Did you know that Bush is providing aid to the leader of a Somali militia that killed 18 US troops?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/16304000.htm

Experts: U.S. policy on Somalia aids al-Qaida
JONATHAN S. LANDAY and SHASHANK BENGALI
McClatchy Newspapers

NAIROBI, Kenya - As fighting intensified Friday between Somali Islamists and an Ethiopian intervention force, Western diplomats and experts warned that U.S. policy in the Horn of Africa - intended to curb Islamic radicalism - may not only be fueling this newest conflict, but also may be making it easier for al-Qaida to gain a foothold in the strategic region.

Fighting raged for a fourth day around Baidoa, the last bastion of Somalia's U.N.-recognized Transitional Federal Government, which is depending on Ethiopian troops for its survival. Both Islamists and the government claimed advances after what was described as a heavy artillery exchange. snip

The Bush administration has publicly denounced the Islamists who control most of southern Somalia as al-Qaida puppets, reinforcing a widespread belief that the United States tacitly supports Christian-ruled Ethiopia's intervention into the overwhelmingly Muslim country.

Earlier this year, Washington provided covert aid to an alliance of secular Somali warlords in a failed bid to prevent the Islamists from seizing Mogadishu, the capital. U.S. officials confirmed to McClatchy Newspapers that one recipient of the CIA payments was a leader of a Somali militia that killed 18 U.S. troops in 1993 in fighting in Mogadishu, which was portrayed in the film "Black Hawk Down."

[tabasco]

1. Try to tell a republican that Bush sent us into Somalia.

I know educated people who think Clinton sent us in there.

It was GHW Bush with about one month left in his term.

Left a big steaming pile for his good buddy Clinton.

Thanks to GW Bush for sending money to the people that were shooting at me in Somalia. :mad:

[maddezmom]

2. not surprising considering what Bolton was up to his last few days at the UN

US Ambassador John Bolton persuaded the UN Security Council earlier this month to adopt a resolution allowing weapons to be shipped to the transitional authorities in Somalia. An international monitoring group warned that the UN action could cause the Islamists to launch pre-emptive strikes against the federal forces, which are confined to the town of Baidoa.

The Bush administration has simultaneously been portraying the Union of Islamic Courts as a terrorist organisation with links to Osama bin Laden.

“The Council of Islamic Courts is now controlled by East Africa/al Qaeda cell individuals,” US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told reporters last week. “The top layer of the courts are extremists to the core. And they are in control and that is a problem.”

Professor Lyons takes a different view. “The Islamic Courts movement is very diverse, has many elements in it,” he said in a conference call with reporters on December 15. “The hardline Islamists, whom the Americans often point to, are indeed one element of the Islamic courts, but they’re not the only one.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2664563&mesg_id=2664801

[GreenTea]

3. You know the Bush's they sell weapons to both sides of ANY conflict....

You have figured out Bush's wars are all about money and profit...keep the wars for profit going and stealing other countries resources also means big bucks ...That' why they don't bother N Korea...no real profit there in agitating a mad man with nukes plus no resources to steal...When there's real profit to be made in wars elsewhere, places that have oil and buy weapons and BushCo can steal our tax dollars as well!

[madrchsod]

4. yup strange how alliances shift in the war on terror

you really do need a weatherman to tell ya which way bush is being blown

[sniffa]

5. this has been known for some time

hey, one man's american kiLLing terrorist is another man's aLLy.

[Joanne98]

6. AH HA!!!!!! BUSTED!!!!!

[MethuenProgressive]

7. watch the MSM ignore this story...

Sometimes I wish there really was a 'liberal media'....

[Eugene]

8. Wars end. Alliances shift.

If the Islamic Courts are aligned with al-Qaeda as the Bush administration asserts,
the U.S. has bigger concerns than settling old scores. Besides, militia leader
Mohammed Farah Adid, our biggest adversary back then, was killed a long time ago.

BushCo's main blunder in supporting the warlords was that they were good for nothing
but making trouble. The Bushies were trying to cobble together an Afghan-style
alliance by buying off warlords who had little support in Somalia without their guns.

[Turbineguy]

9. How does he find the time?

What with his Al-Qeada recruiting responsibilities and all.