the United States is supportive of the idea of a deployment of such a force

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

QUESTION: One more on Somalia. Some EU experts are saying that the U.S. is strongly pushing for a regional force to go to Somalia and that this is something you've already decided and whether this is the IGAD force that people have been talking about. I wonder whether you could illuminate us on what U.S. policy is on a regional force going into Somalia. There are fears that this would somehow stoke up regional war.

 

MR. CASEY: Yeah, I did see that story. Let me try and explain to you where I think things actually are and see if that helps. First of all, IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, put forth a proposal aimed at restoring stability in Somalia and part of that included deploying a training and protection mission for the Somalia transitional federal institutions. Now the -- you've got heads of state approved that proposal at a meeting they had in September. I believe it was September 5th of this year. That proposal was then passed on to the AU, and the African Union Peace and Security Council endorsed that proposal on September 13th.

 

Subsequent to that, the African Union has passed that proposal on to the United Nations Security Council and the Security Council's received that proposal, and members are looking at it and considering what the best way forward might be on it.

 

Now, the United States is supportive of the idea of a deployment of such a force if it would, in fact, stabilize the situation inside Somalia, and certainly people are having, again, discussions and consultations about this at the UN. This, though, has been standing policy with us for some time, and I think you've heard Jendayi Frazer speak to this issue previously, in fact, I think after the last meeting of the Somalia Contact Group.

 

So this is an ongoing proposal. It's one that's originated with IGAD and with the AU, and it's now in the Security Council for consideration. I think the main thing, though, is that our basic goal and our basic policy remains the same. We want to see dialogue between the various actors in Somalia. We want to see a stabilization of the country. We want to see an end to violence. And we ultimately want to see a Somalia with a functioning government and civil order that serves the interest of the people.

 

QUESTION: But would you support having Ethiopia and Eritrean troops on this force and being in Somalia because Ethiopian and Eritrean -- you have in recent weeks been critical of Ethiopian and Eritrean interference in Somalia, so how would you see this sort of regional or IGAD or whatever force it is that newly emerges?

 

MR. CASEY: Well, as I said, this is a proposal that's been put forward. It's in the Security Council for consideration and we will and will be consulting with our colleagues there as well as officials at the AU about this. But I'm not aware that there are any specific details that have been brought forward or any immediate plans to make such a deployment. So this is something that's under discussion. And without being party to those, I think I'll just leave it to the folks up there to continue those consultative processes on, you know, what the details of this proposal would ultimately look like.

 

QUESTION: But is the U.S. coming up with a resolution on this? Are you supporting a writing of a resolution or --

 

MR. CASEY: No. Again, the status -- no, the status of this is the proposal's been forwarded to the Security Council and there are consultations there. I am not trying to preview any specific actions for you at this point.

 

QUESTION: You said you have no details but you -- but the U.S. supports it?

 

MR. CASEY: Well, we support the concept of deploying such a force if in fact it's going to be able to help stabilize the situation and support our common objective, but the details of that proposal still have to be worked out.

 

QUESTION: That would be in support of the Transitional Government?

 

MR. CASEY: Yes, this was initially something that came out of discussions between IGAD and the Transitional Federal Institutions, as I understand it.

 

QUESTION: So would this force only be limited to the Baidoa area or would it be moved up

to --

 

MR. CASEY: Again, I don't have any -- there is no specific detailed plan that I'm aware of that has been put forward on this. This is something that's under discussions and in consultation at the UN, and we'll see what comes out of this.

 

QUESTION: It's just one of -- sorry, it's just one of many ideas being discussed or is it the key idea being discussed?

 

MR. CASEY: This specific idea is being discussed in the Security Council. Obviously there are other discussions going on in the Somalia Contact Group and at the UN about what we can do to help bring about the end state that we want for Somalia. I think we view this as something that is a piece of the puzzle or a piece of the picture, but it's not a silver bullet solution of and by itself.

Actual document

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

US supports deployment of regional force in Somalia: Casey

 

 

WASHINGTON: The United States will support deployment of regional force in Somalia, US State Department spokesman Tom Casey Thursday.

 

Talking to journalists here, Casey said the proposal to deploy regional force in Somalia was tabled by Inter-Governmental Developmental Authority -- an organisation comprised of seven countries, and is presently under consideration in the United Nations.

 

According to the proposal, the force would first be trained and then deployed in Somalia. source

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

US government approves regional peacekeepers deployment in Somalia

Aweys Osman Yusuf

 

Mogadishu 23, Nov.06 ( Sh.M.Network) - The United States has officially supported deployment of regional forces in Somalia, US State Department spokesperson Tom Casey revealed Thursday.

 

 

AU Forces

Talking to journalists, Casey said the proposal to dispatch regional troops in Somalia was raised by Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, an organization that comprises of seven countries.

