Thanks to But Three Lefts Do for the ping to this thread.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2235214/posts
Lawmaker seeks to stop aid to Somali group in Twin Cities
StarTribune ^ | 4/21/09 | PAUL WALSH, KEVIN DUCHSCHERE
Posted on April 22, 2009 8:12:51 AM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Twin Cities activist Omar Jamal said Tuesday he has helped ensure that a suspected pirate is treated justly while in federal custody in New York.
But if a Minnesota legislative leader has his way, it will be the last pirate Jamal helps.
Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, said that he spoke Monday with the parents of suspected pirate Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse and that he has been consulting with Muse’s attorneys. He said he intended to be in court Tuesday, but Muse’s public defender said his presence wouldn’t be necessary.
But House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, responding to “tons of e-mails” from people he said were outraged by Jamal’s actions, said he will seek to block nonprofit status and state grants to any organization that helps foreign citizens accused of piracy or terrorism.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2235610/posts
Somali President Says Piracy Solution on Land Not Sea
AFP ^
Posted on 04/22/2009 4:29:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told reporters in Cairo on Wednesday that the best way to counter piracy off the war-torn African country’s coast was to equip and train Somali police.
Ahmed, in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, warned against US military action against the pirates.
“We advise against resorting to (US military strikes) and rather to focus on finding a comprehensive solution,” he said, adding that Somalia’s piracy was the result of the loss of “security and stability” in his country. The new US administration has pledged to step up the fight against pirates from Somalia after a US cargo ship was seized earlier this month.
“The pirates live on land... and therefore confronting them begins where they live, and that can be achieved through strengthening the abilities of Somalia’s police,” Ahmed said.
He said that under the Islamic Courts, the Islamist movement which controlled the government in Mogadishu from 2006 until it was ousted a year later by Ethiopian troops, the pirates had been “finished off.”
Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader, was elected in January and agreed in February to proposals by leaders mediating between his government and Islamic hardliners for a truce and the implementation of Islamic sharia law.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...