Somalia thread for the week ending September 6

As Ethiopia withdraws, Hiran governor quits Somalia govt

BELETWEIN, Somalia Aug 31 (Garowe Online) - Ethiopian troops withdrew from parts of central Somalia Monday, as the governor of Hiran region said his regional administration is no longer part of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Radio Garowe reports.

Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers retreated from bases around the key town of Beletwein, the provincial capital of Hiran region, with more than 20 military trucks driving west towards the Somalia-Ethiopia international border, witnesses said.

However, unconfirmed reports said some Ethiopian army units based around Janta Kundisho camp in the outskirts of Beletwein had not withdrawn yet.

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Sheikh Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma'ow, the Islamist governor of Hiran region, told a Monday press conference in Beletwein that his regional administration has withdrawn its support for the TFG in Mogadishu.

Sheikh Ma'ow said the TFG is "weak" and has "failed to implement Shari'ah law" across the war-torn Horn of Africa country.

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Appealing to armed factions in Somalia and neighboring countries, he said: "Hiran region is not prepared for war. We are here to defend the interests of Hiran [region]."

He was asked about the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces, saying: "We do not support the presence of Ethiopian troops."

Sheikh Ma'ow said he "welcomes" efforts to establish a regional administration for Hiran and called for such efforts to be "sped up."

Press TV adds

Sheikh Ma'ow made no secret of his irritation over the deployment of Ethiopian troop in Somalia.

"I am not happy with the intervention of foreign forces, particularly Ethiopian forces in Somalia," he said.

Was this a move to save face, or will Ma'ow align w/ the opposition?

Still more noise about Djibouti sending soldiers to Mogadishu

Djibouti to send 500 soldiers to Somalia: report

DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti Sep 2 (Garowe Online) - The government of the Republic of Djibouti is planning to send peacekeepers to neighboring Somalia soon, Radio Garowe reports.

Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mohamud Ali Yusuf recently said that Djiboutian troops would serve as part of the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, known as AMISOM. He noted that Djiboutian soldiers are “ready” and will soon be transported to Somalia with “assistance of France.”

His comment was reiterated by Djibouti’s ambassador to the United States, Mr. Roble Olhaye.

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He did not specify the number of Djiboutian soldiers being sent to Somalia, but independent sources put that number at around 500 soldiers.

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Meanwhile, upwards of 800 Somali soldiers are currently receiving military training in Djibouti camps with the help of French military advisers.

Why no mention of training at the U.S. base? What does France get out of this deal?

And rumors persist of AMISOM's enhanced mandate

African peacekeepers in Somalia receive 'new mandate': minister

TRIPOLI, Libya Sep 2 (Garowe Online) - A Somali government minister has said that the African Union has made major changes to the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reports.

Mr. Abdirahman Abdishakur, the Somali Planning and International Cooperation Minister, told reporters Wednesday that AU peacekeepers serving in Mogadishu, known as AMISOM, have been “authorized” to fight alongside Somali government forces.

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Minister Abdishakur, who is part of Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake’s delegation in Tripoli, said the AMISOM mandate has been changed from peacekeeping to “peace-enforcement.”

“African leaders have agreed to assist the Somali government in every sector, especially on security, in order to rescue Somalia from 20 years of war,” Mr. Abdishakur said.

Further, he noted that the new changes to AMISOM include a provision giving the African peacekeepers the greenlight to conduct military operations outside of Mogadishu “if there are threats emerging from other regions.”


...

AMISOM commanders in Mogadishu, who have not publicly endorsed Minister Abdishakur's statements, were unavailable for comment.

There's not enough forces to do that - they can barely hold their ground right now.

Promises of escalated attacks on the Burundi forces, the weaker of the two foreign forces in Somalia, come to fruition - civilians pay the price.

