emma – thanks for that one
here’s the link & additional quoting
inner city press:

The related 15-page memo, also filed with the UN, makes the UN’s and Norway’s role clear. It recites that Special Representative of the Secretary General Ahmedou Ould Abdallah

initiated the preparation of preliminary information indicative of the outer limits of the continental shelf of Somalia beyond 200 nautical miles… In the preparation of this material the SRSG accepted an offer of assistance from the Government of Norway… Both the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate have been involved in the preparation… All of the expenses related to the preparation of the present submission have been covered by the Government of Norway.

Norway, of course, is a major oil producer. Absent safeguards that do not appear to be in place, it is viewed as a conflict of interest for Norway to pay for and prepare a filing about drilling rights for an African country described as having no government. And yet little has been said, and the UN has accepted the filing. Call them pirates of the pen.
As one close observer put it to Inner City Press, “Ould Abdallah started the whole process — the UN asks Somalia to submit papers and the UN special envoy Ould prepares the papers Somalia is submitting — why waste time, have the UN and Mr. Ould Abdallah directly handle things instead of abusing the poor colonial era chiefs such as the Transitional Federal Government.”

and on the maersk alabama incident

the one pirate — the [alleged] “leader” — captured in the Maersk Alabama incident is only 16 years old. Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq if the UN has any concerns under the rubric of its Children and Armed Conflict mandate about the United States putting the 16 year old, who presumably began group pirating while a minor, on trial as an adult in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York. Haq expressed no concerns. Video here.
Inner City Press asked UNICEF, “what is UNICEF’s comment on the calls to put a reportedly 16 year old Somali ‘pirate’ on trial, in the US or elsewhere? Is UNICEF doing anything about children recruited into or active in Somali piracy?” UNICEF spokesman Chris Debono answered:

Subj: Re: Q re children in Somalia (piracy)
From: [Spokesman at] unicef.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 4/13/2009 5:06:04 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Hi Matthew, if children are accused of crimes, they should be treated in compliance with international standards of juvenile justice and with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The UN recently advised on and praised an episode of the U.S. television show Law and Order which took the position that the mantle (and defense) of child soldier applies to an individual who began combat as a minor, even if acts of combat (or piracy) continues after the sixteenth birthday. But would this UN stand up to the United States with this position on a Somali pirate? The same UN which is taking Norwegian money to put in play Somalia’s drilling rights? Watch this site.

Posted by: b real | Apr 20 2009 3:05 utc | 3

time article actually covers the context for the origins of the current hijackings off somalia, though it treats it like a motive applicable only to the past
How Somalia’s Fishermen Became Pirates
spiegel online delivers a specious story that’s guaranteed to light up the eyes & put a spring in the goosestep of genuine killers & armchair ignoramus’ everywhere
TERROR ON THE HIGH SEAS: Somali Pirates Form Unholy Alliance with Islamists
there’s no time to waste, now that a new threat is emerging. Intelligence agencies have managed to deeply penetrate the pirate clans. They have inside information about the bosses, arms caches, alliances and arrangements. Experts also have reason to believe that the pirates are increasingly working hand-in-hand with Islamists, who are allies of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. It’s a terrifying alliance: The pirates supply money and arms, while the Islamists have troops and the power on land.

Posted by: b real | Apr 21 2009 4:53 utc | 5

ap: Somali pirate arrives in NYC, awaits court hearing

NEW YORK (AP) — A Somali teenager arrived to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century, smiling but saying nothing as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard.
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain, was to appear in a courtroom Tuesday on what were expected to be piracy and hostage-taking charges.
…
The teenager was flown from Africa to a New York airport on the same day that his mother appealed to President Barack Obama for his release. She said her son was coaxed into piracy by “gangsters with money.”
“I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial,” Adar Abdirahman Hassan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Galkayo town in Somalia.
The boy’s father, Abdiqadir Muse, said the pirates lied to his son, telling him they were going to get money. The family is penniless, he said.
“He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into,” Muse said in a separate telephone interview with the AP through an interpreter.
…
Court documents list his name as Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, which the boy’s parents have said is incorrect. His parents said he is only 16; law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.
It is extraordinarily rare for the U.S. government to try teenagers with crimes, and the dispute over the defendant’s age could present a challenge to prosecutors. Experts said that teenage defendants are entitled to greater protections under international law, and his age could factor into a prison sentence if he is convicted.
Experts say international law recognizes that people under 18 are less mature, and more easily manipulated by adults, the claim being put forth by the defendant’s parents.
The government has not said how it knows the defendant is 18, but verifying his actual age could prove difficult because of the anarchy that has ruled Somalia for two decades.
…
Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somali suspect.
“I think in this particular case, there’s a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas,” said Kuby. “This man seemed to come onto the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age.”

Posted by: b real | Apr 21 2009 15:23 utc | 7

zionist nutjob opining at the washington times, though it’s presented as “news” – Somalia’s Muslim jihad at sea

These “criminals” are jihadist Muslim pirates and must be dealt with in the context of America’s larger regional and international war against Islamist terror networks.
For starters, the Somali pirates do not think of themselves as pirates, but instead consider themselves to be devout Muslims protecting Somalia against the infidel West. As one pirate put it to a Reuters news agency reporter, “We are Muslims. We are marines, coast guards – not pirates.”
…
Given the import of what is going on in and around Somalia, it is particularly troubling that the media blindly embrace the administration’s “nothing to see here, folks” attitude and refuse to recognize the Islamic nature of this piracy. These thugs are jihadists who see their actions as religiously sanctioned.
The threat of Muslim piracy as jihad is nothing new. In my book “Victory in Tripoli,” about America’s war with Muslim pirates in the Mediterranean under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, I noted the religious nature and legitimacy of what the pirates were doing.
…
Muslim pirates of centuries ago had very Old World aspirations and even more Old World tools and technology. Fundamentally however, little has changed about their motives or their strategy.
What has changed, unfortunately, is the Western world. The United States seems to have lost the fortitude to fight these Muslim pirates effectively.
…
This scourge of Muslim piracy cannot be defeated through defensive policing of the Gulf of Aden or the Indian Ocean or precision strikes, soft power, smart sanctions, or carrot-and-stick approaches or, really, any other related half-measures. What is needed is the offensive use of brutal, overwhelming force to crush the jihadists at sea and on land, back in their strongholds.
The same policy debates took place during the rapid development of the nascent American republic and then continued to plague Presidents George Washington and John Adams. Even President Jefferson’s parsimony got the better of him, and it was not until President Madison finished the job in 1815 that the Muslim pirates of their age ceased to threaten American interests.
President Obama should not repeat the mistakes of the past but should, instead, hunt down and destroy these pirates and the terror networks they aid and abet.
—
Joshua E. London is co-director for government affairs of the Zionist Organization of America and is…

almost as big an idiot as those who take him seriously
since the u.s. & the barbary pirates are getting brought up all the time nowadays, i’ll repost something i posted back in 2007
– – –
r.t. naylor wrote an informative & fascinating essay last year on this very subject, titled Ghosts of terror wars past? Crime, terror and America's first clash with the saracen hordes [pdf]. i've drawn attention to it twice before, but if you haven't read it you'll probably find it worth the effort.
naylor writes how the first u.s. war on terror actually took place in the late 18th/early 19th century in a battle against those swarthy muslim "barbary pirates," the scourge of all good christians. the pirates label was incorrect at that time, just as it is now, but used to "rally the nation around a common threat, puff the military budget, expand central government authority, suppress internal dissent, and defend the profitability of American business abroad, all with the vocal blessing of the country's religious leaders, while simultaneously assuming that the costs fell on the poorer sections of the population through fiscal manipulation in the name of patriotism."
naylor explains: "To the 18th Century American mind, Muslim became synonymous with Pirate much as it would become interchangeable with Terrorist two centuries later."
but on the jefferson and the barbary "war"

..Jefferson's most important legacy was probably his role in the creation of a permanent, powerful and modern military for the U.S.
…
"We ought to begin a naval power if we mean to carry on our own commerce," Jefferson declared. In contemplating the Barbary challenge, he added: "Can we begin it on a more honorable occassion or with a weaker foe?" To Jefferson the Navy was also a means to "arm the Federal head with the safest of all the instruments of coercion over their delinquent members" (i.e., over American states with uppity ideas). Although with considerable prodding from America's opinion makers, the Barbary states still struck fear into the public heart. Jefferson knew better. "These pyrates," he stated baldly, "are contemptibly weak." Their economies had been shrinking for decades, their cities depopulating and their fleets reduced to a handful of poor vessels with mediocre artillery and untrained personnel. Jefferson had always been consistent in his opposition to paying tribute, regarding it as a way to reward and therefore encourage "piracy" (while being perfectly happy to permit American privateers to engage in precisely the same kind of depredation against the ships of European nations with which the U.S. was in conflict).

so jefferson got his navy and war against the "pyrates", which didn't turn out to be the cakewalk envisioned earlier.

