The Somalian warlords who slaughtered US soldiers are working for Bush now

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.sundayherald.com/56121

Black Hawk Down Revisited


Somalia is still ruled by the brutal warlords who dragged dead US soldiers through the streets in 1993. But times change. Now they are America’s new allies in the war on terror


THIRTEEN years after President Bill Clinton withdrew forces from Somalia, in the “Black Hawk down” shambles, American security officials are giving clandestine support to the same warlords who mutilated and humiliated US soldiers in 1993.

The American Operation, in breach of the United Nations’ arms embargo on Somalia and therefore in breach of international law, is controlled through the US Embassy in Kenya and Washington’s 1800-strong Combined Joint Task Force in Djibouti, on Somalia’s northern border.

The Combined Joint Task Force, under Admiral Richard Hunt, is an anti-terrorist operation for the troubled Horn of Africa, but most specifically for Somalia, which has had no effective government since 1991 and is seen as an ideal place for al-Qaeda activists to hide and plot attacks.

Somalia is only a short boat ride from Yemen and is a historic doorway to Africa from the Middle East. No visas are needed to enter Somalia and there is no police force. The country has a weak and ineffective transitional government operating largely out of neighbouring Kenya. Most of Somalia is in mayhem and lawlessness, ruled by a patchwork of competing warlords; the capital is too unsafe for even Somalia’s acting prime minister to visit.

The US, terrified that Islamists allied to al-Qaeda are gaining control in Somalia, has turned to the kind of warlords who once dragged dead American soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, as its new allies in the “war on terror”.

[Erika]

1. As Reagan and Cheney supported terrorists

this goes on and on.

[beam me up scottie]

2. "America’s new allies"

As Osama and Saddam once were.

[me b zola]

3. but, but, Clenis forced DimSon to love those terrorists--um, warlords

:eyes:

[leftofthedial]

4. all terrorists work for the bush crime gang

they are the "muscle" in the biggest extortion racket in history.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Reverse blowback?

It is an endless cycle.

But, when you need to take over a region in a hurry or you've got something to protect, murderous thugs are always available. And they're cheap.

And of course, these ones will never turn against the US.

Unless the money runs out.

[NicRic]

6. How many law must be broken B/4......

our current idiot in office is held accountable for one of them .We are talking about peoples lives here and if you have no respect for the lives of those from other countries and only life of a American,you still have a axe to grind with this dumbest of the dumb in Presidential history ! I usally want time to move along at a nice slow pace ,becasue life is so short already ,however with this guy in office I wish I could fast forward to the end of his miserable stay in office,for all of us his presidency has been.
Take Care NF

[Yukari Yakumo]

15. Easy.

Just have Dems take control of the legislative branch. Then Herr Bush will, hopefully, gets what he's been deserving for a long time; Impeachment followed by conviction.

Unless he decides America doesn't need a legislative branch or the Constitution and outlaws both and declares martial law. :scared:

[ClintonTyree]

22. And people wonder why the rest of the world.......

views America as a two-faced bully! :eyes: The RepubliCONS will use anyone, regardless of morality, political affiliation or legitimacy, in order to fulfill their twisted, selfish agenda. I can't see THIS coming back to haunt our country somewhere down the line. :sarcasm:

Leave it to the RepubliCONS to sell our country out.......again! :grr:

[marmar]

7. Birds of a feather....

:think:

[Toots]

8. Why aren't the Marines invading Somalia

They actually have a connection to Al Qaeda, their leader/s have committed mass murder and have attacked US Troops and UN Peacekeepers. If any country in the world ever needed overthrowing and Democracy created it would be Somalia not Iraq. Remember those supposed "leaders" let huge numbers of their population starve to death. Remember our mission there began as an attempt to distribute food to the starving masses. The food convoys were attacked by 'warlords' and the food stolen. Remember the Pakistani UN troops that were ambushed and held captive? That was about the time Clinton changed the mission from food distribution to trying to stop the 'warlords' from their brutality. Close to what Bush* is claiming the US is doing in Iraq. Clinton is a lot smarter than Bush*.....,

[ComerPerro]

11. But see, Bush is opposed to what's called "nation building"

or, at least, that's what the arrogant shithead said in 2000

[40ozDonkey]

12. well...

If any country in the world ever needed overthrowing and Democracy created it would be Somalia not Iraq.

Because cantservatives won't do anything unless they can guarantee a good outcome for the next election, which is why in the "axis of evil" they invaded Iraq instead of N. Korea or Iran. They don't do what's needed or what makes sense, they just do what's politically easiest for them.

Iraq could've been the easiest, cleanest war on the table (of those 3), had the rightwing strategerists not taken a dump on Iraq politically. I feel sorry for the soldiers who performed perfectly in March 2003, only to have that victory taken away from them by treasonous and terminally stupid right wing politicians. Bitter pill to swallow when the people who supposedly support the armed forces took their victory in Iraq and fucked it up, only to give it back to them later in the form of an insurgency.

Long story short, I guess I'm saying that Somalia is simply too hard for these rightwing fair weather patriots and "moralists". They don't care about anything other than running the country (into the ground), and they won't respond to anything unless it threatens their chances at re-election. They'll continue to let the atrocities there continue until a Democrat steps in office or a native Somalian drops a dirty bomb on Tracy Henke's childhood home in Missouri.

