Somalia: Mogadishu Is Burning

There is heavy fighting going on right now in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Thousands of civilians have fled their homes, many others are trapped and there are bodies and wounded people everywhere in the streets. Islamic fighters are exchanging fire with members of the Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism. The Islamic fighters are accused of being allied with Al Qaeda.






I guess somebody also got stinking rich from supplying the weapons used in this conflict. They are laughing all the way to the bank while innocent people are getting killed and the cities are burning. And to think about some people in the world who are so worried about paying a little extra for gasoline to their cars... :shk: The people in Mogadishu have real problems. Btw, it seems like the Islamic fighters are gradually gaining the upper hand in this war...

Related links:
Country profile: Somalia (BBC)
Wikipedia: Somalia
allAfrica.com: recent headlines from Somalia
BBC News In Depth - Somalia: Emerging from Ruins?

Threads on Abovetopsecret.com:
Threads Tagged With: somalia, or Similar
Threads Tagged With: africa, or Similar
Threads Tagged With: viktor bout, or Similar
Threads Tagged With: al qaeda, or Similar
Threads Tagged With: sharia, or Similar
Africa: the Prison Continent (by Souljah)
WAR: Global Arms - Trafficking Network Designated by US (by Hellmutt)

This is what makes me bristle:

Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism.

Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism

Otherwise know as The Warlords! Those chaps who treated their people like rubbish, the enemy of the UN in 1993, the people who killed a few lot of Somalis and US and UN troops (Remember Adid?)

Well now, they're the good guys! That's right everyone, they're not The Warlords anymore, shhhh shhhhh don't say 'Warlords', say The Alliance For Peace and The Fight Against International Terrorism or, or, Alliance For The Restoration Of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, but not, for the love of spin, 'Warlords'!

Now:

Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism.

Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism

sounds better than 'Warlords' does it not?

Because

Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism.

Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism

is much nicer terms to refer to the *shhhh* warlords, and is more acceptable to think these are heroic chaps fighting the evils of Islamic militantism, rather than armed gangs who have divided their country up for their own ends.

Many Somalis say the CIA is arming the warlords, whoops, sorry.....

Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism.

Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism

and flying planes full of weapons into Warlord (damn, I did it again) held airstrips.

The UN says a unnamed country is openly flouting the arms embargo on Somalia.

I wonder what country that could be.....hmm.

It's like Afghanistan, in reverse!

Instead of arming the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan that then turned against the US this time, The US is arming the Warlords who were the enemy up until a while ago.

Oh US foreign policy! Great is it not?

Arming the chaps who dragged the bodies of dismembered US Soldiers from the back of pickup trucks through the streets of Mogadishu in '93?

Does that not make the everyday American, oh I don't know.....pissed off?

Ok, Forget the '93 Black sea fight, it has nothing to bo with this...

The coalition of Warlords is a bunch evil SOBs, but at least you can negotiate with those greedy Bastards.
You can't negotiate with fundamental fanatics... Lesser of two evils...
And now you have united the fighting clans, so maybe they could actually start work together after this current fighting ends (not probable, but at least there is a probability now)



OT:
And one thing about the '93: Was it really a sane thing to do to risk a 100 alive men for a few bodies?
Out here the commander would have been court martialed for that kind of idiotic behaviour. Dead body is a dead body, you don't risk your mission and Fighting force for them (for wounded of course, but not for the dead)

Originally posted by Regensturm
Does that not make the everyday American, oh I don't know.....pissed off?

Umm, no, it does not make this average American, "oh, I don't know....pissed off."

Here's a thought, Regensturm: How about you, as with others, simply contact your nearest United Nations representative?





seekerof

Guess this was the response to all the pirate activity going on off the coast of Somalia.

Arm the Warlords and start a civil war.

Are the high seas off the Horn of Africa safe for commerce again?

I suppose that's all that really matters to the PTB.

Right Seeker?

Originally posted by Seekerof

Umm, no, it does not make this average American, "oh, I don't know....pissed off."

Here's a thought, Regensturm: How about you, as with others, simply contact your nearest United Nations representative?

seekerof

Here's a thought Seekerof, hows does it feel to have the CIA seemingly funding Warlords that in 1993 were starving Somalians and dragged the bodies of US Soldiers down the streets?

Tell me how that feels from your perspective.

How about you, simply contact your Congressman/woman, and make a mention of that?

Originally posted by northwolf
Ok, Forget the '93 Black sea fight, it has nothing to bo with this...

