Child Soldiers

A few are missing - Uganda, although not the state use of children, but entities within Uganda use and recruit children to fight in Sudan.





US: Press Allies to End Use of Child Soldiers


Report Lists Repeat Offenders, but Military Aid Continues

June 27, 2011
HRW



(New York) - The United States should suspend military assistance to countries using child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said today.

On June 27, 2011, the US State Department released a list of six governments that use child soldiers in violation of US legislation adopted in 2008: Burma, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Five of the countries - excluding Burma - receive US military assistance.

"The US strategy of just telling countries to stop using child soldiers is not working," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocate at Human Rights Watch. "So long as they keep getting US military assistance, these countries have little incentive to stop recruiting children."

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 prohibits governments using child soldiers from receiving US foreign military financing, military training, and several other categories of US military assistance. The six countries identified in the new 2011 Trafficking in Persons report for using child soldiers were all included in the first State Department list in June 2010. In October, President Barack Obama issued national interest waivers to allow Chad, Congo, Sudan, and Yemen to continue to receive military aid despite their use of child soldiers.

Human Rights Watch called on the Obama administration not to issue blanket waivers to countries violating the Child Soldiers Prevention Act unless the governments sign agreements with the United Nations to end their use of child soldiers and take concrete steps to implement these agreements.

The administration contends that the military assistance it provides to Somalia is peacekeeping assistance that is not covered by the law. On June 22, Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and John Boozman of Arkansas introduced legislation that would amend the Child Soldiers Prevention Act to prohibit peacekeeping operations assistance to governments of countries that recruit and use child soldiers.

In Congo, government forces actively recruit children and have hundreds of children in their ranks. The government has promoted military officers who have been charged - or even convicted - with using child soldiers and has failed to cooperate with the United Nations in finalizing a plan to end its recruitment and use of child soldiers.

In Southern Sudan, which will gain independence from Sudan in July, the Sudan People's Liberation Army has continued to recruit children, according to credible reports received by Human Rights Watch. It has also failed to carry out fully a 2009 agreement to demobilize all children from its ranks.

Yemeni government forces have recruited children as young as 14 and government-affiliated militia have also used children as soldiers.

In Chad, a February 2011 report issued by the UN secretary-general documented ongoing recruitment of children by the Chadian army, including the recruitment of Sudanese refugee children. The government signed an agreement with the UN on June 14 committing itself to end all child recruitment, to release all children from its military and security forces, and to allow UN monitoring of its military installations.

The Chad agreement is a positive step, but progress in other countries has been too slow, Human Rights Watch said.

"Congress was clear in its intent that the US should not be militarily assisting governments that use child soldiers in their forces," Becker said. "Last year the administration gave these governments a pass. It shouldn't do so again."





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
human rights

NJ Terror Suspects: Christian Fundamentalists? Nope. Islamic jihadists? Yep. Coincidence? I have no clue.

Feds Unseal Terror Charges Against 2 NJ Men


June 6, 2010 - 11:55 AM
by: Mike Levine

Federal authorities on Sunday unsealed charges against two New Jersey men arrested the night before, as they allegedly tried to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in war-torn Somalia and kill Americans there.

The men were inspired at least in part by Omar Hammami, the Alabama-born face of the Somali-based terrorist group, and Anwar al-Awlaki, the New Mexico-born cleric now hiding in Yemen who has been linked to the Fort Hood shootings, the Christmas Day bombing attempt and the failed Times Square car bomb plot, according to federal prosecutors.

20-year-old Mohamed Mahmood Alessa of North Bergen, N.J., and 24-year-old Carlos Eduardo Almonte of Elmwood Park, N.J., have been charged with conspiring to kill or injure persons outside the United States.

They were taken into custody late Saturday night at JFK International Airport, as they attempted to board separate flights to Egypt on their way to Somalia, where the group al-Shabaab is battling the nation’s fledgling transitional government.

After the FBI received a tip in October 2006, an undercover officer with the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division recorded numerous meetings and conversations with Alessa and Almonte about their violent plans, according to court documents.

On Saturday night, a team of federal agents and local law enforcement were waiting for them at the airport, arrest warrants in hand. Meanwhile, Other federal agents raided the men’s New Jersey homes.

According to prosecutors, over the years Alessa and Almonte saved thousands of dollars, procured military gear and apparel for use overseas, and “physically conditioned” themselves, which included engaging in paintball and other tactical training. They also watched and shared recordings promoting violent jihad, including lectures by al-Awlaki and online videos featuring Hammami, who is now known as "Abu Mansour al-Amriki," prosecutors allege.

In late November 2009, Alessa was recorded as saying that if he and Almonte can’t kill targets overseas, then they’ll “start doing killing here” in the United States, according to court documents. He later said he would return to the “crap hole” of the United States if “the leader ordered me to come back here and do something,” court documents allege.

Speaking of U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., last year, Alessa also discussed doing "twice what he did," according to court documents.