Fresh fighting kills 5, injures 9 others in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU (Sh. M. Network) – at least 5 civilians have been killed and 9 others have been injured in Mogadishu after heavy fighting between AMISOM troops and the Islamist forces broke out in the Somali capital, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Thursday.

Reports say that the fighting started as the Islamist fighters attacked Kuliyadda Jale Siad, a large base for the African Union troops specially the Burundians who were targeted on Thursday evening.

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Witnesses told Shabelle radio that 2 civilians died and three others wounded in Bakara Market after a mortar shell landed there while a stray shelling landed around Raderka neighborhood in Mogadishu killing 3, injuring 5 others

Any figures on the number of times Bakara Market has been shelled since early 2007?

Focus anti-piracy war on land, not sea

The war against piracy off Somali waters will not be won unless more emphasis is laid on containing pirates on land before they get to the sea, a workshop on maritime safety and port security was told yesterday.

And the huge amounts of firearms being shipped to the country have continued to fan piracy despite an international campaign to eradicate the vice, military advisor at the United Nations Political Office on Somalia (UNOPS) Col Victor Gamor said.

The colonel, who was making his presentation during the workshop organized by the Ports Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) at Nyali beach hotel said there were 5,100 foreign troops in Somali against a requirement of 8,000.

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“The international community should put more emphasis on addressing the root cause of piracy and a comprehensive strategy adopted in seeking to stabilize the security situation in the country,” he said.

Even having all 8,000 foreign troops in Mogadishu won't do much.

Speaking of land-basing, VOA adds something that the earlier rpts I cited left out - AFRICOM is going to base "dozens" of military and military-employed personnel in the Seychelles.

US to Base Drones in Seychelles to Fight Piracy

..the UAVs in the Seychelles will be housed at the international airport in the capital Mahe. Dozens of American military and civilian personnel will also be based at the airport to oversee the Navy-led mission for the next several months.

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In addition to the Reaper UAVs, the U.S. military is also considering basing Navy P-3 Orion patrol aircraft in the Seychelles for a limited time. Like the Reaper, the Orion can survey a large region and help deter attacks.

As pointed out last week, the Orion is also an anti-submarine surveillance aircraft.

And, like a bad scare flick, she's back... Jendayi Frazer barks again.

Bush’s Africa hand faults ‘tough love’

A former US Africa policy chief is accusing the Obama administration of not doing enough to advance American military, political and economic interests on the continent.

In commentaries in two major US media outlets, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer charged that Obama’s envoys took the wrong approach when they spoke recently of presenting Kenya and other African countries with a message of “tough love.”

“US policy in Africa is not about love,” Frazer wrote last week in The Wall Street Journal, faulting the signals sent by both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. “It’s about advancing America’s core interests: promoting economic growth and development, combating terrorism and fostering well-governed, stable countries.”

The Bush administration’s senior Africa official went on to urge Obama “to translate the rhetoric of love” into hard-nosed policies.

Frazer’s most provocative suggestion is to move the headquarters of the US Africa Command from Germany to Liberia.

“The command needs to be in the region its operations are charged with shaping,” she argued, citing the Liberia’s offer to host Africom, but did not take note of other African governments’ opposition to a US military command on African soil.

Frazer added that Africom should go beyond its current assessment of conditions in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and begin training DRC troops.

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Eritrea should be placed on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, Frazer added, saying such a move would trigger sanctions against Eritrea as a way of helping prevent a reprise of the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

She reasoned that since Al Qaida’s East Africa cell is based in Somalia and Eritrea is said to be aiding a Somali Islamist force linked to Al Qaida, US economic and political action against Eritrea will prove effective in combating terrorism in the Horn.

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Having worked from 2005-2009 in the State Department’s top Africa post, Frazer now holds a professorship at Carnegie Mellon University in the state of Pennsylvania.

These sharp attacks suggest that she wants to play the role during the next four years of chief Republican opponent of Obama’s Africa policy.

