Background On The U.S. Sponsored War In Somalia

[Nur]

Background On The U.S. Sponsored War In Somalia

 

"The Most Lawless War of Our Generation" - Fmr. UN Spokesperson on Somalia

The fighting began in December when US-backed Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia. Four months ago today, Islamic fighters abandoned the capital, marking the official fall of the Islamic Courts Union, which had controlled Mogadishu for six months last year.

 

 

A humanitarian catastrophe now looms over Somalia. The United Nations says more people have been displaced in Somalia in the past three months than anywhere else in the world. Some 350,000 have fled fighting in Mogadishu since February, more than one-third of its population. That makes the rate of displacement in Somalia over the past three months worse than Iraq. Many of the those displaced are camped on the outskirts of Mogadishu and lack food, medicine and clean water. There is also concern for those trapped inside the capital where more than 600 people have died from acute diarrhea and cholera.

 

John Holmes, United Nations emergency relief coordinator: "There are stocks available in the area. If we can sort out the access problems, if we can step up our presence, in particular if we could achieve a ceasefire in Mogadishu and the surrounding area, then I think we will be able to cope with the problem, with some difficulty. But if the fighting continues at its present intensity, if there is no halt in that, if there is no political progress made, then we could indeed be facing a very serious situation indeed. I think already this is one of the biggest movement of population, displacement of population we've seen this year, in terms of numbers, particularly in terms of comparative numbers, compared to the populations of Mogadishu or indeed of Somalia as a whole, greater in that sense than Darfur or eastern Chad, and the problems there are serious enough."

 

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi said on Thursday his forces were now in control of Mogadishu and the BBC reports for the first time in nine days, gunfire has stopped. Ethiopians and government troops are patrolling the city conducting house-to-house searches as residents collect rotting bodies that had been abandoned in the streets.

 

The escalating war in Somalia has received little attention in the U.S. media especially on broadcast television. Using the Lexis database, Democracy Now examined ABC, NBC and CBS's coverage of Somalia in the evening newscasts over the past three months. The result may surprise you: ABC and NBC has not mentioned the war at all. CBS mentioned the war once. The network dedicated a total of three sentences to the story.

 

Salim Lone, a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya and a former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq.

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

AMY GOODMAN: In Somalia, fierce fighting has killed over 320 people over the past ten days. This comes just three weeks after another series of battles claimed at least a thousand lives. Agence France-Presse described Thursday’s clashes in Mogadishu as some of the heaviest fighting in the city’s history.

 

The fighting began in December when US-backed Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia. Four months ago today, Islamic fighters abandoned the capital, marking the official fall of the Council of Islamic Courts, which had controlled Mogadishu for six months last year.

 

A humanitarian catastrophe now looms over Somalia. The United Nations says more people have been displaced in Somalia in the past three months than anywhere else in the world. Some 350,000 people have fled fighting in Mogadishu since February, more than a third of its population. That makes the rate of displacement in Somalia over the past three months worse than Iraq. Many of the those displaced are camped on the outskirts of Mogadishu and lack food, medicine and clean water. There is also concern for those trapped inside the capital where more than 600 people have died from acute diarrhea and cholera.

 

This is UN relief coordinator John Holmes.

 

JOHN HOLMES: There are stocks available in the area. If we can sort out the access problems, if we can step up our presence, in particular if we could achieve a ceasefire in Mogadishu and the surrounding area, then I think we will be able to cope with the problem, with some difficulty. But if the fighting continues at its present intensity, if there is no halt in that, if there is no political progress made, then we could indeed be facing a very serious situation indeed. I think already this is one of the -- the biggest movement of population, displacement of population we've seen this year, in terms of numbers, particularly in terms of comparative numbers, compared to the populations of Mogadishu or indeed of Somalia as a whole, greater in that sense than Darfur or eastern Chad, and the problems there are serious enough.

 

AMY GOODMAN: Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi said Thursday his forces were now in control of Mogadishu. The BBC reports, for the first time in nine days, gunfire has stopped. Ethiopians and government troops are patrolling the city conducting house-to-house searches, as residents collect rotting bodies that have been abandoned in the streets.

 

The escalating war in Somalia has received little attention in the US media especially on broadcast television. Using the Lexis database, Democracy Now! examined ABC, NBC and CBS's coverage of Somalia in the evening newscasts over the past three months. The result may surprise you: ABC and NBC has not mentioned the war at all. CBS mentioned the war once on a Sunday night news broadcast. The network dedicated a total of three sentences to the story.

 

Salim Lone is a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya and a former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq. He joins us today from London. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Salim.

 

SALIM LONE: Thank you for covering Somalia, Amy. As you said, the coverage is absolutely shameless.

 

AMY GOODMAN: Well, first, Salim, can you describe who the fighting forces are and who's behind them?

