And before making that list, look at the list they top:
"Somalia facing world’s worst humanitarian crisis, head of UN refugee agency says" Associated Press / July 11, 2011
DADAAB, Kenya - The head of the UN refugee agency said yesterday that drought-ridden Somalia is the “worst humanitarian disaster’’ in the world after meeting with refugees who endured unspeakable hardship to reach the world’s largest refugee camp.
The Kenyan camp, Dadaab, is overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees forced into it by the parched landscape in the region where Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya meet. The World Food Program estimates that 10 million people need humanitarian aid. The UN Children’s Fund estimates that more than 2 million children are malnourished and in need of lifesaving action.
Antonio Guterres, the head of UNHCR who visited Dadaab yesterday, appealed to the world to supply the “massive support’’ needed by thousands of refugees showing up at this camp every week. More than 380,000 refugees live there. In Dadaab, Guterres spoke with a Somali mother who lost three of her children during a 35-day walk to reach the camp. Guterres said Dadaab holds “the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.’’
“I became a bit insane after I lost them,’’ said the mother, Muslima Aden. “I lost them in different times on my way.’’
Guterres is on a tour of the region to highlight the dire need. On Thursday he was in the Ethiopian camp of Dollo Ado, a camp that is also overflowing.
“The mortality rates we are witnessing are three times the level of emergency ceilings,’’ he said. “The level of malnutrition of the children coming in is 50 percent. That is enough to explain why a very high level of mortality is inevitable,’’ he said....
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Now the other list you don't want to be making:
"US drone attack wounds 2 in Somalia " Washington Post / June 30, 2011
WASHINGTON — A US drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to Al Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior US military official familiar with the operation said yesterday.
The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amid growing concern within the US government that leaders of the Islamist group are collaborating more closely with Al Qaeda to strike targets beyond Somalia, the official said.
The airstrike makes Somalia at least the sixth country where the United States is using drones to conduct lethal attacks, joining Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen....
So HOW MANY COUNTRIES do we need to be lobbing missiles into before it's a World War?
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"Somalia says US forces snatch militants hit in drone strike" July 02, 2011|By Malkhadir M. Muhumed, Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya - US military forces landed in Somalia to retrieve the bodies of dead or wounded militants after a US drone strike targeted a group of insurgents, Somalia’s defense minister said yesterday.
Why? So no one can verify they are who we say they are? Gonna dump 'em into the sea like "bin Laden?"
The operation is at least the second time US troops have landed in Somalia after a targeted strike, though no forces have been stationed there since shortly after the “Black Hawk Down’’ battle that left 18 Americans dead in 1993.
Defense Minister Abdulhakim Mohamoud Haji Faqi called on the United States to carry out more airstrikes against the Al Qaeda-linked militants, though he admitted that it appeared that Somali officials were not informed before the June 23 operation near the southern coastal town of Kismayo.
Then it is a VIOLATION of SOVEREIGNTY, isn't it?
“But we are not complaining about that. Absolutely not. We welcome it,’’ Faqi said. “We understand the US’s need to quickly act on its intelligence on the ground,’’ he said. “We urge the US to continue its strikes against Al Shabab because if it keeps those strikes up, it will be easier for us to defeat Al Shabab.’’
Al Shawho?
Related: "Al-CIA-Duh" School in Somalia
Oh.
US officials have increased their warnings that the threat from Somalia’s Al Shabab militant group is growing and that militants are developing stronger ties with the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
New Pentagon chief Leon Panetta told lawmakers last month that as the core Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan undergoes leadership changes, with the killing of Osama bin Laden, the United States needs to make sure that the group does not relocate to Somalia.
The only American military base in Africa is in the tiny nation of Djibouti, which is on Somalia’s northern border. US troops can also operate from Navy ships moving through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean....
Oh, THAT is what THIS is ABOUT!
Finding a SUITABLE AFRICAN BASE for the EMPIRE!
And RIGHT ACROSS from the oil-soaked Middle East and the vital shipping lanes. What a coincidence!
Rashid Abdi, a Somali expert with the International Crisis Group, said that if the drone strikes are conducted with “sensitivity’’ they would cripple Al Shabab without causing a public outcry about civilian deaths.
“Any increased foreign military involvement carries its own risks. However, short, sharp and surgical strikes to take out foreign jihadists or degrade Al Shabab may not be a bad thing,’’ he said. “Due care must be taken to avoid civilian deaths.’’
Every war they make the same promises. I know because I read it in my college history book.
About 9,000 African Union forces in Somalia - led by troops from Uganda and Burundi - have gained ground in an offensive this year against Al Shabab fighters.
The Pentagon is sending nearly $45 million in military equipment to those two nations to help their troops in Mogadishu.
While YOUR SOCIAL SERVICES are being GUTTED, America!
Yeah, no wonder they need the double-digit increase.
The aid includes four small, shoulder-launched Raven drones, body armor, night-vision gear, communications and heavy construction equipment, generators, and surveillance systems.
US officials have said they believe Al Shabab counts hundreds of foreign fighters - including veterans of the Iraq and Pakistan-Afghanistan conflicts - among its ranks....
