Al Qaeda Linked International Terrorist group Somaliland

Al Qaeda Linked International Terrorist group Somaliland

Published On: Saturday, April, 30 2011 – 01:13:49 

The Wikileaks has revealed what has been known for long time that the one clan based secessionist group a.k.a Somaliland is an international terrorist group linked to Al Qaida, through Al Shabaab the regional representative of Al Qaida in Somalia. The Somaliland terrorist group (SNM) has contracted the Somalia and the Horn of Africa terrorist operations on behalf of Al Qaida. Therefore, the Somaliland terrorist group has established the Al Shabaab terrorist group to terrorize the southern part and other parts of Somalia, Horn of Africa, Eastern Africa, and possibly many parts of the wider world in the future. Almost all the higher leadership and militia of the terrorist Al Shabaab group are from the secessionist and terrorist Somali clan a.k.a Somaliland including the top leader Ahmed Abdi Godane (Abu Zubair).

Dahabshiil (Dhiigshiil) Money Transfer (Xawala) mentioned in the wikileaks US leaked document is just the financier and logistics department for the terrorist group called Somaliland. As a result, no wonder that Al Shabaab has done its best to destroy, harass, intimidate, and try to drive the other money transfer companies, who operate in the southern part of Somalia out of the market…Obviously, the objective of Al Shabaab is to allow Dahabshiil to have a complete monopoly on the Hawala Market and on the expense of other legitimate and law abiding business competitors.  More importantly, in promoting Dahabshiil, the main goal of Al Shabaab is to gain and earn more financial muscle for its terrorist operations.

On the other hand, the war criminal warlord Ahmed Siilaanyo who now leads the SNM (Somaliland) terrorist group in the north has brought Dahabshiil very closer to his administration believing that no longer is needed to keep the Dahabshiil artificially in arms length.  The warlord is convinced that the Somaliland terrorist group and its Dahabshiil have succeeded in their camouflaged terrorist mission and, that, they done, planned, and arranged things in a way far beyond any suspicion on the part of the International Community. War Criminal and terrorist Ahmed Siilaanyo believes that they continue playing the deceiving victim’s cry, as in their assessment that has already resulted in fruition.

Today, Dahabshiil is making the shots and decisions in the presidency of the terrorist group a.k.a Somaliland. For example, the fake owner (owner on paper and in name only) Mohamed Said Ducaale and his son Abdirasheed Mohamed Said are senior ranking officials in the terrorist group’s administration a.k.a Somaliland and are head quartered in the presidency of the group in Hargeisa. Most Somalis believe that Dahabshiil is owned by the terrorist Somaliland administration and that Mohamed Said’s name as an owner is just on paper for misleading purposes. Hersi Ali Hassan, another top ranking executive in Dahabshiil is named by the warlord as his chief of Cabinet in his presidency. Furthermore, all Dahabshiil offices world wide are diplomatic representatives for the terrorist groups of Somaliland and its outlet of Al Shabaab, because it is under its sponsorship.
Not surprisingly, media outlets have been reporting lately that the majority of the cabinet in the Somaliland terrorist group’s administration in Hargeisa are Al Shabaab high ranking officials.

Thus, the Sool, Sanaag, and cayn (SSC) administration and people have been confronted by these evil terrorist groups. All along the SSC has been trying to convince the international community of the true nature of the so called Somaliland and that it’s truly a dangerous terrorist group that needs to be eliminated and dealt with decisively. Fortunately, the United States Defense Department document leaked to the press by Wikileaks has revealed the truth and that the United States is aware and believes that Dahabshiil is actually a terrorist organization linked to Al Qaida. And, Dahabshiil’s connection to Al Qaida completes the dots with their connection to the other terrorist groups of Somaliand and Al Shabaab.

In conclusion, the time has come for the international community to wake up and do the right things toward this local and international threat to the world security and well being: black list Dahbshiil money transfer and close its entire operations world wide and also hold the so called Somaliland terrorist group accountable as an sponsor to both Al Shabaab and dahabshiil terrorist groups.

Please read the Wikileaks leaked document of the US Defense Dept.
http://www.somalidiasporanews.com/Guantanamo%20Bay%20detainee%20

Source:Jidbaale.com

http://www.sunatimes.com/view.php?id=997

Somalia: Obama’s Unholy Alliance with Yoweri Museveni

If New Year’s prayers are answered, then the United States must stop bleeding the people of Somalia.

