2.1 Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) General Mohamed Abshir Musa, Chairman Prior to January 1991 The SSDF is comprised mainly of members of the ********* clan of the ***** group of clans. It was the first resistance movement to oppose the rule of General Barre in the late 1970's. It developed around an unsuccessful coup attempt by ********* officers on 9 April 1978. This coup was led by Colonel Mohamoud Sheekh Osman ('Irro'). A total of 17 officers were arrested and received death, life imprisonment, or other long terms of imprisonment. The leaders of the coup who escaped arrest fled to Ethiopia. They joined forces there with the leaders of the collapsing SODAF1 (Somali Democratic Action Front) to form the new SSF (Somali Salvation Front) in April 1979, with its headquarters in Addis Ababa. Colonel Mengistu of Ethiopia supported the new SSF, as a welcome relief in balancing the pressures that his Government was under from the Eritreans in the North and the WSLF (Western Somali Liberation Front) in the East, who he perceived still as being armed and supported by General Barre. In particular, he saw the SSF as his channel for waging guerrilla warfare against General Barre to offset the guerrilla warfare by the WSLF against him. Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a senior participant in the prior coup attempt, became the dominating leader of the SSF. The SSF had to first prove their reliability and usefulness to the Ethiopian Government by conducting a trial raid across the border in Somalia, in which 39 out of the 50 militiamen were killed. Then, the Ethiopian Government tried to use the SSF, together with the Ethiopian Army, to attack the WSLF inside of Eastern Ethiopia.2 The SSF was not able to continue with its primary mission, of attacks across the border in Somalia against the Dictatorship, until it received substantial financial and military aid from Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya. The condition for this new support was that they had to adopt the "Green Book" of Colonel Qaddafi. Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was now able to lead guerrilla attacks across the border from Ethiopia into Somalia against the Government. General Barre responded with massive retribution against innocent ********* citizens and destroying whole villages based only upon the suspicion that they might be supporters of the SSF. The ********* General Mohamed Saeed Hirsi ('Morgan') proved his loyalty to General Barre in directing these atrocities against his own ********* people. This included some of the first examples of General Barre's officers encouraging their soldiers to rape innocent ********* women as a form of punishment for the ********* clan. In October 1981, two smaller organizations with headquarters in Aden joined together with the SSF, i.e. the Somali Workers Party and the Somali Democratic Liberation Front3. They changed the name of the new resulting organization to the SSDF (Somali Salvation Democratic Front). However, this new SSDF was quickly paralyzed by internal fighting. The former SSF had 7 of the 11 members in the new Executive Committee and tried to use this democratic majority to impose its own clan-based ideology upon the expanded group. The new members of the group wanted to broaden the base of the SSDF to include many non-*********s – and they were supported by many of the ********* members of the SSDF. As the original SSF leadership saw their position weakening, they worked a deal with the Ethiopian and Libyan Governments to "surrender" to the Ethiopian Government. Then the Ethioipian Government was able to crush the remaining left-oriented faction of the SSDF. The Ethiopian Government was also able to make raids into Somalia, labeling them as SSDF raids. By 1985, the SSDF had stopped almost all military actions, particularly in Somalia. Most of the leading leaders switched sides and joined with General Mohamed Siad Barre, under his offers of reconciliation to bring all Darods together under his command. General Barre also used strong economic incentives, such as using funds from Italy for construction projects in the Region of the *********s in order to paralyze their SSDF. Therefore, the SSDF remained neutral throughout most of the war-of-liberation. Colonel Mengistu arrested Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and several of his key aides and held them in jail until the end of Colonel Mengistu's regime, i.e. from 1984/85 until 1991. An Ethiopian from Dire Dawa, Musse Islam, claimed to be the new head of the SSDF for several years. Upon his release from prison in 1991, General Abdullahi Yusuf resumed his role of leadership of the SSDF. Even though the SSDF did not provide any official military resistance to the dictatorship of General Barre during the last years of the war-of-liberation, many individuals, who had belonged to the SSDF earlier, did continue with individual acts against the dictatorship. Source

Originally posted by Northerner: Some SOL championers of the 'sayid' are also TFG fans. That is referred to as Cognitive Dissonance. "Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term which describes the uncomfortable tension that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts at the same time, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with one's beliefs." LOL.