 

Casey said the forces would first be trained and then dispatched to Somalia.

 

Somali government, which is largely tenuous has previously asked IGAD and African Unionto approve the decision to deploy peace keeping forces in Somalia, a decision the international community showed a great precaution following the seizure of most central and southern Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu.

 

The Union of Islamic Courts entirely opposes foreign intervention in Somalia, declaring a jihad or holy war against Ethiopia that has thousands of troops in the country to protect the weak government against Islamist invasion.

 

The US government that voiced concerns of al-Qaeda elements in Somalia’s Islamists groups has for the first time backed deploying African peacekeeping forces in a country that fragmented into many parts and under the control of Islamic Courts which restored peace and order into the war-ravaged country.

 

Djibouti, a member state of IGAD refused African troop deployment to Somalia, rather encouraged peace talks take place between the Islamic Courts and the transitional federal government (TFG).

 

Peace talks between Somalia’s vying parties had ended in failure early November after both groups could not agree up on who might arbitrate the talks as Islamist insisted on the removal of Kenya, representing IGAD from the mediators and the government said it would quit the talks if IGAD was not part of the mediation.

 

source

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Somalia is 'epicentre of jihadism'

 

Andrew Cawthorne | Nairobi, Kenya

 

 

20 November 2006 12:53

 

 

Somalia has replaced Sudan as the "epicentre of jihadism" in East Africa since the rise of a powerful Islamist movement, according to a United States author who has just finished a new book on the Horn of Africa nation.

 

"The most potent expression of jihadism in the region has occurred in stateless Somalia," says Gregory Alonso Pirio.

 

His book, The African Jihad: Bin Laden's Quest for the Horn of Africa, is due to be published early next year.

 

"With the military triumph of the Islamic courts, southern Somalia came to replace Sudan as the epicentre of jihadism in the region with the spectre of renewed regional instability," he added in a hawkish analysis of the religious movement's roots.

 

Born out of sharia courts, Somalia's Islamist movement kicked out US-backed warlords from Mogadishu in June.

 

It went on to take a swathe of southern Somalia in defiance of the authority of a Western-backed interim government trying to restore central rule for the first time since 1991.

 

Critics say the Islamists are a Taliban-like movement, with links to foreign terrorists. The Islamists say they are bringing order and have been smeared by US and other propaganda.

 

Pirio, a former director at the US government-funded Voice of America radio and now president of media firm Empowering Communications, said the Council of Somali Islamic Courts were descendants of a previous radical group al-Itihaad al-Islaami.

 

The current top Islamist leader in Somalia, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, was head of that group's military wing in the 1990s, when it was largely decimated by Ethiopian attacks.

 

"The rise of the al-Itihaad-led Islamic Courts presents to counter-terrorism strategists what is likely their nightmare scenario for Somalia," Pirio added. "The people in charge of the [islamist] military are out of the al-Itihaad movement ... all al-Qaeda-connected ... They control the guns."

 

Black Hawk down

Al-Qaeda operatives trained al-Itihaad operatives in the early 1990s, while Iran also supplied arms, he said. The US intervention in Somalia in 1992, ahead of a UN peacekeeping force, merely fuelled Muslim radicals, Pirio added.

 

Washington pulled out soon after Somali militias shot down two military helicopters and killed 18 rangers in late 1993 on a day later dramatised in the movie Black Hawk Down.

 

Pirio's mention of Iran echoed a report by United Nations experts in recent days charging that Iran backs the new Islamist movement.

 

"It doesn't surprise me," he told Reuters in a weekend interview. "You can see that with the US-Iraq situation, then Somalia has a strategic importance for Iran."

 

Critics say Washington promoted the emergence of the Islamic courts by funding their enemies -- warlords in Mogadishu who formed a "counter-terror" alliance -- and thus fuelling popular support and militancy. But Pirio said that view was flawed.

 

"I argue in the book that the Islamic courts are actively aggressive in Somalia prior to the US support for this anti-terrorism group," he said.

 

"Rather than seeing the US support as triggering this aggressive position, the Islamic courts under Aweys back in 1999, 2000, 2001, were already expansionist."

 

The Islamists' relatively unchecked expansion around southern Somalia could now be held back both by the opposition of regional power Ethiopia, and the movement's concentration of leaders from the local ****** clan, he argued.

 

"As they are moving into other areas, they are being branded a clan phenomenon rather than an Islamic phenomenon."

 

Their wider goal, however, was ambitious, he said.

 

"They have a kind of romantic vision of what Somalia was in the past, and [their aim] is to unite all Somalis under a caliphate or an emirate," he said, referring to ethnic Somali regions of neighbouring countries like Ethiopia and Kenya.

 

Pirio said an anti-poverty "Marshall Plan"-like strategy for the Horn of Africa was the best strategy against extremism. A representative democracy like Kenya is a good example of a positive antithesis to Somalia, he said.

