Mr Payne hadaba ma sharmuuta? Qofwalba luuqo la galayaa!!

i think he should kiss her azz!! lol.. if he wants to save his life.

halleljuh!! Looks like reality is finally getting upper hand. Somalia has become synonymous with the term “failed state.” Even now, after nearly two decades of civil war and a dismaying string of failed foreign interventions, the end of the country’s long humanitarian catastrophe seems no closer. Recently, Western security experts have begun to warn that the capital city, Mogadishu, could be overrun by Al-Shabab, an armed Islamic extremist group the U.S. government says has ties to Al Qaeda. In the past two months, more than 200,000 people have fled fighting between Al-Shabab and a 4,300-strong African Union peacekeeping force. Last week Al-Shabab gunmen overran a U.N. compound in the city of Baidoa, expelling the international agencies there, including aid workers. Alarmed, Washington recently sent $5 million worth of munitions to help the badly outmatched blue helmets. Now various groups inside and outside the country are calling for more foreign assistance. But the last thing Somalia needs is additional outside interference. Instead, the world should pull out its forces. Again and again, foreign intervention there has only made conditions worse. Ethiopia’s three-year war with Somalia’s insurgents, which ended in January, managed only to empower the hardline Islamists. Likewise, the presence of the African Union force has made the insurgents seem stronger and more unified. (Meanwhile, the U.N.-approved transitional government the AU is meant to support remains largely impotent and controls just a few streets in Mogadishu.) To fight the foreigners, Al-Shabab has allied itself with another insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, despite the fact that the two have little in common. “The foreign military intervention is a unifying force for the extremists,” says Council on Foreign Relations fellow Bronwyn Bruton, author of an upcoming report on the political dynamics in Somalia. The country has even become a prime destination for Qaeda fighters from Pakistan, who are attracted by the chance to wage international jihad there. That makes a long-term political solution much more difficult to achieve. Hardhearted as it seems, the smartest response might be to let Al-Shabab try to seize Mogadishu. There are several reasons to think this could help. For one, the Islamist group is far from monolithic, and could well splinter without a foreign enemy to rally against. Second, many of Somalia’s factions—like the Abgal businessmen who run Mogadishu’s port—are well armed and unlikely to be steamrolled by religious fanatics. Third, should they somehow manage to actually seize power, Al-Shabab would then face the immense challenge of governing. “Somalis don’t like harsh religious ideology,” Bruton says, and would thus likely resist Taliban-like rule. Foreign armies can still help—but only once Al-Shabab has crumbled on its own. And if outsiders return, it should be to rebuild, not to fight. Source: Newsweek, July 27, 2009 By Andrew Bast

Originally posted by chocolate & honey: please him, worry about him, make him fall for you, make him stay, make him desire you, cook, clean, surprise him, please in him in bed, do EVERYTHIN your man likes, get him back, try HARDER, please his friends and Oh by the way do ALL this to prove that your "independant."!! Thats what I call a PERFECT WIFE!!

