After its misadventures in 1093, when American marines were driven out of Somalia by skinny gunmen, America has used a long spoon in supping with Somalia's warlords. This, like so much else, changed on September 11th.
66. ______.
Clandestine, up to a point: within hours of the arrival in Baidoa of nine closely cropped Americans sporting matching satellite phones and shades, their activities were broadcast. After meeting various warlords, the group inspected a compound that had apparently been offered to them as their future base. They also saw an old military depot. Neither can have been encouraging: the compound has been taken over by war-displaced families, and the depot by thorn-scrub.
America was already convinced of al-Qaeda's presence in Somalia. It had listed a Somali Islamic group, al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (Islamic Unity), as a terrorist organization.
67. ______.
It fears that lawless Somalia could become a haven for escapes from Afghanistan. The American navy is currently patrolling the country's long coastline, while spy planes are said to be criss-crossing the heavens.
68. ______.
With a little bit of help, he told his American visitors, he would be ready "to liberate the country from these evil forces". America had already heard as much through its embassies in Nairobi and Addis Ababa, which maintain contact with the warlords, and from Ethiopia.
The warlords are supported by Ethiopia, which has a historical fear of a strong Somalia, in a bid to oppose the government. But their differing views on where to strike at the "terrorists" reveal that their individual ambitions are even sharper than their dislike of file government.
Mr. Ismail says that Merca, which is claimed by his Rahanwein clan, is the capital of terror.
69. ______.
The LIN rays there is only an orphanage there now. But the island is close to Mr. Morgan's home town of Kismaayo, which he failed to capture from a pro-government militia in July, and he is determined not to fail again.
None of this looks good for Somalia's official president, Abdiquassim Salad Hassan, whose government is in control of about half the capital, Mogadishu. He has formed his own anti- terrorism unit, and invited America to send investigators, or even troops. America, armed with stories about the presence of al-Itihaad members held back, but on December 18th sent an envoy to Mogadishu.
Both Mr. Hassan and the UN say that al-Itihaad is not a terrorist organization. It emerged as an armed force in 1991, battling for power in the aftermath of Siad Barre's fall. It had some early successes, briefly taking Kismaayo. But it was always dependent on the blessing of its members' clan elders. When the elders eventually called their fighters back, a hard core of Islamists fled to the Gedo border region where, in 1997, they were crushed by Ethiopian troops
70. ______.
The Baidoa alliance plainly hopes to be supported as proxies in a fight against "terrorism" and the Mogadishu regime. But the latest intelligence leaks suggest that the first reports may have overestimated al-Qaeda's presence in Somalia. Nor would Mr. bin Laden and his henchmen find it easy to lie low in an oral culture that considers rumour-mongering to be a form of manners. Even so, the warlords seem to believe that they have won some promise of help. Soon after the arrival of the American group, they pulled out of the peace talks they had been holding with their government in Nairobi.
A. Al-Itihaad subsequently infiltrated Somalia's business class, and now runs Islamic schools, courts and clinics with the money it has accumulated.
B. According to Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail, the acting chairman of the loose alliance of warlords who control most of Somalia and are based in Baidoa, there are "approximately 20, 480armed extremists" in Somalia and "85% of the government is al-Itihaad". C. Muhammad Hersi Morgan, known as the "butcher of Hargeisa" because he once razed that town to the ground, says an al-Itihaad camp on Ras Kamboni island is still active.
D. American intelligence officers are working with two warlords to gather information about suspected al-Qaeda people in Somalia.
E. It had also forced the closure of Barakaat, Somalia's biggest banking and telecoms company, which handles most of the remittances that Somalis working abroad send back to their families.
F. On December 9th America sent a clandestine mission to talk to a collection of Somali warlords, who like to claim that their country, in particular their UN-sponsored government, is overrun with terrorists.