I always thought the claim that some Somalis have more faith in clan than in Islam to be utterly absurd. Boy was I ever wrong.

Originally posted by xiinfaniin: ^^I have one for Zenawi: Ninkii ey rabbeeyaa fadaro aano waw yahaye’e Shaydaan ixsaan lagama helo eray xun mooyaane’e Xiinow, are you sure you didn't drop a "y" from these verses? Ninkii Yey rabbeeyaa fadaro aano waw yahaye’e Shaydaan ixsaan lagama helo eray xun mooyaane’e

South Africa: Circles of Fire - Staring Into Somalia's Complex Inferno January 12, 2007 Jonathan Katzenellenbogen Johannesburg THE Ethiopian-led and US-backed overthrow of the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia has been swift, but the question of Somalia's future is still wide open. The answer is important to the peace and security of much of east Africa, Washington's war on terror and the millions of Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance. In the absence of a political deal between the transitional government, the more moderate elements in the Union of Islamic Courts and clans, the country stands to return to warlordism. And even if there is a deal, the government could suffer a radical Islamic insurgency. Al- Qaeda has called for an Iraq type insurgency to dislodge the Ethiopian "crusaders" from Somalia. With all the foreign meddling, are the more upbeat scenarios -- such as the type of agreement that emerged in Somaliland, which seceded from Somalia -- possible? The US is attaching increasing strategic importance to Somalia. It already has a military base in Djibouti and last week it dispatched an aircraft carrier to join naval vessels offshore. The US has long been concerned that al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Iraq and Afghanistan would go to Somalia, and it now wants to cut off a sea escape for Islamist fighters. It is highly likely that it was to forestall the possibility of an insurgency that the US launched air attacks this week on what it says were al-Qaeda members, who along with Islamist fighters had fled pursuing Ethiopian troops. As much as it may have done the US a degree of political damage to demonstrate a substantial show of force in Africa, it was an opportune moment for the US to claim some success in the war on terror. With the request for US support having come from the internationally recognised interim government in Somalia, the US had legal ground for action. And while the new secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban ki-Moon, as well as the European Union, Norway and Italy, have criticised the US over the attack, the silence from Africa, including SA, has been overwhelming. What the US, the Ethiopians and the Kenyans fear most is another Afghanistan. Both Afghanistan and Somalia have suffered from a weak central government and warlordism at various stages. And in both cases, a short campaign pushed out Islamist governments. In Afghanistan the Taliban have resurfaced with a vengeance over the past year. If an Islamic insurgency is prevented, or at least restricted, in Somalia and the wider region, the campaign to overthrow the Islamists is likely to be claimed as a successful model for Washington's war on terror. The campaign in Somalia was not US-led. It was led by Ethiopia, a regional power, allowing the US to avoid casualties and the need for a substantial troop presence. Politically, the US may well have preferred that the Ethiopians -- and ideally the transitional government -- do the entire job, but circumstances probably made that hard. The US has clearly learnt -- from Iraq and Afghanistan -- that the end of a campaign can be illusory, and can be used by its enemy to regroup. The Taliban were overthrown in Afghanistan nearly five years ago and after relative quiet for four years, they have regrouped. Somalia allows the US to point to a success in its war on terror at a time that it is facing severe problems on its other fronts -- notably Iraq and Afghanistan. However, Washington will keep a watchful eye from its base in Djibouti. The lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan have not been lost on the US military and a recent US defence department report on counter- insurgency underscored the long-term nature of such campaigns. But the foreign interest from the US, al-Qaeda, Ethiopia and Kenya in Somali clan politics is a risk to any future settlement. Somalia is a theatre for proxy wars and will continue to be so for some time, given its strategic location so close to the Bab al Mandeb choke point into the Red Sea, which leads into the Suez Canal. Further, clan politics makes it susceptible to foreign powers who want avenues to challenge their rivals. The danger would become incendiary should, say, Iran decide to use Somalia as an arena in which to challenge the US. The real problem Somalia faces now is: what next? That's the very question the US failed to answer in Iraq and it is bound to be the most challenging problem with any regime change situation. The Islamic Courts raised international fears of a new terror base in Africa but Somali analysts agree that their six-month rule provided law and order and some other state functions. With a sense of order, open clan rivalry was reduced. Richard Cornwell, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, says that while a Taliban-type state was never a prospect, the Taliban provoked Ethiopia with calls for jihad and its support for rebel groups. Jihadist rhetoric and recruitment of foreign fighters was a further provocation. It will be difficult for the transitional government to establish legitimacy, due to Ethiopia's involvement in the overthrow. In Mogadishu, warlords and clans are rearming and preparing to defend their turf and seize opportunities that have come from the end of the Union of Islamic Courts' control. The UN's preferred solution appears to be a peacekeeping force, preferably dominated by Muslim countries. SA is among those considering the request but is insisting that the clans reach a deal before a mission is sent. But if the clans do reach a deal, would there really be the need for such a force to be sent at all? It could merely emerge as a target for extremists. Somalia's clan politics have always been complicated, but they are getting a lot more dangerous. AllAfrica.com

