Search This Blog

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Merciless US, NATO & UN Genocide in Somalia Brought Nairobi Shopping Mall Blowback!


By Jay Janson   
For Kenya, with a population about the same as California, the September shopping mall massacre must have been nearly an equivalent shock for Kenyans as the much deadlier 9/11 terrorist attack was for the much larger American population. The background of these two massacres are pathetically similar. They were both blowback on US genocidal foreign policy. In fact Osama bin Laden in his 2002 Letter to Americans, included "attacks on Muslims in Somalia" in his list of reasons for the al Qaeda 9/11 attack."

This article will seek to explain, how most Americans and citizens of other NATO nations have some degree of involvement in the genocidal origin of this beastly, insane, barbaric,  unforgivable, murderous blowback terror within a Nairobi shopping mall. 

Also, why this massacre terror attack reprisal for Kenya's deadly invasion of Somalia has received a hundred times more US media cartel news coverage than the daily and often larger massacres going on in Iraq every month for years that receive only passing mention. The massacres of Shiites in Iran's neighbor Iraq's Shiite government serve the same colonial interests as the US backed opposition massacring to topple the Shiite government of Syria, whereas terror attacks against US allies in reprisal for colonially sponsored state terror are to be more widely condemned as grist for the heralded euphemistic "War on Terror." Wall Street's CIA has used the al Qaeda it helped create and fund more often than the al Qaeda has attacked the US or the US has had al Qaeda bombed.[1]


Somalia being from where most of the Kenyan Shopping Mall murderers came from, we begin with an overlook chronology of early US crimes against peace in Somalia, and a chronology of subsequent years of genocidal crimes, that have resulted in a million of Somali men, women and children losing their lives for the interests of capital accumulation by neo-colonialist predatory speculative investment banking.

A synopsis of American and European genocidal policies and actions in Somalia:


- When Fascist Italy invaded Somalia in 1935, the "fair minded' peace guardian white Colonial Powers run League of Nations embargoed all arms shipments to both sides, which of course was no brake on well arms stocked Italy, but made it impossible for Somalia to buy arms to defend against Italian genocide. 


During the 1980s, the US backed a brutal dictatorship without regard to great starvation. 300,000 Somalis, mostly children died. [3] 

In 1992 US Marines and Rangers killed many Somalis before being pulled out of danger after a lost battle since propagated as another case of American good guys in the movie Blackhawk Down .[4]
 


Over the next seven years, the US government attempts overtly and covertly with funding and arming and "diplomatic' maneuvering to keep the warlord most cooperative for US investment banking interests in power, or at least in power enough to prevent a non-cooperative Somali-for-Somali-interests government from forming (standard US foreign policy and that of all colonial and neo-colonial powers) - life costing internecine wars between warlords  - some of the very warlords that targeted US forces in 1992-93.

- 1991-1999, After the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a system of sharia-based Islamic courts had become the main judicial system, funded through fees paid by litigants. Over time the courts began to offer other services such as education and health care. The courts also acted as local police forces, being paid by local businesses to reduce crime. The Islamic courts took on the responsibility for halting robberies and drug-dealing, as well as stopping the showing of what pornographic films in local movie houses. Somalia is almost entirely Muslim, and these institutions initially had wide public support. They soon saw the sense in working together through a joint committee to promote security.  In 1999 the group began to assert its authority. The courts in Somalia formed a union of Islamic courts, partly to consolidate resources and power and partly to aid in handing down decisions across, rather than within, clan lines. The judges of the various courts of clans represented a wide spread of factions within Islamic scholarship from Liberal to Salafist, Salfi'i and Sufi. [ ICU, Wikipedia ]

In 2000, a group of businessmen in Mogadishu having enough of deadly violence, social degradation and the economy's disruption, formed the Islamic Courts Government Movement, to bring the law down on the chaotic situation often sought by powerful criminal overseas investors by funding Somali warlords. Supporters of the Islamic courts and other institutions united to form the ICUP, an armed militia.  In April they took control of the main market in Mogadishu and, in July, captured the road from Mogadishu to Afgoi. Their system of government, controlled by judges, is known as a krytocracy. Christian Science Monitor, 7/13/1999, "The bandits who presided over the treacherous road from Mogadishu to Afgoi were gone. The pick-up trucks packed with gun-brandishing youths who manned some 50 roadblocks along the 20-mile stretch were nonexistent.
 The combined militia forces of five Islamic courtshad cleared the road. [http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0713/p1s2.html] [5]

2002, December, The United States establishes an "anti-terrorism task force' in neighboring Djibouti, with 1,600 U.S. troops.
During the 1980s, the US backed a brutal dictatorship without regard to great starvation. 300,000 Somalis, mostly children died. [3] 
In 1992 US Marines and Rangers killed many Somalis before being pulled out of danger after a lost battle since propagated as another case of American good guys in the movie Blackhawk Down .[4]
 

Over the next seven years, the US government attempts overtly and covertly with funding and arming and "diplomatic' maneuvering to keep the warlord most cooperative for US investment banking interests in power, or at least in power enough to prevent a non-cooperative Somali-for-Somali-interests government from forming (standard US foreign policy and that of all colonial and neo-colonial powers) - life costing internecine wars between warlords  - some of the very warlords that targeted US forces in 1992-93.

- 1991-1999, After the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a system of sharia-based Islamic courts had become the main judicial system, funded through fees paid by litigants. Over time the courts began to offer other services such as education and health care. The courts also acted as local police forces, being paid by local businesses to reduce crime. The Islamic courts took on the responsibility for halting robberies and drug-dealing, as well as stopping the showing of what pornographic films in local movie houses. Somalia is almost entirely Muslim, and these institutions initially had wide public support. They soon saw the sense in working together through a joint committee to promote security.  In 1999 the group began to assert its authority. The courts in Somalia formed a union of Islamic courts, partly to consolidate resources and power and partly to aid in handing down decisions across, rather than within, clan lines. The judges of the various courts of clans represented a wide spread of factions within Islamic scholarship from Liberal to Salafist, Salfi'i and Sufi. [ ICU, Wikipedia ]

In 2000, a group of businessmen in Mogadishu having enough of deadly violence, social degradation and the economy's disruption, formed the Islamic Courts Government Movement, to bring the law down on the chaotic situation often sought by powerful criminal overseas investors by funding Somali warlords. Supporters of the Islamic courts and other institutions united to form the ICUP, an armed militia.  In April they took control of the main market in Mogadishu and, in July, captured the road from Mogadishu to Afgoi. Their system of government, controlled by judges, is known as a krytocracy. Christian Science Monitor, 7/13/1999, "The bandits who presided over the treacherous road from Mogadishu to Afgoi were gone. The pick-up trucks packed with gun-brandishing youths who manned some 50 roadblocks along the 20-mile stretch were nonexistent.
 The combined militia forces of five Islamic courtshad cleared the road. [http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0713/p1s2.html] [5]

2002, December, The United States establishes an "anti-terrorism task force' in neighboring Djibouti, with 1,600 U.S. troops.
In 1992 US Marines and Rangers killed many Somalis before being pulled out of danger after a lost battle since propagated as another case of American good guys in the movie Blackhawk Down .[4] 
Over the next seven years, the US government attempts overtly and covertly with funding and arming and "diplomatic' maneuvering to keep the warlord most cooperative for US investment banking interests in power, or at least in power enough to prevent a non-cooperative Somali-for-Somali-interests government from forming (standard US foreign policy and that of all colonial and neo-colonial powers) - life costing internecine wars between warlords  - some of the very warlords that targeted US forces in 1992-93.

- 1991-1999, After the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a system of sharia-based Islamic courts had become the main judicial system, funded through fees paid by litigants. Over time the courts began to offer other services such as education and health care. The courts also acted as local police forces, being paid by local businesses to reduce crime. The Islamic courts took on the responsibility for halting robberies and drug-dealing, as well as stopping the showing of what pornographic films in local movie houses. Somalia is almost entirely Muslim, and these institutions initially had wide public support. They soon saw the sense in working together through a joint committee to promote security.  In 1999 the group began to assert its authority. The courts in Somalia formed a union of Islamic courts, partly to consolidate resources and power and partly to aid in handing down decisions across, rather than within, clan lines. The judges of the various courts of clans represented a wide spread of factions within Islamic scholarship from Liberal to Salafist, Salfi'i and Sufi. [ ICU, Wikipedia ]

In 2000, a group of businessmen in Mogadishu having enough of deadly violence, social degradation and the economy's disruption, formed the Islamic Courts Government Movement, to bring the law down on the chaotic situation often sought by powerful criminal overseas investors by funding Somali warlords. Supporters of the Islamic courts and other institutions united to form the ICUP, an armed militia.  In April they took control of the main market in Mogadishu and, in July, captured the road from Mogadishu to Afgoi. Their system of government, controlled by judges, is known as a krytocracy. Christian Science Monitor, 7/13/1999, "The bandits who presided over the treacherous road from Mogadishu to Afgoi were gone. The pick-up trucks packed with gun-brandishing youths who manned some 50 roadblocks along the 20-mile stretch were nonexistent.
 The combined militia forces of five Islamic courtshad cleared the road. [http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0713/p1s2.html] [5]

2002, December, The United States establishes an "anti-terrorism task force' in neighboring Djibouti, with 1,600 U.S. troops.
Over the next seven years, the US government attempts overtly and covertly with funding and arming and "diplomatic' maneuvering to keep the warlord most cooperative for US investment banking interests in power, or at least in power enough to prevent a non-cooperative Somali-for-Somali-interests government from forming (standard US foreign policy and that of all colonial and neo-colonial powers) - life costing internecine wars between warlords  - some of the very warlords that targeted US forces in 1992-93.
- 1991-1999, After the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a system of sharia-based Islamic courts had become the main judicial system, funded through fees paid by litigants. Over time the courts began to offer other services such as education and health care. The courts also acted as local police forces, being paid by local businesses to reduce crime. The Islamic courts took on the responsibility for halting robberies and drug-dealing, as well as stopping the showing of what pornographic films in local movie houses. Somalia is almost entirely Muslim, and these institutions initially had wide public support. They soon saw the sense in working together through a joint committee to promote security.  In 1999 the group began to assert its authority. The courts in Somalia formed a union of Islamic courts, partly to consolidate resources and power and partly to aid in handing down decisions across, rather than within, clan lines. The judges of the various courts of clans represented a wide spread of factions within Islamic scholarship from Liberal to Salafist, Salfi'i and Sufi. [ ICU, Wikipedia ]

In 2000, a group of businessmen in Mogadishu having enough of deadly violence, social degradation and the economy's disruption, formed the Islamic Courts Government Movement, to bring the law down on the chaotic situation often sought by powerful criminal overseas investors by funding Somali warlords. Supporters of the Islamic courts and other institutions united to form the ICUP, an armed militia.  In April they took control of the main market in Mogadishu and, in July, captured the road from Mogadishu to Afgoi. Their system of government, controlled by judges, is known as a krytocracy. Christian Science Monitor, 7/13/1999, "The bandits who presided over the treacherous road from Mogadishu to Afgoi were gone. The pick-up trucks packed with gun-brandishing youths who manned some 50 roadblocks along the 20-mile stretch were nonexistent.
 The combined militia forces of five Islamic courtshad cleared the road. [http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0713/p1s2.html] [5]

2002, December, The United States establishes an "anti-terrorism task force' in neighboring Djibouti, with 1,600 U.S. troops.
- 1991-1999, After the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a system of sharia-based Islamic courts had become the main judicial system, funded through fees paid by litigants. Over time the courts began to offer other services such as education and health care. The courts also acted as local police forces, being paid by local businesses to reduce crime. The Islamic courts took on the responsibility for halting robberies and drug-dealing, as well as stopping the showing of what pornographic films in local movie houses. Somalia is almost entirely Muslim, and these institutions initially had wide public support. They soon saw the sense in working together through a joint committee to promote security.  In 1999 the group began to assert its authority. The courts in Somalia formed a union of Islamic courts, partly to consolidate resources and power and partly to aid in handing down decisions across, rather than within, clan lines. The judges of the various courts of clans represented a wide spread of factions within Islamic scholarship from Liberal to Salafist, Salfi'i and Sufi. [ ICU, Wikipedia ]
In 2000, a group of businessmen in Mogadishu having enough of deadly violence, social degradation and the economy's disruption, formed the Islamic Courts Government Movement, to bring the law down on the chaotic situation often sought by powerful criminal overseas investors by funding Somali warlords. Supporters of the Islamic courts and other institutions united to form the ICUP, an armed militia.  In April they took control of the main market in Mogadishu and, in July, captured the road from Mogadishu to Afgoi. Their system of government, controlled by judges, is known as a krytocracy. Christian Science Monitor, 7/13/1999, "The bandits who presided over the treacherous road from Mogadishu to Afgoi were gone. The pick-up trucks packed with gun-brandishing youths who manned some 50 roadblocks along the 20-mile stretch were nonexistent.
 The combined militia forces of five Islamic courtshad cleared the road. [http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0713/p1s2.html] [5]

2002, December, The United States establishes an "anti-terrorism task force' in neighboring Djibouti, with 1,600 U.S. troops.
In 2000, a group of businessmen in Mogadishu having enough of deadly violence, social degradation and the economy's disruption, formed the Islamic Courts Government Movement, to bring the law down on the chaotic situation often sought by powerful criminal overseas investors by funding Somali warlords. Supporters of the Islamic courts and other institutions united to form the ICUP, an armed militia.  In April they took control of the main market in Mogadishu and, in July, captured the road from Mogadishu to Afgoi. Their system of government, controlled by judges, is known as a krytocracy. Christian Science Monitor, 7/13/1999, "The bandits who presided over the treacherous road from Mogadishu to Afgoi were gone. The pick-up trucks packed with gun-brandishing youths who manned some 50 roadblocks along the 20-mile stretch were nonexistent. The combined militia forces of five Islamic courtshad cleared the road. [http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0713/p1s2.html] [5]
2002, December, The United States establishes an "anti-terrorism task force' in neighboring Djibouti, with 1,600 U.S. troops.
2002, December, The United States establishes an "anti-terrorism task force' in neighboring Djibouti, with 1,600 U.S. troops.
- 2004, Under US guidance a unity warlord government, the Transitional Federal Government is formed in neighboring Kenya.  It did not convene on Somali soil until February 2006, when it met in a converted grain warehouse in the western city of Baidoa because security concerns kept the legislature from entering Mogadishu

- 2004, Under US guidance a unity warlord government, the Transitional Federal Government is formed in neighboring Kenya.  It did not convene on Somali soil until February 2006, when it met in a converted grain warehouse in the western city of Baidoa because security concerns kept the legislature from entering Mogadishu
"A group of powerful warlords controlling the Somali capital on Tuesday held secret talks with US agents in a provincial town. The talks between the warlords, who recently formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), and the US agents were held in Jowhar, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu. The delegates arrived in Jowhar, the seat of Somali transitional government, in two planes -- one carrying the warlords and the other carrying the US agents."
by 2006 this merchant supported moderate Islamic Courts Union, had quickly become extremely popular in the overwhelmingly Islamic population throughout Somalis, and had all but defeated the US backed warlords and were expected and awaited by the long violence suffering inhabitants of Somalia's capital city Mogadishu, the last remaining part of Somalia not under its rule.

by 2006 this merchant supported moderate Islamic Courts Union, had quickly become extremely popular in the overwhelmingly Islamic population throughout Somalis, and had all but defeated the US backed warlords and were expected and awaited by the long violence suffering inhabitants of Somalia's capital city Mogadishu, the last remaining part of Somalia not under its rule.
"More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country, secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu. [author: same warlords that drove them out of the war-torn Horn of Africa nation a decade ago.]
Clashes, last week and over the weekend, were some of the most violent in Mogadishu since the end of the American intervention in 1994, and left 150 dead and hundreds more wounded. Leaders of the interim government blamed U.S. support of the militias for provoking the clashes.
Thousands of people from all different districts in Banadir Region participate chanting Anti American slogans and "we don't need those in Dollar interest, we don't refuse our religion"

June 13, 2006, Aljazeera , A leading member of the US-backed Somali commanders alliance, Abdi Hassan Awale Qeidid, on advice of elders from his Sa'ad sub-clan, in order to avoid further bloodshed, defects to the Islamic courts, dealing a blow to the weakened coalition that was routed from the capital Mogadishu.