The U.S. must abandon its current approach to the Somalia tragedy. Washington must explore a genuine solution to end Somalia’s decades of warfare and political paralyses.

Currently the U.S. underwrites a fictitious government in Mogadishu kept in place by Ugandan soldiers, sent there on behalf of the U.S. by dictator, Gen. Yoweri K. Museveni, who is without a doubt anunindicted war criminal.

Washington finds this relationship beneficial because by Uganda propping up the fictitious Mogadishu government, the U.S. believes Somalia is secured from being overtaken as a haven by Al-Qaeda, the United States’ avowed foe. The U.S. views Somalia as Africa’s Afghanistan. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For Gen. Museveni, the relationship is invaluable for many reasons: it prevents the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, from indicting him for the well documented war crimes his army committed in the DR Congo, on which the World Court found Uganda liable and awarded Congo $10 billion, or from unsealing the indictment if one already exists; it prevents Ocampo from indicting Museveni for well documented crimes against humanity committed by his army and generals, on his orders, in the northern part of Uganda; it provides him with the aura of international legitimacy, by being associated with President Barack Obama, even when his popularity continues to erode domestically as Uganda approaches a presidential election in February; and, it provides sustenance, in the form of military materiel and money, for his armed forces–which army he has primarily used to suppress domestic dissent and to commit wars of aggression against Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and now the Central African Republic.

The United States’ rationale for having Uganda act as its hired mercenary army is preposterous and actually counters its own stated policy objectives. The fictitious Somalia government currently holds only a few blocks of Mogadishu, the capital. This means that since it’s unable to expand its writ beyond this area, Somalia is actually fertile ground to become a haven for Al-Qaeda.

Therefore, the longer the U.S. pursues this strategically suicidal Somalia policy, the longer the crisis lasts, and with it, the suffering of the Somali people. Media accounts never refer to Somalia’s civilians deaths, possibly tens of thousands–first through the U.S.-sponsored Ethiopian invasion, through starvation and diseases caused by the recurrent mass dislocations of population, and through the reckless shelling by Ugandan soldiers.

How can the United States continue to underwrite a policy that is actually contributing to the deaths of Somalians, and to the continued destruction of their country?
And what of the war crimes?
In addition to the indiscriminate shelling of Somalian civilians, it’s been widely reported, including in corporate newspapers such as The New York Times that the fictitious Somali government employs child soldiers trained by Uganda –some of whom are as young as 11 years old– to defend the few blocks it now controls.

This comes as no surprise to people who have followed Gen. Museveni’s M.O. for years; he employed child soldiers in his own successful insurgency in Uganda. Of course, the use of children in war is prohibited by international law; the Somalian children are being paid with U.S. taxpayers money, which means the Obama administration is actually an accomplice to war crimes.

Fact is the Ugandan army: has not been able to check, let alone defeat the forces fighting against the fictitious Mogadishu government; it has not restored peace to any part of Somalia; it has not protected Somalians against violence from the armed militias; and, it has certainly not made Somalia a better country for its citizens.

It was a tall order–to ask Uganda’s president, using his army, to undertake in Somalia what he has not been able to accomplish in Uganda in 25 years in office as the United States’ own ambassador in Kampala confided in his memos to Washington, which were revealed to the world, courtesy of Wiki leaks.

Will the United States reverse its Somalia policy in the New Year? Not judging by the latest reports that the United Nations Security Council has okayed thousands of more troop reinforcement –surprise, surprise– from Uganda, to Somalia.

Uganda’s Gen. Museveni is an autocrat who is accountable to no one–his own regime’s survival is predicate on continued anarchy in Somalia. The United States has a government that’s supposedly accountable to Congress and to the electorate. What Somalia needs is an international conference that involves all major stakeholders, military, political, and civil society.

Contrary to the global media misrepresentation, Somalians are actually some of the most industrious, entrepreneurial, and intellectual people in all of Africa. If such a conference were sponsored by the international community, Somalians could form a legitimate interim regime–not the fictitious and discredited government now imposed on Somalia by the United States and Uganda.