More recently, on April 25, Almonte allegedly said he was happy to hear rumors that Americans would soon be arriving in Somalia to help fight al-Shabaab. Almonte said killing more than Africans would be particularly gratifying, according to prosecutors.

A month earlier, a top State Department official, Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson, tried to quell rumors of further U.S. involvement, insisting that the United States would not offer any “direct support” to the Somali government. Instead, he told reporters at the time, the United States has been contributing "limited military support," without U.S. soldiers on the ground.

While law enforcement officials have recently said there is no intelligence to suggest al-Shabaab is actively plotting attacks inside the United States, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said such a strike was "a possibility in this case."

For more than a year, the FBI has been investigating how dozens of Americans from across the country were recruited to train and fight alongside al-Shabaab, which has pledged its allegiance to Usama bin Laden.

The New York Police Department has also “long been concerned” about Americans being radicalized inside the country, Kelly said. About a year ago, an NYPD intelligence officer met with experts on the ground in East Africa, trying to learn more about how al-Shabaab operates and recruits foreigners, according to one source.

In October 2008, 27-year-old college student Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis became "the first known American suicide bomber" when he blew himself up in Somalia, killing dozens, according to the FBI.

Somalia has had no stable government since 1991, when dictator Siad Barre was ousted from power. The transitional government has had trouble keeping Muslim militants at bay, and in 2006 fighting with al-Shabaab intensified after Western-backed Ethiopian forces invaded the country.

Alessa and Almonte are expected to appear in court on Monday. If convicted, they each face up to life in prison.

**********************************************

I fully appreciate the fears many people had about Bush and the Patriot Act.  Nearly every day or at least once a week, for the 7 or so years Bush was President.  The bill was signed into law in October 2001 and Bush left office in January 2009 - I heard an incessant cry about the rights of Americans being taken away by the federal government (I won't mention how many more infringements have occurred against ALL Americans in the last 18 months but) ... the Patriot Act was intended, not for individuals like me or my neighbor - we could be involved in selling illegal birds or trading pogs.  It was intended and used, with very few exceptions against people like those in this story.  Several BORN in the US yet their parents are from Somalia or Yemen or Pakistan or ... and they preach anti-American hatred.  We believe in free speech, and that is fine and great, but the hatred preached by these Imams is not equivalent to the hate spewed by Michael Moore ... this hatred goes to support, aide, and incitement to murder Americans ....  This is what the law was intended to address, and quite honestly, taking the Imam to Court where he will argue free speech protections and be out again within a week doing the same thing, ultimately resulting in a 'deranged' male between 18-34 committing some act or murder ... more possible than not.

How do you combat that hatred?  Until now, the argument has been - the marketplace of ideas.  We let all the ideas and views get tossed out there and we combat bad ideas with good ideas.  We show by our actions our willingness to be model citizens or better human beings.  Odd then that the left in this country is now about regulating the blogosphere and internet, particularly concerning hate speech.  For the left today, hate speech cannot be permitted in the marketplace of ideas, for that somehow doesn't work, rather it needs to be regulated - UNLIKE Islamic hate speech which needs to be protected. 

In any event, the regulations, control, laws, privacy concerns have all quadrupled in the last 18 months, but Michael Moore is not to be heard from nor are any other leftist loons.











 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Islam

Al Qaida in Somalia: No Mas.

When is the cost of war too much.

I suppose, we could pull out of Afghanistan - it has nothing to do with us, let the corrupt government deal with the taliban.

I suppose we could abandon Pakistan - for if we left Afghanistan, surely we have no need to stay, and given the inevitable fall of Afghanistan, it will directly and immediately flow into Pakistan.  We need not remain.

We should not be in Iraq - that much is certain, nor in Kuwait, for the Arabs all hate us anyway.

We should not be in Somalia - Blackhawk Down .. let them all die in their miserable desert.

Except, when we leave, who will remain to hold together what fragile governments exist.  Can any government or system remain against the obsessed Islamic killers who seek to dominate and kill. 

Somalia - we could certainly say we have no interest in that rat hole, nor in Uganda, nor for that matter in any dark African jungle.  Let the people stand up to the invaders if they wish. 

The assumptions in these arguments are so flawed as to confound even the most flawed theoretician.

No one in Somalia can stand against armed killers who want to die, in large part because most human beings want to live - they want to die or conquer and enforce their law upon everyone.  You would of course tell us that the islam these individuals wish to enforce upon Somalia is not the real Islam.  Does it matter?

At what point do you stand and say no more.  When do you say no mas?  When do you say nyet?  When? 

When they are banging down your door?  It is a bit too late at that time.  Just ask Britain.





Somali fighters execute 'spies'


Monday, October 26, 2009

Al Jazeera.com

 
Gunmen from Somalia's al-Shabab fighters have publicly executed two young men they said had been spies for the government.

A senior member of the group in the port town of Marka said the teenagers had confessed.

