Al Qaida Has Beaten US

[jinelson]

Al Qaida in control of Somalia; U.S. won't intervene

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, December 18, 2006

WASHINGTON — The United States has ruled out an attack on Somalia to oust Al Qaida forces which have seized effective control of the country.

Officials said the Bush administration has no plans to send U.S. troops to oust the new Al Qaida-aligned regime in Somalia. The regime, known as the Council of Islamic Courts, has defeated the U.S.-backed militia and taken over much of the country.

"The Council of Islamic Courts is now controlled by Al Qaida cell individuals, East Africa Al Qaida cell individuals," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said. "The top layer of the court are extremists. They are terrorists."

But Ms. Frazer ruled out a U.S. military option in Somalia. Instead, the State Department official, responsible for African affairs, called on Somalia's rival factions to negotiate the formation of a stable government.

"That's not a plan that we have on the table, for the U.S. government and our U.S. military to deploy to Mogadishu [Somalia]," Ms. Frazer told a briefing on Dec. 14. "That's not really something that we're saying to our Congress and our public that we want as part of our strategy."

In June 2006, Al Qaida conquered the Somali capital Mogadishu. Since then, thousands of Al Qaida fighters, many of them who had served in Afghanistan, were advancing to take over the rest of Somalia.

"They are killing nuns," Ms. Frazer said. "They have killed children and they are calling for a jihad. Frankly, public executions, killing people for watching soccer matches, is not consistent with the Somali culture and traditions."

The head of the Council of the Islamic Courts, Hassan Dahir Aweys, has been on the terrorist list of the United Nations and United States. Officials said Eritrea, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were helping the new Al Qaida regime.

The Council of Islamic Courts has given Ethiopia a Dec. 19 deadline to withdraw its troops from Somalia. Ethiopia, with more than 30,000 soldiers in Somalia, has sought to protect Somalia's interim government, based in Baidoa and recognized by the UN.

"Otherwise their fate will be defeat and we will fight them until we evict them from Somalia," Sharif Ahmed, the military commander of the Al Qaida-aligned force, told the state-owned Yemeni satellite channel from Aden.

The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Somalia has become the new haven for Al Qaida. Officials said at least three of the plotters behind the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya were living in Somalia.

In her briefing, Ms. Frazer said the United States does not seek the overthrow of the Al Qaida-aligned regime. She said the Bush administration wants the Islamic Courts to become moderate, end military expansion and negotiate with the transitional government.

"The problem is that the CIC is led by extreme radicals right now, not the moderates that we all hoped would emerge," Ms. Frazer said. "The analysis is that there are many more in the courts that are moderate and are just going along. And we would hope that, eventually, the conditions will be such that they can break off and join with governing Somalia in the traditions of Somalia."

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2454088.058333333.html

[greensideout]

Forget the talk! If we don't have the troops to send, then send the big bombers with cluster bombs.

It would make since to distroy an Al Qaida stronghold. As the war on terror grows bigger, more frequent use of the bombers would be, should be, a first choice of engagement.

[greensideout]

I just read another article that states that Bush said that we need to expect more losses next year in Iraq. It sounds more like Vietnam everyday.

So what are we really fighting for in Iraq? The Al Qaida is in Africa just like Iraq but the President says that we are not going there? So what is the difference? Never mind pointing out the obvious---OIL. What troubles me is the execution of the war has not yet been made clear to the American people. I can only hope that the advisers to the administration have a more clear cut view of how to win this war then is shown in their action, both at home and abroad.

[sgt tony]

Well yes there is a war on terrorist but we don't have the troops to fight in ever country. Oh well I bet we will get the UN approval what do you think. They will beat around the bush just like the democrates are doing.
Are we going to go back to the draft? The Army has already had to make there boootcamp easier so they can get the boys to make it through and are you tell me that they are ready for combat. Oh I need my 8 hours sleep so you will have to go with out that dumb a@@.
I think that there is a lot of places we need to watch and yes even go to. But are we going to ask the UN for there permision? Oh that right they will play for the one whos pay the most.

[jinelson]

Merry Christmas you Islamic Muslim pigs of war! You may have beaten the US from within, but the other nations seem to see you as a threat too. This is a good start at sending all you murdering bastards to shine your swords with Allah!

Jim


Ethiopia Boldly Attacks Somalia, Bombs Towns

Assault Is Against Country's Powerful Islamic Movement

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, AP

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v660/jinelson/20061224222709990002.jpg


Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi went on television to announce that his country was at war with the Islamic movement that wants to rule neighboring Somalia by the Quran.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Dec. 24) - Ethiopia sent fighter jets into Somalia and bombed several towns Sunday in a dramatic attack on Somalia's powerful Islamic movement, and Ethiopia's prime minister said his country had been "forced to enter war".

