^It's not a Somali request. The title is misleading to say the least. It should have been, 'embattled transition-al government called for an urgent help' Oromoi, Ethiopia was defeated through political, military, and moral reasons--the three factors working in synergy. When Ethiopia was still in Mogadisho, the al-Shabaab resistance movement was in control of 2/3 of southern Somalia.

Dabshid, you remind me of Iran's supreme leader, his speech on Friday, in which he made reference to Abu Ghuraib and Iraq as elements of western democracy. What is worsening Somalia's crisis is the outside intervention and its varied forms. The Sooner we realize and take decisive actions the closer we get to a legitimate statehood.

Me, Can Somalia stand on its feet if the 4.5 is banned and AU withdraw? We have seen the largest displacement and biggest humanitarian crisis. It's impossible to keep the TFG part II run on this rickety course. A new reconciliation effort must start and the al-shabaab leaders must be invited and their conditions met, that is eliminating the 4.5 clan formula and having the Ugandans agree to phased withdrawal. The bulk of the financial assistance that was given to Somalia for security, state building and reconstruction went to AU's operational budget. They are not peace-keepers but special forces trained by AFRICOM to contain Somalia's insurgency. In the end, what matters is the preservation of innocent lives.

You wlc both of you gents. Keep the good faith.

Let me share with you this long article by Ismail Ali Ismail. WardheerNews

Originally posted by Kashafa: Gentlemen, after the historical Islamist revolution of the summer of 2006, and as we find ourseleves in the summer of 2009, we are now witnessing the 2nd liberation of Mogadisho from Morrryyaan warlords and Munaafiq peaceniks. This whole framework of political settlement for which the TFG part II is currently based on, was, I believe, conceived in this article of Hirad. But then, the author questioned whether this new experiment--where the two sides, the "fake" Islamists and their rising breed of clerics and the old political elite, if reconciled and merged, could lessen the rate of errors to zero and end the bloodshed and free the people they still hold in hostage. No one knows yet, but as it appears, neither has the upper hand nor is either one of them monolithic. In his article, Somalia: a country in limbo between Islamism and Tribalism, dated on August 2006, For now, Somalia is hanging between tribalism and Islamism as a system of government. In the meantime, and pending the jury’s return on the choice between the two main proposed frames for government in today’s Somalia, can they be boxed in together into one ideology? No one knows! Today though, that is what reconciliation requires of the parties in contention for power in Somalia. Simply put, the coalition of Islamists are themselves denominated by their clannish divides; and the TFG is essentially a contrived juxtaposition of clans under the so-called 4.5-formula. For the two parties to come to a settlement and form a government together, they will need to endorse one another’s ideologies and acknowledge each other’s structure. And, why not? Both tribalism and Islam have been here—coexisting for centuries. Actually, what is new is the type of leadership. The wadads (clerics) and waranles (temporal leaders) of old had somehow managed to make it together. It seems that a similar expectation has become the challenge to the current political elite and to the new breed of political clerics, alike. Those two features—ideology and structure—of the differences between the two sides shall remain the knot they will need to work around, if not to resolve them completely. The question is: can they? Will they? What if they cannot? But then, one only hopes that that is the end of the problems. Because, even when, somehow, the division along temporal versus theocratic rule is finally, and if finally, resolved, there comes the next inherent problem. Our Somali elite are intently bent on obtaining political posts—beyond reason, indeed. Every one of us requires offices for himself and then for his brothers, then for his cousins and, then, distant cousins, because they constitute one’s political party, so far. Ali Elmi Afyare, a Somali poet, had once observed in one of his poems of the sixties: “Dawlad wada Karraanniyi dunidaba ma joogto eh”. Roughly translated, it means: “There is no such a government where all of its people hold offices in the government”. This last Cabinet—in which more than one hundred of its two-hundred-and-seve nty-five member parliament held Cabinet posts—was typical. In the end, one wonders if it matters, at all, which ism works. After all, the average Somali citizen had been politically manipulated under the banner of one ism or another since independence in 1960. Former governments used nationalism, exploiting the greater Somalia goal, which only galvanized the neighboring countries towards Somalia and had almost rendered the young Somali Republic isolated in the international political and diplomatic circles. The Islamists and their cohorts seem to be repeating the same mistake today. They are forgetting that we have hardly recuperated from the damages the nation has suffered because of that misguided policy in their propaganda against the neighboring countries. The gullible people have also spent the last two decades without a government, suffering the designs and manipulations of its political elite, which kept them apart, stateless and doomed to become the victims of waste dumping, environmental degradation, poor social services and diminishing economic and industrial infrastructure. It shall be unfair that they do also become divided and manipulated in the name of their Faith this third time around—Islamism—God forbid. Hence I shall end this paper by quoting from the Qur’an again, that it might reach the eyes, ears and hearts of those who are wrongly trying to employ Islam as a political tool. I will conclude this piece with Ayah (256), Surah 2: Albaqarah, which reads as follows: “Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy handhold that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.’ Abdalla a. Hirad MHirad@aol.com

Allaha u naxariisto, samir iyo Iimaan. His death is indeed a big blow to the TFG.

