Somalia thread for the week ending October 25

Daily Nation: Muslims press [Kenyan] govt over Somali youth hiring

Kenyan Muslims are exerting strong pressure on the country’s political leaders to state their stand on the alleged recruitment of hundreds of Kenyan youth to join Somalia war where insurgency has been raging.

The government is now asked to immediately halt the ongoing recruitment of Muslim youth from Northern Kenya to fight in the troubled neighbouring country of Somalia, citing that the youth cannot be made a spent force.

Kenya Muslim leaders' call comes at a time when reports indicate that more and more youth are been recruited from Ijara and Hola districts in North-Eastern and Coast provinces respectively, despite the government denial of the existence of the alleged undercover exercise.

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The chairman of the Kenya National Muslim Leaders Forum (NAMLEF), Sheikh Abdullahi Abdi ... said some of the recruited youth who were duped to be employed as UN officials with a monthly payment of USD600 (Ksh48,000) and Ksh 20,000 in advance have so far escaped the training at Manyani paramilitary training camp after they learnt that they were being trained to fight in Somalia.

“Several youths who thought they were been employed as UN workers have so far returned to their families after getting the information that there were plans to deploy them in the war-ravaged Somalia to fight along with the transitional government forces,” he added

Sheikh Abdi said the recruited youth were forced to surrender their ID cards and told to claim that they were from areas in Somalia and the Somali-region of Ethiopia after media reports revealed the ongoing exercise.

The religious leader said they got credible information that the recruited Kenyan youth who were before been trained at Manyani paramilitary training camp in Coast province were being transferred to the British training camp at Archers Post in Isiolo District, Eastern Province.

Mareeg Online: Former prisoners [in Libya] to become soldiers

Reports from Libya said Monday Somali prisoners who were jailed in Libyan tows were freed and are being trained as soldiers in Libya to fight for the Somali government.

Independent sources say officials from the Somali government and Libya discussed the issue and the prisoners were freed. The Somali teenagers who were jailed in Libya were immigrants fled from the endless wars in Somalia.

Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed visited Libya and met the Libyan leader Muammer Kadafi. Hassan Moallim Mohamud, the state minister of the presidential palace said earlier Libya promised for the Somali government that it would free the prisoners.

Libyan soldiers are often accused of harassing the Somalis in Libya.

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Garowe Online: Somalia troops arrive in Mogadishu after Djibouti training

The Somali troops arrived at Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport on Tuesday, where they were welcomed by Somali Defense Minister Abdalla Haji Boss and the spokesman of the African Union peacekeeping force (AMISOM) in Mogadishu, Maj. Bahoku Barigye.

The troops were transported in a private airplane from Djibouti, with Defense Minister Boss saying that they were training to help the Somali interim government restore order, especially in Mogadishu.

Somali government officials would not confirm the exact number of soldiers and local media was prohibited from the airport, but it the first batch of Somali soldiers to arrive in Mogadishu after completing military training in Djibouti. Some reports say around 800 Somali soldiers are being trained in Djibouti.

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Mareeg Online: Government confirms recruitment of soldiers in Kenya

MOGADISHU (Mareeg)—The commander of the Somali military forces disclosed on Wednesday that soldiers were being trained for the Somali government in Kenya.

Somali president and other government officials denied earlier that the fragile government was recruiting soldiers in Kenya.

General Hussein Yusuf Dhumal, the commander in chief of the Somali Military said 1500 soldiers are being trained in Kenya. General Dhumal added that other soldiers are also being trained for the Somali government in Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti, Burundi, and Ethiopia

SMC: President Shariff denies, Military Commander Dhumal proves!!

The Somali Military commander has on Wednesday proved that Kenyan government is recruiting young Somalis to bolster the Somali government soldiers.

General Yussuf Hussein Dhumal the Somali Military commander has frankly proved that some countries in Africa such as Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Djibouti are giving military training to Somali soldiers.

General Dhumal has also disclosed hidden story whether the Kenyan government is providing training to Somali soldiers or not.

“I am explicitly saying that the Kenyan government is recruiting young Somali soldiers to boost the Somali government soldiers, and they are currently doing their military maneuvers inside at camps in Isiolo in Eastern province in Kenya, and Miyani in the coast, there are some others who are doing their training in Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti, the ones in Sudan are all cadets” said the commander of the Somali armed forces Dhumal speaking to somliweyn radio.

In his first Press conference after arriving from the United States of America the President of Somalia has categorically denied that there are no Somali soldiers which the Kenyan government is providing military training.