There followed a derisory, four year campaign in which the U.S. attempted to impose on Tripoli a naval blockade, only to be profoundly embarassed when the Tripolitan side captured the largest warship in the U.S. Navy along with its 300 man crew. In response, U.S. frigates subjected Tripoli to ruthless and indiscriminate bombardment, a dress rehearsal for what would be visited upon Baghdad and other Iraqi cities two hundred years later. The damage would have been worse if an American plan to sail a ship loaded with explosives deep into the harbor before blowing it up had not been thwarted by Libyan shore defenses. The American crew who died were, of course, lauded as military heros rather than derided as failed suicide bombers.
Nor was this the end of the striking victories. After he was expelled from Tripoli, William Eaton fell back on Cairo where he plotted to replace the Dayi with a pliable, exiled older brother. To put the plan into effect, Eaton led a mixed detachment of mercenaries and Marines across the desert to capture the weakly defended town of Dernah. It had no impact on the course of the military campaign; the conquering force was soon beseigned in turn; and the Dayi, who had never wanted war, soon secured from the U.S. government the peace he had been seeking. The new treaty reduced (but did not eliminate) the subsidies; but it gave the Dayi his recognition as a sovereign power.
However, America's first foreign contest had an enormous propaganda effect back home, even inspiring the stirring lines in the Marine corps hymn: "…to the shores of Tripoli." Under the circumstances, it would have been mean-spirited to point out that U.S. forces were largely foreign mercenaries who came in by land and that Dernah was about 800 miles east of Tripoli. While the American population was exhulting in its first great victory over Islamic Terror, Mediterranean states were taking note of what seemed from their perspective an impressive Libyan military performance. For them there was no "shock and awe" from America's first overseas campaign, while its first "regime change" plot had been an utter failure. The American setback in Tripoli probably ensured that the U.S. would not become a colonial power in North Africa — that honor would go primarily to France, with Spain, Britain and Italy vying for their share. Arguably, America's subsequent decision to focus its lunge for empire westward, across the Continent, then over the Pacific, grew at least in part out of less-than-inspired results in the Mediterranean; but there is little point in trying to explain that to the Pentagon today.

– – –
i think naylor is always worth a read, if not just for his bluntness – don’t know enough about this particular history to determine how accurate all of it is but it certainly does not square w/ the heroic tales told today

Posted by: b real | Apr 22 2009 5:41 utc | 9

ap: Prosecutors beefed up charges against scrawny teen

NEW YORK – When U.S. prosecutors brought piracy charges against a teenager from Somalia, they dusted off a law that has been on the books since George Washington was president and used only sparingly since then.
The law’s obscurity, the lack of recent precedent and murky definitions of what constitutes piracy could present challenges to law enforcement. But prosecutors also boosted their case with more common nonpiracy charges that could lead to a long prison sentence, even if the piracy count doesn’t stick.
The government “threw pretty much everything they had at this guy because I think they wanted to hedge their bets,” said Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at Northwestern University Law School.
In a criminal complaint, prosecutors depicted Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse as the brazen ringleader of a band of four pirates who bullied 20 crew members of an American-flagged cargo ship, fired a shot at the captain and boasted of hijacking other ships. They said he executed the maneuver like a veteran pirate, stealing $30,000 from a safe and demanding that the crew give him the phone number of the ship’s owner.
…
The government also set up a scenario in which they could eventually drop the piracy count in a plea bargain that would give Muse a chance to dodge a life sentence. That could be necessary if legal questions are raised by the piracy statute.
…
Kontorovich said the piracy statute filed against Muse has been around since 1791, but hasn’t really been used since 1885. The law carried a mandatory death penalty until the 1900s and was last rewritten in 1948, he said.
He noted prosecutors had also charged Muse with conspiracy to seize a ship by force, a count used only once since it was written to combat terrorism after the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

reuters: Ban advises against U.N. force for Somalia, for now

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 (Reuters) – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon advised in a new report against sending a U.N. force to lawless Somalia anytime soon, calling it a high-risk move that would likely prompt attacks against the peacekeepers.
Instead, Ban recommended in his latest report for the Security Council, made available on Wednesday, a phased approach starting by building up support for African Union peacekeepers already in Somalia and for Somali security forces.
The Security Council, long under pressure from African states to send a U.N. force to the Horn of Africa country, has repeatedly delayed a decision. It is due to consider the matter again by June 1.
Ban, always skeptical of the plan, said that “deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation directly, at this stage, would be a high risk option.”
Given the divisions between Somali factions, “such an operation could trigger opposition from substantial elements of Somali society opposed to international military intervention,” the report said.
…
Ban, whose report came out ahead of a donors’ conference for Somalia that he will attend in Brussels on Thursday, said that for the present he would recommend an “incremental approach” to peacekeeping.
The first phase would be to support a 4,300-strong AU force (AMISOM) already in Somalia, consisting of Ugandans and Burundians, to try to increase it to its planned strength of 8,000, and to build up the fledgling security forces of Somalia’s interim government.
If security conditions allowed, a second phase could then follow, involving what he called a “light United Nations footprint” by sending U.N. officials to Mogadishu to give political support, assist AMISOM and ensure aid delivery.
Those aims are close to the strategy that the U.S. Obama administration is developing for Somalia.

the new rpt will be avail here – UN Security Council: SG’s Reports 2009

Posted by: b real | Apr 23 2009 5:18 utc | 11

excerpts from the ecoterra int’l april 22nd smcm update (emphases added)

Present Trends
Somali Pirates: More aggressive, better armed, better equipped and much more sophisticated than a year ago. Internationally organized criminal gangs take over more and more of the territory, which for the last 10 years was held by moderate groups, who only wanted to defend the Somali waters and arrested vessels for illegal fishing or dumping. The shark- or hyena-function of these defender groups, cleaning the seas also from drug-smugglers, fish-poachers, contraband-shippers and all the other criminal marine ventures, which they attacked with first priority because ransom was easily obtainable from shippers who had something to hide (like the weapons ship FAINA), is slowly diminishing and gives way to attacks against high-value brand-new ships, which bears higher risks (see MV ALABAMA and MT HANDYTANKERS MAGIC) but also brings in the highest returns (see MT SIRIUS STAR).
Families of hostages: Globally the network of families of seafarers, who fall prey to pirates, realize that they have rights and that their consent must be sought concerning any armed intervention first. Families do no longer shut up when told to do so by ship-owners, governments or investigating officers. In several cases the ship-owners only started moving after families involved human rights organizations, the media and the public and thereby achieved the governments to supervise and control the negotiations of owners and risk-managers.
Ship-Owners: Still there are a few serious shipping lines left, which maintain long standing traditions of honest business practices, but the Somali piracy issues bring more and more to daylight the onion-layered, hidden ownership of not so honest shippers, which can only be compared with the high-risk/high-gains of weapons-for-diamonds who flew around the crisis areas of this world during the cold-war days or still fly like the drug-pilots.
Negotiation-Brokers: Still the headquarters for ransom payments is with so called lawyers in London offices and offshoots in Dubai, Bahrain or Muscat, though Somalis, which they had trained as foot soldiers in this business, try to take over and nowadays create more and more havoc. Non-transparency is a character sign of these brokers – to the exten[t] that reputed German news magazine Der Spiegel and the Dutch Handelsblatt reverted to reprinting a syndicated PR article by a former FBI agent, called Jack Cloonan, who obviously tries to promote himself, and tap into his fantasies in order get some ideas of the business, whereby Cloonan had to admit himself that he never had even done an air drop. He even tries to continue the spin, whereby Somali pirate investment had driven Kenyan real estate prices sky-rocketing, while everybody knows in the meantime that mainly churches and other religious congregations besides embassies, international corporations and land speculators are the driving forces. But for the first time someone admitted that their business with the tugboat-owners often cost more than the ransom, which is why the figures of money paid in piracy cases are often all counted on the pirate’s heads, while in reality the pirates get not more than around 1/5 of the sums dished out by insurances, who in turn hold themselves fine by just increasing the cost of their policies and pay to their acquaintances in the ransom-business. Ship owners, who can not afford or decline these kind of services have in several cases succeeded in much speedier release operations by talking directly to the pirates and just seeking some expert advise and professional help on the side.
Governments: Question is only for how long the governments want to maintain the façade of “we are not talking to criminals and/or terrorists”, while ministers and secret services are fully engaged in the race with the sea-rats. If governments take their duty to care for the well-being of their citizens serious, they can no longer let the ship-owners do what they please. But is that what governments are interested at all? Since Eritrea and Iran signed an agreement granting naval facilities to the Khomeinist military ships, like the Russians did with Yemen and an alignment of military intelligence between the Sudanese and Iranian regimes as well as the Hezbollah’s networks could be observed, the whole region might as well be in for much more than just some sailor-and-pirate games. To each decision made by the West and its allies, a counter plan will be applied predicts an Arabic analyst and stated that these are the types of complex threats that twenty-first century terror forces will develop to upset the balance of power – including to drag the “infidels” deeper and deeper into Somalia and then to have them bound and fought by Jihadists – a second Afghanistan in the making in order to pull money and men from the actual Afghan war.
Politicians and Diplomats: Falcons (sic) try to portra[y] falsely that Somali pirates must be classified as “terrorists”, because these people – based on their “diplomatic immunity” – then would be the only ones, who legally still could get away with talking to terrorists and thereby could earn money and chips on their shoulders based on the negotiation-and-release business, where so far lawyers and risk-management-companies cash in. If the attempt to profile pirates as terrorists would succeed they actually would push present-time simple criminals into the arms of the fundamentalist strategists and only trigger also a Maritime Jihad.
Navies: What started as a naval exercise to conceal global naval security interests and was branded as intervention to contain the piracy threats as well as falsely claiming the need to protect WFP shipments, has turned into a desperate fully fledged war, which can not be won by the navies. Still the navies are not supervised in what they are doing in Somali waters, do hardly report to anybody except their own governments and do not request the permissions as required by the UN security council resolutions. Though the navies combine all the modern means of destruction – the extremely expensive and legally questionable attempts to catch a mosquito with a nuke will at the end have to stop. But they prepare the ground for the second-in-line business of the military-industrial complex: Training of troops in Somalia and delivery of military equipment paid for by EU and UN money.
Media: Wire services are now in competition with naval intelligence in the game: Who reports first. Assessment: Unhealthy, but necessary: Unhealthy because many cases – if they were not highlighted in the media so much – could be solved quietly faster, but unfortunately necessary, since naval intelligence, governments and ship-owners do not inform or consult the families sufficiently and because serious dangers exist of unwise naval intervention, which jeopardizes the lives of innocent sailors as seen in the case of F/Y TANIT.

