivoire and the same apply to all of Africa. That country can solve its problem without confusion being orchestrated by international troops and bodies there. Without people coming in the name of peace mission, maintaining their interest yet eventually ending up arming militias and rebels and intoxicating villagers.

Finally, if elections were rigged in the north of Cote D’ Ivoire an area controlled by rebels and said to be loyal to Ouatara, then such elections must be cancelled. If not, Gbagbo should accept defeat, leave honourably and begin preparing for next elections.

France succeeded in Gabon with 'Omar Bongo Ondimba Ali Ben' after France-Afrique emperor Omar Bongo Ondimba I died. I pray and hope they do not succeed in Cote D' Ivoire again. Renaissance is needed. Cameroon may likely take the stage in 2011. We want to do our things in peace. Whatever will happen in Cameroon we do not need French or UN troops.

Read more at: AfricaSpeak.com

Update 01.08.2011
Afrocentricity International Calls For Cessation Of Interventionist Actions In Ivory Coast

" The situation in Ivory Coast demands our immediate attention as representatives of the African world. The time has long come for us to speak out against the machinations of the French and American governments in the affairs of the African continent. Clearly the interests of the French and the Americans are not the interests of the people of Ivory Coast and all claims of moral uprightness made by Western interests must be questioned. We realize that their interests, if history is our guide, are for material advantage, minerals, political puppets, and strategic positions for global control.

This means that there are so many Europeans and Americans vying for the right to take the spoils of this African country into their own bosom that the African people are without protection. We are their protection as they will always be our protection. Our position has always been critical location of all actions, proposals, and attitudes against the masses of African people, whether they come from the United Nations, ECOWAS, or the French government. The lessons of Haiti are quite clear and we have not yet digested the numerous ways the West subverted the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti.

Afrocentricity International calls for Africans everywhere to write letters, protest in demonstrations, seek political intervention, and appeal to the United Nations to cease and desist in supporting the undermining of the country. In addition, we believe that the governments of the United States and France should keep their hands off the Ivory Coast. The strategy of divide-and-conquer must not be allowed to succeed in this case.

The United Nations observer, on the day after the election, announced that Alassane Ouattara had won without having read the reports about violence and abuse in the northern part of the country. The Supreme Court of Ivory Coast investigated the situation and said there was fraud in the north and therefore the voting in the north was challenged. Given all the evidence of abuse and manipulation in the north, the Supreme Court of Ivory Coast made the decision that Laurent Gbagbo was the winner.

President Gbagbo has renounced violence and asked Mr. Ouattara to come to the table for dialogue about the future of the nation given the fact that whatever the facts that will be revealed each one of these leaders carried a significant part of the electorate. Afrocentricity International believes that the talk of “genocide” is premature and probably racist. No one claimed that there would be “genocide” during the American presidency crisis that brought Mr. Bush to the office during his first term. Why would any credible person raise the ethnic genocide argument so quickly if it is not to create a pretext invade Ivory Coast?

The reason that Mr. Gbagbo remains in power and should remain in power is because the Supreme Court of the land has declared that there were abuses, fraud, and intimidations in the northern part of the country. The United Nations’ observers did not take these reports into consideration before declaring a Alassane Ouattara the winner. In any nation this would be considered arrogant and manipulative. Rather than allowing the legitimate processes of justice to work out in Ivory Coast the international interventionists jumped to a conclusion that Mr. Gbagbo did not win."

Read more at: abidjantalk.com

Update 01.18.2011

Statement of the African Union Observer Mission On the Presidential Election in Cote D'Ivoire on November 28, 2010.

At the end of the mission, the African Union Observers noted the following:

The mission noted with regret, serious acts of violence, namely losses of human lives, infringement of physical integrity, intimidations, and abduction attempts and damage to the electoral material. So many facts that should be object to a careful assessment from the competent institutions, so as to determine their impact on the ballots.

In addition, the Mission denounces the late openings of some voting stations, the lack of stickers in some voting polls, the relatively charged atmosphere around some voting stations.

Read the report here.