Zero fat!..looks like xalimoos cure is finally found..lol. A cup a day will keep the fat away. In recent years various camel milk products are prepared and marketed throughout some parts of the world, i.e. Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc. The products like yoghurt, cheese, ice-cream and chocolate made from camel milk are now commercialized in many countries in Asia and Africa and those products are getting their way into the European and American markets very rapidly. In this article some Biological Characteristics of Camel, the Importance of Camel in Different Regions of the World, World Camel Population, Camel Milk Production, Composition of Camel Milk, and the Various Camel Milk Products (Butter, Yoghurt, Cheese, Ice-cream and Chocolate) are studied and discussed. Some Biological Characteristics of Camel: The average life expectancy of a camel (Scientific Name: Camelus dromedarius) is 40 to 50 years. A fully grown adult camel stands 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) at the shoulder and 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) at the hump. The hump rises about 30 inches (75 cm) out of its body. Camels can run up to 65 km/h in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h (Wikipedia, 2009). The Importance of Camel in Different Regions of the World: The camel is an important animal component of the fragile desert eco-system. With its unique bio-physiological characteristics, the camel has become an icon of adaptation to challenging ways of living in arid and semi-arid regions (Bikaner, 2008). The proverbial Ship of Desert (in Persian: Safeeneh-e Sahra) earned its epithet on account of its indispensability as a mode of transportation and draught power in desert but the utilities are many and are subject to continuous social and economic changes. World Camel Population: On the basis of the 1990 yearbook published by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) the camel population in some countries have been reported as follows: Somalia: 6855000, Sudan: 2800000, India: 1450000, Pakistan: 990000, Mauritania: 820000, Kenya: 810000, Chad: 540000, Niger: 420000, Saudi Arabia: 405000, Afghanistan: 265000, Yemen: 144000, United Arab Emirates: 115000, Iraq: 59000, Iran: 27000, Jordan: 15000, Israel: 10000, and Kuwait: 6000. As Robert Lacey (1982) noted in order to keep the number of camel in some countries like Saudi Arabia, the country imports those unique beasts. They arrive every week or so in the port of Jeddah, peering curiously over the rails of the steamers from Somalia. Camel Milk Production: Existing data on the milk yield of camels are numerous but highly variable. According to results from several authors, lactation periods vary from 9 to 18 months, with annual milk yields of between 800 and 3600 liters. Mean daily milk production is reported to range from 2 to 6 liters under desert conditions and up to 12 to 20 liters under more intensive breeding systems. These large differences can be explained by the fact that measurements have often been made under local conditions without taking into account local factors that might influence milk production. Furthermore, camel breeds or individual animals probably exist with significantly different milk-producing potential that has not been fully exploited because the selective pressure of humans on the camel has been minimal compared with other domestic animals (Richard and Gerard, 1989). Composition of Camel Milk: According to Wilson (1984) the range percentages of various nutrients in a sample of camel milk are as follows: Water: 86.30-87.30, Lactose: 3.30-5.80, Fat: 2.90-5.40, Protein: 3.00-3.90, and Ash: 0.60-0.80. In his article entitled as One Hump or Two, Chris Mercer (2006) noted that, “Camel’s milk, as well as being low in fat, also contains vitamin B, iron and unsaturated fatty acids. Its nutritional value has led to a range of health claims. One small study, released by the Camel Applied Research and Development Network, found camel's milk could help treat Type 1 diabetes”. Various Camel Milk Products: Camel milk is a staple food of desert nomad tribes and is richer in fat and protein than cow milk. Camel milk cannot be made into butter in the traditional churning method. It can be made if it is soured first, churned, and a clarifying agent added, or if it is churned at 24–25 degree Centigrade (75–76 Fahrenheit), but times will vary greatly in achieving results. The milk can readily be made into yogurt. Butter or yogurt made from camel milk is said to have a very faint greenish tinge. Camel milk is said to have many healthful properties and is used as a medicinal product in India; Bedouin tribes believe that camel milk has great curative powers if the camel’s diet consists of certain plants. In Ethiopia, the milk is considered an aphrodisiac, a substance which excites sexual desire (in Persian: Maadeh Yaa Daaroy-e Moghavey-e Gharaaez-e Jenssi). Camel milk, until recently, was impossible to make into traditional cheese rennet, a substance used for thickening milk, especially to make cheese. Under the commission of the FAO, Professor J.P. Ramet of the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’ Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires was able to produce curdling by the addition of calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet. The cheese produced from this process has low levels of cholesterol and lactose. The sale of camel cheese is limited owing to the low yield of cheese from milk and the uncertainty of pasteurization levels for camel milk which makes adherence to dairy import regulations difficult (Wikipedia, 2009). An Israeli scientist, Professor Reuven Yagil, reportedly developed a camel milk ice cream in 1999. In 2006 Al Ain Dairy Firm declared that it had launched the first camel milk ice cream in the United Arab Emirates, positioning the product as a healthy alternative to other ice cream products (Mercer, 2006). On 22 July 2009, Martin Van Almsick, the General Manager of Al Nassma Company in Dubai announced that, “The world’s first chocolate made out of camel milk would be all set to go on sale around the world. All chocolates are produced without preservatives or chemical additives with a range of locally popular spices, nuts, honey, which comes from Yemen, and vanilla from Madagascar” (Hindu, 2009). According to the news reported online, “Al Nassma was formally established in October last year and aims to produce 100 tons of premium camel milk chocolate a year. In partnership with Austrian chocolate maker Manner, Al Nassma manufactures the end product at its Dubai facility. With 3000 camels on its Dubai farm, the company sells chocolates through its farm-attached store as well as in luxury hotels and private airlines. The farm is controlled by the Dubai government” (Bookofjoe, 2009). It should be noted that Al Nassma, the name of the company behind the chocolate, is derived from the Arabic word of Nassam (in Persan: Nasseem) meaning a cool breeze. Epilogue: A Bedouin is a member of an Arab tribe living in or near the desert, and the Bedouin name of camel is God’s Gift (Lacey, 1982). The corresponding terms for God’s Gift are Ata Allah in Arabic, and Yazdan-Bakhsh in Persian. The new brand chocolate made from camel milk may be considered as one of the most pleasant parts of that gift! REFERENCES: 1. Bikaner Website (2008): Online Article on Camel, National Research Center on Camel, Jorbeer, Bikaner (Rajasthan) India. 2. Bookofjoe Website (2009): Online Note on Dubai’s Al Nassma Camel Milk Chocolate. 3. FAO Publication (1990): Production Yearbook of Food and Agricultural Organization: No 44. 4. Hindu Website (2009): Online News on Camel Milk Chocolate Set to Hit World Markets. 5. Lacey, R. (1982): The Kingdom, ed., HBJ Publishers, New York, USA. 6. Mercer, C. (2006): Online Article on One Hump or Two. 7. Ramet, J. P. (2001): Online Document of the Technology of Making Cheese from Camel Milk. 8. Richard, D. and D. Gerard (1989): La production laitiere des dromadaires Dankali, Rev. Elev. Med. Vet.: 42: 97-103. 9. Saadat Noury, M. (2009): Online Article on Facts about Chocolate. 10. Wikipedia Encyclopedia (2009): Online Note on Camel. 11. Wilson, R.T. (1984): The Camel, ed., London, Longman Group Ltd., 233 pp. Iranian.com M. Saadat Noury 26-Jul-2009