They were executed in front of hundreds of people who were summoned to witness the event on Sunday.

"These two young men were involved in spying against our Islamic administration," Sheikh Suldan, an al Shabab official, told reporters in Marka 100km south of the Somali, capital Mogadishu.

"We have been holding them for three months. We investigated and they confessed."

Al-Shabab aims to topple the UN-backed government in Somalia and introduce its own version of Islamic law in the country.

Courts run by al-Shabab officials have ordered executions, floggings and amputations in recent months, mostly in the southern town of Kismayo, but also in districts of the Mogadishu held by the fighters.

Strict laws

The group have also banned movies, mobile phone ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer.

Also on Sunday, al-Shabab closed ASEP, a local non-governmental organisation, in the town of Balad Hawa, near the Kenyan border and detained several of its members, according to local residents.

An al-Shabab source told Reuters news agency that the staff had also been accused of spying.

The US has said al-Shabab is a proxy force for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group in the failed Horn of Africa state.

About 19,000 civilians have been killed in fighting since the start of 2007 while another 1.5 million have been forced out of their homes.





 
 
 
 
 
Islam

Somalia - Off the Radar, but No Less Important

A very good illustration of the issue between those who practice a religion of peace and those who have coopted that religion and rain death down upon all who stand in their way.

Interesting the defintion of 'defending'. From Aweys perspective anyone who stands up and says - we oppose you, are in fact, attacking Islam. (Pay close attention Europe and America.)

You do not negotiate with people who view you as an impediment to their survival. The West, and Africa, has tolerated the evil of these murderers for too long. Because many who practice the faith seek peace and argue the religion is entirely based upon peace, we relent, until the next evil doer pokes his ugly head up and says slaughtering people is acceptable and must be done as it is in defense of their warped view of Islam. These sorts need to be given their greatest hope and dream - to meet Allah, and let him sort them out, before they take the lives of any more innocents.






Radical Somali leader defends peacekeepers' killings


(CNN) -- A radical Islamist leader in Somalia said Sunday that a suicide attack that killed 21 African Union peacekeepers was the right thing to do.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said Thursday's attack was meant to defend Islam.

"The Islamic religion permits such kinds of attacks if they are against known enemies and in the defense of the religion, but there are people who distort that explanation," Aweys said, addressing hundreds of people during a religious sermon at Elashabiyaha, a suburb of Mogadishu.
Suicide bombers, disguised in two U.N.-marked vehicles, rammed through the security gate of the mission's headquarters, which is attached to Mogadishu's airport.

They detonated explosives just as Somalia's transitional government and mission representatives concluded a high-level meeting inside the compound, said Nicolas Bwakira, the African Union's special representative for Somalia.

The attack killed four Somali civilians and 17 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers, including the mission's second-in-command, Burundian Maj. Gen. Juvenal Niyonguruza, he said.

The force commander, Ugandan Maj. Gen. Nathan Mugisha, was among the 40 wounded. He assumed command of the African Union Mission in Somalia -- known as AMISOM -- last month.
Al-Shabaab, the Islamist militia with ties to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the African Union.

The strike happened days after U.S. special forces targeted and killed a senior al Qaeda operative in southern Somalia.

Analysts hailed the death of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan as a major blow to al Qaeda's efforts to work with Al-Shabaab to try to gain a foothold in the lawless country.

Aweys condemned the killing of Nebhan.

"The U.S. government is responsible for all problems on the Muslin nation particularly on the Somalis," he said.

The African Union has a 3,400-member peacekeeping force in Somalia, made up of troops from Burundi and Uganda. It operates under a U.N. mandate to support Somalia's transitional federal government.

The peacekeeping force is charged with protecting key government and strategic installations in Mogadishu, including the port, airport and presidential palace. It is the de facto military force of the weak, transitional Somali government.










Somalia

Somalian Islamists seek to Demonstrate their Peaceful Nature

A confession of sorts (and far more than I need to reveal) - occasionally I will mention the following to a class (which is why it is not secret and not a huge deal for me to reveal), depending on the subject. 1996 - Flight 800 blew up and crashed after take-off in New York. I was very young and very disturbed by those events - the plane crash and loss of so many lives - I went on an alt site (no idea if alt exists any more) - and posted to 2-3 different sites - assuming it was a terrorist attack.

I received a reply.

That reply was followed by more than five years worth of emails to a person I thought quite highly of. This person knew a considerable deal about life in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They had spent time there in the 80s doing work. I met the person and the family - spent time with them one summer at their home. Both of the members of the family were employed by the same source - although they did different work.