It was the first time Ethiopia acknowledged its troops were fighting in support of Somalia's U.N.-backed interim government even though witnesses had been reporting their presence for weeks in an escalating battle that threatens to engulf the Horn of Africa region.

"Our defense force has been forced to enter a war to defend (against) the attacks from extremists and anti-Ethiopian forces and to protect the sovereignty of the land," Meles said a few hours after his military attacked the Islamic militia with fighter jets and artillery.

No reliable casualty reports were immediately available.

Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, supports Somalia's interim government, which has been losing ground to the Council of Islamic Courts for months.

"They are cowards," said Sheik Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley, an official with the Islamic movement, which controls most of southern Somalia. "They are afraid of the face-to-face war and resorted to airstrikes. I hope God will help us shoot down their planes."

Eritrea, a bitter rival of Ethiopia, is backing the Islamic militia, and experts fear the conflict could draw in the volatile Horn of Africa region, which lies close to the Saudi Arabian peninsula and has seen a rise in Islamic extremism. A recent U.N. report said 10 nations have been illegally supplying arms and equipment to both sides in Somalia.

People living along Somalia's coast have reported seeing hundreds of foreign Muslims entering the country in answer to calls from the Islamic militia to fight a holy war against Ethiopia.

The Islamic group's often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden. The U.S. says four al-Qaida leaders blamed for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania have become leaders in Somalia's Islamic militia.

The Islamic movement drove secular Somali warlords supported by the U.S. out of the capital, Mogadishu, last summer and have seized most of the southern half of the country, which has not had an effective government since a longtime dictatorship was toppled in 1991.

The interim Somali administration, formed two years ago with U.N. help, been unable to exert any wide control and its influence is now confined to the area around the western city of Baidoa.

Several rounds of peace talks failed to yield any lasting results.

Major fighting broke out Tuesday night, but had tapered off before Sunday's battles began before dawn and continued for about 10 hours.

Ethiopian Information Minister Berhan Hailu said before Meles' announcement that Ethiopian soldiers were fighting alongside Somali government soldiers in Dinsoor, Belet Weyne, Bandiradley and Bur Haqaba.

Witnesses said a major road and an Islamic recruiting center were bombed in Belet Weyne, and 12 Ethiopian soldiers were reportedly captured nearby.

"We saw 12 blindfolded men and were told they were Ethiopian prisoners captured in the battle," said Abdi Fodere, a businessman in Belet Weyne.

Less serious fighting also was reported in Baidoa.

"I think they have met a resistance they have never dreamt of before," interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf said in brief remarks as the fighting began to die down at Baidoa.

Suley, the official with the Islamic movement, said his forces had destroyed four Ethiopian tanks outside the city.

As Sunday's fighting wore on, the Islamic militia began broadcasting patriotic songs in Mogadishu about Somalia's 1977 war with Ethiopia. The two countries have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years.

Meles has said his government has a legal and moral obligation to support Somalia's internationally recognized government. He also accuses the Islamic movement of backing ethnic Somali rebels fighting for independence from Ethiopia and has called such support an act of war.

Leaders of the Islamic militia have repeatedly said they want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti into a Greater Somalia.

The fighting is hitting a country already devastated by conflict. One in five children dies before age 5 from a preventable disease, and the impoverished nation is struggling to recover from eastern Africa's worst flood season in 50 years.

Government officials and Islamic militiamen have said hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting since Tuesday, but the claims could not be independently confirmed. Aid groups put the death toll in the dozens.

Associated Press writers Salad Duhul and Mohamed Sheik Nor in Mogadishu and Les Neuhaus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.


12-24-06 21:21 EST

[Arcade]

The problem with the Iblis Assassin cult (called Al Qaida) is it supports strict Sharia Islamic law. This law allows and encourages black slavery. Nigeria is at risk. There will be war between these factions such has seldom been seen. The U.S. will send supplies. But cannot carry out direct combat ops.

Ethiopia attacks Somalia airport

Ethiopian jets have bombed Mogadishu international airport in Somalia.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42386000/jpg/_42386779_ap_children203.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6208549.stm
At least one person was reported injured but a plane carrying leaders of the Islamic group that holds the city landed on the runway afterwards.
The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has been fighting Somalia's weak interim government and its Ethiopian backers.
Ethiopia's prime minister has said his country is "at war" with the Islamists, and the Red Cross has urged all parties to protect civilians from harm. <!-- E SF -->
Thousands of Somalis have fled the escalating violence, and the Red Cross says the fighting is straining an already weak support system in the country.
The airport in Mogadishu was recently reopened by the UIC - which holds most of central and southern Somalia.

