United States Africa Command Public Affairs Office 21 February 2012 USAFRICOM - related news stories

Please see today's news review for February 21, 2012. This new format is best viewed in HTML. Features include icons and links to provide more options to the reader. Clicking on the text icon takes you directly to the full text of the story; the paperclip icon links to the article's original source; and the envelope icon allows you to email the article. Of interest in today's report: - DoD announces the names of four airmen killed in an aircraft crash near Djibouti International Airport on 18 February. - Kenyan troops intensify attacks against Al-Shabaab - The London Conference will be held February 23 to discuss security and stability in Somalia. - Christian Science Monitor explores whether Qadhafi's fall prompted the Tuareg revolt. - Ivorian President named new ECOWAS President. U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Please send questions or comments to: publicaffairs@usafricom.mil 421-2687 (+49-711-729-2687)
Headline Date Outlet 1st Special Operations Wing

Four Hurlburt Field Airmen Die in U02/20/2012 28A Crash

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- Capt. Ryan P. Hall from the 319th Special Operations Squadron, Capt. Nicholas S. Whitlock and 1st Lt. Justin J. Wilkens from the 34th Special Operations Squadron and Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten from the 25th Intelligence Squadr...

4 die in military crash near Africa's only US base while returning from mission in Afghanistan

02/20/2012

Associated Press (AP)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- An American reconnaissance plane crashed 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the only U.S. base in Africa, killing four service members on board, after returning from a mission in support of the war in Afghanistan, the military said Monday.

U.S. Special Ops Forces Killed in African Spy Plane Crash

02/20/2012

DANGER ROOM

Four Air Force Special Operators on a spy mission over east Africa died when their U-28 plane crashed as it was returning to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. It's another reminder of the hidden costs of the U.S.' expanding shadow wars in Africa.

Kenyan troops strike key AlShabaab town

02/19/2012

Daily Nation - Online

Kenyan troops intensified attacks on Al-Shabaab in Somalia with air strikes on a key rebel settlement at the weekend. They carried out air strikes in Xhwayo Town, 30 kilometres from Belles Qoockani Town on their way to Afmadow.

Somalia: Can Amisom cause a miracle?

02/20/2012

Daily Monitor

This year, the British government is putting much of its diplomatic effort into trying to bring peace and stability to Somalia. A BBC reporter who has just returned from Somaliland, Kenya and Uganda, reports on the background to the London Conference on So...

Somali rappers take on al Shabaab militants

02/20/2012

France 24

As diplomats gather in London to seek a solution to Somalia's crisis, a Somali hip-hop group is daringly rapping their opposition to al Shabaab. Unlike the conference attendees, their message is in Somali for Somalis by Somalis.

In 'Failed State' Somalia, Instability Is Lucrative for Some

02/20/2012

New York Times - Online, The

MOGADISHU/NAIROBI (Reuters) - Life got easier for trader Siad Hussein when Somali Islamist militants pulled out the capital. He no longer pays a Jihad tax nor does he have to watch mortars kill his customers.

Did Qaddafi downfall prompt Mali's Tuareg revolt?

02/20/2012

The Christian Science Monitor

Bamako, Mali -- In November last year a meeting took place in a range of rocky hills in the Sahara Desert in the far north of Mali. A delegation from Mali's parliament had come to meet a group of Tuareg who had a month earlier formed a new alliance. The gr...

Mali facing worst rights crisis in 20 years

02/18/2012

News24

Dakar - Amnesty International said on Friday that a Tuareg offensive raging in northern Mali is causing a human rights crisis, with scores killed and thousands fleeing into neighbouring countries. "This is the worst human rights crisis in northern Mali fo...

Mali polls to go ahead despite rebellion: president

02/20/2012

Thomson Reuters - Africa - Online

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali will hold its presidential election on time in April despite a heavily armed Tuareg rebellion in the north that has killed scores of people and displaced thousands more, President Amadou Toumani Toure said on Sunday.

Ivorian president chosen as next head of ECOWAS

02/20/2012

Agence France-Presse

AFP - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara was named the new head of West Africa's regional bloc, outgoing chief Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria announced Friday before the close of the body's summit.

U.S. Senate approves Locklear as head of Pacific Command

02/18/2012

Honolulu Star-Advertiser Online

Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, who played a key role in the U.S. military effort in Libya, was approved by the U.S. Senate today to be the next commander of U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith, officials said.

Navy SEALs: Obama's Secret Army

02/20/2012

TheDailyBeast.com

One of President Obama's earliest kills came in April 2009. Somali pirates had stormed the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. container ship steaming across lawless waters off the Horn of Africa. The American crew of the ship had tried to overwhelm the pirates, who fl...

STATEMENT: U.S. Aircraft Crashes in Djibouti, Four Fatalities

02/19/2012

U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs

STUTTGART, Germany, Feb 19, 2012 -- During a routine flight, a U.S. military aircraft crashed approximately six miles from the Djibouti International Airport, Djibouti, February 18, 2012. All four U.S. military personnel on board died.

United Nations News Centre - Africa 02/20/2012 Briefs

United Nations News Service

- South Sudan: UN urges ethnic groups to show how to 'make your own peace' - In Cairo, UN Assembly chief holds talks on Egypt's democratic transition - UN environment agency celebrates anniversary with star-filled races - Ban welcomes political deal rea...

News Headline: Four Hurlburt Field Airmen Die in U-28A Crash | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: 1st Special Operations Wing News Text: HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- Capt. Ryan P. Hall from the 319th Special Operations Squadron, Capt. Nicholas S. Whitlock and 1st Lt. Justin J. Wilkens from the 34th Special Operations Squadron and Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten from the 25th Intelligence Squadron died Feb. 18 when their U-28A was involved in an accident near Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, located in the Horn of Africa. No other personnel were on board the aircraft. The U-28 was returning from a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Hall, 30, was a U-28A pilot on his seventh deployment. He entered the Air Force in 2004, receiving his commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corp at The Citadel. He had been assigned to the 319th SOS at Hurlburt Field since 2007 and had more than 1,300 combat flight hours. Whitlock, 29, was also a U-28A pilot and was on his fifth deployment. He entered the Air Force in 2006, receiving his commission through the Officer Training School. He had been assigned to the 319th SOS and then to the 34th SOS at Hurlburt Field since 2008 and had more than 800 combat flight hours. Wilkens, 26, was a combat systems officer on his third deployment. He entered the Air Force in 2009, receiving his commission through the Air Force Academy. He had been assigned to the 34th SOS at Hurlburt Field since April 2011 and had more than 400 combat hours. Scholten, 26, was a mission systems operator assigned to the 25th IS at Hurlburt Field since 2009. He enlisted in the Air Force in 2007. He had more than 600 combat hours in six different airframes and was on his third deployment. "The Hurlburt Field community expresses our deepest condolences to the family of the crew, and we share in their sorrow. Our efforts are focused on helping them through this difficult time," said Col. Jim Slife, commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing. "We will never forget the valuable contributions these brave men made to their country and community." The U-28A is a single engine, manned fixed wing aircraft developed around the Pilatus PC-12 airframe that provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in support of special operations forces. The cause of the crash is unknown at this time. The Air Force is committed to a thorough investigation, and more information will be released as it becomes available.
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News Headline: 4 die in military crash near Africa's only US base while returning from mission in Afghanistan | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: Associated Press (AP) News Text: By Jason Straziuso NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) An American reconnaissance plane crashed 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the only U.S. base in Africa, killing four service members on board, after returning from a mission in support of the war in Afghanistan, the military said Monday.