African countries, including those with resources, such as South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, and Libya, might then be more inclined to contribute money and soldiers to a genuine African Union peace keeping force, with a clear mandate and rules of engagement, to ensure the security, while Somalia trains a police force. Perhaps Somalians may even be persuaded to lay down their weapons if they see that the world is genuinely interested in a comprehensive peace and recovery program.

So long as Somalia remains a mere arena for Washington’s proxy war with Al-Qaeda, it will in fact remain a haven for all sorts of lawless militias–contributing to more and more Somalian deaths.
Gen. Museveni does not care; but what about President Barack Obama?

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

Essential oils sector sprouts from North Eastern’s dry lands.

Essential oils sector sprouts from North Eastern’s dry lands.

By James Karuga (email the author)
Posted Tuesday, December 21 2010 at 00:00
The arid North Eastern Province is sitting on an agricultural potential that has received little attention until recently, but is now drawing a wave of interest, most recently as a Sh35m government investment in a factory in Wajir, due to open next year to refine local harvests of some of the world’s most precious gums and essential oils.
The oils, which include myrrh and frankincense, are being tapped from dry land shrubs and trees, with small, private processors, such as Lubanchem Limited and Benmah Products, now sourcing the gums in the region for processing essential oils for export.
Until now, Yemen, Oman, Northern Somalia (Puntland) and Ethiopia have been among the world’s largest producers of high quality frankincense and myrrh.
But the market is disorganised. Puntland Chamber of Commerce estimates that yearly 500 metric tonnes of Frankincense are harvested in the region, but represents only 40 per cent of the potential collection.
Yet internationally, the prices of both oils are high, with a kilogramme of grade 1 myrrh fetching as much as $20, while the lowest grade earns around $1 a kilo.
With the source trees spread throughout the North-Eastern Province of Kenya, Lubanchem has worked with a growing network of now more than 500 pastoralist families, who are collecting the gums to be processed into the myrrh and frankincense oils.
The collectors get the resins from trees like Acacia Senegal and Seyal, Commiphora for myrrh and Boswellia for frankincense.
Women make up the bulk of the collectors, and are taking the resins to local collection centres, says Sadqa Haq, the Managing Director of Lubanchem.
The collection centres double as shops where they can exchange the gums for foods, as well as for money. “Pastoralists don’t need money like they need food,” said Sadqa.
Like the residents, shop keepers have low incomes, so Lubanchem gives them a float of Sh20,000 to enable them to buy the gums from the collectors.
Before the gums reach Lubanchem, they pass through a chain of three.
Collectors sell or barter them to shopkeepers for around Sh100 per kg. Shopkeepers sell them to Lubanchem agents for around Sh120 per kg, and Lubanchem agents on the ground sell them to Lubanchem for Sh140 a kg.
Through that “it creates incomes for a wide range of people and empowers them,” said Sadqa.
Depending on the value of the resins and season, the collectors can even sell a kilogramme for Sh180 to the shopkeepers.
After four to five months, Lubanchem organises collection and by then the gums may accumulate to around five tonnes or more.
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For the 13 years that Sadqa has been processing the essential oils, the local market has been non-existent, she says.
What she processes, she exports to Europe, the USA and China.
She has been able to access these markets through the commercial departments of these embassies.
The exported oils are used by pharmaceuticals and cosmetic companies to make medicines and sprays.
Essential oils are highly sought after in the world cosmetics industry, as they don’t contain the synthetic elements that are increasingly viewed negatively by western consumers, in favour of ingredients extracted naturally from plants.
In the past five years, Sadqa has seen the overseas demand for the oils rise steadily, some years by as much as 10 per cent.
Last year, Lubanchem partnered with USAID to train the arid communities on the benefits of conserving the dry land trees.
The gum collectors were taught how to extract the gums from trees without damaging them in a way that causes drying, and cautioned from extracting gums from trees less than 5 years old.
Through the training, communities are beginning to attach more value to the trees as the source of ongoing incomes. Initially, the women used to chop them down for firewood.
To encourage more of the arid communities to be gum and resin collectors, “we also pay them on the spot,” said Waheed Chaudry, Lubanchem Director.
Some pastoralists groups are even beginning to shift to fulltime gum and resin collection, he says.
Lubanchem gums and resins collection initiative has already extended to Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In Kenya, the niche for these resins is in the arid North Eastern Province.
The harsher and dryer the climate, the higher the quality of the essential oils extracted, says Sadqa.
African Laughter
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Swedes jailed for Somalia bomb plans