 

SALIM LONE: Well, I mean, the key country there is Ethiopia. Their occupation forces have been there, in fact, long before the actual war began. They came in around September, October. But at the moment, those fighting the Ethiopians and the nominal transitional central government, which is really an absolutely puppet -- it’s quite hapless. In fact, the Ethiopians don't even deal with Somalis that their fighting through the transitional government. They go directly to the elders of the clans to try to negotiate ceasefires. But those fighting them are obviously the ****** Clan fighters who dominate Mogadishu. I mean, historically, they're the largest clan in there. But there are also many others, not just Islamists, which is a codeword for terrorists, but there are many Somalis. In fact, most Somalis will not abide this occupation. I mean, this is what is most distressing about this fighting. All fighting is terrible, but you hope in the end something good comes out of it. But in this particular case, it is clear Somalis will not abide the Ethiopian occupation or the government they put in place there. So it is not going to be a successful war for the Somali government, for Ethiopia and, of course, for the US, which is the orchestrator of the whole adventure this time.

 

AMY GOODMAN: Salim Lone, you're now in London. The British think tank Chatham House criticized the US role in the war. The authors of the report write, “In an uncomfortably familiar pattern, general multilateral concern to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has been hijacked by unilateral actors, especially Ethiopia and the United States.”

 

SALIM LONE: Well, you know, this is par for the course these days. What they also should have mentioned -- but it’s an excellent report, by the way. I really enjoyed reading it, and I’m so glad they were so candid. But one of the big issues here is not merely the unilateralism of the United States, but the inability of the international community and particularly the United Nations Security Council to try to play, if not an independent role, at least a moderating role. It is quite astonishing that for now three months, there has been terrible violence in Somalia, and yet we have not heard anything from the security council about how this carnage must stop. There is no interest whatsoever.

 

You know the death toll. I mean, you've given all the details. I don't want to go into it. But let me add that women are being raped, that hospitals are being bombed. This is clearly a huge effort to intimidate and terrorize all those who come from clans who are fighting the government. They want to intimidate the civilians, because most of the death toll is of civilians. So this has been going on, and there has been no call whatsoever for this to stop.

 

You had Sir John Holmes there. He's a Brit, who -- I don't know him personally, so I cannot speak for him. But clearly, he has been appointed, in fact, by the British to his crucial position as chief of humanitarian affairs.

 

So we are seeing the Security Council completely silent while these atrocities are going on. We are seeing Western governments completely silent. Nothing has come out of Washington. Nothing has come out of London. We now see, for the first time on Wednesday, the ambassador of Germany -- and Germany holds the EU presidency now -- the ambassador released a letter, which he had sent to Abdullah Yusuf, the president of the transitional government. It is a very candid and a very strong letter, and that's wonderful. However, where was Germany? Where was the EU for all this period? Their silence has really given the green light for the Ethiopians to do the terrible things they've been doing.

 

The death toll now in Somalia is greater than it was in Lebanon. And you will recall, of course, that even then, the big powers -- the US, UK, even initially the UN -- did not demand a ceasefire. But the world media was full of that story, and there were condemnations around the world for what the Israelis were doing. But, of course, Somalis and Africans don't count as nearly much, because there has just been no international outcry at all. It’s not just the media. So we really have a problem there.

 

AMY GOODMAN: Salim Lone, we're going to break and come back to this discussion. We'll also play a comment or interaction in the State Department on what is happening right now in Somalia. Salim Lone, columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya, joining us from Britain. Stay with us.

 

[break]

 

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Salim Lone. He is the former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq. He’s a columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya and is joining us right now from London. Salim, I wanted to talk to you about the US role in all of this. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the Ethiopian foreign minister on April 23. At a news conference the next day, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said the two had discussed the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia. McCormack said the troops had “no desire to stay there any longer than they are needed,” but that they didn't want to withdraw to, quote, open up a -- “vacuum open up in Somalia.” A reporter questioned him about his comments. This is an excerpt.

 

REPORTER: Does it concern you at all that your little -- your opening readout, your opening statements, with the exception of some of the proper names, could have applied exactly to the situation in Iraq right now? Does that bother -- does that concern you at all?

 

SEAN McCORMACK: I'm not sure I see your point, Matt.

 

REPORTER: That the Ethiopians say that they don't want to stay there any longer than they're needed, but they don't want to leave a vacuum. It just sounds --

 

SEAN McCORMACK: Right.

 

REPORTER: -- an awful lot like they're taking a page from the administration's thoughts on what to do in Iraq.

 

SEAN McCORMACK: No. I mean, they're --

 

REPORTER: But I guess -- so my question is, are you concerned that they might be seeing the beginning or the -- in fact, the middle of an Iraq-style insurgency going on, obviously not directed at US soldiers --

 

SEAN McCORMACK: Right. Right, right, right.

 

REPORTER: -- but the same kind of thing. Are you concerned about that?

 

SEAN McCORMACK: The situations are completely separate. They are -- you know, each are sui generis, but you are in each case concerned about leaving the field to a group of violent extremists who do not have an interest in building up the institutions of a democratic state, so in that sense, in that sense, there are similarities. I think certainly the specifics of each situation are quite different, and the histories are quite different. And I think the level of intensity of fighting in Iraq is quite different than you're seeing in Somalia, and the scale of it is a lot smaller.

 

AMY GOODMAN: State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack. The reporter went on to ask him whether the United States is calling for a ceasefire.

 

REPORTER: Are you calling for a ceasefire in Somalia, or are you urging the Ethiopians to go for these insurgents with as much intensity as they could?

 

SEAN McCORMACK: You don't want to see any more violence in Somalia. Everybody would like that to be the case, but there are clearly people there, individuals who are intent upon using violence in order to further a so-called political cause. And we have seen that in other areas around the world. And what can't be allowed to happen is for those forces to gain a foothold to develop a safe haven, from which they could possibly launch attacks against other states in the region and further.

