Al-Qaida targets Somalia drought victims with cash handouts

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Men claiming to be Al-Qaida operatives are moving into the humanitarian vacuum in Somalia, distributing aid and cash to drought victims in an attempt to win hearts and minds, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

On a visit to the sprawling Ala-yasir camp in the south of the troubled state, the Guardian saw an al-Qaida unit handing out rice, flour, oil, dates and milk as well as Islamic books and clothes to some of the more than 4,000 people made destitute by this year's drought.

This was the first time the group has spoken publicly in Somalia, and the first time it has distributed aid. The unit's leader was introduced as al-Qaida's official envoy to Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, the militant Islamist group trying to seize power in the country, called him Abu Abdullah Muhajir, and said he was a white American. It was impossible to verify his identity or nationality.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/01/al-qaida-somalia-drought-victims

[Vincardog]

1. What is wrong with anyone helping the less fortunate?

[msanthrope]

3. You are missing the point.

Based on the facts presented in this article, I would not be surprised to see a drone strike in Somalia, soon.

If American citizens have joined Al-Q and are doing suicide attacks, then woe to them.

[stockholmer]

11. the US has been doing drone strikes in Somalia for months, to prop up the same Islamic Courts Union

leaders that the US overthrew in 2006.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/us-drone-strikes-somalia

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INTO DARKEST AFRICA


http://bigeye.com/foreignc.htm


CIA teams, US-financed mercenaries, Predator drones and Ethiopian forces are currently attacking Shebab. All this should have been unnecessary. In 2005, a moderate Muslim movement, the Islamic Courts Union, had established control over most of chaotic southern and central Somalia. This was its first stable government since 1991.

But the Bush administration, still reeling from 9/11, went ballistic over the name “Islamic” and ordered the Courts Union overthrown. In early 2006, Washington financed Ethiopia, a close US ally, to invade Somalia. The Courts Union government was duly ousted, but the Ethiopians, ancient blood foes of the Somalis, had to eventually withdraw, leaving more chaos in their wake.

Enter Shebab, an Islamic youth organization dedicated to liberating Somalia from foreign control. Its fiery leaders took 19th Century Somali resistance to British colonialism as their model, and imposed Sharia law. Meanwhile, northern Somalia went its own way in the form of autonomous Puntland and Somaliland, from which piracy flourishes.

The US set up a figurehead regime in Mogadishu, the grandly titled but powerless and derided “Transitional Federal Government,” which was sustained by 9,000 US financed Ugandan mercenaries called the “African Union Peace Force,” backed by Ethiopian forces on the border. US drones, fighter aircraft and special forces based in Djibouti now routinely attack Somali targets as well as ones in Yemen. In the midst of this bloody confusion, famine and drought are ravaging the Horn of Africa, producing millions of desperate refugees. Shebab is accused of blocking food aid. But Shebeb sees the UN and other aid groups as “soft power” tools of the western powers.

snip

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[LanternWaste]

7. Aptly put.

Aptly put. Buying their hearts and minds is so much more effective than winning their hearts and minds... if your ethics allow it. :sarcasm:

[Arctic Dave]

2. Don't our religious groups do this also?

Seems pretty SOP.

[msanthrope]

4. I don't think the aid is the point of the article. nt

[LanternWaste]

8. I think the majority of religious groups build structures

I think the majority of religious groups build structures-- schools, hospitals, etc.

[msongs]

5. meanwhile Ob ama hands out death from the skies. great PR move there nt

[msanthrope]

10. Shall we send in soldiers with food aid? The UN has had 14 food workers die in 3 years, and

acknowledges that food aid to Somalia is often stolen. The reports are out there on the Internets.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/08/16/somalia-aid-un.html

What should the President do? Have a third Battle of Mogadishu?

Personally, I have no problem with the President targeting members of al-Qaeda no matter where they are.

[bloomington-lib]

6. Terrorize and keep the people hungry

then offer food and money if they accept the very people keeping them in that position.

[SemperEadem]

9. in exchange for?

conversion to their religion and cause and further persecution if they don't?

it's easy pickings when those you're reaching out to are destitute and will do anything to alleviate their situation--that's just human nature to want to do that. My concern is what are they going to ask for in return from these destitute people? Suicide bombers? Are they going bother to build schools and communities, educate girls and encourage women to have an active role in society, pipe in clean drinking water, help them to develop sustainable living methods, if any can be found or are they going to abuse their condition in order to wage war against those who don't believe as they do? And since when is al qaida naturally so benevolent to the African that they will extend this kind of aid just out of the kindness of their hearts?