Two Swedes have been sentenced to four years in prison for plotting acts of terrorism in Somalia. Billie Llias Mohamed, 26, and Mohamoud Jama, 22 – both of Somali origin – were found to be part of the Islamist movement al-Shabaab after they were arrested by Swedish police in Stockholm and Gothenburg earlier this year.
“The prosecutor proved that the accused had taken it upon themselves and decided with the Somali Islamist militia al-Shabaab to commit terrorist crimes in the form of suicide attacks,” the court said.
Both men were members of al-Shabaab, a group which controls much of central and southern Somalia and which pledges allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. The prosecution proved that pair had been in contact with al-Shabaab leader Yassin Ismail Ahmed through taped phoned conversation, witness statements and interrogation testimony.
Mohamed and Jama were charged with plotting terrorist attacks in Somalia with the aim of killing or maiming large numbers of people. After attending an al-Shabaab training camp, Mohamed was planning to return to Somalia and become a martyr, while Jama “was preparing for a future suicide mission”.

Report warns of rising number of US citizens signing up for Al Qaeda training

Report warns of rising number of US citizens signing up for al Qaeda training

Somalia al-Shabaab insurgents at the capital Mogadishu. Mr Ranneberger added that others are North Americans, including at least 20 young men who were recruited from Minneapolis alone, and recruits from European countries with large Somali diasporas. Photo/FILE

Americans are among thousands of foreign fighters recruited by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terror group for terrorism training in the war-torn Somalia, a new diplomatic cable released by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks reveals.
The cable dated August 26, 2009, and dispatched by US ambassador Michael Ranneberger says foreign fighters operating in Somalia include North Americans, Kenyans, Sudanese, Pakistanis, Yemenis and other unidentified nationalities and Arabs.
“Many of the foreign fighters currently operating in Somalia, particularly those who entered to fight the Ethiopians from 2006-2008, are ethnic Somalis, recruited from either neighbouring countries or diasporas overseas and motivated in the past by a sense of Somali nationalism, jihadist propaganda, and the presence of foreign troops in the country,” the cable says.
Mr Ranneberger added that others are North Americans, including at least 20 young men who were recruited from Minneapolis alone, and recruits from European countries with large Somali diasporas.
“Fighters have also come from within East Africa, most notably Kenya and Sudan. In addition, press reports and our conversations with Somali government officials note the presence of an unknown number of non-Somali fighters from South Asia and the Middle East, including Pakistanis, Yemenis, and other unidentified Arabs,” he adds.
The cable says some of these fighters may have chosen, or been directed to Somalia for training and to gain jihadist experiences because Somalia currently affords comparatively greater safety for camps and other sites than South Asia or Iraq.
“Neither we nor the Somali government knows exactly how many foreign fighters are in Somalia as reporting varies widely. Statements by Somali government officials mention several thousand foreigners, which we believe are exaggerations, or at best estimations based on fighter sightings and rumors,” he says.
The timing and motivation of foreign fighters arriving in Somalia appears tied to perceptions of internal Somali dynamics, he notes, adding that conversations with Somali political leaders highlight that some foreigners were already present during the Council of Islamic Courts period, and that the Ethiopian intervention in 2006 both prompted some foreigners to flee, and provided motivation for a new influx of foreign fighters, including ethnic Somalis determined to drive Ethiopia out.
“Al-Shabaab’s territorial gains in 2008, and the subsequent Ethiopian withdrawal from Somalia in January 2009, prompted additional foreign fighters to join what was seen as a successful struggle. Regardless of their initial motivations, these young recruits are subject to indoctrination and use by violent, often foreign extremists,” the cable adds.
He says that, while there are widespread reports of Pakistani and Arab fighters in Somalia, the timing and influx of these fighters appear primarily tied to developments in Somalia and perceptions of Somalia as a suitable location for jihad.
“Nevertheless, al Qaeda operatives coordinate with al-Shabaab’s core leaders and continue to use Somalia as a staging and training base,” he notes.
Pressure in Iraq and Afghanistan is said to have has prompted al-Qaeda operatives to shift some of its operations and efforts to Somalia a development that is of major concern to the US government.
“The rise of al-Shabaab and the increase in foreign fighters operating in Somalia warrants significant concern; several al-Qaeda operatives, most notably Saleh Nabhan, have a history of involvement in East Africa and are currently cooperating with al-Shabaab leaders and involved in training foreign fighters in Somalia.”