Originally posted by LayZie G.: ^You will never be an Iranian The Leverett's article appears to lack credibility. For one, the author appears to have ulterior motive for contributing this article, along with his wife to politico because of its timing. The author and the nuclear Iran argument is foolish, especially if everything Mr leverrett's said were to be implemented but nevertheless Mr leverett just got his big break by getting the opportunity to perform in-front of a striking crowd, made up of the heavyweights of broadway after struggling in the small market. Besides, the author's past history handicaps his rather weak effort into swaying the views of the public towards the legitimacy associated with Ahmadinejad's so called landslide victory. The fact that he (the author) was once in bed with the government is one of the main reasons why his argument for the incumbent is ineffective. His delivery is flawed because he made frequent references to the so called American "Iran experts" instead of focusing on his subject by demeaning their experience and their inside knowledge of Iran politics. He is looking to sell an expired product that can no longer be stomached by the Iranian youth and women votes. I think that Mr Leverett is looking to settle a score with the United States government and he is using the Iranian election and the recent publicity the voting irregulaties generated to fulfill his agenda. The Leveretts attack on the " most American “Iran experts” " makes their argument and their bellittlement towards the so called American "iran experts" contradictory because they too are part of this core group of experts, author included. For that reason, his argument and his wife's arguement come across as nothing more than two couple blowing hot air and using the occasion to show their displeasure like a couple of angry teenagers. Mr Leverret is in the same boat as the so called american "iran experts" because he has the same background. They, the so called american "iran experts" are scholars who wrote countless books, published journals and given advise to high ranking officials, including the United States of America. Besides their irrelevancy, the article references the TFT firm as a legitimate source of information and their findings of the Iranian election as the last words of the gospel and delegitimize the opposition and the 10+ million stolen votes from the iranian youth and iranian women who make over 60% of the population, mostly women. What the authors of the article do not address is the voting irregularities that have been reported from every possible foreign reporter that talked to eye witnesses, voters etc. They did not answer why the pro- government forces are using excessive force to maintain crowd control? Why are the police officers, armed, some dressed as c ivilians are going out of their way to harm the people? Why do you think the youth and the women of Iran are out setting fire to buses? This excess of protest was fueled by the government forces and their conduct towards the public on saturday. It is undemocratic to repress votes and at the same time call the process a free election, where every vote counts and use the west as an avenue to dismiss the people who put their lives at risk in order to stand up and fight for their lives, their sole right to exist as humans and to live in peace, as all of you do and most importantly, to be heard because their voices were stolen by Ahmadinejad forces.. Getting back to the author(s), he and his wife did not address both sides of the argument, instead they dismissed the opponent and called for Ahmadinejad's victory by boosting support to perhaps score points with the man himself for whatever his reasons may be. Lastly, with all of the author's vast knowledge in the field and the many years of research , Mr Leverett has failed his audience by not presending a very persuasive argument to the world wide reader as to why the 10 million Iran youth and women feel that they have been robbed of their right to choose their candidate. In addition to that, how do you, geele jire, typical farax, explain the conduct of the officers, both uniform and private security forces, shooting and beating harmless protesters? (how about u just go ahead and dismiss the actions of the pro-government forces and only concentrate on the actions of the youth and women out in the streets of Tehran fighting for the same freedoms you take for granted) Furthermore, can you excuse the action of the paid group aka the so called pro-government militia who forced their way into the University of Tehran in the hopes of doing harm to. students and staff that were inside the premise? How about the fact that the government shut down all communications, especially to social sites long before people went to the voting booths? How about the reports that were filed by the reporters without borders and the hundreds of foreign organizations, independently conducting their own investigations? Are they working for the united states? You and anyone who feels that these people are just blowing off hot air and there is not much to their revolt, think again. Jeb Bush corrupt ways and nearly destroying half a million vote is minor in comparison to destroying 10 million votes, especially the votes that were casted in the mosques. This author and his article are a failure, just like the Iranian authority has failed its citizens. Uprising is officially in effect, may allah ease the pain and hardship of the Iranian youth and women. [/qb] Lazie, look beyond the current events, zoom into the past and you'll realize that you are missing something very crucial. All these accusations of "dictatorship" "police beating peaceful dissents" amount to a direct intervention of Iran's internal affairs with the aim of creating instability. Economic sanctions that have displaced millions of Iranians from their sources of livelihood are not enough still. Besides, These protestors are reported to have committed arson and other public crimes. The Iranian Government have only shown tremendous restraint so far. Here is what I argued a year ago: Had the current regime of Iran been like the then installed Mohammad Raza Shah Pehlevi’s regime, its civilian nuclear power program wouldn’t have been subjected to an oversight and consistent scrutiny, monitoring, or the threats of economic sanctions. Iran’s nuclear history began right after the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohamed Mossadeq was toppled by UK/US led coup. The U.S foreign policy at the time was designed, based on incorrect assumptions, to thwart Iran from falling into the Soviet’s sphere of influence after Mosadeq nationalized the country’s oil firms. Under the Shah’s despotic rule, inter-state relations between the United States and Iran improved and the transfer of nuclear technology and materials to Iran had continued until Shah was overthrown by the Islamic regime of Khoemini in 1979. The Islamic revolutionary regime inherited U.S supplied nuclear power reactors at Bushehr but it hardly resumed the operation of the program. Khomeini was reported to have expelled from the country all the western-educated Iranian scientists and engineers. The fall of Shah placed U.S interests in the region at peril to the effect of a big shift of policy. This policy shift had led the United States to use Iraq as a proxy state and contain what was seen as a contagious virus: the threat of Islamic theocracy in the region. Iraq was therefore armed with chemical and biological weapons and it subsequently used against Iran as an instrument of a resolve for an outstanding border disputes. The Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s was the catalyst that gave a new lease of life for the resumption of Iran’s nuclear activities as argued by regional experts. Iran claims that no country came to her aid when Iraq invaded its territory and used chemical and biological weapons. The fact the world did not sincerely stop Iraq from its use of chemical weapons is an added incentive for the policy makers of Iran in order to counter to what they perceive as an external threat to her national security. Furthermore, influence and prestige are involved if Iran manages to possess sufficient fissile material to produce a nuclear weapon. Like Pakistan, Iran will have increased political leverage in the region and it it will attract a great deal of attention and strategic support for her interests. However, the implication for this scenario is that regional arms races would add volatility to an already conflict-prone region. And diminished roles for the major powers to intervene in the oil region in their best interest would be inevitable.

