Interim Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi is reported to have said forcible disarmament will begin in Mogadishu at the weekend. Few residents have responded to a call to disarm and the demand for AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and land mines has risen. In a city of two million people, there are an estimated one million weapons. The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in the capital says although calm has returned, tension is high and people fear anarchy may return to Mogadishu. Read more on BBC

Originally posted by General Duke: So far it has captured in the last 8 days an estimated 120 technicals and destroyed many more as the clan courts fled. The rest will be taken due time insha Allah. By this "estimate", over 240 technicals captured or destroyed? Where did you read that? Allpuntland? AllTFG? or was it AllGeneralDuke? LOL. I know you're often in the company of buffoons but please, don't mistake us for them. P.S. Nice of you not to mention the 3-day disarmament drive. It should have finally dawned even on you how utterly asinine that was.

Inventory of weapons collected by TFG at the end of the deadline set by prime minister Geedi: 1) 12 broken Russian made AK-47 assault rifles 2) 1 Japanese Toyota Land Cruiser pickup (missing both the transmission and anti-aircraft gun) 3) 5 Israeli handguns with serial numbers intact 4) 15 Turkish kitchen knives (many dull, most rusted) 5) 10 weaponized Somali ( ) door knobs 6) 5 Ethiopians In a late press conference on Thursday, the prime minister hailed the success of the disarmament drive and thanked all those who gave up their weapons. He also assured the citizens of Muqdisho now that most, if not all, of the weaponized door knobs are off the streets of the capital, the long and arduous task of rebuilding the war-ravaged country can earnestly begin.

^ The dude can barely read English and you write to him in Latin? LOL.

^ He was selected based on his DNA profile. Apparently he has strong (Ethiopian backed) genes. Originally posted by Caano Geel: Considering that some of the brightest Somali talent resides on the US shores, a man with no formal qualifications is chosen to represent us to the worlds largest superpower. Perhaps the greatest benefit of all the chaos of the past 16 years is how astute and politically aware Somalis have become. Gone are the days when Afweyne (or Afweyne wannabes like Yeey) could install door knobs (and drop outs at that) to represent Somalis without having to answer for it. Whatever schemes this TFG has on governing, their shortsighted and clumsy start is only an indication of what is yet to come. With no vision to stabilize a bruised nation, no credibility to seek unity among the clans and zero competence for basic administrative tasks, Yeey's cabal is flaunting the mere fact it is a puppet installation and a handicapped one at that. When you hear general duke and other cheerleaders talking of Somaliland you know that nothing is happening in Muqdisho and that the euphoria brought about by the Ethiopian army has already faded and now the hangover begins.

^ You're spot on. In addition to what you mentioned, the US worker is increasingly lacking access to affordable health care even when employed full time, let alone when not. Though all that glitters is not gold, the economy here tends to cater to low skilled labor or highly technical people. In either case, you better hope not to get sick in America for you might have bigger problems than just temporary health setbacks.