this was interesting:

Often the naval officers on board of some naval vessels, which are shoveled around in affiliations with different joined navies do not know in which group they are sailing on a specific day, because their headquarters suddenly flips their status from being an Atalanta vessel to being counted in the NATO’s mission or from being a CTF 151 supporter to having to do their own thing based on national interests, states a Naval Attaché based in Nairobi, who spoke on condition of anonymity. When a specific navy ship has a certain, widely acknowledged success immediately the overlords of the numerous naval conglomerates it could be affiliated with boast in the media their pride, but when there is failure, like when the Indian navy blew a Thai fishing vessel out of the water together with its crew which had been held hostage by Somali pirates, they stand alone. If the cowboy-mentality of a “shoot-first-ask-later-or-never” policy is further cultured the one point which gives the moral upper hand in these fights between navies and pirates is lost – and that reason is the safeguarding of justice.
If the supranational criminal activities of Somali piracy gangs (while some analyst still maintain that they are just paid-for agents provocateurs of at least two (EU and US) super-powers in order to push and allow for a specific agenda) and their attacks against innocent merchant ships shall be curbed in a sustainable way, then unbent justice, self-critical high morals and crystal-clear transparency are the three prerequisites to win that fight and essential legs of a global-governance chair, which can neither wobble nor be toppled. But if internationally legal insecurities, atrocities and clandestine operations prevail, their makers must be reminded that those Somalis, who give the world a headache in the moment, are better trained to win in a chaos situation.

re illegal fishing:

The European Commission has said it is ready to investigate and take action against any European boats or European-owned fishing companies that fly flags of convenience that engage in illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia, according to a report by the EU Observer. This month, Prof. Abdurahman Ibbi, the Somali deputy prime minister and minister of fisheries and marine resources in the new Somali national unity government, said that an estimated 220 foreign-owned vessels were still engaged in unlicensed and illegal fishing in Somali waters, most of them of European origin. The European commissioner for fisheries, Joe Borg, on Wednesday (22 April) told reporters that he had no information regarding Mr. Ibbi’s allegation. “I am certainly prepared to look into it if we are provided with specific details on this”, he said during a press conference presenting a paper reviewing the state of the European Common Fisheries Policy. “But the information I have is that it is nowhere near close to those figures that have been mentioned. But certainly … if we see that there are any European fishers or European-owned vessels that are operating illegally, there are ways and means whereby … we can have those vessels blacklisted as IUU operators if they are operating illegal fishing”.
He said that one way this could be achieved would be via Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) and that the commission had already tried to tackle the issue of tracking down illegal fishing boats near Somali waters at the international level. “The only pity is that the commission has tried within the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) to introduce such measures [to get the IOTC also to chase down illegal fishers], but it wasn’t supported by the majority of partner countries within IOTC over the last couple of weeks”. At the same time, the commissioner said he felt other regions bore a heavier responsibility for illegal fishing in the region. “I would be the first to say that our fishers are not the major culprits when it comes to illegal, unregulated and unreported [IUU] fishing”.
He added that the commission is working to end illegal fishing in Somali waters and elsewhere: “This problem needs to be addressed”, he said, “and we are introducing measures which will come into effect from 1 January 2010 in order to bring about a situation where fish that cannot be certified as legally caught cannot end up on the plates of the European consumer”. Illegal fishing over the last two decades by European boats and European firms that operate boats that fly flags of convenience – when the nationality of the owner is different from the country of registration – as well as the regular dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters by Swiss and Italian companies has been described by analysts and development and green NGOs as the twin root causes of the current piracy crisis. Spain meanwhile has requested that the issue be discussed at Thursday’s meeting of EU fisheries ministers in Luxembourg, and will inform the fisheries ministers about recent attacks by Somali pirates on vessels inside the Seychelles fishing zone and northeast of Madagascar.
More openly the EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg told the Associated Press that the EU is looking “to see what can be done to bring about more security and protection for the fishers who are legally operating in those waters” and stated that he wants to improve maritime security off Somalia to bring European boats back to fish the tuna-rich grounds. He is under severe pressure especially by French fishermen, who blocked in protest to not increased fishing quotas several French harbours. There they are called strikers but in Somalia the defenders of their own fishing rights are called pirates. The EU Observer’s writer Leigh Phillips quoted one [unnamed] senior commission official as having been more critical of the Somali minister’s allegation, saying that he had to deal with similar “facile and stupid rumours” in 2008.
He said that having checked satellite readings, they found no EU-flagged ships in Somali waters at the time. He added that they had counted only 50 to 60 such vessels engaging in illegal activities in the region over the last ten years. Nevertheless, he conceded that there was indeed a problem in Somali waters with fishing by boats owned by European companies but that fly flags of convenience. “It’s rare that purse seiners do this as they are very large vessels, but there are lots of little long-liners that engage in this practice. Lots”.
What angers the EU official most likely more is the fact that Somalia’s new government has declared all foreign fishing licenses (which mostly were issued anyway illegally) had been withdrawn and for the time of a moratorium while new legislation is put in place and the fish stocks are assessed no new licenses would be issued. That EU official obviously has also no idea about the simply not given capabilities of satellites to detect flags of vessels and the unnamed commissioner should realize that even if the tuna-fleets are equipped with AIS transponders (which is not a satellite based system) nobody controls it when these units are just stored on the mother-ship of the fish-poachers outside the 200nm zone, while the catcher vessels penetrate deep into Somali waters. The Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT), which is satellite based, is not installed in fishing vessels, since the system, which came into force on January 1st 2008 with compliance required by 31st December 2008 requires only the following classes of vessels to comply: Passenger ships, including high-speed craft; cargo ships, including high-speed craft, of 300 gross tonnage and upwards and mobile offshore drilling units.
A proactive step into the right direction therefore would be to demand LRIT installations for all fishing vessels linked to European owners or ventures and to allow for independent monitoring, as demanded by Ecoterra Intl. since long. The EUobserver reported on Tuesday that illegal fishing by European-owned boats with flags of convenience continues to be reported – particularly Greek ships. According to the Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor update from April, these vessels belong to the Greek firm Greco Ltd. and have reportedly flown Cambodian and Panamanian flags. “It’s very difficult to deal with this, although new legislation in January will help”, the commission official added. “At the same time, there are other, financial, political ways of tackling the problem. Once given evidence of this, the commission is ready to take action, indeed we are obliged to do so, but without evidence we can do nothing” he said, placing the ball in the Somali government’s court.
Julie Castor, of Oceana, the environmental group that focuses on threats to the sea and that has long been studying illegal fishing in the region, said that it is important that the commission and EU member states distinguish between the EU-flagged illegal fishing, which has indeed declined since the pirate attacks began to explode, and illegal fishing by European-owned vessels that fly flags of convenience, which continues to occur. While the Spanish Government itself admits only to know about 20 Spanish flagged vessels and 14 of Seychelles flag but of Spanish property (8 tunny boats and 6 aids) it could not specify how many more vessel with Spanish ownership fly other flags of convenience and fish in the Indian Ocean. And its not only the Europeans: There are currently 3337 IOTC “authorized” vessels from 28 flags in the IOTC Record (last update: 2009-04-16) and many more on the unofficial list of the OPRT, a Japanese lobby group for industrial fishing, which all harvest mostly uncontrolled from the Indian Ocean.

