IGAD – Supreme Tool of Ethio-fascism, Anti-African Racism, and Genocidal Practices

The gangsters met and demanded full freedom in order to eliminate the innocent and the peaceful; this statement can be made about the shameless meeting of the terrorist organization IGAD that brought together the tyrants of East Africa´s unelected administrations in an effort to study how to better perform genocides in the 3rd millennium.

The Anti-Eritrean and Anti-Somali biases of IGAD demonstrate the need for the UN to demand the immediate dissolution of the criminal organization that serves the interests of Africa´s worst enemies, and guarantees only the perpetration of the most inhuman and most appalling acts in the world.

More details on the recent IGAD deliberations that took place a few days and the latest developments around the Horn of Africa, along with related documents, comments and analyses, are made available in the Ecoterra Press Release Issue No. 180 that I herewith republish.

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) – 2009-05-24 / 18h03:12 UTC

(Vol. XLIV + 131 updates since 25. 09. 2008) - Issue No. 180

Ecoterra International – Updates & Statements, Review & Clearing-house

A Voice from the Truth- & Justice-Seekers, who sit between all chairs, because they are not part of organized white-collar or no-collar-crime in Somalia or overseas, and who neither benefit from global naval militarization, from the illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters or the piracy of merchant vessels, nor from the booming insurance business or the exorbitant ransom-, risk-management- or security industry, while neither the protection of the sea, the development of fishing communities nor the humanitarian assistance to abducted seafarers and their families is receiving the required adequate attention, care and funding.

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act". George Orwell

EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: somalia@ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: SMS to +254-738-497979 or call +254-733-633-733

"The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream!"

Capt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y TANIT - killed by attack of French commandos - 10. April 2009

Non A La Guerre - Yes To Peace

(Inscription on the sail of F/Y TANIT shot down on day one of the French assault)

Clearing-house

Breaking:

U.S.-American president Obama hints at uncovered secrets in Maersk Alabama story

Whitewashing black ops in colourful ceremonies?

In his third commencement address, though his first to a service academy, U.S. president Obama said during the 2009 commencement ceremony for the graduating class of the United States Naval Academy:

"I will not recount the full story of those five days in April. Much of it is known. Some of it will never be known. And that is how it should be. But here, on this day, at this institution, it must be said: the extraordinary precision and professionalism displayed that day was made possible, in no small measure, by the training, the discipline and the leadership skills that so many of those officers learned at the United States Naval Academy. After that operation — after Captain Phillips was freed — I spoke with one of the Navy SEALs who was there and with the skipper of the USS Bainbridge, Commander Frank Castellano — Naval Academy Class of 1990. And I can tell you, as they would, that the success of that day belongs not only to a single commander or a small team of SEALs. It belongs to the many".

In what Obama called "the success of the day" U.S. Navy commandos shot and killed three Somali gunmen last month to free Richard Phillips, the U.S. ship's captain, who was held hostage - that is known.

But was Obama hinting with "will never be known" at the fact that the pirate's parents, Somali leaders and clan elders had lined up and guaranteed a bloodless ending of the stand-off? No, since that is known too and it is also known that the U.S. of America refused such solution, because they wanted the pirates "dead or alive" by all means.

Was Obama hinting at the fact that the story as it was portrayed in the American media was not the reality? Well, maybe yes, but also there much is already known since the revelations of Mike Perryto - at least to those who pay attention and do just just read spin-doctored headlines. The story about Captain Richard Phillips exchanging himself to pirates for the safety of his captured crew as one of the great stories of high seas heroism is not true. The saga told in media reports and lauded on social network sites like Facebook, a story which made the country feel good, is simply untrue, according to crewmembers of the Maersk Alabama. "The captain was captured from the beginning", said chief engineer Mike Perry of Riverview.

Was Obama then hinting at the fact that Abdiweli Abdulkadir Muse, the first of the four pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips hostage on a lifeboat, had given himself up since he could not bear the pain of his hand, where he had been stabbed by a Maersk-sailor, and to bring as a message from his fellow pirates a truce? That Muse was then conducting negotiations on the USS Bainsbridge - when three sharpshooters killed his comrades - is known, but maybe it is not known that he was at the time actually already a bearer of the flag of truce - and thereby protected!?!

Is the secret then buried in deception? In the long row of such U.S. American behaviour from the wars with native North-Americans to Waco, one account is outstanding - it is the one of Black Hawk the Great Native-American Chief of the West, whose full name was Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak and who said (affidavit in May 1838) concerning his account of the cause and the general history of the Black Hawk War of 1832:

"I was never so much surprised in my life as I was in this attack. An army of three or four hundred men, after having learned that we were suing for peace, to attempt to kill the flag bearers that had gone unarmed to ask for a meeting of the war chiefs of the two contending parties to hold a council, that I might return to the west side of the Mississippi, to come forward with a full determination to demolish the few braves I had with me, to retreat when they had ten to one, was unaccountable to me. It proved a different spirit from any I had ever before seen among the pale faces. I expected to see them fight as the Americans did with the British during the last war, but they had no such braves among them".

Were Abdiweli as well as the three snipered men then deceived? Had the three Somalis in the lifeboat signaled a truce or were they tricked into believing the Americans had offered them a truce?

The truth must come out, even though Obama obviously wants to keep it buried. Abdiweli Abdulkadir Muse is on trial in New York and it is high time that he gets an independent defense lawyer, who at least must try to invoke what "never shall be known".

The consequences could be grave, since Abdi Garad, one of the alleged pirate leaders told Agence France-Presse by phone from the pirate lair of Eyl that American citizens were now marked. Garad said U.S. authorities shot the pirates even though they agreed to free Phillips.

U. S. president Barack Obama seems to have flip-flopped on his election promise also concerning the closure of the U. S. naval detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Last week, Obama said the U. S. government will restart Bush-era military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, many of whom are suspected terrorists (five are charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks).

Black Hawk died in 1838 having revealed the truth, the Black Hawk choppers crashed in 1993 in Mogadishu opening the eyes of many Americans to the untold stories from Somalia - is Obama ending the black ops now as he promised or has covered reality caught up with him already?

Though the Navy Secretary Ray Mabus drew loud applause when he quoted from Obama´s inauguration speech, noting: "We will not apologize for our way of life and we will not waver in our defense", the U.S. president's pre-election critics seem to get some credit now.

Like Tecmessa in Sophocles' Tragic World promised to reveal "the tale unspeakable" and to give the fullest account of the night of madness, Obama should promise: "You will learn the whole deed, as if you were a participant"!

Ref: The LA Times has Obama's full speech: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/05/obamaannapolisspeech.html

On Horrific UN And US Death Statistics see: Expose Obama´s Fake War On Terror

http://www.countercurrents.org/polya220509.htm

France finally gives in

While the top legal eagle from France during the anti-piracy conference in December in Nairobi - despite being a charming lady - showed her iron-lady character by stubbornly insisting that France would not recognize a 200nm Exclusive Economic Zone for Somalia, her President set now finally the record strait. The African Union (AU) had made it already clear internationally 10 years ago in Maputo that the continuous violation of the waters of African coastal states and specifically of the 200nm EEZ of Somalia would no longer be tolerated. The Leader of the Revolution and President of the AU, Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi now held talks with French Minister of Defense Herve Morin and his accompanying delegation who participated in the 5+5 Defense Ministers' meeting held on 17 May 2009. Morin delivered a letter to the Col. Gaddafi from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy, the Libyan news agency reported, expressed his desire to meet the leader at the next summit of G8 which he asserted that it would be an opportunity to pursue their talks about various issues of mutual interest and the French president underlined in his letter his keen interest to continue dialogue with the Leader of the AU on African matters, highlighting that the leader's Presidency of the African Union consolidates such dialogue.

President Sarkozy reiterated France's interest to launch the French-Libyan Strategic Partnership in the defense field in line with what was agreed upon during his visit to Libya and the Leader's visit to France in 2007. Sarkozy reportedly also praised Col. Gadaffi in his letter for his efforts to forge peace between Niger rebels and their government, which brought stability to northern Niger. Jana reported also that Sarkozy appealed to the leader to continue his efforts to overcome ongoing tension between Sudan and Chad. But most importantly Sarkozy also reaffirmed his and France's readiness to support the Libyan initiative to protect the Exclusive Economic Zone and the territorial waters of Somalia since that would help in ending the so-called piracy operations there.

News from sea-jackings, abductions or newly attacked ships

Italian navy men on Friday arrested nine Somali pirates who were trying to seize a Liberian-owned merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, a naval press spokesman said. "Today, around 0600 GMT, our MAESTRALE frigate received a distress call from a merchant ship, the MV Maria K, that had been attacked by a pirate boat, while it was less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) away" from the Italian vessel, he told AFP. The spokesman said the ship's helicopter fired several warning shots before the MAESTRALE arrived on the scene to make the arrests. The MV Maria K is registered in the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Crew members from the ship reported receiving rocket-propelled grenade fire, CBS News reported. According to ANSA news agency, prosecutors in Rome will question the pirates via video-link from the MAESTRALE in the next few days. The arrests come as Italy gears up to host a meeting on June 10 to address the roots of Somalia's piracy crisis.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be hosting the next meeting of the International Contact Group on Somalia in Rome on 9 and 10 June. The Contact Group is the principal coordination and consultation forum for the states and international organizations most closely engaged in fostering the peace process in Somalia. It is chaired by Ould Abdallah, the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative for Somalia. The meeting will be opened by Minister Franco Frattini; also taking part will be the Somali Foreign Minister, Abdullahi Omaar. The meeting will enable the parties to examine the most recent developments in Somalia in political and security terms, including measures to combat piracy, and in humanitarian and economic terms also. It will also examine the most suitable instruments to strengthen the Somali Government and Transitional Federal Institutions, especially with respect to the commitments made by the international community at the Brussels Conference of 22-23 April on supporting Somalia's security institutions and AMISOM (the African Union's peace mission in the country).

Earlier a Canadian naval spokesman, Michael McWhinnie, said the nearby container ship MAERSK VIRGINIA, a container vessel flying under the United States flag also had been threatened. MV MAERSK VIRGINIA is a sister vessel to controversial MV MAERSK ALABAMA. The Canadian naval spokesman said HMCS Winnipeg dispatched a helicopter after receiving a distress call, but it was not needed. The Virginia sped up to 21 knots, began evasive maneuvers and notified authorities, the company said. The pirate vessel got within three-quarters of a nautical mile.

Dan Lett, embedded for Canwest News Service on board of HMCS WINNIPEG reported:

With his frantic tone, the captain of the Maria K. left no doubt that he was facing a world of trouble. Without warning, a light-blue skiff with nine pirates fired several rocket- propelled grenades at the freighter. It attempted evasive maneuvers but - being slow and awkward, like most of the merchant vessels plying the trade route through the Gulf of Aden - it was a sitting duck. At the last moment, the pirates disengaged and headed toward another container ship, the U.S.-flagged MAERSK VIRGINIA. Maybe the pirates got close enough to the Maria K. to spot troublesome countermeasures, or maybe the MAERSK VIRGINIA held the promise of better loot. But the chase was on with new quarry. The radio on the bridge of HMCS Winnipeg vibrated with the rapid-fire transmissions between the two merchant ships and several other warships in the area. Although this incident was outside the Winnipeg's patrol box, Commander Craig Baines immediately steered his frigate towards the MAERSK VIRGINIA and sent word to ready Winnipeg's Sea King helicopter for takeoff.

