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Lexington Herald-Leader Posted on Sun, Jun. 18, 2006 Americans ignored pleas to stop funding warlords, Somalians say http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/world/14848467.htm By Hannah Allam KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE MOGADISHU, Somalia - In March, nine of Mogadishu=E2=80=99s most prominent= =20 community leaders secretly flew to neighboring Djibouti and pleaded with = U.S. officials to stop funding the warlords who were devastating the=20 city. Backing the warlords, they said, would end up strengthening an=20 Islamist militia with a shadowy radical wing. The Americans ignored their warnings, three of the Somalians at the=20 meeting told Knight Ridder in separate interviews, and the community=20 leaders=E2=80=99 fears came to life this month when the Islamic Courts Un= ion=20 militia defeated the warlords and took control of the Somalian capital. Now the Bush administration=E2=80=99s Somalia strategy is in tatters. And= the=20 Islamist militia is poised to extend its control to all of southern=20 Somalia, where intelligence officials think at least two senior al-Qaida = operatives are hiding. It was impossible to confirm the Somalian leaders=E2=80=99 version of eve= nts.=20 U.S. officials in Washington have declined to comment on whether the=20 United States provided aid to the warlords. However, two U.S.=20 intelligence officials, speaking anonymously because they aren=E2=80=99t = authorized to talk to journalists, confirmed that CIA financial support=20 was coordinated by the agency=E2=80=99s station chief in Nairobi. And The Associated Press has reported that U.S. officials acknowledged=20 cooperating with the warlords against the Islamic group. A spokesman for the U.S. counterterrorism task force based at Camp=20 Lemonier in Djibouti declined to comment. With Mogadishu now under their control, Islamic Courts forces have=20 continued their offensive. They control the town of Jowhar, north of=20 Mogadishu, and are preparing for an assault on Beledweyne, near the=20 Ethiopian border. #33#