July 15, the Islamic Courts reopened Mogadishu International Airport, which had been closed since the withdrawal of the international forces in 1995. The first airplane chartered by the Arab League flew from the airport for the first time in 11 years picking up Islamic Courts delegates to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.[

June 15, Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a news conference on June 15, "it was wrong for the United States government to support warlords in Somalia."
[
click here

June 16,  10,000 people demonstrate against a proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia.. Photo: AP

June 13, 2006, Aljazeera , A leading member of the US-backed Somali commanders alliance, Abdi Hassan Awale Qeidid, on advice of elders from his Sa'ad sub-clan, in order to avoid further bloodshed, defects to the Islamic courts, dealing a blow to the weakened coalition that was routed from the capital Mogadishu.

July 15, the Islamic Courts reopened Mogadishu International Airport, which had been closed since the withdrawal of the international forces in 1995. The first airplane chartered by the Arab League flew from the airport for the first time in 11 years picking up Islamic Courts delegates to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.[

June 15, Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a news conference on June 15, "it was wrong for the United States government to support warlords in Somalia."
[
click here

June 16,  10,000 people demonstrate against a proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia.. Photo: AP

June 13, 2006, Aljazeera , A leading member of the US-backed Somali commanders alliance, Abdi Hassan Awale Qeidid, on advice of elders from his Sa'ad sub-clan, in order to avoid further bloodshed, defects to the Islamic courts, dealing a blow to the weakened coalition that was routed from the capital Mogadishu.
July 15, the Islamic Courts reopened Mogadishu International Airport, which had been closed since the withdrawal of the international forces in 1995. The first airplane chartered by the Arab League flew from the airport for the first time in 11 years picking up Islamic Courts delegates to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.[

June 15, Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a news conference on June 15, "it was wrong for the United States government to support warlords in Somalia."
[
click here

June 16,  10,000 people demonstrate against a proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia.. Photo: AP

July 15, the Islamic Courts reopened Mogadishu International Airport, which had been closed since the withdrawal of the international forces in 1995. The first airplane chartered by the Arab League flew from the airport for the first time in 11 years picking up Islamic Courts delegates to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.[
June 15, Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a news conference on June 15, "it was wrong for the United States government to support warlords in Somalia."
[
click here

June 16,  10,000 people demonstrate against a proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia.. Photo: AP

June 15, Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a news conference on June 15, "it was wrong for the United States government to support warlords in Somalia."
[click here
June 16,  10,000 people demonstrate against a proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia.. Photo: AP

June 16,  10,000 people demonstrate against a proposed peacekeeping mission to Somalia.. Photo: AP
 [author: Colonial powers can always resort to using the UN which it created, to enforce colonialism.] Africa News described the Alliance (of warlords) as disappearing, their regions over-run by the Islamic Courts Union.
July 20, The ICU organize a clean-up campaign for the streets of Mogadishu. This was the first time litter and rubbish is collected in the entire city since it collapsed into chaos over a decade earlier.
On August 24, 2006, the ICU capture Harardhere, some 500 km northeast of Mogadishu, which had become a safe haven for pirates, who had forced shipping firms and international organizations to pay large ransoms for the release of vessels and crews.
On August 25, 2006 the Islamic Courts reopen historic Mogadishu seaport, which had been one of the busiest in East Africa, shut down for ten years. These successes of the Islamic Courts government were achieved in spite of the US crimes against humanity described even by as Wall Street loyal a source as the New York Times owned Washington Post:

When the popular Islamic Courts Union government forces finally defeated the warlords despite foreign troops and US helping the warlords, the US trained Ethiopian Army and Air Force invaded and murderously temporarily defeated the Somalian Islamic Courts in turn. [6]

Ethiopian troops had moved into Somalian territory on July 20, 2006 and pushed northward into the semi-autonomous state of Puntland. Several Ethiopian armored convoys heading to Baidoa are destroyed in sophisticated ambushes. 

December 22, 2006: 20 T-55 Ethiopian tanks, four attack helicopters in Baidoa.
December 23, Ethiopian tanks and further reinforcements arrived in Daynuunay, 30 kilometres east of Baidoa; prompting ICU forces to vow all-out war despite a commitment to an EU-brokered peace. [author: Sending in the Ethiopian Army is the white imperial way of brokering peace.

December, 2006, Open, conventional warfare breaks out between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopian forces seeking to reinstate the TFG towards the end of December. Fighting is intense, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. After several days of deadlock around Baidoa, Ethiopian armored columns, backed by air and artillery support, punch through and take Mogadishu,  The Ethiopians then pivot their columns and headed south. By New Years Day, the Islamic Courts abandoned Kismayo, the strategic southern port city and final stronghold of the ICU. The Ethiopians are reported to have executed foreign prisoners in the field and the ICU is said to have taken thousands of casualties. Stripped of almost all their territory, the ICU will pursue guerrilla-style warfare against the government.

July 20, The ICU organize a clean-up campaign for the streets of Mogadishu. This was the first time litter and rubbish is collected in the entire city since it collapsed into chaos over a decade earlier.
On August 24, 2006, the ICU capture Harardhere, some 500 km northeast of Mogadishu, which had become a safe haven for pirates, who had forced shipping firms and international organizations to pay large ransoms for the release of vessels and crews.
On August 25, 2006 the Islamic Courts reopen historic Mogadishu seaport, which had been one of the busiest in East Africa, shut down for ten years. These successes of the Islamic Courts government were achieved in spite of the US crimes against humanity described even by as Wall Street loyal a source as the New York Times owned Washington Post:
When the popular Islamic Courts Union government forces finally defeated the warlords despite foreign troops and US helping the warlords, the US trained Ethiopian Army and Air Force invaded and murderously temporarily defeated the Somalian Islamic Courts in turn. [6]

Ethiopian troops had moved into Somalian territory on July 20, 2006 and pushed northward into the semi-autonomous state of Puntland. Several Ethiopian armored convoys heading to Baidoa are destroyed in sophisticated ambushes. 

December 22, 2006: 20 T-55 Ethiopian tanks, four attack helicopters in Baidoa.
December 23, Ethiopian tanks and further reinforcements arrived in Daynuunay, 30 kilometres east of Baidoa; prompting ICU forces to vow all-out war despite a commitment to an EU-brokered peace. [author: Sending in the Ethiopian Army is the white imperial way of brokering peace.

December, 2006, Open, conventional warfare breaks out between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopian forces seeking to reinstate the TFG towards the end of December. Fighting is intense, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. After several days of deadlock around Baidoa, Ethiopian armored columns, backed by air and artillery support, punch through and take Mogadishu,  The Ethiopians then pivot their columns and headed south. By New Years Day, the Islamic Courts abandoned Kismayo, the strategic southern port city and final stronghold of the ICU. The Ethiopians are reported to have executed foreign prisoners in the field and the ICU is said to have taken thousands of casualties. Stripped of almost all their territory, the ICU will pursue guerrilla-style warfare against the government.

When the popular Islamic Courts Union government forces finally defeated the warlords despite foreign troops and US helping the warlords, the US trained Ethiopian Army and Air Force invaded and murderously temporarily defeated the Somalian Islamic Courts in turn. [6]
Ethiopian troops had moved into Somalian territory on July 20, 2006 and pushed northward into the semi-autonomous state of Puntland. Several Ethiopian armored convoys heading to Baidoa are destroyed in sophisticated ambushes. 

December 22, 2006: 20 T-55 Ethiopian tanks, four attack helicopters in Baidoa.
December 23, Ethiopian tanks and further reinforcements arrived in Daynuunay, 30 kilometres east of Baidoa; prompting ICU forces to vow all-out war despite a commitment to an EU-brokered peace. [author: Sending in the Ethiopian Army is the white imperial way of brokering peace.

December, 2006, Open, conventional warfare breaks out between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopian forces seeking to reinstate the TFG towards the end of December. Fighting is intense, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. After several days of deadlock around Baidoa, Ethiopian armored columns, backed by air and artillery support, punch through and take Mogadishu,  The Ethiopians then pivot their columns and headed south. By New Years Day, the Islamic Courts abandoned Kismayo, the strategic southern port city and final stronghold of the ICU. The Ethiopians are reported to have executed foreign prisoners in the field and the ICU is said to have taken thousands of casualties. Stripped of almost all their territory, the ICU will pursue guerrilla-style warfare against the government.

Ethiopian troops had moved into Somalian territory on July 20, 2006 and pushed northward into the semi-autonomous state of Puntland. Several Ethiopian armored convoys heading to Baidoa are destroyed in sophisticated ambushes. 
December 22, 2006: 20 T-55 Ethiopian tanks, four attack helicopters in Baidoa.
December 23, Ethiopian tanks and further reinforcements arrived in Daynuunay, 30 kilometres east of Baidoa; prompting ICU forces to vow all-out war despite a commitment to an EU-brokered peace. [author: Sending in the Ethiopian Army is the white imperial way of brokering peace.

December, 2006, Open, conventional warfare breaks out between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopian forces seeking to reinstate the TFG towards the end of December. Fighting is intense, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. After several days of deadlock around Baidoa, Ethiopian armored columns, backed by air and artillery support, punch through and take Mogadishu,  The Ethiopians then pivot their columns and headed south. By New Years Day, the Islamic Courts abandoned Kismayo, the strategic southern port city and final stronghold of the ICU. The Ethiopians are reported to have executed foreign prisoners in the field and the ICU is said to have taken thousands of casualties. Stripped of almost all their territory, the ICU will pursue guerrilla-style warfare against the government.

December 22, 2006: 20 T-55 Ethiopian tanks, four attack helicopters in Baidoa.
December 23, Ethiopian tanks and further reinforcements arrived in Daynuunay, 30 kilometres east of Baidoa; prompting ICU forces to vow all-out war despite a commitment to an EU-brokered peace. [author: Sending in the Ethiopian Army is the white imperial way of brokering peace.
December, 2006, Open, conventional warfare breaks out between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopian forces seeking to reinstate the TFG towards the end of December. Fighting is intense, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. After several days of deadlock around Baidoa, Ethiopian armored columns, backed by air and artillery support, punch through and take Mogadishu,  The Ethiopians then pivot their columns and headed south. By New Years Day, the Islamic Courts abandoned Kismayo, the strategic southern port city and final stronghold of the ICU. The Ethiopians are reported to have executed foreign prisoners in the field and the ICU is said to have taken thousands of casualties. Stripped of almost all their territory, the ICU will pursue guerrilla-style warfare against the government.

December, 2006, Open, conventional warfare breaks out between the Islamic Courts and Ethiopian forces seeking to reinstate the TFG towards the end of December. Fighting is intense, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. After several days of deadlock around Baidoa, Ethiopian armored columns, backed by air and artillery support, punch through and take Mogadishu,  The Ethiopians then pivot their columns and headed south. By New Years Day, the Islamic Courts abandoned Kismayo, the strategic southern port city and final stronghold of the ICU. The Ethiopians are reported to have executed foreign prisoners in the field and the ICU is said to have taken thousands of casualties. Stripped of almost all their territory, the ICU will pursue guerrilla-style warfare against the government.
Warlords return to fight against the ICU, resuming their places in Mogadishu following its fall to the and Ethiopian forces in December 2006. Wikipedia 
January 2007, The Islamic Courts indicate they will conduct an insurgency, and many of their fighters and all of their leaders are still unaccounted for. Kenya has closed the southern border, the United States Navy is blockading the Somali coast and Ethiopian forces are conducting operations along the Kenyan border. Al Shabaab militant youth wing of the Islamic Courts rises to leadership role. Besides al Shabaab, other hardline Islamists broke ranks with the ICU and formed other militant groups like Hizbul Islam, to continue the war against the the Ethiopian reinstalled government of warlords amenable to US investment interests. Wikipedia 
2007,  January 19, The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is created by the African Union's Peace and Security Council upon urging by the UN Security Council on US initiative to support the Federal Government of Somalia's (Warlord dominated) forces in their battle against Al-Shabaab militants. January 22, Christianized Malawi agrees to send 400 to 1,200 troops
 January 24,  U.S. airstrike;  Nigeria pledges 770 to 1,100 troops. Reuteres 
On January 31, Popular Resistance Movement releases a video warning African Union peacekeepers to avoid coming to Somalia, claiming "Somalia is not a place where you will earn a salary - it is a place where you will die." AP 
February 1, Burundi  pledges 1,000 troops BBC 
On February 9, 800 Somali demonstrators in Mogadishu, burn U.S., Ethiopian, and Ugandan flags. Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Burundi had committed troops to the "peacekeeping mission',Uganda had pledged 1,400 troops and some armored vehicles for a mission. BBC 
By the end of March, 2007,the fighting intensified in Mogadishu - more than a thousand people, mostly civilians killed. 

By the end of March, 2007,the fighting intensified in Mogadishu - more than a thousand people, mostly civilians killed. 
Ethiopian helicopters attack rebel positions, while the insurgents were calling on the people of the city over the mosque loudspeakers to resist the Ethiopians. 15 Ethiopian soldiers and civilians killed.
March 30, 2007, Islamic insurgents shoot down Ethiopian Mi-24 military helicopter.
April 4, 2007, ["evenhandedly fair' as all colonial based organizations] Amnesty International demands Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, ensure their forces abide by international humanitarian law [both the invaded defenders and the invaders that is]
April 25, 2007, FOX. Missile hits hospital ward packed with civilians; 
May 1, 2008, BBC American plane drops three large bombs on a house in the Dhuusamarreeb region in central Somalia. kills up 30 people.
THE WORM TURNS
 

THE WORM TURNS

August 22, 2008, Al-Shabaab retakes Kismayo, IRIN News (Islamic Courts Union, had been driven out of Kismayo in January 2007 when Ethiopian forces rolled into Somalia to take control of much of central and southern Somalia.)
The Islamic Courts' Youth Wing, al Shabaab (Shabaab = "youth' in Arabic), with great cost in deaths and casualties to themselves heroically pushed the  heavily weaponized Ethiopians back out of cities, though UN authorized African Union "Peace Keeping' forces invaded as well to protect the remnants of a revamped warlord coalition,
 

In early December 2008, Ethiopia announced it would withdraw its troops after first securing the withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda. Withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers puts pressure on the UN to provide troops.

January 25, 2009 [oft defeated] Ethiopian troops completely pulled out of Somalia.

Situation in Somalia in February 2009, following the second Ethiopian withdrawal Al-Shabab captured Baidoa, where the TFG parliament was based, on January 26. Following the collapse and end of the TFG, moderate Islamist leader of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was elected to become the new President of a United Somali government including the warlords. Al-Shabab declares war on him and pledges to continue attacks on TFG.

March 25, 2009,  Five TFG soldiers shot execution style in a Mogadishu district known for rogue soldiers stealing from civilians and local shops, setting up illegal toll blocks.

The Islamic Courts' Youth Wing, al Shabaab (Shabaab = "youth' in Arabic), with great cost in deaths and casualties to themselves heroically pushed the  heavily weaponized Ethiopians back out of cities, though UN authorized African Union "Peace Keeping' forces invaded as well to protect the remnants of a revamped warlord coalition, 
In early December 2008, Ethiopia announced it would withdraw its troops after first securing the withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda. Withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers puts pressure on the UN to provide troops.

January 25, 2009 [oft defeated] Ethiopian troops completely pulled out of Somalia.