The confrontation, which took place Friday, was unfolding some 112 kilometers north of Winnipeg's position in the sea passage between Somalia and Yemen. At the frigate's top speed of 30 knots, it would take more than two hours to reach the MAERSK VIRGINIA. Fortunately, the helicopter can travel the same distance in about 20 minutes. "There's no question now that we're going to get them", said Baines. "It's only a matter of time". The Canadian captain's confidence was not unfounded. The pirate skiff had, against heavy odds, wandered into an area surrounded by five warships. By the time the Sea King got within 6.4 kilometers of the MAERSK VIRGINIA, an Italian warship, the MAESTRALE, had confronted the skiff with warning shots from its helicopter and repelled the attack. Eventually, the pirates surrendered and, having already ditched all of their weapons, allowed the Italians to board. "It appears the pirates just picked a bad spot today", Baines said with a slight grin.

As he watches and listens to the chatter between warships and merchant vessels, Baines listens carefully to a Judge Advocate General lawyer for the Canadian Forces, Major Warren Fensom, who advises the commander on the legal complexities of the anti-piracy mission. It is unusual to have military lawyer on the front line - but then, this mission is unusually complex. When prosecuting an act of piracy, jurisdiction can be very hard to nail down. Legal jurisdiction can be affected by the flag the merchant ship is flying under, the nationality of the captain and crew, of the ship's owners and even of the owners of the cargo. Jurisdiction is further complicated by the nationality of the warship that responds to the merchant vessel's distress call. And then there are the evidentiary issues. Somali pirates may come from humble origins, but they know enough to frustrate efforts to build a case against them. Once confronted by a warship, a pirate skiff will dump ladders, grappling hooks and other boarding tools into the sea. The ready availability and affordable price of military-grade weaponry on Somalia's black markets make ditching an RPG launcher or AK-47 an easy decision for most pirates. The legal peculiarities of anti-piracy operations came fully into focus following a well-publicized incident on April 18 that saw the HMCS Winnipeg board and detain a pirate skiff. To the amazement of many Canadians, after seizing weaponry and other evidence, the suspects were released. The blowback from this incident was almost immediate. Media commentators from across the country challenged the efficacy of the anti-piracy mission. Ottawa was chastised for running a "catch-and-release" program.

The fact that Canada's Criminal Code allows for prosecution of pirates in Canadian courts caused further confusion. However, a more careful examination of the legal context, and the challenges of mustering evidence in such difficult circumstances, suggests that trying pirates in Canada may not be a good idea. Only two nations are attempting to try alleged Somali pirates - the Netherlands and the United States - and in both instances the trials have unearthed a welter of complex issues [incorrect: France too]. Many worry some of the pirates are too willing to be captured and taken for trial to developed country. Media interviews with the pirates in the Netherlands have suggested that some use prosecution as an opportunity to claim refugee status. This has unleashed a torrent of skepticism about the practical value of prosecution. In Canada's case, a number of legal questions remain unanswered. Would evidence from a search, seizure and arrest of alleged pirates carried out under the terms of a United Nations resolution be considered admissible in a Canadian court governed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

A good defense lawyer could find fertile grounds to challenge the legality of the broad and wide-ranging powers granted to warships in the Gulf of Aden - powers that easily exceed those granted to law-enforcement agencies in Canada. Canada is currently negotiating to have any alleged pirates it detains taken to Kenya for trial. By all accounts, Ottawa began these discussions prior to the arrival of HMCS Winnipeg in the Gulf of Aden. The fact that an accord with Kenya was not in place earlier suggests that Canada, and other NATO countries, may have underestimated the willingness of the Somali pirates to continue attacking merchant vessels after warships populated the region. The fact remains that, while piracy remains a constant threat in this important trade corridor, successful attacks are way down. This suggests that repelling the attacks is practical, even if it doesn't eliminate the threat. However, there is no reason to believe the attacks won't pick up in frequency and ferocity if and when the warships leave the gulf. There are 28 warships here serving in five different international forces, but some, like the NATO group that includes HMCS Winnipeg, are expecting to wind up their operations in June. For now, it appears that international forces charged with repelling the pirate attacks will consider prosecution if necessary, but not necessarily prosecution, to get the job done.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 15 foreign vessels (16 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) with a total of not less than 210 crew members accounted for (of which 59 are confirmed to be Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 116 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 36 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least two wrongful attacks (incl. friendly fire) on the side of the naval forces.

Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures. Piracy incidents usually degrade during the monsoon season in winter and rise gradually by the end of the monsoon season starting from mid February and early April every year.

Present multi-factorial risk assessment code: Yellow (Red = Very much likely, high season; Orange = Reduced risk, but likely, Yellow = significantly reduced risk, but still likely, Blue = possible, Green = unlikely). Allegedly five groups from Puntland alone are still out hunting on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Directly piracy related reports

Gun Control on the High Seas

By John Velleco

Americans received a special gift this Easter Sunday with the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips, who had been held hostage for several days after his ship, the MAERSK ALABAMA, was raided by pirates.

The raiding of the MAERSK created an international crisis and an around the clock media sensation. Millions of people around the globe were riveted to their TVs, praying and hoping for Capt. Phillips´ safety as the U.S. Navy moved massive vessels into the area. In the end, the brave Captain was freed when well-trained U.S. snipers took out three of the four pirates.

The obvious question that was seldom asked during the tense standoff was, "How could so few terrorists (another word for pirates) overtake a vessel crewed by five times as many people?"

After all, couldn´t the crew have just shot the invaders as they tried to board the ship?

Maybe they could have if they had firearms onboard, but container ships like the MAERSK are generally prohibited from carrying firearms because of gun laws in the countries of various ports of departure and entry. Shipping companies and crews don´t dare violate these gun bans because the penalties can be severe.

For example, in Kenya, where the MAERSK was headed, the government is expected to soon make possession of an unlicensed firearm a capital offense. Currently the offense carries a long prison sentence.

And for those who might think a foreign government would never penalize a ship that was obviously armed to repel pirate attacks, consider the case of Australian businessman and yachtsman Chris Packer.

In 2004, Packer was in the midst of an around-the-world tour when his yacht was boarded by government officials at a port in Bali, Indonesia. On board were two pump-action shotguns, a rifle, two pistols and an inoperable antique firearm.

Indonesian authorities contemplated the charge of "gun running", a capital offense. Packer´s firearms, which he declared at other Indonesian ports, were purchased specifically for defense against pirates.

Packer´s friend and former America´s Cup winner, Sir Peter Blake, was shot and killed by pirates who boarded his vessel at the mouth of the Amazon River in 2001. After that incident, Packer delayed his own planned trip to South America in order to obtain arms for protection. Packer´s vessel was twice boarded by pirates, and he believes he would certainly be dead were he not armed.

Packer spent about three months in jail in Bali, never sure he would escape the firing squad. Eventually, authorities in Bali convicted Packer on the lesser charge of not declaring his firearms upon entering the port and released him with time served.

Commercial shipping companies simply can´t risk violating the draconian gun laws of other countries, so they instead run the risk of being defenseless against pirates in hostile waters.

The outrageous but predicable result of laws that are intended to disarm criminals is that gigantic commercial vessels like the MAERSK are vulnerable to attack from small groups of thugs in little motorboats.

The arguments for self-defense firearms possession are the same on the sea as they are on land -- only at sea the need is even greater.

When a criminal attack occurs, almost always the only people present are the thugs and the victims. On land, police are usually minutes away. On the sea, help can be hours or even days away. The sea-terrorists know this, and they know that mariners are normally unarmed.

Ships that are able to employ armed guards have been able to repel pirates. Captain Kelly Sweeney of Washington State told FOX News that armed guards thwarted a pirate attack on a vessel he was on in the Dominican Republic.

Capt. Sweeney´s recipe for self-defense at sea? Either hire armed guards to protect the ship, or else arm the crew members.

Anti-gunners will make the same arguments about arming maritime crew members as they do about arming anyone on land. "Oh, the ships will be more dangerous with all those guns on board". But, as we´ve learned the hard way on both land and sea, "gun free zones" simply make easy targets for criminals.

How was Capt. Phillips ultimately saved? By people armed with rifles. These people happened to be on a Navy ship. If there were no military vessels in the area, the outcome could have been tragically different. As is often the case, the criminal attack ended when armed assailants were met with armed resistance.

While we can´t change the extreme anti-gun laws of other countries, the American government should insist that American-controlled vessels will not be unilaterally disarmed and that crew members will be permitted to carry firearms onboard for their own protection.

Marine ecosystem and IUU fishing

Regulators Are Pushing Bluefin Tuna to the Brink

By Carl Safina, a marine biologist and president of the Blue Ocean Institute, is an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, and a Mac Arthur Fellow. He is the author of the award-winning books Song of the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross.

The international commission charged with protecting the giant blue-fin tuna is once again failing to do its job. Its recent decision to ignore scientists´ recommendations for reducing catch limits may spell doom for this magnificent – and endangered – fish.

It´s one of the biggest, fastest, and most beautiful fish in the sea. It has captured the imaginations of people from Homer to Salvador Dali. But end-times loom for the giant blue-fin tuna, whose chances of survival were greatly diminished in late November by the international commission charged with its care.

Once again, that body – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas – refused to take strong action to prevent the runaway over-fishing of the giant blue-fin tuna in its sole remaining, yet rapidly disappearing, stronghold: the Mediterranean.

One of the sea´s few elite warm-blooded fish, blue-fin tuna can reach three-quarters of a ton, swim at highway speeds, migrate across oceans, and visit coasts of distant continents. They´re also the world´s most valued fish (once they´re dead), and therein they hang by the tail.

Too valuable everywhere to be allowed to live anywhere, the giant blue-fin tuna may be worth more money to a person who kills one than any other animal on the planet, elephants and rhinos included. A few years ago, a single 444-pound blue-fin tuna sold wholesale in Japan for $173,600. One fish.

A 43-nation commission has public-trust management authority and a mandate to conserve. But the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas has for its 40-year history merely acted as the fishing industry´s official, tax-funded conglomerate. Think of it as the International Conspiracy to Catch All the Tuna, and its record starts making sense. The commission´s resume on blue-fin tuna graphs as plunging populations, down more than half in the Mediterranean and now free-falling, and down more than 90 percent in the west Atlantic.

The increasing rarity of blue-fin—and escalating worldwide sushi madness—has only intensified fishing efforts. And as the fish diminish, demand further drives up the price of blue-fin meat. As extinction nears, the fishing keeps escalating.

Fishing has already demolished blue-fin populations. The last few decades have seen gold-rush blue-fin fisheries disappear off Brazil, in the North Sea, and the southwest Pacific. Wherever they still swim, they are aggressively hunted.

Atlantic blue-fin breed in only two places: the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico. From these two spawning areas they migrate throughout the whole North Atlantic, mingling in many fishing areas. But fish from these two populations do not interbreed; they are separate breeding stocks that, when not breeding, mix in many areas where they´re fished.

Either population could thrive or go extinct. Right now, both are in trouble. European and Mediterranean fishing is out of control. But the fish native to the North American side of the ocean are actually faring far worse. Catches reflect these different trajectories. While Europeans are killing almost twice their legal limit, U.S. fishermen are finding only a fraction of the fish they caught just ten years ago. So few fish remain in the west Atlantic´s blue-fin population that in the last few years U.S. commercial blue-fin fishers have been able to catch less than 15 percent of what they were allowed. In a word: collapse.

So, what did fishery managers just do? As they have for 20 years, they ignored their own scientists. For the east Atlantic and Mediterranean, the scientists had recommended drastic and immediate catch reduction from nearly 30,000 tons annually to 15,000 tons. Yet despite official warnings and calls for a catch ban, the sleepwalking ICCAT commissioners on Nov. 25 set the catch limit nearly half again as high: 22,000 tons. Having by incompetence, greed, and reckless industry interference caused the depletion of this magnificent and commercially important fish, the commissioners agreed to ensure further decline.

