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SNIPPET: "An al Qaeda leader wanted by the US for a string of deadly attacks has been named the new leader of terror group's network in East Africa. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of several al Qaeda leaders charged with carrying out the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was appointed the leader of al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa. Fazul was "inaugurated" during an open ceremony in the southern city of Kismayo, according to a translation received by The Long War Journal of an article posted Waaga Cusub, a website operated by the Hawiye clan,...

Libya releases 88 terrorists with al-Qaeda ties Well, hey, if Scotland can release murderous terrorists to Libya, Libya can certainly do the same, right? Moammar Ghaddafi’s son, the same man who gave Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi a hero’s welcome when he landed in Tripoli after serving just 11 days for every victim of his attack on Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, arranged for the release of 88 terrorists linked to al-Qaeda through his Islamic Foundation: Libya on Thursday freed 88 Islamists with Al-Qaeda links from Abu Slim prison in Tripoli, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported. “45 members of...

Tired of fighting, and largely losing, against the US in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia, a group of Somali terrorists devised a strategy to take on the superpower in South Africa...the US's closure of its offices in the country was because of intercepted cellphone communication detailing planned attacks on American interests here. It is unclear whether American interests necessarily include a possible visit by US President Barack Obama for the official opening of the World Cup. Intelligence officers, according to two sources, intercepted a call made in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, to a group based in Somalia, and the conversation confirmed a...

The president of Somalia says he condemns the recruiting of young men from Minnesota for terrorist activity in his homeland, and he plans to work with the U.S. government to bring those who are still alive back home. President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed spoke Sunday morning through an interpreter in an interview with The Associated Press. He says he plans to publicly condemn the terrorist recruiting at a rally later in the day.

Your Taxi Driver Might Be A Terrorist!!! Somali Americans Become National Security Problem!!! By Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org A group affiliated with al Qaeda could strike the United States in the near future. That’s grim assessment of FBI Director Robert Mueller, who spoke this week at a meeting of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Mueller’s remarks represent the first time a senior law enforcement or intelligence official has stated on the record that the al-Shabaab, a Muslim terrorist group with ties to al Qaeda, is no longer content to strike within the East African nation of Somalia. During...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A top Al-Qaeda operative who figures high on an FBI list of wanted terror suspects was killed in a US military raid in southern Somalia Monday, a US official told AFP. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, named the dead man as Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan wanted for questioning for 2002 attacks in Mombasa on a hotel and an Israeli airliner. ABC news and Fox News, quoting US officials, said Nabhan was killed when at least one US helicopter fired on a convoy carrying suspected Al-Qaeda targets in southern Somalia earlier Monday. An American...

MOGADISHU, Somalia - American special operations forces killed an al-Qaida terrorist during a helicopter commando assault in Somalia on Monday, NBC News reported. U.S. officials told NBC that Saleh Ali Nabhan, suspected in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2002 bombing of a resort hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, was killed when at least one U.S. special operations helicopter opened fire on a suspected al-Qaida convoy south of Mogadishu. Ali Nabhan was also suspected of operating al-Qaida training camps inside Somalia, NBC reported. Two men were killed and two others wounded when foreign troops in helicopters...

A radical Islamic sect based in Somalia and linked to al-Qaida and based in Somalia plotted to kill US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her trip to Africa last month, according to The Australian newspaper. The plot was to be carried out through a planned series of bomb attacks set to take place in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya, while Clinton was there - one in the hotel where she was staying. The plot was foiled at the last minute, media reports, citing senior security officials, said. According to yesterday's reports, al-Shabaab, which is viewed as increasing regional...

Over the past months, the narrative of Washington's "new direction" in world affairs blurred the clarity of the confrontation with the terror forces worldwide. Are we at conflict with a global threat? The administration, insisting on treating the issue locally, claimed otherwise. But during President Barack Obama’s July 11 speech in Accra, he said that "when there's a genocide in Darfur or terrorists in Somalia, these are not simply African problems — they are global security challenges, and they demand a global response." This zigzag between local and global risk is confusing not only to the public but to strategists...

