Trouble in the Horn of Africa

[Nick Douglas]

The war between Somalia and Ethiopia is really escalating. This could be a problem because many people in the Muslim world see Ethiopia as sort of an African version of Israel (i.e., unrelenting U.S. support because of the religious makeup of the country). Since Ethiopia is invading a Muslim country, this could stir up more hatred towards us.

Obviously it's always tough to get unfiltered news from that area of the world, but it appears that Ethiopia invaded because the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) has had control of much of the country for a while and Ethiopia backs the internationally recognized (but politically powerless) secular government.

Apparently the ICU has imposed Sharia (Islamic Law) in the areas they control, which has calmed the lawlessness that had existed in many areas. The problem is that they have reportedly also taken things too far in some cases. For example, reportedly a theatre showing World Cup football was shut down over the summer because some people acting on the ICU's behalf felt that the World Cup was exerting too much Western influence. The ICU is supposed to be much less imposing and stringent than the Taliban, but examples like the theatre shutdown have caused people to worry that they could do more harm than good.

Since you guys know that I like to be fair and balanced, here are a couple of links where you can read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,238717,00.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4A2D7333-9E99-4B63-A455-A1260251BED8.htm

 

[Pujo21]

This is interesting. But why is The United States giving so much support to Israel ? :shrug:

Especially if it is stirring up so much hatred in the world against The U.S.
:shrug:

What exactly is it with this Israel that the United States keeps taking up the ass over them.:SIB

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Been watching it myself with interest Nick.

Appears now after recent routings by Ethiopia gov --the islamic element is changing its course from conventional head to head tactics to long term hit and run tactics they use everywhere else.

P.S. Have you by chance seen a different mode of reporting @ Algezeera (a bit more fairer) of late or is it my imagination.

 

[Nick Douglas]

You may not be surprised to hear this, DTB, but I've always felt that their straight news was pretty fair. Obviously I don't like the fact that in the past they've let themselves sort of be a propaganda arm for jihadists (airing uncut videos and such), but overall I think they've done a good job.

I think if you care to follow U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim world, you have to use Al Jazeera because they give a viewpoint that news outlets in the U.S. are unable to give.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Saw something there few days ago and saw mention of it via ABC Blog but not picked up much or reported by main media--

ABC---Al Qaeda Sends a Message to Democrats

Al Qaeda Sends a Message to Democrats
December 22, 2006 2:28 PM

Brian Ross and Hoda Osman Report:

Al Qaeda has sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists.

In a portion of the tape from al Qaeda No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, made available only today, Zawahri says he has two messages for American Democrats.

"The first is that you aren't the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen -- the Muslim Ummah's vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost," Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News.

 

[djv]

DTB there almost right. A big part of our election was about Iraq. And most Americans thoughts on how it was be handled it. They blamed more Reb's then Dem's for the problem. And if it's still in same state in 08. Believe we will see more election results same direction. Of course everyone should understand that those called our enemy. They don't like any of us. And if were smart we would hurry up our implantation of the 9/11 report. For every dollar we blow on Iraq. The same should be spent to protect our home land.

 

[Nick Douglas]

Al Qaeda is a fringe element. They are a handful of cave-dwelling wackos who have little connection to the Muslim world at large. Though I'll admit that our actions have given them more of a presence than anything they could have ever dreamed of doing on their own, I really wish the media and our government officials would put those loons in perspective.

I'm not surprised that they would claim victory based on the November election results because fringe elements love to throw garbage out and hope the public picks up on it. I would liken it to the unabomber taking credit if the government would have cut funding for some kind of technology initiative.

That's a big reason why I feel that people like Soros do a good job of analyzing things. We didn't need a vast war on terror. We needed specialized operations to counterattack the fringe nutcases who want to blow up civilians. I guess that doesn't matter too much now because we can't turn back the clock, but I still think it's not too late to draw back our strategy a bit and take more precise steps to eliminate the real enemy.

As a side note, it really bugs me when the people throw Hamas, Hizbullah, Syria, Iran and other popular Islamic groups in with Al Qaeda. The former organizations have relatively broad political support and therefore have checks and balances in terms of how they can promote their political agenda. Al Qaeda is a wacko fringe sect who has far less political support, and therefore is free to go about attempting heinous attacks without the same political consequences.

 

[maverick2112]

There are some who question whether AQ even really exists..............



quote="cansouth"]

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-05-25-assad_x.htm
5/25/2003

Assad doubts existence of al-Qaeda
KUWAIT CITY (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Sunday that he doubts the existence of al-Qaeda, the terror group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and recent strikes in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

"Is there really an entity called al-Qaeda? Was it in Afghanistan? Does it exist now?" Assad asked, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba.