Excessive catch limits will ultimately prove self-defeating, yet short-term thinking prevails. For the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, ICCAT´s managers have allowed fishermen to catch half again what their own scientists recommended. And fishermen have ended up taking double what they´re allowed (the actual catch in 2008 was 61,000 metric tons), making every second bite at the sushi bar illegal.

What else is going on here? "The EU has bankrolled the decimation of blue-fin stocks by subsidizing the new large fishing vessels that are responsible for over-fishing, to the detriment of certain traditional fishing fleets," said European Parliament member Raül Romeva, who attended the tuna commission meeting. "When the stocks are gone, the same ship owners who lobbied to overexploit blue-fin tuna will come cap in hand for more EU money".

The U.S. has justifiable indignation over catches on the other side of the ocean. Blue-fin tuna originating in the Mediterranean migrate to American fishing grounds, and rampant over-fishing on that side of the Atlantic hurts fishing in U.S. waters. So the U.S. has an immediate interest in trying to inject some sanity to the fishing there.

But the U.S. should also have an interest in fixing its own problems at home, too. And it doesn't. The west Atlantic is fished by the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Japan. These countries agreed last month to cut the catch limit for the western Atlantic from the current 2,100 metric tons to 1,800 metric tons by the year 2010. Noble, right? No, not at all. Here´s the catch, literally: 1,600 tons. That´s the amount caught by the countries fishing the west Atlantic in 2007, a number that is actually less than what the "limit" will be reduced to two years from now. In other words, the limit is higher than the catch, so it´s not a limit at all. Effectively, it´s catch-as-catch-can. And yet in the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration´s press release on the tuna commission meeting´s outcome, America praised itself while expressing "extreme disappointment" at Europe. Finger-pointing by the U.S. obscures the fact that its own Gulf-spawning blue-fin tuna population is in worse shape than the one spawned in the Mediterranean.

Gulf-spawned fish migrate up the east coast and into Canadian waters, spend about 12 years growing up, and then — if they´re still alive — return to the Gulf as giants to spawn. The NOAA press release highlights Europe´s failings (the dodge-tactic pioneered by U.S. fishermen), and most environmental groups join the chorus. But the fact is: While our last few native giants trickle in to the Gulf of Mexico to breed, our own fisheries agency allows U.S. boats to catch spawning fish. They´re allowed to keep one blue-fin per trip while ostensibly fishing for other kinds of fish. But high prices mean the big tuna get targeted. And because they fish with hundreds of hooks and can keep only one blue-fin, they kill — and dump — numerous spawners. If one were designing an extermination campaign, it would work just like this.

The World Conservation Union lists west Atlantic blue-fin tuna as "critically endangered". More dithering could doom the population—and for what? This kind of negligent management drives U.S. boats out of business anyway because ultimately the fish population is lost, and everyone loses. The United States could immediately fix this problem. It has full control of the west Atlantic population´s Gulf of Mexico spawning ground. Yet the killing continues, while U.S. fishery managers stonewall all criticism on the matter.

The United States can — and must now — suspend tuna fishing on the blue-fin tuna´s U.S. spawning grounds during breeding season. Then we need an Atlantic-wide blue-fin tuna fishing moratorium. After years of inaction and continuous decline, letting them spawn free of constant harassment and giving the populations a five-year cease-fire seems the only hope for saving the giant fish.

Conservationists must work to get the west Atlantic blue-fin population listed under the Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, the U.S. should seek legal action against European fishing countries under the Pelly Amendment for undermining the efficacy of officially agreed-to fishing limits. After all, it´s the export to Japan that drives this whole bloody mess, Safina concludes.

And we might add that Japan's unrestricted import of yellow fin tuna - often stolen from Somali waters - via the Indian Ocean States is the key to the criminal tuna-fisheries in Somali waters, carried out often by Taiwanese, Korean and other vessels from rogue states - often enough illegally employing Filipinos and other nationals from poor states under slave-labour conditions - alongside the Spanish, Greek and French connected vessels and their business associates.

Anti-piracy measures

Antipiracy Campaign Hijacks International Law

By Francis Njubi Nesbitt, who teaches politics and conflict resolution at San Diego State University. He is the author of Race for Sanctions: African Americans against Apartheid, 1946-1994 and is completing a book on U.S. policies in the Horn of Africa region.

The anti-piracy campaign is fast becoming a major embarrassment for the new Obama administration. In a rash and misguided move, for instance, the U.S. Navy is preparing to transfer 16 suspects to Kenya for prosecution under a secret agreement signed in January. This is a very bad idea. Eight suspects transferred to Kenya in December under a prior agreement with Britain are already complaining that prison authorities physically abused them.

We know from Obama's recent executive orders that the new administration supports some types of renditions that allowed the CIA to secretly abduct and transfer captives to third countries for interrogation. Although Executive Order 13491 on interrogations created a task force to ensure that captives were not transferred to countries where they might be tortured, the anti-piracy transfers seem to contradict the spirit of this order.

Plans to transfer captives to Kenya and other U.S. allies in the region under secret agreements threaten to further destabilize the region. The secrecy and implied impunity with which the anti-piracy campaign is being conducted are already fanning suspicions and resentments in the region. In 2007, human rights groups in the region accused the U.S. of instigating the abduction and rendition of over 80 Somali suspects from Kenya to Somalia and then to Ethiopia where some claim they were tortured. This new agreement with Kenya should be examined in this context.

Anti-piracy rendition policy is operating under cover of a United Nations Security Council resolution 1851 (16 December 2008) that gave authority to "states and regional organizations able to do so" to pursue and arrest suspected pirates on Somalia waters and territory. Resolution 1851 basically announced open season on Somalia for any "state or regional organization" able to violate the country's sovereignty. Foreign forces can now invade Somalia territory with impunity so long as they claim to be pursuing suspected pirates. The lawless atmosphere has already attracted mercenaries and other assorted adventurers and profiteers. With this resolution the U.N. has become part of the problem in the region despite Secretary General Ban Ki- moon's admonition that piracy should be placed in the context of an "inclusive peace process".

To make matters worse, the resolution also invited these states and organizations to "conclude special agreements" with countries willing to prosecute the suspects. This broad delegation of legal powers to faceless and unspecified "states and organizations" is shockingly irresponsible behavior by the most powerful body of the United Nations. It is an abdication of responsibility that allows powerful nations and unspecified "organizations" to run rough shod over Somalia territory.

On 16 February 2009, the International Commission of Jurists released a major report Assessing Damage, Urging Action, on the serious damage done to international law by temporary exemptions granted in the name of counterterrorism. According to Justice Arthur Chaskalson, the chair of the panel of eminent judges and lawyers who conducted the three-year study: "Many governments, ignoring the lessons of history, have allowed themselves to be rushed into hasty values and violated human rights". The panel warned that "temporary" counterterrorism exceptions were becoming permanent features of international and national law. They urged the international community to repeal abusive policies and practices such as renditions, torture, secret detentions, unfair trials and impunity for human rights violations. This is the context in which the anti-piracy laws are being enacted. The panel argues that "the change in the U.S. administration provides a unique opportunity for change" by restoring longstanding international norms. Unfortunately, recent actions by the U.S. in the anti-piracy campaign continue to undermine human rights laws and norms.

Transferring suspects to Kenya and other U.S. allies in the region could expose them to conditions that could expose them to physical harm. Kenya's justice system is known to be extremely slow and inefficient and its prisons overcrowded. Judges and prosecutors are overworked and susceptible to political and economic threats and inducements. At the same time, the agreement invites retaliatory attacks from Islamists who blame Kenya for facilitating U.S. intervention in the region. It is instructive that threats to Kenya have increased since the anti-piracy campaign started. The Obama administration needs to rethink this suspect transfer policy if it wants to avoid another embarrassing fiasco involving allegations of torture and violation of human rights.

The dilemma for the Obama team is that the suspects cannot be turned over to the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia because it would violate Article 3 of the Convention on Torture that prohibits transfer of prisoners to countries where they are in danger of facing serious human rights violations such as torture, serious injury or death. European and U.S. courts could try the suspects but the cases may be difficult to prosecute successfully in legal systems that protect suspects' rights. In addition, there is the fear that the Somali individuals involved could claim asylum after serving their sentences since deportation back to Somalia is not an option. Faced with this dilemma, the anti-piracy campaign proposes to try the suspects in the region. This may be a worse option than the current practice of dropping suspected pirates off on isolated beaches along Somalia's 1,800-miles coastline.

Instead of making Somalia a free fire zone and destabilizing the region further by dumping piracy suspects on countries such as Kenya, the international community should consider putting together a multifaceted campaign to tackle the complex security problems in south central Somalia. This campaign should include a multinational force with powers (and resources) beyond those of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The problems of piracy, anarchy, poverty and hunger are interrelated and cannot be contained without a political settlement and a credible ceasefire that can then be followed by deployment of a peacekeeping force. The long-term goal should be strengthen the security forces of the state by providing funding, training and equipment.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U. N., recently signaled a continuation of the gradualist Bush policy in the region by pressuring Nigeria to fulfill its promise to send peacekeeping troops to Somalia. Nigeria demurred, however, arguing that it lacks the capacity to deliver the troops. This is a slow start indeed for an administration that promised bold measures on the international arena. AMISOM is under-funded, understaffed and undermanned. It lacks the resources to have any impact on the conflict. The Obama team should be talking about brokering a ceasefire first and then providing funding, logistical support, training and equipment to AMISOM in the immediate future while preparing for a fully-fledged United Nations peacekeeping/enforcement operation. Only a political settlement will create the conditions for a successful peacekeeping operation. The only way to reach a credible political settlement, however, is to bring all stakeholders to the table. Thus the Obama team will have to revise the Bush administration's blacklist of untouchable militia. After all, the U.S. is known to have associated itself with considerably less savory warlords just three years ago.

The U.S., E.U., China and other stakeholders need to stop looking at Somalia through the lens of trade and take serious steps to stabilize the situation in the region or face further threats to international security. The root causes of violence and piracy are the anarchy and lawlessness that have plagued southern Somalia for 17 years. These countries have already shown their ability to mobilize tremendous resources in record time to fight piracy. Its time similar assets and will were redirected toward dealing with the root causes rather than the symptoms.

Meanwhile the anti-piracy campaign must not be used to violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia. U.N. Resolution 1851 should not be renewed. All anti-piracy actions must conform to international law including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, the U.N. Convention on Torture and the 1948 International Convention on Human Rights. The days of forming international posses to hunt down and lynch pirates should have been over by now. Measures should be taken to protect Somalia's rights to its offshore natural resources including fisheries. With respect to individuals suspected of piracy, an international tribunal such as those established to try suspects implicated in the Rwanda and Kosovo conflicts would insulate countries such as Kenya from blame and would be more appropriate than the current ad hoc and corporate centered development of international customary law.

Already in December last year NWV News Director, Jim Kouri warned:

UN Security Council Authorizes Violation of Nations´ Sovereignty

NewsWithViews.com's news director participated in the United Nations press conference regarding the passage of a resolution that is sure to cause distress to many conservatives in the United States.

The United Nations Security Council announced that it decided that, for the next year, States and regional organizations cooperating in the fight against piracy and armed robbery at sea off Somalia´s coast -- for which prior notification had been provided by Somalia´s Transitional Federal Government to the Secretary-General -- could undertake all necessary measures "appropriate in Somalia", to interdict those using Somali territory to plan, facilitate or undertake such acts.