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More AMISOM shelling of Bakara Market on Thursday

Shabelle Media: Heavy shelling kills more than 30, injures 70 others in Mogadishu

More than 30 people have been killed and 70 others have been injured after the Islamist fighters and AMISOM troops exchanged heavy shelling in more different neighborhoods in the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses and officials said on Thursday.

Most of the areas landing the shelling were the neighborhoods of Hodan and Hwl-wadag districts in Mogadishu..

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Reports say that shelling started at around the international airport of Aden Adde, a base of the African Union troops after the transitional government soldiers and AMSIOM troops had jointly blocked Mekka Al-mukara street, a key road that connects the presidential palace and Km4 in Mogadishu as TFG president Sharif Sheik Ahmed was supposed to fly from the airport.

The movement of the traffic, business and people was halted during the shelling of Thursday morning and locals said that constant shelling from the side of AMSIOM troops landed into more various sites in Hodan and Hawl-wadag district in Mogadishu like Bakara market, Kpp, Barmudo and several other zones which heavily affected the shelling that was reaction for the one which targeted to the international airport.

A shell that hit in a concrete building in Bakara market has killed at least 6 wounding 8 others as more people were hiding inside the building as the shelling re-exploded there.

Eyewitness said that the pieces of dead bodies could also be seen in many areas in the Somali capital Mogadishu which the shelling affected and murdered more civilians.

Residents said that Thursday’s shelling seemed as it was raining in Bakara market and most of the people died and wounded were in Bakara, the biggest market in southern Somalia saying that AMSIOM troops used their heavies weapons like PM for today’s shelling which resulted the greatest casualties of the civilians especially the market in the recent days.

Garowe Online:

Witnesses said the fighting erupted along Maka Al Mukarrrama Road that connects the Villa Somalia presidential compound and Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport.

Somali insurgents attacked the road with emerging reports saying President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's convoy was driving towards the airport.

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AMISOM peacekeepers shelled parts of Mogadishu, including businesses and residential areas in Hodan and Howlwadaag districts. Most of the dead were civilians killed in the crossfire, including explosions at Bakara Market.

Upwards of 75 people were wounded during the fierce shelling and armed clashes between insurgents and allied Somali-AMISOM troops, accoring to medical sources.

Witnesses said 80 shells hit parts of Bakara Market and its surroundings, with residents saying that it was the "worst shelling" seen in Mogadishu in recent weeks.

CNN: Shelling kills at least 30 in Somalia

At least 30 people died and 70 were wounded in shelling on a marketplace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Thursday, according to journalists and emergency services.

A local journalist called the rocket fire on Bakara market "unprecedented."

"This was the most brutal shelling," according to an ambulance service representative who said they had picked up 61 wounded, but expect the number to climb. Other victims were being brought to hospitals by family and friends.

The source of the shelling could not immediately be determined.

Journalists saw shell fire coming from AMISOM -- the African Union Mission in Somalia -- strongholds in a fortified district of the capital and from near the airport. AMISOM is the only force in the area believed to have the firepower capable of such an intense attack. However, AMISOM denied any involvement in the incident.

Still looking for any estimates on the number of civilians killed in Bakara Market from December 26, 1006 forward. On Monday Garowe Online reported that

At least 11 people were killed in fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu overnight Sunday and into Monday morning, Radio Garowe reports.

The battles started after Al Shabaab insurgents attacked Somali government troops and African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM) at bases around the Villa Somalia presidential compound, witnesses said.

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Witnesses at Bakara Market said that 5 people were killed inside the market when shells slammed into a crowded area.

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Human Rights Watch provides more details on the Kenyan govt role in recruiting fighters in this October 22nd news release

Kenya: Stop Recruitment of Somalis in Refugee Camps

The Kenyan government should immediately stop the recruitment of Somalis in refugee camps to fight for an armed force in Somalia, Human Rights Watch said today. Kenyan authorities have directly supported the drive, which has recruited hundreds of Somali men and boys in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps as well as Kenyan citizens from nearby towns.

Since early October, Somali recruiters claiming to act on behalf of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) have operated openly in the Dadaab camps in northeast Kenya, near the Somali border, to enlist young refugees in a new force intended to fight in Somalia. But military recruitment in these camps contravenes the principle recognized in international law that refugee camps should be entirely civilian and humanitarian in character.

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The recruitment drive is also targeting Kenyans around the towns of Dadaab and Garissa. The Somali armed group al-Shabaab has also sought to recruit fighters among Somali refugee communities and Kenyans.