^^^^ LOL. That may be true but who would he enjoy slaying? Like Tony Montana would. "I kill a collaborator for fun, but for a green card, I gonna carve him up real nice."

^^^^^ And to think that many of these collaborators are related to the Sayyid. Uff. Who would the Sayyid slay first? Yey, Geedi or an Ethiopian?

Mr. Holmes said he intended to ask the government to allow aid to reach its people while it tried to build on the fragile peace here. “It is their responsibility to look after civilians, to protect civilians and at the very least not to obstruct aid,” Mr. Holmes said.

LOL By David Ignatius Sunday, May 13, 2007; B07 ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- "Get it done quickly and get out." That, says a senior U.S. diplomat here, was the goal of the little-noticed war that Ethiopia has been fighting, with American support, against Islamic extremists in Somalia. But this in-and-out strategy encounters the same real-world obstacles that America is facing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Conflict is less the problem than what comes after it. That's the dilemma that America and its allies are discovering in a world where war-fighting and nation-building have become perversely mixed. It took the Ethiopians just a week to drive a Muslim radical movement known as the Islamic Courts from Mogadishu in December. The hard part wasn't chasing the enemy from the capital but putting the country back together. "The Ethiopians are looking for an opportunity to exit, but not until they are confident that the security environment will prevent a return to chaos," says a State Department official who helps oversee policy for the region. And in Somalia, a backward country that has had 14 governments since 1991, that process of stabilization will be anything but easy. The Somalia war comes up during every stop of a tour of the Horn of Africa with Adm. William Fallon, the new head of U.S. Central Command. In 2002, Centcom established a regional outpost in the dusty port city of Djibouti, at the entrance to the Red Sea. It now has about 1,500 U.S. military personnel. Some of them are out digging wells, building schools, vaccinating goats and otherwise "waging peace," as a spokesman there explains. That's the nation-building side. The Djibouti base also provides logistical support for U.S. Special Forces teams that are hunting down what's left of the al-Qaeda terrorist cells that bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Because Somalia provided a haven for al-Qaeda, it was a special target after Sept. 11, 2001. But the Bush administration, remembering the disastrous 1993 humanitarian intervention, was wary of getting involved directly. Initially, the CIA paid Somali warlords to hunt down al-Qaeda operatives. But the warlords didn't catch many terrorists and, perhaps worse, the payoffs added to an anarchic situation that led many Somalis to turn to the Islamic Courts for protection. The Somalis were mercenary but unreliable. One official recalls how the CIA distributed matchbooks in Somalia offering a $10 million reward for the capture of Osama bin Laden. The Somalis complained that they were being cheated because a CIA Web site was offering a $25 million reward. The bounties to the Somali warlords "at the time appeared to be the only viable option given our lack of access," says an intelligence official back in the United States. The secret CIA program was terminated in 2006. Ethiopia, fearing the establishment of a radical Muslim government on its eastern border, began planning its military intervention soon after the Islamic Courts took control in Mogadishu in June 2006. At first, Centcom cautioned the Ethiopians against invading. But after 10,000 Ethiopian troops surged across the border on Dec. 24, they received U.S. overhead reconnaissance and other battlefield intelligence. Next came an Ethiopian-American pincer strategy: In January, after Muslim fighters had fled Mogadishu, the United States launched two devastating air attacks with AC-130 gunships. A senior al-Qaeda operative named Abu Talha al-Sudani was probably killed in these coordinated attacks, a U.S. official said. Overall, about 8,000 Muslim fighters were killed in the brief war, while the Ethiopians lost just 225 dead, with 500 wounded. A successful proxy war, from the American standpoint. But then what? The Ethiopians began pulling out their troops almost immediately, and by March, the Muslim radicals were threatening to regain control of Mogadishu. Ethiopian troops stormed back and crushed the Muslim rebels once again. The Ethiopians have now concluded that they can't withdraw completely anytime soon; they must instead stay and train a friendly Somali army that can support the pro-Ethiopian "Transitional Federal Government." The Ethiopians are hopeful they can forge a reconciliation among Somali clan leaders. Meanwhile, the Ethiopians are looking for cover from an African Union force they hope will eventually total at least 5,000 soldiers; so far only about 1,800 soldiers from Uganda have shown up. It's like Iraq and Afghanistan, in other words. A decisive military strike has destroyed one threat. But what's left behind, when the dust clears, is a shattered tribal society that won't have real stability without a complex process of political reconciliation and economic development. There's no turning back now, says a U.S. diplomat, but he cautions: "Anyone working in Somalia has to have developed a certain humility about our ability to pick leaders from clans and sub-clans." Washington Post