Soon Inshallah! good nite folks. Ama hit the sack.

what bloody hell world are u talking about?? R u serious!! since when does the world has to say.. this somali leader is the one that we accept!! get real homie. a somali leader has to be selected by his pple and not some other silly azz foreigners. Unless a somali leader has the majority votes of somaliweeyen pple, than hes no leader but just god damn puppet!

Sharif hotel is big time looser!! what do u call a president who dont even have a safe house to host other pple. Well....a looooooooooooser. next!

Plz repeat after me! All the freaks in the house say yeah...yeah..say burn in hell..burn in hell.. lets close this thread...say it. lets close this thread.. then go to the mosque..say wat, then go to mosque and repent..yeah repent. And dont reply to this thread no mo! say wat..i say no mo, do u heya me. Yeah we do..no mo, no mo, no mo. :eek:

oh! this is happening in djbouti, somaliland, puntland...u name it. Just one sub-clan gets all the glory. time to come back to the big picture...Shanta somaliyeed and then everybody gets equal share. Yes sir.

LOl..lemme give lil help here! Now r u talking about sland, dland or pland.. cuz all these 3 are awol! lol. even though pland thinks that it can fool somali people with its retarded crap about being a separatist state while its a secessionist entity. I mean what do u call when a region has their own president, parliament, flag, law, administration, independence day etc., Thats a secessionist state in any definition. holla.