US State department transcript of press questions on Somalia General Duke, take notes from the master spinmeister. QUESTION: On Somalia? MR. MCCORMACK: Somalia. QUESTION: Can you give us an update on -- was there a U.S. presence at this meeting in Brussels with the Contact Group and have there been any contacts between U.S. officials and members of the Islamic Courts since the fall of their control over Mogadishu? MR. MCCORMACK: Right. In terms of meeting in Brussels, my understanding was that this was just -- this was a meeting of only EU countries and EU representatives. We didn't have anybody there. What we expect to happen is on Friday, that there's going to be a Somalia Contact Group meeting in Kenya and Assistant Secretary Jendayi Frazer, our Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, will be co-hosting that meeting. It was at our request. She's currently in the region. She is in Addis Ababa right now. She either has met or will meet with Prime Minister Meles and also with President Museveni of Uganda, who just happens also to be in Addis Ababa as well. After the Kenya meetings, I expect that she's probably also going to travel throughout the region, perhaps to Yemen and Djibouti as well. So she's very active in talking with interested parties, both in the region and more widely through the mechanism of the Somali Contact Group, about what are the next steps in Somalia. As you mentioned, the Ethiopian forces went in, in support of the Transitional Federal Institutions and the Islamic Courts no longer control Mogadishu. I can't tell you whether or not they control any other areas in Somalia, but what happened, my understanding, is that the leadership of the Islamic Courts fled. They left untrained fighters behind to stand up to the Somali forces, so that tells you what sort of leadership there was of many elements of the Islamic Courts. We are -- we would be concerned that no leaders of those -- or members of the Islamic Courts, which have ties to terrorist organizations including al-Qaida, are allowed to flee and to leave Somalia. So that is of great concern to us and we, of course, have a presence off the coast of Somalia in the Horn of Africa to make sure that there's no -- there are no escape routes by sea where these individuals could flee. We're also concerned about the humanitarian situation in Somalia and in response, we are also going to be talking in a little bit, probably later today, about some donations of humanitarian assistance. There will be some immediate donations in which we will be able to release some food aid that we'll get to the Somali people. And we'll have some more information for you either later today or early tomorrow on that. And then also, we're going to be getting together with other members of the donor community, humanitarian assistance and the donor community to talk about (a) what are the needs here, what are the scope of the needs and then (b) who can help fill those needs. And certainly, we'll be part of that. QUESTION: Is Uganda still prepared to provide troops for the peace -- MR. MCCORMACK: That's -- as far as I know, they haven't backed off of that commitment. I expect that that's going to be one of the issues that Jendayi talks about with President Museveni. So I don't have a full read for you, but we would expect that there will be some need for that kind of presence and thus far, I haven't heard anything from Uganda stating otherwise. QUESTION: Could you say more about the efforts to prevent people from fleeing? MR. MCCORMACK: I don't have a lot of specifics for you, George, other than our military has a task force that is based out of the Horn of Africa and one of their missions is to ensure that there is -- that individuals involved in terrorist activities can't transit through that area. And we, of course, are going to be working closely with states in the region to ensure that these individuals aren't able to transit those borders and exit Somalia. The countries in the -- other countries in the region don't want to see that any more than we do. QUESTION: Do they routinely stop ships that leave -- MR. MCCORMACK: You'll have to talk to the military about the procedures, but they do have a presence off the -- in the Horn of Africa. Yeah, Janine. QUESTION: Yeah, two Somalia follow-ups. One, Foreign Minister Steinmeier said today after the Brussels meeting that an international presence would mostly likely be of African origin. Is that the U.S. position? MR. MCCORMACK: I think that that has been the assumption all along. Now, of course, we're dealing with a different situation in which the Ethiopian troops have forced out the Islamic Courts, but I think the idea all along has been that this would be an African force presence helping out the Transitional Federal Institutions. QUESTION: And second thing -- sorry, I was away last week, so sorry if you went over this. MR. MCCORMACK: That's all right. I was away last week, too. (Laughter.) QUESTION: I was confused about what the U.S. position was looking back about Ethiopia going in, because when we had a briefing with Assistant Secretary Frazer I got the sense that she was not supportive of the Ethiopians going in, it's time for diplomacy and all that, and yet the guidance from the State Department subsequently seemed to endorse it. MR. MCCORMACK: Here's the situation. It was a complicated situation in which you had a number of different external forces in Somalia -- and I'm not talking about the Ethiopians here -- who were funding and supporting the Islamic Courts for their own purposes, either through arms or through money, infusions of money, or allowing personnel -- people from outside Somalia -- to flow into Somalia in support of the Islamic Courts. We supported a negotiated solution between the Transitional Federal Institutions and the Islamic Courts. The Transitional Federal Institutions are the ones internationally