By Joe De Capua Washington 11 May 2007 UN officials say relatively few displaced people in Somalia have been willing or able to return to Mogadishu. That, despite relative calm in recent weeks. Hundreds of thousands fled the city beginning in early February due to fighting between Ethiopian-backed transitional government forces and the Union of Islamic Courts. Catherine Weibel is a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR. From Nairobi, she gave VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua an update on the displaced Somalis. “There would be about 4,000 people who have gone back to Mogadishu so far, which is a very small number compared to the almost 400,000 people who have fled the capital since February. According to our staff, who is in Mogadishu right now, the people are coming back to Mogadishu very, very slowly. “First, because those who come back sometimes are not sure they will find their house intact. And then because all the people who were living in parts of the city, which were involved in fighting, are not coming back, so far…. It seems that people don’t want to go back for the moment because there are still soldiers of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in these neighborhoods. And they are very afraid that if the fighting resumes they might be cause in the crossfire,” Weibel says. Before fleeing the city, many of the displaced had been living for many years in former public buildings, ministries and police stations. “Since about 16 years, many of the people who were living in Mogadishu, about 250,000 people were living in these former public government buildings because they had to flee the countryside when the war was raging there to go and try to find shelter in Mogadishu itself,” Weibel says. Now, with the buildings mostly empty, the TFG wants to take them over for official use and have told those living there to leave. UNHCR is negotiating with the TFG to find those displaced some land. The agency has helped about 50,000 people, who have fled to Afgooye, which is about 30 kilometers from Mogadishu. Many young people are suffering from water-borne diseases, such as diarrhea. VOA

^^^^^ Not that this fire needs any more fuel. Go ahead, get Baaruud's juices going.

^^^ I was kidding Blue. Hope you had a good time.

^^^^ You came all the way to Houston without telling me? Shame on you. And I recognize that street now.

^^^^ Blue, are those native Indian kids sitting in front of a Mac's? That second picture is downtown Toronto, right? Spadina? My favorite street. You started this thread 4 days after I joined SOL and I love it too. Here's a tribute to you on "center stage". I took this picture a few weeks ago at the International Festival.

Originally posted by Socod_badne: quote: Are you not apart of your clan? I sure am part of my clan. 110% There's not a day that goes by where I don't pity and extend my sympathy to other Somalis who I find out are cursed for life because of being born outside of my noble clan. LOL. Fantastic. Now Ebyan will have to wonder if her mighty clan is all that is cracked up to be. I know for a fact that SB's clan is by far the noblest among Somalis. And if you don't breed with a man of SB's clan Ebyaneey, you can basically look forward to a lifetime of raising ignoble half-breeds.

This ultra-nationalism, at the "barrel of the gun" no less, is misused, abused and milked for all its worth and by every conceivable motive. Somalinimo is neither sacred nor eternal.

Originally posted by me: quote:Originally posted by Castro: Hate it as they may, Ayoub and ME have a lot in common. Explain Castro. I am curious. What do I and this heathen have in common other then that we are both Somali. You're both assuming, wrongly I believe, that unity is a panacea for your problems. You wish Somalis would be united so they would deter any invading force and sort their internal problems. He, on the other hand, wishes Somaliland would get the recognition it so desperately needs but one which it had staked on colonial borders that are in dispute. If that dispute is resolved through a "union" (on a smaller scale in comparison) between the disputing clans, he believes he's well on his way to recognition. Same pipe dream, different scale.

