Somalia Thread

[Jray]

Somalia too tough for al Qaeda?
Armed militias roam the streets of Mogadishu. Fears that Somalia, on the Horn of Africa and accessible by land and sea, is ripe to become an al Qaeda hub have so far failed to materialize.

Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda has failed for more than a decade to establish an operational base in Somalia due to the country’s austere environment and inhospitable clans, a new U.S. military report says.

Fears that Somalia, on the Horn of Africa and accessible by land and sea, is ripe to become an al Qaeda hub have so far failed to materialize.

“Al Qaeda found more adversity than success in Somalia,” states the report by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. “In order to project power, al Qaeda needed to be able to promote its ideology, gain an operational safe haven, manipulate underlying conditions to secure popular support and have adequate financing for continued operations. It achieved none of these objectives.”

The United States has portrayed Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, as being in danger of becoming an al Qaeda host, much like Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Afghanistan had much to offer bin Laden: the ruling Taliban as an ally; a network of bases and training camps; and easy access to a neighboring country such as Pakistan for money, arms and debarkation for international travel.

But Somalia is so devoid of basic infrastructure that al Qaeda operatives lacked the means to set up functioning training camps that can be accessed and resupplied.

“The anarchic conditions in Somalia that many believe serve al Qaeda’s purposes turned out to be as challenging for al Qaeda as for the Western organizations seeking to help Somalia,” the West Point report said.

The report is based in part on 27 recently declassified al Qaeda documents seized during the war on terrorism and on recent developments in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Ethiopia, a U.S. ally, in December ousted a radical Islamic group that attempted to take power.

James Phillips, a foreign policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said another key factor is the U.S. military task force in nearby Djibouti. The air and ground forces monitor events in Somalia, and other Horn of Africa nations, and advise them on counterterrorism.

On Somalia’s receptiveness to an al Qaeda alliance, Phillips said, “Al Qaeda is predominately an Arab organization, and Arabs tend to stick out in Somalia, so it’s difficult for them to establish large covert bases. The only thing they hate more than their own homegrown radical Islamists casting themselves as holier-than-thou are foreign terrorists coming in and telling them they are not good Muslims and acting holier-than-thou.”

rscarborough@dcexaminer.com
Examiner

[user6paul]

How come nobody ever talks about Somaliland. An independant country that has managed to move from civil war with Somalia to peace and relative stability but is not recognised by any other country. Could it be that peace and stability is the last thing that world powers want?

here is a link to a little video I made there. When u get to the page look for archives and then Somaliland- Time to come home

http://www.bmetv.net/1024/home.asp

[Jray]

How come nobody ever talks about Somaliland. An independant country that has managed to move from civil war with Somalia to peace and relative stability but is not recognised by any other country. Could it be that peace and stability is the last thing that world powers want?

here is a link to a little video I made there. When u get to the page look for archives and then Somaliland- Time to come home

http://www.bmetv.net/1024/home.asp

start a thread

[Jray]

 Bomb blast mars UN Somalia visit
The highest-ranking United Nations official to visit Somalia for 10 years has arrived in the capital, Mogadishu.

John Holmes, the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, said he was there to pressure the Somali government to let humanitarian aid reach its people.

A car bomb killed four people near the UN compound in the south of the city as Mr Holmes' convoy left the airport.

The visit comes two weeks after Somalia's government declared victory over a bloody Islamic insurgency.

Senior intelligence official Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed was one of those killed in the blast, a security source told Reuters news agency.

The source said the explosion was unrelated to Mr Holmes' visit.

'Protect civilians'

Mr Holmes said the government had to look after its civilians, who have borne the brunt of years of fighting.

"It is their responsibility to look after civilians, to protect civilians and at the very least not to obstruct aid," he said.

But he said the African Union could not boost its peacekeeping forces in the capital until the government improved security.

On arrival in Mogadishu, Mr Holmes visited a cholera treatment centre next to the UN compound before meeting President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

The capital has been mostly calm since the government declared victory over the insurgents and many residents are starting to return to their homes.

Some 1,600 people were killed in six weeks of clashes between Ethiopian government-backed troops and Islamist and clan fighters, local aid groups say.

Up to 400,000 of Mogadishu's 2m residents fled to squalid camps or makeshift bush shelters.

Somalia has not had a working government since a civil war erupted 16 years ago.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/6649759.stm

Published: 2007/05/12 13:37:23 GMT

© BBC MMVII
Date Posted: May 12, 2007, 05:23:24 pmSocom Nominee Is 'Quiet Warrior'

By RICHARD LARDNER The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 13, 2007

TAMPA - Nearly 14 years ago, a Navy special warfare officer named Eric Olson arrived in the slum-choked African city of Mogadishu, Somalia, to join an American military task force hunting down a local warlord.

Not expecting to see action, Olson didn't have a weapon or flak vest. He was in Mogadishu as an observer, to become more familiar with the people he would be working with in his next stateside assignment.

Olson would leave Somalia a combat hero, a key figure in one of the deadliest urban battles since the Vietnam War. Yet you won't find his name in any of the unclassified accounts of a two-day battle most have come to know through the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."

The layers of secrecy blanketing the clandestine world in which Olson has worked for more than 30 years are partly responsible for the anonymity. The culture of the special operations community frowns on self-serving war stories, particularly in public settings.

The main reason, though, is Olson's disdain for attention. Those who know him say he maintains a level of discretion remarkable even for those who spend their careers in the shadows.

"He's a humble person," said retired Adm. Vern Clark, chief of Naval Operations from 2000 to 2005. "He's not a hoorah kind of guy. That's not the way he does it. He's a quiet warrior."

On Thursday, the Defense Department announced that President Bush had nominated Vice Adm. Olson to lead U.S. Special Operations Command, a rough-and-tumble confederation of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who tackle the most dangerous assignments in the worst conditions.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the command has emerged as one of the principal players in the Bush administration's terror war. Convinced that stealthy, surgical strikes are the best way to catch or kill terrorists, the administration has vested Socom with more people, more money and more authority to go after them.

Once confirmed by the Senate, Olson will receive a fourth star and become the first SEAL to make that rank. He will also be the first Navy officer to run Socom, an assignment that has been mostly the province of Army generals since the command was formed 20 years ago.

The current commander, Army Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown, is retiring after four decades in the military.

Olson, 55, won't have to move far from his office at MacDill Air Force Base. For the past three years, he has been the deputy commander at Socom, a post Clark urged his civilian bosses to put Olson in.

"I thought that he was the perfect guy to serve down there as the No. 2," Clark said. "He was the most experienced special operations leader [the Navy] had."

Those who grew up with Olson in Tacoma, Wash., marvel at the upward trajectory of his career. Former classmates at Stadium High School remember an easygoing and popular teenager who lived in a big house in a nice part of town.

As a senior at Stadium in the late 1960s, Olson was on the varsity wrestling team, a member of the school's House of Representatives and co-chairman of the Senior All-Night Party.

He also was one of the school's two male cheerleaders. The other was John Winskill, now a dentist who still lives in Tacoma.

"He could do his share of partying back then," Winskill said. "We both thought at the time it was more fun to lift girls than weights."

Winskill recalled being surprised when he learned years ago that his friend had become one of the Navy's Sea, Air and Land commandos, commonly known as the SEALs.

"He was small, disarming and quick to laugh. That's not how you picture Navy SEALs," Winskill said. "You wouldn't know he had the potential for that killer instinct."

To meet Olson is to understand the contradiction. He's of average height, has a slender build, hard blue eyes and light-brown hair that is cropped short and parted to the right. He comes across as serious but not the type who needs to pound the table to make a point. Without the Navy uniform, he could be a bank executive or a company president.

In Olson's case, appearances are misleading. He has held some of the military's most demanding jobs, including a three-year tour during the mid-1990s as commander of SEAL Team Six, the Navy's clandestine antiterrorism unit.

Howard Wasdin, a former member of Team Six, remembered Olson as the kind of boss who wouldn't "ask anyone to do anything that he's not going to do himself."

"He is literally the type who's going to jump in front of that bullet for you," said Wasdin, who left the Navy in 1995 and lives in Georgia. "And there's no doubt in my mind that he would."

Through a command spokesman, Olson declined to be interviewed for this article, saying it would be inappropriate to comment before the Senate has approved his nomination.
Young Innovator

Eric Thor Olson was born in Tacoma in January 1952, the second of Paul and Dawn Olson's three sons.

His father, who died nearly 30 years ago, was an oil industry executive whose parents came from Norway. His mother was brought up on a farm in Washington's Yakima Valley and became prominent in the state and local Democratic Party.

