Learning to Live With Radical Islam

We don't have to accept the stoning of criminals. But it's time to stop treating all Islamists as potential terrorists.

Pakistan's Swat valley is quiet once again. Often compared to Switzerland for its stunning landscape of mountains and meadows, Swat became a war zone over the past two years as Taliban fighters waged fierce battles against Army troops. No longer, but only because the Pakistani government has agreed to some of the militants' key demands, chiefly that Islamic courts be established in the region. Fears abound that this means women's schools will be destroyed, movies will be banned and public beheadings will become a regular occurrence.
The militants are bad people and this is bad news. But the more difficult question is, what should we—the outside world—do about it? That we are utterly opposed to such people, and their ideas and practices, is obvious. But how exactly should we oppose them? In Pakistan and Afghanistan, we have done so in large measure by attacking them—directly with Western troops and Predator strikes, and indirectly in alliance with Pakistani and Afghan forces. Is the answer to pour in more of our troops, train more Afghan soldiers, ask that the Pakistani military deploy more battalions, and expand the Predator program to hit more of the bad guys? Perhaps—in some cases, emphatically yes—but I think it's also worth stepping back and trying to understand the phenomenon of Islamic radicalism...more..http://www.newsweek.com/id/187093?from=rss

Somali talaban president bends to rebel demand for sharia law

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said Saturday he will give in to a rebel demand that he impose Islamic law, or sharia, in an effort to halt fighting between Somali forces and Islamic insurgents,However, Ahmed told a news conference he won't agree to a strict interpretation of the law, which forbids girls from attending school, requires veils for women and beards for men, and bans music and television. The president, speaking at his palace in the capital, Mogadishu, said local elders and religious leaders, acting as liaisons with the militants, brought him a message saying the rebels wanted a truce in the two-year-old fighting. He also asked African peacekeepers to stand down. Ahmed, who was elected January 31, said he would ask the AU contingent to leave once there is a solid political solution to the conflict. More than 40,000 Somalis have returned to abandoned neighborhoods in Mogadishu over the past six weeks, despite some of the heaviest fighting in months, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday...more..http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/02/28/somalia.sharia/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Somalia talaban leader agrees to sharia law

New Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has bowed to demands from Islamist insurgents after the fiercest clashes since he took office, agreeing to a truce and the introduction of sharia law.
Mr Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader who was elected President on January 31, said he had accepted proposals by local and religious leaders mediating between his Government and the hardliners."I met with religious leaders and elders and accepted their demand for ceasefire and reconciliation with the opposition members and I call on all opposition parties to halt the unnecessary violence," Mr Ahmed said. "The mediators asked me to introduce Islamic sharia in the country and I agreed."Hardline Shebab militia and other Islamist fighters have waged battles against the Government and its allies since and before Mr Ahmed came to power, vowing to fight until all foreign forces withdraw and sharia law is imposed.At least 30 people were killed this week in the bloodiest clashes since the President, a moderate Islamist, was elected.
African Union peacekeepers, who are constantly under attack from Islamist insurgents, are the only foreign troops left in the country after Ethiopian soldiers pulled out last month.
The proposal to introduce sharia law must still be ratified by Somalia's parliament.
Mr Ahmed became President following a United Nations-brokered reconciliation in Djibouti that aimed to try and bring some kind of stability to the Horn of Africa state after years of unrest
AFP

Somali talaban government, Islamic group agree to truce

MOGADISHU, Somalia: The government and an Islamic insurgent group have reached a cease-fire deal, Somalia's new president said on Saturday, days after dozens of civilians were killed in fighting in the Somali capital.
Elders of Mogadishu's dominant clan, the Hawiye terrorist sympasizer hawiye Clan council , mediated between the government and the Islamic Party, one of two major insurgent groups in Somalia, said Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. He said the negotiators did not meet face-to-face.
"We hope all differences will be solved peacefully," Ahmed told journalists at a news conference at the presidential palace in Mogadishu. The president declined to give any other details about the truce.
Islamic Party spokesman Sheik Muse Abdi Arale said his group respects the elders and things are moving in the right direction but he declined to give more details.
"Elders are making efforts to end the hostilities in Mogadishu and the sides have accepted and welcomed our effort," Ahmed Diriye Ali, one of the mediators, told The Associated Press..more..http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/28/africa/AF-Somalia.php

Editor of a Somaliland Weekly Arrested in Hargeisa somalia

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest yesterday by police in the tribal enclave of sepretist Somaliland , Mohamed Abdi Guled, editor of the privately-owned weekly Yool appearing in Hargeisa. The journalist is being held on the premises of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
Several journalists in Hargeisa said that Mohamed Abdi Guled, better known as "Urad", was probably arrested as a result of the publication of an article on 24 February, exposing planned murder attempts against Somaliland's parliamentary deputies, leaders of opposition parties and traditional chiefs. "This arrest is illegal, since sepretist Somaliland media law lays down that the authorities can only arrest a journalist on the order of a court," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "In these circumstances and knowing that no charge has brought against Mohamed Abdi Guled, he should logically be immediately released", the organisation said.
His fellow journalists also said that the incident, forcing Urad to spend the weekend in custody without going before a court, was aimed at "intimidating the entire journalist community of Somaliland" state of somalia. Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland

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Defeating Somali Pirates on Land: The Kenya Connection

