A million dollars a day for the War on the Somali People, 10 cents a day to feed the victims of that war

by Thomas C. Mountain ----------- The United States enlisted Ethiopia, Uganda, the African Union, and the United Nations to destroy the lives and sovereignty of the Somali people. The subjugation of Somalia has cost billions, which the Americans have freely spent, but Washington and its vassals can spare only 10 cents a day to feed the Somali victims – a budget designed for mass death. The UN announced its budget for feeding the over one million Somali refugees under its care for the next year and have allocated less than 10 cents a day to do so. Anthony Lake, once nominated to head the CIA, now UNICEF supremo, held a press conference in April, 2012, to declare a budget of $35 million for the next year to feed the Somali refugees in its care, over one million and growing by the day. And all the while the UN is funding the 20,000 man strong African Union army “pacifying” Mogadishu to the tune of over $350 million, $30 million a month and counting.

The UN created these refugees in the first place, sending in the Ethiopian army in 2006 to bring fire and sword to newly peaceful Somalia, followed by the UN-dispatched relief forces, now over 15,000 from Uganda, ever since 2008. Half a million Somali refugees created by the Ethiopian army, another half a million created by the UN/AU “pacification” of Mogadishu and now, following the worst drought and famine in 60 years, less than 10 cents a day to feed the lot. Talk about cold blooded. Upon hearing this shouldn’t one automatically think mass murder by starvation, genocide even? Just as the US Army used to do to American Indians, drive them from their land into “refugee camps” and then starve them to death? Just as the USA did to the Filipino people when it colonized the Philippines in the early 20th Century? The same again in Vietnam in the 1960’s?

The War on Terror in Somalia is none other than the War on the Somali people and the UN is the instrument used to commit Pax Americana’s crimes. A million dollars a day for the War on the Somali People, 10 cents a day to feed the victims of that war.
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Somali Refugees Face Insecurity Inside Dadaab Refugee Camp -- The Dadaab refugee camp has been home to refugees fleeing conflict and famine in Somalia for more than 20 years. But a recent string of attacks in the area has left many feeling just as insecure as in the home they left

I can still remember when the government here in Eritrea kicked out all the UN “peacekeepers” and how good it felt to see them go. Here’s to the day all of Somalia sees the end to the UN, the AU, Ethiopia, the USA or any foreign military presence, both overt and covert. Until that day blood will only continue to be spilt and children starve and war, the war on the Somali people, will continue.
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Somalia Sinks Into the Pit as the World Looks Away

by Chris Floyd ----------- How bad is the situation in Somalia, the third target of George W. Bush's "Terror War" take-downs? It's "worse than Darfur," says the UN's humanitarian chief, John Holmes.

Holmes, a former top British diplomat, told the Telegraph that "In terms of the numbers of people displaced, and our access to them, Somalia is a worse crisis than Darfur or Chad or anywhere else this year."

The sheer number of refugees in Somalia -- approximately 400,000 -- is still smaller than the two million or more who have fled their homes in Darfur, but as the Telegraph notes:

"The speed and size of the exodus from Mogadishu has eclipsed the emergency in the western Sudanese province, where there are established camps run by international aid agencies. There are no such camps in Somalia, an east African country already on its knees after 16 years of clan fighting and no central government.

"Most of those who have fled in recent weeks, including women, children and the elderly, are camping in fields in areas surrounding Mogadishu, without access to food, shelter, clean water or medicines.
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Press TV - News Analysis -US Role in Somalia

"The few medical relief agencies operating in the region, including Medecins Sans Frontieres and the International Committee of the Red Cross, have reported fears of cholera outbreaks.

"'We are only reaching maybe 35 to 40 per cent of those in need because of difficulties of access and security and of our presence on the ground,' Mr Holmes said in Nairobi yesterday."
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Where did these refugees come from? They were driven from their homes by the "regime change" operation greenlighted by the Bush Administration late last year. The Bushists employed the American-trained and -funded military of the repressive Ethiopian dictatorship plus an alliance of Somali warlords and gangsters as a proxy force to overthrow the first stable government in Somalia in the past 15 years -- the Islamic Courts Council. Bush also contributed U.S. airstrikes -- on civilians -- and U.S. Special Forces troops to the aggression. (See "Black Hawk Rising: CIA Warlords Take Control in Mogadishu" for more information and links.)