Situation in Somalia in February 2009, following the second Ethiopian withdrawal Al-Shabab captured Baidoa, where the TFG parliament was based, on January 26. Following the collapse and end of the TFG, moderate Islamist leader of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was elected to become the new President of a United Somali government including the warlords. Al-Shabab declares war on him and pledges to continue attacks on TFG.

March 25, 2009,  Five TFG soldiers shot execution style in a Mogadishu district known for rogue soldiers stealing from civilians and local shops, setting up illegal toll blocks.

In early December 2008, Ethiopia announced it would withdraw its troops after first securing the withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda. Withdrawal of the AMISOM peacekeepers puts pressure on the UN to provide troops.
January 25, 2009 [oft defeated] Ethiopian troops completely pulled out of Somalia.

Situation in Somalia in February 2009, following the second Ethiopian withdrawal Al-Shabab captured Baidoa, where the TFG parliament was based, on January 26. Following the collapse and end of the TFG, moderate Islamist leader of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was elected to become the new President of a United Somali government including the warlords. Al-Shabab declares war on him and pledges to continue attacks on TFG.

March 25, 2009,  Five TFG soldiers shot execution style in a Mogadishu district known for rogue soldiers stealing from civilians and local shops, setting up illegal toll blocks.

January 25, 2009 [oft defeated] Ethiopian troops completely pulled out of Somalia.
Situation in Somalia in February 2009, following the second Ethiopian withdrawal Al-Shabab captured Baidoa, where the TFG parliament was based, on January 26. Following the collapse and end of the TFG, moderate Islamist leader of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was elected to become the new President of a United Somali government including the warlords. Al-Shabab declares war on him and pledges to continue attacks on TFG.

March 25, 2009,  Five TFG soldiers shot execution style in a Mogadishu district known for rogue soldiers stealing from civilians and local shops, setting up illegal toll blocks.

Situation in Somalia in February 2009, following the second Ethiopian withdrawal Al-Shabab captured Baidoa, where the TFG parliament was based, on January 26. Following the collapse and end of the TFG, moderate Islamist leader of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was elected to become the new President of a United Somali government including the warlords. Al-Shabab declares war on him and pledges to continue attacks on TFG.
March 25, 2009,  Five TFG soldiers shot execution style in a Mogadishu district known for rogue soldiers stealing from civilians and local shops, setting up illegal toll blocks.

March 25, 2009,  Five TFG soldiers shot execution style in a Mogadishu district known for rogue soldiers stealing from civilians and local shops, setting up illegal toll blocks.
 2009-01-27--explosions and gunfire heard as government soldiers fight among themselves over control of the city, following the departure of Ethiopians. Police, local militia looting the presidential palace and parliament building as well as police stations; police who have splintered into clan groups. Mareeg.com-
January 5, 2010,  CNN, More than 1 million in Somalia going hungry, aid agency says

January 5, 2010,  CNN, More than 1 million in Somalia going hungry, aid agency says
"In May (2010), the fighting intensifies in Mogadishu; 270,000 displaced; internally displaced persons 1.5 million " UNHCR website. 

"In May (2010), the fighting intensifies in Mogadishu; 270,000 displaced; internally displaced persons 1.5 million " UNHCR website. 
July 6, 2010, (CNN) -- Anti-government demonstrators, including women dressed in full hijabs brandishing AK-47 automatic rifles, march through the streets of Somalia's violence-torn capital accuse African Union Mission of killing people. "AMISOM killed my mummy" and "AMISOM get out of our country" said two signs. e and it will happen in Bujumbura [the Burundi capital] too." [7]
12 JULY 2010, The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has said it was behind Kampala Uganda blasts that killed 74 people, one American.

Somali militants recruit Americans Video CNN 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59GUaGYnaQ

10 June 2011, Somali Interior Minister killed by Niece, BBC 
Three more regions of Somalia struck by famine, including the capital, Mogadishu, UN

12 JULY 2010, The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has said it was behind Kampala Uganda blasts that killed 74 people, one American.
Somali militants recruit Americans Video CNN 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59GUaGYnaQ

10 June 2011, Somali Interior Minister killed by Niece, BBC 
Three more regions of Somalia struck by famine, including the capital, Mogadishu, UN

Somali militants recruit Americans Video CNN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59GUaGYnaQ
10 June 2011, Somali Interior Minister killed by Niece, BBC 
Three more regions of Somalia struck by famine, including the capital, Mogadishu, UN

10 June 2011, Somali Interior Minister killed by Niece, BBC 
Three more regions of Somalia struck by famine, including the capital, Mogadishu, UN
Kenya's intervention in southern Somalia in October 2011 had been planned for at least two years. The release of WikiLeaks cables in 2010 documented the plans and the role of the State Department.

Kenya's intervention in southern Somalia in October 2011 had been planned for at least two years. The release of WikiLeaks cables in 2010 documented the plans and the role of the State Department.
The UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon arrived in Somalia fresh from the UN-US-NATO re-conquest of Libya for the West, and the assassination of the its revolutionary leader and Chairman of the African Union. "We are now at a critical juncture -- a moment of fresh opportunities for the future of Somali people," Mr. Ban said. The reader might Step back a moment an consider how commonplace a UN ruthless and inhumane military attack has been over the sixty odd years of the UN's existence: [see Korean Traitor US Stooge UN 'Terror Council' Sec. Gen. in Somalia  click here
(In addition to U.S. NATO and the UN involvement in Somalia and Kenya, the state of Israel has close ties with the government in Nairobi and has contracts to train the Ethiopian Armed Forces.)

Aug.14,  Rights group says all sides guilty of crime  Human Rights Watch has said all sides in Somalia's are guilty of serious violations of international law. BBC [author notes: invaders and invaded receiving equal condemnation!
 
Jul.12, 2011, CNN,  CIA aiding Somalia suspect interrogations

(In addition to U.S. NATO and the UN involvement in Somalia and Kenya, the state of Israel has close ties with the government in Nairobi and has contracts to train the Ethiopian Armed Forces.)
Aug.14,  Rights group says all sides guilty of crime  Human Rights Watch has said all sides in Somalia's are guilty of serious violations of international law. BBC [author notes: invaders and invaded receiving equal condemnation!
 
Jul.12, 2011, CNN,  CIA aiding Somalia suspect interrogations

Aug.14,  Rights group says all sides guilty of crime  Human Rights Watch has said all sides in Somalia's are guilty of serious violations of international law. BBC [author notes: invaders and invaded receiving equal condemnation!

Jul.12, 2011, CNN,  CIA aiding Somalia suspect interrogations
August 2011, the United Nations, African Union's AMISOM ,United States, and the TFG battling Al Shabaab claim control of Mogadishu.
Aug.12,  U.N .: Not enough money to fight famine 
Aug.17,   UK minister visits Mogadishu   
January 20, African Union forces launch offensive against Al-Shabaab positions on the northern outskirts of Mogadishu.[2]
 
January 20, African Union forces launch offensive against Al-Shabaab positions on the northern outskirts of Mogadishu.[2] 
January 24, Al-Shabaab suicide attack against an Ethiopian military base in Beledweyne. 
Al-Shabab claimed to have killed 73 Ethiopians, most intense fighting since Ethiopian troops entered Somalia last November.

May 29, Kenyan naval forces shell Kismayo. Al-Shabaab insurgents open fire on Kenyan patrol vessels off Somalian coast. Garowa on line 
July 24 Christian Science Monitor " corrupt TFG had foreigners defeat Islamic Courts [8]
August 16, Kenyan Forces stationed in Southern Somalia engage in combat with as many as a thousand Al-Shabaab militants attempting to assault  Kenyan garrison in Fafadhun.
September 4,  offensive by AMISOM, the Kenyan navy shells the Islamist stronghold of Kismayo. Kenyan fighter jets bomb city. Aljazeera 
January 11, 2013, Al-Shabaab fighters kill French soldiers trying to rescue agent Allex,  taken hostage in 2009 while training Somali government troops. In exchange for his release, Al-Shabaab had demanded cessation of French involvement and complete withdrawal of AMISOM forces. 

Al-Shabab claimed to have killed 73 Ethiopians, most intense fighting since Ethiopian troops entered Somalia last November.
May 29, Kenyan naval forces shell Kismayo. Al-Shabaab insurgents open fire on Kenyan patrol vessels off Somalian coast. Garowa on line 
July 24 Christian Science Monitor " corrupt TFG had foreigners defeat Islamic Courts [8]
August 16, Kenyan Forces stationed in Southern Somalia engage in combat with as many as a thousand Al-Shabaab militants attempting to assault  Kenyan garrison in Fafadhun.
September 4,  offensive by AMISOM, the Kenyan navy shells the Islamist stronghold of Kismayo. Kenyan fighter jets bomb city. Aljazeera 
January 11, 2013, Al-Shabaab fighters kill French soldiers trying to rescue agent Allex,  taken hostage in 2009 while training Somali government troops. In exchange for his release, Al-Shabaab had demanded cessation of French involvement and complete withdrawal of AMISOM forces. 

May 29, Kenyan naval forces shell Kismayo. Al-Shabaab insurgents open fire on Kenyan patrol vessels off Somalian coast. Garowa on line 
July 24 Christian Science Monitor " corrupt TFG had foreigners defeat Islamic Courts [8]
August 16, Kenyan Forces stationed in Southern Somalia engage in combat with as many as a thousand Al-Shabaab militants attempting to assault  Kenyan garrison in Fafadhun.
September 4,  offensive by AMISOM, the Kenyan navy shells the Islamist stronghold of Kismayo. Kenyan fighter jets bomb city. Aljazeera 
January 11, 2013, Al-Shabaab fighters kill French soldiers trying to rescue agent Allex,  taken hostage in 2009 while training Somali government troops. In exchange for his release, Al-Shabaab had demanded cessation of French involvement and complete withdrawal of AMISOM forces. 
June 19, The UN's Development Program offices in Mogadishu attacked by Islamist militants. Four from Great Britain and South Africa dead. 
July 4, UN WHO reports massive clashes in Kismayo. Raskamboni movement and Barre Adan Shire Hiiraale militia battling for control of city. Somali government blames Kenyan troops for covertly supporting rival militias opposed to the government

July 4, UN WHO reports massive clashes in Kismayo. Raskamboni movement and Barre Adan Shire Hiiraale militia battling for control of city. Somali government blames Kenyan troops for covertly supporting rival militias opposed to the government
UN Security Council votes to increase the AU force. Kenyan soldiers fighting al-Shabab in Somalia to be integrated into the Amisom force.
Decent people everywhere are not on the side of US imperialism, but when Somalian and foreign al Qaeda praised the Islamic Courts when it was attacked by the US and began fighting alongside al Shabaab facing down the Ethiopians, Western war mongering media could easily bolster the pretext of fighting al Qaeda, the pretext the US uses elsewhere to prevent independent governments from existing in the Arab world. And as elsewhere this US use of "legalized' terror has brought "illegal' terror blowback. In Somalia's case, because an American genocidal foreign policy of destroying Somalia's popular conservative Islamic Courts Union government with continuous warfare since 2000, which brought quite naturally its more radical Youth Wing al Shabaab lead the fight against Western genocidal neo-colonialism. [9] [10]

Al-Shabaab with other militants had taken back cities conquered by the Ethiopians and the hard pressed Ethiopians withdrew when more the UN authorized African Union Force troops arrived. When again the forces of colonialism were on the verge of defeat, US proxy Kenyan Armed Forces were added into the soup of death, to accomplish what the Ethiopians had begun.  

Decent people everywhere are not on the side of US imperialism, but when Somalian and foreign al Qaeda praised the Islamic Courts when it was attacked by the US and began fighting alongside al Shabaab facing down the Ethiopians, Western war mongering media could easily bolster the pretext of fighting al Qaeda, the pretext the US uses elsewhere to prevent independent governments from existing in the Arab world. And as elsewhere this US use of "legalized' terror has brought "illegal' terror blowback. In Somalia's case, because an American genocidal foreign policy of destroying Somalia's popular conservative Islamic Courts Union government with continuous warfare since 2000, which brought quite naturally its more radical Youth Wing al Shabaab lead the fight against Western genocidal neo-colonialism. [9] [10]
Al-Shabaab with other militants had taken back cities conquered by the Ethiopians and the hard pressed Ethiopians withdrew when more the UN authorized African Union Force troops arrived. When again the forces of colonialism were on the verge of defeat, US proxy Kenyan Armed Forces were added into the soup of death, to accomplish what the Ethiopians had begun.  

Al-Shabaab with other militants had taken back cities conquered by the Ethiopians and the hard pressed Ethiopians withdrew when more the UN authorized African Union Force troops arrived. When again the forces of colonialism were on the verge of defeat, US proxy Kenyan Armed Forces were added into the soup of death, to accomplish what the Ethiopians had begun.  
RESULT: More death, maiming, destruction and more importantly creating STARVATION [Between 2010 and 2012, more than a quarter of a million people died in the famine in Somalia" " Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures" Oxfam . [11]   In Somalia's case, because the US of genocide destroyed Somalia's chosen government, which is normal colonial procedure. During all these above decades famine relief has taken second priority to Western exploitive business interests in Somalia with genocidal consequences. [12]

al-Qaeda has entered the fight against the US with more suicide bombings and in the last week of September came the Kenya Shopping Mall terror massacre. The reader is invited to check his or her possible involvement in the horrific neo-colonial events that have surely produced this shopping mall massacre.

The adolescent Great White Father, now quite globalized, has let the Somalian people know over and over again, through merciless gunfire, missiles and drone assassinations, that they are prohibited from choosing their own government. This of course is, again, is standard operating procedure for predatory speculative investment US imperialism: Greeks, Koreans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Congolese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Dominicans, Salvadorians, Panamanians, Nicaraguans, Haitians and at one time or another, almost every other nation in Latin America, Iraqis Libyans, Afghanis have though calculated genocide, not been allowed to choose their own government. (An in depth investigation would show that Americans are also not allowed to choose their own government.) The Nazis did the same, but then its Wehrmacht was built by a crash investment and joint venture with America's top fifty corporations which all made a killing during WW II and the Holocaust, and made the United States the single super Colonial Power, capable of dictating a lot more than just who governs where.

Those US victim countries will have their day in court and compensation for wrongful death in the millions, injuries in the billions, destruction of property and theft of natural resources. In the meantime mayhem that divides and destroys whichever side of any commodity, or nation worth plundering, can be made to be profitable for speculative investment bankers skilled in selling short. 

Again: Reader, check your possible involvement! Have you believed in silly but vicious fairy tells of colonial powers being democratic and seeking democracy's spread? North America was stolen from its indigenous natives, Africans enslaved for their labor, half of Mexico raped away, a million Filipinos butchered for their land? Democratically?

With US genocide still ongoing, progressive neo-colonialist journalism slaps the hands of Somali warlords in an example of back-handed support for silly but vicious fairy tales: 

RESULT: More death, maiming, destruction and more importantly creating STARVATION [Between 2010 and 2012, more than a quarter of a million people died in the famine in Somalia" " Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures" Oxfam . [11]   In Somalia's case, because the US of genocide destroyed Somalia's chosen government, which is normal colonial procedure. During all these above decades famine relief has taken second priority to Western exploitive business interests in Somalia with genocidal consequences. [12]
al-Qaeda has entered the fight against the US with more suicide bombings and in the last week of September came the Kenya Shopping Mall terror massacre. The reader is invited to check his or her possible involvement in the horrific neo-colonial events that have surely produced this shopping mall massacre.

The adolescent Great White Father, now quite globalized, has let the Somalian people know over and over again, through merciless gunfire, missiles and drone assassinations, that they are prohibited from choosing their own government. This of course is, again, is standard operating procedure for predatory speculative investment US imperialism: Greeks, Koreans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Congolese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Dominicans, Salvadorians, Panamanians, Nicaraguans, Haitians and at one time or another, almost every other nation in Latin America, Iraqis Libyans, Afghanis have though calculated genocide, not been allowed to choose their own government. (An in depth investigation would show that Americans are also not allowed to choose their own government.) The Nazis did the same, but then its Wehrmacht was built by a crash investment and joint venture with America's top fifty corporations which all made a killing during WW II and the Holocaust, and made the United States the single super Colonial Power, capable of dictating a lot more than just who governs where.

