^ I know atheer.

^ He's delighted. And if the shidh hits the fan, he and uncle will be on the express train to Galkacyo or Bossasso or wherever the hell they came from. Originally posted by Abu Paragon: Sxb that is a fitting wise quote. Paragon, I was being sarcastic. Donald Rumsfeld said those words. I'm not optimistic at all. This euphoria will fade and we have a long, uphill battle to stability. There are too many (foreign) chefs in that kitchen at the moment.

A wise man once said: "Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here." Hopefully only the last part of the wise man's prediction will apply to Somalia.

Originally posted by Nubia: What is the benefit of teaching Amharic in Hargeisa. The language is spoken by a minority, not the mother of tongue of people residing in Somaliland nor universally recognised. To be frank providing such classes would be a waste of the limited resources available in that city. You have a point there. But have you read anything other than the headline in this post? Do you really think I'm searching for Amharic schools in Hargeisa? You just gave me a heartburn before I even have breakfast, atheer. Did you go to Ngonge's school of comprehension? What have I done to deserve this?

Al Jazeera reported widespread looting in the city on Wednesday night, as its inhabitants sought to stock up on supplies as the Ethiopian army advanced closer. Al-Jazeera

As for foreign occupation, Yuusf is not a foreigner to Mogadishu , you should be ashamed. He is now. LOL.

^ You're just jealous.

Al-Jazeera Arabic is reporting sporadic gunfire in the northern areas of the city. At least two clans are in heavy clashes, it's being reported, and many have fallen dead and wounded. The lawlessness, says Al-Jazeera, is attributed to the power vacuum created by the withdrawal of the Islamic Courts.

Interviewed on Al-Jazeera, Sheikh Sharif has officially declared that the Islamic Courts have vacated the city of Muqdisho. He said that the decision to withdraw was done after the Ethiopians surrounded the city and the Courts were not going to allow the great city to be shelled into complete destruction. Welcome to foreign occupation.

Originally posted by General Duke: As of now, Villa Somalia , the port, the entrance from Afgoyye and number of other landmarks are in the hands of clans waiting for the TFG to come. Ah, the ultimate prize. Did you have tears in your eyes when you typed those words, duke? LOL.

^ It was a rhetorical question, atheer. Jimcaale, are you asking me that question?

^ I said "a" Northerner, not THE Northerner. There's a difference.

^ True, but this time, they're in the pool with us. We used to swim alone but now they put on their shiniest Spandex and jumped right in.

Originally posted by Beerlula: What was really surprising was the 180 degree turn some of you guys did from just yesterday when you were literally going to kick Xabashi azz and suddenly the word in is the "racist Northerners", d--n the ICU for disappointing too soon. I'm the only one who used the words racist Northerners. And I had racist in quotes. Perhaps you're wondering why I had it in quotes. Would you like to know why? Just ask. What's with this "you guys" stuff? Who are you referring to? And to address your statement above, how is kicking "Xabashi azz" 180 degrees from "suddenly the word in is ..."? Perhaps you don't understand what 180 degrees means. Let me explain it to you. 180 degrees is a reference to a straight line (in opposite directions). What it implies is doing a U turn on an issue. For example, Duke coming out tomorrow morning and supporting the ICU would be doing 180 degrees. If the TFG is one end of a straight line and the ICU is the other, he'd have done a U turn or a 180. I hope this helps. Originally posted by Qudhac: you have proven once again all you people only know one thing and that is greed and xukun dictator.. "All you people"? WTF. That's racist dude. Are you a Northerner?

Can you spot the propaganda in this piece?