These are predominantly good people who (naively) believe they're helping their country.

It's definitely not miyi mentality that got us where we are today.

Taliban is probably right. Sacking the speaker of parliament could open a can of worms. Keeping him is not exactly helpful either. I think he should quit and spill the beans on this puppet regime. Have an interview with media outlets telling all that he knows about Yeey and his cabal. He would certainly get an audience for such declarations.

Malawi soldiers are on the verge of being sent to help the weak Somali transitional government in a peacekeeping mission to help restore security and order after weeks of fighting wrestling power from the grip of the Islamists. Other African countries that might offer troops include Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Benin and Ghana. But so far most countries are sticking to the line that they have to be asked formally for contributions. Ibrahim Gambari , the undersecretary-general for political affairs, told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council that Nigeria, South Africa and Malawi "are said to be considering sending troops" to Somalia. "We hope that these countries will actually go ahead and commit." The international community have been calling for an African peacekeeping force in Somalia as soon as possible to help create order out of chaos and insecurity. But it is only Uganda, which has promised around 1,000 troops already prepared deployment. In theory, everyone who needed to approve it has done so. The United Nations okayed the idea back in December 2006, before the war between Islamists and the interim government. And the African Union (AU) and East African body IGAD say they're willing to send more than 8,000 peacekeepers. But given the challenges of pacifying a country where people carry guns like handbags, African nations seem reluctant to get involved. Ethiopia - which dispatched the Islamists from Mogadishu and other key towns - has accomplished its mission and wants to withdraw its troops within weeks. But without Addis Ababa's muscle, Somalia's interim government - now precariously installed in Mogadishu - looks decidedly wobbly. African countries simply don't have the cash to send in the necessary troops and equipment without outside help. Uganda Monitor newspaper reports that the government has written to the United Nations and African Union "begging for logistical support" as a troop battalion awaits parliamentary approval to deploy in Somalia. It needs not only money, but bullet-proof vests, hats and other military gear, the paper says. The Ugandan Defence Ministry has reportedly yet to receive an answer, but there's a little more time because parliament is in recess and isn't due to restart business until January 30. Nigeria's foreign affairs minister has been quoted saying the Nigerian government won't comment until after an AU summit in Ethiopia on Jan. 29-30. The U.S. air strike at the beginning of this week may also have complicated matters. On top of that, some African nations already have peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, Sudan and Congo, and just don't have a lot of spare capacity. Even if African countries do manage to stitch together a peace force, a few thousand more men with guns won't help Somalia's rival clans share power more equally or lead to a representative government with real popular support. Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people into chaos. Nyasa Times, Malawi

^ Yeah, I do too but something is fishy about this. If he rejects this occupation, calls the Martial Law declaration illegal, he's essentially rejecting the puppet regime. Why then is he still the "Speaker of the Parliament?"