The author of several past Proceedings articles from hot spots around the world files this report from Mombasa.
For Somali pirates, 2008 was a bumper year. In more than 100 major documented attacks, pirates seized approximately 40 large commercial vessels in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.
Several merchant ships and their crews are still being held in pirate enclaves, but others have been ransomed back to their owners for an average price of $1 million. In January, the owners of the MV Sirius Star, a brand-new tanker with a load of crude oil valued at $100 million, paid $3 million to secure the release of the tanker and her 25 crew members. And in early February, the owners of the MV Faina, laden with armored vehicles and other weapons, shelled out an estimated $3.2 million for the release of the ship and her crew. The United Nations estimates that pirates raked in around $20 million last year, this in a country where 25 cents can buy dinner.
The world's navies have mobilized in an attempt to defeat piracy at sea. Around two dozen warships from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, India, China, and other countries, organized in several distinct task forces, patrol the roughly million square miles of ocean where pirates are operating. In January, the U.S. Navy reorganized its own counter-piracy efforts, establishing a new combined task force, CTF-151, dedicated solely to combating pirates. And at press time, Turkey had committed to sending a frigate to the Gulf of Aden for that purpose. At-sea interception is the most obvious countermeasure for piracy and where the world has focused its resources.
Hitting Them Where They Live
But a permanent solution to the piracy problem requires "something happening on land," according to Martin Murphy, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in Washington, D.C. With Somalia's 18-year-old civil war still raging, some say even escalating, there is little hope of resolving the piracy crisis at its source. But pirate networks have another land-based weakness, one that's perhaps being neglected: in Kenya, where pirate chiefs base important parts of their operations. As long as Somalia itself remains inaccessible to law-enforcement efforts, Kenya is where the world must begin rolling back the land-based organizations that support pirates.
While small gangs of armed men riding in fast skiffs are the dramatic face of piracy, these men are just the foot soldiers of sophisticated criminal enterprises in which major infrastructure is land-based. The most successful pirates-those with the weapons and intelligence to pull off attacks on supertankers hundreds of miles from land-are employed by wealthy criminal bosses, many of them expatriates, and draw on information provided by paid sources inside key Kenyan maritime agencies.
"From what I can see, this has become a business," Abubaker Omar??? profiling apologist Abukar Arman ...said of pirates. Omar is the head of Kenya's large seafaring union, based in Mombasa, the country's major port. His constituents include thousands of seafarers, many of whom have had encounters with pirates during their careers, and some of whom have even been kidnapped by pirates and eventually freed.
Organized Crime
Omar described pirate networks as something akin to the West's mafia. Resources are concentrated in the hands of a few senior bosses, each employing "capos" commanding bands of low-ranking pirates. The capos, Omar said, are former Somali army soldiers from before the civil war, when Somali troops trained in the Soviet Union. The capos and their subordinates operate from pirate enclaves in northern Somalia, especially in the town of Eyl puntland .....more .http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/story.asp?STORY_ID=1813.

Somali Taliban, Somali al Qaeda Agree to Get Along Somali prime minister meets with shabaab spiritual leader clerics ,

new UN Technocrat as Premier has met with Islamic clerics in Mogadishu on Saturday. Somali Islamic clerics in Mogadishu have been mediating between the new talaban government of Somalia and Islamists who rejected to be part of the peace process. mostly hawiye al-shabaab Spiritual leaders .jehadist Sheik Bashir Ahmed Salad, the chairman of the Somali Uluma Council said they discussed with the prime minister about implementing Islamic Law in the country.
On the hand the cabinet ministers had their first meeting since the government relocated to Mogadishu. The meeting was a closed- doors one and it is not known what they have discussed.
But, Abdisalan Yusuf Guled an official from the office of Somalia’s prime minister said the cabinet ministers discussed the security situation of the country. The new Prime Minister and some of his cabinet relocated to the capital on Saturday.
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Islam in somalia

U.N. urges Somalis overseas to back peace process

MOGADISHU, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The United Nations urged Somalis living abroad to condemn violent insurgents and support President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's new administration as it meets in Mogadishu for the first time on Saturday. Ahmed is trying to form an inclusive unity government that will be the 15th attempt in 18 years to bring stability to the failed Horn of Africa state, which Washington fears could become a safe haven for extremists linked to al Qaeda. Rebels including the hardline Islamist al Shabaab group attacked government forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers on Tuesday and Wednesday, setting off the city's fiercest battles in weeks. More than 80 people, mostly civilians, were killed. A local human rights group in Mogadishu said this week's clashes had uprooted some 17,000 people, and that 29 women and 12 children were among the dead. In an open letter to the Somali diaspora, U.N. envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said the return of ministers to Mogadishu proved progress towards peace was being made faster than most Somalis or the international community had dared hope.
"Please tell those wanting Somalia to remain a divided country at the bottom of the heap to stop and focus on the peace process, on themselves, on their families and people to whom they bring only misery," Ould-Abdallah said. More than 16,000 civilians have been killed in Somalia's two-year-old insurgency, 1 million have been driven from their homes, more than a third of the population depend on aid, and large parts of the capital lie empty and ruined by shellfire.
Al Shabaab gained support as one of many rebel groups fighting Ethiopian troops propping up the previous government. An Ethiopian withdrawal in January placated some Somalis, but al Shabaab has now turned its fire on the small AU peacekeeping mission, AMISOM, and Ahmed's new government.
SUICIDE BOMBERS
Al Shabaab, which the United States has formally listed as a foreign terrorist organisation with close ties to al Qaeda, said on Saturday many youths had volunteered for suicide attacks on the 3,500-strong AU force of troops from Uganda and Burundi.
"We have many teenagers who are competing to be enlisted as suicide bombers. They are bravely ready to penetrate our enemy's weak defences," Shabaab said on its website http://www.kataaib.info/ somali terror Websit it’s back to business again Al Shabaab's Kataaib.net site pwned 4 weeks ago.we will Find out new! - Web Hosting .. we need your help ..to shut down" the shabaab website . Again . You Can't Read Article. more
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LS003459.htm
New worry: Somali youth and Radical websites
FBI to Focus on Immigrant Outreach After U.S. Citizen Stages Suicide Bombing in Somalia

A wake up call for the people of jubbaland !

Dear my brothers and sisters Since the so called Djibouti peace talks between the ARS and the TFG,i could not figure out or i could not convince my mind that a place where the sons of sade are considered as leftover i.e (Haraadi) would get justice? We need to understand one thing neither Ismail Omar Guelleh the life president of French resort of Djibouti nor the Madrasa teacher Ahmed would be happy to give you a fare share of your rights. How in earth can you forget that this very same Madara teacher was the one who said: “These are the (Haraadigii )leftover from (Siad Barre" during the days of the ICU? Would he ever be just to you? People of jubbaland , get up from your sleep, be united, liberate your people and instantly take responsibility over the future of your land and people. This is your chance to a very good morning wake up call, don’t waste it! Let as all go for world class conference in Gedo, elect a central committee to prepare and organize the system of the regional government of jubbaland States Plans for a new state . The central committee would then select and nominate legislative reps and after that the representatives to elect president and vice president and the elected president to form a government of that region build state police and judiciary, tresurery, audits and the regional army to protect us from the marauding hordes of our surroundings. The UN special envoy and his very empty suitcase can also have another peace of work to convince his superiors in New York that Jubbaland dialogues is paramount and emergency bursary is required but I have a peace of advice for Mr. Walad abdalla. We are not pimps and therefore if he wants to come and fill his suitcases also from us. You should never expect that. My brothers in blood and bone let us wakeup and hold hands together and build our rich regions. Then we will get the respect that no body is able to deny or even think to so. The Djibouti members of the TFG parliament must participate in the up coming meeting jubbaland which will be lead by our( Ugaas) tribal chief.
Wabilahi Tawfiq Mohamed Abdi Ali (barako)