While many observers believe piracy should be curtailed with all the force necessary, they also believe it is not the role of the UN to decide when or where such action is appropriate.

"The United Nations Security Council is not in-charge of sovereign countries and they shouldn't be the organization that allows such actions", said political strategist Mike Baker.

"I'm all for using adequate force against terrorists and pirates, but I'm not for gaining the blessings of a corrupt organization such as the United Nations", said Baker.

Acting under Chapter VII through the unanimous adoption of United States-led resolution 1851 (2008), the Council called on those States and organizations able to do so to actively participate in defeating piracy and armed robbery off Somalia´s coast by deploying naval vessels and military aircraft, and through seizure and disposition of boats and arms used in the commission of those crimes, following on a 9 December 2008 letter from the Transitional Federal Government for international assistance to counter the surge in piracy and armed robbery there.

The Council invited all such States and regional organizations to conclude special agreements or arrangements with countries willing to take custody of pirates in order to embark law enforcement officials, known as "ship-riders," from the latter countries to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of persons detained as a result of operations conducted under this resolution.

In a related provision, those States and regional organizations were encouraged to establish an international cooperation mechanism to act as a common point of contact among them on all aspects of that fight.

The Council affirmed that the authorization provided in the resolution applied only to the situation in Somalia and did not affect the rights or obligations or responsibilities of Member States under international law, including under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, with respect to any other situation. It underscored that the resolution did not establish customary international law.

Following adoption of the resolution, the Secretary-General, briefing the Council on the political and security situation, said he shared the deep concern of Member States at the escalation of piracy and armed robbery off Somalia´s coast and he welcomed the Council´s actions, adding that he was particularly impressed by the actions of Member States and international organizations to pool their efforts and resources to fight that scourge.

However, he said that everyone must be mindful that piracy was a symptom of the state of anarchy that had persisted in Somalia for more than 17 years. Anti-piracy efforts, therefore, must be placed in the context of a comprehensive approach that fostered an inclusive peace process in Somalia and assisted the parties to rebuild security, governance capacity, addressed human rights issues and harnessed economic opportunities throughout the country.

He appealed to the leaders and Somali people to give peace a chance and put the 17 years of war behind them, and to the international community to send a positive signal today to the Somali people and the African Union that it was willing to provide a security path that would complement the political compromises reached through the Djibouti process, he said, adding "we must act before it is too late".

Turning to security arrangements, he stressed that the most appropriate response to the complex security challenges in Somalia was a multinational force, rather than a typical peacekeeping operation. But, in the absence of adequate pledges for a multinational force, he would propose to the Council three concrete measures that would provide the necessary security arrangements in support of the Djibouti process. If successful, those would pave the way for the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation, in keeping with resolution 1814 (2008).

The objective was to stabilize Somalia and find a durable solution to the crisis in that country, and he said he was of the view that strengthening the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) through, among other things, the provision of financing, logistical support, necessary training and equipment and other reinforcements, facilitated by the United Nations and Member States, was the realistic option at present. He was, however, continuing contingency planning for the deployment of a fully fledged United Nations peacekeeping operation at the appropriate time and under the right conditions, and he would soon provide a detailed report to the Council covering those proposals.

The UN resolution won unanimous support, with most Council members saying they had voted in favor of the text because they sought robust action to address that serious threat off Somalia´s coast and they welcomed the practical measures that had been agreed. The need to address the root of the piracy problem -- namely the poverty and lawlessness that had plagued Somalia for decades -- and to not look at it through the prism of international trade alone was also emphasized. Still other speakers underscored that actions to combat the dangerous phenomenon must conform to international law standards, including the Law of the Sea Convention.

The Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Union, whose mission had been on the ground in Somalia for the past two years, said the twin problems of piracy and terrorism were a symptom of a larger problem: lawlessness in south central Somalia, which must be addressed. He cautioned that, if Somalia were allowed to sink, while partners in the international community were mobilizing tremendous assets to combat piracy, world security would be severely undermined.

He called for additional political support for AMISOM and reiterated his support for a fully fledged United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia as soon as possible, which would incorporate an enhanced AMISOM. He urged the Council to take decisive steps to avoid a security vacuum, pledging that the African Union was ready to make additional sacrifices in Somalia, within the context of more effective international support.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia said his country had no capacity to interdict or patrol its long coastline to ensure the security of the sea, but it had cooperated with the international community in that fight and it would continue to do so fully, now and in the future. That was why it supported resolution 1851.

However, he stressed the importance of adopting a comprehensive and holistic strategy to the Somalia problem -- as piracy and terrorism and the humanitarian emergency were part of the whole problem that existed since the collapse of the Government in 1991. If that premise was accepted, there should be no difficulty in seeing a real way to tackling piracy and real instability in his country.

The most effective way was for the Security Council to take immediate measures, hopefully before the end of the year, when AMISOM´s mandate was to be reviewed -- to authorize a robust peacekeeping operation, he asserted. The undermanned AMISOM contingent could become the nucleus of that new United Nations force. The aim should be to strengthen the Somali State by strengthening its security forces through the provision of forces, training and equipment.

No real peace in sight yet

A suicide car bomber killed seven people and wounded five others in an attack on a Somali government military base Sunday, the base commander said in Mogadishu, where hard line Islamist insurgents and pro-government forces fired shells at each other for a third day running. The attack is the first suicide bombing on a government military establishment since the Western-backed transitional administration of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed came into office in January, correspondents in the capital said. The attacker, driving a Toyota Land cruiser 4x4, rammed into the base near the port of Mogadishu, killing at least six soldiers and a civilian and wounding five others. "There was a suicide car bomb in our camp today and we lost six soldiers in the attack and one civilian also died nearby", said Lieutenant-Colonel Abdulahi Ousman Agey, said the commander of Hamadhwr camp near the Somali seaport. "The bomber tried to enter inside the camp but he was stopped by the guards and exploded his car", he told reporters. Earlier a deputy mayor of Mogadishu, Abdi Fatah Shaweye, suggested the bomber was a white foreigner. But the base commander said the attacker was later identified as Somali. "After we have seen and investigated his body, we have confirmed that the suicide bomber was Somali", Agey said. News of this latest attack came a day after a U.S. counter-terrorism official said U.S. nationals had likely joined the ranks of insurgents in Somalia. After heavy fighting on Friday and Saturday, the two sides resumed lobbing shells at each other on Sunday afternoon. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but al-Shabab fighters linked to al-Qaeda and Hizbul Islam forces have stepped up their campaign to topple the government of Sharif Ahmed, the Somali president, in recent weeks.

During a lull in the fighting on Saturday at least 8,000 people joined around 45 thousand of others civilians that have fled the city, a UN official from the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed. "I call on the international community and the aid agencies to react very urgently to the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia", Mohamud Abdi Ibrahim, Somalia's minister for humanitarian affairs, said. Barigye Bahoku, the AU peacekeeping force spokesman in Mogadishu, told Al Jazeera that despite the heavy fighting there was little his forces could do to protect civilians. "What can we do? We are doing what we were mandated to do. We cannot adjust our mandate or operate outside it", he said. "We feel frustrated; we feel anger that the whole of this world is being held at ransom by about 2,000 armed people beginning with their own nationals - the Somalis - and ... the impact is felt by the rest of the world, including you and me".

Meanwhile a Cabinet minister in Somalia's weak interim government has warned local and international aid agencies not to stockpile aid supplies, Radio Garowe reports. Dr. Mohamud Abdi "Garweyne", the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, told a Sunday press conference in the capital Mogadishu that any agency that does not supply needy families will "face punishment". "We wish to inform the world that aid agencies are stockpiling aid supplies, such as food, medicines and tents...any aid group that is caught [in this act] will face punishment", the Minister said, although he did not elaborate or name specific aid groups. He noted that there is "no security reasons" for aid groups to stockpile humanitarian supplies, while urging any group that is unable to deliver supplies to needy families to "transfer to a group that can deliver supplies". Separately, Minister Garweyne said many regions in Somalia are currently undergoing a drought while others face torrential rains and floods that cost lives and property. He sent condolences to families who lost loved ones in floods on May 21 and May 22, where at least 12 people died.

Document

The Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), at its 190th meeting held on 22 May 2009, considered the situation in Somalia in light of the outcome of the 33rd Extraordinary Session of the IGAD Council of Ministers on the security and political situation in Somalia, held in Addis Ababa on 20 May 2009.

Council,

1. Recalls the press statements issued by the Chairperson of the Commission on 12 and 19 May 2009, as well as its earlier communiqués on the situation in Somalia;

2. Welcomes the convening of the Extraordinary Session of the IGAD Council of Ministers, expresses its strong support to the communiqué adopted on that occasion and reiterates its full support to the efforts being made by IGAD in support of the peace process, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the people of Somalia in the face of the aggression perpetrated against them;

3. Strongly condemns the aggression perpetrated against the TFG of Somalia and the civilian population in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia by armed groups, including foreign elements, bent on undermining the peace and reconciliation process, as well as regional stability. Council expresses deep concern at the increased presence of foreign elements in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia, as corroborated by the United Nations Secretary-General in his report of 16 April 2009;

4. Also expresses deep concern at the reports regarding the support provided to these armed groups, through training, provision of weapons and ammunitions and funding, by external actors, including Eritrea, in flagrant violation of the United Nations arms embargo. Council notes the condemnation by the IGAD Extraordinary Session of Eritrea, as contained in paragraphs 5 and 6 of its communiqué, for its actions in support of the armed groups operating in Somalia, including its calls for the overthrow of the TFG;

5. Requests the United Nations Security Council, in line with the relevant provisions of the IGAD communiqué, to: (i) take immediate measures, including the imposition of a no-fly zone and blockade of sea ports, to prevent the entry of foreign elements into Somalia, as well as flights and shipments carrying weapons and ammunitions to armed groups inside Somalia which are carrying out attacks against the TFG, the civilian population and AMISOM, (ii) impose sanctions against all those foreign actors, both within and outside the region, specially Eritrea, providing support to the armed groups engaged in destabilization activities in Somalia, attacks against the TFG, the civilian population and AMISOM, as well as against all the Somali individuals and entities working towards undermining the peace and reconciliation efforts and regional stability;

6. Demands that the armed groups currently involved in attacks against the TFG, the civilian population and AMISOM, immediately put an end to their actions, which are tantamount to an attempt at unconstitutional change of Government, in violation of the relevant AU instruments;

7. Reiterates its call to all the Somali parties who have not yet done so, to join the peace process without any further delay;

8. Appeals to all the AU Member States to urgently provide all the required support, including military, to the TFG to enable it neutralize the armed elements carrying out attacks against it;

9. Stresses the need for all concerned, both within the region and outside, to refrain from any action likely to undermine the ongoing efforts and threaten the security of AMISOM personnel, including through provision of equipment, funds and other forms of support to the armed groups opposed to the TFG. Council requests the Chairperson of the Commission to reach out to all concerned to convey the AU position, which, in line with that of IGAD, is to fully support the TFG, as the legitimate authority of Somalia, and reverse the aggression perpetrated against the TFG and the Somali people;

10. Expresses deep concern at the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia, and calls on AU Member States and the international community at large to urgently provide needed support to address the situation;

11. Reiterates its appreciation to the Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) and AMISOM, as well as to all countries and institutions providing support to the Mission. Council welcomes the pledge by Sierra Leone to contribute one battalion to AMISOM and urges AU Member States and partners to provide the required logistical support for the early deployment of this battalion. Furthermore, Council urges the AU Member States that have pledged troops to AMISOM to urgently deploy them. Council strongly condemns all attempts to demonize AMISOM and the TCCs;

12. Welcomes the outcome of the Pledging Conference for Somalia held in Brussels, Belgium, from 22 to 23 April 2009, commends all the countries and organizations that have announced contributions and stresses the need for the speedy fulfillment of the pledges made to facilitate the ongoing efforts to strengthen AMISOM and the Somali security institutions;

13. Reaffirms the determination of the AU to do everything in its power to sustain the ongoing peace and reconciliation efforts, support the TFG and to remain engaged in Somalia, in particular through the continued and strengthened presence of AMISOM, pending the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation;

14. Agrees to reconvene in mid-June 2009, to review comprehensively, on the basis of the report to be submitted by the Chairperson of the Commission, the situation in Somalia and take the required decisions, particularly with respect to the renewal and the need to strengthen the mandate of AMISOM;

15. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

Somalia Vindicated By IGAD Proposed Sanctions on Eritrea, Says Minister

Somalia's new government has welcomed calls by neighboring countries for the United Nations to impose an air and sea blockade to prevent hard line Islamic insurgents from easily getting access to weapons and fighters, according to Voice of America. Mogadishu also said it was pleased with the fact that neighboring countries constituting the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have called for sanctions on neighboring Eritrea for supporting Somali insurgents.