WikiLeaks Cables Show Deeper U.S. Military Role in Muslim World.

From the Miami Herald via Information Clearing House.

From the Saudi-Yemen border to lawless Somalia and the north-central African desert, the U.S. military is more engaged in armed conflicts in the Muslim world than the U.S. government openly acknowledges, according to cables released by the WikiLeaks website.

U.S. officials have struck relationships with regimes that generally aren’t considered allies in the war against terrorism, and while the cables show U.S. diplomats admonishing the regimes to respect the laws of war, they also underscore the perils of using advanced military technologies in complex, remote battlefields with sometimes shifty friends.

Cables released this week indicate that the United States:

-Provided Saudi Arabia with satellite imagery to help direct airstrikes against Shiite rebels after earlier strikes resulted in civilian casualties.

-Collaborated with Algerian forces in 2006 and 2007 to capture militants allegedly bound for Iraq and, more recently, obtained permission to fly U.S. surveillance planes through Algerian airspace to hunt suspected al-Qaida members.

-Killed a militant Islamist leader in a 2008 airstrike in Somalia and, later, fielded requests from Somali officials to “take out” more suspected militants.

Experts said that the revelations of secretive American operations in Muslim countries could offer fodder to Islamist militants who accuse the United States of aggression against Muslims and of siding with authoritarian and unpopular regimes.

“This kind of feeds the al-Qaida narrative, that we’re doing it everywhere,” said Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington and a former Pentagon official in the Reagan administration.

The Pentagon hasn’t acknowledged its role in Saudi Arabia’s sporadic fight against a Yemeni Shiite group known as the Houthi.

But a cable from the U.S. embassy in Riyadh says that in February, a senior Saudi defense official asked the U.S. for satellite maps of its border with Yemen to help the underequipped Saudi air force target the rebels, and the U.S. ambassador, James B. Smith, agreed.

A previous Saudi airstrike had hit a medical clinic, while another bombing run turned back when pilots learned that the target – selected by the Yemeni government – wasn’t a rebel site but instead the headquarters of a political opponent of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The strikes “were necessarily being conducted without the desired degree of precision,” said the Saudi official, Prince Khaled bin Sultan. When Smith produced a satellite image of the bomb-damaged clinic, bin Sultan suggested that his air force needed more advanced aircraft.

“If we had the Predator, maybe we would not have this problem,” he said, referring to a drone aircraft the U.S. has used extensively in strikes on suspected terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere.

The cable said that Smith agreed to furnish the Saudis with the satellite imagery because, while the Houthi clashes appeared to be dying down, the imagery would help Saudi forces keep a better eye on suspected al-Qaida activity in that area.

In the meeting, however, bin Sultan said that the more immediate priority for his government was reaching a cease-fire with Yemen and the Houthi.

“Then,” the prince said, “we can concentrate on al-Qaida.”

Peter Singer, the director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the center-left Brookings Institution in Washington, said the exchange illustrates the dangers of U.S. forces relying on local allies who have other objectives.

“There are no guarantees that our ally might not also use the tools against another of their enemies – indeed, they would be almost remiss not to,” Singer said. “The end result is that you may get the action you may have wanted, but you also incur all sorts of unexpected side effects, including in these cases being drawn into local disputes that aren’t fully in our strategic interests.”

Cables also show that the U.S. military has established a partnership with Algeria to combat al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the terrorist organization’s most fearsome franchises.

In February 2008, U.S. officials in Algiers reported that they’d worked with Algerian military intelligence – a “prickly, paranoid group,” according to a cable – to root out networks funneling dozens of militants to Iraq. However, the cable noted that Algerian authorities “do not like to discuss our cooperation” publicly, and that while the FBI had opened an office at the U.S. Embassy, “the Algerians are not rushing to cooperate.”

Late last year, U.S. officials asked – and promptly received – permission to fly EP-3 surveillance aircraft through Algerian airspace to hunt militants. However, two months earlier, senior Algerian defense officials complained to a visiting U.S. diplomat that the U.S. military hadn’t shared information from previous surveillance flights.

