IRAN HUNTS U238 IN SOMALIA
The UN report spends little time on this surprising development, perhaps because the report’s mandate is limited to monitoring violations of Somalia’s arms embargo.
“We are extremely concerned about that,” a military intelligence officer told PJ Media. This concern stems from the fact that the ICU has every incentive to cooperate with Iran: the Islamic group would be unable to mine and market the uranium on its own, and the ICU is always hungry for weapons for its war against Somalia’s transitional federal government (TFG).
Dusamareb is known to be rich in uranium. Abdiweli Ali, an assistant professor of economics at Niagara University and a supporter of Somalia’s transitional federal government (TFG), is originally from Dusamareb, where he received his primary school education. He reports that in the Galgadud region, where Dusamareb is located, uranium exploration has occurred since the 1940s. This exploration was put on hiatus after the fall of president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 put the country under the rule of rival warlords.
The uranium prospecting that Iranians are undertaking in Somalia creates problems for U.S. efforts to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. It would provide them with a virtually untraceable source of uranium ore that could be made into weapons.
Al-Qaeda is also active in Somalia, the UN report confirms.
The ICU’s Sheikh Yusuf Indohaadde denied the presence of foreign fighters in a late June press conference. A few weeks later an ICU recruiting videotape directed at both Somali and Arab audiences (with Arabic subtitles) showed him in the desert with fighters from the Gulf Arab states.
Professor Ali believes that the UN report’s acknowledgement of foreign fighter presence in Somalia is important. “We’ve been saying this for a long time,” he says, “but you need to hear this from a neutral international organization. The UN saying it changes things a lot. It’s coming from a credible source and an independent agency with no vested interest in Somalia.”
“The standard mode for states is that when they go Islamist, they become failed states immediately….”
The most direct acknowledgement of al-Qaeda’s presence comes near the end of the report:
The ICU has established numerous military training facilities throughout central and southern Somalia and has been actively recruiting new Somali militia members. Foreign volunteers (fighters) have also been arriving in considerable numbers to give added military strength to the ICU. An unknown number of the volunteers, but believed . . . to be significant, have combat experience gained from participation in wars and hostile conflicts and actions in the Middle East and Asia. . . .Although the report doesn’t say explicitly that these foreign fighters are part of al-Qaeda, intelligence community sources say that the details divulged makes this relationship clear: foreign fighters have participated in wars and other conflicts in the Middle East and Asia, the foreign fighters are training ICU militiamen in guerrilla warfare and bomb-making techniques, and the report’s statement that the ICU could turn Somalia into “an Iraq-type scenario, replete with roadside and suicide bombers.” This last statement is confirmed by a military sources’ report that there are similarities between the tactics, techniques, and procedures employed by the ICU and those used by the Iraqi insurgency.[F]oreign volunteers also provide training in guerrilla warfare and special topics or techniques consisting of bomb making and the use of bombs against different targets such as a variety of different types of transport and buildings. Other techniques include kidnapping and the conduct of assassination by ambush and sniping. . . . [T]he ICU is fully capable of turning Somalia into what is currently an Iraq-type scenario, replete with roadside and suicide bombers, assassinations and other forms of terrorist and insurgent-type activities.
There are seventeen operational terrorist training camps in Somalia according to a 2002 confidential report produced by the non-profit Partners International. This figure that has been confirmed by intelligence sources. The new UN report, in discussing a camp at Hilweyne, states that the 600 recruits who went there in late August will not only military training, but also “ideological training.”
The ICU may prove to be a savvy foe. “The standard mode for states is that when they go Islamist, they become failed states immediately,” a military intelligence officer said. “That hasn’t been the case in Somalia.”
Indeed, the standard of living in Somalia has risen somewhat since the ICU rose to power. Part of the reason for that is made clear in the UN report, which discusses how the ICU has managed to curry favor with the Somali business community. According to the report, “the ICU removed three (3) checkpoints in the Mogadishu area where average monthly revenues collected represented cash flows to the former warlords in excess of one million US dollars annually.” Doing so reduced the costs of delivering goods and commodities for businesses, in some cases by up to 50%. This “will benefit the business community and by extension the ICU.”
Professor Ali cited the example of a small businessman who, under the old system of governance, had been forced to pay $6,000 a month for security. These costs give him an incentive to support the ICU, which can legitimately claim to offer a cheaper alternative.
The UN report states that the ICU “has made a strategic financial alliance with the great majority of businesses in Somalia, an alliance that benefits both sides.” Businesses benefit from “restoration of law and order,” from the reduction of operational costs through such mechanisms as checkpoint removal, and from an increase “in the area of coverage where humanitarian relief goods are distributed.” In turn, the ICU benefits from businesses creating a profitable environment.
Previously, when ICU leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys tried to establish an Islamic state in Somalia, he was defeated twice: in the Puntland region by TFG president Abduallahi Yusuf, and then by Ethiopian forces. He has learned his lessons. Professor Ali says that Sheikh Aweys now has three “cards” he uses to gain the support of Somalis: Islam, Somali nationalism, and Somali distaste for the warlords’ rule. The good relationship that the ICU enjoys with the business community is an outcropping of this strategic thinking.