Terrorist ban commemoration of Prophet Muhammad

The Islamist group of Al-Shabaab has barred the memorial ceremonies of Prophet Muhammad (peace of Allah Be upon him) in Bardhere town in Gedo region jubbaland state of Somalia Friday evening, officials said on Saturday. This can worsen the dispute between Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca religious organization and al-Shabaab Terrorist group. Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca adherents often commemorate the Islamic month of Rabicula Awal. Rabicul Awal( Mawliid to Somalis) is the month when Prophet Muhammad (Peace of Allah Be upon Him) was born. Terrorist Sheik Farah Hish Mohamed, head of the security of al – Shabab Terrorist administration in Bardhere town said that they had imposed a curfew to the town to tighten the security of it. Al-Shabaab warned against commemorating Prophet Muhammad during this month. Sufism, a mystic form of Islam, has centuries old roots in Somalia but is considered heretical by conservative factions of Islam, especially Salafism and Wahhabism. Since the fall of Somalia's last functioning government in 1991. Sheik Farah had also said that men and the women can not follow the transportation together describing as In-Islamic.Al-Shabaab Terrorist grew powerful as an anti- TFG &Ethiopian .. The insurgent group and took control of many parts of central and southern Somalia,this map by The Long War Journal. but since the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops their popularity decreased because of the fighting with Ahlu Sunna Waljaca organization in central
Somalia.
Sufi Clerics in Somalia Support Unity Government
Somali Sufi Islamists seize town from Alshabab
Sufism, or Tasawwuf as it is known in the Muslim world, is Islamic mysticism (Lings, Martin, What is Sufism?,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/subdivisions/sufism_1.shtml
Can Sufi Islam counter the Taleban? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7896943.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4907406.stm

somali media

most southern Somalia media outlets like Horn Afrik and Shabelle Media Network are owned by Habar Gidir sub-clan hawiye personals which al Shabaab depended on to "spread disinformation." Shabelle Media Network is also the main Somali media that international human rights groups and western news agencies depend on for details about the violence in Somalia... Terrorist Sympathizers also control BBC SOMALI AND VOA SOMALI .. Habar Gidir own radio station shabelle Total Axess to somali Terrorist (al-shabaab) Shabelle Media Network or shabaab media networkProblems in the VOA-Somali Service (Part Two)
Problems in the VOA-Somali Service part one http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/problems_in_the_voasomali_serv.html
Hawiye Council Chairman 'Supports' Insurgent Attacks
terrorist sympasizer hawiye Clan council condems plea to extend mandate of Ethiopian mission
Somalia: Hawiye Council Chairman 'Supports' Insurgent Attacks

Self Induced Stalemate in Somalia: An Assessment of U.S. Policy Options

The clock has run out on the current international engagement in Somalia, and the United States faces a dearth of realistic policy options.
The ability of the United States, the United Nations (UN) and the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) to influence political events in Somalia is almost wholly dependant on the presence of Ethiopian military forces. It was the Ethiopian invasion that ended the promising reign of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) over Somalia’s unruly capital city, Mogadishu; and the Ethiopian army, albeit with some assistance from the small African Union peacekeeping mission, is the coercive force that has allowed the unpopular Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to remain in power. But the TFG cannot retain power without the support of Ethiopian troops. ..more..http://forums.csis.org/africa/?p=219#more-219

Chicago Man Arrested for Allegedly Targeting Obama With HIV-Infected Blood

It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.
man from President Obama's hometown of Chicago has been arrested for allegedly sending Obama and his staff envelopes containing HIV-infected blood, in the hopes of killing or harming them.
It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.
In the weeks leading up to Obama's inauguration, Saad Hussein, an Ethiopian refugee in his late 20s, sent an envelope addressed to "Barack Obama" to offices of the Illinois government in Springfield, Ill., according to court documents.
The envelope contained a series of curious items, including a letter with reddish stains and an admission ticket for Obama's election-night celebration in Chicago's Grant Park. Court documents said Hussein, who takes drugs to treat a mental illness, later told FBI agents he is "very sick with HIV" and cut his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter.
Hazmat teams were called in after the envelope was opened, and offices of the Illinois Department on Aging and the Department of Revenue were locked down for nearly two hours, locking 300 staffers in their offices, court documents said.
Hussein, with his brother acting as an interpreter, told FBI agents he was actually "an admirer" of Obama and was "seeking help from the government," according to court documents. He also told them he was hoping to obtain tickets to the Inaugural ceremonies in Washington, the documents said.
Days after sending the letter to Obama, Hussein allegedly placed two more letters in the mail, one addressed to "Emanuel," an apparent reference to Obama's current Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. The two letters contained what appeared to be dried blood, the court documents said...more..http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/27/chicago-man-arrested-allegedly-targeting-obama-hiv-infected-blood/

Islamists impose curfew in Bardhere town

BARDHERE gedo- jubbaland state -The Terrorist administration of Al-Shabaab has imposed a curfew in Bardhere town in Gedo region last night (Friday), officials said on Saturday.
jehadist Sheik Farah Hiish Mohamed, head of the security of al – Shabab Terrorist administration in Bardhere town told terror sympathizer Habar Gidir own radio station shabelle that they had imposed the curfew to keep the security of the town and said that the people of the town welcomed the step.
“We are thanking to the people for taking the order of the administration and we are informing everybody who is in Bardhere town not to violate the law during the curfew or we shall punish who every refuses the order of the administration,”jehadist Sheik Farah said.sheik Farah had also said that men and the women can not follow the transportation together ???saying that it is not party of the religion of Islam ??? and he added that they will punish who every is seen doing that action in the town.The Terrorist administration of al-Shabab who manages Bardhere town banned using Kat??? in the town earlier.Any how Sheik farah said last that there has been a dispute between Al-Shabaab forces and the Islamic clerics of Ahlu sunna Waljamea concerning the commemoration of the holy Ramadan month known as Mowliid (birth of the prophet) Muhammad peace be upon him which mullahs often welcome ???when it comes but Terrorist al-Shabab Terrorist administration warned to commemorate it saying they will take a step who every tries to do??? that. al-shabaab take over the city from jubbaland army.. thet take advantage Lack of federal support People in the Region new somali government fragments further,minister of energy and petrol Abduwahid Elmi resigned .. At least four people have died of thirsty in Gedo region, south of Somalia as the region hit severe drought due to lack of seasonal rains,.The deaths which resulted from lack of water happened in Darasalam village, 130km north of Elwak district in Gedo region bordering with Kenya.“all the people including old woman, man and a young daughter died when they lacked water to drink,” a local resident told .The drought which hit the region had an impact on hundreds of families who displaced from their villages to get water four their lives.The matter worsened when the aid agencies withdrew from the province for insecurity as the local elders and intellectuals asked for resumption of aid workers in the region to help the suffering people.
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Britain imports a small war

Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 11:39am Andrew Bolt Blog

Britain has imported the makings of a small civil war:
By MI5’s own admission, there are 2,000 terrorists suspects in the UK, perhaps twice that number who are susceptible to recruitment. As Jonathan Evans, the director-general, put it in January: ‘We don’t have anything approaching comprehensive coverage.’ MI5 deserves great praise for thwarting numerous attacks but sources say the Security Service can monitor, at most, two live plots at a time. That war is not just being fought on British soil:
Interceptions of Taliban communications have shown that British jihadists some “speaking with West Midlands accents” are active in Helmand and other parts of southern Afghanistan, according to briefing papers prepared by an official security agency… MI5 has estimated that up to 4,000 British Muslims had travelled to Pakistan and, before the fall of the Taliban, to Afghanistan for military training. And not all its jihadists are fighting against British targets:
A university student who became a suicide bomber in Somalia is believed to be the first of a new wave of British-based Islamic terrorism. The 21-year-old reportedly blew himself up at a military checkpoint killing up to 20 soldiers in the southern Somali town of Baidoa…
The killings come amid warnings that dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia… Peter Neumann, a terrorism expert at the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, said: ‘The numbers I hear (going from Britain to Somalia) are 50, 60 or 70 but in reality we don’t know. America has a very much smaller problem - but cannot be complacent: (A) Somali-American man who was one of several suicide bombers in a terrorist attack last October in Somalia had apparently been indoctrinated into his extremist beliefs while living in the United States...more..http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/britain_imports_a_small_war

Somali cartoonist draws death threats

2/28/09
This week, Canadians celebrate the freedom to read.
Every day, a Somali man living in Edmonton celebrates the freedom to draw.
Freedom to Read Week is an annual event in Canada raising awareness about freedom of expression, which we are guaranteed in this country. But Amin Amir doesn't need a designated week to remind him.The visual artist, who has lived in Canada for nearly a decade, is famous in Somali circles around the globe for his political cartoons about Somalia. Satirical, poignant and often controversial, Amir's cartoons -- which he posts at Aminarts.com -- address issues facing his home country: political corruption, war, poverty, famine, murdered journalists and oppressed women. His website gets up to 10,000 hits a day,In one cartoon, Amir depicts how an Islamic militia group undermines society despite its claims that it's helping the country. Al-Shabaab is portrayed as a bulldozer digging deep into the side of a cliff. Above the bulldozer, on a precariously thin strip of earth, Somalia's most vulnerable people -- women, children, the elderly -- struggle to survive. Most of the cartoons are in his native language, Somali.Edmonton's Somali community, which numbers around 8,000, admires the artist for speaking out about the issues back home. "He's a local hero. Everyone talks about him," Accord says. Amir deals regularly with extremists who want him dead because of his cartoons. He gets anonymous threats as often as twice a week.
"They send me e-mails, 'We kill you, we know where you live,' " the artist says with the help of his daughter, Jija, who translates from Somali to English. "I'm not scared. If the (Somali) government does something bad, I want to tell people. "I don't stop my cartoons. I'm still doing my job." When he publishes a controversial cartoon, "the poor people like me" and "the bad people are not happy," he says. But "when the poor people are happy, I'm happy too, I'm satisfied." Amir's wife, Zenaib Ibrahim, is proud, too. "My husband, he talks about the people who don't have a voice, who are poor." Amir and his family left Somalia in 1992. The family moved to Canada in 2000 after a stint in Djibouti, settling in Montreal. They moved to Edmonton two years ago.
Thanks to the freedom of expression in Canada, Amir earns a living as an artist through his commercial website, along with contracts at various publications. He is also a painter and sells his works. In 2007, Amir was one of 18 Edmonton artists to win an Explorations Grant, a program established during the city's Cultural Capital Program. Amir's grant of $7,500 allowed him to create 30 oil paintings depicting the role of Somali women in family and society. He is motivated to speak out on behalf of Somalia's most vulnerable citizens because they can't speak out themselves. "When bad things happen, the first people affected are women and children," he explains through Jija. The cartoons hit home with Mayran Kalah, an Edmontonian who left Somalia in 1995. "When I see his (Amir's) pictures, I know exactly what he's talking about," she says. "As a woman, it touches me." She says Amir's hard-hitting cartoons make Somalians laugh, but also remind those who have left their home country: "Don't forget." When asked if he'll ever return to Somalia, he laughs and says "maybe later." Judging by his grin, and the sarcasm in his cartoons, it would seem that's a very big maybe. "Freedom is good," he says. Pr...By: Elizabeth Withey, Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam,Source: The Edmonton Journal http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Somali+cartoonist+draws+death+threats/1330832/story.html

Italian nuns say Somali extremists kidnapped them

NAIROBI, Kenya: Italian nuns held captive in the Somali capital for more than two months "prayed all the time" but said they were well treated by kidnappers who identified themselves as being hardline Somali Islamic militants.
In a rare cross-border kidnapping, Maria Teresa Olivero, 60, and Caterina Giraudo, 67, were seized from the remote northeastern Kenya town of El Wak on Nov. 10. They then were driven to the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where they were kept under guard until Feb. 19.
On Thursday, they gave their first news conference since they were freed.
Olivero and Giraudo said they ate "good food." But since they had no contact with outside world, they spent a lot of time in prayer and read a Bible that the Islamic militiamen took from the pocket of a dead Ethiopian soldier.
"It was very hard. We didn't have news, we didn't know anything," Olivero said, adding the only thing to listen to was Somali radio stations...more.http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/26/africa/AF-Kenya-Somalia-Freed-Nuns.php

New worry: Somali youth and Radical websites.

