Saturday, July 24, 2010

Time to give al Shabaab killer punch

The future of conflict and the future of Kenya’s defence establishment depends on its preparedness to face the new challenge of unconventional conflict. The winds of change are blowing, driven by a radically altered geopolitical situation, an evolving information-oriented society, and advancing technology. Military institutions are by their very nature conservative. History has shown that success has often sown the seeds of future failure. Kenya can ill-afford to follow in the footsteps of those who have rested on their laurels and failed to stretch their imaginations. The threat caused by Somalia’s extremist militants, the Harakat al Shabaab al Mujahideen (Arabic for “Movement of Warrior Youth”), more commonly known as al Shabaab is real. The group has occasionally threatened to attack Kenya and its neighbours. This threat became manifest with the twin bombings in Kampala a fortnight ago. The attack bore the hallmark of its ally, the al Qaeda. On July 20, the group ambushed a Kenyan patrol contingent and wounded several of our security personnel. With these attacks, the insurgent group should no longer be dismissed as a ragtag militia.The group is an off-shoot of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which splintered into several smaller groups after its removal from power by Ethiopian forces in 2006. The group became fully operational from January 19, 2007 under the leadership of Sheikh Mukhtar Adan Eyrow Robow Abu Mansoor. One of its current leaders is Moktar Ali Zubeyr.The group describes itself as waging jihad against “enemies of Islam” and is engaged in combat against the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom). It has reportedly “declared war on the United Nations and on Western non-governmental organizations” that distribute food aid in Somalia, killing 42 relief workers in the past two years. Al Shabaab has various foreign fighters from around the world, with recent media reports citing Egyptian and Arab jihadists as the core elements training Somalis in sophisticated weaponry and suicide bombing techniques.With the group not organised and therefore unable to wage a conventional warfare, Kenya’s security forces should not wait for them at the border in order to engage them. They should employ a Hybrid Warfare. This involves a mix of direct and covert counter-insurgency operations — pushing the group, scattering it, and partitioning the country into sectors manned by various international occupation forces until the nation is pacified. With UN approval, Kenya should work with neighbouring countries like Ethiopia and Uganda in restoring order in Somalia. The international community will come in handy in delivering the requisite and appropriate equipment. These actions should be real and objective and devoid of past adventurism for them to gain support of the country to be ‘liberated’. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) experiment has failed.Similarly, the involvement of some nations in the conflict, notably Eritrea and some Egyptian elements, should be condemned. Egypt has a long-standing policy of securing the Nile River flow by destabilising Ethiopia, widely seen as the major threat in the Nile basin to its hegemonic use of the Nile waters. This it does by keeping Ethiopia busy in other theatres and diverting its attention from the important international resource.According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading global authority on security issues, restoring the rule of law in Somalia will have a multiplier effect, the leading being putting to an end the piracy menace in the Indian Ocean/Arabian Sea. Piracy has resulted in the increase in cost of transportation along the high seas bordering the Somali coastline and threatens global petro-energy security.Analysts say international efforts should, besides sending warships, focus on financial networks recycling the tens of millions of dollars of ransoms paid every year. “There’s a financial network that needs to be tracked down. There needs to be a multi-agency response,” said Jason Alderwick, a maritime defence analyst at the IISS. “There just isn’t the naval capacity to cover the area they now threaten. So a military solution is not the answer,” said Roger Middleton, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Chatham House think-tank in London. A stable government in Mogadishu or wherever else in Somalia will be the answer to regional security. This should form the main agenda for the African Union Summit to be held in Kampala next week.

By Emmanuel Mokoro  Mr Mokoro is a communications and international relations expert: emokoro@psrpc.go.ke

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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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