[Marxism] More on setback to US in Somalia: from Le Monde

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A SETBACK FOR WASHINGTON, AFRAID THAT AL-QAEDA WILL SET UP SHOP 
By Corine Lesnes et Jean Philippe-Rémy

Le Monde (Paris)
June 6, 2006

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3212,36-780018@51-754471,0.htm
l

NAIROBI -- The United States greeted with concern the announcement that 
Mogadishu had been taken by militiamen of the Islamic Courts Union [*Le 
Monde*: L'Union des tribunaux islamiques ('Union of Islamic
Tribunals')].  
Sean McCormack, spokesperson for the State Department, said that
Washington 
was glad of anything capable of contributing to the building of
institutions, 
preferably democratic ones, in a country that has been without a central

administration for fifteen years, but also emphasized that the American 
government did not want "to see Somalia become a refuge for foreign 
terrorists."

The State Department spokesman refused to say whether the United States
had 
proof that elements of al-Qaeda are in the country.  "We have real
concerns" 
on this subject, was all he would say.  According to the American press,

Washington thinks that three of those responsible for the 1998 attacks
on the 
American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are
hiding 
among the Somali Islamists.

SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT

The taking of Mogadishu is a setback for the Bush administration.  In
order to 
set up a bulwark against terrorism, it established a bridgehead in
Djibouti 
after the September 11, 2001, attacks.  The Horn of Africa is one of the

principal theaters of operation for CENTCOM, the central command that
from 
Florida manages actions against Red Sea piracy and the training of local

border guards along with a coalition of about sixty countries.

According to East African sources, American intelligence services,
fearing 
jihadists from Afghanistan would fall back there, began in 2002 to pay 
factional leaders for information and surveillance of the Indian Ocean
coast.  
Recently, with the rise of the Islamic Courts Union, the United States 
undertook support for the new alliance of Somali "warlords" in order to
block 
the advance of the Islamists.  But the contrary has taken place.

John Prendergast, an official of the International Crisis Group, an 
association devoted to the prevention of conflicts, said that the
American 
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was funneling $100,000 to $150,000 a
month 
to the leading warlords.  He told Reuters that the CIA had furnished 
surveillance equipment to those factions in order to track al-Qaeda.
This 
support would be a violation of the embargo on arms destined for Somalia
that 
was imposed by the U.N. after the 1991 civil war.

Taking the warlords under its wing also seems to have created internal 
tensions inside the American administration.  Two diplomats posted to
Nairobi, 
Michael Zorick, in charge of the Somalia desk, and Michael Fitzpatrick,
a 
political affairs officer, abruptly left their jobs after taking a stand

against this policy, according to more than one source in Nairobi.
[NOTE:  
The *East African* (Nairobi)
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200606060147.html) 
said that "*Newsweek* and other media outlets reported last week that
Zorick 
had been reassigned to Chad after writing a memo critical of the Bush 
administration's alignment with the warlord faction that claims to be 
defending Mogadishu against a terrorist takeover."  As for Michael 
Fitzpatrick, he is still listed 
(http://foia.state.gov/MMS/KOH/key_country.asp?ID=Kenya) by the State
Dept. as 
among U.S. personnel in Nairobi.  His departure seems not to have been 
mentioned in English-language media.  --M.K.J.]

--
Translated by Mark K. Jensen
Associate Professor of French
Department of Languages and Literatures
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447-0003
Phone: 253-535-7219
Home page: http://www.plu.edu/~jensenmk/
E-mail: jensenmk@xxxxxxx


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