They turn to the Internet for religious advice, but fall prey to Shabab websites and radical views.We have learned that Somali youth who are in search of a advice, or want to know more about what is happening in their country specially during the Ethiopian invasion or searching "pure" form of Islam have been turning to the Internet for answers — and along the way stumbles onto websites of Alshabab glorifying Jihad and suicides and videos, some of them slickly packaged with music and songs like MTV-style editing, that detail Somalis suffering under Ethiopian occupation. Their anger stoked, their worldview becomes increasingly skewed as they links up with others in cyberspace who share their sentiments. Before long, they become convinced that they must support the cause of violent jihad, of Alshabab or holy war — and a full-fledged "extremism" is born.In the immediate aftermath of 911 the main threat was from established terrorist networks — such as Al Qaeda and its allies, including the Al shabab.Now, The FBI filed offices around the country, including those in Minneapolis, are increasingly concerned with the dangers of indoctrinated Somali youth who one of them blew himself up in Somalia. However there is also self-radicalization that we need to look at it too...more..http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/92458

International Contact Group on Somalia Communiqué, 26 – 27 Feb 2009

The 14th meeting of the International Contact Group (ICG) on Somalia was held under the chairmanship of the UN Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, 26 – 27 February, at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels to discuss the situation in Somalia. The meeting was attended by the Somali Foreign Minister representing Somalia as a member. ..more..http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7PNNEW?OpenDocument

worries about situation of 2 foreign journalists being held by (SAVAGE HAWIYE) habar-gidir

Associated Somali Journalists (ASOJ) is concerning about the conditions of two foreign journalists still being held as hostages in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia “we are receiving facts A Canadian journalist and an Australian photographer that are still being held in Mogadishu taken each night to different villages in the city and what we known is that one of them gone hungry strike, therefore we are appealing to the Somali journalists to stand up for how they could free the foreign journalists from the kidnappers,” said in a statement issued from the ASOJ office in Mogadishu on 26 February 2009. it is shameful that the hawiye media in Mogadishu keep silence about the kidnapping of foreign journalists. It suggests to put pressure on the kidnappers until they release the reporters unconditionally.“hawiye leader is confirming that the two foreign journalists is being held in Huriwa neighborhood in north of Mogadishu where it is under the control of the warlord Yusuf Mohamed Siad Indha-Adde,” (SAVAGE HAWIYE) habargidircayr/habar-gidir hawiye clan the statement said calling for Indha-Adde to honestly help release the journalists.The Association lastly asked for the Hawiye clan elders to stand for the safety of foreign journalists from the hands of the gangs.The journalists were kidnapped between the Afgoye district and the capital city with their Somali photojournalist, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who was acting as a translator for the two August 2008 by unknown militiamen.They had been returning from interviewing locals in the Afgoye district when they were abducted. Abdifitah later was released after months of been held as hostage
Somalia Journalists Kidnapping: Inside Job
habar-gidir factional leader Terrorist Yusuf Mohamed
Pirate Ransom Helped Somalia Islamist

hawiye al-shabaab barbaric and genocidal funded, very sick and twisted vedio
Habar Gidir own radio station shabelle Total Axess to somali Terrorist (al-shabaab) Shabelle Media Network or shabaab media network
Problems in the VOA-Somali Service (Part Two)
Problems in the VOA-Somali Service part one http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/problems_in_the_voasomali_serv.html

U.S. Ambassador Visits Wounded AMISOM Troops

United States Ambassador Michael Ranneberger today visited the fifteen Burundian troops who were wounded in Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on their base in Mogadishu, and subsequently evacuated to Nairobi. The Ambassador was joined by counterparts from the European Union, the Somali Embassy in Nairobi, AMISOM, and senior staff from Nairobi Hospital.Ambassador Ranneberger offered condolences for the eleven soldiers who perished in the attacks. He also thanked the troops for their service to Somalia, noting that they are a credit to Burundi as they work to rebuild Somalia. Ambassador Ranneberger reviewed the measures the international community is taking to support the Transitional Federal Government, so that the Somali government can ultimately provide for its own security.Finally, the Ambassador remarked with admiration that one of the wounded soldiers told him that, if given the opportunity, the soldier would return to Somalia to finish his mission.

Somali militant group triggers US terror concerns

WASHINGTON – As people crowded into the capital for Barack Obama's inaugural celebration, senior counterterrorism officials huddled in the White House situation room, frantically trying to unravel intelligence about a possible attack on Washington.
By Tuesday afternoon, as Obama took the oath of office, the threat of a terror plot by the Somalia-based al-Shabab organization had been debunked, but the flurry of activity underscored growing worries about this Islamic militant group.
"I think they are a serious problem, and I don't think that we should be glib and take it lightly," said Theresa Whelan, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for African Affairs. "Are they the ones that are going to plan the next major terrorist attack in the United States and carry it out? Probably not. But could they provide some of the foot soldiers for it? Yes."
The State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, something the group denies. Al-Shabab, which means "The Youth," has been gaining ground as Somalia's Western-backed government crumbles. The group's goal is to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. U.S. counterterrorism officials say they detect a disturbing pattern, one that mirrors al-Qaida methods and could spawn homegrown insurgents and suicide bombers in the U.S. Counterterrorism officials suspect that al-Shabab is recruiting young men from Somali communities in Minnesota and other Midwestern states, luring them back to their home country for terror training and creating cells of fighters who could travel to other countries, including the United States, to launch attacks. Four months ago, a young Somali man left Minneapolis to become a suicide bomber. He detonated a bomb he was wearing, one step in a series of coordinated attacks targeting a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Somaliland's regions of Somalia capital, Hargeisa.
It was the first known time a U.S. citizen was a suicide bomber...more..http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_go_ot/terror_al_shabab