The statement said that the crash occurred at about 8 p.m. Saturday in Djibouti. U.S. personnel from Camp Lemonnier in the tiny Horn of Africa nation responded to the scene. Specialist Ryan Whitney of the 1st Special Operations Wing said that initial indications are that the plane did not crash because of hostile fire. The plane was conducting an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, he said. A statement from U.S. Africa Command called it a "routine" flight. Amy Oliver, public affairs director of the Air Force 1st Special Operations Wing, said the singleengine, fixed-wing U-28A was returning from a mission in support of the Afghanistan war. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Camp Lemonnier lies only miles from the border with Somalia. The four killed in the crash included: Capt. Ryan P. Hall, 30, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, with the 319th Special Operations Squadron; Capt. Nicholas S. Whitlock, 29, of Newnan, Georgia, with the 34th Special Operations Squadron; 1st Lt. Justin J. Wilkens, 26, of Bend, Oregon, with the 34th Special Operations Squadron; and Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten, 26, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, with the 25th Intelligence Squadron. Hall was a U-28 pilot with more than 1,300 combat flight hours. He was assigned to the 319th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
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News Headline: U.S. Special Ops Forces Killed in African Spy Plane Crash | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: DANGER ROOM News Text: By Spencer Ackerman Four Air Force Special Operators on a spy mission over east Africa died when their U-28 plane crashed as it was returning to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. It's another reminder of the hidden costs of the U.S.' expanding shadow wars in Africa. Two captains, Ryan P. Hall and Nicholas F. Whitlock, Lt. Justin J. Wilkens and Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten, died in the crash. A spokeswoman for their home station, Hurlburt Field in Florida, said there was no indication of enemy fire causing their deaths. The spokeswoman, Amy Oliver, confirmed that the crew of the single-engine U-28 had been on a mission that had to do with ISR that is, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for special operations forces on the ground. The U-28 is a small, retrofitted commercial plane that looks indistinguishable from a civilian plane to the naked eye, especially from high in the air. As the plane returned to Camp Lemonnier, a frequent hub for special operations in pursuit of terrorists in east Africa, the tower saw smoke coming from the aircraft. There was no visual identification into the cause of the crash, which Oliver said was still under investigation. Nor did Oliver specify where the mission occurred. But special operations forces have increased their activity in east Africa significantly in recent years, particularly in Somalia, where on January 24, they pulled off a dramatic hostage rescue deep inside the country. There is another American still held hostage in Somalia, the author Michael Scott Moore, but it was unclear whether the intelligence mission the four elite airmen completed had anything to do with Moore.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Africa Command, Nicole Dalrymple, told Danger Room on Monday that she would check to see what information she could release about the four airmen's last mission. We'll update this post as more info becomes available. Their plane, a U-28, is a tricked-out version of a Pilatus PC-12 turboprop. Similar to the small, commercial piloted planes converted into flying spies by the military's Project Liberty program, the U-28 carries a suite of sensors and cameras to scout for special operators on the ground. It also doesn't need a long runway in fact, it's able to land on dirt and grass increasing its appeal for unconventional forces. Oliver said the airmen hadn't been at Lemonnier for very long. Air Force special operations deployments typically last two months, she said. But like many of their fellow elite troops, the four men who died had served multiple tours: this was Hall's seventh deployment, Whitlock's fifth, Wilkens' third and Scholten's third. The crash actually occurred on Saturday, but the Defense Department deferred the announcement until Monday morning, a typical delay pending notification of the victims' families. The deaths were announced as four airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, the military designation for the Afghanistan war, although the crash occurred thousands of miles from Afghanistan; in the past, troops who've died in places like Bahrain have been similarly listed as supporting the Afghanistan war.
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News Headline: Kenyan troops strike key Al-Shabaab town | News Date: 02/19/2012 Outlet Full Name: Daily Nation - Online News Text: By Joihn Ngirachu in Tabda, Somalia and Lucas Barasa in Nairobi Kenyan troops intensified attacks on Al-Shabaab in Somalia with air strikes on a key rebel settlement at the weekend. They carried out air strikes in Xhwayo Town, 30 kilometres from Belles Qoockani Town on their way to Afmadow. The commander of Kenya's forces in central Somalia, Lt Col Jeff Nyagah, said Al-Shabaab insurgents had concentrated most of their logistical material and war tanks in southern Somalia. We have not estimated the damages caused by the attack, Lt Col Nyagah said. Kenyan forces went into Somalia last year in an attempt to crush the Al-Shabaab militia group that was accused of abducting tourists and civil servants besides grenade attacks in the country. (READ: Kismayu a key target but not priority: KDF) On Sunday, Lt Col Nyagah said they had noted an increase in population in the towns that had been liberated by the Kenya Defence Forces. He cited Hosingow and Dhobley as towns whose populations had risen after being liberated. He said that in the recently liberated Hosingow, the population had increased from 150 to 500 people.

Relief food More people had abandoned their homes due to the drought and the fighting that marked the first phase of the operation, but they are now returning, he said. Care-Somalia and the World Food Programme have moved to the towns to provide relief food. The Fying Doctors have also moved to the area. The families are being given food coupons of $100 (Sh8,300) to buy the supplies not provided for by the food donors, he said. At the same time, President Kibaki will lead a high-powered Kenyan delegation to a conference on Somalia in London. Top officials from more than 40 countries and multi-lateral organisations converge in London on Thursday to craft a new international approach to Somalia. The leaders will discuss how the international community can step up its efforts to tackle the root causes and effects of the problems in the country and find a way forward after expiry of the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) term in August. Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula, who arrived from Turkey on Sunday, said Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, Defence Minister Yusuf Haji and himself would be part of the delegation to London. UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi are also slated to attend the conference. Governance structure Mr Wetang'ula said Somalia leaders had come up with a structure to be used to govern the country when the TFG term ends. The troubled Horn of Africa country is to adopt federalism with devolved units and a strong apex at the top, Mr Wetang'ula said. The minister was hopeful the UN Security Council would approve Kenya Defence Forces plans to join the African Union forces before the London meeting.
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News Headline: Somalia: Can Amisom cause a miracle? | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: Daily Monitor News Text: This year, the British government is putting much of its diplomatic effort into trying to bring peace and stability to Somalia. A BBC reporter who has just returned from Somaliland, Kenya and Uganda, reports on the background to the London Conference on Somalia scheduled for February 23. By Dan Damon "In Somalia, nowhere to hide! These are words of Major Duncan Kashoma who was wounded in Mogadishu five years ago while serving in the The African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) force. Major Kashoma was hit by shrapnel from an 83mm mortar shell - a large and