The new UN report reveals that the ICU is more dangerous, and more strategic, than most observers realize.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the author of %%AMAZON=1585425516 My Year Inside Radical Islam (Tarcher/Penguin 2007)%%.
Daveed’s articles have appeared in publications that include Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Washington Times, The Dallas Morning News and The American Spectator. He frequently appears on TV and talk radio; recent appearances include The Big Story with John Gibson, Studio B with Shepard Smith, Scarborough Country, ABC News Now, The 700 Club and The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly.
Dear Roger Simon/Moderator
I do apologise for posting off the topic. I am campaigning to save the life an Iranian girl, Delara Darabi, who is on death row in Iran. About three or four years ago, Delara and her then boyfriend/fianc√©, were planning to get married. Since they were very poor, they had decided to help themselves to some of the wealth of a relative. During the burglary, the wealthy relative unexpectedly returned to the house and was accidentally killed in the struggle. Delara was forced/persuaded by her fianc√© to admit to the manslaughter to save him from execution as they thought she would not be executed because of her age. Delara has been denying the killing and states that she is innocent. Delara is an artist and recently an exhibition of her paintings, “The Imprisonment of Colours”, which she has produced while in jail in Iran was held in Tehran. (You can see some her paintings on my blog @ http://ardeshird.blogspot.com/2006/10/from-behind-walls-of-my-prison-cell-i.html#links ). Delara was only 17 at the time of the alleged crime. Her conviction and the death penalty have been upheld again by the youth court and she is now facing death by hanging. I was surprised to find that unlike some other Iranian children on death row, there was a petition that was only signed by some 30 people. The campaign to save her life was not actively pursued and the petition was not distributed to as many sites as possible for people to sign. As the result, a negative message has been conveyed to the Islamic regime judiciary that they can go ahead and execute her as unlike other cases such as Nazanin, for whom over 220000 signatures has been collected. This is not the case. Delara is poor and unable to compensate the relative – there is a Shariah principle, ‘Ghesas’ in place in Iran where the convicted person can compensate the victim’s family and escape state punishment. However, as she is financially unable to do this, the only way the save her life is by an international pressure on the regime to commute her execution. She needs our support now as time is running out for her. Please sign this petition and please help to distribute it to as many sites as possible. Please!
The petition is at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/DL2222/petition.html
This sounds like a job for Joe Wilson.
Are we sure these are legitimate prospectors or more like the German “students” and “tourists” in Poland just before the outbreak of WWII?
Kudos PJM for this important story!
One wonders if US SOF forces are engaged against those training camps. US SOF troops are active from Djibouti, just next door, with P-3 air support.
Is anyone surprised that this sort of deal is occurring? I mean, Somalia just fell to the Islamicists recently, and if they are intent on holding onto their new base, they need weapons to accomplish that goal.
Iran, on the other hand, is trying to get uranium from anyone willing to trade/sell it to them. And their recently-inked deal with Russia, which will aid in their enrichment process, shows that lengths Iran is willing to go to.
Couple this with the NY Times report today regarding the Taliban/al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan making a push across the country (so much for the peace accord), and we are looking at some ver serious times right now.
Iran is racing towards getting a nuke. And if Musharraf is not careful, those who hate him and want him removed could achieve that, which places nukes in the hands of more radicals.
And, of course, we still have James Baker telling us we can negotiate with all these nuts. Uh-huh. Right. Like these people are going to abide by a single negotiated term.
Some people are simply too stupid to have any attention paid to them. And amongst those, I include the UN (who has allowed the Iranian/Somali deal to happen by dragging its feet on sanctions) and James Baker who simply refuses to admit that he has no clue what the Middle East is about.
Marcie
And exactly what does everyone want us to do about it?
Hell on Earth
SOMALIA has a long-running civil war that just keeps getting worse; an Islamist government that models itself after the Taliban; a growing al Qaeda presence, and Iranians who want to trade conventional arms for the opportunity to mine uranium. Oh,…
You people are living in a delusional world if you believe the non-sense the UN report mentions. Instead of criticizing the Ethiopian dictator for his expansionist, mentality and pursuit to annihilate his people and neighbors, the UN under pressure from the USA have focused on non-existent problems. Since when was uranium mined in Somalia? And since when did Somalis fight against Israel? In fact, Israeli generals were astounded to hear the news that Somalis were fighting for Hezbollah since they haven’t encountered any dead black people during the conflict. It is unsubstantiated and bogus reports like this that undermines the legitimacy of the UN. There is genocide in Darfur and government run by warlords and backed by perhaps the most notorious dictator in Africa is taking power Somalia. Instead of ensuring the sanctity of the Somali nationhood, the UN is more concerned with the problems of a violator of human rights like Menace Zenawi. Shame on the UN for siding with dictators and wannabes.