Chinese are inveterate traders. The Chinese diaspora encircles the world and, more recently, has spread into Africa. Merchants and businessmen have followed government investment and projects in these developing corners. They have faced few, if any, enemies. Chinese are generally seen as fellows from a developing nation who create stiff competition but are not colonial masters or foes. That means poor Chinese desperate to make a better living overseas have felt little vulnerability to kidnappings or terrorist attacks. That could be about to change. Official numbers are unavailable for the number of Chinese working in Africa but hundreds of thousands...

(English-language translation) Over 400 Puerto Rico National Guard troops left yesterday for Fort Lewis in Washington, where they will receive training to accomplish their mission in the Horn of Africa. Puerto Rico National Guard Adjutant General Antonio J. Vicéns said that, following the month-long training, the 65th Infantry Battalion will head to Africa to support a security mission. "This is the first 65th Infantry Battalion of National Guardsmen from all states that will perform a mission in the Horn of Africa," Vicéns stated. The soldiers departed in the morning from Luis Muñoz Marín Airport, where Vicéns and their relatives bid...

Al-Qaedastan By: Ryan Mauro FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, June 26, 2009 <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; dummy:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:maroon; mso-text-animation:none; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; dummy:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> The...

The United Nations aims to build up a national army of 6,000 soldiers and a police force of 10,000 in the future — at a cost of $31 million per year.

A BRITISH holidaymaker taken hostage while travelling in north Africa has been beheaded by Al Qaeda ­terrorists. Edwin Dyer, 60, had been attending a music festival near the Niger–Mali border when he was captured in January along with fellow tourists. His captors had demanded the release of preacher of hate Abu Qatada who is held in a UK jail. But the grisly execution at the weekend came after two deadlines passed and it was made clear to the terrorists their demands would not be met. Gordon Brown called it an appalling act of barbaric terrorism. He said the terrorists would...

DUBAI, June 3 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North Africa wing said on Wednesday it had carried out a threat to kill a British hostage. The report was carried on a website used by al Qaeda-linked groups. The group had said it would kill the Briton if the British government did not release cleric Abu Qatada, whom it is holding in prison.

April 22, 2009 Breaking: AlQaeda (AQIM) Release Four Western Hostages In Mali Update on AlQaeda Kidnaps Six Westerners (Identified: 2 Canadians, 1 Brit, 1 German, 2 Swiss) Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has released four hostages but unfortunately the Brit and other Swiss(male) is still being held. The article doesn't state if monies or demands were met. Al-Qaeda's North African[AQIM] branch on Wednesday released in Mali two Canadian diplomats, a German and a Swiss tourist kidnapped several months ago, but held on to two other Europeans. The kidnappers released Robert Fowler, UN special envoy to Niger and his...

The Red Sea dictatorship has drawn the wrath of America by backing extremist Islamic groups in Somalia as part of a proxy war with Ethiopia, its former ruler. It champions al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that American intelligence believes has trained a dozen of its own citizens to carry out attacks in the US

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti, April 13, 2009 – For U.S. Africa Command’s new deputy director of operations and logistics, the words “I can’t do it” won’t cut it. Not from his soldiers, not from the people he serves with, and certainly not from himself. And this Army National Guardsman, Brig. Gen. Roosevelt “Rose” Barfield, knows what it means to be able to “do it.” Barfield was encouraged by a friend to enlist in the Army National Guard fresh out of high school at the age of 17. He served for five years as a soldier in the Kansas Guard while...

In spite of the news media distancing the recent attack on a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia from global terrorism, intelligence experts believe this is just the latest operation initiated against the United States and the West by Al-Qaeda. Recently a failed assassination attempt on the prime minister of Somalia, as well as the attempt to hijack a luxury American cruise ship, has intensified apprehension and fear that the shaky Somalian government is losing to Al-Qaeda and Wahhabi terror groups. Three people were mortally wounded in a terrorist attack on the Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi,while he was...

Reporting from Minneapolis -- Tall and lean, with a wispy mustache and shy smile, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan chalked up A's last fall as a senior at Roosevelt High School, vowing to become a doctor or lawyer. After school and on weekends, he studied Islam at the nearby Abubakar As-Saddique mosque. He joined its youth group. "He wanted to go to Harvard," said his uncle Osman Ahmed. "That was his dream." Instead Hassan has gone to Somalia, the anarchic East African nation that his family fled when he was a toddler. On election day, Hassan and five other youths slipped away...

ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH. At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside. The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. It trains Muslim...

ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH. At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside. The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. It trains Muslim...

In Somalia, Islamist fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts Union have taken control of several bases vacated by Ethiopian troops in the Somali capital. Mogadishu remains tense amid fears that militant al-Shabab fighters could launch attacks against moderate Islamists and African Union peacekeepers for control of the city. Residents in the capital, Mogadishu, say the Islamic Courts Union militia have tightened security and are now in charge of most positions in the city. The ICU took over six bases on Thursday, as Ethiopia pulled the last of its forces out of the capital and ended its two year-long mission to...

Foreign ships gained authorization Monday to enter Somali waters when fighting piracy and armed robbery — rampant problems along the African nation's lawless coast. The U.N. Security Council's 15 members unanimously adopted a resolution intended to combat the attacks and hijacking of vessels along the country's 1,880-mile coastline, the continent's longest. More than a dozen pirate attacks have occurred this year alone, creating concerns for shipping along routes that connect the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea. Two more ships were attacked in the Gulf of Aden last week. The resolution, pushed by France and the United States, is in...

Thousands of Somalis took to the streets Sunday to protest a US bombing that killed a man said to be Al-Qaeda's chief in the country, and 11 other people, organisers and residents said. The protest took place at Dhusamareb, a trading post of about 100,000 people, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, where Thursday's attack took place. Abdirasak Moalim Ahmed, one of the organisers of the protest, said that in the days since the attack, people had been vomiting. "We believe the Americans used poisonous bombs," he said. The US air strike killed at least 12 people...

TOMAHAWK MISSILES fired by a U.S. Navy ship demolished a house in central Somalia on Thursday and killed a vicious militia leader and al-Qaeda operative. It was a victory for the Bush administration's counterterrorism operations in Africa -- and a demonstration of the limits of a strategy based almost entirely on "over the horizon" military strikes. Aden Hashi Ayro, the man who was killed, deserved the label of "evildoer." As chief of the extremist al-Shabab militia, he supervised and probably participated in the murder of foreign aid workers, teachers, an Italian nun and a British journalist while directing al-Shabab's insurgency...

A Somali Islamist commander thought to be al Qaeda's leader in Mogadishu was killed in an air strike in central Somalia early on Thursday, an Islamist commander and residents said. Residents in the town of Dusamareb said they believed two missiles were fired in what they said was a U.S. air strike. "Infidel planes bombed Dusamareb. Two of our important people, including Aden Hashi Ayro, were killed in the incident," Mukhtar Robow Adumansur, a senior commander for the Islamist movement, told Reuters. The leaders belonged to al Shabaab, the military wing of a sharia courts movement ousted at the end...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon announced Monday war crimes charges carrying the death penalty against a Tanzanian inmate held in Guantanamo Bay arising from Al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in East Africa a decade ago. The Defense Department said Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani would face a special military tribunal on nine counts including murder related to the August 1998 bombing of the embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 11 people and injured hundreds. Military prosecutors said that after the twin bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, which altogether killed more than 200, Ghailani worked as a bodyguard for Al-Qaeda leader...

Text of unattributed report entitled "Uganda nets 20 over Al-Qa'idah" published on the latest headlines section of Ugandan newspaper The New Vision website on 29 March About 20 people suspected to be linked with Al-Qa'idah have been arrested and interrogated by Ugandan security authorities. Sources say some have been deported after "thorough screening" from a list of the most wanted people who engage in terrorist activities and with Al-Qa'idah links. Source: The New Vision website, Kampala, in English 29 Mar 09

Soldiers become American citizens in Africa DJIBOUTI (March 16, 2008) — Seven Soldiers supporting the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa mission became U.S. citizens during a Military Naturalization Ceremony at the U.S. Embassy March 13. After enlisting in the Army and serving the United States, Four Soldiers assigned to 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry (Light), Delta Company, and three Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, Delta Company, raised their right hands and said the Oath of Allegiance. During the ceremony, Ambassador W. Stuart Symington, U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti and keynote speaker, addressed the candidates reminding them about the oath...

Al Qaeda's branch for North Africa on Thursday set a three-day deadline to meet conditions for the release of two Austrian tourists it claimed to have kidnapped in Tunisia last month. In a statement posted on the Internet - which included six photographs purportedly showing Austrians Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber - al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa said it would free the pair if all of the group's members were released from jails in Tunisia and Algeria. The posting gave Austrian authorities three days, starting midnight Thursday, to comply.

