A heartfelt thanks to the French nation, from the friendly militants of AQIM

[Update 26 April 2014] The latest.  Couldn’t find this at the Focus.de site, nor in Google news; no idea why.

La France a versé 18 millions de dollars pour la libération des quatre journalistes français enlevés en juin 2013 en Syrie et relâchés la semaine dernière, assure samedi l'hebdomadaire allemand Focus, affirmation "catégoriquement" démentie par Paris. Les fonds, convoyés vers Ankara par le ministre français de la Défense Jean-Yves Le Drian, ont été versés aux ravisseurs par l'intermédiaire des services secrets turcs, écrit Focus, citant des sources proches de l'Otan à Bruxelles.

[Update 2 November 2013]  Ha!  Quite as we predicted [in our post below] -- Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is wasting no time:

Deux journalistes français ont été enlevés aujourd'hui à Kidal au Mali. L'information a été confirmée au Figaro.
Il s'agit de deux journalistes de Radio France Internationale, Ghislaine Dupont et Claude Verlon.
Les rebelles touaregs du Mouvement national de libération de l'Azawad (MNLA) ont confirmé l'enlèvement ainsi que des sources sécuritaires maliennes.
L'information dans un premier temps a été donnée par le gouverneur de la ville. Ils ont été kidnappés "par quatre hommes à bord d'une Toyota"

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/2013/11/02/97002-20131102FILWWW00317-mali-deux-journalistes-francais-enleves.php?m_i=s7rsWdE2%2B4BcpK2CgofeCaS2p7TgzUr8exq_WpVVKvaxxvFYr#xtor=EPR-31-[mali-deux-journalistes-francais-enleves]-20131102-[titre]

Keep ‘em comin’, suckers!  Come visit beautiful and exotic Azawad!  It's lovely this time of year!  (Somewhat less so, inside the caves.)

A reader comments:

4 libérés avec 25 millions de rançon, cela fait des envieux,
et 2 jours après  rebelottes, allonger la monnaie SVP, la France retaxera encore pour pouvoir payer, on ne va jamais s'en sortir.

(Note to students of French:  That handy word rebelote means ‘Here we go again!’.  Since governments and the general public  seldom learn anything from experience, there are many occasions to use this term.)

Another observes:

Vous savez comment procèdent les Russes ....
Je ne valide pas cette méthode , mais je ne suis pas d'accord pour payer des rançons ...C'est l'effet boule de neige !
En revanche une intervention avec des forces spéciales peut être payante ( Ponant , carré d'as par exemple ...)

The reference is to this excellent adventure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carr%C3%A9_d%27As_IV_incident

Our Navy Seals did something quite similar, not long ago.

And similarly, nicely phrased with the classic tripartite structure of “An Englishman, A Russian, and an Algerian walk into a bar”:

Il est peut-etre temps de changer de communication et d'envoyer des messages forts qui nous eviterons des enlevements de ressortissants francais a tout va.

Méthode Anglaise: On ne paye pas.

Méthode Russe: On execute un membre d'AQMI

Méthode Algérienne: On donne l'assault, Dieu reconnaitra les siens.

Another cheekily posts a Modest Proposal:

Les militaires français devrait aussi se lancer dans le rapt de journalistes. Deux avantages:
1/ Ils pourrait financer leur activité
2/ La concurrence ferait baisser les prix.

[Flash update, 1800 Zulu]  Incredibly, despite this fresh delivery of marketable French meat, the hot-headed African terrorists did not have the patience to wait until France once again showed the white feather, but simply slaughtered the two hostages on the hoof.

Again, a sampling of French opinion:

voilà où nous mène le boboland !

nous n'avons plus rien à faire en Afrique et eux n'ont plus rien à faire chez nous !!!

---

Les sauvages!!!.......

Mais qu'est-ce que l'on va faire en Afrique?!!!La France-Afrique, c'est terminé depuis plus de 50 ans!!!

Que Hollande s'occupe du pays franco-français qui va très mal....à cause de son incompétence et de ses largesses inconsidérées, clientélistes!........

-

La France- Afrique ,c'est peut être terminée mais nous avons aujourd'hui l'Afrique -France.

[Update 3 November 2013]  The kidnapping/killing  was fairly predictable:  the French military forces on the ground had warned forcefully of the danger.

