But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. — Abraham Lincoln –

Martin Luther King, Jr. incorporated the phrase into his 1963 speech, I have a dream:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! — Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. –

Do to the media attention, death threats and her activism, Rosa lost her job at a department store. She left Alabama for Detroit in 1957. She began working at Michigan state democrat Conyers remembers Parks. Monday, he gave these remarks to CNN by telephone Monday. Regarding the contribution Rosa made not just to America but to the world.

“I think that she as a mother of the new civil rights movement has left an impact not just on a nation, but on the world. She was a real apostle of the nonviolent movement.” He remembers her as being sophisticated and soft spoken. Parks was the co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. She was adamant about advocating for young people. She understood the importance of good, affordable education and getting them registered to vote on the very issues that affect them.

She continued to remain active in lecturing, presenting and accepting awards well into her 80′s. She received the presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. In 1999, she received the Congressional Gold medal. At the ceremony, she stated, “This medal is encouragement to all of us to continue until all have rights.”

Rosa Parks will be sorely missed but never forgotten as a woman who inspired a nation. If you wish to learn more about this inspirational woman please see www.RosaParks.org and 2002 Oscar nominated documentary “Mighty Times: The legacy of Rosa Parks.”

There were several people pouring out of the church covered in blood and glass. The blast was so strong that it crushed two cars parked nearby More than 2000 ascended unto the site after hearing the blast 20 other individuals were taken to the hospital , many others had minor cuts and bruises. Mayor Albert Boutwell asked help from the governor. Mayor Boutwell and police Chief Jamie Moore requested help from the state with a telegram. President Kennedy was informed of the incident while yachting near Newport, R.I. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sent FBI agents and Bomb experts to the site.

Chief civil rights troubleshooter, Burke Marshal was sent to assist. The reverend martin Luther king, JR flew to Birmingham after contacting President Kennedy. He said, that unless “immediate Federal steps are taken” there will be “in Birmingham and Alabama the worst racial holocaust this Nation has ever seen” Hundreds of people rioted in the streets. Police officers arrested several people for throwing stones at cars. The police shot two young African American boys. One was a sixteen year old male, Johnny Robinson, who police say was stoning cars and refused to halt. The other 13 year old boy, Virgil ware was shot around the same time. No details as to the reasoning were given.

After the Bomb experts and police groomed and investigated the site, it was said that 15 or more sticks of dynamite was used. The dynamite was said to have been planted in a basement which was not occupied at the time. However the wall blew out toward a room filled with children. Many witnesses said a suspicious car drove by and sped away before the bomb exploded. Two men were questions and released. Witnesses who saw the car said that they could not distinguish what color the passengers in the car were. The church bombing was the 4th bombing in a month’s time. The school desegregation seemed to be influencing this rash of bombings as this was the 3rd bombing since the escalation of protests against desegregation.

As darkness closed over the city hours later, shots crackled sporadically in the Negro sections. Stones smashed into cars driven by whites.

Five Fires Reported – Police reported at least five fires in Negro business establishments tonight. A official said some are being set, including one at a mop factory touched off by gasoline thrown on the building. The fires were brought under control and there were no injuries. Meanwhile, NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins wired President Kennedy that unless the Federal Government offers more than “picayune and piecemeal aid against this type of bestiality” Negroes will “employ such methods as our desperation may dictate in defense of the lives of our people.”

Reinforced police units patrolled the city and 500 battle-dressed National Guardsmen stood by at an armory. City police shot a 16-year-old Negro to death when he refused to heed their commands to halt after they caught him stoning cars. A 13-year-old Negro boy was shot and killed as he rode his bicycle in a suburban area north of the city.

Police Battle Crowd – Downtown streets were deserted after dark and police urged white and Negro parents to keep their children off the streets.
Thousands of hysterical Negroes poured into the area around the church this morning and police fought for two hours, firing rifles into the air to control them.

When the crowd broke up, scattered shootings and stonings erupted through the city during the afternoon and tonight.
The Negro youth killed by police was Johnny Robinson, 16. They said he fled down an alley when they caught him stoning cars. They shot him when he refused to halt.

The 13-year-old boy killed outside the city was Virgil Ware. He was shot at about the same time as Robinson. Shortly after the bombing police broke up a rally of white students protesting the desegregation of three Birmingham schools last week. A motorcade of militant adult segregationists apparently en route to the student rally was disbanded.

Police patrols, augmented by 300 State troopers sent into the city by Gov. George C. Wallace, quickly broke up all gatherings of white and Negroes. Wallace sent the troopers and ordered 500 National Guardsmen to stand by at Birmingham armories.

King arrived in the city tonight and went into a conference with Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a leader in the civil rights fight in Birmingham. The City Council held an emergency meeting to discuss safety measures for the city, but rejected proposals for a curfew. Dozens of persons were injured when the bomb went off in the church, which held 400 Negroes at the time, including 80 children. It was Young Day at the church.

A few hours later, police picked up two white men, questioned them about the bombing and released them. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wired President Kennedy from Atlanta that he was going to Birmingham to plead with Negroes to “remain non-violent.” But he said that unless “immediate Federal steps are taken” there will be “in Birmingham and Alabama the worst racial holocaust this Nation has ever seen.”

Dozens of survivors, their faces dripping blood from the glass that flew out of the church’s stained glass windows, staggered around the building in a cloud of white dust raised by the explosion. The blast crushed two nearby cars like toys and blew out windows blocks away.

