[Peace-discuss] USAF attack in Somalia

Tue Jan 9 10:34:25 CST 2007

----- Original Message ----- 
From: David Green
To: Peace Discuss
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 9:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] USAF attack in Somalia

The interview on Democracy Now this morning served to clarify this issue. The 
Tribune article below serves to inform as how bald-faced the mainstream press 
can be in denying U.S. involvement in Somalia:

       Ignoring the fact that this is a right wing liar from a right wing hate 
blog, I think the 'mainstream press' just got clued in bigtime, judging by the 
morning Google.  It'll be interesting to see how far they run with it given 
their normal toadying.

       BTW, US attacks continue, now it's helicopters.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/sns-ap-somalia,0,6965615.story?coll=chi-news-hed&?track=sto-topstory

       Some previous (actual MSM) articles about the US involvement in Somalia, 
last summer to present:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0701070370jan07,0,1894706.story

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/01/13/ret.us.somalia/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_somalia

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-12-26-us-somalia_x.htm

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0614/p02s02-usfp.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601625.html

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/06/02/thousands_demonstrate_against_us_in_somalia/

       Dem Biden's Dec. 27 talk of investigation (from right wing UPI):

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061227-113152-9257r

       I reckon that'll be moved forward a bit.

Terrorists don't deal in diplomacy

Dennis Byrne, a Chicago-area writer and consultant
Published January 8, 2007

Now here's what should be a familiar story: One country--Ethiopia--got so fed 
up with waiting for the UN and the "international community" to do something 
about the threat of Islamic extremists in neighboring Somalia that it went 
ahead by itself and took them out.

If such unilateral military action sounds familiar, it's the game plan followed 
by President Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For six months Muslim extremists, calling themselves the Council of Islamic 
Courts, have been installing their oppressive and murderous version of 
fundamentalist Islam in parts of Somalia. The council did so in defiance of a 
"transitional government" that had been established last February following the 
requirements of the "leave-the-problem-to-diplomacy" model of foreign policy 
demanded by Bush-haters.

In that spirit, an international "Coordination and Monitoring Committee" was 
created in Stockholm (Where else?) in 2004 to "channel and coordinate 
multilateral support for the peace process in Somalia." Further, said former UN 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, "The international community and the transitional 
federal government, with the facilitation of Sweden, [had] been working since 
late 2005 to refine the mandate of the committee so that it can serve as an 
effective mechanism of support for the nascent Somali institutions."

"Consultative planning workshops" and "joint-needs assessments" were conducted.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Despite workshops and seminars, Annan was back just five months later lamenting 
the "territorial gains of Islamic militias" and some of the worst factional 
(what's called a civil war in Iraq) fighting "in nearly a decade." Annan 
pleaded for "greater international commitment" and for foreign nations to live 
up to their agreements "if the dire effects of the humanitarian crisis are to 
be mitigated." He warned that the "besieged transitional government must be 
fortified."

Yeah, and a lot of good that did.

The extremists continued to make gains and started to pose a threat to 
Ethiopia. Because there comes a time when enough is enough, Ethiopia sent 
tanks, planes and troops to dislodge extremists. What happened in the next 10 
days was what the Associated Press called a "stunning turnaround for Somalia's 
government, which just weeks ago could barely control one town--its base of 
Baidoa--while the Council of Islamic Courts controlled the capital [Mogadishu] 
and much of southern Somalia."

Now, fleeing fanatics are being captured at the borders, some with satchels of 
cash, presumably to pull off terror attacks elsewhere. At least one had a 
Canadian passport, and it shouldn't take any explanation why that should worry 
Americans. At least three top Al Qaeda terrorists involved in the deadly 
bombings of American embassies in Africa were believed to have been holed up in 
Somalia. If they and other extremists try to flee by sea, they'll encounter 
U.S. Navy patrols waiting for them.

