"Majority of Mauritania parliament is pro-coup
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania: More than two-thirds of delegates in Mauritania's parliament signed a declaration Wednesday saying they favor last week's army-led coup and asking the international community to recognize the new military junta as the country's legitimate government.
The parliament's overwhelming support for the coup that ousted the desert nation's democratically elected president is in stark contrast to the international community's condemnation of last week's putsch.
But in just 16 months in office, president Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi alienated the military, releasing several Islamic radicals against their advice and opening a dialogue with members of an extreme Muslim sect. Allegations of corruption by Abdallahi's family eroded support among the population.
And we want this guy reinstated, huh?
The statement signed by the delegates calls on the European Union, the African Union, the United States and the Arab League to "succeed in the democratic transition" which the junta initiated.
"The legislators of Mauritania ... support the change that occurred in the interest of the Mauritanian people," the declaration said. It goes on to explain that the parliament had tried on numerous occasions to confront the former president, but failed to make headway.
"We regret that all of the attempts made by members of parliament and other well-intentioned people failed to lessen the stubbornness of the former president, who did not listen to his constituents," it said.
They accuse him of corruption, of interfering with the functioning of parliament and of refusing to sign off on a commission to investigate a foundation run by his wife, which allegedly was used as a front for the theft of public funds.
The declaration comes a day after an al-Qaida-linked terror group called for holy war to avenge the overthrow of Abdallahi.
Oh, "Al-CIA-Duh" called for OUR DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED FRIEND(?) to be reinstated, huh?
But experts say the focus on Abdallahi's record on terror could be an effort to obscure other motivations for the coup and drum up support from the West for overthrowing a democratically elected head of state.
"I think this is an argument the coup leaders are making to justify themselves and what they did, but it doesn't conform to reality," said Fernando Reinares, a terrorism expert at Madrid's Elcano Royal Institute, who until 2006 was the Spanish Interior Ministry's anti-terror czar.
Reinares said Spain had recently decided to increase anti-terror cooperation with Mauritania, which is on the terror network's radar. In addition to killing the tourists, suspected Islamist terrorists attacked the Israeli Embassy and an army barracks in separate attacks in 2007.
Oh, yeah?!?! Why am I getting the stench of a false-flag, folks?
The United States had sent dozens of troops to train Mauritania's military in the far northern deserts, hoping the country could act as a bulwark against the southward encroachment of al-Qaida-linked militants in North Africa. That program was suspended, however, as well as around $20 million in aid after the coup.
I get the feeling the US isn't really against this coup; it is the same type of slow, subtle and duplicitous bullshit they are famous for -- just like with Aristide!
Either that, or the west SUPPORTS a regime that HARBORS TERRORISTS!
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