C'est par l'intermédiaire de la Minusma, la force de l'ONU au Mali, que Ghislaine Dupont et Claude ­Verlon ont pu arriver vendredi à Kidal. La force Serval avait refusé de les y emmener, soulignant le danger que représentait un séjour dans cette ville

http://www.lejdd.fr/International/Afrique/Ghislaine-Dupont-et-Claude-Verlon-enleves-pour-etre-assassines-636885

[Update 4 November 2013]  France’s practice of repeatedly doling out ransoms, while denying that it does so, has planted a tree with poison roots.  Here, perhaps, are some of its fruits:

Ces meurtres sont-ils liés au versement éventuel d'une rançon contre la libération des otages d'Arlit?

«Il y a une forme de prolongement entre ces deux événements qui nous oblige à nous interroger sur ce point», confesse un bon connaisseur du dossier. La remise en liberté des quatre otages se serait faite contre des contreparties dont notamment une rançon. Comme toujours dans ces cas-là, les sommes ne vont pas qu'aux seuls ravisseurs, mais elles irriguent aussi une foule d'intermédiaires, «d'aides» et de petites mains. Et elles suscitent de fortes envies et de fortes jalousies. Certains ont pu se sentir grugés de ne pas avoir touché ce qu'ils pensaient être leur dû. Ils se seraient alors vengés de la France et des bénéficiaires du pactole en tentant à leur tour d'enlever des Français ou en organisant ces assassinats. Selon un officiel malien, il n'est pas non plus à écarter que Ghislaine Dupont et Claude Verlon, journalistes aguerris et professionnels, aient au cours de leur enquête découvert des informations gênantes sur certains gagnants du marché autour des otages.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2013/11/03/01003-20131103ARTFIG00166-questions-sur-l-assassinat-cible-de-deux-journalistes-francais.php?m_i=5q65yUSqK1EISvMCY4K3wJDTepfevWOSznGKujayFU0A_P7zb

~

[Original post from a few days ago:]

[A follow-up to this:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-special-thanksgiving-in-mali.html  ]

Over the years, the mighty Gallic nation  has generously financed terrorists of every stripe.   The latest infusion of ransom cash from France -- $26 million for a mere quartet of straggly hostages -- is most welcome.   Thank you!   Or should we say -- Mille mercis !!!

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/10/30/l-etat-n-a-pas-verse-d-argent-public-pour-la-liberation-des-otages-selon-fabius_3505702_3212.html

Alors que Le Monde affirme, mercredi 30 octobre, qu'une rançon de plus de 20 millions d'euros a bien été versée, le ministre des affaires étrangères a répondu, sur le plateau de TF1, qu'aucun "argent public" n'a été engagé pour obtenir la libération

Interrogé sur France 2, le ministre de la défense, Jean-Yves Le Drian, a lui aussi esquivé les questions, se contentant de répéter la ligne officielle selon laquelle "la France ne paye pas de rançon".

Some gadflies and nay-sayers question the wisdom of doling out cash to kidnappers in such lavish amounts, saying that it puts a high price on the head of every Frenchman.   We share your concerns!  What if French tourists and do-gooders were to cease visiting places like People’s Islamic Takfiri Azawad?    That would make our Chamber of Commerce  very sad!    :-(

Accordingly, to encourage the continued flow of clueless cheese-eaters to AQIM territory, and the resulting gush of millions in cold hard cash to our coffers,  we have struck an accord with Accor, the world’s leading hotelier and caterer, to see to the comfort and gourmet feeding of our hostages in the future!   We wish you to enjoy your period of captivity, richly paid for by the French taxpayer!!  So -- Book your flight today!  We offer many picturesque orphans you can pose with  for the cameras, before being courteously escorted to our custody.

Bon voyage !!

Having a wonderful time -- Wish U were here! (instead of us)

 

Cavorting on the tarmac with the newly released hostages, and shamelessly attempting to hog the credit, as if it had been his own diplomatic savoir-faire that had rescued them, rather than cold cash under the table, François Hollande received a rebuff from the glowering patsies of the press:

None of the released hostages wanted to speak after the president, and some appeared visibly uncomfortable at being in the media glare .

An unnamed source, quoted by Le Monde, said 20m euros was paid, from a secret fund operated by the intelligence services.