This person introduced me (via print media) to bin Laden in 1996. I read everything I was given and within a year or two, knew the guy pretty well - and liked the fact he was standing up to globalization, intolerance, and the dehumanizing of man. I do not like the left for it imprisons the mind, even while radical Islam imprisons the body, the left imprisons the mind and it was difficult dealing with the rise of power in the West and what I regarded as a threat to man - the globalization of everything. I like small, I like tribal and bin laden was for me, all that - he opposed the big, and was if nothing else tribal. He also didn't hurt the little people - soldiers and buildings were acceptable to me then, and I appreciated that sense of decency. I was also told how Shura or Sharia courts worked - this person explained in a very personal example. I found them to be very reasonable and more humane than the Court system we promote in the West.

All that changed in 2001. My intimate knowledge of this person, their connections to foreign places and foreign people - went away for some time. I went to visit them in 2002, and spoke of those events very vaguely. My host had not changed their mind, but I certainly had. Cold blooded killers. I could not understand how my host could not see that, why they would not see what stared at them. By 2003, my communications ceased and remained so for about a year and they popped up again. It lasted for six months until I basically told the person to drop dead.

University had changed me and this person stepped in at that moment to take advantage of a foolish child - and I believed the person. 2001 changed it, watching the gruesome beheadings from Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 5-7 years, and watching them because it forces me to confront several issues. Those barbarian beasts do not cut off the head of anyone until they go through a process. Shura almost always has occurred. Some qazi or sheikh has discussed it and a council decided beheading was appropriate. For those beasts, it does not happen randomly - they may capture an American, but the individuals who capture him must go to a local qazi/qadi or the equivalent and explain what they have done, listen to their options, and if the plan is to 'execute' the person, they need the official sanction from the religious. A council must meet and decide.

So assume - take an example I know of: several youths burned an embassy or consular office in Afghanistan. The building belonged to Iran. The youths were captured and tried. Their sentence: a fine of (I am making this amount up) $1000 and death, to be carried out as soon as the fine was paid - period, end of case. No time limit was set on payment. The court did justice - death for the property destruction, but the humanity part - pay as you will. $1 a year or whatever amount. Justice.

Now assume the person is charged with aiding the enemy of Allah. Very serious charge. Allah is at the top of the list of beings not to offend in Islam. It is a VERY serious crime. Aiding and abetting apostates, aiding the enemy of Allah, conducting mischief, causing harm to the people of X ... the sentence has already been decided. You can't escape the apostate and enemy of God clause - no walking away from this one, and no Islamic court will find any choice but death given the claims.

So why the pretense? Exactly. Pretense. They pretend.

Unlike Obama who seems to be operating under the delusion that reason is part of the everyday process for Islamic fascists, I actually learned something in 2001.

Given the above ...



French agents face sharia trial in Somalia

by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Sat Jul 18, 11:14 am ET

MOGADISHU (AFP) – Two French agents kidnapped in Somalia will be tried soon under Islamic Sharia law for aiding "the enemy of Allah," an official of the hardline Shebab rebel group holding them said Saturday.

A Somali minister said the pair had been taken out of the capital and there was concern for their safety.

Separately, three foreign aid workers were also reported kidnapped overnight in a Kenyan town close to the Somali border.

The French agents "were caught assisting the apostate government and their spies," a senior Shebab officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said they will "soon be tried and punished under the Sharia law, they will face the justice court for spying and entering Somalia to assist the enemy of Allah.

"The decision about their fate will depend on the outcome of the Islamic court that will hear the charges against them," he added.

The two agents, in Somalia to train government forces, were snatched at gunpoint from their hotel in central Mogadishu early Tuesday.

Shebab is one of two allied Islamic insurgent groups battling to overthrow the transitional government which is supported by the international community.

Somalia's Social Affairs Minister Mohammed Ali Ibrahim told French news channel France 24 Saturday from Mogadishu that the two men had been taken out of the capital.

"As long as they were here, there were contacts," he said. "Intermediaries were in contact with Shebab and we knew they were in good health, but since this morning they have been taken away."

"We must be concerned about them and take strong action", he added.

He said France was putting pressure on Eritrea, which allegedly arms Shebab and other extremists in Somalia -- something Asmara denies -- and the Somali government was also sending envoys to Shebab.

"They trade in human beings," Ibrahim said. "Either they kill them or they demand an enormous ransom."

On Friday, Ibrahim said the "main reason for the kidnapping is that certain Shebab have associates imprisoned in France, pirates."

French President Nicholas Sarkozy's chief of staff Claude Gueant said Friday that Paris did not believe the men were in imminent danger, but "tortuous bargaining... could take a while."

Fifteen Somali pirates are being held in France after being captured by the French navy in the Gulf of Aden. They are accused of taking part in the hijacking of two French yachts.

Earlier Saturday, a Somali government official said three foreign aid workers were kidnapped overnight in Mandera, a Kenyan town close to the Somali border.

"We are investigating the incident by tracing the kidnappers," Sheikh Adan Mohamed, a senior official in the neighbouring Somali town of Bulohawo, told AFP by telephone.

The nationalities of the three and the organisation for which they worked were not immediately known.