Somalia has often accused Eritrea of supporting hard line Islamic insurgents including al-Shabaab who have vowed to eventually take over the country through violence. Eritrea denies the charges as unfounded. Abdi Kadir Walayo is the spokesman for the Somali government. He told VOA that Mogadishu is grateful for the support shown by IGAD. "The government welcomes that decision and it will help also to curtail those elements who engaged in subversive acts against the government and detrimental to the stability and the security of this country", Walayo said. He said Mogadishu feels vindicated by IGAD's call for the United Nations to impose sanctions on neighboring Eritrea for its support of hard line Islamic insurgents including al-Shabaab. "Yes, as you are aware to the fact that the internal security minister of Somalia had weeks ago leveled these accusations to Eritrea", he said. Walayo said Asmara has often refused to recognize the new Somali administration. "Eritrea has nakedly accused that there is no government in Somalia. And it was denying completely the incumbent government and because of that hostile position taken by Eritrea government, the (Somali) government supports that decision (sanctions) Vis a Vis to Asmara", Walayo said.

He said Mogadishu supports organizations including aid groups who are there to be helping the ordinary Somali adversely affected by the insurgency of the hard line Islamists. "The government has imposed any restrictions about flights intended for humanitarian grounds to the ports to the many people scattered throughout the country… that blockade will not touch the humanitarian assistance", he said. Walayo said the government has plans to restore peace to the country after at least 18 years without an effective government which led to a deterioration of stability. "The government position is so clear and now the government is busy with restructuring the security agencies of the country", Walayo said. He said the government has set in motion moves to restore peace in Somalia. "There is a national security plan now in process and there is training program for the Somali security forces. There are some who have returned from abroad like Uganda and also like Sudan and these people may take part on the maintenance of peace and security in the country", he said.

He said it was too early to know when the United Nations would implement suggestions of IGAD to impose sanctions on neighboring Eritrea among others. "I cannot predict what will happen, but this agreement reached by IGAD members I think is the best to pressurize the UN Security Council to adopt the IGAD entity which I think they will present through the African Union to the Security Council desk", he said. There has been a United Nations arms embargo on Somalia for many years although indications are that weapons are readily available for hard line Islamic insurgents who are determined to overthrow the Somali government. Described by Washington as a terrorist organization with strong ties to Al Qaeda, al-Shabaab has refused to recognize the new Somali government vowing to violently take over the country and impose the strict form of the Islamic Sharia law.

Eritrea hit back Saturday at charges it is backing Islamist insurgents in Somalia, blaming its chief accuser instead of being chiefly responsible for the mess there. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a six-nation east African regional body, called Wednesday on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Asmara - RTT reports - a position backed on Friday by the African Union. Eritrea retaliated on Saturday, saying it was IGAD that was to blame. "This is an irresponsible resolution by an inept organization which bears primary responsibility for the current mayhem and crisis in Somalia", the Eritrean foreign affairs ministry said in a statement. Eritrea, which pulled out of IGAD in 2007, said neighbouring states had backed Ethiopia's invasion in 2006 and thereby worsened the situation in war-ravaged Somalia. "What was morally more reprehensible than Ethiopia's invasion was the 'endorsement' of this flagrant breach of international law and the charter of IGAD by several member states of this defunct organization", it added.

Ethiopian troops rolled into Somalia in late 2006 to buttress the embattled government against radical Islamist insurgents. They pulled out early this year, but witnesses reported seeing some Ethiopian troops crossing back in recent days. Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been tense ever since a devastating border war in the late 1990s in which tens of thousands of people died. Eritrea's U.N. Ambassador said his country has been falsely accused of supplying arms to Islamist militants intent on toppling Somalia's new government, according to a letter released on Friday. "I wish to put on record my government's strong opposition to, and categorical rejection of, the unsubstantiated accusations leveled against my country", Eritrean Ambassador Araya Desta wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council, dated May 20. Somalia has accused Eritrea of supporting al Shabaab insurgents with planeloads of AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons. Eritrea has repeatedly rejected the accusations. Eritrea is "appalled by the unwarranted decision of the Security Council to accuse a member state on the basis of "reports"" Desta wrote in his letter to the council. Meanwhile Eritrea, which denies supporting the armed opposition in Somalia, has recalled its AU ambassador in response.

53 Somalis killed in latest fighting

Somali insurgents said they remained in control Saturday of areas of Mogadishu that government troops had battled to regain, AP reports. The heavy fighting killed 53 people in the capital in a single day, a human rights group said. In addition to the dead, 181 people were wounded during Friday's offensive by the U.N.-backed government, said Ali Sheik Yasi, deputy chairman of Elman Human Rights Organization. The center of the city was heavily shelled. Both sides fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and truck-mounted anti-aircraft missiles into residential areas. The government was not immediately available for comment on the current situation. Resident Abdi Haji said there was no fighting on Saturday and that the insurgents appeared to remain in control. The Elman rights group, which collates casualty figures based on interviews with health officials, morgues and witnesses, said more than 150 people have been killed since the latest round of fighting began two weeks ago.

The Islamic insurgents had captured several strategic locations in Mogadishu. Despite successes, they failed to gain control of key installations including the airport and presidential palace, which are guarded by African Union peacekeepers. Hassan Mahdi, a spokesman for the insurgent alliance known as the Islamic Party, said government soldiers on Friday tried to push the rebels away from neighborhoods they had recently gained, but that the Islamists held their positions. The two main Islamist insurgent groups, the Islamic Party and al-Shabab, formed an alliance a month ago. Although the two groups have differing aims, they agreed to work together to overthrow Somalia's new government, headed by their former ally President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. They consider Ahmed a traitor for signing a peace deal with the previous administration which paved the way for him to become president. The U.N. has said some 49,000 people had fled the capital, and the humanitarian situation was dire. Many families camped out under trees or by the side of roads, sheltered by nothing more than a few scraps of plastic, without access to food or water. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator then turned on each other.

Somali government's security forces on Friday launched a major counter attack on the Islamist rebels who have managed to capture almost a third of the capital city of Mogadishu in a major offensive launched last week. Officials said that the latest attack by pro-government forces on the militants is aimed at recapturing the areas captured by the rebels in their recent offensive, adding that the latest fighting centered around the one of the city's main roads. Meanwhile, military sources said that the latest operation would last until the pro-government forces succeed in their efforts to flush out the Islamist insurgents from the capital city.

Also, official sources indicated that the African Union peacekeeping force deployed in the country to support the western-backed interim government was not involved in the latest offensive launched by the pro-government sources.

The Islamist militants had launched a major offensive last week for overthrowing Somalia's interim government led by President Ahmed, who had agreed in March to enforce Islamic law in the country to appease the militants after they seized control of many major towns in southern and central Somalia, including Baidoa, the seat of the Somali interim government. Officials say that more than a hundred people have been killed and over 45,000 others displaced from Mogadishu after a combined force of two militant Islamic groups, al-Shabab and Hisbul-Islam, launched the anti-government offensive ten days ago. Al-Shabaab, a military wing of the Islamist movement ousted by Ethiopia-backed Somali forces two years ago, and several other allied militants groups have opposed past UN-sponsored reconciliation efforts in Somalia, insisting that they will negotiate with the country's transitional government only after the AU peacekeeping mission leaves Somalia.

Somali President Sheikh Ahmed says that the AU peacekeeping are in Somalia because of a request from the government of his predecessor, Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed, and has said that he will request the AU peacekeeping forces to leave once there is a solid political solution to the conflict. Currently, a 4,300-strong AU force is struggling with their peacekeeping efforts in Somalia after the ousted Islamist fighters turned to guerrilla warfare against the government and AU troops. So far only Uganda and Burundi have contributed troops to the AU peacekeeping force, which was initially planned to have a strength of over 8,000. Their struggle worsened after Ethiopia, which had sent thousands of its soldiers to Somalia in December 2006 to assist the weak interim government in its fight against the powerful Islamic militia there, withdrew its forces from the Horn of Africa country earlier in the year. Somalia has not had a functioning government after the fall of the last government in 1991. It is estimated the fighting between the Islamist insurgents and the army coalition has killed thousands of Somalis and displaced hundreds of thousands more, mostly from Mogadishu.

Somali journalist dies in war in Somalia

Editor Abdirahman Yusuf Al-Adala of the Shabelle Media Network says Abdirisaq Warsame Mohamed was killed by a stray bullet during heavy fighting between government troops and Islamist insurgents, as he headed to work on Friday reported the independent radio station. Residents say hundreds of government troops have attacked positions held by Islamist fighters in the south and north of the Somali capital. Resident Abdi Haji, according to AP, said government troops captured strategic parts of the Wadnaha road which the troops lost to Islamist fighters earlier this month. Wadnaha, which connects the north and south of the city, is one of the four major roads in Mogadishu.

Whoever controls it will occupy strategic defensive positions. Two foreign journalists are still held hostage inside Somalia. Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan and Canadian freelancer Amanda Lindhout were kidnapped in Somalia last August, and remain captive. While the family of the Australian recently spoke out against the shoddy work by Australian officials to secure his freedom, nobody actually knows who is fighting to save the Canadian journalist - the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who had been on the case, are mum.

As resistance grows in Somalia

Imperialists send more ships

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire

A newly reconfigured Transitional Federal Government established during early 2009 in Somalia has lost control of large areas of the country to the al-Shabab and Hisbul Islam resistance organizations. On May 17 and 18, the towns of Jowhar and Mahaday north of Mogadishu, the capital, fell to al-Shabab.

These developments represent a tremendous blow to the TFG, headed by Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who was brought into the governing coalition after previously serving as one of the important leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts (ICU). The ICU has split over support of the government headed by President Ahmed, who was a middle-of-the-road figure in the alliance of organizations that took control of large sections of the country prior to the Ethiopian invasion and occupation in December 2006.

The ICU fought against the Ethiopian intervention, which was encouraged, financed and orchestrated by the United States. With the intensification of fighting and the efforts of the U.S. to broker a peace settlement in the country, the al-Shabab youth wing of the IUC took over leadership in the fighting against the Ethiopian military. It refused to enter into the new TFG because of the latter´s alliance with the U.S. and the continued presence of African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi in Mogadishu.