Top party schools, tastiest campus food, best financial aid and other college rankings for 2010 New York, July 27, 2009, Noon EDT According to The Princeton Review's annual survey of college students, the best professors are at Davidson College. Students party the heartiest at Pennsylvania State University and they're most satisfied with their financial aid at Swarthmore College. Colgate University takes top honors as the most beautiful campus, while Virginia Tech serves the best campus food and Smith College has the best dorms. The Princeton Review, an education services company perhaps best known for its test-prep courses, asked 122,000 students at 371 colleges to rate their schools on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences. The company uses the students' responses to help generate reports on the top 20 colleges in over 50 different categories. Other ranking categories report on topics such as campus political leanings, social scenes and sports interests. All of the rankings are included in the 2010 edition of The Princeton Review's annual college guide "The Best 371 Colleges." The book also has unique ratings -- scores from 60 to 99 -- on each college's profile in eight categories, including Financial Aid, Fire Safety and Green (a rating based on the schools' environmental commitments). The book's ranking lists and school profiles with ratings will post on www.PrincetonReview. com today. "Each of our 371 'best' colleges offers great academics," says The Princeton Review vice president and publisher Robert Franek. "However, we don't rank schools academically because our goal is to help students find and get into the best school for them. Instead, we tally 62 ranking lists based on how students at these schools rated their campus experiences, plus ratings based on institutional data we collect on issues important to applicants. It's all about the fit." These and other ranking lists in the book and #1 colleges on them are: Top Party Schools #1: Pennsylvania State University Best Classroom Experience #1: Pomona College Happiest Students #1: Brown University Students Study the Most #1: California Institute of Technology Students Study the Least #1: West Virginia University Best Quality of Life #1: Rice University Students Pack the Stadiums #1: Pennsylvania State University Major Frat and Sorority Scene #1: Wofford College Most Socially Conservative #1: Brigham Young University Most Socially Liberal #1: Bard College Best Financial Aid #1: Swarthmore College More rankings and other related information http://spotlight.enc arta.msn.com/Feature s/encnet_Departments _College_default_art icle_Rankings10.html ?GT1=27004

Amxaars aint coming back to somali as long as Obama is in power. He wont allow that. Now for this issue, al shabaab vacated this place to concentrate more power to defeated the pirate-islam gang. This is their main objective nowadays.

Actually, its just Vista with bugs fixed! lol. Hey bro, have any idea how to re-gens after it expires? or do u know where i can download the student version. thnx

I think this is an older generation issue fu fu. My x-roommates were from xamar and hargesya. Me, just call me FOREIGNER! lol. What we hated were clan boyz..period. Even, when we were hunting for xalimoos, we didnt select according to location, we just looked and said, yup..that home-gal is hot. lemme get at it. However, most pple who dont know me assume that i am from bossaso! which is kol..mo mo xalimoos 4 me lool. Wait a second though! When u say a racist, how does that mingle into africans sub-dividing each other via clan or regions!! One can not be called a racist if hes invoking pregudiceness against his our race! CORRECT. However, yah he or she can be called pregudice.

i see cheerleaders are lifting up their skirts to entice American administration skags. U know the sad part is that state dept refused to meet with both thugland morans. Now for Payne, hes just nigga with money-hunger issues. I betchya, he got some pirate money there in his dreams. I wont supprise if he dont get caught with some pirate dollars stashed in his frig pretty soon. lol

With that kinda of money, i would pay the college education of every somali kid!! Citigroup © is considering paying a $100 million bonus -- to one guy. This is the same Citigroup that received $45 billion in bailout money. The same Citigroup that will soon be 34% owned by the U.S. government. The same Citigroup that has lost 95% of its share value since 2007. Citigroup is in no position to be awarding bonuses of $10 million -- let alone adding another zero to that amount. So why is it mulling such a colossally dumb move? Because the guy demanding it is probably the bank's most valuable employee. Enter Andrew Hall. He's a rock star, a legend among banking circles. He makes a boatload of money for Citigroup as head of Phibro, the bank's energy-trading unit. The Wall Street Journal calls Phibro a secretive operation, housed in a former Connecticut dairy farm, that "occasionally accounts for a disproportionate chunk of Citigroup income." Phibro made so much money for Citigroup last year that Hall got a $100 million bonus (His bonus is based on Phibro's profits). Phibro was the main source of the $667 million in pretax revenue Citigroup received in commodities trading, the Journal reported. And the unit is doing so well this year that Hall may be in line for a similar amount. Even though it's only July, it sounds like Hall is pressing Citigroup for confirmation of the bonus. He's threatening to leave the company, reports say. So here's Citigroup's dilemma: Keeping Hall would likely help the company climb out of the hole it's in. But can it afford to spend $100 million? And will the U.S. government allow it? That will depend largely on the opinion of Kenneth Feinberg, the new pay czar appointed to oversee compensation at the bailed-out banks. Hall already has so much money that he owns a castle in Germany called Schloss Durneburg (pictured here). He's a huge art collector, and caused a bit of a ruckus in Southport, Conn., by commissioning a six-ton, 80-foot-long sculpture of concrete and steel on his front lawn. That doesn't play well with Southporters. And how will a $100 million bonus play with taxpayers? We'll see.