The Olsons lived comfortably and were well-connected. Dawn Olson was the youngest delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention, where she met and befriended Hubert Humphrey, then the mayor of Minneapolis and later vice president of the United States.

She ran for Congress in 1962, losing to Republican incumbent Thor Tollefson. Two years later, Floyd Hicks, a fellow Democrat and a family friend of the Olsons, defeated Tollefson. The relationship proved helpful a few years later.

Dawn Olson has remarried; she's now Dawn Lucien. She lives in Tacoma, where she remains an active member of the community.

"I was raised to think that anybody could do anything they wanted to do, and I guess I tried to impart that to my children," she said.

Eric Olson took to the water at an early age, Lucien said, and soon wanted a wet suit to bear the frigid temperatures of Puget Sound's channels and estuaries.

Lucien said no because he would outgrow it and soon need another. Then Olson came across a scuba diving magazine with an article about making your own wet suit. The key materials were a special glue and enough scraps of rubberized material.

His mother drove him to a wet suit manufacturer in Seattle. With money he earned as a paperboy, he bought a bag full of remnants. At home, he spread them out over the pingpong table in the basement and patched them together.

"And you know, it lasted him until he was old enough to get a real, honest-to-goodness wet suit," Lucien said.

Olson graduated from Stadium High in 1969. Congressman Hicks, knowing of Olson's interest in the ocean, nominated him for an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Olson was accepted, and his Navy career was under way.
'Hell Week'

After finishing at Annapolis in 1973, Olson entered the SEAL training course, a brutal and lengthy regimen designed to put candidates under enormous physical and mental stress.

The idea is to simulate as closely as possible the hurdles they will probably face when deployed on a combat operation. Nearly 70 percent of those who begin the course fail to complete it.

One portion of the training is known as "Hell Week," which is 5 1/2 days of continuous training, much of it on or under the ocean. Candidates are allowed only a few hours of sleep during that period.

Another exercise called "Drown Proofing" requires would-be SEALs to bob in pool water over their heads with their feet bound and their hands tied behind their backs. The idea is to make them comfortable in the water, even under duress.

Paradoxically, the most successful candidates aren't the muscle-bound commando stereotypes Hollywood pushes on the public. Brains matter more than brawn, said Rear Adm. Joe Maguire, the top officer at the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego.

"It is without a doubt the most demanding physical program in any military," Maguire said. "But I would also say it is by far more of a psychological program than it is a physical program because it really tests a young sailor's mental toughness and his ability to perform every single day."

Olson completed the SEAL program in 1974 and was assigned to a team that operates special minisubs that deliver troops and equipment for clandestine missions.

Over the next decade and a half, Olson globe-trotted between assignments in SEAL units and overseas postings that took him to Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

In 1990, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Olson was handpicked by then-Navy Capt. Ray Smith, who led the naval special warfare troops shipped to the Middle East as part of the U.S. response.

"I felt strongly enough about his maturity and judgment [and] I wanted him with me," said Smith, who retired in 2001 as a rear admiral.

Less than 48 hours after the first Iraq war started in January 1991, Olson's unit captured more than 100 Iraqi troops who had taken over Kuwaiti oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.

"That was quite a deal," Smith said.
Urban Warfare

Olson took over as commander of SEAL Team Six in 1994. Established by the Navy in 1980, Team Six was to be the oceangoing equivalent of the Army's Delta Force. Delta would be primarily responsible for going after terrorists on land, and Team Six would mainly attack by sea.

Team Six and Delta are "special mission units," and the military does not publicly discuss what they do. Once deployed, both fall under control of the equally mysterious Joint Special Operations Command, which is based at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.

The JSOC (pronounced "jay-sock") is described euphemistically in Socom publications as a think tank for the special operations community. Yet the command, which is a component of Socom, manages the secret, door-kicking missions aimed at what the military calls "high-value targets."

Before assuming command of Team Six, Olson's superiors wanted him to spend time in a combat setting with the JSOC staff. So in the fall of 1993, Olson headed to Mogadishu, where Task Force Ranger was based in a rundown hangar at an airfield on the outskirts of the city.

The task force, led by Army Maj. Gen. William Garrison, then the JSOC's top officer, was a blend of 450 Army Rangers, Delta Force commandos, Navy SEALs, Air Force combat controllers and specially trained helicopter pilots.

The force had been assembled to capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his key lieutenants. Aidid's militia had been violently opposing an international effort to bring order to the war-ravaged country.

On Oct. 3, 1993, about a third of the task force launched a daylight raid at a Mogadishu hotel where two of Aidid's top aides were meeting.

The midafternoon mission was expected to take about an hour. Instead, it turned into a long, violent street fight that stretched deep into the next morning. Two Army Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, and nearly 100 troops were trapped in the center of the city by heavy enemy fire.

Garrison and other task force officers were watching the action unfold on video monitors at their makeshift operations center. Once an observer, Olson suddenly became a participant.

As night fell, Olson and Lee Van Arsdale, a Delta Force officer, were ordered to help put together a relief team that would have to twice pass through the shooting gallery that had killed more than a dozen comrades and wounded many others.

Olson borrowed an M-4 carbine rifle and body armor.

"To go out at night in a very hostile environment, that's a tall order," recalled Van Arsdale, who retired from the military in 1999 and is now chairman of Triple Canopy, a private security company in Herndon, Va.

"I took the lead, and Eric had the harder job of taking the rear and making sure that there were no breaks in contact and that everyone kept up," he said.

Together they guided a column of 200 U.S. troops and armored personnel vehicles driven by Malaysian troops through Mogadishu's narrow, dirty streets toward the downed helicopters where the original assault force had set up a perimeter.

Olson, Van Arsdale and many of the other U.S. troops were moving on foot, using the armored carriers as rolling shields against the shower of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades.

They loaded the dead and the wounded in the vehicles and began leading the others out. The round trip became known as the "Mogadishu Mile" and didn't end until nearly 6:30 a.m. Oct. 4.

Several months later at a brief Pentagon ceremony, Olson received the Silver Star, the military's third-highest award for courage under fire. The medal citation credited him for "directing a relief column through intense hostile fire to the aid of friendly survivors."

Van Arsdale remembers Olson being unflappable despite the extraordinary stress.

"He's a natural leader, and someone I would gladly go into combat with again," Van Arsdale said.
Coincidental Connections

The battles Olson fights now are largely bureaucratic, but he remains fit and active. In February, he finished Tampa's Bank of America Marathon in three hours and 35 minutes, good enough for third out of the 40 runners in his age group.

On vacation a few years ago, Olson lost part of a finger while climbing Mount Rainier, a 14,400-foot active volcano in Washington. An ice bridge he was crossing gave way, dropping him 40 feet into a chasm. He was belayed to his fellow climbers, who pulled him out.

"He phoned me on the way back down the mountain and said, 'Mom, I wasn't going to tell you this, but I'm here and I have to go to Tacoma General Hospital because I've hurt my hand,'" Dawn Lucien recalled.

In one of those odd twists of coincidence, Lucien recently hosted a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat whose 9th Congressional District includes Tacoma. Smith is chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism and unconventional threats, which gives him oversight of special operations.

In Olson, Smith sees an opportunity for the command to concentrate more on the indirect approach to combating terrorism.

Smith said the Bush administration has focused too much on chasing individual terrorists and too little on winning hearts and minds before insurgencies take off in troubled countries - a crucial yet underutilized special operations tool.

"They see and understand the importance of this better than anybody," Smith said of the command's leadership. "So what we need is a change in policy, and then we need to empower them to do it."

Raised in SeaTac, a town halfway between Seattle and Tacoma, Smith said he has known Lucien "for years" and met her son after he was elected to Congress.

"I think he's an enormously talented individual who has the right outlook for where Socom needs to go," Smith said.
Date Posted: May 13, 2007, 04:09:55 pm Ethiopian troops to pull out of Somalia

Kuwait City - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in Kuwait on Sunday that Ethiopian troops will complete their withdrawal from neighbouring Somalia after the arrival of African Union peacekeeping forces.

"Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu will withdraw when the African Union peacekeepers arrive to support Ugandan forces which are already there," Meles was quoted by the state-run Kuwait News Agency KUNA as saying.

Meles announced in March that two-thirds of the Ethiopian deployment, which helped Somali troops drive out Islamists from south and central Somalia five months ago, had been withdrawn.

That decision to withdraw troops was taken by Ethiopia alone, Meles said Sunday, denying reported US pressure.