Why New York Is No Place to Try Somali Pirates

bringing Muse to stand trial in New York is a terrible idea.
Somalia’s pirates are not viewed as criminals by their own communities. They’re a symptom of a unique set of local problems: the collapse of the Somali state and the absence of the rule of law and government authority (which leaves the country’s territorial waters open to exploitation and abuse by foreigners) as well as the absence of any prospect of making an honest living. Even if he is guilty as charged, Muse is not some pathological individual who has transgressed his community’s norms. There are hundreds of young men just like him all along the Somali coastline, calling themselves “coast guards” who protect Somali waters and “tax” foreign shipping to compensate for the fact that foreign fishing fleets, unmolested by any Somali state authority, annually plunder hundreds of millions of dollars of fish from Somali waters — and also for the fact that unscrupulous foreigners have used the coast to dump toxic waste. None of this excuses piracy, of course, and many of these claims are spurious, since the prime beneficiaries of booty extracted by pirates are land-based warlords, many of them associated with the now deposed U.S.-backed government. Still, the plight of Somalia’s coastline certainly helps explain why the phenomenon is so widespread — and why the pirates are viewed by many Somalis as folk heroes. Putting Muse on trial in New York won’t change that; it will simply reinforce an already negative prevailing view of the U.S.

according to one comment in a somli forum, some of the pirates apparently have a union…
“We are watching American justice on this young man closely. The fate of any American would be hostage depends on how America treats this case.” the Union of Somali Pirates told Mooryaan FM 80.81 knot south Bossasso.

Posted by: b real | Apr 24 2009 4:46 utc | 13

doesn’t sound like he’s there to embrace the TFG
Sheikh Aweys returns to Somalia to ‘reconcile Islamist factions’

“I will meet with anyone concerned about Somalia and my trip [to Somalia] is not influenced by foreign countries,” Sheikh Aweys told Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV, although he did not specify whether he plans to meet with President Sheikh Sharif.
Sheikh Ismail Haji Addow, a senior member of ARS-Eritrea, told reporters that Sheikh Aweys would meet with meet with different sections of society in Mogadishu to promote reconciliation among Islamist factions.
“We [ARS-Eritrea] have moved back to Mogadishu, but we will keep an office in Eritrea,” Sheikh Addow said, while underscoring that Sheikh Aweys’ main task would be to reconcile factions within the muqawama, or the resistance movement that became popular during the Ethiopian army’s two-year intervention in south-central Somalia.

Sheik Aweys welcomes parliament decision, calls for AMISOM to leave

The chairman of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys has welcomed on Friday the decision of the parliament and called for African Union troops to leave the country.
Sheik Aweys spoke hundreds of people in Mogadishu and talked about different issues.
He said it was a good decision that the parliament endorsed the Islamic Sharia but he doubted about the implementation of it since the United States and Ethiopia welcomed it.
“It was a good decision that the parliament said we are implementing Sharia, but the question is that the Sharia that Ethiopia and the United States supported is it the correct Sharia,” said Dahir Aweys.
He called the African Union troops known as AMISOM in Somalia to leave the country and return to their countries.
“Once there are foreign troops in your country, you can not sleep well, you can not say your prayers and they are like a bacteria in our country and we recommend to them to go to their countries before we fight them as we fought the Ethiopian troops who fled from this country,” Aweys said.
He also condemned the assassinations in Mogadishu and said the enemy of the Somali people is behind them.

– – –
newsweek interview w/ puntland’s president farole
‘It’s Better to Fight the Pirates’: A Somali leader talks about what his government will need to deal with the bandits.

Elected in January, Farole is a former Finance minister and banker with an M.B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He says he’s ready to take on the pirates, but only if the international community will support parallel action to confront what he describes as the root causes behind piracy’s growth. He spoke to Steve Bloomfield in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Excerpts:
…
Long term, what is the solution to piracy?
It is endemic and needs to be addressed properly. The way the international community approaches it, by deploying warships off the coast of Somalia, is not enough. We need a comprehensive program to address the problem, which includes stopping the illegal fishing, developing the coastal areas, creating livelihoods for the coastal community, creating opportunities for employment for young people, supporting the Puntland government to strengthen the security forces including the coastal taskforce.
How much would this program cost?
Around $20 million.
What capability do you have at the moment for fighting piracy?
Our coast guards are just two small ships belonging to a private company which has the contract to transport the coast guards, a small unit of 30 people. We don’t have an effective Coast Guard unit. We can’t afford to finance them, to provide the speedboats to use when they are chasing or fighting the pirates.
…
Who is funding the pirates?
We do believe there are some outside connections. There are allegations but we are not sure 100 percent. The outsiders have got more information than us. Our government was only established three months ago. We do believe there are people outside the country.
I think the information lies with the governments of the people who have been taken hostage. Because they know to whom they have paid and how they have paid. They will have more information.
…
How much money is piracy bringing into Puntland?
We don’t know how much money has been paid. Most of it, I think, goes outside. We do know they use the money to recruit new pirates from the youngsters who are inexperienced and cannot assess the risk they are running.
There is no visible wealth belonging to the pirates. There are some houses in the main towns, but they are not people who can manage money and invest in the proper way.
They spend the money in very wasteful manner by corrupting young people, using drugs, alcohol—all these things. They exploit the culture of the communities by introducing things that did not exist in the past.
Some people have said you have links with the pirate financiers.
[Laughs] It’s laughable. I’ve never heard that allegation. [!!!] It did not exist in the past, it does not exist at the moment, it will not exist in the future. We are against the pirates.

farole has also, recently, claimed ignorance of the counterfeiting taking place at official levels in puntland, which elicited laughs & ridicule from somalis nationwide. he’s obviously lying to the interviewer.

Some private companies are believed to be interested in antipiracy contracts. Have you had any dealings with them?
A number of people have approached us, but we don’t accept any private sector to take a role of Coast Guard for us unless it is recommended by a government. We have not entered into any agreement with them, and we do not intend to enter into any agreement with any company unless it is supported by a government so we know who they are accountable to.
Was one of them Select Armor, the group run by Michele Ballarin?
I don’t hear of that name.

if any followup question was asked, it didn’t make it to print

How are your relations with the United States?
We have met the American ambassador to Kenya and his special envoy for Somalia. We discussed a lot of issues and got good feedback from them. We will work in partnership in every sector including security, development and humanitarian sectors.

no questions re the PIS & the CIA
relatedly,
the hill: Lobbyist hired to combat more Somali pirates

The Puntland State of Somalia, an autonomous region in northeastern Somalia formed in 1998, has hired a lobbying firm in Washington, hoping to make the case that lawmakers on Capitol Hill should send money their way to combat piracy and reduce terrorism in the chaotic Gulf of Aden region.
Puntland’s president hired Duane Morris at the end of February, according to Department of Justice records.
…
Most Somali pirates operate out of Puntland and are members of different clans, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in February. Many of the pirates are reportedly fishermen and former militia members of the Somali warlords. Though autonomous, Puntland said it wants to work with the government of Somalia.
Duane Morris, a law and government affairs firm, has agreed to represent Puntland in Washington and make the case in Congress and within the Obama administration to obtain assistance and funds for security, infrastructure, social services, healthcare, mass media and the democratization process.
According to documents filed with the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) at the Justice Department, Duane Morris is assisting Puntland for a period of three months, until May 29. After that, the contract will continue on a month-to-month basis at a consulting fee of $10,000 a month.
The managing director on the contract is James Hill, who joined Duane Morris in October 2008. At press time, Hill was traveling in Nairobi, Kenya, where he met with Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud Farole. Hill said in an e-mail exchange that Farole on Wednesday personally signed an anti-piracy statement and action plan.
Hill did not elaborate on the anti-piracy statement, and a spokesman for Duane Morris, Joshua Peck, said the firm would not comment further on the nature of its contract and activities with Puntland’s government.

