Somalia's rising tide of extremism

This week, four high-level US government officials testified at Senate hearings about the growing threat of terrorism emanating from Somalia. Two officials, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Michael Maples, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, March 10. Their testimony included references to the deteriorating security situation in Somalia and the surrounding region, as well as the rise of al Qaeda and its allies in East Africa.
The next day, two other officials – Andrew Liepman, the deputy director of intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and Philip Mudd, associate executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch – testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Liepman and Mudd discussed the recruitment of Somali immigrants living in the US and their ties to international terrorism.
In his written testimony, DNI Blair explained the US Intelligence Community’s assessment of East Africa and Somalia thusly:
"We judge the terrorist threat to US interests in East Africa, primarily from al Qaeda and al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic extremists in Somalia and Kenya, will increase in the next year as al Qaeda’s East Africa network continues to plot operations against US, Western, and local targets and the influence of the Somalia-based terrorist group al Shabaab grows. Given the high-profile US role in the region and its perceived direction – in the minds of al Qaeda and local extremists – of foreign intervention in Somalia, we assess US counterterrorism efforts will be challenged not only by the al Qaeda operatives in the Horn, but also by Somali extremists and increasing numbers of foreign fighters supporting al Shabaab’s efforts."
Blair noted that Somalia “has not had a stable, central government for 17 years,” leaving a security vacuum filled with extremism, humanitarian crises and rampant piracy. Nor is the 2008 UN-backed agreement between the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and extremist opposition leaders likely to quell the situation, Blair surmised. In 2006, Ethiopian troops moved into Somalia in an attempt to shore up the transitional government and beat back a growing jihadist insurgency. But those forces have since receded..more..http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/03/somalias_rising_tide.php
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