Those US victim countries will have their day in court and compensation for wrongful death in the millions, injuries in the billions, destruction of property and theft of natural resources. In the meantime mayhem that divides and destroys whichever side of any commodity, or nation worth plundering, can be made to be profitable for speculative investment bankers skilled in selling short. 

Again: Reader, check your possible involvement! Have you believed in silly but vicious fairy tells of colonial powers being democratic and seeking democracy's spread? North America was stolen from its indigenous natives, Africans enslaved for their labor, half of Mexico raped away, a million Filipinos butchered for their land? Democratically?

With US genocide still ongoing, progressive neo-colonialist journalism slaps the hands of Somali warlords in an example of back-handed support for silly but vicious fairy tales: 

al-Qaeda has entered the fight against the US with more suicide bombings and in the last week of September came the Kenya Shopping Mall terror massacre. The reader is invited to check his or her possible involvement in the horrific neo-colonial events that have surely produced this shopping mall massacre.
The adolescent Great White Father, now quite globalized, has let the Somalian people know over and over again, through merciless gunfire, missiles and drone assassinations, that they are prohibited from choosing their own government. This of course is, again, is standard operating procedure for predatory speculative investment US imperialism: Greeks, Koreans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Congolese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Dominicans, Salvadorians, Panamanians, Nicaraguans, Haitians and at one time or another, almost every other nation in Latin America, Iraqis Libyans, Afghanis have though calculated genocide, not been allowed to choose their own government. (An in depth investigation would show that Americans are also not allowed to choose their own government.) The Nazis did the same, but then its Wehrmacht was built by a crash investment and joint venture with America's top fifty corporations which all made a killing during WW II and the Holocaust, and made the United States the single super Colonial Power, capable of dictating a lot more than just who governs where.

Those US victim countries will have their day in court and compensation for wrongful death in the millions, injuries in the billions, destruction of property and theft of natural resources. In the meantime mayhem that divides and destroys whichever side of any commodity, or nation worth plundering, can be made to be profitable for speculative investment bankers skilled in selling short. 

Again: Reader, check your possible involvement! Have you believed in silly but vicious fairy tells of colonial powers being democratic and seeking democracy's spread? North America was stolen from its indigenous natives, Africans enslaved for their labor, half of Mexico raped away, a million Filipinos butchered for their land? Democratically?

With US genocide still ongoing, progressive neo-colonialist journalism slaps the hands of Somali warlords in an example of back-handed support for silly but vicious fairy tales: 

The adolescent Great White Father, now quite globalized, has let the Somalian people know over and over again, through merciless gunfire, missiles and drone assassinations, that they are prohibited from choosing their own government. This of course is, again, is standard operating procedure for predatory speculative investment US imperialism: Greeks, Koreans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Congolese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Dominicans, Salvadorians, Panamanians, Nicaraguans, Haitians and at one time or another, almost every other nation in Latin America, Iraqis Libyans, Afghanis have though calculated genocide, not been allowed to choose their own government. (An in depth investigation would show that Americans are also not allowed to choose their own government.) The Nazis did the same, but then its Wehrmacht was built by a crash investment and joint venture with America's top fifty corporations which all made a killing during WW II and the Holocaust, and made the United States the single super Colonial Power, capable of dictating a lot more than just who governs where.
Those US victim countries will have their day in court and compensation for wrongful death in the millions, injuries in the billions, destruction of property and theft of natural resources. In the meantime mayhem that divides and destroys whichever side of any commodity, or nation worth plundering, can be made to be profitable for speculative investment bankers skilled in selling short. 

Again: Reader, check your possible involvement! Have you believed in silly but vicious fairy tells of colonial powers being democratic and seeking democracy's spread? North America was stolen from its indigenous natives, Africans enslaved for their labor, half of Mexico raped away, a million Filipinos butchered for their land? Democratically?

With US genocide still ongoing, progressive neo-colonialist journalism slaps the hands of Somali warlords in an example of back-handed support for silly but vicious fairy tales: 

Those US victim countries will have their day in court and compensation for wrongful death in the millions, injuries in the billions, destruction of property and theft of natural resources. In the meantime mayhem that divides and destroys whichever side of any commodity, or nation worth plundering, can be made to be profitable for speculative investment bankers skilled in selling short. 
Again: Reader, check your possible involvement! Have you believed in silly but vicious fairy tells of colonial powers being democratic and seeking democracy's spread? North America was stolen from its indigenous natives, Africans enslaved for their labor, half of Mexico raped away, a million Filipinos butchered for their land? Democratically?

With US genocide still ongoing, progressive neo-colonialist journalism slaps the hands of Somali warlords in an example of back-handed support for silly but vicious fairy tales: 

Again: Reader, check your possible involvement! Have you believed in silly but vicious fairy tells of colonial powers being democratic and seeking democracy's spread? North America was stolen from its indigenous natives, Africans enslaved for their labor, half of Mexico raped away, a million Filipinos butchered for their land? Democratically?
With US genocide still ongoing, progressive neo-colonialist journalism slaps the hands of Somali warlords in an example of back-handed support for silly but vicious fairy tales: 

With US genocide still ongoing, progressive neo-colonialist journalism slaps the hands of Somali warlords in an example of back-handed support for silly but vicious fairy tales: 
8/20/2012, Christian Science Monitor : "Somalia's rulers must make the crucial step, going from being an unelected interim authority toward creating a more lasting government." 
1 It was Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to be President Jimmy Carter, who, in mid 1979, first encouraged and used Islamic fundamentalist terror by ordering the secret funding, arming and training of non-Pashtun Afghani warlord armies of fundamentalist men fearful of the new popular women-liberating Socialist government in Kabul, which was providing unwanted schooling for their daughters and wives. (The most infamous warlord the US funded was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, known for spraying acid on unveiled women while still a university student.) [2]"-
It is well known that the CIA funded al Qaeda during its beginning through payments to Osama bin Laden, who, along with thousands of Arabs of the strict Saudi Wahabi sect, had been invited into that part of Afghanistan controlled by the CIA, after the Soviets had entered Afghanistan to protect its ally in Kabul. There is an amazing video of Presidential Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski speaking to newly arrived, CIA imported, Arab fighters, calling for jihad against the Soviet army and the Kabul government.[3]
Thereafter, it was the US Holocaust in Iraq that produced the greatest growth of al Qaeda, which entered and further sprang up in that country to fight Americans, who again were mercilessly invading another Muslin nation that had been friendly to the US.  In the case of Iraq, even merciless to the point of CIA having helped Saddam Hussein to power and later partnering with Saddam during his horrific million death invasion of Iran, that had so gratified President Reagan and his Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld.[4]
For two years now the CIA has been running another faked 'spontaneous' revolt in yet another previously well run, sophisticated nation in the cradle of civilization, with, as in the case of Iraq and Libya, fine free health care and education through PhD for all its citizens. (America has liberated sixty million from such benefits). With all the unnecessary gall in a world watching CIA fed CNN,

For two years now the CIA has been running another faked 'spontaneous' revolt in yet another previously well run, sophisticated nation in the cradle of civilization, with, as in the case of Iraq and Libya, fine free health care and education through PhD for all its citizens. (America has liberated sixty million from such benefits). With all the unnecessary gall in a world watching CIA fed CNN,
US officials proclaim their CIA's right to hire, arm and train whomsoever to overthrow the proven popular government of Syria, no matter that al Qaeda within America's "freedom fighter' opposition armies executes civilians, even teenagers, and is now famous for the video of an opposition leader cutting out and eating the heart of a Syrian soldier. 
As in the case of Libya, without a single really corroborating video or photo, the angel of death President of the US has the confidence to lie that President Assad (as the year before, that Revolutionary Leader Gadaffi) "is killing his own people." Al Qaeda, a now world wide amorphous movement, can be used to butcher or as an excuse to bomb, depending on what is profitable.

After twelve years of genocidal Western occupation, the al Qaeda that the US brought into Persian speaking Afghanistan is still the excuse for the white armies to continue to turkey shoot members and adherents of Taliban, the former recognized government of what was left of Afghanistan after the US backed and armed warlords saw to infighting that brought the nation to unimaginable violent chaos, with widespread raping of women and complete lawlessness, until defeated by national-salvation minded religious Taliban ('Taliban' means 'students' in Pashun language). In spite of the tragic toll taken on these Afghani battling invaders with by superior weaponry, Taliban has remained in power throughout most of the countryside of Afghanistan. 

US drone missiles continue to turn al Qaeda and whomever happens to be nearby into 'bugsplats' in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Do Americans, English and citizens of other white nation members of collaborating NATO and beyond, bite their tongue when reading of the US use of al Qaeda first in Afghanistan, then in Libya, now in Syria and most probably in Iraq? 
  
Finally the super gruesome daily suicide bombings in Iraq of as many victims as ninety in a single day, going on now for a year or more, bears mention in regard to US involvement in al Qaeda. 

As in the case of Libya, without a single really corroborating video or photo, the angel of death President of the US has the confidence to lie that President Assad (as the year before, that Revolutionary Leader Gadaffi) "is killing his own people." Al Qaeda, a now world wide amorphous movement, can be used to butcher or as an excuse to bomb, depending on what is profitable.
After twelve years of genocidal Western occupation, the al Qaeda that the US brought into Persian speaking Afghanistan is still the excuse for the white armies to continue to turkey shoot members and adherents of Taliban, the former recognized government of what was left of Afghanistan after the US backed and armed warlords saw to infighting that brought the nation to unimaginable violent chaos, with widespread raping of women and complete lawlessness, until defeated by national-salvation minded religious Taliban ('Taliban' means 'students' in Pashun language). In spite of the tragic toll taken on these Afghani battling invaders with by superior weaponry, Taliban has remained in power throughout most of the countryside of Afghanistan. 

US drone missiles continue to turn al Qaeda and whomever happens to be nearby into 'bugsplats' in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Do Americans, English and citizens of other white nation members of collaborating NATO and beyond, bite their tongue when reading of the US use of al Qaeda first in Afghanistan, then in Libya, now in Syria and most probably in Iraq? 
  
Finally the super gruesome daily suicide bombings in Iraq of as many victims as ninety in a single day, going on now for a year or more, bears mention in regard to US involvement in al Qaeda. 

After twelve years of genocidal Western occupation, the al Qaeda that the US brought into Persian speaking Afghanistan is still the excuse for the white armies to continue to turkey shoot members and adherents of Taliban, the former recognized government of what was left of Afghanistan after the US backed and armed warlords saw to infighting that brought the nation to unimaginable violent chaos, with widespread raping of women and complete lawlessness, until defeated by national-salvation minded religious Taliban ('Taliban' means 'students' in Pashun language). In spite of the tragic toll taken on these Afghani battling invaders with by superior weaponry, Taliban has remained in power throughout most of the countryside of Afghanistan. 
US drone missiles continue to turn al Qaeda and whomever happens to be nearby into 'bugsplats' in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Do Americans, English and citizens of other white nation members of collaborating NATO and beyond, bite their tongue when reading of the US use of al Qaeda first in Afghanistan, then in Libya, now in Syria and most probably in Iraq? 
  
Finally the super gruesome daily suicide bombings in Iraq of as many victims as ninety in a single day, going on now for a year or more, bears mention in regard to US involvement in al Qaeda. 

US drone missiles continue to turn al Qaeda and whomever happens to be nearby into 'bugsplats' in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Do Americans, English and citizens of other white nation members of collaborating NATO and beyond, bite their tongue when reading of the US use of al Qaeda first in Afghanistan, then in Libya, now in Syria and most probably in Iraq? 
  
Finally the super gruesome daily suicide bombings in Iraq of as many victims as ninety in a single day, going on now for a year or more, bears mention in regard to US involvement in al Qaeda. 
What would the heartless automaton bankers of profitable genocide working for total globalized US hegemony not do to keep 65% Shiite Iraq from a normal and to be expected political rapprochement and cooperation with 95% Shiite Iran. (Please, don't any reader fall for that sap about of 'sectarian violence' between Sunni and Shiite, who have intermarried everywhere over the last thousand years.) Notice that there are no serious US plans to help the Shiite majority Iraq government save its citizens from being slaughtered, and notice that US media which ran the story of the sixty lives lost Kenya shopping mall massacre for two weeks, devotes prime time news to no more than reporting the daily number of dead in Iraq massacres. 
It is exceedingly probable that the US is somehow covertly heavily involved in the al Qaeda and other Sunni suicide attacks on Shiites in Iraq.  Even if somehow were not, Washington certainly would have the power through its satellite Saudi Arabia to mitigate this stupid, astounding loss of precious life for ordinary, read wonderful, men, women and children.

It is exceedingly probable that the US is somehow covertly heavily involved in the al Qaeda and other Sunni suicide attacks on Shiites in Iraq.  Even if somehow were not, Washington certainly would have the power through its satellite Saudi Arabia to mitigate this stupid, astounding loss of precious life for ordinary, read wonderful, men, women and children.
"Russian TV Asked Shouldn't Public Sleep Better After CIA FBI Manhunt Success? VIDEO"Wall Street's CIA has used the al Qaeda it helped create and fund more often than the US Air Force has bombed it. An awakened public will make war unprofitable by law.
2
1974, US encouraged, heavily armed and aided a bloody Somalian invasion of Ethiopia when a military coup by leftist officers topples the Ethiopian monarchy and declares the country a Marxist-Leninist state.
1976, in a reversal, US covertly supplied arms and support to all foreign based attempts to violently overthrow the 1976 founded revolutionary socialist government in Somalia for its receiving aid from the USSR; large-scale American military support of Somalia's historic rival Ethiopia, then under the rule of the feudal emperor Haile Selassie. 
3
the 1980s, despite warnings by Africa specialists, human rights groups and humanitarian organizations that continued American aid to the dictatorial government of Siad Barre would eventually plunge Somalia into chaos. US poured in more than $50 million of arms annually to prop up this disastrous Barre dictatorship while offering  virtually no assistance that would have helped build a self-sustaining economy which could feed Somalia's people. In addition, the United States pushed a structural adjustment program through the International Monetary Fund severely weakening the local agricultural economy. Combined with the breakdown of the central government, drought conditions and rival militias disrupting food supplies, there was famine on a massive scale, resulting in the deaths of more than 300,000 Somalis, mostly children.

Just before dictator Siad Barre's overthrow in early 1991, the U.S. sends hundreds of millions of dollars of arms to Somalia in return for the use of military facilities which had been originally constructed for the Soviets. (These bases will to be used to support American military intervention in the Middle East.)
 

4
1992, November, outgoing Bush administration sent 30,000 U.S. troops, primarily Marines and Army Rangers, to Somalia in what was described as a humanitarian mission to assist in the distribution of relief supplies.  In some cases, U.S. forces essentially dumped food on local markets, hurting indigenous farmers and creating greater food shortages over the longer term - few Somalis were involved in the decisions during this crucial period.
 
Such an overbearing foreign military presence in a country which had been free from colonial rule for only a little more than three decades leads to growing resentment, particularly since these elite combat forces were not trained for such humanitarian missions. U.S. Secretary of Defense is reported to quip to an associate, "We're sending the Rangers to Somalia. We are not going to be able to control them. They are like overtrained pit bulls. No one controls them." Shootings at U.S. military roadblocks became commonplace and Somalis witnessed scenes of mostly white American forces harassing and shooting their black countrymen. [Stephen Zunes, The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia]

3
the 1980s, despite warnings by Africa specialists, human rights groups and humanitarian organizations that continued American aid to the dictatorial government of Siad Barre would eventually plunge Somalia into chaos. US poured in more than $50 million of arms annually to prop up this disastrous Barre dictatorship while offering  virtually no assistance that would have helped build a self-sustaining economy which could feed Somalia's people. In addition, the United States pushed a structural adjustment program through the International Monetary Fund severely weakening the local agricultural economy. Combined with the breakdown of the central government, drought conditions and rival militias disrupting food supplies, there was famine on a massive scale, resulting in the deaths of more than 300,000 Somalis, mostly children.
Just before dictator Siad Barre's overthrow in early 1991, the U.S. sends hundreds of millions of dollars of arms to Somalia in return for the use of military facilities which had been originally constructed for the Soviets. (These bases will to be used to support American military intervention in the Middle East.)
 