^^^^ Wow. What timing, eh? Originally posted by Ms Dhucdhuc & Dheylo: How can a SOL member know the clan of another member? I only know of the Duke's and Ebyans cos of their constant cheerleading of A/Y. You gotta be from his sub-sub-sub clan to cheer him or to stomach his murderous actions. Normally you wouldn't know anyone's clan but in Serenity's case, and seeing that she let this cat out of the bag , we're blood cousins not just clan cousins. As for the Ebyan and the Duke, well, what can I say? They have a stomach that can grind rocks.

Originally posted by -Serenity-: I dont care about qudbada aad meeshan ka jeedineysid or its finer details, but please, dont ever call my qabiil lame. :mad: You're the clear exception atheer.

^^^^ Medieval mofos. And we have people like Ebyan probably born in the west singing "I loves my qabiil, I loves my qabiil. My qabiil is better than yours, I loves my qabiil." Uff. Praise the lord for my foreign passport.

Originally posted by NGONGE: People support their administrations, saaxib. Again, here, I prefer to toe the official line and assume that two thirds of Somalis are for the occupation. Still, before we digress into that and argue over a whole new topic, remember the point I’m making. This is all about disproving Mr ME’s unity mumbo-jumbo. Ok, I concede that how I would like to see things is not how they really are. That list is how I would like to think most Somalis are, against this occupation, and they may be, but probably not in the percentages I'd like to see. The number of variables in Somalia's troubles is immense. From greed to clan politics to imperialism, we have on our hands an alphabet soup of reasons that could start and sustain any conflict. The "union" is dead. If there is another union, it will be a new one of a different kind. Different actors, different terms, different realities on the ground. Anyone longing for the 1960 union is a fool and anyone who wants to convince us Somalilanders have been trying to secede since 1960 must think we're fools. "People support their administrations" indeed and often they follow them against their own better judgment and to the detriment of their well being. Hate it as they may, Ayoub and ME have a lot in common.

^^^^ There are five, and only five, possible positions anyone can hold on this occupation: 1) Reject it and pick up arms against it. 2) Reject it and either speak up against it or keep the rejection in their heart. 3) Support it and speak up in favor or keep the support in their heart 4) Support it and actively fight alongside it 5) Be indifferent. Now, I've no idea how you, or anyone else, could come up with this 'two thirds' figure but I will tell you this, the bulk of Somalis fall in category 2). A small minority is in category 1) and an even smaller number is in categories 4) and 5). That's how I see it. That many Somalis are incapable of doing something about the occupation does not in any way mean they support it. Ask any occupied peoples and they'll tell you they're against their occupation except, of course, those who stand to gain from the occupation. So, now that you made your point, what evidence will you bring forth in its support?

Originally posted by xiinfaniin: Castrow qolodee labaxda Ebyan adeer? Not my qolo. I once had a crush on an Ebyan. I didn't care what clan she was and I still don't know to this day.

Originally posted by Ebyan: Why should whether you love,hate, or are indifferent to your qabil have any bearing on how I view my qabil? I love my qabil, but that doesn't mean I love every single individual that belongs to my qabil. My love stems from my pride and there's nothing wrong with being proud of who/what you are. You're still dancing atheer. Take off the dancing shoes and tell us why you love your qabiil and what makes it any different from any other qabiil. If you can answer these two questions, I'll sign up for your qabiil in a jiffy. If you continue the dance, I'll just have to stick with my lame qabiil.

Originally posted by Ebyan: I love my tribe and if that makes me qabilist, so be it. What's so good about your tribe? What makes it unique among other tribes? Basically, what, in your opinion, makes it so lovable? Can others join? Since it's so good, can someone who's not from your tribe acquire membership? Not unlike a citizenship in another nation (a large tribe ), can I become a naturalized member of your tribe? Or do I not have the right DNA? P.S. If all the women in your tribe are not stunningly beautiful (with great child-bearing hips) and all the men are not oozing wisdom, then I'm afraid your tribe is no different than mine. And I neither hate nor love my clan. I usually never think of them.