Human Rights Watch investigations have found that recruiters for the new force have used deceptive practices, promising exorbitant pay and claiming that the force has United Nations and other international backing. They have urged teenage refugees to lie about their ages and to join without informing their families. Former recruits say that their cell phones were taken from them before they were transported to the training center.

Top Kenyan officials including the foreign minister have categorically denied this recruitment drive is taking place at all, but in fact it is operating with direct Kenyan support, including government transport vehicles and guards.

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This month, Human Rights Watch researchers visited the Kenyan town of Dadaab and the three refugee camps that surround it-Ifo, Dagahaley, and Hagadera. They interviewed more than two dozen people, including young men and boys who had been approached by recruiters, parents of young men who joined the force, individuals involved in the recruitment effort, and community leaders in the camps.

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Recruiters began circulating in the refugee camps in early October. According to local community leaders and a recruiter working in two of the camps, they have recruited at least several hundred refugees. Many recruits are promised an initial payment of between US$400 and $600 for the military training itself, to be followed with a generous monthly salary upon deployment to Somalia. Most of the recruiters are telling prospects that they will be deployed to fight alongside the transitional government's forces, either in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, or in southern Somalia.

The recruiters operating in the camps are themselves refugees who have been promised generous payments by the coordinators of the drive. Recruiters have also been operating in the town of Dadaab, seeking to enlist ethnic Somali Kenyan citizens into the same force. Residents and local officials in Garissa, the provincial capital of Kenya's North Eastern Province, and surrounding communities said that recruitment is also taking place among their own young men and boys.

The recruitment program is being coordinated by a small group of Somali nationals who are living and operating openly from a hotel in Dadaab. The team is allegedly headed by two prominent individuals from southern Somalia who had ties to the administration of the former president of the transitional government, Abdullahi Yusuf.

Recruiters hire private cars to transport young men and boys to one of at least two isolated staging locations near the town of Dadaab. From there they are loaded into Kenyan military and National Youth Service trucks and told that they are being taken to a Kenyan government facility at Manyani, near Mombasa, for military training. Two sources - a young man who went searching for a recruited relative at the Manyani training center, and a government official with knowledge of the recruitment program - told Human Rights Watch that this facility is a Kenya Wildlife Service field training school. The school provides paramilitary training to anti-poaching rangers as well as other branches of the Kenyan security forces. Police personnel for Somalia's transitional government have also undergone training at the facility in the past.

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Many recruiters for the force have been telling young men in the camps and nearby towns that their effort is backed by the United Nations, the United States government, and the European Union. Some are even saying that recruits will be deployed as part of a new UN force in Somalia. One elderly Kenyan Somali man in Dadaab whose 20-year-old son joined told Human Rights Watch that, "My son is educated and he told me that the United Nations is recruiting an army. So I gave him my blessing and he has my total support." Officials from the UN Political Office for Somalia, the US government, and the European Commission, in interviews with or statements to Human Rights Watch, all denied involvement.

In addition to the $600 promised for undergoing the military training, most recruiters are promising a similar amount in monthly salary after the recruits are deployed to Somalia. While most recruiters tell the young men that they will be sent to fight in Somalia, some promise that they will only be incorporated into a civilian police force that will never see combat or that they will be employed as guards at UN or African Union installations.

Recruits are poorly treated. After the first leg of their journey from their homes, many find themselves stranded in an open expanse of desert without food, water, or shelter, sometimes overnight, as they await onward transport. Human Rights Watch researchers traveled to a staging area near Ege one late afternoon and found a group of nine young men who had been sitting in the scorching sand since morning waiting to be picked up. They had neither water nor food throughout the entire day.

Recruits also soon hear that salaries are to be as low as $200 a month, much less than originally promised. Human Rights Watch interviewed several young men who managed to return home after learning this. Many Somali refugee parents who sought to find their sons who had enlisted were not able to do so because they lack Kenyan government permission to leave the camps.

"Kenyan government-backed recruiters are luring young men with false claims of UN and other international support," [Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch,] said. "Getting the recruiters out of the camps and publicly dissociating the UN from any involvement are first steps to shutting the program down."

Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned that children are being recruited. Some recruiters are encouraging teenagers under 18 to lie about their age so they can enlist. Human Rights Watch interviewed boys as young as 15 who had been approached by recruiters but did not enlist. However, several recruits told Human Rights Watch that they had seen recruiters persuade boys of 14 or 15 to lie about their ages. International law to which Kenya is a party and Somalia a signatory prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting persons under age 18.