4
1992, November, outgoing Bush administration sent 30,000 U.S. troops, primarily Marines and Army Rangers, to Somalia in what was described as a humanitarian mission to assist in the distribution of relief supplies.  In some cases, U.S. forces essentially dumped food on local markets, hurting indigenous farmers and creating greater food shortages over the longer term - few Somalis were involved in the decisions during this crucial period.
 
Such an overbearing foreign military presence in a country which had been free from colonial rule for only a little more than three decades leads to growing resentment, particularly since these elite combat forces were not trained for such humanitarian missions. U.S. Secretary of Defense is reported to quip to an associate, "We're sending the Rangers to Somalia. We are not going to be able to control them. They are like overtrained pit bulls. No one controls them." Shootings at U.S. military roadblocks became commonplace and Somalis witnessed scenes of mostly white American forces harassing and shooting their black countrymen. [Stephen Zunes, The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia]

Just before dictator Siad Barre's overthrow in early 1991, the U.S. sends hundreds of millions of dollars of arms to Somalia in return for the use of military facilities which had been originally constructed for the Soviets. (These bases will to be used to support American military intervention in the Middle East.) 
4
1992, November, outgoing Bush administration sent 30,000 U.S. troops, primarily Marines and Army Rangers, to Somalia in what was described as a humanitarian mission to assist in the distribution of relief supplies.  In some cases, U.S. forces essentially dumped food on local markets, hurting indigenous farmers and creating greater food shortages over the longer term - few Somalis were involved in the decisions during this crucial period.
 
Such an overbearing foreign military presence in a country which had been free from colonial rule for only a little more than three decades leads to growing resentment, particularly since these elite combat forces were not trained for such humanitarian missions. U.S. Secretary of Defense is reported to quip to an associate, "We're sending the Rangers to Somalia. We are not going to be able to control them. They are like overtrained pit bulls. No one controls them." Shootings at U.S. military roadblocks became commonplace and Somalis witnessed scenes of mostly white American forces harassing and shooting their black countrymen. [Stephen Zunes, The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia]

4
1992, November, outgoing Bush administration sent 30,000 U.S. troops, primarily Marines and Army Rangers, to Somalia in what was described as a humanitarian mission to assist in the distribution of relief supplies.  In some cases, U.S. forces essentially dumped food on local markets, hurting indigenous farmers and creating greater food shortages over the longer term - few Somalis were involved in the decisions during this crucial period. 
Such an overbearing foreign military presence in a country which had been free from colonial rule for only a little more than three decades leads to growing resentment, particularly since these elite combat forces were not trained for such humanitarian missions. U.S. Secretary of Defense is reported to quip to an associate, "We're sending the Rangers to Somalia. We are not going to be able to control them. They are like overtrained pit bulls. No one controls them." Shootings at U.S. military roadblocks became commonplace and Somalis witnessed scenes of mostly white American forces harassing and shooting their black countrymen. [Stephen Zunes, The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia]
 1992, US attempts to control Somalian politics through US Armed Forces brought in under the pretext of protecting the distribution of food aid. US arming financial backing of Mogadishu warlords, who are willing to rule favoring US unjust predatory investments.
 We might pick the so called Blackhawk Down incident as a point in history when of US crimes against peace, wherein weapons are supplied, their use encouraged and weapons supplied to others to attack Somalia, to Americans themselves committing crimes against humanity in Somalia that become genocidal.

In Mogadishu on October of 1993, shortly after a Blackhawk attack helicopter, seen firing down into the roof of a closed market attempting to assassinate a designated enemy Somali clan leader, is shot down by Somail militia along with a second Blackhawk.  Enraged Somalis drag the bodies of American airmen through their dirt streets. The battle resulted in 18 US deaths, 80 wounded. American sources estimate between 1,500 and 3,000 Somali casualties, including civilians.

The high casualties of this Battle of Mogadishu more commonly referred to as Black Hawk Down or, locally, as the Day of the Rangers, and other painful incidents for the US Armed Forces in Somalia,, caused President Clinton to order 5,300 additional Troops to Somalia "to protect our troops and to complete our mission and bring all American combat forces home by March 31."
 We might pick the so called Blackhawk Down incident as a point in history when of US crimes against peace, wherein weapons are supplied, their use encouraged and weapons supplied to others to attack Somalia, to Americans themselves committing crimes against humanity in Somalia that become genocidal.
In Mogadishu on October of 1993, shortly after a Blackhawk attack helicopter, seen firing down into the roof of a closed market attempting to assassinate a designated enemy Somali clan leader, is shot down by Somail militia along with a second Blackhawk.  Enraged Somalis drag the bodies of American airmen through their dirt streets. The battle resulted in 18 US deaths, 80 wounded. American sources estimate between 1,500 and 3,000 Somali casualties, including civilians.

The high casualties of this Battle of Mogadishu more commonly referred to as Black Hawk Down or, locally, as the Day of the Rangers, and other painful incidents for the US Armed Forces in Somalia,, caused President Clinton to order 5,300 additional Troops to Somalia "to protect our troops and to complete our mission and bring all American combat forces home by March 31."
In Mogadishu on October of 1993, shortly after a Blackhawk attack helicopter, seen firing down into the roof of a closed market attempting to assassinate a designated enemy Somali clan leader, is shot down by Somail militia along with a second Blackhawk.  Enraged Somalis drag the bodies of American airmen through their dirt streets. The battle resulted in 18 US deaths, 80 wounded. American sources estimate between 1,500 and 3,000 Somali casualties, including civilians.
The high casualties of this Battle of Mogadishu more commonly referred to as Black Hawk Down or, locally, as the Day of the Rangers, and other painful incidents for the US Armed Forces in Somalia,, caused President Clinton to order 5,300 additional Troops to Somalia "to protect our troops and to complete our mission and bring all American combat forces home by March 31."
The high casualties of this Battle of Mogadishu more commonly referred to as Black Hawk Down or, locally, as the Day of the Rangers, and other painful incidents for the US Armed Forces in Somalia,, caused President Clinton to order 5,300 additional Troops to Somalia "to protect our troops and to complete our mission and bring all American combat forces home by March 31."
"
The bandits who presided over the treacherous road from Mogadishu to Afgoi were gone. The pick-up trucks packed with gun-brandishing youths who manned some 50 roadblocks along the 20-mile stretch were nonexistent.
The combined militia forces of five Islamic courts cleared the road. It was the second time the courts - that view Islamic law as the only antidote to Somalia's chaos - acted together. In April, they took control of the Bukhara market in Mogadishu. This second action reveals a unity of purpose largely unseen in the capital since the collapse of the Somali state in 1991.
Sheikh Hassan is clear about his political ambition and his determination to impose Islamic law over Somalia. Although it is close to stricter forms of Islam, Somalia has held fast to a tradition of Sunni religious moderation for nearly a millennium.
"Without the businessmen, the courts would not exist," says a Western observer. "The businessmen don't care whether it's Islamic law or Napoleonic law or Common law. Any law will do."
That, however, is not the way others see it. According to a Middle Eastern Muslim diplomat in Mogadishu, a growing number of Islamic countries and organizations - including Somalia's own homegrown fundamentalist At-Ittihad al-Islam group - are contributing money in the hope of seeing Somalia evolve into an Islamic state.
Somalia, though, has a history of ingratitude, as well as what appears to be a natural resistance to fundamentalism.
The court's own interpretation of Islamic law is perhaps the most accurate measure of the sort of innate religious moderation that has made it difficult for fundamentalism to gain ground here. None of the five courts has dared resort to amputation for fear of becoming unpopular. There have been public executions of felons convicted of murder, 37 over the past 14 months.
"Very simply, even though there is an Islamic component, the courts are clan-based organizations which are imposing discipline among themselves" says Mohamed Nur Gutale, Somalia's former ambassador to the US.
Analysts say that if the courts succeed in taking over Mogadishu's main port and airport as they have vowed to do, the era of the warlords will most likely come to an end.
[author j janson: Fat chance in a world still owned by the genocidal, amoral,criminally usurious speculative investment   banking conspiracy of the brutally barbaric, colonial, now neo-colonial powers.
On February 23, 2007, the New York Times reported that the US government had been secretly training Ethiopian soldiers for several years, in camps near the Ethiopia-Somalia border. Support for Ethiopia's invasion began after a failed CIA effort to arm and finance Somali "warlords.
February 03, 2009, Hiraan Online, Fishermen who fish on the Shore of the Indian Ocean near Mogadishu complain UNISOM troops often fire on them.
8
click here" International Crisis Group, "After more than 20 years of internal conflict, it is perhaps remarkable that Somalia has a government at all, even a weak one. The current Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is the fourteenth attempt to create a government after the fall of President Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, and it spent its first three years operating in the neighboring country of Kenya. When the TFG finally finally moved to Mogadishu in 2007, following several defeats of a fundamentalist Islamic Courts Union, it did little to impress Somalis or foreign diplomats. Friendly diplomats and even government supporters call the TFG "corrupt."

9
The Taliban (in Pashto language á¹­Ă„
libĂ„n = "students"), fundamentalist youth group rose to save Afghanistan from the murderous chaos of US backed waring factions after the Soviet withdrawal and defeat of the Socialist women liberating Kabul government two years later. Taliban had formed a government, ruling as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from September 1996 until December 2001, with Kandahar as the capital. It gained diplomatic recognition from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Mohammed Omar has been serving as the spiritual leader of the Taliban since 1994.
8click here" International Crisis Group, "After more than 20 years of internal conflict, it is perhaps remarkable that Somalia has a government at all, even a weak one. The current Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is the fourteenth attempt to create a government after the fall of President Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, and it spent its first three years operating in the neighboring country of Kenya. When the TFG finally finally moved to Mogadishu in 2007, following several defeats of a fundamentalist Islamic Courts Union, it did little to impress Somalis or foreign diplomats. Friendly diplomats and even government supporters call the TFG "corrupt."

9
The Taliban (in Pashto language á¹­Ă„

9
The Taliban (in Pashto language á¹­Ă„
libĂ„n = "students"), fundamentalist youth group rose to save Afghanistan from the murderous chaos of US backed waring factions after the Soviet withdrawal and defeat of the Socialist women liberating Kabul government two years later. Taliban had formed a government, ruling as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from September 1996 until December 2001, with Kandahar as the capital. It gained diplomatic recognition from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Mohammed Omar has been serving as the spiritual leader of the Taliban since 1994.
9
The Taliban (in Pashto language á¹­Ă„libĂ„n = "students"), fundamentalist youth group rose to save Afghanistan from the murderous chaos of US backed waring factions after the Soviet withdrawal and defeat of the Socialist women liberating Kabul government two years later. Taliban had formed a government, ruling as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from September 1996 until December 2001, with Kandahar as the capital. It gained diplomatic recognition from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Mohammed Omar has been serving as the spiritual leader of the Taliban since 1994.
According to the National Counterterrorism Center, the outfit's rank-and-file members hail from disparate local groups, sometimes recruited by force.[24] Unlike most of the organization's top leaders, its foot soldiers are primarily concerned with nationalist and clan-related affairs as opposed to the global jihad. Schaefer,, Ahren; Andrew Black. "Clan and Conflict in Somalia: Al-Shabaab and the Myth of "Transcending Clan Politics""]. Jamestown Foundation.
11

Somalia famine killed close to 260,000 people, report says 
Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN) -- Between 2010 and 2012, more than a quarter of a million people died in the famine in Somalia -The study, which covered the period from October 2010 to April 2012, suggests that an estimated 4.6% of the total population and 10% of children younger than 5 died in southern and central Somalia"
11
Somalia famine killed close to 260,000 people, report says Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN) -- Between 2010 and 2012, more than a quarter of a million people died in the famine in Somalia -The study, which covered the period from October 2010 to April 2012, suggests that an estimated 4.6% of the total population and 10% of children younger than 5 died in southern and central Somalia"
International humanitarian organization Oxfam said Thursday, "Famines are not natural phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures," it said in a statement.2, 2013
World leaders meeting in London next week to discuss the situation in Somalia, investing in long-term development, creating jobs, supporting farmers and pastoralists, and ensuring properly trained security forces. [author: by 'world leaders' one should understand 'the same colonial powers which less than a century ago owned and plundered every inch of Africa and every African, by savage white terror of course.]

12 The UN definition of genocide (recognized by 142 states) is:
""any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The US has committed these acts many times over and in many different countries. Some people object that this is some watered down version of genocide that risks diluting the significance of this "ultimate crime". However, bear in mind that the victims of US armed violence are not usually combatants and even if they are they are not engaged in some sort of contested combat that gives them some ability to defend themselves or to kill or be killed. They are helpless as they die of incineration, asphyxiation, dismemberment, cancer, starvation, disease. People of all ages die in terror unable to protect themselves from the machinery of death. Make no mistake, that is what it is: a large complex co-ordinated machinery of mass killing. There is nothing watered down about the horrors of the genocides committed by the US, and their victims number many millions. The violence is mostly impersonal, implacable, arbitrary and industrial

World leaders meeting in London next week to discuss the situation in Somalia, investing in long-term development, creating jobs, supporting farmers and pastoralists, and ensuring properly trained security forces. [author: by 'world leaders' one should understand 'the same colonial powers which less than a century ago owned and plundered every inch of Africa and every African, by savage white terror of course.]
12 The UN definition of genocide (recognized by 142 states) is:
""any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The US has committed these acts many times over and in many different countries. Some people object that this is some watered down version of genocide that risks diluting the significance of this "ultimate crime". However, bear in mind that the victims of US armed violence are not usually combatants and even if they are they are not engaged in some sort of contested combat that gives them some ability to defend themselves or to kill or be killed. They are helpless as they die of incineration, asphyxiation, dismemberment, cancer, starvation, disease. People of all ages die in terror unable to protect themselves from the machinery of death. Make no mistake, that is what it is: a large complex co-ordinated machinery of mass killing. There is nothing watered down about the horrors of the genocides committed by the US, and their victims number many millions. The violence is mostly impersonal, implacable, arbitrary and industrial

12 The UN definition of genocide (recognized by 142 states) is:
""any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The US has committed these acts many times over and in many different countries. Some people object that this is some watered down version of genocide that risks diluting the significance of this "ultimate crime". However, bear in mind that the victims of US armed violence are not usually combatants and even if they are they are not engaged in some sort of contested combat that gives them some ability to defend themselves or to kill or be killed. They are helpless as they die of incineration, asphyxiation, dismemberment, cancer, starvation, disease. People of all ages die in terror unable to protect themselves from the machinery of death. Make no mistake, that is what it is: a large complex co-ordinated machinery of mass killing. There is nothing watered down about the horrors of the genocides committed by the US, and their victims number many millions. The violence is mostly impersonal, implacable, arbitrary and industrial
The United States of Genocide
Putting the US on trial for genocide against the peoples of Korea, Laos, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Iraq and elsewhere.http://ongenocide.wordpress.com/
Somali lives by uncounted thousands were sacrificed as their country after independence was allowed, as Somalia was used as a back-and-forth pawn during the "cold' war between the capitalist colonial powers and communist party run socialist USSR.[2]
2003-2005, Increased US funding and support for the warlords being defeated by new and immensely popular  conservative Islamic Courts Union government.
- 2005 - As the courts begin to assert themselves as the dispensers of justice, they come into conflict with the foreign backed secular warlords who control most of the city. In reaction to the growing power of the ICU, a group of Mogadishu warlords formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), so named to seek Western backing. This was a major change, as these warlords had been fighting each other for many years.