[SuNmAN]

God...I hate Muslim extremists with an intense passion

[SuNmAN]

I would be glad to fight a war of justice in Somalia if the US is willing to deploy troops on the ground

the American people would probably have no part of that though

[Sgt Leprechaun]

We tried the Somalia thing. Didn't work. THEY didn't want us there. I have no sympathy whatsoever for that godforsaken pesthole of a country. Go watch 'Blackhawk Down'.

That having been said, perhaps we could use the entire place as a weapons testbed.

[SuNmAN]

We tried the Somalia thing. Didn't work. THEY didn't want us there. I have no sympathy whatsoever for that godforsaken pesthole of a country. Go watch 'Blackhawk Down'.

That having been said, perhaps we could use the entire place as a weapons testbed.


you gotta feel for those people man...

what you and I spend at a night in a bar could very well feed a Somali for a month.

We have so much and they have so little.

All they need is to be educated.

They don't even have a standing government. Somalia is currently pretty much an anarchy right now :-(

[Sgt Leprechaun]

NO. I don't "feel for those people". THEY decided, for the most part, they didn't want us there. We didn't show up to conquer their country, we showed up to try and feed them. Mission creep we got, and ended up trying to get the bad guys..who were stopping the food shipments from being delievered. Again, what did America get for this?

Nada.

Those people are getting exactly what they asked for. They didn't want us there, and they proved it. So, we left. No gummint? Whose fault is that? Their own.

I don't particularly want to see the country overrun with Islamicists, but I sure as hell have no sympathy for them.

I'd like to see the entire place Carthage'd.

[SuNmAN]

NO. I don't "feel for those people". THEY decided, for the most part, they didn't want us there. We didn't show up to conquer their country, we showed up to try and feed them. Mission creep we got, and ended up trying to get the bad guys..who were stopping the food shipments from being delievered. Again, what did America get for this?

Nada.

Those people are getting exactly what they asked for. They didn't want us there, and they proved it. So, we left. No gummint? Whose fault is that? Their own.

I don't particularly want to see the country overrun with Islamicists, but I sure as hell have no sympathy for them.

I'd like to see the entire place Carthage'd.

They didn't know better

In International Relations class last semester we read a stat something like an average person in a Sub-Saharan African country gets about 1 year of total eduation in their lifetimes

I'm not gonna tell you to change your mind, you're entitled to your own opinion

but all I know is I'm here trying to eat 6 meals a day to put on weight to try and walk on at a Division I football team...and every meal I get to eat meat...

then theres people in Somalia who don't know if they're going to get their next meal, and when they do, all they get is grain

personally, I feel for them and I would like to help one day.

[SkilletsUSMC]

you gotta feel for those people man...

what you and I spend at a night in a bar could very well feed a Somali for a month.

We have so much and they have so little.

All they need is to be educated.

They don't even have a standing government. Somalia is currently pretty much an anarchy right now :-(

I do feel for the individual, but as a whole the country needs to burn its self out. It is hard, but it is human nature albeit at its worst.

[yellowwing]

I think Somalia is a 3rd world hole. Good for the Ethiopians, we'll send some armament, equipment, and maybe some satellite photos.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Again, Sun, I wonder if the 'International relations' instructor was ever in Somalia LOL.

And, education is fine, I have no problem with educating someone who can actually USE the education. But, what, exactly, good does 'book lernin' do for the Somali farmer? He knows what he knows from real world experience. (I use Somali farmer as an example, don't know if there are any or not). Not only that, but how does 'education' help the Somalis as a whole? The streetcorner thug/crack dealer in this country has the benefit of 12 years of education, for the most part. State sponsored, mandated, and paid for. Granted, he chooses not to use it, but there is the rub.

The country, if it can be called that, has degenerated into chaos. Actually, it's been chaos since the US pulled out....in 1993! Still no gummint. That should tell ya something.

It's nice to want to save the world, but ya gotta be realistic, here.

BTW, good luck with your football tryouts... :)

[Sgt Leprechaun]

YW, I think "third world" would be a step up.

[Ironrider]

I didn't know Ethiopia even HAD an air force.....

[Sgt Leprechaun]

They were a Soviet client state in the 80's if I remember right; probably MiG's or something. The Sov's dumped all sorts of their old junk in SubSaharian Africa..and it's still there.

[SuNmAN]

Again, Sun, I wonder if the 'International relations' instructor was ever in Somalia LOL.

BTW, good luck with your football tryouts... :)

lol you don't need to be there in order to show a statistic lol

thanks !!

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Yeah, I would imagine not. Numbers are much easier to work with than people are LOL.