recognized. It is -- it has been up until this point a relatively weak set of institutions that has not been able to extend its control over all of Somalia, but we supported nonetheless negotiations and political dialogue between the Courts and those Transitional Federal Institutions. Over time, the Islamic Courts demonstrated behavior that was inconsistent with those -- with that policy of trying to see those sorts of negotiations. We tried to get together the parties in Khartoum but the Islamic Courts walked out because they felt -- it appeared that they believed that they could gain an upper hand through use of force, through taking over territory, basically backing the Transitional Federal Institutions into a smaller and smaller corner. So the Ethiopian government initially made some moves, moved their forces into position to try to support politically the Transitional Federal Institutions and to make it clear that the Islamic Courts could not win through the force of arms what they couldn't win via the negotiating table. And gradually that situation got to the point where the Ethiopian government made the decision in consultation with the Transitional Federal Institutions that the Islamic Courts had no interest in negotiating and that they weren't going to negotiate and that they were actually going to try to overrun all of the Transitional Federal Institution positions leaving the Islamic Courts in total control of Somalia. And it was -- and they decided that they weren't going to let that happen. They weren't going to let the internationally recognized government in Somalia fall to the Islamic Courts through the use of force and that's how we got to the position where we were. We always were in support of a negotiated solution, but the Courts were benefiting materially from outside support. QUESTION: When -- so did the U.S. -- did the Ethiopians call the U.S. and say we're going in or did -- MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not aware -- QUESTION: -- the Ethiopians do it, despite U.S. -- UN negotiated solution. MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not aware of any calls that were made to the United States or anybody else concerning the Ethiopian actions. QUESTION: (Inaudible) anything but endorse what they did? They have struck a mighty blow against the Islamists and it would seem to me that we would hear a welcoming attitude on your part. MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you had a situation where there were some very difficult and hard choices. You had an Islamic Courts, which was by no means a monolithic grouping of people, that over time more and more fell under the control of those that had links to al-Qaida and other terrorists groups and that quite clearly were interested in imposing Draconian types of interpretations of Sharia law on Somalia in contravention of the wishes of the internationally recognized Government of Somalia; admittedly a very weak Government, but nonetheless the internationally recognized government. We certainly would have hoped that there could have been a negotiated political dialogue but it was -- it became apparent over time and certainly very apparent in the recent weeks, that that wasn't going to happen and that the Islamic Courts were intent upon trying to seize control over all of Somalia through use of arms. And yes, there were real concerns about the composition of the leadership of those Islamic Courts. And I would just, again, reiterate one note about the leadership of those courts, the nature of that leadership, where the top leadership fled in the face of the Ethiopian army and they left behind teenagers and others to fight the battle with the Ethiopians. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with. Yes, sir. QUESTION: Prime Minister Meles addressed the parliament yesterday in Ethiopia and he said that mostly he didn't get any support from the international community and he's not going to stay more then two weeks in Somalia and also he appealed for international community to support in the peacekeeping. But what's your position in terms of -- for Ethiopia to pull out in two weeks? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you don't want to have a situation where you end up worse off than where you began. Mogadishu has suffered and Somalia writ-large has suffered greatly over the past decades under the rule of warlords and basic -- essential lawlessness. So part of the efforts that are underway now in the international community, and we're participating in those, is to see how you can strengthen the governing institutions in Somalia and to help move that country forward and to move Somalia out of the category of a failed state. And that is part of what Jendayi Frazer is doing in the region and Secretary Rice is following this very closely. And we want to try to break this down into its component parts. We're trying to address the humanitarian situation. We also want to try to address the security situation and that's part of the what the Somalia Contact Group is going to be talking about in Kenya on Friday. And you also want to talk about how you strengthen those political institutions in Somalia, the Transitional Federal Institutions. So those are all the very basic components that we're going to be talking about. QUESTION: And if the foreign -- the Transitional government insists the Ethiopian force to stay, basically, and parliament says they don't have the capacity or the financial resource so -- MR. MCCORMACK: No, I understand and that's part of what we're going to be talking about with Ethiopia and other members, Somalia's neighbors as well as members of the international community about what are the next steps, whether there is perhaps an opportunity to try to help the Somali people move forward and get out of the very dire situation in which they found themselves for the past two decades.