She may also be seeking to burnish her reputation in the aftermath of a report by the State Department’s inspector-general that implicitly faulted her leadership of the department’s Africa Bureau.

Why make those excuses for her? She is what she is - a pathetic little character who abuses authority, lies incessantly, holds nothing but contempt for Africans, and has buckets of their blood on her hands, especially in Somalia, Kenya, and the DRC.

-- -- --

Stories now surfacing that the mysterious U.S. al-Qa'idah leader / poster boy recruiter somewhere in southern Somalia, Abu Mansour al-Amriki, has been identified as 25 year-old Omar Hammami of Daphne, Alabama. The main source appears to be Fox News -- "FOX News has learned exclusively" -- so don't believe everything you read, obviously

Al Qaeda-Linked American Terrorist Unveiled, as Charges Await Him in U.S.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been looking into him for several years. In fact, a grand jury in Mobile, Ala., has already indicted him on charges of providing material support to terrorists, a source said. It's unclear when the indictment was filed.

Al-Amriki first surfaced in October 2007, when Al-Jazeera TV aired a report about the "common goal" of Al Qaeda and hard-line militants in Somalia. The report described al-Amriki as "a fighter" and "military instructor," but he concealed his face with a cloth wrap throughout the report.

As I pointed out at the time, the section of the al-Jazeera program focusing on foreign fighters in Hassan Turki's neck of the woods was propagandistic and al-Amriki's role as weapons trainer laughable, right down to the English language names of Bush, TFG PM Gedi & Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi and bulls-eyes w/ western numerals sloppily penned on pieces of paper hastily torn out of a spiral notebook (the reporters, perhaps?) used for target practice.







It seemed very staged for the camera & a western audience. When the report claimed that the targets were "written in order to increase the hostility of the fighters toward their enemies' leaders", I take it we were supposed to conclude that the fighters were all fluent in english. The really big belly laugh, though, was the shot of a masked individual taking practice at one of the targets w/ a shoulder-launched RPG.

Shortly after that, reports surfaced w/ rumours that al-Amriki had been a Special Forces soldier. For instance, many referenced a Middle East Times report

According to a US intelligence source, the militant in the video, Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, is an ex-US soldier who fought in Bosnia in the early 1990s. No US soldiers officially fought in the Bosnia war, but about a dozen Muslim ex-US Special Forces soldiers fought in Bosnia and trained al-Qaeda and other mujaheddin forces there around 1993 (see December 1992-June 1993). At the time, the US military and Saudi government apparently had an interest in sending Muslim ex-Special Forces there (see December 1992-June 1993 and December 1992). Mansoor is said to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda’s East Africa leadership, and is a lead trainer for Somali insurgent forces.

However, it was pretty obvious from appearances that the individual in the al-Jazeera video hardly looked like Special Forces material - thin, noticeable inward-curved rounded shoulders, and visibly young (what made him a weapons expert?). 1992 or 93 was nearly twenty years ago, which would put him somewhere near 40 now, unless he was a child prodigy. The Fox News story says that Hammami was born in 1984. Were U.S. intelligence sources deliberately disseminating disinformation here?

Younger photos of Hammami do show some similiarities w/ the character supposedly running around in the forests of southern Somalia.



There is a short news interview w/ Hammami from 2001 in this video clip from the regional Fox affiliate.



The physiogonomy is close. Hard to tell wrt the shoulders.

So he's most likely not an ex-Special Forces operative following in the footsteps of Ali Mohammed. What exactly is he doing?

Continuing w/ the Fox News exclusive report,

In April, he showed his face for the first time, during a highly-polished, 30-minute recruitment video posted online. It featured anti-American hip-hop and sporadic images of Usama bin Laden.

In the video, he purportedly led a group of al-Shabaab militants in an ambush of pro-government forces in Somalia. Speaking about one man killed in the fight, he said, "We need more like him, so if you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbors, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad, it would be a great asset for us."

al-Amriki gives a brief speech to the camera in the initial al-Jazeera report as well, directly addressing U.S. citizens to support the fight in Somalia.