devastating weapon in an urban battlefield. His chest and abdomen were ripped open. My intestines came out. I didn't realise. I was trying to find out what had happened to my soldiers. I didn't know I was hit until someone told me! Six Ugandan soldiers died that day, among the first Ugandan casualties. Major Kashoma didn't stop bleeding for three days, by which time he was in a Nairobi hospital. He is waiting for further surgery on his legs and his body still carries shrapnel fragments, some are still in his eyes. As the London Conference on Somalia takes place on Wednesday, Uganda People's Defence Forces chief, Gen Aronda Nyakairima, says the situation has changed in Mogadishu since five years ago. With Amisom forces controlling Somalia's capital, and Kenya on the offensive from the south, Somalis could see light at the end of the tunnel soon. The operation over Mogadishu is over and Amisom forces are now embarking on liberating the rest of Somalia, Gen Aronda told this newspaper on telephone. He added that the operation plan is complete, and it will on four sectors, namely in; Mogadishu, Kismayo, Baidoa and Bila Tuan. But this could not have come without a price paid by the forces of the participating countries in this campaign. Officially, the Ministry of Defence says the death toll among Ugandan soldiers since 2007 stands at 80. On my recent tour of Uganda, Kenya and Somaliland, I was struck by the way Major Kashoma's words - in Somalia, nowhere to hide - can be a warning to all the governments involved in Somalia, including East African nations and their Western allies. In Uganda, despite official efforts to control the story of the campaign against al-Shabaab, the government has not really succeeded in hiding the cost from Uganda's people. Opposition against the campaign The opposition's Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) is making the ending of the Somalia deployment part of its campaign. A senior officer in FDC, retired Major Rubaramira Ruranga told me there is increasing scepticism about the fundamental purpose of the mission. The campaign is not about stabilising the region, says Maj Ruranga who retired from the army nearly two decades ago. He argues that it's about maintaining the pretence of an external enemy to divert attention from what needs to change inside Uganda itself. However, serving officers I spoke to are on message, and refer to recent successes in the north of Mogadishu. Capt Judith Asiimwe, who has served in Mogadishu, told me she is sure the UPDF has the will, the weapons and the training from British, French and US troops to fight on. But she echoed an opinion I heard from other soldiers: I would call on other African countries to send troops so we can make Somalia stable, she told me. In 2007, Nigeria said it would send more than 1,000 troops, Malawi up to 1,000 more, and there have been commitments from Ghana and Sierra Leone as well. So far, none have arrived in Somalia. Unless the Amisom force reaches at least its planned strength of 20,000 there is an obvious danger. Amisom can take ground, but with too few AU troops to remain amongst the population to protect them there is little to stop al-Shabaab returning. In the Balkans in the 1990s, I saw the futility of an under-strength peacekeeping operation. The UN Protection Force' in Bosnia was reduced to bribing local warlords with the food aid they were supposed to be taking to besieged towns and villages just to be allowed to pass checkpoints that were little more than a man sitting beside the road on a kitchen chair

brandishing a hunting rifle. Can Amisom pull a miracle? Amisom has a more robust mandate. But strength comes from numbers. People do not trust peacekeepers who don't hold and harden their forward positions. Gen Aronda, whose Ugandan contigent has the biggest force in Somalia says, today (February 20), the UN Security Council is passing a resolution to authorise additional forces for the total liberation of Somalia. This is a boost to the Wednesday conference. The London conference will among other things, advocate for sustained international community's support of Somalia's liberation and generate the required success, Gen Aronda adds. Because of the success of African Union forces, more countries are now coming on board. And for the first time in many years, the UN Representative for Somalia left Nairobi last month and now comfortably operates in Mogadishu. Kenya's late but timely intervention In Kenya, I came across much more support for the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) incursion into Somalia, which began in October last year. A recent opinion poll showed more than 80 percent backing. For Kenya, too, though, in Somalia, nowhere to hide' is a warning worth heeding. War reporting in the Kenyan media can most charitably be described as incomplete. Few questions are asked about the sustainability of the operation. None of the grim reality of fighting al-Shabaab is shown in any detail. TV news reports seem to focus on the delight of Somali village children as they received sweets from Kenyan soldiers. I offer no criticism of reporters whose only access to a battlefront is on an embed', as we call it, travelling with and protected by the army you're reporting on. There are some places where it's plainly foolish to go off reporting on your own. Somalia is one of them; Iraq was another. I was embedded' with the US army there and was very glad of the armoured Humvees they took me around in. Respect for the soldiers you're travelling with does not mean you can't ask them tough questions, though. Military missions that don't face scrutiny are more likely to go wrong and go on too long. The way attention was diverted from Afghanistan by the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is a widely quoted example. Why has Kenya decided to deploy its small airforce in Somalia, with the dangers of collateral damage'? A story circulating amongst Kenyan Somalis in the Eastleigh district of Nairobi was of five children killed in a Kenyan air strike in mid-January, an incident under investigation by the KDF. Other tough questions might usefully be asked in Kenya. Young Kenyan Somalis like one student I met - let's call him Ismail - are rounded up whether they show their Kenyan IDs or not. They wouldn't believe it wasn't a forgery, he told me. They kept me overnight. I missed an important exam... One thing that makes Somalia one of the world's biggest headaches at the moment is how alShabaab offers a training ground for radicalised young Muslims. The London based think tank RUSI recently estimated there are 50 Britons among around 200 extremists training in alShabaab camps in Somalia. Alienating the Somali population in Kenya won't help slow the flow of radicals across Somalia's border.

These are the challenges facing the diplomats arriving shortly for the London Conference on Somalia planned for February 23. All the headlines, and Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague, describe Somalia as the world's most failed state. Previous attempts to overcome that failure created the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Rashid Abdi, one of the most respected experts on Somalia, describes the TFG now as divisive, corrupt and hobbled by weak leadership. The many different Somali clans and families do not believe their interests can be protected on a national basis. Inside Somalia Yet Somalia's clan system need not be the problem. It is not a mixture of ancient hatreds' and a recipe for disaster, according to Rashid Abdi. Traditional respect for age and wisdom is said to be behind the success of the most stable part of Somalia: Somaliland with Hargeisa as its capital. The elders sat down under a tree and agreed to live in peace, is the legend that all Somalilanders will tell you. It wasn't that simple, of course - there are still some parts of the territory claimed by Somaliland that do not accept Hargeisa's authority. But the economic impact of twenty years of relative peace is obvious. Hargeisa is at the centre of a money transfer or Hawala system that brings in millions of dollars in remittances from Somalis abroad. The US government has tried to restrict those money flows, fearful that Hawala is funding al-Shabaab. But the chief executive of the biggest money transfer company, Abdulrashid Duale of Dahabshiil, insists identity checks ensure the money is as safe as any in the region. His computer records are available for any regulator to check, says Mr Duale. We have to comply with all international banking regulations. In Somalia, nowhere to hide; and the agenda for this month's London Conference shows that the UK government now recognises that there is no point trying to hide the failure of all previous foreign efforts to stabilise Somalia. Somaliland, which has largely been ignored by the outside world, has a stability that is home-grown. Finding ways to support Somaliland and the other, less secure, autonomous regions Puntland and Galmudug, is on the London agenda. African-led military operations will be needed and establishing sustainable funding for Amisom is another important aim of the Conference. Al-Shabaab has just been welcomed' into the alQaeda family by Osama bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and remains one of the most serious global security challenges. Disrupting piracy and terrorism training camps are also on the security agenda for the London meeting. Above all, what to do about the political process, renewed without much hope at the Kampala meeting three years ago and now considered to be broken beyond use? The mandate of the TFG expires in August this year. After about 19 previous international conferences on Somalia, the likelihood that this gathering will finally design a workable, popular government for the whole of Somalia seems remote. The evidence I found in Somaliland is that Somalis can find their own answers in small ways in small spaces. Not nation building, then. No grand schemes. The most hopeful political outcome for the London Conference might be East African governments, backed by European and American funding, supporting small scale programmes to encourage autonomous, commercially successful communities - with their own flags and governments, yes, perhaps, for now - from which Somali unity might be built in a far distant future. Utility: Lessons from Somaliland Somaliland's forbidding landscape - sandy desert, volcanic rock and thorn bushes in