A small force of some 1,500 African Union troops from Uganda is currently deployed at strategic points around Mogadishu, but the AU has not yet gathered the 8 000 troops planned for its peacekeeping force.

Hundreds of people have been killed in heavy clashes in the Somali capital between insurgents and government forces backed by Ethiopian troops.

Three top Somali leaders, including top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hussein Aidid, last month issued a stern warning to Ethiopia to withdraw its troops immediately or face an all-out war.

Meles, who paid a two-day visit to Kuwait, told KUNA before leaving the emirate that the struggle in Somalia is between the transitional government and forces of the Islamist movement, which consists of two groups.

The first includes most of the tribal fighters who do not belong to the Al-Qaeda network, while the other is a small group of Al-Qaeda members, Meles said. - Sapa-AFP

Quickwire

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-05-13 21:58:23
Date Posted: May 14, 2007, 03:39:11 pm

Mr Holmes said the UN has not been able to meet the humanitarian needs of the displaced people due to difficulties posed by insecurity and lack of access.

Relative calm has been restored in Mogadishu and several hundred residents who had fled the city have started to return.

The BBC World Service is holding a special day of programming on Somalia on 15 May
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/6654601.stm

[The Wiseman]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17685.htm

The Hidden War for Oil

Carl Bloice elucidates the failure or unwillingness of the Western media to accurately report the invasion and occupation of Somalia by a US backed Ethiopian government. He asserts that behind the US-Ethiopian political alliance lies a strategic move to secure positioning in this oil region.

By Carl Bloice

05/11/07 "All Africa" -- -- The US bombing of Somalia took place while the World Social Forum was underway in Kenya, three days before a large anti-war action in Washington on 27 January 2007.

Nunu Kidane, network coordinator for Priority Africa Network (PAN), was present in Nairobi. After returning home, she asked: how 'to explain the silence of the US peace movement on Somalia?'

Writing in the San Francisco community newspaper Bay View, Kidane suggested one valid reason: 'Perhaps US-based organizations don't have the proper analytical framework to understand the significance of the Horn of Africa region. Perhaps it is because Somalia is largely seen as a country with no government and in perpetual chaos; with "fundamental Islamic" forces, not deserving of defense against the military attacks by US in search of "terrorists".'

To that it may be added the role of the major US media in the lead up to the invasion and the suffering now taking place in the Horn of Africa.

'The carnage and suffering in Somalia may be the worst in more than a decade - but you'd hardly know it from your nightly news', wrote Andrew Cawthorne for Reuters from Nairobi last week.

Amy Goodman's Democracy Now recently examined the coverage of ABC, NBC and CBS on Somalia in the evening newscasts since the invasion.

ABC and NBC had not mentioned the war at all. CBS mentioned the war once, dedicating three whole sentences to it. Despite the fact that there have been more casualties in this war than in the recent fighting in Lebanon.

While the major US print media have not completely ignored the conflict, their reporting is even more shallow than prior to the invasion of Iraq.

As recently as last week, Reuters was still maintaining that Ethiopian troops had invaded its neighbour with the 'tacit' support of the United States.

At least The New York Times has taken to describing it as 'covert American support'. Both characterisations obscure the truth.

The attack on Somalia was pre-planned. It would never have taken place without the approval of the White House.

We now know that the Bush administration gave the Ethiopian government the go ahead to ignore its own imposed ban on weapons purchases from North Korea, in order to gear up for the battle ahead. US military forces took part in the assault.

'The US political and military alliance with Ethiopia - which openly violated international law in its aggression towards Somalia, is destabilizing the Horn region and begins a new shift in the way the US plans to have permanent and active military presence in Africa', wrote Kadane.

Planning for the invasion actually began last summer when the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) took control of the Somali government.

The US-Ethiopian version of shock and awe was to swiftly bring about the desired regime change, installing the Washington-favoured, government-in-exile of President Abdullahi Yusuf.

Only a few days after their troops entered the country, Ethiopian officials said their forces lacked the resources to stay in Somalia, and that they would be leaving soon.

At one point, the Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi declared - Bush-like - that the invaders' mission had been successfully accomplished and that two-thirds of his troops were returning home.

That turned out not to be true. Three months later, the Ethiopians are still in Somalia committing what numerous observers are calling horrendous war crimes.

'The obviously indiscriminate use of heavy artillery in the capital has killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, and forced over 200,000 more to flee for their lives', Walter Lindner, German ambassador to Somalia, wrote to the country's acting president last week.

Displaced persons are 'at great risk of being subjected to looting, extortion and rape - including by uniformed troops' at a various "checkpoints". Cholera - endemic to the region during the rainy season - is beginning to cut a swathe through the displaced', he continued. Adding that attempts by international groups to offer assistance to the victims are being obstructed by militias who are stealing supplies, demanding 'taxes', and threatening relief workers.

On 3 April, Associated Press reported that a senior European Union security official had sent an email to the head of the EU delegation for Somalia warning that:

'Ethiopian and Somali military forces there may have committed war crimes...donor countries could be considered complicit if they do nothing to stop them. I need to advise you that there are strong grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the transitional federal government of Somalia and the African Union (peacekeeping) Force Commander, possibly also including the African Union Head of Mission and other African Union officials have, through commission or omission, violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.'

In the meantime, the Bush administration has worked hard to raise troops from nearby cooperative states to take over the job. Promises were made, but with one exception, remain unfulfilled.

In a telephone conversation with Bush, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni promised to provide between 1,000-2,000 troops to protect Somalia's transitional government and train its troops.

The Ugandans arrived. But they are said to have been largely confined to their quarters, refraining from taking part in the effort to crush the opposition.

Meanwhile, the 'transitional government' and Ethiopian forces have been reported shelling civilian areas in the capital from the government compound they are supposedly guarding.

None of the reporters on the scene appear to have explored the question of why the other African governments have failed to send troops. But I think the answer is obvious.

They would be called 'peacekeepers' but would be called upon to inject themselves into a civil conflict on the side of an unpopular puppet government, something they are loath to do.

Three months ago, I wrote:

'If the unfolding events in Iraq are any indication, what started out as a swift invasion and occupation could turn out to be a long and widening war.'

That was an understatement. At the time of writing, about 1,300 people are reported to have perished in the fighting. Over 4,300 wounded, and nearly 400,000 have fled their homes. Refugees trying to cross the Red Sea are reportedly drowning off the Somali coast.

'There is a massive tragedy unfolding in Mogadishu, but from the world's silence, you would think it's Christmas', the head of a Mogadishu political think-tank told Cawthorne. 'Somalis, caught up in Mogadishu's worst violence for 16 years, are painfully aware of their place on the global agenda.'

'Nobody cares about Somalia, even if we die in our millions', Cawthorne was told by Abdirahman Ali, a 29 year-old father-of-two, who works as a security guard in Mogadishu.

And, just as in Iraq, US supported forces - the small army of the enthroned and very unpopular government and the invaders - are caught up in a civil war, set in motion by invasion and occupation.

Additional to the forces loyal to the overthrown Islamist government, the regime in power is opposed by the Hawiye, one of the country's largest clans.

A spokesman for the clan recently called upon 'the Somali people, wherever it exists, to unity in the fight against the Ethiopians. The war is not between Ethiopia and our tribe, it is between Ethiopia and all Somali people', he said.

'For the major [world] leaders, there is a tremendous embarrassment over Somalia', Michael Weinstein, a US expert on Somalia at Purdue University told Reuters.

'They have committed themselves to supporting the interim government - a government that has no broad legitimacy, a failing government. This is the heart of the problem. But Western leaders can't back out now, so of course they have 100% no interest in bringing global attention to Somalia. There is no doubt that Somalia has been shoved aside by major media outlets and global leaders, and the Somali Diaspora is left crying in the wilderness.'

Last week, during what was described as a lull in the fighting, Ethiopian soldiers were moving from house to house in the capital Mogadishu, taking hundreds of men away by the truckload to an uncertain fate.

Meanwhile, the traumatised residents of the rubble strewn city were reported gathering up bodies, many of them rotting, for burial.

'Most of the displaced civilians are encamped on Mogadishu's outskirts, where the scenes are medieval', reported The Economist last week.

On 26 April, Martin Fletcher wrote in The (London) Times about five days he spent in Mogadishu, during which he canvassed many ordinary Somalis:

'People lack water, food and shelter. Cholera has broken out. The sick sometimes have to pay rent even to sit in the shade of trees. Things will get worse with the rains, which have started. Aid agencies say people will soon start dying in large numbers. Some reckon Somalia is facing its biggest humanitarian crisis, worse than in the early 1990s, when the state collapsed amid famine and slaughter. Overwhelmingly, they loathed a government they consider a puppet of the hated Ethiopians.'