In Somalia, the Pentagon acknowledged at the time that a 2008 U.S. airstrike killed Aden Hashi Ayro, an Afghanistan-trained jihadist who U.S. officials thought was al-Qaida’s “point man” in the East African nation. It remained unclear, however, whether the U.S. military was coordinating with Somalia’s weak and unpopular transitional government, which has been battling al-Shabaab, the Islamist militia that Ayro led, since 2007.

A May 2009 account of a meeting between U.S. officials and the Somali prime minister didn’t specifically refer to the Ayro strike, but it said that the Somali government thought such strikes were “necessary” and discussed a phone call two weeks earlier in which the country’s prime minister had asked the U.S. to “take out” insurgents that Somali officials had learned were meeting in a remote southern town.

The cable was the result of a brief meeting between U.S. officials from the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Somali prime minister, Omar Sharmarke, who’d stopped over at Nairobi’s airport on his way from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to a meeting in Libya. The U.S. has no diplomats in Somalia.

During the meeting, Sharmarke mentioned that his May 16 phone call to U.S. military officials in Kenya asking for actions against the militants had been made with the consent of Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif.

Such strikes had angered the Somali population previously, however, and U.S. officials asked Sharmarke whether his government could withstand fallout from additional strikes “and their potential collateral damage.”

The prime minister, the cable recounted, “without hesitation, said ‘Yes.’

WikiLeaks Reveals U.S. Twisted Ethiopia’s Arm to Invade Somalia

By mid 2007, the 50,000 Ethiopian troops that invaded Somalia in late 2006 found themselves increasingly bogged down, facing much fiercer resistance than they had bargained for as Somalis of all stripes temporarily put aside their differences to stand together against the outside invader.
As the military incursion turned increasingly sour, then US Under Secretary of State for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, who taught at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies in the 1990s, insisted that, prior to the invasion, the United States had counseled caution and that Washington had warned Ethiopia not to use military force against Somalia. Frazer was a close collaborator with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for whom there also is a strong University of Denver connection. Frazer certainly tried to distance the United States from responsibility for the Ethiopian invasion in a number of interviews she gave to the media at the time.
But one of the released WikiLeaks cables, suggests a different picture, one that implicates Frazer in pressing Ethiopia’s President Meles Zenawi to invade its neighbor. The content of the cable is being widely discussed in the African media. It exposes a secret deal cut between the United States and Ethiopia to invade Somalia.
If accurate — and there is no reason to believe the contrary — the cable suggests that Ethiopia had no intention of invading Somalia in 2006 but was encouraged/pressured to do so by the United States which pushed Ethiopia behind the scenes. Already bogged down in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time, the Bush Administration pushed Ethiopia to invade Somalia with an eye on crushing the Union of Islamic Courts, which was gaining strength in Somalia at the time.
At the time of the invasion there was little doubt that the Ethiopian military incursion was “made in Washington.” Like so many other WikiLeaks cables, this one merely puts a dot on the “i” or crosses the “t” on what was generally known, although it does give specific information about Jendayi Frazer’s deep involvement in the affair.
According to the cable, as the main U.S. State Department representative in Africa, Frazer played a key role, spearheading what amounted to a U.S.-led proxy war in conjunction with the Pentagon. At the same time that she was pushing the Ethiopians to attack, Frazer was laying the groundwork both for the attack in the U.S. media and for a cover-up, by claiming that although the United States did not support Ethiopian military action, she could understand “the Somali threat” and why Ethiopia might find it necessary to go to war.
Frazer spread rumors of a possible jihadist takeover in Somalia that would threaten Ethiopian security. Turns out that media performance was little more than a smokescreen. The U.S. military had been preparing Ethiopia for the invasion, providing military aid and training Ethiopian troops. Then on December 4, 2006, CENTCOM Commander, General John Abizaid was in Addis Ababa on what was described as “a courtesy call.” Instead, the plans for the invasion were finalized.
At the time of the Somali invasion, Zenawi found himself in trouble. He was facing growing criticism for the wave of repression he had unleashed against domestic Ethiopian critics of his rule that had included mass arrests, the massacres of hundreds of protesters and the jailing of virtually all the country’s opposition leaders. By the spring of 2006 there was a bill before the U.S. Congress to cut off aid to Zenawi unless Ethiopia’s human rights record improved. (His human rights record, by the way, has not improved since. Given how the United States and NATO view Ethiopia’s strategic role in the “war on terrorism” and the scramble for African mineral and energy resources, Western support for Zenawi has only increased in recent years).
In 2006, dependent on U.S. support to maintain power in face of a shrinking political base at home — a situation many U.S. allies in the Third World find themselves — and against his better judgement, Zenawi apparently caved to Frazer’s pressure. Nor was this the first time that Frazer had tried to instigate a U.S. proxy war in Africa. Earlier as U.S. ambassador to South Africa, she had tried to put together a “coalition of the willing” to overthrow Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe, an initiative that did not sit so well with South Africa’s post-apartheid government and went nowhere.
The 2006 war in Somalia did not go well either for the United States or Ethiopia. Recently a State Department spokesperson, Donald Yamamoto, admitted that the whole idea was “a big mistake,” obliquely admitting U.S. responsibility for the invasion. It resulted in 20,000 deaths and according to some reports, left up to 2 million Somalis homeless. The 50,000 Ethiopian invasion force, which had expected a cake walk, instead ran into a buzz saw of Somali resistance, got bogged down and soon withdrew with its tail between its legs. The political result of the invasion was predictable: the generally more moderate Union of Islamic Courts was weakened, but it was soon replaced in Somalia by far more radical and militant Islamic groups with a more openly anti-American agenda.
As the situation deteriorated, in an attempt to cover both the U.S. and her own role, Frazer then turned on Zenawi, trying to distance herself from fiasco using an old and tried diplomatic trick: outright lying. Now that the invasion had turned sour, she changed her tune, arguing in the media, that both she and the State Department had tried to hold back the Ethiopians, discouraging them from invading rather than pushing them to attack. The WikiLeaks cable tells quite a different story. In 2009, the Ethiopian forces withdrew, leaving Somalia in a bigger mess and more unstable than when their troops went in three years prior. Seems to be a pattern here?
Rob Prince is the publisher of the Colorado Progressive Jewish News.