If we are, indeed, involved in a worldwide war against terrorism, you'd think 
that these developments would be hailed. Not exactly. Furrowed brows on PBS' 
"The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" and elsewhere warned of the "specter of an 
Iraq-style guerrilla war," of "destabilization" and other similar horrors, 
which we're to believe are worse than the murderous Taliban-like hell that's 
the dream of the council.

Missing, too, are the usual European, Democratic and other condemnations of 
this Bushlike unilateral military solution. Is such outrage lacking because it 
worked, at least for now? Because it got other countries off the hook for 
solving the Somali problems? Or just because it wasn't Bush who engineered the 
invasion?

Or is it because in this particular battle against Islamic extremism, the 
standard pap about the need for "multilateral," "diplomatic," and "negotiated" 
settlements failed to work. Not only did they fail to work, but they made 
things worse.

Comparisons to Iraq obviously are flawed in some respects, and there's no 
disagreeing that Somalia will be unsettled, even dangerous, for some time to 
come. But here's one thought that isn't flawed: It is dangerous to sit back and 
hope that study groups and meetings in Stockholm somehow will deter maniacs 
bent on terrorism and murder. Can the UN and the international community 
finally bring themselves to acknowledge that the same lunacy isn't any better 
at ending the genocide in Darfur?

----------

http://dennisbyrne.blogspot.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

"C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
It's important to recognize that in the mind of the administration
Sudan-Somalia -- indeed all of northern Africa -- is one theater of an
American war that's been going on for more than fifteen years (in some
senses, for more than fifty). We might call at least the last decade
and a half by a sort of synecdoche "America's Gulf War(s)," because the
energy resources of the Persian Gulf are the cynosure of US policy.

>From Foggy Bottom (the home of the US Department of State), the Middle
East looks like a vast target, concentric circles with a bull's-eye in
the Gulf and a radius of 2500 miles, from central Asia to central
Africa, from Belgrade to Diego Garcia. Whatever happens within that
circle is interpreted by the US in terms of its insistence on
controlling world energy as the way to control its economic rivals, the
economies of the EU and northeast Asia.

Previous administrations have been active in this theater.
Contemporaneously with his attack on Iraq (1991), Bush Sr. staged a
"humanitarian" invasion of Somalia, which the CIA estimated produced
thousands of Somali casualties. Clinton's attack on Sudan also may well
have resulted in the deaths of thousands.

It's an indication of the continuity of US policy, regardless of the
change of administrations, that, even if the Johns Hopkins study is
right and Bush Jr.'s war in Iraq has killed more than 650,000 people,
Clinton is still responsible for killing even more Iraqis, by means of
his administration's murderous sanctions. And of course Clinton's
attack on Kosovo can be seen as a different theater of the same war.

This weekend, as a direct and specific result of this grand strategy, a
US Air Force gunship carried out an attack in Somalia, with which we are
not at war but which the US Navy has been blockading for weeks. (See
attached article.) The US not surprisingly claimed that it was an attack
on "al Qaeda," its all-purpose description of independent nationalists
such as those of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union. (A generation ago the
term would have been "communists.")

The CBS/AP report says, "The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing
thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were
seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no
confirmation of the identities." And of course it may not be the only
US air strike.

The gunship came from the US base in Djibouti -- the only US military
base in sub-Saharan Africa -- and flew the length of Somalia to attack
the remnants of the ICU forces that had been overthrown by an invasion
from Ethiopia, encouraged and paid for by the US. The popular ICU had
previously suppressed the CIA-backed warlords who had kept Somalia in
anarchy since the US withdrawal in 1993.

"Once they started moving," reports CBS/AP, the ICU forces "became
easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air
strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and
moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward
Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the
AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command" -- the
darling of SOD Rumsfeld's desire for independent (and of course
unconstitutional) killing.

The AP reports that "the Islamic movement's main force is bottled up at
Ras Kamboni, the southernmost tip of the country, cut off from escape at
sea by patrolling U.S. warships and across the Kenyan border by the
Kenyan military."