Who knew this guy would turn into the coward and war criminal that he now is? TEN years after soaring into office a political rock star, Tony Blair yesterday flamed out, the Iraq war's biggest casualty. The wave of euphoria that swept Britain's youngest prime minister in nearly 200 years to power has ebbed away: three elections later, most of his countrymen have simply had enough of him. Troops he sent to war are dying in distant lands for reasons difficult to explain, and political opponents he once routed easily are rising again. His decade in power will be remembered for his media-savvy transformation of British politics. But any and all domestic victories lie in the shade of his backing of 2003's US-led invasion of Iraq. The conflict has so far claimed 146 British troops, and the public backlash has seen the Labour Party slump in the polls. Mr Blair, 54, had to admit his departure could help reverse his party's and successor's fortunes. Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born on May 6, 1953, in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. He spent most of his childhood in the northern English city of Durham, studied law at Oxford University, and became a barrister. He went into politics in his 20s, and in 1983 was elected to parliament. He rose rapidly through the ranks as Labour sought to rebound from bitter internal conflict and a series of disastrous defeats at Margaret Thatcher's hands. In 1994, leader John Smith died unexpectedly. Mr Blair, then only 41, succeeded him, having struck a deal with now finance minister and heir apparent Gordon Brown not to run. In 1997, Mr Blair became Britain's youngest PM in 185 years in what was seen as a fresh start after 18 years of Conservative rule. Charismatic, he seemed refreshingly in touch then. He captured the public mood after the death of Diana, calling her "the people's princess". But war, scandals and what some have seen as cynical spin-doctoring have changed all that. Once a youthful, photogenic asset in wooing the apathetic, women and the young, he increasingly became seen as a liability. Mr Blair's brand of social and economic policies is a far cry from the party's Left-wing socialist roots. Many denounced his cutting of Labour's strong - some would say crippling - links to unions to promote a free-market, business-friendly 'New Labour' more characteristic of the Tories. Domestically, he introduced some of the biggest changes in Britain's make-up for centuries, as Scotland and Wales voted for their own devolved administrations and the previously unelected House of Lords was partly reformed. Mr Blair signed the Good Friday peace deal in Northern Ireland, largely ending decades of sectarian violence. Spending on public services such as health and education was increased and reforms introduced over union objections. The Bank of England was allowed to set interest rates independently, winning the markets' confidence. Britain enjoyed its longest economic expansion since the industrial revolution. House prices quadrupled; unemployment fell; hospital waiting lists shrank; child poverty dropped; school results improved. The capital especially thrived. In 1999, Mr Blair and Bill Clinton led NATO in driving Serbian forces out of Kosovo. After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, Mr Blair declared he stood "shoulder to shoulder" with America. But when it became clear he intended to join George W Bush in war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands marched in protest. Defiant, he sent 45,000 troops, Britain's biggest deployment in 50 years, justifying it by saying Iraq had illegal weapons. They turned out not to exist. One of his darkest hours came with the suicide of a government scientist, David Kelly, named as the source of a report that the Government had hyped intelligence to sell the war. Yet he managed to win a third term in 2005, the first Labour leader to do so. In July 2005, Islamist suicide bombers struck London, killing 52, in what they called a response to Mr Blair's foreign policy. In December, he became the first serving British PM to be questioned by police in a criminal inquiry over claims that Labour had offered seats in the Lords to wealthy party donors. But it is the violence uncapped in Iraq that is likely to eclipse all. Mr Blair's close alliance with the US against strong opposition - cartoonists portrayed him as Mr Bush's poodle - saw his authority at home and as a statesman abroad crumble. And now his Tory opponents are energised by a youthful leader, David Cameron, who resembles no one so much as a young Tony Blair. AFP, Reuters

Lily, you are wise beyond your years atheer.

^^^ And what does this little fable prove, Ms. Dheylo? Ebyan, done. And it wasn't condescending, it was insolent.