Senior figures from French nuclear company Areva were in the Niger capital Niamey for a meeting with President Mahamadou Issoufou at which it is said certain guarantees were made.

The men - identified as Thierry Dol, Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand and Marc Feret - were seized on 16 September 2010 near Arlit. They were all employees at a uranium mine run by the French nuclear company Areva.

For a sad contrast to this happy development, see this:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/10/base-ingratitude.html
 

*

Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

*

[Update 31 October 2013]  The plot thickens:  Conservative/populist leader Marine Le Pen  rains on Hollande’s (already soggy) parade:

Ex-otages : Marine Le Pen pense-t-elle au scénario d’«Homeland» ?

La présidente du Front national admet avoir été gênée par les images du retour des quatre ex-otages français, qui portaient barbe et chèche et faisaient état, selon elle, d’une «extrême réserve étonnante».

« Cet otage avec le chèche sur le visage...Tout ça mérite peut-être quelques explications de leur part ». Pense-t-elle qu’ils ont été islamisés pendant leur détention par des ravisseurs extrémistes, à l’instar de la série américaine « Homeland » qui se penche sur un soldat américain retourné par des fondamentalistes ? « Je n’irai pas jusqu’à faire des théories, je ne serais pas dans mon rôle », a-t-elle éludé.

Interrogée sur le versement d’une rançon, démenti par les autorités françaises, Marine Le Pen a observé que dans ces affaires d’enlèvements, « à chaque fois, d’après ce que l’on sait, la France a payé une rançon et à chaque fois, elle a dit qu’elle n’en avait pas payé, bien entendu ».

« Plus vous payez de rançon, plus vos compatriotes sont « bankables » », « une cible de choix pour des groupes mafieux ou fondamentalistes »

http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-politique/politique/actu/0203100852760-marine-le-pen-embarrassee-par-la-barbe-le-cheche-et-la-reserve-des-ex-otages-624464.php?xtor=EPR-101-[NL_13h]-20131031-[s=461370_n=2_c=202_]-1664277@2

This “Homeland” sleeper-mole scenario is not so far-fetched.   Originally brought to public consciousness by “The Manchurian Candidate” (novel, 1959; movie 1962, with later remakes),  the phenomenon has been attested in our own day…  In this respect, “Homeland” was perhaps more accurate than it knew.  Indeed, that op (which seemed to me far-fetched) of assassinating the Veep  remotely via signals to his pacemaker, turns out to be uncannily accurate:  Dick Cheney feared just such an attack, and has his pacemaker specifically modified to repel it.

~

To find an equally shameful American example of caving-in to terrorists, you would have to go all the way back to the Reagan administration’s policy of abject truckling to Iran ….

[TBC … or else fill in the details yourselves.  Easy to look up.

The Carter administration was much cleverer and tougher, though it got no credit from the public:  see examples here.]

[Update 10 November 2013]  Meanwhile, a rather extraordinary story is playing out in Saint-Ouen, just north of Paris.   Ever since July, an encampment of Gypsies who are in the country illegally, have been squatting atop the railroad line that supplies heating fuel for Paris, in effect holding an entire city hostage, while winter creeps nigh.  There has been no coverage of this in the anglophone press:

   Your search - gypsies Saint-Ouen - did not match any news results.

and very little in the francophone, save in the intrepid Le Figaro this morning:

Un camp illégal de Roms menace l'alimentation en chauffage de Paris

Chassés de leurs campements par les expulsions de l'été, 900 Roms regroupés à Saint-Ouen bloquent l'approvisionnement ferroviaire de la Compagnie de chaufferie parisienne. Des hôpitaux, des crèches et 110.000 foyers pourraient être privés de chauffage.

Plus aucun train n'approche de la centrale de chauffage de Saint-Ouen en Seine-Saint-Denis. L'immense campement illégal de Roms qui recouvre une partie des docks depuis cet été bloque cent mètres de voie ferroviaire, compliquant l'approvisionnement en charbon de ce maillon essentiel de la distribution de chaleur de Paris.

Depuis le début du mois de juillet, au rythme des expulsions survenues en Seine-Saint-Denis ou dans le Val-d'Oise, le campement rom de Saint-Ouen n'a cessé de grossir. «Ils étaient 500 en juillet, 800 début octobre, 900 maintenant, dont un tiers d'enfants», explique le cabinet du maire, qui se dit «totalement incapable de gérer la situation».