Last week the Washington Post reported that interviews it conducted in Ethiopia and testimony given to diplomats and human rights groups 'paint a picture of a nation that jails its citizens without reason or trial, and tortures many of them - despite government claims to the contrary'.

The paper commented that such cases are especially troubling because the US government, a key Ethiopian ally, has acknowledged interrogating terrorism suspects in Ethiopian prisons, where some detainees were sent after being arrested in connection with Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in December.

The following day the paper reported: 'More than 200 FBI and CIA agents have set up camp in the Sheraton Hotel here in Ethiopia's capital and have been interrogating dozens of detainees -- including a US citizen picked up in Somalia and held without charge and without attorneys in a secret prison somewhere in this city, according to Ethiopian and U.S. officials who say the interrogations are lawful.'

History will probably record the Ethiopian government's decision to team up with the US administration for regime change in Somalia as the height of folly. The country has enough problems at home, brought into sharp relief on 24 April, when forces of an ethnic-Somali separatist group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, raided an oil exploration facility, killing 74 people, including nine employees of a Chinese oil company.

'As much as China's - and indeed America's - ally Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, might like to be on top of security across the Horn, he is not always able to deliver. His army is the region's most powerful conventional force. But under his rule, Ethiopia is fraying again around the edges', said the Financial Times editorial on 26 April.

Armed separatist groups are now changing tactics. Unable to match the army on the battlefield, the Ogaden National Liberation Front has chosen the spectacular to draw attention to its cause.

Only recently, a separatist group in the north tried something similar, by kidnapping a group of British diplomats. Both horrific events can be attributed partly to fallout from Ethiopia's messy intervention in neighboring Somalia.

Initial battles last December were decisively in Ethiopia's favour. But like the Americans in Iraq, the Ethiopians in Somalia were ill prepared for the aftermath. A growing insurgency has delayed the withdrawal of their troops, exposing the government to attacks at home. It has also inflamed tension among ethnic Somalis in Ethiopia. And ironically, the Chinese workers killed near Ethiopia's border with Somalia may have been victims more of Washington's policy in the region than of Beijing's.

The US has actively backed Meles Zenawi's Somali adventure. In doing so it has undermined multilateral efforts to bring about peace. 'There are two main questions that Colonel Yusuf's and Ethiopia's Western backers should now ask themselves', said The (London) Guardian 26 April 26.

First, what was gained by encouraging the Ethiopian army to topple the Islamic Courts? The US allowed Ethiopia to arm itself with North Korean weapons and also participated in the turkey shoot by using gunships against suspected insurgents hiding in villages near the Kenyan border.

Second, Washington was convinced that the Islamic Courts were sheltering foreign terror suspects: 'But how many did they get and what price have Somalis paid?'

'America can be more heavily criticised for subordinating Somali interests to its own desire to catch a handful of al-Qaeda men who may (or may not)have been hiding in Mogadishu', said The Economist.

Chatham House, a British think tank of the independent Royal Institute of International Affairs, has concluded:

'None has been caught, many innocents have died in air strikes, and anti-American feeling has deepened. Western, especially European, diplomats watching Somalia from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya to the south, have sounded the alarm. Their governments have done little.

In an uncomfortably familiar pattern, genuine multilateral concern to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has been hijacked by unilateral actions of other international actors - especially Ethiopia and the United States following their own foreign policy agendas.'

Actually, there is no more reason to believe the Bush administration promoted this war, in clear violation of international law and the UN Charter, 'to catch a handful of al-Qaeda men', than that the invasion of Iraq was to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. What has unfolded over the past three months flows from much larger strategic calculations in Washington.

The invasion and occupation of Somalia coincided with the Pentagon's now operational plan to build a new 'Africa Command' to deal with what the Christian Science Monitor dubbed 'strife, oil, and Al Qaeda'.

When I first visited this subject shortly after the invasion, I quoted 10 per cent as the figure which is the proportion of our country's petroleum from Africa; and noted that some experts were saying the US would need to up that to 25 per cent by 2010. Wrong again.

Last week came the news that the US now imports more oil from Africa than from the Middle East; with Nigeria, Angola and Algeria providing nearly one-fifth of it - more than from Saudi Arabia.

The rulers in Addis Ababa claim the invasion was a pre-emptive attack on a threatening Somalia. The Bush administration says giving a wink and a nod to the attack was merely a chance to capture a few terrorist holed up in Somalia. But for most of the media and diplomatic observers outside the US, this was another strategic move to secure positioning in a region where there is a lot of oil.

On file are plans - put on hold amid continuing conflicts - for nearly two-thirds of Somalia's oil fields to be allocated to the US oil companies Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips.

It was recently reported that the US-backed prime minister of Somalia has proposed enactment of a new oil law to encourage the return of foreign oil companies to the country.

Salim Lone, spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq in 2003, now a columnist for The Daily Nation in Kenya, recently told Democracy Now:

'The prime minister's attempt to lure Western oil companies is on a par with his crying wolf about al-Qaeda at every turn. Every time you interview a Somalia official, the first thing you hear is al-Qaeda and terrorists. They're using that. No one believes it. No one believes it at all, because all independent reports say the contrary.'

I spoke with Kidane last week and she conceded that the situation in Somalia might seem complex to many in the peace and social justice movements.

However, she said, it is impossible to overlook the parallel with the situation in the Iraq: 'It's aggression, that is undeniable, and the same language is being used to justify it.'

Kidane is spot on to insist that the movements for peace and justice in the US - and elsewhere - must take up the issue. The unlawful US- Ethiopian invasion and occupation of that country and the accompanying human suffering and human rights abuses constitute a new - and still mostly hidden - war, which is in many ways is similar to that in Iraq. And, waged for the same reason.

Carl Bloice is a writer based in San Francisco. He is a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. He is on the editorial board of Black Commentator where a version of this article was originally published on 2 May 2007.

Copyright © 2007 Fahamu.

[Jray]

Draft Media Law Contains Provisions That Seriously Hinder Free Expression, Says Article 19

International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
PRESS RELEASE
14 May 2007
Posted to the web 14 May 2007

ARTICLE 19: the Global Campaign for Free Expression is urging a revision of the Draft Media Law of Somalia, according to Notes on the Draft released today.

Although the move to normalise the legislative environment for the media in Somalia is welcome, ARTICLE 19 is concerned that the Draft Law strays into areas of regulation and registration that will seriously hinder freedom of expression. Furthermore, ARTICLE 19 believes the proposed law goes well over the top "with strict obligations of accuracy to be enforced through imposition of harsh criminal penalties."

The Draft Media Law of Somalia would require that every media outlet - broadcast, internet website and print - be registered. Also, the law would impose restrictions on the importing of media equipment and demand that newspapers vet their publications with government authorities. "These legal provisions could only thwart the very goals of media pluralism and diversity and would obstruct journalists' ability to operate expeditiously in the public interest," says Dr. Agnes Callamard, the Executive Director of ARTICLE 19.

The drafters of this law should comply with the African Union's Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. It requires that "any registration system for the print media shall not impose substantive restrictions on the right to freedom of expression." Says Callamard, "That's the standard they should strive for."

ARTICLE19's Notes on the Draft Media Law of Somalia offers recommendation for revising the law to international standards and best practice.

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works around the world to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression.
Date Posted: May 14, 2007, 09:22:27 pm Armed men storm UN office in Somalia

By Ibrahim Mohamed

Gunmen attacked a United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Mogadishu and wounded a guard, in the latest strike near the world body's facilities in Somalia since the weekend, a WHO official said on Tuesday.

The late Monday attack came just two days after UN aid chief John Holmes, the most senior UN official to visit Mogadishu in a decade, cut short his visit when bombs planted by insurgents killed three people near a UN compound on Saturday.

"We were attacked last night by gunmen wearing (government) uniforms. Our security guards repelled them. Unfortunately one of our guards was wounded," Mohamed Abdullahi, the acting officer in charge of WHO operations in Mogadishu, told Reuters.

'These are gunmen disguising themselves as government troops'
A UN security source who spoke on condition of anonymity said there had been a similar attack on Mogadishu's largest market, the Bakara market.

"The WHO incident is just the same. These are gunmen disguising themselves as government troops. I don't think this will affect UN operations," the source said.

The attacks have raised the prospect that insurgents, drawn from disgruntled clansmen and militant fighters defeated by the government and its Ethiopian allies, are still active in the seaside capital despite relative calm after fierce fighting.