Kenyan government officials are directly involved in the unlawful recruitment drive of refugees from the camps. Publicly, Kenyan national and provincial authorities deny any government involvement. "We are not involved in any such operation - it is propaganda," the Kenyan military spokesman, Bogita Ongeri, told Human Rights Watch, saying that only Somali militia groups working independently and illegally have been recruiting in the camps. James ole Seriani, provincial commissioner for the North Eastern province, told Human Rights Watch that the reports could not be true because, "There is no way the government can recruit people at night. We only recruit during the day." The transitional government's president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, has also publicly denied his government is involved in recruitment in Kenya.

However, one Kenyan government official, who asked not to be identified because he feared repercussions, told Human Rights Watch that the team has been telling Kenyan Somalis whom they recruit "not to mention they are Kenyan." The source added: "They are given the names of specific parts of Somalia and told to say those are the places they come from."

The Kenyan military actively participates in the recruitment process. After being transported in small groups to staging points between Ege and Saredo, near Dadaab, recruits are driven onward on Kenyan military or National Youth Service trucks, usually after dark. Kenyan military personnel have turned away parents of enlistees within sight of the assembled recruits. The young men who board the trucks are required to turn over their cell phones and National ID cards (in the case of Kenyan citizens) or ration cards (in the case of refugees) if they have them. However, the father of one recruit said that his son had retained his cell phone and had called from the road to Mombasa.

Human Rights Watch interviewed a few young men who had escaped from the military trucks when they stopped late at night for food in Garissa. All said that they did not feel they could leave freely by that point. One group cut through the canvas covering the back of the truck and ran into town. One young man said that he traveled to the Kenyan Wildlife Service training school at Manyani to look for a relative but was turned away and briefly detained after persisting.

Kenyan authorities have made no attempt to stop the recruitment drive in the camps or in nearby towns. Parents, deserters, and community leaders said recruitment was brazenly taking place in tea shops and other public places. UNHCR has received several such complaints in recent weeks. And while police in Hagadera camp briefly detained a group of alleged recruiters who were brought there by angry community members, they were released within 24 hours.

One recruiter interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that he had operated openly and without fear of the authorities. "I was told that the Kenyan government was aware of this and I did not have any problem with the police," he said. "Our biggest problem was the parents of the recruits, not the police."

"Rumors of recruitment in refugee camps by Somalia's warring factions have been rife for years, but a Kenyan government-sanctioned program of this magnitude is unprecedented," said Gagnon. "The government's denials of its involvement are completely implausible."

While Kenyan authorities have their own national interest reasons to be involved, it's not difficult to grasp that there are other pressures involved here as well. Unfortunately the current HRW document ignores/avoids that context.

Here is an account from the

Elder brother of a 17-year-old Kenyan recruit, who tried to fetch his brother from the Kenyan Wildlife Service training center:

"Initially the senior officers denied it. But finally they told me, ‘You are an educated man, you do understand he has been here a week, we have spent a lot of money on him for medical checkups and training and there is no way we can release him now.' They said, ‘Kenya has no involvement. This is being done by outsiders.' They said it was the Americans and the UN and other members of the international community."

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More on the U.S. military drones being deployed in the Seychelles under the pretense of fighting piracy

connect the dots...

Press Release by the Seychelles Ministry of Foreign Affairs

VICTORIA, Mahé, October 20, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Government of Seychelles and the Embassy of the United States are pleased to announce the arrival to Seychelles of U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles which will in the near future boost counter-piracy surveillance in the Seychelles and the Western Indian Ocean. The presence of these unmanned aerial vehicles demonstrates the commitment of the United States to improving maritime safety and security in the Western Indian Ocean region and for the people of the Seychelles. In the coming days, one of these vehicles will be available for press photographs and questions about them will be answered for the press.

AP: US drones protecting ships from Somali pirates

In an effort to stem the surge [of hijacking attempts], unmanned U.S. military surveillance planes called MQ-9 Reapers stationed on the island nation of Seychelles are being deployed to patrol the Indian Ocean in search of pirates, [Robert Moeller, the deputy commander for the U.S. Africa Command,] told The Associated Press in an interview at command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The patrols began this week, military officials said.

The 36-foot-long Reapers are the size of a jet fighter, can fly about 16 hours and are capable of carrying a dozen guided bombs and missiles. They are outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting.