Ethiopian troops pulled out of Somalia in January. The initial policy of the Ahmed government was to seek reconciliation with al-Shabab and the recently formed Hisbul Islam. However, in recent weeks, the TFG has called upon Somalis to support the government and take up arms against the resistance groups, which the U.S. has labeled as al-Qaeda affiliates.

It was reported that on April 13 Col. Omar Hashi Adan, an ally of President Ahmed who served as a former commander of the militias of the ICU, spoke to supporters stating that "government troops are expected to wage war on the opposition who are still fighting in Mogadishu and other parts of the country and who have refused to accept the peace". (Garowe Online, May 15)

On April 18 fighting erupted between remnants of the ICU, who have served as the dwindling backbone of military support to the TFG, and al-Shabab forces in southern Mogadishu. A residence that reportedly housed al-Shabab fighters was bombed. In response Sheikh Mohamed Mohamud Jimale, a military supporter of the TFG, was gunned down.

During the last week of April, another former ICU leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who heads the Eritrean-based Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARSA) and represents the most significant component of the Hizbul Islam, returned to Mogadishu after being in exile during the Ethiopian occupation. The TFG claimed that Aweys´ return was aimed at seeking reconciliation with the Ahmed government.

However, on April 25 Aweys articulated his view of the current situation in Somalia. He stated that his supporters did not recognize the TFG due to the fact that it was "not a sovereign government and is commanded by foreign powers". (Garowe Online, May 15)

On May 16, the U.S. and the United Nations accused the Eritrean government of supplying arms to the resistance fighters in Somalia. The Obama administration´s top State Department official on African Affairs, Jonnie Carson, told the BBC that evidence suggested that Eritrea was providing weapons and munitions to al-Shabab.

The Eritrean ambassador to the U.N., Araya Desta, rejected the charges. In a May 16 BBC interview, Desta asked: "Why do we have to support factions in Somalia? This accusation is always cooked by some neighboring countries and some big powers in order to defame Eritrea. How do they know that Eritrea has sent weapons to Somalia, through which areas have these planes flown? ... As you know the American army is in Djibouti, the French are in Djibouti and they control everything in the sea as well as in the land"

The current regime in Somalia is precarious. Reporter Stephanie McCrummen writes: "Ahmed´s government, while popular with many Somalis, directly controls only Mogadishu´s airport, its seaport and a small corner of the ruined city where the presidential palace is fortified by 4,000 African Union peacekeepers in something akin to Baghdad´s Green Zone. Ahmed has remained sequestered there for most of the past week". (Washington Post, May 18)

The ´anti-piracy´ campaign

The U.S. government has vowed to pursue the prosecution of a 16-year-old Somali national who was taken into custody by the U.S. Navy after a failed negotiation aimed at the release of the Danish-owned and U.S.-flagged MAERSK ALABAMA. Three other Somalis were killed by the Navy after they sought to negotiate an end to the vessel seizure on April 12.

Abdiwali Muse was charged on April 21 with piracy and four other counts that include conspiracy to commit hostage-taking. Muse is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.

U.S. Magistrate Andrew Peck completely dismissed the defense argument that Muse is a juvenile and declared without any evidence that he is 18 and must be tried as an adult under slave-era laws developed during the 19th century.

Muse, who could face life in prison if convicted, has gained the support of the Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) youth organization, which issued a statement in his defense. The mother of Muse has appealed to the Obama administration to release her son because she claims that he is a child and was misled by his colleagues.

In a similar case in the Netherlands where five Somalis are being prosecuted for alleged "piracy," defense lawyers have described the defendants as modern-day "Robin Hoods" The government of the Netherlands has agreed to prosecute them under a 17th-century law against "sea robbery" due to the fact that the vessel, the Sumanyulo, was registered in a Dutch-controlled area of the Caribbean. (Associated Press, May 18)

Also, the European Union (EU) says it will expand its naval presence in the Indian Ocean around the Seychelles islands, some 1,100 miles off the coast of Somalia.

An EU flotilla, accompanied by both NATO and U.S. ships, will patrol the Gulf of Aden, where most of the vessel seizures have taken place. The EU segment of the operation is the first naval operation launched in its history.

The U.S. Navy has increased its presence as well in the waters off the Horn of Africa. Other efforts are underway to establish a so-called "piracy tribunal" in the U.S.-backed nation of Kenya in east Africa.

These efforts by U.S. imperialism and its allies are designed to continue plans to take control of the Horn of Africa, including Somalia. Utilizing the pretext of fighting "terrorism" on land and "piracy" at sea, the U.S. administration under Obama is maintaining the same foreign policy as the previous government headed by George Bush, which targeted Somalia and the region of east Africa for regime change and the establishment of a permanent military presence in this area of the African continent.

More attention to Somali human traffickers needed.

Despite the extensive presence of international forces in the Gulf of Aden to fight Somali pirates, not enough attention is paid to the little overloaded boats involved in human trafficking that cross its waters, says Médecins Sans Frontières in Yemen. "While the international community mobilizes itself to protect commercial shipping off Somalia´s shores, little, if anything, has been done for people uprooted by the conflict", said Francisco Otero, head mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Yemen.

The ongoing tragedy of Somalis suffering a vicious war, hunger, malnutrition, grinding poverty, disease and lawlessness has led to the massive displacement of civilians, many of whom are desperately seeking safety outside the country, said Otero. "Tens of thousands of people fleeing war or extreme poverty are placing their lives in the hands of merciless smugglers who ferry them from Somalia´s northern coast through the Gulf of Aden to Yemen", he said. Some United Nation experts have even warned that smugglers may turn out to be pirates themselves: "We don´t have sturdy evidence, but there are signs that some smugglers are involved in piracy", said Claire Bourgeois, United Nations High Commissariat for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Yemen. She said that the smugglers use African immigrants to distract the international forces, as they collect information about marine traffic during their journey across to Yemen. They also can use the African migrants as human shields when they encounter the marine forces, she said.

On March 21, a French warship came across a fully overloaded boat carrying about 100 people. The boat capsized and eight people drowned, when the refugees all moved at the same time to one side upon disembarking. Later the boat was dragged to the Yemeni port of Aden, where weapons were found, indicate that the smugglers, who had charged the immigrants a lot of money for the illegal crossing, were also pirates. For roughly USD50 to USD120 per person, a huge sum in Somalia, the smugglers accept to take passenger across the sea in small boats, which are often barely seaworthy, and it is rarely that these passengers make it. Boats regularly leave the port of Bossasso in Somalia.

Passengers say that more than 100 people are routinely packed into the 30 to 40 person vessels. Some suffocate and others are beaten to death by the armed smugglers. To avoid detection, the smugglers force passengers into the water far from the beach, often under cover of darkness. As many can´t swim and those who can become disoriented, death by drowning is routine.

One 40 year-old mother described her harrowing experience in January to the Doctors Without Borders team in southern Yemen providing medical care to those who make it to the beaches alive: "It was very crowded… you feel yourself suffocating. As the boat was coming towards the shore, my husband was getting the children ready. Then suddenly the smugglers threw him into the sea. He resisted, holding on to the boat, but they stabbed him. The smugglers threw my two daughters into the sea. There was a young man who could swim very well who helped my children. In the morning I saw the dead body of my husband".

According to UHCR, more than 50,000 people -Somalis, and Ethiopians fleeing impoverishment or persecution-attempted the journey across the Mandab Strait in 2008. Up to 600 drowning deaths were recorded, and 359 people were reported missing.

"The total figures are likely too low, as Yemen´s extensive coastline prohibits a complete accounting of all arrivals, dead or alive", commented the head of mission for MSF in Yemen.

"Measures should be taken at the source", he said, adding that since most of the boats launch from Puntland, which has an autonomous regional government, "the UN should seek ways to expand its existing operations there to receive and protect those who are fleeing for their lives".

"Safe and legal options to cross international borders and seek asylum and protection must be available, as provided for under international refugee law", he added, stressing Somalia´s neighbors´ responsibility to open their borders to refugees.

"This exodus has been brought on by crisis and war. In such circumstances, people have rights, including that of safe passage", he said.

So far this year, over 21,660 people have arrived in Yemen, according to the UNHCR.

Impacting reports from the global village

Quo vadis Djibouti

Twenty six years after the last census 1983, the Republic of Djibouti conducted a second general census on population and living conditions of its citizens. Operations officially began last Sunday in the capital and 5 regions in the interior. The Directorate of Statistics and Demographic Studies DISED) had trained 550 enumerators for the three municipalities of Djibouti city and 300 locally recruited investigators from the interior regions Arta Obock, Dikhil and Tadjourah. The operation continued until Saturday 23 May. A final report is not yet available, but it is clear that the exercise has not been used to conduct a referendum on the opinion of the Djibouti population on the persistent use of their state for foreign military operations. Formerly a French colony, Djibouti is used in the moment still by France and recently also the United States of America, Spain, Germany and others as military hub and base in the region. Djibouti is the territory of two Somali clans - the Issa and the Afar.

U.S.-American Marines and Sailors Conduct Amphibious Exercise in Djibouti

The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) began an ARG/ Marine Expeditionary Unit Exercise

(MEUEX) on May 19, in the Gulf of Aden and ashore at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group is comprised of Amphibious Squadron 5, USS Boxer (LHD 4), New Orleans, Comstock, USS Lake Champlain (CG 57), Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21 Detachment 3, Naval Beach Group 1, Assault Craft Unit 5, Assault Craft Unit 1, Beach Master Unit 1 and Fleet Surgical Team 5, while the 13th MEU is comprised of a Command Element, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (Reinforced), Combat Logistics Battalion 13 and Battalion Landing Team 1/1.The week-long ARG/MEUEX is an amphibious ship-to-shore training evolution designed to enhance Navy and Marine Corps amphibious capabilities in unfamiliar terrain and involves the USS New Orleans (LPD 18), USS Comstock (LSD 45) and 13th MEU. "It is extremely important for Marines and Sailors of a deployed ARG/MEU to conduct exercises while deployed", said LtCol Tye R. Wallace, Commanding Officer, Battalion Landing Team 1/1. "In order to be the most ready force, we must constantly keep our combat skills at their peak".

The exercise demonstrates the ability of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and 13th MEU to conduct both large-scale combat operations and humanitarian assistance anywhere in the world and will consist of tactical amphibious landings, bi-lateral training with the French Foreign Legion and tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel (TRAP), as well as other events. "The MEU is expected to execute any of its assigned missions, from the sea, within six hours of receiving an execute order", said Wallace. "This means going directly into the fight from our ships. No one else does this. This is a unique capability that the Navy / Marine Corps team provides our nation. This allows our deployed naval forces to be relevant, responsive, and ready for action". The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and 13th MEU is currently on a deployment in support of regional and Maritime Security Operations (MSO). MSO help develop security in the maritime environment. From security arises stability that results in global economic prosperity. MSO complements the counterterrorism and security efforts of regional nations and seek to disrupt violent extremists' use of the maritime environment as a venue for attack or to transport personnel, weapons or other material. The ARG/MEUEX is scheduled to conclude May 26.

CENTCOM commanders gathered in Bahrain to discuss regional security

Commanders from the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility gathered May 20 for a three-day conference to discuss regional security issues and approaches to these challenges. The conference, hosted by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command officials, brought together Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, CENTCOM commander; Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of Multinational Force Iraq; Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command; Lt. Gen. William G. Webster, commander of U.S. Army Central Command; and Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander of U.S. Air Forces Central, among others. The commanders discussed also counter-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia. "We face, in this region, a number of interrelated threats and challenges, from transnational to state-centric, to those who blur the lines between the two", General Petraeus said. "At the transnational level, violent extremism is, needless to say, the most pressing challenge. Al-Qaida and its affiliates pose the greatest such threat to many states in the region". The commanders also talked about the security architecture in place throughout the region and the need for cooperative, comprehensive approaches with regional partners. "Such approaches involve significantly more than the application of just military or kinetic action", General Petraeus said. "In fact, they must do far more if they are to address not just the symptoms of current challenges, but also their underlying causes. The lack of sustainable economic development in certain parts of this region, for example, is not just a social or humanitarian issue. It is a serious security concern as well".