A final Foreign Office put-up-or-shut-up request on Friday had come to nothing by yesterday afternoon. It is understood that British officials, deeply anxious at the prospect of a Somali terror cell with links to Britain, also made their own inquiries via the High Commission in neighbouring Kenya and MI6, but have yet found nothing to support the claims. LOL. Zenawi is a lying bast*rd!

If the so-called speaker feels this way, why doesn't he just quit?

Mogadishu 13, Jan.07 ( Sh.M.Network) -Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, the Somali transitional parliament speaker, has pointed the martial law approved by the parliament as illegal. The speaker, who, along with 21 Somali MPs expelled from Kenya, currently stays in neighboring Djibouti, reiterated that the Ethiopian government should withdraw its troops from Somalia immediately. The Somali parliament supported today that a state of emergency should be imposed on the country for three months to enable the government take a full control after 16 years of lawlessness. The parliament has been debating about the motion since Thursday. Aden said the state of emergency law approved by the parliament violates the country’s constitutional law. He has pointed out that he would be flying to Europe. “The use of foreign forces in Somalia will give rise to bad consequences”, he said, calling on the Somali people to try evicting the Ethiopian troops out of the country. Somalia has had no central government since 1991 when warlords toppled former president Siad Barre and then turned on each other, plunging the country into anarchy and tribal wars. Shabelle News

By Colin Freeman and Mike Pflanz in Nairobi, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:37am GMT 14/01/2007 Ethiopia's claims that it has arrested British citizens in operations against Islamic fighters in Somalia looked increasingly dubious last night after the Foreign Office said that requests for proof had drawn a blank. Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister, whose forces ousted Somalia's Islamic Courts Union from power over New Year, said on Tuesday that the Britons were part of an "international brigade" of hard-core foreign jihadis targeted in Monday's US air raid in southern Somalia. Ethiopian troops occupying the area later claimed to be holding seven British passport-holders injured in the strike. The captured men were said to be Somalis resident in Britain who had returned to fight for the Islamic Courts. However, despite five days of urgent requests for further details, London has yet to be given names or passport numbers to check against Home Office and anti-terrorist- databases. A final Foreign Office put-up-or-shut-up request on Friday had come to nothing by yesterday afternoon. It is understood that British officials, deeply anxious at the prospect of a Somali terror cell with links to Britain, also made their own inquiries via the High Commission in neighbouring Kenya and MI6, but have yet found nothing to support the claims. The Ethiopian government's failure to provide evidence will heighten suspicions that Mr Zenawi may have talked up the possibility of foreign jihadists to help justify the invasion. Ethiopia is an historical enemy of Somalia. While Mr Zenawi's forces went in ostensibly in support of Somalia's exiled transitional government, critics allege it was part of a wider plan to consolidate power over an unstable neighbour. The question marks over the Ethiopian version of events will add to the growing doubt over the wisdom of the American airstrike on the village of Ras Kamboni, near the Kenyan border, in which up to 100 people are believed to have died. On Thursday, the US ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, admitted that none of the wanted al-Qaeda terrorists who were the original target of the gunship had been killed or captured. Critics say the move, the first American action on Somali soil since the 1993 Black Hawk Down disaster forced US troops to pull out, risks undermining support for its war on terror in the region and will shore up support for the Islamists. While Mr Ranneberger has denied that large numbers of civilians were caught up in the attack, the British-based charity Oxfam said yesterday that its Somali partner organisations had reported that 70 nomadic hersdmen were killed in the strike. Ethiopia has denied exaggerating the Islamist threat to win US backing for its cause, and insists its incursion on to Somali soil was partly in self-defence. The government claims that Islamist fighters suspected of affiliation to Somalia's Courts faction have been trying to stir up tensions in Ethiopia, mounting cross-border raids to kill Ethiopian Christians. However, the invasion has increased the risk of instability within Somalia, where the Islamic Courts militias had brought peace after nearly 15 years of anarchy under dozens of rival warlords. Since the Islamic militias were deposed from their stronghold in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, residents have complained of increased incidents of lawlessness once again, including carjackings and armed feuds. "People are fearing a return to the chaos that the Islamic Courts ended," said Ahmed Abdisalam, of the Mogadishu radio station Horn Afrik Media. Ethiopian soldiers who have helped to instal Somalia's transitional government have also been accused of a series of assaults on civilians. Troops have stopped buses outside Mogadishu and roughed-up travellers in an attempt to hunt down anyone who supported or fought for the Islamic Courts Union, according to United Nations officials. A UN report says they are also believed to have killed several ethnic Somalis from Ethiopia's disputed Oromo region, who had gone to Somalia to take up arms with the Islamists. Five men in Ethiopian army uniforms also allegedly raped a woman near the Kenyan border, Western aid workers said. "This is not the only incident. We are receiving many of these reports," said one. "War is not an excuse for these actions, nor is victory." At the same time, Islamists from the Courts' ultra-hardline al-Shabab group are said to be targeting civilians seen to be supporters of the transitional government or the Ethiopians. Yesterday a three-month period of martial law was announced and transitional government forces went on house-to-house weapons searches in Mogadishu. Discussions are now under way for an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, possibly under overall UN control. The Telegraph

