Somali leaders: U.S. ignored plea to halt aid to warlords

[Judi Lynn]

June 18, 2006, 2:44AM
Somali leaders: U.S. ignored plea to halt aid to warlords
Islamist militia's control of capital this month has confirmed their fears, they say

By HANNAH ALLAM
Knight Ridder Tribune News

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA - In early March, nine of Mogadishu's most prominent community leaders secretly flew to neighboring Djibouti and pleaded with U.S. military officials there to stop funding the warlords who were devastating the city.

Backing the warlords, they said, would end up strengthening an Islamist militia with a shadowy radical wing.

The Americans ignored their warning, three of the Somalis at the meeting said in separate interviews, and the community leaders' fears came to life this month when the Islamic Courts Union militia defeated the warlords and took control of the Somali capital.

Now, the Bush administration's Somalia strategy is in tatters, and the Islamist militia is poised to extend its control to all of southern Somalia, where intelligence officials believe at least two senior al-Qaida operatives are hiding.

It was impossible to confirm the Somali leaders' version of events. U.S. officials in Washington have declined to comment on whether the United States provided aid to the warlords.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3979614.html

[Vidar]

1. Par for the course.

[otherlander]

2. Wow....we are SO anti-terror.

:sarcasm:

[Rex]

3. The BFEE can make more money with a larger regional war

then with individual warlords. Less risk, more profit.

[cantstandbush]

4. This is not the ONLY strategy in tatters. Iraq, Iran, N.K., Palestinian

whatever they (Bushbots) touch turns to shit and yet the media keeps pumping them up and covering for their asses.