Al-Shabaab

Introduction
Al-Shabaab (aka the Harakat Shabaab al-Mujahidin, al-Shabab, Shabaab, the Youth, Mujahidin al-Shabaab Movement, Mujahideen Youth Movement, Mujahidin Youth Movement), is an Islamic organization that controls much of southern Somalia, excluding the capital, Mogadishu. It has waged an insurgency against Somalia's transitional government and its Ethiopian supporters since 2006. Originally the militant wing of the Islamic Courts Union, the group that controlled Somalia prior to the country's invasion by Ethiopian forces, Shabaab leaders have claimed affiliation with al-Qaeda since 2007. Though most analysts believe Shabaab's organizational links to al-Qaeda are weak, in February 2008 the United States added the group to its list of foreign terrorist organizations. Shabaab's strength has growth since then, but many experts say the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Somalia in January 2009 could diminish the group's basis for popular support.
Leadership and Divisions
Shabaab is nominally led by Sheikh Mohamed Mukhtar Abdirahman "Abu Zubeyr," though experts say a core group of senior leaders guide its actions. The group is divided into three geographical units: Bay and Bokool regions, led by Mukhtar Roobow "Abu Mansur," the group's spokesman; south-central Somalia and Mogadishu; and Puntland and Somaliland. A fourth unit, which controls the Juba Valley, is led by Hassan Abdillahi Hersi "Turki," who is not considered to be a member of Shabaab, but is closely aligned with it. These regional units "appear to operate independently of one another, and there is often evidence of friction between them," says a December 2008 UN Monitoring Group report.
Estimates of Shabaab's size vary, but analysts generally agree that the group contains several thousand fighters, many of whom are from the Hawiye clan. The group has been able to expand its footprint in Somalia with relatively small numbers for two reasons: Somalia hasn't had a central government since 1991; and many of the clan warlords that filled the power vacuum have proven willing to cooperate with Shabaab, at least in Somalia's south. Shabaab has engaged in forced recruitment among Somalis, so it's unclear how many members of the group truly believe the organization's ideology. Experts say the number of rank-and-file members is less important than the number of hardcore ideological believers, which could range between three hundred and eight hundred individuals. Foreign fighters have traveled to Somalia to fight with Shabaab, as have Somalis from the United Kingdom and the United States. The FBI says as many as two dozen Somalis have disappeared from Minneapolis in the past two years; FBI director Robert S. Mueller III says one of these individuals was a suicide bomber in an October 2008 attack in Somalia.
Some experts say there are deep divisions within Shabaab. In a February 2009 report for the Enough Project, Somalia expert Ken Menkhaus writes that, "The shabaab faces multiple internal divisions--over clan, leadership, tactics, and ideology--which a new unity government can exploit to convince parts of the shabaab to abandon the movement and gradually outmaneuver, marginalize, and defeat the core hardliners." Each unit of Shabaab is led by individuals who must combine their ideological aims with pragmatic considerations of different clan-based agendas. It's important to "focus on what they do, not what they say," writes Menkhaus.
Roland Marchal, senior research fellow of the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, says that reports of increasing divisions within Shabaab are overstated. They are "based on the assumption that they were once united," he notes. However, he says the organization must decide "to what extent they want to accommodate the Somali society and to what extent they want to keep the ideology they have developed."
Tactics and Motivations
Shabaab's tactics have evolved over time. When it began its insurgency in late 2006, it used classic guerrilla tactics--suicide bombings, shootings, and targeted assassinations--to oppose the Somali government and what it perceives as its allies, from aid groups to the Ethiopian military to African Union peacekeepers. Much of the violence was concentrated in Mogadishu; battles between the Ethiopian military and Shabaab in August 2007 caused roughly 400,000 people to flee the city.
In 2008, Shabaab began to reach out to the Somali public with a series of town visits. A December 2008 International Crisis Group report describes these outings as "well choreographed, with clerics addressing public rallies and holding talks with local clan elders." Shabaab would hand out food and money to the poor, give criminals quick trials with "mobile sharia courts," and attempt to settle local disputes. As the group sought to take control of towns in southern Somalia, it began to use political strategies as well. Before a particular town was captured, insurgents had meetings with local clan leaders to convince them that their intentions were good. By February 2009, Shabaab controlled most of southern Somalia, as depicted in this map by The Long War Journal. However, the group continued to launch suicide attacks. In February 2009, Shabaab killed eleven Burundian soldiers in the deadliest attack on AU peacekeepers since their deployment and engaged in heavy fighting that killed at least fifteen people in Mogadishu.
Experts say Shabaab's methods and ideologies aren't necessarily consistent with one another. According to Marchal of the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, "Shabaab has tried to evolve from a group that has a purely militaristic approach to a group that pretends to rule and wage jihad at the same time." On the one hand, the group espouses a strict form of Islam, Salafi/Wahhabism, and websites for the group claim to be waging jihad against infidels. On the other hand, Shabaab has extended its political power in southern Somalia through pragmatic means, not radicalism. It has imposed sharia law in some of the towns it controls, such as Baidoa, but "imposing the puritanical brand of Islam it espouses...would quickly alienate many Somalis," says the International Crisis Group report.
Links to al-Qaeda..more...http://www.cfr.org/publication/18650/alshabaab.html?breadcrumb=%2Fissue%2F135%2Fterrorism

Tension mounts as PM returns

For the first time since his appointment, Somalia's new UN technocrat as premier returned to Mogadishu on Thursday. He called for an end to fighting that has killed over 80 people this week. Gunshots were heard in the capital as Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke landed in the capital. He said he is happy to return.
I am very happy to return after a decade. This is my motherland. Our main priority is providing better security," he told reporters at the city's heavily guarded airport according to the Reuters news agency. He added: "I am asking Somalis to avoid shedding any more blood."This week's fierce artillery and machine gun battles pitted Islamist insurgents, including the hardline al Shabaab group, against government forces and a small African Union peacekeeping mission of troops from Uganda and Burundi...more..http://www.africanews.com/site/Somalia_Tension_mounts_as_PM_returns/list_messages/23427

Somalia's violence spreads

Writing for Foreign Policy's Axis of Upheaval, Jeffrey Gettleman refers to the "ethereal pan-Somali dream": a long-held national desire to grab back Somali-speaking territory in neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, and Djibouti. "Pursuit of that goal would internationalize the conflict and surely drag in neighboring countries and their allies," Gettleman warns.
Many fear that the Islamist militia Shabaab, which control an increasingly vast territory in Somalia, might try to live the dream. Today is a very good example of how bad that could turn out. The BBC reported this morning that clashes between a local ethnic group and a Somali one in Ethiopia left 300 dead and as many as 100,000 fleeing the site.
This flare-up is just one of Ethiopia's trouble spots -- in fact, it's not even the worst. Miles to the East, an ongoing Somali insurgency by the rebel group Ogaden National Liberation Front has been brutal on both sides. Somalia and Ethiopia have fought civil wars over the territory, and today Ethiopia holds on to it dearly. The State Department's recently released Human Rights report for Ethiopia, for example, describes a campaign to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in the insurgent region.
Ethiopia is intent on crushing pan-Somali ambitions on its territory -- part of their motivation, in fact, for invading Somalia in 2006. Worries over the Ogaden insurgency in particular provided a convenient historical grievance. So in case you needed further reason for concern, clashes today are a mere taste of what could follow if Somalia -- a linchpin in the Axis of Upheaval -- goes regional..more..http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/02/26/a_somali_dream_that_could_kill_thousands

somalia Al-Shabab included on the list.
http://terrorfreesomalia.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