Ngonge, this one is much better. Ps. I tried to post the link but it's inaccessible somehow.

The Hyberglobalist has come up with an amusing observation. By Thomas L. Friedman June 17, 2009 The NY Times Watching events unfolding in Tehran raises three intriguing questions for me: Is Facebook to Iran's Moderate Revolution what the mosque was to Iran's Islamic Revolution? Is Twitter to Iranian moderates what muezzins were to Iranian mullahs? And, finally, is any of this good for the Jews - particularly Israel's prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu? Here is why I ask. During the past eight years, in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and, to a lesser extent, Egypt, spaces were opened for more democratic elections. Good news. Unfortunately, the groups that had the most grass-roots support and mobilization capabilities - and the most energized supporters - to take advantage of this new space were the Islamists. That is, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, the various Sunni and Shiite Islamist parties in Iraq and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The centrist mainstream was nowhere. One of the most important reasons that the Islamists were able to covertly organize and mobilize, and be prepared when the lids in their societies were loosened a bit, was because they had the mosque - a place to gather, educate and inspire their followers - outside the total control of the state. In almost every one of these cases, the Islamists overplayed their hands. In Lebanon, Hezbollah took the country into a disastrous and unpopular war. Ditto Hamas in Gaza. The Sunni and Shiite Islamists in Iraq tried to impose a religious lifestyle on their communities, and the mullahs in Iran quashed the reformists. In the last year, though, the hard-liners in all these countries have faced a backlash by the centrist majorities, who detest these Islamist groups. Hezbollah was defeated in the Lebanese elections. Hamas is facing an energized Fatah in the West Bank and is increasingly unpopular in Gaza. Iraqi Sunnis have ousted the jihadists thanks to the tribal Awakening movement, while the biggest pro-Iranian party in Iraq got trounced in the recent provincial runoff. And in Iran, millions of Iranians starving for more freedom rallied to the presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi, forcing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to steal the election. (If he really won the Iranian election, as Ahmadinejad claims, by a 2-to-1 margin, wouldn't he invite the whole world in to recount the votes? Why hasn't he?) What is fascinating to me is the degree to which in Iran today - and in Lebanon - the more secular forces of moderation have used technologies like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, blogging and text-messaging as their virtual mosque, as the place they can now gather, mobilize, plan, inform and energize their supporters, outside the grip of the state. For the first time, the moderates, who were always stranded between authoritarian regimes that had all the powers of the state and Islamists who had all the powers of the mosque, now have their own place to come together and project power: the network. The Times reported that Moussavi's fan group on Facebook alone has grown to more than 50,000 members. That's surely more than any mosque could hold - which is why the government is now trying to block these sites. But while that puts the moderate mainstream on par with the Islamists in communications terms, we should not get carried away. First, "moderates" is a relative term. Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, while more secular and nationalist than the extreme Iraqi Islamists, nonetheless wants to centralize power and solidify his Dawa group as the ruling party. Second, even if defeated electorally, the Islamists and their regimes have a trump card: guns. Guns trump cellphones. Bang-bang beats tweet-tweet. The Sunni Awakening in Iraq succeeded because the moderates there were armed. I doubt Ahmadinejad will go peacefully. And that brings me to Netanyahu. Israel was taken by surprise by events in Lebanon and Iran. And Israeli officials have been saying they would much prefer that Ahmadinejad still wins in Iran - not because Israelis really prefer him but because they believe his thuggish, anti-Semitic behavior reflects the true and immutable character of the Iranian regime. And Israelis fear that if a moderate were to take over, it would not herald any real change in Iran, or its nuclear ambitions, but simply disguise it better. But there are signals - still weak - that another trend may be stirring in the region. The Iranian regime appears to be splitting at the top. This could challenge Netanyahu's security framework. Israel needs to be neither seduced by these signals nor indifferent to them. It has to be open to them and must understand that how it relates to Palestinians and settlements can help these trends - at the margins. But a lot starts at the margins." The rise of these moderate forces, if it is real and sustained, would be the most significant long-term contribution to Israeli national security," argued Gidi Grinstein, the president of the Reut Institute, a think tank. "If some of these moderate forces started to converge, then the overall status of Israeli security would improve radically." It is still way too early to know, he said, "but Israel needs to be alive to this process and not simply rely on its old framework."