The coalition of Warlords is a bunch evil SOBs, but at least you can negotiate with those greedy Bastards.

Then why no government in Somalia?

Originally posted by northwolf
You can't negotiate with fundamental fanatics... Lesser of two evils...

Negotiation with one evil, but not with the other, choosing one evil, but not the other as you are putting it.

How about, seeing as both may not be desirable, not backing one over the other with arms, worseing the situation.

Originally posted by northwolf
And now you have united the fighting clans, so maybe they could actually start work together after this current fighting ends (not probable, but at least there is a probability now)

The last time these Warlords united was to fight the UN and the US troops.

After that, they turned on each other.

And so they will if they defeat the Islamic Fighters.

But as long as there's nothing 'Islamic' about Somalia, a Civil War suits, apparently.

Originally posted by northwolf
OT:
And one thing about the '93: Was it really a sane thing to do to risk a 100 alive men for a few bodies?
Out here the commander would have been court martialed for that kind of idiotic behaviour. Dead body is a dead body, you don't risk your mission and Fighting force for them (for wounded of course, but not for the dead)

I would say that the US military have a saying called No Man Left Behind.

Alive or dead.

I'm not saying that gives a reason for a debacle, but it may do for recovering bodies.

The "Black Hawk Down" incident in '93 you are referring to was initially an incursion into the Mog to arrest (kidnap) Adid. When one of the choppers being used for support, which had a Delta sniper team aboard, was shot down by an rpg to the tail rotor, the Ranger Company involved was sent back in to mount a rescue operation. They were given very bad directions to the crash site by orbiting 'Little Birds' and ended up getting surrounded and pinned down by an estimated (at least) 5000 heavily armed and angry Somalis.

The Rangers fought their way heroically through the night, suffering 18 dead and 73 wounded out of a company of 119 men, and had the 10th Mountain Division sent to their aid the following morning.

Black Hawk Down

[edit on 26-5-2006 by Icarus Rising]

Islamist militia has taken Mogadishu from the US Backed Warlords...

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Islamist militia has taken Mogadishu from the US Backed Warlords...

Well, every one knows what that means. Increased funding for the warlords and possable relocation of "military advisors". Some how this violent Islamic opponent seems to fight US backed groups no matter where.

How long till "Black Hawk Down Two", or will it be "Osprey Down" this time?

I can almost here it now;
TAC*scramble* 1 delta 2 this is Mongoose 74, we are hit and *scramble*oing down...over...*scramble*

The current or next administration hopefully will do some thing right for a change.
I can hope right?

From Hellmutt last article, in reference to the "The Islamic Courts "

They were originally set up in Mogadishu as a grassroots movement by businessmen to establish some law and order in a city without any judicial system.

Does anyone know exactly who these "businessmen" were. Seems alittle strange IMO that a "grassroots" group would be able to topple intrenched warlords without some outside funding.

There has been fear for a long time that Osama and his fantics were suspected as wanting to take over the region. Guess it is true and looks like he will have a new home

Hey - could THIS have anything to do with the current events in Somalia?

Africa; the Prison Continent

U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia - from Washington Post

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.

The latest 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.

Many of the warlords have their own agendas, Somali officials said, and some reportedly fought against the United States in 1993 during street battles that culminated in an attack that downed two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and left 18 Army Rangers dead.

"The U.S. government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told journalists by telephone from Baidoa. "This cooperation . . . only fuels further civil war."

Fueling yet Another Civil War?

Babylon come to Divide and Rule as Always.

And ofcourse, the good old Hegelian Dialectic:

PROBLEM - REACTION - SOLUTION.

Oh jebus...

Can we tolerate this kind of obvious meddling much longer?

I want names...
I want to know what name was on the contract with the warlords... let me guess?
was it Porter goss?

Is this how America fights its wars now? By selling out to former enemys,
well, if that is the case, i have heard that AQ, can be bought quite cheap...

all we gotta do is make Israel give back a few thousand acres of land... and stop meddling in other countries affairs like this one.
and whala
AQ is our stooge again (if they ever left)

Isn't this truly the cheapest, and most beneficial solution rather than wars in several countries?

my guess is that there is billions more dollars spent per year, to keep the American sheeple from realizing that...

I am only slightly serious folks, but i think you get me...

The american people would never have supported a program to back the warlords who killed our soldiers, even if it was to kill other people that had killed even more...

it is selling out our ethics, which do make a difference... only the fools who made this decision, dont have ethics, so of course, they didn't see the conflict.