La voie ferrée qui mène à la centrale de la Compagnie parisienne de chauffage urbain (CPCU) est complètement bloquée, couverte de cabanons, de caravanes et de détritus. Cette chaufferie représente pourtant, à elle seule, le quart de l'activité de la CPCU, qui alimente tous les hôpitaux publics de la capitale, une grande partie des crèches et 110 000 foyers parisiens.

«S'il y a un pic de froid à partir de la mi-décembre, la Compagnie de chauffage ne pourra pas faire face»

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2013/11/09/01016-20131109ARTFIG00321-un-camp-rom-menace-l-alimentation-en-chauffage-de-paris.php?m_i=%2Bw8%2BzV79clcAwZkTfwxUWDA7yOKPXvWjODSsFMXq_e3Bd93%2Bj

While the Hollande government will authorize payouts to kidnappers amounting to tens of millions of dollars, to rescue a quartet of African adventurers, it has not lifted a finger to defend Paris.

[Update 29 July 2014]  The NYTimes nails it to the mast:

www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/world/africa/ransoming-citizens-europe-becomes-al-qaedas-patron.html

[Update 31 July 2014]  Curious to see how France would reaction to being so publically ‘outed’ (not that this is news  to those who have been paying attention  -- it was a “secret de polichinelle”), I checked Le Figaro, which itself has, in the past, been fairly frank on the subject:

La France, championne du paiement des rançons à al-Qaida

It is nothing but a brief summary.

Spicier is this reader’s comment (ebenda):

Dans les années 80, ou 90 des russes furent pris en otages.....Le proche d'un ravisseur, fut envoyer à son parent, en plusieurs valises.......Ca calme.....Et coute moins cher.....

Which Paragraph D’ya Read?

In the heyday of the end-of-column filler, The New Yorker  used to have a great little featurette, titled “Which Newspaper D’ya Read?”  It would feature, side by side, headlines from two different newspapers, putting opposite spins on the exact same events.  (Things like, “General Widget’s sales soar 15%” and “General Widget once again fails to meet Wall Street expectations”.)

A more delicate dance is to spin things one way, then another, in the exact same day’s edition of a single newspaper, sometimes within the very same article.  Examples below, simply from the first two newspapers I looked at this morning, and both of them considered journalistic paragons.  The first is on the subject of combat roles for women (in French, poetically, "Les femmes au feu"); the second, on France's sudden intervention in Azawad.

(1) Gender-norming

(For our earlier essay on this topic, click here: )

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/01/word-of-day-gender-norming.html

One of the things I hate about the hypocrisy associated with Political Correctness (or with any other  empirically shaky but vigorously inburrowing ideology) is that it leads to such lousy journalism, an attempt to assimilate which may damage your synaptic connections.

Here is some happytalk from the opening paragraph of a featured article in this morning’s New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/us/politics/first-pull-ups-then-combat-marines-say.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

How many pull-ups does it take to make a female Marine?

The answer, starting next January: a minimum of three, the same number required of male Marines.

If anyone thought the military’s decision to allow women into combat units would lead to exceptions for women when it came to fitness and physical strength, this is one service’s “gender neutral” answer.

The smug and smarmy tone  is typical of the genre;  and yet this paragraph does apparently contain an actual numerical hard fact, one which brought me up short.  So:  Instead of expanding gender-norming, the services -- beginning with the Marines, no less -- will actually be rolling it back?!   This is indeed big news.

Only … if you read on past the gurgling prose, you come eventually to this, several column-inches later:

But even for the pull-ups, the Marines are still making some exceptions. To get a perfect grade, women will have to do only 8, compared with the 20 required for men.

Huh?

In other words, the New York Times is throwing fairy-dust in our faces --  Who knows how this all will eventually play out.

(2)  O Azawad, our Azawad

We earlier scoffed at some happytalk from a well-bearded academic, concerning the rainbow paradise that was growing up in MNLA-controlled  -- no wait, MNLA cum Ansar Din-controlled -- no wait, AQIM-controlled, with a roiling sprinkling of other groups -- northern Mali:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/04/update-to-azawad.html

Then, when it became obvious to all what a mess things were up there, the talk was all of a heroic multi-national African army striding in and setting things right.   Preparations are under way … real soon now … any time now …  Finally the French had to go in alone and do the job themselves, with what one journalist called the “shambolic” Malian army trailing in the rear, to perform looting duties and ethnic cleansing.