Somali MP arrested in tribal enclave of sepretist Somaliland regions of Somalia

tribal enclave of Somaliland authorities have arrested, Mohamed Mohamud "Indhobur, an MP after he landed in Hargeisa airport, sources said on Friday. The sources say, the MP from north Somalia has been accused of treason of the national interest of Somaliland??? . The MP had earlier joined the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia and then to the Somali inclusive parliament.He became an MP when 200 ARS members joined Somalia's expanded 550-seat parliament. The MP was once appointed as Somaliland's regions of Somalia deputy governor for Sool state but he later left Somaliland regions of Somalia . The sepretist breakaway of Somaliland declared its independence??? from Somalia in 1991 when Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown by sepretist and warlords but it has not been internationally recognized yet.

The Somali people are not only in Somalia

Editorial: A critical juncture for local Somalis

It had all the trappings of a typical community celebration -- colorful balloons, great food, happy families and easy conversation. But there was a tense undercurrent at Wednesday's open house at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.
On Monday, FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Council on Foreign Relations that a Somali-American man from Minnesota, one of several suicide bombers in an October terrorist attack in Somalia, had apparently been indoctrinated and recruited by a militant group while living in Minneapolis.
Although Mueller didn't name Abubakar, Shirwa Ahmed, the first known suicide bomber with U.S. citizenship, attended the mosque -- as did other young Somali men who have disappeared from the Twin Cities in recent months, sparking speculation that they were recruited to fight in their country's civil war.
Leaders of the mosque have repeatedly denied any connection, and the open house was an attempt at transparency in the face of increasing news media and law enforcement scrutiny. Retaining that openness -- and developing a proactive relationship with federal authorities -- will be an important challenge for leaders of the growing Somali community in Minnesota.
This could be a critical turning point for the 25,000 or so people of Somali background who began arriving in the Twin Cities in large numbers in the 1990s. As they continue to work to demystify Islam in their adopted home, they must just as strongly denounce the dangerous extremism that apparently led Ahmed to drive a vehicle packed with explosives that killed as many as 30 people in Somalia.
Federal authorities have said Ahmed left the Twin Cities after being recruited by the Shabab, a militia linked to Al-Qaida that is warring against the Somali government. Several local families fear their sons have also been lured back to their homeland by terrorist groups. In a chilling story earlier this month, the Star Tribune's Richard Meryhew described the mysterious disappearance of 18-year-old Mustafa Ali, who fled his family's St. Paul apartment six months ago and never returned.
The stories of Ahmed and Ali -- along with growing problems with drugs, gangs and violent crime among Somalis in Minnesota -- were topics of conversation at the Abubakar open house. "I think the Somali community needs help more than ever now,'' said Abdulahi Farah, 27, a community outreach worker who came to the United States as an 11-year-old.
Minnesota remains a mostly tolerant, supportive home, but Farah knows that relationships built on hard work and trust over the past few decades are in jeopardy today. The soul-searching and community building in the Somali community is healthy. Parents whose sons have disappeared deserve answers, and Minnesotans need reassurance that the Twin Cities area is not a training ground for terror. It was encouraging to hear that leaders of the mosque have reached out to the FBI. For too long, many Somalis have feared the very law enforcement agencies that provide the safety and security they were seeking when they left east Africa.
Some of the clan loyalties that divided Somalis in Africa live on in Minnesota, making it especially difficult for authorities to build productive relationships. At the same time, Somali-Americans who have made great strides in building better lives in this country need local leaders who can unite the community in the face of growing fear and suspicion.
"We need more coming together and working together,'' Farah said as he surveyed the crowd at Wednesday's open house. "What affects one of us affects all of us.''http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/40452037.html

The Internet Are Watching You | Main | CBS Tries To Discredit Home Grown Jihad Documentary »

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/196581.php

Somalia death toll hits 81 in worst fighting for weeks

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist rebels battled African Union (AU) peacekeepers and Somali police for a second day Wednesday, taking the death toll in the worst fighting for weeks to 81, witnesses and a rights group said.The local Elman Peace and Human Rights group said 48 civilians had been killed and 90 wounded since early Tuesday. Witnesses said at least 15 Islamist fighters and six policemen were also killed in exchanges of gunfire and mortar bombs that have rocked the coastal capital for two days.The latest violence flared just days after new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed returned to the coastal city to form an inclusive unity government, the 15th attempt in 18 years to bring peace to the failed Horn of Africa state.In New York, the U.N. Security Council issued a unanimous statement to "condemn in the strongest terms the attacks on the African Union mission in Somalia" and urged all Somalis "to reject violence and extremism.".. more http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090225/wl_nm/us_somalia_conflict

Just a glimmer of hope ???

After 18 years of strife, there is a small chance that a new Somali president and a new American one could make a fresh start..

http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13185216&fsrc=rss

Kidnapped Italian Nuns Freed; “Prayers Answered”

IROBI, KENYA (Worthy News) -- Two Italian nuns kidnapped by Somali gunmen in a cross-border raid into Kenya in November were spent another day in freedom Thursday, February 26, after they were suddenly freed, missionaries confirmed.Somali gunmen had abducted Catholic missionaries Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Olivero,60November 10 after a raid on the remote Kenyan border town of El Wak. The kidnappers then took them deeper into Somalia.Speaking by phone from the Italian Embassy in Nairobi, Sister Giraudo said "thank God, we are well. Only yesterday, we were in a terrible condition but today we are well, we have resuscitated. We have no words to thank the people we found upon our arrival." She said, “We were treated well, we are fine ... they gave us what was necessary."..more http://www.worthynews.com/4980-kidnapped-italian-nuns-freed-prayers-answered

Mosque opens doors to help dispel rumors????? "good PR move

Over the past few months, leaders of a Minneapolis mosque have vigorously fought accusations linking them to a number of missing Twin Cities men -- men that some believe have returned to Somalia to fight in that country's civil war. The mosque leaders have held news conferences and have dismissed any suggestion that the young men were somehow radicalized under their roof.
But last night, the managers at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center took a different approach. ..more..http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/26/mosque_openhouse/