...It wasn’t the first time American air or naval forces had attacked enemy positions in Somalia. It was the fourth such attack in 14 months on the lawless West African nation: a result of the increasing expansion of Islamic extremism onto the African continent. Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the operation. What is known is that the attacks were probably made with either surface or submarine-launched cruise missiles. The targeted house was in the town of Dhoobley (Dobley), a few miles from the Kenyan border. The targeted individuals were considered high value, and -- according to one of my sources...

via translation- ALERT - Somalia: US aircraft bombed a city, four civilians killed MOGADISCIO - The United States aircraft bombed during the night from Sunday to Monday a city held by Somali Islamists, near the Kenyan border, killing at least four civilians, it was learned from chiefs.

U.S. forces found, targeted and killed in a Somali desert city the senior al Qaeda operative who masterminded the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa and had since spent a decade in hiding, The Washington Times has learned. Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who is one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, was the target of a U.S. missile strike on a residence in Dobley, a small town in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border, according to a U.S. military official who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the operation.

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2008 – Defense Department officials today confirmed an attack against an al Qaeda terrorist in Somalia yesterday. “On March 2, the United States conducted an attack against a known al Qaeda terrorist in southern Somalia,” Bryan Whitman, Pentagon spokesman, said. “As we have repeatedly said, we will continue to pursue terrorist activities and their operations wherever we may find them,” he said. Whitman said the United States works closely with partners in the region in the conduct of military operations. “We share common goals with respect to fighting terrorism,” he said. “We will continue to seek out,...

LONDON: A plot by al-Qa'ida operatives to kill the Queen during a state visit to Uganda less than two months ago was foiled by security services. The terrorists had planned to hide inside two broadcast vans owned by the Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation and then set off bombs during the Queen's visit to Kampala last November. London's Sunday Express reported the vans were seized after a tip-off from intelligence agents. As a result, the broadcaster was unable to transmit live pictures of key summit events, including the Queen's historic address to the Ugandan parliament on November 22. The Queen, Prince Philip,...

A previously unknown militant group claimed responsibility on a militant Web site for the slaying of a U.S. diplomat in Sudan on New Year's Day, according to an intelligence group monitoring extremist groups. "We can't authenticate this communique, which is posted by a member of the forum, but at the same time, because there is a claim of responsibility, we chose to send it out to our subscribers," Rita Katz told The Associated Press. Katz is the director of monitoring institute, SITE Intelligence Group. Katz added that she had never heard of the group before. The group calls itself Ansar...

Kenyan police sealed Nairobi and broke up protests with water cannons and baton charges Jan. 3, barring supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga from holding a planned rally in Nairobi's Uhuru Park. Odinga made his own accusations of "genocide" against supporters of President Mwai Kibaki. Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent investigation into the contested vote. (BBC, Bloomberg, Jan. 3) Three people were reported dead, a church and two petrol stations set ablaze, and five cars torched. (Daily Nation, Nairobi, Jan. 3) Reuters reports from the ethnically-mixed, impoverished Nairobi district of Mathare which residents have renamed "Kosovo"—violently contested...

Khartoum (4 January) - A hitherto unknown Sudanese Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the murder of an United States diplomat and his driver. They were shot dead in Khartoum on New Year's Day. The group, Ansar al-Tawhid, made the claim on the internet, saying the men were killed because the Americans were trying to establish Christianity in Sudan. The chauffeur was said to have bartered away his religion.

Prosecutors in Mauritania have alleged that men suspected of murdering four French tourists are linked to a group allied to al-Qaeda. At least two of three suspects now being hunted by authorities were linked to the group by prosecutors. Four tourists - apparently members of the same family - were shot by gunmen near the town of Aleg on Monday

LAGOS (Reuters) - A group of Islamist militants with suspected links to al Qaeda have been arrested in three states in northern Nigeria and explosives were seized from them, a spokesman for the State Security Services (SSS) said on Monday. ADVERTISEMENT The U.S. embassy warned in September that Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, was at risk of "terrorist attack," and Osama bin Laden once named the country as ripe for jihad, but Nigeria has yet to see any major attack in the style of al Qaeda. "The service arrested some persons in Kaduna, Kano and Yobe states. Explosive-making devices were...