Military officials said Friday the drones would not immediately be fitted with weaponry, but they did not rule out doing so in the future.

Analysts said they expected the Reapers would also be used to hunt al-Qaida and other Islamist militants in Somalia. While Moeller said the aircraft would "primarily" be used against pirates, he acknowledged they could also be used for other missions.

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U.S. Navy vessels have used 3-foot-long drones off the East Africa coast before. But the Reapers — which have a 66-foot wingspan — represent a significant investment by the U.S. military to gather intelligence in the region. [ha ha.. read on]

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Moeller, the U.S. commander, said good governance, rule of law and economic development are all needed in Somalia so that pirates "have an alternative lifestyle to pursue. And unfortunately, that's not the case today."

"The long-term solution to the piracy issue is basically [us] getting the conditions right in Somalia," he said.

What's in a name...

Meet the Reaper, aka Predator B

MQ-9 Reaper Hunter/Killer UAV

Reaper, (also known as Predator B) an outgrowth of the combat proven Predator A UAS, became operational in 2007 and as it began flying combat missions over Afghanistan. This Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV overcomes most of the difficulties encountered with previous UAVs that commonly must compromise between conflicting demands for payload, speed, altitude, speed and persistence. With an operational ceiling of 50,000ft, and higher cruising speed, Reaper can cover a larger area, under all weather conditions carrying payloads of more than 1.5 tons. The aircraft is powered by a single Honeywell TP331-10 engine, producing 950 shp, provides a maximum airspeed of 260 kts and a cruise speed for maximum endurance of 150-170 kts.

The Reaper is capable of carrying maximum internal payload of 800 lbs, it will carry more advanced sensors at weight almost twice as the MQ-1. Furthermore, The Reaper can carry much more external stores, up to 3,000 pounds total – 1,500 on each of its two inboard weapons stations, or 500-600 lb. on the two middle stations and 150-200 lbs. on the outboard stations. In total, the aircraft can carry up to 14 Hellfire missiles, compared with two carried on the Predator. The Reaper can stay airborne for up to 14 hours fully loaded.

Trading off some of the missiles, Predator B can carry laser guided bombs, such as the GBU-12. MQ-9 is equipped with both Lynx II SAR and the MTS-B 20" gimbal, an improved, extended range version of the MQ-9's EO payload. The availability of high performance sensors and large capacity of precision guided weapons enable the new Predator to operate as an efficient "Hunter-Killer" platform, seeking and engaging targets at high probability of success. It is equipped with an L-3 Communications Tactical Common Datalink (TCDL).

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The MQ-9 Reaper will employ robust sensors to automatically find, fix, track and target critical emerging time sensitive targets. In the MQ-9 the SAR was replaced with the AN/APY-8 Lynx II radar, replacing the TESAR with more advanced high resolution radar-imaging system. The ground control segment of the Predator B is common with all previous Predator systems.

The Wikipedia entry adds

The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.

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In 2008 the New York Air National Guard 174th Fighter Wing began the transition from F-16 piloted planes to MQ-9 Reaper drones, which are capable of remote controlled or autonomous flight, becoming the first all-robot attack squadron.

Then U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley said, "We've moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper."

The setup:

NYT: In Somalia, a New Template for Fighting Terrorism

Al-Qaeda is working feverishly to turn Somalia into a global jihad factory, according to recent intelligence assessments, and the way the United States chooses to respond could serve as template for other fronts in the wider counter-terrorism war. Just last month, American helicopters swept over the dusty Somali horizon to take out Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a wanted Qaeda suspect who had been hiding out in Somalia for years and training a new bevy of killers; some of those trainees are believed to be Somali-Americans who could easily slip back into the United States and do some serious damage as suicide bombers.

In a way, the daring daylight strike against Mr. Nabhan, which was supposedly part of the Obama administration`s shift from targeting terrorists with cruise missiles that often kill civilians, was a flashback. Few in Somalia — or the American military — have forgotten Black Hawk Down, the battle in October 1993 when Somali militiamen in flip-flops killed 18 American soldiers, including members of the Army`s elite Delta Force. It was a searing humiliation for the Pentagon, which had just emerged from the first gulf war pumped up on smart bombs and laser-guided missiles, but in Somalia found itself back in a Vietnam-style quagmire where high technology was no match for local rage.

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“Never again, that was the message,” said John Nagl, a retired Army officer who was on the team that wrote the military`s new counterinsurgency field manual.