CIA sent them there, huh?
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, a state of chaos that has allowed militancy and piracy to flourish. Faqi said the United States pays the bulk of the army’s salary, along with Italy, and that his government gets logistical and capacity building supports from America.
(Blog editor shrugs shoulders and holds arms out with palms facing ceiling)
He said his government is grateful but needs even more help with hospitals, communication equipment and vehicles.
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And once you make the list....
"US to prosecute Somali linked to militants; Questions loom over detention of terror suspects" July 06, 2011|By Charles Savage and Eric Schmitt, New York Times
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced yesterday that it would prosecute in civilian court a young Somali accused of ties to two Islamist militant groups. The decision to fly the man to New York for trial, after interrogating him for months aboard a US naval vessel, is likely to reignite debate about the detention and prosecution of terrorism suspects.
Oh, the FLOATING DUNGEONS still be used by Obama, 'eh?
In an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York, the Somali, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, was charged with nine counts related to accusations that he provided support to Al Shabab in Somalia and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen. Warsame was captured on April 19, and a plane carrying him arrived in New York City around midnight Monday night, officials said.
While the Justice Department called Warsame a “Shabab leader,’’ it does not accuse him of plotting any specific attack. Officials gave conflicting accounts of his significance: One portrayed him as a “senior operational commander’’ while another played down his role, saying that his capture was instead important because he had provided large amounts of intelligence about the groups and ties between them.
Pffft.
Regardless, his case is likely to have outsized significance in the political arena because it resonates with intense debates surrounding the administration’s counterterrorism policies - including whether to bring newly captured detainees to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; whether to prosecute terrorism cases in civilian court or before a military commission; and what rights terrorism suspects have during interrogation....
And it ONCE MORE KEEPS the "Islamist terrorist" narrative in front of American eyes.
In a statement, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Howard P. McKeon, a California Republican, denounced the administration’s decision.
“The transfer of this terrorist detainee directly contradicts congressional intent and the will of the American people,’’ he said. “Congress has spoken clearly multiple times.’’
That's Congress for you!
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But officials argued that civilian court was a better fit because his prosecution would face fewer legal hurdles there. Civilian prosecutors will need only to prove that he provided support to the two groups, since both are designated terrorist organizations. Military prosecutors would need to establish that the commission has jurisdiction over him - a task that would involve trying to prove that he was part of Al Qaeda itself or that he personally was engaged in hostilities against the United States or its allies.
Why did the term SHOW TRIAL just pop into my head?
So WHICH U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCY was he WORKING FOR, huh?
The case comes at a time when the administration is worried about thickening ties between the groups in Somalia and Yemen, and whether the Somali group is inching toward a broader conflict with the West.
Well, SOMETHING is getting THICK around here.
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Speaking of prosecuting Somalis:
"Man pleads guilty in yacht hijacking" July 08, 2011|Associated Press
NORFOLK, Va.- A Yemeni man pleaded guilty to piracy yesterday for his role in the hijacking of a yacht off the coast of Africa that left four Americans dead, taking a plea deal that he had rejected only weeks earlier.
And yet no Israelis were prosecuted for their act of piracy against the Gaza Flotilla last year.
Mounir Ali is now the 11th man to plead guilty in the February hijacking of the yacht Quest, although prosecutors do not believe any of those men fired the fatal shots aboard the sailing vessel.
The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death several days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman.
See: Somali Pirates Catch Christians
They were the first US citizens killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years despite an international flotilla of warships that patrol the area.
And if the world's navies can't defeat a bunch of rag-tag pirates.... hmmmmmmmmmm?
Others pirates in the case have said they boarded the yacht while it sat still in the water, and the Americans were sleeping.
Four US warships were shadowing the Quest and negotiations were under way when shots were fired aboard the sailing vessel.
?????????????
Court documents have identified three Somalis, currently in US custody, as the triggermen. They each still face piracy, kidnapping, and weapons charges, and prosecutors have said additional charges are likely in the future....
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"Accused pirates charged in deaths" July 09, 2011|Associated Press
NORFOLK, Va. - Three suspected Somali pirates were charged with murder yesterday in the slayings of four Americans aboard a hijacked yacht off the coast of Africa in February....
They are among 14 men who were charged with piracy, kidnapping, and weapons violations in the hijacking of the yacht Quest. Eleven of those men have pleaded guilty to piracy for their roles in the case, although prosecutors have said none of those men shot at the Americans. As part of a plea deal, the pirates agreed to cooperate with authorities in this case and possibly others in exchange for the possibility of having their mandatory life sentences reduced.
At least they won't be starving in prison.
The murder charges were among several new charges handed down by a grand jury that carry the possibility of the death penalty. They include hostage-taking resulting in death, violence against maritime navigation resulting in death, and kidnapping resulting in death.
The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman.
Yeah, WHAT WERE THEY DOING in the world's MOST DANGEROUS OCEAN SPOT anyway?
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Somalia also first as in the "first" time pirates have been prosecuted since.....