My wife reads this mag-cosomo, so i was kinda checking it out since she recommends to me to read it and came across this: So i wanna help out the sista and pass this to yall. Hope, it helps! lool. My wife is such a kol lady and i think she learned alot from reading and my wide experience in life. Could you be one of these types? 1. The Dryer Sheet. She clings to her guy so tightly that no matter where he goes or who he's with he can't shake her loose. Guys crave freedom, so a Dryer Sheet chick can suffocate a man's style. Even if he tells you that he loves spending time with you or wants you around, consider backing off when you don't have to. 2. The Nutcase. She heavily flirts with dudes in front of her guy to rile him up and likes screaming at him in public for things like making her go home after she passed out at the bar. Men hate drama and don't want to feel like they're in an episode of "The Hills." No matter how fired up you are about something, keep your cool. Or else...! 3. The Full Discloser. She tells her beau about her menstrual cycle, the eating habits of her three cats, and how many guys she's slept with since losing her virginity at 17. It's nice to feel like your boyfriend is a best friend, but a little mystery goes a long way. There are just some things you should never tell him. 4. The Drama Queen. She constantly tests her beau by threatening to break up with him. Then when he tries to dump her, she has a meltdown in the middle of the restaurant. This type sounds similar to The Nutcase, but is more emotional, rather than just psycho. If you feel like your relationship is a rollercoaster, consider analyzing why you go through these torturous, insecure moments. Chances are, you just need a little reassurance that your guy cares about you. Be upfront with your man and tell him you need consistent reassurance and affection. And then find out the 8 Love Truths every girl must know! 5. The Timekeeper. There's never enough "our time" for her; she pouts when her guy is with friends or works overtime. This type is similar to The Dryer Sheet, but can be more manipulative. How often do you give your guy guilt trips? If you're in the habit of keeping watch of his every move and getting upset when you're not numero uno on his priority list, you could be a Timekeeper. Busy yourself with other projects, honey. More from Cosmopolitan.com:

The closest pple to somalis culturally are oromos and adriis. There are lot of them in la. However, onlf has done more destructions to amxaar than olf. Even usa admintration recognises them. Check my thread call mr payne in the politics sections. Hell, they do have more recognition than Somaliland!! lool olf is fighting for their land and not involved in western somalia conflict. However, their limitation is caused by oromos being divided into muslims and christians. For the haters of somali freedom fighters, all can say is that, plz bleach yourself like MJ so that may be kkk can adopt your azz. lol