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 figure harshly criticized Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a new audio tape Saturday, accusing him of being an enemy of Islam and threatening a wave of attacks against the North African country because it improved relations with the U.S. ADVERTISEMENT In the 28-minute audio tape called "Unity of the Ranks," Ayman al-Zawahri also announced that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was joining ranks with al-Qaida. "The Islamic nation is witnessing a blessed step ... The brothers are escalating the confrontation against the enemies of Islam: Gadhafi and his masters, the Washington crusaders," al-Zawahri said...

Bin Laden calls for jihad against Darfur force By Mike Pflanz in Khartoum Last Updated: 1:35pm BST 24/10/2007 Osama bin Laden has issued a fresh call for a "holy war" against a new 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur, which will include British support staff. The tape was aired on Monday In a new audiotape, the al-Qa'eda leader also said Muslims in Sudan and its neighbours must target the Khartoum government for agreeing to the deployment. "This is a brazen occupation, and only an infidel apostate seeks it or agrees to it," bin Laden said, according to a new translation of...

BOMBINGS OF U.S. EMBASSIES IN AFRICA: 'SUPERPOWER IN THE CROSS HAIRS' Media in Kenya, Europe, the Middle East and Asia devoted front-page and editorial coverage to the two terrorist attacks against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last Friday. A majority of analysts--including many in the Middle East--fingered "radical Islamic organizations" as the perpetrators of the bombing attacks. Pundits across the board were quick to condemn the killing of innocent civilians. But opinion was mixed as to why this attack against the U.S. has taken place, and what the superpower should do about it. A few commentators expressed concern...

Khartoum 'Recruited Al-Qa’ida' for Darfur The Sudanese government ordered to ease restrictions on Al-Qa’ida operatives in the country in exchange for their help in fighting peacekeepers... http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=18474 Sudan - Al Qaida http://media.themedialine.org/media/070805_Sudan_US_qaida.mp3 [flash] http://isranews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=100&Itemid=5&limit=1&limitstart=8

.."surrendered after disagreements with other leaders in the organization."

ALGIERS, July 1 (Reuters) - The death toll from Islamist rebel attacks and raids by government forces in OPEC member Algeria rose to 25 in June from 17 in May, according to a Reuters count based on newspaper reports. The June estimate, 19 rebels and six soldiers, brings to 207 the number of people killed in the first half of 2007. On June 10, three soldiers were killed in an ambush in the region of Bejaia, 200 km (125 miles) east of the capital Algiers. On June 24, six rebels trying to sabotage an oil pipeline were killed by security...

A few years ago, with little fanfare, the United States opened a base in the horn of Africa to kill or capture Al Qaeda fighters. By 2012, the Pentagon will have two dozen such forts. The story of Africa Command, the American military's new frontier outpost. The word came down suddenly in early January to the fifty or so U.S. troops stationed inside Camp Simba, a Kenyan naval base located on that country's sandy coast: Drop everything and pull everyone back inside the compound wire. Then they were instructed to immediately clear a couple acres of dense forest. Task Force...

ABECHE, Chad -- A prime minister's office scarred by a recent al-Qaeda bomb attack. Families separated while fleeing from genocidal murderers in their hometowns. And employees of an international company kidnapped from a heavily guarded oil-rich area. No, this isn't Iraq or the Middle East -- it's an impoverished region of Africa where chaos is breeding a new brand of Islamic terrorism allied with Osama bin Laden. Just recently, a top U.S. State Department official warned Congress that "the threat from al-Qaeda's presence in the region is significant, very dangerous and potentially growing. . . ." Only days before that...

Somalia is on the brink of becoming the fourth front in the U.S. war on terror. As in Afghanistan, Iraq and in Lebanon, the U.S. is allied in some way against radical Islamic fundamentalists. Somalia got Americans' attention in October 1993, when U.S. Delta Force commandos and Army Rangers were dropped into its capital city, Mogadishu, to capture two aides of a Somali warlord. The mission was successful, but two Black Hawk helicopters were downed by Somali militia, and in the ensuing firefight, 18 Americans died. Images of an Army Ranger's body being dragged through the streets horrified U.S. households....