The US of course has no warrant under either US or international law to
kill people in Somalia. It is in fact another war crime to be added to
the administration's lengthening list. I'm sure however that if pressed
Bush et al. would point to the ever-elastic "Authorization for the Use
of Military Force" against those who "planned, authorized, committed, or
aided" the 9/11 attacks, passed by the Congress in the immediate
aftermath of those attacks. (That's why the people killed by US
imperialism must always be "al-Qaeda.") And of course the administration
will continue to kill people with that excuse until stopped, by
resistance from their victims and from the US populace.

In Somalia, there's still a good bit of the former, according to CBS/AP.
"Many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent the presence of troops from
neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. The
countries fought two brutal wars, the last in 1977. On Sunday, gunmen
attacked Ethiopian troops, witnesses said, sparking a firefight in the
second straight day of violence in the capital, Mogadishu."

For an interesting analysis of the military situation, not favorable to
the US in spite of its apparent victory in this semi-proxy war, see
"Somalia: A State Restored? Not So Fast," by William S. Lind
.

--CGE

CBS: U.S. Strikes Al Qaeda In Somalia

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2007

(CBS/AP) A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected 
members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David 
Martin reports exclusively.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda 
operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American 
embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 
people.

The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and 
sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there 
is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.

The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of 
Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being 
chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United 
States.

Once they started moving, the al Qaeda operatives became easier to track, and 
the U.S. military started preparing for an air strike, using unmanned aerial 
drones to keep them under surveillance and moving the aircraft carrier 
Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. But when the order was 
given, the mission was assigned to the AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. 
Special Operations command.

If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal 
a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.

Meanwhile, a jungle hideout used by Islamic militants that is believed to be an 
al Qaeda base was on the verge of falling to Ethiopian and Somali troops, the 
defense minister said Monday.

While a lawmaker had earlier told The Associated Press that the base was 
captured, Somalia's Defense Minister Col. Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire said troops 
had yet to enter it and that limited skirmishes were still ongoing, though 
troops were poised to take the base.

Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and warplanes were involved in the two-day attack, a 
government military commander told the AP on condition of anonymity because he 
was not authorized to speak to the media.

Shire said there had been heavy fighting with high numbers of casualties.

"There are a lot of casualties from both sides," he said, declining to give 
details.

Residents in the coastal seaport of Kismayo, some 90 miles northeast of Ras 
Kamboni, said they saw wounded Ethiopian soldiers being loaded onto military 
helicopters for evacuation.

"I have seen about 50 injured Ethiopian troops being loaded onto a military 
chopper," said Farhiya Yusuf. She said 12 Ethiopian helicopters were stationed 
at the Kismayo airport.

Somali officials said the Islamic movement's main force is bottled up at Ras 
Kamboni, the southernmost tip of the country, cut off from escape at sea by 
patrolling U.S. warships and across the Kenyan border by the Kenyan military.

In Mogadishu, Somalia's president made his first visit to the capital since 
taking office in 2004. During the unannounced visit, President Abdullahi Yusuf 
was expected to meet with traditional Somali elders and stay at the former 
presidential palace that has been occupied by warlords for 15 years, government 
spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.

U.S. officials warned after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that extremists with 
ties to al Qaeda operated a training camp at Ras Kamboni and that al Qaeda 
members are believed to have visited it.

Three al Qaeda suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East 
Africa are believed to be leaders of the Islamic movement. The Islamists deny 
having any links to al Qaeda.

Somalia's government had struggled to survive since forming with backing from 
the United Nations two years ago, and was under attack by the Islamic militia 
when Ethiopia's military intervened on Dec. 24 and turned the tide.

But many in predominantly Muslim Somalia resent the presence of troops from 
neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. The countries 
fought two brutal wars, the last in 1977.

On Sunday, gunmen attacked Ethiopian troops, witnesses said, sparking a 
firefight in the second straight day of violence in the capital, Mogadishu.

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