oodweyne 7 years later nothing has changed , no legitimacy on the ground, nor in the eyes of the world. I don't know crazy and I can't argue another seven years and will leave you still hearing the toiling bells [personally I just hope that you get york case of tinitus checked out]. Ngonge as always you mistake clan tactics as politics, as so many daqancelis you suffering from a 4.5 of the mind , I have not said what has occured are not "achievements" only that their irrelavant as stephen covey says climbing the ladder is all well and good but it amounts to null when it has been laid against the wrong wall, even using all the good will in the world using your clan enclaves goal of recognition by Anyone You have failed, and are failing, so forgive me if any smugness on your and oodweyne part does not translate to me on the net, tell you the truth if this is your understanding of "politics" then congratulations somaliland is not in need of any enemies.

Oodweyne my friend, I use the word ossified in a post and felt I might be too literal in meaning and then you pop up referring to the USC [early 90's] to three piece suits [early 80's] and somaliland [early 60's] come now surely something has changed since 2003 seven years boyo, have you even been to somalia in the interim? If you were a statue to some ideal yes I would understand, because limestone and rock is bleeding limestone and rock, but you are meat bones and a little trembling heart surely something of the rightness of reality has poked your eye with its finger over 7 years.

my dear oodweyne, my one man army, the one who hears the bells tolling for him, I seem to be drawing your especial brand of Bold interest today. So much has changed since we first met, an election was held in somaliland and it was not recognized, a referendum was held and it was not recognized, you gazed in to your crystal ball and although I told you that donning a soothsayers costume you found in a disney lot would be unbecoming but you insisted that your crystal ball was right and recognition was around the Corner and somaliland was not recognized, white people came and went, parliamentary hearings were held, and somaliland was not recognized. Ngonge and other daqancelis all over the world donned the red white and green and somaliland was not recognized, al-shabaab in the south and somaliland could not even be considered comparable to the northern alliance and somaliland was not recognized, dissent in the mediocre tfg and somaliland was not recognized, pirates on the high seas and somaliland was not recognized, articles in the new york times and somaliland was not recognized, trips to addis and somaliland was not recognized. Another election held bombings in sool, awdal restless western sanaag unintrested, western burco or ahem ahem tolka making money regardless of hargeisa and the whole Project just as illegal and silly as it always was. But oodweyne marches on broadband is cheap and the bells keep on a Toiling, marching on regardless of reason, for he is a somali lender, regardless of reality on the ground, for he is a somalilander, He keeps on marching year after year, and we hear him being instructed to be a somalilander is not to march in a straight line, but in a circle. Left, left, left, left.

"I said to Xiin, Che and a few others and I'll say it to you too, saaxib. To reject SL's plans for nationhood without presenting a viable, tempting and seductive alternative will only strenghthen the resolve of those seeking seperation and increase their mistrust. And, even if such a plan exists, there is a possiblity that it may come too late. This, surely, should be as clear as day to any true unionist." "There's no social, political, religious, racial, legal and economic basis for Somaliland's secession." - Che Guevara But there is a clan based one so let us leave it at that as long as the souths house is burning the North can do as it pleases. But after that Clan real-politic comes into play and so many will be the first to ululate for the union and make made to measure Somali flag coats/dresses e.t.c

Well it would be a departure from the ossified SNM position of negotiating with ourselves, to succeed from our selves, and voting by ourselves to agree with ourselves, logic and reality be damned.

This was so quick, the fruits of an efficient justice system. [i would say].

hahaha When its refugee reports they cant be 25,000 but when its pictures of rural water points then it is "city" this and "city" that. Who to trust?