February 2006, Agence France Presse: 

2006 February 18  begins battle for Mogadishu. The alliance loses battle after battle. ICU forces defeat the ARPCT and gain control of Mogadishu by June 5. Somali Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said on Radio Shabelle, the violence was started by the people who have proclaimed themselves to be fighters against terrorism. Some warlords flee to Ethiopia. 

2006, May 17, Washington Post admits, 'U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia' 


 2 JUNE 2006, Large Rally Against United States Staged in Mogadishu

On 5 June 2006,  Warlords not captured have fled the city, abandoning most of their weapons, with the majority fleeing to Jowhar, which would be taken by the ICU militia on 14 June in spite of US involvement. This brought the ICU in control of much of the weaponry in the country, which made a resurgence by the warlords difficult without outside support. London's Guardian Unlimited said the Bush administration funneled $100,000 to $150,000 a month to "proxies" based at a CIA-controlled base in Nairobi, Kenya. The International Crisis Group reported that the money was funneled through the Pentagon's Joint Combined Task Force. Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, chair of the African Union for 2006, also criticized the support given by the U.S. to the warlords, following his meeting with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

June 8, New York Times , Efforts by C.I.A. Fail in Somalia "- "A covert effort by the Central Intelligence Agency to finance Somali warlords has thwarted counterterrorism efforts inside Somalia and empowered the same Islamic groups it was intended to marginalize." 

On December 31, 2006, Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, along with other senior ICU officials in the port city of Kismayu about 500 km (310 mi) south of Mogadishu, urge Islamist supporters across the country to initiate an insurgency, to wage guerrilla war, against the Ethiopian troops. Ahmed issued the statement after the Muslim Eid prayers on Saturday: "I call on the Islamic Courts fighters, supporters and every true Muslim to start an insurgency against the Ethiopian troops in Somalia. We are telling the Ethiopians in Somalia that they will never succeed in their mission. By Allah, they will fail... We will not allow the Ethiopian troops to stay peacefully in Somalia."
 

The dis and misinforming ploy used in investor owned media coverage up to now is that the Islamic Courts Union government would hide Islamists wanted by US for questioning about US Embassy attacks will be hyped up to justify the next round of carnage by intervention organized and militarily supported by the US.

January 3, 2007 - Ethiopian, U.S. airstrikes force ICU withdrawal from Kismayo. Jan. 4, Ethiopian aircraft and attack helicopters struck the town of Doble near the Kenyan border. January 5--12, 2007 CNN; even six Kenyan herders killed by Ethiopian aircraft.  US airstrike hits Badmadow Island; series of Ethiopian airstrikes January 10, chief of staff to the Somali president: "US airstrikes killed 31 civilians." More AC-130 airstrikes were hit Ras Kamboni. CNN . US warplanes from aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in strikes ( AP ); AC-130 plane rained gunfire down on the southern village of Hayo - "many dead bodies and animals." 

January 15, British SAS team at the Kenyan border reportedly looking for the fleeing Al Qaeda suspects. Reuters [or anyone opposing invasion]



September 2007, The Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) created, when members of the Islamic Courts Union and Somali opposition leaders met in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, and united to oppose Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its Ethiopian allies.

On March 3, 2008, the United States air strike on Dhoble kills the leader of Al-Shabab Aden Hashi Eyrow; does nothing to slow down the Insurgency.
April 20, 2008, Al-Hidaya Mosque massacre: Ethiopian soldiers storm a mosque, 11 bodies found, some with their throat slit, others shot to death. Of the 11 dead victims, nine were regular congregants. Tabliiq official, "Ethiopians "slaughtered" clerics. Sheikh Said Yahya, Imam, killed as he opened the mosque door after soldiers knocked.


On 9 June 2008. Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia split into two between those based in Eritrea, aligned with former ICU leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who are adamantly opposed to cooperation with the TFG or Ethiopia, and those who were based in Djibouti, aligned with former ICU leader Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who were open to reconciliation in spite of the Ethiopian and UN sponsored African Union invasions.
July 1, 2008, Battle of Beledweyne Somali opposition fighters ambush Ethiopian army convoy leaving 47 Ethiopian soldiers and 235 Islamist fighters dead. 



10 March 2010, Up to half the food aid in Somalia is diverted to corrupt contractors, local UN workers and Islamist militants, a leaked UN report says. It says WFP contracts are awarded to a few powerful individuals who operate cartels that sell the food illegally. US funding cut. The UN document says food aid is diverted to a web of distributors, transporters and armed groups, with some local UN workers also taking a cut in the profits, and transporters have to navigate roadblocks manned by various militias and bandits. BBC 

28 Oct, US launches drones from Ethiopia   BBC 

19 November 2011,   Ethiopia troops 'enter Somalia'  Ethiopian troops cross border into Somalia in significant numbers, eyewitnesses say. At least 20 vehicles carrying Ethiopian troops. BBC 
Jul.20,   U.N. declares famine in southern Somalia
Aug. 3,  Somalia's famine reaches into Mogadishu , three more regions. UN
Oct.17, Somali militants al-Shabab threaten Kenya retaliation, BBC
January 13, 2012 (CNN) -- Distribution of food, seed and medical relief intended for drought victims suspended, International Red Cross announces. Aid for up to 1.1 million people held up because local authorities block distribution of ICRC food and seed relief in the Middle Shabelle and Galgaduud regions in central and southern Somalia, according to Red Cross.

7 January 2012,  BBC Kenyan troops, air strikes, 'kill 60 al-Shabab fighters' in Somalia

10 March 2012, Somalia Islamists, al-Shabab ambush Ethiopia troops



Kenyan armed forces entered Somalia two years ago, with US attack aircraft support, to combat al-Shabaab ("Youths' in Arabic language), who had taken up leading the fight against US supported warlords, when the popular conservative Islamic Courts Union government of their elders was overthrown by the deadly and brutal US proxy Ethiopian Army and Air Force invasion, which brought back  those defeated US backed warlords. 

Smooth commentating?


FOOTNOTES 

Subsequently, the criminal speculative investment banking conspiracy, which rules most of the world from Wall Street, had its outright owned US government[5], hire battle seasoned al Qaeda recruits to fake a revolt in wealthy and prosperous Libya, which had been the poorest nation in Africa under oil plundering British and French colonial domination, only to become the 53rd highest quality of life nation in the world (higher than nine European nations, according to the 2010 UN Index), under its Arab Socialist government. For nine weeks the captive CNN world satellite audience heard obviously tough looking hombres in heavy weapons laden pick-up trucks hailed as 'freedom fighters' 'from all walks of life.'

What is not being sufficiently often pointed out is these overt US atrocities, and this decades ongoing American produced genocide will only come to an end, either when there is planetary destruction, or when powerful speculative private investors calculating profit, are forced to enter a factor of possible imprisonment and seizure of assets to compensate wrongful deaths, injuries, destruction of property and theft of natural resources (as explained on the educational and stimulus to action website Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now, endorsed by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and containing the pertinent laws, exhortations by Einstein, Helen Keller, Eugene Debs and others and featuring a country-by-country history of US crimes in nineteen (and counting) nations - and a link to the Howard Zinn co-founded King Condemned US Atrocity Wars and Covert Genocide on Three Continents for Predatory Investments International Awareness Campaign. source:


http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0713/p1s2.html Islamic clerics combat lawlessness in Somalia. By Lara Santoro, Special to The Christian Science Monitor / July 13, 1999 MOGADISHU, SOMALIA A few weeks ago, an odd thing happened in the utter anarchy of Somalia.


"Islamic law is the only thing that will save this country," says Sheikh Hassan Sheikh Mohammed Adde, a cleric who merged and presides over the Joint Islamic Courts.


But beyond Sheikh Hassan's ambitions, analysts say the issue is whether the courts will act as conduits for Islamic fundamentalism - or merely help bring about an organized state, and then compete fairly for power.
Somalia devolved into a state of near anarchy nearly a decade ago. The guns of different warlords have kept it at the bottom of the United Nations index of human development. Life expectancy is 43 years, infant mortality one of the highest in Africa, with 1 out of every 4 children likely to die before the age of five. In a country where nearly everyone is armed, crime is rampant.
'
Yet as recently as 1992, Somalia was at the center of the world's attention. A colossal relief operation to feed victims of famine saved the lives of thousands, but soon became embroiled in factional warfare for the control of Mogadishu. In October 1993, 18 US Marines were killed in a gunfight by militiamen loyal to warlord Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid. That prompted the first military intervention mounted by the UN for humanitarian purposes to haul down its flag and leave Somalia to itself.

Predictably, Somalia's warlords prospered. But years of constant fighting and unregulated economic activity have finally taken their toll. The prolonged closure of Mogadishu's main port and airport, the languishing banana trade, and a drop in the export of livestock have drained resources. The warlords became financially weak and increasingly vulnerable to the emerging power of the courts.

Whether the courts will succeed in challenging the factional rule of the warlords will depend largely on Somalia's businessmen, observers say. Exasperated by the cost of lawlessness, business owners have thrown their financial weight behind the courts, providing sufficient means for them to acquire guns and set up their own militia.
Each of the five courts claims to have between 200 and 250 gunmen and an unspecified number of "technicals," pickup trucks with machine guns and grenade launchers mounted on them, and armored personnel carriers.
The gunmen - who dress in the same torn clothes as the previous warlords - patrol the areas in which the courts operate. They round up thieves, rapists, and murderers, and deliver them to the first detention centers set up in Mogadishu since 1991.

The courts have won the loyalty of the gunmen with the guarantee of two meals a day and 30,000 Somali shillings ($30) a month. The businessmen pick up the tab.




"We don't cut people's hands off because they don't like it," Sheikh Hassan says.

The courts also have been careful to operate within the confines of Somalia's clan structure, limiting their jurisdiction to members of the clan. The court set up by the Murosade clan, for example, is unable to prosecute members of the Suleiman or Ayr tribe, both notorious for their violence, and both with newly instituted Islamic courts of their own.



6

7

10



Source: OpEdNews

Oil in Somalia has reduced piracy, says IHS Maritime


The dramatic drop in pirate activity off Somalia can be explained by three factors: the presence of on board private armed security, the changing tactics adopted by the international naval forces, and arguably the main factor, the changing situation onshore, which has reduced the operational environment for pirate groups.

Since the first successful exploration wells were drilled in semi-autonomous Puntland in early 2012, oil has become a deciding factor in the reduction of piracy, claims Gary Li, Senior Analyst, IHS Maritime. The Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF), a privately paramilitary force armed and funded by the UAE, celebrated its third birthday this month. The PMPF has been pivotal in reducing pirate operating bases on the coast of Puntland. Onshore dynamics directly impact offshore risks.

Oil discoveries have also been made in Somaliland and Somalia, although the federal government of Somalia refuses to recognise the contracts awarded to the first two entities. All sides are now optimistic about an oil-led future and keen to rein back piracy, which might negatively impact  future exploratory work, especially offshore.

Floating armouries

Private security companies offering armed protection teams has evolved from a niche market to a multibillion dollar norm in the region. Floating armouries and training bases in certain countries have allowed these companies to circumvent local regulations on prohibiting arms within territorial waters. Although liability and the inherently non-transparent nature of the sector often bring it into question, it is nonetheless a fact that no ship with armed security teams on board has ever been hijacked.

International forces change tactics

Li notes that tactics had shifted a year ago from blanket maritime patrols which were hampered by the large area and scarce numbers of vessels, to intelligence led (via maritime surveillance aircraft) interdictions of mother ships and close to shore activities seeking to take out pirate action groups before they reach the open sea.
In recent months these have changed to increasing the number of ‘friendly approaches’, whereby naval vessels conduct close range inspections of small vessels off the coast. These act as important intelligence gathering opportunities from local seafarers and also as clear deterrence actions. In September 2013, the Spanish warship Meteoro conducted no less than 23 friendly approaches in just 5 days.

Drop in number of attacks

Somali piracy has reduced to almost negligible amounts. According to IMB figures, there were 237 piracy related events in 2011, the ‘glory days’ for the pirates. In 2012 this dropped to 75. As of 14 October 2013, there were only 10 incidents, only two of which were hijackings.

If the figures are examined more closely, the pattern for the downward trend in pirate activity, both in terms of frequency and capability, begins as early as mid-2012.


In May of that year, the MT Smyrni was successfully hijacked in the Indian Ocean. It was finally released after a ransom was paid in March 2013. This was the last ship of commercial size and value successfully hijacked by Somali based pirates. Although three more vessels have been hijacked since then, these were much smaller fishing boats including the latest one in June 2013

UK Ship RFA Lyme Bay Joins EU Counter Piracy Naval Force off Somalia




On Wednesday 16 October 2013, Royal Fleet Auxiliary Landing Ship, RFA Lyme Bay joined Operation Atalanta, as part of the EU’s counter piracy Naval Force off Somalia.

RFA Lyme Bay is an amphibious operations support unit, whose primary role is to land troops, vehicles, equipment and stores from the sea to the shore, using landing craft or helicopters.

RFA Lyme Bay has the capacity to accommodate up to 350 personnel and a number of ground vehicles. As a front-line unit, she has a full array of self defence weapons for surface and air threats.

This is the first time that RFA Lyme Bay has taken part in the Operation Atalanta, but not her first time in the region, as she was deployed in Bahrain in support of the Royal Navy Minehunters for 3 years.

Commenting on RFA Lyme Bay participation in Operation Atalanta, the Commanding Officer, Captain Simon Herbert RFA said: “I very much welcome the opportunity to be part of the EU Naval Force’s efforts to deter and disrupt piracy off the Somali coast. As the attack last week on a super tanker 230 miles off the Somali coast highlighted, the threat very much remains and we are ready to contribute to EU Naval Force’s proven track record in improving maritime security off the coast of Somali and the Indian Ocean. RFA Lyme Bay provides the Force Headquarters at sea with a capable, versatile, integrated and fully trained ship. We stand ready to also assist with Local Maritime Capacity Building, or LMCB.”

RFA Lyme Bay will remain with EU Naval Force until mid-November. After that she will rejoin ‘Operation Cougar’ units.

Social Control Not Just Aim of Drone Surveillance, But of Drone Strikes, Too


Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The Iraq War and Afghanistan Wars might be better characterized as massive police actions rather than as wars.

In a Boston Review article titled The Sound of Terror: Phenomenology of a Drone Strike, Nasser Hussain attempts to


… provide a phenomenology of drone strikes, examining both how the world appears through the lens of a drone camera and the experience of the people on the ground. What is it like to watch a drone’s footage, or to wait below for it to strike? What does the drone’s camera capture, and what does it occlude?

The piece struck me as not only a little too academic, but scattershot, for its own good. Hussain did, however, shed light on an aspect of drones about which many of us are ignorant. He writes [emphasis added]:
Asymmetric war is typically a conflict between a regular army and a guerilla force, but could describe any conflict in which one side cannot retaliate in kind. The lasting insight of [German philosopher, jurist, and political theorist Carl] Schmitt’s evaluation of air power in The Nomos of the Earth (1950) is that the technological imbalance inherent in the use of air power transforms conflicts by adding an element of policing. … Schmitt saw with prescient clarity that air war would … intensify the problem of unequal sides, and allow the dominant side to re-label enemies as criminals. Schmitt understood that air power would create a world in which those who command the sky could police and punish those who do not.
Hussain then quotes Schmitt.
If the weapons [of each side] are conspicuously unequal, then the mutual concept of war conceived of in terms of an equal plane is lacking. To war on both sides belongs a certain chance of victory. Once that ceases to be the case, the opponent becomes nothing more than an object of violent measures.
Hussain then writes: “Aerial bombing of those who have no chance to retaliate is not a war but an unequal exchange, which by its very nature accelerates the process through which war becomes a policing action and the adversary becomes a criminal or a mere object of violent reprisal.” He re-emphasizes that: “Policing action both begins and ends with the criminalization of the enemy.”