That latter video is very questionable too. For starters, Islamists engaging in rap and talking about western consumables? But it's a recruitment video, aimed at youth in the west, the apologists say, so they have to talk to potential recruitees in their own vernacular, make "jihad" look hip. I call BS. In a country already full of unemployed youth, already Muslim, already opposed to foreign occupation, why would any force in Somalia need to look for recruits from halfway around the world? Doesn't pass the smell test.

As goes for much of propaganda surrounding al-Amriki.

Two examples:

From a propaganda piece in Nairobi's Daily Nation back in June

An Al-Qaeda force fighting alongside Somali extremists against the transitional government has sent ripples through regional capitals.

Commanded by a Kenyan, the group, called Al-Muhajirun, has 180 well-trained and battle-hardened fighters, some who have seen action in Afghanistan, Pakistan and possibly Iraq.

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Al-Muhajirun has also internationalised the conflict and brought some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world to East Africa’s front door, said the official, who can not be named because of government secrecy laws.

“The extent to which Kenyans are being exposed to these kinds of terrorist things is a major concern,” said a senior police officer who asked not to be named so as to comment freely.

The emergence of a large and well-trained and armed group reflects a dynamic which could have disastrous consequences for Kenya’s future security.

The group is headed by Kenyan Saleh Nabhan, an old Al-Qaeda hand, and many of its members are Kenyan, some of them young people who have been recruited, turned into radicals and sent to fight in the Somali “jihad”, said a regional conflict and peace expert, who declined to be named because of his work with the security services.

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The other members of Al-Muhajirun are Ugandans, Americans, Europeans and Saudis. Others are from other parts of the Middle East and Asia, said the Internal Security official, who is privy to intelligence reports.

A Mr Abu Mansur al-Meriki, a US citizen, is Nabhan’s deputy in the Al-Muhajirun chain of command.

al Muhajiroun (meaning 'the emigrants') is the name of a UK-based Islamic organization that was reportedly infiltrated with British intelligence agents, if not a product of, that was used to fuel the fear of international terrorism several years back during the London bombings. And there are ties, again, to Kosovo. As fomer U.S. Justice Department prosecutor John Loftus put it in an interview on (again) a Fox News program.

Loftus: ..the US was used by Al-Muhajiroun for training of people to send to Kosovo. What ties all these cells together was, back in the late 1990s, the leaders all worked for British intelligence in Kosovo. Believe it or not, British intelligence actually hired some Al-Qaeda guys to help defend the Muslim rights in Albania and in Kosovo. That's when Al-Muhajiroun got started.

IJAZ: Which is by the way why we know so much about them right now.

LOFTUS: Yes, I'm afraid so. The CIA was funding the operation to defend the Muslims, British intelligence was doing the hiring and recruiting. Now we have a lot of detail on this because Captain Hook, the head of Al-Muhajiroun, he (sic) sidekick was Bakri Mohammed, another cleric. And back on October 16, 2001, he gave a detailed interview with al-Sharq al-Aswat, an Arabic newspaper in London, describing the relationship between British intelligence and the operations in Kosovo and Al-Muhajiroun. So that's how we get all these guys connected.

It's interesting that when al-Amriki's name first pop up, it is quickly followed by a claim from an unnamed U.S. intelligence source that references CIA operations employing al-Qa'idah agents in Kosovo and then again, in this article, as the current "deputy" working in an alleged al-Muhajiroun cell in Somalia. Coincidence?

Since the al-Jazeera video first broke, there have been many comments on the web suggesting that al-Amriki is infiltrating these groups in Somalia on behalf of western intelligence organization(s) in either (1) an intelligence gathering capacity or (2) as an agent provocateur working to discredit the insurgency & provide justification for intelligence service claims that al-Qa'idah is operating in Somalia beside Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen and poses a legitimate threat to the United States.