Piracy, threats to the maritime traffic and the need for continued cooperation with coalition and regional partners through maritime security operations also were among discussion topics. "The complex threats that we face at sea require cooperative solutions", Admiral Gortney said. "We will continue to work with our partners in the region to respond to these challenges and help ensure peace and stability in the region. U.S. naval forces have operated in the region for six decades, and we'll be here for many more to come".

U.S. Conducting High-Level Strategic Review of Somalia Strategy, says new africom.mil website

United States seeks a "strong, stable" Somalia, official says

In Somalia, the U.S. government is determined to support the policy of political reconciliation spearheaded by the beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson told Congress May 20.

Speaking two weeks after his confirmation by the Senate, Carson told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs that "the collapse of the TFG would be detrimental to the long-term stability of Somalia".

The Obama administration is working on "a comprehensive solution" to the ongoing crisis in Somalia, Carson said, that "provides stability and promotes reconciliation, economic opportunity and hope for the Somali people".

Along with strengthening the TFG, Carson said, eliminating terrorist threats, addressing the dire humanitarian situation and eliminating piracy are priority goals.

Carson said various departments of the federal government, including the State Department, Defense Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), were working under the direction of the National Security Council (NSC) "to develop a strategy that is both comprehensive and sustainable". He said he hoped to see the NSC review completed "in the next 30 to 60 days".

Citing a sense of urgency, Carson told lawmakers, "In the past two weeks, violent extremists, including al-Shabaab [designated a terrorist organization by the United States] and a loose coalition of forces under the banner of Hizbul al-Islam have been attacking TFG forces and other moderates in Mogadishu".

But despite the assaults, Carson said, "the TFG remains standing and determined to move forward" with help from the United States and other international partners. The U.S. government has provided $10 million in assistance to help Somalia create a national security force.

Carson said the U.S. government is also making substantial contributions to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), whose Ugandan and Burundian peacekeeping forces were deployed to Somalia in 2007. Since then, the United States has contributed $135 million for logistics and equipment for AMISOM and "we plan to continue this level of support in the future", Carson added.

To counter mistrust "generated by al-Shabaab and others", Carson said, "we are working very hard to … give Somalis a more comprehensive understanding of what the United States is doing and wants to do in Somalia".

"We continue through our public diplomacy efforts to reach out to the media, to talk to people, to issue press statements", Carson said. "I have myself spoken to a number of media groups that have access to Somalia in order to indicate to them that our primary goal is to promote political reconciliation, peace and stability. And that our desire is to see a strong, stable Somalia that we can work with".

Somalia´s Security Threats

Subcommittee Chairman Russell Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, said the recent rise in pirate attacks in the region is "an outgrowth of [Somalia´s] collapse, lawlessness and economic desperation that have plagued the country for over a decade". Feingold has called for more U.S. involvement in the Horn of Africa, and has proposed the Obama administration appoint a special envoy for the region.

Carson said that as part of the NSC-led Somalia strategic review, the U.S. government will examine its strategy on piracy.

Touching on Eritrea, a backer of forces battling the TFG, Carson said, "We have clear evidence that Eritrea is supporting … extremist elements, including credible reports that the government of Eritrea continues to supply weapons and munitions to extremists and terrorist elements".

Responding to inquiries from Senator Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia and the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, over what role foreign fighters and terrorist groups are playing in the country, Carson said, "We don´t know the precise nationalities of these foreign fighters or their political affiliation, but we do have a growing body of information passed on to us that there clearly are foreign fighters operating in Somalia". He added that claims of up to 400 foreign fighters in Somalia were "a significant exaggeration".

Carson said there was "clear evidence" that al-Qaida has a presence in the country. "A small number of al-Qaida operatives have worked closely with al-Shabaab leaders in Somalia, where they enjoy safe haven", he said.

Carson told the Senate panel, "This further underscores the importance of urgent and decisive support to the TFG and engagement with states across the region and beyond".

The full text (in pdf format) of Carson's prepared statement to the committee is available on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Web site.

War planes we can fly to the poorhouse

by Columnist William A. Collins, who is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. This column was distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.

Weapons keep us,

Safe and free;

On the road,

To Bankruptcy.

The United States is kind of broke. Our trade deficit is mind-boggling, our bailout costs are unprecedented, and our stimulus package harkens to the Depression. We´ve got to save money somewhere before the dollar totally crashes and burns.

The Republicans, remaining consistent, propose cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any programs aimed at reducing human suffering. The Democrats, also consistent, have little idea what to do. Making the rich once again pay their fair share in taxes starting in 2010 will surely be a good start, but expenses need to be chopped too. Any ideas?

Aha!! The Pentagon! It´s half our budget! Dwight Eisenhower himself suggested it, and President Obama has kept on a Republican defense secretary, Robert Gates, to give himself cover for the upcoming slashing.

Nice try. Gates has dutifully proposed ending the F-22 fighter, the new presidential helicopter, and the V-22 Osprey, reining in Star Wars, cutting back on pointless nuclear submarines, and restricting other wasteful weapons programs. But somehow even after all his ratcheting, the arms budget still would go up by four percent, not down. And that doesn´t count the spiraling costs in Afghanistan or the continuing rat hole in Iraq.

The next question is whether Gates will even succeed with these controversial cuts. Every weapon comes with a militia of corporations, workers and politicians, none caring a whit as to whether it has any earthly use for the good of the nation. My own state is sorely afflicted with just such white elephants, which often manage to transform our occasionally sensible congressmen into mindless cheerleaders.

Take the F-22. We make the engines, but various other parts are made in 42 different states. That´s pretty good political planning. Our state would lose between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs if production ended. Well heck, we can lose that many banking jobs in a week unnoticed, but "defense" means government jobs, and thus we expect our elected officials to protect them, needed or not.

So it is no coincidence that springtime in Washington can be measured by danger alarms from the Pentagon as well as by cherry blossoms. Each spring´s annual report, "Military Power of the People´s Republic of China", is keyed to preserving the defense budget by scaring Congress into ever larger appropriations. That ploy always works, even though Chinese forces actually seem embarrassingly paltry compared to our own. Other similar reports try to scare us about Resurgent Russia and nuclear-tipped Iran and North Korea.

This elegant dance of waste producers vs. waste cutters is unfortunately not well illuminated by the press. Each newspaper is, after all, local. Consequently their headlines concentrate on just how many defense dollars could be coming to the region and how many heroic jobs are at stake. Heroic congressmen, in turn, are quoted from their stern late-night impassioned speeches to empty chambers about the need to keep up our guard against our sworn enemies, real or imagined.

Lucky us in Connecticut, besides F-22 engines we also boast the nation´s largest military dinosaur, the nuclear submarine. Although these have proved remarkably ineffective against Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, or Somalia, they are immensely popular here at home. While their cost may yet sink the nation, they keep the local economy afloat, especially when they run aground and need expensive repairs.

Adding to its potent array of congressmen, arms makers, unions, merchants and media, the Pentagon itself fields an outreach army of 27,000 recruiters, ad men, and PR specialists to tout the glories of military waste. Meanwhile China, from whom we borrow the dough to produce all that, is now shifting its investments from dollars to copper, cobalt, and other long-term global assets. Perhaps in time each American town will eventually be awarded a bronzed F-22 to commemorate this giant financial fiasco.

Alleged Somali insurgency ringleader arrested in Kenya.

Abbas Abdikadir, was arrested and held in Kenya on Thursday as he boarded a flight to Eritrea, the country which has been accused as a key financier of the ongoing insurgency in Somalia. Kenyan anti-terrorism Police seized Abdikadir and held him for questioning in Nairobi after he was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Pana reports. The arrest came hours after information revealed that Sheikh Daud Aweys, the leader of the militant group, Al Shabab, which has been pounding Mogadishu with bombs and mortar fire, has been using Kenya partly to plan his latest attacks against the Somali interim government. Abbas Abdikhadir was later released. Kenyan anti-terrorism Police were also on the lookout for another key Shabab leader and financier, Sheikh Ummal, who is believed to own property in Nairobi, sources said. Aweys, the leader of the radical Islamic militant group, Al Shabab, was reported on Thursday to have chartered a Kenyan aircraft to Eritrea.

Reportedly his name was taken off the US list of top Al Qaeda operatives wanted for trial over terrorism links. Eritrea stands accused by the US, the AU and IGAD as a state sponsor of the ongoing insurgency in Somali, targeting the downfall of President Sheikh Ahmed´s government, who was elected and sworn only in late in January, 2009, in neighbouring Djibouti after UN sponsored talks. African foreign ministers drawn from the Horn of Africa region met on Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and resolved to pursue UN sanctions against Eritrea for funding the insurgency against the recognized Somali government. The UN Security Council, whose 15 members have been on a visit to Africa, also voiced concern over Eritrea´s link to the Somali insurgents. UN diplomats say there is evidence of foreign involvement in the latest round of attacks in Mogadishu, targeting the downfall of the government.

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Ministers resolved Wednesday to seek sanctions against Eritrea, one of its dissenting member states, which announced its decision to quit IGAD in protest against Ethiopia´s activities in Somalia. "The government of Eritrea and its financiers continue to finance, recruit and train the Somali militants", the IGAD Council of Ministers said in a communiqué read by the Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula after the Addis meeting. Eritrea protested IGAD´s decision to hail Ethiopia´s efforts to bring peace and security in Somalia following its 2006 military operation. Ethiopian troops have reportedly crossed back to Somalia to fight against the Al Shabab militia, which had taken two crucial cities within a 100-kilometre radius of Mogadishu, including Jowhar, which earlier had remained more secure and was used by the TFG as a temporary base.

UAE goes nuclear?

French official stresses the importance of Sarkozy's visit to UAE

President Nicolas Sarkozy's chief diplomatic advisor Jean-David Levitte has stressed the importance of the strategic partnership between UAE and France and said that the unique relations present a living model that meticulously integrate the preservation of traditions with modernity, reports the Emirates news agency WAM. Announcing the visit by the French President to UAE at a press conference on Friday in Paris, Levitte said that Sarkozy will hold talks with President his Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and General H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. 'The talks will centre on a number of important issues, including the future of bilateral relations, regional issues such as the Middle East peace process, the future of Afghanistan and Somalia and the Iranian nuclear dossier', Levitte said.

He added that President Sarkozy attaches great importance to his visit to the UAE, given its special relations with France. 'The UAE is a model for a country that pursues modernism, yet, it maintains its heritage and traditions. If any one of you visited Abu Dhabi during the early days of independence, he will find a different city now. Additionally, the leadership of the UAE has a wise vision for the long term development of the country in all fields with unprecedented growth rates'. Levitte noted that France, which did not enjoy any historical presence in the UAE, is now a major strategic partner of that country. He said relations between the two countries extend across four strategic sectors; defence, cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy, culture and education. 'In the economic fields, the UAE has the world's fifth largest energy reserves. Still, it has adopted a wise strategy to preserve this wealth by setting up atomic reactors for production of energy for local consumption instead of crude energy. The first reactor will begin operation in 2017'. He revealed that bids will be invited for building reactors in July. They are scheduled to be awarded in September. 'France will face a stiff competition from other bidders', Levitte said.

