http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17463#newsletter1
October 18, 2016
What the NYT Left Out About Obama's 'Secret War' in Somalia
With hundreds of US special ops now in Somalia, Black Agenda Report's
Glen Ford recount the more than 2 decades of US involvement
SHARMINI PERIES, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. Im Sharmini
Peries coming to you from Baltimore.
The New York Times is reporting that the US is escalating what it
calls a secret war in Somalia against Al Shabab. The article report
says that the US became more involved in Somalia after 9/11 in order
to go after Al Qaeda. But besides a brief mention of the Black Hawk
down incident, the New York Times report left out why the US was there
in Somalia in the first place in the early 1990s.
Joining us now to give us a little bit more context than the New York
Times gave us, is Glen Ford. Glen is cofounder and executive editor of
the Black Agenda Report and the author of The Big Lie: An Analysis of
US Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion. Glen, thank you so much for
joining us today.
GLEN FORD: Thank you for the invitation.
PERIES: So Glen, what is the context for the long term US involvement
in Somalia?
FORD: I guess the New York Times calls this a shadow war and thats one
of those phrases that people like those at the Times use when theyre
talking about a conflict that they dont cover much. The United States
has been trying to control events in Somalia since the early 90s since
the Somali national government collapsed and the US tried to go in
there with all 4 feet and kind of window dressing of international
support but was driven out after its humiliation in that Black Hawk
Down situation in 1993. But the US never left Somalia.
It continued to operate there through a succession of paid warlords.
It financed various warlords in various parts of the country. Some of
whom fought each other for a very, very long time, continuing the
chaos in that country. That chaos did not cease until early 2006 when
finally, a grassroots Somali moderate Islamist organization called the
Islamic Courts succeeded in defeating the warlords that were in the
pay of the CIA and bringing a semblance of peace at least, to southern
and central Somalia including the capital of Mogadishu.
That was not to the liking of the United States and it was not to the
liking of Ethiopia, Somalias neighbor and its historic rival in that
region. So in December of 2006, the Ethiopians invaded and they were
backed by the airpower and the sea power and land forces of the United
States. In fact, it was reported that US special operations troops
were with the Invading Ethiopian forces down to the company level. So
this was a deeply joint US Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. That
invasion succeeded in defeating the Islamic Courts but it continued
with a resistance by a youth group which called itself Shabaab.
Ethiopians took very heavy casualties from the Shabaab who at that
stage was certainly fighting as national resistance fighters against
invaders. The Ethiopians then partially withdrew. The United States
then gathered regional forces from Kenya and Uganda and it prompted
the African Union to launch what is called an African Union peace
keeping union to militarily go up against the Shabaab and to back a
Somali government that was handpicked by the United States and endorse
by what they call the international community but that really means
the United States and Europe. And its the United States and Europe
that of course pay for the African Unions peace keeping mission in
Somalia. The New York Timess dealing with the operations that have
deepened in Somalia since.
The United States now routinely brings in hundreds of special
operations troops. It also has marines on what looks like a permanent
kind of presence in Somalia. One of the countries thats involved in
the African Union occupation of Somalia is Djibouti which is really
just a French colony, a neighbor of Somalia that serves as a base for
the French and for the Americans. The base in Djibouti is what the
Americans call their only permanent base in Africa. But in fact the
Americans have plenty of bases and they have plenty of bases in
Somalia.
One of the interesting facts of the New York Times story is the report
that US private military corporations, that is corporate mercenaries
are training Somali soldiers in a northern part of the country called
Puntland which has broken away from Somalia. If that is true, then the
United States is encouraging the fragmentation of Somalia as well.
Those troops that are trained in Puntland by US military corporations
are then given more training by US marines in Mogadishu.
So this looks like a permanent US presence of Somalia. It doesnt look
like a shadow operation at all. Since hundreds of US special ops are
accompanying Somali forces and other African Union forces on
operations and that there is a steady drum beat of US bombing attacks
in support of that, were looking at a major operation that looks much
more like the early days of Vietnam than some kind of shadow war.
PERIES: And in the Times article, they also characterized a strategy
in Somalia as emblematic of Obamas foreign policy in general. As we
reach the closing months of his presidency, what is his legacy of the
use of force and maintenance of this kind of stuff in the Middle East
and also in Africa?
FORD: Well I dont know if its what some folks call mission creep or
just a creepy mission but what the United States has done under
President Obama was bring in these various coordinated forces and have
them operated under a blanket policy that Obama calls defensive. In
other words, this occupation of Somalia which is a classic occupation
kind of operation is described by the United States as a defensive
operation is that the United States has the right to claim the right
to bring in its bombers and its personnel and operate freely in the
country, even though it is declared no belligerency against that
country. That is war on the cuff with a visage of legal legitimacy.
That is probably the model that the New York Times is talking about. A
model that selects any part of the world but especially Africa for
operations that the US calls illegal and defensive but are really
various stages of occupation, deep penetration, never exiting US
military.
PERIES: Glen finally, this past week, three white men in Kansas were
arrested for attempting to bomb an apartment complex where hundreds of
Somali immigrants lived. Is this an example of how interventions are
broadly to domestic terrorism as Reverend Wright, chickens coming home
to roost?
Ford: Yes, well the United States has always had domestic terrorism.
We call them lynchings and there are some elements of the US
population that does not need any external stimulus in order to engage
in that kind of domestic terrorism. I think that maybe the question
is, where do you send the domestic terrorists? Where is the internal
Guantanamo for these kinds of people?
PERIES: Alright Glen, I thank you so much for joining us today.
FORD: Thank you.
PERIES: And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network.
End
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are
typed from a
recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=POG9WsqvLzk
What the NYT Left Out About Obama's ‘Secret War’ in Somalia
---
Glen Ford is a distinguished radio-show host and commentator. In 1977,
Ford co-launched, produced and hosted America's Black Forum, the first
nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial
television. In 1987, Ford launched Rap It Up, the first nationally
syndicated Hip Hop music show, broadcast on 65 radio stations. Ford
co-founded the Black Commentator in 2002 and in 2006 he launched the
Black Agenda Report. Ford is also the author of The Big Lie: An
Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion.
Received on Tue Oct 18 2016 - 12:26:34 EDT