Jen Gabre oo ahaa masuulkii ugu sareeyey ciidamada Itoobiya xiligii ay dalka Soomaaliya qabsanayeey ayaa si hoose waxaa loogu magacaabay madaxa Amniga iyo hoowlgalada ciidamada AMISOM iyadoona masuulkaani noqonayo masuulkii ugu horeeyey ee Etoobiyaan ah oo loo dhiibo jago sare oo intaa la eg Gabre ayaa ka soo jedo qoomiyada Tigareeda ah ee xiligaan heysato dalka Etoobiya waxaana lagu xasuusan karaa xasuuqii banaa ee uu ka geestay Muqdisho xiligii uu ahaa masuulkii ugu sareeyey ciidamada Etoobiya. Jen Gabre ayaa xiligaan waxaa amar ka qaato dhamaan ciidamada AMISOM waxuuna u qaabilsanyahay dhamaan waxii Amni iyo hoowlgal ah iyadoona arintaa loo dhiibay looga goleeyahay in si deg deg ah loo keeno ciidamada Etoobiyaanka ahaa ee gaarayey 20 000 Warkaan oo aan ka helnay masuul Soomaaliyeed ee u dhuun daloola siyaasada Soomaaliya kaa oo noo xaqiijiyey magaacbida xiligaan loo magacaabay Amniga ciidamada AMISOM waxaase jagadaasi u haayo dhanka dowlada Soomaliya Amniga saxiibkiisa ugu qalisan ee Soomaalida Axmed Cabdi salaan Magacaabida Jen Gabre loo magacaabay dhanka Aminga iyo Hoowlgalada ciidamada AMISOM ayaa dhabar jab ku noqon doontaa Dowlada midnimada Qaran oo iyadu xiligaan looga taliyo wadanka Etoobiya

Lool. Tarzan as mayor - wallahi sheikh dalxiis is grabbing at straws!!

^^^ Obviously.

^^^ Ugandans and other african countries have no respect for their fellow country men even 700 had died nothing will change by this act alone! No western or other army could have sustained the amount of deaths that the ethopian [oromo] cannon fodder suffered in Mogadishu and yet it made no dent in the stalinist TPLF. The same "nothing" will happen in kampala - Museveni will have a new card to play in his bid for re-election, he will get more money to splurge on his security services, and the AMISOM troops in Mogadishu. The only thing that will happen is the harrasment of the 20,000 strong succesfull somali community in Uganda, as well as the very real danger of targeted ethnic violence. The shabaab has trully retarded the Somali community in east africa [The most successful in the diaspora]. So its not a case of qaniinyo, lakiin fikirad kale aan ka suugeyno al-shabaab iyo dadka raacsan ma jirto, caqli xuumo iyo siyasad fool xuun.

finish your term mr.president. Never has so much been asked of an individual with such meager resources. You are the only homegrown solution to Usgaaga al-shabaab, no tribal bantustan or swirling sufi represents what you do. Qaran.midinimo.diin iyo daqaan.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali government troops are ready to launch a major offensive against insurgents and expect to drive them out of the capital by the end of this month, the country's prime minister told Reuters on Sunday. Talk of an imminent government attack on the rebels has been rife in recent weeks and al Shabaab, the main insurgent group, is reported to have stepped up the forced recruitment of youths into its ranks in readiness for the assault. "Our troops are prepared to act, and flush these terrorists out of the capital before the end of January, and continue taking over the control of more territories from these fighters," said Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke. Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991. The West's efforts to install one have been undermined most recently by the insurgency led by al Shabaab, which Washington views as al Qaeda's proxy in the region. Sharmarke said the government's preparations centred on recruiting and training the troops and reforming the command structure. "We could not go to war overnight, but we put most of our efforts into preparing our forces to act, so that the work can yield some results at the end of the day," he said. U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq is piling pressure on al Qaeda groups there, raising Somalia's appeal as a safe haven for the militants, the prime minister said. REBEL LINKS DANGEROUS "If a parallel strategy with that one in Afghanistan does not confront them in Somalia, we might see a whole terrorist country," he said, adding that al Shabaab's links to rebels in Yemen was no longer a matter of speculation. Al Shabaab said on Friday it was ready to send reinforcements to Yemen should the U.S. carry out attacks there in retaliation for the attempt to bomb a U.S. passenger aircraft on Christmas Day. The suspect said he had received training and equipment in Yemen. "Their aim is to achieve goals by fighting alongside each other. It is a terror network that has the same ideology. If you defeat them in Yemen, they will come to Somalia and continue destabilising the world," Sharmarke said. He urged authorities in the West to interrogate Somalis living there who wished to return to Somalia, to stop radicalised elements from coming home to fight with the insurgents or blow themselves up in suicide attacks. "Locals involve themselves in suicide bombings. But there are indications that brainwashed young men from overseas are more willing to blow themselves up than locals," he said. The last deadly suicide attack in the capital, which killed 22 people including three cabinet ministers, was said to have been carried out by a Somali man who had lived in Denmark for many years. Sharmarke said pirates operating off the coast of Somalia were growing more sophisticated, despite more patrols by foreign navies, and added the best way of tackling the piracy problem was by tackling poverty among the Somali people. "If the international community sends 10 percent of the resources allocated for warships patrolling waters off Somalia, we could have done more and defeated the pirates on land," he said. Pirates hijacked two ships in the first two days of the year. (Editing by Tim Pearce) Copyright © 2008 Reuters