Posted by: b real | Apr 24 2009 14:54 utc | 15

thanks for the excellent photos.
I don’t hear of that name.
hmm

Posted by: annie | Apr 24 2009 15:44 utc | 17

NATO extends anti-piracy mission off Somalia

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) – NATO said on Friday it would extend a month-long anti-piracy mission off Somalia until June 20 and cancel port visits to Singapore and Australia.
A four-ship task force will resume operations in the Gulf of Aden after concluding a brief visit to Karachi in Pakistan because of the worsening impact of piracy on shipping in the region, NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.
The task force had been due to conclude its mission off Somalia last Thursday.

Turkey to command Somalia anti-piracy force: US

MANAMA (AFP) — The US Fifth Fleet announced on Friday it is transferring command of the counter-piracy international naval force CTF 151 to the Turkish Navy on May 3.
“The US Navy will transfer command of Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 to the Turkish Navy on Sunday May 3, 2009,” Lieutenant Nathan Christensen of the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet said in a statement.
…
“Turkey will be the second nation to command the counter-piracy task force. This also marks the first time Turkey will command a Combined Maritime Forces Task Force,” the statement said.

Posted by: b real | Apr 25 2009 5:45 utc | 19

Ethiopia says arrests 35 coup plotters

ADDIS ABABA, April 25 (Reuters) – Ethiopia said on Saturday it had arrested 35 people it accused of plotting a coup planned by an Ethiopian-American university professor.
“A terror network formed by Dr. Berhanu Nega to wage armed struggle has been foiled by security forces,” a government statement said.
Berhanu was elected mayor of capital Addis Ababa after parliamentary elections in 2005 but was jailed when the opposition disputed the government’s victory.
Police and soldiers killed about 200 opposition protestors in street violence that followed the poll.
Berhanu and other opposition leaders were released in a 2007 pardon after which he went to the United States to teach economics at Bucknell University in Philadelphia.
“We raided their homes and got weapons, bombs, landmines, soldier uniforms and their future plans,” government spokesman Ermias Legesse told Reuters. “Their plans and their strategies all came from Dr. Berhanu and his colleagues in the U.S.”
Ermias said the accused included soldiers and civilians working in government ministries. Berhanu collected money for them in the United States, he said.
Berhanu’s organisation ‘May 15th’ is named after the date of the 2005 poll. He has made statements in the United States saying it wants to violently overthrow the government.

Pa. prof denies leading alleged Ethiopia coup plot

AP) LEWISBURG, Pa. – An economics professor at a Pennsylvania university said Saturday he supports efforts to spread democracy in his native Ethiopia, but denied backing an alleged coup attempt there that led to the arrests of 35 people by the government.
“I’m very suspicious that there was an attempt at all,” said Berhanu Nega during an interview at his home outside of Lewisburg in north-central Pennsylvania. “This is not a government that has any credibility whatsoever in terms of telling the truth.”
He said he did not know who may have been arrested, and said it could have easily been some sort of overreaction.
“The government, every time, it panics,” he said. “It’s always treason, always acting against the government.”
…
Berhanu also urged President Obama’s administration to “carefully revisit its policy toward Ethiopia.”
“It is just unseemly for any democratic government such as the United States to have any relationship with it,” he said.

april 25 press release from ginbot 7

Following this morning’s announcement by the ruling party in Ethiopia, the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) claiming that it has foiled an attempted plot by Ginbot 7 to over throw its regime, our movement has been receiving inquiries and clarifications from a number of media outlets.
Ginbot 7 would like to make it clear that the repressive regime in Ethiopia is under massive pressure at home due to the collapse of the economy, the massive unemployment, the obscene corruption and the growing resistance from the severely restricted opposition political parties and the populace at large.
Every time the Meles regime is cornered for its gross mismanagement of the economy making Ethiopia, a virtual beggar nation, for its massive violations of human rights and its resounding condemnation by august international organizations for enacting draconian laws to criminalize dissent and use these bogus laws as a pretext to terrorize the innocent people of Ethiopia it has a long standing habit of looking for scapegoats and creating endless distractions.
This latest claim of foiling a coup plot by Ginbot 7 is no different than the regime’s same old worn out practices of criminalizing political dissent. Ginbot 7 has no desire to engage in a tit for tat with the dictators in Addis Ababa, nor the time to waste replying to baseless accusations by a regime that rules Ethiopia by the barrel of the gun.
Ginbot 7 remains committed to work for the establishment of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia. No amount of scurrilous accusations, threats or blackmail by the regime will deter us from pursuing the cause of democracy
and freedom.
Ginbot 7 affirms its commitment to the proud and courageous people of Ethiopia who only yearn to live in peace, freedom and prosperity.

jan 12th article at IPS, following the re-arrest of the opposition politician bertukan mideksa: ETHIOPIA: Political Space Narrowing

Opposition politicians are worried that the signal sent by these arrests will reinforce those who think peaceful political change in Ethiopia is not viable.
After their release in 2007, Mideksa and Dr. Berhanu Nega, at the time mayor-elect of Addis Ababa, debated this question. Nega came out of prison believing that armed struggle is the only way to attain political power in Ethiopia. Mideksa resisted the idea vehemently. Nega is now in the United States heading Ginbot 7, a new political party.
In an opinion piece published in the largest Amharic weekly Addis Neger, in reaction to the government’s ultimatum, it was argued that the government’s actions would make Nega feel vindicated.
“The government is totally reducing us to nothing,” says Professor Beyene Petros, opposition MP and chairman of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces. “The ruling party that first assumed power with a coup is indirectly telling the opposition to follow suit; that gaining power through the ballot box is impossible.”
The veteran politician sees a country sliding backwards in terms of creating a competitive political landscape. “The door that was half opened in the 2005 election is now fully closed,” he said.

the sham elections in ethiopia last april saw the ruling EPRDF party win “more than 3.5 million of the 3.6 million seats” in the local kebele (ward, or neighborhood) and woreda (district, or county) councils after preventing opposition parties from fielding candidates

Posted by: b real | Apr 26 2009 7:16 utc | 21

In case you haven’t seen this story:
‘Iranian arms ship destroyed near Sudan’
By JPOST.COM STAFF
An Iranian vessel en route to Sudan in order to deliver weapons to Hamas in the Gaza Strip was attacked by an Israeli or American ship and destroyed, according to a report Sunday in the Egyptian weekly Al-Usbua.
The report quoted sources in Khartoum as saying that all of the crew members who were on board were killed in the incident, which occurred in the past two weeks.
“The ship was destroyed at sea near the Sudanese coast,” the sources said, adding that the vessel’s cargo was to be led through the Sudanese desert and the Sinai Peninsula.
Iran had attempted to keep news of the incident under wraps, the sources sai
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710792789&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Posted by: johnf | Apr 26 2009 18:27 utc | 23