Such speculation is popular among some in the Arab world who say Washington has manufactured or exaggerated the threat posed by al-Qaeda in order to paint Muslims as dangerous.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair, London, United Kingdom

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162476,00.html

July 15, 2005

Commenting on the possible role of Al Qaeda, Blair said, " Al Qaeda is not an organization . Al Qaeda is a way of working ... but this has the hallmark of that approach."

Talibans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2897137.stm

According to Dadullah, al-Qaeda did
not exist in Afghanistan and he said he did not know
the fate or whereabouts of Osama bin-Laden.

Norwegian professor Johan Galtung

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article396241.ece

- Al-Qaida er en amerikansk fiksjon

Terrororganisasjonen Al-Qaida er noe USA har
funnet p?, mener den omstridte fredsforskeren
Johan Galtung.

- Etter min vurdering er al-Qaida noe Washington
har funnet p?, en typisk Pentagon-projeksjon,
sier Galtung.

P? sp?rsm?l fra Spiegel Online om han virkelig mener
at al-Qaida ikke eksisterer, svarer Galtung at Vestens
forestilling om organisasjonen er gal.

- Men det finnes en stor kraft, som stort sett er
organisert i celler, som i Hamburg, og som holdes
sammen gjennom troen, sier han.

Indonesian Bashir

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=3054299

Bashir selv skylder p? CIA og USA for ?
st? bak angrepet mot Bali.
Han benekter ogs? at gruppene Jemaah
Islamiyah og al-Qaida eksisterer.

http://www.gsmpro.com/article/articledt.asp?hArticleId=39

Bashir on Friday accused the United States of inventing both al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah to portray Muslims as terrorists.

Qazi Hussain, member of Parliament in Pakistan
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/politikk/article844875.ece

?Qazi Hussain har kritisert den pakistanske regjerings samarbeid med USA i kampen mot Taliban-regimet i Afghanistan. Han har snakket pent om Taliban-ledelsen og Osama bin Laden og benektet eksistensen av terrornettverket Al-Qaida.?

http://www.usefulwork.com/shark/qazi021013.html

Qazi Hussain Ahmed :
?I've never been sure whether the so-called Al-Qaeda has ever even existed. ?

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&trh=20050815&hn=22982
August 14, 2005

?Countries facing the al-Qaeda threat are awaiting the intelligence Turkish security is to provide. Amid the smoke from the fortuitous fire emerged the possibility that al-Qaeda may not be, strictly speaking, an organization but an element of an intelligence agency operation.

Turkish intelligence specialists agree that there is no such organization as al-Qaeda.

Rather, Al-Qaeda is the name of a secret service operation. The concept ?fighting terror? is the background of the ?low-intensity-warfare? conducted in the mono-polar world order. The subject of this strategy of tension is named as ?al-Qaeda.? ?

http://www.turkishweekly.net/comments.php?id=1604
2005-08-01

There is no Terrorist Organization Called Al Qaida

?Nese D?zel from Radikal (a Turkish newspaper) asked this question and more on Al Qaida to Mahir Kaynak, a former academic and a former intelligence officer. He has suggested different and debateful views, which will be summarized in this article.


Further more he argued that there is no Al Qaida. According to Kaynak, Al Qaida is the name of the operation carried out by an intelligence service, which is CIA?With this operation an anti-Islam front among the peoples of the world is tried to be created.

Television program:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html
Friday October 15, 2004

The Power of Nightmares seeks to overturn much of what is widely believed about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

The latter, it argues, is not an organised international network.

It does not have members or a leader.
It does not have "sleeper cells".
It does not have an overall strategy.
In fact, it barely exists at all, except as an idea about cleansing a corrupt world through religious violence.

Newspaper article:
http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/397/13821_AlQaeda.html
08/19/2004

?Al Qaeda does not exist and never has?

?The basic truth is that Al Qaeda does not exist and never has. Al Qaeda is a manufactured enemy who was created by the Bush Administration in order to have an excuse to wage a war for the control of the world"s oil resources.?

This link needs registration to be followed:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/103002...021030082.shtml
October 29, 2002

''Al-Qaida is not an organization anymore, it is
a concept,'' said Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi.
''There is a lot of appeal for the concept itself.''?

?''On balance, I would be surprised if there wasn't any
foreign participation,'' he said. ''Al-Qaida does not have
membership cards, and as such, linkages can occur
on many different levels.''

Translation of the three norwegian quotes:

1.
Al-Qaida is an american fiction.

The terrororganisation Al-Qaida is something USA has invented, means the debated peace professor Johan Galtung.

-After my opinion Al-Qaida is something Washington has invented, a typhical Pentagon-projection, says Galtung.

On question from Spiegel Online if he really means that Al-Qaida does not exist, Galtung answers that the Wests impression of the organisation is wrong.

-But there is a large power, which is mostly organised in cells, like in Hamburg, and which are being kept together through the faith, he says.




