The many face of Maxamed Siciid Attam - as he conducts damage control

[Thankful]

Here are two interview, the one on Horseednet was done on July 27, where Atam admits to being aligned with the criminal organization Al Shabaab. The next interview was done today, where he completely contradicts himself. You can see that the two voices are the same!

 

The interview really hurt his movements and as I said, justified Faroole's actions. Those in the TFG and even here on SOL that defended him and said he was not with Al Shabaab were humiliated when he admitted it, he obviously knows it was wrong to expose his allies in this battle.

 

Regardless, this VOA interview makes it clear that the Horseednet interview was 100% Attam.

 

I have no clue how he thinks people will just forget about the horseednet interview.

 

Atam - Horseednet

 

Atam - VOA

[General Duke]

^^^For a man who has never given an interview ever he sure is making allot since that skirmish...

 

The two voices are the same no excuse, the man is waffler..

[NGONGE]

^^ Are you being objective here or are you just throwing your toys out of the pram like everyone else?

 

If you listen to both interviews dispassionately whilst allowing for the situation, the questioners and the types of questions being asked, there really isn't much contradiction between the two interviews. In the first one (the Paltalk one) sheekado o dhan waa iska "Akhi fi Allah" iyo "Naxnu macaka xata al moot". It is natural for the man (who confesses to be a wadaad) to reply in kind and make the emphasis of his replies an Islamic one. In admitting to be a member of Al Shabab he said something along the lines of "We are Al Shabab and Al Shabab are us". You consider this a clear and unambiguous admittance but I think it is still a vague statement (when one considers the question he was being asked or the way they led up to the question). The man's position seemed to be that all "Mujahideen" are the same.

 

The second interview was done by a professional (none of the blow softening Akhi fi Allah talk). The interviewer asked about the situation, what caused it and if this Atam person is a card-carrying member of Al Shabab. The replies here were more detailed and seemed to point to a genuine and personal disagreement with the Puntland admin rather than an all out Jihad to liberate Jerusalem.

 

The real worry here is if this man is not a proper member of Al Shabab but due to the isolation and vilification he will suffer as a result of being labelled so, he might just find the open arms of Al Shabab very hard to resist. They, on their part, are not likely to turn such a golden opportunity down.

[Xudeedi]

Thanksful: CorrectionHe never gave an interview to Horseed. The Sheikh spoke very well on his last interview and verified his true political position.

 

The sheikh stated, "our movement is local and the last skirmish was a clan reaction against puntland's clan targeted transgression."

 

The sheikh also stated, " this is a continuation of Majiyahan and Laag skirmishes and our troops are only defending their land."

 

When asked are you willing to negotiate with Faroole? he replied, " you can only negotiate with free men. Faroole is a puppet and is incapable of reaching his own decision. The last time we signed a treaty, he came back to my elders and told them that he is not allowed to negotiate with the western Bari movement."

 

This interview unmasked what was long hidden by SSDF sites.

 

The Sheikh was professional, charismatic and presented his argument very well.

[Xudeedi]

Atam is a politician and offcourse he has the right to appeal to different parties, be Alshaab or Ahlu-Sunnah, just as his opposing clan appealed to Ethiopia.

[Thankful]

NGONGE,

 

You make some valid points, personally I dont agree with you. When he said that "we are shabaab and shabaab is us", it was very clear his meaning. At the very least it is understandable why the Puntland government is taking the actions that they are against him. Whether he meant something else, no government or it's security force can risk giving him the benefit of the doubt. Al Shabaab policies are unacceptable.

 

Also, I said this several times. The reason why this new interview is different, is because he knows that the last one hurt his cause. By losing supporters and giving Faroole more allies. People went out to protect him and his movement and said he was not Al Shabaab, and then he betrayed them by this interview.

 

No matter what he says now and tries to distance himself from them, that interview will haunt him!

 

Xudeedi,

 

If you see my other posts I know it was on Pal Talk, but the site that I got it from is Horseednet. But it's irrelevant who did the interview, he said he was Al Shabaab.

[General Duke]

^^^NGOONGE looking at this from a dispassionate view point, this mans actions speak louder than any words, and like we have pointed out its too late for damage control. For me whats clear is that he has been forced to give interviews, unlike Faroole who speaks out on any old rubbish, this man has hidden his motives for a while and that was to his advantage. The other key point is that Al Shabaab have only ever denied involvement on few occasions, one was the Hotel Shaamo bombing because they understood rightly that it was bad PR and would not go down well with their supporters. The other was the last time they were driven out of Dhusa Mareb, after that defeat they claimed it was not them but some local Mulims fighting the Ethiopians.

 

If Attam’s gang had won the other day and say took over parts of Bossaso, then you would have Al Shabaab claiming a major victory and singing their new commanders praise. No one likes a defeat and not the “warriors of God” who are meant to be invincible.

 

I must commend you, you are the only one who has put up a reasonable argument, but Attam is Al Shabaab and Al Shabaab are Attam, as he said it Akhi, you need to seek knoweledge..

[precious petal]

r

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by

NGONGE

 

The replies here were more detailed and seemed to point to a genuine and personal disagreement with the Puntland admin rather than an all out Jihad to liberate Jerusalem.

Well said... Still this problem needs to be dealt with by the Elders and the heavyweights of Puntland like Gen. Abdullahi Ahmed Ilka-Jir.

 

I agree with our brother Paragon that at this time and age, we do not need to show support to an Islamically inspired movement despite the nature of the conflict being different from that of al-Shabaab. .

[General Duke]

^^Again as you know there is no such thing as a clan/Islamic inspired movement the Somali people rejected the Mogadishu courts claims, one can not accept this either.