As if those Ethiopians riding prehistoric Soviet tanks on empty stomachs could fight anyone at night? The US is not "tacitly" supporting Ethiopia, it is fighting right alongside the Ethiopians. The good thing is, the US is bogged down in Iraq and has little patience for any more setbacks. It would be wake up call for the Ethiopians if a couple of their soldiers are killed in Xamar and filmed being dragged down the street. I'm not saying it's right but in war, few things are.

Somalis Not Ready to Turn Over Weapons (AP) Ahmed Hassan has no plans to part with his AK-47, the weapon of choice in this notoriously violent city, even now that a legitimate government is functioning here for the first time in more than a decade. "I won't do it," Hassan said Wednesday, tugging on his gray beard. "For 16 years this country has been in chaos. It would be suicide." From freelance gunmen on the streets to women selling mangoes by the sea, everybody seems to have a weapon in Mogadishu. Many in the Somali capital say they would rather protect themselves for now than trust the government forces who captured the city from Islamic militants just last week. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has called for residents to turn in all their weapons by Thursday. After that, he said, his forces will "forcibly extract" them. The country's police commander _ who has only about 1,000 officers under his control, none of them yet in Mogadishu _ admits he's outgunned. "I cannot say there is a viable police operation in Mogadishu," Ali Mohamed Hassan Loyan told The Associated Press during a trip to a police recruitment center in Mogadishu where about 100 men, most of them older than 50, were signing up. "We are depending on the military." Gedi has said his military forces, backed by Ethiopian troops with tanks and MiG fighter jets, have neutralized the Islamists over the past two weeks and forced them to give up or scatter into the bush. On Wednesday, the government claimed it captured two more southern towns from the militants and said its forces were headed toward a third. In Washington Wednesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. Navy vessels were deployed off the coast of Somalia looking for al-Qaida and other militants allied with the Islamists who may be trying to escape. Ethiopia has promised to withdraw its troops from Somalia as soon as possible, and many Somalis fear that when they do, there will be a power vacuum and even a return to the anarchy and warlord rule of the past. Somalia's last effective central government fell in 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The government was formed two years ago with the help of the United Nations, but has been weakened by internal rifts. The intervention of Ethiopia late last month prompted a military advance that was a stunning turnaround for the government, which is seeking international peacekeepers to help restore order. In the meantime, the Bakaara Market in downtown Mogadishu is doing brisk business in weapons. The market is a network of narrow, dusty streets, with rickety wooden stands selling Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. By Wednesday, only a handful of people had heeded Gedi's demand and turned in any weapons. Twenty freelance militiamen turned in 20 small guns and a "technical" _ a truck mounted with machine guns. "I got tired working for my clan," said Mohamed Mohamud Hassan, the militia's leader. "Now I can work for the nation." But those arms barely register in Somalia's ocean of guns. "Nobody wants to totally surrender their weapons," said Sacida Gedi Hassan, a merchant at Bakaara. "If we hand over our weapons, we'll be vulnerable." Loyan, the police commander, said safety isn't the only reason for disarmament. His forces are so desperate, he said, they will eventually need to commandeer the weapons now hidden away in Mogadishu's homes and businesses. "During the civil war, the guns spread throughout the country," said Loyan, who returned to Mogadishu last week for the first time since 1991. "Now we just need to find them. We are going to have to use the guns that we collect." His police force is not up to the task just yet. "As you can see, these are very old people," Loyan said at the recruitment center, gazing at the rag tag crowd over his wire-rimmed glasses. "Even women are here." Madino Mohamed Farge, 46, said she's joining the police because she wants a job _ an impossible dream under the Council of Islamic Courts, the radical militia the government chased from the capital and much of southern Somalia. "Of course I couldn't work under the Islamic courts," she said. "We were hated by them." The Islamic group's strict interpretation of Islam drew comparisons to the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan, although many Somalis credited the council with bringing a semblance of order to the country. The Council of Islamic Courts terrified residents into submission with the threat of public executions and floggings. And now that it's on the run, the group is threatening an Iraq-style guerrilla war using fighters they claim are hiding in Mogadishu. Islamic courts spokesman Abdirahin Ali Mudey suggested this week that his forces might use the abundance of available weaponry to disrupt any attempts to pacify the city. "Somalia has weapons everywhere, and we are everywhere in the country," he said. That alarming prospect is yet another reason residents don't want to give up their guns, and even the police commander can understand. "The people must have confidence they are safe," Loyan said. "Then, I think, they will hand over their weapons." AP

Come on yaa Xoogsade, don't lose hope atheer. Pride in anything is not very good anyway. What you need to think of is fighting the corrupt collaborators, the invaders and their supporters. And fighting is not only in battles but takes on many forms. Educate yourselves and those around you. Become active in a peace movement or even a lobby group. There's much you can do without feeling helpless. Though geopolitical struggles are difficult to influence, they are not impossible. Many groups do a lot of work to show the lies being told and the atrocities being committed. Without these peace groups, I don't know where we would be. Cheer up atheer and remember, it's always darkest just before dawn.

^ MC X, the general accuses Somalis of pretending to care more about Somalia than Somalis, so don't feel too bad. He's in constant spin mode. Example: The main reason they [Ethiopia] got involved [a.k.a. invaded] is fear for their own minority regime, if you know todays Ethiopia is run by the Tigra which in number are no more than the population of the Somali state within Ethiopia. I thought they were invited by the TFG, general? LOL. See what I mean MC? Spinning is an art but our good general is not very good at it.

^^ An absolute must read.