 

REPORTER: So you're not calling for a ceasefire?

 

SEAN McCORMACK: We want to see an end to the violence. But the real way to get an end to the violence is (a) stabilize the security situation, and (b) find a political situation that is workable for the major political factions in Somali life that have an interest in actually building a different kind of Somalia, as opposed to the one we've seen for the past few decades.

 

AMY GOODMAN: State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack. Salim Lone, columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya, your response?

 

SALIM LONE: Well, I mean, I’m very interested in the Iraq analogy, and it is really multiple, apart from what was already said there. The contrasts are striking, as well. But let me add to the analogy, actually, that May 1 is approaching. That was the day when on the -- right after the war, President Bush said that his mission had been accomplished. We have the same statement coming out of the prime minister of Somalia yesterday, that the mission has been accomplished and the insurgents have been wiped out.

 

But let's look at the other contrasts, which are very fascinating. In Iraq, the world body, the Security Council, for the first time in many years since the Soviet Union collapsed, stood up to the United States and refused, despite enormous pressure, to authorize a UN war in Iraq. In Somalia's case, it is precisely the opposite.

 

To begin with, the lawlessness of this particular war is astounding. I mean, this is the most lawless war of our generation. You know, all aggressive wars are illegal. But in this particular one, there have been violations of the Charter and gross violations of international human rights, but these are commonplace. But, in addition, there have been very concrete violations by the United States, to begin with, of two Security Council resolutions. The first one was the arms embargo imposed on Somalia, which the United States has been routinely flaunting for many years now. But then the US decided that that resolution was no longer useful, and they pushed through an appalling resolution in December, which basically gave the green light to Ethiopia to invade. They pushed through a resolution which said that the situation in Somalia was a threat to international peace and security, at a time when every independent report indicated, and Chatham House’s report on Wednesday also indicated, that the Islamic Courts Union had brought a high level of peace and stability that Somalia had not enjoyed in sixteen years.

 

So here was the UN Security Council going along with the American demand to pass a blatantly falsified UN resolution. And that resolution actually was a violation. It contravened the UN Charter. You know, the UN Charter is like the American Constitution. Legislators pass laws, but they have to be in conformity with the Constitution. In this particular case, the Charter is the UN’s constitution, and the Security Council cannot -- it's not allowed to really pass laws or rules that violate the Charter. And yet, who is going to correct them? So this --

 

AMY GOODMAN: Salim Lone, on April 8, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration recently allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from North Korea, in violation of international sanctions. The US allowed the arms delivery to go through in January, shortly after Ethiopia invaded Somalia, from North Korea. Salim?

 

SALIM LONE: Well, I mean, this just, you know, shows the lawlessness, the complete lack of pretense, even, to try to honor these resolutions. The big powers decide what resolutions are passed. But now what we see is the big powers then decide, are we actually going to honor the resolution that we just passed?

 

I mean, I want to give you an incredible example of how the Security Council has become a plaything almost. There was a time when Security Council resolutions had gravitas. For example, everybody knew Resolution 242, asking Israel to vacate the Occupied Territories in exchange for peace. But now, it’s a plaything.

 

And I want to give the example of the bombings in Spain in the year 2004. Just before the Spanish election, there was this terrible atrocity, as you know. About 200 people, Spaniards, were killed in the terrorist attacks on the trains. Because it was on the eve of the election, the Aznar government, afraid that if it was known that this attack was by terrorists, might lose the election, got the US to support a Security Council resolution which condemned the Basque separatists for the attack. And the Security Council went along with that. I mean, a day later, it became clear that it was a total lie. So the Security Council resolutions really have no meaning now, because they can be passed and violated at will, especially by the United States.

 

AMY GOODMAN: Salim Lone, the Dow Jones newswire has recently reported that the US-backed Somali prime minister wants to pass a new oil law to encourage foreign oil companies to return to Somalia. Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corporation once had exploration contracts in Somalia, but the companies left the country in 1991. How significant is this in the US involvement in Somalia today?

 

SALIM LONE: Well, you know, as you’ve discussed before, Somalia itself and the region, the Horn of Africa, is newly oil-rich. Kenya has some oil. Oil is the key to domination for the United States -- global domination, I mean. But it is going about, you know, the wrong way to get that oil. The US is also worried that its welcome in the Middle East is diminishing, and they need to make sure -- both they want to encircle the Middle East with the oil field, and they want to make sure they have Somalia and other countries handy for the oil.

 

But this -- you know, the prime minister’s attempt to lure Western oil companies is on a par with his crying wolf about al-Qaeda at every turn. Every time you interview a Somalia official, the first thing you hear is al-Qaeda and terrorists. They’re using that. No one believes it. No one believes it at all, because all independent reports say the contrary. But they are using that to try to develop support.

 

And, you know, this is why it is so important. Europe has now been coming into the forefront with its concern. It had this report about major human rights violations had occurred a month ago in Mogadishu. And the Europeans are afraid that they might be complicit in those, because they were supporting the warring -- the groups that were committing those atrocities. Germany, as I said, released that letter on Wednesday. Even the American ambassador has written to Abdullah Yusuf, the president. I mean, they are really writing letters to the Somali president. They will not raise this issue in the Security Council. They will not raise this issue in Washington or London. They want to keep this as a small African issue.

