PrairiePundit

Washington Examiner: US stops issuing visas after Ghana refuses to take back deportees Other countries who in the past failed to take back deportees changed their policies on taking back deportees once they lost access to US visas.

NY Times: U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Cartel Hub The United States, trying to combat Latin American groups that are using Africa to smuggle cocaine into Europe, has begun training an elite counternarcotics police unit in Ghana. This fight has gotten harder since the al Qaeda affiliate took over Mali.  They have been involved in the transit of drugs delivered from Venezuela into West Africa.  There have been reports that the trade is facilitated by people within the Chavez government some of whom have recently been promoted.  For some reason, we are fighting this battle in Africa rather than dealing with the perps in Venezuela.  The drugs probably originate with the FARC in Colombia, although some may also come from Bolivia which is also reported to be a center for cocaine production under the Morales regime. Ghana is just one of the Western African countries in the distribution chain.

Independent on Sunday: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told US investigators that about 20 other young Muslim men were being coached in Yemen to blow up planes using a technique identical to the one he employed, CBS News has reported, quoting a British intelligence source. The broadcaster said it had also established that part of the investigative focus had switched to Ghana, where Abdulmutallab stayed before flying to Lagos, Nigeria, to begin his mission that ended in smouldering failure as Northwest Flight 253 descended into Detroit on Christmas Day. The FBI has officers on the ground in Ghana and believe it is likely the terrorist may well have had his final al-Qa'ida briefing, and supplied with equipment and explosives, there. The Nigerian arrived in Accra, Ghana, on 9 December from Ethiopia, and remained there until 24 December, when he made the flight to Lagos. It is now known that the Ghanaian hotel he listed on his immigration form was not the one where he was actually stayin...

Reuters: A Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet on Christmas Day began his journey in Ghana and spent less than 30 minutes in Nigeria's Lagos airport , the Nigerian government said on Thursday. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been charged with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on December 25 with almost 300 people on board. "Further investigations by the Nigerian government have revealed that Abdulmutallab spent less than 30 minutes in the Nigerian airport before boarding the flight to Amsterdam," Information Minister Dora Akunyili said in a statement. "He arrived in Nigeria on 24 December from Ghana via Virgin Nigeria. His passport was scanned on entry into Nigeria at 20:08 and was scanned in at check-in for departure to Amsterdam at 20:35," she said. Although Abdulmutallab was known to have bought his t...