December 28, 2006 Islamists Seem to Give Up Grip on Somali City By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 27 — The Islamist forces who have controlled much of Somalia in recent months suddenly vanished from the streets of the capital, Mogadishu, residents said Wednesday night, just as thousands of rival troops massed 15 miles away. In the past few days, Ethiopian-backed forces, with tacit approval from the United States, have unleashed tanks, helicopter gunships and jet fighters on the Islamists, decimating their military and paving the way for the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia to assert control. Even so, the Islamists, who have been regarded as a regional menace by Ethiopia and the United States, had repeatedly vowed to fight to the death for their religion and their land, making their disappearance that much more unexpected. Fortified checkpoints across the city — in front of the radio station, at the airport, at the main roads leading into Mogadishu and outside police stations — were abruptly abandoned Wednesday night, residents said. Many of the teenage troops who made up the backbone of the Islamist army had blended back into the civilian population, walking around without guns or their trademark green skullcaps. The sudden reversal left it unclear whether a war that had threatened to consume the Horn of Africa had quickly ended, or the Islamists had merely gone underground, preparing to wage a guerrilla insurgency, as some leaders had threatened. “The whole city is just waiting,” said Sheik Ahmed Shiro, a Koranic teacher in Mogadishu. At 10 p.m. on Wednesday, several Islamist leaders emerged to hold a news conference at their headquarters in Mogadishu. They did not explicitly concede defeat to the transitional government, but seemed to be preparing their forces for such an eventuality. “We need our soldiers to return to their positions for the sake of the people,” said Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, one of the leaders. “Even if your positions are transferred to the government, you must stay where you are and make sure Mogadishu is as safe as it was before.” As he spoke, Mogadishu was rapidly descending back into the clan-based anarchy that had been its hallmark for most of the past 15 years, before the Islamists came to power and pacified the city. Witnesses said bands of armed thugs swept through the markets, smashing and stealing at will. Gunfire rattled from neighborhood to neighborhood as the disparate clan-based militias that had joined forces to form the Islamist movement began to fragment and turn on one another. With the war going badly for them, clan elders had been rapidly losing faith in the Islamist leaders, residents said. The quick defeat the Islamists suffered earlier on Wednesday at Jowhar, the last major town on the road to Mogadishu, seemed to be the final straw. The Islamists started out as a grass-roots movement of clan elders and religious leaders who banded together earlier this year to rid Mogadishu of its notorious warlords, earning them a lot of public support. But much of that good will seems to have been sapped by their decision to go to war against the transitional government and the Ethiopian forces protecting it. The Islamists attacked Baidoa, the seat of the transitional government, on Dec. 20; a few days later, they announced that Somalia was open to Muslim fighters around the world who wanted to wage a holy war against Christian-led Ethiopia. That provoked a crushing counter-attack by the Ethiopians, who command the strongest military in East Africa. For the past week, the Islamists have lost one battle after another, their adolescent soldiers no match for a professional army. By Wednesday, the Islamists were cornered. Thousands of troops from the transitional government were closing in on the seaside capital from two directions. Mogadishu was coming unhinged. The ports and airports had closed, leading to a shortage of just about everything, sending prices for food, medicine and fuel skyward. A gallon of gas in Mogadishu now costs $8. The once feared Shebab, the devout young Islamic fighters, began deserting in droves. (Shebab is the Arabic word for youth.) “We can’t resist,” said Musa Abdullahi, an 18-year-old Shebab who quit his unit after half his comrades were cut down by Ethiopian helicopter gunships. “We thought this fighting would be like the others. It’s not.” Ahmed Nur Bilal, a retired Somali general, said the war had been a horrible miscalculation. One of the first things the Islamists did after the fighting started was to close all schools in Mogadishu in order to send more young people to the front. “They’ve misled our children to their deaths,” Mr. Bilal said. Residents said that crowds in one slum threw rocks at the Islamists’ pickup trucks as they drove by on Wednesday. Some people openly celebrated in the streets by hoisting up pictures of the transitional government’s leaders and gleefully chewing khat, a mildly narcotic plant the Islamists had outlawed. The demonstrations helped prompt the clan elders, who are regarded as the pillars of Somali society, to act. According to residents in Mogadishu, the leaders of several major clans — and some businesspeople who had been financing the Islamists — demanded that the Islamist leaders return the armed pickup trucks that had been lent to the movement. Faced with the loss of support from their counterparts, other clan leaders saw the coalition begin to crumble and withdrew their trucks as well, leaving little of the organized force that once lent the Islamists their power. One adviser to Western diplomats who has close contacts with both the Islamists and the transitional government described the unraveling as an “organic process that rose up from the people, in an unorganized way, Somali style.” Disappointment in the Islamists, however, does not necessarily translate into widespread enthusiasm for the transitional government, which until last week had been considered weak and divided by many Somalis. Thousands of people in Mogadishu, a war-weary city of two million, have begun to pack up and leave, residents said, afraid not only of the possibility of heavy urban fighting but also of a return to warlord rule, which kept Mogadishu in anarchy for years. The transitional government has sent mixed signals about what it plans to do next. Until now, Mogadishu had been considered too dangerous as a headquarters for the transitional leaders, themselves a mix of clan elders and former warlords. But transitional government leaders have always said they eventually planned to base their government in the capital, and this week they vowed to keep fighting until Mogadishu was theirs. Several Mogadishu residents said on Wednesday night that they expected the Ethiopian-backed forces to march into the city at dawn. That has been a pattern since the fighting began, with the Islamists retreating from cities across Somalia during the night and the transitional government troops arriving in the morning. But some analysts believe there will be a few days of negotiations before that happens. Ethiopian officials have said that occupying Mogadishu is not part of their plan. But they have also said that rooting out Islamist extremists is their priority. Mohammed Ibrahim and Yuusuf Maxamuud contributed reporting from Mogadishu. New York Times