Somalia a victim of the war on terror American-backed, foreign Christian troops intervene in a Muslim civil war to unseat the winning Islamist side; a U.S. warplane searching for alleged terrorists in that same country blasts the wrong people; both the European Union and the United Nations express their dismay; Canada, home to tens of thousands of immigrants from this war-torn, African nation, says nothing. Does any of this sound familiar? If not, it should. Somalia is making headlines again and the world is nervous. That's because this week's events in that East African country are eerily reminiscent of other failed Western adventures in other far-off Muslim lands. Somalia, of course, is neither Afghanistan nor Iraq. It has its own troubled history – from the days of colonialism (Italian and British), through a period of pseudo-Marxist dictatorship to a state of near-anarchy and lawlessness that has lasted since that dictator was deposed in 1991. Twelve years ago, hopes for a new and revitalized post-Cold War era of UN peacemaking were crushed in the gunfire and rubble of Somalia, as local clan warlords – through sheer, perverse brutality – made it clear that they would brook no outside interference in their efforts to destroy their own land. (Canada, incidentally, won no honour in that adventure. That was the peacemaking effort during which a few bored Canadian commandos decided, for a lark, to torture and kill a Somali teenager.) The world forgot about Somalia after that. But Somalis persevered. Massive numbers immigrated to countries like Canada. About 100,000 are believed to be in Toronto alone. For some, emigration was simply a way to escape chaos. For others, including many of the local warlords, a foreign passport provided a bolthole for their families. And for still others in the country's business elite, as U.S. political scientist Ken Menkhaus points out, a foreign passport was sheer economic necessity. Most countries tend not to recognize Somali passports – understandably since there is no functioning national government there. So, any Somali who wants to do business – and, oddly enough, there are many thriving concerns in Mogadishu – needs foreign papers. Saudi-style Islamic fundamentalism flared occasionally in Somalia. But the country's more easygoing Sufi traditions were not particularly amenable to the no-fun, no video-games, women-in-burqas style affected by the fundamentalists. So, the Islamists instead began to concentrate on something that was truly lacking in their country – order. This gave rise to the Islamic courts movement, so-called because it provided some kind of rule of law where none had existed. The new sharia courts varied. Some relied heavily on traditional clan remedies wherein miscreants were ordered to pay restitution to the families of those wronged. Other employed Saudi-style versions of sharia law – such as stoning adulterers or amputating the hands of thieves. Western reporters found the courts exotically barbaric. But ordinary Somalis were more amenable. While they were reluctant to embrace the full panoply of fundamentalist Islam, many were grateful for anything that could put an end to the unremitting violence of clan warfare. For the same reason, the Union of Islamic Courts won the support of the country's powerful business class. It's hard to run a soft-drink factory (and there is one in Mogadishu) when armed men are liable to blow it up. This may help explain the Islamists' success last summer when they soundly trounced the forces of the UN-backed transitional federal government. Which in turn brings us to George W. Bush, the war on terror and the events of the past two weeks. The 2001 attacks on New York and Washington rekindled American interest in Somalia. The U.S. had long believed that three Al Qaeda operatives suspected of having bombed the American embassy in Nairobi in 1998 were hiding out in that country. So, it is perhaps understandable that Bush was not well-disposed toward Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts. By 2002, foreign journalists reported that Americans in dark sunglasses were arriving in small planes to negotiate with anti-Islamist warlords. A UN investigation concluded that there was no evidence that Somalia had become a terrorist base. True, some Somalis were believed to have "links" to Al Qaeda. Indeed, the U.S. is using this argument to justify its latest, botched assassination attempt, saying that while its air strike didn't get the people it was targeting, it did kill some with "ties" to them. But as Menkhaus points out, this doesn't necessarily mean very much. "Everyone is linked to everyone in Somalia," the sometime U.S. State Department adviser says. "Networks and relationships are a form of social capital. The question is: What is the significance of these links?" Still, Washington remained suspicious. It refused to co-operate with one UN-backed transitional government cobbled together in 2000, largely because it included representatives from the Islamic courts movement. When that government attempt failed, another that excluded the Islamists was set up. Both the U.S. and neighbouring Ethiopia were more amenable to it. Canada, as usual, took no formal position, according to a foreign affairs department official. Predictably, the Union of Islamic Courts was opposed. That led last year to another civil war. In an effort to affect the outcome, the U.S. quietly supported an anti-Islamist faction of warlords. That only served to make the Islamic courts movement more popular. By the fall, it had gained control of almost the entire country. Two weeks ago, Ethiopia invaded on the side of the anti-Islamists. Predominantly Christian Ethiopia is America's main client state in the region. So it is not surprising that this invasion was viewed inside Somalia as another American attempt at proxy intervention. That perception was bolstered on Monday when a U.S. warplane strafed a group of Somalis, in a failed effort to assassinate a man suspected of having been involved in the Nairobi bombing. On Thursday, Washington admitted it had killed the wrong people. So, here we are again. As in Afghanistan, the war on terror has trumped rationality. Faced with a choice between a somewhat orderly country run by people it doesn't particularly like or a failed state that has to be propped up by foreign troops, Washington seems to have again chosen the latter. Mogadishu is once again degenerating into Dodge City and the populace is angry. Up to now, failed state Somalia has miraculously avoided becoming an anti-Western terror hub. But you can only mess about with a country so many times. Eventually, the prophecy fulfils itself. Toronto Star