WikiLeaks Reveals U.S. Behind Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia in 2006

Somalia was struck several times by US imperialist war planes in 2006-7. Despite Ethiopia’s claim that it would withdraw from the country in two weeks, the over two year occupation was backed by the Pentagon WikiLeaks revealed.

US behind Ethiopia invasion in Somalia – Wiki leaks dispatch

December 6, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) — A WikiLeaks’ leaked diplomatic cables exposed Ethiopia and the US government secret agreement to invade Somalia.

Ethiopian soldiers (AFP) However, the report indicated that Ethiopia had no intention to the invasion and said the US was behind the plot and was sponsored by the United States government.

Already tied up wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. had no position to openly launch large-scale attack against Somalia and had to sponsor a country like Ethiopia.

Ethiopian troops invaded Somalian territory on July 20, 2006 aimed to squash an Islamist group, Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). Ethiopia maintained it was providing military assistance to the weak transitional government. Ethiopia then argued that the islamists extremists were threat to regional peace and stability.

U.S. head for African affairs Jendayi Frazer was said the spearhead of the proxy war along allies in the State Department and the Pentagon.

There was growing concern in the White House and the Pentagon that Somalia’s Islamists might ally themselves with Al Qaeda and turn to international terrorism.

Reports say an estimated 20,000 Somalis were killed and over 2 million were made homeless as a result of the US backed war in Somalia.

The leaked diplomatic dispatch has also reported on talks between Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and US under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero on issues of Democracy, civil rights, election, climate change among others.

Meles said his country’s inability to develop a strong democracy was not due to insufficient understanding of democratic principles, but rather because Ethiopians had not internalized those principles.

Referencing his own struggle against the Derg regime, Meles said he and his compatriots received no foreign funding, but were willing to sacrifice and die for their cause, and Ethiopians today must take ownership of their democratic development, be willing to sacrifice for it, and defend their own rights.

Despite pushes from under Secretary Maria Otero and Assistant Secretary Carson to hasten steps to liberalize the telecommunications and banking industries of the country, the Ethiopian premier however made no Promises on this regard instead said he would be happy to discuss the issue in the future joking that Americans’ concept of time was much faster than Ethiopians’.

As reported in WikiLeaks’ the Ethiopian leader was also urged to back Copenhagen climate accord.