The United Nations says recent battles between rebels and allied Somali-Ethiopian forces have killed about 1 300 civilians and triggered the worst displacement crisis in the world.

The WHO offices are located in south Mogadishu near the airport and are next to the UN children's agency Unicef offices.

Paddy Ankunda, spokesperson for the African Union peacekeeping force, said the wounded guard was in stable condition after being treated at their hospital.

The guard suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including one in the groin, the UN source said.

A Unicef guard said they also helped the WHO guards to repel the gunmen.

Aid agencies have accused the government of hampering its delivery of aid shipments to the hundreds of thousands affected by the fighting, and the government has promised to help.

Somalia is one of the most difficult places in the world to deliver aid, owing to banditry by well-armed militias and the total destruction of infrastructure since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's 1991 ouster plunged the country into anarchy.

Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed
Date Posted: May 15, 2007, 03:26:43 pm Somalia premier escapes bombing
Somalia's prime minister has escaped unhurt after an apparent attempt to kill him in the capital, Mogadishu.

A bomb was aimed at Ali Mohammed Ghedi's convoy but it is not clear if it exploded. No-one was hurt but one man was arrested, officials say.

The convoy was returning from the airport, where the bodies of four Ugandan peacekeepers were flown home after they were killed on Wednesday.

This is the third apparent attempt to kill Mr Ghedi since he took office.

Somalia's government has blamed previous such attacks on al-Qaeda.

"One of two men suspected of planting the bomb was captured on the site," government spokesman Abdullahi Muhyidin Mohamed told Reuters news agency.

At least two Somali police officers have been shot dead since Wednesday as they took part in a clear-up operation in the main Bakara market.

'Terrorist attack'

Uganda says it will not pull out its troops from Somalia, despite Wednesday's attack.

"It is a terrorist attack to try and intimidate our force. But those are kicks of a dying horse," Gen Nyakairima said.

It was the deadliest attack on the Ugandan peacekeepers since 1,600 soldiers were deployed to Somalia in March, as part of an African Union mission.

A proposed 8,000-strong force is due to take over security duties from the Ethiopian army.

The government last month said it had defeated Islamist insurgents after weeks of bloody fighting, which killed some 1,300 people and led some 300,000 to flee their homes.

'Noble action'

AU commission chairperson Alpha Omar Konare condemned the attack on the peacekeepers and urged the Uganda soldiers to remain engaged in the "noble action" of helping Somalia.

Ethiopia's troops have been in Mogadishu since December at the invitation of Somalia's transitional government fighting Islamist insurgents and clan militiamen.

The attack came a day after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf held talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in Kampala over the mission.

Mr Konare appealed to western governments to support the AU mission to enable it carry out its mandate in Somalia.

Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria and Burundi have pledged to deploy troops for the AU mission but they are yet to announce the dates.
Posted on: May 17, 2007, 08:00:59 pmKilling of Peacekeepers in Somalia Brings Calls for Ugandan Troop Withdrawal
By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
18 May 2007
   
Ryu report (mp3) - Download 718k audio clip
Listen to Ryu report (mp3) audio clip

In Uganda, the deaths of four peacekeepers in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, this week have prompted calls for President Yoweri Museveni to withdraw his military troops from the African Union mission. As VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, the Ugandan government is sending mixed signals about how long it intends to remain committed to efforts to stabilize Somalia.

Ugandan Africa Union peacekeepers patrol the international sea port in Mogadishu, 08 May 2007
Ugandan Africa Union peacekeepers patrol the international sea port in Mogadishu, 08 May 2007
Weeks before a contingent of about 1,400 Ugandan soldiers arrived in Mogadishu in early March, many Ugandans had openly questioned the wisdom of sending their troops to Somalia, which has been mired in civil war for nearly 16 years.

But media reports say since four peacekeepers were killed and five more wounded in a roadside bombing Wednesday, public opinion, especially in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has moved sharply against keeping the troops in Somalia longer than the six-month mandate.

The reports say many Ugandans are concerned that the African Union mission in Somalia is diverting money, manpower, and resources away from efforts to resolve conflicts at home, including the long-running civil war against Lord's Resistance Army rebels in the north of the country.

There is also a growing belief in Uganda that President Yoweri Museveni pushed for a rapid deployment of troops largely to appease the United States.

After Ethiopian-led forces defeated Somalia's Islamic Courts Union in late December, Washington led international efforts to raise an 8,000-member peacekeeping force to protect Somalia's fragile secular interim government and to train its security forces.

Aggrey Awori is a Ugandan political analyst and an adviser to President Museveni. He says Uganda sent troops to Somalia because it is the duty of African nations to help one another in times of crisis.

"Anybody knows that once you take on a military mission, death is always facing you," he said. "What has happened is very unfortunate [but] it should not change or move us from our original course. We did not go to Somalia on a bilateral basis, between Mogadishu and Kampala. It was an African Union commitment. Somalia is an African country. So, we are expecting other colleagues in the organization to answer the call."

But ordinary Ugandans complain about the lack of action by other African Union member states.

Despite pledges from several other African countries, including Nigeria, Malawi, and Burundi, to send troops to Somalia, none have yet been deployed.

In another blow to Uganda, the Addis Ababa-based African Union acknowledged earlier this week that despite receiving more than $10 million from the European Union to fund peacekeeping missions, the organization still does not have enough money to meet the needs of the mission in Somalia.

Ugandan Defense Minister Crispus Kiyonga announced last Saturday that peacekeepers from his country would withdraw from Somalia when their mandate ends in September. The minister says he is expecting a U.N. peacekeeping force to take over the mission.

It is not clear whether the minister was speaking on behalf of President Museveni, who had earlier warned the United Nations to stay out of Somalia and vowed to keep Ugandan troops in Somalia until the country was stabilized.
Posted on: May 20, 2007, 02:04:02 pm    
Africa
UN office in Mogadishu comes under attack
Ibrahim Mohamed | Mogadishu, Somalia   
15 May 2007 11:12
Gunmen attacked a United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Mogadishu and wounded a guard in the latest strike near the world body's facilities in Somalia since the weekend, a WHO official said on Tuesday.

The Monday attack came just two days after UN aid chief John Holmes, the most senior UN official to visit Mogadishu in a decade, cut short his visit when bombs planted by insurgents killed three people near a UN compound on Saturday.

"We were attacked last night [Monday] by gunmen wearing [government] uniforms. Our security guards repelled them. Unfortunately one of our guards was wounded," Mohamed Abdullahi, the acting officer in charge of WHO operations in Mogadishu, told Reuters.

A UN security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there had been a similar attack on Mogadishu's largest market, the Bakara market.

"The WHO incident is just the same. These are gunmen disguising themselves as government troops. I don't think this will affect UN operations," the source said.

The attacks have raised the prospect that insurgents, drawn from disgruntled clansmen and Islamist fighters defeated by the government and its Ethiopian allies, are still active in the seaside capital despite relative calm after fierce fighting.

The UN says recent battles between rebels and allied Somali-Ethiopian forces have killed about 1 300 civilians and triggered the worst displacement crisis in the world.

The WHO offices are located in south Mogadishu near the airport and are next to the UN children's agency Unicef offices.

Paddy Ankunda, spokesperson for the African Union peacekeeping force, said the wounded guard was in stable condition after being treated at their hospital.

The guard suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including one in the groin, the UN source said.

A Unicef guard said they also helped the WHO guards to repel the gunmen.

Aid agencies have accused the government of hampering its delivery of aid shipments to the hundreds of thousands affected by the fighting, and the government has promised to help.

Somalia is one of the most difficult places in the world to deliver aid to, owing to banditry by well-armed militias and the total destruction of infrastructure since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's 1991 ouster plunged the country into anarchy. -- Reuters

[LastNameForgotten]

How come nobody ever talks about Somaliland. An independant country that has managed to move from civil war with Somalia to peace and relative stability but is not recognised by any other country. Could it be that peace and stability is the last thing that world powers want?

here is a link to a little video I made there. When u get to the page look for archives and then Somaliland- Time to come home

http://www.bmetv.net/1024/home.asp

I think one of the reasons is because some people in the world figure that Africans need western "help" in order to form a country. Not being recognize by others countries and UN may work in Somaliland favor in regard with avoiding being interfered with by the countries that want to "help" them.

[Jray]

Somalia govt at odds with UN on crisis-aid chief
Mon 21 May 2007 5:23 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS, May 21 (Reuters) - The top U.N. aid official suggested on Monday that Somalia's government was underestimating the humanitarian crisis there and criticized its plan to bar refugees from living in public buildings.

