August 7, 1998, was, for me, a time of trauma beyond the terror attack. That week someone had come to my house and stolen my car. It was my first-ever car. I had gone to Dubai and personally scoured the backstreets of Sharjah for it.I fell in love the moment I saw it on that dusty, hot sidestreet. It was a Toyota Corolla AE 92, pearl white, spotless inside and outside, with conspicuous Volkswagen eight spoke alloys and large Panasonic speakers. I remember sitting in the maroon interior, the AC ice-cold and marvelling at what a lucky man I was to find this beauty.When it got to Mombasa, rather than paying someone to drive it up (Mombasa then was an 11-hour journey of the worst pothole horror) a friend and I flew there on rebated Kenya Airways tickets to get it. My friend’s job was to drive, mine was to supervise how he was taking the potholes.Three weeks later, I woke up in the morning, and the car was not there. The day of the bomb blast I was coming from another shouting match with police during which they were extremely rude: they could not understand why I did not want to claim insurance; I wanted them to do their bloody job and go get my car back. They told me to take my ujuaji and go to hell.I was already heartbroken and seething with fury when the bomb went off. I remember standing at the Haile Selassie-Uhuru Highway roundabout and looking up and, more than the smoke, what stuck in my mind was a column of paper, records from the Teachers Service Commission going up many kilometres, the lives of Kenyans literary going up in smoke.Later at the bomb site, I saw things that made a very strong impression on me. The Americans were very organised; they had their soldiers and the exclusive help of the British Army. We were on our own, with nothing but the bleeding bare hands with which regular people were digging in the rubble to reach those trapped.I saw what was left of one Kenyan, just a headless torso, swinging in the ruins. It is an image burned in full horror in my brain: the bone, the blood, the veins, the indecent helplessness of a clueless victim killed by a fanatic.Standing there, I was a man with his back to the wall. My house was no longer safe, but at least I could, and did, move. But not so my country, from which there was no moving. When I was a boy we used to sing a silly song about Kenya being our rock and refuge from the white man.The rock had been blown to pieces, and we are just there in the open, staring at a headless body. There is nowhere to run. So we fight these ‘‘tu-guys’’ who want to come here and blow up our things and kill our children. Who do they think they are?Here is my blow for the cause. First, I think we need to stop being stupid and write appropriate anti-terrorism laws. We need to make terror a crime as bad as treason; we need to read how terror works and criminalise the activities that produce and support it.We need to go after those who radicalise others, those who offer logistical support and who, in any way, aid terrorists. An anti-terrorism law has always been opposed by Muslims who feel it might be used to criminalise their religion or that the law might be imposed by America. To me, that’s not a problem.There are Muslim MPs, many of them pretty good lawyers. Let them write a law that they feel protects both Islam and the country. The rest of us will support them. Secondly, this country needs to get organised. Fighting terrorism is no longer just a policing issue; it is war...more..http://www.nation.co.ke/blogs/-/446718/636568/-/view/asBlogPost/-/o9yy4ez/-/index.html
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Three things we can do to put terrorists out of business
August 7, 1998, was, for me, a time of trauma beyond the terror attack. That week someone had come to my house and stolen my car. It was my first-ever car. I had gone to Dubai and personally scoured the backstreets of Sharjah for it.I fell in love the moment I saw it on that dusty, hot sidestreet. It was a Toyota Corolla AE 92, pearl white, spotless inside and outside, with conspicuous Volkswagen eight spoke alloys and large Panasonic speakers. I remember sitting in the maroon interior, the AC ice-cold and marvelling at what a lucky man I was to find this beauty.When it got to Mombasa, rather than paying someone to drive it up (Mombasa then was an 11-hour journey of the worst pothole horror) a friend and I flew there on rebated Kenya Airways tickets to get it. My friend’s job was to drive, mine was to supervise how he was taking the potholes.Three weeks later, I woke up in the morning, and the car was not there. The day of the bomb blast I was coming from another shouting match with police during which they were extremely rude: they could not understand why I did not want to claim insurance; I wanted them to do their bloody job and go get my car back. They told me to take my ujuaji and go to hell.I was already heartbroken and seething with fury when the bomb went off. I remember standing at the Haile Selassie-Uhuru Highway roundabout and looking up and, more than the smoke, what stuck in my mind was a column of paper, records from the Teachers Service Commission going up many kilometres, the lives of Kenyans literary going up in smoke.Later at the bomb site, I saw things that made a very strong impression on me. The Americans were very organised; they had their soldiers and the exclusive help of the British Army. We were on our own, with nothing but the bleeding bare hands with which regular people were digging in the rubble to reach those trapped.I saw what was left of one Kenyan, just a headless torso, swinging in the ruins. It is an image burned in full horror in my brain: the bone, the blood, the veins, the indecent helplessness of a clueless victim killed by a fanatic.Standing there, I was a man with his back to the wall. My house was no longer safe, but at least I could, and did, move. But not so my country, from which there was no moving. When I was a boy we used to sing a silly song about Kenya being our rock and refuge from the white man.The rock had been blown to pieces, and we are just there in the open, staring at a headless body. There is nowhere to run. So we fight these ‘‘tu-guys’’ who want to come here and blow up our things and kill our children. Who do they think they are?Here is my blow for the cause. First, I think we need to stop being stupid and write appropriate anti-terrorism laws. We need to make terror a crime as bad as treason; we need to read how terror works and criminalise the activities that produce and support it.We need to go after those who radicalise others, those who offer logistical support and who, in any way, aid terrorists. An anti-terrorism law has always been opposed by Muslims who feel it might be used to criminalise their religion or that the law might be imposed by America. To me, that’s not a problem.There are Muslim MPs, many of them pretty good lawyers. Let them write a law that they feel protects both Islam and the country. The rest of us will support them. Secondly, this country needs to get organised. Fighting terrorism is no longer just a policing issue; it is war...more..http://www.nation.co.ke/blogs/-/446718/636568/-/view/asBlogPost/-/o9yy4ez/-/index.html
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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir
Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979
Sultan Kenadid
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Sultanate of Obbia
President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,
Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan
Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli
Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )
MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen
Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake
May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government
The Honourable Ronald Reagan,
When our world changed forever
His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Government in Paris from 1974 to 1979.
Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.
Soomaaliya الصومال Somali Republic
Somalia
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