"There was a shootout at their office which was raided by gunmen and they shot a night guard in the head," a Kenyan security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Foreigners are regularly kidnapped in Somalia, which has been mired in civil war since 1991, and usually freed in return for a ransom. Journalists and aid workers are particularly targeted.

Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Geoffrey Brennan, snatched in Augustlast year, are still being held, as are four European employees of French aid organisation Action Against Hunger and their two Kenyan pilots, kidnapped in November.

Meanwhile Somali pirates on Saturday said they had released a German ship and its crew after being paid a ransom of 1.8 million dollars (1.3 million euros).

In Berlin the German foreign ministry identified the ship as the MV Victoria, flying the Antigua and Barbuda flag, which was captured on May 5 with 11 men on board.

A foreign ministry spokesman in Bucharest told the Newsim agency that all the men were Romanian and were in good health.

Pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships off Somalia last year, a rise of more than 200 percent on 2007, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre.

Naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to lawless waters off Somalia over the past year in a bid to curb attacks on one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.











Islam

Somali Pirates Attack Cruise Ship - Fended Off by Israelis

Cruise ship fends off pirate attack with gunfire

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press
4/26/09

ROME – An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits.

Six men in a small, white Zodiac-type boat approached the Msc Melody at about 1730 GMT Saturday and opened fire with automatic weapons, Msc Cruises director Domenico Pellegrino said. They retreated after the security officers returned fire and sprayed them with water hoses.

The ship continued its journey with its windows darkened.

"It felt like we were in war," the ships commander, Ciro Pinto, told Italian state radio.

None of the roughly 1,000 passengers and 500 crew members was hurt, Pellegrino said. The passengers were asked to return to their cabins and the external lights on board turned off.
Pellegrino said all Msc cruise ships around the world are staffed with Israeli security agents because they are the best trained.

The attack occurred about 200 miles (325 kilometers) north of the Seychelles, and about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Somalia, according to the anti-piracy flotilla headquarters of the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet, said that last fall after the attack on a Saudi tanker more than 400 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia there had been "a definite shift in (the pirates) tactical capabilities."

"It's not unheard of to have attacks off the coast of the Seychelles, we've even had some in the past month," he said. "But at the same time, it is a sign that they are moving further and further off the Somali coast."

Separately Sunday, four Yemeni tankers escorted by a Yemeni coast guard boat on their way to Aden were attacked by pirates. Three of the ships escaped and coast guards captured five pirates and wounded two others, said Mohammed Abdul-Rahman, a senior official at the Overseas Shipping and Stevedoring Company. Pirates could only seize one of the tankers, the Qana. The Yemeni Interior Ministry said coast guards were trying to free it.

And the Turkish cruiser Ariva 3, with two British and four Japanese crew aboard, survived a pirate attack near the Yemeni island of Jabal Zuqar, said Ali el-Awlaqi, head of the Yemeni El-Awlaqi Marine company said.

"Pirates opened fire at the cruise ship for 15 minutes then stopped for no reason," he said, adding that the cruiser was heading to Aden, Yemen, to fix a broken engine.

International military forces have battled pirates, with U.S. Navy snipers killing three holding an American captain hostage in one of the highest-profile incidents.

But Saturday's exchange of fire between the Melody and pirates was one of the first reported between pirates and a nonmilitary ship. Civilian shipping and passenger ships have generally avoided arming crewmen or hiring armed security for reasons of safety, liability and compliance with the rules of the different countries where they dock.

Pellegrino said the pistols on board the Melody were available to the commander and security agents. He said they were used as a deterrent, "in an emergency operation."

It was not the first attack on a cruise liner. In November, pirates opened fire on a U.S.-operated ship, the M/S Nautica, which was taking 650 passengers and 400 crew members on a monthlong luxury cruise from Rome to Singapore. The cruise liner was able to outrun the pirates. In early April a tourist yacht was hijacked by Somali pirates near the Seychelles just after having dropped off its cargo of tourists.

The Melody was on a 22-day cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy, when the pirates attacked late Saturday, slightly damaging the liner, Pinto said.

"After about four or five minutes, they tried to put a ladder up," Pinto told Sky TG24. "They were starting to climb up but we reacted, we started to fire ourselves. When they saw our fire, and also the water from the water hoses that we started to spray toward the Zodiac, they left and went away."

"They followed us for a bit, about 20 minutes, and continued to fire," he said.

Cruise line security work is a popular job for young Israelis who have recently been discharged from mandatory army service, as it is a good chance to save money and travel.

"We have always had great faith in their capacity, they have always been very qualified," Pellegrino said of the Israelis, though he declined to give the name of the firm.

The Spanish warship SPS Marques de Ensenada met up with the Melody to escort her through the pirate-infested northern Gulf of Aden, the Maritime Security Center said. The cruise ship was headed as scheduled to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, returning to the Mediterranean for spring and summer season cruises.