by Abdurahman Abdullahi (Baadiyow) Saturday, January 02, 2010 Militancy simply means having a combative character; aggressive, especially in the service of a cause. Adding Islamic adjective signifies that certain interpretation of Islam is used as the guiding ideology of that militancy. The first such militancy in the history of Islam was labelled “al-Khawarij” ["the Seceders" or the Rebels] because of their rebellion [khuruj] against fourth Imam of Islam 'Ali ibn Abi Talib. In the opposite stands the terminology of moderation “balanced” “al-Wasadiyah” which signifies being within reasonable limits; not excessive or extreme, and not violent or subject to extremes. In general, Islam calls for moderation in everything: in belief, warship, conduct, and legislation; and warns against all forms of extremism: ghuluw (excessiveness), tanattu' (meticulous religiosity) and tashdid (strictness). Moderation, or balance, is not only a general characteristic of Islam, it is a fundamental landmark. In the Qur’anic verse (2:143) Allah says: “Thus, have we made of you an Ummah (Nation) justly balanced, that you might be witnesses over the nations and the Messenger a witness over yourselves”. The phenomenon of Islamic extremism was well articulated by Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qardawi in his booklet “Islamic Awakening between Rejection and Extremism” which is very useful to briefly understand current militancy in a balanced way. Looking into the history of Somalia in the 18th and 19th centuries, the revival of Islam was carried by the Sufi Brotherhood movements and legendary Sufi scholars belonging to the three main Sufi Orders: Qadiriyah, Ahmadiyah and Salihiyah had emerged. The names of Sheikh Madar, Sheikh Abdirahman Al-Zayli, Sheikh Aweys al-Baraawi, Sheikh Mohamed Guleed, Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, Sheikh Ali Maye, Sheikh Sufi and many others are well known teachers and respected Islamic Scholars in Somalia. Sufi brotherhoods are generally moderate and use peaceful means of propagating Islam that offer due consideration to the norms and customs of the people. Often, they use innovative means to assimilate and absorb the pastoral and illiterate masses and mobilize them into common action. Bloodlettings being the most heinous crime in Islam, Islamic scholars usually abstain from recurrent clan fighting in the harsh pastoral environment. Their role is limited to conflict resolution, community education and conducting various religious functions. However, there were three historical events in the history of Somalia when Islamic militancy emerged and certain Islamic scholars led internal fighting to gain politico-religious hegemony. Such historical events have historical importance and constitute precedents for current Islamic militancy and extremism in Somalia. It offers lessons that doctrinal differences and political ambitions may develop into violent wars under the leadership of charismatic and ambitious scholars. 1. The first event occurred around Baardheere town in the southern Somalia as a confrontation between the Bardheere religious settlements (Jamaaca) and the Geledi Sultanates at Afgoye. The Bardheere settlement was founded in 1819 by Sheikh Ibrahim Yabarow, introducing some Islamic reforms such as outlawing tobacco and popular dancing and prohibiting ivory trade. They began to implement some elements of Islamic Shari’a, such as the wearing of decent Islamic dress for women. In the mid-1930s, receiving strong adherents, the Jamaaca decided to expand its sphere of influence to other regions during era of Sharif Abdirahman and Sharif Ibrahim from Sarmaan in Bakool. By 1840, the Jamaaca warriors reached Baidoa area and Luuq and finally sacked Baraawe, the historic seat of the Qadiriyah Order where both Sultan Ahmed Yusuf of Geledi and Sheikh Maadow of Hintire clan learned, the most powerful leaders who together reacted to the Baardheere expansions. The town of Baraawe accepted their capitulation conditions that include prohibiting tobacco and popular dancing, adopting the Islamic dress code and so on. They also agreed to pay an annual tax of 500 Pessa. This action provoked a concerted response from the clans of the inter-river areas under the charismatic leadership of Geledi Sultan Yusuf Mohamed. The Sultanate mobilized an expedition force of 40,000 from all clans, stormed Bardheere and completely burned it. Professor Cassanelli characterized this conflict as between the rising power of Islamic reformists and the established traditional power of the Geledi. Moreover, he adds the economic factor of curbing the lucrative ivory trade as well as a clan aspect, which stemmed from the armed immigrant nomads, the followers of the Jamaaca, being perceived as a threat to the local population. The external actors’ role in this conflict was not well researched, however, it is said that Sayid Bargash, the Sultan of Zanzibar, was on good terms with the Geledi Sultanate in the confrontation, perceived to be a Wahabi “Salafia” penetration into Somalia. 