The other day [Jan 2007] the USA bombed a village in Somalia "looking for al Qaeda" who they accuse of escaping from Afghanistan which they've been bombing since 9/11 "looking for al Qaeda". Initially they were looking for "Osama bin Laden" but in recent years it's been "Mohammed" or other "al Qaeda" with undistinquishable Islamic names. To see why it's always Arabs or Muslims being bombed see ANGLO U$RAELI BIG BROTHER WORLD and WHERE IS OSADDAM BIN

For an easily understood overview of the Somalia situation (for Westerners who only know Mogadishu from the Hollywood movie BLACK HAWK DOWN) go to CIA IN SOMALIA TOO.

It explains how first the USSR and then the USA backed the same corrupt leader, Siad Barre, and how to this day they're playing musical chairs with various so-called "warlords" who they play one against the other except in cases, like the present, where a good leader emerges from the rubble, at which time they call a cease-fire between warlords and work together to destroy the good guy.

Throughout it all, one organization - the CIA - is always involved. The intials "C", "I", "A" supposedly stand for "Central Intelligence Agency" but I think its true meaning is Corporate/Communist Invasion of America/Africa". See CORPORATE COMMUNISM.

It's symbolic (or is it an insider joke?) that the "big man" in Somalia today (set up by the United Nations) has an uncanny resemblance to Lenin. See SOMALIA HORN OF ANARCHY.

I have a book I use as a reference whenever countries of Africa are in the news. It was published in 1992 and is by no means the be-all and end-all of information on Africa, but it gives a good overall picture of each country up to that time. Here are some excerpts on Somalia which describe what life was like there under Siad Barre, the ruler backed first by the USSR and then secondly by the USA. He is but one example of puppet politicians past and present propped up by the CIA in its true sense of the word.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

excerpt from pages 146-147:

...In Somalia the story was the same: pillage and carnage. After seizing power in a coup on October 21, 1969, the military regime of Siad Barre sank deeper and deeper into depravity. In May 1988 it dropped bombs on its own citizens when they demonstrated against Barre's 20-year despotic rule. Adam Egeh, a Somalian, charged:

   Torture, mass detention, execution, human rights violations, confiscation of
   private properties and the prohibition of all political parties became widespread.
   In all parts of Somalia, the military regime of Mr. Barre has the ultimate carte
   blanche to either detain or execute any Somali citizen the regime is not satisfied
   with. In fact, for the past 20 years, hundreds of thousands of innocent people
   were put to death or imprisoned without going through the legal court proce-
   dures. Many politicians, businessmen, religious leaders and young students
   disappeared and their whereabouts are not known to date. The number of
   prisoners of conscience is quite enormous in Somalia and international journalists
   were long banned from reporting on such situations.

Indeed, one of Barre's own mlitary intelligence officers confessed in an article to New African:

   I, Cali Selebaab Suuleed (Huube), am a former Intelligence Officer of the
   National Security Service of Somalia (NSS), and can confirm the inhuman and
   oppressive measures instituted in Northern Somalia, in general, and in northwest
   Somalia, in particular. In the last few years NSS forces have conducted massive
   lootings, kidnapppings, rapings, killings and the harsh imprisonment of innocent
   people, without trial. For example, here follows a list of people arbitrarily killed
   in Burao, subsequent to the May 1988 incident.

He went on to list 68 names....

In March 1990 Africa Watch issued a report entitled "Somalia: A Government at War with its Own People". It charged the regime with "responsibility for the deaths of 50,000 to 60,000 civilians since hostilities broke out between the government and rebels from the Somalia National Movement, while half a million have fled to neighbouring countries". In hundreds of interviews with refugees, the human rights group described in chilling detail how the government, frustrated in its attempts to defeat the rebels, turned its guns against the civilian population. According to the report, the army engaged in systematic violence toward Isaak clan members in northern Somalia by burning and bombing their villages and detained hundreds for suspected association with the Somali National Movement. Originally confined to the north, the abuses soon spread to the southern and central parts of the country. "Entire regions have been devastated by a militlary engaged in combat against its own people, resembling a foreign occupation force that recognizes no constraints on its power to kill, rape or loot," Africa Watch reported. Siad Barre fled Mogadishu on January 26, 1991, leaving the country in total ruin...

excerpt from pages 300-301:

...In Somalia, following the ouster of Siad Barre, internecine rivalry erupted between the United Somali Congress (USC) and the Somali National Movement (SNM). The USC controlled the south, including the capital, Mogadishu, while the SNM controlled the north. But factionalism emerged within the ranks of the USC. One faction was led by interim President Mahdi Mohamed and the other by Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid, both members of the Hawiye clan. Mogadishu became a divided city. Gen. Aidid controlled most of the southern sector while Mahdi's stronghold was the Kaaraan district and other northern areas. There was more ammunition in Somalia than food and medicine.

Like Liberia, Somalia's dictator (Siad Barre) had been ousted and in the process the country had been devastated -- reduced to an ash heap of charred buildings and burned-out-vehicles, with decomposing bodies littering the streets. Yet, "educated" barbarians waged a fierce battle to determine who should be president, totally unconcerned about the plight of their people. Said one frustrated official of UNICEF, Mr Rupert Lewis, "These peopole are fighting over abandoned streets, shattered, looted buildings of no damn value. It's insane, it's mad and it probably won't stop".

Africa Watch affirmed that "the level of discipline among the troops was so low, the number of free guns so high and the need to loot for food so great that firefights would undoubtedly continue". Between November 1991 and March 1992, an estimated 41,000 had been killed. Most of the victims were civilians, half of them women and children....

Map of Somalia

Black Rhinoceros Horn of Distinction or Extinction? (Rhinoceros means "horn nosed." For millions of years, black rhinos have used their magnificent horns for protection against lions and other predators, as weapons in territorial disputes with other rhinos, and as tools to dig for mineral salt. For a very small portion of the rhinos' history as a species, we humans have been using their horns, too -- for medicines and dagger handles. But in that relatively brief time, our insatiable appetite for the horns has turned the rhinos' most striking asset into the impetus for their destruction. Black rhinos are disappearing faster than any large animal on earth.)

Rhino Horn Mystery Solved (The calcium deposits make the horn core harder and stronger, and the melanin protects the core from breakdown by the sun’s UV rays, the scientists report. The softer outer portion of the horn weakens with sun exposure and is worn into its distinctive shape through horn clashing and by being rubbed on the ground and vegetation. The structure of the rhino horns is similar to a pencil’s tough lead core and weaker wood periphery, which allows the horns to be honed to a sharp point.)