The Council -- a coalition of moderate and hardline grassroots Islamic courts -- stood in the way of the implantation of the more pliable warlord-gangster faction that the Bushists wanted to bring to power. There's oil to be had in Somalia -- and its new Bush-installed masters have duly announced that they will pursue an "oil law" just like the American-authored measure in Iraq, opening up the country like a can of sardines to foreign oil barons. Meanwhile, Somalia's strategic position in the Horn of Africa makes it a key linchpin for the Administration's "Africom" -- the new "unified command" to oversee America's burgeoning military involvement in Africa. (And oh yes; there were supposed to be some of them al-Qaedniks hiding out in Somalia; in fact, Bush killed dozens of Somali civilians in bombing raids on fleeing civilians in an attempt to knock off a couple of the alleged dastards. He failed, of course; but at least the men, women and children who had their guts ripped out and their heads blown off and their limbs torn from their bodies died in a good cause.)

The Somali "regime change" op intensified last month when Bush's Ethiopian proteges launched a ferocious attack on resistance forces in the capital of Mogadishu. Tanks and artillery rained shells on residential areas, killing hundreds of people and driving hundreds of thousands more from the city. Many fled toward Kenya, where most were turned away, and others were captured by Kenyan security forces and American agents, then "rendered" to torture chambers in Ethiopia. The victims included a pregnant Swedish woman and a New Jersey man.
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Somalia - Have US War on terror policies contributed to the deadly crisis in Somalia? -- Has aid in this region of the world become politicised? And has Washington's pre-occupation with terrorism in the Horn of Africa contributed to the deadly consequences of this disaster?

But don't worry, neither of them were white, so it's OK. If they had been of paler hue, of course, perhaps the Bush-backed bloodbath would have attracted more than a modicum of carefully massaged notice in the American media. But not even the "progressive" blogosphere paid much attention to this new "War on Terror" atrocity. Most of them seemed more preoccupied with what Jonathan Chait said about them in the New Republic -- a topic of supreme importance, to be sure, and far more interesting than the same old yadda yadda yadda about human suffering over in Africa somewhere, especially if George Clooney is not around.

Yet even if Clooney-less human suffering doesn't move the punditry of print and pixel, you'd think the long-term strategic considerations raised by this murderous "intervention" in Africa would spark some interest. With the establishment of Africom, with its cozying up to the vicious dictatorship in Ethiopia -- and the even more repressive regime in oil-rich Equitorial Guinea (as Crossed Crocodiles notes) -- the Bush Administration has well and truly launched us on a new "Great Game," this time between the United States and China, in a bid to dominate Africa's energy resources. We are in for some down and dirty times in Africa over the ext decades, and the Bush-backed war in Somalia -- with its brutality, lies, ruin, death and murder -- is just a curtain-raiser.
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Americas Secret War on Somalia

Menacing Somalia: Unholy Trinity of U.S Global Militarism, Meles's Ethiopia and Thuggish Warlords

On 26 December, 2006, Ethiopian tanks supported by US AC 130 helicopter gun ships invaded Somalia in order to install a puppet regime of the Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) by ousting the Union of Islamic Courts (U.I.C.). Six months earlier, in June 2006, the Somali people allowed the Union of Islamic Courts to take power to help end the anarchy that resulted from a 15-year civil war in the battered country. As a result, the Islamic Union Courts assumed centralised control over many parts in the South, including the capital city, Mogadishu. This move came about partly after it was revealed that the CIA was secretly working with Somali warlords and Ethiopia to invade Somalia. Despite U.S. cash payments to various warlords none was able to assert their authority over the population and bring law and order and security to the Somali people.

During their short lived tenure, the Union of Islamic courts brought peace and security to the areas under its control. However, in the context of post September 11, 2001, political stigmatisation, the Bush Administration had identified the UIC as a terrorist group. The Islamic government denied this. Many Somalis saw such rhetoric as a thinly disguised pretext for the US's desire to avenge the 1993 defeat of US Forces in Somalia. A recently published report by the U.S. Military Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point concludes that Al Qaida has failed to gain a foothold in Somalia.

Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda has failed for more than a decade to establish an operational base in Somalia due to the country's austere environment and inhospitable clans, a new U.S. military report says. Fears that Somalia, on the Horn of Africa and accessible by land and sea, is ripe to become an al Qaeda hub have so far failed to materialize. "Al Qaeda found more adversity than success in Somalia," states the report by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point "In order to project power, al Qaeda needed to be able to promote its ideology, gain an operational safe haven, manipulate underlying conditions to secure popular support and have adequate financing for continued operations. It achieved none of these objectives.