Meanwhile, Somali pirates on Sunday demanded a $5 million ransom for the release of two Egyptian fishing boats hijacked earlier this month, and the safe return of their crew, Egyptian Foreign Ministry official Ahmed Rizq said in Cairo.

"Tribal sheiks are trying to mediate to convince the hijackers to release the boats and the sailors, but it's clear to everybody that we are dealing with piracy that has no other purpose but money," he said, adding that the negotiations were between the hijackers and the boats' owners.

Pirates have attacked more than 100 ships off the Somali coast over the last year, reaping an estimated $1 million in ransom for each successful hijacking, according to analysts and country experts.

Another Italian-owned vessel remains in the hands of pirates. The Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer was seized off Somalia on April 11 with 16 crew members aboard.

On Saturday, the Foreign Ministry dispatched a special envoy, Margherita Boniver, to Somalia to try to win the release of the tug and crew. In a statement, the ministry also denied reports by relatives of the crew that an ultimatum had been issued by the pirates.





pirates

Obama and Somalia

Why? They need to be killed, not talked to. Thankfully, SEALS provided them with their chance to meet Allah.

Obama Team Mulls Aims Of Somali Extremists
Seeing Potential Terror Threat, Officials Debate Their Options


By Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, April 11, 2009; Page A01


Senior Obama administration officials are debating how to address a potential terrorist threat to U.S. interests from a Somali extremist group, with some in the military advocating strikes against its training camps. But many officials maintain that uncertainty about the intentions of the al-Shabab organization dictates a more patient, nonmilitary approach.


Al-Shabab, whose fighters have battled Ethiopian occupiers and the tenuous Somali government, poses a dilemma for the administration, according to several senior national security officials who outlined the debate only on the condition of anonymity.


The organization's rapid expansion, ties between its leaders and al-Qaeda, and the presence of Americans and Europeans in its camps have raised the question of whether a preemptive strike is warranted. Yet the group's objectives have thus far been domestic, and officials say that U.S. intelligence has no evidence it is planning attacks outside Somalia.





[To read the rest of the article, click on the title link]













Obama

Somalia: Jihadis On their Way

Families of Somalis missing from Minn. speak out

By AMY FORLITI – Dec 7, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Three Somali families tell similar stories: A son or nephew disappears. A passport is gone. Days later the phone rings, and the teen says he's in Somalia.

The phone call is abrupt and short on details. And then, nothing.

Breaking their monthlong silence, relatives of three teenagers said Saturday that they fear their loved ones are victims, brainwashed to return to Somalia to fight. The impoverished nation on the Horn of Africa is caught up in an Islamic insurgency and hasn't had a functioning government in 17 years.

"We are not sure who is responsible," said Hussein Samatar, a community leader and uncle to a 17-year-old who traveled to Somalia. "But we, as a community, believe they have to be held accountable."

Samatar and other relatives confirmed their loved ones left Minneapolis, home to one of the nation's largest Somali communities, together on Nov. 4. The young men were identified as Burhan Hassan, 17, Mohamoud Hassan, 18, and Abdisalam Ali, 19.

Abdirizak Bihi, a community organizer and also an uncle to the 17-year-old, said that at least three more young men left the same day, and that he knows of about six others who have left and traveled to Somalia over the past two years.

"This issue of missing children has been going on for quite some time," Bihi said. "We want our children back home."

One man who disappeared from Minneapolis earlier is believed to have killed himself in an Oct. 29 suicide bombing that also took the lives of more than 20 people in northern Somalia, according to a U.S. law enforcement official. The official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the FBI and Justice Department were investigating.

Another U.S. law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said authorities are calling that case one of the first instances of a U.S. citizen acting as a suicide bomber.

Agent E.K. Wilson, an FBI spokesman in Minneapolis, said last week that his office helped return the remains of a U.S. citizen to the city. He said the body was taken from the Oct. 29 bombing but would not confirm whether the remains were that of a suicide bomber or a victim. He would not confirm the name of the deceased.

Wilson has previously said the FBI is "aware that a number of individuals from throughout the U.S., and Minneapolis, have traveled to Somalia to potentially fight for terrorist groups."

He said Saturday that the agency is working with families and community leaders to address their concerns. He did not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

The three families who came forward Saturday said their loved ones were good children who went to school and attended Abubakar As-Saddique mosque.

Mahir Sherif, an attorney for the mosque, said the mosque and its leaders have not recruited anyone to fight in Somalia.

"They did not fund any trips. They didn't arrange for any meetings with anybody. They didn't encourage anybody to go there," he said. "They have done nothing."

[No one OFFICiALLY recruited or requested or paid - however, the religious leader told the youngsters that every Muslim was required to do jihad when Islam was in danger, islam was in danger in Somalia, and if anyone wanted to do jihad anywhere at any time, there were wealthy Somalis who would pay for plane tickets. So the lawyer can say what he said and not lie. Amazing how it works.]