Negroes stoned cars in other sections of Birmingham and police exchanged shots with a Negro firing wild shotgun blasts two blocks from the church. It took officers two hours to disperse the screaming, surging crowd of 2,000 Negroes who ran to the church at the sound of the blast. At least 20 persons were hurt badly enough by the blast to be treated at hospitals. Many more, cut and bruised by flying debris, were treated privately. (The Associated Press reported that among the injured in subsequent shooting were a white man injured by a Negro. Another white man was wounded by a Negro who attempted to rob him, according to police.)

Mayor Albert Boutwell, tears streaming down his cheeks, announced the city had asked for help. “It is a tragic event,” Boutwell said. “It is just sickening that a few individuals could commit such a horrible atrocity. The occurrence of such a thing has so gravely concerned the public…” His voice broke and he could not go on.

Boutwell and Police Chief Jamie Moore requested the State assistance in a telegram to Wallace. “While the situation appears to be well under control of federal law enforcement officers at this time, the possibility of further trouble exists,” Boutwell and Moore said in their telegram. President Kennedy, yachting off Newport, R.I., was notified by radio-telephone and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered his chief civil rights troubleshooter, Burke Marshall, to Birmingham. At least 25 FBI agents, including bomb experts from Washington, were being rushed in. City Police Inspector W.J. Haley said as many as 15 sticks of dynamite must have been used.

“We have talked to witnesses who say they saw a car drive by and then speed away just before the bomb hit,” he said. In Montgomery, Wallace said he had a similar report and said the descriptions of the car’s occupants did not make clear their race. But he served notice “on those responsible that every law enforcement agency of this State will be used to apprehend them.”

The bombing was the 21st in Birmingham in eight years, and the first to kill. None of the bombings have been solved. As police struggled to hold back the crowd, the blasted church’s pastor, the Rev. John H. Cross, grabbed a megaphone and walked back and forth, telling the crowd: “The police are doing everything they can. Please go home.” “The Lord is our shepherd,” he sobbed. “We shall not want.” The only stained glass window in the church that remained in its frame showed Christ leading a group of little children. The face of Christ was blown out.

After the police dispersed the hysterical crowds, workmen with pickaxes went into the wrecked basement of the church. Parts of brightly painted children’s furniture were strewn about in one Sunday School room, and blood stained the floors. Chunks of concrete the size of footballs littered the basement. The bomb apparently went off in an unoccupied basement room and blew down the wall, sending stone and debris flying like shrapnel into a room where children were assembling for closing prayers following Sunday School. Bibles and song books lay shredded and scattered through the church.

In the main sanctuary upstairs, which holds about 500 persons, the pulpit and Bible were covered with pieces of stained glass. One of the dead girls was decapitated. The coroner’s office identified the dead as Denise McNair, 11; Carol Robertson, 14; Cynthia Wesley, 14, and Addie Mae Collins, 10.

As the crowd came outside watched the victims being carried out, one youth broke away and tried to touch one of the blanket-covered forms. “This is my sister,” he cried. “My God, she’s dead.” Police took the hysterical boy away.
Mamie Grier, superintendent of the Sunday School, said when the bomb went off “people began screaming, almost stampeding” to get outside. The wounded walked around in a daze, she said.

One of the injured taken to a hospital was a white man. Many others cut by flying glass and other debris were not treated at hospitals. Fourth in Four Weeks It was the fourth bombing in four weeks in Birmingham, and the third since the current school desegregation crisis came to a boil Sept. 4.

Desegregation of schools in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tuskegee was finally brought about last Wednesday when President Kennedy federalized the National Guard. Some of the Guardsmen in Birmingham are still under Federal orders. Wallace said the ones he alerted today were units of the Guard “not now federalized.” The City of Birmingham has offered a $52,000 reward for the arrest of the bombers, and Wallace today offered another $5,000.
Dr. King Berates Wallace – But Dr. King wired Wallace that “the blood of four little children … is on your hands. Your irresponsible and misguided actions have created in Birmingham and Alabama the atmosphere that has induced continued violence and now murder.”

1996 The Washington Post Company

In 1968, America was feeling the heat of civil unrest, much of which was a reaction to the civil rights movement. The idea of blacks being brought into racial parity with whites sent shockwaves through the corridors of power and through society at large.

At the eye of this hurricane of turmoil was a man named Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached non-violent civil disobedience as a means of opening the way for blacks to obtain the rights and liberties guaranteed to all citizens of the United States.

A charismatic and passionate leader, Martin Luther King was an effective communicator and motivator, and by 1968, Martin Luther King was winning the hearts and minds more and more Americans on both sides of the color line. His efforts successfully merged the anti-Vietnam war movement and the civil rights movement, and the awful reality of the black situation in America could no longer be hidden behind the white curtain.

On March 28, 1968,Martin Luther King led a march through Memphis, Tennessee which, like all his marches, was intended to have been peaceful and non-violent. But thanks to a gang of agents provocateur called “The Invaders,” the march disintegrated into rioting and looting.

King barely escaped the March 28 debacle unharmed, and swore to return to Memphis and “conduct this demonstration properly — with no violence.” The date for the new march was set at April 4, 1968. This time, King would not survive his fateful trip to Memphis.

The phrase or idea that "all men are created equal" has been up for debate for decades In the United States Declaration of independence written in 1776. The remark is said to have come from Filippo Mazzei an Italian physician and confident to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson often deliberated with Mazzei and traded ideas. Jefferson and Mazzei felt the phrase was fitting and essential as the opening of the declaration of Independence:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.1 – U.S. Declaration of Independence July 4th 1776 -

There was much debate about this phrase as most members of congress owned slaves including Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration was altered from its original version as it depicted the Slave Trade and the ownership of slaves in a disparaging light.