 

And it is so important for all of us to put pressure on the governments in Europe, in particular, and on Africa, too. I mean, Africa is weak. It cannot really take strong stands. In my own country, Kenya, we have played a terrible role in these extraordinary renditions and Guantanamo Bay that are going on. But, of course, one leading opposition, the candidate in Kenya, said that the US has promised to support the government in the elections at the end of this year in exchange for the terrible things it has been doing. So Africa is weak --

 

AMY GOODMAN: Salim Lone, I want to ask you quickly, as you talk about Guantanamo, this secret prison in Ethiopia -- not clear how many people are being held there, if this is one of the black sites, one of the prisons that are not very well known about in the world that the US is involved with. But we do know that Amir Mohamed Meshal is there. He is a New Jersey young man from Tinton Falls. Jonathan Landay of the McClatchy Newspapers reported April 24th, Ethiopia has changed its mind and decided for the time being not to free the American Muslim who was captured trying to flee war-torn Somalia and was held without charge in Kenya and Ethiopia for more than four months. Can you talk about this secret prison?

 

SALIM LONE: Well, you know, there are -- did you say “secret prison”?

 

AMY GOODMAN: Yes.

 

SALIM LONE: Yes, yes, yes. You know, I mean, this whole enterprise -- the kidnappings on Kenyan streets, the grabbing refugees coming across the border -- has a “Made in America” stamp on it, because you’ve seen it all happen before. And these secret prisons, the US denies any responsibility in this whole operation. And yet, we know that CIA and FBI officials are in those prisons interviewing the inmates.

 

We also know, by the way, that many of the people who have disappeared are not in those secret prisons. Where are those people? Have they be killed? Are they being tortured somewhere else? This is, you know, utter lawlessness.

 

And we must try to get the Europeans, in particular -- I keep appealing to the Europeans, because I know -- I speak to many European ambassadors in Kenya -- I know that they're privately very concerned about what is going on. And we must get them to do more. It is fine to indicate there are war crimes to be committed. It's fine to say this must stop, and hospitals shouldn’t be bombed, and you can’t keep relief away from suffering people. But they must go beyond that. They must take an initiative, or talk privately to the United States and say, “Look, this is a lost cause. We are only creating suffering, and we're creating problems for ourselves, because there will be blowback on this. There will be animosities and angers, which will affect Europe, America, Africa, everywhere.” So they must [inaudible].

 

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General’s call for a coalition of the willing to go into Somalia? You’re a former UN official.

 

SALIM LONE: You know, it is so disgraceful. For him to try to get the Security Council -- that's what he proposes, the Security Council, in case there is no peace in Somalia in the meeting in June, in mid-June, to discuss it in the Security Council -- for him to propose that the UN should now go in to do what the US and Ethiopia have been unable to do, which is basically to impose a client regime on Somalia, it's just absolutely disgraceful. I mean, I read that report to the Security Council, and it is hard to believe that Mr. Ban Ki-moon is the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is so blatantly and comprehensively one-sided. There is not a word about the fact that the Ethiopians are there without any international legitimacy. They're occupiers. They violated the UN Charter. They were not in any danger of being attacked, and they invaded. So this notion must also -- this notion that a coalition of the willing must be formed -- as you know, that was how the first Gulf War was fought. And if this coalition comes into place, which I hope will not, it will merely internationalize the crisis and make things even worse. But I hope the Europeans, in particular, and the Africans who are on the Security Council will not allow that to happen.

 

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for joining us, Salim Lone, columnist for the Daily Nation in Kenya, former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq when it was bombed there, attacked there, several years ago, now living in Kenya, speaking to us, though, from London.

 

 

 

 

The Rise And Fall Of The Islamic Courts Of Somalia

 

 

Nur

[Ana_Juwa2]

Thanks for sharing this. Its a sad state of affairs but its a sign of the times we live in. US's Drive for Hegemony and Domination of Oil reserves/prices is directly or indirectly resulting in the death and destruction of many a people and country.

 

The UN EU AU or what ever other block you might look at effectly dont want to challange America on a variety of issues, or at best voice a strong opposition against them as was the case with the French government leading out to the war in Iraq.

 

Its just a shame that we have amongst our Ranks somali's (irrespective of what clan they belong to) who decide to turn a blind eye to the reality of the recent events.

 

Brother Nur, i wanted to ask, do you think that whats happening in Somalia now is a punishment to somali's for the way the have been are are still living today i.e. the tribilism which sporns of the hatred and killings?

 

Thanks in Advance

[Castro]

Originally posted by Ana_Juwa2:

i wanted to ask, do you think that whats happening in Somalia now is a punishment to somali's for the way the have been are are still living today i.e. the tribilism which sporns of the hatred and killings?

Which, in your opinion, is a bigger sin: the belief in tribalism or the outright rejection of God himself? In other words, if those who believe in God but also practice tribalism (e.g. Somalis) receive this special treatment from God, what do you think should happen to those who reject, ridicule and deny his existence?