Bihi, one of the organizers of Saturday's news conference, said the families want the public to know about their children.

Relatives said Burhan Hassan, the 17-year-old, was a senior at Roosevelt High School; 18-year-old Mohamoud Hassan was studying engineering at the University of Minnesota; and 19-year-old Abdisalam Ali was studying health care at the University of Minnesota.

The three teens knew one another and were friends, and Bihi said none of them could have afforded a plane ticket back to Somalia on his own. Each teen contacted his family only once after disappearing, saying he was either in Somalia or in its capital city of Mogadishu. The teens haven't been heard from since, Bihi said.

Warsame Hassan, a brother-in-law to Burhan Hassan, noted that Somalis have fled their homeland to escape violence and provide their children with a good education.

"We don't know who is behind this, and we are urging authorities to get to the bottom of this," Warsame Hassan said.

The Somali population in Minnesota was more than 24,000 in 2006, according to the U.S. Census. Local activists claim the actual number is higher.

Minnesota

Somalia

Somalia and Islam

US looks at local link to Somaliland bombing
By Harvey Morris in New York
Published: December 19 2008

US authorities are targeting the country’s Somali community following the discovery of a US link in a recent suicide bombing in Somaliland and the unexplained disappearance of young Somali-American men from the US.

More than a dozen Somali-American families in the midwest have reported their sons missing, fearing they may have fled to join al-Qaeda-linked groups in east Africa.

Establishing the youths’ whereabouts has become more urgent since the perpetrator of a suicide bomb in autonomous Somaliland in October was identified as a naturalised American from Minneapolis, the Financial Times has learned.

Members of the 70,000 Somali community in the state fear local imams are indoctrinating young men to join Islamist radicals fighting the western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu. Many of the youths, aged about 18 and 19, were American-born, said Omar Jamal, a community leader.

The spread of home-grown fundamentalism among American Muslims would mark a new trend in the US, although countries in Europe, including the UK, have been victims of attacks carried out by locally born Muslims.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, following standard practice, refused to confirm or deny an investigation was under way. A spokesman said the agency was aware of the disappearances and feared some of the missing had gone to fight in Africa. There was no evidence they planned terror attacks on home soil.

The local Somali community fears they may have gone to join the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, an organisation that could try to seize Mogadishu if, as expected, Ethiopia pulls out its troops.






Somalia



Islam

Somalia: Jihadi on the March

December 12, 2008


Teen disappears: 'Mom, I'm in Somalia'

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Last month, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan told his family he was catching a ride to school with a friend. He then vanished.

Islamic fighters drill in Somalia last month. The FBI says men are traveling from the U.S., potentially to fight.

His mother spoke to her son just a few days ago over the phone. To her shock, she says, he told her he was no longer in the United States.

"Mom, I'm in Somalia! Don't worry about me; I'm OK," the mother quoted her son as saying.
Details of how he got there and what has transpired in his life since his November disappearance are sketchy. His mother, who agreed to be identified only as Amina, says her son has clearly changed.

"He was different," she said of his attitude on the phone.

Hassan is one of more than a dozen young men of Somali descent -- many U.S. citizens -- to have disappeared from Minneapolis over the past six months, according to federal law enforcement authorities. Authorities say young men have also disappeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Columbus, Ohio.

"A number of young Somali men have traveled from throughout the United States to include Minneapolis to Somalia, potentially to fight," said FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson.

Amina speaks about her son in the past tense, almost as if he were dead. She worries about him night and day.

"Now that he's gone, I can't sleep," she said.

The fear among the Somali community in Minneapolis is that their young men are being preyed upon and recruited to fight jihad, or holy war, in Somalia. Some have even called to tell their parents not to look for them.

"Those I talked to were completely shocked and dismayed as to what happened. They were completely in disbelief," said Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The shock is magnified by what happened to one of them: Authorities say a 27-year-old named Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in an apparent suicide bombing in northern Somalia in October.

Amina doesn't like to think about that and refuses to believe that her son could be learning similar tactics.

She and her son lived in an apartment along the Mississippi River in a thriving Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis. Hassan's father died years ago, and she raised him as a single parent. Hassan's other siblings have all moved out.

"I'm feeling empty tonight, like I have [nothing]," she said.

Amina says she now forgets to cook. It's gotten so bad that when she's out shopping, she'll often feel that her son is back home again. She'll quickly return, only to remember he's still away.

She struggles when she recalls how smart he is and how he was studying to become a doctor. Holding up a copy of his high school class schedule, which includes Advanced Placement courses in mathematics, chemistry and biology, she says Hassan was to graduate in May.

He wanted to attend college in Arizona, and he wanted her to move there with him.
"He was planning to be a physician assistant. He told me to move ... to Arizona because he said in Arizona, we can get [those jobs] as soon as possible after graduating," she said. "His expectations were high."

She added, "He doesn't like to fight. Sometimes, he was a comedian. He likes to laugh or to say things that make you laugh. He was a very kind person."

