The Terror of al Shabaab

 Somalia, foreign aid, and terrorism.BY Chris Harnisch

February 23, 2010 12:00 AM

The United Nations has recently ratcheted up its criticism of the United States’ decision to withhold humanitarian aid to parts of Somalia controlled by the Islamist terror group al Shabaab.  The international body’s official in charge of aid distribution in Somalia accused the U.S. of preventing the distribution of tens of millions of dollars in aid to a desperate and starving population.  Any decision regarding the limiting of humanitarian aid to a country in need can be terribly difficult, especially for a country such as Somalia, which has seen 85,000 people displaced in 2010 alone and is described by the World Bank as “one of the poorest countries in the world.”  But the United States' decision to withhold aid to terrorist-controlled parts to the country is the right decision for the people of Somalia and, more importantly, the security of the United States.
Somalia has been without an effective government since the overthrow of the despot Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.  The international community has made many attempts to prop up transitional and reconciliation governments over the past two decades, but the country has inevitably continued to fall to the control of various tribal warlords and Islamist groups.  Today, the control of the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is limited to a few strategic points inside the capital, Mogadishu, whereas a group resembling a hybrid of the Taliban and al Qaeda called al Shabaab governs most of the country’s south.
The Islamic provincial administrations of al Shabaab impose a draconian interpretation of sharia on its people.  It has banned watching and playing soccer, dancing at weddings, listening to music, and the wearing of bras by women.  It holds public whippings of women who refuse to wear a veil, public amputations of convicted thieves, and public stonings of adulterers (and, in some cases, rape victims).  The group also has a well-trained and well-armed militia that includes hundreds of foreign fighters, including dozens from the U.S. and Europe.  It has conducted sophisticated terror attacks, including twin car bombings, on its targets inside Somalia.  It views itself as contributor to the global jihad led by al Qaeda and has threatened to attack the United States.  Perhaps most alarmingly, al Shabaab has extensive geographic space to train and plan for terrorist attacks due to its control of such large parts of Somalia. The Terror of al Shabaab