the escalating war will likely ensure that Somalia remains a failed state for the foreseeable future, a battleground not only for local clan and political rivalries but also for regional and international strategic"great games."There are unlikely to be any clear winners any time soon, but the losers almost certainly will be the Somali people, who after more than 16 years of war, warlordism and famine, can only look forward to more of the same. This time, however, we're taking Ethiopia down with us.

A Dark Deja Vu in Somalia Analysis: The war between Islamist rebels and neighboring Ethiopia recalls an era when the agendas driving Africa's conflicts were never exclusively local, even if most of the victims were By TONY KARON To many Africans old enough to remember the Cold War, the bloody conflict currently unfolding in Somalia will be awfully familiar. Back before the Berlin Wall fell, localized power struggles all over the continent often turned into full-scale regional wars when the protagonists cast themselves or were cast — however improbably — as torch-bearers for Washington or Moscow. Such association would bring boundless diplomatic and financial support, not to mention boatloads of weapons and other military assistance, enabling local strongmen to wage self-serving wars for years on end. There's no Cold War any longer, of course, but in the case of Somalia, the"Global War on Terror"may be having a similar effect. The U.S. has backed Ethiopia's military intervention on behalf of the beleaguered and unpopular — but internationally recognized — Somali government, in what looks set to be a protracted war that could draw in most of Somalia's neighbors. Washington's reason for supporting the offensive, rather than calling for an end to hostilities, is that the enemies of the Ethiopians and the Somali government are an Islamist movement viewed by the U.S. as in cahoots with al-Qaeda. But the"war-on-terror"prism conceals the complexity of a conflict based on clan, political and regional rivalries that, in some cases, date back to the 1960s. And regional analysts fear that the tension will be exacerbated rather than resolved by the responses of outside players. While the U.S. and Ethiopia have backed the Somali government and the warlords that operate under its umbrella on the banner of fighting al-Qaeda, the Islamists have allegedly rallied financial and military support from such quarters as Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria and Iran by painting themselves as victims of an Islamophobic Western conspiracy. And Osama bin Laden certainly helped Ethiopia and the Somali government make their case for U.S. support when, in October, he warned Western governments to stay out of Somalia. Ethiopia is not simply acting as Washington's regional policeman, however. It has a long-running border dispute with Somalia that led to two years of open warfare in the late 1970s, and it sees the nationalist inclination of the Islamists — and their vow to take control of the ****** desert from Ethiopia — as an immediate threat to its own interests. (The Islamists actually back secessionist insurgents in that region.) Given Ethiopia's intervention on behalf of the government, it comes as no surprise that Addis Ababa's fiercest foe, neighboring Eritrea, is supporting and arming the Somali Islamists. For all the involvement of outside players, however, the Somali conflict remains a domestic power struggle at heart. It pits the Transitional Federal Government, a product of years of painstaking horse-trading among rival clan warlords, against the Council of Islamic Courts, a loose Islamist alliance strongly nationalist in character — which has vowed to break the power of the warlords and unite all of Somalia under Sharia law (although it happens to be led by clan rivals of the dominant clan in the government camp). Like the Taliban in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, the Islamists' displacement of hated warlords in southern and central Somalia was largely welcomed by the population. However, the strictures they have imposed on the population in the name of a fiercely conservative interpretation of Islam have also generated resentment. But the regional and international context of Somalia is quite different from that of Afghanistan a decade ago: The Islamists cannot prevail as long as Ethiopia is willing to lend the beleaguered government its military muscle — well-armed and trained by U.S. advisers, in contrast to the ragtag and mostly teenaged light infantry of the Islamists. But it is equally unlikely that Ethiopian military power will subdue the Islamist challenge inside Somalia. Indeed, the government's reliance on forces of the old enemy is unlikely to endear it to the Somali citizenry. Although Ethiopia promises to withdraw its forces within days, they had been active in Somalia for months before their presence was officially acknowledged, and a speedy withdrawal would leave a vacuum that the Islamists would once again fill. Yet having effectively repelled an Islamist advance on Baidoa, the Ethiopians risk losing much of their tactical advantage if they tried to capture Islamist strongholds, particularly the capital. Their goal, instead, according to Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, is to weaken the Islamists militarily in order to force them to negotiate with the government from a weaker position. But the fierce fighting last weekend and the passions stoked by open Ethiopian intervention may militate against any new compromise. Instead, the escalating war will likely ensure that Somalia remains a failed state for the foreseeable future, a battleground not only for local clan and political rivalries but also for regional and international strategic"great games."There are unlikely to be any clear winners any time soon, but the losers almost certainly will be the Somali people, who after more than 16 years of war, warlordism and famine, can only look forward to more of the same. Time