2. The second event is connected with the arrival of Sheikh Ali Abdurahman (*****tain) (1787-1952) in Merca in 1946 and his confrontation with the dominant Geledi Sultanate. Sheikh Ali *****tain was born in Nugal region between Growe and Laas-Aanood in the current Puntland. He traveled to Mecca and Baghdad for further learning where he met “with the disciples of Mohamed Abdulwahab” and came back to his home area. He established an Islamic education center at Halin (Xalin) wells near Taleex. However, he emigrated from his home after conflict with his clan and moved to the eastern region under the tutelage of *****tain Sultan Nur Osman. Here also, Sheikh Ali found it unacceptable to live with the overt violation of Islamic Shari’a by the Sultan Nur of *****tain, forming an alliance with Haji Farah Hirsi, a rebel Sultan of *****tain who attempted to establish a new sultanate or to overthrow his cousin, similar to the Saudi style where Haji Farah would take political responsibility and Sheikh Ali would administer religious affairs. To achieve this goal, Sheikh Ali sent a letter to the ruler of Sharja Sheikh Saqar al-Qasimi offering his allegiance and requesting his support. However, Sheikh Saqar could not respond promptly and, dismayed, Sheikh Ali traveled to Zanzibar and remained there for 15 months under the custody of Sultan Said al-Bu-Saidi. Having in mind to establish an Islamic Emirate, Sheikh Ali had arrived in Merca in 1946, three years after the defeat of Baardheere Jamaaca and the dominance of Geledi Sultanate over the vast southern regions. However, Biimal clan, the major clan of Merca, was rebelling against the Geledi sultanate at that time. Sheikh Ali *****tain had arrived in Merca in alliance with Biimal clan, with 5 boats carrying 150 followers and substantial quantities of firearms and ammunition. He settled near Merca with the consent of the Biimal clan and began his activities and education programs. First, he attempted to play the role of a peacemaker between Sultan Yusuf and the Biimal clan and sent a letter to Sultan Yusuf requesting that he accept his reconciliation efforts. However, when Sultan Yusuf refused his offer, he arbitrarily declared war against him. Sheikh Ali’s followers confronted the Geledi sultan in 1846 without the support of Biimal clan and were easily defeated. His expectation of receiving assistance from Sultan of Zanzibar was dashed, and instead the Zanzibar sultan helped the Sultan of Geledi to confront what was perceived as the threat of the “Wahabis”. The doctrinal inclination of Sheikh Ali is evident in the letter he sent to the clans of Brava showing that he considered the Geledi Sultanate to be a deviated sect (firqa dalah). Commenting on the outcome of war, Sheikh Ali stated according Aw Jamac Omar Iisse that “in reality ours [deaths] are in paradise and theirs are in hell” and “if you are among the deviated sect whom Sultan Yusuf leads, there is no relation between us, and your blood will not be saved from us”. The intolerance of Sheikh Ali to the propagation of Islam among his people, his mobilization of armed followers and his siding with the Biimal clan against the Geledi sultanate, all indicates that he belonged to a militant ideology similar to that of Bardheere Jamaaca. 3. The third significant event was the arrival in Berbera in 1895 of Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, which was not only the beginning of armed encounters with the colonial powers but also initiated internal conflict among the Somali Sufi Orders. Upon his arrival in Berbera, Sayid Mohamed challenged the authority and credentials of the Qadiriyah establishment, setting up the competing Salihiyah Order. He publicly criticized some practices of Qadiriyah Sheikhs, and introduced new verdict (fatwas) on some issues, such as prohibition of chewing Qaad and tobacco, although tolerated by other scholars. However, Qadiriyah scholars succeeded in overcoming these challenges through religious debates. Scholars, like Aw Gas and Haji Ibrahim Hirsi, invited Sheikh Madar from Hargeysa, the head of the Qadiriyah Order in the region, and Sheikh Abdullahi Arusi, the teacher of Sayid Mohamed, to participate in a meeting held in Berbera in 1897 to discuss issues of lawful and prohibited in Islam raised by Sayid Mohamed. However, after heated discussions on the major disputed issues, followers of Qadiriyah in Berbera rebelled against Sayid Mohamed and the British authorities intervened to maintain public order. As a result, Sayid Mohamed was compelled to emigrate from Berbera, carrying with