[Khalaf]

Definition of Tribe/Clan: A group of people united by kinship and descent, linage. It came from Allah Most High, is in the Quran, and traditions of the Messengers of Allah. Marka how does tribe make one kill other Mulsims, rape Muslim women, or hate/discriminate another Muslim because of blood ties? Does that make sense? That makes no bloody sense..... What has caused this cancer if not pure jahiliya like the mushrik arabs before the coming of Sayyidina wa Maulana Muhammad scw?

 

Castro what ur getting at is why the non-Muslims states are high-flying and we the muslims are low? The Quran clearly says: We give men by turns........basically every man- civilization has its turn...........

 

There are many verses in the Quran like this one and the nabi scw talked about ppl being destroyed because of their sins:

 

“See they not how many a generation We destroyed before them , whom We had established in the earth more firmly than We have established you , and We shed on them abundant showers from the sky , and made the rivers flow beneath them . Yet We destroyed them for their sins , and created after them another generation” Sura Al-Anaam

Ps: IF the Muslims were true believers would they be in the situation they are in today, weak, oppressed, humiliated, and pitted against each other, their cities bombed? Why always the blame game, when the fault is clearly theirs to begin with for abandoning their covenant with Allah Most Great to obey the Quran and Sunnah? Bottom line Muslims are far from deenul Islam.

[N.O.R.F]

i wanted to ask, do you think that whats happening in Somalia now is a punishment to somali's for the way the have been are are still living today i.e. the tribilism which sporns of the hatred and killings?

Saxib, we have to be very careful in using the term ‘punishment’ with regard to catastrophes/atrocities heaped onto people, as we simply do not know.

 

Have we been following the correct path in relation to using tribalism as it should be used (as an identity only)? A big fat no is the answer. However (hearing from sheikhs and what not), the term 'punishment' should be avoided. Rather a ‘test’ or a set of ‘tests’ should be used.

 

Many of the problems facing Muslims today is self induced. The problem is there are those who see it, there are those who dont and those who knowingly contribute to it.

[Nur]

Somali: New Hotbed of Anti-Americanism

By NICOLA NASSER

 

The U.S. foreign policy blundering has created a new violent hotbed of anti-Americanism in the turbulent Horn of Africa by orchestrating the Ethiopian invasion of another Muslim capital of the Arab League, in a clear American message that no Arab or Muslim metropolitan has impunity unless it falls into step with the U.S. vital regional interests.

 

The U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Dec. 28 is closely interlinked in motivation, methods, goals and results to the U.S. bogged down regional blunders in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Sudan as well as in Iran and Afghanistan, but mainly in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

 

Mogadishu is the third Arab metropolitan after Jerusalem and Baghdad to fall to the U.S. imperial drive, either directly or indirectly through Israeli, Ethiopian or other proxies, and the fourth if the temporary Israeli occupation of Beirut in 1982 is remembered; the U.S. endeavor to redraw the map of the Middle East is reminiscent of the British-French Sykes-Pico colonial dismembering of the region and is similarly certain to give rise to grassroots Pan-Arab rejection and awaking with the Pan-Islamic unifying force as a major component.

 

The U.S. blunder in Somalia could not be more humiliating to Somalis: Washington has delegated to its Ethiopian ally, Mogadishu's historical national enemy, the mission of restoring the rule of law and order to the same country Addis Ababa has incessantly sought to dismember and disintegrate and singled Ethiopia out as the only neighboring country to contribute the backbone of the U.S.-suggested and U.N.-adopted multinational foreign force for Somalia after the Ethiopian invasion, thus setting the stage for a wide-spread insurgency and creating a new violent hotbed of anti-Americanism.

 

The U.S. manipulation is there for all to see; a new U.S.-led anti-Arab and anti-Muslim regional alliance is already in the working and not only in the making; the U.S.-allied Ethiopian invaders have already taken over Somalia after the withdrawal of the forces of the United Islamic Courts (UIC), who rejected an offer of amnesty in return for surrendering their arms and refused unconditional dialogue with the invaders; the withdrawal of the UIC forces from urban centers reminds one of the disappearance of the Iraqi army and the Taliban government in Afghanistan and warns of a similar aftermath in Somalia in a similar shift of military strategy into guerilla tactics.

 

The UIC leaders who went underground are promising guerilla and urban warfare; "terrorist" tactics are their expected major weapon and American targets are linked to the Ethiopian invasion. It doesn't need much speculation to conclude that the Bush Administration's policy in the Horn of Africa is threatening American lives as well as the regional stability.

 

According to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, "Because the United States has accused Somalia of harboring al-Qaeda suspects, the Ethiopian-Eritrean proxy conflict increases the opportunities for terrorist infiltration of the Horn and East Africa and for ignition of a larger regional conflict," in which the United States would be deeply embroiled.

 

Eritrea accused the United States on Monday of being behind the war in Somalia. "This war is between the Americans and the Somali people," Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told Reuters.

 

The U.S administration found no harm in keeping the divided country an easy prey for the warlords and tribal bloody disputes since 1991, probably finding in that status quo another guarantee-by-default for U.S. regional interests. It could have lived forever with the political chaos and humanitarian tragedy in one of the world's poorest countries were it not for the emergence of the indigenous grassroots UIC, who provided some social security and order under a semblance of a central government that made some progress towards unifying the country.

