November 13, 2006
Somalia has uranium, Iran has arms.
Is Iran secretly buying uranium from Islamists in Somalia? That is what a new U.N. report which indicates:
Iran may have sought to trade arms for uranium from Somalia or elsewhere in Africa to fuel its nuclear ambitions.The U.N. report and Reuters, of course, equivocate between all the sides in the conflict. The Islamists in Somalia are no worse than the secularists in Ethiopia. It's violence that is bad, you see.
And there is also new evidence that elements of al Qaeda are involved in Somalia, and that Somalia has begun to export the jihad elsewhere. As I've been saying for months, Somalia is the next Afghanistan. An Islamic state in Somalia (which is already a reality in most parts of the country) is every bit as dangerous to U.S. national interests as the Taliban were in Afghanistan. The report claims that in addition to Afghan trained foreign fighters with links to al Qaeda in Somalia, that over 700 Somali fighters went to Lebanon during the recent conflict to support Hezbollah's war with Israel. In exchange, Iran and Syria have given arms, training, and other supplies to the Somalian extremists who now control most of that country.
That included shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, grenade launchers, machine guns, ammunition, medicine, uniforms and other supplies. Additionally, Syria hosted about 200 Islamist fighters for training in guerrilla warfare, the report says.As usual, the U.N. seems more worried about containing the conflict than about crushing the African Taliban. They view the fight as a proxy war between Ethiopia (against Islamists) and Eritrea (pro-Islamists). A proxy war it may be, but it goes much deeper than that. It is, in fact, a proxy war between the same Islamist forces that brought the Taliban to power in Afghanistan and the forces of secularism and rationality that opposed it.The report also gives a hint that Iran, locked in a battle with the West over its nuclear ambitions, may have sought help in finding uranium in the hometown of Somali Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys
"At the time of the writing of the present report, there were two Iranians in Dusa Mareb engaged in matters linked to uranium in exchange for arms," it says, but gives no more information.
Plenty of evidence suggests that the U.S. is already secretly arming anybody and everybody willing to fight the Islamic Courts Union. In fact, opposition groups in Puntland claim to have retaken some villages from the ICU, which would be a first.
Perhaps this explains why the Ethiopia (and U.S.) backed Somalian interim government (which controls very little actual territory) has rejected a peace deal with the African Taliban. To whatever extent we are arming the opposition, we need to step up our efforts.
Some in the Ethiopian ex-patriot community have reminded me in the past that the Ethiopian government isn't exactly immune from charges of corruption and doesn't have the greatest human rights record itself. Maybe not, but in war you look for help from nations with mutual interests and not ones that are perfect.
The U.S. has plenty of experience fighting proxy wars from our experience with the Cold War. It's high time we began to use that experience in the Horn of Africa.
Meanwhile, al Qaeda is still seeking nukes. The only good thing about this news is that al Qaeda is still seeking nukes. Which implies they don't already have them yet.
Posted by: Rusty at
03:16 PM
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Posted by: Abdikarim at November 13, 2006 04:33 PM (+Si3P)
Posted by: Babussu at November 13, 2006 04:42 PM (FfQcE)
Posted by: meyisaw at November 13, 2006 04:51 PM (OV2DM)
Allah Fubar!!!
http://www.theodoresworld.net/pics/0506/allah_fubar_Image1.jpg
Posted by: Max Power at November 13, 2006 05:42 PM (PM8kH)
Posted by: jesusland joe at November 13, 2006 05:57 PM (8PoNP)
Lets hope meyisaw has some military learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Ethiopia...else they live under the stranglehold of Sharia law.
Posted by: Jack's Smirking Revenge at November 13, 2006 05:58 PM (CtVG6)
lol
Bring it on loser. We'll take you ALL kaafirs on...you, Bush, and your Ethiopian Tigrai Habashi slaves.
Ethiopia should just look back and remember what we did to them in 1977 Ogaden war. We nearly took over their entire territories till the Soviets stepped in and Siad Barre messed up diplomaticly.