him doctrinal enmity against Qadiriyah. This deep-rooted conflict between Qadiriyah and northern Salihiyah had two dimensions, political and doctrinal. First, Sayid Mohamed was aiming to establish an Islamic Emirate under his leadership without consulting other prominent scholars. His unilateral, authoritarian and violent approach annoyed many scholars and clan leaders. Second, Salihiyah questioned the doctrinal credentials of the rival Qadiriyah Order, condemning them as heretical and claiming that only Salihiyah was authentic and original. This theological controversy escalated into the trading of polemics and then developed into bitter propaganda against each other. For instance, Sheikh Aweys al-Baraawi, the famous leader of Qadiriyah in southern Somalia wrote poems vilifying Salihiyah Order. Here are some selected excerpts from the poem, translated by B.G. Martin: The person guided by Mohamed’s law, will not follow the faction of Satan [salihiyah] Who deem it lawful to spill the blood of the learned, who take cash and women too: they are anarchist Do not follow those men with big shocks of hair, a coiffure like the Wahabiya! Publicly, they sell paradise for cash, in our land; they are a sect of dogs They have gone astray and make others deviate on earth, by land and sea among the Somalis Have they no reason or understanding? Be not deceived by them But flee as from a disaster, from their infamy and unbelief. This verbal polemic was countered by a similar diatribe of poems by Sayid Mohamed, which he concluded as Professor Said Samatar related: “A word to the backsliding apostates, why have gone astray, from the Prophet’s way, the straight path? Why is the truth, so plain, hidden from you?” This developed into physical attacks on the leaders of Qadiriyah, and on April 14, 1909, followers of Salihiyah murdered Sheikh Aweys al-Baraawi at Biyooley. Unfortunately, when Sayid Mohamed heard of the death of Sheikh Aweys he recited a victory hymn saying “behold, at last, when we slew the old wizard, the rains began to come!” (Candhagodoble goortaan dilaa roobki noo da’aye). The implications of this conflict in Somalia were tremendous, affecting anti-colonial resistance and tarnishing the image of the Salihiyah Order among the population. On other hand, before the arrival of Sayid Mohamed in Northern Somalia, there was the Dandarawiyah Order, an offshoot of Ahmadiyah, in the towns of Sheikh and Haahi. It was introduced into Northern Somalia by Sayid Adan Ahmed, a disciple of Sayid Ibrahim Al-Rashid. Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan claimed to be the sole authorised legitimate heir of the al-Rashidiyah Order in Northern Somalia and demanded that Dandarawiyah Order in the town of Sheikh and Hahi (Xaaxi) follow him, which they have utterly refused to do. Against this background, Sayid Mohamed’s forces burned the Ahmadiyah centers in the town of Sheikh as reported by Abdirisaq Aqli in his book “Sheikh Madar”. Sayid Mohamed’s bright points were romanticized by the Somali nationalists in their efforts to nurture national consciousness by narrating glorious past and reconstructing symbols, heroes and myths. In this approach, self inflicted wounds, civil wars, massacres, and human atrocities are downplayed and belittled. However, in tracing the background for the current extremism in the name of Islam, it is necessary to bring up other episodes of the Sayid Mohamed that suggest the historical roots of the current extremism in Somalia. In conclusion, the early militancy in the name of Islam resembles current militancy in (1) the exclusion of other Islamic groups, (2) monopoly of religious legitimacy; (3) excessive use for violence against other Muslims; and (4) selective and haphazard application of Shari’a. All these forms of militancy have its roots, connections and influences of the Salafia (Wahabi) school of Saudi Arabia. The current extremism and militancy, however, is rooted to the emergence of Al-itihad al-Islami in 1980s and its militaristic adventure in 1990s which ended in the disastrous defeat in Kismayo, Puntland and Gedo in 1991, 1992 and 1996 respectively. Moreover, although current extremism in the name of Islam is a recent phenomenon and an expression of anger responding to various internal and external tensions, it is not without precedence in Somalia and the above stated three episodes attest the occurrences of similar phenomenon despite the fact that it happened in different context and conditions. Furthermore, all the three events ended with military defeat and massive human suffering which most likely will be the fade of current militancy in Somalia. Abdurahman M Abdullahi (Baadiyow) specialized in the history of Islam in the Horn of Africa. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mogadishu University.