The road to Iran goes through Muqdisho? Ethiopia has become an Anglo-American proxy in the Horn of Africa Global Research presents these articles to our readers as further verification of the link between events in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East and the deep involvement of the United States. Ethiopia has become a regional surrogate or proxy for the United States and Britain. This is evident from the coordination of the U.S. military and Ethiopian troops in Somalia. Ethiopian and U.S. intervention in Somalia is being justified to the international public under the pretext of fighting terrorism and Al-Qaeda. These events are no mere coincidence and are to be analyzed and observed with the utmost scrutiny by individuals and nations all over the world. General John Abizaid, the U.S. military commander overseeing U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa, had a low profile meeting with the Ethiopian Prime Minister on December 4, 2006, in Ethiopia. Approximately three weeks later the United States and Ethiopia both intervened militarily in Somalia. The Speaker of the Transitional Somali Parliament, Sharif Hassan Shiekh Adan, has also accused Ethiopia of deliberately sabotaging “any chance of peace in Somalia.” Why would Ethiopia or anyone deliberately sabotage peace talks in Somalia? Ethiopia is clearly not acting on its own. The actions of Ethiopia are not only carefully coordinated with the Pentagon and approved by the White House, but they are also part of a broader set of Anglo-American strategic initiatives in the African continent and the Middle East. There are also strong desires by Washington D.C., London, and the Anglo-American oil giants to destabilize East Africa in justification of military intervention and expanded NATO missions in Africa from Chad and Sudan to the Horn of Africa. Events in Somali, as in Sudan, are linked to the international thirst and rivalry for oil and energy, but are also part of the aligning of a geo-strategic chessboard revolving around the Middle East and Central Asia. The confrontation occurring in Somalia and East Africa is in part also a script of preparations for confrontation in the Middle East between the United States, Britain, Israel, and their developing coalition— dubbed the Coalition of the “Moderate”—against Iran, Syria, and their regional allies. Global Research