John Holmes, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council the country's leaders had given far lower estimates than those of the United Nations on how many people had fled the capital during battles in March and April.

Holmes visited the strife-torn Horn of Africa state May 11 and 12, soon after a fresh wave of fighting between Islamist insurgents and the interim government and its Ethiopian allies. His trip was curtailed after bombs planted by suspected insurgents killed at least three people.

Holmes said President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi had assured him they were committed to helping relief efforts. "However, our discussion was complicated by disagreement on the severity of the crisis," he said.

The United Nations says nearly 400,000 people fled Mogadishu, but Yusuf and Gedi suggested only 30,000 to 40,000 had been displaced and that half of them had already returned, Holmes said.

He said he had also raised the fate of some 250,000 long-term refugees in Mogadishu. Some sites where they were living had now been abandoned while those who had been occupying public buildings could not return because of government plans to repossess the buildings.

"The government has not yet suggested an alternative sustainable solution other than to suggest a return to the areas of origin," said Holmes, a Briton who is the most senior U.N. official to visit the Somali capital in a decade.

The West broadly supports the government but is uneasy at its failure to reach out to the Islamists. There are tensions between the United States and Europe over the degree of support to the government and its Ethiopian backers.

Holmes said public groups he had met in Mogadishu had expressed concerns about intimidation of civil society and the local media and said they feared the United Nations and the outside world had given up on the country.

"We all have a responsibility ... not to turn our backs on Somalis in their latest hour of desperate need," he told the Security Council.

Posted on: May 21, 2007, 09:17:28 pmSomali president warns of 'terrorist' threat, slams donors

The Somali president warned that "terrorists" are threatening his shattered country's security and slammed international donors for failing to help as promised, in an interview with AFP.

An Ethiopian-Somali offensive in Mogadishu last month ended weeks of clashes with Islamist-led insurgents that killed hundreds of civilians and forced tens of thousands to flee, but sporadic attacks are on the increase.

"My government was battling terrorists who lost their strongholds militarily in Mogadishu, but they are still at large by hiding in the towns and villages," Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said late Sunday at his official residence Villa Somalia, which has been a target of mortar attacks.

"We don't believe the threats of terrorists are over as some of them are abroad still planning to create havoc again," he said.

Four Ugandan peacekeepers from an African Union force were killed in a bomb attack on their convoy last week, and the prime minister and mayor of Mogadishu both escaped unharmed from roadside bomb attacks in recent days.

Yusuf, who was elected president in 2004, also launched a scathing attack on international donors for failing to provide more help.

"The outside world promised a reconstruction plan with a full package to develop the lives of Somalis in war-torn Somalia but efforts of the international community are confined to meagre humanitarian work," he said.

"The United States is appreciating our struggle against terrorism but did not give any tangible assistance to reconstruct a devasted nation. Even the UN is yet to take drastic action to assist to rebuild Somalia," he added.

The Somali president called for help to complete the African Union peacekeeping force struggling to carry out its remit.

So far, some 1,500 Ugandan soldiers from a planned 8,000-strong force are in Mogadishu, but other countries which have promised troops, including Nigeria and Burundi, have yet to deploy forces.

"The brotherly African countries that pledged troops are very ready to send contingents but they need logistic support, weapons and other financial support," Yusuf said.
Posted on: May 24, 2007, 04:56:44 pmReport: Somali Police Kill 2 Civilians
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Somali police shot and killed two civilians after attackers hurled a hand grenade at a police station, witnesses said. No officers were hurt.

The grenade attack was in northern Mogadishu, where there is support for a radical Islamic group that ruled for six quiet months in 2006 before being driven from power by Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies.

Police opened fire with assault rifles and "two civilians who were sitting in front of my pharmacy were killed, one was hit in the chest and the other in the head," said Aydurus Ali Mohamed. "They both died instantly."

Aden Mohamed, an officer at the station, said the grenade landed just inside the station's gate. He said no officers were hurt, and did not comment on the civilian deaths.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each other. The current administration, called the Transitional Federal Government, was established in 2004 with backing from the United Nations, but has struggled to assert control.

Just weeks ago, the government declared victory over Islamic insurgents who have vowed to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war unless the country becomes an Islamic state. Battles killed at least 1,670 people between March 12 and April 26 and drove about a fifth of Mogadishu's 2 million residents to flee for safety.


Posted on: May 30, 2007, 05:56:14 pmUS attacks Somali 'militant base'
A US Navy warship has carried out a missile attack on a Somali village where Islamist militants are reported to have set up a base.
Somali officials said a remote village in the Puntland region was bombarded, days after foreign militants arrived.

US reports suggest the target was an al-Qaeda operative suspected of involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The strike would be at least the third by the US in Somali territory in 2007.

In early January, US forces tried to target three suspected members of al-Qaeda but were thought to have missed their targets.

Later that month another strike hit an identified target in the south of the country, according to the Pentagon.

Until now fighting between rival clan militias and remnants of Islamist militants, who seized control of large parts of Somalia for six months of 2006, has been concentrated in the south of the country.

This is the first time the US has launched an attack in the Puntland region, home to Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf, says the BBC's East Africa correspondent Karen Allen.

Guided attack

The latest attack targeted a mountainous area around the village of Bargal in the northern province of Bari, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Somali reports said.


 The success of [our] operations is often predicated on our ability to work quietly with our partners and allies
US Pentagon spokesman
 

It followed clashes between local troops and foreign fighters after their arrival on Wednesday, which forced the militants into nearby hills.
Residents spoke of a plane circling overhead assisting the warship with targeting.

There was no word available immediately on whether anyone was injured or killed by the missile strikes.

"We cannot yet tell you the casualty figures, but what I can confirm is that the American warships bombed several targets in the surroundings of Bargal at night," one resident, Mohamoud Salah, told the AFP news agency.

The US did not comment directly on the latest reports, pointing out only that operations against terror suspects often needed to be carried out "quietly".

"The very nature of some of our operations, as well as the success of those operations is often predicated on our ability to work quietly with our partners and allies," a Pentagon spokesman said.

US officials have accused Islamist militias in Somalia of harbouring terrorists.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/6714473.stm


Posted on: June 03, 2007, 09:45:36 amSomalia’s problems are compounded by outsiders
BY USAMA BUTT

28 May 2007



THE recent trouble in Somalia is blindly blamed on Islamic courts and Al Qaeda fighters based there. Somali President Abdellahi largely blames Al Qaeda and other ‘terrorist’ operators for the trouble in his country and has asked the global governance institutions, that is the UN, to send its troops after a successful African Union (AU) troops (mainly of Ugandan origin) deployment. The UN after a long pause has agreed in principle to send 3,000 soldiers or the extension of AU troops in the country, which comes after the strong condemnation of its leader Ban Ki Moon upon the use of gunships and tanks in the heavily populated areas by Ethiopian and Somali forces.


The inside story of the fighting has rarely come out in the media, but the fleeing refugees have largely put the blame on President’s forces. More than half of the city’s one million people have been forced to flee their homes because of clashes between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and fighters who have killed at least 1,300 people in the city’s worst fighting in 16 years. Reports have confirmed that Somali forces were blindly firing at their own citizens.

Ban Ki Moon’s criticism was timely and accurate, but the sanction of the UN troops will not be welcomed by Somalis who see all outsider forces as occupiers. After all, the UN had to withdraw in 1991 after its personnel were at risk posed by the anarchy and civil war, after the removal of the then President, Said Barre. If the UN does send its troops, they will most certainly be dragged into the conflict. The UN role should have been that of Mohammed Shanoun who worked as a UN envoy in the early 90s and was largely successful in communicating and building bridges between different clans and tribal leaders.

He understood Somalia and its tribal system very well and was slowly but surely proceeding towards a better and permanent solution of this complex tribal system and recommended a large humanitarian intervention of the likes of Ethiopia in the 1980s, but instead came the hasty US intervention which immediately undermined and eventually watered down Shanoun’s good work. The rest of the story is well known which includes Black Hawk Down, heavy US casualties, ending with another hasty and rash US withdrawal from the country. Somalia since then had been the melting pot of lawlessness, anarchy and civil war, causing thousands of deaths and millions of refugees. It was not until early last year, when Islamic courts took over Mogadishu and succeeded in maintaining law and order in the capital and in the country at large, putting an end to years of fighting.

For the first time since the early 90s, all the tribes were kept in check. Islamic courts had fully functional hospitals, schools and law courts, doing the best they could in those times. These were the first six months of peace and tranquillity, Somali had seen in years, but then came the Ethiopian intervention and the results are in front of us. I use the term ‘intervention’ intently, although Islamic courts had declared ‘jihad’ on Ethiopian troops, which they claimed were stationed inside Somali borders, protecting the Somali interim government.