2.
Bashir himself blames on CIA and USA for being behind the attack against Bali. He also denies that the groups Jemaah Islamiyah and Al-Qaida exist.



3.
Qazi Hussein has criticized the pakistani governments cooperation with USA in the fight against the Taliban-regime in Afghanistan. He has talked nice about the Taliban-leaders and Osama bin Laden and denied the existence of the terror network Al-Qaida.[/quote]

 

[gardenweasel]

do you believe that,maverick?....really?.....and there was no holocaust?......right?....

tell me...did bush and cheney perpetrate 9/11?....
thanks...

on nick`s topic...

""As the situation in Somalia began to shift, it seemed that the Islamists may have overplayed their hand. Just a few months ago they were the most powerful force in the country and popular in many areas for restoring order after 15 years of anarchy. The transitional government, which is internationally recognized but weak and divided, was urging the Islamists to return to peace talks to discuss sharing power.

But all that changed last Wednesday at dawn when the Islamists attacked Baidoa from two directions. Witnesses said that their waves of young fighters were summarily mowed down by the more experienced (and older) Ethiopian-backed troops. On Saturday, the Islamists announced that Somalia was now open to Muslim fighters across the world who wanted to wage a jihad against Ethiopia, which has a long Christian history though it is actually about half Muslim.

The next day, Ethiopia struck.

With warplanes and tanks, the Ethiopian military pushed deep into Somalia and began uprooting the Islamists from their positions. Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, said his country had been forced into war by the Islamists and that Ethiopia would try to neutralize the threat as quickly as possible.

The toll is rising in Mogadishu. At Benadir hospital, crowds of women pushed at the gates to get inside to see their wounded sons and husbands. Witnesses said the hospital’s courtyards were stacked with dozens of corpses buzzing with flies. Some of the women even threw stones at the Islamist commanders visiting the hospital and shouted, “Why have you done this to us?”

as ethiopia has just shown us, war never changes and the ancient rules for victory have not been suspended just because we build schools for children........

.hopefully,somebody(besides the jihadis),will understand the lesson that ethiopia has just helpfully provided.....maybe we`ll take notice....and still stand a chance of extracting ourselves from the self-inflicted mire of defeat that may happen in iraq...

it's refreshing to see that someone can roll on without the ball and chain of a nation hating media biting their ankles...

looks like the possession of artillery, tanks, and planes, (however inadequate) , is a crushing advantage when it`s not handicapped by american style p.c. rules of engagement or the need to kowtow to hostile media.....

finally, some good news concerning the defeat of radical islamists.....i've practically given up on any good news out of iraq, thailand, indonesia, etc......

yet another front in this world war...

and the imaginary foe we call al qaeda....

 

[The Sponge]

not sure if Mav believes that Weasal, well maybe i do but im sure the thirty guys he quoted do. Where the heck is that guy they call Bin Laden anyway? We found Saddam in an ant hole but we can't find this big guy who could make a nice forward on the cavaliers. He is the best hiding go seeker in the history of the game. Maybe he is hiding out at the ranch and they all get together and have a good laugh.

 

[gardenweasel]

not sure if Mav believes that Weasal, well maybe i do but im sure the thirty guys he quoted do. Where the heck is that guy they call Bin Laden anyway? We found Saddam in an ant hole but we can't find this big guy who could make a nice forward on the cavaliers. He is the best hiding go seeker in the history of the game. Maybe he is hiding out at the ranch and they all get together and have a good laugh.

you know,spongy......bin laden is the guy that clinton gave several passes to while he was bombing serbia into the stone ages,,,,

you agreed with bombing the serbs didn`t you,spongy?....

btw...now cindy sheehan is blaming gerald ford for iraq...lol

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/664

i`m surprised she hasn`t blamed republicans for the chicago fire....

 

[The Sponge]

you know,spongy......bin laden is the guy that clinton gave several passes to while he was bombing serbia into the stone ages,,,,

you agreed with bombing the serbs didn`t you,spongy?....

btw...now cindy sheehan is blaming gerald ford for iraq...lol

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/664

i`m surprised she hasn`t blamed republicans for the chicago fire....

I think clintons quote was "i tried and failed but at least i tried"
August 6 memo came in and on Bush's watch it said Bin Laden ready to attack. Cheney hid under his bed. Bush went on Vacation and Rice went somewhere to brush up on her bullshit. Then we got hit. On Bush's watch. What ever happen to all those people that shorted stock on airlines right before this happen? they ever get any of them or were they flown out of the country with the rest of Bush's pals. In Saudi Arabia they have a nickname for Bush. I think its Bandar Bush or sum shit like that. they love our puppet i mean president.

 

[maverick2112]

Gardenweasel.................didnt say I believed all of the info.........just putting out other points of view........

Where did you get your articles you posted???