temperatures up to 45 degrees, with roaming camels and goats - disguises a huge potential. The port of Berbera exports millions of dollars' worth of livestock to the Middle East every year. The holding pens at the port hold 400,000 animals - not big enough, port director Ali Omer Mohammed told me. They are building a facility to hold a million animals at a time. Camel herders drive their herds 2,500km from Kismayu near the Kenyan border because our systems are reliable and port taxes low, he said. More remarkable still is Somaliland Beverage Industries - a soft drinks factory outside Hargeisa, built by a group of young Somali investors who put in $15 million - and managed to persuade the Coca Cola Company that a franchise in an unrecognised country neighbouring a 20-year conflict zone was worth backing. The plant is as modern as any I have seen. The obvious problem for that factory and most other industries in Somaliland is the lack of infrastructure. Local businesses pool their resources to lay sections of tarmac. But most roads are simply sandy tracks. Neighbouring Djibouti has a fine highway built with European Union funding - Somaliland's unrecognised status means it can't get that sort of help. Somalilanders say they deserve better because they have established a clan-based system that works. They say the British didn't destroy the traditional power of the elders but co-opted them. In Somalia Italiana, Italian colonisers broke the power of the clan elders, they say, and that has led to the present chaos.
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News Headline: Somali rappers take on al Shabaab militants | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: France 24 News Text: By Leela Jacinto As diplomats gather in London to seek a solution to Somalia's crisis, a Somali hip-hop group is daringly rapping their opposition to al Shabaab. Unlike the conference attendees, their message is in Somali for Somalis by Somalis. The morning after al Qaeda and al Shabaab issued their latest merger declaration, experts across the world were puzzling over what to make of the news that wasn't really new. But in a teeming, Somali immigrant district of Nairobi, one of the world's best-loved and most-detested Somali hip-hop stars was taking the news very seriously. This is bad news. This is bad news for Somalis. This is bad news for Somalia, said Shine Ali, founder of Waayaha Cusub, a Somali hip-hop group, as he lowered the rim of his black hoodie over his forehead. Sitting in the gaily painted Waayaha Cusub studio-cum-store-cum-hangout in Eastleigh, a hardscrabble district of the Kenyan capital also known as Little Mogadishu Ali however was trying to play it cool as a rap star would while band members, groupies and sundry clients crowded the tiny storefront. Across the block, on Eastleigh's pothole-riddled First Avenue, the midday azan or Muslim call to prayer wafted above the car honks and hawkers' pleas. Seconds later, another mosque down a dusty, congested side street took up the cry a micro-beat behind its competitor. Soon, a chorus of chants soared majestically over the noisy neighbourhood, as workers pushed handcarts improbably piled with merchandise and women in a variety of burqas in shades ranging from lavender, white and pink to sombre blacks and browns.

Just the previous night, on Feb. 9, Eastleigh's residents heard of a new message from al Qaeda's media-hungry new chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In a videotaped statement released on a jihadist site, Zawahiri announced the glad tidings that the Somali militant group al Shabaab had formally joined al Qaeda. News not really new But the tidings were really not new. The two groups have already publicly declared their allegiance in the past. In the absence of novelty, experts were scrambling to spin the story as a new formal declaration or as evidence of a weakened al Qaeda's desperate attempts to project influence. The discourse will undoubtedly be repeated in London on Thursday, when the British Foreign Office hosts a special Somalia conference to try to find a solution to the Horn of Africa nation's endemic political problems and to tackle Islamist extremism. But Eastleigh is a world away from the conferences and high-level meetings in Europe. For Ali - a Somalia-born immigrant whose family fled their conflict-riddled motherland for neighbouring Kenya in the 1990s - the al Qaeda is losing narrative has not improved his daily life. Drawing back the hem of his hoodie, Ali displayed a little bruise near his hairline. Somebody threw a stone at me from a car in the morning, he said in faltering English. The Somali rapper had no idea who the stone-thrower was. He did however believe the attack was somehow linked to the latest al Qaeda-al Shabaab merger announcement. But he couldn't be sure. If you're Shine Ali, 29, founder of the world's first Somali hip-hop group, poet and rapper, whose hit tune, Yaabka al Shaabab translates from the native Somali as Say no to al Shabaab, you never really know who's out to get you. Founded in 2004, Waayaha Cusub - which loosely translates as A New Dawn - has recorded a number of songs that denounce al Shaabab and its jihadist ideology. Rappers receive threatening texts The group's message has earned the wrath of al Shaabab, which controls most of southern Somalia and has a prolific media wing that produces propaganda in Somali and English that has successfully lured recruits from the US and Europe on the jihadi tourism trail to Somalia. Ali frequently receives text messages threatening to finish him - and on the night of November 10, 2010, they almost succeeded. Pushing down the waistband of his low rise jeans, Ali revealed bruises on his right hip and left arm the remnants of the night al Shabaab shot him at close range inside his Eastleigh home. He survived after spending six months in hospital. While al Shabaab is based in southern Somalia, many Somali immigrants as well as Kenyans believe the Islamist group's reach extends to Eastleigh in the heart of the Kenyan capital. Last year, a Kenyan MP controversially told parliament that al Shabaab was a snake "with its tail in Somalia and its head in Eastleigh. The remark, made at the start of the October 2011 Kenyan military incursion into Somalia, sparked fears of a backlash among Somali immigrants as well as Kenyans of Somali origin. Despite the fears, there is little evidence of an extensive backlash against the country's Somali

ethnic group. But Ali couldn't be sure if his stone-wielding attacker was reacting to the fairly common Kenyan notion that their northern neighbours are just trouble at best, scoundrels at worst. Besides, there are also a number of conservative Somalis in Eastleigh who do not approve of Ali's music or the lifestyle message it conveys. Blending ancient oral traditions with a hip-hop sensibility Waayaha Cusub's music, which features a unique blend of the age-old Somali oral traditions with a catchy hip-hop sensibility, is popular among youth inside Somalia as well as the extensive Somali diaspora stretching from neighbouring Kenya to the US, UK, Canada and other European countries. Back in 2004, when Ali started the group with a couple of friends, he had no idea his music would make such waves. We just recorded our first songs and made copies on CDs. We didn't know anything. We didn't even know how to sell - that was not the issue, we just wanted to spread our message, said Ali. We gave our CDs to [Nairobi-based Somali] radio stations, then Kenyan radio stations started playing our music and they called us the first Somali hip-hop group. Today the group has grown to around a dozen members ranging from Somali immigrants to a few Kenyans, the odd Ugandan and at one point, an Ethiopian. Ali finds it hard to pinpoint how many members are in his group at a given point. An Ethiopian band member, Quincy Brian who goes by the name Q. Rap was one of their lead rappers for a while, but he was since moved to the US. Female band members are particularly transient - one female Waayaha Cusub member had her face slashed in Eastleigh the day after receiving an anonymous threatening phone call. She has since quit the band and is in hiding. Some of the other girls come in for recordings but they don't approve of Ali's media-friendly way of doing business or they simply prefer not to grant interviews due to fears for their safety. The fighters for al Shabaab are just like me' But Ali is determined to continue rapping. Every day when I wake up, I think today is a new situation either I get into trouble or I don't get trouble, he said. I want Somali youth to hear our message. Al Shabaab is giving them the wrong message. They're telling them God wants them to do violence, that if they become suicide bombers they will have 70 virgins in paradise. But if the youth hear another message, if you tell them to think of their family, their education, jobs, they will understand. The fighters for al Shabaab are just like me but they got the wrong message. His message was blasting loud and clear minutes after the neighbourhood azan chorus ceased. As Mohammed Abdi, the Waayaha Cusub's shop manager, slipped in the Yaabka alShabaab CD, slowly, smoothly, the youngsters started to groove, their hands puncturing the air to the beat, their faces frozen in studied nonchalance. As the verses gave way to the popular refrain, the boys chorused al Shabaab with defiant emphasis. Thousands of miles and worlds away, foreign diplomats, experts, as well as Somali politicians and elders are gathering in London to try to figure a way to bring stability to the Horn of Africa nation that has turned into a byword for chaos over the past two decades. But in this dusty neighbourhood of East Africa, Somalia's youth many of whom have fuzzy memories of their