editorial at garowe online: The world’s support to Somalia must not endanger the balance
…
The flipside of the support the so-called ‘Government of National Unity’ received in Brussels is the sad reality in Mogadishu, where President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s interim government faces an Islamist rebellion unlike the one he once led against Ethiopian troops. Sheikh Sharif, who is remembered for his public declarations of jihad against foreign troops, has been openly defending the presence of AMISOM peacekeepers in Mogadishu and, if his speech in Brussels is any indication, welcomes the expansion of the 4,000-strong AMISOM peacekeeping force to 8,000 troops. Of course, the number one sticking point between the government and the opposition is – and has always been – the presence of foreign troops, whether Ethiopian or AMISOM. The armed opposition can be expected to intensify the insurgency against AMISOM peacekeepers and their Somali government allies.
It is the responsibility of the international community to guarantee that funds used to train security forces in Somalia are divided fairly to the various regions that make up this war-ravaged country. The 16,000-strong Somali national security force that will be trained, according to the Somali government’s plan, must ensure that regions with organized and functioning security forces receive their fair share of training, as well as funding support in the areas of medicine, education and rural development programs.
There is a delicate clan-based balance of power that must be protected in Somalia. For good or bad, the so-called ‘Government of National Unity’ is not supported by all clans in Somalia as best demonstrated by the government’s inability to enter certain sections of Mogadishu, or its complete absence from most regions of the country. Erstwhile peaceful regions, like Somaliland (still part of Somalia) and Puntland in the north, deserve special attention as stable areas that have long served as bulwark against the spread of political anarchy across the entire country. Especially with regard to Puntland, the world must value this stable region as a strategic partner in the war against pirates.
from a commentary by the always-interesting abdikarim h. abdi buh
The International donor’s disdain and the home coming of Sheikh Aweys: Signals the demise of President Sharif’s Government
The Brussels fundraising held in the name of Somalia is actually another ploy to raise funds for the AMISOM contingent in Somalia. It was made known by the office of UNPOS that the funds($250 Million) with the exception of $31 Million is ring fenced for the expenditure of AMISON troops stationed in Mogadishu precisely a week before the commencement of the meeting but miraculously missed the attention of the Somali public as is always the case. The United Nations originally hoped to raise funds to the tune of $166 Million but was taken by surprise by the generosity and commitment of the international community towards beefing up of the lean force of AMISON which demonstrated to keep the enlarged TFG throughout its short shelf life in Mogadishu. The AU and the Arab League contributions towards the TFG ,who has no foot hold in the country other then the backs of AMISOM tanks, was no more then several millions which can hardly open a decent Supermarket in London – I wonder the TFG’s fate when its founders are using it as cash cow for their own ends.
The TFG lost the trust of the public, friends and foes alike, due to the everlasting contradictions emanating from its uncoordinated government ministries, allied tribal elders and bewildered reconciliation clergy. The TFG’s mishaps can’t be detailed in this short article but to mention a few:
* The ceding of Somalia’s sea to Kenya,
* The presence of AMISON,
* The controversial Sharia brand,
* The notorious remnants of the old TFG ,
* The rampant piracy,
* The 3.5 million food aid dependent,
* The ill disciplined TFG forces,
* The strong uncompromising Islamist opposition,
* The unpopular 4.5 formula,
* The lack of funding from its sponsors,
* Relationship with Ethiopia and above all
* The lack of a sphere of influence which they can assert as their own space.
…
The return of Aweys to Mogadishu, may give the fractured Islmic courts a sense of direction in the near future and may change the landscape of the political situation in Mogadishu for the better, although a modest scuffle can’t be ruled out. The combined actions and rhetoric from the factions in Mogadishu and beyond, who all hail from Islamist platform, showed time and again that there is an ample room for a leader who can keep them under his wing and to their good luck Sh. Aweys’ return turned out to be an answered prayer.
…
The intention of Ethiopia at this juncture is to start and all out war between the different factions of the Islamists with the view that Somalia, the country it loves to airbrush from the map, will be sucked in to black hole. The most likely assassins in Mogadishu are the Ethiopian trained soldiers who are with the TFG forces because all the factions denied that their forces carried out the heinous act but the TFG is fixated only in blaming the opposition for every thing.
…
The leader of the opposition, Sh. Aweys, should spare no effort in to whipping the boisterous and divided Islamists in to one rational camp before the commencement of the peace dialogue with the TFG. The Islamists are in complete disarray and their ideology’s range is beyond scope – the Al- Shabab(Taliban) on one end of the scale and Indhacade(Warlord – drugs tycoon) Husbi Islam on the other end. I believe that forgiveness changes things in this case and as the situation stands the Islamists killing each other is no more a threat but a reality on which the countdown has just started so you are tasked to safe Somalia from another cycle of civil war carried under the banner of Islam. You get to understand that history will judge you by what you built not by what you destroyed.
and, finally tonite, a journalist takes a stab at contextualizing the somali pirates in this article @ foreign policy journal
Pirate, Who?
Somalia is in the news, once again, for all the wrong reasons. And thanks to the ‘Pirates of the Horn of Africa’ there is a flurry of activity everywhere. Take international maritime powers for instance. They are busy drawing plans to beef up security in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean to ward off further attempts of commercial ships getting hijacked despite their heavy presence. Or let’s talk about security analysts or marine experts who are coming up with ideas ranging from invading Somalia to surgical strikes on pirate hideouts to effective blockade of Somali waters. Will these measures work?
I see where these solutions are coming from. The brightest minds are busy pondering the solutions on how to resolve the situation and make the international waterways safe once again for the trade. Everyone is thinking according to their trade and expertise. But let’s, for an instance, consider ourselves as an ordinary Somali and try to understand the problems they are facing during the last two decades. Then only we will be in a position to suggest the solution to the problems faced by them.
…

Posted by: b real | Apr 27 2009 5:06 utc | 25

voa: Somalia Parliament Demands Answers for Controversial Maritime Agreement with Kenya

The Somalia parliament is expected to demand answers today from President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s new government over a recently signed controversial Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Kenya. The agreement, which was signed in early April, involved their maritime boundary, but it ignited heated debate in the Somali government over its legality. Somalia’s parliament expressed deep concerns about the agreement, saying the accord does not have a legal basis as long as it is not ratified by the national legislature.
Somali parliamentarian Ismail Ahmed Nur told VOA that most Somalis are deeply suspicious about the pact with Nairobi.
“The agenda of the parliament today is to talk about the issue of the MOU between the government and the Kenyan government regarding the demarcation of the waters between the two states. So that issue has made a lot of sensitivity from the Somali people and from the intellectuals so that members of parliament have tabled a motion to discuss that issue in detail and inquire the government to explain this MOU and discuss about excerpts of the MOU,” Nur said.
Nur said that legislators would not hesitate to block passage of the maritime accord if it is not determined to be in the interest of Somalis.
“If the parliament sees it as necessary, it will nullify that MOU,” he said.
…
Observers believe the accord between Mogadishu and Nairobi would be one of the biggest tests facing a new Somali government since it was formed early this year, with its fragile support within Somalia currently resting on whether it wins or fails in the battle for the minds and hearts of people over an ever-widening divide over the pact.

Posted by: b real | Apr 27 2009 15:14 utc | 27

associated press piece, w/ the help of AFRICOM’s commander kip, tries to push the terrorist booga-booga meme in somalia
Terrorists moving from Afghan border to Africa

WASHINGTON – There is growing evidence that battle-hardened extremists are filtering out of safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and into East Africa, bringing sophisticated terrorist tactics that include suicide attacks.
The alarming shift, according to U.S. military and counterterrorism officials, fuels concern that Somalia is increasingly on a path to become the next Afghanistan — a sanctuary where al-Qaida-linked groups could train and plan their threatened attacks against the western world.
So far, officials say the number of foreign fighters who have moved from southwest Asia and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region to the Horn of Africa is small, perhaps two to three dozen.
…
The foreign fighters moving into East Africa complicate an already-rising crescendo of terror threats in the region. Those threats have come from the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist Islamic faction and from al-Qaida in East Africa, a small, hard-core group also known by the acronym EEAQ.
While not yet considered an official al-Qaida franchise, EEAQ has connections to the top terror leaders and was implicated in the August 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 225 people. The bombings were al-Qaida’s precursors to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a plot spawned by a small cell of operatives as far back as 1992.
…
Al-Qaida has the skills while al-Shabab has the manpower, said one senior military official familiar with the region. The official said EEAQ appears to be a small cell of a few dozen operatives who rarely sleep in the same place twice and are adept at setting up temporary training camps that vanish days later.
What worries U.S. military leaders, the official said, is the that EEAQ and al-Shabab may merge in training and operations, potentially spreading al-Qaida’s more extremist jihadist beliefs to thousands of clan-based Somali militants, who so far have been engaged in internal squabbling.
The scenario could become even more worrisome, the officials said, if the foreign fighters transplant their skills at bomb-making and insurgency tactics to the training camps in East Africa.
Africa experts, however, said it won’t be easy for Islamic extremists to win many converts in East Africa.
Francois Grignon, Africa program director for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research organization, said in an interview that many clan members generally practice a more moderate Islam, and militants are not inclined to join a fight they do not see as their own.

Posted by: b real | Apr 28 2009 14:37 utc | 29

ah, thx xcroc. no, hadn’t come upon that account yet. will have to read it again, more closely, but it’s certainly more detailed than an earlier polemical one circulated around the net (which even warranted a snopes entry).
things that stick out from this account:

the surviving hijacker, muse, was obviously not leading the foursome

sending two hijackers to the e/r to get the ship started, whereas previous accts said only muse was sent, stabbed & tied up

claim that phillips was the only one in the pilot house is different than the earlier (bizarre) media story by someone who said he was “driving” the alabama, didn’t get to hide, but then stabbed muse w/ an ice pick

crew members were somehow able to sink the hijackers boat by getting to it & pulling the plug? first the media stories said that the hijackers sank their own boat, then at least one crew member said that it was toppled by waves.

the hijackers then forced phillips to deploy one of the boats (so they could abandon the mv, apparently) but which he sabotaged

phillips jumps during the transition to the lifeboat

this acct claims that the lifeboat is not self-powered, i.e., no fuel for them to have run out of

the navy simply wanted to kill these guys asap

the fbi talked muse into coming onboard & into having the lifeboat towed

the remaining hijackers on the lifeboat realize they’re being towed away from land & give the killers the pretext of “imminent danger”

this acct lists an additional shot to blow out a window on the lifeboat, though the photos, as we saw in an earlier link, indicate more than just those 4
several discrepancies b/w this unsourced version & other rpts/accounts
for instance, vice adm gortney implied to the media that the lifeboat was indeed self-powered & using fuel

