Friday, July 29, 2011

Worst President Ever "Obama Meets West African Leaders / Somalia Famine: Al Shabab Leadership or America’s State Department is to blame

We appreciate President Obama for taking time out of the important debate going on in the US to meet with some of the GOOD African Democrats. Each leader President Obama met today are properly elected leader, and I am happy that he met with them. The problem I have is why is the Ste Department sleeping with Meles Zenawi, a man committing GENOCIDE against the Somalis in Ogaden through food aid blockade, since 2007. Why are we handling this double standard, do we not value Somalis? Do they have to be exterminated Somalis everywhere, those in Somalia proper and those in Ogaden for one terrible mishap in 1994???  also Inside somalia  Obama  did nothing,  al Qaida affiliate al-Shabab  Somali terrorist group ,  Al-Shabab prevents food aid from reaching 2.2 million Somalis, people being exterminated are kids and women and elderly, why stand with our arms folded and keeping quiet??? Once a very famous civil rights movement said, in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. At the moment we are the good people watching the crime taking place and saying nothing through our silence we are allowing the crime to happen. We have to hold ourselves to that standard, although that was said some fifty years ago, but we are unable to commit our goodwill even fifty years after those words
Somalia Famine: - Al Shabab Leadership or America’s State Department is to blame
“When the Somalians were merely another hungry third world people, we sent them guns. Now that they are falling down dead from starvation, we send them troops. Some may see in this a tidy metaphor for the entire relationship between north and south. But it would make a whole lot more sense nutritionally -- as well as providing infinitely more vivid viewing -- if the Somalians could be persuaded to eat the troops”.

Barbara Ehrenreich

The above quote from the renowned author and columnist is as true today as it was back then. The country is awash with soldiers and security operatives from both sides of the divide – CIA secret prisons, Al Qaeda operatives, TFG army, the Al Shabab islamist insurgents, explosives sniffer dogs, drones, pirates, AU troops and confused humanitarian agencies. This lethal cocktail of antagonistic forces, in the absence of a strong national government in place, is bound to generate humanitarian crises of epic proportion because of the simple fact that the battle ground isn’t an empty recreational space but at the heart of densely populated regions of a stateless country.

The U.N didn’t take lightly the decision to evacuate their staff and suspend the food aid programme for about a million people in Southern Somalia in May 2010. Al Shabab militants, among the 48 aid workers killed over two years, is accused to have directly assassinated four of WFP staff, looted WFP offices and equipments, barred women aid workers from discharging their duties, demanded protection money and etc. In the face of such untenable requirements from the armed Islamists, the UN staff tried their best to resolve the anxiety through community level talks. The staff engaged village elders and other local notables to bridge the gap but the intransigent Al Shabab leadership bluntly refused to give security guarantees to aid workers on the grounds that the aid workers, in their paranoid mind, are spies and Christian missionaries in disguise.

U.S Policy on food aid needs to be responsive in emergency situations

Al Shabab’s misadventures and narrow mindedness attracted the wrath of the US government, the prime humanitarian food donor, after they went public in declaring that they are part of Al Qaida terrorist network. The U.S in line with its policy towards terrorism withheld half of its funding last year and demanded assurances from Mr. Mark Bowden, the UN’s Humanitarian co–ordinater based in Nairobi that supplies weren’t being diverted to Al shabab and other armed militants. This further complicated the already messy humanitarian situation in Somalia – only two- thirds of the 900 million dollar needed for Somalia was raised.

To accommodate the U.S goverment, U.N aid agencies and other groups that provide humanitarian assistance in Somalia spent months last year in talks with US officials over how to reasonably monitor the aid distribution in the country. Investigations launched by WFP concluded that there was no evidence of diverted food aid to Al Shabab but even that didn’t go well with the American state department. Officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government's humanitarian aid arm, shared the United Nations' concerns and wanted to resolve the dispute; but the U.S. restrictions appear to stem from higher levels of the administration.

Mr. Bowden out of frustration said in February this year “the United States has asked U.N. agencies to enact impractical measures, which he said could further hinder aid delivery.” For much of the last ten months, Mr. Bowden was raising the issue of impending famine in Somalia at every venue to draw the world's attention to the plight of the captive people of Somalia.

It seems easier for the UN humanitarian coordinator to move mountains than to convince the US politicians to modify and rationalize their stance on humanitarian aid to the destitute and hungry nation that is facing a calamity of apocalyptic proportion. This tragedy is the consequences of a two decade old misplaced U.S short –term policies towards Somalia, and not the U.N, which has brought Al Shabab and its likes to the forefront of the Somali Politics Watch the two discussions on Somali Famine is still the same as today despite all the misfortunes that settled in Southern Somali.