[bushmeister0]

9. Kadafi is our friend now, so why not Somali warlords?

Why would anyone be surprised by this? I mean, now we're in bed with Moammar Kadafi who killed 189 Americans in 1988 over Lockerbee. He's such a "statesman" these days that Tony Blair is actually going after Kadafi's enemies in the UK to make him happy. Meanwhile, we're still harboring Luis Posada Carriles, another terrorist who blew up a Venezuelan plane in 1976. He gets a pass, of course, because Hugo Chavez wants him tried sent back to Venezuela to be tried. Naturally, we can't do that because Chavez is much more dangerous than Kadafi. I mean, my God, he hangs out with Castro!!!!!

And the FT reported recently that Rummy and Cheney "are said by officials and analysts to favor an attempt to reach out to President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan for purely strategic reasons," again. He just sent his military out to gun down a few hundred civilans, what's the big deal? So he boils his political opponents, we're fighting a war on terror people!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12857897/wid/6448213/

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

10. So much shit...

:grr: So much, What a dark time in our history. The day JFK got shot was dark, this past 5 years has been blackest days in my life.

[987654321]

13. It's a cycle that has no end in sight

We make deals with bad people so they will help us fight other bad people.
Then the bad group we made deals with use what we gave them to do even worse bad things,
so we end up having to fight them.
In order to fight them we make deals with other bad people.
Then those bad people do more bad things...and the cycle continues.

It appears we do whatever it takes to ensure that there is always an enemy to fight.
We've done it directly by supporting ruthless dictators across the world.
Why were we so sure Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Because we helped him get them to fight the Iranians.

We are doing it now by doing business with the Chinese government so our corporations can make tons of money.
Meanwhile the Chinese still jail and even execute dissidents while using our money to build a military that will soon dwarf ours.
It makes no sense that our country as a whole has yet to learn that the ends never justify the means.
It always comes back to bite us in the ass.
But I guess it is more important to make sure that we help the corporations get richer and more powerful,
and keep the industrial military complex happy, then it is to make sound, moral decisions.
And what's the big deal that a few hundred thousand people die here and there.
Even a few million people aren't that big of a deal.
After all, most of the people who die because of our choices are poor non-whites anyway,
and non-Christians at that.

[EST]

26. After all, everybody is gonna die, sometime.

So, it happens a little earlier for some, in the grand scheme of things, it makes no real difference.
And besides, these people lived miserable existences, anyway, so shortening that misery and thus alleviating their pain could be considered a blessing in disguise, as it were. I mean, after all, they weren't really gonna amount to much, no matter what, so we are, in point of fact, liberating them.

I mean, you know, they really, really ought to be thanking us, ungrateful S.O.B.s!

And when you count in the fact that the overall level of pain and unhappiness in the world is actually REDUCED! That's a very good thing, right?

And then, when you take their stuff and their land and re-distribute it to those who can really develop it--who have the wherewithal and contacts to invest in their former land and resources, what happens?

I mean, these guys have long and spotless track records, having done this thing again and again, in various guises, for a couple or three hundred years, now, and there can be no doubt the developed world is a much better, healthier, more vibrant place than it could ever have been near, say, St. Louis, Missouri, five hundred years ago, fer shore fer sher.

[ArbustoBuster]

14. This is what Republicans consider "Supporting the troops."

With friends like the Republicans, the troops don't need enemies.

[IronLionZion]

16. Well Afghan drug lords are our allies too

and they sell heroin to American kids. I suppose we're "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here."

I suppose there are always unintended consequences to everything, but it sucks having our country flooded with cheap heroin.

[Vinca]

17. Thank heavens for the Scottish press. nt

[Brigid]

18. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

Why does the song "When Will They Ever Learn? keep going through my head as I read stuff like this? :banghead:

[Chiyo-chichi]

19. My nephew was killed in Somalia.

This is appalling.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. Kicked and Recommended

good thread! bush made new friends in Afghanistan too. warlords who grow opium and flood the US and international markets today. That mean old Taliban had shut them ALL down in the country before bushy the dope head hit office.

[ContraBass Black]

21. As it was in Asia and the Middle East,

So shall it be in Africa.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

23. hear hear to that

[ewagner]

24. Did this catch anybody else's attention?

Arms have been shipped through ".... United Arab Emirates among others.....

Gee....just the people we need to run our ports.....

[LiberalPartisan]

25. Is there a single law this Keystone Cop admin. won't break? n/t

[EST]

27. Oh sure!

Well, maybe not a single law; more than one--

The law of gravity, Murphy's law, and the law of unintended consequences come immediately to mind, along with various renditions of the Peter Principle.

[Brigid]

28. And don't forget this one:

Chaos theory.

[EST]

29. Heh! And the principle of lowered expectations.

[madrchsod]

30. "The reckoning was beckoning

They're living to their doom
There was no hope, no reasoning
This rainy day in June"

http://kinks.it.rit.edu/discography/showsong.php?song=319
Lyrics for "Rainy Day In June"

[cosmicdot]

31. guess Somalia's internet is back on

Friday, 23 November, 2001

US shuts down Somalia internet


Somalia's only internet company and a key telecoms business have been forced to close because the United States suspects them of terrorist links.

The two firms, Somalia Internet Company and al-Barakaat, both appear on a US list of organisations accused of funnelling money to the al-Qaeda network and featured in a UN Security Council resolution.

Both companies have stated they are not linked to terrorists.

Along with denying all internet access to Somalis, the closures have severely restricted international telephone lines and shut down vitally needed money transfer facilities.

Correspondents say the closure of the companies will have a devastating effect on the country, which desperately needs the services they provide.

Desperation

Hassan Barise in Mogadishu told the BBC's Network Africa programme more than 80% of Somalis depended on money they receive from relatives outside the country.


~snip~

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Somalis depend on it to transfer money throughout the world.

Somalis living abroad use it to send money to their relatives back home as there are no other banking systems in Somalia since the downfall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991.

~snip~

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1672220.stm