^ Garowe Online Editorial. Trying to decipher their clan motives? LOL.

The Somali leaders: Are they accountable to the people? Instead of calling your citizens “terrorists” and bombing them into oblivion, deal with them according to our laws, put them in front of a judge in a court of law. Now that the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) controls the majority, or approximately 75% of the land mass in Somalia, from Ras Gardafui to Ras Kiamboni (roughly 2,000km); now that the most important members of the TFG are finally in the capital city Mogadishu, the President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed is now residing in his rightful and official presidential abode, the well-known Villa Somalia. Now that the Prime Minister Ali M. Gedi flies from one foreign capital to another, coupled with high powered meetings with very powerful people with spontaneous regularity, meetings with Americans one day, with the Europeans the next, neighborly Africans on another, good-intentioned Arab neighbors the next. President Yusuf and PM Gedi What are the outcomes of all of this? What about the people of Somalia? What’s next, Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister, the people of Somalia are waiting for you! The long suffering Somali people have been waiting for their leaders to deliver for the past 16 years, they have been waiting for you, Sir. What can you do for them, Sir? They have no one else to look up to. Do you work for them, Sir? Who is your employer? Are you accountable to them? If not, then, exactly who are you accountable to? Addis Ababa? Washington, D.C.? The answers to these questions are obvious; the long suffering Somali people need honest leaders, not a new group of “reformed” warlords. Leaders who are for genuine truth and reconciliation of the minor differences between the people of Somalia, who by birth belong to the same tribe, speak the same mother tongue and homogenously belong to the same religion of Islam. The long suffering Somali people are your employers, you are at their service and we all need to know and recognize this important fact. They have an inalienable right to demand you to serve them with honesty, dedication and truth. You are all important because of them, for you represent the Somali people on the world stage. Mr. President, Mr Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen of the highly esteemed Parliament, you have two choices in front of you at this critical juncture. The first is simple, easy and well-known by all of us, and it is the continuation of our usual destructive ways, continuation of the war, and attempting to solve problems with the barrel of the gun. Instead of issuing ultimatums please inform and educate the citizens, it is your responsibility to look after the welfare of the masses, remember you swore to serve them. Instead of calling your citizens “terrorists” and bombing them into oblivion, deal with them according to our laws, put them in front of a judge in a court of law. No leader in this world calls his or her compatriots “terrorists” and allows foreign troops to bomb them! The people of Somalia are expecting you to stop the war and start negotiations and reconciliation with all groups and factions. Mr. President, Mr Prime Minister, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the highly esteemed Parliament, the second choice is to immediately start reconstruction and development efforts. Concentrate your efforts into creating job opportunities for the young, and instead of ordering them to lay down their weapons, offer them better alternatives. Show them they have bright future as a birth right; reverse the desperation that drives them to being used as cannon fodder by warlords and militia chiefs. You can stop them from falling into the filthy hands of the warlords by offering them hope. Remember you are accountable to them only. Remember you represent the Somali people, not those suits in Addis Ababa or Washington, D.C.! Remember you do not represent you interests, or your clannish interests. The false, old-fashioned and outdated precept based on an ancient lineage system from unknown and unsubstantiated origins of the 4.5 divisions is just that – “FALSE”. The Somali people are not and can not be divided into 4.5 parts. The Somali people belong to one nation; they belong to one tribe: the “Somali” tribe. Can the social scientists or anthrolopologists provide definitive answers to the existence or otherwise and the origins of the clans? Let’s leave that for the next generation Somali and foreign anthrolopologists and historians. Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Parliament, individually and collectively you embody the Somali people as a whole. Remember history will judge you on how you take advantage on the current historical conditions presented before you to manage the common good of the Somali people at this point in time. Future generations will either remember you as great leaders who saved Somalia from the present state of anarchy and lawlessness, or your names will forever live in infamy! Garowe Online