Gortney, in an interview Monday with CNN’s “American Morning,” described critical steps that led to the rescue of U.S. Capt. Richard Phillips, who was taken by pirates after they boarded his merchant ship, the Maersk Alabama, east of Somalia on Wednesday.
Four pirates had been holding Phillips in a small lifeboat, which had run out of fuel. “One of their pirates had left the lifeboat, needed medical attention and jumped onto one of our inflatable boats,” Gortney said.
Gortney told CNN’s Barbara Starr that the USS Bainbridge rammed the lifeboat Saturday to keep it from trying to return to the Somalian shore about 20 miles away.
“At one point, actually, the two vessels collided” as the captain of the Bainbridge tried to hold off the lifeboat, Gortney said.

no matter what the discrepancies across all of the stories, the following points seem pretty clear

the hijackers wanted to abandon the mv maersk alabama

there was a goal in place to exterminate these guys from pretty early on

conditions were manipulated to make that possible

Posted by: b real | Apr 28 2009 16:24 utc | 31

voa: Somalia Stability Challenged by Complex and Shifting Politics

…
Somali analyst Michael Weinstein says Aweys appears determined to use the presence of foreign peacekeepers as a pretext for launching a broader political challenge against President Sharif.
“The actor who is working to change the landscape is Sheik Hassan,” said Michael Weinstein. “Instead of wanting to join reconciliation [efforts], I think he sees the weakness of the TFG and he sees that he has to step in to try to knit together the armed opposition as a political wing.”

oxford analytica: Somalia: Questions remain for international engagement

ANALYSIS:
…
Donor dilemmas. European, US and regional policy towards Somalia is still disproportionately focused on Mogadishu, and skewed by an exaggerated perception of Somalia as anarchy. The United States and to a lesser extent Europe have pushed for a UN peace-keeping operation, even though this has so far always been unrealistic. Donors may further increase their support for the unity government formed in January by the TFG and President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s faction of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), if it consolidates its authority.
Donors are reluctant to establish or develop their own presence and representation within Somalia, even in Hargeysa (Somaliland) and Garowe (Puntland). The lack of direct donor engagement with the Puntland government limits their understanding of the governance situation in Puntland and their ability to bring about measures in Puntland to deal with piracy (see INTERNATIONAL: Military response cannot solve piracy – April 16, 2009).
…
Perception. There is a risk that visible elements of increased international engagement in Somalia may become a target for political spoilers and hardliners. It is not only Somali hardliners who oppose the presence of AMISOM; many Somalis are suspicious of foreign motives in Somalia. Aid organisations are wary about being seen to be supporting the unity government. Efforts are being made to draw a line between support from AMISOM and the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) to the security forces, and support from UNDP to the police.

time: Ridding Somalia of Pirates: Hard Choices for the West

Roland Marchal, a Somalia specialist at the Center for International Studies and Research in Paris, says the danger may be overblown. “A lot of the designation of who’s a radical vs. moderate Islamist is done from outside Somalia, using foreign reasoning, when the only real dangerous forces present are extremist foreign jihadists whom Somalis themselves view as outsiders,” Marchal says. “The repeated use of proxies to eradicate or marginalize the ‘bad Islamists’ has regularly caused ordinary Somalis to support those Islamists as resistance fighters.”
[Chatham House’s Roger] Middleton adds that while al-Qaeda once ran training camps in southern Somalia, its extremely rigid brand of Islam wound up alienating recruits and the traditionally moderate Muslim Somalis from its cause. Like Marchal, he views the Shabab as less about extremist Islam than an expression of Islamicized Somali nationalism.
“You can’t keep screaming ‘You’re al-Qaeda’ at people who aren’t,” Marchal warns. “To get to a solution, the transitional government and international community have to start dealing with all the actors that regular Somalis identify as part of the nation’s life.”

Somali president says no to Banadirland

The president of Somalia Sheikh Sharif Ahmed refused to meet clan lobbyists in Brussels, sources tell Horseed Media.
According to sources close to the president Hawiye clan intellectuals failed to meet with Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in Brussels.
The president refused to meet with the Diaspora clan intellectuals who were lobbying for the creation of Banadirland state of Somalia.
Sources say that President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, told his aid that he will not support the proposal of the group from European countries who arrived in Brussels last week to meet with him.
…
Recently there have been increasing political movements with in the Hawiye clan leaders and politicians for the creation an autonomous state similar to Puntland and Somaliland, which will be part of the Somali federal government.
This idea was also supported by the former Prime minister Ali Gedi who is also a kinsman of the current President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
…
..this could … create tensions within the Hawiye clan, who some of them are eager for their own regional administration that they can compete with other administrations in Somaliland and Puntland.

Posted by: b real | Apr 30 2009 5:08 utc | 33

shabelle media: Sheik Aweys demands the assassinations in Mogadishu to be stopped

MOGADISHU (Sh. M. Network)—The chairman of the Asmara-based Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, demanded the killings in Mogadishu to be stopped immediately on Friday.
Sheik Aweys, who spoke [to] hundreds of people in Abu Hureira Mosque in Bakaro market, said it was wrong to kill innocent civilians and those among the Islamists.
He described as unfortunate step to harm the people who helped the insurgents during their struggle against “the enemy” and called for the people who are killing the innocent people to stop.
Sheik Aweys said that their fighting is against what he called the infidels but not those who are working with them. He added that the people working with them are wrong but it is not right to kill them.
“The jihad is against the infidels but is not right to kill each other. The hypocrites are in the people they are corrected in speech but their killing is not right,” said Sheik Aweys.

Posted by: b real | May 1 2009 15:04 utc | 35

now if they can only get rannberger & the u.s. to stop f*cking w/ them
Kenyan women call for sex boycott over political deadlock

Kenyan women’s organisations have called for a nationwide sex boycott to force feuding male politicians in the coalition government to resolve their differences.
The women say they are prepared to pay prostitutes to withhold their services for a week to make the campaign more effective.
The boycott has been sparked by a feud between Mwai Kibaki, the president, and Raila Odinga, the prime minister, over who runs the government agenda in parliament.
The women have sent emissaries to the wives of both men to encourage them to join in the boycott which reflects growing public anger with the pace at which the coalition government is tackling the underlying causes of last year’s post- election crisis.
…
A recent survey showed that over two-thirds of Kenyans no longer have confidence in the government.
“This is a call to mass action to protest poor leadership,” said Ms Patricia Nyaundi, executive director of the women’s organisation, FIDA. “The other option was to take to the streets with placards, but we would have been clobbered by the police. So this is a political protest from the safety of our homes.”
The boycott recalls Greek playwright’s Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata, about a sex boycott staged by Athenian women to end the Peloponnesian War.

odinga’s wife, ida, joined the ban. no word on lucy kibaki or mrs. ranneberger

Posted by: b real | May 3 2009 5:29 utc | 37

from a commentary today up @ hiiraan online – U.S. Needs to Know Somalia Requires a Bottom up Approach

Many political observers in Somalia think that US Representative for African Affairs, Phillip Carter, is making a big mistake in thinking that helping Somalia’s fragile government would solve security and piracy issues. These observers noted that Somalia’s government is not elected by the Somali people; it was rather formed and selected by the international community. They pointed out that both administrations of Puntland and Somaliland were built from bottom up – where, local citizens or their elders, elected representatives who finally elected the Presidents and Vice Presidents of Puntland and Somaliland.
…
It becomes obvious that even though eighteen attempts were made, in overseas, to create a central government for Somalia, none of them succeeded. Political analyst believe that the reason all of those attempts failed is that these transitional institutions were created by the international community..
…
People who are familiar with Somali politics insist that until the local people of Mogadishu have an opportunity to elect their representatives and form their own regional administration, there could never be a peace in that part of Somalia. They also suggest that if the people of Mogadishu, or Banadir region, are able to form regional administration, then after couple of years, it may be possible to form in Somalia a unity government consisting of all administrations.
Right now, the problem is that the people of Banadir region feel that the international community is forcing them a government that consists of all clans, but only manages in their land -the Banadir region. The other regions, such as Puntland and Somaliland, oppose any central government based in Mogadishu because – they also know that international community is financing a government, in the name of Somalia, that do not represent them.
Most political observers believe that the only way that the United States could help Somalia is by working with local administrations and finally helping the formation of a government of national unity elected from all regions of Somalia. This government should be elected by the Somali people and not by the international community as they did last time around – with this so-called a Government of national Unity.
It is a fact that this unity government which Ould-Abdallah, the UN Representative for Somalia, campaigned so much in reality controls only one half of Mogadishu.
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One can tell the plans of this unity government from get go that it intends not to solve Somali’s issues. There is no government in the world that could solve, within two years, problems as big as Somalia’s.
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No one can understand why Ahmedou Ould Abdullah thinks that this unity government has a chance to succeed when it only controls half of Mogadishu.

it’s quite simple, really. the objective in engineering this TFG 2.0, as prendergast referred to it, has been to divide the islamist revolution in somalia, which is viewed as having the potential to lead to a larger pan-islamic mvmt in the region, if not most of north africa. all this rhetoric of supporting sheik sharif’s regime is hooey since, as we’ve seen, the real support is going to the AMISOM forces while pressure continues on the remaining security council members to get the UN in there to replace any authority the AU might have. ould abdullah is a functionary in the employ of these western powers, primarily the u.s., to see through this high-level counterinsurgency program. he thinks only what he has been mandated to think, essentially, which explains his public contempt for citizens & journalists in mogadishu.