The taliban, while being haneously strict in religious matters, are also obsessively strict in legal rule...
If we wanted to punish the somalians for what we had to endure, and help them to gain a better life at the same time, i can think of thousands of worse ways than letting the taliban/extremists have them...

they do have a purpose in the world IMO... as a method of instilling a baseline standard of civilization in a county that doesn't even have that...
taliban are not good, but for a country that doesn't even have leadership, or laws, they are the perfect group to establish stability.

The somalis can just sit on their hands and wait. The US already had a debacle in that town and took enough heat just trying to disberse food to them. If there's al-qaida elements there, then drop some cruise missiles on them, but they can forget any hope of ever having US troops come in to support a stable government there, or even to distribute food.

Notice how pretty much instantaneously the question is, 'will the US intervene' when this subject comes up (at least to my own mind and apparently many others). It shows just how influential the US still is, or at least that most peopel recognize that its the US or nothing.

Islamist militia has taken Mogadishu from the US Backed Warlords...

A good lesson in why it doesn't pay to support unmotivated mercenaries and thugs, they just don't have the fight in them. The fanatics are simply no where near as well armed as the warlords, especially with US backing, and yet they were knocked out of their city within a little more than a week. Let the fanatics take the city, hell let them take the whole rotten country, what are they going to do with it? Turn its vast resources against us? Use its geostrategic location to interupt the flow of oil with their...fleet? March on Cairo? The US ain't the one that's got to worry about islamists in somalia, its the sudanese, ethiopians, egyptians, saudis, etc. Let them handle this. And if they don't, they'll be the ones getting knocked down as the islamists grow stronger, we'll still be able to come in and secure the only thing that we need from the region.

lazarus
The american people would never have supported a program to back the warlords who killed our soldiers, even if it was to kill other people that had killed even more...

The american people screamed for it. Recall after 911 one of the reasons cited for not having foreknowledge and intelligence on the subject was that 'we didn't want to do business with some disreputable people'? Wether it was true or not, the public went nuts over that.

Who cares if the latest crop of warlords in somalia was getting guns from the US and using them to kill anti-western islamists? Souljah's right, divide and conquer. We're not really helping them by giving them guns in the long run. THey're never going to be 'better off' in that part of the world or improve their situation. They'll be warlords, but warlords of.....somalia. Good luck with that!

[edit on 5-6-2006 by Nygdan]

i think i'll wait for scheduled or in-depth news...

as i hear it, the Islamic Court Union, is the forces/party/militia that took control,
and the ICU is a grassroots, local organized and supported militia...
they're against the US & the caretaker govt now in power
~or something quite different than warlords & foreign AQ, terror insurgents~

[edit on 5-6-2006 by St Udio]

I love the newspeak term for the warlords. I really do.

What was it again, the Coalition for Peace and Counter-Terrorism?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA

In realspeak I guess that means "Individuals for War and Terrorism" - a very fitting description of Somali warlords.

So how long does everyone think before strict Shiite laws are put into place for Mogadishu citizens?

What fun for all the any non-muslims and all the women living there.

god you people are late. i asked the same questions a loooong time ago...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 5-6-2006 by karby]

An Islamist state being established in Somalia might be the outcome of the radical Islamist militias victory. Somalia may become a safe haven for terrorists to train, practice and seek refuge. Al Qaeda is celebrating.

Douglas Farah: Victory of Islamists in Somalia Show Dangers of Stateless Regions

Jun 6, 2006


The victory of radical Islamist militias in Somalia, with the subsequent vow of their leaders establish an Islamist state, highlights the dangers of festering stateless areas and the attractions they present for terrorists, transnational criminal organizations and other armed, non-state groups.

The victory also highlights the limits of U.S. power in those regions of the world. Despite some covert U.S. support for the secular warlords in the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism-the amount is not known-and the clear efforts of the U.S. Joint Combined Task Force-Horn of Africa to keep the situation from ending like this, the possibility again exists of an enclave that will provide al Qaeda and its affiliates with a safe haven to train, practice and seek refuge.

It is not clear what the U.S-backed alliance is or what it really represented except for several of the most violent elements of Somalian society that were not in the Islamist camps. Nor is it entirely clear what the Islamist groups represent other than a desire to install Sharia law across the land.

[---]

In the near future we could well look back on the Islamist triumph in Somalia as the beginning of another serious Islamist threat to a much broader world.