The involvement of the US, and not just militarily, is important to understand. A weak client state with subservient government is the ultimate goal. Examples of this are all over the Horn of Africa. As far even as Egypt. Sudan, perhaps, is a bit of an exception (at least publicly for they could be subservient privately to the US). For this to happen, Somali leadership will have to be carefully selected to have an iron fist to control the population but not enough strength to oppose the US or to bother other neighboring allies. The TFG fits that bill. A group of greedy and self-absorbed warlords that can be easily manipulated with money and power. Arm them to the teeth so they could keep the population under control, arm Zenawi more than them so he could keep a leash on them and every one goes home happy.

Geeljirow, this Sheikh Fiqqi fella is only a sheikh in the figurative sense. Don't take him literally. If you don't believe me, ask him who he considers the better Muslim ruler, Abdillahi Yuusuf or Sheikh Sharif Ahmed (based on publicly available data on their past)?

^ Allah yicizak, atheer. No wonder you're a lot calmer than many of us. You must have a stash of these gems you could return to whenever the world around you spins counterclockwise. One of these days you'll have to share your library. Dad badan ayaa ka faaiidaysan lahaa.

^ You know hearing it makes all the difference, right? Can you think of any more poems that adequately express the state of Somalia today?

If only A/Y knew how providential his arrival at Villa Somalia has been. Unfortunately, he thinks he earned it all.

^ Believe it atheer. I've never heard those words before. I've read them but never heard them. P.S. Glad you brought back your signature. It's never been truer than today.