THE MOST RACIST COUNTRIES IN THE WESTERN WORLD: I did a lil digging into this and here is what i found out. Personally, i believe mid-westerners are the most racist. Heres a study about this subject: I will try to import the graph if i can, otherwise just click on the link below to access there. http://www.portfolio .com/views/blogs/odd -numbers/2007/07/26/ the-most-racist-coun try-in-the-western-w orld -Number 1 country that hates diff/race--Italy. -Number 1 country that hates Muslims--Greece. -Number 1 country that hates immigrants N.Ireland -Number 1 country that hates homos--N.Ireland. -Number 1 country that hates Jews --Spain. The Most Racist Country in the Western World: It's been said that industrialized nations are becoming more intolerant of foreigners, and a provocative new paper in the August issue of Kyklos tries to quantify just how bigoted Western nations are. (Free version of the paper is here.) The paper's authors used responses from a question in the Human Beliefs and Values Survey -- a twice-a-decade survey of social and political attitudes around the world -- which asked respondents how they would feel about living next to: People of different ethnicities, Muslims, Jews, immigrants or foreign workers, and homosexuals. The researchers used these answers as a proxy for bigotry in each country. (The survey took place in 1999-2000). And the most prejudiced country? Drumroll please... Northern Ireland with an estimated 44 percent of its population saying they wouldn't want to live next to one of the above five groups took the top "prize." Breathing down it's neck was Greece with 43.2 percent and at 37.6 percent Italy rounded out the top three. The least bigoted nations were dominated by Scandinavian countries: Sweden (13.4%), the Netherlands (17.2%), Iceland (18.4%), Canada (21.5%), Denmark (21.9%). (Germany joins the ranks of the most bigoted nations using an alternative measure based on how strong bigoted feelings were among those who had them, the researchers found.) The United States was estimated to have a 30.4 percent level of bigotry. On average, about one out of every three people in the 19 countries used in the study were bigoted. By far the most hated group were homosexuals with an overall average of 19.6 percent of people saying they wouldn't want them as neighbors. Next up were Muslims with 14.5 percent, but since the survey was taken before September 11th, those results might be much different today.

Watch this...I say he stole it, u can just feel how this dude is hiding the truth. The other day, they busted this hopital that was dumping old sick patients in downtown la. Yup, rich slide to the front of the line, thats for sure. http://www.msnbc.msn .com/id/30825449/vp/ 31572813#31714657

True story: 2 somali guys meet in bar in la! waar iska waran haye goes the greeting conversation. Then one says to the other, haji would u like dee xabad dhididey!! kinda asking indirectly, if he would like a cold one. The other guy goes, haa, xabad dhididey maxaan ku dhiidey!! lol. Khamri has become the thing for many college age somalis these days. Even mind boggling is that xalimoos doing this. Personally, i never enjoyed any mind altering stuff. I cant even deal with coffee or soda. Just offer me some tea with honey and i be kol. Now some folks in here are defending kharmi consumption and jumping off hoops trying to blame this issue to the innocent somalis corrupted by amxaar kharmi drinking morons. Thats not only wack but just plain reckless ignorance. Just think for a second plz before u run a muck of yourself. Also kharmi is imported from Ethiopia and Kenya by the warlords and their tribal keens. Why the silence here!! lol.. or is everyone protecting Uncle thug mugrim. A good friend of mine from India was recently deporated after he was arrest with his 4th DUI. Below is a link that kinda breaks what DUI could get u into in usa. Its not really fun, READ THIS: http://articles.mone ycentral.msn.com/Ins urance/InsureYourCar /InsureYourCarDyn.as px?cp-documentid=511 1575

i am a Somalien and proud of it.