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Just as the United States all but forgot about Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew with their tails between their legs in 1989, the United States all but forgot about Somalia after the American military slunk away five years later. And the same thing happened. Both countries are almost purely Muslim; in both places a grass-roots Islamist movement emerged as the panacea to disorder; and in both places, Al Qaeda was not far behind. Actually, Osama bin Laden`s men may have gotten to Somalia first; Somalia is believed to have been the staging ground for the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

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..“most Somalis are not anti-American,” said Afyare Abdi Elmi, a Somali-Canadian political scientist at Qatar University`s International Affairs Program. “Most Somalis are pragmatic and they do not inherently oppose America`s involvement in Somalia per se. They reject when such involvement is associated with warlords or Ethiopians. Neither condition exists now.”

This could spell an opportunity, as the Obama administration seems to think. The United States and other Western powers have provided the new Islamist government with weapons, money and diplomatic support. While terribly weak, the government has proven to be relatively moderate, vowing to repel terrorist groups, and seeking a middle path in its interpretation of political Islam.

The United States, for its part, is helping the government in a crucial way, with pinprick counterterrorism attacks like the commando raid that killed Mr. Nabhan; these presumably advance the mutual interest of eliminating Qaeda terrorists and weakening the Somali insurgency, while avoiding civilian casualties.

So a new template for fighting terrorism may be emerging as the United States shows less desire to get involved in the local intricacies of nation building and more interest in narrowing its focus to Al Qaeda. The focus so far has been precise, limited and often covert, with attacks carried out with a parallel diplomatic strategy.

American attacks along the Afghan-Pakistani border seem cut from a similar pattern, but it may be that Somalia will prove an easier place to make the techniques work.

To Mr. Nagl, in fact, Somalia is a counterterrorism planner`s dream, with its desert terrain, low population density and skinny shape along the sea; no place is more than a few minutes` chopper flight from American ships bobbing offshore. “It`s far, far harder to do counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan than in Somalia,” he said.

What the two fronts have in common, he said, is that “you can`t kill or capture your way out of this problem. You have to change the conditions on the ground.”

Abstract of Jane Mayer's article in the October 26th issue of The New Yorker: The Risks of the CIA's Predator Drones: The Predator War

ABSTRACT: THE POLITICAL SCENE about the C.I.A.’s covert drone program. On August 5th, officials at the C.I.A., in Langley, VA, watched a live video feed relaying closeup footage of one of the most wanted terrorists in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, on the rooftop of his father-in-law’s house. The video was captured by the infrared camera of a Predator drone—a remotely controlled, unmanned plane that had been hovering, undetected, two miles or so above the house. The C.I.A. remotely launched two Hellfire missiles from the Predator, and Mehsud and eleven others died.

There was no controversy when, a few days after the missile strike, CNN reported that President Barack Obama had authorized it. However, there was widespread anger after the Wall Street Journal revealed, at about the same time, that during the Bush Administration the C.I.A. had considered setting up hit squads to capture or kill Al Qaeda operatives around the world.

Hina Shamsi, a human-rights lawyer at the New York University School of Law, was struck by the inconsistency of the public’s responses. She said of the Predator program, “These are targeted international killings by the state.”

The Predator program, as it happens, also uses private contractors for a variety of tasks, including “flying” the drones.

The U.S. government runs two drone programs. The military’s version, which is publicly acknowledged, operates in the recognized war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and targets combatants in support of U.S. troops stationed there. The C.I.A.’s program is aimed at terror suspects around the world, including in places where U.S. troops are not based. The program is classified as covert, and the C.I.A. declines to provide any information to the public about where it operates, how it selects targets, who is in charge, or how many people have been killed. Nevertheless, reports of fatal air strikes in Pakistan emerge every few days.

According to a new study by the New America Foundation, the number of drone strikes has gone up dramatically since Obama became President. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the defense contractor that manufactures the Predator and its more heavily armed sibling, the Reaper, can barely keep up with the government’s demand.

With public disenchantment mounting over the U.S. troop deployment in Afghanistan, many in Washington support an even greater reliance on Predator strikes. And because of the program’s secrecy, there is no visible system of accountability in place.

Peter W. Singer, the author of “Wired for War,” a recent book about the robotics revolution in modern combat, argues that the drone program is worryingly “seductive,” because it creates the perception that war can be “costless.” Cut off from the realities of the bombings in Pakistan, Americans have been insulated from the human toll, as well as the political and moral consequences.