As peaceful as Hargeisa is, having an ATM on a street near my house is very possible. Keep up the good work. Btw, this topic belongs to the General section. Lol

As peaceful as Hargeisa is, having an ATM on a street near my house is very possible. Keep up the good work. Btw, this topic belongs to the General section. Lol

Obama's response to the Iranian election was very credible. This is what he said, "it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran’s leaders will be; that we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran, which sometimes the United States can be a handy political football — or discussions with the United States." I think Ahmednijad has the support of the poor majority. He is populist just like Hugo Chavez. He said that redistribution of the oil wealth and combatting corruption make to the top list of his policy agenda as President whereas Mousavi rejected such notion and said that he would open up Iran to an outside investment, ameliorate his country's relations with the west, and put the country's nuclear program under the control of a consortium. If I were Iranian, I would definately vote for Ahmednijad.

Allaha u naxariisto.

Lol, he didn't even need an interprator. Zionism amazes me.

Hannibal, E-Sanaag? ? Sanaag is one region and you sure know that. There's no artifically demarcated border in this vast region of Somalia, and Its inhabitants are historic nationalists and they live together in peace and harmony.

"Waa inaad hanan kartaa gabadha"is the reason oftentimes, meaning you getta have the money and a good social credit to betroth a woman. It's cultural and it has thus been a barrier for young Somali men in pursuit of building up a House. Thanks rudy for the article.

0 Originally posted by Jacaylbaro: Haven't they told him about the Presidential Manners ??? . Lool JB. You mean the Arab way as his middle name?

YoungDuke sees an injustice but we and own posterity have to live with it until this western-made monarchy expires. Che, Qardho is where my grand mother was born and currently lives. I love this city so beware buddy.

Originally posted by Norf 2: He was GIVEN it. It reminds me of the distinction between Plunder and Property as articulated by Frederic Bestiat from The Law. So that private jet is his Plunder.

Allaha u naxariisto, samir iyo iimaan. KK, dadkeena siiba waaladiinteen weli waxay xasuustaan dhibka Somalia ka jiro. Almost half of their income are spent on helping extended families at home. So there is a major financial burden on the Diaspora family units. Besides, bad drug habits have eroded family values, lack of strong educational background or skills for most of our people adds to the list of societal ills. There are still some successful families I have seen whose kids go to the best schools as well as establishing some type of fixed property for their families--Parents who are educated, physically fit, industrious, financially secure, and have set clear and realistic objectives for themselves.

Jb, I like this book.Ma Dhabba Jacayl waa loo dhintaa: Cilmi iyo Hodon Qore: Rasheed Maxamed Shabeele October 1975

Here it's enjoy. Much credit goes to Indiana University. http://www.indiana.e du/~libsalc/african/ Digital_Somali_Libra ry/digibks.html

Blessed, u wlc sis. Yeah it's useful and share it with whoever is interested. Most people think that Somali textbooks are gone and irrecoverable due to the long civil/tribal war. Adnaan, saaxib that is hard question. You have to read the text first to get a grasp of that Layli

Allaha u naxariisto Cabdilaahi Cumar Oomaar. That he refused to substitute his British passport over the Somali's measures indeed the highest level of patriotism. I didn't know much about him except his overall family.