homeland are doing what they can to try to secure their country's future.
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News Headline: In 'Failed State' Somalia, Instability Is Lucrative for Some | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: New York Times - Online, The News Text: By Reuters MOGADISHU/NAIROBI (Reuters) - Life got easier for trader Siad Hussein when Somali Islamist militants pulled out the capital. He no longer pays a Jihad tax nor does he have to watch mortars kill his customers. Small mercies, Hussein said in Mogadishu's frenetic Bakara market, under government control since al Shabaab withdrew its fighters from the city in August under pressure from African troops, ending the almost daily artillery fire. But the recent security gains in Mogadishu, where vines crawl out of blown out houses and famine victims squat under once majestic colonial facades, have not been matched by political progress, a headache for foreign powers and regional allies. On a trip this month to the coastal city, British Foreign Secretary William Hague described Somalia as the "world's most failed state" as he drummed up interest ahead of a London conference on February 23 to tackle Somalia's festering turmoil. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will attend the meeting London hopes will refocus and better coordinate the international response to Somalia. One reason for the lack of political progress is that war and instability are lucrative. Somalia's power brokers, pirate kingpins and business tycoons are reluctant to give up the status quo. Diplomats say many players in Somalia's turmoil find that by spoiling reform they can continue to reap the spoils of war. Talk of peace and reform unsettles bribe-seeking politicians, traders smuggling arms and contraband, militants making deals with pirates and aid contractors taking cuts. Hussein's frustration is now vented at Somalia's rotten political system, where corruption is rampant and the selfish interests of power brokers too often trump national interests. "Cash that ends up with the leaders is not cash for Somalia," said Hussein who sells sweets and soap in Bakara's labyrinth of crowded alleyways. "I don't know why the world is blind to what is going on." How much money is stolen, or handed directly to politicians is hard to pin down. Some Arab countries are known to carry suitcases stuffed with cash into Somalia, diplomatic sources say, so it is difficult to track the money. The Somali government points to the establishment of a new anti-corruption commission as evidence it is fighting the endemic graft that has left it ranked world's most corrupt country for the last five years by Transparency International. "The (government) is known by ordinary Somalis as being so corrupt that it has no legitimacy," said J. Peter Pham of U.S. think-tank the Atlantic Council.

"But these will be the people that the international community will 'engage' - the same ministers and parliamentarians whom donor states know to have stolen most of the bilateral assistance given them in recent years." THREAT TO BRITAIN The chaos in Somalia has seen piracy off its shores blossom into an international criminal enterprise that the One Earth Foundation said costs the world economy up to $7 billion a year. Pirate gangs, their investors and financiers raked in at least $155 million in ransoms in 2011. While patrolling warships bristling with hi-tech weapons and private armed guards have cut the number of attacks, a lack of effective government and alternative livelihoods mean piracy still draws a steady stream of recruits. Ever since warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the Horn of Africa country into civil war, the West has focused on building a strong central government. That is what Western democracies are comfortable with, analysts say, but it defies Somalia's clan-based social structure. Britain says the political process must be broader and more representative to succeed. London also wants to make it harder for militants to operate under the cover of Somalia's mayhem. British nationals are among al Shabaab's ranks of foreign fighters and provide a credible threat to British security - an uneasy reality ahead of the London Olympics this summer. "Our engagement in Somalia is not a luxury, it is a necessity," Hague told an audience at British think-tank Chatham House earlier this month. Al Shabaab's exit from Mogadishu and a twin-pronged offensive by Kenyan and Ethiopian troops in the country's south as well as a roadmap toward a new constitution and elections by August offer an opportunity to turn the corner, Hague said. The insurgents, however, are not a spent force, a fact underlined this month by their formal union with al Qaeda. "No-one hitches their fortunes to a falling star," said Bruce Hoffman at Georgetown University in the United States. MORE STICK, LESS CARROT? The U.N. Security Council is expected to pass a resolution to boost by nearly half the African Union peacekeeper force, AMISOM, that has been in Somalia since 2007. Raising the troops number ceiling to near 18,000 would allow Kenya's forces in Somalia to rehat under AMISOM and see the peacekeepers operating far from Mogadishu for the first time. While there is broad agreement regionally and among Western diplomats on a bolstered AMISOM force, question marks hang over who will foot the bill. Britain wants a deal on the sustainable funding of AMISOM. The European Union, which pays the salaries of AMISOM troops and has already committed 307 million euros to the force, wants guarantees from the Somali government before offering more.

"The political apparatus has to demonstrate they are sincere and serious when they speak of peace ... of ending the transition," an EU diplomat told Reuters, adding its share of the financial burden would have to fall. Britain acknowledges there has been little political progress made by a string of Westernbacked administrations since 2004. Somalia's future political structure remains a largely blank canvas. Britain and others are clear that the current transitional institutions must go. "We welcome the London conference," Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Osman told Reuters. "But we need help in terms of resources. The tasks are huge and time is short." Frustration is mounting within some Western embassies at the failure of Somalia's political leaders to keep pace with the hard-fought security gains. There is increasing talk behind closed doors of punishing those deliberately stalling the political process, possibly via targeted sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes. Muddying the waters is the fast growing political influence in Somalia of Turkey and Gulf states including United Arab Emirates and Qatar. "For Somalia, the Gulf states probably mean easy cash with few caveats," said a Western diplomat in Nairobi. Expectations of a game-changing conference in London are low. "Britain does good political theater. They're playing for a tie to prevent embarrassment," a diplomatic observer said. (Additional reporting by Mohamed Ahmed in Mogadishu, William Maclean and Adrian Croft in London; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by James Macharia)
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News Headline: Did Qaddafi downfall prompt Mali's Tuareg revolt? | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: The Christian Science Monitor News Text: By Martin Vogl, Contributor Bamako, Mali -- In November last year a meeting took place in a range of rocky hills in the Sahara Desert in the far north of Mali. A delegation from Mali's parliament had come to meet a group of Tuareg who had a month earlier formed a new alliance. The group called itself National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad. The NMLA were a few hundred men camping out in the desert in the most basic conditions meals of pasta or couscous followed by sweet tea around the camp fire. The movement, however, was talking tough. They rejected the authority of the parliamentarians many of whom were the elected representatives for the region the NMLA claimed was not part of Mali and the NMLA leaders gave the parliamentarians some parting gifts; the flag and the map of what they hoped would soon be their own country, the north of Mali, a region they refer to as the Azawad.