Bring it on Ethiopians...your dead will litter the streets of Mugadishu worse than the 19 American special forces (Delta & Rangers), IF you get that far. A 3rd world country like Ethiopia will certainly not defeat us even with US help. If that is the case then we shall go to our Muslim brothers and seek arms too.
We live, eat, and breath WAR. You would be better of keep working your feilds and beggin the west for food Ethiopians. But if you wanna die, then follow Meles Zenawi's regime and come to Somalia and fight us.
Posted by: Hajji Dheere at November 13, 2006 06:05 PM (xfdnu)
19 of ours, how many of yours?
2,000 to 5,000. Estimates vary.
Make peace with your moon god Allah, Hajji, and beg your pig fucking child molesting false prophet Mohammed (Menses be upon him) for mercy when you meet him in Hell.
Posted by: Vinnie at November 13, 2006 07:51 PM (/qy9A)
Posted by: jesusland joe at November 13, 2006 08:03 PM (8PoNP)
Iran has there own uranium mines. Somalia has never exported any uranium. And probably never will be industrially advanced to the point that it will be able to either mine, or mill, or concentrate, or even transport the stuff. Here is a link to a site about one of Iran's 10 mines
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/facility/saghand.htm
No Somali gunmen is going to leave without being assured a daily supply of fresh khat. They don't speak Arabic, or Iranian.
Are we supposed to believe that it was Somali gunmen that Israel was fighting ? That it was these that destroyed the 40 merkavas?
As for the success/outcome of proxy wars during the cold war of course Vietnam was the largest. Well we have learned to live with the outcome of that one, they could probably be mauvered into being an ally against China
Ortega has been voted El Presidente in Nicaragua; as long as the price of bananas doesn't go up much I can live with that too. Our proxy in the Iran-Iraq 1980-1988 forced a draw in that one but now it looks like we are going to be asking the help of Iran to get us out of there. And of course Afghanistan was a proxy victory, but I bet the Russians are happier about the outcome of that one than we are, at least they are out of there.
Posted by: John Ryan at November 13, 2006 08:08 PM (TcoRJ)
Do you have pictures of a daisycutter or big blu on your cave wall?
Posted by: davec at November 13, 2006 08:14 PM (QkWqQ)
Here's a hint, if you're going to build Nuclear weapons that might fall into the wrong hands, you don't build said weapon with Uranium that originates in your own countries mines -- it's called deniable culpability.
Posted by: davec at November 13, 2006 08:19 PM (QkWqQ)
So much for his claim to "live eat and breathe WAR."
Kinda hard to kill them pesky Ethiopians when you're 10,000 miles away, eh, Hajji?
Hey, Hajji, to borrow a phrase. "Shut up and serve, chickenhawk."
Posted by: Vinnie at November 13, 2006 08:27 PM (/qy9A)
Speaker-to-be Pelosi has vowed to stop funding the rebellion, cementing Sen. Palpatine's (D - Alderan VI) control over the empire....
Posted by: coondawg at November 13, 2006 08:43 PM (lK+FS)
Posted by: davec at November 13, 2006 09:01 PM (QkWqQ)
Posted by: SeeMonk at November 13, 2006 09:25 PM (n4VvM)
a) Purchase of missiles and missile assembly plants from North Korea.
b) Purchase of nuclear reactor technology from Russia.
c) Deal with the Ukranian company that makes mobile launchers/rectors for SCUD and/or similar missiles.
d) Replenshing Hizbullah's stock of missiles. These are meant to innundate Israeli anti-missile defences when the mullahs attack with their WMD missiles.
etc etc etc etc.
The longer the eradication of the Islamic Republic regime of Iran is delayed the costlier this undertaking becomes.
Posted by: Garduneh Mehr at November 13, 2006 11:31 PM (pJzYI)
Posted by: jesusland joe at November 14, 2006 12:01 AM (8PoNP)
Posted by: john at November 16, 2006 12:07 PM (NjagF)
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