Amina says her son has called a few times, most recently Saturday. She says that each time, it feels as if her son is being watched or listened to by at least one or two other men, because she can hear other voices in the background.

"It's like a kidnapped person. And he has no freedom, because if he said, 'Mom, I have to leave here; I have no life,' then they would kill him."

The question that plagues Amina and just about everyone in Minneapolis' Somali community is: How could these young men who were well-educated and who stayed out of trouble in the United States wind up in war-torn Somalia, possibly as fighters?

In Hassan's case, his mother fled the nation when she was pregnant with him, and they eventually came to the United States to escape the country's violence. She says her son's demeanor changed a couple months before he disappeared. He became more withdrawn, and she doesn't know why.

Other local Somalis have voiced concern that, because a large number of the men missing attended the same Islamic center after school, it could have played a role.

[Could have? It DID play a role. Only a person who is trying to hide the truth will refuse to acknowledge this.]

Amina does not believe the center itself played a role but thinks there are certain people associated with it who may be involved.

On Monday, representatives of the mosque, Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, held a news conference to address the issue. The mosque's attorney, Mahir Sherif, strongly denied any allegations that it is connected to the men's disappearance, saying the center "has not and will not recruit for any political cause."

"I haven't talked to any of them [since the stories came out]. I haven't seen any of them fighting," Sherif said. "I mean, I would be speculating. I'm hearing what everybody else hears."
Amina keeps hoping her son will return and that somebody in the community will come forward with more information.

"I'm asking for those who took my son or know anything about it to come forward. I'm asking you kindly to help and facilitate how to make possible to return [him]. Most sincerely."





Somalia


islam

Somalia: Islamists on the verge.

Islamists on trail of Somali pirates

Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:41pm EST
By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents stormed a port on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said.

Separately, police in the capital Mogadishu said they had ambushed and shot dead 17 Islamist militants, in the latest illustration of the chaos in the Horn of Africa country that has fueled a dramatic surge in piracy.

[...]

SOMALI NATION 'AT STAKE'

In Mogadishu, police said they laid in wait and shot dead 17 fighters from the militant al Shabaab insurgent group during an attempted attack on a senior official.

The Islamists have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for about two years. They launch near-daily guerrilla strikes in the capital and control most of the south, including a town just nine miles from Mogadishu.

Islamist leaders deny allegations they collude with pirates and insist they will stamp down on them if they win power, citing a crackdown when they ruled the south briefly in 2006.
Some analysts, however, say Islamist militants are benefiting from the spoils of piracy and arms shipments facilitated by the sea gangs. Analysts also accuse government figures of collaboration with pirates.

The elder in Haradheere port told Reuters the Islamists arrived wanting to find out immediately about the Sirius Star, which was captured on Saturday about 450 nautical miles off Kenya in the pirates' furthest strike to date.

"The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship," said the elder, who declined to be named. "I saw four cars full of Islamists driving in the town from corner to corner. The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship."

In Mogadishu, al Shabaab gunmen drove to the home of the local Madina district chairman early in the morning, but found police officers lying in wait, witnesses said.

"We got information before they left their hideouts and we were able to surround them," said a police spokesman. "Thirteen of the dead bodies lie in the street near the chairman's house."
Residents said the al Shabaab fighters wore black scarves round their heads with Arabic script reading "God is great."

Somalis are traditionally moderate Muslims, and analysts say al Shabaab -- which Washington has listed as a foreign terrorist organization with close links to al Qaeda -- does not have deep popular support, despite having the upper hand militarily.

Somalia has been without effective central government since the 1991 toppling of a military dictator by warlords.

The capture of the Sirius Star has caused panic around the world, with the rampant piracy threatening to become a further drag on trade at a time of global economic downturn.

Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula summoned foreign ambassadors in Nairobi to appeal for their countries to make all efforts to end the menace. "Act now and not tomorrow," he said.

*******************************

I understand the implications for Somalia, and for the world if the more extremist Muslim factions take control, but - for any Somali who happens to read this - why should I give a flying rats ass what happens to you murderous bunch of useless pieces of shit.

American soldiers were in Somalia to help feed your moderate Muslim population. We were there to save lives, and instead, the lunatic population of Mogadishu attacked and killed Americans, who were just trying to help you.

Here is one possible option - we let the Islamists kill as many of you as possible, then we come and kill them. Why is that not a reasonable response to the events involved in the attacks on the American soldiers. Why should we care (appreciating the first sentence above)? If I cannot be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, it is unlikely you will get 60% of the population supporting any action against the Islamists.

Would not our going back into Somalis be an attack on Islam? And would all the lunatic fringes not climb back out of their piles of shit to attack and kill us? So why care. Let the Islamists take Somalia back fifty years economically and 150 years politically. Would serve you right, for what you have brought upon yourself.

If it were not for the innocent who would die in the process, I would ignore events in Somalia.





al qaida