And now, during a (purely temporary, I assure you) pause in the fighting (which mostly actually didn’t happen;  the jihadis prudently withdrew, to fight another day), Francois Hollande is having his own “Mission Accomplished” moment, jetting in to Bamako along with three of his mistresses (er, ministers) for a photo op.

In my inbox this morning were the following three headlines from Le Figaro.   Each one read separately, could cause the head to nod.  Read together, they cause cognitive dissonance (don’t worry, there’s a pill for that):

François Hollande va prêcher la concorde à Bamako

Après trois semaines d'une guerre éclair, l'avenir du Mali dépend du dialogue entre Noirs et Touaregs. Le chef de l'État français est arrivé sur place

François Hollande est désormais «l'ami intime du Mali»

Les habitants de Bamako sont enthousiastes à l'idée d'accueillir celui qu'ils appellent leur « libérateur ».

Paris s'inquiète des exactions maliennes

If you are looking forward to the kumbaya fruits of that “dialogue”, or are puzzled by the reference of that word “exactions” (note:  It’s an etymologico-semantic “faux ami”; the meaning is much harsher in French than in English), check this out, again from this morning’s news:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/world/africa/timbuktu-endured-terror-under-harsh-shariah-law.html?ref=global-home

Even here, the headline-writer is busy spinning, to deflect attention from the real story.   Yes, things really sucked up north in Gao, Kidal, and Timbuctu, under the rule of the takfiri carpetbaggers, an episode that was abundantly covered in the press, over many months, as the world waxed indignant over the destruction of clay tombs.   But the new story will find the press rather more light-shy at the lack of clear delineation between good guys and bad guys:  the looting and killings on the horizon (as yet no bigger than a man’s mailed fist), that the article squeamishly alludes to, are not those of al-Qaeda and friends, who are mostly off somewhere in the cave-pocked Ifoghas mountains  northwest of Kidal,  licking their wounds and regrouping, but are conducted by southern, black Malians, targeting the light-skinned:

Zahby Ould Ibrahim’s general store was looted to the studs this week. The horde that descended upon it took not just the shop’s stock of pots, pans and bedding but the electric sockets, the light bulbs and the doorframe, too.

A few shops away, Mahamane Dguitteye’s grocery store, its shelves lined with packets of spaghetti, bottles of olive oil and bars of soap, was completely untouched.

The main difference between the men? Mr. Ibrahim is an Arab. Mr. Dguitteye is a black African of the Songhai ethnic group.

[Update 13 March 2013]  Les exactions de l'armee malienne  continuent:
http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/03/12/des-soldats-maliens-a-nouveau-accuses-d-exactions_1846584_3212.html
Ethnic cleansing in the north, directed against Tuaregs, Moors, and Fulani (peuls), courtesy of the blacks from Bamako.  (And these, mind you, are supposedly the good guys.  -- You really need a scorecard to keep track...)

~

Footnote -- Department of Vox Populi.

Whenever I am depressed at journalistic standards (and we’re talking about the best here, not freaking Fox News), it is reassuring to go over the Readers Comments, and see that they have not been fooled.    The New York Times, cravenly, often does not permit commentary, but Le Figaro always does.   Here are some samples:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2013/02/01/01003-20130201ARTFIG00609-francois-hollande-va-precher-la-concorde-a-bamako.php?m_i=UhTUmd41VEEJVkpcZQv4yZK8nd15d5wVDSoHIDL_1mjqHvKUo

Quelle mascarade!!!! pendant la guerre contre Kahdafi n'oublions pas que les maliens nous huaient, mais aujoud'hui "grâce à l'armée malienne" on nou cesse de nous le repéter le Mali est libre!!! on attend de voir la suite!!!

---

Hollande qui va se glorifier au mali en nous faisant croire que cette guerre est presque terminé , c est pitoyable ! Hollande fait feu de tout bois , pour remonter dans les sondages! Si on a un peu de jugeote , on sait parfaitement que les terroristes ne lâcheront rien , contrairement à ce que dit hollande cette guerre est loin d être terminer!