waji bir!! lol. THE spokesperson of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Major Barigye Ba-hoku, is arguably the most threatened person in the world. His phone rings every three minutes. “This is al Shabaab,” says an ever-changing voice. Then the abuses start, and the death threats. But Ba-Hoku, a seasoned UPDF officer, has grown used to them. “I get about 200 of them per day,” he says. “I also received 1,800 messages on my phone. I have downloaded them. I want to keep them.” sitting in front of his container at the AMISOM base near Mogadishu Airport, he picks his umpteenth call of the day. “This is Somali al Shabaab. I will kill you tomorrow,” says a man in English. “How will that solve your problem?” Ba-Hoku asks. “Can I bring myself so that you don’t waste your time looking for me?” The caller, clearly confused, switches off. Within seconds, a message comes in. “Peace of Allah be upon you, Barigye-Bahoku,” it reads. “In reality, we are very sorry you are staying in Somalia. If Allah says, we shall kill you as we are the soldiers of Islam.” The next caller is a woman. “Go, go, go!” she shouts. “Go (to) your country! Gal (infidel)!” “Do you know how many Somalis are in Uganda?” Ba-Hoku asks calmly. “We have never bothered to chase them away because they are our brothers.” She switches off. Two messages roll in almost simultaneously. One says: “You are going to lost (lose) you life very soon.” The other reads: “I believe I will one day be strong Somali president and I shall make all Ugandan people our slaves! God curse Uganda! God delete Ugandan existence!” Ba-Hoku shrugs when asked if they don’t wear him down. “They must have bad instructors,” he simply says. “They don’t change their tactics. They have applied this tactic for the last one and a half years and it has not had any impact.” He does not want to ignore them either. “Sometimes we get clues from them. And it is a way to engage them. One has now become my friend.” The hate campaign by al Shabaab, a jihadist group of youngsters linked to Al Qaeda, is only one of the problems the Ugandan peacekeepers, who make up the bulk of the 4,300 strong AU force, are facing in Somalia. Disinformation is another. “We are dealing with a media that are intimidated, blackmailed and threatened,” says Ba-Hoku. “They cannot put out messages in support of AMISOM. This year alone, we have had six Somali journalists killed; that is one per month.” By eliminating and terrorising independent journalists, al Shabaab have effectively taken over cyberspace and managed modern information warfare. This psychological war, which AMISOM commanders find more difficult to handle than the military part, is aimed at portraying the peacekeepers as foreign occupiers and enemies of Islam, and eventually bringing about their withdrawal. A strange disease which has affected over 50 Burundian peacekeepers was quickly attributed to poisoning by al Shabaab. Yet, a Nairobi hospital which diagnosed some of the patients found leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread by rats. Part of the propaganda spread by al Shabaab is that the newly elected president, Sharif Ahmed, is a Western stooge and that the capital Mogadishu is about to fall in the hands of the Islamist insurgents. But when touring the bombed-out city in a mamba, people were seen going about their business seemingly undisturbed, pushing wheelbarrows, selling goods at markets or drinking tea at roadside restaurants. Several ships were being offloaded at the seaport, bringing in food and fuel from India, Dubai and China, and an average of eight planes per day land at Mogadishu Airport. Thanks to the additional Burundian troops, AMISOM has extended its control over the capital from the sea coast up to Mogadishu University. Most remarkable was the absence of gunfire and mortar explosions, which had been a common phenomenon in the Somali capital for the last two decades. Apart from one gunshot near the presidential palace and a few test shells at the AMISOM base, the air remained conspicuously quiet during our 26-hour stay in the capital. “Contrary to the propaganda, only two of the 16 districts in the Benadir region, which make Mogadishu, are in the hands of the opposition forces,” says the AMISOM spokesperson. While the situation might not be as dramatic as portrayed by al Shabaab, the threat posed by the Jihadists, who have been boosted by an influx of foreign fighters, is nevertheless real and omnipresent. Two weeks ago, three Ugandan soldiers were killed by a mortar shell as they were guarding the presidential palace, known as Villa Somalia. The next day, Ugandan peacekeepers took part in a battle to repulse insurgents which had come up to half a kilometre from State House. Some 40 insurgents were reportedly killed in the joint Somali forces and AMISOM offensive. But Ba-Hoku downplayed the operation: “What we did was to take limited action to ensure the safety of our troops and ensure that our supply route remained open. It was merely a show of force, and it worked.” Not a change of mandate is needed to secure Mogadishu, the force commander, Gen. Francis Okello, emphasised, but more troops and better equipment. “We may not necessarily need to change the mandate from chapter 6 to chapter 7 (allowing for the peacekeepers to use force to protect the population),” Okello