Tuareg separatism The Tuareg are a traditionally nomadic people who live spread across the Sahara Desert mainly in Mali, Algeria, and Niger. In Mali, the Tuareg have risen up against the central government four times since the country gained independence from France in in 1960. The latest rebellion began on Jan. 17, just a couple of months after that meeting in the desert. Since then the NMLA have attacked at least seven towns across Mali's north. There have been dozens killed and tens of thousands of people have been displaced internally or been forced to flee to surrounding countries. The fighting risks not only destabilizing Mali, but also its neighbors in the region. The United States has condemned the attacks by the NMLA and called for talks to end the crisis. The US has a lot invested in Mali. Millions of dollars of US aid money is spent in Mali every year and on top of this, Mali is exactly the sort democracy the US would like to see more of in Africa. Mali is a key US partner in counter terrorism efforts in West Africa. The militant Islamic group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, also has bases in the north of Mali. Already one major US-run counter terrorism training exercise has had to be delayed because of the fighting with the Tuareg rebels. It is the presence of these two distinct militant movements the separatist Tuaregs and the radical Islamist AQIM that has often confused the outside world, says Barbara Worley, an anthropologist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston who has been studying Tuareg society since the 1970s. But there is nothing to suggest that these two distinct movements are coordinating their activities against the Malian government. The Tuareg generally practice a moderate form of Islam and reject any form of extremism, Ms. Worley says. What they want is to govern themselves and they want more to see more development in the area they see as traditionally belonging to them. But the Malian government has accused the Tuareg of fighting the bloodiest battle so far in the rebellion alongside fighters from AQIM. Although Mali has not said there is an ongoing link between the two groups, Mali says that AQIM militants fought with the NMLA around the town of Aguelhok. The government says dozens of soldiers in Aguelhok were killed on Jan. 24. It is an accusation that the NMLA deny. Working from within Not all Tuareg support the current rebellion and there are many Tuareg and those from other ethnic groups who live in Mali's north who think the best way to develop the region is as part of the Malian state. If there were to a referendum on the issue, it's unlikely a majority of people in Mali's north would vote for independence. Indeed some argue that the current rebellion would have never have happened had it not been for one thing the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya. Thousands of Tuareg moved over the years across the Sahara to Libya, mainly attracted to the better standard of living there. Many joined Qaddafi's armed forces. As the Qaddafi regime began to fall most of these Tuareg no longer felt safe in Libya and headed back to Mali. They brought with them weapons and vehicles. The head of the NMLA's military wing is a former Libyan colonel. Worley says although the Libyan returnees were a major boost for the NMLA these aren't the only people part of the movement.

The vast majority of the people involved in these rebellions are just young people, Worely says. They are young men with not much military experience, but a lot of passion. For the moment it seems that the fighting in Mali is set to continue. After having been put on the back foot in the first days of the rebel, the Malian Army is now fighting back, reclaiming towns it abandoned to the rebels. The Malian foreign Minister, Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, said on Tuesday that the government was open to negotiations, but that any power sharing agreement would have to be a system that could also work for the other regions of Mali too. And with the rebels saying the government must at least accept the principle of self determination for the north of Mali before any talks take place, Mali's latest Tuareg rebellion could go on for some time yet.
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News Headline: Mali facing worst rights crisis in 20 years | News Date: 02/18/2012 Outlet Full Name: News24 News Text: By Agence France-Presse Dakar - Amnesty International said on Friday that a Tuareg offensive raging in northern Mali is causing a human rights crisis, with scores killed and thousands fleeing into neighbouring countries. "This is the worst human rights crisis in northern Mali for 20 years," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty International's researcher on West Africa in a statement. "The rule of law has been markedly absent in this part of the country for years, and the region could be plunged into chaos if the fighting continues." Tuareg rebels, boosted by the return of those who had been fighting for Muammar Gaddafii in Libya, launched an offensive on January 17 and have attacked several northern towns as they demand autonomy for their nomadic desert tribe. The UN refugee agency reported Friday that more than 44 000 people have fled into neighbouring Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso. France on Monday condemned the extrajudicial killings of some 82 people in the town of Aguelhok - about 750km north-east of the capital Bamako - accusing the killers of adopting alQaeda-style tactics. The Malian army confirmed that soldiers and civilians had been summarily executed. Amnesty said dozens of soldiers and fighters have been killed since in clashes between Malian troops and the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA). The statement said photographs were circulated showing the corpses of Malian soldiers' with their hands tied behind their backs, but the MNLA says they were fabricated. "In view of the contradicting stories about how the soldiers depicted in these images were

killed, there is an urgent need for an independent and impartial inquiry into what happened," said Mootoo. Amnesty said that during protests in Bamako at the beginning of February against government's handling of the conflict, Malian security forces "failed to prevent an angry mob from attacking homes and properties owned by Tuaregs and other ethnic groups..." This led thousands of Tuaregs and others, targeted because of their lighter skin colour, to flee Bamako. "All reports indicate that the Malian security forces were unwilling or unable to protect the Tuareg population and others targeted when the Bamako protests turned violent. The authorities must take immediate measures to ensure that anyone at risk is granted protection," Mootoo said.
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News Headline: Mali polls to go ahead despite rebellion: president | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: Thomson Reuters - Africa - Online News Text: By Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali will hold its presidential election on time in April despite a heavily armed Tuareg rebellion in the north that has killed scores of people and displaced thousands more, President Amadou Toumani Toure said on Sunday. The surge of fighting in an area already struggling to tackle the presence of local al Qaeda agents had raised concerns that the election might have to be postponed. The first round is due on April 29. "We are already used to holding elections during war, and during Tuareg rebellions," Toure said on national radio, referring to past polls during Tuareg uprisings in the 1990s. "Whatever the difficulty, you must have a president, elected legally and legitimately." Dozens have been reported killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes since separatist Tuareg fighters bolstered by weapons and men from Libya's war, started attacking army bases in Mali's desert last month. The fighting is the most serious fallout yet from the Libyan war on the fragile Sahel region, whose resources include gold, oil and uranium. Toure has pledged to step down as leader of the West African country after the election and has faced a wave of domestic anger for not doing enough to crack down on the rebellion. The United Nations and allies including former colonial power France have called for a ceasefire and negotiations, though they have backed Mali's rejection of the rebels' goal of outright independence for three northern regions.
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News Headline: Ivorian president chosen as next head of ECOWAS | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: Agence France-Presse

News Text: AFP - Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara was named the new head of West Africa's regional bloc, outgoing chief Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria announced Friday before the close of the body's summit. "For the chairman of the authority we have also unanimously agreed that the President of Cote d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara," would take over, Jonathan said at a meeting of the Economic Community of West African States in Abuja. Ouattara's election for the rotating position in the 15-nation bloc marks the return to the regional stage of Ivory Coast, recently shaken by deadly violence sparked by a disputed election. One year ago, Ouattara was largely confined to an Abidjan hotel by his political foe, expresident Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to accept defeat after a November 2010 vote. Gbagbo's refusal to quit triggered conflict which left around 3,000 people dead before Ouattara took power. Gbagbo is now awaiting trial by the International Criminal Court, accused of crimes against humanity. Ouattara had been the favourite to take the key job, which carries a one year mandate, from regional powerhouse Nigeria. "Countries of the region feel they have invested a lot for Ivory Coast and see it as the culmination of their efforts," said a West African diplomat before the announcement. He added the move was a way to "encourage reconciliation" in the world's top cocoa producing country.
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News Headline: U.S. Senate approves Locklear as head of Pacific Command | News Date: 02/18/2012 Outlet Full Name: Honolulu Star-Advertiser - Online News Text: Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, who played a key role in the U.S. military effort in Libya, was approved by the U.S. Senate today to be the next commander of U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith, officials said. Locklear will be the 25th Navy admiral to lead the multi-service command since it was established by President Harry Truman in 1947. Locklear will replace Adm. Robert F. Willard as head of the oldest and largest of the military's six regional Unified Combatant Commands. A change of command is tentatively scheduled for early March, after which, Willard will retire, officials said. Locklear was commander of Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn, established to command U.S. forces supporting the international response to unrest in Libya. He was most recently commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Naval Forces Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy. The U.S. Pacific Command encompasses half the Earth's surface. The command oversees about 325,000 personnel, or about one-fifth of total U.S. military strength. U.S. Pacific Fleet

