December 20, 2001
12:41 PM   Subscribe

According to witnesses, the US Army invaded a small nation in the Indian Ocean yesterday. Sources say the firefight is still raging, but it's becoming clear that it wasn't the US Army at all. At the nation's official website, you can see the flyer the soldiers passed out, written in French.
posted by ewagoner (20 comments total)
 
Ah... here it is in English. I love that the country has it's own .com address, and can get information out this way.
posted by ewagoner at 12:47 PM on December 20, 2001


crazy...
posted by techgnollogic at 12:52 PM on December 20, 2001


that is straight out of a Frederick Forsyth novel or something. Wow. Sneaky.
posted by th3ph17 at 12:52 PM on December 20, 2001


Ummmm. Say what? What the hell is this?
posted by ColdChef at 12:55 PM on December 20, 2001


Perhaps the assualt was led by the Grand Exalted High Majah of Raspur, a real-sounding but non-existant country. This was the next country on the waiting list.
posted by thebigpoop at 1:00 PM on December 20, 2001


Freedonia is at war with Sylvania! Is it Duck Soup yet?
posted by MrBaliHai at 1:02 PM on December 20, 2001


When I saw the original report yesterday, I just laughed. If it was a small bunch of guys, and it was US forces, they wouldn't announce who they were. If they said they were US Army and they were, it would be during a big Grenada-type thing, not a handful of assholes on a Zodiac rubber raider.
posted by alumshubby at 1:18 PM on December 20, 2001


Should we offer big money to rebuild the island or wait till we see who it is that took over from whom? Could it be CIA ops, searching for Oxy Moron?
posted by Postroad at 1:18 PM on December 20, 2001


more interesting fun facts about the island!
posted by th3ph17 at 1:28 PM on December 20, 2001


Anyone else remember Moroni from "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"
posted by cell divide at 1:30 PM on December 20, 2001


Even more information about Comoros.
posted by bshort at 1:34 PM on December 20, 2001


I do recall a Moroni in The Book of Mormon
posted by nagchampa at 1:53 PM on December 20, 2001


Yes, indeed, Nagchampa... I always get a kick seeing place names like "Moroni", or "Nephi"... but they're usually in Utah.

Go figure.

What I want to know is if anything more substantive has come out on this "invasion". Sounds more like a thinly veiled coup by one of the many factions.
posted by silusGROK at 1:59 PM on December 20, 2001


Carried out by mercenaries. Cool.
posted by coelecanth at 2:03 PM on December 20, 2001


The Comoros aren't the most politically stable place in the world, with 19 coups in 25 years. My guess is that, since the country is (and has been) teetering on the brink of civil war, this is just another one of the faction's ploys that takes advantage of 9/11 situation.
posted by Kevs at 2:30 PM on December 20, 2001


how can a small country like that afford that many coups? unemployed dotcommers working as mercs? Anyone know of any similar shenanigans Ever?
posted by th3ph17 at 3:27 PM on December 20, 2001


Ha Ha! What a great idea! I'm gonna dress up in fatigues and take over some big luxury yacht claiming that I'm US acting against terrorism! HA. Cool Deal!
posted by HTuttle at 4:42 PM on December 20, 2001


before I booked our honeymoon in Thailand. Jeez!

Isn't that a bit presumptuous? I haven't even accepted your proposal yet!
posted by rushmc at 7:28 PM on December 20, 2001


Good gravy! I was just reading (in Dangerous Places) {affiliate code for ACLU} about Bob Denard, the former Foreign Legion soldier who's twice seized power in the Comoros. He's supposed to be locked up in France right now to keep him out of mischief.

In one of his attempted coups, I believe, his guys were disguised as a visiting rugby team, but at the airport the customs officials found guns concealed in their gear under false bottoms.

If this really is a bunch of francophone mercs, they picked a bad time to pull this off. The French air carrier Charles de Gaulle is in the Arabian Sea supporting the war in Afghanistan.... There should be one or two boats in the flotilla that they can spare.

The Comoros are particularly vulnerable to this kind of thing since they're such a small country and so close to the African continent. That makes it easy to find a random unstable country nearby that can support the planning and prep for an operation like this. The Seychelles have also suffered similarly.
posted by dhartung at 9:56 AM on December 21, 2001


yeah, on french tv they said it wasn't us mercenaries, it was french ones :(
posted by aureliano buendia at 10:12 AM on December 21, 2001


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