Also note that in the Daily Nation article the group is not identified as Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen, which the western media are continuously focusing on & are currently describing al-Amriki as a central leader of & western recruiter for.

Second example:

Similarities in Abu Mansour al-Amriki and Azzam al-Amriki (aka Adam Gadahn), primarily in how they are both young men from the U.S., both convert to Islam from another religion, and now are featured in al-Sahab videos openly appealing to citizens from their homeland to take up the al-Qa'idah cause. Again, there are plenty of viable Muslim recruits throughout the rest of world much closer to the action - this emphasis on the U.S. suggests a psyops operation on the U.S. public and government officials. These type of stories play very big in right-wing affiliated networks.

In a recent alleged Abu Mansour recording, critiquing a speech by President Obama, an entire cast of al-Amrikis' make an appearance, with more waiting in the wings, one supposes.

At minute 26:18, when Al-Amriki mentions “...Somalia and other far-off lands...,” a video insert labeled “Mujahid brother Adam al-Amriki” (Adam Ghadan) appears on screen. The video is followed by a picture labeled “Shaheed Insh`allah (God willing) Abu Hurriya Al-Amriki” , and videos labeled “Shaheed Insh`allah Burhan Al-Amriki” and “Shaheed Insh`allah Dahir Al-Amriki.” The screen returns to a picture of Abu Mansur al-Amriki at 26:52.

For now, I'll end w/ exactly how the Fox 10 news video report concludes:

Fox 10 News also spoke with Hammami's father, who happens to be the President of the Islamic Society of Mobile.

He said, "This is a big misunderstanding," but he wouldn't comment beyond that.

-- -- --

Two from Kampala's Daily Monitor

AU gives UPDF mandate to attack Somali militants

The African Union (AU) has reviewed the mandate of UPDF in Somalia and allowed the Ugandan forces to attack the Al-shabaab militants, the Defence Minister announced yesterday.

Dr Crispus Kiyonga told Journalists after flagging-off three UPDF battalions to Somalia at Entebbe military airbase yesterday that the earlier mandate constrained the UPDF and was deadly as it demanded the peacekeepers to fight back only if they were attacked first.

The new mandate now means that the UPDF can carry out pre-emptive attacks on the insurgents in the war tone Horn of Africa country.

While three battalions left Entebbe yesterday, three others returned from Somalia in a rotational arrangement.

Bush envoy lobbies Obama for Museveni

A former top diplomat for Africa in the George Bush administration has urged US President Barack Obama to meet President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwanda and Congolese peers, in what has been interpreted as thinly veiled lobbyist pressure mounted on Washington.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Jendayi Frazer said the White House under Mr Obama should move beyond rhetoric to deepen Washington’s engagement with African leaders much in the mold of the out-gone Republican government.

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..her letter titled “ Four ways to help Africa” which included a recommendation that the new US Africa Command (Africom) move to Liberia - will likely be viewed as crafted to help advance specific interests of African governments like Uganda. This is because Ms Jendayi is now a lobbyist.

Since she left the US government Ms Jendayi has taken up a position with the Uganda-government-contracted lobbyist Rosa Whitaker of the Whitaker Group. The Ministry of Finance in March 2008 signed a contract for “International Presidential Advisory Services in the political, social and economic fields” with the Group for a sum slightly above a million dollars (Shs2 billion). The contract, a copy of which this newspaper has seen, expires in December 2010.

Ms Frazer is listed as a “strategic advisor” on the Whitaker Group’s website.

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The call by Ms Jendayi for Obama to meet with Mr Museveni may not be coincidental either. President Museveni was expected in Washington in early October but the visit has been cancelled. The President has had a busy travel schedule and has recently visited Russia and Iran. However it is traditionally with Washington that he has been associated with. That visit has not happened so far with the Obama administration which it has been reported holds a very dim view of the way Kampala has been running things.