Posted by: b real | May 3 2009 15:42 utc | 39

Thomas Jefferson Hour I messed up posting the link… OOPS!

Posted by: DavidS | May 4 2009 1:57 utc | 41

what an interesting number for adm mullen to throw out
Fight against pirates also needed ashore: U.S. Navy

Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters … the ships plagued by piracy accounted for just about 1 percent of all ships, and combating piracy was not his top priority. He said one analysis had shown it would take 1,000 ships to effectively fight piracy, more than the U.S. Navy fleet. “I’ve got a big globe. I don’t have 1,000 ships that I can devote to that,” he said.

mullen, of course, has been the lead advocate for the “thousand-ship navy” for the last several years.
from a 2007 article in the naval war college review:

In the fall of 2005, Admiral Michael G. Mullen, the U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations, challenged the world’s maritime nations to raise what he called a “thousand-ship navy” to provide for the security of the maritime domain in the twenty-first century. Speaking at the Seventeenth International Seapower Symposium at the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, Admiral Mullen candidly admitted to the assembled chiefs of navy and their representatives from seventy-five countries that “the United States Navy cannot, by itself, preserve the freedom and security of the entire maritime domain. It must count on assistance from like-minded nations interested in using the sea for lawful purposes and precluding its use for others that threaten national, regional, or global security.” He had voiced the idea a month earlier in an address to students at the College, but he now elaborated the concept:

Because today’s challenges are global in nature, we must be collective in our response. We are bound together in our dependence on the seas and in our need for security of this vast commons. This is a requisite for national security, global stability, and economic prosperity.
As navies, we have successfully learned how to leverage the advantages of the sea … advantages such as mobility, access, and sovereignty ….We must now leverage these same advantages of our profession to close seams, reduce vulnerabilities, and ensure the security of the domain, we collectively, are responsible for. As we combine our advantages, I envision a 1,000-ship Navy–a fleet-in-being, if you will, made up of the best capabilities of all freedom-loving navies of the world.

Nearly two years after the bold proposal for a multinational maritime force, little progress seems to have been made in constituting this “navy-in-being.” This article argues that the thousand-ship navy, now more generally referred to within the U.S. Navy as the “Global Maritime Network,” or “Partnership,” is an idea well worth pursuing. But the Navy is struggling (perhaps even failing) to build support for it…

Posted by: b real | May 5 2009 14:00 utc | 43

Opposition ‘pours weapons into Mogadishu’

MOGADISHU, Somalia May 6 (Garowe Online) – Somali opposition factions are pouring heavy weaponry into the capital Mogadishu, where African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM) are helping prop up a weak interim government, Radio Garowe reports.
Military sources and residents in Mogadishu said missiles, armed trucks and munitions have been transported to the capital over the past two days.
Heavy weapons were seen entering Mogadishu from Daynile district, located in the outskirts of the capital. Some of the weaponry was stationed in the district and other weapons were spread out to opposition strongholds in Mogadishu, the sources added.
It is not clear where the weapons are coming from, but insiders speculated that the weapons are arriving from Lower Jubba and Lower Shabelle, both regions under the control of Al Shabaab.
A source close to Hizbul Islam, another opposition faction, said the armed group is “preparing for all-out war” against AMISOM peacekeepers and the Somali interim government.

Aweys’ advisor accuses Security Minister of ‘inciting war’

MOGADISHU, Somalia May 6 (Garowe Online) – A political advisor to Somali opposition figure Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has accused Somali Security Minister Omar Hashi of “inciting war” in the capital Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reports.
Abdulkadir Mohamud Dhakane, the political advisor to Sheikh Aweys, made the comment while in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.).
“Omar Hashi is using his mouth to incite war in Mogadishu and he is known for this,” Mr. Dhakane said, adding: “In the early 1990s, he [Hashi] was among those who started the [civil] war that cost lives and property and he was on the side of Ali Mahdi.”
…
Security Minister Hashi, who was part of Sheikh Sharif’s ARS camp, reiterated earlier accusations that the Eritrean government imported weapons into Somalia.
Unconfirmed reports from U.A.E. tell Garowe Online that arrangements are being made to hold face-to-face talks between representatives from the Somali government and the ARS opposition faction.

Posted by: b real | May 6 2009 16:19 utc | 45

Heavy weapons heading for Somali capital – Website (scroll down)

A reporter in Afgooye [near Mogadishu] have confirmed that he saw missile launchers and mortars being transported from Wanle Weyne [Lower Shabeelle Region, southern Somalia] to Mogadishu.
The reporter said he saw 9 tanks and 4 missile launchers being transported towards Mogadishu.
It is not clear which group was transporting this military equipment, the reporter however said, the convoy did not pass through Afgooye [-Mogadishu Highway] as it turned towards Balcad [southern Somalia]
The convoy seemed to be heading for Balcad, then to Dayniile where they will proceed to Mogadishu. [Dayniile is controlled by Al-Shabab group]
Though it is not yet clear who the equipment belongs to, confirmed reports indicate that the Hisb al-Islam wing of Umar Iman that supports [the chairman of Asmara-based opposition leader,] Shaykh Hasan Dahir Aweys was transporting them.
It is not clear why such military equipment were being taken to Mogadishu as this could be a sign that Mogadishu is edging towards war after the reconciliation efforts did not bear any fruits.
This comes at a time when [former defence secretary of ARS,] Yusuf Siyad Indha Adde who controlled the highest number of Hisb al-Islam militias defected from the party and now the party is trying to constitute a new army.
Source: Goobjoog website, in Somali 6 May 09

Posted by: b real | May 7 2009 5:04 utc | 47

this was part of what the TFG minister was seeking
Ethiopia sides with Somalia, accuses Eritrea of shipping weapons

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia May 7 (Garowe Online) – A government minister in Ethiopia has sided with Somali government officials and has accused Eritrea of transporting weapons to opposition groups in Somalia, Radio Garowe reports.
Mohamud Dirir, the Ethiopian Minister for Communication, Culture and Tourism, said the Ethiopian government has long warned the world against Eritrea’s continued interference in Somalia.
“It is not hidden that the Eritrean government is making efforts to weaken the [imposed] political progress [agenda] in Somalia,” the Ethiopian Communication Minister said.
…
Minister Dirir said the Ethiopian government “will not cross the border” into Somalia..

this was expected
Notorious ex-warlord meets Somalia president, 5 killed in fighting

MOGADISHU, Somalia May 7 (Garowe Online) – A notorious former warlord in Somalia has met with interim President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in the capital Mogadishu, where discussions included support for the new government, Radio Garowe reports.
Yusuf Mohamed Siad, notoriously known as “Indho Ade,” visited the Somali President at the Villa Somalia presidential compound in Mogadishu on Wednesday, sources said.
…
“The government has voted for Islamic law, which is what we have been fighting for,” Indho Ade told reporters afterwards. “From today onwards, we will support and defend the government.”
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[Da’ud Mohamud] Abtidon, the group’s spokesman, said the Hizbul Islam faction is “preparing to join the government” while underscoring that the group would help the government in “ensuring the application of Shari’ah [Islamic] law, security cooperation including stopping targeted killings, and to finish current political disputes through dialogue.”

tensions remain, as does the question of who is ultimately behind these assassination & attempts
Calm returns to Mogadishu

MOGADISHU (Sh. M. Network)—Calm has returned to Mogadishu on Friday after one day of violence and fighting that killed more civilians in the capital.
Al-Shabab and pro government Islamists fought in Mogadishu on Thursday after [an] al-Shabab officer was attacked in Mogadishu and two of his security guards were killed in an attack.
The two sides are amassing troops and there is fear that fighting could erupt at any time in Mogadishu.
…
The spokesman of Hawiye clan elders Ahmed Derie Ali called for the two sides to stop the fighting and solve their differences through negotiation.
It is unclear how the warring sides would listen to the calls from the elders and the intellectuals since the Islamists are struggling for power.

Posted by: b real | May 8 2009 15:06 utc | 49