The dogs will be mown down.

By Nathan Guttman Thursday, December 31, 2009 General Mohamed Ali Samatar, Former vice president and Prime minister of Somalia Washington — American Jewish organizations that fought to establish the jurisdiction of U.S. courts for suits against terrorist groups are taking an opposite tack in suits involving human rights abuses. Jewish groups have filed briefs siding with a former Somali official now living in Virginia who is alleged to bear responsibility for atrocities committed during his tenure. The case’s outcome is expected to set a precedent on the vulnerability to human rights lawsuits of former and present officials of internationally recognized governments. But supporters of Israel fear the result could enable Palestinians who claim to be victims of Israel to pursue Israeli officials here. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments March 3 in the case of Yousuf v. Samantar, in which a group of Somalis is seeking financial damages from Mohamed Ali Samantar, Somalia’s former defense minister. He also served as prime minister from 1987 to 1990. Samantar was a top official in the regime of President Siad Barre, a socialist-leaning dictatorship that was denounced by international groups for its systematic use of torture and arbitrary arrests, and for the rape and murder of political rivals and dissidents. Among the five Somalis suing Samantar are a student who was allegedly detained and raped 15 times by a military man, a former officer who alleges he survived a mass execution and a businessman who claims he was tortured for months by the regime Samantar helped lead. Two of the plaintiffs are now American citizens. The case was filed under the Torture Victim Protection Act. The Supreme Court will rule on the plaintiffs’ right to pursue a civil lawsuit against Samantar. Pro-Israel activists, fearing a precedent that will allow others to pursue legal action against Israel for alleged war crimes — as has happened in Europe — have filed briefs opposing their suit. “There will be a rash of lawsuits of this kind against Israel” if the court rules for the plaintiffs, warned Alyza Lewin, an attorney with the firm of Lewin & Lewin, which has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of Samantar and against making foreign officials vulnerable to civil lawsuits. The brief was filed on behalf of four Jewish groups: the Zionist Organization of America, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Agudath Israel of America, and the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. It is an unusual setting, one in which pro-Israel activists are siding with the Saudi government — which has also filed a brief on behalf of Samantar — while pitting themselves against international human-rights advocates. Furthermore, this battle also puts the Jewish community on the side of those seeking to limit international jurisdiction after years of fighting to broaden the ability to sue foreign entities in order to go after terror groups and their sponsoring states. Samantar moved to dismiss the 2004 lawsuit on grounds of immunity provided under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which protects foreign governments in most cases from legal action in the United States. But in January 2009, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case, ruling that this immunity applies not to individuals but only to governments and their agencies. A Washington circuit court had previously reached the opposite conclusion. The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected to resolve the dueling decisions. For Jewish communal officials, the Samantar case set off alarm bells. The Jewish groups that filed the brief cite more than 1,000 cases of lawsuits against Israeli officials around the world as part of an effort that Israeli leaders dub “lawfare” — a campaign to take Arab human-rights grievances against Israel to international courtrooms. One of those recent cases was the December attempt to issue a criminal arrest warrant in Britain against Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni because of the role she played as foreign minister during last January’s Israeli military operation in Gaza. In the United States, the law does not allow citizens to file similar criminal lawsuits against foreign officials. But in civil suits, it is an unsettled question whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which protects governments, extends to individual government officials and former government officials who were acting in their authorized capacities at the time in question. Lewin, of the law firm representing the four Jewish groups, says it should. “It would be tempting for us to say, wouldn’t it be nice to sue government officials in these cases, but the risks and the costs outweigh the benefits,” she said. “You’d have the entire Middle East conflict here in the U.S.” if Samantar won, agreed Marc Stern, co-executive director of the American Jewish Congress. Stern, who also filed a brief on this issue, claimed that allowing civil suits would “require Israelis to recount in an American court years after the event why every rocket was fired and why each attack took place.” A couple of Israeli officials already faced this threat in the United States. In 2005, former chief of staff and current Cabinet minister Moshe Ya’alon was served with a civil suit while entering a Washington think tank he was attending as a visiting scholar, filed by families of victims from a 1996 Israeli shelling in Lebanon. A week earlier, Avi Dichter, former head of Israel’s General Security Service, had the same experience in New York. This lawsuit was on behalf of victims of an Israeli bombing in Gaza. These lawsuits cannot lead to arrests, but they can cause significant financial liabilities to Israelis and eventually deter Israeli officials from visiting America, pro-Israel activists say. Fighting to maintain immunity for foreign officials seems to place Jewish activists far from positions they have taken in the past. Supporters of Israel actively backed legislation that paved the way for relatives of terror victims to sue terror organizations and their sponsors in American courts. Over the years, these lawsuits have yielded several rulings against Hamas, Fatah and Iran for compensation reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. Unlike the laws governing human-rights suits, the law empowering individuals to file civil suits against terror organizations and their state sponsors is specifically exempted from the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. But the terrorism law — also unlike the human-rights laws — clearly disallows suits against individuals. The Anti-Defamation League, in a separate friend-of-the-court brief filed in the Samantar case, differed with the position taken by the AJCongress and the groups represented by Lewin. The ADL brief spoke of the need to strike a balance between the allowance of victims of severe human-rights violations overseas to seek remedy in American courts, and the need to “protect the ability of lower courts to dismiss meritless claims brought for political or other improper purposes.” The Samantar case made some strange bedfellows in fighting to limit the scope of lawsuits against foreigners. Alongside the former Somali politician were not only the pro-Israel activists, but also the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A brief filed by the Saudis reflects concerns similar to those of pro-Israel advocates — that this case could lead to an outpouring of lawsuits against former and current government officials. Citing numerous suits filed against Saudi Arabia after the 9/11 terror attacks, the brief states the kingdom’s “unique experience” and “strong interest” in the outcome of the case. On the other side are human- rights groups, led by the Center for Justice & Accountability, representing the Somali citizens suing Samantar. “This case stands for the proposition that the U.S. cannot be a safe haven for human-rights abusers like Samantar,” said Pamela Merchant, the group’s executive director, “and we are confident that the Supreme Court will not allow U.S. law to be manipulated to undermine this principle.” Both sides are waiting for the American government’s brief to be filed. While previous administrations have opposed expanding the ability to sue foreigners in the United States, senior Obama administration officials were supportive of this notion in their previous capacities. Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com