Government officials say expatriates captured Hudur town from them

MOGADIHSU -The commissioner of Hudur town Mohamed Moalim in Bakool region said Thursday that foreigners allied with al-Shabaab Islamists attacked and captured Hudur town from them. Witnesses said Wednesday at least 18 combatants were killed in fighting between government soldiers and al-Shabaab militants in Hudur town. "The militants who attacked us yesterday were mostly expatriates from Yemen, Eritrea, and Sudan,” said Mohamed Moalim. He said that 8 soldiers were killed from them and claimed that they killed about 40 from al-Shabaab, but Sheik Hassan Abu Ayman, the governor of Bay and Bakol regions of al-Shabaab said four of their fighters were killed and added they killed the other side four. More than 16,000 civilians have been killed in the two-year-old insurgency, one million people have been driven from their homes, more than a third of the population depend on aid, and large parts of Mogadishu lie empty and destroyed. Al Shabaab gained support as one of many insurgent groups waging war against Ethiopian troops propping up the country's previous government. An Ethiopian withdrawal in January placated some Somalis, but al Shabaab has now turned its fire on the AU force, AMISOM, and the new government. Regional diplomats hope the inclusion of moderate Islamists in the new administration may marginalise hardliners like the group, which is on Washington's list of terrorist organizations and is known to have foreign fighters in its ranks.

Report says China navy stopped pirate attack

BEIJING: China's navy has rescued an Italian ship from a pirate attack off the Somali coast, Chinese state media said Thursday.
Few details were given in the one-line report by the official Xinhua News Agency. The ship was identified only as an Liberian-flagged Italian merchant vessel whose crew had been attacked.
If verified, the rescue operation would be the first direct engagement between the Chinese navy and Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden since Beijing dispatched a three-ship squadron for anti-piracy operations last December.
The Chinese force — a supply ship and two destroyers armed with guided missiles, special forces and two helicopters — has previously restricted its operations mainly to escorting Chinese and Hong Kong vessels through the pirate-infested waters.
The squadron's dispatch was the first time the Communist country has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters...more..http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/26/asia/AS-China-Piracy.php

Thousands flee Ethiopia clashes

Tens of thousands of people have reportedly fled their homes as a result of fighting between rival groups in a remote part of southern Ethiopia.
The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt says 300 people may have been killed - mostly in a major battle on 5 February. People are moving away to safer areas following the clash between the Borana people and the Gheri, a Somali clan. While the fighting has now stopped, the area is still tense and some reports estimate more than 100,000 displaced. Ethiopia's Minister of State Responsible for Emergency and Disaster Planning Mitiku Kassa acknowledged the existence of the problem but said the figure of 100,000 was an exaggeration. ..more..http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7912242.stm

Who is fighting in Mogadishu ??hawiye . Islam is political tool.to Destroy Somalia Today they are Fighting Each Other.Habar Gidir v. Abgaal subclan

The Saudis spending a lot of many spread Wahhabism in the horn of africa..they Made Deal With Hawiye tribe Terrorist...they made a deal with the devil ..Today they started killing each other.this is a Part 2 Acton.. aided v. ali madadi ..Simplest forum..different character same players. ..alqaida..is The 1000-Pound Gorilla ..they have their own agenda.. (SAVAGE HAWIYE) Men Don’t Have a Clue .. They are fighting for to rule country .They are against anyone who opposes their rule. They kill their own people and countrymen everyday. There Will Be ..... No Counrtry .just a tribal enclave of hawiye.. isaaq.. ect..under alqaida control..

General Mahammad Faarah Aidid commanded the Habar Gidir clan, and Ali Mahdi Mahammad headed the Abgaal clan.. now ..Sharif Ahmed, abgaal v. somalian terrorist leader al shabaab leader Hassan Dahir Aways habar-gidir .

Somali capital of Mogadishu fell to the forces of the Hawiye dominated USC in January 1991. Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre fled Mogadishu ...When the civil war erupted, the USC (Hawiye rebel group) went on a quest of onslaught against innocenent Darod civilians in mogadishu . estimated 15,000 unarmed darod civilians were killed,mostly women and children On January 26, 1991, the USC stormed the presidential palace in Mogadishu, ...... were burned to the ground, and tens of thousands of people were massacred, hawiye's are finally paying for what they did in 1991. killing thousands of darood,Only armed cars were on the streets. In areas that the Hawiye already controlled, gunmen were going door to door rounding up Darod men, woman, children.strategic points in the city. The sprawling suburbs of. west and northwest Mogadishu became strongholds of. Hawiye-based resistance ,Mogadishu by now had become a city of torture and murder, ... Fighting eventually broke out between the competing factions within the Hawiye ...Mogadishu has become so dangerous since Islamists were ousted in 2006 that the majority .... The Hawiye backed the warlords who first controlled the city, ...abgaal and habar gidir, 2 subclans of hawiye, have destroyed the city ,As the city descended into complete anarchy, looting became a way of life ,Mogadishu , the capital of Somalia, is a city living a clandestine nightmare ... In that year Hawiye militia burned, raped and killed any person of Darood ...Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, is a city living a clandestine ... every one of these belongs to only one Somali tribe (hawiye)The extremist Islamist group al-Shabab, which controls the port town of Kisamyo , is opposed to the new government and wants to impose harsh Sharia law in Somalia. The U.S. considers al-Shabab a terror organization with links to al-Qaeda.Several mortar rounds landed in the president’s residence in Mogadishu. Sources say that the attack was carried out by the rebel Islamists who controls parts of the capital.It is yet unclear the casualties as the security forces are on alert to prevent any attack from the rebels.This comes as Hisbul Islam (Islamic Party) declared war Islamist Terrorist want to keep fighting against the new government with the new government led by the young cleric Sharif Sheik Ahmed.It is the first attack on the presidential headquarter since the Ethiopian troops pulled out of the capital last month. al-shabaab for the most part operated north Mogadishu, ,Mogadishu is divided into two principal military zones—one controlled by the Abgaal and the other by the Habar Gidir from central Somalia, invaders Control Northern part Mogadishu ,Habar Gidir is sub clan of Hawiya. The Habar Gidir sore losers invaders of Mogadishu, Merca, Afgoye, Brava, and Kismayo ,they have been holding the Somali nation hostage Since 1991 the collapse of the central government ,Dark Day .history of
Al Shabab Threat Clouds the Horn of Africa
The Reason why Al Shaabab must be destroy immediately