How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over invasion Xan Rice in Nairobi and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday January 13, 2007 On December 4, General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces from the Middle East through Afghanistan, arrived in Addis Ababa to meet the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. Officially, the trip was a courtesy call to an ally. Three weeks later, however, Ethiopian forces crossed into Somalia in a war on its Islamist rulers, and this week the US launched air strikes against suspected al-Qaida operatives believed to be hiding among the fleeing Islamist fighters. "The meeting was just the final handshake," said a former intelligence officer familiar with the region. Washington and Addis Ababa may deny it, but the air strikes this week exposed close intelligence and military cooperation between Ethiopia and America, fuelled by mutual concern about the rise of Islamists in the chaos of Somalia. Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that US military personnel entered southern Somalia this week to verify who was killed in Monday's air strike. It was the first known instance of US boots on the ground in Somalia since the Black Hawk Down catastrophe, when 18 US soldiers were killed by Somali militiamen, the paper claimed. But Pentagon officials and intelligence analysts say a small number of US special forces were on the ground before Ethiopia's intervention in an operation planned since last summer, soon after the Islamic Courts Union took control of Mogadishu. Press reports have said US special forces also accompanied the Ethiopian troops crossing into Somalia. The main cause of delay was the weather. Mark Schroeder, Africa analyst at the intelligence consulting firm Stratfor, said the critical turning point was the end of the rain season. "While Ethiopia could move small numbers of troops and trucks as a limited intervention into Somalia, they needed to wait until the ground dried up." Once they did move in, the troops were accompanied by US special forces, analysts say. For America, the relationship with Ethiopia provides an extra pair of eyes in a region that it fears could become an arena for al-Qaida. "The Ethiopians are the primary suppliers of intelligence," said one analyst. However, he said, it was almost inconceivable that the US would not have sent its special forces into Somalia ahead of the Ethiopian intervention. "You are going to want to have your own people on the ground." In return, the US is believed to have provided the Ethiopians with arms, fuel and other logistical support for a much larger intervention than it has previously mounted in Somalia. It has also made available satellite information and intelligence from friendly Somali clans, a former intelligence officer said. America's renewed interest in the Horn of Africa dates to November 2002 when the US military established its joint taskforce in Djibouti, now the base for 1,800 troops, including special operations forces. By then, the west had good reason to fear that Africa had become an arena for al-Qaida, and that the failed state of Somalia could become a haven for the organisation's operatives. The bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa gave cause for such fears. So too did al-Qaida documents retrieved from Afghanistan that spoke of the organisation's ambitions in the region, says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University and the Council on Global Terrorism. "That this was a primary area of concern," he says. In fact, says another analyst, the US was closely considering a strike on suspected al-Qaida cells in Somalia as early as 2002. That idea was abandoned. But America's concerns came to a head last year with the rise of the Islamic Courts Union. At first, Washington's response was relatively modest. It mounted a small CIA operation, run from Nairobi, to stand up Somalia's hated warlords against the Islamists, a former intelligence official familiar with the region says. The under-the-radar approach was necessitated by the state department's opposition to any type of military intervention in Somalia. Until the middle of last year, diplomats remained hopeful of negotiations between the Somali government and the Islamic Courts Union. That position, promoted by the state department's top official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, put diplomats on a collision course with the Pentagon. By last June, when the Islamists seized Mogadishu, the Pentagon appeared to have won that bureaucratic struggle. By then, the CIA operation was widely acknowledged as a disaster. Talks on peace and power-sharing between the Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf's government and Islamic courts were foundering. A Somalia analyst in Nairobi said the Islamists took most of the blame - unfairly, in his view, as the government had no intention of ever sharing power. "My guess is that a decision to wage war was taken sometime in October by Ethiopia and America. That was when people close to Yusuf appeared dead convinced that the Seventh Cavalry was going to appear. We thought it was a pipedream. It wasn't." As the build-up to war continued, with Ethiopia sending more troops into Somalia and the Islamists moving closer to the government base in Baidoa, experts say the cooperation between Addis and Washington increased sharply. Help from the sea was also required. Landlocked Ethiopia has no naval capacity, but the US could easily move warships from the Gulf to the Somali coast - as happened once the conflict began. By mid-December Jendayi Frazer, the state department's top official for Africa, was echoing the message from Addis Ababa about the dangers of the Islamic Courts Union. "The top layer of the courts are extremist to the core," she said. "They are terrorists and they are in control." Days later, the Ethiopian forces were on the move. But many believe that America's support for Ethiopia's military intervention could come back to haunt the US, and predict a flare-up of Somali nationalist feeling. Already, clan fighting is threatening to jeopardise attempts to restore stability. This week there have been at least three attacks on government forces. There is also concern that the precipitate flight of the ICU does not necessarily signal its definitive defeat. Last night, the Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces said they had captured the last remaining stronghold at Ras Kamboni, just two miles from the Kenyan border. It may not be the last confrontation between government forces and the Islamists. "The Islamists have not all gone away. Many we believe continue to be in Mogadishu. They buried their weapons, and buried their uniforms, and they are lying low and letting the dust settle," Mr Schroeder says. The Guardian

SomaliYouthLeague-ow, it's hard to read all of these news articles and not get depressed. Thank you for keeping us updated.

^ If I set aside my deep mistrust of Ethiopian/US imperial designs on Somalia, ignore the near cataclysmic track record of the TFG, and pretend our clan divisions won't be an obstacle, I cannot in good faith reject anything you wrote above. But the odds of all of those things happening are slim or none. And with what you propose, and given how the invasion bruised our pride, shredded our dignity and cost us many lives while creating new enmities, we've put all of our eggs in one (warlord driven) carriage. May Allah help us all. Originally posted by Baashi: Awoowe ever heard Timacadde's memorable lines: Gardaduub haddii loo xidhoo, gaadhna ka ahaato, Gacantii nin lihi goynayaa waa gumudantaaye, Nin walaalkii geed ugu jidhaa, geesi noqon waa Apparently not.