 

"People actually listen to Muslim concerns in Kenya." - Reuters

source

[Chimera]

go spread kafiir's message go ahead

 

jihaad epicenter kulaha what a b.s

[RedSea]

Mr. Frank, take the U.S and those ill comments,then afterwards shuff it meeshii lagaa cusbeeyey.US US,who gives rat's behind what the U.S says about Somalia.Only foolish folks would fail for that...so much for love of unity between Somalis.lol

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

DL,

Kafiir is such a loaded term. as more and more globalization takes place, we must be enlightened people who accept "others" without being medieval, backward and uncivilized and calling others such things as kafiir and gaalo. One of these days, those of us left in the jungle will have to came out, walk upright and join the rest of humanity.

[RedSea]

go ahead tell us few things about humanity,and what the article you have posted above has to do with it frank.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Mr. Frank, take the U.S and those ill comments,then afterwards shuff it meeshii lagaa cusbeeyey.US US,who gives rat's behind what the U.S says about Somalia.Only foolish folks would fail for that...so much for love of unity between Somalis.lol

Mr RS, must you be silly all the time? aside from shuffing things where the sun don't shine, have you anything to really say? As the sole superpower in the world today and a an important member of the five permanent members of the security council, a lot of nations give a rats *** what the US has to say. US opposition to the deployment of this force was the main obsticle to the Somali governments call for peacekeepers, so there public change of heart bodes will for implementation of the TFGs security plan. as for the love of Somali unity, were you on mars, because it was MIA for a few decades now. the reall fools are those moryans running around with cimamads everywhere trying to get hegemany with the gun and those foolish enough to fall for there "itobiya aya soo socata" and countless other lies.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

[Abu-Salman]

...

[Abu-Salman]

We can discuss Somali Christian rights and Non-Muslims status in Islam througout history without the need for such utterly unproductive cheering for Secular Somalis Ennemies alongside their enduring immoral policies.

 

What if everyone started with honesty and come out of the closet?

 

After all, we even share this forum with self-confessed Atheist and Agnostics and we are facing rationally endless provocations; the ball is in your camp must I say...

[RedSea]

So in your mind it's reasonable to listen to the suggestion of the World' only sole super power?

 

well we know the U.S bullies those who can't defend themesleves or simply those who are sleepwalking in which they take advantage of.I say wake up and stop kissing butt.

 

I think it would be wise to change the channel sometimes from Fox news, it looks like you have been fed with so much propaganda.

 

If we speak of the reality on the ground,we know what the U.S is into in Iraq and Afghanistan,therefore,are you suggesting Somalia to be the subject of the same problems that occur in Iraq,since the U.S is the cuase of the turmoil in the middle east?

 

I expect very good respond from you mr.

reasonable.

 

DJABUTI,you are way off the topic,we are not discussing such,the question that lies here is that,is the U.S concern about the Somalis and are merely promoting the interests of the Somali people and not thier or vice versa?

 

what is your input on this,,

[General Duke]

The Clan Courts have isolated themselves. They wanted the Americans and even Ethiopians on their side, they have said it many times their Clan Jihad results from the fact that they hate Ethiopia supportng the TFG, its not about Erthioia being Kaffir, since Aferwarki is a Kaffir friend of theirs.

 

Now the US who was against the lifting of the arms embargo due to their belief that the warlords of Mogadishu would deliver security. Have now turned 360 degrees to support the national stabalisation plane put together by the goverment of Somalia.

 

A posative step forward.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

friend, first I think Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia are false comparesons. The problem with these two countries is two. In Iraq you have a low level or high, depanding on you piont of view, civil war between Ethinic or religous groups vying for power. along with these are jihadis: fools mostly from the Gulf who have nothing better to do then blow stuff and kill people under the cloak of protecting Islam. Only the second one is taking place in Afghanistan because there is only one major tribe. In Somalia, neither off these phenomenon really exist. There are no more ethnec Groups or clans vying for power because Somalis have come to realize that they must share power equally. An example of this is the 4.5 formula, much demonized by people with no sense of reality, that was implemented in the last this and the prevous intrem governments. As for jihadis in Somalia, we are still not sure but evidence is gathering really fast that they are there funding, arming and fighting on the ground to put in place a radical wahabi government. They are both local (alitahad) and foreign (alqacida). whatever there number, they well not make much progress because somali sociaty is opposed to such people as for as I can tell but are being used by opportunistic moryans whose sole agenda is to rob the nation.

 

Also red, is not about listening to the worlds sole superpower but knowing that it will likely get what it deems its interst are at the end of the day. Should you have a common interest, it most likely means you will succeed.

by the way, i never watch fox news, as a liberal democart, they make as much sense to me as somem of you supporters of radicals, jihadis and extremeist.