Invading Somalia is no recipe for stability Published: January 4 2007 There were essentially two reasonable choices to be made about Somalia prior to Ethiopia’s devastating invasion last month and what looks like the temporary rout of the Islamist alliance that had taken charge of the south and centre of the country. One was to do nothing and let the Islamists, grouped in the Union of Islamic Courts, get on with it. In the six months they were in control, after all, they provided the first, rough semblance of order since the 1991 collapse of the dictatorship of Mohammed Siad Barre plunged the country into a long night of anarchy and warlordism. The second, complementary option was to see whether it was possible to do business with the Islamists, whose legitimacy among Somalis was certainly no less than that of the largely theoretical but internationally recognised transitional government Ethiopia claims to have intervened to support. What we have instead is an invasion, backed by the US, behind a government with no apparent social base. If the Ethiopians stay they risk uniting much of Somalia against them. If they go, as they say they soon will, they will leave a political vacuum, with Somalia’s well-armed clans scrabbling over the carcass of the country. Eventually, it will almost certainly be the more disciplined but now radicalised Islamists that end up holding the ring. We are, in short, looking at yet another geopolitical disaster, which could spread fighting across the Horn of Africa, a region at the crossroads of the Middle East and Africa that is already blighted by floods and drought, famine and desertification, with a long history of conflict. To the north, Ethiopia’s arch-rival, Eritrea, is already sending arms to the Islamists, while, to the south, the fighting has reached the borders of north-east Kenya. Admittedly, Somalia has presented peculiar difficulties since it imploded as a state 15 years ago. Its people emerged shattered from colonialism. Although among the most homogeneous in Africa, with the same language and Muslim religion and largely from the same ethnic group, they have built their identities around six rival clans and tributaries of feuding sub-clans. One can see moreover, why Somalia presses so many American buttons. As a failed state in transition from warlords’ rule to an Islamist emirate, it resembles Afghanistan. The humiliation of the failed US intervention in Mogadishu in 1993 – the Black Hawk Down episode – ranks with the headlong retreat of US marines from Beirut a decade earlier. A quick, ostensible victory must also have looked very tempting for a Bush administration responsible for the debacle in Iraq. Washington claims the Union of Islamic Courts is allied to al-Qaeda. That looks as doubtful as the recent record of US intelligence. Certainly, the Islamist alliance has its extremists. Their influence and audience is now set to grow exponentially. And Somalia could indeed become a new magnet for and incubator of jihadi terrorism – just as Iraq did after the US invasion. This invasion is not the answer to Somalia’s problems. Whatever the intentions of Addis Ababa and the increasingly assertive government of Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian leader, his country is too poor and, with very long borders, too porous to stay in Somalia. The transitional government, by itself, lacks all credibility. It was created in Nairobi and confined, until last month’s invasion, to Baidoa, close to Ethiopia’s border. It never asserted its authority; its prime minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, does not even command the support of his sub-clan. The Islamist alliance was able to restore order in Mogadishu and even open the ports. Its methods are brutal but Sharia law is widely accepted and, in current conditions, welcomed in Somalia. The Islamists, moreover, are not going away. Their retreat looks like the tactical prelude to guerrilla war. The future looks bleak unless an understanding is reached between the Islamists and the transitional government, with Ethiopian troops replaced by some stabilising force. That probably has to come from the United Nations, in conjunction with the African Union. Neither organisation has covered itself in glory recently, in Sudan or Somalia, and both are overstretched. But the price of failure in the Horn of Africa will be high indeed. Financial Times