includes six aircraft carrier strike groups, about 180 ships, 1,500 aircraft and 100,000 personnel.
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News Headline: Navy SEALs: Obama's Secret Army | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: TheDailyBeast.com News Text: At a time when many Americans think their government is inept, the Special Operators' get the job done. Just ask the President, who is doubling down on the Navy SEALs. By Daniel Klaidman One of President Obama's earliest kills came in April 2009. Somali pirates had stormed the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. container ship steaming across lawless waters off the Horn of Africa. The American crew of the ship had tried to overwhelm the pirates, who fled on a covered lifeboat, taking with them a 53-year-old hostage: ship captain Richard Phillips. Armed with AK47s and pistols, the pirates stashed Phillips below deck and threatened to kill him if they didn't get $2 million in ransom. Barack Obama, not yet three months into his presidency, had already undergone a crash course in battlefield management. He had authorized drone strikes in Pakistan and sent 17,000 troops into Afghanistan. But until now, he had not experienced the personal immediacy and political risk of a kill operation involving an American hostageone that would play out largely in public view. Nor had he worked with SEAL Team 6, the elite tier one commandos who carry out many of the darkest missions in the shadow wars. Early on in the standoff, the Navy had requested permission to use force, but the White House held back. Military commanders had already dispatched a small armada to the scene, including a destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, and a frigate, the USS Halyburton. Transport planes ferried in the SEALs, who parachuted into the Indian Ocean with inflatable boats. On April 11, three days after the hostage taking began, Obama agreed to the use of military forcebut only if the captain's life was in imminent danger. As Obama's military advisers monitored events in the White House Situation Room, the president popped in for regular updates. SEAL Team 6 snipers were positioned on different ships to maximize the chances of getting off clean shots. At one point, the Navy laid a kind of a trap for the hostage vessel, but the pirates, by sheer luck, waltzed around it, according to a source involved in the operation. All the while, the pirates were drifting toward shore. If they were able to reach a Somali beach with their hostage, a rescue operation would be much more difficult. SEAL boats began zooming around the pirates, using shouldering and blocking tactics to keep them away from shore. By dusk on April 12Easter SundaySEAL snipers on the fantail of the USS Bainbridge were in position to shoot the pirates. But with the covered lifeboat bobbing on the water, it was still difficult to get clean shots. They attached night-vision scopes to their rifles and waited. At one point, two of the pirates came into plain sight. The sharpshooters could see a third pirate through a window pointing his gun at Captain Phillips. Each sniper fired a single round, and it was over. Three shots, three dead pirates. A SEAL assault team boarded the lifeboat and took Phillips to safety. Back in the White House, officials quietly celebrated. So much could have gone wrong. For a young president with little experience overseeing military operations, a botched job would have invited charges of fecklessness from Republicans and drawn inevitable comparisons to Jimmy

Carter. The generals also expressed relief. Mr. President, it worked out. But if it hadn't, it would have been my ass, one military adviser told Obama. It would have been our ass, the president responded. Obama has come to rely more and more on special operators for many types of missions. In an era of dwindling budgets and dispersed, hidden enemies, when Americans have become fatigued by disastrous military occupations, the value of pinprick operations by elite forces is clear. The budget for the Special Operations Command has more than doubled since 2001, reaching $10.5 billion, and the number of deployments has more than quadrupled. Now the head of that command, Adm. William H. McRaven, is calling for more resources and more autonomy. The New York Times reported on Feb. 12 that McRaven is pushing for a larger role for his elite units who have traditionally operated in the dark corners of American foreign policy. He wants to expand Special Operations Forces in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and have the authority to move forces and equipment as needed, assuring greater flexibility and speed. Who can blame him? This is a Special Ops moment. The Navy SEALs, in particular, have never appeared so heroic and effective. They killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year, and just last month rescued two aid workers held hostage in Somalia. At a time when many Americans think their government is incompetent, the SEALs are public employees who often get the job done. They're a morale booster, and they know it. Which may help explain why they collaborated in an upcoming full-length feature film starring active Navy SEALs called Act of Valora controversial undertaking, originally intended to bolster recruitment, that some in the military regard as foolish and helpful only to the enemy. Obama wants to balance the need for the increasingly valuable services of special operators with a clear-sighted assessment of the strategic implications of expanding their missions. He's right to be mindful of the dangers: mission creep, hubris, a messy Black Hawk Down disaster. Act of Valor represents its own kind of overreach: the military knows little about moviemaking, and the film reflects that. The kinetics will doubtless impress, but the acting and the script will not. (One SEAL, about to parachute into a dangerous mission, says to another: I'll tell you what, the only thing better than this right here is being a dad. Except for that whole changingdiapers thing.) A better movie is likely to be one starring Tom Hanks, scheduled for release in 2013, about the Maersk Alabama episode. Other kinds of hubris get people killed, and can tarnish America's standing for years. That's partly why some U.S. diplomats, and even a few officers among the military brass, have expressed misgivings about expanding the role and power of Special Ops. Some of these critics worry that the Special Forces, if their numbers bloat further, won't be so special anymore. The whole idea of Special Ops is quality, not quantity, says Peter Singer of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. But there are concerns in that community of, how big could it reasonably get before it gets bogged down? The challenges of secret missions are many: legal, moral, practical. Few people are more aware of that than the man who ultimately pulls the trigger. Obama's generally balanced approach to such missions is captured in the story of an operation against a key al Qaeda terrorist in September 2009. The CIA and military had been hunting Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan for years. He was a suspect in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and had been directly implicated in other deadly terrorist attacks in East Africa, including a suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned resort in Mombasa. He was an important link between al Qaeda and its Somaliabased affiliate, and a potential wealth of information on how the jihadist networks operate. Killing him would have been a significant victory, but capturing him alive could have been even better.

After months of patiently watching him, American intelligence officers suddenly learned that Nabhan was preparing to travel along a remote desert road in southern Somalia. There wasn't much time to act. Early one September evening, more than three dozen officials assembled by secure videoconference to consider options. The meeting was led by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. After a short introduction, he called on Admiral McRaven, then head of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and one of the military's most experienced terrorist hunters. Nabhan had been under close surveillance for months. He had stayed mostly in heavily populated areas, where the risk of casualties, either to civilians or American soldiers, was too great to launch a raid. But now it looked as if Navy SEALs had the narrow window of opportunity they'd been hoping for. McRaven told the group that Nabhan's convoy would soon be setting out from the capital, Mogadishu, on its way to a meeting of Islamic militants in the coastal town of Baraawe. The square-jawed Texan and former Navy SEAL crisply laid out the Concepts of Operation that had been developed in anticipation of this moment. Several options were spelled out, along with the military hardware that would be required for each, as well as collateral-damage estimates: The military could fire Tomahawk cruise missiles from a warship off the Somali coast. This was the least dangerous option in terms of U.S. casualties but not the most precise. (Missiles have gone astray, hitting civilians, and even when they strike their target, they don't always take it out.) Such missile strikes had been a hallmark of the Bush administration. For all of its dead or alive rhetoric, the Bush White House was generally cautious when it came to antiterrorist operations in anarchic areas like Somalia. The second option was a helicopter-borne assault on Nabhan's convoy. There was less chance of error there: small attack helicopters would allow the commandos to look the target in the eye and make sure it was the right guy, according to one military planner. The final option was a snatch and grab, a daring attempt to take Nabhan alive. From a purely tactical standpoint, this was the most attractive alternative. Intelligence from high-value targets was the coin of the realm in the terror wars. But it was also the riskiest option. Unstated but hanging heavily over the group that evening was the memory of another attempted capture in Somalia. Many on the call had been in key national-security posts in October 1993 during the ill-fated attempt to capture a Somali warlord that became known as Black Hawk Down, after a book of the same name. That debacle left 18 dead Army Rangers on the streets of Mogadishu, and inspired al Qaeda leaders to think they could defeat the American superpower. As Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, said during the meeting: Somalia, helicopters, capture. I just don't like the sound of this. As everyone left the meeting late that evening, it was clear that the only viable plan was the lethal one. Obama later signed off on Operation Celestial Balance. The job was given to SEAL Team 6, officially known as United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, under the command of JSOC. (DEVGRU is the most elite team in the SEALs; its members refer to others as the vanilla teams.) The next morning Somali villagers saw several low-flying attack helicopters emerge over the horizon. Several AH-6 Little Birds, deployed from U.S. naval ships off the Somali coast, approached the convoy, strafing Nabhan's jeep and another vehicle. Nabhan and several other militants were killed. One of the helicopters landed just long enough for a small team of commandos to scoop up some of Nabhan's remainsthe DNA needed to prove he was dead. One of the debates around such operations, then and now, concerns something called Sensitive Site Exploitation (SSE). From their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, Special Ops Forces had learned that the best intelligence often comes from sifting through after-action debris. They wanted not just to kill terror targets but to rummage through their belongings what the spooks call pocket litter. This is where the [political] fight comes, says a Pentagon