 

Pre-empting intensive Arab, Muslim and European mediation efforts between the UIC and the transitional government, Washington moved quickly to clinch the UN Security Council resolution 1725 on Dec. 6, recognizing the Baidoa government organized in Kenya by U.S. regional allies and dominated by the warlords as the legitimate authority in Somalia after sending Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, to Addis Ababa in November for talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on bailing out the besieged transitional government by coordinating an Ethiopian military intervention.

 

Resolution 1725 also urged that all member states, "in particular those in the region," to refrain from interference in Somalia, but hardly the ink of the resolution dried than Washington was violating it by providing training, intelligence and consultation to at least 8,000 Ethiopian troops who rushed into Baidoa and its vicinity before the major Ethiopian invasion, a fact that was repeatedly denied by both Washington and Addis Ababa but confirmed by independent sources.

 

To contain the repercussions, Washington is in vain trying to distance itself from the Ethiopian invasion; U.S. officials have repeatedly denied using Ethiopia as a proxy in Somalia. Moreover it is trying to play down the invasion itself: "The State Department issued internal guidance to staff members, instructing officials to play down the invasion in public statements," read a copy of the guidelines obtained by The New York Times.

 

Mission Accomplished?

 

"Mission Accomplished," Addis Ababa's Daily Monitor announced when the Ethiopian forces blitzed into Mogadishu, heralding a new U.S. regional alliance at the southern approaches to the oil-rich Arab heartland in the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq; in 2003, the same phrase adorned a banner behind President Gearge W. Bush as he declared an end to major combat operations in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. All facts on the ground indicate that the U.S. mission in Somalia won't be less a failure than that in Iraq, or less misleading.

 

The U.S. foreign policy has sown the seeds of a new national and regional violent hotbed of anti-Americanism in the Arab world, the heart of what western strategists call the Middle East, by succeeding in Somalia in what it failed to achieve in Lebanon a few months ago: Washington was able to prevent the United Nations (UN) from imposing a ceasefire until the Ethiopian invasion seized Mogadishu; the Lebanese resistance and national unity prevented the Israeli invaders from availing themselves of the same U.S. green light to achieve their goals in Beirut.

 

In both cases, Washington involved the UN as a fig leaf to cover the Israeli and Ethiopian invasions, repeating the Iraq scenario, and in both cases initiated military intervention to abort mediation efforts and national dialogue to solve internal conflicts peacefully.

 

In Somalia as in Iraq, Washington is also trying to delegate the mission of installing a pro-U.S. regime whose leaders were carried in on the invading tanks to a multinational force in which the neighboring countries are not represented, only to be called upon later not to interfere in Somalia's internal affairs, as it is the case with Iran, Syria in particular vis-à-vis the U.S.-occupied Iraq.

 

The Bush administration has expressed understanding for the security concerns that prompted Ethiopia to intervene in Somalia. So once again U.S. pretexts of Washington's declared world war on terror were used to justify the Ethiopian invasion as a preventive war in self-defense, only to create exactly the counterproductive environment that would certainly exacerbate violence and expand a national dispute into a wider regional conflict.

 

Real Security Concerns of Ethiopia

 

Regionally, the U.S. pretexts used by Addis Ababa to justify its invasion could thinly veil the land locked Ethiopia's historical and strategic aspiration for an outlet on the Red Sea by using the Somali land as the only available approach to its goal after the independence of Eritrea deprived it of the sea port of Assab.

 

Agreed upon peaceful arrangements with Somalia and Eritrea is the only other option that would grant Ethiopia access to sea - whether to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Bab el Mandeb or the Arabian Sea, and through these sea lanes to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. This option is pre-empted by the empirical dreams of Greater Ethiopia that tempted the successive regimes of Emperor Hailie Selassie, the military Marxist rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam and the incumbent U.S.-backed oppressive regime of Meles Zinawi, which were deluded by the military means of the only country with a semblance of a nation state and a military might in a regional neighborhood disintegrated into the poorest communities of the world by tribal strife left over by the British, French and Italian western colonialist powers; hence the Ethiopian wars with Eritrea and Somalia.

 

The Eritrean fear of an Ethiopian invasion of Assab via Somalia is realistic and legitimate, given the facts that Ethiopia's borders are, like Israel's, still not demarcated, its yearning for an access to sea as a strategic goal is still valid and its military option to achieve this goal is still not dropped because of the virtual state of war that still governs its relations with both Somalia and Eritrea. Hence the reports about the Eritrean intervention in Somalia, denied by Asmara, and the regional and international warnings against the possible development of the Ethiopian invasion into a wider regional conflict that could also involve Djibouti and Kenya.

 

Internally in Ethiopia, the successive regimes since Hailie Selassie were dealing with the demographic structure of the country as a top state secret and incessantly floating the misleading image of Ethiopia as the Christian nation it has been for hundreds of years, but hardly veiling the independent confirmation that at least half of the population are now Muslims, a fact that is not represented in the structure of the ruling elite but also a fact that explains the oppressive policies of the incumbent U.S.-backed regime.

 

Here lies the realistic fears of the Ethiopian ruling elites from the emergence of a unified Somalia and the impetus it would give to the ****** National Liberation Front, which represents the 1.5 million Muslim tribesmen of Somali origin who inhabit the 200,000-square-kilometer desert region occupied by Addis Ababa and led to the 1977-88 war between the two countries and remains a festering hotbed of bilateral friction.