Despite lack of credible evidence linking Union of Islamic Counts to Al Qaida and other terror groups, the Bush administration went ahead to sponsor the invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia in the name of global war on Islamic terror
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Black America & the War on Terror -- Black Americans including civilians and soldiers post 911 and the war on terror. BBC documentary

"US backed Ethiopian forces Kill Civilians in Somalia"

Ethiopian helicopter gunships pounded what the Somali government says are rebel positions in the capital Mogadishu, killing more than 11 civilians.

In addition to sponsoring Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia, the U.S. military carried out aerial bombardments in the mass slaughter of Somali fighters and civilians fleeing advancing Ethiopian tanks. In this way, Somalis were attacked from air and sea by the joint forces of the US, Ethiopia and Somalia warlords and hunted inside their own country by foreign forces as 'alien fugitives' and 'terrorists.'Upon the Ethiopian/US invasion of Somalia, the lawlessness, rape, looting and general insecurity quickly returned.[9] The federal transitional government comprises, primarily, the same group of warlords who terrorized the citizenry for the previous 15 years.

Nonetheless, the US was determined to restore chaos and lawlessness to Somalia rather than deal with peaceful Somalia ruled under Islamic law.

Confronted with fierce and widespread local resistance, the Ethiopian military and TFG militiamen have unleashed unmitigated death and destruction on densely populated neighborhoods of the Somali capital city, Mogadishu, using helicopter gun ships, heavy artillery gunners and tanks, killing more than 1,600 people, wounding, 5,000 and making another 400,000 Somalis as refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).The chief targets of these brutal military aggressions have been women and children. As the two most vulnerable groups making up the bulk of the 400,000 Internally Displaced People in the country, Somali women and children are marked by the crime of aggression and crime against humanity in the contest between various resistant groups and foreigner invaders of United States, Ethiopian army and thuggish Somali warlords.

In addition to mass shelling of heavily populated residential areas of the Somali capital city, reports out of Somalia by reputable journalists and published in mainstream media outlets, also show that the warlords and the Ethiopian occupying forces are using food as a weapon of war by blocking, delaying and delimiting the capacity of international relief workers to deliver urgently needed food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced refugees in and around Mogadishu.

The Ethiopia-Somalia War (2006-2009)

The Ethiopia-Somalia War—(2006- Present): In the latest phase of the long Somali Civil War, Ethiopia intervened in late 2006 to aid the internationally-recognized Somali government based in the city of Baidoa. The Transitional Government of Somalia (TGS) is oppossed by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), an Islamist group which seized control of the national capital of Mogadushu earlier in 2006 from a coalition of warlords.

Ethiopia intervened largely to prevent Islamist forces from gaining full control of Somalia. The ICU recieved support from foreign Islamist groups as well as from Eritrea, Ethiopia's long-time enemy. The Baidoa government and Ethiopia are supported by the United States.

Ethiopian troops first entered Somalia in small numbers in July, 2006, and by November, were engaged in minor clashes with Somali ICU forces. Major combat between the allied TGS and Ethiopian forces and the ICU forces began on December 20, 2006, with combat around the town of Baidoa. Fighting raged for the rest of the week, with a major escalation coming on December 24, when Ethiopian forces bombed Mogadishu airport and Baledogle Airport, about 35 miles outside Mogadishu, while troops seized Belet Weyne, an important border town. Ethiopian troops also took over the towns of Bandiradley, Adadow and Galinsor. The Ethiopian government reported on television that the goal of the offensive was Jowhar, a town not far from Mogadishu.
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Genocide in Somalia by Ethiopian & Warlord Goverment

Later reports cited 1,000 dead and 3,000 wounded as Ethiopian and TGS forces advanced through central Somalia toward the capital.

Ethiopiain and government forces entered Mogadishu on Dec. 29, as Islamist forces retreated toward the south, where fighting continued into early January, 2007. The United States Navy patrolled the Somali coastline to prevent the escape by sea of any Islamists. Also, three members of al-Qaida who are wanted for the 1998 Embassy Bombins are reportedly with the Islamists, and the United States is searching for them and seeking their capture.

