> Deborah Harrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Behalf Of Deborah Harrell > > > The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my > > >friend, and indeed might be another enemy... > > But, a variation of that principal has been > > over-applied by the US in it's > > intelligence work... <snip> > > Using human intelligence agents usually involved > > dealing with rather unsavory characters. > <snip> <snip> > If you're dealing with unsavory folk, you ought to > have the sense to check out what they give you via > another, unrelated channel.... <snip> > Which points out the need for intelligence, or at > least some common sense, when interpreting that > aquired information. <snip>
Now here's a sticky wicket in this vein: Somalia. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060608/ap_on_re_af/somalia_1 Islamic militia leaders who seized Somalia's capital this week and are accused of harboring al-Qaida fugitives started discussing the future of the lawless country Thursday with its largely powerless U.N.-backed government. The meeting came a day after the Bush administration sounded a surprising conciliatory note toward the militia. The aim of the Islamic Courts Union, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, "is to try to lay the foundations for some institutions in Somalia that might form the basis for a better and more peaceful, secure Somalia where the rule of law is important." "I think that as a matter of principle that we would look forward to working with groups or individuals who have an interest in a better, more peaceful, more stable, secure Somalia ... who are also interested in fighting terrorism," he said. The statement was a surprising turnaround for the United States, which had been waging a proxy fight against the militia, said John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group. However, he said, it was important that the United States work with powers on the ground in Somalia to bring stability to the country. "It's a bit schizophrenic," Prendergast said. "The overriding imperative now is to bring together Somalia's warring parties into a process of state reconstruction that will provide our best antidote against extremism..." http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2006/06/06/islamists_claim_rout_of_us_tied_forces_in_somalia/ The Islamist militia took up arms several months ago against a secular alliance of warlord-businessmen that had publicly committed to battle terrorist groups in Somalia. Those secular warlords had close ties with Central Intelligence Agency officials, who were pressing to dismantle Islamist factions in a hunt for Al Qaeda operatives, according to analysts and interviews with Somali warlords. Reports from Mogadishu yesterday said most US-allied warlords had fled or were fleeing... ...For two years, CIA officials have traveled frequently to the Mogadishu area and other Somali cities in hopes of learning more about and disrupting small bands of Al Qaeda members, who also operate in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, Kenyan pilots and two Somali warlords said recently in interviews. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that three Al Qaeda members indicted in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania were still being protected by Islamists in Mogadishu. In surrounding countries, and even in Somalia's semi-autonomous northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland, US covert officers have developed close relationships with governments and local powers. In southern and central Somalia, CIA officers have relied on electronic eavesdropping and developing close ties with various warlords, paying them tens of thousands of dollars in some visits, two warlords said in interviews. The two -- Yusuf Mohammed Said , the ruling warlord in Marka , about 60 miles south of Mogadishu, and Mohammed Dhere , the warlord in Jowhar, about 40 miles east of the capital -- along with Kenyan-based pilots, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation, said US intelligence relied especially on warlords who controlled airports to monitor traffic in and out of the country... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4841170.stm Is Somalia next for 'war on terror'? By Joseph Winter The Islamists are the first group to control Mogadishu in 15 years Since the 11 September attacks on the United States more than four years ago, Somalis have feared that their lawless country could become the setting for a battle between US-backed anti-terror forces and al-Qaeda sympathisers. That prospect now seems more likely than ever. An Islamist militia has taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, from an alliance of warlords widely believed to be backed by the US. The US refuses to confirm or deny these reports but President George W Bush says he is concerned by the Union of Islamic Courts' victory. "The first concern, of course, is to make sure that Somalia does not become an al-Qaeda safe haven - it doesn't become a place from which terrorists can plot and plan," he said. The union's chairman, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has given conflicting signals since taking control in Mogadishu. He sent a letter to foreign diplomats claiming that his followers do not sponsor terrorism and they have no plans to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. But he has also been quoted as telling the Saudi-owned pan-Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat: "If US forces intervene directly against us in Mogadishu, then we are ready to teach them a lesson they will never forget and repeat their defeat in 1993..." ...One of the key figures in the Islamic courts and former al-Itihaad al-Islamiya leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys - on the US list of terror suspects - denies the existence of training camps in Somalia. But he told the BBC News website he has sympathy for the "Muhajadeen who are fighting back" against attacks by the US and their allies around the world. Last year the International Crisis Group, a political think-tank, reported that: "In the rubble-strewn streets of the ruined capital of this state without a government... al-Qaeda operatives, jihadi extremists, Ethiopian security services and Western-backed counter-terrorism networks are engaged in a shadowy and complex contest waged by intimidation, abduction and assassination..." What a tangled mess. I am not saying "do nothing," but doing any old thing in the short term is not a substitute for thinking ahead and acting for the long term. Backing warlords accused of murder and rape is not how to win the hearts and minds of the locals (or anyone else). If you're going to claim moral superiority over the world, you'd do well not to be supporting butchers and rapists. Aand I haven't a clue about what to do now, but the lesson of Afghanistan is that you ignore a power vacuum at your peril, later if not sooner. Debbi At Least One Head Of The Hydra Got Whacked Off Maru __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