US Navy patrols Somalia's coast US naval forces have deployed off the Somali coast to prevent leaders of defeated Islamist militias escaping. Kenya has also significantly tightened border security to stop an influx of fleeing fighters, as aid agencies called for help for genuine refugees. Uganda's president is to travel to Ethiopia to discuss forming an African force to stabilise the country. A two-week advance by Ethiopian troops swept the Islamist militias from areas they had controlled for six months. The militias - known as the Union of Islamic Courts - had brought a degree of stability to large areas of the formerly lawless country. But Ethiopia accuses them of al-Qaeda links, and sent heavily-armed troops into Somalia to back up forces loyal to the weak transitional government. Islamists say their retreat from the troops is tactical and have threatened to launch an insurgency. 'Security vetting' US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed the deployment of navy ships. "We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organisations including al-Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia," he said. Kenya has deployed tanks and helicopters on its border, as militias fleeing south clashed near the border with Somali and Ethiopian troops. Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju told a news conference that the border was closed, but government spokesman Alfred Mutua later told the BBC that legitimate refugees were being allowed entry. "We are conducting very thorough and rigorous security vetting to ensure that we don't get people coming in carrying weapons, people coming in who are Islamists," he said. "And so that is causing delays, but we are making sure that everyone who comes in as a refugee... we are driving them to a camp within Kenya which is run by the United Nations." Mr Mutua denied reports that 600 Somali refugees, mainly women and children, had been deported from the border transit camp at Liboi. A spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR said they had been denied access to the camp by Kenyan authorities, but witnesses had reported Somalis being deported in government trucks. UNHCR head Antonio Guterres said in a statement that deserving Somali civilians should be entitled to seek asylum in Kenya. 'Inclusive political process' On Wednesday, Ethiopian and Somali government forces captured the border town of Doble, one of the final places held by the Islamist militias. Four thousands refugees were reported to be stranded in the area Between 600 and 700 militia fighters fled the town on Tuesday night, a BBC correspondent said. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi has said that he believes the bulk of the fighting is over. Attention is now focusing on how to stabilise the country. After European members of the Somali Contact group met in Brussels, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt called for peace talks. "There has to be a withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces. There has to be a political process, an inclusive political process in Somalia." Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is due in Ethiopia on Thursday for talks on a possible African peacekeeping force for Somalia. He has already offered to commit 1,000 troops. Thursday is also the deadline for Somalis in the capital to hand in their weapons, but slow progress has been made so far. BBC

^ It's easy to get around calling someone names. For example, instead of calling General Duke a door knob, I could tell him that his current stance is one often practiced by door knobs. Same effect, different set up. Having said that, I don't see much the value of calling people names as it's quite easy (and more satisfying) to undress anyone with non abusive words.

CG, that's true. I had a door knob moment, sorry.

abuu nunne, perhaps the position of His Excellency the ambassador of Somalia to Scotland might change your mind? Or will you have to compete with General Duke here who's already out looking for houses in the posh suburbs of London? Waqooyi or not, no one wants an occupation unless they materially gain from it (or hope to do so) or they have been brainwashed into thinking it's actually beneficial to be invaded and occupied. There's no third option.

Google claims Mohamed Koshin of the Somali Community Services Coalition of Greater Seattle was 23 years old in December 2001. LOL. A budding door knob.

Originally posted by peacenow: Who is this man? What his background a) A nephew (or married to niece) of old man. b) A Yellow Dog TFG'er c) A capable, qualified Somali who has the interest of his people at heart (bwahahahahaha) d) A door knob e) An Ethiopian

We could really use your primary sources of information right now, Didi. US aims to stop Islamic extremists fleeing Somalia WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. forces are deployed off the coast of Somalia to stop members of that country's ousted Islamist government with ties to al Qaeda and other extremists from fleeing, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday. "We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organizations including al Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We of course have a presence off the coast of Somalia and Horn of Africa to make sure there are no escape routes by sea where these individuals could flee," McCormack said. He declined to provide details about the U.S. forces. The Islamists, who deserted their last stronghold on Monday after two weeks of war against Somali government troops backed by Ethiopia, have pledged to fight on after melting into the hills between the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu and Kenya. McCormack did not name specific extremists, but U.S. officials said before the war the top layer of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) was controlled by a cell of al Qaeda operatives. The head of the council, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on U.N. and U.S. extremist lists. During the six-month rule of the Islamists, U.S. officials tried with no success to persuade the SICC to give up three suspects wanted for the 1998 bomb attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania who Washington believed were in Somalia. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said on Tuesday that pro-Islamic fighters from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Arab countries were taken prisoner during the fighting. McCormack said the State Department would announce plans later on Wednesday to send humanitarian aid to Somalia. He also said that Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, would co-host a meeting on Friday in Kenya top discuss the Somali situation. Frazer was in the Ethiopian capital for meetings with the leaders of Ethiopia and Uganda. Uganda is the only country so far to offer troops for an African peacekeeping force for Somalia endorsed before the war by the United Nations. European members of the International Contact Group on Somalia -- the German EU presidency, Sweden, Britain, Italy, the EU Commission and non-EU member Norway -- met in Brussels on Wednesday to push for a revival of the peace process between the Somali government and fleeing Islamists. Reuters