^ I see the Door-Knob brigade is out in full force again. No wonder J.Lee hasn't been seen around here. The embarrassment must be overwhelming.

Originally posted by Centurion: inviting Ethiopian troops into Somalia is NEVER an option. Please, remove the word invitation from what Ethiopia has received. Invitations are sent out to birthday and Christmas parties, NOT invasions. Here's a few rules from Invasion Propaganda 101: Rule number 1: NEVER call an invasion, invasion. It's an invitation. Rule number 2: NEVER call an occupier, occupier. He's the invitee. Rule number 3: NEVER call the entity that invites the occupier ( ) a despotic regime. They're the democratically elected and majority supported, legitimate government of the land. Rule number 4: NEVER bring up the actual super power behind all of this. If you do, mention only vague statements about restraint and preserving civilian life. Rule number 5: NEVER call the proxy country doing the dirty work a proxy country. They're a nation in mortal fear of attack from (insert Islamists, Communists, Catholics, Chavistas, etc..) Rule number 6: ALWAYS claim to be defending nation A (the invader) from nation B, the invaded. It makes no sense, I know, but such is the power of media and propaganda. Rule number 7: ALWAYS reject and deny any reports of large civilian casualties unless there's proof leaking to the media. Even then, declare a vague statement about some investigation that will be conducted to find out what happened, to prevent it from happening again, and if necessary, punish those responsible. Rule number 8: ALWAYS maintain this invasion, I mean invitation, is time limited and that the invader is not interested in nation building. Instead, always put out positive, yet vague, statements of withdrawal "as soon as the job is done". Of course, the "job" is never defined and therefore, "as soon as" is never reached. Rule number 9: ALWAYS attack any opposition in the media with lack of patriotism and wrap the collaborators (often living in some neighborhood invariably called the "green zone) with the flag. Rule number 10: ALWAYS badmouth one group and praise another publicly. You'll be surprised what pride can do and what grown men will fight over if a newspaper published group A has smaller testicles than group B. Use these 10 rules, rinse then repeat and you shall have a powerful and sustained assault on the public. Of course, over the long run, none of these rules work as well as they do in the beginning for you can fool some people some time but you can't fool all the people all the time. You can see any number of these tactics used in Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Somalia. Same shit, different geographical locations.

Originally posted by xiinfaniin: Is the placeholder back on the airwaves again yaa Castro? That reminds me, in a very ironic way, Abu sufyaanis marvelous statement when he gazed with wonder at some groupings at Fatxu Makka; ma lanaa wa li reer-hebel ! LOL. How fitting indeed. Here's the dishonorable defense minister talking to a reporter today.