 

A united independent Somalia and a liberated or revolting ****** would inevitably deprive Ethiopia of its desert corridor to the coast and have at least adverse effects on/or imbalance altogether the internal status quo in Addis Ababa. True the potential of infiltration by al-Qaeda is highly probable with such a development but it is only too inflated a pretext for Addis Ababa to justify its unconvincing trumpeting of the "Islamic threat" emanating from the ascendancy of the UIC in Somalia.

 

Ethiopia's justification of its invasion by Washington's pretexts of the U.S. war on terror is misleading and encouraging Addis Ababa to justify its invasion by the "Islamic threat," leading some UIC leaders to declare "Jihad" against the "Christian invasion" of their country and in doing so contributing to turning an Ethiopian internal and regional miscalculations into seemingly "Muslim-Christian" war, which have more provocateurs in Addis Ababa than in Mogadishu.

 

The sectarian war among Muslims fomented by the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq within the context of "divide and rule" policy could now be coupled with a "religious war" in the Horn of Africa to protect the U.S. military presence that is "defending" the Arab oil wealth in the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq against a threat to its mobility from the south, a war that could drive a new wedge between Arabs and their neighbors, in a replay of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, and in tandem with a 60-year old Israeli strategy of sowing divide between them and their Ethiopian, Iranian and Turkish geopolitical strategic depth.

 

However this U.S.-Israeli strategy is certain to backfire. Somalis could not but be united against foreign invasion in a country where Islamism is the essence of nationalism and where Pan-Arabism could not but be a source of support as the country is too weak and poor to be adversely affected by Arab League divides; they are in their overwhelming majority Muslims with no divisive sectarian loyalties and no neighboring sectarian polarization center as it is the case with Iran in Iraq; the "Christian face" of the invasion would be a more uniting factor and would serve as a war cry against the new American imperialistic plans because it is reminiscent of earlier "Christian" European colonial adventures.

[Biixi]

Is it just me or "experts" lack knowledge and the ultimate cause of recent events in Mogadishu.

Amy GoodMan and company always find ways to link everything that goes wrong on this planet on the US. If I didn't know any better I would've believed that they are responsible for a genocide that never happenned,Iyo wixii la mid ah.

[Fabregas]

So the U.S had no role in Somalia, Biixi? Maybe we imagined their gunships bombarding Somali civilians?

 

Maybe we imagined them authorising North Korea to sell weapons to Ethiopia?

 

Maybe, Ethiopia, a poor country, has all the satelite, military and technological knowhow to conduct an invasion?

 

Maybe, the C.I.A aren't interrogating hundreds of people in makeshift prisons located in East Africa?

 

Maybe, the U.S.A doesn't have troops operatin in the North Kenya region?

 

Or, just maybe, we imagined the U.S blocking of the ocean to Somalia during the war?

 

Maybe, Maybe, the U.S.A isn't providing the armour for the so called peacekeeping mission!

 

Maybe it wasn't the U.S.A that legislated the motion in the U.N that removed the arms embargo!

 

Maybe, the C.I.A didn't back Somali warlords against the Islamic Courts union?

 

Maybe, I could just go on and on, with so many maybes........but i'll leabe you to ponder on this

[Nur]

Biixi walaal

 

You write: "Amy GoodMan and company always find ways to link everything that goes wrong on this planet on the US"

 

 

Can you find any current international crisis in which the US is not involved directly or indirectly?

 

 

You write: "If I didn't know any better I would've believed that they are responsible for a genocide that never happenned,Iyo wixii la mid ah. "

 

 

If the recent merciless bombardment of Ethiopian Tanks on civilians flooding Hospitals in Mogadishu was not a genocide, then what is? knowing all too well that the footages were televised live to the point that the Norwegian UN official said that a crime against humanity may have been committed by the US and Ethiopia in Somalia, and an inquiry should be made, where do you get your news to refute that?

 

Nur

[Biixi]

Civil war has been going on Somalia since 1990 and nothing has changed since then. Numerous countries/Agencies attempted to either bring these fighting groups to end hostilities or have made situation worse. No one was concerned about when Somalis were dying of starvation in Baidoa and other parts of Somalia. Even so called Arab/Muslim watched us starve to death from Gulf of Eden. Things changed for the better when the US sent its troops and then only then came the Western/Arab media and the UN troops. When the US left Somalia and everyone else including the entire UN troops left and forgot about Somalia. We’ve been killing each other since then, and since we don’t manufacture the weapons we use. Why don’t the UN or Amy Goodman and their group try to expose where those weapons were coming from and do something about it?

 

The United States has made a clear declaration in 2001 that it will go after any nation/group that was responsible or linked to those that attacked its soil and embassies. It made that declaration true when it learned that those responsible the Kenya and Tanzania bombings were in Somalia and were part of the ICU. And that is what happened it went after those that attacked it. ICU itself has made numerous threats against Ethiopia and other parts of Somalia not under their control and even carried out suicide bombings in Somalia and attacks in Ethiopia. What resulted since then is the response of those attacked. So yes wherever terrorists are the US military will be there no one tried to hide. But what went on in Mogadishu didn’t just start three months ago it has been going on for the last seventeen years. Why the sudden media, experts attention? Why call the third largest Arab city all of sudden? Why connect what is going on in Somalia top Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq? Where were these experts and media the last two decades?

