Jihadists Losing in Somalia, Leftist Bloggers Skeptical
December 29, 2006
CBN News producer Sarah Pollak has done an excellent job of keeping CBN.com readers up to date with rapidly unfolding events in Somalia, where the jihadist Islamic Courts Union (ICU) is being beaten badly by a combination of Ethiopian and Somali government troops. Counterterrorism consultant Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, has also beeen following the Somali situation, over at the Counterterrorism Blog. Daveed thoroughly debunked two prominent left-wing bloggers, Matthew Yglesias and Spencer Ackerman, who've both questioned whether Somalia's notorious ICU has links to terrorism. Last month on the 700 Club, I produced a story --which included contributions from Daveed and rising military blogger Bill Roggio -- that discussed the ICU's Al-Qaeda ties. Now Daveed, in response to Yglesias and Ackerman's patently uninformed observations, has done even better. Here's a snippet:
The fact is that an examination of information that is publicly available would quickly turn up links between the ICU and terrorism -- including the names that Yglesias and Ackerman desire...
The United Nations released reports in both 2004 and 2006 that support the view that there is a substantial presence of foreign fighters in Somalia that are facilitating terrorist training and adopting an international jihadist agenda. (Foreign fighters do not comprise the majority of ICU fighters, but are still a significant presence). For specific names of terrorists, we can turn to reports produced by the International Crisis Group -- an organization that tends to be critical of the U.S. role in Somalia.
The ICG’s May 2002 report Somalia: Countering Terrorism in a Failed State names four key leaders in the AIAI terrorist group: Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Hassan Turki, Mogadishu bin Laden associate Sheikh Omar Faruuq, and Hassan Turabi associate Ibrahim Disuqi.
The ICG’s July 2005 report Counter-Terrorism in Somalia: Losing Hearts and Minds? notes the following:
- Aden Hashi 'Ayro, who trained in an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, has assassinated four foreign aid workers. (I have a list of people killed by 'Ayro's group that shows there have, in fact, been far more assassinations than this.) The report notes that 'Ayro's network may be helping al-Qaeda operate in Somalia with logistics, jobs, identities and protection. (A quote from the report as a caveat: "Although evidence linking 'Ayro to al-Qaeda appears to be largely circumstantial, the allegations are serious enough to merit a brief review of al-Qaeda's involvement in Somalia over the years and the scope of its current presence there.")
- 'Ayro's lead assassins are named. Jamaa Ali Isma'il (Kutiye) is a former Somali commando who fought with AIAI from 1992 onwards. Da'ud Salah Iidle is the former deputy manager of the local branch of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation (my former employer); in 2003 the U.S. charged Al Haramain's Somali offices with being linked to al-Qaeda. Farhan Abdulle Mohamed was a student at a school run by the Tablighi Jamaat before joining Mogadishu's freelance militias. And Ibrahim al-Afghani reportedly fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir before returning to Somalia to join AIAI.
- Hassan Dahir Aweys and Hassan Turki both helped al-Qaeda prepare to attack the U.S. embassy in Nairobi in 1998.
Read it all: the list goes on. Why is Daveed's post so refreshing? Because he promptly greets yet another round of snarky Left-wing skepticism regarding the global jihad with the one thing that discredits liberal arguments most: cold, hard facts. Bravo. And please be on the lookout for Daveed's upcoming book, My Year Inside Radical Islam, which will be released in February. I had the distinct pleasure of reading an advance copy and can tell you it is, without question, among the most important, absorbing books of 2007. Don't miss it.
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