--

Le Club Med en goguette... Hollande ne représente que lui-même...

---

Moi président est allée chercher de la popularité au Mali. Il ferait mieux de chasser les islamistes de France. Le Mali est majoritairement musulman. Que font les autres pays musulmans pour leur venir en aide ?

---

Il prêche la concorde à Bamako et sème la discorde en France! triste sire que ce président d'une partie des français.

--

Le Nord Mali sera-t'il le prochain Fort Saganne pour François II le Normal ...?

*

Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

*

[Update, afternoon]  Good Lord, it gets worse.  Glurge alert!  The French President  goes groveling  before the fratricidal chaos of Africa.   If he needs a good whipping, why can't he go get it at Madame Sévère’s Bondage Basement, instead of dragging all France into his fantasies?

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/02/02/97001-20130202FILWWW00478-hollande-aux-maliens-nous-payons-notre-dette-a-votre-egard.php?m_i=8v%2B8E4MerewtaEBC7xWj2F0p1O3QJ1upnhVrns9ldwQXzEICl#!

François Hollande a déclaré aujourd'hui à Bamako que l'intervention de la France au Mali représentait une dette à payer. "Nous payons aujourd'hui notre dette à votre égard", a-t-il lancé place de l'Indépendance. "Je n'oublie pas que lorsque la France a été attaquée, lorsqu'elle cherchait des soutiens, qui est venu, c’est l’Afrique, c'est le Mali, merci le Mali", a expliqué le président de la République.

Puis, il a ajouté : "La France est avec vous, la France est fière de vous, et moi je veux vous dire que je viens de vivre la journée la plus importante de ma vie politique."

Once again, the readers are less than impressed:

Il ne représente q'un français sur trois au grand maximum...!
Alors avant de raconter des salades, il devrait demander d'abord l'avis des deux autres.

--

On croit rêver en lisant cet article....Le jour le plus important pour le Président de la République Française !!!!!

---

La dette de la France vis à vis du Mali? il est vraiment prêt à raconter n'importe quoi. A quand les demandes d'indemnisation?

--

La repentance, il n'y a que ça de vrai pour un socialiste, Honni soit qui Mali pense.

---

Ben alors,si à présent on se met à payer les dettes ,les américains risquent de nous envoyer la facture.Quant aux pauvres africains,personne ne leur avait demandé de venir se battre pour la France, ils ont été enrôlés de force.

And actually, for the matter of that, it is not so much the payment of a ‘debt’ that Malians are demanding, but … ransom:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-special-thanksgiving-in-mali.html

Note:  The Republican knuckleheads who have been accusing President Obama of “apologizing for America”   should check out the action in France  to see what serial apologizing really looks like.   More here:

http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/hollande-nous-payons-notre-dette-au-mali-02-02-2013-1623156_24.php#liste_commentaires

They may have to read it in French, though;  so far as I can tell, this latest shameful episode in P.C. self-abasement  has not been reported in any English-language source.

An account of the visit, complete with Hollande's speech, may be heard here:
http://www.medi1.com/player/player.php?i=5406733
For the connoisseur, one of Hollande's rhetorical flourishes was oddly reminiscent of Qaddafi's much-mocked speech, when his situation was hopeless, but he vowed to fight "hamlet by hamelt, lane by lane".  Hollande's version:  "ville par ville, village par village".

[Update, evening]  I was curious to see how this story would be handled in Le Monde, which is generally more squeamish about reporting embarrassing facts than is Le Figaro.    No word was breathed of Hollande’s abjectly truckling “debt-repayment” rhetoric, but they did touch upon the question of who has been doing the actual fighting.   This is of relevance, not so much for a matter of fairness (it is sometimes politic to give the credit to those who earned it not:  cf.  Argo), as because the world has been repeatedly told, over the past several months, that the African cavalry would be dashing in any hour now  to save the day.   And once again, there is a “Which paragraph do you read?” aspect to the reportage.

The article leads with a nod to the French and Malian forces -- or rather, Franco-Malian, presented as a unity, and sharing equally in the glory:

Les grandes villes du nord situées dans la bouche du Niger sont tombées aux mains des forces franco-maliennes.