 

Any UN official, paid commentator, or anybody else for that matter can claim that genocide “MAY HAVE BEEN” committed but that doesn’t make it factual. Genocide is “The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.” As defined by any dictionary. The TGF TOLD people to leave areas that mortars were being fired from again and again so innocent people will not get hurt. The TGF didn’t target a particular tribe or clan and repeated so over and over. It was the opposing side using its media that painted a horrific picture of genocide. No one was exterminated in Mogadishu and even the targeted terrorists hid among the fleeing civilians.

 

Somalia has been in civil war nearly twenty years and finally there is hope. Hopefully UN workers that stand loose lucrative jobs in the event of peaceful Somalia, media outlets selling an agenda, or Somali business owners who benefit from Somalis anarchy, or terrorists on the run will not sabotage Somali’s hope.

[Fabregas]

Did you paste that from the C.N.N script?

[Fabregas]

Quote:The United States has made a clear declaration in 2001 that it will go after any nation/group that was responsible or linked to those that attacked its soil and embassies. It made that declaration true when it learned that those responsible the Kenya and Tanzania bombings were in Somalia and were part of the ICU. And that is what happened it went after those that attacked it. ICU itself has made numerous threats against Ethiopia and other parts of Somalia not under their control and even carried out suicide bombings in Somalia and attacks in Ethiopia. What resulted since then is the response of those attacked. So yes wherever terrorists are the US military will be there no one tried to hide.

 

The Prophet (saw) said "Whoever can guarantee me two things I can guarantee them Paradise." The companions asked "What O Messenger of Allah?" He replied "What is between his jaws (his tongue) and his legs (private parts)." (Bukhari)

 

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said "Whoever believes in Allah and the Last day, LET HIM EITHER SPEAK GOOD OR KEEP SILENT" (Agreed upon)

[Fabregas]

DP

[Biixi]

^^^ ? ? ?

[Nur]

Biixi bro.

 

Thank you for your opinion, I appreciate your contribution that shows your diligence in defining terms such as genocide and qualifying other claims of wrong doing by the USA and Ethiopia.

 

From your message, I understand the following:

 

1. All the bad things that have happened in Somalia the past 17 years were ONLY committed by Somalis, no foreign interference in the killings, rape, destruction and destabilization of the nation. If there is any foreign forces responsible for our problems, its Al Qaeda.

 

2. Ethiopia is not an enemy of Somalia, its a trusted friend, The Ethiopians are in Somalia ligitimately, they are worried that "terrorists" who were in power in Mogadishu will cause trouble in western Ethiopia ( Somali Territory), so Ethiopia is justified to shell civilian areas and kill anyone who refused to leave their houses since they were warned to leave by the Kind and Caring President Yusuf of TFG.

 

3. USA has never done anything wrong in Somalia, It has no interest what-so-ever, economic, political, strategic, Oil, Minerals, apart from its humaniterian programs for the poor and the suffering, its only looking for criminals linked to "Terror" in US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar esSalaam, and if they find them, the USA will process these suspects with full internationl transprency, provide them lawyers, treat them humanely, following all the conventions signed for such procedures as an example to the world.

 

4. The Islamic Courts Union has never done anything good in Somalia the six months they were in power in Mogadishu. Instead, they returned properties to its owners without the governments consent, killed inncent Ethiopian soldiers who came to help them establish a government, they attacked peaceful warlords and removed their road blocks illegally, they banned children to watch the World Cup football games, they banned fun and parties, and Qat and alcohol which is against Democratic principles of modern lifestyle, in short, they made Mogadishu too boringly peaceful to live.

 

5. The TFG is a legitimate representative government of Somalia, its sovereign and independent, and it draws its power from the people, not foreign powers, Members of Parliament who resigned are sympathizers of terrorists, therefore they were replaced by responsible MPs.

 

6. The current governmenet officials who were past warlords of the past 17 years civil war, have no criminal records, and are fit to be government officials. Killing Somalis in civil war is not crime, but killing Ethiopians and Americans are crimes and anyone who is even believed to have any link with any suspect is guilty which justifies large scale invasion of Ethiopian Taknks and artillery (Our trusted national friend) and America (la peace loving nation looking for three suspects believed to live in Somalia, but who accidently bombed and killed hundreds of civilins along with their goats by mistake as collateral damage, yet failed to capture even a single "terrorist" after questioning hundreds of innocent people in Ethiopian Secret prisons .

 

7. The death of over 2 thousand people in Mogadishu and the largest exodus of civilians 400,000 from Mogadisu, demolushing of their homes, was necessary to instal a government even after the Islamic Courts offered the President to come to Mogadishu and rule the country peacefully and the President preferred to come to Mogadishu on Ethiopian Tanks.

 

8. Islamic Sharia Law is not allowed in Somalia according to the Somali constitution drafted in Kenya in the presence of UN and US and IGAD countries, Sharia law is not acceptable by neighboring friendly nations. Instead, Somalia will apply secular laws that will make everything lawful if the people so desire, religion should be confined to houses, not in public since the Somali Christians will be offended if applied, and also Somali gays feel threatened if the Sharia is applied.

 

Let me know if that is what you meant, because that is what is understood from your message.

 

 

Nur