Posted on 11/25/2001 3:30:06 PM PST by MadIvan
AS THE Taliban crumble, speculation is again rife that American sights could be turned on another of the world's most chaotic countries: Somalia.
President Bush has already given clear warnings. Shortly after the September 11 attacks he placed the Somali militant group al-Itihaad al-Islamiya on a list of outlawed terrorist organisations.
This month he froze the assets of al-Barakat, Somalia's biggest business conglomerate, described by the US as "quartermasters of terror". Intelligence and diplomatic sources say al-Qa'eda has been operating training camps alongside its colleagues in al-Itihaad.
They have pooled resources, observers say, since 1992 when al-Itihaad leaders met Osama bin Laden in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Intelligence sources say that in 1998 bin Laden congratulated his operators on the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
There have been persistent rumours that bin Laden could flee to Somalia. Some reports say he is already there. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said last week that he could have fled via Pakistan to Somalia, Sudan or Yemen, which are also on Washington's potential hit list.
Al-Qa'eda is reported to have training camps in Yemen's northern mountains, where several thousand guerrillas are believed to be awaiting orders. Eight British Arabs convicted in Yemen of murdering four tourists in 1998 identified Islamic army camps in Aden. These could be targets.
Sanctions against Sudan, which remains on Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism, were dropped in September after President Omar al-Bashir declared himself a member of the coalition against terrorism.
But Hassan al-Turabi, the leading opposition figure, was bin Laden's closest associate in Sudan, where he lived between 1992 and 1996. There is speculation that followers of Turabi, who is married to bin Laden's niece, could be pursued by the Americans.
Somalia could be the easiest of the three countries to strike. It has been an open secret for months that al-Itihaad's main training base is near the coastal town of Ras Kamboni, on the Kenyan border.
According to Somalis in the area, members of al-Qa'eda began to infiltrate the south of the country in 1996 posing as Islamic missionaries. They built training camps and took control of several towns.
Locals tell of Arab recruits training in the camps and imposing a terrifying, Taliban-style sharia law. "These people have a kind of poison in them," said Muhammed, a cattle trader who fled the area this year. "They did terrible things to people they suspected of being opposed to them and their teachings. They would rip out their eyes and chop off their hands.
"They would beat people and cut the body to allow the wounds to become infested with maggots. Others they tied their hands and feet and drowned them in the river." Smoking was forbidden. Caught once, a guilty man would receive 40 lashes. Caught again, he would be executed.
Yet it remains unclear how the Americans could eradicate the terrorism threat in Somalia. Many accounts say the terrorists fled after September 11. Boats were seen leaving Ras Kamboni night after night, sailing out into the Indian Ocean.
"If there was a war to be fought against terrorism in Somalia then I think the Americans have missed the boat," said one diplomat.
There are also doubts over whether America has the stomach for a war in Somalia. In late 1992 Mr Bush's father sent troops there on a peacekeeping operation. It was a disaster, with at least 17 Americans killed in a single incident, and they soon pulled out.
Me thinks this writer hasn't visited the States lately.
In late 1992 Mr Bush's father sent troops there on a peacekeeping operation. It was a disaster, with at least 17 Americans killed in a single incident, and they soon pulled out.
To this day the Special Forces say this mission was a success, but Americans were appalled by the brutality of the Somalis. In both Somalia and Desert Storm the US was aligned with the United Nations. We aren't making that mistake now.
Clinton has long fumed that Powell did not share the blame for the fiasco of Somalia, where 18 American commandoes were killed in a misguided mission in 1993. Powell had reluctantly advised Clinton to order in commandos to help hunt down a warlord bedeviling an American-held humanitarian effort. Their deaths and desecration became a paralyzing symbol of the folly of well-intentioned foreign entanglements.
The angriest I have ever seen Powell was when I broached the subject of Somalia as we flew back from Asia..."I know what he says," Powell snapped, referring to Clinton, and then he began a smoldering account of how the situation in Somalia, almost inevitably, unraveled. The details of the sad climax are arguable, but they are peripheral compared with the bigger blunder, which was not Powell's doing: allowing an effort to feed starving Somalis to evolve into a campaign to introduce democracy where there was nothing but clan warfare.
The 19, NOT 17, who died, did so on October 3rd, 1993, due to lack of armor, AC-130 gunships, and other assets that left the 75th Ranger Regiment without an escape plan after two black hawks were shot down. The armour WAS requested by Gen Montgomery in September, many weeks before the ill-fated raid. Les Aspin resigned as Sec of Defense two weeks after the debacle.
I would also like to add to the sole reason we failedin Somalia. It all starts with Klinton, who changed the scope of mission as soon as he took office. As you stated, Bush the Elder deployed troops for humanitarian reasons. They ended up guarding the food stuffs for the Somali people that were being stolen by the warlords to feed their troops.
However, Klinton soon turned command over (or rather cleared by it) to the UN and sent our troops on patrols and capture missions - which was not part of the orginal mission. Naturally, the UN had spies in it from countries like France who would tipoff the enemy of every one of our movements. The Italians used to turn their vehicle headlights on to warn those in the city were coming.
The funny thing is that the Pakistani's and Malyasians were the only ones with armored vehicles since Klinton denied the US military's request.
Will the Somolian slugs realize that "Hell on Earth" is just over the horizen???
Or teaching them Christmas songs!
....and we're real PISSED!
Travis McGee practically forced me to read "Black Hawk Down." I'm glad he did.
You can bet that 43 woun't make that same mistake in Afghanistan.
When the Afghan excursion got started, I went out and got a book entitled "Somalia on $5 a Day". Combat pay was $150 a month back then, hence $5 a day. About the peacekeeping efforts by U.S. units out in the countryside, away from Mogadishu. Worth finding and reading, if only to understand the mentality of the people we are dealing with in these Third World hellholes.
I do believe we have that.. stomach for war....now, bigtime!
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