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/02/02/francois-hollande-heros-de-tombouctou-liberee_1826392_3212.html

Later, addressing the French troops who have just risked their lives for the sake of some Africans, President Hollande slips up, and nearly gives them credit; but quickly (politically-) corrects himself:

Le président évoque l'entrée dans la ville : "Vous (les Français) êtes entrés, ou plus exactement les Maliens sont entrés, dans la ville de Tombouctou.”

(Whew!  That was a close one.)

But if you read on, you eventually come to the following tidbit:

La prise de Kidal s'est faite par opération aéroportée et sans soldat malien.

…. Oh.

Never mind.

[Update 18 March 2013]  Although the Malian army has been worse than useless, the Chadians have truly stepped up to the plate:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2013/03/17/01003-20130317ARTFIG00122-l-appui-crucial-des-tchadiens-au-nord-du-mali.php?m_i=aPdaIuacU0VoiEfOnDOV2mGdsWviqRhrt5EIxcrP4pqnvNNG0

Mabruk, messieurs ! 

Une colonne des FATIM (Forces Armées Tchadienne en Intervention au Mali

[Update 10 April 2013] Toleja so:
 

Mali : les troupes de la Cédéao « totalement incapables », juge le Pentagone

Un haut responsable du Pentagone estime que les troupes engagées au Mali par les Etats africains ne sont pas « à la hauteur ». Et salue en revanche l'intervention française.

http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-politique/monde/actu/0202694143614-mali-les-troupes-de-la-cedeao-totalement-incapables-juge-le-pentagone-556594.php?xtor=EPR-1500-[nl_8h]-20130410-[s=461370_n=2_c=204_]-1664277[_SDV]@1

[Update 10 Dec 2013]  )* sigh *(   And yet again:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-little-bit-of-spin-makes-sugar-pill.html

Some seriously cool music from People’s Azawad (not)

[Update 1 Dec 2012] As part of our satirical series on Azawad, we earlier posted this ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The newly-liberated free and independent people’s popular republican emirate of united Islamic AZAWAD  is by now universally recognized as the epicentre of culture on this planet.

Check this out:

Terakaft @ les Abattoirs

They whack those axes like they was Uzis …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...  yet now must sadly report (we all saw it coming):

In northern Mali, music silenced as Islamists drive out artists

Khaira Arby, one of Africa’s most celebrated musicians, has performed all over the world, but there is one place she cannot visit: her native city of Timbuktu, a place steeped in history and culture but now ruled by religious extremists.

One day, they broke into Arby’s house and destroyed her instruments. Her voice was a threat to Islam, they said, even though one of her most popular songs praised Allah.

“They told my neighbors that if they ever caught me, they would cut my tongue out,” said Arby, sadness etched on her broad face.

Northern Mali, one of the richest reservoirs of music on the continent, is now an artistic wasteland. Hundreds of musicians have fled south to Bamako, the capital, and to other towns and neighboring countries, driven out by hard-liners who have decreed any form of music — save for the tunes set to Koranic verses — as being against their religion.

The exiles describe a shattering of their culture, in which playing music brings lashes with whips.

“In northern Mali, music is like oxygen,” said Baba Salah, one of northern Mali’s most-respected musicians. “Now, we cannot breathe.”

[Update 21 Jan 2013]
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/malian-musicians-call-for-peace/

[Update 6 Feb 2014]  And now Tinariwen, singing in Tamasheq -- A long-awaited, much-merited success:
http://www.npr.org/2014/02/02/267027505/first-listen-tinariwen-emmaar

This site lets you listen to the whole album, free.

And once again, the album couldn't actually be made in Azawad...

More on Tuareg music here:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/08/vivent-les-touaregs.html

And on the alphabet used to write Tamasheq:  Tifinagh.

[Update Feb 2014]  Cf. now this:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2014/03/03/140303crmu_music_frerejones

Another fruitful Arab/African musical melange:

La musique gnawa au Maroc:
http://www.medi1.com/player/player.php?i=5739668

Nota bene  a particularly haunting melody, sung in English and Zulu, beginning ten minutes into the interview.
I don't really listen to pop music anymore;  but every so often, two cultures interweave, in a way that makes the overfamiliar  once again new and strange.

