{"id":924,"date":"2010-03-09T19:28:23","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T00:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/delicious.com\/url\/8869d01d060d20a7b9074f7bc190c910#tomathon"},"modified":"2010-03-09T19:37:18","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T00:37:18","slug":"mali-gao-mayor-threatens-to-sell-reporters-to-aqim-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/mali-gao-mayor-threatens-to-sell-reporters-to-aqim-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali: Gao Mayor threatens to sell reporters to AQIM. Or not."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AFP re-reports the allegations of two Catalan journalists, now safely home.  They say that they were threatened with kidnapping and delivery to Al-qaeda by the Mayor of Gao, Sadou Harouna Diallo (don&#8217;t ask me why AFP put an extra &#8220;a&#8221; in his name).<\/p>\n<p>Diallo is a well know character, the owner of the successful Tizimizi hotel chain, business man, and regular kingpin on the Commune urbaine de Gao. He ran his 2009 campaign on the slogan &#8220;Yes We Can,&#8221; while never missing an opportunity to associate himself with the American soldiers in town to train Mali special forces.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s also the one that the Malians arrested by the US in November for drug-running named as their &#8220;connection&#8221; for transit (not drugs) in the region.  He famously caused a big stink in the area in 2009 when he abandoned his post as SG of the <a class=\"zem_slink freebase\/en\/alliance_for_democracy_in_mali\" title=\"Alliance for Democracy in Mali\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.adema-pasj.org\/\">ADEMA-PASJ<\/a> ruling party, then ran his slate to victory in 7 0f the 10 seats of the local council as independents linked to the &#8220;Mouvement Cityoen&#8221;: a group that hopes to underwrite more power for the &#8220;non-partisan&#8221; President of Mali.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t imagine he&#8217;d have anything to hide from nosiy foreign reporters. Or have anything to do with people disappearing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.zemanta.com\/pixy.gif?w=560\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><span class=\"zem-script more-info pretty-attribution\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFP re-reports the allegations of two Catalan journalists, now safely home.  They say that they were threatened with kidnapping and delivery to Al qaeda by the Mayor of Gao, Sadou Harouna Diallo, ally of the President, admirer of the USA and quintessential Big Man.  Mayor Diallo tells AFP this is all a misunderstanding.   <\/p>\n<p>More&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/mali-gao-mayor-threatens-to-sell-reporters-to-aqim-or-not\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[107,174],"tags":[241,249,262,349,350,267],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":847,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/02\/mali-aqim-release-french-hostage\/","url_meta":{"origin":924,"position":0},"title":"Mali: AQIM release French hostage","date":"February 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Pierre Camatte, seized by a gang near his home in Menaka and shopped to the AQIM in the desert, has returned to Bamako. Will he ever be able to go back to his longtime home? The Malians released four AQIM prisoners in exchange, we can assume under French pressure. What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":919,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-military-post-raided-on-mali-border\/","url_meta":{"origin":924,"position":1},"title":"Niger: Military post raided on Mali border","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Reports are coming in of an attack by unknown assailants on the army post at Tiloa, a village around 12km from the Malian border. Several soldiers were killed. North of the more inhabited Zarmaganda plateau, Tiola is a tiny stop in the desert north of Tondikiwindi rural commune, Ouallam Department,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":628,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/01\/we-must-reject-the-status-of-narco-state\/","url_meta":{"origin":924,"position":2},"title":"&#8220;We must reject the status of Narco-State&#8221;","date":"January 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Adam Thaim, chief editorialist for Bamako's Le Republicain, reflects on a Mali being caught in an international conflict over drugs and terrorism. In short, Malian's must solve this smuggling problem, before the West drags them into a \"war on terror\" and \"war on drugs\" from which they will benefit little.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":934,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/mali-release-of-two-of-five-aqim-hostages\/","url_meta":{"origin":924,"position":3},"title":"Mali: Release of two of five AQIM hostages","date":"March 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Philomena Kabour, the Burkina-Italian wife of Sergio Cicala, kidnapped near in Mauritania was released, along with Alicia Gamez, one of three Catalan aid workers kidnapped north of Nouakchott. All appear to have been taken to a AQIM camp in the remote Saharan north of Mali. Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":844,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/02\/sahelinterferences-le-quotidien-d%e2%80%99oran\/","url_meta":{"origin":924,"position":4},"title":"Sahel:&#8221;Interf\u00e9rences&#8221; (Le Quotidien d\u2019Oran)","date":"February 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This Algerian paper has an interesting piece on the current \"AQIM problem\" in the Sahel, if only as an elucidation of a Algerian nationalist perspective. The US and other are continually hammering on about the Sahel becoming the next Afghanistan or Somalia, but more as an attempt to justify the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1014,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/04\/aqim-more-hostage-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":924,"position":5},"title":"AQIM: More hostage stories","date":"April 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Philom\u00e8ne Kabor\u00e9 and her husband Sergio Cicala have given interviews regarding their captivity: she having been released some time ago, and he Friday the 16th. They were taken in Mauritania, near the border with Mali, on...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mYFK-eU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":925,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions\/925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}