One can argue on the merits of Islamic courts’ declaration of jihad and its timing (as many thought it was an unwise and untimely decision), but they perceived that the Ethiopian intervention in its borders was a constant threat which undermined their organisational skills and affected their governance. I do not think that the decision of the courts was rash and unwise or untimely. It was strategic and not a fanatical call for jihad as commonly perceived.

Ethiopia has always had ambitions in Somalia and the region. Few know that almost half of Ethiopian population is Muslim and a large portion of it is ethnically Somali, but they are marginalised in the political system. Ogaden is just one example; this ethnic Somali region has triggered two wars between Somalia and Ethiopia between 1964 and 1977.

Ethiopia perceives a stable Somalia as a potential rival, which could dispute the border issue or make an alliance with Ogaden rebels and Ethiopian archrival Eritrea with whom they have fought three wars. Not surprisingly then, Ethiopian blamed Eritrean agents for helping Islamic courts.

Strategically, Somalia is on the top of US ‘war on terror’ list. Before ‘Operation Iraqi freedom’, the plan was also to “democratise” Somalia, but then Saddam was made an imminent threat by the neocons in the Bush administration. Somali “democratisation” was put on hold. Ethiopian intervention was not coincidental but planned as Ethiopia has been an ally of the US in the so-called war on terror. The creation of African Command (which split from Central command) is precisely to produce overt intelligence and direct military assistance to the US allies in North and Horn of Africa, namely Ethiopia and Egypt. 

The irony is that the Somali people came very close to peace and prosperity, twice in over a decade, but the foreign intervention, both times pushed their country another decade back into anarchy and bloodshed.

[Bob]

I think one of the reasons is because some people in the world figure that Africans need western "help" in order to form a country. Not being recognize by others countries and UN may work in Somaliland favor in regard with avoiding being interfered with by the countries that want to "help" them.

It's due to the natural gas and oil deposits in Somaliland. The West actually wants concessions for the contracts that they were cancelled in the 1991 that was ended during the civil war. It's very likely that the current campaign will make that it happens.

[Jray]

 
Somali PM survives attack on home
By Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan and wires

Somalia's Prime Minister has narrowly survived a suicide attack on his home that has left at least seven people dead, including some of his bodyguards.

Witnesses at the scene of the attack say a truck laden with explosives drove through a road block at the entrance to the residence of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi.

Guards reportedly attempted to stop the truck before it exploded, killing at least seven people and wounding many more.

Mr Gedi was at home at the time, but escaped unhurt and has since been taken to a safe house.

He is blaming Al Qaeda for the attack.

"This was a terrorist act by Al Qaeda that was meant to create fear," he told a local radio station.

"We have been patient for so long. We can no longer cohabit with these terrorists, we have to eliminate them."

His interim administration is struggling to impose its authority on the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

Near daily attacks on Government troops and their Ethiopian military allies are blamed on members of a defeated Islamist movement who have vowed to wage an "Iraq-style" insurgency.

This is the third attempt on the Somali leader's life and is part of an ongoing terrorism campaign waged by Islamic militants.



Posted on: June 03, 2007, 10:06:45 pmThe spoilers who threaten Somalia's peace hopes


Simon Tisdall
Friday June 8, 2007
The Guardian


Hopes of replacing violence with dialogue in Somalia are focusing on a much-delayed national reconciliation congress now expected in Mogadishu next week. But the nascent peace process could be stillborn if what Lord Triesman, Britain's minister for Africa, describes as "wreckers and spoilers" inside and outside the country prevail.
Speaking after a meeting in London this week of the international contact group for Somalia, Jendayi Frazer, assistant US secretary of state for African affairs, said Eritrea was leading the pack of outsider ne'er-do-wells, harbouring "extremist elements" linked to violent Islamist groups. Hardliners have threatened to wage an Iraq-style insurgency in Somalia and have started using suicide bombers.


Article continues

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Eritrea is an old foe of Ethiopia, whose troops invaded Somalia last winter with tacit US backing to oust the Council of Islamic Courts, which had taken control of much of the country. Ms Frazer added that the Islamists, who the US says have links to al-Qaida, were also getting help from sympathisers in the Somali diaspora, including in the US, and from Gulf states.
Ethiopia's continuing troop presence is resented by Somalia's Muslim majority, which views it as an occupation and questions Addis Ababa's intentions. Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister, had promised a quick in-and-out operation. But an upsurge in resistance in the spring and the failure of the African Union (AU) to deploy sufficient peacekeepers dispelled that notion.

Ethiopia maintains "the vast majority" of its troops have withdrawn. Those remaining in Mogadishu were engaged in tracking down "mujahideen and al-Shabaab extremists", disarming clan militias and police training, it said in a statement. "Generally, the rest of Somalia is enjoying the fruits of peace."

But that assessment was belied by this week's attempted assassination of Ali Mohammad Gedi, prime minister of the western-backed transitional federal government (TFG); and by the latest UN figures indicating that 300,000 people from Mogadishu have yet to return home and 850,000 nationwide remain dependent on international food aid.

The contact group said planning for a follow-on UN peacekeeping force was a matter of urgency. Ms Frazer said the US would provide more than $100m (£50m) in assistance to Somalia this year, including $57m for the AU force, and urged others to do more. But she suggested that "wreckers" aside, Somalia's mainstream political factions could be their own worst enemies.

She said the US was particularly "disheartened" by the TFG's arrest this week of Abdi Iman, a senior member of Mogadishu's influential Hawiye clan, and the closure of three local broadcasters for allegedly "supporting terrorism".

The contact group said next week's congress, originally scheduled for April, was "the primary vehicle [for the TFG] to demonstrate an inclusive approach to governance, help deliver security, and advance political reconciliation". But Lord Triesman stressed that only those who "renounce violence" should participate in the process - and outsiders should steer clear. "We can do without anybody fighting their proxy wars on Somalian territory."

Hussein Badyill, Somalia's foreign minister, had given a personal pledge that the congress would go ahead on time, his spokesman said yesterday. British sources were cautiously upbeat, saying the London talks had taken place in "a more positive atmosphere" than in the past and that a stronger consensus on the way forward was emerging.

But the big test is still to come: whether the various clans, sub-clans, warlords and religious factions can share power, instead of fighting over it. "The TFG people know that some of them are going to have to move aside," a diplomat said. "All of the people of Somalia must have a share in the process."

[Ideological Soldier]

The Mainstream Media does not portray the truth about Somalia.

When I was in Ethiopia in summer 06', war was just starting.   But East Africans know that this isn't some 'war on terror'.   This is a imperialist war of the fascist Ethiopian government on the Somalian people for the ultimate capitalist aim: PROFIT.   Ethiopia has economic support from the US, who believes that Somalia is a terrorist state.   The sad part is that they just took big loans from the US, so now the ethiopian commonfolk have to pay back the US and are further in debt.   Its a vicious cycle.

Brothas I know that moved from there know that all that islamic terrorist shit is not as big as the media is making it.   I mean sure their is an islamic presence, but the Ethiopian Transitional Government has only caused more deaths.   Period.

[piercehawkeye45]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DFCEEB71-166D-4BD8-B041-E69983675DF2.htm

UN: Somalia crisis worst in Africa



The UN says the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is now the worst in Africa.

John Holmes, the UN humanitarian affairs chief, said civilians were increasingly bearing the brunt of the fighting between government forces backed by Ethiopia and fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts group.
   
"I appeal to all those with guns, whether government, insurgent or Ethiopian troops, to refrain from indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks affecting civilians," he said.
   
More residents fled Mogadishu on Monday, adding to a growing humanitarian crisis as government forces backed by Ethiopian tanks stepped up efforts to crush fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts group.
 
Forced to flee
 
At least 70 people have been killed in more than a week of fighting that has driven tens of thousands of Somalis from their homes, residents and aid workers say.
 
The United Nations refugee agency estimates that 173,000 people have fled the fighting in the capital Mogadishu in just the past two weeks alone, bringing the total number of displaced people in Somalia to 850,000.
 
Hawa Amed, a 40-year-old mother of eight, said she had wanted to stay in her house deep in the sprawling Bakara Market, where allied Somali-Ethiopian troops were hunting for fighters and their hidden arms caches over the weekend.
 
"But after two policemen were killed outside on Sunday, we had to run," she told Reuters as she left the city on foot, her youngest child strapped to her back.
 
