Monday, July 26, 2010

Somalia: Foreign Jihadists Now Run Al Shabaab Militia - Intelligence Reports ..AU Seeks Troops to Halt ‘Taliban-Style’ Safe Haven

July 26 (Bloomberg) -- African Union leaders are discussing the dispatch of more soldiers to Somalia to stop Islamic insurgents from creating a “Taliban-style” safe haven for militants, officials and analysts said.
Government leaders from 53 AU member states started a three-day meeting yesterday in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, that is focusing on strengthening a peacekeeping mission in Somalia two weeks after the al-Shabaab group said it detonated two bombs in the city that killed 76 people. The U.S. says al-Shabaab is a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda.“Let us now act in concert and we’ll sweep them from Africa,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday in his opening speech to the summit. “Let them go back to Asia and the Middle East where I understand some of them come from.”Islamic militias such as al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam have been battling Somalia’s transitional government for three years and control most of the southern and central regions, and sections of Mogadishu, the capital. The Kampala bombings signaled that they are now taking their fight for power beyond the country’s borders, analysts say.
“You have the potential that if this is not addressed this could create a Taliban-like safe haven for terrorists, who claim to be affiliated with al-Qaeda and have capabilities abroad,” said E.J. Hogendoorn, an analyst for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Guinea Troop
Guinea is ready to send troops to boost the current 6,100- strong AU mission, or Amisom, force in the Horn of Africa country to about 8,000, AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said yesterday. Only Uganda and Burundi have provided soldiers so far. Museveni offered this month to increase his nation’s troop commitment by 2,000, answering a July 5 call by East African countries to reinforce Amisom.Hundreds of soldiers and police took up positions along roads in Kampala and around the Speke Resort and Conference Center on the northern shores of Lake Victoria where the leaders are meeting.A spread of Somalia’s violence may hit countries such as neighboring Kenya, the region’s biggest economy, which expects to receive 1.2 million foreign tourists this year. Tourism is Kenya’s top foreign-exchange earner after horticulture and tea.Al-Shabaab has previously threatened to attack Kenya, which it accused of recruiting ethnic Somalis living in the country to fight against the militia.
Travel Alert
The U.S. Embassy in Kenya on July 23 issued a travel alert because of the Uganda bombings and concern over the potential for unrest associated with Kenya’s Aug. 4 referendum on a new constitution. “There have been increased threats against public areas across East Africa” since the bombings, according to the embassy’s alert.Somalia hasn’t had a functioning government since the ouster of Honourable  Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. About 1.5 million people are displaced within Somalia and more than 560,000 people are living as refugees in neighboring countries, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in January.
Al-Shabaab said it targeted an Ethiopian restaurant and a rugby club in Kampala, where clients were watching the soccer World Cup final, because Ugandan troops serve with Amisom, which it says has carried out “indiscriminate” shelling in Mogadishu. It also vowed to attack Burundi unless its troops are withdrawn.
Regional Threat
“Now al-Shabaab is seen as much more of a threat to the region and it appears that many more countries are concerned enough to reevaluate whether it’s important enough for them to contribute forces to the mission,” Hogendoorn said in a July 22 interview from Nairobi, Kenya.Pressure to strengthen Amisom may also come from the U.S., according to Jennifer Cooke, the Africa director of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.“I expect the U.S. to push for beefing up of Amisom,” Cooke said in a July 22 interview.Attorney General Eric Holder told the summit yesterday that the U.S. “recognizes that ending the threat of al-Shabaab to the world will take more than just law enforcement” and that “we will look to engage more African nations in this work.”The biggest challenge facing the dispatch of more troops may be a lack of resources such as money, equipment, and logistical support, Cooke said. The AU doesn’t have “the logistics or the capabilities,” she said. “If it’s an international problem, it needs an international response.”
‘Black Hawk Down’
Previous foreign interventions failed to impose order on Somalia.The U.S. ended its two-year “Operation Restore Hope” mission in the country, which involved as many as 33,000 U.S. and UN forces, after the downing of two American helicopters in Mogadishu in October 1994, an incident made famous by Mark Bowden’s book “Black Hawk Down.”Forces from neighboring Ethiopia withdrew in January 2009 after a two-year intervention that ousted the Islamic Courts Union government and later became bogged down in a guerrilla war with the Islamic militias.
Boosting troops will not ultimately solve the problem, which requires a political solution, Hogendoorn said.
“The Transitional Federal Government needs to be pushed much harder to reach out and reconcile with local people who actually control some areas on the ground,” he said. “They’ve done a very poor job of doing that.”
--With assistance from William Davison in Addis Ababa. Editors: Karl Maier, Peter Hirschberg.
To contact the reporters on this story: Franz Wild in Johannesburg at fwild@bloomberg.net; Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net.

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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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