04 February 2012 02 February 2012 25 January 2012 Osen-Hunter Teams With Triple Canopy 18 January 2012 13 January 2012 11 January 2012 08 January 2012 04 January 2012 21 December 2011 19 December 2011 16 December 2011 10 December 2011 29 November 2011 26 November 2011 23 November 2011 20 November 2011 18 November 2011 17 November 2011 17 July 2011 SPECIAL REPORT: LIBYA, AFRICAN MIGRANTS & THE SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA Last Sunday, 10 July, a Spanish frigate rescued 111 African migrants from a small fishing vessel, adrift with engine failure, off the coast of Libya. For a week now, the skipper has wondered who might rescue him. The frigate sought to enter Malta, but that nation refused. Who, or what entity, ordered ALMIRANTE DE BORBÓN (F 102) to Malta and why? Right now, we don’t know. But a larger mystery looms in the weeks and months ahead: Does the international dispute over 111 African migrants aboard a Spanish warship tell us anything about how international leaders will handle the underlying immigration issue as they meet in Istanbul over a cease fire in Libya? If and when they reach an agreement, will those leaders set terms for resolving the human crisis at sea that flows outward from the Gulf of Sidra – from hazardous crossings and drownings to the increasing reluctance by coastal nations to accept refugees and asylum seekers from Africa? To find the answer, we follow a reporter from Malta, humanitarians like actress Angelina Jolie and mercenaries from Niger. We discover that responsibility for the ongoing challenge to the safety of life at sea in the Mediterranean lies with Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. 07 July 2011 FLASH: HUMANITARIAN DISASTER UNFOLDING IN SOMALIA Nine million people in the Horn of Africa are in jeopardy, a full-blown famine has been assessed (although not official declared), and the catastrophe stretches across 208,000 square miles and touches four nations. We predict pirates and Al Shabaab will wreak more havoc as the international community comes to grips with the fact that aid must be delivered far inland to save millions of lives in a theater marred by conflict, deceit, clan rivalry and unbridled war. Delivering and protecting the food, the Docs and the aid workers will require BOOTS ON THE GROUND and far MORE AGGRESSIVE COUNTER-PIRACY TACTICS AT SEA than are at play today. 13 April 2011 When they aren’t praising rebels (and naming each and every fighter a Mujahid), Jihadis are applauding the growing strength of the Salafi resurgence in Jordan and Egypt where “masses of people willing to martyr themselves” ... What if the U.N. organized a consultative meeting on the future of Somalia, and no Somali officials came to consult? The meeting began yesterday in Nairobi, and, reckoning that the coffee would be laced with arsenic, the TRANSITIONAL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT stayed home (the current government’s mandate expires in August and likely won’t be renewed) ... The “Fight-Like-A-Dog” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé ripped into NATO’s campaign as insuffisante, especially in Misurata, the last western city where the rebels have a disputed presence and are holding out after 5 weeks of bombardment … Now flying the lion’s share of ground attack missions over Libya, France and the U.K. are asking the U.S. to “intensify” her role. 22 February 2011 07 February 2011 11 August 2010 It was at Sunday morning’s service when the clergy at WOODLAWN CHRISTIAN CHURCH in Knoxville, Tennessee, shared the news with the congregation. Cheryl Beckett, daughter of the church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Charles Beckett, was among a group of ten humanitarian aid workers shot and killed last Thursday in cold blood by the AFGHAN TALIBAN in a remote, mountainous region in northern Afghanistan. The work of humanitarians takes hold when the sick are healed, the well are put to work and the graft-minded are forced to slink away. The aid worker not only helps the people but brings the population a little closer to stability and sustainable growth. We explain why that good work is so ... subversive. 14 July 2010 As our website proclaims, at Osen-Hunter Global Security, “our focus is global, [but] our emphasis is people.” In keeping with that emphasis, we take a close look at the victims of the Al Shabaab bombing Sunday in Kampala, Uganda. What we find will alternately shock, sadden and inspire our readers. In memory of the victims of the cowardly attack on innocents, particularly the Rev. Peter Mutabazi, Becky and Francis, in prayerful regard for their families and friends, and in thanksgiving for "A Mission to Stay Behind" and the survival of the team from Christ Community United Methodist Church of Selinsgrove, PA, we remain, Yours in Hope, The Osen-Hunter Family 14 July 2009 Re-posted on 22 July 2011, this issue of Forward-Leaning contains two probes that bear on the issue of the recently declared famine in Somalia and the reversal by Al Shabaab of its offer to allow humanitarian agencies to enter regions they control. Attention is invited to: "More Mogadishu Kidnappings: The Plight of Journalists & Humanitarians" and the extremely germane "Somalia: Humanitarian Aid as Subversive Activity."