U.S.-Malaysia complicity

At a joint news conference in Washington, D.C., with Malaysia's Foreign Minister Y.B. Anifah bin Haji Aman, Secretary Clinton said, "the role that Malaysia is playing and can play, regionally and even globally, on a number of important issues is significant, and therefore we want to broaden and deepen our strategic cooperation". Malaysia, which is the United State's 16th largest and the United States is Malaysia's largest trading partner, is a strong and steady partner of the United States, said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Secretary Clinton praised Malaysia's efforts to combat piracy, noting that Malaysian naval vessels have been very effective in the Gulf of Aden, though Kuala Lumpur, which hosts the Pricay Monitoring Centre, an NGO subsidiary of the International Chamber of Commerce's International Maritime Bureau of London, does not even have an anti-piracy law. Secretary of State Clinton reiterated to Foreign Minister Anifah "that the United States is solidly committed under the Obama Administration to strengthening our relationship with Southeast Asia".

Somali Britons trained by al Qaeda pose serious threat to UK

Al Qaeda´s franchise in East Africa, and notably Somalia, has become a greater focus of attention for the international counter-terrorist agencies, as a growing number of young Somali Britons who have received "global jihad" training pose a terrorist risk to the United Kingdom. "Somalia has some of the characteristics of Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001 — a country of ungoverned space which AQ can exploit", The Times quoted a senior Whitehall official, as saying. For Britain, the evidence of spreading Qaeda training camps in Somalia is particularly alarming because of the large Somali community in the UK. About 70,000 live in London, 10,000 in the borough of Tower Hamlets. Jonathan Evans, the Director-General of MI5, has emphasized that three-quarters of the agency´s international counter-terrorism resources still have to be devoted to Pakistan because of the 400,000 Pakistani-Britons who travel back and forth to Pakistan every year. Most of the terrorist plots uncovered since 9/11 were connected in some way to Pakistan, the paper reports. Somalia has moved up the agenda and is viewed increasingly as a terrorist haven and growing resource for AQ´s global ambitions. Although it is believed that the motivation for young Somali Britons may principally be to receive instruction so that they can fight in Afghanistan or join jihad in Somalia, Whitehall officials accept that some might decide to use the expertise they have acquired in the camps to return to Britain and start planning attacks.

Somalis deal with the reality and stigma of mental illness

New home, old wounds among challenges

by Scott Russell

In the Somali language, there are words for "crazy" and "sane," but there are few if any distinctions in between, said David Schuchman, the director of Immigrant and Refugee Behavioral Health for Volunteers of America (VOA). In contrast, U.S. doctors have the huge DSM-IV manual listing several hundred mental disorders — schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, delirium, depression, attention deficit disorder, dissociative disorders, eating disorders and more.

There are many ways communication breaks down between cultures as new immigrants struggle to fit into a new home. Mental health is only one of a long list of cultural disconnects, but it´s a particularly thorny one to talk about.

As big as the mental health stigma is in American culture, the stigma is even worse in immigrant cultures, said Schuchman, who offices at the VOA Alternative School at 924 19th Ave. S. — a school that focuses on the Somali community.

Back in Somalia, people would go to a doctor or healer and expect to get something that would help them, Schuchman said. Maybe it was just a vitamin shot, but they wanted something tangible. That contrasts with the psychotherapy model where people come into the office, sit down and talk about things.

"The idea of paying a stranger to talk about your problems is really foreign to most people around the world", he said.

Egal Shidad

In an effort to break the stigma in the Somali community, several community organizations got together last fall to produce a video called Egal Shidad (in Somali with English subtitles). The video uses storytelling, accounts of traditional ceremonies, guidance from an Imam, and insights from mental health professionals to discuss the issue. Schuchman is one of those interviewed.

According to the project´s website, Egal Shidad is a humorous Somali folktale character. "We have borrowed him for this project not only to serve as an ´ice breaker´ for such a stigmatized issue, but also to demonstrate how a family can confront mental illness and begin working together", states the website.

Part of the video was shot at the Brian Coyle Center in Cedar-Riverside, the headquarters for the Confederation of Somali Communities, one of the Egal Shidad partners.

Sara Rohde, project coordinator for Egal Shidad, said she has sent out 710 DVDs to people in 22 states and 11 countries. Someone in Finland wants to duplicate the effort. "The creative work being done in our backyard is having an impact on Somali mental health far and wide," she said.

Trauma: part of the community

Many Somali immigrants lived through the civil war, Schuchman said. Older adults have been beaten, tortured, raped or shot. Others witnessed family or neighbors experience those things. "If they were lucky to not have that happen, they have close family members that have been affected", he said. "Trauma is part of the Somali community".

Ahmed Yusuf is a case manager at the Community-University Health Care Center at 2001 Bloomington Ave. S. He works with Somali and East African patients. His caseload of 30–40 people includes cases of psychosis, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yusuf said that, back in Somalia, religious leaders and cultural healers would play a role in addressing mental illness. The family would do its best to accommodate you. If people went to a total stranger, they were beyond help.

He recalled very few people with acute mental illness in his Somali hometown. They were on society´s fringe, some "just walking like a cow or camel or a sheep in the middle of the street, that no one bothers", he said. "They were very rare".

In his current job, it can be a struggle to explain to Somali family members that mental illness is a chemical imbalance in the brain.

He recalled a recent emergency room visit with a man apparently suffering from psychosis. His mother was there, too — a bright, articulate woman. Yusuf said the mother was convinced the problem had resulted from a recent time when her son had a sinus infection and a tooth extraction at the same time.

It is not uncommon for Somalis to connect the mental illness to some recent event that happened when the individual was still well, Yusuf said. To the mother, the tooth-and-sinus combination caused the mental illness. "Why wouldn´t there be a pill for that?"

Signs of progress

Yusuf said he has been working at his job for 11 years and he sees signs of progress — the Egal Shidad video among them.

"We know that it is not simply, ´you are crazy or you are not", he said. "We have progressed to a point where people know that if someone is afflicted by this illness, that there is a place to go".

He also wonders how mental illness contributes to misunderstandings. What if a longtime Minnesotan saw a Somali misbehaving but did not understand his language?

"Will you attribute that to his culture, or will you attribute that to his mental illness?" he asked.

High-tech ways to "combat terrorism" or to terrorise people

At a U.S. of America federally funded exhibition, vendors showed off vehicle-mounted machine guns, ear-piercing sirens, blinding fog, high-rise escape kits and other defense mechanisms, writes the LA Times. Under an Acme Gadget Division banner, Ryland Fleet enticed passers-by to consider his product, a .30-caliber machine gun mounted atop a vehicle and fired by the driver using a joystick. "You don't buy it because you need it", explained Fleet, who wears all black and machine-tools his weapons at home in the Virginia woods. "You buy it because you might". America's post-Sept 11 fear of terrorist attacks not only spawned the $55-billion-a-year Homeland Security Department. It also fueled a domestic defense boom for survivalists, backyard inventors and small businesses that scrambled beside major contractors for sales to local, state and federal agencies. About 650 mostly small vendors peddled their sometimes-bewildering wares to government officials at a federally funded exhibition for three days last week at a regional airport in rural Virginia in one of the nation's largest such trade shows.

The event's slogan: "Fighting terrorism with commercial technology". "This is designed not just for overseas applications", said Carl White, a spokesman for the fair, which was not open to the public. "It's for the local courthouse, or prison, or any other state or local asset vulnerable to terrorism". To weed out so-called dreamware -- gizmos that look good on "24" but don't actually work -- only companies with proven technology were invited to exhibit. Scott Stuckey's giant loudspeakers can direct ear-piercing sirens at approaching targets. He said his San Diego-based company, American Technology Corp., just sold a set to the MAERSK ALABAMA -- the cargo ship attacked by pirates last month off Somalia. Other shipping companies, airports and nuclear power plants are customers as well, he said. "Inside 100 meters, it approaches the threshold of pain", Stuckey said, giving a brief demonstration that caused other vendors to cover their ears and shout at him. Fair organizers barred what Ryan Alles called "the pots-and-pans, shoe-insert and T-shirt stands" that he sees at lesser trade shows.

His company sells $1,500 kits that he says can help people escape burning high-rise buildings. In case of fire, clip a pulley onto a bracket on the wall outside, climb into a flame-resistant bag that looks like a huge silver cocoon, push off and lower away on a rope. "It's not an Armani suit, but it works", promised Alles, a former Florida firefighter. One also could order the latest in camouflage body armor and hazmat suits, or brightly hued "decorative bollards" for the boutique look when protecting buildings against onrushing vehicles. Armored SWAT vehicles with ramming bars also come in several colors. Ten different booths offered small, unmanned aircraft that carry surveillance cameras -- including one $6,000 system disguised as a sea gull.

One company sold bicycles designed for parachute drops, while another showed photos of a sky-jumper with a large dog lashed to his chest in a harness. The dog's bullet-proof vest costs extra. Friends could fly along in a Buckeye Breeze, which looks like a go-kart with a giant propeller stuck on the back. It chugs through the air under a parachute wing, comes with "crushed velour" seat covers and is offered in teal, aqua and Red Baron Red. Assembly is required. Nearby, an energetic salesman, German Arias, pulled a reporter into a shower-like glass stall, pressed a button and flooded the enclosure with thick, choking fog and blinding strobe lights. "This is best of show", he said from somewhere in the fog. "It makes you invisible". Across the way, Bill Grimm insisted his Corner Shot device deserved top honors. It attaches a small video camera and semiautomatic weapon to a gun stock with a swivel hinge, allowing it to shoot around a corner. The system is popular in Israel, he says, but hasn't caught on here yet. "Americans like to see before they shoot", explained Grimm, who heads the Golan Group in Boca Raton, Fla.

There was much to see at the Force Protection Equipment Demonstration, as the biennial fair is called. Booths bristled with tire-spiking belts, vehicle X-ray systems, nerve gas detectors, laser guidance units, night vision goggles and more than 3,200 other items designed to foil terrorists and save lives. Officials from Pentagon agencies and the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Energy -- as well as foreign diplomats, state police officers and other first responders -- crowded the carnival-like fairgrounds. Bangs, buzzes and the occasional trumpet blaring reveille filled the air. At midday, many of the fair-goers boarded buses to a firing range at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, about 10 miles away. Sitting on bleachers, they watched live tests of bullet-proof glass, explosive charges to break down doors, grenade launchers firing in rapid succession, and other things going boom on a sunny afternoon. Back at the iRobot booth, Lowell Howard used the down time to practice with bomb disposal robots, each with video cameras and mechanical arms, that he sells to the military and police. Howard fiddled with an Xbox-style game controller and sent the largest robot, the SUGV300, bouncing through ruts like a World War I tank. "I always wanted to put a La-Z-Boy on it and drive it around", he confessed. Seconds later, a shrill siren screamed from across the field and Howard winced in pain. "Are my ears bleeding?" he asked. It wasn't possible to determine how vendors rang up sales on the first day. But Fleet, president of Acme Gadget Division, was optimistic that he had found a buyer for one of his armor-shielded, turret-mounted, belt-fed machine guns with all the fixings. "A Colombian general", he said, "was very interested".

An official request sent to the U.S. Navy to disclose their use of unapproved, not yet approved or approved "non-lethal" or "sub-lethal" weapons systems or gadgets on Somalis in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean has not been answered so far.

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Note

Picture: IGAD – A fascist and racist organization of criminals, promoted by Abyssinia, the evil Ethiopianist state that perpetrated 14 genocides, has been denounced by the subjugated and tyrannized nations of East Africa.

From: http://www.geocities.com/medibrahim75/index.html