Here that song separately, here:

“You Shall Rise”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xGFu8C0REg

and (with superb video), here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQwCCm-H-sU

A Special Thanksgiving in Mali

[Note:  What follows is the funny stuff.  For something more serious, click here:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/04/update-to-azawad.html ]

Speaking in Touareg through an interpreter, the Azawadi Minister of Tourism, Dr Justice, issued the following announcement on behalf of the People’s Freedom-Loving Welcoming Committee:

Free and independent Popular People’s Azawad welcomes its newest Western guest.  Gilberto, vous êtes le bienvenu!  We here in people’s freedom-loving Azawad love freedom -- and you will too, Gilberto, when you regain yours, just as soon as your loving government (“Uncle Sugar”, we call him) pays the ransom, as they always do!

The French Ministère du Tourisme et du Rapt  issued the following appreciative statement:

La victime s'appelle Gilberto Rodriguez Léal. Il a été enlevé mardi soir  dans la région de Kayes, à l'ouest du Mali. Le Français, dont la profession reste inconnue, circulait à bord d'un véhicule Peugeot immatriculé en France. Selon des sources sécuritaires et administratives maliennes, il aurait été enlevé «par au moins six hommes armés à la peau claire».

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2012/11/21/01003-20121121ARTFIG00578-un-francais-enleve-a-l-ouest-du-mali.php?m_i=gVfgGhzzwfJFkj0fYERi7PMZaSK1_vWZZ%2B0hhvl7p7WXhlVM4

Azawadi Minister of Free Enterprise, Abu-Mitt ag-Romney, who has taken up asylum in freely independent Azawad after a spot of bother back in the States, praised the arrangement.  “This is small business at its best.  We look forward to doing much more such commerce with our French friends in the future.”

[Update 27 November 2012]  Turns out his name is (as pronounced by himself) Rodriguez Leal Gilberto.   You can see him here thanking his captors hosts for their hospitality.  “Je suis bien traité,” he reveals -- which is saying a lot, since the same thing cannot be said, for instance, by diners at Denny’s, or folks standing in queues at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Here I am housed and fed for free, and catered-to by an attentive staff

http://fr.alakhbar.info/5379-0-Nord-Mali-Premiere-apparition-de-lotage-francais-Rodriguez-dans-une-video-du-MUJAO.html

[Update 24 December 2012]

Repercussions and bavures from the Islamist/jihadi takeover of northern Mali:

Un groupe islamiste revendique l'enlèvement du Français au Nigeria

Ansaru justifie le kidnapping de mercredi soir par le rôle de la France dans la préparation d'une intervention militaire au Mali.

[Update 26 Dec 2012]  A good summary here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/al-qaeda-group-france-is-endangering-hostages-by-agreeing-to-train-malis-soldiers/2012/12/26/40513506-4f4b-11e2-8b49-64675006147f_allComments.html?ctab=all_&

Abu El Hamid Abu Zeid: "I offer you my friendship..."

[Update 28 December 2012] From the NYTimes:

Tough Love in People’s Azawad

Moctar Touré was strapped to a chair, blindfolded, his right hand bound tight to the armrest with a rubber tube. A doctor came and administered a shot. Then Mr. Touré’s own brother wielded a knife, the kind used to slaughter sheep, and methodically carried out the sentence.

“I myself cut off my brother’s hand,” said Aliou Touré, a police chief in the Islamist-held north of this divided nation. “We had no choice but to practice the justice of God.”

Such amputations are designed to shock — residents are often summoned to watch — and even as the world makes plans to recapture northern Mali by force, the Islamists who control it show no qualms about carrying them out.

After the United Nations Security Council authorized a military campaign to retake the region last week, Islamists in Gao, Mr. Touré’s town, cut the hands off two more people accused of being thieves the very next day, a leading local official said, describing it as a brazen response to the United Nations resolution. Then the Islamists, undeterred by the international threats against them, warned reporters that eight others “will soon share the same fate.”

This harsh application of Shariah law, with people accused of being thieves sometimes having their feet amputated as well, has occurred at least 14 times since the Islamist takeover last spring, not including the recent vow of more to come, according to Human Rights Watch and independent observers.

But those are just the known cases, and dozens of other residents have been publicly flogged with camel-hair whips or tree branches for offenses like smoking, or even for playing music on the radio. Several were whipped in Gao on Monday for smoking in public, an official said, while others said that anything other than Koranic verses were proscribed as cellphone ringtones. A jaunty tune is punishable by flogging.

Thank you for not smoking

.