On Tuesday, a day after an Ethiopian jet strafed the airport in Mogadishu, the capital, the State Department issued internal guidance to staff members, instructing officials to play down the invasion in public statements. If this is not an admission of complicity by the United States in this invasion by the Ethiopia, I don't know what is.

Originally posted by xiinfaniin: This is no time for peace however awoowe! The old man whose treacherous history you’ve briefly touched dreams to rule Somalia from the back of an Ethiopian tank! I want Courts not to legitimize that awoowe! It will be a crime to do that Indeed, even sitting in the same room as him or his representatives is an abomination. What could they possibly negotiate about after what Hiraale and others spew on the radio airwaves?

^ Xaax, atheer Red Sea, waa ku sidee. Waar sowka ninku waysadii kaa jabiyay. Easy atheer. I know they boil your blood just seeing their words but don't let it get to you. Throw in the words door knob here and there. That seems to hit a raw nerve. Don't let MMA come around here and censor you. Or even worse, LSK might come out of hiding wearing his TFG jersey ( ) and ban you altogether.

U.S. Signals Backing for Ethiopian Incursion Into Somalia By MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 — The United States on Tuesday signaled its support for the Ethiopian offensive in Somalia, calling it a response to “aggression” by Islamists who have since the summer been consolidating power in the country. A spokeswoman for the State Department, Janelle Hironimus, said Ethiopia was trying to stem the flow of outside arms shipments to the Islamists. Ms. Hironimus added that Washington was concerned about reports that the Islamists were using child soldiers and abusing Ethiopian prisoners of war. The statement was the most detailed by the United States since last week, when the long-simmering tension between Ethiopia and Somalia boiled over. Ethiopia has long been a strong ally of Washington in the Horn of Africa. The American military has for years trained Ethiopian troops at bases in the eastern region. The training is part of a Pentagon effort to build the Ethiopian military into a bulwark against regional terrorist networks. Maj. Marie Boughen of the Army, a spokeswoman for the United States Central Command, which has military responsibility for the horn, said no American troops were participating in the Ethiopian offensive or working as advisers for it. The Ethiopian military presence in Somalia, while tacitly blessed by Washington, has nonetheless been awkward for American officials. They have publicly urged a return to peace talks by warring Somali factions, but some officials have also said an Ethiopian invasion could be the only factor to prevent the Islamists’ complete takeover of Somalia. On Tuesday, a day after an Ethiopian jet strafed the airport in Mogadishu, the capital, the State Department issued internal guidance to staff members, instructing officials to play down the invasion in public statements. “Should the press focus on the role of Ethiopia inside Somalia,” read a copy of the guidelines that was given to The New York Times by an American official here, “emphasize that this is a distraction from the issue of dialogue between the T.F.I.’s and Islamic courts and shift the focus back to the need for dialogue.” T.F.I. is an abbreviation for the weak transitional government in Somalia. “The press must not be allowed to make this about Ethiopia, or Ethiopia violating the territorial integrity of Somalia,” the guidance said. The Bush administration is using American ambassadors throughout the region in an effort to have African nations press the Islamists to return to the negotiating table. Senior leaders of the Islamist coalition, the Islamic Courts Union, have issued a global call to jihad for Muslims to travel to Somalia to fight troops from Ethiopia. American intelligence officials said they did not believe that foreign fighters had traveled to Somalia in great numbers and that mostly Somalis made up the force fighting the Ethiopians. American intelligence officials theorize that the Islamists, who wrested control of Mogadishu in June from a coalition of warlords supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, have ties to a Qaeda cell based in East Africa that is responsible for the bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. This year, the C.I.A. began a covert operation to arm and finance the warlords, who had united under the banner of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism. Operated from the intelligence agency’s station in Nairobi, Kenya, the effort involved frequent trips to Mogadishu by case officers from the agency and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to the warlords. The operation backfired. When the payments to the warlords shifted the military balance of the country in their favor, the Islamists started a strike against the American-backed coalition and ran it out of Mogadishu. Since June, the State Department has reasserted its control of Somalia policy, trying to build support for a plan to bolster the transitional government with peacekeeping troops from other African nations. New York Times