By Andrew Cawthorne NAIROBI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Under fire at home for costly military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. government has managed to achieve a major policy goal in strategic Somalia without firing a shot -- thanks to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian military, one of the continent's strongest, decisively routed militant Islamists both Washington and Addis Ababa viewed as a risk to their interests in Africa and beyond. Ethiopia's patience ran out when the Islamists were on the verge of over-running Somalia's interim government. With what diplomats in the region assume was tacit U.S. blessing, its tanks, jets and troops overwhelmed the Islamists in two weeks. "Washington encouraged Addis Ababa to go ahead. They provided the same sort of diplomatic cover they did for Israel going into Lebanon last summer, and for similar reasons -- to keep a foothold in the region," said analyst Michael Weinstein. "Ordinary Americans are fed up with foreign interventions. So what's happened in Somalia is now going to be a preferred strategy -- using allies in the region as their catapult," said Weinstein, a politics professor at Indiana's Purdue University. Western military sources say the United States gave Ethiopia intelligence and surveillance help to accelerate its victory. Both Washington and Addis Ababa had portrayed the Islamists as linked to and even run by al Qaeda, putting Somalia firmly on the map of the U.S.-led global "war on terror". Yet President George W. Bush, haunted by such moments as his premature declaration of victory in Iraq in 2003, and his Africa policy-makers are unlikely to be crowing victory quickly. Some analysts predict the Islamists, who fled rather than take heavy casualties, could regroup and fight an Iraq-style insurgency from remote corners of Somalia, or carry out bomb attacks elsewhere in east Africa. "The parallels with Iraq are unsettling," said Nairobi-based Somalia expert Matt Bryden. There is no guarantee of peace and harmony in Somalia now that six months of Islamist sharia rule are over. Indeed, the rapid return of warlords to Mogadishu shows how easily it could slide back into the anarchy and chaos it has suffered since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. "The Americans have learned enough in Somalia not to run up a 'mission accomplished' banner," Bryden said. "There probably is great relief in Washington ... The Ethiopian offensive was successful, civilian casualties were not too many. But there is no room for complacency." SOLDIERS KILLED Americans with good memories know that only too well. A disastrous attempt by U.S. forces to pacify Somalia in the early 1990s began with marines crawling up the beaches of Mogadishu in full combat gear, only to find a phalanx of waiting Western journalists rather than a hostile army. It ended with a humiliating withdrawal after Somali militias shot down two U.S. helicopters, killed 18 soldiers and dragged their bodies through the streets. "...the (American) public would not have tolerated an overt intervention again," a European diplomat said. "It's worked out ok for the Americans after the mess they first made." Early last year, Washington was vilified in east African diplomatic circles for secretly sending money to Mogadishu warlords who promised to catch "terrorists." That fuelled popular resentment against the warlords, who ran Mogadishu via checkpoints and extortion, and gave the Islamists a perfect rallying cry to rise up and take the city. So a chastened Washington came full circle -- from firing the shots in Somalia more than a decade ago, to manipulating events behind the scenes in the two-week war just ended. The U.S. challenge now is to help the Somali government broaden its clan base and popular support to become a truly national authority once Ethiopia withdraws its forces, Somali experts say. "All Somalis have a role to play in the future of Somalia, except those who are committed to terrorism and violence," Michael Ranneberger, U.S. ambassador for Kenya and Somalia, said in a statement. "Warlordism and clannism have no role to play in the future of a modern Somali state." The Somali government could cement its ties with the United States by handing over three top terrorism suspects the U.S. believes are hiding in Somalia. U.S. officials tried with no success to persuade the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) to give up the three -- wanted for 1998 bomb attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania -- during its short-lived rule. "The Somali government is going to need all the help it can get," Weinstein said. "So of course it would be useful to portray itself as a partner in the war on terror." Reuters

^ That's funny. I think you've all scared away this budding new artist/writer. Have you people no shame? Atheer l'hit'er'ot medaberet anglit (wtf kinda name is this?), don't let them discourage you from pursuing your dreams. They're just haters.

^ He's trying to simplify it for you knowing that if he gave you any more options, perhaps you couldn't count that high. Now answer the bloody question or go to bed.

Originally posted by xiinfaniin: You have many options here saaxiib from which you have the liberty to choose without embarrassing yourself. You could be a silent reader and choose not to comment at all. Xiinow, I think he went for the silent reader option. I hope he sticks to it.

^ I know when I get you talking about my famous quote that your blood pressure has risen, a couple of arteries are more clogged and I got you right where I want you. If people in this TFG (including their SOL spokesperson ) got their jobs based on merit and not blind loyalty, you'd be a janitor and Caydiid, the shit you scrape off the toilet.