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Assalamu'alaikum,
The biggest training camp in the world for international terrorists is the
US army.
ININ
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US military intervention in Somalia
24 January 2002
By Abdullah Vawda
The US and its allies have intensified military activities in Somalia and
along its 2000-mile coastline to prevent 'al-Qaeda terrorists' from
finding refuge or setting up new bases there, according to American
officials. But the scale of the military preparations, the nature of the
deals US officials have struck with rival forces, and the involvement of
Ethiopia suggest that the plan goes much further. And, as Washington's
alignment with Sudan's Christian neighbours indicates, that strategy is to
fight Islamic movements.
The Pentagon has recently increased the number of Marine Corps units in
the Arabian Sea. Germany is also sending ships to the Somali coast and the
Arabian Sea. Reconnaissance flights over Somalia have also increased, and
France and Britain have also sent planes. In the first week of January
flights went up from one or two to four or five daily.
According to media reports, US "navy P-3 planes flying out of a base in
Oman" have been used to carry out the main aerial-reconnaissance effort.
Their main task is to take photographs of "suspected Qaeda sites", the
reports say, adding that the photographs can show changes in numbers of
trainees or vehicles arriving at or leaving sites.
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, has refused to say whether these
activities mean that an invasion of Somalia is imminent, but he spoke
about the presence of al-Qaeda there: "we know there have been training
camps there and that they have been active over the years and that they go
inactive when people are attentive to them." Other officials say that no
decision has been made to take specific action, but insist that Washington
is determined to prevent al-Qaeda and other terrorists groups from using
Somalia as a safe haven.
The Americans are not only after alleged 'al-Qaeda terrorists' in Somalia,
but are also determined to dispose of local Islamic groups, which they
claim are linked to al-Qaeda and have received support from Usama bin
Ladin. The Bush administration believes that it has successfully tarred
al-Qaeda and bin Ladin with the brush of terrorism, and therefore that it
can target Islamic movements said to have ties with them without being
accused of an anti-Islam strategy. Bush has already put al-Ittihad on the
list of terrorist groups, and has frozen the assets of al-Barakah, one of
Somalia's biggest business groups.
According to a report in the London Sunday Times on January 6, there are
up to 100 "al-Qaeda terrorists said to be operating in Somalia already"
who are linked to al-Ittihad al-Islami. Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's
former head of counter-terrorism, claims that the heavy naval patrol of
the Somali coast cannot keep them out. "Al-Qaeda terrorists could easily
be hidden away in Mogadishu," he said; "despite heavy naval patrols they
could be entering in small fishing vessels and dhows."
Somalis, unlike Muslims elsewhere, have no sectarian divisions. Like
Muslims anywhere, they are likely to sympathise with fellow Muslims being
hunted down by 'infidels'. But they are also strongly polarised along
clan-lines: they have been unable to form a national government since the
overthrow of Said Barre, military dictator, more than a decade ago.
Barre's divisive policies, the clan-based response to his rule by the
opposition groups overthrowing him, and the decade-long absence of central
government have made this polarisation worse.
So it is difficult for them to organise viable and radical organisations
that cut across clan lines. The alleged march of Islamic fundamentalism is
a myth that the US and its allies promote to justify their intervention in
Somalia. The transitional government has made strong efforts to convince
Washington that there are no al-Qaeda bases or training sites in Somalia,
and that al-Ittihad al-Islami is not a "terrorist organisation".
US officials have brushed all this as an inconvenient irrelevance. And
when a government delegation tried to visit Washington and deliver a
formal letter to president George W Bush to explain that there is no need
for US military intervention, the delegation were refused US entry visas.
On December 12, 1992, the U.S. sent 28,000 soldiers into Somalia under the
cover of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) in what they
said was a humanitarian mission to bring food to starving people. The
invasion came when a several-year drought that had taken tens of thousands
of lives was actually abating. At the time, the evening news showed
images of thousands of starving Somalis. What people didn't see was U.S.
troops not delivering food but instead engaged in daily gun battles and
bombing raids in heavily populated neighbourhoods. In ten months, more
than 10,000 Somalis died as the U.S. engaged in aggressive military
action against those who resisted.
All those who believe in justice for the people of the world must take a
stand against U.S. threats against Somalia, Sudan, and the Philippines,
Iraq, Colombia and everywhere else. We don't know where the next war will
be. The Pentagon has conceitedly announced that it's wartime and that
they will select the targets. What will the costs of human misery amount
to this time around?
Abdullah Vawda
BA Hons (Political Studies)
Johannesburg, South Africa
083 204 8257
012 374 6987
E-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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