Muhammad Ali was born 1942 on January 17th in Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. His parents were Odessa, a house wife and Cassius, Sr. who worked as a billboard painter. He was named after his father, who was named after the 19thcentury abolitionist and politician Cassius Clay. Cassius had a younger brother named Rudolph (Rudy) Clay, who later became Rahman Ali. Even though Clay Sr. was a Methodist, Odessa raised the two boys as Baptist.The family lineage was of pre- civil war slaves. The family was also mixed with some English and Irish ancestry.

Cassius clay experienced everyday prejudices that most African-American boys experienced. Cassius had no idea that his life was about to change through circumstance which could have lead to a less admirable path. At the age of 12, he recalls his bike being stolen as the catalyst of his career choice. He recalls telling a white Louisville police officer, Joe martin that he wanted to find the culprit and beat him up. Joe Martin told this fuming and very determined boy that if he wanted to challenge someone, he would first have to learn how to fight. It just so happened, Martin trained young boxers at a nearby gym. Cassius also trained with a black American coach, Fred Stoner.

He was told he could make at least $4 a week on a local TV show, tomorrow’s Champions, which aired weekly and was hosted by Martin. Cassius would benefit by making money while being trained by Stoner, an even more experienced trainer than Martin. Under Stoners wing Cassius would go on to win not one but six Kentucky titles then two Golden Gloves Titles. He won the Amateur Athletic Union national Title. In 1960 he fought his way to a Gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games. Cassius couldn’t have been happier or more confident in who he was becoming and where he wanted to go. However,when he returned home he got into an altercation at a segregated restaurant with the establishment and a white gang.

In Cassius 1975 autobiography, he talks in detail about feeling angry and disappointed in how so many things he experienced as a child was still very much prevalent and did not discriminate in regards to popularity or talent. He realized black was black in America. In a statement of protest, he threw his Olympic Gold medal into the Ohio River.

"We know who did it," Alabama Atty. Gen. Bill Baxley said Wednesday as he confirmed that he has reopened the investigation of a church bombing that killed four young black girls in Birmingham in 1963. Baxley said in an interview with Birmingham radio station hat the list of suspects had been narrowed down, but he declined to predict if or when arrests would be made.He said premature published reports about the investigation might have hurt. "There are some people in Jefferson County who ought to be pretty nervous right now," Baxley said in an earlier telephone interview.

The Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, dynamite blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church occurred during the time of racial demonstrations led by the late Martin Luther King. Twenty-three other people in the church were hurt and debris was scattered for blocks.Baxley later confirmed that he had talked to Rowe, and he was cooperative, "But we were working on this thing long before that. We had a lot of stuff already. Rowe was just another person we interviewed."He said Rowe didn’t give him a list of names as such, "but nine is too many."

Baxley repeated that he had no timetable for possible arrests. Meanwhile, Gov. George Wallace, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in Massachusetts, told a Boston radio station, "They ought to knock the bottom out of hell for anyone convicted of the bombing."Baxley said Birmingham police were aiding the new investigation. Published reports said Baxley had obtained report on FBI probes of the bombing incident.

A Birmingham newspaper said Baxley had a list of nine persons allegedly connected with the bombing, but the attorney general would not confirm it.The newspaper said one-time FBI informer Gary Thomas Rowe gave the names to Baxley before Rowe appeared before a U.S. Senate committee in December.

The newspaper said Rowe’s lawyer, Frank Gerdes of San Diego, Calif.; confirmed that Rowe met with Baxley, but refused to say what the men discussed.Rowe told the Senate committee that he was an FBI informer in Birmingham during the racial strife of the early 1970s.

He alleged that law officers gave a group of Ku Klux Klan members 15 minutes to assault "freedom rider" at a bus station before officers intervened. After that testimony, City Councilman Richard Arrington asked the Council to reopen the investigation of the church bombing. Vann asked the FBI for its files on the incident. A city spokesman said the files have never been received.

The trial was over. Crowds of spectators and newsmen filed from the courtroom, some rushing for telephones, others smiling or tight-lipped in disbelief. A group of deputies encircled Robert E. Chambliss, who had just been convicted of the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and, as they had several times before, led him off to jail. But this time, he apparently was going to jail for the rest of his life.

Chambliss, 73, was convicted by a jury on a charge of first degree murder in the death of Denise McNair, one of the four victims of the blast. The vote was 11 to 1 for conviction almost as soon as the jury went behind closed doors about 4:30 p.m.Thursday to decide Chambliss’ fate. The one juror reportedly was still holding out, undecided, when the foreman knocked on the door about 9 p.m.

Thursday and told the bailiff the jury was ready to call it quits, to go to the motel and to bed. It wasn’t until about 10:30 Friday morning the mind of that juror was made up. When a poll was taken shortly after the foreman read the verdict, all 12 men and women answered their vote was "guilty."

BAXLEY DECLARES FOUR MEN ARE STILL SOUGHT IN CHURCH BOMBING Birmingham News – Dec. 29, 1977 A 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klan member has been convicted of murder in the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church, but Alabama’s attorney general says he’s still seeking up to four men involved in the blast that killed four girls.

Appearing on NBC’s Tonight Show, Bill Baxley told Wednesday of his seven-year search for Robert Chambliss who was convicted of murder last month. "I was in law school at the time (of the bombing) and it was a traumatic experience to me that such a horrible thing happened in my state," Baxley said, "I thought that someday I might have a chance to do something about it." He was elected attorney general in 19970. "In early 1971," he said, "we started the investigation and spent a couple of years tracking down the wrong people. It took a long time to get the FBI reports.