Definition of Famine

•More than 30% of children must be suffering from acute malnutrition

•Two adults or four children must be dying of hunger each day for every group of 10,000 people

•The population must have access to far below 2,100 kilocalories of food per day


The US sanctions have prevented aid from reaching areas under Al Shabab control where 80% of the needy reside. Paradoxically U.S humanitarian and military aid was increased to less affected areas in Somalia and to AMISOM forces by supplying top of the range weaponry including shoulder launched drones and etc. AMISOM is repeatedly accused by Human Rights Organizations of indiscriminate shelling of residential areas of Mogadishu. Despite holding several Mogadishu districts for the weak TFG; AMISOM’s heavy handed tactics emptied civilians from Mogadishu and sustained the IDP camps in what is commonly termed as Afgoi humanitarian corridor. It seems AMISOM’s unchecked actions is pushing people to Alshabab areas as the safe haven of IDPs from Mogadishu is under control of the same Al Shabab AMISOM purports to fight. Having said so; the bottom line is if the $600 million requested by the coordinator is not forth coming and Al Shabab are not coerced to give full access to humanitarian workers then the alternative is one and only one – the spread of famine to the eight regions that lie in the south and central Somalia. Most of the humanitarian and development practitioners are in agreement that the dooms day is round the corner unless the U.S and Alshabab, stop politicizing this unfolding humanitarian catastrophe


Al Shabab are committing genocide by refusing food to Hungary people


To begin with; who should be considered Muslim? Mr. Mark Bowden who is fighting day and night to feed the famine stricken Somali people or Al Shabab who are refusing food to the people they claim to administer? I think this picture from Mr. Amin, the Somali political cartoonist, can serve as the judge and the jury.
Last week’s message from Al Shabab, a movement in leadership crisis, regarding lifting the ban of humanitarian aid workers was ambiguous at least in the Somali version and a thunderbolt to the students of Al Shabab. The proclamation wasn’t adopted unanimously by the leadership of the now factionalized group so it was premature in nature. The message in the Somali language read that Al Shabab are inviting all aid workers irrespective of their religious background to come to the assistance of the Somalis but at the end it emphasized that none should have an agenda that Al Shabab deems as undesirable. In essence Al Shabab wasn’t sincere to give free and open access to the humanitarian teams and to that end the US along with its European partners have to do whatever they can to open the roads to save the millions who are too weak to take the ardous journey to the boarders of Kenya and Ethiopia.
Listen to the speaker of the group denying the existence of famine and accusing the international community of encouraging people to cross the boarders in to the Christian countries of Kenya and Ethiopia. The Al shabab rebels can’t understand why the other 8.5 million in the region who are affected by the drought weren’t classified as famine areas too? The simple answer to this question is, unlike Al Shabab the governments of these "Christian" countries have been working with the UN early warning department and other donors and so made food aid available to the segments of their population that are considered food insecure in goodtime.
The speaker is emphasizing that the aim of the international community is to Christianize the Somali Muslims in the refugee camps of Kenya and Ethiopia. In Conclusion the speaker of the group clearly states that the previous ban on specific aid agencies is still in force. This week’s announcement is the outcome of a meeting the group had in Qoryooley and so can be taken as the final position of Al Shabab. Here is the full and unedited audio press release from Al Shabab on Friday Al Shababs keeps the ban on some aid agencies and disputes the UN declared famine

Conclusion and Recommendations: - No lull until the tide is reversed
“Across the country nearly half of the Somali population - 3.7 million people - are now in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south," said a statement by the UN Office for the co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Somalia.

In view of this situation, it is my humble opinion that Amb Johnnie Carson, the US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs should take the lead and break the ice. The immediate resources and the will of the humanitarian workers are there on the ground but the delivery to the needy people rests primarily on the US government and its allies. Most of the Somali people and aid workers were saddened by Mr. Carson's statement yesterday in which he said the US was assessing if they were seeing “real change” from Al Shabab or whether the group planned to impose some kind of “taxation “on aid deliveries.
This is an emergency situation which is nonpolitical and purely humanitarian in nature therefore the international community has to take swift action to address this harsh situation. Al Shabab made clear that eighteen agencies of which WFP, CARE, World Vision International, IMC, Somali Red Crescent, and etc can’t set foot in the territories they control then what the US government’s assessment is for other than ducking from its responsibility and letting Al Shabab get bolder by the hour – Today they already started stopping people from leaving the death trap.
The cheapest option is for the international community to funnel food aid through the Al Shabab approved agencies to alleviate and mitigate the depth of the famine and at the same time to empower the TFG to a level it can take the total responsibility of the security of the country.

Finally Al Shabab is on the creed to win all or to perish so they can’t be realistically expected to join the reconciliation process at all. In that case I believe the international community has only the weak TFG that is crying for empowerment on its side as Al Shabab preferred to travel on the road to nowhere.

Abdikarim H. Abdi Buh
Terror Free Somalia & WardheerNews,Political Analyst  London UK
E-Mail:abdikarimbuh@yahoo.com
 
We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on  terror free somalia : please email your article today tf.sf@hotmail.com  Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of  terror free somalia  Via -Abadirahman Warsame

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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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