told journalists outside his headquarters on Friday. “What we lack is enough troops. We need soldiers on the ground. Apart from that, we need equipment. There are several threats which AMISOM is facing — roadside bombs, mines as well as mortar fire. We need better protection. We also need more patrol boats and armoured personnel carriers.” But he categorically denied media reports that Mogadishu was being besieged and about to be captured by al Shabaab. “Some people are claiming that the Somali government is about to fall. I can assure you that as long as AMISOM is here, the transitional federal government will not collapse.” See full interview in tomorrow’s The New Vision Who are al Shabaab? Al Shabaab, meaning youth, began as an armed wing of the Union of Islamic Courts, which briefly ruled Somalia in 2006. The Islamic Courts had restored a tenuous calm in Mogadishu before they were swept from power in December 2006 by Ethiopian forces, backed by the US, because of their purported links with Al Qaeda. If anything, the Ethiopian intervention radicalised and strengthened al Shabaab, and hardened their links with global jihad and Al Qaeda. In the past few years, their numbers have risen from a few hundred to several thousand fighters. The insurgents have been boosted recently by an influx of foreign fighters who see Somalia as the next battleground for holy war (jihad). Somalia’s president, Sharif Ahmed, estimates the number of foreign fighters at over 2,000. But the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and Western intelligence sources think there are fewer. Some foreign fighters come from Pakistan and Afghanistan, while others are Americans, Britons and Italians of Somali origin. The group’s slick internet propaganda echoes Al Qaeda, threatening to kill foreign peacekeeping troops and chasing out humanitarian agencies, accusing them of being ‘enemies of Islam’. Like Al Qaeda, the insurgents have adopted suicide bombings as one of their tactics. A total of 11 Burundian peacekeepers were killed in a suicide attack outside their base in February. And last month, a teenage suicide bomber blew up Somalia’s interior minister as well as the ambassador designate to South Africa. Loosely arranged in cells of 20 to 30 fighters, Shabaab now control most of south and central Somalia. In areas under their control, they impose a brutal reign of terror, characterised by beheadings of people accused of being collaborators of the government or Western organisations, and double amputations of suspected thieves. Shopkeepers who show Western films or play pop music are attacked with grenades. Aid workers and foreign journalists are being kidnapped for ransoms. Last week, two French military advisers were lifted from their hotel in central Mogadishu, with Shabaab now threatening to bring them before a Sharia court. Across the country, the insurgents get a lot of cash from taxes, the profits of pirates, extortion and donations from Arabs and Somalis in the diaspora. Machineguns, anti-tank mines weapons and landmines have been flown into airstrips controlled by the insurgents. The international community has accused Eritrea of being the main transit route for arms and fighters to the Somali insurgents, and providing instructors for their training camps. But other countries are believed to supply al Shabaab with cash and arms. The Enough Project accuses Libya, Qatar and Iran of actively supporting the insurgents. The group’s political agenda keeps changing. The insurgents at first demanded the withdrawal of the Ethiopian army from Somalia and the introduction of Sharia. Now that both demands have been granted, they want the departure of the AU peacekeepers Insiders say Shabaab fighters are recruited and kept through a mixture of brainwashing, coercion and cash benefits. Young men of between 17 and 20 are first lured by money, they are said to receive a monthly pay of $300, and then stirred by lectures and sermons into a desire of martyrdom. “They don’t have a political agenda,” says President Sharif Ahmed. “They just want to control Somalia and hand it over to global terrorists.” Source: New Vision, July 25, 2009 hiiraan.com

Well if u dont know anything about Sharia law, then may be u should learn about it first, instead of dizzing it. Remember ignorance is no excuse. Drinking and drugs...haah! juicing is not something that u wanna indulge into it. Thats why u see it even being restricted to adult in the gaaloland too and sold in certain stores under limited times. Drugs, well u know its illegal. So how can a drug like Jaat is legal in somali and east africa??? Researchers have shown that Africans are more susceptible to Alcohol and drugs than other races due to genetics. Many lives are destroyed by these things. And these addictions are crossing over to women and teenagers. The American courts should give sharia a chance and try it!!lol..thats right try it. Imagine 40 lashes for anyone caught with drugs! that homie will quit COLD TURKEY for sure. Pain is the mother of all abstinence. Then finally, its against diin so that should have stopped u from consuming these items. However, humans can stray sometimes. Instead of having the culprit sit in jail cell and dreaming more about these items, why not do this! Whip his azz in public so he never forgets that day!!