When the United States attacked Iraq and Afghanistan, I found myself stumbling over these events as the Iraq “War” and the Afghanistan “War.” True, they may satisfy a technical definition for war. But, both because the states neither directly attacked nor provoked the United States, each “war” is more accurately described as an invasion and siege. I’m sure Iraqis and Afghans would agree.

Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia: Quarterly Update


WASHINGTON, October 22, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ – Fact Sheet

Bureau of Political-Military Affairs

October 21, 2013

 
The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia was created on January 14, 2009 pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1851. This voluntary ad hoc international forum brings together over 80 countries, organizations, and industry groups with a shared interest in combating piracy. Chaired in 2013 by the United States, the Contact Group coordinates political, military, and non-governmental efforts to tackle piracy off the coast of Somalia, ensure that pirates are brought to justice, and support regional states to develop sustainable maritime security capabilities. The European Union will assume the chairmanship in 2014.


Through its five thematic working groups, the Contact Group draws on a wide range of international expertise and adopts a problem-solving approach to piracy, working closely with Somali officials from the central government and regional administrations and officials in Indian Ocean States. Working Group 1, chaired by the United Kingdom, focuses on operational naval coordination, information sharing, and capacity building; Working Group 2, chaired by Denmark, addresses legal and judicial issues; Working Group 3, chaired by the Republic of Korea, works closely with the shipping industry to enhance awareness and build capabilities among seafarers transiting the region; Working Group 4, chaired by Egypt, aims at raising public awareness of the dangers of piracy; and Working Group 5, chaired by Italy, focuses on disrupting the pirate criminal enterprise ashore, including the illicit financial flows associated with maritime piracy.


This unique international partnership is contributing to a significant decline in piracy off the Horn of Africa. The last successful pirate attack on a major merchant vessel in the region occurred on May 10, 2012.

Recent Developments


• A physician from the United Nations Hostage Support Program (UNHSP) visited hostages from the M/V ALBEDO in late August and mid September to treat 11 crewmen held captive for nearly three years. The men were suffering from rashes and infections , and required medicine for malaria, controlling blood pressure and stomach ailments caused by drinking dirty water.


• The UNHSP visited released hostages and families in Doha, London and Dubai and documented that little or no help has been provided for these seafarers since their release.


SOURCE


US Department of State

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

War DegDeg Ah: INAA LILAAHI WA INAA ILAYHI RAAJUCUUN: ABWAAN, HALGAMAA GEESI, Cali Banfas oo goor dhaweyd ku Geeriyooday laguna Aasay Hargeysa


Hargeysa - Alla ha u naxariistee waxa goor dhaweyd xabaalaha Xeedho ee waqooyiga Hargeysa lagu Aasay Marxuum Macallin, Mujaahid, Abwaan Cali Xasan Aadan (Cali Banfas) oo saaka ku Geeriyooday magaaladda Hargeysa.
Marxuum Cali banfas waxa aaskiisa ka qayb galay dadweyne kala duwan, Siyaasiyiin, Suugaan yahano iyo eheladiisa waxaana loo sameeyay Aas sare oo lagu maamuusayay taariikhdii Halgan iyo tii suugaaneed ee uu ku can baxay mudadii uu If-ka ku noolaa.
Marxuum Cali Banfas wuxuu ahaa Halyay suugaantiisu biyo kama dhibcaan ahayd isla markaana ku ifin jiray dariiqa qaldan ee uu arko iyo sidii looga bixi alahaa, waxaanu ahaa Abaabule suugaantiisu dhinacyo badan taaban jirtay gaar ahaana wakhtiyadii halganka iyo Macalinimadiisiiba.
Marxuum Banfas waxa in muddo ah ku soo noq noqday xanuun isagoo xanuuunkiisii ugu danbeeyay uu ku haleelay Dalka Ingiriiska oo uu ku soo booday dhinac Qalal ama Istarook mar uu u tagay bandhig dhaqameed halkaas uu kaga qayb galayay.
Marxuum Banfas Alla ha u Naxariistee waxa uu If-ka ka xijaabtay saaka subaxnimadii waxaana salaadii Casar ka dib lagu duugay xabaalaha Xeedho.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Somalia: Origin, Development and Future of AMISOM



Published by David Shinn

Formal remarks at a conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 19 October 2013 on the origin, development, and future of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Somalia: Origin, Development and Future of AMISOMRemarks Delivered by David H. ShinnAdjunct Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs, GWUAt a Conference on

Somalia: Post-transition Plight and Progress

 Organized by the Institute for Horn of Africa Studies and AffairsUniversity of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota19 October 2013I will talk about the origin, development and future of the African Union Mission inSomalia, better known as AMISOM.Origin of AMISOMIn 2006, the Islamic Courts controlled Mogadishu and virtually all of south and centralSomalia. While they enacted some highly controversial policies, they did reestablish authorityin the regions under their control and many Somalis welcomed that stability. The TransitionalNational Government (TNG) of Somalia, operating out of Nairobi, and neighboring Ethiopia,which had troops inside the Somali border and especially in Baidoa, perceived the IslamicCourts as a threat. At the end of 2006, the Islamic Courts


militia made the mistake of attackingthe Ethiopian forces in Baidoa, suffering a major defeat. Ethiopian forces, encouraged by theSomali TNG, then marched to Mogadishu and forced the leaders of the Islamic Courts to flee tothe southern end of Somalia.The presence of Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu was deeply resented by Somalis; theirpresence gave Somali Islamist elements and especially the new organization known as al-Shabaab a rallying cry for removing the Ethiopians. This posed a dilemma for the TNG, whichdid not have a security force capable of confronting al-Shabaab, and the Ethiopians, who had astrong force but were disliked by Somalis. Normally, this would be an occasion for establishinga UN peacekeeping operation, but the UN refused to get involved. This left the problem withthe African Union, which agreed to send a force that became known as AMISOM to Somalia insupport of the TNG.

Development of AMISOM

AMISOM was slow to stand up. Initially only Ugandan troops volunteered for theoperation. They were subsequently joined by a contingent from Burundi. The idea was toreplace the much stronger Ethiopian force, which was drawing the ire of many Somalis. On theother hand, the Ethiopian force did the heavy lifting in combatting al-Shabaab in Mogadishu. Inthe meantime, al-Shabaab was consolidating power in the rest of south and central Somalia.The Ethiopian force finally pulled out of Somalia in January 2009, leaving AMISOM in control of about 40 percent of Mogadishu with al-Shabaab controlling the rest of the capital in addition tomost of south and central Somalia.

AMISOM slowly increased its numbers, eventually adding troop contingents fromDjibouti and Sierra Leone. There were also improvements in Somali government security forces.For its part, al-Shabaab alienated many Somalis with its strict implementation of Sharia and useof suicide bombings against innocent Somalis. By 2011, AMISOM and Somali governmentsecurity forces pushed al-Shabaab out of the greater Mogadishu area.

Also in 2011, Kenyan military forces, following al-Shabaab attacks on foreign touristsand aid personnel in Kenya, entered Jubaland across the Kenyan border as an independentforce to rid the area of al-Shabaab. This force struggled in the beginning but, aligned with theRas Kamboni militia, eventually seized from al-Shabaab the key port city of Kismayo and mostother key towns in Jubaland. In July 2012, AMISOM assumed formal command of the Kenyanforces in southern Somalia.In 2012, Ethiopian forces, which had crossed back into Somalia the previous year, successfully handed over Baidoa to AMISOM’s Burundi forces and Belet Weyne to AMISOM’s Djiboutian contingent. From the beginning, Ethiopia wanted to maintain command and controlover its forces and never put them under the authority of AMISOM.

Since these military successes by AMISOM and the Somali National Army, there hasbeen a military stalemate with al-Shabaab, which continues to hold much of rural south andcentral Somalia and a couple of key towns. Today, AMISOM has just fewer than 18,000uniformed personnel (including police) in Somalia. Troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti,Sierra Leone and Kenya are deployed in four sectors in south and central Somalia. Ugandan andBurundian troops are located in Banadir, Lower and Middle Shabelle, and parts of Bay andBakool. Kenyan forces are in Gedo and Lower and Middle Juba. Troops from Sierra Leone are joining them. Djiboutian forces are in Hiraan. AMISOM also works closely with government-affiliated militias, instructing them when and where to report for military operations, but doesso outside any formal organizational structure.

The AMISOM police force is training a Somali police force of 5,000. AMISOM has 363police officers from Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Gambia. AMISOM conducts limited maritime operations to act as vessel security for supplying AMISOM and toensure the security of the shoreline around Mogadishu. The European Union is training thesmall AMISOM naval unit. AMISOM does not directly take part in humanitarian operations butfacilitates the efforts of international humanitarian agencies and NGOs by providing security fortheir operations. AMISOM field hospitals do treat the civilian population although their priorityis deployed troops. AMISOM also has a civilian political, developmental and public informationrole. The political unit is responsible for the implementation of political decisions on Somaliataken by the African Union.

Challenges Facing AMISOM 

AMISOM and the international community face some hard decisions. The militarystalemate continues and time may work in favor of al-Shabaab if the Somali FederalGovernment (SFG) and the new Somali National Army (SNA) are unable to win the confidenceof most Somalis and establish security in the country using Somali security forces. For the timebeing, the SFG remains dependent on AMISOM for its survival.

Al-Shabaab, according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia’s July 2013 report, hasan estimated 5,000 persons, including at least 300 foreign jihadis, under arms. They are avoiding direct confrontation with AMISOM and SNA forces in order to minimize their own casualties. They conduct suicide bombings, IED attacks and occasional small ambushes against AMISOM. But they are avoiding major conflict and biding their time. In the meantime, they conducted the dramatic terrorist attack against innocent Kenyans at the unprotected Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.Al-Shabaab has stockpiled arms throughout central and southern Somalia, waiting forn AMISOM to leave when it will then attack the SNA and allied forces. AMISOM and the SFGneed to use this period to break the current stalemate. While al-Shabaab cannot defeat AMISOM, it can wait out their presence in Somalia. It is critical for the SFG to build its own loyal security force and, equally important, begin providing normal services such as health care andeducation to the Somali population in those parts of Somalia controlled by AMISOM and theSFG.

While AMISOM has accomplished a great deal since 2011, it also presents challenges fordefeating al-Shabaab and restoring a viable Somali government. Al-Shabaab uses the presenceof non-Somali troops in Somalia to recruit disaffected Somalis. So long as AMISOM has apresence in Somalia, this will remain a problem. (Of course, al-Shabaab has a foreign jihadicontingent that it tries hard to keep out of public view.)

Since 2011, when AMISOM forced al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu and most key towns insouth and central Somalia, challenges have continued. AMISOM’s relations with the SFG continue to be strained. Progress in building Somali security and intelligence services has beenexcruciatingly slow. AMISOM has received criticism for failing to protect Somali civilians.

The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia concluded that AMISOM control over the KenyanDefense Forces (KDF) in Jubaland has been more theoretical than practical. The KDFcommander in Kismayo reportedly has denied permission to some SFG officials to visit the cityand flouted instructions from President Hassan Sheikh to halt the charcoal trade. Kenyanforces together with the Ras Kamboni militia have not only continued but expanded the illegalexport of charcoal from Kismayo. Even worse, individuals linked to al-Shabaab have exported32 percent of the charcoal consignments since November 2012. According to the UNMonitoring Group, al-Shabaab continues to earn estimated $25 million annually in exports from Kismayo, Baraawe (a port it controls) and from taxes it imposes on land transport of charcoal.In 2013, when Ethiopian forces left Hudur town in Bakool region, Somali government forces and allied militias also left. Al-Shabaab immediately reoccupied Hudur. There was noplan for any AMISOM force to take over. An estimated 2,500 Somalis were displaced as al-Shabaab took control of Hudur.Whither AMISOM in Somalia? So where does AMISOM go from here? At this point, there is no thought of transferring responsibility for peacekeeping in Somalia from the African Union to the UN. On 10 October 2013, the African Union endorsed a recommendation to increase the strength of AMISOM by 6,235 troops and police personnel for a period of 18 to 24 months.

This would bring AMISOM’s authorized strength to just under 24,000 uniformed personnel.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon subsequently endorsed an increase of as many as4,400 troops and support staff from the African Union for up to two years, and a limitedpackage of nonlethal support—including transportation, food rations and fuel—for 10,000front-line Somali troops. Ban Ki-moon added that a temporary buildup of forces “should ultimately pave the way for the exit of all international forces” and without this additional support “our joint investment is a t risk of being derailed by the indefensible actions of the Al-Shabab insurgency.”

He strongly endorsed a proposal to resume the military campaign againstal-Shabaab.For its part, the United States from FY 2007 through FY 2013 has obligated about $512million in support of AMISOM, in addition to its assessed contributions for the United Nationslogistics support package for AMISOM. During that same period, the United States obligatedmore than $170 million to support the Somali National Army.

My own view is that the time has come when the emphasis must shift from increasingthe size of AMISOM to a focus on building the Somali National Army, Police Force andintelligence service. This requires more training, proper equipment, and regular salaries for thesecurity services. Most important, it means there must be more trust among the existing clan-based Somali militias that need to be integrated into a Somali National Army. Trust is currentlyan endangered commodity. It also means that the SFG must control corruption and begindelivering services such as education and health care to the Somali population so that it willconclude the SFG is a better option than al-Shabaab. While all of this is difficult to accomplish,the fact remains that Somalia once had a proud national military force and an even more highlyrespected police force. If Somalia was able to accomplish this earlier in its independent history,it should be able to do so again.