We got them late in 1975." Baxley told television host Tom Snyder, "I was frustrated at some points and very angry at the FBI. But looking back on it I can understand a little bit their hesitancy.

They had some informants they had to protect. "They’d had some bad experiences in the South of information being leaked back to the very people they were investigating. Even after we convinced them we were after justice, there were bureaucratic problems." Baxley said he has been getting hate mail since the Chambliss conviction, but that more of it came from California than from Alabama.He also said he has gotten extradition papers signed by the governor of Georgia to bring to trial J.D. Stoner on charges of bombing another black Birmingham church in 1958.

No one was injured in that explosion. But he added that even with the papers, "we can’t get him out of Cobb County.

He went to court in Marietta and got a judge to issue an order preventing them from sending him back. If he can’t get Stoner extradited, Baxley said, "we’ll send our warrants to every surrounding county and confine him to that county for the rest of his life." Baxley, in his late 30s, has completed two terms as attorney general and under Alabama law, cannot run again.

Birmingham, Alabama, served as the center of black industrial employment for nearly a century, and the major site of black labor struggles and civil rights protests.

Nestled in the Jones Valley of north central Alabama, the rocky, mineral-rich land of Jefferson County has sustained a city known in its youth for rapid industrialization and later for its hard-fought battles to overcome social, political, and economic inequality. Since its founding in 1871, Birmingham, Alabama, pursued the economic development of a southern Magic City.

By the 1960s, the efforts of the local government to maintain racial segregation had earned Birmingham a new name, the Tragic City. Efforts to remedy a history of pervasive racial inequality continue today throughout Birmingham, through alliances among citizens that were once thought impossible.

Birmingham’s founders aspired to create the industrial center of the New South. The Elyton Land Company, eager to build a locus of business at the intersection of two main Southern railroads, bought the city land in the midst of Reconstruction. African Americans venturing to the new town sought relief from sharecropping on white-owned farms, but faced instead an industrial system quite similar to the cycle of dependence and harsh working conditions in rural areas. By 1880, African Americans comprised more than half of the industrial workers employed by firms like the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company and Sloss Furnaces. After a long day of dangerous work under sweltering conditions, workers returned to shotgun shack-style homes adjacent to the fuming plants. Although some firms provided recreational activities, few workers found relief at home; instead, they confronted the debt from loans of company-owned housing, food, and supplies.

With the discovery of techniques to produce steel from basic pig iron in 1895, feverish industrialization gripped the city. The steel industry boomed during the early decades of the 20th century, earning Birmingham the title Pittsburgh of the South. This prosperity collapsed in the wake of the Great Depression, which saw Birmingham’s industrial output plummet by nearly 70 percent. New Deal policies and World War II renewed life in the plants and mines, but did little to alter relations between labor and management.

As African American and white workers struggled against owners for higher wages and better working conditions, various forces limited the miners’ ability to organize. In general, segregation and wage inequality precluded interracial unions. Firms also hired convicts from the city to work in the mills and blast furnaces, at rates far below what they paid for free labor. Ninety percent of the convict labor supply was composed of African Americans, many of whom had been arrested for vagrancy or other empty charges. Contracts for prison labor continued until 1928, when the state abolished the system, but the fight for workers’ rights continued well into the 1940s.

One African American leader in this effort, Birmingham native Hosea Hudson, helped form the Southern Organizing Drive. A former sharecropper turned steel worker, Hudson was president of Steel Local 2815 and a delegate to the Birmingham Industrial Union Council from 1942 to 1947. His fight to ease the plight of African American laborers slowed when he was blackballed as a communist, but he and his contemporaries continued the uphill battle: in the 1950s, 73 percent of laborers were African American men; 77 percent of domestics were African American women. African Americans were also more likely to be poor: in 1950, 49 percent of Birmingham’s whites and 82 percent of the city’s African Americans earned less than $5000 per year.

However, as with many of the African American business districts that survived on the edges of U.S. cities, Fourth Avenue institutions and resources were vastly inferior to those available to whites. In Birmingham, the system of segregation strangled access to public transportation, education, decent medical care, and adequate housing. Lines of race divided buses, taxicabs, even ambulances. Before 1940 schools for African American children had shorter terms and often focused on courses in industrial training for boys and domestic work for girls. In 1950 the average class size in these schools was 48 students, compared to 35 in white schools. Until 1947, when the state ordered equal salaries, African American teachers earned 60 percent of the income of a white teacher. Birmingham’s African American residents also faced substandard medical care. The city excluded African American physicians from its hospitals until 1954 and blocked the African American community from access to its own hospital until 1964. Housing segregation, historically established during the industrial era, aggravated the absence of educational opportunities and social services. The color line trapped African Americans in the poorest and most poorly equipped neighborhoods in Birmingham. Only after World War II, in response to pressure from African American veterans, did the city allow African American families to establish middle class neighborhoods like Honeysuckle Hill and Titusville.

Advancements like equal pay for teachers and new neighborhoods for wealthy African Americans did little to assuage those who demanded full integration and equal rights in Birmingham. With the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956, Alabama entered the national spotlight in the struggle for civil rights. Birmingham was often at center stage in the Civil Rights Movement, not only for its citizens’ courageous efforts, but also for its local government’s staunch resistance. When groups like the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) filed petitions for integrated public facilities and an integrated downtown business community, city officials refused their demands.

Early in the 1960s, the ACMHR, led by the charismatic Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, invited Martin Luther King Jr., to participate in Project C, or Project Confrontation. The initiative organized selective buying campaigns to protest segregation of downtown businesses; planned demonstrations to protest the city’s refusal to fully integrate; and followed the legal tactics of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). When thousands of children participated in a march for integration, Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor ordered the use of fire hoses and dogs to drive back the youthful demonstrators. Across the country, television stations fanned images of firefighters attacking citizens with powerful hoses and police carting children away in paddy wagons. This police riot in Birmingham drew national attention to the harsh realities of racial segregation in the South, and sparked more than a hundred black protests in cities and communities throughout the nation.

After being arrested during the demonstrations, King wrote his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," responding to the city’s white ministers who called for an end to the protests. Finally, following several weeks of demonstrations, civil rights and business leaders agreed on a settlement that broke down some of segregation’s barriers. But a climate of white defiance and lawlessness prevailed, with the active encouragement of Gov. George Wallace and other public officials. On September 15, 1963, terrorists bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, claiming the lives of four young girls — Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. The tragedies and triumphs of the Birmingham movement accelerated the move toward the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial segregation.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended decades of unequal access to civic participation in Birmingham. Without federal support, Birmingham’s African Americans had barely voted since the state constitution of 1901 barred them from the voting booth. More than 60 years later, as the city registered more African American voters than perhaps had ever cast a ballot there, the promise of political opportunity loomed over the city’s changing social and economic landscape. However, such change would come slowly in Alabama. In 1968 it took a Supreme Court ruling to stop the "free choice" system in the public schools that had effectively maintained segregation in education.

But 1968 also brought with it signs of Birmingham’s new faith in a bright future. That year, Birmingham elected the first African American to city council, attorney Arthur Shores. In 1973 a countywide vote placed Chris McNair, an African American, in the Alabama House of Representatives. At the close of the 1960s, new coalitions demonstrated the city’s commitment to the goal of racial equality. One group, the Community Affairs Committee, part of Operation New Birmingham, convened in 1969 to discuss the city’s race relations. By 1974 a Citizen Participation Program, another city-sponsored group, advised the local government on their progress. In 1979 Richard Arrington, an educator and city council member, became the first African American mayor of Birmingham. His leadership through the next decades was crucial to the realization of many programs aimed at equal representation and economic opportunity. By 1990 the Birmingham Plan was in place, an initiative that sought to ensure equal access to capital, loans, mortgages, and employment for the city’s women and African Americans. Arrington retired in 1999.

Since 1971, when Look magazine named Birmingham an All-Star City for its improved racial climate, African Americans have weathered high unemployment, tense relations with the city’s police department, and perhaps most significantly, the rapid decline of the steel industry. However, as the iron and steel base receded, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a university and medical complex, has rejuvenated the city’s economy. African Americans have also benefited from the city’s efforts to diversify and strengthen various industries, including health care, publishing, and manufacturing. In 1992 the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute opened its doors. Dedicated to the legacy of social change and the fight for civil rights at both national and international levels, the research facility and museum symbolize a commitment to the past and the future. On its doors, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. invite visitors to consider the story of this American city: "I like to believe the negative extremes of Birmingham’s past will resolve into the positive and utopian extremes of her future; that the sins of a dark yesterday will be redeemed in the achievements of a bright tomo

In 1789 the French revolution did ignite the people of Saint-Dominique to revolt just a few years later. All products were to imported and exported to France. Trading to other colonies was strictly prohibited.

Joining alliances were the white planters and the free people of color. Although the white planters were racist and did not accept the free people of color they did have economic and political commonality. The remaining whites refused to get involved as they were not wealthy and resented the people of colors economic status. The Slaves consistently rebelled. Many people of color and whites feared being overtaken as slaves’ outnumbered free people 10-1. There are several episodes of unified rebellions including the 1759 poisoning of slave masters, master minded by a slave named Mackandal, who had extensive knowledge of poisons. Mackandal was successful in the wide spread poisoning of livestock and water supply. No one could identify the poison nor did they know its origin, until a slave with knowledge about Mackandal plan was tortured for information. Mackandal and others were put to death; however whites and free people of color remained cautious.

Meanwhile in France the revolution was swift. The reigning monarch, who consisted of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were seen as one of the greedier ruling parties and extremely unsympathetic to the common people. The people demanded equal rights as citizens and most of all basic human rights. On August 26th 1789, a new parliament of the people was established. Two years prior an anti-slavery society was founded much like Thomas Clarkson of England.

Most of these groups had ties with one another, including American abolitionists. Instead of building a case against slavery, they focused their attentions on equal treatment or rights of free people of color as these people were not considered property but owned property and paid their taxes. So a new amendment passed on March 28th 1790 which gave free citizenship to free persons of color who were property owners. This enraged the poor whites that owned no property.

In 1790, as a free person of color, Vincent Oge who was extremely wealthy attempted to be seated as a delegate during the Paris debates, he was denied and returned to Saint-Dominique with a mission to get full citizenship to all free persons of color. He met with abolitionist Thomas Clarkson in England and joined forces with Jean-Baptist Chavannes. They were prepared to set up forces against the colonists. Oge made no alliances with the slaves as he regarded them as property. They were defeated and brought to justice by the French. On March 19, 1791, Both Oge and Chavannes were publicly tortured as an example.

Cairo, the Navy SEAL dog, was responsible for tracking anyone that tried to escape the bin Laden compound during the raid in Pakistan. Cairo would also alert the team members if anyone was approaching the compound. War dog organizations report that requests to adopt these veterans have increased dramatically in the past weeks.

Approximately 300 retired U.S. military dogs are placed for adoption every year.  Military officials have received over 400 adoption applications in just three weeks since the May 2^nd raid. In the past, most military dogs were simply euthanized once their tours of duty were done.  “They made a really big deal about Cairo being a super dog but all dogs in the military are super dogs,” said Ron Aiello, president of the U.S. War Dogs Association. “These dogs are fully trained, are worth probably $40,000 to $50,000 each at least, and it’s a dog that has been saving American lives. It’s kind of a hero in a way.”

Aiello, a dog handler for the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, began the war dog organization to shed light on the tragic history plight of military dogs.  The U.S. military began to be interested in war dogs after World War I when France and Germany used military canine.  Prior to Vietnam, dogs were trained to be fierce attack dogs that would attack humans.  The military found this was not very helpful and began to train dogs to be patrol dogs.

Military dogs today are used to find explosives, insurgents and drugs, and to help search for missing people. Some are so highly trained they can work off leash and follow commands whispered by their handlers through a specialized communication system attached to the dog. The dogs are credited with saving thousands of lives. Last year, Aiello said, a dog on patrol in Iraq detected a fertilizer bomb on the other side of the door in a building. The dog sat down and alerted U.S. troops, who spotted the explosive by looking under the door. If the dog had not sat down, troops would have opened the door and the building might have blown up, killing all inside.

Dogs were abandoned by the military or euthanized until 2000 when President Bill Clinton signed a law allowing the dogs to be adopted. None are euthanized now.  Last year, 338 dogs were adopted, including 34 that were given to police departments or other government agencies.

Different people adopt military dogs, sometimes families of fallen solider. Pfc. Colton Rusk in Afghanistan was struck by a bullet and his best friend, a black Labrador named Eli, sat by his side snapping at other Marines that tried to help.  Rusk died from the bullet wound but his parents adopted Eli.  Other times police or other law enforcement organizations will adopt the dog who has gone through specialized training.

On The Web

• “A War Dog Helped Catch Osama Bin Laden” and related posts (blogs.villagevoice.com)
• WAR DOGS IN AFGHANISTAN [Dogs] (gizmodo.com)
• War Dog II (unityconquer.wordpress.com)

I am looking out my window.  I don’t see any big piles of smoking shoes.  Isn’t that what was supposed to be left?  The body and soul would be plucked out of their pair of Ugg boots and fly through the air until they hit the clouds.  Is that how the story goes?  I am unclear on the rapture stuff.  It is all pretty new to me.  But it sounds fabulous.  I really like the idea of it.  Maybe, all the goody two shoes will vaporize off this planet, leaving cool people like me and the animals.  Do really bad people go to hell during the rapture?  I mean people like Michael Vick, not people that don’t believe in the rapture.  I don’t think that is supposed to happen but that would be even cooler.  Maybe we can create that story for the next supposed rapture date.

Either one of two things happened.  There was no rapture and the minister who believed in such made a miscalculation.  Or, God doesn’t really want anyone.  I am sure a few people died this evening at 6PM.  Is it possible that they were the only good ones?  We all pretend to know what God wants but we have no freaking clue.  Maybe we should be dying our hair green and rollerblading every place we go to find a place in Heaven.  And only those green hair skating people were taken by God on May 21^st, 6PM whatever time zone they were in.  The bible is very generic and full of contradictions.  Not to mention that it wasn’t even written by God.  So, I am under no delusion that I know what I have to do to leave this life alive.  None of us really do.  We just think we know.

I am a good person so I don’t really worry about after life all that much.  I don’t think you have to sit in a church every week or follow ridiculous guidelines to get anywhere.  My vision of God, or the universe, is a pretty laid back hippie type.  But, if the rapture does happen-I am ready.  I will be park up close at the grocery store and never wait in a traffic jam again.  Maybe the rapture will happen at 6 PM Pacific Standard Time?  Keep your fingers crossed.

On The Web

• Rapture Believers Confused About Why They (And The Planet) Are Still Here (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Redemption and post-rapture life (thejonmartin.com)
• Day 89. Mystery Jeff, The Meal, Raptured at Noon, CST (themysteryyear.wordpress.com)

Tensions have been steadily escalating and many observers fear the nation is on the brink of yet another civil war. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and other Sudanese officials have now said that the North will not recognize the new state of South Sudan.  The results of the election that led to the secession were nearly unanimous and recognized internationally.

North and South have deployed forces in and around Abyei in breach of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and as both sides seek to control the territory.  While previous clashes have involved civilians, informal militias, and/or police, last week’s involved members of security forces on both sides.

The African Union and the U.S. have made numerous attempts to broker a solution, but have been unsuccessful so far. The parties have agreed that the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), which is tasked to facilitate negotiations on outstanding post-referendum and CPA issues, will table a new proposal toward a political solution in late May.

Both North and South Sudan have asserted claims over Abyei in recent weeks.  The dispute over Abyei — a territory geographically, ethnically and politically caught between North and South — is one of the most intractable in Sudan. The area is settled primarily by Ngok Dinka communities and has been used for hundreds of years by Misseriya pastoralists who migrate to and beyond the territory to graze huge cattle herds during the dry season. Clashes early in the year and unresolved tensions have again prevented the Misseriya migration south, and apparently large numbers of cattle may die for lack of grass and water.

The CPA granted Abyei its own referendum (a choice to join the new South or remain a special administrative territory within the North), but this did not take place in part because of heated disputes over who was eligible to vote. Ngok Dinka constituents are overwhelmingly in favour of joining the South, while Misseriya communities fear annexation could prevent migration and thus threaten their way of life.

On The Web

• Sudan rivals trade accusations after Abyei shooting (alternet.org)
• North and South Sudanese Forces Move to Abyei (africanaonline.com)
• 10 killed during clashes in disputed Sudan region (sfgate.com)

Ouattara, speaking in the Senegalese capital last week, promised to launch investigations into all war crimes reported since the disputed November election, including those committed by forces loyal to him.  Ouattara says he wants to work to bring an end to impunity in Ivory Coast. He said that no one is above the law and that the killers will be punished.

Former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down after he lost the election to Ouattara last November. Gbagbo was finally captured in April after the country broke out into a civil war over the disputed results.

Forces loyal to both men have been accused of atrocities and human rights abuses since the crisis began.  Ouattara has named a former prime minister to the head of a truth and reconciliation commission to address the abuses and heal divisions.

Ouattara has been strongly trying to reunify the country.  In his speech last week,, he reported he is the elected president of all Ivorians.  His goal is to reunite Ivorians and build this reconciliation. It is not an easy task after what we have all been through, he says, but there is a common will to emerge from this situation and not repeat past mistakes.

President Ouattara was speaking in Dakar after meetings with fellow economist and long-time friend, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, whom he referred to as “a big brother.”

President Wade said the visit was one of “work and friendship” that marked the beginning of increased cooperation between the two nations.

On The Web

• Ivory Coast president calls for ICC investigation (sfgate.com)
• Ivory Coast Ruling Party Asking for a “National Reconcilliation” (africanaonline.com)
• Ivory Coast New President to be Inaugurated in May (africanaonline.com)

“In the wake of security challenges including terror threats, I can confirm that we decided to enhance security at the home of Mama Sarah,” regional administrator Francis Mutie told AFP, using the popular name for Obama’s step-grandmother.

“All visitors going to the home will have to be thoroughly vetted. They will undergo security screening before they are cleared to visit the home.” Mrs. Obama, who lives in a village called Kogelo in western Kenya, will also be given an escort, he said.

On May 2^nd, U.S. forces killed the al-Qaeda leader under the direction of President Obama.  Militant groups have vowed to avenge his death. There has been conflicting reports over whether the Obama family has received direct threats.

AFP reported that there were no direct threats against the family. However, the Telegraph and other news organizations reported that the enhanced security for Sarah Obama comes after a specific threat from Al Shabaab, a group of Somali Islamists linked to al-Qaeda.

“We received reports of plans to attack the home of Mama Sarah Obama, and we immediately put in place security measures,” local police chief Stephen Cheteka told Africa Review. Kenyan police told ABC News they are now patrolling around the clock. One police chief said he had enough officers “to patrol the entire village.”  Sarah Obama is the third wife of Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama. The American president often refers to her as his grandmother.

The Shabaab insurgents announced last week that they will avenge bin Laden’s death “very soon.”

“We are sending a message to [Barack] Obama and [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton that we will avenge the death of our leader Sheikh Osama bin Laden very soon,” U.S.-born Omar Hamami told AFP.”Osama is dead but the holy war is not dead. Mujahedeen fighters all over the world are fully prepared to revenge the death of our leader.”

Mama Sarah’s home has been guarded since the Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008.  The elderly Obama has said she does not mind the extra security.   “My life has not been affected in any way,” she said. “It has not restricted my movement. If the government has decided to bring more security personnel, we are OK with it.”

On The Web

• “Kenya – Barack Obama’s Grandmother, Sarah Obama, Threatened by Al Qaeda” and related posts (vosizneias.com)
• Mrs Obama Wanted Dead by Al Qaida (socyberty.com)
• Al Qaeda Threatens the Life of Barack Obama’s Grandmother in Kenya (themoderatevoice.com)

Mayuf reported that the company decided to halt production after rocket attacks on April 4 damaged a pumping station and production facilities at southeast Messla.  A pumping station on the pipeline to Tobruk also came under attack. Eight rebels serving as guards were killed in the second attack, he said. After the attacks, rebel oil chief Wahid Bugaighis said repairs to Messla would be completed in about three weeks and they would resume pumping oil.

Mayuf said Bugaighis “doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

Gadhafi struck after the rebels had just begun exporting oil, following a weeks-long hiatus due to fighting. The rebels had sold 1 million barrels of oil with the help of Qatar. The exports were intended to raise funds to battle the government forces that still control the western portion of the country.

“Everything depends on security. We can produce tomorrow but our fields would be attacked,” Mayuf said in an interview on Sunday. “We cannot put an army around each field. We are not a military company and the forces of Gadhafi are everywhere.”

It is not known when oil production will be able to continue. “We cannot say when we will restart because it depends on this military operation and when Gadhafi leaves,” Mayuf said.

Other oil companies in the North African country have also stopped production.  According to Mayuf, most oilfields in west Libya were run by Western companies who evacuated from Libya weeks ago, with production at the main western Hamada fields halting from the start of the revolt. He said the western refinery at Ras Lanouf operated with Agoco oil, so could not be productive until Agoco resumes work. Agoco provided about 15 per cent of fuel for a smaller refinery at Zawiya, just east of Tripoli, he said.

On The Web

• Biggest Libya oil producer says no more oil until war ends (thestar.com)
• Libya Blames Britain As Oil Production Falters (huffingtonpost.com)
• The IEA Looks At Qaddafi’s “Game Changing” Attacks On Libyan Oil Fields (businessinsider.com)

The four reporters have been held by the Libyan government for a few weeks.  Ibrahim did not name the reporters but said they included at least two United States citizen and a citizen of Spain.  He said a South African reporter was still missing.  The Libyan spokesman said that there was a delay in releasing the four reporters because of a NATO airstrike on the Justice Ministry offices.  He also blamed the general chaos of the war for the delay.

The reporters will appear before a judge on Tuesday in the capital city.  Ibrahim does not expect that the reporters will face jail time and instead, feels it is likely they will pay a fine and be released.

The North African country of Libya has been embroiled in a civil war for two months after an uprising demanding that longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi steps down as president.  Gadhafi has sent government forces out to battle the rebel movement.

Meanwhile, the Libyan rebels have been working to create a legitimate government to replace Gadhafi. They have been gathering to form new interim legislative and executive bodies.”The purpose is to set up an executive and legislative administration for the country,” said Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the rebels’ National Transitional Council in a brief interview on the sidelines of a meeting Saturday with senior delegates from other parts of the country and newly returned dissidents.  He said the current 31-member council, created in March when rebels took control of the east, would be expanded to represent all of Libya, turning into an interim parliament until elections could be held. The meeting continued Sunday with a formal announcement of the new council expected shortly, after an executive body under the leadership of the rebels’ current de facto foreign minister Mahmoud Jibril was unveiled Thursday.

On The Web

• International Criminal Court Seeking Arrest Warrant for Gadhafi (africanaonline.com)
• No Truce yet……………………. (ukmitch.wordpress.com)
• Libyan Government Take Over Rebel Border Post (africanaonline.com)

In recent weeks, fighting from Libya has crossed borders and spilled into Tunisia.  Tunisia is still struggling since its uprising early this year that ousted the longtime leader of that country and sparked similar revolutions in other Northern African and Arab countries.

The Tunisian military sent tanks, armored vehicles and reinforcement troops to the Tataouine region on its southern border with Libya in response to the latest tensions Saturday, resident Mohamed Hedia told The Associated Press.

Two people suspected of links to al-Qaida’s North African affiliate were arrested overnight, one with a belt of explosives and the other carrying a grenade, Tunisian state television reported Sunday. They were arrested in the mountains outside Remada, a town in the border region. One was Libyan and the other was Algerian.  The two are believed to belong to Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a group roughly based in Algeria that has staged kidnappings and attacks across a swath of northwest Africa in recent years.

The military that was deployed along the Tunisia-Libya border was able to thwart an attempt by tropps from Gadhafi’s army to cross the border while riding about 50 off-road vehicles, according to the state news agency, TAP.  The Libyans were stopped and sent back across the border to their base in Ghezaya. TAP said the Libyans had been trying to enter Tunisia in a bid to retake the strategic Dhehiba border crossing, controlled by Libyan rebels for the past few weeks.

Thousands of refugees have crossed the border into Tunisia since the fighting began in March.

On The Web

• Tunisia pushes back Libyan troops (sfgate.com)
• Two suspected al-Qaida affiliates arrested in Tunisia (calgaryherald.com)
• Tunisia Becomes Haven for Growing Refugees (africanaonline.com)

The represents the first time that the court has investigated human rights abuses as a conflict is taking place. The allegations include security forces killing unarmed protesters, forced displacement, illegal detentions and airstrikes on civilians.

According to Moreno-Ocampo, officials have been investigating Libya since February 15 when demonstrations against the Gadhafi regime became more widespread.  Since that time, a civil war has broke out over the north African nation as the Libyan leader has refused to step down and wants to hold on to his power. Moreno-Campo has to present all his evidence to a panel of judges before the court in The Hague, Netherlands, can decide whether to issue arrest warrants.  The process can take time.

In Benghazi, hundreds of protesters marched in the street over the weekend asking for justice against the Gadhafi regime for their crimes.  “We want to pressure the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest Gadhafi,” Najla Hakim, an event organizer with Libya’s February 17th Youth group, told CNN.

“We want Gadhafi to be arrested and then possibly executed,” said Noha Salem, a protester who marched along Amr ibn Alas Street near the old section of Benghazi.

“All Libyans have been affected by those crimes, even little kids,” she added. “He has been committing atrocities since 1969, not just since the start of this revolution.”

The United Nations, meanwhile, is trying to negotiate a cease fire between Gadhafi’s forces and rebel fighters.  Gadhafi broadcast an audio message declaring he is in a place that he cannot be killed, ending some speculation that the longtime leader was seriously injured in one of the NATO bombing campaigns.

On The Web

• ICC Requests Arrest Warrants ‘For Gaddafi’ (news.sky.com)
• Italy expects Gadhafi international arrest warrant (sfgate.com)

“From all indications, they knew who he was and were on his trail,” Abubakar told AFP of the attack in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.”Apparently, this attack was carried out by members of Boko Haram. The mode of operation resembles Boko Haram’s,” the police chief said referring to the Islamist sect.

On late Thursday, two motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and killed local chief Abba Mukhtar outside his home in Maiduguri.  The police chief’s friend was seriously wounded in the attack according to police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi.

Boko Haram, the Islamist group believed to be responsible for the attack, launched an uprising in 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.  The uprising was crusted by the military and hundreds of people were killed.  The Boko Haram’s headquarters and mosque was destroyed during the crackdown. In recent months, the sect has been blamed for a series of attacks on military and police personnel, community and religious leaders and politicians, including the high-profile killing of a leading governorship candidate.  It has also been blamed for raids on police stations, churches and a prison.

Police believe that some of the recent attacks were politically motivated since Nigeria’s elections in April. The governor-elect of Borno State Kashim Shettima offered to grant amnesty, this week, to sect members if they renounce violence.  A sect spokesman claims that the Boko Haram have rejected this offer.  Shettima will assume office at the end of this month.

On The Web

• Nigeria: An Amnesty for Boko Haram? (sahelblog.wordpress.com)
• Bomb explosion kills 2 in Maiduguri, Borno State (saferafricagroup.com)
• Boko Haram and Nigeria’s Elections (sahelblog.wordpress.com)