As the government and Ethiopian forces attempted to bring order to the capital, Islamist forces began guerrilla attacks against them. By the end of 2007, many experts described the ongoing Islamic resistance as an "Iraq-style insurgency," featuring ambushes, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and an influx of foreign fighters from the Muslim world waging a Jihad against an occupying army.
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Though the new Somali government is beginning to function, it still depends on Ethiopia for significant military backing, as combat continues with the Islamic militants.
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Somalia invaded by Ethiopian Mercenary Army US Jan.2007 --- is documentary about the invaded of ethiopia army in somalia 2006

It should also be noted that inside Ethiopia, the Oromo National Liberation Front (ONLF), which has conducted a guerrilla war against the Addis Abbaba government for decades, is launching attacks against Ethiopian troops headed toward Somalia. The Oromo people are ethnically related to the Somali people.

According to Somalia's Elman Human Rights group, 5,960 civilian fatalities occurred in the capital of Mogadishu in 2007. Also, the group claims that 7,980 civilians were wounded and over 700,000 displaced from their homes due to the continuing war between the Somali government and the Islamic insurgency. Ethiopia is aiding the Somali government; providing troops and air power to fight the insurgents. In December of 2006, Ethiopian forces, with American aid, invaded Islamic forces-held Somali territory and overthrew the extremist Islamic regime and helped install a pro-Western government in its place.

Somalia: US Military Strikes Against Civilians

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While all eyes have been on the horrors of the US involvement in Iraq,
and the potential for US aggression against Iran, there are other
places where US forces have been conducting military strikes against
civilians. One of those places is Somalia.
After many years without ANY central government in the Horn-Of-Africa
country Somalia, a calm moment and a ray of hope for a peaceful future
came to Somalia ...More
Pepperspray Productions' "Indymedia Presents":

While all eyes have been on the horrors of the US involvement in Iraq,
and the potential for US aggression against Iran, there are other
places where US forces have been conducting military strikes against
civilians. One of those places is Somalia.

After many years without ANY central government in the Horn-Of-Africa
country Somalia, a calm moment and a ray of hope for a peaceful future
came to Somalia, brought by the Islamic Courts, Somali church folks,
not terrorists by everyone's estimate—everyone except the US
government, that is. The Islamic Courts ran out the warlords, opened
the port, established order, ended the violence, made sure relief aid
got to the people, and mobilized a large portion of society to join in
on the effort to rehabilitate Somalia, with plans to reopen schools,
hospitals and provide all the support networks needed for a functioning
society. Rampant crime and the rule of the gun disappeared, and most
Somalis seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after so many harsh years of
chaos.

Some of the old warlords did a flanking maneuver, though, and got
themselves appointed as a "government in exile," and now they are
back, not as war-lords this time, but as the "internationally
recognized government." They arrived with the tanks and planes of the
Ethiopian Army, the historical enemy of Somalia. They were also backed
not just politically by the US but backed by US military firepower as
well. When the heavily armed and mechanized Ethiopians ran right over
the unfunded volunteers of the Islamic Courts, the US established a
naval blockade to keep the leaders of the Islamic Courts from escaping
the Ethiopian clutches. Then, in an even more blatant move, US airpower
struck several Somali villages, killing many. The aircraft used, the
AC130 was developed during the US War against Viet Nam, and was
nicknamed then "Puff the Magic Dragon." It is not used for surgical
strikes, but for putting a massive amount of firepower into a small
area. I remember well that back then it was said that in a three second
burst "Puff" could fill an area the size of a football field with one
big round in every square inch. Who knows what it is capable of now,
but when used against a village, this sort of weapon doesn't make
friends, it makes a lot of dead civilians. Meanwhile, Warlords and
criminals rule the street in Mogadishu, the historic capital of
Somalia, and life for the people has descended once again into hell.

With this background in mind, "Indymedia Presents" this week takes on
the question of Somalia.

First we present a piece made by PepperSpray Collective member Mahdy
Maaweel, a Somali-American film maker and producer of "Somalisan TV"
here in Seattle. The American Somali community has been holding
demonstrations in various places around the country protesting against
the invasion of Somalia. There has been almost no media attention to
their pleas. Most Americans don't even know that their government is
shooting things up in Somalia, so in covering this issue we feel we are
once again giving voice to those the corporate media would leave
voiceless.

To prove the points being made in that first piece, we finish the show
with a piece made by the United Nations in the early stages of the
Ethiopian invasion.

As Maaweel says to the camera, as you watch the UN report, remember
that it was the UN that said over and over again that there were no
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. To paraphrase an old blues song,
who you gonna believe, George Bush or your damn lying eyes?