IMF Executive Board Concludes 2013 Article IV Consultation with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia


Press Release No.13/407 - October 17
On September 18, 2013, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.1
Recent macroeconomic developments are encouraging, with a significant deceleration in inflation and continued robust economic growth. Despite significant decline in coffee prices and supply bottlenecks, growth remains robust, supported by better agriculture output and construction and other services activities. Inflation declined from the peak of 40 percent in July 2011 to around 7 percent in June 2013. This has significantly eased the extent to which real interest rates were negative. Pressures resulting in foreign exchange shortages in the wake of the passing away of Prime Minister Meles have eased.
Fiscal policy at the general government level remains prudent, with cautious execution of the government budget. Overall revenue-to-GDP ratio is estimated to fall from 14 percent in 2011/12 to 13.2 percent in 2012/13. Reflecting the strong pro-poor focus, the ratio of poverty-reducing expenditure to GDP is being maintained and non-priority expenditure will likely be compressed in 2012/13. The government budget deficit, including grants, is estimated to be 2.8 percent of GDP.
Overall fiscal stance for the consolidated public sector (including public enterprises) is likely considerably more expansionary. While appropriately consolidated data on the overall public sector finances are not available, external financing of public enterprises in 2012/13 and the monetary survey suggest that overall public sector (including public enterprises) borrowing exceeded 9 percent of GDP in 2012/13.
Although the monetary stance remains generally tight to keep inflation in single digits, recent developments point to some relaxation. Base money contracted by 4 percent in 2011/12, but by end-May 2013 expanded by 18 percent at an annual rate. The authorities adjusted slightly the base money target for the year to 13 percent from 12.2 percent. Achieving the 13 percent target implies a very tight monetary policy for the remainder of the fiscal year. The reserve requirement ratio has been further lowered recently (March 2013) from 10 percent to 5 percent, following an earlier (January 2012) lowering by 5 percentage points, and the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) sterilized the resulting liquidity injection through the sale of certificate deposits. Broad money growth remains on the high side and was 28 percent in 2012/13.
The external current account deficit widened slightly to US$3 billion in 2012/13 from US$2.8 billion in 2011/12, reflecting a weaker trade balance, although it improved as a ratio of GDP from 6.6 percent to 6.4 percent. Export performance suffered from a decline in prices and weak external demand conditions, growing only 3.2 percent (in nominal terms), while continued infrastructure and industrial investment and higher fuel importation contributed to an increase in imports by 6.3 percent. Transfers brought in a net inflow of around US$5 billion due to a surge in net private transfers that more than offset a decline in official transfers. Increased loan disbursements to the central government and public enterprises yielded a capital account surplus of US$3.4 billion. The NBE’s gross international reserves declined slightly to US$2.2 billion (1.8 months of imports) at the end of 2012/13 from US$2.3 billion (1.9 months of imports) at the end of 2011/12.
Foreign exchange supply came under pressure in the first half of 2012/13. The passing of Prime Minister Meles created uncertainty and excess demand in the foreign exchange market which was also reflected in a widening of the premium in the parallel market. Since its previous peak in October 2008, the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) reached the highest level in November 2012, although this has started to turn around with the recent decline in inflation.
Executive Board Assessment
Executive Directors commended the authorities for the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s strong growth performance and impressive progress in decreasing poverty and inequality under the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP). Prudent macroeconomic management has ensured a significant deceleration in inflation. Going forward, Directors agreed that the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s public-sector-led strategy needs to be recalibrated, with greater participation by the private sector to sustain robust and inclusive growth and mitigate vulnerabilities. They emphasized the importance of policies to maintain fiscal sustainability, preserve low inflation, rebuild external buffers, and improve financial intermediation and the business environment.
Directors welcomed the authorities’ prudent budgetary stance, but underscored the need to gain a fuller picture of public enterprises’ finances and to pace public investments appropriately. Sustaining pro-poor expenditures will require increased domestic revenue, and Directors therefore encouraged the authorities to continue the momentum of revenue administration and tax policy reforms. Further public financial management reforms as well as a medium-term debt management strategy would also help maintain fiscal sustainability and achieve the fiscal objectives under the GTP.
Directors agreed that a continued cautious monetary stance is warranted to preserve low inflation. They underscored the importance of improving the efficiency and flexibility of monetary policy instruments, including through greater flexibility of nominal interest rates and the development of market-based liquidity management. Directors called for better coordination between exchange rate and monetary policies and for greater exchange rate flexibility to help reconstitute foreign exchange reserves, strengthen competitiveness, and eliminate the spread between the parallel and official rates.
Directors noted that the banking sector remains well-capitalized and profitable. They stressed the need to carefully monitor concentration of large exposures to single entities, and for strengthened capacity to ensure effective financial sector supervision and regulation. Directors encouraged policies to improve the private sector’s access to finance and promote financial inclusion. In particular, phasing out the directive requiring commercial banks to hold low-yield central bank bills would facilitate financial deepening. They also encouraged the authorities to address the remaining deficiencies in the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism regime.
Directors underscored the transformational power of the private sector, which can be further harnessed to generate employment and sustain development. Accordingly, they advised the authorities to enhance competitiveness and attract Foreign Direct Investment by improving the business climate and fostering competition.
Directors acknowledged recent improvements in GDP statistics. They encouraged the authorities to make further efforts to improve data quality, particularly financial sector, fiscal and balance-of-payments statistics, with support from the International Monetary Fund technical assistance.
Ethiopia: Selected Economic and Financial Indicators, 2010/11–2012/13 1

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Ethiopia's first marathon draws crowds to 'land of runners'



Runners take the start on October 20, 2013 of Ethiopia's fist-ever marathon in Hawassa (AFP Photo/Jenny Vaughan)
Hawassa (Ethiopia) (AFP) - The sun had barely risen but the cool morning air was buzzing with excitement: 350 participants had gathered in Ethiopia, the land of runners, for the country's first international marathon organised by athletics legend Haile Gebrselassie.
Sunday's race, which drew 150 elite Ethiopian athletes and about 150 foreign “fun runners”, promises to boost professionalism in a country that has produced scores of world-class runners, many of whom started running barefoot along dusty country roads.
“Believe me, we can produce more big names, we can produce more marathon runners, more Olympic champions, world champion and world record holders,” said Gebrselassie, two-time marathon record-breaker and 10,000 Olympic champion.
Race organisers sought to draw Ethiopia's top athletes to the race in Hawassa, 275 kilometres (170 miles) south of Ethiopia's capital, by offering the largest cash prize in Ethiopian racing history -- close to $5,300 (3,855 euros) each for the top man and woman competitors.
The marathon is part of an overall boost to Ethiopian athletics, which in the past two years has been bolstered by new world-class training centres and a series of competitive races that have drawn crowds from around the world.
“Two years ago there was nothing here, athletes they wanted to come to Ethiopia to train there was no facility,” said Gebrselassie, who hosts several runs throughout the year, including the annual Great Ethiopian Run, which last year drew close to 40,000 people.
Today he has his own training centre, Yaya Village, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and last year, 5,000 and 10,000 world record holder Kenenisa Bekele opened a running centre with one of the country's only professional-rate running tracks.
With its high altitude and consistently sunny weather –- the country is often dubbed the land of “13 months of sunshine” -– Ethiopia has long been heralded as one of the best places in Africa for long distance training, rivalled only by neighbouring Kenya.
Sunday's marathon winner, Gudissa Shentema,said the race was a historical victory for him as he had never run a competitive marathon on home soil, and that it has encouraged him to train harder.
“I've been competing in different countries but this one gives me a lot of motivation to continue,” he said, forehead glistening with sweat after his 42 kilometre-run.
Gebrselassie said he hopes to draw casual runners from abroad too, in order to promote a running culture and give foreigners a chance to tour Ethiopia.
“It's a very good opportunity to bring tourists to see Ethiopia," he said, adding that the international exposure is crucial for changing Ethiopia's image.
Annie Delp, 38, who came from the U.S. to run the half-marathon following a ten-day tour of northern Ethiopia, said the event is a chance to open foreign eyes to Ethiopia, a country better-known as a nation plagued with famine and unrest in the 1980s.
“It would change everything because people don't know how beautiful Ethiopia is, how sweet the people are and how awesome the food is, there's just so much,” said Delp, who came first in the women's half marathon.
For some, the race was also a chance to run alongside Ethiopia's future long distance stars and meet Gebrselassie, a global running hero.
Simon Newton, 35, did a “running tour” of Ethiopia before doing Sunday's marathon, which he described as “fantastic.”
Second-placed Newton has run around 40 marathons before but said the Haile Gebrselassie race was the “most enjoyable” he has run.
As he tired around 35 kilometres, a group of children ran alongside him for motivation and at one point he had to dodge a monkey sitting on the road.
Gebrselassie said that while this year's race drew only modest crowds, he hopes the event will grow in the future, perhaps to gain global standing and rival the New York or London marathon.
“Of course, you cannot predict what will be in the future... now with this marathon, if people know about it, you never know,” he said with his characteristic wide grin.


US has a hidden hand in Kenya-Somalia crisis of relations

Attack on Westgate in Nairobi related to White House funding of occupation

The latest terror attack in Kenya and other significant events throughout Eastern Africa must be viewed within the context of U S economic and strategic interests in partnership with its NATO allies and Israel. New findings of oil and natural gas are a source of imperialist interest in the region

by Abayomi Azikiwe

Billows of smoke emanated from the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, on the third day of a standoff between Kenyan, Israeli and United States forces (FBI) against the seizure of the facility by members of the Al-Shabaab Islamic resistance movement based in Somalia. Reports indicated that at least 67 people had been killed since the incident began on Saturday September 21.
Eyewitnesses reported that a group of armed men and women stormed the entrance of the mall during a midday shooting at random and tossing hand grenades.
Members of the armed group were quoted as saying that their operation was in response to the ongoing occupation by approximately 2,500 Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) troops of southern Somalia.
Kenya, which shares a long border with Somalia, entered the troubled Horn of Africa state in October 2011 in what was called Operation Linda Nchi (protect the nation in Kiswahili).
Two close allies of the U.S. administration

Abayomi Azikiwe

Billows of smoke emanated from the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, on the third day of a standoff between Kenyan, Israeli and United States forces (FBI) against the seizure of the facility by members of the Al-Shabaab Islamic resistance movement based in Somalia. Reports indicated that at least 67 people had been killed since the incident began on Saturday September 21.
Eyewitnesses reported that a group of armed men and women stormed the entrance of the mall during a midday shooting at random and tossing hand grenades.
Members of the armed group were quoted as saying that their operation was in response to the ongoing occupation by approximately 2,500 Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) troops of southern Somalia.
Kenya, which shares a long border with Somalia, entered the troubled Horn of Africa state in October 2011 in what was called Operation Linda Nchi (protect the nation in Kiswahili).

Two close allies of the U.S. administration
The Kenyan government at that time was led by President Mwai Kibai and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, two close allies of the U.S. administration. The invasion was neither sanctioned by parliament as required by the constitution nor by the African Union or the United Nations Security Council. (Photo: Kibai and wife at the White House))
KDF forces bombed the strategic port city at Kismayo in the early phase of the operation. The city was a financial base for Al-Shabaab which controlled the lucrative charcoal exports from the country.
The Kenyan government at that time was led by President Mwai Kibai and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, two close allies of the U.S. administration. The invasion was neither sanctioned by parliament as required by the constitution nor by the African Union or the United Nations Security Council. (Photo: Kibai and wife at the White House))
KDF forces bombed the strategic port city at Kismayo in the early phase of the operation. The city was a financial base for Al-Shabaab which controlled the lucrative charcoal exports from the country.
Since the intervention of Kenya in Somalia, unrest has continued in the south of the country where resistance is escalating outside Kismayo involving Al-Shabaab guerillas who attack KDF positions on a daily basis.
Even local politicians and elders not associated with Al-Shabaab have complained about the activities of the Kenyan forces which are accused of interfering in the internal affairs of the region as well as human rights violations against civilians.
THE ROLE OF THE U.S. IN THE SOMALIA CRISIS
The attack on the Westgate Mall is being portrayed by the corporate and capitalist government-controlled media in the U.S. and Europe as a new episode in the so-called “war on terrorism.” Yet the role of the White House through the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) goes without mention.
U.S. imperialism has been involved in attempts to influence the political situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa for many decades. During the late 1970s, former Somali military leader Mohamed Siad Barre was courted by the Jimmy Carter administration and convinced that an invasion of Ethiopia, then in alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba, would result in Washington’s economic and military support to the beleaguered state which had attempted to adopt a socialist-orientation in 1969.  (Photo:  Reagan and Barre)
The invasion of the Ogaden region of Ethiopia in 1978, where a large population of Somalis lived, proved to be a monumental disaster for Mogadishu. Cuban internationalist forces then in Ethiopia to assist the government of Mengistu Haile Mariam fought alongside the national army of Addis Ababa to defeat Barre’s forces.
This ill-advised military adventure plunged Somalia into a deeper economic and political crisis that lasted for well over a decade. By early 1991, the Barre regime had collapse leaving a vast security and political vacuum inside the country.
A humiliating defeat
Later in December 1992, the administration of George H.W. Bush sent 12,000 marines into Somalia in what was called “Operation Restore Hope.” The intervention was sold to the people of the U.S. and the world as a “humanitarian mission” designed to address problems stemming from the drought and famine which had long plagued the country.
Nonetheless, by early 1993, Somalis had risen up against the intervention by the U.S., other western-imperialist states and United Nations forces occupying the nation. Dozens of Pentagon and UN6 troops lost their lives in a humiliating defeat that drove these military occupiers from Somalia in 1994.
Since that defeat in Somalia, the U.S. has never given up on controlling this region of Africa. With the overthrow of the socialist-oriented government of Mengistu of Ethiopia in 1991, Washington enhanced its influence through working with the federal government in Ethiopia headed by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
By 2006, the U.S. “war on terrorism” was well underway with occupations taking place simultaneously in Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti. In order to avoid the political fallout of another direct intervention, the Bush II administration encouraged Ethiopia to invade Somalia in order to displace the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which had begun to consolidate its influence and stabilize the country after years of war and factional strife.
Al-Shabaab
The main problem the U.S. had with the Islamic Courts was that it was operating outside of Washington’s influence. After two years of the intervention by Ethiopia, Somalia was again facing famine with the worst humanitarian crisis in the world at that time.
Ethiopian military forces withdrew in early 2009 and sections of the Islamic Courts were won over to a Washington-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG). A youth wing of the Islamic Courts arose known as Al-Shabaab (the youth) and began to wage war against the TFG demanding that all foreign forces be withdrawn from Somalia.
Beginning 2007, the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) was formed with the bulk of its forces coming from the U.S.-allied government of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Fighting has continued in Somalia since that time, with periodic and direct intervention by the Pentagon and the CIA.
AMISON trained and funded from Washington
U.S. and British bombing operations have been carried out against alleged Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda bases in Somalia. The country is also a base of operations for the U.S. drone programs which extends from the Horn of Africa all the way to the Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles.
In addition, the CIA has a major field station in Mogadishu and has maintained detention facilities inside Somalia imprisoning purported suspects in the “war on terrorism.” The combined AMISOM forces now consisting of some 17,500 troops receives training and funding from Washington.
The Somalia operation of the U.S. is part and parcel of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) which was formally started in 2008 under Bush but has been strengthened and enhanced by the Obama administration.
Kenya’s intervention in southern Somalia in October 2011 had been planned for at least two years. The release of WikiLeaks cables in 2010 documented the plans and the role of the State Department.
Years of planning
In an article published by the Kenyan Daily Nation on December 17, 2010, it reports that “The cables also say the military action took years of planning and was not a spontaneous reaction to abductions conducted by the Islamist group on Kenyan soil as repeatedly stated by government officials.
The abductions seemed to provide Kenya with a convenient excuse to launch the plan, which, officials argued, was necessary to ensure protection against threats posed by an unstable neighbour.”
This secret plan, dubbed “Jubaland Initiative,” outlined the creation of an artificial state in southern Somalia in an effort to choke off Al-Shabaab from the border areas near Kenya.
At a meeting in Ethiopia in January 2010, the Kenyan delegation led by the-then Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula appealed for U.S. support in the operation.
New findings of oil and natural gas all along the coast of East Africa
In addition to U.S. involvement in Somalia and Kenya, the state of Israel also has close ties with the government in Nairobi. Israeli economic interests are much in evidence in Kenya, where tourist hotels and other businesses such as the Westgate Shopping Mall, are owned by capitalists who are citizens of the Zionist state.
Developments in Kenya and throughout the entire region of East Africa must be viewed within the context of U.S. economic and strategic interests in partnership with its NATO allies and the state of Israel. In recent years new findings of oil and natural gas all along the coast of East Africa are of course a source of imperialist interests in the region.
At the same time flotillas of U.S. and European Union warships have been occupying the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia for several years under the guise of fighting piracy. Underlying this occupation of the Gulf of Aden is the vast economic resources that are transported through this waterway which is one of the most lucrative in the world.
The current government of President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi was not the favoured choice of the Obama administration during the elections in March. Washington supported former Prime Minister Odinga in the race and had issued veiled threats against Kenya if it did not vote the way the U.S. wanted.
Both President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto are under indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes against humanity they allegedly perpetrated in 2007/8 post-election violence in which at least 1,300 people died and over 600,000 others were maimed and displaced.  Ruto requested and was granted an adjournment of his trial that was taking place at the time of the Westgate mall attack pending the outcome of the standoff.
Kenyatta and Ruto are accused of human rights violations during the course of a violent dispute over the results of the previous elections held in late 2007. Their prosecution by the ICC has been rejected by the Kenyan government as well as nearly all the 55-member nations of the African Union.
The ICC has been severely criticized by the African Union due to its exclusive pre-occupation with prosecuting continental leaders.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is also under indictment by the ICC and was denied a visa by the State Department to attend last week’s UN General Assembly in New York even though Washington is not a signatory to the Rome Statue that created the ICC.