The advent of the Predator targeted-killing program “is really a sea change,” says Gary Solis. Before September 11th, the C.I.A. refused to deploy the Predator for anything other than surveillance. Eight years later, there is no longer any doubt that targeted killing has become official U.S. policy.

The Predator program is described by many in the intelligence world as America’s single most effective weapon against Al Qaeda. But the program has stirred deep ethical concerns. According to the New America Foundation’s study, only six of the forty-one C.I.A. drone strikes conducted by the Obama Administration in Pakistan have targeted Al Qaeda.

A slight, but related, detour into either absurdity or mental illness... perhaps both

NPR: Capture Or Kill? Lawyers Eye Options For Terrorists

Today, we're exploring the issue of where the Obama administration will hold terrorism detainees who are picked up overseas. Today, on MORNING EDITION, NPR's Ari Shapiro described some of the obstacles to holding people in the U.S. or Afghanistan. Now, he reports that government lawyers are exploring more creative options.

ARI SHAPIRO: Virtually everyone interviewed for this story agreed. The United States would rather not be in the terrorist detention business. There are military, diplomatic, legal and political obstacles, no matter which option the government chooses. Columbia Law Professor Matthew Waxman handled detainee affairs at the Pentagon under President Bush.

Professor MATTHEW WAXMAN (Law, Columbia Law School): The big question mark is what is the Obama administration going to do with individuals who are captured in the future outside of combat zones like Afghanistan.

SHAPIRO: In the Bush administration, some of those detainees were housed in secret CIA prisons in foreign countries, known as black sites. President Obama closed those prisons, and when I asked the CIA whether they might ever reopen, spokesman Paul Gimigliano said, having this agency hold dangerous figures overseas, as was done before, is not an option. What the press came to call black sites are things of the past, he said. There is another option the Bush administration used that President Obama has said he will continue: rendition. In late August, President Obama's interrogation and transfer policy task force said the administration would continue sending terrorists to foreign countries as long as those governments promised not to torture detainees.

Cardozo Law Professor Vijay Padmanabhan was an attorney adviser at the State Department in the Bush administration. He says the Obama State Department is playing a major role in finding places to put terrorists.

Professor VIJAY PADMANABHAN (Law, Cardozo School of Law): They are looking to the other countries in the world, to their allies, to do more with respect to the long-term resolution of particular detention cases. So we've seen in the Horn of Africa - or the Kenyans, for example, have been called upon to detain and prosecute people.

SHAPIRO: Those agreements have to be worked out on a case-by-case basis, and they can be difficult, says John Bellinger, who was legal adviser to State under President Bush.

Mr. JOHN BELLINGER (Former Legal Adviser, Bush Administration,): The international community doesn't accept the idea that individuals can be held without trial over a long period of time. So it's unlikely that we would be able to persuade other members of the international community, particularly those in Europe, to join in holding people for any significant period of time unless they were going to be tried.

SHAPIRO: So, if the U.S. picks up 20 al-Qaida members tomorrow, and they cannot be held in the United States, Cuba, Afghanistan, black sites or foreign countries, where will they go?

Mr. KEN ANDERSON (Hoover Institution): To be perfectly blunt, I don't think that they'll pick them up at all.

SHAPIRO: Ken Anderson of the Hoover Institution has written about these issues.

Prof. ANDERSON: I think that we've actually allowed the courts to arrange the incentives to kill rather than capture.

SHAPIRO: Many national security experts interviewed for this story agree. It has become so difficult for the U.S. to detain people, in many instances, the U.S. government is killing them instead. Just last month, American forces staged a raid on a car in Somalia. The man inside the car was a suspected terrorist on the FBI's most wanted list. American troops did not seize him. Instead, helicopters fired on the car, and commandos retrieved his body. University of Michigan law professor Monica Hakimi worked at the State Department in the last administration. She does not like the idea of long-term detention. But, she says, none of the alternatives seem much better.

Professor MONICA HAKIMI (Law, University of Michigan): The benefit of capturing them is that we might be able to get from them certain intelligence that we can then use to hunt down future terrorists. The cost is that once we capture them, it's not really clear what we're supposed to do with them.

SHAPIRO: President Obama put together a task force to try to answer these questions. It was supposed to finish its work in July, but as the deadline approached, the team said it needed another six months to work through these problems.

From Ken Anderson's blog entry linked above

First, I'm delighted, of course, that the CIA post 9-11 was formulating plans to try and kill Al Qaeda leaders wherever they might be...

As for the distinction between inserting small teams or using Predators, recall that the US only began using Predators as a weapons platform in a semi-improvised way after 9-11. The obvious tactic was small team insertion, and only when it became clear that Predators could work, did the US move to that strategy.