official involved. From that day forward we wanted to put our boots on the ground to do SSE, but the president was not supportive ... That would become the issue between Special Operations Forces and the administration. An official involved in such issues says the Pentagon misinterpreted many of the questions the president had about such operations. He was not opposedas the Nabhan case illustrateshe just wanted to do cost-benefit analysis on a case-by-case basis. Obama has certainly been impressed with the Special Opstheir precision and their professionalism. A wooden board that hangs above the SEAL training grounds in Coronado, Calif., is inscribed with a line that all newbies internalize: The only easy day was yesterday. Instructors make sure everything goes wrong on a training mission, says Don Mann, 53, a retired SEAL and author of Inside SEAL Team Six. Mock raids include surprise booby traps, faulty equipment, and unexpected snipers. Special operators will get off [a real] mission and say that was a piece of cake, only because they were used to difficult training, Mann says. Still, no amount of training can teach fighters what they can learn in life-and-death situations. Better-honed skills are one clear benefit of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where special operators carried out mission after mission. Some of those went badly, of course. In one such case in 2010, SEAL Team 6 conducted a predawn raid to rescue Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues from their Taliban captors. Tragically, a grenade thrown by one of the commandos killed Norgrove. Many special operators have also sacrificed their lives, including 22 on a helicopter that was shot down in Afghanistan last August. Howard Wasdin, a former SEAL whose memoir, Seal Team Six, came out a week after the bin Laden raid, says the high risk of death is built into the job. We used to have a saying, he remarks: Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also accustomed the special operatorsand their political bossesto cross-border operations. There was hesitation at first. In 2007, for instance, when the insurgency was raging in Iraq, al Qaeda fighters were pouring across the Syrian border to join the fight against America. U.S. intelligence believed the Syrian government had either helped or looked the other way. The Bush administration placed diplomatic pressure on Damascus to try to end the terror pipeline, but the problem persisted. Something had to be done. In October 2008 Gen. David Petraeus ordered a bold helicopter-borne assault inside Syria. Two dozen commandos dropped out of Black Hawk helicopters into the village of Sukkariyah, about six miles from the Iraqi border. Their mission was to kill or capture Abu Ghadiyah, an al Qaeda cell leader who was coordinating the movement of foreign fighters into Iraq. A gun battle erupted and as many as nine terrorists were killed, including Abu Ghadiyah. The Americans returned to base unharmed. Syria closed down several U.S. institutions in Damascus and protested to the United Nations. There were more such raids that the military has never discussed. Over time, the al Qaeda pipeline was effectively shut down, at least for a while. In some lawless places, or countries that harbor terrorists, such operations may be necessary. But what about elsewhere? The Act of Valor movie shows the SEALs moving from place to placeCosta Rica, the high seas, Somalia, Mexicotreating the world as their war zone. (They cooperate with Mexican forces, but elsewhere they seem to march to their own music.) In real life they do a lot of collaborating, but there are risks even in projecting a more aggressive Hollywood image to the rest of the world. The Rambo approach doesn't always sit well with diplomats. If you start taking out people all over the world in other people's countries, some of whom we are at peace with, I think you'll get into some serious diplomatic issues of people saying the U.S. isn't the global police, says Ronald Neumann, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who now runs a Washington

nonprofit. There is also the risk a mission will eventually go wrong and we'll end up with lots of prisoners somewhere in the world. Others worry that the military is conducting spy missions without the same kind of scrutiny that is given to the CIA or other civilian agencies. The challenge is, how do you balance operational efficiency, JSOC's main talent, against the need for oversight? says Marc Ambinder, coauthor of a recent e-book on Special Ops. Military critics have their own concerns. One of these days, if you keep publishing how you do this, the other guy's going to be there ready for you, fumed retired Army Lt. Gen. James Vaught at a recent conference in Washington. He was speaking directly to Admiral McRaven: Mark my words. Get the hell out of the media! Vaught knows a thing or two about how things can go wrong. He ran the task force that tried to rescue the U.S. hostages in Iran in 1980, which became a fiasco after aircraft ran into dust storms and encountered other unexpected problems. McRaven responded to Vaught's criticism by saying that the military is in a different era now and needs to be more open. With the social media being what it is today, with the press and the 24-hour news cycle, it's very difficult to get away from it, he said, adding that not only does the media focus on our successes, we've had a few failures. And I think having those failures exposed in the media also kind of helps focus our attention, helps us do a better job. McRaven also defended Act of Valor as a natural progression from earlier portrayals of Special Ops in Hollywood. He recognized the value of such images as a recruitment tool, and related them to his own experience. His infatuation with the military and Special Ops began, he said, when he saw John Wayne in The Green Berets. With Daniel Stone and Aram Roston in Washington, D.C., and R.M. Schneiderman in New York
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News Headline: STATEMENT: U.S. Aircraft Crashes in Djibouti, Four Fatalities | News Date: 02/19/2012 Outlet Full Name: U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs News Text: STUTTGART, Germany, Feb 19, 2012 During a routine flight, a U.S. military aircraft crashed approximately six miles from the Djibouti International Airport, Djibouti, February 18, 2012. All four U.S. military personnel on board died. The accident occurred at approximately 8 p.m. local. U.S. military personnel were dispatched to the scene to provide immediate response assistance and secure the crash site. A safety board investigation has been initiated to determine the exact cause of the incident. The names of the service members will not be released until after the primary next of kin have been notified.
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News Headline: United Nations News Centre - Africa Briefs | News Date: 02/20/2012 Outlet Full Name: United Nations News Service News Text: South Sudan: UN urges ethnic groups to show how to 'make your own peace' 20 February The top United Nations official in South Sudan has urged warring ethnic

communities in the country to find peaceful solutions to their disputes and to serve as an example to other groups about how to turn challenges into opportunities. In Cairo, UN Assembly chief holds talks on Egypt's democratic transition 20 February The President of the General Assembly and Egypt's Foreign Minister held talks today in Cairo on the state of the country's democratic transition in the wake of the Arab Spring reform movement. UN environment agency celebrates anniversary with star-filled races 19 February Hundreds of runners took to the roads of Nairobi, Kenya, earlier today to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and raise awareness about green issues. Ban welcomes political deal reached at Somali constitutional conference 19 February Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the political agreement reached by Somalis at a national constitutional conference, saying the accord sets out clear steps for ending the transition and putting in place a constitutional order in the war-scarred, impoverished country. UN relief chief voices alarm at humanitarian situation in Sudanese states 18 February The United Nations relief chief has expressed deep concern at the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Sudan's states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where continued fighting is killing countless civilians and displacing hundreds of thousands of others. In Niger, top UN officials stress response to food crisis must build future resilience 18 February Two top United Nations officials visiting Niger, one of the countries hit hardest by the current food crisis across Africa's Sahel region, have called on governments and donors to respond to the crisis in ways that will build resilience among local communities for the future.
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