"We are now heading to Madina District ... we don't know how we will survive."
 

Hospitals overwhelmed

Returning from a visit to Mogadishu, European Commission officials said some 5,000 Somalis had been treated for war-related injuries in hospitals there since the start of the year, and that about a third of those were women and children.
Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow said in a city where few things worked apart from weapons, it was the lack of healthcare that was most appalling.

The under-equipped and under-staffed Madina hospital, one of only three offering help to Mogadishu's sick and wounded, dozens of patients arrive daily.
 
A typical day for the surgical staff has them working round the clock to remove bullets, fix ripped intestines and perform amputations.
 
Relatives of patients have to help perform duties such as feeding and wheeling them between operating theatres and wards.
 
Space is also at a premium and patients are released early and the corridors are used as extra sleeping space to cope.
 
Ethiopian and Somali government troops have been battling Islamic Courts fighters in the Horn of Africa nation since Addis Ababa helped the interim administration rout them in January following a two-week war.
 

'When elephants fight'
 
About 1,600 Ugandan peacekeepers were deployed in Mogadishu in March as the vanguard of a proposed 8,000-strong African Union force. No other nation has so far sent troops, although a similar number of Burundians are due to arrive this month.
 
Pascale Lund, the senior Red Cross official in Somalia, appealed to both sides of the conflict to "respect the international humanitarian law".
 
But Somalia's president says civilian casualties in Mogadishu are unavoidable.
 
"When two elephants fight, the grass gets damaged. We are not the cause of these deaths. It is being caused by those who attack the government.
 
"I urge the public to ask the militias fighting the government not to wage attacks from where they live," Abdullahi Yusuf said.
 

Radio stations shut down
 
The government also appeared to wage war on the media on Tuesday, storming two radio stations in Mogadishu and ordering them off the air.
 
Workers fled Radio Banadir and Simba Radio when heavily-armed troops entered their compound on Tuesday.
 
Mustafa Haji, chief editor of Simba Radio, said: "They said the order to close the radio station will affect all independent stations in Mogadishu."
 
Ali Muhamed Aden, deputy director of Radio Banadir, said: "They terrorised the employees... All the reporters panicked and ran."
 
The move came a day after Shabelle Radio was shut down and two of its senior staff briefly detained.
 
Shabelle said on its website that it had received no explanation for its closure or been told how long it would last. It said it was the eighth time this year that the government had shut it down.
 
"There has been pressure, intimidation and death threats to the journalists from the government and other people," it said.
 
Eight local reporters have been killed while doing their jobs in Somalia this year.
 
The authorities accused Shabelle and other Somali news organisations of supporting the Islamic Courts fighters earlier this year.

[The Wiseman]

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=481&Itemid=1

Somalia has been reduced to a killing field in the wake of the U.S.-instigated Ethiopian invasion of that country. Journalists are shot down to conceal the wholesale killings and displacements of women, children and the elderly by indiscriminant Ethiopian fire, marauding Somali warlords reinstated in "their fiefdoms" by the invaders, and supporting U.S. weapons of mass civilian destruction. U.S. and European media largely ignore human rights reports that document "indiscriminate attacks on civilians, summary executions and repeated targeting of hospitals." Neighboring nations shut their borders to the one million displaced persons fleeing hunger, disease and carnage. If Darfur can be classified as a place of genocide, then surely Somalia, which United Nations observers call "the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa," fits the same bill. But the U.S. and its allies are the cause of Somalia's nightmare - and so, the world is largely mute.

The "War on Terror" and Africa's Worst Humanitarian Crisis
by Sadia Ali Aden

This article originally appeared in WorldPress.org.

"There is a dirtiness to this war."

 Approximately three months ago, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), pressured out Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. Surprisingly, this political re-arrangement of deckchairs generated much noisy headlines.

Meanwhile the real story - the great unfolding humanitarian disaster - continued unnoticed.

For the Somali people, the Ethiopian invasion of December of 2006 could not have started at a worse time. Defeating the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and propping up the TFG; this was Ethiopia's immediate rationale for violating Somalia. The larger goal? Forging a partnership between Washington and Addis Ababa in order to execute "war on terror."

A year later, this mission has not been accomplished. Instead, the "war on terror" has become the terror of war being visited on the Somali people.

Admittedly a handful of Somalis have benefited from the invasion, specifically the dozens of warlords previously driven out of Mogadishu by the UIC.  These warlords, the instigators of Somalia's current civil conflict, were reinstalled in their fiefdoms riding on the backs of Ethiopia's invading tanks.  As a result, the reviled check points and road blocks used to bully cash out of unarmed civilians were reintroduced in Southern Somalia, particularly Mogadishu. 

"Warlords were reinstalled in their fiefdoms riding on the backs of Ethiopia's invading tanks."

To keep the invasion and Africa's worst humanitarian catastrophe going, heavy and modern weapons, including airplanes were used. One was a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship that attacked and killed Somali villagers and countless livestock in the hunt for three foreign men suspected for the bombing of 1998 American embassies in Africa, who yet remain at large. 

Among those caught in the chaos were visiting Somalis from the Diaspora.  In the period between June and December 2006, Somali technocrats returned to their native country to partake in the rebuilding during the six month period of peace and stability that was established under the rule of the UIC. The Diaspora arrived with the intention to give back to the land and the people they left behind and contribute to rebuilding their lives. 

Unfortunately, "extraordinary rendition" programs were the gratitude they received. The TFG, Kenya, Ethiopia and US are all implicated.  Males as young as 12 were seized from their homes in the dead of the night, blindfolded and taken to unknown destinations. 

Fleeing refugees met a similar fate. Unfortunately, these refugees had nowhere to escape, as Kenya decided to close its borders and deny them entry. This paved the way for the current nightmare scenario: one million internally displaced persons (IDPs,) mostly children and women, without any provision or protection from the UN or other humanitarian agencies or NGOs.   

In order to create a safe haven for the displaced refugees, the international community must demand that neighboring countries open their borders. All too often, the casualties of war are those that are unmentioned: the innocent men, women and children, caught in the middle, left with no way out.

"One million internally displaced persons (IDPs,) mostly children and women, without any provision or protection."

The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said border security measures should not impair the ability of deserving Somali civilians to enter Kenya to seek safety and protection as refugees.  The neighboring nations have a humanitarian responsibility to safeguard these refugees. 

On October 30, 2007, 40 international NGOs released a joint statement warning of the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia, while Ethiopian forces and militias loyal to the Transitional Federal Government callously prevent delivery of life-saving aid.

 Ethiopian forces continue their shelling of Mogadishu neighborhoods. According to Elman Human Rights group, 7000 civilians - mostly women, children, and elderly - were killed between January and November of 2007.

Human Rights Watch's August 2007 report on Somalia, titled "Shell-Shocked: Civilians Under Siege in Mogadishu," documented "many of the most serious patterns of abuse by Ethiopian troops, such as indiscriminate attacks on civilians, summary executions and repeated targeting of hospitals," wrote the organization's Washington Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski, in an open letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

However, the international media by and large remain morally selective in what they show to the world.   

"Eight Somali journalists were killed for having simply dared report the reality on the streets of Mogadishu."

Somali caricaturist, Amin Amir (AminArts.com) depicts this moral selectivity on his December 12, 2007 cartoon. The powerful imagery shows a representative of the international media zooming his camera on a severely malnourished child standing in the middle of a killing field littered with bodies while Ethiopian jets fly overhead firing missiles. The child declares: "I don't need your coverage; it is these atrocities" - pointing to the dead - "that you need to be telling the world."

 

The current Somali nightmare was exacerbated by the systematic assassination of Somali independent media groups. And the silence of the international community on this matter is deeply disturbing and sadly deafening. This year alone, eight Somali journalists were killed for having simply dared report the reality on the streets of Mogadishu.  The TFG and Ethiopian forces have created an environment of terror and coercion. 

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, one-quarter of the refugees around Afgooye are younger than age of five. Sick children and pregnant women often are turned away at checkpoints, and trucks carrying food and other humanitarian aid are routinely charged $500 each for passing through.

"Things are now getting absolutely worse," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the UNICEF representative for Somalia. "There is a dirtiness to this war. Children are a real target."

Sadia Ali Aden is a mother, writer, and voice for justice and equality who lives in Virginia. She can be contacted at sadiaaden@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

[fLow]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/africa_somalia/html/1.stm

Some statistics on Somalia.

I thought it interesting to note that the dominant clan, and the clan involved in the opposition of invasion and the US is stationed territorially on the east coast - perhaps guarding oil interests.

Here it is in more detail: