NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/activism/19791

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-22 | 2.5 KB

Xref: sparky alt.activism:19791 alt.politics.usa.misc:712 talk.politics.misc:65196
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.politics.usa.misc,talk.politics.misc
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!cbnewse!doctor1
From: [e-mail] (patrick.b.hailey)
Subject: Re: What is United States of America like?
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 04:02:27 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Lines: 43

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, pdchapin@unix (PAUL D CHAPIN) writes:
>>I just realized where you got this item.  The UN Secretary General wants the
>>US to do this.
>
>No, it was from U.S. newspaper reports copied to usenet (somewhwere in
>the somalia group I think).  The U.S. troops were saying they have a
>duty to seize khat when confronted.
>
>//Jyrki

From a story in the Chicago Tribune, 12/14/92, sec. 1 pg 5 entitled
"U.S. Drug Laws Clash With Somali Tradition".  I posted the whole thing
in talk.politics.drugs and, I think, alt.society.civil-liberty, with the
Subject: line the same as the article title:

   ...
   Military officials are saying they consider it within their duties to seize
 qat from Somalis if they find it, even though their UN mandate to protect
 relief supplies to famine victims does not mention drugs.
   "As far as the American military is concerned, qat is an illegal
 substance, according to U.S. law here," said Col. Fred Peck, spokesman for
 Operation Restore Hope.
    "If we see drugs we will seize [them] and we have seized some already."
    ...
    "They came to help us.  They haven't invaded to change our way of life,"
 complained Dr. Mohamed M. Ali, a London-trained physician at Mogadishu's
 Digfer Hospital and a casual user.
    In Somalia, qat chewing is above all a social activity, he said.
    ...
    Somalis see nothing wrong with qat, which they have been chewing for
 centuries.  Instead, as Muslims they are worried that American forces
 will introduce large quantities of alcohol into their country.
    ...
    When you drink whiskey you can't tell who is your brother and you will
 attack everybody," said Hassan Alrashid Abdalla, a security official with
 one of the factions.  "But when you chew the green grass you can remember
 who is your brother."
    ...

  Thanks awfully,
            Patrick