Saturday, November 21, 2009

Djibouti: U.S. outpost in fighting terrorism.. Vedio

DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti -- To understand the difficulties America faces in combating terrorism, look no farther than this Horn of Africa nation.One of America's many outposts in that war is here, part of the Pentagon's new African Command. A small, joint operation of all U.S. military branches, it focuses on helping impoverished Djiboutians before they fall into the anarchy of neighboring Somalia.The obstacles include tribal and great-power rivalries, grinding poverty, no solid economic or political foundations on which to build -- and next-door Islamist extremists who want this as another base for themselves.Djibouti itself reflects a colonial past that began when it was French Somaliland in the 1800s and ended -- but didn't disappear -- in 1977.In the 110-degree heat of an afternoon, women in flowing dresses and vibrant-color scarves sit at wooden stalls selling qat, the leafy stimulant flown in daily from Ethiopia.
Somali immigrants, chewing their daily dose of that narcotic, slouch on the steps of the whitewashed Grand Mosque.Most buildings here cling to their Moorish-style charm, despite crumbling facades and trash-strewn streets.A wall poster celebrates President Ismail Omar Guelleh's 10-year rule. (He won re-election in 2008 with 100 percent of the vote, thanks in part to an opposition boycott.) The gray-bearded leader is pictured on a white-sand beach, waving and proclaiming, in French, "En Toute Confiance" -- "With Complete Confidence." On a map, Djibouti is but a speck where the Red Sea empties into the Gulf of Aden. In life, it isslightly smaller than Massachusetts.Just 0.04 percent of its land is arable, and its best exports are animal skins. So its half-million people depend on imports.Its only assets are its location and port, both of which have long interested foreign armies and spies.They're still interested -- and they include Americans, Islamists and the Chinese.
'A lot of activity'
About 1,500 U.S. sailors, soldiers, airmen, Marines and Special Forces have deployed at Camp Lemonier, a naval expeditionary base outside the capital, since 2003.
The base's black weather flag -- for dangerous heat conditions -- flies almost daily.
A small Japanese naval force shares the base, part of an international flotilla battling Somali pirates.The French remain here, too, on a much larger base that includes a half-brigade of Legionnaires who once kept cheetahs and hyenas as mascots.Djibouti "wouldn't be as economically viable as it is without the huge French base and the smaller American base," says Robert Rotberg, a Harvard University political science professor and an expert on regional terrorism."There is also French intelligence (and) all sorts of diplomatic missions. ... I think both the U.S. and the French have (intelligence) 'listening posts,' so there is a lot of activity."It fosters a mixture of old and new, exotic and absurd, the dull and the dangerous. At night, sailors and soldiers of various nationalities fill restaurants and bars of the European quarter for surprisingly good French food and wine.Djiboutian women sweep the quarter's dusty streets. One wears a black-and-white leopard-print face veil with her neon-orange safety vest. Djiboutian men beckon foreigners into nightclubs such as the Hermes, where Ethiopian and Somali "hostesses" await. A Navy shore patrol ensures the Americans don't exceed their three-drink limit and do return to the base by midnight.Inside sweltering hotels, Chinese businessmen loudly strike land deals with Djiboutians. China's presence is growing; it built schools in several villages. Yet U.S. officials insist they're not alarmed."I don't see any inherent conflict in that the Chinese are here and that the Americans are here," says Rear Adm. Anthony Kurta, the U.S. base commander. "A lot of nations are here pursuing their interests and trying to help the Africans pursue theirs."Soft power, hard livesFor U.S. forces, helping means using "soft power" -- doctors, construction crews, other civil-affairs teams -- to combat extremism and terrorism. And much certainly needs to be done.Djibouti ranks low on the United Nations Human Development Index. Life expectancy is age 54; more than 40 percent of its people are younger than 15, and 29 percent of children are underweight.In a government clinic in the capital's Arhiba shantytown, Dr. Mohammed Aden says malnutrition, anemia and tuberculosis are common; increasingly, so is AIDS, its spread blamed on Ethiopian truck drivers. U.N. rations -- beans, oil, sugar, peanuts -- are given to the neediest. But the clinic's security wall "is not high enough," Aden says, "and people come over it and steal."Outside, children play on dirt streets amid garbage and grazing goats. Many makeshift homes are simply tarp-covered mud walls.A woman who gives her name as Fatimah is one of the more fortunate: Her three-room hut has a concrete floor. "I have 10 children," she says, cradling a baby; two other adults and two more children share the space where rolled-up mattresses lean against a wall. Her biggest concern is "joblessness. The only one who works is my husband," as a trash collector on the U.S. base. "The government doesn't provide jobs for us."Hassan Haissama, a day-laborer, agrees: The government "doesn't care about this neighborhood. In 10 to 12 families, one person will work. This place has become a ghetto."Still, Abdallah Kamil, Djibouti's prime minister in the 1970s, believes "the American presence is good for us," bringing stability and investment by Arab gulf countries.Sitting in his downtown office, he just hopes more U.S. investment will follow. Waiting for 'something good' Djibouti's populace is 60 percent Issa, a Somali clan, and 35 percent Afar. The rest are Arab, Ethiopian or European.The Issa-dominated government grates the Afar opposition; despite a reconciliation of sorts after a 2001 civil war, it boycotted last year's election.In a nearly empty one-room shanty, Dhoore sits on mattresses to talk politics while chewing qat. The Afar man won't give his real name, fearing retaliation."The change we would like to see in our country is that everyone must have the opportunity to rule ... to have freedom of expression and freedom to create associations," he says; America helps economically but should push democracy, talk with the opposition."The American base in Djibouti is here to fight against terrorism," he says. "To fight terrorism in this region, the government cannot do (anything) without the opposition."Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley insists U.S. Embassy staff meet regularly with Djibouti's opposition but says the election boycott was unhelpful.He denies that "we'll turn a blind eye because we think that one-party rule is the best way to fight terrorists. Actually, quite the opposite -- al-Qaida believes in one-party rule."Certainly, we will continue to encourage Djibouti to open up its political system and to strengthen its civil society, the rule of law and stable political processes."And despite what he sees as rampant corruption and political oppression, a disgruntled Dhoore indeed is happy that America is in Djibouti."We feel," he says, "that in the 10 years coming, something good will happen if the Americans stay here." source http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/nation-world/s_654457.html

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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

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

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)

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.

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

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.

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We Are Winning the War on Terrorism in Horn of Africa

The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.

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