yellow journalism. How did they do it, if it is true?

Well xaji cant you see that the joint parliament is the one to make the call. Self administered refenda with 100% turnouts and 95% support means nothing if both constituencies dont agree to it. Any way, this referendum wont happen simply because the north wont allow it.

can you direct us to link for the new constitution. Would love to read it.

on this level, on earth what is the punishment for doing this haram thing? Or rather what would be acceptable for you/al shabaab? And again how long is YOUR beard.

well obviously it wont be khayr for the shabaab saqajaamin.

zack, what are the consequences of not doing what has been proposed. Also how long is your beard.

please brothers do not waste your time wallowing in jurisdictional acrobatics or theological discussions with al-shabaab niqabis. This is not the point, the point quite simply is the suiciders/brainwashers have started invading privacy and personal desicions. This is another example of the m.o of reer tora bora, be they in afganistan or were ever else has to suffer their worthless law making. In that the starter of the thread is correct to refer to it as talibanisation.

oy rudy perhaps if you read the context i asked my question you would realise that it was meant to expose the paucity of s*s post i believe we can be civil in discourse. Liqaye has only one connotation in somali, haadi aad si kale u fahamtay ino sheeg, I am sure it will illuminate the way you think about things for all of us to benefit. Talabad why do you ask for intelligence form others on SOL, when your entire contribution revolves around word play on faroole name or condemnation of every one who doesnt support al sabaab to disco hell!

and why is the writer a racist? Misee faroole's previous occupation is reserved for blacks? Which patently is not?