“Otero urged Meles to sign the Copenhagen accord on climate change and explained that it is a point of departure for further discussion and movement forward on the topic.’’ She noted that while the agreement has its limitations, it has the international community moving in the right direction.

However, he expressed his disappointment that despite President Obama’s personal assurance to him that finances committed in Copenhagen would be made available, he had received word from contacts at the UN that the U.S. was not supportive of Ethiopia’s proposal for a panel to monitor financial pledges regarding climate change. Ms. Gavin assured the Prime Minister that she would look into his concerns.

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WikiLeaks releases documents on U.S.’ Secret Somalia Operations’

By David Axe

It was an off-hand compliment during a January 2007 dinner meeting between Abu Dhabi crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, plus staff, and then-U.S. Central Commander boss General John Abizaid. But Al Nayhan’s jocular praise, as reported in WikiLeaks’ trove of leaked diplomatic cables, is a rare admission that the United States played a central role in the disastrous December 2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, a move that ultimately emboldened the very Islamic extremists the U.S. and Ethiopia had hoped to squash.

“The Somalia job was fantastic,” Al Nahyan interjected between discussions of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the prince’s desire to buy Reaper drones for his air force. At the time of Al Nahyan’s comment, the dust was just settling from Ethiopia’s Blitzkrieg-style assault toward Mogadishu. Some 50,000 Ethiopian troops, supported by T-55 tanks, Hind helicopters and Su-27 jet fighters, had cut a bloody swath through the lightly-armed forces of the Islamic Courts Union, an alliance of mostly nationalist Islamic fighters that prior to the invasion had controlled much of Somalia.

The Somali attack had surprised outside observers. Ethiopia and Somalia had been rivals a long time, but no one had expected such brutal fighting, and so suddenly. It was fairly obvious that Ethiopia had received significant help — even urging — for its invasion. For one, Ethiopia’s air force did not appear capable of coordinated air strikes in support of on-the-move ground troops; it seemed likely that the Su-27s were piloted by Russian or Ukrainian mercenaries — a time-honored tradition in Africa. What’s more, Ethiopia’s army didn’t possess the intelligence or logistical skill for long-range operations. Those, not coincidentally, are particular American strengths.

Washington certainly had a motive to get involved in Somalia. There was growing concern in the White House and the Pentagon that Somalia’s Islamists might ally themselves with Al Qaeda and turn to international terrorism. Already with two escalating wars on its own plate, the U.S. was in no position to openly lead its own large-scale attack on Somalia. It’d have been far simpler to simply sponsor somebody else to do the dirty work. Enter Ethiopia.

In early January following the invasion, USA Today’s Barbara Slavin reported on Washington’s extensive behind-the-scenes support for Ethiopian troops. “The ties include intelligence sharing, arms aid and training,” Slavin noted. A couple days later, The Washington Post’s Pauline Jelinek, citing anonymous sources, described U.S. Special Forces accompanying Ethiopian troops. CBS news revealed that U.S. Air Force gunships were active over southern Somalia during the Ethiopian blitz. Through all the reporting, U.S. officials remained vague or silent on the subject of Washington’s involvement. All the same, evidence was mounting that the U.S. had played a leading role in the Ethiopian invasion. Journalists only strongly suspected it, but Abu Dhabi prince Al Nayhan apparently knew it for certain, if his praise of “the Somalia job” was any indication.

Three years later, it’s clear the Ethiopian invasion was a bad idea. The attack rallied Somalis of all stripes and politics against the invaders, ultimately boosting support for fringe Islamic groups that now had a clear enemy in the Ethiopians and their suspected American puppet-masters. Violence mounted as the Ethiopians settled in for a bloody, two-year occupation.

When the Ethiopians withdrew in 2009, the Islamists rushed to fill the vacuum. A year later, the Al Shabab Islamic group, successor to the Islamic Courts, conducted its first international terror attack. Last month, a Somali-born American teen plotted to explode a bomb in Portland. Today, U.S. Special Forces continue to target terrorists in Somalia. There are arguably more of them than ever, thanks in part to the botched Ethiopian invasion. “We’ve made a lot of mistakes and Ethiopia’s entry in 2006 was not a really good idea,” U.S. diplomat Donald Yamamoto said in March.