Sudan: Embassy Honchos, Electricians and a 100 million Euro sukuk financing in "a world of mendacity and twirls"

US Officials check embassy security after murder of John Granville. And threaten to scrap plans for new US embassy in Sudan

Two senior US officials have flown in to Sudan to review security at their embassy following the killing of a US aid official in Khartoum, staff said yesterday.

The US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield arrived in the capital with the Director General of the US Foreign Service Harry Thomas, officials said.

"First and foremost they are here to talk about security relating to the embassy after what happened," said Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the US embassy in Sudan.

I wonder, can a standoff between US and Sudanese officials still be considered a Mexican Standoff?
January 13, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The US administration said it may call a halt to the construction of a new embassy building in Sudan unless Khartoum releases equipments blocked by custom authorities.

The daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published in London reported that Sudanese officials said that they will not release the equipments unless the US administration to unfreeze its assets in the US.

Sabir Mohammed Hassan, governor of Sudan Central Bank, asked the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas Greenfield, specifically to return money confiscated following a ruling by U.S. court that ordered Khartoum to pay some $8 million to the families of U.S. sailors killed in the bombing of an American naval destroyer seven years ago in Yemen.

The newspaper said that Greenfield turned down Sudan’s request and said that Washington will abandon the new embassy project which incurred $60 million in costs to date.

Hassan on his end vowed not to give the US embassy equipments any special consideration. He told the US official that the Sudanese embassy in Washington gets audited on a regular basis which costs Khartoum over $3,000 monthly...

I thought this was an interesting tidbit: Missouri Electricians to install powerlines in Sudan. Just more of the evil imperialists at work, I guess.

Instead of worrying about damage from winter storms, three Boone Electric Cooperative linemen will spend the next few weeks bringing light to about 200 people in Sudan.

Steve Baumgartner, Jamie Conrow and Jimmy Goodnight will be installing power lines and training residents in Yei, a city in Sudan near the equator with about 40,000 residents, on utility operations. Goodnight said the first task will be to wire stores and businesses.

The govt of Sudan has announced it will sell 100 Million Euros of Islamobonds in the country's first Sukuk offering. Good luck with that, I'm not sure I would be rushing out to add these bonds to my portfolio.

Meanwhile back in the world of mendacity and twirls...

In the World of mendacity and twirls, Khartoum conceivably excels all the other countries in the region and there is hardly any shortage of ambassadors of disinformation and falsehood serving the country. Last week Abdelmahmoud Mohamad, Sudan’s Representative to the United Nations had the audacity to tell the world that his ostracized government in Khartoum had nothing to do with the savage and unprovoked attack on the UNAMID force in Darfur, making a clown of his personality as well as ridiculing the government of Omar Al Bashir. He instead accused the Justice and Equality Movement’s freedom fighters of being responsible for the assault.

Crazy, you're thinking. Well, you ain't heard crazy yet - the UN Security Council fiddles about the attack on their forces while the Rebel movement proclaims 3 new states in Sudan’s Darfur. (Oddly enough, these three new states "correspond in fact to North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur states "- it appears the rebels are making progress and the Islamists are talking trash.