Second, as to the international law issues involved in targeting Al Qaeda leaders, I will simply refer you over to a new paper, soon to appear as a book chapter in a volume edited by Benjamin Wittes on reforming counterterrorism policy, on targeted killing. That paper has a particular point, however. It says that of course the US targeted killings of Al Qaeda terrorists is a legal act of self defense under international law. (You can get a free pdf download, here, at SSRN, "Targeted Killing in US Counterterrorism and Law.")

The longer term question to which the paper mostly addresses itself is whether, in the face of withering international legal criticism, from UN special rapporteurs, human rights groups, academics, etc. - what we might call the international "soft law" crowd - the US, and specifically the Obama administration, will insist on the traditional doctrines of self defense, including against terrorists who find safe haven in states that are unwilling or unable to deal with them. The problem specifically for the Obama administration is that on the one hand it has - correctly in my view, for strategic, legal, and humanitarian reasons - embraced targeted killings via Predator strikes.

On the other hand, a lot of the administration's international legal apparatus is highly sympathetic to the "soft law" position, and in other circumstances would like to embrace positions that, however noble in the abstract, would effectively rule out targeted killing as the US pursues them. And particularly rule them out in future situations in which Al Qaeda is not involved, in which there is no AUMF, no Security Council resolutions, etc., to point to. ...

The paper is concerned with defending the US legal space for targeted killing undertaken as self defense, but not within the context of an armed conflict as defined under international humanitarian law. ...

Finally, the US domestic law question of assassination. The title of the article uses the word assassination. This is unfortunate, not because it is not accurate in the sense we ordinarily use the term, but because US law and regulation contains a ban on "assassination." Assassination in that specific legal sense is prohibited - but also not defined in US law or regulation. However, successive administrations dating from the 1980s have taken the position - e.g., the speech in 1989 to which the article refers - that a targeted killing is not (prohibited) "assassination" if it meets the requirements for self-defense under international law, including self defense against terrorists. As then-Dept of State legal advisor Abraham Sofaer put it, the assassination ban does not apply to otherwise "lawful killings undertaken in self defense against terrorists." I don't know if this is open access online; it was issued in the Military Law Review in 1989, and Judge Sofaer and others have told me that it was vetted with DOD and the White House as being US policy and interpretations of law. I am not aware of anything that has overturned it as US interpretation of the US assassination ban.

and from Anderson's linked "policy paper" abstract

This is a policy paper, not a law review or scholarly article, and it offers blunt advice to the Obama administration and the US Congress with a particular normative goal in mind - to preserve the legal rationales for the use of self-defense in targeted killing, whether or not an IHL armed conflict is underway, consistent with the positions taken by the United States in the 1980s, and culminating with a statement of the US position on self-defense against terrorism and targeting terrorists in third-state safe havens by then-State Department legal advisor Abraham Sofaer in 1989. The point of the paper is to urge the Obama administration, and offer it advice, on how to preserve the legal category of targeted killing as an aspect of inherent rights of self-defense and US domestic law.

...

It is frank, practical advice to the Obama administration that it must assert the legality of its practices in the face of a hostile and influential international soft-law community or risk losing the legal rationale for a signature strategy.

finally, snapping back to reality on Monday

Al Shabab Says they Will Display Gunned Down US Drone

KISMAYO, (RBC RADIO)- The Al Shabab rebels of Somalia say they have put down US drone in Kismayo in the southern Somalia, RBC Radio reports.

The US drone aircraft was flying over Kismayo, the capital of Lower Juba one of Al Shabab’s stronghold in the south of the country, RBC Radio correspondent says.

“Today our forces targeted the enemies aircraft and shot It down and we saw the plane burning, we want to show the journalists”, said Sheikh Hassan Ya’qub Al Shabab spokesman in Kismayo.

Sources in Kismayo told RBC the Islamist militia of Al Shabab fired anti aircraft artilleries and put the aircraft down on Monday noon.

“The aircraft fell into the water and our fighters are searching to relocate it from the water”, Sheikh Hassan Ya’qub said.

Local correspondents say if the Al Shabab’s claim is true then it will be the first time Al Shabab puts down US spy aircraft.

The Al Shabab administration of Al Shabab in Kismayo announced today that they will display the aircraft in the coming hours.

Reuters later wrote

Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, spokesman of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, said all its unmanned aerial vehicles had been safely recovered but could not give further details.